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STACKHOOSE'S 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
32-     1L 
 
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t  Son  Glasgow 
 
A   HISTORY 
 
 THE    HOLY    BIBLE, 
 
 FROM  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WORLD 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT   OF    CHRISTIANITY; 
 
 NUMEROUS   NOTES 
 
 RECONCILING   SEEMING  CONTRADICTIONS,  RECTIFYING  MIS-TRANSLATIONS,  &c. 
 
 / 
 BY  THE  REV.  THOMAS  STACKHOUSE,  M.  A. 
 
 LATE  VICAR  OF  BEENHAM  IN  BERKSHIRE. 
 
 TOGETHER  WITH 
 
 AN    INTRODUCTION,    ADDITIONAL    NOTES,    DISSERTATIONS, 
 
 AND  COMPLETE  INDEXES. 
 
 BY  DANIEL  DEWAR,  D.  D. 
 
 PRINCIPAL    OF    MARISCHAL    COLLEGE    AND    UNIVERSITV,   ABERDEEN. 
 
 COMPLETE  IN  ONE  VOLUME,  ILLUSTRATED  WITH  MAPS    AND  PLANS. 
 
 BLACKIE    &    SON,    QUEEN    STREET,    GLASGOW; 
 
 SOUTH  COLLEGE  STREET,  EDINBURGH ; 
 AND    WARWICK    SQUARE,    LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXXVIII. 
 
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 GLASGOW: 
 
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PUBLISHERS'    PREFACE. 
 
 The  character,  intention,  and  usefulness,  of  Stackhouse's  HISTORY  OF  THE  Bible,  are  so 
 well  known,  and  so  universally  acknowledged,  that  it  would  be  waste  of  time  to  enlarge  on 
 them.  The  great  object  of  the  Work  is  to  methodize,  and  bring  down  to  the  capacities  of  all 
 readers,  the  important  historical  truths  narrated  in  the  Scriptures ;  to  clear  difficult  passages 
 from  seeming  inconsistencies;  to  aid  the  infirmities  of  the  human  understanding  by  explana- 
 tion and  illustration  suited  to  the  limited  reasoning  powers  of  man ;  and  to  enable  the  devout 
 Christian  to  obtain  the  most  satisfactory  and  comprehensive  view  of  the  benevolent  purposes 
 of  God  in  Christ,  which  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  Divine  Revelation  from  the  first  page 
 to  the  last. 
 
 In  proportion,  however,  as  it  is  unnecessary  to  explain  the  design  of  the  original  Work, 
 and  to  insist  on  its  usefulness,  it  is  incumbent  on  the  Publishers  to  state  fully  the  object  tlioy 
 had  in  view,  and  the  ends  they  have  achieved,  by  the  publication  of  a  New  Edition  of 
 this  book. 
 
 A  History  of  the  Bible,  while  it  comprises  a  systematic  arrangement  of  the  Scriptural  Nar- 
 rative, is,  at  the  same  time,  a  condensation  of  the  accumulated  stores  of  human  intellect 
 and  research  applied  to  the  explanation  of  the  Volume  of  Divine  Revelation,  and  unveiling, 
 as  it  were,  the  vast  effulgence  of  the  Sacred  Mind  as  therein  made  known  to  man.  It  must 
 be  obvious,  therefore,  that  a  Work  of  this  nature  admits  of  improvement ;  that  facts  daily 
 elicited,  and  inquiries  continually  pursued,  will,  in  the  course  of  time,  furnish  many  new, 
 important,  and  striking  illustrations,  which  could  not  have  presented  themselves  to  the  writer 
 of  the  original  book. 
 
 The  attention  of  the  good  and  learned  has  been  directed  in  late  years,  no  less  than  in  for- 
 mer times,  to  the  subject  of  Biblical  criticism;  and  the  results  of  their  labours  are  seen  in  the 
 elucidation  of  many  passages  in  Holy  Writ,  which,  though  reverently  receiv,  d  as  truth,  being 
 from  the  Fountain  of  Truth,  had  previously  been  comprehended  only  to  a  limited  extent 
 The  facilities  winch  are  now  afforded  for  visiting  the  countries— 
 
 "  Over  whose  acres  walked  those  hlessed  feet, 
 Which,  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  were  nailed 
 For  our  advantage  to  tho  hitter  cross;" 
 
 and  the  descriptions  thence  brought  by  travellers,  both  Christian  and  Sceptieal   have  tended 
 
 materially  to  increase  the  satisfaction  of  the  pions  mind,  by  fan g  ri  « rt*  indfapmahte 
 
 proofs  of  the  truth  of  those  things  which  ignorance  and  infideUI y  had  ,  I I to  scofl 
 
 and  scorn;  and  demonstrating  that  the  predictions  of  S»«edW„,  have  been  so  > 
 fulfilled,  as  to  compel  the  doubter  to  acknowledge  that  they  cnu  d  only  have  been  utten  d I  un- 
 der the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  Him  who  'declare.!,  the  end  from   ho  bo,, and  from 
 
 ancient  times  the  things  that  are  not  yet  done,'  and  to  who.  fa.  all  Unngs.  «v»  the  I ghh 
 
 and  the  heart  of  man,  are  naked  and  bare. 
 
ii  PUBLISHERS'  PREFACE. 
 
 It  has  been  the  aim  of  the  Editor  and  Publishers  of  this  Edition  of  Stackhouse,  to  avail 
 themselves,  to  the  fullest  extent,  of  those  sources  of  information  adverted  to  in  the  preceding 
 paragraph ;  and  they  trust  it  will  be  found  to  include  new  treasures  of  Biblical  criticism, 
 many  additional  illustrations  of  Eastern  manners  and  customs,  and  geographical  and  topogra- 
 phical descriptions  of  "  the  land  of  the  Gospel,"  more  definite  and  satisfactory  than  had  been 
 previously  given.  As  instances  of  the  attention  that  has  been  paid  to  the  last  named  depart- 
 ment, they  may  refer  to  the  supplemental  chapter,  on  the  journeyings  of  the  Israelites,  and 
 to  the  copious  descriptions  of  the  mountains,  lakes,  and  rivers  of  Palestine.  But  it  would  be 
 far  beyond  the  compass  of  this  Preface  to  advert  particularly  to  the  great  body  of  information 
 that  has  been  collected  for  the  present  Edition.  They  may  only  add,  that,  in  the  chronological 
 department  they  have  availed  themselves  of  Dr  Hales'  admirable  Analysis  of  Chronology, — cer- 
 tainly the  most  successful  work  in  rectifying  mistakes,  and  explaining  difficulties,  arising 
 from  the  difference  of  dates,  that  lias  yet  appeared :  and  while  alluding  to  the  additions  that 
 have  been  made,  the  Publishers  take  the  opportunity  of  offering  due  acknowledgment  to 
 a  Friend  of  high  attainments  in  Biblical  learning,  to  whom  they  are  indebted  for  much  valua- 
 ble assistance  in  various  departments  of  this  Work,  but  whose  name  they  are  not  at  liberty 
 to  make  known. 
 
 It  remains  only  briefly  to  notice  the  Indexes  and  Table  of  Scriptural  Passages.  The  for- 
 mer of  these  will  be  found  abundantly  copious  for  all  purposes,  and  great  care  has  been  taken 
 in  the  arrangement,  to  make  them  of  easy  and  satisfactory  reference.  The  Table  of  Scrip- 
 tural passages  forms  a  most  important  feature  in  the  book.  It  includes  nearly  Five  Thous- 
 and Sacred  Texts,  which  are  closely  applied,  illustrated  and  explained  in  the  course  of  the 
 Work. 
 
 The  Editor  and  Publishers  contemplate  the  close  of  their  labours  with  much  satisfaction : 
 they  feel  that  they  have  rendered  good  service  to  the  Christian  cause  by  the  publication  of 
 this  Enlarged  and  Improved  Edition  of  Stackhouse,  in  which  they  have  brought  all  the  past 
 stores,  and  recent  advances  of  human  learning  and  research,  to  the  illustration  of  the  Sacred 
 Volume.  Nor  is  it  the  least  part  of  their  gratification,  that  they  have  produced  this  valuable 
 book  at  a  price,  and  in  a  form,  that  places  it  within  the  reach  of  all  classes  of  the  com- 
 munity. 
 
 GLASGOW,  1836. 
 
THE    AUTHOR'S    PREFACE. 
 
 The  Holy  Bible  itself,  being  principally  historical, 
 the  history  of  an  history  may  seem  a  solecism  to  those 
 who  do  not  sufficiently  attend  to  the  nature  of  these 
 sacred  writings,  whose  scope  and  method,  and  form  of 
 diction,  are  vastly  different  from  any  modern  composi- 
 tion :  wherein  the  idiom  of  the  tongue  in  which  it  was 
 penned,  and  the  oriental  customs  to  which  it  alludes, 
 occasion  much  obscurity ;  the  difference  of  time  wherein 
 it  was  wrote,  and  variety  of  authors  concerned  therein, 
 a  diversity  of  style,  and  frequent  repetitions  ;  the  inter- 
 mixture of  other  matters  with  what  is  properly  historical, 
 a  seeming  perplexity  ;  the  malice  of  foes,  and  negligence 
 of  scribes,  frequent  dislocations  ;  and  the  defect  of  pub- 
 lic records,  in  the  times  of  persecution,  a  long  interrup- 
 tion of  about  four  hundred  years ;  to  say  nothing  that 
 this  history  relates  to  one  nation  only,  and  concerns 
 itself  no  farther  with  the  rest  of  mankind,  than  as  they 
 had  some  dealings  and  intercourse  with  them.  Whoever, 
 I  say,  will  give  himself  the  liberty  to  consider  a  little 
 the  form  and  composition  of  the  Holy  Bible,  and  the 
 weighty  concerns  which  it  contains,  must  needs  be  of 
 opinion,  that  this,  of  all  other  books,  requires  to  be 
 explained  where  it  is  obscure  ;  methodized  where  it 
 seems  confused ;  abridged  where  it  seems  prolix ; 
 supplied  where  it  is  defective ;  and  analyzed  when 
 its  historical  matters  lie  blended  and  involved  with 
 other  quite  different  subjects.  This  I  call  writing  an 
 history  of  the  Bible  s  and  hereupon  I  thought,  with  my- 
 self, that  if  I  could  but  give  the  reader  a  plain  and  suc- 
 cinct narrative  of  what  is  purely  historical  in  this  sacred 
 book,  without  the  interposition  of  any  other  matter;  if 
 I  could  but  settle  the  chronology,  and  restore  the  order 
 of  things,  by  reducing  every  passage  and  fact  to  its  pro- 
 per place  and  period  of  time  ;  if  I  could  but,  by  way  of 
 notes,  and  without  breaking  in  upon  the  series  of  the 
 narrative  part,  explain  difficult  texts,  rectify  liu's-trans- 
 lations,  and  reconcile  seeming  contradictions,  as  they 
 occurred  in  my  way ;  if  I  could  but  supply  the  defect  of 
 the  Jewish  story,  by  continuing  the  account  of  their 
 affairs  under  the  rule  and  conduct  of  the  Maccabees;  if 
 I  could  but  introduce  profane  history  as  I  went  along, 
 and,  at  proper  distances  of  time,  sum  up  to  my  reader 
 what  was  transacting  in  other  parts  of  the  then  known 
 world,  while  he  was  perusing  the  records  of  the  Hebrew 
 worthies  ;  and  at  the  same  time,  if  1  could  but  answer 
 such  questions  and  objections  as  infidelity,  in  all  ages, 
 has  been  too  ready  to  suggest  against  the  truth  and 
 authority  of  the  Scriptures;  and  witli  all,  discuss  such 
 passages,  and  illustrate  such  facts  and  events  as  make 
 the  most  considerable  figure  in  Holy  Writ:  If  I  could  | 
 
 but  do  this,  1  say,  I  thought  I  had  undertaken  a  uork 
 which  might  possibly  be  of  public  use  and  benefit ; 
 seasonable  at  all  times,  but  more  especially  in  the  age 
 wherein  we  live,  and,  if  I  may  be  permitted  to  apply 
 to  myself  the  apostle's  words,  such  as  might  make  me  ' 
 'unto  God  a  sweet  savour  in  Christ,  in  them  that  are 
 saved,  and  in  them  that  perish;  to  the  one  the  savour  of 
 death  unto  death,  and  to  the  other  the  savour  of  life 
 unto  life.' 
 
 I  am  very  well  aware,  that  several  have  gone  before 
 me  in  works  of  the  like  denomination ;  but  1  may  boldly 
 venture  to  say,  that  none  of  them  have  taken  in  half  that 
 compass  of  view  which  I  here  promise  to  myself.  Blouie 
 has  given  us  a  very  pompous  book ;  but  besides  that  it 
 is  no  more  than  a  bare  translation  of  Sieur  de  lioy- 
 amont's  History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament ,  it 
 omits  many  material  facts,  observes  no  exact  series  in 
 its  narration,  but  is  frequently  interrupted  by  insertions 
 of  the  sentiments  of  the  fathers,  which  prove  not  always 
 very  pertinent;  and,  in  short,  is  remarkable  for  little  or 
 nothing  else  but  the  number  of  its  sculptures,  which  are 
 badly  designed,  and  worse  executed.  El  wood,  in  some 
 respects,  has  acquitted  himself  much  better  ;  ha  lias 
 made  a  pretty  just  collection  of  the  Scripture  account 
 of  things  ;  but  then,  when  any  difficulty  occurs,  he  usually 
 gives  us  the  sacred  text  itself,  without  any  explanatory 
 note  or  comment  upon  it;  and  so  not  only  leave*  his 
 reader's  understanding  as  ignorant  as  he  fouml  it,  but  his 
 mind  in  some  danger  of  being  tainted  by  the  unlawful 
 parallels  he  makes  between  the  acts  of  former  and  later 
 times  and  by  a  certain  levity  which  he  discovert  "  upon 
 several  occasions,  not  so  becoming  thfl  sacredness  of 
 his  subject.  Howel  has  certainh  excelled  all  that  Mart 
 before  him,  both  in  his  design  and  execution  of  it.  lie 
 has  given  us  a  continued  relation  . if  Scripture  tranaao 
 tions;has  filled  up  the  chasm  between  Malacbi  andChriat; 
 has  annexed  some  notes,  which  help  to  explain  the  diiii- 
 culties  that  are  chiefly  occasioned  by  the  mi.-t  ikea  of 
 our  translators:  but  in  my  opinion,  he  has  been  B  little 
 too  sparing  in  his  notes,  and,  as  aOBMwill  haw  ,i 
 pompous  in  his  diction.  He  has  Omitted  many  tl 
 that  might  justly  deserve  his  noli. c,  and  taken   , 
 
 of  others  that  seem  not  so  considerable.  SomeTerj  re- 
 markable events  he  has  thought  lit  to  paai  bj  without 
 any  comment;  nor  has  he  attempted  to  rindicate  anch 
 
 passages  as 
 
 on, 
 
 the  lovers  of  infidelity  are  apt  to  laj  hold 
 
 in  order  to  entrench  themselves  the  asfar. 
 
 »  2  Cor.  ii.  15,  Hi. 
 a  Vid.  his  account  of  the  plague  of  lice;  .,f  Pbtriol.  and   his 
 people;  the  story  of  Samsou's  foxes,  and  that  at  Mb*. 
 
AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 
 
 Whatever  other  men's  sentiments  might  be,  these 
 things  I  thought  in  some  measure  essential,  and  at  this 
 time  more  especially,  extremely  necessary  in  an  history 
 of  the  Bible;  and  to  encourage  my  pursuit  of  this 
 method,  I  have  several  helps  and  assistances  which  those 
 who  went  before  me  were  not  perhaps  so  well  accommo- 
 dated with. 
 
 The  foundation  of  a  lecture  by  the  honourable  Mr 
 Boyle  has  given  occasion  for  the  principles  of  natural 
 and  revealed  religion  to  be  fairly  stated  and  the  objec- 
 tions and  cavils  of  infidelity  of  all  kinds  to  be  fully 
 answered.  The  institution  of  another  by  the  Lady  Moyer 
 has  furnished  us  with  several  tracts,  wherein  the  great 
 articles  of  our  Christian  faith  are  strenuously  vindicated, 
 and,  as  far  as  the  nature  of  mysteries  will  allow,  accur- 
 ately explained, 
 
 The  uncommon  licence  which  of  late  years  has  been 
 taken  to  decry  all  prophecies  and  miracles,  and  to  ex- 
 pose several  portions  of  scripture  as  absurd  and  ridicu- 
 lous, has  raised  up  some  learned  men,  (God  grant  that 
 the  number  of  them  may  every  day  increase,)  to  contend 
 earnestly  for  the  faith,  and,  by  the  help  of  critical  know- 
 ledge in  ancient  customs  and  sacred  languages,  to 
 rescue  from  their  hands  such  texts  and  passages  as  the 
 wicked  and  unstable  were  endeavouring  to  wrest,  to  the 
 perversion  of  other  men's  faith,  as  well  as  their  own  de- 
 struction. The  commentaries  and  annotations  we  have 
 upon  the  scriptures,  both  from  our  own  countrymen,  and 
 from  foreigners,  have,  of  late  years,  been  very  solid  and 
 elaborate,  the  dissertations  or  particular  treatises  on 
 the  most  remarkable  facts  and  events,  extremely  learned 
 and  judicious  ;  the  harmonists,  or  writers,  who  endea- 
 vour to  reconcile  seeming  contradictions,  very  accurate 
 and  inquisite  ;  such  as  have  wrote  in  an  analytical  way, 
 clear  and  perspicuous  enough,  and  to  pass  by  several 
 others,  sacred  geography  has  been  fully  handled  by  the 
 great  Bochart,  sacred  chronology  sufficiently  ascertained 
 by  our  renowned  Usher:  and  the  chasm  in  the  sacred 
 story  abundantly  supplied  by  our  learned  Prideaux  ;  so 
 that  there  are  no  materials  wanting  to  furnish  out  a  new 
 and  complete  history  of  the  Bible  even  according  to  the 
 compass  and  extent  of  my  scheme.  That  therefore  the 
 reader  may  be  apprized  of  the  method  I  propose  to  my- 
 self, and  what  he  may  reasonably  expect  from  me,  I 
 must  desire  him  to  observe,  that,  according  to  several 
 periods  of  time,  from  the  creation  of  the  world  to  the 
 full  establishment  of  Christianity,  my  design  is  to  divide 
 the  whole  work  into  eight  books.  Whereof 
 The  I.  Will  extend  from  the  creation  to  the  deluge. 
 The  II.  From  the  deluge  to  the  call  of  Abraham. 
 The  III.  From  the  call  of  Abraham  to  the  departure  of 
 
 the  Israelites  out  of  Egypt. 
 The  IV.  From  the  departure  of  the  Israelites  to  their 
 
 entrance  into  the  land  of  Canaan. 
 The  V.  From  their  entrance  into  Canaan  to  the  building 
 
 of  Solomon's  temple. 
 The  VI.  From  the  building  of  the  temple  to  the  Baby- 
 lonish captivity. 
 
 The  VII.  From  the  captivity  to  the  birth  of  Christ.  And 
 The  VIII.  From  the  birth  of  Christ  to  the  completion 
 of  the  canon  of  the  New  Testament. 
 Each  of  these  books  I  purpose  to  divide  into  several 
 chapters,  and  each  chapter  into  three  parts.  The  number 
 of  chapters  will  vary,  according  as  the  matter  in  each 
 period  arises,  but  the  parts  in  each  chapter  will  be  con- 
 stantly the  same,  namely. 
 
 1st,  A  Narrative  Part,  which,  in  plain  and  easy  dic- 
 tion, will  contain  the  substance  of  the  Scripture-history 
 for  such  a  determinate  time. 
 
 2dly,  An  Argumentative  Part,  which  will  contain  an 
 answer  to  such  objections  as  may  possibly  be  made 
 against  any  passage  in  the  history  comprised  in  that 
 time.     And, 
 
 3dly,  A  Philological  Part,  which  will  contain  the 
 sentiments  of  the  learned,  both  ancient  and  modern, 
 concerning  such  remarkable  events  or  transactions  as 
 shall  happen  in  that  time  ;  or  perhaps  a  summary  account 
 of  what  is  most  considerable  in  profane  history,  towards 
 the  conclusion  of  each  period. 
 
 That  the  reader  may  perceive  how  I  gradually  ad- 
 vance in  the  sacred  history,  and  by  turning  to  his  Bible, 
 may  compare  the  narrative  with  the  text,  and  find  a  pro- 
 per solution  to  any  difficulty  that  shall  occur  in  the 
 course  of  his  reading,  I  shall  at  the  top  of  the  page  of 
 each  section,  set  down  the  book  and  chapter,  or  chapters, 
 I  have  then  under  consideration,  and  the  date  of  the 
 year,  both  from  the  creation,  and  before  and  after  the 
 coming  of  Christ,  wherein  each  remarkable  event  hap- 
 pened. And  that  all  things  may  be  made  as  easy  a* 
 possible  to  the  reader,  I  shall  take  care  not  to  trouble 
 him  with  any  exotic  words  in  the  text ;  but  where  there 
 is  occasion  to  insert  any  Hebrew  expressions,  for  his 
 sake,  I  shall  choose  to  do  it  in  English  characters,  and 
 to  reduce  every  tiling  that  I  conceive  may  be  above  his 
 capacity,  to  the  notes  and  quotations  at  the  bottom  of 
 the  page. 
 
 The  notes,  besides  the  common  references,  will  be 
 ordy  of  four  kinds. 
 
 1st,  Additional,  when  a  passage  is  borrowed  from  any 
 other  author,  whether  foreign  or  domestic,  to  confirm  or 
 illustrate  the  matter  we  are  then  upon. 
 
 2dly,  Explanatory,  when  by  producing  the  right  sig- 
 nification of  the  original,  or  inquiring  into  some  ancient 
 custom,  and  the  like,  we  make  the  passage  under  con- 
 sideration more  intelligible. 
 
 3dly,  Reconciliatory ;  when,  by  the  help  of  a  parallel 
 place,  or  some  logical  distinction,  we  show  the  consis- 
 tency of  two  or  more  passages  in  Scripture,  which,  at 
 first  view,  seem  to  be  contradictory. 
 
 4thly,  What  we  call  Emendatory ,  when,  by  consider- 
 ing the  various  senses  of  the  original  word,  and  select- 
 ing what  is  most  proper,  or,  by  having  a  due  attention 
 to  the  design  of  our  author  and  the  context,  the  mistakes 
 in  our  translations  are  set  right. 
 
 The  chronological  and  other  tables  must  be  reserved 
 to  the  conclusion  of  the  work. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction  to  the  old  testament,  vii. 
 
 BOOK  I. 
 
 An  account  of  things  from  the  creation  to  the  Flood. 
 
 Preliminary  observations,  page  1. 
 
 Section  I. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  creation  of  the  world The  Introduction,  1. 
 
 - — Chap.    II.    The    history,  4. — III.  The   objection,  8. — IV. 
 wisdom  of  God  in  the  works  of  Creation,  12. 
 
 Section  II. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  state  of  man's  innocence,  15. — II.  Difficulties 
 obviated  and  objections  explained,  17. — III.  Of  the  image  of  God 
 in  man,  21. 
 
 Section  III. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  fall  of  man,  24.— Chap.  II.  Difficulties  obviated 
 and  objections  explained,  28. — III.  On  the  sentiments  enter- 
 tained by  the  ancients  concerning  the  origin  of  moral  evil,  37. 
 
 Section  IV. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  murder  of  Abel  and  the  banishment  of  Cain, 
 41. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  45. — HI. 
 Of  the  institution  of  sacrifices,  47. — IV.  On  the  design  of  sacri- 
 fice.— On  the  sacrifices  of  the  patriarchal  dispensation,  50. 
 
 Section  V. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  general  corruption  of  mankind,  52 II.  Diffi- 
 culties obviated  and  objections  explained,  55. — III.  Of  the 
 heathen  history,  the  chronology,  learning,  longevity,  &c.  of  the 
 antediluvians,  61. 
 
 Section  VI. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  deluge,  70. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  ob- 
 jections explained,  73. — III.  The  reality  of  the  deluge  proved 
 from  natural  history,  83. — IV.  Of  mount  Ararat,  88. — V.  Of 
 mount  Ararat  (supplemental)  92. 
 
 BOOK  II. 
 
 An  account  of  things  from  the  flood  to  the  call  of 
 
 ABRAHAM. 
 
 Preliminary  observations,  94. 
 
 Section  I. 
 
 Chap.  I.  The  remainder  of  what  is  recorded  of  Noah,  to  his 
 death,  94.— II.  The  history,  95.— III.  Difficulties  obviated  and 
 objections  answered,  97. — IV.  Of  the  prohibition  of  blood,  103. 
 
 Section  II. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  confusion  of  languages,  109.— II.  Objections 
 answered  and  difficulties  explained,  110. — III.  Of  the  tower  of 
 Babel,  116. 
 
 Section  III. 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  dispersion  and  first  settlement  of  the  nations, 
 
 121. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,   123. 
 — III.  Of  the  sacred  chronology,  and  prolane  history. 
 learning,  religion,  and  idolatry,  Stc.  during  this  period,  130. 
 
 BOOK  III. 
 
 An  account  of  things  from  the  call  of  abraha.m  to  ma 
 exodus  of  the  Israelites. 
 Preliminary  observations,  142. 
 
 Section  I. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  life  of  Abraham  from  his  call  to  bis  death,  1 43. 
 — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  15S.—  I 
 destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  1 76. 
 
 Section  II. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  life  of  Isaac,  from  his  marriage  to  his  death,  I  7  ' 
 — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  1S3. — 111. 
 Of  Isaac's  blessing  Jacob,  187. 
 
 Section  III. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  life  of  Jacob,  from  his  going  into  Mesopotamia 
 to   his  return,  189. —  II.   Difficulties  answered   and  obi .  • 
 obviated,  198. — III.  Of  Jacob's  ladder  and  pillar,  205. 
 
 Section  IV. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Of  the  life  of  Joseph,  including  remainder  of  Jacob's 
 life,  20S. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objection  answered, 
 225.— III.  Of  the  person  and  book  of  Job,  232. 
 
 Section  V. 
 
 Chap.  I.  The  sufferings  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt  and  their  de- 
 livery, 236. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answi 
 248. — III.  Of  the  sacred  chronology,  and  proline  history,  l>  arn- 
 ing,  religion,   idolatry,   and  monumental  works,  stc.,  (rtlWIy  of 
 
 the  Egyptians)  during  this  period,  258. 
 
 BOOK  IV. 
 
 An  ACCOUNT  OF  things  raoM    [HI  BODVfl  ro   TBI  KM 
 
 INTO  CANAAN. 
 
 Preliminary  observations,  888. 
 
 Section  I- 
 
 Chap.  I.   From  the  Exodus  to  the  building  of  the  tab.  i 
 
 269. II.  Objections  obriatod  snd  difficulties  explained, 
 
 —II  I.  Of  the  passage  of  the  Red  S,  a.  gS;,.— IV.  < 'i 
 
 of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  journe) -ings  of  the  [anttitC*,  IBS. 
 
 Section  II. 
 Chap.  I.  Prom  the  building  of  the  tabernacle  to  the  death  of 
 Koran,  &c,  297. — II.  Objections  answered  end  difficulties  ex- 
 plained, 3ti2.— HI- Of  the  Jewish  tobernacle,  &■•.,  310. 
 
 Section  11 1. 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Korah  to  the  entrance  into  Cans**, 
 
 313, II.  Objections  answered  ami  difficulties  explained,  328. — 
 
 III.  On  the  character  and  conduct  of  Balaam,  SS4V — 1^  .Of  the 
 
 profane  history,  religion,  government,  fcc,,  of  sucl 
 
 the  Israelites  bad  dealings  with  during  thK  piriod,  336. — Ou  the 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 land  of  Canaan,  341. — V.  On  the  mountains  of  Canaan,  345. — 
 VI.  On  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  Palestine,  352. — VII.  On  the 
 general  fertility  of  Palestine,  355. 
 
 BOOK  V. 
 
 An  account  of  things  from  the  entrance  into  Canaan,  to 
 the  building  of  solomon's  temple. 
 
 Preliminary  observations,  361. 
 
 Section  I. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  their  entrance  to  the  death  of  Joshua,  363.' — 
 II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  373. — III.  Of 
 the  shower  of  stones,  and  the  sun's  standing  still,  3S5. — Some  of 
 the  objections  to  the  credibility  of  the  Old  Testament  considered 
 and  answered,  391. 
 
 Section  II. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Joshua  to  the  death  of  Samson,  395. 
 — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  415. — III. 
 Jephthah's  rash  vow,  42S. — IV.  The  same  (supplemental)  431. 
 
 Section  III. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  birth  of  Samuel  to  the  death  of  Saul, 433. 
 ——II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  455. — III. 
 On  the  Jewish  Theocracy,  468. — Of  Samuel's  appearing  to  the 
 witch  of  Endor,  471.— IV.  On  the  witch  of  Endor,  476. 
 
 Section  IV. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Saul,  to  that  of  Absalom,  476. — 
 II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  491. — III.  Of 
 the  sacred  chronology,  and  profane  history  during  this  period,  499. 
 
 Section  V. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Absalom  to  the  building  of  the 
 temple,  502. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered, 
 514. — III.  Of  the  ancient  Jerusalem  and  its  temple,  523. — IV. 
 On  the  temple,  530. 
 
 BOOK  VI. 
 
 An  ACCOUNT   OF   THINGS  FROM    THE    BUILDING   OF    THE    TEMPLE 
 TO  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY. 
 
 Preliminary  observations,  533. 
 
 Section  I. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  finishing  of  the  temple,  to  the  reign  of  Jeho- 
 shaphat,  535. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered, 
 550. — III.  Of  Solomon's  riches  and  his  trade  to  Ophir,  556. 
 
 Section  II. 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  reign  of  Jehoshaphat  to  the  siege  of  Samaria, 
 559. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  578. 
 — III.  Of  the  translation  of  Enoch  and  Elijah,  5S6. 
 
 Section  III. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  siege  of  Samaria  to  the  death  of  Uzziah, 
 591. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  609. 
 — III.  Of  Jonah's  mission  to  Nineveh,  and  his  abode  in  the 
 whale's  belly,  615. — IV.  The  same,  (supplemental)  621. 
 
 Section  IV. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Uzziah  to  the  death  of  Josiah,  622. 
 — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  640. — III. 
 On  the  dial  of  Ahaz,  647 — IV.  Of  the  transportation  of  the  ten 
 tribes  and  their  return,  648. 
 
 Section  V. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Josiah  to  the  Babylonish  captivity, 
 
 653. — II.  Objections  answered  and  difficulties  obviated,  665 
 
 HI.  Of  the  sacred  chronology  and  profane  history  during  this 
 period,  671. 
 
 BOOK  VII. 
 
 An  account  of  things  from  the  Babylonish  captivity  to 
 the  birth  of  Christ. 
 
 Preliminary  observations,  679. 
 
 Section  I. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  Captivity  to  the  death  of  Cyrus,  680 II. 
 
 Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered,  694. — III.  On  the 
 history  of  Cyrus,  and  the  taking  of  Babylon,  707.— IV.  Of  the 
 pride  and  punishment  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  711. 
 
 Section  II. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Cyrus  to  that  of  Nehemiah,  716. 
 — II.  Objections  answered  and  difficulties  obviated,  734. — III. 
 Of  Ezra's  edition  of  the  holy  scriptures,  and  the  institution  of 
 synagogue  worship,  740. 
 
 Section  III. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Nehemiah  to  the  death  of  Antiochus 
 Epiphanes,  746. — II.  Objections  answered,  762— III.  Of  the 
 Jewish  Sanhedrim,  764. 
 
 Section  IV. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  to  that  of  John 
 Hyrcanus,  769. — II.  Objections  answered  and  difficulties  obvi- 
 ated, 780. — III.  Of  the  original,  and  tenets  of  the  Jewish  sects, 
 
 784. 
 
 Section  V. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  death  of  John  Hyrcanus  to  the  birth  of  Christ, 
 7S9. — II.  Objections  answered,  804. — III.  Of  the  profane  history 
 during  this  period,  S06. 
 
 Introduction  to  the  history  of  the  new  testament. 
 
 Chap.  I.  Judaism  preparatory  to  Christianity,  821. — II.  The 
 same,  continued,  826 — III.  On  the  genuineness  and  authenti- 
 city of  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  831. 
 
 BOOK  VIII. 
 
 An  account  of  things  from  the  birth  OF  CHRIST  to  the 
 completion  of  the  canon  of  the  new  testament. 
 
 Preliminary  observations,  S39. 
 
 Section  I. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  birth  of  Christ,  to  the  beginning  of  the  first 
 passover,  840. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  objections  answered, 
 867. — III.  An  account  of  the  marriage  ceremonies  of  the  east, 
 882. — IV.  Of  the  four  evangelists,  and  their  writings,  887. — V. 
 On  Philo  and  Josephus,  895. 
 
 Section  II. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  beginning  of  the  second  passover  to  our 
 Lord's  transfiguration,  900. — II.  Difficulties  obviated  and  ob- 
 jections answered,  922. — III.  Of  the  prophecies  relating  to  the 
 Messiah,  and  their  accomplishment  in  our  blessed  Saviour,  937. 
 
 Section  III. 
 
 Chap.  I.  An  account  of  things  from  our  Lord's  transfiguration 
 to  his  last  entry  into  Jerusalem,  944. — II.  Difficulties  obviated 
 and  objections  answered,  972. — III.  Of  our  blessed  Saviour's 
 miracles,  and  their  excellency,  980 IV.  On  miracles,  985. 
 
 Section  IV. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  our  Lord's  last  entry  into  Jerusalem,  to  his  as- 
 cension into  heaven,  994. — II.  Objections  answered  and  diffi- 
 culties explained,  1028. — III.  Of  our  blessed  Saviour's  doctrine, 
 and  the  excellency  of  his  religion,  1046. 
 
 Section  V. 
 
 Chap.  I.  From  the  ascension  of  Christ  to  the  completion  of  the 
 canon  of  the  New  Testament,  1057. — II.  Objections  answered 
 and  difficulties  explained,  1114. — III.  Of  the  profane  history, 
 during  this  period,  1129. 
 
 Chronological  table,  1145. — Tables  of  Jewish  time,  weights, 
 &c  1148. — Index  of  subjects,  1151. — Index  of  scriptural  texts, 
 1170. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ON  THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  DIVINE  REVELATION,  AND  THE  GENUINENESS,  AUTHENTICITY, 
 INSPIRATION,  &c.  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES. 
 
 The  collection  of  writings  which  is  regarded  by  Chris- 
 tians as  the  sole  standard  of  their  faith  and  practice, 
 has  been  distinguished  at  different  periods  by  different 
 appellations.  Thus  it  is  frequently  termed  the  Scrip- 
 tures, the  sacred  or  holy  Scriptures,  and  sometimes  the 
 canonical  Scriptures.  It  is  called  the  Scriptures,  as 
 being  the  most  important  of  all  tvritings  ;  the  holy 
 or  sacred  Scriptures,  because  the  books  composing  it 
 were  written  by  persons  divinely  inspired ;  and  the 
 canonical  Scriptures,  either  because  it  is  a  rule  of  faith 
 and  practice  to  those  who  receive  it,  or  because,  when 
 the  number  and  authenticity  of  its  different  books  were 
 ascertained,  lists  of  these  were  inserted  in  the  ecclesias- 
 tical canons  or  catalogue,  in  order  to  distinguish  them 
 from  such  books  as  were  apocryphal,  or  of  uncertain 
 authority,  and  unquestionably  not  of  divine  origin.  But 
 the  most  common  appellation  is  that  of  the  Bible — a 
 word  derived  from  the  Greek  Bifito;  (biblos) — which,  in 
 its  primary  import,  simply  denotes  a  book,  but  which  is 
 given  to  the  writings  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  of  the 
 evangelists  and  apostles,  by  way  of  eminence,  as  being 
 the  book  of  books,  infinitely  surpassing  in  excellence 
 and  importance  every  unassisted  production  of  the  human 
 mind. — Lardner's  Works,  vol.  vi. — John's  Introduction 
 ad  Vet.  Feed,  and  Home's  Introduction,  vol.  i.  and  ii. 
 
 That  portion  of  Scripture  which  the  Jewish  church  re- 
 ceived as  of  divine  authority,  is  usually  called  '  The  Old 
 Testament,'  in  order  to  distinguish  it  from  those  sacred 
 books  which  contain  the  doctrines,  precepts,  and  pro- 
 mises of  the  Christian  religion,  and  which  are  desig- 
 nated '  The  New  Testament.'  The  appellation  of  Testa- 
 ment is  derived  from  2  Cor.  iii.  6,  14.  where  the  words 
 ij  n«A«/«  Aict6rix.ri,  and  oj  Kaivn  Ai»6^x.n  are,  by  the 
 old  Latin  translators,  rendered  antiquum  testamentum, 
 and  novum  testamentum,  instead  of  antiquum  fesdus ,  and 
 novum  fadus,  the  old  and  new  covenant ;  for  although 
 the  Greek  word  AiccOwx.*!  signifies  both  testament  and 
 covenant,  yet  in  the  Septuagint  version  it  uniformly  cor- 
 responds with  the  Hebrew  word  tv*a  (Jberith,)  which 
 always  signifies  a  covenant.  The  term  '  old  covenant,' 
 used  by  St  Paul  in  2  Cor.  iii.  14.  is  evidently  applied  to 
 the  dispensation  of  Moses,  and  the  term  '  new  covenant,' 
 in  ver.  G  of  the  same  chapter,  is  applied  to  the  dispen- 
 sati  on  of  Christ ;  and  these  distinguishing  appellations 
 were   applied  by  the  early  ecclesiastical  authors  to  the 
 
 writings  which  contained  those  dispensations,  and  from 
 them  it  has  been  transmitted  to  modern  times. — Lard- 
 ner's works,  vol.  vi — Home's  Introdtciion,  vol.  i. — 
 Bishop  Tomlines  El.  of  Theol. 
 
 The  volume  which  is  made  up  of  the  Old  and  New 
 Testament  contains  a  great  number  of  different  narra- 
 tives and  compositions,  written  by  several  persons,  at 
 distant  periods,  in  different  languages,  and  on  various 
 subjects.  Yet  all  of  these  collectively  claim  to  be  .a 
 divine  revelation  :  that  is,  a  discovery  afforded  by  God 
 to  man,  of  himself,  or  of  his  will,  over  and  above  what 
 he  has  made  known  by  the  light  of  nature  or  reason. 
 
 The  objects  of  our  knowledge  are  of  three  kinds  : — 
 Thus  some  things  are  discernible  by  the  light  of  nature 
 without  revelation  ;  of  this  kind  is  the  knowledge  of 
 God  from  the  traces  of  his  wisdom  and  power  exhibited 
 in  the  works  of  creation,  '  for  his  invisible  things,  even 
 his  eternal  power  and  Godhead  since  the  creation  of 
 the  world,  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the 
 tilings  that  are  made,'  (Rom.  i.  20).  Other  tilings  are 
 of  pure  and  simple  revelation,  which  cannot  be  known 
 by  the  light  of  nature  ;  such  is  the  doctrine  of  the  salva- 
 tion of  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ.  Others  again  are 
 discoverable  by  the  light  of  nature,  but  imperfectly,  and 
 therefore  stand  in  need  of  revelation  to  give  them  further 
 proof  and  evidence  ;  of  this  sort  are  a  future  state,  and 
 eternal  rewards  and  punishments.  But  of  what  degree 
 soever  the  revelation  may  be,  whether  partial  or  entire  ; 
 whether  a  total  discovery  of  some  unknown  troth,  or 
 only  a  fuller  and  clearer  manifestation  of  truths  imper- 
 fectly  known  by  unassisted  reason  ;  it  must  be  super- 
 natural and  proceed  from  God. — Bishop  William's 
 Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
 No  one  who  believes  that  there  is  a  God,  and  that  he 
 is  a  Being  of  infinite  power,  wisdom  and  knowledge, 
 can  reasonably  deny,  that  he  can,  if  he  thinks  lit,  make 
 a  revelation  of  himself  and  of  his  will  in  an  extraordin- 
 ary way,  difierent  from  the  discoveries  made  by  men 
 themselves,  in  the  more  natural  and  ordinary  use  of  their 
 own  rational  faculties  and  powers.  For  If  the  power 
 of  God  be  almighty,  it  must  extend  to  whatever  does  not 
 imply  a  contradiction,  which  cannot  be  pretended  in 
 this  case.  Can  it  be  supposed  that  the  author  of  our 
 being  has  it  not  in  his  power  to  communicate  ideas  to 
 our  minds,  for  informing   and  instructing  us   in  those 
 
Vlll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 things  which  we  are  deeply  concerned  to  know  ;  our  in- 
 ability  clearly  to  explain  the  manner  in  which  this  is 
 done,  is  no  just  objection  against  it.  And  as  it  cannot 
 reasonably  be  denied  that  God  can,  if  he  sees  fit,  com- 
 municate his  will  to  man,  in  a  way  of  extraordinary  reve- 
 lation ;  so  he  can  do  it  in  such  a  manner,  as  to  give  those 
 to  whom  this  revelation  is  originally  and  immediately 
 made,  a  full  and  certain  assurance  that  it  is  a  true  and 
 divine  revelation.  For  if  men  can  communicate  their 
 thoughts  by  speech  or  language,  in  such  a  way  as  that 
 we  may  certainly  know  who  it  is  that  speaks  to  us,  it 
 would  be  a  strange  thing  to  affirm,  that  God,  on  supposi- 
 tion of  his  communicating  his  mind  and  will  to  any  per- 
 son or  persons,  in  a  way  of  extraordinary  revelation, 
 has  no  way  of  causing  his  rational  creatures  to  know 
 that  it  is  he,  and  no  other,  who  makes  this  discovery  to 
 them.  To  admit  the  existence  of  a  God,  and  to  deny 
 him  such  a  power,  is  a  glaring  contradiction. — Leland's 
 Advant.  and  Necess.  of  Revelation. 
 
 Since  no  man  can  presume  to  say  that  it  is  incon- 
 sistent with  any  of  the  attributes  of  a  Supreme  Being, 
 or  unbecoming  the  wisdom  of  the  Creator  of  all  things, 
 to  reveal  to  his  creatures  more  fully  the  way  to  happi- 
 ness ;  to  make  a  particular  discovery  of  his  will  to  them  ; 
 to  set  before  them,  in  a  clear  light,  the  rewards  and 
 punishments  of  a  future  state ;  to  explain  in  what  man- 
 ner he  will  be  pleased  to  be  worshipped;  and  to  declare 
 what  satisfaction  he  will  accept  for  sin>  and  upon  what 
 conditions  he  will  receive  returning  sinners  :  nay,  since, 
 on  the  contrary,  it  seems  more  suitable  to  our  natural 
 notions  of  the  goodness  and  mercy  of  God,  to  suppose 
 that  he  should  do  all  this,  than  not,  it  follows  undeniably, 
 that  itwas  most  reasonable  and  agreeable  to  the  dictates 
 of  nature,  to  expect  or  hope  for  such  a  divine  revelation. 
 Accordingly  we  find  it  to  have  been  the  general  belief 
 of  mankind  in  every  age,  that  some  kind  of  commerce 
 and  communication  subsisted  between  God  and  man. 
 This  was  the  foundation  of  all  the  religious  rites  and 
 ceremonies  which  every  heathen  nation  pretended  to 
 receive  from  their  deities,  and  the  generality  of  the 
 heathen  world  were  so  fully  persuaded,  that  the  great 
 rules  for  the  conduct  of  human  life  must  receive  their 
 authority  from  heaven,  that  their  chief  legislators,  such 
 as  Minos,  Pythagoras,  Solon,  Lycurgus,Numa,  &c.  &c. 
 thought  it  not  a  sufficient  recommendation  of  their  laws 
 that  they  were  agreeable  to  the  light  of  nature,  unless 
 they  gave  out  also  that  they  received  them  from  God. 
 
 Besides,  the  wisest  and  best  of  the  heathen  philoso- 
 phers, particularly  Socrates  and  Plato,  were  not  ashamed 
 to  confess  openly  their  sense  of  the  want  of  a  divine 
 revelation,  and  to  declare  their  judgment  that  it  was 
 most  natural  and  truly  agreeable  to  right  reason,  to 
 hope  for  something  of  that  nature. — Clarke's  Evid.  of 
 Nat.  and  Rev.  Relic/.  Prop.  vi. — Boyle's  Lectures,  vol. 
 ii.  fol.  ed. 
 
 Farther,  a  divine  revelation  was  not  only  probable 
 and  desirable,  but  also  absolutely  necessary. 
 
 The  history  of  past  ages  clearly  shows,  that  mankind, 
 by  the  mere  light  of  nature,  could  never  attain  to  any 
 certain  knowledge  of  the  will  of  God,  of  their  own  true 
 happiness  and  final  destiny,  or  recover  themselves  from 
 that  state  of  moral  corruption  and  depravity  into  which 
 tliey  had  fallen. 
 
 If  we  examine  the  writings  of  the  most  celebrated 
 
 philosophers  and  sages  of  antiquity,  we  shall  find,  that 
 they  were  not  only  ignorant  of  many  important  points 
 in  religion,  but  also  that  endless  differences  and  incon- 
 sistencies prevailed  among  them  with  regard  to  points 
 of  the  greatest  moment ;  while  some  of  them  taught  doc- 
 trines which  directly  tended  to  promote  vice  and  wicked- 
 ness in  the  world,  and  the  influence  of  all  in  rectifying 
 the  notions  and  reforming  the  lives  of  mankind,  was 
 altogether  ineffectual.  But  in  order  to  illustrate,  and 
 confirm  the  point,  we  shall  advance  a  few  particulars. 
 
 1.  The  ancients  were  ignorant  of  the  true  origin  of 
 the  world,  and  of  mankind. 
 
 Some  of  them  asserted  that  the  world  existed  from 
 eternity ;  others  admitted  that  the  formation  of  the  world 
 was  owing  to  chance;  others  ascribed  it  to  a  plurality 
 of  causes  or  authors ;  while  those  who  acknowledged 
 that  it  had  a  beginning  in  time,  knew  not  by  what  grada- 
 tions, nor  in  what  manner  the  universe  was  raised  into 
 its  present  beauty  and  order. 
 
 2.  They  were  ignorant  of  the  origin  of  evil,  and  of  the 
 cause  of  the  depravity  and  misery  which  actually  exist 
 among  mankind. 
 
 The  wisest  and  most  judicious  of  the  heathen  philoso- 
 phers were  not  backward  to  complain,  that  they  found 
 the  understandings  of  men  so  dark  and  cloudy,  their 
 wills  so  biassed  and  inclined  to  evil,  their  passions  so 
 outrageous  and  rebellious  against  reason,  that  they 
 looked  upon  the  rules  and  laws  of  right  reason  as 
 scarcely  practicable,  and  which  they  had  very  little 
 hopes  of  ever  being  able  to  persuade  the  world  to  sub- 
 mit to.  They  saw  that  human  nature  was  strangely 
 corrupted,  but  at  the  same  time  they  were  compelled 
 to  confess,  that  they  neither  knew  the  origin  of  the 
 disease,  nor  could  discover  a  sufficient  remedy.  They 
 could  not  assign  any  reason  why  mankind,  who  have  the 
 noblest  faculties  of  any  beings  on  earth,  should  yet 
 generally  pursue  their  own  destruction  with  as  much  in- 
 dustry as  the  beasts  avoid  it. — Clarke's  Evid.  of  Nat. 
 and  Rev.  Relig.  Prop.  vi.  and  Home's  Introd,  vol.  i. 
 
 3.  They  were  ignorant  of  the  manner  in  which  God 
 might  be  acceptably  worshipped,  and  of  the  means  by 
 which  such  as  have  erred  from  the  paths  of  virtue,  and 
 have  offended  God,  might  again  be  restored  to  his 
 favour ;  they  were  utterly  unable  to  discover  any  method 
 by  which  a  reconciliation  might  be  effected  between  an 
 offended  God  and  his  guilty  creatures,  and  his  mercy 
 exercised  without  the  violation  of  his  justice.  The  light 
 of  nature,  indeed,  taught  them  that  some  kind  of  wor- 
 ship or  other  was  due  to  the  Supreme  Being,  but  in  what 
 particular  manner,  and  with  what  kind  of  service  he  will 
 be  Avorshipped,  unassisted  reason  could  never  discover. 
 Accordingly,  even  the  best  of  the  heathen  philosophers, 
 such  as  Plato  and  Cicero,  complied  with  the  outward 
 superstitious  religion  of  their  country,  and  advised  others 
 to  do  the  same,  and  while  they  delivered  sublime  and 
 noble  sentiments  concerning  the  nature  and  attributes 
 of  the  supreme  God,  they  fell  lamentably  into  the  practice 
 of  the  most  absurd  idolatry. 
 
 The  light  of  nature  showed  their  guilt  to  the  most 
 reflecting  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  but  it  could  not 
 show  them  a  remedy.  From  the  consideration  of  the 
 goodness  and  mercifulness  of  God,  they  entertained  a 
 hope  that  he  would  show  himself  placable  to  sinners, 
 and  might  in  some  way  be  reconciled ;  but  what  kind  of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 propitiation  be  would  be  pleased  to  accept,  and  in  what 
 manner  this  reconciliation  must  be  made,  the  light  of 
 nature  could  not  point  out.  Here  nature  fails,  and  ex- 
 pects with  impatience  the  aid  of  some  particular  revela- 
 tion. That  God  will  receive  returning  sinners,  and  ac- 
 cept of  repentance,  instead  of  perfect  obedience,  they 
 cannot  certainly  know  to  whom  he  has  not  made  such 
 a  revelation ;  or  whether  God  will  not  require  something 
 further,  for  the  vindication  of  his  justice,  and  of  the 
 honour  and  dignity  of  his  laws  and  government,  and  for 
 more  effectually  expressing  his  indignation  against  sin, 
 before  he  will  restore  men  to  the  privileges  they  had  for- 
 feited ;  they  cannot  be  satisfactorily  assured,  without  a 
 special  revelation  :  for  it  cannot  be  satisfactorily  proved, 
 from  any  of  God's  attributes,  that  he  is  absolutely 
 obliged  to  pardon  all  the  sins  of  all  his  creatures  at  all 
 times,  barely  and  immediately  upon  their  repenting. 
 There  arises  therefore  from  nature,  no  sufficient  comfort 
 to  sinners,  but  anxious  and  endless  solicitude  about  the 
 means  of  appeasing  the  Deity.  Hence  those  various 
 ways  of  sacrificing  and  those  numberless  superstitions 
 which  overspread  the  heathen  world,  but  which  were  so 
 little  satisfactory  to  the  wiser  part  of  mankind,  even  in 
 those  times  of  darkness,  that  they  could  not  forbear  fre- 
 quently declaring,  that  they  thought  such  rites  and  sacri- 
 fices could  avail  little  or  nothing  towards  appeasing  the 
 wrath  of  an  offended  God,  or  making  their  prayers  ac- 
 ceptable in  his  sight,  but  that  something  seemed  to  them 
 to  be  still  wanting,  though  they  knew  not  what. — Plato's 
 Alcibiades,  2. — Clarke  s  Evid.  Prop.  vi. 
 
 4.  They  knew  little  or  nothing  respecting  the  neces- 
 sity of  divine  grace,  and  assistance  towards  our  attain- 
 ment of  virtue  and  perseverance  in  it. 
 
 It  was,  indeed,  a  general  practice  among  the  heathens 
 to  pray  to  their  gods  ;  but  then  the  things  they  ordinarily 
 prayed  for  were  only  outward  advantages,  or  what  are 
 usually  called  the  goods  of  fortune :  as  to  wisdom  and 
 virtue,  they  thought  every  man  was  to  depend  upon  himself 
 alone  for  obtaining  them.  The  Stoics,  who  were  the 
 most  eminent  teachers  of  morals  among  the  heathens, 
 endeavoured  to  raise  man  to  a  state  of  absolute  inde- 
 pendency, and  some  of  them  asserted  that  the  will  of 
 man  is  unconquerable  by  God  himself.  (Epictetus,  b.  i. 
 chap.  1.).  Seneca  represents  it  as  needless  to  apply 
 to  the  gods  by  prayer,  since  it  is  in  every  man's  own 
 power  to  make  himself  happy ;  and  speaking  of  virtue, 
 and  a  uniform  course  of  life  always  consistent  with  it- 
 self, he  says,  '  This  is  the  chief  good  which,  if  thou  pos- 
 sessest,  thou  wilt  begin  to  be  a  companion  to  the  gods, 
 not  a  suppliant  to  them.' — Sen.  Epist.  41. — Leland's 
 Advant.  and  Necess.  of  Revelation,  vol.  ii.  chap.  ix. 
 
 5.  They  had  but  dark  and  confused  notions  of  the 
 summum  bonum,  or  supreme  felicity  of  man. 
 
 On  this  topic,  Cicero  tells  us,  there  was  such  a  dis- 
 agreement among  the  ancient  philosophers,  that  it  was 
 almost  impossible  to  enumerate  their  different  sentiments, 
 while  he  at  the  same  time  states  the  opinions  of  more 
 than  twenty  philosophers,  all  of  which  are  equally  ex- 
 travagant and  absurd. 
 
 6.  They  had  but  weak  and  imperfect  notions  of  the 
 immortality  of  the  soul. 
 
 The  existence  of  the  soul  after  death  was  denied 
 by  many  of  the  Peripatetics,  or  followers  of  Aristotle, 
 and    this   doctrine  seems  to  have  been  disbelieved  by 
 
 Aristotle  himself.  The  Stoics  had  no  settled  or  con- 
 sistent scheme  on  this  head,  nor  had  the  doctrine  of  the 
 immortality  of  the  soul  any  prominent  place  among  the 
 tenets  of  their  sect  But  even  among  those  philosophers 
 who  expressly  taught  this  doctrine,  considerable  doubt 
 and  uncertainty  appear  to  have  prevailed.  Thus  Socrates, 
 a  little  before  his  death,  tells  his  friends, '  I  am  now  about 
 to  leave  this  world,  and  ye  are  still  to  continue  in  it : 
 which  of  us  shall  have  the  better  part  allotted  to  us,  God 
 only  knows  ;'  from  the  scope  of  which  passage,  it  appears, 
 that  he  was  doubtful  whether  he  should  have  any  exis- 
 tence after  death  or  not.  And  again,  at  the  end  of  his 
 admirable  discourse  concerning  the  immortality  of  the 
 soul,  he  said  to  his  friends,  who  came  to  pay  him  their 
 last  visit,  '  I  would  have  you  to  know,  that  I  have  great 
 hopes  that  I  am  now  going  into  the  company  of  good 
 men;  yet  I  would  not  be  too  presumptuous  and  confi- 
 dent concerning  it.'  In  his  apology  to  his  judges,  he 
 comforts  himself  with  the  consideration  '  that  there  is 
 much  ground  to  hope  that  death  is  good ;  for  it  must 
 necessarily  be  one  of  these  two  ;  either  the  dead  man  is 
 nothing,  and  has  not  a  sense  of  anything;  or  it  is  only 
 a  change  or  migration  of  the  soul  hence  to  another  place, 
 according  to  what  we  are  told.  If  there  is  no  sense  left, 
 and  death  is  like  a  profound  sleep  and  quiet  rest  nit  fl- 
 out dreams,  it  is  wonderful  to  think  what  gain  it  is  to 
 die  ;  but  if  the  things  which  are  told  us  are  true,  that 
 death  is  a  migration  to  another  place,  this  is  still  a  much 
 greater  good.' — Plato  in  P/ued.  Apolog.  Socrat.  in  Jin. 
 
 The  same  doubts  were  entertained  by  Plato,  the  most 
 eminent  of  the  disciples  of  Socrates.  Cicero,  who  ranks 
 among  the  most  eminent  of  the  heathen  philosophers, 
 laboured  under  the  same  uncertainty.  After  having 
 advanced  a  number  of  excellent  arguments  in  behalf  of 
 this  doctrine,  and  stated  several  opinions  concerning 
 the  return  and  duration  of  the  soul,  he  says,  '  Which  of 
 these  two  opinions  is  true,  (that  the  soul  is  mortal  or 
 immortal),  God  only  knows,  and  which  of  these  is  most 
 probable,  is  a  very  great  question.' — Cic.  Tuscul.  Q<sst. 
 b.  i.  In  another  place  he  says,  '  I  know  not  how,  when 
 I  read  the  arguments  in  proof  of  the  soul's  immortality, 
 methinks  I  am  fully  convinced,  and  yet  after  1  have 
 laid  aside  the  book,  and  come  to  think  and  consider  of 
 the  matter,  alone  by  my  myself,  presently  I  find  myself 
 slip  again  insensibly  into  my  old  doubts.' — Ibid.  W  hile 
 these  great  men  and  their  followers  were  perplexed  with 
 doubts  on  this  great  point,  others  of  the  heathens  enter- 
 tained the  most  gloomy  notions,  some  imagining  that 
 they  should,  after  death,  be  removed  from  one  bod)  into 
 another  and  be  perpetual  wanderers,  and  others  con- 
 templating the  grave  as  an  eternal  habitation,  and  death 
 as  the  complete  termination  of  man's  existence. — 
 Jortin's  Discourses. — Home's  Introduction,  vol.  i. — 
 Clarke's  Evidences. 
 
 7.  The  ancient  philosophers  attained  to  no  certainty 
 respecting  the  eternal  rewards  and  punishments  of  a 
 future  state,  and  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 
 
 The  poets  indeed  celebrated,  in  sublime  and  beautiful 
 verse,  the  joys  of  Elysium,  or  a  state  and  place  of  future 
 bliss,  and  painted  in  dismal  colours  the  miseries  of 
 Tartarus,  or  hell,  but  these  were  only  regarded  as  fabu- 
 lous representations :  and  although  the  philosophers 
 and  legislators  were  sensible  of  the  importance  and 
 necessity  of  the  doctrine  of  future  punishments  as  well 
 b 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as  rewards,  to  the  well  being  of  society,  yet,  strange  as 
 it  may  seem,  they  in  general  discarded  this  doctrine, 
 and  represented  all  fears  of  future  punishment  as  vain 
 and  superstitious.  Polybius  complains  that  in  his  time 
 the  belief  of  a  future  state  was  rejected  by  the  great 
 men  and  by  the  bulk  of  the  people,  and  to  this  disbelief 
 he  ascribes  the  great  corruption  of  manners  ;  but  even 
 while  Polybius  blames  the  great  men  among  the  Greeks 
 for  encouraging  the  people  to  disbelieve  and  despise 
 future  punishments,  he  himself  represents  them  as  only 
 useful  fictions.  Caesar  also  treated  the  notions  respect- 
 ing future  punishments  as  fables,  and  Pliny,  the  natural- 
 ist, represents  them  as  childish  and  senseless  fictions  of 
 mortals  who  were  ambitious  of  never-ending  existence. 
 
 As  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  neither  the  philo- 
 sophers, nor  the  common  people  among  the  Greeks  and 
 Romans,  seem  to  have  had  any  notion  of  it.  For  al- 
 though their  poets  made  frequent  mention  of  the  ghosts 
 of  departed  men  appearing  in  a  visible  form,  and  retain- 
 ing in  the  shades  below  their  former  shapes,  yet  by  such 
 representations,  if  they  mean  any  thing,  they  mean  no 
 more  than  that  the  soul,  after  this  life,  passes  into  another 
 state,  and  is  there  invested  with  a  body  made  up  of  light 
 aerial  particles,  quite  different  from  those  of  which  the 
 former  body  had  been  composed.  When  St  Paul  at 
 Athens  spoke  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  we  are 
 told  his  hearers  mocked  or  treated  it  with  contempt  as 
 a  strange  doctrine.  (Acts  xvii.  18,  20,  32.)  The  Epi- 
 cureans and  Stoics  are  particularly  mentioned  in  this 
 passage,  but  the  other  sects  of  philosophers,  even  those 
 who  argued  most  for  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  held 
 the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  in  contempt. 
 They  could  not  conceive  that  the  gross  matter  which 
 they  saw  laid  in  the  grave,  or  reduced  to  ashes  on  the 
 funeral  pile,  or  blown  away  by  the  winds  and  scattered 
 in  the  air,  should  ever  be  raised  or  collected  again  and 
 revivified  :  neither  did  those  who  argued  for  the  im- 
 mortality of  the  soul,  believe  that  the  resurrection  of 
 the  body,  if  it  were  possible,  was  desirable  ;  for  they 
 looked  upon  the  body  as  the  prison  of  the  soul,  and 
 considered  that  the  happiness  of  the  soul  consisted  in 
 its  being  loosed  and  disengaged  from  the  body. 
 
 When  therefore  we  consider  the  ignorance  and  un- 
 certainty which  prevailed  among  some  of  the  greatest 
 teachers  of  antiquity,  respecting  those  great  and  funda- 
 mental truths  which  are  the  chief  barriers  of  virtue  and 
 religion,  it  appears  certain  that  the  heathens  had  no  per- 
 fect system  of  moral  rules  for  the  conduct  of  life,  or  for 
 the  promotion  of  piety.  Thus  most  of  the  philosophers 
 accounted  revenge  to  be  not  only  lawful  but  commend- 
 able. Pride  and  the  love  of  popular  applause  were 
 esteemed  the  best  and  greatest  incentives  to  virtue  and 
 noble  actions  ;  suicide  was  regarded  as  the  strongest 
 mark  of  heroism,  and  the  perpetrators  of  it  celebrated 
 as  men  of  noble  minds.  Theft,  as  is  well  known,  was 
 permitted  in  Egypt  and  in  Sparta.  Plato  taught  the 
 expedience  and  lawfulness  of  exposing  children  in 
 particular  cases.  The  exposure  of  infants,  and  the  put- 
 ting to  death  of  children  who  were  weak  or  imperfect  in 
 form,  was  permitted  at  Sparta  by  Lycurgus.  At  Athens 
 the  women  were  treated  and  disposed  of  as  slaves  ;  and 
 it  was  enacted  that  infants  which  appeared  to  be  maimed, 
 should  either  be  killed  or  exposed.  Nothing  could  ex- 
 ceed the  cruelties  which  were  exercised  against  slaves 
 
 both  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Among  the 
 Spartans  they  were  not  only  generally  treated  with 
 »reat  harshness  and  insolence,  but  it  was  part  of  their 
 policy  to  massacre  them  on  several  occasions,  in  cold 
 blood,  and  without  provocation ;  the  gratification  of  the 
 sensual  appetites,  and  of  the  most  unnatural  lusts  was 
 openly  taught  and  allowed. 
 
 And  not  only  did  these  sentiments  and  principles, 
 which  were  entertained  and  inculcated  by  the  philoso- 
 phers and  legislators  of  antiquity,  lead  to  all  kinds  of 
 immorality  and  wickedness,  but  the  very  religious  sys- 
 tems and  established  forms  of  worship  of  the  heathens, 
 instead  of  being  calculated  to  preserve  men  in  the  prac- 
 tice of  morality  and  virtue,  only  served  to  plunge  them 
 deeper  in  vice  and  degrading  superstition.  They  paid 
 divine  worship  to  oxen,  crocodiles,  birds  and  reptiles. 
 They  metamorphosed  beasts  into  gods,  and  conversely 
 transformed  their  gods  into  beasts,  ascribing  to  them 
 drunkenness,  unnatural  lusts  and  the  most  loathsome 
 vices.  Drunkenness  they  worshipped  under  the  name  of 
 Bacchus,  lasciviousness  under  that  of  Venus.  Monius 
 was  with  them  the  god  of  calumny,  and  Mercury  the 
 god  of  thieves.  Even  Jupiter,  the  greatest  of  their 
 gods,  they  considered  to  be  an  adulterer  and  a  rebelli- 
 ous son.  The  worship  of  avowedly  evil  beings  at  length 
 became  prevalent  among  them,  and  hence  many  of  their 
 rites  were  cruel  and  contrary  to  humanity,  and  hence 
 also  the  licentiousness  and  impurity  of  their  whole  re- 
 ligious system  became  notorious.  Thus,  to  select  one 
 or  two  instances  out  of  many,  the  rites  of  the  goddess 
 Cybele  were  no  less  infamous  for  lewdness  than  for 
 cruelty,  cind  the  practice  of  these  rites  spread  far  and 
 wide,  and  formed  part  of  the  public  worship  at  Rome. 
 The  aphrodisia,  or  festivals  in  honour  of  Venus,  were 
 observed  with  lascivious  ceremonies  in  divers  parts  of 
 Greece  ;  and  Strabo  relates  that  there  was  a  temple  at 
 Corinth  so  rich  that  it  maintained  above  a  thousand 
 harlots  sacred  to  her  service.  These  abominable  cus- 
 toms were  not  confined  to  Greece,  for  Herodotus  in- 
 forms us  that  they  were  observed  at  Babylon,  and  other 
 authors  relate  that  they  existed  in  Syria  and  Africa. 
 The  feasts  of  Bacchus  were  equally  impure  and  licen- 
 tious, and  according  to  Herodotus,  many  of  the  Egyp- 
 tian rites  were  cruel  and  shockingly  obscene.  The 
 offering  up  of  human  sacrifices  was,  for  many  ages,  very 
 genera]  in  the  heathen  world.  It  obtained  among  the 
 Phoenicians,  Syrians,  Arabians,  Carthaginians  and  other 
 people  of  Africa,  and  among  the  Egyptians  till  the 
 time  of  Amasis.  The  same  thing  we  are  told  concern- 
 ing the  Thracians,  the  ancient  Scythians,  the  Gauls, 
 Germans  and  Britons.  And  though  this  horrible  rite 
 was  never  so  common  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  as 
 among  some  other  nations,  yet  it  continued  for  a  long  time 
 to  be  in  use  among  them  upon  extraordinary  occasions. 
 
 In  short,  when  we  examine  the  history  of  the  Pagan 
 nations  of  antiquity,  we  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the 
 accuracy  of  the  description  which  the  apostle  Paul,  in 
 the  first  chapter  of  the  Romans,  gives  of  these  nations 
 generally,  when  he  tells  us  that  they  were  '  given  up  to 
 uncleanness  and  vile  affections ;  that  they  were  filled 
 with  all  unrighteousness,  fornication,  wickedness,  covet- 
 ousness,  maliciousness ;  that  they  were  full  of  envy, 
 murder,  debate,  deceit,  malignity,  whisperers,  back- 
 biters, haters  of  God,  despiteful,  proud,  boasters,  inven- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI 
 
 tors  of  evil  things,  disobedient  to  parents,  without  under- 
 standing-, covenant  breakers,  without  natural  affection, 
 implacable,  unmerciful.' — LelancCs  Necess.  and  Advant. 
 of  Revelation. — Clarke's  Evid.  of  Nat.  and  Rev.  Relig. 
 —Gregory's  Letters  on  Christ.  Relig. — Hornets  Inlrod. 
 vol.  i. — Hartly  on  Man,  vol.  ii. 
 
 There  were,  indeed,  among'  the  heathens  some  few 
 philosophers  who  cherished  better  principles  and  in- 
 culcated comparatively  purer  tenets  than  those  already 
 alluded  to  ;  and  no  doubt  these  men  were  raised  up  and 
 designed  by  God,  who  never  left  himself  wholly  without 
 witness,  as  instruments  to  reprove,  in  some  measure, and 
 put  some  kind  of  check  to  the  extreme  superstition  and 
 wickedness  of  the  nations  in  which  they  lived,  or  at 
 least  to  bear  witness  against,  and  condemn  these  nations. 
 But  still  the  instructions  of  these  individuals  were  very 
 defective  and  inefficient.  They  never  were  able  to  re- 
 form the  world,  or  to  keep  together  any  considerable 
 number  of  men  in  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  virtue. 
 Their  precepts  were  delivered  to  their  own  immediate 
 pupils  and  not  to  the  lower  orders  of  people,  who  con- 
 stitute the  great  mass  of  society.  Besides,  the  ethical 
 systems  of  the  philosophers  were  too  refined  for  the 
 common  people,  most  of  their  discourses  upon  morals 
 being  rather  speculative  and  learned,  nice  and  subtle 
 disputes,  than  practical  and  universally  useful  instruc- 
 tions ;  and  even  those  things  of  which  they  were  not 
 only  certain  themselves,  but  which  they  were  also  able 
 to  prove  and  explain  to  others  with  sufficient  plainness 
 and  clearness,  such  as  are  the  most  obvious  and  neces- 
 sary duties  of  life,  they  had  not  sufficient  authority  to 
 enforce  and  inculcate  upon  men's  minds  so  as  to  in- 
 fluence and  govern  the  general  practice  of  the  world. 
 The  truths  which  they  proved  by  speculative  reasoning 
 wanted  still  more  sensible  authority  to  back  them,  and 
 make  them  of  more  force  and  efficacy  in  practice  ;  and 
 the  precepts  which  they  laid  down,  however  reasonable 
 and  fit  to  be  obeyed,  were  still  destitute  of  weight,  and 
 were  but  the  precepts  of  men.  They  could  present  no 
 motives  sufficiently  powerful  to  animate  men's  minds 
 and  stimulate  them  to  the  practice  of  true  virtue,  and 
 support  them  under  the  trials  and  calamities  of  life.  In 
 fact,  the  philosophers  never  did  nor  could  effect  any  re- 
 markable change  in  the  minds  and  lives  of  men  such 
 as  was  undeniably  produced  by  the  preaching  of  Christ 
 and  his  apostles.  In  the  original  uncorrupted  state  of 
 human  nature,  before  the  mind  of  man  was  depraved 
 with  false  and  erroneous  opinions,  corrupt  affections, 
 and  vicious  inclinations,  customs  and  habits,  right  rea- 
 son may  be  supposed  to  have  been  a  sufficient  guide 
 and  a  principle  powerful  enough  to  preserve  men  in 
 the  constant  practice  of  their  duty.  But  in  the  present 
 circumstances  and  condition  of  mankind,  unassisted 
 reason  is  altogether  insufficient  to  accomplish  this  end.* 
 
 *  The  four  great  propositions  which  the  moderns  almost  uni- 
 versally concede  to  natural  religion,  as  integral  parts  of  it, 
 are,  1st,  That  there  is  but  one  God.  2d,  That  God  is  nothing  of 
 those  things  which  we  see.  3d,  That  God  takes  care  of  all  things 
 below,  and  governs  all  the  world.  4th,  That  he  alone  is  the  great 
 Creator  of  all  things  out  of  himself.  Now  they  are  uncontro- 
 vertible facts,  which  cannot  be  too  deeply  engraven  upon  the  mind 
 that  none  of  the  greatest  and  wisest  men  among  the  Greeks  and 
 Romans  held  all  these  propositions,  and  that  very  few  held  any 
 of  them  firmly;  that  before  the  Christian  era  no  people  in  the 
 world  believed  these  propositions  but  the  Jews;  and  that  they 
 
 In  short,  the  heathen  philosophy  was  every  way  defec- 
 tive and  erroneous,  and  if  there  was  any  thing  excel- 
 lent or  commendable  in  it,  there  is  great  reason  to  be- 
 lieve that  it  was  not  the  genuine  result  of  the  mental 
 efforts  of  the  philosophers,  but  derived  from  a  higher 
 source,  even  from  very  ancient  traditions,  to  which  they 
 themselves  usually  assigned  a  divine  original,  or  from 
 scattered  portions  of  the  revelations  contained  in  the 
 scriptures,  with  which  they  had  become  acquainted 
 through  various  channels. 
 
 If  we  direct  our  attention  to  the  heathen  nations  of 
 the  present  age,  such  as  Tartary,the  Philippine  islands, 
 many  parts  of  Africa,  China,  and  Hindostan,  we  learn, 
 from  the  unanimous  testimony  of  navigators  and  travel- 
 lers, that  they  are  enveloped  in  the  grossest  ignorance 
 and  idolatry,  and  that  their  religious  worship,  doctrines, 
 and  practices  are  equally  corrupt  with  those  of  the 
 Pagan  nations  of  antiquity  ;  yet  they  also  possess  the 
 same  light  of  reason  which  the  ancient  heathens  enjoyed. 
 With  regard  to  Hindostan  in  particular,  the  polytheism 
 is  of  the  grossest  and  most  debasing  kind.  There  are  not 
 fewer  than  three  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  deities 
 claiming  the  adoration  of  their  votaries  !  The  rites  are 
 the  most  impure,  the  penances  the  most  toilsome,  the 
 modes  of  self-torture  almost  innumerable,  and  as  extraor- 
 dinary and  as  exquisite  in  degree  as  human  nature  can 
 sustain.  The  burning  or  burying  of  widows,,  infanti- 
 cide, the  immersion  of  the  sick  or  dying  in  the  Ganges, 
 and  self-devotement  to  destruction  by  the  idol  Jugger- 
 naut, are  among  the  horrid  practices  which  flow  from 
 the  system  of  idolatry  established  among  them,  and 
 which  are  exceeded  in  folly  and  ferocity  by  none  to 
 which  paganism  has  given  birth.  The  manifest  effects  of 
 this  system  are  an  immersion  into  the  grossest  moral 
 darkness,  and  an  universal  corruption  of  manners. — 
 Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  viii.  And  yet  the  inhabitants  of 
 Hindostan  are  highly  celebrated  for  their  progress  in 
 the  useful  arts,  and  for  intellectual  acuteness. 
 
 But  notwithstanding  all  this  mass  of  evidences  in  favour 
 of  the  necessity  of  a  divine  revelation,  it  has  been  as- 
 serted by  modern  deists,  that  the  book  of  nature  is  the 
 only  book  to  be  studied,  and  that  philosophy  and  right 
 reason  are  sufficient  to  instruct  and  to  preserve  men  in 
 their  duty.  They  cannot  deny  that  great  ignorance  and 
 corruption  prevailed  in  the  whole  heathen  world,  but 
 they  contend  that  the  ignorance  and  corruption  of  former 
 ages  have  always  been  owing,  not  to  any  absolute  in- 
 sufficiency of  the  light  of  nature  itself,  but  to  the  fault 
 of  the  several  particular  persons  in  not  sufficiently  im- 
 proving that  light ;  and  that  deists  now,  in  places  where 
 learning  and  right  reason  are  cultivated,  are  well  able 
 to  discover  and  explain  all  the  obligations  and  motives 
 of  morality,  without  the  aid  of  a  revelation. 
 
 But  granting  it  to  be  true  that  all  the  obligations  and 
 notions  of  morality  could  possibly  be  discovered  and 
 explained  clearly  by  the  mere  light  of  nature  alone,  yet 
 even  this  would  not  at  all  prove  that  there  is  no  need  nf 
 revelation.  For  whatever  the  bare  natural  possibility 
 was,  it  is  certain  that  the  wisest  philosophers  of  old 
 never  were  able  to  discover  and  explain  those  obliga- 
 tions and  duties  to  any  effectual  purpose,  but  always 
 
 did  not  discover  them,  but  received  them  by  divine  revelation 
 in  the  basis  of  the  first  four  precepts  of  the  decalogue.— Dr 
 Gregory's  Jitters  on  the  Christian  Religion. — Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 willingly  acknowledged   that  they   still  wanted  some 
 higher  assistance.     And  as  to  the  great  pretences  of 
 modem  deists,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  clearness  of 
 moral  reasonings  was  much  improved,  and  the  regard 
 to  a  future  state  very  much  increased  even  among  hea- 
 then writers  after  the  coming  of  Christ,  and  almost  all 
 the  things  that  have  been  said  wisely  and   truly   by 
 modern  deists,  are  plainly  borrowed  from  that  revela- 
 tion which  they  refuse  to  embrace,  and  without  which 
 they  could  never  have  been  able  to  say  the  same  things. 
 They  have  thus  been  guided  by  a  torch  snatched  from 
 the  temple  of  God,  while  both  they  and  their  followers 
 idly  imagine  their  path  is  illuminated  by  light  of  their 
 own  creating.     Even  the  possibility  of  discovering  and 
 explaining  all  the  necessary  obligations  and  motives  of 
 morality,  by  the  mere  light  of  reason,  we  deny  ;  for  there 
 are   several  truths   of  the   highest  importance   to   the 
 happiness  of  men,  such  as  the  method  in  which  God  might 
 be  acceptably  worshipped,  the  way  in  which  he  would 
 be  reconciled  to  returning  sinners,  and  a  future  state  of 
 rewards  and  punishments,  which  could  never  have  been 
 discovered  with   any  certainty   by   unassisted  reason. 
 Now,  indeed,  when  our  whole  duty  with  its  true  motives 
 is  clearly  revealed  to  us,  its  precepts  appear  plainly 
 agreeable  to  reason,  and  conscience  readily  approves 
 what  is  good,  as  it  condemns  what  is  evil.     Nay,  after 
 our  duty  is  thus  made  known  to  us,  it  is  easy,  not  only 
 to  see  its  agreement  with  reason,  but  also  to  begin  and 
 deduce  its  obligations  from  reason  ;  but  if  we  had  been 
 destitute  of  all  revealed  light,  the  discovery  of  our  duty 
 in  all  points  by  the  mere  light  of  nature,  would  have 
 been  a  work  of  extreme  difficulty  ;  it  would  have  been 
 like   groping    for   an   unknown   path   in    the    obscure 
 twilight.     And  what  ground  have  these  modern  worship- 
 pers of  reason  to  imagine,  that  if  they  themselves  had 
 lived  without  the  light  of  revelation,  they  should  have 
 been  wiser  than  Socrates,  and  Plato,  and  Cicero  ?    How 
 are  they  certain  they  should  have  made  such  a  proper 
 use   of  their  reason,  as  to  have   discovered  the  truth 
 exactly,  without  being  in  any  degree  led  aside  by  pre- 
 judice or  neglect  ?  If  their  lot  had  been  among   the 
 vulgar,  how  are  they  sure  they  would  not  have  been  in- 
 volved in  idolatry  and  superstition  ?  If  they  had  joined 
 themselves  to  the  philosophers,  which  sect  would  they 
 have  chosen  to  follow  ?  Or  if  they  should  have  set  up 
 for  themselves,  how  are  they  certain  that  they  would 
 have  been  skilful  enough  to  have  deduced  the  several 
 branches  of  their  duty,  or  to  have  applied  them  to  the 
 several  cases  of  life   by  argumentation   and  force   of 
 reasoning  ?    It  is  one  thing  to  perceive  that  those  rules 
 of  life,  which  are  beforehand  plainly  laid  before  us,  are 
 perfectly  agreeable  to  reason,  and  another  thing  to  dis- 
 cover such  rules  merely  by  the  light  of  nature.     But  sup- 
 pose that  these  idolizers  of  reason  could  by  strength  of 
 reason  alone  demonstrate  to  themselves  all  the  neces- 
 sary truths  of  religion,  with  the  utmost  clearness  and  dis- 
 tinctness, yet  all  men  are  not  equally  capable  of  being 
 philosophers,  though  all  men  are  equally  obliged  to  be 
 religious.      At  least  this  much  is  certain,  that  the  re- 
 wards and  punishments  of  another  world  cannot  be  so 
 powerfully  enforced,  in  order  to  influence  the  lives  and 
 practices  of  all  sorts  of  men,  by  one  who  shall  under- 
 take to  demonstrate  the  reality  of  them  from  abstract 
 reasoning,  as  by  one  who  shall  assure  mankind  of  the 
 
 truth  and  certainty  of  these  things,  by  showing  sufficient 
 credentials  of  his  having  been  commissioned  by  God 
 for  that  purpose. — Clarke's  Evid.  of  Nat.  and  Rev.  Re- 
 lig. — Gregory's  Letters  on  the  Christ.  Relig. — Hornets 
 Introd.  vol.  i. 
 
 Besides,  the  contradictory  and  discordant  specula- 
 tions of  the  modern  opposers  of  revelation,  who  boast 
 that  reason  is  their  God,  are  so  great,  and  so  glaring, 
 and  the  precepts  delivered  by  them  for  a  rule  of  life 
 are  so  utterly  subversive  of  every  principle  of  morality, 
 as  to  demonstrate  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  divine  re- 
 velation, now  (supposing  one  never  had  been  given),  in 
 order  to  lead  men  to  the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the 
 true  God,  and  also  to  impart  to  them  the  knowledge  of 
 their  duties  to  him  and  towards  one  another.  If  we 
 consult  the  writings  of  those,  who,  in  the  last  century, 
 claimed  to  be  received  as  the  masters  of  reason,  and  the 
 opposers  of  revelation,  we  shall  find  ample  confirmation 
 of  the  truth  of  this  remark.* 
 
 Since,  then,  the  history  and  actual  condition  of  man- 
 kind in  all  ages  concur  to  show,  that  a  divine  revelation 
 was  absolutely  necessary  to  recover  them  out  of  this 
 universal  corruption  and  degeneracy,  and  to  make 
 known  to  them  the  proper  object  of  their  belief  and  wor- 
 ship, as  well  as  their  present  duties  and  future  expecta- 
 tions ;  it  remains,  that  we  consider  the  possible  means 
 of  communicating  such  revelation  to  the  world. 
 
 There  appear  to  be  only  two  methods  by  which  an  ex- 
 traordinary discovery  of  the  will  of  God  may  be  made 
 to  man  :    namely,  1.   An    immediate  revelation,  by  in- 
 spiration, or  otherwise,  to  every  individual  of  the  human 
 race  ;  or  else,  2.  A  commission  accompanied  with  in- 
 disputable credentials,  bestowed  on  some  to  convince 
 others,  that   they  were   actually  delegated  by  God,  in 
 order  to  instruct  them  in  those  things  which  he  is  pleased 
 to  reveal.  But  it  cannot  seem  requisite,  that  the  Almighty 
 should  immediately  inspire,  or  make  a  direct  revelation 
 to  every  particular  person  in  the  world ;  for  either  he 
 must  so  powerfully  influence  the  minds  and  affections  of 
 men,  as  to  take  away  their  freedom  and  choice  of  act- 
 ing, which  would  be  to  offer  violence  to  human  nature  ; 
 or  else,  if  we  may  judge,  from  the  known  infirmity  and 
 depravity  of  our  nature,  men  would,  for  the  most  part, 
 have  continued  in  their  evil  courses  and  practices,  and 
 have  denied  God  in  their  lives,  though  their  understand- 
 ings were  so  clearly  and  fully  convinced  of  his  will  and 
 commandments,  as  well  as  of  his  eternal  power  and  God- 
 head. Such  revelations,  therefore,  so  far  as  we  can  judge, 
 would  have  been  needless  and  superfluous ;  they  would 
 have  been  unsuitable  to  the  majesty  and  honour  of  God; 
 they  would  have  been  ineffectual  to  the  ends  for  which 
 they  were  designed,  and  would  have  afforded  occasion 
 for  many  more  pretences  to  impostures  than  there  are 
 now  in  the  world  ;  for  if  every  one  had  a  revelation  to 
 himself,  every  one    might   pretend   to    others  what   he 
 pleased  ;  and  one  man  might  be  deluded  by  the  pretence 
 of  a  revelation  made  to  another,  against  an  express  re- 
 velation made  to  himself. 
 
 *  See  Leland's  view  of  the  deistical  writers,  where  the  con- 
 flicting opinions  of  the  modern  opposers  of  revelation  are  stated 
 at  great  length,  and  the  pernicious  effects  which  these  opinions 
 are  calculated  to  have  on  morals,  clearly  demonstrated.  See  also 
 Rankin's  Institutes  of  Theology,  ch.  iii.  sect.  i.  and  Home's  In- 
 troduction vol.  i.  pp.  21 — 31. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xin 
 
 The  only  other  way  by  which  we  can  suppose  the  divine 
 will  to  be  revealed  to  man,  is  that  which  the  Scriptures 
 affirm  to  have  been  actually  employed ;  namely,  the 
 qualifying  of  certain  individuals  to  declare  that  will  to 
 others,  by  infallible  signs  and  evidences  that  they  are 
 authorised  and  commissioned  by  God. 
 
 But  it  was  not  only  necessary  that  a  divine  revelation 
 should  be  communicated  to  mankind,  in  a  way  best  cal- 
 culated to  accomplish  the  end  proposed,  but  also  that 
 effectual  means  should  be  employed,  in  order  to  pre- 
 serve such  revelation  for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  and  to 
 deliver  it  down  genuine  and  uncorrupted  to  posterity. 
 Now  we  know  of  no  method  better  calculated  for  pre- 
 serving and  transmitting  a  divine  revelation,  than  that 
 of  writing ;  for  oral  tradition  is  in  its  own  nature  so 
 uncertain  and  insecure,  that  a  revelation  could  not 
 really  be  preserved  by  such  means,  without  a  miracle, 
 without  the  occasional  interposition  of  Almighty  God  to 
 renew  the  memory  of  it  at  particular  intervals,  or  his 
 continual  assistance  and  inspiration  to  keep  it  always 
 alive  and  vigorous. 
 
 Writing  is  a  much  more  secure  method  of  convey- 
 ance than  tradition,  inasmuch  as  it  is  neither  so  liable 
 to  involuntary  mistakes,  through  weakness  of  memory 
 or  understanding,  nor  so  subject  to  voluntary  falsifi- 
 cations, suppressions  or  additions,  either  out  of  malice 
 or  design.  It  is  likewise  a  mode  of  conveyance 
 more  complete  and  uniform,  more  general  and  diffusive. 
 Farther,  experience  shows  that  writing  is  a  method  of 
 conveyance  more  lasting  than  tradition.  Every  event 
 or  matter  of  any  consequence,  we  desire  to  commit  to 
 writing.  By  this,  laws  are  promulgated  ;  by  this,  arts 
 and  sciences  are  propagated  ;  by  this,  titles  and  estates 
 are  secured.  And  what  do  we  know  of  ancient  history, 
 but  those  memorials  which  have  been  transmitted  to  us 
 by  books  and  writings  ?  The  early  accounts  of  nations 
 which  tradition  has  handed  down,  are  so  full  of  fables 
 and  prodigies,  that  it  is  impossible  to  separate  truth 
 from  mere  fiction.  Tradition  passes  away  like  the  morn- 
 ing cloud,  but  books  may  live  as  long  as  the  sun  and 
 moon  endure. 
 
 Besides,  it  is  certainly  more  fair  and  open,  more  free 
 from  suspicion  of  any  fraud  or  contrivance,  to  have  a 
 religion  preserved  in  writing,  there  to  be  read  and  ex- 
 amined by  all,  than  to  have  it  committed  only  to  a  few, 
 to  be  by  them  communicated  in  discourses  to  others,  and 
 so  on,  from  age  to  age,  as  we  find  that  no  two  persons 
 express  the  same  thing  exactly  in  the  same  manner,  nor 
 even  the  same  person  at  different  times. 
 
 Hence  we  conclude  that  a  divine  revelation  must 
 necessarily  be  committed  to  writing,  otherwise  it  cannot 
 be  preserved  in  its  purity,  or  serve  mankind  as  a  certain 
 rule  of  faith,  and  of  life:  and  we  may  add,  that  the  im- 
 portance of  the  matter,  the  variety  of  the  subjects,  and 
 the  design  of  the  institutions,  contained  in  those  books 
 which  Jews  and  Christians  account  to  be  sacred,  are 
 additional  reasons  why  they  should  be  committed  to 
 writing. 
 
 The  necessity  of  a  divine  revelation  having  been 
 shown,  as  well  a3  the  probability,  that  such  a  revelation 
 would  be  given  to  mankind,  and  the  most  effectual  mode 
 of  communicating  and  transmitting  it,  the  next  point  of 
 inquiry  which  naturally  arises  is,  whether  that  collection 
 of  writings  which  professes  to  be  a  revelation  coming  from 
 
 God,  and  which  Christians  have  received  as  such,  fur- 
 nishes sufficient  evidence  in  support  of  its  claims Homes 
 
 Introd.  vol.  i. — Bishop  Newto?is  Works,  vol.  iv. 
 
 Now  any  candid  and  reflecting  person,  when  he  first 
 directs  his  attention  to  this  wonderful  volume,  and  notices 
 the  awful  and  authoritative  language  which  it  often  assumes, 
 the  sublimity  and  importance  of  the  subjects  of  which  it 
 treats,  the  wonderful  events  and  transactions  which  it 
 records,  and  the  promises  and  threatenings  which  it  holds 
 forth,  will  be  naturally  impelled  to  inquire,  Is  this  book 
 what  it  professes  to  be,  the  word  of  God  ?  Were  its 
 various  authors  instructed  and  commissioned  by  God  to 
 relate  the  histories,  announce  the  doctrines,  enforce  the 
 precepts,  predict  the  events,  which  are  the  subjects  of 
 their  respective  books  ?  Were  these  holy  men  of  God 
 who  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  his  Spirit,  or  were  they 
 impostors?  Or  to  reduce  these  inquiries  into  a  methodical 
 form,  it  will  be  asked  generally,  Are  the  books  of  the 
 Old  and  New  Testaments  (excluding  those  which  are 
 avowedly  apocryphal)  genuine  ;  that  is,  actually  written 
 by  the  persons  to  whom  they  are  ascribed?  Are  they 
 authentic ;  that  is,  do  they  relate  matters  of  fact  as  they 
 really  happened  ?  Are  they  inspired  ;  that  is,  were  they 
 written  under  divine  influence  and  guidance,  so  as  to 
 contain  the  words  of  God  and  not  of  man  ? 
 
 In  discussing  these  momentous  topics,  winters  on  the 
 evidences  of  religion  generally  prove,  first,  the  genuine- 
 ness, authenticity  and  inspiration  of  the  New  Testament ; 
 and  having  established  its  divine  authority,  they  thence 
 infer  that  of  the  Old  Testament,  for  if  the  claims  of  the 
 New  Testament  to  be  received  as  a  divinely  inspired 
 book,  be  once  admitted,  no  reasonable  doubt  can  be  enter- 
 tained of  the  divine  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament; 
 because  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  incessantly 
 appeal  to  it  as  the  word  of  God,  and  make  ample 
 quotations  from  it.  This  is  perhaps  the  simplest  and 
 shortest  method,  and  will  be  adopted  in  the  introduction 
 to  the  New  Testament  part  of  the  present  work.  (Sec  cb. 
 iii.  p.  831).  But  as  it  has  been  the  practice  of  modern 
 sceptics,  to  endeavour  to  shake  the  foundations  of  Chris- 
 tianity, by  undermining  the  authority  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment ;  and  as  their  attacks  have  been  particularly  directed 
 against  the  genuineness  and  credit  of  the  books  of 
 Moses,  upon  which  the  other  ancient  Scriptures  greatly 
 depend,  it  is  of  importance  to  prove,  that  the  Pentateuch, 
 or  five  books  of  Moses,  were  really  written  by  him,  and 
 are  of  divine  authority.  And  if  we  can  establish  the 
 genuineness,  authenticity,  and  inspiration  of  these  books, 
 the  genuineness,  &c.  of  the  remaining  books  of  the  Old 
 Testament  will  follow  as  a  matter  of  course,  on  account 
 of  their  mutual  and  immediate  dependance ;  and  in  this 
 way  also,  we  might  prove  the  truth  of  the  New  Testament, 
 because,  if  the  Jewish  Scriptures  be  true,  the  dispensation 
 which  they  contain  being  introductory  to  that  contained  in 
 the  New  Testament,  the  latter,  as  it  is  founded  on,  and  the 
 perfection  of  the  former,  must  of  necessity  be  true  also. 
 
 Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  question,  Whether  the 
 books  of  the  Old  Testament  are  genuine  or  spurious,  is 
 one  of  small  importance  ;  for  if  these  books  were  not 
 written  by  the  authors  to  whom  they  are  ascribed,  or 
 nearly  in  ages  to  which  they  are  supposed  to  belong, 
 but  on  the  contrary,  were  written  by  authors  who  tired  at 
 a  milch  later  period,  that  is,  if  they  were  mppotititiotu  or 
 sp?irioiis,  the    history  which    is  related  in  them  would 
 
XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 by  no  means  be  worthy  of  the  great  credit  that  is  given 
 to  it ;  the  design  which  pervades  these  books  would  have 
 been  an  imposition  upon  a  later  age,  and  the  accomplish- 
 ment of  that  design  in  the  New  Testament  would  be  alto- 
 gether an  extraordinary  and  singular  occurrence;  the 
 miracles  therein  recorded  to  have  been  anciently  per- 
 formed, would  have  been  the  invention  of  a  later  age, 
 or  natural  events  would  have  been  metamorphosed  into 
 miracles ;  the  prophecies  asserted  to  be  contained  in 
 those  books  would  have  been  invented  after  the  histori- 
 cal facts  which  are  narrated  in  them  ;  and  lastly,  Jesus 
 Christ  and  his  apostles  would  have  approved  and  recom- 
 mended the  works  of  impostors.  Hence  it  is  evident  of 
 what  great  importance  the  question  is,  Whether  these 
 books  are  genuine.  It  is  also  of  equal  importance, 
 to  determine  whether  they  are  authentic,  or  relate  mat- 
 ters of  fact  as  they  really  happened,  and  in  consequence 
 possess  authority.  For  a  book  may  be  genuine  that  is 
 not  authentic  ;  a  book  may  be  authentic  that  is  not 
 genuine,  and  many  books  are  both  genuine  and  authen- 
 tic, which  are  not  inspired.  These  three  characteristics 
 of  genuineness,  authenticity,  and  inspiration,  can  meet 
 no  where  but  in  a  divine  revelation. 
 
 The  books  of  the  Old  Testament  are  written  in  He- 
 brew, and  they  are  the  only  writings  now  extant  in  that 
 language.  The  Old  Testament,  according  to  our  Bibles, 
 consists  of  thirty-nine  books,  but  among  the  Jews  they 
 formed  only  twenty-two,  which  was  also  the  number  of 
 letters  in  their  alphabet.  They  divided  these  twenty- 
 two  books  into  three  classes  :  the  first  class  consisted 
 of  five  books,  namely,  Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Num- 
 bers and  Deuteronomy,  which  they  called  'the  Law;' 
 the  second  class  consisted  of  thirteen  books,  namely, 
 Joshua,  Judges  and  Ruth,  in  one  book ;  the  two  books 
 of  Samuel,  of  Kings,  and  of  Chronicles,  respectively, 
 in  single  books  ;  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  in  one  book ; 
 Esther,  Job,  Isaiah,  the  two  books  of  Jeremiah,  in  one  ; 
 Ezekiel,  Daniel,  and  the  twelve  minor  prophets,  in  one 
 book ;  these  thirteen  books  they  called  '  The  Prophets  ;' 
 the  third  class  consisted  of  the  four  remaining  books, 
 namely,  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  and  the  Song 
 of  Solomon,  which  four  books  the  Jews  called  Chetubim, 
 and  the  Greeks  Hagiographa,  or  holy  writings  ;  this 
 class  was  also  called  the  Psalms,  from  the  name  of  the 
 first  book  in  it.  This  threefold  division  was  naturally 
 suggested  by  the  books  themselves  ;  it  was  used  merely 
 for  convenience,  and  did  not  proceed  from  any  opinion 
 of  difference  in  the  authority  of  the  books  of  the  several 
 classes.  In  like  manner,  the  minor  prophets  were  so 
 called  from  the  brevity  of  their  works,  and  not  from  any 
 supposed  inferiority  to  the  other  prophets.  The  books 
 are  not  in  all  instances  arranged  in  our  Bibles,  accord- 
 ing to  the  order  of  time  in  which  they  were  written  ;  but 
 the  book  of  Genesis  was  the  earliest  composition  con- 
 tained in  the  sacred  volume,  except,  as  some  think,  the 
 book  of  Job,  and  the  book  of  Malachi  was  certainly  the 
 latest.  The  five  books  of  Moses,  namely,  Genesis,  Ex- 
 odus, Leviticus,  Numbers,  and  Deuteronomy,  usually 
 distinguished  by  the  name  of  '  The  Pentateuch,'  from 
 two  Greek  words  pente,  five,  and  teuchos,  volume,  were 
 originally  written  in  one  continued  work,  and  still  re- 
 main in  that  form  in  the  public  copies  read  in  the  Jew- 
 ish synagogues.  It  is  uncertain  when  this  portion  of 
 Scripture  was  divided  into  books,  but  probably  the  divi- 
 
 sion was  first  adopted  in  the  Septuagint  version,  as  the 
 titles  prefixed  are  of  Greek  derivation  ;  the  Pentateuch 
 was,  however,  distinguished  as  five  books  in  the  private 
 copies  used  by  the  Jews  in  the  time  of  Josephus. 
 
 The  book  of  Genesis,  which  may  be  considered  as 
 an  introduction  to  the  rest  of  the  Pentateuch,  contains 
 the  history  of  2369  years,  according  to  the  common 
 chronology.  It  commences  from  the  beginning  of  the 
 world  itself,  and  concludes  with  the  death  of  the  patri- 
 arch Joseph.  It  has  received  the  name  of  Genesis,  be- 
 cause it  describes  the  creation  of  the  world,  the  genera- 
 tion of  man,  and  of  all  other  creatures.  The  book  of 
 Exodus  relates  the  tyranny  of  Pharoah,  the  bondage  of 
 the  Israelites  under  him  in  Egypt,  and  their  miraculous 
 deliverance  from  this  bondage,  under  Moses,  from 
 which  circumstance  it  derives  its  name.  It  describes 
 also  the  entrance  of  the  Israelites  into  the  wilderness  of 
 Sinai,  the  promulgation  of  the  law,  and  the  building  of 
 the  tabernacle.  It  comprehends  a  period  of  about 
 145  years.  The  book  of  Leviticus  has  its  name  from 
 its  giving  an  account  of  the  Jewish  service  and  worship, 
 the  offices  of  the  Levites,  and  the  whole  Levitical  order. 
 It  embraces  only  about  the  space  of  a  month.  The  book 
 of  Numbers  relates  several  remarkable  incidents  in  the 
 passage  of  the  Israelites  through  the  wilderness.  It 
 has  its  denomination  from  the  numbering  of  the  tribes 
 by  Moses,  according  to  the  command  of  God.  It  re- 
 cords the  events  of  about  thirty-eight  years.  The  book 
 of  Deuteronomy,  which  signifies  a  second  law,  contains 
 a  summary  repetition  of  the  moral,  ceremonial,  and  judi- 
 cial laws,  which  had  before  been  delivered  by  Moses, 
 accompanied  by  certain  additions  and  explanations. 
 It  contains  also  many  exhortations,  admonitions,  and 
 warnings,  addressed  to  the  Israelites,  with  the  view  of  in- 
 citing them  to  obedience.  The  period  of  time  comprised 
 in  this  book  is,  according  to  some,  five  lunar  weeks,  and 
 according  to  others,  about  two  months.  The  first  argu- 
 ment to  be  adduced  in  favour  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
 Pentateuch,  is  the  universal  concurrence  of  all  antiquity. 
 The  rival  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel,  the  hostile  sects 
 of  Jews  and  Samaritans,  and  every  denomination  of  early 
 Christians,  received  the  Pentateuch,  as  unquestionably 
 written  by  Moses  ;  and  we  find  it  mentioned  and  referred 
 to  by  many  heathen  authors,  in  a  manner  which  plainly 
 shows  it  to  have  been  the  general  and  undisputed  opinion 
 in  the  pagan  world  that  this  book  was  the  work  of  the 
 Jewish  legislator.  Nicholaus  of  Damascus  mentions 
 the  deluge,  and  the  resting  of  the  ark  upon  a  high  moun- 
 tain of  Armenia,  and  the  preservation  of  Noah  by  means 
 of  the  ark,  and  adds,  this  might  be  the  man  about  whom 
 Moses  the  legislator  of  the  Jews  wrote,  (Joseph.  Antiq. 
 b.  i.  c.  3.).  We  are  told  that  Alexander  Polyhistor 
 mentioned  a  history  of  the  Jews  written  by  Cleodamus, 
 which  was  agreeable  to  the  history  of  Moses  the  legis- 
 lator (Ibid.  b.  i.  c.  15).  Diodorus  Siculus  mentions 
 Moses  as  the  legislator  of  the  Jews  in  three  different 
 places  of  his  remaining  works,  and  plainly  ascribes  to 
 him  the  laws  delivered  in  the  Pentateuch,  stating  also 
 that  they  were  prescribed  by  divine  authority.  Strabo 
 speaks  of  the  description  which  Moses  gave  of  the  deity, 
 and  says  that  he  condemned  the  religious  worship  of 
 the  Egyptians.  This  statement,  though  not  very  ac- 
 curate, is  sufficient  to  show  that  he  considered  the  Penta- 
 teuch as  written  by  Moses.     Both  Justin  and  Tacitus 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 admitted  the  Pentateuch  to  have  been  written  by  Moses. 
 Pliny  the  elder  mentions  '  a  system  of  magic,'  as  he 
 calls  it,  which  was  derived  from  Moses.  Juvenal  the 
 satirist  speaks  of  the  volume  of  the  law  written  by  Moses. 
 Galen  makes  a  reference  to  the  book  of  Genesis.  Nu- 
 menius,  a  Pythagorean  philosopher  of  the  second  century, 
 says  that  Plato  borrowed  from  the  writings  of  Moses  his 
 doctrines  concerning  the  existence  of  a  God,  and  the 
 creation  of  the  world.  Longinus,  in  his  treatise  on  the 
 sublime,  says  "  so  likewise  the  Jewish  legislator,  who 
 was  no  ordinary  person,  having  conceived  a  just  idea 
 of  the  power  of  God,  has  nobly  expressed  it  in  the  be- 
 ginning of  his  laws,  'And  God  said,' — What?  'Let 
 there  be  light,  and  light  was.  Let  the  earth  be,  and  the 
 earth  was.'  "  Porphyry,  one  of  the  most  acute  and  learned 
 enemies  of  Christianity,  admitted  the  genuineness  of 
 the  Pentateuch,  and  acknowledged  that  Moses  was  prior 
 to  the  Phoenician  Sanchoniathon,  who  lived  before  the 
 Trojan  war  ;  he  even  contended  for  the  truth  of  Sancho- 
 niathon 's  account  of  the  Jews  from  its  concidence  with 
 the  Mosaic  history.  Nor  was  the  genuineness  of  the 
 Pentateuch  denied  by  any  of  the  numerous  writers 
 against  the  gospel  in  the  first  four  centuries,  although 
 the  Christian  fathers  constantly  appealed  to  the  history 
 •and  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  support  of  the 
 divine  origin  of  the  doctrines  which  they  taught. 
 
 To  this  testimony  from  profane  authors  may  be  added 
 the  positive  assertions  of  the  sacred  writers  both  of  the 
 Old  and  New  Testament.  Moses  frequently  speaks  of 
 himself  as  directed  by  God  to  write  the  commands  which 
 he  received  from  him,  and  to  record  the  events  which 
 occurred  during  his  ministry.  (See  Exod.  xvii.  14.  xxiv. 
 4.  Num.  xxxiii.  2.)  And  in  Deut.  xxxi.  9,  24.  he  speaks 
 of  himself  as  the  writer  of  the  book  of  the  law,  in  the 
 most  express  terms ;  and  it  may  safely  be  asserted,  that 
 no  person  who  had  forged  the  Pentateuch,  or  even 
 written  it  in  a  subsequent  age  from  existing  materials, 
 would  have  inserted  such  passages,  as  they  must  have 
 excited  inquiry,  and  have  caused  the  fraud  to  be  de- 
 tected. In  many  subsequent  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment, the  Pentateuch  is  repeatedly  quoted  and  referred 
 to  under  the  names  of  '  The  Law,'  and  '  The  book  of 
 Moses ;'  and  in  particular  we  are  told  that  '  Joshua  read 
 all  the  words  of  the  law,  the  blessings  and  cursings,  ac- 
 cording to  all  that  is  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  ; 
 there  was  not  a  word  of  all  that  Moses  commanded  which 
 Joshua  read  not  before  all  the  congregation  of  Israel.' 
 (Josh.  viii.  34,  35.)  From  which  passage  it  is  evident 
 that  the  book  of  the  Law,  or  Pentateuch,  existed  in  the 
 time  of  Joshua,  the  successor  of  Moses,  and  was  acknow- 
 ledged by  him.  In  the  New  Testament  also  the  writ- 
 ing of  the  Law,  or  Pentateuch,  is  expressly  ascribed  to 
 Moses.  In  a  variety  of  passages  in  the  Gospels,  Acts, 
 and  Epistles,  Moses  is  evidently  considered  as  the 
 author  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  every  one  of  the  five  books 
 is  quoted  as  written  by  him. 
 
 Thus  the  books  of  Moses  have  constantly  been  re- 
 ceived as  his,  and  have  been  delivered  down  to  us  as  his 
 by  the  consent  of  all  ages,  by  Jews,  Heathens,  and 
 Christians  ;  nor  was  their  genuineness  ever  denied  or 
 questioned  by  those  whose  interest  it  was  to  deny  it ; 
 by  any  of  the  Jews  in  their  frequent  apostasies,  or  by 
 the  greatest  enemies  of  the  Jews,  the  Samaritans,  and  they 
 both  certainly  would  have  done  so,  if  there  had  been 
 
 the  least  ground  or  pretence  for  it.— Bp.  Tor/dine1* 
 Christ.  Theol.  part  i.  ch.  1 — Bp.  Newton's  Works,  vol.  i. 
 dissert.  I — Grave's  Lect.  on  the  Pent. 
 
 It  may  be  observed  that  we  have  the  strongest  possible 
 negative  testimony  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Mosaic 
 history.  The  laborious  Whiston  asserts,  and  in  support 
 of  his  assertion  appeals  to  a  similar  declaration  of  the 
 learned  Grotius,  '  That  there  does  not  appear  in  the 
 genuine  records  of  mankind  belonging  to  ancient  times, 
 any  testimonies  that  contradict  those  produced  from  the 
 Old  Testament ;  and  that  it  may  be  confidently  affirmed 
 there  are  no  such  to  be  found.' — Grot.  b.  iii.  sect.  13, 
 14,  l(i. —  Whist.  Joseph.  We  are  not  however  con- 
 fined to  negative  testimony ;  for  it  would  be  easy  to 
 bring  forward  evidence  almost  amounting  to  demonstra- 
 tion, to  prove  the  positive  agreement  of  antiquity  with  the 
 narrative  of  the  sacred  historian  ;  but  we  can  only  men- 
 tion briefly  some  of  the  leading  facts,  concerning  which 
 the  most  ancient  historians  and  earliest  traditions  very 
 remarkably  coincide  with  the  Pentateuch.  Thus  Mane- 
 tho,  Cheremon,  Apollonius,  Lysimachus,  and  many 
 others  testify  that  Moses  was  the  leader  of  the  Jews,  as 
 well  as  the  writer  of  their  law,  and  conducted  them 
 from  Egypt  where  they  served  a3  slaves.  Eupolemus, 
 Artapanus,  Strabo,  Trogus  Pompeius,  Chalridius,  and 
 Juvenal  speak  of  Moses  as  the  author  of  a  volume 
 which  was  preserved  with  great  care  among  the  Jews, 
 by  which  the  worship  of  images,  and  eating  of  swine's 
 flesh,  were  forbidden,  circumcision  and  the  observance 
 of  the  sabbath  strictly  enjoined.  Longinus,  who  has 
 been  already  quoted,  expressly  mentions  the  account  of 
 the  creation  of  the  world,  as  having  been  written  by 
 Moses  the  Jewish  lawgiver.  Diodorus  Siculus  in  his 
 catalogue  of  those  lawgivers  who  affected  to  have  re- 
 ceived the  plan  of  their  laws  from  some  deity,  mentions 
 Moses  as  ascribing  his  to  that  God  whom  he  calls  Jaoh 
 or  Jah.  And  further  he  speaks  of  Moses  as  a  man  il- 
 lustrious for  his  courage  and  prudence,  who  instituted 
 the  Jewish  religion  and  law,  divided  the  Jews  into 
 twelve  tribes,  established  the  priesthood  among  them 
 with  a  judicial  power,  &c.  Numenius,  a  Pythagorean, 
 held  the  Jewish  scriptures,  and  especially  the  books  of 
 Moses,  in  such  great  esteem,  that  his  books  are  full  of 
 passages  quoted  from  Moses  and  some  of  the  prophets 
 with  great  reverence.  He  says,'  Plato  was  only  Mosea 
 speaking  Greek,'  and  affirms  that  Moses  by  his  prayers 
 brought  dreadful  calamities  upon  Egypt.  Justin  Martyr 
 enumerates  many  poets,  historians,  and  lawgivers,  and 
 philosophers  of  Greece,  who  mention  Moses  as  the 
 leader  and  prince  of  the  Jewish  nation.  Uerosus  and 
 Abydenus  mention  the  deluge  ;  Artapanus,  Eupolemus, 
 and  Abydenus,  speak  of  the  tower  of  liabel  ;  and  the 
 latter  of  the  failure  of  the  attempt  to  build  the  tower. 
 Diodorus  Siculus,  Strabo,  Tacitus,  Pliny,  and  Solinua, 
 give  ah  account  of  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  lm- 
 morrah,  in  the  main,  agreeable  to  that  of  Moses.  Berosus, 
 Alexander  Polyliistor,  and  others  make  express  and 
 honourable  mention  of  Abraham  and  some  of  his  famil]  ; 
 and  even  speak  of  his  interview  with  Blelchisedec. — 
 Gregory's  Letter*  on  Christ.  Bel.  let.  v.  To  this  enu- 
 meration of  testimonies  from  the  remains  of  early 
 writers  in  favour  of  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  writing*, 
 many  others  might  be  added.  And  whether  we  consider 
 the    information    to    be    found    in    the    later   works    of 
 
XVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 learned  men,  as  derived  from  the  Jewish  scriptures,  or 
 from  other  sources,  the  credit  of  the  Mosaic  history  will 
 perhaps  be  equally  established,  since  they  quoted  from 
 earlier  authors. 
 
 For,  let  it  be  remembered  that  Josephus  appeals  to 
 the  public  records  of  different  nations,  and  to  a  great 
 number  of  books  extant  in  his  time,  but  now  lost,  as  in- 
 disputable evidence,  in  the  opinion  of  the  heathen  world, 
 for  the  truth  of  the  most  remarkable  events  related  in  his 
 history,  the  earlier  periods  of  which  he  professes  to  have 
 taken  principally  from  the  Pentateuch.  For  a  more  par- 
 ticular account  of  heathen  testimonies  in  favour  of  the 
 truth  of  the  Mosaic  writings,  see  Bishop  Newton's  Works, 
 vol.  i. — Stilling  fleet's  Orig.  Sac. — Marsh  on  the  Divine 
 Authority  of  the  Pentateuch. — Faber's  Hor.  Mos. — 
 Bishop  Tomline's  El.  of  Christ.  Theol. 
 
 Of  the  many  traditions  which  accord  with  the  Mosaic 
 history  and  which  prevailed  among  the  ancient  nations, 
 and  still  exist  in  several  parts  of  the  world,  the  following 
 must  be  considered  as  singularly  striking :  that  the  world 
 was  formed  from  rude  and  shapeless  matter  by  the  Spirit 
 of  God  ;  that  the  seventh  day  was  a  holy  day  ;  that  man 
 was  created  perfect,  and  had  the  dominion  given  him  over 
 all  the  inferior  animals  ;  that  there  had  been  a  golden  age, 
 when  man  in  a  state  of  innocence  had  open  intercourse 
 with  heaven  ;  that  when  his  nature  became  corrupt,  the 
 earth  itself  underwent  a  change,  that  sacrifice  was  neces- 
 sary to  appease  the  offended  gods  ;  that  there  was  an  evil 
 spirit  continually  endeavouring  to  injure  man  and  thwart 
 the  designs  of  the  good  spirit,  but  that  he  should  at  last  be 
 finally  subdued,  and  universal  happiness  restored  through 
 the  intercession  of  a  Mediator;  that  the  life  of  man,  during 
 the  first  ages  of  the  world,  was  of  great  length  ;  that  there 
 were  ten  generations  previous  to  the  general  deluge  ;  that 
 only  eight  persons  were  saved  out  of  the  flood,  in  an  ark, 
 by  the  interposition  of  the  Deity  :  these,  and  many  other 
 similar  traditions,  are  related  to  have  been  prevalent  in 
 the  ancient  world,  by  Egyptian,  Phoenician,  Greek  and 
 Roman  authors. — See  St  i I  ling  fleet' s  Orig.  Sac. — Marc- 
 rice's  Hist,  of  India,  and  Home's  Introd.  vol.  i. 
 
 It  is  no  small  satisfaction  to  the  friends  of  revealed 
 religion,  that  this  argument  has  of  late  years  received 
 great  additional  strength,  from  the  discovery  of  an  almost 
 corresponding  tradition,  traced  up  among  the  nations 
 whose  records  have  been  the  best  preserved,  to  times 
 even  prior  to  the  age  of  Moses.  The  treasures  of  ori- 
 ental learning  which  Maurice  collected  with  so  much 
 industry,  and  explained  with  so  much  judgment,  in  his 
 History  and  Antiquities  of  India,  supply  abundance  of 
 incontrovertible  evidence  for  the  existence  of  opinions 
 in  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  which  perfectly  agree  with 
 the  leading  articles  of  our  faith,  as  well  as  with  the  prin- 
 cipal events  related  in  the  Pentateuch.  In  one  passage 
 he  says,  '  Whether  the  reader  will  allow  or  not  the  inspira- 
 tion of  the  sacred  writer,  his  mind,  on  the  perusal,  must  be 
 struck  with  one  very  remarkable  fact,  namely,  that  the 
 names  which  are  assigned  by  Moses  to  eastern  countries 
 and  cities,  derived  to  them  immediately  from  the  patri- 
 archs, their  original  founders,  are  for  the  most  part  the  very 
 names  by  which  they  were  anciently  known  over  all  the 
 east;  many  of  them  were  afterwards  translated,  with  little 
 variation,  by  the  Greeks,  in  their  systems  of  Geography. 
 Moses  has  traced,  in  one  short  chapter,  (Gen.  x.)  all  the 
 inhabitants  of  the  earth,  from  the  Caspian  and  Persian 
 
 seas  to  the  extreme  Gades,  to  their  original,  and  re- 
 corded at  once  the  period  and  occasion  of  their  disper- 
 sion.'— History  of  Hmdostan,  vol.  i. 
 
 This  fact,  and  the  conclusions  from  it,  which  are 
 thus  incontrovertibly  established  by  the  lately  acquired 
 knowledge  of  the  Sanscrit  language,  were  contended  for 
 and  strongly  enforced  by  Bochart  and  Stillingfleet,  who 
 could  only  refer  to  oriental  opinion  and  traditions,  as 
 they  came  to  them  through  the  medium  of  Grecian  interpre- 
 tation. To  the  late  excellent  and  learned  Sir  W.  Jones, 
 we  are  chiefly  indebted  for  the  light  recently  thrown 
 from  the  east  upon  this  important  subject.  The  result 
 of  his  laborious  inquiries  into  the  chronology,  history, 
 mythology,  and  languages  of  the  nations,  whence  infidels 
 have  long  derived  their  most  formidable  objections,  was 
 a  full  conviction  that  neither  accident  nor  ingenuity 
 could  account  for  the  very  numerous  instances  of  similar 
 traditions  and  near  coincidences,  in  the  names  of  per- 
 sons and  places  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  Bible,  and  in 
 ancient  monuments  of  eastern  literature. — Asiatic  Re- 
 searches, and  Maurice's  History,  vol.  i.  Whoever,  in- 
 deed, is  acquainted  with  the  writings  of  Bryant  and 
 Maurice,  and  with  the  Asiatic  Researches,  cannot  but 
 have  observed,  that  the  accounts  of  the  creation,  the  fall, 
 the  deluge,  and  the  dispersion  of  mankind,  recorded 
 by  the  nations  upon  the  vast  continent  of  Asia,  bear  a 
 strong  resemblance  to  each  other  and  to  the  narration 
 in  the  sacred  history,  and  evidently  contain  the  frag- 
 ments of  one  original  truth,  which  was  broken  by  the 
 dispersion  of  the  patriarchal  families,  and  corrupted  by 
 length  of  time,  by  allegory,  and  idolatry.  From  this 
 universal  concurrence  on  this  head,  one  of  these  things 
 is  necessarily  true :  either  that  all  the  traditions  must 
 have  been  taken  from  the  author  of  the  book  of  Genesis, 
 or  that  the  author  of  the  book  of  Genesis  made  up  his 
 history  from  some  or  all  of  such  traditions  as  were 
 already  extant ;  or  lastly,  that  he  received  his  know- 
 ledge of  past  events  by  revelation.  Were  then  all 
 these  traditions  taken  from  the  Mosaic  history  ?  It  has 
 been  shown  by  Sir  W.  Jones  and  Maurice,  that  they  were 
 received  too  generally  and  too  early  to  make  this  sup- 
 position even  possible  ;  for  they  existed  in  different  parts 
 of  the  world  in  the  very  age  when  Moses  lived.  Was 
 the  Mosiac  history  composed  from  the  traditions  then 
 existing  ?  It  is  certain  that  the  Chaldeans,  the  Persians, 
 the  most  ancient  inhabitants  of  India,  and  the  Egyptians, 
 all  possessed  the  same  story  ;  but  they  had,  by  the  time 
 of  Moses,  wrapped  up  in  their  own  mysteries,  and  dis- 
 guised it  by  their  own  fanciful  conceits  :  and  surely  no 
 rational  mind  can  believe,  that  if  Moses  had  been  ac- 
 quainted with  all  the  mystic  fables  of  the  East  as  well  as  of 
 Egypt,  he  could  out  of  such  an  endless  variety  of  obscure 
 allegory,  by  the  power  of  human  sagacity  alone,  have 
 discovered  the  real  origin  ;  much  less,  that  from  a  partial 
 knowledge  of  some  of  them,  he  could  have  been  able  to 
 discover  the  facts  which  suit  and  explain  them  all.*    His 
 
 *  It  is  highly  probable,  as  will  be  shown  afterwards,  that  both 
 Moses  and  the  Israelites  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of  many  of 
 the  facts  recorded  in  the  book  of  Genesis  from  tradition ;  that 
 Noah  was  acquainted  with  the  principal  events  and  transactions 
 relative  to  Antediluvian  times;  and  that  these  were  transmitted 
 by  his  son  Shem  to  Abraham,  from  whom  they  passed  to  the 
 other  patriarchs.  Still,  it  is  evident  that  the  book  of  Genesis 
 could  not  have  been  compiled  from  materials  drawn  from  these 
 traditionary  sources  ;  much  less  from  the  corrupted  traditions 
 here  alluded  to. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xvn 
 
 plain  recital,  however,  of  the  creation,  the  fall,  the  deluge, 
 and  the  dispersion  of  mankind,  does  unquestionably 
 develope  that  origin,  and  bring  to  light  those  facts ;  and 
 it  therefore  follows,  not  only  that  the  account  is  the  true 
 one,  but  there  being  no  human  means  of  his  acquiring  the 
 knowledge  of  it,  that  it  was,  as  he  asserts  it  to  have 
 been,  revealed  to  him  by  God  himself. 
 
 We  have  now  seen,  from  undoubted  testimony,  that  the 
 Pentateuch  has  been  uniformly  ascribed  to  Moses  as  its 
 author ;  that  the  most  ancient  traditions  remarkably 
 agree  with  his  account  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  the 
 fall  of  man,  the  deluge,  the  dispersion  of  mankind, 
 and  the  departure  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt  under 
 Moses ;  that  a  people  with  such  laws  and  institutions 
 as  he  professes  to  have  given  them,  have  existed  from 
 remote  antiquity ;  and  we  ourselves  are  eye-witnesses 
 that  such  a  people,  so  circumstanced,  exist  at  this  hour, 
 and  in  a  state  exactly  conformable  to  his  predictions 
 concerning  them.  But  it  may  be  observed,  that  the  civil 
 history  of  the  Jews  is  seldom  contested,  even  by  those 
 who  imagine  the  Pentateuch  to  have  been  written  in  some 
 age  subsequent  to  that  of  Moses,  from  a  collection  of 
 annals  or  diaries  ;  it  is  the  miraculous  part  of  it  which 
 is  chiefly  disputed.  To  this  observation,  however,  we 
 may  oppose  the  conclusive  argument  of  a  professed 
 enemy  to  revealed  religion,  'that  the  miraculous  part  of 
 the  Mosaic  history  is  not  like  the  prodigies  of  Livy  and 
 other  profane  authors,  unconnected  with  the  facts  re- 
 corded ;  it  is  so  intermixed  and  blended  with  the  narrative 
 that  they  must  both  stand  or  fall  together.' — Lord  Bol- 
 ingbroke.  With  respect  to  the  annals  which  are  men- 
 tioned as  the  supposed  foundation  of  this  history,  they 
 must  have  been  either  true  or  false  ;  if  true,  the  history 
 of  the  Israelites  remains  equally  marvellous ;  if  false, 
 how  was  it  possible  for  the  history  to  acquire  the  credit 
 and  esteem  in  which  it  was  so  universally  held  ?  But 
 upon  what  is  this  supposition  founded  ?  No  particular 
 person  is  mentioned  with  any  colour  of  probability  as 
 the  author  or  compiler  of  the  Pentateuch ;  no  particular 
 age  is  pointed  out  with  any  appearance  of  certainty, 
 though  that  of  Solomon  is  usually  fixed  upon  as  the  most 
 likely.  Yet  why  the  most  enlightened  period  of  the 
 Jewish  history  should  be  chosen  as  the  best  adapted  to 
 forgers  or  interpolation,  nay,  to  the  most  gross  imposi- 
 tion that  was  ever  practised  upon  mankind,  it  is  difficult 
 to  conjecture.  Was  it  possible,  in  such  an  age,  to  write 
 the  Pentateuch  in  the  name  of  the  venerated  law-giver 
 of  the  Jews,  from  a  collection  of  annals,  and  produce 
 the  firm  belief  that  it  actually  had  been  written  more 
 than  400  years  before;  and  this  not  only  throughout 
 the  nation  itself,  but  among  all  those  whom  the  widely 
 extended  fame  of  Solomon  had  connected  with  him,  or 
 had  induced  to  study  the  history  and  pretensions  of  this 
 extraordinary  people  ? 
 
 The  truth  of  the  Mosaic  history  receives  farther  con- 
 firmation from  the  character  of  Moses,  from  his  qualifi- 
 cations as  a  historian,  and  from  the  opportunities  he  en- 
 joyed of  becoming  acquainted  with  the  events  and  trans- 
 actions which  he  records. 
 
 Mose3  was  well  qualified  to  write  his  history,  in  conse- 
 quence of  his  having  received  a  princely  education  in 
 the  court  of  Pharaoh,  and  it  is  certain  that  Egypt  was 
 the  most  famous  school  of  learning  in  ancient  times. 
 His  parts  and  attainments  are  allowed  to  have  been  great, 
 
 even  by  his  enemies,  and  several  testimonies  from  heathen 
 authors,  in  favour  of  his  character  as  a  historian,  and  as  a 
 sublime  writer,  have  already  been  adduced.  AVhether  we 
 view  him  as  a  historian,  as  a  prophet,  as  a  poet,  or  as  a 
 law-giver,  we  find  him  varying  and  accommodating  his 
 style  to  his  subject,  and  few  writers  excel  in  any  one  of 
 these  characters  so  much  as  he  does  in  them  all.  It  is 
 evident  also,  that  Moses  had  a  chief  concern  in  all  the 
 transactions  recorded  in  the  four  last  books  of  the  Penta- 
 teuch, as  legislator  and  governor  of  the  Jews.  Every 
 thing  was  done  under  his  eye  and  cognizance,  and  there- 
 fore he  cannot  be  charged  with  ignorance  of  the  facts 
 which  he  relates. 
 
 \\  ith  regard  to  the  book  of  Genesis,  although  there 
 are  many  things  in  it  which  could  be  derived  only  from 
 divine  revelation,  yet  there  are  many  other  events  and 
 facts  which  must  have  been  known  in  the  time  of  Moses 
 by  tradition,  and  when  this  book  was  first  delivered  many 
 persons  then  living  must  have  been  competent  to  decide  on 
 the  fidelity  with  which  he  relates  those  events.  They  must 
 have  heard  of,  and  believed,  the  remarkable  incidents  in 
 the  lives  of  the  patriarchs,  the  prophecies  which  they  ut- 
 tered, and  the  actions  which  they  performed;  for  the  lon- 
 gevity of  man,  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the  world,  rendered 
 tradition  the  criterion  of  truth  ;  and  in  the  days  of  Moses, 
 the  channels  of  information  must  have  been  as  yet  uncor- 
 rupted  ;  for  though  ages  had  already  elapsed,  even  2432 
 years,  before  the  birth  of  the  sacred  historian,  yet  those 
 relations  were  easily  ascertained,  which  might  have  been 
 conveyed  by  seven  persons  from  Adam  to  Moses  ;  and 
 that  the  traditions  were  so  secure  from  error,  we  shall 
 immediately  be  convinced,  if  we  consider  that  Methusa- 
 lem  was  340  years  old  when  Adam  died,  and  that  he 
 lived  till  the  year  of  the  flood,  when  Noah  had  attained 
 600  years.  In  like  manner,  Shem  conveyed  tradition 
 from  Noah  to  Abraham,  for  he  conversed  with  both  for  a 
 considerable  time.  Isaac  also  lived  to  instruct  Joseph 
 in  the  history  of  his  predecessors,  and  Amram,  the  father 
 of  Moses,  was  contemporary  with  Joseph.  The  Israel- 
 ites then  must  have  been  able, by  interesting  tradition,  to 
 judge  how  far  the  Mosaic  account  was  consistent  with 
 truth. — Gray's  Key  to  the  Old  Testament,  Introd.  to 
 Genesis.  As  to  the  hypothesis  which  some  have  enter- 
 tained, namely,  that  Moses  compiled  the  book  of  Genesis 
 from  written  records  preserved  in  the  family  of  Shem, 
 and  extant  in  the  time  of  Moses,  we  reject  it  as  fanciful 
 and  destitute  of  any  proper  foundation. 
 
 Moses  was  also  an  honest  and  disinterested  writer, 
 and  has  given  such  proofs  of  impartiality  and  veracity .  I J 
 are  rarely  to  be  found  in  the  most  faithful  historians.  In  - 
 stead  of  flattering  his  countrymen,  or  courting  their  ap 
 plause,  he  rather  exposes  their  infidelity  and  irickedneM  : 
 and  while  he  celebrates  the  virtues  of  some  of  their  an- 
 cestors, he  at  the  same  time  records  the  failings  and 
 imperfections  of  the  very  best  of  them.  He  does  not 
 spare  even  his  own  family  and  his  nearest  relations. 
 He  freely  relates  the  cruelty  and  barbarity  of  Leri,  the 
 founder  of  his  family,  in  the  affair  of  the  Slieehemites. 
 and  the  curse  entailed  upon  him  on  account  ol  it.  lie 
 gives  an  exact  detail  of  the  conduct  of  Aaron  his  brother, 
 with  respect  to  the  golden  calf,  and  also  of  Aaron  and 
 Miriam's  sedition.  Neither  does  he  conceal  his  own 
 faults,  but  fairly  acknowledges  his  want  of  faith  and  con- 
 fidence in  God;  and  if  at  anytime  he  commends  himself, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it  is  when  he  finds  it  necessary  to  do  so  in  order  to  vindi- 
 cate himself  from  unjust  calumnies. 
 
 No  one  can  charge  Moses  with  avarice,  or  with  am- 
 bitious motives.  He  forsook  all  the  pleasures  and  all 
 the  honours  of  the  court  of  Egypt, '  choosing  rather  to 
 suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God ;'  and  though  he 
 was  appointed  to  a  high  command,  yet  it  was  attended 
 with  continual  labour  and  pain,  with  great  trouble  and 
 vexation  to  himself,  and  with  little  profit  or  advantage 
 to  his  family.  The  priesthood  he  settled  in  the  line 
 of  Aaron,  the  supreme  command  he  resigned  to  one  of 
 another  tribe,  and  his  own  family  he  reduced  to  the  rank 
 of  common  Levites. 
 
 His  excellent  moral  qualities  furnish  an  additional 
 argument  in  proof  of  his  fidelity  as  an  historian.  Not 
 only  does  he  appear  in  all  his  writings  to  have  had  an 
 ardent  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God,  but  also  for  the  service 
 and  happiness  of  his  countrymen.  He  delivered  them 
 from  the  meanest  and  bitterest  slavery  in  a  foreign  land, 
 and  conducted  them  safely,  through  dangers  and  diffi- 
 culties, to  a  land  of  liberty.  Often  did  he  stand  between 
 them  and  destruction,  and  rather  than  that  they  should 
 be  cut  off,  as  they  had  deserved,  he  prayed  and  entreated 
 that  he  himself  might  be  blotted  out  of  the  book  of  life. 
 A  man  who  had  so  sincere  a  love  for  his  friends  and 
 country,  could  not  be  a  bad  man  ;  and  if  he  had  been  a 
 Grecian  or  Roman  legislator,  those  who  are  now  the 
 most  forward  to  traduce  him,  would  then,  perhaps,  have 
 been  the  most  profuse  and  lavish  in  his  praises. — Bishop 
 Newton  s  Works,  vol.  i.  dissert,  i. — See  also  Grave  s 
 Lectures  on  the  four  last  Books  of  the  Pentateuch, 
 Lectures  ii.  iii.  iv. — Blunfs  Veracity  of  the  Jive  Books 
 of  Moses. — Home's  Introduction,  vol.  i. 
 
 But  a  more  particular  consideration  of  the  contents 
 of  the  Pentateuch,  as  relating  immediately  to  the  Jews, 
 will  furnish  irrefragable  arguments  to  prove  its  authen- 
 ticity, and  the  truth  of  its  claims  to  inspiration.  The 
 Pentateuch  contains  directions  for  the  establishment  of 
 the  civil  and  religious  policy  of  the  Jews,  which,  it  is 
 acknowledged,  existed  from  the  time  of  Moses  ;  it  con- 
 tains a  code  of  laws,  which  every  individual  of  the 
 nation  was  required  to  observe  with  the  utmost  punctu- 
 ality, under  pain  of  the  severest  punishment,  and  with 
 which,  therefore,  every  individual  must  be  supposed  to 
 have  been  acquainted ;  it  contains  the  history  of  the  an- 
 cestors of  the  Jews,  in  a  regular  succession,  from  the 
 creation  of  the  world,  and  a  series  of  prophecies  which, 
 in  an  especial  mariner,  concerned  themselves,  and  which 
 must  have  been  beyond  measure  interesting  to  a  people 
 who  were  alternately  enjoying  promised  blessings,  and 
 suffering  under  predicted  calamities  ;  it  contains  not  only 
 the  wonders  of  creation  and  providence  in  a  general  view, 
 but  also  repeated  instances  of  the  superintending  care 
 of  the  God  of  the  whole  earth  over  their  particular  nation, 
 and  the  institution  of  feasts  and  ceremonies  in  perpetual 
 remembrance  of  these  divine  interpositions ;  and  all 
 these  things  are  professedly  addressed  in  the  name,  and  to 
 the  contemporaries,  of  Moses — to  those  who  had  seen  the 
 miracles  he  records,  who  had  been  witnesses  to  the  events 
 he  relates,  and  who  had  heard  the  awful  promulgation 
 of  the  law.  Let  any  one  reflect  upon  these  extraordin- 
 ary and  wonderful  facts,  and  surely  he  must  be  con- 
 vinced, that  they  could  never  have  obtained  the  univer- 
 sal belief  of  those  among  whose  ancestors  they  are  said 
 
 to  have  happened,  unless  there  had  been  the  clearest 
 evidence  of  their  certainty  and  truth.    Nor  were  these 
 facts  the  transient  occurrences  of  a  single  hour  or  day, 
 and  witnessed  only  by  a  small  number  of  persons ;    on 
 the  contrary,  some  of  them  were   continued  through  a 
 space  of  forty  years,  and  were  known  and  felt  by  several 
 millions  of  people:   the  pillar  of  the  cloud  was  seen 
 by  day,  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night  during  their  whole 
 journey   in   the    wilderness  5    nor   did    the   manna    fail 
 till   they  had   eaten  of  the  corn  in    the   land    of   Ca- 
 naan.    We   see   Moses  in  the  combined  characters  of 
 leader,  law-giver,  and   historian,   not   once    or   twice, 
 or  as  it  were  cautiously  and  surreptitiously,  but  avow- 
 edly, and  continually  appealing   to   the    conviction  of 
 a  whole  people,  who  were  witnesses  of  these  manifesta- 
 tions of  divine  power  for  the  justice  of  their  punishments, 
 and  resting  the  authority  of  the  Law  upon  the  truth  of 
 the   wonderful   history   he    records.       And    farther,   in 
 order  to   preserve  the   accurate  recollection  of  these 
 events,  and  prevent  the  possibility  of  any  alteration  in 
 this   history,  he   expressly  commanded   that  the  whole 
 Pentateuch  should  be  read  at  the  end  of  every  seven 
 years,  in  the  solemnity  of  the   year  of  release,  at  the 
 feast  of  tabernacles,  in  the  hearing  of  all  Israel,  that  all 
 the  people,  men,  women,  and  children,  and  the  strangers 
 within  their  gates,  might  hear,  and  learn  to  fear  the  Lord 
 their  God,  and  observe  to  do  all  the  words  of  the  Law ; 
 and  especially,  that  their  children,  who  had  not  been  eye- 
 witnesses of  the  miracles  which  established  its  claim  to 
 their  faith  and  obedience,  might  hear  the  marvellous  his- 
 tory, which  they  were  taught  by  their  fathers,  publicly 
 declared  and  confirmed,  and  learn  to  fear  and  obey  the 
 Lord  their  God  from  the  wonders  of  creation  and  provi- 
 dence, revealed   to   his   servant  Moses,  and  from  the 
 supernatural  powers  with  which  he  was  invested.    (Deut. 
 xxxi.  10,  &c).     Can  we  require  a  more  striking  proof 
 of  the  existence  and  designed  publicity  of  the  Law,  than 
 the  command  to  '  write  all  the  words  of  the  Law  very 
 plainly  on  pillars  of  stone,  and  to  set  them  up  on  the 
 day  they  passed  over  Jordan,  the  day  they  took  posses- 
 sion of  the  promised  land,  and  to  plaster  them  over  to 
 preserve  them.'    (Deut.  xxvii.  2.) — See  Patrick  in  loc. 
 They  were  commanded  also  to  teach  the  Law  diligently 
 to  their  children,  and  explain  to  them  the  testimonies, 
 and  the  statutes,  and  the  judgments,  and  the  history  of 
 their  forefathers ;  to  talk  of  them  when  sitting  in  the 
 house,  when  walking  in  the  way,  when  they  lay  down,  and 
 when  they  rose  up  ;  to  bind  the  words  for  a  sign  upon 
 their  door  posts  and  gates,  and  upon  their  hands,  and 
 as    frontlets  between   their   eyes.     (Deut.  vi.)     AVords 
 cannot  express  more  strongly  than  these  do,  the  general 
 obligation  of  the  people  to  acquire  an  accurate  know- 
 ledge of  the  Law,  and  to  pay  a  constant,  habitual  atten- 
 tion to  its  precepts,  whether  these  be  taken  in  a  literal 
 or    figurative    sense.     These  repeated  injunctions  with 
 regard  to  public  and  private  instruction  in  the  Law,  also 
 manifestly  imply  that  the  book  of  the  Law  existed  in 
 writing  at  that  time,  and  that  the  people  must  have  had 
 easy  access  to  copies  of  it,  and  without  doubt  the  office 
 of  the  Levite,  whom  every  family  was  'to  keep  within 
 their  gates,'  must  have  been  to  teach  the  law.    The  com- 
 mand that  every  king  upon  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
 should '  write  him  a  copy  of  the  law  in  a  book,  out  of  that 
 which  is  before  the  priests,'  (Deut.  xvii.  18.)  is  a  proof 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xix 
 
 not  only  that  the  Law  existed  in  writing,  but  that  there 
 was  a  copy  of  it  under  the  peculiar  care  of  the  priests ; 
 that  is,  deposited  in  the  tabernacle  or  temple. 
 
 Is  it  credible  that  any  people  would  have  submitted 
 to  so  rigorous  and  burdensome  a  law  as  that  of  Moses, 
 unless  they  had  been  fully  convinced,  by  a  series  of 
 miracles,  that  he  was  a  prophet  sent  from  God  ?  And 
 being  thus  convinced  of  the  divine  mission  of  Moses, 
 would  they  have  suffered  any  writing  to  pass  under  his 
 venerated  name,  of  which  he  was  not  really  the  author  ? 
 Had  fraud  or  imposture  of  any  kind  belonged  to  any 
 part  of  it,  would  not  the  Israelites,  at  the  moment  of 
 rebellion,  have  availed  themselves  of  that  circumstance 
 as  a  ground  or  justification  of  their  disobedience  ?  The 
 Jews  were  exceedingly  prone  to  transgress  the  law  of 
 Moses,  and  to  fall  into  idolatry  ;  but  had  there  been 
 the  least  suspicion  of  any  falsity  or  imposture  in  the 
 writings  of  Moses,  the  ringleaders  of  their  revolts  would 
 have  eagerly  availed  themselves  of  it,  as  the  most  plausi- 
 ble plea  to  draw  them  off  from  the  worship  of  the  true  God. 
 Can  we  think  that  a  nation  and  religion  so  maligned  as 
 the  Jewish  were,  could  have  escaped  discovery  if  there 
 had  been  any  deceit  in  their  religious  polity,  when  so 
 many  lay  in  wait  continually  to  expose  them  to  all  con- 
 tumelies imaginable  ?  Nay,  among  themselves  in  their 
 frequent  apostasies,  and  occasions  given  for  such  a  pre- 
 tence, how  conies  this  to  be  never  heard  of,  nor  in  the 
 least  questioned,  whether  the  law  was  undoubtedly  of 
 Moses's  writing  or  not  ?  What  an  excellent  plea  would 
 this  have  been  for  Jeroboam's  calves  in  Dan  and  Bethel, 
 for  the  Samaritan  temple  on  mount  Gerizim,  could  any 
 the  least  supicion  have  been  raised  among  them  con- 
 cerning the  authenticity  of  the  fundamental  records  of 
 the  Jewish  commonwealth.  And  what  is  very  remark- 
 able, the  Jews,  who  were  a  people  strangely  suspicious 
 and  incredulous  while  they  were  fed  and  clothed  by 
 miracles,  yet  could  never  find  ground  to  question  this ; 
 nay,  Moses  himself,  we  find,  was  greatly  envied  by  many 
 of  the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness,  as  is  evident  from 
 the  conspiracy  of  Korah  and  his  accomplices,  and  that 
 on  the  very  ground  that  he  '  took  too  much  upon  him  :' 
 how  unlikely  then  is  it,  that  amidst  so  many  enemies  he 
 should  dare  to  enter  any  thing  into  public  records  which 
 was  not  most  undoubtedly  true,  or  undertake  to  prescribe 
 a  law  to  oblige  the  people  and  their  posterity,  or  that 
 after  his  own  age  any  thing  should  come  out  under  his 
 name,  which  would  not  be  presently  detected  by  the 
 emulators  of  his  glory  ?  What  then  is  the  thing  itself 
 incredible  ?  surely  not,  that  Moses  should  write  the  re- 
 cords we  speak  of?  Were  the  people  not  able  to  un- 
 derstand the  truth  of  it  ?  What,  not  those  who  were  in 
 the  same  age,  and  conveyed  it  down  by  a  certain  tradi- 
 tion to  posterity  ?  Or  did  not  the  Israelites  all  con- 
 stantly believe  it?  What,  not  they  who  would  sooner 
 part  with  their  lives  and  fortunes,  than  admit  any  alter- 
 ation or  variation  as  to  their  law  ? — Stillingflcel'  s  Orig. 
 Sac.  b.  ii.  c.  i. 
 
 Can  we  have  more  undoubted  evidence  that  there  were 
 such  persons  as  Solon,  Lycurgus,  and  Nunia,  and  that 
 the  laws  bearing  their  names  were  theirs,  than  the  history 
 of  the  several  commonwealths  of  Athens,  Sparta,  and 
 Rome,  which  were  governed  by  those  laws  ?  When  writ- 
 ings are  not  of  general  concernment,  they  may  be  more 
 easily  counterfeited,  but  when  they  concern  the  rights, 
 
 privileges,  and  government  of  a  nation,  there  will  always 
 be  a  sufficient  number  of  persons  whose  interest  will 
 lead  them  to  prevent  impostures.  It  is  no  easy  matter 
 to  forge  a  magna  c/iarta,and  to  invent  laws  ;  the  caution 
 and  prudence  of  men  are  never  so  much  on  the  alert  as 
 in  matters  which  concern  their  estates  and  privileges. 
 The  general  interest  of  men  lies  contrary  to  such  im- 
 postures, and  therefore  they  will  prevent  their  obtaining 
 credit  among  them.  Now  the  laws  of  Moses  are  incor- 
 porated with  the  very  republic  of  the  Jews,  and  their 
 subsistence  and  government  depend  upon  them  ;  their 
 religion  and  laws  are  so  interwoven  the  one  with  the 
 other,  that  one  cannot  be  separated  from  the  other. 
 Their  right  to  their  temporal  possessions  in  the  land  of 
 Canaan  depended  on  their  owning  the  sovereignty  of 
 God,  who  gave  these  possessions  to  them,  and  on  the 
 truth  of  the  history  recorded  by  Moses,  concerning  the 
 promises  made  to  the  patriarchs ;  so  that  on  that  ac- 
 count it  was  impossible  that  those  laws  should  be  coun- 
 terfeited on  which  the  welfare  of  the  nation  depended, 
 and  according  to  which  they  were  governed  ever  since 
 they  were  a  nation. — Stilliiigfleei's  Orig.  Sac.  b.  ii.  c.  i. 
 
 Let  those  then  who  are  disposed  to  deny  the  genuine- 
 ness and  authenticity  of  the  Pentateuch,  consider  its  real 
 importance  to  the  Jewish  people,  and  the  high  veneration 
 in  which  it  was  unquestionably  held  by  them,  and  surely 
 they  must  be  convinced  of  the  impossibility  of  ignorance 
 or  mistake  concerning  any  fact  relative  to  it ;  and  in 
 particular  it  will  appear  scarcely  credible,  that  the  Jews 
 should  err  in  attributing  it  to  any  person  who  was  not 
 its  real  author,  or  that  they  should  not  know  who  it  was 
 that  digested  it  into  the  shape  in  which  we  now  have  it 
 from  materials  left  by  Moses,  had  it  been  compiled  in 
 that  manner  in  some  subsequent  age.  The  silence  of 
 history  and  tradition  upon  this  point  is  a  sufficient  proof 
 that  no  such  compilation  ever  took  place.  If  we  be- 
 lieve that  Moses  led  the  Israelites  out  of  Egypt,  why 
 should  we  not  believe  that  he  wrote  the  account  of  that 
 deliverance  ?  If  we  believe  that  God  enabled  Moses 
 to  work  miracles,*  why  should  we  not  believe  that  he 
 also  enabled  hint  to  write  the  history  of  the  creation  ? 
 — Bp.  Tomlines  Elem.  of  Christ.  Theol.  part  i.  c.  i. 
 
 The  prophecies  contained  in  the  books  of  Moses 
 furnish  undeniable  evidence  of  his  divine  mission,  and 
 consequently  of  the  divine  authority  of  these  books. 
 These  prophecies  not  only  relate  to  former  times,  but 
 several  of  them  have  been  fulfilled  in  later  ages  or  are 
 fulfilling  at  this  time  in  the  world.  God  hath  '  blessed' 
 and  '  enlarged'  the  posterity  of  Shem  and  Japbet,  and 
 Canaan,  in  his  posterity,  hath  been '  a  servant  of  servants 
 unto  his  brethren,'  as  Noah  foretold.  (Gen.  ix.  25,  26, 
 27.)  The  posterity  of  Ishmael,  the  Arabs,  are  to  this 
 day  wild  men  ;  their  hand  has  been  against  every  man, 
 and  every  man's  hand  against  them,  and  they  still  sub- 
 sist a  rude,  unconquered  race,  notwithstanding  the  most 
 powerful  efforts  of  their  enemies  to  subdue  them  ;  they 
 still  dwell  in  the  presence  of  all  their  brethren.  (Gen. 
 xvi.  12.)  The  posterity  of  Abraham  obtained  posses- 
 sion of  Canaan,  according  to  the  promise  made  to  that 
 patriarch,  100  years  before  its  fulfilment.      The  seed  of 
 
 *  The  evidence  on  which  the  truth  of  the  miracles  recorded 
 by  Moses,  as  well  as  those  of  our  Saviour,  rest,  "ill  l>e  fully 
 stated  in  the  New  Testament  part  of  this  history.  See  b.  viii. 
 sect  ii.  c.  iv.  |>.  985. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Abraham  multiplied  as  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  it  is 
 computed  that  they  are  at  this  day  as  numerous  as  ever 
 they  were  in  Canaan,  although  they  are  dispersed  into 
 all  parts  of  the  world.  (Gen.  xv.  13.  xxii.  17.)  The 
 sceptre  continued  in  Judah  till  the  time  of  the  coming 
 of  Shiloh,  and  then  departed,  as  Jacob  foretold.  (Gen. 
 xlix.  10.)  The  prophet  foretold  by  Moses  has  appeared, 
 even  Christ,  the  promised  seed.    (Deut.  xviii.  15,  &c.) 
 
 In  the  book  of  Deuteronomy,  Moses  foretold  that  the 
 Israelites  should  be  blessed  or  cursed,  according  as  they 
 were  obedient  or  disobedient  to  the  commandments  and 
 statutes  which  he  had  given  them;  and  all  their  subsequent 
 history  abundantly  confirms  the  truth  of  the  prediction. 
 And  what  can  be  a  stronger  proof  of  the  divinity  of  the 
 Law  of  Moses  ?  In  particular,  he  foretold  that  a  nation 
 shouldcomeagainstthem  from  far, swift  as  the  eagle  flieth, 
 a  nation  whose  tongue  they  should  not  understand  ;  that 
 this  nation  should  besiege  them  in  their  gates  ;  that  they 
 should  be  greatly  straitened  and  distressed  in  the  siege ; 
 that  they  should  be  plucked  from  off  their  own  land;  that 
 they  should  become  an  astonishment,  a  proverb  and  a  by- 
 word amongst  all  nations  ;  that  they  should  be  scattered 
 among  all  people,  from  the  one  end  of  the  earth  even  to 
 the  other ;  and  that  their  plagues  should  be  wonderful,  even 
 great  plagues,  and  of  long  continuance,  (Deut.  xxviii.) 
 all  which  predictions  the  world  has  seen  fulfilled,  and 
 still  sees  at  this  very  day.  And  how  was  it  possible  for 
 an  author,  who  lived  above  three  thousand  years  ago,  to 
 foretel  so  many  particulars,  which  are  transacting  in  the 
 world  even  now,  unless  they  were  suggested  by  divine 
 inspiration?  Surely  all  reasonable  men  must  conclude 
 with  the  apostle,  '  that  prophecy  came  not  in  old  time 
 by  the  will  of  man,  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they 
 were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.'  (2  Pet.  i.  21 .) — Bishop 
 Neivton's  Works,  vol.  i. 
 
 The  intrinsic  excellence  of  the  Mosaic  writings,  and 
 their  moral  tendency,  furnish  another  strong  argument  in 
 favour  of  their  divine  origin.  They  give  such  a  descrip- 
 tion of  the  Supreme  Being,  as  our  natural  conceptions 
 would  lead  us  to  acquiesce  in.  We  behold  him  repre- 
 sented as  infinite  in  wisdom,  goodness,  and  power ;  and 
 expecting  from  mankind  that  degree  of  submission  and 
 homage,  which,  we  must  easily  perceive,  is  a  reasonable 
 service,  and  consonant  with  our  notions  of  the  relative 
 situations  of  the  Creator  and  his  creatures.  They  deliver 
 to  the  world  things  highly  becoming  of  God  to  impart, 
 and  absolutely  necessary  for  man  to  know.  They  explain 
 the  formation  and  origin  of  the  universe,  the  creation  of 
 man,  his  state  of  innocence,  fall,  and  expulsion  from  the 
 seat  of  happiness  ;  they  announce  to  a  guilty  world  the 
 glorious  promise  of  a  deliverer,  who  should  repair  the 
 ruin  produced  by  the  fall  ;  they  describe  the  propagation 
 of  mankind,  their  general  corruption,  the  deluge,  the 
 confusion  of  tongues,  the  plantation  of  families,  and  their 
 separation  into  kingdoms  ;  they  record  the  selection  of 
 a  particular  family,  out  of  which  the  Messiah  was  destined 
 to  proceed  ;  they  commemorate  the  miracles  by  which 
 God  was  pleased  to  redeem  his  chosen  people  from 
 servitude,  and  lead  them  through  the  midst  of  many  dan- 
 gers and  difficulties,  to  the  land  which  he  had  promised 
 them  as  their  future  inheritance.  The  laws  Avhich  they 
 enumerate  as  prescribed  by  God  for  the  use  of  his  people, 
 are  such  as  are  consonant  with  his  wisdom  and  goodness. 
 Whilst  the  religious  precepts  and  ordinances  required  a 
 
 solemnity,  purity,  and  decency  in  divine  worship,  unv 
 known  to  heathennations,orunpractised  bythem,the  other 
 institutions,  both  moral  and  political, were  calculated  to 
 promote  the  prosperity  and  comfort  of  all  who  lived 
 under  them.  They  prohibited  idolatry,  perjury,  theft, 
 murder,  adultery,  and  every  species  of  covetousness  and 
 envy,  and  enforced  the  opposite  virtues  of  justice,  mercy, 
 chastity,  and  charity,  with  a  due  reverence  towards  our 
 natural  parents  and  accidental  superiors.  In  almost 
 every  page,  the  people  are  exhorted  to  amendment  and 
 submission  to  their  God  and  king ;  they  are  reminded  of 
 their  former  murmurings  and  miscarriages,  and  com- 
 passionately forewarned  of  the  grievous  punishments 
 that  should  await  their  disobedience.  The  theology 
 of  the  Mosaic  law  was  pure,  sublime,  and  devotional. 
 The  belief  of  one  supreme,  self-existent,  and  all-perfect 
 being,  the  creator  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  was  the 
 basis  of  all  the  religious  institutions  of  the  Israelites, 
 the  sole  object  of  their  hopes,  fears,  and  worship.  His 
 adorable  perfections,  and  especially  the  supreme  provi- 
 dence of  Jehovah,  as  the  sole  dispenser  of  good  and 
 evil,  and  the  benevolent  protector  and  benefactor  of 
 mankind,  are  described  in  the  Pentateuch  in  unaffected 
 strains  of  unrivalled  sublimity ;  which  while  they  are 
 adapted  to  our  finite  apprehensions,  by  imagery  bor- 
 rowed from  terrestrial  and  sensible  objects,  at  the  same 
 time  raise  our  conceptions  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
 spirituality  and  majesty  of  Him  '  who  dwelleth  in  light  in- 
 accessible.' In  the  decalogue,  we  have  a  repository  of 
 duty  to  God  and  man,  so  pure  and  comprehensive  as  to  be 
 absolutely  without  parallel.  AVe  recognise  in  the  ten  com- 
 mandments, not  the  impotent  recommendations  of  man,  or 
 the  uncertain  deductions  of  human  reason, but  the  dictates 
 of  the  God  of  purity,  flowing  from  his  immediate  legis- 
 lation, and  promulgated  with  awful  solemnity. 
 
 The  sanctions  also  of  the  remaining  enactments  of  the 
 law,  point  out  their  divine  origin,  whilst  the  moral  pre- 
 cepts which  are  scattered  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
 Pentateuch, possess  such  intrinsic  excellence,  such  dignity 
 and  authority,  as  no  human  precepts  ever  possessed. 
 The  rites  and  ceremonies  prescribed  in  the  law  are  at 
 once  dignified  and  expressive  ;  they  point  out  the  holiness 
 of  God,  the  sinfulness  of  man,  the  necessity  of  an  atone- 
 ment. As  to  the  punishments  of  the  law,  they  are  ever 
 such  as  the  nature  and  circumstances  of  the  crime  ren- 
 der just  and  necessary  ;  and  its  rewards  are  not  such  as 
 flow  merely  from  retributive  justice,  but  from  a  fatherly 
 tenderness  and  regard,  which  make  obedience  to  the 
 laws  the  highest  interest  of  the  subject.  In  short,  the 
 Mosaic  law  is  calculated  not  only  to  restrain  vice,  but 
 to  infuse  virtue.  It  alone,  of  all  other  laws,  brings  man 
 to  the  footstool  of  his  Maker,  and  keeps  him  dependent 
 on  the  strong  for  strength,  on  the  wise  for  wisdom,  and 
 on  the  merciful  for  grace.  It  abounds  with  promises  of 
 support  and  salvation  for  the  present  life,  which  no  false 
 system  dared  even  to  propose.  Every  where  Moses,  in 
 the  most  confident  manner,  pledges  his  God  for  the  fulfil- 
 ment of  all  the  gracious  promises  with  which  his  laws  are 
 so  plentifully  interspersed.  Who  that  dispassionately 
 reads  the  Pentateuch,  that  considers  it  in  itself,  and  in 
 its  references  to  that  glorious  gospel  which  it  was  intended 
 to  introduce,  (see  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament,  ch. 
 i.  ii.  p.  82G.)can  for  a  moment  deny  it  the  palm  of  in- 
 finite superiority  over  all  the  systems  ever  framed  or 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxi 
 
 imagined  by  man  ?* — Bobison  on  Revealed  Religion. — 
 Dr  A.  Clarke's  Comment. — Home's  Introd.  vol.  i. — 
 See  also  the  Divine  Authority  of  the  four  last  books  of 
 the  Pentateuch,  established  from  internal  evidence  in 
 Grave's  valuable  Lectures. 
 
 Thus  we  have  given  a  brief  statement  of  the  leading 
 arguments  in  support  of  the  genuineness,  authenticity, 
 and  inspiration  of  the  five  books  of  Moses.  These 
 arguments  will  serve  to  confirm  the  faith  of  the  believer, 
 and  when  combined  together,  they  present  a  body  of 
 evidence  so  strong,  and  so  decisive,  as  cannot  fail  to 
 remove  every  reasonable  doubt,  and  satisfy  every  candid 
 and  unprejudiced  inquirer,  that  the  writings  of  Moses 
 are  of  divine  authority,  and  were  dictated  by  the  Spirit 
 of  the  living  God. 
 
 The  same  arguments  which  prove  the  genuineness, 
 authenticity,  and  divine  authority  of  the  Pentateuch,  are 
 also  applicable  to  the  remaining  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment, and  the  divine  authority  of  the  latter  may  be  in- 
 ferred from  that  of  the  former ;  for  so  great  is  their 
 mutual  and  immediate  dependence  upon  each  other,  that 
 if  the  authority  of  the  one  be  taken  away,  the  authority  of 
 the  other  must  necessarily  be  destroyed.  The  books 
 that  follow  after  Deuteronomy  are  all  historical,  devo- 
 tional, moral,  or  prophetical.  The  historical  books  are 
 those  from  Joshua  to  Esther,  inclusive.  Some  of  them 
 bear  the  names  of  distinguished  prophets,  and  the  rest 
 are  universally  attributed  to  writers  invested  with  the 
 same  character.  They  contain  a  compendium  of  the 
 Jewish  history  from  the  death  of  Moses  to  the  reforma- 
 tion established  by  Nehemiah,  after  the  return  from  the 
 captivity,  being  a  period  of  more  than  1000  years. 
 After  the  death  of  Moses,  Joshua  continued  to  record 
 those  miraculous  particulars  which  demonstrated  the 
 divine  interposition  in  favour  of  the  Israelites,  and  to 
 commemorate  the  events  that  preceded  and  accomplished 
 their  settlement  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  The  period 
 which  succeeded  the  death  of  Joshua,  during  which  the 
 Hebrews  were  subjected  to  the  government  of  the  judges, 
 opened  a  large  scope  for  the  industry  of  the  sacred 
 historians  ;  and  Samuel,  or  some  other  prophet,  appears 
 to  have  selected  such  particulars  as  were  best  calculated 
 to  describe  this  period,  and  to  have  digested  them  into 
 the  book  of  Judges,  having  doubtless  procured  much  in- 
 formation from  the  records  of  the  priests  or  judges, 1" 
 
 *  With  regard  to  the  marks  of  a  posterior  date,  or  at  least  of 
 posterior  interpolation,  so  often  urged  with  an  insidious  design 
 to  weaken  the  authority  of  the  Pentateuch,  it  will  be  sufficient 
 to  observe,  that  it  may  safely  be  admitted  that  Joshua,  Samuel, 
 or  some  one  of  the  succeeding  prophets,  wrote  the  account  of 
 the  death  of  Moses  contained  in  the  last  chapter  of  Deuteronomy ; 
 and  that  Ezra,  when  he  transcribed  the  history  written  by  Moses, 
 changed  the  names  of  some  places,  which  were  then  become 
 obsolete,  to  those  by  which  they  were  called  in  his  time,  and 
 added,  for  the  purpose  of  elucidation,  the  few  passages  which  are 
 allowed  to  be  not  suitable  to  the  age  of  Moses.  Now  surely, 
 when  it  is  considered  that  these  few  passages  are  of  an  explana- 
 tory nature;  that  they  are  easily  distinguished  from  the  original 
 writings  of  Moses;  and  that  Ezra  was  himself  an  inspired 
 writer,  raised  up  by  God  to  re-establish  the  Jewish  church  alter 
 the  return  from  captivity,  the  cavils  founded  upon  such  circum- 
 stances can  scarcely  be  thought  deserving  of  any  serious  attention. 
 The  leader,  however,  will  find  a  complete  answer  to  these  ob- 
 jections in  the  Appendix  to  Grave's  Lectures  on  the  Pentateuch, 
 Sect.  I. 
 
 +  It  appears  from  the  testimony  of  Josephus,  (Cont.  Apion, 
 i.)  that  public  and  circumstantial  records  were  kept  by  the 
 priests,  and  other  publicly  appointed  persons,  and  to  such  re- 
 
 some  of  whom  were  inspired,  though  prophetic  revela- 
 tions were  "scarce  in  those  days,"  (I  Sam.  iii.  1.)  and 
 divine  communications  were  made  by  means  of  the 
 Urim  and  Thummim,  (Exod.  xxviii.  30.  Lev.  viii.  8.) 
 From  the  time  of  Samuel,  the  Jews  seem  to  have  been 
 favoured  with  a  regular  succession  of  prophets,  who,  in 
 an  uninterrupted  series,  bequeathed  to  each  other,  with 
 the  mantle  of  prophecy,  the  charge  of  commemorating 
 such  important  particulars  as  were  consistent  with  the 
 plan  of  sacred  history  ;  and  who  took  up  the  history 
 where  the  preceding  prophet  ceased,  without  distinguish- 
 ing their  respective  contributions.  It  is  possible,  how- 
 ever, that  the  books  of  Kings  and  of  Chronicles  do  not 
 contain  a  complete  compilation  of  the  entire  works  of 
 each  contemporary  prophet,  but  rather  an  abridgement 
 of  their  several  labours  digested  by  Ezra,  in  or  after  the 
 captivity,  with  the  intention  to  exhibit  the  sacred  history 
 at  one  point  of  view ;  and  hence  it  is  that  they  contain 
 some  expressions  which  evidently  result  from  contem- 
 porary description,  and  others  that  as  clearly  argue 
 them  to  have  been  completed  long  after  the  occurrences 
 which  they  relate.  Hence  also  it  is,  that,  though  parti- 
 cular periods  are  more  diffusively  treated  of  than  others, 
 we  still  find  throughout  a  connected  series  of  events,  and 
 in  each  individual  book  a  general  uniformity  of  style. 
 
 But  although  we  cannot  determine  with  certainty  the 
 authors  of  the  historical  books,  yet  we  may  rest  assured, 
 that  the  Jews,  who  had  already  received  inspired  books 
 from  the  hands  of  Moses,  would  not  have  admitted  any 
 others  as  of  equal  authority,  if  they  had  not  been  fully 
 convinced  that  the  writers  were  supernaturally  assisted. 
 And  although  the  testimony  of  a  nation  is  far  from  being, 
 in  every  instance,  a  sufficient  reason  for  believing  its 
 sacred  books  to  be  possessed  of  that  divine  authority 
 which  is  ascribed  to  them,  yet  the  testimony  of  the  Jews, 
 in  the  present  case,  has  a  peculiar  title  to  be  credited, 
 from  the  circumstances  in  which  it  was  delivered.  It  is 
 the  testimony  of  a  people,  who  having  already  in  their 
 possession  genuine  inspired  books,  were  the  better  able 
 to  judge  of  others  who  advanced  a  claim  to  inspiration, 
 and  who,  we  have  reason  to  think,  far  from  being 
 credulous  with  respect  to  such  a  claim,  or  disposed  pre- 
 cipitately to  recognise  it,  proceeded  with  deliberation 
 and  care  in  examining  all  pretensions  of  this  nature,  and 
 rejected  them  when  not  supported  by  satisfactory  evi- 
 dence— witness  their  rejection  of  the  Apocrypha]  i kg. 
 
 They  were  likewise  forewarned  that  false  prophets 
 would  arise,  and  deliver  their  own  fancies,  in  the  name 
 of  the  Lord,  and  they  were  furnished  with  rules  to  assist 
 them  in  distinguishing  a  true  from  a  pretended  revela- 
 tion. (Deut.  xviii.  20 — 2-2.)  The  testimony  then  of  the 
 Jews,  who,  without  a  dissenting  voice,  have  asserted  the 
 inspiration  of  the  historical  books,  authorises  us  to  re- 
 ceive them  as  a  part  of  the  oracles  of  God,  which  were 
 committed  to  their  care. 
 
 The  object  of  the  historical  books  was  to  communicate 
 instruction  to  his  chosen  people,  and  to  mankind  in  gen- 
 eral: and  to  illustrate  the  nature  of  God's  providence 
 in  small  as  well  as  in  great  occurrences,  in  particular 
 instances  as  well   as  in  general  appointments;   they 
 
 cords  the  sacred  writers  occasionally  allude  as  bearing  testimony 
 to  their  accounts;  or  refer  to  Hum  for  a  more  minute  detail  of 
 those  particulars  which  they  omit  as  inconsistent  with  their  <1r- 
 si'iis.    See  Josh.  x.  IX  2  Sam.  i.  18,  and  various  other  passages. 
 
XX11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 therefore  often  descend  from  the  great  outline  of  nation- 
 al concerns  to  the  minute  detail  of  private  life.  The 
 relations,  however,  of  individual  events  that  are  occa- 
 sionally interspersed,  are  highly  interesting",  and  ad- 
 mirably develope  the  designs  of  the  Almighty,  and  the 
 character  of  those  times  to  which  they  are  respectively 
 assigned.  Those  seeming  digressions  likewise,  in 
 which  the  inspired  writers  have  recorded  such  remark- 
 able events  as  related  to  particular  personages,  or  such 
 occurrences  in  foreign  countries  as  tended  to  affect  the 
 interest  of  the  Hebrew  nation,  are  not  only  valuable  for 
 the  religious  spirit  which  they  breathe,  but  are  to  be 
 admired  as  strictly  consistent  with  the  sacred  plan. 
 Thus  the  histories  of  Job,  of  Ruth,  and  of  Esther,  though 
 apparently  intrinsic  appendages,  are  in  reality  connected 
 parts  of  one  entire  fabric,  and  exhibit,  in  minute  de- 
 lineation, that  wisdom  which  is  elsewhere  displayed  in 
 a  larger  scale,  as  they  likewise  present  an  engaging 
 picture  of  that  private  virtue  which,  in  an  extended 
 influence,  operated  to  national  prosperity.  These 
 books  then  constitute  an  important  part  of  the  sacred 
 volume,  which  furnishes  a  complete  code  of  instructive 
 lessons,  conveyed  under  every  form,  diversified  with 
 every  style  of  composition,  and  enlivened  with  every  il- 
 lustration of  circumstance. 
 
 The  writers  of  the  historical  books  everywhere  dis- 
 play an  acquaintance  with  the  counsels  and  designs  of 
 God;  they  develope  the  secret  springs  and  concealed 
 wisdom  of  his  government,  and  often  reveal  his  future 
 mercies  and  judgments  in  the  clearest  predictions. 
 They  invariably  maintain  a  strict  sincerity  of  intention, 
 and  in  their  description  of  characters  and  events  they  ex- 
 hibit an  unexampled  impartiality ;  and  from  these  con- 
 siderations we  derive  another  argument,  that  these  his- 
 torians wrote  under  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
 
 As  to  the  book  of  Job,  whether  it  was  composed  or 
 translated  by  Moses,  or  any  subsequent  prophet,  it  is 
 evident  that  it  contains  a  true  history,  and  that  Job  was 
 a  real,  not  a  fictitious  personage.  The  real  existence 
 of  Job  is  affirmed  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all 
 eastern  tradition. — Spanheitns  Hist.  Job. — Schaulter's 
 Com.  in  Job,) — and  he  is  mentioned  as  a  real  character 
 by  Ezekiel  (ch.  xiv.)  and  by  St  James  (ch.  v.).  The 
 style  of  the  author,  his  mode  of  introducing  the  subject, 
 the  circumstantial  detail  of  habitation,  kindred  and  con- 
 dition, the  names  of  the  persons  mentioned,  and  the 
 agreement  of  these  circumstances  with  other  accounts 
 of  that  age  and  country  in  which  Job  is  generally  sup- 
 posed to  have  lived  ;  furnish  evidence  that  this  book 
 contains  a  history  of  actual  events.  It  is  unquestion- 
 ably to  be  considered  as  an  inspired  work,  since  it  holds 
 a  place  in  the  Jewish  canon,  and  it  likewise  bears  every 
 internal  mark  of  a  divine  origin.  It  every  where  abounds 
 with  the  noblest  sentiments  of  piety,  uttered  with  the 
 spirit  of  inspired  conviction,  and  discovers  to  us  re- 
 ligious instruction  shining  forth  amidst  the  venerable 
 simplicity  of  ancient  manners.  It  is  a  work  unrivalled 
 for  the  magnificence  of  its  language,  and  for  the  beauti- 
 ful and  sublime  images  which  it  presents.  In  the 
 wonderful  speech  of  the  Deity  (ch.  xxxviii.  to  xli.  in- 
 clusive,) every  line  delineates  his  attributes,  every  sen- 
 tence opens  a  picture  of  some  grand  object  in  creation, 
 characterized  by  its  most  striking  features.  Add  to  this 
 that  its  prophetic  parts  reflect  much  light  on  the  economy 
 
 of  God's  moral  government,  and  every  admirer  of  sacred 
 antiquity,  every  inquirer  after  religious  instruction,  will 
 seriously  rejoice  that  the  enraptured  sentence  of  Job, 
 (ch.  xix.  23.)  is  realized  to  a  more  effectual  and  unfore- 
 seen accomplishment ;  that  while  the  memorable  records 
 of  antiquity  have  mouldered  from  the  rock,  the  prophetic; 
 assurance  and  sentiments  of  Job  are  graven  in  scripture, 
 which  no  time  shall  alter,  no  changes  shall  efface. — 
 Gray's  Key  to  the  Old  Testament. — Dick  on  Inspiration. 
 The  book  of  Psalms  is  a  collection  of  hymns,  or 
 sacred  songs  in  praise  of  God,  and  consists  of  poems  of 
 various  kinds.  They  are  the  productions  of  different 
 writers,  but  are  called  the  Psalms  of  David,  because  a 
 great  part  of  them  was  composed  by  him,  who,  for  his 
 peculiarly  excellent  spirit,  was  distinguished  by  the  title 
 of  '  the  Psalmist,'  (2  Sam.  xxiii.  1.).  Some  of  them 
 were  perhaps  penned  before, and  some  after  the  time  of 
 David.  Most  modern  commentators  understand  the 
 different  writers  of  them  to  have  been  Moses,  David, 
 Solomon,  Asaph,  Heman,  Ethan,  Jeduthan,  and  the 
 three  sons  of  Korah.  Ezra  probably  collected  these 
 Psalms  into  one  book,  and  placed  them  in  the  order  in 
 which  they  are  now  found.  The  Levites,  as  we  learn 
 from  Josephus,  were  enjoined  to  preserve  in  the  temple 
 all  such  hymns  as  might  be  composed  in  honour  of  God, 
 and  of  these,  doubtless,  there  must  have  been  a  large 
 collection  from  which  the  150  Psalms  we  possess  would 
 appear  to  have  been  selected ;  but  such  only  could  be 
 admitted  into  the  canon,  as  were  evidently  inspired 
 compositions,  and  we  may  judge  of  the  scrupulous 
 severity  with  which  they  were  examined,  since  the  nu- 
 merous hymns  of  Solomon  were  rejected;  and  even,  as 
 it  is  said,  some  of  David's  himself  were  not  considered 
 as  entitled  to  insertion.  The  divine  authority  of  those, 
 however,  which  we  now  possess,  is  established  not  only 
 by  their  rank  among  the  sacred  writings,  and  by  the  un- 
 varied testimony  of  every  age,  but  likewise  by  many 
 intrinsic  proofs  of  inspiration.  Not  only  do  they  breathe 
 through  every  part  a  divine  spirit  of  eloquence,  and  of 
 the  purest  and  most  exalted  devotion,  but  they  contain 
 numberless  illustrious  prophecies  that  were  remarkably 
 accomplished,  and  that  are  frequently  appealed  to  by 
 the  evangelical  writers.  But  the  sacred  character  of 
 the  whole  book  is  most  completely  established  by  our 
 Saviour  and  his  apostles,  who  in  various  parts  of  the 
 New  Testament  appropriate  the  predictions  of  the 
 Psalms  as  obviously  apposite  to  the  circumstances  of 
 their  lives,  and  as  intentionally  preconcerted  to  describe 
 them.  In  the  language  of  this  divine  book,  the  prayers 
 and  praises  of  the  church  have  been  offered  up  to  the 
 throne  of  grace,  from  age  to  age,  and  in  this  particular 
 there  ever  has  existed,  and  we  may  say  ever  will  exist, 
 a  wonderful  communion  of  saints.  The  Psalms  may  be 
 regarded  as  an  epitome  of  the  Bible,  adapted  to  the 
 purposes  of  devotion.  '  What  is  there  necessary  for 
 man  to  know,'  says  the  pious  Hooker, '  which  the  Psalms 
 are  not  able  to  teach  ?  from  them  we  may  learn  heroic 
 magnanimity,  exquisite  justice,  grave  moderation,  exact 
 wisdom,  repentance  unfeigned,  unwearied  patience,  the 
 mysteries  of  God,  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  the  terrors  of 
 divine  wrath,  the  comforts  of  grace,  the  works  of  Provi- 
 dence over  this  world,  and  the  promised  joys  of  that 
 world  which  is  to  come.  Let  there  be  any  grief  or  dis- 
 ease incident  to  the  soul  of  man,  any  wound  or  sickness 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxni 
 
 named,  for  which  there  is  not  in  this  treasure-house  a 
 present  comfortable  remedy  at  all  times  ready  to  be 
 found.'  Whether  the  true  believer  be  in  joy  or  sorrow, 
 in  prosperity  or  adversity,  in  health  or  in  sickness; 
 whether  he  be  a  prince  or  a  peasant,  rich  or  poor,  young 
 or  old;  whether  he  rejoice  in  the  light  of  God's  counten- 
 ance, or  tremble  at  his  rebuke,  he  will  find  some  of  these 
 exquisite  songs  of  Zion  adapted  to  his  circumstances  and 
 in  harmony  with  his  feelings. 
 
 The  Proverbs,  as  we  are  informed  at  the  beginning 
 and  other  parts  of  the  book,  were  written  by  Solomon, 
 the  son  of  David,  a  man,  as  the  sacred  writings  assure 
 us,  peculiarly  endued  with  divine  wisdom.  Whatever 
 ideas  of  his  superior  understanding  we  may  be  led  to 
 form,  by  the  particulars  recorded  of  his  judgment 
 iind  attainments,  we  shall  find  them  amply  justified  on 
 perusing  the  works  which  he  has  left  behind  him.  This 
 enlightened  monarch,  being  desirous  of  employing  the 
 wisdom  which  he  had  received  from  God  to  the  advantage 
 of  mankind,  produced  several  works  for  their  instruc- 
 tion. (1  Kings  iv.  32.)  Of  these,  however,  three  only 
 were  admitted  into  the  canon,  the  others  being  rejected 
 as  uninspired  productions.  The  book  of  Proverbs,  the 
 book  of  Ecclesiastes,  and  that  of  the  Song  of  Solomon, 
 are  all  that  remain  of  him  whose  matchless  wisdom 
 called  forth  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  surrounding 
 nations.  If,  however,  many  valuable  writings  of  Solo- 
 mon have  perished,  we  may  rest  assured  that  the  most 
 excellent  have  been  preserved,  and  that  we  possess  all 
 which  the  Spirit  of  God  judged  to  be  suitable  for  our 
 spiritual  instruction. 
 
 The  latter  part  of  the  book  of  Proverbs,  from  the  be- 
 ginning of  the  twenty-fifth  chapter,  is  considered  to  have 
 been  collected  after  the  death  of  Solomon,  and  added 
 to  what  would  seem  to  have  been  more  immediately 
 arranged  by  himself.  The  Proverbs  in  the  thirtieth  chap- 
 ter are  expressly  called,  The  words  of  Augur  the  son  of 
 Jakeh  ;  and  the  thirty-first  chapter  is  entitled  The  words 
 of  king  Lemuel.  It  seems  certain  that  the  collection 
 called  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  was  arranged  in  the 
 order  in  which  we  now  have  it  by  different  hands;  but  it 
 is  not  therefore  to  be  concluded  that  they  are  not  the 
 productions  of  Solomon.  The  general  opinion  is  that 
 several  persons  made  a  collection  of  them,  perhaps  as 
 they  were  uttered  by  him ;  Hezekiah  among  others,  as 
 mentioned  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  :  Augur,  Isaiah, 
 and  Ezra  might  have  done  the  same.  The  claims  of  the 
 book  of  Proverbs,  however,  to  be  admitted  into  the 
 sacred  canon,  lias  never  been  questioned.  Besides  the 
 internal  evidence  of  inspiration  which  we  discover  in  it, 
 the  canonical  authority  of  no  other  book  of  the  Old  Tes- 
 tament is  so  well  ratified  by  the  evidence  of  quotations 
 in  the  New  Testament.  The  scope  of  this  book  is  to  in- 
 struct men  in  the  deepest  mysteries  of  true  wisdom  and 
 understanding,  the  height  and  perfection  of  which  is  the 
 true  knowledge  of  the  divine  will  and  the  sincere  fear  of 
 the  Lord.  To  this  end,  the  book  is  filled  with  the  choic- 
 est sententious  aphorisms,  infinitely  surpassing  all  the 
 ethical  sayings  of  the  ancient  sages,  and  comprising  in 
 themselves  distinct  doctrines,  duties,  &c,  of  piety  to- 
 wards God,  of  equity  and  benevolence  towards  man,  and 
 of  sobriety  and  temperance  ;  together  with  precepts  for 
 the  right  education  of  children,  and  for  the  relative 
 situations    of  subjects,    magistrates   and   sovereigns. — 
 
 Gray's  Key  to  the  Old  Testament. — Home's  Introduce 
 lion,  vol.  iv. 
 
 The  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  although  it  does  not  bear 
 the  name  of  Solomon,  was  penned  by  him,  as  is  evident 
 from  several  passages.  (Comp.  ch.  i.  12,  l(i.  ii.  4—9. 
 xii.  9,  10.)  The  beautiful  descriptions  which  this  book 
 contains  of  phenomena  in  the  natural  world  and  their 
 causes,  and  of  the  economy  of  the  human  frame,  all  show 
 it  to  be  the  work  of  a  philosopher.  It  is  generally  sup- 
 posed to  have  been  written  by  Solomon  in  his  old  age, 
 after  he  had  repented  of  his  sinful  practices,  and  when, 
 having  seen  and  observed  much,  as  well  as  having  enjoyed 
 every  thing  that  he  could  wish,  he  was  fully  convinced  of 
 the  vanity  of  every  thing  except  piety  towards  God.  Its 
 canonical  authority  has  always  been  recognised,  and 
 indeed,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  its  title  to  be  admitted 
 into  the  sacred  canon.  Solomon  was  eminently  distin- 
 guished by  the  illumination  of  the  divine  Spirit,  and  had 
 even  twice  witnessed  the  divine  presence.  (1  Kings  iii. 
 5.  ix.  2.  xi.  9.)  The  tendency  of  the  book  is  excellent, 
 and  Solomon  speaks  in  it  with  great  clearness  of  the 
 revealed  truths  of  a  future  life  and  of  a  future  judgment. 
 It  may  be  considered  as  a  kind  of  inquiry  into  the  chief 
 good  or  highest  happiness  of  man  ;  an  inquiry  conducted 
 on  sound  principles,  and  terminating  in  a  conclusion 
 which  all  must  approve. — Gray's  Key. — Home's  Intro- 
 duction, vol.  iv. — See  also  Holden's  Prelim.  Dissert, 
 to  Ecclesiastes. 
 
 The  Song  of  Solomon  is  universally  allowed  to  have 
 been  written  by  that  monarch.     Its  divine  authority  rests 
 upon  indubitable  evidence,  although  some  rash  critics 
 have  affirmed  it  to  be  merely  a  human  composition.     In 
 this  book  the  royal  author  appears,  in  the  typical  spirit 
 of  his  time,  to  have   designed  to  render  a  ceremonial 
 appointment,  descriptive  of  a  spiritual  concern.    Bishop 
 Lowth  judiciously  considers  that  the  Song  is  a  mystical 
 allegory;   of  that   sort  which    induces  a  more  sublime 
 sense  on  historical  truths,  and  which,  by  the  description 
 of  human  events,  shadows  out  divine  circumstances.    The 
 sacred  writers  were  by  God's  condescension  authorised 
 to  illustrate  his  strict  and  intimate  relation  to  the  church 
 by  the  figure  of  a  marriage ;  and  the  emblem  must  have 
 been  strikingly  becoming  and  expressive  to  the  concep- 
 tions   of    the     Jews,    since   they    annexed   notions   of 
 peculiar  mystery  to  this  appointment,  and  imagined  that 
 the  marriage  union  was  a  counterpart  representation  of 
 some  original  pattern  in  heaven.     It  is  unquestionable 
 that  this  beautiful  composition  had  a  predictive  as  well 
 as  a  figurative  character.     The  whole  of  it  is  a  thin  veil 
 of  allegory  thrown  over  a  spiritual  alliance  ;    and  we 
 discover  every  where  through  the  transparent  type!  of 
 Solomon  and  his  bride,  the  characters  of  Christ  and  Ins 
 personified    church,  pourtrayed   with    those  graces  and 
 embellishments  which  are  most  lovely  and  engaging  to 
 the  human  eye.      It  requires,  however,  to  be  explained 
 with  great  caution,  and  some  fanciful  expositors,  by  their 
 minute  dissection  of  the  allegory,  have  exposed  it  to  the 
 unmerited    ridicule    of   profane  minds,      lint   tlie  grand 
 outlines,  when  soberly  interpreted,  in  the  obvious  mean- 
 ing of   the  allegory,  will  be  found  to  accord  with  the 
 affections  and  experience  of  every  sincere  Christian,  and 
 the  tendency  of  the  whole  must  lie  to  purify  the   mind 
 and  to  elevate  the  affections  from  earthly  to  heavenly 
 things. 
 
XXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 As  to  its  form,  the  Song*  of  Solomon  may  be  considered 
 as  a  dramatic  poem  of  the  pastoral  kind.  For  a  full  and 
 satisfactory  proof  of  the  divine  authority  of  Solomon's 
 Song,  as  well  as  an  elucidation  of  its  scope  and  design, 
 the  reader  is  referred  to  Home's  Introduction,  vol.  iv. 
 part  i.  ch.  iii.  sect.  v.  See  also  Gray's  Key  to  the  Old 
 Testament,  Br  Good's  Translation  of  Solomon's  Song, 
 and  Bishop  Lowth's  Prelections , where  the  structure  of 
 the  Poem  is  treated  of. 
 
 It  is  universally  acknowledged  that  the  remaining 
 books  of  the  Old  Testament,  namely,  the  sixteen  pro- 
 phetical books  and  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,  were 
 written  by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear.  The 
 prophets  profess  themselves  to  be  the  respective  authors 
 of  these  books,  and  their  testimony  has  been  confirmed 
 by  the  unanimous  consent  of  Jews  and  Christians.  The 
 prophets  were  raised  up  by  God  among  the  Israelites,  as 
 the  ministers  of  these  dispensations.  They  flourished, 
 in  a  continued  succession,  for  above  a  thousand  years, 
 (reckoning  from  Moses  to  Malachi),  all  co-operating  in 
 the  same  designs,  and  conspiring  in  one  spirit  to  de- 
 liver the  same  doctrines,  and  to  prophecy  concerning  the 
 same  future  blessings.  Moses,  the  first  and  greatest  of 
 the  prophets,  having  established  God's  first  covenant, 
 those  who  followed  him  were  employed  in  explaining 
 its  nature,  in  opening  its  spiritual  meaning ;  in  instruct- 
 ing the  Jews,  and  in  gradually  preparing  them  for  the 
 reception  of  that  second  dispensation  which  it  prefigured. 
 Their  pretensions  to  be  considered  as  God's  appointed 
 servants,  were  demonstrated  by  the  unimpeachable  in- 
 tegrity of  their  characters,  by  the  intrinsic  excellence  and 
 tendency  of  their  instructions,  and  by  the  disinterested 
 zeal  and  undaunted  fortitude  with  which  they  persevered 
 in  their  great  designs.  Their  claims  were  still  farther 
 confirmed  by  the  miraculous  proofs  which  they  displayed 
 of  divine  support,  and  by  the  immediate  completion  of 
 many  less  important  predictions  which  they  uttered. 
 Such  were  the  credentials  of  their  exalted  character 
 which  the  prophets  brought  forward  to  their  contempo- 
 raries; and  we,  who  having  lived  to  witness  the  appear- 
 ance of  the  second  dispensation,  can  look  back  to  the 
 connection  which  subsisted  between  the  two  covenants, 
 have  received  additional  evidence  of  the  inspiration  of 
 the  prophets,  in  the  attestations  of  our  Saviour  and  his 
 apostles  ;  and  in  the  retrospect  of  a  gradually  maturing 
 scheme  of  prophecy,  connected  in  all  its  parts,  and  rati- 
 fied in  the  accomplishment  of  its  great  object — the  advent 
 of  the  Messiah.  We  have  still  farther  incontrovertible 
 proof  of  the  inspiration  of  the  prophetical  books,  from 
 the  exact  accomplishment,  in  these  latter  days,  of 
 numerous  predictions  contained  in  them.  History  bears 
 indubitable  testimony  to  the  accurate  fulfilment  of  many 
 of  these  predictions;  others  are  gradually  receiving  their 
 accomplishment  in  the  times  in  which  we  live,  and  afford 
 the  surest  pledge  and  most  positive  security  for  the 
 completion  of  those  which  remain  to  be  fulfilled.  The 
 past,  the  present,  and  the  future,  have  a  connected 
 reference  to  one  great  plan  which  infinite  wisdom,  pre- 
 science, and  power,  could  alone  form,  reveal,  and  exe- 
 cute. Every  succeeding  age  throws  an  increasing  light 
 upon  these  sacred  writings,  and  contributes  additional 
 evidence  to  their  divine  origin. — Bp.  Tomline's  Elem.  of 
 
 Christ.  Theol.  part  i.  ch.  i. — Gray's  Key See  Newto?i 
 
 and  Keith  on  the  Prophecies. 
 
 There  is  an  uncontradicted  tradition  in  the  Jewish 
 church,  that  about  fifty  years  after  the  temple  was  re- 
 built, Ezra  in  conjunction  with  the  great  synagogue, 
 made  a  collection  of  the  sacred  writings,  which  had.  been 
 increased  since  the  Jews  were  carried  into  captivity,  by 
 the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah  and  the  prophecies  of 
 Ezekiel,  Daniel,  Haggai,  and  Zechariah ;  and  as  Ezra 
 was  himself  inspired,  we  may  rest  assured,  that  whatever 
 received  his  sanction,  was  authentic*  To  this  genuine  col- 
 lection, which  according  to  former  custom  was  placed  in 
 the  temple,  were  afterwards  annexed  the  sacred  com- 
 positions of  Ezra  himself,  as  well  as  those  of  Nehemiah 
 and  Malachi,  which  were  written  after  the  death  of  Ezra. 
 This  addition,  which  was  probably  made  by  Simon  the 
 Just,  the  last  of  the  great  synagogue,  completed  the  canon 
 of  the  Old  Testament ;  for  after  Malachi,  no  prophet 
 arose  till  the  time  of  John  the  Baptist,  who  as  it  were 
 connected  the  two  covenants.  This  complete  collection, 
 or  a  correct  copy  taken  from  it,  remained  in  the  temple, 
 as  Josephus  informs  us,  till  Jerusalem  was  taken  by 
 Titus,  and  it  was  then  carried  in  triumph  to  Rome,  and 
 laid  up  with  the  purple  veil  in  the  royal  palace  of 
 Vespasian. 
 
 Thus  while  the  Jewish  polity  continued,  and  nearly 
 500  years  after  the  death  of  Ezra,  a  complete  and  fault- 
 less copy  of  the  Hebrew  canon  was  kept  in  the  temple 
 at  Jerusalem,  with  which  all  others  might  be  compared. 
 (See  Joseph.  Antiq.  Jud.  b.  iii.  c.  i.  and  b.  v.  c.  i.  Com- 
 pare Deut.  xxxi.  26.  2  Kings  xxii.  8.)  And  it  ought  to 
 be  observed,  that  although  Christ  frequently  reproved 
 the  rulers  and  teachers  of  the  Jews  for  their  erroneous 
 and  false  doctrines,  yet  he  never  accused  them  of  any 
 corruption  in  their  written  law,  or  other  sacred  books ; 
 and  St  Paul  reckons  among  the  privileges  of  the  Jews 
 that  unto  them  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God, 
 (Rom.  iii.  2.)  without  insinuating  that  they  had  been  un- 
 faithful to  their  trust.  After  the  final  destruction  of 
 Jerusalem  by  the  Romans,  there  was  no  established 
 standard  copy  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures ;  but  from  that 
 time  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  into  all  countries,  and  the 
 numerous  converts  to  Christianity,  became  a  double  se- 
 curity for  the  preservation  of  a  volume  held  equally 
 sacred  by  Jews  and  Christians,  and  to  which  both  con- 
 stantly referred  as  to  the  written  word  of  God.  They  dif- 
 fered in  the  interpretation  of  these  Scriptures,  but  never 
 disputed  the  validity  of  the  text  in  any  material  point. 
 
 But  though  designed  corruption  was  utterly  impracti- 
 cable, and  was  indeed  never  suspected,  yet  the  careless- 
 ness and  inadvertence  of  transcribers,  during  a  long 
 series  of  years,  would  unavoidably  introduce  some  errors 
 and  mistakes.  Great  pains  have  been  taken  by  learned 
 men,  especially  by  Kennicot  and  De  Rossi,  to  compare 
 the  existing  manuscripts  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  and 
 the  result  has  been  satisfactory  in  the  highest  degree. 
 
 Many  various  readings  of  a  trivial  kind  have  been  dis- 
 covered, but  scarcely  any  of  real  consequence.  These 
 differences  are  indeed  of  so  little  moment,  that  it  is 
 sometimes  absurdly  objected  to  the  laborious  work  of 
 Kennicot,  which  contains  the  collations  of  nearly  700 
 manuscripts,  that  it  does  not  enable  us  to  correct  a  single 
 important  passage  in  the  Old  Testament ;  whereas  this 
 
 *  See  more    on    this  subject,  p.  740  of  this  history,  where 
 an  account  of  the  institution  of  synagogues  will  be  given. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 very  circumstance  implies,  that  we  have,  in  fact,  de- 
 rived from  that  excellent  undertaking  the  greatest  ad- 
 vantage which  could  have  been  wished  for  by  every 
 friend  of  revealed  religion ;  namely,  the  certain  know- 
 ledge of  the  agreement  of  the  copies  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment scriptures,  now  extant  in  their  original  language, 
 with  each  other,  and  with  our  Bibles.  This  point  thus 
 clearly  established,  is  still  farther  continued  by  the 
 general  coincidence  of  the  present  Hebrew  copies  with 
 all  the  early  translations  of  the  Bible,  and  particularly 
 with  the  Septuagint  version,  the  earliest  of  them  all, 
 and  which  was  made  270  years  before  Christ.  There  is 
 also  a  perfect  agreement  between  the  Samaritan  and 
 Hebrew  Pentateuchs,  except  in  one  or  two  manifest  in- 
 terpolations, which  were  noticed  immediately  by  the 
 Jewish  writers,  (see  Prideaux,  part  i.  b.  (i.)  and  this  is 
 no  small  proof  of  the  correctness  of  both,  as  we  may 
 rest  assured  that  the  Jews  and  Samaritans,  on  account 
 of  their  rooted  enmity  to  each  other,  would  never  have 
 concurred  in  any  alteration.  Nor  ought  it  to  be  omitted, 
 that  the  Chaldean  paraphrases,  which  are  translations  of 
 the  Old  Testament,  from  the  Hebrew  into  Chaldaic, 
 made  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  had  forgotten,  or  were 
 ignorant  of  the  Hebrew  after  the  captivity,  (vide  Nehem. 
 viii.  8.)  are  found  to  accord  entirely  with  our  Hebrew 
 Bibles.  To  these  facts  we  may  add,  that  the  reverence 
 of  the  Jews  for  their  sacred  writings  is  another  guarantee 
 for  their  integrity  ;  so  great  indeed  was  that  reverence, 
 that,  according  to  the  statements  of  Philo  and  Josephus, 
 they  would  suffer  any  torments,  and  even  deatli  itself, 
 rather  than  change  a  single  point  or  iota  of  the  scriptures. 
 The  books  of  the  Old  Testament  have  been  always 
 allowed  in  every  age,  and  by  every  sect  of  the  Hebrew 
 church,  to  be  the  genuine  works  of  those  persons  to 
 whom  they  are  usually  ascribed;  and  they  have  also 
 been  universally  and  exclusively,  without  addition  or 
 exception,  considered  by  the  Jews  as  written  under  the 
 immediate  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  Those  who 
 were  contemporaries  with  the  respective  writers  of  these 
 books,  had  the  clearest  evidence  that  they  acted  and 
 spoke  by  the  authority  of  God  himself ;  and  this  testi- 
 mony, transmitted  to  all  succeeding  ages,  was  in  many 
 cases  strengthened  and  confirmed  by  the  gradual  fulfil- 
 ment of  predictions  contained  in  their  writings.  (See 
 Joseph.  Cont.  Apion,  b.  i.  sect.  8.)  The  Jews  of  the 
 present  day,  dispersed  all  over  the  world,  demonstrate 
 the  sincerity  of  their  belief  in  the  authenticity  and  divine 
 authority  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures,  by  their  inflexible 
 adherence  to  the  law.  By  the  anxious  expectation  with 
 which  they  wait  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  prophe- 
 cies, though  they  have  sadly  mistaken  the  meaning  of 
 these  prophecies,  and  by  the  scrupulous  care  with  which 
 they  preserve  their  copies  of  the  Old  Testament  scrip- 
 tures, and  guard  against  corruptions  in  the  text.  It  is  a 
 great  argument  for  the  truth  of  the  scriptures,  that  they 
 have  stood  the  test,  and  received  the  approbation  of  so 
 many  ages,  and  still  retain  their  authority,  though  in- 
 fidels, in  all  ages,  have  endeavoured,  by  every  means  in 
 their  power,  to  disprove  them;  and  it  is  a  still  farther 
 evidence  in  behalf  of  these  sacred  records,  that  God  has 
 been  pleased  to  show  so  remarkable  a  providence  in 
 their  preservation.  But  the  most  decisive  proof  of  the 
 authenticity  and  inspiration  of  the  ancient  scriptures,  is 
 derived  from  the  New  Testament.     Upon  many  occa- 
 
 sions, our  Saviour  referred  to  the  Old  Testament  scrip- 
 tures collectively,  as  of  divine  authority,  and  both  he  and 
 his  apostles  constantly  endeavoured  to  prove  that  Jesus 
 was  the  Messiah  foretold  in  the  writings  of  the  prophets. 
 Christ  tells  his  disciples  that  all  things  must  be  fullilled 
 which  were  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  pro- 
 phets, and  in  the  Psalms,  concerning  him,  (Luke  xxiv. 
 44.)  and  by  thus  adopting  the  common  division  of  the 
 law,  the  prophets  and  the  Psalms,  which  comprehended 
 all  the  Hebrew  scriptures,  our  Lord  ratified  the  canon 
 of  the  Old  Testament,  as  it  was  received  by  the  Jews  ; 
 and  by  declaring  that  those  books  contained  prophecies 
 which  must  be  fulfilled,  he  established  their  divine  in- 
 spiration, since  God  alone  can  enable  men  to  foretel 
 future  events.  (See  also  Mark  vii.  13.)  Both  St  Paul 
 and  St  Peter  bear  strong  testimony  to  the  divine  au- 
 thority of  the  Jewish  scriptures,  in  their  collective  capa- 
 city. (See  in  particular,  2  Tim.  iii.  15.  2  Pet.  i.  21.) 
 Besides,  there  is  scarcely  a  book  in  the  Old  Testament 
 which  is  not  repeatedly  quoted  in  the  New,  as  of  divine 
 authority. — Bp.  Tomline's  Elem.  of  Christ.  T/ieol. 
 part  i.  ch.  i.  The  quotations  from  the  Old  Testament 
 in  the  New,  are  largely  treated  of  in  Home*  Introd. 
 to  the  Bible,  vol.  ii.  part  i.  ch.  iv. 
 
 Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  principal  arguments  in 
 proof  of  the  genuineness,  authenticity,  and  inspiration 
 of  the  Old  Testament  scriptures.  Had  our  limits  per- 
 mitted, we  might  have  advanced  many  other  arguments 
 of  the  most  convincing  nature.  We  might  have  pointed 
 out  the  admirable  harmony,  and  intimate  connection 
 which  subsist  between  all  the  parts  of  scripture,  the  ex- 
 cellence of  the  doctrines  and  moral  precepts  which 
 they  deliver,  their  tendency  to  promote  the  present  and 
 eternal  happiness  of  mankind,  and  their  wonderful 
 adaptation  to  the  circumstances  and  necessities  of  our 
 fallen  race— these  and  many  other  particulars  we  might 
 have  urged  as  strong  evidences  of  the  authenticity  and 
 inspiration  of  scripture.  Enough,  however,  has  been 
 stated  to  satisfy  every  candid  and  unprejudiced  in- 
 quirer, that  the  Old  Testament  scriptures  are  the  word 
 of  God,*  and  that  those  holy  men  of  God  who  first  de- 
 livered these  writings  to  the  world,  spake  and  wrote  as 
 they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Besides,  many 
 points  which  we  here  omitted,  or  slightly  touched  upon, 
 will  be  discussed  at  length  in  the  body  of  the  work- 
 See  Author's  Preface. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  we  conclude,  that  we  have  such  a 
 number  of  evidences  of  the  divine  authority  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  as  no  man  can  resist,  who  duly  ami  impar- 
 tially considers  them;  and  as  to  those  who  refuse  to  be 
 convinced  by  these  evidences — who  reject  the  testimony 
 of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  it  may  be  truly  asserted  of 
 them,  that  neither  would  they  be  persuaded  though  one- 
 rose  from  the  dead. 
 
 When  the  gospel  was  established  throughout  (Ik-  Ro- 
 man empire,  and  when  churches  were  planted  in  every 
 nation,  the  scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
 were  gradually  translated  into  the  vernacular  tongue  of 
 every  country  in  which  they  were  received.     This  we 
 
 *  The  genuJnaneae,  authenticity,  and  inspiration  «[  the  New 
 
 Testament,  will  he  proved  in  the  Introduction  t'>  the  New  Testa- 
 
 iii, -Mt  part  of  this  history,  and  the  nature  and  different  degreei  ol 
 
 i  applicable  to  the  writers  of  the  Old  and  New 
 
 Testaments,  will  be  there  also  pointed  out. 
 
 d 
 
XXVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 learn  from  a  variety  of  testimonies  ;  but  the  following 
 passage  from  Theodoret,  who  lived  in  the  beginning  of 
 the  fifth  century,  may  be  considered  as  alone  decisive, 
 '  We  Christians  are  enabled  to  show  the  powers  of  apos- 
 tolic and  prophetic  doctrines,  which  have  filled  all 
 countries  under  heaven  ;  for  that  which  was  formerly 
 uttered  in  Hebrew,  is  not  only  translated  into  the  lan- 
 guage of  the  Greeks,  but  also  of  the  Romans,  the  Indians, 
 Persians,  Armenians,  Scythians,  Samaritans,  Egyptians, 
 and,  in  a  word,  into  all  the  languages  that  are  used  by 
 any  nation.1 — Theodor.  ad  Grcec.  In  fid.  Serm.  5.  The 
 sacred  writings  being  the  foundation  of  the  Christian 
 religion,  upon  which  they  built  the  whole  system  of  their 
 morality  and  doctrine,  and  which  the  Christians  were 
 obliged  to  read  both  in  public  and  private,  the  several 
 churches  of  the  world  could  not  be  long  without  such 
 translations  as  might  be  understood  by  every  individual. 
 It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  exact  time  at  which 
 Christianity  was  introduced  into  this  island,  nor  do  we 
 know  how  soon  there  was  a  translation  of  the  scriptures 
 into  the  language  of  its  inhabitants.  The  earliest  of 
 which  we  have  any  account  is  a  translation  of  the  Psalms 
 into  the  Saxon  tongue  by  Adhelm,  the  first  bishop  of 
 Sherborne,  about  the  year  706.  Egbert  bishop  of 
 Landisfern,  who  died  in  the  year  721,  made  a  Saxon 
 version  of  the  four  gospels,  and  not  long  alter  Bede 
 translated  the  whole  Bible  into  that  language.  There 
 were  other  Saxon  versions  of  the  whole  or  parts  of  the 
 Bible  of  a  later  date  ;  and  it  appears  indeed,  that  new 
 translations  were  made  from  time  to  time,  as  the  lan- 
 guage of  the  country  varied  ;  but  when  the  Roman  pon- 
 tiffs had  established  their  spiritual  tyranny  in  this  as  well 
 as  in  other  countries  of  Europe,  they  forbade  the  read- 
 ing of  these  translations  ;  and  in  the  14th  century,  the 
 common  people  had  been  so  long  deprived  of  the  use 
 of  the  scriptures,  that  the  latest  of  the  translations  had 
 become  unintelligible.  Wicklifr',  therefore,  who  was  a 
 strenuous  opposer  of  the  corruptions  and  usurpations  of 
 the  church  of  Rome,  and  from  whom  we  are  to  date  the 
 dawn  of  the  Reformation  in  this  kingdom,  between  13G0 
 and  1380  published  a  translation  of  the  whole  Bible  in 
 the  English  language,  then  spoken,  but  not  being  suffi- 
 ciently acquainted  with  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  lan- 
 guages, he  made  his  translation  from  the  Latin  Bibles, 
 which  were  at  that  time  read  in  the  churches. — Bp. 
 Tomline's  Christ.  Theol. — Gray's  Key. — Lewis'  Hist, 
 of  Translat.  of  the  Bible. 
 
 Tyndale  was  the  first  who  undertook  to  translate  the 
 scriptures  into  English  at  the  reformation.  He  pub- 
 lished the  New  Testament  at  Antwerp  in  1526,  and  the 
 Dutch  reprinted  three  editions  of  it,  with  some  altera- 
 tions by  George  Jaye,  an  English  refugee, in  1527,  1528, 
 1530.  Tyndale  printed  a  second  edition  in  1534,  and 
 having  translated  the  Pentateuch  and  the  historical 
 books  as  far  as  Nehemiah,  they  were  printed  at  Halle, 
 1552,  1553.  Coverdale  at  home  laboured  to  complete 
 what  Tyndale  had  begun,  and  in  the  year  1535  the  whole 
 Bible  was  finished  at  the  presf.  In  1547  another  edition 
 was  published  abroad,  with  some  few  corrections,  under 
 the  feigned  name  of  Matthewe.  In  1540  archbishop 
 Cranmer  published  a  new  edition,  which  he  had  cor- 
 rected in  some  places,  and  to  which  he  wrote  a  preface. 
 This  is  called  Cranmer 's  Bible.  In  1553  Edward  the 
 sixth  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mary,  who   imme- 
 
 diately restored  the  popish  service  and  sacraments,  and 
 persecuted  the  friends  of  the  reformation  with  such  cruelty 
 that  many  of  them  fled  into  foreign  countries,  among 
 whom  was  Coverdale,  who,  in  Edward's  reign,  had  been 
 made  bishop  of  Exeter.  He  and  some  others  fixed 
 their  residence  at  Geneva,  where  they  employed  them- 
 selves in  making  a  translation  of  the  Bible.  They  be- 
 gan with  the  New  Testament,  which  they  published  in 
 duodecimo,  printed  with  a  small  but  beautiful  letter,  in 
 1557.  This  is  the  first  printed  edition  of  the  New  Testa- 
 ment in  which  the  verses  of  the  chapters  are  distin- 
 guished by  numeral  figures  and  breaks. 
 
 Strype,  in  the  Annals  of  the  Reformation,  tells  us,  that 
 the  Geneva  brethren,  after  publishing  their  New  Testa- 
 ment, proceeded  to  revise  the  Old.  But  not  having 
 finished  it  when  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne,  some  of 
 them  staid  behind  the  rest  to  complete  their  design. 
 And  having  finished  the  Old  Testament,  they  published 
 the  whole  Bible  at  Geneva,  in  quarto,  in  the  year  1560, 
 printed  by  Rowland  Hill.  This  is  what  is  commonly 
 called  the  Geneva  Bible.  The  Geneva  Bible  was  so 
 universally  used  in  private  families,  that  there  were 
 above  thirty  editions  of  it,  in  folio,  quarto,  and  octavo, 
 printed  from  the  year  1560  to  the  year  1616. 
 
 Queen  Mary  dying  in  November,  1558,  was  succeeded 
 by  Elizabeth,  who,  treading  in  the  steps  of  her  brother 
 Edward  VI.  suppressed  the  Romish  superstition  in  all 
 her  dominions,  and  filled  the  sees  with  Protestants. 
 After  this,  archbishop  Matthew  Parker,  having  repre- 
 sented to  the  queen  that  many  churches  either  were  with- 
 out Bibles,  or  had  incorrect  copies,  she  resolved  that  a 
 revisal  and  correction  of  the  former  translation  should 
 be  made,  in  order  to  publication.  The  archbishop 
 therefore  appointed  some  of  the  most  learned  of  the 
 bishops  and  others  to  revise  the  Bible  commonly  used, 
 and  to  compare  it  with  the  originals ;  and  to  each  of 
 them  he  assigned  a  particular  book  of  scripture,  with 
 directions  not  to  vary  from  the  former  translation  ex- 
 cept where  it  was  not  agreeable  to  the  original,  and  to 
 add  marginal  notes  for  explaining  the  difficult  texts, 
 reserving  to  himself  the  oversight  of  the  whole.  A  re- 
 visal of  the  English  Bible  on  the  same  plan  had  been 
 proposed  by  Cranmer,  but  it  was  never  undertaken. 
 Parker  was  more  successful  in  his  attempt.  The  persons 
 employed  by  Parker  performed  their  tasks  with  such 
 cheerfulness,  that  the  whole  was  ready  for  the  press 
 some  time  before  the  year  1568  :  for  in  that  year  the 
 Bible  of  the  bishops'  revisal  was  printed  in  a  very 
 elegant  manner,  with  a  beautiful  English  letter,  on  a 
 royal  paper,  in  a  large  folio,  by  Richard  Jugge,  the 
 queen's  printer.  This  Bible,  on  account  of  the  correc- 
 tion which  the  bishops  made,  was  called  the  Bishops' 
 Bible,  and  was  authorized  to  be  read  in  the  churches. 
 
 In  the  year  1604,  king  James  appointed  a  number 
 of  learned  men  to  revise  and  correct  the  Bishops'  Bible. 
 From  the  injunctions  or  rules  given  respecting  this  work, 
 it  is  clear  that  the  learned  men  employed  were  not  left 
 to  follow  their  own  unbiassed  judgment.  The  chief  of 
 these  were,  first,  the  ordinary  Bible  read  in  the  churches, 
 commonly  called  the  Bishops'  Bible,  to  be  followed 
 and  as  little  altered  as  the  original  would  permit. 
 Third,  the  old  ecclesiastical  words  to  be  kept:  as  the 
 word  church  not  to  be  translated  congregation,  &c. 
 Fifth,  the  division  of  the  chapters  to  be  altered  either 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xwii 
 
 not  at  all  or  as  little  as  might  be.  Sixth  :  no  marginal 
 notes  to  be  affixed,  but  only  for  explaining  the  Hebrew 
 and  the  Greek  words,  which  could  not  be  expressed  in  the 
 text  without  some  circumlocution.  Fourteenth:  the  trans- 
 lation of  Tyndale,  Coverdale,  Matthewe,  Whitechurch, 
 (the  great  Bible,)  and  Geneva,  to  be  used  where  they 
 agreed  better  with  the  original  than  the  Bishops'  Bible. 
 
 From  this  statement  it  is  clear  that  the  authorized 
 version  was  only  revised  by  the  persons  employed  by 
 James  ;  but  as  this  revision  was  made  by  some  of  the 
 most  learned  men  of  that  period,  it  is  probable  that  it 
 contains  as  faithful  a  representation  of  the  original 
 scriptures  as  could  then  be  made.  But  when  we  con- 
 sider, says  Dr  Marsh,  the  immense  accession  which  has 
 been  since  made,  both  to  our  critical  and  to  our  philo- 
 logical apparatus  ;  when  we  consider  that  the  whole  class 
 of  literature,  commencing-  with  the  London  Polyglott 
 and  continued  to  Griesbach's  Testament,  was  collected 
 subsequently  to  that  period  ;  when  we  consider  that  the 
 most  important  sources  of  intelligence  for  the  interpre- 
 tation of  the  original  were  likewise  opened  after  that 
 period,  we  cannot  possibly  pretend  that  our  authorized 
 version  does  not  require  amendment. — Boolhroyds  In- 
 trod-  to  his  Bible,  part  i.  c.  iii.  8vo  ed.  1836. 
 
 Whenever  therefore  it  shall  be  judged  expedient  by 
 well  advised  and  considerate  measures  to  authorise  a 
 revisal  of  our  present  version,  it  will  certainly  be  found 
 capable  of  many  and  great  improvements  ;  but  this  is  a 
 work  not  likely  to  be  taken  in  hand,  and  certainly  no 
 single  person  is  competent  to  the  task.  It  should  be  the 
 production  of  collective  industry  and  general  contribu- 
 tion ;  and  the  prejudices  and  mistakes  which  must  char- 
 acterize the  works  of  individuals,  should  be  corrected  by 
 united  inquiry,  dispassionate  examination,  and  fair  criti- 
 cism. AVe  do  not  mean  to  disparage  the  labours  of  those 
 individuals  who  have  already  given  new  translations  of 
 the  Bible  in  whole  or  in  part  ;*  they  are  entitled  to  the 
 public  gratitude  and  encouragement,  and  their  endea- 
 vours must  contribute  to  illustrate  the  sacred  pages,  and 
 tend  to  facilitate  the  great  work  of  a  national  transla- 
 tion. Till,  however,  the  execution  of  this  work  shall 
 be  judged  expedient,  every  sincere  and  well  disposed 
 Christian,  who  makes  the  holy  oracles  his  chief  study 
 and  delight,  may  rest  satisfied  with  the  present  transla- 
 tion, which  is  indeed  highly  excellent,  being  in  its  doc- 
 trines uncorrupt,  and  in  its  general  construction  faithful 
 to  the  original.  In  any  attempt  at  a  new  translation  of 
 the  Scriptures,  it  should  be  one  great  aim  to  depart  as 
 little  as  possible  from  the  present  version,  which  has 
 been  familiarised  by  long  use,  and  endeared  by  habitual 
 reverence,  of  which  the  style  has  long  served  as  a  stand- 
 ard of  our  language,  and  of  which  the  peculiar  harmony 
 and  excellence  could  never  be  improved  by  any  change 
 which  refinement  might  substitute. — Gray's  Key. 
 
 The  books  of  the  Old  Testament  are  divided  into 
 chapters  and  verses,  to  facilitate  reference,  and  primarily 
 
 *  Of  the  modern  translations  of  the  whole  Bible,  that  of  Dr 
 Boothruyd  is  undoubtedly  the  best,  and  may  be  considered  as  a 
 valuable  help  to  the  critical  understanding  ot  the  holy  Scriptures. 
 The  following  translations  of  parts  of  Scripture  by  different  in- 
 rtividuals  are  held  in  high  estimation,  namely,  The  book  of  Job, 
 by  Dr  Good,  the  Proverbs  by  Mr  G.  Holden,  Isaiah  by  Lowth, 
 Jeremiah  by  Dr  Blayney,  Ezekiel  by  Ncwcome,  Daniel  by 
 Wjnth,  Hosea  by  Horsely,  the  Minor  Prophets  by  Newcome, 
 the  Gospels  by  Campbell;  and  the  Epistles  by  Macknight. 
 
 with  a  view  to  any  natural  division  of  the  multifarious 
 subjects  which  they  embrace:  but  by  whom  these   divi- 
 sions were    originally  made    is  a  question,  concerning 
 which  there  exists  a  considerable  difference  of  opinion. 
 That   they    are    comparatively  a   modem    invention   is 
 evident  from  its  being  utterly  unknown  to  the  ancient 
 Christians,  whose  Greek  Bibles,  indeed,  then  had  T/tAo< 
 and    Y^i(pctha,ia.  {Titles  and  Heads);   but  the  intent  of 
 these  was  rather  to  point  out  the  sum  or  contents  of  the 
 text,  than  to  divide  the  various  books.    They  also  differed 
 greatly  from  the  present  chapters,  many  of  them  con- 
 taining only  a  few  verses,  and  some  of  them  not  more 
 than  one.     The  invention  of  chapters  has  by  some  been 
 ascribed  to  Lanfranc,  who  was  archbishop  of  Canter- 
 bury in  the  reigns  of  William  the  Conqueror  and  William 
 II. ;  while  others  attribute  it  to  Stephen  Langton,  who 
 was  archbishop  of  the  same  see  in  the  reigns  of  John  and 
 Henry   III.     But   the    real    author  of  this  very  useful 
 division  was  cardinal  Hugo  de  Sancto  Caro,  who  flour- 
 ished   about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
 wrote  a  celebrated  commentary  on  the  Scriptures.    Hav- 
 ing projected  a  concordance  to  the  Latin  Vulgate  ver- 
 sion, by  which  any  passage  might  be  found,  he  divided 
 both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  into  chapters,  which 
 are  the  same  we  now  have  :  these  chapters  he  subdivided 
 into   smaller   portions,  which   he    distinguished  by  the 
 letters  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  and  G,  which  are  placed  in 
 the  margin  at  equal  distances  from  each  other,  accord- 
 ing to  the  length  of  the  chapters.     The  facility  of  re- 
 ference   thus    afforded    by     Hugo's    divisions,    having 
 become  known  to  Rabbi   Mordecai  Nathan,    (or   Isaac 
 Nathan,  as  he  is  sometimes  called.)  a  celebrated  Jewish 
 teacher  in  the  fifteenth  century,  he  undertook  a  similar 
 concordance  for  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  ;  but  instead  of 
 adopting  the  marginal  letters  of  Hugo,  he  marked  every 
 fifth  verse  with  a  Hebrew  numeral,  thus,  s  I,  fi  5,  &C, 
 retaining,  however,  the  cardinal's  divisions  into  chapters. 
 This  concordance  of  Rabbi  Nathan  was  commenced  a.d. 
 1438,  and  finished  in  1445.     The  introduction  of  verses 
 into  the  Hebrew  Bible  was  made  by  Athias,  a  Jew  of 
 Amsterdam,   in  his   celebrated  edition  of  the   Hebrew 
 Bible,  printed  in   16G1,  and  reprinted   in   lo'ii7.      He 
 marked  every  verse  with  the  figures  in  common  use,  ex- 
 cept those  which  had  been  previously  marked  by  Nathan 
 with  Hebrew  letters,  in  the  manner  in  which  they  at  pre- 
 sent appear   in    Hebrew  Bibles.      By  rejecting  these 
 Hebrew  numerals,  and  substituting  for  them  the  corre- 
 sponding figures,  all  the  copies  of  the  Bible  in   other 
 languages  have  since  been  marked.     As,  however,  the 
 modern  divisions  and  sub-divisions  are  not  always  made 
 with  the  strictest  regard  to  the  connexion  of  parts,  it  is 
 greatly   to    be    wished    that   all   future  editions  of  the 
 scriptures  might  be  printed  after  the  judicious  manner 
 adopted   by    Mr   Beeves    in    his  equally  beautiful  and 
 correct  editions  of  the  entire  Bible  :  in  which  the  numbers 
 of  the  verses  and  chapters  are  thrown  into  the  margin, 
 and  the  metrical  parts  of  scripture  are  distinguished  from 
 the  rest  by  being  printed  in  verses   in  the  usual   manner. 
 —  Homes  Introd.  vol.  ii.  part  i.  p.  69,  70:  7th  ed. 
 
 When    we    consider   the   utility,   excellence,  and   per- 
 fection of  the  holy  scriptures,  both  of  the  Old  and   N<  W 
 Testaments,  since  they  are  not  merely  the  be*!  gride  we 
 can  consult,  but  the  onl)  one  that  can  make  OS  wi- 
 salvation,    we   must  be    convinced   that   it  is  the   indis- 
 
XXV111 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pensable  duty  of  all,  carefully  and  constantly  to  peruse 
 these  sacred  oracles,  that  through  them  they  may  be 
 thoroughly  furnished  to  every  good  work.  This,  indeed, 
 is  not  only  agreeable  to  the  divine  command,  and  to  the 
 design  of  the  scriptures,  but  is  further  commanded  to  us 
 by  the  gracious  promise  made  by  Him  who  cannot  lie, 
 to  all  true  believers,  that  they  shall  all  be  taught  of  God. 
 What  time  is  to  be  appropriated  for  this  purpose,  must 
 ever  depend  upon  the  circumstances  of  the  individual. 
 It  is  obvious,  that  some  time  ought  daily  to  be  devoted 
 to  this  important  study,  and  that  it  should  be  undertaken 
 with  devout  simplicity  and  humility  ;  prosecuted  with 
 diligence  and  attention  ;  accompanied  by  prayer  for  the 
 divine  aid  and  teaching ;  together  with  a  sincere  desire 
 to  know  and  perform  the  will  of  God,  and,  laying  aside 
 all  prejudice,  to  embrace  all  truths  which  are  plainly  de- 
 livered there,  and  to  follow  the  scriptures  wherever  con- 
 viction may  lead  our  minds.  For  it  is  indubitable,  that 
 those  who  are  anxiously  desirous  of  the  knowledge  of 
 divine  truth,  will  be  assisted  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  in 
 searching  out  the  meaning  of  scripture,  particularly  in 
 such  subjects  as  have  an  especial  reference  to  faith  and 
 religious  practice.  In  order,  however,  to  study  the 
 scriptures  aright,  it  should  be  recollected  that  they  are 
 not  to  be  contemplated  as  one  entire  book  or  treatise. 
 The  knowledge  of  divine  truth,  is,  indeed,  perfectly  dis- 
 tinct from  human  science,  in  that  it  emanates  immediately 
 from  the  fountain  of  Infinite  Wisdom.  Yet  has  it  this 
 in  common  with  human  science,  that  it  is  made  by  its 
 heavenly  author  to  flow  through  the  channel  of  human 
 instruction.  While,  therefore,  we  receive  it  not  as  the 
 word  of  men,  but  as  it  is  in  truth  the  word  of  God,  we 
 must,  nevertheless,  examine  it  as  it  is  delivered  to  us, 
 clothed  in  the  language  of  men,  and  subject  to  the  general 
 rules  of  human  composition.  The  deference  due  to  it 
 as  a  divine  production,  does  not  interfere  with  this  pro- 
 vince of  human  learning  ;  it  only  exacts  submission  with 
 respect  to  the  subject  matter  of  the  revelation,  to  which 
 the  critical  investigation  is  entirely  subordinate. 
 
 But  besides  the  paramount  importance  of  the  contents 
 of  the  holy  scriptures,  a  farther  motive  to  the  diligent 
 study  of  them,  presents  itself  in  the  facilities  that  are 
 offered  to  us  for  this  purpose,  by  the  numerous  publica- 
 tions which  have  for  their  object  the  criticism,  interpre- 
 tation, and  elucidation  of  the  sacred  volume.  In  fact, 
 a  willingness  to  know  and  to  do  the  will  of  God,  implies 
 a  willingness  to  resort  to  all  necessary  helps  for  ad- 
 vancement in  the  truth,  and  for  security  against  error. 
 The  value  of  such  helps  was  never  questioned  except 
 by  those  who  chose  to  despise  what  they  did  not  possess. 
 Only,  it  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind,  that  although  these 
 auxiliaries  are  valuable  for  guiding  us  to  a  knowledge 
 of  the  sense  and  literal  meaning  of  scripture,  they  can 
 never  stand  in  the  place  of  the  divine  teaching,  which  is 
 the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  alone,  and  that  without  this 
 teaching,  the  knowledge  which  they  impart  can  be  of  no 
 real  or  permanent  value :  '  For,'  says  the  apostle, 
 'though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  understand  all 
 mysteries  and  all  knowledge,  and  have  not  charity,  or 
 Christian  love,  it  is  nothing.' — (1  Cor.  xiii.  2.) — Van- 
 milderfs  Bampton  Lectures — Hornets  Introd.  vol.  i. 
 
 The  books  of  scripture,  as  every  one  must  perceive, 
 are  not  arranged  in  our  Bibles  according  to  the  order  of 
 time  in  which  the  events  that  they  relate  happened,  but 
 
 rather  according  to  the  nature  of  the  subjects.  This 
 arrangement  is  not  peculiar  to  the  English  version,  but 
 is  adopted  in  most  copies  of  the  scriptures.  The  collo- 
 cation of  the  books  of  scripture,  however,  is  not  to  be 
 regarded  as  of  canonical  authority,  for  we  find  a  differ- 
 ent arrangement  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  Syriac,  and 
 Latin  versions.  Neither  have  the  sacred  historians 
 always  related  events  according  to  the  order  of  time ; 
 some  are  introduced  by  anticipations,  and  others  again 
 are  placed  first,  which  should  be  last. 
 
 From  these  circumstances,  seeming  contradictions  have 
 arisen,  which  have  been  eagerly  seized  by  the  adversaries 
 of  revealed  religion,  in  order  to  perplex  the  minds  and 
 shake  the  faith  of  those  who  are  not  able  to  cope  with 
 their  sophistries.  Hence  the  utility  of  such  a  work  as 
 Stackhouse's  History  of  the  Bible,  which  gives,  in  plain 
 and  perspicuous  language,  a  connected  narrative  of 
 bible  history,  according  to  chronological  order ;  and 
 which  likewise,  in  a  series  of  notes  and  dissertations,  ex- 
 plains difficulties  as  they  occur  ;  reconciles  apparent 
 contradictions,  and  refutes  the  objections  which  infidels 
 have  brought  against  various  parts  of  scripture.  Any 
 one  who  peruses  this  work  with  attention,  will  be  con- 
 vinced of  its  importance,  and  of  the  valuable  aid  which 
 it  affords  in  elucidating  scripture  history. — See  the 
 Author's  Preface. 
 
 Hence  also  chronology,  or  the  science  of  computing 
 and  adjusting  periods  of  time,  is  of  great  importance 
 towards  understanding  the  historical  parts  of  scripture, 
 as  it  shows  the  order  and  connection  of  the  events  therein 
 recorded.  It  also  enables  us  to  ascertain  the  accom- 
 plishment of  many  of  the  prophecies,  and  sometimes 
 leads  to  the  discovery  and  correction  of  mistakes  in 
 numbers  and  dates  which  have  crept  into  particular  texts. 
 Considerable  differences  exist  in  the  chronology  of  the 
 Hebrew  scriptures,  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  the  Sep- 
 tuagint  version,  and  Josephus,  with  regard  to  those 
 periods,  which  extend  from  the  creation  to  the  deluge, 
 and  from  thence  to  the  calling  of  Abraham.  These 
 differences  have  led  to  different  chronological  systems, 
 according  as  their  authors  have  adhered  to  one  or  other 
 of  these  authorities,  or  selected  from  them  all. — (See 
 this  History,  b.  i.  sect.  v.  ch.  iii.)  The  chronology 
 which  is  adopted  in  our  Bibles,  is  that  of  the  Hebrew 
 scriptures,  and  is  followed  by  Stackhouse.  But  of  the 
 authenticity  of  this  system  doubts  are  entertained  by  the 
 best  scripture  critics,  and  Dr  Hales,  in  his  profound  and 
 elaborate  work  on  chronology,  has,  we  think,  satis- 
 factorily proved  that  the  present  system  of  Hebrew 
 chronology  is  an  adulteration,  planned  and  executed  by 
 the  Masorites,*  in  the  fourth  century,  and  that  the 
 chronology  of  Josephus,  when  rectified  by  a  comparison 
 with  the  Septuagint,  and  the  other  texts,  is-  that  which 
 ought  to  be  adopted.  This  system,  which  Dr  Hales  has 
 established  with  great  success,  is  unquestionably  to  be 
 preferred  to  that  in  our  Bibles,  as  it  removes  many  of 
 the  difficulties  with  which  scripture  history  is  encumbered, 
 when  we  follow  the  common  system.  Accordingly,  in 
 this  edition  of  Stackhouse's  history,  the  chronology  of 
 Dr  Hales  has  been  introduced,  as  far  as  could  be  done, 
 consistently  with  the  author's  plan. 
 
 Ancient  profane  history,  when  studied  in  connection 
 
 *  For  an  account  of  the  Masorites,  see  b.  vii.  sect.  ii.  ch.  iii. 
 of  this  history. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XX IX 
 
 with  the  history  of  the  Israelites,  is  of  very  great  im- 
 portance to  the  elucidation  of  scripture.  The  Jews 
 were  connected  either  in  a  hostile  or  pacific  manner 
 with  the  Moabites,  Ammonites,  Philistines,  Egyptians, 
 Assyrians,  Medes,  Babylonians,  Persians,  Arabians, 
 Greeks,  Romans,  and  other  ancient  nations,  and  hence 
 a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  nations  is  necessary 
 for  illustrating  many  passages  of  scripture,  in  which 
 allusion  is  made  to  them.  In  the  books  of  Isaiah, 
 Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel,  we  likewise  find  many  predic- 
 tions relative  to  the  heathen  nations,  which  would  be 
 utterly  unintelligible  without  the  aid  of  profane  history. 
 The  present  work  will  be  found  valuable  in  this  respect, 
 as  it  gives,  along  with  the  sacred  narrative,  a  connected 
 view  of  profane  history.  The  other  works  on  the  con- 
 nection of  sacred  and  profane  history,  most  worthy  of 
 notice,  are  those  of  Shuckford,  Prideaux,  Russel,  and 
 Jahn. 
 
 A  knowledge  of  the  peculiar  rites,  manners,  and 
 customs  of  the  Jews,  and  other  nations  that  are  either 
 alluded  to,  or  mentioned  in  the  scriptures,  is  indispen- 
 sably necessary  to  the  right  understanding  of  the  sacred 
 volume.  There  are  many  things  recorded  both  in  the 
 Old  and  New  Testament,  which  must  appear  to  Europeans 
 either  obscure,  unintelligible,  repulsive,  or  absurd,  un- 
 less, forgetting  our  own  peculiar  habits  and  modes  of 
 thinking,  we  transport  ourselves,  in  a  manner,  to  the 
 East,  and  diligently  study  the  customs,  whether  political, 
 sacred,  or  civil,  which  obtained  there.  The  first,  and 
 most  important  source  to  which  we  must  betake  ourselves 
 for  this  purpose,  is  undoubtedly  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
 ments themselves,  the  careful  collation  of  which,  will 
 enable  us  to  collect  much  information  with  regard  to  the 
 customs  and  modes  of  living  which  obtained  among  the 
 ancient  Jews.  The  next  sources  of  information  are  the 
 apocryphal  books,  the  writings  of  Philo,  Josephus,  the 
 Talmudists,  and  the  ancient  history  of  eastern  nations. 
 Finally,  if  to  these  sources  we  add  an  acquaintance  with 
 the  customs  and  manners  which  prevail  in  the  east  at 
 the  present  day,  as  they  are  related  by  travellers  of 
 approved  character,  we  shall  have  a  sure  and  easy  access 
 to  the  knowledge  of  scripture  antiquities ;  for  as  the 
 Orientals,  from  their  tenacious  adherence  to  old  usages, 
 are  not  likely  to  differ  materially  from  their  ancestors, 
 we  have  no  great  reason  to  be  apprehensive,  from  com- 
 paring the  manners,  &c.  of  the  modern  Syrians,  Arabs, 
 and  other  nations  of  the  East,  with  those  of  the  Hebrews, 
 that  we  should  attribute  customs  to  them  which  never 
 obtained  among  tliein.  The  interpretation  of  the  Bible, 
 therefore,  is  not  a  little  facilitated  by  the  perusal  of  the 
 voyages  and  travels  of  those  who  have  explored  the 
 East.  In  this  department  of  sacred  literature,  the  com. 
 pilations  of  Harmer,  Burder,  Paxton,  and  Home,  are 
 particularly  distinguished. 
 
 The  knowledge  of  ancient  geography,  especially  that 
 of  Palestine,  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  tends,  as 
 is  universally  confessed,  to  illustrate  almost  innumerable 
 passages  of  scripture.  The  principal  English  works  on 
 this  subject  are  those  of  Wells,  Mansford,  Rosenmiiller, 
 (lately  translated  into  English),  Calmet's  Dictionary 
 by  Taylor,  Paxton  and  Home.  A  pretty  extensive 
 Scripture  Gazetteer  is  now  in  the  course  of  publication 
 by  the  Edinburgh  Printing  Company. 
 
 A  knowledge  of  natural  history  enables  us  to  explain 
 
 many  otherwise  obscure  passages  of  scripture.  Thus 
 frequent  mention  is  made  in  scripture  of  animals,  trees, 
 plants,  and  precious  stones ;  sometimes  sentiments  are 
 expressed,  either  in  allusion  to,  or  by  metaphors  taken 
 from  some  fact  in  natural  history ;  and  sometimes 
 characters  are  described  in  allusion  to  natural  objects, 
 and  without  the  knowledge  of  these  we  cannot  perceive 
 the  nature  of  the  characters  intended.  The  natural 
 history  of  the  Bible  is  expressly  treated  of  by  Paxton, 
 Harris,  Carpenter,  Home,  and  the  Editor  of  Calmet's 
 Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 
 
 There  is  one  branch  of  natural  history  which  requires 
 to  be  noticed  here  on  account  of  the  important  bearing 
 which  it  is  made  to  have,  at  the  present  day,  on  the 
 Mosaic  history  of  the  creation,  we  mean  geology.  It 
 is  strenuously  maintained  by  geologists,  that,  without 
 the  aid  of  this  science,  as  it  is  now  improved  by  recent 
 researches  and  discoveries,  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis 
 cannot  be  properly  explained,  nor  the  true  origin  of  the 
 earth  understood.  It  therefore  becomes  necessary,  for 
 the  biblical  student  to  make  himself  acquainted  with 
 the  leading  facts  of  modern  geology,  in  order  that  he 
 may  be  able  to  judge  whether  or  not  these  lofty  claims 
 are  well  founded.  The  intelligent  curiosity  of  many, 
 in  every  country  of  Europe,  has  been  for  some  time,  and 
 still  continues  to  be  directed  to  a  minute  examination  of 
 the  mineralogical  contents  and  geological  structure  of 
 our  globe,  and  with  the  most  encouraging  success.  Sur- 
 prising discoveries  have  been  made  within  the  last  fifty 
 or  sixty  years,  the  remains  of  numerous  plants  and  animals 
 of  a  wonderful  structure  and  size,  have  been  found  im- 
 bedded in  the  strata  of  the  earth  at  a  great  depth,  and 
 many  important  facts  relative  to  the  present  surface  of 
 the  earth,  and  to  the  rocks  and  agencies  immediately  be- 
 low it,  have  been  disclosed,  trorn  an  examination  of 
 the  structure  and  size  of  these  fossil  remains,  both  of 
 plants  and  animals,  aided  by  a  knowledge  of  compara- 
 tive anatomy,  and  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms, 
 geologists  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  a  large  pro- 
 portion of  them  belong  to  species  which  now  no  where 
 exist  either  on  the  earth  or  in  the  ocean,  and  that  it  is 
 only  in  the  superficial  strata  of  the  earth  that  the  remains 
 of  plants  and  animals  now  existing  are  deposited.  From 
 a  regular  order  in  the  superposition  of  the  strata,  re- 
 curring at  distant  intervals,  and  accompanied  by  a  cur- 
 responding  regularity  in  the  order  of  succession  of  many 
 extinct  races  of  animals  and  vegetables,  and  various 
 other  facts,  geologists  farther  conclude,  that  several  de- 
 structions and  subsequent  new  creations  of  animals  and 
 plants  have  taken  place  all  over  the  surface  of  our  globe 
 since  its  original  production  out  of  nothing;  that  is,  whole 
 
 •roups  have  been  at  once  swept  from  existence  by  s ■ 
 
 powerful  catastrophe,  and  their  places  supplied  by  other 
 races  called  into  existence  by  the  creative  fiat  of  the 
 Almighty.  They  also  infer,  from  the  thickness  of  the 
 strata  containing  the  remains  of  extinct  species,  which 
 amounts  to  many  miles,  that  immense  periods  of  tune 
 were  necessary  to  bring  about  these  changes,  and  hence 
 that  the  materials  of  which  the  globe  is  composed,  existed 
 through  many  ages;  (>00,000  years  according  to  some, 
 prior  to  the  era  of  man's  creation  ;  for  that  man  mi  not 
 witness  to  any  of  these  changes,  they  consider  evident 
 from  the  fact  that  no  human  remains  have  hitherto  been 
 discovered  along  with  those  of  extinct  animals  and  vegct- 
 
XXX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ables,  or  lower  down  than  the  loose  sand  and  gravel  that 
 cover  the  surface  of  the  earth.  This  fact,  however,  has 
 been  disputed. — See  Turner's  Sacred  History,  vol.  i. 
 letter  xviii.  note  53 — BucklancCs  Bridgewater  Treatise, 
 vol.  i.  p.  103.  Geologists  also  contend  that  none  of  the 
 fossiliferous  strata  can  be  attributed  to  the  deluge  re- 
 corded in  scripture,  because  it  is  apparent,  from  their 
 structure  and  thickness,  that  they  must  have  been  deposited 
 by  some  watery  mass  remaining  over  them  in  a  state  of 
 tranquillity  for  a  vastly  longer  period  than  the  duration 
 of  Noah's  flood ;  the  traces  of  this  latter  catastrophe 
 being  to  be  sought  for  near  the  surface  of  the  earth.  For 
 the  evidences  which  geology  furnishes  in  proof  of  the 
 reality  of  the  Mosaic  deluge,  see  b.  i.  sect.  vi.  ch.  iii. 
 of  this  history. 
 
 As  these  conclusions  seem  to  contradict  the  history  of 
 the  creation  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  as  it  has 
 been  interpreted  by  the  generality  of  Christians  in  every 
 age,  geologists  have  proposed  various  hypotheses  with 
 the  view  of  reconciling  their  opinions  with  the  state- 
 ments of  the  Mosaic  record.  We  can  only  find  room  to 
 mention  two  of  these  that  have  met  with  the  greatest 
 support. 
 
 Several  eminent  geologists  have  supposed,  that  the 
 days  of  the  Mosaic  creation  do  not  imply  the  same 
 length  of  time  which  is  now  occupied  by  a  single  revolu- 
 tion of  the  globe,  but  successive  periods,  each  of  great 
 extent,  during  which  the  different  strata  with  their 
 organic  remains  were  deposited.  In  confirmation  of  this 
 hypothesis,  it  has  been  asserted  that  the  order  of  succes- 
 sion of  the  organic  remains  of  a  former  world,  accorded 
 with  the  order  of  creation  as  related  by  Moses.  As, 
 however,  more  recent  discoveries  have  shown  that  this 
 order  does  not  hold  in  many  cases,  and  as  such  an  in- 
 terpretation of  the  word  day  contradicts  the  express  de- 
 clarations of  scripture,  particularly  that  contained  in 
 the  fourth  commandment,  this  hypothesis  is  now  aban- 
 doned by  most  geologists,  and  even  by  some  who  were 
 its  chief  supporters. — See  BucklancTs  Bridg.  Treat,  vol. 
 i.  pp.  17,  507.  The  prevailing  hypothesis  now  is,  that 
 the  word  beginning,  as  applied  by  Moses  in  Genesis  i.  1. 
 expresses  an  undefined  period  of  time  which  was  ante- 
 cedent to  the  last  great  change  that  affected  the  surface 
 of  the  earth,  and  to  the  creation  of  its  present  animal 
 and  vegetable  inhabitants;  during  which  period  a  long- 
 series  of  operations  and  revolutions  have  been  going  on  ; 
 which,  as  they  are  wholly  unconnected  with  the  history  of 
 the  human  race,  are  passed  over  in  silence  by  the  sacred 
 historian,  whose  only  concern  with  them  was  barely  to 
 state  that  the  matter  of  the  universe  is  not  eternal  and  self- 
 existent,  but  was  originally  created  by  the  power  of  the 
 Almighty.  For  a  detail  of  the  various  arguments  in  sup- 
 port of  this  hypothesis,  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  Buck- 
 land's  work,  already  quoted  (vol.  i.  ch.  ii.),  and  although 
 it  may  be  considered  less  objectionable  than  the  former, 
 yet  it  is  not  free  from  difficulties,  as  the  more  candid 
 geologists  allow.  See  Prof.  Hitchcock's  Tract  on  the 
 connection  between  geology  and  the  Mosaic  account  of 
 the  creation — Student's  Cab.  Lib.  No.  xix.  We  cannot 
 help  thinking  that  geologists  have  been  too  premature 
 in  drawing  their  conclusions,  and  framing  theories  with 
 respect  to  the  origin  of  the  earth.  They  should  bear  in 
 mind  that  speculations  upon  these  points,  where  the  sub- 
 ject matter  is  confessedly  so  mysterious,  ought  always  to 
 
 be  indulged  in  with  extreme  caution,  as  being  liable  to 
 the  exaggerations  and  false  conclusions  of  an  excited 
 imagination.  The  science  of  geology  is  but  of  recent 
 origin,  and  although  its  progress  has  been  wonderfully 
 rapid,  will  any  one  venture  to  affirm  that  it  has  already 
 arrived  at  full  maturity,  or  that  future  researches  may 
 not  greatly  modify,  or  even  overturn  many  of  the  present 
 opinions  ?  Great  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the  alleged 
 fact,  that  no  fossilized  human  remains  have  been  discover- 
 ed in  juxtaposition  with  those  of  extinct  animals  and 
 vegetables ;  but  this,  although  it  may  be  true  with  regard 
 to  the  continents  of  Europe  and  America,  which  alone 
 have  been  partially  examined,  does  not  establish  the 
 conclusion  intended ;  namely,  that  these  animal  and 
 vegetable  remains  must  be  referred  to  a  period  much 
 more  remote  than  the  creation  of  man  ;  for  it  is  highly 
 probable  that  our  race  did  not  exist  out  of  Asia  until 
 some  time  after  the  deluge.  It  is  possible  that  fossilized 
 human  remains  may  be  found  in  those  parts  of  Asia  in- 
 habited by  the  antediluvians,  and  therefore  geologists 
 ought  at  least  to  have  explored  the  Armenian,  Baby- 
 lonian, and  Mesopotamian  regions  before  they  made 
 their  decision.  Let  it  be  gTanted  that  the  first  verse  of 
 the  book  of  Genesis  may  bear  the  construction  put  upon 
 it  by  geologists,  which  is  by  no  means  certain,  still  it 
 seems  inconsistent  with  the  ideas  which  the  Bible  leads 
 us  to  form  respecting  the  wisdom  of  the  Creator,  to  sup- 
 pose that  the  earth  which  we  inhabit  was,  during  thou- 
 sands of  ages,  utterly  abandoned  to  reptiles,  lizards,  and 
 hideous  monsters,  and  all  this  to  serve  no  beneficial 
 purpose  which  we  can  perceive.  Can  it  be  that  such 
 loathsome  and  contemptible  existences  as  these,  were  for 
 myriads  of  ages  the  lords  of  the  creation,  instead  of  the 
 image  of  the  living  God. — See  Prof.  Stuart's  Tract  on 
 the  Modern  Doctrines  of  Geology — Stud-  Cab.  Lib. 
 
 The  remarks  of  an  enlightened  philosopher  of  the 
 present  day,  on  these  subjects,  are  so  judicious  and  ex- 
 cellent, that  we  have  great  pleasure  in  giving  them  a 
 place  here  '  Although  it  is  true  that  many  of  the 
 geological  phenomena  have  been  represented  by  these 
 observers,  and  others,  to  indicate  that  our  earth  has  had 
 a  much  longer  duration  than  the  strictest  import  of  the 
 terms  used  by  Moses  can  allow,  and  especially  in  the 
 succession  of  its  organized  races,  yet,  after  the  most 
 patient  comparison  and  consideration  of  their  facts  and 
 reasonings,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  they  have  not  at  all 
 advanced  beyond  plausible  conjectures,  as  I  also  per- 
 ceive that  they  are  mostly  at  variance  with  each  other ; 
 and  that  as  fast  as  one  theory  of  this  sort  is  set  up,  it 
 has  been  found  to  be  wrong  by  a  succeeding  inquirer, 
 who  attempts,  in  his  turn,  to  establish  a  different  one,  of 
 the  same  tendency,  in  its  stead.  These  are  all  fair 
 exertions  of  ingenuity,  and  arise  from  a  desire  to  let  no 
 fallacy  stand,  and  from  a  love  of  exploring  what  has 
 baffled  anterior  research  ;  but  these  circumstances  prove 
 that  none  of  these  theories  are  true, — that  the  right 
 theory  has  not  yet  been  discovered,— that  erroneous  de- 
 ductions have  been  made  from  the  phenomena  which 
 have  been  seen, — and  that  these  are  not  yet  justly  un- 
 derstood, nor  their  real  bearings  discerned.  Hence,  1 
 continue  in  the  belief,  that  whatever  is  true  in  fact  and 
 correct  in  inference  on  this  subject,  will  be  in  the  end 
 found  to  be  not  inconsistent  with  the  account  of  Moses, 
 nor  with  the   common  meaning  of  the  expressions  he 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxi 
 
 uses.  In  studying'  the  scriptures,  it  is  peculiarly  de- 
 sirable that  we  should,  on  no  occasion,  depart  any  more 
 from  the  usual  and  natural  meaning  of  the  words  and 
 phrases  which  there  occur,  than  we  do  in  reading-  any 
 other  author.  They  have  been  greatly  disfigured  by 
 the  forced  construction  which  most  men  seek  to  put  upon 
 them ;  and  much  dissatisfaction  has  by  this  conduct  been 
 excited  in  the  intelligent  mind.  The  true  construction 
 of  every  part  must  be,  not  the  possibilities  of  meaning 
 which  refining  ingenuity  may  draw  from  the  expression, 
 but  that  sense  and  purport  which  the  author  himself,  in 
 penning  them,  intended  that  they  should  express.  His 
 personal  meaning  at  the  time,  and  not  the  import  which 
 our  verbal  criticism  can  now  extract,  should  be  the  great 
 object  of  our  attention.  And  therefore  it  appears  to 
 me  to  be  most  probable,  that  whenever  the  right  theory 
 on  the  fabrication  of  our  earth,  and  on  the  era  and  suc- 
 cession of  its  organized  beings,  shall  be  discovered,  it 
 will  be  found  to  be  compatible  with  the  Mosaic  cosmo- 
 gony, in  its  most  natural  signification,  But  until  this 
 desirable  event  arrives,  there  will  be  as  much  incongru- 
 ity between  this  ancient  account  and  our  modern  specu- 
 lations, as  there  cannot  but  be  between  the  devious  ex- 
 cursions of  an  active  imagination,  and  the  simple  and 
 solid,  but  unattractive  reality.  Our  German  contem- 
 poraries, in  some  of  their  reveries  on  ancient  history, 
 are  equally  alert  to  prove  that  novelty  of  fancy  is  more 
 sought  for  by  many  than  justness  of  thought, — that  it  is 
 easier  to  argue  than  to  judge, — and  that  even  truth  be- 
 comes weariness  when  it  ceases  to  be  original,  and  has 
 lost  the  impression  of  its  beauty  by  its  habitual  fami- 
 liarity. It  is  quite  true  that  Moses  did  not  profess  to  be 
 a  geologist,  and  had  no  business  to  be  so.  His  object 
 was,  not  to  teach  natural  science,  but  to  inculcate  the 
 existence,  the  laws,  the  will,  and  the  worship  of  God  ; 
 and  to  found  the  polity  and  social  manners  and  insti- 
 tutions of  his  countrymen,  on  this  only  true  foundation 
 of  national  prosperity  and  of  individual  happiness. 
 But  as  he  was  the  chosen  organ  of  divine  truth  to  man, 
 on  his  moral  and  religious  duties,  it  is  most  probable 
 that  what  he  expresses  on  other  subjects,  in  those  com- 
 positions which  were  to  be  the  permanent  guides  of  the 
 opinions  and  conduct  of  his  nation,  will  be  also  what  is 
 true  and  proper.  It  is  most  consistent  with  all  that  we 
 know  of  intelligent  agency,  to  suppose  that  he  who  was 
 instructed  or  guided  to  be  the  lawgiver  and  sacred  pre- 
 ceptor of  his  people,  would  be  likewise  so  informed,  or 
 influenced,  as  to  avoid  falsehood  on  every  collateral 
 subject  which  it  would  be  in  the  course  of  his  narration 
 to  notice.  If  we  were  directing  or  assisting  any  pupil 
 to  write  on  any  topic,  we  should  certainly  not  suffer  him 
 to  insert  any  thing  that  we  knew  to  be  a  fiction  or  a 
 fallacy.  It  is  therefore  most  rational  to  suppose  that 
 the  same  precaution  was  used  by  the  Deity  towards  his 
 selected  messenger.  Hence,  I  am  induced  to  believe 
 that  what  Moses  expresses  incidentally  on  other  points 
 besides  those  of  his  divine  legislation,  is  substantially 
 true,  and  will  be  found  to  be  so,  as  soon  as  his  judges 
 or  readers  have  acquired  competent  knowledge.  It  is 
 our  deficiency  in  this  which  hurries  us  to  discredit,  or 
 to  doubt,  or  oppose  him.  But  on  no  collateral  point, 
 additional  to  his  main  subject,  was  he  more  likely  to 
 have  been  correct,  either  from  true  human  traditions  of 
 preceding  knowledge,  or  communications,  or   from  new 
 
 supplementary  aid,  so  far  as  that  was  needed,  than  in 
 his  notices  of  the  divine  creation.  This  was  indeed  the 
 true  basis  of  his  mission  and  tuition  ;  and  it  is  brought 
 prominently  forward  at  once  to  our  view,  as  if  it  were 
 meant  to  be  so.  His  brief  intimations  are,  therefore, 
 most  probably  the  just  outlines  of  all  true  geology;  and 
 thus  far  we  may  affirm,  that  the  more  our  materials  of 
 judgment  are  increased  by  the  multiplying  labours  of 
 our  geological  students,  the  less  founded  any  op- 
 posing speculations  appear  to  become.  It  is  now 
 thirty-five  years  since  my  attention  was  first  directed  to 
 these  considerations.  It  was  then  the  fashion  for  science 
 and  for  a  large  part  of  the  educated  and  inquisitive 
 world,  to  rush  into  a  disbelief  of  all  written  revelation  ; 
 and  several  geological  speculations  were  directed 
 against  it.  But  I  have  lived  to  see  the  most  hostile  of 
 these  destroyed  by  their  as  hostile  successors  ;  and  to 
 observe  that  nothing  which  was  of  this  character,  however 
 plausible  at  the  moment  of  its  appearance,  has  had  any 
 duration  in  human  estimation,  not  even  among  the  scepti- 
 cal. Augmented  knowledge  has,  from  time  to  time,  over- 
 thrown the  erroneous  reasonings  with  which  the  Mosaic 
 account  has  been  repeatedly  assailed  ;  and  has  actually 
 brought  to  light  more  facts  in  its  favour,  than  at  this  late 
 period  of  the  earth  could  have  been  expected  to  occur. 
 Those  which  are  of  this  description  are  enlarging  in 
 number  every  year;  and  therefore  my  belief  is,  that  the 
 veracity  of  the  chief  Hebrew  historian  will  be  ultimately 
 found  to  be  as  exact  in  what  lie  has  recorded  in  the  cos- 
 mogony with  which  he  commences  his  work,  as  it  is  in 
 the  account  of  his  own  legislation.  There  is  certainly 
 no  appearance  as  yet  that  any  contradictory  theory  will 
 long  survive  its  public  enunciation.  Magna  est  Veritas, 
 et  prevalebit,  is  the  everlasting  axiom.  Truth,  and  truth 
 only,  will  obtain  any  immortality  in  the  intellectual,  and 
 therefore  in  our  literary  and  social  world.' — Turner's 
 Sacred  History,  vol.  i.  pp.  30 — .34.  London  1832. 
 
 Every  lover  of  science,  and  every  enlightened  friend  of 
 religion,  must  applaud  the  noble  and  zealous  efforts 
 which  so  many  learned  and  talented  individuals  of  the 
 present  day  are  making,  to  penetrate  the  recesses  of 
 nature,  and  to  discover  the  wonders  that  are  hid  in  the 
 deep  places  of  the  earth.  The  book  of  nature  and  the 
 book  of  Revelation  proceed  from  the  same  almighty  and 
 all-wise  source,  and  therefore  what  is  contained  in  the 
 one  must  harmonize  with  what  is  contained  in  the  other. 
 It  is  only  our  weak  and  erring  understandings  that 
 hinder  us  from  perceiving  this  harmony  in  any  particular 
 instance ;  but  we  may  rest  assured,  that  the  phenomena 
 of  nature,  when  rightly  interpreted,  will,  instead  of 
 opposing  and  contradicting  revelation,  be  found  to  con- 
 firm and  support  it.  Already  has  geology  lent  its  aid 
 in  this  way, — it  has  furnished  indubitable  evidence  that 
 this  earth  could  not  have  existed  from  eternity,  but  must 
 have  had  a  beginning  ;  that  it  was  originally  in  a  state  of 
 chaos,  and  its  surface  buried  under  the  deep;  and  that 
 at  a  period  less  remote  its  surface  was  again  swept  over 
 by  a  deluge.  (See  b.  i.  sect.  vi.  ch.  iii.  of  this  history.) 
 These  and  several  other  circumstances  recorded  in  scrip- 
 ture history,  receive  confirmation  from  the  fad  which 
 geology  has  disclosed,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe 
 that  future  inquiries  will  elicit  additional  evidence  of  this 
 kind. — See  Prof.  Hitchcock's  Tract,  Student*  Cab.  Lib. 
 No.  xix.     Let  the  geologist  then  pursue  his  researches 
 
XXX11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with  all  possible  zeal  and  ardour ;  but  let  him  do  so  in 
 a  proper  spirit,  and  by  a  patient  investigation  of  facts ; 
 let  him  abstain  from  rash  speculations,  into  which  the 
 objects  of  his  inquiries  are,  from  their  very  nature,  ex- 
 ceedingly apt  to  plunge  him.  Instead  of  attempting  to 
 accommodate  scripture  to  his  own  conclusions,  let  him 
 carefully  examine  whether  these  conclusions  be  accurate, 
 
 or  whether  they  may  not  be  so  modified  as  to  be  in  accord- 
 ance with  the  declarations  of  scripture,  taken  in  their 
 most  natural  and  obvious  sense.  In  this  way  may  he 
 reasonably  hope  to  meet  with  success,  and  to  arrive  at 
 conclusions  which  shall  harmonize  with  those  parts  of 
 Scripture,  between  which  and  geology  there  is  at  pre- 
 sent a  seeming  inconsistency. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE 
 
 BOOK   I. 
 
 CONTAINING   AN   ACCOUNT  OF  THINGS  FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD,  IN   ALL  1656  YEARS; 
 ACCORDING  TO  DB  HALES  2256  YEARS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The  Pentateuch  or  five  books  of  Moses,  designated 
 Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers,  and  Deuteronomy, 
 contains  the  authentic  history  of  the  world  during  a 
 period  of  2515  years.  "  It  is  a  wide  description,  gra- 
 dually contracted;  an  account  of  one  nation,  preceded 
 by  a  general  sketch  of  the  first  state  of  mankind.  The 
 books  are  written  in  pure  Hebrew,  with  an  admirable 
 diversity  of  style,  always  well  adapted  to  the  subject, 
 yet  characterised  with  the  stamp  of  the  sains  author : 
 they  are  all  evidently  parts  of  the  same  work,  and  mu- 
 tually strengthen  and  illustrate  each  other.1 
 
 The  name  of  the  first  Book  of  the  Pentateuch,  Genesis, 
 which  signifies  generation  or  production,  has  been  given 
 to  this  portion  of  the  Sacred  Canon,  because  it  contains 
 an  account  of  the  generation  or  production  of  all  things. 
 "  It  narrates  the  true  origin  and  history  of  all  created 
 things,  in  opposition  to  the  erroneous  notions  entertained 
 by  the  heathen  nations ;  the  origin  of  sin,  and  of  all  moral 
 and  physical  evil;  the  establishment  of  the  knowledge 
 and  worship  of  the  only  true  God  among  mankind ;  their 
 declension  into  idolatry;  the  promise  of  the  Messias; 
 together  with  the  origin  of  the  church,  and  her  progress 
 and  condition  for  many  ages.  It  makes  known  to  the 
 Israelites  the  providential  history  of  their  ancestors, 
 and  the  divine  promises  made  to  them ;  and  shows  them 
 the  reason  why  the  Almighty  chose  Abraham  and  his 
 posterity  to  be  a  peculiar  people,  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
 other  nations, — that  from  them  should  spring  the  Mes- 
 siah. This  circumstance  must  be  kept  in  view  through- 
 out the  reading  of  this  Book,  as  it  will  illustrate  many 
 otherwise  unaccountable  circumstances  there  related. 
 It  was  this  hope  that  led  Eve  to  exclaim,  '  I  have  gotten 
 a  man — the  Lord.'  The  polygamy  of  Lamech  may  be 
 accounted  for  by  the  hope  that  the  Messiah  would  be 
 born  of  some  of  his  posterity, — as  also,  the  incest  of 
 Lot's  daughters, — Sarah's  impatienc3  of  her  barrenness, 
 — the   polygamy  of  Jacob — the  consequent  jealousies 
 
 '  Grny's  Key  to  the  Old  Testament,  p.  76. 
 
 between  Leah  and  Rachel: — the  jealousies  between 
 Ishmael  and  Isaac,  and  especially  Rebekah's  preference 
 of  Jacob  to  Esau."2 
 
 SECT.   I. 
 
 CHAP.  1.— Of  the  Creation  of  the  World. 
 
 THE    INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4101;  or.  according  to  Hales,  5411.  Gen.  ch.  1. 
 ami  part  (it  ch.  'i. 
 
 The  chief  design  of  the  author  of  the  Pentateuch  is,  to 
 give  a  short  account  of  the  formation  of  the  earth,  and 
 the  origin  of  mankind;  of  the  most  remarkable  events 
 that  attended  them  in  the  infancy  of  the  world ;  and  of 
 the  transactions  of  one  particular  nation  more  especially, 
 from  whence  the  Messias  was  to  spring:  and  therefore 
 it  cannot  be  well  expected,  that  he  should  extend  his 
 history  to  the  creation  of  the  supreme  empyrean  heaven, 
 
 which  God  might  make  the  place  of  his  own  residence, 
 and  the  mansions  of  those  celestial  beings,  whom  be 
 constituted  the  ministers  of  his  court,  and  attendants  on 
 his  throne,"  an  immense  space  of  time,  perhaps,  before  the 
 
 2  Home's  Introduction,  &C,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  .r>,  (>. 
 a  This  i,  no  novel  notion  of  "in-  own,  but  whit  has  bet  a  con- 
 firmed by  many  great  authorities,  a-  the  learned  ami  ingenious 
 Dr  Unmet  testifies.     For,  speaking  of  some,  who  sup|  o 
 the  whole  universe  was  created  at  one  and  the  same  time,  and 
 the  highe  t  heaven  and  angels  included  in  the  first  day's  work, 
 "It  may  be  here  proper,"  Bays  he,  "to  present  the  words  ol 
 Hieronymus."     "The  age  of  this  globe  hath  not  yet  reached  its 
 six  thousandth  year,  and  how  many  eternities,  how  many  cyi  l<  b, 
 how  maiiv  centuries  must  we  conceive  to  have  i  risted  i  rior  to 
 that   time,   in  which   angels,   thrones,   dominions,   aim 
 powers  worshipped  the  omnipotent     In  a  boob  on  the  Trintty, 
 (either  \<y  Novation  or  Tertuliian),  a  world  ■  ■■ 
 ()l,r  firms  I  to  have  bi  i  n  en  -.;■  .1  bi      •    th<    Mosaic 
 
 world,  in  these  words,  that  in  the  higher  sphen  •  God  fa 
 
 ited    angi  Is,    appoint)  d    spiritual    pow< 
 thrones,  dominions,  &c.t  and  framed  many  other  i 
 
 :,t    this    WOI   d 
 
 been  the   latest  than   the  sole  work  of  the    D.ity.      In 
 
 :  iM  his  time,  that  is,  in  I  ol  the 
 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  JBook  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A    C.  4004;   Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5111.  GEN.  C!l.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CH.  2. 
 
 Mosaic  account  of  the  origination  of  this  planetary  world 
 begins. 
 
 In  the  introduction  of  the  history  indeed  we  are  told, 
 that '  God  created  a  the  heaven  and  the  earth  : '  but  when 
 it  is  considered,  that  heaven  in  Scripture  language,  is 
 Very  commonly  set  to  signify  no  more  than  the  upper 
 region  of  the  air;  that  we  frequently  read  of '  'the  fir- 
 mament of  heaven,2  the  windows  of  heaven,3  the  bottles 
 of  heaven,  and4  the  hoary  frost  of  heaven,'  &c,  none  of 
 which  extend  beyond  our  atmosphere,  we  have  no 
 grounds  to  conclude,  that  at  one  and  the  same  time  God 
 created  every  thing  that  is  contained  in  the  vast  extra- 
 nundane  spaces  of  the  universe.  On  the  contrary,  when 
 we  find  him  recounting  to  Job,  that  at  the  time D  '  when 
 ho  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  the  morning  stars 
 sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy,' 
 we  cannot  but  infer,  that  these  stars,  and  these  sons  of 
 God,  were  pre-existent;  and  consequently  no  part  of  the 
 Mosaic  creation. 
 
 By  the  heaven  therefore  we  are  to  understand  no 
 more,  than  that  part  of  the  world  which*  we  behold  above 
 us:  but  then  I  imagine  we  have  very  good  reason  to 
 extend  our  conceptions  of  this  world  above  us  so  far,  as 
 to  include  in  it  the  whole  planetary  system.  h  The 
 truth  is,  the  several  planets  that  are  contained  within  the 
 magnus  orbis,  (as  it  is  called),  or  the  circle  which  Sa- 
 
 1  (Jen.  i.  20.         2  Gen.  vii.  11.         3  Job  xxxviii.  37. 
 4  Job  xxxviii.  29.         5  Ibid.  ver.  4,  7. 
 fifth  century,   it  was  the   common   opinion  of  Catholics,    that 
 before  the  beginning  of  the  Geneseos,  viz.,  the  birth  of  the 
 Mosaic  world:  it  was  beyond  a  doubt  God  must  have  created  all 
 these  heavenly  powers."     Burnet's  Arch.  Phil.  c.  8. 
 
 a  By  heaven,  some  understand  in  this  place  the  highest 
 super-firmamentary  heaven,  and  by  the  earth,  that  pre-existent, 
 matter  whereof  the  earth  was  originally  made;  and  so  the  sense 
 of  the  words  will  be — "that  God  at  first  created  the  matter 
 whereof  the  whole  universe  was  composed,  all  at  once,  in  an 
 instant,  and  by  a  word's  speaking;  but  it  was  the  supreme 
 heaven  only  which  he  then  finished,  and  formed  into  a  most 
 excellent  order,  for  the  place  of  his  own  residence,  and  the 
 habitation  of  his  holy  angels;  the  earth  was  left  rude  and  indi- 
 gested, in  the  manner  that  Moses  has  described  it,  until  there 
 should  be  a  fit  occasion  for  its  being  revised,  and  set  in  order 
 likewise." 
 
 b  The  better  to  understand  this,  and  some  other  matters,  in 
 our  explication  of  the  formation  of  celestial  bodies,  it  is  proper 
 to  observe,  that  there  are  three  more  remarkable  systems  of  the 
 world,  the  Ptolemaic,  Copernican,  and  what  is  called  the  New 
 System,  which  astronomers  have  devised. 
 
 1.  In  the  Ptolemaic,  the  earth  and  waters  are  supposed  to  be 
 in  the  centre  of  the  universe,  next  to  which  is  the  element  of 
 air,  and  next  above  that  the  element  of  fire;  then  the  orb  of 
 Mercury,  then  that  of  Venus,  and  then  that  of  the  Sun ;  above 
 the  sun's  orb  those  of  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn ;  and  above 
 them  all,  the  orbs  of  the  fixed  stars,  then  the  crystalline  orbs, 
 and  lastly,  the  cwlum  empyreum,  or  heaven  of  heavens.  All 
 these  massy  orbs,  and  vast  bodies  borne  by  them,  are  in  this 
 system  supposed  to  move  round  the  terraqueous  globe  once  in 
 twenty-four  hours ;  and  beside  that,  to  perform  other  revolutions 
 in  certain  periodical  times,  according  to  their  distance  from  the 
 supposed  centre,  and  the  different  circumference  they  take. 
 
 2.  Id  the  Copernican  system,  the  sun  is  supposed  to  be  in  the 
 mitre,  and  the  heavens  and  earth  to  revolve  round  about  it, 
 according  to  their  several  periods;  first  Mercury,  then  Venus, 
 then  the  Earth  with  its  satellite  the  Moon;  then  Mars,  then 
 Jupiter  with  its  four  moons;  lastly,  Saturn  with  its  five,  or 
 more  moons  revolving  round  it;  and  beyond,  or  above  all  these, 
 is  the  firmament,  or  region  of  fixed  stars,  which  are  all  supposed 
 to  be  at  equal  distances  from  their  centre  the  sun. 
 
 3.  In  the  New  System,  the  sun  and  planets  have  the  same 
 Sue  and  position  as  in  the  Copernican;  but  then,  whereas  the 
 Copernican  supposes  the  firmament  ot'  the  fixed  stars  to  be  the 
 
 turn.  Herscheil,  or  Urania  describes  about  the  sun,  have 
 so  near  a  similitude  and  relation :  the  same  form,  the 
 same  centre,  and  the  same  common  luminary  with  one 
 another,  that  it  can  hardly  be  imagined  but  that  they 
 were  the  production  of  one  and  the  same  creation.  And 
 therefore,  though  the  historian  seems  chiefly  to  regard 
 the  earth  in  his  whole  narration ;  yet  there  is  reason  to 
 presume,  that  the  other  parts  of  the  planetary  world 
 went  all  along  on  in  the  same  degrees  of  formation 
 with  it. 
 
 2.  It  is  to  be  observed  farther,  that  this  planetary 
 world,  or  system  of  things,  was  tiot  immediately  created 
 out  of  nothing,  (as  very  probably  the  supreme  heavens 
 were,)  but  out  of  somdfcsuch  pre-existent  matter  as  the 
 ancient  heathens  were  wont  to  call  chaos.  And  accord- 
 ingly we  may  observe,  that  in  the  history  which  Moses 
 gives  us  of  the  creation,  he  does  not  say,  that  God  at 
 once  made  all  things  in  their  full  perfection,  but  that 
 c '  In  the  beginning  he  created  the  earth,1  that  is,  the  mat- 
 ter whereof  the  chaos  was  composed,  which  '  was  without 
 form,'  without  atiy  shape  or  order,  '  and  void,'  without 
 any  thing  living  or  growing  in  it ;  '  and  darkness  was 
 upon  the  face  of  the  waters,'  nothing-  was  seen  for  want 
 of  light,  which  lay  buried  in  the  vast  abyss. 
 
 According  to  tradition,  then,  and  the  representation 
 which  this  inspired  author  seems  to  give  us,  ^  this  chaos 
 
 bounds  of  the  universe,  and  placed  at  equal  distance  from  its 
 centre  the  sun ;  this  new  hypothesis  supposes,  that  there  are 
 many  more  systems  of  suns  and  planets,  besides  that  in  whieh 
 we  have  our  habitation;  that  every  fixed  star,  in  short,  is  a  sun, 
 encompassed  with  its  complement  of  planets,  both  primary  and 
 secondary,  as  well  as  ours;  and  that  these  stars,  with  their 
 planets  are  placed  at  regular  distances  from  each  other,  and, 
 according  tnitheir  distances  from  us,  seem  to  vary  in  their 
 respective  magnitudes. — Derhanis  Astro-theology,  in  the  pre- 
 liminary discourse. 
 
 c  What  our  translators  render  'in  the  beginning'  some 
 learned  men  have  made  '  in  wisdom  God  created  the  .heavens 
 and  the  earth;'  not  only  because  the  Jerusalem  targum  has  it 
 so,  but  because  the  Psalmist,  paraphrasing  upon  the  works  of  the 
 creation,  breaks  forth  into  this  admiration.  'O  Lord!  how 
 wonderful  are  thy  works,  in  wisdom  hast  thou  made  them  all,' 
 Ps.  civ.  24.  And  again,  exhorting  us  to  give  thanks  unto  the 
 Lord  for  his  manifold  mercies,  he  adds,  '  who  by  wisdom  made 
 the  heavens,'  Ps.  exxxvi.  5.  where,  by  wisdom,  as  some  imagine, 
 he  means  the  Son  of  God,  by  whom,  says  the  evangelist,  John 
 i.  3.  '  all  things  were  made,  or  all  things  created,'  says  the 
 apostle,  Col.  i.  1G.  '  that  are  in  heaven,  and  that  are  in  the 
 earth;'  and  therefore  the  meaning  of  the  jiluase  must  be,  that 
 God,  in  creating  the  world,  made  use  of  the  agency  of  his  Sou. 
 Among  the  ancients  (says  Petavius,  on  the  work  of  the  six 
 days,  B.  1.,  c.  1.)  it  was  a  well  known  and  very  common  opin- 
 ion, that  by  the  noun  principiwn,  or  beginning,  was  signified 
 the  Word  or  Son.  And  to  this  interpretation  the  word  Elohim 
 in  the  plural  number,  joined  with  bara  a  verb  singular,  seems  to 
 give  some  countenance ;  though  others  are  of  opinion,  that  a 
 noun  plural,  governing  a  verb  singular,  is  no  more  than  the 
 common  idiom  of  the  Hebrew  tongue;  and  for  this  idiom  a  very 
 considerable  commentator  assigns  this  reason:  —  That  the 
 Hebrew  language  was  originally  that  of  the  Canaanites,  a  people 
 strangely  addicted  to  idolatry  and  polytheism ;  and  who  there- 
 fore made  more  use  of  the  plural  Elohim,  than  of  the  singulai 
 Eloah;  which  usage  the  Jews  continued,  though  they  were 
 zealous  assertors  of  the  unity  of  the  Godhead,  and  thereupon 
 most  commonly  joined  a  verb  of  the  singular  number  with  it, 
 pursuant  to  their  notions  of  the  divine  unity. — Le  Clercs  dissert. 
 De  ling.  Hebraica. 
 
 d  To  mention  one  author  out  of  the  many  which  Grotius  has 
 cited,  Ovid,  in  the  beginning  of  his  Metamorphoses  has  given 
 us  this  description  of  it : 
 
 Before  the  appearance  of  the  earth  and  sky 
 Which  nwereth  all  things,  Nature 
 
Sect,  l.j 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 A.  M.  I.  A.  C.  4004;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI.ES.  5411.  ..K.\ 
 was  a  fluid  mass,  wherein  were  the  materials  and  ingTe- 
 dienls  of  all  bodies,  but  mingled  in  confusion  with  one 
 another,  so  that  heavy  and  light,  dense  and  rare,  fluid 
 and  solid  particles,  were  jumbled  together,  and  the 
 atoms  or  small  constituent  parts  of  fire,  air,  water,  and 
 earth,  (which  have  since  obtained  the  name  of  elements), 
 were  every  one  in  every  place,  and  all  in  a  wild  confu- 
 sion and  disorder.  This  seems  to  be  a  part  of  God's 
 original  creation;  but  why  he  suffered  it  to  continue  .so 
 long,  before  he  transformed  it  into  an  habitable  world, 
 is  a  question  oidy  resolvable  into  the  divine  pleasure : 
 since,  according  to  the  ideas  we  have  of  his  moral  per- 
 fections, there  is  nothing  to  fix  the  creation  of  any  thing 
 sooner  or  later,  than  his  own  .arbitrary  will  determined. 
 Only  we  may  imagine,  that,  after  the  revolt  of  so  man) 
 angels,  God,  intending  to  make  a  new  race  of  creatures, 
 in  order  to  supply  their. place,  and  (ill  up  (as  it  were) 
 the  vacancy  in  heaven;  and  withal,  resolving  to  make 
 trial  of  their  obedience  before  he  admitted  them  into  his 
 beatific  presence,  singled  out  one  (as  perhaps  " there 
 might  be  many  chaotic  bodies  in  the  universe)  placed  at 
 a  proper  distance  from  his  own  empyrean  seat,  to  be  the 
 habitation  of  the  creatures  he  was  about  to  form,  and 
 might  delay  the  fitting  it  up  for  them  vuitil  the  time 
 which  his  infinite  wisdom  had  determined  for  their  crea- 
 tion was  fully  come. 
 
 3.  It  is  to  be  observed  farther,  that  though  Moses 
 might  have  in  his  view  the  whole  planetary  system,  and 
 know  very  well,  that  every  day  each  planet  advanced  in 
 the  same  proportion,  as  the  earth  did  in  its  formation : 
 yet  what  he  principally  chose  to  insist  on  (as  a  specimen 
 of  all  the  rest)  was  this  sublunary  creation.  He  who 
 was  versed  in  all  '  the  learning  of  the  Egyptians,'  could 
 not  be  unacquainted  with  the  vulgar,  or  what  is  usually 
 called  the  Ptolemaic  hypothesis,  which  came  originally 
 from  Egypt  into  Greece ;  and  yet,  instead  of  expressing 
 his  notions  according  to  this,  or  any  other  system,  we 
 find  him  giving  us  a  plain  narrative,  how  matters  were 
 transacted,  without  asserting  or  denying  any  philosophic 
 truth.  Had  he  indeed  talked  a  great  deal  of  globular 
 and  angular  particles,  of  centrical  motion,  planetary 
 vortices,  atmospheres  of  comets,  the  earth's  rotation, 
 and  the  sun's  rest,  he  might  possibly  have  pleased  the 
 taste  of  some  theorists  better;  but  theories  we  know  are 
 things  of  uncertain  mode.  They  depend  in  a  great 
 measure  upon  the  humour  and  caprice  of  an  age,  which 
 
 Throughout  the  Universe  had  hut  one  form 
 Which  men  have  named  Chaos— 'Tu-as  a 
 Raw  ami  shapeless  mass — a  heap  of  nature's 
 Discordant  seeds  wildly  huddled  together 
 Nor  else  but  useless  weight,  &c. 
 
 a  If  matter  existed  as  chaos  before   the   beginning   of  the 
 
 Mo-aii-  world,  what  was  it?  for  what  purpose,  or  in  what  place 
 did  it  exist  before  that  time?  1  answer,  that  things  such  as 
 these  are  not  too  narrowly  to  he  searched  after,  since,  iii  a  great 
 measure,  they  exceed  the  ppwer  of  human  investigation.  Tims, 
 we  sec  at  times  stars  arising  in  our  hemisphere  which  never 
 before  hail  been  apparent,  hut  wince  pre-existence  in  some  shape, 
 and  in  some  quarter  of  the  universe,  cannot  properly  l»-  doubted 
 And,  also,  comets  are  frequently  discovered,  concerning  whose 
 origin  and  first  place  of  abode  the  abilities  of  man  cannot,  elicit 
 the  least  dawning  of  information.  In  line,  it  is  not  to  he  sup- 
 posed tltat  the  heavens  themselves  are  free  from  decay, — the 
 celestial  as  well  as  the  terrestrial  bodies  must  have  their  inver- 
 sions and  transmutations;  and  by  the  lapse  of  time  and  return  oi 
 chaos,  the  fixed  stars  may  he  converted  into  planets,  and  planet  -. 
 when  their  deteriorated  matter  is  consumed,  in  their  turn  may 
 become  fixed  star-,  &c, —  Burnet's  Archeol.  Phil.,  e.  9. 
 
 CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CH.  2. 
 is  sometimes  in  love  with  one,  and  sometimes  with  an- 
 other.    But  this  account  of  Moses  was  to  last  for  ever, 
 as  being  the  ground -work  which  God  designed  for  all 
 his  future  revelations;  and  therefore  i:  site  to 
 
 have  it  framed  in  such  a  manner,  as  that  it  might  con- 
 descend to  the  meanest  capacity,  and  jet  not  contradict 
 any  received  notions  of  philosophy. 
 
 The  Jews,  it  must  be  owned,  were  a  nation  of  no 
 great  genius  for  learning;  and  therefore,  if  Moses  had 
 given  them  a  false  system  of  the  creation,  such  as  a 
 simple  people  might  be  apt  to  fancy,  he  had  both  made 
 himself  an  impostor,  and  exposed  his  writings  to  the 
 contempt  and  derision  of  every  man  of  understanding: 
 and  yet,  to  have  given  them  a  particular  explication  of 
 the  true  one,  must  have  made  the  illiterate  look  upon 
 him  as  a  wild  romancer,  By  God's  direction,  therefore, 
 he  took  the  middle  and  wisest  way,  which  was  to  -\  eak 
 exact  truth,  but  cautiously,  and  in  such  general  terms  as 
 might  neither  confound  the  minds  of  the  ignorant  Jews, 
 nor  expose  him  to  the  censure  of  philosophizing  Chris- 
 tians: and  we  may  well  account  it  an  evident  token  of 
 a  particular  providence  of  God  overruling  this  inspired 
 penman,  that  he  has  drawn  up  the  cosmogony  in  such  a 
 maimer,  as  makes  it  of  perpetual  uBe  and  application; 
 forasmuch  as  it  contains  no  peculiar  notions  of  his  own, 
 no  principles  borrowed  from  the  ancient  exploded  phi- 
 losophy, nor  any  repugnant  to  the  various  discoveries 
 of  the  new. 
 
 4.  It  is  to  be  observed  farther,  in  relation  to  tin.-,  ac- 
 count of  Moses,  that  when  God  is  said  to  give  tie-  word, 
 and  every  thing  thereupon  proceeded  to  its  formation, 
 he  did  not  leave  matter  and  motion  to  do  their  best, 
 whilst  he  stood  by  (according  to  Dr  Cudworth's  expres- 
 sion) as  an  idle  spectator  of  this  .-port  of  atoms,  and  the 
 various  results  of  it;  but  himself  interposed,  and,  <■<..,- 
 ducting  the  whole  process,  gave  not  only  life  and  I 
 but  form  and  figure  to  every  part  of  the  creation. 
 
 The  warmest  abettors  of  mechanical  principles  do  not 
 deny,  but  that l  a  divine  energy  at  least  must  be  admitted 
 in  this  case,  where  a  world  was  to  be  formed,  and  a  wild 
 chaos  reduced  to  a  fair,  regular,  and  permanent  system. 
 The  immediate  hand  of  God  (they  cannot  but  acfc 
 ledge)  is  apparent  in  a  miracle,  which   is  an   infraction, 
 upon  the  standing  laws  of  nature;  but  cert 
 miracles,  the  creation  of  the  world   is  the  greate 
 only  as  it  signifies  the  production  of  matter  ami  motion 
 out  of  nothing,  bm  as  it  was  lik.  wging  and 
 
 putting  things  into  such  order,  as  might  make  them 
 capable  of  the  laws  of  motion  which  were  to  be  ordained 
 for  them.  -For  whatever  notions  we  ma)  have  of  the 
 stated  economy  of  things  now.  it  is  certain  that  the  laws 
 of  motion    (with   which   philosophers   make  such   n< 
 
 could  not  take  place  before  ever)  pari  of  '..'.■'  creation 
 
 was  ranged  and  settled  in  its  proper  order. 
 
 It  nun  be  allowed  however  eu  in  the  Mosaic 
 
 account,  there  are  some   i ..  sag  is,  such  a-.  '  U 
 
 earth  brin--  forth  grass,  let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living 
 creature  alter   lis  kind,   and   it    was    BO,'  thai    wht 
 
 comes  under  the  compass  of  mechanics  might 
 
 possibl)  be  effected  b)  matter  and  motion,  only  i 
 work  b)   infinite  wisdom,  and  sustained  in  their  being 
 and  operation  by  infinite  power;  but  whatever  is  above 
 
 See  fThitton't  Thi  wy. 
 
 See  A?i  .     ■'   nkind. 
 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CH.  2. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 the  power  of  second  causes,  such  as  the  production  of 
 matter  out  of  nothing,  the  formation  of  the  seeds  of  all 
 animals  and  vegetables,  the  creation  of  our  first  parents, 
 and  inspiring-  them  with  immortal  souls,  &c,  these  we 
 affirm,  and  these  we  ought  to  believe,  were  the  pure 
 result  of  God's  omnipotent  power,  and  are  ascribed  to 
 him  alone. 
 
 To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that  before  our 
 author  begins  to  acquaint  us  with  what  particular  crea- 
 tures were  each  day  successively  brought  into  being,  he 
 takes  care  to  inform  us,  (as  a  thing  essential  and  pre- 
 paratory to  the  work,)  a  '  that  the  Spirit  of  God  moved 
 upon  the  face  of  the  waters.'  For,  whether  by  'the 
 Spirit  of  God,'  we  are  to  understand  *  his  holy  and 
 essential  Spirit,  which  is  the  third  person  in  the  ever- 
 blessed  Trinity,  whether  that  s  plastic  nature,  which 
 (according-  to  some)  was  made  subservient  to  him  upon 
 this  occasion,  or  any  other  emanation  of  the  divine 
 power  and  energy,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  its 
 moving  or  incubation  upon  the  chaotic  mass,  derived 
 into  it  a  certain  fermentation,  impregnated  it  with  several 
 kinds  of  motive  influence,  and  so  separated  and  digested 
 its  confused  parts,  as  to  make  it  capable  of  the  disposi- 
 tion and  order  it  was  going"  to  receive. 
 
 CHAP.   II.— The  History. 
 
 In  this  condition  we  may  suppose  the  chaos  to  have 
 been,  when  the  b  fiat  for  light  was  given;  whereupon  all 
 the  confused,  stagnating  particles  of  matter  began  to 
 range  into  form  and  order.  The  dull,  heavy,  and  terrene 
 parts,  which  overclouded  the  expansum  or  firmament, 
 had  their  summons  to  retire  to  their  respective  centres. 
 They  presently  obeyed  the  Almighty's  orders,  and  part 
 of  them  subsided  to  the  centre  of  the  earth,  some  to 
 Jupiter,  some  to  Saturn,  some  to  Venus,  &c,  till  the 
 
 1  Cudu'ortK 's  Intellectual  System,. 
 
 2  Gen.  i.  2.  It  is  observed  by  some  later  Jewish,  as  well  as 
 Christian  interpreters,  that  the  several  names  of  God  are  often 
 given  as  epithets  to  those  things  which  are  the  greatest,  the 
 strongest,  and  the  best  of  their  kind ;  and  thereupon  they  think, 
 that  since  the  word  Ruach  signifies  the  wind,  as  well  as  the 
 Spirit,  Ruach  Elohim  should  be  translated  a  most  vehement  mind, 
 instead  of  'the  Spirit  of  God; '  and  that  this  signification  agrees 
 very  well  with  Moses's  account,  which  represents  the  earth  so 
 mixed  with  the  waters,  that  it  could  not  appear,  and  therefore 
 stood  in  need  of  a  wind  to  dry  it.  But  besides  that  this  sense 
 seems  to  be  a  sad  debasing  of  the  text,  it  is  certain,  that  the 
 wind  (which  is  nothing  but  the  moving  of  the  air)  could  not. 
 be  spoken  of  now,  because  it  was  not  created  until  the  second 
 day. 
 
 a  The  word  in  the  Hebrew,  according  to  the  opinion  of  some, 
 both  ancient  and  modern,  interpreters,  signifies  literally  a  brood- 
 ing upon  the  waters,  even  as  a  hen  does  upon  her  eggs ;  but,  as 
 there  are  only  two  places  wherein  the  word  occurs,  Dent,  xxxii. 
 II.  and  Jer.  xxxiii.  9.,  Mr  Le  Clerc  contends,  that  in  neither 
 of  these  it  will  properly  admit  of  this  sense ;  and  therefore  he 
 rather  thinks  it  (as  our  Ainsworth  seems  to  do)  to  be  a  meta- 
 phor taken  from  the  hovering  and  fluttering  of  an  eagle,  or  any 
 other  bird,  over  its  young,  but  not  its  sitting  over,  or  brooding 
 upon  them.     A'distinetion  of  no  great  moment  in  my  opinion. 
 
 h  The  words  are,  'Let  there  be  light,'  which,  as  Longinus 
 takes  notice,  is  a  truly  lofty  expression ;  and  herein  appears  the 
 wisdom  of  Moses  that  he  represents  God  like  himself,  com- 
 manding things  into  being  by  his  word,  i.  e.  his  will:  for  where* 
 ever  we  read  the  words,  he  said,  in  the  history  of  the  creation, 
 the  meaning  must  be,  that  he  willed  so  and  so. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 globes  of  these  several  planets  were  completed.  And 
 as  the  grosser  parts  subsided,  the  lighter,  and  more 
 tenuous  mounted  up ;  and  the  lucid  and  fiery  particles 
 (being  lighter  than  the  rest)  ascended  higher,  and,  by 
 the  divine  order,  meeting  together  in  a  body,  were  put 
 in  a  circular  motion,  and  in  the  space  of  a  natural  day, 
 made  to  visit  the  whole  expansum  of  the  chaos,  which 
 occasioned  a  separation  of  the  light  from  darkness,  and 
 thereby  a  distribution  of  day  and  night :  c  and  this  was 
 the  work  of  the  first  day.  d 
 
 The  next  thing  which  God  Almighty  commanded,  was, 
 that  the  waters,  Avhich  as  yet  were  universally  dispersed 
 over  the  face  of  the  chaos,  should  retire  to  their  respec- 
 tive planets,  and  be  restrained  within  their  proper  limits 
 by  several  atmospheres.  Hereupon  all  the  aqueous 
 parts  immediately  subsided  towards  the  centres  of  the 
 several  planets,  and  were  circumfused  about  their 
 globes ;  by  which  means  the  great  expansum  was  again 
 cleared  off,  and  the  region  of  the  air  became  more  lucid 
 and  serene.  And  this  is  the  operation  which  Moses 
 calls  '  dividing  the  waters  under  e  the  firmament,  from 
 the  waters  which  are  above  /  the  firmament,'  for  the 
 waters  under  the  firmament  are  the  waters  of  the  earth, 
 the  waters  above  the  firmament  are  those  of  the  moon, 
 and  other  planets,  which,  in  the  second  day's  work,  were 
 dismissed  to  their  several  orbs,  but  Avere  confusedly 
 mixed,  and  overspread  the  whole  face  of  the  expansum 
 before. 
 
 Thus,  on  the  second  day,  the  delightful  element  of 
 air  was  disentangled  and  extracted  from  the  chaos  :  and 
 one  part  of  the  business  of  the  third,  was  to  separate  the 
 other  remaining  elements,  '  water  and  earth.'  For  the 
 watery  particles,  as  we  said,  clearing  the  expansum,  and 
 falling  upon  the  planetary  orbs,  must  be  supposed  to 
 cover  the  face  of  the  earth,  as  well  as  other  planets, 
 when  the  great  Creator  gave  the  command  for  '  the 
 waters  to  be  gathered  into  one  place,  and  the  dry  land 
 
 c  If  we  rather  approve  the  Copernican  hypothesis,  we  must 
 say,  that  the  earth,  having  now  received  its  diurnal  and  annual 
 motion,  and  having  turned  round  about  its  axis,  for  about  the 
 space  of  twelve  hours,  made  this  luminous  body,  now  fixed  in  a 
 proper  place,  appear  in  the  east,  which,  in  the  space  of  twelve 
 hours  more,  seemed  to  be  in  the  west ;  and  that  tlus  revolution 
 made  a  distinction  between  day  and  night. — Bedford's  Chrono- 
 logy. 
 
 d  '  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first  day.'  The 
 Mosaical  method  of  computing  days  from  sunset  to  sunset,  and 
 of  reckoning  by  nights  instead  of  days,  prevailed  among  the 
 polished  Athenians.  From  a  similar  custom  of  our  Gothic  an- 
 cestors, during  their  abode  in  the  forests  of  Germany,  words 
 expressive  of  such  a  mode  of  calculation  (such  as  fortnight,  se'n- 
 night)  have  been  derived  into  our  own  language. — Burder's 
 Oriental  Customs,  vol.  i.,  p.  1. — Ed. 
 
 e  Gen.  i.  6.  The  seventy  interpreters,  in  translating  the 
 word  Rakiagh,  the  firm,  or  solid,  seem  to  have  followed  the 
 philosophy  of  the  first  ages:  for  the  ancients  fancied  that  the 
 heavens  were  a  solid  body,  and  that  the  stars  were  fastened 
 therein,  which  might  likewise  be  the  notion  of  Elihu,  Job  xxxvii. 
 18.;  since  he  represents  the  heaven  to  be  strong  or  solid,  '  like 
 a  molten  looking-glass ; '  whereas,  the  proper  sense  of  the  Word 
 is  something  spread  or  stretched  out.  And  to  this  both  the 
 psalmist  and  prophet  allude,  when  they  tell  us,  that  '  God 
 spreadeth  out  the  heaven  like  a  curtain,'  Ps.  civ.  2.  and  '  stretched 
 them  out  by  his  discretion,'  Jer.  x.  12. 
 
 /"Several  commentators  suppose  '  the  waters  above  the  firma- 
 ment '  to  be  those  which  hang  in  the  clouds ;  but  the  notion  of 
 their  being  planetary  waters  seems  more  reasonable,  because  at 
 this  time,  there  wore  no  clouds,  neither  had  it  as  yet  rained  on 
 the  earth.     See  Gen.  ii.  6. 
 
gECT.  i]  FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 A.  M.  I.  A.  C.  40C4;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1 
 
 to  appear.'  Whereupon  the  mighty  mountains  instantly 
 reared  up  their  heads,  and  the  waters,  falling  every  way 
 from  their  sides,  ran  into  those  large  extended  valleys, 
 which  this  swelling  of  the  earth,  in  some  places,  had 
 made  for  their  reception  in  others.  The  earth,  being 
 thus  separated  from  the  waters,  and  designed  for  the 
 habitation  of  man  and  beast,  (which  were  afterwards  to 
 be  created,)  was  first  to  be  furnished  with  such  things  as 
 were  proper  for  their  support;  grass  for  cattle,  and 
 herbs  and  fruit-trees  for  the  nourishment  of  man.  Im- 
 mediately, therefore,  upon  the  divine  command,  it  was 
 covered  with  a  beautiful  carpet  of  flowers  and  grass, 
 trees  and  plants  of  all  kinds,  which  were  produced  in 
 their  full  proportion,  laden  with  fruit,  and  not  subjected 
 to  the  ordinary  course  of  maturation.  For  how  great 
 soever  the  fecundity  of  the  primogenial  earth  might  be, 
 yet  it  is  scarce  to  be  imagined,  how  a  trees  and  plants 
 could  be  ripened,  into  their  full  growth  and  burden  of 
 fruit,  in  the  short  period  of  a  day,  any  other  way  than 
 by  virtue  of  a  supernatural  power  of  God,  which  first 
 collected  the  parts  of  matter  fit  to  produce  them ;  then 
 formed  every  one  of  them,  and  determined  their  kinds  ; 
 and  at  last  provided  for  their  continuance,  by  a  curious 
 enclosure  of  their  seed,  in  order  to  propagate  their 
 species,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world:  and  this  was 
 the  work  of  the  third  day. 
 
 When  God  had  (inished  the  lower  world,  and  furnished 
 it  with  all  manner  of  store,  that  mass  of  fiery  light, 
 I  which  we  suppose  to  have  been  extracted  on  the  lirst 
 day,  and  to  have  moved  about  the  expansion  for  two 
 days  after,)  was  certainly  of  great  use  in  the  production 
 of  the  ether,  the  separation  of  the  waters,  and  the  rare- 
 faction of  the  land,  which  might  possibly  require  a  more 
 violent  operation  at  first,  than  was  necessary  in  those 
 lesser  alterations,  which  were  afterwards  to  be  effected ; 
 and  therefore,  on  the  fourth  day,  God  took  and  con- 
 densed it,  and  casting  it  into  a  proper  orb,  placed  it  at 
 a  convenient  distance  from  the  earth  and  other  planets  ; 
 insomuch  that  it  became  a  sun,  and  immediately  shone 
 out  in  the  same  glorious  manner,  in  which  it  has  done 
 ever  since. 
 
 After  tliis  God  took  another  part  of  the  chaos,  an 
 opaque  substance,  which  we  call  the  '  moon ; '  and  having 
 cast  it  into  a  proper  figure,  placed  it  in  another  orb,  at  a 
 nearer  distance  from  the  earth,  that  it  might  perpetually 
 be  moving  round  it,  and  that  the  sun,  by  darting  its  rays 
 upon  its  solid  surface,  might  reflect  light  to  the  terres- 
 trial globe,  for  the  benefit  of  its  inhabitants  :  and,  at  the 
 same  time,  that  God  thus  made  the  moon,  he  made,  in 
 like  manner,  ''the  other  five  planets  of  the  solar  system, 
 
 a  There  are  two  things  wherein  the  production  of  plant-,  in 
 the  beginning,  differed  from  their  production  ever  since.  1. 
 That  they  have  sprung  ever  since  out  of  their  seed  either  sown 
 by  us,  or  falling  from  the  plants  themselves;  but  in  the  begin- 
 ning, were  wrought  out  of  the  earth,  with  their  seed  in  them,  to 
 propagate  them  ever  after.  2.  That  they  need  now  (as  they 
 have  ever  since  the  creation)  the  influence  of  the  sun,  to  make 
 them  sprout  ;  but  then  they  came  forth  by  the  power  of  God, 
 before  there  was  any  sun,  which  was  not  formed  till  the  next 
 day. — Patrick's  Comment,  in  loc. 
 
 b  I  am  very  sensible  that  the  words  in  the  text  are,  'lie 
 made  the  stars  also,'  ver.  16;  but  the  whole  sentence  cornel  in 
 so  very  abruptly,  that  one  would  be  apt  to  imagine,  that  after 
 Moses's  time,  it  was  clapped  in  by  some  body  who  had  a  mind 
 to  he  mending  his  hypothesis,  or  else  was  added,  by  way  ol 
 marginal  note,  at  first;  and  at  length  crept  into  the  text  itself, 
 
 AND  PART  OF  CH.  2. 
 and  their  satellites.  Nor  was  it  only  for  the  dispensa- 
 tion of  light  to  this  earth  of  ours,  that  God  appointed 
 the  two  great  luminaries  of  the  sun  and  moon  to  attend 
 it,  but  for  the  measure  and  computation  of  time  like- 
 wise: that  a  speedy  and  swift  motion  of  the  sun,  (ac- 
 cording to  the  Ptolemaic  system,)  in  twenty-four  hours 
 round  the  earth,  or  of  the  earth  (according  to  the  Coper- 
 nican)  upon  its  own  axis,  might  make  a  day ;  that  the 
 time  from  one  change  of  the  moon  to  another,  or  there- 
 abouts, might  make  a  month;  and  the  apparent  revolu- 
 tion of  the  sun,  to  the  same  point  of  the  ecliptic  line, 
 might  not  only  make  a  year,  but  occasion  likewise  a 
 grateful  variety  of  seasons  in  the  several  parts  of  the 
 earth,  which  are  thus  gradually  and  successively  visited 
 by  the  reviving  heat  of  the  sunbeams  :  and  this  was  the 
 work  of  the  fourth  day. 
 
 After  the  inanimate  creation,  God,  on  the  fifth  day, 
 proceeded  to  form  the  animate;  and  because  fi.sh  and 
 fowl  are  not  so  perfect  in  their  kind,  neither  so  curious 
 in  their  bodily  texture,  nor  so  sagacious  in  their  instinct, 
 as  terrestrial  creatures  are  known  to  be,  he  therefore 
 began  with  them,  and  cout  of  the  waters,  that  is,  out  of 
 such  matter  as  was  mixed  and  concocted  with  the  water, 
 he  formed  several  of  different  shapes  and  sizes ;  some 
 vastly  big,rf  to  show  the  wonders  of  his  creating  power; 
 and  some  extremely  small,  to  show  the  goodness  of  his 
 indulgent  providence.  And  (what  is  peculiar  to  this 
 day's  work)  here  we  have  the  first  mention  made  of  God's 
 blessing  his  creatures,  and  *' bidding  them  be  fruitful 
 
 (as  F.  Simon  has  evidenced  in  several  other  instances.)  For 
 the  fixed  stars  do  not  seem  to  be  comprehended  in  the  six  days' 
 work,  which  relates  oidy  to  this  planetary  world,  that  has  the 
 sun  for  its  centre;  /'a/rick's  Commentary  and  NichoWs  Confer' 
 ence,  vol.  i.  See  answer  to  the  subsequent  objection. 
 
 c  From  the  words  in  Gen.  oh.  i.  ver.  2iK  'Lei  the  waters 
 bring  forth  abundantly  the  moving  creature  that  hath  life,  and 
 fowl,  that  may  fly  above  the  earth,'  &c,  some  have  started  an 
 opinion,  that  fowl  derive  their  origin  from  the  water:  and  others, 
 from  the  words,  'Out  of  the  ground  God  formed  every  beast  of 
 the  field,  and  every  fowl  of  the  air,'  raise  another,  viz.  thi 
 took  their  beginning  from  the  earth:  but  these  two  texts  are 
 easily  reconciled,  because  neither  denies  what  the  other  says, 
 though  they  speak  differently;  as  when  Moses  -ays,  'Lit  the 
 waters  bring  forth  fowl,'  he  does  not  by  that  Bay,  that   the  earth 
 
 did  not  bring  forth  fowl.     It  is  raosl  rea able  thi  n  fbi  e  to  think 
 
 that  they  had  their  original  partly  from  the  waters,  and  partly 
 from  the  earth;  and  this  might  r<  nder  the  flesh  of  fowl  h 
 than  that  of  beasts,  and  more  firm   than  thai  of  fishes.      II 
 Philo  calls  fowl  the  kindred  of  fish;  and  thai   they  are  so,  the 
 great  congruity  there  is  in  their  natures  (they  being  both  ovl- 
 parous  which  makes  them  more  fruitful  than  other 
 both  steering  and  directing  their  course  by' their  tails   i-  a  suf- 
 ficient indication. 
 
 d  Moses  instances  in  the  "hale,  because  it  i-  supposed  to  be 
 the  principal  and  largest  of  all  fishes;  but  the  original  word  de- 
 notes several  kinds  of  great  fish,  as  Bochart  in  kit  tiierozom,  p. 
 1.  1.  1.  c.  7.  observes  at  large;  and  shows  withal  the  prodigious 
 bigness  of  some  of  them;  hot  he  should  have  added,  that  the 
 word  signifies  a  crocodile  likewise,  as  well  as  a  whale;  Patrick 
 and  !■'■  I 'lerc  in  loc. 
 
 e  That  fish  and  fowl  should  here  have  a  Messing  prm  ounced 
 
 11)1011  them,  rather  than  the  beasts,  which   w,  sixth 
 
 day,  some  have  supposed  this  to  be  the  reason; — that  the  pro- 
 duction of  their  young  requires  the  particular  care  ol  divine 
 
 providence,  he  ause  they  d it  bring  them  forth  pi  rfi  rtly  formed 
 
 as  tin-  beasts  do,  but  only  la)  their  eggs,  in  which  the  young  are 
 hatched  and  formed,  even  when  thej  ''  from  their 
 
 bodies:  and  "what  a  w lerful  thing  is  this."  says  one,  "that 
 
 when  the  womb  (as  we  may  call  it  i>  separated  from  the 
 gonitor,  a  living  creature  like  itself  should  he  produced?" — 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CH.  2. 
 
 and  multiply,'  that  is,  giving  them,  at  their  first  creation, 
 a  prolific  virtue,  and  a  natural  instinct  for  generation, 
 whereby  they  might  not  only  preserve  their  species,  but 
 multiply  their  individuals :  and  this  was  the  work  of  the 
 fifth  day. 
 
 Thus  every  thing  being  put  in  order ;  the  earth  covered 
 with  plants;  the  waters  restored  with  fish;  the  air  re- 
 plenished with  foul;  and  the  sun  placed  at  a  proper 
 distance,  to  give  a  convenient  warmth  and  nourishment 
 to  all;  in  order  to  make  this  sublunary  world  a  still 
 more  comfortable  place  of  abode,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
 sixth  and  last  day,  "  God  made  the  terrestrial  animals, 
 which  the  sacred  historian  distributes  into  three  kinds : 
 1.  Beasts,  by  which  we  understand  all  wild  and  savage 
 creatiu-es,  such  as  lions,  bears,  wolves,  &c.  2.  Cattle, 
 all  tame  and  domestic  creatures,  designed  for  the  benefit 
 and  use  of  men,  such  as  oxen,  sheep,  horses,  &c.  And, 
 3.  Creeping  things,  such  as  serpents,  worms,  and  other 
 kinds  of  insects. 
 
 Thus,  when  all  things  which  could  be  subservient  to 
 man's  felicity  were  perfected;  when  the  light  had,  for 
 some  time,  been  penetrating  into,  and  clarifying  the 
 dark  and  thick  atmosphere  ;  when  the  air  was  freed  from 
 its  noisome  vapours,  and  become  pure  and  clear,  and  fit 
 for  his  respiration;  when  the  waters'were  so  disposed, 
 as  to  minister  to  his  necessities  by  mists  and  dews  from 
 heaven,  and  by  springs  and  rivers  from  the  earth ;  when 
 the  surface  of  the  earth  was  become  dry  and  solid  for 
 his  support,  and  covered  over  with  grass  and  flowers, 
 with  plants  and  herbs,  and  trees  of  all  kinds,  for  his 
 pleasure  and  sustenance ;  when  the  glorious  firmament 
 of  heaven,  and  the  beautiful  system  of  the  sun,  moon, 
 and  stars,  were  laid  open  for  his  contemplation,  and,  by 
 their  powerful  influences,  appointed  to  distinguish  the 
 seasons,  and  make  the  world  a  fruitful  and  delicious 
 habitation  for  him;  when,  lastly,  all  sorts  of  animals  in 
 the  sea,  in  the  air,  and  on  the  earth,  were  so  ordered 
 and  disposed,  as  to  contribute,  in  their  several  capaci- 
 ties, to  his  benefit  and  delight:  when  all  these  things, *!■ 
 say,  were,  by  the  care  and  providence  of  God,  prepared 
 for  the  entertainment  of  this  principal  guest,  it  was  then 
 
 a  In  the  24th  verse  of  this  chapter  it  is  said,  that  God  com- 
 manded the  earth  to  produce  such  and  such  animals ;  '  Let  the 
 earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature  after  his  kind;'  and  yet,  in 
 the  very  next  verse,  it  follows,  that  '  God  made  the  beast  of  the 
 earth,  and  every  thing  that,  moveth  after  his  kind:'  but  this 
 seeming  contradiction  is  easily  reconciled  by  putting  together 
 the  proper  meaning  of  both  these  passages,  which  must  certainly 
 be  this — that  God  himself  effectually  formed  these  terrestrial 
 animals,  and  made  use  of  the  earth  only  as  to  the  matter  whereof 
 he  constituted  their  parts.  Some  indeed  have  made  it  a  ques- 
 tion, whether  these  several  creatures  were  at  first  produced  in 
 their  full  state  and  perfection,  or  God  only  created  the  seeds  of 
 all  animals,  (i.  e.  the  animals  themselves  in  miniature,)  and 
 dispersed  them  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  giving  power  to  that 
 element,  assisted  by  the  genial  heat  of  the  sun,  to  hatch  and 
 bring  them  forth;  but  for  this  there  is  no  manner  of  occasion, 
 since  it  is  much  more  rational  to  suppose,  that  God  did  not 
 commit  the  formation  of  things  to  any  intermediate  causes,  but 
 himself  created  the  first  set  of  animals  in  the  full  proportion  and 
 perfection  of  their  specific,  natures,  and  gave  to  each  species  a 
 power  afterwards,  by  generation,  to  propagate  their  kind;  for 
 that  even  now,  and  in  the  present  situation  of  things  any  perfect 
 species  cannot,  either  naturally  or  accidentally,  be  produced  by 
 any  preparation  of  matter,  or  by  any  influence  of  the  heavens, 
 without  the  interposition  of  an  almighty  power,  physical  expe- 
 riments do  demonstrate. —  Patrick's  Commentary;  and  Bentlcy's 
 Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lecture.     ' 
 
 that  man  was  created,  and  introduced  into  the  world  in 
 a  manner  and  solemnity  not  unbecoming  the  lord  and 
 governor  of  it.  To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that 
 God  makes  a  manifest  distinction  between  him  and  other 
 creatures,  and  seems  to  undertake  the  creation,  even  of 
 his  body,  with  a  kind  of  mature  deliberation,  if  not  con- 
 sultation with  the  other  persons  of  the  ever -blessed 
 Trinity;  h'  Let  us  make  man.'c 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  force  and 
 energy  of  the  expression  denotes  thus  much — that  the 
 production  of  mankind  at  first  was  so  immediately  the 
 work  of  Almighty  God,  that  the  power  of  no  subordinate 
 intelligence  could  be  capable  of  it:    that  the  curious 
 
 b  Gen.  i.  26.  The  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  the 
 consultation  was  real,  and  held  with  such  angelical  beings  as 
 God  might  employ  in  the  work  of  man's  creation;  and  they  tell 
 a  story  upon  this  occasion  which  seems  a  little  fictitious,  viz., 
 that  as  Moses  was  writing  his  book  by  God's  appointment,  and 
 these  words  came  to  be  dictated,  he  refused  to  set  them  down, 
 crying  out,  O  Lord!  wouldst  thuu  then  plunge  men  in  error,  and 
 make  them  doubt  of  the  doctrine  of  the  unity?  Whereupon  it 
 was  answered  by  God,  '  I  command  thee  to  write,  and  if  any 
 will  err,  let  them  err.'  Several  modern  expositors  account  it 
 only  a  majestic  form  of  speech,  as  nothing  is  more  common  than 
 for  kings  and  sovereign  princes  to  speak  in  the  plural  number, 
 especially  when  they  are  giving  out  any  important  order  or 
 command.  It  has  been  observed,  however,  that  as  there  were 
 no  men,  and  consequently  no  great  men,  when  this  was  spoken; 
 so  there  was  no  such  manner  of  speech  in  use  among  men  ot 
 that  lank  for  many  ages  after  Moses.  Their  common  custom 
 was,  in  all  their  public  instruments  and  letters  (the  better  to 
 enhance  the  notion  of  sovereignty)  to  speak  in  the  first  person, 
 as  it  was  in  our  nation  not  long  ago,  and  is  in  the  kingdom  of 
 Spain  to  this  very  day;  and  therefore,  upon  the  authority  of 
 almost  all  the  fathers  of  the  church:  "  For,  from  the  very  times 
 of  the  apostles,  they  all  nearly  coincide  in  faithfully  declaring 
 that  God  the  Father  spake  these  words  to  the  Son  and  Holy 
 Ghost,  or  at  least  to  the  Son."  Whitby's  Connexions  of 
 Fathers.  Others  have  thought  that  this  language  of  Moses  re- 
 presents God  speaking,  as  he  is,  that  is,  in  a  plurality  of  persons. 
 
 c  "God  is  represented  to  have  concerted  the  formation  of 
 man,  in  conjunction,  it  should  seem,  with  other  persons  con- 
 sulting in  secret  counsel."  This  circumstance  has  been  justly 
 received  as  furnishing  evidence  in  favour  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
 Trinity.  "  It  is  generally  admitted  also,  that  the  manifestations 
 of  the  Divine  Nature,  which  were  made  to  the  Patriarchs,  to 
 Moses,  to  Joshua,  and  others,  were  made,  in  the  person  of 
 Christ,"  the  Angel  or  "  Messenger  of  the  Covenant."  Tliu*, 
 when  the  Lord  appeared  to  Abraham,  in  the  plains  of  Mamie, 
 it  is  said,  that  three  men  stood  by  him,  yet  the  Patriarch  ad- 
 dressed them  as  he  would  have  accosted  one  Being,  or  directed 
 himself  to  one  as  superior — "Nay,  my  Lord,  pass  not  away," 
 Gen.  xviii.  When  Jacob  wrestled  with  the  man  who  appeared 
 to  him,  he  called  the  name  of  the  place  Peniel,  "for  I  have 
 seen  God  face  to  face,  and  my  life  is  preserved  :  "  and  when  he 
 blessed  the  sons  of  Joseph,  he  expressed  the  hope  that  "the 
 angel  which  redeemed  him  from  all  evil  would  bless  the  lads," 
 Gen.  xlviii.  16.  The  angel  which  appeared  to  Moses  at  the  bush, 
 said,  I  am  the  God  of  thy  father,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the 
 God  of  Jacob,  Ex.  iii.  6.  When  Manoah  inquired  the  name  ot 
 the  angel  who  appeared  unto  him,  the  angel  answered,  "  Why 
 askest  thou  thus  after  my  name,  seeing  it  is  secret?" — Using  The 
 same  Hebrew  word  which  is  applied  to  Christ  by  Isaiah,  when 
 in  his  ninth  chapter  and  sixth  verse,  he  styles  him  "  Wonderful.'' 
 We  are  told  that  Manoah,  when  he  knew  that  he  was  an  angel 
 of  the  Lord,  said  unto  his  wife,  "  We  shall  surely  die  because  we 
 have  seen  God,"  Judges  xiii.  IS. 
 
 It  was  the  object  of  the  Jewish  dispensation  to  preserve  men 
 from  idolatrous  propensities,  and  from  following  alter  strange 
 gods.  Moses  and  the  prophets  therefore  insist  principally  on  the 
 unity  of  God,  though  when  led  to  refer  to  the  offices  of  the  other 
 persons  of  the  Trinity,  they  could  not  but  impart  some  notices 
 of  a  doctrine  which  was  afterwards  distinctly  to  be  revealed." — 
 Gray's  Comiexion,  &c,  pp.  121,  123. — En. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 A.  M   1.  A.  C.  1H)I;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  0111.  GEN.  CH.  ,.  AM)  Part  OF  CH    ! 
 
 structure  of  man's  body,  the  accommodation  of  it  to 
 faculties,  and  the  furnishing  it  with  faculties  that  are 
 accommodated  to  it,  (even  as  to  its  animal  life,)  im- 
 ports a  wisdom  and  efficacy  far  above  the  power  of  any 
 created  nature  to  effect.  And  this  may  possibly  suggest 
 the  reason,  why,  in  the  formation  of  his  body,  God  made 
 choice  of  'the  dust  of  the  ground,'  viz.,  that  from  the 
 incongruity  of  the  matter  we  might  judge  of  the  difficulty, 
 and  learn  to  attribute  the  glory  of  the  performance  to 
 iiim  alone.  And  if  the  creation  of  the  body  of  our  great 
 progenitor  was  a  work  of  so  much  divine  wisdom  and 
 power,  we  cannot  but  expect,  that  the  spiritual  and  im- 
 material nature,  the  immortal  condition,  active  powers, 
 and  free  and  rational  operations,  which,  in  resemblance 
 of  the  Divine  Being,  the  soul  of  mail  was  to  participate, 
 should  require  some  peculiar  and  extraordinary  conduct 
 in  its  production  at  iirst,  and  union  with  matter  after- 
 ward; all  which  is  expressed  by  God's  'breathing  into 
 the  man's  "nostrils  the  breath  of  life,'  that  is,  doing- 
 something  analogous  to  breathing,  (for  God  has  no  body 
 to  breathe  .with ,)  whereby  he  infused  a  rational  and  im- 
 mortal spirit  (for  we  must  not  suppose  that  God  gave 
 any  part  of  his  own  essence)  into  the  man's  head,  as  the 
 principal  seat  thereof;  'and  ?man  became  a  living 
 soul.' 
 
 As  soon  as  Adam  found  himself  alive,  and  began  to 
 cast  his  eyes  about  him,  he  could  not  but  perceive  that 
 he  was  in -no  small  danger  as  being  surrounded  with  a 
 multitude  of  savage  creatures,  all  gazing  on  him,  and 
 (for  any  thing  he  knew)  ready  and  disposed  to  fall  upon 
 and  devour  him.  And  therefore,  to  satisfy  his  mind  in 
 this  particular,  God  took  care  to  inform  him,  that  all  the 
 creatures  upon  earth  were  submitted  to  his  authority; 
 that  on  them  he  had  impressed  an  awe  and  dread  of 
 him;  had  invested  him  with  an  absolute  power  and  do- 
 minion over  them;  and,  to  convince  him  of  the  full  pos- 
 session of  that  power,  he  immediately  appointed  every 
 creature  to  appear  before  him,  which  they  accordingly 
 did,  and  c'by  their  lowly  carriage,  and  gestures  of 
 respect  suitable  to  their  several  species,  evidenced  their 
 submission ;  and  as  they  passed  along,  such  knowledge 
 had  Adam  then  of  their  several  properties  and  destina- 
 tions, that  he  assigned  them  their  names,  which  a  small 
 skill  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  will  convince  us,  were  very 
 proper,  and  significant  of  their  natures. 
 
 This  survey  of  the  several  creatures  might  possibly 
 occasion  some  uneasy  reflections  in  Adam,  to  see  every 
 one  provided  with  its  mate,  but  himself  left  destitute  of 
 any  companion  of  a  similar  nature;  and  therefore,  to 
 
 a  The  original  word,  which  our  translators  render  nostrils, 
 signifies  more  properly  the  face  or  hen!. 
 
 b  It  is  not  to  he  doubted,  hut,  that  Eve,  the  mailer  of  oil  liv- 
 ing, was  created  hy  Almighty  God,  ami  inspired  with  a  rational 
 and  immortal  soul,  the  same  day  with  her  husband;  for  so  it  is 
 siid,  that  in  the  sixth  day,  '  male  and  female  created  he  tin  in,' 
 Ten.  27;  and  therefore  the  historian  only  re-assumes  the  argu- 
 niint  in  the  second  chapter,  to  give  us  a  more  full  and  particular 
 account,  of  the  woman's  origin,  which  was  hut  briefly  delivered, 
 or  rather  indeed  hut  hinted  at  in  the  first. 
 
 c  Milton  has  expressed  himself,  upon  this  occasion,  in  the 
 fallowing  maimer: 
 
 As  thus  he  spake,  each  bird,  ami  beast,  behold 
 Approaching:,  two  and  two  ;  these  cnw'riBg  low 
 With  blandishment ;  each  bird  stonp'd  on  bis  wing-. 
 1  nam'd  them,  as  tbey  pass'd,  and  understood 
 Their  nature;  with  such  knowledge  God  endu'd 
 
 My  sudden  apprehension. 
 
 answer  his  desires  in  this  particular  likewise,  «<GM 
 caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon  him,'  which  was  in- 
 tended, not  only  as  an  expedient  for  the  performance  of 
 the  wonderful  operation  upon  him  without  sense  of  pain, 
 <*but  as  a  trance  or  ecstasy  likewise,  wherein  was  re- 
 presented to  hie  imagination,  both  what  wa..  done  to 
 him,  and  what  was  the  mystical  meaning  of  it,  and 
 wljereby  he  was  prepared  for  the  reception  of  that  divine 
 oracle  2  concerning  the  sacred  institution  of  marriage, 
 which  presently,  upon  his  awaking,  he  uttered. 
 
 While  Adam  continued  in  this  sleep,  God,  who,  with 
 the  same  facility  wherewith  he  made  him,  could  have 
 formed  the  woman  out  of  the  '  dust  of  tin;  eacth,'  (being 
 willing-  to  signify  that  equality  and  partnership,  that  love 
 and  union,  and  tenderness  of  endearment,  which  • 
 to  interfere  between  husband  and  wife,)  took  fart  of  tbfc 
 substance  of  the  man's  body/'  near  his  side,  ;ut:l  closing 
 up  the  orifice  again,  out  of  that  substance  He  /formed 
 the  body  of  Eve,  and  then  '  breathing-  into  her  the  breath 
 of  life,'  made  her,  in  like  manner,  '  become  a  living 
 soul.' 
 
 This  was  the  8 conclusive  act  of  the  whole  creation: 
 
 1  Gen.  ii.  21.  *  Gen.  ii.  23. 
 
 d  In  like  manner,  lie  makes  this  sleep  which  fell  upon  Adam 
 to  have  been  a  kind  of  trance  or  ecstasy,   (for  so  the  S 
 translate  it,)  and  thus  he  relates  the  occasion  ami  nature  of  it. 
 
 He  ended,  and  I  heard  no  more  ;  tor  now 
 My  earthly  by  hi-  heavenly  overpower'. I. 
 
 Which  it  had  long  stood  under,  >train'<!  to  th"  height 
 
 In  that  celestial  colloquy  sublime, 
 
 (As  with  an  object  that  excels  the  sense, 
 
 Dai/.'ed  and  spent.)  sunk  down,  and  Bought  relief 
 
 Of  Bleep,  which  instantly  fell  (in  in.',  call'd 
 
 I5y  nature  as  in  aid,  and  elos'd  my  eye-. 
 
 Mine  eyes  he  chis'd,  but  open  left  the  cell 
 
 Of  fancy,  my  internal  sight  ;  by  which 
 
 (Abstract  as  in  a  trance)  methought  I  saw, 
 
 Though  sleeping,  where  I  lay.  ami  saw  the  shape 
 
 Still  glorious,  before  whom  awake  1  >tood 
 
 Under  his  forming  bands  a  cre.it  ore  grew 
 Man-like,  but  different  sex  ;  so  Lively  luir. 
 That  what  Seem'd  fair  in  all  the  world,  seem'd  now 
 Mean,  or  in  her  siunm'd  op,  in  her  <  ontaiii'd. 
 And  in  her  looks,  which  from  that  time  infus'd 
 Sweetness  into  my  heart,  unfelt  before; 
 And  into  all  things  from  her  air  inspir'd 
 The  spirit  of  love,  and  nmoTOUS  delight. 
 
 e  As  the  original  word  does  nol  "<'■.  and  is  all 
 
 along  rendered  by  the  Seventy  /.tritr.r,  a  side,  so  I  though) 
 improper  to  give  it  that  construction,  thereby  to  cut  off 
 infidels  an  occasion  for  raillery,  and  to  s|>an-  them  all   their  wit 
 about  the  redundant  or  defective  rib  of  Adam. 
 
 /The  original  word  signifies  building  at  framing  any  thing 
 with  a  singular  care,  contrivani  ortion;  and  hence 
 
 our  bodies  are  in  Scripture  frequently  called  houses,  Job  Iv.  I!».; 
 2Cor.v.l.j  and  sometimes  temples,  John  ii.  15.;   I  Cor.iii.  \<>. 
 
 g  It  is  not  very  necessarj  t..  determine  at  what    i 
 year  the  world  was  made;  yet  it  Beems  most  probable,  that  it 
 
 u  the  autumnal  equinox,  and  that  not  onl] 
 trees  were  laden  then  with  fruit,  as  th.'  history  tells  it-  a 
 parents  did  eat  of  them;  hut  because  the  Jews  did  then 
 their  civil  year  (viz.  in  the  month  Titri,  which  answers  to  part 
 of  ,.ur  September  and  October)  from  whence  th.  ir  sabbatical  an.) 
 jubilee  years- did  commence,  Exod.  wiii.   I'1.  xxxiv. 
 
 22;  Lev.  xxv.  9.     The  month  AMb  (which  answers  t" 
 our -March  and  April)  had  indeed  the  honour  afterwards  to  he 
 reckoned  among  the  Jews  the  beginning  of  their 
 siastical  matl  irs,  because  th.-  chili    en  of  Israel,  on  that  ti 
 came  out  of  the  land  but  from  the  >■  <'<<■ 
 
 month  Titri  ••-  1 1  unted  the  first  of  th<  ii 
 
 il  was  the  general  opinion  of  the  anch  nl 
 vrorld  was  created  at  the  time  of  the  autumnal  equinox ;  and  for 
 
 this  reason,  the  decs  do  still,   in  the  era  of  tl 
 
 as  in  that  of  contracts,  and  other  instruments,  com; 
 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I, 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CI-I. 
 
 and  upon  h  general  survey  of  such  harmony  risen  from 
 principles  ^o  jarring  and  repugnant,  and  so  beautiful  a 
 variety  and  composition  of  things  from  a  mere  mass  of 
 confusion  and  disorder,  God  was  pleased  with  the  work 
 of  his  hands ;  and  having-  pronounced  it  good,  or  pro- 
 perly adapted  to  the  uses  for  which  it  was  intended,  '  he 
 rested  from  all  his  work,'  that  is,  he  ceased  to  produce 
 any  more  creatures,  as  having  accomplished  his  design, 
 and  answered  his  original  idea;  and  thereupon  he 
 "  sanctified,  and  set  apart  the  next  ensuing  day,  (which 
 was  the  seventh  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation,  and 
 the  first  of  Adam's  life,)  as  a  time  of  solemn  rest  and 
 rejoicing  for  ever  after,  to  be  observed  and  expended  in 
 acts  of  praise  and  religious  worship,  and  in  commemora- 
 tion of  the  infinite  wisdom,  power,  and  goodness  of 
 God,  in  the  world's  creation. 
 
 CHAP.   III.— Tlie  Objection. 
 
 1 '  Where  wast  thou,  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
 earth?  Declare  if  thou  hast  understanding.  Where- 
 upon are  the  foundations  thereof  fastened,  and  who  laid 
 the  corner  stone  thereof?'  is  a  question  very  proper  to 
 be  put  to  those  who  demand  a  reason  for  the  actions  of 
 God:  for,  if  they  cannot  comprehend  the  works  them- 
 selves, they  are  certainly  very  culpable  in  inquiring  too 
 busily  into  the  time  and  manner  of  his  doing  them.  But 
 (to  gratify  the  inquisitive  for  once)  though  we  do  not 
 deny,  that  all  things  are  equally  easy  to  Almighty 
 power,  yet  it  pleased  the  divine  Architect  to  employ  the 
 space  of  six  days  in  the  gradual  formation  of  the  world, 
 
 1  Job  xxxviii.  4,  6. 
 ginning  of  their  year  from  the  first  ciay  of  Tisri.  Herein,  how- 
 ever, the  Jews  differ  from  us;  that  whereas  they  make  the 
 world  only  3760,  most  of  the  Christian  chronologers  will  have 
 it  to  be  much  about  4000  years  older  than  Christ ;  so  that  by 
 them  5732  years,  or  thereabouts,  are  thought  a  moderate  com- 
 putation of  the  world's  antiquity.  See  Usher's  Annals;  Bed- 
 ford's Chronology;  and  Shuckford's  Connection. 
 
 a,  Whether  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  was  from  the  begin- 
 ning of  the  world,  and  one  day  in  seven  always  observed  by  the 
 patriarchs,  before  the  promulgation  of  the  law ;  or  whether  the 
 sanctification  of  the  seventh  day  is  related  only  by  way  of  antici- 
 pation, as  an  ordinance  not  to  take  place  until  the  introduction 
 of  the  Jewish  economy,  is  a  matter  of  some  debate  among  the 
 learned ;  but  I  think  with  little  or  no  reason,  for  when  we  con- 
 sider, that  as  soon  as  the  sacred  penman  had  said,  '  God  ended 
 his  work,  and  rested,'  he  adds  immediately,  in  the  words  of  the 
 same  tense,  '  he  blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  sanctified  it ; ' 
 when  we  compare  this  passage  in  Genesis  with  the  twentieth 
 chapter  of  Exodus,  wherein  Moses  speaks  of  God's  '  blessing  and 
 sanctifying  the  Sabbath '  not  as  an  act  then  first  done,  but  as 
 what  he  had  formerly  done  upon  the  creation  of  the  world ;  when 
 we  remember,  that  all  the  patriarchs  from  Adam  to  Moses  had 
 set  times  for  their  solemn  assemblies,  and  that  these  times  were 
 weekly,  and  of  divine  institution ;  that  upon  the  return  of  these 
 weekly  Sabbaths,  very  probably,  it  was  that  Cain  and  Abel 
 offered  their  respective  sacrifices  to  God  ;  and  that  Noah,  the 
 only  righteous  person  among  the  Antediluvians,  Abraham,  the 
 most  faitliful  servant  of  God  after  the  flood,  and  Job,  that  per- 
 fect and  upright  man,  who  feared  God,  and  eschewed  evil,  are 
 all  supposed  to  have  observed  it;  we  cannot  but  think,  that  the 
 day  whereupon  the  work  of  the  creation  was  concluded,  from  the 
 very  beginning  of  time,  was  every  week  (until  men  had  cor- 
 rupted their  ways)  kept  holy  as  being  the  birthday  of  the  world, 
 (as  Philo  on  the  Creation  of  the  World  styles  it,)  and  the  univer- 
 sal festival  of  mankind.  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  and 
 V'iirick's  Commentary. 
 
 because  he  foresaw,  that  such  procedure  would  be  a 
 means  conducive  to  the  better  instruction  both  of 
 men  and  angels.  Angels  (as  we  hinted  before)  were 
 very  probably  created,  when  the  supreme  heavens  were 
 made,  at  least  some  considerable  time  before  the  pro- 
 duction of  this  visible  world.  Now,  though  they  be 
 great  and  glorious  beings,  yet  still  they  are  of  a  finite 
 nature,  and  unable  to  comprehend  the  wonderful  works 
 of  God.  There  are  some  things  (as  2  the  apostle  tells 
 us)  that  these  celestial  creatures  '  desire  to  look  into ; ' 
 and  the  more  they  are  let  into  the  knowledge  and  wisdom 
 of  God,  the  more  they  are  incited  to  praise  him.  3  That 
 therefore  they  might  not  want  sufficient  matter  for  this 
 heavenly  exercise,  the  whole  scene  of  the  creation,  ac- 
 cording to  the  several  degrees  and  natures  of  things, 
 seems  to  have  been  laid  open  in  order  before  them,  that 
 thereby  they  might  have  a  more  full  and  comprehensive 
 view  of  the  divine  attributes  therein  exhibited,  than  they 
 could  have  had,  in  case  the  world  had  started  forth  in 
 an  instant,  or  jumped  (as  it  were)  into  this  beautiful 
 frame  and  order  all  at  once;  just  as  he  who  sees  the 
 whole  texture  and  contrivance  of  any  curious  piece  of 
 art,  values  and  admires  the  artist  more,  than  he  who  be- 
 holds it  in  the  gross  oidy. 
 
 God  was  therefore  pleased  to  display  his  glory  before 
 the  angels,  and  by  several  steps  and  degrees,  excite 
 their  praise,  and  love,  and  admiration,  which  moved  them 
 to  songs  and  shouts  of  joy.  By  this  means,  his  glory, 
 and  their  happiness  were  advanced,  far  beyond  what  it 
 would  have  been,  had  all  things  been  created,  and  ranged 
 in  their  proper  order  in  a  moment.  By  this  means  they 
 had  time  to  look  into  the  first  principles  and  seeds  of 
 all  creatures,  both  animate  and  inanimate;  and  every 
 day  presented  them  with  a  glorious  spectacle  of  new 
 wonders ;  so  that  the  more  they  saw,  the  more  they  knew, 
 and  the  more  they  know  of  the  Avorks  of  God,  the  more 
 they  for  ever  love  and  adore  him.     But  this  is  not  all. 
 
 By  this  successive  and  gradual  creation  of  things,  in 
 the  space  of  six  days,  the  glory  of  God  is  likewise  more 
 manifest  to  man,  than  it  would  have  been,  had  they  been 
 made  by  a  sudden  and  instantaneous  production.  The 
 heavens,  and  '  all  the  host  of  them,'  we  may  suppose, 
 were  made  in  an  instant,  because  there  were  then  per- 
 haps no  other  creatures  to  whom  God  might  display  the 
 glory  of  his  works ;  but  as  they  were  made  in  an  instant, 
 Ave  have  little  or  no  perception  of  the  maimer  wherein 
 they  were  made :  but  now,  in  this  leisurely  procedure 
 of  the  earth's  formation,  we  see,  as  it  were,  every  thing 
 arising  out  of  the  primordial  mass,  first  the  simple  ele- 
 ments, and  then  the  compounded  and  more  curious 
 creatures,  and  are  led,  step  by  step,  full  of  wonder  and 
 admiration,  until  Ave  see  the  Avhole  completed.  So  that, 
 in  condescension  to  our  capacity,  it  A\as,  that  God 
 divided  the  creation  into  stated  periods,  and  prolonged 
 the  succession  of  Avhat  he  could  have  done  in  six  mo- 
 ments, to  the  term  of  six  days,  that  Ave  might  have  clearer 
 notions  of  his  eternal  power  and  godhead,  and  every 
 particular  day  of  the  Aveek,  neAV  and  particular  Avorks, 
 for  Avhich  Ave  are  to  praise  him.  And  this,  by  the  bye, 
 suggests  another  argument,  founded  on  the  institution  of 
 the  Sabbath  day:  For  if,  'in  six  days,  the  Lord  made 
 heaven  and  earth,  and,  resting  on  the  seventh  day,  did 
 
 1  Va.  i.  12. 
 
 Jenkins's  Reasonableness  of  the  C.  Religion. 
 
Sect.  1.] 
 
 FHOM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 A.  M.  1,  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CII.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CH.  2. 
 
 bless  and  sanctify  it,'  this  seems  to  imply,  that  God 
 obliged  himself  to  continue  the  work  of  the  creation  for 
 six  days,  that  showing  himself  (if  I  may  so  say)  a 
 divine  example  of  weekly  labour,  and  sabbatical  rest, 
 he  might  more  effectually  signify  to  mankind,  what  tri- 
 bute of  duty  he  would  require  of  them,  viz. ,  that  one  day 
 in  seven,  abstaining  from  business  and  worldly  labour, 
 they  should  devote  and  consecrate  it  to  his  honour,  and 
 religious  worship. 
 
 There  is  therefore  no  necessity  of  departing  from  the 
 literal  sense  of  the  Scripture  in  this  particular.  The 
 reiterated  acts,  and  the  different  operations  mentioned 
 by  Moses,  ought  indeed  to  be  explained  in  such  a  man- 
 ner, as  is  consistent  with  the  infinite  power,  and  perfect 
 simplicity  of  the  acts  of  God,  and  in  such  a  maimer,  as 
 may  exclude  all  notions  of  weakness,  weariness,  or  im- 
 perfection in  him;  but  all  this  may  be  done  without 
 receding  from  a  successive  creation,  which  redoiuids  so 
 much  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  affords  the  whole  intelli- 
 gent creation  so  fair  a  field  for  contemplation. 
 
 Some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  in  the 
 first  day,  when  God  created  light,  at  the  same  time,  he 
 formed  and  compacted  it  into  a  sun ;  and  that  the  sun  is 
 mentioned  again  on  the  fourth  day,  merely  by  way  of 
 repetition;  while  others  maintain,  that  this  light  was  a 
 certain  luminous  body  (not  unlike  that  which  conducted  the 
 children  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness)  that  moved  round 
 the  world,  until  the  day  wherein  the  sun  was  created. 
 But  there  is  no  occasion  for  such  conjectures  as  these : 
 every  one  knows,  that  darkness  has,  in  all  ages,  been 
 the  chief  idea  which  men  have  had  of  a  chaos.  '  Both 
 poets  and  philosophers  have  made  Nox,  and  Erebus, 
 and  Tartarus,  the  principal  parts  and  ingredients  of  its 
 description;  and  therefore  it  seems  very  agreeable  to 
 the  reason  of  mankind,  that  the  first  remove  from  the 
 chaos  should  be  a  tendency  to  light.  But  then  by  light 
 (as  it  was  produced  the  first  day,)  we  must  not  under- 
 stand the  darting  of  rays  from  a  luminous  body,  such  as 
 do  now  proceed  from  the  sun,  2but  those  particles  of 
 matter  oidy,  which  we  call  fire,  (whose  properties  we 
 know  are  light  and  heat,)  which  the  Almighty  produced, 
 as  a  proper  instrument  for  the  preparation,  and  digestion 
 of  all  other  matter.  For  fire,  being  naturally  a  strong 
 and  restless  element,  when  once  it  was  disentangled  and 
 set  free,  would  not  cease  to  move,  and  agitate  from  top 
 to  bottom,  the  whole  heavy  and  confused  mass,  until  the 
 purer  and  more  shining  parts  of  it  being  separted  from 
 the  grosser,  and  so  uniting  together,  (as  things  of  the 
 same  species  naturally  do,)  did  constitute  that  light, 
 which,  on  the  fourth  day,  was  more  compressed  and 
 consolidated,  and  so  became  the  body  of  the  sun. 
 
 The  author  of  the  Book  of  Wisdom  tells  us  indeed, 
 that 3'  God  ordered  all  things  in  measure,  and  number, 
 and  weight;'  but  we  cannot  from  hence  infer,  that  in  the 
 six  days,  he  was  so  nice  and  curious,  as  to  weigh  out 
 to  himself  in  gold  scales  (as  it  were)  his  daily  work  by 
 grains  and  scruples.  We  indeed,  who  are  finite  crea- 
 tures, may  talk  of  the  '  heat  and  burden  of  the  day,'  and, 
 in  a  weekly  task,  are  forced  to  proportion  the  labour  of 
 each  day  to  the  present  condition  of  our  strength ;  but 
 this  is  the  case  of  human  infirmity,  and  j:o  way  compati- 
 ble to  God.     To  omnipotence  nothing  can  be  laborious, 
 
 nor  can  there  be  more  or  less  of  pains,  where  all  things 
 are  equally  easy.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  how  does  it 
 appear,  that  even,  in  human  conception,  the  work  of  the 
 third  day,  which  consisted  in  draining  the  earth,  and 
 stocking  it  with  plants;  or  even  of  the  fourth  day, 
 wherein  the  sun  and  moon,  and  other  planets  were  made, 
 was  more  difficult,  than  that  of  the  first,  which  is  ac- 
 counted the  simple  production  of  light? 
 
 The  compass  of  the  chaos  (as  we  supposed)  took  up 
 the  whole  solar  system,  or  that  space,  which  Saturn  cir- 
 cumscribes in  his  circulation  round  the  sun:  and  if  so, 
 what  a  prodigious  thing  was  it,  to  give  motion  to  this 
 vast  unwieldy  mass,  and  to  direct  that  motion  in  some 
 sort  of  regularity;  in  the  general  struggle  and  combus- 
 tion, to  unite  things  that  were  no  ways  akin,  and  to  sort 
 the  promiscuous  elements  into  their  proper  species  :  to 
 give  the  properties  of  rest  and  gravitation  to  one  kind, 
 and  of  ascension  and  elasticity  to  another :  to  make 
 some  parts  subside  and  settle  themselves,  not  in  one 
 continued  solid,  but  in  several  different  centres,  at  pro- 
 per distances  from  each  other,  and  so  lay  the  foundation 
 for  the  planets;  to  make  others  aspire  and  mount  on 
 high,  and  having  obtained  their  liberty  by  hard  conflict, 
 join  together,  as  it  were,  by  compact,  and  make  up 
 one  body,  which,  by  the  tenuity  of  its  parts,  and  rapi- 
 dity of  its  motion,  might  produce  light  and  heat,  and  so 
 lay  the  foundation  for  the  sun;  to  place  this  luminous 
 body  in  a  situation  proper  to  influence  the  upper  parts 
 of  the  chaos,  and  to  be  the  instrument  of  rarefaction, 
 separation,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  operations  to  ensue ; 
 to  cause  it,  when  thus  placed,  either  to  circulate  round 
 the  whole  planetary  system,  or  to  make  the  planetary 
 globes  to  turn  round  it,  in  order  to  produce  the  vicissi- 
 tudes of  day  and  night,  to  do  all  this,  and  more  than 
 this,  I  say,  as  it  is  included  in  the  single  article  of 
 creating  light,  is  enough  to  make  the  first  day,  wherein 
 nature  was  utterly  impotent,  (as  having  motion  then  first 
 impressed  upon  her,)  a  day  of  more  labour  and  curious 
 contrivance  than  any  subsequent  one  could  be,  when 
 nature  was  become  more  awake  and  active,  and  some 
 assistance  might  possibly  be  expected  from  the  instru- 
 mentality of  second  causes. 
 
 To  excavate  some  parts  of  the  earth,  and  raise  others, 
 in  order  to  make  the  waters  subside  into  proper  chan- 
 nels, is  thought  a  work  not  so  comporting  with  the  dig- 
 nity and    majesty  of  God;   and   therefore   "some  have 
 
 thought  that  it  possibly  might  have  I n  effected  l>y  the 
 
 same  causes  that  occasion  earthquakes,  thai  is,  1>>  sub- 
 terraneous fires  and  flatuses.  What  incredible  effect! 
 the  ascension  of  gunpowder  lias,  we  ma\  see  every  da\  : 
 how  it  rends  rocks,  and  blows  op  the  mosl  ponderous 
 
 and  solid  walls,  towers,  and  edifices,  so  thai  its  force  is 
 almost  irresistible.  And  whj  then  might  not  such  a 
 proportionable  quantity  of  the  like  materials,  set  on  lire 
 together,  raise  up  the  mountains,  (how  -Teat  and  weighty 
 soever,)  and  the  whole  superficies  of  the  earth  above  the 
 waters,  and  so  make  receptacles   for  them  to  run  into. 
 
 'Thus  we  have  a  channel  for  the  sea.  even  l>>  the  inter- 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary  on  the  passage. 
 1  Nicholls'  Conference,  v.  1.  3  Wis.  xi 
 
 20. 
 
 4  Pb.  civ.  6,  ;.  B. 
 a  This  we  may  conceive  to  have  been  effected  l>y  some  parti- 
 cles of  tire  still  left  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  wherel 
 ni'trosulphuxoBS  vapours  Were  kindled,  as  nude  an  earthquake, 
 which  both  lifted  up  the  earth,  and  also  made  receptaclei  fee  the 
 waters  to  nm  into.      Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
10 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004:  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CM.  2. 
 
 vention  of  second  causes :  nor  are  we  destitute  of  good 
 authority  to  patronize  this  notion;  for,  after  that  the 
 Psalmist  had  said,  '  the  waters  stood  above  the  moun- 
 tains,' immediately  he  subjoins,  '  at  thy  rebuke  they  fled, 
 at  the  voice  of  thy  thunder  (an  earthquake,  we  know,  is 
 but  a  subterraneous  thunder)  '  they  hasted  away,  and 
 went  down  to  the  valley  beneath,  even  unto  the  place 
 which  thou  hadst  appointed  to  them.' 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  probable,  and  (if  our  hypothesis 
 1  be  right)  it  is  certain,  that  on  the  fourth  day,  the  sun, 
 moon,  and  planets,  were  pretty  well  advanced  in  their 
 formation.  The  luminous  matter  extracted  from  the 
 chaos  on  the  first  day,  being  a  little  more  condensed, 
 and  put  into  a  proper  orb,  became  the  sun,  and  the 
 planets  had  all  along  been  working  oft',  in  the  same  de- 
 grees of  progression  with  the  earth ;  so  that  the  labour 
 of  this  day  coidd  not  be  so  disproportionably  great  as  is 
 imagined.  It  is  true  indeed,  the  Scripture  tells  us,  that 
 God  on  this  day,  '  not  only  made  the  sun  and  the  moon, 
 but  that  he  made  the  stars  also;'  and,  considering  the 
 almost  infinite  number  of  these  heavenly  bodies,  (which 
 we  may  discern  with  our  eyes,  and  much  more  with 
 glasses,)  we  cannot  but  say,  that  a  computation  of  this 
 kind  would  swell  the  work  of  the  fourth  day  to  a  prodi- 
 gious disproportion:  but  then  Ave  are  to  observe,  that 
 our  English  translation  has  interpolated  the  words,  '  he 
 made,'  which  are  not  in  the  original;  for  the  simple 
 version  of  the  Hebrew  is  this — and  2 '  God  made  two 
 great  lights,  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day,  and  the 
 lesser  light  to  rule  the  night  and  the  stars ;'  which  last 
 words  '  and  the  stars  '  are  not  to  be  referred  to  the  word 
 'made  '  in  the  beginning  of  the  verse,  but  to  the  word 
 '  rule,'  which  immediately  goes  before  them;  and  so  this 
 sentence,  '  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night,  and  the 
 stars:'  will  only  denote  the  peculiar  usefulness  and  pre- 
 dominancy of  the  moon  above  all  other  stars  or  planets, 
 in  respect  of  this  earth  of  ours  ;  in  which  sense  it  may 
 not  improperly  be  styled  (as  a  some  of  the  most  polite 
 authors  are  known  to  call  it)  the  '  ruler  of  the  night,' 
 and  '  a  queen,'  or  '  goddess,'  as  it  were,  among  the  stars. 
 With  regard  to  us,  therefore,  who  are  the  inhabitants  of 
 the  earth,  the  moon,  though  certainly  an  opaque  body, 
 may  not  be  improperly  called  '  a  great  light;'  since,  by 
 reason  of  its  proximity,  it  communicates  more  light,  (not 
 of  its  own  indeed,  but  what  it  borrows  from  the  sun,) 
 and  is  of  more  use  and  benefit  to  us  than  all  the  other 
 planets  put  together.  Nor  must  we  forget  (what  indeed 
 deserves  a  peculiar  observation)  that  the  moon,  3  by  its 
 constant  deviations  towards  the  poles,  a  fiords  a  stronger 
 and  more  lasting  light  to  the  inhabitants  of  those  forlorn 
 regions,  whose  long  and  tedious  nights  are  of  some 
 days',  nay,  of  some  months'  continuance,  than  if  its  mo- 
 tion were  truly  circular,  and  the  rays  it  reflects  conse- 
 quently more  oblique.  A  mighty  comfort  and  refresh- 
 ment this  to  them,  and  a  singular  instance  of  the  great 
 
 1  Ray's  Wisdom  of  God  in  the  Creation.  s  Gen.  i.  16. 
 
 3  Derhams  Astro-theology,  ch.  4. 
 a  Gleaming  glory  of  the  Firmament.     Crested  queen  of  the 
 Constellations,  Horace.     Ornament  of  the  Stars,  Virgil.     Bright 
 goddess  of  the  shaded  earth,  Seneca.     Cinthia,  mistress  of  the 
 stilly  hour,  Statins'  Thebais. 
 
 Creator's  wisdom  in  contriving,  and  mercy  in  preserving 
 all  his  works ! 
 
 St  Paul,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Romans,  makes  all  man- 
 kind (as  certainly  our  first  parent  literally  was)  clay  in 
 the  hands  of  the  potter,  and  thereupon  he  asks  this  ques- 
 tion ;  * '  Nay  but,  O  man,  who  art  thou,  that  replies! 
 against  God  ?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  him  that 
 formed  it,  why  hast  thou  formed  me  thus  ?  Hath  not  the 
 potter  power  over  the  clay,  of  the  same  lump  to  make 
 one  vessel  unto  honour,  and  another  unto  dishonour  ?*  It 
 but  badly  becomes  us  therefore  to  inquire  into  the  reason 
 that  might  induce  God  to  make  the  man  and  the  woman 
 at  different  times,  and  of  different  materials;  and  it  is 
 an  impertinent,  as  well  as  impious  banter,  to  pretend  to 
 be  so  frugal  of  his  pains.  What  if  God,  willing  to  show 
 a  pleasing  variety  in  his  works,  condescended  to  have 
 the  matter,  whereof  the  woman  was  formed,  pass  twice 
 through  his  hands,  in  order  to  b  soften  the  temper,  and 
 meliorate  the  composition?  Some  peculiar  qualities, 
 remarkable  in  the  female  sex,  might  perhaps  justify  this 
 supposition :  but  the  true  reason,  as  I  take  it,  is  couched 
 in  these  words  of  Adam, 5  '  This  is  now  bone  of  my  bone, 
 and  flesh  of  my  flesh;  she  shall  be  called  c woman,  be- 
 cause she  was  taken  out  of  man:  therefore  shall  a  man 
 leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  cleave  to  his  wife, 
 and  they  shall  be  one  flesh.' 
 
 Since  God  was  determined,  then,  to  form  the  woman 
 out  of  some  part  of  the  man's  body,  and  might  probably 
 have  a  mystical  meaning  in  so  doing ;  to  have  taken  her 
 (like  the  poet's  Minerva)  out  of  the  head,  might  have 
 entitled  her  to  a  superiority  which  he  never  intended  for 
 her;  to  have  made  her  of  any  inferior,  or  more  dishon- 
 ourable part,  would  not  have  agreed  with  that  equality 
 to  which  she  was  appointed;  and  therefore  he  took  her 
 out  of  the  man's  side,  to  denote  the  obligations  to  the 
 strictest  friendship  and  society :  to  beget  the  strongest 
 love  and  sympathy  between  him  and  her,  as  parts  of  the 
 same  whole;  and  to  recommend  marriage  to  all  man- 
 kind, as  founded  in  nature,  and  as  the  re-union  of  man 
 and  woman. 
 
 It  is  an  easy  matter  to  be  sceptical ;  but  small  reason, 
 I  think,  there  is  to  wonder,  why  no  mention  is  made  in 
 this  place  of  the  inspiration  of  the  woman's  soul.    What 
 
 Fhcebj  borrowing  still  her  brother's  light, 
 And  feigning  Empress  o'er  the  realms  of  nignt. 
 
 Maniliui. 
 
 4  Rom.  ix.  20,  21.  s  Gen.  ii.  23,  24. 
 
 b  Milton  has  given  us  a  very  curious  description  of  Eve's 
 qualifications,  both  in  body  and  mind. 
 
 Though  well  I  understand,  in  the  prime  end 
 Of  nature,  her  th'  inferior  in  the  mind, 
 And  inward  faculties,  which  most  excel ; 
 In  outward  also  her  resembling  less 
 His  image,  who  made  both,  and  less  expressing 
 The  character  of  that  dominion  giv'n 
 O'er  other  creatures ;  yet  when  I  approach 
 Her  loveliness,  so  absolute  she  seems, 
 So  in  herself  complete,  so  well  to  know 
 Her  own,  that  what  she  wills  to  do,  or  say, 
 Seems  wisest,  virtuousest,  discreetest,  best. 
 All  higher  knowledge  in  her  presence  falls 
 Degraded,  wisdom  in  discourse  with  her 
 Loses  discountenane'd,  and  like  folly  shows. 
 Authority  and  reason  on  her  wait. 
 As  one  intended  first,  but  after  made 
 Occasionally  ;  and,  to  consummate  all, 
 Greatness  of  mind,  and  nobleness  their  seat 
 Build  in  her  loveliest,  and  create  an  awe 
 About  her,  as  a  guard  angelic  plac'd. 
 
 c  Jrius  Montanus,  renders  the  Hebrew  word  virago,  in  the 
 margin  virissa,  that  is,  she-man. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 11 
 
 A.  M.  I.  A.  C.  4004;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  C1I.  >. 
 
 the  historian  means  here,  is  only  to  represent  a  peculiar 
 circumstance  in  the  woman's  composition,  viz.  her 
 assumption  from  the  man's  side :  and  therefore  what  re- 
 lates to  the  creation  of  her  soul  must  be  presumed  to  go 
 before,  and  is  indeed  signified  in  the  preface  God  makes 
 before  he  begins  the  work;  1 '  It  is  not  good  that  man 
 should  be  alone,  I  will  make  him  an  help-meet  for  him,' 
 that  is,  of  the  same  2  essential  qualities  with  himself.  For 
 we  cannot  conceive  of  what  great  comfort  this  woman 
 would  have  been  to  Adam,  had  she  not  been  endowed 
 with  a  rational  part,  capable  of  conversing  with  him; 
 had  she  not  had,  I  say,  the  same  understanding,  will, 
 and  affections,  though  perhaps  in  a  lower  degree,  and 
 with  some  accommodation  to  the  weakness  of  her  sex,  in 
 order  to  recommend  her  beauty,  and  to  endear  that  soft- 
 ness wherein  (as  I  hinted  before)  she  had  certainly  the 
 pre-eminence. 
 
 Such  is  the  history  which  Moses  gives  us  of  the  origin 
 of  the  world,  and  the  production  of  mankind:  and  if  we 
 should  now  compare  it  with  what  we  meet  with  in  other 
 nations  recorded  of  these  great  events,  we  shall  soon 
 perceive,  that  it  is  the  only  rational  and  philosophical 
 account  extant;  which,  considering  the  low  ebb  that 
 learning  was  at  in  the  Jewish  nation,  is  no  small  argu- 
 ment of  its  divine  revelation.  What  a  wretched  account 
 was  that  of  the  Egyptians,  (from  whence  the  Epicureans 
 borrowed  their  hypothesis,)  that  the  world  was  made  by 
 chance,  and  mankind  grew  out  of  the  earth  like  pum- 
 kins  ?  What  strange  stories  does  the  Grecian  theology 
 tell  us  of  Ouranos  and  Ge,  Jupiter  and  Saturn;  and 
 what  sad  work  do  their  ancient  writers  make,  when  they 
 come  to  form  men  and  women  out  of  projected  stones  ? 
 How  unaccountably  does  the  Phenician  historian 3  make 
 a  dark  and  windy  air  the  principle  of  the  universe;  all 
 intelligent  creatures  to  be  formed  alike  in  the  shape  of 
 an  egg,  and  both  male  and  female  awakened  into  life  by 
 a  great  thunder -clap  ?  The  Chinese  are  accounted  a 
 wise  people,  and  yet  the  articles  of  their  creed  are  such 
 as  these — That  one  Tayn,  who  lived  in  heaven,  and  was 
 famous  for  his  wisdom,  disposed  the  parts  of  the  world 
 into  the  order  we  find  them;  that  he  created  out  of  no- 
 thing the  first  man  Panson,  and  his  wife  Fansone ;  that 
 this  Panson,  by  a  power  from  Tayn,  created  another 
 man  called  Tanhom,  who  was  a  great  naturalist,  and 
 thirteen  men  more,  by  whom  the  world  was  peopled,  till, 
 after  a  while,  the  sky  fell  upon  the  earth,  and  destroyed 
 them  all ;  but  that  the  wise  Tayn  afterwards  created  an- 
 other man,  called  Lotziram,  who  had  two  horns,  and  an 
 odoriferous  body,  and  from  whom  proceeded  several 
 men  and  women,  who  stocked  the  world  with  the  present 
 inhabitants.  But,  of  all  others,  the  Mahometan  account 
 is  the  most  ridiculous;  for  it  tells  us,  that  the  first  things 
 which  were  created,  were  the  Throne  of  God,  "Adam, 
 
 1  Gen.  ii.  IS. 
 
 *  So  the  original  word  means,  and  so  the  vulgar  Latin  has 
 translated  it. 
 
 3  See  Cumberland's  Sanchoniatho. 
 
 a  As  to  the  formation  of  Adam's  body,  Mahometans  tell  us 
 many  strange  circumstances,  viz.,  That  after  God,  by  long  con- 
 tinued rains,  had  prepared  the  slime  of  the  earth,  out  of  which 
 he  was  to  form  it,  he  sent  the  angel  Gabriel,  and  commanded 
 him,  of  seven  layers  of  earth,  to  take  out,  of  each  an  handful: 
 that  upon  Gabriel's  coming  to  the  Earth,  he  told  her,  that  God 
 had  determined  to  extraet  that  out  of  her  bowels,  whereof  he 
 proved  to  make  man,  who  was  to  be  sovereign  over  all,  and 
 
 Paradise,  and  a  great  pen,  wherewith  God  wrote  his 
 
 decrees :  that  this  throne  was  carried  about  upon  angels' 
 necks,  whose  heads  were  so  big,  that  birds  could  not  fly 
 in  a  thousand  years  from  one  ear  to  another ;  that  the 
 heavens  were  propped  up  by  the  mountain  Kofi':  that 
 the  stars  were  firebrands,  thrown  against  the  devils 
 when  they  invaded  heaven,  and  that  the  earth  stands 
 upon  the  top  of  a  great  cow's  horn;  that  this  cow  stands 
 upon  a  white  stone,  this  stone  upon  a  mountain,  and  this 
 mountain  upon  God  knows  what;  with  many  more  ab- 
 surdities of  the  like  nature. 
 
 These  are  some  accounts  of  the  world's  creation 
 which  nations  of  "Teat  sagacity  in  other  respects  have  at 
 least  pretended  to  believe.  But  alas  !  how  sordid  and 
 trifling  are  they,  in  comparison  of  what  we  read  in  the 
 book  of  Genesis,  where  every  thing  is  easy  and  natural, 
 comporting  with  God's  majesty,  and  not  repugnant  to 
 the  principles  of  philosophy  ?  Nay,  where  every  thing 
 agrees  with  the  positions  of  the  greatest  men  in  the 
 Heathen  world,  Hhe  sentiments  of  their  wisest  philoso- 
 phers, and  the  descriptions  of  their  most  renowned  poets. 
 So  that  were  we  to  judge  of  Moses  at  the  bar  of  reason, 
 merely  as  an  historian;  had  we  none  of  those  superna- 
 tural proofs  of  the  divinity  of  his  writings,  which  set 
 them  above  the  sphere  of  all  human  composition;  had 
 
 his  vicegerent:  that,  surprised  at  this  news,  the  Earth  desired 
 Gabriel  to  represent  her  fears  to  God,  that  this  creature,  whom 
 he  was  going  to  make  in  this  manner,  would  one-  day  rebel 
 against  him,  and  draw  down  his  curse  upon  her:  that  Gabriel 
 returned,  and  made  report  to  God  of  the  Earth's  remonstrances; 
 but  God  resolving  to  execute  his  design  despatched  Michael,  and 
 afterwards  Asraphel,  with  the  same  commission:  that  these  two 
 angels  returned  in  like  manner  to  report  the  Earth's  excuses 
 and  absolute  refusal  to  contribute  to  this  work;  whereupon  he 
 deputed  Azrael,  who,  without  saying  any  thing  to  the  Earth  took 
 an  handful  out  of  each  of  the  seven  different  layers  or  bids,  ami 
 carried  it  to  a  place  in  Arabia,  between  Mecca  anil  Taief:  that 
 after  the  angels  had  mixed  and  kneaded  the  earth  whieh  A/rael 
 brought,  God,  with  his  own  hand,  formed  out  of  it  an  human 
 statue,  and  having  left  it  in  the  same  place  lor  some  time  to  diy, 
 not  long  after  communicating  his  spirit,  or  enlivening  breath, 
 infused  life  and  understanding  into  it,  and  clothing  it  in  a  won- 
 derful dress,  suitable  to  its  dignity,  commanded  the  an. 
 fall  prostrate  before  it,  whieh  Eblis  (by  wh they  mean  Luci- 
 fer) refusing  to  do/ was  immediately  driven  out  "i  paradise. 
 
 N.  B.  The  difference  of  tin'  earth  employed  in  the  formation  of 
 Adam,  is  of  great  service  to  the  Mahometans  in  explaining  the 
 different  colours  ami  qualities  of  mankind  who  are  derived  from 
 it,  some  of  whom  are  white,  others  black,  others  tawny,  yellow, 
 olive-coloured,  ami  red:  some  of  one  humour,  inclination,  and 
 complexion,  and  others  of  a  quite  different. — Calme? *  Dictionary 
 
 on  t  In1  word  .Ilium. 
 
 b  Tholes,  whom  the  Greeks  suppose  to  be  the  first  who  deeply 
 studied  the  causes  of  nature's  work  .  asserts  that  the  world  IS  the 
 work  of  God,  and  that.  God  of  i  i'  things  l-  tin'  most  ancii  n(  since 
 he  had  m>  beginning.  Pyfkagurai  -  id.  that  as  often  as  la-  con- 
 templated the  fabric  ami  beauty  of  this  world,  he  seemed  in  hear 
 that  word  of  God,  by  which  it  was  commanded  /«  /«•.  Vlato 
 thought  that  God  did  not  form  the  world  out  of  matter  eternal 
 
 and  coeval  with  himself,  but  that  he  made  it  nut  of  nothing,  and 
 
 according  to  his  good  pleasure,  be  also  believed,  that  n 
 not  only  made  by  God,  but  that  he  was  made  alter  the  Image  H 
 God,  ami  had  a  spirit  akin  ami  like  to  his  Maker.  Among  the 
 Latin  poets,  /  irgii  speaks  afti  t  the  same  mode,  when  he  intro- 
 duces Silenu  singing  ham  the  tender  ball  ol  earth  grew  out  of 
 the  compressed  seeds  or  ingredients  of  all  thii  -  '■  too, 
 
 when  he  tells  .if  the  birth  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  of  man  Li  big 
 
 formed  after  the  Image  of  God;  while  among  the  Greeks,  Betted, 
 in  his  Theogony,  has  celebrated,  in  most  melodious  lines.,  the 
 
 formation  of  all  things  quite  according  t"  the  dt  I  trine  of  MosoS. 
 —  Hut  tuts'  Inquiries. 
 
12 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CH.  2. 
 
 his  works  none  of  that  manifest  advantage  of  antiquity 
 above  all  others  we  ever  yet  saw;  and  were  Ave  not 
 allowed  to  presume,  that  his  living  near  the  time  which 
 he  makes  the  era  of  the  world's  creation,  gave  him  great 
 assistances  in  point  of  tradition;  were  we,  I  say,  to 
 wave  all  this  that  might  be  alleged  in  his  behalf ;  yet 
 the  very  maimer  of  his  treating  the  subject  gives  him  a 
 preference  above  all  others.  Nor  can  we,  without 
 admiration,  see  a  person  who  had  none  of  the  systems 
 before  him  which  we  now  so  much  value,  giving  us  a 
 clearer  idea  of  things,  in  the  way  of  an  easy  narrative, 
 than  any  philosopher,  with  all  his  hard  words  and  new- 
 invented  terms,  has  yet  been  able  to  do ;  and,  in  the 
 compass  of  two  short  chapters,  comprising  all  that  has 
 been  advanced  with  reason,  even  from  his  own  time  to 
 this  very  day. 
 
 CHAP.   IV. — The  wisdom  of  God  in  the  works 
 of  the  Creation. 
 
 Though  the  author  of  the  Pentateuch  *  never  once  at- 
 tempts to  prove  the  being  of  a  God,  as  taking-  it  all 
 along  for  a  thing  undeniable ;  yet  it  may  not  be  impro- 
 per for  us,  in  this  place,  to  take  a  cursory  view  of  the 
 Avorks  of  the  creation,  (as  far  at  least  as  they  come  un- 
 der the  Mosaic  account,)  in  order  to  show  the  existence, 
 the  Avisdom,  the  greatness,  and  the  goodness  of  their 
 almighty  Maker. 
 
 Let  us  then  cast  our  eyes  up  to  the  firmament,  Avhere 
 the  rich  handy -Avork  of  God  presents  itself  to  our  sight, 
 and  ask  ourselves  some  such  questions  as  these.  What 
 power  built,  over  our  heads,  this  vast  and  magnificent 
 arch,  and  '  spread  out  the  heavens  like  a  curtain  ? '  Who 
 garnished  these  heavens  Avith  such  a  variety  of  shining- 
 objects,  a  thousand,  and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand 
 different  stars,  neAV  suns,  neAV  moons,  neAV  Avorlds,  in 
 comparison  of  Avliich  this  earth  of  ours  is  but  a  point,  all 
 regular  in  their  motions,  and  SAvimming  in  their  liquid 
 ether  ?  Who  painted  the  clouds  Avith  such  a  variety  of 
 colours,  and  in  such  diversity  of  shades  and  figures,  as  is 
 not  in  the  poAver  of  the  finest  pencil  to  emulate  ?  Who 
 formed  the  sun  of  such  a  determinate  size,  and  placed  it 
 at  such  a  convenient  distance,  as  not  to  annoy,  but  only 
 refresh  us,  and  nourish  the  ground  with  its  kindly  Avarmth  ? 
 If  it  Avere  larger,  it  Avould  set  the  earth  on  fire ;  if  less, 
 it  Avould  leave  it  frozen:  if  it  Avere  nearer  us,  Ave  should 
 be  scorched  to  death;  if  farther  from  us,  Ave  should  not 
 be  able  to  live  for  Avant  of  heat:  Avho  then  hath  made  it 
 so  commodious  2(  a  tabernacle  (I  speak  wi'th  the  Scrip- 
 tures, and  according  to  the  common  notion)  out  of  Avhich 
 it  cometh  forth,'  every  morning,  '  like  a  bridegroom  out 
 of  his  chamber,  and  rejoiceth  as  a  giant,  to  run  his 
 course  ? '  For  so  many  ages  past,  it  never  failed  rising 
 at  its  appointed  time,  nor  once  missed  sending  out  the 
 dawn  to  proclaim  its  approach:  but  at  whose  voice  does 
 it  arise,  and  by  Avhose  hand  is  it  directed  in  its  diurnal 
 and  annual  course,  to  give  us  the  blessed  vicissitudes  of 
 the  day  and  night,  and  the  regular  succession  of  differ- 
 ent seasons  ?  That  it  should  always  proceed  in  the 
 same  straight  path,  and  never  once  be  knoAvn  to  step 
 
 1  See  Stillingfleet's  Orig.  Sacr.,  I.  3.,  c.  1.         2  Ps.  xix.  4,  5. 
 
 aside ;  that  it  should  turn  at  a  certain  determinate  point, 
 and  not  go  forAvard  in  a  space  Avhere  there  is  nothing  to 
 obstruct  it ;  that  it  should  traverse  the  same  patli  back 
 again  in  the  same  constant  and  regular  pace,  to  bring 
 on  the  seasons  by  gradual  advances:  that  the  moon 
 should  supply  the  office  of  the  sun,  and  appear  at  set 
 times,  to  illuminate  the  air,  and  give  a  vicarious  light, 
 Avhen  its  brother  is  gone  to  carry  the  day  to  the  other 
 hemisphere ;  3  that  it  should  procure,  or  at  least  regulate 
 the  fluxes  and  refluxes  of  the  sea,  Avhereby  the  Avater  is 
 kept  in  constant  motion,  and  so  preserved  from  putre- 
 faction, and  accommodated  to  man's  manifold  conveni- 
 ences, besides  the  business  of  fishing,  and  the  use  of 
 navigation:  in  a  Avord,  that  the  rest  of  the  planets,  and 
 all  the  innumerable  host  of  heavenly  bodies  should  per- 
 form their  courses  and  revolutions,  Avith  so  much  cer- 
 tainty and  exactness,  as  never  once  to  fail,  but,  for 
 almost  this  6000  years  r  come  constantly  about  in  the  same 
 period,  to  the  hundredth  part  of  a  minute ;  this  is  such  a 
 clear  and  incontestable  proof  of  a  divine  architect,  and 
 of  that  counsel  and  Avisdom  Avherewith  he  rides  and 
 directs  the  universe,  as  made  the  Roman  philosopher, 
 Avith  good  reason,  conclude,  "  That4  A\hoever  imagines, 
 that  the  Avonderful  order,  and  incredible  constancy  of 
 the  heavenly  bodies,  and  their  motions  (Avhereupon  the 
 preservation  and  Avelfare  of  all  things  do  depend)  is  not 
 governed  by  an  intelligent  being,  himself  is  destitute  of 
 understanding.  For  shall  Ave,  when  Ave  see  an  artificial 
 engine,  a  sphere,  a  dial,  for  instance,  acknoAvledge  at 
 first  sight,  that  it  is  the  Avork  of  art  and  understanding  ; 
 and  yet,  Avhen  Ave  behold  the  heavens,  moved  and 
 Avhirled  about  Avith  an  incredible  velocity,  most  con- 
 stantly finishing-  their  anniversary  vicissitudes,  make  any 
 doubt,  that  these  are  the  performances,  not  only  of  rea- 
 son, but  of  a  certain  excellent  and  divine  reason  ?  " 
 
 And  if  Tally,  from  the  very  imperfect  knoAvledge  of 
 astronomy,  Avhich  his  time  afforded,  could  be  so  confi- 
 dent, that  the  heavenly  bodies  AA'ere  framed,  and  moved 
 by  a  Avise  and  understanding  mind,  as  to  declare,  that, 
 in  his  opinion,  whosoever  asserted  the  contrary,  was 
 himself  destitute  of  understanding- ;  5  Avhat  Avould  he  have 
 said,  had  he  been  acquainted  Avith  the  modern  discoveries 
 of  astronomy ;  the  immense  greatness  of  the  Avorld,  that 
 part  of  it  (I  mean)  Avhich  falls  under  our  observation; 
 the  exquisite  regularity  of  the  motions  of  all  the  planets, 
 Avithout  any  deviation  or  confusion;  the  inexpressible 
 nicety  of  adjustment  in  the  primary  velocity  of  the 
 earth's  annual  motion;  the  Avonderful  proportion  of  its 
 diurnal  motion  about  its  oavii  centre,  for  the  distinction 
 of  light  and  darkness ;  the  exact  accommodation  of  the 
 densities  of  the  planets  to  their  distances  from  the  sun : 
 the  admirable  order,  number,  and  usefulness  of  the 
 several  satellites,  Avhich  move  about  the  respective 
 planets;  the  motion  of  the  comets,  Avhich  are  hoav  found 
 to  be  as  regular  and  periodical,  as  that  of  other  plane- 
 tary bodies;  and,  lastly,  the  preservation  of  the  several 
 systems,  and  of  the  several  planets  and  comets  in  the 
 same  system,  from  falling  upon  each  other:  Avhat,  I  say, 
 would  Tully,  that  great  master  of  reason,  have  thought 
 and  said,  if  these,  and  other  newly  discovered  instances 
 of  the  inexpressible  accuracy  and  Avisdom  of  the  Avorks 
 
 3  Hay's  JVisdom  of  God  in  the  Creation. 
 *  Tully  on  the  Nature  of  the  Gods. 
 s  Clarke's  Demonstration  of  a  God. 
 
Sect.  1.1 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 13 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CII.  2. 
 
 of  God,  had  been  observed  and  considered  in  his  days  ? 
 Certainly  atheism,  which  even  then  was  unable  to  with- 
 stand the  arguments  drawn  from  this  topic,  must  now, 
 upon  the  additional  strength  of  these  later  observations, 
 be  utterly  ashamed  to  show  its  head,  and  forced  to  ac- 
 knowledge, that  it  was  an  eternal  and  almighty  Being. 
 God  alone,  who  gave  these  celestial  bodies  their  proper 
 mensuration  and  temperature  of  heat,  their  dueness  of 
 distance,  and  regularity  of  motion,  or,  in  the  phrase  of 
 the  prophet,  * '  who  established  the  world  by  his  wisdom, 
 and  stretched  out  the  heavens  by  his  understanding.' 
 
 If,  from  the  firmament,  Ave  descend  to  the  orb  whereon 
 we  live,  what  a  glorious  proof  of  the  divine  wisdom  do 
 we  meet  with  in  this  intermediate  expansion  of  the  air, 
 which  is  so  wonderfully  contrived,  as,  at  one  and  the 
 same  time,  to  support  clouds  for  rain,  and  to  afford 
 winds  for  health  and  traffic ;  to  be  proper  for  the  breath 
 of  animals  by  its  spring,  for  causing  sounds  by  its  mo- 
 tion, and  for  conveying  light  by  its  transparency  ?  But 
 whose  power  was  it,  that  made  so  thin  and  fluid  an  ele- 
 ment, the  safe  repository  of  thunder  and  lightning,  of 
 winds  and  tempests?  By  whose  command,  and  out  of 
 whose  treasuries,  are  these  meteors  sent  forth  to  purify 
 the  air,  which  would  otherwise  stagnate,  and  consume 
 the  vapours,  which  would  otherwise  annoy  us  ?  And  by 
 what  skilful  hand  is  the  2  water,  which  is  drawn  from  the 
 sea,  by  a  natural  distillation  made  fresh,  and  bottled  up, 
 as  it  were,  in  the  clouds,  to  be  sent  upon  the  '  wings  of 
 the  wind'  into  different  countries,  and,  in  a  manner, 
 equally  dispersed,  and  distributed,  over  the  face  of  the 
 earth,  in  gentle  showers  ? 
 
 Whose  power  and  wisdom  was  it,  that  '  hanged  the 
 earth  upon  nothing,'  and  gave  it  a  spherical  figure,  the 
 most  commodious  that  could  be  devised,  both  for  the 
 consistency  of  its  parts,  and  the  velocity  of  its  motion  ? 
 That  '  weighed  the  mountains  in  scales,'  and  '  the  hills  in 
 a  balance,'  and  disposed  of  them  in  their  most  proper 
 places  for  fruitfulness  and  health  ?  That  diversified  the 
 climates  of  the  earth  into  such  an  agreeable  variety, 
 that,  at  the  farthest  distance,  each  one  has  its  proper 
 seasons,  day  and  night,  winter  and  summer  ?  That  clothed 
 the  face  of  it  with  plants  and  flowers,  so  exquisitely 
 adorned  with  various  and  inimitable  beauties,  that  even 
 '  Solomon,  in  all  his  glory,  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of 
 them  ?'  That  placed  the  plant  in  the  seed  (as  the  young 
 is  in  the  womb  of  animals)  in  such  elegant  complica- 
 tions, as  afford  at  once  both  a  pleasing  and  astonishing 
 spectacle  ?  That  painted  and  perfumed  the  flowers,  gave 
 them  the  sweet  odours  which  they  diffuse  in  the  air  for 
 our  delight,  and,  with  one  and  the  same  water,  dyed 
 them  into  different  colours,  the  scarlet,  the  purple,  the 
 carnation,  surpassing  the  imitation,  as  well  as  compre- 
 hension of  mankind  ?  That  has  replenished  it  with  such 
 an  infinite  variety  of  living  creatures,  3so  like,  and  at 
 the  same  time  so  unlike  to  each  other,  that  of  the  in- 
 numerable particulars  wherein  each  creature  differs  from 
 •ill  others,  every  one  is  known  to  have  its  peculiar 
 beauty,  and  singular  use  ?  Some  walk,  some  creep, 
 some  fly,  some  swim;  but  every  one  has  members  and 
 organs4  fitted  to  its  peculiar  motions.  In  a  word,  the 
 pride  of  the  horse,  and  the  feathers  of  the  peacock,  the 
 
 1  Jer.  li.  15.  *  Ray's  Wisdom  of  God  in  the  Creation. 
 
 *  Dr  Sam.  Clarke's  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 
 *  Roy's  Wisdom  of  God  in  the  Creation. 
 
 largeness  of  the  camel,  and  the  smallness  of  the  insect, 
 are  equal  demonstrations  of  an  infinite  wisdom  and 
 power.  Nay,  a  the  smaller  the  creature  is,  the  more 
 amazing  is  the  workmanship ;  and  when  in  a  little  mite, 
 we  do  (by  the  help  of  glasses)  see  limbs  perfectly  well 
 organized,  a  head,  a  body,  legs,  and  feet,  all  distinct, 
 and  as  well  proportioned  for  their  size,  as  those  of  the 
 vastest  elephants;  and  consider  withal,  that,  in  every 
 part  of  this  living  atom,  there  are  muscles,  nerves, 
 veins,  arteries,  and  blood;  and  in  that  blood  ramous 
 particles  and  humours;  and  in  those  humours,  some 
 drops  that  are  composed  of  other  minute  particles: 
 when  we  consider  all  this, -I  say,  can  we  help  being  lost 
 in  wonder  and  astonishment,  or  refrain  crying  out,  with 
 the  blessed  apostle,  bi  O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of 
 the  wisdom,  and  knowledge  of  God!  how  unsearchable 
 are  his  works,  and  his  ways  of'  creation  and  providence 
 '  past  finding  out !' 
 
 But  there  is  another  tiling  in  animals,  both  terrestrial 
 and  aqueous,  no  less  wonderful  than  their  frame;  and 
 that  is  their  natural  instinct.  In  compliance  with  the 
 common  forms  of  speech  I  call  it  so;  but  in  reality,  it 
 is  the  providential  direction  of  them,  by  an  all  wise,  and 
 all-powerful  mind.  For  what  else  has  infused  into  birds 
 the  art  of  building  their  nests,  either  hard  or  soft,  ac- 
 cording to  the  constitution  of  their  young  ?  What  else 
 makes  them  keep  so  constantly  in  their  nests,  while  they 
 are  hatching  their  young,  as  if  they  knew  the  philosophy 
 of  their  own  warmth,  and  its  aptness  for  animation? 
 What  else  moves  the  swallow,  upon  the  approach  of 
 winter,  to  fly  to  a  more  temperate  climate,  as  it  it  un- 
 derstood the  celestial  signs,  the  influence  of  the  stars, 
 and  the  change  of  seasons?  What  CISC'1  causes  the 
 salmon,  every  year,  to  ascend  from  the  sea  up  a  river, 
 some  four  or  five  hundred  miles  perhaps,  only  to  cast  its 
 spawn,  and  secure  it  in  banks  of  sand,  until  the  young 
 be  hatched,  or  excluded,  and  then  return  to  the  sea 
 again?  How  these  creatures,  when  they  have  been 
 wandering,  a  long  time,  in  the  wide  ocean, should  again 
 find  out,  and  repair  to  the  mouth  of  the  same  rivers, 
 seems  to  me  very  strange,  and  hardly  accountable, 
 without  having  recourse  either  to  some  impression  given 
 
 s  Rom.  xi.  33.  6  Rap's  Wisdom  of  God. 
 
 a  "  Where  has  nature  disposed  so  many  senses,  as  in  B  . 
 (says  Pliny  En  his  Natural  History,  when  considering  the  body 
 of  that  insert,)  "  Where  hath  nature  planted  its  organs  oi  sight, 
 and  taste,  and  smell?  where  hath  >he  generated  that  angry  and 
 shrill  voice?  and  with  "hat  cunning  adjointed  Its  wings, 
 lengthened  its  legs  in  front,  and  arranged  thai  hungry  cavity 
 like  a  belly  so  greedy  of  Meed,  especially  human?  with  what 
 skill  hath  she  pointed  its  sting  for  pricking  the  skin?  and, 
 although  its  slenderness  be  so  great  as  to  render  it  bn  isib 
 hath  she  made  it  so  as  to  serve  a  doul.le  purpose,  being  sharp- 
 ened in  point  for  penetrating  the  skin,  and  at  the  same  time 
 hollowed  out  for  sucking  up  the  Mood?"  And  it  Pliny  made 
 s,,  many  queries  concerning  the  body  ot  a  gnat,  (which,  by  Ms 
 own  confession,  is  none  of  the  least  of  insed  uldne, 
 
 in  all  likelihood,  have  done,  had  he  Been  the  bodies  oi  these  anl- 
 malculS3,  which  are  discernible  by  glasses,  to  the  numb  r  ol  ten, 
 twenty,  or  thirty  thousand  in  a  drop  of  pepper-wat<  r,  not  burger 
 than  a  grain  of  millet  ?  And  if  these  creatun 
 small  what  must  we  think  of  their  muscles,  and  other  parts? 
 Certain  it  is,  that  the  mechanism,  by  which  nature  performs  the 
 muscular  motion,  is  exceedingly  minute  and  curious,  and  to  the 
 performance  of  every  muscular  motion,  in  greater  animals  at 
 least,  there  are  not  fewer  distinct  parts  concerned,  than  many 
 millions  of  millions,  and  these  visible  through  a  mieroscope*- 
 Ray's  Wisdom  of  <>'od  in  the  Creation. 
 
u 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  1.  AND  PART  OF  CH.  2. 
 
 at  their  first  creation,  or  the  immediate  and  continual 
 direction,  of  a  superior  cause.  In  a  word, l  can  we  be- 
 hold the  spider's  net,  the  silk  worms1  webs,  the  bees' 
 cells,  or  the  ants'  granaries,  without  being  lost  in  the 
 contemplation,  and  forced  to  acknowledge  that  infinite 
 wisdom  of  their  Creator,  who  either  directs  their  unerring 
 steps  himself,  or  has  given  them  a  genius  (if  I  may  so 
 call  it)  fit  to  be  an  emblem,  and  to  show  mankind  the 
 pattern  of  art,  industry,  and  frugality  ? 
 
 If  from  the  earth,  and  the  creatures  which  live  upon 
 it,  we  cast  our  eye  upon  the  water,  we  soon  perceive, 
 that  it  is  a  liquid  and  transparent  body,  and  that,  had  it 
 been  more  or  less  rarefied,  it  had  not  been  so  proper  for 
 the  use  of  man:  but  who  gave  it  that  just  configuration 
 of  parts,  and  exact  degree  of  motion,  as  to  make  it  both 
 so  fluent,  and  at  the  same  time  so  strong,  as  to  carry 
 and  waft  away  the  most  unwieldy  burdens  ?  Who  hath 
 taught  the  rivers  to  run,  in  winding  streams,  through 
 vast  tracts  of  land,  in  order  to  water  them  more  plenti- 
 fully ;  then  throw  themselves  into  the  ocean,  to  make  it 
 the  common  centre  of  commerce ;  and  so,  by  secret  and 
 imperceptible  channels,  return  to  their  fountain-head,  in 
 one  perpetual  circulation  ?  Who  stored  and  replenished 
 these  rivers  with  fish  of  all  kinds,  which  glide,  and  sport 
 themselves  in  the  limpid  streams,  and  run  heedlessly 
 into  the  fisher's  net,  or  come  greedily  to  the  angler's 
 hook,  in  order  to  be  caught  (as  it  were)  for  the  use  and 
 entertainment  of  man  ?  The  great  and  wide  sea  is  a 
 very  awful  and  stupendous  work  of  God,  and  the  flux 
 and  reflux  of  its  waters  are  not  the  easiest  phenomena 
 in  nature.  2  All  that  we  know  of  certainty  is  this,  that 
 the  tide  carries  and  brings  us  back  to  certain  places,  at 
 precise  hours :  but  whose  hand  is  it  that  makes  it  stop, 
 and  then  return  with  such  regularity  ?  A  little  more  or 
 less  motion  in  this  fluid  mass  would  disorder  all  nature, 
 and  a  small  incitement  upon  a  tide  ruin  whole  kingdoms : 
 who  then  was  so  wise,  as  to  take  such  exact  measures  in 
 immense  bodies,  and  who  so  strong,  as  to  rule  the  rage 
 of  that  proud  element  at  discretion  ?  Even  he,  3 '  who 
 hath  placed  the  sand  for  the  bound  thereof,  by  a  per- 
 petual decree,  that  it  cannot  pass;'  and  placed  the 
 Leviathan  (among  other  animals  of  all  kinds)  '  therein 
 to  take  his  pastime,  out  of  whose  nostrils  goeth  a  smoke, 
 and  whose  breath  kindleth  coals ; '  so  that  '  he  maketh 
 the  deep  to  boil  like  a  pot,  and  maketh  the  sea  like  a 
 pot  of  ointment,'  as  the  author  of  the  book  of  4  Job  ele- 
 gantly describes  that  most  important  creature. 
 
 If  now,  from  the  world  itself,  we  turn  our  eyes  more 
 particularly  upon  man,  the  principal  inhabitant  that  God 
 has  placed  therein,  no  understanding  certainly  can  be  so 
 low  and  mean,  no  heart  so  stupid  and  insensible,  as  not 
 plainly  to  see,  that  nothing  but  infinite  wisdom  could,  in 
 so  wonderful  a  manner,  have  fashioned  his  body,  and 
 inspired  into  it  a  being  of  superior  faculties,  whereby 
 he  * '  teacheth  us  more  than  the  beasts  of  the  field,  and 
 maketh  us  wiser  than  the  fowls  of  heaven.' 
 
 Should  any  of  us  see  a  lump  of  clay  rise  immediately 
 from  the  ground  into  the  complete  figure  of  a  man,  full 
 of  beauty  and  symmetry,  and  endowed  with  all  the  parts 
 and  faculties  we  perceive  in  ourselves,  and  possibly  far 
 more  exquisite  and  beautiful ;  should  we  presently,  after 
 
 1  CharnoeFs  Existence  of  a  God. 
 Fcnclon's  Demonstration  of  a  God. 
 3Jer.  v.  22.  4Jobxli.  31.  5  Job  xxxv.  11. 
 
 his  formation,  observe  him  perforin  all  the  operations  of 
 life,  sense,  and  reason ;  move  as  gracefully,  talk  as 
 eloquently,  reason  as  justly,  and  do  every  thing  as 
 dexterously,  as  the  most  accomplished  man  breathing: 
 the  same  was  the  case,  and  the  same  the  moment  of  time, 
 in  God's  formation  of  our  first  parent.  But  (to  give  the 
 thing  a  stronger  impression  upon  the  mind)  Ave  will  sup- 
 pose, ti  that  this  figure  rises  by  degrees,  and  is  finished 
 part  by  part,  in  some  succession  of  time ;  and  that,  when 
 the  whole  is  completed,  the  veins  and  arteries  bored, 
 the  sinews  and  tendons  laid,  the  joints  fitted,  and  the 
 liquor  (transmutable  into  blood  and  juices)  lodged  in 
 the  ventricles  of  the  heart,  God  infuses  into  it  a  vital 
 principle ;  whereupon  the  liquor  in  the  heart  begins  to 
 descend,  and  thrill  along  the  veins,  and  an  heavenly 
 blush  arises  in  the  countenance,  such  as  scorns  the  help 
 of  art,  and  is  above  the  power  of  imitation.  The  image 
 moves,  it  walks,  it  speaks :  it  moves  with  such  a  majesty, 
 as  proclaims  it  the  lord  of  the  creation,  and  talks  with 
 such  an  accent,  and  sublimity  of  sentiment,  as  makes 
 every  ear  attentive,  and  even  its  great  Creator  enter  into 
 converse  with  it :  were  we  to  see  all  this  transacted  be- 
 fore our  eyes,  I  say,  Ave  could  not  but  stand  astonished 
 at  the  thing ;  and  yet  this  is  an  exact  emblem  of  every 
 man's  formation,  and  a  contemplation  it  is,  that  made 
 holy  David  break  out  into  this  rapturous  acknowledg- 
 ment 7 '  Lord !  I  Avill  give  thee  thanks,  for  I  am  fearfully 
 and  wonderfully  made ;  marvellous  are  thy  works,  and 
 that  my  soul  knoweth  right  Avell :  thine  eyes  did  see  my 
 substance,  yet  being  imperfect,  and  in  thy  book  Avere  all 
 my  members  Avritten.' 
 
 Nay,  so  curious  is  the  texture  of  the  human  body,  and 
 in  every  part  so  full  of  wonder,  that  even  Galen  himself, 
 (who  Avas  otherwise  backward  enough  to  believe  a  God,) 
 after  he  had  carefully  surveyed  the  frame  of  it,  and 
 viewed  the  fitness  and  usefulness  of  every  part,  the 
 many  "several  intentions  of  every  little  vein,  bone, 
 and  muscle,  and  the  beautiful  composition  of  the  whole, 
 fell  into  a  pang  of  devotion,  and  Avrote  an  hymn  to  his 
 Creator's  praise.  8And,  if  in  the  make  of  the  body,  Iioav 
 much  more  does  the  divine  Avisdom  appear  in  the  crea- 
 tion of  the  soul  of  man,  a  substance  immaterial,  but 
 united  to  the  body  by  a  copula  imperceptible,  and  yet 
 so  strong,  as  to  make  them  mutually  operate,  and  sym- 
 pathize with  each  other,  in  all  their  pleasures  and  their 
 pains ;  a  substance  endued  with  those  wonderful  facul- 
 ties of  thinking,  understanding-,  judging,  reasoning, 
 choosing,  acting,  and  (Avhich  is  the  end  and  excellency 
 of  all)  the  poAver  of  knowing,  obeying,  imitating,  and 
 praising  its  Creator ;  though  certainly  neither  it,  nor 
 any  superior  rank  of  beings,  angels,  and  archangels,  or 
 
 6  Hale's  Origination  of  Mankind. 
 7  Ps.  exxxix.  14,  16.  8  Clarke's  Sermons,  v.  1. 
 
 a  Galen,  in  his  book,  On  the  Formation  of  the  Embryo,  takes 
 notice,  that  there  are,  in  a  human  body,  above  COO  muscles,  in 
 each  of  which  there  are,  at  least,  ten  several  intentions,  or  due 
 qualifications,  to  be  observed ;  so  that,  about  the  muscles  alone, 
 no  less  than  COOO  several  ends  and  aims  are  to  be  attended  to. 
 The  bones  are  reckoned  to  be  284,  and  the  distinct  scopes,  or 
 intentions  of  each  of  these,  are  above  40;  in  all,  about  12,000; 
 and  thus  it  is  in  some  proportion  with  all  the  other  parts,  the 
 skin,  ligaments,  vessels,  and  humours;  but  more  especially  with 
 the  several  vessels  of  the  body,  which  do,  in  regard  of  the  great 
 variety  and  multitude  of  those  several  intentions  required  to 
 them,  very  much  exceed  the  homogeneous  parts.- — fJ'iUin's 
 Natural  Religion. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 15 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  Mil.  GEN.  CH.  2.  FROM  VER.  8. 
 
 the  '  whole  host  of  heaven  '  can  worthily  and  sufficiently 
 do  it;  * '  for  who  can  express  the  mighty  acts  of  the 
 Lord,  or  show  forth  all  his  praise  ?' 
 
 Thus,  which  way  soever  we  turn  our  eyes,  whether  we 
 look  upwards  or  downwards,  without  us,  or  within  us, 
 upon  the  animate  or  inanimate  parts  of  the  creation ;  we 
 shall  find  abundant  reason  to  take  up  the  words  of  the 
 Psalmist,  and  say,  2 '  O  Lord,  how  wonderful  are  thy 
 works  !  in  wisdom  hast  thou  made  them  all ;  the  earth  is 
 full  of  thy  riches.'  3 '  O,  that  men  would  therefore  praise 
 the  Lord  for  his  goodness,  and  declare  the  wonders  that 
 he  doeth  for  the  children  of  men!  that  hey  would  offer 
 him  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving-,  and  tell  out  all  his 
 works  with  gladness  ! ' 
 
 SECT.    II. 
 CHAP.   I. — Of  the  state  of  maris  innocence. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  seventh  day  from  the  creation  (the  first 
 day,  as  we  said  of  Adam's  life,  and  consequently  the 
 first  day  of  the  week)  was  begun,  Adam,  awaking  out 
 of  his  sleep,  musing,  very  probably,  on  his  vision  the 
 preceding  night,  beheld  the  fair  figure  of  a  woman  ap- 
 proaching him,  a  conducted  by  the  hand  of  her  almighty 
 Maker;  and,  as  she  advanced,  the  several  innocent 
 beauties  that  adorned  her  person,  the  comeliness  of  her 
 shape,  and  gracefubiess  of  her  gesture,  the  lustre  of  her 
 eye,  and  sweetness  of  her  looks,  discovered  themselves 
 in  every  step  more  and  more. 
 
 It  is  not  to  be  expressed,  nor  now  conceived,  *  what 
 a  fidl  tide  of  joy  entered  in  at  the  soul  of  our  first  parent, 
 when  he  surveyed  this  lovely  creature,  who  was  destined 
 to  be  the  partner  and  companion  of  his  life  ;  when,  by  a 
 secret  sympathy,  he  felt  that  she  was  of  his  own  likeness, 
 and  complexion,  '  bone  of  his  bone,  and  flesh  of  his 
 
 1  Ps.  cvi.  2.  2  Ps.  civ.  24.  3  Ps.  cvii.  21,  22. 
 
 a  It  is  the  general  opinion  of  interpreters,  both  Jewish  and 
 Christian,  that  God  himself,  or,  more  particularly,  the  second 
 person  in  the  ever-blessed  Trinity,  God  the  Son  (who  is  there- 
 fore styled  in  Scripture,  Isa.  lxiii.  9.  'the  angel  of  God's  pre- 
 sence') appeared  to  Adam,  on  this  and  sundry  other  occasions,  in 
 a  visible  glorious  majesty,  such  as  the  Jews  call  the  SckecAinah, 
 which  seems  to  have  been  a  very  shining  flame,  or  amazing 
 splendour  of  light,  breaking  out  of  a  thick  cloud,  of  which  we 
 afterward  read  very  frequently,  under  the  name  of  the  glory  of 
 the  Lord,  and  to  which  we  cannot  suppose  our  first  parents  to 
 have  been  strangers.  We  therefore  look  upon  it  as  highly  pro- 
 bable, that  this  divine  Majesty  first  conducted  Eve  to  the  place 
 where  Adam  was,  and  not  long  after  their  marriage,  conveyed 
 them  both,  from  the  place  where  they  were  formed,  into  the 
 garden  of  Eden. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Milton  has  expressed  the  joy  and  transport  of  Adam,  upon 
 his  first  sight  of  Eve,  in  the  following  manner: 
 
 When  out  of  hope,  behold  her !  not  far  off ; 
 
 Such  as  I  saw  her  in  my  dream,  adorn'd 
 
 With  what  all  earth,  or  heaven  could  bestow, 
 
 To  make  her  amiable.     On  she  came, 
 
 Led  by  her  heavenly  Maker  (though  unseen) 
 
 And  guided  by  his  voice  ;  not  uninfonn'd 
 
 Of  nuptial  sanctity,  and  marriage  rites. 
 
 Grace  was  in  all  her  steps,  heav'u  in  her  eye, 
 
 In  ev'ry  gesture  dignity  and  love. 
 
 I  overjoy'd,  could  not  forbear  aloud. 
 
 "  This  turn  hath  made  amends,  thou  hast  fulfill' 
 
 Thy  words,  Creator  bounteous,  and  benign  ! 
 
 Giver  of  all  things  fair  !  but  fairest  this 
 
 Of  all  thy  (rifts." 
 
 flesh,'  his  very  self,  diversified  only  info  another  sex ; 
 and  could  easily  foresee,  that  the  love  and  union  which 
 was  now  to  commence  between  them  was  to  be  perpetual, 
 and  for  ever  inseparable.  4  For  the  same  divine  hand 
 which  conducted  the  woman  to  the  place  where  Adam 
 was,  presented  her  to  him  in  the  capacity  of  a  matri- 
 monial father;  and,  c  having  joined  them  together  in  the 
 nuptial  state,  pronounced  his  benediction  over  them,  to 
 the  intent  that  5they  might  enjoy  unmolested  the  do- 
 minion he  had  given  them  over  the  other  parts  of  the 
 creation,  and,  being  themselves  d fruitful  in  the  procrea- 
 tion of  children,  might  live  to  see  the  earth  replenished 
 with  a  numerous  progeny,  descended  from  their  loins. 
 
 In  the  mean  time  God  had  taken  care  to  provide  our 
 first  parents  ewith  a  pleasant  and  delightful  habitation 
 
 4  See  Patrick's  Commentary.  5  See  Gen.  i.  28,  29,  3D. 
 
 C  The  words  of  Milton  upon  this  occasion  are  extremely  line. 
 
 all  heav'n, 
 
 And  happy  constellations,  on  that  hour 
 Shed  their  selectest  influence  ;  the  earth 
 Gave  sign  of  gratulation,  and  each  hill  : 
 Joyous  the  birds  ;  fresh  gales,  and  gentle  airs 
 Whisper'd  it  to  the  woods,  and  from  their  wings 
 Flung  rose,  flung  odours,  from  the  spicy  shrub. 
 Disporting. 
 
 Nor  can  we  pass  by  his  episode  upon  marriage,  which,  for  its 
 grave  and  majestic  beauty,  is  inimitable. 
 
 Hail  wedded  love  !  mysterious  law  !  true  source 
 
 Of  human  offspring  !  sole  propriety 
 
 In  paradise,  of  all  things  common  else  ! 
 
 By  thee  adult'rous  lust  was  clriv  n  from  men, 
 
 Among  the  bestial  herds  to  range  ;  by  thee 
 
 (Founded  in  reason,  loyal,  just,  and  pure) 
 
 Relations  dear,  and  all  the  charities 
 
 Of  father,  son,  and  brother,  first  were  known. 
 
 Perpetual  fountain  of  domestic  sweets 
 
 Whose  bed  is  uudefil'd,  and  chaste  prononne'd 
 
 Here  love  his  golden  shafts  employs  ;  here  lights 
 His  constant  lamp,  and  waves  his  purple  n 
 Reigns  here  and  revels 
 
 d  The  words  of  the  text  are,  '  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and 
 replenish  the  earth:'  whereupon  some  have  made  it  a  question, 
 whether  this  is  not  a  command,  obliging  all  men  to  marriage; 
 and  procreation,  as  most  of  the  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion? 
 But  to  this  it  may  be  replied.  1.  That  it  is  indeed  a  command 
 obliging  all  men  so  far,  as  not  to  sutler  the  extinction  of  man- 
 kind, in  which  sense  it  did  absolutely  bind  Adam  and  Eve,  as 
 also  Noah,  and  his  sons,  and  their  wives,  after  the  flood:  but, 
 2.  that  it  does  not  oblige  every  particular  man  to  many,  appears 
 from  the  example  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  who  lived  and  died  in  an 
 unmarried  state;  from  his  commendation  of  those  who  made 
 themselves  '  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  God,'  Mat.  xix.  IV.: 
 and  from  St  Paul's  frequent  approbation  of  virginity,  1  Cor.  \ii. 
 1,  &c.  And  therefore,  3.  it  is  here  rather  a  permission  than  a 
 command,  though  it  be  expressed  in  the  form  of  a  command,  as 
 other  permissions  frequently  are.  See  Gen.  ii.  Hi.  Detlt.  xiv.  4. 
 — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The   description   which   Milton   gives   us  of  the   garden   of 
 
 paradise,  is  very  agreeable  in  several  places,  but  in  one  mora 
 
 especially,  where  he  represent-  the  pleasing  rarietj  of  it. 
 
 Thus  was  this  place 
 
 A  happy  rural  seat  of  various  view. 
 
 (.rove-,  whose  rich  trees  wept  od'rous  gams  anil  balm  ; 
 
 Others,  whose  fruit  biirnish'd  with  golden  rind, 
 
 Hung  amiable  ;  (Hesperian  tables  true. 
 
 If  true,  here  only)  and  of  delicious  taste. 
 
 Betwixt  them  lawns,  or  level  downs,  and  Bocks, 
 Gracing  the  tender  herb,  were  interpos'd  ; 
 Or  palmy  hillock,  or  the  tlow'ry  lap 
 Of  some  irrigUOUJ  \  alley  Spread  her  store. 
 
 Flowers  of  all  hue.  and  without  thorn  the  rose. 
 
 Another  side  umbrageous  grots,  and  eaves 
 
 Of  cool  recess,  o'er  which  the  mantling  vine 
 
 Lays  forth  her  purple  grape,  and  gently  creeps 
 Luxuriant.     Meanwhile  miirm'riog  waters  fall 
 Down  the  slope  hills,  ilispersd,  or  in  a  bike 
 (That  to  the  fringed  bank,  with  myrtle  crown1.!. 
 
 Her  crystal  mirror  holds)  unite  their  streams. 
 
 I  he  bird  ■  their  choir  apply.     Airs,  vernul  airs, 
 
16 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  2.  FROM  VER.  8. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 in  the  country  of  Eden,  l  which  was  Avatered  by  four 
 rivers;  by  the  Tigris,  in  Scripture  called  Hiddekel,  on 
 one  side,  and  by  Euphrates  on  the  other,  which,  joining 
 their  streams  together  in  a  place  where  (not  long-  after 
 the  Hood)  the  famous  city  of  Babylon  was  situate,  pass 
 through  a  large  country,  and  then  dividing  again,  form 
 the  two  rivers,  which  the  sacred  historian  calls  Pison, 
 and  Gihon,  and  so  water  part  of  the  garden  of  paradise, 
 wherein  were  all  kinds  of  trees,  herbs,  and  ilowers, 
 which  could  any  way  delight  the  sight,  the  taste,  or  the 
 smell. 
 
 Among  other  trees,  however,  there  were  two  of  very 
 remarkable  names  and  properties  planted  '  in  the  midst,' 
 or  most  eminent  part  of  the  garden,  to  be  always  within 
 the  view  and  observation  of  our  first  parents,  '  the  tree 
 of  life,'  so  called, 2  because  it  had  a  virtue  in  it,  not 
 only  to  repair  the  animal  spirits,  as  other  nourishment 
 does,  but  likewise  to  preserve  and  °  maintain  them  in  the 
 same  equal  temper  and  state  wherein  they  were  created, 
 without  pain,  diseases,  or  decay  ;  and  '  the  tree  of  know- 
 ledge of  good  and  evil,'  so  called, 3  not  because  it  had 
 a  virtue  to  confer  any  such  knowledge,  but  *  because 
 the  devil,  in  his  temptation  of  the  woman,  pretended 
 that  it  had ;  pretended,  that  4  as  God  knew  all  things, 
 and  was  himself  subject  to  no  one's  control,  so  the 
 eating  of  this  tree  would  confer  on  them  the  same  degree 
 of  knowledge,  and  put  them  in  the  same  state  of  inde- 
 pendency :  and  from  this  unfortunate  deception  (whereof 
 God  might  speak-by  way  of  anticipation)  it  did  not  im- 
 properly derive  its  name. 
 
 Into  this  c  paradise  of  much  pleasure,  but  some  dan- 
 
 Biole  History,  by  M.  Martin. 
 2  Patrick's  Commentary;  and  see  c.  iii.  ver.  20. 
 
 Nicholh'  Conference,  vol.  I. 
 4  Estius  on  the  more  difficult  passages. 
 Breathing-  the  smell  of  fields,  and  groves,  attune 
 The  trembling  leaves,  while  universal  Pan 
 Knit  with  the  Graces,  and  the  Hours,  iu  dance 
 Lead  on  the  eternal  Spring. 
 
 a  Others  think,  that  the  'tree  of  life'  was  so  called,  in  a  sym- 
 bolical sense,  as  it  was  a  sign  and  token  of  that  life  which  man 
 had  received  from  God,  and  of  his  continual  enjoyment  of  it, 
 without  diminution,  had  he  persisted  in  his  obedience,  and  as 
 this  garden,  say  they,  was  confessedly  a  type  of  heaven,  so  God 
 might  intend  by  this  tree  to  represent  that  immortal  life  which 
 he  meant  to  bestow  upon  mankind  himself,  Rev.  xxii.  2.  accord- 
 ing to  which  is  that  famous  saying  of  St.  Austin,  '  In  the  other 
 trees  he  had  nourishment,  in  these  an  oath.' — Patrick's  Comment- 
 ary. 
 
 b  Others  think  the  'tree  of  knowledge'  was  so  called,  either 
 in  respect  to  God,  who  was  minded  by  this  tree  to  prove  our 
 first  parents,  whether  they  would  be  good  or  bad,  which  was  to 
 be  known  by  their  abstaining  from  the  fruit,  or  eating  it;  or  in 
 respect  to  them,  who,  in  the  event,  found  by  sad  experience,  the 
 difference  between  good  and  evil,  which  they  knew  not  before ; 
 but  they  found  the  difference  to  be  this,  that  good  is  that  which 
 gives  the  mind  pleasure  and  assurance ;  but  evil  that  which  is 
 always  attended  with  sorrow  and  regret. — Poole's  Annotations, 
 and  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  1. 
 
 c  The  word  '  paradise,'  which  the  Septuagint  make  use  of 
 (whether  it  be  of  Hebrew,  Chaldee,  or  Persian  original)  signifies 
 'a  place  enclosed  for  pleasure  and  delight :'  either  a  park  where 
 beasts  do  range,  or  a  spot  of  ground  stocked  with  choice  plants, 
 which  is  properly  a  garden ;  or  curiously  set  with  trees,  yielding 
 all  manner  of  fruit,  which  is  an  orchard.  There  are  three  places 
 in  the  Hebrew  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  wherein  this  word  is 
 found.  1.  Nehemiah  ii.  8.  where  that  prophet  requests  of  Ar- 
 taxerxes'  letters  to  Asaph,  the  keeper  of  the  king's  forest,  or 
 paradise;  2.  in  the  Song  of  Solomon,  iv.  18.  where  he  says,  that 
 the  plants  of  the  spouse  'are  an  orchard  of  pomegranates ;'  and 
 
 ger,  wherein  was  one  tree  of  a  pernicious  quality,  though 
 all  the  rest  were  good  in  their  kind,  and  extremely  salu- 
 tary, the  Lord  God  conducted  our  first  parents,  who, 
 at  this  time,  were  naked,  and  yet  not  ashamed,  because 
 their  innocence  was  their  protection.  They  had  no 
 sinful  inclinations  in  their  bodies,  no  evil  concupiscence 
 in  their  minds,  to  make  them  blush ;  and  withal,  the 
 temperature  of  the  climate  was  such,  as  needed  no  cloth- 
 ing to  defend  them  from  the  weather,  God  having  given 
 them  (as  we  may  imagine)  a-survey  of  their  new  habita- 
 tion, shown  them  the  various  beauties  of  the  place,  the 
 work  wherein  they  Avere  to  employ  themselves  by  day, 
 and  <*the  bower  wherein  they  were  to  repose  themselves 
 by  night,  granted  them  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  every  tree 
 in  the  garden,  except  that  one,  '  the  tree  of  knowledge 
 of  good  and  evil,'  which  (how  lovely  soever  it  might 
 appear  to  the  eye)  he  strictly  charged  them  not  so 
 much  as  to  touch,  upon  the  penalty  of  incurring  his  dis- 
 pleasure, forfeiting  their  right  and  title  to  eternal  life, 
 and  entailing  upon  themselves,  and  their  posterity,  e 
 mortality,  diseases,  and  death. 
 
 With  this  small  restraint  which  the  divine  wisdom 
 thought  proper  to  lay  upon  Adam,  as  a  token  of  his 
 subjection,  and  a  test  of  his  obedience,  God  left  him  to 
 the  enjoyment  of  this  paradise,  where  every  thing  was 
 
 3.  in  Ecclesiastes  ii.  5.  where  he  says,  'he  made  himself  gar- 
 dens,' or  paradises.  In  all  which  senses  the  word  may  very 
 fitly  be  applied  to  the  place  where  our  first  parents  were  to  live ; 
 since  it  was  not  only  a  pleasant  garden  and  fruitful  orchard,  but 
 a  spacious  park  and  forest  likewise,  whereinto  the  several  beasts 
 of  the  field  were  permitted  to  come. — Edwards'  Survey  of  Reli- 
 gion, vol.  1.  and  Calmet's  Dictionary  on  the  ivord  'Paradise.' 
 
 d  The  description  which  Milton  gives  us  of  this  blissful  bower, 
 is  extremely  fine. 
 
 It  was  a  place, 
 
 Chosen  by  the  sov'reign  Planter,  when  he  frani'd 
 
 All  thing's  to  man's  delightful  use  :  the  roof 
 
 Of  thickest  covert,  was  inwoven  shade, 
 
 Laurel  and  myrtle,  and  what  higher  grew 
 
 Of  firm  and  fragrant  leaf.     On  either  side 
 
 Acanthus  and  each  od'rous  bushy  shrub, 
 
 Fenc'd  up  the  verdant  wall.     Each  beauteous  flower, 
 
 Iris,  all  hues,  roses,  aud  .jessamin, 
 
 Rear'd  high  their  flourished  heAds  between,  and  wrought 
 
 Mosaic.  :  under  foot  the  violet, 
 
 Crocus,  aud  hyacinth,  with  rich  inlayt 
 
 Broider'd  the  ground,  more  colour'd  than  with  stone 
 
 Of  costliest  emblem.     Other  creatures  here, 
 
 Beast,  bird,  insect,  or  worm,  durst  enter  none; 
 
 Such  was  their  awe  of  man  ! 
 
 e  The  words  in  our  version  are,  '  In  the  day  thou  eatest 
 thereof,  thou  shalt  surely  die ;'  which  seem  to  imply,  that  on  the 
 day  that  Adam  should  eat  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  he  should 
 die ;  which  eventually  proved  not  so,  because  he  lived  many 
 years  after ;  and  therefore  (as  some  observe  very  well)  it  should 
 be  rendered,  'Thou  shalt  deserve  to  die  without  remission;'  for 
 the  Scripture  frequently  expresses  by  the  future  not  only  what 
 will  come  to  pass,  but  also  what  ought  to  come  to  pass ;  to  which 
 purpose  there  is  a  very  apposite  text  in  1   Kings  ii.  37.   where 
 
 Solomon  says  to  Shimei, 'Go  not  forth  hence  (namely,  from 
 
 Jerusalem)  any  whither;  for  in  the  day  thou  goest  out,  and  pas- 
 sest  over  the  brook  Kidron,  thou  shalt  surely  die,'  that  is,  'thou 
 shalt  deserve  death  without  remission.'  For  Solomon  reserved 
 to  himself  the  power  of  punishing  him  when  he  should  think  fit; 
 and,  in  effect,  he  did  not  put  him  to  death  the  same  day  that  he 
 disobeyed,  any  more  than  God  did  put  Adam  to  death  the  same 
 day  that  he  transgressed  in  eating  the  forbidden  fruit.  This 
 seems  to  be  a  good  solution ;  though  some  interpreters  understand 
 the  prohibition,  as  if  God  intended  thereby  to  intimate  to  Adam 
 the  deadly  quality  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  whose  poison  was  so 
 very  exquisite,  that,  on  the  very  day  he  eat  thereof,  it  would 
 certainly  have  destroyed  him,  had  not  God's  goodness  interposed, 
 and  restrained  its  violence.' — See  Essay  for  a  New  Translation  ; 
 and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary, 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 17 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  •->.  FROM  VER.  R 
 
 pleasant  to  the  sight,  and  accommodated  to  his  liking. 
 Not  thinking  it  convenient  however  for  him,  even  in  his 
 state  of  innocence,  to  be  idle  or  unemployed,  here  he 
 appointed  him  to  dress  and  keep  the  new  plantation, 
 which,  by  reason  of  its  luxuriancy,  would  in  time,  he 
 knew,  require  his  care.  Here  he  was  to  employ  his 
 mind,  as  well  as  exercise  his  body  ;  to  contemplate  and 
 study  the  works  of  God  ;  to  submit  himself  wholly  to  the 
 divine  conduct ;  to  conform  all  his  actions  to  the  divine 
 will ;  and  to  live  in  a  constant  dependence  upon  the 
 divine  goodness.  Here  he  was  to  spend  his  days  in  the 
 continual  exercises  of  prayer  and  thanksgiving  ;  and,  it 
 may  be,  the  natural  dictates  of  gratitude  would  prompt 
 him  to  offer  some  of  the  fruits  of  the  ground,  and  some 
 living  creatures,  by  way  of  sacrifice  to  God.  Here 
 were  thousands  of  objects  to  exercise  his  intellective 
 faculties,  to  call  forth  his  reason,  and  employ  it;  but 
 that  wherein  the  ultimate  perfection  of  his  life  was 
 doubtless  to  consist,  was  the  union  of  his  soul  with  the 
 supreme  good,  that  infinite  and  eternal  Being,  which 
 alone  can  constitute  the  happiness  of  man. 
 
 1  O  !  Adam,  beyond  all  imagination  happy  :  with  un- 
 interrupted health,  and  untainted  innocence,  to  delight 
 thee  ;  no  perverseness  of  will,  or  perturbation  of  appe- 
 tite, to  discompose  thee ;  a  heart  upright,  a  conscience 
 clear,  and  an  head  unclouded,  to  entertain  thee  ;  a  de- 
 lightful earth  for  thee  to  enjoy  ;  a  glorious  universe  for 
 thee  to  contemplate ;  an  everlasting  heaven,  a  crown  of 
 never-fading  glory  for  thee  to  look  for  and  expect ;  and, 
 in  the  mean  time,  the  author  of  that  universe,  the  King 
 of  that  heaven,  and  giver  of  that  glory,  thy  God,  thy 
 Creator,  thy  benefactor,  to  see,  to  converse  with,  to 
 bless,  to  glorify,  to  adore,  to  obey  ! 
 
 This  was  the  designed  felicity  of  our  first  parents. 
 Neither  they  nor  their  posterity  were  to  be  liable  to 
 sorrow  or  misery  of  any  kind,  but  to  be  possessed  of  a 
 constant  and  never-failing  happiness  ;  and,  after  innum- 
 erable ages  and  successions,  were,  in  their  courses,  to 
 be  taken  up  into  an  heavenly  paradise.  For  2that  the 
 terrestrial  paradise  was  to  Adam  a  type  of  heaven,  and 
 that  the  never-ending  life  of  happiness  promised  to  our 
 first  parents  (if  they  had  continued  obedient,  and  grown 
 up  to  perfection  under  that  economy  wherein  they  were 
 placed)  should  not  have  been  continued  in  this  earthly, 
 but  only  have  commenced  here,  and  been  perpetuated 
 in  an  higher  state,  that  is,  after  such  a  trial  of  their  obed- 
 ience as  the  divine  wisdom  should  think  convenient, 
 they  should  have  been  translated  from  earth  to  heaven, 
 is  the  joint  opinion  aof  the  best  ancient,  both  Jewish 
 and  Christian  writers. 
 
 1  Revelation  Examined)  part  1 
 
 *  Bull's  State  of  Man  before  the  Fall. 
 a  This  same  learned  writer,  (namely,  Bishop  Bull)  has  com- 
 piled a  great  many  authorities  from  the  fathers  of  the  first  cen- 
 turies, all  full  and  significant  to  the  purpose,  and  to  which  I 
 refer  the  reader,  only  mentioning  one  or  two  of  more  remarkable 
 force  and  antiquity,  for  his  present  satisfaction.  Justin  Martyr, 
 speaking  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  delivers  not  his  own  pri- 
 vate opinion  only,  but  the  common  sense  of  Christians  in  his 
 days;  "We  have  been  taught,"  says  ho,  "that  God,  being  good, 
 did,  iii  the  beginning,  make  all  things  out  of  an  unit 
 matter  for  the  sake  of  men,  who,  if  by  thi  Lr  works  they  had  ren- 
 dered themselves  worthy  of  his  acceptance,  we  presume,  should 
 have  been  favoured  with  his  friendship,  and  reigned  together 
 with  him,  being  made  incorruptible,  and  impassaMe ;''  Apol.  2. 
 Athanasius,  among  other  things  worthy  our  observation,  con- 
 
 CHAP.   II. — Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objection* 
 explained. 
 
 That  learned  men  should  differ  in  their  opinion  about 
 a  question,  which,  it  must  be  confessed,  has  its  difficul- 
 ties attending  it,  is  no  wonderful  thing  at  all ;  but  that 
 Moses,  who  wrote  about  850  years  after  the  flood,  should 
 give  us  so  particular  a  description  of  this  garden,  and 
 that  other  sacred  writers,  long  after  him,  should  make 
 such  frequent  mention  of  it,  if  there  was  never  any  such 
 place,  nay,  if  there  were  not  then  remaining  some  marks 
 and  characters  of  its  situation,  is  pretty  strange  and 
 unaccountable.  The  very  nature  of  his  description 
 shows,  that  Moses  had  no  imaginary  paradise  in  his 
 view,  but  a  portion  of  this  habitable  earth,  bounded  with 
 such  countries  and  rivers  as  were  very  well  known  by 
 the  names  he  gave  them  in  his  time,  and  (as  it  appears 
 from  other  passages  in  Scripture)  for  many  ages  after. 
 3  Eden  is  as  evidently  a  real  country,  as  Ararat,  where 
 the  ark  rested,  or  Shinar,  where  the  sons  of  Noah  re- 
 moved after  the  flood.  We  find  it  mentioned  as  such  in 
 Scripture,  as  often  as  the  other  two  ;  and  there  is  the 
 more  reason  to  believe  it,  because,  in  the  Mosaic 
 account,  the  scene  of  these  three  memorable  events  is 
 all  laid  in  the  neighbourhood  of  one  another. 
 
 Moses,  we  must  allow,  is  far  from  being  pompous  or 
 romantic  in  his  manner  of  writing  ;  and  yet  it  cannot  he 
 denied,  but  that  he  gives  a  manifest  preference  to  this 
 spot  of  ground  ahove  all  others ;  which  why  he  should 
 do,  we  cannot  imagine,  unless  there  was  really  such  a 
 place  as  he  describes  :  nor  can  we  conceive, 4  what  other 
 foundation,  both  the  ancient  poets  and  philosophers 
 could  have  had,  for  their  fortunate  islands,  their  elysian 
 fields,  their  garden  of  Adonis,  their  garden  of  the  Hes- 
 perides,  their  Ortygia  and  Toprobane,  (as  described  by 
 Diodorus  Siculus,)  which  are  but  borrowed  sketches 
 from  what  our  inspired  penman  tells  us  of  the  first  ter- 
 restrial paradise. 
 
 It  is  not  to  be  questioned  then,  but  that,  in  the  antedilu- 
 vian world,  there  really  was  such  a  place  as  this  garden 
 of  Eden,  a  place  of  distinguished  beauty,  and  more 
 remarkably  pleasant  in  its  situation  ;  otherwise  we  can- 
 not perceive,  h  why  the  expulsion  of  our  first  parents 
 
 3  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  1.  (  Ihutius'  Inquiries. 
 
 cerning  the  primordial  state  of  our  first  parents,  has  these  re- 
 markable words:  "He  brought  them  therefore  into  paradise,  and 
 gave  them  a  law,  that  if  they  should  preserve  the  grace  then 
 given,  and  continue  obedient,  they  might  enjoy  in  paradise  a 
 fife  without  grief,  sorrow,  or  care;  besides  that  tiny  had  a  pro- 
 mi.'  also  of  an  immortality  in  the  heavens;"  Ox  the  fncama 
 Hon  of  the  JFord.  And  therefore  we  need  less  wonder,  thai  we 
 lind  it  an  article  inserted  in  the  common  offices  of  the  primitive 
 Church;   and  that  in  the  mOSl  ancient  liturgy  now  extant,  that  of 
 
 Clemens,  we  read  these  words  concerning  Adam:  "When  thou 
 broughtest.  him  into  the  paradise  of  pleasure,  thou  gavesl  him 
 
 free  leave  to  eat  of  all  other  tree-,  and  forbadeSt    him  to   ta-te   ot 
 
 one  only,  lor  the  hope  of  better  thin^  .  that  if  he  kepi  the  com- 
 mandment, he  might  receive  immortality  as  the  reward  oi  his 
 obedience." — 4post.  Const,  b.  8.  c  12. 
 
 t>  Eve's  lamentation  upon  the  order  which  .Michael  brought 
 ;',„•  their  departure  oul  of  paradise,  is  \  ery  '»  autifnl,  and  affi 
 in  Mil/on. 
 
 'O  unexpected  shook,  worse  fir  than  death  ' 
 Kail   1  Hois  leave  ll ,  Paradise,  thus  leave 
 
 Thee,  native  soil?    Those  happj  walks  i 
 
 Kit  haunt  Of  gods  I  where  I  had  hO|  t  to  spend 
 
 Quiet,  though  sad,  the  respite  of  that  day 
 
18 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  I.  A  C.  4004  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  2.  FROM  VER.  8. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 from  that  abode  should  be  thought  any  part  of  their  pun- 
 ishment ;  nor  can  we  see,  what  occasion  there  was  for 
 placing- a 'flaming- sword'  about  the  'tree  of  life;'  or 
 for  appointing-  an  host  of  the  cherubims  to  guard  the 
 entrance  against  their  return.  The  face  of  nature,  and 
 the  course  of  rivers,  might  possibly  be  altered  by  the 
 violence  of  the  flood ;  but  this  is  no  valid  exception  to 
 the  case  in  hand  :  *  because  Moses  does  not  describe  the 
 situation  of  paradise  in  antediluvian  names.  The  names 
 of  the  rivers,  and  the  countries  adjacent,  Cush,  Havilah, 
 &c,  are  names  of  later  date  than  the  flood  ;  nor  can  we 
 suppose,  but  that  Moses  (according  to  the  known  geo- 
 graphy of  the  world,  when  he  wrote)  intended  to  give 
 us  some  hints  of  the  place,  near  which  Eden,  in  the 
 former  world,  and  the  garden  of  paradise,  were  seated. 
 
 Now  the  description  which  Moses  gives  us  of  it,  is 
 delivered  in  these  words. — ~ '  And  the  Lord  God  plant- 
 ed a  garden  eastward  in  Eden  ;  and  a  river  Avent  out  of 
 Eden  to  water  the  garden  ;  and  from  thence  it  was  parted, 
 and  became  into  four  heads.  The  name  of  the  lirst  is 
 Pison  ;  that  is  it  which  compasseth  the  whole  land  of 
 Havilah,  where  there  is  gold  :  and  the  gold  of  that  land 
 is  good  :  there  is  bdellium,  and  the  onyx-stone.  And 
 the  name  of  the  second  river  is  Gihon  :  the  same  is 
 it  that  compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Cush.  And  the 
 name  of  the  third  river  is  Hiddekel ;  that  is  it  which  goes 
 before  Assyria:  and  the  fourth  is  Euphrates.'  So  that 
 to  discover  the  place  of  paradise,  we  must  find  out  the 
 true  situation  of  the  land  of  Eden,  whereof  it  was  pro- 
 bably a  part,  and  then  trace  the  courses  of  the  rivers, 
 and  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the  countries  which  Moses 
 here  specified. 
 
 The  word  Eden1,  which  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  (accord- 
 ing to  its  primary  acceptation)  signifies,  '  pleasure'  and 
 '  delight ;'  in  a  secondary  sense,  is  frequently  made  the 
 proper  name  of  several  places,  Avhich  are  either  more 
 remarkably  fruitful  in  their  soil,  or  pleasant  in  their  sit- 
 uation. Now,  of  all  the  places  which  go  under  this 
 denomination,  the  learned  have  generally  looked  upon 
 these  three,  as  the  properest  countries  wherein  to  in- 
 quire for  the  terrestrial  paradise. 
 
 1.  The  first  is  that  province  which  the  prophet  3  Amos 
 seems  to  take  notice  of,  when  he  divides  Syria  into  three 
 parts,  viz.  Damascus,  the  plain  of  Aven,  and  the  house 
 of  Eden,  called  Ccelo-Syria,  or  the  hollow  Syria,  be- 
 cause the  mountains  of  Libanus  and  Antilibanus  enclose 
 it  on  both  sides,  and  make  it  look  like  a  valley.  But 4 
 (how  great  soever  the  names  be  that  seem  to  patronise 
 it)  this,  by  no  means,  can  be  the  Eden  which  Moses 
 means  ;  not  only  because  it  lies  not  to  the  east,  but  to 
 the  north  of  the  place  where  he  is  supposed  to   have 
 
 Which  must  be  mortal  to  us  both  '.     O  flowers, 
 
 That  never  will  in  other  climate  grow, 
 
 My  early  visitation,  and  my  last 
 
 At  even,  which  I  had  bred  with  tender  hand 
 
 From  the  first,  op'ning  hud,  and  gave  ye  nam"-  ' 
 
 Who  now  will  rear  you  to  the  sun,  and  rank 
 
 Your  tribes,  or  water  from  the  ambrosial  fount  ' 
 
 Thee,  lastly,  nuptial  bower,  by  me  adorn'd, 
 
 With  what  to  sight,  or  smell,  was  sweet !  from  thee 
 
 How  shall  I  part,  and  whether  wander  dmvu 
 
 Into  a  lower  world  .J 
 
 1  Shuckford's  Connection,  1.  1.  2  Gen.  ii.  S,  &c. 
 
 3  Amos  i.  5.  *  Its  chief  abettors  are  Heidegger  in  his 
 
 History  of  the  Patriarch;  Le  Ckrc  in  Gen.  ii.  S.  ;  P.  Abram 
 in  his  Pharas  Old  Testament;  and  P.  Hardouin  in  his  edition 
 of  Pliny. 
 
 wrote  his  book,  but  more  especially,  because  it  is  desti- 
 tute of  all  the  marks  in  the  Mosaical  description,  which 
 ought  always  to  be  the  principal  test  in  this  inquiry. 
 
 2.  The  second  place,  wherein  *  several  learned  men 
 have  sought  for  the  country  of  Eden,  in  Armenia,  be- 
 tween the  sources  of  the  Tigris,  the  Euphrates,  the  Ara- 
 xis,  and  the  Phasis,  which  they  suppose  to  be  the  four 
 rivers  specified  by  Moses.  But  this  supposition  is  far 
 from  being  well  founded,  because,  according  to  modern 
 discoveries;  the  Phasis  does  not  rise  in  the  mountains 
 of  Armenia  (as  the  ancient  geographers  have  misin- 
 formed us,)  but  at  a  great  distance  from  them,  in  mount 
 Caucasus :  nor  does  it  run  from  south  to  north,  but  di- 
 rectly contrary,  from  north  to  south,  as  some'  6  late  tra- 
 vellers have  discovered.  So  that,  according  to  this 
 scheme,  we  want  a  whole  river,  and  can  no  ways  account 
 for  that  which  (according  to  Moses's  description  of  it) 
 '  went  out  of  the  country  of  Eden,  to  water  the  garden 
 of  paradise.' 
 
 3.  The  third  place,  and  that  wherein  the  country  of 
 Eden,  as  mentioned  by  Moses,  seems  most  likely  to  be 
 seated,  is  Chaldea,  not  far  from  the  banks  of  the  river 
 Euphrates.  To  this  purpose,  when  we  find  Rabshakeh 
 vaunting  out  his  master's  actions,  ' '  Have  the  gods  of 
 the  nations  delivered  them  which  my  fathers  have  de- 
 stroyed, as  Gozan,  and  Haran,  and  Rezepb,  and  the 
 children  of  Eden,  which  Avere  in  Telassar  ?'  As  Telas- 
 sar,  in  general,  signifies  any  garrison  or  fortification ; 
 so  here,  more  particularly  it  denotes  sthat  strong  fort 
 Avhich  the  children  of  Eden  held  in  an  island  of  the 
 Euphrates,  toAvards  the  west  of  Babylon,  as  a  barrier 
 against  the  incursions  of  the  Assyrians  on  that  side. 
 And  therefore,  in  all  probability,  9the  country  of  Eden 
 lay  on  the  Avest  side,  or  rather  on  both  sides  of  the 
 river  Euphrates,  after  its  conjunction  Avith  the  Tigris,  a 
 little  beloAV  the  place  Avhere,  in  process  of  time,  the 
 famous  city  of  Babylon  came  to  be  built. 
 
 Thus  Ave  have  found  out  a  country  called  Eden,  which, 
 for  its  pleasure  and  fruitfulness,  a  (as  all  authors  agree,) 
 answers  the  character  which  Moses  gives  of  it ;  and  are 
 now  to  consider  the  description  of  the  four  rivers,  in 
 order  to  ascertain  the  place  Avhere  the  garden  we  are 
 in  quest  of  was  very  probably  situate. 
 
 '  The  first  river  is  Pison,  or  Phison,'  (as  the  son  of 
 Sirach  calls  it,)  that  Avhich  compasseth  the  land  of  Ha- 
 vilah. Noav,  for  the  better  understanding  of  this,  Ave 
 must  observe,  that  1U  when  Moses  Avrote  his  history,  he 
 Avas,  in  all  probability,  in   Arabia  Petraea,  on  the  east 
 
 5  The  chief  patrons  of  this  scheme  are  Santon  in  his  Atlas} 
 Reland  in  his  Treatise  on  the  Site  of  Paradise;  and  Calmet,  both 
 in  his  Dictionary  and  Commentary  on  Gen.  ii.  8. 
 
 G  See  Thavenot,  and  Sir  John  Char  din's  Travels. 
 
 1  2  Kings  xix.  12.  and  Isa.  xxxvii.  12. 
 See  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology. 
 
 Calvin  on  Gen.  ii.  8.  Avas  the  first  starter  of  this  opinion,  and 
 is,  with  some  little  variation,  followed  by  Marinus,  Bochart, 
 Hvctius,  Bishop  of  Auranches,  and  divers  others. 
 
 lu  See  Wells's  Geography;  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  Herodotus,  Avho  was  an  eye-witness  of  it,  tells  us,  that 
 Avhere  Euphrates  runs  out  into  Tigris,  not  far  from  the  place 
 where  Ninus  is  seated,  that  region  is,  of  all  that  he  ever  saw, 
 the  most  excellent;  so  fruitful  in  bringing  forth  corn,  that  it 
 yieldeth  two  hundred  fold ;  and  so  plenteous  in  grass,  that  the 
 people  are  forced  to  drive  their  cattle  from  pasture,  lest  they 
 should  surfeit  themselves  by  too  much  plenty. — See  Herodotus, 
 Clio;  and  Quintus  Curtius,  1.  5. 
 
San.  II.] 
 
 FftOM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 19 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  1004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 di  which  lies  Arabia  Deserta  ;  but  the  sterility  of  the 
 country  will  not  admit  of  the  situation  of  the  garden  of 
 Eden  in  that  place  ;  and  therefore  we  must  go  on  east- 
 ward (as  our  author  directs  us)  until  we  come  to  some 
 place,  through  which  Euphrates  and  Tigris  are  known 
 to  shape  their  course.  Now  Euphrates  and  Tigris, 
 though  they  both  rise  out  of  the  mountains  of  Armenia, 
 take  almost  quite  contrary  courses.  Euphrates  runs  to 
 the  west,  and  passing  through  Mesopotamia,  waters  the 
 country  where  Babylon  once  stood ;  whereas  Tigris 
 takes  towards  the  east,  and  passing  along  Assyria,  wa- 
 ters the  country  where  the  once  famed  city  of  Nineveh 
 stood.  After  a  long  progress,  they  meet  a  little  below 
 Babylon,  and  running  a  considerable  way  together  in 
 one  large  stream,  with  Babylonia  and  Chaldea  on  the 
 west,  and  the  country  of  Susiana  on  the  east  side,  they 
 separate  again  not  far  from  Bassora,  and  so  fall,  in  two 
 channels,  into  the  Persian  gulf,  enclosing  the  island 
 Teredon,  now  called  Balsara. 
 
 Now,  taking  this  along  with  us,  we  may  observe  far- 
 ther, that  there  are  two  places  in  Scripture  which  make 
 mention  of  the  land  of  Havilah.  In  the  one  we  are 
 told,  that  1 '  the  Israelites  dwelt  from  Havilah  unto 
 Shur,  that  is  before  Egypt ;'  and  in  the  other,  that 
 2 '  Saul  smote  the  Amalekites  from  Havilah  until  thou 
 goest  to  Shur,  that  is  before  Egypt ;'  where,  by  the  ex- 
 pression, '  from  Havilah  unto  Shur,'  is  probably  meant 
 the  whole  extent  of  that  part  of  Arabia  which  lies 
 between  Egypt  to  the  west,  and  a  certain  stream  or 
 river  which  empties  itself  into  the  Persian  gulf,  on  the 
 east.  That  Havilah  is  the  same  with  this  part  of  Arabia, 
 is  farther  evinced  from  its  abounding  with  very  good 
 gold.  For  all  authors,  both  sacred  and  profane,  highly 
 commend  the  gold  of  Arabia ;  tell  us,  that  it  is  there 
 dug  in  great  plenty  ;  is  of  so  lively  a  colour,  as  to  come 
 near  to  the  brightness  of  lire  ;  and  of  so  fine  a  kind,  so 
 pure  and  unmixed,  as  to  need  no  refinement.  Bdellium 
 (which  by  some  interpreters  is  taken  for  pearl,  and  by 
 others  for  an  aromatic  gum)  is,  in  both  these  senses,  ap- 
 plicable to  this  country  :  for  the  a  bdellium,  or  gum  of 
 Arabia,  was  always  held  in  great  esteem ;  nor  is  there 
 any  place  in  the  world  which  produces  finer  b  pearls,  or 
 in  greater  quantities,  than  the  sea  about  Baharen,  an 
 island  situated  in  the  Persian  gulf ;  and  as  for  c  the  onyx  - 
 stone  in  particular,  (if  we  will  believe  what  Pliny  tells 
 
 '  Gen.  xxv.  18.  2  1  Sam.  xv.  7. 
 
 a  Galen  comparing  the  gum  of  Arabia  with  that  of  Syria,  gives 
 some  advantage  to  the  former,  which  he  denies  to  the  other; 
 On  Simp.  Medic,  b.  b*.  And  Pliny  prefers  the  bdellium  of  Ara- 
 bia before  that  of  any  other  nation,  except  that  of  Bactriana. 
 —Pliny ',  b.  12.  c.  9. 
 
 b  Nearchus,  one  of  Alexander's  captains,  who  conducted  his 
 fleet  from  the  Indies,  as  far  as  the  Persian  gulf,  speaks  of  an 
 island  there  abounding  in  pearls  of  great  value. — strain,  B.  16'. 
 
 And  Pliny,  having  commended  the  pearls  of  the  Indian  seas, 
 adds,  that  such  as  are  fished  towards  Arabia,  in  the  Persian  gulf, 
 deserve  the  greatest  praise. — B.  0.  c.  28. 
 
 c  Strabo  tells  us,  that  the  riches  of  Arabia,  which  consisted  in 
 precious  stones  and  excellent  perfumes,  (the  trade  of  which 
 brought  them  a  great  deal  of  gold  and  silver,  besides  the  gold  of 
 the  country  itself,)  made  Augustus  send  yElius  Gallus  thither, 
 either  to  make  these  nations  his  friends,  and  so  draw  to  himself 
 their  riches,  or  else  to  subdue  them;  b.  1(3.  Diodorus  Sicuhts 
 describes  at  large  the  advantages  of  Arabia,  and  especially  its 
 precious  stones,  which  arc  very  valuable,  both  for  their  variety 
 Did  brightness  of  colour;  b.  2.     And  (to  name  no  more)  Pliny 
 
 HALES,  .,111.  GEN.  CII.  ■>.  FROM  VLK.  J, 
 
 us,)  the  ancients  were  of  opinion,  that  it  was  no  where 
 to  be  found  but  in  the  mountains  of  Arabia.  It  seems 
 reasonable  therefore  to  conclude,  (according  to  all  the 
 characters  which  Moses  has  given  us  of  it,)  that  that 
 tract  of  Arabia  which  lies  upon  the  Persian  gulf,  was, 
 in  his  days  called  'the  land  of  Havilah,'  and  that  the 
 channel  which,  after  Euphrates  and  Tigris  part,  runs 
 westward  into  the  said  gulf,  was  originally  called  Pison  ■ 
 and  this  the  rather,  because  (l  some  remains  of  its  an- 
 cient name  continued  a  long  while  after  this  account  of 
 it. 
 
 '  The  second  river  is  Gihon,  that  which  compasseth, 
 or  runneth  along,  the  whole  land  of  eCush.'  Where 
 we  may  observe,  that  Moses  has  not  artixed  so  many 
 marks  on  the  Gihon,  as  he  does  on  the  Pison,  and  that 
 probably  for  this  reason ;  3  because,  having  once  found 
 out  the  Pison,  we  might  easily  discover  the  situation  of 
 the  Gihon.  For  Pison  being  known  to  be  the  first  river, 
 in  respect  to  the  place  where  Moses  was  then  writing, 
 it  is  but  natural  to  suppose,  that  Gihon  (as  the  second) 
 should  be  the  river  next  to  it;  and,  consequently,  that 
 other  stream,  which,  after  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  are 
 parted,  holds  its  course  eastward,  and  empties  itself  in 
 the  Persian  gulf.  For  all  travellers  agree,  that  the 
 country  lying  upon  the  eastern  stream,  which  other  na- 
 tions call  Susiana,  is  by  the  inhabitants  to  this  day, 
 /called  Chuzestan,  which  carries  in  it  plain  footsteps 
 of  the  original  word  Cush,  or  (as  some  write  it)  Chus. 
 
 Though  therefore  no  remains  of  this  river  Gihon  are 
 to  be  met  with  in  the  country  itself;  yet,  since  it  lies 
 exactly  the  second  in  order,  according  to  the  method 
 that  Moses  has  taken  in  mentioning  the  four  rivers  ;  and, 
 since  the  province  it  runs  along  and  washes  was  for- 
 merly called  '  the  land  of  Cush,'  and  has  at  this  time  a 
 
 3  Wells's  Historical  Geography,  vol.  1. 
 who  is  very  curious  in  remarking  the  countries  of  precious  stoni  s, 
 assures  us,  that  those  of  the  greatest  value  came  out  of  Arabia. 
 — B.  last. 
 
 d  It  is  a  great  while  since  both  this  river  ami  the  river  Gihon 
 have  lost  their  names.  The  Greek  and  Roman  writers  call  them 
 still,  after  their  parting,  by  the  names  they  had  before  they  met, 
 Euphrates  and  Tigris;  but  there  was  some  remainder  of  the 
 name  of  Pison  preserved  in  the  river  Pisotigris,  which  i-  Pison 
 mixed  with  Tigris  (as  Mr  Carver  observes.)  By  Xenophon 
 it  is  called  simply  P/iysetis,  in  which  the  name  of  Phisun  is 
 plainly  enough  retained,  and  went  under  that  name  until  tin; 
 time  of  Alexander  the  Great.  For  (J.  Curtitu  commonly  calls 
 Tigris  itself  by  the  name  of  Phisis,  and  -ays  it  was  so  called  by 
 the  inhabitants  thereabout,  which,  in  all  probability,  v. 
 name  of  this  other  river  Phiaon,  but,  in  process  of  time,  lost  by 
 the  many  alterations  which  were  made  in  it^  course,  as  Pliny 
 tells  us. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  Seventy  translation  renders  the  Hebrew  word  Ctuk, 
 by  the  name  of  Ethiopia,  and  in  this  mistake  is  all  along  fol- 
 lowed by  our  English  version,  whereas  by  the  land  of  Cush  is 
 always  meant  some  purr  of  Arabia,)  which  has  I'd  Jo 
 ami  several  others,  Into  a  notion,  that  tin-  river  Gihon  was  the 
 Nile  in  Egypt;  and  supposing  withal,  that  ihe  country  of  Hav- 
 ilah was  some  pan  of  the  East  Indies,  they  have  run  into 
 another  error,  and  taken  Pison  lor  tJie  Ganges,  whereby  they 
 make  the  garden  >•>'  Eden  contain  the  greatest  part  of  Asia,  ami 
 some  part  of  Africa  likewise,  which  is  a.  supposition  quite  In- 
 credible.—  Patrick,  ib.;  Bedford' a  Scripture  Chronolot 
 ShuchforoVs  Connection, 
 
 /Benjamin  of  Navarre  tells  us,  that  the  province  of  l'.lam, 
 whereof  Susa  is  the  metropolis,  and  which  extends  itself 
 as  the  Persian  gulf,  at  the  east  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  Eu- 
 phrates, or  Tigris,  (as  you  please  to  term  it,)  is  called  by  tliat 
 name. —  Wells,  ib. 
 
20 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  2.  FROM  VER.  8. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 name  not  a  little  analogous  to  it ;  there  is  no  doubt  to 
 be  made,  but  that  the  said  easterly  channel,  coming 
 from  the  united  stream  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  is 
 the  very  Gihon  described  by  Moses. 
 
 '  The  third  river  is  Hiddekel,  that  which  goeth  to- 
 wards the  east  of,  or,  (as  it  is  better  translated)  that 
 which  goeth  along  the  side  of  Assyria.'  It  is  allowed 
 by  all  interpreters,  as  well  as  the  Seventy,  that  this  river 
 is  the  same  with  Tigris,  or  which,  as  Pliny  says,  was  called 
 Diglito,  in  those  parts  where  its  course  was  slow,  but 
 where  it  began  to  be  rapid,  it  took  the  other  name. 
 And,  though  it  may  be  difficult  to  show  any  just  ana- 
 logy between  the  name  of  Hiddekel  and  Tigris  ;  yet,  if 
 we  either  observe  Moses's  method  of  reckoning  up  the 
 four  rivers,  or  consider  the  true  geography  of  the  coun- 
 try, we  shall  easily  perceive,  that  the  river  Hiddekel 
 could  properly  be  no  other.  1  For  as,  in  respect  to  the 
 place  where  Moses  wrote,  Pison  lay  nearest  to  him,  and 
 so,  in  a  natural  order,  was  named  first,  and  the  Gihon, 
 lying  near  to  that,  was  accordingly  reckoned  second ; 
 so,  having  passed  over  that  stream,  and  turning  to  the 
 left,  in  order  to  come  back  again  to  Arabia  Petrrea, 
 (where  Moses  was,)  we  meet,  in  our  passage,  with  Tigris 
 in  the  third  place  ;  and  so,  proceeding  westward  through 
 the  lower  part  of  Mesopotamia,  come  to  Pherath,  or 
 Euphrates,  at  last.  For  Tigris,  we  must  remember, 
 parts  Assyria  from  Mesopotamia,  and  meeting  with 
 Euphrates  a  little  below  Babylon,  runs  along  with  it  in 
 one  common  channel,  until  they  separate  again,  and 
 make  the  two  streams  of  Pison  and  Gihon,  which,  as  we 
 said  before,  empty  themselves  into  the  Persian  gulf. 
 
 '  The  fourth  river  was  a  Euphrates ;'  but  this  lay  so 
 near  the  country  of  Judea,  and  was  so  well  known  to 
 the  inhabitants  thereof,  that  there  was  no  occasion  for 
 Moses  particularly  to  describe  it.  From  the  course  of 
 these  four  rivers,  however,  which  he  manifestly  makes 
 the  bounds  and  limits  of  it,  we  may  perceive,  that  the 
 land  of  Eden  must  necessarily  lie  upon  the  great  chan- 
 nel which  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  make,  while  they 
 run  together,  and  where  they  part  again,  must  there  ter- 
 minate :  for  so  the  sacred  text  informs  us,  namely,  that '  a 
 river  went  out  of  Eden  to  water  the  garden,  and  from 
 thence  it  was  parted,  and  became  into  four  heads  ;'  which 
 words  manifestly  imply,  that  in  Eden  the  river  was  but 
 one,  that  is,  one  single  channel ;  but  '  from  thence,'  that 
 is,  when  it  was  gone  out  of  Eden,  it  was  parted,  and 
 became  four  streams  or  openings,  (for  so  the  Hebrew 
 word  may  be  translated,)  two  upwards,  and  two  below. 
 For,  supposing  this  channel  to  be  our  common  centre, 
 A?e  may,  if  we  look  one  way,  that  is,  up  towards  Babylon, 
 see  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  coming  into  it ;  and,  if  we 
 look  another  way,  that  is,  down  towards  the  Persian 
 gulf,  see  the  Pison  and  the  Gihon  running  out  of  it. 
 
 1  Wells's  Geography, 
 a  Euphrates  is  of  the  same  signification  with  the  Hebrew 
 Pherath,  and  is  probably  so  called,  by  reason  of  the  pleasant- 
 ness, at  least  the  great  fruitfuLness,  of  the  adjacent  country.  It 
 must  not  be  dissembled  however,  that  it  is  one  of  those  corrupt 
 names  which  our  translations  have  borrowed  from  the  Septuaghit 
 version,  and  which  probably  the  Greeks,  as  Reland  on  the  Site 
 of  Paradise  judiciously  observed,  took  from  the  Persians,  who 
 often  set  the  word  ab  or  an,  which  signifies  water,  before  the 
 names  of  rivers,  of  which  word,  and  Frat,  (as  it  is  still  called 
 by  the  neighbouring  people,)  the  name  Euphrates  is  apparently 
 compounded. —  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  1. 
 
 It  seems  reasonable  then  to  suppose,  that  this  countiy 
 of  Eden  lay  on  each  side  of  this  great  channel,  partly 
 in  Chaldea,  and  partly  in  Susiana :  and,  what  may  con- 
 firm us  in  this  opinion,  is,  the  extraordinary  goodness 
 and  fertility  of  the  soil.  For,  as  it  is  incongruous  to 
 suppose,  that  God  would  make  choice  of  a  barren  land 
 wherein  to  plant  the  garden  of  paradise  ;  so  all  ancient 
 historians  and  geographers  inform  us,  that  not  only 
 Mesopotamia,  Chaldea,  a  good  part  of  Syria,  and  other 
 neighbouring  countries,  were  the  most  pleasant  and 
 fruitful  places  in  the  world  ;  but  modern  travellers  like- 
 wise particularly  assure  us,  that  in  all  the  dominions 
 which  the  Grand  Seignior  has,  there  is  not  a  finer  coun- 
 try, (though,  for  want  of  hands,  it  lies  in  some  places 
 uncultivated)  than  that  which  lies  between  Bagdad  and 
 Bassora,  the  very  tract  of  ground,  which,  according  to 
 our  computation,  was  formerly  called  the  land  of  Eden. 
 
 In  what  precise  part  of  the  land  of  Eden  the  garden 
 of  paradise  was  planted,  the  sacred  historian  seems  to 
 intimate,  by  informing  us,  that  it  2 '  lay  eastward  in 
 Eden :'  for  he  does  not  mean,  that  it  lay  eastward  from 
 the  place  where  he  was  then  writing,  (that  every  body 
 might  easily  know,)  but  his  design  was  to  point  out,  as 
 near  as  possible,  the  very  spot  of  ground  where  it  was 
 anciently  seated.  If  then  the  garden  of  paradise  lay  in 
 the  easterly  part  of  the  country  of  Eden,  and  3 '  the  river 
 which  watered  it'  ran  through  that  province  (as  the 
 Scripture  tells  us  it  did)  before  it  entered  into  the  gar- 
 den, then  must  it  necessarily  follow,  that  paradise  was 
 situated  on  the  east  side  of  one  of  the  turnings  of  that 
 river,  which  the  conjunction  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 
 makes,  (now  called  the  river  of  the  Arabs,)  and  very 
 probably  at  the  lowest  great  turning,  which  Ptolemy 
 takes  notice  of,  and  not  far  from  the  place  where  Aracca 
 (in  Scripture  called  Erec)  at  present  is  known  to  stand. 
 
 Thus  we  have  followed  the  path  which  *  the  learned 
 and  judicious  Huetius,  bishop  of  Auranches,  has  pointed 
 out  to  us,  and  have  happily  found  a  place  wherein  to  fix 
 this  garden  of  pleasure.  And,  though  it  must  be  owned, 
 that  there  is  no  draught  of  the  country  which  makes  the 
 rivers  exactly  answer  the  description  that  Moses  has 
 given  us  of  them ;  yet,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  4that 
 he  wrote  according  to  the  then  known  geography  of  the 
 country  ;  that  if  the  site,  or  number  of  rivers  about  Ba- 
 bylon, have  been  greatly  altered  since,  this,  in  all  pro- 
 
 2  Gen.  ii.  8.         3  Gen.  ii.  10.        *  Shuckford's  Connection. 
 
 b  Upon  this  occasion,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  set  down  a 
 brief  exposition  of  his  opinion  in  his  own  words.  "  I  assert 
 then  that  the  terrestrial  Paradise  was  situated  on  the  chan- 
 nel formed  by  the  united  waters  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates, 
 between  the  place  of  their  junction  and  that  of  their  separation 
 before  falling  into  the  Persian  gulf;  and  as  several  large  wind- 
 ings are  made  by  this  channel,  I  affirm  with  greater  precision, 
 that  Paradise  was  placed  on  one  of  these  windings  and  appar- 
 ently on  the  southern  side  of  the  largest  (which  hath  been  mark- 
 ed by  Agathodtemon  in  the  geographical  tables  of  Ptolemy)  when 
 the  river,  after  a  long  deflection  to  the  west,  again  takes  an 
 eastward  course  about  32°  39'  N.  Lat.  and  80°  10'  E.  Lon.  very 
 near  where  Aracca  or  the  Erec  of  Scripture  was  placed.  He 
 adds  still  farther  that  the  four  heads  of  this  river  are  the  Tigris 
 and  Euphrates  before  their  junction,  and  the  two  channels, 
 tlu'ough  which  it  flows  into  the  sea — of  which  channels,  the 
 western  is  Pison ;  and  the  country  of  Havilah  which  it  traverses 
 is  partly  in  Arabia  Felix,  and  partly  in  Arabia  Dcserta:  the 
 eastern  one  which  I  have  mentioned  is  the  Gihon,  and  the 
 country  called  Chus  is  Susiana.'" — See  Treatise  on  the  Site  of 
 Paradise,  p.  16. 
 
II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 21 
 
 A.  M.  1.  V.  C.  4004  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 oability,  has  been  occasioned  by  the  cuts  and  canals, 
 Ivhich  the  monarchs  of  that  great  empire  were  remark- 
 able for  making ;  and  that  all  modern  observators  find 
 »r  eater  variations  in  the  situation  of  places,  and  make 
 »r  eater  corrections  in  all  their  charts  and  maps,  than 
 ne  ed  to  be  made  in  the  description  of  Moses,  to  bring 
 A  to  an  agreement  even  with  our  latest  accounts  of  the 
 present  country,  and  rivers  near  Chaldea.  But  I  es- 
 pouse this  opinion,  without/any  formal  opposition  to  the 
 sentiments  of  other  learned  men,  who  doubtless,  in  this 
 case,  are  left  to  their  own  choice  ;  since  the  situation  of 
 paradise,  (as  the  learned  Bishop  concludes,)  whether  it 
 be  in  one  part  of  the  world,  or  in  another,  can  never  be 
 esteemed  as  an  article  of  our  Christian  faith. 
 
 CHAP.  III.— Of  the  Image  of  God  in  Man. 
 
 Whoever  looks  into  the  history  of  the  creation,  as  it  is 
 recorded  by  Moses,  will  soon  perceive,  that  there  was 
 something  so  peculiar  in  the  formation  of  man,  as  to 
 deserve  a  divine  consultation,  and  that  this  peculiarity 
 chiefly  consists  in  that  "  divine  image  and  similitude 
 wherein  it  pleased  God  to  make  him.  This  pre-emin- 
 ence the  holy  penman  has  taken  care,  xin  two  several 
 places,  to  remind  us  of,  in  order  to  imprint  upon  us  a 
 deeper  sense  of  the  dignity  of  human  nature  ;  and  there- 
 fore it  may  be  no  improper  subject  for  our  meditation 
 in  this  place,  to  consider  a  little,  wherein  this  divine 
 image  or  likeness  did  consist ;  how  far  it  is  now  impaired 
 in  us :  and  in  what  measure  it  may  be  recovered  again. 
 
 AVhat  the  image  of  God  impressed  upon  man  in  the 
 state  of  his  integrity  was,  it  is  as  difficult  a  matter  for 
 us,  who  date  our  ignorance  from  our  first  being,  and 
 were  all  along  bred  up  with  the  same  infirmities  about 
 us  wherein  we  were  born,  to  form  any  adequate  percep- 
 tion of,  2as  it  is  for  a  peasant  bred  up  in  the  obscurities 
 of  a  cottage,  to  fancy  in  his  mind  the  unseen  splendours 
 of  a  court ;  and  therefore  we  have  the  less  reason  to 
 wonder,  that  Ave  find  such  a  variety  of  opinions  concern- 
 ing it. 
 
 3  Some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  were  fond  enough  to  im- 
 agine, that  Adam  at  first  had  his  head  surrounded  with 
 a  visible  radiant  glory  which  accompanied  him  wher- 
 ever he  went,  and  struck  awe  and  reverence  into  the 
 other  parts  of  the  animal  creation  ;  and  that  his  person 
 was  so  completely  perfect  and  handsome,  that  even  God, 
 before  he  formed  him,  assumed  a  human  body  of  the 
 most  perfect  beauty,  and  so,  in  a  literal  sense,  made 
 him  after  his  own  image  and  resemblance.  But  there 
 needs  no  pains  to  refute  this  groundless  fancy. 
 
 '  Gen.  i.  26,  27.  z  South'*  Sermons,  vol.  1. 
 
 3  Calmct's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Adam, 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are,  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness, 
 which  seem  to  be  much  of  the  same  import;  only  a  learnt  il  Jew- 
 ish  interpreter  has  observed,  that  the  la>t  wards,  after  oar  like- 
 ness, give  us  to  understand,  that  man  was  not  created  properly 
 and  perfectly  in  the  image  of  God,  but  only  in  a  kind  of  resem- 
 blance of  him;  for  he  does  not  say,  in  oar  likeness,  as  In1  does, 
 in  our  image;  but,  after  our  likeness;  where  the  caph  of  simili- 
 tude (as  they  call  it)  abates  something  of  the  sense  of  wiiat  fol- 
 lows, and  makes  it  signify  only  an  approach  to  the  divine  like- 
 oess,  in  understanding,  freedom  of  choice,  spirituality,  immor- 
 tality, &c. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  2.   FROM  VER.  8. 
 
 4  Philo  is  of  opinion,  that  this  image  of  God,  was  only 
 the  idea  of  human  nature  in  the  divine  understanding, 
 by  looking  on  which  he  formed  man,  just  as  an  archi- 
 tect about  to  build  an  house,  first  delineates  the  scheme 
 in  his  mind,  and  then  proceeds  to  erect  the  fabric  Hut 
 this  opinion,  how  true  soever,  does  not  come  up  to  the 
 point  in  hand;  because  it  makes  no  distinction  between 
 man  and  other  creatures,  (for  they  were  likewise  made 
 according  to  the  ideal  image  in  the  divine  intellect) 
 though  it  may  be  manifestly  the  intent  of  the  Scripture 
 account  to  give  him  a  particular  preference. 
 
 *  Origen,  among  ancient  Christian  authors,  will  have 
 it  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  who  is  called  6'the  express 
 image  of  the  Father  :'  but  there  is  no  such  restriction  in 
 the  words  of  Moses.  They  are  delivered  7  in  the  plural 
 number ;  and  therefore  cannot,  without  violence,  be  ap- 
 plied to  one  single  person  in  the  Godhead;  ami,  among 
 the  modems,  some  have  placed  it  in  holiness  alone  , 
 whilst  others  have  thought  it  more  properly  seated  in 
 dominion.  But  these  are  only  single  lines,  and  far  from 
 coming  to  the  whole  portraiture. 
 
 The  divine  similitude,  in  short,  is  a  complex  thing, 
 and  made  up  of  many  ingredients ;  and  therefore  (to 
 give  our  thoughts  a  track  in  so  spacious  a  field)  we  may 
 distinguish  it  into  natural  and  supernatural ;  and  accord- 
 ingly, shall,  1.  consider  the  supernatural  gifts  and  orna- 
 ments ;  and  then,  2.  those  natural  perfections  and 
 accomplishments  wherein  this  image  of  God,  impressed 
 on  our  first  parents,  may  be  said  to  consist. 
 
 8  An  eloquent  father  of  the  church  has  set  this  whole 
 matter  before  us  in  a  very  apt  similitude,  comparing 
 this  animal  and  living  effigies  of  the  King  of  kings, 
 with  the  image  of  an  emperor,  so  expressed  by  the  hand 
 of  an  artificer,  either  in  sculpture  or  painting,  as  to 
 represent  the  very  dress  and  ensigns  of  royal  majesty, 
 such  as  the  purple  robe,  the  sceptre,  and  the  diadem, 
 &c.  But  as  the  emperor's  image  does  represent,  not 
 only  his  countenance  and  the  figure  of  his  body,  hut 
 even  his  dress  likewise,  his  ornaments  and  royal 
 ensigns  ;  so  man  does  then  properly  represent  in  himself 
 the  image  and  similitude  of  God,  when  to  the  accom- 
 plishments of  nature  (which  cannot  totally  be  extin- 
 guished) the  ornaments  of  grace  and  virtue  are  likewise 
 added;  when  "man's  nature  (as  he  expresses  it)  is  not 
 clothed  in  purple  nor  vaunts  its  dignity  by  a  sceptre  or 
 diadem,  (for  the  archetype  consists  not  in  such  things 
 as  these,)  but  instead  of  purple,  is  clothed  with  virtue, 
 which  of  all  others,  is  the  most  royal  vestment  :  instead 
 of  a  sceptre,  is  supported  by  a  blessed  immortality  ;  and, 
 instead  of  a  diadem,  is  adorned  with  a  crown  of  righte- 
 ousness." 
 
 That  our  first  parents,  besides  the  seeds  of  natural 
 virtue  and  religion  sown  in  their  minds,  and  besides  the 
 natural  innocence  and  rectitude  wherein  they  were 
 created,  were  endued  with  certain  gifts  and  powers 
 supernatural,  infused  into  them  by  the  Spirit  of  (tod,  is 
 manifest,  not  only  from  the  authority  of  '■'  Christian 
 writers,  but  from  the  testimony  of  Philo  the  .lew  like- 
 wise   who  is  very  full  of  sublime  notions  concerning  llio 
 
 4  On  the  World?!  Formation. 
 
 ■  Bee  Edwards'  Survey  of  Religion,  vol.  1. 
 
 6  j  ],.],.  i.  ;{.  (,.  I,,  i.  36.    I.rt  as  make  Ml*. 
 
 Gregory  Nyesen.cn  Man's  Form  tion,c  4. 
 p  Sec'  Buffs  State  of  Man  before  the  FaU. 
 
22 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  2.  FROM  VER.  8. 
 
 divine  image, and,  in  one  place  more  especially,  expresses 
 himself  to  this  purpose.  l "  The  Creator  made  our  soul," 
 says  he,  "  while  enclosed  in  a  body  able  of  itself  to  see 
 and  know  its  Maker  ;  but,  considering  how  vastly  advan- 
 tageous such  knowledge  would  be  to  man,  (for  this  is 
 the  utmost  bound  of  its  felicity,)  he  inspired  into  him 
 from  above  something  of  his  own  divinity,  which,  being 
 invisible,  impressed  upon  the  invisible  soul  its  own 
 character  ;  that  so  even  this  earthly  region  might  not  be 
 without  some  creature  made  after  the  image  of  God  :" 
 and  this  a  he  asserts  to  be  the  recondite  sense  of  Moses's 
 words  in  the  history  of  man's  creation. 
 
 And  indeed  we  need  go  no  farther  than  this  history  of 
 Moses,  to  prove  the  very  point  we  are  now  upon.  For, 
 whereas  it  acquaints  us,  that  the  first  man,  in  his  state 
 of  integrity,  was  able  to  sustain  the  approaches  of  the 
 divine  presence,  and  converse  with  his  Maker  in  the 
 same  language,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  it  was 
 a  particular  vouchsafement  to  him,  to  confirm  his  mind, 
 and  enlighten  his  understanding  in  this  manner  ;  because 
 no  creature  is  fit  to  converse  with  God  without  divine 
 illumination,  nor  is  any  creature  able  to  bear  his  ma- 
 jestic appearance,  that  is  not  fortified  and  prepared  for 
 it  by  a  divine  power. 
 
 Whereas  it  tells  us,  that  2 '  God  brought  every  living 
 creature  unto  Adam,  to  see  what  he  would  call  them, 
 and  whatever,  he  called  them,  that  was  the  name  thereof ;' 
 it  can  hardly  be  supposed  (considering  the  circumstances 
 of  the  thing)  but  that  this  was  the  effect  of  something 
 more  than  human  sagacity.  That,  in  an  infinite  variety 
 of  creatures,  never  before  seen  by  Adam,  he  should  be 
 able  on  a  sudden,  without  labour  or  premeditation,  to 
 give  names  to  each  of  them,  so  adapt  .and  fitted  to  their 
 respective  natures,  as  that  God  himself  should  approve 
 the  nomenclature,  is  a  thing  so  astonishing,  that  we  may 
 venture  to  say,  *no  single  man,  among  all  the  philoso- 
 phers since  the  fall,  no  Plato,  no  Aristotle,  among  the 
 ancients,  no  Des  Cartes,  no  Gassendus,  no  Newton, 
 among  the  moderns  ;  nay,  no  academy  or  royal  society 
 whatever  durst  have  once  attempted  it. 
 
 Whereas  it  informs  us,  that  Adam  no  sooner  saw  his 
 
 'Lib.  Quod  det  potion  insid.  soleat,  p.  171.         2  Gen.  ii.  19. 
 
 a  "The  great  Moses,"  says  he,  "makes  not  the  species  of 
 the  rational  soul  to  be  like  to  any  of  the  creatures,  but  pronoun- 
 eeth  it  to  be  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  as  judging  it  then 
 to  become  the  true  and  genuine  coin  of  God,  when  it  is  formed 
 and  impressed  by  the  divine  seal,  the  character  whereof  is  the 
 eternal  word.  For  God,"  saith  he,  "  breathed  into  his  face  the 
 breath  of  life ;  so  that  he  who  receives  the  inspiration  must  of 
 necessity  represent  the  image  of  him  that  gives  it,  and  for  this 
 reason  it  is  said  that  man  was  made  after  the  image  of  God." — 
 Philo  on  the  family  of  Noah. 
 
 b  The  knowledge  of  Adam  is  highly  extolled  by  the  Jewish 
 doctors.  Some  of  them  have  maintained,  that  he  composed  two 
 books,  one  concerning  the  creation,  and  another  about  the  nature 
 of  God.  They  generally  believe,  that  he  composed  the  xci. 
 psalm ;  but  some  of  them  go  farther,  and  tell  us,  that  Adam's 
 knowledge  was  not  only  equal  to  that  of  Solomon  and  Moses, 
 but  exceeded  even  that  of  angels ;  and,  for  the  proof  of  this,  they 
 produce  this  story — That  tire  angels  having  spoke  contemptu- 
 ously of  man,  God    made  this  answer, That  the  creature 
 
 whom  they  despised  was  their  superior  in  knowledge;  and,  to 
 convince  them  of  this,  that  he  brought  all  the  animals  to  them, 
 and  bid  them  name  them,  which  they  being  not  able  to  do,  he 
 proposed  the  thing  to  Adam,  and  he  did  it  immediately:  with 
 many  more  fancies  of  the  same  ridiculous  nature. — Saurin's 
 Dissertations. 
 
 wife  brought  unto  him,  but  3  he  told  exactly  her  original, 
 and  gave  her  a  name  accordingly,  though  he  lay  in  the 
 profoundest  sleep  and  insensibility  all  the  while  that  God 
 was  performing  the  wonderful  operation  of  taking  her 
 out  of  his  side  ;  this  can  be  imputed  to  nothing,  but 
 either  an  immediate  inspiration  or  some  prophetic  vision 
 (as  we  said  before)  that  was  sent  unto  him  while  he  slept. 
 4  From  the  conformity  of  parts  which  he  beheld  in  that 
 goodly  creature,  and  her  near  similitude  to  himself,  he 
 might  have  conjectured  indeed,  that  God  had  now  pro- 
 vided him  with  a  meet  help,  which  before  he  wanted  ;  but 
 it  is  scarce  imaginable,  how  he  could  so  punctually  de- 
 scribe her  rise  and  manner  of  formation,  and  so  surely 
 prophesy,  that  the  general  event  to  his  posterity  would 
 be,  for  the  sake  of  her  sex  '  to  leave  father  and  mother, 
 and  cleave  to  their  wives,'  otherwise  than  by  divine  illu- 
 mination ;  "  which  enabled  him  5  (as  one  excellently  ex- 
 presses it)  to  view  essences  in  themselves,  and  read  forms 
 without  the  comment  of  their  respective  properties  ;  which 
 enabled  him  to  see  consequences  yet  dormant  in  their 
 principles,  and  effects  yet  unborn,  and  in  the  womb  of 
 their  causes  ;  which  enabled,  in  short,  to  pierce  almost 
 into  future  contingencies,  and  improved  his  conjectures 
 and  sentiments  even  to  a  prophecy,  and  the  certainties 
 of  a  prediction.'' 
 
 These  seem  to  be  some  of  the  supernatural  gifts,  and 
 what  we  may  call  the  chief  lines,  wherein  the  image  of 
 God  was  so  conspicuous  upon  Adam's  soul ;  and  there 
 was  this  supernatural  in  his  body  likewise,  that  6  whereas 
 it  was  made  '  of  the  dust  of  the  earth,'  and  its  composi- 
 tion consequently  corruptible,  either  by  a  power  conti- 
 nually proceeding  from  God,  whereof  7  '  the  tree  of  life' 
 was  the  divine  sign  and  sacrament,  or  by  the  inherent 
 virtue  of  the  tree  itself,  perpetually  repairing  the  decays 
 of  nature,  it  was  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of  immortality. 
 8  Not  such  an  immortality  as  the  glorified  bodies  of  saints 
 shall  hereafter  possess  (for  they  shall  be  made  wnolly 
 impassable,  and  set  free  from  the  reach  of  any  outward 
 impressions  and  elemental  disorders  which  may  impair 
 their  vigour,  or  endanger  their  dissolution,)  but  an  im- 
 mortality by  donation,  and  the  privilege  of  an  especial 
 providence,  which  engaged  itself  to  sway  and  overrule 
 the  natural  tendency  which  was  in  man's  body  to  cor- 
 ruption ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  contrarieties  and  dis- 
 sensions of  a  terrestrial  constitution,  to  continue  him  in 
 life  as  long  as  he  should  continue  himself  in  his  obedience. 
 
 2.  Another  chief  part  of  the  divine  image  and  simili- 
 tude in  our  first  parents,  was  an  universal  rectitude  in  all 
 the  faculties  belonging  to  the  soul.  Now  the  two  great 
 faculties,  or  rather  essential  acts  of  the  soul,  are  the  un- 
 derstanding and  will ;  which,  though  (for  the  clearer 
 conception  of  them)  we  may  separate,  are  in  their  opera- 
 tion so  blended  and  united  together,  that  we  cannot  pro- 
 perly think  them  distinct  faculties.  It  is  the  same  indi- 
 vidual mind  which  sees  and  perceives,  as  well  as  chooses 
 or  rejects  the  several  objects  that  are  presented  to  it. 
 When  it  does  the  former,  we  call  it  the  understanding, 
 and  when  the  latter,  the  will :  so  that  they  are  both  ra- 
 dically and  inseparably  the  same,  and  differ  only  in  the 
 manner  of  our  conceiving  them.     Nay,  the  clearest  and 
 
 3  Gen.  ii.  23.  4  Bull's  Sermons  and  Discourses. 
 
 °  South's  Sermons,  vol.  1.        6  Hopkin's  Dotirine  of  the  Two 
 Covenants.     ?  Gen.  ii.  9.     s  Edward's  Survey  »f  Religion,  vol.  1. 
 
Srct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  2.  FROM  VEK 
 
 23 
 
 A.  M.  I 
 
 nnlv  distinct  apprehension  we  are  able  to  form  of  them, 
 (even  when  we  come  to  consider  them  separately,)  is 
 only  this,  that  the  understanding  is  chiefly  conversant 
 about  intelligible,  the  will  about  eligible  objects  ;  so  that 
 the  one  has  truth,  and  the  other  goodness  in  its  view  and 
 pursuit.  There  are,  besides  these,  belonging-  to  the  soul 
 of  man,  certain  passions  and  affections,  which  (accord- 
 ing to  the  common  notion  and  manner  of  speaking)  have 
 chiefly  their  residence  in  the  sensitive  appetite  ;  and, 
 however,  in  this  lapsed  condition  of  our  nature,  they  may 
 many  times  mutiny  and  rebel,  yet,  when  kept  in  due 
 temper  and  subordination,  are  excellent  handmaids  to 
 the  '  soul.  Though  the  Stoics  look  upon  them  all  as 
 sinful  defects,  and  deviations  from  right  reason  ;  yet  it 
 is  sufficient  for  us,  that  our  blessed  Saviour  (who  took 
 upon  him  all  our  natural,  but  none  of  our  sinful  infirmi- 
 ties) was  known  to  have  them,  and  that  our  first  proge- 
 nitor, in  the  state  of  his  greatest  perfection,  was  not 
 devoid  of  them.  Let  us  then  see  how  far  we  may  sup- 
 pose that  the  image  of  God  might  be  impressed  upon 
 each  of  these*. 
 
 2  His  soul  itself  was  a  rational  substance,  immaterial, 
 and  immortal ;  and  therefore  a  proper  representation  of 
 that  Supreme  Spirit  whose  wisdom  was  infinite,  and  es- 
 sence eternal. 
 
 3  His  understanding  was,  as  it  were,  the  upper  region 
 of  his  soul,  lofty  and  serene  ;  seated  above  all  sordid 
 affections,  and  free  from  the  vapours  and  disturbances  of 
 inferior  passions.  Its  perceptions  were  quick  and  lively  ; 
 its  reasonings  true,  and  its  determinations  just.  A  de- 
 luded fancy  was  not  then  capable  of  imposing  upon  it, 
 nor  a  fawning  appetite  of  deluding  it  to  pronounce  a 
 false  and  dishonest  sentence.  In  its  direction  of  the  in- 
 ferior faculties,  it  conveyed  its  suggestions  with  clear- 
 ness, and  enjoined  them  with  power ;  and  though  its 
 command  over  them  was  but  suasive.yet  it  had  the  same 
 force  and  efficacy  as  if  it  had  been  despotical. 
 
 His  will  was  then  very  ductile  and  pliant  to  the  mo- 
 tions of  right  reason.  It  pursued  the  directions  that 
 were  given  it,  and  attended  upon  the  understanding,  as  a 
 favourite  does  upon  his  prince,  while  the  service  is  both 
 privilege,  and  preferment :  and,  while  it  obeyed  the  un- 
 derstanding, it  commanded  the  other  faculties  that  were 
 beneath  ;  gave  laws  to  the  affections,  and  restrained  the 
 passions  from  licentious  sallies. 
 
 His  passions  were  then  indeed  all  subordinate  to  his 
 mil  and  intellect,  and  acted  within  the  compass  of  their 
 proper  objects.  His  love  was  centred  upon  God,  and 
 flamed  up  to  heaven  in  direct  fervours  of  devotion.  His 
 hatred  (if  hatred  may  be  supposed  in  a  state  of  inno- 
 cence) was  fixed  only  upon  that  which  his  posterity  only 
 love,  sin.  His  joy  was  then  the  result  of  a  real  good, 
 suitably  applied,  and  filled  his  soul  (as  God  does  the 
 universe)  silently  and  without  noise.  His  sorrow  (if  any 
 supposed  disaster  could  have  occasioned  sorrow)  must 
 have  moved  according  to  the  severe  allowances  of  pru- 
 dence ;  been  as  silent  as  thought,  and  all  confined  within 
 ttii'  closet  of  the  breast.  His  hope  was  fed  with  the  ex- 
 pectation of  a  better  paradise,  and  a  nearer  admission 
 to  the  divine  presence ;  and  (to  name  no  more)  his  fear, 
 which  was  then  a  guard,  and  not  a  torment  to  the  mind, 
 
 South' s  Sermons,  vol.  1. 
 South's  Sermons,  vol.  1. 
 
 Edward's  Survey. 
 
 was  fixed  upon  him,  who  is  only  to  be  feared,  God,  but 
 in  such  a  filial  manner,  as  to  become  an  awe  without 
 amazement,  and  a  dread  without  distraction. 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged  indeed,  that  the  Scriptures 
 do  not  expressly  attribute  all  these  perfections  to  Adam 
 in  his  first  estate  ;  but,  since  the  opposite  weaknesses 
 now  infest  the  nature  of  man  fallen,  we  must  conclude 
 (if  we  will  be  true  to  the  rule  of  contraries)  that  these, 
 and  such  like  excellencies,  were  the  endowments  of  man 
 innocent.  And  if  so,  then  is  there  another  perfection 
 arising  from  this  harmony,  and  due  composure  of  the 
 faculties,  which  we  may  call  the  crown  and  consumma- 
 tion of  all,  and  that  is  a  good  conscience.  For,  as  in 
 the  body,  when  the  vital  and  principal  parts  do  their 
 office,  and  all  the  smaller  vessels  act  orderly,  there  arises 
 a  sweet  enjoyment  upon  the  whole,  which  we  call  health  ; 
 so  in  the  soul,  when  the  supreme  faculties  of  the  under- 
 standing and  will  move  regularly,  and  the  inferior  pas- 
 sions and  affections  listen  to  their  dictates,  and  follow 
 their  injunctions,  there  arises  a  serenity  and  complacency 
 upon  the  whole  soul,  infinitely  beyond  all  the  pleasures 
 of  sertsuality,  and  which,  like  a  spicy  field,  refreshes  it 
 upon  every  reflection,  and  fills  it  with  a  joyful  confidence 
 towards  God. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  natural  lines  (as  we  may  dis- 
 tinguish them)  which  the  finger  of  God  portrayed  upon 
 the  soul  of  man  :  and  (so  far  as  the  spiritual  being  may 
 be  resembled  by  the  corporeal)  4the  contrivance  of  man's 
 bodily  parts  was  with  such  proportion  and  exactness,  as 
 most  conduced  to  its  comeliness  and  service.  His  sta- 
 ture was  erect  and  raised,  becoming  him  who  was  to  be 
 the  lord  of  this  globe,  and  the  observer  of  the  heavens. 
 A  divine  beauty  and  majesty  was  shed  upon  it,  such  as 
 could  neither  be  eclipsed  by  sickness,  nor  extinguished 
 by  death  ;  5  for  Adam  knew  no  disease,  so  long  as  he 
 refrained  from  the  forbidden  tree.  Nature  was  his  phy- 
 sician, and  innocence  and  abstinence  would  have  kept 
 him  healthful  to  immortality.  And  from  this  perfection 
 of  man's  body,  especially  that  port  and  majesty  which 
 appeared  in  his  looks  and  aspect,  there  arose,  in  some 
 measure,  another  lineament  of  the  divine  image,  viz.  6 
 that  dominion  and  sovereignty  wherewith  God  invested 
 him  over  all  other  creatures.  For  there  is  even  still  re- 
 maining in  man  a  certain  terrific  character,  (as  7  one  calls 
 it,)  which,  assisted  by  that  instinct  of  dread  that  he  hath 
 equally  implanted  in  their  natures,  commands  their  homage 
 and  obeisance  ;  insomuch,  that  it  must  be  hunger  or  com- 
 pulsion, or  some  violent  exasperation  or  other,  that 
 makes  them  at  any  time  rebel  against  their  Maker's  vice- 
 gerent here  below. 
 
 This  is  the  best  copy  of  the  divine  image  that  we  can 
 draw  :  only  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  add,  8  that  the  holi- 
 ness of  man  was  a  resemblance  of  the  divine  purity,  and 
 his  happiness  a  representation  of  the  divine  felicity.  And 
 now,  to  look  over  it  again,  ami  recount  the  several  lines 
 of  it.  What  was  supernatural  in  it,  was  a  mind  fortified 
 to  bear  the  divine  presence,  qualified  for  the  divine  con- 
 verse, fully  illuminated  by  the  divine  Spirit  ;  and  a  body 
 that  (contrary  to  the  natural  principles  of  its  composi- 
 tion) was  indulged  the  privilege  of  immortality.     What 
 
 1  Bate's  Harmony  of  the  Divine  Attributes.  5  South' s  Ser~ 
 mora,  vol,  I.  °  Gen.  i.  26.  7  Cornelius  Jgrippa,  vn  Occult 
 Philosophy,  s  Bate's  Harmony. 
 
24 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 of  bliss  ;  that,  b  in  his  state  of  exile,  having  lost  all  hopes, 
 and  despairing  of  reconciliation  with  the  Almighty,  he 
 abandoned  himself  to  all  kinds  of  wickedness  ;  and,  upon 
 the  creation  of  man,  out  of  pure  envy  to  the  happiness 
 which  God  had  designed  for  him,  resolved  upon  a  pro- 
 ject to  draw  him  into  disobedience,  and  thence  into  ruin 
 and  perdition  ;  but  how  to  put  his  scheme  in  execution 
 was  the  question.  The  woman  he  perceived,  as  by 
 nature  more  ductile  and  tender,  was  the  properer  subject 
 for  his  temptations  ;  but  some  form  he  was  to  assume,  to 
 enable  him  to  enter  into  conference  with  her.  9  The 
 figure  of  a  man  was  the  fittest  upon  this  occasion  ;  but 
 then  it  would  have  discovered  the  imposture, -because 
 Eve  knew  very  well,  that  her  husband  was  the  only  one 
 of  that  species  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  And  therefore 
 considering',  that  the  serpent,  which  before  the  fall  was  a 
 bright  and  glorious  creature,  and  (next  to  man)  c  endued 
 
 was  natural  to  it,  was  an  universal  harmony  in  all  its 
 faculties ;  an  understanding  fraught  with  all  manner  of 
 knowledge  ;  a  will  submitted  to  the  divine  pleasure  ;  af- 
 fections placed  upon  their  proper  objects  ;  passions  cahn 
 and  easy ;  a  conscience  quiet  and  serene ;  resplendent 
 holiness,  perfect  felicity,  and  a  body  adorned  with  such 
 comeliness  and  majesty,  as  might  justly  challenge  the 
 rule  and  jurisdiction  of  this  inferior  world. 
 
 If  it  be  demanded,  how  much  of  this  image  is  de- 
 faced, lost,  or  impaired  ;  the  answer  is,  that  !  whatever 
 was  supernatural  and  adventitious  to  man  by  the  be- 
 nignity of  Almighty  God,  (as  it  depended  upon  the  con- 
 dition of  his  obedience  to  the  divine  command,)  upon 
 the  breach  of  that  command,  was  entirely  lost :  what  was 
 perfective  of  his  nature,  such  as  the  excellency  of  his 
 knowledge,  the  subordination  of  his  faculties,  the  tran- 
 quillity of  his  mind,  and  full  dominion  over  other  crea- 
 tures, was  sadly  impaired  :  but  what  was  essential  to  his 
 nature,  the  immortality  of  his  soul,  the  faculties  of  intel- 
 lection and  will,  and  the  natural  beauty  and  usefulness 
 of  his  body,  does  still  remain,  notwithstanding  the  con- 
 cussions they  sustained  in  the  fall. 
 
 If  it  be  asked,  what  we  must  do  in  order  to  repair  this 
 defaced  image  of  God  in  us  ?  the  only  answer  we  can 
 have  in  this  case,  is,  from  the  sacred  oracles  of  Scripture. 
 We  must  2  '  be  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  our  mind,  and 
 put  on  the  new  man,  which  after  God  is  created  in  right- 
 eousness and  true  holiness.'  We  must  3  '  be  followers 
 of  God  as  dear  children  ;  grow  in  grace,' 4 '  be  renewed  in 
 knowledge,'  and  5  '  conformed  to  the  image  of  his  Son.' 
 We  must  6  '  give  all  diligence  to  add  to  our  faith  virtue  ; 
 and  to  virtue,  knowledge  ;  and  to  knowledge,  temper- 
 ance ;  and  to  temperance,  patience  ;  and  to  patience, 
 godliness  ;  and  to  godliness,  brotherly  kindness  ;  and  to 
 brotherly  kindness,  charity  :'  that  we  may  be  7  '  complete 
 in  him,  who  is  the  head  of  all  principality  and  power  -,1 
 and  that  8  '  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthly, 
 we  may  also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly  Adam.' 
 
 SECT.    III. 
 
 CHAP.  I.— Of  the  Fall  of  Man. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 The  sacred  historian  indeed  gives  us  no  account  of  Satan, 
 the  chief  of  the  fallen  angels,  and  grand  adversary  of 
 God  and  man  ;  but,  from  several  other  places  in  Scrip- 
 ture, we  may  learn,  that  he  at  first  was  made  like  other 
 celestial  spirits,  perfect  in  his  kind,  and  happy  in  his 
 condition,  but  that,  through  pride  or  ambition,  as  Ave  may 
 suppose,  falling  into  a  crime,  (whose  circumstances  to 
 us  are  unknown,)  he  thence  fell  into  misery,  and,  toge- 
 ther a  with  his  accomplices,  was  banished  from  the  regions 
 
 Hale's  Origination  of  Mankind.  2  Eph.  iv.  23,  24. 
 
 Eph.  v.  1.  4  Col.  iii.  10.  5  Rom.  viii.  29. 
 
 2  Peter  i.  5,  &c.  '  Col.  ii.  10.  »  I  Cor.  xv.  49. 
 
 a  That  profane,  as  well  as  saered  writers,  had  the  same  notion 
 of  the  fall  of  wicked  angels,  is  manifest  from  a  tradition  they 
 had  (though  mixed  with  fable)  of  the  Titans  and  Giants  invading 
 heaven,  fighting  against  Jupiter,  and  attempting  to  depose  him 
 from  his  throne,  for  which  reason  he  threw  them  down  headlong 
 into  hell,  where  they  are  tormented  with  incessant  fire;  and 
 
 9  History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  by  M.  Martin. 
 therefore  Empedocles,  in  the  verses  recited  by  Plutarch,  makes 
 mention  of  the  fate  of  some  demons,  who,  for  their  rebellion, 
 were,  from  the  summit  of  heaven,  plunged  into  ^he  bottom  of 
 the  great  deep,  there  to  be  punished  as  they  deserved.  To 
 which  the  story  of  Ate,  who  once  inhabited  the  air,  but  being 
 always  hurtful  to  man,  and  therefore,  hateful  to  God,  was  cast 
 down  from  thence,  with  a  solemn  oath  and  decree,  that  she 
 should  never  return  again,  seems  not  a  little  to  allude. — Huetius 
 in  the  Alnetan  Questions,  b.  2. 
 
 b  Our  excellent  Milton  represents  Satan  within  prospect  of 
 Eden,  and  near  the  place  where  he  was  to  attempt  his  desperate 
 enterprise  against  God  and  man,  falling  into  doubts,  and  sundry 
 passions,  and  then,  at  last,  confirming  himself  in  his  wicked 
 design. 
 
 But  say  I  could  repent,  and  could  obtain, 
 
 By  act  of  grace,  my  former  state  ;  how  soon 
 
 Would  height  recall  high  thoughts!  how  soon  unsay 
 
 What  feign'd  submission  swore  !     Ease  would  recant 
 
 Vows  made  in  pain,  as  violent  and  void — 
 
 All  hope  excluded  thus,  behold,  instead 
 
 Of  us,  outcast,  exil'd,  his  new  delight, 
 
 Mankind,  created  ;  and  for  him  this  world, 
 
 So  farewell  Hope!  and,  with  Hope,  farewell  fear' 
 
 Farewell  Remorse  !  all  good  to  me  is  lost ! 
 
 Evil  be  thou  my  good  !  by  thee  at  least 
 
 Divided  empire  with  heaven's  King  I  hold  ; 
 
 By  thee,  and  more  than  half  perhaps,  will  reign  : 
 
 As  man,  ere  long,  and  this  new  world  shall  know. 
 c  Milton,  who  is  an  excellent  commentator  upon  the  whole 
 history  of  the  fall,  brings  in  the  devil,  after  a  long  search  to  find 
 out  a  beast  proper  for  his  purpose,  concluding  at  last  to  make  use 
 of  the  serpent. 
 
 Him,  after  long  debate  (irresolute 
 
 Of  thought  revolv'd)  his  final  sentence  chose. 
 
 Fit  vessel,  fittest  imp  of  fraud  in  whom 
 
 To  enter,  and  his  dark  suggestions  hide 
 
 From  sharpest  sight:  for  in  the  wily  snake 
 
 Whatever  sleights,  none  would  suspicions  mark, 
 
 As  from  his  wit,  and  native  subtilty 
 
 Proceeding;  which  in  other  beast  observ'd, 
 
 Doubt  might  beget  of  diabolic  power 
 
 Active  within,  beyond  the  sense  of  brute. 
 
 The  wisdom  and  subtilty  of  the  serpent  are  frequently  men- 
 tioned in  Scripture,  as  qualities  which  distinguish  it  from  other 
 animals ;  and  several  are  the  instances,  wherein  it  is  said  to 
 discover  its  cunning.  1.  When  it  is  old,  by  squeezing  itself 
 between  two  rocks,  it  can  strip  ofi"  its  old  skin,  and  so  grows 
 young  again.  2.  As  it  grows  blind,  it  has  a  secret  to  recover 
 its  sight  by  the  juice  of  fennel.  3.  When  it  is  assaulted,  its 
 chief  care  is  to  secure  its  head,  because  its  heart  lies  under  its 
 throat,  and  very  near  its  head.  And,  4.  When  it  goes  to  drink 
 at  a  fountain,  it  first  vomits  up  all  its  poison,  for  fear  of  poison- 
 ing itself  as  it  is  drinking;  with  some  other  qualities  of  the  like 
 nature. — Calmet's  Dictionary. 
 
 But  a  modern  author  of  our  own  has  given  us  this  further 
 reason  for  the  devil's  making  use  of  the  serpent  in  tills  affair, 
 namely, — That  as  no  infinite  being  can  actuate  any  creature, 
 beyond  what  the  fitness  and  capacity  of  its  organs  will  admit ; 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 25 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3 
 
 with  the  greatest  talents  of  sagacity  and  understanding, 
 
 would  be  no  improper  instrument  for  his  purpose,  he 
 usurped  the  organs  of  one  of  these,  and  through  them,  he 
 addressed  himself  to  the  woman,  the  first  opportunity 
 when  he  found  her  alone. 
 
 •  After  a  some  previous  compliments  (as  we  may  ima- 
 gine) and  congratulations  of  her  happy  state,  the  tempter 
 put  on  an  air  of  great  concern,  and  seemed  to  interest 
 himself  not  a  little  in  her  behalf,  by  wondering  why  God, 
 who  had  lately  been  so  very  bountiful  to  them,  should 
 deny  them  the  use  of  a  tree,  b  whose  fruit  was  so  tempting 
 to  the  eye,  so  grateful  to  the  palate,  and  of  such  sove- 
 reign quality  to  make  them  wise,  and  when  Eve  replied, 
 that  such  was  the  divine  prohibition,  even  under  the 
 penalty  of  death  itself,  c  he  immediately  subjoins,  that 
 such  a  penalty  was  an  empty  threat,  and  what  would  never 
 be  executed  upon  them  ;  that  God  would  never  destroy 
 the  '  work  of  his  own  hands,'  creatures  so  accomplished 
 
 so,  the  natural  subtilty  of  the  serpent,  and  perhaps  the  pliable- 
 ness,  and  forkiness  of  its  tongue  (which  we  know  enables  other 
 creatures  to  pronounce  articulate  sounds,)  added  to  the  advan- 
 tages of  its  form,  made  it  the  fittest  instrument  of  delusion  that 
 can  be  imagined. — Revelation  Examined. 
 
 a  Milton  has  very  curiously  described  the  artful  and  insinua- 
 ting carriage  of  the  serpent,  upon  his  first  approach  to  speak  to 
 Eve. 
 
 He,  bolder  now,  uneall'd,  before  ber  stood, 
 
 But,  as  in  great  admiring-;  oft  he  bow'd 
 
 His  turret  crest,  and  sleek  enamell'd  neck, 
 
 Fawning ;  and  liek'd  the  ground  whereon  she  trod. 
 
 His  gentle  dumb  expressions  turu'd  at  length 
 
 The  eye  of  Eve,  to  mark  his  play ;  he,  glad 
 
 Of  her  attention  gain'd,  with  serpent  tongue 
 
 Organic,  or  impulse  of  vocal  air, 
 
 His  fraudulent  temptation  thus  began. 
 
 b  The  first  words  in  his  address  are,  '  Yea,  hath  God  said,  ye 
 shall  not  eat,'  &c,  which  do  not  look  so  much  like  the  beginning, 
 as  the  conclusion  of  a  discourse,  as  the  Jews  themselves  have 
 observed:  and  therefore  it  is  not  improbable,  that  the  tempter, 
 before  he  spake  these  words,  represented  himself  as  one  of  the 
 heavenly  court,  who  was  come,  or  rather  sent,  to  congratulate 
 the  happiness  which  God  had  bestowed  on  them  in  paradise ;  an 
 happiness  so  great,  that  he  could  not  easily  believe  he  had  denied 
 them  any  of  the  fruit  of  the  garden. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Burnet,  in  his  Philosophical  Archaeology,  has  given  us  the 
 whole  dialogue  (as  lie  has  framed  it  at  least)  between  the  serpent 
 and  Eve;  which,  though  a  little  too  light  and  ludicrous  for  so 
 solemn  an  occasion,  yet,  because  the  book  is  not  in  every  one's 
 hands,  I  have  thought  fit  to  set  down  in  a  translation  of  his  own 
 words.  "  Serpent.  Hail,  fairest!  what  dost  thou  under  this 
 shade?  Eve.  I  am  gazing  at  the  beauty  of  this  tree.  .Serpent. 
 It  is  indeed  pleasant  to  the  sight,  but  to  the  taste  its  fruit  is 
 much  more  so,  hast  thou  yet  tasted  it,  my  mistress?  Eve. 
 Verily  not,  God  hath  forbade  us  the  use  of  that  tree.  Serpent. 
 What  do  I  hear?  Who  is  that  God?  who  envies  his  own  crea- 
 tines the  innocent  delights  of  nature,  nothing  is  more  sweet, 
 nothing  more  safe  than  that  fruit,  why  should  he  forbid  it,  unless 
 by  some  foolish  law  of  his  own.  Eve.  Nay,  he  forbade  it  under 
 penalty  of  death.  Serpent.  Undoubtedly  the  matter  is  not 
 understood  by  thee,  the  tree  possesses  no  deadly  property,  but 
 vather  something  divine  and  beyond  the  usual  power  of  nature. 
 thte.  I  cannot  answer  thee  myself,  but  I  will  go  to  my  husband. 
 Serpent.  Why  shouldst  thou  interrupt  thy  husband  for  an  aflair 
 of  so  small  importance.  Eve.  Shall  I  taste  the  apple? 
 BOW  beautiful  its  hue,  how  fragrant  its  smell,  can  it  have  a  bad 
 flavour?  Scrpo/t.  Believe  me,  it  is  food  not  unworthy  of  the 
 angels,  taste  of  it,  and  if  the  flavour  be  bad  cast  it  from  thee, 
 and  deem  me  the  most  mendacious  of  liars.  Ere.  I  will  at- 
 tempt, indeed  the  flavour  is  most  agreeable,  thou  hast  nol  de- 
 ceived me,  give  'me  another  that  1  may  b^ar  it  to  my  husband. 
 Serpent.  That's  well  remembered!  take  this  one,  go  to  thy 
 husband — Farewell,  child  of  happiness,  meanwhile  I  will  g  i(  e 
 away,  she  will  manage  the  rest."      B.  ii.  1  hap.  7. 
 
 as  they  were,  for  so  slight  a  transgression  ;  and  that  the 
 sole  intent  of  this  prohibition  was,  to  continue  them  in 
 their  present  state  of  dependence  and  ignorance,  and  not 
 admit  them  to  that  extent  of  knowledge,  and  plenitude 
 of  happiness,  which  their  eating  of  this  fruit  would  confer 
 upon  them  •  for  God  himself  knew,  that  d  the  proper 
 use  of  this  tree  was,  to  illuminate  the  understanding,  and 
 advance  all  the  other  faculties  of  the  soul  to  such  a  sub- 
 limity, that  the  brightest  angels  in  heaven  should  not 
 surpass  them  ;  nay  that  they  should  approximate  the  Deity 
 itself,  in  the  extent  of  their  intellect,  and  independence 
 of  their  being.  In  short,  he  acquainted  Eve,  that  the 
 jealousy  of  the  Creator  was  the  sole  motive  of  his  pro- 
 hibition ;  that  the  fruit  had  a  virtue  to  impart,  e  an  uni- 
 versal knowledge  to  the  person  who  tasted  it ;  and  that 
 therefore  God,  who  would  admit  of  no  competitor,  had 
 reserved  this  privilege  to  himself.  Above  all,  he  engaged 
 her  to  fix  her  eyes  upon  the  forbidden  fruit ;  he  remarked 
 to  her  its  pleasantness  to  the  sight,  and  left  her  to  guess 
 at  its  deliciousness.  Eve,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  temp- 
 tation had  a  freedom  of  choice  ;  but  the  fond  conceit  of 
 '  knowing  good  and  evil,'  of  becoming  like  God,  and  of 
 changing  her  felicity  (great  indeed,  but  subordinate)  for 
 an  independent  state  of  happiness,  and  especially  the 
 deceitful  bait  of  present  sensual  pleasure,  blinded  her 
 reason  by  degrees  ;  and  as  she  stood  gazing  on  the  tree, 
 filled  all  her  thoughts,  and  the  whole  capacity  of  her 
 soul.  The  sight  of  the  fruit  provoked  her  desire  ;  the 
 suggestions  of  the  tempter  urged  it  on  ;  her  natural 
 curiosity  raised  her  longing ;  and  the  very  prohibition 
 itself  did  something  to  inflame  it ;  so  that,  at  all  adven- 
 tures, she  put  forth  her  hand,  and  plucked,  and  eat. 
 
 Earth  felt  the  wound,  and  nature,  from  her  seat, 
 Sighing,  tlu"ough  all  her  works,  gave  signs  of  wo, 
 That  all  was  lost. ' 
 
 She,  however,  had  no  such  sense  of  her  condition  ;  but, 
 fancying  herself  already  in  the  possession  of  that  chime- 
 rical happiness,  wherewith  the  devil  had  deluded  her, 
 she  invited  her  husband  (who  not  unlikely  came  upon  her 
 while  she  was  eating)  to  partake  with  her.     2  The  most 
 
 '  Milton.  *  Saui-in's  Dissertations. 
 
 d  It  is  very  well  worth  our  observation,  how  ambiguous  and 
 deceitful  the  promise,  which  the  tempter  makes  our  first  parents, 
 was:  for  by  '  opening  the  eyes,'  she  understood  a  further  degree 
 of  wisdom,  as  the  same  phrase  imports,  Acts  xxvi.  18. ;  and 
 Eph.  i.  18.;  but  he  meant  their  perceiving  their  own  misery, 
 and  confusion  of  conscience,  as  fell  out  immediately:  by  'being 
 like  ends,'  she  understood  the  happiness  of  God  the  Father,  Son, 
 and  Holy  Ghost,  as  appears  by  the  words  of  God  himself,  verse 
 22.;  but  he  meant  it  of  angels,  (frequently  styled  Elohitn,  that 
 is,  go's,)  and  of  such  fallen  angels  as  himself,  who  are  called 
 'principalities  and  powers,'  Col.  ii.  15.  And  'by  knowing 
 good  and  evil,'  she  understood  a  kind  of  divine  omniscience,  or 
 knowing  all  manner  of  things  (as  the  phrase  frequently  signi- 
 fies 0  but  he  meant  it,  that  thereby  she  should  experience  the 
 difference  between  'good  and  evil,'  between  happiness  and 
 misery,  which  she  did  to  her  cost,  A  method  this  of  cunning 
 and  reserve,  which  he  has  practised  in  his  oracular  responses 
 evi  r  since. — AimwortVs  Annotation*. 
 
 e  The  words  'good  and  evil,'  when  applied  to  knowledge, 
 comprehend  every  thing  that  is  possible  fol  man  to  know,  fox   BO 
 
 the  woman  of  Tekoa,  in  her  address  to  king  David,  tells  him  t 
 Sam.  xiv.  17.  'as  an  angel  of  God  is  my  lord  the  king,  to  dis- 
 cern g 1  and  bad;'  and  that  by  the  terms  'good  and  bad,'  we 
 
 are  to  understand  'all  things,'  the  20th  verse  of  that  chapter 
 will  inform  us,  where  she  continues  her  compliment,  and  says, 
 •  My  lord  is  wise,  according  to  the  wisdom  of  BJ1  angel,  to 
 know  all  things  that  are  on  the  earth.'— Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
20 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 absurd  arguments  appear  reasonable,  and  the  most  unjust 
 desires  equitable,  when  the  person  who  proposes  them, 
 is  beloved  ;  the  devil  therefore  knew  very  well  what  he 
 did,  when  he  made  his  first  application  to  the  woman. 
 Her  charms  and  endearments,  which  gave  her  the  as- 
 cendency over  her  husband's  affection,  would  be  of  more 
 efficacy  (he  knew)  than  all  the  subtile  motives  which  he 
 could  suggest ;  and  therefore  he  made  use  of  her  to  en- 
 gage him  in  the  like  defection  :  and  after  some  small 
 reluctancy  (as  we  may  suppose)  he,  l  like  an  uxorious 
 man,  was  by  her  entreaties  prevailed  on,  (contrary  to 
 the  sense  of  his  duty,  and  convictions  of  his  own  breast,) 
 to  violate  the  command,  merely  because  she  had  done  it, 
 and  to  share  whatever  fate  God's  indignation  for  that 
 transgression  should  bring  upon  her.  Thus  the  solici- 
 tations of  the  woman  ruined  the  man,  as  the  enchantments 
 of  the  tempter  ruined  the  woman.  She  held  forth  the 
 fair  enticing  fruit  to  him ;  and  he,  rather  than  see  her 
 perish  alone,  chose  to  be  involved  in  the  same  common 
 guilt.  2 
 
 Earth  trembled  from  her  entrails,  as  again 
 
 In  pangs,  and  nature  gave  a  second  groan ; 
 
 Sky  lowr'd,  and,  murmuring  thunder,  some  sad  drops 
 
 Wept,  at  completing  of  the  mortal  sin.  3 
 For  as  soon  as  they  had  eaten  of  the  forbidden  fruit, 
 a  '  their  eyes  were  opened,'  but  in  a  sense  quite  different 
 from  what  the  tempter  had  promised  them,  namely,  to 
 see  their  own  folly,  and  the  impendent  miseries,  and 
 make  sad  reflections  upon  what  they  had  done.  They 
 had  acquired  knowledge,  indeed,  but  it  was  a  knowledge 
 arising  from  sorrowful  experience,  that  the  serpent  had 
 beguiled  them  both,  and  drawn  them  from  the  good  of 
 happiness  and  innocence,  which  they  knew  before,  into 
 the  evil  of  sin  and  misery,  which  (until  that  fatal  moment) 
 they  had  no  conception  of.  *  They  saw  a  living  God 
 provoked ;  his  grace  and  favour  forfeited  ;  his  likeness 
 and  image  defaced  ;  and  their  dominion  over  other  crea- 
 tures withdrawn  from  them.  They  saw,  very  probably,  the 
 heavens  grow  angry  and  stormy  ;  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
 standing  with  his  sword,  threatening  them  with  vengeance ; 
 and  the  devil  himself,  who  before  had  seduced  them, 
 throwing  oft- the  disguise,  and  now  openly  insulting  over 
 them.  They  saw  that  h '  they  were  naked  ;'  were  stripped 
 
 l.A.  C.  4001;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  C II.  3. 
 
 of  all  their  intellectual  and  moral  ornaments  ;  were  sub- 
 jected to  irregular  appetites  and  inordinate  lusts  ;  and 
 blushed  to  see  their  external  glory  so  much  debased,  that 
 c  they  took  and  plaited  together  lig  leaves,  (which  in 
 eastern  countries  are  very  large,)  in  order  to  make  them- 
 selves d  such  coverings  as  might  both  protect  them  from 
 the  injuries  of  the  weather,  and  conceal  their  shame.  Nor 
 was  their  guilt  attended  with  shame  only,  but  with  fear 
 likewise,  and  many  dismal  apprehensions.  e  Before 
 they  sinned  they  no  sooner  heard  '  the  voice  of  the  Lord' 
 coming  towards  them,  but  they  ran  out  to  meet  him,  and, 
 with  an  humble  joy,  welcomed  his  gracious  visits  ;  but  / 
 now  God  was  become  a  terror  to  them,  and  they  a  terror 
 
 1  Mede's  Discourses.  *  Edward's  Survey  of  Religion. 
 
 3  Milton.  *  Miller's  History  of  the  Church. 
 
 a  he  Clere  observes,  that  it  is  reputed  an  elegancy  in  the 
 sacred  writing  to  make  use  of  the  figure,  which  rhetoricians  call 
 antanaclasis,  whereby  they  continue  the  same  word  or  phrase 
 that  went  before,  though  in  a  quite  different  sense  ;  as  the  learned 
 Grotius  upon  John  i.  16.,  and  Hammond  on  Matth.  viii.  22. 
 have  abundantly  shown ;  and  for  this  reason  he  supposes,  that 
 Moses  repeats  '  their  eyes  were  opened,'  which  the  devil  had 
 used  before,  though  he  means  it  in  a  sense  quite  different  from 
 the  former. 
 
 b  Those  who  take  the  word  f  naked'  in  a  literal  sense,  sup- 
 pose, that  upon  the  fall,  the  air,  and  other  elements,  immediately 
 became  intemperate,  and  disorderly;  so  that  our  first  parents 
 soon  knew,  or  felt,  that  they  were  naked,  because  the  sun 
 scorched  them,  the  rain  wet  them,  and  the  cold  pierced  them. 
 — See  Patrick's  Commentary ;  and  King  on  the  Origin  of  Evil. 
 But  others  take  the  expression  rather  in  a  figurative  sense, 
 namely,  to  denote  the  commission  of  such  sins  as  man  in  his 
 senses  may  well  be  ashamed  of:  and  to  this  purpose  they  have 
 observed,  that  when  Moses  returned  from  the  mount,  and  found 
 that  the  people  had  made  and  consecrated  a  golden  image,  the 
 expression  in  Scripture  is,  (  That  the  people  were  naked,'  that 
 is,  were  become  vile  and  reprobate  sinners,  (for  so  the  word 
 yvpvo;  signifies  in  the  New  Testament,  Rev.  xvi.  15.;)  '  for 
 Aaron  had  made  them  naked,  unto  their  shame,  among  their 
 
 enemies,'  Ex.  xxxii.  25. — See  Le  Clerc's  Commentary.  Now 
 those  who  take  it  in  this  sense,  have  observed  farther,  that  by 
 the  word  '  nakedness'  according  to  the  usual  modesty  of  the 
 Hebrew  tongue)  are  meant  all  the  irregular  appetites  to  venereal 
 pleasures,  which  Adam  and  Eve  were  strangers  to  in  their  state 
 of  innocence,  but  began  now  first  to  experience,  and  which  the 
 intoxicating  juice  of  the  forbidden  tree  might  very  probably  ex- 
 cite.— Nicholls's  Conference,  vol.  1. 
 
 As  witli  new  wine  intoxicated  both, 
 They  swim  in  mirth,  and  fancy  that  they  feel 
 Divinity  within  them,  breeding  wings, 
 Wherewith  to  scorn  the  earth  :  but  that  false  fruit 
 Far  other  operation  first  display'd. 
 Carnal  desire  inflaming:  he  on  Eve 
 Began  to  cast  lascivious  eyes,  she  him 
 As  wantonly  repaid,  in  lust  they  burn. — Milton, 
 c  Our  translation  indeed  tells  us,  that  our  first  parents  '  sewed 
 fig-leaves  together,'  which  gives  occasion  to  the  usual  sneer, 
 What  they  could  do  for  needles  and  thread?     But  the  original 
 word  tapar  signifies  no  more  than  to  put  together,  apply,  or  fit, 
 as  is  plain  from  Job  xvi.  15.,  and  Ezek.  xiii.  28.;  and  the  word 
 gneleh,  which  we  render  leaves,  signifies  also  branches  of  trees, 
 such  as  were  to  make  booths  or  bowers,  Neh.  xviii.  15.     So  that, 
 to  adapt  or  fit  branches  (which  is  translated  sewing  leaves  to- 
 gether) is  only  to  twist  and  plat  the  flexible  branches  of  the  fig- 
 tree  round  about  their  waists,  in  the  manner  of  a  Roman  crown, 
 for  which  purpose  the  fig-tree,  of  all  others,  was  the  most  ser- 
 viceable, because,  as  Pliny  tells  us,  b.  16.  ch.  24.,  it  had  a  leaf 
 very  large  or  shady. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  word,  in  the  translation  is  aprons ;  but  since  in  the  ori- 
 ginal it  may  signify  any  thing  that  covers  or  surrounds  us,  it 
 may  every  whit  as  properly  here  be  rendered  a  bower,  or  arbour, 
 covered  with  the  branches  of  the  fig-tree  wherein  the  fallen  pair 
 thought  to  have  hid  themselves  from  the  sight  of  God ;  to  which 
 interpretation  the  subsequent  verse  seems  to  give  some  counte- 
 nance.— Le  Clerc's  Commentary.  Nor  is  Milton's  description 
 of  the  fig-tree  uninclinable  to  this  sense: 
 
 Such  as  at  this  day  spreads  her  arms, 
 
 Branching  so  broad  and  long,  that  in  the  ground 
 The  bended  twigs  take  root,  and  daughters  grow- 
 About  the  mother-tree  ,  a  pillar'd  shade 
 High  overarch'd,  and  echoing  walks  between. 
 There  oft  the  Indian  herdsman  shunning  heat, 
 Shelters  in  cool,  and  tends  his  pasturing  herds 
 In  loop-holes,  cut  through  thickest  shade. 
 e  The  word  voice  may  be  equally  rendered  noise:  and  since 
 God's  usual  way  of  notifying  his  presence  afterwards  was  either 
 by  'a  small  still  voice  or  noise,'  1  Kings  xix.  12.,  or  by  a  noise 
 like  '  that  of  great  waters,'   Ezek.  i.  24.,  or  like  the  rustling  of 
 wind  in  the  trees,'  2  Sam.  v.  24.,  we  may  reasonably  suppose, 
 that  it  was  either  a  soft    gentle   noise    like  a  breeze  of  wind 
 among  the  trees  of  paradise,  or  a  louder  one,  like  the  murmuring 
 of  some  large  river,  which  gave  Adam  notice  of  God's  approach- 
 ing.— Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 f  Milton  makes  Adam,  upon  this  occasion,  express  himself  in 
 this  manner:  i 
 
 How  shall  I  behold  the  face 
 
 Henceforth  of  God  or  angel,  erst  with  joy 
 
 And  raptures  oft  beheld  ? O !  might  I  here 
 
 In  solitude  live  savage,  in  some  glade 
 Obscur'd,  where  highest  woods  (impenetrable 
 To  star  or  sun-light)  spread  their  umbrage  broad, 
 And  brown  as  evening !  Cover  me,  ye  pines, 
 Ye  cedars,  with  innumerable  boughs 
 Hide  me,  where  I  may  never  see  them  more. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 27 
 
 to  themselves.  Their  consciences  set  their  sin  before 
 them  in  its  blackest  aspect ;  and,  as  they  had  then  no 
 hopes  of  a  future  mediator,  so  there  '  remained  nothing 
 for  them  but  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment, 
 and  fiery  indignation  ready  to  devour  them.'  And  ac- 
 cordingly, no  sooner  did  they  hear  the  sound  of  God's 
 majestic  presence  drawing  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  place 
 where  they  were,  (which  happened  towards  the  cool  of 
 the  evening,)  but  they  immediately  betook  themselves  to 
 the  thickest  and  closest  places  they  could  find  in  the 
 garden,  in  order  to  hide  themselves  from  his  inspection  ; 
 for  so  far  were  they  fallen  in  their  understanding,  as 
 never  to  reflect,  '  that  all  places  and  things  are  naked 
 and  open  to  the  eyes  of  him,  with  whom  they  had  to  do.' 
 Out  of  their  dark  retreat,  however,  God  calls  the  two 
 criminals,  who,  after  a  short  examination,  acknowledged 
 their  guilt  indeed,  but  lay  the  blame  of  it,  the  man  upon 
 the  woman,  and  the  woman  upon  the  serpent :  whereupon 
 God  proceeds  to  pronounce  sentence  upon  them,  but 
 first  of  all,  upon  the  devil,  as  being  the  prime  offender. 
 The  devil  had  made  the  serpent  the  instrument  of  his 
 deception  ;  and  therefore  a  God  first  degrades  it  from 
 the  noble  creature  it  was  before  this  fact,  to  a  foul  creep- 
 ing animal,  which,  instead  of  going  erect,  or  flying  in 
 the  air,  was  sentenced  to  creep  upon  its  belly,  and  there- 
 upon become  incapable  of  eating  any  food  but  what  was 
 mingled  with  dust.  And  to  the  devil,  who  lay  hid  under 
 the  covert  of  the  serpent,  (and  therefore  is  not  expressly 
 named,)  he  decbtres,  that  how  much  soever  he  might 
 glory  in  his  present  conquest,  a  time  should  come,  when 
 a  child,  descended  from  the  seed  of  that  very  sex  he  had 
 now  defeated,  that  is,  the  Messias,  should  ruin  all  his 
 new-erected  empire  of  sin  and  death  ;  and,  l  '  having 
 spoiled  principalities  and  powers,  should  make  a  shew  of 
 them  openly,  triumphing  over  them  in  his  cross.'  This 
 could  not  fail  of  being  matter  of  great  comfort  and 
 consolation  to  Adam  and  Eve,  to  hear  of  the  conquest  of 
 their  malicious  enemy,  before  their  own  sentences  were 
 pronounced,  °  which   to  the  woman,  was  sorrow  in  con- 
 
 1  Col.  ii.  15. 
 
 a  Josepkus,  in  the  beginning  of  his  Antiquities,  pretends,  that 
 all  creatures  using  the  same  language,  and  consequently  being 
 endued  with  reason  and  understanding,  the  serpent,  excited  by 
 envy,  tempted  Eve  to  sin,  and,  among  other  things,  received 
 this  signal  punishment,  namely,  that  it  should  be  deprived  of  its 
 feet,  and  ever  after  crawl  upon  the  ground,  which  Aben  Ezra, 
 and  several  other  Rabbins,  confirm:  but  what  is  certain  in  the 
 serpent's  punishment,  is  this — that  it  actually  eats  the  dry  and 
 dusty  earth,  (as  Bochart  and  Pliny  tell  us,)  otherwise  we  can 
 hardly  conceive  how  it  could  subsist  in  dry  and  sandy  deserts, 
 to  which  God,  in  a  good  measure,  has  condemned  it. — Revela- 
 tion Examined. 
 
 b  It  is  remarkable,  that  a  woman  is  the  only  creature  we 
 know  of,  who  has  any  sorrow  in  conception.  This  Aristotle  ex- 
 pressly affirms,  and  only  excepts  the  instance  of  a  mare  con- 
 ceiving by  an  ass,  and,  in  general,  where  there  is  any  thing 
 Knonstrous  in  the  foetus.  Other  creatures,  we  find,  are  in  more 
 perfect  health,  and  strength,  and  vigour,  at  that  time,  than  be- 
 fore; but  Aristotle  reckons  up  ten  different  maladies,  to  which 
 the  woman  is  then  naturally  subject.  And,  as  she  is  subject  to 
 sickness  in  the  time  of  her  conception,  so  it  is  farther  remark- 
 able, that  she  brings  forth  her  offspring  with  more  pain  and 
 agony  than  any  other  creature  upon  earth,  even  though  she  has 
 some  advantages  in  her  make  above  other  creatures,  that  might 
 promise  her,  in  this  case,  an  alleviation ;  and  therefore  we  may 
 suppose,  that,  upon  God's  saying  to  the  woman,  '  In  sorrow  thou 
 Shalt  bring  forth  children,'  a  real  effect  did  immediately  accom- 
 pany the  word  spoken,  and  cause  such  a  change  in  the  woman's 
 
 ception,  pain  in  childbirth,  and  constant  subjection  to 
 her  husband's  will ;  to  the  man,  c  a  life  of  perpetual  toil 
 and  slavery;  and  to  them  both,  as  well  as  all  their  pos- 
 terity, a  temporal  death  at  the  time  appointed. 
 
 Nor  was  it  mankind  only  which  felt  the  sad  effects  of 
 the  induction  of  sin,  but  d  even  the  inanimate  part  of  the 
 creation  suffered  by  it.  The  fertility  of  the  earth,  and 
 serenity  of  the  air,  were  changed  ;  the  elements  began  to 
 jar;  the  seasons  were  intemperate,  and  the  weather  grew 
 uncertain  :  so  that  to  defend  themselves  against  the  im- 
 moderate heat,  or  cold,  or  wind  or  rain,  which  now  began 
 to  infest  the  earth,  our  first  parents  were  instructed  by 
 God  e  how  to  make  themselves  vestments  of  the  skins  of 
 
 body,  as,  in  the  course  of  nature,  must  have  occasioned  the  ex- 
 traordinary pain  here  spoken  of;  for  so  we  find,  (that  in  the  sen- 
 tence pronounced  against  the  serpent,  against  the  earth,  and 
 against  man,  the  word  of  God  -was  not  only  declarative,  but 
 executive  likewise,  as  producing  a  real  change  by  a  new  modifi- 
 cation of  matter,  or  conformation  of  parts. — Revelation  Exam- 
 ine I ;  and  Bibliotheea  Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face,  shalt 
 thou  eat  bread,'  ver.  19.  From  whence  some  conclude,  that  the 
 earth,  before  the  fall,  brought  forth  spontaneously,  (as  several  of 
 the  ancient  poets  have  described  the  golden  age,)  and  without 
 any  pains  to  cultivate  it;  as  indeed  there  needed  none,  since  all 
 things  at  first  were,  by  the  divine  power,  created  in  their  full 
 perfection.  What  labour  would  have  been  necessary  in  time, 
 if  man  had  continued  innocent,  we  do  not  know;  only  we  may 
 observe  from  the  words,  that  less  pains  would  then  have  been 
 required,  than  men  are  now  forced  to  take  for  their  sustenance. 
 The  wisdom,  goodness,  and  justice  of  God,  however,  is  very 
 conspicuous,  in  decreeing,  that  toil  and  drudgery  should  be  the 
 consequence  of  departing  from  an  easy  and  rational  obedience ; 
 in  making  the  earth  less  desirable  to  man,  when  his  guilt  had 
 reduced  him  to  the  necessity  of  leaving  it;  and  in  keeping  in 
 order  those  passions  and  appetites  which  had  now  broke  loose 
 from  the  restraint  of  reason,  by  subduing  their  impetuosity  with 
 hard  labour. — Patrick's  Commentary;  and  Revelation  Ex- 
 amined. 
 
 d  Milton  brings  in  God,  soon  after  the  fall,  appointing  his 
 holy  angels  to  make  an  alteration  in  the  course  of  the  celestial 
 bodies,  and  to  possess  them  with  noxious  qualities,  in  order  to 
 destroy  the  fertility  of  the  earth,  and  thereby  punish  man  for  his 
 transgression. 
 
 The  sun 
 
 Had  its  first  precept  so  to  move,  so  shine, 
 As  might  affect  the  earth  with  cold  and  heat 
 Scarce  tolerable  ;  and  from  the  north  to  call 
 Decrepit  winter ;  from  the  south  to  bring 
 Solstitial  summer's  bant.     To  the  blank  moon 
 Hpr  office  they  prescrib'd,  to  th'  other  rive 
 Their  planetary  motions  and  aspects 
 Of  noxious  efficacy,  and  when  to.ioin 
 In  synod  iinhenign  ;  and  taught  the  hx'd 
 Their  influence  malignant  when  to  shower  : 
 Which  of  them,  rising  with  the  sun.  or  falling-, 
 Should  prove  tempestuous.     To  the  wiuds  they  set 
 Their  corners,  when  with  bluster  to  confound 
 Sea.  air,  and  shore :  the  thunder  then  to  roll 
 
 With  terror  through  the  dart  aerial  hall 
 
 These  changes  in  the  heavens,  though  slow,  produce 
 Like  change  on  sea,  and  land  ,  sidereal  blast, 
 Vapour,  and  mist,  and  exhalation  hot, 
 Corrupt  and  pestilent. 
 c  It  cannot  be  denied,  but  that  the  skins  of  beasts  were  a  wry 
 ancient  sort  of  clothing.     Diodonu  Sicuhis,  b.  1.,  where  he  in- 
 troduces  Hercules   in  a  lion's  skin,   tells  us  no  less;    and   the 
 author  to  the  Hebrews  makes  mention  of  this  kind  of  habit:   but 
 the  Jewish  doctors  have  carried  the  matter  so  far,  as  to  main- 
 tain, that  as  Adam  was  a  priest,  this  coat  of  his  was  his  priestly 
 garment  which  he  left  to  his  posterity:    so  that  Abel,  Noah, 
 Abraham,  ami  (he  rest  of  the  patriarchs,  sacrificed  in  it,  until 
 the  time  that  Aaron  was  made  high  priest,  and  had  peculiar 
 vestments  appointed  him  by  God.     But  all  this  fine  fiction  of 
 theirs  falls  to  the  ground,  if  we  can  but  suppose  with  some,  that 
 by  the  word  which  we  render  coats,  we  may  not  improperly 
 
28 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  I.  A.  C  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CM.  3. 
 
 those  beasts,  which,  very  probably,  they  were  appointed  to 
 sacrifice,  either  in  confirmation  of  the  covenant  of  grace 
 couched  in  the  sentence  pronounced  against  the  serpent, 
 or  as  a  representation  of  that  great  expiatory  sacrifice, 
 which,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  God  might  inform  them,  was 
 to  be  offered  as  a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  all  man- 
 kind: and,  upon  this  account,  it  very  likely  was,  that  Adam 
 changed  his  wife's  name  (who,  as  some  think,  was  called 
 Isscha  before)  into  that  of  Eve,  as  believing  that  God 
 would  make  her  the  mother  of  all  mankind,  and  of  the 
 promised  seed  in  particular,  by  whom  he  hoped  for  a  re- 
 storation both  to  himself  and  his  posterity,  and  to  be 
 raised  from  death  to  a  state  of  happiness  and  immortal 
 life. 
 
 Considering  then  a  what  a  sad  catastrophe  this  trans- 
 gression of  theirs  had  brought  upon  human  nature,  and 
 that  such  a  scene  of  complicated  misery  might  not  be  per- 
 petuated by  means  of  the  tree  of  life,  God  in  his  great 
 mercy,  found  it  convenient  to  remove  them  from  the 
 garden  of  paradise  into  that  part  of  the  country  lying 
 
 understand  tents,  or  arbours,  to  defend  our  first  parents  from  the 
 violence  of  the  heats,  and  such  hasty  showers  as  were  common 
 in  the  countries  adjacent  to  paradise,  and  where  the  winter  was 
 not  so  cold  as  to  require  coats  made  of  skins,  which  would  cer- 
 tainly be  too  warm.  That  they  could  not  be  the  skins  of  slain 
 animals  is  very  manifest,  because  as  yet  there  were  no  more 
 than  two  of  each  species,  male  and  female,  nor  had  they  propa- 
 gated. And  therefore  others  have  imagined,  that  if  the  original 
 word  must  mean  coats,  they  were  more  probably  made  of  the 
 bark  of  trees,  which  are  called  depkata,  the  skins  of  them,  as 
 wrell  as  the  hides  of  animals. — See  Lc  Clerc,  and  Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary ;  and  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are  these,  '  Behold  the  man  is  be- 
 come as  one  of  us,  to  know  good  and  evil ;  and  now,  lest  he  put 
 forth  his  hand,  and  taste  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  live  for  ever,' 
 Gen.  iii.  22.  The  former  of  these  sentences  is  held  by  most  in- 
 terpreters to  be  an  irony,  spoken  in  allusion  to  the  devil's  man- 
 ner of  tempting  Eve,  ver.  5. ;  but,  from  the  latter  part  of  the 
 words,  this  question  seems  to  arise,  "  Whether  Adam  and  Eve, 
 if  they  had  tasted  of  the  tree  of  life,  after  their  transgression, 
 should  have  lived  for  ever?"  Now  it  is  very  manifest,  that  by 
 the  violation  of  God's  command,  they  had  justly  incurred  the 
 penalty,  '  In  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die,' 
 that  is,  shalt  surely  become  mortal :  from  whence  it  follows,  that 
 whether  they  had,  or  had  not  eaten  of  the  tree  of  life,  they 
 were,  the  moment  they  fell,  subject  to  the  necessity  of  dying, 
 nor  could  the  virtue  of  the  tree,  be  what  it  would,  preserve  them 
 from  the  execution  of  the  sentence ;  and  therefore  these  latter 
 words,  '  And  now,  lest  he  put  forth  his  hand  and  taste  of  the 
 tree  of  life,  and  live  for  ever,'  are,  in  like  manner,  spoken  sar- 
 castically, and  as  if  God  had  said,  "  Lest  the  man  should  vainly 
 fancy  in  himself,  that  by  eating  of  the  tree  of  life,  he  shall  be 
 enabled  to  live  for  ever,  let  us  remove  this  conceit  from  him,  by 
 removing  him  from  this  place,  and  for  ever  debarring  him  from 
 any  hopes  of  coming  at  that  tree  again." — Estius  on  Diff.  Pas- 
 sages. 
 
 Examples  of  God's  speaking  by  way  of  sarcasm,  or  upbraid- 
 ing, are  not  uncommon  in  Scripture:  but  considering  that,  in 
 'the  midst  of  judgment,  he  here  thinketh  upon  mercy;'  that  be- 
 fore the  sentence  against  our  first  parents,  he  promises  them  a 
 restoration,  and  after  sentence  passed,  does  nevertheless  provide 
 them  with  clothing;  some  have  thought,  that  the  words,  by 
 taking  the  original  verb  (see  Gell's  Essay)  to  signify  the  time 
 past,  (as  it  may  well  enough  do,)  are  rather  an  expression  of 
 pity  and  compassion,  and  of  the  same  import  as  if  God  had  said, 
 "  The  man  was  once,  like  one  of  us,  to  know  good  and  to  pursue 
 it ;  to  know  evil,  and  to  avoid  it ;  (for  that  is  the  perfection  of 
 moral  knowledge;)  but  behold  how  he  is  now  degenerated! 
 And  therefore,  lest  *this  degeneracy  should  continue  upon  him, 
 unci  he  become  obdurate,  the  best  way  will  be  to  seclude  him 
 Irom  the  tree  of  life,  by  expelling  him  from  paradise."  But  this 
 opinion  seems  to  ascribe  too  much  to  the  power  of  the  tree,  and 
 Is  nut  supported  with  authority  equal  to  the  former. 
 
 towards  the  east,  where  at  first  he  created  them ;  and 
 that  he  might  prevent  their  meditating  a  return,  he 
 secured  every  passage  leading  to  it  with  a  guard  of  an- 
 gels, (some  of  which  flying  to  and  fro  in  the  air,  in  bright 
 refulgent  bodies,  seemed  to  flash  out  fire  on  every  side, 
 or  to  resemble  the  *  vibrations  of  a  flaming  sword)  that 
 thereby  lie  might  deter  them  from  any  thoughts  of  ever 
 attempting  a  re-entrance,  until  he  should  think  fit  to  de- 
 stroy, and  utterly  lay  waste  the  beauty  of  the  place.  Thus 
 fell  our  first  parents,  and,  from  the  happiest  condition 
 that  can  be  imagined,  plunged  themselves  and  their  pos- 
 terity into  a  state  of  wretchedness  and  corruption :  for, 
 as  from  one  common  root,  *  '  sin  entered  into  the  world, 
 and  death  by  sin ;  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  foras- 
 much as  all  have  siimed,'  and  been  defiled  by  this  original 
 pollution. 
 
 CHAP.  II. 
 
 -Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 How  long  our  first  parents  continued  in  their  state  of 
 innocence,  and  in  the  possession  of  the  garden  of  Eden, 
 is  not  so  well  agreed.  The  account  of  their  fall  in  the 
 series  of  history,  follows  immediately  their  introduction 
 into  their  blissful  abode  ;  whereupon  2  most  of  the  Jewish 
 doctors,  and  some  of  the  Christian  fathers,  were  of  opi- 
 nion, that  they  preserved  their  integrity  but  a  very  short 
 while :  that  in  the  close  of  the  same  day  wherein  they 
 were  made,  they  transgTessed  the  covenant,  and  were  the 
 very  same  day  cast  out  of  paradise.*  But  we  are  to  con- 
 sider, that  many  circumstances  are  omitted  in  the  Scrip- 
 tures concerning  the  state  of  our  first  parents,  and  the 
 manner  of  their  transgression  ;  that  Moses  makes  mention 
 of  nothing  but  what  is  conducive  to  his  main  design,  which 
 is  to  give  a  brief  account  of  the  most  remarkable  trans- 
 actions that  had  happened  from  the  beginning  of  the 
 world  to  his  time  ;  and  that  there  are  sundry  good  reasons 
 which  may  induce  us  to  believe,  that  the  state  of  mans 
 innocence  was  of  a  longer  duration  than  those,  who  are 
 for  precipitating  matters,  are  pleased  to  think  it. 
 
 God  indeed  can  do  what  he  pleases  in  an  instant ;  but 
 
 1  Rom.  v.  12.  2  Edward's  Survey,  vol.  1. 
 
 b  What  is  meant  by  the  flaming  sword  represented  to  be  in 
 the  hands  of  the  cherubim,  at  the  entrance  of  the  garden  of 
 paradise,  is  variously  conjectured  by  learned  men:  but,  of  all 
 essays  of  this  kind,  that  of  Tertullian,  who  thought  it  was  the 
 Torrid  Zone,  is  the  most  unhappy. —  Tertul.  Jpol.  ch.  47.  The 
 words  of  Lactantius  are  {Divine  Justice,  b.  ii.  ch.  12.)  Jpsam 
 paradisum  it/ne  circumvallavit,  He  encompassed  paradise  with 
 a  wall  of  fire:  from  whence  a  learned  man  of  our  nation,  pre- 
 tending that  the  original  word  signifies  a  dividing  flame,  as  well 
 as  a  flaming  sword,  supposes,  that  this  flame  was  an  ascension 
 of  some  combustible  matter  round  about  the  garden,  which  ex- 
 cluded all  comers  to  it,  till  such  time  as  the  beauty  of  the  place 
 was  defaced. — Nicholls's  Conference,  vol.  1.  Some  Rabbins  are 
 of  opinion,  that  this  flaming  sword  was  an  angel,  founding  their 
 sentiments  on  that  passage  in  the  Psalms,  where  it  is  said,  that 
 'God  maketh  his  angels  spirits,  and  his  ministers  a  flaming 
 fire,'  Ps.  civ.  4.  And  hereupon  another  learned  man  of  our 
 nation  has  imagined,  that  this  flaming  sword  (which  was  ac- 
 counted by  the  Jews  a  second  angel)  was  of  a  different  kind 
 from  the  cherubim,  namely,  a  seraph,  or  flaming  angel,  in  the 
 form  of  a  flying  fiery  serpent,  whose  body  vibrated  in  the  air 
 with  lustre,  and  may  fitly  be  described  by  the  image  of  such  a 
 sword. —  Tennison  of  Idolatry. 
 
Sect.  III. 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 29 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4001 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 man  necessarily  requires  a  succession  of  time  to  transact 
 his  affairs  in  ;  and  therefore  when  we  read  of  Adam,  in 
 the  same  day  that  he  was  created,  (and  that  was  not  until 
 God  had  made  every  beast  of  the  field,)  x  inquiring'  into 
 the  nature  of  every  living  creature,  and  imposing  on  them 
 proper  names  ;  falling"  into  a  deep  sleep,  and,  with  some 
 formality,  (without  doubt,)  receiving-  his  wife  from  the 
 hand  of  God  ;  removing  into  the  garden  of  paradise,  and 
 (as  we  may  well  suppose)  walking  about,  and  taking  some 
 survey  of  it ;  receiving  from  God  both  a  promise  and 
 prohibition,  and  thereupon  (as  we  may  suppose  again)  2 
 ratifying  the  first  great  covenant  with  him :  when  we  read 
 of  all  these  things,  I  say,  we  cannot  but  think,  that  some 
 time  must  be  required  for  the  doing  of  them ;  and  there- 
 fore to  suppose,  after  this,  3  that  in  the  close  of  the  same 
 day,  the  woman  wandered  from  her  husband,  met  the 
 serpent,  entered  into  a  parley  with  him,  was  overcome 
 by  his  insinuations,  did  eat  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  did 
 prevail  with  her  husband  to  do  the  same,  and  thereupon 
 perceiving  themselves  naked,  did  instantly  fall  to  work, 
 and  make  themselves  aprons  :  to  suppose,  that  in  the 
 same  evening  God  comes  down,  summons  the  criminals 
 before  him,hears  their  excuses,  decrees  their  punishments, 
 drives  them  out  of  paradise,  and  places  two  cherubim  to 
 guard  all  avenues  against  their  return  ;  this  is  crowding 
 too  long  a  series  of  business  into  too  short  a  compass  of 
 time,  and  thereby  giving  an  handle  to  infidelity,  when 
 there  is  no  manner  of  occasion  for  it. 
 
 We,  who  are  not  ignorant  of  Satan's  devices,  and  how 
 ready  he  is  to  wait  for  a  favourable  occasion  to  address 
 his  temptations  to  every  mans  humour  and  complexion, 
 can  hardly  suppose,  *  that  he  would  have  set  upon  the 
 woman  immediately  after  the  prohibition  was  given  ;  and 
 not  rather  have  waited,  until  it  was  in  some  measure 
 forgot,  and  the  happy  opportunity  of  finding  her  alone 
 should  chance  to  present  itself ;  but  such  an  opportunity 
 could  not  well  instantly  have  happened,  because  the  love 
 and  endearments  between  this  couple,  at  first,  we  may 
 well  imagine,  was  so  tender  and  affecting,  as  not  to  ad- 
 mit of  the  least  absence  or  sepiiration  :  nor  must  we  forget 
 (what  the  history  itself  tells  us)  that  they  were  so  much 
 accustomed  to  5  '  the  voice  of  God  walking  in  the  garden 
 in  the  cool  of  the  day,'  as  not  to  account  it  any  new  thing  ; 
 and  so  well  acquainted  with  the  nature  and  plantation  of 
 the  garden,  as  to  run  directly  to  the  darkest  thickets 
 and  umbrages,  in  order  to  hide  themselves  from  his  sight ; 
 which  must  have  been  the  result  of  more  than  an  hour  or 
 two's  experience.  And  therefore,  (if  we  may  be  allowed 
 to  follow  others  in  their  conjectures)  6  it  was  either  on 
 the  tenth  day  of  the  world's  age,  that  our  first  parents 
 fell,  and  were  expelled  paradise,  in  memory  of  which 
 calamity, 7  '  the  great  day  of  expiation,'  (which  was  the 
 tenth  day  of  the  year,)  wherein  •  all  were  required  to 
 afflict  their  souls,'  was,  in  after  ages,  instituted ;  or  (as 
 others  would  rather  have  it)  on  the  eighth  day  from  their 
 creation  :  8  that  as  the  first  week  in  the  world  ended  with 
 the  formation  of  man  and  woman,  the  second  was  proba- 
 bly concluded  with  their  fatal  seduction. 
 
 When  man  is  said  to  have  been  made  according  to  the 
 
 1  Bunted  Philosophical  Archesology. 
 
 *  Bull's  State  of  Man  before  the  Fall. 
 Wicholls'  Conference,  vol.  1.        *  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 ''  C'un.  mil.  10.  "  Usher's  Annals. 
 
 Lev.  xvi.  29.  "Edward's  Survey,  vol.  1. 
 
 likeness  and  image  of  God,  it  cannot  be  supposed,  but 
 that  he  was  created  in  the  full  perfection  of  his  nature  ; 
 and  yet 9  it  must  be  remembered,  that  «  no  created  being 
 can,  in  its  own  nature,  be  incapable  of  sin  and  default. 
 Its  perfections,  be  they  what  they  will,  are  finite,  and 
 whatever  has  bounds  set  to  its  perfections,  is,  in  this  re- 
 spect, imperfect,  that  is,  it  wants  those  perfections  which 
 a  being  of  infinite  perfections  only  can  have  ;  and  what- 
 ever wants  any  perfection,  is  certainly  capable  of  mis- 
 carrying. And  as  every  finite  creature  is  capable  of 
 default,  so  every  rational  being  must  necessarily  have  a 
 liberty  of  choice,  that  is,  it  must  have  a  will  to  choose,  as 
 well  as  an  understanding  to  reason ;  because  a  faculty 
 of  understanding,  without  a  will  to  determine  it,  if  left  to 
 itself,  must  always  think  of  the  same  subject,  or  proceed 
 in  a  series  and  connexion  of  thoughts,  without  any  end  or 
 design,  which  will  be  a  perpetual  labour  in  vain,  or  a 
 thoughtfulness  to  no  purpose.  And  as  every  rational  be- 
 ing has  a  liberty  of  choice,  so,  to  direct  that  choice,  it 
 must  of  necessity  have  a  prescribed  rule  of  its  actions. 
 
 God  indeed,  who  is  infinite  in  perfection,  is  a  rule  to 
 himself,  and  acts  according  to  his  own  essence,  from 
 whence  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  vary ;  but  the  most 
 perfect  creatures  must  act  by  a  rule,  which  is  not  essential 
 to  them,  but  prescribed  them  by  God,  and  is  not  so  in- 
 trinsic in  their  natures,  but  that  they  may  decline  from 
 it ;  for  a  free  agent  may  follow,  or  not  follow,  the  rule 
 prescribed  him,  or  else  he  would  not  be  free. 
 
 Now,  in  order  to  know  how  it  comes  to  pass,  that  we 
 so  frequently  abuse  our  natural  freedom,  and  transgress 
 the  rules  which  God  hath  set  us,  we  must  remember,  that 
 ,0  the  soul  of  man  is  seated  in  the  midst,  as  it  were,  be- 
 tween those  more  excellent  beings,  which  live  perpetually 
 above,  and  with  whom  it  partakes  in  the  sublimity  of  its 
 nature  and  understanding,  and  those  inferior  terrestrial 
 beings  with  which  it  communicates,  through  the  vital 
 union  it  has  with  the  body ;  and  that,  by  reason  of  its 
 natural  freedom,  it  is  sometimes  assimilated  to  the  one, 
 and  sometimes  to  the  other  of  these  extremes.  We  must 
 observe  further,  that,  u  in  this  compound  nature  of  ours, 
 there  are  several  powers  and  faculties,  several  inclina- 
 tions and  dispositions,  several  passions  and  auctions, 
 differing  in  their  nature  and  tendency,  according  as 
 they  result  from  the  soul  or  body  ;  that  each  of  these  has 
 its  proper  object,  in  a  due  application  of  which  it  is 
 
 9  Clarke's  Inquiry  into  the  Original  of  Moral  Enl. 
 
 10  Stillingfeet's  Sacred  Origins. 
 
 11  Clarke  of  the  Original  of  Moral  Evil. 
 
 a  God,  though  he  be  omnipotent,  cannot  make  any  created 
 being  'absolutely  perfect;'  for  whatever  is  absolutely  perfect, 
 must  necessarily  be  self-existent:  but  it  is  included  in  tin'  rery 
 notion  of  a  creature,  as  such,  not  to  exist  of  itself,  but  of  God.  An 
 absolutely  perfect  creature  therefore  implies  a  contradiction;  for  it 
 would  lie  of  itself,  and  not  of  itself,  at  the  same  time.  Absolute 
 perfection,  therefore,  is  peculiar  to  God ;  and  should  he  communi- 
 eate  hi-  own  peculiar  perfect  ion  to  another,  that  ether  would  be 
 God.  Imperfection  must,  therefore,  be  tolerated  in  creatures, 
 notwithstanding  the  divine  omnipotence  and  goodness;  for  con- 
 tradictions are  no  objects  of  power.  God  indeed  might  have 
 refrained  from  acting,  and  continued  alone  self-sufficient,  and 
 perfect  to  all  eternity;  but  infinite  goodness  would  by  no  means 
 allow  of  this;  and  iherei'ore  since  it  Obliged  him  to  produce  c  ster- 
 nal things,  which  things  could  not  possibly  be  perfect,  it  preferred 
 Hum'  imperfect  things  to  none  at  all;  from  whence  it  follows, 
 that  imperfection  arose  from  the  infinity  of  divino  goodness. — 
 King's  Est  ay  on  the  Origin  of  Evil. 
 
30 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A  C.  4004  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CII.  3. 
 
 easy  and  satisfied ;  that  they  are  none  of  them  sinful  in 
 themselves,  but  may  be  instruments  of  much  good,  when 
 rightly  applied,  as  well  as  occasion  great  mischief,  by  a 
 misapplication  ;  and  therefore  a  considerable  part  of 
 virtue  will  consist  in  regulating  them,  and  in  keeping 
 our  sensitive  part  subject  to  the  rational.  This  is  the 
 original  constitution  of  our  nature  :  and  since  our  first 
 parents  were  endued  with  the  same  powers  and  faculties 
 of  mind,  and  had  the  same  dispositions  and  inclinations 
 of  body,  it  cannot  be,  but  that  they  must  have  been  liable 
 to  the  same  sort  of  temptations  ;  and  consequently  liable 
 to  comply  with  the  dictates  of  sense  and  appetite,  contrary 
 to  the  direction  of  reason,  or  the  precepts  of  Almighty 
 God.  And  to  this  cause  the  Scripture  seems  to  ascribe  the 
 commission  of  the  first  sin.  when  it  tells  us  that '  the  wo- 
 man saw  the  tree,  that  it  was  good  for  food,  and  pleasant 
 to  the  eye,  and  desirable  to  make  one  wise,'  that  is,  it 
 had  several  qualities  which  were  adapted  to  her  natural 
 appetites  ;  was  beautiful  to  the  sight,  and  delightful  to 
 the  taste,  and  improving  to  the  understanding  ;  which 
 both  answered  the  desire  of  knowledge  implanted  in  her 
 spiritual,  and  the  love  of  sensual  pleasure  resulting  from 
 her  animal  part ;  and  these  heightened  by  the  suggestions 
 of  the  tempter,  abated  the  horrors  of  God's  prohibition, 
 and  induced  her  to  act  contrary  to  his  express  command. 
 God  indeed  all  along  foreknew  that  she  would  fall  in 
 this  inglorious  manner ;  but  his  foreknowledge  did  not 
 necessitate  her  falling,  neither  did  his  wisdom  ever  con- 
 ceive, that  a  fallen  creature  was  worse  than  none  at  all.  ' 
 The  divine  nature,  as  it  is  in  itself,  is  incomprehensible 
 by  human  understanding  :  and  not  only  his  nature,  but 
 likewise  his  powers  and  faculties,  and  the  ways  and 
 methods  in  which  he  exercises  them,  are  so  far  beyond 
 our  reach,  that  we  are  utterly  incapable  of  framing  just 
 and  adequate  notions  of  them.  We  attribute  to  him  the 
 faculties  of  wisdom,  understanding,  and  foreknowledge  ; 
 but  at  the  same  time,  we  cannot  but  be  sensible,  that 
 they  are  of  a  nature  quite  different  from  ours,  and  that 
 we  have  no  direct  and  proper  conceptions  of  them. 
 AVhen  we  indeed  foresee  or  determine  anything,  wherein 
 there  is  no  possible  matter  of  obstruction,  we  suppose 
 the  event  certain  and  infallible  ;  and,  were  the  foreknow- 
 ledge and  predetermination  of  God  of  the  same  nature 
 with  ours,  we  might  be  allowed  to  make  the  same  con- 
 clusion :  but  why  may  not  it  be  of  such  a  perfection  in 
 God,  as  is  consistent  both  with  the  freedom  of  man's 
 will,  and  contingency  of  events  ?  '  As  the  heavens  are 
 higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  his  ways  far  above  our 
 ways :'  and  therefore,  though  it  be  certain  that  he  who 
 made  Eve,  and  consequently  knew  all  the  springs  and 
 weights,  wherewith  she  was  moved,  could  not  but  foresee, 
 how  every  possible  object,  that  presented  itself,  would 
 determine  her  choice  ;  yet  this  he  might  do,  without  him- 
 self giving  any  bias  or  determination  to  it  at  all :  2  just  as 
 the  man,  who  sees  the  setting  of  the  chimes,  can  tell, 
 several  hours  before,  what  tune  they  will  play,  without 
 any  positive  influence,  either  upon  their  setting  or  their 
 playing.  So  that  Eve,  when  she  was  tempted,  could  not 
 say,  '  I  was  tempted  by  God,'  for  God  tempteth  none  : 
 neither  had  the  divine  prescience  any  influence  over  her 
 choice,  but 3  '  by  her  own  lust  was  she  drawn  away,  and 
 
 1  Bishop  King's   Servian  of  Predestination. 
 Young 's  Sermons,  vol.  1.  3  James  i.  It,  &c. 
 
 enticed  ;  and  when  lust  had  conceived,  it  brought  forth 
 sin,  and  sin,  when  it  was  finished,  brought  forth  death.' 
 
 That  some  command  was  proper  to  be  laid  upon  man 
 in  his  state  of  innocence,  is  hardly  to  be  denied.  4  De- 
 pendence is  included  in  the  very  notion  of  a  creature , 
 and  as  it  is  man's  greatest  happiness  to  depend  on  God, 
 whose  infinite  Avisdom  can  contrive,  and  infinite  power 
 can  effect  whatever  he  knows  to  be  most  expedient  for  him  ; 
 so  was  it  Adam's  advantage  to  have  a  constant  sense  of 
 that  dependence  kept  upon  his  mind,  and  (for  that  reason) 
 a  sure  and  permanent  memorial  of  it,  placed  before  his 
 eyes,  in  such  a  manner,  as  might  make  it  impossible  for 
 him  to  forget  it. 
 
 And  as  this  dependence  on  God  was  Adam's  greatest 
 happiness,  so  it  seems  necessary  on  God's  part,  and 
 highly  comporting  with  his  character  of  a  creator,  that 
 he  should  require  of  his  creatures,  in  some  acts  of  ho- 
 mage and  obedience,  (which  homage  and  obedience  must 
 necessarily  imply  some  kind  of  restraint  upon  their  na- 
 tural liberty)  an  acknowledgment  and  declaration  of  it. 
 And  if  some  restraint  of  natural  liberty  was  necessary  in 
 Adam's  case,  what  restraint  could  be  more  easy,  than  the 
 coercion  of  his  appetite  from  the  use  of  one  tree,  amidst 
 an  infinite  variety  of  others,  no  less  delicious  ;  and  at 
 the  same  time,  what  restraint  more  worthy  the  wisdom 
 and  goodness  of  God,  than  the  prohibition  of  a  fruit, 
 which  he  knew  would  be  pernicious  to  his  creature  ? 
 
 The  prohibition  of  some  enormous  sin,  or  the  injunc- 
 tion of  some  great  rule  of  moral  virtue,  we  perhaps 
 may  account  a  properer  test  of  man's  obedience  ;  but  if 
 we  consider  the  nature  of  things,  as  they  then  stood,  we 
 may  find  reason  perhaps  to  alter  our  sentiments.  5  The 
 Mosaic  tables  are  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  a  tolerable 
 good  system,  and  to  comprise  all  the  general  heads  of 
 moral  virtue  ;  and  yet  if  we  run  over  them,  we  shall  find 
 that  they  contain  nothing  suitable  to  man  in  the  condi- 
 tion wherein  we  are  now  considering-  him. 
 
 Had  God,  for  instance,  forbidden  the  worship  of  false 
 gods,  or  the  worship  of  graven  images  ;  can  we  suppose, 
 that  Adam  and  Eve,  just  come  out  of  the  hand  of  their 
 Maker,  and  visited  every  day  with  the  light  of  his  glorious 
 presence,  could  have  even  been  guilty  of  these  ?  Be- 
 sides that,  the  worship  of  false  gods  and  images  was  a 
 thing  which  came  into  the  world  several  hundreds  of 
 years  afterwards,  either  to  flatter  living  princes,  or  supply 
 the  place  of  dead  ones,  who,  the  silly  people  fancied, 
 were  become  gods.  Had  he  prohibited  perjury  and  vain 
 swearing  ;  what  possible  place  could  these  have  had  in  the 
 infant  and  innocent  state  of  mankind?  Perjury  was 
 never  heard  of  till  the  world  was  better  peopled,  when 
 commerce  and  trade  came  in  use,  when  courts  of  judica- 
 ture were  settled,  and  men  began  to  cheat  one  another, 
 and  then  deny  it,  and  so  forswear  it :  and  oaths  and 
 imprecations  could  never  have  a  being  in  a  state  of  in- 
 nocence :  they  borrow  their  original  manifestly  from  the 
 sinfulness  of  human  nature. 
 
 The  like  may  be  said  of  all  the  rest.  How  could 
 Adam  and  Eve  have  '  honoured  their  father  and  their 
 mother,'  when  they  never  had  any  ?  AVhat  possible  temp- 
 tation could  they  have  to  be  guilty  of  murder,  when  they 
 must  have  acted  it  upon  their  own  flesh  ?      How  could 
 
 4  Revelation  Examined. 
 
 5  Nicholls's  Conference,  vol.  1.  and  Jenkins's  Rcasonallc- 
 
 ness.    vol.  *l. 
 
Sect.  1 1 1- J 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 31 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 other  animal  :  that  a  it  did  not  creep  on  the  ground,  but 
 
 they  commit  adulter} ,  when  they  were  the  only  two  upon 
 the  face  of  the  earth  ?  How  be  guilty  of  theft  when  they 
 were  the  sole  proprietors  of  all  ?  How  bear  false  witness 
 against  their  neighbour,  or  covet  his  goods,  when  there 
 was  never  a  neighbour  in  the  world  for  them  to  be  so  un- 
 just to  ?  And  so  (if  we  proceed  to  Christian  precepts)  how 
 could  they  love  enemies,  how  could  they  forgive  tres- 
 passes, when  they  had  no  one  in  the  world  to  offend 
 against  them  ?  And  the  duties  of  mortification  and  self- 
 denial,  &c,  how  could  they  possibly  exercise  these,  when 
 they  had  no  lust  to  conquer,  no  passion  to  overcome,  but 
 were  all  serene  and  calm  within  ? 
 
 Since,  therefore,  all  the  moral  precepts,  that  we  are 
 acquainted  with,  were  improper  for  the  trial  of  man's 
 obedience  in  his  state  of  innocence  ;  it  remains,  that  his 
 probation  was  most  properly  to  be  effected,  by  his  doing 
 or  forbearing  some  indifferent  action,  neither  good  nor 
 evil  in  itself,  but  only  so  far  good  or  evil,  as  it  was 
 commanded  or  forbidden.  And  if  such  a  command  was 
 to  be  chosen,  what  can  we  imagine  so  natural  and  agree- 
 able to  the  state  of  our  first  parents,  (considering  they 
 were  to  live  all  their  lives  in  a  garden)  as  the  forbid- 
 ding them  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  a  certain  tree  in  that 
 garden,  a  tree  hard  at  hand,  and  might  every  moment  be 
 eaten  of,  and  would  therefore  every  moment  give  them 
 an  opportunity  of  testifying  their  obedience  to  God  by 
 their  forbearing  it  ?  a  wise  appointment  this,  had  not  the 
 great  enemy  of  mankind  come  in  and  defeated  it. 
 
 Who  this  great  enemy  of  mankind  was,  and  by  what 
 method  of  insinuation  he  drew  our  first  parents  into 
 their  defection,  Moses,  who  contents  himself  with  relating 
 facts  as  they  happened  outwardly,  without  any  comment, 
 or  exposition,  of  them,  or  who,  by  a  metonymy  in  the 
 Hebrew  tongue,  uses  the  instrumental  for  the  efficient 
 cause,  tells  us  expressly,  that  it  was  the  serpent ;  and  for 
 this  reason,  some  of  the  ancient  Jews  ran  into  a  fond 
 conceit,  that  '  this  whole  passage  is  to  be  understood  of 
 a  real  serpent;  which  creature,  2  they  suppose,  before 
 the  fall,  to  have  had  the  faculty  of  speech  and  reason 
 both.  But  this  is  too  gross  a  conception  to  have  many 
 abettors  ;  and  therefore  the  common,  and  indeed  the 
 only  probable  opinion  is,  that  it  was  the  devil;  some 
 wicked  and  malicious  spirit  (probably  one  of  the  chief 
 of  that  order)  who  envied  the  good  of  mankind,  the 
 favours  God  had  bestowed  upon  them,  and  the  future 
 happiness  he  had  ordained  for  them,  and  was  thereupon 
 resolved  to  tempt  them  to  disobedience,  thereby  to  bring 
 them  to  the  same  forlorn  condition  with  himself,  and  his 
 other  apostate  brethren  ;  and  that,  to  effect  his  purpose, 
 he  made  use  of  a  serpent's  body,  wherein  to  transact  his 
 fraud  and  imposture. 
 
 Why  the  devil  chose  to  assume  the  form  of  a  serpent, 
 rather  than  that  of  any  other  creature,  we  may,  in  some 
 measure,  learn  from  the  character  which  the  Scripture  gives 
 us  of  it,  namely,  that  '  it  was  more  subtle  than  any  beast 
 of  the  field,  that  the  Lord  God  had  made  ;'  where  the 
 word  '  subtle'  may  not  so  much  denote  the  craft  and  insidi- 
 ousness,  as  the  gentle,  familiar,  and  insinuating  nature  of 
 this  creature.  3  That  the  serpent,  before  the  fall,  was 
 mild  and  gentle,  and  more  familiar  with  man,  than  any 
 
 1  Lc  Clerc's  Commentary  and  Essays. 
 "  Josrphus,  and  several  others. 
 3  Medc's  Discourses. 
 
 went  with  its  head  and  breast  reared  up,  and  advanced  : 
 that  by  frequently  approaching  our  first  parents,  and 
 playing  and  sporting  before  them,  it  had  gained  their 
 good  liking  and  esteem,  is  not  only  the  sentiment  both 
 4  of  Jews  and  5  Christians,  but  what  seems  likewise  to 
 have  some  foundation  in  Scripture  ;  for  when  God  says, 
 '  That  he  will  put  enmity  between  the  serpent  and  the 
 woman,  and  between  his  seed  and  her  seed,'  the  impli- 
 cation must  be,  that  there  was  some  sort  of  kindness  and 
 intimacy  between  them  before. 
 
 There  is  no  absurdity  then  in  supposing  that  this  crea- 
 ture was  beloved  both  by  Adam  and  Eve.  She  especially 
 might  be  highly  delighted,  and  used  to  play  and  divert 
 herself  with  it.  B  She  laid  it  perhaps  in  her  bosom, 
 adorned  her  neck  with  its  windings,  and  made  it  a  brace- 
 let for  her  arms.  So  that  its  being  thus  intimate  with  the 
 woman,  made  it  the  properer  instrument  for  the  devil's 
 purpose,  who  sliding  himself  into  it,  might  wantonly  play 
 before  her,  until  he  insensibly  brought  her  to  the  forbid- 
 den tree  :  and  then,  twisting  about  its  branches,  might 
 take  of  the  fruit,  and  eat,  to  show  her,  by  experience, 
 that  there  was  no  deadly  quality  in  it,  before  he  began 
 his  address  ;  and  his  speech  might  be  the  less  frightful  or 
 surprising  to  her,  who,  in  the  state  of  her  innocence,  not 
 knowing  what  fear  was,  might  probably  think  (as  he  might 
 positively  affirm)  h  that  this  new-acquired  faculty  pro- 
 ceeded from  the  virtue  of  the  tree. 
 
 But  there  is  another  conjecture  still  more  probable,  if 
 we  will  not  allow,  that  the  serpent  was  not  of  a  com- 
 mon ordinary  species,  but  one  very  probably  something 
 like  that  fiery  flying  sort,  which,  we  are  told,  are  bred  in 
 Arabia  and  Egypt.  "'  They  are  of  a  shining  yellowish 
 colour  like  brass,  and  by  the  motion  of  their  wings  and 
 vibration  of  their  tails,  reverberating  the  sunbeams,  make 
 
 4  Josep/tus's  Antiquities.  b.\.  5  Basil,  Horn,  on  Paradise. 
 
 6  Mede's  Discourses. 
 
 7  Tennison  or  Idolatry ;  Patrick's  Commentary  ;  and  Nicholis1 
 Conference,  vol.  1. 
 
 a  The  beauty  of  the  serpent,  which  the  devil  made  choice  of, 
 is  thus  described  by  Milton  : — 
 
 So  spake  the  enemy  of  mankind,  enclosed 
 In  serpent,  inmate  bad  !  and  toward  Eve 
 Address'd  his  way  :  not  with  indented  wave. 
 Prone  on  the  ground,  as  since,  but  on  his  rear, 
 Circular  base  of  rising-  folds,  that  tower'd, 
 Fold  above  fold,  a  surging  maze  !  his  head 
 Crested  aloft,  and  carbuncle  his  eyes; 
 With  burnish'd  neck  of  verdant  gold,  erect 
 Amidst  his  circling  spires,  that  on  the  grass 
 Floated  redundant :  pleasing  was  his  shape, 
 And  lovely. 
 
 b  Eve,  upon  hearing  the  serpent  speak,  inquires  by  what  means 
 it  was,  that  it  came  by  that  faculty;  and  is  told,  that  it  "a-*  by 
 eating  of  a  certain  tree  in  the  garden. 
 
 I  was  at  fir=t,  as  other  beasts  that  graze 
 
 The  trodden  herb,  of  abject  thoughts  and  low 
 
 Till  on  a  day,  roving  the  field,  1  chanced 
 
 A  goodly  tree  far  distant  to  behold, 
 
 Laden  with  fruit  of  various  colours,  mix'd 
 
 Kuddy  and  gold . 
 
 To  satisfy  the  sharp  desire  I  had 
 
 Of  tasting  these  fair  apples,  I  resolved 
 
 Not  to  defer 
 
 Sated  at  length,  ere  long,  I  might  perceive 
 
 Strange  alteration  in  me,  to  degree 
 
 Of  reason  in  my  inward  powers  ;  and  speech 
 
 Wanted  not  long,  though  to  this  shape  retained. 
 
 Thenceforth  to  speculation  high  or  deep 
 
 I  turn'd  my  thoughts,  and  with  capacious  mind 
 
 Considered  all  things  visible  in  heaven, 
 
 Or  earth,  or  middle. 
 
32 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004  ;  OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  fiKN.  CH.  3. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 a  glorious  appearance.  Now,  if  the  serpent,  whose  body 
 the  devil  abused,  was  of  this  kind  (though  perhaps  of  a 
 species  far  more  glorious,)  it  was  a  very  proper  crea- 
 ture for  him  to  make  use  of.  For  these  serpents  we 
 find  called  in  Scripture  seraphs,  or  seraphim,  which  gave 
 the  name  to  those  bright  lofty  angels,  who  were  frequent- 
 ly employed  by  God  to  deliver  his  will  to  mankind,  and, 
 coming-  upon  that  errand,  were  wont  to  put  on  certain 
 splendid  forms,  some  of  the  form  of  cherubim,  that  is, 
 beautiful  flying-  oxen,  and  others  the  shape  of  seraphim, 
 that  is,  winged  and  shining- serpents.  Upon  this  hypo- 
 thesis, we  may  imagine  farther,  that  the  devil,  observing 
 that  good  angels  attended  the  divine  presence,  and 
 sometimes  ministered  to  Adam  and  Eve  in  this  bright  ap- 
 pearance, usurped  the  organs  of  one  of  these  shining- ser- 
 pents, which,  by  his  art  and  skill  in  natural  causes,  he 
 might  improve  into  such  a  wonderful  brightness,  iis  to 
 represent  to  Eve  the  usual  shechinah,  or  angelical  appear- 
 ance, she  was  accustomed  to ;  and,  under  this  disguise,  she 
 might  see  him  approach  her  without  fear,  and  hear  him  talk 
 to  her  without  surprise,  and  comply  with  his  seduction 
 with  less  reluctancy  ;  as  supposing-  him  to  be  an  angel  of 
 God's  retinue,  and  now  dispatched  from  heaven  to  instruct 
 her  in  some  momentous  point,  as  she  had  often  perhaps 
 experienced  before  during  her  stay  in  paradise. 
 
 A  '  learned  Jew  has  expounded  this  transaction  in  a 
 new  and  uncommon  way.  He  supposes  that  the  serpent 
 did  not  speak  at  all,  nor  did  Eve  say  any  tiling  to  it ; 
 but  that,  being  a  very  nimble  and  active  creature,  it  got 
 upon  the  tree  of  knowledge,  took  of  the  fruit  and  eat  it; 
 and  th.it  Eve,  having  seen  it  several  times  do  so,  and  not 
 die,  concluded  with  herself  that  the  tree  was  not  of  such 
 a  destructive  quality  as  was  pretended  ;  that  as  it  gave 
 speech  and  reason  to  the  serpent,  it  would  much  more 
 improve  and  advance  her  nature  ;  and  was  thereupon 
 emboldened  to  eat. 
 
 This  opinion  is  very  plausible,  and,  in  some  degree, 
 founded  on  Scripture  :  for  though  the  woman  might  per- 
 ceive by  her  senses,  that  the  fruit  was  pleasant  to  the  eye, 
 yet  it  was  impossible  she  could  know,  either  that  it  was 
 good  for  food,  or  desirable  to  make  one  wise,  any  other 
 May  than  by  the  example  and  experiment  of  the  serpent, 
 which  merely  by  eating  of  that  fruit,  (as  she  thought,) 
 was  changed  from  a  brute  into  a  rational  and  vocal  crea- 
 ture. This,  I  say,  is  a  pretty  plausible  solution  ;  and 
 yet  it  cannot  be  denied,  but  that  the  text  seems  to  ex- 
 press something  more,  and  that  there  was  a  real  dialogue 
 between  the  woman  and  the  serpent,  wherein  the  serpent 
 had  the  advantage.  And  therefore  (to  persist  in  our 
 former  exposition)  it  is  not  improbable,  that  the  tempter, 
 before  ever  he  accosted  Eve,  transformed  himself  into 
 the  likeness  of  an  angel  of  light,  and  prefacing  his  speech 
 with  some  short  congratulations  of  her  happiness,  might 
 proceed  to  insnare  her  with  some  such  cunning  harangue 
 as  this  : 
 
 "  And  can  it  possibly  be  that  so  good  a  God,  who  has 
 so  lately  been  so  bountiful  to  you,  as  to  give  you  such 
 an  excellent  being,  and  invest  you  with  power  and  do- 
 minion over  all  the  rest  of  his  creatures,  should  now  envy 
 you  any  of  the  innocent  pleasures  of  nature  ?  Has  he 
 indeed  denied  you  the  use  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  ? 
 But  why  did  he  plant  it  at  all  ?     Why  did  he  adorn  it 
 
 1  Isaac  Aierbenel. 
 
 with  such  beautiful  fruit  ?  Why  did  he  place  it  on  an 
 eminence  in  the  garden,  for  you  to  behold  daily,  unless 
 he  is  minded  to  tantalize  you  ?  The  true  design,  both  of 
 the  prohibition  and  penalty  which  you  relate,  is  to  keep 
 you  in  ignorance,  and  thereby  oblige  you  to  live  in  per- 
 petual dependence  on  him.  He  knows  full  well,  that 
 the  virtue  of  this  tree  is  to  illuminate  the  understanding, 
 and  thereby  to  enable  you  to  judge  for  yourselves,  without 
 having  recourse  to  him  upon  every  occasion.  2  To  j  udge 
 for  himself  is  the  very  privilege  that  makes  him  God  ; 
 and  for  that  reason  he  keeps  it  to  himself :  but  eat  but 
 of  this  tree,  and  ye  shall  be  like  him  ;  your  beings  shall 
 be  in  your  own  hands,  and  your  happiness  vast  and  in- 
 conceivable, and  independent  on  any  other.1  What  e fleet 
 it  has  had  on  me,  you  cannot  but  see  and  hear,  since  it 
 has  enabled  me  to  reason  and  discourse  in  this  wise  ;  and, 
 instead  of  death,  has  given  a  new  kind  of  life  to  my  whole 
 frame.  And,  if  it  has  done  this  to  a  brute  animal,  what 
 may  not  creatures  of  your  refined  make,  and  excellent 
 perfections,  expect  from  it  ?  Why  should  you  shrink 
 back,  or  be  afraid  to  do  it  then  ?  You  have  here  an 
 opportunity  of  making  yourselves,  for  ever  ;  and  the  tres- 
 pass is  nothing-.  What  harm  in  eating  an  apple  ?  Why 
 this  tree  of  knowledge  more  sacred  than  all  the  rest  ? 
 Can  so  gTeat  a  punishment  as  death  be  proportionate  to 
 so  small  a  fault  ?  I  come  to  assure  you  that  it  is  not  ; 
 that  God  has  reversed  his  decree,  and  eat  you  what  you 
 will,  ye  surely  shall  not  die." 
 
 3  Thus  the  serpent  suggested  to  Eve,  that  God  had  im- 
 posed upon  her,  and  she  was  willing  to  discover  whether 
 he  had  or  no.  Curiosity,  and  a  desire  of  independency, 
 to  know  more,  and  to  be  entire  master  of  herself,  were 
 the  affections  which  the  tempter  promised  to  gTatify  ;  and 
 an  argument  like  this  has  seldom  failed  ever  since  to 
 corrupt  the  generality  of  mankind  :  insomuch  that  few, 
 very  few,  have  been  able  to  resist  the  force  of  this  temp- 
 tation, especially  when  it  comes  (as  it  did  to  Eve)  clothed 
 with  all  the  outward  advantage  of  allurement.  For 
 whoever  knows  the  humour  of  youth,  and  how  he  himself 
 was  affected  at  that  time,  cannot  but  be  sensible,  that  as 
 the  fairness  of  the  fruit,  its  seeming  fitness  for  food,  the 
 desire  of  being  independent,  and  under  her  own  manage- 
 ment and  government,  were  inducements  that  prevailed 
 with  our  first  parents  to  throw  oft'  the  conduct  of  God  : 
 so  this  curiosity  of  trying  the  pleasures  of  sense,  this 
 itch  of  being  our  own  masters,  and  choosing  for  ourselves, 
 together  with  the  charming  face  of  sin,  and  our  ignorance 
 and  inexperience  of  the  consequences  of  it,  .are  gene- 
 rally the  first  means  of  our  being  corrupted  against  the 
 good  maxims  and  principles  we  received  from  our  pa- 
 rents and  teachers. 
 
 It  is  in  the  essential  constitution  of  man,  (as  we  said 
 before,)  that  he  should  be  a  free  agent;  and  if  we  con- 
 sider him  now  as  in  a  state  of  probation,  we  shall  soon 
 perceive,  that  God  could  not  lay  any  restraint  upon  him, 
 nor  communicate  any  assistance  to  him,  but  what  was 
 consistent  with  the  nature  he  had  given  him,  and  the  state 
 he  had  placed  him  in.  God  created  man  a  free  agent,  4 
 that  he  might  make  the  system  of  the  universe  perfect, 
 and  supply  that  vast  opening  which  must  otherwise  have 
 
 *  Bishop  King's  Discourse  on  the  Fall,  at  the  end  of  his  Ori 
 gin  of  Evil. 
 
 s  Bishop  King's  Sermon  on  the  Fall. 
 
 *  Bishop   King's  Essay  on  the  Origin  of  Evil. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 33 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 happened  between  heaven  and  earth,  had  he  not  inter- 
 posed some  other  creature  (endued  with  rationality,  mas- 
 ter of  his  own  elections,  and  consequently  capable  of 
 serving  him  voluntarily  and  freely)  between  angels  and 
 brutes.  In  the  very  act  of  creating  him,  therefore,  God 
 intended  that  he  should  be  rational,  and  determined,  as  it 
 were  by  a  law,  that  he  should  be  free  ;  and  having  en- 
 grafted this  in  his  make,  it  would  have  been  a  violation 
 of  his  own  laws,  and  infraction  on  his  own  work,  to  have 
 interposed,  and  hindered  the  use  of  that  faculty,  which 
 by  the  law  of  nature,  he  had  established.  We  do  not 
 expect,  that  the  situation  of  the  earth,  or  the  course  of 
 the  sun  should  be  altered  on  our  account,  because  these 
 seem  to  be  things  of  great  importance  ;  and  we  appre- 
 hend it  unreasonable,  that  for  our  private  advantage,  the 
 order  and  harmony  of  things  should  be  changed,  to  the 
 detriment  of  so  many  other  beings.  But  to  alter  the  will, 
 to  stop  the  election,  is  no  less  a  violation  of  the  laws  of 
 nature,  than  to  interrupt  the  course  of  the  sun,  because  a 
 free  agent  is  a  more  noble  being  than  the  sun.  The  laws 
 of  its  nature  are  to  be  esteemed  more  sacred,  and  cannot 
 be  changed  without  a  great  miracle  :  there  would  then 
 be  a  kind  of  shock  and  violence  done  to  nature,  if  God 
 should  interfere,  and  hinder  the  actions  of  free-will ;  and 
 perhaps  it  would  prove  no  less  pernicious  to  the  intel- 
 lectual system,  than  the  sun's  standing  still  would  be  to 
 the  natural. 
 
 To  apply  these  reflections  to  the  matter  now  before 
 us.  Had  God,  to  prevent  man's  sin,  taken  away  the 
 liberty  of  his  will,  he  had  thereby  destroyed  the  founda- 
 tion of  all  virtue,  and  the  very  nature  of  man  himself. 
 For  virtue  would  not  have  been  such,  had  there  been  no 
 possibility  of  acting  contrary,  and  man's  nature  woidd 
 have  been  divine,  had  it  been  made  impeccable.  Had 
 God  given  our  first  parents  then  such  powerful  influences 
 of  his  Holy  Spirit,  as  to  have  made  it  impossible  for  them 
 to  sin,  or  had  he  sent  a  guard  of  angels,  to  watch  and  attend 
 them  so  as  to  hinder  the  devil  from  proposing  any  temp- 
 tation, or  them  from  hearkening  to  any  ;  had  he,  I  say, 
 supernaturally  overruled  the  organs  of  their  bodies,  or 
 the  inward  inclinations  of  their  minds,  upon  the  least 
 tendency  to  evil ;  in  this  case  he  had  governed  them,  not 
 as  free,  but  as  necessary  agents,  and  put  it  out  of  his 
 own  power  to  have  made  any  trial  of  them  at  all.  All 
 therefore  that  he  could  do,  and  all  that  in  reason  might 
 be  expected  from  him  to  do,  was  to  give  them  such  a 
 sufficient  measure  of  power  and  assistance,  as  might  en- 
 able them  to  be  a  match  for  the  strongest  temptation  ; 
 and  this,  there  is  no  question  to  be  made,  but  that  he 
 did  do. 
 
 1  We,  indeed,  in  this  degenerate  state  of  ovirs,  find  a 
 great  deal  of  difficulty  to  encounter  with  temptations. 
 We  find  a  great  blindness  in  our  understandings,  and  a 
 crookedness  in  our  wills.  We  have  passions,  on  some 
 occasions,  strong  and  ungovernable  ;  and  oftentimes  ex- 
 perience an  inclination  to  do  evil,  even  before  the  temp- 
 tation comes  :  but  our  first  parents,  in  their  primitive 
 rectitude,  stood  possessed  of  every  thing  as  advantage- 
 ous the  other  way.  They  had  an  understanding  large 
 and  capacious,  and  fully  illuminated  by  the  Divine 
 Spirit.  Their  will  was  naturally  inclined  to  the  supreme 
 good,  and  could  not,   without  violence  to   its  nature, 
 
 '  Nicholas  Conference,  vol.  1. 
 
 make  choice  of  any  other.  Their  passions  were  sedate, 
 and  subordinate  to  their  reason  ;  and,  when  any  difficul- 
 ties did  arise,  they  had  God  at  all  times  to  have  recourse 
 to  :  by  which  means  it  came  to  pass,  that  it  was  as  hard 
 for  them  to  sin,  as  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  abstain  from 
 sinning;  as  easy  for  them  to  elude  temptations  then,  as 
 it  is  natural  for  us  to  be  led  away  by  temptations  now. 
 And  therefore,  if,  notwithstanding-  all  these  mighty  ad- 
 vantages towards  a  state  of  impeccancy,  they  made  it 
 their  option  to  transgress,  their  perverseness  only  is  to 
 be  blamed,  and  not  any  want  of  sufficient  assistance 
 from  their  bounteous  Creator. 
 
 Great  indeed  is  the  disorder  which  their  transgression 
 has  brought  upon  human  nature ;  but  there  will  be  no 
 reason  to  impeach  the  goodness  of  God  for  it,  if  we  take 
 but  in  this  one  consideration,  That  what  he  thought  not 
 fit  to  prevent  by  his  almighty  power,  he  has,  neverthe- 
 less, thought  fit  to  repair  by  the  covenant  of  mercy  in 
 his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  By  him  he  has  propounded  the 
 same  reward,  everlasting  life  after  death,  which  we 
 should  have  had,  without  death,  before ;  and  has  given 
 us  a  better  establishment  for  our  virtue  now,  than  we 
 could  have  had,  had  we  not  been  sufferers  by  this  first 
 transgression. 
 
 For  let  us  suppose,  2  that,  notwithstanding  our  first 
 parents  had  sinned,  yet  God  had  been  willing  that  ori- 
 ginal righteousness  should  have  equally  descended  upon 
 their  posterity  ;  yet  we  must  allow,  that  any  one  of  their 
 posterity  might  have  been  foiled  by  the  wiles  of  the 
 tempter,  and  fallen,  as  well  as  they  did.  Now  had 
 they  so  fallen,  (the  covenant  of  grace  being  not  yet 
 founded,)  how  could  they  ever  have  recovered  them- 
 selves to  any  degree  of  acceptance  with  God  ?  Their 
 case  must  have  been  the  same,  as  desperate,  as  forlorn, 
 as  that  of  fallen  angels  was  before  :  whereas,  in  the  pre- 
 sent state  of  things,  our  condition  is  much  safer.  Sin 
 indeed,  by  reason  of  our  present  infirmity,  may  more 
 easily  make  its  breaches  upon  us,  either  through  ignor- 
 ance or  surprise ;  but  it  cannot  get  dominion  over  us, 
 without  our  own  deliberate  option,  because  it  is  an  express 
 gospel  promise  against  the  power  of  sin,  that  3it '  shall 
 not  have  dominion  over  us ;'  against  the  power  of  the 
 devil,  that  *  '  greater  is  he  that  is  in  you,  than  he  that  is 
 in  the  world  ;'  against  the  power  of  temptations,  that  * 
 '  God  is  faithful,  who  will  not  suffer  us  to  be  tempted 
 above  what  we  are  able  ;'  against  discouragement  from 
 the  presence  of  our  infirmities,  that  6 '  we  may  do  all 
 through  Christ  that  strengthens  us  ;'  and,  in  case  of  fail- 
 ing, that  7 '  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father,  and  a 
 propitiation  for  our  sins.'  Thus  plentifully  did  God 
 provide  for  man's  stability  in  that  state  of  integrity,  thus 
 graciously  for  his  restoration,  in  this  state  of  infirmity. 
 In  both  cases,  his  goodness  has  been  conspicuous,  and 
 has  never  failed  ! 
 
 In  like  manner,  (to  absolve  the  divine  nature  from 
 any  imputation  of  passion  or  peevishness,  of  injustice 
 or  hard  usage,  in  cursing  the  serpent  and  the  earth  ;  in 
 driving  our  lapsed  parents  out  of  paradise,  and  in  en- 
 tailing their  guilt  and  punishment  upon  the  latest  pos- 
 terity,) we  should  do  well  to  remember,  that  the  serpent, 
 against  which  the  first  sentence  is  denounced,  is  to  be 
 
 8  Young's  Sermons. 
 5  1  Cor.  x.  13. 
 
 3  Rom.  vi.  14. 
 '.Phil.  iv.  13. 
 
 1  John  iv.  4. 
 I  John  ii.  1. 
 
34 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 considered  here  in  a  double  capacity ;  both  as  an  ani- 
 mal, whose  organs  the  devil  employed  in  the  seduction 
 of  the  woman  ;  and  as  the  devil  himself,  lying  hid  and 
 concealed  under  the  figure  of  the  serpent :  for  the  sen- 
 tence, we  may  observe,  is  plainly  directed  to  an  intelli- 
 gent being  and  free  agent,  who  had  committed  a  crime 
 Avhich  a  brute  could  not  be  capable  of. 
 
 Now  if  we  consider  what  a  glorious  creature  the  ser- 
 pent was  before  the  fall,  we  cannot  but  suppose  that 
 God  intended  this  debasement  of  it, 1  not  so  much  to  ex- 
 press his  indignation  against  it,  (for  it  had  no  bad  in- 
 tention, neither  was  it  conscious  of  what  the  devil  did 
 with  its  body,)  as  to  make  it  a  monument  of  man's  apos- 
 tasy, a  testimony  of  his  displeasure  against  sin,  and  an 
 instructive  emblem  to  deter  all  future  ages  from  the 
 commission  of  that  which  brought  such  vengeance  along 
 with  it.  In  the  Levitical  law  we  find,  that  if  a  man 
 committed  any  abomination  with  a  beast,  2  the  beast  was 
 to  be  slain  as  well  as  the  man  ;  and,  by  parity  of  reason, 
 the  serpent  is  here  punished,  if  not  to  humble  the  pride, 
 and  allay  the  triumph  of  the  devil,  by  seeing  the  instrument 
 of  his  success  so  shamefully  degraded,  at  least  to  remind 
 the  delinquents  themselves  of  the  foulness  of  their  crime, 
 and  the  necessity  of  their  repentance,  whenever  they 
 chanced  to  behold  so  noble  a  creature  as  the  serpent 
 was,  reduced  to  so  vile  and  abject  a  condition,  merely 
 for  being  the  means  of  their  transgression. 
 
 But  God  might  have  a  farther  design  in  this  degrada- 
 tion of  the  serpent :  he  foresaw,  that  in  future  ages, 
 Satan  would  take  pride  in  abusing  this  very  creature  to 
 the  like  pernicious  purposes,  and,  under  the  semblance 
 of  serpents  of  all  kinds,  would  endeavour  to  establish 
 the  vilest  idolatry,  even  the  idolatry  of  his  own  hellish 
 worship.  That  therefore  the  beauty  of  the  creature  might 
 be  no  provocation  to  such  idolatry,  it  was  a  kind  and 
 beneficent  act  in  God  to  deface  the  excellence  of  the  ser- 
 pent's shape,  and,  at  the  same  time,  inspire  mankind  with 
 the  strongest  horror  and  aversion  to  it.  Nor  can  it  be  de- 
 nied, but  that,  3  if  we  suppose  the  devil  possessed  the 
 serpent,  and  was,  as  it  were,  incarnate  in  it,  the  power 
 of  God  could  unite  them  as  closely  as  our  souls  and 
 bodies  are  united,  and  thereby  cause  the  punishment 
 inflicted  on  the  literal  serpent  to  affect  Satan  as  sensi- 
 bly as  the  injuries  done  our  bodies  do  reach  our  souls ; 
 at  least,  while  that  very  serpent  was  in  being. 
 
 To  consider  Satan  then  under  the  form  of  a  serpent, 
 Ave  shall  see  the  propriety  of  the  other  part  of  the  sen- 
 tence denounced  against  him,  and  what  comfort  and 
 consolation  our  criminal  parents  might  reasonably  col- 
 lect from  thence.  That  this  part  of  the  sentence,  '  I 
 will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the  woman,  and  between 
 thy  seed  and  her  seed  :  it  shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou 
 shalt  bruise  his  heel,'  '{is  not  to  be  understood  in  a  lit- 
 eral sense,  (because  such  sense  is  absurd  and  ridiculous,) 
 every  reader  of  competent  understanding  must  own  : 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary;  and  Mede's  Discourses. 
 8  Lev.  xx.  15.  3  Bishop  King's  Sermon  on  the  Fall, 
 a  Gen.  iii.  15.  '  It  shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise 
 his  heel.'  The  following  traditions  of  the  promised  Messiah  are 
 remarkable  for  their  coincidence  with  the  first  promise ;  and 
 must  have  had  a  higher  origin  than  unassisted  human  invention. 
 In  the  Gothic  mythology,  Thor  is  represented  as  the  first-born 
 of  the  supreme  God ,  and  is  styled  in  the  Edda,  the  eldest  of  sons ; 
 he  was  esteemed  a  "middle  divinity,  a  mediator  between  God 
 and    man."     With  regard  to  his  actions,  he  is  said   to   have 
 
 and  therefore  its  meaning  must  be  such  as  will  best 
 agree  with  the  circumstances  of  the  transaction.     Now 
 
 the   transaction   was   thus. Adam,  tempted   by   his 
 
 wife,  and  she  by  the  serpent,  had  fallen  from  their  obed- 
 ience, and  were  now  in  the  presence  of  God  expecting 
 judgment.  4  They  knew  full  well,  at  that  juncture, 
 that  their  fall  was  the  victory  of  the  serpent,  whom  by 
 experience,  they  found  to  be  an  enemy  to  God  and 
 man :  to  man,  whom  he  had  ruined  by  seducing  him  to 
 sin ;  and  to  God  the  noble  work  of  whose  creation  he 
 had  defaced.  It  could  not  therefore  but  be  some  com- 
 fort to  them,  to  hear  the  serpent  first  condemned,  and 
 to  see  that,  however  he  had  prevailed  against  them,  he 
 had  gained  no  victory  over  their  Maker,  who  was  able 
 to  assert  his  own  honour,  and  to  punish  this  great  author 
 of  iniquity.  Nor  was  it  less  a  consolation  to  them  to 
 hear  from  the  mouth  of  God  likewise,  that  the  serpent's 
 victory  was  not  a  complete  victory  over  even  themselves  ; 
 that  they  and  their  posterity  should  be  able  to  contest 
 his  empire  ;  and  though  they  were  to  suffer  much  in  the 
 struggle,  yet  finally  they  should  prevail,  bruise  the  ser- 
 pent's head,  and  deliver  themselves  from  his  power  and 
 dominion  over  them. 
 
 This  certainly  is  the  lowest  sense  wherein  our  first 
 parents  could  have  understood  this  part  of  the  sentence 
 
 4  Bishop  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy. 
 
 wrestled  with  death,  and,  in  the  struggle,  to  have  been  brought 
 upon  cme  knee,  to  have  '  bruised  the  head'  of  the  great  serpent 
 with  his  mace ;  and  in  his  final  engagement  with  that  monster 
 to  have  beat  him  to  the  earth,  and  slain  him.  This  victory, 
 however,  is  not  obtained  but  at  the  expense  of  his  own  life :  "  Re- 
 ceding back  nine  steps,  he  falls  dead  upon  the  spot,  suffocated 
 with  the  floods  of-  venom,  which  the  serpent  vomits  forth  upon 
 him."  {Edda,  Fab.  11.  25.  27.  32.)  Much  the  same  notion, 
 we  are  informed,  is  prevalent  in  the  mythology  of  the  Hindoos. 
 Two  sculptured  figures  are  yet  extant  in  one  of  their  oldest  pa- 
 godas, the  former  of  which  represents  Chreeshna,  an  incarnation 
 of  their  mediatorial  god  Vishnu,  trampling  on  the  crushed  head 
 of  the  serpent:  while  in  the  latter  it  is  seen  encircling  the  deity 
 in  its  folds,  and  biting  his  heel.  {Mannie's  History  of  Hindostan, 
 vol.  ii.  p.  290.)  It  is  said  that  Zeradusht,  or  Zoroaster,  predict- 
 ed in  the  Zendavesta,  that  in  the  latter  days  would  appear  a 
 man  called  Oshanderbeghti,  who  was  destined  to  bless  the  earth 
 by  the  introduction  of  justice  and  religion ;  that,  in  his  time, 
 would  likewise  appear  a  malignant  demon,  who  would  oppose 
 his  plans,  and  trouble  his  empire,  for  the  space  of  twenty  years ; 
 that  afterwards,  Osiderbegha  would  revive  the  practice  of  jus- 
 tice, put  an  end  to  injuries,  and  re-establish  such  customs  as  are 
 immutable  in  their  nature:  that  kings  should  be  obedient  to  him, 
 and  advance  his  affairs ;  that  the  cause  of  true  religion  should 
 flourish;  that  peace  and  tranquillity  should  prevail,  and  discord 
 and  trouble  cease.  {Hyde  on  the  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Persians, 
 c.  31.)  According  to  Abulpharagius,  the  Persian  legislator  wrote  of 
 the  advent  of  the  Messiah  in  terms  even  more  express  than  those 
 contained  in  the  foregoing  prediction.  "  Zeradusht,"  says  he, 
 "  the  preceptor  of  the  Magi,  taught  the  Persians  concerning  the 
 manifestation  of  Christ,  and  ordered  them  to  bring  gifts  to  him, 
 in  token  of  their  reverence  and  submission.  He  declared,  that  in 
 the  latter  days  a  pure  virgin  would  conceive ;  and  that  as  soon 
 as  the  child  was  born,  a  star  would  appear,  blazing  even  at  noon- 
 day with  undiminished  lustre.  "  You,  my  sons,"  exclaims  the 
 venerable  seer,  "  will  perceive  its  rising,  before  any  other  nation. 
 As  soon,  therefore,  as  you  shall  behold  the  star,  follow  it  whither- 
 soever it  shall  lead  you,  and  adore  that  mysterious  child,  ollering 
 your  gifts  to  him  with  the  profoundest  humility.  He  is  the 
 almighty  Word,  which  created  the  heavens."  (Cited  by  Hyde  on 
 the  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Persians,  c.  31 .) 
 
 On  the  subject  of  the  antipathy  between  serpents  and  the  hu- 
 man race,  see  Mede's  Works,  b.  i.  disc.  39,  p.  295.  Franz 
 History  of  Animals,  part  iv.  c.  1.  Topsel's  History  of  Serpents 
 p.  C04. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 35 
 
 A.  M.  I.  A.  C.  4001 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 denounced  against  the  serpent ;  and  yet  this  very  sense 
 was  enough  to  revive  in  them  comfortable  hopes  of  a 
 speedy  restoration.  For  when  Adam  heard  that  the 
 seed  of  the  woman  was  to  destroy  the  evil  spirit,  he  un- 
 doubtedly understood  Eve  to  be  that  woman,  and  some 
 issue  of  his  by  her  to  be  that  seed  ;  and  accordingly  we 
 may  observe,  that  when  Eve  was  delivered  of  Cain,  the 
 form  of  her  exultation  is,  1 '  I  have  gotten  a  man  from 
 the  Lord,'  that  is,  I  have  gotten  a  man  through  the  sig- 
 nal favour  and  mercy  of  God.  2  Now  this  extraordinary 
 exultation  cannot  be  supposed  to  arise  from  the  bare 
 privilege  of  bearing  issue,  for  that  privilege  (as  she 
 could  not  but  know  before  this  time)  she  had  in  common 
 with  the  meanest  brutes ;  and  therefore  her  transport 
 must  arise  from  the  prospect  of  some  extraordinary  ad- 
 vantage from  this  issue,  and  that  could  be  no  other  than 
 the  destruction  of  her  enemy. 
 
 Cain  indeed  proved  a  wicked  man  ;  but  when  she  had 
 conceived  better  expectations  from  Abel,  and  Cain  had 
 slain  him,  she,  nevertheless,  recovered  her  hopes  upon 
 the  birth  of  Seth ;  because  3God,  saith  she,  '  hath  ap- 
 pointed me  another  seed,'  or  one  who  will  destroy  the 
 power  of  Satan,  instead  of  Abel,  whom  Cain  slew. 
 Thus  we  see,  that  the  obscurity  in  which  it  pleased  God 
 to  foretell  the  destruction  of  the  evil  spirit,  gave  rise  to 
 a  succession  of  happy  hopes  in  the  breast  of  Adam  and 
 Eve  ;  who  (if  they  had  known  that  this  happiness  was  to 
 be  postponed  for  four  thousand  years)  would,  in  all  pro- 
 bability, have  inevitably  fallen  into  an  extremity  of 
 despair. 
 
 But  how  necessary  soever  God  might  think  it,  to  give 
 our  first  parents,  some  general  hopes  and  expectations 
 of  a  restoration ;  yet,  being  now  fallen  into  a  state  of 
 sin  and  corruption,  which  must  of  course  infect  their 
 latest  posterity,  he  found  it  expedient  to  deprive  them 
 of  that  privilege  of  immortality,  wherewith  he  had  in- 
 vested them,  and  (as  an  act  of  justice  and  mercy  both) 
 to  turn  them  out  of  paradise,  and  debar  them  from  the 
 tree  of  life  :  of  justice,  in  that  they  had  forfeited  their 
 right  to  immortality,  by  transgressing  a  command, 
 which  nothing  but  a  vain,  criminal  curiosity  could  make 
 tiem  disobey  ;  and  of  mercy,  in  that,  when  sin  had  en- 
 tailed all  kinds  of  calamity  upon  human  nature,  in  such 
 circumstances,  to  have  perpetuated  life,  would  have 
 been  to  perpetuate  misery. 
 
 This,  I  think,  can  hardly  be  accounted  the  effect  of 
 passion  or  peevishness :  and,  in  like  manner,  God's 
 cursing  the  ground,  or  (what  is  all  one)  his  depriving  it 
 of  its  original  fruitfulness,  by  a  different  turn  given  to 
 the  air,  elements,  and  seasons,  was  not  the  effect  of 
 anger,  or  any  hasty  passion,  (which  God  is  not  capable 
 of,)  but  of  calm  and  equitable  justice  ;  since  it  was  man 
 (who  had  done  enough  to  incur  the  divine  displeasure) 
 that  was  to  suffer  by  the  curse,  and  not  the  ground  itself : 
 for  the  ground  felt  no  harm  by  '  bringing  forth  thorns 
 and  thistles,'  but  Adam,  who  for  some  time  had  exper- 
 ienced the  spontaneous  fertility  of  paradise,  was  a  suf- 
 ficient sufferer  by  the  change,  when  he  found  himself 
 reduced  to  hard  labour,  and  forced  '  to  eat  his  bread  by 
 the  sweat  of  his  brows.' 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged  therefore,  4  that  there  was 
 
 Gen.  ir.  I.     2  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  1.     "Gen.  iv.  25. 
 Revelatijn  E.va  mined. 
 
 good  reason,  why  the  penalty  of  the  first  transgression 
 should  be  greater  than  any  subsequent  one ;  because  it 
 was  designed  to  deter  posterity,  and  to  let  them  see,  by 
 this  example,  that  whatever  commination  God  denounces 
 against   guilt   will  most  infallibly  be   executed.     We 
 mistake,  however,  the  nature  of  God's  laws,  and  do  in 
 eflect  renounce  his  authority,  when  we  suppose,  that 
 good  and  evil  are  in  the  nature  of  things  only,  and  not 
 in  the  commandments  and  prohibitions  of  God.     5  What- 
 ever God  is  pleased  to  command  or  forbid,  how  indif- 
 ferent soever  it  be  in  itself,  is  for  that  very  reason,  so 
 far  as  it  is  commanded  or  forbidden  by  him,  as  truly 
 good  or  evil,  as  if  it  were  absolutely  and  morally  so, 
 being  enacted  by  the  same  divine  authority,  which  makes 
 all  moral  precepts  obligatory.     God,  in  short,  is  our 
 lawgiver,  and  whatever  he  commands,  whether  it  be  a 
 moral  precept  or  positive  injunction,  so  far  as  he  enacts 
 it,  is  of  the  same  necessary  and  indispensable  obliga- 
 tion.    Upon  this  it  follows,  that  all  sin  is  a  transgres- 
 sion of  the  law,  and  a  contempt  of  God's  authority  :  but 
 then  the  aggravations  of  a  sin  do  arise  from  the  measure 
 of  its  guilt,  and  the  parties'  advantages  to  have  avoided 
 it;  under  which   consideration,  nothing  can  be   more 
 heinous  than  the  sin  of  our  first  parents.     It  was  not 
 only  a  bare  disobedience  to  God's  conmiand,  by  a  per- 
 fect infidelity  to  his  promises  and  threats  ;  it  was  a  sort 
 of  idolatry  in  believing  the  devil,  and  putting  a  greater 
 trust  in  him,  than  in  God.     It  was  an  horrible  pride  in 
 them  to  desire  to  be  like   God,  and  such  a  diabolical 
 pride,  as  made  the  evil  angels  fall  from  heaven.     Covet- 
 ousness,  and  a  greedy  theft  it  was,  to  desire  and  pur- 
 loin, what  was  none  of  his  own  ;  and  one  of  the  most 
 cruel  and  unparalleled  murders  that  ever  was  committed, 
 to  kill  and  destroy  so  many  thousands  of  their  offspring. 
 6  Add  to  this,  that  it  was  a  disobedience  against  God, 
 an  infinite  being,  and  of  infinite  dignity ;  a  God,  who 
 had  given  them  existence,  and  that  so  very  lately,  that 
 the  impresses  of  it  could  not  be  worn  out  of  their  me- 
 mory ;  that  had  bestowed  so  much  happiness  upon  them, 
 more  than  on  all  the  creation  besides ;  that  had  made 
 them  lords  over  all,  and  restrained  nothing  from  them, 
 but  only  the  fruit  of  this  one  tree.     Add  again,  that  they 
 committed  this  sin,  against  the  clearest  conviction  of 
 conscience,  with  minds  fully  illuminated  by  the  divine 
 Spirit,  with  all  possible  assistance  of  grace  to   keep 
 them  from  it,  and  no  untoward  bent  of  nature,  or  unruly 
 passion  to  provoke  them  to  it :    ami,  putting  all   this 
 together,  it  will  appear,  that  this  was  a  sin  of  the  deep- 
 est dye,  and  that  no  man,  now-a-days,  can  possibly 
 commit  a  crime  of  such  a  complicated  nature,  and  at- 
 tended with  such  horrid  aggravations. 
 
 It  is  the  opinion  of  some,  7  that  the  fruit  of  the  for- 
 bidden tree  might  be  impregnated  with  some  fermenting 
 juice,  which  put  the  blood  and  spirits  into  a  great  dis- 
 order, and  thereby  divested  the  soul  of  that  power  and 
 dominion  it  had  before  over  the  body ;  which,  by  its 
 operation,  clouded  the  intellect,  and  depraved  the  will, 
 and  reduced  every  faculty  of  the  mind  to  a  miserable 
 depravity,  which,  along  with  human  nature,  has  been 
 propagated  down  to  posterity :  7  as  some  poisons  (we 
 
 6  Jenkins's  Reasonableness,  vol.  2. 
 b  Nit-hulls' s  Conference)  vol.  i. 
 '  Jenkins's  Reasonableness,  vol.  2. 
 
36 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A    C.  4004 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 know)  will  strangely  affect  the  nerves  and  spirits,  with- 
 out causing  immediate  death  ;  and  1  as  the  Indians  (we 
 are  told)  are  acquainted  with  a  juice  which  will  immed- 
 iately turn  the  person  who  drinks  it  into  an  idiot,  and 
 yet  leave  him,  at  the  same  time,  the  enjoyment  of  his 
 nealth  and  all  the  powers  and  faculties  of  his  body. 
 But  whatever  the  effect  of  the  fruit  might  be,  and  whe- 
 ther the  corruption  of  our  nature  and  death,  (with  all 
 the  train  of  evils,  which  have  descended  to  us,)  lay  in 
 the  tree,  or  in  the  will  of  God,  there  is  no  question  to 
 be  made,  but  that  our  wise  Creator  might  very  justly 
 decree,  that  human  nature  in  general  should  be  affected 
 with  it,  and  our  happiness  or  unhappiness  depend  upon 
 the  obedience  or  disobedience  of  our  first  parents.  We 
 daily  see,  that  children  very  often  inherit  the  diseases 
 of  their  parents,  and  that  a  vicious  and  extravagant 
 father  leaves  commonly  his  son  heir  to  nothing  else  but 
 the  name  and  shadow  of  a  great  family,  with  an  infirm 
 and  sickly  constitution.  And  if  men  generally  now 
 partake  of  the  bad  habits  and  dispositions  of  their  im- 
 mediate parents,  why  might  not  the  corruption  of  hu- 
 man nature,  in  the  first,  have  equally  descended  upon 
 all  the  rest  of  mankind  ?  2  The  rebellion  of  a  parent, 
 in  all  civil  governments,  reduces  his  children  to  poverty 
 and  disgrace,  who  had  a  title  before  to  riches  and  hon- 
 ours ;  and  for  the  same  reason,  why  might  not  Adam 
 forfeit  for  himself,  and  all  his  descendants,  the  gift  of 
 immortality,  and  the  promise  of  eternal  life  ?  God 
 might  certainly  bestow  his  own  favours  upon  his  own 
 terms  :  and  therefore,  since  the  condition  was  obedience, 
 he  might  justly  inflict  death,  that  is,  withhold  immor- 
 tality from  us  ;  and  he  might  justly  deny  us  heaven  (for 
 the  promise  of  heaven  was  an  act  of  his  free  bounty) 
 upon  the  transgression  and  disobedience  of  our  first 
 parents.  We  were  in  their  loins,  and  from  thence  our 
 infection  came  :  they  were  our  representatives,  and  in 
 them  we  fell :  but  then,  amidst  all  this  scene  of  calamity, 
 we  have  one  comfortable,  one  saving  prospect  to  revive 
 us,  namely,  that 3 '  Adam  was  the  figure  of  him  that  was 
 to  come  ;  and  therefore,  as  by  the  offence  of  one,  judg- 
 ment came  upon  all  mankind  to  condemnation,  even  so 
 by  the  righteousness  of  one,  the  free  gift  came  upon  all 
 men  rnito  justification  of  life.1 
 
 This  is  the  account  we  have  of  the  fall :  and  though 
 we  pretend  not  to  deny,  that  in  some  places  there  are 
 figurative  expressions  in  it,  as  best  comporting  with  the 
 nature  of  ancient  prophecy,  and  the  oriental  manner  of 
 writing ;  yet  this  can  be  no  argument,  why  we  should 
 immediately  run  to  an  allegorical  interpretation  of  the 
 whole. 
 
 That  not  only  the  poets,  but  some  of  the  greatest 
 philosophers  likewise,  had  a  strange  affectation  for  such 
 figurative  documents,  in  order  to  conceal  their  true  no- 
 tions from  the  vulgar,  and  to  keep  their  learning  within 
 the  bounds  of  their  own  schools,  we  pretend  not  to  deny  : 
 and  yet,  since  it  is  apparent,  that  Moses  could  have  no 
 such  design  ;  4  since  he  had  no  reason  to  fear  any  other 
 philosophers  setting  up  against  him,  or,  running  away 
 with  his  notions ;    since  he  affects  no  other  character, 
 
 1  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  1. 
 
 *  Jenkins  s  Reasonableness,  vol.  2. 
 1  Rom.  v.  14,  18. 
 
 •  Nicholis's  Conference,  vol.  1. 
 
 but  that  of  a  plain  historian,  and  pretends  to  relate 
 matters  just  as  they  happened,  without  any  disguise  or 
 embellishment  of  art;  since  he  orders  his  books  (which 
 he  endeavours  to  suit  to  the  vulgar  capacity)  to  be 
 '  read  in  the  ears  of  all  the  people,'  and  commands 
 '  parents  to  teach  them  to  their  children  ;'  it  cannot  be 
 supposed,  but  that  the  history  of  the  fall  as  well  as  the 
 rest  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  is  to  be  taken  in  a  literal 
 sense.  All  the  rest  of  the  book  is  allowed  to  be  literal, 
 and  why  should  this  part  of  it  only  be  a  piece  of  Egyp- 
 tian hieroglyphic  ?  Fable  and  allegory,  we  know,  are 
 directly  opposite  to  history  :  the  one  pretends  to  deliver 
 truth,  undisguised,  the  other  to  deliver  truth  indeed,  but 
 under  the  veil  and  cover  of  fiction  ;  so  that,  if  this  book  of 
 Moses  be  allowed  to  be  historical,  we  may  as  well  say,  that 
 what  Thucydides  relates  of  the  plague  of  Athens,  or  Livy 
 of  the  battle  of  Canna?,  is  to  be  understood  allegorically, 
 as  that  what  Moses  tells  us  of  the  prohibition  of  the  fruit 
 of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  or  of  Adam  and  Eve's  expul- 
 sion from  the  garden  of  paradise  for  breaking  it,  is  to  be 
 interpreted  in  a  mystical  sense. 
 
 Nay,  we  will  put  the  case,  that  it  were  consistent  with 
 the  character  of  Moses  to  have  amused  the  people  with 
 fables  and  allegories  ;  5  yet  we  can  hardly  believe,  but 
 that  the  people  retained  some  tradition  among  them 
 concerning  the  formation  of  our  first  parents,  and  the 
 manner  of  their  defection.  This  they  might  easily  have 
 had  from  their  illustrious  ancestor  Abraham,  who  might 
 have  deduced  it  from  Noah,  and  thence,  in  a  few  suc- 
 cessions, from  Adam  himself :  and  if  there  was  any  such 
 tradition  preserved  among  them,  Moses  must  necessarily 
 have  lost  all  his  credit  and  authority,  had  he  pretended 
 to  foist  in  a  tale  of  his  own  invention,  instead  of  a  true 
 
 narration.       For   the   short   question   is, 6  Did   the 
 
 children  of  Israel  know  the  historical  truth  of  the  fall, 
 or  did  they  not  ?  If  they  did  know  it,  why  should  Mo- 
 ses disguise  it  under  an  allegory,  rather  than  any  of  the 
 rest  of  the  book  of  Genesis  ?  If  they  did  not  know  it, 
 how  came  it  to  be  forgotten  in  so  few  generations  of 
 men,  supposing  it  had  ever  been  known  to  Adam's  pos- 
 terity ?  If  Adam's  posterity  never  rightly  knew  it,  but 
 had  the  relation  thereof  always  conveyed  down  in  meta- 
 phor and  allegory,  then  must  Adam,  in  the  first  place, 
 impose  upon  his  sons,  and  they  upon  succeeding  gen- 
 erations ;  but  for  what  reason  we  cannot  conceive,  unless 
 that  the  most  remarkable  event  that  ever  befell  mankind 
 (except  the  redemption  of  the  world  by  Christ)  so  came 
 to  pass,  that  it  was  impossible  to  tell  it  to  posterity  any 
 other  way  than  in  allegory. 
 
 It  can  scarce  be  imagined,  but  that  some  of  the  ancient 
 writers  of  the  Jewish  church,  as  well  as  the  inspired 
 writers  of  the  New  Testament,  had  as  true  a  knowledge 
 of  these  distant  traditions,  as  any  modern  espouser  of 
 allegories  can  pretend  to ;  and  therefore,  7  when  we  read 
 in  the  book  of  Wisdom,  that  8 '  God  created  man  to  be 
 immortal,  and  made  him  to  be  the  image  of  his  own 
 eternity;'  but  that,  '  through  the  envy  of  the  devil,  death 
 came  into  the  world:'  when  the  son  of  Sirach  tells  us, 
 that  9God,'  at  the  first,  '  filled  man  with  the  knowledge 
 
 5  Moses   Vindicated.  6  Jenkins's  Reasonableness,  vol.  2. 
 
 7  See  Bishop  Sherlock's  Dissertation  2.   annexed  to  his  Use 
 and  Intent  of  Prophecy. 
 
 8  Wisrl.  ii.  23,  24.  9  Ecclus.  xvii.  7. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 37 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 of  understanding,  and,  shewed  him  good  and  evil,'  but 
 1  that '  error  and  darkness  had  their  beginning,  together 
 with  sinners ;'  that  2 '  death  is  the  sentence  of  the  Lord 
 over  all  flesh ;'  3  that '  the  covenant,  from  the  beginning, 
 was,  Thou  shalt  die  the  death;'  and  that  4'of  woman 
 came  the  beginning  of  sin,  and  through  her  we  all  die:' 
 when  we  read,  and  compare  all  these  passages  together,  I 
 say,  can  there  be  any  reasonable  foundation  to  doubt  in 
 Ahat  sense  the  ancient  Jewish  church  understood  the 
 history  of  the  fall  ? 
 
 Nay  more.  When  not  only  we  find  the  wicked,  and 
 the  enemies  of  God  represented  under  the  image 5  of  a 
 '  serpent,'  of  a  '  dragon,'  of  a  '  leviathan,  the  crooked 
 serpent,'  &c;  and  the  prophet  telling  us  expressly,  that 
 6 '  dust  shall  be  the  serpent's  meat ;'  but  our  blessed  Sa- 
 vio  ur  likewise  declaring,  that 7 '  the  devil  was  a  murderer 
 from  the  beginning,  a  liar,  and  a  father  of  lies ;'  St  Paul 
 asserting,  that  8the  '  woman  being  deceived,  was  first  in 
 the  transgression,'  and  that  "the  'serpent  beguiled  her 
 tlirough  his  subtilty;'  and  St  John,  in  his  Revelation, 
 10  calling  that  wicked  and  malicious  spirit,  the  devil,  or 
 the  dragon,  Satan,  or  the  old  serpent,  indifferently  ;  we 
 cannot  but  perceive,  that  these  passages  are  not  only 
 plain  references  to  the  first  deception  of  mankind  under 
 the  form  of  that  creature,  but  that  they  virtually  comprise 
 the  sum  and  substance  of  the  Mosaic  account.  u  So  that, 
 if  we  have  any  regard  either  to  the  tradition  of  the  Jewish 
 church,  or  the  testimony  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  we 
 cannot  but  believe,  that  the  history  of  man's  fall,  and  the 
 consequences  thereupon,  were  really  such  as  Moses  has 
 represented  them. 
 
 And  to  confirm  us  in  this  belief,  we  may  observe  far- 
 ther, that  the  tradition  of  almost  every  nation  is  con- 
 formable to  his  relation  of  things  :  12  That  not  only  the 
 state  of  man's  innocence,  in  all  probability,  gave  rise  to 
 the  poet's  fiction  of  the  golden  age ;  but  that  the  story 
 of  Adam  and  Eve,  of  the  tree,  and  of  the  serpent,  was 
 extant  among  the  Indians  long  ago,  and  (as  travellers 
 tell  us)  is  still  preserved  among  the  Brachmans,  and 
 the  inhabitants  of  Peru :  l3  That,  in  the  old  Greek  mys- 
 teries, the  people  used  to  carry  about  a  serpent,  and 
 were  instructed  to  cry  Eva,  whereby  the  devil  seemed  to 
 exult,  as  it  were,  over  the  unhappy  fall  of  our  first 
 mother ;  and  that  14  in  his  worship  in  idolatrous  nations, 
 even  now,  there  are  frequent  instances  of  his  displaying 
 this  his  conquest  under  the  figure  of  a  serpent :  strong 
 evidences  of  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  account !  to  say  no- 
 thing of  the  rationale  which  it  gives  us  of  our  innate 
 '  pudor  circa  res  venereas,'  of  the  pains  of  childbirth, 
 of  the  present  sterility  of  the  earth,  of  the  slowness  of 
 children's  education,  of  their  imbecility  above  all  other 
 creatures,  of  the  woman's  subjection  to  her  husband,  of 
 our  natural  antipathy  to  viperous  animals,  and  (what 
 hath  puzzled  the  wisest  of  the  heathen  sages  to  discover) 
 of  the  depravation  of  our  wills,  and  our  strong  propen- 
 sity to  what  is  evil. 
 
 1  Ecclus.  xi.  7.  »  Ecclus.  xli.  3.  3  Ecclus.  xiv.  17. 
 
 4  Ecclus.  xxv.  24.       5  Isa.  xiv.  29.  xxvii.  1.  Mi  can  vii.  17. 
 
 6  Isa.  lxv.  25.  '  John  viii.  44.         8  1  Tim.  ii.  14. 
 
 9  2  Cor.  xi.  3.  10  Rev.  xii.  9.,  xx.  2. 
 
 11  Moses  Vindicated.  '*  Grotius  on  Truth. 
 
 13  Nicho/ls's  Conference,   vol.   1. 
 
 14  See  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  vol.  1. 
 
 This  origin  of  evil  is  a  question  which  none  of  them 
 could  resolve.  They  saw  the  effect,  but  were  ignorant 
 of  the  cause ;  and  therefore  their  conjectures  were  absurd. 
 15  Some  of  them  laid  the  whole  blame  on  matter,  as  if  its 
 union  with  the  mind  gave  it  a  pernicious  tincture.  Others 
 imagined  a  pre-existent  state,  and  that  the  bad  inclina- 
 tions which  exerted  themselves  in  this  world  were  first  of 
 all  contracted  in  another.  16  Several  established  two 
 principles,  the  one  the  author  of  all  the  good,  and  the 
 other  the  author  of  all  the  evil  (whether  natural  or  moral) 
 that  is  found  in  human  nature :  and,  in  prejudice  to  this 
 absurdity,  many  betook  themselves  to  atheism,  and 
 denied  any  first  principle  at  all ;  accounting  it  better  to 
 have  no  God  in  the  world,  than  such  an  unaccoimtable 
 mixture  of  good  and  evil.  But  now,  had  but  these  wise 
 men  had  the  advantage  of  reading  the  Mosaic  account, 
 they  would  never  have  taken  up  with  such  wild  hypothe- 
 ses, but  immediately  concluded  with  our  Saviour's  argu- 
 ment, that  17 '  a  corrupt  tree  cannot  bring  forth  good 
 fruit;'  because  the  explication  of  the  rise  of  sin,  by  an 
 original  lapse,  is  not  only  freed  from  these  absurdities 
 wherewith  other  explications  abound,  but,  according  to 
 the  sense  which  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Wisdom  has 
 of  it,  sets  the  goodness  of  God  in  the  creation  of  the 
 world  in  its  proper  light ;  namely,  that 13 '  God  made  not 
 death,  neither  hath  he  pleasure  in  the  destruction  of  the 
 living-.  He  created  all  things,  that  they  might  have 
 their  being,  and  the  generations  of  the  world  were  health- 
 ful. There  was  no  poison  of  destruction  in  them,  nor 
 the  kingdom  of  death  upon  the  earth,  until  that  ungodly 
 men  called  it  to  them ;  19  and  so  error  and  darkness  had 
 their  beginning  together  with  simiers. 
 
 CHAP.   III.— Ok  the  Sentiments  entertained  by  the 
 Ancients  concerning  the  Origin  of  Moral  Evil. 
 
 (supplemental  bt  the  eoitor.) 
 
 The  opinions  which  were  entertained  by  the  ancients 
 concerning  the  origin  of  moral  evil  were  various. 
 
 The  operation  of  some  injurious  principle  vitiating 
 the  nature  of  man,  and  perverting  his  moral  views,  could 
 not  be  disputed  ;  and  the  influence  of  a  malignant  power 
 seemed  even  to  have  introduced  disorder  in  the  original 
 appointments  of  Providence,  and  to  have  counteracted 
 the  beneficial  tendency  of  his  ordinances. 
 
 Popular  convictions  everywhere  prevailed  touching 
 the  existence  of  some  beings  of  the  higher  order,  who 
 had  revolted  from  the  heavenly  power  which  presided 
 over  the  universe.  It  is  probable  that  these  convictions 
 were  originally  founded  on  the  circumstances  referred 
 to  in  Scripture  with  respect  to  Satan  and  his  angels,  as 
 powerful  but  malevolent  beings,  who  having  first  seduced 
 Adam  from  his  obedience,  incessantly  labour  to  deceive, 
 corrupt,  and  destroy  his  descendants.  The  notion  of 
 the  Magi  of  Plutarch,  and  of  the  Manicheans,  concern- 
 ing two  independent  principles,  acting  in  opposition  to 
 each  other,  was  also  founded  on  the  real  circumstances 
 
 'b  Nit-hoik' s  Conference,  vol.  1. 
 ,G  Bishop  King  on  the  Origin  of  Evil.  "  Mat.  vii.  IS. 
 
 "  Wis.  i.  13,  &c.  '•  Ecclus.  xi.  16. 
 
38 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 of  the  apostasy  of  angels,  and  of  their  interference  and 
 influence  in  the  affairs  of  men. 
 
 The  original  temptation,  by  which  they  drew  our  first 
 parents  from  their  duty,  and  led  them  to  transgress  the 
 only  prohibition  which  God  had  imposed,  is  described 
 in  the  first  pages  of  Scripture ;  and  it  is  repeated  under 
 much  disguise,  in  many  fables  of  classical  mythology. 
 
 Origen  considers  the  allegorical  relations  furnished 
 by  Plato,  with  respect  to  Porus  tempted  by  Penia  to  sin 
 when  intoxicated  in  the  garden  of  Jove,  as  a  disfigured 
 history  of  the  fall  of  man  in  paradise.  It  seems  to  have 
 been  blended  with  the  story  of  Lot  and  his  daughters. 
 Plato  might  have  acquired,  in  Egypt,  the  knowledge  of 
 the  original  circumstances  of  the  fall,  and  have  pro- 
 duced them,  under  the  veil  of  allegory,  that  he  might 
 not  offend  the  Greeks  by  a  direct  extract  from  the  Jewish 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The  particular  circumstances  also  of  the  leader  of  the 
 evil  spirits  having  envied  man's  happiness,  and  by  disguis- 
 ing himself  under  the  form  of  a  serpent,  occasioned  his 
 ejection  from  paradise,  was  figured  out  in  other  accounts. 
 
 The  worship  established  towards  the  evil  spirit  by  his 
 contrivance,  sometimes  under  the  very  appearance  in 
 which  he  seduced  mankind,  is  to  be  found  among  the 
 Phoenicians  and  Egyptians. 
 
 The  general  idea  of  the  serpent  as  a  mysterious  sym- 
 bol annexed  to  the  heathen  deities,  and  particularly  as- 
 signed to  iEsculapius  the  god  of  healing,  might  have  been 
 suggested  by  perverted  representations  of  the  agency  of 
 the  fallen  spirit,  who  assumed  the  form  of  a  serpent; 
 and  the  invocation  of  Eve  in  the  Bacchanalian  orgies, 
 (with  the  production  of  a  serpent,  consecrated  as  an 
 emblem,  to  public  view,)  seems  to  bear  some  relation  to 
 the  history  of  our  first  parents  who  introduced  sin  and 
 death  into  the  world. 
 
 The  tutelar  deity  of  particular  districts  was  sometimes 
 introduced  in  the  same  manner ;  thus  a  serpent  is  repre- 
 sented by  Virgil  to  have  appeared  to  iEneas. 
 
 The  first  worship  of  Apollo  was  offered  to  him  under 
 the  representation  of  a  serpent;  but  Apollo  was  gene- 
 rally regarded  as  the  deity  who  had  killed  the  serpent 
 Python,  which  word  was  probably  derived  from  the 
 Hebrew  word  which  signifies  a  serpent.  The  account 
 of  Discord  being  cast  out  from  heaven,  referred  to  by 
 Agamemnon,  in  the  nineteenth  book  of  Homers  Iliad, 
 has  been  thought  to  be  a  corrupt  tradition  of  the  fall  of 
 the  evil  angels. 
 
 The  original  perfection  of  man,  the  corruption  of  hu- 
 man nature  resulting  from  the  fall,  and  the  increasing 
 depravity  which  proceeded  with  augmented  violence 
 from  generation  to  generation,  are  to  be  found  in  various 
 parts  of  profane  literature.  Euryalus,  the  Pythagorean, 
 declared  that  man  was  made  in  the  image  of  God.  The 
 loss  of  that  resemblance  was  supposed  to  have  resulted 
 from  the  effects  of  disobedience,  and  was  considered  as 
 so  universal  that  it  was  generally  admitted,  as  is  ex- 
 pressed by  Horace,  that  no  man  was  born  without  vices. 
 The  conviction  of  a  gradual  deterioration  from  age  to 
 age,  of  a  change  from  a  golden  period,  by  successive 
 transitions  to  an  iron  depravity,  of  a  lapse  from  a  state 
 devoid  of  guilt  and  fear,  to  times  filled  with  iniquity, 
 was  universally  entertained.1 
 
 '  Grays  Connexion,  pp.  135 — 140. 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— Of  Original  Sin. 
 
 Original  sin  indeed  is  a  phrase  which  does  not  occur  in 
 the  whole  compass  of  the  Bible ;  but  the  nature  of  the 
 thing  itself,  and  in  what  manner  it  came  to  be  committed, 
 are  sufficiently  related :  so  that  those  who  admit  of  the 
 authority  of  the  Scriptures,  make  no  question  of  the  fact. 
 The  great  matter  in  dispute  is,  what  the  effect  of  this 
 transgression  was ;  what  guilt  it  contained ;  what  punish- 
 ment it  merited ;  and  in  what  degree  its  guilt  and  punish- 
 ment both  may  be  said  to  affect  us. 
 
 Some  have  not  stuck  to  affirm,  2  that  in  the  beginning 
 of  the  world,  there  was  no  such  thing  as ,  any  express 
 covenant  between  God  and  man ;  that  the  prohibition  of 
 the  tree  of  knowledge  was  given  to  our  first  parents  only, 
 and  they  alone  consequently  were  culpable  by  its  trans- 
 gression ;  that  Adam,  in  short,  was  mortal,  like  one  of 
 us ;  he  was  no  representative  for  his  posterity ;  his  sin 
 purely  personal ;  and  that  the  imputation  of  guilt,  down 
 to  this  time,  for  an  offence  so  many  thousand  years  ago 
 committed,  is  a  sad  reflection  upon  the  goodness  and 
 justice  of  God. 
 
 In  opposition  to  this,  others  think  proper  to  affirm, 
 that  at  the  first  creation  of  things,  there  was  a  covenant 
 made  with  all  mankind  in  Adam,  their  common  head 
 and  proxy,  who  stipulated  for  them  all ;  that  by  a  trans- 
 gression of  this  covenant,  our  first  parents  fell  from  their 
 original  righteousness,  and  thence  became  dead  in  sin, 
 and  actually  defiled  in  all  their  faculties  of  soul  and 
 body ;  and  that  this  corruption  is  not  only  the  parent  of 
 all  actual  transgressions,  but  (even  in  its  own  nature) 
 brings  guilt  upon  every  one  that  is  born  into  the  world, 
 whereby  he  is  bound  over  to  the  wrath  of  God,  and  the 
 curse  of  the  law,  and  so  made  subject  to  death,  with 
 all  the  miseries  that  attend  it,  spiritual,  temporal,  and 
 eternal. 
 
 There  is  another  opinion  which  concerns  itself  not 
 with  the  imputation  of  the  guilt,  but  only  with  the  punish- 
 ment of  this  transgression,  and  thereupon  supposes,  that 
 though  Adam,  as  to  the  composition  of  his  body,  was 
 naturally  mortal,  yet,  by  the  supernatural  gift  of  God, 
 (whereof  the  tree  of  life  was  a  symbol  or  sacrament,)  he 
 was  to  be  preserved  immortal:  from  whence  it  is  in- 
 ferred, 3That  the  denunciation  of  the  sentence,  '  In  the 
 day  thou  eatest  thereof,  thou  shalt  surely  die,'  is  to  be 
 miderstood  literally  indeed,  but  then  extended  no  farther 
 than  natural  death;  which,  considering  the  fears,  and 
 terrors,  and  smnlry  kinds  of  misery  which  it  occasions, 
 maybe  reputed  punishment  severe  enough,  though  fairly 
 consistent  with  our  notions  of  God's  goodness  and  jus- 
 tice, because  it  is  but  a  temporal  punishment,  and 
 abundantly  recompensed  by  that  eternal  redemption 
 which  all  mankind  shall  have  in  Christ  Jesus. 
 
 Others  again  do  so  far  approve  of  this,  as  to  think  it 
 in  part  the  punishment  of  original  sin ;  but  then  they 
 suppose,  that  besides  this  natural  mortality,  there  is  a 
 certain  weakness  and  corruption  spread  through  the 
 whole  race  of  mankind,  which  discovers  itself  in  their 
 inclination  to  evil,  and  insufficiency  to  what  is  good. 
 
 B  Burnet  on  the  Articles;  and  Taylors  Polemical  Discourses. 
 3  Locke's  Reasonableness  of  Christianity ;  and  A  Treatise  on 
 the  Divine  Imputation  of  Original  Sin,  ly  D.  JVhitby. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 39 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 This,  say  they,  a  the  very  heathens  complain  of ;  this 
 *  the  Scriptures  every  where  testify ;  and  therefore  they 
 conclude  that  since  man  was  not  originally  made  in  this 
 condition,  (for  God  created  him  after  his  own  image,) 
 he  must  have  contracted  all  this  from  his  fall ;  and  that 
 therefore  the  threatening-  of  death  had  an  higher  signifi- 
 cation than  the  dissolution  of  the  soul  and  body,  namely, 
 the  loss  of  the  divine  favour,  of  all  supernatural  gifts 
 and  gTaces,  and  a  total  defection  of  the  mind  from  God, 
 which  immediately  ensued  upon  the  transgression. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  principal  opinions,  (for  the 
 little  singularities  are  innumerable,)  and,  in  the  midst  of 
 so  many  intricacies,  to  find  out  a  proper  path  for  us  to 
 pursue,  we  may  resolve  the  whole  controversy  into  this 
 one%  question : — "  Whether  human  nature  be  so  far  cor- 
 rupted, and  the  guilt  of  our  first  parents'  transgression  so 
 far  imputed  to  their  posterity,  that  every  person,  from 
 the  mother's  womb,  must  necessarily  go  astray,  and  must 
 certainly  fall  into  everlasting  perdition,  without  the 
 means  appointed  in  the  new  covenant  for  his  preserva- 
 tion ?"  And  in  searching  into  this,  the  sentiments  of 
 the  fathers,  much  more  the  alterations  of  the  schoolmen, 
 will  help  us  very  little.     c  The  former  are  so  divided  in 
 
 a  St  Austin,  in  his  fourth  book  against  Julian,  brings  in 
 Cicero,  on  Repub.  b.  3.,  complaining  "  That  nature,  in  bringing 
 forth  man  to  existence,  had  behaved  like  a  stepmother,  and  not 
 a  mother,  he  possessing  a  body  naked,  weak,  and  soon  subject 
 to  decay  ;  with  a  mind,  harassed  by  troubles,  crushed  by  fears, 
 and  sinking  under  oppressions ;  in  which,  however,  there  exists 
 a  latent  divine  flame  of  intellect "  Whereupon  the  holy  father 
 makes  this  remark,  "  That  author  saw  the  effect,  but  was  igno- 
 rant of  the  cause,  for  he  knew  not  there  was  a  heavy  yoke  laid  on 
 the  sons  of  Adam ;  he  was  not  enlightened  with  the  light  of  reve- 
 lation, and  consequently  original  transgression  was  to  him  a 
 thing  totally  unknown." 
 
 b  The  Scriptures  state  the  conniption  of  human  nature  in  such 
 terms  as  these,  namely,  that  '  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
 world  '  by  whose  '  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners,'  Rom. 
 x.  19.,  that  '  by  nature  '  therefore  '  we  are  the  children  of  wrath,' 
 Eph.  ii.  3.,  and  '  unable  to  receive  the  things  of  the  Spirit,  or  to 
 know  them  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned,'  1  Cor.  ii.  14., 
 for  'what  is  born  of  flesh,  is  flesh,'  John  iii.  6.;  and  'who  can 
 bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean?'  Job  xiv.  4.  The  royal 
 Psalmist  therefore  makes,  in  his  own  person,  this  confession  of 
 our  natural  depravity ;  '  Behold  I  was  shapen  in  wickedness,  and 
 in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me,'  Ps.  Ii.  5.,  and  St  Paul  makes 
 tins  public  declaration  of  our  inability  to  do  good ;  '  I  know  that 
 in  me  (that  is,  in  my  flesh)  dwelleth  no  good  thing:  for  to  will 
 is  present  with  me,  but  to  perform  that  which  is  good,  I  find 
 not;  for  though  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward 
 man,  yet  I  see  another  law  in  my  members,  warring  against  the 
 law  in  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the  law  of 
 sin  which  is  in  my  members.  O  wretched  man  that  I  am!  who 
 shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death?'  Rom.  vii.  18.,  &c. 
 
 c  Vossius,  in  Ins  history  of  Pelagianism,  assures  us,  that  the 
 whole  Catholic  church  was  always  of  opinion,  that  the  guilt  of 
 Adam's  sin  was  imputed  to  his  posterity  to  their  condemnation ; 
 so  that  children  dying  therein  were  consigned  to  everlasting 
 punishment,  at  least  to  an  everlasting  separation  from  God:  and, 
 to  confirm  this  assertion,  he  quotes  a  multitude  of  passages  out  of 
 almost  all  the  doctors  of  the  Greek  church.  Taylor  anil  Whitby, 
 and  some  other  writers  upon  this  argument,  produce  the  testi- 
 mony of  the  same  fathers  to  evince  the  veiy  contrary  position; 
 so  that  there  is.  no  depending  upon  any  thing  where  authors  are 
 so  inconsistent  with  themselves,  and  so  repugnant  to  one  an- 
 other. The  truth  is,  before  Pelagius  appeared  in  the  world, 
 most  of  the  ancient  writers  of  the  church  were  veiy  inaccurate, 
 both  in  what  they  thought  and  wrote  concerning  original  sin  and 
 free-will ;  and  it  seems  as  if  the  providence  of  God  permitted 
 that  heretic,  to  arise,  that  thereby  lie  might  engage  the  main- 
 tainors of  orthodoxy  to  study  those  points  more  maturely.— 
 ff'hilakcr  on  Original  Sin,  b.  2. 
 
 their  opinions,  and  the  latter  so  abstruse  in  their  argu- 
 ments upon  this  subject,  that  an  honest  inquirer  will  find 
 himself  bewildered,  rather  than  instructed ;  and  therefore 
 our  safest  recourse  will  be  to  the  declarations  of  God's 
 will,  explained  in  a  maimer  comporting  with  his  attri- 
 butes. 
 
 That  God,  who  is  the  fountain  of  our  beino-  is  infi- 
 nitely pure  and  holy,  and  can  therefore  be  neither  the 
 author  nor  promoter  of  any  sin  in  us,  is  obvious  to  our 
 first  conceptions  of  him ;  and  therefore,  if  the  corruption 
 of  our  nature  be  supposed  to  be  such  as  necessarily  and 
 unavoidably  determines  us  to  wickedness,  without  the 
 least  tendency  to  good,  to  give  it  a  counterpoise,  those 
 who  maintain  the  negative  of  the  question,  are  in  the 
 right  so  far  as  they  stand  in  defence  of  God's  immacu- 
 late purity,  and  are  known  to  be  asserters  of  the  freedom 
 of  human  choice,  without  which  the  common  distinctions 
 of  virtue  and  vice,  and  the  certain  prospects  of  rewards 
 and  punishments,  are  entirely  lost.  But  when  they  carry 
 the  point  so  far  as  to  deny  any  alteration  in  human  na- 
 ture now,  from  what  it  was  at  its  first  creation ;  as  to 
 deny,  that  Adam,  in  his  state  of  uprightness,  had  any 
 gifts  and  graces  supernatural,  any  clearness  in  his  un- 
 derstanding, any  strength  in  his  will,  any  regidarity  in 
 his  affections,  more  than  every  man  of  maturity  and 
 competent  faculties  has  at  this  day ;  when  they  adventure 
 to  affirm,  that  there  is  no  necessity  of  grace  in  our  pre- 
 sent condition,  to  assist  our  hereditary  weakness,  to  en- 
 lighten our  minds,  and  incline  our  wills,  and  conduct 
 our  affections  to  the  purposes  of  holiness,  but  that  every 
 man  may  do  what  is  good  and  acceptable  to  God  by  the 
 power  of  his  own  natural  abilities,  they  then  run  counter 
 to  the  common  experience  of  human  infirmity ;  they 
 overlook  the  declarations  of  God's  word  concerning  his 
 gracious  assistance ;  and  seem  to  despise  the  kind  over- 
 ture of  that  blessed  agent,  whereby  we  are  '  renewed  and 
 sanctified  in  the  spirit  of  our  minds.' 
 
 In  like  manner,  when  the  maintainers  of  absolute 
 depravation  contend,  that  man,  in  his  present  condition, 
 is  far  departed  from  original  righteousness,  and,  of  his 
 own  accord,  very  much  inclined  to  evil;  that  the  order 
 of  his  faculties  is  destroyed,  and  those  graces  which 
 constituted  the  image  of  God,  departed  from  him;  that 
 in  this  state  he  is  now  unable  to  raise  himself  from  the 
 level  of  common  impotence,  but  requires  the  interven- 
 tion of  some  superior  principle  to  aid  and  assist  him  in 
 his  progress  towards  heaven;  they  say  no  more  than 
 what  experience  teaches  us,  and  what  the  sacred  records, 
 which  acquaint  us  with  the  dispensation  of  grace,  are 
 known  to  authorize.  But  when  they  carry  their  positions 
 to  a  greater  extent  than  they  will  justly  bear;  when  they 
 affirm,  that  ever  since  the  first  defection,  the  mind  of 
 man  is  not  only  much  impaired,  but  grievously  vitiated 
 in  all  its  faculties,  having  a  strong  aversion  to  every 
 thing  that  is  good,  and  an  invincible  propensity  to  what 
 is  evil;  not  one  thought,  word,  or  wish,  that  tends  to- 
 wards God,  but  the  seeds  and  principles  of  every  vice 
 that  bears  the  image  and  lineaments  of  the  devil,  inhe- 
 rent in  it :  when  they  advance  such  doctrines  as  these, 
 I  say,  they  debase  human  nature  too  low,  and  seem  to 
 impute  such  iniquity  to  its  Maker  as  can  hardly  be  wiped 
 off*  if  every  human  soul  be  naturally  inclined  to  all  kind 
 of  wickedness  when  it  comes  from  the  hand  of  his  creat- 
 ing power. 
 
40 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1.  A.  C.  4004;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5411.  GEN.  CH.  3. 
 
 There  is  certainly  therefore  another  way  of  account- 
 ing for  these  difficulties,  without  any  prejudice  to  the 
 divine  attributes,  and  that  is  this : — Not  by  ascribing  any 
 positive  malignity  to  human  nature,  but  only  the  loss  of 
 the  image  of  God ;  because  a  mere  privation  of  recti- 
 tude, in  an  active  subject,  will  sufficiently  answer  all  the 
 purposes  for  which  a  positive  corruption  is  pleaded. 
 1  The  soul  of  man,  we  know,  is  a  busy  creature :  by  the 
 force  of  its  own  nature  it  must  be  in  action;  but  then, 
 without  grace,  and  the  image  of  God  assisting  and 
 adorning  it,  it  cannot  act  regularly  and  well.  So  that 
 the  difference  between  Adam  and  us,  is  not  that  we  have 
 violent  inclinations  to  all  manner  of  wickedness  im- 
 planted in  our  nature,  any  more  than  he,  in  his  inno- 
 cence, had  in  his;  but  that  we,  in  our  present  condition, 
 want  sundry  advantages  which  he,  in  the  height  of  his 
 perfection,  was  not  without.  He  had  the  free  power  of 
 obedience ;  he  had  the  perfect  image  of  his  Maker  in  all 
 the  divine  qualities  of  knowledge  and  holiness,  which 
 we  have  not;  and  therefore,  when  we  say,  that  he  com- 
 municated to  his  posterity  a  corrupted  nature,  it  must 
 not  be  understood,  as  if  that  nature,  which  we  receive, 
 was  infected  with  any  vicious  inclinations  or  habits,  to 
 sway  and  determine  our  mind  to  what  is  evil ;  but  the 
 meaning  is,  that  he  communicated  to  us  a  nature,  which 
 has  indeed  a  power  to  incline,  and  act  variously,  but 
 that  he  did  not,  withal,  communicate  to  us  the  image  of 
 God,  nor  that  fulness  of  knowledge  and  power  of  obe- 
 dience, which  were  requisite  to  make  all  its  actions  and 
 inclinations  holy  and  regular :  and  our  nature  is  there- 
 fore said  to  be  corrupted,  because  it  is  comparatively 
 bad;  because  it  is  reduced  to  its  mere  natural  state, 
 •which  at  the  best  is  a  state  of  imperfection,  and  deprived 
 of  that  grace  which  should  have  restrained  it  from  sin, 
 and  of  those  other  high  endowments  wherewith  at  first  it 
 was  invested. 
 
 This  is  a  fair  account  of  our  original  corruption:  it 
 stands  clear  of  the  difficulties  that  attend  the  other  opin- 
 ions, and  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  notions  we  have  of 
 the  divine  attributes.  For  barely  to  withdraw  those 
 extraordinary  gifts,  which  were  not  essential  to  man's 
 nature,  but  such  as  God  additionally  had  bestowed  upon 
 him;  and  he,  by  his  transgression,  unworthily  forfeited, 
 is  what  agrees  very  well  with  the  wisdom  and  justice, 
 and  holiness  of  God  to  do ;  though  to  infuse  a  positive 
 malignity,  or  such  a  strong  inclination  to  wickedness  in 
 us,  as  induces  a  necessity  of  sinning,  most  certainly 
 does  not. 
 
 That '  the  Judge  of  all  the  world  cannot  but  do  right,' 
 and  he,  '  who  keepeth  mercy  from  generation  to  genera- 
 tion,' can  have  no  hand  in  any  cruel  action,  is  a  certain 
 truth,  and  what  our  first  reflections  on  the  divine  nature 
 teach  us.  Those  therefore  who  maintain,  that  Adam's 
 sin  is  not  imputed  to  us  to  our  damnation,  or  that  chil- 
 dren unbaptized,  are  not  the  objects  of  divine  vengeance, 
 nor  shall  be  condemned  to  hell,  or  an  eternal  expulsion 
 from  God's  presence,  for  what  was  done  many  thousand 
 years  before  they  were  born,  are  so  far  in  the  right,  as 
 they  oppose  an  opinion  which  clouds  the  amiable  attri- 
 butes of  God,  and  represents  him  in  a  dress  of  horror, 
 and  engaged  in  acts  of  extreme  severity  at  least,  if  not 
 
 1  Hopkins  on  the  Tzvo  Covenants. 
 
 unrelenting  cruelty.  Hell  certainly  is  not  so  easy  a 
 pain,  nor  are  the  souls  of  children  of  so  cheap  and  so 
 contemptible  a  price,  as  that  God  should  snatch  them 
 from  their  mother's  womb,  and  throw  them  into  perdition 
 without  any  manner  of  concern ;  and  therefore,  when  men 
 argue  against  such  positions  as  these,  they  are  certainly 
 to  be  commended,  because  therein  they  vindicate  the 
 sacred  attributes  of  God  :  but  when  they  carry  their  op- 
 position to  a  greater  length  than  it  will  justly  go,  so  as 
 to  affirm — that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  covenant 
 between  God  and  Adam,  or  if  there  was,  that  Adam 
 contracted  for  himself  only ;  that  his  guilt  consequently 
 was  personal,  and  cannot  in  justice,  be  imputed  to  us; 
 that  since  we  had  no  share  in  the  transgression,  there  is 
 no  reason  why  we  should  bear  any  part  in  the  punish- 
 ment: that  we  are  all  born,  in  short,  in  the  same  state 
 of  innocence,  and  are  under  the  same  favour  and  accept- 
 ance with  Almighty  God,  that  Adam,  before  the  first 
 transgression,  was:  Avhen  they  advance  such  positions 
 as  these,  in  maintenance  of  their  opposition,  they  sadly 
 forget,  that  while  they  would  seem  advocates  for  the 
 mercy  and  goodness  of  God,  they  are  taking  away  the 
 foundation  of  the  second  covenant;  destroying  the  ne- 
 cessity of  a  divine  mediator;  and  overlooking  those 
 declarations  in  Scripture,  which  affirm,  that  2'all  the 
 world  is  become  guilty  before  God;'  that  '  all  men,  both 
 Jews  and  Gentiles,  are  under  sin;  have  come  short  of 
 the  glory  of  God,  3  and  are  by  nature  the  children  of 
 wrath.' 
 
 To  make  an  agreement  then  between  the  word  of 
 God,  and  his  attributes  in  this  particular,  we  may  fairly 
 allow,  that  there  really  was  a  covenant  between  God  and 
 Adam  at  the  first  creation ;  that  in  making  that  covenant, 
 Adam,  as  their  head  and  common  representative,  stipu- 
 lated for  all  mankind,  as  well  as  for  himself;  and  that, 
 in  his  transgression  of  it,  the  guilt  and  the  punishment 
 due  thereupon,  were  imputed  to  all  his  posterity.  This 
 we  may  allow  was  the  state  and  condition  wherein  Adam 
 left  us ;  but  then  we  must  remember,  that  4  the  whole 
 scheme  of  man's  salvation  was  laid  in  the  divine  counsel 
 and  decree  from  all  eternity ;  that  God,  foreseeing  man 
 would  fall,  determined  to  send  his  Son  to  redeem  him, 
 and  determined  to  do  this  long  before  the  transgression 
 happened :  so  that  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God  had 
 effectually  provided  beforehand  against  all  the  ill  con- 
 sequences of  the  fall,  and  made  it  impossible,  that 
 Adam's  posterity  should  become  eternally  miserable, 
 and  be  condemned  to  the  flames  and  pains  of  hell,  any 
 other  way  than  through  their  own  personal  guilt  and 
 transgressions.  The  redemption  of  the  world  was  de- 
 creed, I  say,  from  eternity,  and  was  actually  promised 
 before  any  child  of  Adam  was  born,  even  before  the 
 sentence  was  pronounced  upon  our  first  parents  ;  and  as 
 soon  as  it  was  pronounced,  its  benefits,  without  all  con- 
 troversy did  commence.  So  that,  upon  this  hypothesis, 
 every  infant  that  comes  into  the  world,  as  it  brings  along 
 with  it  the  guilt  of  Adam's  sin,  brings  along  Avith  it  like- 
 wise the  benefits  of  Christ's  meritorious  death,  '  which 
 God  hath  set  forth,  as  a'  standing  '  propitiation  for  the 
 sins  of  the  whole  world.'     Nor  can  the  want  of  baptism 
 
 *  Rom.  iii.  9,  19,  23.  s  Eph.  ii.  3. 
 
 4  Jenkins's  Reasonabiencss,  vol.  2. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 41 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  3876;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  100.  A.  C.  5311.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 be  any  obstruction  to  this  remedy,  since  the  remedy  was 
 exhibited  long  before  the  rite  was  instituted ;  and  since 
 that  rite,  when  instituted,  (according-  to  the  sense  of 
 some  learned  fathers,  was  more  a  pledge  of  good  things 
 to  come,  aa  type  of  our  future  resurrection,  a  form  of 
 adoption  into  the  heavenly  family,  and  of  admission  to 
 those  'rich  promises  of  God,  which  are  hid  in  Jesus 
 Christ,'  than  any  ordinance  appointed  for  the  '  mystical 
 washing  away  of  sin.' 
 
 In  short,  as  long  as  St  Paul's  epistles  are  read,  the 
 original  compact  between  God  and  man,  the  deprava- 
 tion of  human  nature,  and  the  imputation  of  Adam's 
 guilt,  must  be  received  as  standing  doctrines  of  the 
 church  of  Christ:  but  then  we  are  to  take  great  care,  in 
 our  manner  of  explaining  them,  to  preserve  the  divine  at- 
 tributes sacred  and  inviolate :  and  this  may  happily  be 
 effected,  if  we  will  but  suppose,  that  our  hereditary  cor- 
 ruption is  occasioned,  not  by  the  infusion  of  any  positive 
 malignity  into  us,  but  by  the  subduction  of  supernatural 
 gifts  from  us;  that  the  covenant  of  grace  commenced 
 immediately  after  the  covenant  of  works  was  broken, 
 and  has  included  all  mankind  ever  since ;  that  the  blood 
 of  Christ  shields  his  children  from  the  wrath  of  God ; 
 and  that  the  imputation  of  Adam's  guilt,  and  obnoxious- 
 ness  to  punishment,  is  effectually  taken  away,  by  the 
 meritorious  oblation  of  that  '  Lamb  of  God  which  was 
 slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.' 
 
 SECT.    IV. 
 
 CHAP.   I. — Of  the  Murder  of  Abel,  and  the  Banish- 
 ment of  Cain. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 Our  first  parents,  we  may  suppose,  *  after  a  course  of 
 penance  and  humiliation  for  their  transgression,  obtained 
 
 a  According  to  Chrysostom  and  Theodoret,  infants  are  bap- 
 tized in  order  that  that  sacred  rite  may  be  to  them  an  ark  of 
 future  benefits — a  type  of  a  coming  resurrection — a  communication 
 of  our  Lord's  suffering,  and  that  being  born  again  from  on  high 
 and  sanctified,  they  may  be  brought  to  the  right  of  adoption,  and 
 become  co-heirs  of  grace  by  their  participation  in  these  sacred 
 mysteries. — JFhilby  on  Original  Sin. 
 
 b  The  oriental  writers  are  very  full  of  Adam's  sorrows  and 
 lamentations  upon  this  occasion.  They  have  recorded  the  seve- 
 ral forms  of  prayer  wherein  he  addressed  God  for  pardon  and 
 forgiveness ;  and  some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that 
 the  thirty-second  psalm,  wherein  we  meet  with  these  expres- 
 sions, '  I  acknowledge  my  sin  unto  thee,  and  mine  iniquity  have 
 I  not  hid;  I  said  I  will  confess  my  transgression  unto  the  Lord, 
 and  thou  forgavest  the  iniquity  of  my  sin,'  was  of  his  composing. 
 
 Our  excellent  Milton,  to  the  same  purpose,  introduces  Adam, 
 after  a  melancholy  soliloquy  with  himself,  and  some  hasty  alter- 
 cations with  Eve,  proposing  at  length  tlus  wholesome  advice  to 
 her: 
 
 What  hetter  can  we  do,  than  to  the  place 
 Repairing  where  he  jndg'd  us,  prostrate  fall 
 Before  him  reverent ;  and  there  confess 
 Humbly  our  faults,  and  pardon  beg;  with  tears 
 Wat'rinir  the  ground,  and  with  our  sighs  the  air 
 Frequenting,  sent  from  hearts  contrite,  in  sign 
 Of  sorrow  unfeign'd,  and  humiliation  meek? 
 Undoubtedly  he  will  relent,  and  turn 
 From  his  displeasure :  in  whose  looks  serene, 
 When  angry  most  he  seem'd,  and  most  severe, 
 What  else  but  favour,  grace,  and  mercy  shone  ? 
 
 the  pardon  and  forgiveness  of  God ;  and  yet  the  corrup- 
 tion, which  their  sin  introduced,  remained  upon  human 
 nature,  and  began  to  discover  itself  in  that  impious  fact 
 which  Cain  committed  on  his  brother  Abel.  Cain  was 
 the  first  child  that  was  ever  born  into  the  world ;  and  his 
 mother  Eve  was  so  fully  persuaded,  that  the  promised 
 seed  would  immediately  descend  from  her,  that  she  sup- 
 posed him  to  be  the  person  who  was  to  subdue  the  power 
 of  the  great  enemy  of  mankind ;  and  therefore  upon  her 
 delivery,  she  cried  out,  in  a  transport  of  joy,  e'  I  have 
 gotten  a  man  from  the  Lord,'  and  accordingly  gave  him 
 the  name  of  Cain,  which  signifies  possession  or  acquisi- 
 tion: never  suspecting,  that  as  soon  as  he  grew  up,  he 
 would  occasion  her  no  small  sorrow  and  disconsolation. 
 
 The  next  son  that  she  bore,  (which  was  the  year  fol- 
 lowing,) d  was  called  eAbel,  denoting  sorrow  and  mourn- 
 ing ;  but  very  probably  he  might  not  receive  that  name, 
 until  his  tragical  end,  which  caused  great  grief  to  his 
 parents,  verifying  the  meaning  of  it.  Other  children, 
 we  may  presume,  were  all  along  born  to  our  first 
 parents;  but  these  are  the  two,  who,  for  some  time, made 
 the  principal  figure ;  and  as  they  had  the  whole  world 
 before  them,  there  was  small  reason  (one  would  think) 
 for  those  feuds  and  contentions,  which,  in  after  ages, 
 embroiled  mankind.  But  the  misfortune  was,  they  were 
 persons  of  quite  different  tempers;  and  accordingly, 
 when  they  grew  up,  betook  themselves  to  different  em- 
 ployments ;  Cain,  who  was  of  a  surly,  sordid,  and  avari- 
 cious temper,  to  the  tilling  of  the  ground;  and  Abel, 
 who  was  more  gentle  and  ingenuous  in  his  disposition, 
 to  the  keeping  of  sheep. 
 
 It  was  a  customary  thing,  even  in  the  infancy  of  the 
 world,  to  make  acknowledgments  to  God,  by  way  of 
 oblation,  for  the  bountiful  supply  of  all  his  creatures ; 
 and  accordingly  /these  two  brothers  were  wont  to  bring 
 
 c  Ish  eth  Jehovah,  which  our  translation  makes  '  a  man  from 
 the  Lord,'  should  rather  be  rendered  '  the  man,  the  Lord,'  Hcl- 
 vicus  has  shown,  in  so  many  instances  in  Scripture,  that  eth  is 
 an  article  of  the  accusative  case,  that  it  seems  indeed  to  be  the 
 Hebrew  idiom ;  besides,  that  it  is  a  demonstrative,  or  emphatic 
 particle,  which  points  at  some  thing  or  person,  in  a  particular 
 manner ;  and  therefore  several,  both  Jewish  and  Christian  doc- 
 tors, have  taken  the  words  in  this  sense: — That  our  grand- 
 mother Eve,  when  delivered  of  Cain,  thought  she  had  brought 
 forth  the  Messias,  the  God-man,  who  was  to  '  bruise  the  serpent's 
 head,'  or  destroy  Satan's  power  and  dominion  according  to  the 
 promise  which  God  had  made  her. — Edward's  Survey  of  Reli- 
 gion, vol.  1. 
 
 d  On  this  point,  commentators  differ,  several  suppose  Abel  to 
 be  the  twin  brother  of  Cain. — Ed. 
 
 e  Others  derive  the  name  from  a  ward  which  signifies  vanity, 
 and  are  of  opinion,  that  Eve  intended  thereby,  either  to  declare 
 the  little  esteem  she  had  of  him,  in  comparison  of  her  first  bom; 
 or  to  show  the  vanity  of  her  hopes,  in  taking  Cain  for  the  Mes- 
 siah; or  to  denote,  that  all  tlu'ngs  in  the  world,  into  which  he 
 was  now  come,  were  mere  'vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit.' — 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  and  S/iurin's  Dissertatio?i. 
 
 fin  the  last  verse  of  this  chapter  we  read,  that  it  was  in  the 
 days  of  Enos,  when  '  men  first  began  to  call  on  the  name  of  the 
 Lord:'  and  yet,  in  the  third  and  fourth  verses  tin  reoff  we  find 
 that  Cain  and  Abel  brought  their  respective  offerings  to  tin- 
 place  (as  we  may  suppose)  of  divine  worship.  Now,  if  the  be- 
 ginning of  divine  worship  was  in  the  days  of  Enos,  what  worship 
 was  tlus  in  the  days  of  Cain  and  Abel?  To  have  two  begin- 
 nings for  the  same  worship,  is  a  thing  incongruous,  unless  we 
 can  suppose,  that  the  two  brothers,  when  they  earn  •  ith  their 
 oblations,  did  no!  worship  at  all;  neither  opening  their  lips  in 
 the  divine  benefactor's  praise,  nor  invocating  a  blessing  upon 
 what  his  bounty  had  sent  them,  which  is  higldy  inconsistent 
 
42 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  3876;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  200.  A.  C.  5211.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 offerings,  suitable  to  their  respective  callings :  Cain,  as 
 an  husbandman,  the  fruits  of  the  ground;  and  Abel,  as 
 a  shepherd,  the  firstlings,  or  (as  some  will  have  it)  the 
 a  milk  of  his  flock.  Upon  some  set  and  solemn  occa- 
 sion then  '(and  not  improbably  at  the  end  of  harvest,) 
 as  they  were  presenting  their  respective  offerings,  God, 
 who  estimates  the  sincerity  of  the  heart  more  than  the 
 value  of  the  oblation,  6gave  a  visible  token  of  his  ac- 
 ceptance of  Abel's  c  sacrifice,  preferable  to  that  of  Cain, 
 which  so  enraged,  and  transported  him  with  envy  against 
 his  brother,  that  he  could  not  help  showing  it  in  his 
 countenance. A 
 
 1  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs. 
 with  the  character  of  worshippers.  But  in  answer  to  this,  we 
 must  observe  that  the  worship  of  God  is  of  two  kinds,  public,  and 
 private ;  that  the  worship  wherein  these  brothers  were  concerned, 
 was  of  the  latter  sort;  for  Cain  is  mentioned  by  himself,  and 
 Abel  by  himself.  They  came  to  the  place  of  worship  severally ; 
 their  sacrifices  were  not  the  same:  neither  were  the  offerers  of 
 the  same  mind.  But  the  worship  which  was  instituted  in  the 
 time  of  Enos,  was  of  a  public  nature,  when  several  families, 
 under  their  respective  heads,  met  together  in  the  same  place, 
 and  joined  in  one  common  service,  whether  of  prayers,  praises, 
 or  sacrifices.  Though  the  phrase  of  '  men's  beginning  to  call 
 upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,'  may  possibly  bear  another  con- 
 struction, as  we  shall  show  when  we  come  to  examine  the  place 
 itself. — Street's  Dividing  of  the  Hoof. 
 
 a  It  is  a  pretty  common  opinion,  that  the  eating  of  flesh  was 
 not  permitted  before  the  flood ;  and  it  is  the  position  of  Grotius, 
 that  no  carnal  sacrifices  were  at  that  time,  offered ;  because  no- 
 thing, but  what  was  of  use  to  man,  was  to  be  consecrated  to 
 God.  The  scarcity  of  cattle  might  veiy  well  excuse  their  being 
 slain  in  the  worship  of  God  ;  and  therefore  since  the  same  word 
 in  Hebrew,  Hhalab,  or  Hheleb,  according  to  its  different  punc- 
 tuation, signifies  both  fat  and  milk,  and  accordingly  is  rendered 
 both  ways  by  the  Seventy,  many  learned  men  seem  rather  to 
 favour  the  latter,  as  finding  it  a  custom  among  the  ancient 
 Egyptians,  to  sacrifice  milk  to  their  deities,  as  a  token  and  ac- 
 knowledgment of  the  fecundity  of  their  cattle. — Le  Clerc's 
 Commentary,  and  Saurin's  Dissertation.  But  the  learned 
 Heidegger  is  of  an  opinion  quite  the  contrary. — See  Essay  15, 
 on  the  Food  of  the  Antediluvians. 
 
 b  The  Jews  are  generally  of  opinion,  that  this  visible  token  of 
 God's  accepting  Abel's  sacrifice,  was  a  fire,  or  lightning,  which 
 came  from  heaven,  and  consumed  it.  The  footsteps  of  this  we 
 meet  with  in  a  short  time  after,  Gen.  xv.  17.,  and  the  examples 
 of  it  were  many  in  future  ages,  namely,  when  Moses  offered  the 
 first  burnt-oflering  according  to  the  law,  Lev.  ix.  24.;  when 
 Gideon  oflered  upon  the  rock,  Jud.  vi.  21.;  when  David  stayed 
 the  plague,  1  Chron.  xxi.  2G.;  when  Solomon  consecrated  the 
 temple,  2  Chron.  vii.  1.;  and  when  Elijah  contended  with  the 
 Baalites,  1  Kings  xviii.  38,  &c.  And  accordingly,  we  find  the 
 Israelites,  (when  they  wish  all  prosperity  to  their  king,)  praying, 
 that  God  would  be  pleased  '  to  accept '  (in  the  Hebrew,  '  turn 
 into  ashes  ')  '  his  burnt  sacrifice,'  Ps.  xx.  3. — Patrick  and  Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Dr  Hales  is  of  opinion  that  these  sacrifices  were  not  offered 
 ill  Cain  and  Abel  were  each  about  100  years  old.  If  so,  they 
 ivere  offered,  according  to  his  computation,  about  the  year  of  the 
 world,  200  or  201 ;  and  5210  or  5211  before  Christ.— Ed. 
 
 d  Gen.  iv.  4.  '  Abel  brought  of  the  firstlings  of  his  flock.' 
 The  universality  of  sacrificial  rites  will  naturally  produce  an 
 inquiry  into  the  source,  from  wlu'ch  such  a  custom  so  inexplica- 
 ble upon  any  principles  of  mere  natural  reason  could  have  been 
 derived.  And  here  we  are  involuntarily  led  to  the  first  institu- 
 tion of  this  ordinance,  which  is  so  particularly  recorded  in  Scrip- 
 ture. When  it  pleased  God  to  reveal  his  gracious  purpose  of 
 redeeming  lost  mankind  by  the  blood  of  the  Messiah,  it  would 
 doubtless  be  highly  expedient  to  institute  some  visible  sign,  some 
 external  representation,  by  which  the  mysterious  sacrifice  of 
 Mount  Calvary  might  be  prophetically  exhibited  to  all  the  pos- 
 terity of  Adam.  With  this  view,  a  pure  and  immaculate  victim, 
 the  firstling  of  the  flock,  was  carefully  selected;  and  after  its 
 blood  had  been  shed,  was  solemnly  appointed  to  blaze  upon  the 
 altar  of  Jehovah.     When  the  first  typical  sacrifice  was  offered 
 
 God,  however,  in  great  kindness,  condescended  to 
 expostulate  the  matter  with  him,  telling  him,  2  "  That  his 
 respect  to  true  goodness  was  impartial,  wherever  he 
 found  it,  and  that  e  therefore  it  was  purely  his  own  fault, 
 that  his  offering  was  not  equally  accepted ,  that  piety 
 was  the  proper  disposition  for  a  sacrificer ;  and  that,  if 
 herein  he  would  emulate  his  brother,  the  same  tokens  of 
 divine  approbation  should  attend  his  oblations ;  *  that  it 
 was  folly  and  madness  in  him  to  harbour  any  revengeful 
 thoughts  against  his  brother;  because,  if  he  proceeded 
 to  put  them  in  execution,  /a  dreadful  punishment  would 
 
 2  Patrick's  Commentary.  *  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 up,  fire  miraculously  descended  from  heaven,  and  consumed  it; 
 and  when  this  primitive  ordinance  was  renewed  under  the  Leviti- 
 cal  priesthood,  two  circumstances  are  particularly  worthy  of  ob- 
 servation— that  the  victim  should  be  a  firstling — and  that  the 
 oblation  should  be  made  by  the  instrumentality  of  fire.  It  is 
 remarkable  that  both  these  primitive  customs  have  been  faithfully 
 preserved  in  the  heathen  world.  The  Canaanites  caused  their 
 first  born  to  pass  through  the  fire,  with  a  view  of  appeasing  the 
 anger  of  their  false  deities ;  and  one  of  the  kings  of  Moab  is  said 
 to  have  oflered  up  his  eldest  son  as  a  burnt-oflering,  when  in 
 danger  from  the  superior  prowess  of  the  Edomites,  2  Kings  iii. 
 27.  Nor  was  the  belief,  that  the  gods  were  rendered  propitious 
 by  this  particular  mode  of  sacrifice,  confined  to  the  nations  which 
 were  more  immediately  contiguous  to  the  territories  of  Israel. 
 We  learn  from  Homer,  that  a  whole  hecatomb  of  firstling  lambs 
 was  no  uncommon  offering  among  his  countrymen.  Iliad,  iv. 
 ver.  202.  And  the  ancient  Goths,  having  "  laid  it  down  as  a 
 principle,  that  the  effusion  of  the  blood  of  animals  appeased  the 
 anger  of  the  gods,  and  that  their  justice  turned  aside  upon  the 
 victims  those  strokes  which  were  destined  for  men,"  (Mallet's 
 North.  Antiq.  vol.  1.  chap.  7.)  soon  proceeded  to  greater  lengths, 
 and  adopted  the  horrid  practice  of  devoting  human  victims.  In 
 honour  of  the  mystical  number  three,  a  number  deemed  parti- 
 cularly dear  to  heaven,  every  ninth  month  witnessed  the  groans 
 and  dying  struggles  of  nine  unfortunate  victims.  The  fata) 
 blow  being  struck,  the  lifeless  bodies  were  consumed  in  the 
 sacred  fire,  which  was  kept  perpetually  burning;  while  the 
 blood,  in  singular  conformity  with  the  Levitical  ordinances,  was 
 sprinkled  partly  upon  the  surrounding  multitude,  partly  upon  the 
 trees  of  the  hallowed  grove,  and  partly  upon  the  images  of  their 
 idols.  (Mallet's  North.  Antiq.  vol.  1.  chap.  7.)  Even  the  remote 
 inhabitants  of  America  have  retained  similar  customs,  and  for 
 similar  reasons. 
 
 e  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  '  If  thou  doest  well,  shalt 
 thou  not  be  accepted?'  ver.  7.  which  some  render,  'shalt  thou 
 not  receive,'  namely,  a  reward?  others  'shalt  thou  not  be  par- 
 doned?' and  others  again,  'thou  shalt  be  elevated  to  dignity.' 
 But  if  we  consider,  what  God  says  to  Cain  in  the  two  foregoing 
 verses,  'that  his  countenance  was  fallen,'  we  cannot  but  per- 
 ceive, that  in  this  he  promises  him,  that  if  he  did  well,  he  should 
 have  his  face  '  lifted  up,'  and  that  he  should  have  no  more  rea- 
 son to  be  sad ;  for  so  the  Scripture  frequently  expresses  a  fearless 
 and  cheerful  state:  'If  iniquity  be  in  thine  hand,'  says  one  of 
 Job's  friends,  '  put  it  away  from  thee,  and  let  not  wickedness 
 dwell  in  thy  tabernacles;  for  then  thou  shalt  lift  up  thy  face 
 without  spot,'  Job  xi.  15. — Essay  for  a  New  Translation. 
 
 /The  words  in  our  translation  are,  '  Sin  lieth  at  thy  door:' 
 where,  by  '  sin,'  the  generality  of  interpreters  mean,  the  pun- 
 ishment of  sin,  which  is  hard  at  hand,  and  ready  to  overtake  the 
 wicked.  But  our  learned  Lightfoot  observes  that  God  does  not 
 here  present  himself  to  Cain,  in  order  to  threaten,  but  to  en- 
 courage him,  as  the  first  words  of  his  speech  to  him  do  import; 
 and  that  therefore  the  bare  description  of  '  lying  at  the  door,' 
 does  plainly  enough  insinuate,  that  the  text  does  not  speak 
 either  of  errors  or  punishment,  but  of  a  'sacrifice  for  sin,'  which 
 the  Scripture  often  calls  by  the  Hebrew  word  here,  and  which 
 was  commonly  placed  before  the  door  of  the  sanctuary,  as  may 
 be  seen  in  several  passages  of  Scripture.  So  that,  according  to 
 this  sense,  God  is  here  comforting  Cain,  even  though  he  did 
 amiss  in  maligning  his  brother,  and  referring  him  to  the  propi- 
 tiation of  Christ,  which,  even  then,  was  of  standing  force  for 
 the  remission  of  sin. — Essay  for  a  New  Translation.  But  this 
 sense  of  the  word  seems  a  little  too  far-fetched. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 43 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  387G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  201.  A.  C.  5210.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 immediately  overtake  him ;  and  that  least  of  all  he  had 
 reason  to  be  angry  with  him  whose  preference  was  oidy 
 a  token  of  his  superior  virtue,  and  not  intended  to  sup- 
 plant him  of  his  birthright,  which  *  should  always  be  in- 
 violate, and  his  brother  be  obliged  to  apay  him  the  re- 
 spect and  homage  that  was  due  to  his  primogeniture ; 
 which,  if  he  was  minded  to  preserve,  his  wisest  way 
 would  be  to  be  quiet,  and  not  proceed  one  step  farther 
 in  any  wicked  design." 
 
 This  was  a  kind  admonition  from  God ;  but  so  little 
 effect  had  it  upon  Cain,  that  instead  of  being  sensible  of 
 his  fault,  and  endeavouring  to  amend,  he  grew  more  and 
 more  incensed  against  his  brother  ;  insomuch  that  at  last 
 lie  took  a  resolution  to  kill  him ;  but  dissembled  his  de- 
 sign, until  he  should  find  a  proper  opportunity. 
 
 And,  to  this  purpose,  coming  to  his  brother  one  day, 
 and  pretending  great  kindness  to  him,  he  asked  him  very 
 friendly  to  take  a  walk  with  him  in  the  fields,  where, 
 having  got  him  alone,  l>  upon  some  pretence  or  other, 
 he  picked  a  quarrel  with  him,  and  so  fell  upon  him,  and 
 slew  him,  and  afterward  2 buried  him  in  the  ground;  to 
 prevent  all  discovery  :  but  it  was  not  long  before  he  was 
 called  to  an  account  for  this  horrid  fact.  God  appeared 
 to  him,  and  having  questioned  him  about  his  brother, 
 and  received  some  sullen  and  evasive  answers  from  him, 
 
 ,  '  Le  Clerks  Commentary.  2  Josephus's  Antiq.,  b.  1.  c.  3. 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are  '  unto  thee  shall  be  his  desire,' 
 Gen.  iii.  16.,  -which  (however  some  expositors  have  clouded 
 them)  will  appear  to  be  plain  and  easy  enough,  if  we  do  but  con- 
 sider, that  there  are  two  expressions,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  to 
 si  unify  the  readiness  of  one  person  to  serve  and  respect  another. 
 The  one  is  (aine  el  yad)  or  '  our  eyes  are  to  his  hand ;'  the  other 
 (teshukah  el)  or  'our  desire  is  to  him.'  The  former  expresses 
 our  outward  attendance,  and  the  latter  the  inward  temper  and 
 readiness  of  our  mind  to  pay  respect.  Of  the  former  we  have 
 an  instance  in  Ps.  exxiii.  'The  eyes  of  servants  are  to  the 
 hand  of  their  masters,  and  the  eyes  of  a  maiden  are  to  the  hand 
 of  her  mistress,'  that  is,  they  stand  ready  with  a  vigilant  ob- 
 servance to  execute  their  orders.  We  meet  the  other  expression 
 in  the  place  before  us,  and  it  imports  an  inward  temper  and 
 disposition  of  mind  to  pay  respect  and  honour.  '  His  desire  will 
 be  unto  thee,'  that  is,  he  will  be  heartily  devoted  (as  we  say  in 
 English)  to  honour  and  respect  you.  And  '  thou  shalt  (or  may- 
 est)  rule  over  him,'  that  is,  you  may  have  any  service  from  him 
 you  can  desire. — Shuck/ord's  Connexion,  vol.  1. 
 
 b  According  to  the  English  translation,  Moses  tells  us,  ver.  8. 
 that  '  Cain  talked  with  Abel  his  brother.'  The  words  strictly 
 signify,  '  Cain  said  unto  Abel  his  brother;'  after  which  there  is 
 a  blank  space  left  in  the  Hebrew  copies,  as  if  something  was 
 wanting.  The  Samaritan  Pentateuch  and  the  Septuag.  version 
 supply  this,  by  adding  the  words, — 'Let  us  go  into  the  fields;' 
 hut  the  Jerusalem  Targum,  and  that  of  Jonathan,  have  supplied 
 us  with  their  whole  conversation:  "As  they  went  along,  I 
 know,  says  Cain,  that  the  world  was  created  by  the  mercy  of 
 ■God,  but  it  is  not  governed  according  to  the  fruit  of  our  good 
 works,  and  there  is  respect  of  persons  in  judgment.  Why  was 
 thy  oblation  favourably  accepted,  when  mine  was  rejected  ? 
 Abel  answered  and  said  unto  Cain,  The  world  was  created  in 
 mercy,  and  is  governed  according  to  the  fruits  of  our  good 
 "oiks.  There  is  no  respect  of  persons  in  judgment;  for  my 
 oblation  was  more  favourably  received,  because  the  fruit  of  my 
 works  was  better,  and  more  precious,  than  thine.     Hereupon 
 
 Cain  in  a  fury  breaks  out,  There  is  no  judgment,  nor  judge, ' 
 
 any  other  world ;  neither  shall  good  men  receive  any  reward, 
 nor  wicked  men  be  punished.  To  which  Abel  replied,  There  is 
 a  judgment  and  a  judge,  and  another  world,  in  which  good  men 
 shall  receive  a  reward,  and  wicked  men  be  punished."  Upon 
 which  there  ensued  a  quarrel,  which  ended  in  Abol's  death.  So 
 that,  according  to  this  account,  Abel  suffered  tor  the  vindication 
 oi  the  truth,  and  was,  in  reality,  the  first  martyr. — Esthius  on 
 the  more  Difficult  Passages. 
 
 directly  charged  him  with  his  murder;  and  then  re- 
 presenting it,  in  its  proper  aggravations,  as  a  crime 
 unpardonable,  and  what  cried  aloud  to  Heaven  for  ven- 
 geance, he  proceeded  immediately  to  pass  sentence  upon 
 him. 
 
 Cain's  chief  3  design  and  ambition  was,  to  make  him- 
 self great  and  powerful,  in  favour  with  God,  and  in 
 credit  with  men,  without  any  one  to  stand  in  competition 
 with  him  ;  but  in  every  thing  he  intended,  he  found  him- 
 self disappointed,  for  attempting  to  accomplish  his  ends 
 in  so  wicked  a  manner.  Instead  of  growing  great  and 
 opulent,  the  ground  was  sentenced  '  not  to  yield  him  her 
 strength,'  that  is,  he  was  to  be  unprosperous  in  his  hus- 
 bandry and  tillage :  instead  of  enjoying  God's  favour 
 without  a  rival,  he  was  banished  from  his  presence,  and 
 for  ever  excluded  from  that  happy  converse  with  the 
 Deity,  which,  in  these  first  ages  of  the  world,  it  was 
 customary  for  good  men  to  enjoy  :  and  instead  of  being 
 a  man  of  renown  among  his  family,  he  became  '  a  fugi- 
 tive and  vagabond:'  was  banished  from  his  native  coun- 
 try, and  compelled  to  withdraw  into  some  distant  and 
 desolate  part  of  the  earth,  as  an  abominable  person,  not 
 worthy  to  live,  nor  fit  to  be  endured  in  any  civil  com- 
 munity. 
 
 The  same  principle,  which  leads  wicked  men  to  the 
 commission  of  crimes,  in  hopes  of  impunity,  throws  them 
 into  despair,  upon  the  denunciation  of  punishment. 
 This  sentence  of  Cain,  though  infinitely  short  of  the 
 heinousness  of  his  guilt,  made  him  believe,  c  that  he  was 
 to  undergo  much  greater  evils  than  it  really  imported; 
 and  that  not  only  the  miseries  of  banishment,  but  the 
 danger  likewise  of  being  slain  by  every  one  that  came 
 near  him,  was  ensuant  upon  it.  But,  to  satisfy  him  in 
 this  respect,  God  was  pleased  to  declare,  that  his  provi- 
 dence should  protect  him  from  all  outward  violence : 
 and,  to  remove  the  uneasy  apprehension  from  his  mind, 
 vouchsafed  to  give  him  a  sign  (very  4  probably  by  some 
 sensible  miracle)  that  no  creature  whatever  should  be 
 permitted  to  take  away  his  life;  but,  that  whoever 
 attempted  it  should  incur  a  very  severe  punishment ; 
 because  God  5  was  minded  to  prolong  his  days  in  this 
 wretched  estate,  as  a  monument  of  his  vengeance,  to 
 deter  future  ages  from  committing-  the  like  murder. 
 
 Thus,  by  the  force  of  the  divine  sentence,  Cain  left 
 his  parents  and  relations,  and  went  into  a  strange  coun- 
 try.    He  was  banished  from  that  sacred  place  where 
 
 3  Shuckford's  Introduction,  vol.  1.  4  Universal  History,  No.  2 
 b  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 c  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  '  My  punishment  is  greater 
 than  I  can  bear;'  but  as  the  Hebrew  word  (Avon)  signifies  '  ini- 
 quity,' rather  than  punishment,  and  the  verb  (Nosha)  signifies 
 '  to  be  forgiven,' as  well  as  to  'bear,'  it  seems  to  agree  better 
 with  the  context,  if  the  verse  be  rendered  either  positively, 
 '  My  iniquity  is  too  great  to  be  forgiven,'  or  (as  the  Hebrew  ex- 
 positors take  it)  by  way  of  interrogation,  '  Is  my  iniquity  too 
 great  to  be  forgiven?'  which  seems  to  be  the  better  of  the  two. 
 — Shuck  ford's  Contusion,  vol.  1.  A  learned  annotator  has  ob- 
 served that  as  there  are  seven  abominations  in  the  heart  ot  him 
 that  loveth  not  his  brother,  Prov.  xxvi.  "25.,  there  were  the  like 
 number  of  transgressiems  in  Cain's  whole  conduct;  tor,  1.  he 
 sacrificed  without,  faith;  2.  was  displeased  that  God  respected 
 him  not;  3.  hearkened  not  to  God's  admonition;  -1.  spake  dis- 
 semblingly  to  his  brother;  5.  killed  him  in  the  field;  G.  denied 
 that  he  knew  where  he  \va<;  and,  7.  neither  asked,  nor  hoped 
 for  mercy  from  God,  but  despaired  and  so  fell  into  the  condem- 
 nation of  the  devil. — Ainsvurth's  Annotations. 
 
44  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  38V6;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  201.  A.  C.  5210.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 God  vouchsafed  a  frequent  manifestations  of  his  glorious 
 presence ;  and  though  by  the  divine  decree  no  person 
 was  permitted  to  hurt  him,  yet,  being  conscious  of  his 
 own  guilt,  he  was  fearful  of  every  thing  he  saw  or 
 heard :  till  having  wandered  about  a  long  while  in  many 
 different  countries,  he  settled  at  length  with  his  wife  and 
 family  in  the  land  of  Nod;  where,  in  some  tract  of  time, 
 and  after  his  descendants  were  sufficiently  multiplied, 
 he  built  a  city,  that  they  might  live  together,  and  be 
 united,  the  better  to  defend  themselves  against  incur- 
 sions, and  *  to  secure  their  unjust  possessions ;  and  this 
 place  he  called  after  the  name  of  his  son  Enoch,  which, 
 in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  signifies  a  dedication. 
 
 This  Enoch  begat  Jarad;  Jarad  begat  Mehujael; 
 Mehujael  begat  Methusael;  and  Methusael  begat  La- 
 mech,  who  was  cthe  first  introducer  of  polygamy.  For 
 he  married  two  wives,  Adah  and  Zillah,  by  the  former 
 of  which  he  had  two  children;  Jabal,  ^who  made  great 
 
 a  Both  Lightfoot,  Heidegger,  and  Le  Clerc,  seem  to  be  of 
 opinion,  that  what  we  render  the  '  presence  of  the  Lord,'  was 
 the  proper  name  of  that  particular  place  where  Adam,  after  his 
 expulsion  from  paradise,  dwelt;  and  accordingly  we  find  that 
 part  of  the  country  which  lies  contiguous  to  the  supposed  situa- 
 tion of  paradise,  called  by  Strabo  (b.  16.  prosopora.)  However 
 this  be,  it  is  agreed  by  all  interpreters,  that  there  was  '  a  divine 
 glory,'  called  by  the  Jews  Schechinah,  which  appeared  from  the 
 beginning,  (as  we  said  before,  page  15,  in  the  notes)  and  from 
 which  Cain  being  now  banished,  never  enjoyed  the  sight  of  it 
 again.  If,  after  this,  Cain  turned  a  downright  idolater,  (as  many 
 think,)  it  is  very  probable  that  he  introduced  the  worship  of  the 
 sun  (which  was  the  most  ancient  idolatry)  as  the  best  resem- 
 blance he  could  find  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  which  was  wont  to 
 appear  in  a  flaming  light. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  words  of  Josephus  are  these.  "  So  far  was  Cain  from 
 mending  his  life  after  his  afflictions,  that  he  rather  grew  worse 
 and  worse,  abandoning  himself  to  his  lusts,  and  all  manner  of 
 outrage,  without  any  regard  to  common  justice.  He  enriched 
 himself  by  rapine  and  violence,  and  made  choice  of  the  most 
 profligate  of  monsters  for  his  companions,  instructing  them  in 
 the  very  mystery  of  their  own  profession.  He  corrupted  the 
 simplicity  and  plain  dealing  of  former  times,  with  a  novel  in- 
 vention of  weights  and  measures,  and  exchanged  the  innocency 
 of  that  primitive  generosity  and  candour  for  the  new  tricks  of 
 policy  and  craft.  He  was  the  first  who  invaded  the  common 
 rights  of  mankind  by  bounds  and  enclosures,  and  the  first  who 
 built  a  city,  fortified,  and  peopled  it.". — Antiq.  b.  1.  c.  3.;  and 
 Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Le  Clerc,  supposing  that  the  increase  of  females  at  the  be- 
 ginning of  the  world  was  much  greater  than  that  of  males,  is  of 
 opinion  that  there  might  possibly  want  a  man  to  espouse  one  of 
 the  women  which  Lamech  married;  nor  can  he  think  that 
 Moses  intended  to  blame  him  for  what  was  the  constant  practice 
 of  some  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  postdiluvian  patriarchs. 
 Bishop  Patrick  likewise  makes  this  apology  for  him.  "  His 
 earnest  desire  of  seeing  that  blessed  seed,"  says  he,  "which  was 
 promised  to  Eve,  might  perhaps  induce  him  to  take  more  wives 
 than  one,  hoping,  that  by  multiplying  his  posterity,  some  or  other 
 of  them  might  prove  so  happy  as  to  produce  that  seed.  And 
 this  he  might  possibly  persuade  himself  to  be  more  likely,  be- 
 cause the  right  which  was  in  Cain,  the  first-born,  he  might  now 
 conclude,  was  revived  in  himself;  and  that  the  curse  laid  upon 
 Cain  was  by  this  time  expired,  and  his  posterity  restored  to  the 
 right  of  fulfilling  the  promise."  Both  Selden  and  Grotius  plead 
 for  the  lawfulness  of  polygamy  before  the  Levitical  dispensation ; 
 but  the  learned  Heidegger  (who  has  a  whole  dissertation  upon  the 
 subject)  has  sufficiently  answered  them,  and  proved  at  large,  that 
 this  custom  of  multiplying  wives  is  contrary  both  to  the  law  of  God 
 and  the  law  of  nature. — History  of  the  Patriarchs,  Essay  7th. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are, — '  He  was  the  father  of  such  as 
 dwell  in  tents;'  for  the  Hebrews  call  him  the  father  of  any  tiling 
 who  was  the  first  inventor  of  it,  or  a  most  excellent  master  of 
 that  art:  and  from  the  affinity  of  their  names,  as  well  as  the 
 similitude  of  their  inventions,  learned  men  have  supposed,  that 
 
 improvements  in  the  management  of  cattle,  and  found 
 out  the  use  of  tents,  1or  movable  houses,  to  be  carried 
 about  to  places  of  fresh  pasturage ;  and  Jubal,  who  was 
 the  first  inventor  of  all  musical  instruments,  and  himself 
 a  great  master  and  performer.  By  the  latter  he  had 
 Tubal-Cain,  the  first  who  discovered  2the  art  of  forging 
 and  polishing  metals,  and  thereupon  devised  the  making 
 all  sorts  of  armour,  both  defensive  and  offensive ;  and 
 whose  sister  Naamah  (a  name  denoting  fair  and  beauti- 
 ful,) is  supposed  to  have  first  found  out  the  art  of  spin- 
 ning and  weaving. 
 
 3  This  is  the  register  of  Cain's  posterity  for  seven 
 generations :  and  Moses,  perhaps,  might  the  rather 
 enumerate  them,  to  show  who  were  the  reaj  authors  and 
 inventors  of  certain  arts  and  handicrafts,  4  which  the 
 Egyptians  too  vainly  assumed  to  themselves  :  but  then 
 he  barely  enumerates  them,  without  ever  remarking  how 
 long  any  of  them  lived,  (a  practice  contrary  to  what  he 
 observes  in  the  genealogy  of  the  Sethites,)  as  if  he 
 esteemed  them  a  generation  so  reprobate  as  5  not  to  de- 
 serve a  place  in  the  book  of  the  living. 
 
 The  murder  of  Abel  had,  for  a  long  time,  occasioned 
 a  great  animosity  between  the  family  of  Seth  and  the 
 descendants  of  Cain,  who,  though  at  some  distance,  lived 
 in  perpetual  apprehensions  that  the  other  family  might 
 come  upon  them  unawares,  and  revenge  Abel's  untimely 
 death  :  but  Lamech,  when  he  came  to  be  head  of  a  peo- 
 ple, endeavoured  to  reason  them  out  of  this  fear.  For 
 6  calling  his  family  together,  e  he  argued  with  them  to 
 
 '  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 2  Heidegger'' s  History  of  the  Patriarchs, 
 
 3  HoiveWs  History  of  the  Bible.  *  Le  Clerc  s  Commentary. 
 
 5  Patrick 's  Commentary.  6  Shuchford's  Connection ,  vol.  1. 
 
 Jabal  was  the  Pales ;  and  Jubal  the  Apollo ;  Tubal-Cain  (which 
 in  the  Arabic  tongue,  still  signifies  a  '  plate  of  iron'  or  '  brass') 
 the  Vulcan,  and  his  sister  Naamah  the  Venus,  or  (as  some  will 
 have  it)  the  Minerva  of  the  Gentiles. — Heidegger's  History  of 
 the  Patriarchs;  and  Stillingfieet 's  Origins,  b.  3.  c.  5. 
 
 e  Tins  speech  of  Lamech,  as  it  stands  unconnected  with  any 
 thing  before  it,  is  supposed  by  many  to  be  a  fragment  of  some 
 old  record  which  Moses  was  willing  to  preserve ;  and,  because 
 it  seems  to  fall  into  a  kind  of  metre,  some  have  thought  it  a 
 short  sketch  of  Lamech's  poetry,  which  he  was  desirous  to  add 
 to  his  son's  invention  of  music,  and  other  aits.  Many  suppose, 
 that  Lamech,  being  plagued  with  the  daily  contentions  of  his 
 two  wives,  here  blusters  and  boasts  of  what  he  had  done  and 
 what  he  would  do,  if  they  gave  him  any  farther  molestation. 
 Others  imagine,  that  as  the  use  of  weapons  was  found  out  by 
 one  of  his  sons,  and  now  become  common,  his  wives  were  fear- 
 ful, lest  somebody  or  other  might  make  use  of  them  to  slay  him; 
 but  that,  in  this  regard,  he  desires  them  to  be  easy,  because,  as 
 he  was  not  guilty  of  slaying  any  body  himself,  there  was  no  rea- 
 son to  fear  any  body  would  hurt  him.  The  Targum  of  Onkelos, 
 which  reads  the  words  interrogatively,  favours  this  interpretation 
 much?  '  Have  I  slain  a  man  to  my  wounding  or  a  young  man 
 to  my  hurt?'  that  is,  I  have  done  no  violence  or  ofTence  to  any 
 one,  either  great  or  small,  and  have  therefore  no  cause  to  be 
 apprehensive  of  any  to  myself.  But  the  Rabbins  tell  us  a  tra- 
 ditional story,  which,  if  true,  would  explain  the  passage  at  once. 
 The  tradition  is, — '  That  Lamech,  when  he  was  blind,  took  his 
 son  Tubal-Cain  to  hunt  with  him  in  the  woods,  where  they 
 happened  on  Cain,  who  being  afraid  of  the  society  and  converse 
 of  men,  was  wont  to  lie  lurking  up  and  down  in  the  woods ;  that 
 the  lad  mistook  him  for  some  beast  stirring  in  the  bushes,  and 
 directed  his  father,  how,  with  a  dart,  or  an  arrow,  he  might  kill 
 him ;  and  this  (they  say)  was  the  man  whom  he  killed  by  his 
 wounding  him ;  and  that  afterwards,  when  he  came  to  perceive 
 what  he  had  done,  he  beat  Tubal-Cain  to  death  for  misinforming 
 him:  and  this  was  the  young  man  whom  he  killed  by  hurting 
 or  beating  him.'     But  besides  the  incongruity  of  a  blind  man's 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 45 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  3876;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  201.  A.  C.  5210.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 this  purpose.  "  Why  should  we  make  our  lives  uneasy 
 with  these  groundless  suspicions  ?  What  have  we  done, 
 that  we  should  be  afraid  ?  We  have  not  killed  any  man, 
 nor  offered  any  violence  to  our  brethren  of  the  other  fa- 
 mily ;  and  surely  reason  must  teach  them,  that  they  can 
 have  no  right  to  hurt  or  invade  us.  Cain  indeed,  our 
 ancestor,  killed  Abel ;  but  God  was  pleased  so  far  to 
 forgive  his  sin,  as  to  threaten  to  take  the  severest  ven- 
 geance on  any  one  that  should  kill  him  ;  and  if  so,  surely 
 they  must  expect  a  much  greater  punishment,  who  shall 
 presume  to  kill  any  of  us.  For  <  if  Cain  shall  be 
 avenged  seven-fold,  surely  Lamech,'  or  any  of  his  inno- 
 cent family,  'seventy-seven -fold."'  And  it  is  not  im- 
 probable, that  by  frequent  discourses  of  this  kind,  as 
 well  as  by  his  own  example,  he  overcame  the  fears  and 
 shyness  of  the  people,  and  (as  we  shall  find  hereafter) 
 encouraged  them  to  commence  an  acquaintance  with 
 their  brethren,  the  children  of  Seth.  This  is  the  sum  of 
 what  the  Scripture  teaches  us  of  the  deeds  of  Cain,  and 
 his  wicked  offspring,  who  were  all  swept  away  in  the 
 general  deluge. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 Though  it  cannot  be  denied  but  that  Moses  might 
 principally  design  to  give  us  a  history  of  the  Jewish 
 nation ;  yet,  in  the  beginning  of  his  account,  and  till 
 they  came  to  be  distinguished  from  other  nations  in  the 
 patriarch  Abraham,  he  could  not  have  that  under  his 
 peculiar  consideration.  He  acquaints  us,  we  find,  with 
 the  origination  of  the  first  of  other  animals,  whence  they 
 arose,  and  in  what  manner  they  were  perfected ;  and 
 when  he  came  to  treat  of  the  formation  of  human  crea- 
 tures, it  is  but  reasonable  to  imagine,  that  he  intended 
 likewise  to  be  understood  of  the  first  of  their  kind. 
 Now,  that  Adam  and  Eve  were  the  first  of  their  kind, 
 the  words  of  our  Saviour,  x '  from  the  beginning  of  the 
 creation  God  made  them  male  and  female,'  are  a  full 
 confirmation ;  because  he  produces  the  very  same  pre- 
 cept that  was  applied  to  Adam  and  Eve  at  their  crea- 
 tion, '  therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his 
 mother,  and  cleave  to  his  wife  :'  and  that  there  could  be 
 none  before  them,  the  reason  why  2 '  Adam  called  his 
 wife's  name  Eve,  because  she  was  the  mother  of  all  liv- 
 ing,' i.  e.  the  person  who  was  to  be  the  root  and  source 
 of  all  mankind  that  were  to  be  upon  earth,  is  a  plain 
 demonstration  :  for  if  she  was  the  mother  of  all  living, 
 there  certainly  was  no  race  of  men  or  women  before  her. 
 
 Mark  x.  6. 
 
 Gen.  III.  20. 
 
 going  a  hunting,  this  story  is  directly  contrary  to  the  promise  of 
 God,  which  assured  Cain,  that  no  person  should  kill  him,  and 
 seems  indeed  to  be  devised  for  no  other  purpose,  but  merely  to 
 solve  the  difficulty  of  the  passage.  Among  the  many  interpre- 
 tations which  have  been  made  of  it,  that  which  I  have  offered 
 seems  to  be  the  most  natural  and  easy,  and  is  not  a  little  coun- 
 tenanced by  the  authority  or  Josephus.  "  As  for  Lamech,"  says 
 he,  "  who  saw  as  far  as  any  man  into  the  course  and  methods  of 
 divine  justice,  he  could  not  but  find  himself  concerned  in  the 
 prospect  of  that  dreadful  judgment  which  threatened  his  whole 
 family,  for  the  murder  of  Abel,  and,  under  this  apprehension,  he 
 breaks  the  matter  to  his  two  wives." — Antiquities,  b.  1.  c.  3. 
 
 St  Paul,  while  he  was  at  Athens,  endeavoured  to  con- 
 vince the  people  of  the  vanity  of  that  idolatry  into  which 
 he  perceived   them  fallen,  by   this    argument,    among 
 others, — that  3 '  God  had  made  of  one  blood  all  nations 
 of  men,  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth.'   4  Some 
 Greek  copies  read  it  i'i  ivog,  '  of  one  man,'  leaving  out 
 clipccro;,  wherein  they  are  followed  by  the  vulgar  Latin  : 
 but  allowing  the  common  reading  to  be  just,  yet  still  the 
 word  xifcx,  or   blood,  must  be   taken  in  the  a  sense 
 wherein  it  occurs  in  the  best  Greek  authors,  namely,  for 
 the  stock  or  root  out  of  which  mankind  came  ;  and  so 
 the  apostle's  reasoning  will  be—"  That  however  men 
 are  now  dispersed  in  their  habitations,  and  differ  much 
 in  language  and  customs  from  each  other,  yet  they  all 
 were  originally  the  same  stock,  and  derived  their  suc- 
 cession from  the  first  man  that  God  created."     Neither 
 can  it  be  conceived,  on  what  account  s  Adam  is  called 
 in  Scripture  '  the  first  man,'  and  that  '  he  was  made  a 
 living  soul  of  the  earth,  earthly,'  unless  it  were  to  de- 
 note, that  he  was  absolutely  the  first  of  his  kind,  and  so 
 was  to  be  the  standard  and  measure  of  all  that  followed. 
 The  design  of  Moses  is  not  to  give  us  a  particular 
 account  of  the  whole  race  of  mankind  descended  from 
 Adam,  6  but  only  of  those  persons  who  were  most  re- 
 markable, and  whose  story  was  necessary  to  be  known, 
 for  the  understanding  of  the  succession  down  to  his  time. 
 Besides  those  that  are  particularly  mentioned  in  Scrip- 
 ture, we  are  told  in  general,  that  '  Adam  7  begat  sons 
 and  daughters ;  and  if  we  will  give  credit  to  an  ancient 
 eastern  tradition,  he  had  in  all  thirty-three  sons,  and 
 twenty-seven  daughters,  which,  considering  the  primi- 
 tive fecundity,  would  in  a  short  time  be  sufficient  to 
 stock  that  part  of  the  world  at  least  where  Adam  dwelt, 
 and  produce  a  race  of  mechanics  able  enough  to  supply 
 others  with  such  instruments  of  husbandry  as  might  then 
 be  requisite  for  the  cultivation  of  the  ground.     b  For  in 
 the  infancy  of  the  world,  the  art  of  tillage  was  not  come 
 to  such  a  perfection  but  that  Cain  might  make  use  of 
 wooden  ploughs  and  spades,  and  instead  of  knives  and 
 hatchets,  form  his  tools  with  sharp  flints  or  shells,  which 
 were  certainly  the  first  instruments   of  cutting.     And 
 though  in  those  early  days  there  was  no  great  danger  of 
 Abel's  losing  his  cattle  by  theft;  yet,  to  provide  them 
 with  cool  shades  in  hot  climates,  to  remove  them  irom 
 place  to  place  as  their  pasture  decayed,  to  take  care  of 
 their  young,  and   guard  them  from  the   incursions  of 
 beasts  of  prey,  (with  many  more  incidental  offices,)  was 
 then  the  shepherd's  province,  as  well  as  now. 
 
 According  to  the  computation  of  most  chronologers, 
 it  was  in  the  hundred  and  twenty-ninth  year  of  Adam's 
 age,  that  Abel  was  slain ;  for  the  Scripture  says  ex- 
 pressly, that  Seth,  9  (who  was  given  in  the  lieu  of  Abel) 
 was  *  born  in  the  hundred  and  thirtieth  year,  (very  likely 
 the  year  after  the  murder  was  committed,)  to  be  a  coui- 
 
 s  Acts  xvii.  26.  4  Stillingfleet's  Sacred  Origins,  b.  .'i.  C.  t 
 
 5  1  Cor.  xv.  45.  6  Patrick's  Commentary.        '  Gen.  v.  4. 
 
 8  NicholU'l  Conference,  vol.  1.         *  Gen.  v.  3. 
 
 a  Homer  employs  it  in  this  acceptation : — 
 
 '  Since  mine  thou  art  indeed,  and  of  my  blood.' 
 Thence  those  that  are  near  relations  are  called  by  Sophocles,  '  of 
 the  same  blood,'  and  accordingly  Virgil  uses  sanguis,  or  blood,  in 
 the  same  sense ;  '  sprung  from  Trojan  blood.'— Stillingflcit  $  ti- 
 ered Origins,  b.  3.  c.  4. 
 
46 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  3876;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  203.  A.  C.  5211.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 fort  to  Lis  disconsolate  parents.  So  that  Cain  must  have 
 been  an  hundred  and  twenty -nine  years  old  when  lie  abdi- 
 cated his  own  country  ;  at  which  time  there  might  be  a 
 sufficient  quantity  of  mankind  upon  the  face  of  the  earth, 
 to  the  number,  it  may  be,  of  an  hundred  thousand  souls. 
 For  if  the  children  of  Israel,  from  seventy  persons,  in 
 the  space  of  a  hundred  and  ten  years,  became  six  hun- 
 dred thousand  fighting  men,  (though  great  numbers  of 
 them  were  dead  during4  this  increase,)  we  may  very  well 
 suppose,  that  the  children  of  Adam,  whose  lives  were  so 
 very  long-,  might  amount  at  least  to  a  hundred  thousand 
 in  a  hundred  and  thirty  years,  which  are  almost  five 
 generations. 
 
 Upon  this  supposition,  it  will  be  no  hard  matter  to 
 find  Cain  a  wife  in  another  country ;  a  though  it  is  much 
 more  probable  that  he  was  married  before  his  banish- 
 ment, because  we  may  well  think  that  all  the  world 
 would  abhor  the  thoughts  of  marriage  with  such  an  impi- 
 ous vagabond  and  murderer.  Upon  this  supposition  we 
 may  likewise  find  him  men  enough  to  build  and  inhabit  a 
 city ;  especially  l  considering  that  the  word  Hir,  which 
 we  render  city,  may  denote  no  more  than  a  certain  num- 
 ber of  cottages,  with  some  little  hedge  or  ditch  about 
 them :  and  this  cluster  of  cottages  (as  was  afterwards 
 customary)  he  might  call  by  his  son's  name  rather  than 
 his  own,  which  he  was  conscious  was  now  become  odious 
 every  where.  Upon  this  supposition,  lastly,  we  may 
 account  for  Cain's  fear,  lest  every  one  that  lighted  on 
 him  would  kill  him ;  for  by  this  time  mankind  was 
 greatly  multiplied,  and  2  though  no  mention  is  made  of 
 Abel's  marriage,  (as,  in  so  short  a  compendium,  many 
 things  must  necessarily  be  omitted,)  yet  he  perhaps 
 might  have  sons  who  were  ready  to  pursue  the  fugitive, 
 in  order  to  revenge  their  father's  death  ;  or  some  of  his 
 own  sisters,  enraged  against  him  for  the  loss  of  their 
 brother,  might  possibly  come  upon  him  unawares,  or 
 when  they  found  him  asleep,  and  so  dispatch  him. 
 
 Various  are  the  conjectures  of  learned  men  *  concern- 
 
 1  Le  Clcrc's  Commentary.  2  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  There  is  an  original  tradition,  that  Eve,  at  her  two  first 
 births,  brought  twins,  a  son  and  a  daughter ;  Cain,  with  his  sis- 
 ter Azron,  and  Abel,  with  his  snter  Awin :  that  when  they  came 
 to  years  of  maturity,  Adam  proposed  to  Eve,  that  Cain  should 
 many  Abel's  twin-sister,  and  Abel  Cain's,  because  that  was 
 some  small  remove  from  the  nearest  degree  of  consanguinity, 
 which  even  in  those  days,  was  not  esteemed  entirely  lawful ;  that 
 Cain  refused  to  agree  to  this,  insisting  to  have  his  own  sister, 
 who  was  the  handsomer  of  the  two ;  whereupon  Adam  ordered 
 them  both  to  make  their  offerings,  before  they  took  their  wives, 
 and  so  referred  the  dispute  to  the  determination  of  God  ;  that 
 while  they  went  up  to  the  mountain  for  that  purpose,  the  devil 
 put  it  into  Cain's  head  to  murder  his  brother,  for  Which  wicked 
 intent  his  sacrifice  was  not  accepted:  and  that  they  were  no 
 sooner  come  down  from  the  mountain,  than  he  fell  upon  Abel, 
 and  killed  him  with  a  stone. — Patrick's  Commentary;  and  Uni- 
 versal History,  No.  2. 
 
 b  Almost  all  the  versions  have  committed  a  mistake  in  trans- 
 lating ver.  15,  that  '  God  had  put  a  mark  upon  Cain,  lest  any 
 finding  him  should  kill  him.'  The  original  says  no  such  thing, 
 and  the  LXX  have  veiy  well  rendered  it  thus:  '  God  set  a  sign 
 before  Cain,  to  persuade  him,  that  whoever  should  find  him  should 
 not  kill  him.'  This  is  almost  the  same  with  what  is  said  in  Ex. 
 x.  1.,  that  'God  did  signs  before  the  Egyptians;'  and  Isa.  lxvi. 
 19.,  that  'he  would  set  a  sign  before  the  heathen;'  where  it  is 
 evident,  that  God  did  not  mean  any  particular  mark  which 
 should  be  set  on  their  bodies,  but  only  those  signs  and  wonders 
 which  he  wrought  in  Egypt,  to  oblige  Pharaoh  to  let  his  people 
 go;  and  the  miraculous  manner  wherein  he  delivered  them  from 
 
 ing  the  mark  which  God  set  upon  Cain,  to  prevent  his 
 being  killed.  Some  think  that  God  stigmatized  him  on 
 his  forehead  with  a  letter  of  his  own  name,  or  rather  set 
 such  a  brand  upon  him,  as  signified  him  to  be  accursed. 
 Others  fancy  that  God  made  him  a  peculiar  garment,  to 
 distinguish  him  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  who  were 
 clothed  with  skins.  Some  imagine,  that  his  head  con- 
 tinually shaked ;  others,  that  his  face  was  blasted  with 
 lightning ;  others,  that  his  body  trembled  all  over  :  and 
 others  again,  that  the  ground  shook  under  him,  and 
 made  every  one  fly  from  him :  whereas  the  plain  sense 
 of  the  words  is  nothing  more,  than  that  God  gave  Cain 
 a  sign,  or  MTOiight  a  miracle  before  his  face,  thereby  to 
 convince  him,  that  though  he  was  banished  jnt'o  a  strange 
 land,  yet  no  one  should  be  permitted  to  hurt  him  ;  and 
 to  find  out  the  land  into  which  he  was  banished,  is  not 
 so  hard  a  matter  as  some  may  imagine. 
 
 The  description  which  Moses  gives  us  of  it  is  this  : — 
 3 '  And  Cain  went  out  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and 
 dwelt  in  the  land  of  Nod,  on  the  east  side  of  Eden  ;  and 
 there  he  built  a  city,  and  called  the  name  of  it  after  the 
 name  of  his  son  Enoch.'  Hereupon  4  tiie  learned  Huetius 
 observes,  that  Ptolemy,  in  his  description  of  Susiana, 
 places  there  a  city  called  Anuchtha ;  and  that  the  sylla- 
 ble tJia,  which  ends  the  word,  is,  in  the  Chaldee  lan- 
 guage, a  termination  pretty  common  to  nouns  feminine, 
 and  consequently  no  part  of  the  name  itself;  from 
 whence  he  infers,  that  this  Anuchtha,  mentioned  by 
 Ptolemy,  is  the  same  with  the  city  Enoch  mentioned  by 
 Moses;  especially  since  Ptolemy  places  it  on  the  east 
 side  of  Eden,  which  agrees  very  well  with  what  Moses 
 says  of  the  land  of  Nod.  5  But  though  it  be  allowed, 
 that  Anuchtha  and  Enoch  be  the  same  name,  yet  it  will 
 not  therefore  follow,  that  there  was  no  other  city  so 
 called  but  that  which  was  built  by  Cain.  It  is  certain, 
 that  there  was  another  Enoch,  the  son  of  .Tared,  and  fa- 
 ther of  Methuselah,  a  person  of  remarkable  piety,  in  the 
 antediluvian  age  ;  and  why  might  not  the  city,  mentioned 
 by  Ptolemy,  be  called  after  him,  in  respect  to  his  illus- 
 trious character,  and  miraculous  exemption  from  death  ? 
 or  rather,  why  might  it  not  take  its  name  from  some 
 other  Enoch,  different  from  both  the  former,  and  living 
 some  generations  after  the  flood  ?  For  it  is  scarce  ima- 
 ginable, how  the  city  of  Enoch,  built  before  the  flood, 
 should  either  stand  or  retain  its  ancient  name,  after  so 
 violent  a  concussion,  and  total  alteration  of  the  face  of 
 nature. 
 
 Nor  should  it  be  forgot,  that  the  province  of  Susiana, 
 Avhere  Huetius  places  the  land  of  Nod,  is  one  of  the  most 
 fruitful  and  pleasant  countries  in  the  world ;  whereas, 
 considering  that  Cain's  banishment  was  intended  by  God 
 to  be  part  of  his  punishment,  it  seems  more  reasonable 
 to  think,  that  he  should,  upon  this  account,  be  sent  into 
 some  barren  and  desolate  country,  remote  from  the  place 
 of  his  nativity,  and  separated  by  mountains,  and  other 
 
 3  Gen.  iv.  16,  17.  '  On  the  Site  of  Paradise. 
 
 s  TFell's  Geography. 
 
 the  Babylonish  captivity.  This  exposition  is  natural,  and  agree- 
 able to  the  methods  of  divine  providence, which  is  wont  to  convince 
 the  incredulous  by  signs  and  wonders;  nor  could  any  thing  else 
 assure  Cain,  in  the  fear  he  was  under,  that  the  first  who  met 
 him  should  not  kill  him,  after  what  God  had  said  to  him  in  the 
 exprobation  of  Ids  crime, — Patrick's  Commentary,  ai-d  Sawin't 
 Dissertation. 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 47 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  3S7G,  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  200.  A.  C.  5211.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  ?:>. 
 
 natural  obstructions,  from  the  commerce  of  his  relations. 
 For  which  reason  the  learned  Grotius  is  clearly  of 
 opinion,  that  the  country  into  which  Cain  was  sentenced 
 to  withdraw,  was  Arabia  Deserta  :  to  the  barrenness  of 
 which,  the  curse  that  God  pronounces  against  him,  seems 
 not  improperly  to  belong.  x '  And  now  thou  art  cursed 
 from  the  earth,  and  when  thou  tiilest  the  ground,  it  shall 
 not,  henceforth,  yield  unto  thee  her  strength.'  But  after 
 all,  their  opinion  is  not  to  be  found  fault  with,  who  sup- 
 pose, that  the  word  Nod,  which  signifies  an  exile,  or  fu- 
 gitive, is  not  a  proper,  but  only  an  appellative  name ; 
 and  that  therefore,  wherever  the  country  was  where  Cain 
 took  up  his  abode,  that,  in  after  ages,  was  called  the 
 land  of  Nod,  or  the  land  of  the  banished  man. 
 
 Thus  the  account,  which  Moses  gives  us  of  the  mur- 
 der of  Abel,  stands  clear  of  the  imputation  of  all  absur- 
 dity or  contradiction,  wherewith  the  lovers  of  infidelity 
 would  gladly  charge  it.  The  time  when  his  brother 
 murdered  him,  was  in  the  1 29th  year  of  the  world's  cre- 
 ation, when,  a  according  to  a  moderate  computation, 
 their  and  their  parent's  descendants  could  not  but  be 
 very  numerous.  The  manner  in  which  he  murdered  him 
 might  not  be  with  a  sword  or  spear  (which  perhaps  then 
 were  not  in  use,)  b  since  a  club,  or  stone,  or  any  rural 
 instrument,  in  the  hand  of  rage  and  revenge,  was  suffi- 
 cient to  do  the  work.  The  place  where  he  murdered 
 him,  is  said  to  be  in  the  field,  2  not  in  contradistinction 
 to  any  large  and  populous  city  then  in  being,  but  rather 
 to  the  tents,  or  cottages,  where  their  parents  and  off- 
 spring might  then  live.  The  cause  of  his  murdering 
 him,  was  3a  spirit  of  emulation,  which,  not  duly  man- 
 aged, and  made  a  spur  to  virtue,  took  an  unhappy  turn, 
 and  degenerated  into  malice  :  and  the  true  reason  of 
 all  (as  the  apostle  has  stated  it)  was,  that  *'  Cain  was  of 
 that  wicked  one,  and  slew  his  brother,  because  his  own 
 works  were  wicked,  and  his  brother's  righteous.' 
 
 '  Gen.  iv.  11.  *  Lc  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 3  Shuckford"  s  Connection.     *  1  John  iii.  12. 
 
 a  Though  we  should  suppose  that  Adam  and  Eve  had  no  other 
 children  than  Cain  and  Abel  in  the  year  of  the  world  128,  which 
 (as  the  best  chronologers  agree)  was  the  time  of  Abel's  murder; 
 yet,  as  it  must  be  allowed,  that  they  had  daughters  married  with 
 these  two  sons,  we  require  no  more,  than  the  descendants  of  these 
 two  children,  to  make  a  considerable  number  of  men  upon  the 
 earth  in  the  said  year  128.  For,  supposing  them  to  have  been 
 married  in  the  19th  year  of  the  world,  they  might  easily  have 
 had  each  of  them  eight  children,  some  males,  some  females,  in 
 the  25th  year.  In  the  50th  year  there  might  proceed  from  them, 
 iu  a  direct  line,  64  persons;  in  the  74th  year,  there  would  be 
 572;  in  the  98th,  4096;  and  in  the  122d  year,  they  would 
 amount  to  32,768.  If  to  these  we  add  the  other  children,  de- 
 scended from  Cain  and  Abel,  their  children,  and  the  children  of 
 their  children,  we  shall  have  in  the  aforesaid  122d  year,  421,164 
 men,  capable  of  generation,  without  ever  reckoning  the  women, 
 both  old  and  young,  or  such  children  as  are  under  the  age  of  17 
 years. — See  Chronological  and  Geographical  Dissertation  on  the 
 Bible  History,  in  the  Journal  of  Paris,  January,  1712,  vol. 
 li.  p.  6. 
 
 b  There  is  an  oriental  tradition,  that  when  Cain  was  confirmed 
 in  the  design  of  destroying  his  brother,  and  knew  not  how  to  go 
 about  it,  the  devil  appeared  to  him  in  the  shape  of  a  man,  hold- 
 ing a  bird  in  his  hand;  and  that,  placing  the  bird  upon  a  rock, 
 he  took  up  a  stone,  and  with  it  squeezed  its  head  in  pieces. 
 Cain,  instructed  by  this  example,  resolved  to  serve  his  brother  in 
 the  same  way ;  and  therefore,  waiting  till  Abel  was  asleep,  he 
 lifted  up  a  large  stone,  and  let  it  fall,  with  all  its  weight,  upon 
 his  head,  and  so  killed  him :  whereupon  God  caused  him  to  hear 
 a  voice  from  heaven,  to  this  purpose,  '  The  rest  of  thy  days  shalt 
 
 CHAP.  III.— Of  the  Institution  of  Sacrifices. 
 
 The  first  plain  account  that  we  meet  with  of  sacrifices, 
 is  here  in  the  examples  of  Cain  and  Abel.  Mention  is 
 made  indeed  of  the  skins  of  some  beasts,  wherewith 
 God  directed  our  first  parents  to  be  clothed  ;  but  expos- 
 itors are  not  agreed,  whether  what  we  render  skins 
 might  not  denote  some  other  sort  of  covering,  or  shelter 
 from  the  weather ;  or,  if  they  were  the  real  skins  of 
 beasts,  whether  these  beasts  were  offered  unto  God  in 
 sacrifice  or  no  ;  whereas,  in  the  Scripture  before  us,  we 
 have  oblations  of  both  kinds,  bloody  and  unbloody  sac- 
 rifices, (as  they  are  commonly  distinguished;)  the  fruits 
 of  the  field,  offered  by  Cain,  and  the  firstlings  of  the 
 flock,  by  Abel.  So  that  from  hence  we  may  very  pro- 
 perly take  an  occasion,  to  inquire  a  little  into  the  orig- 
 inal of  sacrifices ;  for  what  ends  and  purposes  they  were 
 at  first  appointed ;  and  by  what  means  they  became  an 
 acceptable  service  unto  God. 
 
 The  Scriptures  indeed  make  no  mention  of  the  first 
 institution  of  sacrifices  ;  and  from  their  silence,  in  this 
 respect,  some  have  imagined  that  they  proceeded  orig- 
 inally from  a  dictate  of  nature,  or  a  grateful  inclination 
 to  return  unto  God  some  of  his  own  blessings.  But  in 
 so  short  an  account  of  so  large  a  compass  of  time,  (as 
 we  have  said  before,)  it  may  well  be  expected,  that  sev- 
 eral things  should  be  omitted.  To  this  purpose,  there- 
 fore, others  have  observed,  that  Moses  says  nothing  of5 
 Enoch's  prophecy  ;  nothing  6  of  Noah's  preaching  ; 
 nothing  7  of  the  peopling  of  the  world  ;  though  these  be 
 referred  to  in  other  parts  of  Scripture  :  8  nor  does  he 
 here  introduce  the  sacrifices  of  Cain  and  Abel,  with  an 
 intent  to  inform  us  of  the  origin  of  that  rite,  but  merely 
 to  let  us  know  what  was  the  unhappy  occasion  of  the 
 first  murder  that  ever  was  committed  in  the  world. 
 
 The  9  Jews  indeed,  to  whom  he  primarily  wrote,  knew 
 very  well,  that  their  own  sacrifices  were  of  divine  insti- 
 tution, and  that  God  had  manifested  his  acceptance  of 
 them,  at  the  very  first  solemn  oblation  after  that  insti- 
 tution, by  a  miraculous  fire  from  the  divine  presence  ; 
 nor  had  they  any  reason  to  doubt,  but  that  they  were  so 
 instituted,  and  so  accepted  from  the  beginning :  and 
 therefore  there  was  less  reason  for  Moses  to  expatiate 
 upon  a  matter,  which  had  doubtless  descended  to  them 
 in  a  clear  and  uninterrupted  tradition. 
 
 A  grateful  sense  of  God's  blessings  will,  at  any  time, 
 engage  us  to  offer  him  the  calves  of  our  lips,  (as  the 
 Scripture  terms  them,)  or  the  warmest  expressions  of 
 our  praise  and  thanksgiving  ;  but  what  dictate  of  nature, 
 or  deduction  of  reason,  could  ever  have  taught  us,  that, 
 to  destroy  the  best  of  our  fruits,  or  the  best  of  our  cat- 
 tle, would  have  been  a  service  acceptable  to  God  ? 
 Goodness,  and  mercy,  and  lenity,  and  compassion,  are 
 the  ideas  we  have  of  that  infinite  being  ;  and  who  would 
 then  have  thought,  that  putting  an  innocent  and  inoffen. 
 sive  creature  to  torture,  spilling  its  blood  upon  the 
 earth,  and  burning  its  flesh  upon  an  altar,  would  have 
 
 15.  '  See  Gen.  iv. 
 
 8  Revelation  Examined. 
 
 *  Jude  14.  s  2  Pet.  ii. 
 
 8  Outram  on  Sacrifices. 
 
 thou  pass  in  perpetual  fear.' — Calmefs  Dictionary  on  the  word 
 Abel. 
 
48  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  3876 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  200.  A.  C.  5211.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 [Book  1. 
 
 been  either  a  grateful  sight,  or  '  an  offering  of  a  sweet 
 smelling  savour'  to  the  Most  High  ? 
 
 No  '  being,  we  know,  can  have  a  right  to  the  lives  of 
 other  creatures,  but  their  Creator  only,  and  those  on 
 whom  he  shall  think  proper  to  confer  it :  but  it  is  evident, 
 that  God,  at  this  time,  had  not  given  man  a  right  to  the 
 creatures,  even  for  necessary  food,  much  less  for  unne- 
 cessary cruelty ;  and  therefore  to  have  taken  away  their 
 lives,  without  God's  positive  injunction,  would  have 
 been  an  abominable  act,  and  enough  to  desecrate  all 
 their  oblations.  When  therefore  we  read,  that  his  ac- 
 ceptance of  sacrifices  of  old  was  usually  testified  by 
 way  of  inflammation,  or  setting  them  on  fire,  by  a  ray 
 of  light  which  issued  from  his  glorious  presence,  we 
 must  allow,  that  this  was  a  proof  of  his  previous  insti- 
 tution of  them ;  otherwise  we  cannot  possibly  think,  why 
 he  should  so  far  concern  himself  about  them,  as  even 
 to  be  at  the  expense  of  a  miracle,  to  denote  his  appro- 
 bation of  them.  2 '  Who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the 
 Lord,'  is  the  Apostle's  way  of  arguing,  '  or  who  hath 
 been  his  counsellor  ?'  And,  in  like  manner,  without  a 
 divine  revelation,  it  would  have  been  the  height  of  vanity 
 and  presumption,  to  have  pretended  to  determine  the 
 way  of  reconciliation  with  him,  and  (without  his  order 
 and  appointment)  to  have  entered  upon  a  form  of  wor- 
 ship, entirely  new  and  strange,  by  killing  of  beasts,  and 
 burning  their  fat.  3  '  No  man,'  says  another  Apostle, 
 '  taketh  this  honour  to  himself,  but  he  that  is  called  of 
 God,  as  was  Aaron  ;'  nor  can  any  one  lay  hold  on  the 
 promise  of  forgiveness  of  sins  (which  is  the  great  design 
 of  all  sacrificing)  any  other  way  than  by  symbols  of 
 God's  own  institution. 
 
 In  4most  nations  indeed,  the  custom  of  sacrificing  did 
 prevail :  but  that  it  did  not  arise  from  any  principle  of 
 nature  or  reason,  is  manifest  from  hence — 5that  the 
 gravest  and  wisest  of  the  heathen  philosophers  always 
 a  condemned  bloody  sacrifices  as  impious,  and  unaccep- 
 table to  their  gods  ;  but  this  they  would  not  have  done, 
 had  they  looked  upon  them  as  any  branch  of  natural 
 religion,  which  none  were  more  warm  in  extolling 
 than  they.  It  is  no  improbable  conjecture,  therefore, 
 that  other  nations  might  take  the  rite  of  sacrificing  from 
 the  Jews,  to  6  which  the  devil,  in  heathen  countries, 
 might  instigate  his  votaries,  purely  to  ape  God,  and  imi- 
 tate his  ordinances  :   or  if  this  commencement  of  sacri- 
 
 1  Revelation  Examined.         s  Horn.  xi.  34.         8  Heb.  v.  4. 
 *  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  Essay  1. 
 
 5  Edward's  Survey  of  Religion,  vol.  1. 
 6  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  Essay  8. 
 
 a  It  is  the  opinion  of  Tertullian,  Apol.  c.  46.  that  none  of 
 the  ancient  philosophers  ever  compelled  the  people  to  sacrifice 
 living  creatures.  Theophrastus  is  quoted  by  Porphyry  in  Euse- 
 bius'  Evangelical  Preparation,  b.  1.  c.  9.  as  asserting  that  the 
 first  men  offered  handfuls  of  grass;  that,  in  time,  they  come  to 
 sacrifice  the  fruits  of  the  trees:  and,  in  after  ages,  to  kill  and  of- 
 fer cattle  upon  altars.  Many  other  authors  are  cited  for  this 
 opinion.  Pausanias  on  Phrygian  Crops,  seems  to  intimate,  that 
 the  ancient  sacrifice  was  only  fruits  of  trees  (of  the  vine  espe- 
 cially,) and  of  honeycombs  and  wool.  Empedocles  on  the 
 most  Ancient  Times,  affirms,  that  the  first  altars  were  not  stained 
 with  the  blood  of  creatures ;  and  Plat)  on  Laws,  b.  6.  was  of 
 opinion,  that  living  creatures  were  not  anciently  oflered  in  sac- 
 rifice, but  cakes  of  bread,  and  fruits,  and  honey,  poured  upon 
 them  ;  for  "  The  heavenly  deities  delight  not  in  the  sacrifice  of 
 an  ox,"  was  an  old  position  of  more  writers  than  Ovid. — See 
 ShuckforcTs  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  2 
 
 ficing  among  them  is  thought  to  be  too  late,  why  may 
 not  we  suppose,  that  they  received  it  by  tradition  from 
 their  forefathers,  who  had  it  originally  from  Adam,  as 
 he  had  it  from  God  by  a  particular  revelation  ?  Now 
 that  there  was  some  warrant  and  precept  of  God  for  it, 
 seems  to  be  intimated  by  the  author  to  the  Hebrews, 
 when  he  tells  us,  that 7 '  by  faith  Abel  offered  unto  God 
 a  more  acceptable  sacrifice,  than  Cain  :'  for  8  if  '  faith 
 cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God,' 
 faith  is  founded  on  some  word,  and  relieth  on  divine 
 command  or  promise  ;  and  therefore,  when  Abel  offered 
 the  best  of  his  flock  in  sacrifice,  he  did  what  was  en- 
 joined him  by  God,  and  his  practice  was  founded  upon 
 a  divine  command,  which  was  given  to  Adam,  and  his 
 sons,  though  Moses,  in  his  short  account  of  things, 
 makes  no  mention  of  it. 
 
 In  fine,  if  it  appears  from  history,  that  sacrifices  have 
 been  used  all  over  the  world,  have  spread  as  far,  as 
 universally  among  men,  as  the  very  notions  of  a  Deity  ; 
 if  we  find  them  almost  as  early  in  the  world  as  mankind 
 upon  the  earth,  and,  at  the  same  time,  cannot  perceive 
 that  mankind  ever  could,  by  the  light  of  reason,  invent 
 such  notions  of  a  Deity,  as  might  induce  them  to  think, 
 that  this  way  of  worship  would  be  an  acceptable  service 
 to  him  ;  if  mankind  indeed  could  have  no  right  to  the 
 lives  of  the  brute  creation,  without  the  concession  of 
 God ;  and  yet  it  is  evident,  that  they  exercised  such 
 right,  and  God  approved  of  their  proceeding,  by  visible 
 indications  of  his  accepting  the  sacrifices  ;  then  must 
 we  necessarily  suppose,  that  sacrifices  were  of  his  own 
 institution  at  first ;  and  that  they  were  instituted  for 
 purposes  well  becoming  his  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness. 
 
 For  we  must  remember,  that  Adam  and  Eve  were,  at 
 this  time,  become  sinners,  and  though  received  into 
 mercy,  in  constant  danger  of  relapsing;  that,  by  their 
 transgression,  they  had  forfeited  their  lives,  but  as  yet 
 could  have  no  adequate  sense,  either  of  the  nature  of 
 the  punishment,  or  the  heinousness  of  the  sin  which  pro- 
 cured it ;  and  that  now  they  were  to  beget  children,  who 
 were  sure  to  inherit  their  parents'  corruption  and  infir- 
 mity. Since  man,  therefore,  had  forfeited  his  life  by 
 his  transgressions,  and  God,  notwithstanding,  decreed 
 to  receive  him  into  mercy,  nothing  certainly  could  bet- 
 ter become  the  divine  wisdom  and  goodness,  than  the 
 establishment  of  some  institution,  which  might  at  once 
 be  a  monition  both  of  the  mercy  of  God,  and  the  pun- 
 ishment due  to  sin.  And  because  God  foresaw  that 
 man  would  often  sin,  and  should  often  receive  mercy, 
 it  was  necessary,  that  the  institution  should  be  such  as 
 might  frequently  be  repeated;  and  in  such  repetition, 
 frequently  remind  man  of  his  own  endless  demerit,  and 
 of  God's  infinite  goodness  to  him  ;  to  which  purpose  the 
 institution  of  sacrifices  for  sin  was  of  excellent  use  and 
 service. 
 
 Both  from  the  commandment  which  at  first  was  given 
 to  Adam,  and  the  sentence  which  was  afterwards  de- 
 nounced against  him,  we  learn,  that  death  was  the  pe- 
 nalty of  his  disobedience  ;  and  since  it  was  so,  certainly 
 it  was  highly  proper,  that  he  should  know  what  he  was  to 
 suffer ;  and  consequently  that  he  should  see  death  in  u\\  its 
 horror  and  deformity,  in  order  to  judge  rightly  of  the 
 evil  of  disobedience.     And  what  could  exhibit  this  evil 
 
 7  Heb.  xi.  4. 
 
 8  Rom.  x.  17. 
 
Sect.  1"V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 49 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  387G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAT 
 
 more  strongly,  than  the  groans  and  struggles  of  inno- 
 cent creatures,  bleeding  to  death  for  his  guilt,  before 
 his  eyes,  and  by  his  own  hands  ?  Sights  of  this  kind 
 are  shocking  to  human  nature  even  yet,  though  custom 
 hath  long  made  them  familiar  :  with  what  horror  then, 
 may  we  imagine  that  they  pierced  the  hearts  of  our  first 
 parents,  and  how  was  that  horror  aggravated,  when  they 
 considered  themselves  as  the  guilty  authors  of  so  much 
 cruelty  to  the  creatures  which  were  about  them  ?  Nay, 
 when  the  groans  of  these  dying  animals  were  over,  what 
 a  sad,  a  ghastly  spectacle  must  their  cold  carcasses 
 yield?  and  even  after  their  oblation,  how  dismal  a  me- 
 ditation must  it  be,  to  consider  the  beauty  and  excel- 
 lency of  these  animate  beings  reduced  to  an  handful  of 
 dust ;  especially,  when  they  could  not  see  them  in  that 
 condition,  but  under  sad  conviction,  that  they  themselves 
 must  follow  the  same  odious  steps  to  destruction  ? 
 
 We  can  hardly  conceive,  how  God  could  strike  the 
 human  soul  with  a  deeper  sense  of  misery  from  guilt, 
 or  with  more  abhorrence  of  the  sad  cause  of  that  misery, 
 than  by  this  method  of  appointing  sacrifices  :  nor  can 
 we  imagine  how  our  first  parents  could  have  ever  sus- 
 tained themselves  under  such  afflicting  thoughts,  had  not 
 God,  in  his  infinite  goodness,  caused  some  ray  of  hope 
 to  shine  through  this  scene  of  mortality  and  misery,  and 
 made  sacrifices  (at  the  same  time  that  they  were  such 
 lively  emblems  of  the  horror  of  guilt)  the  means  of  its 
 expiation,  and  the  seals  of  his  covenant  of  grace. 
 
 That  God  entered  into  a  covenant  of  mercy  with 
 man,  immediately  after  the  fall,  is  evident  from  the  sen- 
 tence passed  upon  the  serpent,  wherein  that  covenant  is 
 comprised  :  and  therefore,  as  we  find  that,  in  after  ages, 
 his  usual  way  of  ratifying  covenants  of  this  kind  was  by 
 sacrifices  ;  so  we  cannot  imagine  that  he  failed  to  do  so 
 at  this  time,  when  such  mercy  was  more  wanted  than 
 ever  it  was  since  the  foundation  of  the  world.  Sacrifi- 
 ces indeed  have  no  natural  aptitude  to  expiate  guilt,  in 
 which  sense,  the  apostle  affirms  it  2 '  to  be  impossible 
 for  the  blood  of  bulls,  and  of  goats,  to  take  away  sins.' 
 The  death  of  a  beast  is  far  from  being  equivalent  to  the 
 death  of  a  man,  but  infinitely  short  of  that  eternal  death 
 to  which  the  man's  sinfulness  does  consign  him :  but 
 still,  as  sacrifices  are  federal  rites,  and  one  of  those  ex- 
 ternal means  which  God  had  instituted,  under  the  ante- 
 diluvian dispensation,  for  man's  recovery  from  sin,  we 
 cannot  but  suppose,  but  that,  when  piously  and  devoutly 
 offered,  they  were  accepted  by  him,  for  the  expiation  of 
 transgressions  ;  though  it  must  be  owned,  that  they  did 
 not,  of  themselves,  or  by  their  own  worthiness,  atone  for 
 any  thing,  but  only  in  virtue  of  the  expiatory  sacrifice 
 of  the  Messias  to  come,  whereof  they  were  no  more  than 
 types  and  shadows.  To  speak  strictly  and  properly, 
 therefore,  these  sacrifices  did  not  really  and  formally, 
 but  typically  and  mystically  expiate,  that  is,  they  did 
 not  pacify  God's  anger,  and  satisfy  his  justice,  and 
 take  away  sin,  by  their  own  force  and  efficacy,  but  as 
 they  were  figures  and  representations  of  that  universal 
 sacrifice,  which  (in  the  divine  intention)  '  was  slain  from 
 the  foundation  of  the  world,'  and,  '  in  the  fulness  of 
 time,'  was  to  come  down  from  heaven,  in  order  to  fulfil 
 the  great  undertaking  of  '  making  atonement  for  the  sins 
 of  all  mankind.' 
 
 Revelation  Examined. 
 
 Hob. 
 
 ES,  A.  M.  200.  A.  C.  5211.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 Thus  to  represent  the  horrid  nature  of  sin,  and  to  seal 
 the  eternal  covenant  of  mercy  ;  to  be  types  of  the  great 
 expiatory  sacrifice  of  Christ's  death,  and  a  standing 
 means  of  obtaining  pardon  and  reconciliation  with  God, 
 seem  to  be  some  of  the  principal  ends  of  God's  insti- 
 tuting sacrifices  at  iirst :  and  what  was  of  use  to  gain 
 them  a  favourable  acceptance  in  his  sight,  we  may,  in 
 some  measure,  learn  from  the  reasons,  that  are  usually 
 alleged,  for  his  rejection  of  Cain's,  and  approbation  of 
 Abel's  sacrifice. 
 
 Most  of  the  Jewish  interpreters  have  placed  the  dif- 
 ferent events  of  these  two  sacrifices  in  the  external  quan- 
 tity or  quality  of  them.  They  tell  us,  that  '  Cain  brought 
 of  the  fruits  of  the  ground  '  indeed,  but  not  of  the  first- 
 fruits  (as  he  should  have  done,)  nor  the  fullest  ears  of 
 corn,  (which  he  kept  for  himself,)  but  the  lankest  and 
 latest ;  and,  even  what  he  brought,  'twas  with  a  niggardly 
 hand  and  grudging  mind  ;  so  that  he  raised  God's  aver- 
 sion 3 '  by  offering  to  him  of  that  which  cost  him  nothing  :' 
 whereas  Abel  found  a  kind  acceptance,  because  4 '  he 
 honoured  the  Lord  with  his  substance  :'  he  brought  of 
 the  '  firstlings  of  his  flock,'  and  the  very  best  and  fattest 
 of  them,  as  thinking  nothing  too  good  to  be  offered  in 
 devotion  and  gratitude  to  him  from  whom  he  received  all. 
 
 5  Allowing  the  maxim  of  the  Jewish  church,  namely, 
 '  that  without  blood  there  is  no  remission,'  to  have  been 
 good,  from  the  first  institution  of  sacrifice,  a  very  learned 
 writer  supposes,  that  Abel  came,  as  a  petitioner  for 
 grace  and  pardon,  and  brought  the  atonement  appointed 
 for  sin  ;  but  Cain  appeared  before  God  as  a  just  person, 
 wanting  no  repentance,  and  brought  an  offering  in 
 acknowledgment  of  God's  goodness  and  bounty,  but  no 
 atonement  in  acknowledgment  of  his  own  wretched- 
 ness ;  and  that  upon  this  account  his  oblation  was  re- 
 jected, as  God's  expostulation  with  him  seems  to  imply  ; 
 '  If  thou  doest  well,  shalt  thou  not  be  accepted  ?  And  if 
 thou  doest  not  well,  sin  lieth  at  thy  door,'  that  is,  if  thou 
 art  righteous,  thy  righteousness  shall  save  thee  ;  but  if 
 thou  art  not,  by  what  expiation  is  thy  sin  purged  ?  it 
 lieth  still  at  thy  door. 
 
 The  author  to  the  6  Hebrews  has  given  us,  I  think,  a 
 key  to  this  difficulty,  when  he  tells  us,  that  '  by  faith 
 Abel  offered  unto  God  a  more  excellent  sacrifice  than 
 Cain.'  7  The  faith  (of  which  the  apostle  gives  us  several 
 instances  in  this  chapter)  is  the  belief  of  something  de- 
 clared, and,  in  consequence  of  such  belief,  the  perform- 
 ance of  some  action  enjoined  by  God  :  '  By  faith  Noah, 
 being  warned  by  God,  prepared  an  ark,'  that  is,  he  be- 
 lieved the  warning  which  God  gave  him  and  obediently 
 made  the  ark  which  he  had  appointed  him,  to  make  : 
 '  By  faith  Abraham,  when  called '  to  go  into  a  strange 
 land,  '  which  God  promised  to  give  him  for  an  inher- 
 itance, obeyed,'  that  is,  he  believed  that  God  would  give 
 him  what  he  had  promised,  and,  in  consequence  of  such 
 belief,  did  what  God  commanded  him  :  and  thus  it  was, 
 that  '  Abel,  by  faith,  offered  a  better  sacrifice  than  Cain,' 
 because  he  believed  what  God  had  promised,  that  '  the 
 seed  of  the  woman  should  bruise  the  serpent's  head,' 
 and,  in  consequence  of  such  belief,  offered  such  a  sacri- 
 
 3  2  Sam.  xxiv.  24.  4  Prov.  iii.  0. 
 
 5  Bishop  Sherlock's  Use  of  Prophecy,  ilis.  3. 
 
 «  Cliap.  xi.  vi v.  4.  '  S/iurk/ord's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  2. 
 
50  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  138.  A.  C.  38335;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  200.  A.  C.  5211.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 Hce  for  his  sins,  as  God  had  appointed  to  be  offered, 
 until  the  seed  should  come. 
 
 1  In  order  to  offer  a  sacrifice  by  faith  then,  there  are 
 three  things  requisite.  1st,  That  the  person  who  offers 
 should  do  it  upon  the  previous  appointment  and  direc- 
 tion of  God.  2dly,  That  he  should  consider  it  as  a  sign 
 and  token  of  the  promise  of  God  made  in  Christ,  and  of 
 remission  of  sins  through  his  blood ;  and  3dly,  That, 
 while  he  is  offering,  he  should  be  mindful  withal  (in  the 
 phrase  of  St  Paul)  '  to  present  himself  a  living  sacrifice, 
 holy,  and  acceptable  unto  God.'  In  the  first  of  these 
 qualifications  Cain  was  right  enough,  because  he  had 
 learned  from  his  father,  that,  as  God  had  appointed  sa- 
 crifices, it  was  his  duty  to  offer  them :  but  herein  was  his 
 great  defect,  that  while  he  was  offering,  he  gave  no  atten- 
 tion to  what  he  was  about ;  nor  once  reflected  on  the  pro- 
 mise of  God,  made  in  paradise,  nor  placed  any  confidence 
 in  the  merits  of  a  Saviour,  to  recommend  his  services;  but, 
 vainly  imagining  that  his  bare  oblation  was  all  that  was 
 required  to  his  justification,  he  took  no  care  to  preserve 
 his  soul  pure  and  unpolluted,  or  to  constitute  his  mem- 
 bers as  '  instruments  of  righteousness  unto  God.'  In 
 short,  his  oblation  was  the  service  of  an  hypocrite,  lying 
 unto  God,  and  using  the  external  symbols  of  grace  '  for 
 a  cloak  of  maliciousness  ;'  whereas  Abel's  sacrifice  was 
 attended  with  awful  meditations  on  that  '  seed  of  the 
 woman '  which  was  to  become  the  world's  Redeemer, 
 with  warm  applications  to  him  for  mercy  and  forgiveness, 
 and  with  holy  resolutions  of  better  obedience,  of  aban- 
 doning all  sin,  '  and  always  abounding  in  the  work  of 
 the  Lord  ;'  and  therefore  there  is  no  wonder,  that  their 
 services  met  with  so  different  a  reception.  For,  how- 
 ever sacrificing  was  an  external  rite,  yet  the  rite  itself 
 would  by  no  means  do,  unless  the  attention  of  the  mind, 
 and  the  integrity  of  the  heart  went  along  with  it,  2 '  he 
 that  killed  an  ox  was  as  if  he  slew  a  man  ;  and  he  that 
 sacrificed  a  lamb  as  if  he  cut  off  a  dog's  neck  ;'  so  de- 
 testable in  the  sight  of  God  was  a  the  richest  oblation, 
 when  the  sacrificer  was  not  a  good  man  ;  nay,  so  ready 
 was  he  to  pass  by  all  observances  of  this  kind,  if  the 
 Avorshipper  came  but,  in  other  respects,  qualified  :  3 '  For 
 he  that  keepeth  the  law  bringeth  offerings  enough  ;  he 
 that  taketh  heed  to  the  law  ofiereth  a  peace-offering ;  he 
 that  requiteth  a  good  turn  ofiereth  fine  flour  ;  and  he  that 
 giveth  alms  sacrificeth  praise.  To  depart  from  wicked- 
 ness is  a  thing  pleasing  to  the  Lord ;  and  to  forsake  un- 
 righteousness is  a  propitiation.' 
 
 1  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  Essay  V. 
 2  Isa.  Ixvi.  3.  3  Ecclus.  xxxv.  1,  &c. 
 
 a  That  it  is  not  the  quality  of  the  sacrifice,  but  the  mind  and 
 disposition  of  the  sacrificer,  which  God  regards,  was  the  general 
 sentiment  of  the  wisest  heathens,  as  appears  by  that  excellent 
 passage  in  Persius: — 
 
 '  Justice  upright,  and  sanctity  of  heart, 
 
 A  polished  mind,  pure  at  its  inmost  core 
 A  breast  imbued  with  no  dishonest  art, 
 These  I  will  yield,  and  duly  Jove  adore.' 
 
 Sat.  2. 
 And  that  other  in  Seneca: — 
 
 '  It  is  not  by  victims,  though  they  be  most  valuable  and  glitter 
 with  gold,  that  honour  is  paid  to  the  gods,  but  by  worshipping 
 them  with  a  pious  and  upright  heart.' — On  Old  Age,  1.  6. 
 
 CHAP.   IV. 
 
 On  the  Design  of  Sacrifice : — On  the  Sacrifices  of  the 
 Patriarchal  Dispensation. 
 
 (supplemental  by  the  editor.) 
 
 Scripture  assures  us  that  Christ  was  '  the  Lamb  slain 
 from  the  foundation  of  the  world.'  But  what  meaning 
 are  we  to  attach  to  these  expressions,  unless  Ave  under- 
 stand them  as  referring  to  the  significant  and  emblema- 
 tical rite  of  sacrifice,  instituted  to  prefigure  the  death 
 incurred  by  sin,  and  the  atonement  by  Avhich  its  guilt 
 Avas  to  be  expiated  ?  It  is  admitted  that  this  atonement 
 had  a  retrospective  efficacy  ;  that  through  it  God  de- 
 clared his  righteousness  for  the  remission  of  sins  that 
 Avere  past;  and  have  Ave  not,  therefore,  the  best  grounds 
 for  regarding  the  institution  of  sacrifice  as  having  been 
 intended  from  the  beginning  impressively  to  shoAv  forth 
 the  death  of  the  Redeemer  ?  He  is  described  as  '  the 
 Lamb  of  God  Avho  taketh  aAvay  the  sin  of  the  world,'  be- 
 cause he  really  fulfilled  that  Avhich  the  sacrifice  of  lambs 
 and  of  other  animals  prefigured. 
 
 In  the  first  promise  there  is  allusion  to  the  sufferings 
 of  the  Mighty  Deliverer.  In  order  that  the  great  truths 
 comprehended  in  this  promise  might  be  more  clearly  un- 
 derstood and  deeply  felt,  Ave  have  every  reason  to  be- 
 lieve that  sacrifice  Avas  immediately  and  divinely  insti- 
 tuted as  an  explanatory  ordinance.  Though  the  Avords 
 of  the  institution  are  not  recorded,  the  fact  cannot  be 
 questioned ;  because  sacrifice  constituted  a  part  of  the 
 Avorship  of  God  from  the  fall  of  man  ;  and  Ave  must  feel 
 assured  that  it  could  not  be  acceptably  used  in  his  wor- 
 ship but  in  consequence  of  divine  appointment.  AVe 
 knoAV  that  the  inferior  animals  were  not  used  as  food,  at 
 least  Avith  the  divine  permission,  till  after  the  flood  ;  and, 
 consequently,  there  could  be  no  occasion  for  slaying 
 them,  unless  it  Avere  for  sacrifice,  till  after  that  period. 
 Our  first  parents  having  been  clothed  at  the  expense  of 
 life,  and  by  the  special  interposition  of  God,  had  a 
 striking  representation  given  them  of  the  mode  in  Avhich 
 forfeited  happiness  should  be  restored,  and  of  that  per- 
 fect righteousness  by  Avhich  they  were  justified  before 
 God.  It  Avas  an  intimation  to  them  that  the  Deliverer, 
 denominated  the  Seed  of  the  Avoman,  should  redeem 
 them  by  his  sufferings. 
 
 Thus  have  Ave  presented  to  our  vieAV  immediately  after 
 the  fall,  and  before  the  first  transgressors  Avere  expelled 
 from  paradise,  the  two  principal  methods  in  Avhich  God 
 unfolded  to  mankind  the  Avay  of  salvation,  namely,  pro- 
 phecy and  typical  sacrifice.  Both  these  methods  of 
 divine  revelation  were  continued  in  the  church  Avith  in- 
 creasing clearness  and  precision  till  the  coming  of 
 Christ ;  and  both  Avere  intended  to  direct  the  faith  of  the 
 people  to  the  Substitute  and  Surety  of  sinners,  Avho  by 
 the  one  offering  up  of  himself  Avas  to  obtain  eternal  re- 
 demption. In  the  first  promise  Ave  have  the  foundation 
 of  that  series  of  prophecies  which  Avas  delivered  from 
 age  to  age,  Avhich  announced  the  divine  nature,  the  in- 
 carnation, the  sufferings,  death,  and  subsequent  glories 
 of  the  Redeemer.  In  the  first  sacrifice  we  have  the 
 basis  of  that  series  of  typical  observances,  Avhich  pre- 
 figured the  mediation  and  atonement  of  the  Son  of  God. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 51 
 
 A.  M.  128.  A.  C.  3876;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  200.  A.  C.  5211.  GEN.  CH.  4.  TO  VER.  25. 
 
 Prophecy  was  the  annunciation  of  what  was  future,  ex- 
 pressed not  by  words  but  by  signs.  These  signs  were 
 indefinitely  varied  ;  and,  accordingly,  the  rites  appointed 
 to  be  observed  in  the  worship  of  God,  and  the  vicissitudes 
 of  the  church  in  its  trials  and  triumphs,  recorded  in  the 
 Old  Testament,  were  emblematical.  They  served  unto 
 the  example  and  shadow  of  good  things  to  come.  But 
 the  most  prominent  of  these  emblems  was  sacrifice,  which 
 by  its  direct  reference  to  the  atonement  of  Christ,  aided 
 the  faith  and  hope  of  believers,  and  which  by  its  univer- 
 sal use,  even  when  its  original  design  was  forgotten, 
 may  have  prepared  mankind  for  that  message  of  salva- 
 tion which,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  was  sent  to  them 
 through  a  crucified  Redeemer. 
 
 These  views  are  confirmed  by  the  circumstances  re- 
 corded in  Scripture  regarding  the  sacrifice  of  Abel.  By 
 faith  we  are  told  that  Abel  offered  unto  God  a  more  ex- 
 cellent sacrifice  than  Cain,  by  which  he  obtained  witness 
 that  he  was  righteous,  God  testifying  of  his  gifts.  Cain 
 brought  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground  an  offering  unto  the 
 Lord  :  and  Abel,  he  brought  of  the  firstlings  of  his  flock. 
 If  we  bear  in  mind  the  observations  already  made,  we 
 shall  readily  perceive  the  ground  on  which  the  sacrifice 
 of  Abel  was  accepted,  while  that  of  Cain  was  rejected, 
 Abel  offered  his  sacrifice  in  faith,  in  strict  accordance 
 with  the  command  of  God,  and  in  firm  reliance  on  his 
 promise  :  he  acknowledged  by  the  death  inflicted  on  an 
 innocent  animal  his  own  desert  as  a  sinner,  and  his  trust 
 in  the  way  of  redemption  and  recovery  which  God  had 
 mercifully  provided :  he  thus  as  a  true  penitent  ap- 
 proached God  in  worship,  looking  for  pardon  and  re- 
 conciliation, renewing  and  sanctifying  grace,  through 
 an  atonement.  But  Cain,  viewing  God  merely  as  his 
 Creator  and  Preserver,  offered  the  fruits  of  the  earth  as 
 an  acknowledgment  of  his  goodness,  entirely  overlook- 
 ing liis  own  character  as  a  sinner,  and  disregarding  the 
 divinely  instituted  sacrificial  rite,  the  appointed  emblem 
 of  the  new  and  living  way  of  access  to  God.  "  In 
 short,  Cain,  the  first-born  of  the  fall,  exhibits  the  first- 
 fruits  of  his  parents'  disobedience,  in  the  arrogance  and 
 self-sufficiency  of  reason,  rejecting  the  aids  of  revela- 
 tion, because  they  fell  not  within  its  apprehension  of 
 right.  He  takes  the  first  place  in  the  annals  of  deism, 
 and  displays,  in  his  proud  rejection  of  the  ordinance  of 
 sacrifice,  the  same  spirit,  which,  in  later  days,  has  ac- 
 tuated his  enlightened  followers,  in  rejecting  the  sacri- 
 fice of  Christ." 
 
 The  terms  in  which  God  expostulates  with  Cain  con- 
 voy a  rebuke  for  his  not  offering  an  animal  sacrifice  like 
 his  brother  Abel :  '  If  thou  doest  well,  shalt  thou  not  be 
 accepted?  and  if  thou  doest  not  well,  a  sin-offering 
 lieth  even  at  the  door.'  There  is  here  a  reference  to 
 sin-offering  as  a  known  institution,  the  neglect  of  which 
 in  Cain  incurred  the  divine  displeasure,  and  the  obser- 
 vance of  animal  sacrifice  is  anew  enforced.  The  sacri- 
 fice which  Abel  presented  unto  God  was  of  this  descrip- 
 tion. The  reason  of  its  acceptance,  according  to  the 
 apostle  Paul,  was  the  faith  in  which  it  was  offered  ;  faith 
 in  the  Redeemer  promised  under  the  appellation  of  the 
 seed  of  the  woman.  "  Of  this  faith,  the  offering  of  an 
 animal  in  sacrifice,  appears  to  have  been  the  legitimate, 
 and  consequently  the  instituted,  expression.  The  insti- 
 tution of  animal  sacrifice,  then,  was  coeval  with  the  fall, 
 tad  had  a  reference  to  the  sacrifice  of  our  redemption. 
 
 But,  as  it  had  also  an  immediate,  and  most  apposite, 
 application  to  that  important  event  in  the  condition  of 
 man,  which,  as  being  the  occasion  of,  was  essentially 
 connected  with,  the  work  of  redemption  ;  that  likewise, 
 we  have  reason  to  think,  was  included  in  its  sionifica- 
 tion.  And  thus,  upon  the  whole,  sacrifice  appears  to 
 have  been  ordained,  as  a  standing  memorial  of  the  death 
 introduced  by  sin,  and  of  that  death  which  was  to  be 
 suffered  by  the  Redeemer." 
 
 First,  then,  it  is  evident,  that  the  offering  of  Abel  was 
 different  in  its  nature  from  that  which  was  presented  by 
 Cain;  and  that  this  difference  constituted  the  principal 
 ground  for  the  acceptance  of  the  one,  and  the  rejection 
 of  the  other.  It  was  a  more  full,  a  more  ample  sacrifice, 
 that  is,  it  partook  more  essentially  of  the  nature  of  sacri- 
 fice, than  the  offering  of  Cain.  It  was  '  of  the  firstlings 
 of  his  flock,'  an  animal  slain  in  solemn  sacrifice  unto 
 God,  in  obedience  to  a  known  divine  command,  whereas 
 Cain  offered  merely  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground,  as  an  ex- 
 pression of  thankfulness  to  the  bounty  of  God.     Hence, 
 
 Secondly,  Abel  is  said  to  have  offered  his  more  ex- 
 cellent sacrifice  by  faith.  On  this  circumstance  there  is 
 much  stress  laid  by  the  apostle,  as  he  adduces  it  in  the 
 eleventh  chapter  of  the  Hebrews,  as  an  example  illustra- 
 tive of  the  power  and  efficacy  of  faith.  But  what  was 
 the  object  of  this  faith  ?  Unquestionably  a  divine  reve- 
 lation, the  promise  of  the  Messiah,  to  which  such  frequent 
 allusion  is  made  in  Scripture,  and  in  firm  reliance  on 
 which  the  patriarchs  lived  and  died.  '  These  all,'  Abel 
 and  all  the  others  whom  the  apostle  had  named,  '  not 
 having  received  the  fulfilment  of  the  promises,  but  hav- 
 ing seen  them  afar  off,  and  were  persuaded  of  them,  and 
 embraced  them,  and  confessed  that  they  were  strangers 
 and  pilgrims  on  the  earth.'  This  could  not  be  the  pro- 
 mise of  entering  the  land  of  Canaan,  because  to  Abel, 
 Enoch,  and  Noah,  no  such  promise  was  given,  and  be- 
 cause that  even  in  regard  to  Abraham,  the  evangelist 
 (John  viii.  56.)  explains  the  expression  of  his  seeing  the 
 promises  afar  off,  and  embracing  them,  as  signifying  his 
 seeing  the  day  of  Christ  and  rejoicing.  To  the  comple- 
 tion of  the  great  promise  of  the  coming  of  the  Seed  of 
 the  woman,  to  accomplish  the  redemption  of  mankind, 
 Abel  looked  with  firm  reliance  on  the  truth  of  God.  In 
 the  faith  of  this  promise  he  offered  unto  God  the  kind  of 
 sacrifice  which  had  been  enjoined  as  the  evidence  of  de- 
 pendence on  divine  mercy,  and  as  the  typical  expression 
 of  that  atonement  which  was  to  be  made  in  the  fulness  of 
 time.     And,  therefore, 
 
 In  the  third  place,  he  obtained  the  testimony  of  God 
 to  the  acceptableness  of  his  sacrifice,  and  to  his  own  per- 
 sonal justification  before  God.  '  By  which  he  obtained 
 witness  that  he  was  righteous,  God  testifying  of  his  gifts  : 
 and  by  it,  he  being  dead,  yet  speaketh.'  He  thus  be- 
 came heir  of  the  righteousness  of  God  which  is  by  faith, 
 '  even  the  righteousness  of  God  which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus 
 Christ  unto  all,  and  upon  all  them  that  believe.'  It  was 
 declared  by  God  himself,  that  he  was  righteous  before 
 him,  by  his  visibly  attesting  the  excellency  and  accepta- 
 bleness of  his  oblation. 
 
 AVe  thus  discover  the  reason  for  the  difference  in  the 
 divine  reception   of  the   sacrifices  of  Cain  and   Aid. 
 This  cannot  be  accounted  for  by  those  who  deny  the  di 
 vine  origin  of  sacrifice.     Abel's  sacrifice,  as  our  author 
 remarks,  was  more  excellent  than  his  brother's,  because 
 
52 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  130.  A.  C.  3874 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  230.  A.  C.  5181.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 it  was  offered  with  faith  in  the  great  atonement,  which  he 
 believed  was  in  due  time  to  take  away  the  sin  of  the 
 world ;  and  because  it  consisted  of  what  had  been 
 divinely  instituted  to  prefigure  the  atonement  in  which 
 he  appears  to  have  reposed  all  his  trust. 
 
 SECT.    V. 
 CHAP.  I. — Of  the  General  Corruption  of  Mankind. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 Great  a  was  the  grief,  no  doubt,  which  our  first  parents 
 felt  upon  the  loss  of  the  righteous  Abel,  and  the  expul- 
 sion of  their  wicked  son  Cain  ;  but,  to  alleviate,  in  some 
 measure,  this  heavy  load  of  sorrow,  God  was  pleased  to 
 promise  them  another  son,  whose  fate  should  be  differ- 
 ent, and  himself  a  lasting  comfort  and  consolation  to 
 them :  and  therefore,  as  soon  as  Eve  was  delivered  of 
 the  child,  she  called  his  name  Seth,  which  signifies  sub- 
 stitute, because  God  had  been  so  good  as  to  send  him 
 in  the  room  of  his  brother  Abel,  whom  Cain  slew. 
 Adam,  when  he  had  Seth,  was  130  years  old:  he  lived 
 after  that  800  years,  and  begat  several  other  children 
 (though  Moses  makes  no  mention  of  them.)  So  that  the 
 u  whole  of  his  life  was  930  years. 
 
 A- Iv^35,        Seth,  when  he  was  105  years  old,  had  a  son 
 named  Enos :  after  which  time  he  lived  807 
 years  ;  so  that  the  whole  of  his  life  was  912. 
 A.  M  325,       Enos,  when  90,  had  a  son  named  Cainan  : 
 
 or  625.  '  ,  I 
 
 after  which  he  lived  S15  years ;  in  the  whole 
 905. 
 A.  M.  395,        Cainan,  when  70,  had  a  son  named  Mahala- 
 
 or  795.  '  ' 
 
 leel :  after  which  he  lived  840  years ;  in  all 
 
 910. 
 
 AMnVi60'       Mahalaleel,  when  65,  had  a  son  named  Ja- 
 or  960.  ' 
 
 red :   after  which  he  lived  830  years ;   in  all 
 
 895. 
 
 a  The  Jewish,  and  some  Christian  doctors,  say,  that  Adam 
 and  Eve  mourned  for  Abel  one  hundred  years,  during  which 
 time  they  lived  separate,  Adam  particularly,  in  a  valley  near 
 Hebron  thence  named  the  valley  of  tears.  And  the  inhabitants 
 of  Ceylon  pretend,  that  the  salt  lake  on  the  mountain  of  Colum- 
 bo,  was  formed  by  the  tears  which  Eve  shed  on  this  occasion. 
 411  fiction. — Calmefs  Dictionary. 
 
 b  If  it  be  asked,  how  it  came  to  pass,  that  Adam,  who  was 
 immediately  created  by  God,  and,  consequently,  more  perfect 
 than  any  of  his  kind,  did  not  outlive  Methuselah,  who  was  the 
 eighth  from  him?  the  answer  which  some  have  given,  namely, 
 that  his  grief  and  affliction  of  mind  for  the  loss  of  paradise,  and 
 the  misery  which,  by  his  transgression,  he  had  entailed  upon  his 
 offspring,  might  affect  his  constitution,  and  by  degrees,  impair 
 his  strength,  is  not  much  amiss:  but  there  is  another  reason 
 which  seems  to  me  better  founded,  namely,  that,  whereas  Adam 
 was  created  in  the  full  perfection  of  his  nature,  and  all  his  de- 
 scendants, being  born  infants,  did  gradually  proceed  to  maturity ; 
 subducting  the  time  from  their  infancy  to  their  manhood,  we 
 shall  find,  that  Adam  outlived  them  all.  For  we  must  not 
 compute,  as  wre  do  now,  (when  the  extent  of  man's  life  is  usually 
 no  more  that  seventy)  that  his  complete  manhood  was  at  thirty, 
 or  thereabouts.  In  the  very  catalogue  now  before  us,  we  read 
 of  none  (except  Enoch,  and  two  others,  who  begat  children  before 
 they  were  ninety  or  upwards ;)  and  therefore,  subtracting  those 
 years  (which  we  may  suppose  interfered  between  his  birth  and 
 his  manhood)  from  the  age  of  Methuselah,  we  may  perceive,  that 
 Adam  surpassed  him  to  the  number  of  almost  sixty. — On  the 
 more  Difficult  Passages. 
 
 A'or\\r>2'  Jareci>  when  162,  had  a  son  named  Enoch : 
 after  which  he  lived  800  years ;  in  all  962. 
 
 AoM2877'  Enoch,  when  65,  had  a  son  named  Methuse- 
 lah :  after  which  he  lived  300 :  in  all  365. 
 
 a.  M .874,       Methuselah,  when   187,  had   a  son  named 
 
 or  14/4. 
 
 Lamech  :  after  which  he  lived  782  :  in  all  969. 
 A'  M,',1r^56'      Lamech,  when  1 82,  had  a  son  named  Noah  : 
 
 or  1050. 
 
 after  which  he  lived  595 ;  in  all  777  :  and 
 A-  Mj;„ •556.      Noah,  when  he  was  500  years  old,  had  three 
 
 or  22o6.  '  '  ' 
 
 sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet,  cfrom  whom 
 the  world,  after  the  deluge,  was  replenished. 
 d  This  is  the  genealogy  which  Moses  gives  us  of  the 
 posterity  of  Adam,  in  the  line  of  Seth,  until  the  time  of 
 the  deluge  ;  but  we  must  observe,  that  these!  are  far  from 
 being  all  his  progeny.  In  the  case  of  our  great  progen- 
 itor Adam,  he  informs  us,  that  after  the  birth  of  Seth, 
 1 '  he  had  several  sons  and  daughters,'  though  he  does 
 not  so  much  as  record  their  names  ;  and  the  like  we  may 
 suppose  of  the  rest  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs.     For 
 
 1  Gen.  v.  4. 
 
 c  Of  these  three  sons,  the  eldest  was  Japhet,  as  appears  from 
 Gen.  x.  21.,  the  second  was  Shem,  from  Gen.  x.  21.,  and  the 
 youngest  Ham,  from  Gen.  ix.  24.  Nevertheless,  both  here,  and 
 a  little  lower,  Shem  is  named  first ;  whether  it  was,  that  the 
 rights  of  primogeniture  were  transferred  to  him  (though  the  sa- 
 cred historian  says  nothing  of  it,)  or  God  was  minded,  thus  early, 
 to  show  that  he  would  not  be  confined  to  the  order  of  nature,  in 
 the  disposal  of  his  favours,  which  he  frequently  bestowed  upon 
 the  younger  children ;  or  (what  I  think  the  most  likely)  because 
 the  nation  of  the  Jews  were  to  descend  from  him,  and  he,  and 
 his  posterity,  were  to  be  the  principal  subject  of  this  whole  his- 
 tory.— Patrick  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary,  and  Pool's  Annota. 
 
 d  From  this  catalogue  we  may  farther  observe,  that  the  custom 
 in  those  times  was,  to  give  children  their  names  according  to  the 
 occurrences  in  life,  or  expectations  of  their  parents.  Thus  Seth, 
 being  a  good  man,  was  grieved  to  see  the  great  degeneracy  in 
 other  parts,  though  he  endeavoured  to  preserve  his  own  family 
 from  the  contagion ;  and  therefore  called  his  son  Enos,  which 
 signifies  sorrowful.  Enos,  perceiving  the  posterity  of  Cain  to 
 grow  every  day  worse  and  worse,  was  concerned  for  their  ini- 
 quity, and  began  to  dread  the  consequences  of  it;  and  therefore 
 called  his  son  Cainan,  which  denotes  lamentation.  Though 
 Cainan  had  his  name  from  the  wickedness  of  Cain's  family,  yet 
 he  himself  was  resolved  to  maintain  the  true  worship  of  God  in 
 his  own ;  and  therefore  called  his  son  Mahalaleel,  that  is,  a 
 praiscr  and  worshipper  of  God.  In  the  days  of  Mahalaleel  (as 
 the  tradition  tells  us)  a  defection  happened  among  the  sons  of 
 Seth,  who  went  down  from  the  mountains  where  they  inhabited, 
 and  adjoined  themselves  to  the  daughters  of  Cain:  and  therefore 
 he  called  his  son's  name  Jared,  which  signifies  descending. 
 Jared,  to  guard  against  the  general  corruption,  devoted  himself 
 and  his  descendants,  more  zealously  to  the  service  of  God,  and, 
 accordingly,  called  his  son  Enoch,  which  means  a  dedication. 
 Enoch,  by  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  foreseeing  the  destruction  which 
 would  come  upon  the  earth,  immediately  after  the  death  of  his 
 son,  called  his  name  Methuselah,  which  imports  as  much ;  for 
 the  first  part  of  the  word,  Methu,  signifies  he  dies,  and  Selah,  the 
 seyiding  forth  of  water.  Methuselah,  perceiving  the  wickedness 
 of  the  world,  in  the  family  of  Seth,  as  well  as  that  of  Cain,  to 
 grow  every  day  worse  and  worse,  called  his  son  Lamech,  which 
 intimates  a  poor  man,  humbled,  and  afflicted  with  grief,  for  the 
 present  corruption  and  fear  of  future  punishment.  And  Lamech 
 conceiving  better  hopes  of  his  son  (as  some  imagine)  that  he 
 should  be  the  promised  seed,  the  restorer  of  mankind  after  the 
 deluge,  or  a  notable  improver  of  the  art  of  agriculture,  called  his 
 name  Noah,  which  denotes  a  comforter. — Bedford's  Scripture 
 Chronology.  We  may  observe,  from  this  catalogue,  however, 
 that  the  patriarchs,  in  those  days,  were  not  so  superstitious,  as  to 
 think  any  thing  ominous  in  names:  and  therefore  we  find,  that 
 Jared  feared  not  to  call  his  son  Enoch,  by  the  veiy  name  of 
 Cain's  eldest  son,  Gen.  iv.  17.,  even  a  Methuselah  called  his  son 
 Lamech,  by  the  name  of  one  of  Cain's  grandchildren,  ch,  iv. 
 i  ver.  18. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 53 
 
 A.  M.  130.  A.  C.  3874;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 it  is  incongruous  to  think,  that  Lainech  was  181,  and 
 Methuselah,  IS7,  before  they  ever  had  a  child,  when  it 
 so  plainly  appears  that  his  father  Enoch  had  one  at  65. 
 The  true  reason  then  of  this  omission  is, — that  the  his- 
 torian never  intended  to  give  us  a  catalogue  of  the  col- 
 lateral branches  (which  doubtless  were  many)  but  only 
 of  the  principal  persons  by  whom,  in  a  right  line,  the 
 succession  was  continued  down  to  Noah,  and  thence  to 
 Abraham,  the  founder  of  the  Jewish  nation. 
 
 Not  long  after  the  departure  of  Cain,  the  whole  world 
 was  divided  into  two  families,  or  opposite  nations  :  the 
 family  of  Seth,  which  adhered  to  the  service  of  God, 
 « became  more  frequent  in  religious  offices ;  and,  as 
 their  number  increased,  met  in  larger  assemblies,  and  in 
 communion,  to  perform  the  divine  worship  by  way  of 
 public  liturgy  ;  and,  '  for  this  their  piety  and  zeal,  were 
 styled  the  sons  or  servants  of  God,  in  distinction  to  the 
 family  of  Cain,  which  now  became  profligate  and  pro- 
 fane, renouncing  the  service  of  God,  and  addicting 
 themselves  to  all  manner  of  impiety  and  lasciviousness  ; 
 from  whence  they  had  the  name  of  the  '  sons  and  daugh- 
 ters of  men.' 
 
 In  this  period  of  time,  Enoch,  one  of  the  family  of 
 Seth,  and  the  seventh  in  a  direct  line  from  Adam,  a  per- 
 
 1  Heidegger 's  History  of  the  Patriarchs, 
 a  The  words  in  our  translation  are, — '  Then,'  that  is,  in  the 
 days  of  Euos,  'began  men  to  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,' 
 ch.  iv.  26.;  but,  it  being  very  probable,  that  public  assemblies 
 fur  religious  offices,  were  held  long  before  this  time,  and  that  even 
 when  Cain  and  Abel  offered  their  sacrifices,  their  families  joined 
 with  them  in  the  worship  of  God;  some  men  of  great  note,  such 
 as,  Bertram,  Hachspan,  aud  Heidegger,  take  them  in  the  same 
 sense  with  our  marginal  translation;  '  then  began  men,'  that  is, 
 the  children  of  Seth,  '  to  call  themselves  by  the  name  of  the 
 Lord,'  that  is,  the  servants  and  worshippers  of  the  Lord,  in  con- 
 tradistinction to  the  Cainites,  and  such  profane  persons  as  had 
 forsaken  him.  It  must  not  be  dissembled,  however,  that  the 
 word  Hochal,  which  we  translate  began,  in  several  places  of  Scrip- 
 ture signifies  to  profane  ;  and  upon  this  presumption  many  of  the 
 Jewish  writers,  and  some  of  no  obscure  fame  among  us,  have 
 taken  the  words  so,  as  if  Moses  intended  to  intimate  to  us,  that 
 men  began  now  to  apostatize  from  the  worship  of  God,  to  fall  into 
 idolatry,  and  to  apply  the  most  holy  name,  which  alone  belongs 
 to  the  great  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  to  created  beings,  and 
 especially  to  the  sun.  But,  considering  that  Moses  is  here  speak- 
 mg  of  the  pious  family  of  Seth,  and  not  of  that  of  Cain ;  that 
 when  the  Hebrew  word  signifies  to  profane,  it  has  always  a  noun 
 following  it;  but  when  an  affirmative  mood  follows,  (as  in  the 
 passage  before  us,)  it  always  signifies  to  begin  ;  and  withal,  that 
 the  eastern  writers  represent  this  Enos  as  an  excellent  governor, 
 who,  while  he  lived,  preserved  his  family  in  good  order,  and, 
 when  lie  died,  called  them  all  together,  aud  gave  them  a  charge 
 to  keep  all  (Jod's  commandments,  and  not  to  associate  themselves 
 with  the  children  of  Cain:  considering  all  this,  I  say,  we  can 
 hardly  suppose  that  Moses  is  here  pointing  out  the  origin  of  idol- 
 atry, but  rather  the  invention  of  some  religious  rites  and  cere- 
 monies in  the  external  worship  of  God  at  this  time,  or  the  dis- 
 tinction which  good  men  began  to  put  between  themselves  and 
 such  as  were  openly  wicked  and  profane.  For  that  the  true 
 meaning  of  the  expression  Karabeshem,  according  to  our  mar- 
 ginal translation,  is  to  call  or  nominate  by,  or  after  the  name  of 
 any  one,  is  manifest  from  several  instances  in  Scripture.  Thus, 
 Ben.  iv.  17,  Jikra,  he  called  the  name  of  the  city  Jlcshem,  by, 
 or  after  the  name  of  his  son,  Numb,  xxxii.  42.  Jikra,  he  catted 
 it  Nobukbe&hem,  by,  or  after  his  own  name  ;  and  in  Psal.  xlix.  11. 
 Korean,  they  call  their  lands  Bishmotham,  by,  or  after  their 
 own  names;  and  the  name  here  intimated  is  afterwards  expressly 
 given  them  by  Moses  himself,  Gen.  vi.  when  he  tells  us,  that 
 'the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men.' — Patrick's  Com- 
 tnentury;  and  Catmct's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Enos;  and 
 Bhuckf aid's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  1. 
 
 A.  M.  230.  A.  C.  5181.  GEN.  CE  5.  AND  6.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 son  of  singular  piety  and  sanctity  of  life,  not  only  took 
 care  of  his  own  conduct,  u  as  considering  himself  always 
 under  the  eye  and  observation  of  a  righteous  God,  but, 
 by  his  good  advices  and  admonitions,  endeavoured  like- 
 wise to  put  a  stop  to  the  torrent  of  impiety,  and  reform 
 the  vices  of  the  age ;  for  which  reason  God  was  pleased 
 to  show  a  signal  token  of  his  kindness  to  him ;  for  he 
 exempted  him  from  the  common  fate  of  mankind,  and, 
 without  suffering  death  to  pass  upon  him,  translated  him 
 into  the  regions  of  bliss. 
 
 In  this  period  of  time,  Adam,  who  (according  to  the 
 sentence  denounced  against  him  at  the  fall)  was  to 
 return  to  his  native  dust,  departed  this  life,  and  (as  the 
 tradition  is)  having  called  his  son  Seth,  and  the  other 
 branches  of  his  numerous  family  about  him,  he  gave 
 them  strict  charge,  that  they  should  always  live  separate, 
 
 b  This  seems  to  be  the  natural  sense  of  the  expression  of 
 walking  ivith  God;  and  excellent  to  this  purpose  is  this  passage 
 of  Seneca,  if  we  take  what  he  tells  us  of  the  presence  of  God  in 
 a  Christian  sense: — 
 
 "  Verily  we  must  so  conduct  ourselves  as  if  we  lived  in 
 God's  presence, — we  must  so  think  as  if  some  one  could  look 
 into  the  recesses  of  our  hearts,  and  there  is  one  who  can,  for 
 what  availeth  it  that  any  thing  be  kept  hid  from  man?  nothing 
 is  concealed  from  God;  he  is  present  in  our  minds,  and  knoweth 
 our  thoughts." — B.  1.  Epist.  83;  Lc  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 But,  considering  how  usual  a  thing  it  was,  in  these  early 
 ages  of  the  world,  for  angels  to  be  conversant  with  good  men, 
 it  may  not  improperly  be  said  of  Enoch,  and  of  Noah  both,  that 
 they  walked  with  God  in  this  sense,  namely,  that  they  had 
 oftentimes  familiar  converse  with  these  messengers,  who  might 
 be  sent  with  instructions  from  him  how  they  were  to  behave 
 upon  several  occasions:  for  this  answers  the  traditions  of  the 
 heathens,  namely,  that  in  the  golden  age,  their  gods  had  fre- 
 quent intercourse  with  men : 
 
 An  endless  life  shall  be  his  gift,  and  lie, 
 
 Great  heroes  with  the  gods  convened  shall  see  ; 
 
 While  he  by  them  with  loving  eyes  beheld. 
 
 Virg.  Ec.  4. 
 And  to  the  same  purpose: — 
 
 More  oft  of  old  th*  inhabitants  of  heaven, 
 Were  wont  to  show  themselves  to  human  eyes, 
 When  piety  not  yet  was  held  in  scorn. 
 
 Catul.  in  Nup.  Thet.  et  Pelei. 
 c  Where  Adam  was  buried  cannot  be  collected  from  Scrip- 
 ture. St  Jerome,  in  Matt,  xxvii.  seems  to  approve  of  the  opin- 
 ion of  those  who  imagine  that  he  was  buried  at  Hebron,  in  the 
 cave  of  Machpelah,  or  the  double  cave,  which  Abraham,  many 
 ages  after,  bought  for  a  burying  place  Uw  himself  and  family, 
 Gen.  xxiii.  3.  &c.  The  oriental  Christians  say,  that  when 
 Adam  saw  death  approaching,  he  called  his  son  Seth,  ami  the 
 rest  of  his  family  to  him,  and  ordered  them  to  embalm  his  body 
 with  myrrh,  frankincense,  and  cassia,  and  deposit  it  in  a  certain 
 cave,  on  the  top  of  a  mountain,  which  he  had  chosen  for  the 
 repository  of  his  remains,  and  which  was  thence  called  the  cave 
 of  All-Konnz,  a  word  derived  from  the  Arabian  Kanaza,  which 
 signifies  to  lay  tip  privately.  And  this  precaution  (as  the  Jews 
 will  have  it)  was  ordered  by  Adam  to  be  taken,  lest  his  posterity 
 should  make  his  relics  the  object  of  idolatry.  Several  of  the 
 primitive  fathers  believe,  that  he  died  in  the  place  where  Jeru- 
 salem was  afterwards  built,  and  that  he  was  interred  on  Mount 
 Calvary,  in  the  very  Bpol  where  Christ  was  crucified;  but  others 
 are  of  opinion,  that  (though  he  did  not  die  at  Jerusalem,)  yet 
 Noah,  at  the  time  of  the  deluge,  put  his  body  into  the  ark,  and 
 took  care  to  have  it  buried  there  by  Melchisedec,  the  son  of 
 Shem,  his  grandson.  The  Mahometans  will  have  his  sepulchre 
 to  have  been  on  a  mountain  near  Mecca;  and  the  ancient  Per- 
 sians, in  Serendil,  or  Ceylon:  so  ambitious  is  every  nation  to 
 have  the  father  of  all  mankind  reposited  with  them.  When 
 Eve,  the  mother  of  all  living,  died  is  nowhere  expressed  In 
 Scripture;  but  there  are  some  who  venture  to  tell  us,  that  she 
 
 outlived  her  husband  ten  years. — See  the  Universal  History;  and 
 Calmefl  Dictionary  on  the  word  Adam, 
 
54 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  10-12.  A.  C.  29G2 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  1070.  A.  C.  4311.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  C.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 anil  have  no  manner  of  intercourse  with  the  impious 
 family  of  the  murderer  Cain. 
 
 In  this  period  of  time,  Noah,  the  great-grandson  of 
 Enoch,  and  a  person  of  equal  virtue  and  piety,  was 
 born :  and  as  it  was  discovered  to  Enoch  at  the  birth  of 
 Methuselah,  that  soon  after  that  child's  death,  the  whole 
 race  of  mankind  should  be  destroyed  for  their  wicked- 
 ness; so  was  it  revealed  to  Lamech,  at  the  birth  of  his 
 son,1  that  he  and  his  family  should  be  preserved  from 
 the  common  destruction,  and  so  become  the  father  of 
 the  new  world ;  and  for  this  reason  "he  called  him  Noah, 
 which  signifies  a  comforter :  though  others  imagine, 
 that  the  name  was  therefore  given  him,  because  his 
 father,  by  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  foreknew,  that  God, 
 in  his  days,  would  remove  the  curse  of  barrenness  from 
 oft' the  face  of  the  earth,  and,  after  the  time  of  the  deluge, 
 restore  it  to  its  original  fertility. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Adam,  the  family  of  Seth  (to  fulfil 
 
 1  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology. 
 a  The  substance  of  Lamech's  prophecy,  according  to  our  trans- 
 lation, is  this:— 'He  called  his  son  Noah,  saying;  This  same 
 shall  comfort  us,  concerning  the  work  and  toil  of  our  hands,  be- 
 cause of  the  ground  which  the  Lord  hath  cursed ;'  and  the  sense 
 of  learned  men  upon  it  hath  been  very  different.  Some  are  of 
 opinion,  that  there  is  nothing  prophetical  in  this  declaration  of 
 Lamech's,  and  that  the  only  cause  of  his  rejoicing  was,  to  see  a 
 son  born,  who  might  in  time  be  assisting  to  him  in  the  toil  of 
 cultivating  the  ground.  But  in  this  there  is  nothing  particular: 
 in  this  sense  Lamech's  words  may  be  applied  by  every  father  at 
 the  birth  of  every  son ;  nor  can  we  conceive  why  a  peculiar  name 
 should  be  given  Noah,  if  there  was  no  particular  reason  for  it. 
 The  Jewish  interpreters  generally  expound  it  thus:  'He  shall 
 make  our  labour  in  tilling  the  ground  more  easy  to  us/  in  that 
 lie  shall  be  the  inventor  of  several  proper  tools  and  instruments 
 of  husbandry,  to  abate  the  toil  and  labour  of  tillage;  and  some 
 will  tell  us,  that  he  therefore  received  his  name,  because  he  first 
 invented  the  art  of  making  wine,  a  liquor  that  cheers  the  heart, 
 and  makes  man  forget  sorrow  and  trouble.  But  the  invention 
 of  fit  tools  for  tillage,  after  that  Tubal-Cain  had  become  so  great 
 an  artificer  in  brass  and  silver,  seems  to  belong  to  one  of  his 
 descendants,  rather  than  Noah ;  and  as  Noah  was  not  the  first 
 husbandman  in  the  world,  so  neither  can  it  be  concluded  from 
 his  having  planted  a  vineyard,  that  he  was  the  first  vine-dresser. 
 Another  opinion,  not  altogether  unlike  this,  is, — that  Lamech, 
 being  probably  informed  by  God,  that  his  son  Noah  should  obtain 
 a  grant  of  the  creatures  for  food,  Gen.  ix.  5.  and  knowing  the 
 labour  and  inconveniences  they  were  under,  rejoiced  in  foresee- 
 ing what  ease  and  comfort  they  should  have,  when  they  obtained 
 a  large  supply  of  food  from  the  creatures,  besides  what  they 
 could  produce  from  the  ground  by  tillage.  The  restoration  of 
 mankind  by  Noah,  and  his  sons  surviving  the  flood,  is  thought 
 by  many  to  answer  the  comfort  which  Lamech  promised  him- 
 self and  his  posterity:  but  the  learned  Heidegger,  after  an  exam- 
 ination of  all  these,  and  some  other  opinions,  supposeth  that 
 Lamech,  having  in  mind  the  promise  of  God,  expected  that  his 
 son  should  prove  the  blessed  seed,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  who 
 was  to  bruise  the  serpent's  head,  and,  by  his  atonement,  expiate 
 our  sins,  which  are  the  works  of  our  own  hands,  and  remove  the 
 curse  which  lay  upon  sinners.  But  this,  in  my  opinion,  is  too 
 forced  an  exposition.  Lamech,  it  is  certain,  in  virtue  of  God's 
 promise,  expected  a  deliverance  from  the  curse  of  the  earth,  and 
 foresaw  that  that  deliverance  would  come  through  his  son:  but 
 how  came  it  through  his  son,  unless  it  came  in  his  son's  days  ? 
 And  in  what  instance  could  it  appear,  unless  it  were  something 
 subsequent  to  the  flood  ?  And  what  could  that  possibly  be,  un- 
 less the  removal  of  the  sterility  of  the  earth,  and  restoring  it  to 
 its  original  fruitfulness?  For  which  reason  we  find  God,  after 
 the  flood,  declaring,  that  '  he  will  not  curse  the  earth  for  man's 
 sake;'  and  solemnly  promising,  that  'while  the  earth  remaineth, 
 seed-time  and  harvest  shall  not  cease,'  Gen.  viii.  22.  See 
 Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs;  Patrick  and  Le  Clerc's 
 Commentary;  Poole's  Annotations;  Shucftford's  Connection;  and 
 liishop  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy,  Dissertation  4. 
 
 their  father's  will)  removed  from  the  plain  where  they 
 had  lived,  to  the  mountains  over  against  paradise,  where 
 Adam  is  said  to  have  been  buried ;  and  for  some  time 
 lived  there  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  in  the  strictest  rules 
 of  piety  and  virtue.  But  as  the  family  of  Cain,  daily 
 increased,  they  came  at  length  to  spread  themselves 
 over  all  the  plain  which  Seth  had  left,  even  to  the  con- 
 fines of  the  hill-country,  where  he  had  fixed  his  abode, 
 and  there  they  b  lived  in  all  kind  of  riot,  luxury,  and 
 licentiousness. 
 
 The  noise  of  their  revellings  might  possibly  reach  the 
 holy  mountain  where  the  Sethites  dwelt;  whereupon 
 some  of  them  might  be  tempted  to  go  down,  merely  to 
 gratify  their  curiosity  perhaps  at  first,  but  being  taken 
 with  their  deluding  pleasures,  and  "intoxicated  with  the 
 charms  of  their  women,  (who  were  extremely  beautiful,) 
 they  forgot  the  charge  which  their  forefathers  had  given 
 them,  and  so  took  to  themselves  wives  of  the  daughters 
 of  Cain  ;  from  which  criminal  mixture  were  born  men  ol 
 vast  gigantic  stature,  who  for  some  time  infested  the  earth : 
 and,  in  a  few  generations  after,  the  whole  family  ol 
 Seth  (very  probably  after  the  death  of  their  pious  an- 
 cestor) followed  the  like  example,  and,  forgetting  their 
 obligations  to  the  contrary,  entered  into  society  with  the 
 Cainites,  and  made  intermarriages  with  them ;  from 
 whence  arose  another  race  of  men,  no  less  remarkable 
 for  their  daring  wickedness  than  for  their  bold  under- 
 takings and  adventurous  actions. 
 
 Evil  communications  naturally  corrupt  good  manners  ; 
 and  so  the  example  of  the  wicked  family  prevailed,  and, 
 by  degrees,  eat  out  all  remains  of  religion  in  the  poste- 
 rity of  Seth.  Noah  indeed,  who  was  a  good  and  pious 
 man,  endeavoured  what  he  could,2 both  by  his  counsel 
 and  authority,  to  bring  them  to  a  reformation  of  their 
 manners,  and  to  restore  the  true  religion  among  them  ; 
 
 8  Josephus's  Antiquities,  b.  I.e.  4. 
 
 b  Some  of  the  oriental  writers  have  given  us  a  large  account 
 of  their  manner  of  living.  "  As  to  the  posterity  of  Cain,"  say 
 they,  "the  men  did  violently  burn  in  lust  towards  the  women, 
 and,  in  like  manner,  the  women,  without  any  shame,  committed 
 fornication  with  the  men ;  so  that  they  were  guilty  of  all  manner 
 of  filthy  crimes  with  one  another,  and,  meeting  together  in  pub- 
 lic places  for  this  purpose,  two  or  three  men  were  concerned 
 with  the  same  woman,  the  ancient  women,  if  possible,  being 
 more  lustful  and  brutish  than  the  young.  Nay,  fathers  lived 
 promiscuously  with  their  daughters,  and  the  young  men  with 
 their  mothers;  so  that  neither  the  children  could  distinguish  their 
 own  parents,  nor  the  parents  know  their  own  children.  So  de- 
 testable were  the  deeds  of  the  Cainites,  who  spent  their  days  in 
 hist  and  wantonness,  in  singing  and  dancing,  and  all  kinds  of 
 music,  until  some  of  the  sons  of  Seth,  hearing  the  noise  of  their 
 music  and  riotous  mirth,  agreed  to  go  down  to  them  from  the 
 holy  mountain,  and,  upon  their  arrival,  were  so  captivated  with 
 the  beauty  of  their  women,  (who  were  naked)  that  they  imme- 
 diately defiled  themselves  with  them,  and  so  were  undone.  For 
 when  they  offered  to  return  again  to  their  former  abodes,  the 
 stones  of  "the  mountain  became  like  fire,  and  permitted  them  Ui 
 pass  no  farther." — Eutych.  Annals,  p.  27. 
 
 c  Our  excellent  Milton  describes  the  manner  of  their  being 
 captivated  with  the  daughters  of  Cain  in  these  words: 
 -They  on  the  plain 
 
 Long  had  not  walk'd,  when  from  their  tents,  behold, 
 
 A  bevy  of  fair  women,  richly  gay, 
 
 In  gems,  and  wanton  dress  :  to  th'  harp  they  sung 
 
 Soft  amorous  ditties,  and  in  dance  came  on. 
 
 The  men,  though  grave,  eyed  them  ;  and  let  their  eye3 
 
 Rove  without  win  ;  till  in  the  amorous  net 
 
 First  caught,  they  Uk'd,  and  each  his  liking  chose. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 PROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 55 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  2408;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  213G.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G.  TO  VEK.  13. 
 
 °but  all  he  could  do  was  to  no  purpose.  The  bent  of 
 their  thoughts  had  taken  another  turn  ;  and  all  their 
 study  and  contrivance  was,  how  to  gratify  their  lusts  and 
 inordinate  passions.  In  one  word,  the  whole  race  of 
 mankind  was  become  so  very  wicked,  that  one  would 
 have  really  thought  they  had  been  confederated  together 
 against  Heaven,  to  violate  God's  law,  to  profane  his 
 worship,  and  spurn  at  his  authority ;  so  that  his  patience 
 and  long-suffering  came  at  length  to  be  wearied  out : 
 and  though  he  is  not  a  man  that  he  should  repent,  or  the 
 son  of  man,  that  he  should  grieve  at  any  thing,  yet  his 
 concern  for  the  general  corruption  is  represented  under 
 that  notion,  the  better  to  accommodate  it  to  our  capacity, 
 and  to  express  his  fixed  resolution  of  destroying  all 
 mankind  for  their  iniquity,  and  with  them  all  other  crea- 
 tures made  for  their  use,  *as  if  he  had  repented  that 
 ever  he  made  them. 
 
 Before  he  resolved  upon  their  destruction,  however, 
 we  find  him  in  great  struggle  and  conflict  with  himself ;  his 
 justice  calling  for  vengeance,  and  his  mercy  pleading  for 
 forbearance  ;  till  at  length  his  justice  prevailed,  and  de- 
 nounced the  sentence  of  condemnation  upon  the  wicked 
 world  :   but  still  with  this  reserve — That  if,  c  within  the 
 
 a  Josephus  tells  us,  that  Noah,  for  a  long  while,  opposed  the 
 growing  impiety  of  the  age ;  but  that  at  last,  finding  himself  and 
 family  in  manifest  danger  of  some  mortal  violence  for  his  good- 
 will, he  departed  out  of  the  land  himself,  and  all  his  people; 
 — Antiq.  b.  1.  c.  4;  and  (as  the  tradition  is,)  he  settled  in  a 
 country  called  Cyparisson,  which  had  its  name  from  the  great 
 quantity  of  cypress-trees  which  grew  there,  and  whereof  (as  we 
 shall  observe  hereafter)  in  all  probability  he  built  the  ark. 
 
 b  As  languages  were  at  first  invented  by  such  persons  as  were 
 neither  philosophers  nor  divines,  we  caiuiot  at  all  wonder,  that 
 we  meet  with  many  improprieties  in  speech,  and  such  actions 
 imputed  to  God,  as  no  ways  comport  with  the  dignity  of  his 
 nature.  Thus,  when  the  Holy  Scriptures  speak  of  God,  they 
 ascribe  hands,  and  eyes,  and  feet  to  him ;  not  that  he  has  any  of 
 these  members,  according  to  the  literal  signification ;  but  the 
 meaning  is,  that  he  has  a  power  to  execute  all  those  acts,  to  the 
 effecting  of  which,  these  parts  in  us  are  instrumental,  that  is,  he 
 can  converse  with  men,  as  well  as  if  he  had  a  tongue  or  mouth ; 
 can  discern  all  that  we  do  or  say,  as  perfectly  as  if  he  had  eyes 
 and  ears ;  and  can  reach  us,  as  well  as  if  he  had  hands  or  feet, 
 &C  In  like  manner,  the  Scripture  frequently  represents  him, 
 as  affected  with  such  passions  as  we  perceive  in  ourselves,  name- 
 ly, as  angry  and  pleased,  loving  and  hating,  repenting  and 
 grieving,  &c. ;  and  yet,  upon  reflection,  we  cannot  suppose,  that 
 any  of  these  passions  can  literally  affect  the  divine  nature ;  and 
 therefore  the  meaning  is,  that  he  will  as  certainly  punish  the 
 wicked,  as  if  he  were  inflamed  with  the  passion  of  anger  against 
 them ;  as  infallibly  reward  the  good,  as  we  will  those  for  whom 
 we  have  a  particular  affection ;  and  that  when  he  finds  any  alter- 
 ation in  his  creatures,  either  for  the  better  or  the  worse,  he  will 
 as  surely  change  his  dispensations  towards  them,  as  if  he  really 
 repented,  or  changed  his  mind.  It  is  by  way  of  analogy  and 
 comparison,  therefore,  that  the  nature  and  passions  of  men  are 
 ascribed  to  God:  so  that  when  he  is  said  to  repent  or  grieve,  the 
 meaning  must  be,  not  that  he  perceived  any  thing  that  he  was 
 ignorant  of  before,  to  give  him  any  uneasiness,  (for  '  known  unto 
 him  are  all  his  ways  from  the  beginning,'')  but  only  that  he  altered 
 his  conduct  with  regard  to  men,  as  they  varied  in  their  behav- 
 iour towards  him,  just  as  we  are  wont  to  do  when  we  are  moved 
 by  any  of  those  passions  and  changes  of  affections,  we,  '  who 
 dwell  in  houses  of  clay,  and  whose  foundations  are  in  the  dust:' 
 for  the  very  heathens  can  tell  us,  that  "  to  alter  what  hath  been 
 accomplished  is  a  lessening  of  majesty,  and  a  confession  of  error, 
 for  of  necessity  the  same  tiling  must  always  satisfy  him  whom 
 nothing  but  the  best  can  please."  Seneca  in  Prof.  Nat.  Quest. 
 —See  Le  Clerc's  Commentary ;  Bishop  King  on  Predestina- 
 tion; and  Ainsrvorth 's  Annotations. 
 
 c  This  was  the  term  allowed  mankind  for  their  repentance, 
 and  prevention  of  their  ruin  :  and  yet,  if  wc  compare  cli.  v.  32. 
 
 space  of  120  years,  (which  was  the  term  limited  for  their 
 reprival,)  they  should  forsake  their  evil  ways,  repent, 
 and  reform,  his  mercy  should  be  at  liberty  to  interpose, 
 and  reverse  their  doom.  All  which  he  conununicated 
 to  his  servant  Noah,  who,  for  his  justice  and  singular 
 piety  in  that  corrupt  and  degenerate  age,  had  found 
 favour  in  his  sight;  and  for  whose  sake  his  family,  which 
 consisted  of  eight  persons  in  all,  was  to  be  exempted 
 from  the  general  destruction. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 That  God  of  his  infinite  wisdom  might,  for  very  good 
 reasons,  think  proper  to  create  man  at  first,  and  in  all 
 the  full  perfection  of  his  nature,  notwithstanding  he 
 could  not  but  foresee,  that  he  would  sadly  degenerate, 
 and  turn  rebel  to  his  will,  is  a  question  we  have  already 
 endeavoured  to  resolve,  1  when  we  treated  of  the  fall  of 
 Adam ;  and  by  what  means  his  posterity,  in  the  succes- 
 sion of  so  few  generations,  as  passed  from  the  creation 
 to  the  flood,  became  so  very  corrupt,  as  to  lay  God 
 under  a  necessity  to  destroy  them,  may  in  a  great  mea- 
 sure be  imputed  to  the  length  of  their  lives,  and  the 
 strength  and  vigour  of  their  constitutions.  For,  sup- 
 posing all  mankind,  since  the  original  defection,  to  be 
 born  in  a  state  of  depraved  nature,  with  their  under- 
 standings impaired,  their  wills  perverted,  and  their  pas- 
 sions inflamed ;  2  we  can  scarce  imagine  any  restraint 
 consistent  with  human  freedom,  sufficient  to  check  their 
 unruly  appetites  in  that  height  of  vigour,  and  confidence 
 of  long  life.  For  if  we,  who  rarely,  and  with  no  small 
 difficulty,  stretch  out  the  span  of  seventy  years,  are 
 hardly  withheld  from  violence  and  villany  by  all  the 
 dictates  of  reason  and  terrors  of  religion,  what  can  we 
 conceive  sufficient  to  have  kept  them  back,  in  their 
 strength  and  security  in  sin  from  a  continued  series  of 
 eight  or  nine  hundred  years  ?  No  interposition  of  Pro- 
 vidence can  be  supposed  available  to  the  reformation  of 
 mankind  under  these  circumstances,  unless  it  were  such 
 as  would  either  change  their  nature,  or  destroy  their 
 freedom  ;  and  therefore  we  have  reason  to  believe,  that 
 in  the  space  of  .about  1800  years  from  the  creation,  God 
 found  them  degenerated  to  such  a  degree,  as  if  they 
 had  lost  all  sense  of  their  humanity  ;  for  this  some  have 
 made  the  import  of  the  text, '  my  Spirit  shall  not  always 
 strive  with  man,  for  that  lie  also  is  flesh,'  that  is,  it  is  in 
 vain  to  use  any  farther  methods  of  mercy,  or  monitions 
 of  providence  with  man,  who  is  now  entirely  given  up 
 
 i  see  p_  30.  *  Revelation  E.vamimd,  vol.  I. 
 
 with  ch.  vii.  11.,  we  shall  find,  that  between  this  time  and  the 
 flood,  there  were  but  100  years.  How  then  did  God  perform 
 his  promise?  Now,  in  answer  to  tins  >t  may  be  said,  that  the 
 increasing  wickedness  of  mankind  might  justly  hasten  their 
 ruin,  and  forfeit  the  benefit  of  this  indulgence:  but  what  I  take 
 to  be  the  true  solution  is  this: — This  promise  (though  men- 
 tioned after  what  we  read  in  ch.  v.  32.)  seems  nevertheless  to 
 have  been  made  20  years  before  it:  for  that  verse  is  added  there 
 out  of  its  proper  place,  only  to  complete  the  genealogy:  and 
 therefore,  after  this  narrative  of  the  wickedness  of  the  world  it 
 is  repeated  here  in  its  due  order,  in  the  10th  Terse:  nor  are 
 such  tian-|uwitions  uncommon  in  Scripture,  without  any  dimin- 
 ution to  its  authority. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
56 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  2468;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2136.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  6.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 to  fleshly  appetites,  and  by  that  means  sunk  down  into 
 the  lowest  condition  of  brutality. 
 
 By  what  gradations  man  arrived  at  his  height  of  cor- 
 ruption, is  not  so  evident  from  Scripture  :  but  there  are 
 two  passages,  1  *  the  earth  was  corrupt  before  God,  and 
 the  earth  was  filled  with  violence ;'  which  seem  to  point 
 out  some  particular  vices  :  for  by  '  violence '  is  plainly 
 meant  cruelty,  and  outrage,  and  injustice  of  every  kind  ; 
 and  by  corruption,  the  Jews  always  understand,  either 
 idolatry,  or  unlawful  mixtures  and  pollutions ;  the  latter 
 of  which  seems  to  be  denoted  here  because  of  the  subse- 
 quent explication  of  the  words,  '  for  all  flesh  had  cor- 
 rupted his  way  upon  the  earth.' 
 
 Now,  if  Ave  look  into  the  history,  we  shall  find,  that 
 the  first  act  of  violence  was  committed  by  Cain  upon  his 
 brother  Abel ;  the  first  act  of  incontinence  by  Lamech, 
 in  the  matter  of  his  polygamy ;  and  that  as  one  of  his 
 sons  invented  the  instruments  of  luxury,  so  the  other  in- 
 vented the  instruments  of  violence  and  war.  As  luxury 
 therefore  naturally  begets  a  disposition  to  injure  others 
 in  their  property,  and  such  a  disposition,  armed  with 
 offensive  weapons,  in  the  hands  of  men  of  a  gigantic 
 stature  and  strength,  (as  many  of  the  antediluvians  very 
 probably  were,)  tends  to  beget  all  manner  of  insolence 
 and  outrage  to  our  fellow-creatures ;  so  these  two-  car- 
 dinal vices  might  naturally  enough  introduce  that  train 
 of  corruption  which  drew  God's  judgments  upon  the 
 inhabitants  of  the  earth. 
 
 Had  God  indeed  given  them  no  intimations  of  this  his 
 design,  no  calls  to  repentance,  no  means  and  opportun- 
 ities of  becoming  better,  before  he  determined  their 
 destruction,  something  might  then  be  said  in  opposition 
 to  the  righteousness  of  this  procedure  ;  but  2  since,  from 
 the  very  beginning,  he  was  pleased,  in  the  sentence  he 
 passed  upon  the  serpent,  to  give  them  a  remarkable  pro- 
 mise, that  the  seed  of  the  woman  should  destroy  the 
 power  of  that  evil  spirit  which  brought  sin  into  the  world, 
 and  consequently, 3  that  all  parents  were  obliged  to  train 
 up  their  children  in  the  ways  of  virtue  and  religion,  with- 
 out which  it  was  impossible  for  any  of  them  to  be  the 
 promised  seed,  which  was  to  restore  mankind  to  their 
 original  perfections  ;  since  he  himself  instituted  sacrifi- 
 ces, as  a  means  admirably  well  fitted  to  inspire  mankind 
 with  an  horror  of  guilt,  and  be,  at  the  same  time,  a  per- 
 petual memorial  of  the  divine  mercy  from  generation  to 
 generation  ;  since,  in  his  expulsion  of  Cain  from  his 
 presence,  and  exaltation  of  Enoch  into  heaven,  he  made 
 an  open  declaration  to  all  future  ages,  that  his  vengeance 
 should  at  all  times  pursue  sin,  but  his  bounty  had  always 
 in  store  an  ample  reward  for  the  righteous  ;  since  at  this 
 time  he  exhibited  himself  to  mankind  in  a  more  sensible 
 manner  than  he  does  now,  causing  them  to  hear  voices, 
 and  to  dream  dreams,  and,  by  sundry  extraordinary 
 means,  convincing  them  of  their  duty,  and  giving  them 
 directions  for  the  conduct  of  their  lives ;  since,  at  this 
 time,  they  had  the  principles  of  religion  (which  were  but 
 very  few)  conveyed  to  them  by  an  easy  tradition,  which, 
 by  Methuselah's  living  248  years  Avith  Adam,  and  dying 
 but  a  little  before  the  flood,  in  the  compass  of  1600  years 
 and  more,  had  but  tAvo  hands  to  pass  through :  and, 
 lastly,  since  God  appointed  Noah  in  particular  to  be  '  a 
 
 1  Gen.  vi.  11.         2  Shuekford's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  1 
 8  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  1. 
 
 preacher  of  righteousness,' 4  as  the  apostle  styles  him,  to 
 exhort  that  Avicked  race  to  forsake  their  sins,  and  return 
 unto  him ;  to  warn  them  of  their  impending  doom,  if 
 they  persisted  in  their  provocations  ;  to  give  them  notice, 
 that  120  years  Avas  the  stated  time  of  their  reprieve,  and 
 that,  at  the  end  of  that  period,  his  fixed  determination 
 Avas  to  destroy  them  utterly,  mdess  their  amendment 
 averted  the  judgment.  Since  these  and  many  more 
 methods  of  mercy  Avere  all  along  employed  by  God  (and 
 especially  in  the  days  that  his  long-suffering  Avaited,  Avhile 
 the  ark  Avas  preparing)  for  the  recovery  of  mankind, 
 before  the  deluge  came  upon  them,  they  are  sufficient  to 
 vindicate  the  Avays  of  God  Avith  man,  and  to  justify  his 
 severity  in  bringing  in  the  flood  upon  the  Avorld  of  the 
 ungodly,  which  neither  his  restraints  nor  reAvards,  nor 
 all  the  monitions  and  exhortations  of  his  prophets,  added 
 to  his  oaati  declarations,  institutions,  inflictions,  and 
 denunciations  of  vengeance,  could  reclaim,  in  the  course 
 of  so  many  centuries.5 
 
 Other  living  creatures,  it  is  true,  Avere  not  culpable  in 
 this  manner  :  they  all  ansAvered  the  ends  of  their  produc- 
 tion, and  man  Avas  the  only  rebel  against  his  Maker. 
 But  as,  in  an  universal  deluge,  it  Avas  impossible  to  pre- 
 serve them  alive  Avithout  a  miracle  ;  so,  having,  in  some 
 measure,  been  made  instrumental  to  man's  Avickedness, 
 innocent  though  they  Avere,  they  Avere  all  to  be  destroyed, 
 in  order  to  evince  the  malignity  of  sin,  and  God's 
 abhorrence  of  it.  For  the  great  end  of  his  providence,  in 
 sending  the  deluge  was  not  so  much  to  ease  himself  of 
 his  adversaries,  as  to  leave  a  perpetual  monument  of  his 
 unrelenting  severity,  that  thereby  he  might  deter  future 
 ages  from  the  like  provocations.  And  this  is  the  infer- 
 ence Avhich  the  apostle  draAvs  from  all  his  judgments  of 
 old:  6'  If  God  spared  not  the  angels,'  says  he,  'that 
 sinned,  but  cast  them  doAvn  to  hell ;  if  he  spared  not  the 
 old  Avorld,  but  brought  in  a  flood  upon  the  ungodly  ;  if 
 he  turned  the  cities  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrha  into  ashes, 
 and  condemned  them  Avith  an  overthroAV ;  these  are  an 
 ensample  unto  those,  that  after  shall  live  ungodly ;'  for 
 (hoAvever  they  may  escape  in  this  life)  '  he  hath  reserved 
 the  unjust  unto  the  day  of  judgment  to  be  punished.' 
 
 The  Scripture  indeed  seems  to  impute  all  this  iniquity 
 to  the  marriages  between  the  sons  of  God  and  the  daugh- 
 ters of  men  ;  but  the  misfortune  is,  that  several  interpre- 
 ters, being  led  away  by  the  authority  of  the  LXX,  A\ho 
 (according  to  Philo)  did  anciently  render  Avhat  Ave  style 
 the  sons  of  God,  by  clyyihm  tov  Gsov,  have  supposed, 
 that  Avicked  and  apostate  angels  assumed,  at  this  time, 
 human  bodies,  and,  having  had  carnal  communication 
 Avith  women,  begat  of  them  a  race  of  giants ;  and  from 
 this  original,  the  notion  of  incubi,  or  devils  conversing 
 Avith  women  in  the  like  manner,  has  ever  since  been  de 
 rived.     St  Austin,  "  among  many  others,  is  very  positive 
 
 4  2  Pet.  ii.  5.  5  Le  Clerc's  Commentary.  B  2  Pet.  ii.  4,  &c. 
 a  Dr  Whitby,  in  his  Writings  of  the  Fathers,  page  5,  has  in- 
 stanced in  almost  all  the  lathers  of  the  four  first  centuries,  who 
 were  of  this  opinion ;  such  as  Justin  Martyr,  Irenceus,  Athena- 
 goras,  Clemens  Alexandrinus ,  Tertidlian,  St  Cyprian,  Lactan- 
 tius,  Eusebius,  &c,  and  supposes  that  this  notion  took  its  rise 
 from  the  vain  traditions  of  the  Jews ;  because  Ave  find  not  only 
 Philo  reading  the  word  ayyiXoi,  or  angels,  in  the  Septuagint 
 version,  but  Josephus  likeAvise  asserting,  "  that  the  angels  of  God 
 mixing  with  women,  begat  an  insolent  race  (not  much  unlike 
 that  of  the  giants  in  the  Greek  fables)  overbearing  right  with 
 power." — Antiquities,   b.  1.  c.  4. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 57 
 
 A.  M.  1530.  A.  C.  2466;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 in  this  opinion.  * "  Several  people  have  had  the  trial," 
 says  he,  "  and  several  have  heard  it  from  those  who 
 knew  it  to  be  true,  that  the  silvani  and  fauni,  commonly 
 called  incubi,  have  been  often  fatal  to  women,  and  have 
 denied  their  bed.  It  is  likewise  affirmed  with  so  much 
 confidence,  that  certain  demons  (called  durii  among  the 
 Gauls)  have  not  oidy  attempted,  but  likewise  perpetrated 
 these  kinds  of  impure  actions,  that  it  would  be  foolish  to 
 make  any  question  of  it."  But  besides  the  ^compati- 
 bleness of  the  notion  of  a  spirit,  and  the  nature  of  an 
 incubus,  the  sons  of  God  are  here  represented  under 
 circumstances  quite  different  to  what  we  may  suppose  of 
 any  demons  assuming  human  shape. 
 
 2  An  incubus  (if  any  such  there  be)  can  desire  com- 
 merce with  a  woman,  for  no  other  reason,  but  only  to 
 draw  her  into  the  gulf  of  perdition.  Any  carnal  gratifi- 
 cation of  his  own  cannot  be  his  motive,  because  pleasure, 
 in  an  assumed  body,  if  it  is  pretended  to,  must  be  ficti- 
 tious :  but  here  the  sons  of  God  are  said  to  be  enam- 
 oured with  the  daughters  of  men,  and  (to  satisfy  their 
 lusts)  '  to  take  to  themselves  wives  of  all  that  they  chose,' 
 which  denoting  a  settled  marriage  and  cohabitation  with 
 them,  can  hardly  be  imagined  in  the  case  before  us. 
 From  those  marriages  we  may  farther  observe,  that  a 
 generation  of  living  men,  called  in  Scripture  men  of 
 renown,  did  ensue  ;  but  it  is  impious  to  think,  that  God 
 would  ever  concur  with  the  devil,  violating  the  laws  of 
 generation  which  he  had  established,  and  prostituting  the 
 dignity  of  human  nature,  by  stamping  his  own  image 
 upon,  or  infusing  an  human  soul  into  whatever  matter  a 
 fiend  should  think  fit  to  ingenerate. 
 
 In  prejudice  taken  to  this  opinion,  therefore,  several 
 interpreters  have  made  choice  of  another,  which,  though 
 somewhat  more  reasonable,  is  nevertheless  subject 
 to  exceptions.  It  supposes,  that,  by  the  sons  of  God 
 in  this  place,  are  meant  the  princes,  great  men,  and 
 magistrates  in  those  times,  who,  instead  of  using  their 
 authority  to  punish  and  discountenance  vice,  were  them- 
 selves the  greatest  examples  and  promoters  of  lewdness 
 and  debauchery  ;  taking  the  daughters  of  men,  or  of  the 
 inferior  and  meaner  sort  of  the  people,  and  debauching 
 them  by  force.  But  3  besides  the  harshness  of  the  con- 
 struction, which  (contrary  to  Scripture-phrase)  makes  all 
 great  and  powerful  sons  to  be  called  the  sons  of  God, 
 and  all  mean  and  plebeian  women  the  daughters  of  men, 
 there  is  this  error  in  the  supposition,  that  the  great  men 
 we  are  now  speaking  of,  did  not  offer  any  force  or  vio- 
 lence to  these  inferior  women  ;  '  they  saw  that  they  were 
 fair,  and  made  choice  of  them  for  wives.'  They  did  not 
 take  them  merely  to  lie  with  them,  and  so  dismiss  them ; 
 but  voluntarily  entered  into  a  state  of  matrimony  and 
 cohabitation  with  them.  And  this  being  all  the  matter, 
 wherein  is  the  heinousness  of  the  offence,  if  men  of  a 
 superior  rank  marry  with  their  inferiors,  especially  when 
 an  excess  of  beauty  apologizes  for  their  choice  ?  Or, 
 why  should  a  few  unequal  matches  be  reckoned  among 
 some  of  the  chief  causes  which  brought  upon  the  world 
 an  universal  destruction  ? 
 
 The  most  common,  therefore,  and  indeed  the  only 
 probable  opinion  is,  that  the  sons  of  God  were  the 
 descendants  of  Seth,  who,  for  the  great  piety  wherein  they 
 
 '  On  the  Monarchy  of  God,  b.  15.  c.  23. 
 Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarch*.  3  [bid. 
 
 A.  M.  2136.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 continued  for  some  time,  were  so  called,  and  that 
 daughters  of  men  were  the  progeny  of  wicked  Cain.  And 
 why  the  intermarriages  of  these  two  families  (even  though 
 there  was  no  express  prohibition  from  God)  came  to  be 
 so  provoking  to  him,  and  in  the  end  so  destructive  to 
 themselves,  is  the  next  point  of  our  inquiry. 
 
 It  has  been  a  question  among  the  learned,  whether  or 
 no,  in  the  ages  before  the  flood,  idolatry  was  practised  ? 
 but  there  seems  to  be  no  great  foundation  for  our  doubt- 
 ing it,  though  some  have  endeavoured  to  establish  it  upon 
 incompetent  texts.  The  only  expression  in  Scripture 
 that  bears  a  proper  aspect  this  way  is  in  Gen.  vi.  5. 
 where  we  are  told,  '  That  God  saw,  that  the  wickedness 
 of  man  was  great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every  imagina- 
 tion of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil  continually.' 
 The  words  seem  parallel  to  that  passage  of  the  apostle, 
 4 '  they  became  vain  in  their  imaginations,  and  their  fool- 
 ish heart  was  darkened  ;' — whereupon  it  follows,  '  that 
 they  changed  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God  into  an 
 image,  made  like  to  corruptible  man,  and  to  birds,  and 
 four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things.'  Since  there- 
 fore Moses  makes  use  of  *the  like  expression  concern- 
 ing the  age  soon  after  the  flood,  men  fell  into  idolatry, 
 until  the  true  worship  of  God  was  again  established 
 in  Abraham's  family,  it  seems  very  probable  that  he 
 intended  us  an  intimation  hereof  in  the  manner  of  his 
 expressing  himself.  Nor  can  we  imagine  but  that,  when 
 St  Peter  compares  the  false  teachers  of  his  age  with  the 
 people  of  the  antediluvian  world,  in  the  nature  of  their 
 punishment,  he  means  to  inform  us,  that  they  resembled 
 them  likewise  in  the  nature  of  their  crime,  in  their 
 6 '  bringing  in  damnable  heresies,'  and  abetting  such  doc- 
 trines, as  '  even  denied  the  Lord  that  bought  them  ;'  or 
 that,  when  St  Jude  7  expresses  his  indignation  against 
 certain  ungodly  men  in  his  days,  '  who  denied  the  only 
 Lord  God,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  in  such  words  as 
 these,  '  Woe  unto  them,  for  they  are  gone  in  the  way  of 
 Cain  ;'  he  leaves  us  to  infer,  that  Cain  and  his  posterity 
 were  the  first  that  threw  off  the  sense  of  a  God,  and, 
 instead  of  the  Creator,  began  to  worship  the  creature. 
 
 Now  if  the  Cainites  were,  at  this  time,  not  only  pro- 
 fligate in  their  manners,  but  abettors  of  infidelity,  and 
 promoters  of  idolatry  ;  for  the  family  of  Seth,  who  pro- 
 fessed the  true  worship  of  God,  to  enter  into  communion, 
 or  any  matrimonial  compacts  with  them,  could  not  but 
 prove  of  fatal  consequence.  'Tis  a  solemn  injunction 
 which  God  gives  the  Israelites,  against  all  idolatrous 
 nations,  8 '  Thou  shalt  not  make  marriages  with  them  ; 
 thy  daughter  thou  shalt  not  give  unto  his  son,  nor  his 
 daughter  shalt  thou  take  mito  thy  son.'  And,  that  this 
 is  no  special  but  a  general  prohibition,  extensive  to  all 
 nations  that  profess  the  true  worship  of  God,  is  evident 
 from  the  reason  that  is  annexed  to  it ;  '  for  they  will  (urn 
 away  thy  son  from  following  me,  that  they  may  serve 
 other  gods.'  This  was  what  Balaam  knew  full  well,  and 
 therefore,  perceiving  that  he  could  injure  the  children  of 
 Israel  no  other  way,  he  advised  the  Moabites  to  com- 
 mence a  familiarity  with  them;  whereupon  it  soon  camo 
 to  pass,  that  9t  The  people  began  to  commit  whoredom 
 with  the  daughters  of  Moab,  and  they  called  the  people 
 unto  the  sacrifices  of  their  sod.-,  and  the  people  did  eat, 
 and  bowed  down  to  their  gods.' 
 
 •2  Pet  ii.  1,  5. 
 9  Num.  xxv.  1,2. 
 
 ■  Rom.  i.  21,  23. 
 '  Ver.  I,  11. 
 
 5  (ifii.  viii.  21. 
 Dent,  vii.  3,  4. 
 
58 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M   1530.  A.  C.  2468;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAT.ES, 
 
 'Twas  tlte  danger  of  seduction  into  a  state  of  idolatry 
 that  made  Abraham,  before  the  law,  so  very  anxious  and 
 uneasy,  lest  his  son  Isaac  should  marry  a  Canaanitish 
 woman  ;  and  though  we,  under  the  gospel,  l '  know,'  very 
 well,  '  that  an  idol  is  nothing  in  the  world,  and  that  there 
 is  none  other  God  but  one,'  yet  we  are  admonished  by 
 the  same  apostle,  who  teaches  us  this,  '  Not  to  be  un- 
 equally yoked  together  with  unbelievers ;  for  what  fel- 
 lowship,' says  he,  '  has  righteousness  with  unrighteous- 
 ness, what  communion  hath  light  with  darkness,  or  what 
 part  hath  he  that  believeth  with  an  infidel  ?' 2  From  all 
 which  it  seems  to  follow,  that  the  sin  was  very  heinous 
 in  the  family  of  Seth,  to  mix  with  the  wicked  seed  of 
 Cain,  when  they  could  not  but  foresee,  that  the  conse- 
 quence would  be  their  seduction  from  the  true  worship  of 
 God  ;  and  that  the  heinousness  of  their  sin  seems  still  to 
 be  enhanced,  if,  what  some  oriental  writers  tell  us  be 
 true,  namely,  that  God  gave  them  this  prohibition  by  the 
 mouth  of  their  great  forefather  Adam,  and  that  their 
 custom  was,  at  certain  times,  to  swear  by  '  the  blood  of 
 Abel '  (which  was  their  solemn  oath)  that  they  would  never 
 leave  the  mountainous  country  where  they  inhabited,  nor 
 have  any  communion  with  the  descendants  of  Cain. 
 
 How  the  commixture  of  the  two  different  families  came 
 to  produce  a  set  of  giants  is  not  so  easy  a  matter  to 
 determine.  Those  who  pretend  to  reduce  it  to  natural 
 causes,  or  the  eager  lust  and  impetus  of  their  parents, 
 are  vastly  mistaken,  3 because  giants  there  were  among 
 the  Canutes,  before  this  conjunction,  and  we  read  of 
 several  in  other  nations  many  ages  after  the  flood.  The 
 more  probable  opinion  therefore  is,  *that  God  permitted 
 it  in  vengeance  to  their  parents'  crimes,  and  that  the 
 children  begotten  by  such  unlawful  mixtures  might,  (some 
 of  them  at  least,)  be  accounted  monstrous  in  their  kind, 
 (for  thus  the  word  Nephilim  a  certainly  signifies,)  and  so 
 become  the  abhorrence  of  all  future  generations. 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged,  indeed,  that  translators 
 have  not  agreed  in  their  notions  of  this  word.  Aquila, 
 instead  of  gic/antes,  renders  it 5 'men  who  attack,  or  fall 
 with  impetuosity  upon  their  enemies ;  and  Symmachus 
 will  have  it  mean  6  violent  and  cruel  men,  the  only  rule 
 of  whose  actions  is  their  strength  and  force  of  arms  :  and 
 from  hence  some  have  imagined,  that  the  giants  spoken 
 of  in   Scripture  Avere  famous  for  the  crimes  and   vio- 
 
 A.  M.  2136.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  C.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 lences  they  committed  rather  than  the  height  or  large- 
 ness of  their  stature.  But  to  hinder  this  from  passing 
 for  a  truth,  we  have  the  histories  of  all  ages,  both  sacred 
 and  profane,  and  several  other  remains  and  monuments, 
 to  evince  Hhe  being  of  such  prodigious  creatures  in 
 almost  every  country. 
 
 7  That  there  were  multitudes  of  giants  in  the  land  of 
 promise,  before  the  Israelites  took  possession  of  it,  such 
 as  Og  king  of  Basan,  and  the  Anakims,  whom  sthe 
 Moabites  called  Knims,  that  is,  terrible  men,  and  9the 
 Ammonites,  Zctmzummims.  that  is,  tlte  inventors  of  all 
 wickedness,  whose  posterity  were  in  being  in  the  days  of 
 David,  and  whose  bones  were  to  be  seen  at  Hebron,  the 
 chief  place  of  their  abode,  is  manifest  from  the  sacred 
 records.  1U'  All  the  people,'  say  the  spies  who  were 
 sent  to  take  a  survey  of  the  land,  '  are  men  of  stature  ; 
 and  there  we  saw  the  giants,  the  sons  of  Anak,  which 
 came  of  the  giants,'  so  immeasurably  large,  that  '  we 
 were  but  like  grasshoppers '  in  comparison  of  them.  And 
 therefore  we  need  less  wonder,  that  we  find  u  Josephus, 
 upon  the  same  occasion,  telling  us,  "  That  the  race  of 
 giants  was  not  then  extinct,  who,  on  account  of  their 
 largeness  and  shapes  (not  at  all  to  be  likened  to  those 
 of  other  men)  were  amazing  to  see,  and  terrible  to  hear 
 of."  Homer  12  speaks  of  the  giants  Otus  and  Ephialtes, 
 who,  at  the  age  of  nine  years,  were  nine  cubits  about, 
 and  six  and  thirty  in  height ;  he  likewise  describes  13  the 
 bigness  of  the  Cyclops  Polyphemus,who  was  of  such  pro- 
 digious strength,  that  he  could,  with  the  greatest  facility, 
 take  up  a  stone  which  two  and  twenty  four-wheeled 
 chariots  would  scarce  be  able  to  move.  This  we  allow 
 to  be,  in  some  measure,  romantic,  but  still  it  confirms 
 the  tradition,  that  several  persons  of  old  were  of  a 
 gigantic  stature. 
 
 "That the  Cyclopes  and  Lasstrigones,"  14says  Bochart, 
 "  were  once  in  Sicily,  Ave  have  the  account,  not  only  in 
 the  poets,  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  Euripides,  Virgil,  Ovid, 
 and  Silius,  but  in  the  historians  and  geographers  (I 
 mean  Thucydides  and  Strabo)  who  Avere  Grecians,  and 
 in  Tragus,  Mela,  Pliny  and  others,  Avho  Avere  Romans ; 
 and  that  there  was  something  of  truth  in  the  fables  con- 
 cerning them,  Ave  are  assured  by  those  bones  of  giants, 
 which  Avere  dug  out  of  the  earth  in  the  memory  of  our 
 fathers."  c 
 
 1  1  Cor.  viii.  4.    "      *  2  Cor.  vi.  14,  &c.  3  Gen.  vi.  4. 
 
 4  See  Heidegger  s  Lives  of  the  Patriarchs,  and  Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 5  'Et;!T(Vtowt£5.  b  Bta~oi. 
 
 a  There  Avere  giants  in  the  earth,  or  nephilim,  from  naphal, 
 "  he  fell."  Those  who  had  apostatized,  or  fallen  from  the  true 
 r<  ligion.  The  Septuagint  translated  the  original  word  hy  yiya.irii, 
 which  literally  signifies  earth-born,  and  which  we,  following  them, 
 term  giants,  without  having  any  reference  to  the  meaning  of  the 
 Avord,  which  Ave  generally  conceive  to  signify  persons  of  enor- 
 mous stature.  Hut  the  word  when  properly  understood  makes 
 a  very  just  distinction  between  the  sons  of  men  and  the  sons  of 
 God ;  those  were  the  nephilim,  the  fallen,  earth-born  men,  with 
 the  animal  and  devilish  mind.  These  Avere  the  sons  of  God,  who 
 were  born  from  above  ;  children  of  the  kingdom,  because  children 
 of  God.  It  may  be  necessary  to  remark  here,  that  our  transla- 
 tors have  rendered  seven  different  Hebrew  Avords  by  the  one 
 term  giants,  namely,  nephilim,  gibhorim,  enachim,  rephaim, 
 r/nim  and  samzuvimim  y  by  which  appellatives  are  probably 
 meant  in  general,  persons  of  great  knowledge,  piety,  courage, 
 wickedness,  &c.,  and  not  of  men  of  enormous  stature  as  is  gen- 
 erally conjectured. — Dr  A.  Clarke,  on  Gen.  vi.  4. 
 
 '  Huetius's  Inquiries.         8  Deut.  ii.  1 1.  9  Ver.  21. 
 
 IU  Num.  xiii.  33.        "  Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  2.       12  Odyss.  b.  11. 
 13  Ibid.  b.  9.  »4  Cannan  i.  30. 
 
 b  Mr  Whiston,  in  his  Original  Records,  has  a  supplement  con- 
 cerning the  old  giants,  wherein,  according  to  the  apocryphal 
 book  of  Enoch,  he  divides  the  giants  into  three  kinds,  and  in  this 
 division  thinks  himself  countenanced  by  the  works  of  Moses, 
 Gen.  vi.  2,  &c;  the  first  and  lowest  kind  of  which  are  called 
 eliudim,  and  are  of  stature  from  4  cubits  to  15;  the  second  are 
 nephilim,  from  15  to  40  cubits;  and  the  third,  or  great  giants, 
 40  cubits  at  leart,  and  many  times  above. 
 
 c  Fazellus  relates,  and  out  of  him  Cluverivs,  that,  A.  D. 
 1547,  near  Panormum  in  Sicily,  the  body  of  a  giant  was  dug  up, 
 about  18  cubits  or  27  feet  tall.  The  same  authors  relate,  that, 
 A.  1).  1516,  was  dug  up,  near  Mazarene  in  Sicily,  the  body  of 
 a  giant,  20  cubits  or  30  feet  tall.  The  same  authors  relate,  that, 
 A.  P.  1548,  near  Syracuse,  was  dug  up  another  body  of  the 
 same  dimension.  They  inform  us,  that,  A.  D.  1550,  near  En- 
 tella  in  Sicily,  Avas  dug  up  a  body  of  about  22  cubits  or  33  feet 
 high,  whose  skull  Avas  about  10  feet  in  circumference;  and  they 
 describe  the  corpse  of  a  giant  of  portentous  magnitude,  found 
 standing  in  a  vast  cave,  near  Dreuanum  in  Sicily,  A.  D.  1342, 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 59 
 
 A.  M.  153G.  A.  C.  24G8;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 But  1  forbear  more  instances  of  this  kind,  and,  a  refer- 
 ring- the  reader,  for  his  farther  conviction,  to  such  authors 
 as  have  professedly  handled  this  subject,  shall  only 
 crave  leave  to  make  this  remark — *  that,  in  all  proba- 
 bility, no  small  part  of  the  eldest  cities,  towers,  temples, 
 obelisks,  pyramids,  and  pillars,  some  of  which  are  still 
 remaining,  and  deservedly  esteemed  the  wonders  of  the 
 world,  °  were  the  structure  of  these  ancient  giants  ;  and, 
 as  they  surpass  the  abilities  of  all  later  ages,  so  they 
 seem  to  me  to  be  the  visible  and  undeniable  remains, 
 monuments,  and  demonstrations,  not  only  of  their  exis- 
 tence, but  of  their  prodigious  stature  and  strength  like- 
 wise ;  since  in  an  age,  ignorant  of  mechanical  powers 
 and  engines,  such  vast  piles  of  building  could  no  other- 
 wise have  been  erected. 
 
 Without  concerning  ourselves  then  with  the  fictions 
 and  fables  of  the  poets,  or  2  whether  the  giants  of  old 
 rebelling  against  heaven,  were  able  to  heap  mountains 
 upon  mountains,  in  order  to  scale  it,  or  to  hurl  rocks, 
 and  islands,  and  huge  flaming  trees  against  it^  in  order 
 to  shake,  or  set  it  on  fire ;  all  that  we  pretend  to  say  is, 
 that  in  ancient  days,  there  were  giants,  in  great  num- 
 bers, who  (excepting  the  largeness  of  their  stature)  were 
 formed  and  fashioned  like  other  men,  and  waged  no 
 other  war  with  heaven,  than  what  all  wicked  persons  are 
 known  to  do,  when  they  provoke  the  Divine  Majesty  by 
 their  crimes  and  enormous  impieties.  This  is  the  whole 
 of  what  the  Scriptures  assert,  and  I  know  no  occasion 
 we  have  to  defend  the  wild  hyperboles  of  the  poets. 
 
 Amidst  the  antediluvian  corruption,  and  even  while 
 these  abominable  and  gigantic  men  were  in  being,  Moses 
 makes  particular  mention  of  one  person  of  eminent 
 sanctity,  and  who  found  a  favour  extraordinary,  for  hav- 
 ing preserved  his  innocence,  and  persisted  in  his  duty, 
 notwithstanding  the  wickedness  of  the  age  wherein  he 
 lived.     Enoch  was  certainly,  in  other  respects,  an  ex- 
 
 1  Jr/iiston's  Supplement,  part  2. 
 *  Calmefs  Dissertation  on  the  Giants,  vol.  2. 
 whose  stafl*  was  like  the  mast  of  a  ship,  and  the  forepart  of  whose 
 skull  would   contain  some   Sicilian  bushels,  which  are  about  a 
 third  part  of  our  English  bushel.' — See   Winston's  Supplement 
 concerning  the  old  giants,  in  his  Authentic  Records,  part  2. 
 
 a  That  there  have  been  giants  in  the  world  admits  of  no  doubt, 
 but  probably  no  nations  of  such  giants  as  these.  Tndeed,  the 
 enormous  bones  of  most  supposed  giants  have,  by  subsequent  and 
 more  accurate  observation,  been  found  to  be  bones  of  animals,  of 
 species  which  nowhere  exist. — Bishop  Gleig. 
 
 They  that  desire  to  see  more  instances  of  this  kind  may  find 
 them  cited  by  Hueiius  in  his  Inquiries,  &c,  b.  2. ;  Augustine 
 on  the  Government  of '  God,  b.  15.;  Josephus'  Antiquities,  b.  1. 
 e.  5,  IS.;  Pliny,  b.  1. ;  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs, 
 Essay  II.  ;  Grotilts  on  Truth,  b.  1.;  Hackwell's  Apology,  b.  3.; 
 ff'histon's  Original  Retords,  part  2.;  and  our  Philosophical 
 Transactions,  Nos.  234,  272,  274,  346,  and  370. 
 
 b  Tlie  works  of  this  kind  which  our  author  reckons  up  are,  1. 
 The  Giants'  Dance,  upon  Salisbury  plain  in  England,  now  called 
 Stone-henge.  2.  The  Giant's  Causeway  in  the  north  of  Ireland. 
 3,  The  Circular  Gigantic,  Stone  at  Ilavenna.  4.  The  Tower  of 
 Babel.  5.  The  Two  Obelisks  mentioned  by  Herodotus.  C.  The 
 Temple  of  Diana  in  Egypt.  7.  The  Labyrinth  in  Egypt.  8.  The 
 Lake  Mnpris,  4S0  miles  long,  and  dug  by  human  labour,  all  by 
 the  same  Herodotus.  9.  The  Sphinx  of  Egypt.  10.  The  most 
 ■ncient  Temple  in  Egypt.  11.  The  Agrigentine  Temple.  12. 
 The  Pyramidal  Obelisk,  all  mentioned  by  Diodorus  Sieuhis. 
 13.  The  Temple  of  Solomon.  14.  The  Palace  of  Solomon  at 
 Jerusalem.  15.  That  at  Balbeck.  10.  That  at  Tadmor.  17. 
 The  Palace  and  Buildings  at  Persepolis.  18.  The  Temple  of 
 Belus  at  Babylon.  19.  The  Temple  at  Chillembrum.  And  20. 
 The  first  Temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus. —  JFhiston's  Supplement. 
 
 13G.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G  TO  VER.  13. 
 traordinary  person.  3St  Jude  distinguishes  him  as  a 
 prophet :  *the  Arabians  represent  him  as  a  great  scholar  ; 
 the  Babylonians  look  upon  him  as  the  author  of  their 
 astrology  ;  the  Greeks  call  him  their  Atla.;,  and  affirm-, 
 that  he  was  the  first  who  taught  men  the  knowledge  of 
 the  stars  ;  but  it  was  not  for  these  rare  qualities,  so  much 
 as  for  his  singular  piety  and  virtue,  that  God  exempted 
 him  from  the  common  fate  of  mankind. 
 
 The  Jewish  doctors  indeed  will  have  the  words  of 
 Moses  concerning  him  to  import  no  more,  than  his  sud- 
 den and  untimely  death,  because  he  lived  not  near  so 
 long  as  the  other  patriarchs.  But  the  paraphrase  which 
 St  Paul  gives  us  of  them,  5'  By  faith  Enoch  was  trans- 
 lated, that  he  should  not  see  death,  and  was  not  found, 
 because  God  had  translated  him  ;  for,  before  his  transla- 
 tion, he  had  this  testimony,  that  he  pleased  God  ;'  this 
 paraphrase,  1  say,  will  not  surfer  us  to  doubt  of  the 
 truth  of  the  Christian  interpretation.  And  indeed, 
 0  unless  die  Christian  interpretation  be  true,  the  whole 
 emphasis  of  Moses'  words  is  lost,  and  they  become  a 
 crude  tautology.  For,  if  we  say,  that  Enoch  was  not, 
 that  is,  was  no  longer  living,  because  God  took  him, 
 that  is,  God  caused  Mm  to  die  ;  it  is  the  same,  as  if  we 
 should  say,  God  caused  him  to  die,  because  he  took  him 
 away  by  death,  which  is  flat  and  insipid,  a  proof  of  the 
 same  thing  by  the  same  thing,  and  hardly  consistent  with 
 common  sense  :  whereas,  if  we  interpret  the  words  in 
 this  manner — Enoch  was  not,  that  is,  was  nowhere  to 
 be  found,  was  seen  neither  among  the  living  nor  the  dead 
 here  on  earth,  for  God  took  him,  that  is,  because  God 
 translated  to  another  place,  soul  and  body  together, 
 without  undergoing  the  pains  of  death  ;  here  is  a  grace 
 and  energy  in  the  expression,  not  unbecoming  the  style 
 of  an  inspired  penman. 
 
 The  reason  which  Moses  assigns  for  God's  taking 
 him,  in  this  wise,  is,  that  '  he  walked  with  God  :'  but  if 
 God's  taking  him  means  no  more  than  his  hasty  death,  it 
 was  far  from  being  a  divine  attestation  of  his  piety,  (be- 
 cause length  of  days  are  the  promised  reward  of  that ;) 
 and  therefore  Ave  may  be  allowed  to  infer,  that  his  walk- 
 ing with  God  was  not  the  cause  of  his  ablation  by  death, 
 but  of  his  assumption  into  glory.  The  truth  is,  '  about 
 fifty-seven  years  before  this  event,  Adam,  the  father  of 
 all  living,  had  submitted  to  the  sentence  denounced 
 against  him,  and  resigned  his  breath;  and  whatever 
 notions  his  posterity  might  have  of  a  life  immortal  in 
 reversion,  yet  it  seemed  expedient  to  the  divine  wisdom, 
 at  this  time,  in  the  person  of  Enoch,  to  give  them,  as  it 
 were,  anticipation  of  it,  and  to  support  and  comfort 
 them  under  the  sense  of  their  mortality,  with  the  pros- 
 pect, and  assured  hope,  that  after  the  dark  entry  of 
 death  was  passed,  they  were  to  be  admitted  into  the 
 mansions  of  bliss. 
 
 Our  Saviour,  indeed,  when  he  came  upon  earth, 
 (though  declared  from  heaven  to  be  the  Son  of  God,) 
 was  not  exempted  from  the  common  condition  of 
 onr  mortality.  8<  Forasmuch  as  the  children  are  par- 
 takers of  flesh  and  blood,  he  also  himself  likewise  took 
 part  of  the  same  ;  that  through  death  he  might  destroy 
 
 3  Vcr.  14,  &c.  4  Calmefs  Dictionary  on  the  word  Enoch. 
 
 "  1 1  eh.  xi.  5. 
 
 0  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  Essay  9. 
 
 7  Patrick's  Commentary.         "  Heb.  ii.  11. 
 
60 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  2468;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2136.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 him  who  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil.'  His 
 errand  was  to  propitiate  for  our  sins  ;  but  since, * '  with- 
 out shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission,'  the  decree 
 was,  that  lie  should  die,  which  when  he  had  satisfied  he 
 rose  again  ;  and  after  forty  days'  converse  with  his  dis- 
 ciples '  even  2  while  they  beheld  him,'  we  are  told,  '  he 
 was  taken  up  into  heaven,  and  a  cloud  received  him  out 
 of  their  sight.'  And,  in  like  manner,  if  the  end  of 
 Enoch's  assumption  was  for  the  conviction  of  mankind 
 in  that  great  article  of  faith,  the  reality  of  another  world, 
 it  seems  reasonable  to  believe,  that  the  thing  was  done 
 publicly  and  visibly  ;  that  either  some  bright  and  radiant 
 cloud,  guided  by  the  ministry  of  angels,  gently  raised 
 him  from  the  earth,  and  mounted  with  him  up  on  high, 
 (which  seems  to  be  our  Saviour's  case,)  or  that  a 3 '  strong 
 gust  of  wind,'  governed  by  the  same  angelic  powers,  in 
 some  vehicle  or  other,  resembling  a  bright  '  chariot  and 
 horses,'  transported  him  into  heaven,  (which  seems  to  be 
 the  case  of  Elijah,)  and  that,  in  his  passage  thither,  his 
 body  was  transformed,  his  corruptible  into  incorruption, 
 his  mortal  into  immortality  '  in  a  moment,  in  the  twink- 
 ling of  an  eye,'  4as  we  are  told  it  will  happen  to  those 
 who  are  alive,  when  the  '  last  trumpet  shall  sound.' 
 
 It  is  an  idle  conceit  therefore  of  some  of  the  Jewish, 
 as  well  as  Christian  doctors,  that  Enoch  was  not  trans- 
 lated into  the  celestial,  but  only  into  the  old  terrestrial 
 paradise,  wherein  Adam,  before  his  transgression  lived. 
 Whether  the  beauty  of  that  place  went  to  ruin,  or  no,  as 
 soon  as  our  first  parents  were  ejected,  and  no  hand  left 
 to  dress  it,  it  is  certain,  it  could  never  withstand  the  vio- 
 lence of  the  flood ;  and  consequently  Enoch  must  have 
 perished  in  it,  unless  we  can  suppose,  a  that  he  was  pre- 
 served by  some  such  miracle  as  the  Israelites  were,  when 
 they  passed  through  the  Red  sea,  and  that  the  waves, 
 towering  up  on  all  sides,  surrounded  it  like  a  wall,  and 
 kept  that  particular  spot  dry  ;  which  is  by  too  much  bold 
 a  supposition,  especially  when  it  contradicts  that  author- 
 ity, which  tells  us,  that  5 '  the  waters  prevailed  exceed- 
 ingly upon  the  earth,  and  that  all  the  high  hills,  which 
 were  under  the  whole  heavens,  were  covered.' 
 
 Whatever  therefore  some  may  fancy  to  themselves,  we 
 acknowledge  now  no  other  paradise,  than  what  is  repre- 
 sented in  the  Scriptures,  as  a  place  in  which  God  gives 
 the  brightest  evidence  of  his  presence,  and  communicates 
 his  glory  with  the  utmost  majesty:  a  place  which  St 
 Paul  calls  6 '  the  third  heaven,'  whereunto  Elijah  was 
 translated,  and  wherein  our  blessed  Saviour  is  now 
 7 '  preparing  mansions  for  us,  that  where  he  is,  we  may 
 be  also.'  Into  this  happy  place  we  suppose  Enoch  to 
 have  been  conveyed,  and  it  is  no  mean  confirmation  of 
 the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  account,  that  we  find,  among  the 
 heathen  world,  notions  of  the  like  translation  :  that  we 
 
 1  Heb.  ix.  22.  2  Acts  xix.,  and  Luke  xxiv.  51. 
 
 3  2  Kings  ii.  11.  4  1  Cor.  xv.  52.  s  Gen.  vi.  19. 
 
 6  2  Cor.  xii.  2.  '  John  xiv.  2,  3. 
 
 a  Bonseriits  says,  "that  it  was  probable  that  paradise  had 
 been  preserved  free  from  rain,  the  waters  having  raised  them- 
 selves completely  around  its  borders,  and  become  consolidated  like 
 a  wall,  similar  to  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  during  the  passage 
 of  the  Israelites.  But  in  this  ease,  no  probability  is  requisite,  where 
 a  certainty  may  be  averred.  When  no  trace  of  a  miracle  is  ap- 
 parent, we  are  not  to  support  its  having  existed  by  any  probable 
 assumption  of  our  own." — Heidegger's  Lives  of  the  Patriarchs, 
 Essay  on  the  Ablation  of  Enoch. 
 
 find  Bacchus  assuring  Cadmus,  that  by  the  help  of  Mars, 
 he  should  live  for  ever  in  the  isles  of  the  blessed ;  that 
 we  find  Aganympha  made  immortal  by  the  favour  of 
 Jupiter  ;  and,  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  Hercules, 
 Alcmena,  translated  by  Mercury,  and  married  to  Rhada- 
 manthus ;  with  many  more  allusions  of  the  like  nature.  8 
 And  in  like  manner,  it  is  far  from  being  a  bad  argu- 
 ment for  the  truth  and  reality  of  the  flood, 9  that  we  find, 
 almost  every  where  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  historians, 
 horrid  descriptions  of  the  lives  of  the  giants,  which  occa- 
 sioned that  heavy  judgment:  that  we  find  Berosus  the 
 Chaldean,  as  he  is  quoted  by  1U  Josephus,  relating  the 
 same  things  which  Moses  does,  concerning  the  great 
 deluge,  the  destruction  of  mankind  by  it,  and  the  ark,  in 
 which  Nochus  (the  same  with  Noah)  was  preserved,  and 
 which  rested  on  the  tops  of  the  Armenian  mountains : 
 that  we  find  Abydenus,  the  Assyrian  (as  he  is  cited  n  by 
 Eusebius)  taking  notice  of  the  wood  of  the  vessel,  wherein 
 Xisuthrus  (b  for  so  he  calls  Noah)  was  saved,  and  tell- 
 ing us,  that  the  people  of  Armenia  made  use  of  it  for 
 amulets  to  drive  away  diseases,  that  we  find  Alexander 
 Polyldstor,  in  a  passage  produced  12by  Cyril,  informing 
 us  of  an  Egyptian  priest  who  related  to  Solon,  out  of 
 the  sacred  books  of  the  Egyptians,  (as  he  supposes,)  that, 
 before  the  particular  deluges  known  and  celebrated  by 
 the  Grecians,  there  was  of  old  an  exceeding  great  inun- 
 dation of  waters,  and  devastation  of  the  earth  :  and  (to 
 mention  no  more)  that  we  find  13  Lucian  giving  us  a  long 
 account  of  an  ancient  tradition,  which  the  people  of 
 Hierapolis  had  of  the  deluge,  c  varying  very  little  from 
 
 8  Huetius''  Inquiries,  8rc,  b.  2.  c.  10. 
 
 9  Grotius  on  Truth,  b.  2.  sect.  16.  i0  Against  Appion,  b.  1. 
 
 11  Evangelical  Preparation,  b.  9.  13  Against  Julian. 
 
 13  Concerning  the  Syrian  Goddess. 
 
 b  M.  Le  Clerc,  in  his  notes  upon  Grotius  on  Truth,  b.  1.  sect. 
 16,  seems  to  intimate,  that  Xisuthrus,  Ogyges,  and  Deucalion, 
 are  all  names  signifying  the  same  thing  in  other  languages,  as 
 Noah  does  in  Hebrew,  wherein  Moses  wrote ;  and  that  the 
 deluges  which  are  said  to  have  happened  in  their  times,  and  are 
 thought  to  be  different,  were  in  reality  one  and  the  same. 
 
 c  The  account,  though  somewhat  long,  is  not  unpleasant,  and 
 deserves  our  observation.  This  race  of  men  (says  he)  which  now 
 is,  was  not  the  first:  these  are  of  a  second  generation,  and  from 
 their  first  progenitor  Deucalion,  who  increased  to  so  great  a 
 multitude  as  we  now  see.  Now  of  these  former  men  they  tell 
 us  this  story. — They  were  contentious,  and  did  many  unrighteous 
 things;  they  neither  kept  their  oaths,  nor  were  hospitable  to 
 strangers ;  for  which  reason  this  great  misfortune  came  upon 
 them.  All  on  a  sudden  the  earth  disembowelled  itself  of  a  great 
 quantity  of  water,  great  showers  fell,  the  rivers  overflowed,  and 
 the  sea  swelled  to  a  prodigious  height;  so  that  all  things  became 
 water,  and  all  men  perished.  Only  Deucalion  was  left  unto  the 
 second  generation,  upon  the  account  of  his  prudence  and  piety; 
 and  the  maimer  in  which  he  was  saved  was  this: — He  had  a 
 great  ark  or  chest,  into  which  he  came  with  his  children  and  the 
 women  of  his  house,  and  then  entered  hogs,  and  horses,  and  lions, 
 and  serpents,  and  all  other  animals  which  live  upon  the  earth, 
 together  with  their  mates.  He  received  them  all,  and  they  did 
 him  no  harm ;  for  by  the  assistance  of  heaven  there  was  a  great 
 amity  between  them,  so  that  all  sailed  in  one  chest  as  long  as  the 
 water  did  predominate.  This  is  the  account  which  all  the  Greek 
 historians  give  of  Deucalion.  But  what  happened  afterwards 
 (as  it  is  told  by  the  people  of  Hierapolis)  is  worthy  our  observa- 
 tion, namely,  That  in  their  country  there  was  a  chasm,  into 
 which  all  this  water  simk,  whereupon  Deucalion  built  an  altar, 
 and  erected  a  temple  over  it,  which  he  consecrated  to  Juno ;  and 
 to  verify  this  story,  not  only  the  priests,  but  the  other  inhabitants 
 likewise  of  Syria  and  Arabia,  twice  every  year,  bring  abundance 
 of  water  which  they  pour  into  the  temple,  and  though  the  chasm 
 be  but  small,  yet  it  receives  a  prodigious  quantity  of  it ;  and  when 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 01 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  24G8;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2I3G.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  6.  TO  VER   13. 
 
 what  our  sacred  historian  relates  :  when  we  find  all  this, 
 I  say,  we  cannot  but  acknowledge,  that  these,  and  the 
 many  more  historians  who  are  usually  produced  upon 
 this  head,  are  a  strong  testimony  of  the  truth  and  author- 
 ity of  Moses ;  and  therefore,  to  conclude  this  reply,  or 
 vindication  of  him,  with  the  reflection  of  the  learned 
 1  Scaliger  upon  the  agreement  he  perceived  between 
 Moses  and  Abyclenus,  in  the  account  they  both  give  of 
 the  dove  and  the  raven  which  Noah  is  said  to  have  sent 
 out;  "  Though  the  Greek  historians,"  says  he,  "  do  not 
 always  agree  in  particulars  with  the  sacred  one,  yet  they 
 are  rather  to  be  pitied  for  not  having  had  the  advantage 
 of  true  and  authentic  antiquities  and  records  to  set  them 
 right,  than  to  forfeit  their  value  and  authority,  from  such 
 slips  and  deviations  from  the  truth  of  the  story  as  render 
 their  testimony  and  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  sacred 
 history  much  stronger,  because  much  less  to  be  suspected 
 than  if  they  agreed  with  it  in  every  circumstance." 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  the  Heat/ten  History,  the  Chronology, 
 Religion,  Learning,  Longevity,  Sfc.,  of  the  Antedilu- 
 
 We  are  now  arrived  at  a  period,  where  it  may  be  conve- 
 nient to  take  some  notice  of  such  heathen  writers  as  have 
 given  us  an  account  of  the  times  before  the  flood,  through 
 which  we  have  hitherto  been  tracing  Moses  :  and  those 
 that  are  esteemed  of  the  best  credit  and  repute,  are  only 
 three ;  Berosus,  who  wrote  the  history  of  the  Chaldeans  ; 
 Sanchoniatho,  who  compiled  that  of  the  Phoenicians ; 
 and  Manetho  who  collected  the  antiquities  of  Egypt. 
 
 The  Chaldeans  were  certainly  a  nation  of  great  and 
 undoubted  antiquity.  2  In  all  probability  they  were  the 
 first  formed  into  a  national  government  after  the  flood, 
 and  therefore  were  more  capable  of  having  such  arts  and 
 sciences  flourish  among  them  as  might  preserve  the 
 memory  of  eldest  times,  to  the  latest  posterity  :  and  yet, 
 even  among  these  people,  who  enjoyed  all  the  advan- 
 tages of  ease,  quiet,  and  a  flourishing  empire,  we  find 
 no  credible  and  undoubted  records  preserved.^  Berosus, 
 their  historian,  was,  (as  3  Josephus  assures  us)  a  priest 
 of  Belus,  and  a  Babylonian  born,  but  afterwards  flour- 
 ished in  the  isle  of  Cos,  and  was  the  first  who  brought 
 the  Chaldean  astrology  into  request  among  the  Greeks : 
 in  honour  of  whose  name  and  memory,  the  Athenians 
 (who  were  great  encouragers  of  novelties)   erected  a 
 
 1  Notes,  &e.,for  the  Correction  i f  Dates. 
 8H  llingjteet's  Sacred  Origins,  b.  1.  c.  3.  3  Against  Appion,  b.  1. 
 they  do  this,  they  relate  how  Deucalion  first  instituted  this  cus- 
 tom in  memory  of  that  calamity,  and  his  deliverance  from  it. 
 
 a  The  common  opinion  that  they  were  the  descendants  of 
 (  Used,  the  nephew  of  Abraham,  is  at  once  unsatisfactory  and 
 indefensible,  for  they  were  a  nation  before  the  call  of  that  patri- 
 wch  when  he  dwelt' with  his  father  Terah  in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees. 
 I  hey  are  mentioned  in  the  book  of  Job,  not  a  very  great  portion 
 •■■  time  after  the  call  of  Abraham,  and  if  the  hypotheses  of  Dr 
 I  labs  and  the  astronomical  calculations  of  Dr  Brindley  be  true, 
 the  era  of  Job  carries  their  antiquity  still  higher,  as  it  is  fixed  by 
 both  these  gentlemen  at  upwards  of  400  years  before  the  call  of 
 Abraham.  If,  with  Jusephus  and  some  of  the  rabbins,  we  sup- 
 hat  the  Chaldeans  are  the  progeny  of  Arpbaxad,  they  may 
 'ii  a  nation  long  before  the  call  of  Abraham.— Bell's 
 tditwn  ofRollin>s  /anient  History,  \\  10' 1. 
 
 statue  for  him  with  a  golden  tongue,  a  good  emblem  of 
 his  history,  4  says  one,  which  made  a  fair  and  specious 
 show,  but  was  not  within  what  it  pretended  to  be,  espe- 
 cially when  it  attempts  to  treat  of  ancient  times.  It 
 cannot  be  denied,  however,  but  that  some  fragments  of 
 it  which  have  been  preserved  from  ruin  by  the  care  and 
 industry  of  Josephus,  Tatianus,  Eusebius,  and  others, 
 have  been  very  useful,  not  only  for  proving  the  truth  of 
 Scripture  history  to  the  heathens,  but  for  confirming  like- 
 wise some  passages  relating  to  the  Babylonish  empire. 
 
 After  a  description  of  Babylonia,  and  a  strange  story 
 concerning  a  certain  creature,  which,  in  the  first  year  of 
 the  world,  came  out  of  the  Red  sea,  and,  conversing 
 familiarly  with  men,  taught  them  the  knowledge  of  let- 
 ters, and  several  arts  and  sciences,  he  proceeds  to  give 
 us  a  short  account  of  ten  kings  which  reigned  in  Chaldea 
 before  the  flood,  and  these  corresponding  with  the  num- 
 ber which  Moses  mentions,  Alorus,  the  first,  is  supposed 
 to  be  Adam  ;  and  Xisuthrus,  the  last,  Noah  ;  and  of  this 
 Xisuthrus  he  pursues  the  story  in  this  manner. 
 
 5  Cronus,  or  Saturn,  appearing  to  him  in  a  dream, 
 gave  him  warning,  that  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  month 
 Daesius,  mankind  should  be  destroyed  by  a  flood,  and 
 therefore  commanded  him  to  build  a  ship;  and,  having 
 first  furnished  it  with  provisions,  and  taken  into  it  fowls 
 and  four-footed  beasts,  to  go  into  it  himself,  with  his 
 friends  and  nearest  relations.  Xisuthrus  did  as  he  was 
 ordered,  built  a  vessel,  whose  length  was  five  furlongs, 
 and  breadth  two  furlongs  ;  and  having  put  on  board  all 
 that  he  was  directed,  went  into  it,  with  his  wife,  children, 
 and  friends.  When  the  flood  was  come,  and  began  to 
 abate,  he  let  out  some  birds,  which  finding  no  food,  nor 
 place  to  rest  on,  returned  to  the  ship  again.  After  some 
 days,  he  let  out  the  birds  again,  but  they  came  back 
 with  their  feet  daubed  with  mud ;  and  when,  after  some 
 days  more,  he  let  them  go  the  third  time,  they  never 
 came  back  again,  whereby  he  understood  that  the  earth 
 appeared  again  above  the  water,  and  so,  taking  down 
 some  of  the  planks  of  the  ship,  he  saw  it  rested  upon  a 
 mountain.  This  is  the  substance  of  what  we  have  in 
 Berosus,  who  varies  very  little  from  our  sacred  historian 
 during  this  period.6 
 
 Sanchoniutlio  is  highly  recommended  both  by  Por- 
 phyry, the  great  adversary  of  Christianity,  and  by  his 
 translator  into  Greek,  Philo  Biblius.  Theodoret  is  of 
 opinion,  that  his  name,  in  the  Phoenician  tongue,  signi- 
 fies (pthx^dng,  a  lover  of  truth;  which  name,  as  Bochart 
 imagines,  was  given  him  when  he  first  set  himself  to  wi-ite 
 history  :  but  how  faithftd  he  has  been  in  transcribing  his 
 account  of  things  from  his  records,  we  cannot  determine, 
 unless  Ave  had  the  books  of  Taautus,  and  the  sacred  in- 
 scriptions and  records  of  cities,  from  whence  he  pretends 
 to  have  extracted  his  history,  to  compare  them  together. 
 If  we  may  judge  by  what  remains  of  his  writings,  which 
 is  only  his  first  book  concerning  the  Phoenician  theology 
 extant  in  Eusebius,  we  shall  hardly  think  him  deserving 
 so  large  a  commendation:  but  be  that  as  it  will,  the 
 method  wherein  he  proceeds  is  this. — After  having  de- 
 livered his  cosmogony,  or  generation  of  the  other  parts 
 of  the  world,  he  tells  us,  that  the  first  pair  of  human 
 creatures   were    Protogonus    and    .Son,    (as  Philo,  his 
 
 4  See  Universal  History,  and  Shuekford's  Connection,  h.  1. 
 *  Ibid.  ■  Stiuing/ccl's  Sacred  Origins,  b.  1.  C  2. 
 
62 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 TBook  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  2108;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2136 
 
 translator,  calls  them,)  the  latter  of  whom  found  out  the 
 food  which  is  gathered  from  trees  :  that  their  issue  were 
 called  Genus  and  Genea,  who  were  the  first  that  prac- 
 tised idolatry  ;  for,  upon  the  occasion  of  great  droughts, 
 they  made  their  adorations  to  the  sun,  calling  him  Beel- 
 ■■■  amen,  which,  in  Phoenician,  is  the  Lord  of  heaven;  that 
 the    children  of  these  were  Phos,  Pur,  and  Phlox,  that 
 is,  light,  fire,  anAfla?ne,  who  first  found  out  the  way  of 
 generating  fire,  by  rubbing  pieces  of  wood  against  one 
 an  other  :  that  these  begat  sons  of  vast  bulk  and  stature, 
 wh  ose  names  were  given  to  mount  Cassius  Libanus,  An- 
 tilibanus,  and  Brathys,  whereon  they  seized  :  that  of  these 
 were  begotten  Memrumus,  and  Hypsuranius,  the  latter 
 of  whom  was  the  inventor  of  huts  made  of  reeds  and 
 rushes,  and  had  a  brother  called  Usous,  the  first  wor- 
 shipper of  fire  and  wind,  in  whose  time  women  became 
 very  abandoned  and  debauched  :  that  many  years  after 
 this  generation,  came  Agreus  and  Halieus,the  inventors 
 of  the  arts  of  hunting  and  fishing  :  that  of  these  were  be- 
 gotten two  brothers,  the  first  forgers  and  workers  in  iron  ; 
 the  name  of  one  is  lost,  but  Chrysor  (who  is  the  same 
 with  Vulcan)  found  out  all  fishing  tackle,  and,  in  a  small 
 boat,  was  the  first  that  ventured  to  sea,  for  which  he  was 
 afterwards  deified :  that  from  this  generation  came  two 
 brothers,  Technites  and  Autochthon,  who  invented  the 
 art  of  making  tiles  ;  from  these  Agrus,  and  Agrotes,  who 
 first  made  courts  about  houses,  fences,  and  cellars  ;  and 
 from  these  Amynus,  and  Magus,  who  showed  men  how 
 to  constitute  villages,  and  regulate  their  flocks.     This 
 is  the  substance  of  what  Sanchoniatho  relates  during 
 this  period ;  and  how  far  it  agrees  with  the  account  of 
 Moses,  especially  in  the  idolatrous  line  of  Cain,  our 
 learned   bishop    Cumberland  has   all   along  made   his 
 observations. 
 
 Manetho  Sebennita  was  high  priest  of  Heliopolis  in 
 the  time  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  by  whose  order  he 
 wrote  his  history  ;  but  that  which  destroys  the  credit  of 
 it,  (though  it  gave  him  an  opportunity  of  invention,)  is, 
 that  *  he  professes  to  transcribe  his  Dynasties  from  in- 
 scriptions on  the  pillars  of  Hermes  (whom  the  Egyptians, 
 out  of  veneration,  call  Trismegistus)  in  the  land  of 
 Seriad,  which  land  no  one  knows  any  thing  of,  and 
 which  pillars  being  engraven  before  the  flood,  can  hardly 
 be  supposed  to  escape  undefaced. 
 
 The  plain  truth  is,  the  LXX  translation  was,  not  long 
 before  this  time,  finished ;  and  when  the  Jewish  antiqui- 
 ties came  to  appear  in  the  world,  the  Egyptians  (who 
 are  mighty  pretenders  this  way)  grew  jealous  of  the  hon- 
 our of  their  nation,  and  were  willing  to  show,  that  they 
 could  trace  up  their  memoirs  much  higher  than  Moses 
 had  carried  those  of  the  Israelites.  2  This  was  the  chief 
 design  of  Manetlio's  making  his  collections.  He  was 
 resolved  to  make  the  Egyptian  antiquities  reach  as  far 
 backwards  as  he  could  ;  "and  therefore,  as  many  several 
 names  as  he  found  in  their  records,  so  many  successive 
 monarchs  he  determined  them  to  have  had ;  never  con- 
 
 A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  6.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 sidering  that  Egypt  was  at  first  divided  into  three,  and 
 afterwards  into  four  sovereignties  for  some  time,  so  that 
 three  or  four  of  his  kings  were  many  times  reigning 
 together  :  which,  if  duly  considered,  will  be  a  means  to 
 reduce  the  Egyptian  account  to  a  more  reasonable 
 compass. 
 
 °  The  substance  of  the  accoimt  however  (as  it  stands 
 unexplained  in  Manetho)  is  this : — That  there  were  in 
 Egypt  thirty  dynasties  of  gods,  consisting  of  113  gene- 
 rations, and  which  took  up  the  space  of  36,525  years ; 
 that  when  this  period  was  out,  then  there  reigned  eight 
 demigods  in  the  space  of  217  years ;  that  after  them 
 succeeded  a  race  of  heroes,  to  the  number  of  fifteen, 
 and  their  reign  took  up  443  years  ;  that  all  this  was  be- 
 fore the  flood,  and  then  began  the  reign  of  their  khigs, 
 the  first  of  whom  was  Menes. 
 
 Now,  in  order  to  explain  what  is  meant  by  this  prodi- 
 gious number  of  years,  we  must  observe,  3that  it  was  a 
 very  usual  and  customary  thing  for  ancient  writers  to 
 begin  their  histories  with  some  account  of  the  origin  of 
 things,  and  the  creation  of  the  world.  Moses  did  so  in 
 his  book  of  Genesis  ;  Sanchoniatho  did  so  in  his  Phoe- 
 nician history  ;  and  it  appears  from  Diodorvs,  that  the 
 Egyptian  antiquities  did  so  too.  Their  accounts  began 
 about  the  origin  of  things,  and  the  nature  of  the  gods  ; 
 then  follows  an  account  of  their  demigods,  and  terres- 
 trial deities  ;  after  them  came  their  heroes,  or  first  rank 
 of  men  ;  and  last  of  all,  their  kings.  Now,  if  their  kings 
 began  from  the  flood ;  if  their  heroes  and  demigods 
 reached  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  world  :  then  the  ac- 
 count which  they  give  of  the  reigns  of  their  gods,  before 
 these,  can  be  only  their  theological  speculations  put 
 into  such  order  as  they  thought  most  philosophical. 
 
 To  make  this  more  plain,  we  must  observe  farther, 
 that  the  first  and  most  ancient  gods  of  the  Egyptians, 
 and  of  all  other  nations,  (after  they  had  departed  from 
 the  worship  of  the  true  God,)  were  the  luminaries  of 
 heaven  ;  and  it  is  very  probable,  that  what  they  took  to 
 be  the  period  of  time  in  which  any  of  these  deities 
 finished  their  course,  that  they  might  call  the  time  of  his 
 reign.  Thus  a  perfect  and  complete  revolution  of  any 
 star  which  they  worshipped,  Avas  the  reign  of  that  star  ; 
 
 1  Sec  Stilttngfleef's  Sacred  Origins,  b.  1.  c.  2.  No.  11. 
 2  Shuchford's  Connection,  jiart  1.  b.  1. 
 a  Allowing  the  thirty  dynasties,  which  he  described  from 
 memoirs  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Egyptian  temples,  to  lie 
 successive,  they  make  up  a  series  of  more  than  5,200  years  to 
 the  time  of  Alexander  the  Gnat,  which  can  be  nothing  but  a 
 manifest  forgery. — Roliin,  p.  20. 
 
 3  Shuchford's  Connection,  b.  1. 
 
 a  The  accounts  of  Manetho  seem  at  first  sight  so  extravagan 
 that  many  great  writers  look  upon  them  as  mere  fictions,  and 
 omit  attempting  to  say  any  thing  concerning  them ;  though  other 
 learned  men  (and  more  especially  our  countryman  Sir  John 
 Marsham,  in  his  Canonical  Chronology,  p.  1.)  not  well  satisfied 
 with  this  proceeding,  have  undertaken  an  examination  of  them 
 and  with  some  success.  The  misfortune  is,  we  have  none  of 
 the  original  works  from  whence  they  were  collected,  nor  any  one 
 author  that  properly  gives  us  any  sight  or  knowledge  of  them. 
 The  historians  Diodorus  Siculus  and  Herodotus,  did  not  examine 
 these  matters  to  the  bottom ;  and  we  have  no  remains  of  the  old 
 Egyptian  Clironicon,  or  of  the  works  of  Manetho,  except  some 
 quotations  in  the  works  of  other  writers.  The  Chronographia  of 
 Syncellus,  wrote  by  one  George,  an  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  St 
 Simeon,  and  called  St  Syncellus,  as  being  suffragan  of  Tarasius, 
 patriarch  of  Constantinople,  is  the  only  work  we  can  have  re- 
 course to.  From  these  antiquities  Syncellus  collected  the  quo- 
 tations of  the  old  Chronicons  of  Manetho,  and  of  Eratosthenes,  as 
 he  found  them  in  the  works  of  jlfricanus  and  Euselius  ;  ana  .' 
 the  works  of  Afrieanus  and  Eusehius  being  now  lost,  (for  it  is 
 known  that  the  work  which  goes  under  the  name  of  Euscllius, 
 Chronicon  is  a  composition  of  Scaligcr's)  we  have  nothing  to  be  i 
 depended  upon  but  what  we  find  in  Syncellus  above  mentioned. 
 — Shttckfard's  Connection. 
 
"Sbct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 63 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  21GS;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  213G.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G.  TO  VER.  13 
 
 .nul  as  a  period  of  36,525  years  is  what  they  call  an 
 entire  mundane  revolution,  that  is,  when  the  several 
 heavenly  bodies  come  round  to  the  same  point,  from 
 Which  all  their  courses  began  ;  so  is  it  very  remarkable, 
 that  they  made  the  sum  total  of  the  reigns  of  all  their 
 several  gods,  to  amount  to  the  self-same  space  of  time. 
 This  I  take  to  be  a  true  state  of  the  Egyptian  dynasties  : 
 and  if  so,  it  makes  their  history  not  near  so  extravagant 
 as  has  been  imagined,  and  sinks  their  account  of  time 
 some  hundred  years  short  of  the  Jewish  computation. 
 
 The  Jewish  computation  indeed  is  not  a  little  ambi- 
 guous, by  reason  of  the  different  methods,  which  men 
 find  themselves  inclined  to  pursue.  The  three  common 
 ways  of  computing  the  time  from  the  creation  to  the 
 flood,  are,  that  which  arises  from  the  Hebrew  text, 
 from  the  Samaritan  copies,  and  from  the  LXX.  inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 THE  COMPUTATION  OF  MOSES. 
 
 1.  According'  to 
 the  Hebrew  text. 
 
 Beean  his 
 life  in  ihe 
 
 world 
 
 Had  his  son 
 
 yeU  .',1  his 
 life 
 
 Lived  after 
 
 Lived  in  all, 
 
 Died  ii,  the 
 
 year  of  the 
 
 world 
 
 Adam 
 
 1 
 
 130 
 
 800 
 
 930 
 
 930. 
 
 Seth 
 
 130 
 
 105 
 
 807 
 
 912 
 
 1042 
 
 235 
 
 90 
 
 815 
 
 905 
 
 1140 
 
 Cainan 
 
 325 
 
 70 
 
 840 
 
 910 
 
 1235 
 
 Mahalaleel.... 
 
 395 
 
 65 
 
 S30 
 
 895 
 
 1290 
 
 4G0 
 
 162 
 
 800 
 
 962 
 
 1422 
 
 Enoch 
 
 622 
 
 65 
 
 300 
 
 365 
 
 987 
 
 Methuselah  ... 
 
 687 
 
 187 
 
 782 
 
 969 
 
 1656 
 
 874 
 
 IS2 
 
 595 
 
 777 
 
 1651 
 
 Noah 
 
 1056 
 
 500 
 
 2.  According'  to 
 the  Samaritau. 
 
 Kec»n  his 
 
 life  ii.    Ihe 
 
 year  of  ihe 
 
 world 
 
 Had  his  s-n 
 yearns 
 
 Lived  after 
 his  son's 
 
 Lived  in  all, 
 years 
 
 Died  in  Ihe 
 world 
 
 Adam 
 
 1 
 
 130 
 
 800 
 
 930 
 
 930 
 
 Seth 
 
 130 
 
 105 
 
 807 
 
 912 
 
 1042 
 
 Eno? 
 
 235 
 
 90 
 
 815 
 
 905 
 
 1140 
 
 Cainan 
 
 325 
 
 70 
 
 840 
 
 910 
 
 1235 
 
 Mahalaleel.... 
 
 395 
 
 65 
 
 830 
 
 895 
 
 1290 
 
 Jared 
 
 460 
 
 62 
 
 785 
 
 847 
 
 1307 
 
 Enoch  
 
 522 
 
 65 
 
 300 
 
 365 
 
 887 
 
 Methuselah.... 
 
 587 
 
 67 
 
 653 
 
 720 
 
 1307 
 
 Lamech 
 
 654 
 
 53 
 
 600 
 
 653 
 
 1307 
 
 Noah 
 
 707 
 
 500 
 
 3.  According  to 
 the  Septuagiut. 
 
 Began  his 
 
 life  in  the 
 
 year  of  ihe 
 
 world 
 
 Had  his  ion 
 in  Hi 
 
 life 
 
 Lived  afier 
 his  s-n'a 
 
 Lived  in  all, 
 years 
 
 DieJ  in  thb 
 ye.».r  nl  lbc 
 
 1 
 
 230 
 
 700 
 
 930 
 
 930 
 
 Seth 
 
 230 
 
 205 
 
 707 
 
 912 
 
 1042 
 
 Enos 
 
 435 
 
 190 
 
 715 
 
 905 
 
 1340 
 1535 
 
 Cainan 
 
 625 
 
 170 
 
 740 
 
 910 
 
 Mahalaleel.... 
 
 795 
 
 165 
 
 730 
 
 895 
 
 1690 
 
 960 
 
 162 
 
 800 
 
 962 
 
 1922 
 
 1122 
 
 165 
 
 200 
 
 365 
 
 1187 
 
 Methuselah  ... 
 
 1287 
 
 187 
 
 782 
 
 969 
 
 2256 
 
 1474 
 
 188 
 
 565 
 
 753 
 
 2227 
 
 Noah 
 
 1662 
 
 500 
 
 The  difference  between  the  Hebrew  and  Samaritan 
 computation  is  easily  perceived,  by  comparing  the  two 
 former  tables  together ;  nor  will  it  be  any  hard  matter 
 to  reconcile  them,  if  we  consider  what  l  St  Jerome  in- 
 forms us  of,  namely,  that  there  were  Samaritan  copies 
 which  made  Methuselah  187  years  old  at  the  birth  of 
 Lamech  ;  and  Lamech  1S2  at  the  birth  of  Noah.  Now, 
 if  this  be  true,  it  is  easy  to  suppose  62  (the  age  of  Jared 
 at  the  birth  of  Enoch)  to  be  a  mistake  of  the  transcriber, 
 who  might  drop  a  letter,  and  write  62  instead  of  162  ; 
 and  thus  all  the  difference  between  the  Hebrew  and 
 Samaritan  copies  will  entirely  vanish. 
 
 But  it  is  not  so  between  the  Hebrew  and  the  Septua- 
 gint.  The  Hebrew,  according  to  the  highest  calculation, 
 makes  no  more  than  1656  years  before  the  flood,  but  the 
 Septuagiut  raises  it  to  no  less  than  2262  ;  so  that  in  this 
 one  period  (without  saying  any  thing  of  the  wide  differ- 
 ence between  them  in  subsequent  times)  there  is  an 
 addition  of  a'uove  600  years,  which  can  a  hardly  be  ac- 
 counted for  by  any  mistake  of  transcribers,  because  all 
 the  ancient  and  authentic  copies,  both  of  the  Hebrew 
 and  Septuagint,  agree  exactly  in  their  computation. 
 And  therefore  the  generality  of  learned  men,  despairing 
 
 1  In  his  Inquiries  on  Genesis. 
 a  Lud.  Capellus,  in  his  Sacred  Chronology  prepared  by  JJ'al- 
 ton  for  the  Polyglot  Bible,  attempts  to  reconcile  this  difference 
 by  telling  us  from  St  Austin,  On  the  Government  of  God,  c.  13. 
 that  this  edition  was  not  made  by  the  LXX.  themselves,  but  by 
 some  early  transcriber  from  them,  and  probably  for  one  or  other 
 of  these  two  reasons.  1st,  Perhaps,  thinking  the  years  of  the  an- 
 tediluvians to  be  but  lunar,  and  computing,  that  at  this  rate  the 
 six  fathers  (whose  lives  are  thus  altered)  must  have  had  their 
 children  at  five,  six,  seven,  or  eight  years  old  (which  could  Dot 
 but  look  incredible;)  the  transcriber,  I  say,  finding  this,  might 
 be  induced  to  add  one  hundred  years  to  each  in  order  to 
 them  of  a  more  probable  age  of  manhood  at  the  birth  of  their 
 respective  children:  or,  2ndly,  If  he  thought  the  years  of  their 
 lives  to  be  solar,  yet  still  ho  might  imagine,  that  infancy  and 
 childhood  were  proportionably  longer  in  men  who  were  to  live 
 seven,  eight,  or  nine  hundred  years,  than  they  are  in  us:  and 
 that  it  was  too  early  in  their  lives  for  them  to  be  fathers  at  sixty, 
 seventy,  or  ninety  years  of  age;  and  for  this  reason,  might  add 
 one  hundred  yens,  to  make  their  advance  to  manhood  (which  is 
 commonly  not  till  one-fourth  part  of  life  is  over)  proportionable  to 
 what  was  to  be  the  term  of  their  duration. — Wmi ■■A/urWs  Connec 
 tion,  c.  !. 
 
61 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  I53G.  A.  C.  24C8;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI.ES,  A.  M.  213G.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  C.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 of  a  reconciliation,  have  fairly  entered  the  lists,  and 
 taken  the  side  which  they  thought  most  tenable. 
 
 Those  who  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Greek  version, 
 draw  up  their  arguments  in  this  rank  and  order.  They 
 tell  us,  that  the  alteration  in  the  Septuagint  computation 
 must  have  been  purposely  made;  because,  where  letters 
 must  necessarily  have  been  added,  and  where  sometimes 
 both  parts  of  a  verse,  and  sometimes  two  verses  together 
 are  altered,  and  so  altered,  as  still  to  keep  them  con- 
 sistent with  one  another ;  this,  whenever  done,  must  be 
 done  designedly,  and  for  no  other  reason  that  they  can 
 imagine,  but  rarely  a  detection  of  errors  in  the  Hebrew 
 copies. 
 
 They  tell  us,  that,  though  they  have  no  positive  proof 
 of  such  errors  in  the  present  Hebrew  copies,  yet  they 
 have  good  grounds  to  suspect  there  are  such,  because 
 that,  before  the  time  of  Antiochus,  the  Jews,  while  in 
 peace,  were  so  very  careless  about  their  sacred  writings, 
 that  they  suffered  several  variations  to  creep  into  their 
 copies ;  that  when  Antiochus  fell  upon  them,  he  seized 
 and  burnt  all  the  copies  he  could  come  at,  so  that  none, 
 but  such  as  were  in  private  hands,  escaped  his  fury; 
 that,  as  soon  as  that  calamity  was  over,  those  copies 
 which  were  left,  in  private  hands,  the  Jews  got  together, 
 in  order  to  transcribe  others  from  them;  and  that,  from 
 these  transcriptions,  came  all  the  copies  now  in  use. 
 Now  suppose,  say  they,  that  these  private  copies  which 
 escaped  the  fury  of  Antiochus,  but  were  made  in  an  age 
 confessedly  inaccurate,  had  any  of  them  dropped  some 
 numerical  letters,  this  might  occasion  the  present  He- 
 brew text's  falling  short  in  its  computations:  and,  to 
 confirm  this, 
 
 They  tell  us,  that  Josephas,  1  who  expressly  declares, 
 that  he  wrote  his  history  from  the  sacred  pages,  2in 
 his  account  of  the  lives  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs, 
 agrees  with  the  Septuagint;  and  that  the  Greek  histori- 
 ans before  Josephus,  such  as  Demetrius  Plialerius, 
 Philo  the  elder,  Eupolemus,  &c,  very  accurate  writers, 
 and  highly  commended  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  and 
 FAisebius,  in  their  calculation,  differ  very  much  from 
 the  common  Hebrew:  so  that  not  only  Josephus,  but 
 these  elder  historians  likewise  must  have  either  seen,  or 
 been  informed  of  certain  Hebrew  copies  which  agreed 
 with  the  Septuagint,  and  differed  from  what  have  de- 
 scended to  us.     In  short, 
 
 They  tell  us,  3  that  the  whole  Christian  church,  Eastern 
 and  Western,  and  all  the  celebrated  writers  of  the 
 church,  are  on  their  side ;  that  all  the  ancient  manu- 
 scripts have  exactly  the  same  computations  with  the  com- 
 mon Septuagint,  except  here  and  there  a  variation  or 
 two,  not  worth  regarding;  and  therefore  they  conclude, 
 that,  as  there  is  a  manifest  disagreement  between  the 
 Greek  and  Hebrew  copies  in  this  respect,  the  mistake 
 should  rather  be  charged  upon  the  Hebrew,  than  the 
 Septuagint;  because,  as  the  Hebrew  is  thought  by  some 
 to  fall  short,  and  the  Septuagint  to  exceed,  in  its  account 
 of  the  lives  of  the  patriarchs,  it  is  obvious  to  conceive, 
 that  a  fault  of  this  kind  may  be  incurred  by  way  of  omis- 
 sion rather  than  addition. 
 
 '  Against  Appion.  "  Antiquities,  b.  1.  c.  3. 
 
 3  Shuchfo riTs   Connection;    and   Heidegger's  History  of  the 
 Patriarchs. 
 
 Those  who  maintain  the  authority  of  the  Hebrew  text, 
 as  the  standard  and  rule  of  reckoning  the  years  of  the 
 patriarchs,  oppose  their  adversaries  in  this  manner. 
 
 They  tell  us  *  that  the  Hebrew  text  is  the  original,  in 
 which  the  Spirit  of  God  indicted  the  Scriptures  of  the 
 Old  Testament,  and  being,  consequently,  authentic,  is 
 better  to  be  trusted  than  any  translation  made  by  men 
 liable  to  error,  as  the  Seventy  interpreters  were ;  and 
 that  the  Jews,  to  whom  5were  committed  these  oracles 
 of  God,  used  the  greatest  diligence  to  preserve  them 
 pure  and  entire,  insomuch,  that  in  the  course  of  so  many 
 years  (as  6  Josephus  testifies  in  his  time)  no  person  durst 
 add,  take  away,  or  misplace  any  thing  therein. 
 
 They  tell  us,  that  no  reason  can  be  assigned,  why  the 
 Hebrew  text  should  be  corrupted,  but  many  very  proba- 
 ble ones,  why  the  Septuagint  might;  since,  either  to 
 exalt  the  antiquity  of  their  own  nation,  or  to  conform  to 
 the  dynasties  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Jewish  interpreters 
 at  Alexandria  might  falsify  their  chronology;  since,  in 
 this  very  point,  there  are  so  many  different  readings  in 
 the  Septuagint,  and  so  many  errors  and  mistranslations 
 in  it,  that  7the  learned  Dr  Lightfoot  (to  whom,  as  yet, 
 no  sufficient  reply  has  been  made)  has  proved  it  a  very 
 corrupt  and  imperfect  version. 
 
 They  tell  us  that  the  Hebrew  computations  are  sup- 
 ported by  a  perfect  concurrence  and  agreement  of  all 
 Hebrew  copies  now  in  being;  that  there  have  been  no 
 various  readings  in  these  places,  since  the  Talmuds  were 
 composed;  that,  even  in  our  Saviour's  time,  this  was  the 
 current  way  of  calculation,  since  the  paraphrase  of 
 Onkelos  (which  is  on  all  hands  agreed  to  be  about  that 
 age)  is  the  same  exactly  with  the  Hebrew  in  this  matter ; 
 that  St  Jerome  and  St  Austin  (who  were  the  best  skilled 
 in  the  Hebrew  tongue  of  any  fathers  in  their  age)  fol- 
 lowed it  in  their  writings,  and  the  vulgar  Latin,  which 
 has  been  in  use  in  the  church  above  100  years,  entirely 
 agrees  with  it. 
 
 They  tell  us,  that  Demetrius,  the  real  historian,  (for 
 aPhalerius  was  none,)  lived  not  before  the  reign  of 
 Ptolemy  Philopater,  the  grandson  of  Philadelphus,  near 
 seventy  years  after  the  Septuagint  translation  was 
 made :  that  Philo  was  contemporary  with  our  Saviour, 
 wrote  almost  300  years  after  the  said  translation,  and, 
 living  constantly  at  Alexandria,  might  very  well  be  sup- 
 posed to  copy  from  it;  that  Josephus,  though  a  Jew, 
 and  perfectly  skilled  in  the  Hebrew  language,  in  many 
 instances,    (which   learned    8men    have    pointed    out,) 
 
 4  Millar's  Church  History.  s  Rom.  iii.  2. 
 
 6  Against  Appion,  b.  1. 
 
 7  See  his  Works,  vol.  2.  p.  932.  edit.  Utrecht,  1699. 
 
 8  See  Cave's  History;  Litt.  p.  2.  in  Joseph;  and  TFelVs  Dis- 
 sertation upon  the  Chronicles  of  Josephus,  pp.  19 — 21. 
 
 a  Demetrius  Plialerius  was  the  first  president  of  the  college 
 of  Alexandria,  to  which  the  library  belonged,  where  the  original 
 manuscripts  of  the  Septuagint  were  reposited.  He  was  a  great 
 scholar  as  well  as  an  able  statesman  and  politician ;  but  I  doubt 
 Bishop  Walton  is  mistaken,  when  (in  his  ninth  Preface  to  the 
 Polyglot  Bible)  he  quotes  him  as  one  of  those  Greek  historians 
 whose  works  might  prove  the  Septuagint  computation  to  be  more 
 probable  than  the  Hebrew.  The  Phalerian  Demetrius  lived  a 
 busy,  active  life,  was  a  great  officer  of  state,  both  at  home  and 
 abroad,  and  I  do  not  find  that  ever  he  wrote  any  history.  It  was 
 Demetrius  the  historian  therefore,  that  the  Bishop  should  have 
 quoted ;  but  he,  living  in  the  time  that  I  mentioned,  does  not 
 make  much  to  this  purpose. — Shuchford's  Connection,  b.  J. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 65 
 
 A.  M.  153G.  A.  C.  21G8;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2136.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 adheres  to  the  Greek  in  opposition  to  the  Hebrew;  and 
 that  the  fathers  of  the  first  ages  of  the  church,  though 
 they  were  very  good  men,  had  no  great  extent  of  learn- 
 ing; understood  the  Greek  tongue  better  than  the  He- 
 brew; and  for  that  reason  gave  the  preference  to  the 
 Septuagint  computation. 
 
 In  this  manner  do  the  advocates  for  the  Hebrew  text 
 defend  its  authority:  and,  since  it  is  confessed,  there 
 has  been  a  transmutation  somewhere,  if  that  transmuta- 
 tion was  designedly  and  on  purpose  done,  (as  the  ad- 
 verse party  agrees,)  it  is  indifferent l  whether  it  was  done 
 by  way  of  addition  or  subtraction :  only  as  it  is  evident, 
 that  the  Greeks  did  compute  by  numerical  letters, 
 whereas  it  is  much  questioned,  that  the  Hebrews  ever 
 did,  the  mistake  or  falsification  rather  seems  to  lie  on 
 the  side  of  the  Greek  translators,  the  very  form  of  whose 
 letters  was  more  susceptible  of  it. 
 
 This  is  a  true  state  of  the  controversy,  wherein  the 
 arguments  for  the  Hebrew  computation  do  certainly 
 preponderate;  though  the  names,  the  venerable  a names, 
 on  the  contrary  side,  have  hitherto  been  more  numerous.  6 
 
 It  might  be  some  entertainment  to  the  reader,  could 
 we  but  give  him  any  tolerable  view  of  the  religion, 
 
 1  Heidegger 's  History  of  the  Patriarchs, 
 a  The  names  for  the  Septuagint  computation,  which  the  learned 
 Heidegger,  in  his  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  (as  he  takes  them 
 from  Baronius,)  has  reckoned  up,  are  such  as  these:  Theophi- 
 lus,  bishop  of  Antioch,  St  Cyprian,  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
 Hippolytus,  Origen,  Lactantius,  Epiphanius,  Philastrius,  Orosius, 
 Cyril,  the  two  Anastasii,  Nicephorus,  and  Suada ;  to  whom  he 
 might  add  several  more,  as  Heidegger  suggests,  while  those 
 among  the  ancients  who  contended  for  the  Hebrew  calculation, 
 were  only  St  Austin  and  St  Jerome,  but  men  of  great  skill  and 
 proficiency  in  the  Hebrew  language. — On  the  Age  of  the  Patri- 
 archs, Essay  10. 
 
 b  Such  may  have  been  the  case  100  years  ago:  but  it  certainly 
 is  not  so  now.     Dr  Hales  has  proved,  with  the  force  of  demon- 
 stration, that  there  was  originally  no  difference  between  the 
 Hebrew  genealogies  and  those  of  the  Greek  version;  that  the 
 computation  of  Josephus  was,  in  his  own  time,  conformable  to 
 both;  and  consequently  that  the  chronology  either  of  the  original 
 Hebrew,  or  of  the  Greek  version  of  the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  of 
 the  writings  of  Josephus,  has  been  since  adulterated.     That  the 
 wilful  adulteration  took  place  in  the  Hebrew  rather  than  in  the 
 Greek  copies,  is  rendered  highly  probable  by  the  reasons  which 
 follow.      According   to   Dr   Hales,   who   has   bestowed   much 
 pains  on  the  question,  the  Masorites,  who  published  the  edition 
 of  the  Hebrew  Bible  which  is  now  in  use,  deducted  a  century 
 from  the  age  at  which  each  of  the  patriarchs — Adam,  Seth, 
 Enos,  Cainan,  Mahaleel,  and  Enoch — had  their  respective  sons 
 whose  genealogy  is  decided  by  Moses.     Their  motive  for  this 
 .'induct  he  states  from  Ephrem,  Syrus,  who  lived  about  the  period 
 at  which  the  change  was  made,  and  of  whom  the  learned  Cave 
 says  (Hist.  Lit.) — "From  his  earliest  years  he  exercised  him- 
 self in  monastic  philosophy,  and  with  all  his  energy  so  perfected 
 himself  in  the  studies  of  the  more  learned  sciences,  that  with 
 case  he  could  understand  the  most  difficult  theorems."     Such  a 
 man  was  not  likely  to  write  at  random  of  a  fact,  of  which  he  had 
 the  best  possible  opportunity  of  ascertaining  either  the  truth  or 
 the  falsehood.     That  Ephrem.  had  such  an  opportunity  is  unques- 
 tionable ;  for  he  died  A.  D.  378 ;  and  the  corruption  of  the  He- 
 brew chronology,  though  it  began  as  early  as  A.  D.  130,  appears 
 not  to  have  made  any  considerable  progress  for  two  centuries, 
 Eusebius  having  found,  in  the  Hebrew  copies  which  he  con- 
 sulted, different  accounts  of  the  same  times,  some  following  the 
 longer,  and  others  the  shorter  computations.      Now  Ephrem 
 affirms,  that  the  Jews  "  subtracted  600  years  from  the  genera- 
 tions of  Adam,  Seth,  &c,  in  order  that  their  own  books  might 
 not  convict  them  concerning  the  coming  of  Christ:  he  having 
 been  predicted  to  appear  for  the  deliverance  of  mankind  after 
 6500  years. 
 
 The  reader  will  look  in  vain  for  this  prediction  in  the  books  of 
 the  Old  Testament;  but  the  Cabbalists  found  in  the  first  chapter 
 
 of  the  book  of  Genesis,  that  the  world  would  last  6000  years, 
 because  the  letter  Alcph,  which  stands  for  1000,  occurs  six  times 
 in  the  first  verse ;  because  God  was  six  days  about  the  creation ; 
 and  because  with  him  'a  thousand  years  are  but  as  one  day!' 
 after  this,  they  taught  that  there  was  to  be  "a  seventh  day,  or  a 
 millenary  sabbath  of  rest."  Now  it  being  certainly  foretold  that 
 the  Messiah  should  be  sent  in  the  last  times,  it  appears  that  the 
 Rabbis  inferred  his  advent  to  be  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
 millenary,  or  the  5500th  year  of  the  world ;  and  to  find  a  pre- 
 tence for  rejecting  Jesus  as  the  Messiah,  it  occurred  to  them  to 
 alter  the  generations  of  the  patriarchs,  by  which  the  age  of  the 
 world  might  be  known,  by  subtracting  a  century  from  Adam's 
 age  until  the  birth  of  Seth,  and  adding  the  same  to  the  residue 
 of  Iris  life,  and  doing  the  same  thing  with  respect  to  the  genera- 
 tion of  many  others  of  Adam's  descendants  down  to  Abraham. 
 By  this  device  their  computation  showed  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
 manifested  near  the  middle  of  the  fifth,  instead  of  the  sixth, 
 millenary  of  the  world,  which  according  to  them  was  to  last  7000 
 years ;  and  they  said,  We  are  still  in  the  middle  of  the  time,  and 
 the  time  appointed  for  the  Messiah's  advent  is  not  yet  come. 
 
 Those  Rabbis,  however,  were  obliged  to  leave  the  ages  at 
 which  Jared,  Methuselah,  and  Lamech  had  their  several  sons, 
 as  they  found  them.  "  Had  these  been  cm-tailed,  like  the  rest, 
 and  the  century  taken  from  each  added  to  the  subsequent  life  of 
 the  patriarch  as  is  done  in  other  cases,  Jared  would  have  sur- 
 vived the  deluge  66  years;  Methuselah  200  years;  and  Lamech 
 95  years.  Not  daring,  therefore,  to  shorten  the  lives  of  these 
 three  patriarchs,  the  Jews  were  forced  to  let  the  original  amounts 
 of  their  generations  remain  unaltered." 
 
 "  The  tradition  of  the  Jews  respecting  the  age  of  the  world 
 was  found  also  in  the  Sybilline  Oracles;  in  Hesiod;  in  the  writ- 
 ings of  Darius  Hystaspes,  the  old  king  of  the  Medes,  derived 
 probably  from  the  Magi ;  and  in  Hermes  Trisrnegistus,  and  was 
 adopted  by  the  early  Christian  fathers.  Its  prevalence  therefore 
 throughout  the  Pagan,  Jewish,  and  Christian  world,  whether  well- 
 founded,  or  otherwise,  was  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  Jews  to  invali- 
 date it,  by  shortening  their  chronology."  Tills  probability  is  height- 
 ened by  the  testimony  of  Justin  Martyr  and  Irenasus,  who  were 
 both  eminent  Christian  writers  of  the  second  century,  the  former 
 a  Samaritan  by  birth,  and  well  skilled  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  as 
 well  as  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures.  Now,  in  Iris  cele- 
 brated conference  with  Trypho  the  Jew,  Justin  expressly  charges 
 the  Rabbis  with  having  expunged  many  passages  out  of  the 
 Septuagint  version;  whilst  Irenmus  affirms  of  the  same  Rabbis, 
 that  if  they  had  known  the  use  that  was  to  be  made  of  their 
 Scriptures,  they  would  not  have  hesitated  to  burn  these  Scrip- 
 tures? The  Septuagint  version  was  indeed  their  abhorrence, 
 because  it  was  generally  referred  to  by  the  Christian  writers; 
 and,  in  order  to  bring  it  as  much  as  possible  into  disrepute,  they 
 instituted,  in  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  a  solemn  fast 
 on  the  8th  of  Tebeth  (December)  to  curse  the  memory  of  its 
 having  been  made!  Had  it  been  in  their  power,  there  cannot 
 be  a  doubt,  but  that,  with  these  dispositions,  they  would  have 
 destroyed  that  version  entirely ;  but  this  was  not  in  their  power, 
 whilst  it  was  easy  to  alter  the  chronology  of  the  Hebrew  text,  so 
 as  to  make  it  suit  their  own  purposes. 
 
 "  In  the  course  of  the  Jewish  war,"  says  Dr  Hales,  "until 
 the  final  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  expulsion  of  the  Jews 
 from  Judea  in  the  reign  of  Adrian,  vast  numbers  of  the  Hebre  f 
 copies  must  have  been  lost  or  destroyed,  besides  those  that  were 
 taken  away  by  the  conquerors  among  other  spoils;  and  the  few, 
 that  were  left,  were  confined  in  a  great  measure  to  the  Jews 
 themselves,  as  the  Hebrew  language  was  not  generally  under- 
 stood like  the  Greek.  Whereas,  of  the  Greek  copies,  even  if 
 all,  that  were  possessed  by  the  Hellenistic  Jews,  not  only  in 
 Palestine,  but  throughout  the  world,  had  been  destroyed,  which 
 was  far  from  being  the  case,  yet  the  copies  of  the  Septuagint,  in 
 the  possession  of  the  Christians  everywhere,  rendered  any  mate- 
 rial adulteration  of  the  Greek  text,  at  least  in  so  important  a  case 
 as  that  of  the  genealogies,  well  nigh  impossible."  The  Jews  did 
 however  all  that  they  could  to  deprive  the  Christians  of  the  argu- 
 ments with  which  it  furnished  them  in  proof  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
 being  the  Messiah  promised  in  the  Old  Testament.  They  set 
 up  three  other  Greek  versions  in  opposition  to  the  Septuagint, 
 
66 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  24C8;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  213G.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 polity,  and  learning,  of  the  antediluvian  people  :  but  the 
 sacred  history,  in  this  respect,  is  so  very  short,  and  the 
 
 framed  on  the  Hebrew  text  curtailed  in  the  manner  which  has 
 been  already  mentioned.  The  first  was  that  of  Aquila,  pub- 
 lished about  A.  D.  12S — two  years  before  the  Seder  Olam 
 Rabba;  the  second  by  Symmachus;  and  the  third  by  Theodo- 
 tion.  Aquila  was  originally  a  pagan  priest,  and  afterwards  a 
 Clu-istiaii;  but  being  excommunicated  for  the  irregularity  of  his 
 conduct,  he  became  a  Jew,  and  the  most  rancorous  enemy  of 
 the  gospel  of  Christ.  By  Epiphanius  he  is  charged  with  wrest- 
 ing the  Scriptures,  in  order  to  invalidate  their  testimonies  to  the 
 claim  of  our  Lord  to  the  character  of  the  Messiah;  and,  in  an 
 unpublished  Greek  tract  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  Oxford,  it  is 
 said — "  Wherever  you  find  in  the  Hebrew  (for  even  there  he 
 also  obliterated)  or  in  the  Greek,  the  testimonies  concerning 
 Clirist  disguised,  know  that  it  was  the  insidious  contrivance  of 
 Aquila.'' 
 
 That  he  might  be  able  to  perform  these  exploits,  Aquila,  when 
 lie  became  a  Jew,  put  himself  under  the  tuition  of  the  famous 
 Rabbi  Akiba,  who,  for  forty  years  was  president  of  the  Sanhe- 
 drim, and  had  40,000  pupils,  which  qualified  him  to  become  one 
 of  the  most  subtile  and  formidable  as  well  as  most  malignant 
 adversaries  of  Clu-istianity.  It  was  under  the  auspices,  and  by 
 the  instigation  of  this  famous  Rabbi,  that  in  the  year  ISO,  was 
 published  or  "  sealed,"  says  Dr  Hales,  "  the  Seder  Olam 
 Rabba,  or  Jewish  curtailed  system  of  chronology;  and  as 
 Aquila' s  version  agrees  with  it,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  but 
 that  in  this  exploit,  he  was  aiding  to  his  master.  These  facts 
 were  undoubtedly  known  to  Usher  and  other  eminent  chronolo- 
 gers;  but,  as  Dr  Hales  observes,  "the  superstitious  veneration 
 for  what  was  called  the  Hebrew  verity,  or  supposed  immaculate 
 purity  of  the  Masorite  editions  of  the  Hebrew  text,  which  gene- 
 rally prevailed  among  the  most  eminent  divines  and  Hebrew 
 scholars  of  the  last  age,  precluded  all  discussions  of  this  nature." 
 "  But  the  inspection  of  various  editions  since,  and  the  copious 
 collations  of  the  Hebrew  text  with  a  great  number  of  MSS.  col- 
 lected from  all  parts  of  the  world,  by  the  laudable  industry  and 
 extensive  researches  of  Kennicotl  De  Rossi,  and  other  learned 
 men,  have  proved  that  the  sacred  classics  are  no  more  exempt 
 from  various  readings  than  the  profane."  Errors  many  and 
 great  have  crept  into  the  chronology  of  the  Scriptures  as  well  in 
 the  original  Hebrew  as  in  the  Septuagint  version;  nor  have  the 
 antiquities  of  Josephus  by  any  means  escaped  the  confusion  with 
 respect  to  dates,  which  disfigures  the  Sacred  Oracles  from  which 
 those  antiquities  were  transcribed. 
 
 It  is,  however,  chiefly  by  the  means  of  some  genuine  dates 
 and  numbers  which  still  fortunately  subsist  in  the  work  of  Jose- 
 phus, that  our  author  has  been  enabled  to  restore  the  Scripture 
 chronology  to  its  original  state.  This  he  has  done  by  strictly 
 following  the  analytical  method  of  investigation,  which,  he  truly 
 observes,  is  at  least  as  applicable  to  chronology  as  to  natural 
 philosophy.  The  leading  elementary  date,  by  reference  to  which 
 he  has  adjusted  the  whole  range  of  sacred  and  profane  chrono- 
 logy, "  is  (I  quote  his  own  words)  the  birth  of  Cyrus,  before 
 Christ  599,  which  led  to  his  accession  to  the  throne  of  Persia, 
 B.  C.  559;  of  Media,  B.  C.  551 ;  and  of  Babylonia,  B.  C.  536 ; 
 for,  from  these  several  dates  carefully  and  critically  ascertained 
 and  verified,  the  several  respective  chronologies  of  these  king- 
 doms branched  oil';  and  from  the  last  especially,  the  destruction 
 of  Solomon's  temple  by  Nebuehadnezzer,  B.  C.  5S6,  its  correcter 
 date,  which  led  to  its  foundation,  B.  C.  1027;  thence,  to  the 
 Fvode,  B.  C.  1648;  thence  to  Abraham's  birth,  B.  C.  2153; 
 thence  to  the  reign  of  Nimrod,  2554;  thence  to  the  deluge, 
 B.  C.  3155;  and  thence  to  the  creation,  B.  C.  5411.  And  this 
 date  of  the  creation  is  verified,  by  the  rectification  of  the  systems 
 of  Josephus,  and  Theophilus,  who  was  bishop  of  Antioch, 
 A.  D.  169,  and  the  first  Christian  chronologist."  By  the  same 
 patient  and  analytical  investigation,  Dr  Hales  has  ascertained 
 the  genealogies  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs,  to  have  been  very 
 different  from  what  they  are  represented  to  have  been  in  the 
 present  Hebrew;  and  though  it  would  undoubtedly  be  presump- 
 tuous to  say  that  his  system  is  without  errors,  it  appears  to  ap- 
 proach so  near  to  perfection,  that  the  following  computation, 
 which  differs  widely  from  those  of  the  Hebrew,  Samaritan,  and 
 Septuagint  texts  at  present,  must,  I  think,  be  acceptable  to  the 
 reader.     It  may  he  considered  as  the  original  computation  of 
 
 hints  suggested  therein,  so  very  few,  and  so  very  obscure 
 withal,  that,  during  this  period,  we  are  left,  in  a  great 
 measure,  in  the  dark.  However,  we  cannot  but  observe, 
 that  it  is  a  mistaken  notion  of  some  authors,  who  affirm, 
 that  at  the  beginning  of  the  world,  for  almost  2000 
 years  together,  mankind  lived  without  any  law,  without 
 any  precepts,  without  any  promises  from  God;  and  that 
 the  religion  from  Adam  to  Abraham  was  purely  natural, 
 and  such  as  had  nothing  but  right  reason  to  be  its  rule 
 and  measure.  The  antediluvian  dispensation  indeed 
 was,  in  the  main,  founded  upon  the  law  of  nature ;  but 
 still  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  there  was  (as  we 
 showed  before)  a  divine  precept  concerning  sacrifices; 
 that  there  was  a  divine  promise  concerning  the  blessed 
 Seed ;  and  that  there  were  several  other  precepts  and 
 injunctions  given  the  patriarchs,  besides  those  that  were 
 built  upon  mere  reason. 
 
 The  law  of  sacrifices  (which  confessedly  at  this  time 
 obtained)  was  partly  natural,  and  partly  divine.  As 
 sacrifices  were  tokens  of  thankfulness  and  acknowledg- 
 ments, that  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  all  other  crea- 
 tures, for  the  use  and  benefit  of  man  were  derived  from 
 God;  they  were  a  service  dictated  by  natural  reason, 
 and  so  were  natural  acts  of  worship :  abut,  as  they  carried 
 with  them  the  notion  of  expiation  and  atonement  for  the 
 souls  of  mankind  especially  as  they  referred  to  the 
 Messias,  and  signified  the  future  sacrifice  of  Christ, 
 they  were  certainly  instituted  by  God,  and  the  practice 
 of  them  was  founded  upon  a  divine  command. 
 
 It  is  not  to  be  doubted,  l  but  that  Adam  instructed  his 
 children  to  worship  and  adore  God,  to  commemorate  his 
 goodness,  and  deprecate  his  displeasure;  nor  can  Ave 
 suppose,  but  that  they,  in  their  respective  families,  put 
 his  instructions  in  execution;  and  yet  we  find,  that  in 
 
 1  Edward's  Survey  of  Religion,  b.  1. 
 
 Josejihus  rather  than  that  of  Dr  Hales,  and  therefore  the 
 computation  of  Moses. 
 
 According  to 
 Hales,  &C. 
 
 Began 
 his  life 
 
 in  the 
 
 yea,  of 
 
 the 
 
 world 
 
 Had  his 
 
 •he    year 
 
 »l  his  life 
 
 Lived  after  the 
 
 birlh  .•!  his  sun— 
 years 
 
 Lived  in  ill— 
 
 Died  in  the  yen 
 of  the  world 
 
 1 
 
 230 
 
 700 
 
 930 
 
 930 
 
 2.  Seth  
 
 230 
 
 205 
 
 707 
 
 912 
 
 1142 
 
 3.  Euos 
 
 435 
 
 190 
 
 715 
 
 905 
 
 1340 
 
 625 
 
 170 
 
 740 
 
 910 
 
 1534 
 
 5.  Mahalaleel 
 
 795 
 
 1G5 
 
 730 
 
 895 
 
 1690 
 
 960 
 
 162 
 
 800 
 
 9G2 
 
 1922 
 
 1122 
 
 1G5 
 
 200 
 
 365 
 
 1487 
 
 8.  Methuselah 
 
 1287 
 
 187 
 
 782 
 
 9G9 
 
 2256 
 
 1474 
 
 182 
 
 Heb.    (595 
 LXX.  15G5 
 
 Heb.  C777 
 LXX.  J.753 
 
 Heb.  C2251 
 LXX.  12227 
 
 10.  Noah 
 
 1G5G 
 
 500 
 
 225G 
 
 GOO 
 
 Gleig's  Edit. 
 
 a  This  seems  inconceivable,  though  it  is  an  opinion  that  has 
 been  held  by  men  of  the  highest  eminence  in  the  church,  as  well 
 for  learning  as  for  piety.  Whilst  men  possessed  no  notion  of 
 property,  what  could  lead  them  to  offer  gifts  to  God?  And 
 though  they  must  have  been  all  conscious  of  guilt,  is  it  possible 
 that  they  could  hope  to  propitiate  the  Creator  by  taking  away  the 
 life  of  his,  not  their,  guiltless  creatures.  For  complete  proof  ol 
 the  Divine  institution  of  all  kinds  of  sacrifice,  the  reader  may 
 have  recourse  to  Magee's  Discourses  and  Dissertations  on  the 
 Scriptural  Doctrines  of  Atonement  and  Sacrifice. — Gleig's  Edit 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 PROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 67 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  2468 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2136.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  6.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 the  days  of  Enos,  (besides  all  private  devotion)  a  public 
 form  of  worship  was  set  up ;  that  the  people  had  the 
 rites  of  their  religion,  which  God  had  appointed,  fixed, 
 and  established;  and  that,  very  probably,  as  Cain  built 
 cities  for  his  descendants  to  live  in,  so  Enos  might 
 build  temples,  and  places  of  divine  worship,  for  his  to 
 resort  to.  a 
 
 The  distinction  of  clean  and  unclean  animals  was 
 another  divine  injunction  under  this  dispensation.  God 
 refers  Noah  to  it,  as  a  thing  well  known,  when  he  com- 
 mands him  '  to  put  into  the  ark  se»en  pairs  of  clean,  and 
 two  of  unclean  creatures:  and2  though,  in  respect  of  man's 
 food,  this  distinction  was  not  before  the  law  of  Moses, 
 yet  some  beasts  were  accounted  fit  and  others  unfit  for 
 sacrifices  from  the  beginning.  The  former  were  esteemed 
 clean,  and  the  latter  unclean :  and  it  seems  safer  to  make 
 a  positive  law  of  God  the  foundation  of  this  distinction, 
 than  to  imagine  that  men,  in  such  matters  as  these,  were 
 left  to  their  own  discretion. 
 
 The  prohibition  of  marrying  with  infidels  or  idolaters, 
 was  another  article  of  this  dispensation,  as  appears  from 
 God's  angry  resentment  when  the  children  of  Seth  en- 
 tered into  wedlock  with  the  wicked  posterity  of  Cain. 
 And,  to  mention  no  more,  under  this  period  were  given 
 those  six  '  great  precepts  of  Adam'  (as  they  are  generally 
 called)  whereof  the  Jewish  doctors  make  such  boast ; 
 *  and  of  these  the  1.  was  of  strange  worship,  or  idolatry; 
 the  2.  of  cursing  the  most  holy  name,  or  blasphemy  ;  the 
 3.  of  uncovering  the  nakedness,  or  unlawful  copulation ; 
 the  4.  of  bloodshed,  or  homicide ;  the  5.  of  theft  and 
 rapine  ;  and  the  6.  of  judgment,  or  the  administration 
 of  justice  in  the  public  courts  of  judicature.  So  that, 
 from  the  very  first,  '  God  did  not  leave  himself  without 
 a  witness'  (as  the  apostle  terms  it)  but,  in  one  degree  or 
 other,  made  frequent  manifestations  of  his  will  to  man- 
 kind. 
 
 That  government  of  one  kind  or  other,  is  essential 
 to  the  well-being  of  mankind,  seems  to  be  a  position 
 r  founded  in  the  nature  of  things,  the  relation  wherein 
 
 1  Gen.  vii.  2.  2  Patrick's  Comtnenlary. 
 
 a  These  conjectures  are  without  all  foundation.  The  pious 
 family  of  Seth  undoubtedly  worshipped  God  in  public  as  well  as 
 in  private,  from  the  very  beginning;  though  it  was  not  till  the 
 days  of  Enos  that  they  began  to  "call  themselves  by  the  name 
 of  the  Lord,"  or  to  assume  the  denomination  of  "the  sons  of 
 God,"  to  distinguish  themselves  from  the  profane  race  of  Cain.' — 
 See  Hales's  Analysis,  &c,  vol.  ii.  p.  34. ;  Bishop  Gleiy's  Edit. 
 
 b  The  commandments  given  to  the  sons  of  Noah  are  the  same 
 with  these.  They  are  an  abridgment  of  the  whole  law  of 
 nature  ;  but  have  one  positive  precept  annexed  to  them ;  and  are 
 generally  placed  in  this  order.  1.  "Thou  shalt  serve  no  other 
 gods,  but  the  Maker  only  of  heaven  and  earth.  2.  Thou  shalt 
 remember  to  serve  the  true  God,  the  Lord  of  the  world,  by 
 sanctifying  his  name  in  the  midst  of  thee.  3.  Thou  shalt  not 
 shed  the  blood  of  man  created  after  the  image  of  God.  4.  Thou 
 shalt  not  defde  thy  body,  that  thou  mayest  be  fruitful  and  multi- 
 ply, and,  with  a  blessing  replenish  the  earth.  5.  Thou  shalt  be 
 content  with  that  which  thine  is,  and  what  thou  wouldst  not 
 have  done  to  thyself,  that  thou  shalt  not  do  to  another.  6.  Thou 
 shalt  do  right  judgment  to  every  one,  without  respect  to  persons. 
 7.  Thou  shalt  not  eat  the  flesh  in  the  blood,  nor  any  thing  that 
 hath  life,  with  the  life  thereof."  This  is  the  heptalogue  of  Noah, 
 fi-  Hie  seven  words,  which,  as  the  Jews  tell  us,  were  delivered 
 to  his  sons,  and  were  constantly  observed  by  all  the  uncircum- 
 cjsed  worshippers  of  the  true  God. — Bibliothesa  Biblica,  Occa- 
 tional  Annotations,  15.  vol.  1. 
 
 e  To  this  purpose  Cicero  {On  Laws,  b.  3.  c.  1.)  tells  us,  that 
 
 men,  at  first,  stood  towards  one  another,  and  the  several 
 qualifications  in  them,  which,  in  a  short  time,  could  not 
 but  appear.     The  first  form  of  government,  without  all 
 controversy,  was  patriarchal;   but   this  form  was  soon 
 laid  aside,  when  men  of  superior  parts  came  to  distin- 
 guish themselves ;  when  the  head  of  any  family  either 
 outpowered  or  outwitted  his  neighbour,  and  so  brought 
 him  to  give  up  his  dominion,  either  by  compulsion  or 
 resignation.     Government,  however,  at  this  time,  seems 
 to  have  been  placed  in  fewer  hands,  than  it  is  now :  not 
 that  the  number  of  people  was  less,  but  their  communi- 
 ties were  larger,  and  their  kingdoms  more  extensive, 
 than  since  the  flood;  3 insomuch,  that  it  may  well  be 
 questioned,  whether,  after  the  union  of  the  two  great 
 families  of  Seth  and  Cain,  there  was  any  distinction  of 
 civil  societies,  or  diversity  of  regal  governments  at  all. 
 It  seems  more  likely,  that  all  mankind  then  made  but 
 one    great  nation,  living   in   a   kind  of  anarchy,  and 
 divided  into  several  disorderly  associations ;  which,  as 
 it  was  almost  \he  natural  consequence  of  their  having,  in 
 all  probability,  but  one  language ;  so  it  was  a  circum- 
 stance which  greatly  contributed  to  that  general  corrup- 
 tion which  otherwise  perhaps  could  not  so  universally 
 have  prevailed.     And  for  this  reason  we  may  suppose, 
 that  no  sooner  was  the  posterity  of  Noah  sufficiently 
 increased,  but  a  plurality  of  tongues  was  miraculously 
 introduced,  in  order  to  divide  them  into  distinct  socie- 
 ties, and  thereby  prevent  any  such  total  depravation  for 
 the  future. 
 
 The  enterprising  genius  of  man  began  to  exert  itself 
 very  early  in  music,  brass-work,  iron-work,  and  every 
 science,  useful  and  entertaining,  and  the  undertakers 
 were  not  limited  by  a  short  life.  They  had  time  enough 
 before  them  to  carry  things  to  perfection  :  but  whatever 
 their  skill,  learning,  or  industry  performed,  all  remains 
 and  monuments  of  it  have  long-  since  perished. 
 
 4  Josephus  indeed  gives  us  this  account  of  Seth's  great 
 knowledge  in  astronomy,  and  how  industrious  he  was  to 
 have  it  conveyed  to  the  new  world.  "  Seth,  and  his 
 descendants ;"  says  he,  "  were  persons  of  happy  tem- 
 pers, and  lived  in  peace,  employing  themselves  in  the 
 study  of  astronomy,  and  in  other  searches  after  useful 
 knowledge  ;  but,  being  informed  by  Adam,  that  the  world 
 should  be  twice  destroyed,  first  by  water,  and  afterwards 
 by  fire,  they  made  two  pillars,  the  one  of  stone,  and  the 
 other  of  brick,  and  inscribed  their  knowledge  upon 
 them,  supposing  that  the  one  or  other  of  them  might 
 remain  for  the  use  of  posterity."  5  But  how  strangely 
 improbable  is  it,  that  they,  who  foreknew  that  the  de- 
 struction of  the  Avorld  shoidd  be  by  a  flood,  shoidd  busy 
 themselves  to  write  astronomical  observations  on  pillars, 
 for  the  benefit  of  those  who  should  live  after  it  ?  Could 
 they  think,  that  their  pillars  would  have  some  peculiar 
 exemption,  above  other   structures,  from  the  violence 
 
 3  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  2.  *  Antiquities,  b.  1.  c.  2. 
 
 5  Stillingfleet's  Sacred  Origins,  b.  1.  c.  2. 
 
 "  Without  government,  neither  family,  nor  nation,  nor  mankind, 
 nor  the  world,  nor  the  universe,  could  last."  Seneca  asserts 
 that,  "  it  (government)  is  the  chain  by  which  the  state  is  held 
 together,  it  is  the  vital  breath  which  these  numerous  thousands 
 of  citizens  inhale,  who  would,  of  their  own  accord,  immediately 
 sink  into  nothing  but  an  inert  mass  and  easy  prey,  were  tluit 
 spirit  of  order  withdrawn.'" 
 
68 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  2468;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 and  outrage  of  the  waters?  If  they  believed  that  the 
 flood  would  prove  universal,  for  whose  instruction  did 
 th^y  write  their  observations  ?  If  they  did  not,  to  what 
 ei  .  did.  they  write  them  at  all,  since  the  persons  who 
 survive  ,  might  communicate  their  inventions  to  whom 
 i  ^y  pleased  ?  The  plain  truth  is,  *  Josephus,  who  fre- 
 quently quotes  heathen  authors,  and  Manet  ho  in  parti- 
 cular, to  this  story  of  Seth's  pillars  from  the  pillars  of 
 Hermes  mentioned  in  that  historian :  for,  as  the  Jews 
 had  an  ancient  tradition  concerning  Seth's  pillars,  Jose- 
 phus, in  reading  Manetlio,  might  possibly  think  his 
 account  misapplied,  and  thereupon  imagine,  that  he 
 should  probably  hit  on  the  truth,  if  he  put  the  account  of 
 the  one  and  the  tradition  of  the  other  together  ;  and  this 
 very  likely  might  occasion  his  mistake. 
 
 2  The  eastern  people  have  preserved  several  traditions 
 of  very  little  certainty  concerning-  Enoch.  They  be- 
 lieve, that  he  received  from  God  the  gift  of  wisdom  and 
 knowledge  to  an  eminent  degree,  and  that  God  sent  him 
 thirty  volumes  from  heaven,  filled  with  all  the  secrets  of 
 the  most  mysterious  science.  St  Jude,  it  is  certain, 
 seems  to  cite  a  passage  from  a  prophecy  of  his ;  nor 
 can  it  be  denied,  but  that  in  the  first  ages  of  Christianity, 
 "there  was  a  book,  well  known  to  the  Jews,  that  went 
 
 1  Shuckford's  Connection,  b.  1. 
 
 3  Calmet's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Enoch. 
 
 a  Joseph  Scaliger,  in  his  annotations  upon  Eusebius's  Ckroni- 
 con,  has  given  us  some  considerable  fragments  of  it,  which 
 Heidegger  in  his  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  has  translated  into 
 Latin,  which  the  curious,  if  they  think  proper,  may  consult:  but 
 the  whole  seems  to  be  nothing  but  a  fabulous  collection  of  some 
 Jew  or  other,  most  unworthy  the  holy  patriarch.  Tertullian, 
 however,  has  defended  it  with  great  warmth,  and  laments  much, 
 that  all  the  world  is  not  as  zealous  as  himself,  in  the  mainten- 
 ance of  its  authenticity.  He  pretends,  that  it  had  been  saved 
 by  Noah  in  the  ark,  from  thence  transmitted  down  to  the  church, 
 and  that  the  Jews,  in  his  days,  rejected  it,  only  because  they 
 thought  it  was  favourable  to  Christianity. — Miller's  History  of 
 the  Church;  and  Saurin's  Dissertations.  The  great  objections 
 against  this  book  are,  that  neither  Philo,  nor  Josephus,  (those 
 diligent  searchers  into  antiquity,)  make  any  mention  of  it;  and 
 that  it  contains  such  fabulous  stories  as  are  monstrous  and  absurd. 
 But  to  this  some  have  answered,  that  such  a  book  there  certainly 
 was,  notwithstanding  the  silence  of  these  Jewish  antiquaries: 
 and  that  after  the  apostle's  time,  it  might  be  corrupted,  and 
 many  things  added  to  it  by  succeeding  heretics,  who  might  take 
 occasion  from  the  antiquity  thereof,  and  from  the  passage  of 
 Michael's  contending  with  the  devil  about  the  body  of  Moses,  to 
 interpolate  many  fables  and  inventions  of  their  own. — Raleigh's 
 History  of  the  World. — That  there  is  still  extant  a  very  ancient 
 book  called  The  Prophecies  of  Enoch  is  a  fact  which  will  admit 
 of  no  controversy ;  but  it  is  not  from  that  work,  but  from  another 
 J  ewish  book  called  The  Assumption  of  Moses,  which,  though 
 now  lost,  was  extant  in  the  time  of  Origen,  that  the  passage 
 about  Michael's  contention  with  the  devil  appears  to  have  been 
 quoted  by  the  apostle  St  Jude.  Of  The  Prophecies  qf  Enoch 
 Mr  Bruce  gives  us  the  following  account: 
 
 "  Amongst  the  articles  I  consigned  to  the  library  at  Paris, 
 was  a  wry  beautiful  and  magnificent  copy  of  The  Prophecies  of 
 Enoch  in  large  quarto;  another  is  amongst  the  books  of  Scrip- 
 ture, which  I  brought  home,  standing  immediately  before  the 
 book  of  Job,  which  is  its  proper  place  in  the  Abyssinian  Canon ; 
 and  a  third  copy  I  have  presented  to  the  Bodleian  Library  at 
 Oxford.  The  more  ancient  lustory  of  that  book  is  well  known." 
 The  church  at  fust  looked  upon  it  as  apocryphal,  and  it  was 
 never  admitted  into  any  ancient  canon  of  Scripture  that  I  have 
 seen  or  heard  of. 
 
 "  We  may  observe  that  Judo's  appealing  to  the  apocryphal 
 hooks  did  by  no  means  import,  that  either  he  believed,  or  war- 
 ranted, the  truth  of  them."  No  man  ever  supposed  that  St  Paul 
 warranted  the  truth  of  all  that  Aratus  the  poet  had  written,  or 
 
 A.  M.  2136.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  G.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 under  his  name  :  but  besides  that  this  piece  is  now  gene^ 
 rally  given  up  for  spurious,  there  is  no  need  for  us  to 
 suppose,  that  St  Jude  ever  quoted  any  passage  out  of 
 this,  or  any  other  book  of  Enoch. 
 
 3  Enoch  was  a  prophet,  we  are  told,  and  as  such  was 
 invested  with  authority,  '  to  cry  aloud,  and  spare  not, 
 to  reprove  the  wicked,  and  denounce  God's  judgments 
 against  them ;  and  as  he  was  a  good  man,  it  was  easy 
 for  St  Jude  to  imagine,  that  he  would  not  sit  still,  and 
 see  the  impieties  of  the  people  grow  so  very  exorbitant, 
 without  endeavouring  to  repress  them,  by  setting  before 
 them  '  the  terrors  of  the  Lord.'  He  could  not  discharge 
 the  office  of  a  good  man,  and  a  prophet,  without  fore- 
 warning them  of  the  4 '  Lord's  coming,  with  ten  thousand 
 of  his  saints,  to  execute  judgment  upon  all,  and  to  con- 
 vince all  that  were  ungodly  among  them :  and  because 
 this  was  his  office  and  duty,  the  apostle  infers,  (as  by 
 the  Spirit  of  God  he  might  certainly  know,)  that  he  did 
 so,  though  he  might  not  make  that  inference  from  any 
 passage  in  his  prophecy;  because  it  is  a  known  obser- 
 vation, that  *many  things  are  alluded  to  in  the  New 
 Testament,  which  were  never  perhaps  in  any  book  at 
 all. 
 
 Of  all  the  strange  matters  that  occur  in  this  period  of 
 time,  there  is  nothing  which  looks  so  like  a  prodigy  as 
 the  longevity  of  those  men  who  at  first  inhabited  the 
 earth ;  nor  is  any  event  so  apt  to  affect  us  with  wonder, 
 
 3  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs.  *  Jude  14,  15. 
 
 even  that  he  believed  that  we  are  the  offspring  of  God  in  the  very 
 sense  in  which  that  poet  probably  taught  that  we  are ;  but  he 
 appealed  to  him  as  sufficient  authority  among  the  Athenians  in 
 support  of  his  own  doctrine,  that  all  men  have  sprung  from 
 one  origin.  It  was  an  argument  ad  hominem,  such  as  "  our 
 Saviour  himself  often  makes  use  of.  You,  says  he  to  the  Jews, 
 deny  certain  facts,  which  must  be  from  prejudice,  because  you 
 have  them  allowed  in  your  own  books,  and  believe  them  there. 
 And  a  very  strong  and  fair  way  of  arguing  it  is;  but  this  is  by 
 no  means  any  allowance  that  these  books  are  true.  In  the  same 
 manner  you,  says  St  Jude,  do  not  believe  the  coming  of  Christ 
 and  a  latter  judgment ;  yet  your  ancient  Enoch,  who,  you  sup- 
 pose, was  the  seventh  from  Adam,  tells  you  this  plainly,  and  in 
 so  many  words  long  ago.  And  indeed  the  quotation  is  word  for 
 word  the  same,  in  the  second  chapter  of  the  book.  All  that  is 
 material  to  say  farther  concerning  the  book  of  Enoch  is,  that  it  is 
 a  Gnostic  book,  containing  the  age  of  the  Emims,  Anakims,  and 
 Egregores,  (descendants  of  the  sons  of  God,  when  they  fell  in 
 love  with  the  daughters  of  men),  who  were  giants."  The  editor 
 of  Bruce' s  Travels  says,  I  know  not  on  what  sufficient  authority, 
 that,  "the  book  in  question  was  originally  written  in  Greek  by 
 some  Alexandrian  Jew ;"  but  I  suspect  that  he  confounds  with 
 The  Prophecies  of  Enoch,  The  Assumption  of  Moses,  of  which 
 fragments  may  be  found  perhaps  in  different  authors,  and  which 
 was  certainly  written  in  Greek.  The  question,  however,  is  of 
 no  importance ;  for  it  appears  from  the  summary  of  its  contents 
 given  by  the  editor,  that  The  Prophecies  of  Enoch,  received  into 
 the  Sacred  Canon  by  the  Abyssinian  church,  are  indeed,  what  he 
 calls  them — an  absurd  and  tedious  work. — Bruce's  Travels,  vol. 
 2.  p.  412.  ed.  3. ;  Bishop  Gteig's  Edit 
 
 I  There  are  many  instances  in  the  New  Testament  of  facts 
 alluded  to,  which  we  do  not  find  in  any  ancient  books.  Thus  the 
 contest  between  Michael  and  the  devil  is  mentioned,  as  if  the 
 Jews  had,  some  where  or  other,  a  full  account  of  it.  The  names 
 of  the  Egyptians,  Jannes,  and  Jambres,  are  set  down,  though 
 they  are  nowhere  found  in  Moses'  history.  St  Paul  tells  us, 
 that  Moses  exceedingly  quaked  and  feared  on  Mount  Sinai ;  but 
 we  do  not  find  it  so  recorded  anywhere  in  the  Old  Testament. 
 In  all  these  cases,  the  apostles  and  holy  writers  hinted  at  things, 
 commonly  received  as  true,  by  tradition,  among  the  Jews,  with- 
 out transcribing  them  from  any  real  book. — Shuckford's  Connec- 
 tion, b.  1. 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 G9 
 
 A.  M.  1536.  A.  C.  2468;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 as  the  disproportion  between  their  lives  and  ours.  We 
 think  it  a  great  tiling,  if  we  chance  to  arrive  at  fourscore, 
 or  an  hundred  years ;  whereas  they  lived  to  the  term  of 
 seven,  eight,  nine  hundred,  and  upwards,  as  appears  a  by 
 the  joint  testimony  both  of  sacred  and  profane  history. 
 The  only  suspicion  that  can  arise  in  our  minds  upon  this 
 occasion,  is,  that  the  computation  might  possibly  be 
 made,  not  according  to  solar,  but  lunar  years;  but  this, 
 instead  of  solving  the  difficulty,  runs  us  into  several 
 gross  absurdities. 
 
 The  space  of  time,  between  the  creation  and  the  flood, 
 is  usually  computed  to  be  1656  years,  which,  if  we  sup- 
 pose to  be  lunar,  and  converted  into  common  years,  will 
 amount  to  little  more  than  127 ;  too  short  an  interval,  by 
 much,  to  stock  the  world  with  a  sufficient  number  of  in- 
 habitants. From  one  couple  we  can  scarce  imagine, 
 that  there  could  arise  500  persons  in  so  short  a  time ; 
 but  suppose  them  a  thousand,  they  would  not  be  so  many 
 as  we  sometimes  have  in  a  good  country  village.  And 
 were  the  floodgates  of  heaven  opened,  and  the  great 
 abyss  broken  up,  to  destroy  such  an  handful  of  people  ? 
 were  the  waters  raised  fifteen  cubits  above  the  highest 
 mountains,  throughout  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  to 
 drown  a  parish  or  two  ?  This  certainly  is  more  incredi- 
 ble than  the  longest  age  which  the  Scriptures  ascribe  to 
 the  patriarchs  ;  besides  that,  this  short  interval  leaves  no 
 room  for  ten  generations,  which  we  find  from  Adam  to 
 the  flood;  nor  does  it  allow  the  patriarchs  age  enough, 
 (some  of  them,  upon  this  supposition,  must  not  be  above 
 five  years  old,)  when  they  are  said  to  beget  children. 
 
 If  is  generally  allowed,  and  may  indeed  be  proved  by 
 the  testimony  of  Scripture,  that  our  first  fathers  lived 
 considerably  longer,  than  any  of  their  posterity  have 
 done  since;  but,  according  to  this  hypothesis,  (which 
 depresses  the  lives  of  the  antediluvians,  not  only  below 
 those  who  lived  next  the  flood,  but  even  below  all  fol- 
 lowing generations  to  this  day,)  Methuselah,  who  was 
 always  accounted  the  oldest  man  since  the  creation,  did 
 but  reach  to  the  age  of  seventy-five,  and  Abraham,  who 
 is  said  to  have  died  in  a  good  old  age,  was  not  com- 
 pletely fifteen. 
 
 The  patrons  of  this  opinion  therefore  would  do  well 
 to  tell  us,  when  we  are  to  break  off  this  account  of  lunar 
 years  in  the  sacred  history.  If  they  will  have  it  extended 
 no  farther  than  the  flood,  they  make  the  postdiluvian 
 fathers  longer -lived  than  the  antediluvian,  but  will  be 
 puzzled  to  assign  a  reason,  why  the  deluge  should  occa- 
 sion longevity.  If  they  will  extend  it  to  the  postdilu- 
 vians  likewise,  they  will  then  be  entangled  in  worse 
 iifficulties;  for  they  will  make  their  lives  miserably 
 short,  and  their  age  of  getting  children  altogether  in- 
 congruous and  impossible. 
 
 From  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that  the 
 years  whereby  Moses  reckons  the  lives  of  the  antedilu- 
 vians, were  solar  years,  much  of  the  same  length  with 
 what  we  now  use ;  and  that  therefore  there  must  be  a 
 reason,  either  in  their  manner  of  life,  their  bodily  con- 
 
 iii tint,  who  wrote  the  story  of  the  Egyptians;  Berosus, 
 
 rote  tin:  Chaldean  history;  those  authors,  who  give  us  an 
 
 account  of  the  Phoenician  antiquities;  ami  among  the  Creeks, 
 
 Hellanicus,  Ephorus,  &e.,  <!o  unanimously 
 
 igree,  that  in  the  first  ages  of  the  world,  men  lived  10UO  years. 
 
 —  lUimit's  Theory,  b.  2.  c.  4. 
 
 A.  M.  2136.  A.  C.  3275.  GEN.  CH.  5.  AND  6.  TO  VER.  13. 
 
 stitution,  the  temperament  of  the  world  wherein  they 
 lived,  or  (what  is  most  likely)  the  particular  vouchsafe- 
 ment  of  God,  to  give  them  this  mighty  singular  advan- 
 tage above  us. 
 
 Some  have  imputed  this  extraordinary  length  of  life 
 in  the  antediluvians  to  the  sobriety  of  their  livin"-  and 
 simplicity  of  their  diet ;  that  they  eat  no  flesh,  and  had 
 no  provocations  to  gluttony,  which  wit  and  vice  have 
 since  invented.  l  This  indeed  might  have  some  effect 
 but  not  possibly  to  the  degree  we  now  speak  of;  since 
 there  have  been  many  moderate  and  abstemious  people 
 in  all  ages,  who  have  not  surpassed  the  common  period 
 of  life. 
 
 Others  have  ascribed  it  to  the  excellency  of  the  fruits, 
 and  some  unknown  quality  in  the  herbs  and  plants  of 
 those  days  :  but  the  earth,  we  know,  was  cursed  imme- 
 diately after  the  fall,  and  its  fruits,  we  may  suppose, 
 gradually  decreased  in  their  virtue  and  goodness,  until 
 the  time  of  the  flood ;  and  yet  we  do  not  see,  that  the 
 length  of  men's  lives  decreased  at  all  during  that  in- 
 terval. 
 
 Others  therefore  have  thought,  that  the  long  lives  of 
 the  men  of  the  old  world  proceeded  from  the  strength  of 
 their  stamina,  or  first  principles  of  their  bodily  consti- 
 tution ;  which,  if  they  were  equally  strong  in  us,  would 
 maintain  us,  as  they  think,  in  being,  as  long :  but  though 
 it  be  granted,  that  both  the  strength  and  stature  of  their 
 bodies  were  greater  than  ours,  and  that  a  race  of  strong 
 men,  living  long  in  health,  will  have  children  of  a  pro- 
 portionally strong  constitution ;  yet,  that  this  was  not 
 the  sole  and  adequate  cause  of  their  longevity,  we  have 
 one  plain  instance  to  convince  us,  namely,  that  Shem, 
 who  was  born  before  the  deluge,  and  had  in  his  body  all 
 the  virtue  of  an  antediluvian  constitution,  fell  300  years 
 short  of  the  age  of  his  forefathers,  because  the  greatest 
 part  of  his  life  was  passed  after  the  flood. 
 
 The  ingenious  theorist  whom  I  have  quoted,  for  this 
 reason,  imagines,  that  before  the  flood,  the  situation  of 
 the  earth  to  the  sun  was  direct  and  perpendicular,  and 
 not,  as  it  is  now,  inclined  and  oblique.  From  this  posi- 
 tion he  infers,  that  there  was  a  perpetual  equinox  all  the 
 earth  over,  and  one  continued  spring ;  and  thence  con- 
 cludes, that  the  equality  of  the  air,  and  stability  of  the 
 seasons  were  the  true  causes  of  the  then  longevity ; 
 whereas  the  change,  and  obliquity  of  the  earth's  posture, 
 occasioned  by  the  deluge,  altered  the  form  of  the  year, 
 and  brought  in  an  inequality  of  seasons,  which  caused  a 
 sensible  decay  in  nature,  and  a  gradual  contraction  in 
 human  life.4 
 
 1  Burnet's  Theory  of  the  Earth,  b.  2.  c.  4. 
 
 b  This  is  a  perfectly  groundless  fancy  warranted  neither  by 
 Scripture  nor  by  philosophy. 
 
 "At  the  creation,  the  two  great  lights,  the  sun  and  the  moon, 
 were  ordained,  among  other  uses,  to  be  for  signs,  and  for  sea- 
 sons, and  for  days,  and  For  years,  Gen.  i.  II.  15at  seasons  and 
 years  are  produced  by  this  obliquity.  If,  then,  seasons  and  year.; 
 the  deluge,  so  must  the  obliquity.  But  that  they 
 did,  is  evident  from  the  history;  for  the  duration  of  time,  from 
 the  creation  to  the  deluge,  is  measured  by  the  years  of  the  gene- 
 rations of  the  patriarchs  from  Adam  to  Noah,  Gen.  v.  And 
 when  (Jed  promised  Noah,  that  '  while  the  earth  remained,  seed- 
 time and  harvest,  or  (spring  and  autumn),  cold  and  heat,  or 
 (winter  and  summer),  and  day  and  night  should  not  cease,' 
 plainly  signifying,  that  the  world  should  go  on  after  the  deluge 
 
70 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1C56.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 His  reasoning,  upon  this  point,  is  very  elegant. 
 "  There  is  no  question,"  says  he,  "  but  every  tiling  upon 
 earth,  and  especially  the  animate  Avorld,  would  be  much 
 more  permanent,  if  the  general  course  of  nature  was 
 more  steady,  and  more  uniform.  A  stability  in  the 
 heavens  makes  a  stability  in  all  things  below ;  and  that 
 change,  and  contrariety  of  qualities  which  we  have  in 
 these  regions,  is  the  fountain  of  corruption — the  ether 
 in  their  little  pores,  the  air  in  their  greater,  and  the 
 vapours  and  atmosphere  that  surround  them,  shake,  and 
 unsettle  their  texture  and  continuity  ;  whereas,  in  a  fixed 
 state  of  nature,  where  these  principles  have  always  the 
 same  constant  and  uniform  motion,  a  long  and  lasting 
 peace  ensues,  without  any  violence,  either  within,  or 
 without  to  discompose  them.  We  see,  by  daily  expe- 
 rience," continues  he,  "  that  bodies  are  kept  better  in 
 the  same  medium,  (as  we  call  it,)  than  when  they  are 
 sometimes  in  the  air,  and  sometimes  in  the  water,  moist 
 and  dry,  hot  and  cold,  by  turns  ;  because  these  different 
 states  weaken  the  contexture  of  their  parts.  But  our 
 bodies,  in  the  present  state  of  nature,  are  put  in  an  hun- 
 dred different  mediums,  in  the  course  of  a  year ;  the 
 winds  are  of  a  different  nature,  and  the  air  of  a  different 
 weight  and  pressure,  according  as  the  weather  and 
 seasons  affect  them.  All  these  things  are  enough  to  wear 
 out  our  bodies  soon,  very  soon,  in  comparison  of  what 
 they  would  last,  if  they  were  always  encompassed  with 
 one  and  the  same  medium,  and  that  medium  were  always 
 of  one  and  the  same  temper." 
 
 This  is  all  very  pretty  :  but  the  author's  grand  mistake 
 is,  that  it  was  not  so  in  the  primitive  earth.  He  has  no 
 authority  to  show,  that  how  high  soever  the  waters  might 
 swell  at  the  deluge,  the  centre  of  the  earth  gave  way  '  or 
 the  foundations  of  the  round  world  were  shaken.'  The 
 earth,  no  doubt,  had,  before,  as  well  as  after  the  flood, 
 an  annual  as  well  as  diurnal  motion.  1  It  stood  to  the 
 sun  in  the  same  oblique  posture  and  situation,  and  was 
 consequently  subject  to  the  same  seasons  and  vicissi- 
 tudes that  the  present  earth  is  ;  and  if  the  air  was  more 
 mild,  and  the  elements  more  favourable  at  that  time,  this 
 we  may  account  the  peculiar  blessing  of  God,  and  not 
 the  result  of  the  earth's  position  to  the  sun,  or  any 
 fancied  stability  in  the  weather.  The  truth  is,  whatever 
 we  may  attribute  to  second  causes,  why  bodies  that  are 
 naturally  mortal  and  corruptible  should  subsist  so  long 
 in  the  primitive  ages  of  the  world ;  yet  the  true  cause  of 
 all  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  will  of  God,  who  impregnated 
 our  first  parents  with  such  vigour,  and  gave  their  pos- 
 terity for  some  time  such  robust  constitutions,  as  de- 
 pended not  upon  the  nature  of  their  diet,  the  stability  of 
 the  seasons,  or  the  temperature  of  the  air.  After  the 
 flood,  God  soon  made  a  sensible  change  in  the  length  of 
 man's  days.  For,  perceiving  the  general  iniquity  to 
 increase  again,  and  thereupon  designing  to  make  an 
 alteration  in  the  world's  continuance,  he  hastened  the 
 period  of  human  life,  that  the  number  of  souls  he  intended 
 
 1  See  KeilVs  Examination  of  Burnet's  Theory. 
 as  it  had  done  before,  and  that  the  same  vicissitude  of  seasons 
 should  prevail  as  of  day  and  night;  how  is  it  possible  to  repre- 
 sent, that  God  found  it  necessary  to  forewarn  Noah  that  he  must 
 :,xpect  successive  changes  of  seasons,  and  vicissitudes  of  heat  and 
 cold,  such  as  he  had  never  yet  experienced!" — Hales's  Analysis, 
 8vo,  vol.  l.p.  324.— Ed. 
 
 to  send  into  the  world  before  the  consummation  of  all 
 things,  might  have  a  speedier  probation.  Man's  age 
 accordingly  went  on  sinking  by  degrees,  until  a  little 
 before  David's  time,  it  came  to  be  fixed  at  what  has  been 
 the  common  standard  ever  since.  2 '  The  days  of  our 
 age  are  threescore  years  and  ten  :  and  though  some  men 
 be  so  strong,  that  they  come  to  fourscore  years,  yet  is 
 their  strength  then  but  labour  and  sorrow,  so  soon  passeth 
 it  away,  and  we  are  gone.'  This  is  our  stated  period; 
 and  therefore  for  us,  who  live  in  this  postdiluvian  world, 
 and  have  the  term  of  our  trial  so  much  shortened,  the 
 subsequent  prayer  of  the  devout  Psalmist  will  always  be 
 necessary,  always  seasonable ;  '  So  teach  us  to  number 
 our  days,  that  Ave  may  apply  our  hearts  inito  wisdom.' 
 
 SECT.    VI. 
 
 CHAP.  I.— Of  the  Deluge. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 God  (as  Ave  said  before)  had  given  mankind  a  reprival 
 for  an  hundred  and  twenty  years  ;  but  when  he  saAV 
 that  all  his  lenity  and  forbearance  tended  to  no  purpose, 
 except  it  Avas  to  make  them  more  bold  and  licentious  in 
 their  sins,  he  declared  to  his  servant  Noah,  that  within  a 
 short  time  his  resolution  Avas  to  destroy  them,  and  with 
 them  all  other  creatures  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  by  a 
 flood  of  Avaters  ;  but  a  assured  him,  at  the  same  time,  that 
 since  he  had  comported  himself  better,  and  approved  his 
 fidelity  to  his  Maker,  he  Avould  take  care  to  preserve  him 
 and  his  family,  and  Avhatever  other  creatures  Avere  neces- 
 sary for  the  restoration  of  their  species  from  the  general 
 calamity. 
 
 To  this  purpose  he  gave  him  orders  to  build  a  kind  of 
 vessel,  not  in  the  form  of  ships  iioav  in  use,  but  rather 
 
 8  Ps.  xc.  10. 
 
 a  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  With  thee  will  I  establish 
 my  covenant:  but  1st,  by  the  Avord  covenant,  Ave  are  not  here  to 
 understand  a  mutual  compact  or  agreement,  but  only  a  simple 
 and  gracious  promise,  as  it  is  likeAvise  used,  Numb,  xviii.  19, 
 xxv.  12,  and  in  several  other  places;  which  promise,  though 
 only  mentioned  here,  was  doubtless  made  before,  as  may  easily 
 be  gathered  from  these  Avoids,  and  some  foregoing  passages,  and 
 from  the  necessity  that  Noah  should  have  some  such  support  and 
 encouragement  during  all  the  time  of  his  ministry.  2dly.  Tin's 
 covenant  of  God  might  relate  to  his  sending  the  promised  seed, 
 and  redemption  of  mankind  by  the  Messias ;  and  in  this  sense 
 Avill  import,  that  as  the  Messias  Avas  to  come  out  of  Noah's  loins, 
 so  the  divine  providence  would  take  care  to  preserve  him  an've. 
 But,  3dly.  A  learned  and  right  reverend  author  is  of  opir  ion, 
 that  tliis  covenant  of  God  relates  to  his  reinstating  the  earth  in 
 its  primitive  fertib'ty  in  Noah's  lifetime.  To  which  purpose  he 
 observes,  that  as  soon  as  the  flood  Avas  over,  God  declares,  '  I 
 will  not  again  curse  the  ground  for  man's  sake  ;'  from  Avhich  de- 
 claration it  appears,  (says  he)  1st,  That  the  flood  Avas  the  effect 
 of  that  curse  which  Avas  denounced  against  the  earth  for  man's 
 sake ;  and  2dly,  That  the  old  curse  Avas  fully  executed  and  ac- 
 complished in  the  flood ;  in  consequence  of  Avhich,  a  iicav  blessing 
 is  immediately  pronounced  upon  the  earth,  Gen.  xiii.  22.  '  While 
 the  earth  remaineth,  seed-time,  and  harvest,  and  cold,  and  heat, 
 and  summer  and  winter,  and  day  and  night,  shall  not  cease.' — 
 Poole's  Annotations,  and  Bishop  Sherlock'1*  Use  and  Intent  of 
 Prophecy 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 71 
 
 A.  M.  1G5G.  A.  C.  2349 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 inclining-  to  the  fashion  of  a  a  large  chest  or  ark,  and 
 himself  prescribed  the  plan  whereby  he  was  to  proceed. 
 — That  to  make  the  vessel  firm  and  strong,  and  able  to 
 endure  the  pressure  of  the  waves,  the  wood  most  proper 
 for  that  purpose  *  should  be  cypress  ;  and  that  to  prevent 
 the  waves  from  penetrating,  or  the  sun  from  cracking  it, 
 as  well  as  to  secure  it  from  worms,  and  make  it  glide 
 more  easy  upon  the  water,  his  business  would  be,  as  soon 
 as  it  was  finished,  c  to  pitch  it,  or  rather  smear  it  all 
 over  with  bitumen,  (whereof  there  was  plenty  in  the  coun- 
 try), both  within  and  without ;  that  to  make  its  propor- 
 tion regular,  its  length  should  be  six  times  more  than  its 
 breadth,  and  ten  times  more  than  its  height;  and  to  give 
 it  capacity  enough,  the  first  of  these  should  be  d  300 
 cubits,  that  is,  in  our  measure,  450  feet;  the  second  50 
 cubits,  or  75  feet ;  and  the  third  30  cubits,  or  45  feet ; 
 that  to  make  it  commodious  for  the  reception  of  every- 
 thing, it  was  to  consist  of  three  stories  or  decks,  of  equal 
 
 a  The  word  thebath,  which  we  render  ark,  is  only  read  here, 
 and  in  another  place,  where  Moses,  when  an  infant,  is  said  to 
 have  been  put  into  one  made  of  bulrushes,  Exod.  ii.  3.  It  is 
 supposed  to  come  from  a  root  which  signifies  '  to  dwell  or  inhabit ;' 
 and  may  therefore  here  denote  '  a  house,  or  place  of  abode.'  And 
 indeed,  if  we  consider  the  use  and  design,  as  well  as  the  form 
 and  figure  of  this  building,  we  can  hardly  suppose  it  to  be  like 
 an  ark  or  chest,  wherein  we  usually  store  lumber,  and  put  things 
 out  of  the  way ;  but  rather  like  a  farm  house,  such  as  are  in  seve- 
 ral countries,  where  the  cattle  and  people  live  all  under  one  roof. 
 As  soon  as  men  began  to  hew  down  timber,  and  to  join  it  toge- 
 ther, for  the  purpose  of  making  houses,  nothing  can  be  supposed 
 a  more  simple  kind  of  edifice  than  what  was  made  rectangular, 
 with  a  bottom  or  floor,  to  prevent  the  dampness  of  the  ground ;  a 
 sloping  cover  or  roof  to  carry  off  the  rain  that  should  fall ;  stalls  and 
 cabins  for  the  lodgment  of  man  and  beast ;  and  to  keep  out  wind  and 
 weather  effectually,  a  coat  of  bitumen  or  pitch.  Of  this  kind 
 was  this  building  of  Noah's,  and  may  therefore  rather  be  termed 
 a  place  of  abode,  than  an  ark  or  chest,  properly  so  called. — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary  on  the  Passage. 
 
 b  The  timber  whereof  the  ark  was  framed  Moses  calls gopher- 
 woodj  but  what  tree  this  gopher  was,  is  not  a  little  controverted. 
 Some  will  have  it  to  be  cedar,  others  the  pine,  others  the  box, 
 and  others  (particularly  the  Mahometans)  the  Indian  plane-tree; 
 but  our  learned  Fuller  in  his  Miscellanies,  has  observed,  that  it 
 was  nothing  else  but  that  which  the  Greeks  call  Kuvrtieitrtro;,  or 
 the  cypress-tree;  for  taking  away  the  termination,  cupar,  and 
 gopher  differ  very  little  in  the  sound.  This  observation  the  great 
 Buchart  has  confirmed,  and  shown  very  plainly,  that  no  country 
 almonds  so  much  with  this  wood  as  that  part  of  Assyria  which 
 lies  about  Babylon.  And  to  this  we  may  add  the  observation  of 
 Theophrastus,  who,  speaking  of  trees  that  are  least  subject  to 
 decay,  makes  the  cypress-tree  the  most  durable  of  all ;  for  which 
 Vitruvius  gives  us  this  reason,  viz.  that  the  sap,  which  is  in 
 every  part  of  the  wood  has  a  peculiar  bitter  taste,  and  is  so  very 
 Offensive  that  no  worm  or  other  corroding  animal  will  touch  it: 
 so  that  such  works  as  are  made  of  this  wood  will  in  a  manner 
 last  for  ever. — See  Universal  History;  Patrick's  Commenta/ry; 
 Bochart's  Annotations,  b.  1.  c.  4y  and  Bedford's  Scripture 
 Chronology,  b.  ].  c.  9. 
 
 c  The  Arabic  translation  says  expressly  pitch  it  with  pitch, 
 but  the  bitumen  (which  was  plentiful  in  that  country,  and  as 
 others  think  intended  here)  was  of  the  same  nature,  and  served 
 to  the  same  use  as  pitch,  being  glutinous  and  tenacious,  and 
 proper  to  keep  things  together. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  A  cubit  is  the  measure  from  the  elbow  to  the  finger's  end, 
 containing  six  hand-breadths,  or  a  foot  and  a  half:  so  that  300 
 cubits  make  exactly  450  feet.  There  are  some,  however,  who 
 take  these  tor  geometrical  cubits,  every  one  of  which  contain  six 
 W  the  common;  but  there  is  no  need  for  any  such  computation, 
 since,  taking  them  for  common  cubits,  it  is  demonstrable  (as 
 will  appear  hereafter)  that  there  might  be  room  enough  in  the 
 ark  for  all  sorts  of  beasts  and  birds,  together  with  Noah's  family 
 and  their  necessary  provision.—  -Ainsivorth's  Annotations;  and 
 Patrick's  Commentary, 
 
 height  each,  and  each  divided  into  stalls  and  apartments 
 proper  for  the  things  that  were  to  be  put  into  it ;  that  for 
 turning  oft"  the  rain,  the  roof  was  to  be  made  sloping  ;  that 
 for  letting  in  of  light  e  there  were  windows  to  be  so  and 
 so  disposed,  or /some  other  conveniency  answerable  to 
 them  ;  and  that,  for  the  more  easy  induction  of  the  many 
 things  it  was  to  contain,  a  door  or  entry-port  was  to  be 
 made  in  its  side. 
 
 These  were  the  instructions  which  God  gave  Noah, 
 who  accordingly  went  to  work,  and  being"  assisted  with 
 the  hands  of  his  family,  (for  S  the  rest  of  the  world  doubt- 
 less derided  him,)  in  the  time  that  was  appointed  him,  and 
 seven  days  before  the  rain  began  to  fall,  h  he  had  com- 
 
 e  There  are  various  translations  of  the  word  zohar  which 
 occurs  but  once  in  the  whole  Bible  in  this  sense.  It  seems  to  be 
 derived  from  a  root  in  the  Chaldee,  which  signifies  '  to  shine,' 
 or  '  give  light ;'  and  therefore  our  version  renders  it  a  window; 
 but  if  so,  it  must  be  collective,  and  mean  several  windows, 
 because  it  is  not  likely  that  there  should  be  but  one  in  so  vast  a 
 building,  and  from  the  following  words,  '  in  a  cubit  shalt  thou 
 finish  it  above,'  some  have  supposed,  that  the  window  was  to  be 
 a  cubit  square,  or  but  a  cubit  high,  which  would  have  been  much 
 too  small.  But  the  relative  '  it'  being,  in  the  Hebrew,  of  the 
 feminine  gender,  and  zohar  of  the  masculine,  these  two  words 
 cannot  agree ;  and  therefore  the  proper  antecedent  seems  to  be 
 the  '  ark,'  which  was  covered  with  a  roof  raised  a  cubit  high  in 
 the  middle.  This,  however,  in  the  original,  may  signify  no 
 more  than  an  injunction  to  build  the  ark  by  the  cubit,  as  the 
 common  measure,  by  which  the  work  was  to  be  marked  out  and 
 directed. — See  Universal  History;  Saurin's  Dissertation;  and 
 Lamy's  Introduction, 
 
 f  What  that  other  conveniency  was,  we  shall  have  occasion 
 to  show  when  we  come  to  treat  of  the  word  zohar,  (which  we 
 here  render  '  window,')  in  answer  to  the  subsequent  objection. 
 
 g  The  Apostle  to  the  Hebrews  (xi.  7.)  mentions  Noah's  build- 
 ing the  ark  as  an  heroic  act  of  faith;  '  By  faith  Noah,'  says  he, 
 '  being  warned  of  God  of  things  not  seen  as  yet,  moved  with 
 fear,  prepared  an  ark,  to  the  saving  of  his  house,  by  which  he 
 condemned  the  world,  and  became  heir  of  the  righteousness  which 
 is  by  faith:'  for  we  may  well  imagine,  that  this  work  of  his  was 
 not  only  costly  and  laborious,  but  esteemed  by  the  generality  very 
 foolish  and  ridiculous;  especially  when  they  saw  all  things  con- 
 tinue in  the  same  posture  and  safety  for  so  many  scores  of  years 
 together;  whereby  Noah,  without  doubt,  became  all  that  while 
 the  song  of  drunkards,  and  the  sport  of  the  wits  of  the  age. — 
 Poole's  Annotations.  The  Mahometans  have  a  tradition,  that 
 when  he  began  to  work  upon  this  famous  vessel,  all  that  saw  him 
 derided  him,  and  said,  "  You  are  building  a  ship;  if  you  can 
 bring  water  to  it,  you  will  be  a  prophet,  as  well  as  a  carpenter;" 
 but  he  made  answer  to  these  insults,  "  You  laugh  at  me  now,  but 
 I  shall  have  my  turn  to  laugh  at  you :  for  at  your  own  cost  yon  will 
 learn,  that  there  is  a  God  in  heaven  who  punishes  the  wicked.' 
 —  Calmct's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Noah. 
 
 h  It  is  somewhat  strange,  that  the  torrent  of  interpreters 
 should  suppose,  that  Noah  was  120  years  about  this  work,  when 
 he  gives  no  intimation  to  that  purpose,  but  sufficient  reasons  to 
 believe,  that  he  was  not  near  so  long  as  is  imagined.  It  is  plain 
 from  Scripture  that  '  he  was  500  years  old  when  he  begat  Shein, 
 Ham,  and  Japheth,'  (Gen.  v.  32),  and  that  when  he  received  the 
 command  for  building  the  ark,  the  same  sons  were  married;  for 
 the  text  says  expressly,  '  Thou  shalt  come  into  the  ark,  thou  and 
 thy  sons,  and  thy  wife,  and  thy  suns'  wives  with  thee,*  (Gen.  vi. 
 IS.)  So  that  all  the  time  between  the  birth  and  marriage  el'  tint 
 said  sons  must  at  least  be  supposed  to  intervene  before  the  com- 
 mand to  build  the  ark  was  given;  and  between  the  command 
 and  the  execution  of  it,  must  not  be  so  longas  is  imagined,  with- 
 out a  concurrence  of  miracles,  to  prevent  that  part  of  it  which 
 was  first  built  from  being  rotten  and  decayed  before  the  last  part 
 of  it    was   finished. Saurin  s  Dissertation.      If  the  wocid  was  of 
 
 the  nature  described  in  a  preceding  note,  no  miracle  would  oe 
 
 necessary  to  preserve  it  during  the  period,  120  years,  employed 
 in  building  it;  and  from  its  immense  size,  and  great  tannage, 
 as  shown  before,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  so  much  time  should  be 
 occupied  in  its  construction.   If  this  was  the  case,  Noah  began  it 
 
 in  his  480th  year;  while  he  was  childless;  a  striking  proof  of  his 
 
72  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  1G5G.  A.  C.  2319 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 ploletl  the  whole.  Whereupon  God  gave  him  instructions 
 that  he  should  take  into  the  ark  every  living  thing  of  all 
 flesh,  both  cattle,  and  beasts  of  the  field,  birds  and  fowls 
 of  the  air,  and  reptiles  of  all  kinds  ;  a  of  the  unclean, 
 one  pair  only,  but  of  the  clean  seven  pair ;  that  when 
 the  general  desolation  was  over,  they  might  increase 
 again,  and  replenish  the  earth  ;  and  that  when  every 
 thing  was  thus  settled  and  disposed  of,  himself  and  his 
 family  should  likewise  go  into  the  ark,  and  take  up  their 
 apartments. 
 
 Pursuant  to  these  directions,  Noah  and  his  family  went 
 into  the  ark,  leaving  the  rest  of  the  world  in  their  security 
 and  sensuality,  in  the  600th  year  of  his  age,  much  *  about 
 the  middle  of  September ;  when  in  a  few  days  after, l  the 
 whole  face  of  nature  began  to  put  on  a  dismal  aspect,  as 
 if  the  earth  were  to  suffer  a  final  dissolution,  and  all 
 
 1  Howell's  Complete  History. 
 
 implicit  faith,  both  in  the  divine  threatenings  and  promises:  for 
 his  eldest  son,  Japheth,  (Gen.  x.  21.)  was  not  born  till  twenty 
 years  after,  in  the  500th  year  of  his  age,  (Gen.  v.  32.) ;  and  his 
 second,  Shem,  two  years  after,  (Gen.  xi.  10.)  Such  is  the  apostle 
 Paul's  description — '  By  faith,  Noah,  having  been  instructed 
 by  the  divine  oracle,  concerning  tilings  not  yet  seen,  (the  ensuing 
 deluge,  &c.)  moved  with  fear,  prepared  an  ark,  for  the  saving  of 
 his  house,'  or  future  family,  (Heb.  xi.  7.) — Ed.  In  what  place 
 Noah  built  and  finished  his  ark,  is  no  less  made  a  matter  of  dis- 
 putation. One  supposes  that  he  built  it  in  Palestine,  and  planted 
 the  cedars  whereof  he  made  it  in  the  plains  of  Sodom :  another  takes 
 it  to  have  been  built  near  Mount  Caucasus,  on  the  confines  of 
 India:  and  a  third  in  China,  where  he  imagines  Noah  dwelt  before 
 the  flood.  But  the  most  probable  opinion  is,  that  it  was  built  in 
 Chaldea,  in  the  territories  of  Babylon,  where  there  was  so  great  a 
 quantity  of  cypress  in  the  groves  and  gardens,  in  Alexander's 
 time,  that  that  prince  built  a  whole  fleet  out  of  it,  for  want  of 
 other  timber.  And  this  conjecture  is  confirmed  by  the  Chal- 
 dean tradition,  which  makes  Xisuthrus  (another  name  for  Noah) 
 set  sail  from  that  country See  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  1. 
 
 a  The  distinction  between  beasts  that  were  clean  and  unclean, 
 being  made  by  the  law,  has  given  some  a  colour  to  imagine, 
 that  Moses  wrote  this  book  after  his  coming  out  of  Egypt,  and 
 receiving  the  law,  but  to  this  it  may  be  answered,  that  though, 
 with  respect  to  man's  food,  the  distinction  of  clean  and  unclean, 
 was  not  before  the  law,  yet  some  were  accounted  fit  for  sacri- 
 fices, and  others  unfit,  from  the  veiy  first  beginning;  and  then 
 unclean  beasts,  in  this  place,  must  denote  such  as  are  rapacious 
 which  were  not  to  be  offered  to  God.  In  short,  since  the  rite 
 of  sacrificing  was  before  the  flood,  we  may  very  well  be  allowed 
 to  suppose  that  this  distinction  was  also  before  it:  and  to  sup- 
 pose farther,  that  as  the  rite  was  undoubtedly  of  God's  institution, 
 so  the  difference  of  clean  and  unclean  creatures  to  be  sacrificed, 
 was  of  his  appointment  likewise.  But  there  is  a  farther  doubt 
 arising  from  this  passage,  and  that  is — whether  there  went  into 
 the  ark  but  seven  of  eveiy  clean,  and  two  of  every  unclean  spe- 
 cies, or  fourteen  of  the  first,  and  two  of  the  last.  Some  adhere 
 to  the  former  exposition,  but  others  to  the  latter,  which  seems  to 
 be  the  natural  sense  of  the  Hebrew  words,  seven  and  seven,  and 
 (wo  and  two.  Besides,  if  there  were  but  seven  of  the  clean  beasts, 
 c  ne  must  have  been  without  a  mate ;  and  if  it  be  suggested,  that 
 (he  odd  one  was  for  sacrifice,  it  is  more  than  Moses  tells  us, 
 who,  on  the  contrary,  repeats  it,  that  the  animals  all  went  in  by 
 pairs. — Patrick's  Commentary;  Poole's  Annotations;  and  Uni- 
 versal History,  c.  1. 
 
 i  The  words  in  the  text  are,  In  the  second  month;  but,  for 
 the  better  understanding  of  this,  we  must  remember,  that  the 
 year  among  the  Hebrews,  was  of  two  kinds;  the  one  ecclesias- 
 tical, which  began  in  March,  and  chiefly  regarded  the  observa- 
 tion of  their  fasts  and  festivals,  of  which  we  read  Exod.  xii.  2. 
 and  the  other  civil,  for  the  better  regulating  of  men's  political 
 afiairs,  which  began  in  September.  Accordingly  the  second 
 month  is  thought  by  some  to  be  part  of  April,  and  part  of  May, 
 the  most  pleasant  part  of  the  year,  and  when  the  flood  was  least 
 expected,  and  least  feared;  but  by  others  part  of  October,  and 
 
 tilings  return  to  their  primitive  chaos.  c  The  cataracts 
 of  heaven  were  opened,  the  abyss  of  waters,  in  the  cen- 
 tre of  the  earth  poured  out,  and  the  sea,  forgetting  its 
 bounds,  overspread  the  earth  with  a  dreadful  inundation. 
 
 Too  late  does  wretched  man  perceive  the  approach  of 
 his  deserved  fate :  and  in  vain  does  he  find  out  means 
 for  his  preservation.  The  tops  of  the  hills,  the  tallest 
 trees,  the  strongest  towers,  and  the  loftiest  mountains, 
 can  give  him  no  relief :  it  is  but  a  small  reprieve  at 
 most  that  they  can  yield  him;  for  as  the  waters  swell, 
 and  the  waves  come  rushing  on,  hills,  trees,  towers, 
 mountains,  and  every  little  refuge,  must  disappear  with 
 him.  Noah  himself  cannot  help  him.  Though  he  might 
 now  remember  his  predictions,  and  so  flee  to  him  for 
 succour,  yet  God  has  shut  the  door  of  the  ark,  and  it 
 cannot  be  opened ;  2  and  so  it  shall  be  to  every  one,  at 
 the  last  great  day,  who  shall  not  be  found  in  Christ,  the 
 only  ark  of  our  salvation. 
 
 For  forty  days  and  nights  together,  without  the  least 
 intermission,  did  the  clouds  continue  raining ;  when  at 
 length  the  ark  began  to  float,  and  to  move  from  place  to 
 place  as  the  waves  drove  it.  And  though  there  might  be 
 some  short  cessations  afterwards,  yet  at  certain  intervals, 
 the  rain  continued  falling,  and  the  waters  swelling, 
 till  in  process  of  time,  the  flood  began  to  cover  the 
 mountains,  and,  by  a  gradual  increase,  came  at  last  to 
 
 2  Millar's  History  of  the  Church;  Patrick's  Commentary;  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 part  of  November,  a  little  after  that  Noah  had  gathered  in  the 
 fruits  of  the  earth,  and  laid  them  up  in  the  ark :  so  that  the  flood 
 came  in  with  the  winter,  and  was  by  degrees  dried  up  in  the  fol- 
 lowing summer.  And  this  opinion  seems  to  be  more  probable, 
 because  the  most  ancient,  and  first  beginning  of  the  year,  was  in 
 September;  and  the  other  beginning  of  the  year  in  March,  was 
 but  a  later  institution  among  the  Jews;  with  respect  to  then- 
 festivals  and  other  sacred  afiairs,  wliich  are  not  at  all  concerned 
 here. — Poole's  Annotations.  Dr  Hales,  however,  is  of  opinion, 
 and  from  the  evidence  he  has  adduced,  it  seems  correctly,  that 
 the  deluge  began  in  spring,  and  that  the  second  month  was  reck- 
 oned by  the  sacred  year,  which  began  about  the  vernal  equinox ; 
 and  as  Noah  was  a  year  and  ten  days  in  the  ark,  himself,  family, 
 and  the  animals  would  leave  it  at  the  beginning  of  May,  the 
 season  most  suited  for  the  enjoyment  of  animal  life,  and  before 
 winter,  ample  provision  woidd  be  produced  for  their  support,  the 
 heat  also  would  have  so  dried  the  moisture  from  the  earth  as  to 
 make  it  a  healthy  and  comfortable  residence. — See  Hales'  Anal., 
 vol.  1.  322— 332.— Ed. 
 
 c  Ovid,  who  is  supposed  to  have  extracted  most  of  the  be- 
 ginning of  his  Metamorphoses  out  of  the  sacred  records,  has 
 described  both  the  induction  and  retreat  of  the  waters  in  a  man- 
 ner very  conformable  to  the  original,  from  whence  he  had  them 
 Their  induction  thus : — 
 
 The  south  wind  quick  on  moistened  wings  darts  forth, 
 
 Its  fearful  face  iu  pitchy  darkness  shaded  ; 
 
 And  as  its  mighty  arm  the  hanging  clouds  oppress'd, 
 
 A  crash  is  made  ;  dense  rains  rush  down  from  heaven. 
 
 The  Ocean-king  his  trident  poised  and  struck  the  earth, 
 
 Which  trembled  and  laid  hare  the  waters'  gulfs. 
 
 The  rivers  boundless  rush  along  the  plains  ; 
 
 And  'long  with  crops  drag  trees,  and  kine,  and  men. 
 
 And  hallowed  domes,  and  shrines,  and  sacred  things. 
 
 Their  retreat  thus : — 
 
 The  clouds  he  struck,  and  rains  drove  to  the  north, 
 
 When  earth  to  heaven  was  shown  and  heaven  to  earth  ; 
 
 The  sleepless  ocean  now  can  boast  a  shore, 
 
 The  channel  too  contains  its  brimming  streams, 
 
 The  floods  are  lulled,  the  hills  seem  to  arise, 
 
 The  ground  appears,  aud  with  the  waves'  decrer.se 
 
 All  parts  increase,  when  now,  the  long  day  done, 
 
 The  hidden  trees  their  naked  tops  present, 
 
 And  on  their  branches  bear  the  clammy  clay. 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 73 
 
 A.  M.  1C5G.  A.  C.  2349 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 raise  its  surface  fifteen  cubits  (above  twenty-two  feet  of 
 our  measure)  higher  than  the  tops  of  the  highest  of  them. 
 
 In  this  elevation  the  flood  continued  until  the  latter 
 end  of  March  :  when,  as  one  friend  is  apt  to  remember 
 another  in  distress,  (the  Scripture  here  speaks  in  the 
 style  of  men,  so  God,)  reflecting  upon  Noah,  and  the 
 poor  remains  of  his  creation,  floating  in  the  ark,  caused 
 a  drying  north  wind  to  arise,  the  floodgates  of  heaven 
 to  be  stopped,  and  the  eruption  of  the  waters  out  of  the 
 womb  of  the  earth  to  cease  ;  by  which  means  the  deluge 
 began  to  abate,  and  the  waters  subside,  so  that  in  a  short 
 time,  the  ark,  which  must  have  drawn  great  depth  of 
 water,  stuck  on  a  mountain,  named  Ararat,  and  there 
 rested ;  and  not  long  after  the  tops  of  other  mountains 
 began  to  appear. 
 
 This  happened  in  the  beginning  of  May,  when  the 
 summer  was  coming  on  apace :  but  Noah,  wisely  con- 
 sidering, that  although  the  mountains  were  bare,  the 
 valleys  might  still  be  overflowed,  waited  forty  days 
 longer  before  he  attempted  any  farther  discovery ;  and 
 then  a  opening  the  window,  he  let  go  a  raven,  as  sup- 
 posing that  the  smell  of  dead  bodies  would  allure  him 
 to  fly  a  good  distance  from  the  vessel ;  but  the  experi- 
 ment did  not  do  ;  the  raven,  after  several  unsuccessful 
 flights,  finding  nothing  but  water,  returned  to  the  ark 
 again.  Seven  days  after  this,  he  let  fly  a  dove,  a  bird 
 of  a  strong  pinion,  and,  from  the  remotest  places  always 
 accustomed  to  come  home,  and  therefore  proper  to  make 
 farther  discoveries.  But  she  finding  nothing  but  water 
 likewise,  immediately  returned  to  the  ark,  and  was  taken 
 in.      After  this  he  waited  seven  days  more,  and  then 
 
 a  It  is  very  observable,  that  the  words  which  we  render 
 « window'  in  vi.  16.,  and  viii.  6.  of  Genesis,  are  far  from  being 
 the  same :  in  the  former  place,  the  word  is  zohar,  (the  nature  of 
 which  we  shall  liave  a  proper  occasion  to  explain)  in  the  latter, 
 it  is  hhalon,  which  signifies  indeed  '  an  oval  hole  '  or  '  window ' 
 in  any  building,  but  here  is  a  window  of  a  peculiar  denomination. 
 That  it  was  customary  among  the  Jews  to  have  a  room  in  the 
 upper  part  of  their  houses  set  apart  for  divine  worship,  in  Hebrew 
 called  Bcth-alijah,  or  simply  alijah,  in  Greek  bniw^ov,  and  in 
 Latin  oratorium;  and  that,  in  this  place  of  prayer,  tiiere  was 
 always  an  hhalon,  an  hole  or  window,  which  pointed  to  the 
 kibla,  or  place  whereunto  they  directed  their  worship,  is  evident 
 from  several  passages  in  Scripture.  Among  the  Jewish  consti- 
 tutions, in  the  code,  called  Beracoth,  there  is  a  certain  canon 
 grounded  upon  this  custom,  namely,  '  That  no  man  shall  pray, 
 but  in  a  room  where  there  is  an  hhalon  opening  towards  the  holy 
 city:'  and  of  Daniel  it  is  particularly  related,  that  when  he  knew 
 that  the  decree  for  his  destruction  was  signed,  '  he  went  into 
 the  house,  and  his '  hhalon,  '  his  window  being  open  in  his 
 chamber  towards  Jerusalem,  he  kneeled  upon  his  knees  three 
 times  a  day,  as  he  did  aforetime,'  Dan.  vi.  10.  for  that  this  was 
 not  a  common  window,  but  one  dedicated  to  religious  Worship, 
 is  plain  from  the  people's  discerning,  by  its  being  open,  that  he 
 was  at  prayers.  Nor  is  it  improbable  that  this  window  might 
 have  some  visible  sign,  either  of  the  name  of  God,  or  of  the  holy 
 city,  or  of  the  sanctuary,  or  the  like,  inscribed  on  it;  because  it 
 is  a  constant  tradition,  that  these  oratories  or  rooms  for  prayer 
 were  always  so  made  as  to  have  their  angles  answer  to  such  cer- 
 tain points  of  the  heaven,  and  to  have  the  mark  of  adoration  so 
 evidently  distinguished,  that  none  might  mistake  it,  if  they  cast 
 but  tkeir  eye  upon  the  wall.  Now,  as  the  practice  among  the 
 Jews  of  worshipping  in  upper  rooms,  with  their  faces  towards  a 
 hole  or  window  in  the  wall,  was  never  introduced  by  any  positive 
 law,  and  yet  universally  prevailed,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe, 
 that  at  first  it  was  derived  from  Noah,  and  that  the  windows  in 
 their  oratories  were  made  in  imitation  of  tin's  hhalon,  or  point  of 
 adoration  in  the  ark. — Bibliothcca  Biblica,  vol,  2.;  Occasional 
 Annotations  in  the  Appendix. 
 
 sent  her  forth  again ;  and  she,  in  the  evening,  brought 
 in  her  mouth  an  olive  branch,  the  emblem  of  peace,  and 
 a  token  to  Noah  that  the  waters  were  abated  much. 
 AYhereupon  he  waited  seven  days  more,  and  then  let  her 
 fly  the  third  time  ;  but  she  finding  the  waters  gone,  and 
 the  earth  dry,  returned  no  more  ;  so  that  he  was  now 
 thinking  of  uncovering  the  roof,  and  going  out  of  the 
 ark  himself;  but  having  a  pious  regard  to  the  divine 
 providence  and  direction  in  all  things,  he  waited  55 
 days  longer,  and  then  received  orders  from  God  for 
 him  and  his  family  to  quit  the  vessel,  but  to  take  care  at 
 the  same  time  that  every  other  creature  should  be  brought 
 forth  with  him. 
 
 Thus  ended  b  Noah's  long  and  melancholy  confine- 
 ment; which,  by  a  due  computation  from  the  time  of 
 his  going  into  the  ark,  to  that  of  his  coming  out,  was 
 exactly  the  space  of  a  solar  year. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 II. — Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 How  many  wise  ends  the  providence  of  God  might  have 
 in  bringing  this  destruction  upon  the  earth,  it  is  impos- 
 sible for  us  to  find  out :  but  even  supposing  that  he  had 
 but  this  one,  namely,  to  rid  himself  of  a  generation  that 
 was  become  profligate,  and  past  all  hopes  of  amend- 
 ment ;  yet  the  number  of  mankind,  which,  before  the 
 
 b  Mr  Basnage  (in  his  Jewish  Antiquities,  vol.  2.  p.  299.)  has 
 given  us  the  calendar  of  this  melancholy  year  of  Noah's  confine- 
 ment. 
 
 The  Year  of  the  World's  Creation,  1656. 
 
 I.  September.     Methuselah  died  at  the  age  of  969  years. 
 
 II.  October.     Noah  and  his  family  entered  the  ark. 
 
 III.  November  the  17th.  'The  fountains  of  the  great  deep 
 were  broken  open.' 
 
 IV.  December  the  26th.  The  rain  began,  and  continued 
 forty  days  and  forty  nights. 
 
 V.  January.  All  the  men  and  beasts  that  were  upon  the 
 earth  were  buried  under  the  waters. 
 
 VT.  February.     The  rain  continued. 
 
 VII.  March.  The  waters  remained  in  their  elevation  till  the 
 27th,  when  they  began  to  abate. 
 
 VIII.  April  the  17th.     The  ark  rested  on  Mount  Ararat. 
 
 IX.  May.  They  did  nothing  while  the  waters  were  retreat- 
 ing. 
 
 X.  June  the  1st.     The  tops  of  the  mountains  appeared. 
 
 XL  July  the  11th.  Noah  let  go  a  raven,  which  (as  Basnage 
 thinks)  returned  to  him  no  more. 
 
 The  18th.     He  let  go  a  dove,  which  returned. 
 The  25th.     He  let  go  the  dove  again,  which  returned 
 with  an  olive  branch. 
 
 XII.  August  the  2d.  The  dove  went  out  the  third  time,  and 
 returned  no  more. 
 
 I.  September  the  1st.     The  dry  land  appeared. 
 
 II.  October  the  27th.  Noah  went  out  of  the  ark  with  his 
 family.  During  this  long  continuance  in  the  ark,  the  form  of 
 prayer,  which  some  oriental  writers  make  Noah  to  have  offered 
 unto  God,  runs  in  this  manner:  "0  Lord,  thou  art  truly  great, 
 and  there  is  nothing  so  great  as  that  it  can  be  compared  to  thee ; 
 look  upon  us  with  an  eye  of  mercy,  and  deliver  us  from  the 
 deluge  of  waters.  I  entreat  this  of  thee  for  the  love  of  Adam, 
 thy  first  man;  for  the  love  of  Abel,  thy  saint;  for  the  righteous- 
 ness of  Seth,  whom  thou  hast  loved.  Let  us  not  be  reckoned  in 
 the  number  of  those,  who  have  disobeyed  thy  commandments ; 
 hut  still  extend  thy  merciful  care  to  us,  because  thou  bast  hitherto 
 been  our  deliverer,  and  all  thy  creatures  shall  declare  thy  praise, 
 — Amen." — Calmci's  Dictionary  on  the  words  Deluge  and 
 Noah. 
 
74 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  165C.  A.  C.  2349  j  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  ri.  12.  TO  fat.  20. 
 
 flood,  was  vastly  superior  to  what  the  present  earth  per- 
 haps is  capable  of  sustaining,  caused  every  place  to  be 
 inhabited,  and  that  none  might  escape  the  avenging 
 hand,  caused  every  place  to  be  overflowed.     And  in- 
 deed, if  we  consider  the  longevity  of  the  first  inhabitants 
 of  the  earth,  and  the  pretty  near  equality  of  their  ages 
 (which  seem  to  have  been  providentially  desig-ned  for 
 the  quick  propagation  of  mankind)  we  shall  soon  per- 
 ceive, that,  in  the  space  of  1G00  years,  mankind  would 
 become  so  numerous,  that  the  chief  difficulty  would  be 
 where  we  should  find  countries  to  receive  them.     For  if, 
 in  the  space  of  about  266  years  (as  the  sacred  history 
 acquaints  us)  the  posterity  of  Jacob,  by  his  sons  only, 
 (without    the    consideration   of    Dinah    his    daughter) 
 amounted  to  600,000  males  above  the  age  of  twenty,  all 
 able  to  bear  arms,  what  increase  may  not  be  expected 
 from  a  race  of  patriarchs,  living  six,  seven,  eight,  or  nine 
 hundred  years  apiece,  and  some  to  the  500th  year  of  their 
 lives  begetting  sons  and  daughters.     For,  1  if  we  sup- 
 pose the  increase  of  the  children  of  Israel  to  have  been 
 gradual,  and  proportionate  through  the  whole  206  years, 
 it  will  appear,  that  they  doubled  themselves  every  four- 
 teen years  at  least ;  and  if  we  should  continue  the  like 
 proportion  through  the  entire  114  periods   (Avhich  the 
 space  from  the  creation  to  the  deluge  admits)  the  product, 
 or  number  of  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth  at  the  deluge, 
 would  at  least  be  the  100th  in  a  geometric  double  pro- 
 portion, or  series  of  numbers,  two,  four,  eight,  sixteen, 
 &c,  where  every  succeeding  one  is  double  to  that  before 
 it :  and  to  how  an  immense  sum  this  proportion  would 
 arise,  a  those  who  know  any  thing  of  the  nature  of  geo- 
 metric progressions,  will  soon  perceive.     So  that  had 
 
 1  Whiston's  Theory  of  the  Earth,  b.  3.  c.  3. 
 a  The  ingenious  Br  Burnet  (in  his  Theory  of  the  Earth,  b. 
 1.)  has  computed  the  multiplication  of  mankind  in  this  method. 
 "  If  we  allow  the  fust  couple,"  says  he,  "  at  the  end  of  100  years, 
 or  of  the  first  century,  to  have  left  ten  pair  of  breeders  (which 
 is  no  hard  supposition)  there  would  arise  from  these,  in  1500 
 years,  a  greater  number  than  the  earth  was  capable  of  containing, 
 allowing  every  pair  to  multiply  in  the  same  decuple  proportion, 
 that  the  first  pair  did.  But,  because  this  would  rise  far  beyond 
 the  capacity  of  the  earth,  let  us  suppose  them  to  increase,  in  the 
 following  centuries,  in  a  quintuple  proportion  only,  or,  if  you 
 will,  only  in  a  quadruple,  and  then  the  table  of  the  multiplica- 
 tion of  mankind,  from  the  creation  to  the  flood,  would  stand 
 thus : 
 
 the  antediluvians  only  multiplied  as  fast  before,  as  it  is 
 certain  the  Israelites  did  since  the  flood,  the  number  of 
 mankind  actually  alive  and  existing  at  the  deluge  must 
 have  been  not  only  more  than  what  the  present  earth 
 does  contain,  but  prodigiously  more  than  what  the  whole 
 number  of  mankind  can  be  justly  supposed,  ever  since 
 the  deluge  ;  nay  indeed,  with  any  degree  of  likelihood, 
 ever  since  the  first  creation  of  the  world.  Upon  which 
 account,  though  this  calculation  must  not  at  all  be 
 esteemed  real,  or  to  exhibit  in  any  measure  the  just 
 number  of  the  posterity  of  Adam  alive  at  the  time  of  the 
 deluge,  yet  it  certainly  shows  us  how  vastly  numerous 
 (according  to  the  regular  method  of  human  propagation) 
 the  offspring  of  one  single  person  may  be  •  how  plenti- 
 fully each  duarter  of  the  world  must  then  have  been 
 stocked  Avith  inhabitants ;  and  that  consequently,  to 
 destroy  its  inhabitants,  the  inundation  must  have  fallen 
 upon  every  quarter,  and  encompassed  the  whole  globe.     • 
 
 Aid  accordingly,  if  we  take  the  circuit  of  the  globe, 
 and  inquire  of  the  inhabitants  of  every  climate,  we  shall 
 find,  2  that  the  fame  of  this  deluge  is  gone  through  the 
 earth,  and  that  in  every  part  of  the  known  world  there 
 are  certain  records  or  traditions  of  it ;  that  the  Ameri- 
 cans acknowledge,  and  speak  of  it  in  their  continent; 
 that  the  Chinese  (who  are  the  most  distant  people  in 
 Asia)  have  the  tradition  of  it ;  *  that  the  several  nations 
 of  Africa  tell  various  stories  concerning  it ;  and  that,  in 
 the  European  parts,  the  flood  of  Deucalion  is  the  same 
 with  that  of  Noah,  only  related  with  some  disguise.  So 
 that  we  may  trace  the  deluge  quite  round  the  globe,  and 
 (what  is  more  remarkable  still)  every  one  of  these  peo- 
 ple have  a  tale  to  tell,  some  one  way,  some  another, 
 concerning  the  restoration  of  mankind,  which  is  a  full 
 proof  that  they  thought  all  mankind  were  once  destroyed 
 in  that  deluge.  c 
 
 Century  1—10 
 
 2—40 
 
 3—160 
 
 4—640 
 
 5—2560 
 
 6—10210 
 
 7—40960 
 
 8—163840 
 
 Century     9—  655360 
 10—2621440 
 11—10485760 
 12_4194S040 
 13—167772160 
 14_ 67108S640 
 15—2684354560 
 16—10737418240 
 
 Tins  product  is  excessively  too  high,  if  compared  with  the  present 
 number  of  men  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  which  I  think  is  com- 
 monly estimated  to  between  three  and  four  hundred  millions; 
 and  yet  this  proportion  of  their  increase  seems  to  be  low  enough, 
 if  we  take  one  proportion  for  all  the  centuries.  For  though  in 
 reality  the  same  measure  cannot  run  equally  through  all  the 
 ages,  yet  we  have  taken  this  as  moderate  and  reasonable  between 
 the  liighest  and  the  lowest;  but  if  we  had  only  taken  a  triple 
 proportion,  it  would  have  been  sufficient  (all  things  considered) 
 for  our  purpose. — These  calculations,  however,  are  founded  on 
 the  Hebrew  computation,  which  represents  the  patriarchs  before 
 the  flood  as  having  children  at  an  age  by  much  too  early.  All 
 animals  whose  lives  are  of  long  duration  appear  not  to  arrive  at 
 puberty  till  an  age  of  proportional  length ;  sometliing  similar  or  . 
 at  least  analogous  is  observable  in  the  vegetable  kingdom ;  and  |  found  in  any  language 
 
 2  Burnet's  Theory. 
 according  to  the  computation  of  the  Septuagint  version  and  of 
 the  amials  of  Josephus,  the  same  law  regulated  the  generations 
 of  mankind  before  and  after  the  flood.  It  was  chiefly  this  con- 
 sideration that  influenced  Eusebius  to  prefer  the  computation  of 
 the  Septuagint  version  to  that  of  the  Hebrew  text :  and  it  is  one 
 of  the  many  cogent  reasons  which  induced  Br  Hales  to  reject 
 the  Hebrew  chronology  as  it  appears  in  the  present  text  of  the 
 Masorites. 
 
 "  Dividing  human  life,"  says  this  learned  author,  "  into  three 
 periods,  it  appears  from  observation  and  experience,  that  the 
 generative  powers  continue  in  full  vigour  during  the  second 
 period. — It  is  not  probable,  therefore,  that  the  age  of  puberty 
 among  the  antediluvians,  who  lived  to  900  years  and  upwards, 
 began  sooner  than  at  the  age  of  160  or  170  years,  corresponding 
 to  14  or  15  years  at  present.''  If,  as  is  probable,  there  was 
 likewise  a  longer  period,  in  that  age,  between  the  births  of  chil- 
 dren in  the  Same  family  than  is  common  in  the  present  con- 
 tracted span  of  human  life,  though  the  earth  might  have  been 
 fully  peopled  before  the  deluge,  there  would  be  no  danger  of  its 
 being  overstocked  with  inhabitants,  as  it  must  have  been,  accord- 
 ing to  the  calculations  of  our  author,  and  Br  Burnet  from  the 
 present  Hebrew  genealogies. — Bishop  Gleig's  edition. 
 
 b  The  Hindoo  mythology  is  in  a  great  measure  founded  on  it; 
 and  it  is  the  commencement  of  their  present  era  or  caliyug.  Sir 
 William  Jones  says  expressly  that,  in  Hindoo  mythology,  "the 
 three  first  avatars,  or  descents  of  Veeshnu,  relate  to  an  universal 
 deluge,  in  which  only  eight  persons  were  saved." — See  /Forks  of 
 Sir  W.  Jones,  vol.  1.  p.  29.  4to,  1799. 
 
 c  For  the  truth  of  all  this,  see  Bryant's  Mythology,  Maurice's 
 Indian  Antiquities,  and  Howard's  Thoughts  on  the  Structure  of 
 the  Globe.  On  the  whole  controversy  concerning  the  deluge, 
 nothing  superior  to  this  last  work  or  more  satisfactory  is  to  be 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 75 
 
 A.  M.  1C5G.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 Nay,  instead  of  the  surrounding  globe,  we  need  only 
 turn  aside  the  surface  a  little,  and  look  into  the  bowels 
 of  the  earth,  and  we  shall  find  arguments  enough  for  our 
 conviction.  For  athe  beds  of  shells  which  are  often 
 found  on  the  tops  of  the  highest  mountains,  and  the 
 petrified  bones  and  teeth  of  fishes  which  are  dug  up 
 some  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  sea,  are  the  clearest 
 evidences  in  the  world,  that  the  waters  have,  some  time 
 or  other,  overflowed  the  highest  parts  of  the  earth  ;  nor 
 can  it,  with  any  colour  of  reason,  be  asserted,  that  these 
 subterraneous  bodies  are  only  the  mimickry  or  mock 
 productions  of  nature,  for  that  they  are  real  shells,  the 
 nicest  examination  both  of  the  eye  and  microscope  does 
 evince,  and  that  they  are  true  bones,  may  be  proved  by 
 burning  them,  which  (as  it  does  other  bones)  turns  them 
 first  into  a  coal,  and  afterwards  into  a  calx. 
 
 These  considerations  bid  fair  for  the  universality  of 
 the  deluge  ;  but  then,  if  we  take  in  the  testimony  of 
 Scripture,  this  puts  the  matter  past  all  doubt.  For 
 when  we  read,  that,  by  reason  of  the  deluge,  le  every 
 living  substance  was  destroyed,  which  was  upon  the  face 
 of  the  ground,  both  man  and  cattle,  and  the  creeping 
 things,  and  the  fowl  of  the  heaven ;'  that  during  the  deluge, 
 2 '  the  waters  exceedingly  prevailed,  and  all  the  high 
 hills  that  were  under  the  whole  heavens  were  covered ;' 
 and  that,  when  the  deluge  was  over,  God  made  a  cove- 
 nant with  Noah,  that  3 '  there  should  be  no  more  a  flood 
 to  destroy  the  earth,  and  to  cut  oft' all  flesh  ;'  we  cannot 
 but  conclude,  that  every  creature  under  heaven,  except 
 what  was  preserved  in  the  ark,  was  swept  away  in  the 
 general  devastation. 
 
 And,  indeed,  unless  this  devastation  was  general,  we 
 can  hardly  conceive  what  necessity  there  was  for  any 
 ark  at  all.  *Noah  and  his  family  might  have  retired 
 into  some  neighbouring  country,  as  Lot  and  his  family 
 saved  themselves  by  withdrawing  from  Sodom,  when  that 
 city  was  to  be  destroyed.  This  had  been  a  much  better 
 expedient,  and  might  have  been  done  with  much  more 
 ease,  than  the  great  preparations  he  Avas  ordered  to 
 make,  of  a  large  vessel,  with  stalls  and  apartments  for 
 the  reception  of  beasts  and  birds.  Beasts  might  have 
 possibly  saved  themselves  by  flight ;  but  if  they  did  not, 
 
 'Gen.  vii.  23.  ■  Gen.  vii.  19.  8  Gen.  ix.  11. 
 
 '  Burnet's  Theory,  b.  1. 
 a  A  learned  author,  who  has  lately  undertaken  an  examination 
 of  revelation,  has  enforced  this  argument  with  a  good  deal  of  life 
 and  spirit.  "  Whereas  Moses  assures  us,"  says  he,  "  that  '  the 
 waters  prevailed  fifteen  cubits  above  the  highest  mountains,'  let 
 the  mountains  therm, 'Ives  be  appealed  to  for  the  truth  of  this 
 assertion.  Examine  the  highest  eminences  of  the  earth,  and 
 they  all,  with  one  accord,  produce  the  spoils  of  the  ocean,  depo- 
 sited upon  them  on  that  occasion,  the  shells  and  skeletons  of  sea- 
 fish  and  sea-monsters  of  all  kinds.  The  Alps,  the  Appenines,  the 
 Pyrenees,  the  Andes,  and  Atlas,  and  Ararat,  every  mountain  of 
 every  region  under  heaven,  from  Japan  to  Mexico,  all  conspire, 
 in  one  uniform,  universal  proof,  that  they  all  had  the  sea  spread 
 over  their  highest  summits.  Search  the  earth,  and  you  will  find 
 the  moose-deer,  natives  of  America,  buried  in  Ireland;  ele- 
 phants, natives  of  Asia  and  Africa,  buried  in  the  midst  of  Eng- 
 land: crocodiles,  natives  of  the  Nile,  in  the  heart  of  Germany; 
 shellfish  never  known  in  any  but  the  American  seas,  together 
 with  entire  skeletons  of  whales,  in  divers  countries ;  and  what  is 
 more,  trees  and  plants  of  various  kinds,  which  are  not  known  to 
 grow  in  any  region  under  heaven.  All  which  are  a  perfect 
 demonstration  that  Moses'  account  of  the  deluge  is  incontestably 
 true." — Part  I.  Dissertation  2. 
 
 Noah  might,  after  the  deluge,  have  furnished  himself 
 from  other  places,  which  this  desolation  had  not  reached ; 
 and  as  for  the  birds,  they,  without  much  difficulty,  might 
 have  flown  to  the  next  dry  country,  perching  upon  trees, 
 or  the  tops  of  mountains,  by  the  way,  to  rest  themselves 
 if  they  were  tired,  because  the  waters  did  not  prevail 
 upon  the  earth  all  on  a  sudden,  but  swelled  by  degrees 
 to  their  determinate  height. 
 
 Now,  if  the  swelling  of  these  waters  to  a  height,  supe- 
 rior to  that  of  the  loftiest  mountains,  was  only  topical, 
 we  cannot  but  allow,  that  unless  there  was  a  miracle  to 
 keep  them  up  on  heaps,  they  would  certainly  flow  all 
 over  the  earth ;  because  these  mountains  are  certainly 
 high  enough  to  have  made  them  fall  every  way,  and  join 
 with  the  seas,  which  environ  the  earth.  All  liquid  bodies, 
 we  know,  are  diffusive :  their  parts  being  in  motion, 
 have  no  tie  or  connexion  one  with  another,  but  glide, 
 and  fall  off"  any  way,  as  gravity  and  the  air  press  them ; 
 and  therefore,  when  the  waters  began  to  arise  at  first,  long 
 before  they  could  swell  to  the  height  of  the  hills,  they 
 would  diffuse  themselves  every  way,  and  thereupon  all 
 the  valleys  and  plains,  and  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth, 
 would  be  filled  all  the  globe  over,  before  they  could 
 rise  to  the  tops  of  the  mountains  in  any  part  of  it.  So 
 vain  and  unphilosophical  is  the  opinion  of  those,  who, 
 to  evade  the  difficulty  of  the  question,  would  fain  limit 
 or  restrain  the  deluge  to  a  particular  country,  or  coun- 
 tries. For  if  we  admit  it  to  be  universal,  say  they, 
 where  shall  we  find  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  to 
 cover  the  face  of  the  earth,  to  the  height  that  Moses 
 mentions  ? 
 
 Some  indeed  have  thought  it  the  best  and  most  com- 
 pendious way,  to  call  in  the  arm  of  omnipotence  at 
 once,  and  to  affirm,  That  God  created  waters  on  purpose 
 to  make  the  deluge,  and  then  annihilated  them  again, 
 when  the  deluge  was  to  cease.  But  our  business  is  not 
 here  to  inquire  what  God  could  work  by  his  almighty 
 power  ;  but  to  account  for  this  event,  in  the  best  manner 
 we  can,  from  natural  causes.  s  Moses,  it  is  plain,  has 
 ascribed  it  to  natural  causes,  the  continued  rains  for 
 forty  days,  and  the  disruption  of  the  great  abyss  ;  and 
 the  manner  of  its  gradual  increase  and  decrease,  wherein 
 he  has  represented  it,  is  far  from  agreeing  with  the 
 instantaneous  actions  of  creation  and  annihilation. 
 
 Others,  instead  of  a  creation,  have  supposed  a  trans- 
 mutation of  element,  namely,  either  a  condensation  of 
 the  air,  6or  a  rarefaction  of  the  waters;  but  neither  of 
 these  expedients  will  do :  for,  besides  that  air  is  a  body 
 of  a  different  species,  and  (as  far  as  we  know)  cannot, 
 by  any  compression  or  condensation,  be  changed  into 
 water,  even  upon  the  supposition  that  all  the  air  in  the 
 atmosphere  were  in  this  manner  condensed,  it  would  not 
 produce  a  bed  of  water  over  all  the  earth,  above  32 
 feet  deep;  because  it  appears,  by  undoubted  experi- 
 ment, that  a  column  of  air  from  the  earth  to  the  top  of 
 the  atmosphere,  does  not  weigh  more  than  32  feet  of 
 water  :  much  less  would  the  spirit  of  rarefaction  answer 
 the  purpose,  'because,  if  we  suppose  the  waters  but 
 fifteen  times  rarer  than  they  naturally  are,  (as  we  most 
 
 '  Burnet's  Theory,  b.  1.  C.  3. 
 
 (;  Kircher  on  the  Ark  of  Noah,  b.  2.  c.  4. 
 
 7  Burnet's  Theory,  and  I  c  Gere'*  Commentary. 
 
76 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1656.  A.  C.  2349 ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  is.  20. 
 
 certainly  do,  to  make  them  reach  the  tops  of  the 
 highest  mountains,)  it  will  be  difficult  to  conceive, 
 how  they  could  either  drown  man  or  beast,  keep  alive 
 the  fish,  or  support  the  heavy  bulk  of  the  ark.  The 
 truth  is,  Moses,  in  his  account  of  the  deluge,  says  not 
 one  word  of  the  transmutation  of  elements :  the  forty 
 days'  rain,  and  the  disruption  of  the  abyss,  are  the  only 
 causes  which  he  assigns ;  and  these,  very  likely,  will 
 supply  us  with  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  when  other 
 devices  fail. 
 
 1 A  very  sagacious  naturalist,  observing,  that  at 
 certain  times,  there  are  extraordinary  pressures  on  the 
 surface  of  the  sea,  which  force  the  waters  outwards 
 upon  the  shores  to  a  great  height,  does  very  reasonably 
 suppose,  that  the  divine  power  might,  at  this  time,  by  the 
 instrumentality  of  some  natural  agent,  to  us  at  present 
 unknown,  so  depress  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  as  to  force 
 up  the  water  of  the  abyss  through  certain  channels  and 
 apertures,  and  so  make  them  a  partial  and  concurrent 
 cause  of  the  deluge.  It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but 
 that  the  divine  providence  might,  at  the  time  of  the 
 deluge,  so  order  and  dispose  second  causes,  as  to  make 
 them  raise  and  impel  the  water  to  an  height  sufficient 
 to  overflow  the  earth ;  but  then,  because  there  must  be 
 another  miracle  required  to  suspend  the  waters  upon  the 
 land,  and  to  hinder  them  from  running  off  again  into  the 
 sea,  our  author  seems  to  give  the  preference  to  another 
 hypothesis,  which,  at  the  time  of  the  deluge,  supposes 
 the  centre  of  the  earth  to  have  been  changed,  and  set 
 nearer  to  the  centre  or  middle  of  our  continent,  where- 
 upon the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans  must  needs  press 
 upon  the  subterraneous  abyss,  and  so  compel  the  water 
 to  run  out  at  those  wide  mouths,  and  apertures,  which 
 the  divine  power  had  made  in  breaking  up  the  fountains 
 of  the  great  deep.  Thus  the  waters  being  poured  out 
 upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  its  declivity  changed  by 
 the  removal  of  the  centre,  they  could  not  run  down  to 
 the  sea  again,  but  must  necessarily  stagnate  upon  the 
 earth,  and  overflow  it,  till  upon  its  return  to  its  old 
 centre,  they  in  like  maimer  would  retreat  to  their  former 
 receptacles.  But  the  misfortune  of  this  hypothesis  is, 
 that  besides  the  multitude  of  miracles  required  in  it,  it 
 makes  the  deluge  topical,  and  confined  to  our  continent 
 only,  whereas,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit 
 of  God  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  it  was  certainly  universal. 
 2  A  very  ingenious  theorist  seems  to  be  of  opinion 
 himself,  and  labours  to  persuade  others,  that  the  a  deluge 
 
 1  Ray's  Physico-Theolugical  Discourse  concerning  the  Deluge. 
 a  Dr  Burnet, 
 a  To  have  a  more  perfect  idea  of  the  author's  scheme,  we 
 must  remember,  that  he  conceives  the  first  earth,  from  the 
 manner  of  its  formation,  to  have  been  externally  regular  and 
 uniform,  of  a  smooth  and  even  surface,  without  mountains,  and 
 without  a  sea;  and  that  all  the  waters,  belonging  to  it,  were 
 enclosed  within  an  upper  crust,  which  formed  a  stupendous  vault 
 around  them.  This  vast  collection  of  waters  he  takes  to  have 
 been  the  great  deep,  or  abyss  of  Moses,  and  that  the  disruption 
 of  it  was  the  chief  cause  of  the  deluge.  For  he  supposes,  that  tiie 
 earth  being,  for  some  hundreds  of  years,  exposed  to  the  continual 
 heat  of  the  sun,  which,  by  reason  of  the  perpendicular  position, 
 which,  as  he  imagines,  the  earth's  axis  then  had  to  the  plane  of 
 the  ecliptic,  was  very  intense,  and  not  allayed  by  the  diversity 
 of  seasons,  which  now  keep  our  earth  in  an  equality  of  temper; 
 its  exterior  crust  was,  at  length,  very  much  dried,  and  when  the 
 heat  had  pierced  the  shell,  and  reached  the  waters  beneath  it, 
 
 was  occasioned  by  the  dissolution  of  the  primeval  earth  ; 
 the  dissolution  of  the  earth  by  the  fermentation  of  the 
 enclosed  waters ;  the  fermentation  of  the  waters  by  the 
 continued  intense  heat  of  the  sun ;  and  the  great  heat  of 
 the  sun,  by  the  perpendicular  position  of  the  axis  of  the 
 earth  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic.  But  allowing  the 
 position  of  the  earth  to  be  what  he  imagines,  3yet  it 
 seems  difficult  to  conceive,  how  the  heat  of  the  sun  should 
 be  so  intense,  as  to  cause  great  cracks  in  it,  and  so 
 raise  the  waters  in  it  into  vapours  ;  or  how  the  waters,  thus 
 rarefied,  should  be  of  force  sufficient  to  break  through 
 an  arch  of  solid  matter,  lying  upon  them  some  hundred 
 miles  thick.  It  is  much  more  probable,  that  if  the  action 
 of  the  suit  was  so  strong,  the  abyss  (which  the  theorist 
 makes  the  only  storehouse  of  waters  in  the  first  earth) 
 would  have  been  almost  quite  exhausted,  before  the  time 
 of  the  deluge:  nor  can  we  believe  that  this  account 
 of  things  is  any  way  consonant  to  the  Mosaic  history, 
 which  describes  a  gradual  rise  and  abatement,  a  long 
 continuance  of  the  flood,  and  not  such  a  sudden  shock 
 and  convulsion  of  nature,  as  the  theorist  intends,  in 
 which,  without  the  divine  intervention,  it  was  impossible 
 for  the  ark  to  be  saved. 
 
 4  Another  learned  theorist  endeavours  to  solve  the 
 whole  matter,  and  supply  a  sufficiency  of  water  from  the 
 trajection  of  a  comet.  For  he  supposes,  "  That,  in  its 
 descent  towards  the  sun,  it  pressed  very  violently  upon 
 the  earth,  and  by  that  means,  both  raised  a  great  tide  in 
 the  sea,  and  forced  up  a  vast  quantity  of  subterraneous 
 waters  ;  that,  as  it  passed  by,  it  involved  the  earth  in  its 
 atmosphere  for  a  considerable  time  ;  and,  as  it  went  off, 
 left  a  vast  tract  of  its  tail  behind,  which  (together  with 
 the  waters,  pressed  from  the  sea,  and  from  the  great 
 abyss)  was  enough  to  cover  the  face  of  the  whole  earth, 
 for  the  perpendicular  height  of  three  miles."  But  (to 
 pass  by  smaller  objections)  that  which  seems  to  destroy 
 his  whole  hypothesis  is  this — 5  That  it  is  far  from  being 
 clear,  whether  the  atmosphere  of  a  comet  be  a  watery 
 substance  or  not.  The  observations  of  the  most  curious 
 inquirers  make  it  very  probable,  that  the  circle  about 
 
 3  Keifs  Examination  of  Burnet's  Theory.         *  Mr  TFhiston. 
 
 5  Kelt's  Ansiver  to  Winston's  Theory;  and  Nicholas  Confer- 
 ence, vol.  1. 
 
 they  began  to  be  rarefied,  and  raised  into  vapours;  which  rare- 
 faction made  them  require  more  space  than  they  needed  before, 
 and  finding  themselves  pent  in  by  an  exterior  earth,  they  pressed 
 with  violence  against  the  arch  to  make  it  yield  to  their  dilata- 
 tion: and  as  the  repeated  action  of  the  sun  gave  force  to  these 
 enclosed  vapours  more  and  more,  so,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
 weakened  more  and  more  the  arch  of  the  earth,  that  was  to  resist 
 them,  sucking  out  the  moisture  that  was  the  cement  of  its  parts, 
 and  parching  and  chapping  it  in  sundry  places;  so  that,  there 
 being  then  no  winter  to  close  up  its  parts,  it  every  day  grew 
 more  and  more  disposed  to  a  dissolution,  till  at  length,  when 
 God's  appointed  time  was  come,  the  whole  fabric  broke;  the 
 frame  of  earth  was  torn  in  pieces,  as  by  an  earthquake ;  and 
 those  great  portions  or  fragments,  into  which  it  was  parted,  fell 
 down  into  the  abyss,  some  in  one  posture,  some  in  another. 
 
 Thus  the  earth  put  on  a  new  form,  and  became  divided  int6 
 sea,  and  land;  the  greatest  part  of  the  abyss  constituting  our 
 present  ocean,  and  the  rest  filling  up  the  cavities  of  the  earth. 
 Mountains  and  hills  appeared  on  the  land,  islands  in  the  sea,  and 
 rocks  upon  the  shore,  so  that,  at  one  shock,  providence  dissolved 
 the  old  world,  and  made  a  new  one  out  of  its  ruin.  See  the 
 Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  ].  where  this  extract  out  of  Burnet's 
 Theory  is  made. 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 Tt 
 
 A.  M.  1C56.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20 
 
 the  body  of  a  comet  is  nothing-  but  the  curling  or  wind- 
 ing round  of  the  smoke,  rising  at  first  to  a  determinate 
 height,  from  all  parts  of  the  comet,  and  then  making  oft" 
 to  that  part  of  it  which  is  opposite  to  the  sun ;  and  if 
 this  opinion  be  true,  the  earth,  by  passing  through  the 
 atmosphere  of  a  comet,  ran  a  greater  risk  of  a  confla- 
 gration, than  a  deluge. 
 
 These  are  the  several  expedients  which  the  wit  of  men 
 have  devised,  to  furnish  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water,  in 
 order  to  eft'ect  a  deluge,  but  all  incompetent  for  the 
 work.  Let  us  now  turn  to  the  sacred  records,  and  see 
 what  the  two  general  causes  assigned  therein,  '  the  open- 
 ing of  the  windows  of  heaven,'  and  '  the  breaking  up  of 
 the  fountains  of  the  great  deep,'  are  able  to  supply  us 
 with,  upon  this  occasion.. 
 
 1.  By  'the  opening  of  the  windows  of  heaven,'  must 
 be  imderstood  the  causing  the  waters  which  were  sus- 
 pended in  the  clouds,  to  fall  upon  the  earth,  not  in 
 ordinary  showers,  but  in  floods,  or  (as  the  Septuagint 
 translate  it)  in  cataracts,  1  which  travellers  may  have  the 
 truest  notion  of,  who  have  seen  those  prodigious  falls  of 
 water,  so  frequent  in  the  Indies,  and  where  the  clouds 
 many  times  do  not  break  into  drops,  but  fall,  with  a 
 terrible  violence,  in  a  torrent. 
 
 How  far  these  treasures  of  waters  in  the  air  might 
 contribute  to  the  general  inundation,  we  may,  in  some 
 measure,  compute  from  what  we  have  observed  in  a 
 thunder-cloud,  2  which  in  the  space  of  less  than  two 
 hours,  has  sometimes  poured  down  such  a  vast  quantity 
 of  water,  as  besides  what  sunk  into  the  dry  and  thirsty 
 ground  and  filled  all  the  ditches  and  ponds,  has  caused  a 
 considerable  flood  in  the  rivers,  and  set  all  the  meadows 
 on  float. 
 
 Now,  had  this  cloud  (which  for  ought  we  know  moved 
 forty  miles  forward  in  its  falling)  stood  still,  and  emptied 
 all  its  water  upon  the  same  spot  of  ground,  what  a  sudden 
 and  incredible  deluge  would  it  have  made  in  the  place  ? 
 What  then  must  we  suppose  the  event  to  have  been,  when 
 the  floodgates  of  heaven  were  all  opened,  and  on  every 
 part  of  the  globe,  the  clouds  were  incessantly  pouring 
 out  water  with  such  violence,  and  in  such  abundance, 
 for  forty  days  together  ? 
 
 It  is  impossible  for  us  indeed  to  have  any  adequate 
 conception  of  the  thing,  3  though  the  vast  inundations 
 which  are  made  every  year  in  Egypt,  only  by  the  rains 
 which  fall  in  Ethiopia,  and  the  like  annual  overflowings 
 of  the  great  river  Oroonoque  in  America,  whereby  many 
 islands  and  plains,  at  other  times  inhabited,  are  laid 
 twenty  feet  under  water,  between  May  and  September, 
 may  uive  us  a  faint  emblem,  and  be  of  some  use  to  cure 
 our  infidelity  in  this  respect. 
 
 2.  The  other  cause  which  the  Scripture  makes  mention 
 of,  is  the  '  breaking  up  of  the  fountains  of  the  great 
 deep,'  whereby  those  waters,  which  were  contained  in 
 vast  quantities  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  were  forced 
 out,  and  thrown  upon  the  surface  of  it.  4  That  there  is 
 a  mighty  collection  of  waters  inclosed  in  the  bowels  of 
 the  earth,  which  constitutes  a  large  globe  in  the  interior 
 or  central  part  of  it ;  and  that  the  waters  of  this  globe 
 communicate  with  that  of  the  ocean,  by  means  of  certain 
 
 '  Patrick's  Commentary.  8  Ray  on  the  Deluge. 
 
 '  Patrick's  Commentary.  *  If'ovdward's  Natural  History. 
 
 hiatus,  or  apertures,  passing  between  it  and  the  ocean, 
 «is  evident  from  the  Caspian  and  other  seas,  which  re 
 ceive  into  themselves  many  great  rivers,  and  having  no 
 visible  outlets,  must  be  supposed  to  discharge  the  water 
 they  receive,  by  subterraneous  passages  into  this  recep- 
 tacle, and  by  its  intervention,  into  the  ocean  again. 
 The  5  Mediterranean  in  particular,  besides  the  many 
 rivers  that  run  into  it,  has  two  great  currents  of  the 
 sea,  one  at  the  straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  the  other  at  the 
 Propontis,  which  bring  in  such  vast  tides  of  water,  that, 
 many  ages  ago,  it  must  have  endangered  the  whole 
 world,  had  it  not  emptied  itself,  by  certain  secret  pas- 
 sages, into  some  great  cavity  underneath.  And  for  this 
 reason,  some  have  imagined,  "that  the  earth  altogether 
 is  one  great  animal,  whose  abyss  supplies  the  place  of 
 the  heart  in  the  body  of  the  earth,  to  furnish  all  its 
 aqueducts  with  a  sufficiency  of  water,  and  whose  sub- 
 terraneous passages  are  like  the  veins  of  the  body, 
 which  receive  water  out  of  the  sea,  as  the  veins  do  blood 
 out  of  the  liver,  and  in  a  continued  circulation,  return 
 it  to  the  heart  again. 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certainly  more  than  probable, 
 (because  a  matter  of  divine  revelation,)  that  there  is  an 
 immense  body  of  water  inclosed  in  the  centre  of  the 
 earth,  to  which  the  Psalmist  plainly  alludes,  when  he 
 tells  us,  that  7'God  founded  the  earth  upon  the  seas, 
 and  established  it  upon  the  floods ;'  that  8 '  he  stretched 
 out  the  earth  above  the  waters ;'  that  9 '  he  gathered  up 
 the  waters  as  in  a  bag,  (so  the  best  translations  have  it,) 
 '  and  laid  up  the  deep  as  in  a  storehouse.'  Nay,  there 
 is  a  passage  or  two  in  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  (where 
 Wisdom  declares  her  antiquity,  and  pre-existence  to  all 
 the  works  of  the  earth,)  which  sets  before  our  eyes,  as  it 
 were,  the  very  form  and  figure  of  this  abyss :  10 '  When 
 he  prepared  the  heavens,  I  was  there;  when  he  set  a 
 compass  upon  the  face  of  the  deep,  and  strengthened  the 
 fountains  of  the  abyss.'  Here  is  mention  made  of  the 
 abyss,  and  the  fountains  of  the  abyss;  nor  is  there  any 
 question  to  be  made,  but  that  the  fountains  of  the  abyss 
 here  are  the  same  with  those  which  Moses  mentions,  and 
 which,  as  he  tells  us,  were  broken  up  at  the  deluge. 
 And  what  is  more  observable  in  this  text,  the  word  which 
 Ave  render  compass,  properly  signifies  a  circle,  or  circum- 
 ference, or  an  orb,  or  sphere:  so  that,  according  to  the 
 testimony  of  Wisdom,  who  was  then  present,  there  was 
 
 5  Nicholas  Conference,  vol.  1.      6  Stillingfleefs  Sacred  Or/gins. 
 7  Ps.  xxiv.  ii.  8  Ps.  exxxvi.  6.  9  Ps.  xxxm.  7. 
 
 10  Prow  viii.  27,  28.;  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  History, 
 a  The  Caspian  sea  is  reckoned  in  length  to  be  above  120 
 German  leagues,  and  in  breadth,  from  east  to  west,  about  90  ot 
 the  same  leagues.  There  is  no  visible  way  for  the  water  to  run 
 out:  and  yet  it  receives  into  its  bosom  near  100  large  rivers, 
 and  particularly  the  great  river  Wolga,  which  of  itself  is  like  a 
 sea  for  largeness,  and  supposed  to  empty  so  much  water  into  it 
 in  a  year's  time,  as  might  suffice  to  cover  the  whole  earth;  and 
 yet  it  is  never  increased  nor  diminished,  nor  is  observed  to  ebb 
 or  (low,  which  makes  it  evident,  that  it  must  necessarily  have  a 
 subterraneous  communication  with  other  parts  of  the  world. 
 And  accordingly,  Father  Avril,  a  modern  traveller,  tells  us,  that 
 near  the  coast  of  Xylam  there  is  in  this  sea  a  mighty  whirlpool, 
 which  sucks  in  every  thing  that  comes  near  it,  and  consequently 
 has  a  cavity  in  the  earth  into  which  it  descends.— See  JttoUt 
 Geography  at  the  end  of  Persia  in  Asia,  p.  67;  SHUmgfleete 
 Sacred  Origins,  b.  3.  c.  4.;  and  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology, 
 c.  12. 
 
78 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1C56.  A.  C.  2349 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  Ix.  20. 
 
 ill  the  beginning  a  sphere,  orb,  or  arch,  set  round  the 
 abyss,  by  the  means  of  which,  the  fountains  thereof  were 
 strengthened;  for  we  cannot  conceive,  how  they  could 
 have  been  strengthened  any  other  way,  than  by  having  a 
 strong  cover  or  arch  made  over  them. 
 
 If  such  then  be  the  form  of  this  abyss,  that  it  seems  to 
 be  a  vast  mass  or  body  of  water  lying  together  in  the 
 womb  of  the  earth,  it  will  be  no  hard  matter  to  compute 
 what  a  plentiful  supply  might  have  been  expected  from 
 thence,  in  order  to  effect  an  universal  deluge.  *  For,  if 
 the  circumference  of  the  earth  (even  according  to  the 
 lowest  computation)  be  21,000  miles,  the  diameter  of  it 
 (according  to  that  circumference)  7000  miles ;  and  con- 
 sequently from  the  superficies  to  the  centre,  3500  miles  ; 
 and  if  (according  to  the  best  account)  a  the  highest 
 mountain  in  the  world  (taking  its  altitude  from  the  plain 
 it  stands  upon)  does  not  exceed  four  perpendicular  miles 
 in  height ;  then  we  cannot  but  conclude,  that  in  this  abyss 
 there  would  be  infinitely  more  water  than  enough,  when 
 drawn  out  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth,  to  drown  the 
 earth  to  a  far  greater  height  than  Moses  relates.  In  a 
 word,  since  it  is  agreed  on  all  hands,  that  in  the  time  of 
 the  chaos,  the  waters  did  cover  the  earth,  insomuch  that 
 nothing  of  it  could  be  seen,  till  God  was  pleased  to 
 make  a  separation :  why  should  it  be  thought  so  strange 
 a  thing,  that,  upon  a  proper  occasion,  they  should 
 be  able  to  cover  the  earth  again  ;  2  especially  when  the 
 waters  above  the  firmament  came  down  to  join  those 
 below,  as  they  did  at  the  beginning? 
 
 3  Seneca,  treating-  of  that  fatal  day  (as  he  calls  it) 
 when  the  deluge  shall  come,  (for  he  supposed  that  the 
 world  was  to  be  destroyed  alternately,  first  by  water, 
 and  after  that  by  fire,)  and  questioning  how  it  might  be 
 effected,  whether  by  the  force  of  the  ocean  overflowing 
 the  earth,  by  perpetual  rains  without  intermission,  by  the 
 swelling  of  rivers,  and  opening  of  new  fountains,  or 
 (what  he  rather  supposes)  by  a  general  concourse  and 
 combination  of  all  these  causes,  concludes  his  inquiry  at 
 last  with  these  remarkable  words,  "  There  are  vast 
 lakes,"  says  he,  "  which  we  do  not  see,  much  of  the 
 sea  which  lies  hidden  and  concealed,  and  many  rivers 
 which  glide  in  secret ;  so  that  there  may  be  causes  of  a 
 deluge  on  all  sides,  when  some  waters  flow  under  the 
 earth,  others  flow  round  about  it,  and  being  long  pent 
 up,  may  overwhelm  it.  And  as  our  bodies  sometimes 
 dissolve  into  sweat,  so  the  earth  shall  melt,  and,  without 
 the  help  of  other  causes,  shall  find  in  itself  what  shall 
 drown  it. — There  being  in  all  places,  both  openly  and 
 secretly,  both  from  above  and  from  beneath,  an  eruption 
 of  waters  ready  to  overflow  and  destroy  it." 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary.  '  See  b.  1.,  c.  1.  p.  6. 
 
 3  Natural  Inquiries,  3.  c.  27. 
 a  If  we  measure  mountains  from  the  plain  on  which  they  stand, 
 as  proposed  by  the  learned  author,  the  above  will  be  found  rather 
 to  exceed  than  to  be  below  the  truth ;  as  no  mountain  has  yet 
 been  discovered  of  such  an  height.  If,  however,  we  measure 
 them  from  the  level  of  the  sea,  which  is  the  proper  method,  it 
 will  be  found  that  there  are  many  which  exceed  this  height. 
 When  our  author  wrote,  the  Peak  of  Tenerili'e  was  esteemed  the 
 highest  mountain  in  the  world,  but  subsequent  discoveries  have 
 completely  disproved  that  opinion.  The  English  mile  contains 
 5280  feet,  so  that  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe  being  12,672  feet  above 
 the  level  of  the  sea,  was  little  more  than  two  miles  high.  In 
 the  Andes,  in  South  America,  however,  there  are  mountains 
 which  far  exceed  tins  in  height;  as,  the  Sorata,  25,400  feet,  the 
 
 But  whatever  solutions  we  may  gather,  either  from 
 sacred  or  profane  authors,  it  seems  necessary,  after  all, 
 to  call  in  the  divine  power  to  our  assistance.  *  For 
 though  the  waters  which  covered  the  earth  at  the  creation 
 might  be  sufficient  to  cover  it  again  ;  yet  how  this  could 
 be  effected  by  mere  natural  means,  cannot  be  conceived 
 Though  the  waters,  suspended  in  the  clouds,  might  fall 
 in  great  torrents  for  some  time,  yet,  when  once  their  store 
 was  exhausted,  (as  at  this  rate  it  could  not  last  long,) 
 nothing  but  an  almighty  voice  could  have  commanded  a 
 fresh  supply  of  forty  days'  continuance  from  those  other 
 planetary  spaces  where  he  had  settled  their  abode  ;  and 
 though  the  subterraneous  stores  did  certainly  contain  a 
 fund  sufficient  to  complete  the  deluge,  yet  there  wanted 
 on  this  occasion  an  almighty  hand,  either  to  break  down 
 the  arch  which  enclosed  the  abyss,  or  by  some  secret 
 passages  to  force  the  waters  out  of  it  upon  the  surface 
 of  the  earth ;  and  so  stopping  the  reflux,  suspend  them 
 for  such  a  determinate  time,  at  such  an  elevation.  There 
 needed  some  almighty  hand,  I  say,  to  do  this:  and 
 accordingly  we  may  observe,  that  though  Moses  makes 
 mention  of  two  natural  causes  that  might  be  conducive 
 to  the  work,  yet  he  introduces  God  as  superintending 
 their  causes,  and  assuming  indeed  the  whole  perform- 
 ance to  himself :  for  '  behold  I,  even  I,  do  bring  a  flood 
 of  waters  upon  the  earth,  to  destroy  all  flesh  wherein  is 
 the  breath  of  life,  from  under  heaven,  and  every  thing 
 that  is  on  the  earth  shall  die.' 
 
 Thus,  with  the  help  and  concurrence  of  God,  we  have 
 found  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  for  the  destruction 
 of  the  old  world  :  let  us  now  consider  the  make  and 
 capacity  of  the  vessel  wherein  the  several  animals  that 
 were  to  replenish  the  new  were  to  be  preserved. 
 
 5  Could  we  but  imagine,  that  by  some  strange  revolu- 
 tion the  whole  art  of  shipping  should  como  to  be  lost  in 
 this  part  of  the  world,  and  that  there  happened  to  remain 
 such  a  short  account  of  one  of  our  largest  ships  (the 
 Royal  Anne,  for  instance)  as  that  it  was  so  many  feet 
 long,  broad,  and  deep ;  could  contain  in  it  some  hun- 
 dreds of  men,  with  other  living  creatures,  and  provisions 
 for  them  all  during  several  months  ;  and  that  the  strength 
 of  it  was  such,  that  it  was  not  broken  in  pieces  all  the 
 time  that  the  great  storm  endured ;  would  it  not  be  very 
 pleasant  for  any  one  to  conclude  from  hence,  that  this 
 ship,  according  to  the  description  of  it,  was  nothing  but 
 an  oblong  square,  without  any  more  contrivance  than  a 
 common  chest  made  by  the  most  ignorant  joiner?  And 
 yet  such  are  some  men's  inferences  when  they  talk  of 
 this  noble  structure. 
 
 Moses  indeed  makes  mention  of  little  else  but  the 
 dimensions  of  the  ark,  its  stories,  and  capacity  to  hold 
 the  things  to  be  placed  in  it ;  but  it  does  not  therefore 
 follow,  but  that  it  might  have  the  convexity  of  a  keel, 
 (as  many  large  flat-bottomed  vessels  have,)  as  well  as  a 
 prow,  to  make  it  cut  the  waters  more  easily.     The  design 
 
 4  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  1. 
 5  Bibliotheca  Biblica;  Occasiotial  Annotations,  13. 
 Illimanni,  24,250,  or  between  four  and  five  miles  above  the  level 
 of  the  sea.  The  highest  mountains  in  the  world  yet  discovered, 
 are  in  the  Himalayan  range,  between  Hindostan  and  Thibet,  in 
 Asia;  the  highest  peak  of  which  is  29,000  feet,  or  between  five 
 and  six  miles  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  In  the  same  range 
 there  are  the  Dhawalaghiri,  28,104  feet,  Swetachar,  25,261  feet, 
 and  various  others  above  20,000  feet. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 79 
 
 A.  M.  IS56.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 of  the  vessel  however  was  not  to  make  way,  (as  they  call 
 it  at  sea,)  but  to  preserve  its  inhabitants ;  and  this  it  was 
 more  capable  of  doing  (as  amay  be  proved  to  a  demon- 
 stration) than  if  it  had  been  built  according  to  the  most 
 modern  model,  even  supposing  the  waters,  from  the  first 
 to  the  last,  to  have  been  never  so  boisterous.  But  this 
 they  were  not:  whatever  storms  and  convulsions  there 
 might  be  in  particular  places,  when  the  floodgates  of 
 heaven  were  at  first  opened,  and  the  fountains  of  the 
 great  deep  broken  up,  (and  then  the  ark  was  not  afloat,) 
 the  sacred  text  takes  no  notice  of  any  rough  weather  till 
 after  the  150  days  of  the  flood's  gradual  increase,  when, 
 upon  the  ceasing  of  the  rains  from  above,  and  the  waters 
 from  beneath,  God  sent  forth  a  strong  driving  wind,  but 
 then  the  ark  was  at  rest.  So  that  all  the  time  that  the 
 ark  was  aflo.it,  or  (as  the  Scripture  expresses  it)  while 
 it '  went  on  the  face  of  the  waters,'  the  winds  were  asleep, 
 and  the  weather,  though  rainy,  was  free  from  all  storms 
 and  angry  commotions.  Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we 
 may  conclude,  that,  be  the  structure  of  the  ark  what  it 
 will,  it  was  certainly  suited  both  to  the  burden  it  was  to 
 carry,  and  the  weather  it  was  to  live  in ;  and  on  this, 
 and  sundry  other  accounts,  *  upon  experiment,  perhaps 
 it  may  be  found  to  be  the  most  complete  and  perfect 
 model  that  ever  was  devised. 
 
 Had  we  never  seen  a  ship,  and  should  be  told  what  a 
 number  of  men,  and  what  a  quantity  of  provision  and 
 merchandise  one  of  the  largest  rates  will  carry,  it  would 
 seem  no  less  incredible  to  us  than  what  Moses  tells  us 
 of  the  things  which  were  contained  in  the  ark.  The 
 ark,  according  to  his  account,  was  300  cubits  in  length, 
 50  in  breadth,  and  30  in  height;  and  if  we  suppose  the 
 cubit,  here  mentioned,  at  the  lowest  computation,  to  be 
 but  a  foot  and  a  half  long,  yet  was  the  length  of  it 
 (according  to  that  proportion)  450  feet,  the  breadth  75, 
 and  the  height  45 ;  and  consequently  the  whole  capacity 
 1,580,750  cubical  feet,  which  was  space  enough,  in  all 
 conscience,  to  receive  every  thing,  and  much  more  than 
 
 a  For  let  us  suppose,  that  without  any  addition  of  art,  it  was 
 notliing  more  than  an  oblong  square,  whose  length  was  sextuple 
 to  the  breadth,  and  decuple  to  the  height;  it  is  demonstrable, 
 that  a  piece  of  wood  of  that  proportion  being  lighter  than  the 
 water,  will  be  always  supported  by  it.  For  instance,  take  a 
 plank  of  oak  exactly  square,  let  it  be  one  foot  broad,  six  feet 
 long,  and  seven  or  eight  inches  thick,  answering  the  proportion 
 of  the  ark ;  there  is  nobody,  I  believe,  will  say,  that  any  waves 
 or  winds  will  be  strong  enough  to  break  this  piece  of  timber, 
 notwithstanding  its  right  angles.  Now,  let  any  solid  of  this 
 fashion  be  multiplied  in  a  decuple,  centuple,  or  millecuple  pro- 
 portion, and  let  the  force  of  the  waves,  and  the  invasive  power  of 
 the  wind,  be  multiplied  also  with  it  in  the  same  proportion,  the 
 resistance  of  a  rectangular  solid  (which  is  perfectly  impenetrable, 
 and  exactly  the  case  of  the  ark)  will  be  proof  against  any  given 
 force  whatever. — Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.;  Occasional  Anno- 
 tations, 13. 
 
 4  About  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  Feter  Janson,  a 
 Dutch  merchant,  caused  a  ship  to  be  built  for  him,  answering 
 in  its  respective  proportions,  to  those  of  Noah's  ark,  the  length 
 of  it  being  120  feet,  the  breadth  of  it  20,  and  the  depth  of  it  12. 
 At  first  this  ark  was  looked  upon  no  better  than  as  a  fanatical 
 vision  of  this  Janson,  (who  was  by  profession  a  Menonist,)  and, 
 Whilst  it  was  building,  he  and  his  ship  were  made  the  sport  of 
 the  seamen,  as  much  as  Noah  and  his  ark  could  be.  But  after- 
 wards it  was  found  that  ships  built  in  this  fashion  were,  in  the 
 time  of  peace,  beyond  all  others  most  commodious  for  commerce ; 
 because  they  would  hold  a  third  part  more,  without  requiring  any 
 more  hands,  and  were  found  far  better  runners  than  any  made 
 before.  —Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 every  thing  that  was  to  be  contained  in  it.  For  it  ap- 
 pears from  the  sacred  text,  that  the  form  of  the  ark  was 
 rectangular;  *and  being  intended  only  for  a  kind  of 
 float  to  swim  above  the  water,  the  flatness  of  its  bottom 
 did  render  it  much  more  capacious.  It  appears  from 
 the  same  text,  that  this  ark  consisted  of  three  stories, 
 and  the  whole  height  of  it  being  45  feet,  it  may  well  be 
 supposed  that  this  height  was  equally  divided  among  the 
 three  stories,  and  so  each  story  was  15  feet  high,  oidy 
 deducting  a  foot  and  a  half,  or  one  cubit,  for  the  slope 
 of  the  roof,  or  the  cover  of  the  upper  story.  2  It  is 
 likewise  pretty  well  agreed  by  interpreters,  that  the 
 lowest  story  was  appointed  for  four-footed  animals,  as 
 most  commodious  for  them ;  the  middle  story  for  their 
 provender,  and  what  they  were  to  live  upon ;  and  the 
 upper  story  partly  for  the  birds,  and  what  they  were  to 
 eat,  and  partly  for  Noah  and  his  family,  together  with 
 their  utensils :  and  that  each  of  these  stories  was  spacious 
 enough  to  receive  what  was  to  be  put  therein,  will  ap- 
 pear to  any  one  who  will  give  himself  the  trouble  cof 
 making  a  geometrical  calculation. 
 
 He  who  looks  upon  the  stars,  as  they  are  confusedly 
 scattered  up  and  down  in  the  firmament,  will  think  them 
 to  be  (what  they  are  sometimes  called)  innumerable,  and 
 above  the  power  of  all  arithmetic  to  count ;  and  yet, 
 when  they  are  distinctly  reduced  to  their  particular  con- 
 stellations, and  described  by  their  several  places,  mag- 
 nitudes, and  names,  it  appears,  that  of  those  which  are 
 visible  to  the  naked  eye,  there  are  not  many  more  than 
 1000  in  the  whole  firmament,  and  few  more  than  half  so 
 many  (even  taking  in  the  minuter  kinds  of  them)  to  be 
 seen  at  once  in  any  hemisphere.  And  in  like  manner, 
 he  who  should  put  the  question,  How  many  kinds  of 
 beasts  or  birds  there  are  in  the  world  ?  would  be  an- 
 swered, even  by  such  as  in  other  respects  are  knowing- 
 and  learned  enough,  that  there  are  so  many  hundreds  of 
 them  as  cannot  be  enumerated  ;  whereas,  upon  a  distinct 
 
 1  Wilhins's  Essay  towards  a  Real  Character. 
 FFells's  Geography,  vol.  1.  c.  2.;  Laviy's  Introduction, 
 c  Buteo  has  plainly  demonstrated,  that  all  the  animals  con- 
 tained in  the  ark  could  not  be  equal  to  500  horses ;  (the  learned 
 Heidegger,  from  Tetnporarius,  makes  them  400  oxen ;)  and  yet 
 it  is  not  to  be  questioned,  but  that  a  building  very  near  as  long 
 as  St  Paul's  church,  and  as  broad  as  the  middle  isle  of  that 
 church  is  high  within,  is  capable  of  affording  stabling  for  such  a 
 number  of  horses. — See  Dr  Bundy's  translation  of  Lamy's  In- 
 troduction. Kircher  (in  his  Ark  of  Noah,  c.  8.)  has  given  us 
 large  calculations  of  the  dimensions  of  the  ark,  and  from  thence 
 concludes,  that  this  vessel  was  capacious  enough  to  receive,  not 
 only  Noah  and  his  family,  all  other  creatures  and  their  food,  but 
 even  an  entire  province  likewise.  Wilkins,  (in  his  Essay  to- 
 wards a  Real  Character),  and  from  him  Wells  (in  his  Geography 
 of  the  Old  Tes'ament)  have  both  entered  into  a  large  detail  of 
 things,  and  given  us  an  exact  and  complete  idea  of  the  capacity 
 of  the  ark,  and  of  its  proportion,  together  with  what  it  might 
 contain.  Le  Pcletier  (in  his  Essay  on  the  Ark  of  Noah)  follows 
 another  English  author,  Bishop  Cumberland,  who,  in  his  Dis- 
 covery of  the  weights  and  measures  of  the  Jews,  has  proved,  that 
 the  ancient  cubit  of  the  Jews  was  the  old  derah  of  Memphis; 
 whereupon  Peletier  allows  1,781,377  cubical  feet  of  Paris  for  the 
 whole  contents  of  the  ark,  so  that  it  might  hold  (as  he  pretends) 
 42  413  tons  of  lading.  But  a  certain  anonymous  author  has 
 published  a  dissertation  upon  the  same  principles,  wherein  he 
 compares  the  ark  to  our  modern  ships,  and  computes  it-;  measure 
 according  to  the  tons  it  might  contain,  and  thereupon  makes  it 
 larger  than  forty  ships  of  1000  tons  each. — See  Dissertation, 
 Historical,  Chronoltgical,  Geographical,  &C.  d.  2  ;  Journal  of 
 Paris  for  January,  1712,  vol.  51.  p.  9. 
 
80 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [  Book  L 
 
 A.  M.  165G.  A.  C.  2349 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN,     H.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 inquiry  into  all  such  as  are  yet  known,  or  have  been 
 described  by  credible  authors,  it  will  appear,  that  they 
 are  much  fewer  than  is  commonly  imagined,  'not  an 
 100  sorts  of  beasts,  and  not  200  of  birds. 
 
 And  yet,  out  of  this  number,  as  small  as  it  is,  we  must 
 except  all  animals  that  are  of  equivocal  generation,  as 
 insects;  all  that  are  accustomed  to  live  in  water,  as  fish 
 and  water -fowl ;  all  that  proceed  from  a  mixture  of  dif- 
 ferent species,  as  mules  ;  and  all  that,  by  changing  their 
 climate,  change  their  colour  and  size,  and  so  pass  for 
 different  creatures,  when  in  reality  they  are  the  same. 
 We  must  observe  farther,  that  all  creatures  of  the  ser- 
 pentine kind,  the  viper,  snake,  slow-worm,  lizard,  frog, 
 toad,  &c,  might  have  sufficient  space  for  their  recep- 
 tion, and  for  their  nourishment  in  the  hold  or  bottom  of 
 the  ark,  which  was  probably  three  or  four  feet  under 
 the  floor,  whereon  the  beasts  are  supposed  to  stand: 
 and  that  the  smaller  creatures,  such  as  the  mouse,  rat, 
 mole,  &c,  might  find  sufficient-room  in  several  parts  of 
 the  ark,  without  having  any  particular  places  or  cells 
 appointed  for  them :  so  that  the  number  of  the  several 
 species  of  animals  to  be  placed  in  the  first,  or  lowest 
 story,  upon  the  foot  of  this  deduction,  stands  thus  : 
 
 Beasts  which  live  on  Hay. 
 
 On  Fruits  and 
 Roots. 
 
 On  Flesh, 
 
 Horse 
 
 Stone-buck 
 
 Hog 
 
 Lion 
 
 Stoat 
 
 Ass 
 
 Shamois 
 
 Baboon 
 
 Bear 
 
 Weasel 
 
 Camel 
 
 Antelope 
 
 Ape 
 
 Tiger 
 
 Castor 
 
 Elephant 
 
 Elk 
 
 Monkey 
 
 Pard 
 
 Otter 
 
 Bull 
 
 Hart 
 
 Sloth 
 
 Ounce 
 
 Dog 
 
 Urus 
 
 Buck 
 
 Porcupine 
 
 Cat 
 
 Wolf 
 
 Bison 
 
 Rein-deer 
 
 Hedge-hog 
 
 Civet-cat 
 
 Fox 
 
 Bonasus 
 
 Roe 
 
 Squirrel 
 
 Finet 
 
 Badger 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Rhinoceros 
 
 Guinea-pig 
 
 Polecat 
 
 Jackall 
 
 Sheep 
 
 Caraelopard 
 
 Ant-bear 
 
 Martin 
 
 Caraguya. 
 
 Strepsiceros 
 
 Hare 
 
 Armadilla 
 
 Broad-tail 
 
 Rabbit 
 
 Tortoise 
 
 Goat 
 
 Marmotte 
 
 Now,  concerning  these  creatures  God  gives  Noah  this 
 injunction  ;  2 '  Of  every  clean  beast  thou  shalt  take  to  thee 
 by  sevens,  the  male  and  the  female  ;  and  of  beasts  that 
 are  not  clean,  by  two,  the  male  and  the  female.  Taking 
 the  words  then  in  their  highest  acceptation,  namely,  that 
 Noah  was  to  receive  into  the  ark  one  pair  of  every  spe- 
 cies of  unclean  animals,  and  seven  pair  of  every  species 
 of  clean ;  yet,  considering  that  the  species  of  unclean 
 animals,  which  were  admitted  by  pairs  only,  are  many  in 
 comparison  of  the  clean,  and  the  species  of  large  animals 
 few  in  comparison  of  the  smaller  ;  we  cannot  but  perceive 
 (as  by  a  short  calculation  it  will  appear)  that  this  lower 
 story,  which  was  ten  cubits  high,  three  hundred  long,  and 
 fifty  broad,  that  is,  225,000  solid  feet  in  the  whole,  would 
 be  capable  of  receiving  with  all  manner  of  conveniency, 
 not  only  all  the  sorts  of  beasts  that  we  are  acquainted 
 with,  but  probably  all  those  other  kinds  which  are  any 
 where  to  be  found  under  the  copes  of  heaven. 
 
 It  is  a  pretty  general  opinion,  and  what  seems  to  be 
 founded  on  Scripture,  that  before  the  flood,  both  men, 
 beasts,  and  birds  fed  only  upon  fruits  and  vegetables. 
 3 '  Behold  I  have  given  you  every  herb,'  says  God,  '  bear- 
 ing seed,  which  is  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and 
 every  tree  in  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding  seed,  to 
 you  it  shall  be  for  meat;  and  to  every  beast  of  the  earth, 
 and  to  every  fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  every  thing  that 
 creepeth  upon  the  earth,  wherein  there  is  life ;  I  have 
 
 1  Wilkins's  Essay, 
 
 Gen. 
 
 '  Gen.  i.  29,  30. 
 
 given  every  green  herb  for  meat : '  a  Nor  do  there  want 
 instances  in  history  of  some  very  ravenous  creatures  that 
 have  been  brought  to  live  upon  other  kind  of  food  than 
 flesh.  So  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  Noah's  pro- 
 viding so  many  supernumerary  sheep  (as  some  would  have 
 it)  to  feed  the  carnivorous  animals  for  a  whole  year.  4  The 
 same  divine  providence  which  directed  all  the  animals,  of 
 whatever  country,  to  make  towards  the  ark,  which  took 
 from  them  their  fierceness,  and  made  them  tame  and 
 gentle  upon  this  occasion,  might  likewise  beget  in  them  a 
 loathing  of  flesh,  (supposing  they  eat  it  before,)  and  an 
 appetite  for  hay,  corn,  fruits,  or  any  other  eatables  thaf 
 were  most  obvious  in  this  time  of  distress.  And  as  they 
 were  shut  up,  and  could  not  spend  themselves  by  motion, 
 but  might  have  their  stomachs  palled  with  the  continued 
 agitation  of  the  vessel,  they  may  well  be  supposed  to 
 stand  in  need  of  less  provision  than  at  other  times. 
 
 If  then  (to  make  our  computation)  we  should  say,  that 
 5  all  the  beasts  in  the  lower  story  of  the  ark  were  equal, 
 in  their  consumption  of  food,  to  300  oxen  (which  is  more 
 by  a  great  deal  than  some  calculations  have  allowed,) 
 that  30  or  40  pounds  of  hay  are  ordinarily  sufficient  for 
 an  ox  for  one  day  ;  and  that  a  solid  cubit  of  hay,  well 
 compressed,  will  weigh  about  40  pounds  ;  then  will  this 
 second  story,  being  of  the  same  dimensions  with  the  other, 
 that  is,  225,000  solid  feet,  not  only  allow  a  space  for  a 
 sufficient  quantity  of  hay,  but  for  other  repositories  of 
 such  fruits,  roots,  and  grain,  as  might  be  proper  for  the 
 nourishment  of  those  animals  that  live  not  upon  hay  ;  and 
 for  such  passages  and  apertures  in  the  floor  as  might  be 
 necessary  for  the  putting  down  hay  and  other  provender 
 to  the  beasts  in  the  lower  story. 
 
 Upon  the  whole  therefore  it  appears,  that  the  middle 
 
 4  Heidegger 's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  Essay  17. 
 
 5  Jnikins's  Essay,  part  2.  C.  5. 
 
 a  It  is  not  to  be  denied,  but  that  several  learned  men  have  taken 
 great  pains  to  provide  flesh  for  the  carnivorous  animals  shut  up 
 in  the  ark,  when  it  is  beyond  all  controversy  that  the  stomachs  of 
 such  animals  are  fitted  for  the  digestion  of  fruits  and  vegetables: 
 that  such  food  would  be  more  salutary  both  for  them  and  their 
 keepers,  and  would  create  a  less  demand  of  drink  throughout  the 
 course  of  so  long  a  confinement ;  and  yet  there  is  not  the  least 
 foundation  from  the  text  to  suppose,  that  any  such  provision  was 
 made  for  creatures  of  such  an  appetite,  but  several  instances  in 
 history  do  show,  that  even  the  most  rapacious  of  them  all  may  be 
 brought  to  live  upon  other  diet  than  flesh.  Thus  Philostratus,  in 
 his  Apollonius,  b.  5,  tells  us  of  a  lion  in  Egypt,  which,  though  it 
 went  into  the  temple  constantly,  would  neither  lick  the  blood  of 
 sacrifices,  nor  eat  any  of  the  flesh  when  it  was  cut  in  pieces,  but 
 fed  altogether  on  bread  and  sweet-meats ;  and  Sulpitius  Severus 
 [Dial.  1.  c.  7.]  gives  us  this  account  of  a  monk  of  Thebais. 
 "  When  we  came  to  the  tree,  whither  our  courteous  host  led  us, 
 we  there  perceived  a  lion,  at  the  sight  of  which  I  and  my  guide 
 began  to  tremble ;  but  as  the  holy  man  went  directly  up  to  it, 
 we,  though  in  no  small  fright,  followed  after.  The  beast  at  oiu 
 approach  modestly  retired,,  and  stood  very  quiet  and  still,  while 
 the  good  man  gathered  it  some  brandies  of  apples,  and  as  he  held 
 them  out,  the  lion  came  up  and  eat  them,  and  so  went  off."  The 
 like  story  is  told  by  Phocas  in  his  Description  of  the  Holy  Land, 
 c.  13,  of  some  lions  beyond  the  river  Jordan,  whom  an  Ancho- 
 rite, named  Iberus,  fed  with  pulse  and  crusts  of  bread ;  and  to  | 
 the  animals  in  the  ark,  feeding  in  this  manner,  the  prophet 
 Isaiah,  speaking  of  the  times  of  the  Messiah,  (ch.  xi.  6,  7,)  is 
 supposed  by  our  author  to  allude.  '  The  wolf  shall  dwell  with 
 the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  lie  down  with  the  kid,  and  the  calf, 
 and  the  young  lion,  and  the  fatting  together,  and  a  little  child 
 shall  lead  them ;  and  the  cow  and  the  bear  shall  feed,  their  young 
 ones  shall  lie  down  together,  and  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  with  the 
 ox.' — Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  Essay  17. 
 
Sbct.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 81 
 
 A.  M.  1G5G.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2255.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 story  of  the  ark  was  likewise  large  enough  to  hold  all 
 that  was  requisite  to  be  put  therein  :  and  as  for  the  third 
 and  upper  story,  there  can  no  manner  of  doubt  be  made, 
 but  that  it  was  sufficient  to  hold  all  the  species  of  birds, 
 even  though  they  were  many  more  than  they  are  generally 
 computed.  The  accurate  Bishop  Wilkins  a  has  divided 
 them  into  nine  sorts,  and  reckons  them  to  be  195  in 
 the  whole ,  but  then  the  greatest  part  of  them  are  so 
 very  small  that  they  might  well  enough  be  kept  in 
 partitions  or  cages  piled  one  upon  another.  The  food 
 necessary  for  their  sustenance  would  not  take  up  any 
 great  proportion  of  room,  and  the  remainder  of  the 
 story  would  make  a  commodious  enough  habitation  for 
 Noah  and  his  family,  together  with  little  closets  and 
 offices,  wherein  to  dispose  of  their  several  domestic 
 matters  and  utensils. 
 
 Upon  the  whole  inquiry  then,  says  the  same  learned 
 prelate,  it  does,  of  the  two,  appear  more  difficult  to  as- 
 sign a  sufficient  number  and  bulk  of  necessary  things  to 
 answer  the  capacity  of  the  ark,  than  to  find  sufficient 
 room  in  it  for  the  convenient  reception  of  them ;  and 
 thereupon  he  truly,  as  well  as  piously,  concludes,  l 
 "  That  had  the  most  skilful  mathematicians  and  philoso- 
 phers been  set  to  consult  what  proportions  a  vessel  de- 
 signed for  such  an  use  as  the  ark  was,  should  have  in  the 
 several  parts  of  it,  they  could  not  have  pitched  upon  any 
 other  more  suitable  to  the  purpose  than  these  mentioned 
 by  Moses  are  ;  insomuch,  that  the  proportion  of  the  ark 
 (from  which  some  weak  and  atheistical  persons  have 
 made  some  poor  efforts  to  overthrow  the  authority  of  the 
 sacred  Scriptures)  does  very  much  tend  to  confirm  and 
 establish  the  truth  and  divine  authority  of  them.  Espe- 
 cially, if  we  only  consider,  that  in  these  days  men  were 
 less  versed  in  arts  and  sciences  ;  at  least,  that  the  ark 
 was,  in  all  probability,  the  first  vessel  of  any  bulk  that 
 was  made  to  go  upon  the  water :  whence  the  justness  of  the 
 proportion  observed  in  its  several  parts,  and  the  exact- 
 ness of  its  capacity  to  the  use  it  was  designed  for,  are 
 reasonably  to  be  ascribed,  not  to  bare  human  invention 
 and  contrivance,  but  to  the  divine  direction,  expressly 
 given  to  Noah  by  God  himself,  as  the  sacred  historian 
 acquaints  us." 
 
 Thus  Ave  have  placed  the  several  kinds  of  creatures  in 
 the  ark,  and  furnished  them  with  a  competent  stock  of 
 provision. 
 
 And  now,  if  it  should  be  asked,  How  came  they  all 
 thither  ?  the  reply  in  that  case  will  be  this — 2  That  the 
 
 1  Wilkins? s  Essay. 
 8  Revelation  Examined,  part  1. 
 a  The  manner  of  his  reckoning  them  up  is  this: 
 
 1.  Carnivorous  birds,        .... 
 
 2.  Phytivorous  birds  of  short  wings, 
 '.].  Phytivorous  birds  of  long  wings, 
 
 4.  Phytivorous  birds  of  short  thick  bills, 
 
 5.  Insectivorous  birds  the  greater, 
 
 6.  Insectivorous  birds  the  less, 
 
 7.  Aquatic  birds  near  wet  places, 
 Aquatic  fissipedes, 
 
 9.  Aquatic  plenipedes, 
 
 66 
 17 
 18 
 16 
 15 
 12 
 17 
 16 
 18 
 
 In  all, 195 
 
 To  these  perhaps  may  he  added  some  exotic  birds;  but  as  the 
 number  of  these  is  but  small,  so  we  may  observe  the  carnivorous, 
 which  is  the  largest  species,  that  they  were  reputed  unclean,  and 
 consequently  but  two  of  each  sort  admitted  into  the  ark. — Bed- 
 ford's Scripture  Chronology,  2,  12. 
 
 country  of  Eden  is  very  reasonably  supposed  by  learned 
 men  to  be  next  adjacent  to  die  garden  of  that  name,  from 
 whence  Adam  was  expelled;  and  that,  as  all  early  ac- 
 counts of  that  country  point  it  out  to  us,  as  one  of  the 
 most  fruitful  and  delicious  regions  in  the  earth,  (though 
 now  greatly  changed,)  there  is  no  reason  to  imagine  that 
 Adam  sought  for  any  habitation  beyond  it.  There, 
 according  to  many  concurring  circumstances,  was  this 
 famous  ark  built ;  there  is  gopher -wood  (very  reasonably 
 supposed  to  be  cypress)  found  in  great  abundance  ;  there 
 is  asphaltus,  wherewith  the  ark,  to  defend  it  from  the 
 impression  of  the  waters,  was  daubed  and  smeared  both 
 within  and  without ;  and  not  far  from  thence  is  mount 
 Ararat,  where  the  ark  as  the  waters  began  to  abate,  is 
 known  to  have  rested  ;  and  in  this  situation,  there  is  not 
 any  reason  to  imagine,  that  any  one  species  of  animals 
 could  be  out  of  Noah's  reach.  3  There  they  were  all 
 natives  of  the  same  country,  and  he  perhaps,  some  time 
 before  the  flood,  might  have  tamed  some  of  every  kind, 
 so  that,  when  the  deluge  came  on,  they  might  easily  be 
 brought  to  the  ark,  and  every  one  ranged  in  its  proper 
 place,  before  that  Noah  shut  it  up. 
 
 But  now  that  they  are  all  shut  up,  what  shall  we  do  for 
 air  to  keep  them  alive,  or  for  light  to  direct  them  in  what 
 they  are  to  do  ?  Mention  indeed  is  made  of  a  window, 
 left  in  the  upper  part  of  the  ark ;  but  this  is  said  to  be 
 no  more  than  a  cubit  square,  and  what  is  this  in  propor- 
 tion to  so  vast  a  fabric  ?  Either,  therefore,  we  must 
 devise  some  relief  for  them  in  this  exigence,  or  we  shall 
 soon  find  the  poor  remains  of  the  creation  in  utter  dark- 
 ness, and  in  the  shadow  of  death. 
 
 4  As  the  word  ZoJiar,  which  we  render  window,  is  never 
 mentioned  in  the  singular  number  through  the  whole  com- 
 pass of  the  Bible,  but  only  this  once,  it  perhaps  may  be 
 no  very  easy  thing  to  find  out  its  true  signification. 
 Whether  the  LXX.  interpreters  understood  the  meaning 
 of  it ;  whether  they  knew,  in  the  Greek  language,  any 
 word  capable  of  expressing  it ;  or  whether  they  might 
 think  it  of  so  sacred  a  nature,  as  not  proper  to  be  pub- 
 lished at  all ;  but  so  it  is,  that  they  prudently  have  omitted 
 it  in  their  translation,  and  will  have  the  precept  or  direc- 
 tion, which  God  gives  Noah,  to  mean  no  more  than  that 
 he  should  finish  the  ark,  by  closing  it  on  the  top,  and 
 compacting  it  well  together. 
 
 The  word  has  its  original  from  a  verb  which  signifies 
 to  burn,  or  shine  like  oil;  and  indeed  wherever  it  occurs 
 (as  it  sometimes  occurs  in  the  dual  number,)  it  always 
 signifies  some  bright  and  luminous  body:  and  accordin  gly 
 some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  were  of  opinion,  that  this 
 must  have  been  a  kind  of  precious  stone  or  carbuncle, 
 which  was  hung  up  in  the  midst  of  the  ark,  to  give  light 
 all  around :  and  to  this  purpose  R.  Levi  tells  us,  that 
 "  during  the  whole  12  months  that  Noah  was  shut  up  in 
 the  ark,  he  needed  neither  the  light  of  the  sun  by  day,  nor 
 the  light  of  the  moon  by  night ;  for  there  was  a  jewel 
 belonging  to  him  which  lie  hung  up  in  the  ark;  and  as  it 
 waxed  dim,  he  knew  that  it  was  day,  but  as  its  lustre  was 
 more  intense  he  knew  that  it  was  night."  But  this  opi- 
 nion is  not  well  founded  :  because  such  authors  as  have 
 written  best  upon  the  qualities  of  precious  stones,  do  all 
 
 3  Howell's  History,  vol.  1.  b.  1. 
 
 *  See  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1 ;  Occasional  Annotation*. 
 
82  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  I65G.  A.  C.  2319;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 agree,  that  (whatever  the  ancients  may  say,)  there  is  no 
 such  thing  as  a  night-shining  carbuncle  to  be  found  in 
 nature. 
 
 That  it  is  possible  to  make  a  self-shining  substance, 
 either  liquid  or  solid,  the  hermetical  phosphor  of  Bal- 
 duinns,  the  aerial  and  glacial  noctilucas  of  Mr  Boyle, 
 and  several  other  preparations  of  the  like  sort,  together 
 with  the  observations  of  the  most  accurate  philosophers 
 upon  the  production  and  propagation  of  light,  and  the 
 prodigious  ejaculation  of  insensible  effluviums,  are  suf- 
 ficient demonstration.  The  most  surprising  substance  of 
 this  kind  was  the  pantarba  of  Jarchus,  "  which  shone  in 
 the  day  as  fire,  or  as  the  sun,  and  at  night,  did  discover 
 a  flame  or  light,  as  bright  as  day,  though  not  altogether 
 so  strong ;  which  was,  in  short,  of  that  fiery  and  radiant 
 nature,  that  if  any  one  looked  on  it  in  the  daytime,  it 
 would  dazzle  the  eyes  with  innumerable  gleams  and  cor- 
 uscations ;"  nor  can  we  well  doubt  but  that  Noah,  who 
 (as  oriental  traditions  say)  was  a  profound  philosopher  ; 
 who  was  certainly  a  person  of  much  longer  experience 
 than  any  later  liver  can  pretend  to  ;  (and  what  is  more) 
 was  under  the  peculiar  favour  and  direction  of  God,  per- 
 ceiving the  necessity  of  the  thing,  should  be  equally  able 
 to  prepare  some  perpetual  light,  which  should  centrally 
 send  forth  its  rays  to  all  parts  of  the  ark,  and  by  its  kind 
 effluviums,  cherish  every  thing  that  had  life  in  it.  Now, 
 if  this  be  allowed,  (and  this  is  more  consonant  to  the 
 letter  of  the  text  a  than  any  other  interpretation  that  has 
 hitherto  been  advanced,)  then  will  all  the  difficulties, 
 which  either  are,  or  can  be  raised  about  the  manner  of 
 subsistence,  in  a  close  vessel,  by  creatures  of  so  many 
 different  species,  vanish  immediately.  But,  if  it  be  not 
 allowed,  then  it  is  impossible  without  admitting  a  whole 
 train  of  miracles,  to  give  the  least  account,  how  respira- 
 tion, nutrition,  motion,  or  any  other  animal  function 
 whatever,  could  be  performed  in  a  vessel  so  closely  shut 
 up  ;  and  therefore  it  is  the  safest  to  conclude  that, 
 according  to  the  divine  direction,  there  must  have  been 
 something  placed  in  the  ark,  which  by  its  continual 
 emanation,  might  both  purify  and  invigorate  the  includ- 
 
 es P.  Lamy,  to  evade  some  difficulties  that  he  could  not  so 
 well  solve,  tells  us,  that  the  form  of  the  ark,  is  so  little  ascer- 
 tained by  Moses,  that  every  one  is  left  to  his  own  conjectures 
 concerning  it;  and  therefore  he  supposes,  that  as  the  ark  was 
 divided  into  three  stories,  or  floors,  and  the  word  Zohar,  which 
 we  translate  ivindoiv,  signifies,  splendour,  light,  noon,  &c,  the 
 whole  second  story  (in  which  he  places  the  animals)  was  quite 
 open  all  round  except  some  parts,  which  were  grated  to  hinder 
 the  birds  from  flying  in  and  out;  otherwise,  he  cannot  conceive 
 how  they  could  have  had  sufficient  light,  and  air,  and  a  free 
 passage  for  it,  to  prevent  stagnations,  and  many  other  in- 
 conveniences which,  upon  this  supposition,  would  have  been 
 removed.  The  lower  story  indeed  was  included  within  wooden 
 walls,  and  well  guarded  with  pitch,  as  being  all  under  water ;  but 
 the  two  upper  stories,  being  above  water,  were  either  entirely 
 open,  or  secured  with  lattices  and  grates ;  and  the  top  or  open 
 parts,  covered  with  goat  skins,  or  sheep  skins,  sewed  together,  as 
 the  tabernacle  afterwards  was,  which  Noah  could  easily  let  down, 
 or  roll  up,  according  as  rain,  or  storm,  or  a  want  of  air,  made  it 
 necessary.  And  then,  as  for  keeping  the  beasts  clean,  he  sup- 
 poses, that  the  stalls  were  so  open  and  shelving  at  the  bottom, 
 that  water  might  have  been  let  in  high  enough  to  have  washed 
 the  feet  of  the  cattle,  and  to  have  cleansed  the  stalls  of  itself. — 
 See  his  Introduction  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  b.  I.e.  3:  and 
 Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  c.  xi.  But  all  this  is  pure 
 imagination,  and  inconsistent  with  the  notion  which  the  sacred 
 history  gives  us  of  it. 
 
 ed  air)  might  correct  and  sweeten  all  noxious  vapours, 
 and  exhalations  ;  and,  like  the  sun,  send  such  a  vivifying 
 light,  that  nothing  should  die  that  was  within  the  ark, 
 that  is,  so  far  as  the  beams  thereof  did  reach. 
 
 Thus  we  have  rescued  Noah  and  his  family  from  the 
 danger  of  suffocation  in  their  confinement,  by  the  supply 
 of  a  vicarious  light  to  purify  the  air  and  dispel  all  vapours, 
 as  well  as  enable  them  to  go  about  their  work  :  but 
 now  that  the  waves  swell,  and  the  vessel  mounts  on  high, 
 even  above  the  top  of  the  highest  hills  under  heaven, 
 they  run  into  another  quite  different  danger,  namely,  that 
 of  being  starved  to  death,  amidst  the  colds,  and  extreme 
 subtilty  of  the  air,  in  the  middle  region,  wherein  no 
 creature  can  live.  '  But  the  middle  region  of  the  air, 
 we  ought  to  remember,  is  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  fixed 
 point,  which  never  either  rises  or  falls.  It  is,  with  re- 
 spect to  us,  more  or  less  elevated,  according  to  the  greater 
 or  less  heat  of  the  sun.  In  the  cold  of  winter  it  is  much 
 nearer  to  the  earth,  than  in  the  warmth  of  summer ;  or, 
 (to  speak  more  properly)  the  cold  which  reigns  in  the 
 middle  region  of  the  air  during  the  summer,  reigns  like- 
 wise in  the  lower  region  during  the  winter.  Supposing 
 the  deluge  then  to  out-top  the  highest  mountains,  it  is 
 evident,  that  the  middle  region  of  the  air  must  have  risen 
 higher,  and  removed  to  a  greater  distance  from  the  earth 
 and  waters  ;  and,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  lower  region 
 must  have  approached  nearer  to  both,  in  proportion  as 
 the  waters  of  the  deluge  increased  or  decreased  ;  so  that 
 upon  the  whole,  the  ark  was  all  alone  in  the  lower  region 
 of  the  air,  even  when  it  was  carried  fifteen  cubits  above 
 the  highest  mountains ;  and  the  men  and  beasts  which 
 were  enclosed  in  it,  breathed  the  same  air,  as  they  would 
 have  done  onetarth,  a  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  paces 
 lower,  had  not  the  deluge  happened. 
 
 But  during  this  whole  course  of  the  ark,  since  Noah 
 was  shut  up  in  so  close  a  place,  where  he  was  not  capa- 
 ble of  making  any  observations,  where  indeed  he  could 
 see  neither  sun,  moon,  nor  stars,  for  many  months, 
 it  may  very  well  be  wondered,  how  he  could  possibly 
 have  any  just  mensuration  of  time,  had  we  not  reason 
 to  suppose,  that  he  certainly  had  within  the  ark  a 
 chronometer  of  one  kind  or  other,  which  did  exactly 
 answer  to  the  motion  of  the  heavens  without.  The  in- 
 vention of  our  present  horological  machines  indeed,  and 
 particularly  of  the  pendulum  watch,  (which  is  the  most 
 exact  corrector  of  time,)  is  but  of  modern  date  ;  but  it 
 does  not  therefore  follow,  but  that  the  same  or  other 
 equivalent  pieces  of  art  might,  in  former  ages,  have  been 
 perfectly  known  to  some  great  men.  Suppose  that  Mr 
 Huygens,  or  some  other,  was  the  inventor  of  pendulums 
 in  these  parts  of  the  world,  yet  it  is  more  than  probable, 
 that  there  was  a  pendulum  clock  made  many  years 
 before  at  Florence,  by  the  direction  of  the  great  Galileo  ; 
 and  that,  long  before  that,  there  was  another  at  Prague, 
 which  the  famous  Tycho  Brahe  made  use  of,  in  his  astro- 
 nomical observations.  And  therefore,  unless  we  fondly 
 imagine,  that  we  postdiluvians  have  all  the  wit  and  inge- 
 nuity that  ever  was,  we  cannot  but  think,  that  Noah,  who 
 not  only  had  long  experience  himself,  but  succeeded  to 
 the  inventions  of  above  1600  years,  which,  considering 
 the  longevity  of  people  then,  were  much  better  preserved 
 
 See  Calmet's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Deluge. 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 83 
 
 A.  M.  1656.  A.  C.  2319;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2266.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 than  they  can  be  now,)  was  provided  with  horological 
 pieces  of  various  kinds,  before  he  entered  the  ark.  Or, 
 if  we  can  suppose  him  destitute  of  these,  yet  what 
 we  have  said  of  the  zo/iar,  is  enough  to  evince,  that  by 
 the  observation  of  that  alone,  there  could  be  no  difficulty 
 in  distinguishing  the  nights  from  the  days,  and  keeping  a 
 journal  accordingly. 
 
 But  now,  that  the  flood  subsides,  and  the  ark  is  landed, 
 and  all  its  inhabitants  are  to  disembark,  how  can  we 
 suppose,  that  several  of  the  animals  shall  be  able  to  find 
 their  way  from  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  into  the  dis- 
 tant parts  of  the  West  Indies,  which  (as  far  as  we  can 
 find)  are  joined  to  no  other  part  of  the  known  world,  and 
 yet  have  creatures  peculiar,  and  such  as  cannot  live  in 
 any  other  climate  ?  This  is  a  question  that  we  must  own 
 ourselves  ignorant  of,  '  in  the  same  manner,  as  we  pre- 
 tend not  to  say,  by  what  means  that  vast  continent  was  at 
 first  peopled.  But  by  what  method  soever  it  was  that  its 
 first  inhabitants  came  thither,  whether  by  stress  of  weather, 
 or  designed  adventure,  by  long  voyages  by  sea,  or  (sup- 
 posing a  passage  between  one  continent  and  another)  by 
 long  journeyings  by  land,  it  is  plain,  that  by  the  same 
 means,  some  creatures  at  first  might  have  been  conveyed 
 thither  :  and  as  their  number  at  that  time  could  be  but 
 small,  we  may  suppose  that,  by  a  promiscuous  copulation 
 with  one  another,  they  might  beget  a  second  sort,  which 
 in  process  of  time,  the  nature  and  temperature  of  the 
 climate  might  so  far  alter,  as  to  make  them  pass  for  a 
 quite  different  species,  and  so  affect  their  constitution  as 
 to  make  them  live  not  so  commodiously  in  any  other 
 climate.  To  convey  either  men  or  beasts,  all  on  a  sud- 
 den, from  the  warmest  parts  of  Africa,  to  the  coldest 
 places  in  the  north,  would  be  a  probable  means  to  make 
 them  both  perish  ;  but  the  case  would  not  be  so,  if  they 
 were  to  be  removed  by  insensible  degrees,  nearer  to  these 
 places  ;  nor  can  we  say,  that  there  never  were  such  crea- 
 tures in  those  parts  of  Asia,  where  Noah  is  thought  to 
 have  lived,  as  are  now  to  be  found  in  America  ;  because 
 it  is  very  well  known,  that  formerly  there  have  been  many 
 beasts  of  a  particular  species  in  some  countries,  such  as 
 the  hippopotami  in  Egypt,  wolves  in  England,  and  bea- 
 vers in  France,  where  at  present  there  are  few  or  none 
 of  them  to  be  found. 
 
 If,  after  all,  it  should  be  asked,  why  God  made  use  of 
 this,  rather  than  any  other  method,  to  destroy  the  wicked, 
 and  preserve  the  righteous?  the  proper  answer  is,  that 
 whatever  pleaseth  him,  that  hath  he  done,  both  in  heaven 
 and  in  earth  ;  for  as  his  will  is  not  to  be  controlled,  so  nei- 
 ther is  it  to  bedisputed.  For  argument's  sake, however, let 
 us  suppose,  for  once,  that  instead  of  drowning  the  world, 
 God  had  been  pleased  to  destroy  by  plague,  famine,  or 
 some  other  sore  judgment,  all  mankind,  except  Noah 
 and  his  sons,  who  were  to  be  eye-witnesses  of  this  terrible 
 execution,  to  live  to  see  the  earth  covered  with  dead 
 bodies,  and  none  left  to  bury  them,  the  fields  unculti- 
 Tated,  and  the  cities  lie  waste  and  desolate  without 
 inhabitants,  who  can  conceive  what  the  horror  of  such  a 
 sight  would  have  been  ?  And  who  would  have  been  con- 
 tent to  live  in  such  a  world,  to  converse  only  with  the 
 images  of  death,  and  with  noisome  carcasses  ?   But  God, 
 
 1  See  Universal  History.  Of  this,  however,  we  shall  give  the 
 Conjectures  of  the  learned,  when  we  come  to  treat  of  the  disper- 
 sion of  nations  in  our  next  book. 
 
 in  mercy,  shut  up  Noah  in  the  ark,  that  he  should  not  see 
 the  terrors  and  consternations  of  sinners  when  the  flood 
 came  ;  and  he  washed  away  all  the  dead  bodies  into  the 
 caverns  of  the  earth,  with  all  the  remains  of  their  old  habi- 
 tations. So  that  when  Noah  came  out  of  the  ark,  he  saw 
 nothing  to  disturb  his  imagination,  nor  any  tokens  of  that 
 terrible  vengeance  which  had  over  run  the  world,  to  offend 
 his  sight :  only,  when  he  looked  about  him,  and  saw  every 
 thing  gone,  he  could  not  but  fall  into  this  contemplation, 
 that  God,  'when  he  enters  into  judgment  with  the  wicked, 
 2  will  not  pity,  nor  spare,  nor  have  mercy,  but  destroy. 
 He  will  dash  them  one  against  another,  even  father  and 
 son  together,  and  3  cause  his  fury  to  rest  upon  them, 
 until  his  anger  be  accomplished.' 
 
 CHAP.   III. — The  Reality  of  the  Deluge  proved  from 
 Natural  History. 
 
 (supplemental  by  the  editor.) 
 
 "  I  conclude,"  says  the  illustrious  Cuvier,  "  that  if  there 
 be  a  fact  well  established  in  geology,  it  is  this,  that  the 
 surface  of  our  globe  has  suffered  a  great  and  sudden 
 revolution,  the  period  of  which  cannot  be  dated  farther 
 back,  than  five  or  six  thousand  years.  This  revolution 
 has,  on  the  one  hand,  engulphed  and  caused  to  disappear, 
 the  coun tries  formerly  inhabited  by  men,  and  the  animal 
 species  at  present  best  known  ;  and  on  the  other,  has  laid 
 bare  the  bottom  of  the  last  ocean,  thus  converting  its 
 channel  into  the  now  habitable  earth." 
 
 1.  Of  the  reality  of  this  mighty  deluge,  we  have  uni- 
 versal evidence.  Nearly  the  whole  table  lands,  and 
 gentle  acclivities  of  the  mountains,  are  covered  with 
 deposits  of  gravel  and  loam,  to  the  production  of  which 
 no  cause  now  seen  in  action  is  adequate,  and  which  can 
 therefore  be  referred  only  to  the  waters  of  a  sudden  and 
 transient  deluge.  It  is  from  this  circumstance  that  the 
 deposit  alluded  to  is  termed  diluvium  by  geologists.  In 
 it,  the  pebbles  and  loam  are  always  promiscuously  blend- 
 ed, whereas  among  the  regular  secondary  and  tertiary 
 strata,  they  occur  separate  in  alternate  beds.  On  the 
 contrary,  the  marl,  sand,  and  gravel  deposited  by  exist- 
 ing rivers  and  lakes,  or  plains  exposed  to  occasional 
 inundation,  is  called  alluvium. 
 
 "  In  the  whole  course  of  my  geological  travels,"  says 
 DrBuckland,  "  from  Cornwall  to  Caithness,  from  Calais 
 to  the  Carpathians,  in  Ireland  or  in  Italy,  I  have  scarcely 
 ever  gone  a  mile,  without  finding  a  perpetual  succession 
 of  deposits  of  gravel,  sand,  or  loam,  in  situations  that 
 cannot  be  referred  to  the  action  of  modern  torrents, 
 rivers,  or  lakes,  or  any  other  existing  causes  ;  and  with 
 respect  to  the  still  more  striking  diluvial  phenomenon 
 of  drifted  masses  of  rocks,  the  greater  part  of  the  nor- 
 thern hemisphere,  from  Moscow  to  the  Mississippi,  is 
 described  by  various  geological  travellers,  as  strewed  on 
 its  hills,  as  well  as  valleys,  with  blocks  of  granite  and 
 other  rocks  of  enormous  magnitude,  which  have  been 
 drifted,  mostly  in  a  direction  from  north  to  south,  a  dis- 
 tance, sometimes,  of  many  hundred   miles    from   their 
 
 11. 
 
 3  Ezek.  v.  13. 
 
84 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 fBoos  I. 
 
 A.  M.  IG56.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  31o5.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 native  beds, across  mountains  and  valleys,  lakes  and  seas, 
 by  a  force  of  water,  which  must  have  possessed  a  velo- 
 city to  which  nothing  that  occurs  in  the  actual  state  of 
 the  globe  affords  the  slightest  parallel." 
 
 According  to  the  theory  of  Hulton,  the  mountains  of  a 
 former  earth,  were  worn  down  and  diffused  over  the  bot- 
 tom of  a  former  ocean.  There  they  were  exposed  to 
 the  power  of  subjacent  internal  fire  ;  and  after  due 
 induration  were  heaved  up  by  the  explosive  violence  of 
 the  same  force,  into  the  inclined  or  nearly  vertical 
 positions,  in  which  the  great  mountain  strata  now 
 stand.  "  How  often,"  says  Mr  Playfair,  in  his  eloquent 
 illustrations  of  this  theory,  "  these  vicissitudes  of  decay 
 and  renovation  have  been  repeated,  is  not  for  us  to  de- 
 termine ;  they  constitute  a  series,  which,  as  the  author  of 
 this  theory  has  remarked,  we  neither  see  the  beginning 
 nor  the  end." 
 
 This  theory  is  now  demonstrated  to  be  a  mere  phan- 
 tom. The  circumstance  that  gneiss  and  mica  slate, 
 allowed  to  be  primitive  rocks,  and  to  have  been  formed, 
 as  the  Huttonians  suppose,  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  by 
 the  same  process  as  the  calcarious  and  other  secondary 
 strata  that  are  full  of  shells;  the  circumstance  that  gneiss 
 and  mica  slate  are  barren  of  animal  exuviae,  proves  the 
 falsehood  of  this  theory.  Whence  do  these  organic 
 ruins  come,  and  why  are  they  absent  in  the  former  class 
 of  rocks,  both  of  them  formed  in  the  same  sea,  and  under 
 similar  circumstances  ? 
 
 The  Huttonians  ascribe  the  excavation  of  every  great 
 valley  on  the  globe,  to  the  disintegrating  power  of  the 
 stream  or  river  by  which  they  have  been  traversed.  But 
 this  is  often  a  mere  thread  compared  to  the  sloping  width 
 of  the  valley,  and  should,  at  the  utmost,  have  produced 
 merely  a  narrow  and  precipitous  glen.  The  observed 
 action  of  streamlets  is  rather  to  fill  up  the  dell  through 
 which  it  glides,  than  to  enlarge  its  dimensions.  An 
 example  will  hardly  be  found  of  a  valley,  which  can  be 
 legitimately  ascribed  to  the  action  of  the  stream  that  is 
 seen  passing  through  it.  This  is  not  the  place  to  enlarge 
 on  this  subject.  Suffice  it  to  remark,  that  even  though 
 the  lands  adjoining  the  valleys  were  composed  of  loose 
 matter ;  the  waters  now  running  along  the  bottom,  could 
 not  have  scooped  out  the  valleys,  supposing  them  to  have 
 a  tenfold  force,  above  what  they  actually  possess  ;  the 
 slope  of  the  existing  surface  not  being  sufficiently  great 
 to  give  these  masses  of  water  the  rapidity  requisite  to 
 produce  that  effect,  and  to  carry  off  the  loose  soil  which 
 filled  either  the  valley  or  the  gorge.  Finally,  the  actual 
 waters,  so  far  from  having  contributed  to  form  the  long 
 and  numerous  depressions  which  furrow  the  surface  of 
 the  earth,  continually  tend  to  fill  up  these  hollows.  In 
 short,  to  the  production  of  the  great  valleys  of  the  globe 
 no  cause  now  seen  in  action  is  adequate,  and  they  can 
 be  referred  only  to  the  waters  of  a  sudden  and  mighty 
 deluge. 
 
 The  reality  of  this  universal  catastrophe  is  attested  by 
 the  fact,  that  rocks  replete  with  marine  remains  are  spread 
 over  two-thirds  of  the  surface  of  every  part  of  our  con- 
 tinents which  have  been  explored.  They  abound  at  great 
 elevations,  rising  to  the  loftiest  summits  of  the  Pyrenees, 
 nearly  1 1,000  feet  above  the  level  of  our  present  ocean, 
 and  to  still  loftier  points  in  the  Andes.  It  is  remarkable 
 tiiat  the  true  geographical  summits  of  the  Pyrenee  ridge 
 
 are  composed  of  secondary  shell-limestones,  which  sur- 
 pass the  granite,  gneiss,  and  mica  slates,  in  elevation, 
 and  may  have  been  deposited  over  the  primitive  rocks 
 while  they  stood  under  the  primeval  ocean. 
 
 In  addition  to  this,  it  may  be  remarked,  that  on  the 
 secondary  mountains  of  the  Jura,  particularly  the  slopes 
 facing  the  Alps,  a  great  many  loose  fragments  of  primi- 
 tive rocks  are  strewed  over  the  surface,  at  heights  of 
 2,500  feet  above  the  Lake  of  Geneva.  They  have  un- 
 doubtedly travelled  across  the  line  of  these  valleys,  their 
 composition  proving  clearly  the  mountain  ridges  from 
 which  they  came.  We  may  hence  infer,  that  at  the 
 period  of  their  transfer  from  the  Savoy  Alps,  the  Lake 
 of  Geneva  did  not  exist,  otherwise  they  must  have 
 remained  at  its  bottom,  instead  of  being  found  on  its 
 opposite  bounding  mountain  at  a  great  elevation. 
 This,  and  similar  facts  indicate  the  scooping  out  of 
 the  valleys  between  the  mountains,  by  the  pressure  of 
 the  diluvial  deflux.  Analogous  phenomena  abound  in 
 England.  There  are  found  among  the  diluvial  strata 
 of  England  large  blocks  and  pebbles,  the  fragments  of 
 various  primitive  and  transition  rocks,  which  Dr  Buck- 
 land  supposes  to  have  been  drifted  from  the  nearest 
 continental  strata  of  Norway. 
 
 "  The  Alps  and  Carpathians,  and  all  the  other  moun- 
 tain regions  I  ever  visited  in  Europe,"  says  this  respect- 
 able writer,  "  bear  in  the  form  of  their  component  hills 
 the  same  evidence  of  having  been  modified  by  the  force 
 of  water,  as  do  the  hills  of  the  lower  regions  of  the 
 earth  ;  and  in  their  valleys  also,  where  there  was  space 
 to  afford  it  a  lodgment,  I  have  always  found  diluvial 
 gravel  of  the  same  nature  and  origin  with  that  of  the 
 plains  below,  and  which  can  be  clearly  distinguished 
 from  the  postdiluvian  detritus  of  mountain  torrents  or 
 rivers.  The  bones  of  the  Mastodon  are  found  in  diluvial 
 gravel  in  the  Camp  de  Geans  in  South  America,  7,800  feet 
 above  the  level  of  the  sea  ;  and  in  the  Cordilleras  at  an 
 elevation  of  7,200  feet,  near  the  volcano  of  lmbaburra, 
 in  the  kingdom  of  Quito.  M.  Humboldt  found  a  tooth 
 of  an  extinct  species  of  fossil  elephant  at  Hue-huetoca, 
 on  the  plain  of  Mexico.  Our  high  mountains  in  Europe 
 are  so  peaked  that  animal  remains,  though  drifted  round 
 their  summits,  could  hardly  be  expected  to  lie  upon 
 them,  but  would  be  washed  down  their  steep  slopes.  In 
 central  Asia,  bones  of  horses  and  deer  which  were  found 
 at  a  height  of  16,000  feet  above  the  sea,  in  the  Himmala 
 mountains,  are  now  deposited  at  the  Royal  College  of 
 Surgeons  in  London.  These  facts  attest,  that  all  the 
 high  hills  that  were  under  the  whole  heavens  were 
 covered  by  the  waters  of  the  deluge." 
 
 It  is  now  maintained  by  geologists  of  the  highest 
 eminence,  that  the  rounded  blocks  of  granite  to  which  I 
 have  alluded  as  spread  over  the  Jura  and  neighbouring 
 countries,  were  rolled  into  their  present  situations  at  the 
 time  of  the  rising  from  below  of  Mont  Blanc  and  the 
 Alpine  mountains,  to  which  they  belong  in  composition 
 — mountains  considered  by  Von  Buck  as  the  latest  of  all 
 mineral  formations,  and  newer  than  even  the  tertiary 
 strata.  Hence  they  are  contemporaneous  with  the 
 deluge,  indicating  at  once  its  transcendent  causes  and 
 effects.  In  support  of  this  conclusion,  M.  Deluc,  of 
 Geneva,  published  in  the  memoirs  of  the  Physical  So- 
 ciety of  that  city  for  May,  1827,  a  similar  opinion  ; — 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 85 
 
 A.  M.  1G5G.  A.  C.  2319;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  yi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 that  the  Alpine  ridges  have  been  formed  after  the  ter- 
 tiary rocks ;  and  that  the  blocks  of  granite  have  been 
 dispersed  by  that  mighty  upheaving  of  the  land.  The 
 great  masses  remain  nearest  the  parent  mountains,  and 
 being  least  travelled,  are  more  angular  •  the  smaller  and 
 lighter  ones,  having  been  proportionally  more  violently 
 agitated,  and  rolled  to  greater  distances,  have  become 
 rounded  by  the  attrition. 
 
 In  the  stratum  of  mingled  sand  and  gravel,  which 
 forms  the  detritus  of  the  deluge,  and  to  which  the  name 
 diluvium  has  been  given,  are  usually  found  the  fossil 
 bones  of  ancient  animals.  Skeletons,  or  their  parts, 
 have  been  also  discovered  in  great  numbers  in  the  lime- 
 stone caves  of  this  and  many  other  countries,  which  are 
 supposed  with  much  probability,  to  have  been  the  dens 
 of  antediluvian  animals,  the  last  tenants  of  which  were 
 drowned  in  the  universal  deluge.  The  species  so  com- 
 mon in  the  diluvial  detritus,  namely,  the  elephants,  the 
 rhinoceroses,  the  horses,  are  very  rare  in  the  bone  caves 
 of  Germany.  In  this  respect,  the  Kirkdale  cave  in 
 Yorkshire  differs  widely  from  the  others,  since  it  abounds 
 as  much  in  the  bones  of  the  great  and  little  herbivorous 
 animals  as  those  of  the  carnivorous.  The  elephant, 
 rhinoceros,  and  hippopotamus,  are  found  at  Kirkdale ; 
 as  well  as  bones  of  oxen,  deer,  down  to  rats  and  birds. 
 No  marine  animals  of  any  species  have  left  their  bones 
 either  in  the  Kirkdale  or  German  caves. 
 
 There  are  only  three  general  causes  which  can  be 
 possibly  imagined  to  have  introduced  the  bones  in  such 
 quantities  into  these  vast  subterranean  vaults  ;  first,  they 
 are  either  the  remains  of  animals  which  dwelt  and  died 
 peaceably  in  these  chambers ;  or,  second,  of  animals 
 which  inundations  and  other  violent  causes  carried  in  : 
 or,  third,  of  the  animals  which  had  been  enveloped  in 
 the  stony  strata,  whose  watery  solution  produced  the 
 caverns  themselves,  but  the  soft  parts  were  dissolved 
 away  by  the  agent  that  scooped  out  the  mineral  substance 
 of  the  caves.  This  last  hypothesis  is  refuted  by  the 
 circumstance,  that  the  strata  themselves  in  which  the 
 grottoes  are  excavated  contains  no  bones ;  and  the 
 second,  by  the  entire  state  of  preservation  of  the  smallest 
 prominences  of  the  bones,  which  precludes  the  idea  of 
 their  having  been  rolled.  Even  if  some  bones  are  worn 
 smooth,  as  Br  Buckland  has  remarked,  they  are  so  only 
 on  one  side ;  which  at  the  utmost  merely  proves  that 
 something  has  polished  their  surface  in  the  bed  where 
 they  lay.  We  are  therefore  compelled  to  resume  the 
 first  supposition,  and  to  regard  these  caverns  as  the  dens 
 of  antediluvian  carnivora,  which  dragged  in  thither  and 
 devoured  the  animals,  or  parts  of  animals,  that  fell  in 
 their  way.  Professor  BucklancFs  writings  furnish  nu- 
 merous proofs  and  illustrations  of  the  truth  of  this 
 position. 
 
 These  few  observations  may  suffice  to  illustrate  the 
 nature  and  extent  of  that  evidence  which  is  furnished  by 
 science  in  proof  of  the  reality  of  the  mighty  deluge 
 mentioned  in  the  Mosaic  record.  The  works  of  Cuvier, 
 Buckland,  and  Br  lire's  New  Systi  m  of  Geology,  will 
 put  the  student  in  possession  of  the  means  of  enlarging 
 his  knowledge  of  this  highly  interesting  subject.  I  shall 
 now  advert 
 
 II.  To  what  may  have  been  supposed  to  have  been  the 
 physical  cause  of  this  catastrophe.     This,  I  conceive,  to 
 
 be  a  proper  and  useful  subject  of  inquiry,  since  we  know 
 that  God  usually  accomplishes  his  purposes  by  means  or 
 second  causes ;  and  especially  since  such  inquiry  may 
 enable  us  to  answer  objections  and  remove  difficulties. 
 At  the  same  time,  it  should  be  remembered  that  even 
 though  we  were  incapable  of  assigning  any  secondary 
 causes  for  the  production  of  the  deluge,  the  evidence  for 
 the  reality  of  this  event  would  not  be  thereby  aflected. 
 All  power  is  God's  ;  and  whatsoe'er  he  wills, — the  will 
 itself  omnipotent  fulfils. 
 
 The  theory  which  appears  to  me  to  come  nearest  the 
 truth  on  this  subject  is  that  which  ascribes  the  phenomena 
 of  the  deluge  to  the  operation  of  forces  acting  under  the 
 bottom  of  the  primeval  ocean  by  which  its  waters  were 
 rolled  over  the  ancient  continents,  many  of  which  were 
 broken  down  and  sunk  in  the  sea,  whilst  new  territories 
 were  upheaved  and  laid  bare.  Sir  H.  Bavy^s  discovery 
 of  the  metallic  bases  of  the  earths  and  alkalis  proves 
 that  such  latent  forces  do  exist  in  the  bosom  of  the 
 earth ;  and  from  the  phenomena  of  volcanoes  we  may 
 form  some  conjecture  of  their  tremendous  power.  The 
 metals  of  the  alkalis  and  earths,  from  their  affinity  for 
 oxygen,  could  not  possibly  exist  on  the  surface  of  the 
 earth ;  on  this  principle,  volcanic  fires  would  be  occa- 
 sioned whenever  these  metals  were  extensively  exposed 
 to  the  action  of  air  and  water. 
 
 The  upheaving  of  the  bed  of  the  ocean,  and  the 
 depression  of  the  dry  land,  would  occasion  the  deluge. 
 When  the  barriers  of  the  ocean  began  to  give  way  before 
 the  explosive  forces,  the  water  would  invade  the  shores, 
 and  spread  over  the  sunken  land,  augmenting  greatly 
 the  evaporating  surface,  and  thus  bringing  the  atmosphere 
 to  the  dew-point,  a  state  of  saturation  to  which,  previ- 
 ously, it  could  seldom,  and  in  few  places,  attain,  on 
 account  of  the  area  of  the  dry  land  being  great,  relative 
 to  that  of  the  sea.  From  this  cause,  as  well  as  from  the 
 immense  quantity  of  vapours  which  are  known  to  rise 
 from  water,  into  the  higher  and  cooler  regions  of  the  air, 
 at  the  period  of  eruptions,  a  great  formation  of  cloud 
 and  deposition  of  rain  would  ensue. 
 
 At  each  successive  upheaving  of  the  submarine  strata, 
 the  inundation  would  advance  farther  on  the  land, 
 drowning  in  their  places  the  animals  which  had  been 
 driven  for  shelter  into  their  dens ;  and  washing  aw  ay  by 
 its  reflux,  the  tenants  of  the  plains,  into  the  slimy 
 channel  of  the  deep.  By  such  a  retiring  billow  in  the 
 dreadful  earthquake  of  1755,  three  thousand  inhabitants 
 of  Lisbon  were  suddenly  swept  off'its  quay,  and  swamped 
 in  the  bed  of  the  Tagus.  In  the  progress  of  the  eleva- 
 tion of  submarine  strata,  and  submersion  of  what  previ- 
 ously had  been  dry  land,  the  stage  of  equilibrium  would 
 arrive,  when  the  circumfluent  waves  would  roll  over  the 
 loftiest  pinnacles  of  the  globe.  The  destruction  of  the 
 human  race,  with  the  exception  of  the  eight  individuals 
 enclosed  in  the  ark,  would  thus  be  completed. 
 
 According  to  the  principles  of  Mr  Penn,  the  ratio  ol 
 land  to  water  was  inverted  by  the  deluge,  for  he  assumes 
 that  our  actual  seas  correspond  in  surface  to  the  ante- 
 diluvian lands;  and  our  actual  lands  to  the  antediluvian 
 seas.  But  the  researches  of  Professor  Buckland  on  the 
 Kirkdale  and  Franconia  caves ;  as  well  as  those  of 
 Baron  Cuvier  on  the  grotto  of  Oiselles,  concur  to  prove 
 that  these  were  dens  inhabited  by  antediluvian  quadru 
 
86  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  1656.  A.  C.  2349 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 peds,  and  therefore  must  have  formed  a  portion  of  its 
 dry  land. 
 
 I  am  disposed  then  to  consider  volcanic  agency  as  a 
 main  cause  of  the  phenomena  of  the  deluge.  This 
 power  has  now  a  limited  range  in  comparison  of  its 
 ancient  extent.  There  are  at  present  two  hundred  and 
 five  burning  volcanoes  on  the  globe.  One  hundred  and 
 seven  of  these  are  in  islands,  and  ninety-eight  on  conti- 
 nents, but  ranged  mostly  along  their  shores.  The 
 American  volcanoes  are  among  those  most  distant  from 
 the  sea.  In  Peru,  they  are  about  seventy  miles  from  it. 
 The  position  of  all  our  active  volcanoes  in  the  neigh- 
 bourhood of  the  ocean,  is  a  very  striking  fact.  It 
 becomes  much  more  so  when  we  observe  submarine  vol- 
 canoes burning  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  sea. 
 
 The  most  remarkable  volcano  ever  described  is  in  the 
 island  of  Hawii.  It  is  near  the  base  of  Mouna  Roa,  a 
 mountain  15,000  feet  high.  An  interesting  account  of 
 it  is  given  by  Mr  Ellis  in  his  Polynesian  Researches. 
 "  A  whole  lake  of  fire  was  seen  to  open  suddenly  up,  in 
 a  part  at  a  little  distance.  This  lake  could  not  have  been 
 less  than  two  miles  in  circumference,  and  its  action  was 
 more  horribly  sublime,  than  any  thing  I  ever  imagined 
 to  exist,  even  in  the  idler  visions  of  unearthly  things. 
 Its  surface  had  all  the  agitation  of  an  ocean.  Billow 
 after  billow  tossed  its  monstrous  bosom  into  the  air,  and 
 occasionally  the  waves  from  opposite  directions  met 
 with  such  violence,  as  to  dash  the  fiery  spray  in  the 
 concussion  forty  or  fifty  feet  high." 
 
 In  order  to  produce  the  deluge  it  was  only  necessary 
 that  the  Creator  should  remove  restraints  from  those 
 forces  which  actually  exist  in  the  earth.  These  forces 
 under  the  direction  of  infinite  wisdom,  operating  in  the 
 manner  already  described,  seem  to  be  sufficient  to  verify 
 the  account  of  this  mighty  catastrophe  recorded  by 
 Moses.  '  The  same  day  were  all  the  fountains  of  the 
 great  deep  broken  up,  and  the  windows  of  heaven  were 
 opened.  And  the  waters  prevailed,  and  were  increased 
 greatly  upon  the  earth ;  and  the  ark  went  upon  the  face 
 of  the  waters.'     I  shall  now  consider 
 
 III.  The  alleged  objections  to  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic 
 account  of  the  deluge.  I  shall  only  here  advert  to  those 
 which  relate  to  natural  phenomena. 
 
 1.  While  the  bones  of  the  lower  animals  have  been 
 found  abundantly  in  the  diluvium  and  caves  of  the  earth, 
 in  no  instance  have  the  remains  of  man  been  discovered. 
 Human  bones  moulder  as  slowly  in  the  earth  as  those  of 
 the  inferior  tribes ;  yet  not  one  of  them  has  been  found 
 of  a  truly  fossil  character.  This  circumstance  is  felt  by 
 many  as  a  difficulty ;  and  is  regarded  by  some  as  fur- 
 nishing an  objection  to  the  reality  of  the  deluge. 
 
 The  two  following  considerations  furnish  a  satisfactory 
 solution  of  this  difficulty.  First,  that  the  greater  part, 
 if  not  the  whole  of  the  portion  of  the  earth  which  was 
 inhabited  by  the  human  race  prior  to  the  deluge,  is  now 
 at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  It  is  admitted  by  all,  that 
 part  of  the  antediluvian  earth  is  now  submersed.  It  is 
 equally  certain  that  mankind  had  occupied  but  a  com- 
 paratively small  part  of  the  globe.  From  the  prodigious 
 herds  of  wild  beasts  which  prowled  through  these  northern 
 regions,  it  is  confidently  inferred  that  human  society  was 
 not  established  there.  Indeed  the  only  authentic  data 
 from  which  we  can  form  any  conclusion  on  the  subject 
 
 lead  to  the  belief  that  primeval  population  had  not 
 rapidly  advanced.  The  average  period  which  each  of 
 the  primeval  patriarchs  lived  before  his  eldest  son  was 
 born,  was  117£  years.  Judging  from  these  data,  the 
 only  ones  we  have,  the  increase  of  population  must  have 
 been  slow ;  divine  mercy  limiting  the  victims  of  guilt 
 and  perdition.  Multiplying  in  this  ratio,  the  race  of 
 man  could  not  spread  widely  over  the  world,  thinned  as 
 the  members  must  also  have  been  by  mutual  violence. 
 
 It  is  highly  probable  that  the  portion  of  the  earth 
 inhabited  by  the  family  of  man  is  now  at  the  bottom  of 
 the  sea ;  especially  as  we  know  from  the  physical  con- 
 stitution of  the  globe,  as  well  as  from  principles  already 
 alluded  to,  that  at  least  a  great  part  of  the  bed  of  the 
 antediluvian  ocean  is  now  dry  land,  and  that,  conse- 
 quently, the  dry  land  of  the  primeval  world  is,  to  a 
 considerable  extent,  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 
 
 A  second  consideration  is,  that  mankind  was  confined 
 to  Asia  and  the  east  prior  to  the  deluge ;  and  that  the 
 interior  of  the  earth  in  those  parts  of  the  world,  have  not 
 yet  been  explored.  It  is  only  of  course  in  those  portions 
 of  the  earth  which  were  inhabited  by  the  antediluvians 
 that  we  are  to  look  for  traces  of  their  former  existence ; 
 and  on  the  supposition  that  the  sea  does  not  now  cover 
 all  the  early  dwelling  places  of  the  race,  we  are  certain 
 that  they  have  not  yet  undergone  a  particular  examina- 
 tion. 
 
 2.  The  change  in  regard  to  the  longevity  of  man  said 
 to  be  introduced  at  the  deluge  is  calculated,  it  is  alleged, 
 to  awaken  suspicion  in  regard  to  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic 
 account  of  that  catastrophe.  Prior  to  that  era  men 
 lived  to  the  age  of  seven,  eight,  or  nine  hundred  years  ; 
 but  immediately  after,  the  period  of  human  life  was 
 greatly  shortened.  How  are  we  to  account  for  so  great 
 a  change  ? 
 
 It  is  a  sufficient  solution  of  this  difficulty  to  say,  that 
 the  Great  Author  and  Lord  of  life  can  limit  its  duration 
 as  it  pleaseth  him.  Without  presuming  to  say,  whether 
 the  changes  which  the  deluge  produced  on  the  globe 
 were  sufficient,  as  natural  causes,  to  shorten  the  mortal 
 existence  of  man,  it  is  certain  that  such  a  revolution  was 
 effected  in  the  constitution  of  our  globe,  as  rendered  its 
 surface  much  colder  and  moister  than  it  had  previously 
 been.  From  the  circumstances  which  fully  establish  this 
 position  Ave  may  select  the  two  following. 
 
 First,  the  almost  incredible  number  of  bones  of  fossil 
 elephants  found  in  northern  Siberia,  which  indicate  no 
 marks  of  having  been  rolled  or  transported  from  a  dis- 
 tance, attest  the  existence  formerly  on  its  plains,  of  huge 
 herbivorous  animals.  These  demonstrate  that  a  vigor- 
 ous vegetation  clothed  countries  now  covered  with  frost 
 a  great  part  of  the  year,  when  even  in  summer  sterilizing 
 cold  and  humidity  perpetually  reign,  and  where  at 
 present  the  rein-deer  can  hardly  pick  up  from  beneath 
 the  snow  its  scanty  mouthful  of  moss.  Pallas  informs 
 us  that  in  those  northern  regions  there  is  scarcely  a 
 river,  on  the  banks  of  which,  bones  of  the  ancient  ele- 
 phant may  not  be  found.  They  are  imbedded  in,  or 
 loosely  covered  with  diluvial  matter,  intermixed  with  a 
 few  marine  productions.  The  immense  supply  of  food 
 requisite  to  the  sustenance  of  the  elephant,  the  rhino- 
 ceros, the  hippopotamus,  the  mastodon,  and  the  tapir, 
 could  only  be  produced  in  a  warm  climate. 
 
Sect.  VI.]  FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 A.  M.  1G5G.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 87 
 
 Secondly,  the  ruins  of  vegetable  life  buried  in  our 
 frozen  circumpolar  strata,  clearly  attest  the  genial 
 climate  which  prevailed,  and  cherished  their  growth  on 
 the  primeval  earth.  The  numerous  examples  of  this 
 kind  which  occur  furnish  proofs  that  the  hyperborean 
 region  where  they  occur,  at  one  time  displayed  the 
 noble  scene  of  a  luxuriant  and  stately  vegetation. 
 
 3.  It  is  objected  to  the  Mosaic  history  that  it  repre- 
 sents the  rainbow  as  formed  after  the  flood,  and  as  the 
 sign  of  a  covenant  then  made  ;  whereas,  as  a  natural 
 phenomenon,  the  rainbow  must  have  been  occasionally 
 exhibited  from  the  beginning  of  the  world.  In  answer 
 to  this  it  may  be  remarked,  in  the  first  place,  that  there 
 is  nothing  absurd  in  fixing  on  a  natural  phenomenon  as 
 a  sign  and  memorial  of  peace  and  reconciliation.  The 
 very  best  purpose  was  served  by  the  rainbow,  expressed 
 by  the  sacred  historian,  when  he  represents  God  as  say- 
 ing, '  This  is  the  token  of  the  covenant,  which  I  will 
 make  between  me  and  you,  and  every  living  creature 
 that  is  with  you  for  perpetual  generations  :'  for  natural 
 and  inanimate  objects,  such  as  pillars  and  heaps  of 
 stones,  were  considered  as  tokens,  and  even  a  kind  of 
 witnesses,  in  the  contracts  of  all  the  civilized  nations  of 
 remote  antiquity.  Of  this  we  have  several  instances  in 
 the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  surely  not  one  so 
 apposite  as  that  of  the  rainbow.  Noah  and  his  sons 
 undoubtedly  knew, — either  by  the  science  of  the  ante- 
 diluvian world,  or  by  the  immediate  teaching  of  God, — 
 that  the  rainbow  is  a  physical  proof,  as  long  as  it  is 
 seen,  that  a  general  deluge  is  not  to  be  dreaded  :  and 
 therefore,  if  their  minds,  filled  with  terror  and  astonish- 
 ment at  what  they  had  escaped,  should  ever  have  become 
 fearfully  apprehensive  of  a  future  deluge,  the  sight  of 
 the  bow  would  immediately  dissipate  their  fears. 
 
 But,  in  the  second  place,  philosophers  are  now  of 
 opinion  that  the  rainbow,  from  the  constitution  of  the 
 primeval  atmosphere,  could  not  have  been  formed  till 
 after  the  deluge.  Immediately  after  the  flood,  the  sea- 
 soaked  lands  would  send  up  universal  exhalations  round 
 the  chilly  globe ;  whence  showers  and  rainbows  would 
 become,  for  some  time  at  least,  almost  daily  appearances. 
 This  conclusion  of  physical  research,  coincides  well  with 
 our  ancient  history  of  the  new  drained  earth.  '  And 
 God  said,  This  is  the  token  of  the  covenant  which  I  make 
 between  me  and  you,  and  every  living  creature  that  is 
 with  you  for  perpetual  generations  :  I  do  set  my  bow  in 
 the  cloud,  and  it  shall  be  for  a  token  of  a  covenant 
 between  me  and  the  earth.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass 
 when  1  bring  a  cloud  over  the  earth,  that  the  bow  shall 
 be  seen  in  the  cloud.  And  the  waters  shall  no  more 
 become  a  flood  to  destroy  all  flesh.'  The  ark  preserved 
 eight  intelligent  witnesses,  come  to  mature  age,  of  ante- 
 diluvian skies  and  seasons.  It  is  inferred,  both  from  the 
 emphatic  words  in  which  the  sign  of  Heaven's  favour  is 
 j  announced,  as  well  as  from  the  purpose  which  it  was 
 ordained  to  serve,  that  it  must  have  been  equally  strange 
 as  it  was  glorious  in  their  sight.  In  such  clouds  as  might 
 often  be  stretched  in  the  cooler  upper  regions  of  their 
 skies,  no  bow  could  be  set.  Heavy  dews,  deposited 
 during  the  night  and  early  dawn,  from  the  well  known 
 influence  of  ground  chilled  by  calorific  radiation,  would 
 supply  the  place  of  rain  for  vegetable  sustenance ;  as 
 now  happens  in  Lima  and  many  other  regions  of  our 
 
 present  globe.  It  is  alleged  that  this  theory  receives 
 support  from  the  following  declaration  of  the  sacred  his- 
 torian. '  For  the  Lord  God  had  not  caused  it  to  rain 
 upon  the  earth,  and  there  was  not  a  man  to  till  the  ground. 
 But  there  went  up  a  mist  from  the  whole  earth,  and 
 watered  the  whole  face  of  the  ground.' 
 
 The  rainbow  thus  becomes  a  most  significant  emblem 
 of  God's  providential  regard  to  man.  It  is  a  phenome- 
 non which  results  from,  and  declares  the  remodelled 
 constitution  of  the  terraqueous  sphere.  It  is  a  type  of  sin 
 and  suffering  ;  of  reconciliation  and  of  peace  ;  a  memo- 
 rial of  the  sublimest  truths  of  revelation  and  science. 
 '  While  the  earth  remaineth,  seed-time  and  harvest,  and 
 cold  and  heat,  and  summer  and  winter,  and  day  and 
 night,  shall  not  cease.' 
 
 IV.  It  is  alleged  that  Hindoo  chronology,  founded  on 
 astronomical  observation,  is  irreconcilable  with  the  era 
 of  the  deluge  according  to  the  sacred  historian  ;  and  the 
 inference  deduced  from  this  allegation  by  those  who 
 advance  it  is,  that  the  Mosaic  record  is  false. 
 
 In  a  commentary  on  Bailly's  Treatise  on  the  Hindoo 
 Chronoloc/y ,  by  Professor  Play  fair,  read  before  the 
 Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  published  in  their  Trans- 
 actions, he  announced  the  following  conclusions  : — "  The 
 observations  on  which  the  astronomy  of  India  is  founded 
 were  made  more  than  3000  years  before  the  Christian 
 era,  (consequently  more  than  b'50  years  before  the  deluge 
 by  the  Hebrew  chronology) ,  and  in  particular,  the  places 
 of  the  sun  and  moon,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Calyougham, 
 (the  age  of  misfortune  3102  a.  c.)  were  determined  by 
 actual  observation." — "  It  is  through  the  medium  of 
 astronomy,"  continues  Professor  Playfair,  "  alone,  that  a 
 few  rays  from  those  distant  objects  (the  ancient  inhabit- 
 ants of  the  globe)  can  be  conveyed  in  safety  to  the  eye 
 of  a  modern  observer,  so  as  to  afford  him  a  light,  which, 
 though  it  be  scanty,  is  pure  and  unbroken,  and  free  from 
 the  false  colouring  of  vanity  and  superstition." 
 
 In  this  opinion,  so  confidently  annoimced,  Professor 
 Playfair  was  singularly  unfortunate,  since  its  falsity  has 
 been  fully  proved  by  La  Place  and  Delambre.  "Every 
 thing,"  says  the  former,  "  leads  us  to  conclude  that  they 
 (the  Indian  tables)  are  not  of  high  antiquity.  They  have 
 two  principal  epochs  which  go  back,  one  to  the  year 
 3102,  and  the  other  to  1491  years  before  the  Christian 
 era.  These  are  linked  together  by  the  mean  movements 
 of  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets,  so  that  one  of  the  epochs 
 is  necessarily  fictitious.  The  celebrated  author  (M. 
 Bailly)  to  whom  I  refer,  has  tried  to  establish  in  his 
 Treatise  on  Indian  Astronomy,  that  the  first  of  these 
 epochas  is  founded  on  observation.  Notwithstanding 
 his  proofs,  expounded  with  all  the  interest  which  he  could 
 bestow  on  the  most  complex  subjects,  I  consider  it  very 
 probable,  that  this  epocha  has  been  invented  for  the 
 purpose  of  giving  a  common  origin  upon  the  zodiac  to 
 the  movements  of  the  celestial  bodies.  In  fact,  if  we 
 assume  for  our  point  of  departure,  the  epocha  of  1491, 
 and  go  back  by  means  of  the  Indian  tables,  to  the  year 
 3102  before  the  Christian  era,  we  obtain  a  general  con- 
 junction of  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets,  as  these  tallies 
 suppose  ;  but  this  conjunction  differs  too  much  from  the 
 result  of  our  best  tables,  to  have  taken  place,  demon- 
 strating that  the  epocha  to  which  it  refers,  is  not  grounded 
 on  observation.     The  tables  altogether,  and  particularly 
 
88 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  JC5G.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 the  impossibility  of  the  conjunction  which  they  suppose 
 at  the  same  epocha,  prove  on  the  contrary  that  they  have 
 been  constructed  in  modern  times. 
 
 "  The  whole  system  of  the  Indian  tables,"  says  Cuvier, 
 "  so  elaborately  conceived,  falls  to  pieces  of  itself,  now 
 that  it  has  been  proved  that  this  epocha  was  adopted  at 
 an  after  period  from  calculations  retrospectively  made, 
 the  result  of  which  is  false.  Mr  Bentley  has  discovered 
 that  the  tables  of  Tirvalour,  on  which  the  assertions  of 
 Bailly  were  principally  founded,  must  have  been  com- 
 puted towards  the  year  1281  of  the  Christian  era,  (only 
 547  years  ago,)  and  that  the  Sourya-Siddhanta,  which 
 the  Brahmins  esteem  their  most  ancient  scientific  trea- 
 tise on  astronomy,  pretending  that  it  was  given  by 
 revelation,  more  than  twenty  millions  of  years  since, 
 could  have  been  composed  only  767  years  before  our 
 own  time." 
 
 Delatnbre  speaks  with  equal  decision,  and  to  the  same 
 effect,  in  his  History  of  Astronomy,  Ancient  and  Modern. 
 "  The  extensive  treatise  on  Indian  astronomy,"  says  he, 
 "  by  Bailly,  has  been  laboured  with  more  care  than  any 
 of  his  other  works.  We  regret  only  to  remark  too  fre- 
 quently in  it,  that  spirit  of  system  which  predominates  in 
 all  his  productions.  Instead  of  giving  a  simple  exposi- 
 tion of  facts,  which  may  enable  us  afterwards  to  consider 
 them  in  every  point  of  view,  he  espouses  an  opinion  to 
 which  he  makes  every  thing  conform.  If  Ave  be  al- 
 lowed to  hazard  a  conjecture,  we  would  say,  that  Bailly 
 never  writes  but  to  prop  a  system  formed  beforehand  ; 
 that  he  glances  slightly  over  the  writings  of  the  ancients, 
 reading  them  in  bad  translations  ;  and,  that  he  runs 
 over  all  the  calculations  in  order  to  pick  out  obscure 
 passages,  which  may  lend  some  countenance  to  his  ideas. 
 
 When  we  inquire  why  the  Indians  chose  the  remote 
 and  fictitious  epoch  of  Cole-youg,  or  misfortune,  we 
 perceive,  in  the  first  place,  that  it  was  from  national 
 vanity;  and  in  the  next,  that  they  might  make  all  the 
 planets  start  from  one  point,  a  conjunction  which  their 
 method  of  calculation  required.  If  we  further  ask,  why 
 they  adopted  a  complicated  method,  which  employs  divi- 
 sions and  multiplications  of  enormous  numbers,  with  so 
 many  additions,  subtractions,  reductions,  and  different 
 precepts,  the  answer  is,  that  they  did  not  wish  for  written 
 tables ;  they  wanted  numbers  which  could  be  put  into 
 technical  verses,  even  into  songs,  so  that  the  calcula- 
 tions might  be  performed  without  opening  a  book.  These 
 facts,  now  well  known  through  the  labours  of  the  Asiatic 
 Society,  are  alone  sufficient  to  subvert  the  whole  system. 
 
 "  Mr  Playfair  acknowledges  that  the  Indians  have  not 
 actually  demonstrated  either  of  the  two  processes  which 
 they  point  out  for  these  calculations.  I  would  be  tempt- 
 ed to  believe  that  they  were  ignorant  of  these  demonstra- 
 tions ;  if  they  had  known  the  principle,  their  table  would 
 have  been  probably  a  little  better.  Mr  Playfair  has  not 
 calculated  it  anew  ;  he  has  not  even  had  the  discernment 
 to  perceive  the  error  of  the  divisor  225,  substituted,  pro- 
 bably by  an  error  of  the  copy,  for  the  true  divisor  235.5  !" 
 
 "  The  idea  of  the  Hindoo  system,  given  by  Mr  Bent- 
 ley"  says  M.  Delambre,  "  is  so  natural,  that  I  am 
 astonished  it  did  not  occur  to  Mr  Bailly,  and  make  the 
 pen  fall  from  his  hand.  It  occurred  to  myself  on  the 
 first  persusal  of  Mr  Bailly's  book,  before  the  publication 
 of  the  first  volume  of  the   Asiatic  Researches  ;  and  it 
 
 made  such  an  impression  on  my  mind,  that  I  could  never 
 place  the  least  reliance  on  the  pretended  proofs  that  he 
 adduced,  nor  would  I  have  ever  seriously  entered  into 
 the  discussion  could  I  have  avoided  it  in  this  history  of 
 astronomy. 
 
 "  Finally,  it  appears  that  there  does  not  exist  at  pre- 
 sent a  single  Hindoo  book,  which  can  possess  an  anti- 
 quity higher  than  1300  years;  and  that  none  of  the 
 romances  called  pour  anas  date  farther  back,  from  the 
 present  time,  than  604  years,  while  some  of  them  are 
 more  modern  still.  Their  great  geographical  treatises 
 are  merely  a  tissue  of  the  most  incredible  absurdities."  ' 
 
 With  respect  to  the  knowledge  which  prevailed  among 
 heathen  nations  of  the  general  deluge,  it  maybe  observed, 
 that  the  destruction  of  mankind  which  was  effected  by 
 this  catastrophe,  was  so  signal  and  so  extensive  a  .judg- 
 ment, that  the  remembrance  of  it  was  every  where  retained, 
 and  traditions  of  it  every  where  preserved.  Express 
 mention  of  this  memorable  infliction  of  divine  wrath,  is 
 to  be  found  in  the  earliest  writings,  and  the  accounts  of 
 its  general  or  partial  operation  appear  in  various  rela- 
 tions. Berosus  and  Abydenus  speak  of  it  in  histories 
 of  the  Medes  and  Assyrians ;  and  records  of  the  event 
 extended  through  the  east,  and  thence  were  circulated 
 through  every  country,  exciting  a  peculiar  interest  in 
 those  lands  in  which  some  memorial  and  vestige  of  it 
 were  to  be  found. 
 
 The  Egyptians  had  a  sacred  ship,  called  Baris,  which 
 represented  the  ark  ;  and  the  story  of  the  Argos  is  sup- 
 posed, somewhat  fancifully,  by  Bryant,  to  have  been 
 derived  from  Egypt,  and  to  have  a  relation  to  the  ark, 
 represented  by  the  sacred  ship  of  Osiris.  An  allusion 
 to  the  ark  is  to  be  found  also  in  many  sacred  rites  of 
 antiquity.  Nonnus,  who  was  born  at  Persepolis  in  Egypt, 
 in  the  fifth  century,  and  who  collected  in  his  Dionysica, 
 scattered  remnants  of  knowledge,  from  the  hieroglyphical 
 descriptions  and  ancient  hymns  of  the  country,  alludes  to 
 the  circumstances  of  the  deluge.  Relations  respecting 
 this  event  were  to  be  found  in  various  parts  of  Greece. 
 Aristotle  speaks  of  its  effects  in  Epirus.  The  Thessa- 
 lonians  believed  it  to  have  prevailed  in  their  country. 
 
 The  people  of  Phocis  supposed  the  ark  to  have  rested 
 on  Parnassus.  Lucian,  a  native  of  Samosata,  gives  also 
 an  account  of  the  flood.  Not  only  did  a  general  belief 
 prevail,  that  a  deluge  had  taken  place,  but  the  history  of 
 the  world  among  the  heathens  seems  to  take  its  origin 
 from  that  period,  insomuch  that  many  blended  the  idea 
 of  a  creation  with  that  of  the  universal  flood;  and  sup- 
 posed the  system  of  the  world  to  arise  from  a  chaos  of 
 elements,  of  which  water  was  the  primary  principle."2 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— Of  Mount  Ararat. 
 
 Before  we  conclude  this  chapter,  and  this  book  toge- 
 ther, it  may  not  be  improper  to  give  the  reader  some 
 account  of  the  mountains  of  Ararat  in  general :  in  what 
 part  of  the  world  that  particular  one  which  is  here  in- 
 tended is  said  to  be  situate  ;  and,  according  to  the  rela- 
 tions both  of  ancient  geographers  and  modern  travellers, 
 
 1   History  of  Ancient  Astronomy,  vol.  1.  p.  500.    lire's  Geology. 
 s  Gray's  Connection,  &c.  pp.  147 — 152. 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 89 
 
 A.  M.  LG56.  A.  C.  2319;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CM.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 of  what  form  and  magnitude  this  mountain  is.  But  in 
 this  inquiry  some  difficulties  will  arise,  l>y  reason  of  the 
 different  traditions  concerning  it. 
 
 The  author  of  the  verses  "  which  go  under  the  name 
 of  the  Sibylline  Oracles,  places  the  mountains  of  Ararat 
 in  the  borders  of  Phrygia,  not  far  from  Celaenae,  at  the 
 head  of  the  two  rivers  Marsyas  and  Meander  :  but  it 
 appears  from  good  authorities,  that  there  is  in  reality  no 
 mountain  at  all  in  that  place,  or  at  most,  but  a  small  hill, 
 an  eminence  made  by  art,  and  not  by  nature  ;  and  there- 
 fore the  learned  Bochart  has  happily  found  out  the  ground 
 of  this  mistake,  when  he  tell  us,  that  not  far  from  this  city, 
 Gelaenae,  there  is  another  town  called  Apamea,  and  sur- 
 named  K^a-it  or  the  ark ;  not  from  any  tradition  that 
 Noah's  ark  ever  rested  there,  but  purely  on  account  of  its 
 situation  ;  because  it  is  encompassed  with  three  rivers, 
 Marsyas,  Obrimas,  and  Orgas,  which  give  it  the  resem- 
 blance of  a  chest  or  ark,  in  the  same  manner  that  the 
 port  of  Alexandria  was  so  called,  by  reason  of  the  bay 
 which  enclosed  the  ships. 
 
 Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  '  and  from  him  some  later  writers 
 3  are  of  opinion,  that  the  mountains  of  Ararat  were  those 
 of  Caucasus,  towards  Bactria  and  Saga  Scythia.  This, 
 as  they  imagine,  agTees  with  the  general  notion,  that  the 
 Scythians  might  contend  for  the  antiquity  of  their  origi- 
 nal with  any  other  nation;  with  the  Chaldean  tradition, 
 concerning  the  actions  of  their  great  man  Xisuthrus,who 
 is  commonly  supposed  to  be  the  same  with  Noah  ;  with 
 the  language,  learning,  and  history  of  the  Chinese,  who 
 are  thought  to  be  Noah's  immediate  descendants  ;  and 
 with  the  journey  which  some  of  his  other  descendants  are 
 said  to  have  taken,  namely,  3  'from  the  east  to  the  land 
 of  Shinar.'  A  modern  chronologer  has  endeavoured  to 
 prove,  that  the  place  where  Noah  built  the  ark  was  called 
 Cyparisson,  not  far  from  the  river  Tigris,  and  on  the 
 north-east  side  of  the  city  of  Babylon  ;  that  while  the 
 flood  continued,  it  sailed  from  thence  to  the  north-east, 
 as  far  as  the  Caspian  sea,  and  when  the  flood  abated, 
 the  north  wind  brought  it  back  by  a  southern  course,  and 
 landed  it  upon  Mount  Caucasus,  east  of  Babylon,  and 
 about  nine  degrees  distant  from  it  in  longitude  ;  and  that 
 this  opinion,  as  lie  imagines,  is  more  agreeable  to  the 
 course  which  the  ark,  by  meeting  with  contrary  currents, 
 would  be  forced  to  make  ;  to  the  sense  of  Scripture,  in 
 bringing  the  sons  of  Noah  from  the  east,  and  in  settling 
 the  children  of  Shem  (who  went  not  to  Shinar)  in  this 
 place,  and  to  the  great  conveniency  of  Noah's  landing  not 
 too  far  from  the  country,  where  he  lived  before  the  flood. 
 
 1  Histor    of  the  World. 
 
 '  Heylins  '  .•  and  SAuckford's  Connection,  b.  2. 
 
 8  Gen.  xi.  2. 
 
 a  The  verses,  as  they  are  set  down  by  Gallcous,  de  Sibyllis,  p. 
 5-^0,  are  these: — 
 
 There  is  upon  the  Phrygian  borders  blaclc, 
 A  steep,  far- stretching  mount,  called  Ararat, 
 Where  rise  the  founts  of  Marsyas'  mighty  stream, 
 Twas  on  its  lofty  ridge  where  stood  the  ark, 
 
 Rut.  that  which  shows  the  spuriousm  ss  of  these  verses,  is  this:  — 
 That  the  Sibyl,  speaking  of  herself  as  contemporary  "ith  Noah, 
 lakes  notice  of  the  river  Marsyas,  which,  whatever  name  it  had 
 ■y  first,  was  certainly,  after  the  death  of  Midas,  called  the  foun- 
 biin  of  Midas,  and  r<  tnim  i!  that  name  until  the  time  el'  M 
 hy  whom  it  was  altered;  am!  this  must  be  iong  after  the  death  of 
 tlii-  Sibyl, — ;  \  dford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  2.  c.  ''.. 
 
 that  thereby  he  might  be  capable  of  giving  better  direc- 
 tions to  his  family  now  to  disperse  themselves,  and  to 
 replenish  the  new  world  as  occasion  did  require.  But 
 besides  that  there  appears  little  or  no  authority  for  all 
 this ;  the  observation  of  travellers  into  those  countries 
 may  make  it  be  questioned,  whether  such  a  vessel  as  the 
 ark  is  represented,  drawing  much  water,  and  very  unfit 
 for  sailing,  could  be  able  to  reach  Mount  Caucasus 
 from  the  province  of  Eden  (where  it  is  generally  thought 
 to  have  been  built)  in  the  space  of  the  flood's  increase, 
 which  was  no  more  than  150  days.  The  most  pro- 
 bable opinion  therefore  is,  that  by  the  word  Ararat, 
 the  Holy  Scriptures  denote  that  country  which  the , 
 Greeks,  and  from  them  other  western  nations,  do  call 
 Armenia.  In  this  sense  it  is  taken  by  the  Septuagint, 
 by  the  Chaldee  paraphrase,  by  the  Vulgate,  by  Theodo- 
 ret  and  by  divers  others.  The  learned  Bochart  has 
 brought  together  a  multitude  of  arguments,  all  tending 
 to  the  same  conclusion  ;  but  then  the  question  is,  on  what 
 particular  mountain  it  was  that  the  ark  landed  ? 
 
 1.  The  most  prevailing  opinion  for  some  time  was, 
 that  one  of  the  mountains  which  divide  Armenia  on  the 
 south  from  Mesopotamia,  and  that  partof  Assyria,  which 
 is  inhabited  by  the  Curds,  (from  whence  the  mountains 
 took  the  name  Curdu,)  which  the  Greeks  changed  into 
 Cordiasi,  h  and  several  other  names,  was  the  place  where 
 the  ark  landed :  and  what  makes  for  this  opinion  is,  that 
 whereas  the  deluge  was  in  a  great  measure  occasioned 
 by  the  overflowing  of  the  ocean,  as  the  Scriptures  tell 
 us,  that  flux  of  waters  which  came  from  the  Persian  sea, 
 running  from  the  south,  and  meeting  the  ark,  would  of 
 course  carry  it  northward  upon  the  Cordia?an  mountains, 
 which  seems  to  be  voyage  enough  for  a  vessel  of  its  bulk 
 and  structure  to  make  in  the  stated  time  of  the  flood's 
 increase. 
 
 The  tradition  which  affirms  the  ark  to  have  rested  on 
 these  mountains  must  have  been  very  ancient,  since  it  is 
 the  tradition  of  the  Chaldeans  themselves,  and  in  former 
 ages  was  very  little  questioned,  till  men  came  to  inquire 
 into  the  particular  part  of  these  mountains  whereon  it 
 settled,  and  then  the  authors  seemed  to  place  it  out  of 
 Armenia  ;  Epiphanius  on  the  mount  Lubar,  between  (he 
 country  of  the  Armenians  and  Cerdueans ;  and  all  the 
 eastern  authors,  both  Christian  and  Mahometan, on  mount 
 Themanin,  or  Al-Judi,  which  overlooks  the  country  of 
 Diarrhabia,  or  Moussal,  in  Mesopotamia. 
 
 To  confirm  this  tradition,  however,  we  are  told  that 
 the  remainders  of  the  ark  were  to  be  seen  upon  these 
 mountains.  Bcrosus  and  Abyd  nus  !;<>;h  declare,  that 
 there  was  such  a  report  in  their  time  ;  the  former  observes 
 farther,  that  several  of  the  inhabitants  thereabouts  scrap- 
 ed the  pitch  oft'  the  planks  as  a  rariiy,  and  carried  it 
 about  them  for  an  amulet  ;  and  the  latter  says,  that  they 
 used  the  wood  of  the  vessel  against  several  diseases  with 
 wonderful  success  :  as  the  relics  of  this  ark  were  like- 
 wise to  '■■>■  -  ■•■  :'i  the  time  of  Epipkanius,  if  we  may 
 believe  him.       The  town  of  Themanin,  which  signifies 
 
 l,  The  Greek  and  Latin  writers  name  thi  m  C  rdu  hi,  < 
 
 Corduei,  The  orientals 
 
 call  mem  likewise  Cardan,  <  \irud,  &c.     Bochart  sap* 
 
 bat  they  are  the  same  which  are  called  by  mi-take  ::i 
 
 ,-..,... — S  e    Universal  History;  ami   Phalegomcna 
 
 l).  I.  c.  :;. 
 
90 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1656.  A.  C.  23-19;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20 
 
 eight,  situated  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  Al-Judi,  was 
 built,  we  are  told,  in  memory  of  the  eight  persons  who 
 came  out  of  the  ark ;  and  formerly  there  was  a  monas- 
 tery, called  the  monastery  of  the  ark,  upon  the  Curdu 
 mountains,  where  the  Nestorians  used  to  celebrate  a  fes- 
 tival, on  the  very  spot  where  they  supposed  the  ark 
 stopped  ;  but  in  the  year  of  Christ  776,  that  monastery 
 was  destroyed  by  lightning,  together  with  the  church,  and 
 a  numerous  congregation  in  it  ;  and  since  that  time,  the 
 credit  of  this  tradition  has  in  some  measure  declined, 
 and  given  place  to  another,  which  at  present  prevails. 
 
 2.  This  opinion  places  mount  Ararat  towards  the  mid- 
 dle of  Armenia,  near  the  river  Araxes,  or  Aras,  above 
 280  miles  distant  from  Al-Judi,  to  the  north-east.  '  St 
 Jerome  seems  to  have  been  the  first  who  hath  given  us  an 
 account  of  this  tradition.  "  Ararat,  says  he,  is  a  cham- 
 paign country, incredibly  fertile,through  which  the  Araxes 
 flows  at  the  foot  of  mount  Taurus,  which  extends  so  far  ; 
 so,  that  by  the  mountains  of  Ararat,  whereon  the  ark 
 rested,  we  are  not  to  understand  the  mountains  of  Ar- 
 menia in  general,  but  the  highest  mountains  of  Taurus, 
 which  overlook  the  plains  of  Ararat."  Since  his  time, 
 its  situation  in  this  place  has  been  remarked  by  several 
 other  writers  ;  and  all  the  travellers  into  these  places 
 now  make  mention  of  no  other  mount  Ararat  than  what 
 the  Armenians  call  Masis,  (from  Amasia,  the  third 
 successor  of  Haikh,  the  founder  of  their  nation,)  and 
 what  the  Mahometans  do  sometimes  name  Agri-dagh,  that 
 is,  the  heavy  or  great  mountain,  and  sometimes  Parniak- 
 dagh,  the  Finger -mountain,  alluding  to  its  appearance  ; 
 for  as  it  is  straight,  very  steep,  and  stands  by  itself,  it 
 seems  to  resemble  a  finger,  when  held  up. 
 
 The  mount  Ararat,  which  the  Armenians,  as  we  said, 
 call  Masis,  and  sometimes  Mesesoussar,  (because  the  ark 
 was  stopped  there  when  the  waters  of  the  flood  began  to 
 abate,)  stands  about  twelve  leagues  to  the  east  (or  rather 
 south-east)  of  Erivan,  (a  small  city  seated  in  the  upper 
 Armenia,  four  leagues  from  Aras,  or  Araxes,  and  ten  to 
 the  north-west  of  Nakschivan ;  which,  because  nak,  in 
 Armenian,  signifies  a  ship,  and  scltivan,  stopped  or  set- 
 tled, is  supposed  to  have  its  name  from  the  same  occa- 
 sion. This  mountain  is  encompassed  by  several  little 
 hills,  and  on  the  top  of  them  are  found  many  ruins,  which 
 are  thought  to  have  been  the  buildings  of  the  first  men, 
 who  might  fear,  for  some  time,  to  go  down  into  the  plains. 
 It  stands  by  itself  in  the  form  of  a  sugar-loaf,  in  the 
 midst  of  one  of  the  greatest  plains  that  is  to  be  seen,  and 
 separated  from  the  other  mountains  of  Armenia,  which 
 make  a  long  chain.  It  consists  of  two  hills,  whereof  the 
 less  is  more  sharp  and  pointed ;  but  the  larger  (which  is 
 that  of  the  ark)  lies  north-east  of  it,  and  rears  its  head  far 
 above  the  neighbouring  mountains.  It  seems  so  high 
 and  big  indeed,  that  when  the  air  is  clear,  it  does  not 
 appear  to  be  above  two  leagues  from  Erivan,  and  yet 
 may  be  seen  some  four  or  five  days'  journey  off";  but  from 
 the  middle  to  the  top,  it  is  always  covered  with  snow, 
 and  for  the  space  of  three  or  four  mouths  in  the  year,  has 
 its  upper  part  commonly  hid  in  the  clouds. 
 
 The  Armenians  have  a  tradition,  that  on  the  summit 
 of  this  mountain  there  is  still  a  considerable  part  of  the 
 ark  remaining,  but  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  up  to  the  top 
 
 1  Isaiah  xxxvii. 
 
 of  it.  2  For  they  tell  us  of  one  traveller,  a  person  of 
 singular  piety,  who  endeavoured  to  do  it,  and  had 
 advanced  as  far  as  the  middle  of  the  mountain ;  when, 
 being  thirsty  and  wanting  water,  he  put  up  a  prayer  to 
 God,  who  caused  a  fountain  to  spring  out  of  the  ground 
 for  him,  and  so  saved  his  life  ;  but  at  the  same  time,  he 
 heard  a  voice,  saying,  '  Let  none  be  so  bold  as  to  go  up 
 to  the  top  of  this  mountain.' 
 
 How  difficult  the  ascent  of  this  mountain  is  (without 
 any  particular  revelation)  we  may  inform  ourselves  from 
 the  following  account  which  Mr  Tournefort  gives  of  it. 
 
 "  About  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,"  3  says  he,  "  we 
 began  to  ascend  the  mountain  Ararat,  but  not  without 
 difficulty.  We  were  forced  to  climb  up  in  loose  sand, 
 where  we  saw  nothing  but  juniper  and  goats-thorn. 
 The  mountain,  which  lies  south  and  south-south-east 
 from  Eimiadzim,  or  the  three  churches,  is  one  of  the 
 most  sad  and  disagreeable  sights  upon  earth  ;  for  there 
 are  neither  trees  nor  shrubs  upon  it,  nor  any  convents 
 of  religious,  either  Armenians  or  Franks.  All  the 
 monasteries  are  in  the  plain,  nor  can  I  think  the  place 
 inhabitable,  in  any  part,  because  the  soil  of  the  moun- 
 tain is  loose,  and  most  of  it  covered  with  snow 
 
 "  From  the  top  of  a  great  abyss,  (as  dreadful  an  hole 
 as  ever  Mas  seen,)  opposite  to  the  village  of  Akurlu, 
 (from  whence  we  came),  there  continually  fall  down 
 rocks  of  a  blackish  hard  stone,  which  make  a  terrible 
 resound.  This,  and  the  noise  of  the  crows  that  are 
 continually  flying  from  one  side  to  the  other,  has 
 something  in  it  very  frightful ;  and  to  form  any  notion 
 of  the  place,  you  must  imagine  one  of  the  highest  moun- 
 tains in  the  world  opening  its  bosom,  only  to  show  one 
 of  the  most  horrid  spectacles  that  can  be  thought  of. 
 No  living  animals  are  to  be  seen  but  at  the  bottom,  and 
 towards  the  middle  of  the  mountain.  They  who  occupy 
 the  lowest  region,  are  poor  shepherds  and  scabby  flocks. 
 The  second  region  is  possessed  by  crows  and  tigers, 
 which  passed  by,  not  without  giving  us  some  dread 
 and  uneasiness.  All  the  rest  of  it,  that  is,  half  of  it,  has 
 been  covered  with  snow  ever  since  the  ark  rested  there, 
 and  these  snows  are  covered  half  the  year  with  very 
 thick  clouds. 
 
 "  Notwithstanding  the  amazement  which  this  frightful 
 solitude  cast  us  into,  we  endeavoured  to  find  out  the 
 monastery  we  were  told  of,  and  inquired  whether  there 
 were  any  religious  in  caverns.  The  notion  they  have  in 
 the  country,  that  the  ark  rested  here,  and  the  veneration 
 which  all  the  Armenians  have  for  this  mountain,  (for 
 they  kiss  the  earth  as  soon  as  they  see  it,  and  repeat 
 certain  prayers  after  they  have  made  the  sign  of  the 
 cross),  have  made  many  imagine,  that  it  must  be  filled 
 with  religious.  However,  they  assured  us  that  there 
 was  only  one  forsaken  convent  at  the  foot  of  the  gulf : 
 that  there  was  no  fountain  throughout  the  whole  mount ; 
 and  that  we  could  not  go  in  a  whole  day  to  the  snow, 
 and  down  again  to  the  bottom  of  the  abyss  ;  that  the 
 shepherds  often  lost  their  way;  and  th.it  we  might  judge 
 what  a  miserable  place  it  was,  from  the  necessity  they 
 were  under  to  dig  the  earth  from  time  to  time,  to  find  a 
 spring  of  water  for  themselves  and  their  flocks ;  and  in 
 short,  that  it  would  be  folly  to  proceed  on  our  way, 
 
 2  La  Boulaye's  Voyages 
 Sec  his  Voyages  into  the  Levant,  Letter  VII 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 91 
 
 A.  M.  1G56.  A.  C.  2349;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  225G.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 because  they  were  satisfied  our  leys  would  fail  us  ;  nor 
 would  they  be  obliged  to  accompany  us  for  all  the  trea- 
 sures of  the  king-  of  Persia. 
 
 "  When  we  considered  what  the  shepherds  had  told 
 us,  Ave  advised  with  our  guides;  and  they,  good  men, 
 unwilling  to  expose  themselves  to  the  danger  of  dying 
 for  thirst,  and  having  no  curiosity,  at  the  expense  of 
 their  legs,  to  measure  the  height  of  the  mountain,  were 
 at  first  of  the  same  sentiments  with  the  shepherds ;  but 
 afterwards  concluded,  that  we  might  go  to  certain  rocks, 
 whicii  were  more  prominent  and  visible  than  the  rest,  and 
 so  return  by  night  to  the  place  where  we  were  ;  and  with 
 that  resolution  we  went  to  rest.  In  the  morning,  after 
 that  we  had  ate  and  drunk  very  plentifully,  we  began  to 
 travel  towards  the  first  ridge  of  rocks,  with  one  bottle  of 
 water,  which,  to  ease  ourselves,  we  carried  by  turns; 
 but  notwithstanding  we  had  made  pitchers  of  our  bellies, 
 in  two  hours'  time  they  were  quite  dried  up ;  and  as 
 water  shook  in  a  bottle  is  no  very  pleasant  liquor,  our 
 hopes  were,  that  when  we  came  to  the  snow,  we  should 
 eat  some  of  it  to  quench  our  thirst. 
 
 "  It  must  be  acknowledged,  that  the  sight  is  very 
 much  deceived  when  we  stand  at  the  bottom,  and  guess 
 at  the  height  of  a  mountain ;  and  especially,  when  it 
 must  be  ascended  through  sands  as  troublesome  as  the 
 Syrtes  of  Africa.  It  is  impossible  to  take  one  firm  step 
 upon  the  sands  of  mount  Ararat ;  in  many  places,  in- 
 stead of  ascending,  we  were  obliged  to  go  back  again 
 to  the  middle  of  the  mountain  ;  and,  in  order  to  continue 
 our  course,  to  wind  sometimes  to  the  right,  and  some- 
 times to  the  left. 
 
 "  To  avoid  these  sands,  which  fatigued  us  most  in- 
 tolerably, we  made  our  way  to  the  great  rocks,  which 
 were  heaped  upon  one  another.  We  passed  under 
 them,  as  through  caverns,  and  were  sheltered  from  all 
 the  injuries  of  the  weather,  except  cold,  which  was  here 
 so  keen  and  intense,  that  we  were  forced  to  leave  the 
 place,  and  come  into  a  very  troublesome  way,  full  of 
 large  stones,  such  as  masons  make  use  of  in  building-, 
 and  were  forced  to  leap  from  stone  to  stone,  till  I,  for 
 my  part,  was  heartily  weary,  and  began  to  sit  down,  and 
 repose  myself  a  little,  as  the  rest  of  the  company  did. 
 
 "  After  we  had  rested  ourselves,  we  came  about  noon 
 to  a  place  which  afforded  us  a  more  pleasing  prospect. 
 We  imagined  ourselves  so  near,  that  we  could  have  even 
 touched  the  snow  (we  thought)  with  our  teeth;  but  our 
 joy  lasted  not  long ;  for  what  we  had  taken  for  snow, 
 proved  only  a  chalk-rock,  which  hid  from  our  sight  a 
 tract  of  land  above  two  hours'  journey  distant  from  the 
 snow,  and  which  seemed  to  have  a  new  kind  of  pave- 
 ment, made  of  small  pieces  of  stones  broken  ofi'  by  the 
 frost,  and  whose  edges  were  as  sharp  as  flints.  Our 
 guides  told  us,  that  their  feet  were  quite  bare,  and  that 
 ours  in  a  short  time  would  be  so  too;  that  it  grew  late, 
 and  we  should  certainly  lose  ourselves  in  the  night,  or 
 break  our  necks  in  the  dark,  unless  we  would  choose  to 
 «it  down,  and  so  become  a  prey  to  the  tigers.  All  this 
 seemed  very  feasible;  and  therefore  we  assured  them, 
 that  we  would  go  no  farther  than  the  heap  of  snow, 
 which  we  showed  them,  and  which,  at  that  distance,  ap- 
 peared hardly  bigger  than  a  cake;  but  when  we  came  to 
 it,  we  found  it  more  than  we  had  occasion  for ;  the  heap 
 Was  above  thirty  paces  in  diameter.     We  every  one  eat 
 
 as  much  as  we  had  a  mind  for,  and  so,  by  consent, 
 resolved  to  advance  no  farther.  It  cannot  be  imagined 
 how  much  the  eating  of  snow  revives  and  invigorates : 
 we  therefore  began  to  descend  the  mountain  with  a  great 
 deal  of  alacrity ;  but  we  had  not  gone  far,  before  we 
 came  to  sands,  which  lay  behind  the  abyss,  and  were 
 full  as  troublesome  as  the  former ;  so  that  about  six  in 
 the  afternoon  we  found  ourselves  quite  tired  out  and 
 spent.  At  length,  observing  a  place  covered  with 
 mouse-ear,  whose  declivity  seemed  to  favour  our  de- 
 scent, we  made  to  it  with  all  speed,  and  (what  pleased 
 us  mighty  well)  from  hence  it  was  that  our  guides 
 showed  us  (though  at  a  considerable  distance)  the 
 monastery,  whither  we  were  to  go  to  quench  our  thirst. 
 1  leave  it  to  be  guessed,  what  method  Noah  made  use  of 
 to  descend  from  this  place,  who  might  have  rid  upon  so 
 many  sorts  of  animals,  which  were  all  at  his  command  : 
 but  as  for  us,  we  laid  ourselves  upon  our  backs,  and  slid 
 down  for  an  hour  together  upon  this  green  plat,  and  so 
 passed  on  very  agreeably,  and  much  faster  than  we 
 could  have  gone  upon  our  legs.  The  night  and  our 
 thirst  were  a  kind  of  spurs  to  us,  and  made  us  make  the 
 greater  speed.  We  continued  therefore  sliding  in  this 
 manner,  as  long  as  the  way  would  permit ;  and  when  we 
 met  with  small  flints  which  hurt  our  shoulders,  we  turned 
 and  slid  on  our  bellies,  or  went  backwards  on  all-four. 
 Thus  by  degrees  we  gained  the  monastery  ;  but  so  dis- 
 ordered and  fatigued  by  our  manner  of  travelling,  that 
 we  were  not  able  to  move  hand  or  foot." 
 
 I  have  made  my  quotation  from  this  learned  botanist 
 and  most  accurate  traveller  the  longer,  not  only  because 
 it  gives  us  a  full  idea  of  the  mountain,  so  far  as  he 
 ascended,  but  some  distrust  likewise  of  the  veracity  1  of 
 a  certain  Dutch  voyager,  who  seems  to  assure  us,  that 
 he  went  five  days'  journey  up  mount  Ararat  to  see  a 
 Romish  hermit;  that  he  passed  through  three  regions  of 
 the  clouds,  the  first  dark  and  thick,  the  next  cold  and 
 full  of  snow,  and  the  third  colder  still ;  that  he  advanced 
 five  miles  every  day,  and  when  he  came  to  the  place 
 where  the  hermit  had  his  cell,  he  breathed  a  very  serene 
 and  temperate  air ;  that  the  hermit  told  him,  he  had  per- 
 ceived neither  wind  nor  rain  all  the  five  and  twenty 
 years  that  he  had  dwelt  there ;  and  that  on  the  top  of 
 the  mountain  there  still  reigned  a  greater  tranquillity, 
 which  was  a  means  to  preserve  the  ark  without  decay  or 
 putrefaction. 
 
 There  is  one  objection  which  may  be  made  to  all  that 
 we  have  said  concerning  the  situation  of  this  famous 
 mountain,  and  that  is, — Whereas  the  sons  of  Noah,  when 
 they  quitted  the  country  where  the  ark  rested,  are  said 
 to  2' journey  from  the  east  into  the  land  of  Shinar,'  it  is 
 plain,  that  if  they  removed  from  any  part  of  Armenia, 
 they  must  have  gone  from  the  north  or  north-west :  but 
 this  Ave  shall  take  occasion  to  examine  when  Ave  come  to 
 treat  of  their  migration.  In  the  mean  time,  it  is  worthy  of 
 our  observation,  and  some  argument  of  our  being  in  the 
 right,  3that  the  situation  of  Ararat,  as  Ave  have  supposed 
 it,  whether  it  be  mount  Mask,  or  the  mountain  of  Curdu, 
 was  very  convenient  for  the  journey  of  the  SOUS  ol  Noah, 
 because  the  distance  is  not  very  great,  and  the  descent 
 
 Sb  '"A  Voyages,  c.  17. 
 Universal  History,  b.  1. 
 
 »  Gen.  xi.  2. 
 
92 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  1656.  A.  C.  2349;  OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  8155.  GEX.  CEI.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 easy,  especially  from  the  latter,  into  the  plains  of  Meso- 
 potamia, whereof  Shinar  is  a  part.  Nor  should  we  for- 
 get, that  the  neighbourhood,  which  the  sacred  history, 
 by  this  means,  preserves  between  the  land  of  Eden, 
 where  man  was  created ;  that  of  Ararat,  where  the  remains 
 of  mankind  were  saved ;  and  that  of  Shinar,  where  they 
 fixed  the  centre  of  their  plantations,  is  much  more  natu- 
 ral, ftnd  seems  to  have  a  better  face  and  appearance  of 
 truth,  than  to  place  these  scenes  at  so  vast  a  distance, 
 as  some  commentators  have  done. 
 
 One  inquiry  more,  not  concerning  mount  Ararat  only, 
 but  every  other  mountain  that  is  dispersed  over  the 
 whole  earth,  is  this, — Whether  they  were  in  being  before 
 the  induction  of  the  flood  ?  The  ingenious  author  of 
 the  Theory,  so  often  quoted,  is  clearly  of  opinion,  that 
 1the  face  of  the  earth,  before  the  deluge,  was  smooth, 
 regular,  and  uniform,  without  mountains,  and  without  a 
 sea;  and  that  the  rocks  and  mountains  which  every  where 
 now  appear,  Avere  made  by  the  violent  concussions  which 
 then  happened,  and  are  indeed  nothing  else  but  the  ruins 
 and  fragments  of  the  old  world.  But  all  this  is  confuted 
 by  the  testimony  of  Divine  Wisdom,  who  declaring  her 
 own  pre-existence,  2'  I  was  set  up  from  everlasting,' 
 says  she,  '  from  the  beginning,  or  ever  the  earth  was  : 
 when  there  were  no  depths,  I  was  brought  forth ;  when 
 there  were  no  fountains  abounding  with  water,  before  the 
 mountains  were  settled,  before  the  hills  was  I  brought 
 forth :  while  as  yet  God  had  not  made  the  earth,  nor  the 
 fields,  nor  the  highest  part  of  the  dust  of  the  world.'  So 
 that,  according  to  this  declaration,  not  only  the  foun- 
 tains of  waters  which  we  see  upon  the  face  of  the  earth, 
 but  even  mountains  (which  some  have  accounted  its 
 greatest  deformities)  and  all  hills,  were  part  of  the  ori- 
 ginal creation,  and  contemporary  with  the  first  founda- 
 tions of  the  earth ;  and  though  a  deluge  can  scarce  be 
 supposed  to  overspread  the  globe,  without  making  some 
 transmutation  in  it,  yet  that  it  could  not  shock  the  pillars 
 of  the  round  world,  or  cause  a  total  dissolution  in  nature, 
 we  have  the  same  divine  testimony  assuring  us,  that  at 
 the  time  of  the  first  creation,  3i  God  laid  the  foundation 
 of  the  earth  so  sure,  that  it  should  not  be  removed  for 
 ever.' 
 
 It  is  a  groundless  imagination,  then,  to  ascribe  the 
 origin  of  mountains  and  other  lofty  eminences  to  a  cer- 
 tain disruption  of  the  earth  in  the  time  of  the  deluge ; 
 when  God,  from  the  very  first  beginning,  designed  them 
 for  such  excellent  purposes.  For,  besides  that  several 
 of  these  rocks  and  mountains  (as  well  as  the  broad  sea) 
 are  really  an  awful  sight,  and  Jill  the  mind  with  just 
 notions  of  God's  tremendous  majesty,  which  a  small 
 river  or  a  smooth  surface  does  not  do  so  well ;  and 
 besides,  that  they  yield  food  for  several  animals  formed 
 by  nature  to  live  upon  them,  and  supply  us  from  without 
 with  many  wholesome  plants,  and  from  within  with  many 
 useful  metals  ;  by  condensing  the  vapours,  and  so  pro- 
 ducing rain,  fountains,  and  rivers,  they  give  the  very 
 plains  and  valleys  themselves  the  fertility  which  they 
 boast  of.  For  this  seems  to  be  the  design  of  hills,  (says 
 4  a  learned  inquirer  into  the  original  of  springs  and 
 fountains,)  "  That  their  ridges,  being  placed  through  the 
 
 1  Burnet's  Theory   b   I.,  c.  5. 
 a  Ps.  civ.  5. 
 
 2  Prov.  viii.  23,  &c. 
 1  I)r  Baltey. 
 
 midst  of  the  continent,  might  serve,  as  it  were,  for  alem- 
 bics,, to  distil  fresh  water  for  the  use  of  man  and  beast; 
 and  their  heights  to  give  a  descent  to  those  streams 
 which  run  gently,  like  so  many  veins  of  the  microcosm, 
 to  be  more  beneficial  to  the  creation." 
 
 5  Nay,  we  may  appeal  to  the  sense  of  mankind,  whe- 
 ther a  land  of  hills  and  dales  has  not  more  pleasure  and 
 beauty  both,  than  any  uniform  flat,  which  then  only 
 affords  delight  when  it  is  viewed  from  the  top  of  an  hill. 
 For  what  were  the  Tempe  of  Thessaly,  so  celebrated 
 in  ancient  story  for  their  unparalleled  pleasantness, 
 but  a  vale  divided  by  a  river,  and  terminated  with  hills  ? 
 are  not  all  the  descriptions  of  poets  embellished  with 
 such  ideas,  when  they  would  represent  any  places  of 
 superlative  delight,  any  blissful  seats  of  {he  muses  and 
 nymphs,  any  sacred  habitations  of  gods  and  goddesses  ? 
 They  will  never  admit  that  a  wild  flat  can  be  pleasant, 
 no  not  in  the  aElysian  fields:  they  too  must  be  diversi- 
 fied. Swelling  descents  and  declining  valleys  are  their 
 chief  beauties  ;  nor  can  they  imagine  °  even  paradise  a 
 place  of  pleasure,  or  heaven  itself  cto  be  heaven  without 
 them.  So  that  such  a  place  as  our  present  earth  is, 
 distinguished  into  mountains,  rivers,  vales,  and  hills, 
 must,  even  in  point  of  pleasure,  claim  a  pre-eminence 
 before  any  other,  that,  presenting  us  with  no  more  than  a 
 single  scene,  and,  in  one  continued  plain  superficies, 
 must  of  necessity  pall  the  prospect.  But  then,  if  we 
 consider  farther  the  riches  that  are  reposited  in  these 
 mountains,  the  gold  and  precious  stones,  the  coal,  the 
 lead,  the  tin,  and  other  valuable  .minerals  that  are  dug- 
 out of  their  bowels,  all  useful  in  their  kinds,  and  fitted 
 for  the  accommodation  of  human  life,  we  shall  be  apt  to 
 overlook  the  fantastical  pleasantness  of  a  smooth  out- 
 side, and  to  think  with  Moses,  the  man  of  God,  that 
 6 '  Blessed  of  the  Lord  is  any  land  for  the  chief  things 
 of  the  ancient  mountains,  and  for  the  precious  things  of 
 the  lasting  hills.' 
 
 CHAP.  V.— Of  Mount  Ararat. 
 
 (CONTINUED  B¥  THE  editor.) 
 
 The  following  interesting-  account  of  Blount  Ararat  is 
 taken  from  the  description  of  the  recent  journey  of 
 Professor  Parrot  to  that  mountain. 
 
 "  Ararat  has  borne  this  name  for  3300  years :  we  find 
 it  mentioned  in  the  most  ancient  of  books,  the  History 
 of  the  Creation,  by  Moses,  who  says,  '  the  ark  rested  in 
 the  seventh  month,  on  the  seventeenth  day  of- the  month, 
 upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat.'  In  other  passages  of 
 the  Old  Testament,  written  several  centuries  later,  in 
 Isaiah  xxxvii.  38.,  2  Kings  xix.  37.,  we  find  mention  of 
 a  land  of  Ararat,  but  in  Jeremiah  li.  27.,  of  a  kingdom 
 of  Ararat ;  and  the  very  credible  Armenian  writer, 
 Moses  of  Chorene,  states  that  this  name  was  borne  by  a 
 
 5  Bentley's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Led.      6  Deut.  xxxiii.  13,  15. 
 
 a  But  fiitlier  Anchises  'midst  a  valley  green — 
 Climb  that  ridge  — a  rising  ground  lit-  gains. 
 
 Ii  Flowers  worthy  of  paradise,  which  not  wise  art, 
 In  beds  and  curious  knots,  but  nature's  boon, 
 Pour'd  forth  profuse,  on  hills,  and  dale,  and  plain. 
 
 c  For  earth  bath  this  variety  from  heaven 
 Of  pleasure,  situate  on  hill  or  dale.— Milton's  Paradise  L>!st,  b.  i. 
 
Sect.  VI.] 
 
 FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FLOOD. 
 
 93 
 
 A.  M.  1656.  A.  C.  23J9;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES 
 
 whole  country,  and  that  it  was  so  called  after  an  old 
 Armenian  king-,  Arai  the  Fair,  who  lived  about  1750 
 years  before  Christ,  and  fell  in  a  bloody  battle  against 
 the  Babylonians  on  a  plain  of  Armenia,  which  is  hence 
 called  Arai-Arat,  that  is,  the  ruin  of  Arai.  It  was  for- 
 merly called  Amasia,  after  the  ruler  Amassis,  the  sixth 
 descendant  from  Japhet,  and  from  him  Mount  Massis 
 also  derives  its  name.  This  is  the  only  name  by  which 
 it  is  now  called  among-  the  Armenians,  for  though  the 
 Armenian  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  always  calls 
 it  Mount  Ararat,  yet  the  people  (to  whom  the  Bible  can 
 be  no  authority,  since  they  do  not  read  it)  have  retained 
 the  name  of  Massis,  and  do  not  know  it  by  the  other ; 
 so  that  if  we  were  to  ask  an  Armenian,  even  if  he  came 
 from  the  Holy  Mountain  itself,  respecting-  Mount  Ararat, 
 he  would  be  as  ignorant  as  if  we  were  to  ask  a  European 
 respecting-  Mount  Massis  as  a  place  of  note.  To  the 
 Turks  and  Persians,  the  name  of  Ararat  is  of  course 
 unknown.  By  the  first  it  is  called  by  the  Arabic  name 
 Agridagh,  that  is,  Steep  Mountain,  and  as  the  Arabic  is 
 almost  a  universal  language  in  those  parts,  it  is  known 
 to  the  Koords,  Persians,  and  even  the  Armenians,  by 
 this  name.  It  is  said  that  some  of  the  Persians  call  it 
 Kuhi-Nuh,  tiiat  is,  Noah's  Mountain,  but  on  this  I  am 
 not  competent  to  decide,  as  I  spoke  to  only  a  few 
 Persians,  and  these  invariably  called  it  Agridagh. 
 
 "  The  mountains  of  Ararat  rise  at  the  southern  extre- 
 mity of  a  plain,  which  the  xYraxes  traverses  in  a  consid- 
 erable bend,  and  which  is  about  50  wersts  in  breadth, 
 and  more  than  100  in  length.  Ararat  consists  of  two 
 mountains,  namely,  the  Great  Ararat,  and  its  immediate 
 neighbour,  the  Little  Ararat,  the  former  lying  to  the 
 north-west,  the  latter  to  the  south-east,  their  summits 
 ten  wersts  and  a  half  apart  from  each  other  in  a  right 
 line,  and  the  base  of  both  mountains  united  by  a  broad 
 level  valley.  This  is  occupied  by  the  herdsmen  for  the 
 pasturage  of  their  flocks,  and  was  formerly  used  as  a 
 safe  retreat  by  the  predatory  Koords,  by  which  they 
 were  enabled  to  keep  up  an  easy  and  safe  communica- 
 tion between  the  northern  and  southern  provinces. 
 
 "  The  summit  of  tha  Great  Ararat  is  situated  in  39° 
 42'  north  latitude,  and  G  L°  55'  east  longitude  from  Ferro  ; 
 its  perpendicular  height  is  10,254  Paris  feet,  or  nearly 
 five  wersts  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  13,530  Paris 
 feet,  or  rather  more  than  four  wersts,  above  the  plain  of 
 the  Araxes.  The  north-eastern  declivity  of  the  moun- 
 tain may  be  estimated  at  twenty,  its  north-western  at 
 thirty  wersts  in  length.  In  the  former  we  recognise,  at 
 some  distance,  the  deep  black  chasm,  which  many  have 
 compared  to  an  extinct  crater,  but  which  has  always 
 appeared  to  me  to  resemble  a  cleft,  as  if  the  mountains 
 had  once  been  split  from  above.  From  the  summit,  for 
 about  one  werst  in  a  perpendicular,  or  four  wersts  in  an 
 oblique  direction,  it  is  covered  with  a  mantle  of  eternal 
 snuw  and  ice,  the  lower  edge  of  which  is  indented 
 Recording  to  the  elevation  or  depression  of  the  ground. 
 This  is  the  hoary  head  of  Ararat.  The  Little  Ararat 
 lies  in  3!)"  : .!)'  north  latitude,  62°  2'  east  longitude  from 
 Perro.  Its  summit  is  elevated  12,284  Paris  feet,  above 
 the  level  of  the  sea. 
 
 "  The  impression  which  the  sight  of  Ararat  makes  on 
 every  one  whose  mind  is  capable  of  comprehending  the 
 stupendous  works  of  the  Creator,  is  awful  and  mysteri- 
 
 A.  M.  2256.  A.  C.  3155.  GEN.  CH.  vi.  12.  TO  ix.  20. 
 
 ous,  and  many  a  sensitive  and  intelligent  traveller  has 
 endeavoured,  with  glowing  pen  and  skilful  pencil,  to 
 describe  this  impression;  and  in  the  feeling,  that  no 
 description,  no  delineation,  can  come  up  to  the  sublime 
 object  before  him,  every  one  who  has  made  such  an 
 attempt,  must  certainly  have  experienced  how  difficult 
 it  is  to  avoid,  both  in  language  and  in  sketching,  every- 
 thing that  is  poetical  in  expression  or  exaggerated  in 
 form,  and  to  keep  strictly  within  the  bounds  of  the  truth. 
 
 "  All  the  Armenians  are  firmly  persuaded  that  Noah's 
 ark  exists  to  the  present  day  on  the  summit  of  Mount 
 Ararat,  and  that  in  order  to  preserve  it,  no  person  is 
 permitted  to  approach  it.  We  learn  the  grounds  of  this 
 tradition  from  the  Armenian  chronicles  in  the  legend  of 
 a  monk  of  the  name  of  James,  who  was  afterwards 
 patriarch  of  Nisibis,  and  a  contemporary  and  relative 
 of  St  Gregory.  It  is  said  that  this  monk,  in  order  to 
 settle  the  disputes  which  had  arisen  respecting  the  cre- 
 dibility of  the  sacred  books,  especially  with  reference 
 to  their  account  of  Noah,  resolved  to  ascend  to  the  top 
 of  Ararat  to  convince  himself  of  the  existence  of  the  ark. 
 At  the  declivity  of  the  mountain,  however,  he  had  several 
 times  fallen  asleep  from  exhaustion,  and  found  on  awak- 
 ing that  he  had  been  unconsciously  carried  down  to  the 
 point  from  which  he  first  set  out.  God  at  lenglh  had 
 compassion  on  his  unwearied  though  fruitless  exertions, 
 and  during  his  sleep  sent  an  angel  with  the  message, 
 that  his  exertions  were  unavailing,  as  the  summit  was 
 inaccessible,  but  as  a  reward  for  his  indefatigable  zeal, 
 he  sent  him  a  piece  of  the  ark,  the  very  same  which  is 
 now  preserved  as  the  most  valuable  relic  in  the  cathedral 
 of  Etschmiadsin.  The  belief  in  the  impossibility  of 
 ascending  Mount  Ararat  has,  in  consequence  of  this  tra- 
 dition, which  is  sanctioned  by  the  church,  almost  become 
 an  article  of  faith,  which  an  Armenian  would  not  renounce 
 even  if  he  were  placed  in  his  own  proper  person  upon 
 the  summit  of  the  mountain." 
 
 On  the  27th  of  September,  O.  S.,  1829,  this  intrepid 
 traveller  stood  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Ararat. 
 
 We  have  lately  received  an  account  of  an  ascent  of 
 Mount  Ararat,  in  the  middle  of  August,  1834,  accom- 
 plished by  a  Mr  Antonomoff,  a  young  man  holding  an 
 office  in  Armenia,  who  was  induced  to  make  the  attempt 
 partly  to  satisfy  his  own  curiosity,  and  partly  out  of 
 regard  for  the  reputation  of  professor  Parrot ;  whose 
 having  actually  reached  the  summit  of  the  mountain  is 
 still  obstinately  denied,  particularly  by  the  inmates  of 
 the  convent,  who  fancy  that  the  truth  would  lower  the 
 opinion  of  the  people  with  regard  to  the  sanctity  of  their 
 mountain.  Mr  Antonomoff  succeeded  in  reaching-  the 
 summit;  the  large  cross  set  up  by  Mr  Parrot  was  nearly 
 covered  with  snow;  the  smaller  cross  planted  on  the 
 summit  was  not  to  be  found,  and  was  probably  buried  in 
 the  snow.  One  of  his  guides,  who  had  also  accompanied 
 Mr  Parrot,  showed  him  the  spot  where  it  had  been  set 
 up.  He  asked  some  persons  to  look  while  he  was  at 
 the  top,  and  try  if  they  could  see  him.  On  his  coming 
 down,  however,  nobody  would  admit  having  seen  him 
 there;  they  all  affirmed  that  to  reach  the  summit  was 
 impossible ;  and  though  he  and  his  guides  agreed,  the 
 magistrates  of  the  village  refused  not  only  to  give  him 
 a  certificate  of  his  having  ascended  the  mountain,  but 
 even  of  his  guides  having  declared  that  he  had  done  so. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE 
 
 BOOK   II. 
 
 CONTAINING  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THINGS  FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM,  IN   ALL  426  YEARS 
 AND  6  MONTHS.— ACCORDING  TO  DR  HALES  1007  YEARS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The  great  object  of  the  Sacred  Historian,  is  to  fur- 
 wish  a  brief  historical  survey  of  the  gradual  discovery  of 
 the  plan  of  redeeming-  mercy.  We  must  bear  this  in 
 mind  in  order  to  account  for  his  brevity  in  regard  to 
 many  things,  and  his  silence  in  respect  to  others.  He 
 notices  those  facts  and  events  which  bear  on  his  design ; 
 and  for  this  reason  he  hastens  forward  from  Noah  to 
 Abraham,  the  great  progenitor  of  the  Messiah. 
 
 By  many  successive  works  and  dispensations  of  God, 
 all  tending  to  one  great  end  and  effect,  all  united  as  the 
 several  parts  of  a  scheme,  and  altogether  making  up  one 
 great  work, — was  the  most  High  unfolding  the  plan  of 
 redemption,  and  preparing  the  way  for  its  full  accom- 
 plishment by  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  the  Redeemer. 
 Like  a  house  or  temple  that  is  building ;  first  the  work- 
 men are  sent  forth,  then  the  materials  are  gathered,  then 
 the  ground  fitted,  then  the  foundation  is  laid,  then  the 
 superstructure  is  erected,  one  part  after  another,  till  at 
 length  the  top  stone  is  laid,  and  all  is  finished.  The 
 great  works  of  God  in  the  world  during  the  whole  space 
 of  time  from  the  fall  to  the  coming  of  Christ,  were  all 
 preparatory  to  this.  There  were  many  great  changes 
 and  revolutions  in  the  world,  and  they  were  all,  only 
 the  turning  of  the  wheels  of  Providence  in  order  to  this, 
 to  make  way  for  the  coming  of  Christ,  and  what  he  was 
 to  do  in  the  world.  They  all  pointed  hither,  and  all 
 issued  here.  Hither  tended  especially  all  God's  great 
 works  towards  his  church.  The  various  dispensations 
 under  which  the  church  was  placed,  were  to  prepare  the 
 way  for  his  coming.  God  wrought  many  lesser  saluta- 
 tions and  deliverances  for  his  people  before  the  coming 
 of  the  Great  Deliverer.  These  salvations  were  all  but 
 so  many  images  and  forerunners  of  the  great  salvation 
 which  Christ  was  to  work  out  for  his  people.  All  ante- 
 rior revelations  were  only  so  many  forerunners  and 
 comets  of  the  great  light  that  he  should  bring,  who 
 came  to  be  the  light  of  the  world.  That  whole  space 
 of  time,  was,  as  it  were,  the  time  of  night,  wherein  the 
 church  of  God  was  not  indeed  wholly  without  light ;  but 
 
 it  was  like  the  light  of  the  moon  and  stars,  a  dim  light 
 in  comparison  of  the  light  of  the  sun  :  '  It  had  no  glory 
 by  reason  of  the  glory  that  excelleth.' 
 
 With  these  views,  we  proceed  to  the  interesting  details 
 recorded  in  the  following  book. 
 
 SECT.    I. 
 
 CHAP.   I. — The   Remainder  of  what  is  recorded  of 
 Noah  to  his  death. 
 
 A.  M.  1G57,  A.  C.  2347;  or,  according  to  Hales,  A.  M.  2257.  A.  C.  S154. 
 Gen.  viii.  20.  to  the  end  of  ch.  ix. 
 
 It  may  perhaps  be  thought  a  little  strange,  that  Noah, 
 who  lived  so  long  in  this  period  of  time,  and  was  himself 
 the  principal  person  after  the  flood,  should  bear  so  small 
 a  share,  and  have  his  name  so  seldom  mentioned  in  the 
 subsequent  actions  related  by  Moses.  He  was  certainly 
 alive  a  great  while  after  the  confusion  of  Babel,  for  the 
 Scriptures  make  mention  of  his  death,  not  till  three 
 hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  flood  ;  and  yet  surely, 
 if  either  he  had  been  present  at  Babel,  or  lived  in  any 
 of  the  countries,  whereinto  mankind  was  dispersed  after 
 that  confusion,  a  person  of  such  eminence  could  not,  at 
 once,  have  sunk  to  nothing,  and  been  no  more  mentioned 
 in  the  history  and  settlement  of  these  nations,  than  if 
 he  had  been  quite  extinct.  To  account  for  this  difficulty 
 (which  is  chiefly  occasioned  by  the  silence  of  Scripture) 
 1  some  learned  authors  of  late  have  attempted  to  find 
 out  mount  Ararat  in  another  place.  They  suppose,  that  it 
 was  Caucasus,  not  far  from  China,  where  the  Ark  rested, 
 and  near  which  Noah  settled,  when  he  came  out  of  it; 
 that  only  part  of  his  descendants  travelled  into  Shinar, 
 the  remainder  continued  with  him  ;  and  that  the  reason, 
 why  Moses  mentions  neither  him,  nor  them,  is,  because 
 
 1  Dr  Alix's  Reflect,  on  the  Books  of  the  Holy  Scripture; 
 Winston's  Chronology  of  the  Old  Testament ;  Shuckford's  Con- 
 nection, and  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 95 
 
 A.  M.  1G57.  A.  C.  2347  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 they  lived  at  so  great  a  distance,  and  had  no  share  in 
 the  transactions  of  the  nations  round  about  Shinar,  to 
 whom  alone  (after  the  dispersion  of  mankind)  he  is  known 
 to  confine  his  history.  This  opinion,  which  seems  to 
 solve  the  difficulty  at  once,  is  supported  by  some  such 
 arguments  as  these  :  that  the  Mosaic  history  is  altogether 
 silent,  as  to  the  peopling  of  China  at  the  dispersion,  and 
 confines  itself  within  the  bounds  of  the  then  known  world ; 
 that  the  Chinese  language  and  writing  are  so  entirely 
 different  from  those  among  us,  introduced  by  the  con- 
 fusion at  Babel,  that  it  cannot  well  be  supposed  they 
 were  ever  derived  from  them ;  that  the  learned  sciences 
 seem  anciently  to  have  been  better  known  in  China,  than 
 in  these  parts  of  the  world,  their  government  and  con- 
 stitution much  firmer,  and  better  settled,  and  their 
 histories  more  certain  and  authentic  than  ours ;  that 
 (taking  the  first  king  Fohi  and  Noah  to  be  the  same 
 person)  Fohi  is  said  to  have  had  no  father,  which  agrees 
 well  enough  with  Noah,  because  the  memory  of  his  father 
 might  be  lost  in  the  deluge  ?  that  Fold's  mother  conceived 
 him  as  she  was  encompassed  with  a  rainbow,  which 
 seems  to  be  an  imperfect  tradition  of  the  rainbow's  first 
 appearance  to  Noah  after  the  flood  ;  and  that  the  reign 
 of  Fohi  is  coincident  with  the  times  of  Noah,  and  the 
 lives  of  his  successors  correspondent  w  ith  the  lives  of  the 
 men  of  the  same  ages,  recorded  in  Scripture. 
 
 But  as  this  opinion  is  conjectural  only,  the  histories 
 and  records  of  China  of  a  very  uncertain  and  precarious 
 authority,  and  such  as  are  reputed  genuine,  of  no  older 
 date  than  some  few  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Christ, 
 the  major  part  of  interpreters  have  thought  fit  to  reject 
 this  account  of  things  as  fabulous,  and  have  thereupon  sup- 
 posed either  that  Noah,  settling"  in  the  plains  of  Armenia, 
 did  not  remove  from  thence,  and  had,  consequently,  no 
 hand  in  the  building  of  Babel ;  or  that,  if  he  did  remove 
 with  the  rest  into  the  plains  of  Shinar,  being  now  super- 
 annuated and  unfit  for  action,  the  administration  of  things 
 was  committed  to  other  hands,  which  made  his  name  and 
 authority  the  less  taken  notice  of. 
 
 Jt  must  be  acknowledged  however,  that  the  design  of 
 the  sacred  historian  is  to  be  very  succinct  in  his  account 
 of  the  affairs  of  this  period,  because  he  is  hastening-  to 
 the  history  of  Abraham,  the  great  founder  of  the  Jewish 
 nation,  whose  life  and  adventures,  upon  that  account,  he 
 thinks  himself  concerned  to  relate  more  at  large  :  for 
 what  he  has  farther  told  us  of  the  patriarch  Noah,  amounts 
 to  no  more  than  this. 
 
 CHAP.  II.— The  History. 
 
 As  soon  as  Noah  and  his  family  were  landed,  and  all 
 the  creatures  committed  to  his  charge  were  come  safe 
 out  of  the  ark,  he  selected  some  of  every  kind,  both 
 beasts  and  birds,  but  such  only  as  were  clean,  and,  by 
 God's  appointment,  proper  for  sacrifice  ;  and  having 
 built  the  first  altar  that  we  read  of,  restored  the  ancient 
 rite  of  Divine  worship,  and a  offered    burnt-sacrifices 
 
 a  Josephus  tells  us,  that  Noah,  in  a  persuasion,  that  God  had 
 doomed  mankind  to  destruction,  lay  under  a  mortal  dread  for 
 fear  of  the  same  judgment  over  again,  and  that  it  would  end  in 
 ft  anniversary  inundation;  so  that  he  presented  himself  before 
 Ihe  Lord  with  sacrifices  and  prayers,   "  humbly  beseeching  him, 
 
 2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  i.x. 
 
 thereon.  And  this  he  did  with  so  grateful  a  sense  of 
 the  Divine  goodness,  and  so  reverential  a  fear  of  the 
 Divine  Majesty,  as  procured  him  a  gracious  acceptance, 
 and,  in  testimony  of  that  acceptance,  several  grants  and 
 promises. 
 
 God's  promises  were,  that,  l>  though  mankind  were 
 naturally  wicked  and  apt  to  go  astray  from  the  very 
 womb,  yet,  be  their  iniquities  ever  so  great,  he  would 
 not  any  more  destroy  the  earth  c  by  a  general  deluge, 
 or  disturb  the  order  of  nature,  and  d  the  several  seasons 
 of  the  year,  and  their  regular  vicissitudes  :  and  in  con- 
 firmation of  this,  he  appointed  the  rainbow  for  a  token, 
 which,  (whether  it  used  to  appear  before  the  flood  or  no; 
 was  now  to  be  the  ratification  of  the  truth  of  his  promise 
 and  his  faithful  witness  in  heaven. 
 
 The  grants  which  God  gave  Noah  and  his  sons  were, 
 
 in  mercy,  to  preserve  the  order  of  the  world  in  its  frame ;  to 
 punish  the  guilty,  and  spare  the  lives  of  the  innocent;  and  not  to 
 proceed  with  rigour,  for  the  wickedness  of  some  particulars,  to 
 the  destruction  of  the  whole ;  otherwise,  the  survivors  of  this 
 calamity  would  be  more  wretched,  than  those  that  were  washed 
 away  in  the  common  rain.  If,  after  having  suffered  horror  of 
 thought,  and  the  terror  of  so  dismal  a  spectacle,  they  should  only 
 be  delivered  from  one  calamity  to  be  consumed  by  another." 
 Antiq.  b.  1.  c.  4.  But  that  this  should  be  the  purport  of  his 
 prayer,  is  not  very  likely,  because  we  find  no  such  indications  of 
 terror  in  Noah,  who  knew  the  great  and  criminal  causes  of  the 
 deluge  to  be  such  as  could  not  happen  every  year,  and  who, 
 having  found  favour  in  the  eyes  of  God,  and  a  miraculous  preser- 
 vation from  a  general  destruction,  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  have 
 cast  awpy  his  confidence  in  him  so  soon,  and,  instead  thereof,  to 
 be  possessed  with  an  abject  and  servile  fear:  and  therefore  we 
 may  conclude,  that  the  nature  of  his  prayer  and  sacrifice  was 
 eucharistical,  and  not  deprecatory. — Heidegger 's  History  of  the 
 Patriarchs,  Essay  19. 
 
 b  The  words,  in  our  translation  are,  '  I  will  not  again  curse  the 
 ground  any  more  for  man's  sake,'  for  '  the  imagination  of  man's 
 heart  is  evil;'  which  is  certainly  very  injuriously  rendered,  because 
 it  makes  the  sacred  author  speak  quite  contrary  to  what  he  designed, 
 and  is  an  affront  to  the  justice,  goodness,  and  wisdom  of  God, 
 who,  by  this  translation  of  '  for,'  instead  of  '  though,'  might  seem 
 to  bless  man  for  his  evil  imaginations. — Essay  for  a  New  Tran- 
 slation. 
 
 c  For  particular  inundations  there  have  been  at  several  times, 
 in  divers  places,  whereby  towns  and  countries  have  been  over- 
 whelmed with  all  their  inhabitants.. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  All  the  versions  do  manifestly,  in  this  place,  confound  the 
 four  seasons  of  the  year,  which  Moses  exactly  distinguishes. 
 For  the  Hebrew  word  kor,  which  they  render  cold,  signifies  the 
 winter,  because  of  the  cold  that  then  reigns.  The  word  chom, 
 which  they  render  heat,  signifies  the  spring,  because  of  the 
 heat  which  abounds  in  Judea  about  the  end  of  the  spring,  in  the 
 months  of  May  and  June,  which  is  the  harvest  time  in  that 
 country.  The  word  kajts,  which  they  render  summer,  does 
 indeed  signify  so;  but  when  the  word  coroph,  which  they  term 
 the  winter,  should  be  rendered  autumn,  which  is  the  time  ol 
 ploughing,  and  cultivating  the  ground,  as  may  be  seen,  Prov.  xx. 
 4.  So  that  the  whole  sentence,  which  contains  the  promise 
 of  God,  Gen.  viii.  22.  if  rendered  justly,  should  run  thus — 
 '  While  the  earth  remaineth,  seed-time  and  harvest,  winter  and 
 spring,  summer  and  autumn,  day  and  night,  shall  not  cease.' — 
 An  Essay  for  a  New  Translation.  We  Cannot  but  observe  how 
 ever,  that  this  vicissitude  of  times  and  seasons,  which  is  here 
 promised  as  a  blessing  to  mankind,  is  a  full  confutation  of  the 
 dreams  of  such  writers  as  are  apt  to  fancy,  "  That  in  the 
 primordial  earth  there  was  every  where  a  perpetual  spring  and 
 equinox;  that  all  the  parts  of  the  year  had  one  and  the  same 
 tenor,  face,  and  temper;  and  that  there  was  no  winter  or  sum- 
 mer, seed-time  or  harvest,  but  a  continual  temperature  of  the 
 air,  and  verdure  of  the  earth;"  which,  if  it  were  true,  would 
 make  this  promise  of  God  a  punishment,  rather  than  a  blessing 
 to  mankind. — See  Burnet's  Theory,  b.  2.  c.  3.  and  Heidegger's 
 History  of  the  Patriarchs,   Essay  19. 
 
96 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1657.  A.  C.  2317;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2257.  A.  C.  31M.  RF.N.  CII.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 not  only  a  the  same  dominion  which  our  first  parents, 
 before  the  fall,  had  over  the  animal  creation,  and  a  full 
 power  to  keep  them  in  submission  and  subjection,  but  a 
 privilege  likewise  to  kill  any  of  these  creatures  for  food  ; 
 only  with  this  restriction,  that  they  were  not  to  °  put 
 them  to  unnecessary  torture,  or  to  eat  any  part  of  their 
 blood,  which  might  be  a  means  to  introduce  the  shedding 
 of  human  blood.  The  human  kind,  notwithstanding 
 their  apostasy,  did  still  retain  some  lineaments  of  the 
 Divine  similitude  ;  and,  therefore,  whosoever  murdered 
 any  of  them  did  thereby  deface  the  image  of  God  ;  and 
 whether  it  were  man  '"  or  beast,  stranger  or  near  rela- 
 
 te A  learned,  and  right  reverend  author,  to  show  the  renovation 
 of  the  earth  after  the  deluge,  and  its  deliverance  from  the  curse 
 inflicted  upon  it  by  reason  of  Adam's  transgression,  runs  the 
 parallel  between  the  blessings  and  privileges,  granted  to  Adam, 
 soon  after  his  creation,  and  those  restored  to  Noah  and  his 
 posterity,  soon  after  the  flood.  To  our  first  parents  it  is  said, 
 '  Have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of 
 the  air,  and  over  evciy  living  thing  that  moveth  on  the  earth,' 
 Gen.  i.  28.  To  Noah  and  his  sons  it  is  said,  '  The  fear  of  you, 
 and  the  dread  of  you,  shall  be  upon  every  beast  of  the  earth,  and 
 upon  every  fowl  of  the  air,  and  upon  all  that  moveth  upon  the 
 earth,  and  upon  all  the  fishes  of  the  sea,  into  your  hand  are  they 
 delivered,'  Gen.  ix.  2.  To  Adam  and  Eve  are  granted  for  food 
 '  every  herb  bearing  seed  ;  and  every  tree,  in  the  which  is  the 
 fruit  of  the  tree,  yielding  seed/  Gen.  i.  29.  But  Noah  and  his 
 sons  have  a  large  charter,  '  Every  moving  thing  that  liveth,  shall 
 be  meat  to  you,  even,  as  the  green  herb,  have  I  given  you  all 
 things,9  Gen.  ix.  3.  The  blessing  upon  the  earth,  at  the  creation, 
 w-as,  '  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass,  and  herb  yielding  seed, 
 and  the  fruit-tree  yielding  fruit  after  his  kind,'  Gen.  i.  11.  The 
 blessing  after  the  flood  is,  '  While  the  earth  remaineth,  seed-time 
 and  harvest  shall  not  cease,'  Gen.  viii.  22.  In  the  beginning, 
 '  the  lights  in  the  firmament  were  appointed  to  divide  the  day 
 from  the  night,  and  to  be  for  seasons,  and  for  days,  and  years,' 
 Gen.  i.  14.  After  the  flood,  the  new  blessing  i*,  '  That  spring 
 and  autumn,  summer  and  winter,  and  day  and  night,  shall  not 
 cease,'  Gen.  viii.  22.  Whereupon  our  author  asks,  what  is  be- 
 stowed in  the  first  blessings,  that  is  wanted  in  the  second?  What 
 more  did  Adam  enjoy  in  his  happiest  days?  What  more  did  he 
 forfeit  in  his  worst,  with  respect  to  this  life,  than  that  which  is 
 contained  in  these  blessings?  If  he  neither  had  more,  nor  lost 
 more,  all  these  blessings  you  see  expressly  restored  to  Noah  and  his 
 posterity:  and,  from  all  this,  laid  together,  he  concludes,  that 
 the  old  curse  upon  the  ground  was,  after  the  deluge,  finished  and 
 completed. — Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are, — "  But  flesh  with  the  life  thereof, 
 which  is  the  blood  thereof,  shall  you  not  eat.'  This  the  Hebrew 
 doctors  generally  understand  to  be  a  prohibition  to  cut  ofl'  any  limb 
 of  a  living  creature,  and  to  eat  it  while  the  life,  that  is,  the 
 blood  was  in  it;  whilst  yet  it  lives  and  palpitates,  or  trembles,  as 
 a  modern  interpreter  has  truly  explained  their  sense:  and  in  this 
 they  are  followed  by  several  Christians, who  think  (as  Maimonides 
 did)  that  there  were  some  people  in  the  old  world,  so  savage  and 
 barbarous,  that  they  did  eat  raw  flesh,  while  it  was  yet  warm 
 from  the  beast,  out  of  whose  body  it  was  cut  piecemeal.  Plutarch 
 tells  us,  that  it  was  customary,  in  his  time,  to  run  red  hot  spits 
 through  the  bellies  of  live  swine,  to  make  their  flesh  more 
 delicious;  and  I  believe  some  among  us  have  heard  of  whipping 
 pigs,  and  torturing  other  creatures  to  death,  for  the  same  purpose. 
 Now  these  things  could  not  be  committed,  if  such  men  thought 
 themselves  bound  in  conscience,  to  abstain  from  all  unneci  ary 
 cruelties  to  the  creatures,  and  to  bleed  them  to  death,  with  all  the 
 dispatch  they  could,  before  they  touched  them  for  food. — See 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  ii.  p.  20. 
 
 c  If  it  here  should  be  asked,  how  any  beast  that  is  neither 
 capable  of  virtue  nor  vice,  can  be  deemed  culpable,  in  case  it 
 should  chance  to  kill  any  man?  the  answer  is, — That  tliis  law  was 
 ordained  for  the  benefit  of  men,  for  whose  use  all  beasts  were 
 created.  For,  1st,  such  owners,  as  were  not  careful  to  prevent 
 such  mischiefs,  were  hereby  punished.  2dly,  Others  were 
 admonished  by  their  example  to  be  cautious,  Silly,  God  thereby 
 instructed  them,  that  murder  was  a  most  grievous  crime,  whose 
 
 tion,  was  appointed  by  the  magistrate  to  be  put  to  death: 
 and,  with  these  grants  and  promises,  he  gave  them 
 encouragement  (as  he  did  our  first  progenitors)  to  "  be 
 fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth."  which 
 was  now  left  almost  destitute  of  inhabitants. 
 
 But  how  much  soever  the  deluge  might  deprive  the 
 earth  of  its  inhabitants,  it  had  not  so  totally  destroyed 
 the  trees,  and  plants,  and  other  vegetables,  but  that  in  a 
 short  time  they  began  to  appear  again  ;  and  being 
 encouraged  by  the  kindly  warmth  of  the  sun,  discovered 
 their  several  species  by  the  several  fruits  they  bore. 
 Noah  before  the  flood  d  had  applied  himself  to  hus- 
 bandry, and  now,  upon  the  recovery  of  the  earth  again, 
 betook  himself  to  the  same  occupation.  Among  his 
 other  improvements  of  the  ground  he  had  planted  a  vine- 
 yard, and  perhaps  was  the  first  man  who  invented  a 
 press  to  squeeze  the  juice  out  of  the  grape,  and  so  make 
 wine.  Natural  curiosity  might  tempt  hiin  to  taste  the 
 fruit  of  his  own  labour  ;  but,  being  either  unacquainted 
 with  the  strength  of  this  liquor,  or  through  age  and  in- 
 firmity unable  to  bear  it,  so  it  Mas,  that,  drinking  a  little 
 too  freely,  he  became  quite  intoxicated  with  it ;  and  so 
 falling  asleep  in  his  tent,  lay  with  his  body  uncovered, 
 and,  in  a  very  indecent  posture,  was  exposed  to  the  eyes 
 of  his  children. 
 
 Ham,  who  espied  his  father  in  this  condition,  instead 
 of  concealing  his  weakness  proclaimed  it  aloud  ;  and  to 
 his  other  two  brothers,  Shem  and  Japhet,  made  him  the 
 subject  of  his  scorn  and  derision.  But  so  far  were  they 
 from  being  pleased  with  his  behaviour  in  this  respect, 
 that  taking  a  garment,  and  laying  it  upon  both  their 
 shoulders,  they  went  backward  till,  coming  to  their 
 father,  they  dropt  the  garment  upon  him,  and  so  cover- 
 ed the  nakedness  which  their  pious  modesty  would  not 
 permit  them  to  behold.  Nor  is  it  improbable  that,  to 
 prevent  the  like  indecency,  they  watched  him  during  the 
 remaining  time  of  his  sleep,  and  might  possibly,  upon 
 his  awaking,  acquaint  him  with  what  had  happened  : 
 whereupon,  perceiving  how  unworthily  his  son  Ham  had 
 served  him,  e  he  cursed  his  race  in  the  person  of  Canaan 
 his  grandson  ;  and  reflecting  how  respectfully  his  other 
 two  sons  had  behaved,  he  rewarded  their  pious   care 
 
 punishment  extended  even  to  beasts;  and  4thly,  the  lives  of  men 
 were  hereby  much  secured,  when  such  beasts,  as  might  do  the 
 like  mischief  another  time,  were  immediately  dispatched,  and 
 taken  out  of  the  way. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Anciently  the  greatest  men  esteemed  nothing  more  honour- 
 able, and  worthy  their  study,  than  the  art  of  agriculture.  Nihil 
 homine  libero  dignius,  nothing  more  becoming  a  gentleman,  was 
 the  saying  of  the  Roman  orator;  and  for  the  truth  of  this  the 
 Fabii,  the  Catos,  the  Varros,  the  Virgils,  the  Plinys,  and  other 
 great  nam<;s  are  sufficient  witnesses. — Bibliotheca  Bildica,  vol. 
 i.  p.  251. 
 
 c  It  is  a  tradition  among  the  eastern  writers,  that  Noah,  having 
 cursed  Ham  and  Canaan,  the  effect  of  his  curse,  was,  that  not 
 only  their  posterity  were  made  subject  to  their  brethren,  and 
 born,  as  we  may  say,  in  slavery;  but  that  likewise,  all  On  a  sud- 
 den, the  colour  of  their  skin  became  black  ;  for  they  maintain,  that 
 all  the  blacks  descended  from  Ham  and  Canaan;  that  Noah 
 seeing  so  surprising  a  change,  was  deeply  affected  with  it,  and 
 begged  of  God,  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  in  pire  Canaan's 
 masters  with  a  tender  and  compassionate  love  for  him  ;  and  that 
 his  prayer  was  heard.  For,  notwithstanding  we  may  still,  at  this 
 day,  observe  the  effect  of  Noah's  curse,  in  the  servitude  of  Ham's 
 posterity;  yet  we  may  remark  likewise  the  effect  of  his  prayer, 
 in  that  this  sort  of  black  slaves  is  sought  for,  and  made  much  of  i 
 in  most  places. —  Calmvt's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Ham. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 97 
 
 A.  M.  1657.  A.  C.  2347;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 with  each  one  a  blessing,  which,  in  process  of  time,  was 
 fulfilled  in  their  posterity. 
 
 This  is  all  that  the  Scripture  informs  us  of  concerning 
 Noah,  only  we  are  given  to  understand,  that  he  lived  350 
 years  after  the  deluge,  in  all  950  ;  and,  if  we  will 
 believe  the  tradition  of  the  orientals,  he  was  buried  in 
 Mesopotamia,  where,  not  far  from  a  monastery,  called 
 Dair-Abunah,  that  is,  the  monastery  of  our  father,  they 
 show  us  in  a  castle  a  large  sepulchre,  which  they  say 
 belonged  to  him  ;  but  as  for  the  common  opinion  of  his 
 dividing  the  world  among  his  three  sons  before  his  death, 
 giving  to  Shem,  Asia, — to  Ham,  Africa, — and  to  Japhet, 
 Europe,  there  is  no  manner  of  foundation  for  it  either  in 
 Scripture  or  tradition. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 It  is  a  sad  perversion  of  the  use  of  human  understanding, 
 and  no  small  token  of  a  secret  inclination  to  infidelity, 
 when  men  make  the  condescensions  of  Scripture  an 
 argument  against  its  Divine  authority;  and  from  the 
 figures  and  allusions  which  it  employs  in  accommoda- 
 tion to  their  capacities,  draw  conclusions  unworthy  of  its 
 sacred  penmen,  and  unbecoming  the  nature  of  God. 
 
 In  relation  to  sacrifices,  Ave  find  God  declaring  him- 
 self very  fully  in  these  words  :  l '  Hear,  O  my  people, 
 and  I  will  speak ;  I  will  testify  against  thee,  O  Israel, 
 for  I  am  God,  even  thy  God.  I  will  not  reprove  thee, 
 because  of  thy  sacrifices,  or  for  thy  burnt-offerings, 
 because  they  were  not  always  before  me.  I  will  take  no 
 bullock  out  of  thine  house,  or  he-goats  out  of  thy  fold  ; 
 ■ — for  thmkest  thou  that  I  Mill  eat  bull's  flesh,  or  drink 
 the  blood  of  goats  ?  Offer  unto  God  thanksgiving,  and 
 pay  thy  vows  unto  the  most  High,  and  call  upon  me  in 
 the  time  of  trouble,  so  will  1  hear  thee,  and  thou  shalt 
 praise  me.'  So  that  it  is  not  the  oblation  itself,  but 
 the  gratefid  sense  and  affections  of  the  offerer,  that  are 
 acceptable  to  God,  and  which,  by  an  easy  metaphor, 
 may  be  said  to  be  as  grateful  to  him2  as  perfumes  or 
 sweet  odours  are  to  us. 
 
 And  indeed,  if  either  the  sense  of  gratitude  or  fear, 
 if  either  the  apprehension  of  God's  peculiar  kindness,  or 
 of  his  wrathful  indignation  against  sin,  did  ever  produce 
 a  sincere  homage,3  it  must  have  been  upon  this  occasion 
 when  the  patriarch  called  to  remembrance  the  many 
 vows  he  had  made  to  God  in  the  bitterness  of  his  soul, 
 and  in  the  midst  of  his  distress  ;  when,  coming  out  of 
 the  ark,  he  had  before  his  eyes  the  ruins  of  the  old 
 world,  so  many  dreadful  objects  of  the  divine  vengeance  ; 
 and  at  the  same  time  saw  himself  safe  amidst  his  little 
 family,  which  must  have  all  likewise  perished,  had  they 
 not  been  preserved  by  a  miraculous  interposition.  And 
 with  such  affections  of  mind  as  this  scene  could  not  but 
 excite,  it  would  be  injurious  not  to  think  that  his  prayers 
 and  oblations  were  answerably  fervent,  and  his  joy  and 
 thanksgiving  such  as  became  so  signal  a  deliverance. 
 
 But  it  was  not  upon  account  of  these  only  that  his 
 service  found  so  favourable  a  reception.   Sacrifices, 4  (as 
 
 1  Psalm  1.   7,  &c.  *  Patrick's  Commentary, 
 
 *  Saui  in's  Dissertations.  *  See  p.  47,  &c 
 
 2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  be. 
 
 we  showed  before)  were  of  Divine  institution,  and  pre- 
 figurative  of  that  great  propitiation,  which  God,  in  due 
 time,  would  exhibit  in  the  death  of  his  Son.  Whatever 
 merit  they  have,  they  derive  from  Christ, 5  '  who  gave 
 himself  for  us,  as  an  offering  and  a  sacrifice  to  God  for 
 a  sweet  smelling  savour.'  It  was  in  the  sense  of  this, 
 therefore,  that  Noah  approached  the  altar  which  he  had 
 erected,  and  while  he  was  offering  his  appointed  sacri- 
 fices, failed  not  to  commemorate  '  this  Lamb  of  God 
 which  was  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,'  and 
 so  found  his  acceptance  in  the  Beloved  ;  for  he  is  the  6 
 '  Angel  which  comes  and  stands  at  the  altar,  having  a 
 golden  censer,  and  to  whom  is  given  much  incense,  that 
 he  may  oiler  it  with  the  prayers  of  the  saints  upon  the 
 golden  altar  which  is  before  the  throne.'  a 
 
 5  Eph.  v.  2.  6  Rev.  viii.  3. 
 
 a  At  the  command  of  God,  Noah,  and  all  who  were  with  him 
 in  the  ark  came  out  of  it,  when  the  earth  again  became  habitable. 
 He  first  employed  himself  in  an  act  of  worship,  expressive  of  his 
 thankfulness  to  God  for  his  preservation,  and  of  his  dependence 
 for  life  and  acceptance,  on  the  atonement  of  the  promised  Deliver- 
 er. '  He  built  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  ;  and  took  of  every  clean 
 beast,  and  of  every  clean  fowl,  and  offered  burnt-offerings  on  the 
 altar.  And  the  Lord  smelled  a  sweet  savour ;  and  the  Lord  said 
 in  his  heart,  I  will  not  again  curse  the  ground  any  more  for 
 man's  sake :  for  the  imagination  of  man's  heart  is  evil  from  his 
 youth.'     It  is  evident  from  these  words, 
 
 First,  that  Noah  had  received  the  institution  of  sacrifice  from 
 his  ancestors,  and  not  from  immediate  revelation.  This  was  an 
 ordinance  in  use  in  the  worship  of  God  with  which  lie  appears  to 
 have  been  familiar:  and  though  its  observance  is  not  expressly 
 mentioned  in  the  period  that  intervened  between  the  time  of 
 Abel  and  the  flood,  we  cannot  doubt  that  it  was  used  by  the 
 faithful  as  the  expression  of  their  belief  in  the  truth  of  the  great 
 promise.  Noah  erected  an  altar,  on  which  he  presented  to  God 
 the  divinely  appointed  typical  sacrifice  of  propitiation. 
 
 Secondly,  the  typical  sacrifice  was  acceptable  to  God.  '  The 
 Lord  smelled  a  sweet  savour.'  But  how  could  the  slaughter  of 
 animals  in  honour  of  the  Deity  be  pleasing  in  his  sight?  Has  he 
 not  said,  '  every  beast  of  the  forest  is  mine,  and  the  cattle  upon 
 a  thousand  hills?  I  know  all  the  fowls  of  the  mountains:  and  the 
 wild  beasts  of  the  field  are  mine.  If  I  were  hungry,  I  would  not 
 tell  thee:  for  the  world  is  mine  and  the  fulness  thereof.  Will  I 
 eat  the  flesh  of  bulls,  or  drink  the  blood  of  goats?'  We  must 
 therefore  consider  the  burnt-offerings  of  Noah  as  acceptable  to 
 God  only  as  they  were  designed  to  testily  and  show  forth  the 
 offering  and  sacrifice  which  Christ  presented  unto  God  for  a 
 sweet-smelling  savour;  and  because  they  were  so  regarded  by 
 Noah  when  he  practised  them  in  the  worship  of  his  Maker,  as  the 
 expression  of  his  faith  and  hope,  and  confidence.  This  view  is 
 fully  established, 
 
 Thirdly,  by  a  consideration  of  the  nature  of  the  covenant 
 which  was  founded  upon,  and  connected  with,  the  sacrifice  of 
 Noah.  The  covenant  established  with  this  patriarch,  on  occasion 
 of  presenting  his  sacrifice,  was  a  positive  engagement  without 
 any  re-stipulation,  the  absolute  promise  of  good  to  himself  and  to 
 his  posterity.  He  gave  to  Noah  a  new  grant  of  the  earth  and  of 
 the  inferior  animals,  different  from  that  which  had  been  originally 
 conveyed  to  Adam,  inasmuch  as  this  was  founded  upon  the 
 covenant  of  grace,  or  upon  the  great  atonement  by  which  the 
 provisions  of  that  covenant  are  secured.  To  this  grant  was 
 annexed  a  promise,  that  the  earth  should  no  more  be  visiti  d  with 
 such  an  overwhelming  calamity,  but  should  be  preserved  till  the 
 consummation  of  all  1  ■ 
 
 There  was  included  in  the  covenant  made  with  Noah,  an 
 express  grant  of  animal  food  to  man.  While  to  Adam  was  given 
 for  meat,  every  herb  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and  every  tree 
 in  the  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree,  to  Noah  it  ^a~  said,  '  Every 
 moving  thing  that  liveth  shall  be  meat  for  yon:  even  asthi 
 herb  have  I  given  you  all  things.*  But  while  animal  food  was 
 permitted,  the  eating  of  blood  was  prohibited,  chiefly,  I  appre- 
 hend, on  account  of  its  being  used  by  divine  appointment  to 
 make  atonemi  nt. 
 
 Fourthly,  the  distinction  of  animals  into  clean  ;md  unclean, 
 
98 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1657.  A.  C.  2347;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 Wu  mistake  the  matter  however  very  much,  if  we 
 imagine  that  the  merit  of  Noah's  sacrifice,  (even  when 
 purified  with  the  blood  of  Christ)  was  the  procuring  cause 
 of  the  covenant  here  mentioned.  The  covenant  was  in 
 the  divine  counsel  from  everlasting,  and  God  only  here 
 takes  an  occasion  to  acquaint  Noah  with  it :  but  then  we 
 may  observe,  that  he  expresses  himself  in  such  terms  as 
 lay  no  restraint  upon  him  from  sending  a  judgment  of 
 waters,  or  from  bringing  a  general  conflagration  upon 
 the  world  at  the  last  day.  He  binds  himself  only  "  never 
 to  smite  any  more  every  living  thing  in  the  manner  he 
 had  done,"  that  is,  with  an  universal  deluge ;  but 
 if  any  nation  deserves  such  a  punishment,  and  the 
 situation  of  their  country  well  admits  of  it,  he  may,  if 
 he  pleases,  without  breach  of  this  covenant,  bring  a  local 
 inundation  upon  them  ;  though  it  must  be  acknowledged, 
 that  whenever  we  find  him  threatening  any  people  with 
 his  '  "  sore  judgments,"  he  never  makes  mention  of  this. 
 
 It  was  a  general  tradition  among  the  heathens,  that 
 the  world  was  to  undergo  a  double  destruction,  one  by 
 water  and  the  other  by  fire.  The  destruction  by  fire  St 
 Peter  has  given  us  a  very  lively  description  of.  2'  The 
 heavens  and  the  earth  which  are  now,'  says  he,  '  are  kept 
 in  store,  reserved  unto  fire  against  the  day  of  judgment; 
 for  then  shall  the  heavens  pass  away  with  a  great  noise, 
 and  the  elements  melt  with  fervent  heat,  and  the  earth 
 also,  and  the  works  that  are  therein,  shall  be  burnt  up.' 
 But  all  this  is  no  infraction  upon  the  covenant  made  with 
 Noah,  which  relates  to  the  judgment  of  a  flood  :  and, 
 though  this  catastrophe  will  certainly  be  more  terrible 
 than  the  other,  yet  it  has  this  great  difference  in  it, 3  that 
 it  is  not  sent  as  a  curse,  but  as  a  blessing  upon  the  earth, 
 not  as  a  means  to  deface  and  destroy,  but  to  renew  and 
 refine  it ;  and  therefore  the  same  apostle  adds. 4  '  Never- 
 theless Ave,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for  new  hea- 
 vens and  a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.' 
 
 Thus  the  covenant  of  God  standeth  sure  :  but  then,  in 
 relation  to  the  sign  or  sacrament  of  it,  whether  it  was 
 previous  or  subsequent  to  the  deluge,  this  has  been  a 
 matter  much  debated  among  the  learned.  It  cannot  be 
 denied  indeed,  but  that  a  this  curious  mixture  of  light 
 and  shade  discernible  in  the  rainbow,  arises  naturally 
 
 1  See  Ezek.  xiv.  21.  s  2  Pet.  iii.  7,  10. 
 
 3  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  vol.  i.  Essay  19. 
 4  2  Pet.  iii.  13. 
 recognised  by  Noah,  tends  to  prove  the  divine  institution  of 
 sacrifice.  For,  since  animal  food  was  not  in  use,  at  Least  by 
 divine  permission,  before  the  deluge,  such  distinction  can  be 
 conceived  only  in  reference  to  sacrifice.  Accordingly,  we  find 
 the  first  use  to  which  this  distinction  is  applied  in  Scripture,  is 
 tiiat  of  sacrifice:  Noah  having  taken  of  every  clean  beast,  and  of 
 every  clean  fowl,  and  offered  burnt-oflerings..  The  question  is, 
 how  was  this  difference  first  made?  Was  it  by  the  common 
 reason  of  mankind  which  led  them  to  determine  that  ravenous 
 creatures  were  unfit  for  sacrifice?  Are  we  not  rather  warranted 
 to  believe  that  it  was  introduced  by  God  at  the  same  time  that 
 lie  instituted  sacrifice.  "  Whoever  considers  carefully,"  says 
 Dr  Kennicott,  "  will  find,  that  the  law  is  part  a  republication  of 
 antecedent  revelations  and  commands,  long  before  given  to  man- 
 kind."— Dcwar  on  the  Atonement,  pp.  40 — 45. 
 
 a  The  learned  Heidegger  has  given  an  account  of  the  nature 
 and  colours  of  the  rainbow,  and  by  what  different  causes  they 
 are  produced,  in  these  very  expressive  words,  "  The  chief  cause 
 of  the  rainbow  is  the  sun,  or  the  solar  ray  received  into  a  vapoury 
 cloud,  and  in  it  refracted  by  the  various  mediums  composing  the 
 mass — one  of  which,  the  more  rare,  is  the  air  itself;  another, 
 more  dense,  is  the  vapour  which  both  receives  the  solar  ray  and 
 
 from  the  superficies  of  those  parts,  which  constitute  a 
 cloud,  when  the  rays  of  the  sun  from  the  adverse  part  of 
 the  hemisphere  are  darted  upon  it ;  and  for  this  reason,  s 
 whenever  there  is  the  like  disposition  of  the  sun  to  the 
 cloud,  it  may  be  imagined  that  the  same  phenomenon 
 may  be  seen,  and  consequently  at  certain  times  has  been 
 seen,  not  from  the  deluge  only,  but  from  the  first  foun- 
 dation of  the  world.  b  But  as  this  opinion  has  nothing 
 in  Scripture  to  enforce  it,  so  are  there  no  gTounds  in 
 nature  to  give  it  any  sanction,  unless  we  will  assert  this 
 manifest  untruth, — That  every  disposition  of  the  air,  and 
 every  density  of  a  cloud,  is  fitly  qualified  to  produce  a 
 rainbow. 
 
 This  meteor  (as  the  Scripture  informs  us)*  was  appoint- 
 
 5  See  Brown's  Pseudodoxia  Epidemica. 
 6  Dr  Jackson  upon  the  Creed,  b.  1.  c.  16. 
 reflects  it  back  on  the  retina  of  the  eye ; — so  that  in  a  rainbow 
 there  is  partly  anaklasis,  or  the  refraction  of  a  ray  of  light  in  the 
 massy  deptli  of  the  vapour,  and  partly  diaklasis,  or  the  reflection 
 of  that  ray  on  the  eye, — which  circumstances  cannot  be  found 
 united  unless  in  a  cloud  that  is  dewy  and  just  about  to  dissolve 
 itself  into  rain, — for  it  must  be  only  so  rare  as  that  a  solar  ray 
 can  somewhat  penetrate  it,  and  at  the  same  time  so  dense,  that 
 when  the  ray  hath  sunk  in  it  a  little,  the  cloud  may  repel  it. — 
 Its  form  is  circular  and  bent,  by  reason  of  the  sun's  form;  for  a 
 rainbow  always  appears  in  the  quarter  of  the  heavens  right  opposite 
 to  that  luminary,  formed  by  some  cloud  reflecting  back  its  rays. 
 — The  colours  of  the  rainbow  arising  from  the  various  mixture 
 of  light  and  shade,  are  three  in  number,  phoinikeos,  or  purple 
 and  red — prasinos,  leek-green  or  green,  and  alourgos,  blue, 
 sea-coloured ; — for  when  the  solar  rays  first  enter  the  cloud, 
 because  less  of  the  opaque  is  passed  through,  the  colour  shown 
 is  red  or  purple ;  when  it  hath  entered  somewhat  farther,  the  glow 
 of  the  colour  is  diminished,  and  thus  arises  green ;  but  having 
 sunk  into  the  mass  of  the  vapour  as  far  as  the  lowest  bend  of  the 
 arch,  the  colour  from  want  of  transparency  is  blue. — Essay  19th. 
 This  description  is  pretty  lively,  and  gives  us  some  idea  of  this 
 strange  phenomenon ;  and  yet  we  must  own,  that  the  nature  of 
 refraction,  on  which  the  colours  of  the  rainbow  do  depend,  is  one 
 of  the  abstrusest  things  that  we  meet  with  in  the  philosophy  of 
 nature.  Our  renowned  Boyle,  who  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  sub- 
 ject of  colours,  after  a  long  and  indefatigable  search  into  their 
 natures  and  properties,  was  not  able  so  much  as  to  satisfy  himself 
 what  light  is,  or  (if  it  be  a  body)  what  kind  of  corpuscles,  for 
 size  and  shape,  it  consists  of,  or  how  these  insensible  corpuscles 
 could  be  so  differently,  and  yet  withal  so  regularly  refracted  ;  and 
 he  freely  acknowledges,  that  however  some  colours  might  be 
 plausibly  enough  explained,  in  the  general,  from  experiments 
 he  had  made,  yet  whensoever  he  would  descend  to  the  minute 
 and  accurate  explication  of  particulars,  he  found  himself  very 
 sensible  of  the  great  obscurity  of  things.  Dr  Halley,  the  great 
 ornament  of  his  profession,  makes  the  same  acknowledgment; 
 and,  after  having,  from  the  given  proportion  of  refraction, 
 accounted  both  for  the  colours  and  diameter  of  the  rainbow,  with 
 its  several  appearances,  he  could  hence  discern  (as  he  tells  us) 
 farther  difficulties  lying  before  him:  particularly,  from  whence 
 arose  the  refractive  force  of  fluids,  which  is  a  problem  of  no  small 
 moment,  and  yet  deservedly  to  be  placed  among  the  mysteries  of 
 nature,  nor  yet  subject  to  our  senses  or  reasoning.  And  the 
 noble  theorist  of  light  himself,  after  his  many  surprising  discov- 
 eries, built  even  upon  vulgar  experiments,  found  it  too  hard  for 
 him  to  resolve  himself  in  some  particulars  about  it ;  and,  not- 
 withstanding all  his  prodigious  skill  in  mathematics,  and  his 
 dexterous  management  of  the  most  obvious  experiments,  he 
 concludes  it  at  last  to  be  a  work  too  arduous  for  human  under- 
 standing, absolutely  to  determine  what  light  is,  after  what  manner 
 refracted,  and  by  what  modes  and  .actions  it  produceth  in  our 
 minds  the  phantasies  of  colours. — Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  2. 
 Occasional  Annotations  2.  in  the  Appendix. 
 
 6  That  tliis  rainbow  was  thought  to  be  of  somewhat  more  than 
 mere  natural  extraction,  the  physical  mythology  of  the  ancient 
 heathens  seems  to  testify,  and  it  is  not  improbable,  that,  from 
 the  tenor  of  God's  covenant,  here  made  with  Noah,  which 
 might  be  communicated  to  them  by  tradition,  Homer,  the  great 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 99 
 
 A.  M.  1(557.  A.  C.  2347;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 ed  by  God  to  be  a  witness  of  his  covenant  with  the  new 
 world,  and  a  messenger  to  secure  mankind  from  destruc- 
 tion by  deluges ;  so  that,  had  it  appeared  before  the 
 flood,  the  sight  of  it  afterwards  would  have  been  but  a 
 poor  comfort  to  Noah  and  his  posterity,  whose  fear  of 
 an  inundation  was  too  violent  ever  to  be  taken  away  by 
 a  common  and  ordinary  sign. 
 
 For,  suppose  that  God  Almighty  had  said  to  Noah, ' 
 "  I  make  a  promise  to  you,  and  to  all  living  creatures, 
 that  the  world  shall  never  be  destroyed  by  water  again  ; 
 and  for  confirmation  of  this,  behold  I  set  the  sun  in  the 
 firmament ;"  would  this  have  been  any  strengthening  of 
 Noah's  faith,  or  any  satisfaction  to  his  mind  ?  "  AVhy," 
 says  Noah,  "  the  sun  was  in  the  firmament  when  the  deluge 
 came,  and  was  a  spectator  of  that  sad  tragedy  ;  and  as 
 it  may  be  so  again,  a  what  sign  or  assurance  is  this 
 against  a  second  deluge  ?"  But  now,  if  we  suppose,  on 
 the  other  hand,  that  the  rainbow  first  appeared  to  the 
 inhabitants  of  the  earth  after  the  deluge,  nothing  could 
 be  a  more  proper  and  apposite  sign  for  Providence  to 
 pitch  upon,  in  order  to  confirm  the  promise  made  to 
 Noah  and  his  posterity,  that  the  world  should  no  more 
 be  destroyed  by  water.  The  rainbow  had  a  secret  con- 
 nexion with  the  effect  itself,  and  so  far  was  *  a  natural 
 
 1  Burnet's  Theory, 
 father  of  Epic  poetry,  does  by  an  easy  and  lively  fiction,  bring 
 in  Jupiter,  the  king  of  heaven,  sending  Iris,  his  messenger,  with 
 a  peremptoiy  command  to  Neptune,  the  prince  of  waters,  to 
 desist  from  any  farther  assisting  the  Grecians,  and  annoying  the 
 Trojans;  and,  at  the  same  time,  that  Iris  is  sent  with  this  mes- 
 sage to  the  watery  deity,  the  poet  has  so  contrived  the  matter, 
 that  Apollo,  or  the  sun,  which  is  the  parent  and  efficient  cause 
 of  the  rainbow,  be  sent  with  another  message  to  Hector,  and 
 the  Trojans,  in  order  to  encourage  them  to  take  the  held  again, 
 and  renew  their  attack.  The  meaning  of  all  which  fine 
 machinery,  is  no  more  than  this, — that,  after  a  great  deal  of 
 rain,  which  had  caused  an  innundation,  and  thereby  made  the 
 Trojan  horse  useless,  the  sun  began  to  appear  again,  and  the 
 rainbow  in  a  cloud  opposite  to  the  sun,  which  was  a  sure  prognos- 
 tic of  fair  weather. — Bibliothcca  Biblica,  vol.  1.;  Occasional 
 Annotations,  2.  in  the  Appendix. 
 
 a  When  God  gives  a  sign  in  the  heavens,  or  on  the  earth,  of 
 any  prophecy  or  promise  to  be  fulfilled,  it  must  lie  by  something 
 new,  or  by  some  change  wrought  in  nature,  whereby  he  testifies 
 to  us  that  he  is  able  and  willing  to  stand  to  his  promise.  Thus 
 God  puts  the  matter  to  Ahaz,  '  Ask  a  sign  of  the  Lord,  ask  it 
 cither  in  the  depth,  or  in  the  height  above ;'  and  when  Ahaz 
 would  ask  no  sign,  God  gives  him  one  unasked;  '  Behold  a  virgin 
 shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son.'  Thus  when  Abraham  asked  a 
 sign,  whereby  he  might  be  assured  of  God's  promise,  that  Ins 
 seed  should  inherit  the  land  of  Canaan,  it  is  said,  that  '  when  the 
 sun  went  down,  and  it  was  dark,  behold  a  smoking  furnace  and 
 a  burning  lamp  passed  between  the  pieces'  of  the  beasts,  which 
 hi'  had  cut  asunder,  Gen.  xv.  17.  And,  in  like  manner,  in  the 
 KgD  given  to  Ilezekiah  for  his  recovery,  and  to  Gideon  for  his 
 victory,  in  the  former  case,  '  the  shadow  went  back  ten  degrees 
 in  Ahaz's  dial,  Isa.  xxxviii.  8.  and,  in  the  latter,  '  the  fleece  was 
 wet,  and  all  the  ground  about  it  dry;'  and  then,  to  change  the 
 trial,  'it  was  dry,  and  all  the  ground  about  it  wet,'  Judges  vi. 
 38,  39.  These  were  all  signs, proper,  significant,  and  satisfactory, 
 having  something  new,  surprising,  and  extraordinary  in  them, 
 denoting  the  hand  and  interposition  of  God:  hut  where  every 
 Cling  continues  to  be  as  it  was  before,  ami  the  face  of  nature,  in 
 all  its  parts,  the  vary  same,  it  cannot  signify  anything  new,  nor 
 any  new  intention  of  the  author  of  nature;  and,  consequently, 
 cannot  be  a  sign  or  pledge,  a  token  or  assurance  of  the  accom- 
 plishment of  any  new  covenant,  or  promise  made  by  him. — 
 Hit  Diet's  Theory,  b.  2.  c.  5. 
 
 b  Common  philosophy  teaches  us,  that  the  rainbow  is  a  natural 
 sign,  that  there  will  not  be  much  rain  after  it  appears,  but  that 
 the  clouds  begin  to  disperse:  for,  as  it  never  appears  in  a  thick 
 cluud,  but  only  in  a  thin,  whenever  it  appears  after  showers  which 
 
 2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  Cll.  ix. 
 
 sign ;  and  as  it  appeared  first  after  the  deluge,  and  was 
 formed  in  a  thin  watery  cloud,  there  is,methinks,  a  great 
 easiness  and  propriety  of  its  application  for  such  a  pur- 
 pose. For  if  we  suppose,  that  while  God  Almighty  was 
 declaring  his  promise  to  Noah,  and  what  he  intended  for 
 the  sign  of  it,  there  appeared  at  the  same  time  in  the 
 clouds  c  a  fair  rainbow,  that  marvellous  and  beautiful 
 meteor  which  Noah  had  never  seen  before,  it  could  not 
 but  make  a  most  lively  impression  upon  him,  quickening 
 his  faith,  and  giving  him  comfort  and  assurance  that 
 God  would  be  stedfast  to  his  purpose. 
 
 For  God  did  not  "  set  this  bow  in  the  clouds  for  his 
 own  sake,"  to  engage  his  attention  and  revive  his 
 memory,  whenever  he  looked  on  it  (though  that  be  the 
 expression  which  the  Holy  Spirit,  speaking  after  the 
 manner  of  men,  has  thought  fit  to  make  use  of),  but  for 
 our  sakes  was  it  placed  there,  as  an  illustrious  symbol 
 of  the  Divine  mercy  and  goodness,  and  to  confirm  our 
 belief  and  confidence  in  God  :  and  therefore,  whenever 
 2  '  Ave  look  upon  the  rainbow,  we  should  do  well  to 
 praise  him  who  made  it ;  for  very  beautiful  is  it  in  the 
 brightness  thereof.  It  compasseth  the  heavens  with  a 
 glorious  circle,  and  the  hands  of  the  Most  High  have 
 bended  it.' 
 
 And  as  the  goodness  of  God  was  very  conspicuous  to 
 Noah  and  his  posterity,  in  giving  them  a  new  sign  for  the 
 confirmation  of  his  promises  ;  so  it  was  no  less  remark- 
 able in  the  new  charter  which  he  granted  them,  for  the 
 enlargement  of  their  diet.  That  our  first  parents,  a  in 
 their  state  of  integrity,  had  not  the  liberty  of  eating  flesh 
 is  very  evident,  because  they  were  limited  by  that  injunc- 
 tion which  appoints  herbs  and  fruits  for  their  food  :  3 
 '  Behold  I  have  given  you  every  herb,  bearing   seed, 
 
 *  Ecclus.  xliii.  11,  12.  3  Gen.  i.  29,  30. 
 
 come  from  thick  clouds,  it  is  a  token  that  they  now  grow  thin; 
 and  therefore  the  God  of  nature  made  choice  of  this  sign,  rather 
 than  any  other,  to  satisfy  us,  that  he  would  ne\  er  sutler  the 
 clouds  to  thicken  again  to  such  a  degree  as  to  bring  another  de- 
 luge upon  the  earth. —  Patrick's  Comment.  A  rainbow  is  formed 
 from  the  opposite  sun  darting  its  rays  on  a  cloud  that  is  not 
 thick  ;  it  therefore  naturally  signifies,  that  by  the  command  of 
 God  the  rain  will  no  more  overwhelm  the  world;  for  how  can  it 
 take  place,  since  neither  is  the  heaven  totally  overspread  with 
 clouds,  nor  are  those  clouds  which  exist  exceedingly  dense. — 
 Valesius  on  Sacred  Philosophy ,  c.  9. 
 
 c  The  ingenious  Marcus  Marci  is  of  opinion,  that  the  rainbow 
 which  first  appeared  to  Noah  after  the  flood,  ami  was  so  particu- 
 larly dignified  by  God,  as  to  be  consecrated  fora  divine  sign,  was 
 not  the  common  one,  but  a  great  and  universal  iris,  inimitable  by 
 art,  which  he  has  defined  by  a  segment  of  a  circle,  dissected  into 
 several  gyrations  (or  rounds)  by  the  diversity  of  the  colours, 
 differing  one  from  another,  begotten  by  the  sunbeams  refracted 
 
 in  the  atmosphere,  and  terminated  with  anopaque  superficies.  But 
 whether  this  serves  to  explain  the  matter  any  better,  or  whether 
 the  common  rainbow  In-  not  an  appearance  illustrious  i  nougb  to 
 answer  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  intended,  we  Leave  the 
 curious  to  inquire;  and  shall  only  observe  farther,  thai,  whether 
 it  was  an  ordinary  or  extraordinary  how  which  appeared  to  Noah, 
 it  is  the  opinion  of  son  e,  that  the  time  of  its  firs!  appearing,  was 
 not  immediately  after  he  had  sacrificed,  (as  is  generally  supposed,) 
 but  on  the  15('th  day  of  the  flood,  when  God  remembered  Noah, 
 upon  which  very  day  of  the  year  they  likew  ise  cal<  ulate  the  birth 
 of  Christ  (as  pretypified  thereby)  to  have  exactly  fallen  out,  and 
 tl,at  even  the  glorj;  of  the  Lord,  which  shone  round  about  the 
 shepherds,  was  a  gracious  phenomenon,  corresponding  with  this 
 sign  of  the  covenant. —  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  ibid. 
 
 t/This  notion  the  Pagan  poets  ami  philosophers  had  received. 
 For  Ovid  in  his  description  of  these  times,  gives  us  to  understand 
 that   they    ful   on   no  flesh,    hut   lived   altogether   on   herbs  and 
 
100 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1G57.  A.  C.  2347;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 which  is  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  every  tree,  in 
 the  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree,  yielding  seed  ;  to  you  it 
 shall  be  for  meat.'  Nay,  so  far  was  mankind  from  being 
 indulged  the  liberty  of  eating  flesh  at  that  time,  that  we 
 find  '  the  beasts  of  the  field,'  creatures  that  in  their 
 nature  are  voracious,  '  and  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  every 
 thing  that  creeped  upon  the  earth,'  under  the  same 
 restraint,  as  having  nothing  allowed  them  for  their  food 
 but  the  herbage  of  the  ground ;  because  it  was  the 
 Almighty's  will  that,  in  the  state  of  innocence,  no 
 violence  should  be  committed,  nor  any  life  maintained 
 at  the  loss  and  forfeiture  of  another's. 
 
 This  was  the  original  order  and  appointment,  and  so 
 it  continued  after  the  fall ;  for  we  can  hardly  suppose 
 that  God  would  allow  a  greater  privilege  to  man,  after 
 his  transgression,  than  he  did  before.  On  the  contrary, 
 we  find  him  1  cursing  the  ground  for  man's  sake,  and 
 telling  him  expressly,  that  '  in  sorrow  he  should  eat  of  it 
 all  the  days  of  his  life  ;'  and  though  it  should  bring  forth 
 thorns  and  thistles  to  him,  yet  here  the  restriction  is  still 
 continued,  '  Of  the  herbs  of  the  field  thou  shalt  eat,' 
 which  is  far  from  implying  a  permission  to  make  use  of 
 living  creatures  for  that  purpose. 
 
 Nay,  farther,  Ave  may  observe,  that  such  a  permission 
 had  been  inconsistent  with  God's  intention  of  punishing 
 him  by  impoverishing  the  earth  ;  since,  had  God  indulged 
 him  the  liberty  of  making  use  of  what  creatures  he  pleased 
 for  his  food,  he  might  easily  have  made  himself  an  amends 
 for  the  unfruitfulness  of  the  earth,  by  the  many  good 
 things  which  nature  had  provided  for  him.  The  dominion, 
 therefore,  which  God  at  first  gave  mankind  over  brute 
 animals  could  not  extend  to  their  slaying  them  for  food, 
 since  another  kind  of  diet  was  enjoined  them  ;  nor  could 
 the  distinction  of  (dean  and  unclean  respect  them  as 
 things  to  be  eaten,  but  as  things  to  be  sacrificed.  The 
 first  permission  to  eat  them  was  given  to  Noah  and  his 
 sons,  and  is  plainly  a  distinct  branch  of  power,  from 
 what  God  grants  when  he  tells  them,  2  '  The  fear  of 
 you,  and  the  dread  of  you,  shall  be  upon  every  beast  of 
 the  earth,'  &c. 
 
 If  it  be  asked,  For  what  reason  God  should  indulge 
 Noah  and  his  posterity  in  the  eating  of  flesh  after  the 
 flood,  which  he  had  never  permitted  before  it  ?  the  most 
 probable  answer  is — That  he  therefore  did  it,  because 
 
 1  Gen.  iii.  17,  IS.  -'  Gen.  ix.  2. 
 
 fruits,  when  he  introduces  Pythagoras,  a  great  inquirer  into  the 
 ancient  and  primitive  practices  oi'  the  world,  expressing  himself 
 in  this  manner; — 
 
 But  th.it  old  time  which  we  the  golden  rail, 
 Was  blessed  with  every  useful  fruit,  and  all 
 Those  fiowery  herbs  which  beautify  the  ground, 
 By  Nature's  hand  were  thickly  strewn  around. 
 No  land  was  then  defiled  with  human  gore, 
 The  birds  unhurt  through  airy  space  might  soar  ; 
 The  timorous  bare  might  widely,  dauntless,  roam, 
 Gambol  its  fill,  make  every  field  its  home  ; 
 No  wily  fisher  snared  the  finny  tribe, 
 Lured  from  their  homes  by  his  deceitful  bribe  ; 
 Fraud  and  deceit  were  wholly  yet  unknown. 
 On  every  hind  peace  raised  her  golden  throne. 
 
 Met.  50.  IS. 
 Porphyry,  in  his  book  on  Abstinence,  asserts  the  same  thing, 
 namely,  that  in  the  golden  age  no  flesh  of  beasts  was  eaten,  and 
 lie  is  to  be  pardoned  in  what  he  adds  afterwards,  namely,  that 
 war  and  famine  introduced  this  practice.  He  was  not  acquainted 
 with  Genesis ;  he  knew  not  that.  God's  order  to  Noah  after  the 
 flood  was,  '  that  every  living  creature  should  be  meat  for  him.' — 
 Edtvards'  Surrey  of  Religion,  vol,  I.  p.  117. 
 
 the  earth  was  corrupted  by  the  deluge,  and  the  virtue  of 
 its  herbs,  and  plants,  and  other  vegetables,  sadly  impair- 
 ed by  the  saltness  and  long  continuance  of  the  waters, 
 so  that  they  could  not  yield  that  wholesome  and  solid 
 nutriment  which  they  did  before  :  Though  others  rather 
 think,  that  God  indulged  them  in  this, 3 '  because  of  the 
 hardness  of  their  hearts  ;'  and  that,  perceiving  the  eager- 
 ness of  their  appetites  towards  carnal  food,  and  design- 
 ing withal  to  abbreviate  the  term  of  human  life,  he  gave 
 them  a  free  license  to  eat  it ;  but  knowing  at  the  same 
 time  that  it  was  less  salutary  than  the  natural  products 
 of  the  earth,  he  thence  took  occasion  to  accomplish  his 
 will  and  determination  of  having  the  period  of  human 
 life  made  much  shorter.  Nor  is  the  reason  which  * 
 Theodoret  assigns  for  God's  changing  the  diet  of  men 
 from  the  fruits  of  the  earth  to  the  flesh  of  animals  much 
 amiss,  viz.,  "That  foreknowing,  in  future  ages,  they 
 would  idolize  his  creatures,  he  might  aggravate  the 
 absurdity,  and  make  it  more  ridiculous  so  to  do,  by  their 
 consuming  at  their  tables  that  to  which  they  sacrificed  at 
 their  altars ;  since  nothing  is  more  absurd  than  to 
 worship  what  we  eat." 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  the  grant  of 
 dominion  which  God  gave  Adam  in  his  state  of  innocence 
 is  now  much  impaired  ;  and  that  the  creatures,  which  to 
 him  were  submissive  through  love,  by  us  must  be  used 
 with  severity,  and  subjected  by  fear.  But  still  it  is  no 
 small  happiness  to  us  that  we  know  how  to  subdue  them  ; 
 that  the  horse  and  the  ox  patiently  submit  to  the  bridle 
 and  the  yoke  ;  and  such  creatures  as  are  less  governable, 
 we  have  found  out  expedients  to  reclaim.  For  though 
 man's  strength  be  comparatively  small,  yet  is  there  no 
 creature  in  the  earth,  sea,  or  air,  but  what,  a  by  some 
 stratagem  or  other,  he  can  put  in  subjection  under  him. 
 
 But  5  '  canst  thou  draw  out  leviathan  with  an  hook  ? 
 or  his  tongue  with  a  cord  which  thou  lettest  down  ? 
 Canst  thou  put  an  hook  into  his  nose  ?  or  bore  his  jaw 
 through  with  a  spear  ?  Will  he  make  many  supplications 
 unto  thee  ?  Will  he  speak  soft  words  unto  thee  ?  Wilt 
 thou  take  him  for  a  servant  for  ever  ?'  All  these  questions, 
 how  expressive  soever  of  the  several  qualities  of  this 
 portentous  creature,  may  nevertheless  be  answered  in 
 the  affirmative,  viz.  That  how  large  soever  in  bulk,  and 
 how  tremendous  soever  in  strength  this  animal  may  be, 
 yet  the  Greenland  fishermen,  who  every  year  return  with 
 
 a  Matt.  xix.  8. 
 
 4  In  Gen.  Qurest.  55.  p.  44. 
 5  Job  xli.  1.,   &c. 
 
 a  This  superiority  of  man  over  all  other  creatures,  his  holding 
 them  in  subjection,  and  making  them  subservient  to  his  uses, 
 we  find  elegantly  described  by  Oppianus,  in  the  following 
 verses: — 
 
 There  is  not  in  the  universe  a  noMer  thing  than  man. 
 
 The  deathless  sons  of  heaven  alone  before  him  take  the  van  ; 
 
 The  potentate  of  all  below,  he  holds  his  regal  rod, 
 
 And  earth  with  all  its  habitants  bend  to  his  lofty  nod. 
 
 How  manya  fury-breathing  brute,  that  roams  the  mountain  brow, 
 
 Has  fallen  a  prey  to  ravenous  birds,  struck  by  his  deadly  blow  ; 
 
 How  many  of  these  winged  tribes  that  sweep  the  clouds  and  sky. 
 
 Are  victims  to  the  shaft  of  death,  aimed  by  his  piercing  eye. 
 
 Though  pigmy  be  his  form,  indeed,  yet  the  lion's  lordly  might. 
 
 Can't  free  it  from  his  well-wrought  snares,  nor  th'  eagle's  airy 
 
 flight 
 Ensure  it  freedom  from  his  grasp  ;  the  strongest  feel  his  chain. 
 The  elephant,  whose  monstrous  bulk  rolls  o'er  the  eastern  plain, 
 Must  yield  to  him  its  boundless  strength — a  slave  for  evermore 
 The  patient  labour-bearing  mule,  must  still  its  fate  deplore. 
 
 B.  5.  llttlieictican. 
 
Shct.  l.'J 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 101 
 
 A.  M.  1657.  A.  C.  2347;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 its  spoils,  do  literally  perform  what  our  author  seems  to 
 account  impossible ;  they  *  '  fill  his  skin  with  barbed 
 irons,  and  his  head  with  fish-spears,  and  so  they  play 
 with  him  as  with  a  bird  ;  they  bind  him  for  their  maidens, 
 and  part  him  among  their  merchants.' 
 
 In  short,  God  has  implanted  in  all  creatures  a  fear 
 and  dread  of  man.  2  This  is  the  thing  which  keeps 
 wolves  out  of  our  towns  and  lions  out  of  our  streets  ;  and 
 though  the  sharpness  of  hunger,  or  violence  of  rage,  may 
 at  certain  times  make  them  forget  their  natural  instinct 
 (as  the  like  causes  have  sometimes  divested  man  of  his 
 reason),  yet  no  sooner  are  these  causes  removed,  but 
 they  return  to  their  ordinary  temper  again,  without 
 pursuing  their  advantage,  or  combining  with  their  fellow- 
 brutes  to  rise  up  in  rebellion  against  man,  their  lord  and 
 master. 
 
 a  Some  modern  writers  of  no  small  note  are  clearly 
 of  opinion,  that  the  Ararat  where  the  ark  rested  was 
 mount  Caucasus,  not  far  from  China,  where  Noah  and 
 some  part  of  his  family  settled,  without  travelling  to 
 Shinar,  or  having  any  hand  in  the  building  of  Babel ; 
 and  the  arguments  they  alleged  for  the  support  of  this 
 opinion  are  such  as  these  : — That  the  Mosaic  history  is 
 altogether  silent  as  to  the  peopling  of  China  at  the  dis- 
 persion, and  wholly  confines  itself  within  the  bounds  of 
 the  then  known  world ;  that  the  Chinese  language  and 
 writing  are  so  entirely  different  from  those  among  us 
 (introduced  by  the  confusion  at  Babel),  that  it  cannot 
 well  be  supposed  they  were  ever  derived  from  them ; 
 and  that  (taking  their  first  king  Fohi  and  Noah  to  be  the 
 same  person)  there  are  several  *  traditions  relating  to 
 them,  wherein  they  seem  to  agree,  that  the  reign  of  Fohi 
 coincides  with  the  times  of  Noah,  and  the  lives  of  his 
 successors  correspond  with  the  men  of  the  same  ages 
 recorded  in  Scripture  ;  and  from  hence  they  infer,  that 
 the  true  reason  why  Moses  makes  so  little  mention  of 
 Noah,  in  the  times  subsequent  to  the  flood,  is  this,  That 
 he  lived  at  too  great  a  distance,  and  had  no  share  in  the 
 transactions  of  the  nations  round  about  Shinar,  to  whom 
 alone,  after  the  dispersion  of  mankind,  he  is  known  to 
 confine  his  history.  This  indeed  is  solving  the  difficulty 
 at  once  :  but  then,  as  this  opinion  is  only  conjectural, 
 the  histories  and  records  of  China  are  of  a  very  uncer- 
 tain ami  precarious  authority,  and  such  as  are  reputed 
 genuine  of  no  older  date  than  some  few  centuries  before 
 the  birth  of  Christ,  c  the  major  part  of  the  learned  world 
 has  supposed,  either  that  Noah,  settled  in  the  country  of 
 
 1  Job  xii.  5,  &c.  *  Miller's  Histoiy  of  the  Church,  b.  I.e.  1. 
 
 a  Dr  Alix,  in  his  Reflections  on  the  Books  of  the  Holy  Serip- 
 iires.  Mr  Winston,  in  his  Chronology  of  the  Old  Testament. 
 Bhuckford  in  his  Connection,  and  Bedford,  in  his  Scripture 
 Chronology. 
 
 b  Thus,  in  the  Chinese  histoiy,  Fohi  is  said  to  have  had  no 
 father,  which  agrees  well  enough  with  Noah,  because  the  memory 
 of  his  father  might  be  lost  in  the  deluge;  that  Fohfs  mother 
 Conceived  him  as  she  was  encompassed  with  a  rainbow,  which 
 Minis  to  allude  to  the  rainbow's  first  appearing  to  Noah  after  the 
 Bood;  and  that  Fohi  carefully  bred  up  seven  sorts  of  creatures 
 which  he  used  to  sacrifice  to  the  supreme  Spirit  of  heaven  and 
 earth,  which  is  an  impi  rfect  tradition  of  Noah's  taking  into  the 
 ark  of  every  clean  least  by  sevens,  and  of  his  making  use  of  none 
 but.  these  in  all  his  burnt-ofli  rings.—  Shuckford's  Connect,  b.  2. 
 
 c  There  seems  to  lie  no  foundation  whatever  for  the  hypothesis 
 that  Noah  was  the  founder  of  the  Chinese  monarchy,  or  indeed 
 tnat  he  ever  .-aw  the  country  known  by  that  name.     Sir  William 
 
 Armenia,  did  not  remove  from  thence,  nor  had  any  con- 
 cern in  the  work  of  Babel,  and  so  falls  not  under  the 
 historian's  consideration  ;  or  that,  if  he  did  remove  with 
 the  rest  into  the  plains  of  Shinar,  being  now  superan- 
 nuated and  unfit  for  action,  the  administration  of  things 
 was  committed  to  other  hands,  which  made  his  name  and 
 authority  the  less  taken  notice  of. 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that  the  design  of 
 the  sacred  penman  is  to  be  very  succinct  in  his  account 
 of  the  affairs  of  this  period,  because  he  is  hastening  to 
 the  history  of  Abraham,  the  great  founder  of  the  Jewish 
 nation,  and  whose  life  and  adventures  he  thinks  himself 
 concerned,  upon  that  account,  to  relate  more  at  large. 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  from  the  tenor  of  his 
 writing,  that  he  is  far  from  leading  us  into  any  suspicion 
 of  his  having  a  private  malignity  to  Noah's  character. 
 He  informs  us,  that,  amidst  the  corruption  of  the 
 antediluvian  world,  he  preserved  himself  immaculate, 
 and  did  therefore  '  find  favour  in  the  sight  of  God,'  ami 
 was  admitted  to  the  honour  of  his  immediate  converse  : 
 that,  to  preserve  him  from  the  general  destruction,  God 
 instructed  him  how  to  build  a  vessel  of  security,  undertook 
 the  care  and  conduct  of  it  himself,  and,  amidst  the  ruins  of 
 a  sinking  world,  landed  it  safe  on  one  of  the  mountains 
 of  Armenia ;  that,  as  soon  as  the  deluge  was  over,  God 
 accepted  of  his  homage  and  sacrifice,  and  not  only 
 renewed  to  him  the  same  charter  which  he  had  originally 
 granted  to  our  first  progenitor,  but  over  and  above  that, 
 gave  him  an  enlargement  of  his  diet  which  he  had  not 
 granted  to  any  before  ;  and  with  him  made  an  everlasting 
 covenant,  never  to  destroy  the  world  by  water  any  more, 
 whereof  he  constituted  his  bow  in  the  clouds  to  be  a 
 glorious  symbol.  In  this  point  of  light  it  is  that  Piloses 
 has  all  along  placed  the  patriarch's  character ;  and 
 therefore,  if  in  the  conclusion  of  it  he  was  forced  to 
 shade  it  with  one  act  of  intemperance,  this,  we  may 
 reasonably  conclude,  proceeded  from  no  other  passion 
 but  his  love  of  truth  ;  and  to  every  impartial  reader  must 
 be  d  a  strong  argument  of  his  veracity,  in  that  he  has 
 
 Jones  lias  shown  it  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  probable  that  the 
 Chinese  empire  was  not  founded  at  an  earlier  period  than  the 
 12th  century  before  the  Christian  era;  and  that  the  people  them- 
 selves, far  from  being  aborigines,  are  a  mixed  race  descended 
 from  Hindoos  and  Tartars.  During  the  life  of  Noah,  he  and  his 
 family,  are  supposed  to  have  lived  agricultural  lives,  in  the  fer- 
 tile plain  of  Armenia,  at  the  foot  of  mount  Ararat,  which 
 according  to  Tournefort,  is  a  most  delightful  region— still  famous 
 for  its  vines ;  and  there  the  venerable  patriarch  died  350  years  after 
 the  deluge,  but  long  before  the  impious  rebellion  of  part  of  his  de- 
 scendants in  the  plain  Shinar,  which  introduced  into  the  world 
 the  confusion  of  tongues.  Where  Dr  Shuckf ord  met  with  the 
 Chinese  history  which  he  quotes  I  know  not  ;  but  Sir  William 
 Jones  has  proved,  by  the  testimony  of  Confucius  himself,  that  no 
 historical  monument  then  existed  in  China  of  events  of  an  earlier 
 date  than  1100  years  before  our  era.  The  stories  of  Fohi's 
 conception  by  the  rainbow,  and  his  having  reared  seven  sorts  of 
 animals  for  sacrifice,  certainly  do  not  appear  to  have  been  derived 
 by  tradition  from  Noah's  preservation  in  the  ark ;  but  that  tra- 
 dition passed  into  China  horn  Hindostan.  where,  in  the  most 
 ancient,  writings,  man)' accounts  of  the  deluge  are  still  preserved. 
 
 See ^Isiutir  Researches,  \ol.  ii.  mem.  25.  and  Hates' s Analysis, 
 
 &c.  vol.  1.— En. 
 
 rfTo  confirm  in  some  measure,  the  truth  of  this  account 
 of  Moses,  we  have  an  heathen  story,  which  seems  to  have 
 sprung  from  some  tradition  concerning  it;  for  it  tells  us,  that 
 on  a  certain  day,  Myrrha,  wife,  or  (.as  others  say)  nurse  to 
 Hammon,  and  mother  of  Adonis,  having  her  son  in  her  company, 
 found  Cynistaa  sleeni  '•■'.  ill   uncovered,  and  in  an 
 
102 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1657.  A.  C.  2347;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  22*V7.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 interspersed  the  faults  with  the  commendations  of  his 
 worthies,  and,  through  his  whole  history,  drawn  no  one 
 character  so  very  fair,  as  not  to  leave  some  blemishes, 
 some  instances  of  human  frailty  still  abiding  on  it.  And 
 indeed,  if  we  consider  the  thing  rightly,  we  shall  find  it 
 an  act  of  singular  kindness,  and  benefit  to  us,  that  God 
 has  ordered  the  faults  and  miscarriages  of  his  saints  so 
 constantly  to  be  recorded  in  Scripture  ;  since  '  they  are 
 written  for  our  instruction,'  to  remind  us  of  our  frailty, 
 and  to  alarm  our  caution  and  fear. 
 
 Noah,  we  read,  had  escaped  the  pollutions  of  the  old 
 world,  and  approved  his  fidelity  to  God  in  every  trying 
 juncture  ;  and  yet  we  see  him  here  falling  of  his  own 
 accord,  and  shamefully  overcome  in  a  time  of  security 
 and  peace,  when  he  had  no  temptations  to  beset  him, 
 nor  any  boon  companions  to  allure  him  to  excess  :  and 
 therefore  his  example  calls  perpetually  upon  *  '  him  that 
 thinketh  he  standeth,  to  take  heed  lest  he  fall.'  More 
 especially  it  informs  us,  that  3  '  wine  is  a  mocker,  strong 
 drink  is  raging,  and  whosoever  is  deceived  thereby  is 
 not  wise  ;'  and  therefore  it  exhorts,  in  the  words  of  the 
 wise  man,  3  '  Look  not  thou  upon  wine  when  it  is  red, 
 when  it  giveth  its  colour  in  the  cup,  when  it  moveth 
 itself  aright.  At  the  last  it  will  bite  like  a  serpent,  and 
 sting  like  an  adder.  Thine  eyes  shall  behold  strange 
 women,  and  thine  heart  shall  utter  perverse  things  :  yea, 
 thou  shalt  be  as  he  that  lieth  down  in  the  midst  of  the 
 sea,  and  as  he  that  lieth  upon  the  top  of  a  mast.' 
 
 There  is  not  however  all  the  reason  that  is  imagined 
 to  suppose  that  Noah  was  drunk  to  any  such  excessive 
 degree.  The  same  word  which  is  here  used  occurs  *  in 
 another  place  in  this  book  of  Genesis  ;  where  we  read, 
 that  Joseph's  brethren  drank  and  were  merry  with  him  ;' 
 and  yet  the  circumstances  of  the  entertainment  will  not 
 suffer  us  to  think  that  they  indulged  themselves  in 
 any  excess,  in  the  presence  of  him  whom,  as  yet,  they 
 knew  to  be  no  other  than  the  governor  of  Egypt.  And, 
 in  like  manner,  if  we  may  be  allowed  to  take  the  word 
 here  in  an  innocent  sense,  its  import  will  only  be,  that 
 Noah  drank  of  the  wine  plentifully  perhaps,  but  not  to  a 
 debauch,  and  so  fell  asleep.  For  we  must  observe,  that 
 Moses's  design  is,  not  to  accuse  Noah  of  intemperance, 
 but  only  to  show  upon  what  occasion  it  was  that  the 
 Canaanites,  whom  the  people  under  his  command  were 
 now  going  to  engage,  were  accursed,  and  reprobated  by 
 God,  even  from  the  days  of  Noah,  and  consequently  in 
 more  likelihood  to  fall  into  their  hands. 
 
 Without  perplexing  ourselves  therefore  to  find  out 
 such  excuses  as  several  interpreters  have  devised ;  as, 
 that  Noah  was  unacquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  vine 
 in  general,  a  or  with  the  effects  of  this  in  particular,  or 
 
 1  1  Cor.  x.  12.  *  Prov.  xx.  1.  3  Prov.  xxiii.  31,  &c. 
 4  Ch.  xliii.  34. 
 indecent  posture.  She  ran  immediately,  and  informed  Hammon 
 of  it ;  he  gave  notice  of  it  to  his  brothers,  who,  to  prevent  the 
 confusion  which  Cynistas  might  be  in  to  find  himself  naked, 
 covered  him  with  something.  Cynistas,  understanding  what 
 had  passed,  cursed  Adonis,  and  pursued  Myrrha  into  Arabia ; 
 where,  after  having  wandered  nine  months,  she  was  changed  into 
 a  tree,  which  bears  myrrh.  Hammon  and  Ham  are  the  same 
 person,  and  so  are  Adonis  and  Canaan. — Culmcfs  Dictionary  on 
 the  word  Ham. 
 
 a  It  is  a  Jewish  tradition  or  allegory,  that  the  vine  which  Noah 
 planted  was  not  of  ordinary  terrestrial  growth,  but  was  carried 
 down  the  river  out  of  Paradise,  or  at  least  out  of  Eden,  and  found 
 
 that  the  age  and  infirmity  of  his  body,  or  the  deep  con- 
 cern and  melancholy  of  his  mind,  made  him  liable  to  be 
 overcome  with  a  very  little  ;  we  may  adventure  to  say, 
 that  he  drank  plentifully  without  impeaching  his  sobriety  ; 
 and  that,  while  he  was  asleep,  he  chanced  to  be  uncov- 
 ered, without  any  stain  upon  his  modesty.  There  is  a 
 great  deal  of  difference  between  satiety  and  intemper- 
 ance, between  refreshing  nature  and  debauching  it ;  and 
 considering  withal  that  the  fashion  of  men's  habits  was  at 
 that  time  loose,  (as  they  were  likewise  in  subsequent 
 ages  before  the  use  of  breeches  was  found  out)  such  an 
 accident  might  have  easily  happened  without  the  imputa- 
 tion of  any  harm. 
 
 5  The  Jewish  doctors  are  generally  of  opinion,  that 
 Canaan,6  having  first  discovered  his  grandfather's  naked- 
 ness, made  himself  merry  therewith,  and  afterwards 
 exposed  it  to  the  scorn  of  his  father.  Whoever  the  per- 
 son was,  it  is  certain  that  he  is  called  the  younger,6  or 
 little  son  of  Noah,  which  cannot  well  agree  with  Ham, 
 because  he  was  neither  little,  nor  his  younger  son,  but 
 the  second,  or  middlemost,  as  he  is  always  placed  : 7  nor 
 does  it  seem  so  pertinent  to  the  matter  in  hand,  to  men- 
 tion the  order  of  his  birth,  but  very  fit  (if  he  speaks  of 
 his  grandson)  to  distinguish  him  from  the  rest.  So  that, 
 if  it  was  Canaan  who  treated  his  grandsire  in  this  unwor- 
 thy manner,  the  application  of  the  curse  to  him,  who  was 
 first  in  the  offence,  is  far  from  being  a  mistake  in  Noah. 
 It  is  no  random  anathema,  which  he  let  fly  at  all  adven- 
 tures, but  a  cool,  deliberate  denunciation,  which  pro- 
 ceeded not  from  a  spirit  of  indignation,  but  of  prophecy. 
 The  history  indeed  takes  notice  of  this  malediction, 
 immediately  upon  Noah's  awaking  out  of  his  sleep,  and 
 being  informed  of  what  had  happened;  but  this  is  occa- 
 sioned by  its  known  brevity,  which  (as  we  have  often 
 remarked)  relates  things  as  instantly  successive,  when  a 
 considerable  space  of  time  ought  to  interfere.     In  all 
 
 s  Calmet's  Diet,  on  the  word  Canaan.  °  Gen.  ix.  24. 
 7  Patrick's  Commentary, 
 by  him ;  and,  as  some  have  imagined,  that  the  tree  of  know- 
 ledge of  good  and  evil  was  a  vine ;  so  by  the  description  given 
 thereof,  and  the  fatal  consequences  attending  it,  there  seems  to 
 be  a  plain  allusion  to  it,  and  some  reason  to  believe,  that  it  was 
 one  and  the  same  tree,  by  which  the  nakedness  both  of  Adam 
 and  Noah  was  exposed  to  derision. — Targ.  Jonath. 
 
 b  Interpreters  have  invented  several  other  reasons,  why  the 
 curse,  which  properly  belonged  to  Ham,  was  inflicted  on  his  son 
 Canaan;  as,  1st,  When  Canaan  is  mentioned,  Ham  is  not 
 exempted  from  the  malediction,  but  rather  more  deeply  plunged 
 into  it,  because  parents  are  apt  to  be  more  affected  with  their 
 children's  misfortunes  than  their  own ;  especially  if  themselves 
 brought  the  evil  upon  them  by  their  own  fault  or  folly.  2dly, 
 God  having  blessed  the  three  sons  of  Noah  at  their  going 
 out  of  the  ark,  it  was  not  proper  that  Noah's  curse  should  inter- 
 fere with  the  divine  blessing,  but  very  proper  that  it  should  be 
 transferred  to  Canaan,  in  regard  to  the  future  extirpation  of  the 
 people  which  were  to  descend  from  him.  But,  3dly,  Some  ima- 
 gine that  there  is  here  an  ellipsis,  or  defect  of  the  word  fathei, 
 since  such  relative  words  are  frequently  omitted,  or  understood 
 in  Scripture.  Thus,  Matt.  iv.  21,  James  of  Zebedee,  for  the  son 
 of  Zebedee ;  John  xix.  25,  Mary  of  Cleopas,  for  the  wife  of 
 Cleopas ;  and  Acts  vii.  16,  Emmor  of  Sychem,  for  the  father  of 
 Sychem,  which  our  translation  rightly  supplies;  and,  in  like 
 manner,  Canaan  may  be  put  for  the  father  of  Canaan,  as  the 
 Arabic  translation  has  it,  that  is,  Ham,  as  the  Septuagint  here 
 render  it.  And  though  Ham  had  more  sons,  yet  lie  may  here 
 be  described  by  his  relation  to  Canaan,  because  in  him  the  curse 
 was  more  fixed  and  dreadful,  reaching  to  his  utter  extirpation, 
 whilst  the  rest  of  Ham's  posterity,  in  after  ages,  were  blessed 
 with  the  saving  knowledge  of  the  gospel. —Poole's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 103 
 
 A.  M.  1657.  A.  C.  2317;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 probability  these  predictions  of  Noah,  which  point  out 
 the  different  fates  of  his  posterity,  were  such  as1  we  find 
 a  Jacob  pronouncing-  over  his  sons  a  little  before  his 
 death;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  common  opinion, 
 of  Noah's  dividing-  the  earth  among  his,  might  take  its 
 Original  from  these  last  words  that  we  read  of  him,  which 
 were  certainly  accomplished  in  their  event. 
 
 The  curse  upon  Canaan  b  is,  that  he  should  be  a  servant 
 to  Sheiu:  and,2  about  800  (or,  according  to  Dr  Hales, 
 I54(i)  years  after  this,  did  not  the  Israelites,  descend- 
 ants of  Shem,  take  possession  of  the  land  of  Canaan, 
 subdue  thirty  of  its  kings,  destroy  most  of  its  inhabitants, 
 lay  heavy  tributes  upon  the  remainder,  and,  by  oppres- 
 sions of  one  kind  or  other,  oblige  some  to  flee  into 
 Egypt, c  others  into  Africa,  and  others  into  Greece  ?  He 
 was  doomed  likewise  to  be  a  servant  to  Japhet ;  and 
 did  not  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  descended  from  Japhet, 
 utterly  destroy  the  relics  of  Canaan,  who  fled  to  Tyre, 
 built  by  the  Sidonians ;  to  Thebes,  built  by  Cadmus ;  and 
 to  Carthage,  built  by  Dido?  For  who  has  not  heard  of 
 the  conquests  of  the  Romans  over  the  Africans? 
 
 The  blessing  upon  Japhet  is,  that  his  territories  should 
 be  enlarged: 3  and  can  we  think  otherwise,  when  (as  we 
 shall  show  anon)  not  only  all  Europe,  and  the  Lesser 
 Asia,  but  Media  likewise,  and  part  of  Armenia,  Iberia, 
 Albania,  and  the  vast  regions  towards  the  north,  which 
 anciently  the  Scythians,  but  now  the  Tartars,  inhabit,  fell 
 to  the  share  of  his  posterity  ?  It  was  likewise  declared, 
 tluit  he  should  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem  ;  and  is  it  not 
 notorious  that  the   Greeks  and   Romans    invaded   and 
 
 1  Gen.  xlix.  i  Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 
 3  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  That  which  may  confirm  us  in  this  opinion  is, — That  Jacob, 
 when  he  ealleth  his  children  together,  acquaints  them,  that  his 
 purpose  is  '  to  tell  them  that  which  shall  befall  them  in  the  last 
 days;'  and  that  he  does  not  always  presage  blessings,  but  some- 
 times ill  luck  to  their  posterity,  and  (in  the  same  manner  that 
 Noah  does)  now  and  then  drops  a  note  of  his  displeasure,  accord- 
 ing as  their  behaviour  has  been;  for  thus  he  says  of  Simeon  and 
 Levi,  in  regard  to  the  slaughter  of  the  Shechemitcs,  'Cursed  be 
 their  anger,  for  it  was  fierce,  and  their  wrath,  for  it  was  cruel,' 
 Gen.  xlix.  7. 
 
 b  Dr  Hales,  who  perfectly  agrees  with  our  author,  that  the 
 curse  was  pronounced  on  Canaan  only,  and  not  on  Ham  and 
 his  descendants  generally,  and  who  has  a  long  dissertation  on  the 
 subject,  second  edition,  pp.  344 — 348,  justly  remarks,  that  the 
 curse  denounced  against  Canaan's  posterity,  to  be  '  servant  of 
 servants,'  the  lowest  of  servants,  even  slaves,  to  their  brethren 
 in  general,  did  not  affect  individuals,  nor  even  nations,  so  long 
 as  they  continued  righteous.  In  Abraham's  days  Melchisedek, 
 whose  name  was  expressive  of  his  character,  signifying  '  king 
 of  righteousness,'  was  a  worthy  and  revered  'priest  of  the  most 
 high  (iod.'  And  Abimelech,  whose  name  denotes  'parental 
 king,'  pleaded  the  integrity  of  his  heart,  and  righteousness  of 
 his  nation  before  God ;  and  his  plea  was  accepted.  Yet  they 
 appear  to  have  been  Canaanites.  (See  Gen.  xiv.  18 — 20;  xv. 
 l(i;  xx.  4 — 9.)  At  the  same  time  the  impieties  and  abomina- 
 tions  of  their  neighbours,  in  the  cities  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
 &c,  drew  down  the  signal  vengeance  of  Heaven  in  their  over- 
 throw.— Ed. 
 
 c  Procopius  (on  the  Vandal  war,  b.  ii.  c.  10)  tells  us,  that,  in 
 the  province  of  Tingitana,  and  in  the  very  ancient  city  of  Tingis, 
 which  was  founded  by  them,  there  are  two  great  pillars  to  be 
 seen,  of  white  stone,  erected  near  a  large  fountain,  with  an 
 inscription  in  Phoenician  characters,  to  this  purpose,  "  We  are 
 people  preserved  by  flight,  from  that  rover  Jesus,  the  son  of  Nave, 
 whn  pursued  us."  And  what  makes  it  very  probable  that  they 
 bent  their  flight  this  way,  is  the  great  agreement,  and  almost 
 identity,  of  the  Punic  with  the  Canaanitish,  or  Hebrew  language. 
 — Calmet's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Canaan. 
 
 2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 conquered  that  part  of  Asia  where  the  posterity  of  Shem 
 had  planted  themselves;  that  both  Alexander  and  Caesar 
 were  masters  of  Jerusalem,  and  made  all  the  countries 
 thereabout  tributary  ?  "  You,"  says  *  Justin  Martyr, 
 (speaking  to  Trypho  the  Jew  concerning  his  nation,) 
 "  who  are  descended  from  Shem,  according  as  God  had 
 appointed,  came  into  the  land  of  the  children  of  Canaan 
 and  made  it  your  own;  and,  in  like  manner,  according 
 to  the  Divine  decree,  the  sons  of  Japhet  (the  Romans) 
 have  broken  in  upon  you,  seized  upon  your  whole  coun- 
 try, and  still  keep  possession  of  it.  Thus  the  sons  of 
 Shem,"  says  he,  "have  overpowered  and  reduced  the 
 Canaanite ;  and  the  sons  of  Japhet  have  subdued  the  sons 
 of  Shem,  and  made  them  their  vassals ;  so  that  the  pos- 
 terity of  Canaan  are  become,  in  a  literal  sense,  servants 
 of  servants." 
 
 But,  in  the  blessing  bestowed  upon  Shem,  why  the 
 God  of  Shem,  you  will  say,  and  not  the  God  of  Japhet?3 
 They  were  both  of  them  equally  observant  of  their  father, 
 and  joined  in  the  pious  office  that  they  did  him.  The 
 preference,  if  any,  was  due  to  the  first  Jiorn;  and  there- 
 fore we  may  presume,  that  if  the  blessing  here,  peculiar 
 to  Shem,  had  been  any  part  of  a  temporal  covenant,  or 
 any  thing  in  the  power  of  his  father  to  bestow,  he  would 
 have  conferred  it  on  Japhet.  But  as  the  apostle  to  the 
 Hebrews  tells  us,6  'that  he  was  heir  of  righteousness 
 which  is  by  faith,'  he  foresaw  that  in  Seth's  family  God 
 would  settle  his  church;  that  of  his  seed  Christ  should 
 be  born  according  to  the  flesh;  and  that  the  covenant 
 which  should  restore  man  to  himself  and  to  his  Maker, 
 should  be  conveyed  through  his  posterity.  And  this 
 accounts  for  the  preference  given  to  Shem ;  for  Noah 
 spake  not  of  his  own  choice,  but  declared  the  counsel  of 
 God,  Avho  had  now,  as  he  frequently  did  afterwards, 
 '  chosen  the  younger  before  the  elder.' 
 
 Thus  it  appears  upon  inquiry,  that  these  prophecies  of 
 Noah  were  not  the  fumes  of  indigested  liquor,  but7  the 
 words  of  truth  and  soberness:  and  though  their  sense 
 was  not  so  apparent  at  the  time  of  their  being  pro- 
 nounced, yet  their  accomplishment  has  now  explained 
 their  meaning,  and  verified  that  observation  of  the  apostle 
 (which  very  probably  alludes  to  the  very  predictions  now 
 before  us).  '  No  prophecy  is  of  any  private  interpreta- 
 tion, for  the  prophecy  came  not  of  old  time  by  the  will 
 of  man,  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved 
 by  the  Holy  Ghost.' 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— Of  the  Prohibition  of  Blood. 
 
 The  grant  which  God  was  pleased  to  give  Noah  and  his 
 posterity,  to  eat  the  flesh  of  all  living  creatures,  has  this 
 remarkable  restriction  in  it,  e '  But  the  flesh,  with  the  life 
 thereof,  which  is  the  blood  thereof,  shall  you  not  cat. '' 
 Whether  this  prohibition  related  to  the  eating  of  things 
 
 •Dial,  contra  Tryp.  Jud.  p.  288. 
 
 5  Bp.  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy,  p.  103. 
 
 6  Heb.  xi.  7.  '  Acts  xxvi.  k6.  Mien.  ix.  4. 
 
 d  Mr  Bruce  has  given  a  very  satisfactory  account  of  the  prac- 
 tice of  eating  blood  in  Abyssinia.  '1  Ins  custom,  so  prevalent  in 
 several  places,  is  forbidden  in  the  Scriptures.  A  recital  of  the 
 narrative  will  probably  suggest  to  the  reader  the  reasons  of  the 
 prohibition.     Mr  Bruce  tells  us,  that  not  long  after  our  losing 
 
104 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1G67.  A.  C.  2347  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 strangled,  and  such  as  died  of  themselves,  in  which  the 
 blood  was  settled,1  as  some  will  have  it,  or  to  the  eating  of 
 the  flesh  of  creatures  reeking  in  blood,  and  their  limbs  cut 
 off,  while  they  themselves  were  yet  alive, 2as  others  imagine, 
 is  not  so  material  here  to  inquire,  since  the  former  was 
 prohibited  by  subsequent  laws,  both 3  in  the  Jewish  and 
 Christian  church,  and  the  latter  was  a  practice  too  ab- 
 horrent to  human  nature,  one  would  think,  to  need  any 
 prohibition  at  all.  Whether,  therefore,  it  be  blood  con- 
 gealed, or  blood  mingled  in  the  flesh,  that  is  here  pri- 
 marily intended,  the  injunction  must  at  least  equally  ex- 
 tend to  blood  simple  and  unmixed ;  nor  can  any  inter- 
 pretation imaginable  be  more  natural  and  obvious  than 
 this  :  '  Though  I  give  you  the  flesh  of  every  creature, 
 that  you  shall  think  proper  to  make  use  of  for  food,  yet 
 I  do  not,  at  the  same  time,  give  you  the  blood  with  it. 
 The  blood  is  the  life,  or  vehicle,  or  chief  instrument  of 
 life  in  every  creature  ;  it  must  therefore  be  reserved  for 
 another  use,  and  not  be  eaten.' 
 
 This  is  the  true  sense  of  the  prohibition,  compared 
 with  those  parts  of  the  Levitical  law,  wherein  we  find  it 
 re-enjoined :  but  then  the  question  is,  whether  this  in- 
 
 2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 I  junction  be  obligatory  upon  us  now,  under  the  dispensa- 
 tion of  the  gospel  ?  or  whether  the  gospel,  which  is  the 
 law  of  liberty,  has  set  us  free  from  any  such  observance  ? 
 and  a  question  it  is,  that  ought  the  rather  to  be  deter- 
 mined, because  some  have  made  it  a  matter  of  no  small 
 scruple  to  themselves,  whilst  others  have  passed  it  by 
 with  neglect,  as  a  law  of  temporary  duration  only,  and 
 now  quite  abrogated. 
 
 That  therefore  the  reader  may,  in  this  matter,  chiefly 
 judge  for  himself,  1  shall  fairly  state  the  arguments  on 
 both  sides  ;  and,  when  I  have  done  this,  by  a  short  exa- 
 mination into  the  merits  of  each  evidence,  endeavour  to 
 convince  myself  and  others,  on  which  side  of  the  ques- 
 tion it  is  that  truth  preponderates,  and  consequently, 
 what  ought  to  be  the  practice  of  every  good  Christian  in 
 relation  to  this  law. 
 
 Those  who  maintain  the  lawfulness  of  eating  blood,  do 
 not  deny,  but  that  this  prohibition  obliged  Noah  and  his 
 posterity,  that  is,  all  mankind,  to  the  time  of  the  promulga- 
 tion of  the  law  ;  do  not  deny,  but  that,  at  the  giving  of  the 
 law,  this  prohibition  was  renewed,  and  more  explicit  rea- 
 sons were  given  for  the  observation  of  it ;  nay,  do  not  deny, 
 
 1  St  Chiysostom,  and  Ludovicus  de  Dieu. 
 
 8  Maimonides,  and  our  Selden  de  Jure  Gentium. 
 
 3  See  Lev.  xvii.  12,  and  Acts  xv.  20. 
 
 "  sight  of  the  ruins  of  this  ancient  capital  of  Abyssinia,  we  over- 
 took three  travellers  driving  a  cow  before  them;  they  had  black 
 goat  skins  upon  their  shoulders,  and  lances  and  shields  in  their 
 hands ;  in  other  respects  they  were  but  thinly  clothed ;  they  ap- 
 peared to  be  soldiers.  The  cow  did  not  seem  to  be  fatted  for 
 killing,  and  it  occurred  to  us  all,  that  it  had  been  stolen.  This, 
 however,  was  not  our  business,  nor  was  such  an  occurrence  at  all 
 remarkable  in  a  country  so  long  engaged  in  war.  We  saw  that 
 our  attendants  attached  themselves  in  a  particular  manner  to  the 
 three  soldiers  that  were  driving  the  cow,  and  held  a  short  conver- 
 sation with  them.  Soon  alter,  we  arrived  at  the  hithermost  bank 
 of  the  river,  where  I  thought  we  were  to  pitch  our  tent  :  the 
 drivers  suddenly  tript  up  the  cow,  and  gave  the  poor  animal  a 
 very  rude  fall  upon  the  ground,  which  was  but  the  beginning  of 
 her  sufferings.  One  of  them  sat  across  her  neck,  holding  down 
 her  head  by  the  horns,  the  other  twisted  the  halter  about  her  fore 
 feet,  while  the  third,  who  had  a  knife  in  his  hand,  to  my  great 
 surprise,  in  place  of  taking  her  by  the  throat,  got  astride  upon 
 her  belly,  before  her  hind  legs,  and  gave  her  a  very  deep  wound 
 in  the  upper  part  of  the  buttock.  From  the  time  I  had  seen  them 
 throw  the  beast  upon  the  ground  I  had  rejoiced,  thinking  that 
 when  three  people  were  killing  a  cow,  they  must  have  agreed  to 
 sell  part  of  her  to  us  ;  and  I  was  much  disappointed  upon  hearing 
 the  Abyssinians  say,  that  we  were  to  pass  the  river  to  the  other 
 side,  and  not  encamp  where  I  intended.  Upon  my  proposing 
 they  should  bargain  for  part  of  the  cow,  my  men  answered,  what 
 they  had  already  learned  in  conversation,  that  they  were  not  then 
 to  kill  her  ;  that  she  was  not  wholly  theirs,  and  they  could  not 
 sell  her.  This  awakened  my  curiosity  ;  I  let  my  people  go  for- 
 ward, and  staid  myself,  till  I  saw,  with  the  utmost  astonishment, 
 two  pieces,  thicker  and  longer  than  our  ordinary  beef  steaks,  cut 
 out  of  the  higher  part  of  Ahe  buttock  of  the  beast :  how  it  was 
 done,  I  cannot  positively  say." — Travels,  vol.  Hi.,  p.  142. 
 
 "  We  have  an  instance  in  the  life  of  Saul,  that  shows  the  pro- 
 pensity of  the  Israelites  to  this  crime.  Saul's  army,  after  a  battle, 
 Hew,  that  is,  fell  voraciously  upon  the  cattle  they  had  taken,  and 
 threw  them  upon  the  ground  to  cut  off  their  flesh,  and  eat  them 
 raw ;  so  that  the  army  was  defiled  by  eating  blood,  or  living  ani- 
 mals, 1  Sam.  xiv.  33.  To  prevent  this,  Saul  caused  to  be  rolled 
 to  him  a  great  stone,  and  ordered  those  that  killed  their  oxen,  to 
 cut  their  throats  upon  that  stone.  This  was  the  only  lawful  way 
 of  killing  animals  for  food  ;  the  tying  of  the  ox,  and  throwing  it 
 upon  the  ground,  was  not  permitted  as  equivalent.  The  Israelites 
 did  probably  in  that  case,  as  the  Abyssinians  do  at  this  clay;  they 
 cut  a  part  of  its  throat,  so  that  blood  might  be  seen  on  the  ground, 
 but  nothing  mortal  to  the  animal  followed  from  that  wound ;  but 
 
 after  laying  his  head  upon  a  large  stone,  and  cutting  his  throat, 
 the  blood  fell  from  on  high,  or  was  poured  on  the  ground  like 
 water,  and  sufficient  evidence  appeared  that  the  creature  was 
 dead,  before  it  was  attempted  to  eat  it.  We  have  seen  that  the 
 Abyssinians  came  from  Palestine  a  very  few  years  after  this,  and 
 we  are  not  to  doubt,  that  they  then  carried  with  them  this,  with 
 many  other  Jewish  customs,  which  they  have  continued  to  this 
 day." — Bruce's  Travels,  vol.  Hi.,  p.  299. 
 
 To  corroborate  the  account  given  by  Mr  Bruce,  in  these  ex 
 tracts,  it  may  be  satisfactory  to  affix  what  Mr  Antes  has  said  upon 
 the  subject,  in  his  observations  on  the  manners  and  customs  of 
 the  Egyptians,  p.  17.  "  When  Mr  Bruce  returned  from  Abys- 
 sinia, I  was  at  Grand  Cairo.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  his  company 
 for  tlu-ee  months  almost  every  day;  and  having,  at  that  time,  my- 
 self an  idea  of  penetrating  into  Abyssinia,  I  was  very  inquisitive 
 about  that  country,  on  hearing  many  things  from  him  which 
 seemed  almost  incredible  to  me ;  I  heard  many  eye-witnesses 
 often  speak  of  the  Abyssinians  eating  raw  meat.  I  shall  proceed 
 to  relate  one  of  those  occurrences  which  Mr  Pearce  himself  wit- 
 nessed. 
 
 "  On  the  7th  of  February,  he  went  out  with  a  party  of  Lasta 
 soldiers  on  one  of  their  marauding  expeditions,  and  in  the  course 
 of  the  day  they  got  possession  of  several  head  of  cattle,  with  which, 
 towards  evening,  they  made  the  best  of  their  way  back  to  the 
 camp.  They  had  then  fasted  for  many  hours,  and  still  a  consi- 
 derable distance  remained  for  them  to  travel.  Under  these  cir- 
 cumstances, a  soldier  attached  to  the  party,  proposed  cutting  out 
 the  "  ghulada"  from  one  of  the  cows  they  were  driving  before 
 them,  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  their  hunger.  This  term  Mr 
 Pearce  did  not  at  first  understand,  but  he  was  not  long  left  in 
 doubt  upon  the  subject;  for,  the  others  having  assented,  they  laid 
 hold  of  the  animal  by  the  horns,  threw  it  down,  and  proceeded 
 without  farther  ceremony  to  the  operation.  This  consisted  in  cut- 
 ting out  two  pieces  of  flesh  from  the  buttock,  near  the  tail,  which, 
 together,  Mr  Pearce  supposed,  might  weigh  about  a  pound.  As 
 soon  as  they  had  taken  these  way,  they  sewed  up  the  wounds, 
 plastered  them  over  with  cow  dung,  and  drove  the  animal  forwards, 
 while  they  divided  among  their  party  the  still  reeking  steaks. 
 
 They  wanted  Mr  Pearce  to  partake  of  this  meat,  raw  as  it  came 
 from  the  cow,  but  he  was  too  much  disgusted  with  the  scene  to 
 comply  with  their  offer;  though  he  declared  he  was  so  hungry  at 
 the  time,  that  he  could  without  remorse  have  eaten  raw  flesh,  had 
 the  animal  been  killed  in  the  ordinary  way ;  a  practice  which  I 
 may  here  observe,  he  never  could  before  be  induced  to  adopt, 
 notwithstanding  its  being  general  throughout  the  country.  The 
 animal,  after  this  barbarous  operation,  walked  somewhat  lame, 
 but  nevertheless  managed  to  reach  the  camp  without  any  appa- 
 rent injury,  and  immediately  after  their  arrival  it  was  killed  by 
 the  Worari,  and  consumed  for  their  supper." — Salt's  Voyage  to 
 Abyssinia,  p.  295. 
 
Sect.  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 A.  M.  1647.  A.  C.  2347  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 but  that  under  the  gospel  it  was  enjoined  by  a  very  com- 
 petent authority,  to  some  particular  Christians  at  least, 
 for  some  determinate  time.  But  then  they  contend,  that, 
 during  these  several  periods,  there  could  be  no  moral 
 obligation  in  the  injunction,  but  that,  (setting  aside  the 
 divine  authority,)1  'neither  if  they  did  eat,  were  they  the 
 worse,  neither  if  they  did  not  eat,  were  they  the  better.' 
 
 For,  if  there  was  any  moral  turpitude  in  the  act  of  eat- 
 ing blood,  or  things  commixed  with  blood,  how  comes  it 
 to  pass,  say  they,  that,  though  God  prohibited  his  own 
 people  the  Jews,  yet  he  suffered  other  nations  to  eat2  any 
 thing  that  died  of  itself,  and  consequently  had  the  blood 
 settled  in  it  ?  If3  meat  commendeth  us  to  God,  the  same 
 Providence,  which  took  care  to  restrain  the  Jews4  (for  is 
 he  the  God  of  the  Jews  only,  is  he  not  also  of  the  Gen- 
 tiles ?)  from  what  was  detestable  to  him,  as  well  as  ab- 
 horrent to  human  nature,  would  have  laid  the  same  inhi- 
 bition upon  all  mankind;  at  least  he  would  not  have 
 enjoined  his  own  people  to  give  to  a  proselyte  of  the 
 gate,  or  to  sell  to  an  alien,  or  heathen,  such  meat  as 
 would  necessarily  ensnare  them  in  sin. 
 
 The  law,  therefore,  which  enjoined  Noah  and  his  chil- 
 dren to  abstain  from  blood,  must  necessarily  have  been  a 
 law  peculiar  to  that  time  only.  5Cain,  in  the  first  age  of 
 the  world,  had  slain  Abel,  while  there  were  but  few  per- 
 sons in  it :  God  had  now  destroyed  all  mankind  except 
 eight  persons  ;  and,  to  prevent  the  fate  of  Abel  from 
 befalling  any  of  them,  he  forbids  murder  under  a  capital 
 punishment ;  and  to  this  purpose,  forbids  the  use  of 
 blood,  as  a  proper  guard  upon  human  life  in  the  infancy 
 of  the  world.  Under  the  Mosaic  covenant  he  renews  this 
 law,  indeed,  but  then  he  establishes  it  upon  another 
 foundation,  and  makes  blood  therefore  prohibited,  be- 
 cause he  had  appointed  it6  '  to  be  offered  upon  the  altar, 
 and  to  make  an  atonement  for  men's  souls  ;  for  it  is  the 
 blood,'  saith  he, '  that  maketh  an  atonement  for  the  soul  •' 
 and  what  was  reserved  for  religious  purposes,  was  not  at 
 that  time  convenient  to  be  ate.  But  now  that  these  purposes 
 are  answered,  and  these  sacrifices  are  at  an  end,  the 
 reason  of  our  abstinence  has  ceased,  and  consequently 
 our  abstinence  itself  is  no  longer  a  duty. 
 
 Blood,  we  allow,  had  still  something  more  sacred  in 
 it ;  it  Mas  a  type  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  who  was 
 to  be  offered  upon  the  altar  of  his  cross  ;  but  that  obla- 
 tion being  now  made,  the  reason  of  its  appropriation, 
 and  being  withheld  from  common  use,  is  now  no  more. 
 And  though  the  council  at  Jerusalem  made  a  decree,  even 
 subsequent  to  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  that  the  brethren, 
 who  were  of  the  Gentiles,  should  abstain  from  things 
 strangled,  and  from  blood  ;  yet  before  we  can  determine 
 any  thing  from  this  injunction,  the  occasion,  place,  time, 
 and  other  circumstances  of  it,  must  be  carefully  looked 
 into. 
 
 The  occasion  of  the  decree  was  this — while  Paul  and 
 Barnabas  were  preaching  the  gospel  at  Antioch,  certain 
 persons,  converted  from  Judaism,  came  down  from  Jeru- 
 salem, and  very  probably  pretending  a  commission  from 
 the  apostles,  declared  it  their  opinion,  that  whoever  em- 
 braced the  Christian  religion,  was  obliged,  at  the  same 
 time,  to  be  circumcised,  and  observe  the  whole  law. 
 
 1  1  Cor.  viii.  8.         *  Deut.  xiv.  21.         3  1  Cor.  viii.  8. 
 Rom.  iii.  29.      *  Miscellanea  Sacra,  vol.  2.       6  Lev.  xvii.  11. 
 
 105 
 
 2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CM.  i.v. 
 
 The  place,  where  the  question  arose,  was  Antioch, 
 where  (as  Josephus  tells  us)  there  was  a  famous  Jewish 
 university,  full  of  proselytes  of  the  gate,  as  they  were 
 called,  and  who,  in  all  probability,  were  converted  by 
 the  men  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene,  who  were  among  those 
 that  were  dispersed  at  the  first  persecution,7  which  imme- 
 diately ensued  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen. 
 
 The  persons  who  moved  this  question,  were  8  some  of 
 the  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  converted  to  Christianity,  but 
 still  so  prejudiced  in  favour  of  their  old  religion,  or  at 
 least  of  the  divine  rite  of  circumcision,  that  they  thought 
 there  was  no  coming  to  Christ  without  entering  in  at  that 
 gate. 
 
 The  persons  to  whom  the  question  related,  were  pro- 
 selytes of  the  gate,  that  is,  Gentiles  by  birth,  but  who 
 had  renounced  the  heathen  religion,  as  to  all  idolatry, 
 and  were  thereupon  permitted  to  live  in  Palestine,  or 
 wherever  the  Jews  inhabited  ;  and  had  several  privileges 
 allowed  them,  upon  condition  that  they  would  observe 
 the  laws  of  society,  and  conform  to  certain  injunctions, 
 that10  Moses  had  prescribed  them. 
 
 The  time  when  this  question  arose,  was  not  lono-  after 
 the  conversion  of  Cornelius  ;  so  that  this  body  of  prose- 
 lytes was,  very  probably,  the  first  large  number  of  Gen- 
 tiles that  were  received  into  the  Christian  church,  and 
 this  the  first  time  that  the  question  was  agitated, whe- 
 ther the  proselytes  of  the  gate,  who,  as  the  zealots  pre- 
 tended, could  not  so  much  as  live  among  the  Jews,  with- 
 out circumcision,  could  be  allowed  to  be  a  part  of  the 
 Christian  church  without  it  ? 
 
 Under  these  circumstances  the  council  at  Jerusalem 
 convened,  and  accordingly  made  their  decree,  that  the 
 proselytes  of  the  gate  (for  it  is  persons  of  this  denomi- 
 nation only  which  their  decree  concerns)  '  should11  ab- 
 stain from  the  meats  offered  to  idols,  and  from  blood, 
 and  from  things  strangled,  and  from  fornication ;'  the 
 very  things  which,12  according  to  the  law  of  Moses,  they 
 engaged  themselves  to  abstain  from,  when  they  were  first 
 admitted  to  the  privilege  of  sojourning  among  the  Jews. 
 So  that,  in  effect,  the  decree  did  no  more  than  declare 
 the  opinion  of  those  who  made  it,  to  those  to  whom  it 
 was  sent,  namely,  that  Christianity  did  not  alter  the  con- 
 dition of  the  proselytes  in  respect  of  their  civil  obliga- 
 tions, but  that,  as  they  were  bound  by  these  laws  ot 
 Moses  before  their  conversion,  so  were  they  still ;  and, 
 consequently,  that  the  sense  of  St  Paul  is  the  same  with 
 the  sense  of  the  council  at  that  time  ;  la '  let  every  one 
 abide  in  the  calling,'  that  is,  in  the  civil  state  and  con- 
 dition wherein  he  is  called.  But,  supposing  the  decree 
 to  extend  farther  than  the  proselytes  of  Antioch,  yet 
 there  was  another  reason  why  the  council  at  Jerusalem 
 should  determine  in  this  manner,  and  that  was,  the  strong 
 aversion  which  they  knew  the  Jewish  converts  would 
 have  conceived  against  (he  Gentiles,  had  they  been  in- 
 dulged the  liberty  of  eating  blood ;  and,  therefore,  to 
 compromise  the  matter,  they  laid  on  them  this  prudent 
 restraint,  from  the  same  principle  that  we  find  St  Paul 
 declaring  himself  in  this  manner  :u  '  Though  I  am  free 
 from  all  men,  yet  have  I  made  myself  a  servant  unto  all, 
 that  I  might  gain  the  more.  Unto  the  Jew,  I  became  as 
 
 7  Acts  xi.  20.     8  Acts  xv.  5.     9  Miscellanea  Sacra,  vol.  2. 
 
 10  Lev.  xvii.     "  Acts  xv.  29.      '»  See  Lev.  xvii.  and  xviii. 
 
 '*  1  Cor.  Til.  20.     '«  1  Cor.  ix.  19,  20,  22. 
 
106 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1657.  A.  C.  2347;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 a  Jew,  that  I  might  gain  the  Jew ;  to  the  weak,  became 
 I  as  weak,  that  I  might  gain  the  weak.  I  am  made  all 
 things  to  all  men,  that  I  might,  by  all  means,  save  some.' 
 
 Nay,  admitting  the  decree  was  not  made  with  this  view, 
 yet,  being  founded  on  laws  which  concerned  the  Jewish 
 polity  only,  it  could  certainly  last  no  longer  than  the 
 government  lasted ;  and,  consequently,  ever  since  the 
 temple  worship  has  expired,  and  the  Jews  have  ceased 
 to  be  a  political  body,  it  must  have  been  repealed  ;  and 
 accordingly,  if  Ave  look  into  the  gospel,  say  they,  we 
 may  there  find  a  repeal  of  it  in  full  form.  For  therein 
 we  are  told,1  that '  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and 
 drink,  but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
 Ghost  ;'2  that '  meat  commendeth  us  not  unto  God  ;'3  that 
 '  what  goeth  into  the  mouth,  defileth  not  the  man  ;'  4that 
 '  to  the  pure,  all  things  are  pure ;  and5  '  that  there  is 
 nothing  unclean  of  itself,  but  only  to  him,  that  esteemeth 
 it  to  be  unclean,  it  is  unclean  ;  for  every  creature  of  God 
 is  good,  and  nothing  is  to  be  refused,  if  it  be  received 
 with  thanksgiving,  for  it  is  sanctified  with  the  word  of 
 God  and  prayer ;' 6  and  therefore  we  are  ordered,7  that 
 '  whatever  is  sold  in  the  shambles,  even  though  it  be  a 
 thing  offered  to  idols,  that  to  eat,  asking  no  questions  for 
 conscience  sake  ;'  and  are  told,  that8 '  whoever  command- 
 eth  us  to  abstain  from  meats,  which  God  has  created  to 
 be  received  with  thanksgiving  of  them  that  believe,  and 
 know  the  truth,'  ought  to  be  ranked  in  the  number  of 
 seducers. 
 
 In  a  word,  the  very  genius  of  the  Christian  religion, 
 say  they,  is  a  charter  of  liberty,  and  a  full  exemption 
 from  the  law  of  Moses.  It  debars  us  from  nothing  but 
 what  has  a  moral  turpitude  in  it,  or  at  least,  what  is  too 
 base  and  abject  for  a  man,  that  has  the  revelation  of  a 
 glorious  and  immortal  life  in  the  world  to  come  :  and, 
 as  there  is  no  tendency  of  this  kind  in  the  eating  of  blood, 
 they  therefore  conclude  that  this  decree  of  the  apostles, 
 either  concerned  the9  Jewish  proselytes  only,  who,  in 
 virtue  of  the  obedience  they  owed  to  the  civil  laws  of 
 Palestine,  were  to  abstain  from  blood  ;  or  obliged  none 
 but  the  Gentiles  of  Antioch,  Syria,  and  Cilicia,  to  whom 
 it  was  directed;  was  calculated  for  a  certain  season  only, 
 either  to  prevent  giving  offence  to  the  Jews,  who  were 
 then  captious,  or  to  reconcile  Gentile  and  Jewish  con- 
 verts, who  Avere  then  at  some  variance  ;  but  A\as  to  last 
 no  longer  than  till  the  JeAvs  and  Gentiles  Avere  formed 
 into  one  communion.  So  that  noAV  the  prohibition  given 
 by  God  to  Noah,  the  laws  given  by  Moses  to  the  Israel- 
 ites, and  the  decree  sent  by  the  apostles  to  the  Chris- 
 tians at  Antioch,  are  all  repealed  and  gone,  and  a  full 
 license  given  to  us  to  eat  blood  Avith  the  same  indiffer- 
 ence as  any  other  food;  if  so  be  Ave  thereby10  '  give  no 
 offence  to  our  Aveaker  brethren,  for  whom  Christ  died.' 
 
 Those  Avho  maintain  the  contrary  opinion,  namely,  that 
 the  eating  of  blood,  in  any  guise  Avhatever,  is  Avicked 
 and  unlawful,  found  the  chief  of  their  arguments  upon 
 the  limitation  of  the  grant  given  to  Noah,  the  reasons 
 that  are  commonly  devised  for  the  prohibition,  and  the 
 literal  sense  of  the  apostolic  decree. 
 
 11  When  princes  give  grants  of  lands  to  any  of  their 
 
 1  Rom.  xiv.  17. 
 4  Tit.  i.  15. 
 
 2  1  Cor.  viii.  8. 
 5  Rom.  xiv.  14. 
 
 5  Matth.  xv.  11. 
 1  Tim.  iv.  4,  5. 
 
 U  Cor.  x.  25,  28.  "lTim.  iv.  1,3.    'Miscellanea  Sacra,  vol.2. 
 10  1  Cor.  viii.  11,  &c.  »  See  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  2. 
 
 subjects,  say  they,  they  usually  reserve  some  royalties 
 (such  as  the  mines,  or  minerals)  to  themselves,  .as  memo- 
 rials of  their  own  sovereignty,  and  the  other's  depen- 
 dance.  If  the  grant,  indeed,  be  given  Avithout  any  reserve, 
 the  mines  and  minerals  may  be  supposed  to  be  included 
 in  it ;  but  when  it  is  thus  expressly  limited,  '  You  shall 
 have  such  and  such  lordships  and  manors,  but  you  shall 
 not  have  the  mines  and  minerals  Avith  the  lands,  for  seve- 
 ral good  reasons  specified  in  the  patent,'  it  must  needs 
 be  an  odd  turn  of  thought  to  imagine  that  the  grantee 
 has  any  title  to  them  ;  and  yet  this  is  a  parallel  case : 
 for,  Avhen  God  has  thus  declared  his  will  to  the  children 
 of  men,  '  You  shall  have  the  flesh  of  every  creature  for 
 food,  but  you  shall  not  eat  the  blood  Avith  it,'  it  is  every 
 Avhit  as  strange  an  inference,  to  deduce  from  hence  a 
 general  right  to  eat  blood. 
 
 The  commandment  given  to  Adam,  is,12  'Of  every  tree 
 in  the  garden  thou  shalt  freely  eat ;  but  of  the  tree  of 
 knoAvledge  of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt  not  eat.'  This  is 
 the  first  laAV  ;  and  the  second  is  like  unto  it,13  '  Every 
 moving  thing,  that  moveth,  shall  be  meat  for  you  ;  even 
 as  the  green  herb,  have  I  given  you  all  things  ;  but  flesh, 
 Avith  the  life  thereof,  Avhich  is  the  blood  thereof,  shall  you 
 not  eat.'  This,  upon  his  donation  both  to  Adam  and 
 Noah,  God  manifestly  reserves  to  himself,  as  an  acknow- 
 ledgment of  his  right  to  be  duly  paid;  and  Avhen  it  Avas 
 relaxed  or  repealed,  say  they,  Ave  cannot  tell. 
 
 Nay,  so  far  from  being  repealed,  that  it  is  not  only  in 
 his  Avords  to  Noah  that  God  has  declared  this  inhibition, 
 but  in  the  Liav,  delivered  by  his  servant  Moses,  he  has 
 explained  his  mind  more  fully  concerning  it.  M '  Whatso- 
 ever man  there  is,  of  the  house  of  Israel,  or  of  the  stran- 
 gers, that  sojourn  among  you,  that  eateth  any  manner  of 
 blood,  I  will  even  set  my  face  against  that  soul,  and  will 
 cut  him  off  from  among  his  people.'  This  is  a  severe 
 commination,  say  they ;  and  therefore  observe,  how  oft, 
 in  another  place,  he  reiterates  the  injunction,  as  it  Avere 
 Avith  one  breath.  15 '  Only  be  sure  that  thou  eat  not  the 
 blood,  for  the  blood  is  the  life,  and  thou  mayest  not  eat 
 the  life  with  the  flesh.  Thou  shalt  not  eat  it;  thou  shalt 
 pour  it  upon  the  earth,  as  Avater ;  thou  shalt  not  eat  it, 
 that  it  may  go  Avell  with  thee  and  thy  children  after  thee.' 
 
 Noav  there  are  several  reasons,  continue  they,  Avhy  God 
 should  be  so  importunate  in  this  prohibition  :  for,  having 
 appointed  the  blood  of  his  creatures  to  be  offered  for  the 
 sins  of  men,  he  therefore  requires,  that  it  should  be  reli- 
 giously set  apart  for  that  purpose;  and,  having  prohibited 
 the  sin  of  murder  under  a  severe  penalty,  he  therefore 
 guards  against  it,  by  previously  forbidding  the  eating  of 
 blood,  lest  that  should  be  an  inlet  to  savageness  and 
 cruelty. 
 
 The  Scythians  (as 16  Herodotus  assures  us)  from  drink- 
 ing the  blood  of  their  cattle,  proceeded  to  drink  the 
 blood  of  their  enemies ;  and  Avere  remarkable  for  nothing 
 so  much  as  their  horrid  and  brutal  actions.  The  animals 
 that  feed  on  blood  are  perceived  to  be  much  more  furious 
 than  others  that  do  not ;  and  thereupon  they  observe  that 
 blood  is  a  very  hot,  inflaming  food,  that  such  foods  create 
 choler,  and  that  choler  easily  kindleth  into  cruelty. 
 Nay,  they  observe  farther,  that  eating  of  blood  gave 
 occasion  to  one  kind  of  early  idolatry  among  the  Zabii 
 
 12  Gen.  ii.  1G,  17.     M  Gen.  ix.  3,  4.     M  Lev.  xvii.  10. 
 15  Deut.  xii.  23,  &c.         16  Book  4. 
 
Shot.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 107 
 
 A.  M.  IG57.  A.  C.  2347;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 in  the  east,  namely,  the  worship  of  demons,  whose  food, 
 as  they  imagined,  was  blood ;  and  therefore  they  who 
 adored  them,  had  communion  with  them  by  eating  the 
 same  food.  Good  reason,  therefore,  say  they,  had  God 
 in  the  gospel,  as  well  as  the  law,  to  prevent  a  practice, 
 which  he  could  not  but  foresee  would  be  attended  with 
 such  pernicious  effects. 
 
 For  the  apostolic  decree,  as  they  argue  farther,  did 
 not  relate  to  one  sect  of  people  only,  the  proselytes  of 
 the  gate,  who  were  lately  converted  to  Christianity;  nor 
 was  it  directed  to  some  particular  places  only,  and  with 
 a  design  to  answer  some  particular  ends,  the  prevention 
 of  offence,  or  the  reconciliation  of  contending  parties ; 
 to  subsist  for  a  determinate  time,  and  then  to  lose  all 
 its  obligation:  but  it  concerned  all  Christians,  in  all 
 nations,  and  in  all  future  ages  of  the  church,  was  enacted 
 for  a  general  use  and  intent,  and  has  never  since  been 
 repealed.  And  to  support  these  assertions,  they  proceed 
 in  this  method  : — 
 
 Before  the  passing  of  this  decree,  say  they,  St  Paul 
 preached  Christianity  to  the  whole  body  of  the  Gentiles 
 at  Antioch.  For  he  had  not  long  preached  in  the  syna- 
 gogues, before  the  Gentiles  l  besought  him,  that  he  would 
 preach  to  them  the  same  words,  that  is,  the  doctrine  of 
 Jesus  Christ,  on  the  next  Sabbath-day ;  and  accordingly 
 we  are  told,  that,  on  '  the  Sabbath-day,  came  almost  the 
 whole  city  together  to  hear  the  word  of  God ;'  which  cer- 
 tainly implies  a  concourse  of  people,  more  than  the  pro- 
 selytes of  the  gate,  nay  more  than  the  whole  body  of  the 
 Jews,  who  were  but  a  handful  in  comparison  of  the 
 rest  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  great  city ;  and  that  this 
 large  company  was  chiefly  made  up  of  Gentiles,  the 
 sequel  of  the  history  informs  us.  For  when  the  2 '  Jews  saw 
 the  multitude  they  were  rilled  with  envy,  and  spake 
 against  those  things  which  were  spoken  by  Paul,  contra- 
 dicting and  blaspheming.  Then  Paul  and  Barnabas 
 waxed  bold,  and  said,  it  was  necessary  that  the  word 
 of  God  shoidd  first  have  been  spoken  to  you,  but  seeing 
 ye  put  it  from  you,  and  judge  yourselves  unworthy  of 
 everlasting  life,  lo,  we  turn  to  the  Gentiles.  For  so  hath 
 the  Lord  commanded  us,  saying,  I  have  set  thee  to  be  a 
 light  of  the  Gentiles,  that  thou  shouldst  be  for  salvation 
 unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.  And  Avhen  the  Gentiles  heard 
 this  they  were  glad,  and  glorified  the  word  of  the  Lord  ; 
 and  as  many  as  were  ordained  to  eternal  life  believed  ; 
 and  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  published  throughout  all 
 the  region.' 
 
 Now  this  transaction  at  Antioch,  say  they,  happened 
 seven  years  before  the  decree  against  blood  and  things 
 strangled  was  passed  at  Jerusalem ;  and  therefore  as  the 
 Gentiles,  not  in  Antioch  only,  but  in  all  the  region  round 
 about,  were  no  strangers  to  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ, 
 there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  this  decree,  when  passed, 
 was  not  confined  to  one  particular  set  of  men,  but 
 directed  to  all  Gentile  converts  at  large.  For  hear  what 
 the  president  of  the  council  says  upon  this  occasion ; 3 
 '  therefore  my  sentence  is,  that  we  trouble  not  them, 
 who  from  among  the  Gentiles  are  turned  to  God ;  but 
 that  we  write  unto  them,  that  they  abstain  from  pollutions 
 of  idols,  and  from  fornication,  and  from  things  strangled, 
 and  from  blood :  for  Moses  of  old  time  hath  in  every 
 
 1  Acts  xiii.  42,  &c.      -  Acts  xiii.  45,  &c.      3  Acts  xv.  19—22. 
 
 2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 city  them  that  preach  him,  being  read  in  the  synagogue 
 every  Sabbath-day.' 
 
 My  sentence  (says  the  apostle)  is,  that  ye  write  unto 
 the  Gentile  converts  upon  these  points ;  '  For  Moses  has 
 those  of  old  in  every  city  that  preach  him,'  that  is, 
 there  is  no  necessity  of  writing  to  any  Jewish  convert, 
 or  any  proselyte  convert  to  Christianity,  to  abstain  from 
 these  things,  because  all  that  are  admitted  into  syna- 
 gogues (as  the  proselytes  were)  know  all  these  things 
 sufficiently  already.  And  accordingly,  upon  this  sen- 
 tence of  St  James,  the  decree  was  founded  and  directed 
 (according  to  the  nature  of  the  thing)  to  those  whom  it 
 was  fitting  and  necessary  to  inform  in  these  points,  that 
 is,  to  those  who  were  unacquainted  with  the  writings  of 
 Moses. 
 
 The  letter,  indeed,  which  contained  the  decree,  was 
 directed  to  the  brethren  at  Antioch,  Syria,  and  Cilicia; 
 but  it  would  be  shocking  and  unchristian  to  think,  that 
 the  precepts  of  an  apostolic  epistle  were  obligatory  to 
 those  only  to  whom  the  epistle  was  directed.  The  pur- 
 port of  it  concerned  all.  It  was  to  apprise  the  heathen 
 converts  to  Christianity,  that  they  were  exempted  from 
 the  observance  of  the  law  of  Moses,  except  in  four 
 instances  laid  down  in  that  canon;  and  as  it  was  of 
 general  concern  for  all  converts  to  know,  the  apostles, 
 we  may  presume,  left  copies  of  it  in  all  the  churches : 
 for  so  we  are  told  expressly  of  St  Paul  and  his  com- 
 panions, that,4  'as  they  went  through  the  cities,  they 
 delivered  them  the  decrees  to  keep,  which  were  or- 
 dained of  the  apostles  and  elders  that  were  at  Jerusa- 
 lem; and  so  were  the  churches  established  in  the  faith, 
 and  increased  in  number  daily.' 
 
 The  apostles,  say  they,  out  of  Christian  prudence, 
 might  do  many  things  to  prevent  offences,  and  to  accom- 
 modate matters  to  the  people's  good  liking :  but  certainly 
 it  looks  below  the  dignity  of  a  synod  to  meet,  and 
 debate,  and  determine  a  question  with  the  greatest  solem- 
 nity, merely  to  serve  a  present  exigence ;  to  leave  upon 
 record  a  decree  which  they  knew  would  be  but  of  tem- 
 porary obligation  ;  and  yet  could  not  but  foresee  would 
 occasion  endless  scruples  and  disputes  in  all  future  ages 
 of  the  church.  If  it  was  to  be  of  so  short  a  continuance, 
 why  was  not  the  repeal  notified,  and  why  were  not  so 
 many  poor  ignorant  people  saved,  as  died  martyrs  in 
 the  attestation  of  it  ?  But,  above  all,  how  can  we  sup- 
 pose it  consistent  with  the  honour  and  justice  of  the 
 apostles,  to  impose  things  as  necessary,  which  were  but 
 of  transient  and  momentary  duration  ? 
 
 Observe  the  words  of  the  decree,  cry  they,  '  It  seemed 
 good  unto  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  us,  to  lay  upon  you 
 no  greater  burden  than  these  necessary  things,  namely, 
 that  ye  abstain  from  meats  ottered  to  idols,  and  from 
 blood,  and  from  things  strangled,  and  from  fornication.' 
 If  these  abstinences  were  only  intended  to  be  enjoined 
 for  a  season,  could  they  properly  be  enjoined  umlcr  the 
 denomination  of  necessary  things?  Is  that  the  appella- 
 tion for  duties  of  a  transient  and  temporary  observation? 
 Did  neither  the  apostles  nor  the  Holy  Ghost  know  the 
 distinction  between  necessary  and  expedient?  Or,  sup- 
 pose it  not  convenient  to  make  the  distinction  at  that 
 time,  how  conn'  things  of  a  temporary,  and  those  of  an 
 
 *  Acts  xvi.  4,  5. 
 
108 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1657.  A.  C.  2347  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2257.  A.  C.  3154.  GEN.  CH.  viii.  20.  TO  THE  END  OF  CH.  ix. 
 
 eternal  obligation,  to  be  placed  upon  the  same  foot  of 
 necessity  in  the  same  decree  ?  Or,  were  fornication  and 
 idol-pollutions  to  be  abstained  from  only  for  a  season, 
 in  compliment  to  the  infirmity  of  the  Jews ;  or  in  order 
 to  make  up  a  breach  between  some  newly  initiated  con- 
 verts? These  are  absurdities,  say  they,  which  cannot  be 
 avoided,  when  men  will  assert  the  temporary  obligation 
 of  this  decree. 
 
 Some  general  declarations  in  Scripture,  especially  in 
 St  Paul's  epistles,  seem  indeed  like  a  repeal  of  it;  but 
 then,  if  we  consider  the  scope  and  occasion  of  these 
 declarations,  we  shall  soon  perceive  that  they  were 
 intended  to  be  taken  in  a  limited  sense ;  otherwise  they 
 are  not  consistent  with  the  decree  itself.  Our  blessed 
 Saviour,  for  instance,  tells  the  people,  that  not  that 
 which  goeth  into  the  mouth  derileth  the  man,  but  that 
 which  cometh  out  of  it.'  But  now,  if  this  declaration  of 
 his  destroys  the  validity  of  the  apostolic  decree,  it  will 
 folloAv,  1st,  That  this  decree  was  repealed  just  twenty 
 years  before  it  was  made,  which  is  a  supposition  some- 
 what extraordinary  ;  and,  2dly,  That  the  whole  body  of 
 the  apostles  did,  after  full  debate,  make  a  most  solemn 
 decree,  and  that  under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
 in  direct  contradiction  to  the  express  declaration  of  their 
 Lord  and  Master,  which  is  a  little  too  contiguous  to 
 blasphemy  ;  and  therefore  let  us  consider  the  occasion  of 
 our  Saviour's  words. 
 
 The  Pharisees,  it  seems,  were  offended  at  his  disciples 
 for  sitting  down  to  meat  before  they  had  washed  their 
 hands,  as  being  a  violation  of  one  of  their  traditional 
 precepts.  Whereupon  our  Saviour  tells  the  company, 
 '  Not.  that  which  goeth  into  the  mouth  derileth  the  man' — 
 never  meaning  to  give  them  a  permission  to  eat  any 
 tiling  prohibited  by  the  law,  but  only  to  instruct  them  in 
 this, — That  there  was  not  all  that  religion,  or  profanation 
 of  religion,  which  the  Pharisees  pretended,  in  observing, 
 or  not  observing  the  tradition  of  the  elders,  by  eating  with 
 washed  or  unwashed  hands ;  that  the  thing  itself  was 
 of  an  indifferent  nature  ;  nor  could  a  little  soil  taken  in 
 at  the  mouth,  by  eating  with  dirty  hands,  defile  the  man, 
 because  nothing  of  that  kind  could  properly  be  called  a 
 pollution. 
 
 St  Paul  himself,  was  one  of  the  council  of  Jerusalem 
 when  the  prohibition  of  blood  was  ratified  by  the  Spirit 
 of  God,  and  imposed  on  the  Gentiles,  who  were  con- 
 verted to  the  Christian  faith  ;  and  therefore  we  can  hardly 
 think  that,  in  his  epistles,  which  were  written  not 
 many  years  after,  he  should  go  about  to  abolish  the 
 observation  of  those  precepts,  which,  after  mature  deli- 
 beration, were  enacted  by  a  general  assembly  of  the 
 church  ;  and  therefore,  when  he  tells  us  that  the  kingdom 
 of  God,  that  is,  the  Christian  religion,  '  consisteth  not  of 
 meat  and  drink,  and  that  meat  commendeth  us  not  unto 
 God,'  he  must  be  understood  in  a  comparative  sense, 
 namely,  that  it  neither  consists  in,  nor  commendeth  us 
 so  much,  as  holiness  and  purity  of  life.  When  he 
 declares, '  that  every  creature  of  God  is  good,  that  nothing- 
 is  unclean  of  itself,  and  that  to  the  pure  all  things  are 
 pure,'  &c,  he  must  necessarily  be  understood  with  this 
 restraining  clause — In  case  there  be  no  particular  statute 
 to  the  contrary ;  for  where  there  is  one ,  all  the  sanctity 
 in  the  world  will  not  give  a  man  a  toleration  to  break  it : 
 and  when  he  complains  of  some  men's  commanding  us  to 
 
 abstain  from  certain  meats,  as  an  infringement  upon  our 
 Christian  liberty,  and  a  branch  of  the  doctrine  of  devils  ; 
 the  meats  which  they  forbade  must  be  supposed  to  be 
 lawful  in  their  kind,  and  under  no  divine  prohibition  ; 
 otherwise  we  bring  the  apostles,  who  inhibited  the  use  of 
 blood,  under  the  like  imputation. 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  that1  St  Paul  allows 
 Christians  to  eat  things  offered  to  idols,  which  may  seem 
 to  invalidate  this  apostolic  decree.  But,  the  answer 
 to  this,  is — 2  That  the  plain  intention  of  the  council 
 at  Jerusalem,  in  commanding  to  abstain  from  meats 
 offered  to  idols,  was  to  keep  Christians  from  idolatry, 
 or,  as  St  James  expresses  it,  '  from  pollutions  of  idols  :' 
 and  the  true  way  to  effect  this,  they  knew,  was  by  prohi- 
 biting all  communion  with  idols  and  idolaters  in  their 
 feasts,  which  were  instituted  in  honour  of  their  idols,  and 
 were  always  kept  in  their  temples.  But  how  is  this  com- 
 mand defeated  by  St  Paul's  permitting  the  Corinthians 
 to  eat  any  part  of  a  creature  sold  in  the  shambles,  or  set 
 before  them  in  private  houses,  (though  that  creature 
 might  chance  to  have  been  slain  in  honour  to  an  idol,) 
 since  the  Christian,  who  ate  it  in  this  manner,  did  not 
 eat  it  in  honour  to  the  idol,  but  merely  as  common 
 food  ? 
 
 To  illustrate  this  by  a  parallel  instance.  Suppose 
 that  the  apostolic  decree  had  commanded  Christians  to 
 abstain  from  things  stolen.  Would  not  any  one  conceive 
 that  the  design  of  this  command  was  to  prohibit  theft, 
 and  all  communion  Avith  thieves  in  their  villany  ?  Yes, 
 surely.  Suppose  then  that  any  one  of  the  council  should, 
 after  this,  tell  the  people  whom  he  preached  to,  that  they 
 might  buy  any  meat  publicly  sold  in  the  shambles,  or  set 
 before  them  in  private  houses,  asking  no  questions  for 
 conscience  sake,  though  possibly  the  butcher  or  the  host 
 might  have  stolen  the  meat ;  would  any  one  think  that 
 this  permission  was  intended  to  invalidate  the  decree  of 
 abstaining  from  things  stolen  ?  And  if  such  a  construc- 
 tion Mould  be  absurd  in  the  one  case,  why  should  it  not 
 be  deemed  so  in  another  ?  Especially  when  St  Paul 
 himself  so  expressly,  so  solemnly,  deters  Christians  from 
 all  participation  in  idolatrous  feasts.3  '  The  things  which 
 the  Gentiles  sacrifice,'  says  he,  '  they  sacrifice  to  devils, 
 not  to  God  ;  and  I  would  not  that  ye  should  have  fellow- 
 ship with  devils.  Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord 
 and  of  devils,  ye  cannot  be  partakers  of  the  Lord's  table 
 and  of  devils.' 
 
 In  a  word,  say  they,  whatever  the  sense  of  certain 
 passages  in  St  Paul's  writings  may  seem  to  be,  they  can- 
 not be  supposed  to  contradict  the  decree  at  Jerusalem  : 
 a  decree  to  which  himself  consented,  nay,  which  he  him- 
 self principally  occasioned,  and  which  he  himself  actu- 
 ally carried  about,  and  deposited  with  the  several 
 churches.  For  to  imagine  that,  with  his  own  hands,  he 
 deposited  the  decree  in  one  church,  under  the  sanction 
 of  a  canon  ratified  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  then  imme- 
 diately went  to  another,  and  preached  against  that  very 
 canon,  and  decried  it  as  inconsistent  with  Christian 
 liberty,  is  to  charge  the  apostle  with  such  an  inconsis- 
 tency of  behaviour,  folly,  and  prevarication,  as  but  badly 
 comports  with  the  character  of  an  ambassador  of  Jesus 
 
 1  Cor.  x.  27. 
 
 2  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  2,  p.  GG. 
 1  1  Cor.  x.  20,  21. 
 
Sect.  II.]  FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 A.  Bff.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 109 
 
 Christ :  and,  therefore,  unless  ive  are  minded  to  impair 
 the  authority,  and  sap  the  foundation  of  revealed  reli- 
 gion, we  must  allow  the  decree  to  be  still  in  force  ;  and 
 the  command,  which  prohibits  the  eating  of  blood,  still 
 chargeable  upon  every  man's  conscience.  A  command 
 given  by  God  himself  to  Noah,  repeated  to  Moses,  and 
 ratified  by  the  apostles  of  Jesus  Christ ;  given  immedi- 
 ately after  the  flood,  when  the  world,  as  it  were,  began 
 anew,  and  the  only  one  given  on  that  occasion  ;  repeated 
 with  awful  solemnity  to  the  people  whom  God  had  sepa- 
 rated from  the  rest  of  the  world  to  be  his  own  ;  repeated 
 with  dreadful  denunciations  of  Divine  vengeance  upon 
 those  who  should  dare  to  transgress  it ;  and  ratified  by 
 the  most  solemn  and  sacred  council  that  was  ever  assem- 
 bled upon  earth,  acting  under  the  immediate  influence  of 
 the  Spirit  of  God  ;  transmitted  from  that  sacred  assembly 
 to  the  several  churches  of  the  neighbouring  nations  by 
 the  hands  of  no  meaner  messengers  than  two  bishops  and 
 two  apostles  ;  asserted  by  the  best  writers  and  most  phi- 
 losophic spirits  of  their  age,  the  Christian  apologists, 
 and  sealed  with  the  blood  of  the  best  men,  the  Christian 
 martyrs ;  confirmed  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the 
 fathers,  and  reverenced  by  the  practice  of  the  whole 
 Christian  church  for  above  300  years,  and  of  the  eastern 
 church  even  to  this  very  day. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  chief  arguments  on  both  sides 
 of  the  question  :  and,  to  form  a  judgment  hereupon,  we 
 may  observe — That,  though  this  prohibition  of  eating 
 blood  can  hardly  be  deemed  a  commandment  of  moral 
 obligation,  yet  is  it  a  positive  precept  which  cannot  but 
 be  thought  of  more  weight  and  importance,  for  being  so 
 oft,  and  so  solemnly  enjoined;  that  though  the  reasons 
 alleged  for  its  injunction  are  not  always  so  convincing, 
 yet  the  prevention  of  cruelty  and  murder,  which  is  imme- 
 diately mentioned  after  it,  will,  in  all  ages,  be  ever 
 esteemed  a  good  one ;  and  though  the  liberty  granted  in 
 the  gospel  seems  to  be  great,  yet  it  can  hardly  be  under- 
 stood without  some  restriction. 
 
 It  seemed  once  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  among  other 
 necessary  things,  to  prescribe  an  abstinence  from  blood; 
 and  when  it  seemed  otherwise  to  him,  we  are  nowhere, 
 that  1  know  of,  instructed.  Could  it  be  made  appear, 
 indeed,  that  this  prescription  was  temporary  and  occa- 
 sional, designed  to  bind  one  set  of  men  only,  or  calcu- 
 lated for  the  infant-state  of  the  church,  the  question 
 would  be  then  at  an  end  :  but  since  there  are  no  proper 
 marks  in  the  apostles'  decree  to  show  the  temporary 
 duration  of  it ;  and  the  notion  of  proselytes  of  the  gate, 
 to  whom  alone  it  is  said  to  be  directed,  (how  commodi- 
 ous soever  it  may  be  to  solve  all  difiiculties,)  upon 
 examination  is  found  to  be  groundless  or  uncertain,  the 
 obligation,  I  fear,  lies  upon  every  good  Christian  still. 
 But  as  this  is  not  every  ones  sentiment ; !  'as  one 
 believeth  that  he  may  eat  all  things,  and  another  thinketh 
 it  the  safe  side  of  his  duty  to  abstain  ;  so  let  not  him  that 
 eateth,  despise  him  that  eateth  not ;  and  let  not  him  that 
 eateth  not,  judge  him  that  eateth  ;  but  judge  this  rather, 
 lhat  no  man  put  a  stumbling-block,  or  an  occasion  to 
 fall,  in  his  brother's  way.  Let  us  therefore  follow  after 
 the  things  which  make  for  peace,  and  things  wherewith 
 one  may  edify  another.' 
 
 1  Rom.  xiv.  2,  S,  13,  19. 
 
 SECT.   II. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — Of  the  Confusion  of  Languages. 
 
 THE   HISTORY. 
 
 It  is  reasonable  to  believe,  that,  for  some  years  after  the 
 flood,  Noah  and  his  family  lived  in  the  neighbourhood 
 of  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  where  the  ark  rested ; 
 thence  removed  into  the  countries  of  Syria ;  then  cross- 
 ing the  TigTis  into  Mesopotamia,  and  so  shaping  their 
 course  eastward,  came  at  length  to  the  pleasant  plain  of 
 Babylon,  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Euphrates.  The  fer- 
 tility of  the  soil,  the  delightfulness  of  the  place,  and  the 
 commodiousness  of  its  situation,  made  them  resolve  to 
 settle  there  ;  and  to  build  a  city  which  should  be  the 
 metropolis  of  the  whole  earth,  and  in  it  a  vast  high  tower, 
 which  should  be  the  wonder  of  the  world  ;  for  the  present 
 use,  a  kind  of  pharos,  or  landmark,  and,  to  future  ages, 
 a  monument  of  their  great  tower  and  might.  ° 
 
 By  this  project  they  promised  themselves  mighty  mat- 
 ters ;  but  that  which  chiefly  ran  in  their  heads,  was  their 
 keeping  together  in  one  body,  that,  by  their  united 
 strength  and  counsels,  as  the  world  increased,  they 
 might  bring  others  under  their  subjection,  and  make 
 themselves  universal  lords :  but  one  great  discourage- 
 ment to  this,  their  project,  was — That  in  the  place,  which 
 they  had  chosen  for  the  scene  of  all  their  greatness,  there 
 was  no  stone  to  build  with.  Perceiving,  however,  that 
 there  was  clay  enough  in  the  country  whereof  to  make 
 bricks, !>  and  plenty  of  a  pitchy  substance  called  bitumen, 
 
 a  It  is  the  opinion  of  many  eminent  critics,  that  the  whole  of 
 Noah's  descendants  were  not  engaged  in  the  rebellious  project  of 
 building  the  tower  of  Babel — but  only  the  descendants  of  Ham, 
 or  a  portion  of  them;  and  this  they  ground  chiefly  on  the 
 opinion,  that  it  is  not  likely  the  whole  family  of  Noah  would 
 leave  the  fertile  regions  of  Armenia,  but  that  portions  of  them 
 would  emigrate  as  their  number  increased.  During  the  life  of 
 that  patriarch,  and  the  lives  of  his  sons,  Dr  Hales  is  of  opinion 
 that  the  whole  of  his  descendants  occupied  Armenia,  extending 
 themselves  gradually  into  the  adjacent  fertile  and  pleasant 
 regions  of  Assyria,  Mesopotamia,  and  Media.  The  same 
 learned  chronologer  is  likewise  of  opinion  that  the  regions 
 destined  for  the  respective  possessions  of  the  families  of  Shem, 
 Ham,  and  Japheth,  were  pointed  out  by  Noah  himself  a  little 
 before  his  death,  in  that  famous  prophecy  relative  to  the  curse  upon 
 Canaan,  that  he  should  be  a  servant  to  Shem  (spoken  by  Noah 
 on  awakening  from  his  disgraceful  sleep)  which  has  been  already 
 considered ;  and  he  supports  this  opinion  by  apostolical  authority. 
 "  We  learn,"  says  he,  "  from  St  Paul,  (Acts  xvii.  26,)  that  the 
 division  of  the  earth  among  the  sons  of  Noah  was  not  made  at 
 random,"  but  that  '  God  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men, 
 to  dwell  upon  the  whole  face  of  the  earth,  having  ordained  the 
 predetermined  seasons,  and  the  boundaries  of  their  respective 
 settlements."  This  important  event  took  place,  according  to 
 the  same  author,  B.  C.  2G14,  about  191. years  after  the  death  of 
 Noah,  and  about  29  years  after  the  death  of  Shem,  when  Japheth 
 and  I  lam  were  probably  dead  likewise. — Ed. 
 
 b  The  word  which  our  translators  make  slime,  is  in  Hebrew 
 hhemar,  in  Greek  &r$a\vot,  in  Latin  bitumen;  and  that  this 
 plain  did  very  much  abound  with  it,  which  was  of  two  kinds, 
 liquid  and  solid;  that  liquid  bitumen  here  swam  upon  the 
 waters ;  that  there  was  a  cave  and  fountain  which  was  continu- 
 ally casting  it  out;  and  that  this  famous  tower,  at  this  time,  and 
 the  no  less  famous  walls  of  Babylon  were  afterwards  built  with 
 this  kind  of  cement,  is  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  several 
 profane  authors.  For  thus  Strabo  tells  us,  "  In  Babylonia  much 
 bitumen  abounds;  there  are  two  kinds  of  ft,"  says  Eratosthenes, 
 
110 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CM.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 which  would  serve  instead  of  mortar,  with  one  consent 
 they  went  to  work,  and,  in  a  short  time,  every  hand  was 
 employed  in  making  bricks,  building  the  city,  and  laying 
 the  foundation  of  a  prodigious  pile,  which  they  purposed 
 to  have  carried  up  to  an  immense  height,  and  had  already 
 made  a  considerable  progress  in  the  work,  when  God, 
 dissatisfied  with  their  proceedings,  thought  proper  to 
 interpose,  and,  at  the  expense  of  a  miracle,  quashed  all 
 their  project  at  once,  insomuch,  that  this  first  attempt  of 
 their  vanity  and  ambition  became  the  monument  of  their 
 folly  and  weakness. 
 
 The  blessing  which  God  had  given  Noah  and  his  sons, 
 to  increase  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  had 
 now,  for  above  an  hundred  years,  (according  to  Hales, 
 540  years,)  exerted  itself  to  good  purpose ;  but,  though 
 the  number  of  their  descendants  was  very  large,  yet  the 
 language  which  they  all  spake  was  but  one,  the  same 
 which  had  descended  to  them  «  from  their  great  progeni- 
 tor, Adam,  and  very  probably  was  pronounced  in  the  same 
 common  manner.  To  frustrate  their  undertaking,  there- 
 fore, God  determined  with  himself4  to  confound  their 
 
 "  a  liquid  and  a  solid — the  liquid  kind  is  called  Naphtha,  and 
 arises  in  the  plain  of  Susa,  but  the  solid,  which  also  has  the  pro- 
 perty of  growing  hard,  is  found  in  Babylonia,  in  a  fountain  nigh 
 to  the  Naphtha,"  b.  16.  Thus  Justin,  speaking  of  Semiramis, 
 says,  "  She  built  Babylon,  and  covered  over  the  wall  of  the  city 
 with  bricks,  instead  of  sand,  bitumen  being  used — the  latter 
 substance  in  several  parts  of  that  country  arises  out  of  the  earth," 
 
 b.  1.  And  thus  Vitruvius,  who  is  elder  than  either,  says,  "In 
 Babylon  there  is  a  place  of  vast  magnitude,  having  liquid  bitu- 
 men swimming  on  its  surface,  with  that  bitumen  and  bricks 
 Semiramis  surrounded  the  wall  of  Babylon  which  she  built,"  b.  8. 
 To  these  we  may  add  some  modern  testimonies,  which  tell  us 
 that  these  springs  of  bitumen  are  called  oyum  Hit,  the  fountains 
 of  Hit ;  and  that  they  are  much  celebrated  by  the  Persians  and 
 Arabs.  All  modern  travellers,  except  Rauwolf,  who  went  to 
 Persia  and  the  Indies  by  the  way  of  Euphrates,  before  the  dis- 
 covery of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  mention  these  fountains  as  a 
 very  strange  and  wonderful  thing. — See  Biblioth.  Bib.  vol.  i. 
 p.  281.y  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patr.  Essay  21,  and  Univers.  Hist.  b.  i. 
 
 c.  2. 
 
 a  That  the  children  of  Noah  did  speak  the  same  language  with 
 Adam  is  very  manifest;  because  Methuselah,  the  grandfather  of 
 Noah,  lived  a  considerable  time  with  him,  and  questionless  spake 
 the  same  language:  and  that  this  language  was  no  other  than  the 
 Hebrew  is  very  probable  from  this  argument — that  Shem,  the 
 son  of  Noah,  was  for  some  time  contemporary  with  Abraham, 
 who  descended  from  him,  and  whose  family  continued  the  same 
 language  that  they  both  spake  until  the  time  of  Moses,  who 
 recorded  the  history  of  his  own  nation  in  his  native  language ;  so 
 that,  what  we  have  now  in  the  Pentateuch,  according  to  the 
 opinion  of  all  Hebrew,  and  most  Christian  writers,  is  the  very 
 same  with  what  God  taught  Adam,  and  Adam  his  posterity. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary .  It  is,  however,  very  doubtful  whether 
 Shem  was  contemporary  with  Abraham — according  to  the  chro- 
 nology of  Hales,  he  was  not. — Ed. 
 
 b  Some  commentators,  from  the  word  confound,  are  ready  to 
 infer,  that  God  did  not  make  some  of  these  builders  speak  new 
 different  languages,  only  that  they  had  such  a  confused  remem- 
 brance of  the  original  language  they  spake  before,  as  made  them 
 speak  it  in  quite  a  different  manner:  so  that,  by  the  various 
 inflections,  terminations,  and  pronunciations  of  divers  dialects, 
 they  could  no  more  understand  one  another,  than  those  who 
 understand  Latin  can  comprehend  those  who  speak  French,  Ita- 
 lian, or  Spanish,  though  these  languages  do  certainly  arise  from 
 it.  But  this  we  conceive  to  be  a  great  mistake — not  only 
 because  it  makes  all  languages  extant  to  be  no  more  than  so  many 
 different  dialects  of  the  same  original,  and,  consequently  redu- 
 cible to  it ;  but  because,  Upon  examination,  it  will  appear  that 
 there  are  certain  languages  in  the  world,  so  entirely  different  from 
 each  other,  that  they  agree  in  no  one  essential  property  what- 
 ever, and  must,  therefore,  at  this  time,  have  been  of  immediate 
 infusion. 
 
 language  ;  by  which  means  it  came  to  pass,  that  though 
 their  tongues  still  retained  the  faculty  of  speech,  yet, 
 having  lost  the  pronunciation  of  their  native  language, 
 on  a  sudden  they  were  so  changed  and  modified  to  the 
 expression  of  another,  (which  was  of  a  sound  quite  dif- 
 ferent,) that  the  next  stander-by  could  not  comprehend 
 what  his  neighbour  meant,  and  this,  in  a  short  time,  ran 
 them  into  the  utmost  disorder  and  confusion  :  for  these 
 different  dialects  produced  different  ideas  in  the  minds 
 of  the  builders,  which,  for  want  of  understanding  one 
 another,  they  employed  to  improper  objects,  and  so  were 
 obliged  to  desist  from  their  enterprise  ;  and,  not  only 
 that,  but  being  by  this  means  deprived  of  the  pleasure 
 and  comfort  of  mutual  society,  except  with  such  as  spake 
 the  same  language,  all  those  who  were'  of  one  dialect 
 joined  themselves  together,  and  leaving  the  devoted 
 place,  (as  they  then  thought  it,)  departed  in  tribes, c  as 
 their  choice  or  their  chance  led  them,  to  seek  out  fresh 
 habitations.  Thus  God  not  only  defeated  their  design, 
 but  likewise  accomplished  his  own,  of  having  the  world 
 more  generally,  and  more  speedily  peopled,  than  it 
 otherwise  would  have  been.  And,  to  perpetuate  the 
 memory  of  such  a  miraculous  event,  the  place,  which  was 
 first  called  Babel,  and,  with  small  variation,  afterwards 
 Babylon,  from  this  confusion  of  languages,  received  its 
 denomination. 
 
 This  confusion  of  tongues,  if  not  dispersion  of  the 
 people,  is  supposed  by  most  chronologers  to  have  fallen 
 101  years  after  the  flood;  for  Peleg,  the  son  of  Eber, 
 who  was  great  grandson  to  Shem,  was  certainly  born  in 
 that  year,  and  is  said  to  have  had  the  name  Peleg  given 
 him,  because  that  in  his  time  the  earth  was  divided. — To 
 this  short  period,  between  the  deluge  and  the  confusion 
 of  tongues,  however,  no  countenance  is  given  in  Sacred 
 Scripture.  It  is  not  said  that  the  earth  was  divided  at 
 Peleg's  birth,  but  in  his  time,  or  days.  Now  if,  as  our 
 author  reasonably  supposes  in  the  succeeding  chapter, 
 that  the  confusion  of  tongues,  and  the  consequent  disper- 
 sion of  the  people,  did  not  take  place  till  Peleg  was 
 100  years  old,  there  was  abundance  of  time,  even 
 according  to  the  Hebrew  chronology,  for  such  a  multi- 
 plication of  mankind,  as  an  attempt  like  that  of  the 
 building  of  Babel  seems  to  imply.  Dr  Hales,  however, 
 seems  to  have  sufficiently  proved  that  Peleg  was  not 
 born  till  401  years  after  the  deluge,  and  that  the  division 
 did  not  take  place  till  he  was  140  years  old.  Conse- 
 quently there  was  a  period  of  541  years,  from  the  deluge 
 till  the  confusion  of  tongues  and  the  dispersion  of  man- 
 kind.— Ed. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Objections  answered  and  Difficulties 
 explained. 
 
 Those,  who  have  undertaken  to  settle  the  geography  of 
 the  Holy  Scriptures,  tell  us  that  the  land  of  Shinar  was 
 
 c  The  dispersion  of  Noah's  sons  was  so  ordered,  that  each 
 family  and  each  nation  dwelt  by  itself;  which  could  not  well  be 
 done  (as  Mr  Mede  observes)  but  by  directing  an  orderly  division, 
 either  by  casting  of  lots,  or  choosing  according  to  their  birth- 
 right, after  that  portions  of  the  earth  were  set  out,  according  to 
 the  number  of  their  nations  and  families ;  otherwise,  some  would 
 not  have  been  content  to  go  so  far  north  as  Magog  did,  whilst 
 others  were  suffered  to  enjoy  more  pleasant  countries. 
 
Sect.    II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 Ill 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 all  that  valley,  which  the  river  Tygris  runs  along,  from 
 the  mountains  of  Armenia  northwards  to  the  Persian 
 Oulf,  or  at  least  to  the  southern  division  of  the  common 
 channel  of  the  Tygris  and  Euphrates.  l  So  that  the 
 country  of  Eden  was  part  of  the  land  of  Shinar :  and 
 as  Eden  was  probably  situate  on  both  sides  of  the  afore- 
 mentioned channel,  so  it  is  not  unlikely,  that  the  valley 
 of  Shinar  did  extend  itself  on  both  sides  (but  on  the 
 western  side,  without  all  doubt)  of  the  river  Tygris. 
 
 Now  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  according  to  the 
 account  of  most  geographers,  lie  north,  and  not  east 
 from  Shinar  and  Assyria  ;  but  then  it  may  be  supposed, 
 2  either  that  Moses,  in  this  place,  followed  the  geogra- 
 phical style  of  the  Assyrians,  who  called  all  that  lay 
 beyond  the  Tygris,  the  east  country,  though  a  great 
 part  of  it,  towards,  Armenia,  was  really  northward ;  or 
 (as  3  some  others  will  have  it)  that  as  mankind  multiplied, 
 they  spread  themselves  in  the  country  eastward  of 
 Ararat ;  and  so  making  small  removes  from  the  time  of 
 their  descent  from  the  mount,  to  the  time  of  their  jour- 
 neying into  the  land  of  Shinar,  they  might  properly 
 enough  be  said  to  have  begun  their  progress  from  the  east. 
 But,  without  the  help  of  these  solutions,  and  taking- 
 Moses  in  a  literal  sense,  he  is  far  from  being  mistaken. 
 
 *  Most  geographers  indeed  have  drawn  the  mountain  of 
 Ararat  a  good  way  out  of  its  place,  and  historians  and 
 commentators,  taking  the  thing  for  fact,  have  been  much 
 perplexed  to  reconcile  this  situation  with  its  description 
 in  Scripture  :  whereas,  by  the  accounts  of  all  travellers, 
 for  some  years  past,  the  mountain  which  now  goes  under 
 the  name  of  Ararat,  lies  about  two  degrees  more  east, 
 than  the  city  of  Shinar  or  Senjar,  from  whence  the  plain, 
 in  all  probability  takes  its  name  ;  and  therefore,  if  the 
 sons  of  Noah  entered  it  on  the  north  side,  they  must  of 
 necessity  have  journeyed  from  the  east,  or,  which  is  the 
 saint  thing,  have  travelled  westward  from  the  place, 
 where  they  set  out,  in  order  to  arrive  at  the  plain  of 
 Babylon.  a 
 
 Historians,  indeed,  as  well  as  commentators,  have 
 generally  given  in  to  the  common  opinion,  that  Shem 
 and  his  family  were  not  concerned  in  this  expedition, 
 but  for  what  reason  we  cannot  conceive,  since  there  is 
 no  fact  in  all  the  Mosaic  account  more  firmly  established 
 than  this — That  the  whole  race  of  mankind  then  in  being- 
 were  actually  engaged  in  it. 
 
 1  Wells'  Geography,  vol.  1.  p.  210. 
 
 *  Bochart's  Phaleg.  b.  1.  c.  7.      3  Kereher's  Turns  Babel,  p.  12. 
 
 4  Universal  History,  I).  I.e.  2. 
 a  The  Chaldean  historian  Berosus,  informs  us,  that  "  they  pro- 
 reeded  circuitously  to  Babylonia."  And  Mr  Penn  (Remarks  on 
 the  Eastern  origination  of  mankind,  Oriental  Collect,  vol.  ii. 
 Nos.  1  and  2,)  guided  only  by  a  geographical  view  of  the 
 country,  happily  conjeetures,  that  they  followed  the  course  of  the 
 great  river  Euplu-ates ;  which  rising  in  the  mountains  of  Armenia, 
 flows  at  first  in  a  westerly  direction  :  then  it  turns  to  the  south, 
 and  at  length  bending  eastward,  it  reaches  Babylon  from  the 
 north-west.  Its  progress  therefore  is  circuitous;  and  as  the  ap- 
 proach to  Shinar  would  be  most  easily  ami  naturally  effected  by 
 following  its  winding  course;  so,  in  that  case,  the  route  of  the 
 emigrants  would  minutely  correspond  with  Berosus  and  with 
 Scripture,  which  represent  them  as  travelling  from  the  original 
 settlement,  eastward  of  the  springs  of  the  Euphrates,  whose  cir- 
 cuitous course,  according  to  the  ingenious  remarks  of  Faber,  is 
 described  in  the  Sanscrit  word  Uratta,  pronounced  Unit,  and 
 signifying  a  circle,  so  nearly  analogous  to  the  Hebrew  name  of 
 the  river  Phrat. — Halcs's  Analysis,  vol.  I.  p.  368,  second 
 edition.— Ed. 
 
 As  soon  as  Moses  has  brought  the  three  sons  of  Noah 
 out  of  the  ark,  he  takes  care  to  inform  us  that  *  '  of  them 
 was  the  whole  earth  overspread  :'  after  he  has  given  us 
 the  names  of  their  descendants,  at  the  time  of  their  dis- 
 persion, he  subjoins,  and  6  '  by  these  were  the  nations 
 divided  in  the  earth  after  the  flood  :'  and  then  proceeding 
 to  give  us  an  account  of  this  memorable  transaction,  he 
 tells  us,  that  7  '  the  whole  earth  was  of  one  language,  and 
 of  one  speech,' and  that  as  they,  namely,  the  whole  earth, 
 8  journeyed  from  the  east,  they  found  a  plain  in  the  land 
 of  Shinar,  and  dwelt  there,  &c,  9  so  that,  from  the 
 beginning  to  the  end  of  this  transaction,  the  connexion 
 between  the  antecedent  and  relative  is  so  well  preserved, 
 that  there  is  no  room  to  suppose,  that  any  less  than  all 
 mankind,  were  gathered  together  on  the  plain  of  Shinar, 
 and  assisted  in  the  building  of  Babel :  nor  seems  it 
 improbable  that  Moses  has  made  these  unusual  repeti- 
 tions, to  inculcate  the  certainty  of  that  fact,  and  to  take 
 away  all  ground  for  supposing  that  any  other  branch  of 
 Noah's  posterity  was  in  any  other  part  of  the  earth,  at 
 that  time.  4 
 
 The  time  indeed  when  this  transaction  happened,  is 
 very  differently  computed  by  chronologers,  according 
 as  they  follow  the  LXX  interpreters,  who  make  it  531, 
 or,  as  rectified  by  Dr  Hales,  541  ;  the  Samaritan  copy, 
 which  makes  it  39G ;  or  the  Hebrew,  which  allows  it  to 
 be  no  more  than  101  years  from  the  flood,  to  the  confu- 
 sion of  tongues,  and  less,  we  may  suppose,  to  the  first 
 beginning  to  build  the  tower.  If  we  take  either  of  the 
 former  computations,  the  thing  answers  itself :  upon  a 
 moderate  multiplication,  there  will  be  workmen  more 
 than  enough,  even  without  the  posterity  of  Shem :  but  if 
 we  submit  to  the  Hebrew  account  of  time,  we  shall  find 
 ourselves  straitened,  if  we  part  with  one  third  part  of  our 
 complement,  in  so  laborious  a  work.  There  is  no  neces- 
 sity, however,  to  suppose, I0  with  some,  that  every  one  of 
 these  progenitors,  as  soon  as  married,  (which  was  very 
 early)  had  every  year  twins  by  his  wife,  which,  according 
 to  arithmetic  progression,  would  amount  to  no  less  than 
 1,554,420  males  and  females,  in  the  shortest  period 
 given.  Half  the  number  would  be  sufficient  to  be  employed 
 on  this  occasion,  and  n  half  the  number  will  be  no 
 unreasonable  supposition, considering- the  strength  of  con- 
 stitution men  had  then,  and  the  additional  blessing  which 
 God  bestowed  upon  them,  and  whereby  he  interested  his 
 peculiar  providence,  that  for  the  increase  of  the  human 
 race,  for  the  restoration  of  a  desolated  world,  there  should 
 be  some  peculiar  fruitfulness  granted  to  man  ;  that  even 
 to  boys,  breaking  the  appointed  laws  of  nature,  power 
 
 5  Gen.  ix.  ID        °  Gen.  x.  32.        '  Gen.  xi.  1.       8  Ibid.  vcr.  2. 
 n  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  2. 
 JU  Temporarius  in  Uemonst.  Chronol.  b.  2. 
 11  Usher's  Chron.  Sacra,  p.  27. 
 
 b  If  we  adhere  to  the  Hebrew  chronology,  then  this  reasoning 
 of  our  author  cannot  be  admitted  as  conclusive;  for,  according  to 
 that  chronology,  not  only  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth,  but  even 
 Noah  himself,  were  alive  at  this  time;  and  it  is  surely  impossible 
 to  believe  that  they  could  join  in  such  a  rebellious  project,  while 
 the  recollection  of  the  deluge  must  have  been  fresh  in  their  minds. 
 The  chronology  of  the  Septuagint,  which  Dr  Hales  thinks  cor- 
 rect, removes  this  difficulty,  by  dating  the  confusion  of  tongues 
 at  541  years  after  the  flood,  but  at  this  time  mankind  would  be 
 so  much  increased,  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  could  be  all 
 assembled  on  the  plain  of  Shinar. — See  previous  note,  nage  109. 
 — Eu. 
 
112 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A   M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 should  be  given  of  replenishing  the  earth,  *  as  Petavius 
 elegantly  expresses  it. 
 
 But,  after  all,  there  seems  to  be  no  occasion  for  sup- 
 posing an  extraordinary  increase  of  people,  or  for  con- 
 fining the  first  undertaking  of  this  great  building  to  the 
 compass  of  one  hundred  years  after  the  flood.  In  the 
 tenth  chapter  of  Genesis  it  is  said  indeed,  that  unto  Eber 
 were  born  two  sons,  and  that  the  name  of  one  was  Peleg,' 
 which  being  derived  from  an  Hebrew  word,  that  signifies 
 to  divide,  has  this  reason  annexed  to  it,  for  in  his  days 
 was  the  earth  divided.  Now  by  the  subsequent  account 
 of  Peleg's  ancestors  we  find  that  he  was  born  in  the  101st 
 year  after  the  flood  ;  from  whence  it  is  concluded  that 
 the  earth  began  to  be  divided  at  his  birth.  But 
 this  is  a  conclusion,  that  by  no  means  results  from  the 
 text,  which  only  says,  that  '  in  his  days  was  the  earth 
 divided  ;'  words  which  can,  with  no  manner  of  propriety, 
 imply  that  this  division  began  at  his  birth. 
 
 His  name,  indeed,  was  called  Peleg  ;  but  it  does  not 
 therefore  follow  that  this  name  was  given  him  at  his  birth ; 
 it  might  have  been  given  at  any  time  after,  from  his  being 
 a  principal  agent  among  his  own  family,  in  the  division 
 made  in  his  days  ;  as  several  names  have  throughout  all 
 ages  been  given  upon  the  like  accidents,  not  only  to 
 private  persons  but  to  whole  families.  Or  suppose  the 
 name  to  be  given  at  his  birth,  yet  no  reason  can  be  as- 
 signed why  it  might  not  be  given  prophetically,  as  well 
 as  that  of  Noah,  from  an  event  then  foreseen,  though  it 
 might  not  come  to  pass  for  some  considerable  time  after 
 the  name  was  given. 
 
 2  Since  Peleg,  then,  according  to  the  sacred  account, 
 lived  239  years,  and  his  younger  brother  Jocktan,  and 
 his  sons,  were  a  considerable  colony  in  the  distribution 
 of  the  world,  it  is  much  more  rational  to  suppose,  that 
 this  distribution  did  not  begin  till  a  good  part  of  Peleg's 
 life  was  expended.  Suppose  it  however  to  be  no  more 
 than  an  hundred  years  after  his  birth,  yet  we  may  still 
 retain  the  Hebrew  computation,  and  have  time  and 
 hands  enough  for  carrying  on  the  great  work  of  Babel 
 before  this  distribution,  since  mankind  might  very  well 
 be  multiplied  to  some  millions  in  the  compass  of  two 
 hundred  years. 
 
 Putting  all  these  considerations  together,  then,  we  can 
 hardly  imagine  that  there  wanted  a  sufficient  number  of 
 men  to  go  upon  an  enterprise,  which,  though  not  strictly 
 chargeable  with  sin,  because  there  was  no  previous  com- 
 mand forbidding  it,  yet,  in  the  sense  of  God  himself, 
 bold  and  presumptuous  enough  :3  '  Behold  the  people  is 
 one,  and  they  have  all  one  language,  and  now  this  they 
 begin  to  do  :'  this  is  their  first  attempt,  and  after  this 
 nothing  a  will  be  restrained  from  them ;  they  will  think 
 
 1  Doct.  Temp.  b.  9.  c.  14. 
 8  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  2.  Dissert.  3.  Gen.  xi.  6. 
 
 a  The  common  versions  say  of  the  builders  of  the  tower  of 
 Babel,  '  And  now  nothing  will  or  shall  be  restrained  from  them 
 which  they  have  imagined  to  do.'  But  this  is  false  in  fact ;  be- 
 cause God  soon  put  a  stop  to  their  design  by  confounding  them, 
 and  '  scattering  them  abroad  from  thence,  over  the  face  of  the 
 earth.'  We  may  observe,  therefore,  that  the  same  particle  which  is 
 indeed  sometimes  taken  negatively,  is  evidently  here  to  be  taken 
 interrogatively,  and  is  equal  to  the  most  express  affirmation:  and 
 therefore  the  text  should  thus  be  translated,  '  Shall  they  not  be 
 restrained  in  all  they  imagine  to  do?'  Yes,  they  shall;  which 
 accordingly  was  immediately  executed. — Essay  fur  a  New  Trans- 
 lation. 
 
 themselves  competent  for  any  thing,  that  they  shall  have 
 a  fancy  to  do.  For  though  God  could  have  no  reason 
 to  apprehend  b  any  molestation  from  their  attempts  (as 
 the  poets  make  heaven  all  in  an  uproar,  upon  the  inva- 
 sion of  the  giants,)  yet,  since  they  were  contrary  to  his 
 gracious  design  of  having  the  earth  replenished,  it  was 
 an  act  highly  consistent  with  his  infinite  wisdom  and 
 goodness  to  see  them  disappointed. 
 
 The  divine  purpose  was  that  men  should  not  live 
 within  the  limits  of  one  country  only,  and  so  be  exposed 
 to  perpetual  contentions,  while  every  one  would  pretend 
 to  make  himself  master  of  the  nearest  and  most  fertile 
 lands  ;  but  that,  possessing  themselves  of  the  whole,  and 
 cultivating  almost  every  place,  they  might  enjoy  a  pro- 
 portionable increase  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  4  Thorns 
 and  briars  were  springing  up  every  where ;  woods  and 
 thickets  spreading  themselves  around ;  wild  beasts 
 increasing  ;  and  all  this  while  the  sons  of  Noah  gatherino- 
 in  a  cluster,  and  designing  so  to  continue  ;  so  that  it  was 
 highly  seasonable  for  God  to  confound  their  mistimed 
 projects,  and  disperse  them. 
 
 Their  purpose  was  to  make  themselves  a  name  by 
 enslaving  others.  c  But  God  foresaw,  5  that  absolute 
 power  and  universal  empire  were  not  to  be  trusted  in  any 
 mortal  hand ;  that  the  first  kings  would  be  far  from  being 
 the  best  men ;  but  as  they  acquired  a  superiority  by 
 fraud  and  violence,  so  they  would  not  be  backward  to 
 maintain  it  by  oppression  and  cruelty :  and  therefore, 
 to  remedy  such  public  grievances,  he  determined  with 
 himself  that  there  should  be  a  diversity  of  governments 
 in  the  world  ;  that  if  the  inhabitants  of  any  place  chanced 
 to  live  under   a  tyrannical  power,  those  that  were  no 
 
 4  YVaterland's  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  1. 
 
 5  Le  Clerc's  Dissertation. 
 
 b  What  their  attempts  were,  the  historian  has  represented  in 
 their  own  words:  'and  they  said,  Go  to,  let  us  build  us  a  city, 
 and  a  tower,  whose  top  may  reach  unto  heaven,'  Gen.  xi.  4.  But 
 far  be  itfrom  any  one  to  imagine,  that  these  builders  could  be  so  stu- 
 pidly ignorant,  as  ever  to  think  by  this  means  to  climb  up  to  heaven, 
 or  that  they  would  not  have  chosen  a  mountain  rather  than  a 
 plain  or  a  valley  for  this,  if  they  could  once  have  entertained  so 
 gross  an  imagination.  It  is  a  common  hyperbole  this  in  the 
 Sacred  Writings,  to  signify  any  great  and  lofty  building,  as  may 
 be  seen  in  Deut.  i.  18.,  Dan.  iv.  8.,  and  in  several  other  places ; 
 nor  is  the  like  manner  of  expression  unusual  among  profane 
 authors  likewise:  for  Homer,  speaking  of  the  island  of  Cal)  \  so, 
 tells  us,  that  in  it  was  a  place 
 
 where  a  various  sylvan  scene 
 
 Appeared  around,  and  groves  of  living  green, 
 Poplars  and  alders  ever  quivering  played, 
 And  nodding  cypress  formed  a  fragrant  shade, 
 Whose  lofty  branches  waving  swept  the  sky,  &c. 
 
 Odgss-  v.  238. 
 By  a  literal  interpretation  of  the  Hebrew  idioms,  however,  it  is 
 a  common  thing  for  the  greatest  absurdities  to  be  received  by  the 
 unwary  for  realities ;  and  not  at  all  a  wonder,  that  the  misunder- 
 standing the  text  should  give  rise  to  what  we  are  told  of  the 
 giants  in  the  fable  attempting  to  scale  heaven,  and  of  the  expedi- 
 tion of  Cosigna  and  his  companions,  who  had  contrived  ladders  for 
 that  end ;  hoping  that  so  they  might  make  their  nearer  addresses  to 
 the  queen  of  heaven.  And  thus  even  the  silliest  of  the  Pagan 
 tales  may  be  traced  up  to  their  original ;  for  there  is  generally  some 
 foundation  for  them  in  truth,  either  misunderstood  or  misapplied. 
 — See  Lc  Clerc's  Commentary;  Voss.  Hist.  Grac.  b.  1.  c.  3.  and 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica  ad  locum. 
 
 c  By  this  remark  our  author  evidently  implies  that  (he  whole 
 of  mankind  were  not  engaged  in  this  enterprise.  For  if  the 
 whole  race  were  so,  there  could  have  been  no  others  to  enslave :  it 
 is  therefore  surprising  that  a  few  paragraphs  before,  he  should  have 
 asserted  this  to  be  the  case. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 113 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247 
 
 longer  able  to  endure  the  yoke,  might  flee  into  other 
 countries  and  dominions  (which  they  could  not  do  if  the 
 whole  was  one  entire  monarchy)  and  there  find  a  shelter 
 from  oppression.  And  as  he  knew  how  conducive  the 
 bad  example  of  princes  would  be  towards  a  general 
 corruption  of  manners,  he  therefore  took  care  to  provide 
 against  this  malady,  by  appointing  several  distinct 
 kingdoms  and  forms  of  governments,  at  one  and  the 
 same  time  ;  that  if  the  infection  of  vice  got  ascendency, 
 and  prevailed  in  one  place,  virtue  and  godliness,  and 
 whatever  is  honourable  and  praiseworthy,  might  find  a 
 safe  retreat,  and  flourish  in  another.  Thus  all  the  mis- 
 chiefs which  might  possibly  arise  from  an  universal 
 monarchy,  and  all  the  advantages  that  do  daily  accrue 
 from  separate  and  distinct  governments,  were  in  the 
 divine  foresight  and  consideration,  when  he  put  a  sur- 
 prising stop  to  the  building  of  these  men,  and  their 
 ambitious  schemes  of  empire  together. 
 
 For  in  what  manner  soever  it  was  that  he  effected  this  ; 
 a  whether  it  was  by  disturbing  their  memories,  or 
 perverting  their  imaginations,  by  diversifying  their  hear- 
 ing, or  new-organizing  their  tongues,  by  an  immediate 
 infusion  of  new  languages,  or  a  division  of  the  old  into 
 so  many  different  dialects  ;  and  again,  whether  these 
 tongues,  or  dialects  of  tongues,  *  were  few  or  more  ; 
 whether  there  were  only  so  many  originals  at  first,  (as 
 
 a  Since  Moses  has  nowhere  acquainted  us,  says  the  learned 
 Heidegger  (in  Hist.  Patriar.  b.  1.  Essay  211)  in  what  manner  the 
 confusion  of  languages  was  effected,  every  one  is  left  to  follow 
 what  opinion  he  likes  best,  so  long  as  that  opinion  contains  nothing 
 incongruous  to  the  received  rule  of  faith:  nay,  it  may  not  be 
 inconvenient  to  produce  several  opinions  upon  this  subject,  to  the 
 intent  that  every  one  may  embrace  that  which  seems  to  him 
 most  conformable  to  truth.  And  therefore  he  instances  in  the 
 opinions  of  several  learned  men,  but  in  those  more  particularly 
 of  Julius  Sealiger,  who  ascribes  this  event  to  a  confusion  of  notions 
 which  God  miraculously  sent  among  the  builders ;  and  that  of 
 Isaac  Casaubon,  who  will  needs  have  all  the  different  languages 
 now  extant  to  be  no  more  than  derivatives  from  the  Hebrew. 
 Scaliger's  words,  as  Heidegger  quotes  them,  are  these: — "  For 
 they  (the  Hebrews)  say  that  in  order  to  put  a  stop  to  their  impi- 
 ous undertaking,  God  the  omnipotent  and  aU-wise  caused,  that 
 to  him  who  asked  for  a  stone,  one  would  bring  mortar,  another 
 sand,  another  pitch,  another  bitumen,  and  another  water,  I  even 
 think,  that  perhaps  there  would  not  be  wanting  some  who  would 
 think  that  a  reproach  was  meant  to  them,  and  who  on  that  account 
 would  quarrel  and  fight  when  some  signal  act  of  cunning  befell 
 them.  For,  if  to  him  that  sought  for  a  stone,  one  brought  one 
 thing,  others  other  things,  and  all  different  things,  the  mode  of 
 one  sound,  increased  to  a  diversity  of  species,  would  seem  to 
 have  entered  into  different  understandings:  therefore  one  old 
 language  would  still  remain,  though  indeed  of  various  meanings." 
 The  words  of  Casaubon  are  as  follows:  "If  at  Babel  languages 
 became  totally  different,  the  Chaldeans  and  Assyrians  should  of 
 necessity  retain  these  strangely-begotten  tongues.  But  we  see 
 that  the  very  contrary  has  happened ;  for  other  languages  have 
 preserved  and  still  preserve  traces  of  a  Hebrew  origin,  just  the 
 more  evident  and  explicit  in  proportion  as  they  are  farther 
 removed  from  the  ancient  and  first  abode  of  man.  For  every 
 tribe  that  in  situation  is  nearest  to  the  Hebrew  nation,  uses  a 
 language  most  akin  to  its  language,  and  the  greater  the  distance 
 is  from  it,  the  greater  is  the  difference.  This  is  evident 
 from  a  comparison  of  the  Syriac,  Chaldaic,  Arabic,  Carthaginian 
 languages,  with  that  of  the  Hebrews,  and  still  more  evident 
 on  a  diligent  inspection  of  the  Greek  language.  The  Greeks  at 
 first  dwelt  in  Asia.  Thence  the  Ionians  (or  as  iEschylus,  in  a 
 Hebrew  manner  calls  them  Javones,)  passed  into  Europe.  In 
 the  most  ancient  writers  of  the  Greeks  there  are  many  Hebrew 
 wcmls  which  afterwards  became  obsolete,  or  somewhat  changed. 
 V>  e  observe  also,  that  the  Greeks  of  Asia  Hebrewized  more  than 
 those  of  Europe." 
 
 o  It  is  not  to  be  thought  thai  th<  re  were  n-  many  several  dialects 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2S57.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CII.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 many  perhaps  as  there  were  either  tribe's  or  heads  of 
 families,)  and  all  the  rest  were  no  more  than  derivatives 
 from  them,  the  operations  of  an  Almighty  power  are 
 equally  visible,  and  the  footsteps  of  divine  wisdom 
 apparent,  in  the  very  method  of  his  disappointing  these 
 ambitious  builders. 
 
 1  He  could,  no  doubt,  with  the  same  facility,  have  sent 
 down  fire  from  heaven  to  consume  them ;  but  then  that 
 would  have  been  but  a  momentary  judgment,  whereof  we 
 should  have  known  nothing  but  what  we  read  in  the  dead 
 letter  of  a  book  ;  whereas,  by  this  means,  the  remem- 
 brance of  God's  interposition,  is  preserved  to  all  future 
 ages,  and  in  every  new  language  that  Ave  hear  we 
 recognise  the  miracle. 
 
 2  It  was  equally  the  finger  of  God,  we  allow,  whether 
 the  minds  or  the  tongues  of  the  workmen  were  con- 
 founded ;  but  then,  in  that  case,  the  miracle  does  not  so 
 plainly  and  so  flagrantly  appear,  nor  would  it  have  had 
 so  good  an  effect  upon  the  builders  themselves  ;  because 
 men  may  quarrel,  and  break  offsociety  without  a  miracle, 
 whereas  they  cannot  speak  with  new  tongues  by  their 
 own  natural  strength  and  ingenuity. 
 
 Nor  was  the  formation  of  a  new  language  only  more 
 miraculous,  but  to  the  imaginations  of  the  persons,  upon 
 whom  it  is  wrought,  incredibly  more  surprising  than  any 
 disagreement  in  opinion,  or  any  quarrel  that  might 
 thereupon  ensue.  And  therefore  I  have  always  thought, 
 that  this  account  of  the  confusion  of  tongues  which  God 
 wrought  at  Babel,  would  scarce  have  been  told  so  parti- 
 cularly, and  represented  as  God's  own  act  and  deed,  had 
 it  only  arisen  from  a  quarrel  among  the  builders,  which 
 obliged  them  to  leave  on*'  their  work,  and  scatter  them- 
 selves over  the  face  of  the  earth.  For  when  God  is  here 
 described  as  coming  down  in  person  to  view  their  work, 
 something-  almost  as  solemn  as  the  creation,  full  as 
 solemn  as  the  denunciation  of  the  flood,  when  Noah  was 
 commanded  to  build  the  ark,  is  certainly  intended  by 
 that  expression  :  and  therefore,  when  Moses  acquaints  us, 
 that  '  there  was  but  one  language  at  that  time,'  the  cir- 
 cumstance would  be  impertinent,  if  he  did  not  intimate 
 withal,  that  very  soon  after  there  were  to  be  more. 
 
 1  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  1.  Essay  21. 
 
 2  Wotten  on  the  Confusion  of  Languages  at  Babel. 
 
 as  there  were  men  at  Babel,  so  that  none  of  them  understood  one 
 another.  This  would  not  only  have  dispersed  mankind,  but  utterly 
 destroyed  them;  because  it  is  impossible  to  live  without  society, 
 or  to  have  any  society  without  understanding  one  another.  It  is 
 likely  therefore  that  awry  family  had  its  peculiar  dialect,  i  ir 
 rathei-  that  some  common  dialect,  or  form  of  speaking,  was  given  to 
 those  families  whom  God  designed  to  make  one  colony  in  the 
 following  dispersion.  Into  how  many  languages  the  people  were 
 divided  it  is  impossible  to  determine.  The  Hebrews  fancy  seventy, 
 because  the  descendants  of  the  sons  of  Noah,  as  they  are  enume- 
 rated in  Scripture,  are  just  so  many:  the  Greek  fathers  make 
 them  seventy-two,  because  the  LXX.  version  adds  two  more, 
 (Elisa  among  the  sons  of  Japheth,  and  Canaan  among  the  sons  of 
 Shero,)  and  the  Latin  fathers  follow  them.  But  this  is  all  con- 
 jecture, and  what  is  built  upon  a  very  weak  foundation.  For, 
 in  many  places  so  many  people  concurred  in  the  use  of  tl 
 speech  that  of  the  seventy  scarce  thirty  remained  distinct,  as 
 Bochart  has  observed:  and  amongthese,  others  have  supposed  thi  t 
 the  Hebrew,  Chaldee,  and  Arabic,  in  the  cast;  the  Greek  and 
 Latin  in  the  west;  and  the  Finnish,  Selavonian,  Hungarian, 
 Cantabrick,  and  the  ancient  Gaulish  in  the  north,  are  gen,  rally 
 reputed  originals ;  besides  some  more  that  might  be  discoi  ered  in 
 Persia,  China,  the  East  Indies,  the  midland  parts  of  Africa,  and 
 all  America,  if  we  had  but  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  history 
 people.— See  Patrick's  Commentary  and  fFoltenontht 
 Confusion  of  Languages  at  Babel. 
 
114 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 The  prophet  Isaiah,  indeed,  speaking  of  the  conver- 
 sion of  some  Egyptians  to  the  Jewish  faith,  tells  us,  that 
 '  in  that  day  shall  five  cities  in  the  land  of  Egypt  speak 
 the  language  (or  lip,  as  it  is  in  the  margin)  of  Canaan, 
 and  swear  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts.'  Speaking  the 
 language  of  Canaan1  is  thought  by  some  to  mean  no 
 more  than  being  of  the  same  religion  with  the  Jews, 
 who  inhabited  the  land  of  Canaan,  but  why  may  it  not  be 
 interpreted  literally,  as  it  is  in  our  translation  ?  Might 
 not  these  five  cities  particularly,  to  show  the  value  and 
 reverence  that  they  had  for  the  religion  of  the  Jews, 
 learn  their  language ;  especially  since  they  would  thereby 
 be  better  enabled  to  understand  the  books  of  Moses  and 
 the  prophets,  which  were  written  in  that  tongue  ?  Do 
 not  the  Mahometans,  whatever  they  are,  Turks,  Tartars, 
 Persians,  Moguls,  or  Moors,  all  learn  Arabic,  because 
 Mahomet  wrote  the  Alcoran  in  that  language  ?  Why, 
 then,  should  we  be  offended  at  the  literal  sense  of  the 
 words,  when  the  figurative  is  so  low  and  flat  in  compari- 
 son of  it?  g<  In  that  day  Egypt  shall  be  like  a  woman  ; 
 it  shall  be  afraid  and  fear,  because  of  the  shaking  of  the 
 hand  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ;'  3 '  the  Lord  of  Hosts  shall 
 be  a  terror  unto  Egypt,'  and  4  '  in  that  day  shall  there  be 
 an  altar  to  the  Lord  in  the  midst  of  the  land  of  Egypt,' 
 that  is,  they  shall  become  proselytes  to  the  law  of  Moses  ; 
 and,  that  they  may  not  mistake  in  understanding  the 
 sense  of  the  law,  which  they  shall  then  embrace,  they 
 shall  agree  to  learn  the  language  in  which  it  is  written. 
 This  is  an  easy  and  genuine  sense  of  the  words  :  but  in- 
 stead of  that,  to  fly  to  a  forced  and  abstruse  one,  merely 
 to  evade  the  evidence  of  a  miracle,  savours  of  vanity  at 
 least,  if  not  of  irreligion. 
 
 In  short,  all  interpreters,  both  Jewish  and  Christian, 
 understood  this  confusion  of  Babel  to  be  a  confusion  of 
 languages,  not  of  opinions.  They  saw  the  texts,  if  liter- 
 ally understood,  required  it ;  they  observed  a  surprising 
 variety  of  tongues  essentially  different  from  one  ano- 
 ther ;  and  they  knew  that  this  was  not  in  the  least  incon- 
 sistent with  the  power  of  God.  They  did  not  question, 
 but  that  he,  who  made  the  tongue,  could  make  it  speak 
 ^hat  and  how  he  pleased  ;  and  they  acquiesced  (as  all 
 wise  and  honest  interpreters  should)  in  the  literal  expli- 
 cation, perceiving  that  nothing  unworthy  of  God,  or 
 trifling  or  impossible  in  itself,  resulted  from  it. 
 
 But  why  should  we  have  recourse  to  miracles,  say 
 they,  when  the  business  may  as  well  be  done  without 
 them  ;  when  it  is  but  supposing,  that  all  languages,  now 
 extant,  sprung  originally  from  one  common  root ;  and 
 that  they  are  no  more  than  different  forms  or  dialects  of 
 it,  which  the  force  of  time,  assisted  with  some  incidental 
 courses,  without  the  intervention  of  any  superior  power, 
 naturally  produces. 
 
 To  give  this  objection  a  satisfactory  answer,  we  shall 
 be  obliged  to  look  a  little  into  the  nature  of  languages 
 in  general,  that  thereby  we  may  show,  that  there  are  some 
 languages,  now  extant  in  the  world,  Avhich  are  essentially 
 different  from  each  other ;  that  languages,  when  once 
 established,  are  not  so  subject  to  variation  as  is  pre- 
 tended ;  and  that,  in  the  ages  subsequent  to  this  extraor- 
 dinary event,  they  could  not,  in  any  natural  way,  undergo 
 
 :  Isa.  xix.  1G. 
 
 1  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 3  Isa.  xix.  17.  4Isa.  xix.  19. 
 
 all  the  alterations  we  now  perceive  in  them,  supposing 
 them  all  descended  from  one  common  stock. 
 
 Now,  in  order  to  this,  we  must  observe,  that  every  lan- 
 guage consists  of  two  things,  matter  and  form  :  the  mat- 
 ter of  any  language  are  the  words,  wherein  men  who  speak 
 the  language  express  their  ideas  :  and  the  several  ways 
 whereby  its  nouns  are  declined,  and  verbs  conjugated, 
 are  its  form. 
 
 The  Latins  and  Greeks  vary  their  nouns  by  termina- 
 tions, as,  vir,viri,viro,  virum,oL6(ia7rog,  dv9(>a7rov,ct!>()i°k,- 
 iru,  clvS^uTrov.  We  decline  by  the  prepositions  of,  to, 
 from,  the,  in  both  numbers  ;  but  the  Hebrews  have  no 
 different  terminations  in  the  same  number,  and  only  vary 
 thus, — ish,  man  ;  islam,  men ;  ishah,  woman ;  ishoth, 
 women  :  the  rest  are  varied  by  prepositions  inseparably 
 affixed  to  the  words,  as,  ha-ish,  the  man  ;  le-ish,  to  the 
 man  ;  be-ish,  in  the  man,  &c,  which  prepositions  thus 
 joined  make  one  word  with  the  noun  to  which  they  are 
 affixed,  and  are  herein  different  from  all  those  lan- 
 guages which  come  from  a  Latin,  or  Teutonic  original. 
 
 The  western  and  northern  people  consider  every  tran- 
 sitive verb,  either  actively  or  passively,  and  then  they 
 have  done  ;  as  amo,  in  Latin  is,  I  love ;  amor,  I  am 
 loved  ;  and  so  in  Greek,  dyetira,  oLyot.Kap.eii:  but  in  He- 
 brew, every  word  has,  or  is  supposed  to  have,  seven 
 conjugations  ;  in  Chaldee  and  Syriac  six  ;  and  in  Arabic 
 thirteen,  all  differing  in  their  significations. 
 
 The  western  languages  abound  with  verbs  that  are 
 compounded  with  prepositions,  which  accompany  them 
 in  all  their  moods  and  tenses,  and  therein  vary  their  sig- 
 nification ;  but  in  the  eastern  there  is  no  such  thing.  For 
 though  they  have,  in  Arabic  especially,  many  different 
 significations,  some  literal  and  some  figurative,  yet  still 
 their  verbs  as  well  as  nouns  are  uncompounded. 
 
 In  the  Greek,  both  ancient  and  barbarous,  in  the  Latin, 
 and  the  dialects  arising  from  it,  and  in  all  the  branches 
 of  what  we  call  the  old  Teutonic,  the  possessive  pronouns, 
 my,  thy,  Ids,  yours,  theirs,  &c,  make  a  distinct  word 
 from  the  noun  to  which  they  are  joined,  as  Uoityiq  ijftav, 
 Pater  noster, /acfer  vor,  our  father,  &c.  But  in  all  ori- 
 ental tongues  the  pronoun  is  joined  to  the  end  of  the 
 noun,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  but  one  word.  Thus, 
 ab,  in  Hebrew,  is  father ;  abi,  my  father ;  abinu,  our 
 father.  In  Chaldee,  from  the  same  root,  abouna,  is  our 
 father ;  in  Syriac,  abun ;  in  Arabic  and  Ethiopic  the 
 same. 
 
 Once  more.  All  Avestern  languages  mark  the  de- 
 gree of  comparison  in  their  adjectives,  by  proper  termi- 
 nations, as,  wise,  wiser,  wisest ;  sapiens,  sapientior,  sa- 
 pient issimus  ;  ao(po;,  ao(pariQog,  ao<paTccTog  :  but  none  of 
 the  eastern  tongues,  already  mentioned,  have  any  thing 
 in  them  like  this. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  marks  and  characters  which 
 distinguish  the  eastern  from  the  western  languages  ;  and, 
 what  is  farther  observable,  these  characters  have  none  of 
 them  disappeared,  or  shifted  from  one  to  another,  for 
 near  three  thousand  years.  They  appear  in  every  book 
 of  the  Old  Testament,  from  Moses  down  to  Malachi ;  in 
 the  Chaldee  paraphrasts,  in  the  Syriac  versions,  in  the 
 Misna,  in  the  Gemara,  and  in  every  other  rabbinical 
 book,  down  to  the  Jewish  writers  of  the  present  age  : 
 but,  on  the  other  side,  if  we  consider  Homer's  poems, 
 which  are  the  oldest  monuments  we  have  of  the  Greek 
 
Sbct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 115 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 language  ;  if  we  take  Theocritus  for  the  Doric  dialect ; 
 Euripides,  or  Thucydides,  for  the  Attic;  Herodotus, 
 or  Hippocrates,  for  the  Ionic;  and  Sappho  for  the 
 JSolic,  and  so  descend  to  the  Greek,  which  is  spoken  at 
 this  day,  we  shall  see  the  general  marks  of  western 
 languages  running  through  them  all.  These  idioms 
 show  themselves,  at  first  sight,  to  be  nothing  more  than 
 dialects  manifestly  springing  from  the  same  common  root, 
 which  never  did,  and  (as  far  as  we  may  judge  from  the 
 practice  of  above  two  thousand  years)  never  will,  conju- 
 gate verbs,  decline  nouns,  or  compare  adjectives,  like 
 the  Hebrew  or  Arabic.  These  languages  did  always 
 compound  verbs  and  nouns  with  prepositions,  which 
 essentially  alter  the  sense.  These  languages  had  never 
 any  possessive  pronouns  affixed  to  their  nouns,  to  deter- 
 mine the  person,  or  persons,  to  whom  of  right  they  be- 
 long ;  nor  do  they  affix  any  single  letter  to  their  words, 
 which  may  be  equivalent  to  conjunctions,  and  connect 
 the  sense  of  what  goes  before  with  what  follows,  which 
 any  person,  but  tolerably  initiated  in  the  eastern  lan- 
 guages, must  know  to  be  their  properties. 
 
 And,  indeed,  if  we  cast  but  our  eye  a  little  forward 
 into  the  sacred  history,  it  will  not  be  long  before  we  may 
 perceive  some  instances  of  this  difference  between  lan- 
 guages. For,  when  Jacob  and  Laban  made  a  covenant 
 together,  they  erected  an  heap  of  stones,  on  which  they 
 ate,  and  Laban  called  it  Jegar-Sahadutha,  but  Jacob, 
 Gal-ed,  which  words  signify  (those  in  Chaldee,  which 
 are  Laban's,  and  the  other  in  Hebrew,  which  are  Jacob's) 
 an  heap  of  witnesses  ;  and,  in  like  manner,  Pharaoh  calls 
 Joseph,  Tsophnatk-Paaneahh,  which  words  are  neither 
 Hebrew  nor  Chaldee  :  so  that  here  we  see  three  distinct 
 dialects  formed  in  Jacob's  time  ;  and  yet  we  may  observe, 
 that  the  world  was  then  thin,  commerce  narrow,  and 
 conquests  few,  so  that  the  people  were  constrained  to 
 converse  with  those  of  their  own  tribe,  and  consequently 
 could  keep  their  dialect  far  more  entire  than  it  is  possi- 
 ble to  do  now,  when  commerce,  conquests,  and  colo- 
 nies, planted  in  regions  already  peopled  with  nations 
 that  speak  distinct  languages,  may  be  supposed  to  bring 
 in  a  deluge  of  new  words,  and  make  innumerable 
 changes.  But  nations  seldom  trade  much  abroad,  or 
 make  invasions  upon  their  neighbours,  or  send  forth 
 plantations  into  remote  countries,  until  they  are  pretty 
 well  stocked  at  home,  which  could  hardly  be  the  case  of 
 any  one  country  for  several  ages  after  the  dispersion. 
 
 It  is  a  mistaken  notion  which  some  have  imbibed,  that 
 every  little  thing,  be  it  but  the  change  of  air,  or  difference 
 of  climate  (which  at  most  can  but  affect  the  pronuncia- 
 tion of  some  letters  or  syllables)  can  make  a  diversity  in 
 languages.  Small  and  insensible  alterations,  which  per- 
 haps will  appear  in  an  age  or  two,  will  undoubtedly  hap- 
 pen, but  unless  people  converse  much  with  strangers, 
 their  language  will  subsist,  as  to  its  constituent  form,  the 
 same  for  many  generations. 
 
 The  Roman  language,  for  instance,  was  brought  to  a 
 considerable  perfection  before  Plautus's  time ;  and 
 though  now  and  then  some  obsolete  words  may  appear 
 in  his  writings,  yet  any  man  that  understands  Latin  may 
 read  the  books  that  were  written  in  it,  from  Plautus  down 
 to  Theodoric  the  Goth,  which  was  near  seven  hundred 
 years ;  and  had  not  the  barbarous  nations  broken  into 
 Italy,  it  might  have  been  an  intelligible  language  for 
 
 several  ages  more.  And,  in  like  manner,  we  may  say, 
 that  had  not  the  Turks,  when  they  overrun  Greece, 
 brought  darkness  and  ignorance  along  with  them,  the 
 Greek  tongue  might  have  continued  even  to  this  day; 
 since  it  is  manifest,  from  Homer's  poems,  and  Eusta- 
 thius's  commentaries  upon  them,  that  it  subsisted  for 
 above  two  thousand  years,  without  any  considerable 
 alteration  ;  for  the  space  of  time  between  the  poet  and  his 
 commentator  was  no  less. 
 
 And  if  the  languages  which  we  are  acquainted  with 
 remained  so  long  unchanged,  to  any  great  degree,  in 
 times  of  more  commerce  and  action  than  what  could  be 
 subsequent  upon  the  dispersion ;  there  is  reason  to 
 believe,  that  (though  it  be  difficult  to  define  the  number 
 of  them)  there  are  many  more  original  languages  in  the 
 world  than  some  men  imagine  :  for,  if  we  consider  theii 
 great  antiquity,  their  mutual  agreement  in  the  funda- 
 mentals (which  we  have  described)  can  be  no  argument 
 that  any  one  of  them  is  derived  from  the  rest ;  since  it  is 
 natural  to  suppose,  that  when  God  confounded  the 
 speech  of  the  builders  of  Babel,  he  made  the  dialects  of 
 those  people,  who  were  to  live  near  one  another,  so  far 
 to  agree,  that  they  might,  with  less  difficulty,  and  in  a 
 shorter  space  of  time,  mutually  understand  each  other, 
 and  so  more  easily  maintain  an  intercourse  together. 
 For  though  their  association,  considering  the  ends  that 
 engaged  them  in  it,  was  certainly  culpable,  yet  perhaps 
 it  might  not  deserve  so  severe  a  punishment  as  an  entire 
 separation  of  every  tribe  among  them  from  their  nearest 
 kindred,  with  whom  they  had  hitherto  spent  all  their  time. 
 To  sum  up  the  force  of  this  argument  in  a  fewr  words. 
 If  we  consider  the  time  since  the  building  of  the  tower  of 
 Babel,  not  yet  4000  years,0  and  the  great  variety  of 
 languages  that  are  at  present  in  the  world  ;  if  we  consider 
 how  entirely  different  some  are  to  others,  so  that  no  art 
 of  etymology  can  reduce  them  to  the  least  likeness  or 
 conformity  ;  and  yet,  in  those  early  days,  when  the  world 
 was  less  peopled,  and  navigation  and  commerce  not  so 
 much  minded,  there  could  not  be  that  quick  progression 
 of  languages ;  and  if  we  examine  the  alterations  which 
 such  languages  as  we  are  acquainted  with  have  made  in 
 two  or  three  thousand  years  past,  where  colonies  of  dif- 
 ferent people  have  not  been  imported,  we  shall  find  the 
 difference  between  language  and  language  to  be  so  very 
 great,  and  the  alteration  of  the  same  language  in  a  con- 
 siderable tract  of  time  to  be  so  very  small,  that  we  shall  be 
 at  a  loss  to  conceive  whence  so  many  and  so  various 
 Languages  could  have  proceeded,  unless  we  take  in  the 
 account  of  Moses,  which  unriddles  the  whole  difficulty, 
 and  justly  ascribes  them  to  the  same  Almighty  power, 
 which  taught  our  first  parents  to  speak  one  tongue  in  the 
 beginning,  and,  in  after  ages,  inspired  the  apostles  of 
 Jesus  Christ  with  the  gift  of  many.  b 
 
 a  According  to  Hales,  4363. 
 h  From  the  most  ancient  and  most  authentic  of  all  historical 
 records,  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  we  know  the  fact,  that  all  mankind 
 were  originally  descended  from  a  single  pair,  and  that  our  great 
 progenitor  did  undoubtedly  possess  and  make  use  of  articulate 
 language.  What  the  particular  language  was  which  was  thru  em- 
 ployed, we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining.  We  are,  however, 
 sufficiently  wan-anted  to  conclude,  that  mis  primeval  language 
 must  have  consisted  at  first  of  very  few  and  simple  sounds,  and 
 that  it  was  gradually  extended  as  the  new  situation  of  men  i;i 
 society  required  new  modes  of  exoression.  The  primitive* 
 language,  in  aJl  probability,  continued  radically  the  same,  though 
 
116 
 
 THE  HISTORY   OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 CHAP.  III.— Of  the  Tower  of  Babel. 
 
 That  there  really  was  such  a  building  as  the  tower  of 
 Babel,  erected  some  ages  after  the  recovery  of  the  earth 
 
 enlarged  by  accessions  closely  related  to  the  parent  stock  during 
 the  whole  antediluvian  ages;  and  there  is  little  reason  to  doubt, 
 when  we  take  into  view  the  longevity  of  the  patriarchs,  affording 
 opportunities  to  men  of  different  generations  to  mingle  together, 
 that  from  Adam  down  to  Noah  the  language  first  made  use  of 
 suffered  no  essential  change.  When  the  tremendous  event  of  the 
 deluge  reduced  the  whole  population  of  the  earth  to  a  single 
 family,  the  primitive  language,  as  received  and  used  by  the 
 patriarch  Noah,  would  still  be  preserved  in  his  family,  and  form 
 the  only  language  then  used  among  men.  In  this  state,  we  find 
 that  language  continued  till  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  Babel, 
 before  which  period  we  are  assured  by  the  sacred  historian,  '  the 
 whole  earth  was  of  one  language  and  of  one  speech.'  Whether 
 this  primitive  language  was  the  same  with  any  of  the  languages 
 of  which  we  have  still  any  remains,  has  been  a  subject  of  much 
 dispute.  That  the  primitive  language  continued  at  least  till  the 
 dispersion  of  mankind,  consequent  upon  the  building  of  Babel, 
 there  seems  little  reason  to  doubt.  When  by  an  immediate  inter- 
 position of  divine  power,  the  language  of  men  was  confounded,  we 
 are  not  informed  to  what  extent  the  confusion  of  tongues  prevailed. 
 It  is  unnecessary  to  suppose  that  the  former  language  was  com- 
 pletely obliterated,  and  entire  new  modes  of  speech  at  once  intro- 
 duced. It  is  quite  sufficient  if  such  changes  only  were  effected, 
 as  to  render  the  speech  of  different  companies,  or  different  tribes, 
 unintelligible  to  one  another,  that  their  mutual  co-operation  in 
 the  mad  attempt  in  which  they  had  all  engaged  might  be  no 
 '  longer  practicable.  The  radical  stem  of  the  first  language  might 
 therefore  remain  in  all,  though  new  dialects  were  formed,  bear- 
 ing among  themselves  a  similar  relation  with  what  we  find  in  the 
 languages  of  modern  Europe,  derived  from  the  same  parent  stem, 
 whether  Gothic,  Latin,  or  Sclavonian.  In  the  midst  of  these 
 changes,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  primitive  language 
 itself,  unaltered,  would  still  be  preserved  in  some  one  at  least  of 
 the  tribes  or  families  of  the  human  race.  Now  in  none  of  these 
 was  the  transmission  so  likely  to  have  taken  place,  as  among  that 
 branch  of  the  descendants  of  Shem  from  which  the  patriarch 
 Abraham  proceeded.  Upon  these  grounds,  therefore,  we  may 
 conclude  that  the  language  spoken  by  Abraham,  and  by  liim 
 transmitted  to  his  posterity,  was  in  fact  the  primitive  language, 
 modified,  indeed,  and  extended  in  the  course  of  time,  but  still 
 retaining  its  essential  parts  far  more  completely  than  any  other 
 of  the  languages  of  men.  If  these  conclusions  are  well  founded, 
 they  warrant  the  inference,  that  in  the  ancient  Hebrew  there  are 
 still  to  be  found  the  traces  of  the  original  speech.  Whether  this 
 ancient  Hebrew  more  nearly  resembled  the  Chaldean,  the  Syrian, 
 or  what  is  now  termed  the  Hebrew,  it  is  unnecessary  here  to 
 inquire:  these  languages,  it  has  never  been  denied,  were  origi- 
 nally and  radically  the  same,  though,  from  subsequent  modifica- 
 tions, they  appear  to  have  assumed  somewhat  different  aspects. 
 
 We  may  conceive  the  original  language  of  the  family  of  Noah 
 spread  in  various  directions :  carried  by  one  set  of  colonies 
 through  Armenia,  Persia,  and  the  adjacent  territories,  into  all 
 the  regions  of  the  east,  as  far  perhaps  as  Tartary  anil  China,,  and 
 forming  the  groundwork  of  the  Armenian,  the  ancient  Persian, 
 the  Sanscrit,  perhaps,  too,  of  the  originally  spoken  Chinese,  as 
 well  as  of  all  the  languages  related  to  each  of  them ;  carried  by 
 another  set  into  the  regions  of  Arabia,  Egypt,  Abyssinia,  and 
 the  remote  parts  of  Africa,  and  there  giving  origin  to  the  old 
 Egyptian,  the  Coptic,  the  Ethiopic,  and  their  related  tongues; 
 and  earth  d  by  a  third  set  to  Scythia,  or  the  Russian  territory, 
 Asia  Minor,  Ionia,  Greece,  Italy,  and  gradually  tlirough  the 
 farther  parts  of  Europe,  and  there  constituting  the  radical  ground- 
 work of  the  old  Pelasgic,  the  Gothic,  the  Celtic,  and  all  their 
 kindred  or  derivative  dialects.  Among  those  families  whose 
 migrations  were  least  extensive,  this  primitive  tongue,  undergo- 
 ing fewest  changes,  would  retain  most  of  its  original  form;  and 
 thus  it  is  probable,  that  in  the  language  of  Jacob  and  his  descend- 
 ants, of  the  Phoenicians,  the  Chaldeans,  and  the  communities 
 (i  injected  with  them,  more  of  the  primitive  form  and  character 
 remained,  than  among  the  remoter  and  more  widely  scattered 
 tribes  that  spread  through  Africa  and  Europe. 
 
 from  the  deluge,  is  evident  from  the  concurrent  testimony 
 of  several  heathen  writers.  For  when,  besides  the  par- 
 ticular description  which  l  Herodotus,  the  father  of  the 
 Greek  historians,  gives  us  of  it,  we  rind  Abydenus,  as 
 he  is  ~  quoted  by  Eusebius,  telling  us,  "  That  the  first 
 race  of  men,  big  with  a  fond  conceit  of  the  bulk  and 
 strength  of  their  bodies,  built  in  the  place  where  Baby- 
 lon now  stands,  a  tower  of  so  prodigious  an  height,  that 
 it  seemed  to  touch  the  skies,  but  that  the  winds  and  the 
 gods  overthrew  the  mighty  structure  upon  their  heads." 
 When  we  find  Eupolemus,  as  he  is  3  cited  by  Alexander 
 Polyhistor,  leaving  it  upon  record,  "  That  the  city  of 
 Babylon  was  first  built  by  giants  who  escaped  from  the 
 flood ;  that  these  giants  built  the  most  famous  tower  in 
 all  history  ;  and  that  this  tower  was  dashed  to  pieces  bv 
 the  almighty  power  of  God,  and  the  giants  dispersed  and 
 scattered  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth."  And  lastly, 
 when4  we  find  Josephus  mentioning  it  as  a  received 
 doctrine  among  the  Sybils,  "  That  at  a  certain  time,  when 
 the  whole  world  spake  all  one  language,  the  people  of 
 those  days  gathered  together  and  raised  a  mighty  tower, 
 which  they  carried  up  to  so  extravagant  an  height,  that  it 
 looked  as  if  they  had  proposed  to  scale  heaven  from  the 
 top  of  it;  but  that  the  gods  let  the  winds  loose  upon  it, 
 which,  with  a  violent  blast,  beat  it  down  to  the  ground, 
 and  at  the  same  time  struck  the  builders  with  an  utter 
 forgetfulness  of  their  native  tongue,  and  substituted  new 
 and  unknown  languages  in  the  room  of  it." — AYhen  we 
 find  these,  and  several  other  authors,  I  say,  that  might 
 be  produced,  bearing  testimony  to  Moses  in  most  of  the 
 material  circumstances  attending  the  building  of  this 
 tower,  we  cannot  but  conclude,  that  the  representation 
 which  he  gives  us  of  the  whole  transaction  is  agreeable  to 
 truth. 
 
 The  short  is,  all  the  remains  now  extant  of  the  most 
 ancient  heathen  historians  (except  Sanchoniatho)  concur 
 in  confirming  the  Mosaic  account  of  this  matter,  and 
 the  sum  of  their  testimonies  is,  5  That  a  huge  tower  was 
 built  by  gigantic  men  at  Babylon ;  that  there  was  then 
 but  one  language  among  mankind  ;  that  the  attempt  was 
 offensive  to  the  gods  ;  and  that  therefore  they  demolished 
 the  tower,  overwhebned  the  workmen,  divided  their 
 language,  and  dispersed  them  over  the  face  of  the  whole 
 earth. 
 
 There  is  one  circumstance,  indeed,  wherein  we  find 
 these  ancient  historians  differing  with  Moses,  and  that  is, 
 in  affirming  that  the  tower  was  demolished  by  the  anger 
 
 1  Book  i.  c.  181.  aPneparat.  Evang.  b.  ix.  c.  14. 
 
 3Alex.  Polyhist.  apud  Euseb.  Pnep.  Evan.  b.  ix.  c.  18. 
 4  Antiq.  b.  i.  c.  5. 
 See  Josephus's  Antiq.  b.  i.  c.  5.     Eusebius's  Pnepar.  Evang. 
 b.  ix.  c.  14,  &e.  and  Huetius's  Quaest.  Alnetan.  b.  ii.  p.  189. 
 
 If  these  theoretical  views  of  the  filiation  of  tongues  cannot  be 
 fully  and  directly  confirmed  by  the  immediate  comparison  of  the 
 different  languages  as  they  now  are  found  to  exist,  this  is  not  in 
 the  least  to  be  wondered  at,  considering  the  inevitable  changes 
 many  of  them  must  have  undergone  in  their  progress  tlu-ough 
 different  countries;  but  if  we  attentively  mark  the  precise  man- 
 ner in  which  such  changes  might  be  expected  to  operate,  and 
 make  the  necessary  allowances  on  that  account,  in  comparing  the 
 apparent  groundwork  of  the  languages  scattered  over  the  globe, 
 a  coincidence  will  be  found,  far  closer  and  more  striking  than 
 could  at  first  be  supposed. — Br  Dewar's  Dissertation  on  Language, 
 in  the  7th  volume  of  the  Edinburgh  Philosophical  Transactions, 
 Edin.  Enclycopadia,  Article  Language;  Townsend's  Character 
 of  Moses,  vol.  iii. 
 
Sect.   ii]  FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2217;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2551.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VEU.  If). 
 
 117 
 
 of  God,  and  by  the  violence  of  the  winds.  But  as  it 
 seems  more  consistent  with  the  divine  wisdom  (for  the 
 admonition  of  posterity)  to  have  such  a  monument  of 
 men's  folly  and  ambition  for  some  time  standing ;  so  we 
 may  observe  that,  in  confirmation  of  our  sacred  penman, 
 who  speaks  of  it  as  a  thing  existing  in  his  time,  Herodo- 
 tus, the  Greek  historian,  tells  us  expressly  that  he  him- 
 self actually  saw  it,  as  it  was  repaired  by  Belus,  or  some 
 of  his  successors  ;  Pliny,  the  Latin  historian,  that  it  was 
 not  destroyed  in  his  days  ;  and  some  modern  travellers, 
 (whom  by  and  by  we  shall  have  occasion  to  quote,)  that 
 there  are  some  visible  remains  of  it  extant  even  noAV  : 
 and,  therefore,  the  fancy  of  its  being  beat  down  with  the 
 winds  is  taken  up,  in  pure  conformity"  to  some  Persian 
 tales  recorded  of  Nimrod,  whom  these  historians  suppose 
 to  be  the  first  projector  of  it.  It  cannot  be  denied, 
 indeed,  but  that  the  generality  of  interpreters,  meeting 
 with  the  expression  of1  the  children  of  men,  whereby 
 they  understand  bad  men  and  infidels,  as  opposed  to  the 
 children  of  God,  which  usually  denote  the  good  and  the 
 faithful,  are  apt  to  imagine,  that  none  of  the  family  of 
 Shem,  which  retained  (as  they  say)  the  true  worship  and 
 religion,  were  engaged  in  the  work,  but  some  of  the 
 worser  sort  of  people  only,  who  had  degenerated  from 
 the  piety  of  their  ancestors.  But  by  the  children  of  men 
 in  that  place,  it  is  evident  that  we  are  to  understand  all 
 mankind,  because  in  the  initial  words  of  the  chapter  they 
 ■are  called 2  the  whole  earth.  Nor  can  we  well  conceive 
 how,  in  so  short  a  time  after  that  awakening  judgment  of 
 the  deluge,  the  major  part  of  mankind,  even  while  Noah 
 and  his  sons  were  still  alive,  should  be  so  far  corrupted 
 in  their  principles,  as  to  deserve  the  odious  character  of 
 unbelievers. 
 
 3  Josephus,  indeed,  and  some  other  authors,  are  clearly 
 of  opinion  that  Nimrod,  a  descendant  from  the  impious 
 Hani,  was  the  great  abettor  of  this  design,  and  the  ring- 
 leader of  those  who  combined  in  the  execution  of  it. 
 But,  though  the  undertaking  seems  to  agree  very  well 
 with  the  notion  which  the  Scriptures  give  us  of  that  ambi- 
 tious prince,  yet,  besides  that4  others,  extremely  well 
 
 Gen. 
 
 i.  C.  5. 
 
 xi.  15.  2  Gen.  xi.  1.  3  Antiq.  b 
 4  Bochart's  Phaleg.  b.  i.  C.  10. 
 a  The  author  of  the  book  called  Malem  tells  this  story: — 
 That  when  Nimrod  saw  that  the  fire,  into  which  he  caused  Abra- 
 ham to  be  east  for  not  submitting  to  the  worshipping  of  idols,  did 
 him  no  damage,  he  resolved  to  ascend  into  heaven,  that  he  might 
 see  that  great  God  whom  Abraham  revealed  to  him.  In  vain 
 did  his  courtiers  endeavour  to  divert  him  from  this  design; 
 he  was  resolved  to  accomplish  it,  and  therefore  gave  orders 
 for  the  building  of  a  tower  that  might  be  as  high  as  possible. 
 They  worked  upon  it  for  three  years  together,  and,  when  he  went 
 up  to  the  top,  lie  was  much  surprised  to  see  himself  as  far  from 
 heaven  as  when  he  was  upon  the  ground:  but  his  confusion  was 
 tench  increased,  win  n  they  came  to  inform  him  next  morning  that 
 hi*;  tower  was  fallen  and  dashed  in  pieces.  He  commanded  them 
 then  that  another  should  be  built,  which  might  he  higher  and 
 Stronger  than  the  former;  but  when  this  met  with  the  same  fate, 
 ami  he  still  continued  an  obstinate  persecutor  of  those  who  wor- 
 shipped the  true  God,  God  took  from  him  the  greatest  part  of  his 
 subjects,  by  the  division  and  confusion  of  their  tongues,  and  those 
 who  still  adhered  to  him  he>  killed  by  a  cloud  of  flies,  which  he 
 lent  amongst  them. — Calmet's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Nimrod. 
 The  poets,  in  like  manner,  having  corrupted  the  tradition  of  this 
 event  with  fictions  of  their  own,  do  constantly  bring  in  Jupiter 
 defeating  the  attempts  of  the  Titans  in  this  maimer: — "  Jupiter, 
 from  the  citadel  of  heaven,  hurling  his  thunderbolts,  overturned 
 the  ponderous  masses  on  their  founders,"'  &c. —  Or/'/. 
 
 versed  in  all  Jewish  antiquities,  have  made  it  appear 
 that  Nimrod  was  either  very  young  at  the  time,  or  even 
 not  yet  born,  when  the  project  of  building  the  tower  and 
 city  was  first  formed,  there  is  reason  to  believe  (even 
 supposuig  him  then  alive,  and  in  great  power  and  autho- 
 rity among  his  people,)  that  he  was  not  in  any  tolerable 
 condition  to  undertake  so  gTeat  a  work. 
 
 The  account  which  Moses  gives  us  of  him  is — that  he5 
 began  to  be  a  mighty  one  in  the  earth  ;  which  the  best 
 writers  explain,  by  his  being  the  first  who  laid  the  foun- 
 dation of  regal  power  among  mankind  ;  but  it  is  scarce 
 imaginable  how  an  empire,  able  to  effect  such  a  work, 
 could  be  entirely  acquired,  and  so  thoroughly  established, 
 by  one  and  the  same  person,  as  to  allow  leisure  for 
 amusements  of  such  infinite  toil  and  trouble. 
 
 e  Great  and  mighty  empires,  indeed,  have  seemingly 
 been  acquired  by  single  persons ;  but  when  we  come  to 
 examine  into  the  true  original  of  them,  we  shall  find, 
 that  they  began  upon  the  foundations  of  kingdoms 
 already  attained  by  their  ancestors,  and  established  by 
 the  care  and  wisdom  of  many  successive  rulers  for  seve- 
 ral generations,  and  after  a  long  exercise  of  their  people 
 in  arts  and  arms,  which  gave  them  a  singular  advantage 
 over  other  nations  that  they  conquered.  In  this  manner 
 grew  the  empires  of  Cyrus,  Alexander,  and  all  the  great 
 conquerors  in  the  world ;  nor  can  we,  in  all  the  records 
 of  history,  find  one  large  dominion,  from  the  very  foun- 
 dation of  the  world,  that  was  ever  erected  and  established 
 by  one  private  person  :  and,  therefore,  we  have  abundant 
 reason  to  infer  that  Nimrod,  though  confessedly  the 
 beginner  of  sovereign  authority,  could,  at  this  time,  have 
 no  great  kingdom  under  his  command. 
 
 But  admitting  his  kingdom  to  be  larger  than  this  sup- 
 position ;  yet,  from  that  day  to  this,  we  can  meet  with 
 no  works  of  this  kind  attempted  but  from  a  fulness  of 
 wealth  and  wantonness  of  power,  and  after  peace,  luxury, 
 and  long  leisure  had  introduced  and  established  arts  :  so 
 that  nothing  can  be  more  absurd  than  to  attribute  such  a 
 prodigious  work  to  the  power  and  vanity  of  one  man,  in 
 the  infancy  both  of  arts  and  empire,  and  when  we  can 
 scarce  suppose  that  there  was  any  such  thing  as  artificial 
 wealth  in  the  world. 
 
 Since,  then,  this  building  Avas  undoubtedly  very  ancient, 
 as  ancient  as  the  Scripture  makes  it,  and  yet  could  not 
 be  effected  by  any  separate  society  in  the  period  assigned 
 for  it,  the  only  probable  opinion  is,  that  it  was  (as  we 
 said  before)  undertaken  and  executed  by  the  united 
 labours  of  all  the  people  that  were  then  on  the  face  of 
 the  earth.  It  is  not  unlikely,  however,  that  after  the 
 dispersion  of  the  people,  and  their  leaving  the  place 
 unfinished,7  Nimrod  and  his  subjects,  coming  out  of 
 Arabia,  or  some  other  neighbouring  country,  might,  after 
 their  fright  was  over,  settle  at  Babel,  and  there  building 
 the  city  of  Babylon,  and  repairing  the  tower,  make  it  the 
 metropolis  (as  afterwards  it  was)  of  all  the  Assyrian 
 empire. 
 
 To  this  purpose  there  is  a  very  remarkable  passage8 
 in  Diodorus  Siculus,  where  he  tells  us,  "  That  on  the 
 walls  of  one  of  the  Babylonian  palaces  was  portrayed 
 a  general  hunting  of  all  sorts  of  wild  beasts,  with  the 
 fin'iire  of  a  woman  on  horseback  piercing  a  leopard,  and 
 
 •  (Gen.  x.  8.        *  Revel.  Examined,  vol.  ii.  dissert.  :>. 
 7  Bochart's  Phaleg.  b.  i.  c.  10.  B  Ibid,  b.  i. 
 
118 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.  10 
 
 a  man  fighting  with  a  lion ;  and  that  on  the  walls  of  the 
 other  palace  were  armies  in  battalia,  and  huntings  of 
 several  kinds."  Now  of  this  Nimrod,  the  sacred  histo- 
 rian informs  us,  that  he  was  a  great  and  remarkable  hun- 
 ter, so  as  to  pass  into  a  proverb  ;  and  this  occupation  he 
 might  the  rather  pursue  as  the  best  means  of  training  up 
 his  companions  to  exploits  of  war,  and  of  making  him- 
 self popular  by  the  glory  he  gained,  and  the  public  good 
 lie  did,  in  destroying  those  wild  beasts,  Avhich  at  that  time 
 infested  the  world.  And  as  tins  was  a  part  of  his  cha- 
 racter ,  the  most  rational  account  that  we  can  give  of  these 
 ornaments  in  the  Babylonian  palaces  is,  that  they  were 
 set  up  by  some  of  Nimrod's  descendants  in  their  ances- 
 tor's imperial  city,  in  memory  of  the  great  founder  of 
 their  family,  and  of  an  empire  which  afterwards  grew  so 
 famous. 
 
 1  Eutychius,  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  will  needs  have 
 it,  that  Nimrod  was  the  first  author  of  the  religion  of 
 the  Magians,  the  worshippers  of  fire :  and  from  hence, 
 very  probably,  *  a  late  archbishop  of  our  own  has 
 thought  that  this  tower  of  Babel  (whose  form  was  pyra- 
 midal, as  he  says,  and  so  resembling  fire,  whose  flame 
 ascends  in  a  conic  shape)  was  a  monument  designed  for 
 the  honour  of  the  sun,  as  the  most  probable  cause  of 
 drying  up  the  waters  of  the  flood.  "  For  though  the 
 sun,"  says  he,  "  was  not  merely  a  god  of  the  lulls,  yet 
 the  heathens  thought  it  suitable  to  his  advanced  station 
 to  worship  him  upon  ascents,  either  natural,  or  where 
 the  country  was  flat,  artificial,  that  they  might  approach, 
 as  near  as  possibly  they  could,  the  deity  they  adored." 
 This  certainly  accounts  for  God's  displeasure  against 
 the  builders,  and  why  he  was  concerned  to  defeat  their 
 undertaking ;  but  as  there  is  no  foundation  for  this  con- 
 jecture in  Scripture,  and  the  date  of  this  kind  of  idola- 
 try was  not  perhaps  so  early  as  is  pretended,  the  two 
 ends  which  Moses  declares  the  builders  had  in  view,  in 
 forming  their  project,  will  be  motives  sufficient  for  their 
 undertaking  it. 
 
 For,  if  we  consider,  that  they  were  now  in  the  midst 
 of  a  vast  plain,  undistinguished  by  roads,  buildings,  or 
 boundaries  of  any  kind,  except  rivers  ;  that  the  provision 
 of  pasture,  and  other  necessaries,  obliged  them  to  sepa- 
 rate, and  that,  when  they  were  separated,  there  was  a 
 necessity  of  some  landmark  to  bring  them  together  again 
 upon  occasion,  otherwise  all  communication,  and  with 
 it  all  the  pleasures  of  life,  must  be  cut  off;  we  can 
 hardly  imagine  any  thing  more  natural,  and  fit  for  this 
 purpose,  than  the  erection  of  a  tower,  large  and  lofty 
 enough  to  be  seen  at  great  distances,  and  consequently 
 sufficient  to  guide  them  from  all  quarters  of  that  immense 
 region ;  and  when  they  had  occasion  to  correspond,  or 
 come  together,  nothing  certainly  could  be  more  proper 
 than  the  contiguous  buildings  of  a  city  for  their  recep- 
 tion and  convenient  communication. 
 
 If  we  consider,  likewise,  that  all  the  pride  and  magni- 
 ficence of  their  ancestors  were  now  defaced,  and  utterly 
 destroyed  by  the  deluge,  without  the  least  remains  or 
 memorial  of  their  grandeur  ;  that  consequently  the  earth 
 was  a  clear  stage  whereon  to  erect  new  and  unrivalled 
 monuments  of  glory  and  renown  to  themselves  ;  and  that 
 at  this  juncture  they  wanted  neither  art  nor  abilities, 
 
 1  Calmet's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Nimrod. 
 2  Tcnison  on  Idolatry. 
 
 neither  numbers  nor  materials,  to  make  themselves  mas- 
 ters of  what  their  vanity  projected  ;  we  may  reasonably 
 suppose,  that  the  affectation  of  renown  was  another 
 motive  to  their  undertaking  ;  since  it  is  very  well  known, 
 that  this  is  the  very  principle  which  has  all  along  gov- 
 erned the  whole  race  of  mankind,  in  all  the  works  and 
 monuments  of  magnificence,  the  mausoleums,  pillars, 
 palaces,  pyramids,  and  whatever  has  been  erected  of 
 any  pompous  kind,  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  to 
 this  very  day.  So  that,  taking  their  resolution  under  the 
 united  light  of  these  two  motives,  the  reasoning  of  the 
 builders  will  run  thus  : — "  We  are  here  in  a  vast  plain ; 
 a  our  dispersion  is  inevitable  ;  our  increase,  and  the  ne- 
 cessaries of  life  demand  it.  We  are  strong  and  happy 
 when  united ;  but,  when  divided,  we  shall  be  weak  and 
 wretched.  Let  us  then  contrive  some  means  of  union  and 
 friendly  society,  which  may,  at  the  same  time,  perpetuate 
 our  fame  and  memory.  And  what  means  so  proper  for 
 these  purposes  as  a  magnificent  city,  and  mighty  tower, 
 whose  top  may  touch  the  skies  ?  The  tower  will  be  a  land- 
 mark to  us,  through  the  whole  extent  of  this  plain,  and  a 
 centre  of  unity,  to  prevent  our  being  dispersed  ;  and  the 
 city,  which  may  prove  the  metropolis  of  the  whole  earth, 
 will  at  all  times  afford  us  a  commodious  habitation.  Since 
 then  we  need  fear  no  dissolution  of  our  works  by  any 
 future  deluge,  let  us  erect  something  that  may  immortal- 
 ise our  names,  and  outvie  the  labours  of  our  antediluvian 
 fathers."  And  that  this  seems  to  have  been  the  reason- 
 ing of  their  minds,  will  further  appear,  if  we  come  now 
 to  take  a  short  survey  of  the  dimensions  of  the  building, 
 according  to  the  account  which  the  best  historians  have 
 given  us  of  it. 
 
 It  is  the  opinion  of  the  learned  3  Bochart,  that  what- 
 ever we  read  of  the  tower,  enclosed  in  the  temple  of 
 Belus,  may  very  properly  be  applied  to  the  tower  of 
 Babel  ;  because,  upon  due  search  and  examination,  he 
 conceives  them  to  be  one  and  the  same  structure.  Now 
 of  this  tower  4  Herodotus  tells  us,  that  it  was  a  square  of 
 a  furlong  on  each  side,  that  is,  half  a  mile  in  the  whole 
 circumference,  whose  height,  being  equal  to  its  basis, 
 was  divided  into  eight  towers,  built  one  upon  another  ; 
 but  what  made  it  look  as  divided  into  eight  towers,  was 
 very  probably  the  manner  of  its  ascent.  The  passage 
 to  go  up  it,  continues  our  author,  was  a  circular  or 
 winding  way,  carried  round  the  outside  of  the  building, 
 to  its  highest  point  :5  from  whence  it  seems  most  likely 
 that  the  whole  ascent  was,  by  the  benching-in,  drawn  in 
 a  sloping  line  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  eight  times 
 round  it,  which  would  make  it  have  the  appearance  of 
 eight  towers  one  above  another.  This  way  was  so  exceed- 
 ing broad,  that  it  afforded  space  for  horses  and  carts, 
 and  other  means  of  carriage,  to  meet  and  turn  ;  and  the 
 towers,  which  looked  like  so  many  stories  upon  one 
 another,  were  each  of  them  seventy-five  feet  high,  in 
 which  were  many  stately  rooms,  with  arched  roofs  sup- 
 
 3  See  Phaleg.  part  1.  b.  i.  c.  9.  4  Book  1. 
 
 5  Prideaux's  Connection,  part  ] . 
 a  Here  they  speak  as  if  they  feared  a  dispersion  :  but  it  is  hard 
 to  tell  for  what  cause,  unless  it  was  this: — That  Noah,  having 
 projected  a  division  of  the  earth  among  his  posterity,  (for  it  was 
 a  deliberate  business,  as  we  noted  before,)  the  people  had  no  mind 
 to  submit  to  it,  and  therefore  built  a  fortress  to  defend  themselves 
 in  their  resolution  of  not  yielding  to  his  design;  but  what  they 
 dreaded,  they  brought  upon  themselves  by  their  own  vain  attempt  to 
 avoid  it. — See  Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Usher  to  A.  M.  1757. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 119 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  224' 
 
 ported  by  pillars,  which  were  made  parts  of  the  temple, 
 after  the  tower  became  consecrated  to  that  idolatrous 
 use  ;  and  on  the  uppermost  of  the  towers,  which  was  held 
 more  sacred,  and  where  their  most  solemn  devotions 
 ivere  performed,  there  was  an  observatory,  by  the  benefit 
 »f  which  it  was,  that  the  Babylonians  advanced  their  skill 
 in  astronomy  beyond  all  other  nations. 
 
 Some  authors,"  following  a  mistake  in  the  Latin  ver- 
 sion of  Herodotus,  wherein  the  lowest  of  these  towers  is 
 said  to  be  a  furlong  thick,  and  a  furlong  high,  will  have 
 each  of  the  other  towers  to  be  of  a  proportionate  height, 
 which  amounts  to  a  mile  in  the  whole  :  but  the  Greek  of 
 Herodotus  (which  is  the  genuine  text  of  that  author)  says 
 no  such  thing,  but  only  that  it  was  a  furlong  long,  and  a 
 furlong  broad,  without  mentioning  any  thing  of  its  height ; 
 find  '  Strabo,  in  his  description  of  it,  (calling  it  a  pyra- 
 mid, because  of  its  decreasing  or  benching-in  at  every 
 tower,)  says  of  the  whole,  that  it  was  a  furlong  high,  and 
 ;i  furlong  on  every  side  ;  for  to  reckon  every  tower  a 
 furlong  high,  would  make  the  thing  incredible,  even 
 though  the  authority  of  both  these  historians  were  for,  as 
 they  are  against  it.  Taking  it  only  as  it  is  described  by 
 Strabo,  it  was  prodigious  enough ;  since,  according  to 
 his  dimensions  only,  without  adding  any  farther,  it  was 
 one  of  the  most  wonderful  works  in  the  world,  and  much 
 exceeded  the  greatest  of  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  though 
 it  was  not  built  of  such  durable  materials. 
 
 In  this  condition  continued  the  tower  of  Babel,  or  the 
 temple  of  Belus,  until  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar ;  but 
 he  enlarged  it  by  vast  buildings,  which  were  erected 
 round  it,  in  a  square  of  two  furlongs  on  every  side,  or  a 
 mile  in  circumference,  and  enclosed  the  whole  with  a 
 Avail  of  two  miles  and  an  half  in  compass,  in  which  were 
 several  gates  leading  to  the  temple,  all  of  solid  brass, 
 which  very  probably  were  made  of  the  brazen  sea,  the 
 brazen  pillars,  and  the  other  brazen  vessels  which  were 
 carried  to  Babylon,  from  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  ;  for 
 so  we  are  told,  that  all  the  sacred  vessels  which  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar carried  from  thence,  he  put  2  into  the  house 
 of  his  god  in  Babylon,  that  is,  into  the  house  or  temple 
 of  Bel,  for  *  that  was  the  name  of  the  great  god  of  the 
 Babylonians,  surrounding  it  with  the  pomp  of  these  addi- 
 tional buildings,  and  adorning  it  with  the  spoils  of  the 
 temple  of  Jerusalem.  This  tower  did  not  subsist  much 
 above  an  hundred  years,  when  Xerxes,  coming  from  his 
 
 *  See  Phalog.  b.  16.      "2  Chron.  xxxvi.  7.  Dan.  i.  2. 
 
 a  The  words  of  Herodotus  are,  "  In  the  midst  of  the  temple 
 there  is  built  a  solid  tower,  eight  furlongs  in  length  and  breadth; 
 upon  this  tower  another  one  is  erected,  and  still  on  till  altogether 
 they  are  eight  in  number."  Now,  though  it  be  allowed  that  the 
 word  ftr,ic<i;  may  signify  height  as  well  as  length,  yet  it  is  much 
 better  to  take  Herodotus  in  the  latter  sense  here,  otherwise  the 
 tower  (if  every  story  answers  the  lowest)  will  rise  to  a  prodigious 
 height,  although  nothing  near  to  what  Jerom  (b.  5.  Commentary 
 on  Isaiah)  affirms,  from  the  testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  as  he 
 says,  who  examined  the  remains  of  it  very  carefully,  namely, 
 that  it  was  no  less  than  four  miles  high. —  Universal  History, 
 b.  1.  c.  2. 
 
 b  Bel  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  same  with  Nimrod,  and  to 
 have  been  called  Bel  from  his  dominion,  and  Nimrod  from  his 
 rebellion;  for  Bel,  or  Baal,  which  is  the  same  name,  signify 
 Lord,  and  Nimrod  rebel,  in  the  Jewish  and  Chaldean  language. 
 The  former  was  his  Babylonish  name,  by  reason  of  his  empire  in 
 that  place,  and  the  latter  his  Scripture  name,  by  reason  of  his 
 rebellion,  in  revolting  from  God  to  follow  his  own  wicked  designs. 
 Pritleau.v's  Connection,  part  1.  b.  2. 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  '2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.   10. 
 
 Grecian  expedition,  wherein  he  had  suffered  a  vast  loss 
 of  men  and  money,  out  of  pretence  of  religion/  as  being 
 himself  a  Magian,  and  consequently  detesting  the  worship 
 of  God  by  images,3  but  in  reality  with  a  design  to  repair 
 the  damages  he  had  sustained,  demolished  it,  and  laid  it 
 all  in  rubbish  ;  having  first  plundered  it  of  all  its  immense 
 riches,  among  which  were  several  images  or  statues  of 
 massy  gold,  and  one*1  particularly  of  forty  feet  high, 
 which  very  probably  was  d  that  which  Nebuchadnezzar s 
 consecrated  in  the  plains  of  Dura. 
 
 Thus  fell  this  great  monument  of  antiquity,  and  was 
 never  repaired  any  more  ;  for  though  Alexander,  at  his 
 return  to  Babylon  after  his  Indian  expedition,  expressed 
 his  intention  of  rebuilding  it,  and  accordingly  set  ten 
 thousand  men  on  work  to  rid  the  place  of  its  rubbish  ; 
 yet,  before  they  had  made  any  progress  therein,  that 
 great  conqueror  died  on  a  sudden,  and  has  ever  since  left 
 both  the  city  and  tower  so  far  defaced,  that  the  very 
 people  of  the  country  are  at  a  loss  to  tell  where  their 
 ancient  situation  was.  Since  some  late  travellers,  hew- 
 ever,  have,  in  their  opinions,  found  out  the  true  ruins, 
 and  remains  of  this  once  renowned  structure,  we  shall 
 not  be  averse  to  gratify  our  reader's  curiosity  6  with  an 
 account  of  what  one,  of  the  best  authority  among  them, 
 has  thought  fit  to  communicate  to  the  public. 
 
 "  In  the  middle  of  a  vast  and  level  plain,"  says  he, 
 "  about  a  quarter  of  a  league  from  Euphrates  (which  in 
 that  place  runs  westward),  appears  an  heap  of  ruined 
 buildings   like  a  huge  mountain,  the  materials  of  which 
 
 8  Prideaux's  Connection,  part  1.     4  Diodorus  Siculus,  b.  2. 
 5  Dan.  iii.  1.     6  See  Vi  Aggi  di  Pietro  della  Valle,  part  2.  b.  1 7. 
 
 c  The  two  great  sects  of  religion  among  the  Persians  were  the 
 Magians  and  Sabhms.  The  Sabians  worshipped  God  through  sen- 
 sible images,  or  rather  worshipped  the  images  themselves.  The 
 Babylonians  were  the  first  founders  of  this  sect ;  for  they  first 
 brought  in  the  worship  of  the  planets,  and  afterwards  that  of 
 images,  and  from  thence  propagated  it  to  all  other  nations  where 
 it  prevailed.  The  Magians,  on  the  contrary,  worship  no  images 
 of  any  kind,  but  God  only,  together  with  two  subordinate 
 principles;  the  one,  the  author  and  director  of  all  good,  and 
 the  other,  the  author  and  director  of  all  evil.  These  two  sects 
 have  always  had  a  mortal  enmity  to  each  other;  and  therefore  it 
 is  no  wonder  that  Xerxes,  who  had  always  the  Archimagus 
 attending  him  in  his  expeditions,  with  several  other  inferior 
 Magi,  in  the  capacity  of  his  chaplains,  should  by  them  be  pre- 
 vailed on  to  take  Babylon  in  his  way  to  Susa,  in  order  to  destroy 
 all  the  idolatrous  temples  there. 
 
 d  Nebuchadnezzar's  golden  image  is  said  indeed  in  Scripture 
 to  have  been  sixty  cubits,  that  is,  ninety  feet  high,  but  that  must 
 be  understood  of  the  image  and  pedestal  altogether.  For  that 
 image  being  said  to  have  been  but  six  cubits  broad  or  thick,  it  is 
 impossible  that  the  image  could  have  been  sixty  cubits  high;  for 
 that  makes  its  height  to  be  ten  times  its  breadth  or  thickness, 
 which  exceeds  all  the  proportions  of  a  man,  forasmuch  as  no 
 man's  height  is  above  six  times  his  thickness,  measuring  the 
 slenderest  man  living  at  the  waist.  But  where  the  breadth  of  this 
 image  was  measured  it  is  no!  said  :  perhaps  it  was  from  shoulder 
 to  shoulder,  and  then  the  proportion  of  six  cubits'  breadth  will 
 bring  down  the  height  exactly  to  the  measure  which  Diodorus 
 has  mentioned.  For  the  usual  height  of  a  man  being  four  and 
 an  half  of  his  breadth  between  the  shoulders,  it  must,  according  to 
 this  proportion,  have  been  twenty-.-cven  cubits  high,  which  is 
 forty  feet  and  an  half.  Nor  must  it  be  forgot  what  Diodorus 
 further  tells  us,  namely,  that  this  image  contained  a  thousand 
 Babylonish  talents  of  gold,  which,  upon  a  moderate  computation, 
 amounts  to  thn  c  millions  and  an  half  of  our  money.  But  now, 
 if  we  advance  the  height  of  the  statue  to  ninety  feet  without  the 
 pedestal,  it  will  increase  the  value  to  a  sum  incredible;  and 
 therefore  it  is  necessary  to  take  the  pedestal  likewise  into  the 
 height  mentioned  by  Daniel.—  i'ri'./c  n.v's  Connet  tion,  part  1 .  b.  2. 
 
120 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1757.  A.  C.  2247;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2857.  A.  C.  2554.  GEN.  CH.  xi.  TO  VER.  10. 
 
 are  so  confounded  together  that  one  knows  not  what  to 
 make  of  it.  Its  figure  is  square,  and  rises  in  form  of  a 
 pyramid  with  four  fronts,  which  answer  to  the  four  quar- 
 ters of  the  compass,  but  it  seems  longer  from  north  to 
 south  than  from  east  to  west,  and  is,  as  far  as  I  could 
 judge  by  my  pacing  it,  a  large  quarter  of  a  league.  Its 
 situation  and  form  correspond  with  that  pyramid  which 
 Strabo  calls  the  tower  of  Belus  ;  but  even  in  his  time  it 
 had  nothing  remaining  of  the  stairs  and  other  ornaments 
 mentioned  by  Herodotus,  for  the  greatest  part  of  it  was 
 ruined  by  Xerxes  and  Alexander,  who  designed  to  have 
 restored  it  to  its  former  lustre,  but  was  prevented  by  death. 
 
 "  There  appear  no  marks  of  ruins  round  the  compass 
 of  this  rude  mass,  to  make  one  believe  that  so  great  a 
 city  as  Babylon  ever  stood  here.  All  that  one  can  dis- 
 cover, within  fifty  or  sixty  paces  of  it,  is  only  the 
 remains  here  and  there  of  some  foundations  of  buildings  ; 
 and  the  country  round  about  it  is  so  flat  and  level,  that 
 one  can  hardly  conceive  it  should  be  chosen  for  the  situa- 
 tion of  so  noble  a  city,  or  that  there  ever  were  any 
 considerable  structures  on  it.  But  considering  withal, 
 that  it  is  now  at  least  four  thousand  years  since  that  city 
 was  built,  and  that  in  the  time  of  Diodorus  Siculus,  as 
 he  tells  us,  it  was  almost  reduced  to  nothing,  I,  for  my 
 part,  am  astonished  that  there  appears  so  much  as  there 
 does. 
 
 "  The  height  of  this  mountain  of  ruins  is  not  in  every 
 part  equal,  but  exceeds  the  highest  palace  in  Naples.  It 
 is  a  misshapen  mass,  wherein  there  is  no  appearance  of 
 regularity.  In  some  places  it  rises  in  points,  is  craggy, 
 and  inaccessible,  in  others  it  is  smooth,  and  of  easy 
 ascent. — Whether  ever  there  were  steps  to  ascend  it,  or 
 doors  to  enter  into  it,  it  is  impossible  at  present  to  dis- 
 cover ;  and  from  hence  one  may  easily  -judge,  that  the 
 stairs  ran  winding  about  on  the  outside,  and  that,  being 
 the  less  solid  parts,  they  were  the  soonest  demolished, 
 so  that  there  is  not  the  least  sign  to  be  seen  of  them  now. 
 
 "  In  the  inside  of  it,  there  are  some  grottos,  but  so 
 ruined  that  one  can  make  nothing  of  them  ;  and  it  is 
 much  to  be  doubted,  with  regard  to  some  of  them,  whether 
 they  were  built  at  the  same  time  with  the  work,  or  made 
 since  by  the  peasants  for  shelter,  which  last  seems  to  be 
 more  likely.  It  is  evident  from  these  ruins,  however, 
 that  the  tower  of  Nimrod  (so  our  author  calls  it)  was 
 built  with  great  and  thick  bricks,  as  I  carefully  observed, 
 causing  holes  to  be  dug  in  several  places  for  that  pur- 
 pose ;  but  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been  burned,  but 
 only  dried  in  the  sun,  which  is  extremely  hot  in  these 
 parts. 
 
 "  In  laying  these  bricks,  neither  lime  nor  sand  was 
 made  use  of,  but  only  earth  tempered  and  petrified  ;  and 
 in  those  parts  which  made  the  floors,  there  had  been 
 mingled  with  the  earth,  which  served  instead  of  lime, 
 bruised  reeds  or  hard  straws,  such  as  large  mats  are 
 made  of,  to  strengthen  the  work.  In  several  other  places, 
 especially  where  the  strongest  buttresses  were  to  be,  there 
 were,  at  due  distances,  other  bricks  of  the  same  size,  but 
 more  solid,  and  burnt  in  kilns,  and  set  in  good  lime  or 
 bitumen,  but  the  greater  number  were  such  as  were  dried 
 in  the  sun." 
 
 This  is  the  most  of  what  this  sedulous  traveller  could 
 discover;  and  yet,  upon  the  foot  of  these  remarks,  he 
 makes  no  doubt  to  declare,  "  That  this  ruin  was  the 
 ancient  Babel  or  the  tower  of  Nimrod  (as  he  calls  it), 
 
 for  besides  the  evidence  of  its  situation,  it  is  so  acknow- 
 ledged to  be,  and  so  called  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
 country  to  this  very  day."  Notwithstanding  some  others 
 are  of  a  contrary  opinion,  namely,1  that  this  and  some 
 other  ruins  not  far  distant  from  it,  are  not  the  remains  of 
 the  original  tower,  but  rather  some  later  structures  of  the 
 Arabs. 
 
 We  cannot  dismiss  this  subject,  however,  without 
 making  some  reflections  on  the  vanity  and  transitoriness 
 of  all  sublunary  things,  as  well  as  the  veracity  of  all 
 God's  predictions  ;  since  that  goodly  city,  which  was 
 once  the  pride  of  all  Asia,  and  the  designed  metropolis 
 of  the  whole  universe,  according  to  the  words  2  of  the 
 prophets, '  is  fallen,  is  fallen  low,  very  low,  and  become  a 
 dwelling-place  for  dragons,  an  astonishment,  and  an  hiss- 
 ing without  an  inhabitant ;'  and  that  stately  tower,  which 
 once  reared  its  head  on  high,  and  seemed  to  menace  the 
 stars,  is  brought  down  to  the  ground,  even  to  the  dust ; 
 insomuch,  that  the  place  of  it  is  to  be  seen  no  more  ; 
 or,  if  by  chance  found  out  by  some  inquisitive  traveller, 
 the  whole  is  now  become  only  a  confused  heap  of  rub- 
 bish, according  to  the  word  of  God  by  the  same  pro- 
 phet ;  3  '  1  will  roll  thee  down  from  the  rocks,  and  make 
 thee  as  a  burnt  mountain,  and  they  shall  not  take  of  thee 
 a  stone  for  a  corner,  nor  a  stone  for  foundations,  but 
 thou  shalt  be  an  everlasting  desolation,  saith  the  Lord.'*1 
 
 1  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  2.     2  Isa.  xxi.  9.  and  Jer.  li.  37. 
 
 3  Jer.  li.  25,  26. 
 a  Various  have  been  the  conjectures  respecting  the  reasons 
 which  induced  the  human  race  to  unite,  as  one  man,  in  tins  great 
 enterprise.  Some  have  supposed  that  their  design  was  to  raise  a 
 tower  so  high  as  to  enable  them  to  climb  up  to  heaven ;  a  strange 
 opinion,  founded  upon  a  literal  interpretation  of  these  words  in 
 Scripture : — '  Let  us  build  a  city,  and  a  tower  whose  top  may 
 reach  unto  heaven;'  an  expression  evidently  intended  to  signify 
 no  more  than  that  its  height  was  to  be  uncommonly  great.  Similar 
 expressions  arc  to  be  found  in  Deut.  i.  28,  and  ix.  1,  where  the 
 cities  of  the  heathen  nations,  who  inhabited  the  land  of  Canaan, 
 are  described  as  '  great,  and  walled  or  fenced  up  to  heaven.' 
 Nor  was  it  uncommon  for  the  Greek  poets  to  use  the  expressions, 
 high  as  heaven,  or  reaching  to  the  sun,  when  they  wished  to 
 describe  things  of  an  extraordinary  height.  Josephus  and  some 
 others  have  thought  that  it  must  have  been  designed  to  preserve 
 them  from  a  second  deluge,  which  they  greatly  dreaded ;  but  had 
 that  been  the  case,  they  would  have  betaken  themselves  to  the 
 mountains,  and  not  made  choice  of  the  low  country,  for  building 
 a  place  of  security.  A  third  opinion  is,  that,  as  the  tower  was  in 
 the  form  of  a  pyramid,  to  the  figure  of  which  the  flame  of  fire  bears 
 a  resemblance,  it  was  a  monument  designed  in  honour  of  the  sun, 
 to  whose  influence  they  ascribed  the  drying  up  of  the  flood.  But 
 there  is  no  foundation  in  Scripture  for  that  conjecture,  and  the 
 date  of  that  species  of  idolatry  was  probably  not  so  early  as  it 
 supposes.  The  reason  assigned  in  Scripture  is,  '  Let  us  make 
 us  a  name,  lest  we  be  scattered  abroad  upon  the  face  of  the  whole 
 earth.'  The  most  probable  conjecture,  therefore,  seems  to  be, 
 that,  as  they  were  now  in  a  vast  plain,  undefined  by  any  build- 
 ings, or  roads,  or  any  distinct  boundaries;  and  as  they  must  soon 
 separate  to  attend  their  flocks,  or  go  in  quest  of  provisions,  or 
 perhaps  dreading  a  dispersion,  in  consequence  of  Noah's  pro- 
 jected division  of  the  earth  among  his  posterity; — they  built  this 
 tower,  as  &  pharos,  or  landmark,  to  enable  them  to  find  their  way 
 back  to  the  surrounding  city;  which,  with  its  immense  tower, 
 they  believed  would  be  a  lasting  monument  of  their  fame,  and 
 transmit  their  name  with  honour  to  posterity.  In  this  view,  their 
 design  had  been  to  make  the  whole  world  one  kingdom,  and 
 Babel  its  metropolis. 
 
 This  interpretation  seems  also  to  account  for  the  reason  of  thr 
 divine  frustration  of  their  great  design,  and  of  their  consequent 
 dispersion.  It  is  given  in  these  words,  '  Behold  the  people  ii 
 one,  and  they  have  all  one  language,  and  this  they  begin  to  do 
 and  now  nothing  will  be  restrained  fr»m  them  which  they  hav< 
 imagined  to  do;'  that  is,  not  as  some  have  explained  the  words 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 121 
 
 A.  M.  1759.  A.  C.  2215,  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2859 
 
 SECT.   III. 
 
 CHAP.  I. —  Of  t he  Dispersion  and  First  Setth 
 of  the  Natiotis. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 In  what  manner  the  children  of  Noah  were  admitted  to 
 the  possession  of  the  several  countries  they  afterwards 
 tame  to  inhabit,  the  sacred  historian  has  not  informed  us  ; 
 but  this  we  may  depend  on,  that  l  this  great  division  of 
 the  earth  was  not  the  result  of  chance,  but  of  mature 
 deliberation ;  not  a  confused  irregular  dispersion, 
 wherein  every  one  went  where  he  pleased,  and  settled 
 himself  where  he  liked  best,  but  a  proper  assignment  of 
 such  and  such  places,  for  every  division  and  subdivision 
 of  each  nation  and  family  to  dwell  in.  a  Japheth,  as  we 
 said  before,  though  usually  mentioned  last,  yet  was  in 
 reality  the  eldest  son  of  Noah,  and  accordingly  has  his 
 
 1  Mede's  Discourses,  49,  50.  b.  1. 
 — if  this  scheme  shall  succeed,  the  divine  plan  for  the  govern- 
 ment of  the  world  'will  be  frustrated ;  but,  as  the  words  more 
 naturally  signify,  this  their  first  attempt,  and  if  they  succeed  in 
 it,  they  will  think  themselves  able  for  any  undertaking, — no 
 enterprise  will  appear  too  great  for  them.  Accordingly,  the  very 
 dispersion  which  they  dreaded,  they  brought  upon  themselves,  by 
 their  vain  attempt  to  avoid  it.  '  The  name  of  it  was  called 
 Babel,  because  the  Lord  did  there  confound  the  language  of  all 
 the  earth,  and  from  thence  did  the  Lord  scatter  them  abroad 
 upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth.' — Ancient  Universal  History, 
 vol.  1.  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia,  article  Babel. 
 
 a  According  to  the  Armenian  tradition,  recorded  by  Abal- 
 faragi,  Noah  distributed  the  habitable  earth  from  north  to  south 
 between  his  sons,  and  gave  to  Ham  the  region  of  the  blacks;  to 
 Shem  the  region  of  the  tawny  (fuseorum) ;  and  to  Japheth  the 
 region  of  the  ruddy  (ruborum).  p.  9.  And  he  dates  the  actual 
 division  of  the  earth  in  the  140th  year  of  Peleg,  A.  C.  2G14,  or 
 541  years  after  the  deluge,  and  191  years  after  the  death  of  Noah, 
 in  the  following  order: — To  the  sons  of  Shem  was  allotted  the 
 middle  of  the  earth,  namely,  Palestine,  Syria,  Assyria,  Samaria, 
 (Singar  or  Sliinar,)  Babel  (or  Babylonian),  Persia,  and  Hegar 
 (Arabia).  To  the  sons  of  Ham,  Terman  (or  Idumea,  Jer.  xlix. 
 7),  Africa,  Nigritia,  Egypt,  Nubia,  Ethiopia,  Sciudid,  and 
 India,  (or  India  east  and  west  of  the  river  Indus.)  To  the  sons 
 of  Japheth,  also  Garbia  (the  north),  Spain,  France,  the  countries 
 of  the  Greeks,  Sclavonians,  Bulgarians,  Turks,  and  Armenians, 
 (Annals,  p.  11.)  In  this  curious  and  valuable  geographical  chart, 
 Armenia,  the  cradle  of  the  human  race,  was  allotted  to  Japheth 
 by  right  of  primogeniture;  and  Samaria  and  Babel  to  the  sons 
 of  Slum.  The  usurpation  of  these  regions,  therefore,  by  Nimrod, 
 and  of  Palestine  by  Canaan,  was  in  violation  of  the  divine  decree. 
 Though  the  migration  of  the  three  primitive  families  from  the 
 central  regions  of  Armenia,  Mesopotamia,  and  Assyria,  began 
 about  A.  C.  2614,  or  541  years  after  the  deluge;  yet  it  would 
 be  a  considerable  length  of  time  before  they  all  reached  their  des- 
 tinations. Sir*  William  Jones  conjectures  that  the  migration 
 lasted  about  four  centuries,  (Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  4.  p.  4.) 
 in  the  course  of  which,  by  successive  colonizations,  they  established 
 far  distant  communities,  and  various  modes  of  society  and  govern- 
 ment. The  Phoenicians,  Arabians,  Egyptians,  Ethiopians,  and 
 Lybians,  southwards:  the  Persians,  Ethiopians,  Indians,  and  Chi- 
 nese, eastwards;  the  Scythians,  Celts,  and  Tartars,  northwards; 
 and  the  Goths,  Greeks,  and  Latins,  even  as  far  as  the  Peruvians 
 and  Mexicans  of  South  America,  and  the  Indian  tribes  of  North 
 America,  westwards.  All  these  various  inhabitants  of  the  globe 
 retain  a  striking  affinity  in  the  leading  principles  of  their  lan- 
 guage, customs,  and  religions,  however  diversified  in  process  of 
 time,  from  each  other,  by  local  circumstances;  such  affinity 
 evincing  their  common  descent  from  one  and  the  same  parent 
 stock. — Hales 's  Analysis,  vol.  1.  p.  351.  and  vol.  2.  p.  50. 
 Second  edition. — En. 
 
 t  The  following  account  of  the  plantations  of  the  three  sons  of 
 
 A.  C.  2552.  GEN.  CH.  x. ;  AND  CH.  xi.  VEK.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 descendants  here  placed  in  die  front  of  the  genealogy. 
 He  had  l>  seven  sons  :  Gomer,  who  seated  himself  in  Phry- 
 gia ;  Magog,  in  Scythia  ;  Madai,  in  Media  ;  Javan,  in 
 Ionia,  or  part  of  Greece ;  Tubal,  in  Tibarenc  ;  Mashech, 
 in  Moschia,  (which  lies  in  the  north-east  parts  of  Cap- 
 padocia)  ;  and  Tiras,  in  Thrace,  Mysia,  and  the  rest  of 
 Europe  towards  the  north. 
 
 The  sons  of  Gomer  were  Ashkanaz,  who  took  posses- 
 sion of  Ascania,  (which  is  part  of  Lesser  Phrygia)  ; 
 Riphah,  of  the  Riphasan  mountains  ;  and  Togarmagh,  of 
 part  of  Cappadocia  and  Galatia. 
 
 The  sons  of  Javan  were  Eliskah,  who  seated  himself 
 in  Peloponnesus  ;  Tarshish,  in  Spain  ;  Kittim,  in  Italy  ; 
 and  Dodanim  2  (otherwise  called  Rhodanim)  in  France 
 not  far  from  the  banks  of  the  river  Rhone,  to  which  he 
 seems  to  have  given  the  name.  By  these,  and  the  colo- 
 nies which  in  some  space  of  time  proceeded  from  them, 
 not  only  a  considerable  part  of  Asia,  but  all  Europe  and 
 the  islands  adjacent  were  stocked  with  inhabitants ;  and 
 the  several  inhabitants  were  so  settled  and  disposed  of, 
 that  each  tribe  or  family  who  spake  the  same  language 
 kept  together  in  one  body ;  and  (though  distant  in  situa- 
 tion) continued,  for  some  time  at  least,  their  relation  to 
 the  people  or  nation  from  whom  originally  they  sprang. 
 
 Shem,  the  second  son  of  Noah,  (and  from  whom  the  He- 
 brew nation  did  descend,)  had  himself  five  sons  ;  whereof 
 Elam  took  possession  of  a  country  in  Persia,  called  after 
 himself  at  first,  but  in  the  time  of  Daniel  it  obtained  the 
 name  of  Susiana ;  Assur,  of  Assyria ;  Arphaxad,  of 
 Chaldea ;  Lud,  of  Lydia  ;  and  Aram,  of  Syria,  as  far 
 as  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
 
 The  sons  of  Aram  were  Uz,  who  seated  himself  in  the 
 country  of  Damascus  ;  Hid,  near  Cholobatene  in  Arme- 
 nia ;  Mash,  near  the  mountain  Masius ;  and  Gether,  in 
 part  of  Mesopotamia. 
 
 Arphaxad  had  a  son  named  Salah,  who  settled  near 
 Susiana,  and  begat  Eber,  (the  father  of  the  Hebrew 
 nation,)  who  had  likewise  two  sons  :  Peleg,  whose  name 
 imports  division,  because  in  his  days  mankind  was  divided 
 into  several  colonies  ;  and  Jocktan,  who  had  a  large 
 offspring  to  the  number  of  thirteen  sons,  all  seated  in 
 Arabia  Felix,  and  who,  in  all  probability,  were  the  pro- 
 genitors of  such  people  and  nations  as  in  those  parts,  in 
 after  ages,  had  some  affinity  to  their  several  names.  For 
 here  it  was  that  the  Allumcpota;,  who  took  their  name  from 
 Almodad,  the  Selapeni,  from  Sheleph,  and  the  Abalita?, 
 from  Obal,  &c,  lived,  namely,  from  that  part  of  Arabia 
 which  lies  between  Musa  (a  famous  sea -port  in  the  Red 
 Sea),  and  the  mountain  Climax,  which  was  formerly 
 called  Sephar,  from  a  city  of  that  name  built  at  the  bot- 
 tom of  it,  and  then  the  metropolis  of  the  whole  country. 
 
 Ham,  the  youngest  son  of  Noah,  had  four  sons  : 
 whereof  Cush  settled  his  abode  in  that  part  of  Arabia 
 which    lies  towards  Egypt ;    Mizraim,   in  both   Upper 
 
 1 1  Chron.  i.  7. 
 
 Noah  and  their  descendants,  is  extracted  from  Bochart's  Phaleg. ; 
 Heidegger's  Historia  Patriarehum,  vol.  1.  Essay  22  j  Wells' 
 Sacred  Geography,  vol.  1 ;  Bedford's  Scripture  Clu-onology,  b.  2  ; 
 Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  1 ;  Parker's  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol. 
 1 ;  the  Authors  of  the  Universal  History,  b.  1 ;  Le  Clerc  and  Pa- 
 trick's Commentaries;  Poole  and  Ainsworth's  Annotations,  with 
 other  authors  of  the  like  nature;  from  whom  we  have  made  use 
 of  the  most  probable  conjectures,  and  to  whom  we  refer  the  reader, 
 rather  than  encumber  him  with  a  multitude  of  explanatory  notes. 
 
122 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1759.  A.  C.  2245;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  2859.  A.  C.  2552.  GEN.  CH.  x. ;  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 and  Lower  Egypt ;  Phut,  in  part  of  Lybia  ;  and  Canaan, 
 in  the  land  which  was  afterwards  called  by  his  name,  and 
 in  other  adjacent  countries. 
 
 The  sons  of  Cush,  were  Seba,  who  settled  on  the 
 south-west  part  of  Arabia  ;  Havilah,  who  gave  name  to 
 a  country  upon  the  river  Pison,  where  it  parts  with 
 Euphrates,  to  run  into  the  Arabian  Gulf;  Sabtah,  who 
 lived  on  the  same  shore  (but  a  little  more  northward) 
 of  the  Arabian  Gulf ;  Raamah,  who,  with  his  two  sons, 
 Sheba  and  Dedan,  occupied  the  same  coast,  but  a  little 
 more  eastward  ;  and  Sabtecha,  who  (we  need  not  doubt) 
 placed  himself  among  the  rest  of  his  brethren.  But 
 among  all  the  sons  of  Cush,  Nimrod  was  the  person  who 
 in  those  early  days  distinguished  himself  by  his  bravery 
 and  courage.  His  lot  chanced  to  fall  into  a  place  that 
 was  not  a  little  infested  with  wild  beasts  ;  and  therefore  he 
 betook  himself  to  the  exercise  of  hunting,  and,  drawing 
 together  a  company  of  stout  young  fellows,  not  only 
 cleared  the  country  of  such  dangerous  creatures,  but, 
 procuring  himself  likewise  gTeat  honour  and  renown  by 
 his  other  exploits,  he  raised  himself  at  length  to  the 
 dignity  of  a  king  (the  first  king  that  is  supposed  to  have 
 been  in  the  world) ,  and,  having  made  Babylon  the  seat 
 of  his  empire,  laid  the  foundation  of  three  other  cities, 
 namely,  Erech,  Accad,  and  Calneth,  in  the  neighbouring 
 provinces;  and  so,  passing  into  Assyria,  and  enlarging 
 his  territories  there,  he  built  Nineveh,  Rehoboth,  Calah, 
 and  Resen,  (Larissa,)  situate  upon  the  Tigris.  But  to 
 return  to  the  remainder  of  Ham's  posterity. 
 
 Mizraini,  his  second  son,  became  king  of  Egypt, 
 which  after  his  death  was  divided  into  three  kingdoms 
 by  three  of  his  sons  ;  Ananim,  who  was  king  of  Tanis  or 
 Lower  Egypt,  called  afterwards  Delta  ;  Naphtulim,  who 
 was  king  of  Naph  or  Memphis  in  Upper  Egypt;  and 
 Pathrusim,  who  set  up  the  kingdom  of  Pathros  or  Thebes 
 ui  Thebais.  Ludim  and  Lehabim  peopled  Lybia. 
 Caslubim  fixed  himself  at  Cashiotis,  in  the  entrance  of 
 Egypt  from  Palestine  ;  and  having  two  sons,  Philistim 
 and  Caphterim,  the  latter  he  left  to  succeed  him  at 
 Cashiotis,  and  the  former  planted  the  country  of  the 
 Philistines,  between  the  borders  of  Canaan  and  the 
 Mediterranean  Sea.  The  sons  of  Canaan  were  Sidon, 
 the  father  of  the  Sidonians,  who  lived  in  Phoenicia  ;  Heth, 
 the  father  of  the  Hittites,  who  lived  near  Hebron  ;  Emor, 
 the  father  of  the  Amorites,  who  lived  in  the  mountains  of 
 Judea;  and  Arvad,  the  father  of  the  Arvadites,  not  far 
 from  Sidon :  but  whether  the  other  sons  of  Canaan 
 settled  in  this  country  cannot  be  determined  with  any 
 certainty  and  exactness  ;  only  we  must  take  care  to  place 
 them  somewhere  between  Sidon  and  Gerar,  and  Admah 
 and  Zeboim ;  for  these  were  the  boundaries  of  their 
 land. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  then,  we  may  observe,  that  the  pos- 
 terity of  Japheth  came  into  the  possession,  not  only  of  all 
 Europe,  but  of  a  considerable  portion  of  Asia  ;  *  for  two 
 of  his  sons,  Tiras  and  Javan,  together  with  their  de- 
 scendants, had  all  those  countries  which  from  the  Medi- 
 terranean Sea,  reach  as  far  as  Scandinavia  northward  ; 
 and  his  other  sons,  from  the  Mediterranean  extending 
 themselves  eastward  over  almost  all  Asia  Minor, 
 and  part  of  Armenia,  over  Media,  Iberia,  Albania, 
 and  those  vast  regions  towards  the  north,  where  for- 
 
 1  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  1.  Essay  22.  Sect.  1. 
 
 merly  the  Scythians,  but  now  the  Tartars  dwell :  that 
 the  posterity  of  Ham  held  in  their  possession  all  Africa, 
 and  no  small  part  of  Asia  ;  2  Mizraim,  both  the  Upper, 
 Lower,  and  Middle  Egypt,  Marmorica,  and  Ethiopia, 
 both  east  and  west ;  Phut,  the  remainder  of  Africa, 
 Lybia  Interior  and  Exterior,  Numidia,  Mauritania, 
 Getulia,  &c. ;  Cush,  all  Arabia  that  lies  between  the 
 Red  Sea  and  the  Gulf;  beyond  the  Gulf,  Carmania,  and 
 no  small  part  of  Persia  ;  and  towards  the  north  of  Arabia 
 (till  expelled  by  Nimrod),  Babylonia,  and  part  of 
 Chaldea :  and  Canaan,  Palestine,  Phoenicia,  part  of 
 Cappadocia,  and  that  large  tract  of  ground  along  the 
 Euxine  Sea,  even  as  far  as  Colchis  :  and  that  the  pos- 
 terity of  Shem  had  in  their  possession  part  both  of  the 
 Greater  and  Lesser  Asia  ;  3  in  the  Lesser,  Lydia,  Mysia, 
 and  Cciria ;  and  in  the  Greater,  Assyria,  Syria,  Meso- 
 potamia, Armenia,  Susiana,  Arabia  Felix,  &c,  and 
 perhaps  eastward  all  the  countries  as  far  as  China. 
 
 These  are  the  plantations  4  '  of  the  families  of  the  sons 
 of  Noah  in  their  generations,'  and  after  this  manner 
 '  were  the  nations  dividetl  in  the  earth  after  the  flood.' 
 And  now  to  descend  to  a  more  particular  account  of  the 
 posterity  of  his  son  Shem,  from  whom  the  Hebrews  (who 
 are  the  proper  subjects  of  our  history)  were  descended. 
 A.  M.  1G58,      Two  years  after  the  flood,  when  Shem  was 
 
 or  2258 
 
 100  years  old,  he  had  a  son  named  Arphaxad  ; 
 after  which  time  he  lived  500  years  ;  so  that  the 
 whole  of  his  life  was  600. 
 A.M.  1693,      Arphaxad, when  35  (135),°  had  asonnamed 
 
 or  2393 
 
 Salah,  after  which  he  lived  403  (303)  ;  in  all 
 438. 
 A.M.  1723,       Salah,  when  30  (130),  had    a  son  named 
 
 or  2523. 
 
 Eber  (from  whom  his  descendants  were  called 
 Hebrews),  after  which  he  lived  403  (303)  years ; 
 in  all,  433. 
 
 a.  M.  1757,  Eber,  when  34  (134),  had  a  son  named  Pe- 
 leg,  in  whose  time  (as  we  said)  the  earth  came 
 to  be  divided  ;  after  which  he  lived  430  (330) 
 years  ;  in  all,  464. 
 
 a.m.  1787,  Peleg,  when  30  (130),  had  a  son  named 
 Reu,  after  which  he  lived  209  (109),  years ;  in 
 all,  239. 
 
 A.  M.  1819,  Reu,  when  32  (132),  had  a  son  named  Se- 
 rug ;  after  which  he  lived  207  (107)  years  ;  in 
 all  239. 
 
 A.  M.  1849,  Serug,  when  30  (130),  had  a  son  named 
 Nahor,  after  which  he  lived  200  (100)  years  ; 
 in  all  230. 
 
 A.  M.  1878,  Nahor,  when  29  (79),  had  a  son  named 
 Terah ;  after  which  he  lived  119  (69)  years;  in 
 all  148.  But  of  all  these  persons,  it  must  be 
 remarked,  that  they  had  several  other  children 
 of  both  sexes,  though  not  recorded  in  this  his- 
 tory. 
 
 a.  M.  1918,  Terah,  when  70  (130),  had  three  sons,  one  af- 
 ter another,  Abram,  Nahor,  and  Haran;  whereof 
 Haran,  the  eldest,  died,  before  his  father,  in  his 
 native  country  of  Ur,  leaving  behind  him  one 
 son,  whose  name  was  Lot,  and  two  daughters, 
 
 2  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  1.  Essay  22.  Sect.  2. 
 3  Ibid.  Sect.  3.  4  Gen.  x.  32. 
 
 «  All  the  dates  within  (  )  are  taken  from  Dr  Hales's  Analysis, 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 123 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  Ch.  x. ;  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  I  HE  END. 
 
 whereof  the  elder,  namely,  Milcah,  was  mar- 
 ried to  her  uncle  Nahor,  and  the  younger,  m 
 whose  name   was   Sarai,  was  married  to    her 
 uncle  Abrain  ;  but  at  this  time  she  was  barren, 
 and  had  no  children. 
 The  corruption  of  mankind  was  now  become  general, 
 and  idolatry  and  polytheism  began  to  spread  like  a  con- 
 tagion ;  b  the  people  of  Ur  in  particular, l  as  is  supposed 
 by  the  signification  of  the  name,  worshipped  the  element 
 of  fire,  which  was  always  thought  a  proper  symbol  of  the 
 sun,  that  universal  god  of  the  east.     Terah,  the  father 
 of  Abrain,  2  was  certainly  a  companion    (some  say  a 
 priest)  of  those  who  adored  such  strange  gods  ;  nor  was 
 Abram  himself  (as  it  is  generally  imagined)  uninfected. 
 But  God  being  minded  to  select  this  family  out  of  the 
 rest  of  mankind,  and   in  them  to  establish  his  church, 
 ordered  Terah  to  leave  the  place  of  his  habitation,  which 
 was  then  corrupted  in  this  manner  ;  which  accordingly 
 he  did,  and  taking  with  him  his  son  Abrain  and  his  wife, 
 together  with  his  grandson  Lot,  left  Ur,  with  an  intent 
 to  go  into  Canaan,  but  in  his  journey  fell  sick  at c  Haran 
 (which  Stephen  calls  Charran)  a  city  of  Mesopotamia, 
 where  being  forced  to  make  his  abode  for  some  time,  d 
 in  the  145th  (205th)  year  of  his  age  he  died. 
 
 1  See  Calmet's  Dictionary  on  the  word  Ur. 
 2  Jos.  xxiv.  2,  14. 
 
 a  It  is  very  probable  that  Sarai  was  called  Iscah,  before  she 
 left  Ur ;  because,  in  the  29th  verse,  we  read  that  Haran  had  a 
 daughter  of  that  name  ;  and  yet  we  cannot  suppose  but  that,  had 
 she  been  a  distinct  person,  Moses  would  have  given  us  an  account 
 of  her  descent,  because  it  so  much  concerned  his  nation  to  know 
 from  whom  they  came  both  by  the  father  and  mother's  side. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  city  of  Ur  was  in  Chaldea,  as  the  Scripture  assures  us 
 in  more  places  than  one ;  but  still  its  true  situation  is  not  so  well 
 known.  For  some  think  it  to  be  the  same  as  Camarina  in  Ba- 
 bylonia; others  confound  it  with  Orcha,  or  Orche  in  Chaldea ; 
 while  others  again  take  it  for  Ura  or  Sura,  upon  the  banks  of  the 
 river  Euphrates.  Bochart  and  Grotius  maintain  that  it  is  Ura, 
 in  the  eastern  part  of  Mesopotamia,  which  was  sometimes  (as  it 
 appears  from  Acts  vii.  2,  4.)  included  under  the  name  Chal- 
 dea ;  and  this  situation  seems  the  more  probable,  not  only 
 because  it  agrees  with  the  words  of  St  Stephen  in  the  above-cited 
 place,  but  with  the  writings  of  Ammianus  Marcellinus  likewise, 
 v/lio  himself  travelled  this  country,  and  mentions  a  city  of  this 
 name,  in  the  place  where  Bochart  supposes  it,  about  two  days' 
 journey  from  Nisibis. — Wells'  Geography,  vol.  1. 
 
 c  Haran,  which  is  likewise  called  Charan,  according  to  the 
 Hebrew,  and  Charran,  according  to  the  Greek  pronunciation, 
 was  a  city  situated  in  the  west  or  north-west  part  of  Mesopota- 
 mia, on  a  river  of  the  same  name,  which  very  probably  runs  into 
 the  river  Chaboras,  as  that  does  into  the  Euphrates.  It  is  taken 
 notice  of  by  Latin  writers,  on  account  of  the  great  overthrow 
 which  the  Parthians  gave  the  Roman  army  under  the  command 
 of  Crassus,  and,  as  some  think,  had  its  name  given  by  Terah,  in 
 memory  of  Haran,  his  deceased  son.  But  others  think  it  is  much 
 better  derived  from  the  word  Hharar,  which  denotes  its  soil  to 
 be  hot  and  adust,  as  it  appears  to  he  from  a  passage  out  of  Plu- 
 tarch, in  the  life  of  Crassus,  and  several  other  ancient  testi- 
 monies.— See  Calmet's  Dictionary,  Wells'  Geography,  and  Le 
 Clcrc's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 
 d  St  Stephen  (in  Acts  vii.  4.)  tells  us,  that  after  the  death  of 
 his  lather,  Abraham  removed  from  Haran,  or,  as  he  calls  it  Char- 
 ran, to  the  land  of  Canaan.  In  Gen.  xii.  4.  we  are  told  that 
 Abraham  was  '  seventy-live  years  old  when  he  departed  out  of 
 Charran. '  In  Gen.  xi.  26.  it  is  said  that  Terah  was  'seventy 
 years  old  when  he  begat  Abraham ;'  and  yet,  in  verse  32.  of  the 
 same  chapter,  it  is  affirmed,  that  '  he  died,  being  two  hundred 
 and  five  years  old.'  But  at  this  rate  Terah  must  have  lived  60 
 years  after  Abraham's  going  from  Haran:  for  75  (the  number  of 
 Abraham's  years  when  he  left  Haran)  being  added  to  70,  the 
 number  of  Terah's  years  when  he  begat  Abraham,  make   145 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 It  may  seem  not  a  little  strange  to  some,  perhaps,  why 
 Moses,  in  his  account  of  the  times,  both  preceding  and 
 subsequent  to  the  flood,  should  be  so  particular  in  setting 
 down  the  genealogies  of  the  patriarchs  ;  but  he  who 
 considers  that  this  was  the  common  method  of  recording 
 history  in  those  days,  will  soon  perceive  that  he  had 
 reason  sufficient  for  what  he  did,  namely,  to  give  content 
 and  satisfaction  to  the  age  wherein  he  wrote.  We 
 indeed,  according  to  the  present  taste,  think  these 
 genealogies  but  heavy  reading  ;  nor  are  we  at  all  con- 
 cerned who  begat  whom,  in  a  period  that  stands  at  so 
 distant  a  prospect ;  but  the  people,  for  whom  Moses 
 wrote,  had  the  things  either  before  their  eyes,  or  recent 
 in  their  memories.  They  saw  a  great  variety  of  nations 
 around  them,  different  in  their  manners  and  customs,  as 
 well  as  their  denominations.  The  names  whereby  they 
 were  then  called,  were  not  to  them  so  antique  and 
 obsolete  as  they  are  to  us.  They  knew  their  meaning, 
 and  were  acquainted  with  their  derivation.  And  there- 
 fore it  was  no  small  pleasure  to  them  to  observe,  as  they 
 read  along,  the  gradual  increase  of  mankind ;  how  the 
 stem  of  Noah  spread  itself  into  branches  almost  innu- 
 merable, and  how,  from  such  and  such  a  progenitor,  such 
 and  such  a  nation,  whose  history  and  adventures  they 
 were  no  strangers  to,  did  arise.  Nor  can  it  be  less  than 
 some  satisfaction  to  us,  even  at  this  mighty  distance,  to 
 perceive,  that,  after  so  many  ages,  the  change  of  lan- 
 guages, and  the  alteration  of  names,  brought  in  by 
 variety  of  conquests,  we  are  still  able  to  trace  the  foot- 
 steps of  the  names  recorded  by  Moses ;  by  the  help  of 
 these  can  discover  those  ancient  nations  which  descended 
 from  them,  and  with  a  little  care  and  application,  the 
 particular  regions  which  they  once  inhabited  ;  whereof 
 the  best  heathen  geographers,  without  the  assistance  of 
 these  sacred  records,  were  never  in  a  capacity  so  much 
 as  to  give  us  a  tolerable  guess. 
 
 But  there  is  a  farther  reason  for  our  historian's  writing 
 in  this  manner.  God  had  promised  to  Adam,  and,  in 
 him,  to  all  his  posterity,  a  restoration  in  the  person  of 
 the  Messiah.  This  promise  was  renewed  3  to  Noah,  and 
 afterwards  confirmed  to  Abraham,  the  great  founder  of 
 
 3  See  Bishop  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy, 
 years  only;  whereas  the  account  in  Genesis  is,  that  he  lived  205. 
 This  therefore  must  certainly  proceed  from  a  fault  crept  into  the 
 text  of  Moses;  because  of  the  205  years  which  are  given  to 
 Terah,  when  he  died  at  Haran,  he  only  lived  1 45,  according  to 
 the  Samaritan  version,  and  the  Samaritan  chronicle,  which, 
 without  doubt,  do  agree  with  the  Hebrew  copy,  from  which  tiny 
 were  translated. — An  Essay  for  a  New  Translation.  But,  as 
 Dr  Hales  justly  remarks,  the  chronology  of  this  period  has  been 
 considerably  embarrassed  by  the  vulgar  error  that  Abraham  was 
 the  eldest  of  Terah's  sons,  because  he  is  first  named,  The  con- 
 sequence of  this  has  been,  that  the  date  of  his  birth  is  usually 
 assigned  to  the  seventieth  year  of  Terah,  because  it  is  said  that 
 Terah  lived  seventy  years,  and  begat  Abram,  Nahor.  and  Haran, 
 "  But  this  is  the  date  of  the  birth  of  Haran,  who  was  undoubtedly 
 the  eldest  sou;  because  his  daughters,  Milcah  and  Iscah  (the 
 latter  surnamed  Sarai  and  Sarah)  were  married  to  their  uncles, 
 Nahor  and  Abram  respectively;  and  Sarah  was  only  ten  years 
 younger  than  her  husband,  Gen.  xvii.  17. ;  Abram  was  probably 
 the  youngest  son,  born  by  a  second  wife,  Gen.  xx.  18,  when 
 Terah  was  130  years  old,  Gen.  xi.  38;  xii.  4." — Analysis,  tic 
 vol.  2.  p.  107,  second  edition. — Ed. 
 
124 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318 
 the  Jewish  nation.  Fit  therefore  it  was,  in  this  regard, 
 that  he  should  record  exact  genealogies,  and  that  all 
 other  sacred  historians  should  successively  do  the  same  : 
 nor  can  we  sufficiently  admire  the  divine  wisdom,  in 
 settling  such  a  method,  in  the  beginning  of  the  world,  by 
 Piloses,  and  carrying  it  on  by  the  prophets,  as  might  be 
 of  general  use,  as  long  as  the  world  should  last.  For, 
 as  the  expectation  of  the  Messiah  put  the  Jews  upon 
 keeping  an  exact  account  of  all  their  genealogies ;  so, 
 when  Christ  came  into  the  world,  it  was  evident,  beyond 
 dispute,  that  he  was  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  of  the  tribe 
 of  Judah,  and  of  the  lineage  of  David,  according  to  the 
 promises,  which  had,  from  time  to  time,  been  recorded 
 of  him. 
 
 It  is  well  worth  our  observation,  however,  that,  in  the 
 catalogue  which  Moses  gives  us  of  the  descendants  of 
 Noah,  he  makes  mention  of  no  more  than  sixteen  sons 
 of  the  three  brothers,  or  principal  founders  of  so  many 
 original  nations  ;  nor  of  any  more  than  seven  of  these 
 sixteen,  of  whom  it  is  recorded  that  they  had  any 
 children ;  and  even  of  these  seven,  there  is  one  (we  may 
 observe)  whose  children  are  not  numbered.  '  But  it  is 
 not  to  be  imagined,  that  in  two  or  three  hundred  years, 
 upon  a  moderate  calculation,  or  even  but  in  one  hundred 
 years,  at  the  lowest  account,  Noah  should  have  had  no 
 more  than  sixteen  grandsons,  and  that,  of  these  too,  the 
 majority  should  go  childless  to  the  grave  ;  it  is  much 
 more  likely,  or  rather  self-evident  that  the  nine  grand- 
 sons, of  whom  we  find  nothing  in  Scripture,  were 
 nevertheless  fathers  of  nations,  as  well  as  any  of  the 
 rest,  and  not  only  of  original  nations  called  after  their 
 names,  but  of  lesser  and  subordinate  tribes,  called  after 
 their  sons'  names  ;  and  (what  makes  the  amount  to  seem 
 much  less)  there  is  reason  to  suppose,  that  how  many 
 soever  the  grandchildren  of  Noah  were,  we  have,  in  this 
 tenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  the  names  of  those  only  who 
 were  patriarchs  of  great  nations,  and  only  of  such 
 nations  as  were  in  the  days  of  Moses  known  to  the  He- 
 brews. For,  if  we  read  it  attentively,  we  shall  perceive, 
 2  that  the  design  of  the  holy  penman,  is  not  to  present 
 us  with  an  exact  enumeration  of  all  Noah's  descendants, 
 (which  would  have  been  infinite)  no,  nor  to  determine 
 who  were  the  leading  men  above  all  the  rest ;  but  only 
 to  give  us  a  catalogue,  or  general  account  of  the  names 
 of  some  certain  persons,  descended  of  each  of  Noah's 
 children,  who  became  famous  in  their  generations ;  and 
 so  pass  them  by,  as  having  not  space  enough  in  his 
 history  to  pursue  them  more  minutely.  For  we  may 
 observe,  that  the  constant  practice  of  our  author  (as  it  is 
 indeed  of  all  other  good  authors)  is  to  cut  things  short 
 that  do  not  properly  relate  to  his  purpose ;  and  when 
 le  is  hastening  to  his  main  point,  to  mention  cursorily 
 such  persons  as  were  remarkable  (though  not  the  subject 
 he  is  to  handle)  in  the  times  whereof  he  treats. 
 
 Thus,  in  the  entrance  of  his  history,  his  business  was 
 to  attend  to  the  line  of  Seth,  and  therefore,  when  he 
 comes  to  mention  the  opposite  family  of  Cain, 3  he  only 
 reckons  up  eight  of  them,  and  these  the  rather  because 
 they  were  the  real  inventors  of  some  particular  arts, 
 which  the  Egyptians  vainly  laid  claim  to.     And,  in  like 
 
 1  Blbliotheca  Biblira,  vol.  1.,  Occasional  Annotations,  17. 
 8  Shuckford's  Connection,  b.  3. 
 J  Gen.  iv. 
 
 A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 manner,  when  he  comes  to  the  life  of  Isaac,  Jacob's  was 
 the  next  line  wherein  his  history  was  to  run,  and  there- 
 fore he  contents  himself  with  giving  us  a  catalogue  of 
 some  of  Esau's  race,  but  such  of  them  only  as  were  in 
 after-ages  4  '  the  dukes  of  Edom,  according  to  their 
 habitations  in  the  land  of  their  possession,'  as  he  expres- 
 ses it.  Unless,  therefore,  we  would  desire  it  in  an 
 author,  that  he  should  be  luxuriant  and  run  wild,  we 
 cannot,  with  any  colour  of  reason,  blame  the  divine 
 historian  for  stopping  short  upon  proper  occasions  ;  for 
 had  he  pursued  all  the  families  descended  from  Noah 
 into  their  several  plantations,  and  there  given  us  the 
 history  of  all  their  various  adventures,  the  world,  we 
 may  almost  say,  would  not  have  contained  the  books 
 which  he  must  have  written.  , 
 
 What  grounds  there  may  be  for  the  supposition  I 
 cannot  tell ;  but  to  me  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why 
 we  should  be  obliged  to  maintain,  that  all  the  parts  of 
 the  habitable  world  were  peopled  at  once,  immediately 
 after  the  confusion  of  languages.  The  historian,  indeed, 
 speaking  of  the  persons  he  had  just  enumerated,  gives 
 us  to  know,  that  *  '  by  these  were  the  nations  divided  after 
 the  flood  ;'  but  how  long  after  the  flood  he  does  not  inti- 
 mate: so  that  there  is  no  occasion  to  understand  the  words, 
 as  though  he  meant,  that,  either  by  these  only,  or  by 
 these  immediately,  or  by  these  all  at  once,  was  the  earth 
 replenished ;  but  only,  that  among  others  (unmentioned 
 because  not  so  well  known  to  the  Jews)  there  were  so 
 many  persons  of  figure  descended  from  the  sons  of 
 Noah,  who,  some  at  one  time,  and  some  at  another, 
 became  heads  of  nations,  and  had,  by  their  descendants, 
 countries  called  after  their  names  ;  so  that B  by  them  the 
 nations  were  divided,  that  is,  people  were  broken  into 
 different  nations  on  the  earth,  not  all  at  once,  or  imme- 
 diately upon  the  confusion,  but  at  several  times,  as  their 
 families  increased  and  separated  after  the  flood. 
 
 For,  considering  that  the  number  of  mankind  was  then 
 comparatively  small,  and  the  distance  of  countries,  from 
 the  place  of  their  dispersion,  immensely  wide  ;  it  is  more 
 reasonable  to  think  that  these  several  plantations  were 
 made  at  different  times  and  by  a  gTadual  progression. 
 Moses  indeed  informs  us,  that  the  earth  was  portioned 
 out  among  the  children  of  Noah  after  their  tongues :  sup- 
 posing, then,  that  the  number  of  languages  was,  accord- 
 ing to  the  number  of  the  heads  of  nations,  sixteen,  these 
 sixteen  companies  issued  out  of  Babel  at  separate  times, 
 and  by  separate  routes,  and  so  took  possession  of  the 
 next  adjacent  country  whereunto  they  were  to  go. 
 Here  they  had  not  settled  long  before  the  daily  increase 
 of  the  people  made  the  bounds  of  their  habitation  too 
 narrow ;  whereupon  the  succeeding  generation,  under 
 the  conduct  of  some  other  leader,  leaving  the  place  in 
 possession  of  such  as  cared  not  to  move,  penetrated 
 farther  into  the  country,  and  there  settling  again,  and 
 again  becoming  too  numerous,  sent  forth  fresh  colonies 
 into  the  places  they  found  unoccupied ;  till,  by  this  way 
 of  progression  on  each  side,  from  the  centre  to  every 
 point  of  the  circumference,  the  whole  world  came  in  time 
 to  be  inhabited  in  the  manner  that  we  now  find  it.  If 
 then  the  several  parts  of  the  globe  were,  by  the  sons  of 
 
 Gen.  xxxvi.  43.  5  Gin.  x.  32. 
 
 H  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  3. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 123 
 
 A.  M.  1937.  A.  C.  2007 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  IIALEIj,  A.  M.  5318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Noah,  gradually  and  at  sundry  times  peopled,  there 
 wanted  not  all  at  once  so  many  ;  and  if  several  of  the 
 sons  of  Noah,  who  had  their  share  in  peopling  the  globe, 
 are  not  taken  notice  of  by  Moses,  there  might  possibly 
 be  many  more  to  plant  and  replenish  the  earth,  than  we 
 are  aware  of.  Let  us  then  see  what  their  number,  upon 
 a  moderate  computation,  might  at  this  time  be  supposed 
 to  be. 
 
 To  this  purpose  we  are  to  remember,  that  we  are  not 
 to  make  our  computation  according  to  the  present 
 standard  of  human  life,  which,  a  since  the  time  of  the 
 flood,  is  vastly  abbreviated  ;  that  the  strength  of  constitu- 
 tion, necessary  to  the  procreation  of  children,  which,  by 
 a  continued  course  of  temperance  and  simplicity  of  diet, 
 then  prevailed,  is  now,  by  an  induction  of  all  manner  of 
 riot  and  excess,  sadly  impaired ;  and  that  the  divine 
 benediction  which,  in  a  particular  manner,  was  then 
 poured  out  upon  the  children  of  Noah,  could  not  but 
 prove  effectual  to  the  more  than  ordinary  multiplication 
 of  mankind ;  so  that  length  of  days,  assisted  by  the 
 blessing  of  God,  and  attended  with  a  confirmed  state  of 
 health,  could  not  but  make  a  manifestly  great  difference 
 between  their  case  and  ours. 
 
 *  Various  are  the  ways  which  have  been  attempted  by 
 learned  men,  to  show  the  probable  increase  of  mankind 
 in  that  period  of  time  :  but,  for  our  present  purpose,  it 
 will  he  sufficient  to  suppose  1  that  the  first  three  couples, 
 that  is,  Noah's  three  sons  and  their  wives,  in  twenty  years' 
 time  after  the  flood,  might  have  thirty  pair,  and,  by  a 
 gradual  increase  of  ten  pair  for  each  couple  in  forty 
 years'  time,  till  the  three  hundred  and  fortieth  year  after 
 
 1  Bishop  Cumberland's  Origines  Gentium,  Tract.  4,  and 
 Millar's  Church  History,  ch.  1.  part  2. 
 
 a  In  the  Mosaic  history  we  find  by  what  degrees  the  long 
 lives  which  preceded  the  flood  were  after  it  shortened.  The 
 first  three  generations  recorded  in  Scripture  after  the  deluge, 
 Arphaxad,  Salah,  and  Heber,  lived  above  130  years  ;  yet  not  so 
 lung  as  their  ancestor  Shem,  who,  being  born  100  years  before 
 the  flood,  lived  above  500  after  it.  The  three  next  generations, 
 releg,  Ken,  and  Serug,  lived  not  much  above  230  years;  and 
 from  their  time,  only  Terah  lived  about  200.  All  the  others 
 after  him  were  below  that  number.  Moses  came  not  to  be  above 
 120;  and,  in  his  days,  he  complains,  that  the  age  of  man  was 
 shortened  to  about  seventy  or  eighty  years  ;  and  near  this  stan- 
 dard it  has  continued  ever  since. — Millar's  Church  History,  p.  35. 
 
 I>  Petavius  (do  Doct.  Temp.  b.  ix.  c.  14.)  supposes  that  the 
 posterity  of  Noah  might  beget  children  at  seventeen ;  and  that 
 each  of  Noah's  sons  might  have  eight  children  in  eight  years  after 
 the  flood  ;  and  that  every  one  of  these  eight  might  beget  eight 
 more :  by  this  means  in  one  family  (as  in  that  of  Japheth,  238 
 years  after  the  flood)  he  makes  a  diagram,  consisting  of  almost 
 an  innumerable  company  of  men.  Temperarius,  (as  the  learned 
 Usher  in  his  Chron.  Sacra,  ch.  5.  tells  us,)  supposes  that  all  the 
 posterity  of  Noah,  when  they  attained  twenty  years  of  age,  had 
 every  year  twins;  and  hereupon  he  undertakes  to  make  it  appear, 
 that  in  102  years  after  the  flood,  there  would  be  in  all  1,534,400; 
 rot,  without  this  supposition  of  twins,  there  would,  in  that  time, 
 ,605  males,  besides  females.  Others  suppose,  that  each 
 "I  the  sons  of  Noah  had  ten  sons,  and,  by  that  proportion,  in  a  few 
 ■  "lis,  the  amount  will  rise  to  many  thousands  within  a 
 century.  And  others  again  insist  on  the  parallel  between  the 
 multiplication  < if  the  children  of  Israel  in  Egypt,  and  thereupon 
 compute,  that,  if  from  seventy-two  men,  in  the  space  of  215  years, 
 mere  were  procreated  600,000,  how  many  will  be  born  of  three 
 men  in  the  space  of  100  years?  But  what  method  soever  wo 
 Jmw  to  come  to  a  probable   conjecture,  we  still  have  cause  to 
 
 «Mve,  that  there  was  a  more  than  ordinary  multiplication  in  the 
 Parity  of  Noah  after  the  flood.— SMinqflecfi  Origines  Sacra-, 
 «■  ni.  c.  4. 
 
 the  flood,  in  which  Peleg  died,  there  might  rise  a  suffi- 
 cient number  (c  as  appears  by  the  table  under  the  page) 
 to  spread  colonies  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth. 
 And,  if  to  these  the  several  collateral  descents  of  Noah's 
 posterity  were  taken  in  ;  if  the  children  which  Noah  him- 
 self might  possibly  have  in  the  350  years  he  lived  after 
 the  flood  ;  which  Shem  and  his  two  brothers  might  have 
 in  the  last  160;  which  Salah  and  his  contemporaries 
 might  have  in  the  last  100 ;  and  which  Heber  and  his 
 contemporaries  might  have  in  the  last  19 1  years  of  their 
 lives,  which  are  not  reckoned  in  the  account,  together 
 with  the  many  more  grandsons  of  Noah  and  their  progeny, 
 which  in  all  probability  (as  we  observed  before)  are  not 
 so  much  as  mentioned  in  it ;  it  is  not  to  be  imagined 
 how  much  these  additions  will  swell  the  number  of  man- 
 kind to  a  prodigious  amount  above  the  ordinary  calcula- 
 tion. 
 
 But  allowing  the  number  at  this  time  to  be  not  near 
 so  large  as  even  the  common  computation  makes  it ;  yet 
 we  are  to  remember  that,  at  the  first  planting  of  any 
 country,  an  handful  of  men  as  it  were  took  up  a  large 
 tract  of  ground.  2  At  their  first  division  they  were 
 scattered  into  smaller  bodies,  and  seated  themselves  at 
 a  considerable  distance  from  one  another,  the  better  to 
 prevent  the '  increase  of  the  beasts  of  the  field  upon  them.' 
 These  small  companies  had  each  of  them  one  governor, 
 who,  in  Edom,  seems  to  be  called  3  a  duke,  and  in 
 Canaan,  4  a  king,  whereof  there  were  no  less  in  that 
 small  country  than  one  and  thirty  at  one  time  :  but  of 
 what  power  or  military  force  these  several  princes  were, 
 we  may  learn  from  this  one  passage  in  Abraham's  life, 
 namely,  that 5  when  Chedorlaomer,  in  conjunction  with 
 three  other  kings,  had  defeated  the  kings  of  Sodom  and 
 Gomorrah,  with  three  kings  more  that  came  to  their 
 assistance,  plundered  their  country,  and  taken  away  Lot 
 and  his  family,  who  at  this  time  sojourned  in  these 
 parts;  Abraham,  with  no  more  than  318  of  his  own 
 domestics,  pursues  the  conquerors,  engages  them,  beats 
 them,  and,  together  with  his  nephew  Lot,  and  all  his 
 substance,  recovers  the  spoil  of  the  country  which  these 
 confederate  kings  were  carrying  away.  A  plain  proof 
 this,  one  would  think,  that  this  multitude  of  kings  which 
 were  now  in  the  world  were  titular,  rather  than  real ;  and 
 that  they  had  none  of  them  any  great  number  of  subjects 
 under  their  command.  For  though  Canaan  was  certainly 
 a  very  fruitful  land,  and  may  therefore  be  presumed  to 
 be  better  stored  with  inhabitants  than  any  of  its  neigh- 
 bouring provinces ;  yet  we  find  that  when  Abraham  and 
 Lot  first  came  into  it,  though6  'they  had  flocks  and  herds, 
 and  tents,  that  the  land  was  not  able  to  bear  them,  that 
 they  might  dwell  together ;'  yet,  as  soon  as  they  were 
 
 2  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  i.  c.  5. 
 
 3  Gen.  xxxvi.   to  the  end  4  Jos.  xii.  9  to  the  end. 
 
 5  Gen.  xiv.  6  Ccn.  xiii.  5,  6. 
 
 C  Yrs  of  the  World.      Vrs  alter  the  Flood.      Pairs  of  Men  and  Women. 
 
 1676 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 1716 
 
 CO 
 
 300 
 
 1756 
 
 100 
 
 3,000 
 
 1796 
 
 1  10 
 
 30,000 
 
 ls.-jri 
 
 J80 
 
 300,000 
 
 L876 
 
 220 
 
 .••,('(1(1,0(10 
 
 1916 
 
 260 
 
 :  0,000,000 
 
 1956 
 
 300 
 
 300,000,000 
 
 1!IL)0 
 
 ;,io 
 
 00,000,000 
 
126 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 and  as  the  Scripture  expresses  it,  6  '  stirred  up  the  spirit 
 
 separated,  they  found  no  difficulty  to  settle  in  any  part 
 thereof,  with  the  rest  of  its  inhabitants. 
 
 How  gTeat  soever  the  growth  of  the  Assyrian  monarchy 
 became  at  last,  yet  we  have  too  little  certainty  of  the 
 time  when  it  began,  ever  to  question,  upon  that  account, 
 the  truth  of  the  population  of  the  world  by  the  sons  of 
 Noah.  Ninus,  whom  profane  history  generally  accounts 
 the  first  founder  of  it,  is  placed, x  by  one  of  our  greatest 
 chronologers,  in  the  2737th  year  of  the  world,  according 
 to  the  Hebrew  computation ;  so  that,  living  in  the  time 
 of  the  Judges,  he  is  supposed  to  have  been  contemporary 
 with  Deborah,  but  2  others  think  this  is  a  date  much  too 
 early.  Nimrod,  we  must  allow,  founded  a  kingdom  at 
 Babylon,  and  perhaps  extended  it  into  Assyria,  but  this 
 kingdom  was  but  of  small  extent,  if  compared  with  the 
 empires  which  arose  afterwards ;  and  yet,  had  it  been 
 ever  so  much  greater,  it  could  not  have  been  of  any 
 long  continuance,  because  the  custom  in  those  early 
 days  was  for  the  father  to  divide  his  territories  among 
 his  sons.  After  the  days  of  Nimrod,  we  hear  no  more 
 in  the  Sacred  Records  of  the  Assyrian  empire  till  about 
 the  year  3234,  when  we  find  Pul  invading  the  territories 
 of  Israel,  and  making  Menahem  tributary  to  him.  It  is 
 granted  indeed,  that  the  four  kings  who,  in  the  days  of 
 Abraham  invaded  the  southern  coast  of  Canaan,  came 
 from  the  countries  where  Nimrod  had  reigned,  and  per- 
 haps were  some  of  his  posterity  who  had  shared  his 
 conquests ;  but  of  what  small  significance  such  kings  as 
 these  were,  we  are  just  now  come  from  relating.  Sesac 
 and  Memnon,  two  kings  of  Egypt,  were  great  conque- 
 rors, and  reigned  over  Chaldea,  Assyria,  and  Persia; 
 and  yet  in  all  their  histories  there  is  not  one  word  of 
 any  opposition  they  received  from  the  Assyrian  monarchy 
 then  standing :  and  though  Nineveh  in  the  time  of 
 Joash  king  of  Israel,  was  become  a  large  city,  yet  it 
 had  not  yet  acquired  that  strength,  as  not  to  be  afraid 
 (according  to  the  preaching  of  Jonah)  of  being  invaded 
 by  its  neighbours,  and  destroyed  within  forty  days. 
 Not  long  before  this,  it  had  freed  itself  indeed  from  the 
 dominion  of  Egypt,  and  had  got  a  king  of  its  own,  but 
 what  is  very  remarkable,  3  its  king  was  not  as  yet 
 called  the  king  of  Assyria,  but  only  *  the  king  of 
 Nineveh  ;  nor  was  his  proclamation  for  a  fast  published 
 in  several  nations,  no  nor  in  all  Assyria,  but  only  in 
 Nineveh,  and  perhaps  the  villages  adjacent;  whereas, 
 when  once  they  had  established  their  dominion  at  home, 
 secured  all  Assyria  properly  so  called,  and  began  now 
 to  make  war  upon  their  neighbouring  nations,  their  kings 
 were  no  longer  called  the  kings  of  Nineveh,  but  began 
 to  assume  the  title  of  the  kings  of  Assyria.  These,  and 
 several  more  instances  which  the  author  I  have  just  now 
 cited  has  produced,  are  sufficient  arguments  to  prove 
 that  the  Assyrians  were  not  the  great  people  some  have 
 imagined  in  the  early  times  of  the  world  ;  and  that  if  they 
 made  any  figure  in  Nimrod's  days,  it  was  all  extinguish- 
 ed in  the  reigns  of  his  successor,  and  never  revived 
 until  God,  for  the  punishment  of  the  wickedness  of  his 
 own  people,  Avas  pleased  to  raise  them  from  obscurity, 
 
 1  Usher's  Annot.  Vet.  Test.  A.  M.  2737. 
 *  Stillingfleet's  Origines  Sacra,  b.  iii.  c.  4.  and  Sir  Isaac  New- 
 ton's Chronology. 
 
 3  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  Chronology,  cli.  3.  4  Jonah  iii. 
 
 of  Pul,  and  the  spirit  of  Tiglathpilneser,  king  of  Assyria. 
 
 And  in  like  manner  we  may  observe,  that,  whatever 
 noise  has  been  made  in  the  world  with  the  astronomical 
 observations  of  the  Chaldeans,  which  Aristotle  is  said  to 
 have  sent  into  Greece,  and  which  Alexander  is  thought 
 to  have  taken  at  Babylon,  the  whole  is  a  mere  fiction  and 
 romance.  There  is  nothing  extant  (as  b  a  very  good  judge 
 of  ancient  and  modern  learning  tells  us)  in  the  Chaldaic 
 astrology  of  older  date  than  the  era  of  Nabonassar,  which 
 begins  but  747  years  before  Christ.  By  this  era  the  Chal- 
 deans computed  their  astronomical  observations,  the  first 
 of  which  falls  about  the  27th  year  of  Nabonassar,  and  all 
 that  we  have  of  them  are  only  seven  eclipses  of  the 
 moon,  and  even  these  but  very  coarsely  set  down,  and 
 the  oldest  not  above  700  years  before  Christ.  And,  to 
 make  short  of  the  matter,  the  same  author  informs  us 
 farther,  that  the  Greeks  were  the  first  practical  astrono- 
 mers who  endeavoured  in  earnest  to  make  themselves 
 masters  of  the  sciences ;  that  Thales  was  the  first  who 
 could  predict  an  eclipse  in  Greece,  not  600  years,  and 
 that  Hipparchus  made  the  first  catalogue  of  the  fixed  stars 
 not  above  650  years  before  Christ. a 
 
 What  the  history  of  the  Chaldeans  and  Egyptians,  and 
 their  boasted  antiquity  is,  we  have  had  occasion  to  take 
 notice 7  elsewhere,  and  need  only  here  to  add,  that, 
 bating  that  strange  affectation  wherein  they  both  agree, 
 of  being  thought  so  many  thousand  years  older  than  they 
 have  any  authentic  testimonies  to  produce,  there  is  a 
 manifest  analogy  between  Scripture  history  and  what 
 Berosus  has  told  us  of  the  one,  and  Manetho  of  the 
 other.  Referring  therefore  to  what  has  been  already 
 said  of  them,  we  have  only  to  observe,  that8  the  genealo- 
 gy which  the  Chinese — another  people  pretending  to 
 high  antiquity — give  us  of  the  family  of  their  first 
 man,  Puoncuus,  seems  to  carry  a  near  resemblance 
 to  Moses'  patriarchal  genealogies ;  Thienhoang,  their 
 second  king's  civilizing  the  world,  answers  very  well  to 
 Seth's  settling  the  principles  and  reforming  the  lives  of 
 men ;  and  Fohi's  fourth  successor,  whom  they  accuse  of 
 destroying  their  ancient  religion  and  introducing  idola- 
 try, is  plainly  copied  from  the  history  of  Nimrod,  who 
 was  probably  the  first  establisher  of  idol  worship.  So 
 that  from  these,  and  some  other  particulars  in  their  his- 
 tory, we  may  be  allowed  to  conclude  that  the  ancient 
 Chinese  (as  all  other  nations  did)  agreed  in  the  main 
 with  Moses  in  their  antiquities  ;  and  that  the  true  reason 
 of  their  chronological  difference  is,  that  the  reigns  of  the 
 Chinese  kings  (in  the  very  same  manner  as  the  Egyptian 
 dynasties)  were  not  successive,  9  but  of  several  contem- 
 porary princes,  who  at  one  and  the  same  time  had  dif- 
 ferent and  distinct  dominions. 
 
 5  1  Chron.  v.  26.         s  Wotton's  Reflections,  ch.  xxiii. 
 
 7  See  Apparatus,  p.  43,  and  the  History,  p.  61. 
 
 8  Bibliotheea  Biblica,  in  the  Introduction,  p.  77. 
 
 9  M.  de  Loubere's  History  of  Siam. 
 a  The  most  ancient  astronomical  observations  known  to  us  are 
 Chinese,  next  to  them  are  the  Chaldeans  or  Hindoos,  both  of  whom 
 had  made  considerable  progress  in  astronomy  at  a  very  early 
 period ;  to  them  succeed  the  Egyptians,  who  in  placing  their 
 pyramids  exactly  facing  the  four  cardinal  points  of  the  compass; 
 and,  by  the  zodiacs  discovered  in  Egypt,  are  proved  to  have 
 made  considerable  progress  in  the  science ;  and,  after  the  Egyp- 
 tians, came  the  Greeks,  who  certainly  made  greater  progress  in. 
 the  science  than  any  of  their  predecessors. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 127 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318 
 
 The  want  of  certain  records  of  ancient  times,  and, 
 consequently,  the  gross  ignorance  which  some  nations 
 laboured  under  as  to  their  original,  has  thrown  several 
 into  a  wild  notion  and  conceit  that  they  were  self-origi- 
 nated, came  never  from  any  other  place,  and  had  never 
 any  primordial  founder  or  progenitor.  But  now,  what- 
 ever hypothesis  they  are  minded  to  take ;  whether  they 
 suppose  a  beginning  or  no  beg  inning  of  human  generation ; 
 whether  they  suppose  men  to  have  sprung  out  of  the  sea  or 
 out  of  the  land  ;  to  have  been  produced  from  eggs  cast 
 into  the  matrix  of  the  earth,  or  out  of  certain  little  pustulaj 
 or  fungosities  on  its  surface  ;  to  have  been  begotten  by  the 
 anima  mundi  in  the  sun,  or  by  an  anima  terra;,  pervad- 
 ing the  body  of  this  terraqueous  globe  ;  to  have  been 
 sent  forth  into  the  world  silently  and  without  noise,  or  to 
 have  opened  the  womb  of  their  common  mother  with  loud 
 claps  of  thunder :  and,  whether  they  suppose  the  succession 
 of  generations  of  mankind  a  parte  ante,  to  have  been 
 infinite,  indefinite,  or  finite,  and  the  geniture,  or  origi- 
 nation of  mankind,  to  have  been  either  the  same  with  the 
 geniture  of  the  gTeat  world,  or  later,  or  heterogeneous, 
 or  quite  foreign  to  it :  take  they  which  of  these  hypo- 
 theses they  will,  I  say,  and  when  they  once  come  to 
 reason  upon  it,  they  will  soon  find  themselves  hampered 
 and  entangled  with  absurdities  and  impossibilities  almost 
 innumerable. 
 
 All  nations  to  whom  the  philosophers,  in  search  after 
 knowledge,  resorted,  had  memorials,  we  find,  left  among 
 them  of  the  first  origin  of  things ;  but  the  universal  tra- 
 dition of  the  first  ages  was  far  better  preserved  among 
 the  eastern  than  western  nations,  and  these  memorials 
 kept  with  greater  care  by  the  Phoenicians  and  Egyptians, 
 than  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  l  Among  the  Greeks, 
 however,  when  they  first  undertook  to  philosophize,  the 
 beginning  of  the  world,  with  the  gradual  progression  of  its 
 inhabitants,  was  no  matter  of  dispute  ;  but  that  being 
 taken  for  granted,  the  inquiry  was,  out  of  what  material 
 principles  the  cosmical  system  was  formed ;  and  Aris- 
 totle, arrogating  to  himself  the  opinion  of  the  world's 
 eternity  as  a  nostrum,  declared  that  all  mankind  before 
 him  asserted  the  world's  creation. 
 
 From  this  wild  notion  of  Aristotle,  in  opposition  to  an 
 universal  tradition  and  the  consent  of  all  ages,  the  poets 
 took  occasion  to  turn  the  histories  of  the  oldest  times 
 into  fables  ;  and  the  historians,  in  requital  and  courtesy 
 to  them,  converted  the  fables  which  the  poets  had 
 invented  into  histories,  or  rather  popular  narratives  ;  and 
 most  of  the  famous  nations  of  the  earth,  that  they  might 
 not  be  thought  more  modern  than  any  of  their  neigh- 
 bours, took  occasion  too  of  forging  certain  antiquities, 
 foolish  genealogies,  extravagant  calculations,  and  the 
 fabulous  actions  and  exploits  of  gods  and  heroes,  that 
 they  might  thus  add  to  their  nobility,  by  an  imaginary 
 anticipation  of  time,  beyond  the  possible  limits  that  could 
 be  made  known  by  any  pretence  of  certainty. 
 
 The  wiser  sort  of  men,  however,  saw  into  this,  and 
 from  the  ordinary  increase  and  propagation  of  mankind, 
 the  invention  and  growth  of  arts  and  sciences,  and  the 
 advancements  carried  on  in  civil  discipline  and  govern- 
 ment, could  discern  the  folly  and  superstition  of  all  such 
 romantic  pretensions  :    but  then,  having  lost  the  true 
 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.  Occasional  Annotations,  c.  17. 
 
 A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 ancient  tradition,  they  were  driven  to  the  necessity  of  a 
 perpetual  vicissitude,  either  of*  general  or  particular 
 deluges  ;  by  which,  when  things  were  come  to  their  crisis 
 and  perfection,  they  were  made  to  begin  again,  and  all 
 preceding  memoirs  were  supposed  to  be  lost  in  these 
 inundations.  But  this  is  all  a  groundless  conjecture,  a 
 mere  begging  of  the  question,  and  a  kind  of  prophesying 
 backwards  of  such  alterations  and  revolutions  as  it  is 
 morally  impossible  for  them  to  know  any  thing  of. 
 
 Since,  therefore,  an  eternal  succession  of  generations 
 is  loaded  with  a  multitude  of  insuperable  difficulties, 
 and  no  valid  arguments  are  to  be  found  for  making  the 
 world  older  than  our  sacred  books  do  make  it ;  since  the 
 presumed  grandeur  of  the  Assyrian  and  other  monarchies, 
 too  soon  after  the  flood  to  be  peopled  by  Noah's  chil- 
 dren, is  a  gross  mistake,  and  the  computations  of  the 
 Chaldeans  and  other  nations,  from  their  observations  of 
 the  celestial  bodies,  groundless  and  extravagant ;  since 
 all  the  pretensions  of  the  several  aborigines  are  found  to 
 be  ridiculous,  and  the  more  plausible  inventions  of  suc- 
 cessive revolutions  entirely  imaginary  ;  since  neither  the 
 self-originists,  nor  the  revolutionists,  even  upon  their 
 own  principles,  can  account  for  what  is  most  easily 
 accounted  for  by  the  writings  of  Moses  ;  and  (what  is  a 
 farther  consideration)  since  a  there  are  many  customs  and 
 usages,  both  civil  and  religious,  which  have  prevailed  in 
 all  parts  of  the  world,  and  ean  owe  their  original  to 
 nothing  else  but  a  general  institution  ;  which  institution 
 could  never  have  been,  had  not  all  mankind  been  of  the 
 same  blood  originally,  and  instructed  in  the  same  com- 
 mon notices  before  they  were  divided  in  the  earth  : — 
 since  the  matter  stands  thus,  I  say,  we  have  all  the  rea- 
 son in  the  world  to  believe,  that  this  whole  narration  of 
 Moses  concerning  the  origination  of  mankind,  their 
 destruction  by  the  flood,  their  renovation  by  the  sons  of 
 Noah,  their  speedy  multiplication  to  a  great  number, 
 their  dispersion  upon  the  confusion  of  languages,  and 
 their  settling  themselves  in  different  parts  of  the  world 
 according  to  their  allotments,  is  true  in  fact ;  because  it 
 is  rational  and  consistent  with  every  event,  consonant 
 to  the  notions  we  have  of  God's  attributes,  and  not 
 repugnant  to  any  system  of  either  ancient  or  modern 
 geography  that  we  know  of. 
 
 Time,  indeed,  and  the  uncertain  state  of  languages ;  the 
 different  pronunciation  of  the  same  word,  according  to  the 
 dialect  of  different  nations  ;  the  alterations  of  names  in 
 several  places,  and  substitution  of  others  of  the  like  im- 
 portance in  the  vernacular  tongue  ;  the  disguising  of  an- 
 cient stories  in  fables,  and  frequently  mistaking  the  idiom 
 of  oriental  languages ;  the  inundation  of  barbarism  in 
 many  countries,  and  the  conquests  and  revolutions  gene- 
 rally introductive  of  new  names,  which  have  happened 
 
 a  Such  are,  1.  The  numbering  by  decades  ;  2.  The  comput- 
 ing time  by  a  cycle  of  seven  days;  3.  The  sacredness  of  the 
 seventh  number,  and  observation  of  a  seventh  day  as  holy;  4. 
 The  use  of  sacrifices,  propitiatory  and  eucharistical ;  5.  The 
 consecration  of  temples  and  altars ;  6.  The  institution  of  sanc- 
 tuaries and  their  privileges;  7.  Separation  of  tenths  and  firsts 
 fruits  to  the  service  of  the  altar;  8.  The  custom  of  worshipping 
 the  Deity  discalceated  or  barefooted  ;  9.  Abstinence  of  husbands 
 from  their  wives  before  sacrifice;  10.  The  order  of  priesthood, 
 and  the  maintenance  of  it;  11.  Most  of  the  expiations  and  pol- 
 lutions mentioned  by  Moses,  in  use  among  all  famous  nations ; 
 12.  An  universal  tradition  of  two  protoplasts,  deluges,  and  re- 
 newing mankind  afterwards. — Bibliutheva  Biblica,  vol.  1.  p.  296. 
 
128 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   II. 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  5003  GEN.  CH. 
 
 A.  M.  1097.  A.  C.  200' 
 
 almost  in  all ;  these,  and  several  other  causes,  create  some 
 perplexity  in  determining  the  places  recorded  by  Moses, 
 and  ascertaining  the  founder  of  each  particular  nation  : 
 but  still,  notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  we  may, 
 in  some  measure,  trace  the  footsteps  of  the  sons  of  Noah, 
 issuing  out  from  Babel  into  the  different  quarters  of  the 
 world,  and,  in  several  countries,  perceive  the  original 
 names  of  their  founders  preserved  in  that  of  their  own. 
 
 For  though  the  analogy  of  names  be  not,  at  all  times, 
 a  certain  way  of  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  things ;  yet, 
 in  this  case,  I  think  it  can  hardly  be  denied,  but  that  the 
 Assyrians  descended  from  Assur  ;  the  Canaanites,  from 
 Canaan  ;  the  Sidonians,  from  Sidon  ;  the  Lydians,  from 
 Lud  ;  the  Medes,  from  Madai ;  the  Thracians,  from 
 Tiras;  the  Elamites,  from  Elam;  the  Ionians,  from 
 J avan  ;  with  several  others  produced  by 1  Grotius,  2  Mon- 
 tanus,  3  Junius,  4Pererius,  and,  more  especially,  6by 
 Bochart,  that  most  splendid  star  of  France,  (as  6one 
 calls  him  upon  this  occasion,)  who,  with  wonderful 
 learning  and  industry,  has  cleared  all  this  part  of  sacred 
 history,  and  given  a  full  and  satisfactory  account  of  the 
 several  places  where  the  posterity  of  Noah  seated  them- 
 selves after  the  deluge. 
 
 How  the  large  continent  of  America  came  to  be 
 peopled  (since  no  mention  of  it  is  made  in  the  writings 
 of  Moses,  and  so  vast  a  sea  separates  it  from  every  other 
 part  of  the  known  world,)  is  a  question  that  has  exercised 
 the  wit  of  every  age  since  its  first  discovery.  It  is 
 worthy  our  observation,  however,  that  though  all  the 
 great  quarters  of  the  world  are,  for  the  most  part,  separ- 
 ated from  each  other  by  some  vast  extensive  ocean  ;  7  yet 
 there  is  always  some  place  or  other,  where  some  isthmus 
 or  small  neck  of  land  is  found  to  conjoin  them,  or  some 
 narrow  sea  is  made  to  distinguish  and  divide  them.  Asia 
 and  Africa,  for  instance,  are  joined  together,  by  an  isthmus 
 which  lies  between  the  Mediterranean  sea  and  the  Ara- 
 bian gulf.  Upon  the  coasts  of  Spain  and  Mauritania, 
 Europe  and  Africa  are  divided  by  no  larger  a  sea  than 
 the  Fretum  Herculis,  or  straits  of  Gibraltar  ;  and  above 
 the  Palus  Moeotis,  Europe  has  nothing  to  part  it  from  Asia 
 but  the  small  river  Tanais.  America,  as  it  is  divided 
 into  north  and  south,  is  joined  together  by  a  neck  of 
 land,  which,  from  sea  to  sea,  is  not  above  eighteen 
 leagues  over :  what  separates  North  America  from  the 
 northern  parts  of  Asia  is  only  the  straits  of  Anien ;  qr 
 South  America,  from  the  most  southern  parts  of  Asia, 
 is  only  the  straits  of  Magellan.  And  therefore,  since 
 Providence,  in  the  formation  of  the  earth,  has  so  ordered 
 the  matter,  that  the  principal  continents  are,  at  some 
 places  or  other,  either  joined  together  by  some  little 
 isthmus,  or  generally  separated  by  some  narrow  sea ; 
 and  (what  is  further  to  be  observed)  since  most  of  the 
 capital  islands  in  our  part  of  the  hemisphere,  such  as 
 Sumatra  in  Asia,  Madagascar  in  Africa,  and  England  in 
 Europe,  are  generally  at  no  great  distance  from  the  con- 
 tinent ;  we  have  some  reason  to  presume  that  there  may 
 possibly  be  a  certain  neck  of  land  (though  not  as  yet 
 discovered)  which  may  join  some  part  of  Asia,  or  per- 
 haps some  part  of  Europe,  to  the  main  continent  of 
 America.    Or,  if  we  may  not  be  allowed  that  supposition, 
 
 AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 1  See  Annot.  b.  i.  de  Verit.     2  Phaleg.     3  Gen.  x.     4  Ibid. 
 5  Phaleg.  6  Heidegger. 
 
 '  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriarcharum,  vol.  i.  Essay  22. 
 
 yet8  why  might  not  there  formerly  have  been  such  a 
 bridge  (as  we  may  call  it)  between  the  south-east  part  of 
 China  and  the  most  southern  continent  of  this  new  world, 
 though  now  broken  off  (as  9  some  suppose  England  to 
 have  been  from  France)  by  the  violent  concussions  of 
 the  sea;  as  indeed  the  vast  number  of  islands  which  lie 
 between  the  continent  of  China  and  New  Guinea  (which 
 are  the  most  contiguous  to  each  other)  would  induce  one 
 to  think,  that  once  they  were  all  one  continued  tract  of 
 land,  though,  by  the  irruption  of  the  sea,  they  are  now 
 crumbled  into  so  many  little  islands  ? 
 
 The  difference,  however,  between  the  inhabitants  of 
 South  and  North  America  is  so  remarkably  great,  that 
 there  is  reason  to  imagine  they  received  colonies  at  first 
 from  different  countries;  and  therefore  some  are  of 
 opinion,  that  as  the  children  of  Shem,  being  now  well 
 versed  in  navigation,  might,  from  the  coasts  of  China, 
 take  possession  of  the  southern  parts;  so  might  the  chil- 
 dren of  Japheth,  either  from  Tartary  pass  over  the  straits 
 of  Anien,  or  out  of  Europe,  first  pass  into  Norway,  thence 
 into  Iceland,  thence  into  Greenland, and  so  into  the  north- 
 ern parts  of  America.  And  this  they  think  the  more  pro- 
 bable, because  of  the  great  variety  of  languages  which 
 are  observed  among  the  natives  of  this  great  continent;  a 
 good  indication,  as  one  would  imagine,  of  their  coming 
 thither  at  different  times  and  from  different  places.  ° 
 
 8  Patrick's  Commentary.  9  See  the  New  General  Atlas. 
 a  The  discoveries  of  Captain  Cook  and  other  celebrated  navi- 
 gators, whilst  they  have  detected  the  mistakes  that  prevailed  in 
 the  days  of  our  author  respecting  a  southern  continent  and  im- 
 mense oceans  in  the  north,  have  rendered  it  much  less  difficult 
 now  than  it  was  then  to  trace  the  population  of  America  from 
 Asia  and  Europe.  It  appears  from  Cook's  and  King's  Voyage, 
 vol.  3.  p.  272,  "  that  the  continents  of  Asia  and  North  America  are 
 usually  joined  together  by  ice  during  the  winter.  In  Behiing's 
 Straits,  at  a  place  about  66°  N.  the  two  coasts  are  only  thirteen 
 leagues  asunder,  and  about  midway  between  them  lie  two  islands, 
 the  distance  of  which  from  either  shore  is  short  of  twenty  miles. 
 At  this  place  the  natives  of  Asia  could  find  no  difficulty  in  pass- 
 ing over  to  the  opposite  coast,  which  is  in  sight  of  their  own. 
 That  in  a  course  of  years  such  an  event  would  happen  cannot 
 admit  of  a  doubt.  '  The  canoes  which  we  saw,'  says  Mr  Dam- 
 well,  '  among  the  Tschutski  were  capable  of  performing  a  much 
 longer  voyage ;  and  however  rude  they  may  have  been  at  some 
 distant  period,  we  can  scarcely  suppose  them  incapable  of  a 
 passage  of  six  or  seven  leagues.  People  might  even  have  been 
 carried  over  by  accident  upon  floating  ice;  they  might  also  have 
 travelled  across  on  sledges  or  on  foot,  for  we  have  reason  to 
 believe  that  the  straits  are  entirely  frozen  over  in  the  winter;  so 
 that  during  that  season  the  continents,  with  respect  to  the  com- 
 munication between  them,  may  be  considered  as  one." 
 
 North  America  might  likewise  have  been  peopled  from 
 Europe.  The  Lutheran  and  Moravian  missionaries,  who  first 
 settled  in  Greenland,  have  informed  us  that  the  north-west  coast 
 of  that  country  is  separated  from  America  by  a  very  narrow 
 strait:  "  that  at  the  bottom  of  the  bay  into  which  this  strait  con- 
 ducts, it  is  highly  probable  that  they  are  united;  that  the  inha- 
 bitants of  the  two  countries  have  some  intercourse  with  one 
 another;  that  the  Esquimaux  of  America  perfectly  resemble  the 
 Greenlanders  in  their  aspect,  dress,  and  mode  of  living;  that 
 some  sailors,  who  had  acquired  the  knowledge  of  a  few  words  in 
 the  Greenlandish  language,  reported  that  these  were  understood 
 by  the  Esquimaux ;  that,  at  length,  a  Moravian  missionary,  well 
 acquainted  with  the  language  of  Greenland,  having  visited  the 
 country  of  the  Esquimaux,  found,  to  his  astonishment,  that  they 
 spoke  the  same  language  with  the  Greenlanders,  that  they  were 
 in  every  respect  the  same  people;  and  he  was  accordingly 
 received  and  entertained  by  them  as  a  friend  and  a  brother." 
 
 There  can  therefore  be  no  doubt,  but  that  either  that  part  of 
 America,  which  is  occupied  by  the  Esquimaux,  was  first  peopled 
 from  Greenland,  or  Greenland  from  North  America.  The  great 
 historian,  however,  from  whose  works  these  extracts  are  immedi. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 129 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  20O7;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 We,  indeed,  according  to  the  common  forms  of  speech, 
 call  those  places  islands,  which  are  on  every  side  sur- 
 
 ately  taken,  justly  observes,  that  the  Esquimaux  are  the  only 
 tribe  of  Americans  who  can  be  rationally  supposed  to  have  emi- 
 grated from  the  north  of  Europe.  All  the  other  American 
 nations,  from  Cape  Horn  to  the  northern  confines  of  Labrador, 
 appear  to  have  migrated  from  the  north-east  of  Asia.  "  There 
 is  (says  he)  such  a  striking  similitude  in  the  form  of  their  bodies, 
 and  the  qualities  of  their  minds,  that  notwithstanding  the  diver- 
 sities occasioned  by  the  influence  of  climate,  or  unequal  progress 
 in  improvement,  we  must  pronounce  them  to  be  all  descended 
 from  one  source.  It  is  remarkable,  that  in  every  peculiarity, 
 whether  in  their  persons  or  dispositions,  which  characterize  the 
 Americans,  they  have  some  resemblance  to  the  rude  tribes  scat- 
 tered over  the  north-east  of  Asia,  but  almost  none  to  the  nations 
 settled  in  the  northern  extremities  of  Europe.  We  may  there- 
 fore refer  them  to  the  former  origin,  and  conclude  that  their 
 Asiatic  progenitors,  having  settled  in  those  parts  of  America 
 where  the  proximity  of  the  two  continents  have  been  discovered, 
 spread  gradually  over  its  various  regions.  This  account  of  the 
 progress  of  population  in  America  coincides  with  the  traditions 
 of  the  Mexicans  concerning  their  own  origin,  which,  imperfect 
 as  they  are,  were  preserved  with  more  accuracy,  and  merit 
 greater  credit  than  those  of  any  other  people  in  the  New  World. 
 According  to  them,  their  ancestors  came  from  a  remote  country, 
 situated  to  the  north-west  of  Mexico.  The  Mexicans  point  out 
 their  various  stations  as  they  advanced  from  this  into  the  interior 
 provinces,  and  it  is  precisely  the  same  route  which  they  must 
 have  held  if  they  had  been  emigrants  from  Asia.  The  Mexi- 
 cans, in  describing  the  appearance  of  their  progenitors,  their 
 manners,  and  habits  of  life  at  that  period,  exactly  delineate  those 
 of  the  rude  Tartars,  from  whom  I  suppose  them  to  have  sprung." 
 — Robertson's  History  of  America,  book  iv. 
 
 This  is  undoubtedly  such  an  account  of  the  peopling  of  the 
 New  World  as  ought  to  satisfy  every  candid  reader.     It  is,  how- 
 ever, true,  as  Dr  Hales  observes,  that  South  America  may  have 
 been  peopled  by  means  of  the  great  chain  of  lately  discovered 
 islands  scattered  between  the  two  vast  continents,  and  succes- 
 sively colonized  from  Asia;  and  also  on  its  eastern  side,  by  ves- 
 sels driven  by  storms,  or  trade  winds  and  currents,  from  the 
 shores   of  Europe  and   Africa.     There  can,   indeed,    be  little 
 doubt,  as  the  same  learned  author  observes,  but  that  such  of  the 
 tropical  isles,  in  the  great  South  Sea  or  Pacific  Ocean,  as  are 
 inhabited,  were  colonized  by  the  Malayans,  those  Phoenicians,  as 
 he  calls  them,  of  the  oriental  world ;  for  the  Malayan  language 
 is  found  to  prevail  in  some  degree  through  all  the  various  clus- 
 ters of  those  isles,  from  Madagascar  westwards,  near  the  African 
 coast,  to  the  remotest  of  Captain  Cook's  discoveries,  the  Mar- 
 quesas and  Easter  island,  towards  South  America.     Nor  let  any 
 man  object  to  this  theory,  by  asking  what  could  induce  the  Ma- 
 layans first  to  undertake  voyages  of  discovery  in  so  immense  an 
 ocean.     The  discoveries  were  probably  made  by  ships  driven  far 
 out  of  their  intended  course,  to  islands  from  which  those  who  had 
 unexpectedly  arrived  at  them  could  never  return ;  and  this  is 
 now  well  known  to  have  actually  happened  to  barbarians  less 
 likely  than  the  Malayans  to    undertake  voyages   of  discovery. 
 Captain  Cook,  in  his  last  voyage,  when  carrying  back  Omai  to 
 his  native  country,  discovered  the  island  called  Wateeoo;  and 
 had  scarcely  landed  with  his  passenger  on  the  beach,  when  Omai 
 recognised  among  the  crowd  three  of  his  own  countrymen,  na- 
 tives of  the  Society  Isles.     The  Society  Isles  are  distant  from 
 Wateeoo  about  two  hundred  leagues;    and  the  account  which 
 those  men  gave  of  their  arrival  at  that  island  is  extremely  affect- 
 ing, while  its  truth  could  not  be  questioned.      "  About  twenty 
 persons  of  both  sexes  had  embarked  on  board  a  canoe  at  Otaheite, 
 to  cross  over  to  the  neighbouring  island  Alixtea.     A  violent  and 
 contrary  wind  drove  them  they  knew  not  whither,  to  a  distance 
 from  both  islands.     They  had  all  perished  but  four  men,  when 
 their  vessel  was  overset  in  sight  of  Wateeoo,  when  canoes  came 
 off  and  carried  them  ashore."     Had  all  the  persons,  male  and 
 female,  who  left  Otaheite,  been  thus  driven  on  a  desert  island, 
 who  can  entertain  a  doubt  but  that  in  a  short  time  they  would 
 have  peopled  it;  and  if  a  few  barbarians  were  thus  carried,  in  a 
 wretched  canoe,  not  intended  for  voyages  out  of  sight  of  land,  to 
 an  island  distant  COO  miles,  there  is  surely  no  difficulty  in  con- 
 ceiving that  the  oriental  Phoenicians,  in  better  vessels,  and  with 
 greater  skill  in  seamansliip,  may  have  successively  colonized  the 
 
 rounded  by  the  sea ;  but  the  Hebrews  were  wont  to  give 
 that  name  to  all  maritime  countries,  such  as  either  had 
 several  islands  belonging  to  them,  or  such  as  had  no 
 islands  at  all,  provided  they  were  divided  from  Palestine 
 or  from  Egypt  by  the  sea,  and  could  not  conveniently  be 
 gone  to  any  other  way.  1  Such  are  the  countries  of  the 
 Lesser  Asia  and  the  countries  of  Europe,  where  the  de- 
 scendants of  Japheth  were  seated ;  and  that  by  these  are 
 denoted  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles,"  might  be  evinced 
 from  several  parallel  passages  in  Scripture.  At  present 
 we  need  only  take  notice,  that  as  the  Lesser  Asia  was  from 
 Babel  the  nearest  place  of  Japheth 's  allotment,  it  is  very 
 probable  that  he  and  his  sons  continued  there  for  some 
 time,  till  the  increase  of  their  progeny  made  them  send 
 out  colonies,  which  not  only  peopled  the  isles  of  the  Me- 
 diterranean and  jEgean  seas,  but,  passing  into  Europe, 
 spread  themselves  farther  and  farther,  till  at  length  they 
 came  to  take  possession  of  the  very  island  wherein  we 
 now  live. 
 
 To  this  purpose  the  writers  on  this  subject  have  made 
 it  appear,  that,  from  their  original  country,  which  was 
 Asia  Minor,  they  sent  a  colony  to  the  Mceotic  Lake,  on 
 the  north  of  the  Euxine  sea,  and  as  they  were  called 
 Cinunerii  in  Asia,  so  they  gave  the  name  of  Bosphorus 
 Cimmerius  to  the  straits  we  there  meet  with  ;  that,  after 
 this,  spreading  farther  they  fell  down  the  Danube,  and 
 settled  in  a  country,  which  b  from  them  was  called  Ger- 
 many; that  from  Germany  they  advanced  still  farther, 
 till  they  came  into  France,  for  the  inhabitants  of  France 
 (as  b  Josephus  tells  us)  were  anciently  called  Gomerites  ; 
 and  that  from  France  they  came  into  the  south  part  of 
 Britain,  and  therefore  we  find  that  the  Welsh  (the  ancient 
 
 1  Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  1. 
 *  Antiq.  b.  i. 
 islands  between  Asia  and  South  America,  and  at  last  America 
 itself.  Indeed  if  there  be  any  credit  due  to  the  Peruvian  tradi- 
 tions concerning  the  founders  of  their  empire,  Manco  Capac  and 
 his  wife  must  have  been  far  advanced  in  civilization;  and  were 
 probably  some  enlightened  Asiatics  driven  on  the  Peruvian  coast. 
 — See  Hales'  Analysis  of  Chronology,  and  Prichard's  Researches 
 into  the  Physical  History  of  Man — one  of  the  most  satisfactory 
 works  on  the  colonization  of  the  earth,  and  the  varieties  of  the 
 human  species,  that  I  have  ever  seen. 
 
 a  Thus  the  prophet  Isaiah  (ch.  xi.  ver.  10,  11)  speaking  ol 
 the  calling  of  the  Gentiles,  and  of  the  restoration  of  the  Jews, 
 has  these  words—'  The  Lord  shall  recover  the  remnant  of  his 
 people  from  Assyria,  Egypt,  Pathros,  Cush,  Elam,  Shinar, 
 Hamah,  and  from  the  isles  of  the  sea:'  where,  by  the  isles  of  the 
 sea  (which  is  the  same  with  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles)  we  must 
 necessarily  understand  such  countries  as  are  distinct  from  the 
 countries  which  are  here  expressly  named;  namely,  Assyria, 
 Egypt,  &c,  and,  therefore,  most  likely  the  countries  oi  Lesser 
 Asia  and  Europe.  The  same  prophet,  in  order  to  show  God's 
 omnipotency,  speaks  in  this  manner—'  Behold  the  nations  are  as 
 a  drop  of  the  bucket,  and  are  counted  as  the  small  dust  of  the 
 balance ;  behold  he  takes  up  the  isles  as  a  very  little  thing,'  ch.  xl. 
 15.  Where,  if  by  isles  we  mean  those  which  we  call  strictly 
 so,' the  comparison  of  the  disparity  is  lost,  because  those  which  W9 
 call  isles  are  indeed  very  little  things ;  and  therefore  the  proper 
 signification  of  the  word  in  this  place  must  be  those  large  coun- 
 tries which  were  beyond  the  sea,  in  regard  to  Egypt  whence 
 Moses  came,  or  Palestine  whither  he  was  now  going.—  //  MM 
 Geography,  vol.  1.  p.  US. 
 
 h  The  people  of  this  country  are  called  Germeoru,  and  they 
 call  themselves  Germen,  which  is  but  a  small  variation  and  easy 
 contraction  for  Gomeren,  that  is,  the  Gomtrtamt  for  the  ter- 
 mination en  is  a  plural  termination  in  the  German  language,  and 
 from  the  singular  Dumber  Gamer  is  formed  Gemren,  by  the 
 same  analogy  that  from  brother  we  form  brethren. — Well*  Geo- 
 graphy, vol  1.  p.  1-27,  and  Bedford's  Script.  Chrom.  b.  ii.  c  4. 
 
130  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1907.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 inhabitants  of  this  isle)  call  themselves  Kumero  or  Cym- 
 ro  ;  call  a  woman  Kumeraes,  and  the  language  they 
 speak  Kumeraeg- ;  which  several  words  carry  in  them 
 such  plain  marks  of  the  original  name  from  whence  they 
 are  derived,  that  if  any  regard  is  to  be  had  to  etymolo- 
 gies in  cases  of  this  nature,  we  cannot  forbear  conclud- 
 ing that  the  true  old  Britons,  or  Welsh,  are  the  genuine 
 descendants  of  Gomer.  And  since  it  is  observed  that 
 the  Germans  were  likewise  the  descendants  of  Gomer, 
 particularly  the  Cymbri,  to  whom  the  Saxons,  and  espe- 
 cially the  Angles,  were  near  neighbours,  it  will  hence 
 likewise  follow  that  our  ancestors,  who  succeeded  the 
 old  Britons  "  in  the  eastern  part  of  this  isle,  were  in  a 
 manner  descended  from  Gomer,  the  first  son  of  Japheth. 
 Thus  we  see  1  that  the  plantations  of  the  world  by 
 the  sons  of  Noah  and  their  offspring,  recorded  by  Moses 
 in  this  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  by  the  inspired 
 author  of  the  first  book  of  Chronicles,  are  not  unprofit- 
 able fables,  or  endless  genealogies,  but  a  most  valuable 
 piece  of  history,  which  distinguishes  from  all  other 
 people  that  particular  nation  of  which  Christ  was  to 
 come  ;  gives  light  to  several  predictions  and  other  pas- 
 sages in  the  prophets  ;  shows  us  the  first  rise  and  origin 
 of  all  nations,  their  gradual  increase  and  successive 
 migrations,  cities  building,  lands  cultivating,  kingdoms 
 rising,  governments  settling,  and  all  to  the  accomplish- 
 ment of  the  divine  benediction, — a '  Be  fruitful,  and 
 multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth ;  and  the  fear  of  you 
 and  the  dread  of  you  shall  be  upon  every  other  creature.' 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  the  Sacred  Chronology  and  Prof ane 
 History,  Letters,  Learning,  Religion,  and  Idolatry, 
 &c,  during  this  period. 
 
 Before  we  enter  upon  the  history  of  the  world,  as  it  is 
 delivered  in  some  heathen  authors,  from  the  time  of  the 
 flood  to  the  calling  of  Abraham,  it  may  not  be  improper  to 
 settle  the  sacred  chronology  ;  and  that  the  rather,  because 
 the  difference  is  very  considerable,  as  appears  by  the 
 subsequent  table,  according  as  we  follow  the  computation 
 of  the  Hebrew  text,  of  the  Samaritan  copies,  of  the 
 Greek  interpreters,  or  of  Josephus.  But,  before  we 
 come  to  this,  we  must  observe,  that  in  the  catalogue 
 which  we  refer  to,  Moses  takes  notice  of  no  other  branch 
 
 1  Millar's  Church  History,  ch.  i.  per.  2.       2  Gen.  ix.  1,  2. 
 
 a  To  show  how  the  western  part  of  our  island  came  likewise 
 to  be  peopled,  the  above-cite^|  author  of  Scripture  chronology 
 supposes,  that  when  Joshua  maHe  his  conquests  in  the  land  of 
 Canaan,  several  of  the  inhabitants  of  Tyre,  being  struck  with  the 
 terror  of  his  arms,  left  their  country,  and  being  skilled  in  the  art 
 of  navigation,  sailed  into  Africa,  and  there  built  a  city  called 
 Carthage,  or  the  "  city  of  the  wanderers,"  as  he  interprets  the 
 word ;  that  the  Syrians  and  Phoenicians,  being  always  consider- 
 able merchants,  and  now  settling  in  a  place  convenient  for  their 
 purpose,  began  to  enlarge  their  trade;  and,  coasting  the  sea 
 shore  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and  France,  happened  at  length  to  chop 
 upon  the  islands  called  Cassiterides,  now  the  islands  of  Scilly, 
 whereof  he  gives  us  a  description  from  Strabo;  that,  having  here 
 fallen  into  a  trade  for  tin  and  lead,  it  was  not  long  before  they 
 discovered  the  Land's  End,  on  the  west  side  of  Cornwall,  and 
 finding  the  country  much  more  commodious  than  Scilly,  removed 
 from  thence,  and  here  made  their  settlement.  And  this  conjec- 
 ture he  accounts  more  feasible,  by  reason  of  the  great  affinity 
 between  the  Cornish  language  and  the  ancient  Hebrew  Phoeni- 
 cian.—B.  ii.  e.  4,  p.  195. 
 
 of  Noah's  family,  but  only  that  of  Shem  and  his  descen- 
 dants in  a  direct  line  to  Abraham ;  and  the  different 
 computations  3  relating  to  them  may  be  best  perceived 
 by  the  following  table  : — 
 
 After  the  flood 
 1:  Shem  was.. 
 2.  Arphaxad... 
 
 Heb 
 
 Sam 
 
 Jusephiu 
 
 Sept     restored 
 
 by  Hales. 
 
 Heb  !Sam 
 1 
 
 Sept 
 
 Jo»ephns 
 
 Heb    Sam 
 1 
 
 Jnsephm 
 by  Hale. 
 
 33 
 0 
 30 
 34 
 30 
 32 
 30 
 29 
 70 
 
 135 
 0 
 13B 
 134 
 130 
 132 
 130 
 79 
 70 
 
 135 
 130 
 
 130 
 
 l.v) 
 
 130 
 
 132 
 130 
 79 
 70 
 
 2 
 
 135 
 
 0 
 
 130 
 
 134 
 
 130 
 
 132 
 
 130 
 
 59 
 
 70  at ihe 
 
 birth  of 
 
 Haran, 
 
 130  at  the 
 
 b.rth  of 
 
 Abraham. 
 
 500 
 
 103 
 
 0 
 
 403 
 
 430 
 
 aua 
 
 2117 
 200 
 119 
 
 500 
 303 
 0 
 303 
 270 
 109 
 107 
 100 
 
 (iJ 
 
 500 
 
 330 
 
 330 
 330 
 270 
 209 
 207 
 200 
 129 
 
 500 
 3113 
 11 
 303 
 270 
 109 
 107 
 100 
 69 
 
 205 
 
 Oil  i 
 
 438 
 
 0 
 
 433 
 
 104 
 
 239 
 
 239 
 230 
 148 
 
 205 
 
 000 
 433 
 
 433 
 
 40+ 
 239 
 
 239 
 230 
 I4ti 
 
 205 
 
 5.  Peleg 
 
 8.  Nahur 
 
 9.  Terah  the 
 lather  of  Abra- 
 ham. 
 
 In  all 
 
 292 
 
 942 
 
 1072 
 
 1002 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Before  they  bad 
 children. 
 
 After  they  had 
 children. 
 
 At  their  deaths. 
 
 Now,  whoever  casts  his  eye  into  this  table  may  easily 
 perceive,  that  except  the  variations  which  may  possibly 
 have  been  occasioned  by  the  negligence  of  transcribers, 
 4  the  difference  between  the  Samaritan  and  Septuagint 
 chronology,  and  that  of  Josephus,  is  so  very  small,  that 
 one  may  justly  suspect  that  the  Samaritan  lias  been 
 transcribed  from  the  Septuagint,  on  purpose  to  supply 
 some  defect  in  its  copy,  and  that  Josephus  had,  for  some 
 reason  or  other,  adopted  the  chronology  of  the  same 
 version  ;  but  that  the  difference  between  the  Greek  and 
 Hebrew  chronology  is  so  very  great,  that  the  one  or 
 other  of  them  must  be  egregiously  wrong ;  because  the 
 Seventy  do  not  only  add  a  patriarch,  named  Cainan, 
 never  mentioned  in  the  Hebrew,  and  so  make  eleven 
 generations  from  Shem  to  Abraham  instead  of  ten  ;  but, 
 in  the  lives  of  most  of  these  patriarchs,  they  insert  100 
 years  before  they  came  to  have  children, that  is, they  make 
 them  fathers  100  years  later  than  the  Hebrew  text  does, 
 though  (to  bring  the  matter  to  a  compromise)  they 
 generally  deduct  them  in  the  course  of  their  lives. 
 
 On  both  sides  have  appeared  men  of  great  learning ; 
 but  they  who  assert  the  cause  of  the  Septuagint,  are  not 
 unmindful  to  urge  the  testimony  of  St  Luke,  who,  s 
 between  Arphaxad  and  Salah,  has  inserted  the  name  of 
 Cainan,  which  (as  he  was  an  inspired  writer)  he  could 
 never  have  done,  had  not  the  Septuagint  been  right  in 
 correcting  the  Hebrew  Scriptures :  besides  that,  the 
 numbers  in  the  Septuagint  give  time  for  the  propagation 
 of  mankind,  and  seem  to  agree  better  with  the  history  of 
 the  first  kingdoms  of  the  world. 
 
 On  the  other  hand,  they  who  abide  by  the  Hebrew 
 text,  cannot  think  that  the  authority  of  the  Septuagint 
 is  so  sacred  as  their  adversaries  imagine.  Upon 
 examination  they  find  many  things  added,  many  things 
 omitted,  and,  through  the  whole,  so  many  faults  almost 
 every  where  occurring,  that  "  were  a  man  to  recount 
 them  all "  as  St  Jeroin  6  expresses  it,  "  he  would  be 
 obliged  not  only  to  write  one,  but  many  books  ;"  "  nor 
 need  we  seek  for  distant  examples  of  this  kind,"7  says 
 Bochart,  "  since  this  very  genealogy  is  all  full  of 
 anachronisms,  vastly  different  both  from  the  Hebrew 
 and  the  vulgar  version." 
 
 s Usher's Chron.  Sacr.c.2.     4 Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  l.b.  3. 
 5  Ch.  iii.  36.  6  On  Jeremiah  xvii.  '  Phaleg.  b.  ii.  c.2. 
 
 a  This  is  according  to  the  Alexandrian  manuscript ;  in  the 
 Vatican  it  is  125. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 131 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.VER.  10.  TO  THE  END 
 
 Editions  moreover  there  were  of  an  ancient  date, 
 which,  in  imitation  of  the  Alexandrian  manuscript  pre- 
 served by  Origen  in  his  Hexapla,  had  none  of  this 
 insertion.  Both  Philo  and  Josephus,  though  they  make 
 use  of  the  Septuagint  version,  know  nothing-  of  Cainan  ; 
 and  Eusebius  and  Africanus,  though  they  took  their 
 accounts  of  these  times  from  it,  have  no  such  persons 
 among  their  postdiluvians  ;  and  therefore  *  it  is  highly 
 reasonable  to  believe,  that  this  name  crept  into  the 
 Septuagint  through  the  carelessness  of  some  transcriber, 
 who,  inattentive  to  what  he  was  about,  inserted  an  ante- 
 diluvian name  (for  such  a  person  there  was  before  the 
 flood)  among  the  postdiluvians,  and  having  no  numbers 
 for  his  name,  wrote  the  numbers  belonging  to  Salah 
 twice  over. 
 
 Since  therefore  the  Hebrew  text,  in  all  places  where 
 we  find  Noah's  posterity  enumerated,  takes  not  the 
 least  notice  of  Cainan,  but  always  declares  Salah  to  be 
 the  immediate  son  and  successor  of  Arphaxad ;  2  we 
 must  either  say  that  Moses  did,  or  that  he  did  not  know 
 of  the  birth  of  this  pretended  patriarch  :  if  he  did  not, 
 how  came  the  LXX.  interpreters  by  the  knowledge  of 
 what  Moses,  who  lived  much  nearer  the  time,  was  a 
 diligent  searcher  into  antiquity,  and  had  the  assistance 
 of  a  Divine  spirit  in  every  thing  he  wrote,  was  confessedly 
 ignorant  of?  If  he  did  know  it,  what  possible  reason  can 
 be  assigned  for  his  concealing  it,  especially  when  his  in- 
 sertion or  omission  of  it  make  such  a  remarkable  varia- 
 tion in  the  account  of  time,  from  the  flood  to  the  call  of 
 Abraham,  unless  he  was  minded  to  impose  upon  us  by  a 
 false  or  confused  chronology,  which  his  distinct  obser- 
 vation of  the  series  of  the  other  generations,  and  his  just 
 assignment  of  the  time  which  belonged  to  each,  will  not 
 suffer  us  to  think. 
 
 Rather,  therefore,  than  impeach  this  servant  of  God 
 (who  has  this  testimony  upon  record,  that4  'he  was  faithful 
 in  all  his  house)'  either  of  ignorance  or  ill  intent,  we  may 
 affirm  (with  Bochart  and  his  followers)  that  ISt  Luke  never 
 put  Cainan  into  his  genealogy,  (for  as  much  as  a  it  is  not 
 to  be  found  in  some  of  the  best  manuscripts  of  the  New 
 Testament)  but  that  some  transcribers,  finding  it  in  the 
 Septuagint,  and  not  in  St  Luke,  marked  it  down  in  the 
 margin  of  their  copies  as  an  omission  in  the  copies  of 
 St  Luke;  and  so  later  copiers  and  editors,  finding  it 
 thus  in  the  margin,  took  it  at  last  into  the  body  of  the 
 text,  as  thinking,  perhaps,  that  this  augmentation  of 
 years  might  give  a  greater  scope  to  the  rise  of  kingdoms, 
 which  otherwise  might  be  thought  too  sudden  :  whereas 
 (if  we  will  believe  a  very  competent  judge  of  this  matter) 
 "  5  those  who  contend  for  the  numbers  of  the  Septuagint, 
 must  either  reject,  as  some  do,  the  concurrent  testimony 
 of  the  heathen  Greeks,  and  the  Christian  fathers,  con- 
 cerning the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Assyria  and  Egypt,  or 
 must  remove  all  those  monarchies  farther  from  the  flood. 
 
 Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  vol.  2.  Essay  1. 
 
 *  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  2. 
 
 s  Heidegger's  History  of  the  Patriarchs,  vol.  2.  Essay  I. 
 4  Heb.  iii.  2. 
 
 *  Bishop  Cumberland's  Origin.  Antiquis.  p.  177,  &c. 
 
 a  The  ancient  manuscript  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts,  both  in 
 Greek  and  Latin,  which  Beza  presented  to  the  university  of 
 Cambridge,  wants  it;  nor  is  it  to  be  found  in  some  manu- 
 scripts which  Archbishop  Usher,  in  his  Chron.  Sacr.,  p.  32, 
 makes  mention  of. — Millar's  History  </  the  Church,  ch.  i. 
 period  2. 
 
 Nor  must  the  testimony  of  Varro  be  overlooked,  which 
 tells  us,  that  there  were  but  KiOO  years  between  the  first 
 flood  and  the  Olympiads  ;  whereas  this  number  is  exceed- 
 ed seven  or  eight  hundred  years  by  the  Septuagints 
 account.  These,  and  several  other  considerations,  ' 
 says  he,  "  incline  me  to  the  Hebrew  numbers  of  the 
 patriarchs  generating,  rather  than  to  the  Septuagint's 
 because,  by  the  numbers  of  the  Septuagint,  there  must  be 
 about  900  years  between  the  flood  and  the  first  year  of 
 Ninus,  which  certainly  is  too  much  distance  between  a 
 grandfather  and  a  grandchild's  beginning  to  rei<>n." 
 
 Thus  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  the  inter- 
 polation of  the  name  of  Cainan  in  the  Septuagint  version, 
 might  be  the  work  of  some  ignorant  and  pragmatical 
 transcriber :  and  in  like  manner,  the  addition  and  sub- 
 traction of  several  hundred  years,  in  the  lives  of  the 
 fathers  beforementioned,  might  be  effected  by  such 
 another  instrument,  6  who,  thinking  perhaps  that  the 
 years  of  the  antediluvian  lives  were  but  lunar  ones, 
 and  computing  that  at  this  rate  the  six  fathers  (whose 
 lives  are  thus  altered)  must  have  had  their  children  at 
 five,  six,  seven,  and  eight  years  old,  which  could  not 
 but  look  incredible,  might  be  induced  to  add  the  100 
 years,  in  order  to  make  them  of  a  more  probable  age  of 
 manhood,  at  the  birth  of  their  respective  children.  Or, 
 if  he  thought  the  years  of  their  lives  to  be  solar, 
 yet  still  he  might  imagine,  that  infancy  and  childhood 
 were  proportionably  longer  in  men,  who  were  to  live  7, 
 8,  or  900  years,  than  they  are  in  us ;  and  that  it  was  too 
 early  in  their  lives  for  them  to  be  fathers  at  sixty,  seventy, 
 or  eighty  years  of  age  ;  for  which  reason  he  might  add 
 the  100  years,  to  make  their  advance  to  manhood  (which 
 is  commonly  not  till  one  fourth  part  of  our  days  is  near 
 over),  proportionable  to  what  was  to  be  the  ultimate  term 
 of  their  lives.  * 
 
 "  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  v.  ex  Lud.  Capelli,  Chron. 
 Sacra  in  Apparatu  Walton  ad  Bibl.  Polyglot. 
 
 b  This  last  observation  respecting  the  proportion  that  the  length 
 of  the  period  before  puberty  bears  to  the  longevity  of  men  and  of 
 all  other  animals,  is  well  founded,  has  been  already  shown  in  the 
 discussion  concerning  the  antediluvian  chronology  of  the  Hebrew 
 Scriptures;  and  it  is  almost  needless  to  observe,  that  the  Jews 
 who  corrupted  the  Hebrew  chronology,  had  the  very  same  reason 
 for  curtailing  the  period  between  the  flood  and  the  birth  of 
 Abraham,  as  for  shortening  the  distance  between  the  origin  of 
 the  human  race  and  the  flood.  Their  object  in  both  cases,  was 
 to  prove  by  the  authority  of  their  own  Scri]  tun--,  to  which  the 
 Christians  as  well  as  they  appealed,  that  Jesus  <>i  Nazareth  had 
 come  into  the  world  a  thousand  years  earlier  than  the  period 
 decreed  for  the  advent  of  the  Messiah  promised  to  their  fathers. 
 With  this  view,  as  they  had  sunk  600  years  in  the  successive 
 generations  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs,  they  chose  to  sink  7<|i> 
 in  the  generations  of  those  descendants  of  Shem,  from  whom  had 
 sprung  Abraham,  the  founder  of  their  own  nation,  and  the  ances- 
 tor as  well  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  of  the  promised  .Messiah. 
 
 Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  in  favour  of  the  imma- 
 culate purity  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  the  postdiluvian  gen 
 of  those  Scriptures  in  their  present  state,  furnishes  internal 
 evidence  of  its  own  corruption  more  striking  perhaps  than  i  ren 
 that  by  which  the  corruption  of  the  antediluvian  gi 
 been  detected.  In  the  antediluvian  genealogy  tin-  sums  total  of 
 the  lives  bJ  the  several  patriarchs  are  uniformly  given;  but  in  the 
 postdiluvian  genealogy,  they  are  all,  except  the  life  of  Abraham, 
 as  uniformly  omitted,  though  retained  in  the  Samaritan  espy. 
 This  cannot  have  been  done  but  for  some  sinister  purpose:  and 
 indeed  the  absurdity  in  which  the  editors  of  the  present  text  hav« 
 involved  themselves  in  their  genealogy  of  Terah  and  Abraham, 
 shows  how  unsafe  it  would  have  been  to  persist  in  their  short 
 generations,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  the  ages  of  the  seveihi 
 
132 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  33! 
 
 This  seems  to  be  the  only  method  of  reconciling  the 
 difference  between  the  Septuagint  version  and  the 
 Hebrew  text,  in  point  of  chronology  ;  and  now  to  proceed 
 to  what  we  find  recorded  in  profane  history,  during  this 
 period. 
 
 After  the  dispersion  of  nations,  the  only  form  of 
 government  that  was  in  use  for  some  time,  was  paternal, 
 when  fathers  of  nations  were  as  kings,  and  the  eldest  of 
 families  as  princes;  but  as  mankind  increased,  and  their 
 ambition  grew  higher,  the  dominion  which  was  founded 
 in  nature,  gave  place  to  that  which  was  acquired  and 
 established  by  power. 
 
 In  early  ages,  a  superiority  of  strength  or  stature  was 
 the  most  engaging  qualification  to  raise  men  to  be  kings 
 and  rulers.  The  Ethiopians,  l  as  Aristotle  informs  us, 
 made  choice  of  the  tallest  persons  to  be  their  princes  ; 
 and  though  Saul  was  made  king  of  Israel  by  the  special 
 appointment  of  God,  yet  it  appears  to  have  been  a  cir- 
 cumstance not  inconsiderable  in  the  eyes  of  the  people, 
 8  '  that  he  was  a  choice  young  man,  and  goodly,  and 
 that  there  was  not,  among  the  children  of  Israel,  a 
 goodlier  man  than  he  :'  but  when  experience  came  to 
 convince  men  that  other  qualifications,  besides  stature 
 and  strength  were  necessary  for  the  people's  happiness, 
 they  then  chose  persons  of  the  greatest  wisdom  and 
 prudence  for  their  governors.  3  Some  wise  and  under- 
 standing men,  who  knew  best  how  to  till  and  cultivate 
 the  ground,  to  manage  cattle,  to  prune  and  plant 
 fruit  trees',  &<:.,  took  into  their  families,  and  promised 
 
 1  Re  Repub.  b.  4.  e.  4.  2  1  Sam.  ix.  2. 
 
 3  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  G. 
 
 patriarchs  at  their  respective  deaths.  The  omission,  however, 
 it  must  be  confessed,  appears  to  have  prevailed  at  an  early  period 
 in  the  Hebrew  text;  for,  as  Dr  Hales  observes,  it  occurs  also  in 
 the  present  copies  of  the  Septuagint,  and  in  all  the  other  ancient 
 versions. 
 
 "  Still,  however,  the  Septuagint  furnishes  evidence  of  the 
 omission,  by  retaining  the  last  words,  found  uniformly  in  the 
 Samaritan  text,  xai  a.<xiQu.vsv — and  he  died,  throughout  the  whole. 
 There  cannot,  therefore,  remain  a  doubt,  that  the  total  lives  were 
 originally  inserted  in  the  ancient  Jewish  Hebrew  copies,  as  well 
 as  in  the  Samaritan;  no  less  than  the  total  lives  of  the  antedilu- 
 vian patriarchs,  in  both  Hebrew  texts,  and  in  all  the  ancient 
 versions.  And  the  centenary  addition  to  the  generations  of  the 
 first  seven  patriarchs  after  the  flood,  is  now  fully  established,  by 
 the  triple  evidence  of  the  Samaritan  text,  the  Septuagint  version, 
 and  Josephus." 
 
 The  same  learned  chronologer  has  proved  likewise  that  the 
 short  Hebrew  computation  is  absurd  in  itself,  and  inconsistent 
 with  history  sacred  and  profane.  1.  Eusebius  well  remarks; 
 "The  error  of  the  Jewish  Hebrew  text  is  evident  from  this; 
 that  it  makes  Abraham  and  Noah  contemporaries;  for  since, 
 according  to  that  text,  there  are  no  more  than  292  years  from  the 
 flood  to  Abraham;  and  since,  according  to  the  same  text,  Noah 
 survived  the  flood  350  years;  it  follows  that  he  lived  to  the 
 fifty-eighth  year  of  Abraham,  which  is  absurd.  2.  Upon  this 
 supposition,  idolatry  must  have  begun  and  prevailed,  and  the 
 patriarchal  government  have  been  overthrown  by  Nimrod  and 
 the  builders  of  Babel,  during  the  lifetime  of  the  second  founder 
 of  the  human  race,  and  his  three  sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth," 
 which  is  surely  in  a  high  degree  improbable.  3.  "  If  Shem 
 lived  until  the  1 10th  year  of  Isaac,  and  the  fiftieth  of  Jacob,  why 
 was  not  he  included  in  the  covenant  of  circumcision  made  with 
 Abraham  and  his  family?"  Or,  it'  this  was  not  compatible  with 
 God's  general  scheme  of  revelation,  "  Why  was  Shem  passed 
 over  without  notice  in  the  history  of  the  most  illustrious  members 
 of  his  own  family,  with  whom  he  was  contemporary?"  4.  "  How 
 could  the  earth  be  so  populous  in-  Abraham's  days,  or  the  mighty 
 kingdoms  of  Assyria  and  Egypt  be  so  soon  established  after  the 
 deluge?" 
 
 8.  A.  C.  2093.  liKN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  KND. 
 
 to  provide  for  such  as  would  become  their  servants, 
 and  submit  to  their  directions  :  and  thus,  in  continuance 
 of  time,  heads  of  families  became  kings;  their  houses, 
 together  with  the  near  habitations  of  their  domestics, 
 became  cities  ;  their  servants,  in  their  several  occupations 
 and  employments,  became  wealthy  and  considerable 
 subjects ;  and  the  inspectors  and  overseers  of  them, 
 became  ministers  of  state,  and  managers  of  the  public 
 aflairs  of  the  kingdom. 
 
 In  the  first  beginning  of  political  societies,  almost 
 every  town  (as  we  may  suppose)  had  its  own  king-,  4 
 who,  more  attentive  to  preserve  his  dominions  than  to 
 extend  them,  restrained  his  ambition  within  the  bounds 
 of  his  native  country ;  till  disputes  with  neighbours 
 (which  were  sometimes  unavoidable)  jealousy  of  a  more 
 powerful  prince,  an  enterprising  genius,  or  martial 
 inclination,  occasioned  those  wars  which  often  ended  in 
 the  absolute  subjection  of  the  vanquished  ;  whose  posses- 
 sions, falling  into  the  power  of  the  conqueror,  enlarged 
 his  dominions,  and  both  encouraged  and  enabled  him  to 
 push  on  his  conquests  by  new  enterprises. 
 
 Nimrod  was  the  first  man  we  meet  with  in  Scripture, 
 who  made  invasions  upon  the  territories  of  others  :  for 
 he  dispossessed  Ashur,  the  son  of  Shem,  who  had  settled 
 himself  in  Shinar,  and  obliged  him  to  remove  into 
 Assyria,  whilst  himself  seized  on  Babylon,  and  having 
 repaired,  and  not  a  little  enlarged  it,  made  it  the  capital 
 of  his  kingdom. 
 
 s  This  city  was  situated  on  both  sides  of  the  river 
 Euphrates,  having  streets  running  from  north  to  south, 
 
 1  Justin,  b.  i.  c.  1.  *  Prideaux's  Connection. 
 
 To  this  last  question,  our  author  produces  a  reply  from  Sir 
 Isaac  Newton's  chronology,  which  is  certainly  not  one  of  the 
 most  valuable  of  that  immortal  author's  works.  To  prove  that 
 the  world  was  but  thinly  peopled  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  Sir 
 Isaac  observes  that  four  great  kings  with  their  armies  were  pur- 
 sued and  beaten  by  Abraham,  though  the  whole  force  that  he 
 and  the  princes  in  alliance  with  him  brought  into  the  field 
 amounted  only  to  318  men.  But,  answers  our  author,  we  learn 
 from  the  joint  testimony  of  Scripture  and  Josephus,  that  Abraham 
 and  his  theee  friends  defeated  the  enemy  by  stratagem ;  for  they 
 overtook  them  on  the  fifth  night,  and  attacked  them  on  two 
 different  sides  of  their  camp,  when  they  were  oppressed  by  sleep 
 and  wine.  Newton  proceeds  to  say,  that  at  the  birth  of  Moses, 
 Egypt  was  so  thinly  peopled,  that  Pharaoh  said  the  Israelites 
 were  more  numerous  and  mighty  than  the  Egyptians,  and  there- 
 fore ordered  their  male  children  to  be  drowned  as  soon  as  born; 
 but  this  is  not  what  Pharaoh  is,  in  Scripture,  represented  as  having 
 said  of  the  Israelites.  We  are  there  told,  that  he  said,  '  Come 
 let  us  deal  wisely  with  them,  lest  they  multiply;  and  it  come  to 
 pass,  that  when  there  falleth  out  war,  they  join  themselves  to 
 our  enemies,  and  fight  against  us,  and  get  them  up  out  of  the 
 land.'  Here  it  is  evident  that  Pharaoh  did  not  then  consider 
 the  Israelites  as  more  or  mightier  than  the  Egyptians,  or  that 
 he  was  even  afraid  of  their  ever  becoming  so  without  foreign 
 aid  ;  and  the  multitudes,  with  whom  he  pursued  them  when  they 
 afterwards  actually  got  up  out  of  the  land  under  the  command  of 
 the  same  Moses,  furnish  a  complete  proof  that  Egypt  must  have 
 been,  not  only  then,  but  for  many  generations,  a  populous  and 
 powerful  kingdom. 
 
 The  present  Hebrew  computation  of  time  from  the  flood  to  the 
 birth  of  Abraham  is  therefore  undoubtedly  erroneous;  but  the 
 computation  of  the  Septuagint  is  not  to  be  followed  implicitly. 
 The  insertion  of  Cainan  between  Arphaxad  and  Salah  is  unques- 
 tionably an  interpolation;  and  it  is  not  without  other  errors. 
 The  computation  that  comes  nearest  to  the  truth  is  that  of 
 Josephus  as  restored  by  Dr  Hales;  and  on  that  account  it  has 
 been  inserted  into  the  preceding  table  in  addition  to  the  Hebrew, 
 Samaritan,  and  Septuagint  computations  published  in  all  the 
 former  editions  of  this  work. — Bp.  Glcij. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 133 
 
 A.  M.    OUT.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318. 
 
 parallel  with  the  river,  and  others  from  east  to  west.  a 
 The  compass  of  the  wall,  which  was  surrounded  with  a 
 vast  ditch  filled  with  water,  was  430  furlongs,  that  is,  about 
 sixty  miles  ;  the  height  of  it,  350  feet,  and  the  breadth  so 
 vastly  great,  that  carts  and  carriages  might  meet  on  the 
 top  of  it,  and  pass  one  another  without  danger.  Over 
 the  Euphrates  (which  cut  the  city  into  two  equal  parts, 
 from  north  to  south)  there  was  a  stately  bridge,  and  at 
 each  end  of  the  bridge,  b  a  magnificent  palace,  the  one  of 
 four  and  the  other  of  eight  miles'  circumference  ;  and 
 belonging  to  the  larger  palace,  were  those  hanging 
 gardens,  which  had  so  celebrated  a  name  among  the 
 Greeks.  They  were  made  in  form  of  a  square  of  400 
 feet  on  every  side,  and.  were  carried  up  aloft  into  the 
 air,  in  the  manner  of  several  large  terraces,  one  above 
 another,  till  they  came  up  to  the  height  of  the  walls  of 
 the  city.  They  were  sustained  by  vast  arches  built  upon 
 arches,  one  above  another,  and  strengthened  by  a  wall 
 on  every  side,  that  was  twenty-two  feet  thick ;  and  as 
 they  wanted  no  plants  or  flowers  fit  for  a  garden  of 
 pleasure,  so  there  are  said  to  have  grown  in  them  trees, 
 which  were  no  less  than  eight  cubits  thick  in  the  body, 
 and  fifty  feet  in  height.  But  this  among  other  pompous 
 things  appertaining  to  this  city,  was  the  work  of  ages, 
 subsequent  to  Nimrod,  and  built  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  to 
 gratify  his  wife  Amytis,  who,  being  the  daughter  of 
 Astyages,  king  of  Media,  and  much  pleased  with  the 
 mountainous  and  woody  parts  of  her  own  country,  was 
 desirous  of  having  something  like  it  in  Babylon. 
 
 From  the  Assyrians,  this  great  and  noble  city  came 
 into  the  hands  of  the  Persians,  and  from  them  into  the 
 hands  of  the  Macedonians.  Here  it  was  that  Alexander 
 the  Great  died;  but  not  long  after  his  death  the  city  be- 
 gan to  decline  apace,  by  the  building  of  Selucia,  about 
 forty  miles  above  it,  by  Seleucus  Nicanor,  who  is  said  to 
 have  erected  this  new  city  in  spleen  to  the  Babylo- 
 nians, and  to  have  drawn  out  of  Babylon  500,000 
 persons  to  people  it ;  so  that  the  ancient  city  was, 
 in  the  time  of  Curtius  the  historian,  lessened  a  fourth 
 part ;  in  the  time  of  Pliny,  reduced  to  desolation ; 
 in  the  days  of  St  Jerom,  turned  into  a  park,  wherein  the 
 kings  of  Persia  used  to  hunt ;  and,  according  to  the  rela- 
 tion c  of  some  late  travellers,  is  now  reduced  to  one 
 
 a  It  must  be  observed,  however,  that  all  this  compass  of  ground 
 was  not  really  built  upon,  for  the  houses  stood  at  a  considerable 
 distance,  with  gardens  and  fields  interspersed ;  so  that  it  was  a 
 large  city  in  scheme,  rather  than  in  reality. — Pridcaux's  Connec- 
 tuiti,  part  1.  b.  2. 
 
 b  The  old  palace  (which  was  probably  built  by  Nimrod)  stood 
 on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  and  the  new  one  (which  was  built 
 by  Nebuchadnezzar)  exactly  over  against  it,  on  the  west  side. — 
 ibid. 
 
 e  Mr  Reuwolf,  who,  in  1574,  passed  through  the  place  where 
 this  once  famous  city  stood,  speaks  of  the  ruins  of  it  in  the  follow- 
 ing manner: — "  The  village  of  Elugo  is  now  situate  where  here- 
 tofore Babylon  of  Chaldea  stood.  The  harbour,  where  people  go 
 Whore  in  order  to  proceed  by  land  to  the  city  of  Bagdad,  is  a  quarter 
 of  a  league  distant  from  it.  The  soil  is  so  dry  and  barren,  that  they 
 cannot  till  it;  and  so  naked,  that  I  could  never  have  believed  that 
 this  powerful  city,  once  the  most  stately  and  renowned  in  all  the 
 world,  and  situated  in  the  fruitful  country  of  Shinar,  could  have 
 stood  there,  had  I  not  seen,  by  the  situation  of  the  place,  by 
 many  antiquities  of  great  beauty,  which  are  to  be  seen  round 
 about,  and  especially  by  the  old  bridge  over  the  Euphrates, 
 Whereof  some  piles  and  arches,  of  incredible  strength  are  still 
 remaining,  that  it  certainly  did  stand  there.  The  whole  front  of 
 the  village  Elugo  is  the  hiil  upon  which  the  castle  stood,  and  the 
 
 A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x. ;  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 tower  only,  called  the  tower  of  Daniel,  from  whence 
 may  be  seen  all  the  ruins  of  this  once  vast  and  splendid 
 city. 
 
 It  can  hardly  be  imagined  that  the  first  kings  were 
 able  either  to  make  or  execute  laws  with  that  strict- 
 ness and  rigour  which  is  necessary  in  a  body  of  men  so 
 large  as  to  aflbrd  numerous  offenders:  and  for  this  rea- 
 son it  seems  to  have  been  a  prudent  institution  in  Nim- 
 rod, when  his  city  of  Babylon  began  to  be  too  populous 
 to  be  regulated  by  his  inspection,  or  governed  by  his 
 influence,  to  d  lay  the  foundation  of  other  cities  ;  by 
 which  means  he  disposed  of  great  numbers  of  his  people, 
 and,  putting  them  under  the  direction  of  such  deputies 
 as  he  might  appoint,  brought  their  minds  by  degrees  to 
 a  sense  of  government,  until  the  beneficial  use  of  it  came 
 to  be  experienced,  and  the  force  and  power  of  laws 
 settled  and  confirmed.  He  is  supposed  to  have  begun 
 his  reign  A.  M.  1757,  to  have  reigned  about  148  years, 
 and  to  have  died  A.  M.  1905.  e 
 
 About  the  beginning  of  Nimrod's  reign,  Ashur,/  one 
 of  the  descendants  of  Shem,  being  driven  from  Babel, 
 as  most  suppose,  by  the  invasion  of  Nimrod,  led  his 
 company  on  the  Tigris,  and  so  settling  in  Assyria, 
 laid  the  first  foundation  of  Nineveh,  which  in  process  of 
 time  exceeded  even  Babylon  itself  in  size.  For,  whereas 
 we  observed  of  Babylon,  that   it   was   in   circuit   488 
 
 ruins  of  its  fortifications  are  still  visible,  though  demolished. 
 Behind,  and  some  little  way  beyond,  is  the  tower  of  Babylon, 
 which  is  half  a  league  diameter,  but  so  ruinous,  so  low,  and  so 
 full  of  venomous  creatures,  which  lodge  in  the  holes  they  make 
 in  the  rubbish,  that  no  one  durst  approach  nearer  to  it  than 
 within  half  a  league,  except  during  two  months  in  the  winter, 
 when  these  animals  never  stir  out  of  their  holes. — Calmefs  Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 d  The  cities  which  he  founded  are  said  to  be  Erec,  Accad,  and 
 Calne.  Erec  was  the  same  that  occurs  in  Ptolemy,  under  the 
 name  of  Arecca,  and  which  is  placed  by  him  at  the  last,  or  most 
 southern  turning  of  the  common  channel  of  the  Tigris  and 
 Euphrates.  Accad  lay  northward  of  Erec,  and  very  probably  at 
 the  common  joining  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  And  Calne 
 (which  is  said  to  be  the  same  with  Ctesiphon)  upon  the  Tigris, 
 about  three  miles  distant  from  Seleucia,  and  was  for  some  time 
 the  capital  city  of  the  Parthians  ;  for  that  it  was  the  same  with 
 Ctesiphon,  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  the  country  which  lies 
 about  it  being  called  Chalonitis,  which  is  evidently  derived  from 
 Chalne,  or  Chalno,  whereby  we  find  it  called  in  different  parts  of 
 Scripture. —  Wells'  Geography,  vol.  1.  c.  5. 
 
 e  According  to  Dr  Hales,  Nimrod  began  his  reign  A.  M. 
 2S57,  reigned  about  98  years,  and  died  A.  M.  2955. — Ed. 
 
 /  Many  authors  have  imagined  that  Nineveh  was  not  built  by 
 Ashur,  but  by  Nimrod  himself,  because  they  think  it  not  likely 
 that  Moses  should  give  an  account  of  the  settlement  of  one  of  the 
 sons  of  Shem,  where  he  is  expressly  discoursing  of  Ham's  family  ; 
 and  therefore  they  interpret  (as  the  marginal  note  directs)  Gen. 
 x.  11,  '  out  of  that  land  went  forth  Ashur,'  he,  that  is  Nimrod, 
 went  forth  into  Assyria,  which  is  the  explanation  that  1  have  in 
 some  measure  followed;  but  others  imagine  that  Moses  is  not  so 
 exactly  methodical,  but  that,  upon  mentioning  Nimrod  and  his 
 people,  he  might  hint  at  a  colony  which  departed  from  under  his 
 
 government,  though  it  happened'  to  be  led  by  a  pent f  another 
 
 family;  that  the  land  of  Ashur  and  the  land  of  Nimrod  are  men- 
 tioned as  two  distinct  countries  in  Mieah  v.  (i,  and  that  il 
 Nimrod  had  built  Nineveh,  and  planted  Assyria,  Babylon  and 
 
 Assyria  would  have  been  but  one  empire,  nor  could  the  one  be 
 said  to  have  conquered  the  other  with  any  propriety:  whereas  we 
 are  expressly  told  by  Diodorus,  thai  the  Assyrians  conquered  the 
 Babylonians;  and  may  thence  infer,  that  before  Ninus  united 
 them,  Babylonia  and  Assyria  were  two  distinct  kingdoms,  and 
 not  the  plantation  of  one  and  tin-  same  founder. — Shuckfordi 
 Conn*  ttinii,  vol.  1.  b.  4. 
 
134 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GKN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THL  END. 
 
 furlongs, l  the  description  which  Diodorus  gives  us  of 
 Nineveh  is,  that  it  was  1 50  furlongs,  that  is,  near  nineteen 
 miles  in  length ;  ninety  furlongs,  that  is,  somewhat 
 above  eleven  miles  in  breadth  ;  and  480  furlongs,  that  is, 
 just  sixty  miles  in  circumference  ;  and  for  this  reason  it 
 is  2  called  '  an  exceeding  great  city  of  three  days'  jour- 
 ney,' according  to  the  common  estimation  of  twenty 
 miles  to  a  day's  journey.  And  equal  to  the  gTeatness 
 was  the  strength  of  this  city:  for  its  walls  were  100  feet 
 high,  and  so  very  broad,  that  three  carts  might  go  abreast 
 on  the  top  of  them  ;  whereon  were  raised  1500  turrets, 
 and  each  of  them  200  feet  high,  and  so  very  strong,  that 
 the  place  was  deemed  impregnable, 3  till  Nabopolassar, 
 king  of  Babylon,  having  made  an  affinity  with  Astyages, 
 king  of  Media,  entered  into  a  confederacy  with  him 
 against  the  Assyrians,  and  hereupon  joining  their  forces 
 together,  they  besieged  Nineveh,  and  after  having  taken 
 the  place,  and  slain  the  king  thereof,  to  gratify  the 
 Medes,  they  utterly  destroyed  that  ancient  city,  and 
 from  that  time  Babylon  became  the  metropolis  of  the 
 Assyrian  empire. 
 
 Such  was  the  rise  and  fall  of  this  great  city,  where 
 Ashur  governed  his  subjects  much  in  the  same  manner  as 
 Nimrod  did  his  in  Babylon  ;  for  as  they  increased  he 
 dispersed  them  in  the  country,  anda  having  built  some 
 other  cities  along  the  Tigris,  he  there  settled  them  under 
 the  government  of  deputies  or  viceroys. 
 
 Whilst  Nimrod  and  Ashur  were  settling  their  people 
 in  their  respective  countries,  Mizraim,  the  second  son  of 
 Ham,  b  and  who,  by  heathen  writers,  is  constantly  called 
 
 1  Wells'  Geography.  2  Jonah  iii.  3. 
 
 3  Prideaux's  Connection,  vol.  1. 
 a  The  cities  which  Ashur  is  said  to  have  built  were  Rehoboth, 
 Resen,  and  Calah.    The  word  Rehoboth,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue, 
 signifies  streets;  and  the  sacred  historian  seems  to  have  added 
 the  word  city,  on  purpose  to  show  that  it  was  here  to  be  taken  as 
 a  proper  name.     Now,  as  there  are  no  footsteps  of  this  name  in 
 these  parts,  but  a  town  there  is,  by  Ptolemy  called  Birtha,  which 
 in  the  Chaldee  tongue  denotes  the  same  as  does  Rehoboth  in  the 
 Hebrew,  in  an  appellative  or  common  acceptation;  it  is  hence 
 probably  conjectured,  that  Rehoboth  and  Birtha  are  only  two  dif- 
 ferent names  of  one  and  the  same  city,  which  was  seated  on  the 
 Tigris,  about  the  mouth  of  the  river  Lyeus.     Resen  is  supposed 
 by  most  learned  men  to  be  the  same  city  which  Xenophon  men- 
 tions under  the  name  of  Larissa,  and  that  not  only  because  the 
 situation  of  this  Larissa  well  enough  agrees  with  the  situation  of 
 Resen,  as  it  is  described  by  Moses,  lying  between  Nineveh  and 
 Calah;  but  because  Moses  observes  in  the  same  text,  that  Resen 
 was  a  great  city;   in  like  manner,  as  Xenophon  tells   us,  that 
 Larissa,  though  then  ruinated,  had  been  a  large  city,  of  eight 
 miles' circumference,  with  walls  100  feet  high  and  twenty-five  feet 
 broad.     And  whereas  Larissa  is  a  Greek  name,  and  in  the  days 
 of  Xenophon  there  were  no  Greek  cities  in  Assyria;  for  this  they 
 account  by  supposing,  that  when  the  Greeks   might  ask,  What 
 city  those  were  the  ruins  of  ?  the  Assyrians  might  answer  Lare- 
 sen,  or  of  Resen,  which  Xenophon  expressed  by  Larissa,  a  name 
 not  unlike  several  cities  in  Greece.    And,  lastly,  as  to  Calah,  or 
 Calach,  since  we  find  in  Strabo  a'country  about  the  head   of  the 
 river  Lycus  called  Calachene,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  said 
 country  took  this  name  from  Calach,  which  was  one  of  the  capital 
 cities  of  it.   Ptolemy  makes  mention  likewise  of  a  country  called 
 Calaciue  in  these  parts:  and  whereas  Pliny  mentions  a  people 
 called  Classitte,  through  whose  country  the  Lycus  runs,  there  is 
 some  reason  to  suppose,  that  Classite  is  a  corruption  of  Calachitie. 
 —  f Fells'  Geography,  vol.  1. 
 
 h  The  person  whom  Moses  calls  Mizraim,  is,  by  Diodorus  and 
 other  heathen  writers,  commonly  called  Menes,  by  Syncellus, 
 Mestraim.  Menes  is  supposed  to  be  the  first  king  of  Egypt  by 
 Herodotus,  b.  2.  by  Diodorus  b.  1.  by  Eratosthenes  and  Afri- 
 
 Menes,  seated  himself  at  first  near  the  entrance  of  Egypt, 
 and  there  perhaps  built  the  city  of  Zoan,  which  was 
 anciently  the  habitation  of  the  kings  of  Egypt ;  but  from 
 Zoan  he  removed  farther  into  the  country,  and  took  pos- 
 session of  those  parts,  which  were  afterwards  called 
 Thebais,  where  he  built  the  city  of  Thebes,  and,  as  Hero- 
 dotus will  have  it,  the  city  of  Memphis  likewise.  He 
 reigned  sixty -two  years,  and  died  A.  M.  1943.  c 
 
 Belus  succeeded  Nimrod,  and  was  the  second  king  of 
 Babylon  ;  but  whether  he  was  related  to  his  predecessor 
 or  not,  is  a  thing  uncertain.  It  seems  most  likely,  that 
 as  Nimrod,  though  a  young  man  in  comparison  of  many 
 then  alive,  was  advanced,  for  some  merit  or  other,  to 
 the  regal  dignity  ;  so  when  he  died,  Belus  might  appear 
 to  be  the  most  proper  person,  and  for,  that  reason  was 
 appointed  to  succeed  him  :  for  he  is  represented  a  prince 
 of  study,  the  inventor  of  the  Chaldean  astronomy,  and 
 one  who  spent  his  time  in  cultivating  his  country  and 
 improving  his  people.  He  reigned  sixty  years,  and  died 
 A.  M.  1969.  <* 
 
 Ashur,  king  of  Nineveh,  dying  much  about  this  time, 
 Ninus  became  the  second  king  of  Assyria,  and  proved  a 
 man  of  an  ambitious  and  enterprising  spirit.  Babylonia 
 lay  too  near  him  not  to  become  the  object  of  his  desire; 
 and,  therefore,  making  all  military  preparations  for  that 
 purpose,  he  invaded  it,  and  as  its  inhabitants  had  no 
 great  skill  in  war,  soon  vanquished  them,  and  laid  them 
 under  tribute.  His  success  in  this  attempt  made  him 
 begin  to  think  of  subjecting  other  nations  ;  and,  as  one 
 conquest  paved  the  way  for  another,  in  a  few  years  he 
 overran  many  of  the  infant  states  of  Asia,  and  so,  by 
 uniting  kingdom  to  kingdom,  made  a  great  accession  to 
 the  Assyrian  empire.  His  last  attempt  was  upon  Oxyartes, 
 or  Zoroastres,  king  of  Bactria,  where  he  met  with  a 
 brisker  opposition  than  he  had  hitherto  experienced  ;  but 
 at  length,  by  the  contrivance  and  conduct  of  Semiramis, 
 the  wife  of  one  Memmon,  a  captain  in  his  army,  he 
 took  the  capital,  and  reduced  the  kingdom  ;  but  being 
 hereupon  charmed  with  the  spirit  and  bravery  of  the 
 woman,  he  fell  in  love  with  her,  and  prevailed  with  her 
 husband  (by  giving  him  his  own  daughter  in  lieu  of 
 Semiramis  in  marriage)  to  consent  to  his  having  her  for 
 his  wife.  By  her  he  had  a  son  named  Ninyas  ;  and  after 
 a  reign  of  fifty-two  years  he  died  A.  M.  2017.  e 
 
 Ninyas  was  but  a  minor  when  his  father  died  ;  and 
 therefore  his  mother,  who  all  along  had  a  great  sway  in 
 the  administration  of  public  affairs  during  her  husband's 
 
 canus  from  Manitlio;  by  Eusebius  and  Syncellus  in  Chro. 
 Euseb. ;  and  the  time  of  Menes  coincides  very  well  with  (hose  of 
 Moses'  Mizraim,  as  Sir  John  Marsham  [in  his  Can.  Chron. 
 p.  2.]  has  pretty  clearly  evinced. — Hhuch/ord's  Connection, 
 vol.  1.  b.  4. 
 
 c  According  to  Hales's  chronology,  Mizraim  settled  in  Egypt 
 A.  M.  279S ;  hut  whether  Mizraim  the  son  of  Noah  was  the  same 
 person  with  Menes,  called  by  the  Greek  writers  the  first  king  of 
 Egypt,  is  uncertain.  According  to  the  same  chronologist,  Menes 
 began  his  reign,  B.  C.  2412;  that  is,  A.  M.  2999. 
 
 d  Dr  Hales,  and  Bishop  Gleig  following  him,  think  that  Belus 
 and  Nimrod  were  the  same  person;  this,  however,  is  doubtful* 
 See  Bell's  Dissertation  on  the  Origin  of  the  Assyrian  Empire, 
 Rulthi,  vol.  J.  pp.  117— 122.— Ed. 
 
 e  The  Ninus  of  whom  all  this  is  said,  was  not  the  son  of  either 
 Ashur  or  Nimrod,  but  Ninus  II.  who  succeeded  to  the  Assyrian 
 throne  B.  C.  1252,  and  A.  M.  according  to  Hales's  chronology, 
 4159. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 A.  M.  1937.  A.  C.  2007  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318   A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH   xi    VER 
 
 lifetime,  continued  in  the  government,  with  the  a  consent 
 and  approbation  of  her  subjects.  She  removed  her  court 
 from  Nineveh  to  Babylon,  which  she  encompassed  with 
 the  wall  we  mentioned  before,  and  adorned  with  many 
 public  and  magnificent  buildings;  and,  having-  thus 
 finished  the  seat  of  her  empire,  and  settled  all  the  neigh- 
 bouring- kingdoms  under  her  authority,  she  raised  an 
 army,  with  an  intent  to  conquer  India :  but  after  a  long 
 and  dangerous  war,  being  tired  out  with  defeats,  she  was 
 obliged,  with  the  small  remainder  of  her  forces,  to  return 
 home,  where,  finding  herself  in  disgrace  with  her  people, 
 she  resigned  the  crown  and  authority  to  her  son,  after 
 she  had  reigned  forty-two  years,  and  soon  after  died, 
 A.  M.  2059.  * 
 
 Her  son  Ninyas  began  his  reign  full  of  a  sense  of  the 
 errors  of  his  mother's  administration,  and  engaged  in 
 none  of  the  wars  and  dangerous  expeditions  wherein  she 
 had  harassed  and  fatigued  her  people  :  but  though  he 
 was  not  ambitious  to  enlarge  his  empire, *  yet  he  took 
 all  due  care  to  regulate  and  settle  upon  a  good  foun- 
 dation the  extensive  dominions  which  his  parents  had 
 left  him.  By  a  wise  contrivance  of  annual  deputies  over 
 his  provinces,  he  prevented  many  revolts  of  distant 
 countries,  which  might  otherwise  have  happened,  and  his 
 taking  up  that  state  of  being  difficult  of  access  (which 
 was  afterwards  much  improved  by  eastern  monarchs) 
 might  perhaps  procure  him  a  greater  veneration  from  his 
 subjects.  However  this  be,  it  is  certain  that  most  authors 
 have  represented  him  as  a  weak  and  effeminate  prince, 
 which  might  naturally  arise,  without  any  other  founda- 
 tion, from  his  succeeding-  a  father  and  mother,  who  were 
 rather  too  active  to  enlarge  their  dominions  ;  as  well  as 
 from  the  disposition  in  most  writers  to  think  a  turbulent 
 and  warlike  reign,  if  victorious,  a  glorious  one,  and  to 
 overlook  an  administration  that  is  employed  in  the  silent 
 but  more  happy  arts  of  peace  and  good  government. 
 
 In  Egypt,  Mizraim  had  three  sons,  who,  after  his 
 death,  became  the  kings  of  the  several  parts  thereof. 
 Ananim,  or  rather  Anan,  was  king  of  the  Lower  Egypt, 
 or  Delta  ;  Naphtuhim,  or  Naph,  of  Middle  Egypt,  or  the 
 country  about  Memphis  ;  and  Pathrusim,  or  Patrus,  of  the 
 Upper  Egypt,  or  the  country  of  Thebais  ;  and  agreeably 
 hereunto,  from  these  three  kings  did  these  several  coun- 
 tries take  their  ancient  denominations.  Of  the  first  of 
 these,  namely,  Ananim,  we  have  nothing  remaining  but 
 
 1.35 
 
 10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 1  Diodorus  Siculus,  b.  2. 
 
 a  Justin,  in  his  history  of  this  woman,  informs  us,  that  upon 
 the  death  of  her  husband,  she  made  use  of  the  stratagem  of  per- 
 sonating her  son  to  obtain  the  empire  to  herself;  but  Diodorus, 
 with  more  probability,  ascribes  her  advancement  to  her  conduct,' 
 fernery,  and  magnanimous  behaviour.  When  she  took  upon  her 
 to  be  queen,  the  public  affairs  were  put  in  the  hands  to  which 
 Ninus,  when  alive,  used  generally  to  commit  them;  and  it  is  not 
 likely  that  the  people  should  be  uneasy  at  her  governing,  who  had 
 for  several  years  together,  by  a  series  of  actions,  gained  herself  a 
 great  credit  and  ascendant  over  them  ;  especially  if  we  consider, 
 that  when  she  took  up  the  sovereignty,  she  still  pressed  forward 
 in  a.  course  of  action  which  continually  exceeded  the  expectations 
 of  her  people,  and  left  no  room  for  any  to  be  willing  to  dispute 
 her  authority. — Shuckford's  Cunnectiun,  vol.  1.  b.  4. 
 
 I  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  Semiramis,  who 
 enlarged  and  beautified  the  city  of  Babylon,  was  the  wife  of 
 Nmus  II.  Ctesias  and  Justin,  from  whom  this  story  is  taken, 
 are  authors  of  no  credit.  It  is  probable  that  the  great  Semiramis 
 was  cither  the  mother  or  the  wife  of  Nabonassar,  who  really 
 walled  Babylon,  about  B.  C.  747,  as  we  learn  from  Herodotus. 
 Hales,  vol.  4.  p.  51,  second  edition. 
 
 only  his  name  and  the  time  of  his  death  :  for  a 
 
 had  reigned  sixty-three  years,  according  to  Syncellus, 
 
 he  died  A.  M.  200G. 
 
 Of  the  second,  namely,  Naphtuhim,  we  are  told  that 
 he  was  the  author  of  the  architecture  of  those  ages  had 
 some  useful  knowledge  of  physic  and  anatomy,'  and 
 taught  his  subjects  (as  he  learned  it  from  his  brother 
 Pathrusim)  the  use  of  letters  ;  for  to  this  Pathrusim  (whom 
 they  call  Thyoth)  the  Egyptians  indeed  ascribe  the  inven- 
 tion of  all  arts  and  sciences  whatever.  The  Greeks 
 called  him  Hermes,  and  the  Latins,  Mercurius  ;  and 
 while  his  father  Mizraim  lived,  he  is  supposed  to  have 
 been  his  secretary,  and  greatly  assistant  to  him  in  all  his 
 undertakings.  When  his  father  died,  he  instructed  his 
 brothers  in  all  the  knowledge  he  was  master  of ;  and  as 
 for  his  own  people,  he  made  wholesome  laws  for  their 
 government ;  settled  their  religion  and  form  of  worship  ; 
 and  enriched  their  language  by  the  addition  of  several 
 words,  to  express  several  things  which  before  they  had 
 no  names  for.  c 
 
 This  is  the  best  account  that  we  can  give  of  the  Baby- 
 Ionian  or  Assyrian  empires,  and  of  the  kings  that  ruled 
 E&ypt>  for  some  ages  next  after  the  dispersion  of  man- 
 kind. Other  nations,  no  doubt,  were  settled  into  regular 
 governments  in  these  times  :  Canaan  was  inhabited  rather 
 sooner  than  Egypt;  and,8  according  to  Moses,  Hebron, 
 in  Canaan^  was  built  seven  years  before  Zoan  in  Egypt ; 
 but  as  none  of  those  nations  made  any  considerable 
 figure  in  the  first  ages,  their  actions  lie  in  obscurity,  and 
 must  be  buried  in  oblivion.  The  few  men  of  extraordi- 
 nary note  that  were  then  in  the  world  lived  in  Egypt  and 
 Assyria ;  and  for  this  reason  we  find  little  or  no  mention 
 of  any  other  countries  until  one  of  these  two  nations 
 came  to  send  out  colonies,  which  by  degrees  polished 
 the  people  they  travelled  to,  and  instructed  them  in  such 
 arts  and  sciences  as  made  them  appear  with  credit  in 
 their  own  age,  and  (as  soon  as  the  use  of  letters  was 
 made  public)  transmitted  their  names  with  honour  to 
 posterity. 
 
 The  knowledge  of  letters  cannot  have  been  of  any 
 long  standing  among  us  Europeans,  who  are  settled  far 
 from  the  first  seats  of  mankind,  and  far  from  the  places 
 which  the  descendants  of  Noah  first  planted.  "  None  of 
 the  ancient  Thracians,"  3  says  Elian,  "  knew  any  thing 
 of  letters  ;  nay,  the  Europeans  in  general  thought  it  dis- 
 reputable to  learn  them,  though  in  Asia  they  were  held 
 in  greater  request."  The  Goths,  according  to  the  express 
 testimony 4  of  Socrates,  had  their  letters  and  writings 
 
 *  Numb.  xiii.  11.  3  Universal  History,  b.  8.  c.  6'. 
 
 1  Hist.  Eccles.  b.  4.  c.  33. 
 
 c  It  is  well  observed  by  Dr  Hales,  that  the  Egyptian  chrono- 
 logy, at  this  early  period,  is  a  labyrinth,  in  which  the  most  emi- 
 nent scholars  and  antiquaries  have  lost  their  way  and  misled  their 
 readers.  Unquestionably  the  best  account  of  it  that  has  fallen 
 in  my  way,  is  that  which  he  has  furnished  himself;  but  to  give, 
 in  a  note  on  this  work,  any  abridgment  of  the  discussions  by 
 which  he  endeavours  to  render  it  consistent  with  the  chronology 
 of  Scripture,  or  indeed  with  itself,  is  impossible.  Suffice  it  t>> 
 say  here,  that  if  Pathrusim  be  the  same  with  Thotfa  or  Thyoth, 
 he  was  the  son  and  minister,  not  of  Mizraim  the  son  of  Ham,  but 
 of  Menes,  whom  our  laborious  chronologer  has  proved  to  hare 
 begun  his  reign,  B.  C.  2412,  and  A.  M.  2999;  that  is,  at  a 
 period  earlier,  by  D!)0  years,  than  that  at  which  our  author  fixes 
 the  death  of  Pathrusim's  elder  brother.  See  Sales'  Analysis, 
 second  edition,  vol.  4.  pp.  400  et  seq.  as  quoted  by  Bishop  Gleig. 
 
130 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 A.  M.  1937.  A.  C.  2007 
 
 from  Ulphilas  their  bishop,  A.  D.  370.  The  Sclavonians 
 received  theirs  from  Methodius,  a  philosopher,  about 
 A.  D.  856.  The  people  of  Dalmatia  had  theirs  not  till 
 St  Jerom's,  and  those  of  Illyria,  not  till  St  Cyril's  days, 
 towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  century. 
 
 The  Latins,  who  were  more  early,  received  their 
 letters  (as  most  authors  agree)  from  the  Greeks,  and  were 
 taught  the  use  of  them,  either  from  some  of  the  followers 
 of  Pelasgus,  who  came  into  Italy  about  one  hundred  and 
 fifty  years  after  that  Cadmus  came  into  Greece,  or  from 
 the  Arcadians,  whom  Evander  led  into  those  parts  about 
 sixty  years  after  Pelasgus. 
 
 Among  the  Greeks,  the  Ionians  were  the  first  who  had 
 any  knowledge  of  letters ;  and  they,   in  all  probabi- 
 lity, had  them  from  the  Phoenicians,  who  were  the  fol- 
 lowers of  Cadmus  when  he  came  into  Greece  ;  but  from 
 whom  the  Phoenicians  had  them,  has  been  matter  of  some 
 dispute.     Many  considerable  writers  have  derived  them 
 directly  from  Egypt,  and   are   generally   agreed,  that 
 Thyoth,  or  Mercury,  was  the  inventor  of  them.     In  the 
 early  ages,  when  mankind  were  but  few,  and  these  few 
 employed  in  the  several  contrivances  for  life,  it  could  be 
 but  here  and  there  one  that  had  leisure,  or  perhaps  incli- 
 nation, to  study  letters :  the   companies  that  removed 
 from  Babel  were  most  of  them  rude  and  uncultivated 
 people  ;  they  followed  some  persons  of  figure  and  emi- 
 nence, who  had  gained  an  ascendant  over  them ;  and 
 these  persons,  when   they   had  settled  them  in  distant 
 places,  and  came  to  teach  them  such  arts  as  they  were 
 masters  of,  had  every  thing  they  taught  them  imputed  to 
 their  own  invention,  because  the  poor  ignorant  people 
 knew  no  other  person  that  was  versed  and  skilled  in  them. 
 Though,  therefore,  the  Egyptians  had  confessedly  the 
 use  of  letters  very  early  among  them,  and  though  their 
 Thyoth  or  Mercury  might  be  the  first  avIio  taught  others 
 their  use,  and  for  that  reason  be  reputed  the  inventor  of 
 them  ;  yet  I  cannot  but  think,  that  Noah  and  his  sons, 
 who  had  learned  them  in  the  old  world,  taught  them  to 
 their  posterity  in  the  new.    For,  since  mankind  subsisted 
 1600  [probably  2256]  years  before  the  flood,  it  is  not  very 
 probable  that  they  lived  all  this  while  without  the  use  of 
 letters.   If  they  did,  how  came  we  by  the  short  annals 
 which  we  have  of  the  antediluvian  ages  ?   But  if  they  did 
 not,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Noah,  being  well  skilled  in  the 
 knowledge   and  use  of  them,  might  teach  them  to  his 
 children;  andif  we  pursue  the  inquiry,  and  ask  from  whence 
 Noah  attained  his  knowledge,  the  most  proper  reply  will 
 be,  that  he  had  it  from  the  instruction  of  his  parents,  as  his 
 parents  might  have  it  in  their  several  successions  from 
 Adam,  and  as  Adam  might  have  it  from  God. 
 
 And  indeed  if  we  consider  the  nature  of  letters,  it 
 cannot  but  appear  something  strange,  that  an  invention 
 so  surprising  as  that  of  writing  is,  should  be  found  out 
 in  an  age,  so  near  the  beginning  of  the  world.  ,  Nature 
 may  easily  be  supposed  to  have  prompted  men  to  speak, 
 to  try  to  express  their  minds  to  one  another  by  sounds 
 and  noises  ;  but  that  the  wit  of  man  should,  among  its 
 first  attempts,  find  out  a  way  to  express  words  in  figures 
 or  letters,  and  to  form  a  method  by  which  they  might 
 expose  to  view  all  that  can  be  said  or  thought,  and  that 
 within  the  compass  of  16,  20,  or  24  characters,  variously 
 
 i  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  4. 
 
 placed,  so  as  to  form  syllables  and  words ;  that  the  wit 
 of  man,  I  say,  could  immediately  and  directly  fall 
 upon  a  project  of  this  nature,  is  what  exceeds  the  most 
 exalted  notions  we  can  possibly  form  of  his  capacity, 
 and  must  therefore  remit  us  to  God  (in  whom  are  hid  all 
 the  treasures  of  infinite  wisdom)  for  the  first  invention 
 and  contrivance  of  it. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  use  of  letters,  whether  of  divine  or 
 human  invention,  came  generally  to  be  known,  it  is  rea- 
 sonable to  think,  that  all  arts  and  sciences  would  from 
 thence  receive  a  powerful  assistance,  and  in  process  of 
 time  begin  to  take  root  and  flourish.  But  this  was  a 
 period  a  little  too  early  to  bring  them  to  any  great  per- 
 fection. 2  For  though  Noah  and  his  sons  had  doubtless 
 some  knowledge  of  the  inventions  of  the  antediluvians, 
 and  probably  acquainted  their  descendants  with  such  of 
 them  as  were  most  obvious  and  useful  in  common  life  ; 
 yet  it  cannot  be  imagined  that  any  of  the  more  curious 
 arts,  or  speculative  sciences,  were  improved  to  any  degree 
 (supposing  them  to  be  known  and  invented)  till  some 
 considerable  time  after  the  dispersion.  On  the  contrary, 
 one  consequence  of  that  event  seems  to  have  been  this — 
 that  several  inventions  known  to  their  ancestors  were 
 lost,  and  mankind  gradually  degenerated  into  ignorance 
 and  barbarity,  till  ease  and  plenty  had  given  them  lei- 
 sure to  polish  their  manners,  and  to  apply  themselves  to 
 such  parts  of  knowledge  as  are  seldom  brought  to  per- 
 fection under  other  circumstances. 
 
 The  inhabitants  of  Babylon  indeed  are  supposed  to 
 have  had  a  great  knowledge  in  astronomical  matters, 
 much  about  this  time ;  s  for  when  Alexander  the  Great 
 took  possession  of  that  city,  Callisthenes  the  philosopher, 
 who  acconiDanied  him,  upon  searching  into  the  treasures 
 of  the  Babylonian  learning,  found  that  the  Chaldeans 
 had  a  series  of  observations  for  1903  years  backwards 
 from  that  time;  that  is,  from  the  1771st  year  of  the 
 world's  creation  forwards.  But  this  is  a  notion  that  Ave 
 have  already  confuted  ;  as  indeed  the  nature  of  the  thing 
 will  teach  us,  that  upon  the  first-settlement  in  any  country, 
 a  nation  could  not  but  find  employment  enough  (at  least 
 for  some  ages)  in  cultivating  their  lands,  and  providing 
 themselves  houses  and  other  necessaries  for  their  mutual 
 comfort  and  subsistence. 
 
 Ninus  and  Semiramis  are  supposed  to  have  improved 
 
 vaa 
 
 for, 
 
 tly  the  arts  of  war  and  navigation  about  this  period ; 
 a  We  read  of  armies  consisting  of  some  millions  of 
 
 2  Universal  History,  b.  I.e.  2. 
 
 3  Simplicius  de  Ccelo,  b,  2.  com.  46. 
 
 a  The  history  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  as  we  have  it  in  Die- 
 dorus  Siculus,  b.  2,  c.  1—22,  and  in  Justin,  b.  1,  c.  1,  2,  is,  i" 
 the  substance  of  it,  to  this  efi'ect  :— The  first  who  extended  tins 
 empire  was  Ninus,  who  being  a  warlike  prince,  and  desiring  to 
 do  great  things,  gathered  together  the  stoutest  men  in  the  coun- 
 try, and  having  trained  them  up  to  the  use  of  arms,  entered  into 
 an  alliance  with  Arireus,  king  of  Arabia,  by  whose  assistance  he 
 subdued  the  Babylonians,  and  imposed  a  tribute  on  them,  after 
 he  had  taken  their  king  captive,  and  killed  him  with  his  children. 
 Then  having  entered  Armenia  with  a  great  army,  and  destroyed 
 several  cities,  he  so  terrified  the  rest,  that  king  Barzanes  sub- 
 mitted to  him.  After  this  he  vanquished  Pharnus  king  of 
 Media  in  battle,  crucified  him  and  his  wife,  and  seven  children  ; 
 and  in  the  space  of  seventeen  years  overcame  all  Asia,  except 
 India  and  Bactria;  but  no  author  declares  the  particulars  of  his 
 victories.  Of  the  maritime  provinces,  he  subdued,  according  to 
 Ctesias,  whom  we  follow,  (says  Diodorus,)  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  the 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 137 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318. 
 
 horse  and  foot ;  and  of  fleets  and  galleys  with  brazen  beaks, 
 to  transport  the  forces  over  a  river  only,  to  the  number 
 of  two  thousand.  But  all  that  narration  of  Diodorus  and 
 Justin,  as  it  is  acknowledged  to  be  taken  from  Ctesias 
 (whom  "  all  the  best  critics  of  antiquity  look  upon  as  an 
 author  deserving  no  credit)  may  very  justly  be  accounted 
 false  and  fabulous.  And  though  it  cannot  be  denied 
 that  the  invention  of  shipping,  which  was  not  before  the 
 flood  (for  had  it  been  before,  more  than  Noah  and  his 
 family  might  have  saved  themselves  from  the  waters) 
 is  a  great  step  towards  the  improvement  of  commerce  ; 
 yet,  as  the  dispersion  of  mankind  made  it  more  difficult  to 
 trade  with  nations  who  spoke  a  different  language,  so 
 the  method  whereunto  we   may  suppose  they  entered  at 
 
 Lower  Syria,  Cilicia,  Pamphylia,  Lycia ;  and  besides  these,  Caria, 
 the  Phrygias,  Lydia,  Mysia,  Troas,  together  with  the  Propontis, 
 Bithynia,  Cappadocia,  and  all  the  barbarous  nations,  as  far  as  the 
 Tanais ;  with  Persia,  Susiana,  Caspiana,  and  many  other  nations 
 that  we  need  not  here  enumerate.  From  this  last  expedition,  as 
 soon  as  he  returned,  he  built  a  city  which  he  called  by  his  own 
 name,  Ninus,  not  far  from  the  river  Euphrates :  and  being  after- 
 wards enamoured  with  the  beauty  and  valour  of  a  woman 
 of  uncertain  birth,  named  Semiramis,  the  wife  of  Menon, 
 the  prefect  of  Syria,  he  took  her  to  wife,  and  by  her  advice 
 and  direction  governed  all  things  with  success.  For  having 
 gathered  together  an  army  of  seventeen  hundred  thousand  foot,  and 
 two  hundred  and  ten  thousand  horse,  and  six  hundred  thousand 
 armed  chariots,  (numbers  incredible  in  those  days,)  with  these  he 
 advanced  against  Oxyartes,  king  of  Bactria,  who  met  him  with 
 an  army  of  lour  hundred  thousand  men ;  but  the  Bactrians  being 
 defeated,  and  their  capital,  by  the  valour  and  direction  of  Semira- 
 mis, taken,  she  was  thereupon  advanced  by  Ninus  to  the  honour  of 
 being  made  queen,  which  occasioned  her  husband  Menon,  to  hang 
 himself.  After  Ninus  had  thus  settled  his  affairs  in  Bactria,  his 
 wife  Semiramis  had  a  son  whom  he  named  Ninyas,  and  not 
 long  after  died,  leaving  the  administration  of  the  kingdom  in 
 his  wife's  hands ;  who,  to  raise  her  own  glory,  built  a  stately 
 monument  for  her  deceased  husband,  built  the  city  of  Babylon, 
 and  other  remarkable  places ;  and  then,  having  brought  Egypt, 
 Ethiopia,  and  Lybia,  all  the  way  to  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Ham- 
 mon,  under  her  jurisdiction,  returned  into  Asia ;  where  she  had 
 not  been  long  before,  bearing  that  Staprobates  or  Staurobates, 
 king  of  India,  governed  a  rich  country,  she  resolved  to  take 
 it  from  him.  To  this  purpose  she  prepared  a  great  army  and 
 fleet;  but  being  told  what  mighty  elephants  there  were  in  India, 
 in  order  to  have  something  like  them,  she  caused  three  hundred 
 thousand  hides  of  oxen  to  be  dressed  and  stuffed  with  straw,  under 
 which  there  was  a  camel  to  bear  the  machine,  and  a  man  to 
 guide  it,  which  at  a  distance  made  a  kind  of  resemblance  of  these 
 vast  creatures.  Her  army  consisted  of  three  millions  of  foot,  one 
 million  of  horse,  and  an  hundred  thousand  chariots ;  of  an  hundred 
 thousand  of  those  that  fought  on  camels;  of  two  hundred  thousand 
 camels  fur  the  baggage,  and  two  thousand  galleys  with  brazen 
 heads,  to  transport  her  army  over  the  river  Indus.  But  all  this 
 must  be  false  and  fabulous;  because  it  is  incredible  to  think, 
 either  that  her  own  country  should  supply,  or  that  the  country 
 whereinto  she  was  marching,  should  be  able  to  sustain  such  an 
 immense  number  of  men  and  other  creatures  as  are  here  related. 
 Besides  that  it  is  false  in  fact,  that  the  kings  of  Assyria  ever 
 governed  all  Asia,  or  stretched  their  conquests  over  Egypt  and 
 Libya. — Millar's  History  of  the  Church,  c.  1,  part  3. 
 
 a  This  Ctesias  was  a  native  of  Cnidus,  and  physician  to  Arta- 
 xerxes  Mnemnon.  He  wrote  a  Persian  history  in  three  and  twenty 
 books,  of  which  there  remain  only  a  few  fragments  preserved  by 
 Photius.  But  very  valuable  authors,  who  have  seen  Ctesias  when 
 prefect,  give  him  no  commendable  character.  Plutarch  (in 
 Artaxerxes)  calls  him  a  fabulous  vain  man,  and  a  great  liar.  A. 
 <  Ml  ins  (Noctes  Attica;,  b.  !).  c.  4.)  reckons  him  among  the 
 fabulous  writers;  and  Aristotle  (in  his  Historia  Animalium) 
 says,  that  he  was  an  author  who  deserves  no  credit;  as  indeed  it 
 we  will  judge  either  by  the  incredible  things  in  his  story,  or  by 
 what  he  says  of  the  Indian  or  Persian  affairs,  in  his  fragments  that 
 remain,  we  shall  have  reason  to  conclude  that  these  great  men 
 have  not  given  him  this  character  without  good  grounds. — 
 Millar's  History,  ibid. 
 
 A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  A  ND  CH.  xi.VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 first,  extended  no  farther  than  this : — That  the  colonies 
 who  planted  new  countries,  not  only  perceiving  their  own 
 wants,  from  the  conveniences  they  had  left  behind  them, 
 but  finding  likewise  something  useful  in  their  settlements 
 which  were  before  unknown  to  them  or  their  founders, 
 fetched  what  they  wanted  from  the  parts  where  they  for- 
 merly dwelt,  and  in  exchange  for  that  carried  what  they 
 had  discovered  in  their  new  plantations  thither,  and  this 
 seems  to  have  given  the  first  rise  to  traffic  and  foreign 
 trade,  whose  gradual  advances  we  may  have  occasion  to 
 take  notice  of  hereafter.  In  the  mean  time,  we  shall  con- 
 clude this  book  and  this  chapter  together,  with  an  account 
 of  the  religion  which  at  this  time  obtained  in  the  most 
 famous  nations  of  the  world,  and  observe  withal  by  what 
 means  it  came  to  degenerate  into  idolatry,  and  other 
 wicked  and  superstitious  practices. 
 
 Now,  besides  the  common  notion  of  a  God,  which  men 
 might  either  learn  from  tradition,  or  collect  by  their  own 
 reflection  ;  the  very  history  of  the  deluge,  which  had  not 
 so  long  ago  befallen  the  world,  could  not  but  instruct 
 and  confirm  the  generations  we  are  now  treating  of,  in 
 several  articles  of  their  religion.  If  they  had  the  account 
 of  this  remarkable  judgment  transmitted  to  them  in  all 
 its  circumstances,  they  could  not  but  entertain  these  con- 
 ceptions of  God.  That  he  takes  cognizance  of  the  things 
 which  are  done  here  on  earth  ;  that  he  is  a  lover  of  virtue, 
 and  a  severe  punisher  of  vice  ;  that  he  is  infinite  in 
 power,  by  commanding  the  winds  and  rains,  seas  and 
 elements,  to  execute  his  will ;  that  he  is  likewise  infinite 
 in  mercy,  in  forewarning  the  wicked  of  their  ruin  (as 
 he  did  the  old  world)  several  years  before  its  execution ; 
 and  that  therefore  a  being  of  such  a  nature  and  disposi- 
 tion was  to  be  served,  and  worshipped,  and  feared,  and 
 obeyed.  So  that  the  sum  of  religion,  in  the  ages  subse- 
 quent to  the  flood,  even  to  the  promulgation  of  the  law, 
 must  have  consisted  in  the  belief  of  a  God,  and  his  sacred 
 attributes  ;  in  the  devout  worship  of  him,  by  the  oblation 
 of  prayers  and  praises,  and  such  sacrifices  as  he  himself 
 had  instituted  ;  and  in  the  observance  of  those  eternal 
 rules  of  righteousness,  of  justice  and  mercy,  of  sobriety 
 and  temperance,  &c,  which,  if  not  expressly  delivered  to 
 the  sons  of  Noah,  were  nevertheless  deducible  from  the 
 nature  of  things,  and  the  relations  wherein  mankind 
 stood  toward  one  another. 
 
 And  now,  if  we  look  into  the  principal  nations  which 
 were  at  this  time  existing,  we  shall  find,  that  '  the  Per- 
 sians, above  all  other  people,  were  remarkable  for  having 
 amongst  them  a  true  account  of  the  creation  of  tin-  world , 
 and  its  destruction  by  water  ;  which  they  strictly  adhered 
 to,  and  made  the  foundation  of  their  religion ;  nor  have 
 we  any  reason  to  think  but  that  they  were  for  some 
 time,  very  zealous  professors  of  it,  though  by  degrees, 
 they  came  to  corrupt  it,  by  introducing  novelties  and 
 fancies  of  their  own  into  both  their  faith  and  practice  : 
 we  shall  find  -  that  many  of  the  ancient  Arabians  pre- 
 served the  true  worship  of  God  for  .several  ages,  whereof 
 Job  who  perhaps  lived  in  the  days  now  under  consider- 
 ation was  a  memorable  instance  ;  as  was  likewise 
 Jethro,the  priest  of  Midian,  in  the  days  of  Moses  :  we 
 shall  find,  that  the  Canaanites  of  old  were  of  the  same 
 religion    with    Abraham  ;     for    though    he    travelled   up 
 
 1  Hyde's  Rellg.  Vet  P<  rsaruni,  c  '■'■ 
 
 2  Shuckford's  Connection^  vol.  1.  b.  S. 
 
138 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 and  down  many  years  in  their  country,  yet  was  he 
 respected  by  the  inhabitants  of  it  as  a  person  in  great 
 favour  with  God ;  and  Melchisedek,  the  king  of  Salem, 
 who  was  the  '  priest  of  the  most  high  God,'  and  conse- 
 quently of  the  same  religion,  received  him  with  this 
 address,  l  '  Blessed  be  Abraham,  servant  of  the  most  high 
 God,  possessor  of  heaven  and  earth  :'  we  shall  find  from 
 Abimelech's  prayer,  upon  his  receiving  intimation  that 
 Sarah  was  Abraham's  wife,  that  among  the  Philistines 
 there  were  some  true  worshippers  of  the  God  of  heaven, 
 2  '  Lord,  wilt  thou  slay  a  righteous  nation  ?  said  he  unto 
 me,  she  is  my  sister  ;  and  she,  even  she  herself,  said,  he 
 is  my  brother :  in  the  integrity  of  my  heart  and  innocency 
 of  my  hands  have  I  done  this:'  we  shall  find,  that  the 
 Egyptians  allowed  no  mortal  creature  to  be  a  god;  pro- 
 fessed to  worship  nothing  but  their  god  Cneph,  3  whom 
 the)  affirmed  to  be  without  beginning  and  without  end  ; 
 and  though  in  the  mythologic  times,  4  they  represented 
 this  deity  by  the  figure  of  a  serpent  with  the  head  of  an 
 hawk,  in  the  middle  of  a  circle,  yet  they  affirmed  at  the 
 same  time,  that  the  god  whom  they  thus  represented  was 
 the  creator  of  all  things, — a  being  incorruptible  and 
 eternal,  with  several  other  attributes  becoming  the  Divine 
 nature.  In  short,  we  shall  find  that  all  the  nations  then 
 known  in  the  world,  not  only  worshipped  the  same  God, 
 whom  they  called  the  Maker  and  Creator  of  the  universe, 
 but  worshipped  him  likewise  in  the  same  form  and  man- 
 ner ;  that  they  had  all  the  like  sacrifices,  either  expia- 
 tory, to  make  atonement  for  their  sins ;  precatory,  to 
 obtain  favours  from  Almighty  God ;  propitiatory,  to 
 avert  his  judgments ;  or  eucharistical,  to  return  thanks 
 for  his  extraordinary  mercies  ;  and  that  all  these  sacri- 
 fices were  every  where  offered  upon  altars,  with  some 
 previous  purifications,  and  other  ceremonies  to  be 
 observed  by  the  offerer :  so  that  religion  in  every 
 nation,  for  some  time  after  the  flood,  both  in  principle 
 and  practice,  was  the  same,  till  some  busy  and  pragma- 
 tical heads  being  minded  to  make  some  improvements 
 (as  they  thought),  added  their  own  speculations  to  it, 
 and  so  both  destroyed  its  uniformity,  and  introduced  it3 
 corruption. 
 
 When  this  corruption  of  religion  was  first  introduced, 
 is  not  so  easy  a  matter  to  determine,  because  neither 
 sacred  nor  profane  history  have  taken  any  notice  of  it. 
 Those,  s  who  account  idolatry  one  of  the  sins  of  the 
 antediluvian  world,  suppose  that  Ham  being  married  into 
 the  wicked  race  of  Lamech,  retained  a  strong  inclination 
 for  such  a  false  worship  ;  and  that,  after  he  was  cursed 
 by  his  father  Noah,  and  separated  from  the  posterity  of 
 Shem,  he  soon  set  it  up.  Those  6  who  imagine  that  the 
 f  ower  of  Babel  was  a  monument  intended  for  the  honour  of 
 the  sun,  which  had  dried  up  the  waters  from  off"  the  face 
 of  the  earth,  must  suppose  that  the  worship  of  that 
 planet  began  when  the  remembrance  of  the  deluge  was 
 fresh  in  men's  minds ;  but  those  7  who  are  of  opinion 
 that  the  difference  of  men's  dialects,  and  the  difference 
 of  their  sentiments  concerning  God  might  not  impro- 
 perly commence  together,  must  date  the  first  institution 
 
 1  Gen.  xiv.  19.  *  Gen.  xx.  5. 
 
 3  Plutarch  de  Iside  et  Osiride ,  p.  359. 
 *  Eusebhis's  Pnep.  Evan.  b.  I.e.  10. 
 
 5  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  1).  2.  c. 
 
 6  See  Tennison  on  Idolatry. 
 
 '  Cyril  Alex,  contra  Julian,  b.  1. 
 
 of  idolatry  not  a  great  deal  lower  than  the  time  of  the 
 dispersion. 
 
 s  The  generality  of  Christian  fathers,  as  well  as  orien- 
 tal writers,  are  positive  in  their  assertions,  that  the  first 
 appearance  of  idolatry  was  in  the  days  of  Serug  :  "  Be- 
 cause as  Enoch,"  say  they,  "  was  the  seventh  from  Adam, 
 in  whose  time  the  general  impiety  before  the  flood  is  said 
 to  have  begun ;  so  Serug,  being  in  like  manner  the  seventh 
 from  Noah,  lived  at  a  proper  distance  for  such  a  cor- 
 ruption of  religious  worship  to  be  introduced  and  grow." 
 but  this  is  a  reason  too  trifling  to  be  taken  notice  of. 
 "  Nor  can  I  see,"  9  says  our  learned  Selden,  "  how  they 
 can  be  able  to  maintain  their  opinions,  who  determine 
 so  peremptorily  concerning  a  matter  of  so  distant  and 
 uncertain  a  nature." 
 
 But  whatever  the  date  of  idolatry  might  be,  it  is  cer- 
 tain that  it  had  its  first  birth,  not  in  Egypt,  as  some  have 
 maintained,  but  in  Chaldea,  as  the  most  reverend  author 
 of  the  Treatise  of  Idolatry  has  evinced ;  10  and  that 
 because  in  the  days  of  Abraham  we  find  all  other  nations 
 and  countries  adhering  to  the  true  account  of  the  creation 
 and  deluge,  and  worshipping  the  God  of  heaven  accord- 
 ing to  what  had  been  revealed  to  them  ;  whereas  the  Chal- 
 deans had  so  far  departed  from  his  worship,  and  were 
 so  zealous  in  their  errors  and  corruptions,  that  upon 
 Abraham's  family  refusing  to  join  with  them,  they 
 expelled  them  their  country,  and  "  cast  them  out  from 
 the  face  of  their  gods." 
 
 The  Chaldeans  indeed,  by  reason  of  the  plain  and 
 even  situation  of  their  country,  which  gave  them  a  larger 
 prospect  of  the  heavenly  bodies  than  those  who  inhabited 
 mountainous  places,  had  a  great  conveniency  for  astro- 
 nomical observations,  and  accordingly  were  the  first 
 people  who  took  any  great  pains  to  improve  them.  And 
 as  they  were  the  first  astrologers,  '2  so  learned  men  have 
 observed,  that  lying  on  the  ground,  or  else  on  flat 
 roofs  all  night,  to  make  their  observations,  they  fell  in 
 love  with  the  lights  of  heaven,  which  in  the  clear  firma- 
 ment of  those  countries,  appeared  so  often  and  with  so 
 much  lustre  ;  and  perceiving  the  constant  and  regular 
 order  of  their  motions  and  revolutions,  they  thence  began 
 to  imagine  that  they  were  animated  with  some  superior 
 souls,  and  therefore  deserved  their  adoration  ;  and  as 
 the  sun  excelled  all  the  rest,  so  the  generality  of  learned 
 men  have  with  good  reason  imagined,  that  this  bright 
 luminary  was  the  first  idol  in  the  world. 
 
 Among  the  Egyptians,  I3  Syphis  king  of  Memphis  was  ' 
 the  first  who  began  to  speculate  upon  such  subjects.  He 
 examined  what  influence  the  sun  and  moon  had  upon 
 the  terrestrial  globe  ;  how  they  nourished  and  gave  life 
 and  vigour  to  all  things ;  and  thereupon,  forgetting  what 
 his  ancestors  had  taught  him,  namely,  that '  in  the  begin- 
 ning God  created  the  heavens,  as  well  as  the  earth,' 
 the  sun  and  moon,  as  well  as  the  creatures  of  this  lower 
 world,  he  concluded  that  they  were  two  great  and  mighty 
 deities,  and  accordingly  commanded  them  to  be  wor- 
 shipped. 
 
 The  Persians  perhaps  14  were  never  so  far  corrupted  as 
 to  lose   entirely  the  knowledge  of  the  Supreme  God. 
 
 s  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  1. 
 0  De  Diis  Syris,  prolog.  3. 
 
 10  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  5. 
 
 11  Judith  v.  8.  ,2  Tennison  on  Idolatry. 
 
 13  Diodorus,  b.  1.  ,4  Hv'  's  Relig.  Vet.  Persarum,  c.  1. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 139 
 
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 They  saw  those  celestial  bodies  running  their  courses, 
 as  they  thought,  day  and  night,  over  all  the  world,  and 
 reviving  and  invigorating  all  the  parts  and  products  of 
 the  earth  ;  and  though  they  kept  themselves  so  far  right, 
 as  not  to  mistake  them  for  the  true  God,  yet  they  imagined 
 them  to  be  his  most  glorious  ministers  ;  and  not  taking 
 care  to  keep  strictly  to  what  their  forefathers  had  taught 
 them,  they  were  led  away  by  their  own  imaginations,  to 
 appoint  an  idolatrous  worship  for  beings  that  had  been 
 created,  and  by  nature  were  not  gods. 
 
 What  kind  of  idolatry  was  current  among  the  Canaan- 
 ites,  Moses  sufficiently  intimates  in  the  caution  he  gives 
 the  Israelites,  just  going  to  take  possession  of  it,  namely, 
 that * '  when  they  lifted  up  their  eyes  to  heaven,  and  saw 
 the  sun  and  moon,  and  stars,  even  all  the  hosts  of  heaven,' 
 they  should  not,  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  were, 
 be  driven  to  worship  and  to  serve  them.  And  that  this 
 was  the  customary  worship  among  the  Arabians,  the 
 justification  which  Job  makes  of  himself  is  a  sufficient 
 proof;  2  '  If  I  beheld  the  sun,  when  it  shined,  or  the 
 moon,  walking  in  brightness,  and  mine  heart  hath  been 
 secretly  enticed,  or  my  mouth  hath  kissed  my  hand,'  that 
 is,  if  with  devotion  of  soul,  or  profession  of  outward 
 respect,  I  have  worshipped  those  heavenly  bodies,  which 
 by  their  height,  motion,  and  lustre,  attract  the  eye  and 
 ravish  the  senses, '  this  also  were  an  iniquity  to  be  punished 
 by  the  judge  ;  for  then  1  should  have  denied  the  God 
 that  is  above.'  And  therefore  the  account 3  which  the 
 Greek  historian  gives  us  of  the  origin  of  this  kind  of  idola- 
 try is  more  than  probable,  namely,  that  the  most  ancient 
 inhabitants  of  the  earth,  (meaning  those  who  lived  not 
 long  after  the  flood,  and  particularly  the  Egyptians,) 
 "  contemplating  on  the  world  above  them,  and  being 
 astonished  with  high  admiration  at  the  nature  of  the  uni- 
 verse, believed  that  they  were  eternal  gods,  and  that  the 
 two  principal  of  them  were  the  sun  and  the  moon,  the 
 former  of  which  they  called  Osiris,  and  the  latter  Isis  :" 
 since,  of  later  years,  upon  the  discovery  of  America, 
 though  many  different  idols  were  found  in  different  places, 
 yet  as  for  the  sun,  it  Avas  the  universal  deity  both  in 
 Mexico  and  Peru. 
 
 But  whatever  the  first  idol  might  be,  it  soon  multiplied 
 into  such  a  prodigious  number  as  to  fill  both  heaven  and 
 earth  with  its  progeny  ;  insomuch,  that  there  are  not  three 
 parts  of  the  creation  but  what  in  one  nation  or  other  had 
 their  worshippers.  4  They  worshipped  universal  nature, 
 the  soul  of  the  world,  angels,  devils,  and  the  souls  of  men 
 departed,  either  separate  and  alone,  or  in  union  with 
 some  star  or  other  body.  They  worshipped  the  heavens, 
 and  in  them  both  luminaries  and  constellations  ;  the 
 atmosphere,  and  in  it  the  meteors  and  fowls  of  the  air ; 
 the  earth,  and  in  it  beasts,  birds,  insects,  plants,  groves, 
 and  hills,  together  with  divers  fossils  and  terrestrial  fire. 
 They  worshipped  the  water,  and  in  it  the  sea  and  rivers, 
 and  in  them  fishes,  serpents,  and  insects,  together 
 with  such  creatures  as  live  in  either  element.  They 
 worshipped  men  both  living  and  dead  ;  and  in  them  the 
 faculties  and  endowments  of  the  soul,  as  well  as  the  seve- 
 ral accidents  and  conditions  of  life.  Nay,  they  wor- 
 shipped the  images  of  men  ;  the  images  of  animals,  even 
 
 1  Deut.  iv.  10.  «  Job  xxxi.  26,  27. 
 
 3  Diodorus  Sic.  b.  3.  c.  11. 
 
 4  Temiison  on  Idolatry. 
 
 the  most  hateful,  such  as  serpents,  dragons,  crooodiles, 
 &c,  and  descended  at  last  so  low,  as  to  pay  a  religious 
 regard  to  things  inanimate,  herbs  and  plants,  and  the 
 most  stinking  vegetables. 
 
 How  men  came  to  part  with  the  religion  of  their 
 ancestors  for  such  trash,  and  5  'to  change  the  glory  of 
 the  incorruptible  God  into  the  image  of  corruptible  man, 
 and  birds,  and  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things,' 
 the  apostle  who  remonstrates  against  the  indignity,  has  in 
 some  measure  supplied  us  with  a  reason,  when  he  tells 
 that  this  state  of  things,  so  gross  and  strange  soever  it 
 was,  was  introduced  under  the  pretences  of  wisdom,  or 
 by  men  professing  to  be  wise. 
 
 It  was  the  wise  amongst  them  that  formed  the  design  ; 
 and,  addressing  the  multitude  with  a  grave  appearance, 
 prevailed  (as  we  may  conceive)  by  some  such  form  of 
 arguing  as  this,  6  u  We  are  all  aware,  ye  sons  of  Noah, 
 that  religion  is  our  chief  concern,  and  therefore  it  well 
 becomes  us  to  improve  and  advance  it  as  much  as  possi- 
 ble.     We  have  indeed  received  appointments  from  God 
 for  the  worship  which  he  requires  ;  but  if  these  appoint- 
 ments may  be  altered  for  his  greater  glory,  there  is  no 
 doubt  but  that  it  will  be  a  commendable  piety  so  to  alter 
 them.     Now  our  father  Noah  has  instructed  us  in  a  reli- 
 gion which  in  truth  is  too  simple,  and  too  unafl'ecting. 
 It  directs  us  to  the  worship  of  God  abstractly  from  all 
 sense,  and  under  a  confused  notion,  under  the  formality 
 of  attributes,  as  power,  goodness,  justice,  wisdom,  eter- 
 nity, and  the  like  ;  an  idea  foreign  to  our  affections,  as 
 well  as  our  comprehensions  ;  whereas  in  all  reason  we 
 ought  to  worship  God  more  pompously  and  more  exten- 
 sively, and  not  only  to  adore  his  personal  and  essential 
 attributes,  but  likewise  all  the  emanations  of  them,  and 
 all  those  creatures  by  which  they  are  eminently  repre- 
 sented.    Nor  can  this  be  any  derogation  from  his  honour ; 
 since   his   honour  is   certainly   more  amply  expressed 
 when  in  this  manner  we  acknowledge  that  not  only  him- 
 self, but  all  his  creatures  likewise  are  adorable.     We 
 ought  therefore  (if  we  will  be  wise)  to  worship  the  host 
 of  heaven,  because  they  are  eminent  representations  of 
 his  glory  and  eternity.     We  ought  to  worship  the  ele- 
 ments, because  they  represent  his  benignity  and  omni- 
 presence.    We  ought  to  worship  princes,  because  they 
 sustain  a  divine  character,  and  are  the  representatives  of 
 his  power  upon  earth.  We  ought  to  worship  men  famous  in 
 their  generation,  even  when  they  are  dead,  because  their 
 virtues  are  the  distinguishing  gifts  and  communications 
 of  God  ;  nay,  we  ought  to  worship  the  ox  and  the  sheep, 
 and  whatever  creatiu-es  are  most  beneficial,  because  they 
 are  the  symbols  of  his  love  and  goodness  ;  and  with  no 
 less  reason,  the  serpent,  the  crocodile,  and  other  animals 
 that  are  noxious,  because  they  are  symbols  of  his  awful 
 anger. 
 
 This  seems  to  be  a  fair  opening  of  the  project,  and  by 
 some  such  cunning  harangue  as  this  we  may  suppose  it  was 
 that  the  first  contrivers  of  idolatry  drew  in  th<>  ignorant 
 and  admiring  multitude.  And  indeed,  considering  tin' 
 natural  habitude  of  vulgar  minds,  and  the  strong 
 inclinations  they  have  in  matters  of  an  abstruse  consid- 
 eration, to  help  themselves  by  sensible  objects,  it  s<cius 
 not  so  difficult  a  task  to  have  drawn  them  in. 
 
 s  Rom.  i.  22,  23. 
 Young's  Sermons,  vol.  2.  Si  rm,  I. 
 
140 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  II. 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318.  A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Those  who  worshipped  universal  nature,  or  the  system 
 of  the  material  world,  perceived  lirst,  that  there  was 
 excellency  in  the  several  parts  of  it,  and  then  (to  make 
 up  the  grandeur  and  perfection  of  the  idea)  they  joined 
 them  altogether  in  one  Divine  Being.  Those  who  labour- 
 ed under  a  weakness  and  narrowness  of  imagination, 
 distributed  nature  into  its  several  parts,  and  worshipped 
 that  portion  of  it  which  was  accounted  of  most  general 
 use  and  benefit.  Usefulness  was  the  common  motive, 
 but  it  was  not  the  only  motive  which  inclined  the  world 
 to  idolatry  :  for  upon  farther  inquiry,  we  shall  find,  that 
 whatever  ravished  with  its  transcendent  beauty,  what- 
 ever affrightened  with  its  malignant  power,  whatever 
 astonished  with  its  uncommon  greatness,  whatever,  in 
 short,  was  beautiful,  hurtful,  or  majestic,  became  a  deity, 
 as  well  as  what  was  profitable  for  its  use.  1  The  sun, 
 men  soon  perceived,  had  all  these  powers  and  properties 
 united  in  it :  its  beauty  was  glorious  to  behold,  its  motion 
 wonderful  to  consider,  its  heat  occasioned  different 
 effects,  barrenness  in  some  places,  and  fruitfulness  in 
 others ;  and  the  immense  globe  of  its  light  appeared 
 highly  exalted,  and  riding  in  triumph,  as  it  were,  round 
 the  world.  The  moon,  they  saw,  supplied  the  absence 
 of  the  sun  by  night ;  gave  a  friendly  light  to  the  earth, 
 and,  besides  the  great  variety  of  its  phases,  had  a  won- 
 derful influence  over  the  sea  and  other  humid  bodies. 
 The  stars  they  admired  for  their  height  and  magnitude, 
 the  order  of  their  positions,  and  celerity  of  their  motions, 
 and  thence  were  persuaded  either  that  some  celestial 
 vigour  or  other  resided  in  them,  or  that  the  souls  of 
 their  heroes  and  great  men,  were  translated  into  them 
 when  they  died  ;  and  upon  these,  and  such  like  presump- 
 tions, they  accounted  all  celestial  bodies  to  be  deities. 
 2  The  force  of  fire,  the  serenity  of  air,  the  usefulness  of 
 water,  as  well  as  the  terror  and  dreadfuhiess  of  thunder 
 and  lightning,  gave  rise  to  the  consecration  of  the 
 meteors  and  elements.  The  sea,  swelling  with  its  proud 
 surface,  and  roaring  with  its  mighty  billows,  was  such 
 an  awful  sight,  and  the  earth  bedecked  with  all  its  plants, 
 flowers,  and  fruits,  such  a  lovely  one,  as  might  well  affect 
 a  pagan's  veneration ;  when  for  the  like  motives,  namely, 
 their  beneficial,  hurtful,  delightful,  or  astonishing  pro- 
 perties, beasts,  birds,  fishes,  insects,  and  even  vegetables 
 themselves,  came  to  be  adored. a 
 
 The  pride  and  pomp  of  the  great,  and  the  low  and 
 abject  spirits  of  the  mean,  occasioned  first  the  flattery, 
 and  then  the  worship  of  kings  and  princes  as  gods  upon 
 earth.  Men  famous  for  their  adventures  and  exploits, 
 the  founders  of  nations  or   cities,  or  the  inventors  of 
 
 1  Tennison  on  Idolatry. 
 2  Herbert's  Ancient  Religion  of  the  Gentiles. 
 
 a  The  extent  of  idol  worship,  and  the  similarity  of  the  system 
 of  idolatry  in  all  the  countries  in  which  it  has  been  practised,  are 
 truly  amazing.  From  these  circumstances,  some  learned  writers 
 have  been  led  to  trace  it  up  to  the  plains  of  Shinar,  and  to  main- 
 tain that  it  issued  from  thence,  and  accompanied  the  progress  of 
 the  human  race  over  the  globe.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be 
 in  this  opinion,  the  history  of  mankind  amply  proves,  that  man, 
 without  the  light  of  revelation,  is  prone  to  idolatry,  and  to  give 
 to  the  creature,  or  to  the  deifications  of  his  own  mind,  the  worship 
 which  is  due  to  God.  This  proneness  had  widely  shown  itself 
 so  early  as  the  time  of  Abraham,  when  it  was  necessary  to  separ- 
 ate that  patriarch  and  his  posterity,  to  preserve  the  knowledge 
 of  the  living  and  true  God. — See  on  the  Nature  and  History  of 
 Idolatry,  Dewar's  Moral  Philosophy,  vol.  2.  ch.  vi. 
 
 useful  arts  and  sciences,  were  reverenced  while  they 
 lived,  and  after  death  canonized.  The  prevailing  notion 
 of  the  soul's  immortality,  made  them  imagine  that  the 
 spirits  of  such  excellent  persons  either  immediately 
 ascended  up  into  heaven,  and  settled  there  in  some  orb 
 or  other,  or  that  they  hovered  in  the  air,  whence,  by 
 solemn  invocations,  and  by  making  some  statue  or  image 
 resemblant  of  them,  they  might  be  prevailed  with  to 
 come  down  and  inhabit  it. 
 
 Whether  the  idolatry  of  image  worship  was  first  begun 
 in  Chaldea  or  in  Egypt,  we  have  no  grounds  from 
 history  to  determine :  but  wherever  it  had  its  origin,  the 
 design  of  making  statues  and  images  at  first  was 
 certainly  such  as  3  the  author  of  the  book  of  Wisdom 
 has  represented  it,  namely,  to  commemorate  an  absent  or 
 deceased  friend,  or  to  do  honour  to  some  great  man  or 
 sovereign  prince ;  which  (whether  so  intended  or  no  at 
 first)  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the  people  turned, 
 in  time,  into  an  object  of  religious  adoration ;  "  the 
 singular  diligence  of  the  artificer,"  as  our  author  expres- 
 ses it,  "  helping  to  set  forward  the  ignorant  to  more 
 superstition :  For  he,  peradventure,  willing  to  please 
 one  in  authority,  forced  all  his  skill  to  make  the  resem- 
 blance of  the  best  fashion  ;  and  so  the  multitude,  allured 
 by  the  grace  of  the  work,  took  him  now  for  a  god,  who, 
 a  little  before,  was  but  honoured  as  a  man." 
 
 We  cannot  but  observe,  however,  with  what  elegance  and 
 fine  satire  it  is  that  the  Scripture  sets  off  the  stupidity 
 and  gross  infatuation  both  of  the  artificer  and  adorer. 
 '  The  carpenter  heweth  down  cedars,  and  taketh  the 
 cypress,  and  the  oak.  He  stretcheth  out  his  rule,  he 
 marketh  it  out  with  a  line,  he  fitteth  it  with  planes,  he 
 marketh  it  out  with  the  compass,  and  maketh  it  after  the 
 figure  of  a  man,  according  to  the  beauty  of  a  man. — He 
 burneth  part  thereof  in  the  fire  ;  with  part  thereof  he 
 eateth  flesh  ;  he  roasteth  roast,  and  is  satisfied ;  yea,  he 
 warmeth  himself,  and  saith,  Aha  !  I  am  warm,  I  have  seen 
 the  fire  ;  and  the  residue  thereof  he  maketh  a  god,  even 
 his  graven  image.  He  falleth  down  unto  it,  and  worship- 
 ped) it,  and  prayeth  unto  it,  and  saith,  Deliver  me,  for 
 thou  art  my  god ;  never  considering  in  his  heart,  nor 
 having  knowledge  or  understanding  to  say,  I  have  burnt 
 part  of  it  in  the  fire  ;  yea,  also  I  have  baked  bread  upon 
 the  coals  thereof :  I  have  roasted  flesh,  and  eaten  it ;  and 
 shall  I  make  the  residue  thereof  an  abomination  ?  Shall  I 
 fall  down  to  the  stock  of  a  tree  ?  He  feedeth  on  ashes  : 
 a  deceived  heart  hath  turned  him  aside,  that  he  cannot 
 deliver  his  soul,  nor  say,  Is  there  not  a  lie  in  my  right 
 hand  ? ' 
 
 That  rational  creatures  should  be  capable  of  so  wretch- 
 ed a  degeneracy  as  this  amounts  to,  may  justly  provoke 
 our  wonder  and  amazement :  and  yet  we  may  remember, 
 that  these  people  (who  may  possibly  be  the  object  of 
 our  scorn  and  contempt)  had  the  boasted  light  of  nature 
 to  be  their  guide  in  matters  of  religion :  nay,  they  had 
 some  advantages  that  we  apparently  want :  they  lived 
 much  nearer  the  beginning  of  the  world  ;  had  the  terrors 
 of  the  Lord  in  the  late  judgment  of  the  deluge,  fresh  in 
 their  minds  ;  had  the  articles  of  their  religion  comprised 
 in  a  small  compass ;  and  (what  is  no  bad  friend  to  reason 
 and  sober  recollection)  lived  in  more  simplicity,  and 
 
 3  Ch.  xiv.  15,  &c. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  FLOOD  TO  THE  CALL  OF  ABRAHAM. 
 
 HI 
 
 A.  M.  1997.  A.  C.  2007;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3318 
 
 less  luxury  than  these  later  ages  can  pretend  to  ;  and 
 yet,  notwithstanding  these  advantages,  so  sadly,  so 
 shamefully  did  they  miscarry,  that  the  wit  of  man  would 
 be  at  a  loss  to  devise  a  reason  for  their  conduct,  had 
 not  the  divine  wisdom  informed  us,  that 1  '  they  alienated 
 themselves  from  the  life  of  God,  and  lightly  regarded 
 the  counsels  of  the  Most  High ;  that  they  forsook  the 
 guide  of  their  youth,  and  rejected  those  revelations, 
 which  at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers  manners,'  were 
 made  to  their  forefathers,  for  the  rule  and  measure  of 
 their  faith  and  practice.  We  indeed,  had  we  lived  in 
 those  days,  may  be  apt  to  think  that  we  would  not  have 
 been  carried  away  with  the  common  corruption ;  that  the 
 light  of  nature  would  have  taught  us  better  than  to  pay 
 our  devotions  to  brute  beasts,  or  to  look  upon  their 
 images  as  our  gods.  But  alas !  we  little  consider, 
 what  the  power  of  reason,  of  mere  unassisted  reason,  is 
 against  the  force  of  education  and  the  prevalence  of 
 custom,  engaged  on  the  side  of  a  false  but  flashy  and 
 popular  religion.  Aristotle,  Plato,  and  Cicero,  were,  in 
 after  ages,  some  of  the  greatest  reasoners  that  the  world 
 has  produced,  and  yet  we  find  them  complying  with  the 
 established  worship  of  their  country  :  what  grounds  have 
 
 1  Eph.  iv.  18. 
 
 A.  C.  2093.  GEN.  CH.  x.  AND  CH.  xi.  VER.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 we  then  to  imagine,  that,  in  case  we  had  been  contem- 
 poraries with  them,  we  had  acquitted  ourselves  any 
 better  ?  Our  reason  indeed  now  tells  us  that  we  should 
 have  died  rather  than  submitted  to  these  impious  modes 
 of  worship  :  but  then  we  are  to  remember,  that  reason  is 
 now  assisted  by  the  light  and  authority  of  a  Divine 
 revelation  ;  that  therefore  Ave  are  not  competent  judges 
 how  we  would  act  without  this  superior  aid  ;  but  that  in 
 all  probability,  2  taking  away  the  direction  and  restraint 
 of  this,  reason  would  relapse  into  the  same  extrava«an- 
 cies,  the  same  impiety,  the  same  folly  and  superstition 
 which  prevailed  on  it  before.  And  therefore  (to  con- 
 clude in  the  words  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  spoken 
 indeed  upon  another,  but  very  applicable  upon  this 
 occasion),  3  '  Blessed  are  the  eyes  which  see  the  things 
 which  ye  see,'  a  full  and  perfect  rule  of  faith  and  man- 
 ners contained  in  that  Holy  Bible,  which  is  in  every 
 one's  hands  ;  '  for  I  tell  you  that  many  prophets  and 
 kings  have  desired  to  see  those  things  which  ye  see,  and 
 have  not  seen  them ;  and  to  hear  those  things  which  ye 
 hear,  and  have  not  heard  them.' 
 
 *  Roger's  Necessity  of  a  Divine  Revelation. 
 3  Luke  x.  23,  24. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE 
 
 BOOK   III. 
 
 CONTAINING  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THINGS  FROM  THE  CALLING  OF  ABRAHAM  TO  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE 
 OUT  OF  EGYPT,  IN  ALL  430  YEARS.— ACCORDING  TO  DR  HALES  1015  YEARS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Abraham  was  born  only  two  a  years  after  the  death  of 
 Noah,  from  whom  he  descended  in  the  line  of  Seth.  Of 
 Abraham  the  sacred  historian  gives  us  little  information 
 till  he  was  seventy -five  years  old,  when  the  Lord  called 
 him  to  leave  his  father's  house  and  his  native  country. 
 Promises  were  added,  for  his  encouragement,  respecting 
 his  posterity,  that  from  him  should  arise  a  numerous  and 
 powerful  people  ;  and  respecting  himself,  that  God 
 would  so  highly  honour  him,  as  not  only  to  make  his 
 name  great,  but  also  to  render  his  life  a  general  blessing 
 to  mankind. 
 
 In  wisdom  and  in  mercy  God  called  Abraham,  the 
 person  in  whose  family  he  intended  to  uphold  the  true 
 religion,  out  of  his  own  country,  which  was  the  land  of 
 Chaldea,  and  from  his  kindred,  to  a  far  distant  land, 
 that  his  posterity  might  there  remain,  a  people  separate 
 from  the  rest  of  mankind,  that  so  the  true  religion  might 
 be  maintained  and  preserved.  A  foundation  was  thus 
 laid,  and  means  were  thus  provided,  for  upholding  the 
 church  of  Christ  in  the  world  till  he  should  come.  For 
 the  world  having  become  idolatrous,  it  was  necessary 
 that  the  people  of  God  should  be  thus  separated,  that 
 they  might  receive  and  preserve  the  types  and  prophe- 
 cies that  were  to  be  given  concerning  Christ ;  that  they 
 might  be  the  depositaries  of  the  Oracles  of  God ;  and 
 that,  at  the  appointed  time,  the  light  of  the  gospel 
 might  shine  forth  from  them  to  the  rest  of  the  world. 
 As  Abraham  was  the  person  in  whom  this  foundation,  as 
 it  were,  was  laid,  he  is  represented  in  Scripture  as 
 though  he  were  the  father  of  all  the  church,  the  father  of 
 all  them  that  believed, — the  stem  whence  the  visible 
 church  thenceforward  through  Christ  rose,  as  a  tree 
 distinct  from  all  other  plants, — and  from  which,  after 
 
 a  That  is  reckoning  according  to  the  common  or  Hebrew 
 computation ;  but,  according  to  Joseplms  and  Dr  Hales,  Noah 
 died  B.C.  2805,  and  Abraham  was  born  B.C.  2153;  conse- 
 quently, a  period  of  652  years  intervened  between  the  death  of 
 the  former  and  birth  of  the  latter. — Ed. 
 
 Christ  came,  the  natural  branches  were  broken  off,  and 
 the  Gentiles  were  grafted  in  their  stead. 
 
 At  this  era  there  was  given  a  more  full  and  clear 
 discovery  of  the  plan  of  redemption  than  had  previously 
 been  enjoyed  by  the  church.  There  had  been  given,  on 
 two  particular  occasions,  disclosures  of  the  covenant  of 
 grace  y — one  to  our  first  parents  immediately  after  the 
 fall — the  other  to  Noah  and  his  family  soon  after  the 
 flood.  There  is  now  a  third,  and  a  more  particular 
 revelation  given  of  the  provisions  of  that  covenant, 
 which,  in  due  time,  was  to  be  sealed  and  ratified  by  the 
 blood  of  Christ.  It  was  now  revealed,  not  only  that 
 Christ  should  come  into  the  world,  but  that  he  should  be 
 of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  and  that  in  him  all  the  families 
 of  the  earth  should  be  blessed.*  In  the  institution  of 
 circumcision,  there  was  appointed  a  seal  of  the  covenant 
 of  grace, — '  a  seal  of  the  righteousness  of  faith.'  This 
 sacrament  distinguished  Abraham's  seed  from  the  world, 
 and  kept  up  a  distinction  and  separation  in  future  ages. 
 It  was  in  consequence  of  the  clearer  vision  which  was 
 vouchsafed  to  this  patriarch,  that  he  rejoiced  to  see  the 
 day  of  Christ,  and  was  glad. 
 
 Nor  should  we  omit  to  notice,  in  our  survey  of  the 
 period  on  which  we  are  now  entering,  the  preservation 
 of  the  patriarchs,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  during 
 their  sojournings  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  For  the 
 inhabitants  of  that  country  were  exceedingly  wicked  ; 
 so  much  so,  that  Abraham,  when  he  was  old,  could  not 
 be  content  till  he  had  made  his  servant  swear  that  he 
 would  not  take  a  wife  for  his  son  of  the  daughters  of  the 
 land.  When  we  consider  that  the  lives  of  those  holy 
 men  formed  a  continual  reproof  of  the  wickedness  of  the 
 Canaanites,  and  that  they  were  strangers  and  sojourners 
 among  them,  we  cannot  but  admire  the  remarkable  dis- 
 pensation of  providence  in  their  preservation. 
 
 In  the  course  of  this  period,  we  have  presented  to 
 our  view  an  extraordinary  and  visible  manifestation  of 
 God's  displeasure  against  sin,  in  the  destruction  of 
 Sodom  and  Gomorrah,   and   the   cities   of  the   plain. 
 
 I  See  Dewar  on  the  Atonement,  p.  30. 
 
gECT.  i.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2083.  A.  C.  1921  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3333.  A.  C.  2078.  GEN.  CH.  xii-xxv.  11. 
 
 143 
 
 The  destruction  of  the  world  by  the  flood  served  to 
 exhibit  the  terrors  of  the  law,  and  manifest  the  wrath  of 
 God  ;  and  thus  to  make  men  sensible  of  the  absolute 
 necessity  of  redeeming  mercy.  But  this  was  now,  in  a 
 great  measure,  forgotten;  and  God  was  pleased  again, 
 in  a  most  striking  manner,  to  show  his  abhorrence  of 
 sin,  and  his  determination  to  punish  it;  which  tended  to 
 pnrince  men  of  the  necessity  of  redemption,  and  so  to 
 prepare  the  way  for  the  accomplishment  of  that  great 
 work. 
 
 Bearing  in  mind  that  the  sacred  history  is  the  history 
 af  the  gradual  and  progressive  unfolding  of  the  plan  of 
 redemption,  we  shall  not  fail  to  mark,  in  our  survey  of 
 this  period,  the  renewal  of  the  covenant  of  grace  to 
 Isaac  and  to  Jacob.  God  said  to  Isaac,1  '  And  I  will 
 perform  the  oath  which  I  swore  unto  Abraham  thy  father ; 
 and  I  will  make  thy  seed  to  multiply  as  the  stars  of 
 heaven,  and  will  give  unto  thy  seed  all  these  countries; 
 and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be 
 blessed.'  This  covenant  was  repeatedly  confirmed  to 
 Jacob ,  more  especially  at  Bethel,  in  his  vision  of 
 the  ladder  that  reached  to  heaven,  which  was  a  symbol 
 of  the  way  of  salvation  by  Christ : — '  Thy  seed  shall  be 
 as  the  dust  of  the  earth  ;  and  thou  shalt  spread  abroad 
 to  the  west,  and  to  the  east,  and  to  the  north,  and  to 
 the  south  ;  and  in  thee,  and  in  thy  seed,  shall  all  the 
 families  of  the  earth  be  blessed.'2 
 
 Besides  these  particulars,  the  reader  Avill  observe 
 included  in  the  section  of  the  sacred  history  on  which 
 we  are  now  entering,  the  preservation  of  the  family 
 from  which  Christ  was  to  descend,  by  the  instrumentality 
 of  Joseph,  who  was  a  type  of  the  Great  Deliverer  ;  the 
 remarkable  prophecy  respecting  the  coming  of  the 
 Messiah,  and  the  gathering  of  the  people  to  him,3  and 
 the  upholding  of  the  children  of  Israel,  the  visible 
 church  of  God,  in  Egypt,  notwithstanding  the  grinding 
 oppression  and  deep  affliction  which  they  suffered. 
 
 CHAP.  I. 
 
 SECT.    I. 
 
 ■  Of  the  Life  of  Abraham,  from  his  Call 
 to  his  Death. 
 
 A.  M.  2083,  A.  C.  1921,  or,  according  to  Hales,  A.  M.  3333,  A.  C.  2078, 
 from  Gen.  xii — xxv.  11. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 After  the  death  of  his  father  Terah,  Abram,  who,  by 
 God's  appointment,  had  not  long  before  left  Ur  in 
 Chaldea,  was  now  ordered  to  leave  Haran,  and  go  into 
 a  country a  whereunto  God  would  conduct  him,  and 
 who,  at  the  same  time,   gave  him  assurance,  that  he 
 
 <;. 
 
 3,  4. 
 
 2  Gen.  xxvi ;  xxxv.  10.,  &c. 
 3  Gen.  xlix.  10. 
 a  It  is  veiy  probable  that  this  was  done  by  some  appearance 
 or  ot In]-  ot  the  Shekinah  going  before  him,  even  as  afterwards 
 Us  posterity  was  conducted  in  the  way  thither;  since,  passing 
 over  rivers,  climbing  mountains,  and  travelling  through  a  dan- 
 gsrous  and  vast  desert,  he  had  certainly  need  of  an  extraordinary 
 ovine  direction,  and  of  some  sensible  exhibition  or  token  of  it, 
 while  lie  had  nothing  but  the  promise  of  God  to  support  him  in 
 so  lor.g  and  so  hazardous  a  journey. — Biblivtheca  Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 would  bless,  protect,  and  multiply  his  posterity  in  an 
 extraordinary  manner,  and  that  4  '  in  his  seed  all  the 
 families  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed.' 
 
 Abram  was  fully  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  all  God's 
 promises  ;  and  therefore,  without  any  hesitation,  taking 
 his  wife  and  family,  and  all  his  erVects,  together  with  his 
 nephew  Lot,  and  his  substance  with  him,  he  pursued  his 
 journey,  '  not  knowing  whither  he  should  go,' until,  by 
 the  divine  guidance,0  he  came  into  the  land  of  Canaan  ; 
 and  being  minded  to  make  some  survey  of  the  country, 
 proceeded  d  to  the  famous  Oak  of  Moreh,  not  for  from 
 
 b  Some  interpreters  have  imagined,  that  these  words  require 
 no  higher  sense  than  this, — that  all  nations  should  see  the  pros- 
 perity of  Abraham  and  his  seed  so  evidently,  that  they  should 
 bless  themselves;  and  others,  in  some  such  form  as  this: — 
 "  God  make  thee  as  great  as  Abraham  and  his  seed."  But, 
 besides  the  incongruity  of  supposing  that  God's  everlasting 
 covenant,  as  he  calls  it,  Gen.  xvii.  19,  was  given  only  to  produce 
 a  proverbial  form  of  speech,  it  is  plain  matter  of  fact,  that  the 
 posterity  of  Abraham,  in  the  line  of  Isaac,  was  far  from  being 
 the  most  prosperous,  as  to  temporal  affairs,  of  all  the  other 
 branches  of  his  family;  and  therefore  this  promise  must  of 
 necessity  be  supposed  to  relate  to  some  more  spiritual  and  dis- 
 tant blessing,  just  as  St  Paul,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Galatians,  has 
 explained  it:  '  Now  to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  were  the  pro- 
 mises made ;  he  saith  not,  and  to  seeds,  as  of  many,  but  as  of 
 one,  and  to  thy  seed,  which  is  Christ.'  Gal.  iii.  16. — See 
 Bishop  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy. 
 
 c  The  land  of  Canaan  lies  between  the  Mediterranean  sea 
 and  the  mountains  of  Arabia,  and  extends  from  Egypt  to  Phoe- 
 nicia. It  is  bounded  to  the  east  by  the  mountains  of  Arabia; 
 to  the  south  by  the  wilderness  of  Paran,  Idumea,  and  Egypt ;  to 
 the  west,  by  the  Mediterranean,  called  in  Hebrew  the  Great 
 sea;  and  to  the  north,  by  the  mountains  of  Libanus.  Its  length 
 from  the  city  of  Dan  (since  called  Caesarea  Philippi,  or  Paneadis, 
 which  stands  at  the  foot  of  these  mountains)  to  Beersheba,  is 
 about  seventy  leagues,  and  its  breadth,  from  the  Mediterranean 
 sea  to  the  eastern  borders,  is,  in  some  places,  thirty.  It  was 
 first  called  the  land  of  Canaan,  from  Cainan  the  son  of  Ham, 
 whose  posterity  possessed  it.  It  was  afterwards  called  Palestine, 
 from  the  people  which  the  Hebrews  call  Philistines,  and  the 
 Greeks  and  Romans  corruptly  Palestines,  who  inhabited  the 
 sea  coasts,  and  were  first  known  to  them.  It  likewise  had  the 
 name  of  the.  Land  of  Promise,  from  the  promise  God  made  Abra- 
 ham of  giving  it  to  him ;  that  of  the  land  of  Israel,  from  the 
 Israelites  having  made  themselves  masters  of  it;  that  of  Judah, 
 from  the  tribe  of  Judah,  which  was  the  most  considerable  of  the 
 twelve;  and  lastly,  the  happiness  it  had  of  being  sanctified  by 
 the  presence,  actions,  miracles,  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  has 
 given  it  the  name  of  the  Holy  Land,  which  it  retains  to  this  day. 
 — Lainy's  Introduction. 
 
 d  The  city  of  Sichem,  or  Sechem,  or  Sychar  (for  it  had  all 
 these  names),  was  at  this  time  so  called  by  way  of  anticipation 
 (for  as  yet  it  was  not  founded),  and  is  a  town  of  Samaria,  in  the 
 borders  of  Ephraim,  which  stands  in  a  narrow  valley,  between 
 Gerazim  on  the  south,  and  Ebal  on  the  north,  being  built  at  the 
 foot  of  the  former.  At  present  it  is  called  Naplossa,  and  con- 
 sists only  of  two  streets,  lying  parallel  under  mount  Gerazim, 
 and  is  far  from  being  in  the  flourishing  condition  it  was  once, 
 though  it  is  still  full  of  people,  and  the  seat  of  a  bashaw.  The 
 true  name,  which  was  given  it  by  Abram,  was  Moreh,  or  Allon 
 Moreh,  which  our  translation  renders  the  plain  of  Moreh;  i'V 
 St  Jerome,  the  illustrious  vale ;  by  the  Jerusalem  Targum,  the 
 Valley  of  Vision,  because  of  God's  appearing  to  Abraham  here; 
 and  by  others,  the  Oak  of  Moreh,  or  the  Illustrious  Oak,  6c., 
 though  it  seems  very  probable  that  there  was  in  this  place,  not 
 only  one  single  tree,  but  a  whole  grove  of  them;  and  therefore 
 it  is  called  Allon,  or  Aulofi,  being  a  corruption  from  Eton,  in 
 Latin  Esculetum,  that  is,  an  oaken  grove,  or  forest  ofevei 
 oaks.  And  since  this  was  the  place  "here  Abraham,  at  his  first 
 coming  into  the  country,  built  an  altar,  we  have  great  reason  to 
 be  of  the  same  opinion  with  the  learned  and  Bagacious  Mr 
 Mede,  namely,  that  this  Allon  Moreh  was  a  place  of  divine 
 worship,  iproteueha,  or  open  oratory,  in  imitation  <■!  which  the 
 Jewish  prusciuha:  (which  were  certain  spaces  of  ground,  with 
 
144 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2083.  A.  C.  1921 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3333.  A.  C.  2078.  GEN.  CH.  xii— xxv.  11. 
 
 the  city  of  Sichem,  then  a  inhabited  by  the  Canaanites. 
 Here  he  took  up  his  abode  for  some  time,  and  here 
 built  an  altar,  in  order  to  pay  his  devotions  to  God  ; 
 who,  pleased  with  his  behaviour,  appeared  to  him  again, 
 as  he  had  done  at  Haran  before,  and  gave  him  fresh 
 assurances  of  his  favour,  and  a  promise  inviolable,  that, 
 in  process  of  time,  the  whole  land,  where  he  then 
 dwelt,  should  be  the  portion  of  his  posterity. 
 
 From  Sichem  he  removed  *  into  the  mountainous 
 country,  which  lies  between  Bethel  and  Hai,  where  he 
 likewise  built  an  altar  for  a  place  of  divine  worship,  (as 
 he  did  in  all  other  countries  where  he  came),  and  from 
 Bethel  he  was  travelling  farther  to  the  south,  when  he 
 was  stopped  by  a  famine,  which  grew  grievous  in  the 
 land,  and  obliged  him  to  go  down  to  c  Egypt,  the  only 
 place  for  provision  in  such  like  exigencies.  But  as  he 
 came  to  the  confines  of  Egypt,  he  began  to  be  not  a 
 little  uneasy  upon  the  account  of  his  wife,  who,  though 
 
 an  altar  in  the  midst,  encompassed  with  a  wall,  or  some  other 
 enclosure,  and  open  above,  but  shaded  with  trees)  in  after  ages 
 were  set  up. — See  Wells'  Geography  of  the  New  Testament, 
 vol.  1,  and  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.  Occasional  Annotations, 
 18;  where  the  reader  may  meet  with  a  particular  enumeration, 
 upon  how  many  accounts  more  this  place  was  in  former  times 
 xery  famous. 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  Abram  passed  through  the 
 land  unto  the  place  of  Sichem,  unto  the  plain  of  Moreh,  and 
 the  Canaanite  was  then  in  the  land :'  from  whence  some  have 
 raised  an  objection,  that  Moses  could  not  be  the  author  of  this 
 book  of  Genesis,  because  the  words  seem  to  import  that  the 
 writer  of  them  lived  after  that  the  Canaanites  were  driven  out  of 
 the  land,  which  was  after  Moses'  death.  But,  in  answer  to  this, 
 it  may  be  observed,  that  as  by  'the  land'  here  we  are  not 
 obliged  to  understand  the  whole  country,  but  only  that  part  of  it 
 which  layabout  Sichem,  so  by  'the  Canaanite'  we  need  not 
 mean  the  whole  posterity  of  Canaan,  or  all  the  Canaanitish 
 tribes,  but  only  one  particular  tribe  of  them,  as  in  the  very  next 
 chapter,  ver.  7,  is  more  distinctly  expressed.  And  the  reason 
 why  this  is  taken  notice  of  by  the  sacred  historian,  is  best  ac- 
 counted for  in  that  ancient  tradition  in  Epiphanius  (Hares.  66. 
 N.  84.),  if  we  will  allow  it  to  be  true,  namely,  that  according 
 to  the  original  settlement  and  distribution  among  the  sons  of 
 Noah,  Palestine  was  not  allotted  to  any  of  the  sons  of  Ham,  but 
 wa*  usurped  by  Canaan  from  the  children  of  Shem,  to  whom  it 
 <!id  of  right  belong;  so  that  these  words,  'the  Canaanite  was 
 then  in  the  land,'  signify,  that  they  had  already  invaded  the  land, 
 before  Abraham  came  thither  ;  and  therefore  God's  promising 
 to  give  it  him,  was  only  in  order  to  restore  that  to  the  posterity 
 o!  Shem,  which  the  children  of  Ham  had  wrongfully,  seized. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 b  What  our  author  here  means  is  mount  Ephraim,  which  lay 
 between  Bethel,  a  town  not  far  from  Jerusalem,  northwards, 
 and  Hai,  which  is  situate  towards  the  west  of  Bethel. — Wells' 
 Geography,  vol.  1. — Bethel  was  situated,  according  to  Eusebius, 
 twelve  miles  north  of  Jerusalem,  toward  Sichem,  on  the  confines 
 of  Ephraim  and  Benjamin.  Hai,  or  Ai,  lay  a  little  east  of 
 Bethel ;  and  Eusebius  and  Jerome  tell  us  that,  in  their  time, 
 they  were  shown  some  small  remains  of  its  ruins.  Masuis  says 
 that  Ai  was  tlu-ee  leagues  from  Jericho,  and  Bethel  one  from 
 Ai.— Ed. 
 
 c  Josephus  tells  us  "  that  Abraham,  understanding  that  there 
 was  a  great  plenty  in  Egypt,  resolved  upon  a  journey  thither ; 
 net  only  to  partake  of  their  plenty,  but  also  to  consult  the  priests 
 in  their  profession  in  divine  matters,  with  an  impartial  desire 
 and  disposition  to  find  out  the  truth,  and  either  to  give  or  re- 
 ceive satisfaction,  according  as  the  subject  in  question  did 
 require;  that  here  he  gained  himself  infinite  credit,  not  only  for 
 the  solidity  of  his  judgment,  and  an  admirable  felicity  of  elocu- 
 tion, but  for  his  instructive  talent  of  informing  and  convincing 
 his  hearers  at  once ;  and  that  here  he  read  lectures  of  astronomy 
 and  arithmetic,  which  the  Egyptians  understood  nothing  ot  until 
 Abraham  brought  them  with  him  out  of  Chaldee  into  Egypt, 
 from  whence  they  passed  into  Greece." — Antiquities,  b.  1.  c.  9. 
 
 she  had  passed  the  sixty-fifth  year  of  her  age,  retained 
 still  beauty  enough  to  endanger  the  man's  life  who 
 should  pass  for  her  husband  in  that  country.  And 
 therefore,  after  some  deliberation,  concluding,  that  the 
 safest  way  would  be  for  her  to  conceal  her  marriage, 
 he  took  an  opportunity  to  acquaint  her  with  his  fears, 
 and,  with  a  small  entreaty,  prevailed  with  her,  in  all 
 places  where  they  were  to  sojourn,  to  go  under  the 
 notion  of  his  sister. 
 
 They  had  not  been  long  in  Egypt  before  Abram's  fears 
 were  found  to  be  true.  His  wife's  charms  had  captivated 
 several,  and  her  beauty  was  become  the  common  topic 
 of  conversation  ;  insomuch,  that  in  a  short  time  it  reached 
 the  court,  and  the  high  commendations  which  every  one 
 gave  the  king  of  it,  raised  his  curiosity  to  see  this  ami- 
 able stranger.  Immediately  therefore  she  was  brought 
 to  court,  and  taken  in  to  the  king's  apartment,  as  de- 
 signed for  one  of  his  royal  concubines  ;d  while  her  pre- 
 tended brother  was  treated  with  great  civility  for  her 
 sake,  and  loaded  with  many  valuable  presents  from  the 
 king. 
 
 It  is  hardly  to  be  imagined,  what  a  sad  distress  both 
 the  patriarch  and  his  consort  must  have  been  in,  upon 
 this  occasion.  She  was  a  beautiful  woman,  in  the  power 
 of  a  loose  and  vicious  prince,  and  destitute  of  all  pro- 
 tection but  God's  ;  and  her  lord  not  so  much  as  daring 
 to  own  her  his  wife,  knowing  how  certain  and  sudden 
 must  be  the  destruction  of  an  helpless  man,  that  provokes 
 passion  and  power,  rage  of  lust,  and  security  of  gratify- 
 ing it. 
 
 While  matters  were  in  this  dangerous  position,  the 
 providence  of  God  interposed  in  her  behalf,  and  to 
 deter  e  Pharaoh  and  his  nobles  from  any  dishonourable 
 attempts  upon  her  virtue,  /infested  them  with  such 
 plagues,  as  made  them  not  insensible  upon  whose  account 
 it  was  that  they  suffered;  even  upon  hers  who,  though  she 
 
 d  When  a  woman  was  brought  into  the  seraglio  or  harem  of 
 the  eastern  princes,  she  underwent  for  a  considerable  time  certain 
 purifications  before  she  was  brought  into  the  king's  presence.  It 
 was  in  this  interim  that  God  plagued  Pharaoh  and  his  house  witli 
 plagues,  so  that  Sarai  was  restored  before  she  could  be  taken  to 
 the  bed  of  the  Egyptian  king. —  Clarke's  Commentary. — Ed. 
 
 e  Pharaoh  was  the  common  name  for  all  the  Egyptian  kings 
 for  above  3300  years  (as  Josephus  tells  us,  Antiquities,  b.  8  c.  2.), 
 but  what  its  proper  etymology  is,  the  learned  are  not  so  well 
 agreed.  Bochart  thinks  that  the  word  Pharaoh  signifies  a  croco- 
 dile, and  that  Ezekiel  alludes  to  it  in  these  words:  'Behold  I  am 
 against  thee,  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,  the  great  dragon  that  lieth 
 in  the  midst  of  the  river,'  Ezekiel  xxix.  3.  M.  Le  Clerc  fancies 
 that  the  Arabic  word  Pharaoh,  to  be  raised  on  high,  or  to  be 
 superior  to,  is  the  true  root  of  the  name.  Kircher  does  indeed 
 derive  the  word  from  the  same  root,  but  will  have  it  to  signify  to 
 deliver,  or  to  free;  and  that  Pharaoh  therefore  signifies  to  be  \ 
 e.rempt  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  laws.  And,  to  name  no  more, 
 the  learned  Rtnaudot  thinks  that  Pharaoh  is  the  same  with  the 
 Egyptian  Pourro,  or  Pooro,  which  signifies  a  king. — Calmet  on 
 the  word. 
 
 f  Some  of  the  Hebrew  interpreters  think  that  they  had  griev- 
 ous  ulcers  in  their  secret  parts,  which  made  both  him  and  them 
 incapable  of  enjoying  either  her  or  any  other  woman;  and  in  the 
 punishment  inflicted  upon  Abimelech  and  his  people,  upon  the  same 
 account,  Gen.  xx.  18.  they  suppose  that  there  were  such  swell- 
 ings in  their  privy  parts,  as  that  the  men  could  neither  enjoy 
 their  wives,  nor  the  women  who  were  with  child  he  delivered. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary. — Whatever  the  plagues  were,  it  is  evident 
 they  were  understood  by  Pharaoh  as  proofs  of  the  disapprobation  of 
 God;  and  consequently,  even  at  this  time,  in  Egypt  there  was 
 some  knowledge  of  the  primitive  and  true  religion.  —  Clarke's 
 Commentary. — Ed. 
 
SSCT.    I.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 145 
 
 A.  M.  2083.  A.  C.  1921  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3333.  A.  C.  2078.  GEN.  CH.  xii— xxv.  11. 
 
 passed  for  a  single,  was  in  reality  a  married  woman  ;  so 
 that  the  king,  immediately  calling  for  Abram,  expostu- 
 lated with  him  on  the  ill  consequences  that  might  have 
 ensued  from  the  method  he  had  taken ;  and  after  some 
 few  exprobations,  returned  him  his  wife,  and  gave  orders 
 that  they  might  safely  depart  his  kingdom,  without  any 
 the  least  molestation,  either  to  their  persons  or  posses- 
 sions. 
 
 Abram,  after  this,  tarried  not  long  in  Egypt;  for 
 understanding  that  the  famine  was  ceased  in  Canaan,  he 
 returned  thither  by  the  same  way,  and  on  the  altar  which 
 he  had  built  before,  offered  a  sacrifice  of  thanks  for  his 
 happy  escape  and  safe  return.  Lot  and  Abram  had 
 hitherto  lived  together ;  but  by  this  time  their  substance 
 was  so  much  increased,  that  they  found  it  inconvenient 
 to  be  any  longer  near  one  another.  Their  cattle  mingled ; 
 ■  their  herdsmen  quarrelled  ;  and  their  flocks,  when  toge- 
 ther, required  a  larger  tract  of  ground  to  feed  and  sup- 
 port them  than  they  could  take  up,  without  interfering 
 with  the  property  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  wherein 
 they  sojourned.  Upon  these  considerations,  Abram 
 resolved,  in  a  friendly  manner,  to  separate  from  Lot ; 
 and  having  given  him  his  choice  of  the  whole  country 
 that  lay  before  him,  Lot  chose  the  fertile  and  pleasant 
 plains  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,6  which  he  saw  were  well 
 watered  by  the  streams  of  Jordan,  and  so  parted  from 
 
 a  The  Jews  here  tell  us,  that  the  herdsmen  of  Abraham  were 
 commanded  by  their  master  not  to  go  near  the  Canaanites,  or  the 
 Perizzites,  nor  to  come  into  the  grounds  which  they  had  taken, 
 either  for  culture  or  pasturage,  so  that  they  might  not  appear  to 
 do  the  least  injury  to  any  of  them;  and  that,  in  obedience  to  his 
 cummand,  they  took  especial  care  to  confine  all  their  cattle,  and 
 to  watch  their  flocks  with  a  strict  eye,  so  that  none  might  go 
 astray,  and  so  trespass  upon  the  natives ;  but  that  Lot's  herdsmen 
 were  herein  vary  negligent,  and  suffered  their  cattle  to  go  beyond 
 their  bounds,  and  to  feed  in  the  fields  which  belonged  to  the 
 Canaanites  and  Perizzites,  who  dwelt  then  in  the  land,  and 
 claimed  the  sovereignty  of  it. — Eihliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  I, 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are  these:  '  The  plain  of  Jordan  was 
 well  watered  every  where,  before  the  Lord  destroyed  Sodom  and 
 Gomorrah  (even  like  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  like  the  land  of 
 Egypt)  as  thou  goest  to  Zoar.'  The  last  clause,  '  as  thou  goest  to 
 Zoar,'  has  much  perplexed  commentators,  whilst  they  refer  it  to 
 the  land  of  Egypt  in  the  clause  immediately  preceding;  whereas, 
 if  what  is  said  by  way  of  comparison  of  the  plain  of  Jordan  to  the 
 garden  of  the  Lord,  that  is,  the  garden  of  Eden,  and  to  the  land 
 of  Egypt,  be  understood  as  inserted  by  of  parenthesis,  the  diffi- 
 culty will  be  taken  away,  and  the  import  of  the  last  clause  will 
 be  plain  and  easy ;  for  then  the  meaning  of  the  verse  will  amount 
 to  this, — "  That  before  the  Lord  destroyed  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
 the  plain  of  Jordan  was  well  watered  every  where,  as  thou  comest 
 unto  Zoar,"  that  is,  in  the  parts  where  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 
 stood,  or  in  short,  in  the  vale  of  Siddim.  But  there  is  another 
 interpretation  which  supposes  the  word  Zoar  to  be  a  false  reading 
 for  Zoan,  a  city  that  was  once  the  capital  of  Egypt,  situate  at  the 
 lower  part  of  the  river  Nile,  where  it  divides  itself  into  several 
 branches,  and  so  waters  the  country  more  plentifully  thereabouts 
 than  in  any  other  part.  According  to  which  reading,  the  import 
 of  the  verse  will  be  this: — That  the  plain  of  Jordan  was  well 
 watered  every  where  about  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  before  the 
 Lord  destroyed  them ;  yea,  the  plain  was  so  well  watered,  that 
 it  was  in  this  respect  as  the  garden  of  Eden,  or  as  the  land  of 
 Egypt,  and  particularly  as  thou  goest  to  Zoan,  that  is,  in  the  parts 
 about  Zoan,  where  the  Nile  is  divided  into  several  branches. — 
 tFells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  1.  The  river 
 Jordan,  called  by  the  Arabs  El  Sharia,  which  runs  through  this 
 plain,  is  of  so  great  note  in  the  Sacred  Writings  that  we  must  not 
 pass  it  by  without  this  observation, — that  it  derives  its  name  (as 
 some  assert)  from  the  Hebrew  word  Jor,  which  signifies  a  spring, 
 and  Dan,  which  is  a  small  town  near  the  source  of  this  river.  But 
 the  misfortune  is,  that  the  name  of  Dan  is  much  more  modern 
 than  that  of  Jordan.     From  its  source,  in  Anti-Libanus,  about 
 
 his  uncle.  Abram,  continuing,  for  some  time,  in  the 
 place  where  Lot  had  left  him,  had  a  vision  imparted  to 
 him,  wherein  God  was  pleased  to  renew  the  promise  of 
 enlarging  his  posterity ;  and  bidding  him  cast  his  eyes 
 round  the  horizon,  confirmed  the  gift  of  all  the  land  which 
 he  beheld  to  him  and  his  posterity.  Not  long  after  this 
 he  left  Bethel,  and  went  to  dwell  at  c  the  Oak  of  Mamre 
 which  is  not  far  from  Hebron,  Avhere  he  built  an  altar 
 unto  the  Lord,  and  in  a  short  time  contracted  an  acquaint- 
 ance witli  three  of  the  greatest  men  there,  Mamre,  Aner, 
 and  Escol  ;  the  first  of  whom  communicated  his  name  to 
 all  the  country. 
 
 This  alliance  proved  very  serviceable  to  him,  but 
 more  especially  upon  the  following  occasion.  d  Chedor- 
 laomer,  king  of  Elam,  had  held  five  petty  princes  in  a 
 tributary  subjection  to  him  for  some  years,  of  which 
 number  the  king  of  Sodom  was  one.  At  length  they 
 shook  off  their  yoke,  and  confederated  against  him 
 which  provoked  him  (in  conjunction  with  three  other 
 kings,  his  allies)  to  march  directly  with  a  powerful  army 
 against  them.  The  revolted  kings,  seeing  the  enemy 
 drawing  towards  them,  took  the  field  with  the  resolution 
 to  try  the  fate  of  a  pitched  battle.  The  valley  of  Sid- 
 dim was  the  place  where  the  armies  were  to  meet ;  and 
 
 twelve  miles  north  of  Cfesarea  Philippi,  now  Banias,  it  runs 
 through  a  space  of  fifty  leagues,  till  it  discharges  itself  into  the 
 Dead  Sea,  otherwise  called  the  Asphaltite  lake,  where  Sodom  and 
 Gomorrah,  and  the  other  cities  of  the  plain,  that  were  destroyed 
 with  fire  from  heaven,  once  stood.  About  five  or  six  leagues' 
 distance  from  its  spring  it  forms  the  lake  Semechon,  or  waters  of 
 Merom,  now  Houle,  and  from  thence  it  enters  the  lake  Tiberias, 
 or  Gennesereth,  passes  quite  through  it,  and  is  lost  in  the  Dead 
 Sea.  Its  water,  in  the  summer  time,  is  very  shallow;  but  about 
 the  time  of  the  barley-harvest,  or  the  feast  of  the  passover,  it 
 constantly  overflows  its  banks,  and  greatly  fructifies  the  plain. — 
 Calmefs  Dictionary. 
 
 c  What  we  translate  the  plain  should  be  rendered  the  Oak  of 
 Mamre;  because  the  word  elon  signifies  an  oak,  or  tree  of  long 
 duration.  Sazomen  tells  us  that  this  tree  was  still  extant,  and 
 famous  for  pilgrimages  and  annual  feasts,  even  in  Constantine's 
 time;  that  it  was  about  six  miles  distant  from  Hebron;  that  some 
 of  the  cottages  which  Abraham  built  were  still  standing  near  it ; 
 and  that  there  was  a  well  likewise  of  his  digging,  whereunto  both 
 Jews,  and  Christians,  and  Heathens,  did  at  certain  seasons  resort, 
 either  out  of  devotion  or  for  trade,  because  there  was  held  a  great 
 mart.  As  for  Hebron,  or  Chebron,  it  was  accounted  one  of  the 
 most  ancient  cities  in  the  world,  having  been  built  seven  years 
 before  Tanis,  the  capital  of  Lower  Egypt.  It  was  situate  on  an 
 eminence,  twenty  miles  southward  from  Jerusalem,  and  twenty 
 miles  north  from  Beersheba,  and  had  its  name  very  probably  from 
 the  word  Chavar,  to  couple  or  join;  because  these  married  couples, 
 Abraham  and  Sarah,  Isaac  and  Rebecca,  Jacob  and  Leah,  were 
 buried  there. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  and  Universal  History,  in 
 the  Notes,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 d  We  meet  no  where  in  profane  history  with  the  name  of 
 Chedorlaomer,  nor  with  any  of  those  names  of  the  kings  that 
 were  confederate  with  him  ;  and  the  reason  hereof  is,  that 
 Ctesias,  (from  whom  the  profane  historians  took  the  names  of 
 these  kings)  did  not  use  the  original  Assyrian  names  In  his  his- 
 tory, but  rather  such  as  he  found  in  the  Pei-ian  records.  How- 
 ever, since  the  date  of  this  transaction  falls  four  years  before  the 
 death  of  Ninyas,  there  are  good  grounds  to  infer,  that  Ninyas, 
 who  then  lived  in  Persia,  was  the  Chedorlaomer  of  Moses,  at 
 that  time  the  head  of  the  Assyrian  monarchy  :  that  Amraphel 
 was  his  deputy  at  Bahylon  in  Shinar;  and  Arioch  and  Tidal  his 
 deputies  over  some  other  adjacent  countries:  for  it  is  remarkable 
 that  Ninyas  was  the  first  who  appointed  under  him  such  deputies ; 
 nor  is  there  any  absurdity  in  Moses  to  call  them  kings,  since  it 
 is  observable,  from  what  Isaiah  hinted  afterwards,  ch.  x.  8,  that 
 the  Assyrian  boasted  his  deputy  princes  to  be  equal  to  royal 
 governors,  '  Are  not  my  princes  altogether  kings  ?' — HliucttfonTt 
 c-.'tuK'ction,  vol.  2.  b.  8. 
 
146 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2083.  A.  C.  1921 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3333.  A.  C.  2078.  GEN.  CH.  xii-xxv.  11. 
 
 as  it  w.is  full  of  pits  of  bitumen,  it  might  have  made  the 
 engagement  more  difficult  and  dangerous  to  the  enemy's 
 horse :  but  so  it  was, a  that  the  five  kings  were  put  to  the 
 rout ;  one  part  of  their  army  was  cut  in  pieces,  and  the 
 other  fled  to  the  neighbouring-  mountains,  leaving  their 
 cities  a  prey  to  the  conquerors.  Lot,  who  at  this  time 
 resided  at  Sodom,  was  involved  in  the  calamity  of  the 
 city;  was  plundered  of  all  he  had,  and  himself  carried 
 away  among  the  rest  of  the  captives.  As  soon  as  Abram 
 had  intelligence  of  this  by  an  express  messenger,  he 
 inunediately  sends  to  his  three  friends,  desiring  their 
 assistance  at  this  critical  juncture  ;  and  putting- himself  at 
 the  head  of  three  hundred  and  eighteen  of  his  own  domes- 
 tics, all  well  prepared,  and  men  of  resolution,  he  began 
 his  pursuit,  and  after  a  march  of  almost  seventy  leagues, 
 coming  up  with  the  enemy,  and  dividing  his  forces  into 
 small  parties,  he  fell  upon  them  by  night,  and  charging 
 them  on  all  sides  at  once,  put  them  in  such  a  terror  and 
 consternation,  that  they  took  to  their  heels  and  fled, 
 leaving  all  the  booty  and  captives  behind  them,  among 
 whom  he  happily  recovered  Lot,  and  brought  him  back 
 with  all  his  substance  to  his  former  habitation. 
 
 The  first  person  who  came  to  congratulate  Abram 
 upon  this  victory,  was  the  king  of  Sodom,  (very  proba- 
 bly the  son  of  him1  who  perished  in  the  slime-pits,)  who, 
 in  thankful  acknowledgment  of  the  benefits  he  had 
 received  from  his  valour  and  assistance,  offered  him  all 
 the  booty  which  he  had  retaken,  and  desired  only  his 
 subjects,  the  prisoners,  to  be  restored.  But  Abram 
 was  too  generous  to  take  the  advantage  of  the  misery 
 of  war ;  and,  therefore,  saving  to  his  confederates  such 
 a  proportion  of  the  plunder  as  by  the  law  of  arms 
 belonged  to  them,  he  returned  all  the  rest,  both  prisoners 
 and  goods,  to  the  king  of  Sodom ;  having  before  resolved 
 to  keep  no  part  of  them,  that  it  might  be  said  he  under- 
 took that  enterprise,  not  for  any  private  advantage,  but 
 purely  for  the  public  good,  which  every  man  of  honour 
 should  have  always  primarily  in  his  view. 
 
 The  next  who  congratulated  him  upon  this  occasion, 
 was  Melchizedek  king  of  Salem ;  who,  upon  his  return 
 from  the  battle,  had  provided  plenty  of  all  things  neces- 
 sary for  his  refreshment  and  his  men's  in  their  march ; 
 and  as  he  was  a  priest,  as  well  as  a  king,  he  both  blessed 
 Abram  for  being  the  instrument  of  so  public  a  deliver- 
 ance in  the  hands  of  God,  and  God  himself,  who  had 
 given  such  uncommon  success  to  his  arms ;  whereupon 
 Abram,  in  return,  presented  him  with  the  tenth  part  of 
 the  spoils  which  he  had  taken  from  the  enemy  in  this 
 expedition. 
 
 Abram's  deportment,  upon  this  occasion,  was  so  very 
 acceptable  to  God,  that  he  was  pleased  to  appear  to 
 him  again  in  a  vision,  and  to  give  him  fresh  assurances 
 of  his  special  favour,  and  of  his  intention  to  be  his  shield 
 of  defence  in  all  dangers,  and  for  all  the  good  acts 
 which  he  performed  his  exceeding  great  reward. 
 
 1  Gen.  xiv.  10. 
 a  As  the  text  tells  us,  that  the  kings  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 
 fell  into  some  of  the  slime  pits,  with  which  the  valley  of  Siddim 
 abounds,  and  takes  no  notice  of  their  coming  out  of  them,  it  is 
 more  rational  to  suppose  that  they  perished  there,  than  that 
 Abraham  staid  to  take  them  up,  as  the  Jews  vainly  imagine ;  and 
 that  therefore  the  king  of  Sodom,  who  afterwards  came  out  to 
 congratulate  Abraham,  must  have  been  the  son  of  the  deceased. 
 
 Hitherto,  indeed,  the  patriarch  had  listened  to  God's 
 promises  without  any  expression  of  distrust ;  but  upon 
 this  fresh  assurance,  he  ventured,  for  the  first  time,  to 
 expostulate  with  him,  not  knowing  how  these  things  pos- 
 sibly could  be  accomplished  whilst  himself  continued 
 childless,  and,  to  all  appearance,  must  be  obliged  to 
 leave  the  bulk  of  his  substance  to  Eliezar,  his  household 
 steward.  This,  indeed,  was  a  modest  way  to  try  whe- 
 ther God  designed  to  bless  him  with  a  child ;  and  God 
 did  not  leave  him  long  in  suspense.  He  told  him,  that 
 not  his  servant,  but  a  son  of  his  own,  begotten  of  his 
 body,  should  be  his  heir,  and  should  have  a  race  descend- 
 ing from  him  as  innumerable  as  the  stars. 
 
 This  was  such  joyful  news,  as  gave  Abram  fresh 
 courage,  even  to  request  of  God  some  sensible  and  visi- 
 ble token,  whereby  he  might  be  assured  of  this  blessing ; 
 and  accordingly  God  was  pleased  to  comply  with  his 
 request.  That,  therefore,  they  might  enter  into  a  formal 
 covenant  upon  this  occasion,  he  ordered  hiin  to  take  an 
 heifer,  a  goat,  and  a  ram,  of  three  years  old  each,  with 
 a  pigeon  and  a  turtle-dove,  and  to  offer  them  up. 
 Abram  did  as  he  was  ordered ;  and  having  killed  the 
 four-footed  beasts,  he  *  cut  them  in  two,  and  laid  the 
 halves  at  proper  distances,  directly  opposite  to  each 
 other,  but  the  fowls  he  left  whole  ;  and  so  passing  be- 
 tween the  dissected  bodies,  (as  the  manner  of  covenant- 
 ing then  was,)  he  made  his  solemn  vows  of  perpetual 
 obedience  to  God  ;  and  then  sitting  down,  in  expectance 
 of  what  God  would  do  on  his  part,  he  took  care  to  drive 
 away  all  birds  of  prey  from  settling  upon  the  sacrifice. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  sun  began  to  set,  a  deep  sleep,  c  at- 
 tended with  an  horrible  darkness  and  dread  of  spirits, 
 fell  upon  him ;  during  which  it  was  revealed  to  him  that 
 he  was  not  to  expect  an  immediate  accomplishment  of 
 
 b  The  only  place,  besides  this,  where  we  have  any  intimation 
 given  us  of  this  custom  of  making  covenants,  by  dividing  the 
 beasts  then  to  be  sacrificed,  and  by  the  parties  who  covenanted 
 passing  between  the  parts  of  the  beast  so  divided,  is  in  Jer.  xxxiv. 
 18,  19.  'I  will  give  the  men  that  have  transgressed  my  cove- 
 nant, which  have  not  performed  the  words  of  my  covenant,  which 
 they  had  made  before  me,  when  they  cut  the  calf  in  twain,  and 
 passed  between  the  parts  thereof;  the  princes  of  Judah,  and  the 
 princes  of  Jerusalem,  the  eunuchs,  and  the  priests,  and  all  the 
 people  of  the  land,  which  passed  between  the  parts  of  the  calf;  I 
 will  even  give  them  into  the  hands  of  their  enemies,  and  into  the 
 hand  of  them  that  seek  their  life ;  and  their  dead  bodies  shall  be 
 for  meat  unto  the  fowls  of  the  heaven,  and  unto  the  beasts  of  the 
 earth.'  This  certainly  was  a  very  ancient  custom ;  and  accord- 
 ingly we  find  in  Homer,  that  making  a  solemn  covenant  by  oaths 
 and  sacrifices,  literally,  cutting  faithful  oaths,  is  a  very  common 
 phrase,  upon  which  his  commentator  Eustathius  has  this  observa- 
 tion, "  that  in  matters  of  great  moment,  oaths  or  covenants  were 
 generally  made  by  dividing  the  animals,  which  upon  such  occa- 
 sions were  sacrificed ;"  and  the  design  of  this  rite  (as  the  learned 
 Mede,  in  a  discourse  upon  the  subject,  has  expressed  it)  was  as 
 much  as  to  say,  '  Thus  let  me  be  divided,  and  cut  in  pieces,  if  I 
 violate  the  oath  which  I  have  now  made  in  the  presence  of  God.' 
 — Patrick  and  Le  Gere's  Commentary. 
 
 c  That  horror  and  dread  of  spirits  do  frequently  seize  on  those 
 who  see  visions,  is  evident  from  what  Daniel  tells  us  of  himself, 
 '  I  was  left  alone,  and  saw  this  great  vision,  and  there  remained 
 no  strength  in  me ;  for  my.comeliness  was  turned  in  me  into  cor- 
 ruption, and  I  retained  no  strength'  (chap.  x.  8);  but  the  descrip- 
 tion which  we  have  in  Job  of  this  matter,  is,  in  itself,  very  awful 
 and  affecting.  '  In  thoughts  from  the  visions  of  the  night,  when 
 deep  sleep  falleth  on  men,  fear  came  upon  me  and  trembling, 
 which  made  all  my  bones  to  shake.  Then  a  spirit  passed  before 
 my  face,  the  hair  of  my  flesh  stood  up.  It  stood  still,  but  I  could 
 not  discern  the  form  thereof;  an  image  was  before  mine  eyes, 
 there  was  silence,  and  I  heard  a  voice ;'  ch.  iv.  13,  &c. 
 
Sect.  1.1  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  11  2083.  A.  C.  1921 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3341.  A.  C.  2070.  GEN.  CH.  xii— xxv.  11. 
 
 H7 
 
 the  divine  promises ;  for  though  a  himself  was  to  die  in 
 peace,  and  in  a  good  old  age,  yet  his  posterity  were 
 after  that  to  sojourn,  and  be  afflicted  in  a  strange  coun- 
 try i>  for  the  space  of  four  hundred  years  ;  at  the  expira- 
 tion of  which  God  would  punish  their  oppressors,  and 
 conduct  them  safe  to  the  land  which  he  had  promised 
 them.  And  for  his  confirmation  in  this,  he  caused  the 
 symbol  of  his  divine  presence,  namely,  c  '  a  smoking  fur- 
 nace and  a  burning  lamp,'  to  pass  between  the  divided 
 pieces  of  the  victims,  and  consume  them,  in  ratification 
 of  his  part  of  the  covenant. 
 
 Ten  years  had  Sarai  expected  the  performance  of 
 God's  promise,  and  judging  now,  by  the  course  of  nature, 
 that  her  husband's  issue  must  proceed  from  some  other 
 woman,  and  not  from  her  own  body,  she  prevailed  with 
 him  to  take  her  handmaid  rt  Hagar  to  be  his  secondary 
 
 a  The  expression  in  the  text  is,  '  Thou  shalt  go  to  thy  fathers 
 in  peace,'  which  some  will  have  to  be  no  more  than  an  oriental 
 phrase  for  going  to  the  grave;  but  since  it  cannot  be  said  of 
 Abraham  that  he  did,  in  this  sense,  go  to  his  fathers  (forasmuch 
 as  his  body  was  so  far  from  being  laid  with  them  in  the  sepulchre, 
 that  it  was  deposited  in  a  country  that  had  no  manner  of  com- 
 munication with  that  of  his  fathers,)  it  must  be  allowed,  that  from 
 this  text  an  argument  may  justly  be  drawn  for  the  separate  exist- 
 <  nee  of  human  souls.  The  expression,  however,  of  '  going  to  our 
 fathers,'  seems  to  have  been  formed  from  some  such  notion  as 
 this, — That  the  souls  of  the  deceased  do  go  to  a  certain  place, 
 where  those  of  the  same  family,  or  same  nation  at  least,  are  sup- 
 posed to  live  together,  and  in  communion:  which  notion  cer- 
 tainly arises  from  that  natural  desire,  which  all  men,  who  think 
 their  better  part  immortal,  have  to  see  and  converse  with  such  of 
 their  relations  or  countrymen  as  have  left  behind  them  a  great 
 and  lasting  fame.  "  For  if  the  soul  of  Socrates,"  says  one,  "  were 
 permitted  to  go  where  it  desired,  it  would  certainly  associate 
 with  the  worthies  of  Greece,  with  Orpheus,  Musreus,  Homer, 
 and  those  ancient  demigods,  who,  in  their  several  generations, 
 were  so  renowned." — See  Le  Clerc's  Commentary;  and  Biblioth. 
 Biblica,  vol.  1.  in  locum. 
 
 b  Expositors  have  been  very  much  divided  in  their  opinions, 
 how  to  make  it  out  that  Abraham's  posterity  was  in  a  state  of 
 servitude  and  affliction  for  the  space  of  four  hundred  years.  It 
 may  be  observed,  however,  that  all  this  difficulty  is  removed,  if 
 we  suppose  that  their  state  of  affliction  is  to  be  reckoned  from  the 
 time  of  Isaac's  birth,  which,  to  the  deliverance  out  of  the  Egyp- 
 tian bondage,  was  just  four  hundred  and  five  years;  but  the  five 
 odd  years  are  therefore  not  mentioned,  because  it  is  a  common 
 custom  among  all  writers  to  take  no  notice  of  broken  numbers 
 (as  they  call  them)  when  they  name  a  round  sum.  And  if  there 
 be  supposed  a  farther  difficulty,  in  that  their  sojourning  is  (in 
 Exod.  xii.  40)  said  to  have  continued  four  hundred  and  thirty 
 years;  in  these  years,  the  time  of  Abraham's  sojourning  (which 
 was  exactly  twenty-five  years  from  his  coming  into  the  land  of 
 Canaan  to  the  birth  of  Isaac)  may  be  comprehended,  and  then 
 all  the  difficulty  vanishes;  because  these  twenty-five  years, 
 added  to  the  four  hundred  and  five  before  mentioned,  exactly 
 make  up  the  four  hundred  and  thirty. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  By  this  symbol  God  designed  to  represent  to  Abraham, 
 cither  the  future  state  of  his  posterity,  the  '  smoking  furnace'  sig- 
 nifying Israel's  misery  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  'the  burning 
 lamp'  their  happy  escape  and  deliverance;  or  (what  seems  more 
 probable)  to  notify  his  own  immediate  presence,  since  both  smoke 
 and  fire  are,  in  several  parts  of  Scripture,  mentioned  as  emblems 
 and  representations  of  the  divine  appearance.  And,  therefore, 
 as  it  was  a  thing  customary,  and  especially  in  Chaldea,  (from 
 whence  Abraham  came,)  for  persons  covenanting  together  to  pass 
 between  the  pieces  of  the  sacrifice  ;  so  God,  who  had  no  body  to 
 do  it  visibly  for  him,  did  it  in  this  type  and  emblem. — Poole's 
 Annotations  ;  and  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  in  locum. 
 
 d  Iu  concubinage,  these  secondary,  or  wives  of  a  lower  order, 
 wen'  accounted  lawful  and  true  wives;  had  an  equal  right  to  the 
 marriage  bed  with  the  chief  wife,  and  their  issue  was  reputed  as 
 legitimate;  but  in  all  other  respects  they  were  inferior.  And  as 
 they  had  no  authority  in  the  family,  nor  any  share  in  household 
 government;  so,  if  they  had  been  servants  in  the  family  before 
 
 wife,  pleasing  herself  with  the  thoughts,  that  if  her  maid 
 should  conceive  by  her  husband,  the  child  would  be 
 reputed  hers,  and  her  house  be  established  in  the  com- 
 pletion of  the  divine  promise. 
 
 It  was  not  long  before  Hagar  accordingly  did  con- 
 ceive ;  and  forgetting  now  the  former  condition  of  her 
 life,  she  began  to  value  herself  upon  it,  and  to  treat  her 
 mistress  with  insolence  and  ill-manners.  Sarai,  impa- 
 tient to  see  herself  insulted  by  a  slave,  could  not  for- 
 bear breaking  out  into  bitter  complaints  against  her  to 
 her  husband  ;  but  he,  willing"  to  make  her  easy,  and  withal 
 to  discountenance  any  disrespectful  carriage  towards 
 her,  left  her  to  treat  her  maid  just  as  she  pleased.  This 
 license  gave  Sarai  an  opportunity  of  expressing  her 
 resentment  with  too  much  severity,  which  the  other  not 
 able  to  bear,  she  stole  from  her  master's  house,  and  was 
 making  the  best  of  her  way  to  her  own  country,  which 
 was  Egypt ;  when,  in  her  travels  through  the  wilderness, 
 meeting  with  a  fountain,  she  tarried  to  rest  and  refresh 
 herself  there.  As  she  was  revolving  her  sorrows  in  her 
 mind,  an  angel  came  to  her,  and,  after  some  previous 
 questions,  advised  her  to  return  home,  and  be  subject  to 
 her  mistress,  because  it  would  not  be  long  before  she 
 should  be  delivered  of  a  son,  (whom  he  ordered  her  to 
 name  e  Ishmael,)  whose  posterity  would  be  very  numer- 
 ous, a  stout  and  warlike  people,  living  upon  plunder  in 
 the  deserts,  and  apt  to  annoy  others,  though  not  easily 
 vanquished  themselves.  / 
 
 they  came  to  be  concubines,  they  continued  in  that  state  after- 
 wards, and  in  the  same  subjection  to  their  mistresses  as  before 
 — Howel's  History  of  the  Bible. 
 
 e  Ishmael  is  compounded  of  the  words  Jishmag  and  El,  the 
 Lord  hath,  or  the  Lord  will  hear;  and  the  reason  of  the  name  is 
 immediately  subjoined  by  the  angel,  namely,  because  the  Lord 
 hath  heard  her  complaint. 
 
 /Gen.  xvi.  12.  '  His  hand  will  be  against  every  man,  and 
 eveiy  man's  hand  against  him.'  "  The  one  is  the  natural,  and 
 almost  necessary  consequence  of  the  other.  Ishmael  lived  by  prey 
 and  rapine  in  the  wilderness ;  and  his  posterity  have  all  along 
 infested  Arabia  and  the  neighbouring  countries  with  their  rob- 
 beries and  incursions.  They  live  in  a  state  of  continual  war 
 with  the  world,  and  are  both  robbers  by  land  and  pirates  by  sea. 
 As  they  have  been  such  enemies  to  mankind,  it  is  no  wonder 
 that  mankind  have  been  such  enemies  to  them  again ;  that  several 
 attempts  have  been  made  to  extirpate  them;  and  even  now  as 
 well  as  formerly,  travellers  are  forced  to  go  with  arms,  ami  in 
 caravans  or  large  companies,  and  to  march  and  keep  watch  like 
 a  little  army,  to  defend  themselves  from  the  assaults  of  these 
 freebooters,  who  rim  about  in  troops,  and  ro.i  and  plunder  all 
 whom  they  can  by  any  means  subdue.  These  robberies  they  also 
 justify,  by  alleging  the  hard  usage  of  their  father  Ishmael,  who 
 
 being  turned  out  of  doors  by  Abraham,  had  ti pen  plains  and 
 
 deserts  given  him  by  God  for  his  patrimony,  with  permission  to 
 take  whatever  he  could  find  there;  and  on  this  accounl  they  think 
 they  may,  with  a  safe  conscience,  indemnify  themselves,  as  well 
 as  they  can,  not  only  on  the  posterity  of  Isaac,  but  also  on  every 
 body  else ;  always  supposing  a  kind  ot  kindred  between  them-.  Ives 
 and  those  they  plunder;  and  in  relating  their  adventures  of  this 
 kind,  they  think  it  sufficient  to  change  the  expression,  and  instead 
 of  /  roltbed  a  man  of  .such  and  such  u  iking,  to  say,  /  gained  it." 
 Sale's  Preliminary  Discourse,  1,0. — Neivton  on   the  Prophecies, 
 
 vol.  1.  p.  42. 
 
 "  The  Arabs  have  never  been  entirely  subdued,  nor  has  any 
 impression  been  made  en  them,  except  en  their  borders ;  where, 
 indeed,  the  Pbenicians,  Persians,  Ethiopians,  Egyptians,  and  in 
 modern  times,  the  Othman  Tartars,  have  severally  acquired 
 settlements;  but,  with  these  exceptions,  the  natives  of  Hejai  and 
 Yemen  have  preserved  forages  the  sole  dominion  el  th<  ir  i 
 and  pas.  res,  their  mountains  and  fertile  valleys.  Thus,  apart 
 from  the  rest  of  mankind,  this  extraordinary  p.  ..pie  have  retain,  d 
 their  primitive  language  and  manners,  features  and  characters,  as 
 
148  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2083.  A.  C.  1321 ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3311.  A.  C.  2070.  GEN.  CH.  xii— xxv.  II. 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 Hagar,  hearing  this  comfortable  news,  was  soon  per- 
 suaded to  take  the  angel's  advice,  and  in  memory  of  this 
 surprising-  vision,  having  called  first  the  fountain  where 
 she  sat,  Beer-lahai-roi,  which  signifies  '  the  well  of  him 
 that  lives  and  sees  me,'"  she  made  what  haste  she  could 
 home  ;  and  in  a  short  time  after  her  return,  was  delivered 
 of  a  son,  according  to  the  angel's  promise. 
 
 At  the  birth  of  Ishmael,  Abram  was  eighty-six  years 
 old  ;  and  lest,  in  the  excess  of  his  joy,  he  should  mistake 
 this  child  for  the  heir  of  the  promises  which  had  been 
 made  to  him,  about  thirteen  years  after,  Ood  renewed 
 his  covenant  i>  with  him ;  instituted  the  rite  of  circumcision 
 upon  a  severe  penalty  ;  changed  c  his  name  from  Abram 
 to  Abraham,  and  his  wife's  from  Sarai  torf  Sarah,  (where 
 the  difference  in  sense  is  much  more  than  in  sound,)  and 
 
 long  and  as  remarkably  as  the  Hindoos  themselves. — Sir  IV. 
 Jones's  Discourse  on  the  Arabs.   JVorks,  vol.  3.  p.  49. — Ed. 
 
 a  Gen.  xvi.  13.  •  And  she  called  the  name  of  the  Lord  that 
 spake  unto  her,  Thou  God  seest  me.'  The  religion  of  names  was 
 a  matter  of  great  consequence  in  Egypt.  It  was  one  of  their 
 essential  superstitions:  it  was  one  of  their  native  inventions,  and 
 the  first  of  them  which  they  communicated  to  the  Greeks.  Thus 
 when  Hagar,  the  handmaid  of  Sarai,  who  was  an  Egyptian 
 woman,  saw  the  angel  of  God  in  the  wilderness,  'She  called  the 
 name  of  the  Lord  that  spake  unto  her,  ELROI,  the  God  of  vision, 
 or  the  visible  God,'  that  is,  according  to  the  established  custom 
 of  Egypt,  she  gave  him  a  name  of  honour;  not  merely  a  name  of 
 distinction,  for  such  all  nations  had  (who  worshipped  local  tutelary 
 deities)  before  their  communication  with  Egypt;  but  after  that 
 they  decorated  their  gods  with  distinguished  titles,  indicative  of 
 their  specific  office  and  attributes.  Zechariah  (chap.  xiv.  9.) 
 evidently  alluding  to  these  nations,  when  he  prophesies  of  the 
 worship  of  the  supreme  God,  unmixed  with  idolatry,  says,  '  in 
 that  day  shall  there  be  one  Lord,  and  his  name  shall  be  one.'  Out 
 of  indulgence,  therefore,  to  this  weakness,  God  was  pleased  to  give 
 himself  a  name.  'And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  I  am  that  Tarn. 
 Exod.  iii.  14. — IVarlurton's  Divine  Legation,  b.  4.  sec.  6. — Ed. 
 
 b  Gen.  xvii.  10.  '  This  is  my  covenant.'  Covenants  were 
 anciently  made  in  the  eastern  countries  by  dipping  their  weapons 
 in  blood  (as  Xenophon  tells  us,)  and  by  pricking  the  flesh,  and 
 sucking  each  other's  blood,  as  we  read  in  Tacitus;  who  observes 
 (p.  1.  Annal.)  that  when  kings  made  a  league,  they  took  each  other 
 by  the  hand,  and  their  thumbs  being  hard  tied  together,  they 
 pricked  them,  when  the  blood  was  forced  to  the  extreme  parts, 
 and  each  party  licked  it.  This  was  accounted  a  mysterious  cove- 
 nant, being  made  sacred  by  their  mutual  blood.  How  old  this 
 custom  had  been  we  do  not  know;  but  it  is  evident  God's 
 covenant  with  Abraham  was  solemnized  on  Abraham's  part  by 
 his  own  and  his  son  Isaac's  blood,  and  so  continued  through  all 
 generations,  by  circumcision:  whereby,  as  they  were  made  the 
 select  people  of  God,  so  God,  in  conclusion,  sent  his  own  son, 
 who  by  this  very  ceremony  of  circumcision,  was  consecrated  to 
 be  their  God  and  Redeemer. — Patrick,  in  locum. — Ed. 
 
 The  ceremony  of  laying  a  knife  or  sword  upon  the  altar,  was 
 the  usual  mode  of  ratifying  grants  before  the  invention  of  seals; 
 and  it  appears  that  it  was  not  entirely  laid  aside  afterwards.  King 
 Stephen's  last  charter  to  the  nuns  at  Barking,  in  Essex,  was 
 executed  at  the  monastery  by  the  ceremony  of  laying  his  knife 
 upon  the  altar  of  the  Virgin  Maiy  and  St  Ethelburgh!— Dysons' 
 Environs  of  London,  vol.  3.  p.  t>0. — Ed. 
 
 c  Abram  is  compounded  of  two  Hebrew  words,  Ab  and  Ram, 
 which  signify  high  father;  and  Abraham  is  commonly  derived 
 from  three,  namely,  Ab-Ram-Hamon,  the  father  of  a  great  multi- 
 tude. But  this  is  forced  and  un grammatical,  having  nothing  to 
 support  it  but  oidy  the  reason  which  God  gives  in  the  text,  for 
 changing  Abram  into  Abraham,  namely,  because  he  was  to  make 
 of  him  'a  father  of  many  nations,'  as  indeed  he  was;  for  not  only 
 the  twelve  tribes,  but  the  Ishmaelites,  the  Edomites,  and  all  the 
 posterity  of  Keturah,  descended  from  his  loins. 
 
 a  Sarai  signifies  mi;  princess,  or  princess  of  my  family  only; 
 but  Sarah,  the  name  now  given  her,  denotes  a  princess  indefi- 
 nitely, and  at  large,  according  to  the  prediction  concerning  her, 
 '  a  mother  (or  princess)  of  many  nations  shall  she  be,  and  kings 
 oi  people  shall  come  of  her. '  Gen.  xvii.  16. 
 
 to  complete  his  happiness,  gave  him  a  promise  that  his 
 wife  Sarah  should  bear  him  a  son.  This  seemed  a  thing  so 
 strange,  and  almost  impossible,  that  Abraham,  falling  on 
 his  face,  began  to  intercede  for  the  life  and  preservation  of 
 Ishmael,  as  thinking  it  unreasonable  to  ask,  or  wish  for 
 any  thing  more  ;  but  the  Almighty  soon  assured  him,  that 
 these  great  blessings  were  not  designed  for  Ishmael,  but 
 for  a  son  to  be  born  of  the  once  barren  Sarah,  (and  there- 
 fore to  be  named*  Isaac,)  which  would  certainly  come  to 
 pass  within  the  compass  of  a  year.  That  he  might  not,  how- 
 ever, seem  wholly  to  neglect  his  request  for  Ishmael,  he 
 promised  to  make  him  a  great  nation,  and  the  father  of 
 twelve  princes,  though  the  son  begotten  of  Sarah  should 
 alone  be  entitled  to  the  covenant  and  promise  of '  making 
 all  the  nations  of  the  earth  blessed.'  This  was  the  pur- 
 port of  the  vision  ;  and  as  soon  as  it  was'ended,  Abraham 
 delayed  not  (according  to  the  divine  command)  to  cir- 
 cumcise himself,  his  son,  and  all  the  males  in  his  family  ; 
 an  ordinance  which  the  Hebrews  have  ever  since  obser- 
 ved very  religiously. 
 
 Abraham  continued  still  to  dwell  at  Mamre  ;  and,  as 
 he  was  sitting  one  day  at  the  door  of  his  tent,/  he  espied 
 three  persons,  whom  he  took  to  be  travellers,  coming 
 towards  him.ff  He  therefore  went  out  to  meet  them  ;  and 
 having,  in  a  very  civil  and  respectful  manner,  invited 
 them  to  take  a  small  refreshment  with  him,  (which  they 
 consented  to,)  he  immediately  gave  orders  for  an  *  enter- 
 
 e  Isaac,  or,  according  to  the  Hebrew,  Ischack,  signifies  he  or 
 she  has,  or  shall  laugh;  and  this  name  Sarah  gave  him,  because 
 when  the  angel  promised  that  she  should  become  a  mother, 
 though  she  was  not  of  an  age  to  have  children,  she  privately 
 laughed  at  the  prediction;  and  when  the  child  was  born,  she  said 
 '  God  hath  made  me  to  laugh,  so  that  all  that  hear  will  laugh 
 with  me.'  Gen.  xxi.  C. — Calmct's  Dictionary . 
 
 f  Gen.  xviii.  1.  '  And  he  sat  in  the  tent  door  in  the  heat  of 
 the  day.'  Those  who  lead  a  pastoral  life  in  the  east,  at  this  day, 
 frequently  place  themselves  in  a  similar  situation.  At  ten  minutes 
 after  ten  we  had  in  view  several  fine  bays,  and  a  plain  full  of 
 booths,  with  the  Turcomans  sitting  by  the  doors,  under  sheds 
 resembling  porticoes;  or  by  shady  trees,  surrounded  by  flocks  of 
 goats."—  Chandler's  Travels  in  Asia  Minor,  p.  ISO. — Ed. 
 
 g  Gen.  xviii.  1 — S.  When  a  party  belonging  to  Captain  Cook 
 (in  his  last  voyage)  went  ashore  on  an  island  near  that  of  Man- 
 geea,  in  the  South  Seas,  they  were  forcibly  detained  by  the  natives 
 a  considerable  time,  which  much  alarmed  them.  But  this  deten- 
 tion proceeded,  as  they  afterwards  found,  from  pure  motives  of 
 hospitality;  and  continued  only  till  such  time  as  they  had  roasted 
 .a  hog,  and  provided  other  necessaries  for  their  refreshment.  "  In 
 reviewing  this  most  curious  transaction,"  says  the  writer  of  that 
 voyage,  "  we  cannot  help  calling  to  our  memory  the  manners  of 
 the  patriarchal  times.  It  does  not  appear  to  us  that  these  people 
 had  any  intention  in  detaining  us,  different  from  those  which 
 actuated  the  patriarch  in  a  similar  transaction." — Ed. 
 
 h  The  following  quotations  seem  to  illustrate  the  nature  and 
 manner  of  this  entertainment: — Gen.  xviii.  4,  '  Let  a  little 
 water,  I  pray  you,  be  fetched,  and  wash  your  feet.'  One  of  the 
 first  rites  of  hospitality  observed  towards  strangers  amongst  the 
 ancients,  was  washing  the  feet:  of  this  there  are  many  instances 
 in  Homer.  Gen.  xviii.  G.  '  And  Abraham  hastened  into  the 
 tent  unto  Sarah,  and  said,  make  ready  quickly  three  measures 
 of  fine  meal,  knead  it,  and  make  cakes  upon  the  hearth. 
 These  instructions  are  quite  similar  to  the  manners  of  the 
 place,  which  even  at  present  are  little  if  any  thing  altered 
 from  what  they  anciently  were.  Thus  Dr  Shaw  relates, 
 {Travels,  p.  29,)  "That  in  cities  and  villages,  where  there' 
 are  public  ovens,  the  bread  is  usually  leavened;  but  among 
 the  Bcdoweens  as  soon  as  the  dough  is  kneaded,  it  is  made  into 
 thin  cakes,  which  are  i  ither  immediately  baked  upon  the  coals, 
 or  else  in  a  txjen,  a  shallow  earthen  vessel  like  a  hying  pan."— - 
 2  Sam.  xiii.  8.    1  Chrun.  xxiii.  29.    Gen.  xviii.  7.   '  jf\bi aliani 
 
Sect.  1.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 149 
 
 A.  M.  2107.  A.  C.  1897  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3357.  A.  C.  2054.  GEN.  CH.  xu— xxv.  11. 
 
 t;ii;mient  to  be  made  ready,  a  which  accordingly  was 
 served  in,  and  himself  waited  at  the  table,  under  the 
 covert  of  a  shady  oak. 
 
 While  they  sat  at  table,  b  one  of  the  guests,  inquiring 
 after  Sarah,  and  being  told  that  she  was  in  the  tent,  he 
 then  addressed  himself  to  Abraham,  and  assured  him  that 
 he  had  still  in  remembrance  the  case  of  his  wife  Sarah, 
 who,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  should  certainly  have  a  son. 
 Sarah,  who  was  listening  at  the  tent  door,  and  thought 
 herself  far  enough  past  child-bearing,  'could  not  refrain 
 from  laughing  within  herself;  and  when  the  stranger  asked 
 the  reason  of  it   with  such  a  serious  air  as  struck  her 
 
 ran  into  the  herd,  and  fetched  a  calf  tender  and  good.'  Abra- 
 ham appears  to  have  taken  a  very  active  part  in  preparing  to 
 entertain  the  angels.  But  when  it  is  said  that  '  he  ran  to  the 
 herd,  and  fetched  a  calf,'  we  must  not  understand  him  as 
 descending  to  an  office  either  menial  or  unbecoming  his  rank, 
 since  we  are  informed,  that  M  the  greatest  of  these  countries  is 
 not  ashamed  to  fetch  a  lamb  from  his  herd,  and  kill  it,  whilst  the 
 princess  is  impatient  till  she  hath  prepared  her  fire  and  kettle  to 
 dress  it." — Shaw's  Travels,  p.  c.01. 
 
 .  "  As  the  Panther  was,  at  two  o'clock,  too  far  off  to  give  us 
 any  hope  of  dining  on  board,  we  applied  to  our  friendly  Dola, 
 who  readily  undertook  to  give  us  the  best  the  island  could  afford. 
 A  fine  young  kid  was  killed,  and  delivered  to  his  wife,  who  per- 
 formed the  office  of  cook,  in  an  inner  room,  where  we  were  not 
 permitted  to  enter.  In  about  two  hours  the  whole  was  served  up 
 in  very  clean  bowls  of  wood  ;  and  instead  of  a  table-cloth,  we  had 
 new  mats.  The  good  lady  had  also  made  us  some  cakes  with 
 juwany  and  ghee:  pepper  and  salt  were  laid  beside  them.  It 
 was  excellently  roasted  ;  and  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  enjoyed  a 
 dinner  more." — Lord  Valentias  Travels,  vol.  2.  p.  323. — Ed. 
 a  The  Scripture  informs  us,  Gen.  xviii.  8,  '  that  Abraham 
 took  butter  and  milk,  and  the  calf,  (that  is,  the  choicest  parts  of 
 the  calf)  and  set  it  before  them,  and  they  did  eat ;'  where  the 
 eating  of  these  angels  must  be  understood  according  to  the  nature 
 of  the  bodies  we  may  suppose  them  to  have  assumed.  It  their 
 bodies  were  aerial,  their  eating  must  have  been  in  appearance 
 only:  if  substantial,  their  eating  might  have  been  real;  that  is, 
 they  might  have  received  the  meat  into  their  bodies,  which  after- 
 wards, by  a  divine  power,  was  consumed  there. —  Poole's  Anno- 
 tations and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 b  It  is  very  observable,  that  one  of  these  angels  (as  the  apostle 
 to  the  Hebrews  calls  them,  chap.  xiii.  3)  appeared  more  honour- 
 able and  superior  to  the  other  two;  and  therefore  Abraham  makes 
 his  address  to  him  as  the  chief,  and  the  historian  styles  him 
 Jehovah,  which  the  generality  both  of  Jews  and  Christians  do 
 look  upon  as  the  incommunicable  name  of  God;  and  therefore  it 
 is  believed  by  the  far  greatest  part  of  the  latter,  that  it  was  the 
 Son  of  God  who  appeared  in  that  form.  There  are  others,  how- 
 ever, (particularly  some  modern  ones,)  who  maintain,  that  it  was 
 no  more  than  an  angel  who  spoke  to  him  in  the  person  of  God : 
 though  it  hardly  seems  probable,  either  that  Moses  should  call  an 
 angel  by  that  name,  or  that  Abraham  should  intercede  with  him, 
 as  he  does,  when  he  saith,  '  That  be  far  from  thee,  to  destroy  the 
 good  with  the  wicked:  shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do 
 right  ?'  Or  that  an  angel  slwuld  peremptorily  say,  '  If  I 
 find  forty  righteous  men  in  the  place,  for  their  sakes  I  will  not 
 destroy  it.'  So  that  the  most  probable  opinion  is,  that  it  was 
 Christ  himself,  who  is  emphatically  called  '  the  Judge  of  all  the 
 earth." — Universal  History.  The  Jews,  however,  have  a  maxim, 
 that  no  angel  performs  two  ministries,  or  is  sent  upon  two  mes- 
 sages at  once  ;  and  therefore  they  think,  that  these  three  angels  (as 
 they  suppose  them)  were  dispatched  for  different  purposes;  one 
 of  them,  who  was  the  chief,  to  bring  a  confirmation  of  the  birth 
 of  Isaac ;  another,  to  conduct  Lot  safe  out  of  Sodom;  and  the 
 tln'r.l,  to  overthrow  the  cities  of  the  plain:  and  therefore,  when 
 one  nt'  them  had  delivered  his  message  to  Abraham,  there  were 
 but  two  that  held  on  their  course  to  Sodom. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 c  In  the  preceding  chapter  (ver.  17.)  we  read,  that  Abraham 
 laughed  upon  the  same  occasion,  and  yet  was  not  reproved;  but 
 the  difference  of  their  conduct  might  be  this, — that  Abraham 
 laughed  for  joy  upon  hearing  the  glad  tidings  of  a  sun,  bill 
 Sarah's  laughter  proceeded  from  a  spirit  of  distrust  and  infidelity. 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 with  terror,  and  she  endeavoured  to  deny  it,  he  dismissed 
 her  with  this  gentle  reproof,— That  it  was  highly  wrong 
 in  her  to  mistrust  what  he  had  said  unto  her,  since 
 nothing  was  impossible  with  God. 
 
 Upon  this  the  conversation  ceased,  and  the  three 
 heavenly  guests  rising  up  to  proceed  on  their  journey, 
 Abraham  very  courteously  attended  them  some  part  of 
 the  way.  Their  way  lay  towards  Sodom,  whither  two  of 
 the  guests  advanced  with  more  haste,  but  the  third,  con- 
 tinuing with  Abraham,  began  to  reveal  a  most  dreadful 
 secret,  namely,  that  the  iniquity  of  Sodom,  and  the  other 
 neighbouring  cities,  was  come  to  such  a  prodigious 
 height,  that  he  was  now  going  down  with  an  intent  to 
 destroy  them,  d  if,  upon  inquiry,  he  found  their  abomin- 
 ations equal  to  the  report  of  them.  This  condescension 
 of  God,  in  communicating  his  design  to  Abraham,  gave 
 him  encouragement  to  make  intercession  for  the  wicked 
 inhabitants  of  these  cities,  which,  in  six  petitionary  pro- 
 positions, he  managed  so  well,  as,  by  a  gradual  decrease 
 of  the  number  every  time,  to  bring  him  at  last  to  a  con- 
 cession, that  if  even  ten  just  persons  were  found  in 
 Sodom,  he  would  not  destroy  it :  and  witli  this  condi- 
 tional promise  he  left  Abraham. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  other  two  guests,  (who  a3  we 
 said  went  before,  and  were  indeed  the  ministering 
 angels  whom  God  had  appointed  to  execute  his  judgments 
 upon  the  Sodomites,)  held  on  their  course  towards  the 
 city,  where  they  arrived  in  the  evening,  when  Lot  was 
 sitting  in  the  gate.  As  soon  as  he  saw  them,  he  rose  up  to 
 meet  them,  and,  after  proper  salutations,  e  invited  them 
 
 d  Here  is  a  wonderful  instance  of  God's  patience  and  good- 
 ness, who,  though  he  knew  all  without  inquiry,  yet  would  not 
 condemn  even  the  most  flagitious,  without  good  examination 
 and  trial.  Before  the  flood,  God  proceeded  against  the  old  world 
 upon  ocular  evidence.  '  God  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was 
 great,'  Gen.  vi.  5,  12.  At  the  building  of  Babel,  it  is  said  that 
 '  the  Lord  came  down  to  see  the  city  and  the  tower,  which  the 
 children  of  men  had  built,'  Gen.  xi.  5.  And  now  again,  before  the 
 destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  though  the  cry  against  them 
 was  great,  because  of  the  grievousness  of  their  sin,  yet  the  Lord 
 would  not  proceed  against  them  upon  common  fame:  'but  I 
 will  go  down,'  saith  he,  '  and  see,  whether  they  have  done  accord- 
 ing to  the  cry  of  it;  and  if  not,  I  will  know,' Gen.  xviii.  21. 
 And  hereupon  we  may  observe,  that  the  appearing  of  gods  in  the 
 manner  of  strangers,  to  punish  or  reward  men,  was  a  common 
 tradition  among  the  heathens. 
 
 e  In  the  eastern  countries  of  late  indeed,  some  few  caravansa- 
 ries have  been  set  up;  but  in  the  time  we  are  now  speaking  of, 
 there  was  no  such  tiling  as  inns  for  the  accommodation  ot 
 strangers;  and  therefore  all  travellers,  when  they  came  to  a  town, 
 if  they  were  not  entertained  in  a  private  house,  were  forced  to 
 abide  all  night  in  the  streets.  It  was  therefore  a  customary  thing 
 for  those  of  the  better  sort  to  receive  such  wayfaring  men  (whether 
 they  knew  them  or  knew  them  not)  into  their  houses,  and  there 
 entertain  them  with  great  civility.  And  this  is  the  reason  why, 
 both  in  sacred  and  profane  authors,  we  meet  with  such  large 
 commendations  of  this  act  of  hospitality,  and  particularly  in  the 
 Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  (ch.  xiii.  2,)  have  a  precept  tothisefli  1 1, 
 alluding  to  the  very  historical  passage  now  before  us.  '  he  not 
 forgetful  to  entertain  strangers,  for  thereby  some  have  entertauietl 
 angels  unawares.— ■£«  Clerc's  Commentary.  Thus  we  read  in 
 Homer  that  Minerva,  coming  in  the  shape  oi  Mentor,  to  make 
 Telemachus  a  visit,  descends  in  the  realm  of  Ithaca,  and  stands 
 in  the  portal  of  Ulysses,  until  he  saw  her,  and  thereupon  went  to 
 
 her,  and  very  kindly  invited  her  in:  thus,  ;is  Pop1'  has  it, 
 While  Ma  fond  soul  these  landed  triumphs  swell'. I , 
 Tin1  stranger  uMn->t  tlie  royal  youth  beheld. 
 Grieved  that  the  visitant  so  long  should  vn  t. 
 Unasked,  unhonoured,  at  a  monarch's  gai^  ; 
 Instant  lie  Dew  with  hospitable  haste, 
 And  the  new  fi  leud  with  courteous  air  asahnfc  I.       0\lyu.  2. 
 
150 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2107.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3357.  A.  C.  201)4.  GEN.  CH.  xii.— xxv.  11. 
 
 to  his  house  to  refresh  and  repose  themselves  that  night ; 
 which  at  first  they  declined,  but  afterwards,  on  some 
 importunity,  complied  with.  "■  But  before  it  was  time  to 
 go  to  rest,  the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  both  young  and 
 old,  being  informed  that  Lot  had  strangers  with  him,  and 
 in  all  probability  tempted  with  the  beautiful  forms  which 
 the  angels  had  assumed,  encompassed  the  house,  and 
 demanded  of  him  to  deliver  them  up,  b  that  they  might 
 abuse  them. 
 
 Lot  thinking  by  mild  and  soft  words  to  appease  his 
 outrageous  neighbours,  steps  out  of  the  door,  and  shut- 
 ting it  after  him,  entreats  them  to  offer  no  affront  to  his 
 guests  ;  nay,  rather  than  have  the  laws  of  hospitality 
 violated,  he  offers  to  give  up  his  two  virgin-daughters  to 
 their  discretion.  But  all  would  not  do  ;  they  threatened 
 to  use  him  worse  than  his  guests,  a  pragmatical 
 stranger  that  pretended  to  control  them  in  any  thing  ! 
 and  were  pressing  forward  to  break  open  the  door,  when 
 the  two  angels,  with  more  than  human  strength,  forced 
 their  way  out,  took  in  their  host  again,  and  then  shutting 
 the  door,  c  struck  all  that  were  round  it  with  blindness, 
 so  that  they  were  not  able  to  find  any  more  where  it 
 was. 
 
 Whilst  they  were  thus  groping  about  in  vain,  the  two 
 angels  acquainted  Lot  with  their  commission  ;  that  their 
 errand  was  to  execute  the  divine  vengeance  upon  that 
 execrable  place ;  and  therefore  they  advised  him,  if  he 
 had  any  friends,  for  whose  safety  he  was  concerned,  that 
 he  would  immediately  let  them  know  their  danger,  and 
 warn  them  to  depart  in  time.  Lot  had  no  relations,  but 
 only  <*  two   sons-in-law,  to   whom  his   daughters  were 
 
 a  Gen.  xix.  1,2.  '  And  there  came  two  angels  to  Sodom  at 
 even,  and  Lot  sat  in  the  gate  of  Sodom:  and  Lot  seeing  them 
 rose  up  to  meet  them;  and  he  bowed  himself  with  his  face  toward 
 the  ground.  And  he  said,  behold  now,  my  lords,  turn  in,  I 
 pray  you,  into  your  servant's  house,  and  tarry  all  night,  and 
 wash  your  feet,  and  ye  shall  rise  up  early,  and  go  on  your  ways.' 
 The  eastern  people  have  always  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
 great  hospitality.  Of  very  many  instances  the  following  is  a  truly 
 characteristic  one : — "We  were  not  above  a  musket  shot  from 
 Anna,  when  we  met  with  a  comely  old  man,  who  came  up  to 
 me,  and  taking  my  horse  by  the  bridle,  '  friend,'  said  he, 
 'come  and  wash  thy  feet,  and  eat  bread  at  my  house.  Thou  art 
 a  stranger,  and  since  I  have  met  thee  upon  the  road,  never 
 refuse  me  the  favour  which  I  desire  of  thee.'  We  could  not 
 choose  but  go  along  with  him  to  his  house,  where  he  feasted  us 
 in  the  best  manner  he  could,  giving  us,  over  and  above,  barley 
 for  our  horses ;  and  for  us  he  killed  a  lamb  and  some  hens."' — 
 Tavernier's  Travels,  p.  111.  See  also  Gen.  xviii.  6.  Judges 
 xvii.  7,  Rom.  xii.  13,  1  Tim.  iii.  2,  1  Pet.  iv.  9.— Ed. 
 
 i'That  is,  in  an  unnatural  and  preposterous  manner,  which 
 was  afterwards  expressly  forbidden  in  the  law:  Lev.  xviii.  22,  and 
 thereby  made  capital,  ch.  xx.  13,  which  vile  sin  continued  among 
 the  Gentiles  even  in  the  apostles'  time,  (as  may  be  gathered  from 
 Rom.  i.  27,  and  1  Cor.  vi.  9,)  and  was  so  generally  practised 
 among  the  people  of  Sodom,  that  from  thence  it  took  the  name 
 of  Sodomy,  and  the  practisers  of  it  are  called  Sodomites,  both  in 
 the  Holy  Scriptures  and  our  English  laws,  which  (as  did  the  law 
 of  God  of  old)  do  still  make  the  punishment  of  it  to  be  death. 
 —  Howell's  History. 
 
 c  It  is  a  probable  opinion,  that  these  men  were  struck  not  with  ac- 
 tual blindness,  but  with  a  dizziness, which  disturbed  their  sight,  and 
 represented  objects  falsely,  and  in  confusion,  in  the  same  manner 
 as  the  Syrians  were,  when  sent  to  take  Elisha,  2  Kings  vi.  IS. 
 And  this  was  no  hard  matter  for  the  angels  to  do,  by  making 
 a  small  alteration  either  in  their  sight,  or  in  the  air,  whereby 
 either  the  door  might  appear  to  them  like  the  solid  wall,  or  the 
 several  parts  of  the  wall  like  so  many  doors. —  Poole's  Annota- 
 tions and  Lc   Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 (/Several  translators,  as  well  as  some  Rabbins,  suppose  that  these 
 
 contracted  ;  but  these,  when  he  went  to  them  early  in  the 
 morning,  desiring  them  to  go  along  with  him,  and  leave 
 that  accursed  place,  took  the  old  man  to  be  crazy,  or 
 beside  himself,  and  made  a  banter  and  ridicule  of  all 
 that  he  said. 
 
 In  the  morning,  as  soon  as  it  was  day,  one  of  the  an- 
 gels observing  Lot  to  linger,  (possibly  to  pack  up  some  of 
 his  most  valuable  goods,)  took  him,  his  wife,  .and  his  two 
 daughters  by  the  hand,  and  carried  them  in  a  manner 
 forcibly  out  of  the  city,  bidding  them  to  fly  for  their 
 lives  ;  and,  lest  they  should  be  involved  in  the  common 
 ruin,  to  make  the  best  of  their  way  to  the  mountains. 
 Lot  looking  before  him,  and  perceiving  the  mountains  to 
 be  at  a  good  distance,  began  to  fear  that  he  should  not 
 be  able  to  reach  them  in  time,  and  therefore  entreated 
 the  angel,  that  he  might  be  permitted  to  escape  to  a  small 
 city  not  far  from  Sodom,  then  called  Bela,  but  afterwards 
 Zoar,  which  he  accordingly  granted,  and  for  his  sake 
 spared  the  city ;  but  then  he  urged  them  to  be  expedi- 
 tious, and  to  make  all  possible  haste  thither,  because  they 
 could  not  begin  to  execute  their  commission  until  he  was 
 safely  arrived. 
 
 What  the  angels  enjoined  them  at  their  departure 
 was,  neither  to  tarry  in  the  plain  nor  to  look  behind 
 them.  But  before  they  got  to  Zoar,  so  it  was,  that 
 Lot's  wife,  either  out  of  forgetfulness  of  the  prohibition, 
 or  out  of  love  to  the  place  of  her  habitation,  looking 
 back,  was  turned  into  a  pillar  of  e  metallic  salt,  a 
 lasting  monument  of  God's  vengeance  on  obstinate  and 
 unbelieving   offenders:/  and  no  sooner  were  the   rest 
 
 were  the  husbands  of  some  other  of  Lot's  daughters,  who  were 
 actually  married,  and  had  left  their  father's  house;  which  seems 
 to  be  confirmed  by  the  angels  ordering  him  to  take  his  wife,  and 
 his  two  daughters  that  were  there  present:  but  the  original  words, 
 which  in  our  version  are  rendered  '  his  sons-in-law  which  married 
 his  daughters,'  may  be  translated,  according  to  the  interpreta- 
 tion of  Onkelos  'his  sons-in-law  which  were  to  many,'  &c,  the 
 contract  having  been  passed,  but  the  marriage  not  consummated 
 by  cohabitation. —  Universal  History,  b.  1,  c.  4. 
 
 e  It  is  not  agreed  by  commentators  what  was  the  crime  for 
 which  Lot's  wife  was  so  severely  punished.  Some  are  of  opinion 
 that  she  deserved  it,  merely  for  disobeying  the  commandment  of 
 the  angel,  and  expressing  too  much  concern  for  a  people  that 
 deserved  no  compassion.  Others  say,  that  being  anxiously  soli- 
 citous for  her  daughters  that  were  married  there,  and  turning 
 about  to  see  whether  they  followed  her,  she  saw  the  divine  She- 
 chinah,  or  majestic  appearance  of  God,  descending  to  destroy  the 
 place,  which  was  the  occasion  of  her  metamorphosis.  Others 
 suppose  that,  being  in  confederacy  with  the  Sodomites,  she  told 
 them  that  her  husband  was  distracted,  and  gave  them  notice, 
 when  any  strangers  came  to  lodge  with  him,  by  a  sign  of  smoke 
 by  day,  and  of  fire  by  night;  whilst  others  again  imagine,  that 
 the  Scripture  does  not  represent  the  fate  which  she  met  with  as 
 a  punishment  for  any  crime,  but  as  a  thing  merely  accidental. — 
 Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  4.  There  is  one  circumstrnce, 
 however,  in  the  text,  namely,  that  '  she  looked  from  behind  her 
 husband,'  whom  she  followed,  which  seems  to  be  mentioned  as 
 the  reason  of  this  her  presumption,  because  she  could  do  it 
 without  her  husband's  observation  or  refroof;  to  which  she 
 seems  to  have  had  a  greater  regard,  than  to  the  all-seeing  eye  of 
 God.— Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 f  Gen.  xix.  26.  '  A  p'l'ar  of  salt;'  or,  as  some  understand  it, 
 'an  everlasting  monument;'  whence,  perhaps,  the  Jews  have 
 given  her  the  name  of  Adith  (R.  Elieser,  chap.  25.),  because 
 she  remained  a  perpetual  testimony  of  God's  just  displeasure. 
 For  she  standing  still  too  long,  some  of  that  dreadful  shower  of 
 brimstone  and  fire  overtook  her,  and  falling  upon  her,  wrapped 
 her  body  in  a  sheet  of  nitro-sulphureous  matter,  which  congealed 
 into  a  crust  as  hard  as  stone,  and  made  her  appear  like  a  pillar 
 of  salt,  her  body  being,  as  it  were,  candied  in  it.     Kimchi  calls 
 
Sect.  I.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  189G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A    M.  33*8.  A.  C.  2053.  GEN.  CH.  xx.-xxv. 
 
 151 
 
 arrived  at  Zoar,  but  the  angry  heavens  began  to  pour 
 down  showers  of  liquid  fire  upon  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
 and  the  other  wicked  cities  of  the  plain,  which,  within  a 
 short  time,  so  totally  consumed  them,  that  when  Abra- 
 ham, the  next  morning,  looked  towards  the  country,  he 
 saw  it  all  in  a  smoke,  like  the  smoke  of  a  large 
 furnace.'1 
 
 The  judgment  indeed  was  so  very  terrible,  that  Lot, 
 not  thinking  himself  safe  at  Zoar,  withdrew  to  the 
 mountains,  to  which  he  was  first  directed,  and  for  want 
 of  houses  lived  there,  with  his  two  daughters,  in  a  cave. 
 
 it  a  heap  of  salt,  which  the  Hebrews  say  continued  for  many 
 ages.  Their  conjecture  is  not  improbable  who  think  the  fable 
 of  Niobe  was  derived  hence,  who,  the  poets  feign,  was  turned 
 into  a  stone  upon  her  excessive  grief  for  the  death  of  her  chil- 
 dren.— Patrick,  in  locum. — Ed. 
 
 a  Gen.  xix.  24.  'The  Lord  rained  upon  Sodom  and  upon 
 Gomorrah  brimstone  and  fire.'  These  cities  are  said  by  Moses, 
 on  account  of  their  abominable  impurities,  to  have  been  over- 
 whelmed with  a  torrent  of  liquid  fire,  rained  down  upon  them 
 from  heaven.  This  narrative  is  equally  confirmed  by  profane 
 historians  and  by  modern  travellers.  Diodorus  Siculus  mentions 
 th.'  peculiar  nature  of  the  lake  which  covered  the  country  where 
 these  towns  were  formerly  situated.  "  The  water  of  it  is  bitter 
 and  fetid  to  the  last  degree,  insomuch  that  neither  fish  nor  any 
 other  aquatic  animals  are  able  to  live  in  it."  {Biblical  History, 
 b.  xix.  p  734.)  Tacitus  relates  that  a  tradition  still  prevailed 
 in  his  days  of  certain  powerful  cities  having  been  destroyed  by 
 thunder  and  lightning,  and  of  the  plain  in  which  they  were 
 situated  having  been  burned  up.  He  adds,  that  evident  traces 
 of  such  a  catastrophe  remained.  The  earth  was  parched,  and 
 had  lost  all  its  natural  powers  of  vegetation;  and  whatever 
 sprung  up,  either  spontaneously  or  in  consequence  of  being 
 planted,  gradually  withered  away,  and  crumbled  into  dust. 
 {Tacit.  Hist.  b.  5.  c.  7.)  Strabo,  after  describing  the  nature  of 
 the  lake  Asphaltis,  adds,  that  the  whole  of  its  appearance  gives 
 an  air  of  probability  to  the  prevailing  tradition,  that  thirteen 
 cities,  the  chief  of  which  was  Sodom,  were  once  destroyed  and 
 swallowed  up  by  earthquakes,  fire,  and  an  inundation  of  boiling 
 sulphureous  water.  (Strab.  Geog.  b.  16.)  Maundrell  visited 
 the  lake  Asphaltis  in  the  year  1(397,  and  makes  the  following 
 observations  upon  it: — "  Being  desirous  to  see  the  remains,  if 
 there  were  any,  of  those  cities  anciently  situated  in  this  place, 
 and  made  so  dreadful  an  example  of  the  divine  vengeance,  I 
 diligently  surveyed  the  waters  as  far  as  my  eye  could  reach;  but 
 neither  could  I  discern  any  heaps  of  ruins,  nor  any  smoke 
 ascending  above  the  surface  of  the  water,  as  is  usually  described 
 in  tlit;  writings  and  maps  of  geographers.  But  yet  I  must  not 
 omit,  what  was  confidently  attested  to  me  by  the  father-guardian 
 ami  procurator  of  Jerusalem,  both  men  in  years,  and  seemingly 
 not  destitute  either  of  sense  or  probity,  that  they  had  once  actu- 
 ally seen  one  of  these  ruins ;  that  it  was  so  near  the  shore,  and 
 the  waters  so  shallow  at  that  time,  that  they  went  to  it,  and 
 found  there  several  pillars,  and  other  fragments  of  buildings. 
 The  cause  of  our  being  deprived  of  this  sight  was,  I  suppose,  the 
 height  of  the  water."  {Travels,  p.  85.)  The  account  which 
 Thevenot  gives  is  much  to  the  same  purpose.  "  There  is  no 
 sort  of  fish  in  this  sea,  by  reason  of  the  extraordinary  saltness  of 
 it,  which  burns  like  fire  when  one  tastes  of  it.  And  when  the 
 fish  of  the  water  Jordan  come  down  so  low,  they  return  back 
 again  against  the  stream;  and  such  as  are  carried  into  it  by  the 
 current  of  the  water  immediately  die.  The  land  within  three 
 leagues  round  is  not  cultivated,  but  is  white,  and  mingled  with 
 salt  and  ashes.  In  short,  we  must  think  that  there  is  a  heavy 
 curse  of  God  upon  that  place,  seeing  it  was  heretofore  so  pleasant 
 a  country."  {Travels,  vol.  1.  p.  194.)  See  also  Pocovke's  Tra- 
 vels, vol.  2.  p.  1.  ch.  9.  and  Shaw's  Travels,  p.  346,  4to.— Ed. 
 The  curious  VVormius  tells  of  the  raining  of  brimstone,  May 
 16,  1646.  "  Here,  at  Copenhagen,  when  the  whole  town  was 
 overflowed  by  a  great  fall  of  rain,  so  that  the  streets  became 
 impassable,  the  air  was  infected  with  a  sulphureous  smell;  and 
 when  the  waters  were  a  little  subsided,  one  might  have  collected 
 in  some  places  a  sulphureous  powder,  of  which  I  have  preserved 
 t  part,  and  which,  in  colour  and  every  other  quality,  appeared 
 to  be  real  sulphur." — Alus.  Worm.  b.  1.  c.  2.  sec.  1. — Ed. 
 
 His  daughters  had  lost  their  espoused  husbands  in 
 Sodom  ;  and  now  despairing  of  having  any  other,  they 
 plotted  together  to  deceive  their  father,  and  have  issue 
 by  him.  The  elder  was  the  forwarder  of  this  wicked 
 contrivance  ;  and  therefore  representing  to  her  sister  the 
 condition  they  were  in,  she  proposed  the  expedient  of 
 making  her  father  drunk  with  wine  ;  and  accordingly 
 one  evening  they  put  their  project  in  execution  :  for, 
 having  intoxicated  the  old  man,  they  put  him  to  bed, 
 and  the  elder  lying  with  him,  without  his  privity,  ob- 
 tained her  end.  The  next  night  they  employed  the  same 
 artifice,  and  the  younger  had  her  turn ;  so  that,  in  the 
 event,  they  had  each  of  them  a  son  from  this  incestuous 
 commerce,  whereof  the  elder's  was  called  Moab,  and 
 the  younger's  Amnion,  from  whom  the  Moabites  and 
 Ammonites,  both  bitter  enemies  in  after  times  to  Israel, 
 were  descended.*     But  to  return  to  Abraham. 
 
 After  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  he  re- 
 moved from  Mamre  (probably  to  avoid  the  stench  of  the 
 vale  of  Siddim),  and  came  and  dwelt  not  far  from 
 c  Gerar,  a  city  of  the  Philistines,  at  a  place  named 
 afterwards  Beersheba,  between  Kadesh  and  Shur,  where 
 the  same  adventure  happened  to  him  which  he  had  met 
 with  in  Egypt.  The  king  of  Gerar,  supposing  Sarah  to 
 be  no  more  than  Abraham's  sister  (for  here  likewise 
 she  passed  under  that  character),  d notwithstanding  her 
 advanced  age,  saw  charms  enough  in  her  to  invite  her 
 unto  his  bed  ;  but  God  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  and 
 
 b  Moab  settled  himself  in  the  parts  adjoining  eastward  to  the 
 Salt  Sea,  or  Lacus  Asphaltites,  and  in  the  neighbouring  tract  on 
 the  river  Jordan  eastward ;  for  we  plainly  learn,  that  great  part 
 of  the  kingdom  of  Sihon,  king  of  the  Amorites,  did  formerly 
 belong  to  the  Moabites,  Numb.  xxi.  21.  Ammon  seated  him- 
 self in  the  parts  adjoining  to  Moab;  for  it  is  evident  from  Scrip- 
 ture, that  the  Ammonites  were  formerly  possessed  of  the  parts 
 on  the  east  of  Jordan,  about  the  river  Jabbok,  or  of  the  northern 
 part  of  that  which  was  afterwards  the  kingdom  of  Sihon.  See 
 Numb.  xxi.  13.;  Josh.  xiii.  25.;  and  Judg.  xi.  13,  23.  But 
 these  things  we  shall  have  occasion  to  illustrate  more  fully, 
 when  we  come  to  describe  the  course  of  the  travels  of  the  Israe- 
 lites out  of  Egypt  into  the  land  of  Canaan. — Wells'  Geography 
 of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  1. 
 
 c  Gerar  was  a  regal  city,  situate  not  far  from  the  angle  where 
 the  south  and  west  sides  of  Palestine  meet,  twenty-five  miles 
 from  Eleutheropolis,  beyond  Daroma,  in  the  south  of  Juda ;  and 
 the  country,  to  which  it  gave  the  name,  extended  itself  pretty 
 far  into  Arabia  Petraa.  Beersheba  signifies  '  the  well  of  the 
 oath,'  because  here  Abraham  made  a  covenant  with  Abimelecn 
 king  of  Gerar,  concerning  a  well  which  he  had  digged  haul  by. 
 Here  he  likewise  planted  a  grove,  and  instituted  an  oratory,  or 
 place  of  divine  worship;  and  in  process  of  time  here  was  a  city 
 or  considerable  town  built,  which  is  taken  notice  ol  by  heathen 
 authors  under  the  name  of  Berzimma  or  Bersaba.  Kadesh  was 
 a  city,  lying  on  the  edge  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  to  the  south  ol 
 Hebron;  Shur  was  the  name  of  that  part  ot  Arabia  Petaea 
 which  joins  Egypt  and  the  Red  sea;  and  Bomewhere  between 
 these  two  was  that  well  mar  which  Abraham,  when  he  left 
 Mamre,  fixed  his  habitation.— Weihf  Geography  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  vol.  1.  .    . 
 
 d  Sarah  was  now  ninety  years  old  when  Ahimclccli  took  DOT 
 into  his  family;  whence  it  may  seem  very  strange,  that  a  woman 
 of  her  a°e  should  look  so  very  well,  as  to  be  desired  by  a  king, 
 who  in  those  days  might  have  commanded  the  most  youthful 
 beauties  in  his  whole  dominions.  But,  according  to  some  in- 
 terpreters, people  of  ninety  then  were  as  fresh  and  vigorous  as 
 those  of  forty  now;  and  Sarah  might,  even  in  that  respect,  excel 
 her  coevals,  by  reason  of  her  sterility,  which  is  a  great  preserver 
 of  beauty;  though  others  are  of  opinion,  that  God,  having  taken 
 away  her  sterility,  her  beauty  ret. unci  with  her  Iru.tlulness ; 
 for  by  this  time  il  is  computed  that  she  had  conceived  her  son. 
 — Hotvell's  lliitory,  b.  1. 
 
152 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 M.  2108.  A.  C.  1806;  OR,  ACCOKDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3358.  A.  C.  2053.  GEN.  CH.  xx.— xxv.  11. 
 
 threatened  him  with  immediate  death,  if  he  did  not 
 return  her  untouched  to  her  husband.  Whereupon 
 Abimelech  (for  that  was  the  common  name  in  those 
 days  of  all  the  kings  of  Palestine)  calls  for  Abraham, 
 and  expostulates  the  matter  with  him,  who,  in  excuse 
 for  the  fiction,  alleged  his  fears  lest  the  beauty  of  his 
 wife  should  have  endangered  his  life ;  though  it  was  not 
 altogether  a  fiction,  as  he  said,  because  she  was  so  near 
 a  relation  to  him,  especially  by  his  father's  side,  as 
 might  properly  enough  be  called  a  sister. a  This  apo- 
 logy pacified  the  king  ;  so  that  he  not  only  restored  him 
 his  wife,  but  giving  her  b  a  thousand  pieces  of  silver, 
 desired  her  c  to  buy  a  veil  with  the  money,  which  might 
 
 a  Gen.  xx.  12.  '  And  yet  indeed  she  is  my  sister ;  she  is 
 the  daughter  of  my  father,  but  not  the  daughter  of  my  mother: 
 and  she  became  my  wife.'  This  peculiar  mode  of  contracting 
 marriage  appears,  in  after  ages,  to  have  become  a  common 
 practice.  It  prevailed  at  Athens.  It  was  lawful  there  to  marry 
 a  sister  by  the  same  mother.  Montesquieu  {Spirit  of  Laws,  vol. 
 1.  p.  54.)  says  that  this  custom  was  originally  owing  to  repub- 
 lics, whose  spirit  would  not  permit  that  two  portions  of  land,  and 
 consequently  two  inheritances,  should  devolve  on  the  same 
 person.  A  man  that  married  his  sister  only  by  his  father's  side, 
 could  inherit  but  one  estate,  that  of  his  father ;  but  by  marrying 
 his  sister  by  the  same  mother,  it  might  happen  that  this  sister's 
 father,  having  no  male  issue,  might  leave  her  his  estate,  and 
 consequently  the  brother  that  married  her  might  be  possessed  of 
 two. 
 
 Among  the  Egyptians,  it  was  lawful  for  the  brother  to  marry 
 the  sister  of  either  of  the  whole  or  the  half  blood,  elder  or 
 younger;  for  sometimes  brother  and  sister  are  bom  twins.  And 
 this  license,  in  process  of  time,  descended  also  to  the  Grecians. 
 For  the  example,  drawn  from  Isis,  obtained  among  the  Mace- 
 donians. To  justify  this  incestuous  use  by  yet  more  illustrious 
 examples,  the  Grecians  as  well  as  the  Latins  say  the  gods  them- 
 selves aflected  such  marriages. — Ed. 
 
 b  The  original  word  does  not  so  properly  mean  pieces  as 
 weight,  because  money  was  then  paid  by  weight;  and  may, 
 therefore,  be  interpreted  a  thousand  shekels  of  silver,  that  is, 
 about  fifty-seven  pounds  in  the  value  of  our  present  money. — 
 Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  3.  c.  4. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text,  according  to  our  translation,  are 
 these:—  '  And  unto  Sarah  he  said,  Behold,  1  have  given  to  thy 
 brother  a  thousand  pieces  of  silver;  behold,  he  is  to  thee  a 
 covering  of  the  eyes,  unto  all  that  are  with  thee,  and  to  all 
 others:  thus  she  was  reproved.'  Where  we  must  observe,  in 
 the  first  place,  that  the  word  which  we  render  reprove,  does 
 more  properly  signify  to  instruct,  which  must  certainly  be  the 
 right  sense  of  the  word  here,  considering  that  Abimelech  had 
 already  accepted  of  Abraham's  apology,  and  was  so  far  from 
 irritating  either  him  or  Sarah  by  reproaches,  that,  on  the  con- 
 trary, he  was  endeavouring  to  win  their  friendship  with  very 
 considerable  presents.  But  then,  as  to  the  covering  of  Sarah's 
 eyes,  this  may  be  variously  expounded,  according  as  the  words 
 refer  either  to  Abraham  or  to  the  pieces  of  silver.  If  they  refer 
 to  Abraham,  then  the  meaning  of  the  king's  words  will  be, 
 "  Thou  needest  no  other  defence  of  chastity  than  he;  nor  hast 
 thou  any  reason  hereafter  to  say,  he  is  thy  brother ;  for  so  dear 
 is  he  to  God,  that  God  will  defend  him,  and  he  will  defend  thee ; 
 and  not  only  him,  but  all  that  are  with  thee,  and  that  even 
 among  strangers,  without  any  such  shifts  and  equivocations  as 
 you  have  hitherto  thought  fit  to  make  use  of."  But  if  the  words 
 refer  to  a  present  of  a  thousand  pieces,  then  the  sense  must  be, 
 "  I  have  given  him  that  sum  of  money  to  buy  thee  a  veil,  that 
 all  who  converse  with  thee  here,  or  in  any  other  country  where 
 thou  shalt  come,  may  know  thee  to  be  a  married  woman."  This 
 sense,  indeed,  is  countenanced  by  the  LXX.;  but  others  have 
 thought  that  it  might  better  be  rendered  thus: — "This  money, 
 which  I  have  paid  thy  husband  as  a  mulct  for  my  having  endea- 
 voured to  take  thee  from  him,  will  be  a  means  to  deter  all 
 others  from  having  any  concern  with  thee,  when  once  they  shall 
 hear  how  much  I  have  suffered  upon  that  account."  The  reader 
 is  left  to  his  own  option ;  but  we  should  rather  think  that  the 
 last  of  these  interpretations  is  preferable. —  Patrick  and  Le 
 Cteiv's  Commentary. 
 
 not  only  be  a  covering  to  her  face,  but  in  every  country 
 an  indication  likewise  of  her  being  a  married  woman, 
 because  he  held  it  inconvenient  for  her  any  more  to 
 pass  for  her  husband's  sister.  On  her  husband  he  be- 
 stowed, in  like  manner,  plenty  of  other  kind  of  wealth, 
 and  made  him  a  free  offer  to  live  where  he  pleased  in 
 his  dominions ;  which  generous  treatment  engaged 
 Abraham  to  intercede  with  God  d  to  remove  the  disabi- 
 lity which  he  had  inflicted  on  the  king,  in  order  to  re- 
 strain him  from  Sarah ;  and  to  restore  the  queen  and  the 
 other  women  of  the  nation  to  their  wonted  fertility, 
 which  for  some  time  seems  to  have  been  obstructed. 
 
 A  year  was  now  passed,  and  the  time  appointed  come 
 when  Sarah  brought  forth  a  son,  whom  Abraham,  accord- 
 ing to  the  divine  direction,  called  Isaac,  and  circumcised 
 him  the  eighth  day.  They  were  now  in  the  zenith  of 
 their  happiness.  Sarah  suckled  the  child  herself,  and  e 
 weaned  him  at  the  usual  time  ;  and  Abraham  upon  this 
 joyful  occasion  made  a  great  feast :  but  in  the  midst  of 
 their  festivity,  Sarah  perceiving  that  Ishmael  treated  her 
 son  with  contempt  and  derision,  was  so  enraged  against 
 him,  that  she  never  ceased  importuning  her  husband  to 
 turn  both  mother  and  son  out  of  doors.  Abraham  had 
 the  tenderness  of  a  father  to  his  child.  He  loved 
 Ishmael,  and  was  loth  to  part  with  him;  and  therefore 
 applied  himself  to  God,  in  this  arduous  juncture,  for 
 direction.  But  God  confirming  what  Sarah  had  request- 
 ed, and  promising  moreover  to  make  of  Ishmael  (because 
 he  was  his  son)  a  populous  nation,  though  his  portion 
 and  inheritance  was  not  to  be  in  that  land,  which  was  all 
 along  designed  for  the  descendants  of  Isaac,  he  was  at 
 last  prevailed  on  to  send  him  and  his  mother  away.  / 
 
 Calling  Hagar  therefore,  one  morning  to  him,  he 
 ordered  her  to  take  her  son,  some  water,  and  other  pro- 
 visions with  her,  to  go  into  the  neighbouring  wilderness, 
 and  to  tarry  by  the  side  of  a  certain  fountain  she  would 
 meet  with  there,  until  she  should  hear  farther  from  him. 
 
 d  The  text  tells  us,  that  '  God  had  fast  closed  up  all  the 
 wombs'  of  the  house  of  Abimelech;  which  phrase  in  Scripture 
 does  frequently  denote  barrenness ;  but  that  it  cannot  do  so  here, 
 is  pretty  plain  from  hence,  that  the  history  of  this  transaction  is 
 of  too  short  a  continuance  to  give  space  for  a  discovery  of  this 
 kind,  namely,  whether  the  women,  by  God's  infliction,  were 
 become  actually  barren  or  not.  And  therefore  the  other  opinion, 
 noticed  in  note/,  p.  144,  is  more  probable. 
 
 e  It  is  not  easy  to  guess  how  long  it  was  that  women  gave 
 suck  in  those  days,  because  the  ancient  Hebrews  are  divided 
 about  it  :  some  affirming  that  Isaac  was  weaned  when  he  was 
 two,  some  five,  and  others  not  till  he  was  twelve  years  old.  If 
 however  we  will  judge  by  what  the  young  Maccabee's  mother 
 said  to  him,  '  My  son,  remember  I  have  suckled  thee  three  years,' 
 2  Macch.  vii.  27.  that  time  will  appear  the  most  probable.  For 
 there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  Isaac  was  weaned  before  the 
 usual  term,  for  want  of  care  or  aflection  in  his  mother — Patrick'i 
 Commentaries,  and  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 /  Gen.  xxi.  10.  '  Wherefore  she  said  unto  Abraham,  cast  out 
 this  bond  woman  and  her  son  ;  for  the  son  of  this  bond  woman  shall 
 not  be  heir  with  my  son.'  The  following  extract  will  exhibit  to 
 the  reader  a  striking  similarity  of  practice  with  tliat  to  which  the 
 above  cited  passage  alludes,  and  that  amongst  a  race  of  people 
 very  remote,  both  as  to  local  situation  and  time.  "  The  Alguo- 
 quins  make  a  great  distinction  between  the  wife  to  whom  they 
 give  the  appellation  of  the  entrance  of  the  hut,  and  those  whom 
 they  term  of  the  middle  of  the  hut;  these  last  are  the  servants  of 
 the  other,  and  their  children  are  considered  as  bastards,  and  of  infe- 
 rior rank  to  those  which  are  born  of  the  first  and  legitimate  wife. 
 Among  the  Caribs  also,  one  wife  possesses  rank  and  distinction 
 above  the  rest." — Babie's  Travels  among  Savage  Nations^  in 
 Universal  Magazine,  for  Feb.  1802,  p.  84. — Ed  . 
 
Sect.  1.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  189G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3358.  A.  C.  2053.  GEN.  CH.  xx-xxv.  11. 
 
 She  did  as  she  was  ordered;  but  mistaking-  their  way, 
 and  missing  of  the  fountain,  they  had  quite  exhausted 
 the  little  water  they  had,  and  her  son  being  in  a  high 
 Fever,  and  ready  to  die  with  thirst,  to  shade  him  a  little 
 from  the  scorching  heat,  she  placed  him  under  a  tree, 
 whilst  herself,  despairing  to  find  any  succour  in  the 
 place,  and  not  bearing  to  see  him  expire  before  her  eyes, 
 withdrew  a  little,  and  began  to  bemoan  her  hard  fate, 
 while  with  earnest  cries  and  tears,  she  was  imploring  the 
 divine  help  and  commiseration.  The  divine  help  was 
 not  long  a  coming  ;  for  suddenly  an  angel  from  heaven 
 bids  the  weeping  mother  dry  up  her  tears,  and  fear  not ; 
 tells  her,  that  God  had  heard  the  child's  prayer,  and 
 would  make  of  him  a  great  nation  ;  and,  for  their  present 
 relief,  points  to  her  a  well  of  water,  which  she  had  not 
 perceived  before  ;  and  directs  her  how  to  cure  her  son. 
 Refreshed  with  this  water,  and  supported  with  other 
 things  which  Abraham  (very  probably)  from  time  to  time 
 might  send  them ;  instead  of  going  into  Egypt,  as  they 
 first  intended,  they  here  took  up  their  abode  in  the 
 wilderness  of  Paran,  where  Ishmael,  in  a  short  time 
 growing  a  very  expert  archer,  was  able  to  get  pro- 
 visions both  for  himself  and  his  mother  ;  and  when  he 
 grew  up  unto  man's  estate,  his  mother,  who  was  herself 
 an  Egyptian,  married  him  to  a  woman  of  her  own 
 country,  by  whom  he  had  twelve  sons,  who  dwelt  from 
 Havilah  unto  Shur,  that  is,  in  several  parts  of  Arabia 
 Petraea,  whereof  the  western  part,  towards  Egypt,  is  in 
 Scripture  called  Shur,  and  the  eastern  part  towards  the 
 Persian  gulf,  Havilah. a 
 
 Abraham,  in  the  mean  time,  having  accepted  of 
 Abimelech's  oft'er,  continued  to  live  in  the  land  of  Pales- 
 tine, and,  as  his  riches  and  power  every  day  increased, 
 Abimelech,  fearing  lest,  at  some  time  or  other,  he  might 
 attempt  something  in  prejudice  of  him,  or  his  successors 
 in  the  government,  came  with  the  general  of  his  forces, 
 whose  name  was  Phicol,  and  made  a  solemn  league  of 
 friendship  with   him.  b     Some   c   little   difference   had 
 
 153 
 
 a  The  names  of  these  sons  are  Nabajoth,  Kedar,  Adbeel, 
 Mibsam,  Mishma,  Dumah,  Massa,  Hadar,  Tenia,  Jethur, 
 Naphish,  and  Kedemah,  'twelve  princes  according  to  their  na- 
 tion-,' ( It-ii  xxv.  1 3,  &c. ;  and  as  their  descendants  were,  from  their 
 father,  denominated  by  the  common  name  of  Ishmaelites,  so  from 
 Hagar,  the  mother  of  Ishmael,  they  are  also  called  Hagarens,  or 
 Hagaritcs,  under  which  name  we  find  some  footsteps  of  them  in 
 heathen  authors;  but  certain  it  is,  that  the  Arabians  do,  to  this 
 very  day,  value  themselves  upon  their  being  descended  from 
 Ishmael. —  Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  1. 
 
 b  Gen.  xxi.  23.  '  Swear  unto  me  here  by  God.'  This  land  of 
 oath  appears  not  only  to  have  been  generally  in  use  in  the  time 
 of  Abraham,  but  also  to  have  descended  through  many  genera- 
 tions and  ages  in  the  east.  When  Mr  Bruce  was  at  Shekh 
 Anuner,  he  entreated  the  protection  of  the  governor  in  prosecut- 
 ing his  journey.  Speaking  of  the  people  who  were  assembled 
 together  at  this  time  in  the  house,  he  says,  (Travels,  vol.  1.  p. 
 1  Is.  '•  The  great  people  among  them  came,  and,  after  joining 
 hands,  repeated  a  kind  of  prayer,  of  about  two  minutes  long,  by 
 Which  they  declared  themselves  and  their  children  accursed,  if 
 ever  they  lifted  up  their  hands  against  me  in  the  tell,  or  field  in 
 the  desert;  or  in  case  that  I,  or  mine,  should  fly  to  them  for 
 refuge,  if  they  did  not  protect  us  at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  their 
 families,  and  their  fortunes,  or,  as  they  emphatically  expressed 
 it,  to  the  death  of  the  last  male  child  among  them." — See  also 
 Gen.  xxvi.  28,  29.— Ed. 
 
 c  It  will  not  seem  strange  that  Abraham  should  look  upon 
 the  losing  of  a  well  as  a  matter  of  such  consequence,  considering 
 how  ill  furnished  these  eastern  countries  were  with  water;  and 
 it  was  highly  prudent  of  him  to  complain  of  grievances  now,  before 
 he  entered  into  covenant  with  Abimelech,  that  they  being  once 
 
 arisen  between  Abimelech's  servants  and  Abraham's, 
 about  a  well  which  Abraham's  servants  had  digged. 
 But  after  a  little  expostulation,  they  quickly  came  to  a 
 good  understanding.  The  well  was  restored  to  Abraham, 
 and  the  place  where  they  entered  into  this  solemn  cove- 
 nant was  thenceforth  called  Beersheba.  Here  Abraham, 
 intending  to  end  his  days,  unless  God  should  otherwise 
 dispose  of  him,  planted  a  grove  for  a  place  of  religious 
 worship,  and  built  an  altar,  and  called  on  '  the  name  of 
 the  Lord,  the  everlasting  God,'  who  was  minded  d  to 
 make  one  trial  more  of  his  faith  and  fidelity,  and  a 
 severe  trial  it  was. 
 
 God  had  ordered  him  to  send  away  Ishmael,  and 
 given  him  assurance,  that  the  blessings  promised  to  his 
 posterity  were  not  to  take  place  in  any  part  of  that 
 branch  of  his  family,  but  that  Isaac  should  be  the  son  of 
 the  promise,  and  his  descendants  heirs  of  that  happiness 
 and  prosperity  which  he  had  made  over  to  him  ;  and  now 
 he  was  pleased  to  require  him  with  his  own  hands,  to 
 destroy  this  his  son,  his  only  son  Isaac.  A  cruel  in- 
 junction !  But  Abraham,  we  see,  never  stayed  to  expos- 
 tulate about  the  severity  or  unlawfulness  of  it ;  but  on 
 the  very  next  morning,  without  saying  a  word  to  any  of 
 his  family,  gets  all  things  ready,  and  leaving  it  to  God 
 to  make  good   his   own  promises,  resolves  to  obey.  e 
 
 redressed,  there  might  remain  no  occasion  of  quarrel  afterwards — 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1 Wells  of  water  were  of  great  con- 
 sequence in  those  hot  countries,  especially  where  the  flocks  were 
 numerous ;  because  water  was  scarce,  and  digging  to  find  it  was 
 attended  with  much  expense  of  time  and  labour.  In  Arabia,  the 
 wells  are  generally  dug  in  the  rocks ;  their  mouths  are  about  six 
 feet  in  diameter,  and  they  are  from  nineteen  to  twenty  feet  in 
 depth,  (but  many  of  them,  says  Niebuhr,  are  160  to  170  feet 
 deep.)  Strife  between  the  different  villagers  and  the  different 
 herdsmen  here,  exists  still,  as  in  the  days  of  Abraham  and  Lot ; 
 the  country  has  often  changed  masters;  but  the  habits  of  the 
 natives  both  in  this  and  other  respects,  have  been  nearly  station- 
 ary.— Dr  Richardson's  Travels,  vol.  2.  p.  196. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  that  God  did  tempt  Abraham ;' 
 but  God  is  said  to  tempt  no  man ;  and  therefore  all  that  he  could 
 be  supposed  to  do  in  this  case,  was  only  to  make  trial  of  him ; 
 and  that  too,  not  to  inform  himself  of  the  sincerity  and  steadiness 
 of  his  faith,  but  in  order  to  the  holy  patriarch's  own  justification, 
 and  to  make  him  an  illustrious  pattern  of  an  entire  dependence 
 on  the  Almighty,  to  future  saints  and  confessors.  The  Jews 
 reckon  up  ten  trials  of  Abraham,  of  which  the  last  was  the 
 greatest.  1.  God's  command  to  him  to  leave  his  country.  2. 
 The  famine  which  forced  him  to  go  into  Egypt.  3.  Pharaoh's 
 taking  his  wife  from  him.  4.  His  war  with  the  four  kin<;s. 
 5.  His  despair  of  having  Isaac  by  Sarah,  and  marrying  Hagar  on 
 that  account.  6.  His  circumcision  in  his  old  age.  7.  His  wife's 
 being  again  taken  from  him  by  Abimelech.  8.  The  expulsion  of 
 Hagar  when  she  was  with  child  by  him.  9.  His  expulsion  of 
 her  and  Ishmael.  And  10.  His  oblation  of  his  only  son  Isaac— 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 e  Gen.  xxii.  3.  'Saddled  his  ass.'  There  is  no  ground  Foi 
 supposing  that  the  ancient  eastern  saddles  were  like  our  modern 
 ones.  Such  were  not  kn^un  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans  till 
 many  ages  after  the  Hebrew  judges.  "  No  nation  ot  antiquity 
 knew  the  use  of  either  saddles  or  Btirrups;"  (Goguet's  Origin  „J 
 Laws,  vol.  3.  p.  172.  English  Edit.)  and  even  in  our  own  times 
 Hasselquist,  when  at  Alexandria,  says,  "  1  procuredan  equipage 
 which  1  had  never  u-'d  before;  it  was  an  ass  with  an  Arabian 
 saddle  which  consisted  only  of  a  cushion  on  which  1  could  sit, 
 and  a  'handsome  bridle."  (Travels,  p.  52.)  Buteven  thecushion 
 seems  an  improvement  upon  the  ancient  eastern  saddles,  which 
 were  probably  nothing  mure  than  a  kind  of  rug  girded  to  the 
 beast. — Parkhitrsfs  HA.  Lem.  p.  213. 
 
 Instead  of  saddles  the  ancients  used  a  kind  of  housing  or  horse 
 cloth  which  the  Greeks  called  sage  and  the  Latins  sogum.  '1  his 
 housing  is  to  be  seen  upon  the  horses  represented  on  Trajan  s 
 pillar,  and  in  many  Other  monuments  of  antiquity.— Ld. 
 
154 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  189G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3358.  A.  C.  2063.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxv.  11. 
 
 To  that  purpose,  taking1  his  son  Isaac  with  him,  and 
 some  servants,  with  provisions  and  instruments  proper 
 for  the  sacrifice,  he  sets  out ;  and  a  in  three  days'  time, 
 came  within  sight  of  b  mount  Moriah,  the  place  which 
 God  had  appointed  for  that  dreadful  scene.  Here, 
 leaving  his  servants  behind,  that  they  might  not  disturb 
 him  with  their  intercessions  or  lamentations,  he  goes  up 
 to  the  mount  without  betraying  any  sign  of  grief  or  con- 
 cern that  might  raise  a  suspicion  in  his  son.  His  son, 
 on  the  other  hand,  laden  with  the  wood,  and  the  other 
 materials  for  a  burnt-offering,  but  perceiving  nothing- 
 proper  for  a  victim,  could  not  forbear  asking  his  father, 
 where  it  was  ?  Such  a  question,  at  such  a  time,  was 
 enough  to  have  staggered  any  heart  less  firm  than 
 Abraham's,  who  only  answered  calmly,  '  That  God  would 
 provide  himself  with  one,'  little  thinking  how  propheti- 
 cally he  spake  :  for  he  had  no  sooner  bound  his  son 
 upon  the  wood,  c  and  stretched  out  his  hand  to  give  the 
 fatal  blow,  d  but  God  was  pleased  to  stop  him  short  by 
 a  voice  from  heaven,  forbidding  him  to  do  it,  e  and 
 
 a  The  better  to  explain  how  Abraham  came  to  know  the  place 
 which  God  had  appointed,  the  Jews  have  a  tradition,  that  when 
 God  bade  him  go  thither,  and  offer  his  son,  he  asked  how  he 
 should  know  it?  To  which  the  answer  was,  that  wheresoever  he 
 should  see  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  that  should  be  the  place ;  and 
 that  accordingly,  when  he  came  within  sight  of  mount  Moriah, 
 he  beheld  a  pillar  of  fire,  reaching  from  the  earth  to  the  heavens, 
 whereby  he  knew  that  that  was  the  place — Hottingeri  Historia 
 Orient,  p.  36. 
 
 b  This  mountain  whereon  Abraham  was  ordered  to  offer  his 
 son  Isaac,  was  certainly  the  same  on  which  the  temple  was  after-, 
 wards  built  by  Solomon,  and  on  part  of  which,  namely,  mount 
 Calvary,  Christ  did  afterwards  actually  offer  himself  unto  God  for 
 the  redemption  of  mankind:  which  offering  of  his,  as  it  seems 
 to  have  been  designedly  prefigured  by  the  intentional  ofiering  cf 
 Isaac,  so  it  might  seem  good  to  Divine  reason  to  assign  the  same 
 for  the  typical  offering  of  Isaac,  where  in  due  time,  the  Antitype, 
 our  Redeemer,  was  to  be  offered.  But  instead  of  Moriah,  the 
 Samaritans  read  Moreh,  and  pretend  that  God  sent  Abraham 
 towards  Sechem,  where  certainly  was  Moreh  (Gen.  xii.  6 ;  and 
 Deut.  xi.  30.) ;  and  that  it  was  upon  mount  Gerizim  that  Isaac 
 was  brought  in  order  to  be  sacrificed.  But  this,  in  all  probability, 
 is  no  more  than  a  contrivance  to  enhance  the  gloiy  of  their 
 temple. — Wells'  Geography;  and  Calmet's  History. 
 
 c  The  words  of  God  are,  '  Lay  not  thy  hand  on  the  child, 
 neither  do  thou  anything  unto  him,'  Gen.  xxii.  12;  and  yet  in 
 Heb.  xi.  17,  we  are  told,  '  that  Abraham  offered  up  Isaac  when 
 he  was  tried.'  But  this  is  easily  reconciled,  if  we  do  but  remem- 
 ber that  God  always  takes  that  for  done  (whether  in  the  commis- 
 sion of  sin,  or  performance  of  duty)  where  there  is  a  will  and 
 intention  to  do  it,  supposing  the  person  to  have  an  opportunity. — 
 Street's  dividing  the  Hoof. 
 
 d  Gen.  xxii.  9.  '  And  bound  Isaac  his  son.'  Both  his  hands 
 and  his  feet,  as  it  is  explained  in  R.  Elieser,  c.  31.  When 
 the  Gentiles  offered  human  sacrifices,  they  tied  both  their  hands 
 behind  their  backs. — Ovid.  1.  3.  He  Pont.  Eleg.  2.  Patrick,  in 
 locum. — Ed. 
 
 e  The  words  in  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  are,  '  that  God 
 tempted  Abraham,'  bidding  him  to  go  and  sacrifice  his  son;  but 
 in  ver.  11.  it  is  said,  that  the  angel  of  the  Lord  forbade  him  to 
 do  it :  from  whence  some  may  infer,  that  A  braham  obeyed  the 
 angel,  who  bade  him  spare  his  son,  against  the  command  of  God, 
 .vho  bade  him  slay  him.  But  to  solve  this  difficulty,  (if  it  be 
 thought  any,)  we  must  observe,  that  whenever  the  Holy  Scrip- 
 tures tell  us,  that  God  said  any  thing,  or  that  an  angel  spake, 
 we  are  always  to  understand  both  of  them  to  have  been  present ; 
 for  the  angels  ever  attend  upon  the  Divine  Majesty,  and,  being 
 his  ministers,  do  nothing  but  by  his  order:  so  that  when  he  is 
 said  to  speak,  it  is  by  them ;  and  when  they  are  said  to  speak,  it 
 is  from  him.  It  is  the  Lord,  therefore,  that  speaks,  whosoever 
 be  the  minister. — Patrick's  Commentary.  And  the  speech 
 which  God  makes  to  Abraham,  upon  this  weighty  occasion,  the 
 Jewish  historian  comments   upon  in  this  manner:   "  Hold  thy 
 
 declaring  a  satisfaction  in  this  last  test  of  his  obedience. 
 Surprised  at  the  voice,  Abraham  turns  about  to  see 
 whence  it  came,  and  spies  a  ram  caught  by  the  horns  in 
 a  thick  bush,  which  he  immediately  took,  and  offered 
 up  for  a  burnt-offering  instead  of  his  son ;  and,  in 
 memory  of  the  whole  transaction,  called  the  place  where 
 it  was  done  Jehovah-jireh,  in  allusion  to  the  answer 
 which  he  gave  to  his  son's  question,  '  God  will  provide 
 himself  a  lamb.' 
 
 Thus  having  performed  an  act  of  such  perfect  and 
 heroic  obedience  as  engaged  God  to  renew  his  promise 
 with  great  amplifications,  and  to  confirm  it  to  him  with 
 an  oath,  he  went  and  rejoined  his  servants ;  and  return- 
 ing to  Beersheba,  was  no  sooner  arrived,  but  he  was 
 welcomed  with  the  joyful  news  of  the  increase  of  his 
 family,  namely,  that  Milcah,  his  brother  Nahor's  wife, 
 /had  born  him  a  numerous  issue,  which  g  determined  him, 
 at  a  proper  time,  to  send  thither  for  a  wife  for  his  son 
 Isaac  ;  but h  before  he  did  that,  it  happened  that  his  own 
 wife  Sarah  died,  in  the  L27th  year  of  her  age,  at  Kir- 
 jatharba,  afterwards  called  Hebron,  in  the  country  of 
 Canaan. 
 
 1  Abraham  was  then  probably  at  Beersheba  ;  but  being 
 informed  of  her  death,  he  came  to  Hebron,  there  to 
 mourn,  and  perform  his  last  offices  for  her ;  but  what  he 
 wanted  was  a  convenient  burying-place.  He  therefore 
 addressed  himself  to  the  people,  assembled  in  a  bodyi  at 
 
 hand,  and  spare  thy  son,  for  I  did  not  require  it  of  thee,  out  of 
 any  delight  I  take  in  human  blood,  or  that  I  would  make  a  father 
 the  assassin  of  the  very  child  which  I  myself  have  given  him ; 
 but  to  see  how  far  thou  wouldst  submit  to  thy  God  in  a  self-denial 
 to  thine  own  inclination  and  nature:  but  now,  since  I  find  thy 
 piety  to  be  proof  against  all  temptations,  I  do  here  confirm  over 
 again  to  thee  all  my  former  promises,"  &c. — Joseph.  Antiq.  b. 
 1.  c.  14. 
 
 f  The  children  of  Nahor  hy  Milcah  were  Huz,  Buz,  Kemuel, 
 Chezed,  Hazo,  Pildash,  Jidlaph,  and  Bethuel,  who  begat  Re- 
 becca, the  wife  of  Isaac ;  and  by  his  concubine,  whose  name  was 
 Reumah,  lie  had  Tebah,  Gaham,  Thahash,  and  Maachah,  from 
 whom  the  city  of  Maachah,  or  Abel-Beth-Maachah,  whose  terri- 
 tories are  supposed  to  have  been  situate  between  the  two  Leba- 
 nons,  might  probably  receive  its  name,  Gen.  xxii.  20,  &c. 
 
 g  Nahor  very  probably  either  removed  with  his  father  Terah, 
 as  Abraham  did,  from  Ur  in  Chaldea,  and  settled  at  Haran  in 
 Mesopotamia,  or  not  long  after  followed  them  thither;  because, 
 after  that  the  family  left  Ur,  the  first  news  that  we  hear  of  him 
 is,  that  he  was  settled  at  Haran,  and  there  had  got  a  numerous 
 family ;  and  it  is  upon  the  account  of  his  brother's  residing  there, 
 as  well  as  that  himself  had  once  lived  there,  that  Abraham  calls 
 it  his  '  own  country,'  and  the  place  'where  his  kindred  dwelt,' 
 Gen.  xxiv.  4. 
 
 h  Some  of  the  Arabian  writers  tell  us,  that  when  Sarah  heard 
 that  Abraham  had  taken  her  only  son  unto  the  mountain,  to 
 sacrifice  to  God,  she  fell  into  a  very  great  agony,  which  brought 
 on  a  fit  of  sickness  whereof  she  died.  Etdychii  Annales,  p.  74. 
 Josephus,  indeed,  informs  us  that  she  died  soon  after  this  event; 
 but  if  (as  he  says)  Isaac  was  five  and  twenty  years  old  when  his 
 father  would  have  sacrificed  him,  Sarah  was  ninety  years  old 
 when  she  bore  him,  and  127  when  she  died,  she  must  (accor- 
 ding to  his  own  calculation)  have  lived  eleven  or  twelve  years 
 after  it,  and  this  our  learned  Usher  makes  the  difference  between 
 his  sacrifice  and  her  death. — Calmet's  Dictionary. 
 
 i  There  is  something  of  obscurity  in  tin's  passage  of  the  history. 
 Sarah  is  said  to  have  died  at  Hebron ;  and  yet  we  have  no  notice 
 of  Abraham  removing  from  Beersheba  to  that  place;  so  that, 
 upon  some  occasion  or  other,  we  must  suppose  them  to  have  been 
 parted,  and  that  Sarah  went  to  Hebron,  while  Abraham  kept  still 
 in  his  own  habitation  :  for  to  say  that  Abraham  came  from  his 
 own  tent  to  that  of  his  wife,  to  make  lamentation  for  her,  is  not 
 consistent  with  the  sequel  of  the  text. 
 
 j  The  gates  of  the  cities  in  these  days,  and  for  many  ages  after, 
 
Skct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 155 
 
 A.  M.  2103.  A.  C.  189G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  33«3.  A.  C.  2028.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxv.  11. 
 
 the  gate  of  the  city,  entreating  tliem  to  allow  him  the 
 liberty  of  burying-  his  wife  among  them  ;  for  as  he  was  a 
 stranger  in  the  country,  and  had  no  hand  then  of  his  own, 
 he  could  pretend  to  no  right  of  giving  honourable  inter- 
 ment to  his  dead  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  country,  without 
 the  consent  of  the  proprietors.  He  therefore  desired 
 Ephron,  one  of  the  principal  inhabitants,"  to  sell  him  the 
 field  called  Machpclah,6  with  the  cave  and  sepulchre 
 belonging  to  it.  The  purchase  was  made  before  all  the 
 people  of  Hebron, c  at  the  price  of  400  shekels  of  silver, 
 that  is,  about  sixty  pounds  sterling ; A  and  there  he 
 buried  Sarah,  after  that  he  had  mourned  for  her/  accord- 
 ing to  the  custom  of  the  country. 
 
 were  the  places  of  judicature,  and  common  resort.  Here  the 
 governors  and  elders  of  the  city  met  to  hear  complaints,  admi- 
 nister justice,  and  make  conveyances  of  titles  and  estates,  and, 
 in  short,  to  transact  all  the  public  affairs  of  the  place.  And  from 
 hence  is  that  passage  in  the  Psalmist,  '  They  shall  not  be  ashamed 
 when  they  speak  to  their  enemies  in  the  gate,'  Ps.  cxxvii.  ver.  ult. 
 that  is,  when  they  are  accused  by  them  before  the  court  of  magis- 
 trates. It  is  probable  that  the  room  or  hall  where  these  magis- 
 trates sat  was  over  the  gate,  because  Boaz  is  said  to  go  up  to  the 
 gate ;  and  the  reason  of  having  it  built  there,  seems  to  have  been 
 for  the  conveniency  of  the  inhabitants,  who  being  all  husband- 
 men, and  forced  to  pass  and  repass  every  morning  and  evening, 
 as  they  went  and  came  from  their  labour,  might  be  more  easily 
 called  as  they  went  by,  whenever  they  wanted  to  appeal-  in  any 
 business.  So  that  from  the  whole  it  appears  that  Abraham  could 
 not  have  made  his  purchase  from  Ephron,  without  his  having 
 recourse  to  the  city  gates. —  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 a  It  is  an  observation  of  all  those  who  have  written  about  the 
 sepulture  of  the  ancients,  that  their  dormitories  or  burying- places 
 were  never  in  cities,  much  less  in  temples  or  churches,  but 
 always  in  the  fields  or  gardens.  The  use  of  grottos  or  vaults  is 
 certainly  very  ancient. — Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 b  The  word  in  Hebrew  signifies  double,  whence  it  is  supposed 
 by  some,  that  there  was  one  cave  within  another,  or  two  or  more 
 contiguous  to  each  other,  in  one  of  which  Sarah  was  buried,  and 
 afterwards  Abraham  in  another.  But  those  who  derive  it  from 
 the  Arabic  tell  us,  that  in  that  language  it  signifies  shut  up,  or 
 walled  up,  which,  in  eastern  countries,  was  a  common  way  of 
 making  their  tombs,  to  prevent  thieves  from  harbouring  in  them, 
 or  to  hinder  them  from  being  in  any  manner  violated  or  profaned. 
 And  if  this  be  the  right  derivation,  then  may  the  cave  of  Mach- 
 pelah  he  translated  the  cave  that  was  shut  up. — Calmefs  Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 c  Gen.  xxiii.  11.  'In  the  presence  of  the  sons  of  my  people.' 
 Contracts,  or  grants,  were  usually  made  before  all  the  people,  or 
 their  representatives,  till  writings  were  invented. — Patrick,  in 
 locum. — Ed. 
 
 d  Gen.  xxiii.  )6.  '  And  Abraham  weighed  to  Ephron  the 
 silver.'  Ancient  nations  have  discovered  a  singular  coincidence 
 in  the  management  of  their  money.  The  Jews  appear  to  have 
 u-ed  silver  in  lumps,  perhaps  of  various  dimensions  and  weights; 
 and  certainly,  on  some  occasions  at  least,  impressed  with  a  par- 
 ticular stamp.  The  Chinese  also  do  the  same.  For  "  there  is 
 no  silver  coin  in  China,  notwithstanding  payments  are  made 
 with  that  metal,  in  masses  of  about  ten  ounces,  having  the  form 
 of  the  crucibles  they  were  refined  in,  with  the  stamp  of  a  single 
 character  upon  the  in,  denoting  their  weight." — Macartney,  p. 
 |b0,  vol.  2.  ]).  266,  8vo  edition. — Ed. 
 
 *  What  the  rites  of  mourning  for  the  dead  in  those  days  were, 
 it  is  hard  to  determine,  because  we  have  as  yet  no  particulars  of 
 it  recorded  in  Scripture.  From  the  subsequent  practice,  how- 
 ever, we  may  infer,  that  they  shut  themselves  up  from  company, 
 neglected  the  care  of  their  bodies,  and  abstained  from  their  ordi- 
 nary food.  They  fasted,  and  lay  upon  the  ground ;  they  wept, 
 tore  their  clothes,  smote  their  breasts,  went  barefoot,  and  pulled 
 Off  their  hair  and  beards.  The  time  of  mourning  was  usually  for 
 seven  days ;  but  it  was  commonly  lengthened  or  shortened,  accord- 
 ing to  the  state  or  circumstances  wherein  they  Lund  themselves ; 
 and,  during  this  period,  they  did  not  dress  themselves,  nor  make 
 their  beds,  nor  cover  their  heads,  nor  shave  themselves,  nor  cut 
 their  uails,  nor  go  into  the  bath,  nor  salute  any  body,  nay,  nor  so 
 
 By  this  time  Abraham  was  well  advanced  in  years ; 
 and  being  desirous  to  see  his  son  Isaac  married,  and 
 settled  in  the  world  before  he  died,  he  called  Eliezer  the 
 steward  of  his  household,  and /having  taking  an  oath  of 
 him  S  (in  case  he  died  first)  to  procure  his  son  a  wife  of 
 his  own  kindred,  h  and  not  of  the  Canaanites,  he  sent 
 him  into  Mesopotamia,  with  full  instructions  and  autho- 
 rity to  conclude  the  marriage,  and  with  a  train  suitable 
 to  such  an  embassy. 
 
 Eliezer,  in  coming  to  Haran,  the  place  where  his  mas- 
 ter's relations  dwelt,  stopped  at  the  public  well  (whither 
 it  was  customary  for  the  young  women  of  the  place  to 
 come  every  morning  and  evening  for  water)  to  rest,  and 
 refresh  his  camels ;  »  and  being  pensive  and  solicitous 
 how  to  perform  his  message  to  his  master's  satisfaction, 
 
 much  as  read  the  book  of  the  law,  or  say  their  usual  prayers. 
 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word 
 Mourning. 
 
 f  The  form  in  which  Eliezer  took  his  oath  was,  we  are  told, 
 by  putting  his  hand  under  his  master's  thigh.  This  is  the  first 
 time  we  read  of  that  ceremony,  which  was  afterwards  used  by 
 Jacob  and  Joseph  when  they  were  a  dying,  and  the  oddness  of  it 
 has  inclined  some  judicious  authors  to  think,  that  it  implies  a 
 more  solemn  mystery  than  men  are  aware  of.  Some  suppose 
 that  it  was  swearing  by  the  Messias,  (who  was  to  come  out  of 
 Abraham's  loins  or  thigh,  Gen.  lxvi.  26.)  others,  by  the  cove- 
 nant of  circumcision,  the  part  circumcised  being  near  the  thigh. 
 But  the  most  probable  conjecture  is,  that  as  it  could  not  well  be 
 done  but  in  a  kneeling  posture,  so  it  was  a  token  of  subjection 
 and  homage  from  a  servant  to  his  lord,  he  sitting,  and  his  ser- 
 vant putting  his  hand  under  him;  and  thereby  implicitly  declar- 
 ing, I  am  under  your  power,  and  ready  to  do  whatever  you  shall 
 think  fit  to  command  me.  The  custom,  however,  afterwards,  in 
 swearing,  was  '  to  lift  up  the  hand  to  heaven,'  Gen.  xiv.  22,  and 
 upon  account  of  both  these  ceremonies,  the  Greek  word  opxo;, 
 which  signifies  an  oath,  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the 
 Hebrew  jereck,  a  thigh,  as  the  word  cpvuv,  to  swear,  is  supposed 
 to  come  from  the  Hebrew  jamin,  which  is  the  right  hand. — 
 Ainsu'orth's  Annotations. 
 
 g  Gen.  xxiv.  2,  3.  <  And  Abraham  said  unto  his  eldest  ser- 
 vant of  his  house,  that  ruled  over  all  that  he  had,  put,  I  pray 
 thee,  thy  hand  under  my  thigh,  and  I  will  make  thee  swear  by 
 the  Lord.'  The  present  mode  of  swearing  among  the  Moham- 
 medan Arabs,  that  live  in  tents  as  the  patriarchs  did,  according 
 to  De  la  Rocpje — (Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  152) — is  by  laying  their 
 hands  on  the  Koran.  They  cause  those  who  swear  to  wash  their 
 hands  before  they  give  them  the  book ;  they  put  their  left  hand 
 underneath,  and  the  right  over  it.  Whether,  among  the  patri- 
 archs one  hand  was  under,  and  the  other  upon  the  thigh,  is  not 
 certain  ;  possibly  Abraham's  servant  might  swear,  with  one  hand 
 under  his  master's  thigh,  and  the  other  stretched  out  to  heaven. 
 As  the  posterity  of  the  patriarchs  are  described  b  :  coming  out  of 
 the  thigh,  it  has  been  supposed  this  ceremony  nad  some  relation 
 to  their  believing  the  promise  of  God,  to  bless  all  the  nations  of 
 the  earth,  by  means  of  one  that  was  to  descend  from  Abraham. — 
 Harmer,  vol.  4.  p.  477. — Ed. 
 
 h  Not  but  that  Laban  end  his  family  were  idolaters,  as  well  as 
 the  Canaanites,  but  then  he  was  much  better  than  they,  because 
 he  still  retained  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  as  appears  from  tin- 
 sequel  of  the  history,  (eh.  xxiv.  37,)  though  blended  and  cor- 
 rupted with  very  gross  mixtures  and  additions  of  his  own; 
 whereas  the  Canaanites  had  utterly  revolted  from  it. — GroU  Par. 
 
 i  Gen.  xxiv.  11.  'At  the  time  of  the  evening,  even  the  time 
 that  women  go  out  to  draw  water.'  Homer  mentions  the  same 
 custom  of  women  being  employed  in  drawing  water  among  the 
 Pha'aeians  and  Lsestrygonians. — (Odf/ss.  \  ii.  go.  <t  x.  105. :  Iliad, 
 
 vi.  459.) — Dr  Shaw,  speaking  of  the  occupation  of  the  M Mi 
 
 women  in  Barbary,  says,  "  To  finish  the  day,  at  the  time  of  the 
 evening,  even  at  the  time  that  the  women  go  out  to  draw  wat*  r, 
 they  are  still  to  fit  themselves  with  a  pitcher  or  goat  akin,  and 
 their  sucking  children  behind  them,  trudge  it  in  t J i i  —  mam  er 
 two  or  three  miles  to  fetch  water.'- — (Travels,  p.  4210 — ^'r 
 Forbes  (Oriental  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  79)  likewise  mentions  the 
 practice  of  women  drawing  water,  and  tending  cattle  to  the  lakes 
 and  rivers. — Ed. 
 
156 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1896 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398   A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  sx-xxv.  11. 
 
 he  made  a  mental  prayer  to  God,  that  lie  would  be 
 pleased  to  give  this  token  of  the  successfulness  of  his 
 journey,  namely,  That  the  person  designed  for  his  young- 
 master's  wife  might  discover  it  by  some  token  of  courtesy 
 to  him.  In  the  mean  time  a  Rebecca  came  to  the  well ; 4 
 and  when  Eliezer  desired  her  to  give  him  a  draught  of 
 her  water,  she  offered  her  service,  not  only  to  draw  for 
 him,  but  for  his  camels  likewise,  which  (being  the  very 
 sign  he  requested  of  God)  lie  permitted  her  to  do,  for 
 his  fuller  conviction.  c 
 
 While  he  saw  her  thus  employed,  he  took  notice  that 
 the  damsel  was  exceeding  beautiful ;  and  having  inquired 
 into  her  relations  and  family,  he  found  that  she  was  his 
 master's  brother's  grand-daughter  :  whereupon  he  imme- 
 diately took  out  a  pair  of  gold  ear-rings,  to  the  weight 
 of  two  shekels,  and  a  pair  of  bracelets,  which  weighed 
 about  ten,  with  which  he  presented  her,  desiring,  at  the 
 same  time,  that  if  they  had  any  room  at  her  house  he 
 might  be  permitted  to  lodge  there  that  night.  ^  Her 
 answer  was,  that  that  he  might  do  very  conveniently  : 
 and  so  accepting  of  the  presents,  she  made  haste  home 
 to  acquaint  the  family  with  this  adventure,  leaving  Eli- 
 ezer full  of  contemplations  and  acknowledgments  to  the 
 divine  favour,  for  this  happy,  surprisingly  happy  inci- 
 dent. 
 
 a  Great  were  the  simplicity  and  humility  of  those  early  days, 
 when  persons  of  the  best  rank,  and  of  the  female  sex  too,  did  not 
 disdain  to  be  employed  in  such  servile  offices.  Thus,  in  the  fol- 
 lowing age,  Jacob  found  his  cousin  Rachel  watering  her  father's 
 sheep;  and  several  ages  after  that,  the  seven  daughters  of  Jethro, 
 who  was  a  prince,  as  well  as  a  priest  of  Midian,  kept  their 
 father's  flocks,  and  used  to  draw  water  for  the  cattle.  So  well 
 has  our  author  expressed  that  simplicity  of  manners,  which  we 
 may  observe  in  Homer,  or  Hesiod,  or  any  of  the  most  ancient 
 writers. — Howell's  History,  b.  1. 
 
 b  Gen.  xxiv.  15.  '  Rebecca  came  out,  with  her  pitcher  upon 
 her  shoulder.'  The  same  custom  prevailed  in  ancient  Greece. 
 Homer  represents  Minerva  meeting  Ulysses  as  the  sun  was  going 
 down,  under  the  form  of  a  Phteacian  virgin,  carrying  a  pitcher  of 
 water,  that  being  the  time  when  the  maidens  went  out  to  draw 
 water. 
 
 "  When  near  the  fara'd  Ph;eacian  walls  he  drew, 
 The  beauteous  city,  op'ning  to  his  view, 
 His  step  a  virgin  met,  and  stood  before  ; 
 A  polished  um  the  seeming-  virgin  bore." 
 
 Odyssey,  b.  vii.  25,  Pope. 
 See  also  Odyssey,  b.  x.  105. 
 
 A  similar  custom  prevailed  also  in  Armenia,  as  may  be  seen 
 in  Xenophon  s  Anabasis,  b.  iv. — Ed. 
 
 c  Gen.  xxiv.  20.  '  And  she  hasted,  and  emptied  her  pitcher 
 into  the  trough.'  In  some  places  where  there  are  wells,  there 
 are  no  conveniences  to  draw  water  with.  But  in  other  places 
 the  wells  are  furnished  with  troughs,  and  suitable  contrivances 
 for  watering  cattle.  The  M.  S.  Chardin  tells  us,  that  "  there 
 are  wells  in  Persia  and  Arabia  in  the  driest  places,  and,  above 
 all,  in  the  Indies,  with  troughs  and  ba-ins  of  stone  by  the  side  of 
 them."  Gen.  xvi.  14.  Exod.  ii.  16. — Harmer,  vol.  1.  p.  431. 
 -Ed. 
 
 d  Gen.  xxiv.  22.  '  And  it  came  to  pass  as  the  camels  had 
 done  drinking,  that  the  man  took  a  golden  ear-ring  of  half  a 
 shekel'  weight,  and  two  bracelets  for  her  hands  of  ten  shekels 
 weight,  of  gold.'  The  weight  of  the  ornaments  put  upon  Rebecca 
 appears  extraordinary.  But  Chardin  assures  us,  that  even 
 heavier  were  worn  by  the  women  of  the  east  when  he  was  there. 
 He  says  that  the  women  wear  rings  and  bracelets  of  as  great 
 weight  as  this,  through  all  Asia,  and  even  heavier.  They  are 
 rather  manacles  than  bracelets.  There  are  some  as  large  as  the 
 finger.  The  women  wear  several  of  them,  one  above  the  other, 
 in  such  a  manner  as  sometimes  to  leave  the  arm  covered  with 
 them  from  the  wrist  to  the  elbow.  Poor  people  wear  as  many 
 of  glass  or  horn.  They  hardly  ever  take  them  o:l.  They  are 
 their  riches.'* — Harmer,  vol.  2.  p.  50C.. — Ed. 
 
 As  soon  as  Laban  had  heard  what  his  sister  had  to  tell 
 him,  he  went  immediately,  and  inviting  the  stranger  into 
 his  house,  ordered  all  proper  provision  to  be  made  for 
 the  civil  reception  both  of  himself  and  his  retinue.  At 
 his  first  introduction,  Eliezer  opened  to  the  family  the 
 occasion  of  his  coming ;  acquainted  them  with  the  suc- 
 cess that  had  attended  him  in  his  journey  ;  and  gave 
 them  a  full  account  of  the  circumstances  of  his  master's 
 family  ;  of  the  wealth  and  prosperity  wherewith  God  had 
 blessed  him  ;  of  the  son  and  heir  which  he  had  given  him 
 in  his  old  age  ;  and  of  the  large  expectances  which  this  his 
 heir  had,  not  only  from  the  prerogative  of  his  birth,  but 
 from  the  donation  and  entail  of  all  his  father's  posses- 
 sions. And,  having  in  this  manner  delivered  his  creden- 
 tials, he  demanded  immediately,  even  before  he  did 
 either  eat  or  drink  with  them,  their  positive  answer. 
 
 e  Laban  and  Bethuel  were  both  of  opinion,  that  the 
 divine  providence  was  very  visible  in  this  whole  affair  ; 
 and  therefore  concluding,  that  it  would  be  mighty  wrong 
 to  refuse  Rebecca  upon  this  occasion,  they  consented 
 that  he  should  carry  her  to  her  intended  husband  as  soon 
 as  he  pleased  :  so  that  matters  being  thus  far  agreed  on, 
 he  thought  it  now  proper  to  present  her  with  the  jewels 
 of  silver  and  gold,  and  fine  raiment  which  he  had  brought 
 for  her  ;/  and  he  having  at  the  same  time  made  some 
 considerable  presents  to  her  mother,  and  brethren,  the 
 remainder  of  the  day  they  devoted  to  feasting  and  mirth. 
 In  the  morning  Eliezer,  who  began  to  think  the  time 
 long  till  his  master  was  acquainted  with  the  good  success 
 of  his  negotiation,  desired  to  be  dismissed.  The  request 
 a  little  startled  them.  They  promised  themselves,  that 
 at  least  he  would  stay  ten  days  longer  :  but  he  persisting 
 
 e  This  Bethuel  could  not  be  her  father,  because,  had  he  been 
 so,  it  would  have  been  improper  to  have  had  Laban,  either 
 named  before  him,  or  giving  answer  to  Abraham's  messenger 
 when  his  father  was  by;  and,  therefore,  since  Josephus  makes 
 the  damsel  tell  Eliezer  that  her  father  had  been  dead  long  ago, 
 and  that  she  was  left  to  the  care  of  her  brother  Laban,  this 
 Bethuel,  who  is  here  named  after  Laban,  and  is  never  more 
 taken  notice  of  during  the  whole  transaction,  must  have  been 
 some  younger  brother  of  the  family. —  Universal  History,  b.  1. 
 c.  7. 
 
 f  Gen.  xxiv.  53.  "  Jewels  of  gold  and  raiment.'  Among  the 
 several  female  ornaments  which  Abraham  sent  by  his  servant, 
 whom  he  employed  to  search  out  a  wife  for  his  son  Laac,  were 
 '  jewels  of  silver,  and  jewels  of  gold,'  exclusive  of  raiment,  which 
 probably  was  \cry  rich  and  valuable  for  the  age  in  which  Abra- 
 ham lived.  Rich  and  splendid  apparel,  especially  such  as  was 
 adorned  with  gold,  was  very  general  in  the  eastern  nations  from 
 the  earliest  ages:  and  as  the  fashions  and  customs  of  the  Orien- 
 tals are  not  subject  to  much  variation,  so  we  find  that  this  pro- 
 pensity to  golden  ornaments  prevails,  even  in  the  present  age, 
 among  the  females  in  the  countries  bordering  on  Judea.  Thus 
 Mungo  Park,  in  the  account  of  his  travels  in  Africa,  mentions 
 the  following  singular  circumstance,  respecting  the  ornamental 
 part  of  the  dress  of  an  African  lady:  "  It  is  evident  from  the 
 account  of  the  process  by  which  negroes  obtain  gold  in  Mandir.g, 
 that  the  country  contains  a  considerable  portion  of  this  precious 
 metal.  A  great  part  is  converted  into  ornaments  for  the  women : 
 and,  when  a  lady  of  consequence  is  in  full  dress,  the  gold  about 
 her  person  may  be  worth,  altogether,  from  fifty  to  eighty  pounds 
 sterling." 
 
 We  find  also  that  the  same  disposition  for  rich  ornamental 
 apparel  prevailed  in  the  times  of  the  Apostles;  for  St  Peter 
 cautioned  the  females  of  quality  in  the  first  ages  of  Christianity, 
 when  they  adorned  themselves,  not  to  have  it  consist,  '  in  the 
 outward  adorning,  of  plaiting  the  hair,  and  of  wearing  gold,  or 
 of  putting  on  apparel.'  1  Pet.  iii.  3.  See  also  Psalm  xlv.  9,  13. 
 '  Upon  thy  right  hand  did  stand  the  queen,  in  gold  of  Ophir.  He? 
 clothing  is  of  wrought  gold.' — Ed. 
 
Skct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 157 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1896;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398 
 
 in  his  resolution,  the  thing  was  referred  to  Rebecca,  who 
 consented  to  go  with  him  as  soon  as  he  pleased  :  so  that 
 all  things  being-  presently  made  ready,  and  having0  the 
 bridal  blessing  bestowed  upon  her,  she  took  her  leave 
 and  departed,  with  her  nurse,  b  (whose  name  was  Debo- 
 rah,) and  other  servants  appointed  to  attend  her. 
 
 Whilst  Eliezer  was  conveying  his  fair  charge  to  his 
 master's  house,  Providence  had  so  ordered  the  matter, 
 that  Isaac,  taking  a  solitary  walk  in  the  (ields  that  eve- 
 ning, happened  to  espy  his  servants  and  camels  upon 
 the  road,  and  thereupon  went  forwards  to  meet  them. 
 As  soon  as  Rebecca  was  informed  who  he  was,  she 
 alighted,  and  c  throwing  her  veil  over  her  face  (as  the 
 banner  of  women  then  was)  she  waited  to  receive  his 
 first  compliments.  rf  Isaac,  with  great  respect,  addressed 
 himself  to  her,  and  conducted  her  into  his  mother's  tent, 
 which  was  litted  up  for  her  apartment.  Not  long  after 
 they  were  married  together,  and  Isaac  grew  so  fond  of 
 her,  that  the  love  he  had  for  his  wife  helped  to  alleviate 
 
 a  The  blessing  is  comprised  in  these  words;  '  Be  thou  a 
 mother  of  thousands  of  millions,  and  let  thy  seed  possess  the  gate 
 of  those  that  hate  them ;'  which  was  afterwards  made  a  solemn 
 form  of  benediction  in  leading  the  bride  to  the  bridegroom. 
 
 Gen.  xxiv.  60.  '  And  they  blessed  Rebecca.'  Nuptial  bene- 
 dictions were  used  both  by  the  Jews,  Greeks,  and  Romans. 
 That  of  the  Jews  was  in  this  form — "  Blessed  be  thou,  O  Lord, 
 who  hast  created  man  and  woman,  and  created  marriage,"  &c. 
 This  was  repeated  every  day  during  the  marriage  week,  provided 
 there  were  new  guests. — Ed. 
 
 b  Gen.  xxiv.  59.  '  And  they  sent  away  Rebecca  their  sister, 
 and  her  nurse.'  Nurses  were  formerly  held  in  very  high  esteem, 
 and  considered  as  being  entitled  to  constant  and  lasting  regard. 
 "  The  nurse  in  an  eastern  family  is  always  an  important  person- 
 age. Modern  travellers  inform  us,  that  in  Syria  she  is  consi- 
 dered as  a  sort  of  second  parent,  whether  she  has  been  foster- 
 mother  or  otherwise.  She  always  accompanies  the  bride  to  her 
 husband 's  house,  and  ever  remains  there,  an  honoured  character. 
 Thus  it  was  in  ancient  Greece.'' — Siege  of  Acre,  b.  2.  p.  35, 
 note. 
 
 In  Hindostan  the  nurse  "  is  not  looked  upon  as  a  stranger, 
 but  becomes  one  of  the  family,  and  passes  the  remainder  of  her 
 life  in  the  midst  of  the  children  she  has  suckled,  by  whom  she  is 
 honoured  and  cherished  as'a  second  mother." — Furbes's  Oriental 
 Memoirs,  vol.  3.  p.  134. 
 
 "  In  many  parts  of  Hindostan  are  mosques  and  mausoleums, 
 built  by  the  Mahommedan  princes,  near  the  sepulchres  of  their 
 nurses.  They  are  excited  by  a  grateful  affection  to  erect  these 
 structures,  in  memory  of  those  who,  with  maternal  anxiety, 
 watched  over  their  helpless  infancy;  thus  it  has  been  from  time 
 immemorial.  How  interesting  is  the  interview  which  Homer  has 
 described  between  Ulysses  and  Euryclea." — lb.  3.  p.  141. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  use  of  the  veil  was  the  universal  practice  among  all 
 nations,  as  far  as  history  can  inform  us,  except  the  Spartans,  who 
 are  reported  to  have  been  singular,  in  that  their  virgins  were 
 permitted  to  appear  without  a  veil,  but  after  they  were  married, 
 they  were  never  to  be  seen  in  public  without  it.  It  was  from 
 this  practice  of  veiling  the  bride,  when  she  was  brought  to  the 
 bridegroom,  in  token  both  of  modesty  and  subjection,  that  the 
 presents  which  he  made  her  upon  this  occasion,  were  by  the 
 Greeks  called  ivaxaXwrryi^a,  :  and  thus  the  poets,  in  celebrating 
 the  marriage  of  Proserpine  to  Pluto,  have  this  fiction — That, 
 upon  unveiling  his  bride,  he  presented  her  with  the  island  of 
 Sicily,  in  lieu  of  her  veil,  which  he  took  from  her. — BibUotheca 
 Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 d  It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  that  upon  so  singular  an  occasion 
 no  mention  should  be  made  of  Abraham,  who  was  a  principal 
 party  concerned  herein;  but  for  this  some  account  by  supposing 
 that  Abraham,  before  this,  had  married  Keturah  (though,  not  to 
 break  iu  with  the  account  of  his  son's  marriage,  the  history 
 relates  it  later)  and  resigned  his  estate,  and  the  government  of 
 his  family,  into  the  hands  of  Isaac,  choosing  to  live  the  remain- 
 der of  his  days  in  retirement  with  his  new  consort. 
 
 A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx-xxv.  11. 
 
 the  grief  he  had  long  conceived   for  the  loss  of  his 
 mother. 
 
 After  this  happy  marriage  of  his  son,  Abraham  still 
 finding  himself  strong  enough  to  make  a  new  addition 
 to  his  family,  took  another  wife,  'whose  name  was 
 Keturah,  by  whom  he  /had  six  sons:  but  lest  they 
 should  interfere  with  Isaac  in  his  inheritance  of  Canaan 
 as  they  grew  up,  he  portioned  them  off,  and  sent  them 
 away  towards  the  east,  where,  settling  in  Arabia  and 
 Syria,  they  became  in  time  heads  of  different  nations ; 
 whereof  we  have  footsteps  both  in  sacred  and  profane 
 history. 
 
 This  is  the  substance  of  what  the  sacred  history  re- 
 lates concerning  the  great  patriarch  Abraham.  S  At 
 length,  laden  with  honours  and  outworn  with  age,  after 
 he  had  lived  the  space  of  an  hundred  and  seventy-five 
 years,  he  took  leave  of  this  world;  and  by  his  two  sons, 
 Ishmael  and  Isaac,  was  buried  in  the  cave  of  Machpelah 
 (where,  above  forty  years  before,  he  had  reposited  the 
 remains  of  his  beloved  wife  Sarah),  leaving  a  name 
 famous  to  all  posterity  behind  him. 
 
 e  Keturah  is  supposed,  by  some  Jewish  interpreters,  to  he  the 
 same  with  Hagar,  whom  Abraham,  after  his  wife's  death,  sent 
 for  again,  and  by  her  had  all  the  six  sons  here  mentioned :  but, 
 besides  that  Hagar  must  by  this  time  have  been  above  eighty 
 years  of  age,  and  consequently  too  old  to  bear  so  many  children, 
 the  text  itself  seems  to  be  against  this  supposition;  for  it  informs 
 us,  that  Abraham  added,  or  proceeded  to  take  another  wife, 
 which  is  a  different  thing  to  his  recalling  the  old  one.  The 
 more  probable  opinion  therefore  is,  that  this  Keturah  was  a 
 domestic  of  his  own,  a  Canaanite  perhaps,  whom  he  had  con- 
 verted to  the  true  religion;  but  then  the  difficulty  is,  how 
 Abraham  could  dispose  of  so  many  sons,  in  so  short  a  space  as 
 that  which  intervened  between  his  wife's  and  his  own  death. 
 To  solve  this,  some  have  supposed  that  this  Keturah  became  his 
 wife,  that  is,  wife  of  the  second  order,  long  before  the  death  of 
 Sarah,  even  immediately  after  he  parted  with  Hagar ;  but  then 
 this  supposition  is  contrary  to  the  sense  of  the  original;  and 
 therefore,  if  we  are  minded  to  adhere  to  that,  we  must  say,  that 
 Abraham's  living  almost. forty  years  after  Sarah's  death  gave 
 him  time  enough  to  dispose  of  the  sons  begotten  of  Keturah,  as 
 the  renovation  of  his  strength,  which  was  certainly  miraculous, 
 (for  forty  years  before  he  is  said  to  have  been  dead  to  all  such 
 purposes,  Rom.  vi.  19.)  enabled  him  to  beget  them. — Cut/net's 
 Dictionary,  Ainsworth's  Annotations,  and  Universal  History, 
 b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 f  His  sons  were,  Zimran,  Jokshan,  Medan,  Midian,  Ish- 
 bak,  and  Shuah,  whereof  Jokshan  had  Sheba  and  Dedan ;  Dcdan 
 had  Asshurim,  Letushim,  and  Leummim ;  and  Midian  had  Ephah, 
 Epher,  Hanoch,  Abidah,  and  Eldaah,  Gen.  xxv.  2,  &c.  And 
 the  footsteps  we  find  of  these  in  history,  according  to  the  best 
 conjectures,  are  such  as  follow.  From  Zimran,  in  all  probabi- 
 lity, were  descended  the  Zamarcns,  a  people  mentioned  by 
 Pliny  {Natural  History,  b.  6.  c.  28.)  FromSheba,  the  Sabeans, 
 mentioned  in  Job  i.  15.  From  Dedan,  the  Dedanim,  men- 
 tioned in  Isaiah  xxi.  13.  From  Midian,  the  Midianites,  men- 
 tioned in  several  places.  From  Shuah,  the  Shuites,  mentioned 
 in  Job  ii.  11.  From  Ephah,  was  a  town  of  the  same  name, 
 mentioned  by  Isaiah  lx.  0'.  From  Hanoch,  a  country  culled 
 Canauna,  mentioned  by  Pliny  {Natural  History,  b.  (i.  c.  880 
 And,  to  name  no  more,  from  Medan,  a  country  called  Medians, 
 in   which    is   the    famous    city   of   Mecca,  where    Mahomet  was 
 
 born. Bedford's  Chronology,  b.  3.  c  4.  and  (Fells'  Geography 
 
 of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  1. 
 
 a  This  account  of  Abraham's  death  is  given  by  way  of  antici- 
 pation; for  when  the  text  has  recited  his  sons  and  their  settle- 
 ment, it  brings  him  and  Ishmael  to  their  graves;  not  that  they 
 died  before  the  birth  of  his  two  grandsons,  Jacob  and  Esau,  as 
 the  text  has  placed  things  (for  Abraham  lived  till  they  were 
 fifteen  years  old,  and  Ishmael  till  they  were  Bixty-three),  but 
 having  no  more  to  say  of  the  father  and  the  son,  Moses  here 
 concludes  their  history  at  once. — Lightfoot. 
 
158 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx.-xxv.  11. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 But  we  certainly  judge  wrong-  of  the  merits  of  any 
 author,  when  we  suffer  our  prejudice  to  blind  our  under- 
 standing, and  to  hinder  it  from  attending  to  its  chief 
 drift  and  design.  The  great  end  which  Moses  had  in 
 writing  this  part  of  his  history  was,  to  instruct  the  Jews 
 in  their  rise  and  original,  their  election  and  separation 
 from  the  rest  of  mankind;  and  therefore  fit  it  was,  when 
 he  entered  upon  the  history  of  their  great  founder 
 Abraham,  in  whom  they  became  a  peculiar  people,  a 
 chosen  generation,  and  a  royal  priesthood,  as  the 
 apostle !  styles  them,  that  he  should  lay  aside  his  usual 
 conciseness,  and  endeavour  to  expatiate  a  little  upon  so 
 useful  and  so  agreeable  a  subject. 
 
 The  Spirit  of  God  very  well  foresaw  that  Abraham's 
 character  would  become  renowned  in  future  generations ; 
 that  not  only  the  Jews,  but  several  other  nations,  would 
 lay  claim  to  him  as  their  progenitor ;  that  not  only  the 
 saints  and  prophets  in  the  Old  Testament  would  make 
 him  the  chief  pattern  of  faith  and  obedience  to  God's 
 commands,  but  that,  even  under  the  New,  his  example 
 would  be  propounded  for  our  imitation,  and  2 '  his 
 bosom'  be  made  the  happy  receptacle  of  the  souls  of 
 the  righteous  between  their  death  and  their  resurrection ; 
 and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  led  the  holy  pen- 
 man into  a  longer  recital  of  the  life  and  adventures  of  a 
 person  who  is  styled  '  the  friend  of  God,'  and  '  father  of 
 the  faithful  ;a  who  was  the  great  founder  of  the  very 
 nation  he  was  now  writing  to ;  whose  sons  were  to  be 
 kings  and  princes  in  their  several  distant  countries,  and 
 '  in  whose  seed  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  to  be 
 blessed.' 
 
 AYe  must  observe,  however,  that  one  great  error  in 
 those  that  have  undertaken  to  vindicate  the  Holy  Scrip- 
 
 1   1  Pet.  ii.  9.  2  Matt.  viii.  11. 
 
 a  The  Jewish  writers  tell  us  that  Abraham  was  bred  up  in 
 the  religion  of  the  Zabii,  who  in  those  early  times  made  images 
 or  representations  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  to  worship,  and 
 that  his  father  Terah  was  a  maker  and  seller  of  these  images ; 
 that  Abraham,  being  well  skilled  in  the  astronomy  of  those 
 times,  learned  from  thence  that  the  celestial  bodies  could  neither 
 make  nor  move  themselves  by  their  own  power,  but  that  there 
 was  one  only  God,  who  created,  preserved,  and  governed  all 
 other  things,  and  that  therefore  they  ought  to  worship  him 
 alone;  that  his  father  Terah  going  from  home  about  particular 
 business,  and  leaving  Abraham  in  the  shop  to  sell  the  images, 
 he  in  his  absence  broke  them  all,  except  the  largest  of  them ; 
 that  upon  this  Terah,  being  angry,  brought  Abraham  before  the 
 chief  king  of  the  Assyrian  monarchy,  to  be  punished  for  this 
 crime;  that  the  king,  being  one  of  the  Magi,  commanded 
 Abraham  to  worship  the  fire;  and  upon  his  refusal,  ordered  him 
 to  be  thrown  into  a  hot  burning  furnace;  but  that  Abraham 
 came  out  unhurt,  in  the  presence,  and  to  the  admiration  of  them 
 all.  Maimonides  in  Mor.  Nevoc.  b.  2.  c.  29;  Jad.  Chaz.  de 
 Jdololatria,  c.  1. ;  Shalsheleth,  p.  8. ;  Ii/chasin,  part  9.  fol.  1. — 
 But  some  think  that  this  whole  story  lose  from  taking  the  word 
 Ur  to  signify  the  fire,  as  it  is  in  the  Hebrew,  and  thence  inter- 
 preting the  saying  of  God  to  Abraham  in  this  manner: — 'I  am 
 the  Lord,  that  brought  thee  out  of  the  fire  of  the  Chaldeans,  to 
 give  thee  this  land  to  inherit  it.'  Since  it  is  expressly  said, 
 however,  (Gen.  xi.  31.)  that  Terah,  Lot,  Abraham,  and  Sarah 
 his  wife,  came  all  forth  together  out  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  it 
 may  therefore  very  properly  be  taken  for  a  city  dedicated  to  the 
 fire,  which  was  there  principally  worshipped,  and  from  thence 
 it  might  take  its  name. 
 
 tures  is,  their  unwillingness  to  suppose  any  faults  in  the 
 lives  of  the  ancient  patriarchs  ;  and  therefore  they  study 
 to  apologize  for  every  thing  they  did,  and  sometimes 
 labour  even  to  consecrate  their  very  vices.  Their 
 opinion  is,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  prescribed  them  as 
 patterns  every  way  worthy  of  our  imitation  ;  and  there- 
 fore they  think  it  a  disparagement  to  the  Scriptures 
 themselves  if  any  blemish  or  defect  should  occur  in 
 these  men's  characters,  whereas  the  Scriptures  have  no 
 manner  of  concern  in  any  such  thing.  Their  purpose 
 is  to  represent  mankind  as  they  are,  clothed  with  infir- 
 mities, and  beset  with  temptations  to  sin;  and  it  is  a 
 glorious  instance  of  their  truth  and  veracity,  when  we 
 find  the  faults  and  failings  of  some  of  their  greatest 
 worthies  related  as  they  really  happened,  and  set  in  a 
 true  light,  without  extenuation  or  excuse.  "  The  most 
 celebrated  of  the  saints  of  God,"  3says  St  Austin,  "  are 
 not  impeccable ;  and  from  their  faults  there  is  no 
 arguing  to  the  prejudice  of  the  book  in  which,  as  we 
 find  them  recorded  as  matter  of  history,  so  we  find  them 
 condemned  as  matter  of  morality.  God  has  informed 
 us,"  says  he,  "  of  what  passed,  but  not  authorized  it, 
 and  set  the  example  before  us,  not  for  a  pattern,  but  for 
 a  warning." 
 
 Abraham,  in  the  age  wherein  he  lived,  was  certainly 
 accounted  a  man  of  great  piety  and  worth.  *  We  have 
 the  testimony  of  several  heathen  authors  in  his  favour ;  * 
 and  Berosus  in  particular,5  as  he  is  quoted  by  Josephus, 
 gives  us  this  character  of  him,  namely,  that  in  the  tenth 
 generation  after  the  flood  there  was  a  man  among  the 
 Chaldeans  who  was  very  just,  and  great,  and  sought 
 after  heavenly  things.  But  notwithstanding  this,  it  must 
 be  acknowledged,  that  in  this  instance  of  denying  his 
 wife  Sarah,  he  was  guilty  at  least  of  a  manifest  dissi- 
 mulation. 
 
 It  is  in  vain  to  say,  c  that  she  was  really  his  sister  by 
 another  wife,  whom  his  father  Terah  might  marry  after 
 the  death  of  his  mother;  for  this  brings  upon  him  the 
 charge  of  incest.  It  is  in  vain  to  say, 7  that  as  he  was 
 a  prophet,  he  was  directed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  make 
 use  of  this  subterfuge,  in  order  to  preserve  his  life ;  for 
 this  is  making  God  the  author  of  sin.  It  is  in  vain  to 
 say,  8  that  what  he  declared  was  truth,  though  not  the 
 whole  truth ;  that  he  concealed  what  was  proper,  and 
 told  nothing  that  was  false ;  because  his  declaring  her 
 to  be  his  sister  was  in  effect  denying  her  to  be  his  wife, 
 which  was  a  direct  falsehood.  Men  certainly  have  a 
 right  to  conceal  their  sentiments,  upon  several  occa- 
 sions, by  a  prudent  silence;  but  whenever  they  make 
 
 3  Faustus,  b.  22.  c.  41.         4  See  Grot,  de  Verit.  b.  3.  s.  16. 
 s  B.  1.  c.  8.       6  Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Sarah. 
 
 7  See  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2,  Essay  4. 
 
 8  Waterland's  Scripture  Vindication,  part  1. 
 
 b  Profane  authors,  if  possible,  say  more  in  the  praise  and 
 commendation  of  Abraham  than  do  the  sacred ;  but  there  is 
 reason  enough  to  believe  that  their  accounts  are  loaded  witfl 
 fictions.  Some  have  averred  that  he  reigned  at  Damascus; 
 others,  that  he  dwelt  a  long  time  in  Egypt,  and  taught  the 
 Egytians  astronomy  and  arithmetic.  Some  say  that  he  invented 
 letters  and  the  Hebrew  language ;  that  he  was  author  of  several 
 works,  and,  among  others,  of  a  famous  book  entitled  "Jezira,'' 
 or  "the  Creation:'"  and  among  the  Persians,  so  great  a  man 
 was  he  accounted,  that  the  Magi,  or  worshippers  of  fire,  believe 
 Zoroastres,  who  was  their  prophet,  to  be  the  same  with  the 
 patriarch  Abraham. — Calmet's  Dictionary. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 159 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  KALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH. 
 
 use  of  words,  and  pretend  thereby  to  discover  their 
 thoughts,  they  impose  upon  their  hearers,  if  they  do  not 
 really  express  what  they  pretend ;  and  in  this  the  very 
 formality  of  lying  does  consist,  namely,  in  a  settled 
 intention  to  deceive  others.  1  "For  whatever  is  said, 
 whether  in  itself  it  be  true  or  false,  whether  it  agrees 
 with  the  thoughts  of  the  speaker  or  not,  yet  if  it  plainly 
 tends  to  deceive  the  hearer ;  if  he  who  says  it  perceives 
 the  tendency,  and  accordingly  uses  it  to  this  end,  how- 
 ever disguised  it  is,  under  whatever  forms  it  is  expressed, 
 it  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  lie." 
 
 It  is  in  vain,  then,  to  pretend  to  assoil  the  patriarch 
 from  the  imputation  of  lying  or  dissimulation  in  this 
 case ;  but  then  this  may  be  said  in  extenuation  of  his 
 fault,  that  it  proceeded  from  a  weakness  of  faith,  and  a 
 prevalency  of  fear,  which  are  sometimes  found  to  be 
 incident  to  the  best  of  men.  He  considered  himself  as 
 a  stranger  among  a  licentious  sort  of  people,  and  ex- 
 posed to  the  power  of  an  arbitrary  government;  and, 
 from  a  principle  of  worldly  caution,  both  to  preserve 
 his  own  life  and  his  wife's  modesty,  he  concluded  that 
 this  would  be  the  best  expedient ;  but  much  more  wisely 
 had  he  done,  had  he  committed  the  whole  matter  to 
 God's  management,  in  reliance  on  his  promises,  and  in 
 confidence  of  his  protection. 
 
 It  cannot,  however,  with  any  tolerable  construction  be 
 charged  upon  him,  that  he  went  about  to  betray  his  wife's 
 chastity,  since,  according  to  his  present  sentiments,  he 
 took  the  most  effectual  method  to  prevent  it.  2  For,  in 
 declaring  her  to  be  his  sister,  he  made  it  known  that  she 
 was  committed  to  his  care  and  disposal ;  and  from  hence 
 he  supposed  it  would  come  to  pass,  that  if  any  of  the 
 country  was  minded  to  make  his  addresses  to  the  sister, 
 he  would,  of  course,  come  and  apply  himself  to  the 
 brother.  The  first  motions  of  love  he  knew  were  most 
 impetuous,  and  apt  to  hurry  men  into  violence  and  out- 
 rage ;  and  therefore  he  thought  with  himself,  that  if  he 
 should  pass  for  her  husband,  such  as  were  in  love  with 
 her  would  have  no  other  way  of  accomplishing  their 
 desires  but  at  the  expense  of  his  life  ;  whereas,  if  he 
 passed  for  her  brother,  time  might  be  gained,  the 
 treaty  of  marriage  prolonged,  and  several  unforeseen 
 accidents  happen,  that  might  give  the  divine  providence 
 a  seasonable  opportunity  to  interpose  in  his  favour,  as 
 we  find  it  did. 
 
 Nor  can  the  presents  which  both  Pharaoh  and  Abime- 
 lech  gave  Abraham,  upon  the  delivery  of  his  wife,  with 
 any  justice,  be  imputed  to  his  management ;  since  they 
 were  voluntary  acknowledgments  for  his  interceding  for 
 them ;  oblations  of  gratitude  for  their  recovery  from  the 
 eore  plagues  wherewith  God  had  afflicted  them  ;  and  a 
 kind  of  commutation  for  the  injury  and  affront  they  had 
 put  upon  persons  so  highly  favoured  by  God,  that  3  '  at 
 what  time  they  went  from  one  nation  to  another,  from 
 one  kingdom  to  another  people,  he  suffered  no  man  to 
 do  them  wrong,  but  reproved  even  kings  for  their 
 sakes.' 
 
 Hagar,  according  to  the  opinion  of  some  of  the  rab- 
 bins, who  love  to  magnify  every  matter,  was  one  of  the 
 daughters  of  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt,  whom  he  sent  along 
 
 1  Bishop  Smalridge's  Sermon  on  Lying. 
 
 '  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  4. 
 
 3  Psalm  cv.  13,  14. 
 
 with   Abraham,  when  he  dismissed  him  so  honourably. 
 She  was  an  Egyptian  indeed,  very  probably  one  of  those 
 servants  that  were  given  to  Abraham,  and  was  employed 
 about  Sarah's  person  as  her  waiting-maid  :  but  we  have 
 no  grounds  to  think,  that  a  woman  of  her  extraction  (had 
 she  been  Pharaoh's  daughter)  would  have  condescended 
 to  serve  in  any  capacity.     However  this  be,  Sarah  see- 
 ing herself  now  grown  old  and  barren,  and  knowing  that 
 God  had  promised  a  numerous  posterity  to  Abraham,  be- 
 lieved that,  in  order  to  contribute  to  the  accomplishment 
 of  these  promises,  she  ought  to  give  her  servant  to  him  for 
 a  wife  ;  and  accordingly  she  is  introduced  as  making  the 
 first  offer  :  *  '  Behold  now  the  Lord  hath  restrained  me 
 from  bearing,  I  pray  thee  go  in  unto  my  maid  ;  it  may  be, 
 that  I  may  obtain  children  by  her.'    This  proposal  (as  St 
 Chrysostom  5  observes,)  and  the  soft  manner  of  making 
 it,  discovered  a  very  uncommon  love  and  respect  to  her 
 husband  ;  that  she  herself  should  persuade  and  urge  him 
 to  this  expedient,  in  order  to  make  him  easy  in  that  par- 
 ticular, which  gave  him  so  much  disturbance,  the  want  of 
 issue,  the  default  of  which  she  supposed  to  be  owing  to 
 herself:  a  and  it  was  purely  in  compliance  to  this  soli- 
 citation of  hers,  that  he  took  Hagar  to  his  bed.     Sarah, 
 undoubtedly,  was  by  far  the  more  beautiful  woman,  at 
 least  if  so  good  judges  as  the  king  of  Egypt  and  his  sub- 
 jects may  be  depended  on.  Abraham  had  now  lived  many 
 years,  without  giving  any  occasion  to  have  his  modesty 
 and  continence  suspected.      Hagar  too  was  no  more 
 than  his  wife's  servant,  and  inferior  to  her  in  person  as 
 much  as  in  condition.     In  a  short  time  after,  when,  upon 
 her   conception,   she   grew   undutiful   to   her   mistress, 
 Abraham  never  interposed  in  her  favour,  but  left   her 
 entirely  to  her  lady's  discretion  :  from  all  which  circum- 
 stances  it   appears   that   his  taking    Hagar  to  be  his 
 concubinary  wife,  was  not  from  any  motive  of  sensuali- 
 ty, but  from  a  true  principle  of  conjugal  affection  to 
 Sarah. 
 
 6  God  had  indeed  promised  him  the  land  of  Canaan, 
 and  a  numerous  issue  to  succeed  him  ;  but  whether  the 
 son,  from  whom  that  issue  was  to  spring,  was  properly 
 to  be  his  own,  or  only  adoptive  ;  or  if  his  own,  whether 
 begotten  of  Sarah  or  of  some  other  woman,  was  not  re- 
 vealed to  him.  Seeing,  therefore,  he  had  no  children  of 
 his  own,  and  yet  stedfastly  believed  the  promises  of 
 God,  the  only  way  that  he  could  devise  whereby  to  have 
 these  promises  accomplished,  was  by  way  of  adoption  ; 
 and  therefore  he  says,  7  '  Lo  !  one  born  in  my  house  is 
 my  heir  ;'  upon  which  God  clears  the  first  of  these  doubts 
 to  him,  namely,  whether  his  seed  was  to  be  natural  or 
 adoptive  ;  s '  This  shall  not  be  thine  heir,  but  one  that 
 
 4  Qen  xv;   2.  s  I"  Locum,  Horn.  38. 
 
 6  Augustinus  contra  Faustum,  b.  22.  c.  32. 
 
 7  Gen.  xv.  3.  8  Gen.  xv.  4. 
 
 a  The  words  of  St  Austin  upon  this  occasion  are  very  nervous  and 
 very  significant  .— "  Abraham  used  Hagar  to  rear  an  ofisprmg ;  tor 
 him  not  to  gratify  his  lust:  he  did  not  insult  but  rath.'.-  complied 
 with  the  wishes  of  his  wife,  who  believed  that  it  would  be  a  run- 
 fort  for  her  barrel SB,  if  he  should  go  in  unto  herrnaid,  amce  she 
 
 herself  was  incapacitated  by  old  age.  There  is  here  no  desire  ol 
 wantonness— no  disgraceful  criminality;  for  the  sake >of  offspring 
 the  maid  is  given  by  the  wife  to  tf-fl  husband,  and,  for  tt 
 reason,  is  she  ..reived  by  him."— De  Civil.  Dei,  b.  16.  c.  «i 
 where  he  concludes  with  these  exclamatory  words,  "Ovuum 
 viriliter  utentem  foeminis,  conjuge  temperanter,  ancilla  obtem- 
 perauter,  nulla  intemperanter." 
 
160 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2103.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx.— xxv.  11. 
 
 shall  come  forth  out  of  thine  own  bowels,  shall  be  thine 
 heir :'  but  still  the  second  doubt  remained,  whether  he 
 was  to  be  his  heir  by  Sarah,  or  by  some  other  woman, 
 which,  for  the  farther  trial  of  his  patience,  God  thought 
 proper  to  conceal.  No  wonder  then  if  Abraham,  (hav- 
 ing no  longer  hope  of  issue  by  his  wife,  finding  her  indeed 
 as  impatient  for  a  child  as  himself,  and  desirous  to  have 
 such  a  child  as  she  might  account  her  own,  being  begot- 
 ten by  her  husband  and  her  maid,)  yielded  to  her 
 importunity,  not  so  much  to  please  himself  as  to  gratify 
 her  desire.  And  this  seems  to  be  the  reason  why  Sarah 
 made  choice  of  a  slave  (as  Hagar  is  called  in  the  text) 
 rather  than  a  free  woman,  to  bring  to  her  husband's  bed, 
 namely,  '  that  the  child  which  the  former  might  happen 
 to  bear,  might,  imputatively  at  least,  be  accounted  hers  ; 
 whereas  one  conceived  by  a  woman  that  was  free,  would 
 properly  belong  to  the  mother  herself. 
 
 Whether  polygamy,  in  the  age  of  the  patriarchs,  was 
 innocent  or  no,  is  a  question  that  has  much  employed 
 the  pens  of  the  learned.  a  Most  of  the  ancient  fathers 
 of  the  church  maintain  its  lawfulness,  and  2  some  of 
 our  latter  divines  can  hardly  persuade  themselves,  that 
 a  practice  which  the  most  holy  and  venerable  men 
 ordinarily  engaged  in,  and  during  that  engagement 
 continued  an  intimate  conversation  and  familiarity  with 
 God ;  a  practice  which  God  never  blamed  in  them,  even 
 when  he  sharply  reproved  other  vices,  and  for  which  they 
 themselves  never  showed  the  least  remorse  or  tokens  of 
 repentance,  should  be  detestable  in  the  sight  of  God. 
 Our  blessed  Saviour,  who  has  restored  matrimony  to  its 
 primitive  institution,  has  certainly  declared  it  to  be 
 criminal ;  but  whether  it  was  so,  under  a  less  perfect 
 dispensation,  is  not  so  well  agreed.  At  present,  if  we 
 suppose  it  only  tolerated  by  God  in  the  time  of  the  pa- 
 triarchs, we  shall  soon  perceive  another  inducement  for 
 Abraham's  complying  with  his  wife's  request ;  and  that 
 is,  namely,  the  passionate  desire  for  a  numerous  progeny, 
 which,  in  those  days,  was  very  prevalent ;  so  very  pre- 
 valent that  we  find  men  accounting  of  their  children  as 
 their  riches,  their  strength,  their  glory,  and  several 
 families  reckoning  them  up  with  a  sort  of  pride,  and 
 placing  the  chief  of  their  renown  in  the  multitude  of 
 them  ;  a  '  For  children,  and  the  fruit  of  the  womb,  are  an 
 heritage  and  gift  that  cometh  of  the  Lord  ;  like  as  furrows 
 in  the  hand  of  a  giant,  so  are  young  children.  Happy 
 is  the  man  that  has  a  quiver  full  of  them  ;  he  shall  not  be 
 ashamed  when  he  speaketh  with  enemies  in  the  gate.' 
 
 1  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  C. 
 
 *  See  Saurin  in  Dissertation  19.  3  Ps.  cxxvii.  3,  &c. 
 
 a  The  words  of  St  Ambrose,  b.  I.e.  4,  concerning  the  patri- 
 arch Abraham,  are  very  remarkable,  and  comprehend  indeed  the 
 sentiments  of  most  of  the  rest: — "  Let  us  consider,  in  the  first 
 place,  that  before  the  existence  of  the  law  of  Moses  and  the  gos- 
 pel, no  interdict  was  laid  on  adultery.  The  punishment  of  a 
 crime  begins  with  the  promulgation  of  a  law  prohibiting  that  crime. 
 It  is  not  before  but  after  the  existence  of  a  law,  that  there  is  any 
 condemnation  of  a  culprit.  Therefore  Abraham  did  not  sin 
 against  a  law,  he  only  anticipated  it.  Although  the  Almighty 
 applauded  the  married  state  in  paradise,  yet  he  did  not  condemn 
 adultery."  Durandus,  Tostatus,  Selden,  Grothis,  and  others,  are 
 clearly  of  opinion,  that  before  the  promulgation  of  the  law,  poly- 
 gamy was  no  sin ;  but  as  their  error  turns  upon  this,  that  the 
 first  institution  of  marriage  between  one  pair  in  paradise  was 
 not  designed  by  God  for  a  law,  so  have  they  received  an  ample 
 confutation  from  the  learned  Heidegger,  in  his  Historia  Patriar. 
 vol.  I.  Essay  1,  and  Essay  7.  and  vol.  2.  Essay  6. 
 
 Thus  the  desire  of  a  numerous  issue,  the  entreaty  of  a 
 beloved  wife,  and  the  supposed  innocence  of  concubinage 
 in  that  age,  may,  in  some  measure,  plead  Abraham's 
 excuse  in  assuming  Hagar  to  his  bed.  But  then,  what 
 shall  we  say  for  his  turning  her  away  so  abruptly,  and  in 
 a  starving  condition,  after  she  had  lived  so  long  with  him 
 in  the  capacity  of  a  wife,  and  had  borne  him  a  son  ?  To 
 clear  up  this  matter,  we  must  inquire  a  little  into  the 
 time  and  occasion,  as  well  as  the  manner  and  conse- 
 quence of  this  her  dismission. 
 
 The  whole  account  of  this  transaction  is  thus  related 
 by  the  sacred  historian.  4  '  And  the  child  (meaning  the 
 child  Isaac)  grew,  and  was  weaned,  and  Abraham  made 
 a  great  feast  the  same  day  that  Isaac  was  weaned.  And 
 Sarah  saw  the  son  of  Hagar  the  Egyptian,  which  she  had 
 born  unto  Abraham,  mocking  ;  wherefore  she  said  unto 
 Abraham,  cast  out  this  bond-woman  and  her  son,  for  the 
 son  of  the  bond-woman  shall  not  be  heir  with  my  son, 
 even  with  Isaac.  And  the  thing  Mas  very  grievous  in 
 Abraham's  sight,  because  of  his  son.  And  God  said  unto 
 Abraham,  Let  it  not  be  grievous  in  thy  sight,  because  of 
 the  lad,  and  because  of  thy  bond-woman  ;  in  all  that 
 Sarah  hath  said  unto  thee,  hearken  unto  her  voice  ;  for 
 in  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called  :  and  also  of  the  son 
 of  the  bond-woman  will  I  make  a  nation,  because  he  is 
 thy  seed.  And  Abraham  rose  up  early  in  the  morning, 
 and  took  bread,  and  a  bottle  of  water,  and  gave  it  unto 
 Hagar  (putting  it  on  her  shoulder)  and  the  child,  and 
 sent  her  away,  and  she  departed,  and  wandered  in  the 
 wilderness  of  Beersheba.' 
 
 What  the  manner  of  celebrating  this  weaning  feast,  or 
 feast  of  initiation  was,  we  can  only  conjecture  from 
 certain  circumstances,  and  some  parallel  passages  and 
 customs.  There  are  no  more  than  the  weaning  of  Isaac, 
 and  the  weaning  of  Samuel,  (two  very  extraordinary 
 persons,  both  foretold  by  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  and 
 both  miraculously  born,)  which  are  taken  notice  of  in  the 
 sacred  history.  And  (if  we  may  be  allowed  to  suppose 
 a  parallel  between  them)  as  the  feast  at  the  weaning  of 
 Samuel  was  a  sacred  feast,  and  kept  5  before  the  Lord, 
 (for  the  child  was  brought  by  his  mother  to  the  sanctuary, 
 there  presented,  and  there  initiated,  or  dedicated  by  the 
 high-priest,  whereupon  a  sacrifice  lirst,  and  then  a  feast 
 did  ensue);  so  we  may  suppose, B  I.  That  at  the  weaning 
 feast  of  Isaac,  there  was  a  burnt  sacrifice,  which  Abraham, 
 as  priest  and  prophet,  might  early  in  the  morning-  offer, 
 in  order  to  sanctify  both  the  feast  and  those  that  were  to 
 communicate  in  it :  2.  That  there  were  changes  of 
 raiment  given  to  all  the  guests,  and  to  all  the  servants, 
 to  ke*p  the  feast  in,  and  that,  without  the  festival  robes, 
 no  one  was  allowed  to  sit  down  at  the  table  :  3.  That  a 
 new  sort  of  vesture  was  given  to  Isaac,  as  an  habit  of 
 distinction,  by  which  he  was  declared  heir  of  the  family, 
 and  the  most  honourable,  next  to  his  father  :  4.  That 
 there  was  a  dedication  of  the  child,  or  an  holy  initiation 
 of  him,  in  a  very  religious  and  solemn  maimer,  performed 
 by  both  the  parents  :  5.  That  there  was  probably  a 
 commemoration  of  the  entertainment  of  angels  in  pil- 
 grim's habit,  and  of  the  joyful  message  then  brought, 
 together  with  the  killing  of  the  fatted  calf,  and  other 
 provisions  made  for  them :  and,  6.  That  upon  this  occa- 
 
 4  Gen.  xxi.  S,  &c.  5  1  Sam.  i.  24. 
 
 d  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.  Occasional  Annotations,  24. 
 
Sbct.  I.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES,'  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897 ;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3308.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxv.  It, 
 
 161 
 
 sion,  there  was  certainly  a  sumptuous  entertainment 
 made  for  their  guests,  suitable  to  the  character  of  the 
 master  of  the  feast,  who  was  a  prince  as  well  as  a  pro- 
 phet, and  answerable  to  the  end  and  design  of  it,  which 
 was  to  commemorate  the  highest  divine  blessing  that 
 could  be  given,  not  to  one  family  only,  but  to  all  the 
 generations  of  the  world. 
 
 On  this  festival  occasion,  it  was  very  probable,  that 
 Sarah  perceived  Ishmael  treating  her  son  with  contempt 
 and  derision.  The  initiation  of  Isaac,  and  his  father's 
 declaration  concerning  him,  which  Ishmael,  who  thought 
 he  had  a  prior  right,  was  not  able  to  bear,  was  enough 
 to  exasperate  his  rough  nature  to  commit  such  rudeness, 
 as  could  not  but  break  the  merriment  of  the  feast,  and 
 thereupon  provoke  Sarah  to  exert  her  authority,  by 
 showing  the  difference  between  the  son  of  a  bond-woman, 
 and  the  heir  apparent  of  the  family.  I  say,  to  exert  her 
 authority  ; l  for  as  Hagar  was  Sarah's  dotal  maid -servant, 
 she  was  entirely  at  her  disposal.  Abraham  had  no  cog- 
 nisance of  her  ;  from  his  jurisdiction  she  was  exempt,  and 
 by  marriage-articles  (as  we  call  it)  reserved  to  her 
 mistress  in  property  ;  and  therefore  we  find  God  inter- 
 posing in  the  affair,  and  advising  Abraham,  in  all  that 
 (I  Sarah  should  say  unto  him,  a  to  hearken  to  her  voice.' 
 
 The  expulsion  of  Hagar  and  her  son  is  represented 
 indeed,  by  our  translation,  under  circumstances  some- 
 what dolorous  ;  but  if  Ave  inquire  into  particulars,  we 
 shall  find  them  not  near  so  full  of  distress  as  this  repre- 
 sentation seems  to  make  them.  Abraham  is  said  to  have 
 sent  them  away  early  in  the  morning  ;  but  this  might  be 
 done  on  purpose  to  prevent  what  might  pass  between 
 them,  at  so  sorrowful  a  parting,  from  being  observed  by 
 too  many  eyes.  He  is  said  to  have  '  given  them  bread 
 and  a  bottle  of  water  ;'  but  as  bread  and  water  include 
 eatables  and  drinkables  of  all  kinds ;  so  there  is  no 
 doubt  to  be  made  but  that  Ishmael  was  able  enough  to 
 carry  a  handsome  competency  of  provision  for  a  few 
 days,  or  that  his  mother  might  very  well  carry  a  large 
 bottle  of  water,  or  other  liquid,  to  support  them  for  a 
 week  or  so,  while  they  were  travelling  through  the 
 wilderness.  Their  whole  misfortune  was,  in  mistaking 
 their  way,  and  wandering  about  in  the  desert  until  their 
 water  was  consumed  ;  but  this  was  a  mere  accident, 
 wherein  Abraham  had  not  the  least  concern. 
 
 Ishmael  indeed  is,  in  several  places,  called  a  child, 
 and  from  thence  we  may  suppose,  that  he  was  a  burden 
 and  incumbrance  to  his  mother  :  but  if  we  look  into  his 
 age,  we  shall  find  that  when  Isaac  was  born,  he  was 
 fourteen ;  and  therefore,  allowing  two  years  between 
 Isaac's  birth  and  his  weaning,  he  could  not  be  less  than 
 sixteen  when  Abraham  sent  him  and  his  mother  away, 
 and  was  consequently  a  youth  capable  of  being  a  support 
 and  assistance  to  her.  3  For  the  circumstances  of  the 
 world  we  may  observe,  at  this  time,  were  such,  that  it 
 was  an  easy  matter  for  any  person  to  find  a  sufficient 
 and  comfortable  livelihood  in  it.  Mankind  were  so  few, 
 that  there  was  in  every  country  ground  to  spare  ;  so  that 
 any  one  who  had  flocks  or  a  family  might  be  permitted 
 to  settle  any  where  to  feed  and  maintain  them,  and  so 
 grow,  and  increase,  and  become  wealthy  ;  or  creatures 
 
 1  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.  Occasional  Annotations,  32.    Sec 
 also  the  note  at  the  end  of  the  Objection,  c  iii.  of  this  book. 
 *  Gen.  xxi.  12.  3  Shuekl'oid's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  7. 
 
 in  the  world  were  so  numerous,  that  a  person  who  had 
 no  flocks  or  herds  might,  in  the  wilderness  and  unculti- 
 vated grounds  (as  Ishmael  we  find  became  an  archer) 
 find  game  enough  of  all  sorts  whereby  to  maintain  him- 
 self and  his  dependants,  without  doing  any  injury  or 
 being  molested  for  so  doing. 
 
 Ishmael  indeed  had  for  sixteen  years  continued  in 
 Abraham's  family,  and  at  first  perhaps  it  might  be  dis- 
 puted, whether  he  or  his  brother  Isaac  should  succeed  to 
 their  father's  inheritance  :  but  after  that  this  point  was 
 determined,  and  God  himself  had  declared  in  the  favour 
 of  Isaac,  he  must  of  course  have  become  Isaac's  bond- 
 man or  servant,  had  he  continued  in  Abraham's  family. 
 So  that  it  was  both  kindly  and  prudently  done  of  his 
 father,  to  take  occasion,  from  Sarah's  disgust  against 
 him,  to  emancipate  and  set  him  free,  by  sending  him 
 abroad  to  acquire  an  independent  settlement,  which  was 
 all  the  provision  that  parents  in  those  days  could  make 
 for  their  younger  children.  It  was  the  same  provision 
 that  his  father  Abraham  made  for  the  sons  which  he  after- 
 wards had  by  his  wife  Keturah ;  for  so  we  are  told,  that 
 4  '  he  gave  all  that  he  had  unto  Isaac,  but  unto  the  sons 
 of  his  concubines  he  gave  gifts,  and  sent  them  away  from 
 Isaac  his  son,  eastward,  unto  the  east  country.'  Nay, 
 it  was  the  same  provision  which  Isaac  made  for  his  son 
 Jacob,  though  ho  was  the  heir  of  the  blessing.  AVhen 
 he  went  from  his  father's  house  to  Padan-Aram,  we  read 
 of  no  servants  or  equipage  attending  him,  nor  any  accom- 
 modations prepared  for  his  journey.  He  was  sent  (as 
 we  call  it  now-a-days)  to  seek  his  fortune,  s  only 
 instructed  to  seek  it  among  his  kinsfolk  and  relations, 
 and  he  went  to  seek  it  upon  so  uncertain  a  foundation, 
 that  we  find  him  most  earnestly  praying  to  God  to  be 
 with  him  in  the  way  he  was  to  go,  not  to  suffer  him  to 
 want  the  necessaries  of  life,  but  to  '  give  him  bread  to 
 eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on ;'  and  yet  we  see,  that  by 
 becoming  an  hired  servant  to  Laban,  e  he  both  married 
 his  daughters,  and  in  a  few  years  became  master  of  a 
 very  considerable  substance. 
 
 It  is  our  mistake,  in  the  customs  of  the  times  therefore, 
 that  makes  us  imagine  that  Hagar  and  Ishmael  had  any 
 hard  usage  in  their  ejectment.  Whatever  the  nature  of 
 their  offence  might  be,  or  whatever  grounds  Sarah  might 
 have  for  her  indignation  against  them,  there  is  no  reason 
 to  accuse  Abraham's  conduct  in  this  affair,  since  what  he 
 did  was  pursuant  to  a  divine  direction,  which  he  durst 
 not  disobey ;  was  agreeable  to  the  practice  of  the  times 
 wherein  he  lived ;  and  no  more  than  what  all  other  fathers, 
 in  those  days,  imposed  upon  their  younger  sons  :  since 
 the  hardships  they  suffered  were  accidental,  but  the 
 benefits  which  accrued  to  them  were  designed :  since 
 Abraham,  by  this  means,  rescued  them  from  a  state  of 
 servitude  for  ever  ;  and,  according  to  the  divine  predic- 
 tion, was  persuaded  that  this  would  be  the  only  expedient 
 to  make  of  Ishmael  a  flourishing  nation. 
 
 Abraham's  great  readiness  to  sacrifice  his  son,  upon 
 the  first  signification  of  the  divine  pleasure,  is  an  instance 
 of  duty  and  obedience,  not  to  be  equalled  in  all  the 
 records  of  history.  Sanchoniatho  indeed,  (as  be  is 
 quoted  by  7  Eusebius)  tells  us  of  one  Chronus,  king  of 
 Phoenicia,  who,  in  a  time  of  great  distress,  and  extreme 
 
 4  Gen.  xxv.  (i. 
 
 5  Gen.  xviii. 
 Prasp.  Evan.  b.  I.  c  JO. 
 
 x 
 
 a  Gen   xxx.  43. 
 
162 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxv.  11. 
 
 peril  of  war,  took  his  son  Jeud  (which,  according  to  the 
 Phoenician  language,  means  only-begotten,)  ami  with 
 his  own  hand,  sacrificed  him  on  an  altar  of  his  own 
 erecting.  But  as  a  this  action  was  certaiidy  subsequent  to 
 the  times  we  are  now  speaking  of,  there  are  good  reasons 
 to  believe,  that  the  whole  account  of  it  is  no  more  than 
 a  relation  of  Abraham's  intended  sacrifice  of  Isaac, 
 bating  some  additions  and  mistakes.  1  For  whereas  it 
 is  said  of  this  Chronus,  that  he  was  the  son  of  a  father 
 who  had  three  children  ;  that  himself  had  one  son  only 
 by  his  wife,  but  more  by  other  women  ;  that  he  circum- 
 cised himself  and  his  family  ;  and  that  he  sacrificed  his 
 only  son  with  his  own  hands  ;  all  these  circumstances 
 concur  in  the  case  of  Abraham  :  the  chief  difference  is, 
 that  Chronus  is  by  the  Phoenicians  called  Israel,  which 
 was  properly  the  name  of  Abraham's  grandson  ;  but  this 
 is  a  small  mistake,  considering  that  most  of  the  heathen 
 writers  had  a  general  notion,  that  Israel  was  the  name 
 of  some  one  famous  ancestor  of  the  Israelites,  but  were 
 not  exact  in  fixing  it  upon  the  right  person. 
 
 2  The  only  instance  which  seems  any  way  to  come  near 
 the  case  before  us,  is  that  of  Agamemnon's  consenting 
 that  his  daughter  Iphigenia  should  be  sacrificed ;  but  the 
 disparity  soon  appears,  if  we  consider  that  Agamemnon, 
 in  all  probability,  had  other  children,  and  a  queen  neither 
 barren  nor  old,  and  yet,  sore  against  his  will,  did  he 
 comply,  and  perhaps  for  fear  of  provoking  his  subjects 
 in  arms ;  nor  could  he  bear  the  sight  of  his  daughters 
 last  minutes,  though  he  attained  thereby  his  end,  namely, 
 the  gratification  of  his  ambitious  views  in  the  war  wherein 
 he  was  embarked.  Whereas  Abraham  had  no  other,  nor 
 could  expect  any  other  children  by  his  wife,  but  this  son, 
 who  was  a  pledge  from  heaven  of  all  the  glorious  bless- 
 ings that  God  had  promised  him  ;  and  yet,  upon  this 
 harsh  command,  we  find  him  in  no  uneasiness  or  confu- 
 sion, but  perfectly  composed  and  easy,  fixed  and  resolved 
 to  put  it  in  execution,  and  waving  the  weapon  in  his  own 
 arm,  stretched  out  to  take  away  his  own  child's  life ; 
 though  he  could  not  but  foresee,  that  by  such  an  inhuman 
 act,  he  would  not  only  exasperate  his  own  family  against 
 him,  but  expose  himself  likewise  to  the  hatred  and  indig- 
 nation of  all  the  nations  round  about  him. 
 
 The  truth  is,  several  examples  there  have  been,  espe- 
 cially of  persons  of  a  public  character,  who  have  sacri- 
 ficed themselves,  or  their  nearest  relations  :  but  what  has 
 it  been  to  ?  even  to  desperation,  or  the  apprehension  of 
 human  force  and  power ;  to  a  wicked  and  superstitious 
 custom ;  to  pride  and  vainglory  ;  or  to  the  hopes  of 
 preventing  or  stopping  some  dreadful  and  public  cala- 
 mity ;  but  the  case  of  Abraham  is  so  singularly  circum- 
 stantiated, that  none  of  all  these  can  be  imputed  to  it : 
 the  only  motive  we  can  possibly  imagine,  must  have  been 
 
 1  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  6. 
 s  Bibliotheea  Biblica,  vol.  1.  Occas.  Annot.  28. 
 a  A  learned  author,  in  his  '  Connection  of  Sacred  and  Profane 
 History/having  by  two  different  ways  of  computation,  proved  that 
 Abraham  was  older  than  Chronus,  subjoins  these  words:  "  And 
 thus,  by  both  these  accounts,  Chronus  cannot  be  more  ancient 
 than  Abraham,  rather  Abraham  appears  to  be  more  ancient  than 
 he:  and  this  must  be  allowed  to  be  more  evidently  true,  if  we 
 consider  that  it  was  not  Chronus  the  son  of  Ouranus,  who  made 
 this  sacrifice  of  his  only  son,  but  rather  Chronus  who  was  called 
 Israel,  and  was  the  son  of  Chronus  called  Illus;  and  therefore 
 still  later  by  one  generation." — Vol.  2.  b.  6. 
 
 his  earnest  desire  to  testify  his  obedience  to  God  in  all, 
 even  his  most  arduous  commands. 
 
 How  he  could  certaiidy  know  that  such  a  command 
 came  from  God  will  best  appear,  by  inquiring  a  little  b 
 into  the  several  ways  wherein  we  find  God  revealing 
 himself  to  this  beloved  patriarch.  And  to  this  purpose 
 we  must  observe,  that  at  first  he  left  his  own  country  and 
 kindred  by  the  express  command  of  God,  and  went  into 
 a  strange  land  which  God  had  promised  to  give  his  pos- 
 terity. We  are  not  told,  indeed,  in  what  manner  God 
 appeared  to  him,  when  he  gave  him  this  command  ;  but 
 we  can  hardly  think  that  a  person  of  his  gravity  and 
 years  would  incline  to  seek  unnecessary  adventures  ;  nor 
 can  we  imagine  why  his  aged  father  should  accompany 
 him  in  them,  unless  there  was  a  manifest  conviction  that 
 the  call  was  from  God. 
 
 After  he  had  been  for  some  time  settled  in  Haran, 
 long  enough  to  have  his  family  and  fortune  increased  in 
 it,  and  probably  long  enough  to  like  it,  and  be  contented 
 with  it,  God  commands  him  thence  into  another  strange 
 country,  in  all  appearance  no  better  than  that  where  he 
 then  was,  and  consequently  none  of  his  own  option ;  and 
 there  he  appeared  to  him  the  second  time,  and  renewed 
 his  former  promise  of  giving  him  the  land  whereunto  he 
 had  thus  conducted  him.3 
 
 After  this,  when  he  was  driven  by  famine  into  Egypt, 
 God  sufficiently  manifested  his  signal  protection  of  him, 
 
 2  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  2.  Dissertation  8. 
 b  The  usual  ways  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament,  of  God's 
 revealing  himself  to  his  servants,  were  by  dreams,  by  voices,  and 
 by  apparitions.  1.  Dreams  are,  in  some  places,  called  visions, 
 and  visions  of  the  night;  because  persons,  under  this  form  of 
 revelation,  saw  things,  and  heard  voices,  as  plainly,  to  all  ima- 
 gination, as  if  they  had  been  awake:  but  what  sort  of  ideas  and 
 images  affected  their  minds  at  such  a  time,  and  how  they  dis- 
 tinguished divine  dreams  from  such  as  were  purely  natural,  we 
 are  nowhere  told ;  only,  if  we  may  be  allowed  to  conjecture, 
 1st,  Such  dreams  as  were  divine  had  none  of  those  confused  and 
 idle  phantoms  which  are  found  in  other  dreams,  but  distinctly 
 represented  to  their  minds  whatever  things  or  beings  God  was 
 pleased  to  send,  without  any  mixture  of  foreign  images  or  words: 
 2dly,  They  were  more  lively  than  any  other  dreams;  their 
 images  were  strong  and  vigorous,  and  fixed  deeply  in  the  soul; 
 and,  3dly,  They  were  either  attended  with  the  voices  of  God,  or 
 angels  speaking  distinctly  to  them,  or  had  some  particular  instinct 
 always  accompanying  them.  2.  Voices  were  frequently  heard, 
 without  any  appearance  or  representation,  and  proceeded  some- 
 times from  the  clouds,  from  out  of  the  fire,  out  of  the  whirl- 
 wind, &c,  in  which  cases,  to  judge  of  the  veracity  of  a  reve- 
 lation, it  was  generally  thought  that  when  the  voice  was 
 greater  than  any  human  voice,  (as  it  was  on  the  top  of  the 
 mountain  when  God  delivered  the  law,)  or  proceeded  from  a 
 place  where  no  human  creature  was,  (as  in  the  instance  before,) 
 that  it  came  either  from  God  himself,  or  from  some  messenger 
 sent  from  heaven.  3.  At  other  times,  a  figure,  or  resem- 
 blance has  appeared  to  persons  awake,  talked  with  them,  and 
 done  several  things  in  their  company,  as  if  it  had  been  a 
 human  creature ;  and  yet  the  event  has  shown,  that  it  was  either 
 God  himself,  or  an  angel  concealed  in  human  shape.  And  in 
 this  case,  the  way  of  discerning  them  seems  to  have  been,  either 
 by  the  air  and  majesty  of  their  looks,  (as  in  the  angel  that 
 appeared  to  Manoah's  wife,)  or  by  some  miraculous  actions  that 
 were  above  the  power  of  human  performance  (as  in  that  whicll 
 appeared  to  Gideon.)  In  any  of  these  methods  of  revelation, 
 where  these  several  circumstances  concurred,  it  was  always  pcr- 
 sumed,  that  the  dream,  or  voice,  or  vision,  was  from  God:  since 
 it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  He,  who  sees  and  hears  all  things, 
 and  himself  is  a  lover  of  truth,  would  ever  suffer  those  that  love 
 and  fear  him,  to  be  imposed  upon  by  evil  spirits,  or  even  per- 
 plexed by  the  fantastical  operations  of  nature  itself. — See  my 
 Body  of  Divinity,  part  2.  c.  3. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES'    &< 
 
 IGCJ 
 
 A.  M.  2018.  A.  C.  1897  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALliS 
 
 by  plaguing  Pharaoh  and  his  house  upon  his  account. 
 Upon  his  return  to  Canaan,  he  renewed  his  assurance  of 
 giving  him  the  promised  land ;  and  then  it  is  said,  that 
 '  die  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  him  in  a  vision,'  wherein 
 the  promise  of  an  heir,  and  a  numerous  posterity,  is 
 added  to  that  of  Canaan  ;  and  as  Abraham  requested  a 
 sign  in  confirmation  of  all  this,  so  God  was  pleased  to 
 comply  with  his  request ;  and  accordingly  again  he 
 appears  to  him  in  a  vision,  repeats  again  the  promise  to 
 him,  supports  the  promise  by  a  miracle,  and  confirms  a 
 covenant  by  fire  from  heaven,  to  consume  the  sacrifice 
 which  he  had  commanded  him  to  offer. 
 
 Again,  when  Abraham  was  ninety-nine  years  old,  God 
 appeared  to  him  ;  and  that  his  appearance  was  in  some 
 visible  form  or  figure,  is  sufficiently  clear  from  the  text ; 
 which  tells  us,  '  that  Abraham  fell  upon  his  face  while 
 God  conversed  with  him.'  Here  Isaac  is  promised,  and 
 circumcision  instituted,  a  painful,  hazardous  rite,  which 
 the  patriarch  would  never  have  complied  with,  but  from 
 a  full  conviction  of  a  divine  command. 
 
 After  this  he  appeared  unto  him  under  the  tree  of 
 Mamre,  in  the  shape  of  a  pilgrim ;  and  by  his  whole 
 conversation  with  him,  concerning  the  fate  and  iniquity 
 of  Sodom,  discovered  himself  to  be  God,  or  (to  speak 
 more  properly)  the  Messias  in  human  shape.  Soon  after 
 iliis  he  appeared  to  Abimelech  in  Abraham's  behalf,  and 
 inflicted  a  distemper  upon  his  whole  house,  which  was 
 removed  upon  Abraham's  prayer  ;  and,  soon  after  this, 
 God's  promise  of  an  heir  was  fulfilled,  in  the  birth  of  a 
 son  from  a  barren  woman,  which  was  a  proof  equivalent 
 to  a  thousand  miracles. 
 
 Once  more,  God  commanded  Abraham  to  comply  with 
 his  wife's  request,  in  casting  out  Hagar  and  her  son, 
 though  the  text  implies  that  he  loved  them  both  very 
 tenderly.  This  was  a  command  so  seemingly  cruel  and 
 severe,  that  nothing  but  a  full  conviction  of  its  coming 
 from  God  could  have  exacted  Abraham's  submission  to 
 it :  and  now,  after  all  these  manifestations  of  himself  to 
 the  patriarch,  God  commands  him  to  offer  up  his  son 
 Isaac  ;  and  will  any  one  say  that  Abraham,  by  this  time, 
 had  not  sufficient  evidence  that  this  command  was  of  the 
 same  original  with  the  rest?  God  had,  some  way  or 
 other,  appeared  and  manifested  himself  to  him  nine  times 
 before  this  command.  Twice  in  vision,  twice  in  miracle, 
 twice  under  some  sensible  appearance,  thrice  in  some 
 manner  not  explained.  He  had  given  him  three  preced- 
 ing commands,  which  no  man  in  his  senses  could  obey, 
 without  full  assurance  that  they  were  enjoined  from 
 above.  He  had  often  before  this  time  called  to  him, 
 spoken  to  him,  conversed  with  him,  and,  on  one  occasion, 
 very  familiarly  and  long ;  and,  as  we  may  reasonably 
 suppose,  that  he  always  spoke  with  the  same  voice, 
 there  is  no  doubt  to  be  made,  but  that  he  certainly  knew 
 that  it  was  God  who  spake  to  him  upon  this  occasion. 
 For  why  should  Abraham  suspect  that  God  Almighty 
 would  suffer  an  evil  spirit  to  delude  him  into  the  greatest 
 and  most  irretrievable  calamity,  acting  in  the  honesty 
 and  sincerity  of  his  heart,  and  from  a  principle  of  the 
 most  exalted  obedience  to  the  divine  will  ?  In  so  long 
 a  succession  of  miracles,  discourses,  and  appearances, 
 he  must  have  acquired  as  certain  and  perfect  a  know- 
 ledge of  the  Deity,  whenever  he  vouchsafed  to  reveal 
 himself  to  him,  as  another  man  has  of  his  friend,  when  he 
 
 A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CM.  xx-xxv.  II 
 
 hears  his  voice,  and  converses  in  his  presence.  And  if 
 Abraham  was  fully  satisfied  in  this,  his  obedience  could 
 not  fail  of  being  built  upon  a  good  foundation. 
 
 It  is  allowed,  indeed,  that  there  is  something  shocking, 
 at  first  sight,  in  the  idea  of  a  parent's  taking  away 
 the  life  of  his  own  child;  but  then  an  express  ,„.,.- 
 mand  from  a  competent  authority  alters  the  case,  and 
 makes  that,  which  otherwise  would  be  a  sin,  become  a 
 duty.  It  may  justly  be  said,  that  he  is  a  barbarous 
 parent,  who  commands  his  children  to  be  beat  to  death 
 with  rods  before  his  eyes. — This  position  is  undoubtedly 
 true  in  the  general ;  but  does  it  follow,  from  hence,  that, 
 the  first  Brutus  was  either  a  bad  man  or  a  bad  parent, 
 for  commanding  his  sons  to  be  served  in  this  Banner, 
 when  the  duty  he  owed  to  his  country  required  it  ?  And 
 did  Abraham  owe  less  duty  to  God  than  Brutus  owed  \<> 
 his  country?  A  captain,  who  would  command  his 
 valiant  and  victorious  son  to  be  put  to  death,  for  exirt- 
 ing  his  prowess  upon  the  enemies  of  his  country,  must 
 surely  be  a  monster  among  men.  This  position,  laid 
 down  without  any  limitation,  is  undeniably  true  :  but  will 
 it  therefore  follow,  that  Manlius  was  a  monster,  though 
 he  put  his  son  to  death  for  killing  Geininius,  general  of 
 the  Latins,  contrary  to  the  discipline  of  the  war  ?  And 
 yet  it  would  badly  become  us  to  say,  that  the  discipline 
 of  war  is  a  stronger  obligation  than  an  express,  positive, 
 unerring  command,  from  the  great  Ruler  of  the  world, 
 the  sovereign  Arbiter  of  life  and  death. 
 
 So  good  a  man  as  Abraham  is  represented  could  not 
 but  antecedently  be  satisfied,  that  a  Being  of  infinite 
 wisdom  and  goodness  could  give  no  command  that 
 would  ultimately  terminate  in  calamity  upon  innocence 
 and  obedience;  and,  therefore,  when  a  command  of  an 
 intricate  and  mysterious  nature  was  given  him,  what  had 
 he  to  do  but  to  obey?  He  knew  this  son  whom  God 
 now  demanded  was  given  him  in  an  extraordinary  man- 
 ner, and  why  might  he  not  be  taken  away  in  a  manner  as 
 extraordinary?  And  when  he  was  taken  away,  he  very- 
 well  knew  that  God  could  again  restore  him  in  a  manner 
 yet  more  extraordinary  ;  and  that  raising  him  from  the 
 grave  had  no  more  difficulty  with  infinite  power  than 
 raising  him  from  the  womb  of  a  woman  barren  at  lirst, 
 and  now,  by  the  course  of  nature,  long  past  the  power  of 
 conception;  which  makes  St  Raul's  reflection  a  lively 
 comment  upon  the  principles  of  Abraham's  obedience  <m 
 this  occasion:  l<  By  faith  Abraham,  when  he  m  tried, 
 offered  up  Isaac,  and  he  that  had  received  the  promises 
 offered  up  his  only  begotten  son,  of  whom  it  was  said, 
 that  in  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called,  accounting  that 
 God  was  able  to  raise  him  up,  even  from  the  dead,  from 
 whence  also  he  received  him  in  a  figure.1 
 
 And  this,  by  the  bye,  suggests  g  reason  why  the  belj 
 patriarch,  who,  in  other  cases,  was  charitable  enough  t<> 
 
 intercede  for  the  wicked,  does  not  so  much  as  oiler  up 
 one  petition  for  the  life  of  his  innocent  son.  He  had 
 that  true  sense  of  the  power  and  veraciu  of  God,  mat 
 he  was  fully  persuaded,  that  the  fate  of  hil  child,  and 
 the  tenor  of  God's  promises,  would,  one  way  or  oilier, 
 be  made  consistent  :  and,  therefore,  he  left  it  upon  Lis 
 infinite  wisdom  to  find  out  the  means  of  unravelling  this 
 
 intricate  affair,  without  ever  once  murmuring,  or  making 
 
 tli.'  lea-t  remonstrance.     But,  supposing  that  Abraham 
 ■Heb.  xi.  17,  fcc. 
 
164 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I  IT. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1837;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx.— xxv.  11. 
 
 had  taken  upon  him  to  expostulate  with  God  upon  this 
 hard  injunction  ;  yet 1  what  could  he  have  urged,  but  that 
 the  person  whom  he  ordered  him  to  slay  was  his  son,  his 
 only  son,  his  son  whom  he  tenderly  loved,  and  that  he 
 could  not,  without  the  greatest  force  upon  paternal  affec- 
 tion, lay  violent  hands  upon  him.  But  now,  all  pleas  of 
 this  kind  were  fully  anticipated  by  the  divine  command, 
 '  Take  now  thy  son,  thine  only  son  Isaac,  whom  thou 
 Iovest,  and  get  thee  into  the  land  of  Moriah,  and  offer 
 him  there  for  a  burnt-offering  upon  one  of  the  mountains, 
 which  I  will  tell  thee  of;'  that  is,  "  notwithstanding  he 
 is  thy  son,  thine  only  son,  and  a  son  thou  hast  set  thine 
 heart  upon,  yet  must  thou  sacrifice  him  unto  me." 
 
 In  the  case  of  Sodom,  Almighty  God  is  represented 
 as  deliberating  and  undetermined  ;  and  there  Abraham's 
 humanity  and  the  rectitude  of  his  mind  were  at  liberty, 
 nay,  were  engaged  to  interpose ;  but  in  the  case  of  his 
 own  son,  God  appeared  fixed  and  determined,  and  there 
 his  humility,  and  the  deference  due  to  his  God,  forbade 
 him  to  expostulate.  Not  to  say,  that  if  he  erred  in  the  first 
 case,  he  knew  it  was  the  error  of  an  upright,  a  humane, 
 and  a  generous  spirit ;  but  an  error  in  the  latter  would  be 
 the  effect  of  partiality  and  self-interest ;  and  Abraham's 
 heart  was  too  honest,  and  too  enlarged,  to  allow  him  in 
 a  conduct  that  could  any  way  fall  under  the  suspicion  of 
 such  mean  and  sordid  principles.  This  seems  to  vindi- 
 cate the  conduct  of  Abraham  in  paying  a  ready  obedi- 
 ence to  the  divine  command ;  but  then,  what  shall  we 
 say  to  the  goodness  and  justice  of  God  in  imposing  it  ? 
 
 God  indeed  governs  himself  by  the  eternal  rules  of 
 reason  ;  and  can  give  no  command  in  contradiction  to 
 them ;  but  then  common  sense  tells  us,  that  these  are 
 rules  not  of  human  reason,  but  divine  ;  and  consequently 
 such  rules  as  must  result  from  the  relation  which  the 
 whole  universe,  and  all  the  parts  thereof,  have  to  one 
 another  ;  an  immense  compass  and  variety  of  things, 
 which  nothing  but  infinite  wisdom  can  comprehend ! 
 And  therefore  we  take  quite  wrong  measures,  when  we 
 estimate  the  nature  and  perfections  of  God  from  Avhat  we 
 find  in  ourselves  ;  for  '  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than 
 the  earth,  so  are  his  ways  higher  than  our  ways,  and  his 
 thoughts  higher  than  our  thoughts.' 
 
 Upon  the  supposition,  however,  that  God  really  in- 
 tended that  Abraham  should  have  taken  away  his  son's 
 life,  there  could  have  been  no  injustice  in  the  injunction  ; 
 since  God,  who  is  the  author  and  giver  of  life,  has  .an 
 undoubted  right  to  resume  it,  when,  and  in  what  manner 
 he  thinks  fit ;  and  his  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness 
 secure  us  from  all  suspicion  of  his  taking  it  away  arbi- 
 trarily or  unlawfully  :  so  that  had  the  command  been 
 .actually  executed,  we  must  have  supposed  it  to  have  been 
 wise,  just,  and  good;  because  a  divine  command  neces- 
 sarily implies  wisdom,  and  justice,  and  goodness,  in  the 
 highest  degree,  though  the  reason  of  that  command  should 
 not  not  appear  to  such  limited,  short-sighted  creatures 
 as  we  are. 
 
 But  this  was  not  the  case.  God  never  intended  that 
 this  command  should  be  put  in  execution.  His  only 
 purpose  was,  to  make  a  trial  of  Abraham's  obedience, 
 not  to  inform  himself,  in  any  thing,  who  was  omniscient, 
 and  knew  beforehand,  both  what  was  in  Abraham's 
 heart,  and  how  he  would  acquit  himself  in  this  important 
 
 1  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  2.  Dissertation  S. 
 
 juncture  ;  but  to  make  him  more  perfect  by  suffering,  and 
 his  example  more  conspicuous,  s  '  that  the  trial  of  his 
 faith,'  as  the  apostle  words  it,  '  being  much  more  pre- 
 cious than  of  gold,  that  perisheth,  (though  it  be  tried  by 
 fire,)  might  be  found  unto  praise,  and  honour,  and 
 glory  ;'  and  that  all  future  generations,  reading  the  his- 
 tory of  his  patience  and  perseverance,  his  courage  and 
 constancy,  his  faith  and  hope,  and  magnanimity,  might 
 glorify  God  in  him,  and  look  upon  his  example  as  a 
 shining  light,  which  the  hand  of  Providence  has  set  up 
 in  the  firmament  of  his  church,  to  guide  succeeding  saints 
 in  the  intricate  and  arduous  paths  of  their  duty. 
 
 Those  who  would  gladly  find  any  flaw  in  our  patri- 
 arch's character,  are  apt  to  suggest,  that  his  desiring  of 
 God  a  sign  concerning  the  land  of  Canaan,  which  had 
 been  so  lately  promised  to  him,  (3 '  whereby  shall  I  know 
 that  I  shall  inherit  it  ?')  proceeded  from  a  defect  of  faith, 
 for  which,  as  some  pretend,  he  was  so  renowned.  But 
 without  straining  any  point  to  get  over  this  difficulty,  we 
 may  fairly  own,  that  Abraham  is  here  doing  no  more 
 than  what  many  worthies  of  old  are  known  to  have  done 
 after  him,  when  they  were  put  upon  any  difficult  services  ; 
 namely,  requesting  of  God  some  outward  token  or  repre- 
 sentation, to  strengthen  and  confirm  his  faith  concerning 
 the  divine  promises,  which  is  an  argument  of  modesty, 
 not  of  any  diffidence  in  the  divine  veracity  ;  and  there- 
 fore the  words  are  very  properly  paraphrased  by  St 
 Chrysostom  :  "  I  firmly  believe,  that  what  thou  hast  pro- 
 mised shall  come  to  pass  ;  and  therefore  I  ask  no  ques- 
 tions out  of  distrust ;  but  I  shall  be  glad  to  be  favoured 
 with  some  such  token  or  anticipation  of  it,  as  may 
 strongly  affect  my  senses,  and  raise  my  poor  weak  ideas 
 and  imaginations  about  it." 
 
 Those  that  are  disposed  to  find  faults  are  always  pro- 
 vided with  an  handle  ;  otherwise  one  would  wonder  that 
 Abraham's  making  groves  the  constant  place  of  divine 
 worship,  should  be  ever  brought  as  an  accusation  against 
 him,  merely  because,  in  after  ages,  they  came  to  be 
 perverted  into  scenes  of  the  grossest  superstition  and 
 idolatry :  or  that,  because  his  intention  to  offer  up  his  son 
 gave  umbrage  to  human  sacrifices  afterwards,  he  should 
 be  thought  chargeable  with  the  event.  The  groves  of 
 Moreh  and  Mamre,  which  were  the  principal  ones  that  he 
 planted,  were  4  (as  we  hinted  before)  certain  oratories 
 or  sanctuaries,  exposed  to  the  open  air, 5  but  planted  with 
 trees  for  the  benefit  of  their  shade,  and  for  the  more 
 solemn  composure  of  the  mind,  and  recollection  of  the 
 thoughts  for  heavenly  contemplation.  Before  the  institu- 
 tion of  more  commodious  receptacles  for  divine  worship, 
 these,  and  such  like  places,  were  usually  frequented  for 
 that  purpose ;  and  therefore  they  had  sometimes  the 
 name  given  of  '  the  houses  of  God,'  '  the  courts  of  God,' 
 and  their  trees  were  called  '  the  trees  of  God.'  In  these 
 places  it  was  that  Abraham  offered  up  his  morning  and 
 evening  sacrifice  with  acceptance;  and  if,  in  after  ages, 
 they  came  to  be  applied  to  abominable  purposes,  he  is 
 no  more  to  be  blamed  for  that  abuse,  than  Moses  was  for 
 setting  up  a  brazen  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  which  was 
 afterwards  perverted  to  idolatry,  though  in  its  primary 
 intendment,  it  was  sanative  and  medicinal. 
 
 And  in  like  manner,  if  the  custom  of  sacrificing  chil- 
 
 8  1  Pet.  i.  7.         3  Gen.  xv.  8.  4  See  p.  143,  in  the  notes. 
 
 5  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.  Occasional  Annotations,  20. 
 
Sect.  L]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  ML  2I0S.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx.-xxv.  u. 
 
 165 
 
 dren  took  its  origin  from  some  tradition  founded  on  the 
 history  of  Isaacs  being  offered,  wherein,  I  pray,  is 
 either  Abraham  to  be  blamed,  or  God,  for  appointing 
 him  to  this  office  ;  since,  whether  the  custom  was  prior 
 or  subsequent  to  this  transaction,  God  has  herein  taken 
 an  effectual  care  to  discountenance  it  ? 
 
 1  For  if,  as  some  imagine,  this  impious  and  abomin- 
 able rite  obtained  at  this  time,  it  is  evident  that  nothing 
 could  be  better  calculated  to  abolish  it  than  this  command 
 to  Abraham,  which  was  a  plain  document  to  the  whole 
 world,  that  human  sacrifices  were  not  acceptable  to  God  : 
 for  if  they  could  be  acceptable  from  any  hand,  they  must 
 certainly  have  been  so  from  his,  who,  of  all  men  in  the 
 world,  stood  highest  in  the  favour  of  Almighty  God. 
 And  therefore,  when  it  appears  in  the  event,  that  this 
 command  was  only  in  trial  of  obedience  ;  and  that  when 
 it  came  to  the  point  of  execution,  Abraham  was  expressly 
 forbid  to  execute  it  by  a  voice  from  heaven  ;  and  (to 
 show  God's  aversion  to  human  sacrifices)  by  his  appoint- 
 ment, a  brute  animal  was  substituted  in  the  place  of 
 Isaac  ;  when  all  this  is  considered,  I  say,  we  can  hardly 
 think  of  a  clearer  monition  to  mankind  upon  this  head, 
 than  God's  own  prohibition  of  that  practice  by  a  com- 
 mand from  heaven,  and  a  miraculous  interposition  of  a 
 vicarious  oblation. 
 
 On  the  other  hand,  if  this  impious  custom  had  not  yet 
 obtained,  but  God,  in  his  great  knowledge,  foresaw  that 
 superstition  would  soon  introduce  it ;  what  could  be  a 
 more  effectual  means,  either  to  prevent  or  repress  it,  than 
 the  attestation  of  all  Abraham's  dispersed  servants  and 
 descendants,- vouching  every  Avhere  with  one  voice,  that 
 God  himself  had  prohibited  their  master  from  practising 
 it.  And  it  is  not  improbable  (from  the  fable  of  the  god- 
 dess Diana's  substituting  a  deer  in  the  room  of  Iphigenia, 
 who  was  to  be  offered,)  that  the  memory  of  God's  prohi- 
 biting all  human  sacrifices  was  handed  down  to  late 
 posterity. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  vindicate  some  passages 
 in  Abraham's  life  which  seemed  most  liable  to  exception  ; 
 rind  come  now  to  inquire  into  the  obnoxious  part  of  the 
 conduct  of  his  nephew  Lot. 
 
 2  It  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that  Lot,  who,  by  the 
 assistance  of  his  uncle  Abraham,  had  done  such  signal 
 services  to  the  Sodomites,  was  by  this  time  become  a  per- 
 son of  some  eminence  among  them;  had  probably 
 married  a  woman  of  a  principal  family,  and  was  admit- 
 ted into  some  considerable  post  of  honour  and  authority. 
 The  Jewish  doctors  will  needs  persuade  us,  that  he  was 
 now  one  of  the  judges  in  Sodom,  and,  as  such,  sat  at 
 the  gate  of  the  city,  where  the  courts  of  judicature  were 
 usually  held.  His  sitting  at  the  gate,  however,  seems 
 rather  to  have  been  (according  to  the  hospitality  of  those 
 days)  with  an  intent  to  invite  strangers  into  his  house, 
 the  better  to  secure  them  from  the  libidinous  outrage  of 
 his  neighbours. 
 
 Two  strangers  (who  afterwards  proved  two  angels)  he 
 had  now  under  his  roof,  when  the  inhabitants,  from  all 
 parts  of  the  city,  docking  together,  stormed  the  house, 
 and  demanded  the  two  strangers  to  be  brought  out  to 
 them,  that  they  might  abuse  their  bodies  :  whereupon 
 Lot,  deeply  concerned  lest  the  right  of  hospitality  should 
 
 1  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  2.  Dissertation  8, 
 
 3  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.  Occasional  Annotations,  21. 
 
 be  violated,  is  resolved  to  expose  both  himself  and  his,  to 
 the  utmost  peril,  rather  than  those  whom  he  bad  taken  un- 
 der his  protection  should  come  to  any  harm.  Upon  this 
 principle  he  ventures  out  of  doors  alone  among  this  lewd, 
 licentious  rabble,  that  he  might  calmly  expostulate  the 
 matter  with  some  of  the  chief  of  tln-m,  and  divert  them 
 if  possible,  from  the  violence  they  intended  against  his 
 guests. 
 
 The  offer  which  he  made  them  upon  this  occasion, 
 namely,  to  give  up  his  two  daughters  to  their  hist, 
 to  be  a  strange  one  ;  but  then  we  are  to  consider,  that  bi 
 it  was  made  in  the  utmost  perplexity  of  mind,  and  out  of 
 a  vehement  desire  to  secure  his  guests  ;  so  may  it,  after 
 all,  imply  no  more  than  this, — "  God  forbid,  my  friends, 
 that  you  should  make  yourselves  guilty  of  a  crime  of  so 
 high  a  nature,  as  to  offer  the  least  indignity  to  these 
 noble  strangers  whom  I  have  received  into  my  house,  and 
 whom  I  therefore  cannot  put  in  your  power  upon  any 
 terms  whatever.  Much  rather  had  I  part  even  with  iny 
 own  dear  daughters,  who  are  in  my  power,  and  who  are 
 also  marriageable,  than  with  those  whom  I  am  not 
 authorized  to  dispose  of.  therefore,  I  beseech  \ on, 
 brethren,  deal  not  so  foolishly  in  this  matter,  but  consi- 
 der what  you  are  now  going  to  do  ;  and  since,  of  two 
 evils,  it  is  better  to  commit  the  less  than  the  greater,  are 
 there  not  women  among  you  whom  ye  may  choose  for  tin- 
 satisfying  the  desires  of  your  flesh,  and  not  sin  against 
 the  order  of  nature  ?  But  if  there  are  none  found  that 
 can  please  you,  and  you  will  nevertheless  persist,  I  pro- 
 test to  you,  sirs,  I  will  sooner  lose  my  own  children, 
 with  all  that  I  have  in  the  world,  than  even  once  consent 
 to  depart  from  my  word,  which  I  have  given  to  these 
 worthy  persons.  Therefore  do  as  you  please  w ith  me 
 and  mine,  seeing  that  I  am  in  your  hand  ;  only  touch 
 not  these."  a  This  seems  to  be,  in  a  great  neaaUTO, 
 the  purport  of  Lot's  proposal  to  the  men  of  Sodom  :  and 
 yet,  with  all  this  mollification,  it  has  not  unjustly  incurred 
 the  censure  of  3  St  Austin.  "  We  must  not  consider,"' 
 says  he,  "  the  offer  which  Lot.  made  to  the  inhabitants 
 of  Sodom,  as  proceeding  from  a  wise,  sober,  and  a  | 're- 
 meditated  design,  but  rather  as  a  speech  which  dropped 
 from  a  man  struck  with  horror  at  the  thoughts  of  the 
 abominable  sin  they  were  going  to  commit,  and  who,  I>y 
 the  surprise  and  trouble  that  he  was  in,  had  lost  the  use 
 of  his  reason  and  discretion.  For  if  once  we  lay 
 it  down  for  a  rule,  that  there  may  be  a  enmpensation  of 
 sin  (as  he  calls  it,)  that  is,  that  we  may  commit  less  sins, 
 in  order  to  prevent  others  from  running  into  greater, 
 we  shall  in  a  short  time  lay  waste  all  bounds,  and  sea 
 every  manner  of  wickedness  come  rushing  in  upon  us 
 without  control." 
 
 ;l  In  Cell.  vol.  4.  Qu:est.    16  ;  el  coiitia   Meiidatinm,  e.  9,  it  e.    7. 
 
 a  Le  Clerc,  in  liis  commentaries  upon  1 1 •« ■  [dace,  uslgns  soo- 
 ther reason  why  Let  might,  with  better  courage,  males  an  ofikr 
 
 of  his  daughters  t..  the  Sodomites.     Per,  supposing  him  to  be  a 
 
 considerable  man  in  US  eity.  and    hi.   daughter!   both   be) 
 fas  we  find  they  were  betrothed,  Gen.  six.   14.}  to  two  young 
 gentlemen  of  eminence,  lie  might  safety  propose  the  th 
 knowing  very  well  that  they  neither  durst,  nor  would  ;>• 
 it     That  they  durst  not,  for  hex  of  punishment  Gram  pi  i 
 their  rank  and  authority;  and  that  they  would  not, 
 then  in  Iniquity  (however  outrageous  they  maj  be  against  others) 
 affect  always  to  maintain  tome  form  ,.f  decency  between  thera- 
 selvea     Bui  it  is  hard,  to  say  what  persona  of  tl"  ir  eon., 
 would  either  have  been  afraid. or  ashamed  to  do,  had  the  ' 
 their  inclination  tended  that  way. 
 
166 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxt.  11. 
 
 After  the  destruction  of  Sodom,  and  Lot's  departure 
 from  Zoar,  he  retired,  we  are  told,  into  a  cave,  where 
 his  two  daughters  betrayed  him  into  the  double  sin  of 
 drunkenness  and  incest ;  and  with  what  design  they  did 
 it,  '  the  authors  who  would  fain  apologize  for  their  con- 
 duct do  generally  run  into  this  strain,  namely,  that 
 these  two  maids  having  some  notions  of  a  general  con- 
 flagration of  the  world,  and  seeing  their  own  city  and 
 country  consumed  by  fire,  were  fully  persuaded  that  the 
 divine  indignation,  which  had  consumed  the  Sodomites, 
 had  fallen  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  and  that 
 their  father  was  the  only  man  left  from  whose  body 
 mankind  was  to  be  repropagated.  They  were  young 
 and  inexperienced,  say  they,  and  might  therefore  very 
 well  be  ignorant  that  several  parts  of  the  earth  were 
 inhabited,  as  well  as  the  plain  of  Sodom  had  been.  As 
 far  as  their  eye  would  reach,  they  saw  nothing  but  sul- 
 phureous flames,  and  a  wide  theatre  of  perdition ;  and 
 this  they  looked  upon  as  the  final  catastrophe  which,  as 
 they  had  been  told,  was  to  put  a  period  to  nature. 
 They  had  unaccountably  lost  their  mother  too  ;  so  that 
 they  concluded  that  they  and  their  father  were  the  only 
 survivors  of  human  nature  (as  Noah  and  his  family  had 
 been  after  the  flood),  and  that  therefore  it  was  their 
 duty  to  take  care  to  prevent  the  extinction  of  the  species. 
 And  though  they  knew  it  to  be  a  very  grievous  sin  in 
 itself,  to  betray  their  own  father  into  a  carnal  knowledge 
 of  themselves;  yet  they  thought  they  should  be  more 
 inexcusable,  if  they  should  rate  the  chasteness  of  their 
 bodies  so  high,  as  not  to  part  with  it  rather  than  man- 
 kind should  be  no  more. 
 
 But  all  this  is  no  more  than  a  plausible  fiction, 
 without  any  foundation  to  support  it.  They  had  lately 
 left  Zoar,  and  knew  that  it  was  well  inhabited;  and 
 were  therefore  convinced  that  they  and  their  father  were 
 not  the  only  three  persons  left  alive  in  the  world :  but 
 this  they  knew  very  well,  8that  there  was  not  so  much 
 as  one  of  all  their  kindred  left,  by  whom  they  could 
 raise  up  seed  or  successors  to  their  father;  those  of 
 their  father's  side  being  at  a  vast  distance  from  them; 
 and  those  of  their  mother's,  every  one  destroyed  in  the 
 conflagration  of  Sodom. 
 
 Now,  it  was  at  that  time  an  universal  law,  which 
 became  afterwards  a  particular  one  of  the  Jews,  that 
 marriages  should  be  contracted  within  the  family,  to 
 preserve  inheritances,  and  to  avoid  the  mixture  of  seeds ; 
 so  that  the  two  sisters  here  argued  very  justly  upon  the 
 principles  then  universally  admitted,  that  is,  upon  the 
 general  law  of  nations.  For  seeing  they  had  no  brother 
 to  keep  up  their  name  and  family,  and  their  father  had 
 lost  their  mother,  by  whom  he  might  have  had  other 
 children,  and  they  themselves  their  husbands,  before 
 consummation,  in  the  common  destruction,  there  was  no 
 apparent  possibility  of  preserving  their  father's  family 
 from  utter  extinction  after  their  three  lives,  or  of  avert- 
 ing the  sad  curse  of  excision,  but  by  the  very  method 
 which  at  last  they  concerted  between  them.  So  that 
 they  had  the  plea  of  necessity  on  their  side,  to  excuse, 
 if  not  to  justify  them ;  and  that  they  were  not  led  by 
 any  spirit  of  uncleanness  to  this  action,  we  have  these 
 
 1  Origen's  Horn.  5.  p.  15.  col.  2.;  St  Ambrose  de  Abrahama, 
 b.  1.;  and  St  Chrysostom's  Horn,  in  locum. 
 
 *  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.;  Occasional  Annotations,  23. 
 
 presumptions  to  believe; — that  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
 impurities  of  the  most  wicked  city  under  heaven,  they 
 had  preserved  their  innocence  and  virginity ;  that  they 
 unanimously  joined  together  in  the  same  contrivance, 
 whereas  vicious  intrigues  are  seldom  communicated, 
 and  whenever  they  are,  always  occasion  quarrels  ;  that 
 which  they  did  once  they  never  repeated,  and  so  cannot 
 be  suspected  of  having  been  incited  by  brutal  lust;  and, 
 lastly,  that  they  were  so  far  from  being  conscious  to 
 themselves  of  having  acted  upon  any  base  and  sinful 
 inducement,  that  in  the  names  of  their  children  they 
 took  care  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  it  to  posterity, 
 which  they  never  would  have  done  had  they  thought  it  a 
 reproach  to  their  father's  name. 
 
 Their  father  too,  in  the  matter  of  incest,  may  in  some 
 measure  be  excused,  forasmuch  as  he  offered  no  violence 
 to  his  daughters,  but  was  altogether  passive,  and  im- 
 posed upon  by  them ;  but  then,  it  must  be  considered, 
 that  had  he  not  allowed  himself  to  drink  to  excess,  it 
 had  not  been  in  the  power  of  his  daughters  to  deceive 
 him.  The  daughters  indeed,  without  this  expedient, 
 could  not  have  attained  their  end;  but  then  the  unjusti- 
 fiableness  of  the  means  desecrates  the  end,  even  though 
 it  were  good  and  laudable  before.  The  short  is,  both 
 father  and  daughters,  in  this  whole  transaction,  were 
 not  without  sin  :  and  therefore,  whatever  may  be  said  in 
 mitigation  of  their  faults,  we  mistake  the  matter  widely 
 if  we  think  that  the  sacred  history,  in  barely  relating 
 them,  means  either  to  approve  or  commend  them. 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  sundry  difficul- 
 ties occur  in  the  character  of  Melchizedek,  as  he  is 
 described  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  but  there  is  certainly 
 no  incongTuity  in  his  being  both  king  and  priest  in  one 
 person.  For  if  we  cast  our  eye  into  any  ancient  writer, 
 we  shall  find  that,  before  the  institution  of  a  separate 
 order  of  men,  the  regal  and  sacerdotal  offices  both  went 
 together;  and  that  lie  who  was  appointed  to  govern  the 
 affairs  of  the  state,  had  always  a  right  to  minister  about 
 holy  things.  This  is  an  observation  that  the  wTitings  of 
 Homer  will  verify  in  almost  innumerable  instances  ;  but 
 (to  mention  but  one  out  of  each  of  his  poems)  after 
 Agamemnon  was  constituted  the  head  of  the  Grecian 
 army,3  we  find  him  every  where  in  the  public  sacrifices 
 performing  the  priest's  office,  and  the  other  Grecian 
 kings  and  heroes  bearing  their  parts  under  him  in  the 
 administration  :  and  4  when  Nestor  made  a  sacrifice  to 
 Minerva,  Stratius  and  the  noble  Echephron  led  the  bull 
 to  the  altar ;  Aretus  brought  the  water  and  canisters  of 
 corn  ;  Perseus  brought  the  vessel  to  receive  the  blood  ; 
 Thrasymedes,  son  of  Nestor,  knocked  down  the  ox  ;  but 
 Nestor  himself  acted  as  priest,  and  performed  the  rest 
 of  the  ceremony. 
 
 If  we  look  into  some  of  the  best  historians,  we  shall 
 find  this  point  more  confirmed.  For  among  the  Lace- 
 demonians, whenever  they  went  to  battle,  the  king, 
 according  to  5  Plutarch,  always  performed  the  sacrifice  ; 
 and  in  the  army,  as  Xenophon6  informs  us,  his  chief 
 business  was,  to  have  the  supreme  command  of  the 
 forces,  and  to  be  their  priest  in  the  offices  of  reli- 
 gion. In  the  time  of  the  heroes,  says  Aristotle,7  the 
 custom  was  for  one  and  the  same  person  to  be  general 
 
 3  Iliad  3.  Iliad  8.  et  in  aliis  locis.  *  Odyss.  3. 
 
 In  Lycurgo.         6  De  Ilupub.  Lacedcem.         '  Polit.  b.  I. 
 
Skct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES'    &-< 
 
 167 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CM.  xx— xxv.  11 
 
 of  the  forces,  judge,  and  high  priest,  according-  to  that 
 known  verse  in  l  Virgil,  "  Anius,  both  king  of  men  and 
 priest  of  Apollo."  So  that,  in  short,  from  any  thing 
 that  appears  in  history,  we  have  no  reason  to  think  that 
 until  some  ages  after  Homer,  mankind  had  any  other 
 public  ministers  in  religion  but  those  who  were  the  kings 
 and  governors  of  the  state. 
 
 There  were  indeed,  in  ancient  times,  many  little 
 islands  and  small  tracts  of  land  where  civil  government 
 was  not  set  up  in  form ;  but  the  inhabitants  lived 
 together  in  peace  and  quiet,  under  the  direction  of  some 
 eminent  person,  who  ruled  them  by  wise  admonitions, 
 and  by  instructing  them  in  the  great  principles  of  reli- 
 gion ;  and  the  governors  of  these  countries  aftected  a  to 
 be  called  priests  rather  than  kings.  But  if,  at  any  time, 
 tiiey  and  their  people  came  to  form  a  political  society, 
 upon  more  express  terms  and  conditions,  then  we  lind 
 these  sort  of  persons  called  both  priests  and  kings. 
 These  small  states,  indeed,  could  have  but  little  power 
 to  support  themselves  against  the  encroachment  of  their 
 neighbours.  Their  religion  was  their  greatest  strength  : 
 and  therefore  it  was  their  happiest  circumstance  that 
 their  kings  or  governors  were  reputed  sacred  by  their 
 neighbours,  and  so  highly  favoured  by  God  for  their 
 great  and  singular  piety,  that  it  was  thought  a  dangerous 
 thing  to  violate  their  rights,  or  injure  the  people  under 
 their  protection. 
 
 Such  a  king  as  this  was  the  great  Melchizedek,  who 
 came  out  to  congratulate  the  patriarch  Abraham :  and  it 
 is  no  bad  conjecture  of  some,  that  he  was  called  the 
 king  of  Salem,  not  so  much  upon  account  of  Salem's 
 being  the  proper  name  of  any  determinate  place,  the 
 seat  of  his  dominion,  as  that  in  general  it  signified 
 peace  ;  and  that  therefore  Melchizedek  was  '  the  king 
 of  peace,'  or  '  the  peaceable  king  ;'  because  the  sacred- 
 ness  of  his  character  secured  him  from  being  invaded 
 by  his  neighbours,  and  his  wise  administration  kept  all 
 things  in  good  order,  so  that  he  was  never  molested  by 
 his  subjects. 
 
 This,  however,  is  no  more  than  a  conjecture ;  because 
 it  is  certain  that  there  were  two  places  in  Palestine 
 which  went  under  that  name  ;  the  one,  the  same  with 
 that  which  was  afterwards  called  Jerusalem,  and  the 
 other,  a  town  lying  upon  the  banks  of  the  river  Jordan, 
 not  far  from  the  place  2  where  John  (our  Saviour's 
 forerunner)  is  said  to  have  baptized.  Here  formerly 
 were  seen  the  ruins  of  the  palace  of  this  Melchizedek, 
 which  in  the  time  of  St  Jerome,  as  he  tells  us,  discovered 
 the  magnificence  of  its  structure  ;  and,  upon  that  father's 
 authority,  several  modern  authors  have  gone  into  the 
 opinion  that  this  place  was  the  metropolis  of  that  prince. 
 But  since  that  city,  even  according  to  the  testimony  of 
 the  same  St  Jerome,  was  quite  demolished  by  Abime- 
 lech,  it  is  hardly  conceivable  how  such  remarkable 
 remains  should  be  of  so  long  continuance,  and  yet 
 escape  the  observation  of  Josephus,  who  was  no  uudili- 
 gent  inquirer  into  the  antiquities  of  the  Jewish  nation ; 
 
 1  Mn.  iii.  v.  80.  ■  John  iii.  22. 
 
 a  Thus  Jethro  is  called  by  Moses,  not  the  king,  hut  the 
 priest  of  Midian;  and  thus  Chryses,  the  priest  of  Apollo  at 
 Clnysa,  and  not  the  king  of  Chrysa,  though  both  he  and  Jethro 
 were  the  governors  of  the  countries  whore  they  lived. — *!iuclt- 
 ford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  6. 
 
 and  yet  his  express  declaration    is,  that   Melchizedek 
 8 W88  king  of  Solyma,  which  is  now  called  Jerusalem. 
 
 It  is  the  much  more  probable  opinion,  therefore, 4  that 
 this  palace  was  built  by  Jeroboam,  when  he  repaired 
 Salem,  and  that  the  inhabitants  (possibly  the  Samaritans) 
 in  after  ages,  either  devised  or  promoted  a  false  tradi- 
 tion, that  it  originally  belonged  to  Melchizedek.  For 
 the  general  consent  of  the  ancients  give  it  clearly  for 
 Jerusalem,  as  duly  considering  that  Abraham's  route,  in 
 returning  from  the  territories  of  Damascus  to  Hebron, 
 was  directly  through  its  coasts,  (whereas  the  other  Salem 
 lay  devious  to  the  north,)  and  that  there  was  a  kind  of 
 propriety  in  the  mystery,  and  what  the  analogy  of  the 
 thing  seemed  to  require,  that  Melchizedek  should  be 
 king  of  that  very  place  in  which  the  true  Prince  of  Peace 
 (whereof  he  was  a  type  and  representation)  was  in  future 
 ages  to  make  his  appearance. 
 
 Who  this  Melchizedek  was,  is  still  an  hard  question 
 that  has  puzzled  most  interpreters.  The  author  to  the 
 Hebrews  indeed  has  recorded  a  description  of  him  :  but 
 this  is  so  far  from  giving  us  any  light,  that  it  has,  in  a 
 great  measure,  been  the  occasion  of  leading  some  into  a 
 persuasion,  5  that  the  person  here  called  Mclchi/edrk 
 was  an  angel ;  others,  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God  ;  ami 
 others,  that  he  was  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  shape  and 
 appearance  of  man  ;  because  they  cannot  conceive  how 
 the  qualities  ascribed  to  this  excellent  personage  can 
 comport  with  any  human  creature.  The  phrase,  however, 
 made  use  of  by  the  apostle,  dyevsx'ho'yiiTo;,  without 
 descent,  or  without  genealogy ,  explains  what  the  apostle 
 means  by,  '  without  father,  and  without  mother,'  that  is, 
 b  without  any  father  or  mother  mentioned  in  the  genealo- 
 gies of  Moses,  where  the  parents  of  all  pious  worthies 
 are  generally  set  down  with  great  exactness:  7  10  tint 
 there  being  no  genealogy  at  all  of  Melchizedek  recorded 
 in  Scripture,  he  is  introduced  at  once  ;  even  like  a  man 
 dropped  down  from  heaven,  for  so  the  description  goes 
 on,  '  having  neither  beginning  of  days,  nor  end  of  life,' 
 that  is,  in  the  history  of  Moses,  which  (contrary  to  its 
 common  usage  when  it  makes  mention  of  great  men) 
 takes  no  notice  at  all  of  the  time  either  of  his  birth  or 
 death  ;  and  herein  '  he  is  made  like  unto  the  Son  of  <""!. 
 that  is,  by  the  history  of  Moses,  which  mentions  him 
 appearing  and  acting  upon  the  stage,  without  either 
 entrance  or  exit,  as  if,  like  the  Son  of  God,  he  had 
 abode  a  priest  continually. 
 
 This  is  the  common,  and  c  the  best  approved  interpre- 
 
 II, 
 
 3  Antiquities,  b.  I.  c.  11. 
 
 4  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriarch,  vol.  1.  Essay  2. 
 
 5  See  Calmet's  and  Saurin's  Dissert   on    M.Uhi/edek. 
 degger's  Hist.  Patriarch,  vol.  8. 
 
 6  From  the  times  of  Epiphanius  then  were  nanus  invented 
 for  the  father  and  mother  of  Melchisedek.  To  Ul  father  m 
 given  the  name  of  Heraclas,  or  Heracles  ;  to  his  niuthtr  that  of 
 Astaroth,  or  Astaria.—  Caluu-t's  Dutuman/. 
 
 7  Scott's  Christian  Life,  part  %,  C   ?. 
 
 c  The  learned  Heidegger,  in  my  opinion,  ha-  taken  lbs  right 
 method  to  explain  tin's  difficult  passage  of  St  Paul  to  the  Hebrews. 
 He  supposes  (as  there  n  ally  is)  a  twofold  Melchisedek,  the  one 
 historical,  whereof  Moms  gives  "-  an  account  in  the  l  Ith  chapter 
 of  Genesis,  as  thai  bs  was  the  king  as  well  as  priest  ol  Jerosa. 
 lem;  the  other  allegorical,  whom  St  Peal  describes  in  Ike  words 
 now  under  consideration,  and  thai  allegorical  person  is  Christ. 
 The  word  Mttddmedtk,  simply  considered,  means  tts  king  ef 
 righteousness;  and  from  tin-  sense  of  the  word,  in  its  ap| 
 acceptation,  and  the  remembrance  of  this  person's  being  a  priest 
 
168 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IIL 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx-xxv.  11. 
 
 tation  of  the  apostle's  words  ;  but  still  the  question 
 returns  upon  us,  to  whom  can  this  character,  even  with 
 this  comment,  belong. 
 
 The  Jews  are  generally  of  opinion,  and  herein  are 
 followed  by  some  Christians,  that  Melchizedek  was  the 
 same  with  Shem,  one  of  the  sons  of  Noah,  whom  they 
 suppose  alive  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  the  only  person 
 upon  earth,  say  they,  who  could,  with  justice,  be  called 
 his  superior,  and  whom  the  description  of  the  apostle 
 could,  in  any  tolerable  manner,  befit,  as  being  a  person 
 of  many  singularities,  born  before  the  deluge,  having 
 no  ancestors  then  alive,  and  whose  life  had  been  of  an 
 immense  duration  in  comparison  of  those  who  came  after 
 him.  But  not  to  dispute  the  fact,  whether  Shem  was 
 at  that  time  alive  or  no,  l  it  seems  very  incongruous  to 
 think  that  Moses,  who  all  along  mentions  him  in  his 
 proper  name,  should,  upon  this  occasion,  disguise  his 
 sense  with  a  fictitious  one  ;  and  very  incompatible  it  is 
 with  what  we  know  of  Shem,  that  he  should  be  said  to  be 
 '  without  father,'  and  '  without  mother,'  when  his  family 
 is  so  plainly  recorded  in  Scripture,  and  all  his  progeni- 
 tors may,  in  a  moment,  be  traced  to  their  fountain-head 
 in  Adam.  Besides,  had  Melchizedek  and  Shem  been 
 the  same  person,  the  apostle  would  hardly  have  made 
 him  of  a  family  different  from  Abraham,  much  less  would 
 he  have  set  him  in  such  an  eminence  above  the  patriarch, 
 or  thereupon  broke  out  into  this  exclamation  concerning 
 him  : — f  Consider  how  great  this  man  was,  unto  whom 
 even  the  patriarch  Abraham  gave  the  tenth  of  his  spoils  !' 
 
 These  arguments  seem  to  evince,  that  Melchizedek 
 and  Shem  were  different  persons  ;  and  much  more  reason 
 have  we  to  suppose  that  he  and  Ham,  that  wicked  son  of 
 Noah,  were  so.  For  who,  upon  deliberate  thoughts,  can 
 believe,  that  this  cursed  person  Avas  the  priest  of  the 
 most  high  God,  from  whom  Abraham  so  joyfully  received 
 the  sacerdotal  benediction,  that  he  returned  it  with  the 
 
 1  Bochart's  Phaleg.  b.  2.  c.  1. 
 
 as  well  as  a  king,  the  apostle  took  occasion  to  draw  the  compari- 
 son between  him  and  Christ,  m  order  to  show  the  pre-eminence 
 of  the  Christian  above  the  Aaronical  priesthood ;  and  what  he 
 ascribes  to  the  historical  Melchizedek,  upon  this  account,  is 
 only  to  be  understood  in  an  imperfect  and  improper  sense,  that  is 
 really  and  literally  true  only  in  the  person  of  Christ.  The  apostle 
 was  minded,  in  short,  to  illustrate  his  argument  with  some  com- 
 parison ;  and  writing  at  this  time  to  the  Jews,  (who  were  well 
 acquainted  with  this  allegorical  way  of  arguing,')  he  could  meet 
 with  none,  in  the  whole  compass  of  their  law,  so  commodious  for 
 this  purpose,  as  this  Melchizedek ;  and  therefore  as  Christ,  the 
 heavenly  Melchizedek,  was  '  without  father,  without  mother, 
 without  descent'  here  on  earth,  in  respect  of  his  divinity,  '  having 
 neither  beginning  of  days,  nor  end  of  life;'  so  the  like  properties 
 may,  in  some  measure,  be  applied  to  the  earthly  Melchizedek; 
 forasmuch  as,  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  wherein  all  great  men's 
 genealogies  are  supposed  to  be  recorded,  there  is  no  mention 
 made,  either  of  his  birth,  family,  or  death;  only  he  was  invested 
 with  a  royal  priesthood,  which  assimilates  him  to  Christ.  He 
 had  a  father  and  mother,  no  doubt,  and  was  bom,  and  died  like 
 other  men;  but  because  these  things  are  not  related  by  Moses, 
 the  apostle  looks  upon  them  as  though  they  had  never  been:  so  that 
 the  whole  hinge  of  comparison  turns  upon  the  silence  of  the 
 sacred  historian,  who,  in  a  book  (wherein  it  might  be  expected 
 otherwise)  makes  no  manner  of  mention,  either  of  the  beginning 
 or  ending  of  Melchizedek's  life  or  priesthood ;  and  it  is  for  this 
 reason,  that  he  who  wrote  by  the  guidance  of  the  blessed  Spirit 
 was  directed  to  conceal  these  matters ;  that,  in  this  situation,  this 
 same  Melchizedek  might  be  a  more  proper  type  of  so  sublime  a 
 thing  as  that  of  the  priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ. — Hist.  Patriar. 
 vol.  2.  Essay  2. 
 
 payment  of  his  tithes  ?  x\nd  much  less  can  we  believe, 
 that  one  of  his  ill  character  was  the  type  of  the  blessed 
 Jesus.  Jesus,  indeed,  himself,  if  he  be  taken  for  Mel- 
 chizedek, appearing  to  Abraham  in  an  human  shape,  (aa 
 he  is  often  supposed  to  do  in  Scripture,)  will  answer  all 
 the  character  which  the  apostle  gives  of  this  extraordi- 
 nary person :  but  then  the  wonder  is,  that  the  historian 
 should  never  give  us  the  least  intimation  of  this ;  that 
 Abraham  should  express  no  manner  of  surprise  upon  such 
 an  interview  ;  and  (what  is  more)  how  the  type  and  the 
 antitype  can  possibly  be  represented  the  same.  2  For 
 this  is  the  case :  here  Melchizedec  was  a  representa- 
 tive of  our  Saviour,  according  to  that  of  the  apostle, 
 '  Jesus  was  a  priest  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek,' 
 which  he  explains  in  another  place,  '  after  the  similitude 
 of  Melchizedek  there  ariseth  another  priest;'  as  much 
 as  to  say,  Melchizedek  and  Christ  were  like  one  ano- 
 ther in  several  things,  and  thereupon  one  was  designed 
 to  be  a  fit  type  of  the  other ;  but  as  it  is  unreasonable 
 and  absurd  to  say,  that  a  person  is  like  himself,  so  we 
 cannot  rationally  imagine  that  Christ,  who,  as  St  Paul 
 says,  was  '  after  the  similitude  of  Melchizedek,'  was  in 
 reality  the  same  person  with  him. 
 
 Thus  we  have  looked  into  a  some  of  the  chief  conjec- 
 tures concerning-  this  great  man,  which  seem  to  have  any 
 plausibility  in  them  ;  and  after  all  must  content  ourselves 
 with  what  the  Scriptures  nakedly  report  of  him,  namely, 
 that  this  Melchizedek  was  both  a  king  and  a  priest  (for 
 these  two  offices  were  anciently  united)  in  the  land  of 
 Palestine,  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  descended,  not 
 improbably,  b  from  wicked  and  idolatrous  parents,  but 
 
 2  Edward's  Survey  of  Religion,  vol.  1. 
 
 a  The  sole  question  concerning  the  person  of  Melchizedek 
 would  supply  matter  for  a  whole  volume,  even  though  one  should 
 do  no  more  than  recite  the  catalogue  of  the  different  opinions  to 
 which  it  has  given  rise,  and  the  reason  upon  which  each  conjec- 
 turer  has  endeavoured  to  establish  his  own.  The  Melchizedek- 
 ians,  a  sect  in  the  early  times  of  the  church,  maintained  that  he 
 was  a  certain  divine  power  superior  to  Christ;  Hieraxes  the 
 Egyptian,  that  he  was  the  Holy  Ghost,  because  compared  to  the 
 Son  of  God ;  the  Samaritans,  and  many  Jews,  that  he  was  Shem, 
 the  son  of  Noah;  M.  Jurieu,  (in  his  Hist.  Critique  des  Dogmes, 
 6(C.  b.  1.)  of  late,  that  he  was  Ham,  another  son  of  his;  Origen, 
 that  he  was  an  angel ;  Athanasius,  that  he  was  the  son  of  Melchi, 
 the  grandson  of  Salaad  ;  Patricides,  that  he  was  the  son  of  Phaleg; 
 Irenreus,  that  he  was  king  of  Jerusalem ;  St  Jerome,  that  he  was 
 king  of  Salem  in  Scythopolis;  and  a  certain  anonymous  author, 
 that  he  was  a  man  immediately  created  by  God,  as  was  Adam. 
 And  because  he  is  said  to  have  had  no  relations,  some  have  giveir 
 out,  that  the  earth  opened  her  mouth,  and  swallowed  them  all 
 lip ;  whilst  others,  because  he  is  said  to  have  no  end  of  life,  sup- 
 pose that  he  was  translated,  and  is  now  with  Enoch  and  Elias, 
 in  a  state  of  paradise. — Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay 
 2.  But  all  these  opinions  are  at  present  reduced  to  these  two: 
 whether  this  Melchizedek  was  a  mere  mortal  man,  or  the  Son 
 of  God  in  human  shape ;  which  the  reader  may  find  supported 
 with  arguments  on  both  sides,  in  both  Saurin's  and  Galmet's 
 dissertations  upon  this  subject. 
 
 b  Those  who  make  him  to  be  the  son  of  Melchi,  an  idolatrous 
 king,  and  of  a  queen  named  Salem,  have  an  ancient  tradition, 
 that  Melchi,  having  resolved  to  offer  a  sacrifice  to  his  gods,  sent 
 his  son  Melchizedek  to  fetch  him  seven  calves,  that  he  might 
 sacrifice  them;  but  that,  as  he  was  going,  he  was  enlightened  by 
 God,  and  immediately  returned  to  his  father  to  remonstrate  to  him 
 the  vanity  of  idols.  His  father  in  wrath  sent  him  back  to  fetch 
 the  victims,  and  while  he  was  gone,  offered  up  to  his  gods  his 
 own  son,  who  was  the  elder  brother  of  Melchizedek,  with  a 
 great  number  of  other  children.  Melchizedek  returning,  and 
 conceiving  a  great  horror  at  this  butchery,  retired  to  mount 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c 
 
 169 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx-xxv.  11. 
 
 himself  a  person  of  singular  virtue  and  piety,  '  the  priest 
 of  the  most  high  God,'  but  perhaps  the  lirst  and  the 
 last  of  his  race  who  was  so,  which  might  give  occasion 
 to  the  apostle  to  describe  him  under  such  ambiguous 
 terms  :  for  the  whole  of  these  (according  to  the  judgment 
 of  a  learned  author)  a  may  not  improperly  be  reduced  to 
 this  single  proposition, *  that  Melchizedek  was  the  most 
 illustrious  of  his  family,  and  had  neither  predecessor  nor 
 successor  in  his  employ. 
 
 We  readily  grant  indeed,  that  there  is  something  very 
 strange  and  uncommon  in  the  prophecy  relating  to 
 Ishmael ;  but  the  question  is  not  concerning  the  singu- 
 larity, but  the  reality  rather,  of  the  matters  contained  in 
 it.  If  these  are  explicable  in  themselves,  and  upon 
 examination  found  to  be  true,  then  is  the  prophecy  so 
 far  from  losing  its  credit  upon  the  account  of  its  strange- 
 ness, that  for  this  very  reason  it  demonstrates  its  divine 
 origin  ;  because  nothing  but  an  omniscient  mind  could 
 foresee  things  so  strange  and  unaccountable ;  and  nothing 
 but  an  almighty  power  and  providence  could  bring  these 
 tilings  to  pass,  and  make  the  event  exactly  agree  with 
 the  prediction. 
 
 Now,  in  order  to  explain  the  prophecy  itself,  and  thence 
 to  observe  how  perfectly  it  has  all  along  been  fulfilled, 
 it  must  be  remembered,  that  (according  to  the  known 
 style  of  the  Old  Testament)  what  is  here  said  of  Ishmael 
 must  be  chiefly  understood  of  his  descendants,  in  the 
 same  manner  2  as  what  Jacob  predicts  of  Judah  and  the 
 rest  of  his  sons,  was  to  relate  to  their  posterity,  and  be 
 indeed  the  characteristic  of  their  several  tribes.  And 
 therefore  (to  take  notice  of  two  of  the  most  odd  and 
 
 1  Outram  de  Sacrifices. 
 
 Gen.  xlix. 
 
 Tabor,  where  he  lived  for  seven  years  without  clothes,  and 
 without  any  other  food  but  wild  fruits,  or  any  other  drink  but  the 
 dew  that  he  sucked  up  from  the  plants ;  till  at  length  Abraham, 
 by  the  direction  of  God,  went  up  to  the  mount,  found  out  Mel- 
 chizedek, clothed  him,  and  brought  him  down  with  him.  But 
 those  who  would  have  him  be  the  son  of  Phaleg,  relate  a  still 
 stranger  story,  namely,  that  Noah,  upon  his  deathbed,  charged 
 his  son  Seth  to  take  Melchizedek,  the  son  of  Phaleg,  with  him, 
 and  go  to  a  place  which  the  angel  of  the  Lord  should  show  them, 
 and  there  bury  the  body  of  Adam,  which  he  had  preserved  in  the 
 ark  dining  the  flood:  that  in  that  place  Melchizedek  should  fix 
 his  habitation,  lead  a  single  life,  and  entirely  addict  himself  to  the 
 practice  of  piety,  because  God  had  made  choice  of  him  fur  his 
 priest,  but  allowed  him  not  to  shed  the  blood  of  any  animal,  nor 
 to  oiler  any  other  dilation  to  him,  but  that  of  bread  and  wine 
 only;  that  Seth  and  Melchizedek  did  as  Noah  had  enjoined  them, 
 and  buried  Adam  in  the  place  which  the  angel  pointed  out;  that 
 upon  their  parting,  Melchizedek  betook  himself  to  the  monastic 
 course  of  life  which  Noah  had  prescribed  him;  but  that  twelve 
 neighbouring  kings,  hearing  of  his  fame,  and  desirous  of  his 
 acquaintance,  consulted  together,  and  built  a  city,  whereof  they 
 constituted  him  king  and  governor,  and,  in  honour  to  his  merit, 
 called  it  Jerusalem. — See  Sclden  de  Jure  Nat.  b.  3.  c.  2. ;  and 
 Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay. 
 
 a  The  same  learned  author,  who  makes  the  Melchizedek 
 spoken  of  in  Scripture,  in  one  sense  to  be  historical,  and  in 
 another  allegorical,  defines  the  historical  in  these  words.  "  He 
 was  a  real  and  mere  man,  descended  from  Adam  and  Noah,  by 
 his  son  Ham  and  grandson  Canaan — a  king  of  Jerusalem,  priest 
 of  the  true  God,  regenerated  and  sanctified  by  the  grace  common 
 to  all  the  faithful — sealed  up  both  to  a  happy  resurrection  and  an 
 eternal  life."  And  the  allegorical  in  these  of  St  Paul, — '  Who  was 
 king  of  righteousness  and  peace,  without  father,  without  mother, 
 without  descent,  a  priest  abiding  continually  and  having  a  testi- 
 mony of  no  end  of  life.  All  which  kings  as  we  have  affirmed, 
 says  he,  agree  with  Melchizedek  in  a  more  minute  and  allegori- 
 cal sense,  but  more  emphatically  and  really  correspond  with 
 Christ." — Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.   Essay  2. 
 
 unaccountable  branches  of  his  character)  '  he  will  be  a 
 wild  man,'  or  a  man  like  '  a  wild  ass  ;'  this  (from  Un- 
 known properties  of  that  creature)  several  interpreters 
 have  resolved  into  these  qualities, — fierce  and  cruel, 
 loving  solitude,  ami  hating  conlinement  of  any  kind. 
 
 How  far  this  part  of  the  character  was  verified  in 
 Ishmael,  who  lived  in  the  wilderness,  and  became  an 
 expert  archer,  his  very  condition  of  life  shows  us  :  and 
 how  properly  it  belongs  to  his  posterity,  the  Arabian, 
 who  in  every  nation  have  very  justly  obtained  the 
 appellation  of  wild,  a  small  inspection  into  history  will 
 inform  us. 
 
 To  this  very  day  (as  3  modern  travellers  inform  us) 
 great  numbers  of  them  live  in  the  deserts,  and  wander 
 about  from  place  to  place,  without  any  certain  habitation. 
 They  neither  plough  the  ground,  nor  apply  themselves 
 to  any  kind  of  husbandry,  though  there  are  several  fruit- 
 ful places  in  the  wilderness  that  would  repay  their  pains. 
 Their  whole  occupation  (besides  spoiling  their  neigh- 
 bours) lies  in  hunting  and  killing  wild  beasts,  in  which 
 there  are  but  few  that  make  use  of  fire-arms.  The  much 
 greater  part  of  them  make  use  of  the  bow ,  and  do  herein 
 imitate  their  great  progenitor,  that  they  are  the  most 
 exquisite  archers  in  the  world. 
 
 Before  the  introduction  of  Mahometanism,  they  were 
 as  vagrant  in  their  lust,  and  as  little  restrained  in  the  use 
 of  females,  as  the  brutal  herd :  and  even  now,  they  take 
 as  many  wives  as  do  the  Turks,  that  is,  as  many  as  they 
 can  keep,  whom  they  purchase  of  their  parents,  use  with 
 indifference,  and  dismiss  at  pleasure.  They  rove  about 
 like  the  fiercest  beasts  of  prey,  seeking  continually  whom 
 they  may  devour  ;  insomuch  that  the  governor  of  Grand 
 Cairo  is  forced  to  keep  a  guard  of  four  thousand  horse- 
 men every  night  on  the  side  of  the  city  next  the  wilder- 
 ness, to  secure  it  against  their  incursions.  Nor  is  the 
 wilderness  only  the  scene  of  their  depredations.  They 
 rove  all  over  the  southern  and  eastern  seas,  visit  every 
 creek  and  coast,  and  island,  and  (as  the  4  historian 
 compares  tliein)  come  sousing  like  a  hawk,  with  incredible 
 swiftness,  upon  their  prey,  and  are  gone  again  in  an 
 instant.  And  as  they  have  always  thus  preyed  upon 
 mankind,  the  necessary  consequence  is,  that  they  have 
 always  been  at  variance  and  hostility  with  them;  and 
 therein  have  made  good  the  other  branch  of  Ishmael's 
 character,  'His  hand  shall  be  against  every  man,  and 
 every  man's  hand  against  him.' 
 
 There  is  not  the  least  hint  in  Scripture,  nor  any  man- 
 ner of  reason  to  believe,  that  Ishmael  dwelt  in  a  personal 
 state  of  hostility  with  his  brethren  ;  nor  is  it  conceivable 
 how  he  could  have  maintained  himself  against  their  united 
 forces,  had  he  so  done;  ami  therefore  this  prediction 
 can  not  otherwise  be  understood, than  as  it  relates  to  his 
 posterity,  the  Arabians.  Now,  that  any  One  nation  should 
 be  of  so  singular  ami  perverse  a  character,  as  to  set 
 themselves  in  open  opposition  to  the  rest  of  the  world, 
 and  live  in  perpetual  professed  enmity  with  all  mankind; 
 
 and  that  they  should  continue  to  do  BO,  not   for  < age 
 
 or  two  only,  but  for  four  thousand  years  together,  is 
 surely  me  strangest  ami  most  astonishing  prediction  that 
 
 ever  was  read  or  heard  of.      And  yet,  if  WO  attend  a 
 to  the  history  of  these  people,  (as  soon  as  historj  I 
 
 ■>  See  Rauwi  •  l'art2. 
 
 Lord  Vatentia'B,  etc. 
 
 :;.  Brui  • 
 '  Ammianaa  MarceUinus. 
 
170 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx.— xxv.  1!. 
 
 notice  of  them,)  we  shall  find,  in  several  instances,  a  full 
 accomplishment  of  it. 
 
 When  Alexander  and  his  victorious  army  overran  a 
 great  part  of  the  east,  the  Arabians,  (as  we  are  told  by 
 Arrian  and  Strabo,)  of  all  the  Asiatics,  were  the  only 
 people  who  sent  him  no  ambassador,  nor  made  any  sub- 
 mission to  him ;  which  indignity  lie  intended  to  have 
 revenged  in  a  particular  expedition  against  them,  but 
 was  prevented  by  death. 
 
 1  What  Alexander  intended,  Antigonus,  the  greatest 
 of  his  successors,  attempted ;  but  he  was  repulsed  with 
 disgrace,  and  the  loss  of  above  8000  men  ;  and  when 
 enraged  at  this  repulse,  he  made  a  second  attempt  upon 
 them  with  a  number  of  select  men,  under  the  command 
 of  his  valiant  son  Demetrius,  the  resistance  he  met  with 
 was  so  obstinate,  that  he  was  forced  to  compound  the 
 matter,  and  leave  them  in  the  quiet  possession  of  their 
 liberty  and  peace. 
 
 Wiien  the  Romans  and  Parthians  were  rivals  for  the 
 empire  of  the  east,  the  Arabians  joined,  and  opposed 
 each  nation  as  they  thought  tit,  but  were  never  entirely 
 devoted  to  either ;  for  their  character  always  Avas,  that 
 they  were  fickle,  if  not  faithless  friends,  and  fierce 
 enemies,  who  might  be  repulsed,  and  repressed  for  a 
 season,  but  could  never  be  totally  vanquished  or  subdued. 
 
 Men  of  this  character  soon  became  the  objects  of  the 
 Roman  enmity  and  ambition,  which  coidd  endure  nothing 
 that  was  free  and  independent ;  and  accordingly  several 
 attempts  were  set  on  foot  by  Pompey,  Crassus,  and  other 
 great  generals,  in  order  to  enslave  them  ;  but  all  proved 
 successless  :  and  though  they  are  sometimes  said  to  have 
 been  defeated,  yet  is  there  no  account  that  we  can 
 properly  depend  on,  until  we  come  to  the  expedition 
 which  Trajan  is  known  to  have  made  against  them. 
 
 2  Trajan  was  certainly  a  long  experienced  and  suc- 
 cessful warrior.  He  had  subdued  the  German,  humbled 
 the  Parthian,  and  reduced  already  one  part  of  Arabia 
 into  a  province  ;  and  yet,  3  when  he  came  to  besiege  the 
 city  of  the  Hagarenes,  upon  every  assault  a  his  soldiers 
 were  so  annoyed  with  whirlwinds  and  hail,  and  so  fright- 
 ened with  thunder  and  lightning,  and  other  apparitions 
 in  the  air,  (whilst  their  meat  was  spoiled  and  corrupted 
 with  flies,  even  as  they  were  eating  it,)  that  he  was  forced 
 to  give  over  the  siege,  and  was  not  long  after  seized  with 
 a  disease,  whereof  he  died. 
 
 About  eight  years  after  this,  the  emperor  Severus,  a 
 very  valiant  and  prosperous  Wcirrior,  whom  Herodian 
 makes  no  scruple  to  prefer  even  before  Cajsar,  Marius, 
 and  Sylla,  disdaining,  as    Trajan  had  done,  that  the 
 
 1  See  Dr  Jackson  on  the  Creed.  3  Dio,  Hist.  b.  68. 
 
 3  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  2.  Dissertation  4. 
 
 a  The  above  recited  author,  from  whom  I  have  compiled  this 
 account,  assures  his  reader,  that  he  had,  with  all  the  care  he 
 could,  examined  all  the  accounts  of  Arabia  that  came  in  his  way, 
 to  see  whether  the  phenomena  and  calamities  here  mentioned  by 
 Dio  to  have  distressed  the  Roman  army  were  frequent  in  that 
 region,  and  that  he  had  never  been  able  to  meet  with  any  instance 
 of  one  of  them,  except  sometimes  storms  of  wind.  If  hail, 
 frightful  appearances  in  the  air,  and  food  infested  with  flies,  were 
 ordinary  calamities  in  this  region,  all  the  accounts  of  the  caravans 
 that  travel  through  the  deserts  would  necessarily  be  full  of  them ; 
 whereas  it  is  notorious,  that  the  best  writers  who  have  left  us 
 faithful  diaries  of  these  affairs,  do  not  so  much  as  mention  any  of 
 them;  and  therefore  they  must  certainly  have  proceeded  from  a 
 divine  interposition  in  favour  of  the  Hagarenes,  in  accomplishment 
 of  the  prediction  concerning  Ishmael  and  Ids  posterity. 
 
 Hagarenes  should  stand  out  still  against  the  Romans, 
 when  all  the  rest  about  them  had  yielded,  besieged  their 
 city,  though  it  was  but  a  small  one,  twice,  and  was 
 twice  repulsed  with  shame  and  great  slaughter  of  his 
 men.  In  the  second  assault,  indeed,  he  beat  down 
 some  of  their  city  wall,  and  thereupon  sounded  a  retreat, 
 in  hopes  that  they  would  have  capitulated,  and  surren- 
 dered up  the  hidden  treasure,  supposed  to  be  consecrated 
 to  the  sun.  But  when  they  continued  resolute  a  whole 
 day,  without  giving  any  intimations  of  a  treaty  for  a 
 peace,  on  the  morning  following  the  Roman  army  was 
 quite  intimidated.  The  Europeans,  who  were  gallant 
 men  before,  refused  to  enter  the  breach ;  and  the 
 Syrians,  who  were  forced  to  undertake  that  service,  had 
 a  grievous  repulse.  Whereupon  the  emperor,  J  without 
 making  any  fresh  attack,  decamped  from  before  the 
 city,  and  departed  to  Palestine.  Thus  God  delivered 
 the  city,  says  Dio,  recalling  the  soldiers  by  Severus, 
 when  they  might  have  entered,  and  restraining  Severus 
 the  second  day  by  the  soldiers'  backwardness. 
 
 There  are  only  these  two  things  more,  which  we  may 
 observe  from  our  historian,  worthy  our  notice  upon  this 
 occasion.  The  first  is,  that  the  Arabians  stood  single, 
 in  this  their  extremity,  against  the  whole  Roman  power  ; 
 for  none  of  their  neighbours  would  assist  them.  The 
 other  thing  is,  that  the  emperor  had  soldiers  of  all 
 nations  in  his  army;  for  "  whereas  other  emperors,"4 
 says  our  author,  "  were  contented  with  guards  of  four 
 different  European  countries,  Severus  filled  the  city 
 with  a  mixed  multitude  of  soldiers  of  all  kinds,  savage 
 to  look  on,  frightful  to  hear,  and  rude  and  wild  to  con- 
 verse with."  So  that,  considering  all  things,  I  think 
 we  may  fairly  conclude,  that  every  man's  hand  was  at 
 this  time  against  Ishmael,  and  his  hand,  his  only  hand, 
 against  every  man  ;  and  yet  he  dwelt,  and  still  dwelletli, 
 in  the  presence  of  all  his  brethren  :  for,  not  long  after 
 this,  it  is  very  well  known  that  the  Ishmaelites  joined 
 the  Goths  against  the  Romans,  and  having  afterwards 
 overcome  both,  c  under  the  name  of  Saracens,  they 
 erected  a  vast  empire  upon  their  ruins ;  and  thus  Ish- 
 mael, in  the  full  extent  of  the  prophecy,  '  became  a 
 great  nation.' 
 
 4  Ammianus  Marcellinus. 
 
 b  The  historian  tells  us  farther,  that  after  the  breach  was 
 made,  the  conquest  of  the  city  was  deemed  so  easy,  that  a  cer- 
 tain captain  of  the  army  undertook  to  do  it  himself,  if  he  might 
 have  but  550  European  soldiers  assigned  him.  But  where  shall 
 we  find  so  many  soldiers  ?  says  the  emperor,  meaning  it  of  the 
 disobedience  of  the  army,  to  which  he  imputed  his  not  carrying 
 that  place.  But  now,  how  a  commander,  who  was  at  once 
 beloved  and  revered,  almost  to  adoration,  by  his  soldiers,  could 
 not,  with  all  his  authority,  influence  them  to  assault,  when  they 
 were  in  a  manner  at  his  mercy,  this  can  be  nowise  reconciled, 
 without  the  supposition  of  that  mighty  Being  occasioning  it, 
 '  who  poureth,'  when  he  pleases,  '  contempt  upon  princes,  and 
 bringcth  their  counsels  to  nought.' 
 
 c  The  Ishmaelites,  as  some  imagine,  upon  the  reproaches  of 
 the  Jews,  who  upbraided  them  with  bastardy,  became  ashamed 
 of  their  old  names,  derived  from  Hagar  and  Ishmael,  which 
 carried  an  odium  in  the  sound,  and  took  upon  them  the  name  of 
 Saracens,  desiring  to  be  accounted  as  the  descendants  of  Abra- 
 ham by  his  wife  Sarah;  but  what  destroys  this  etymology  is 
 this,  that  the  ancients  called  them  Sara  ker.oi,  and  not  Sarte- 
 noi,  as  they  must  have -been  called,  if  their  name  had  been 
 derived  from  Sarah;  and  therefore  the  learned  Scaliger  supposes 
 the  word  to  come  from  the  Arabic  word  wrack,  which  signifies 
 to  steal  ox  plunder. —  Calmefs  Dictionary. 
 
Sect.  I.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2103.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  BE.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  til.  u 
 
 171 
 
 Circumcision  is  the  cutting  off  the  foreskin  of  the 
 member  which  in  every  male  is  the  instrument  of  gene- 
 ration ;  and  whoever  considers  the  nature  of  this  opera- 
 tion, painful  if  not  indecent  in  those  of  maturity,  and  to 
 such  as  live  in  hot  countries  highly  inconvenient,  if  not 
 dangerous ; a  an  operation  wherein  Ave  can  perceive  no 
 footsteps  of  human  invention,  as  having  no  foundation 
 either  in  reason,  or  nature,  or  necessity,  or  the  interest 
 of  any  particular  set  of  men,  we  must  needs  conclude, 
 that  mankind  could  never  have  put  such  a  severity  upon 
 themselves,  unless  they  had  been  enjoined  and  directed 
 to  it  by  a  divine  command.  Nay,  this  single  instance 
 of  Abraham,  who,  at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety-nine, 
 underwent  this  hazardous  operation,  and  the  very  inde- 
 cency of  it  in  a  man  of  his  years  and  dignity ;  these  two 
 considerations  are  in  the  place  of  ten  thousand  proofs, 
 that  it  was  forced  upon  him ;  but  nothing  but  the  irresis- 
 tible authority  of  God  could  be  a  force  sufficient,  in 
 those  circumstances.  So  that  the  strangeness  and  sin- 
 gularity of  this  ordinance  is  so  far  from  being  an  argu- 
 ment against  it,  that  it  is  an  evident  proof  of  its  divine 
 institution ;  and  what  was  originally  instituted  by  God 
 cannot,  in  strictness,  be  accounted  immodest,  though 
 we  perhaps  may  have  some  such  conception  of  it,  since 
 1 '  unto  the  pure  all  things  are  pure,  but  unto  them  that 
 are  defiled  and  unbelieving  nothing  is  pure,  but  even 
 their  mind  and  conscience  is  defiled.' 
 
 The  Egyptians  indeed,  as  2  Herodotus  informs  us, 
 pretended  to  practise  this  rite,  from  no  other  principle 
 but  that  of  cleanliness  ;  and  possibly,  at  that  time,  they 
 might  so  far  have  lost  the  memorial  of  its  true  origin  as 
 not  to  retain  any  other  reason  for  their  observation  of  it. 
 But  since  it  is  evident,  to  a  demonstration,  that  they 
 might,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  be  as  clean  without 
 this  rite  as  with  it,  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  any  man  of 
 common  sense  should  undergo  pain,  and  hazard  himself, 
 and  force  the  same  inconveniences  upon  his  posterity, 
 
 '  Tit.  i.  15.  2  B.  2. 
 
 a  The  manner  of  this  ceremony's  being  performed,  whether 
 in  the  public  synagogue  or  in  private  houses,  is  this: — The 
 person  who  is  appointed  to  be  the  godfather  sits  down  upon  a 
 seat,  with  a  silk  cushion  provided  for  that  purpose,  and  settles 
 the  child  in  a  proper  posture  on  his  knees,  when  he  who  is  to 
 circumcise  him  (which,  by  the  bye,  is  accounted  a  great  honour 
 among  the  Jews)  opens  the  blankets.  Some  make  use  of  silver 
 tweezers,  to  take  up  so  much  of  the  prepuce  as  they  design  to 
 cut  off,  but  others  take  it  up  with  their  lingers.  Then  he  who 
 circumcises  the  child,  holding  the  razor  in  his  hand,  says, 
 "  Blessed  lie  thou,  O  Lord,  who  hasc  commanded  us  to  be  cir- 
 cumcised ;"  and  while  he  is  saying  this,  cuts  off  the  thick  skin 
 of  the  prepuce,  and  then,  with  bis  thumb  nails,  tears  off  a  finer 
 skin  still  remaining.  After  this  he  sucks  the  blood,  which 
 flows  plentifully  upon  this  occasion,  and  spits  it  out  into  a  cup 
 full  of  wine;  then  he  puts  some  dragon's  blood  upon  the  wound, 
 some  coral  powder,  and  other  tilings  to  stop  the  bleeding,  and  so 
 covers  up  the  part  affected.  When  this  is  done,  he  takes  up  the 
 rup  wherein  he  had  spit  the  Mood,  moistens  his  lips  therewith, 
 and  then  blessing  both  that  and  the  child,  gives  him  the  name 
 whicli  his  father  had  appointed,  and  at  the  same  time  pronounces 
 these  words  of  Ezekiel,  '  I  said  unto  thee,  when  thou  wast  in 
 thy  blood,  live,'  Ezek.  xvi.  6. ;  after  which  the  whole  congrega- 
 tion repeats  the  128th  Psalm,  '  Blessed  is  every  man  that  fcareth 
 the  Lord,'  &c. ;  and  so  the  ceremony  concludes.  Only  we  must 
 observe,  that  besides  the  seat  appointed  for  the  godfather,  there 
 is  always  another  left  empty,  and  is  designed,  some  say,  for  the 
 prophet  Elias,  who,  as  they  imagine,  is  invisibly  present  at  all 
 circumcisions. — Calmet'r  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Circum- 
 cision. 
 
 merely  for  the  attainment  of  an  end  which  could  as  fully 
 and  perfectly  have  been  accomplished  without  it. 
 
 There  is  a  passage,  indeed,  in  the  same  Herodotus, 
 wherein  he  tells  us,  "That  the  Colchians,  the  I 
 tians,  and  the  Ethiopians,  were  the  only  nations  that 
 circumcised  from  the  beginning,  and  that  the  Syrians 
 and  Phoenicians,  who  lived  in  Palestine,  acknowledged 
 they  borrowed  that  rite  from  them."'  lint  here  the 
 historian  is  less  to  be  blamed  for  having  run  into  this 
 error,  since  the  Egyptians  were  a  people  naturally  so 
 vain  and  conceited  of  their  antiquity,  that  they  chose 
 rather  to  impose  upon  him  by  a  false  information  (for 
 all  this  account  he  had  but  from  information)  than  con- 
 fess that  they  received  circumcision  from  any  other 
 people.  In  the  other  part  of  the  story,  it  is  manifest 
 that  they  did  impose  upon  him,  when  they  told  him  that 
 the  inhabitants  of  Palestine,  whom  he  calls  Syrians  and 
 Phoenicians,  confessed  that  they  received  circumcision 
 from  them ;  whereas  there  were  no  inhabitants  in  Pales- 
 tine circumcised  but  the  Jews,  and  these  always  pro- 
 fessed to  have  received  it  directly  from  Abraham. 
 
 3  Herodotus,  indeed,  in  all  his  writings,  has  shown 
 that  he  was  a  great  stranger  to  the  affairs  of  the  Jews, 
 and  much  more  to  the  history  of  the  patriarchs,  who  so 
 long  preceded  the  institution  of  their  republic.  What 
 he  tells  us  of  the  origin  of  circumcision,  namely,  that  it 
 was  among  the  Egyptians  from  the  beginning,  is  in  a 
 loose  and  vagrant  expression  accidently  dropt  from 
 him,  or  rather  contrived  on  purpose  to  conceal  his 
 ignorance  of  the  matter :  whereas  Moses,  who  was  long 
 before  him,  knew  the  history  of  the  patriarchs,  and  parti- 
 cularly that  of  Abraham  ;  and  therefore  he  does  not  con- 
 tent himself  with  popular  or  fabulous  reports,  or  endea- 
 vour to  conceal  his  meaning  under  indefinite  and  general 
 expressions,  but  marks  out  the  particular  period,  and 
 o-ives  us  a  plain  and  full  account  both  of  the  causes  and 
 circumstances  of  the  whole  institution.  The  truth  is, 
 there  is  no  comparison  between  the  two  historians  in 
 this  particular  ;  and  therefore,  if  we  will  credit  tin- 
 sacred  penman,  in  a  point  wherein  his  knowledge  could 
 hardly  be  defective,  so  far  were  the  Egyptians  from 
 prescribing  to  the  Hebrews,  in  the  rite  of  circumcision, 
 that  when  Abraham  was  in  Egypt,  there  was  no  such 
 custom  then  in  use. 
 
 It  was  twenty  years  after  his  return  from  that  country 
 that  God  enjoined  him  the  rite  of  circumcision  :  and 
 then  it  is  said,  that  4 *  Abraham  took  Ishmael  his  BOO, 
 and  all  that  were  born  in  his  house,  and  all  thai  wore 
 bought  with  his  money,  ami  circumcised  the  flesh  of 
 their  foreskin.'  Now  it  is  evident,  that  when  he  came 
 out  of  Egypt  he  brought  men-servants  and  maid-servants 
 with  him  in  abundance  ;  and  therefore,  unless  we  can 
 suppose  that  all  these  Egyptian  men-servants  died 
 within  twenty  years,  when  the  ordinary  period  of  life 
 was  at  least  an  hundred  :  or  that,  when  thej  died,  none 
 
 of  them  left  any  male  issue  behind  them  :  we  cannot  but 
 conclude,  that  circumcision  was  not  known  in  Egypt    in 
 
 Abraham's  time,  because  it  is  express!)  said,  that 
 'every  male  among  the  men  of  Abraham's  house  was 
 circumcised'  at  the  same  time  that  he  was.  which  could 
 
 never   have   been,  had  they   undergone   that    operation 
 
 before.  
 
 •  Basnsge's  rlisti  rj  of  the  Jews.       '  Gen.  x\ii.  U(  85,  K 
 
172 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxv.  11. 
 
 At  what  time  the  rite  of  circumcision  obtained  in 
 Egypt,  is  not  so  easy  a  matter  to  determine  :  there  is  a 
 passage,  however,  in  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  which,  if 
 taken  in  a  literal  sense,  is  far  from  encouraging  any 
 high  pretensions  to  antiquity  :  '  '  Behold  the  days  come, 
 saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  punish  all  them  that  are  cir- 
 cumcised with  the  uncircumcised ;  Egypt,  and  Judah, 
 and  Edom,  and  the  children  of  Amnion,  and  Moab,  &c> 
 for  all  these  nations  are  uncircumcised,  and  all  the  house 
 of  Israel  are  uncircumcised  in  their  heart' — the  plain 
 sense  of  which  word  is  this, — that  God  would  visit  the  house 
 of  Israel  like  strange  nations  ;  because,  as  the  latter  were 
 uncircumcised  in  the  flesh,  so  the  former  were  in  the 
 heart.  Not  but  that,  in  the  days  of  Jeremiah,  the  rite  of 
 circumcision  was  known  and  practised  among  the  Egyp- 
 tians, as  well  as  among  other  nations ;  but  then  it  was 
 not  so  common  and  general,  nor  was  it  at  all  used  any 
 where  till  long  after  Abraham's  days. 
 
 One  probable  opinion  therefore  is,  that  the  Arabians 
 received  it  from  the  Ishmaelites  ;  that  the  Egyptians 
 received  it  from  the  Arabians,  or  perhaps  from  Abra- 
 ham's children  by  Keturah  ;  and  that  from  the  Egyptians 
 the  people  of  Colchis,  knowing  themselves  to  be  of 
 Egyptian  extract,  embraced  it,  in  imitation  of  their  illus- 
 trious ancestors.  But  even  suppose  that  this  custom  was 
 not  established  in  Egypt  by  the  posterity  either  of  Hagar 
 or  Keturah  ;  yet  why  might  not  Joseph,  in  the  course  of 
 a  most  absolute  ministry  for  fourscore  years  together,  be 
 able  to  introduce  it  ?  2  It  is  the  practice,  we  know,  nay, 
 it  is  the  pride  of  slaves,  to  imitate  their  master's  manners, 
 especially  if  he  seems  solicitous  to  have  them  do  so  ; 
 and  therefore  we  need  not  doubt,  but  that,  upon  the  least 
 intimation  of  his  pleasure,  the  Egyptians  would  readily 
 embrace  the  religious  rites  of  so  great,  so  wise,  so 
 powerful  a  minister,  who  had  preserved  every  one  of 
 their  lives,  who  had  saved  the  whole  kingdom  from  ruin 
 and  was  himself  so  visibly  and  so  remarkably  guided  by 
 the  Spirit  of  God.  But  whensoever,  or  from  whomsoever 
 it  was,  that  the  Egyptians  learned  this  rite,  it  is  certain, 
 that  the  reason  of  its  institution  was  not  with  them  the 
 same  that  it  was  among  the  Jews  ;  and  therefore  the 
 circumcision  itself  must  not  be  accounted  the  same. 
 
 Whoever  looks  into  the  life  of  Abraham,  will  soon 
 perceive,  that  God  did  all  along  design  him  for  a  pattern 
 of  faith  and  perfect  obedience  to  all  succeeding  genera- 
 tions. 3  The  more  his  faith  was  tried,  the  more  illustrious 
 it  became,  and  the  more  obstacles  there  were  raised  in 
 the  accomplishment  of  the  divine  promises,  the  more  the 
 good  patriarch  showed  (in  surmounting  these  obstacles) 
 the  high  conception  he  had  entertained  of  him  from  whom 
 these  promises  came.  For  after  a  promise  of  a  numerous 
 posterity,  why  was  it  so  long  before  he  gave  him  any  son 
 •it  all?  After  the  birth  of  Ishmael,  why  so  long  before 
 the  promise  of  an  heir  by  his  wife  Sarah  ?  And  after 
 that  promise  was  given,  who  so  long,  even  till  the  thing 
 was  impossible,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature,  before 
 the  promise  was  accomplished,  and  the  child  sent  ?  All 
 this  was  to  exercise  his  faith,  and  to  give  him  an  oppor- 
 tunity of  showing  to  the  world,  how  fully  he  was  con- 
 vinced, that,  notwithstanding  all  these  impediments  and 
 
 1  Jer.  ix.  25,  26. 
 
 2  Revelation  Examined,  vol.  2.  Dissertation  4. 
 
 3  Saurin's  Dissertation  15. 
 
 delays,  God  would  certainly,  by  one  means  or  other, 
 effectually  make  good  his  promises.  The  like  may  be 
 said  of  the  command  of  circumcision.  God  did  not  only 
 defer,  for  the  space  of  twenty  whole  years,  the  birth  of 
 that  son,  who  was  so  solemnly  promised,  and  so  impa- 
 tiently desired,  but  even  when  that  time  was  expired, 
 and  Abraham  might  now  justly  hope  to  see  the  promise 
 accomplished,  and  his  faith  crowned,  God  was  pleased 
 to  cross  it  again,  by  requiring  of  him  the  performance 
 of  an  act,  which,  in  all  appearance,  would  be  a  total 
 defeat  to  all  his  hopes.  For  this  injunction,  '  My  cove- 
 nant shall  be  in  your  flesh,'  to  a  man  of  advanced  age, 
 seems  as  opposite  to  the  promise  of  having  a  son,  as  that 
 other  of  '  taking  his  son,  his  only  son  Isaac,  and  offering 
 him  up  for  a  burnt-sacrifice,'  was  to  the  promise  of  his 
 being  the  father  of  a  numerous  posterity. 
 
 But  Abraham's  faith  triumphed  over  this,  as  well  as  all 
 other  obstacles.  He  immediately  performed  the  opera- 
 tion, notwithstanding  its  oddness,  its  danger,  its  seeming- 
 indecency,  and  the  apparent  opposition  it  had  to  the 
 divine  promises  ;  and  it  is  to  preserve  the  remembrance 
 of  the  faith  of  their  great  ancestor,  who,  in  so  many 
 discouraging  circumstances,  '  waited  patiently  on  God, 
 and  against  hope  believed  in  hope,'  (as  the  apostle  ex- 
 presses it,)  that  God  prescribed  to  the  Jewish  nation  the 
 sacrament  of  circumcision.  For  this  was  a  farther  end 
 of  its  institution,  not  only  to  be  a  mark  of  distinction 
 between  the  posterity  of  Abraham  and  all  other  nations, 
 but  a  token  likewise  of  God's  covenant  made  with  him, 
 and  his  posterity,  and  a  note  of  commemoration  to  put 
 those  who  bore  it  continually  in  mind  whose  offspring 
 they  were,  and  what  advantages  entitled  to  upon  that 
 account,  provided  they  took  care  not  to  degenerate  from 
 the  glories  of  that  stock  from  whence  they  sprang. 
 
 And  indeed,  considering  that  Abraham  was  the  first 
 we  read  of  whom  God  rescued  from  the  general  corrup- 
 tion of  faith  and  manners,  which  the  world  had  now  a 
 second  time  relapsed  into  ;  and  considering,  withal,  that 
 this  person  and  his  posterity  were  singled  out  for  a 
 chosen  generation,  the  repository  of  truth,  and  the  recep- 
 tacle of  God  incarnate  ;  there  was  reason  in  abundance, 
 why  tins  remembrance  should  be  very  grateful  to  them ; 
 and  apt  enough,  it  is  plain,  upon  all  occasions,  they 
 were  to  value  themselves,  and  despise  others,  upon  the 
 account  of  so  particular  an  honour.  4  But  the  misfortune 
 was,  the  most  useful  part  of  the  reflection,  namely,  the 
 eminent  faith  and  ready  obedience  of  so  renowned  an 
 ancestor,  and  the  noble  emulation  of  his  virtues,  which 
 such  a  pattern  ought  to  have  inspired  ;  this  they  were  too 
 apt  to  overlook,  though  any  considering  man  (as  the 
 apostle  5  excellently  argues)  could  not  but  perceive  that 
 the  only  valuable  relation  to  Abraham  is  not  that  of  con- 
 sanguinity and  natural  descent,  but  the  resemblance  of 
 his  virtues,  and  claiming  under  him  as  the  '  father  of  the 
 faithful.' 
 
 And  this  suggests  another,  and  indeed  none  of  the 
 least  considerable  ends  for  which  circumcision  was  insti- 
 tuted, namely,  to  be  a  sign  of  inward  virtue,  and  to 
 figure  out  to  us  some  particular  dispositions  of  mind 
 which  bore  resemblance  to  the  outward  ceremony,  and 
 were  required  to  render  it  effectual ;  for  which  reason  ii 
 
 4  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels.         5  Rom.  iv.  11. 
 
Sect.  l.J  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  1897;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN 
 
 173 
 
 is  that  we  read  so  much  in  the  old  law  l  *  of  circumcis- 
 ing- the  foreskin  of  the  heart,'  and  hear  the  apostle  so 
 frequently  telling  us  in  the  new,  3  '  of  putting-  oft' the  body 
 of  the  sins  of  the  flesh  by  the  circumcision  of  Christ ;' 
 * '  for  he  is  not  a  Jew,  who  is  one  outwardly,  neither  is 
 that  circumcision  which  is  outward  in  the  flesh  :  but  he  is 
 a  Jew  who  is  one  inwardly  :  and  circumcision  is  that  of 
 the  heart,  in  the  spirit,  and  not  in  the  letter ;  whose  praise 
 is  not  of  men,  but  of  God.' 
 
 It  may  seem  a  little  strange  at  first,  perhaps,  that 
 Abraham,  whose  course  of  life  was  retired  and  philoso- 
 phical, should  all  on  a  sudden  commence  so  great  a 
 warrior,  as  to  be  able  to  defeat  four  kings  at  once,  and 
 their  victorious  armies,  with  a  small  number  of  his 
 domestics,  and  some  assistance  that  was  given  him  by 
 his  neighbours.  His  own  men  were  318  ;  and  what  force 
 his  confederates,  the  three  Phoenician  princes,  brought  to 
 his  assistance,  we  do  not  find  mentioned.  We  may  pro- 
 bably enough  suppose,  that  they  did  not  exceed  his  own 
 domestics  ;  but  then  we  are  not  obliged  to  affirm,  that  he 
 fell  upon  the  whole  body  of  the  Assyrian  army  with  this 
 small  retinue.  This  certainly  would  have  been  too  bold 
 an  attempt  for  the  little  company  which  he  commanded  ; 
 and  therefore  the  more  likely  supposition  is,  that  coming 
 up  with  them  by  night,  he  divided  his  men  into  two  or 
 three  parties,  the  better  to  make  a  diversion,  and  conceal 
 his  strength  ;  that  with  one  party  himself  might  attack  the 
 headquarters  of  king  Chedorlaomer,  where  the  chief 
 feasting  and  revelling  was  kept  for  joy  of  their  late  vic- 
 tories ;  that  with  another  he  might  fall  upon  those  who 
 were  appointed  to  guard  the  captives  and  the  spoil ;  and 
 with  a  third  might  be  beating  up  other  quarters  ;  so 
 that  the  Assyrians,  being  fatigued  in  their  late  battle, 
 surprised  at  finding  a  new  enemy,  and  not  knowing  what 
 their  number  or  strength  might  be,  or  where  their  princi- 
 pal attack  was  to  begin,  might  endeavour  to  save  them- 
 selves by  flight ;  which  Abraham  perceiving,  might  take 
 the  advantage  of  their  fright,  and  pursue  them,  until  he 
 had  made  himself  master  of  the  prisoners  and  the  spoil, 
 and  then  retire  himself,  as  not  thinking  it  advisable  to 
 follow  them  until  the  daylight  might  discover  the  weak- 
 ness of  his  forces. 
 
 All  this  might  well  enough  be  done  by  a  common 
 stratagem  in  war,  without  any  miraculous  interposition 
 of  providence  :  but  it  is  much  more  likely,  that  the  same 
 God,  *  who  in  after  ages  instructed  one  of  his  posterity, 
 even  with  such  another  little  handful  of  men,  not  only  to 
 break  an  army  of  about  200,000  or  300,000,  but  to  kill  of 
 them  upon  the  spot,  no  fewer  than  120,000  ;  to  disperse 
 at  least  as  many  more  ;  to  vanquish  after  this  a  party  of 
 15,000  that  had  retired  in  a  body  ;  and  at  last  to  take  all 
 the  four  kings,  who  were  the  leaders  of  this  numerous, 
 or  rather  numberless  army ;  '  it  is  much  more  likely,  I 
 say,  that  the  God  of  Abraham  would  not  be  wanting  to 
 his  servant  in  his  counsels  and  suggestions  upon  this 
 important  occasion  ;  and  if  a  party  of  300  men,  under 
 the  conduct  of  a  person  every  way  inferior  to  Abraham, 
 was  by  a  stratagem  in  the  night,  and  by  the  help  of  a 
 sudden  panic  which  God  injected,  enabled  to  defeat 
 four  mighty  princes,  and  to  make    such  a  prodigious 
 
 1  Deut.  x.  16.         *  Col.  ii.  11.         3  Rom.  ii.  28,  29. 
 
 4  Judges,  at  the  7th  and  Btfa  chapters. 
 
 6  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1.  Occasional  Annotations,  19. 
 
 CH.  xx-xxv.  11. 
 
 slaughter  in  their  camp  ;  I  cannot  see,  why  a  person  of 
 that  consummate  wisdom,  and  so  highly  favoured  bj  God 
 with  extraordinary  monitions  upon  all  remarkable  emer- 
 gencies, as  Abraham  was,  might  not,  bj  God's  advice, 
 make  use  of  some  such  stratagem  as  Gideon  did,  though 
 the  Scripture  is  herein  silent,  that  the  success  might  be 
 imputed  to  the  operation  of  faith  in  him,  and  not  t<>  the 
 agency  of  second  causes,  or  what  some  call  the  chance 
 of  war. 
 
 Of  what  age  Isaac  was,  when  Abraham  was  ordered  to 
 offer  him  up,  is  nowhere  declared  in  Scripture.  The 
 opinion  of  some  b^irned  Jews,  that  he  was  but  twelve 
 years  old,  is  ridiculous  ;  since  at  that  age,  it  would  have 
 been  impossible  for  him  to  have  carried  such  a  load  of 
 wood,  as  was  requisite  upon  that  occasion ;  and  others 
 run  into  a  contrary  extreme,  by  supposing  that  he  iras 
 then  seven  and  thirty  years  of  age,  which  must  have  been 
 the  year  wherein  his  mother  died  ;  and  yet  she  is  said  to 
 have  been  alive  when  this  transaction  happened.  Jose- 
 phus  indeed  makes  him  five  and  twenty,  and  some 
 Christian  (both  ancient  and  modern)  commentators  sup- 
 pose that  he  was  past  thirty;  but  whatever  his  age  might 
 be,  it  is  acknowledged,  that  he  was  capable  of  making 
 resistance,  and  would  certainly  have  done  it,  had  he  not 
 been  very  well  satisfied  that  the  command  came  from 
 God.  To  this  purpose  the  "■  Jewish  historian  introduces 
 Abraham  as  making  a  very  tender  and  pathetic  speech 
 to  his  son  ;  inspiring  him  with  a  just  contempt  of  life  ; 
 and  exhorting  him  to  a  due  submission  to  the  divine 
 order  and  decree  ;  to  all  which  Isaac  attended,  says  our 
 author,  with  a  constancy  and  resignation  becoming  the 
 son  of  such  a  father  :  and  upon  this  their  mutual  behavi- 
 our, 6  a  very  elegant  father  of  the  Greek  church  has  made 
 this  beautiful  reflection  : — "  All  the  strength  of  reluctant 
 love  could  not  withhold  the  father's  hands;  and  all  the 
 horror  of  a  dissolution  could  not  tempt  the  son  to  move 
 for  his  own  preservation.  Which  of  the  two,  shall  we 
 say,  deserves  the  precedence  in  our  wonder  and  vene- 
 ration ?  For  there  seems  to  be  a  religious  emulation  or 
 contest  between  them,  which  should  most  remarkably 
 signalize  himself ;  the  father,  in  loving  God  more  than 
 
 6  Gregor.  Nyss.  De  Deitate  Fil.  ct  Spirit.  Sand,  p.  908. 
 a  The  words  wherein  Josephtis  makes  Abraham  addn 
 son  upon  this  occasion  are  these: — "My  dear  son.  thou  hast 
 been  the  child  of  my  prayers  to  me,  and  since  thy  coming  into 
 the  world,  I  have  spared  for  nothing  in  thy  nurture  and  educa- 
 tion.    There  is  not  any  happiness  1  have  more  « I  I 
 to  see  thee  settled  in  a  consummated  state  of  age  and  reason;  sad 
 whenever  God  shall  take  me  to  himself,  to  leave  thee  in  | 
 sion  of  my  authority  and  dominions.     But  since  it  baa  been  the 
 
 will  of  Gud,  fust  to  bestow  thee  open  me,  and  DOT  t"  call  thee 
 back  again,  my  dear  sen.  acquit  thyself  generously  under  bo  pious 
 a  necessity.  It  is  to  God  that  thou  ait  dedicated  and  delivered 
 up  on  this  occasion,  and  it  is  the  same  God  that  DOT  requires 
 thee  of  me,  in   return    for  all   the   blessings  and  favours   he  hath 
 
 showered  down  upon  us,  both  in  war  and  peace.     Ii  hi  agreeable 
 
 to  the   law  of  nature,  for  ever)   One   that  i-   bOTD,  t..   die;  and  a 
 
 more  glorious  end  thou  canst  never  have,  than  to  lali  by  the  band 
 of  thy  own  father,  a  sacrifice  to  ih«'  G<*l  and  Father  of  tie-  uni- 
 verse, who  hath  rather  chosen  to  receive  thj  ioul  Into  a  I 
 eternity,   upon  the   wing-   of    prayer  and  ardent   ejaculations, 
 than  to  suffer  tier  to  be  taken  away  in  sickness,  war,  passion,  or 
 
 any  other  of  the  common  ehauee>  of  mankind.      Consider  it  "ell, 
 anil  thou  «ilt  find,  that    in  that  heavenly   station,  to  wbJl  I 
 art  now  called,  thou  mayest  make  thyself  the  support  oftl  ■ 
 father,  and   that  instead  of  my  son  Isaac,  I  shall  have  God  luia- 
 
 self  for  my  guardian." — y/«/"/'"'"'s  b.  I.  c.  14, 
 
174 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 LBook  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  189G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxv.  II. 
 
 which  is  found  in  this  tract  of  ground  now,  was  the  j 
 effect  of  divine  vengeance,  and  showered  down  upon 
 it,  when  God  destroyed  Sodom,  and  its  neighbouring 
 cities.  They  therefore  suppose,  that  the  woman  stand- 
 ing still  too  long  to  behold  the  destruction  of  her 
 country,  some  of  that  dreadful  shower,  in  the  manner 
 of  great  Hakes  of  snow,  fell  upon  her,  and  clinging  to 
 her  body,  wrapped  it  all  over,  as  it  were  in  a  sheet  of 
 nitrosulphureous  matter,  which  congealed  into  a  crust 
 as  hard  as  a  stone,  and  made  her  appear  like  a  statue 
 or  pillar  of  a  metallic  salt,  having  her  body  enclosed, 
 and,  as  it  were,  candied  all  over  with  it.  And  to  main- 
 tain this  their  hypothesis,  they  assert,  that  all  indurated 
 bodies  (as  chemists  well  know)  are)  as  they  speak, 
 highly  saturated  with  a  saline  principle,  and  all  coagu- 
 lations and  concretions,  in  the  mixture  of  bodies,  are 
 effected  by  this  means :  so  that  it  was  not  possible  to 
 express  such  a  transmutation  as  Lot's  wife  underwent, 
 whether  it  was  simply  by  incrustation,  or  by  a  total 
 penetration,  more  properly  than  Moses  has  done.  They 
 produce  instances  from  the  best  historians  of  several 
 petrifactions,  both  of  men  and  cattle,  (almost  as  won- 
 derful as  this  of  Lot's  wife,)  standing  in  the  very  same  >. 
 posture  wherein  they  were  found  at  the  instant  of  their 
 transmutation,  for  several  generations  afterwards  ;  and, 
 for  the  confirmation  of  this  in  particular,  they  vouch  the 
 testimony  of  the  author  of  the  book  of  Wisdom,  who 
 makes  mention  of  a  standing  pillar  of  salt,  as  a  monu- 
 ment of  an  unbelieving  soul,  and  the  authority  of  the 
 Seventy  interpreters,  who  expressly  render  it  so.  Among 
 Jewish  writers,  they  cite  the  words  5  of  Josephus,  who  i 
 tells  us,  that  Lot's  wife,  casting  her  eye  perpetually  back 
 upon  the  city,  and  being  too  much  concerned  about  it, 
 contrary  to  what  God  had  forbidden  her,  was  turned  into 
 a  pillar  of  salt,  which  I  myself  (as  he  tells  us)  have  seen. 
 They  cite  the  words  of  Philo,  who  frequently  takes  notice  | 
 of  this  metamorphosis,  and,  in  his  allegories  of  the  law 
 more  particularly,  declares,  that  for  the  love  of  Sodom,  , 
 Lot's  wife  was  turned  into  a  stone.  And  among  Chris- 
 tian writers,  they  produce  that  passage  of  Clemens,  in 
 his  epistle  to  the  Corinthians ;  '  Lot's  wife  went  along 
 with  him,  but  being  of  a  different  spirit,  and  not  persist- 
 ing in  concord  with  him,  she  was  therefore  placed  for  a 
 sign,  and  continues  a  statue  of  salt  to  this  very  day;'  . 
 together  with  the  testimony  of  Irenajus,  and  several  other 
 fathers  of  the  church. 
 
 The  accounts  which  modern  historians  and  travellers 
 give  us  of  this  matter  are  so  very  different  and  uncertain, 
 that  we  cannot  so  well  tell  where  to  fix  our  belief. 
 Bochart,  in  his  description  of  the  Holy  Land,  tells  us, 
 that  he  gave  himself  the  fatigue  of  a  very  troublesome 
 journey  to  behold  this  statue,  but  was  not  so  happy  as 
 
 his  own  child,  and  the  son,  in  the  love  of  duty  above  his 
 own  life." 
 
 This  is  a  gallant  instance  of  a  profound  submission  to 
 the  divine  will ;  and  yet  (not  to  detract  from  the  merit  of 
 it)  if  we  consider  the  matter  coolly,  it  was  no  more  than 
 what  many  martyrs,  even  under  the  Jewish  economy, 
 equally  have  performed.  They  have  given  themselves 
 up,  in  testimony  of  their  love  to  God,  to  deaths  as  cruel 
 as  terrible,  as  this  which  Isaac  was  to  suffer :  '  '  They 
 were  stoned,  were  sawed  asunder,  were  tortured ;  and 
 yet  they  accepted  not  deliverance,  that  they  might  inherit 
 a  joyful  resurrection.' 
 
 The  metamorphosis  of  Lot's  wife  is  one  of  the  most 
 wonderful  events  in  Scripture  ;  and  therefore  those  who 
 are  unwilling,  as  they  say,  to  multiply  miracles  without 
 a  cause,  from  the  different  senses  which  the  words  in  the 
 text  are  capable  of,  have  endeavoured  to  affix  another 
 interpretation  to  them.  Thus  the  word  which  we  render 
 jiiHar,  or  statue,  besides  its  obvious  signification,  may, 
 in  a  metaphorical  sense,  be  applied  to  denote  any  thing 
 that,  like  a  pillar  or  stone,  is  immoveable  and  hard  ;  and 
 according  to  this  acceptation,  these  interpreters  suppose 
 that  Moses  might  intend  no  more  than  that  Lot's  wife 
 was  struck  dead  with  fear  or  surprise,  or  any  other  cause, 
 and  so  remain  motionless,  like  a  stone. 
 
 In  like  manner,  2  the  word  which  we  render  salt,  be- 
 sides its  common  signification,  does  sometimes  denote  a 
 dry  and  barren  soil,  such  as  is  found  about  the  asphaltic 
 lake  ;  and  thus  the  sense  of  the  words,  applied  to  Lots 
 wife,  intimates,  that  the  place  of  her  death  was  in  a  bar- 
 ren country,  or  in  a  land  of  salt.  At  other  times  it 
 signifies  a  long  space,  or  continuance  of  time,  because  3 
 we  find  an  everlasting  covenant  called  a  covenant  of 
 salt,  (salt  being  therefore  an  emblem  of  eternity,  because 
 the  things  that  are  seasoned  therewith  continue  incorrupt 
 for  many  years,)  and  in  this  sense  Lot's  wife  may  be 
 said  to  become  an  4  everlasting  monument  of  the  divine 
 displeasure,  without  any  consideration  either  of  the  form 
 or  matter  whereinto  she  was  changed  ;  and  from  these 
 significations  of  the  words,  they  draw  this  explication  of 
 the  passage  : — "  That  Lot's  wife,  either  looking  back 
 upon  the  city  when  she  saw  it  all  in  smoke,  and  fire  from 
 heaven  pouring  down  upon  it,  was  struck  dead  with  the 
 frightful  sight,  in  a  country  that  was  afterwards  barren 
 and  unfruitful  :  or  that,  not  only  stopping,  but  returning 
 towards  the  city,  (when  the  angel  was  gone,)  she  was 
 suffocated  by  some  poisonous  vapour,  and  perished  in 
 the  common  conflagration."  And  this,  as  they  saj, 
 saves  a  miracle,  and  answers  the  end  of  providence  full 
 as  well  as  if  the  woman  had  actually  been  turned  into  a 
 pillar  of  salt,  which  never  was,  and  never  will  be  proved 
 by  any  authentic  testimony. 
 
 All  this  is  plausible  enough  ;  and  yet  those  Avho 
 adhere  to  the  literal  sense  of  the  words,  have  this  to 
 say  in  their  vindication — That  the  vale  of  Siddim, 
 where  Sodom,  and  the  other  cities  stood  ;  was  originally 
 a  very  fruitful  soil,  (as  most  bituminous  countries  are,) 
 which  induced  Lotto  make  choice  of  it  for  the  pasturage 
 of  his  cattle  ;  but  is  at  present  the  very  reverse,  a  poor 
 barren  land,  full  of  sulphur  and  salt-pits  :  and  hence 
 they  infer,  that  all  the  sulphureous  and  saline  matter, 
 
 1  Heb.  xi.  35,  37. 
 3  Numb,  xvi 
 
 8  See  Le  Clerc's  Dissert,  in  locum. 
 19.  4lKut.  xxix.  23. 
 
 3  Antiq.  b.  1.  c.  12. 
 a  Most  of  the  interpreters  have  observed  to  us,  that  we  must 
 not  take  the  salt  here  mentioned  for  common  salt,  which  water 
 soon  dissolves,  and  could  not  possibly  continue  long,  being  ex- 
 posed to  the  wind  and  rain ;  but  for  metallic  salt,  which  was 
 hewn  out  of  the  rock  like  marble,  and  made  use  of  in  building 
 houses,  according  to  the  testimony  of  several  authors.  Watsius, 
 MiscelL  vol.  1.  and  Pliny,  b.  31.  c.  7,  tell  us,  that  in  Africa,  not 
 far  from  Utica,  there  are  vast  heaps  of  salt,  like  mountains,  which, 
 when  once  hardened  by  the  sun  and  moon,  cannot  be  dissolved 
 with  rain  or  any  other  liquor,  nor  penetrated  with  any  kind  of 
 instrument  made  with  iron. — Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol. 
 2.  Essay  8. 
 
Sect.  I.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  ISSG;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  20)3.  GEN.  CII.  xx-xxv    II. 
 
 175 
 
 to  satisfy  his  curiosity  ;  for  the  inhabitants  assured  him 
 the  place  was  inaccessible,  and  could  not  be  visited 
 without  apparent  danger  of  death,  because  of  the  prodi- 
 gious beasts  and  serpents  that  .abounded  there,  but  more 
 especially,  because  of  the  Biduini,  a  very  savage  and 
 inhuman  sort  of  people,  that  dwelt  near  it ;  and  yet,  if 
 we  will  believe  other  writers  of  this  kind,  they  will  tell 
 us  expressly,  that  there  is  some  part  of  it  remaining,  and 
 to  be  seen  between  Engaddi  and  the  Dead  Sea. 
 
 We  will  suppose  however  for  once,  that  the  long 
 duration  of  this  monument  is  an  imposition  of  the  inha- 
 bitants upon  the  credulity  of  strangers ;  yet  it  will  not 
 therefore  follow,  that  there  never  was  any  such  thing  in 
 being,  unless  we  can  think  it  inconsistent  with  the  nature 
 of  God  to  work  a  miracle  for  the  punishment  of  a  wicked 
 woman.  Miracles  indeed  are  not  to  be  multiplied, 
 unless  there  be  occasion  for  them ;  but  when  the  plain 
 sense  of  the  words  leads  us  to  such  a  construction,  it  is  a 
 niceness,  I  think,  no  way  commendable,  to  endeavour 
 to  find  out  another,  merely  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  the 
 iniraculoiisness  of  the  fact ;  as  if  the  Scriptures  were 
 more  valuable  for  containing  nothing  but  obvious  matters, 
 and  the  majesty  of  God  any  way  magnilied  by  seeming 
 to  exert  as  little  of  its  omnipotent  power  as  possible. 
 
 The  short  of  the  matter  is  this, — We  have  a  clear 
 account  in  a  book  full  of  wonders,  of  a  woman  confes- 
 sedly guilty  of  disobedience  and  ingratitude,  struck  dead 
 by  the  hand  of  God,  and  turned  into  a  statue  of  salt,  for 
 a  monument  of  terror  to  future  generations.  And  is  there 
 any  thing  in  this  so  repugnant  to  reason,  or  so  incongru- 
 ous for  God  to  do,  that  we  must  immediately  fly  to 
 another  interpretation,  and  to  make  the  matter  easy, 
 resolutely  maintain  that  the  whole  purport  of  the  thing 
 is  only  this, — That  the  poor  woman  either  suddenly  died 
 of  a  fright,  or  indiscreetly  fell  into  the  fire  ?  God  certainly 
 may  work  a  miracle  lvhen  he  pleases,  and  punish  any 
 wicked  person  in  what  manner  he  thinks  fit ;  nor  is  there 
 any  more  wonder  in  the  metamorphosis  of  Lot's  wife, 
 than  there  was  in  changing  the  rod  of  Moses  into  a  ser- 
 pent. The  same  power  might  do  both ;  and  since  the 
 same  history  has  recorded  both,  there  is  the  same  reason 
 for  the  credibility  of  both.  Nay,  of  the  two,  the  trans- 
 formation of  Lot's  wife  seems  more  familiar  to  our  con- 
 ceptions, a  since  we  want  not  instances,  as  I  said  before, 
 
 a  Bisselius  (in  his  Argon.  Amerie.  b.  14.  c.  2.)  has  a  very 
 remarkable  story  to  this  purpose.  lie  tells  us,  that  Badicus 
 Almagrus,  who  was  the  first  man  that  ever  marched  an  army 
 over  the  mountains  between  Peru  and  Chili,  by  the  extremity  of 
 the  cold,  and  unwholesomi  ncss  of  the  air,  lost  in  that  expedition 
 a  great  many  men.  Being  obliged,  however,  some  few  months 
 after,  to  return  the  same  way,  what  the  historian  tells  us  upon 
 this  occasion  is  very  wonderful.  The  horsemen  and  infantry, 
 who  five  months  ago  were  frozen  to  death,  were  still  standing 
 Untouched,  uncorrupted,  in  the  same  condition  and  shape  thai 
 they  were  in  when  they  were  laid  hold  of  by  the  sudden  grasp  of 
 death,  one  lay  flat  with  his  face  on  the  ground,  another  stood 
 erect,  a  third  seemed  to  shake  the  bridle,  which  he  still  retained 
 in  liis  hand.  In  a  word,  he  found  them  exactly  as  he  left  them; 
 they  had  no  fulsome  odour,  and  their  colour  was  altogether 
 different  from  that  of  corpses.  In  line,  unless  that  the  soul  had 
 been  long  ago  in  another  world,  they  were  in  other  respects  more 
 like  tho  living  than  the  dead.  To  the  like  purpose  it  is  related 
 by  Aventinus  (Annot.  Bavar.  b.  7.),  a  credible  historian,  that  in 
 his  time  above  fifty  country  people,  with  their  cows  and  calve-, 
 in  Carinthia,  were  all  destroyed  at  once  by  a  strong  suffocating 
 exhalation,  which  immediately  after  an  earthquake  (in  tho  year 
 1348)  ascended  out  of  the  earth,    and   reduced  them  to  saline 
 
 of  persons  struck  with  lightning,  and  killed  with  cold 
 vapours,  that  have  immediately  petrified  in  the  same- 
 manner. 
 
 Why  she  was  turned  into  a  body  of  salt  rather  than 
 any  other  substance,  is  only  resolvable  into  the  good 
 pleasure  of  God.  The  conjectures  of  Jewish  writers  upon 
 this  head,  we  acknowledge,  are  trilling ;  nor  are  we 
 responsible  for  the  reveries  of  such  Christian  commenta- 
 tors as  would  crowd  in  a  multitude  of  palpable  absurdi- 
 ties, merely  to  make  the  miracle  more  portentous  :  but 
 why  God  exacted  so  severe  a  penalty  for  an  ofiem 
 seemingly  small,  is  not  so  hard  to  be  resolved  ;  because, 
 according  to  the  light  wherein  we  are  to  consider  this 
 woman,  her  disobedience  to  the  divine  command  had  in 
 it  all  the  malignity  of  an  obstinate  and  perverse  mind, 
 unthankful  to  God  for  his  preservation  of  her,  and  too 
 closely  attached,  if  not  to  the  wicked  customs,  at  lei 
 to  the  persons  and  things  which  she  had  left  behind  her 
 in  that  sink  of  sin  and  sensuality. 
 
 But  there  is  another  observation  which  we  may  draw  ' 
 from  our  Saviour's  application  of  this  story,  as  well  as  a 
 the  angel's  expression  to  Lot,  namely,  that  she  loitered  bj 
 the  way,  if  not  returned  to  the  city  ;  ami  if  so,  it  i-  DO 
 wonder  that  she  suffered  when  she  was  found  within  the 
 compass  of  the  sulphureous  streams  from  heaven  ;  nor 
 can  God  be  blamed  for  his  exemplary  punishment  of  her, 
 unless  we  think  it  reasonable  for  his  providence,  in  this 
 case,  to  have  interposed,  and  wrought  a  miracle  for  her 
 preservation,  who  had  so  little  deserved  it,  and  had  rim 
 herself  voluntarily  into  the  jaws  of  destruction. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  vindicate  the  character 
 of  the  patriarch  Abraham,  and  to  account  for  several 
 transactions  and  passages  in  Scripture,  which  seem  t<> 
 give  umbrage  to  infidelity  during  the  compass  of  his  life. 
 And  for  the  confirmation  of  all  this,  we  might  now 
 produce  the  testimony  of  profane  authors,  ami  make  it 
 appear,  that  Abraham's  fame  for  a  just,  virtuous,  ami 
 religious  man,  is  spoken  of  by  Berosus  in  a  fragment 
 preserved 3  by  Josephus  :  tli.it  his  being  horn  in  I  >  of  the 
 Chaldees,  his  removal  into  Canaan,  and  afterwards 
 sojourning  in  Egypt,  is  related  by  Eupolemos,  as  he  is 
 quoted4  by  Eusebius  :  that  the  captivity  of  his  nephew 
 Lot,  his  victory  over  the  four  kings,  and  honourable 
 reception  by  Melchizedek,  king  of  the  sacred  citj  i  . 
 Argarize,  and  priest  of  God,  are  recorded  by  the  same 
 author:  that  his  marrying  two  wives,  one  an  Egyptian, 
 by  whom  he  had  a  son,  who  was  the  father  of  twelve 
 kings  in  Arabia,  and  the  other  a  woman  of  his  own  kin- 
 dred, by  whom  he  had  likewise  one  son.  whose  name  in 
 Greek  was  Tskas,  which  answers  exactlj  to  the  Hebrew 
 word  Isaac;  and  that  this  Isaac  he  was  commanded  to 
 sacrifice,  but  when  lie  was  going  to  hill  him,  was  stopped 
 by  an  angel,  and  offered  a  ram  in  his  stead  ;  all  this  is 
 related  by  Antipanus,  as  he  is  quoted1  bj  the  same 
 
 Eusebius:   that  the   ancient   custom    of    circumcision    is 
 taken  notice  of  6  by  Herodotus.  Diodorus,  Strabo 
 others:  that  the  burning  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and 
 
 *  Gen.  xix.  22. 
 
 '  Proper.  Bvang.  b.  B.C.  17. 
 
 0  Hug.  Grot,  da  Veritota 
 
 1  Luke  xvii.  31,  32. 
 
 3  Anti'i.  b.  I.  c  B. 
 
 •  Prepar.  Evang.  b.  9.  <•.  is 
 statues,  neb  as  that  of  Lot's  wife,  which  he  tells  i 
 both  by  himself  and  by  the  cha  Austria.— WU> 
 
 .  vol.  l.  Occasional  Annotation  ,  22. 
 
176 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  HI. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  189G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxv.  11. 
 
 the  strange  waste  it  has  made  in  a  once  most  beautiful 
 country,  is  described.1  by  Strabo,  Tacitus,  and  SoJinus  : 
 that  2  Isaac's  being  born  to  a  father  when  old,  and  to  a 
 mother  incapable  of  conception,  gave  occasion  of  the 
 story  of  the  miraculous  birth  of  Orion,  by  the  help  of  the 
 gods,  even  when  his  father  Hyreus  had  no  wife  at  all : 
 that  Lot's  kind  reception  of  the  two  angels  in  Sodom, 
 his  protecting  them  from  the  insults  of  the  people,  and 
 escaping  thereupon  the  destruction  that  befell  them,  are 
 all  well  delineated  in  the  common  fable  of  Baucis  and 
 Philemon  :  and  (to  mention  no  more)  that  the  fate  of  his 
 wife,  for  her  looking  back  upon  Sodom,  and  her  being 
 thereupon  changed  into  a  statue  of  metallic  salt,  gave 
 rise  to  the  poet's  fiction  of  the  loss  of  Eurydice,  and  her 
 remission  into  hell  for  her  husbands  turning  to  look 
 upon  her,  and  of  Niobe's  being  changed  into  a  stone  for 
 resenting-  the  death  of  her  children.  So  well  has  infinite 
 wisdom  provided,  that  the  sacred  truths  of  divine  revela- 
 tion should  not  only  be  supported  by  the  attestation  of 
 all  ancient  history,  but  preserved  likewise  even  in  the 
 vanity  and  extravagance  of  fables ;  for  even  '  they,  O 
 Lord,  shew  the  glory  of  thy  kingdom,  and  talk  of  thy 
 power ;  that  thy  power,  thy  glory,  and  the  mightiness  of 
 thy  kingdom,  might  be  known  unto  men.' 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Of  the  Destruction  of  Sodom  and   Go- 
 morrah. 
 
 Of  all  God's  judgments  upon  the  wicked,  next  to  that 
 of  the  universal  deluge,  the  destruction  of  Sodom,  and 
 the  neighbouring  cities  in  the  plain  of  Jordan,  seems  to 
 be  one  of  the  most  remarkable,  and  the  most  dreadful 
 interpositions  of  providence  ;  and  may  therefore  in  this 
 place  deserve  a  particular  consideration. 
 
 That  this  catastrophe  (as  3  the  apostle  calls  it)  did 
 really  happen,  according  to  the  account  which  Moses 
 gives  us  of  it,  we  have  the  concurring  testimony  of  all 
 historians,  both  ancient  and  modern,  to  convince  us. 
 4  Diodorus  Siculus,  after  having  given  us  a  description 
 of  the  lake  Asphaltites,  (which  now  fills  the  place  where 
 these  cities  once  stood,)  acquaints  us,  that  the  adjacent 
 country  was  then  on  fire,  and  sent  forth  a  grievous  smell, 
 to  which  he  imputes  the  sickly  and  short  lives  of  the  neigh- 
 bouring inhabitants.  s  Strabo,  having  made  mention  of 
 the  same  lake,  pursues  his  account,  and  tells  us,  that  the 
 craggy  and  burnt  rocks,  the  caverns  broken  in,  and  the 
 soil  all  about  it  adust,  and  turned  to  ashes,  give  credit  to 
 a  report  among  the  people,  that  formerly  several  cities 
 stood  there,  (whereof  Sodom  was  the  chief,)  but  that  by 
 earthquakes,  and  fire  breaking  out,  there  were  some  of 
 them  entirely  swallowed  up,  and  others  forsaken  by  the 
 inhabitants  that  could  make  their  escape.  6  Tacitus  de- 
 scribes the  lake  much  in  the  same  manner  with  these 
 other  historians ;  and  then  adds,  that  not  far  from  it  are 
 fields,  now  barren,  which  were  reported  formerly  to  have 
 been  very  fruitful,  adorned  with  large  cities  which  were 
 burned  by  lightning,  and  do  still  retain  the  traces  of  their 
 destruction.     T  Solinus  is  clearly  of  opinion,  that   the 
 
 '  Hug.  Grot,  de  Veritate. 
 1  2  Pet.  ii.  6. 
 
 BB.  5. 
 
 2  Hutt.  Qiisest.  Alnctan.  b.  2. 
 B.  19.  *  B.  10. 
 
 '  C.  35. 
 
 blackness  of  the  soil,  and  its  being  turned  into  dust  and 
 ashes,  is  a  sure  token  of  its  having  suftered  by  fire  from 
 heaven  ;  and  if  we  may  believe  the  report,  of  8  a  late  tra- 
 veller, according  to  the  account  which  he  had  from  the 
 inhabitants  themselves,  some  of  the  ruins  of  these  ancient 
 cities  do  still  appear  whenever  the  water  is  low  and 
 shallow. 
 
 What  the  number  of  these  cities  were,  is  a  matter 
 wherein  we  can  have  no  absolute  certainty.  Moses,  in 
 the  text,  makes  no  mention  but  of  two,  Sodom  and  Go- 
 morrah; but  in  another  place  he  enumerates  four,  and 
 gives  this  description  of  their  dreadfid  punishment 
 9  '  When  the  generations  to  come  shall  see  the  plague  of 
 that  land,  and  the  sicknesses  which  the  Lord  hath  laid 
 upon  it,  and  that  the  whole  land  thereof  is  brimstone,  and 
 salt,  and  burning  like  the  overthrow  of  Sodom,  and  Go- 
 morrah, Admah,  and  Zeboim,  (which  the  Lord  overthrew 
 in  his  anger,  and  in  his  WTath,)  even  all  the  nations  shall 
 say,  Wherefore  hath  the  Lord  done  this  unto  the  land  ? ' 
 Nay, if  we  will  believe  luthe  historian  above  cited,  and  who 
 perhaps  might  have  an  account  of  the  thing  lrom  some 
 Phoenician  WTiter,  the  number  of  the  cities  which  at  this 
 time  were  destroyed  were  thirteen  ;  and  to  this  there  is  a 
 passage  in  the  prophet,  which  seems  to  give  some  coun- 
 tenance, though  not  as  to  the  precise  number  of  them 
 11  'As  I  live,'  saith  the  Lord  God  to  Jerusalem, '  Sodom, 
 thy  sister,  has  not  done,  she  nor  her  daughters '  (that  is, 
 the  cities  which  were  built  round  it,  and  were  tributary  to 
 it)  '  have  not  done,  as  thou  and  thy  daughters  have  done. 
 But  whatever  the  number  of  the  cities  might  be,  it  will  be 
 proper  for  us,  before  we  come  to  inquire  in  what  manner 
 they  were  destroyed,  to  give  some  account  of  their 
 situation. 
 
 12  The  plain  of  Jordan  includes  the  greatest  part  of  the 
 flat  country,  through  which  the  river  Jordan  runs,  from 
 its  coming  out  of  the  sea  of  Galilee,  to  its  falling  into 
 the  Asphaltite  lake,  or  Salt  Sea.  But  we  are  not  to 
 imagine,  that  this  plain  was  once  a  continued  level, 
 without  any  risings  or  descents.  The  greatest  part  of  it 
 indeed  was  champaigne  country,  (and  for  this  reason  was 
 commonly  called  '  the  great  field,')  but  therein  we  read 
 13  of  the  valley  of  Jericho,  and  14  of  the  vale  of  Siddim  ; 
 in  the  latter  of  which  these  cities  stood,  in  a  situation  so 
 very  advantageous,  that  we  find  it  compared  15to  the  land 
 of  Egypt,  even  to  the  garden  of  paradise,  upon  account 
 of  its  being  so  well  watered.  And  well  it  might,  seeing 
 it  had  (as  the  Lacus  Asphaltites  has  to  this  day)  not  only 
 the  streams  of  the  river  Jordan  running  quite  through  it, 
 but lb  the  river  Arnon  from  the  east,  17  the  brook  Zered, 
 and  the  18  famous  fountain  Callirrhoe  from  the  south,  fal- 
 ling into  it.  Now.  since  all  this  water  had  no  direct  pas- 
 sage into  the  sea,  it  must  necessarily  follow,  either  that 
 it  was  conveyed  away  by  some  subterraneous  passage,  or 
 was  swallowed  up  in  the  sands,  that  everywhere  encom- 
 passed it;  which  might  the  more  easily  be  done,  because 
 the  inhabitants  of  those  hot  countries  used  to  divide  their 
 rivers  into  several  small  branches,  for  the  benefit  of 
 watering  their  fields. 
 
 And  as  this  plenty  of  water  gave  gTeat  riches  to  the 
 
 s  Maundrell's  Journey  from  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem. 
 9  Deut.  xxix.  22,  23,  24.     I0  Strabo,  b.  16.      >•  Ezek.  xri.  48| 
 12  Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  1.  13Deut.  xxxiv.  3. 
 14  Gen.  xiv.  3.  I5  Gen.  xiii.  10.  See  page  145,  in  the  notes. 
 
 16  JosephusAntiq.b.  4.c.4.  "Num.xxi.  12.   >8pliny,  b.5.  c.  16. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 A.  M.  2108 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  C.  18%;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  JO  13.  GEN.  111.  xx-xxv    11 
 
 177 
 
 soil,  and  fertility  to  the  country,  so  wealth  and  abun- 
 dance of  all  tilings  (as  mankind  are  too  apt  to  abuse 
 God's  gifts)  made  Sodom  and  the  neighbouring  cities 
 very  infamous  for  their  wickedness  and  impiety.  The 
 prophet  Ezekiel  gives  us  a  description  of  them  :  '  '  Be- 
 hold this  was  the  iniquity  of  thy  sister  Sodom;  pride, 
 fulness  of  bread,  and  abundance  of  idleness,  was  in  her 
 and  in  her  daughters ;  neither  did  she  strengthen  the  hand 
 of  the  poor  and  needy,  but  was  haughty,  and  committed 
 abomination  before  me;'  which  2  Josephus  might  have  in 
 his  eye  when  he  gave  us  this  account  of  them.  "  The 
 Sodomites  (says  he)  waxed  proud,  and,  by  reason  of 
 their  riches  and  wealth,  grew  contumelious  towards  men, 
 and  impious  towards  God  ;  so  that  they  were  wholly 
 unmindful  of  the  favours  they  received  from  him.  They 
 were  inhospitable  to  strangers,  and  too  proud  and  arro- 
 gant to  be  rebuked.  They  burned  in  unnatural  lusts 
 towards  one  another,  and  took  pleasure  in  none  but  such 
 as  ran  to  the  same  excess  of  riot  with  themselves." 
 
 These,  and  other  abominable  enormities,  provoked  the 
 Divine  Ruler  of  the  world  to  destroy  their  cities,  whose 
 cry  was  now  grown  great  for  vengeance ;  and  the  manner 
 wherein  it  was  effected,  Moses  has  recorded  in  these 
 words  :  3  '  Then  the  Lord  rained  upon  Sodom  and  upon 
 Gomorrah  brimstone  and  fire  from  the  Lord  out  of  hea- 
 ven, and  he  overthrew  the  cities,  and  all  the  plain,  and 
 all  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities,  and  that  which  grew  upon 
 the  ground ;'  and  for  the  better  understanding  of  this, 
 we  must  observe,  1st,  4  That  in  the  vale  of  Siddim  (the 
 tract  of  ground  which  was  now  destroyed)  there  were  a 
 great  many  pits  of  bitumen,  which  being  a  very  combusti- 
 ble matter,  5  is  in  some  places  liquid,  in  others  solid ; 
 and  not  only  found  near  the  surface  of  the  earth,  but  lies 
 sometimes  very  deep,  and  is  dug  from  the  very  bowels 
 of  it.  2dly,  We  must  observe,  that  the  brimstone  and 
 fire  which  the  Lord  is  said  to  rain  upon  Sodom  and  Go- 
 morrah, means  brimstone  inflamed  ;  that,  in  the  Hebrew 
 style,  brimstone  inflamed  signifies  lightning  ;  and  that 
 the  reason  why  lightning  is  thus  described,  no  one  can  be 
 ignorant  of,  that  has  either  smelt  the  places  which  have 
 been  struck  with  thunder,  or  "read  what  learned  men 
 have  wrote  upon  the  subject.  3dly,  We  must  observe 
 further,  that  God  is  not  only  said  to  have  '  rained  down 
 brimstone  and  fire,'  but  brimstone  and  fire  from  the 
 Lord  ;  where  the  addition  of  '  from  the  Lord,'  which  at 
 first  sight  may  appear  to  be  superfluous,  or  to  denote  a 
 plurality  of  persons  in  the  Deity,  (as  most  Christian  in- 
 terpreters would  have  it,)  does  more  particularly  describe 
 the  thunderbolt,  *  which  by  the  Hebrews,  as  well  as  other 
 
 1  C.  xvi.  49,  50.  2  Antiq.  b.  1.  c.  12.  3  Gen.  xix.  24,  25. 
 '  Le  Clerc's  Commentary.    5  Pliny's  Natural  IIistury,b.  25.  c.  15. 
 
 a  Tims  thunder  and  lightning,  says  Pliny,  (b.  25.  c.  15.)  have 
 tlie  smell  of  brimstone,  and  the  very  light  and  flame  of  them  is 
 sulphureous.  And  Seneca  (Qurest.  Nat.  b.  2.  c.  21.)  tells  us,  that 
 all  things  which  arc  struck  by  lightning  have  a  sulphureous  smell ; 
 as  indeed  our  natural  philosophers  have  plainly  demonstrated,  that 
 what  we  call  the  thunderbolt,  is  nothing  else  but  a  sulphureous 
 exhalation.  Persius,  in  his  second  satire,  calls  it  sulphur  sa- 
 crum.— '  When  it  thunders,  the  oak  is  not  more  rapidly  rent 
 uunder  by  the  sacred  sulphury  flame  than  you  and  your  house.' 
 And  for  this  reason  the  Greeks,  in  their  language,  eall  brimstone 
 divine,  because  the  thunderbolt,  which  it  assimilates,  is  supposed 
 to  come  from  God. — Le  Clerc's  Dissertation. 
 
 b  Thus,  in  the  second  book  of  Kings,  '  the  fireofGop  came 
 down  from  heaven   and  devoured  them,"  ch.  i.  12.     And  Isaiah 
 
 nations,  is  frequently  called  the  fire  of  God,  the  (ire  from 
 God,  &c. ;  and  the  reason  is,— Because,  men  having  no 
 power  over  this  kind  of  meteor,  ami  it  being  impossible 
 for  them,  by  any  kind  of  contrivance,  to  ascend  up  to 
 the  clouds,  God  is  therefore  supposed  to  dwell  there,  and 
 to  cast  down  his  bolts  from  thence. 
 
 Now,  from  these  observations  put  together  we  may 
 in  some  measure,  form  a  notion  to  ourselves,  how  this 
 destruction  came  to  be  effected.  For  though  Moses 
 does  not  inform  us,  after  what  manner  the  lightning  and 
 thunderbolts  from  above  subverted  these  cities  and  their 
 adjacent  territories  ;  yet,  since  he  plainly  makes  mention 
 of  them,  we  cannot  comprehend  how  it  could  happen  any 
 otherwise  than  that  the  lightning  and  thunderbolts, 
 falling  in  great  abundance  upon  some  pits  of  bitumen,  c 
 the  veins  of  that  combustible  matter  took  fire  immediate- 
 ly, and  as  the  fire  penetrated  into  the  lowermost  bowels 
 of  the  bituminous  soil,  these  wicked  cities  were  subverted 
 by  a  dreadful  earthquake,  which  was  followed  with  a  sub- 
 siding of  the  ground  ;  and  that,  <*  as  soon  as  the  earth 
 was  sunk,  it  would  unavoidably  fall  out,  that  the  waters 
 running  to  this  place  in  so  great  an  abundance,  and 
 mixing  with  the  bitumen,which  they  found  in  great  plenty, 
 would  make  a  lake  of  what  was  a  valley  before,  and  a 
 lake  of  the  same  quality  with  what  e  the  Scripture  (alls 
 the  Salt  Sea. 
 
 This  lake,  according  to  the  account  we  have  of  it,  is 
 enclosed  to  the  east  and  west  with  exceedingly  high 
 mountains ;  on  the  north  it  is  bounded  by  the  plain  of 
 Jericho,  on  which  side  it  receives  the  waters  of  Jordan  ; 
 
 uses  the  same  expression,  ch.  Ixvi.  16.  '  He  shall  be  punished 
 with  the  fire  of  the  Lord ;'  to  which  the  passage  in  the  Latin  poet 
 exactly  agrees: — '  He,  swifter  than  the  bolt  of  Jove  and  the  speed 
 of  falling  stars,  leaped  from  the  dreary  banks,'  Stat.  Theb.  b.  1. 
 Some  however  have  remarked  it,  as  a  peculiar  elegancy  in  the 
 Hebrew  tongue,  that  it  very  often  makes  use  of  the  antecedent 
 instead  of  the  relative,  or  the  noun  instead  of  the  pronoun,  espe- 
 cially when  it  means  to  express  a  thing  with  great  vehemence, 
 or  to  denote  any  action  to  he  supernatural  or  miraculous. — Hei- 
 degger's Hist,  l'atriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  8. 
 
 <•  In  Lycia,  the  IIeph;i::,(ian  mountains,  says  Pliny  (l>.  2.  c. 
 106)  if  you  do  but  touch  them  with  a  lighted  torch,  immediately 
 take  fire;  nay,  the  very  stones  in  the  rivers  and  Bands  in  the 
 waters  bum.  If  you  take  a  stick  out  of  these  waters,  and  draw 
 furrows  upon  the  ground  with  it  (according  to  the  common 
 report)  a  tract  of  fire  follows  it. — Le  Clerc's  Dissertation. 
 
 d  Strabo  in  his  first,  and  Pliny  in  his  second  book,  "ill  fur- 
 nish us  with  several  examples  of  this  kind.  Strabo,  i  ut  i.:'  PosJ- 
 donius,  tells  us,  (p.  40.)  that  '•'  in  Phoenicia,  a  certain  city 
 situated  above  Sidon,  was  absorbed  by  an  earthquake;  and  out  of 
 Demetrius  Scepsius,  that  several  earthquakes  hare  happened  in 
 Asia  Minor,  by  which  whole  to»ns  hare  been  devoured,  the 
 mountain  Siphylis  overthrown,  and  the  marshes  turned  into 
 standing  lakes:"  and  Pliny  (b.  "J.  c.  88)  ''  -lilies,  that  "  bf  a  lire 
 which  suddenly  broke  out  el'  it,  the  mountain  BpopOS  "as  h\  ell,  d 
 
 to  the  ground,  and  a  town  buried  in  the  deep;  for  the  arch 
 that  supported  the  ground,  breaking  iii.  the  matter  underneath 
 being  wholly  consumed,  the  -"il  aboremusl  of  necessity  Hn|vMnd 
 be  swallowed  up  in  these  caverns,  it  they  were  of  any  large  ex- 
 tent —  Le  Clerc's  "Dissertation. 
 
 e  The  account  given  in  the  text  of  the  Salt  or  Dead  Sea  dif- 
 fers somewhat,  though  "ut  much,  from  the  descriptions  of  modern 
 travellers.  According  to  the  analysis  of  Dr  Marcet,  the  speei- 
 fic  gravity  of  the  water  i^  1.  211,  that  of  fresh  water  being  K'ii|i 
 Thus  it.  is  able  t"  support  bodies  that  would  sink  eta  where.  It 
 is  Impregnated  with  mineral  substances,  and  a  fetid  air  often 
 exhales  from  the  water.     Recent  travellers  may  hue  found  A 
 
 few  shellfish  nil  the  shore,  or    seen    a    few  birds    CTO  -    its  B 
 
 hot  these  form  only  exceptions  to  the  general  absence  of  animal 
 
 life.  Every  thing  around  bears  that  dreary  and  fearful  character 
 that  marks  the  malediction  of  Heaven, 
 
178 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2108.  A.  C.  189 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3398.  A.  C.  2013.  GEN.  CH.  xx— xxv.  11. 
 
 on  the  south  it  is  open,  and  extends  beyond  the  reach  of 
 the  eye,  being  twenty-four  leagues  long,  and  six  or  seven 
 broad.  Its  water  is  extremely  deep  and  heavy ;  so 
 heavy,  that  a  man  cannot,  without  difficulty,  sink  in  it ; 
 but  of  so  nauseous  a  taste,  and  noisome  smell,  that  nei- 
 ther fish  nor  fowl,  unaccustomed  to  the  water,  can  live 
 in  it.  It  is  full  of  bitumen,  which  at  uncertain  seasons 
 boils  up  from  the  bottom  in  bubbles,  at  which  time  the 
 superficies  of  the  lake  swells,  and  resembles  the  rising 
 of  a  hill.  Adjoining  to  the  lake  are  fields,  which  for- 
 merly (as  we  showed  from  Tacitus)  were  fruitful,  but  are 
 now  so  parched,  and  burned  up,  that  they  have  los*  their 
 fertility,  insomuch,  that  every  thing,  whether  it  grow 
 spontaneously,  or  be  planted  by  man,  whether  it  be 
 herb,  fruit,  or  flower,  a  as  soon  as  it  is  compressed, 
 moulders  away  immediately  into  dust ;  and  to  this  '  the 
 author  of  the  book  of  Wisdom  seems  to  allude,  when  he 
 tells  us,  that '  of  the  wickedness  of  those  cities,  the  waste 
 land  that  smoketh  to  this  day  is  a  testimony,  and  the 
 plants  bearing  fruit,  that  never  come  to  ripeness.' 
 
 "  The  cinders,  brimstone,  and  smoke,"  a  says  Philo, 
 "  and  a  certain  obscure  flame,  as  it  were  of  a  fire  burn- 
 ing, still  perceivable  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  are 
 memorials  of  the  perpetual  evil  which  happened  to  it:" 
 and,  as  3  Josephus  adds,  "  the  things  that  are  said  of 
 Sodom  are  confirmed  by  ocular  inspection,  there  being 
 some  relics  of  the  fire,  which  came  down  from  heaven, 
 and  some  resemblance  of  the  five  cities,  still  to  be  seen." 
 And  it  is  the  duration  of  these  monuments  of  divine 
 wrath  perhaps,  which  gave  occasion  to  St  Jude  to  say, 
 that  the  wicked  inhabitants  of  these  cities  were  '  set  forth 
 for  an  example,  suffering  the  vengeance  of  an  eternal 
 fire,'  that  is,  of  a  fire,  whose  marks  were  to  be  perpe- 
 tuated unto  the  end  of  the  world  :  b  for  it  is  a  common 
 thing  in  Scripture,  to  express  a  great  and  irreparable 
 vasta,tion,  whose  effects  and  signs  shall  be  permanent  to 
 the  latest  ages,  by  the  word  ulamog,  which  we  here 
 render  eternal. 
 
 Thus,  in  all  probability,  were  the  cities  of  the  plain  of 
 Jordan  overthrown  ;  nor  is  there  any  doubt  to  be  made 
 but  that  the  miraculous  hand  of  God  was  employed  in 
 
 1  Chap.  x.  7.  2  In  Vita  Mosis,  b.  2. 
 
 3  De  Bello  Jud.  b.  5.  c.  27. 
 
 a  Whether  there  be  any  truth  in  this  part  of  the  account  of 
 Tacitus,  it  is  hard  to  tell.  As  for  the  apples  of  Sodom  (to  which 
 he  seems  to  allude)  Mr  Mauudrell  tells  us,  that  he  never  saw  nor 
 heard  of  any  thereabouts,  nor  was  there  any  tree  to  be  seen  near 
 the  lake  from  which  one  might  expect  such  kind  of  fruit;  and 
 therefore  he  supposes  tire  being,  as  well  as  the  beauty  of  that  fruit, 
 a  mere  fiction,  and  only  kept  up  because  it  served  for  a  good 
 allusion,  and  now  and  then  helped  poets  to  a  pat  similitude. — 
 Journey  from  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem. 
 
 b  Thus  God  threatens  to  make  the  people  of  Israel  •  a  perpe- 
 tual desolation,'  Ezek.  xxxv.  9;  'a  perpetual  hissing,'  Jer.  xviii. 
 16  ;  and  '  an  everlasting  reproach,'  Jer.  xxiii.  40  ;  and  this  more 
 especially  is  threatened  where  the  destruction  of  a  city  or  nation 
 is  compared  to  the  overthrow  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah ;  '  it  shall 
 never  be  inhabited,'  Isa.  xiii.  20.  Whether  Sodom  really  un- 
 derwent this  fate  or  sometime  after  was  rebuilt,  is  a  question  that 
 has  exercised  the  learned.  It  is  certain,  that  in  the  Notitia, 
 express  mention  is  made  of  Sodom,  as  an  episcopal  city ;  and 
 among  the  bishops  of  Arabia,  there  is  found  one  Severus,  a  bishop 
 of  Sodom,  who  subscribed  to  the  first  council  of  Nice ;  Mr  Re- 
 land,  however,  cannot  persuade  himself  that  this  impious  place 
 was  ever  rebuilt ;  and  therefore  he  believes  that  the  word  Sodom, 
 which  is  read  among  the  subscriptions  of  that  council,  must  be  a 
 fault  of  the  copiers. — Ccdmet's  Dictionmy  on  the  word  Sodom. 
 
 sending  down  this  heavy  judgment.  For  4  though  in  a 
 soil  impregnated  with  bitumen,  the  cities  which  are  built 
 thereupon  may  be  shaken  with  an  earthquake,  and  swal- 
 lowed up  by  a  sudden  hiatus  ;  though  thunderbolts  may 
 fall,  and  set  the  veins  of  sulphur  and  bitumen  on  fire, 
 which  afterwards  breaking  out,  and  mingling  with  the 
 water,  may,  in  a  low  valley,  easily  cause  a  lake,  full  of 
 asphaltus  :  though  these  things,  I  say,  in  process  of  time 
 might  have  come  to  pass  in  an  ordinary  course  of 
 nature  ;  yet,  if  they  were  done  before  their  natural  causes 
 were  in  a  disposition  to  produce  them ;  if  they  would 
 not  have  been  done  that  instant,  unless  it  had  been 
 for  some  extraordinary  interposition  of  God  or  his 
 blessed  angels ;  it  ought  to  be  reputed  no  less  a  miracle 
 than  if  every  particular  in  the  transaction  had  plainly 
 surpassed  the  usual  operations  of  nature.  And  that  the 
 judgment  now  before  us  happened  in  this  manner,  5  the 
 two  angels  despatched  by  Almighty  God,  upon  this 
 important  occasion,  6  God's  foretelling  Abraham  his 
 design,  the  angel's  acquainting  Lot  with  the  errand 
 about  which  they  came,  and  their  urging  and  instigating 
 him  to  be  gone,  7  to  make  haste  and  '  escape  to  Zoar, 
 because  they  could  do  nothing  until  he  was  come  thither,' 
 are  arguments  sufficiently  convincing,  that  the  thunder 
 and  lightning,  or  (as  8  others  will  have  it) ,  the  showers 
 of  liquid  fire,  or  rather  9  storms  of  nitre  and  sulphur, 
 mingled  with  fire,  which  fell  upon  these  wicked  places, 
 were  immediately  sent  down  by  the  appointment  of  God, 
 and  by  the  ministry  of  his  angels,  who,  knowing  all  the 
 meteors  of  the  air,  and  their  repugnant  qualities,  did 
 collect,  commix,  and  employ  them,  as  they  thought  fit, 
 in  the  execution  of  God's  just  judgment  upon  a  people 
 devoted  to  destruction. 
 
 Thus  we  have  considered  the  manner  of  the  destruc- 
 tion of  the  cities  of  the  plain,  how  far  natural  causes 
 might  be  concerned,  and  wherein  the  miraculous  hand  of 
 God  did  intervene.  Whether  a  deluge  or  a  conflagration 
 be  the  more  formidable  judgment  of  the  two,  we  cannot 
 tell ;  our  imaginations  will  hardly  reach  the  dreadfulness 
 of  either  ;  and  to  enter  into  the  comparison,  is  a  task 
 too  shocking.  As  the  history,  however,  of  those  who 
 suffered  these  punishments,  is  recorded  in  Scripture  for 
 our  admonition,  1U  'that  we  should  not  lust  after  evil 
 things  even  as  they  lusted;'  so  the  apostle  has  set  both 
 their  examples  before  us,  and  laid  it  down  for  a  sure 
 proposition, — .That  u  '  if  God  spared  not  the  old  world, 
 but  brought  in  a  flood  upon  the  ungodly,  and  if  he, 
 turning  the  cities  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  into  ashes, 
 condemned  them  with  an  overthrow,'  or  (according  to  la 
 St  Jude)  condemned  them  to  '  the  vengeance  of  eternal 
 fire  ;'  we  need  not  doubt,  but  that,  as  he  is  in  all  age3 
 the  same,  a  God  of  justice,  as  well  as  mercy,  no  iniquity 
 can  ultimately  escape.  For  though,  upon  every  occasion, 
 lie  does  not  lay  bare  his  vindictive  arm,  though  13  '  he  is 
 strong  and  patient,  so  that  he  seldom  whetteth  his  sword, 
 and  prepareth  the  instruments  of  death ;'  yet  a  few  of  these 
 remarkable,  these  monumental  instances  of  his  severity 
 against  sin,  are  enough  to  convince  us,  that  '  he  hath 
 reserved  the  unjust  (however  they  may  escape  now)  unto 
 the  day  of  judgment  to  be  punished.' 
 
 4  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 5  Gen.  xviii.  22.         6  Ver.  17.  '  Gen.  xix.  22. 
 
 8  Howell's  History.         '  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 10  I  Cor.  x.  6.       "  2  Pet.  ii.  5.     12  Ver.  7.     13  Ps.  vii.  12,  &c. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 179 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  1656; 
 
 SECT.    II. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. — Of  the  Life  of  Isaac  from  his  Marriage 
 to  his  Death. 
 
 THE    HISTORY 
 
 Isaac  was  forty  years  old  a  when  he  married  Rebecca, 
 the  daughter  of  Bethuel ;  but  his  mother  Sarah's  misfor- 
 tune attended  his  wife,  namely,  that  she  was  without 
 issue  for  almost  twenty  years  together,  till  God  at  last 
 was  pleased  to  hear  *  his  earnest  prayers,  and  grant  him 
 the  blessing  he  so  much  longed  for.  Rebecca,  however, 
 had  not  many  months  conceived  before  the  struggles  of 
 the  two  children  (for  she  had  twins)  in  her  womb,  gave 
 her  such  pain  and  uneasiness,  that  she  began,  in  a  man- 
 ner, to  wish  herself  not  with  child  again  ;  and  when  she 
 went  c  to  consult  the  divine  oracle,  what  the  meaning  of 
 this  uncommon  conflict  might  be,  she  had  it  returned  for 
 answer,  that  the  two  children  which  she  then  bore,  were 
 
 a  How  old  Rebecca  was  when  she  was  married  to  Isaac,  the 
 Scripture  does  nowhere  inform  us ;  but  the  conjectures  of  most  of 
 the  Jewish  commentators  make  her  to  be  extremely  young.  The 
 oldest  that  they  will  allow  her  to  be,  is  not  above  fourteen,  which 
 was  a  thing  hardly  customary  in  those  days:  and  yet,  considering 
 her  absolute  management  of  all  alfairs,  even  when  Isaac  was 
 alive,  we  cannot  but  suppose,  that  although  she  lived  not  so  long, 
 she  was  a  considerable  deal  younger  than  he. — Heidegger's  Hist. 
 Patriur.  vol.  2.  Essay  11. 
 
 b  The  word  in  the  original  signifies  to  pray  with  constancy, 
 vehemence,  and  importunity;  and  the  Jews  hereupon  have  a 
 traditional  explication,  which  is  preserved  in  Jonathan's  Targum, 
 namely,  that  he  carried  his  wife  to  the  place  of  the  altar,  upon 
 mount  Moriah,  where  he  himself  was  once  bound  to  be  sacrificed, 
 and  there  made  a  most  solemn  invocation,  by  the  faith  of  his 
 father  Abraham,  and  by  the  oath  of  God,  that  she,  though  barren 
 by  nature,  might  conceive  by  virtue  of  the  covenant  and  super- 
 natural blessing;  and  accordingly  he  prevailed  with  God  to  grant 
 him  his  request.  What  we  render  '  for  his  wife,'  may  likewise 
 signify  in  the  presence  of  his  wife:  and  so  the  import  of  the 
 words  will  be,  that  besides  their  more  private  devotions,  they  did 
 oftentimes,  in  a  more  solemn  manner,  and  with  united  force, 
 pray  for  the  mercy  wherein  they  were  equally  concerned:  nor 
 could  there  be  any  presumption  in  their  thus  petitioning  what  at 
 present  was  denied  them,  because  they  knew  very  well,  that 
 God's  purpose  and  promise  did  not  exclude,  but  rather  require 
 the  use  of  all  convenient  means  for  their  accomplishment. — 
 Poole's  Annotations,  and  Bibliotheca  Bibliea  in  locum. 
 
 c  The  most  early  and  common  method  of  inquiring  of  the 
 Lord,  was,  by  going  to  some  one  of  his  prophets,  and  consulting 
 him;  but  then  the  question  is,  who  the  prophet  was  whom 
 Rebecca,  upon  this  occasion,  consulted?  Some  of  the  Jewish 
 doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  she  went  to  the  school,  or  oratory  of 
 Shem,  («hom  they  suppose  then  alive,)  or  to  some  other  person, 
 constituted  by  him,  and  called  of  God  to  that  ministration.  Some 
 Christian  commentators  imagine,  it  was  Melchizedek  '  the  priest 
 of  the  Most  High  God  '  whom  she  consulted;  but  if  it  were  any 
 priest  or  prophet,  that  then  she  applied  to,  her  father-in-law, 
 Abraham,  who  was  certainly  then  alive,  and  is  expressly  called 
 'a  prophet,'  Gen.  xx.  7,  seems  to  have  been  the  most  proper 
 person,  not  oidy  because  he  was  highly  interested  in  her  concerns, 
 but  had  likewise  the  Shechinah,  or  Divine  appearance  (as  most 
 imagine)  continually  resident  with  him.  But  as  there  was 
 another  manner  besides  that  of  answering  by  prophets,  customary 
 in  those  days,  namely,  by  dreams  and  visions,  their  opinion  seems 
 to  bo  most  probable,  who  suppose,  that  Rebecca  retired  into  some 
 secret  place,  and  there  having  poured  out  her  soul  before  God  in 
 ardent  prayers,  received  an  answer,  not  long  after,  either  in  a 
 dream  or  vision,  by  a  voice  from  heaven,  or  by  the  information 
 ot  an  angel  sent  for  that  purpose. — See  Le  Clcrc's  Commentary, 
 Bibliotheca  Bibliea  in  locum,  and  Heidegger's  His!.  Patriar. 
 Vol.  2.  Essay  11. 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3418.  A.  C.  19U3.  GliN.  C1I.  xxv.  ?0-xxv,ii.  8. 
 
 to  be  the  heads  of  two  different  nations,  should  long 
 contest  it  for  superiority,  but  that  at  length  the  younger 
 should  get  the  dominion  over  the  elder. 
 
 When  the  appointed  time  for  their  birth  was  come,  the 
 child  which  Rebecca  was  lirst  delivered  of,  was  all 
 covered  over  with  red  hair,  for  which  reason  his  parents 
 <*  called  him  Esau  ;  and  the  other  came  after  him  so  very 
 close,  that  he  took  hold  of  his  heel  with  his  hand,  ami 
 was  therefore  called  Jacob,  to  denote  (what  he  afterwards 
 proved)  the  supplanter  of  his  brother  ;  and  as  th.\ 
 advanced  in  years,  their  tempers  and  occupations  were 
 quite  different.  Esau  was  a  strong  and  active  person, 
 who  delighted  much  in  hunting,  and  thereby  supplying 
 his  father  with  venison  very  frequently,  won  his  particular 
 affection ;  while  Jacob,  who  was  of  a  more  gentle  and 
 courteous  disposition,  by  staying  at  home  in  the  tent, 
 and  employing  himself  in  family  offices,  became  his 
 mother's  darling. 
 
 One  day,  when  Jacob  had  made  him  some  lentil  pot- 
 tage, Esau,  returning  from  his  sport,  quite  spent  with 
 hunger  and  fatigue,  was  so  taken  with  the  looks  of  it, 
 that  he  earnestly  desired  his  brother  e  to  let  him  eat  with 
 him  :  but  his  brother,  it  seems,  being  well  instructed  l>y 
 his  mother,  refused  to  do  it,  unless  he  would  make  him 
 an  immediate  dedition  of  his  birthright.  Esau,  con- 
 sidering' to  what  a  multitude  of  dangers  his  manner  of 
 life,  in  encountering  wild  beasts,  did  daily  expose  him, 
 made  no  great  esteem  of  what  Jacob  required  :  and 
 Jacob,  perceiving  his  disposition  to  comply,  (that  he 
 might  have  the  right  more  firmly  conveyed  to  him)  / 
 proposed  his  doing  it  by  way  of  oath,  which  the  other 
 never  scrupled,  and  after  the  bargain  was  made,  fell  1<> 
 eating  very  greedily,  never  once  reflecting  on  what  a 
 vile  and  scandalous  thing  it  needs  must  be,  to  sell  his 
 birthright,  and  s  all  the  great  privileges  thereunto 
 belonging,  for  a  mess  of  pottage. 
 
 d  The  meaning  of  the  word  Esau  is  somewhat  obscure,  unless 
 we  derive  it  from  Htussah,  to  make  or  be  perfect ;  because  he  was 
 of  a  stronger  constitution  than  ordinary  infants,  as  having  hair 
 all  over  him,  which  is  an  indication  of  manhood,  whereas  other 
 children  are  bom  with  hair  only  on  their  heads:  and  as  for  Jacob, 
 it  is  derived  from  an  Hebrew  word,  which  signilieth  to  itq. plant, 
 and  by  the  addition  of  the  letter  Jod,  one  of  the  formativi  -  ol 
 nouns,  it  denotes  a  supplanter,  or  one  that  taheth  hold  of,  and 
 trippeth  up  his  brother's  heels. — Poole's  Annotations, 
 Universal  History,  c.  7. 
 
 e  Lentils  were  a  kind  of  puke,  somewhat  like  our  vetches,  or 
 coarser  sort  of  pease.  St  Austin,  upon  Psalm  )\\i.  says,  that 
 these  were  Egyptian  lentils,  which  wire  in  great  esteem,  and 
 very  probably  gave  the  pottage  a  red  tincture. — The  Inhabitants 
 of  Barbery  still  make  use  of  lentils  bailed  and  stewed  with  oil 
 and  garlick,  a  pottage  of  a  chocolate  colour;  this  was  the  red 
 pottage  for  which  Esau,  from  thence  called  Edom,  -old  Us  birth, 
 right. — Show's  Travels,  \>.  140.— En. 
 
 /Some  imagine  that  Esau  did  not  know  what  Bus  1.  mil  soup 
 was,  and  therefore  be  only  called  it  by  its  colour,  'give  me  of 
 that  red,  that  same  red,'  »-  it  i-  in  the  II'  brew;  for  which 
 he  was  likewise  called  Edom,  which  signifies  red.  Hut  then-  is 
 no  occasion  to  suppose,  that  1»-  wa-  Ignorant  of  what  lentil-  were, 
 only  his  repeating  the  word  red,  without  adding  the  nan 
 thing,  denota  d  hi-  greal  hunger,  and  eagerness  of  appi  kite,  which 
 
 was  probably  still  more  irritated  by  the  colour  of  the  soup. — 
 Bibliotheca  Bibliea. 
 
 #  The  birthright,  or  right  of  primogeniture,  had  many  privi- 
 leges annexed  to  it.     The  Brst-born  was  consi  crab  d  to  the  Lord, 
 
 Exod.  x\ii.  2'.*;  had  a  double  portion  of  the  estate  allotted  him, 
 Deut.  xxi.  17;  had  a  dignity  and  authority  hut  hk  brethren, 
 Gen.  slix.  '■>:  nicceeded  in  the  government  of  the  family  or 
 kingdom,  2  Chron.   xxi.  X ;  and   as  tome   with  c,h-kI  reason 
 
180  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  1856;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3418.  A.  C.  1993.  GEN.  CH.  xxv.  20-xxvUL  8. 
 
 In  Abraham's  time  the  famine  was  so  severe  in  Canaan, 
 that  he  was  forced  to  remove  into  Egypt ;  and  upon  the 
 same  account  his  son  Isaac  had  now  left  his  habitation, 
 near  the  well  Lahairoi,  and  was  come  as  far  as  Gerar, 
 a  where  Abimelech  at  this  time  was  king,  in  order  to  pro- 
 ceed in  his  journey  ;  but  while  he  was  deliberating  what 
 to  do,  God  admonished  him  in  a  dream  not  go  down  into 
 Egypt,  but  to  tarry  in  the  country  where  he  then  was  ; 
 and  at  the  same  time  assured  him,  that  he  would  not  only 
 secure  him  from  the  danger  of  the  famine,  but,  in.  per- 
 formance of  the  oatli  which  he  had  sworn  to  his  father 
 Abraham,  his  faithful  and  obedient  servant,  would  cause 
 his  family  (to  which  he  would  give  the  whole  land  of 
 Canaan  in  possession,  and  from  which  the  Messias,  the 
 desire  of  all  nations,  should  descend)  to  multiply  exceed- 
 ingly- 
 
 Isaac,  according  to  the  divine  direction,  went  no  far- 
 ther than  Gerar ;  and  here  it  was  that  he  fell  into  the 
 same  weakness  that  his  father  had  formerly  done  in  the 
 same  place,  namely,  his  making  his  wife  pass  for  his 
 sister,  for  fear  that  some  wicked  man  or  other  might  be 
 tempted  to  destroy  him,  in  order  to  enjoy  her.  But  so 
 it  was,  that  the  king,  from  his  window,  observing  some 
 familiarities  pass  between  them  that  did  not  so  well 
 comport  with  the  character  of  a  brother,  sent  for  him  im- 
 mediately, complained  of  his  dissimulation,  charged  him 
 with  being  married,  and  (not  unmindful,  very  probably, 
 of  what  had  befallen  the  nation  upon  the  account  of 
 Sarah)  with  a  design  of  entailing  guilt,  and  therewith  a 
 judgment  of  God  upon  his  subjects,  in  case  any  attempt 
 had  been  made  upon  her  virtue.  Fear  of  death,  and  the 
 desire  of  self-preservation,  were  the  only  apology  that 
 Isaac  made  for  his  conduct ;  which  Abimelech  was  pleased 
 to  accept,  and  accordingly  issued  out  an  edict  that  none, 
 upon  pain  of  death,  should  dare  to  offer  any  injury, 
 either  to  Isaac  or  his  wife. 
 
 The  great  accession  of  wealth,  however,  wherewith 
 God  had  blessed  him  during  his  stay  in  Gerar,  raised  the 
 envy  and  indignation  of  the  Philistines.  That  very  year 
 wherein  he  thought  of  going  down  into  Egypt  for  fear  of 
 the  famine,  he  sowed  a  piece  of  ground,  and  to  the  great 
 surprise  of  his  neighbours,  received  b  an  hundredfold 
 
 imagine,  succeeded  to  the  priesthood,  or  chief  government  in 
 matters  ecclesiastical.  He  had  a  right  to  challenge  the  particular 
 blessing  of  his  dying  parent.  He  had  the  covenant  which  God 
 made  with  Abraham,  that  from  his  loins  Christ  should  come, 
 consigned  to  him.  And,  what  is  more,  these  prerogatives  were 
 not  confined  to  his  person  only,  but  descended  to  his  latest  pos- 
 terity, in  case  they  comported  themselves  so  as  to  deserve  them. 
 — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary . 
 
 a  It  is  not  unlikely  that  this  Abimelech  might  be  the  son  of 
 that  Abimelech,  king  of  Gerar,  with  whom  Abraham  had  for- 
 merly made  a  covenant,  supposing  Abimelech  to  be  here  the 
 proper  name  of  a  man.  But  it  is  much  more  probable,  that  at 
 this  time  it  was  a  common  name  for  the  king  of  the  Philistines, 
 as  Cffisar  was  for  the  Roman  emperors,  and  Pharaoh  for  the  kings 
 of  Egypt. 
 
 b  This  hundredfold  increase  in  one  year  was  given  by  God 
 unto  Isaac  for  a  sign  of  his  purpose  to  fulfil  the  covenant  made 
 with  his  father,  and  lately  renewed  to  him;  particularly  for  the 
 confirmation  of  the  truth  and  reason  of  the  warning  against  his 
 going  down  to  Egypt,  as  he  was  inclined,  according  to  the  natural 
 prospect  of  things.  Such  an  increase  was  at  this  time  a  singular 
 blessing  of  God,  after  there  had  been  a  considerable  dearth;  and 
 the  soil  perhaps  that  afforded  so  large  a  crop  not  so  rich ;  other- 
 wise we  may  learn  from  Varro  {Be  Re  Rustica,  h.  1.  c.  44.)  that 
 in  Syria,  near  Gadcra,  and  in   Africa,  about  Byzacium,   they 
 
 produce  from  it ;  so  that  Abimelech 's  subjects  began  all 
 to  malign  him,  and,  to  oblige  him  to  depart  the  country, 
 filled  up  the  wells  which  his  father's  servants  had  digged.6' 
 Nay,  the  very  king  himself,  to  satisfy  the  resentment  of 
 his  people,  desired  of  him  to  leave  the  city  of  Gerar, 
 and  to  find  him  out  another  habitation  ;  for  that,  in  his 
 opinion,  d  he  had  improved  his  fortune  sufficiently  while 
 he  had  been  among  them  :  so  that,  to  secure  himself,  as 
 well  as  make  the  king  easy,  he  retired  into  the  valley  of 
 Gerar,  where  his  father  had  formerly  fed  his  cattle,  and 
 there  began  to  open  the  wells  which  his  father  had  caused 
 to  be  dug,  but  the  Philistines  had  filled  up,  and  called 
 them  by  their  ancient  names.  But  the  people  of  the 
 country,  thinking  him  too  well  situated  there,  quarrelled 
 with  his  shepherds,  took  away  their  wells,  and  put  him  to 
 many  inconveniences  ;  so  that  being  quite  tired  with  their 
 repeated  insults,  he  removed  farther  from  them,  and  went 
 and  lived  in  the  most  distant  parts  of  their  country. 
 
 Here  it  was  that  he  dug  another  well ;  and  meeting 
 with  no  opposition,  called  it  Rehoboth,  that  is,  room,  or 
 enlargement,  because  God  had  now  delivered  him  from 
 the  straits  and  difficulties  he  had  lately  been  in,  by  reason 
 
 reaped  an  hundred  bushels  from  one ;  nay,  Bochart  (in  Canaan, 
 b.  1.  c.  25.)  shows  from  several  good  authors,  that  some  places  in 
 Africa  are  so  veiy  fruitful,  that  they  produce  two  or  three  hundred 
 fold,  which  makes  this  account  of  Moses  far  from  being  incredible. 
 {Bibliotheca  Biblica,  and  Patrick's  Commentary.}  The  author 
 of  the  history  of  the  piratical  state  of  Barbary  observes,  that  the 
 Moors  of  that  country  are  divided  into  tribes  like  the  Arabians, 
 and  like  them  dwell  in  tents,  formed  into  itinerant  villages:  that 
 "  these  wanderers  farm  lands  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns,  sow 
 and  cultivate  them,  paying  their  rent  with  the  produce,  such  as 
 fruits,  corn,  wax,  &c.  They  are  very  skilful  in  choosing  the 
 most  advantageous  soils  for  every  season,  and  very  careful  to 
 avoid  the  Turkish  troops,  the  violence  of  the  one  little  suiting 
 the  simplicity  of  the  other,"  p.  44.  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that 
 Isaac  possessed  the  like  sagacity  when  he  sowed  in  the  land  of 
 Gerar,  and  received  that  year  an  hundredfold.  His  lands  appear 
 to  have  been  hired  of  the  fixed  inhabitants  of  the  country.  On 
 this  account  the  king  of  the  country  might,  after  the  reaping  of 
 the  crop,  refuse  his  permission  a  second  time,  and  desire  him  to 
 depart. — Harmer,  vol.  1.  p.  85. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  same  mode  of  taking  vengeance  which  is  here  men- 
 tioned, has  been  practised  in  ages  subsequent  to  the  time  here 
 referred  to.  Niebuhr  {Travels,  p.  302.)  tells  us,  that  the  Turkish 
 emperors  pretend  to  a  right  to  that  part  of  Arabia  that  lies 
 between  Mecca  and  the  countries  of  Syria  and  Egypt,  but  that 
 their  power  amounts  to  very  little.  That  they  have,  however, 
 garrisons  in  divers  little  citadels  built  in  that  desert,  near  the 
 wells  that  are  made  on  the  old  road  from  Egypt  and  Syria  to 
 Mecca,  which  are  incended  for  the  greater  safety  of  their  cara- 
 vans. But  in  a  following  page  (p.  330)  he  gives  us  to  under- 
 stand, that  these  princes  have  made  it  a  custom  to  give  annually 
 to  every  Arab  tribe  which  is  near  that  road,  a  certain  sum  of  money 
 and  a  certain  number  of  vestments,  to  keep  them  from  destroying 
 the  wells  that  lie  in  that  route. — Harmer,  vol.  4.  p.  247. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  words  of  Abimelech,  according  to  our  translation,  are 
 these,  '  Thou  art  much  mightier  than  we ;'  but  certainly  he  could 
 not  mean  that  Isaac  was  more  powerful  than  the  whole  people  of 
 Palestine,  or  that  he  had  a  larger  family  or  more  numerous  atten- 
 dants than  himself  had,  and  consequently  was  in  a  condition,  if 
 he  had  been  so  minded,  to  disturb  the  government.  This  we  can 
 by  no  means  conceive  to  be  possible ;  and  therefore  the  words  in 
 the  original  (cignatza/rrypta  mimennu)  do  not  mean,  '  because 
 thou  art  mightier  than  we,'  but  '  because  thou  art  increased,  and 
 multiplied  from  us,  or  by  us,'  that  is,  thou  hast  got  a  great  deal 
 by  us ;  while  thou  hast  continued  amongst  us,  thou  hast  made  a 
 great  accession  to  thy  substance,  and  we  do  not  care  to  let  thee 
 get  any  more  ;  so  that  the  Philistines  did  not  fear  him,  but  envy 
 him ;  they  grudged  that  he  should  get  so  much  among  them,  and 
 therefore  desired  him  to  absent  their  country. —  Shuchjord's  Con- 
 nection, vol.  2.  b.  H. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 181 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  1856;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3418.  A.  C.  1993.  GK  X.  (II. 
 
 kxy.  20  -xxviii. 
 
 of  a  scarceness  of  water,  and  not  long  after  settled  his 
 constant  abode  at  Beersheba  ;  where  he  had  no  sooner 
 arrived,  but  that  very  night  God  appeared  to  him  in  a 
 vision,  promising  him  his  favour  and  protection,  and  that 
 he  would  bless  him,  and  multiply  his  seed  for  his  servant 
 Abraham's  sake  :  so  that  Isaac,  intending  to  continue 
 here,  built  him  an  altar  and  place  of  religious  worship, 
 and  cleared  out  the  well  a  which  his  father  had  formerly 
 dug. 
 
 Nor  had  he  been  long  here  before  Abimelech,  consci- 
 ous of  the  peculiar  manner  wherein  God  had  blessed  him, 
 sensible  of  the  ill  usage  be  had  received  from  his  sub- 
 jects, and  apprehensive,  perhaps,  that  in  time  he  might 
 think  of  revenging  the  injuries  he  had  suffered,  came 
 attended  with  l>  the  chief  of  his  nobility,  and  with  the 
 captain -general  of  his  forces,  either  to  renew  the  old 
 league  which  had  formerly  been  made  with  his  father 
 Abraham,  or  to  enter  into  a  new  one. 
 
 It  was  but  proper  that  Isaac,  upon  this  occasion,  should 
 in  some  measure  resent  the  indignities  that  were  offered 
 him :  and  therefore  at  first  he  expostulates  the  matter 
 with  them,  and  seems  to  wonder  why  they  came  to  visit 
 Lim  whom  they  had  so  lately  expelled  their  country. 
 \bimelech  made  the  best  excuse  for  their  behaviour  that 
 the  nature  of  the  thing  would  bear  ;  told  him,  that  he  had 
 all  along  perceived  that  the  divine  favour  attended  him 
 in  all  his  undertakings,  and  that  therefore,  that  he  might 
 not  be  thought  to  oppose  God,  he  was  come  to  renew  the 
 covenant  depending  between  his  people  and  Abraham's 
 posterity,  and  was  ready  to  engage  in  the  same  condi- 
 tions and  obligations.  This  speech,  so  full  of  submis- 
 sion and  acknowledgments,  soon  pacified  Isaac,  who 
 was  naturally  of  a  quiet  and  easy  disposition  ;  so  that, 
 having  entertained  the  king  and  his  attendants  in  a  very 
 respectful  and  generous  manner  that  night,  the  next 
 morning  c  they  confirmed  the  league  wit!)  the  usual  cere- 
 monies, and  Abimelech  took  leave  and  returned  home  : 
 but  before  he  departed,  Isaac's  servants  brought  him 
 word,  that  in  the  well  which  they  had  been  clearing  out, 
 
 a  The  reasons  that  induced  Isaac,  to  open  the  old  wells,  rather 
 than  dig  new  ones,  might  be,  1.  Because  he  was  sure  to  find  a 
 tyring  there,  which  he  could  not  be  certain  of  in  other  places; 
 8.  Because  it  was  easier,  and  less  liable  to  censure  and  envy ;  3. 
 Because  he  had  a  right  to  them,  as  they  were  his  father's  pur- 
 chase and  property ;  and  4.  Because  he  was  minded  to  preserve 
 and  do  honour  to  his  father's  memory,  for  which  reason  he  called 
 them  by  the  same  names  that  his  father  had  done  before  him. — 
 Btbliotheca  JU/ilira,  in  locum. 
 
 b  The  two  that  are  mentioned  here  are  Phicol  and  Ahazzah. 
 Phicol  is  of  the  same  name,  and  bore  the  same  office  which  he 
 had  who  is  mentioned  ch.  xxi.  22;  but  we  must  not  suppose  that 
 lie  was  the  same  man,  any  more  than  Abimelech  was  the 
 ;ame  king.  The  word  properly  signifies  face  or  head ;  and  as 
 the  captain-general  is  head  of  the  forces  he  commands,  so  some 
 have  imagined  that  it  is  the  appellative  name  (like  that  of  trihu- 
 nus,  or  dictator,  among  the  Romans)  for  eveiy  one  among  them 
 that  were  advanced  to  that  dignity.  And  in  like  manner,  though 
 the  Septuagint  seem  to  make  Ahazzah  a  proper  name,  and  call 
 him  the  para-nymph,  or  bride-man,  to  Abimelech,  which  was 
 always  accounted  a  post  of  the  first  honour;  yet  1  shall  rather 
 choose,  with  Onkelos,  to  make  the  word  signify  '  a  train,  or  great 
 number  of  nobility  which  came  in  attendance  on  Abimelech,  and 
 to  do  the  patriarch  the  greater  honour  upon  t\\\i  occasion. — Le 
 (Merc's  Commentary,  and  Howell's  History. 
 
 e  The  articles  were  agreed  upon  over  night,  and,  by  a  mutual 
 
 I  nath,  ratified  in  the  monring.     And  the   reason  why  men  took 
 
 i'liblic  oaths  in  the  morning  fasting,  seems  to  have  been  »/>  reve- 
 
 rentiam  jiirirmrnti,  as  the  Jews  call  it,  because  they  looked  upon 
 
 (Mm  as  very  solemn  and  sacred  things. — Btbliotheca  Biblica. 
 
 1  and  which  Abraham  in  former  times  had  bought  of  the 
 king  of  Gerar,  they  had  happily  found  a  spring  of  water  . 
 for  which  reason,  in  the  hearing  of  Abimeledl  and  all 
 the  company,  he  called  it  again  by  the  nam.-  of  Beer- 
 sheba,  the  well  of  the  oath,  "  that  is,  the  well  wherein 
 water  was  discovered  on  the  day  that  Abimelech  and  1 
 entered  int^>  a  treaty  of  peace,  and  ratified  the  game  with 
 the  solemnity  of  oaths." 
 
 By  this  time  Isaac's  two  sons  were  arrived  at  the  un 
 of  forty  ;  and  Esau,  who  had  contracted  an  acquaintance 
 with  the  people  of  the  land,  had  married  two  wives,  Ju- 
 dith, the  daughter  of  Beeri,and  Bethsheiuath,  the  daugh- 
 ter of  Elon,  both  Hittites,  which  was  no  small  affliction 
 to  his  parents.  This  in  a  manner  quite  alienated  his 
 mother's  heart  from  him  ;  but  as  for  his  father,  his  affec- 
 tions continued  the  same.  And  therefore,  finding  himsell 
 "tow  old  and  feeble,  and  his  eyes  quite  dim  with  age, 
 and  apprehending  his  death  to  be  nearer  than  really  it 
 was,  he  called  him  one  day,  and  declared  to  him  his  pur- 
 pose of  giving  him  his  paternal  benediction  before  he 
 died  ;  but  wished  him  withal  to  take  his  hunting  instru- 
 ments, and  go  into  the  fields,  and  kill  him  a  little  veni- 
 son, and  dress  it  to  his  palate,  that  when  he  had  eaten 
 thereof,  and  refreshed  nature,  he  might  bless  him  with  a 
 more  tender  affection,  as  well  as  a  more  becoming  pathos. 
 Rebecca  overheard  all  this  discourse  ;  and  as  sunn  as 
 Esau  was  well  gone,  she  called  Jacob,  and  acquainted 
 him  with  what  was  transacting  ;  that  his  father  was  going 
 to  bestow  a  benediction,  which  was  final  and  irrevocable, 
 upon  his  brother  ;  but  that,  if  he  would  listen  to  her,  and 
 do  what  she  ordered  hint,  she  had  an  expedient,  by  sub- 
 stituting him  in  his  room,  to  turn  aside  the  blessing  where 
 she  desired  it.  Jacob  was  willing  enough  to  comply  w  ith 
 his  mother's  request;  but  if  he  was  to  personate  his  bro- 
 ther, the  difference  of  his  skin  and  voice  made  him  ap- 
 prehensive that  his  father  might  discover  the  imposture, 
 and  thereupon  be  provoked,  instead  of  his  prayers  and 
 best  wishes,  to  load  him  with  imprecations.  But  so  con- 
 fident was  his  mother  of  success  in  this  matter,  that  die 
 took  all  the  curses  upon  herself,  and  encouraged  him  to 
 follow  her  directions.  Hereupon  Jacob  hastened  to  the 
 fold,  and  brought  two  fat  kids  from  thence,  which  his 
 mother  immediately  took,  and  dressed  the  choice  pieces 
 of  them  with  savoury  sauce,  like  venison  ;  and  so  having 
 covered  his  neck  and  his  hands  with  the  skins  of  the  kids, 
 d  and  arrayed  him  with  Esau's  best  robes,  '  she  sent  him 
 in  trembling  with  the  dish  to  his  father. 
 
 d  Gen.  xxvii.  16.  '  Put  the  skin  of  the  kids  of  the  goats.'    It 
 
 is  observed  by  Hoehart,  that  in  ihe  ea-tem  countries  goat's  hair 
 was  very  like  to  that  of  men;  so  thai  Isaac  might  rery  easily  be 
 
 deceived,    when    bis    eyes    Mere    dim,     and    hi-     feeling     DO    less 
 
 decayed  than  his  sidit. 
 
 e  The  Jews  have  a  fancy,  that  it  was  the  robe  of  Adam,  which 
 
 bad  been  transmitted  down  from  father  to  - in  the  line  of 
 
 blessing,  as  they  call  it,  till  it  came  to  Abraham,  who  left  it  to 
 Isaac,  and  he  designing  Esbu,  is  bis  eldest,  for  his  wo 
 
 gave  it  to  him.    Son fthem  imagine,  thai  it  was  ■  sacerdotal 
 
 habit,  wherein  Ivan,  in  bis  father's  Illness,  was  supposed  to 
 officiate,  and  fortius  reason  it  might  be  kept  in  Isaac's  tent,  near 
 to  which,  wry  likely,  was  the  place  of  religious  worship.     In  all 
 
 probability  it  was  a  restraent  of  some  distinct! which  the  heir 
 
 of  the  familv,  upon  some  solemn  occasions,  was  used  to  put  on; 
 and  Jacob  being  at  this  time  to  personate  his  brother.  th.  re  was 
 a  necessity  for  him  to  have  it.     But  bow  his  mother  should  come 
 
 by  it,  or  why  she  should  have  the  keeping  of  it,  when  K-au  bad 
 
 wives  of  his  own,  is  a  question  that  Mnsculus  raises,  and  meat 
 
182  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  iBook  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  185G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3418.  A.  C.  1993.  GEN.  CH.  xxv.  20— xxviii.  8. 
 
 His  father  was  lying  upon  the  bed  when  Jacob  entered 
 the  room,  and  upon  his  demanding  who  he  was,  he  roundly 
 answered,  that  he  was  his  elder  son  Esau,  who  had  brought 
 him  some  venison  to  eat.  Surprised  at  the  great  expedi- 
 tion he  had  made,  and  not  knowing  indeed  what  to  think, 
 the  old  man  put  several  times  the  question  to  him,  whe- 
 ther he  was  in  reality  his  son  Esau  or  no  ?  to  which  he 
 as  often  answered  in  the  affirmative  and  desired  him,  in 
 short,  to  arise,  and  taste  of  what  he  had  prepared  for 
 him,  since  God,  who  knew  his  zeal  to  obey  his  father, 
 had  brought  it  into  his  hands  much  sooner  than  he  could 
 otherwise  have  expected. 
 
 The  difference  between  Jacob's  and  Esau's  voice  was 
 so  remarkable,  that  Isaac  coidd  not  but  suspect  some 
 delusion  in  the  case  ;  and  therefore  he  desired  him  to 
 draw  nearer,  that  he  might  be  the  better  satisfied  ;  and 
 when  he  had  felt  the  hairy  skin  on  his  hands  and  neck, 
 lie  owned  that  '  the  hands  were  the  hands  of  Esau,  though 
 the  voice  was  the  voice  of  Jacob.' 
 
 Thus  satisfied,  or  rather  thus  deluded,  he  arose,  and 
 ate  heartily  of  his  son's  pretended  venison  ;  and  as  soon 
 as  he  had  dined,  and  drank  a  a  cup  or  two  of  wine,  he 
 bid  him  draw  near,  that  he  might  now  bestow  upon  him 
 his  promised  blessing.  The  smell  of  Jacob's  garments 
 contributed  not  a  little  to  Isaac's  cheerfulness.  He 
 smelled  and  praised  them.  In  a  kind  of  ecstasy  of  plea- 
 sure, he  embraced  and  kissed  his  pretended  first-born  ; 
 and  after  having  *  wished  him  all  heavenly  and  earthly 
 blessings,  he  at  length  dismissed  him. 
 
 Jacob  was  scarce  jrot  out  of  the  tent,  when  Esau,  having 
 returned  from  hunting,  and  just  made  ready  his  venison, 
 came  and  invited  his  father,  in  the  same  dutiful  manner 
 that  his  brother  had  done.  Surprised  at  this  address,  his 
 father  asked  who  he  was  ?  and,  when  he  understood  that 
 it  was  his  elder  son  Esau,  he  was  quite  in  a  maze,  and 
 began  to  inquire  who,  and  where  that  person  was,  who 
 had  been  there  before,  and  taken  away  the  blessing  which 
 he  neither  could  nor  would  revoke.  Esau,  too  well 
 perceiving  that  it  must  have  been  Jacob  who  had  thus 
 
 answers  it,  by  saying, — That  because  Esau  had  married  these 
 wives  without  the  consent  of  his  parents,  especially  his  mother, 
 she,  for  this  reason,  refused  to  give  it  him,  and  perhaps  reserved 
 it  for  this  very  occasion.  But,  in  my  opinion,  there  seems  to  be 
 no  necessity  for  this  supposition,  since  it  was  sufficient  for  her 
 purpose,  that  she  knew  where  it  was  in  Esau's  apartment. — 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica,  in  locum. 
 
 a  There  is  a  tradition  among  the  Jews,  that  Jacob  having 
 omitted  to  bring  wine  for  his  father,  an  angel  prepared  it  and 
 brought  it  into  his  apartment;  that  he  gave  it  into  Jacob's  hands, 
 and  Jacob  poured  it  out  for  his  father;  that  the  wine  was  the 
 same  with  the  wine  of  paradise,  which  had  been  laid  up  from  the 
 beginning ;  and  that  his  father,  having  drank  of  it,  kissed  him,  and 
 blessed  him,  as  one  now  filled  with  the  Spirit,  even  with  the 
 Spirit  of  prophecy  and  blessing.  But  the  custom  of  the  Jewish 
 doctors  is  to  magnify  every  little  matter. 
 
 b  The  prayer  which  Josephus  makes  Isaac  oiler  up  to  God 
 upon  this  occasion  is  in  words  to  this  effect.  "  Eternal  God,  the 
 Creator  of  all  things  that  are  made ;  thou  hast  been  so  gracious 
 and  bountiful  to  my  father,  to  myself,  and  to  our  offspring,  pro- 
 mising, and  possessing  us  of  all  things,  and  giving  us  assurances 
 of  greater  blessings  to  come:  Lord,  make  thy  words  good  to  us 
 by  effects,  and  do  not  despise  thy  servant  for  his  present  infirmi- 
 ties, which  make  him  the  more  sensible  of  his  need  of  thy  support. 
 Preserve  tins  child  from  all  evil  in  thy  mercy  and  infinite  good- 
 ness: give,  him  a  long  and  happy  life:  bless  him  with  all  worldly 
 enjoyments  that  may  be  for  his  good:  and  make  him  a  terror  to 
 his  enemies,  and  an  honour  and  comfort  to  his  friends." — Antiq. 
 b.  1.  c.  IS. 
 
 supplanted  him,  complains  of  his  double  perfidy  :  first, 
 in  extorting  his  birthright  from  him,  and  now  in  robbing 
 him  of  his  father's  blessing ;  and  then  seems  to  wonder 
 very  much  that  his  father's  store  should  be  so  far  exhausted, 
 as  (since  he  would  not  revoke  the  other)  not  to  have 
 reserved  one  blessing  for  him. 
 
 Isaac  was  willing  enough  to  gratify  his  son's  request ; 
 and  it  grieved  him,  no  doubt,  to  hear  his  bitter  lamenta- 
 tions ;  but  what  could  he  do  ?  all  the  choicest  of  his 
 blessings  he  had  bestowed  upon  Jacob  ;  and  as  they 
 were  gone  he  could  not  recall  them.  However,  that  he 
 might  in  some  measure  pacify  Esau,  by  the  same  prophetic 
 spirit  he  acquaints  him,  "  That  though  c  his  posterity 
 should  not  enjoy  a  very  plentiful  country,  yet  they  should 
 become  a  great  people,  and  mighty  warriors,  who  should 
 live  by  the  dint  of  their  sword ;  and  though  they  should 
 sometimes  become  subject  to  the  descendants  of  Jacob, 
 yet,  in  process  of  time,  they  would  d  shake  off  their  yoke 
 and  erect  a  dominion  of  their  own. 
 
 Esau  was  now  become  so  sensible  of  what  he  had  lost 
 by  the  fraud  and  deceptions  of  his  brother,  that  he  was 
 resolved,  at  a  proper  season,  to  be  revenged  on  him. 
 His  regard  to  his  father  would  not  permit  him  to  express 
 his  resentment  in  any  violent  act  as  yet ;  but  as  he  sup- 
 posed that  he  could  not  live  long,  he  was  determined  to 
 kill  his  brother,  as  soon  as  his  father  was  dead.  Some 
 speeches  of  this  kind  had  accidentally  dropped  from  him, 
 which  were  brought  to  his  mother's  ears.  Whereupon  she 
 acquainted  her  favourite  son  with  the  bloody  design  his 
 brother  had  conceived  against  him  ;  told  him  that  the 
 wisest  way  would  be   for  him  to  withdraw  somewhere, 
 
 c  The  words  in  our  translation  carry  a  sense  quite  different  to 
 what  we  have  here  suggested;  '  Behold  thy  dwelling  shall  be  of 
 the  fatness  of  the  earth,  and  of  the  dew  of  heaven.'  But  besides 
 that  this  makes  the  blessing  the  same  with  that  which  was  given 
 to  Jacob,  ver.  28,  which  Isaac  professes  himself  incapable  of 
 doing;  it  is  manifest,  that  Idumea,  where  the  descendants  of 
 Esau  dwelt,  was  far  from  being  a  fat  and  fruitful  country.  Had 
 it  been  so,  there  had  not  been  that  reason  for  the  subsequent 
 words,  '  by  thy  sword  thou  shalt  live  ;'  for  a  rich  and  plentifut 
 country  would  have  secured  them  from  livingby  spoil  and  plunder, 
 as  it  is  manifest  the  people  of  that  country  did,  if  we  can  credit 
 the  character  which  Josephus,  both  in  his  history  of  the  Anti- 
 quities, b.  13,  and  of  the  Wars  of  the  Jews,  b.  4,  gives  us  of 
 them. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary;  and  Universal  History. 
 
 d  The  Edomites,  or  Idumeans,  who  were  the  posterity  of 
 Esau,  for  a  considerable  time  were  a  people  of  much  more  power 
 and  authority  than  the  Israelites,  till,  in  the  days  of  David,  they 
 were  entirely  conquered,  2  Sam.  viii.  14;  they  were  thereupou 
 governed  by  depvities  or  viceroys  appointed  by  the  kings  of  Judah: 
 and  whenever  they  attempted  to  rebel,  were  for  a  long  time 
 crushed,  and  kept  under  by  the  Jews.  In  the  days  of  Jehorani. 
 the  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  they  expelled  their  viceroy,  and  set  up  fc 
 king  of  their  own,  2  Kings  viii.  20  ;  and  though  they  were 
 reduced  at  that  time,  yet  for  some  generations  after  this,  they 
 seemed  to  have  lived  independent  on  the  Jews;  and  when  the 
 Babylonians  invaded  Judea,  they  not  only  took  part  with  them, 
 but  violently  oppressed  them,  even  when  the  enemy  was  with- 
 drawn; so  that,  remembering  what  they  had  suffered  under  Joab 
 in  the  days  of  David,  they  entered  into  the  like  cruel  measures 
 against  the^  Jews,  and  threatened  to  lay  Jerusalem  level  with  the 
 ground.  Their  animosity  against  the  posterity  of  Jacob  seems 
 indeed  to  be  hereditary;  nor  did  they  ever  cease,  for  any  consi- 
 derable time,  from  broils  and  contentions,  until  they  were  con- 
 quered by  Hyrcanus,  and  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  embracing  i 
 the  Jewish  religion,  or  quitting  their  country.  Hereupon,  con-  I 
 seating  to  the  former,  they  were  incorporated  with  the  Jews,  anil;  J 
 became  one  nation ;  so  that  in  the  first  century  after  Christ,  tin 
 name  of  Idumean  was  lost,  and  quite  disused. — Le  Clerc's  Com- 
 1  nicniary,  and  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  4. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  1856;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAXES 
 
 until  his  fury  was  assuaged  :  and  the  properest  place  for 
 that  purpose  would  he  his  uncle  Laban's,  in  Mesopota- 
 mia ;  that  thither  he  might  retire  a  little  while,  and 
 as  soon  as  his  brother's  passion  was  over,  she  would  not 
 fail  to  recall  him;. that  to  part  with  him  indeed  was  no 
 small  affliction  to  her,  but  nothing  comparable  to  the 
 misery  that  would  ensue,  if  in  one  day  she  should  be 
 bereaved  of  them  both  ;  of  him  by  the  hand  of  his  brother 
 and  of  his  brother,  by  the  hand  of  justice. 
 
 Jacob,  who  was  of  a  mild,  if  not  of  a  timorous  temper, 
 readily  complied  with  his  mother's  proposal ;  but  then 
 his  father's  consent  was  to  be  had  ;  and  this  Rebecca 
 undertook  to  obtain  by  artful  insinuations  to  her  husband, 
 that  Esau's  Hittite  wives  were  a  perpetual  grief  and 
 trouble  to  her;  that  the  whole  comfort  of  her  life  would 
 be  lost,  if  Jacob  should  chance  to  marry  in  the  like 
 unhappy  manner  ;  and  therefore,  to  prevent  this  disaster, 
 she  thought  it  not  amiss,  if  she  might  have  but  his  appro- 
 bation therein,  that  he  should  go  to  her  brother  Laban's 
 in  Mesopotamia,  and  there  see  if  he  could  fancy  any 
 one  of  his  daughters  for  a  wife. 
 
 Isaac  was  unacquainted  with  the  main  drift  of  her  dis- 
 course ;  but  being  himself  a  pious  man,  and  knowing 
 that  the  promise  made  to  Abraham,  and  renewed  iii  him, 
 was  to  be  completed  in  the  issue  of  Jacob,  called  him  to 
 him,  and  upon  his  blessing,  gave  him  a  strict  charge  not 
 to  marry  with  any  Canaanitish  woman,  but  to  go  to 
 Padan-Aram,  to  the  house  of  his  uncle  Laban,  and  there 
 provide  himself  with  a  wife  ;  which  if  he  did,  "  God  would 
 bless  him,"  he  said,  "  and  raise  him  up  a  numerous  pos- 
 terity, and  give  that  posterity  the  possession  of  that  very 
 country,  where  now  they  were  no  more  than  sojourners, 
 according  to  the  promise  which  he  had  made  to  his 
 grandfather  Abraham." 
 
 With  these  words  he  dismissed  Jacob  to  go  to  his 
 uncle's  in  Mesopotamia  ;  and  of  the  patriarch  Isaac  we 
 read  no  more,  only  that  he  was  alive  at  his  son's  return, 
 and  lived  three  and  twenty  years  longer  still ;  that  he 
 had  removed  from  Beersheba,  where  his  son  left  him, 
 and  dwelt  now  at  Mainre,  not  far  from  Hebron ;  where, 
 at  the  age  of  188  years,  he  died,  and  was  buried  in  the 
 same  sepulchre  with  his  father  Abraham,  by  his  two  sons 
 Esau  and  Jacob. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 Nothing  can  be  more  obvious,  than  that  the  promises 
 which  God  was  pleased  to  make  to  the  patriarchs,  were 
 not  to  be  accomplished  in  their  persons,  but  in  their  pos- 
 terity. Abraham  had  but  one  son  by  his  primary  wife, 
 and  Isaac  but  two  ;  and  therefore  the  blessing  of  a 
 numerous  offspring  could  not  be  verified  in  them  ;  but 
 in  Jacob  it  began  to  operate.  He  had  twelve  sons  ;  and 
 these,  when  in  Egypt,  notwithstanding  all  lets  and  im- 
 pediments to  the  contrary,  mightily  increased  ;  and  upon 
 their  return  from  thence,  made  up  r.n  army  sufficient  to 
 expel  the  old  inhabitants,  and  to  take  possession  of  the 
 land  of  promise,  for  thus  it  is  that  Moses  bespeaks  the 
 people  :    '  '  Thy  fathers  went  down   into  Egypt,  with 
 
 '  Duut.  x.  22 
 
 See.  183 
 
 A.  M.  3113.  A.  C.  1093.  GEN.  C  II.  xxv.  m_xxviii.  8. 
 
 threescore  and  ten  persons,  and  now  fee  Lord  fej  God 
 hath  made  thee  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multitude  :' 
 wherein  he  alludes  to  the  very  words  in  which  the  pro- 
 mise, the  original  promise  was  made. 
 
 If  then  the  numerous  posterity  with  which  God  Messed 
 theJewishpatriarchs,did,inadue  course  ol\  ears,  though 
 not  immediately  ensue,  there  is  no  foundation  for  our 
 calling  in  question  his  truth  and  veracity;  but  then  bifl 
 wisdom  and  almighty  power  are  much  more  conspicuous 
 in  raising  so  large  an  increase  from  so  small  a  begin- 
 ning. For  besides  that  the  long  sterility  of  these  holy 
 matrons  gave  a  proper  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  faith 
 and  patience,  and  reliance  on  God,  2  it  tended  not  a 
 little  to  illustrate  the  nobility  of  the  Jewish  extraction, 
 when  it  came  to  be  considered,  that  their  progenitors 
 were  descended  from  women  that  were  coinplexionally 
 unfruitful,  and  brought  into  the  world  at  no  less  an 
 expense  than  that  of  a  miracle.  It  showed  plainly,  that 
 the  multiplication  of  the  promised  seed  was  not  effected 
 by  any  natural  succession,  but  by  the  divine  favour  and 
 benediction.  It  prepared  the  way  for  the  coming  of  the 
 Sonof  God  in  the  flesh, and,  as  St  Chryseetom8  expresses 
 it,  predisposed  the  world  to  the  belief  of  the  miraculous 
 conception  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  It  administered  com- 
 fort to  such  married  women  as  were  childless,  giving 
 them  encouragement  still  to  hope  on,  and  restraining 
 them  from  murmuring,  or  being  impatient  at  any  retard- 
 ation ;  and  therefore  we  find  the  angel,  in  his  address  to 
 the  blessed  virgin,  (both  to  enforce  the  credibility  of  the 
 message  he  brought  her,  and  to  revive  the  hope  of  such  as 
 were  destitute  of  children,)  expressing  himself  in  this 
 manner ;  *  '  Behold  thy  cousin  Elizabeth,  who  was  called 
 barren,  she  also  hath  conceived  a  son  in  her  old  age, 
 for  with  God  nothing  shall  be  impossible ;'  and  it  is  a 
 glorious  demonstration  of  the  sovereign  power  of  God, 
 when  (according  to  the  apostle's  manner  of  expression) 
 5  '  he  causes  the  weak  things  of  the  world,  to  confound 
 the  things  that  are  mighty,  the  base  things  of  the  world, 
 and  the  tilings  that  are  despised,  yea  and  the  things  that 
 are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  the  things  that  are,  that  DO 
 flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence.' 
 
 The  same  apostle,  in  relation  to  the  subject  we  are 
 now  upon,  has,  by  a  familiar  similitude,  evinced  the  right 
 which  the  great  Ruler  of  the  world  has  to  make  a  discri- 
 mination (as  to  the  temporalities  I  mean  only)  between 
 man  and  man  ;  for  *  hath  not  the  potter  power  over  the 
 
 clay,'  says  he,  '  of  the  same  lump,  to  make  I vessel 
 
 unto  honour  and  another  unto  dishonour  r"  He  who  has 
 a  present  intuition  of  all  things  future,  knows  how  every 
 person  when  born  into  the  world,  will  comport  himself; 
 and  therefore,  as  he  has  the  right,  so  he  is  the  only  being 
 that  is  duly  qualified  to  allot  men  their  different  stations 
 in  life  ;  but  it  is  their  dillerent  stations   in  life  that  God 
 
 thus  determines,  and  not  un\  MSnftj  of  their  happy  or 
 
 unhappy  condition  in  the  next. 
 
 Esau  and  Jacob  were  doth  in  the  womb,  when  <i<"1 
 thought  lit  to  declare  his  choice  of  the  one,  rather  than 
 the  other,  to  be  the  founder  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  01 
 'whom,  according  to  the  lash,  Chri.-t  should  OOBBO :' 
 and  as  this  was  a  favour  of  a  temporary  consideration 
 only,  and   no    way  affected   their  eternal   state,  1   SHOW 
 
 *  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  8.1 
 *  In  Gen.  ch.  xlix.        'Luki  -'• 
 
J84 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  185G,  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  34)8.  A.  C.  1993.  GEN.  CH.  xxv.  20.— xxviii.  8. 
 
 of  no  attribute  of  God  that  could  restrain  him  in  this 
 option.  Loving  and  hating  are  terms  of  a  strong  sig- 
 niiication  sometimes  ;  but  that  here  they  can  bear  no  more 
 than  a  bare  preference  of  one  before  another,  is  plain 
 from  the  whole  tenor  of  the  apostle's  discourse.  The 
 truth  is,  *  his  words,  as  well  as  those  of  Moses,  relate, 
 (as  we  said  before)  not  to  the  persons,  but  to  the  poste- 
 rity of  Jacob  and  Esau,  or  not  to  them  personally,  but 
 nationally  considered.  As  to  their  persons,  it  was  never 
 true,  that  the  elder  did  serve  the  younger,  but  only  as 
 to  their  posterity,  when  the  2  Edomites  became  tributary 
 to  David  :  and  therefore  the  apostle  cannot  be  supposed 
 here  to  discourse  of  any  personal  election  to  eternal  life, 
 or  any  absolute  love  or  hatred  of  these  two  brothers,  with 
 respect  to  their  interest  in  another  world,  but  only  of  the 
 election  of  one  seed  or  nation  before  another,  to  be 
 accounted  and  treated  as  the  seed  of  Abraham,  which  is 
 all  that  the  apostle's  argument  drives  at. 
 
 In  a  word,  the  case  of  these  two  patriarchs  has  nothing 
 to  do  with  the  election,  or  reprobation  of  particular  per- 
 sons. It  shows  us  indeed,  that  God  may  make  choice 
 of  one  nation  rather  than  another,  to  be  his  peculiar 
 people ;  but  to  apply  this  to  particular  persons,  or  to 
 suppose  that  the  condition  of  men's  souls,  even  before 
 they  come  into  the  world,  is  determined  by  an  irrevoca- 
 ble decree,  is  foreign  to  the  apostle's  meaning,  and 
 abhorrent  to  his  word,  who  has  so  plainly  declared  him- 
 self to  be  3  '  no  respecter  of  persons,  but  that  in  every 
 nation  he  that  feareth  God,  and  worketh  righteousness, 
 shall  be  accepted  of  him.' 
 
 4  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  the  chief  prerogative  of 
 the  primogeniture  was  nothing  else  but  a  double  portion 
 of  the  father's  estate,  and  that  this  was  all  that  Esau 
 parted  with  to  his  brother  :  but  had  this  been  so,  we  can- 
 not see  wherein  he  is  so  mightily  to  blame,  or  why  the 
 apostle,  who  certainly  understood  the  meaning  of  the 
 birthright,  as  well  as  any  modern  commentator,  should 
 give  him  the  hard  name  of  a  '  profane  person,'  merely 
 for  selling  the  reversion  of  a  temporal  estate,  to  save  his 
 life,  in  a  time  of  the  greatest  exigence.  Had  the  birth- 
 right, I  say,  consisted  chiefly  in  this,  Ave  cannot  see  how 
 Jacob  could  have  been  reduced  to  such  straits  as  we  after- 
 wards find  him  in,  or  Esau,  as  to  his  outward  fortune, 
 have  flourished  more  prosperously  than  his  brother  did. 
 When  his  father  Isaac  died,  and  he  came  from  mount  Seir 
 to  assist  in  his  funeral,  upon  his  departure  from  his  bro- 
 ther, he  is  said  to  have  *  '  carried  away  with  him  all  the 
 substance  which  he  had  gotten  in  the  land  of  Canaan.' 
 6  Now  it  is  plain,  that  he  had  no  substance  in  the  land  of 
 Canaan  of  his  own  getting,  for  he  lived  at  Seir  in  the 
 land  of  Edoni,  beyond  the  borders  of  Canaan  ;  and  there- 
 fore the  substance  which  was  gotten  in  the  land  of  Canaan, 
 must  be  the  substance  which  Isaac  died  possessed  of, 
 and  which  Esau,  as  his  heir,  took  along  with  him.  So 
 that,  after  the  birthright  was  sold,  he  was  still  heir  to 
 his  father's  substance  ;  and  therefore  a  right  to  this  was 
 not  the  thing  which  Jacob  purchased  of  him.  Others  are 
 of  opinion,  that  the  birthright  was  the  blessing  promised 
 to  the  seed  of  Abraham  ;  and  this  the  author  of  the  Epis- 
 tle to  the  Hebrews  seems,  in  some  measure,  to  favour ; 
 
 1  Whitby  on  Rom.  ix.        2  2  Sam.  viii.  14.       3  Acts  x.  34,  35. 
 '  Bibliotheca  Bihlica.  s  Gen.  xxxvi.  6. 
 
 0  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  1.  b.  7. 
 
 '  Lest  there  be  any  fornicator,  or  profane  person,  a*. 
 Esau,  who,  for  a  morsel  of  meat,  sold  his  birthright. 
 For  we  know  how  that  afterwards,  when  he  would  have 
 inherited  the  blessing,  he  was  rejected  :'  where,  '  not 
 inheriting  the  blessing,'  seems  to  have  been  connected  with 
 his  '  having  sold  his  birthright ;  as  if,  having  parted  with 
 the  one,  he  could  not  possibly  obtain  the  other  :  but  it  is 
 much  to  be  questioned,  whether  this  be  the  true  sense  of 
 the  passage.  Esau  himself,  when  he  sold  his  birthright, 
 did  not  imagine  that  he  had  sold,  at  the  same  time,  his 
 right  to  the  blessing ;  for  when  his  father  told  him,  that 
 his  brother  had  come  with  subtlety,  and  taken  away  the 
 blessing,  his  answer  was,  '  Is  he  not  rightly  named  Jacob, 
 for  he  hath  supplanted  me  these  two  times;  he  took 
 away  my  birthright,  and  behold  now  he  hath  taken  away 
 my  blessing  ?'  Had  he  apprehended  that  the  blessing  and 
 birthright  were  things  inseparable,  having  sold  the  one, 
 he  would  never  have  laid  any  claim  to  the  other  ;  whereas 
 the  defrauding  him  of  his  blessing  is  another  hardship  he 
 complains  of,  distinct  and  different  and  independent  on 
 the  former :  and  therefore  Esau's  birthright  was  most 
 probably  his  right  of  being  priest,  or  sacrificer  for  his 
 brethren  ;  and  parting  with  this  he  is  justly  termed  pro- 
 fane, because  he  hereby  showed  himself  not  to  have  a 
 due  value  and  esteem,  for  the  religious  employment  that 
 belonged  to  him. 
 
 But  though  this  employment  might  better  comport 
 with  Jacob,  yet  we  cannot  pretend  to  justify  him  in  his 
 method  of  obtaining  it.  '  Moses,  who  records  the  story, 
 does  not  commend  him  for  it;  and  therefore  we  are  left 
 at  our  liberty  to  pass  what  censure  upon  it  we  think 
 reasonable.  God  indeed,  before  he  was  born,  designed 
 and  promised  this  privilege  to  him  ;  but 8  then  he  should 
 have  waited  until  the  divine  wisdom  had  found  out  the 
 means  of  executing  his  promise  in  his  own  way,  as 
 David  did,  till  God  gave  him  possession  of  Saul's 
 kingdom,  and  not  have  anticipated  God,  and  snatched 
 it  by  an  irregular  act  of  his  own.  In  the  whole  affair, 
 indeed,  Jacob  acted  with  a  subtlety  not  at  all  becoming 
 an  honest  man.  He  knew  that  delays  were  dangerous, 
 and  that  his  brother's  consideration,  or  second  thoughts, 
 might  possibly  spoil  his  bargain ;  and  therefore  he 
 required  haste,  both  in  the  sale  and  in  his  oath,  and 
 thereby  incurred  another  sin,  in  hurrying  his  brother 
 into  an  oath,  by  precipitation,  which  he  neither  should 
 have  taken,  nor  Jacob  have  advised  him  to  take,  without 
 mature  advice  and  deliberation. 
 
 And  in  like  manner,  as  to  his  interception  of  the 
 blessing,  which  his  father  designed  for  his  brother  Esau  ; 
 it  is  in  vain  to  have  recourse  to  a  forced  constructions, 
 
 7  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology.         B  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  Upon  Jacob's  answering  his  father,  that  he  was  Esau  his 
 first-born,  the  rabbins  are  put  to  great  perplexity,  how  to  assoil 
 the  patriarch  from  the  sin  of  lying;  and  therefore  some  of  them 
 paraphrase  the  words  thus:— "I  am,  that  is,  he,  who  brings 
 thee  something  to  eat,  but  Esau  is  thy  eldest  son ;"  while  others 
 understand  them  in  this  manner  rather: — "  I  am  Esau,  that  is, 
 I  am  in  his  stead,  because  he  has  sold  me  his  birthright;"  for 
 by  this  sale,  as  they  tell  us,  a  proper  permutation  being  made  of 
 persons  and  titles,  the  first  became  really  last,  and  the  last  first; 
 the  elder  became  the  younger,  and  the  younger  the  elder,  as  to 
 the  style,  and  all  the  privileges  of  eldership;  so  that  Jacob  was 
 in  reality  as  much  the  heir  and  successor  of  Isaac,  as  if  Esau 
 had  been  actually  dead.  And  though  Esau  was  still  alive,  and 
 had  the  name  of  Esau,  yet  Jacob  was  properly,  what  his  brother 
 
Sect.  II.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  1856;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  11  3418.  A.  C.  1993.  GKN.  in.  xxv     0-xxviii 
 
 185 
 
 or  to  plead  the  lawfulness  of  mental  reservations,  in 
 order  to  excuse  him  in  the  lying  and  dissimulation, 
 wherein  he  was  certainly  culpable.  The  best  way  is, 
 upon  this  occasion,  to  lament  the  iniirmity  of  human 
 nature,  which  cannot  always  stand  upright,  and  to  ad- 
 mire the  impartiality  of  the  sacred  writings,  in  which  the 
 very  blemishes  and  transgTessions  of  such  as  are  de- 
 signed to  make  the  top-figure  therein  are  not  forgotten 
 to  be  recorded. 
 
 1  It  cannot  be  denied  indeed,  but  that  both  Jacob  and 
 his  mother  were  justly  to  be  praised  for  having  a  due 
 esteem  of  the  paternal  benediction,  and  for  their  endea- 
 vouring to  attain  it ;  since  this  could  proceed  from  no 
 other  motive  than  a  full  persuasion  of  the  truth  of  God's 
 promises  and  covenant  with  Abraham.  For  as  the 
 paternal  blessing  was  thought  to  be  a  means  instituted 
 by  God  for  the  conveyance  of  this  covenant,  it  could 
 not  but  deserve  their  care  and  assiduity.  It  cannot  be 
 denied  farther,  but  that,  if  this  blessing  was,  as  some 
 imagine,  an  appendage  to  the  birthright,  Jacob,  in  pur- 
 chasing the  one,  had  acquired  a  lawful  title  to  the  other, 
 a  title  established  not  only  upon  the  express  designation 
 of  God,  but  by  a  deed  of  sale  likewise,  executed  and 
 ratified  by  a  most  solemn  and  sacred  oath.  It  cannot 
 be  denied  likewise,  but  that,  pursuant  to  this  divine 
 designation,  Isaac  was  obliged  to  have  conferred  his 
 blessing  upon  Jacob  ;  and  therefore  his  wife,  perceiving 
 that  he  was  going  to  promise  the  blessing  of  Abraham 
 where  his  affection  led  him  to  wish  it,  and  not  where  she 
 knew  that  God  had  designed  to  bestow  it,  laid  a  scheme 
 which  induced  her  husband  to  do  that  unwittingly  which 
 God  had  pre-ordained  was  to  be  done,  but  what  she 
 knew  her  husband  would  not  do  willingly  without  some 
 uneasiness.  Nay,  it  cannot  be  denied,  once  more,  but 
 that  a  when  her  artifice  had  succeeded,  and  Jacob  was 
 accordingly  blessed,  Isaac  was  so  far  from  being  dis- 
 pleased with  his  wife,  or  angry  with  Jacob  for  imposing 
 upon  him,  that  we  find  him  fully  satisfied  in  what  he  had 
 
 1  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  14. 
 *  Shuckibrd's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  7. 
 had  been,  his  first-born  Esau,  since  Esau  was  reduced  to  the 
 station  of  a  younger  brother  only.  St  Austin  (Ad  Consentium 
 de  Mendacio,  c.  10.)  pretends,  that  Jacob's  words  have  a  figure 
 in  tliem  much  in  the  same  nature  with  that  in  the  gospel,  where 
 John  the  Baptist  is  called  'the  Elias  that  shall  come;'  but  the 
 misfortune  is,  that  there  was  a  great  similitude  between  Elias 
 and  the  Baptist,  as  to  their  spirit  and  office ;  but  between  Jacob 
 and  Esau  there  was  none  at  all ;  and  therefore  some  other  fathers, 
 seeing  the  impossibility  of  explaining  the  words  by  any  of  these 
 subterfuges,  have  boldly  asserted  that  there  was  no  iniquity  in 
 the  lies  which  Jacob  told,  because  they  did  not  proceed  from  any 
 malevolent  intent,  but  from  a  design  of  promoting  the  greatest 
 good ;  for  which  end  it  was  as  lawful  for  a  wise  man  to  employ 
 Officious  lies,  as  it  is  to  make  use  of  physic  for  the  preservation 
 pf  health.  And  from  such  dangerous  positions  as  these  the  Jesui- 
 tical doctrine  of  equivocation  and  mental  reservation  has,  in  a 
 great  measure,  proceeded.  "  What  shall  we  do  with  men  of  a 
 description  so  base,"  says  our  author,  "that  they  are  not  afraid 
 to  give  full  scope  to  all  sort  of  lying  and  deceit  ?  there  will  be 
 an  end  to  all  fidelity  in  contracts  and  treaties,  even  to  the  bonds 
 of  all  human  society.  And  if  the  holy  patriarch  should  awake 
 from  his  rest,  he  would  undoubtedly  resist,  and  strongly  con- 
 demn, the  impiety  of  these  most  audacious  men, — so  far  is  he 
 from  making  himself  an  accomplice  in  their  blasphemous  foolish- 
 ness. Though  Jacob  stumbled,  it  was  through  human  weakness ; 
 and  he  never  in  the  least  employed  that  artful,  affected,  ami 
 Jesuitical  kind  of  lying." — Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2, 
 Essay  14. 
 
 done  ;  I  have  blessed  him,'  says  he,  <  yea,  and  he  shall 
 be  blessed.  Which  sudden  change  of  mind  can  be 
 imputed  to  nothing  else  but  some  divine  inspiration, 
 which  at  that  time  opened  his  understanding,  and  con- 
 vinced  him  that  he  had  given  the  blessing  to  the  ri^ht 
 person. 
 
 Thus,  from  the  consideration  of  Jacob's  right  and 
 Isaac's  duty,  the  goodness  of  the  end,  the  pre-ordina- 
 tion  of  God,  and  his  approbation  of  the  thing  when 
 done,  may  be  drawn  some  arguments  to  alleviate  their 
 crime ;  but  still  we  must  ingenuously  own  4  that 
 Rebecca  was  guilty  of  a  fault,  in  suggesting  such  dan- 
 gerous advice  to  her  son  ;  that  Jacob  committed  another, 
 in  suffering  himself  to  be  seduced  by  so  bad  a  guide; 
 and  that  both  of  them  presumed  to  limit  the  power  of 
 God,  by  thinking  that  a  complication  of  frauds  was 
 necessary  for  the  accomplishment  of  a  divine  prophecy. 
 5  Had  Rebecca,  indeed,  put  her  husband  in  remembrance 
 of  this  prophecy,  and  shown  how  Esau  had  forfeited  the 
 blessing  by  selling  his  birthright,  and  by  marrying 
 strange  wives,  this  had  been  a  much  more  honourable 
 proceeding;  but  therefore  she  was  left  to  pursue  her 
 own  indiscreet  method,  that  God  might  have  the  honour 
 of  serving  his  own  purposes  by  the  follies  of  men. 
 
 But  how  culpable  soever  Rebecca  may  be  thought,  in 
 this  instance,  yet  there  is  not  the  like  imputation  upon 
 her  in  hiding  from  her  husband  the  true  reason  of  her 
 sending  away  Jacob.  B  It  is  certainly  a  point  of  great 
 prudence  to  conceal  truth,  when  the  discovery  of  it  will 
 occasion  more  harm  than  good;  and  therefore,  that  she 
 might  not  afflict  her  husband's  old  age  with  the  unwel- 
 come news  of  his  son  Esau's  wicked  intent  against  his 
 brother,  and  thereby  provoke  his  indignation  against 
 him,  she  covered  the  dismission  of  Jacob  with  a  reason 
 that  was  true  indeed,  but  not  that  chief  and  latent  one 
 which  gave  her  the  most  uneasiness ;  and  which,  if 
 communicated  to  her  husband,  might  have  been  a  moans 
 of  '  bringing  his  grey  hairs  with  sorrow  to  the  grave.' 
 So  that,  in  the  whole,  and  according  to  the  proverbs  of 
 the  wise  man,  she  acted  the  part  both  of  a  careful  ami  a 
 prudent  woman ;  for  7  '  the  tongue  of  the  wise  used) 
 knowledge  aright ;'  and  she  e *  that  is  of  a  faithful  spirit 
 concealeth  the  matter.' 
 
 When  Abraham  sent  his  servant  into  Mesopotamia  to 
 negotiate  a  marriage  for  his  son  Isaac,  he  had  an  equi- 
 page appointed  him  suitable  to  the  dignity  of  his  master, 
 that  God  might  be  more  honoured  by  so  line  an  appear- 
 ance, and  his  veracity  publicly  justified  in  the  advance- 
 ment of  that  Abraham  who  had  quitted  all  to  follow  him  : 
 but  we  shall  soon  perceive,  that  there  was  not  the  like- 
 reason  for  Isaac's  sending  away  his  son  Jacob  with 
 such  an  honourable  retinue,  if  we  do  but  consider,  "that 
 the  family  of  Nahor  was  already  sufficient!]  apprized  of 
 the  divine  blessing  which  had  attended  Abraham  and  his 
 
 family;  that  as  Rebecca  was  sister  to  Laban,  the  bead 
 
 of  the  family,  there  was  no  need  of  any  farther  recom- 
 mendation than  that  of  a  letter  to  her  brother;  lli.it  in 
 this  affair  it  was  prud c    to  make  Jacob  appear  n- 
 
 3  Gen.  xwii.  33.  '  Saurin's  Dissert 
 
 5  Millar's  History  of  tin'  Church,  e,  I.  period  .'-. 
 '•  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  roL  2.  Essaj  14, 
 
 7  l'rov.  xv.  2.  8  PrOT.  xi.  IS, 
 
 8  Bibliothcca  Biblica,  in  Gen.  xxviii.  j. 
 
 2  A 
 
186 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  185G;  OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALE 
 
 little  as  might  be,  in  order  to  give  the  less  umbrage  to 
 his  brother,  and  if  possible  to  appease  his  resentment ; 
 that  it  was  highly  expedient  for  Jacob  to  tread  in  the 
 steps  of  his  grandfather  Abraham,  whose  heir  he  was 
 now  become,  and  should  therefore  depart  from  his 
 father's  house,  and  cast  himself  entirely  upon  the  provi- 
 dence of  God  for  his  subsistence,  even  as  he  had  done ; 
 and  that  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  give  a  demonstra- 
 tion that  it  was  not  merely,  as  some  suppose,  an  earthly 
 inheritance  which  he  had  purchased,  or  a  secidar  bles- 
 sing which  he  had  acquired,  but  that  there  was  some- 
 thing far  greater,  though  not  discernible  by  every  com- 
 mon eye,  which  he  had  in  view  in  this  acquisition:  for 
 
 1  his  confessing  in  this  manner,  '  that  he  was  a  stranger 
 and  pilgrim  on  earth,'  notwithstanding  the  right  of  pri- 
 mogeniture in  him,  declared  plainly  that,  as  heir  of  the 
 promise  with  Abraham  and  Isaac,  he  was  seeking  a 
 better  country  than  either  that  from  which  he  departed, 
 or  that  whereunto  he  was  sent,  that  is,  an  heavenly. 
 
 From  these,  and  such  like  considerations,  and  not 
 from  any  family  poverty,  it  was,  that  Jacob  was  sent 
 into  Mesopotamia  all  alone,  and  without  any  attend- 
 ance. And,  in  like  manner,  when  Esau,  upon  his  return 
 from  hunting,  complains  of  his  extreme  hunger,  we  can 
 scarcely  suppose  that  he  found  nothing  at  home  to  eat, 
 except  the  pottage  which  his  brother  had  made.  Fru- 
 gality, indeed,  was  a  virtue  of  much  more  esteem  among 
 the  ancients  than  it  is  among  us ;  but  it  is  hard  to  ima- 
 gine how  Isaac,  who  was  a  man  confessedly  of  a  plen- 
 tiful estate,  and  had  doubtless  a  large  family  to  main- 
 tain, should  keep  a  house  utterly  destitute  of  all  manner 
 of  eatables.  Provision  there  was,  no  doubt,  enough ; 
 but  Esau's  fancy  ran  upon  something  else.  He  longed, 
 greedily  longed,  for  the  soup,  and  the  soup  he  would 
 have,  whatever  it  cost.  Its  flavour  and  colour  had 
 enticed  him,  and  every  thing  he  resolved  to  part  with, 
 rather  than  not  gratify  the  present  cravings  of  an  intem- 
 perate appetite.     And   accordingly   we   may   observe, 
 
 2  that  his  reasoning  upon  this  occasion  was  not,  that  he 
 was  ready  to  die  for  famine,  and  therefore  would  part 
 with  his  birthright;  but  that,  according  to  his  course  of 
 life,  and  the  perils  which  he  every  day  ran  in  hunting, 
 in  all  probability  he  would  not  survive  his  father,  and 
 his  birthright  of  consequence  would  avail  him  nothing  ; 
 and  therefore,  having  but  a  slender  opinion  of  what  was 
 to  come  hereafter,  he  made  his  conclusion  much  in  the 
 same  form  with  the  epicurean  in  the  prophet,  3  '  Let  us 
 eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.' 
 
 Whoever  considers  the  chronology  of  that  transaction, 
 will  find  that 4  Isaac  lived  about  forty  years  after  his 
 parting  with  his  prophetical  blessing  ;  and  consequently, 
 s  that  it  was  not  old  age,  but  some  sickness  and  indis- 
 position of  body,  that  at  this  time  had  seized  him,  and 
 made  him  apprehensive  of  his  approaching  death.  In 
 this  condition  it  is  no  uncommon  thing,  we  know,  for 
 men's  thoughts  to  run  upon  one  kind  of  meat  rather  than 
 another,  and  when  the  stomach  is  depraved,  or  anywise 
 out  of  order,  generally  to  long  for  such  things  as  are  of 
 a  savoury  taste  :  and  if  venison  in  those  countries  was 
 more  particularly  adapted  to  that  purpose,  wherein,  I 
 
 1  Heb.  xi.  9,  10. 
 
 8  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  12.      s  Isa.  xxii.  13. 
 
 4  Gen.  xxxv.  28,  29.  5  Le  Clerc's  Annotations. 
 
 S,  A.  M.  3418.  A.  C.  1903.  GKN.  CH.  xxv.  20— xxviii.  8. 
 pray,  is  Isaac  to  be  blamed,  for  loving  a  son  who  took 
 such  pains,  and  exposed  himself  to  such  dangers,  that  he 
 might  show  his  respect  to  his  aged  father,  and  procure 
 him  now  and  then  some  little  thing  to  please  his  palate, 
 and  humour  his  sickly  appetite  ?  Those  who  think 
 proper  to  blame  the  patriarch's  kind  resentment  of  such 
 assiduity,  seem  to  have  forgot  the  workings  of  human 
 nature,  and  how  apt  the  very  wisest  of  parents  are  to 
 have  their  affections  won  every  day  more  and  more,  by 
 the  sedulity  and  ofticiousness  of  their  children. 
 
 The  dressing  of  this  venison  is  represented  indeed  as  a 
 province  which  Esau  himself  took  upon  him  ;  and  to  have 
 the  eldest  son  and  heir  of  a  family  stand  cook,  as  we 
 call  it,  seems  to  portend  no  great  wealth  or  magnificence 
 in  it ;  but  when  we  urge  this,  we  forget  the  simplicity  of 
 the  times  wherein  Moses  wrote,  and  wherein  it  was  cus- 
 tomary for  men  of  the  first  rank  to  submit  to  offices  much 
 meaner  than  this.  Herein  then  do  the  truth  and  autho- 
 rity of  the  sacred  history  most  eminently  appear,  that 
 all  its  accounts  and  descriptions  of  things  agree  with 
 the  sense  of  the  most  ancient  writers,  and  are  found 
 conformable  to  the  manners  and  customs  that  then  pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 And  in  like  manner,  we  may  say,  that 6  it  is  our  igno- 
 rance of  the  patriarchal  manner  of  living  which  makes 
 us  think  it  unaccountable  to  hear,  in  those  early  days,  of 
 so  many  contests  about  wells.  For  were  we  to  take  a 
 nearer  inspection  into  the  thing,  we  should  soon  find,  that 
 in  those  hot  countries,  where  water  was  so  very  scarce, 
 a  well  or  fountain  of  living  water  was  a  possession  of 
 inestimable  value ;  and  for  this  reason  we  find  Moses, 
 in  magnifying  the  divine  bounty  to  the  children  of  Israel, 
 among  other  parts  of  the  inventory,  reckoning  up,  not 
 only  7  '  great  and  goodly  cities  which  they  built  not,  but 
 wells  likewise  digged  which  they  digged  not.' 
 
 8  Nor  was  it  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  water  that  these 
 wells  were  held  in  so  high  esteem,  but  for  the  memory  of 
 the  events  and  transactions  likewise  which  were  known 
 to  have  happened  near  them.  For  at  these  wells  angels 
 had  appeared,  miracles  had  been  wrought,  religious 
 assemblies  held,  treaties  transacted,  marriages  celebrat- 
 ed, and  towns  and  cities  built ;  and  therefore  no  wonder 
 that  the  ancients,  looking  upon  them  as  sacred,  as  well 
 as  profitable  places,  should  be  so  ready  to  contest  their 
 right  to  them,  or  that  frequent  notice  should  be  taken  of 
 them  in  so  compendious  an  history  as  that  of  the  patri- 
 archs. 
 
 The  truth  is,  these,  and  perhaps  some  other  occur- 
 rences in  the  life  of  this  patriarch,  though  to  us  they 
 may  seem  strange  and  incongruous,  do  not  argue  any 
 want  or  poverty,  but  are  exactly  agreeable  to  that  tem- 
 perance and  simplicity  of  living,  which,  in  his  days,  were 
 in  vogue.  He  was  in  a  manner  sole  heir  of  his  father 
 Abraham,  (who  was  a  a  king  in  the  opinion  of  some,  but 
 in  all  accounts  a  person  of  great  affluence  of  fortune,) 
 and  who  himself  had  made  additions  to  it,  enough  to  be 
 
 6  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  Occasional  Annotations. 
 
 7  Deut.  vi.  11.  8  Shuckibrd's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  7. 
 
 a  The  words  of  Nicholaus  Damascenus,  (as  they  are  quoted 
 by  Josephus)  are  these, — '  Abraham  reigned  in  Damascus,  being 
 a  stranger,  who  came  out  of  the  land  of  Chaldea,  beyond  Baby- 
 lon. His  name  is  at  this  day  famous  about  the  country  ol 
 Damascus,  and  they  show  us  the  town,  which  from  him  is  called 
 Abraham's  dwelling." — Grotius  de  Pent.  b.  1.  sect.  16. 
 
S*ct.  1I.J  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  18G5;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3118.  A.  C.  1993.  GEN.  CH.  U,2I.  j 
 
 187 
 
 envied  even  by  neighbouring  princes,  could  not  possibly 
 want  any  necessary  accommodation  of  life,  nor  would 
 he  concern  himself  with  things  of  a  trilling  consideration. 
 But  what  we  call  trifles,  might,  in  those  times,  be  matter 
 of  the  last  importance  ;  and  what  we  account  indications 
 of  poverty,  might  proceed  from  no  other  cause  but  that 
 of  frugality  and  parsimony, a  which,  in  the  primitive  ages, 
 were  in  high  repute,  before  they  came  to  be  discoun- 
 tenanced by  the  present  schemes  of  expense  and  studied 
 luxury.  And  therefore,  when  we  find,  '  in  ancient  his- 
 tory, the  Arcadians  feeding  upon  acorns  ;  the  Argives 
 upon  apples ;  the  Athenians  upon  ligs,  &c;  when  we 
 lind  b  a  set  of  the  most  renowned  heroes  in  the  Grecian 
 army,  even  in  the  great  Achilles'  tent,  dining  upon  a 
 loin  of  mutton,  and  an  hock  of  bacon  ;  and  the  godlike 
 man  Patroclus  lighting  the  lire,  while  the  master  of  the 
 feast  was  spitting  the  meat ;  our  wonder  may  cease,  if, 
 in  ages  before  this,  we  meet  with  such  an  homely  dish  as 
 lentil  pottage  in  a  patriarch's  house,  and  the  two  sons 
 of  the  family  condescending  to  cook  their  own  victuals. 
 This  we  must  own  is  not  the  practice  among  us  ;  but  it 
 is  a  much  more  consistent  and  credible  account  of  things 
 than  if  Moses  had  represented  Isaac's  tent  like  a  royal 
 palace,  and  every  thing  served  up  there  iii  the  same 
 splendid  manner  as  when  the  king  ind  his  family  dine 
 in  public 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  Isaac's  Blessing  to  Jacob. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 From  the  time  that  God  made  the  covenant  with  Abra- 
 ham, and  promised  blessings  extraordinary  to  his  seed, 
 it  was  customary  for  the  father  of  each  family,  some  time 
 before  he  died,  to  call  together  his  children,  and  to 
 inform  them,  according  to  the  knowledge  which  it  pleased 
 God  then  to  give  him,  how,  and  in  what  manner  the 
 blessing  of  Abraham  was  to  descend  among  them. 
 Whence  this  custom  had  its  original,  whether  from  the 
 immediate  appointment  of  God,  or  from  some  secret 
 impulse,  wherewith  the  patriarchs,  upon  the  approach  of 
 their  departure,  found  themselves  affected,  the  silence 
 of  Scripture  will  not  suffer  us  to  determine ;  but  this  Ave 
 may  safely  infer,  2  that  this  benediction  was  different 
 from  those  private  blessings  which  the  patriarchs  gave 
 their  children  upon  sundry  occasions,  and  different 
 likewise  from  those  public  blessings  which  the  priests, 
 and  others  in  authority,  were  wont  to  distribute  among 
 
 1  iElian  de  Varia  Historia,  b.  3. 
 8  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  7. 
 
 a  The  manner  of  living  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world  set  ins 
 to  be  very  well  expressed  by  the  Roman  satirist.  "  When  Saturn 
 was  king,  I  believe  that  chastity  dwelt  on  earth,  and  was  seen  for 
 a  long  time;  when  the  cold  grotto  gave  to  men  a  home,  a  hearth 
 and  place  for  their  household  god;  when  one  common  shade 
 enclosed  both  the  cattle  and  their  owners,  and  when  the  unso- 
 phisticated wife  strewed  for  her  husband,  a  woodland  conch  of 
 leaves  and  straw  and  skins  of  wild  beasts." — Juvenal,  Sat.  6. 
 
 h  When  the  Grecians  sent  an  embassy  to  Achilles,  desiring 
 him  to  be  reconciled  to  Agamemnon,  and  to  return  to  the  camp, 
 the  deputies  appointed  for  this  purpose  were  l'liunix,  Ajax,  and 
 Ulysses:  and  the  simple  entertainment  which  Achilles  upon  this 
 occasion  gave  them,  is  by  Homer  beautifully  described. 
 
 the  people.  It  proceeded  from  u,  extraordinary  illu- 
 mination, and  had  the  prospect  of  futurity  (so  far  M  WM 
 necessary  for  its  purpose)  submitted  to'  its  inspection. 
 The  persons  upon  whom  it  came  had  for  that  time  the 
 spirit  of  divination,  and  what  they  uttered  under  its  influ- 
 ence was  deemed  a  prophetic  oracle,  den. .tin-  infallible 
 events,  and  extending  to  the  utmost  period  of  time. 
 
 The  Jews  indeed  have  a  proverbial  saying,  that  tho 
 spirit  of  prophecy  does  not  fall  upon  the  melancholic; 
 and  thence  they  suppose,  that  as  good  eating  and  drink- 
 ing are  known  to  exhilarate  the  spirits,  the  patriarch,  by 
 sending  his  son  to  take  venison,  was  minded  to  make  use 
 of  that  expedient,  that  he  might  be  the  better  disposed 
 to  receive  the  divine  inspiration,  and  to  pronounce  the 
 prophetical  benediction  with  cheerfulness,  ami  with  | 
 warmth  and  emotion  sufficient  to  excite  that  attention 
 which  the  prophecy  he  was  about  to  deliver  did  require. 
 
 3  But  as  no  one  in  his  senses  can  imagine,  that  a  person 
 when  perfectly  sober,  is  not  as  capable  of  the  spirit  of 
 prophecy  as  he  that  has  plentifully  dined  ;  others,  from 
 the  phrase,  '  that  I  may  bless  thee  before  the  Lord,' 
 suppose  4  that  Isaac's  eating,  in  order  to  receive  the 
 spirit  of  benediction,  was  by  him  designed  to  be  sacra- 
 mental, and  accompanied  with  some  religious  rites  and 
 solemn  invocations,  though  they  happen  not  to  be  here 
 mentioned.  But  this  supposition  being  as  precarious  as 
 the  other,  the  safest  way  is  to  resolve  the  whole  matter 
 into  the  providence  of  God,  5  who  put  Isaac  into  the 
 head  of  sending  out  Esau  for  venison,  neither  to  refresh 
 his  spirits  by  eating,  nor  to  perform  any  religious  act, 
 but  merely,  by  his  absence,  to  give  Jacob  an  advanta- 
 geous opportunity  of  appropriating  the  blessing  to  him- 
 self. 
 
 Isaac,  indeed,  meant  not  this,  neither  was  it  in  his 
 heart  to  bless  Jacob  ;  and  therefore,  if  we  suppose  that 
 Rebecca  had  acquainted  Iiini  with  the  prophecy  which 
 directed  him  to  transfer  the  blessing  upon  Jacob,  we 
 must  suppose  withal, 6  that  he  had  now  forgot  it,  or  never 
 rightly  understood  it,  or  apprehended  that  it  was  to  be 
 accomplished,  not  in  the  persons  of  Esau  and  Jacob,  but 
 in  their  posterity, 7  for  it  is  much  better  to  charge  the 
 patriarch  with  want  of  attention  or  understanding,  than 
 with  disobedience  and  prevarication. 
 
 However  this  be,  the  blessing  which  he  pronounces 
 over  Jacob  by  mistake,  is  conceived  in  these  words  : — 
 '  God  give  thee  of  the  dew  of  heaven,'  (because,  in  hot 
 countries,  where  showers  were  less  frequent,  the  morn- 
 ing and  evening  dews  were  a  great  refreshment  to  the 
 earth,  and  productive  of  much  plenty,)  '  and  the  fatne.-s 
 of  the  earth,'  (because  Canaan,  the  lot  <>f  his  inheritance, 
 was  a  fruitful,  and  therefore  s  by  the  prophet  called  'a 
 fat  land,')  '  and  plenty  of  com  and  wine,'  (abundance 
 of  every  product  of  the  earth.)  '  Let  people  serve  thee,' 
 (that  is,  the  Idumeans,  who  shall  descend  from  thy  bro- 
 ther Esau,  as  they  did  in  the  days  of  David.)  '  and 
 nations  bow  down  unto  thee,'  (the  kingdoms  of  Arabia 
 and  Syria,  who  are  sprung  from  llagar  and  Keturah:) 
 '  be  lord  over  thy  brethren,  and  let  thy  mother's  ton  bow 
 
 down  unto  thee,'  (have  thou  the  dominion  and  preroga- 
 tive in  thine  own  family.)     '  Cursed  be  every  one  that 
 
 3  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 ■  Poole's  Annotations, 
 '  Saurin's  Dissertations. 
 
 i  B     lotheca  Biblict. 
 •  [bid. 
 
 '  Neh.  ix.  25. 
 
188 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2148.  A.  C.  1856;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3418.  A.  C.  1993.  GEN.  CH.  xxv.  20-xxviii.  8. 
 
 cursetli  thee,  and  blessed  be  every  one  that  blesseth  beloved  wife,  and  the  supposed  untimely  death  of  his 
 thee  ;'  for  God  shall  so  far  interest  himself  in  thy  cause, 
 as  to  esteem  those  his  friends  or  foes,  who  shall  behave 
 themselves  as  such  to  thee.  So  that  the  blessing  con- 
 sists properly  of  three  branches  :  in  the  first  is  contained 
 worldly  plenty  and  prosperity  ;  in  the  second,  domi- 
 nion and  empire  ;  and  in  the  third,  family  pre-eminence, 
 as  well  as  the  divine  protection :  but  then  the  question 
 is,  in  what  sense  is  all  this  to  be  understood,  and  to 
 what  branch  may  the  peculiar  blessing  of  Abraham,  which 
 is  doubtless  comprised  herein,  be  supposed  to  belong? 
 
 If  we  look  back  l  to  the  call  of  Abraham,  and  the 
 promises  which  attended  it,  there  we  shall  find,  s  that 
 after  enumerating  the  temporal  blessings  which  were  to 
 descend  from  Abraham  to  his  posterity,  one  blessing  is 
 added,  in  which  all  the  world  has  an  interest,  and  which 
 was  conveyed  to  them  through  Abraham  and  his  seed. 
 '  In  thee,'  says  God,  '  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth 
 be  blessed.' 
 
 If  we  proceed  to  the  blessing  which  he  was  pleased  to 
 give  to  his  son  Isaac,  we  shall  find  a  recital  of  the  same 
 kinds  of  temporal  prosperity  ;  a  numerous  progeny  pro- 
 mised ;  the  grant  of  the  land  of  Canaan  renewed  ;  the 
 oath  given  unto  Abraham  confirmed ;  and  then  follows 
 the  great  and  distinguishing  promise, 3 '  in  thy  seed  shall 
 all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed.'  And  in  like 
 manner  we  cannot  but  imagine,  that  in  this  great  and 
 solemn  blessing  which  Isaac  is  giving  his  son  Jacob, 
 there  must  be  something  of  a  spiritual  nature  comprised, 
 though  couched  under  terms  which  seem  to  denote 
 norldly  felicity  only. 
 
 The  author  of  the  Hebrews  tells  us,  that  *  '  by  faith 
 Isaac  blessed  Jacob  and  Esau  concerning  things  to 
 come  ;'  and  what  we  are  to  understand  '  by  faith,'  he 
 instructs  us  in  the  conclusion  of  his  discourse  ;  '  and 
 these  all'  (meaning  the  patriarchs  he  had  mentioned 
 before)  '  having  obtained  a  good  report  through  faith, 
 received  not  the  promise,  God  having  provided  some 
 better  things  for  us,  that  they,  without  us,  should  not  be 
 made  perfect.'  So  that  this  faith  did  chiefly  relate  to 
 the  blessed  seed  which  was  promised  in  the  beginning, 
 and  from  continued  tradition  and  divine  revelation,  in 
 every  succeeding  age,  embraced  by  the  faithful ;  and 
 therefore  we  can  hardly  suppose,  but  that,  in  this  great 
 prophetical  benediction,  there  must  be  something  con- 
 cerning this  seed  implied  at  least,  if  not  expressed. 
 
 Whoever  takes  but  a  cursory  view  of  some  of  the  chief 
 passages  of  Jacob's  life,  will  soon  perceive  that  had  his 
 father's  blessing  consisted  of  worldly  advantages  only, 
 it  was  in  a  manner  quite  lost  upon  him,  since  few  men 
 enjoyed  a  less  share  of  that  than  lie,  who  was  forced 
 from  his  home,  into  a  far  country,  for  fear  of  his  brother ; 
 deceived  and  oppressed  by  his  uncle  ;  and  5  after  a  servi- 
 tude of  above  twenty  years,  compelled  to  flee  from  him ; 
 while,  at  the  same  time,  he  was  in  imminent  danger, 
 either  of  being  pursued  and  brought  back  by  Laban,  or 
 fallen  upon,  and  murdered  by  Esau.  These  fears  were 
 no  sooner  over,  but  the  baseness  of  his  eldest  son,  in 
 defiling  his  couch  ;  the  treachery  and  cruelty  of  the  two 
 next  in  relation  to  the    Shechemites  ;    the  loss  of  his 
 
 Gen.  xii.     *  Bishop  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy. 
 
 3  Gen.  xxvi.  4.  *  Heb.  xi.  20. 
 
 5  Universal  History,  b.  I.e.  7. 
 
 son  Joseph  ;  to  say  nothing  of  his  being  compelled  by 
 famine  to  go  down  into  Egypt,  and  there  die  :  these,  and 
 many  more  instances,  are  proofs  sufficient,  that  his 
 father's  blessing  was  of  a  different  nature.  For  suppos- 
 ing it  to  relate  to  temporal  prosperity  and  dominion  only, 
 wherein  can  we  say  that  Jacob  had  the  pre-eminence 
 above  his  brother  ?6  If  Jacob  was  '  blessed  with  the  dew 
 of  heaven,  and  the  fatness  of  the  earth,'  Esau's  blessing 
 (at  least  according  to  our  translation)  in  this  respect,  is 
 not  inferior  :  '  Thy  dwelling,'  says  his  father,  '  shall  be 
 the  fatness  of  the  earth,  and  of  the  dew  of  heaven  from 
 above.'  If  '  nations  were  to  bow  down  to  Jacob,'  Esau 
 likewise  '  was  to  live  and  prevail  by  his  sword.'  If 
 Jacob's  brethren  were  to  '  bow  down  to  him ;'  yet  the 
 time  would  come,  when  '  Esau  should  have  dominion, 
 and  break  even  this  yoke  from  oft'  his  neck.'  Thus,  if 
 we  interpret  the  whole  blessing  of  temporal  prosperity 
 only,  the  two  brothers  seem  to  stand  upon  an  equality  , 
 and  yet  it  is  evident,  from  the  whole  story,  that  the  chief 
 blessing  which  their  father  had  to  bestow,  was  fallen 
 upon  Jacob ;  and  therefore  he  tells  Esau,  when  he 
 pressed  him  for  a  blessing  upon  himself  likewise,'  Behold  I 
 have  made  him  thy  lord,  and  all  his  brethren  have  I  given 
 unto  him  for  servants,  and  with  corn  and  wine  have  I  sus- 
 tained him,  and  what  shall  1  do  now  unto  thee,  my  son  ?' 
 And  when  Esau  still  urges  his  father,  and  his  father  there- 
 upon blesses  him,  we  may  observe,  that  of  corn  and  wine, 
 and  temporal  power,  he  gives  him  a  full  and  an  equal  share ; 
 but  then  there  is  this  limitation  in  the  blessing,  '  Thou 
 shalt  serve  thy  brother  :'  so  that  whatever  was  peculiarly 
 given  to  Jacob,  was  contained  in  the  grant  of  '  being- 
 lord  over  his  brethren  ;'  and  yet  the  history  of  the  two 
 brothers  will  not  allow  us  to  expound  it  of  any  temporal 
 dominion  ;  for  if  Ave  should,  see  how  the  case  will  stand. 
 
 7  '  Jacob  is  to  rule  over  Esau ;'  and  yet  no  sooner  is  the 
 blessing  given,  but  he  flies  his  country  for  fear  of  Esau  ; 
 he  lives  abroad  for  many  years  ;  and  when  he  returns, 
 the  fear  and  dread  of  his  brother  returns  with  him  ;  so 
 that  his  only  refuge,  in  this  his  distress,  was  to  God  ; 
 
 8  '  Deliver  me,  I  pray  thee,  from  the  hand  of  my  brother, 
 from  the  hand  of  Esau.'  When  he  sends  a  message  to 
 him,  he  styles  himself, 9  '  Thy  servant  Jacob  :'  when  he 
 meets  him, 10 '  he  bows  himself  to  the  ground  seven  times, 
 until  he  comes  near  to  Esau ;'  when  he  speaks  to  him, 
 he  calls  him  '  lord  ;'  and  when  he  is  kindly  received  by 
 him,  he  says,  u  '  I  have  seen  thy  face,  as  though  I  had 
 seen  the  face  of  God,  and  thou  wert  pleased  with  me.' 
 What  is  there  in  all  this  that  shows  any  rule  and  domi- 
 nion given  to  Jacob  over  his  brother  Esau  ? 
 
 And,  in  like  manner,  if  we  imagine  the  prophecy 
 relates  to  temporal  dominion  only,  and  yet  was  fulfilled 
 in  the  posterity  of  these  two  brothers,  the  question  will 
 be,  how  the  case,  upon  this  supposition,  stands  ?  n  The 
 family  of  Esau  was  settled  in  power  and  dominion  many 
 years  before  Jacob's  family  had  any  certain  dwelling- 
 place.  The  dukes  and  kings  of.  Esau's  house  are 
 reckoned  up  ;  and  the  historian  tells  us,  that  13 '  these  are 
 
 6  Bishop  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy,  Discourse  5. 
 
 7  Ibid.  8  Gen.  xxxii.  11.  »  Gen.  xxxii.  20. 
 
 10  Gen.  xxxiii.  3.  ,i  Gen.  xxxiii.  10. 
 
 12  Bishop  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy,  Discourse  5. 
 13  Gen.  xxxvi.  31. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.   A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALE 
 
 the  kings  who  reigned  in  the  land  of  Edom,  before  there 
 reigned  any  king  over  the  children  of  Israel.'  When 
 the  appointed  time  was  come  for  establishing  the  house 
 of  Israel,  and  giving  them  the  land  and  possessions  of 
 their  enemies,  the  family  of  Esau  were,  by  a  particular 
 decree,  exempted  from  the  dominion  of  Israel ;  for  so 
 the  Lord  commanded  Moses,  *  '  Ye  are  to  pass  through 
 the  coast  of  your  brethren,  the  children  of  Esau.  Take 
 ye  good  heed  unto  yourselves  therefore  ;  meddle  not  with 
 them  ;  for  I  will  not  give  you  of  their  land  ;  no,  not  so 
 much  as  a  foot-breadth.'  In  the  time  of  David,  indeed, 
 2  '  they  of  Edom  became  his  servants :'  but  in  the 
 days  of  Jehoram  they  recovered  again,  3  and  made  a 
 king  over  themselves  ;'  and  in  the  time  of  Ahaz  they 
 revenged  the  affront,  4  '  by  smiting  Judah,  and  leading 
 them  away  captives.'  So  that  this  variety  of  fortune, 
 between  the  children  of  Jacob  and  Esau,  could  never  be 
 the  thing  intended  or  meant  to  be  described,  when  the 
 promise  was  given  to  Jacob,  '  that  his  mother's  children 
 should  bow  down  unto  him.' 
 
 What  then  is  the  hidden  purpose  of  the  words,  and  in 
 what  sense  are  they  to  be  taken  ?  Why  it  seems  pretty 
 evident,  that  the  blessing  given  to  Jacob,  and  expressed 
 in  words  implying  a  rule  over  his  brethren,  was  a  con- 
 veyance of  his  birthright  to  him,  in  the  family  of  Abra- 
 ham ;  that  the  birthright  in  Abraham's  family,  besides 
 the  promise  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  respected  the  special 
 blessing  given  to  Abraham  by  God,  and  that  this  special 
 blessing  denoted  no  other  than  that  person  in  whom  all 
 families  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed,  and  that  is 
 Christ.  For  5  that  the  regard  of  all  nations  to  the  seed, 
 in  which  they  were  all  to  be  blessed,  should  be  expressed 
 by  their  '  bowing  down  to  him,'  is  no  hard  figure  of 
 speech ;  and  that  the  superiority  of  Jacob's  family  should 
 one  day  be  broken  (as  the  promise  to  Esau  sets  forth)  when 
 Jews  and  Gentiles  should  equally  become  the  people  of 
 (Jod,  and  all  nations  be  equally  blessed,  is  no  more  than 
 what  the  original  covenant  contains.  Upon  the  whole, 
 then,  we  may  observe,  that  this  prediction  had  its  full 
 accomplishment,  neither  in  the  person  of  Jacob,  nor  in 
 his  posterity  in  general,  but  only  in  one,  who,  as  to  his 
 human  nature,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  descended  from 
 him,  and  6  '  who  being  in  the  form  of  God,'  as  the  apostle 
 acquaints  us  with  both  his  natures,  '  and  thinking  it  no 
 robbery  to  be  equal  with  God,  made  himself  of  no  repu- 
 tation, and  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was 
 made  in  the  likeness  of  men,  and  being  found  in  fashion 
 as  a  man,  humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient  unto 
 death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross.  Wherefore  God  also 
 hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name,  which  is 
 above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  ever  knee 
 should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  the  earth, 
 and  things  under  the  earth,  and  that  every  tongue  shall 
 confess,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God 
 the  Father.' 
 
 Since  this  part  of  the  blessing,  then,  which  Isaac  be- 
 stowed upon  Jacob,  was  of  such  high  import,  as  to  refer 
 ultimately  to  the  person  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  and  his 
 exaltation  into  glory  ;  this  may  suggest  a  reason  to  us, 
 
 1  Dcut.  ii.  4,  5.  '2  Sam.  xviii.  1  1. 
 
 *  2  Kintjs  viii.  20.  4  2  Chron.  xxviii    17. 
 
 Bishop  Sherlock's   lTso  and  Intent  of  Prophecy,  Dis.  5. 
 b  Phil.  ii.  f>.  &c. 
 
 ISO 
 
 iS,  A.  M.  3195.   A.  C.  19ia  SEN.  CH.  xxvlii.  10  -xxxvil. 
 
 why,  though  it  was  certainly  obtained  by  glide,  it  mu 
 not  afterwards  revoked,  but  ratified  rath.:-  and  confirmed, 
 even  when  his  father  came  to  understand  the  imposture. 
 For  if7 'prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will 
 of  man,  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved 
 by  the  Holy  Ghost,'  8  then  is  Isaac,  in  this  action 
 to  be  considered  only  as  the  instrumental,  and  God 
 as  the  principal  cause  ;  the  efficacy  of  the  l>l 
 therefore  must  be  supposed  to  depend,  not  on  his  will 
 and  intention,  but  on  God's  ordination  and  appointment  : 
 and  consequently  Isaac  could  have  no  right  or  authority 
 to  disannul  the  blessing,  had  he  been  minded  bo  to  do. 
 9  But  it  is  much  more  likely,  that  the  remembrance  of 
 the  prophecy  concerning  the  two  children,  which  Rebecca 
 had  vouchsafed  her,  before  they  were  born,  might  at  this 
 time  come  to  strike  him  ;  and  seeing  he  had  in  his  bless- 
 ing, though  not  designedly,  confirmed  the  same,  he 
 might  very  well  impute  it  to  an  overruling  providence, 
 and  so  be  concluded  by  the  divine  determination  ;  in 
 which  sense  that  passage  relating  to  Esau,  in  the  Epistle 
 to  the  Hebrews,  is  most  proper  to  be  applied  :  w  '  \\  e 
 know,  how  that  afterwards,  when  he  would  have  inherited 
 a  blessing,  he  was  rejected:  for  he  found  no  place  of 
 repentance,  though  he  sought  it  carefully  ivith  tears.' 
 But  how  was  '  Esau  rejected  from  inheriting  a  blessing,1 
 when  we  find,  that  upon  his  importunity  with  his  father, 
 he  obtained  one  ?  He  obtained  a  blessing  indeed,  but 
 not  that  which,  by  hereditary  right,  belonged  to  the  first- 
 born, and  abounded  with  blessings  both  spiritual  and 
 temporal.  This  his  brother  Jacob  had  supplanted  him 
 of;  and  yet  he  could  not  prevail  with  his  father  to 
 revoke  it.  He  could  not  bring  him  to  change  his  mind, 
 (as  it  is  in  the  margin,)  and  repent  of  the  blessing  he 
 had  given  to  Jacob,  (for,  "  it  is  Isaac's  repentance,  not 
 Esau's,  that  is  here  under  consideration,)  although  he 
 sought  it  with  tears  ;  and  the  reason  is, — because  his 
 father  knew,  both  by  the  conduct  of  providence  in  this 
 whole  affair,  and  by  a  particular  inspiration  at  that  time, 
 that  the  peculiar  blessings  promised  to  Abraham  and  his 
 seed,  did  not  belong  to  him,  but,  by  the  divine  appoint- 
 ment were  now  consigned  to  his  brother  and  bis 
 posterity;  and  therefore,  to  silence  all  further  clamour, 
 he  tells  him  with  a  more  than  ordinary  emphasis  and 
 inflexibility,12'  I  have  blessed  him,  yea,  and  he  shall  be 
 blessed,' 
 
 SECT.    III. 
 
 CHAP.  1.— Of  tin-  life  of  Jacob,  from  hi*  90*9  inio 
 Mesopotamia,  '<>  hi* 
 
 1  HK    HisV.  BT. 
 
 As  soon  as  Jacob  had  received  his  father's  charge  and 
 blessing,  he  departed  privately  from  Beeraheba,  and  ■ 
 made  the  best  of  his  way  to  Haran;  but  after  bis  first 
 
 '2  Pet.  i.  21.         '  Heidegger's  Hist.PatrJ 
 
 •  Le  cierc'a  Commentary.  I0  Heb.  \ii.  17. 
 
 11  Heidegger's  Hist  Patriar.  toL  8.  Essay  1 1.    "Gen.  u  1 
 
 „  The  .lews   tell  of  s.v-ral   miracle,   which   they   sm;  . 
 
 have  been  wrought  on  uwTerydaytbel  Jacob  set  out  troi 
 uheba;  bnl  one  more  especially,  namely,  that  God  shortened  the 
 
190 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10— xxxvii. 
 
 day's  journey,  a  happening  to  be  benighted,  he  was  forced 
 to  take  up  his  lodging  in  the  open  air,  with  the  spangled 
 sky  to  be  his  canopy,  and  an  hard  stone  his  pillow. 
 However,  while  he  slept,  he  thought  he  saw  a  ladder 
 iixed  upon  the  earth,  and  reaching  up  unto  heaven,  with 
 angels  ascending  and  descending  on  it ;  and  from  the  top 
 of  tins  ladder  he  heard  God  speaking  unto  him,  and  pro- 
 mising him,  even  as  he  had  done  his  forefathers,  the 
 land  of  Canaan  for  his  inheritance  ;  a  large  and  numer- 
 ous posterity  ;  the  Messias  to  descend  from  his  family  ; 
 a  safe  return  to  his  native  country  ;  and  the  divine  pro- 
 tection and  preservation  every  where  to  attend  him. 
 
 This,  in  all  probability,  was  the  first  vouchsafement 
 of  the  kind  which  Jacob  ever  had  ;  and  his  dream  had 
 made  such  impression  upon  him,  that  as  soon  as  he 
 awaked,  he  paid  an  awful  reverence  to  the  place,  and 
 after  a  short  contemplation  of  what  had  passed,  broke 
 out  into  this  rapture  of  wonder  and  admiration  : — "  How 
 venerable  is  this  place,  over  which  are  vertically  the 
 palace  of  God,  and  the  gate  of  heaven,  through  which  the 
 holy  angels  are  continually  issuing  out,  to  execute  the 
 divine  commands  !"  And  when  he  arose,  he  erected  the 
 stone  whereon  he  slept,  and,  as  the  custom  of  those 
 times  was,  b  poured  oil  upon  it,  and  then  in  pious  com- 
 memoration of  the  heavenly  vision,  called  the  place, 
 which  before  was  called  Luz,  by  the  name  of  Bethel, 
 that  is,  the  house  of  God.     c  But  before  he  went  from 
 
 hours,  by  causing  the  sun  to  go  down  before  its  time  ;  and  yet  we 
 are  told,  that  from  Beersheba  to  Luz,  where  he  lodged  the  first 
 night,  were  about  48  English  miles,  which  was  no  inconsiderable 
 day's  journey.  If  there  be  any  meaning  therefore  in  this  fiction 
 of  theirs,  it  must  consist  in  this  : — That  Jacob  was  sent  away 
 with  his  father's  blessing,  and,  in  virtue  of  that,  was  filled  with  a 
 certain  divine  power,  which  supported  and  carried  him  on  with 
 pleasure,  so  that  the  day  might  thence  seem  shorter  to  him;  and 
 though  his  father  sent  no  friend  or  domestic  along  with  him,  yet 
 there  is  no  doubt  to  be  made,  but  that  there  was  a  companion  and 
 guardian  of  a  far  nobler  order  assigned  him,  who  led  him  by  the 
 hand,  as  it  were,  and  kept  him  in  all  his  ways. — Bibliotheca 
 Biblica,  in  locum. 
 
 a  The  place  where  Jacob  took  up  his  lodging,  was  near  Luz, 
 which  signifies  an  almond,  and  might  very  likely  have  its  name 
 from  the  many  groves  of  almond-trees  which  were  thereabouts ; 
 and  under  some  of  which  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Jacob  might  take 
 up  his  lodging,  because  the  largeness  of  their  leaves,  in  that 
 country,  would  afford  no  incommodious  shelter  from  the  weather. 
 Jacob,  upon  account  of  the  vision  which  he  had  in  this  place, 
 called  it  Bethel;  and  the  Israelites,  when  they  conquered 
 Canaan,  in  remembrance  of  the  same,  continued  the  name.  It 
 lay  to  the  west  of  Hai,  about  eight  miles  to  the  north  of  Jerusa- 
 lem, in  the  confines  of  the  tribes  of  Ephraim  and  Benjamin.  So 
 that  upon  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  it  belonged  to  the  kingdom 
 of  Israel,  and  was  therefore  one  of  the  cities  where  Jeroboam  set 
 up  his  golden  calves,  whence  the  prophet  Hosea  (ch.  iv.  15) 
 alludingto  thename  given  to  it  by  Jacob,  calls  it  Bethavan,  instead 
 of  Bethel,  that  is  '  the  house  of  vanity  or  idols,'  instead  of  '  the 
 house  of  God.' — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  /Fells'  Geography  of 
 the  Old  Testament,  vol.  1. 
 
 b  Hence  it  seems  evident,  that  Jacob  did  not  leave  his  father's 
 house,  without  being  first  provided  for  his  journey ;  for  it  cannot 
 be  thought,  that  if  he  wanted  other  necessaries,  he  would  have 
 carried  oil  along  with  him,  and  that  in  such  plenty,  as  to  pour  it 
 out,  in  such  a  seemingly  profuse  manner,  upon  an  inanimate  sub- 
 ject.— Bibliotheca  Biblica. 
 
 c  Gen.  xxviii.  18.  '  And  Jacob  rose  up  early  in  the  morning, 
 and  took  the  stone  that  he  had  set  up  for  his  pillar,  and  poured 
 oil  upon  the  top  of  it.  And  he  called  the  name  of  that  place 
 Bethel.'  This  passage  evinces  of  how  great  antiquity  is  the 
 custom  of  considering  stones  in  a  sacred  light,  as  well  as  the 
 anointing  them  with  consecrated  oil.  From  this  conduct  of 
 Jacob,  and  this  Hebrew  appellative,  the  learned  Bochart,  with 
 
 thence,  he  made  a  d  solemn  vow  to  God,  "  That  if  he 
 would  protect  and  prosper  him  in  his  journey,  provide 
 him  with  e  common  necessaries  in  his  absence,  and  grant 
 him  an  happy  return  to  his  father's  house  ;  to  him  alone 
 would  he  direct  his  religious  worship  ;  in  that  very  place 
 where  the  pillar  stood,  upon  his  return,  would  he  make- 
 his  devout  acknowledgments,  and  oft'er  unto  him  /the 
 tenth  of  whatever  he  should  gain  in  the  land  of  Mesopo- 
 tamia." 
 
 great  ingenuity  and  reason,  insists  that  the  name  and  veneration 
 of  the  sacred  stones,  called  baetyli,  so  celebrated  in  all  pagan  anti- 
 quity, were  derived.  These  baetyli  were  stones  of  a  round  form; 
 they  were  supposed  to  be  animated  with  a  portion  of  the  Deity: 
 they  were  consulted  on  occasions  of  great  and  pressing  emergency, 
 as  a  kind  of  divine  oracles.  Thus,  the  setting  up  of  a  stone  by  this 
 holy  person,  in  grateful  memory  of  the  celestial  vision,  probably 
 became  the  occasion  of  the  idolatry  in  succeeding  ages,  to  these 
 shapeless  masses  of  unknown  stone,  of  which  so  many  astonishing 
 remains  are  scattered  up  and  down  the  Asiatic  and  the  Europeaii 
 world. — Maurice's  Indian  Antiquities,  vol.  2.  p.  355. 
 
 d  Several  annotators  have  observed,  that  this  is  the  first  vow 
 that  we  read  of  in  Scripture ;  but  this  is  no  reason  for  our  sup- 
 posing that  Jacob  was  the  first  who  worshipped  in  this  manner, 
 but  rather,  that  in  this,  he  did  no  more  than  what  his  fathers, 
 Abraham  and  Isaac,  had  done  before  him,  and  as  they  had 
 instructed  him  both  by  example  and  precept.  And  as  for  Abra- 
 ham, though  there  be  no  mention  made  expressly  of  a  vow,  yet 
 very  certain  it  is,  that  in  effect  he  did  the  same  thing.  For  when 
 the  Lord  is  said  to  have  made  a  covenant  with  him,  Abraham, 
 on  his  part,  must  be  supposed  to  express  his  consent  and  accep- 
 tation of  it,  and  not  only  so,  but  to  vow  and  promise  to  perform 
 the  conditions,  in  order  to  attain  the  benefit  of  it.  And  in  like 
 manner,  when  Isaac  is  said  to  have  entreated  the  Lord  for  his 
 wife,  it  is  highly  probable,  that  he  vowed  a  vow  to  God,  that  upon 
 his  performance  of  the  promise  of  multiplying  his  seed,  &c,  he 
 would,  on  his  part,  as  an  acknowledgment  of  it,  make  some 
 or  other  suitable  return ;  for  the  word  which  we  render  entreat, 
 in  its  original,  has  a  much  stronger  signification,  and  denotes  a 
 soliciting  of  favours,  whether  from  God  or  man,  by  gifts,  vows, 
 or  promises.  So  that  we  may  justly  conclude,  that  his  son  did 
 not  do  this  of  his  own  head,  or  an  immediate  revelation  com- 
 manding him  so  to  do,  but  that  he  was  before  taught  and 
 instructed  by  his  father  in  this  solemnity,  as  a  part  of  both 
 natural  and  positive  religion. — Bibliotheca  Biblica. 
 
 e  Jacob's  words  upon  this  occasion  are,  '  If  Gud  will  give  me 
 bread  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,'  which  two  articles  comprise 
 all  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  therefore  we  find  them,  in  the 
 writings  of  the  philosophers,  always  put  together.  For  these 
 are  the  bounds,  says  Seneca,  (Ep.  4.)  which  nature  has  set  us, 
 that  we  should  not  hunger,  nor  thirst,  nor  be  cold.  For  our  diet 
 and  dress,  .says  Tully,  should  contribute  to  our  health  and 
 strength,  not  to  luxury  or  pleasure  (De  Offic.  b.  1.  c.  13.)  We 
 may  observe,  however,  farther,  that  by  the  patriarch's  covenant- 
 ing here  with  God  only  for  food  and  raiment,  does  appear  the 
 gross  mistake  of  those  who  pretend  that  he  supplanted  his  brother 
 for  covetous  ends ;  as  if  his  father's  estate,  and  the  possession  of 
 a  rich  country  for  himself  and  his  heirs,  were  the  things  which 
 he  had  only  in  view. — Le  Clercs  Commentary,  and  Bibliotheca 
 Biblica,  in  locum. 
 
 f  This  is  the  second  mention  of  tithes  or  tenths,  and  the  first 
 dedication  of  them  to  God ;  and  from  this  place  we  may  fairly 
 conclude,  that  Jacob,  the  grandchild  of  Abraham,  vowing  the 
 tenth  of  all,  (as  Abraham  had  given  the  tenth  of  the  spoil,)  was 
 induced  to  do  it  by  the  custom  which  then  prevailed  among  reli- 
 gious people.  How  they  came  to  pitch  upon  this  portion,  rather 
 than  a  fifth,  a  sixth,  or  any  other  quantity,  is  not  so  easy  to  be 
 resolved  ;  but  they  seem  to  speak  with  much  reason,  who  observe, 
 that  in  this  number  ten,  all  nations  in  a  manner  do  end  their 
 account,  and  then  begin  again  with  compound  numbers,  or,  as 
 others  phrase  it,  that  this  is  the  end  of  less  numbers,  and  the 
 beginning  of  the  greater,  for  which  reason  it  was  looked  on  as  the 
 most  perfect  of  all  other,  and  accordingly  had  in  great  regard: 
 but  after  all,  it  seems  most  likely,  that  they  had  some  divine  pre- 
 cept and  direction  for  it.  At  this  time  it  is  certain  that  the  order 
 of  priesthood  was  not  instituted ;  and  therefore  the  only  purposes  to 
 
Sect.  TII.j 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 191 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  18).-. ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALE 
 
 Having-  thus  performed  his  devotions,  he  a  proceeded 
 in  his  journey,  and,  after  some  weeks,  arrived  at  Haran. 
 As  he  came  near  the  town,  he  saw  some  shepherds  with 
 their  flocks,  not  far  from  a  well  which  was  covered  with 
 a  large  stone  ;  and  while  he  was  inquiring-  of  them  con- 
 cerning Laban  and  his  family,  he  was  given  to  under- 
 stand, that  they  were  all  well,  and  that  it  would  not  be 
 long  before  his  daughter  l>  Rachel  would  be  there  with 
 her  flock.  Nor  had  this  discourse  long  passed  before  she 
 came  ;  whereupon  Jacob,  having-  very  obligingly  rolled 
 away  the  stone,  and  watered  her  sheep  for  her,  took 
 occasion  to  let  her  know  who  he  was ;  and  as  he  pro- 
 ceeded to  salute  his  cousin,  was  in  a  manner  ready  to 
 weep  for  joy  ;  while  she  made  what  haste  she  could  home, 
 in  order  to  inform  her  father  of  what  had  passed.  He 
 immediately  came  to  meet  his  nephew,  and  received  him 
 with  all  the  kindness,  and  all  the  tenderness  imaginable, 
 whilst  he  related  to  him  c  the  occasion  of  his  leaving  his 
 father's  family,  and  what  adventures  he  had  met  with  in 
 the  way. 
 
 Jacob  had  not  been  long-  in  his  uncle's  house  before 
 he  applied  himself  to  busuiess  ;  and  having  now  served 
 him  for  the  space  of  a  month  in  the  capacity  of  a  shep- 
 herd, his  uncle  one  day  took  an  occasion  to  discourse 
 
 which  Jaeob  could  appropriate  the  tithes  he  gave,  were  either  for 
 the  maintenance  of  burnt-sacrifices,  and  other  pious  uses,  or 
 perhaps  for  the  relief  of  the  poor.  But  how,  and  when,  he  actu- 
 ally performed  his  vow,  does  nowhere  appear  in  Scripture,  unless 
 it  was  upon  his  return  from  Padan-Aram,  (Gen.  xxxv.  7 — 14.) 
 '  when  he  built  an  altar  at  El  Bethel,  and  set  up  a  pillar  in  the 
 place  where  God  had  talked  with  him,  and  poured  a  drink-offering 
 and  oil  thereon.' — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  And  came  into  the  land  of  the 
 people  of  the  east,'  Gen.  xxix.  1.;  which  makes  some  imagine 
 that  he  travelled  eastward.  But  this  is  a  mistake,  because  Meso- 
 potamia, and  particularly  Haran,  lay  northward  from  Bethel. 
 Babylon,  however,  lay  eastward  from  both  places ;  and  therefore 
 Mesopotamia  being  part  of  the  Babylonish  dominions,  the  Baby- 
 lonians might  well  be  called  '  the  people  of  the  east,'  and  Jacob 
 is  only  said  to  have  gone  into  a  country  of  which  they  were  lords 
 and  masters. — Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  3.  c.  4. 
 
 6  Rachel,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  signifies  a  sheep:  nor  need 
 we  wonder  at  her  being  called  so,  since  it  was  a  common  thing 
 among  the  ancients-  to  give  names,,  not  only  to  particular  persons, 
 but  even  to  considerable  families,  (as  the  words  Porcius,  Ovilius, 
 Caprilius,  Equilius,  &c,  mentioned  by  Varro,  De  Re  Rustica, 
 1.2.  c.  1.  sufficiently  shows,)  from  cattle,  both  great  and  small. 
 Much  less  reason  have  we  to  wonder,  that  we  find  her  keeping 
 her  father's  sheep,  since  that  employment,  in  those  early  days, 
 was  accounted  very  honourable,  as  from  Homer  and  other  ancient 
 writings  is  sufficiently  evident.  We  need  not  suppose,  however, 
 that  the  whole  drudgery  of  the  work  lay  upon  her ;  she  had  those 
 under  her  who  took  this  oft' her  hands,  and  her  business  was  only, 
 as  the  chief  shepherdess,  to  inspect  over  them.' — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 c  The  things  which  Jacob  informed  his  uncle  Laban  of  at  this 
 time,  may  be  supposed  to  be  such  as  related  to  the  occasion  of 
 his  journey;  as  particularly  all  that  had  passed  between  his  bro- 
 ther and  him  as  to  the  right  of  primogeniture;  the  purchase 
 which  he  had  made  of  it,  and  what  ensued;  their  two  different 
 manners  of  living;  the  design  of  his  father  with  respect  to  them ; 
 the  management  of  the  mother,  to  procure  him  the  blessing;  the 
 resentment  of  his  brother  at  his  disappointment;  the  prudent 
 dismission  of  himself  thereupon,  both  by  father  and  mother;  the 
 displeasure  they  had  conceived  at  his  brother's  matching  himself 
 into  strange  families ;  and  the  strict  orders  they  had  therefore 
 given  him  to  take  a  wife  out  of  his  own  kindred,  and  of  the  house 
 of  his  mother's  father,  which  was  the  reason  of  his  coming 
 thither;  and,  lastly,  the  wonderful  occurrences  he  had  met  with 
 on  his  journey,  more  especially  as  to  the  whole  affair  of  Bethel, 
 and  the  happy  meeting  of  his  daughter  at  the  well,  to  his  great 
 and  surprising  satisfaction. — Bibliotheca  Biblica. 
 
 8,  A.  M.  3105.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10-xxxyii. 
 
 him,  and  to  let  him  know,  that  he  neither  expected,  nor 
 thought  it  reasonable,  to  hare  hia  labour  for  nothing, 
 and  therefore  desired  him  to  name  what  wages  he  would 
 have.  The  lovely  shepherdess  had  abends  captivated 
 Jacob's  heart;  and  therefore  he  names  her  for  th<- 
 reward  d  of  his  seven  years'  service,  which  her  father 
 readily  consented  to,  and  he  as  readily  entered  noon, 
 because  the  love  which  he  had  to  his  Rachel  made  him 
 account  the  longest  time  short. e 
 
 Laban,  we  must  know,  had  another  daughter,  named 
 Leah,  older  than  Rachel,  but  not  so  beautiful,  baring 
 some  blemish  or  soreness  in  her  eyes ;  and  when  the 
 time  of  Jacob's  servitude  was  expired,  and  he  demanded 
 his   wife,   his    father-in-law  seemed   to   solemnize   the 
 
 d  It  was  a  custom  which  had  prevailed  almost  in  all  ages,  that 
 in  contracting  marriages,  as  the  wife  brought  a  portion  to  the 
 husband,  so  the  husband  should  be  likewise  obliged  to  give  her 
 parents  money  or  presents,  (which  sometimes  in  Scripture  are 
 called  the  dowry,)  in  lieu  of  this  portion.  Hut  Jacob  being  desti- 
 tute of  money,  oners  his  uncle  seven  years' service,  which  must 
 needs  have  been  equivalent  to  a  large  sum;  and  being  so,  it  is 
 more  to  be  wondered  at,  that  he  did  not  send  over  to  his  parents 
 for  a  supply  upon  this  occasion,  rather  than  bind  himself  a  servant 
 for  so  long  a  term.  But,  from  the  custom  in  use  among  us,  there 
 is  no  judgment  to  be  made  what  the  custom  and  practice  vtus 
 then. — Bibliotheca  Biblica,  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Dr  Hales  states  the  age  of  Jacob  when  he  went  to  Charran 
 at  77  years,  which  lie  collects  from  Scripture  thus:  When  Jacob 
 had  been  14  years  in  Charran,  Joseph  was  bom,  Gen.  xxx.  25; 
 Joseph  was  30  years  old  when  made  regent  of  Egypt,  Gen.  sli. 
 46;  and  in  the  ninth  year  of  his  regency,  brought  his  father  and 
 family  to  settle  in  Egypt,  Gen.  xli.  53,  54.  xlv.  6;  the  amount 
 of  these  sums,  14-f  30-f-9=:53  years  from  the  time  Jacob  went  to 
 Charran;  which  being  subducted  from  130  years,  his  age  when 
 he  stood  before  Pharaoh,  Gen.  xlvii.  9,  leaves  77  years  for  his 
 age  when  he  went  to  Charran.  And  this  confirms  the  account 
 of  Abulfaragi  and  Demetrius.  Dr  Hales  farther  agrees  with 
 Usher,  Lloyd,  Clayton,  &c,  in  supposing  that  Jacob's  marriage 
 with  Leah  took  place  about  a  month  after  his  arrival  in  Charran, 
 at  the  beginning  of  the  seven  years,  and  his  marriage  with 
 Rachel  the  week  after,  and  thinks  that  Jacob's  demand,  Gen. 
 xxix.  21,  '  Give  me  my  wife,  for  my  days  are  fulfilled,'  relates 
 to  the  days  of  courtship,  which  by  a  decorous  usage  were  a  month, 
 during  which  a  bride,  though  betrothed,  might  put  off  the  con- 
 summation of  her  marriage,  a  privilege  which  was  afterwards 
 extended  by  the  Mosaic  law  even  to  a  female  captive,  who  was 
 granted  this  respite  to  bewail  "  her  father  and  mother,"  Dent. 
 xxxi.  13.  And  further,  considering  the  advanced  age  oi  Jacob 
 when  he  went  to  Charran,  as  stated  above,  it  is  not  probable  that 
 he  would  have  waited  patiently  seven  years  before  be  married; 
 and  the  selfish  policy  of  Laban  would  prompt  him  to  secure  bis 
 attachment  and  services  by  a  speedy  connexion  with  his  family. 
 That  he  married  at  the  beginning  of  the  Hr-t  seven  years,  is 
 further  demonstrated  by  AbaJfaragi,  who  dates  the  birth  of  his 
 son  Levi,  in  his  eighty-second  year,  or  in  the  fifth  year  of  his 
 service.  On  this  hypothesis,  Dr  Hates  gives  the  following 
 of  the  birth  of  Jacob's  children  by  his  wiies  and  concubines. 
 
 The  first  date  is  Jacob's  age,  the  second  the  year  before  Chi  i-t 
 
 ii.  C, 
 1   R  •   1915 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 4  Judah, . 
 
 5  Dan Bilhah,>    M  1909 
 
 $     s;j 1908 
 
 Reuben ")  78 1915 
 
 Simeon (  80  1913 
 
 Levi .Leah.  C  B8 I9U 
 
 .T.iitoh '  B3 liiio 
 
 C  Napbtbali 3     85 
 
 7  Gad ' 
 
 8  Asher,... 
 'i  [aaachar,. 
 
 in  Zebulon,  ■ 
 II    Dinah,. 
 
 Zilpah,  i     H 
 
 5  i 
 
 i  \  Jo  epfa Rachel,  \ 
 
 13  Benjamin 5 
 
 88.. 
 
 89  .. 
 
 90  .. 
 0]  .. 
 
 1901 
 1908 
 
 l'  05 
 L904 
 
 1908 
 
 njamin 3   104  1889 
 
 Hales'  Anafytit  qf  Cktmo/ogy,  vol.  2.  pp.  132,   138 — 137, 
 
 second  edition. — En. 
 
192 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  191G.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10— xxxvii. 
 
 nuptials  with  great  magnificence,  but  in  the  evening-  he 
 put  an  unfair  trick  upon  him ;  for  instead  of  the  beau- 
 teous Rachel,  he  a  brought  the  blear-eyed  h  Leah  to  his 
 bed;  which  when  Jacob  perceived  next  morning,  and 
 thereupon  made  just  remonstrances,  the  father  had  his 
 answer  ready,  and  in  a  magisterial  tone  told  him, — 
 '  That  it  was  an  unprecedented  thing  in  that  country, 
 and  would  have  been  deemed  an  injury  to  her  sister, 
 to  marry  the  younger  before  the  elder ;  but  (continued 
 he,  in  a  milder  tone)  if  you  will  c  fulfil  the  nuptial 
 week  with  your  wife,  and  consent  to  serve  another  seven 
 years  for  her  sister,  I  am  content  to  take  your  word  for 
 it,  and  to  give  Rachel  to  you  as  soon  as  the  seven  days 
 are  ended.1'  Jacob  could  not  but  be  troubled  at  such 
 unfair  procedure,  but  he  loved  Rachel  too  well  not  to 
 obtain  her  at  any  price  ;  and  therefore  he  consented 
 to  these  hard  conditions,  and,  at  the  week's  end,  was 
 married  to  Rachel  likewise. 
 
 But  though  he  preferred  Rachel  much  before  Leah, 
 yet  God  put  quite  another  difference  between  them,  by 
 making  the  latter  the  mother  of  four  sons,  Reuben, 
 Simeon,  Levi,  and  Judah,  before  her  sister  had  one.  d 
 This  was  so  great  a  trouble  to  Rachel,  that  she  came 
 one  day,  in  a  fit  of  melancholy,  and  told  her  husband, 
 
 a  The  modesty  of  those  times  made  them  bring  the  bride  to 
 her  husband's  bed  veiled,  and  without  lights,  which  gave  Laban 
 an  opportunity  to  impose  upon  Jacob,  and  made  it  a  thing  almost 
 impossible  for  him  to  discern  the  deception  until  next  morning. 
 — Howell's  History,  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Dr  Clarke  thinks  that  the  word  mm  raccoth,  rendered 
 •  tender-eyed'  in  the  common  version,  means  soft,  delicate, 
 lovely;  and  that  the  meaning  is  just  the  reverse  of  the  significa- 
 tion usually  given  to  it.  The  design  of  the  inspired  writer  is  to 
 compare  both  sisters  together,  that  the  balance  may  appear  to  be 
 greatly  in  the  favour  of  Rachel.  The  chief  recommendation  of 
 Leah  was  her  soft  and  beautiful  eyes;  but  Rachel  was  iNfi  Xisi 
 yephatk  toar,  beautiful  in  her  shape,  person,  mien,  and  gait,  and 
 runo  ns""  yephatk  morch,  beautiful  in  her  countenance.  The 
 words  plainly  signify  a  fine  shape  and  fine  features,  all  that  can  be 
 considered  as  essential  to  personal  beauty. — Clarke's  Commentary 
 on  Gen.  xxxix.  17. — Ed. 
 
 c  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  by  '  her  week '  (as  it  is  in  the  text) 
 we  are  to  understand  a  week  of  years,  or  seven  years,  and  con- 
 sequently, that  to  '  fulfil  her  week '  was  as  much  as  to  say,  that 
 Jacob  was  to  serve  other  seven  years  for  Rachel,  before  he  was 
 to  marry  her.  Some  old  English  versions  render  it  thus :  but 
 the  order  of  the  story  seems  to  gainsay  it.  For  though  Jacob 
 lived  with  Laban  twenty  years,  it  is  plain,  that  at  the  end  of 
 the  fourteenth  year,  he  proposed  to  part,  and  return  home ;  and 
 yV  h  may  observe,  that  Rachel  (though  she  had  been  a  good 
 while  barren)  had  born  Joseph  before  that  time,  which  could  not 
 have  been,  had  not  she  been  married  before  the  end  of  his  second 
 seven  years'  service.  Since  Laban  then  (as  we  read  Gen.  xxix. 
 22.)  had  invited  a  great  deal  of  company,  and  the  custom  in  those 
 days  was  to  devote  a  whole  week  to  the  nuptial  solemnities,  the 
 plain  sense  of  his  words  to  Jacob  (according  to  Seidell's  short 
 comment  on  them,  De  Jure  Nat.  b.  5.  c.  5.)  is  this, — "  Since 
 marriages  are  to  be  celebrated,  according  to  custom,  by  a  seven 
 days'  feast,  complete  this  marriage  thou  hast  begun  with  Leah, 
 and  then  upon  condition  of  another  seven  years'  service,  thou  shalt 
 marry  Rachel  also,  and  keep  her  wedding  feast  seven  days." 
 And  the  reason  why  Laban  was  so  desirous  cf  this,  was,  that  a 
 week's  cohabitation  with  Leah  might  be  a  means,  either  to  knit 
 Jacob's  affection  to  her,  or  at  least  to  confirm  the  marriage  so, 
 that  it  should  not  be  in  his  power  to  disannul  it — Le  Clerc's  and 
 Patrick's  Commentaries,  Howell's  Hhtory  and  Poole's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 d  Gen.  xxix.  32.  '  And  Leah  conceived  and  bare  a  son,  and 
 she  called  his  name  Reuben.'  It  seems  probable  that  in  common 
 the  mother  gave  the  name  to  a  child,  and  this  both  among  the 
 Jews  and  the  Greeks,  though  perhaps  not  without  the  concur- 
 rence of  the  father.     In  the  age  of  Aristophanes,  the  giving  of  a 
 
 that  unless  he  gave  her  children  also,  she  should  certainly 
 die  with  grief.  Which  speech  seeming  to  lay  the  blame 
 of  her  sterility  upon  him,  so  provoked  him,  that  he  sharply 
 rebuked,  and  told  her,  "  That  it  was  not  in  his  power  to 
 work  miracles  ;  that  God,  who  had  shut  up  her  womb, 
 was  alone  able  to  open  it;  but  that  such  uneasy  and 
 discontented  behaviour  was  the  way  to  prevent,  rather 
 than  obtain  such  a  favour."  This  mortifying  answer 
 made  her  bethink  herself  of  supplying  the  defect  of 
 nature  by  her  grandmother  Sarah's  expedient,  and  there- 
 fore she  desired  her  husband  to  take  her  handmaid 
 Bilhah  for  a  concubinary  wife,  and  by  that  means  to  try 
 to  make  her  a  mother  ;  which  he  consenting  to,  had  by 
 her  a  son,  whom  Rachel  named  Dan,iand,  in  a  proper 
 space  of  time,  another,  whom  she  called  Naphthali.  After 
 which  Leah,  supposing  herself  to  have  left  oft'  child- 
 bearing,  and  Avilling  to  imitate  her  sister's  policy,  gave 
 her  maid  Zilpah  to  her  husband,  by  whom  she  had  like- 
 wise two  sons,  Gad  and  Ashur. 
 
 About  this  time  it  so  fell  out,  that  Reuben,  Jacob's 
 eldest  son,  going  into  the  fields  about  the  time  of  wheat 
 harvest,  chanced  to  meet  with  some  mandrakes,  which  he 
 gathered,  and  carried  to  his  mother  Leah.  Rachel  no 
 sooner  saw  them,  but  desiring  to  have  some  of  them, 
 received  from  Leah  a  forbidding  answer ;  "  That  having 
 robbed  her  of  her  husband's  affections,  she  could  not 
 expect  to  have  any  part  in  her  son's  present."  It  was  e 
 Rachel's  turn  that  night  to  have  her  husband's  company ; 
 and  therefore,  to  compromise  the  matter,  she  tells  her 
 sister,  that  in  case  she  would  oblige  her  with  some  of  her 
 son's  mandrakes,  she  would  wave  her  pretensions,  and 
 consign  the  right  of  his  bed  to  her.  Upon  Jacob's  com- 
 ing home,  Leah  calls  upon  him  to  confirm  the  bargain, 
 which  accordingly  he  did,  and  the  consequence  was,  that 
 she  conceived  again,  and  had  a  fifth  son,  whom  she 
 called  Issachar  ;  after  him  another  named  Zebulun ;  and 
 last  of  ail,  a  daughter,  whose  name  was  Dinah,  the 
 feminine  of  Dan. 
 
 Rachel  had  hitherto  no  issue  of  her  own  body ;  but 
 now  it  pleased  God  to  remember  her,  and  to  bless  her 
 with  a  son,  whom  she  called  /  Joseph.  And  it  was  not 
 long  after  his  birth,  that  his  father  Jacob,  having  now 
 served  out  his  last  seven  years,  began  to  entertain 
 thoughts  of  returning  into  his  own  country,  and  accord- 
 ingly desired  of  his  uncle  to  dismiss  him  and  his  family. 
 But  Laban,  who  had  found  by  experience  no  small  advan- 
 
 name  to  the  child  seems  to  have  been  a  divided  prerogative 
 between  the  father  and  the  mother.  Homer  ascribes  it  to  the 
 mother : — 
 
 Him  oi.  his  mother's  knees,  when  babe  he  lay, 
 
 She  nam'd  Arnaeus  on  his  uatal  day. 
 
 Odyssey,  xviii.  G.  Pope. 
 
 e  The  custom  of  those  countries,  where  polygamy  was  allowed, 
 was  for  the  husband  to  take  his  wives  by  turns.  The  kings  of 
 Persia  (if  we  believe  Herodotus)  were  not  exempt  from  that  rule: 
 which  makes  it  more  probable  that  Rachel  sold  her  turn  to  her 
 sister  for  that  night,  than  that  she  directed  her  husband  which  of 
 the  four  he  should  lie  with. —  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 f  Joseph  signifies  increase;  and  the  reason  why  Rachel  named 
 him  so,  is  said  to  be,  because  God  '  had  taken  away  her  reproach ;' 
 for  to  be  barren  was  formerly  reckoned  a  disgrace,  for  these  three 
 reasons.  1.  Because  fruitfulness  proceeded  from  the  blessing  of 
 God,  who  said,  <  increase  and  multiply.'  2.  Because  barren' 
 people  seem  to  be  excluded  from  the  promises  of  God  made  to 
 Abraham  concerning  the  vast  multiplication  of  his  seed.  And, 
 3.  Because  the  Messias  could  nut  proceed  from  them. — Poole 'J 
 Annotations. 
 
feKCT.    III.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 193 
 
 A.  M.  21 19.  A.  C.  1S55  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 iage  by  having  sucl)  a  servant,  begged  him  to  stay  with 
 him  a  little  longer ;  and  promised  him  upon  that  condition, 
 to  give  him  whatever  wages  he  should  think  fit  to  name. 
 Hereupon  Jacob  took  an  occasion  of  reminding  him  how 
 much  his  substance  had  increased  since  it  was  put  under 
 his  care,  but  that  it  was  now  high  time  for  him  to  make 
 some  provision  for  his  own  family  ;  and  that  therefore  he 
 was  resolved  to  return  to  Canaan,  unless  he  could  show 
 him  some  way  of  improving  his  fortune  in  Mesopotamia. 
 Lalian  could  not  bear  the  thoughts  of  parting  ;  and  there- 
 fore he  pressed  him  to  stay,  and  offered  him  his  own 
 terms,  which  at  last  were  resolved  into  this  agreement, 
 — That  in  the  whole  flock,  both  of  sheep  and  goats,  a 
 separation  should  be  made  between  the  speckled  and  the 
 white  ;  that  the  spotted  cattle  should  be  given  to  Laban's 
 sons  to  keep,  and  that  Jacob  siiould  have  the  care  of 
 the  white  ;  and  that  whatever  a  spotted  or  brown  sheep 
 or  goats  should,  from  that  time  forward,  be  produced 
 out  of  the  white  flock,  which  he  was  to  keep,  should  be 
 accounted  his  hire.  Laban  was  very  well  satisfied  with 
 these  conditions.  Accordingly  the  flocks  were  parted  ; 
 the  spotted  cattle  were  delivered  to  Laban's  sons ;  the 
 remainder  that  were  white,  were  given  to  Jacob  ;  and, 
 that  there  might  be  no  possibility  of  intermixing,  they 
 were  sent  three  days'  journey  apart. 
 
 Whether  it  was  from  his  own  observation  of  the  power 
 of  fancy  in  the  time  of  conception,  or  (what  seems  more 
 likely)  from  some  private  suggestion  of  the  divine 
 wisdom,  that  the  project  proceeded  ;  but  so  it  was,  that 
 by  Jacob's  taking  twigs  of  green  wood,  peeling  oft"  the 
 rinds  in  slips,  and  so  laying  them  in  the  watering  places, 
 when  the  flocks  came  to  drink  °  about  coupling  time, 
 these  speckled  twigs  struck  the  eyes  of  the  females,  and 
 so  made  them  conceive  and  bring  forth  party-coloured 
 young  ones.  But  it  was  not  to  all  the  flock  that  Jacob 
 did  this,  only  to  such  as  were  the  ablest  and  strongest ; 
 for  those  that  were  weak  and  languid  he  left  to  their 
 natural  course,  that  his  artifice  might  be  the  less  suspect- 
 ed, when  it  appeared  that  the  number  of  his  father-in- 
 law's  cattle  was  not  too  much  diminished. 
 
 His  father-in-law,  however,  envying  his  prosperity, 
 repented  of  his  bargain,  and  several  times  altered  the 
 agreement,  which  God,  as  many  times,  turned  to  Jacob's 
 advantage  ;  till  at  length,  observing  in  his  carriage  a 
 coldness  and  indifference,  and  overhearing,  at  a  certain 
 time,  his  sons  grudging  and  complaining,  that  he  had 
 raised  himself  an  estate  out  of  their  fortunes,  he  began 
 
 a  The  sacred  historian  makes  use  of  four  different  words  to 
 denote  the  cattle  which  should  properly  belong  to  Jacob.  The 
 first  is  nakod,  which  we  translate  speckled;  for  the  word  signifies 
 little  points  or  pricks,  which  the  Greeks  call  aTiypaTK.  The 
 second  is  tain,  which  signifies  such  broader  and  larger  spots  as 
 we  frequently  see  in  cattle.  The  next  is  akod,  which  signifies 
 spotted  with  divers  colours,  or  rather  with  rings  or  circles  about 
 the  feet  or  legs.  And  the  last  is  barud,  which  signifies  whitish 
 spots  like  hail ;  which  seems  to  take  in  all  the  kinds  of  variega- 
 tion.— Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Several  ancient  commentators  are  of  opinion,  that  Jacob  laid 
 these  streaked  rods  before  the  cattle  only  in  spring  time,  when 
 the  sun  was  ascending,  and  the  cattle  lusty  and  vigorous,  but  let 
 them  alone  when  the  cattle  came  to  couple  in  September,  or  the 
 decline  of  the  year.  But  as  there  is  no  certainty  in  this,  our 
 moderns  have  thought  it  more  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  he  laid 
 the  rods  before  the  young  and  lusty  sheep  and  goats,  but  left  the 
 old  and  weak  to  take  their  chance,  by  which  means  the  best 
 lambs  and  kids  came  to  his  share,  and  the  worst  to  Laban's. — 
 Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7.  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 M.  3495,  A.  C.  1910.  OKN.  (II.  xxviii.  10-xxnvm. 
 
 to  form  a  resolution  of  retiring  into  his  own  country  with 
 
 his  family  and  eftects,  which  God  in  a  vision  confirmed 
 him  in:  but  before  he  put  it  in  execution,  he  thought 
 it  proper  to  advise  with  his  two  principal  wires,  and 
 
 to  endeavour  to  gain  their  consent.     To  t!ii-  pur 
 he  sent  for  them   into  the  field,  that  lie  might  have  an 
 opportunity  of  discoursing  the  matter  with  more  freedom 
 and   privacy;  and  then  told  them  that  for  some   time- 
 he  had  observed  that  their   father's  carriage  had  been 
 altered,  but  for  what  reason  he  could  not  devise.      I ' 
 appealed  to  them  concerning  his  fidelity  and  diligence, 
 and  their  father's  unworthy  requital  of  him  ;  reminded 
 them  of  God's  goodness  in  defeating  his  c  contrivances 
 against  him,  and  converting  them  to  his  great  advan- 
 tage and  increase  ;  acquainted  them,  that  the  same  God 
 who  had  thus  blessed  him,  had  appeared  to  him,  as  he 
 did  at  Bethel,  in  his  passage  from  Canaan  thither,  and 
 commanded  him  to  return  to  his  native  country,  which 
 command  he  was  resolved  to  obey.     They   heard  him 
 with  a  willing  mind,  declared  their  opinion  concerning 
 their  father,  in  the  same  manner  as  he  had  done,  and 
 professed   themselves   ready   to    attend   him,  when    be 
 pleased  to   set   out.     Jacob,  therefore,   preparing  all 
 things  for  the  journey,  mounting  his  wives  and  children 
 upon  camels,  and  taking  the  advantage  of  his  father-in- 
 law's  absence  (which  gave  Rachel  an  opportunity  like- 
 wise of  stealing  away  his  gods),  himself  went   along 
 with  the  cattle,  and  all  the  other  substance  which  he  had 
 acquired  at  Haran :  he  had  now  passed  rfthe  Euphrates, 
 and   gained  *  the  mountains  of  Gilcad,  as  they  were 
 afterward  called,  before  Laban  had  intelligence  of  his 
 flight,  and  was  able  to  overtake  him.     Laban,  no  doubt, 
 at  his  first  setting  out  after  Jacob,  pursued  him  with  a 
 mind  whetted  with  revenge  ;  but  God,  who  appeared  to 
 him  that  night  in  a  dream,  was  pleased  to  avert  it,  by 
 threatening  him  severely,  if  he  committed  any  hostility 
 or   violence    against  him  :    so   that  the  next   morning, 
 when  he  and  the  relations  he  had  with  him  came  to 
 
 c  In  the  complaint  which  Jacob  makes  to  his  wives,  there  i- 
 one  particular  article  against  their  father,  namely,  that  be  '  bad 
 changed  his  wages  ten  times,'  Gen.  xxxi.  7,  and  yet  be  lived  in 
 contract  with  him  only  six  years.  But  to  solve  this  difficulty, 
 we  are  to  observe,  that  the  cattle  in  Mesopotamia  bred  twice 
 every  year;  and  therefore,  supposing  that  for  the  first 
 Laban  stood  to  his  bargain,  but  Beeing  bia  son-in-law  thrive 
 exceedingly,  altered  the  form  of  it  the  ni  xt,  and  n  continiH  d  !-■ 
 do  every  half  year,  till  the  sixth  \var  came  about,  wh<  n 
 
 thought  proper  to  leave  him,  the  several  times  wherein   he 
 changed  his  wages  will  be  exactly  ten;   though   then 
 necessity  for  this  exact  calculation,  when  it   is  m  common  a 
 figure  of  speech,  to  put  a  certain  lor  an  uncertain  number.-  U 
 Clerc'saad  Patrick's  Commmtary. 
 
 d  Though  the  text  does  not  my  whsi  river  be  passed,  yet  it  i- 
 plain  it  could  be  no  other  than  the  Euphrates,  which  the  Scrip- 
 ture sometimes  calls  the   river  Perth,  somethnea  tha 
 River,  and  sometimes  emphatically  MS  rit.r;   either  1 
 that  and  the  Nile  were  the  amy  t»<>  considerable  <•<■ 
 
 Israelites   knew,    or  because    it   WU   one   of   the    four   rtvj 
 
 paradise:  or,  lastly,  because  it  «a^  tha  boundary  of  tha  promised 
 
 IgnJ. —  Cuircrsal  History,  b.   I.  0.  7- 
 
 e  The  heap  of  stones  which   Laban  and   Jacob  i    am   In 
 memory  of  their  agreement  and  con  Gllead, 
 
 that  Is,  on  asoy  </  isttassse^  ami  In  after 
 to  the  whole  country  thereabout,  which  lies  on  thi 
 sea  of  Galilee,  being  part  of  thai  ridge  of  mountains  which  ran 
 from  mount  Lebanon  southward  on  the  ea  I  of  the  Holj  I 
 and  included  the  mountainoas  region,  called  In  tin  Not  rests 
 ment  Trachonitis. — Wtttf  <  ' 
 
 2  b 
 
194 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1835  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10— xxxvii. 
 
 speak  with  Jacob,  he  only  expostulated  with  him,  that 
 lie  had  stolen  away,  without  giving  him  an  opportunity 
 to  take  his  leave  of  his  children  and  grandchildren,  or 
 to  send  them  home  with  an  equipage  suitable  to  their 
 rank,  or  with  the  usual  ceremonies  of  music  and  dancing. 
 Jacob,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  without  his  complaints. 
 The  cheat  which  Laban  had  put  upon  him,  in  making 
 him  serve  so  long  for  a  woman  he  did  not  love;  the 
 changing  his  salary  so  many  times,  and  his  late  strange 
 behaviour  towards  him  and  his  family;  all  these,  and 
 many  more,  he  answered  him,  were  but  ill  requitals  for 
 his  care  and  diligence,  as  well  as  the  blessings  which 
 God  had  heaped  upon  him  for  his  sake. 
 
 Laban  had  yet  another  thing  to  lay  to  his  charge, 
 namely,  the  stealing  of  his  gods  :  but  Jacob,  who  knew 
 nothing  of  Rachel's  theft,  desired  him  to  make  the  most 
 diligent  search  for  them  throughout  his  family ;  assuring 
 him  withal,  that  the  person  on  whom  they  were  found 
 ehould  immediately  be  put  to  death.  Hereupon  Laban 
 went  and  searched  every  place  ;  but  as  he  entered  into 
 Rachel's  tent  (who  had  hid  them  under  the  camel's 
 furniture,  and  set  herself  down  upon  them),  she  kept  her 
 sitting,  and  alleged  in  excuse  that  the  condition  she  was 
 in  allowed  her  sex  to  be  excused  from  the  usual  cere- 
 monies. Laban,  not  suspecting  the  fallacy  which  his 
 daughter  had  put  upon  him,  in  point  of  modesty, 
 desisted  from  any  farther  search,  and  so  went  and 
 acquainted  his  son-in-law  with  his  bad  success  ;  where- 
 upon Jacob,  appealing  to  his  very  friends,  sharply 
 upbraided  him  with  his  unjust  suspicion;  and  then, 
 recounting  the  long  servitude  he  had  held  him  in,  and 
 the  many  hardships  he  had  made  him  undergo,  both  day 
 and  night,  together  with  the  cruel  and  unequal  terms  ne 
 had  all  along  put  upon  him,  he  concluded  with  these 
 words,  '  Except  the  God  of  my  father  had  been  with  me, 
 surely  thou  hadst  sent  me  away  empty.' 
 
 This  charge  of  Jacob's  was  so  just,  that  Laban  could 
 make  no  defence  for  himself;  and  therefore  he  thought 
 it  best  to  let  fall  the  debate,  and  to  enter  upon  a  more 
 agreeable  subject,  which  was  to  make  an  alliance  be- 
 tween them,  and  to  erect  a  a  monument  as  a  standing 
 witness  of  it  to  all  future  ages.  At  the  same  time,  they 
 took  mutual  oaths  that  neither  of  them  should,  at  any 
 time,  invade  the  other ;  and  Jacob  in  particular,  that  he 
 would  use  his  wives  and  children  with  all  becoming 
 tenderness  and  affection. 
 
 When  this  ceremony  was  over,  and  a  sacrifice  in  con- 
 firmation of  it  offered,  Jacob  feasted  the  whole  company 
 for  the  rest  of  the  day ;  b  and  in  the  morning,  Laban 
 
 a  This  monument  Jacob  seems  to  have  erected  after  the 
 same  manner  as  he  did  that  at  Bethel.  It  must  not  be  supposed 
 to  have  been  a  heap  of  loose  stones;  for  then  it  could  not  have 
 continued  long  in  the  same  position,  nor  given  a  name  to  the 
 country  around  it.  It  was,  doubtless,  a  regular  and  permanent 
 building;  but  then,  what  the  form  and  figure  of  it  was,  it  is  not 
 so  easy  to  determine.  Had  it  been  only  for  a  memorial  to 
 posterity,  and  not  for  some  present  transaction  also,  the  figure 
 either  of  a  column  or  pyramid  would  have  been  very  proper: 
 but  we  find  that  the  present  use  of  it  was,  to  eat  and  sacrifice 
 upon;  and  therefore  we  may  imagine  that  it  was  made  in  the 
 figure  of  a  table,  and  have  some  authority  to  think  of  a  round 
 table,  because  the  name  which  Jacob  calls  it  by  is  taken  from  a 
 verb  which  signifies  to  turn  round,  as  the  word  Gilal  is  properly 
 the  circumference  of  a  circle. — Bibliotheca  Biblica. 
 
 b  Gen.  xxxi.  46.  ■  And  Jacob  said  unto  his  brethren, 
 gather  stones;   and  they  took  stones,  and  made  an  heap,  and 
 
 having  embraced  and  blessed  the  whole  family,  returned 
 home  to  Padan-Aram. 
 
 Jacob  had  no  sooner  parted  with  his  father-in-law, 
 but  the  remembrance  of  his  brother's  ancient  grudge 
 against  him  began  to  give  him  fresh  uneasiness ;  but  the 
 vision  of  a  great  c  number  of  angels,  sent  from  heaven 
 to  protect  him,  which  he  had  in  his  way  to  Canaan  (at  a 
 place  which  he  therefore  called  d  Mahanaim,  that  is, 
 tivo  camps,  namely,  one  of  the  angels,  and  the  other  of 
 his  own  retinue),  did  dissipate  his  anxiety  for  a  while. 
 As  he  approached  to  his  brother's  country,  however,  his 
 fears  and  uneasiness  returned  upon  him ;  and  therefore 
 he  thought  it  advisable,  before  he  advanced  any  farther, 
 to  send  him  a  submissive  message,  in  order  to  discover 
 at  least  how  he  stood  affected  to  him.  Esau,  when 
 Jacob  was  gone  to  Haran,  understanding  how  strictly 
 his  father  had  charged  his  brother  not  to  marry  a 
 Canaanitish  woman,  began  to  be  dissatisfied  with  his 
 own  marriages;  and  therefore  went  to  Ishmael,  and 
 having  married  one  of  his  daughters,  settled  in  mount e 
 Seir,  in  the  land  of  Edom.  Hither  it  was  that  Jacob 
 sent  some  of  his  /  chief  servants,  with  instructions  to 
 
 they  did  eat  there  upon  the  heap.'  It  might  be  thought  to  tend 
 more  strongly  to  impress  the  mind,  when  this  feast  of  reconci- 
 liation was  eaten  upon  that  veiy  heap  that  was  designed  to  be 
 the  lasting  memorial  of  this  renewed  friendship. — Ed. 
 
 c  Interpreters  are  generally  of  opinion  that  these  were  two 
 hosts  or  armies  of  angels,  whereof  one  was  that  of  the  guardian 
 angel  of  Mesopotamia,  who,  with  his  company,  conducted  Jacob 
 safe  to  the  confines  of  Canaan,  where  the  guardian  angel  of 
 Canaan,  with  his  company,  received  him  into  their  care ;  and 
 this  is  inferred  from  the  necessity  of  such  protection,  by  Jacob's 
 being  exposed  to  the  treachery  of  Laban,  and  the  cruelty  of 
 Esau,  which  made  providence  more  particularly  careful  of  him 
 to  whom  the  promises  were  made.  But  it  is  sufficient  to  the 
 purpose  of  giving  the  patriarch  comfort  and  encouragement 
 under  his  uneasy  apprehensions,  that  besides  his  own  family, 
 which  was  pitched  here  in  order  like  a  camp,  a  certain  number 
 of  angels  were  represented  to  him,  as  drawn  up  like  another 
 army,  ready  and  prepared  for  his  defence. — Patrick's  and  Le 
 Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  This  place  was  situated  between  mount  Gilead  and  the 
 river  Jabbok,  not  far  from  the  banks  of  the  latter,  and  very  near 
 the  confines  of  Gad,  and  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  which  was  on 
 the  east  of  Jordan.  It  became  in  time  a  city  of  great  strength, 
 and  for  this  reason  was  made  choice  of  by  Abner  for  the  seat- 
 royal  of  Ishbosheth  the  son  of  Saul,  when  he  made  war  against 
 David,  and  for  a  retiring  place  by  David  himself,  during  the 
 rebellion  of  his  son  Absalom.' — Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  vol.  1.  c  13. 
 
 e  The  mountains  of  Seir  lay  on  the  east  and  south  of  the 
 Dead  sea,  and  the  country  extended  itself  from  thence  to  the 
 Arabian  gulf.  It  is  certain  from  Gen.  xxxvi.  21,  22,  that  in 
 Abraham's  days  the  Horites,  who  were  the  descendants  of  Seir, 
 had  the  possession  of  this  region ;  and  therefore  we  may  suppose, 
 that  after  the  departure  of  Jacob,  Esau,  who,  according  to  the 
 prediction  concerning  him,  was  to  'live  by  his  sword,'  expelled 
 the  old  inhabitants,  and  made  himself  prince  thereof,  before  his 
 brother  returned  from  Mesopotamia.  From  Gen.  xxxii.  13, 
 xxxiii.  4,  xxxvi.  8,  9,  and  Deut.  ii.  12,  we  may  learn  that 
 Esau  made  war  with  these  people  with  great  success,  though  we 
 have  of  it  no  particulars  in  the  writings  of  Moses. — Calmet's 
 Dictionary,  under  the  word  Seir. 
 
 f  Several  commentators  have  taken  notice  of  Jacob's  great 
 wisdom  and  prudence,  in  the  order  and  disposition  of  this  his 
 embassy  to  his  brother.  He  sent  his  servants,  and  not  his  sons, 
 though  that  would  have  been  doing  a  great  deal  more  honour; 
 but  then  it  would  have  been  running  too  great  a  risk.  In  the 
 present  which  he  sent,  he  put  a  space  between  drove  and  drove, 
 that  the  more  time  was  taken  up  in  their  passing  by  Esau,  his 
 passion  might  still  grow  cooler  and  cooler;  that  the  present  itself 
 might  make  so  much  the  greater  appearance ;  and  that  if  the 
 
Sect.  III.} 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES  '  &c. 
 
 195 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10-xxxvii. 
 
 acquaint  his  brother,  that  after  a  stay  of  twenty  years  in 
 Mesopotamia,  and  the  acquisition  of  all  manner  of 
 wealth  there,  he  was  now  upon  his  return  to  his  native 
 country  ;  but  that  he  could  not  pass  over  Jordan,  without 
 notifying  his  arrival  to  him,  and  imploring  his  favour 
 and  friendship. 
 
 The  messengers  went,  and  soon  returned  again,  but 
 with  this  melancholy  news,  that  his  brother  was  coming  to 
 meet  him  at  the  head  of  four  hundred  men  ;  which  made 
 him  to  conclude,  that  this  must  be  with  an  hostile 
 intent,  and  in  order  to  destroy  both  him  and  all  that 
 belonged  to  him.  In  this  situation  what  could  he  do  ? 
 To  fight  he  was  not  able,  and  to  fly,  his  retinue  was  too 
 cumbersome.  At  length  he  came  to  this  resolution,  to 
 divide  his  company  into  two  bands,  that  if  Esau  should 
 fall  upon  one,  he  might  have  a  possibility  of  escaping 
 with  the  other.  And  having  done  this,  he  addressed 
 himself  to  God  in  a  very  humble  and  submissive  prayer ; 
 acknowledging  "  his  great  mercies  to  him,  and  his  own 
 unworthiness  of  them  ;  imploring  his  future  protection 
 against  his  brother's  sword  ;  and  that  he  would  be  so 
 gracious  as  to  fulfil  all  his  former  promises  to  him." 
 
 Jacob  had  acquainted  his  brother  how  God  had  enriched 
 him :  that  therefore  his  first  message  might  not  look  like 
 an  empty  piece  of  formality,  he  ordered  a  present  of  the 
 choice  of  his  docks  and  herds  to  be  sent  before,  in 
 several  droves,  and  charged  the  drivers,  whenever  they 
 met  his  brother,  they  should  tell  him,  that  they  were 
 presents  sent  by  Jacob  to  his  lord  Esau,  in  hopes 
 of  obtaining  his  favour  and  good-will  ;  and  after  this  he 
 sent  his  wives,  and  children,  and  all  his  substance,  over 
 the  brook"  Jabbok,  early  next  morning,  before  it  was  day, 
 whilst  himself,  all  alone,  b  tarried  behind  for  some  time. 
 And  here  it  was  that  an  angel,  in  the  shape  of  a  man, 
 appeared  to  him,  and  began  to  wrestle  with  him.  The 
 contest  was  certainly  unequal ;  but  so  it  was,  that  the 
 angel  did  not  overcome  him  ;  but,  to  show  how  easily  he 
 might  have  done  it,  at  one  touch  he  put  his  thigh  out  of 
 joint.  He  then  told  him  the  symbolical  intent  of  his 
 wrestling  with  him  ;  and  after  he  had  blessed  him,  gave 
 him  c  the  additional  name  of  Israel,  which  signifies,  '  a 
 
 droves  which  went  first  were  not  well  accepted  by  him,  those 
 who  came  later  might  be  at  distance  enough  to  hasten  back  to 
 their  master,  and  give  him  intelligence  of  what  lie  was  to 
 expect.  In  the  form  of  address,  he  ordered  them  all  to  make 
 use  of  the  same  words;  first,  that  the  repetition  of  them  might 
 strike  the  deeper,  and  make  the  stronger  impression  upon  Esau; 
 secondly,  that  they  might  not  spoil  the  compliment,  or  not 
 speak  so  properly,  if  left  to  their  own  expression;  and,  thirdly, 
 that  Esau  might  know,  by  the  very  turn  and  elegancy  of  them, 
 that  the  words  of  the  message  came  from  Jacob.  (Masculus, 
 Ainsu-orth,  Patrick,  &e.)  The  appellation  he  gives  his  brother, 
 of  being  his  lord,  and  himself  his  servant,  we  shall  take  notice  of 
 hereafter. 
 
 a  This  is  a  small  river,  which  is  by  all  agreed  to  flow  from  the 
 adjacent  mountains  ol  Gilead;  but  some  make  it  ran  into  the  sea 
 of  Galilee,  others  into  the  river  Jordan,  below,  or  south  of  that 
 sea. — JVells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  1.  c.  I. 
 
 b  Though  the  reason  which  made  the  patriarch,  after  he  had 
 forded  the  river,  to  try  if  it  was  passable  for  his  family,  return 
 back  again,  and  not  go  along  witli  them,  be  not  expressed  by 
 Musis,  it  is  very  natural  to  suppose,  that  he  stayed  some  time 
 behind  his  family  in  the  place  of  vision,  which  he  afterwards 
 called  Peniel,  to  recommend  himself  and  them  in  prayer,  as  the 
 danger  approached  nearer  and  nearer,  to  the  protection  of 
 Almighty  God. — Musculus,  Patrick,  ami  BioUatheea  BibHca, 
 
 c  The  words  in   the   text,  according  to  our  translation,  are, 
 
 man  that  has  prevailed  with  God  ;'  and  this  occasioned 
 Jacob  to  call  the  place  where  this  transaction  happened 
 
 Peniel,  or  the  face  of  God,  because  he  c sluded  that 
 
 it  was  God,  or  some  of  his  angels,  who  had  bad  this  con- 
 flict with  him. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  angel  was  gone,  Jacob,  though  lam.-, 
 made  what  haste  he  could  to  join  his  company  ;  and  it 
 was  not  long  before  he  saw  his  brother  afar  off  coming 
 towards  him  with  a  large  retinue,  which  made  him  betray 
 some  fresh  tokens  of  distrust :  and  therefore,  to  prepare 
 for  the  worst,  he  divided  his  family  into  three  companies 
 and  placed  them  at  equal  distances;  the  two  maids,  and 
 their  sons  went  first;  Leah  and  her  children  next ;  and 
 Rachel  and  Joseph,  who  was  then  about  six  years  old, 
 as  farthest  from  danger,  were  the  last;  whilst  himself 
 marched  in  the  front  of  all,  and,  as  he  approached  his 
 brother,  bowed  himself  to  the  ground  seven  times. 
 
 Whatever  apprehensions  Jacob  might  conceive  of 
 Esau's  resentments,  he  had  the  happiness  to  meet  him  in 
 a  much  better  temper  than  he  expected.  At  lirst  sight 
 he  ran  to  meet  him  ;  he  embraced  him  with  the  greatest 
 tenderness  ;  he  wept  over  him  with  tears  of  joy  ;  and 
 seeing  his  wives  and  children  prostrate  themselves  before 
 him  one  after  another,  and  in  the  same  order  wherein 
 Jacob  had  disposed  them,  he  returned  their  civilities 
 with  the  same  tenderness  that  he  had  his  brother's.  The 
 presents  indeed  which  Jacob  had  sent  him  he  kindly 
 acknowledged,  but  desired  to  be  excused  from  accepting 
 of  them,  because  they  were  superfluous  to  him,  who  had 
 enough  of  every  thing ;  but  Jacob  pressed  him  so 
 earnestly,  that  at  length  he  prevailed  :  and  therefore  to 
 make  liini  a  recompense,  Esau  invited  him  to  Seir,  and 
 proffered  his  services  to  accompany  him  thither.  Jacob, 
 however,  had  no  design  to  accept  of  the  invitation,  and 
 yet  was  afraid  directly  to  refuse  ii ;  and  therefore  he 
 represented  the  tenderness  of  his  children  and  flocks, 
 and  that  they  could  not  travel  with  expedition,  lie 
 begged  that  they  might  not  confine  him  to  their  slow 
 movements,  but  that  he  would  return  home  at  his  own  pace ; 
 and  promised  withal,  that  they  would  follow  as  fast  as 
 they  could  conveniently.  Esau  then  offered  to  leave  him 
 a  sufficient  number  of  his  men,  that  might  guard  and  con- 
 duct him  into  his  territories;  but  this  compliment  like- 
 wise Jacob,  in  an  handsome  manner,  evaded,  and  .-.. 
 they  d  parted;  Esau  went  to  Seir,  and  expected   his 
 
 1  Thy  name  shall  DO  more  be  called  Jao  b,  bill    I  ■  ■• 
 it  is  certain,  that  this  patriarch  «a<  wry  frequently,  nay. 
 very  next  verse  but  one,  is  called  Jacob;  and  therefore  thi^  m  ic- 
 ing contradiction  may  be  amended,  by  rendering  the   * 
 instead  of  wo  mow,  not  only}  or,  not  to  mm  I   J  ltnd\ 
 
 because  it  is  certain,  that  in  his  posterity  at   least  (who  were 
 called  Israelites,  but  never  Jacobites)  the  latter  name  abolished 
 the  former.  Israelis  certainly  derived  from  the  word  Sar,  «lii-  b, 
 as  St  Jerome  observes,  signifies  a  prince,  with  the  Jod,  which 
 is  the  common  note  of  a  proper  nam,-;  but  there  Is  tomi 
 ,-ity  in  our  translation,  as  to  the  latter  pan  ol  the  verse,  '  as  a 
 prince  hast  thou  power  with  God,  and  with  men,  and  b 
 vailed;'  which  should  rather  be  translated,  'Thou  bast  I 
 prevailer  with  God,  and  with  men  tin  o  powerfully 
 
 prevail.'    This  Is  the  literal  version  of  the  words;  is  n 
 to  the  vulgar  Latin,  Onkelos,  and  the  Septuagint ;  and  very  justly 
 expresses  the  true  sense  of  the  place.— Patricm't  Oemmtntoty, 
 and  Shuciford'i  Connection,  vol  2.  b.  7.  c,  7. 
 
 d  After  this,  Moses  glva  us  do  forther  account  of  Esau  and  bis 
 family,  only  thai  he  was  assisting  at  his  lather's  funeral,  and  hud 
 three  wives,  whereof  it  i-  proper  to  take  notice,  that  wl 
 mentions  these  wives,  (as  in  Gen.  xwi.  34.  and  Gen.  ixvtli.U.)he 
 
196 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A..  M.  2U9.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3195.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10— xxxvii. 
 
 brother  to  follow  him ;  but  his  brother  turned  another 
 way,  and,  by  easy  journeys,  came  to  Succoth,  which  in 
 Hebrew  signifies  booths,  and  there,  intending  to  settle 
 for  some  time,  he  built  a  house  for  his  family,  and  pro- 
 per conveniences  for  the  reception  of  his  cattle.  But  in 
 a  short  time  he  removed  from  hence,  and  a  safely  arrived 
 at  Shechem,  where  having  purchased  a  piece  of  ground 
 of  Hamor,  the  father  of  Shechem,  for  an  hundred  *  pieces 
 
 gives  them  quite  other  names  than  what  he  does  when  he  comes 
 to  speak  of  the  posterity  which  Esau  had  by  them,  Gen.  xxxvi. ; 
 which  may  lead  an  unwary  reader  to  think  tliat  he  had  more 
 than  tliree,  especially  when  the  fathers  of  the  two  first  are  likewise 
 called  by  different  names.  Thus  his  first  wife  Judith,  the 
 daughter  of  Beeri,  is  afterwards  called  Adah,  the  daughter  of 
 Elon  the  Hittite;  the  second,  namely,  Bathshema,  the  daughter 
 of  Elon,  is  again  called  Aholi  Bamah,  the  daughter  of  Ana,  the 
 daughter  of  Zibeon  the  Hivite;  and  the  last,  called  in  one  place 
 Mahalah,  is  now  called  Bathshemah;  but  what  shows  these  two 
 latter  names  mean  the  same  person,  and  that  the  same  thing  may 
 be  supposed  of  the  other  two,  is,  that  in  both  places  she  is  called 
 '  the  daughter  of  Ishmael,  the  sister  of  Nabajoth.'  All  the 
 account  that  can  therefore  be  given  of  this  difference  is,  that  they 
 had  two  names,  and  that  it  was  usual  to  call  them  sometimes  by 
 one  and  sometimes  by  another;  in  the  like  manner,  as  we  find 
 the  mother  of  Abijam,  king  of  Jutfah,  in  one  place  called 
 Maacah,  the  daughter  of  Abishalon,  (1  Kings  xv.  2.)  and  in 
 another,  Michaiah,  the  daughter  of  Uriel  of  Gibeah,  (2  Chron. 
 xiii.  2.)  with  many  more  instances  of  the  like  nature.  After 
 having  taken  this  notice  of  Esau's  wives,  Moses  enumerates  his 
 children,  and  some  of  their  descendants,  the  princes  of  the  tribes 
 of  the  Edomites ;  the  kings  that  succeeded  them,  and  the  chiefs 
 who  governed  after  the  kings ;  but  as  to  the  order  of  succession, 
 wherein  they  are  to  be  placed,  there  is  some  dispute  among  the 
 learned.  One  remark  more  that  we  shall  make  before  we  part 
 with  Esau,  is,  that,  all  things  considered,  he  was  not  that  very 
 bad  man  which  some  would  make  him.  His  generous  and  open 
 temper  appears  in  his  affectionate  deportment  towards  his  brother, 
 and  his  speedy  and  utter  oblivion  of  the  slights  and  perfidies  he 
 had  received  from  lum;  and,  though  St  Paul  calls  him  a  profane 
 person,  and  says  that  he  was  hated  of  God,  yet  all  that  he  means 
 by  the  word  hatred,  is  no  more  than  a  bare  postponing.  For  the 
 apostle's  purpose  is  to  show,  that  God  had  all  along  bestowed  the 
 favours  which  lead  to  the  Messiah  on  whom  he  pleased:  on  Abra- 
 ham, not  on  Lot ;  on  Jacob,  not  on  Esau ;  on  the  Jews,  not  on  the 
 Gentiles.  And  he  therefore  calls  him  profane,  not  because  he 
 was  more  wicked  than  other  men  of  his  age,  but  because  he 
 seems  not  to  have  been  so  mindful  of  the  promises  made  to  his 
 family  as  Jacob  was,  and  consequently  was  not  so  fit  to  be  the 
 heir  of  the  mercies  peculiar  to  it. —  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  4. 
 and  Skuckford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  c.  7. 
 
 a  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  that  '  Jacob  came  to  Sha- 
 lom* a  city  of  Shechem:'  but,  besides  that  there  was  no  such 
 place  as  Shalem  in  the  confines  of  Shechem,  (which  seems  itself, 
 at  this  time,  to  have  been  but  a  small  town,  without  any  depen- 
 dant villages,)  since  the  word  Shalem  is  so  frequently  taken 
 adjectively,  to  denote  any  thing  safe  and  sound,  as  we  call  it,  and 
 as  Onkelos,  and  some  of  the  best  Jewish  interpreters  have  it,  it 
 may  very  properly  be  rendered  so  here.  And  this  soundness,  as 
 some  imagine,  may  have  reference  to  Jacob's  halting,  which  was 
 perfectly  cured  before  he  reached  Shechem ;  as  his  safety  has  re- 
 spect either  to  his  having  escaped  all  danger,  at  his  interview  with 
 his  brother,  or  rather  to  his  having  met  with  no  evil  accident  of  any 
 sort,  since  he  left  Laban:  and  this  observation  Moses  might  the 
 rather  be  induced  to  make,  because  he  was  just  going  to  relate  a 
 sad  disaster,  that  not  long  after  his  arrival  at  Shechem,  befell  his 
 family.  Shechem,  by  the  by,  otherwise  called  Sichar,  was  a 
 city  of  Samaria,  situate  among  the  mountains  belonging  to  the 
 tribe  of  Benjamin,  ten  miles  from  Shiloh,  forty  from  Jerusalem, 
 and  fifty-two  from  Jericho,  near  which  was  Jacob's  well  or  foun- 
 tain, where  our  blessed  Saviour  entered  into  conversation  with 
 the  Samaritan  woman,  John  iv.  7. — Le  Clerc's  and  Patrick's 
 Commentary,  Calmcfs  Dictionary,  and  JVclls'  Geography  of  the 
 Old  Testament. 
 
 h  The  word  kesldtah,  which  is  here  rendered  '  a  piece  of  money,' 
 signifies  likewise  a  lamb,  from  whence  the  Septuagint,  Vulgate, 
 Oleaster,  and  others,  (me  translated  it  '  an  hundred  lambs:'  but 
 
 of  money,  he  pitched  his  tents  in  the  place,  and  there 
 built  an  altar  to  the  Lord,  whom  he  called  '  El  Elohe- 
 Israel,'  or  '  the  mighty  God  of  Israel.' 
 
 Here  Jacob  might  have  lived  peaceably  and  happily, 
 being  beloved  by  all  the  people,  had  not  c  Dinah's 
 curiosity  of  visiting  the  women  of  the  city  proved 
 the  cause  of  much  mischief,  and  obliged  her  father  to 
 withdraw.  Shechem,  the  son  of  Hamor  the  Hivite,  who 
 was  prince  of  that  country,  saw  her,  fell  in  love  with 
 
 since,  long  before  this,  money  was  in  use,  and  made  the  instru- 
 ment of  traffic,  (Gen.  xxiii.  16.)  which  must  of  course  destroy 
 the  method  of  exchanging  one  commodity  for  another,  it  is  mucn 
 more  probable,  that  it  was  some  sort  of  coin,  though  of  what 
 value  it  is  uncertain,  which  had  a  lamb  stamped  upon  it,  andwa3 
 called  by  that  name,  as  we  do  call  an  angel,  from  the  stamp  it 
 bears  of  one.  {Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7.  and  Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary in  locum.) — There  is  great  reason  to  believe,  that  the 
 earliest  coins  struck,  were  used  both  as  weights  and  money;  and 
 indeed  this  circumstance  is  in  part  proved  by  the  veiy  names  of 
 certain  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  coins.  Thus  the  Attic  mina 
 and  the  Roman  libra,  equally  signify  a  pound:  and  the  stater  of 
 the  Greeks,  so  called  from  weighing,  is  decisive  as  to  tins  point. 
 The  Jewish  shekel  was  also  a  weight  as  well  as  a  coin:  3000 
 shekels,  according  to  Arbuthnot,  being  equal  in  weight  and  value 
 to  one  talent.  This  is  the  oldest  coin  of  which  we  any  where 
 read,  for  it  occurs,  Gen.  xxiii.  16,  and  exhibits  direct  evidence 
 against  those  who  date  the  first  coinage  of  money  so  low  as  the 
 time  of  Croesus  or  Darius,  it  being  there  expressly  said  that 
 '  Abraham  weighed  to  Ephron  four  hundred  shekels  of  silver, 
 current  money  with  the  merchant.'  With  respect  to  the  stamp 
 or  impression  which  the  first  money  bore,  the  primitive  race  of 
 men  being  shepherds,  and  their  wealth  consisting  in  their  cattle, 
 in  which  Abraham  is  said  to  have  been  rich,  for  greater  conve- 
 nience, metals  were  substituted  for  the  commodity  itself.  It  Mas 
 natural  for  the  representative  sign  to  bear  impressed  the  object 
 which  it  represented ;  and  thus  accordingly  the  earliest  coins 
 were  stamped  with  the  figure  of  an  ox  or  a  sheep.  For  proof  that 
 they  actually  did  thus  impress  them,  we  can  again  appeal  to  the 
 high  authority  of  Scripture:  for  there  we  are  informed  that  Jacob 
 bought  a  parcel  of  a  field  for  an  hundred  pieces  of  money.  The 
 original  Hebrew,  translated  '  pieces  of  money,'  is  kesitoth,  which 
 signifies  lambs,  with  the  figure  of  which  the  metal  was  doubtless 
 stamped.  (Maur.  Ind.Aniiq.  vol.vii.  p.  470.)  It  is  certain  that  in 
 many  countries  the  coin  has  had  its  name  from  the  image  it  bore ; 
 so,  among  our  ancestors,  a  coin  was  called  an  angel  because  it  bore 
 the  image  of  an  angel ;  hence,  also,  a  Jacobus,  a  Carolus,  a  Louis 
 (Louis  d'or),  a  Joe,  a  Napoleon,  because  certain  coins  in  Eng- 
 land, Spain,  France,  and  Portugal,  bore  on  one  side  the  image 
 of  the  kings  of  those  countries,  James,  Charles,  Louis,  Joseph, 
 Napoleon.  The  Athenians  had  a  coin  called  (iovs,  an  ox,  because 
 it  was  stamped  with  the  figure  of  an  ox.  Hence  the  saying  in 
 •iEschylus'  Agam.  v.  36,  "  1  must  be  silent  concerning  other 
 matters ;  a  great  ox  has  come  upon  my  tongue,"  to  signify  a  person 
 who  had  received  a  bribe  for  secrecy,  that  is,  a  sum  of  money  on 
 each  piece  of  which  an  ox  was  stamped.  The  word  opes,  riches, 
 is  a  corruption  of  oves,  sheep,  because,  these  animals,  in  ancient 
 times,  constituted  the  principal  riches  of  their  owners  ;  but  when 
 other  cattle  were  added,  the  word  pecunia,  (from  pecus,  cattle,) 
 which  wo  translate  money,  and  from  which  we  still  have  cur 
 English  term  pecuniary,  appears  to  have  been  substituted  ioroves, 
 because  pecus,  pecoris,  and  pecus,  pecudis,  were  used  to  signify 
 all  kinds  of  cattle,  large  and  small.  Among  our  British  and 
 Saxon  ancestors  we  find  coins  stamped  with  the  figure  of  an  ox, 
 horse,  hog,  goat,  &c,  and  this  custom  arose  in  all  probability, 
 both  among  them  and  other  nations,  from  this  circumstance,  that 
 in  primitive  times  the  coin  was  the  ordinary  value  of  the  animal 
 whose  image  it  bore. — Clarke's  Comment.  Gen.  xxxiii.  19. — En. 
 c  At  what  time  this  misfortune  happened  to  Dinah,  the  Scrip- 
 tures gives  us  no  account:  it  is  presumed,  however,  from  the 
 bold  exploit  of  her  two  brothers  to  avenge  her  dishonour,  (which 
 implies  that  they  were  men  grown,)  that  she  could  not  be  less 
 than  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age  ;  and  the  occasion  of  her  run- 
 ning herself  into  this  premunire,  Josephus  tells  us,  was  a  great 
 festival  then  held  at  Shechem,  which  she,  desirous  to  see  the  fine 
 sights  and  fashions  of  the  place,  adventured  to  go  to. — Antiqui- 
 ties, b.  I.  c.  21. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  & 
 
 M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  11  3495.  A.  C. 
 
 197 
 
 her,  and  having  gained  a  secure  opportunity,  ravished 
 her.  But  notwithstanding  this  dishonourable  act,  his 
 soul  was  so  enamoured  with  her  charms,  that  he  de- 
 sired nothing  more  earnestly  than  to  marry  her  ;  and 
 to  this  purpose  prevailed  with  his  father,  to  enter  upon 
 a  treaty  with  her  friends.  Jacob  soon  heard  of  the 
 rape  committed  upon  his  daughter,  but  concealed  the 
 matter  until  his  sons  were  come  home  ;  and  when  he  had 
 made  them  acquainted  with  it,  their  resentment  grew  to 
 such  an  height,  that  they  vowed  severely  to  revenge  the 
 dishonour  done  unto  their  family.  In  the  mean  time, 
 Shechem  having  prevailed  with  his  father  to  obtain  him 
 the  damsel,  they  both  went  together  to  make  the  proposal 
 to  her  father  ;  promising  to  give  her  as  large  a  a  dowry, 
 and  her  relations  as  costly  presents  as  he  should  desire  ; 
 and  alleging  withal,  that  if  his  family  were  to  inter- 
 marry with  the  Shechemites,  it  would  prove  the  most 
 effectual  means  to  make  them  both  live  together  in  per- 
 fect harmony  and  friendship.  This  was  a  fair  offer  ;  but 
 the  treacherous  sons  of  Jacob,  who  meditated  nothing  but 
 the  most  bloody  revenge,  made  them  this  reply  :  "  That 
 it  was  not  lawful  for  them  to  contract  an  affinity  with  any 
 uncircumcised  nation, but  that,  if  he  and  his  people  would 
 consent  to  be  circumcised,  as  they  were,  they  would  then 
 come  into  his  proposal." 
 
 Hamor  and  Shechem  agreed  very  readily  to  this  con- 
 dition ;  and  when  they  returned  to  the  city,  and  had 
 convened  the  inhabitants  :  "  They  commended  the  Israel- 
 ites highly  for  a  peaceable  and  good-natured  people, 
 from  whom  they  might  reap  many  great  advantages,  and 
 in  process  of  time  make  all  their  substance  (which  was 
 very  considerable)  their  own,  if  they  were  to  intermarry 
 with  them ;  but  that  this  would  not  be  done  without  a 
 general  consent  to  be  circumcised."  How  averse  soever 
 the  people  might  be  to  such  an  operation  at  first,  yet  the 
 thirst  of  gain,  joined  with  the  powerful  interest  which 
 Shechem  had  among  them,  soon  won  their  consent, 
 insomuch,  that  on  that  very  day,  every  male  of  them  was 
 circumcised.  But  *  three  days  after  this,  when  their 
 wounds  had  made  them  incapable  of  making  any  resist- 
 ance, Simeon  and  Levi  entered  the  city,  and  having  put 
 all  the  men  to  the  sword,  made  search  in  Shechem's 
 house,  where  they  found  their  sister  Dinah,  and  brought 
 her  away.  After  which  they  re-entered  the  town,  plun- 
 dered the  houses,  took  both  women  and  children  captives, 
 
 a  This  shows  more  fully,  that  the  custom  of  those  times  was, 
 as  we  noted  before,  for  men  to  give  money  for  their  wives,  and 
 to  give  it  generally  to  their  parents.  The  money,  or  presents  so 
 given,  were  by  the  Greeks  called  ?sSva;  for  so  we  find  Vulcan, 
 when  he  had  caught  his  wife  Venus  in  an  act  of  incontinency,  tell- 
 mghcr  and  her  paramour,  that  he  would  not  let  them  go  "  until 
 the  mother  shall  have  given  him  back  the  whole  of  the  bridal  gifts 
 presented  by  him  for  the  impudent  damsel."  But  there  was  a 
 great  reason  for  a  dowry  now,  and  a  large  one  too,  that  he  might 
 make  compensation  for  the  wrong  he  had  done.  There  is  to  be 
 observed,  however,  a  natural  equity  in  the  subsequent  law  of 
 Moses,  (Exod.  xxii.  16.  and  Deut.  xxii.  28.)  by  which  a  man 
 was  bound  to  make  satisfaction  to  the  father,  if,  either  by  entice- 
 ment or  violence,  he  had  abused  his  daughter. — Le  Clerks  and 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  third  day,  as  physicians  take  notice,  was  the  time 
 when  fevers  generally  attend  circumcision,  occasioned  by  the 
 inflammation  of  the  wound,  which  was  generally  more  painful 
 then,  as  the  Hebrews  observe,  than  at  anytime  else;  and  for  this 
 Uason,  the  sons  of  Jacob  took  the  opportunity  of  falling  upon  the 
 Shechemites,  when  they  were  least  of  all  in  a  condition  to  deli  ml 
 themselves,—  Howell's  History. 
 
 1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10-xxxvii 
 
 and  carried  away  all  the  cattle  that  they  found  in  the 
 neighbouring  plans. 
 
 Jacob  was  much  concerned  at  the  furious  proceeding! 
 of  his  sons,  for  which  he  justly  reproved  then.  II.-  mi 
 apprehensive  indeed,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  land 
 would  unite  against  him,  and  destroy  his  familj  for  this 
 violent  outrage  ;  but  Simeon  and  Levi,  who  were  tin- 
 chief  actors  in  the  tragedy,  were  BO  warmed  win  the 
 thoughts  of  the  dishonour  done  to  their  sister  and  fainilx 
 that  they  did  not  think  they  had  carried  their  resentment 
 in  the  least  too  far  for  so  base  an  injury.  Jacob,  how- 
 ever, thought  it  advisable,  for  his  own  security,  to  tarry 
 no  longer  there,  but  to  shift  into  some  other  part  of  tin- 
 country.  And  accordingly,  having  received  particular 
 directions  from  God  to  remove  to  Bethel,  and  there  to 
 build  an  altar,  (whereon  to  perform  the  vow  which  he 
 made  when  he  fled  from  his  brother  Esau,)  In-  set  bit 
 resolution  to  go  thither:  but  before  he  did  mat,  being 
 willing  to  carry  nothing  that  might  lie  offensive  to  God, 
 to  so  sacred  a  place,  he  found  it  necessary  to  Bake  a 
 reformation  in  his  family.  To  this  purpose  be  com- 
 manded all  that  proposed  to  go  along  with  him,  to  bring 
 out  their  idols;  which  they  not  only  did,  but  gave  up 
 their  c  ear-rings  likewise,  which  they  were  used  to  wear 
 as  spells  or  amulets  against  sickness,  and  other  misfor- 
 tunes. These  he  took  and  buried  privately  in  a  deep 
 hole,  which  he  caused  to  be  dug  under  an  oak,  near 
 Shechem  ;  and  so  having  purified  d  themselves,  even  to 
 
 c  It  was  a  custom  in  several  countries,  for  the  men  as  weD  as 
 the  women,  and  for  the  meaner  as  well  as  the  better  sort,  to  W  MT 
 ear-rings,  and  therefore  we  find  Plautus  in  his  play  called  Pa  nu- 
 lum,  Act  v.,  taking  this  notice  of  some  Carthaginian  slaves, — 
 "That  their  hands  should  be  without  fingers,  one  would  think, 
 because  they  wore  their  rings  in  their  ears."     But,   he-ides  tho 
 rings  designed  for  ornament,  it  was  a  common  thing  for  idola- 
 trous nations  to  wear  others  for  superstitious  uses.     These,  as 
 some  say,  were  made  in  form  of  a  semicircle,  anil  reached  on  I 
 the  forehead  from  ear  to  ear.     They  had  astronomies]  characters 
 and  signatures  engraven  upon  them,  and  to  them  they  imputed 
 a  thousand   supernatural  virtues.     They  were  always  di 
 to  some  false  deity;  and  therefore  St  Austin,  in  several 
 exerts  himself  with  a  becoming  zeal,  against  sueliini] 
 and  tells  his  countrymen,  the  Africans,  (among  whom  this  ens* 
 torn  had  got  some  footing,)  that  in  this  execrable  superstiaei 
 calls  it,  they  did  aot  design  to  dress  themselves  oat  to  ptoses  dm  d, 
 so  much  as  to  serve  and  please  devils.     And  then  B 
 highly  to  be  commended  for  destroying  these  relics  of  idolatry, 
 which  his  haste  to  he  gene,  both  according  to  God's  command, 
 and  his  own  apprehensions  of  danger,  made  him  bury  under  ground, 
 rather  than  stay  to  melt  them  down. — In   i  nd   Patrick's 
 
 Commentary;  Heidegger's  Hist  Patriar.  vol  8.  Essay  18;  and 
 Calmefs  Dictionary  under  the  word  R 
 
 rfThe  manner  wherein  Jseob  required  of  bis  domestics  to 
 purify  themselves,  \vas   by  washing  their  whl  d  put- 
 
 ting on  clean  and  fresh  apparel:  and  thai  this  was  aenstom  among 
 ether  nations  as  well  as  the  Jews,  when  they  si 
 and  religious  office,  is  plain  from  that  passage  In  Euripides  where 
 Alcestis,  being  to  perform  seme  hoi*  rites  in  behalf  of  her  chil- 
 dren, ••  In  the  waters  of  the  stream  she  laved  their  lily  skin,  and 
 from  the  cedar-wood  balls  bringing  beautiful  gaudily 
 
 bedecked  them,— then,  standing  before  the  shrine,  she  pi 
 But  of  all  ethei  nati.m-,  the  Egyptians,  as  Herodotus  U 
 b  1.  c.  87,)  and  more  especially  their  priests,  were  most  r  mark- 
 able' lei-  this  Mil  of  cleanliness.      "They  shaved  t 
 over  every  third  day;  they  bathed  thsmselvea  In  cold  water  twice 
 a  day,  and  twice  anight;  and  wore  constantly nothing  but  linen 
 vestments,  and  shoes  made  of  papyrus;  forthi 
 
 they  were  the  most  proper  to  be  washed."    No4  l 
 are  to  suppose  that  <e-d  respects  a  worshipper  for  his  sprues 
 in  ;,  Bee  i-  polluted  within.    In 
 
 appearance,  so  long  as  his  con 
 
198  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  34D5.  A.  C.  191G.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10— xxxvii. 
 
 tlie  washing  and  changing  of  their  garments,  they  set 
 forward  to  Bethel,  and  arrived  there  safe,  and  without 
 any  disturbance,  because  God  had  struck  such  a  terror  into 
 the  cities  round  about  them,  that,  notwithstanding  the  late 
 provocation  in  the  matter  of  Shechem,  nobody  offered  to 
 molest  or  pursue  them. 
 
 As  soon  ds  Jacob  came  to  Bethel,  where  a  Deborah, 
 his  mother's  nurse,  happened  to  die,  he  erected  an  altar, 
 as  God  had  commanded  him,  whereupon  he  performed 
 his  vow;  and  not  long  after,  God  appeared  to  him 
 again,  confirming  the  change  of  his  name,  and  giving 
 him  fresh  assurances  of  his  design  to  multiply  his  pos- 
 terity, and  to  give  him  the  inheritance  of  the  land  of 
 Canaan;  which  induced  him  to  erect  a  pillar  of  stone, 
 whereon  he  poured  a  drink-offering  and  oil,  as  a  lasting 
 monument  of  his  gratitude  and  devotion. 
 
 The  desire  which  Jacob  had  to  visit  his  aged  father 
 made  his  stay  in  Bethel  not  long;  and  therefore,  remov- 
 ing from  thence,  he  intended  to  have  reached  b  Ephrah, 
 which  was  not  far  distant,  that  night,  but  was  prevented 
 by  Rachel's  falling  in  labour  of  her  second  and  last 
 child,  for  of  him  she  died  as  soon  as  she  was  delivered, 
 
 sordidness  indeed  there  is  something  distasteful,  and  it  is  an 
 unseemly  thing  to  appear  before  a  great  man  in  dirty  apparel: 
 but  the  principal  design  of  God's  appointing  this  outward  clean- 
 liness, was  to  be  a  sign  and  memorandum  to  the  person  approach- 
 ing his  presence,  what  the  inward  temper  and  complexion  of  his 
 mind  should  be ;  and  therefore  we  find  the  royal  Psalmist,  in 
 allusion  to  this  very  custom,  declaring  his  pious  purpose,  '  I  will 
 wash  my  hands  in  innocency,  and  so  will  I  go  to  thy  altar,'  Ps. 
 xxvi.  6. — Le  Clerc's  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  In  Gen.  xxiv.  59,  we  read  that  Deborah  went  along  with 
 her  mistress  Rebecca,  when  Isaac's  steward  was  sent  to  conduct 
 her  out  of  Mesopotamia;  how  is  it,  then,  that  we  find  her  here 
 in  Jacob's  retinue  so  long  afterwards,  and  when  he  was  returning 
 from  the  same  place?  The  Jewish  doctors  tell  us,  that  Rebecca, 
 having  promised  her  son  at  his  departure  that  she  would  send 
 for  him  again,  as  soon  as  she  found  him  out  of  danger,  did  now 
 send  Deborah  to  fetch  him  back.  But,  besides  that  a  younger 
 messenger  would  have  been  much  more  proper,  we  do  not  find 
 that  Jacob  was  sent  for,  but  that  he  left  the  country,  by  God's 
 appointment,  and  upon  the  bad  usage  of  his  father-in-law. 
 Some  Christian  commentators  are,  therefore,  of  opinion,  that 
 after  she  had  brought  her  mistress  Rebecca  to  her  marriage,  and 
 seen  her  well  settled  in  her  family,  she  went  back  to  Haran 
 again,  and  there  dwelt  in  Laban's  house,  till,  upon  Jacob's 
 returning  home,  she,  having  a  desire  to  see  her  old  mistress  once 
 more,  put  herself  under  his  convoy.  Others  again  suppose,  that 
 Jacob  had  been  at  his  father's  house  before  this  time ;  or  that, 
 after  Rebecca's  death,  Deborah  hearing  of  his  return  into 
 Canaan,  might  be  desirous  to  spend  the  remainder  of  her  life 
 with  his  wives,  who  were  her  countrywomen.  Any  of  these 
 conjectures  may  be  sufficient  to  solve  the  difficulty  of  her  being 
 found  in  Jacob's  family ;  and  the  reason  why  Moses  takes  notice 
 of  her  death  is,  not  so  much  because  it  was  a  circumstance  of 
 moment  enough  to  be  preserved  in  history,  as  that  it  was  of  use 
 to  assign  the  reason  why  the  oak  near  which  she  was  buried, 
 and  which  perhaps  was  still  standing  in  his  days,  came  by  its 
 name.  But  what  will  in  some  measure  serve,  both  to  vindicate 
 the  sacred  historian,  and  to  show,  at  the  same  time,  how  much 
 these  nurses  and  women,  who  had  the  care  and  education  of 
 persons  of  birth  and  quality,  were  honoured  and  esteemed  in 
 those  early  days,  is  this  passage,  upon  the  like  occasion,  in  the 
 poet  Virgil: — "Thou  Caieta,  nurse  of  ^Eneas,  hast  also  con- 
 ferred eternal  renown  on  our  shores ;  even  still  the  memory  of 
 thy  tomb  exists,  and  thy  name  points  out  thy  grave  in  the  great 
 Hespcria!" — JEneid,  b.  7. 
 
 b  This  place  was  afterwards  called  Bethlehem,  a  city  about 
 two  leagues  distant  from  Jerusalem,  famous  for  the  birth  of 
 David,  king  of  Israel,  but  infinitely  more  so  for  the  birth  of 
 Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  Saviour  of  the  world. — Caimet's 
 Dictionary. 
 
 and  had  just  time  to  name  him  Benoni,  that  is,  '  the  son 
 of  sorrow ;'  but  his  father,  unwilling  to  perpetuate  tha 
 remembrance  of  so  melancholy  a  subject,  called  him 
 c  Benjamin,  which  signifies  '  the  son  of  my  right  hand, 
 or  '  my  strength.'  She  was  buried  in  the  way  to  Ephrah, 
 where  her  husband  built d  a  monument  of  stone  over  her 
 grave,  which  the  sacred  historian  tells  us  was  extant  in 
 his  days.  But  this  was  not  the  only  misfortune  which 
 attended  Jacob  in  this  place  :  his  eldest  son  Reuben, 
 having  taken  a  liking  to  Bilhah,  the  concubinary  wife 
 which  Rachel  had  given  him,  made  no  scruple  to  commit 
 incest  with  her  ;  which  thing  grieved  his  father  so,  that, 
 though  he  forbore  taking  any  present  notice  of  it,  yet 
 he  could  not  but  *  resent  it  at  his  dying  hour.  Soon 
 after  this  Jacob  left  this  melancholy  place,  and  came  at 
 length  to  Mature,  the  place  of  his  father's  abode,  who 
 was  doubtless  not  a  little  overjoyed  at  the  return  of  his 
 son,  after  so  long  an  absence. 
 
 CHxVP.  II. — Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 
 Answered. 
 
 The  worst  accusation  against  our  patriarch  is  that  of 
 his  purloining,  as  some  may  call  it,  or  appropriating  to 
 himself  a  considerable  part  of  Laban's  substance ;  and 
 shame  light  on  him  who  pretends  to  apologize  for  this, 
 in  order  to  give  countenance  to  any  trick  or  collusion 
 in  matters  of  commerce.  The  Scripture  only  relates 
 the  fact,  without  either  censure  or  approbation  ;  and  we 
 read  it  to  wrong  purpose  if,  because  we  find  a  thing 
 recorded  of  a  patriarch,  and  yet  not  censured  by  the 
 holy  penman,  we  therefore  immediately  conclude  it  to 
 be  right.2  Men  will  be  men,  full  of  imperfections,  and 
 governed  by  their  passions,  so  long  as  they  live  in  this 
 world :  nor  are  the  examples  propounded  in  Scripture 
 to  beget  in  us  humility  and  watchfulness,  upon  every 
 remembrance  of  human  frailty,  but  the  laws  contained 
 
 1  Gen.  xlix.  4.  2  Scripture  Vindicated. 
 
 c  From  the  different  names  which  the  father  and  mother 
 gave  this  son  of  theirs,  some  have  observed,  that  names  are 
 ofttimes  strangely  adapted  to  things,  and  the  presages  of  parents 
 have  anciently  been  observed  to  be  fulfilled:  "  Alas,  the  auguries 
 of  parents  are  never  unfulfilled  !"  Which  was  certainly  nowhere 
 more  than  in  the  fate  of  Benjamin's  posterity,  since  no  tribe  in 
 Israel  was  more  valorous,  and  yet  none  more  subject  to  disasters, 
 than  his;  since  it  was  almost  quite  extirpated  in  the  time  of  the 
 Judges,  ch.  xx.,  and  yet,  before  the  conclusion  of  that  age, 
 became  so  powerful  as  to  have  the  first  king  of  Israel  chosen  out 
 of  it. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  learned  Bochart  is  of  opinion  that  this  monument  of 
 Rachel's,  which  is  the  first  that  we  read  of  in  Scripture,  was  a 
 pyramid,  curiously  wrought,  and  raised  upon  a  basis  of  twelve 
 large  stones,  whereby  Jacob  intended  to  intimate  the  number  of 
 his  sons.  It  was  certainly  standing  in  the  time  when  Moses 
 wrote,  ver.  20,  and  just  before  Saul  was  anointed  king  there  is 
 some  mention  made  of  it,  1  Sam.  x.  2.  But  that  the  present 
 monument  cannot  be  the  same  which  Jacob  erected,  is  very 
 manifest  from  its  being  a  modern  and  Turkish  structure.  Mr 
 Le  Brun,  who  was  at  the  place,  and  took  a  draught  of  it,  says 
 that  the  tomb  is  cut  into  the  cavity  of  a  rock,  and  covered  with 
 a  dome,  supported  by  four  pillars,  on  fragments  of  a  wall,  which 
 open  to  the  sepulchre.  The  work  is  rude  enough,  and  without 
 any  ornament ;  but  the  whole  is  as  entire  as  if  it  had  been  but 
 just  made,  which  makes  it  hard  to  imagine  that  it  had  subsisted 
 ever  since  Jacob's  time. — MaundrelVs  Travels,  and  Cahnet's 
 Dictionary. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  214U.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  19IG.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  ,0-xxx, 
 
 199 
 
 therein,  which  are  true  and  righteous  altogether,  to  be 
 the  rule  and  measure  of  our  conduct.  We  readily  grant, 
 therefore,  that  this  action  of  Jacob's,  considered  in 
 itself,  according  to  the  rules  of  strict  justice,  can  hardly 
 be  vindicated;  but  then  we  are  to  remember,  that  there 
 was  a  much  superior  agent,  even  the  great  Proprietor 
 of  the  world,  and  who  has  an  undoubted  right  to  transfer 
 possessions  where  he  pleases,  by  whose  direction  it  was 
 done. 
 
 For  suppose  we  allow  (what  some  great  men,  both 
 physicians  and  philosophers,  are  wont  to  maintain)  that 
 the  fancy  of  the  dam,  in  the  time  of  conception,  is  of 
 power  sufficient  to  influence  the  form,  and  shape,  and 
 colour  of  the  young,  and  to  produce  the  effect  which  it 
 had  upon  Laban's  cattle ;  yet  we  cannot  imagine  that 
 Jacob  knew  anything  of  this  secret.  Men  had  not  as 
 yet  inquired  into  the  powers  of  nature,  and  observations 
 of  this  kind  were  not  much  regarded.  l  Religion  and 
 the  worship  of  God  Avas,  in  these  days,  the  wisdom  of 
 the  world ;  and  a  simplicity  of  life,  and  integrity  of 
 manners,  more  studied  than  any  curious  and  philoso- 
 phical speculations.  If  study  and  philosophy  had 
 helped  men  to  this  knowledge,  how  came  Laban  and 
 his  sons  to  be  utter  strangers  to  it  ?  And  yet,  had  they 
 not  been  strangers,  they  could  not  but  apprehend  that 
 Jacob  might  by  art  variegate  the  cattle  as  he  pleased, 
 and  would  not  therefore  have  made  so  weak  a  bargain 
 with  him.  They  certainly,  therefore,  had  no  notion 
 that  any  such  thing  could  be  done,  neither  had  Jacob 
 any  intelligence  of  it  when  he  made  the  contract  with 
 Laban ;  but  being  resolved  to  be  contented  with  what 
 the  divine  providence  should  allot  him,  he  made  choice 
 of  the  speckled  cattle  merely  to  put  an  end  to  all  cavils 
 about  wages,  as  not  doubting  but  that  God  would  so 
 order  matters  that  in  the  event  he  should  have  enough  : 
 and  therefore  his  words,  '  So  shall  my  righteousness 
 answer  for  me  in  the  time  to  come,'  are  just  as  if  he  had 
 said,  2  "  I  may  be  thought  to  have  acted  imprudently  in 
 naming  this  hire,  as  if  it  were  impossible  for  cattle  that 
 are  all  white  to  bring  forth  any  but  such  as  are  like 
 themselves  ;  but  in  the  result  it  will  appear  that  God  had 
 respect  to  my  just  dealing,  and  this  you  will  plainly  see 
 when  you  come  to  pay  me  my  wages." 
 
 But  though  Jacob  at  first  might  be  ignorant  of  the 
 secret,  yet  we  cannot  deny  but  that,  after  the  bargain 
 was  made,  God  might  give  him  some  intimation  of  it, 
 and  perhaps  might  enjoin  hiin  to  put  it  in  execution ; 
 and  yet,  after  all,  he  might  not  apprehend  any  natural 
 efficacy  in  the  thing.  Instances  there  are,  more  than 
 enough,  in  Scripture,  of  God's  requiring  persons  to 
 perform  such  actions  as  might  testify  their  faith  and 
 reliance  on  his  promises,  in  order  to  receive  such  bles- 
 sings as  he  intended  for  them.  Thus  Naaman  the  Syrian, 
 when  he  came  to  beg  of  God  a  cure  of  his  leprosy,  was 
 directed  3<  to  wash  seven  times  in  Jordan.'  Washing 
 in  Jordan  was  to  be  an  evidence  of  his  believing  that 
 God  would  heal  him,  and  upon  his  giving  this  evidence 
 he  was  cured ;  which  was  the  case  of  Jacob  here  before 
 us.  God  had  told  him  that  4  '  he  had  seen  all  that 
 Laban  had  done  unto  him,'  but  that  he  would  take  care 
 
 1  Shuekford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b. 
 
 *  Bililiotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1. 
 
 •  2  Kings  v.  10.  4  Gen.  xxxi. 
 
 12. 
 
 that  he  *  should  not  hurt  him;'  that  all  Leban'l  contri- 
 vances to  defraud  him  of  his  wages  he  would  turn  so 
 much  to  his  advantage,  as  that  they  should  tend  to  the 
 increase  of  his  prosperity;  and  then,  very  probably  M 
 a  token  of  his  belief  and  dependance  on  him,  he  com- 
 manded him  to  take  peeled  rods,  and  use  them  sj  he 
 directed.  Jacob  believed, and  did  ae  he  was  commanded  : 
 but  all  this  while  he  might  no  more  think  th.it  the  peeling 
 of  rods  of  green  boughs,  and  laying  them  in  the  watering 
 places  where  the  flocks  were  to  drink,  was  ;i  natural 
 way  to  cause  them  to  bring  forth  spotted  and  speckled 
 young  ones,  than  Naaman  did,  that  washing  in  a  river 
 was  a  cure  for  a  leprosy.  But  even  suppo.-e  the  case, 
 that  Jacob  had  the  notion  that  party-coloured  rods 
 might  be  a  natural  means  to  produce  party-coloured 
 cattle;  yet  if  he  used  them,  in  obedience  to  the  divine 
 command,  and  not  merely  as  a  means  to  enrich  himself 
 at  the  expense  of  another,  Ave  cannot  perceive  a\ herein 
 he  was  culpable.  God  Almighty  determined  to  punish 
 Laban  for  his  injustice,  and  to  reward  Jacob  for  his 
 fidelity.  He  revealed  to  Jacob  the  manner  in  which  he 
 designed  to  bless  him,  and  ordered  him  to  do  an  action 
 as  a  token  of  his  reliance  on  him,  for  the  performance 
 of  his  promise.  Jacob  faithfully  observed  the  orders 
 that  Avere  given  him,  and  the  event  proved  accordingly. 
 
 Here  Avas  no  trick,  no  circumvention  in  the  matter ; 
 though  it  must  be  allowed,  that  had  it  been  lawful  for 
 any  private  person  to  make  reprisals,  the  injurious 
 treatment  he  had  received  from  Laban,  both  in  imposing 
 a  Avife  upon  him,  and  prolonging  his  servitude  without 
 Avages,  Avas  enough  to  give  Jacob  both  the  provocation 
 and  privilege  so  to  do.  God  Almighty,  however,  was 
 pleased  to  take  the  determination  of  the  whole  matter 
 into  his  oaati  hands;  and  therefore  the  true  conclusion 
 is,  Avhat  Jacob  himself  expresses  in  his  speech  to  his 
 tAvo  Avives,  '  Ye  knOAV,  that  with  all  my  poAver,  1  have 
 served  your  father,  and  your  father  hath  deceived  me, 
 and  changed  my  Avages  ten  times;  but  God  suffered  him 
 not  to  hurt  me.  If  he  said  thus,  the  speckled  shall  he 
 thy  Avages,  then  all  the  cattle  bare  speckled ;  and  if  he 
 said  thus,  the  ring-streaked  shall  be  thine  hire,  then  hare 
 all  the  cattle  ring-streaked.  Thus  God  hath  taken  away 
 the  cattle  of  your  father,  and  hath  given  them  to  me.' 
 
 A  man  so  highly  favoured  by  God,  and  so  sensible  of 
 his  peculiar  goodness,  can  scarce  be  supposed  cm  aide 
 of  making  any  voav  with  a  mercenary  riow,  <t  "f 
 neglecting  to  perform  it,  when  made.  The  vow  v\hieh 
 the  patriarch  made  upon  his  journey  into  Mesopotamia, 
 is  conceived  in  these  terms.  b  '  If  God  will  be  with  DM, 
 and  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  and  will  give  DM 
 bread  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  1  come  again 
 to  my  father's  house  in  peace,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  ".a 
 God;'  that  is,  I  will  religiously  worship  and  serve  him  : 
 but  it  is  an  unfair  construction  to  say.  that  Unless  God 
 did  bring  him  ho in  peace,  he  would  not  worship  him. 
 
 The  right  which  God  has  to  the  service  ami  homage  of 
 
 his  creatures,  is  absolute  and  nnalienalde  :  hi.-  dominion, 
 his  power,  his  goodness,  covenant ,  and  promises,  do  all 
 require  this  of  US  :  and  therefore  the  words  mu.-t   mean, 
 
 either  that  besides  God's  natural  property;   in  him,  ha 
 
 should  have  also  a  farther  demand  of  duty  upon  BUS,  in 
 
 s  Gen.  **viii.  20,  8tc 
 
200 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  IIALKS,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  191G.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10- 
 
 consequence  of  this  vow ;  or  ■  that  he  would  perform 
 some  signal  service  to  him,  and  worship  him  with  a  more 
 than  ordinary  devotion,  consecrating  (as  it  follows)  the 
 place  where  he  then  stood  to  his  honour  ;  offering  him 
 sacrifices,  and  giving  him  the  tenth  of  all  he  had,  to 
 maintain  this  worship. 
 
 Such  is  the  sense  of  the  vow  ;  and  the  conditions 
 relating  to  it  seem  to  denote  the  secret  wish  and  desire 
 of  his  soul,  and  not  any  express  stipulation  with  God. 
 Man  certainly  cannot  insist  on  terms  with  his  Maker,  but 
 he  may  desire  and  humbly  hope  for  a  supply  of  his 
 wants.  More  than  this  the  patriarch  does  not  expect ; 
 and  less  than  this  God  never  intended  to  give.  '  Our 
 heavenly  Father  knows  that  we  have  need  of  food  to  eat, 
 and  raiment  to  put  on,'  and  it  is  a  renunciation  of  our 
 dependance  upon  his  providential  goodness  not  to  ask 
 them.  To  serve  God  for  no  consideration,  but  that  of 
 his  own  glory,  is  a  notion  that  may  well  enough  comport 
 with  our  future  exalted  state,  when  we  shall  '  hunger  no 
 more,  neither  thirst  any  more,'  and  where  our  service 
 will  always  be  attended  with  vision ;  but  while  we  are 
 invested  with  these  weak  and  frail  bodies,  they  and  their 
 concerns  will  tenderly  affect  us,  and  God,  who  considers 
 whereof  we  are  made,  expects  no  other  than  that  they 
 should. 
 
 Considering  then  the  circumstances  that  Jacob  was  in, 
 leaving  now  his  own,  and  going  into  a  strange  country, 
 we  need  not  much  wonder  that  we  find  him  solicitous  for 
 his  daily  bread.     With  his  staff  he  passed  over  Jordan  ; 
 and  when  he  returned  with  a  great  retinue,  the  grateful 
 acknowledgment  which  he  makes  upon  that  occasion,  he 
 expresses  in  these  words  :  2  '  I  am  not  worthy  of  the 
 least  of  all  the  mercies,  and  of  all  the  truth,  which  thou 
 hast  shewed  unto  thy  servant ;'  and  a  temper  like  this 
 would  never  have  neglected  to  pay  its  vows  unto  the 
 Most  High,  had  not  the  patriarch  either  met  with  obstruc- 
 tions, that  made  it  not  safe  for  him  to  go,  or  waited  till 
 God,  who  had  all  along  conducted  him  hitherto,  should 
 direct  him  to  go  to  the  place  appointed  for  such  oblation. 
 Before  he  came  to  that  place  indeed,  we  are  told  that 
 he  3  '  commanded  his  household,  and  all  that  were  with 
 him,  to  put  away  the  strange  gods  that  were  among  them.' 
 And  from  hence  it  may  be  presumed,  that  there  were 
 several  of   his    family    (and    possibly    Rachel   herself) 
 addicted  to  idolatry,  which  he  might  connive  at ;  but  this 
 is  a  mistake,  which  arises  purely  from  the  faultiness  of 
 our  translation.     There  the  word  strange  is  supposed  to 
 refer  to  gods,  and  to  be  another  name  for  idols  :  whereas 
 the  words  ( Elohei-hcm-necar )  do  properly  signify  '  the 
 gods  of  the  stranger  that  was  among  them,'  that  is,  the 
 gods  of  the  Shechemites,  whom  they  had  taken  captive, 
 and  brought  into  Jacob's  family.     This  alters  the  sense 
 of  the  words  quite,  and  throws  the  charge  of  idolatry, 
 not  upon  Jacob's  household,  but  upon  the  strangers  that 
 were  in  it.     The  captives  of  Shechem,  which  his  sons 
 had  taken,  were  now  to  be  incorporated  into  his  family, 
 and  put  under  new  restrictions.     Whatever  singularities 
 were  in  their  dress  or  ornaments,  or  in  the  rites  and 
 usages  of  religion  they  had  been  accustomed  to,  these  he 
 intended  to  abrogate,  and  to  reduce  them  all  to  the  same 
 purity  of  worship,  and  simplicity  of  life  and  manners, 
 which  he  designed  to  keep  up  among  them.     And  this  is 
 
 ♦Patrick's  Commentary.       2  Gen.  xxxii.  10.       s  Gen.  xxxv.  2. 
 
 so  far  from  being  a  stain  upon  his  conduct,  as  if  he  were 
 a  tame  conniver  at  impiety,  that  we  find  him  undertake 
 the  reformation  even  of  strangers,  as  soon  as  they  were 
 come  under  his  roof,  with  a  spirit  and  resolution  not 
 unlike  that  of  holy  David :  4  '  Mine  eyes  look  unto  such 
 as  are  faithful  in  the  land,  that  they  may  dwell  with  me, 
 and  whoso  leadeth  a  godly  life,  he  shall  be  my  servant.* 
 Some  writers  have  made   it  a  question,  how  Jacob, 
 upon  his  return   home,  should  know  where  his  brother 
 Esau  dwelt,  and  why  he  should  send  him  so  humble  and 
 submissive  a  message  :  but 5  we  can  hardly  imagine  that 
 Jacob  should  be  so   imprudent  as  to   carry  his  wives, 
 children,  and  substance  into  Canaan,  without  knowing 
 whether  he  might  safely  venture  thither. '    It  is  presuma- 
 ble, therefore,  that  while  he  rested  at  Gilead,  he  sent 
 messengers  to   inquire,   whether  his    father  was    alive ; 
 what  condition  he  was  in  ;  how  the  people  of  the  land 
 were  affected  to  him ;  and  whether  he  might  come  and 
 live  with  security  near  him.     From  these  messengers  he 
 might  learn  the  place  of  his  brother's  habitation  ;  and 
 when  he  found  that  he  should  meet  with  no  obstruction, 
 if  he  could  but  reconcile  Esau  to  him,  he  very  prudently 
 sent  to   him  likewise,  with   an  intent  if  he  found  him 
 inexorable,  to  bend  his  course  another  way.    And  indeed, 
 if  we  consider  what  had  passed  between  Esau  and  Jacob, 
 before  the  latter  went  from  home,  we  shall  soon  find 
 reason  enough  why  Jacob  should  send  to  him,  before  he 
 adventured  to  come,  and  sit  down  with  his  substance 
 near  his  father.     Esau  still  expected  to  be  his  father's 
 heir,  especially  as  to  his  temporalities ;  and  therefore  if 
 Jacob  had  returned  home  without   Esau's   knowledge, 
 this,  at  their  father's  death,  would  have  laid  the  founda- 
 tion of  a  greater  misunderstanding  than  ever  :  for  Esau 
 would  then  have  thought,  that   his    brother    had   been 
 inveigling  his  father,  and   drawing  a  great  part  of  his 
 substance  from  him.     He  could  never  have  imagined, 
 that  any  person,  in  a  state  of  servitude,  could   have 
 acquired  so  large  a  fortune  ;  and  therefore  when  he  came 
 to  see  all  that  wealth,  which  he  knew  nothing  of  before, 
 he  must  have  concluded  that  he  had  defrauded  him. 
 
 It  was  not  from  pride  or  vanity,  therefore,  or  to  gratify 
 an  ostentatious  humour,  that  Jacob  sent  his  brother  an 
 account  of  his  prosperous  circumstances,  but  partly  to 
 recognise  the  goodness  of  providence,  which  had  so 
 prospered  him,  and  partly  to  let  him  know,  that  he  was 
 not  come  to  raise  any  contributions,  either  upon  him,  or 
 the  family  ;  that  he  had  brought  his  substance  with  him 
 from  Haran,  and  was  not  going  into  Canaan  to  do,hiin 
 any  wrong. 
 
 The  whole  design  of  this  interview  with  Esau  was  to 
 procure  a  firm  reconciliation  with  him ;  and  therefore  it 
 is  no  wonder  that  Jacob  should  make  use  of  such  terms 
 as  were  most  likely  to  ingTatiate.  He  knew  his  brother's 
 rugged  and  haughty  temper,  and  considered  him  as  a 
 person,  who,  by  his  valour  and  conduct,  had  raised  him- 
 self to  a  principality  and  dominion,  whilst  himself,  for 
 twenty  years  together,  had  lived  in  no  better  capacity 
 than  that  of  a  servant;  and  therefore  he  might  justly 
 think,  that  this  difference  of  appellations  did  not  misbe- 
 come their  different  conditions  of  life. 
 
 By  the  divine  direction  indeed,  he  was  constituted 
 Esau's  lord ;   nor   did  he   forego    that  prerogative   by 
 
 4  Ps.  ci.  8,  9. 
 
 5  Shuckt'ord's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  8. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2119.  A.  C.  185.5;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  S495.  A.  C.  lfJlO.  SEN.  (.11.  xxviii-xxx« 
 
 201 
 
 calling  himself  Esau's  servant.  Lord  and  servant  were 
 no  more  then,  than  (what  they  are  now)  certain  modes  of 
 civility,  which  passed  between  persons  of  good  breeding, 
 without  ever  adhering  to  their  strict  acceptation ;  and 
 therefore  Jacob  might  make  his  addresses  to  Esau  in 
 this  manner,  without  any  derogation  to  his  spiritual  pre- 
 eminence, and  confining  himself  to  the  bounds  of  nature, 
 might  reverence  him  as  his  elder  brother. 
 
 But  how  jealous  soever  we  may  be  of  Jacob's  honour, 
 it  is  certain,  that  the  Almighty  approved  of  his  conduct, 
 by  himself  interposing  to  bring  about  the  desired  recon- 
 ciliation. Before  this  interview  with  his  brother,  and 
 while  he  lay  under  terrible  apprehensions  of  his  displea- 
 sure, *  the  '  angels,'  we  are  told,  met  him.  They  met  him, 
 that  is,  they  showed  themselves  to  him,  to  assure  him  of 
 their  custody ;  and  by  and  by  we  see  what  followed ; 
 8  his  brother  Esau,  contrary  to  his  natural  roughness, 
 and  avowed  revenge,  comes  and  treats  him  in  a  most 
 friendly  manner ;  which  sudden  change  in  Esau,  we  may 
 reasonably  suppose,  was  occasioned  by  one  of  those 
 angels  who  appeared ;  and  who,  working  upon  his 
 humours  and  fancy,  sweetened  him  into  a  particular 
 benignity  of  temper,  so  that  Jacob,  by  his  humble  and 
 submissive  behaviour,  gained  his  end. 
 
 There  is  this  peculiar  hardship  upon  Jacob,  that  in  the 
 matter  of  Leah,  he  was  perfectly  imposed  upon  ;  that  he 
 had  no  design  of  having  any  communion  with  her  ;  was 
 contracted  to  her  sister  ;  and  in  all  probability,  had  he 
 enjoyed  her  first,  would  never  have  had  concern  with  any 
 other.  But  the  misfortune  was,  that,  in  the  other's  nuptial 
 night,  he  had  carnal  knowledge  of  her,  and  thereupon 
 was  induced  to  think,  that  he  could  not  honestly  leave  her. 
 Her  sister  Rachel  was  all  this  while  (bating  consumma- 
 tion) his  lawful  wife  to  whom  he  was  contracted,  to  whom 
 he  was  solemnly  married  ;  and  therefore  he  could  not  in 
 justice  relinquish  her  neither.  In  this  dilemma  he  was 
 in  a  manner  under  a  necessity  of  adhering  to  both  ;  and 
 as  polygamy  was  not  at  that  time  interdicted,  he  thought 
 he  might  do  it  without  any  violation  of  the  laws  of  God. 
 The  only  question  is,  whether  he  did  not  incur  the  sin  of 
 incest  in  so  doing  ?  And  to  this  some  Jewish  doctors 
 answer,  that  the  prohibition  of  marriages,  within  such 
 degrees  of  consanguinity,  was  restrained  to  the  land  of 
 Canaan  only  ;  and  that  therefore  it  was  not  unlawful  for 
 Jacob  in  Haran  to  take  two  sisters,  nor  for  Amram  in 
 Egypt  to  take  his  father's  sister  :  and  to  this  purpose  they 
 observe  farther,  that  in  the  Mosaic  law  itself,  and  parti- 
 cularly in  the  20th  chapter  of  Leviticus,  where  the 
 sentence  of  excision  is  pronounced  against  incestuous 
 marriages,  there  is  no  punishment  assigned  to  him  who 
 shall  marry  two  sisters  ;  which,  as  they  will  have  it,  was, 
 for  the  honour  of  Jacob,  omitted.  However  this  be,  it 
 is  certain  that  there  is  no  such  toleration  under  the 
 Christian  dispensation  ;  and  therefore  he  who  pretends 
 to  pronounce  any  thing  upon  a  case  so  singular  as  this 
 of  our  patriarch's  is,  should  consider  the  different  state 
 of  tilings,  before  the  promulgation  of  the  law,  during  the 
 obligation  of  it,  and  since  the  commencement  of  the 
 gospel ;  which  undoubtedly  prohibits  both  a  plurality  in 
 wives,  and  consanguinity  in  marriages,  and  requires  of 
 its  votaries  the  strictest  chastity,  from  a  consideration 
 and  motive  which  neither  the  law  of  nature,  nor  the  law 
 
 1  Gen.  xxxii.  1.         2  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  2.  Sermon  6. 
 
 of  Moses,  knew  any  thing  0f :  » <  Ye  are  DOl  your  own, 
 for  you  an-  bought  with  a  price;  therefore  glorifj  tied 
 
 in  your  body,  and  in  jour  spirit,  which  are  GodV 
 
 Of  all  the  adventures  whi,|,  bappe I  to  Jacob,  thai  of 
 
 his  wrestling  is  deservedly  reckoned  one  of  the  Btrangest, 
 and  has  therefore  been  made  a  matter  of  doubt,  whether 
 it  was  a  real  event,  or  a  vision  only.  *  Maimouides,  and 
 some  other  Hebrew,  as  well  as  Christian  interpn 
 are  of  opinion,  that  all  this  was  transacted  only  in  Jacob's 
 imagination.  They  suppose,  that  the  patriarch,  being 
 strongly  possessed  with  the  sense  of  the  danger  he  was 
 going  to  encounter,  saw,  in  a  vision,  a  man  nomine  to 
 him,  and  who,  after  some  altercations,  began  to  wrestle 
 with  him  ;  that  the  conflict  between  them  continued  till 
 break  of  day,  when  his  antagonist,  not  able  to  get  tie- 
 better,  desired  to  be  gone,  &c.  ;  and  that,  as  a  proof 
 that  this  vision  was  more  than  an  ordinary  dream,  it 
 seemed  to  him,  that  the  angel  touched  his  thigh  :  and  in 
 effect,  as  soon  as  he  awoke,  he  found  himself  lame. 
 probably  by  the  force  of  his  imagination. 
 
 If  this  explication  be  admitted,  the  whole  difficult]  is 
 at  an  end.  It  is  natural,  perhaps,  fo^a  man,  under  the 
 apprehensions  of  a  dreadful  foe,  to  dream  of  ti^htim:  ; 
 and  to  dream,  at  the  same  time,  that  he  comes  oil'  no- 
 torious, might  be  accounted  an  happy  omen.  But  it  must 
 be  confessed,  that  the  analogy  of  the  story,  and  more 
 especially  Jacob's  lameness,  which  was  consequent  upon 
 his  conflict,  will  not  suffer  us  to  think  that  all  this  was 
 only  in  a.  dream.  The  more  general  therefore,  and 
 indeed  the  more  rational  opinion  is,  that  this  wrestling 
 was  real,  and  that  Jacob  was  actually  awake,  when 
 engaged  in  it;  but  then  the  question  is,  who  die  person 
 was  that  did  encounter  him  ? 
 
 Origeii,  1  think,  is  a  little  singular,  and  no  ways  to  be 
 justified  in  his  conceit,  when  he  tells  us,  that  the  person 
 with  whom  Jacob  wrestled,  was  an  evil  angel,  in  allusion 
 to  which  he  thinks  that  the  apostle  grounds  his  exhorta- 
 tion :  5  '  Finally,  my  brethren,  be  strong  in  the  Lord,  and 
 in  the  power  of  his  might,  for  we  wrestle  not  against 
 flesh  and  blood,  but  against  principalities,  against 
 powers,  against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world, 
 against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places.'  But  that 
 Jacob,  who  at  this  time  was  so  iiuniediatel\  under  the 
 divine  protection,  should  be  submitted  to  the  assault  of 
 a  wicked  angel  ;  that  he  should  merit  the  name  of  Israel, 
 
 that  is,  the  conqueror  of  God,  for  overcoming  such  an  < , 
 
 or  call  the  place  of  combat  Penirl,  th.it   is,  tl„  j 
 God,  in  commemoration  of  his  conflict  with  such  an  one, 
 is  very  absurd,  if  not  an  impious  suggestion.     Those  who 
 espouse  this  opinion,  may  possibly  be  led  into  it  from  a 
 
 thought, that  the  person  here  contending   with  Jacob. 
 
 was  an  enemy,  and  come  with  a  malevolent  intent  against 
 him;  whereas  nothing  ..in  be  more  evident,  (especial!] 
 by  his  blessing  him  before  the\  parted,)  that  he  CSSM 
 with  a  quite  contrary  design.  "  Among  the  people  Of 
 the  Bast,  from  whence  the  (.recians  r.uue.  and  brought 
 along  with  them  several  of  their  customs,  wrestlinf 
 
 an  exercise  in  great  vogue,  as  highly  conducive  i" 
 
 health  and  strength  :  and  a  rnnmion  tiling  i:  was  tor  two 
 
 '  1  Cor.  \i.  l<»,  20. 
 •  See  Heidegger's  Ili-t.   Patriar.  rot.  2.  Eaaaj    IT.  and   La 
 Clare's  Commentary,  and  Calmet'i  Dictionary. 
 J  Eph.  vi.  H",  11,  18.  "  La  Clan  i  'otum 
 
 2  e 
 
202 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10— xxxvii. 
 
 friends,  when  they  met  together,  to  amuse  and  recreate 
 themselves  in  this  way.  The  Jewish  doctors,  therefore, 
 seem  to  be  much  in  the  right,  when  they  maintain,  that 
 the  person  who  contended  with  Jacob  was  a  good  angel ; 
 and  as  their  settled  notion  is,  that  those  heavenly  spirits 
 sing  every  morning  the  praises  of  God,  at  the  approach 
 of  day  ;  so  the  request  which  his  antagonist  makes,  1 
 '  Let  me  go,  for  the  day  breaketh,'  shows  him  to  be  one  of 
 the  angelic  host,  who  had  stayed  his  prefixed  time,  and 
 was  now  in  haste  to  be  gone,  in  order  to  join  the  heavenly 
 choir  :  for  the  prophet  Hosea,  I  think,  has  determined 
 the  matter  very  plainly,  when  speaking  of  Jacob  he  tells 
 us,  that  2  '  he  took  his  brother  by  the  heel  in  the  womb, 
 and  by  his  strength  he  had  power  with  God,  yea  he  had 
 power  over  the  angel,  and  prevailed.' 
 
 How  Jacob,  who  was  an  hundred  years  old,  could  be 
 enabled  to  do  all  this,  must  be  imputed  to  some  invisible 
 power  that  assisted  him.  3  An  angel  is  here,  in  an 
 extraordinary  manner,  sent  to  encounter  him,  and  he,  in 
 an  extraordinary  maimer,  is  enabled  to  withstand  him. 
 The  whole  scene  is  contrived  to  cure  him  of  his  uneasy 
 fears  ;  and  a  proper  medium  to  do  this  was  to  let  him  see, 
 that  an  old  man  might  contest  it  even  with  an  angel,  and 
 yet  not  be  foiled ;  and  the  power,  he  might  reasonably 
 conclude,  which  assisted  him  in  this  (if  the  matter  were 
 to  come  to  blows  with  his  brother  Esau)  would  so  invi- 
 gorate his  little  army  of  domestics,  as  to  make  them 
 prevail  and  become  victorious. 
 
 It  was  a  common  custom  among  eastern  nations,  as 
 appears  from  several  passages  in  Scripture,  to  convey 
 the  knowledge  of  things  by  actions  as  well  as  words. 
 To  this  purpose  we  find  Zedekiah  *  '  making  him  horns 
 of  iron,'  thereby  to  portend  victory  to  Ahab  ;  and  Elias, 
 ordering  Joash  5  'to  strike  the  ground  with  arrows,'  thence 
 to  presignify  his  triumph  over  the  Syrians.  Nay,  even 
 Hannibal  himself,  (as  the  historian  ti  tells  us,)  perceiving 
 that  his  soldiers  were  not  to  be  encouraged  with  words, 
 made  a  public  show  for  them,  not  so  much  to  entertain 
 their  sight,  as  to  give  them  an  image  and  representation 
 of  their  own  condition.  In  like  manner,  we  may  sup- 
 pose, that  God  made  use  of  this  expedient  to  cure  Jacob 
 of  his  dejection ;  and  though  Moses  (who  cannot  be 
 supposed  to  insert  every  thing)  says  nothing  of  the  angels 
 giving  him  this  intimation,  yet  we  find  it 7  in  Josephus, 
 that  no  sooner  was  the  wrestling  ended,  but  a  voice 
 called  out  to  him,  and  said,  "  Comfort  thyself  in  what 
 thou  hast  done,  for  it  is  not  a  common  adversary  that 
 thou  hast  foiled,  but  an  angel  of  the  Lord  :  take  it  for  a 
 presage,  therefore,  that  thy  posterity  shall  never  fail,  and 
 that  thou  thyself  shalt  never  be  overcome." 
 
 '  O  Lord  God  of  my  father  Simeon,  to  whom  thou 
 gavest  a  sword  to  take  vengeance  of  the  strangers,  who 
 loosened  the  girdle  of  a  maid  to  defile  her,  and  polluted 
 her  virginity  to  her  reproach  :  Therefore  thou  gavest 
 their  rulers  to  be  slain,  so  that  they  dyed  their  bed  in 
 blood,  being  deceived.  Thou  gavest  their  wives  for  a 
 prey,  and  their  daughters  to  be  captives,  and  all  their 
 spoils  to  be  divided  among  thy  dear  children,  who  were 
 moved  with  thy  zeal,  and  abhorred  the  pollution  of  their 
 
 1  Gen.  xxxii.  26.  2  Hosea  xii.  3,  4. 
 
 3  Le  Clerc's  Commentary.       4  1  Kings  xxii.  11. 
 
 2  Kings  xiii.  18.         "  Livy,  b.  21.         '  Antiq.  b.  1.  c.  20. 
 
 blood,  and  called  upon  thee  for  aid.'  8  This  is  the  pre- 
 face to  the  prayer  which  Judith  makes  to  God,  in  the 
 apocryphal  book  that  goes  under  her  name.  And  indeed 
 were  there  no  other  arguments  to  prove  this  book  spuri- 
 ous, this  one  passage  is  enough,  where  we  find  the  most 
 abominable  massacre  called  a  divine  work,  and  perfidy, 
 murder,  and  rapine,  gilded  over  with  the  specious  names 
 of  zeal  for  God,  and  indignation  against  vice.  The 
 abhorrence  which  Jacob  expressed  of  the  cruelty  of  his 
 sons,  the  sharpness  of  the  reproach  uttered  against  them, 
 the  remembrance  of  it  even  to  the  end  of  his  life,  and  the 
 care  he  took  to  recapitulate  it  upon  his  death-bed,  give 
 us  a  much  juster  idea  of  it,  than  the  writings  of  some  9  of 
 the  rabbins,  who  have  undertaken,  not'  only  to  excuse, 
 but  even  to  commend  it.  As  to  the  probability  of  the  fact, 
 however,  we  are  not  to  suppose,  that  because  Simeon 
 and  Levi  are  only  mentioned,  they  therefore  were  the 
 only  persons  who  had  any  hand  in  this  wicked  exploit. 
 They  indeed  are  only  mentioned,  because  being  own 
 brothers  to  Dinah,  both  by  father  and  mother,  and  conse- 
 quently more  concerned  to  resent  the  injury  done  to  her 
 honour,  they  are  made  the  chief  contrivers  and  conduc- 
 tors of  it;  but  it  is  reasonable  to  think,  that  the  rest  of 
 Jacob's  sons,  who  were  old  enough  to  bear  arms,  as  well 
 as  the  greatest  part  of  the  domestics,  were  engaged  in 
 the  execution  of  it :  because  it  is  scarcely  conceivable, 
 how  two  men  alone  should  be  able  to  master  a  whole 
 city,  to  slay  all  the  men  in  it,  and  take  all  the  women 
 captives,  who,  upon  this  occasion,  may  be  supposed  more 
 than  sufficient  to  have  overpowered  them. 
 
 Nothing  is  more  known  and  common  in  history,  than 
 to  ascribe  an  action  (especially  in  military  affairs)  to  the 
 chief  commanders  in  it,  how  many  under  agents  soever 
 they  may  think  proper  to  employ  :  and  we  should  deny 
 Moses  the  common  privilege  of  an  historian,  if  we  should 
 account  that  a  fault  and  omission  in  him,  which,  in  other 
 writers  of  the  like  nature  (especially  where  they  study 
 brevity) ,  is  reputed  a  great  beauty  and  perfection.  Moses 
 however  is  far  from  pleading  his  privilege  in  this  respect; 
 for  having  made  mention  of  Simeon  and  Levi,  as  the 
 principal  leaders  in  the  action,  he  then  proceeds  and 
 tells  us,  that  10  '  the  sons  of  Jacob,'  meaning  the  rest  of 
 his  sons  who  were  of  competent  age  (and  with  them  very 
 reasonably  their  attendants)  '  came  upon  the  slain,  and 
 spoiled  the  city,  because  they  had  defiled  their  sister.' 
 
 It  is  very  remarkable  of  the  Jewish  historian  Josephus, 
 that  he  gives  us  no  manner  of  account  of  Reuben's  incest, 
 for  fear  that  his  recording  so  vile  an  action  might  leave 
 some  blot  of  infamy  upon  that  patriarch  and  his  posterity. 
 But  Moses  has  given  us  a  better  proof  of  his  truth  and 
 integrity,  in  that  he  not  only  mentions  this  abomination 
 once,  but  even  in  the  benediction  which  his  father  gives 
 Reuben,  makes  a  remembrance  and  recital  of  it.  And 
 this  he  did,  that  he  might  give  us  a  true  account,  why  the 
 right  of  inheritance,  which  was  originally  in  him,  came 
 to  be  conferred  on  Joseph  ;  and  the  kingdom,  or  right 
 of  dominion,  which  was  forfeited  by  his  transgression, 
 came  to  be  translated  to  the  tribe  of  Judah.  This  he  J 
 did,  that  he  might  furnish  his  countrymen  with  matter 
 sufficient  for  their  humiliation,  who  by  this  and  many 
 more  instances  of  the  like  nature,  are  given  to  under- 
 
 8  Judith  ix.  2,  &c. 
 
 9  Selden  de  Jur.  Nat.  b.  7.  c.  5. 
 Gen.  xxxiv.  27. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  See. 
 
 \.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10-xxxrii. 
 
 203 
 
 stand,  that  it  was  not  their  merit,  but  purely  God's 
 mercy,  which  advanced  him  to  the  honour  of  being  his 
 peculiar  people  ;  and  this  he  did,  that  he  might  acquaint 
 us  all,  how  God  was  pleased  to  make  these  great,  these 
 elect  heads  and  fathers,  instances  of  human  frailty  and 
 sin,  in  order  to  show,  that  there  is  nothing,  even  nothing 
 in  man,  unless  God  by  grace  be  with  him ;  that  1  '  of 
 ourselves  (as  the  apostle  words  it)  we  are  not  sufficient 
 to  <lo  any  thing,  as  of  ourselves,  but  all  our  sufficiency 
 is  from  God.' 
 
 For  the  same  reason,  we  may  imagine  it  was,  that 
 Moses  makes  mention  of  Rachel's  stealing  away  her 
 father's  gods,  as  a  probable  intimation,  that  she  was  not 
 entirely  cured  of  the  idolatrous  superstition  of  the  country 
 from  whence  she  came. 
 
 The  Jewish  doctors  are  generally  agreed,  that  the 
 word  teraphim,  which  we  render  gods,  is  not  of  Hebrew 
 extraction.  The  Septuagint  translates  it  sometimes  an 
 oracle,  and  sometimes  vain  idols  ;  and  several  commen- 
 tators will  have  it  to  be  a  word  borrowed  from  the 
 Egyptians,  and  to  import  the  very  same  with  their  Sera- 
 pis.  2  The  Jews  indeed  pretend,  that  this  idol  was  the 
 head  of  a  first-born  son,  plucked  off  from  the  neck,  and 
 embalmed ;  under  the  tongue  of  which  was  fastened  a 
 golden  plate,  with  the  name  of  some  false  deity  engraven 
 upon  it,  which  being  placed  in  a  niche,  with  lighted 
 candles  before  it,  gave  vocal  answers  to  such  as  came 
 to  consult  it :  but  others  rather  think,  that  it  was  the 
 same  with  what  the  Persians  call  telephim,  more  generally 
 known  by  the  name  of  talismans,  that  is,  images  in 
 human  form  of  different  sizes,  and  different  metals,  cast 
 under  certain  constellations,  with  the  figures  of  some 
 planets  and  magical  characters  engraven  upon  them  ; 
 whereas  others  are  of  opinion,  that  the  teraphim  which 
 Rachel  stole  were  the  dii  penates,  or  household  gods  of 
 her  father  Laban,  namely,  the  images  of  Noah,  the 
 restorer  of  mankind,  and  of  Shem,  the  head  of  his  family ; 
 and  therefore  they  observe,  that  Laban,  by  way  of  dis- 
 tinction, calls  them  his  gods,  that  is,  the  gods  of  his 
 family.  That  these  teraphim  were  statues,  or  images  of 
 a  human  shape  and  figure,  is  manifest  from  3  Michal's 
 putting  one  of  them  into  her  husband's  bed,  when  she 
 favoured  his  escape  :  that  at  their  first  institution,  their 
 intent  was  innocent,  to  be  emblems  or  representations 
 only  of  some  renowned  ancestor,  whose  memory  the 
 family  was  desirous  to  perpetuate  ;  but  that,  in  process 
 of  time,  they  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  lares  or  dii 
 tutelares  of  the  house,  were  made  objects  of  religious 
 adoration,  and  at  length  perverted  to  all  the  vile  pur- 
 poses of  necromancy,  a  learned  author,  4  who  has 
 examined  this  matter  to  the  full,  has  proved  beyond 
 exception. 
 
 But  whatever  men  or  fictitious  deities  these  figures 
 were  made  to  represent,  it  is  certain,  that  the  use  they 
 were  chiefly  applied  to,  was  to  foretel  future  events,  and 
 discover  what  was  hid  or  lost ;  and  for  this  purpose  were 
 consulted  and  prayed  to  as  oracles,  at  certain  times,  and 
 under  some  particular  aspects  of  the  planets.  Among 
 other  reasons,  therefore,  for  Rachel's  stealing  away  her 
 father's  teraphim,  this  is  generally  supposed  to  be  one, 
 
 1  2  Cor.  iii.  5.  a  Calmet's  Dictionary  and  Commentary ; 
 
 et  Jurieu,  Histoire  des  Cultes  et  des  Dogmes. 
 *  1  Sam.  xix.  13.     *  Jurieu,  Histoire  des  Cultes  et  des  Dogmes. 
 
 — That  he  might  not,  by  inquiring  of  them,  jrain  intelli- 
 gence which  way  it  was  that  Jacob  had  taken  his  flight 
 
 The  truth  is,  there  seems  to  have  been  in  Laban  ;i!i 
 odd  mixture  of  religion.  In  big  conversation  with 
 Abraham's  steward,  when  he  came  to  negotiate  a  match 
 for  Isaac,  he  seems  to  express  a  very  devout  sense  of  the 
 being  and  providence  of  God  ;  and  yet,  at  his  first  coming 
 up  with  Jacob,  he  seems  to  be  chiefly  solicitous  for  tin; 
 loss  of  his  gods,  as  he  calls  them,  which  were  but 
 dumb  and  senseless  idols.  In  the  treaty  which  be  makes 
 with  Jacob,  he  invocates  the  God  of  Abraham,  which  ifl 
 allowed  to  be  the  great  God  of  heaven  and  earth  :  and 
 yet  we  can  hardly  forbear  thinking,  that  he  must  hare 
 believed  a  plurality  of  gods,  in  subordination  to  the 
 supreme,  by  reason  of  his  anxious  concern  for  these 
 images.  Jacob,  no  doubt,  during  bia  abode  with  him, 
 used  all  the  interest  he  had  in  the  family,  to  rectify  his 
 notions,  and  convince  him  of  his  error ;  but  he  was  not 
 able  to  prevail ;  and  therefore  some  imagine,  that  Rachel 
 stole  away  his  idols,  that  she  might  remove  the  occasion 
 of  his  superstitious  worship,  and  hinder  him  from  going 
 on  in  his  impiety. 
 
 These  idols,  we  may  presume,  were  made  of  gold,  or 
 some  very  valuable  substance  ;  and  therefore  it  may  be 
 supposed  that  she  took  them  along  with  her,  not  only  to 
 destroy  them,  but  to  make  herself  t*i  reparation  likewise 
 for  the  wrongs  she  had  received  from  him  ;  and  whereof 
 we  find  both  the  sisters  making  this  complaint :  s  '  Is 
 there  yet  any  portion  or  inheritance  for  us  in  our  father's 
 house  ?  Are  we  not  counted  of  him  strangers  ?  for  he 
 hath  sold  us,  and  hath  quite  devoured  also  our  money.' 
 
 But  even  supposing  the  worst  of  the  case,  that  Rachel 
 did  take  with  her  these  idols,  because  she  still  retained 
 an  hankering  after  the  religion  of  her  ancestors;  yet 
 Jacob  is  not  to  be  discommended  for  marrying  one  of 
 his  own  family,  who  adhered  to  the  true  worship  of  God, 
 though  mixed  with  some  superstitious  customs,  which  be 
 might  easily  reclaim  in  time,  rather  than  any  of  the 
 Canaanitish  line,  which  was  every  day  sinking  more  and 
 more  into  idolatry ;  and  for  that  idolatry,  and  otlier 
 flagitious  practices,  were  in  process  of  time  to  undergo 
 an  utter  excision  :  especially  considering,  that  when  he 
 came  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  where  he  had  full  liberty 
 of  acting  as  he  pleased,  he  made  a  thorough  reformation 
 in  his  family,  and  had  all  these  little  emblems  of  her 
 former  superstition  taken  from  her  and  destroyed. 
 
 The  word  dudaim,  which  we  render  "  mandrakes,  is 
 
 •Gen.  xxxi.  14,  15. 
 a  Calmet  in  his  Dictionary,  givei  us  a  description  of  this 
 plant,  as  it  is  found  in  the  French  kin-'-  gwhnub—  It* 
 white,  and  somewhat  rough;  Is  two  or  three  timet  as  big  again 
 as  its  stem,  and  always  grows  taper.     Generally,  it  MAM  distance 
 from  its  upper  part,  it  divides  int..  us,.  Branches,  which  M  As 
 reason  that  this  root  1ms  something  of  the  figure  of  n  man,  whose 
 two  Hughs  are  represented  by  the  two  branches.     Prom  tl  i 
 of  the  root  proceed  a  peal  number  of  small  fibres,  In 
 places    which  serve  to  Imbibs  the  juice  of  the  earth,  lor  the 
 nourishment  of  the  plant.     Prom  the  irises  a  round 
 
 and  Smooth  stem,  of  H  pretty  deep  red  j  and  at  the  lop  "t'  li  ■ 
 
 grow  four  brnnchoty  whinh  spread  at  equal  distances  from  each 
 other.  Every  branch  lias  five  leaves,  which  are  Indented,  of  a 
 dark  green,  and  terminate  in  a  point.     From  the  centra  • 
 
 branches  proceeds  another  eery  straight  sad  n •  * •  stem,  at  tho 
 
 extremity  of  which  grows  ■  knob  of  about  twenty-four  fruits,  round, 
 and  of  a  beautiful  red  :  and  within  tliis  tViiit  it  a  kind  of  nut,  much 
 of  the  figure  with  a  lentil.     This  not  inclcdts  in  ill. 
 
201 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149 
 
 9.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  191C.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10— xxxvii. 
 
 one  of  those  terms,  whose  true  signification  the  Jews,  at 
 this  time,  pretend  not  to  understand.  There  is  but  one 
 place  more  in  Scripture,  wherein  it  occurs,  and  that  is  in 
 the  7th  chapter  of  Canticles,  wherein  the  bridegroom 
 invites  his  spouse  to  go  with  him  into  the  fields:  '  Come, 
 my  beloved,  let  us  get  up  early  to  the  vineyard,  let  us 
 see  if  the  vine  flourish,  whether  the  tender  grapes  appear, 
 and  the  pomegranates  bud  forth.  The  mandrakes  give 
 a  smell ;  and  at  our  gates  are  all  manner  of  fruits,  which 
 I  have  laid  up  for  thee,  O  my  beloved.'  Here  we  find 
 i*.  placed  among  the  most  delicious  and  pleasant  fruits, 
 the  grape,  the  pomegranate,  &c,  and  represented  as 
 very  fragrant  and  odoriferous  in  its  smell ;  but  the  man- 
 drake, say  some,  is  a  stinking  and  ill  scented  fruit,  of  a 
 bad  taste,  and  a  cold  narcotic  quality ;  and  therefore 
 they  have  rendered  the  word  '  fine  and  lovely  flowers  ;' 
 and  some  of  them  will  have  it  to  be  the  violet  or  jessa- 
 mine, (which  suit  very  well  with  the  season  of  the  year 
 here  mentioned  ;)  whilst  others  contend  very  strongly 
 for  the  lily,  which,  in  Syria,  grew  in  the  fields,  and  was 
 of  a  most  agreeable  beauty  and  smell. 
 
 That  passage  in  Solomon's  Song,  however,  will  not 
 sutler  us  to  doubt  but  that  it  was  a  fruit,  of  some  kind 
 or  other  ;  and  Ludolft',1  in  his  History  of  Ethiopia,  will 
 needs  have  it  to  be  what  the  Syrians  call  mauz,  a  fruit 
 much  about  as  big  as  a  small  cucumber,  that  hangs  in 
 clusters,  sometimes  to  the  number  of  forty  upon  the 
 same  stalk,  and  is,  in  figure  and  taste,  not  unlike  the 
 Indian  fig. 
 
 It  is  not  to  be  doubted,  indeed,  but  that  the  mandrake 
 in  Palestine  is  of  a  different  kind  to  what  we  have  in 
 these  climates.  St  Austin,  who  thought  it  a  great 
 curiosity  to  see  one,  tells  us  that  it  was  very  beautiful  to 
 the  eye,  and  of  a  fragrant  smell,  but  utterly  insipid;  so 
 that  he  wonders  what  should  make  Rachel  set  so  high  a 
 value  upon  it,  unless  it  were  its  scarceness  and  rich 
 scent.  In  the  province  of  Pekin  in  China,  we  are 
 informed,  that  there  is  a  kind  of  mandrake  so  valuable, 
 and  when  mixed  in  any  liquor  makes  so  rich  a  cordial, 
 that  a  pound  of  its  root  (for  in  the  root  lies  all  the 
 virtue)  is  Avorth  thrice  its  weight  in  silver. 
 
 It  Mas  a  general  opinion  among  the  ancients,  that 
 there  was  a  certain  quality  in  the  juice  of  mandrakes  to 
 excite  amorous  inclinations  ;  and  therefore  they  called 
 them  the  apples  of  love,  as  the  Hebrew  word  clod,  from 
 whence  comes  cloclaim,  is  frequently  set  to  signify  love. 
 Thus,  whether  we  consider  this  fruit  as  pleasant  to  the 
 
 'B.  ].  c.  17. 
 
 plant,  which  dies  and  grows  again  every  year,  and  has  nothing 
 valuable  in  it  but  the  root,  whose  virtues  are  wonderful.  Of  this 
 plant  (as  Dioscorides  informs  us)  there  are  two  sorts:  one  is 
 black,  and  called  the  female  mandrake,  having  leaves  not  unlike 
 lettuce,  though  less  and  narrower,  which  spread  upon  the  ground, 
 and  are  of  a  very  disagreeable  scent.  It  bears  something  like 
 services,  which  are  pale,  and  of  a  strong  smell,  with  kernels 
 within,  like  those  of  a  pea.  It  has  two  or  three  very  large  roots, 
 twisted  together,  black  without,  but  white  within,  and  covered 
 with  a  thick  rind.  The  other  sort,  or  the  male  mandrake,  pro- 
 duces berries  as  big  again  as  those  of  the  female,  of  a  good  scent, 
 and  a  colour  not  much  unlike  saflion.  Its  leaves  are  large, 
 white,  broad,  and  smooth,  like  the  leaves  of  a  beech  tree,  audits 
 root  resembles  that  of  the  female,  but  is  much  thicker  and  bigger, 
 and  the  quality  of  them  both  is  to  stupify  and  make  sleepy  those 
 that  take  them — B.  b'.  c.  61.  (This  plant,  though  once  in  great 
 repute  in  medicine,  is  now  deservedly  deemed  of  none, — it  is  of 
 no  use  incases  of  barrenness,  and  is  even  dangerous  to  be  eaten.) 
 
 eye,  smell,  or  taste,  or  as  a  restorative  to  nature,  and 
 helpful  to  conception,  any  of  these  reasons  are  sufficient 
 why  Rachel  should  take  such  a  fancy  to  them :  and 
 why  she  purchased  them  at  so  strange  a  rate,  was  chiefly 
 occasioned  by  Leah's  sullen  reply,  that  she  had  '  taken 
 away  her  husband's  affections  from  her,'  which  provoked 
 the  other,  who,  according  to  the  established  order  of 
 succeeding  to  his  bed,  had  certainly  the  property  in  trim 
 that  night,  to  resign  him  to  her. 
 
 Moses,  however,  only  mentions  this  circumstance  to 
 let  his  reader  know  upon  what  occasion  it  was  that  Leah, 
 after  she  had  done  child-bearing,  as  she  thought,  came 
 to  conceive  again.  2  It  had  been  below  the  dignity  of 
 such  a  sacred  historian  as  he  is  to  take  notice  of  such 
 trivial  matters,  had  there  not  been  something  of  great 
 consideration  in  them ;  and  what  could  that  be,  but 
 chiefly  the  birth  of  the  '  blessed  seed,'  which  was  the 
 object  of  the  hopes  of  all  pious  people  in  these  days  ? 
 It  is  evident,  from  the  conduct  both  of  Rachel  and  her 
 sister,  that  it  was  children  they  desired,  and  not  merely 
 the  company  of  their  husband ;  nor  would  their  husband 
 have  ever  been  determined  by  their  blind  bargains,  had 
 it  not  been  matter  of  pure  indifference  to  him  whether 
 of  their  embraces  he  went  to,  so  long  as  his  family  was 
 but  increased  and  multiplied. 
 
 That  it  was  a  very  ancient  custom,  not  only  among 
 the  Hebrews,  but  with  many  other  nations,  and  particu- 
 larly the  Greeks  and  Romans,  in  the  marriages  both  of 
 their  sons  and  daughters,  and  especially  of  the  latter, 
 for  the  parents  to  give  with  the  bride  and  bridegroom, 
 as  part  of  the  portion  or  dowTy,  a  servant,  to  abide  in 
 their  power  and  property,  is  a  matter  so  plain,  a  from 
 sundry  examples,  that  it  needs  no  contesting.  The 
 great  difficulty  is,  for  what  reason  it  was  that  these 
 matrons  of  old  were  so  very  desirous  that  their  husbands 
 should  have  commerce  with  these  their  dotal  maids,  in 
 case  they  had  no  children  of  their  own  :  and  for  the 
 solution  of  this  we  must  observe,  that  according  to  the 
 principles  of  the  oldest  philosophy,  spirit  is  the  universal, 
 efficient  cause  in  nature,  but  especially  in  generation, 
 and  in  human  generation  most  of  all ;  so  that  a  spiritual 
 conception  must,  of  necessity,  precede  and  direct  every 
 bodily  one,  insomuch  that  there  can  be  no  corporeal 
 conception  without  a  spiritual  one  ;  but  a  spiritual  there 
 may  be  without  a  corporeal  one,  that  is,  when  the  matter 
 or  medium  is  not  adapted  to  that  purpose.  Now,  this 
 position  being  laid  down,  it  may  be   observed  farther, 
 
 2  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  In  the  tragedy  of  Euripides,  which  is  called  Iphigenia  in 
 Aulis,  Clyterr.nestra  is  brought  in,  as  preparing  and  hastening  all 
 things  for  the  nuptials  of  her  daughter,  who,  unknown  to  her, 
 was  devoted  for  a  sacrifice,  and  addressing  herself  in  this  man- 
 ner:— "  I  the  bridemaid  am  come,  but  away  ye  and  bring  from 
 the  chariots  those  gifts  which  I  am  about  to  present  with  the  girl; 
 with  expedition  fetch  them  to  the  hall."  Old  Demrcnetus,  ia 
 the  Asinaria  of  Plautus,  is  told  by  his  slave,  "  Thy  spouse,  who 
 had  more  in  her  hand  than  you,  brought  a  slave  as  a  marriage 
 gift."  These  servants  among  the  Greeks  were  called  <pi^ai, 
 from  whence  is  derived  the  Latin  vcrna ;  and  by  the  Romans, 
 dotales,  receptitii,  or  receplitia:.  They  had  likewise  the  name 
 of  XaTtnt  given  them,  and  their  service  was  expressed  by  the 
 word  Xar^ua,  which  signifies  the  service  due  from  man  to 
 Almighty  God;  which  is  wout  to  be  distinguished  from  any 
 other  sort  of  service,  and  denotes  that  such  persons  were  entirely 
 at  their  mistresses'  devotion. — Bibliotheca  Bi'ilica,  vol.  1.  An- 
 notation 32. 
 
Shot.  III.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  1910.  GEN.  t  11.  xxviii    10— xxxvii 
 
 205 
 
 tliat  these  matrons  very  probably  were  not  ignorant  that 
 the  mother  contributes  nothing,  of  herself,  towards  the 
 formation  of  the  foetus,  and  much  less  to  its  inspiration 
 with  life,  but  merely  the  bearing  it  in  the  womb ;  and 
 hence  they  might  infer,  that  the  bearing  it  in  the  womb 
 was  not  sufficient  of  itself  to  confer  a  right  to  the  fruit 
 of  it,  which  came  thither  they  knew  not  how,  which  they 
 had  no  hand  in  the  fashioning  of,  and  which  they  were 
 no  more  able  to  quicken,  than  they  were  to  enliven  a 
 dead  body.  It  being,  therefore,  no  strange  thing,  in 
 these  days,  for  one  man  to  raise  up  seed  for  another,  or 
 to  propagate  by  another,  by  parity  of  reason  they  might 
 conclude,  that  one  woman  might  as  well  do  the  same 
 for  another,  or  bear  in  her  stead,  under  such  and  such 
 circumstances,  by  the  union  and  co-operation  of  their 
 wills,  and  strong  attraction  of  the  imagination  in  two 
 consociating  into  one.  And  this  was  the  consideration 
 which  moved  them  to  press  this  matter  so  very  earnestly 
 as  they  did  :  when  finding  that,  after  they  had  spiritually 
 conceived  of  their  husbands,  by  taking  them  into  an 
 ideal  image  for  elaboration,  there  was  wanting  strength 
 in  them  to  bear,  and  to  work  out  what  they  had  received, 
 they  could  afterwards  have  no  greater  pleasure  than  to 
 appoint  one  who  should  faithfully  supply  that  part, 
 wherein  they  themselves  were  defective,  and  thereby  be 
 able,  not  only  to  remedy  the  reproach  of  their  barren- 
 ness, but  to  establish  a  stronger  interest  in  the  family 
 for  themselves,  and  for  all  that  they  could  call  their 
 own. 
 
 1  '  The  bearing  upon  the  knees,'  therefore,  as  the  ex- 
 pression is  in  Moses,  must  certainly  denote  something 
 more  than  that  Rachel  designed  to  make  herself  a  nurse 
 to  her  maid,  or  set  a  child  upon  her  knees,  as  her  own, 
 in  which  she  had  no  part  or  portion  ;  but  that  her  servant 
 should  conceive,  and  become  with  child  through  her,  as 
 in  her  presence,  and  as  it  were  '  upon  her  knees,'  to  the 
 end  that  her  mistress  might  be  made  a  mother,  by  her 
 instrumentality,  and  might  have  children,  whom  she 
 could  call  her  own,  though  not  born  of  her  body.  And 
 accordingly  we  may  observe,  that  Rachel  herself  had 
 this  notion  of  the  matter  ;  for  upon  the  birth  of  her  first 
 son,  born  to  her  by  her  substitute,  she  expressly  declares 
 that  God  had  given  her  a  son,  and,  as  the  custom  for 
 mothers  then  was,  herself  imposed  on  him  a  name,  as  a 
 mark  of  her  thinking  him  really  to  be  hers. 
 
 Thus  have  we  endeavoured  to  silence  some  of  those 
 cavils,  which  may  be  made  against  particular  passages 
 in  the  Mosaic  history,  during  this  period  of  time ;  and 
 for  the  farther  confirmation  of  its  truth  and  authority, 
 we  might  produce  the  testimony  of  several  heathen 
 writers,  2  such  as  Sanchoniatho,  Berosus,  Hecatauis, 
 Eupolemus,  and  others,  as  they  are  quoted  by  Eusebius 
 in  his  Pr.eparatio  Evangelica.  The  fiction  of  Jupiter's 
 chain  in  Homer,  reaching  from  heaven  to  earth,  as  it 
 relates  to  the  divine  providence,  had  its  original  from 
 Jacob's  ladder.  The  memory  of  his  wrestling  with  an 
 angel  has  been  preserved,  ever  since,  by  a  whole 
 nation's  abstaining  from  a  particular  part  of  the  thigh, 
 which,  without  that  supposition,  cannot  be  accounted 
 for.  Jacob's  living  with  his  uncle  Laban  in  the  capacity 
 of  a  servant,  gave  rise  to  the  story  of  Apollo's  being 
 
 1  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1 
 *See  Grot,  do  Verit.  b.  1. 
 
 Occasional  Aiiiiutat'uns  .''.'!. 
 
 reduced,  when  expelled  from  his  father's  house,  to  the 
 necessity  of  turning  Admetus's  shepherd.  The  fable  of 
 the  Bethleans,  which  ■>  Eusebius  takes  out  of  Philo 
 Biblius,  came  undoubtedly  from  the  altar  of  Bethel  : 
 and,  to  name  no  more,  the  whole  business  of  Jacob's 
 arrival  at  Shechem  upon  his  return  from  .Mesopotamia, 
 of  his  daughter  Dinah's  rape  by  the  prince  of  the 
 country,  and  of  the  terrible  revenge  which  Imp  brothers 
 took  for  that  indignity,  is  related  by  Alexander  Poly- 
 histor,  as  he  is  quoted  by  the  same  father,  much  in  tie- 
 same  order,  and  with  the  very  same  circumstances,  tint 
 we  find  it  recorded  in  the  works  of  Moses. 
 
 CHAP.  III.— Of  Jacob's  Ladder  and  Pillar. 
 
 To  judge  of  the  occasion  of  Jacob's  vision,  wherein  this 
 emblematical  ladder  was  represented  to  him,  we  must 
 imagine  that  we  saw  the  heir  of  a  powerful  famih  taking 
 his  leave  of  his  aged  parents,  and  for  fear  of  an  angry 
 brother  departing  from  his  father's  house  ;  beginning  a 
 journey  of  450  miles,  into  a  strange  country,  all  alone, 
 on  foot,  and  without  any  servant  to  attend  him  ;  travel- 
 ling all  the  day  with  a  pensive  heart,  and  forced  at 
 night  to  take  up  his  lodging  in  the  open  air,  and  with 
 nothing  better  than  an  hard  stone  to  be  his  pillow  :  if 
 we  suppose  Jacob  in  this  condition,  I  say,  we  shall 
 soon  perceive  the  reason  why  God  thought  it  convenient, 
 at  this  time,  to  give  him  comfort  and  consolation  in  the 
 way  of  a  dream. 
 
 That  dreams,  or  nocturnal  visions,  were  a  common 
 way  of  God's  revealing  himself  to  mankind  of  old,  is 
 evident  from  instances  almost  innumerable;  and  the 
 reason  of  his  making  choice  of  this  method  might  be, 
 either  4  to  convince  them  of  his  omnipresence,  that  '  he 
 was  about  their  bed,  and  about  their  paths,  and  spied 
 out  all  their  ways;'  or  to  convince  them  of  his  constant 
 care,  and  that  he  was  not  unmindful  of  them,  even  when 
 they  little  thought  of  him,  and  were  most  absent  from 
 themselves;  or  to  convince  them  of  his  unlimited  power 
 over  their  souls,  when  even  sleep  itself  could  not  hinder 
 his  access  to  them;  or  because  that  the  mind,  in  the 
 dead  and  silence  of  the  night,  was  fitter  to  receive 
 divine  impressions,  when  nature  was  hush,  and  the 
 passions  asleep,  and  no  variety  of  thoughts  to  distract 
 its  attention. 
 
 But  whatever  God's  reasons  might  be  for  conveying 
 things  by  dreams,  it  is  certain  that  the  vision  of  tie- 
 ladder,  and  the  comfortable  words  which  he  spoke  from 
 
 the  top  of  it,  made  such  a  lively  impression  0] Jacob, 
 
 that  he  proceeded  in  his  journej  with   cheerfulness  and 
 
 alacrity:  "Behold  I  am  with  tl ,  and   I   will  keep 
 
 thee  in  all  places  whither  thoa  goest,  and  will  bring 
 thee  asrain  into  this   land:  for    I   will    not    leave   thee, 
 
 until    I  have  d< that  which   1  haw  spoken   to    thee    of.' 
 
 These  are  the  verbal  a.-sn  ranees  which  God  gives  Jacob  j 
 and   therefore   we    ma\    presume   that   the   representation 
 
 of  tin1  ladder  had  something  analogous  in  it. 
 
 This    ladder,    according    to    the    sense    of   the 
 
 •  Pnep.  Evan.  b.  0.  a  21. 
 
 4  Watsii  MiscelL  3  nil-,  voL  I. 
 
 Mien,  \wiii.  15.  '  Maimonides  Mors  N 
 
206 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10— xxxvii. 
 
 interpreters,  is  an  emblem  of  the  divine  providence, 
 which  governs  all  things.  Its  being  '  set  upon  the 
 earth'  denotes  the  steadiness  of  providence,  which 
 nothing  is  able  to  unsettle  ;  its  '  reaching  up  to  heaven  ' 
 signifies  its  universality,  or  that  it  extends  to  all  things  ; 
 the  '  several  steps  of  the  ladder '  are  the  motions  and 
 actions  of  providence  ;  the  '  angels  going  up  and  down' 
 show,  that  they  are  the  great  ministers  of  providence, 
 never  idle,  but  always  employed  in  the  preservation  of 
 the  just ;  '  their  ascending '  means  their  going  up  to 
 receive  the  divine  orders  and  commands ;  and  '  their 
 descending,'  their  coming  down  upon  earth  to  put  them 
 in  execution.  So  that,  in  this  hieroglyphic,  God  signi- 
 fied to  Jacob,  now  full  of  care  and  uneasy  apprehen- 
 sions, that  the  man  who  was  under  the  custody  and 
 protection  of  divine  providence  wanted  not  company  in 
 a  wilderness ;  wanted  not  security  in  the  midst  of 
 dangers ;  wanted  not  direction  in  the  most  difficult 
 undertakings ;  since  there  were  so  many  ministering 
 spirits  holding  correspondence  between  earth  and 
 heaven,  and  daily  and  hourly  x  '  sent  forth  '  from  God's 
 presence  '  to  minister  unto  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of 
 salvation.' 
 
 Other  interpretations  there  are  in  great  numbers,  but 
 too  a  full  of  fancies  and  conceits  to  be  here  taken  notice 
 of.  One,  however,  seems  a  little  more  solid,  and  may 
 not  undeserve  our  observation.  2  The  promise,  we  may 
 remember,  which  God  is  introduced  as  making  to  Jacob 
 from  the  top  of  the  ladder,  does  chiefly  relate  to  his 
 covenant  with  Abraham,  which  was  principally  founded 
 in  Christ,  that  chosen  seed,  '  in  whom  all  the  families  of 
 the  earth  were  to  be  blessed:'  and  the  analogy  of  the 
 thing  may  induce  us  to  believe  that  this  ladder  was 
 designed  for  a  type  and  emblem  of  the  covenant  of 
 grace,  which  was  in  force  from  the  time  of  man's  first 
 apostasy,  but  began  to  be  put  in  execution  at  the 
 incarnation  of  our  Saviour  Christ,  that  only  Mediator, 
 who  opened  an  intercourse  between  earth  and  heaven  ; 
 by  whose  intercession,  plenty  of  all  spiritual  blessings 
 descend  to  us,  and  by  whose  merits  and  doctrines  our 
 natures  are  sanctified,  and  so  become  meet  to  be 
 '  partakers  with  the  saints  in  light,'  or  to  ascend  into 
 heaven.     And  to  this  mystical  meaning  of  the  ladder 
 
 1  Heb.  i.  14. 
 
 2  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  ]  6. 
 
 a  The  rabbins,  having  given  us  long  chimerical  descriptions 
 of  this  ladder,  will  have  it  represent  almost  every  thing  that 
 comes  into  their  fancies.  Some  pretend  that  the  ascending 
 angels  were  those  who  had  the  care  of  Jacob  in  his  going;  the 
 descending,  those  whose  business  it  was  to  secure  him  in  his 
 returning  from  Mesopotamia.  Another  (Jarchi  on  Gen.  xxviii. 
 12.)  is  of  opinion,  that  God  designed  hereby  to  point  out  the 
 place  where  he  would  have  the  temple  built  one  day ;  and  to 
 reconcile  this  opinion  to  geography,  he  affirms  that  God  at  this 
 time  transported  to  Luz  the  hill  of  Sion,  upon  which  the  temple 
 at  Jerusalem  was  afterwards  built.  Philo,  who  certainly  believed 
 a  metempsychosis,  tells  us,  that  the  angels  which  Jacob  saw  are 
 emblems  of  souls,  whereof  some  descend  to  animate  bodies, 
 whilst  others  ascend,  having  quitted  the  bodies  which  they  once 
 animated.  St  Austin  will  have  this  ladder  to  represent  the  cross 
 of  Christ;  and  some  of  the  mystical  divines,  making  it  an 
 emblem  of  a  contemplative  life,  do  maintain,  that  the  angels 
 ascending  the  ladder  are  those  believers  whom  they  call  perfect, 
 as  having  the  faculty  of  causing  their  affections  to  soar  up  to  the 
 highest  heavens,  and  that  the  descending  represented  those 
 mean  and  abject  souls  whose  centre  is  the  earth,  and  whose 
 delight  consists  in  fleshly  things.  —  i>aurin's  Dissertations. 
 
 our  Saviour  himself  may  be  thought  to  allude,  when  he 
 tells  us,  that 3  '  Hereafter  ye  shall  see  heaven  open,  and 
 the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending  upon  the 
 Son  of  Man ;'  which  4  a  learned  commentator  has  in  this 
 manner  paraphrased : — "  Ye  have  heard,  no  doubt,  of 
 those  of  old,  that  several  things  relating  to  the  Messias 
 have  been  represented  by  Jacob's  ladder ;  and  ye  are 
 to  know,  that  they  are  all  now  to  be  accomplished  in 
 me,  and  shall  every  day  be  more  and  more  accomplished, 
 until  the  time  of  my  assumption  into  heaven.  Ye  shaJJ 
 know  that  heaven,  which  by  the  sin  and  corruption  of 
 mankind  was  shut  in  Adam,  shall  by  my  dispensation 
 and  doctrine  be  opened  again ;  and  that  God,  being 
 reconciled  to  the  world  by  me,  shall  continue  in  cove- 
 nant with  them  for  ever.  Ye  shall  know,  that  I  am  that 
 ladder  and  way  to  heaven,  by  which  ye  may  gain  admit- 
 tance to  the  Father  ;  for  I  am  he  that  unites  heaven  and 
 earth  together,  so  that  from  henceforward  the  angels 
 shall  continually  be  passing  from  the  one  to  the  other. 
 In  short,  ye  shall  know,  that  I  am  the  Lord,  not  only 
 of  the  visible  creation,  but  the  Prince  likewise  of  angels 
 and  all  invisible  spirits,  even  the  true  God.  This,  I 
 say,  ye  shall  henceforth  more  fully  know,  by  my 
 doctrine,  my  miracles,  my  death,  my  glorious  resurrec- 
 tion, and  triumphant  ascension  into  heaven." 
 
 Thus,  according  to  the  declaration  which  God  makes 
 from  the  top  of  the  ladder,  it  seems  reasonable  to 
 imagine,  that  he  might  have  a  twofold  design  in  making 
 this  representation  to  Jacob,  namely,  by  a  proper  type, 
 to  prefigure  the  incarnation  of  his  Son,  which,  like  this 
 ladder,  joined  heaven  and  earth,  the  divine  and  human 
 natures,  together  ;  and  by  a  proper  emblem  of  the  angels 
 ascending  and  descending  upon  it,  to  give  him  an 
 evidence  of  the  watchful  providence  of  God  that  at- 
 tended him.  The  former  of  these  designs  might  perhaps 
 be  a  little  too  abstruse  for  Jacob's  comprehension  at 
 present,  but  the  latter  he  immediately  understood ;  and 
 therefore  we  find  him,  as  soon  as  he  arose,  out  of  a 
 grateful  sense  of  the  divine  goodness  in  sending  him  a 
 vision  so  full  of  consolation,  erecting  and  consecrating 
 a  pillar,  in  order  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  so 
 momentous  an  event. 
 
 It  is  the  opinion  of  some  commentators,  indeed,  that 
 to  preserve  the  memory  of  this  heavenly  vision,  Jacob 
 took  the  stone  whereon  his  head  lay,  and  wherein  they 
 discern  nothing  extraordinary,  and  set  it  up  for  a  monu- 
 ment or  pillar  upon  the  top  of  some  other  stones,  which 
 he  had  gathered  and  heaped  together :  but,  besides  that 
 the  fancy  of  an  heap  of  stones  seems  unworthy  of  the 
 Holy  Scriptures,  and  betrays  us  into  a  low  and  trifling 
 idea  of  this  great  affair,  there  is  not  the  least  gTound 
 from  the  text  itself,  nor  from  this  symbolical  way  of 
 transmitting  facts  to  future  generations,  to  suppose  that 
 there  was  any  more  than  one  single  stone. 
 
 The  word  matzebah,  which  our  interpreters  render  a 
 pillar,  is  by  the  Septuagint  translated  2tijA»?,  by  the 
 vulgar  Latin,  titulus ;  and  from  hence  several,  both 
 ancients  and  moderns,  have  supposed  that  there  was  an 
 inscription  upon  this  pillar.  The  manner  of  consecrat- 
 ing this  pillar  was  by  pouring  oil  upon  it,  which  Jacob 
 might  have  by  him,  without  a  miracle,  considering  how 
 
 3  John  i.  51. 
 
 4  Bullinger's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.   A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3495.  A.  C.  191C.  GEN 
 
 207 
 
 common  the  use  of  oil  was  in  these  hot  countries,  to 
 refresh  the  limbs  when  weary  with  travelling',  and  how 
 necessary,  upon  that  account,  it  was  to  carry  some  with 
 him  in  his  journey :  nor  is  there  any  reason  to  suppose, 
 that  Jacob  made  use  of  this  form  of  consecration  in 
 compliance  with  the  custom  of  the  country  where  he 
 then  was.  It  is  uncertain  whether  this  custom  was 
 established  in  Jacob's  time ;  but  if  it  was,  it  is  hardly- 
 credible  that  a  pious  man,  as  he  is  represented,  would 
 have  adopted  a  superstitious  ceremony  into  the  worship 
 of  the  true  God.  1  The  much  more  probable  opinion, 
 therefore,  is,  that  as  the  rites  of  sacrificing  and  circum- 
 cision were  instituted  before  the  promulgation  of  the 
 law,  so  this  manner  of  consecrating  things,  by  way  of 
 unction  or  libation,  was  at  first  enjoined  the  patriarchs 
 Abraham  and  Isaac  by  God,  and  either  by  precept  or 
 tradition  from  them,  came  afterwards  to  be  practised  by 
 Jacob.  Nor  is  it  unlikely  but  that  Jacob's  practice  in 
 this  particular,  and  the  great  veneration  which  was 
 afterwards  paid  to  his  monumental  pillar,  might  give 
 occasion  a  to  the  worshipping  such  erected  stones  in 
 future  ages,  and,  upon  such  abuse,  of  God's  so  strictly 
 prohibiting  any  to  be  set  up  :  2  '  Ye  shall  not  make  ye 
 any  idols  or  graven  image,  neither  shall  ye  rear  up  any 
 matzebah,'  statue  or  pillar,  '  to  bow  down  unto  it,  for  I 
 am  the  Lord  your  God.' 
 
 In  the  religious  sense  of  the  word,  then,  matzebah 
 may  properly  signify  a  large  consecrated  stone,  erected 
 pillarwise,  before  which  prostrations  and  adorations 
 were  made,  and  upon  which  oblations  and  libations,  but 
 not  any  bloody  sacrifices,  were  presented  :  but  then  the 
 question  is,  how  Jacob  could  think  to  secure  this  monu- 
 ment from  being  thrown  down  by  the  natives  or  passen- 
 gers ;  or  how  he  could  impose  a  new  name  upon  it,  and 
 establish  that  name  in  future  ages,  when  the  place  had 
 a  name  before,  and  no  person  was  present  to  bear 
 testimony  of  what  he  did.  This,  indeed,  the  Scripture 
 gives  us  no  manner  of  account  of;  and  therefore,  if  we 
 do  it  but  modestly,  we  are  left  at  liberty  to  make  our 
 own  conjectures. 
 
 According  to  the  ancient  versions  of  the  word,  we 
 may  suppose  that  there  was  upon  this  stone  some  legible 
 and  intelligible  title  or  inscription ;  nor  is  it  improbable 
 that  the  title  should  be,  Avhat  the  patriarch  in  a  sort  of 
 ecstasy  called  it,  '  Bethel,'  or  '  the  house  of  God.'  How 
 Jacob  might  be  provided  with  an  iron  pen,  or  style,  for 
 the  purpose  of  engraving  this  title,  can  be  no  difficult 
 thing  to  imagine,  if  we  do  but  consider  that  the  style 
 was  the  common  instrument  of  writing  in  those  days, 
 which  every  scholar  used  to  carry  about  with  him,  and 
 which  Jacob,  *  having  led  a  studious  and  contemplative 
 
 1  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  3  Lev.  xxvi.  1. 
 
 a  From  Jacob's  pouring  oil  upon  the  stone  of  Bethel  did  arise 
 the  superstition  of  the  ancients  for  their  betuli,  which  were  stones 
 rnointed  and  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  great  men  after  tin  ir 
 death.  Sanchoniatho,  or  rather  Porphyry,  the  author  of  the 
 fragment  which  Eusebius  has  preserved  under  the  name  of 
 Sanchoniatho,  attributes  the  invention  of  these  betuli  to  Saturn ; 
 but  the  best  account  that  can  be  given  of  this  absurd  practice  is 
 from  hence,  and  a  sufficient  demonstration  it  is  how  the  best  Bad 
 noblest  acts  of  piety  may  be  perverted,  and  degenerate  into  mere 
 stupidity,  by  a  fond,  superstitious  imitation Calmet's  Dic- 
 tionary, under  the  word  Bethel}  and  Bibliothcca  Biblica,  vol. 
 1.;   Occasional  Annotations,  SO. 
 
 I  That  Jacob  was  a  man  of  learning,  and  of  an  extraordinary 
 
 xxviii.  10-xxxvii. 
 
 life  under  his  father  and  grandfather,  and.  as  MMM 
 suppose,  under  Melchizedek  likewise,  was  not  unquali- 
 fied to  make  use  of;  and  that  the  very  ancient,  if  not 
 universal  custom  of  erecting,  anointing,  and  conaecrat- 
 ing  such  like  stones,  with  an  inscription,  either  literal 
 or  hieroglyphical,  and  sometimes  both,  could  hardly 
 have  any  other  foundation  than  this  practice  of  his. 
 
 But  besides  the  bare  inscription  of  the  name  and  title 
 of  the  stone,  there  might  probably  be  yet  something  more 
 to  attract  the  eyes  of  the  traveller,  and  to  raise  a 
 
 ration  for  the  place.   And,  therefore,  admitting  the  st 
 
 to  be  square,  we  find  that  there  were  two  oaths,  as  it 
 were,  taken  upon  it,  by  the  covenanting  parties,  that  is, 
 the  oath  of  God  to  Jacob,  repeating  the  substance  of 
 what  he  had  sworn  to  his  fathers,  and  limiting  it  to  him 
 and  his  seed  ;  and  the  oath  of  Jacob  to  God,  obliging 
 himself  and  his  posterity  to  such  a  constant  homage  as 
 is  therein  specified  ;  and  hereupon  we  may  infer,  that  for 
 the  better  preservation  of  the  memory  of  this  great 
 league,  there  might  be  written,  on  one  side,  the  obliga- 
 tion of  God,  exactly  in  the  terms  of  the  13th,  1  ltli,  and 
 15th  verses ;  and  on  the  opposite,  the  obligation  of 
 Jacob,  as  expressed  by  him  in  the  three  last  verses  of  the 
 28th  chapter  of  Genesis.  And,  because  it- was  necessary 
 that  the  name  of  the  person  who  erected  and  consecrated 
 the  stone  should  be  preserved,  we  may  further  suppose, 
 that  as  God's  signing  this  covenant  on  his  part  might  be 
 in  this  form,  Ani  Jehovah,  Elohe  Abraham,  Elohe 
 Isaac,  I  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of 
 Isaac;  by  parity  of  reason,  Jacobs  signing  might  run 
 thus,  Ani  Jacob,  Ben  Isaac,  Ben  Abraham,  /  Jacob,  the 
 son  of  Isaac,  the  son  of  Abraham. 
 
 On  the  vacant  sides  of  the  stone,  we  may  suppose 
 again,  that  the  other  awftd  sentences  which  Jacob  upon 
 this  occasion  pronounced,  3  '  How  dreadful  is  this  place  ' 
 This  is  the  gate  of  heaven,  and  verily  the  Lord  is  in 
 this  place  !'  were  engraven.  And  because  a  very  early 
 custom  of  crowning  such  public  pillars  with  garlands 
 might  very  likely  take  its  rise  from  Jacob's  practice  at 
 this  time,  we  may  therefore  be  allowed  to  make  one 
 conjecture  more,  namely,  that  as  Luz,  near  which  this 
 transaction  happened,  had  its  name  from  a  grove  "I 
 almond-trees,  not  far  distant  from  it:  BO  Jacob  might 
 think  it  very  decent,  in  memory  of  the  divine  favours 
 there  received,  to  crown  and  adorn  the  top  of  this  titular 
 stone,  with  a  garland  of  almond  branches  taken  from 
 thence.  All  this,  we  allow,  is  no  more  than  supposition 
 and  conjecture  ;  but,  without  some  such  contrivai  • 
 
 this,  how  could  this  stone  have  been  an  instrument  to 
 
 perpetuate  the  memory  of  an  event?     Hon  a  ana  of 
 
 Jacob's  imposing  a  new  nam.-   upon  a    place  that    was 
 entirely  in  the  possession  of  others?     Well  might  the 
 
 natives  or  proprietors   ask,  by  what   authority  this  was 
 
 •  Sen.  \wi;i.  16,  17. 
 genius,  is  not  only  a  general  tradition  of  the  Jews,  i  nl  bu] 
 likewise  by  some  lines  In  the  character  which  the  p<  n  of  M      - 
 gives  us  of  him.     He  had  certainly  v.a  advantages  under  Ins 
 father  and  grandfather,  who  justly  deserved  a  name  among  the 
 eldest  oriental  philosophers;   and  therefore  he  la  deecrl 
 the  .  astern  rtyte,  aa  •  a  man  dwelling  in  trots"  «*  »""  • 
 na  who  leads  a  philosophical  and  contemplative  r 
 minister  or  student  of  the  house  of  learning,  u  the  Ta 
 truly  interpret  the  phnue.—JBibluthea  BUUca,  vol.  I.. 
 sional  A  ■  86. 
 
203 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2149.  A.  C.  1855;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3405.  A.  C.  1916.  GEN.  CH.  xxviii.  10-xxxvii. 
 
 done  ?     And  since  Jacob  was  not  there  to  give  them  an  j  child,  as  being  the  son  of  his  dear  departed  Rachel,  and 
 
 0  a  youth  of  a  very  promising  and  extraordinary  genius. 
 As  a  mark  of  his  peculiar  love,  the  fond  father  gave  him 
 clothes  richer  than  he  did  the  rest,  and  among  others,  c 
 one  coat  more  especially,  which  was  made  of  a  change- 
 able or  party-coloured  stuff*.  This  made  his  other  bro- 
 thers envy  him  not  a  little  ;  and  what  gained  him  no 
 good-will  among  them,  was  their  looking  upon  him  as  a 
 spy,  because  he  had  told  his  father  some  things  wherein 
 the  sons  of  Bilhah  and  Zilpah/  with  whom  he  was  chiefly 
 conversant,  e  had  grossly  misbehaved,  which  made  them 
 
 answer,  his  only  way  could  be  to  leave  the  history  and 
 occasion  of  it  engraven  upon  the  very  stone. 
 
 And  indeed,  without  some  such  supposition,  why 
 should  this  stone,  even  by  different  nations,  be  accounted 
 such  a  valuable  piece  of  antiquity  ?  AVhy  should  the 
 Jews  be  so  fond  to  have  it  thought  that  they  had  it  in  the 
 sanctuary  of  their  second  temple,  and  that  upon  it  the 
 ark  of  the  covenant  was  placed  ?  Since  the  destruction 
 of  their  temple,  why  should  it  be  their  custom,  one  day 
 in  a  year,  with  great  lamentation,  to  go  and  anoint  this 
 stone,  in  remembrance  of  their  father  Jacob,  and  the 
 covenant  made  with  him  ?  And  why  should  the  Maho- 
 metans pretend,  that  they  have  this  stone  (though  by 
 mistake  of  one  patriarch  for  another,  they  call  it  the 
 stone  of  Abraham)  set  up  at  their  temple  at  Mecca, 
 which  they  make  their  common  Kibla,  or  point  of  wor- 
 ship, and  before  which  the  pilgrims  pay  their  solemn 
 devotions  ? 
 
 These,  we  allow,  may  be  no  more  than  false  pretences  ; 
 but  still  they  are  an  evidence,  that  this  pillar  was  once 
 held  in  high  veneration,  which  it  could  hardly  have  been, 
 but  must  very  soon  have  been  buried  in  oblivion  and 
 rubbish,  had  it  been  no  more  than  a  large  ragged  stone, 
 without  any  thing  to  distinguish  it,  that  is,  without  any 
 sculpture  or  inscription  on  it.  And  therefore,  notwith- 
 standing the  silence  of  Scripture,  we  have  sufficient  reason 
 to  conclude,  that  this  pillar  was  erected  in  order  to  pre- 
 serve the  remembrance  of  the  heavenly  vision  which  God 
 in  this  place  vouchsafed  Jacob  ;  that  to  this  purpose  it 
 was  engraven  with  such  inscriptions  as  might  give  pos- 
 terity sufficient  intelligence  upon  what  occasion  it  was 
 erected ;  that  by  means  of  such  inscriptions,  it  came 
 to  be  recognised  as  Jacob's  pillar,  and  held  in  great 
 esteem  in  future  generations  ;  that  this  pillar  thus 
 engraved,  as  it  was  the  first  of  its  kind  that  we  have  upon 
 record,  gave  probably  the  origin  to  the  invention  of 
 stylography,  or  the  ancient  manner  of  writing  upon 
 stone,  ever  after  ;  and  that  the  consecration  of  this  stone, 
 and  the  imposition  of  a  new  name  upon  the  place  where 
 it  stood,  is  enough  to  justify  the  practice  of  sanctifying 
 places  appointed  for  religious  worship,  by  some  solemn 
 form  of  separation  ;  of  calling  them  '  the  house  of  God,' 
 and  imputing  to  them  a  relative  holiness ;  in  Christian 
 countries,  of  dedicating  them  to  the  memory  of  departed 
 saints  and  martyrs  ;  and  every  where,  of  observing  that 
 wholesome  and  devout  advice  of  the  preacher  :  l '  Keep 
 thy  foot  when  thou  goest  into  the  house  of  God,  and  be 
 more  ready  to  hear  than  to  give  the  sacrifice  of  fools. 
 Be  not  rash  with  thy  mouth,  and  let  not  thine  heart  be 
 hasty  to  utter  any  thing  before  God,  for  he  is  in  heaven, 
 and  thou  upon  earth ;  therefore  let  thy  words  be  few.' 
 
 SECT.    IV. 
 
 CHAP.   I.— Of  the  Life  of  Joseph,11  which  includes 
 the  rest  of  Jacob's. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 Jacob  had  not  been  long  with  his  father  before  there 
 befell  him  another  sad  disaster.  Joseph  was  his  beloved 
 
 1  Eccles.  v.  1,  2. 
 a  Two  reasons  arc  generally   assigned,  why  Moses 
 
 prolix  in  relating  the  adventures  of  Joseph  than  of  any  other  of 
 Jacob's  children:  both  because  his  life  is  a  bright  example  of 
 piety,  chastity,  meekness,  and  prudence ;  anci  because  it  was  liy 
 the  means  of  Joseph  that  Jacob  went  down  into  Egypt:  and  as 
 his  going  down  gave  occasion  to  the  wonderful  departure  of  the 
 children  of  Israel  from  thence,  so  the  history  of  the  Jews  would 
 have  been  sadly  imperfect,  and  indeed  altogether  unintelligible, 
 without  a  longer  account  than  ordinary  of  Joseph's  life  and  trans- 
 actions there. — Heidegger 's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  20. 
 
 b  Most  versions,  as  well  as  ours,  have  made  Jacob  to  love 
 Joseph,  because  he  was  the  son  of  his  old  age;  whereas  had  this 
 been  the  cause  of  his  affection,  he  must  have  loved  Zebulun,  as 
 much  as  Joseph,  because  he  was  of  the  same  age,  and  Benjamin 
 much  more,  because  he  was  above  fifteen  years  younger  [only 
 thirteen  years,  according  to  Dr  Hales'  table  given  before.]  It 
 seems,  therefore,  as  if  they  had  confounded  the  words  Bcn- 
 Zekenim,  the  son  of  senators,  or  elders,  as  he  is  called  here,  with 
 Ben-Ziknah,  the  son  of  old  age ;  whereas  the  former  has  a  signi- 
 fication quite  different.  According  to  the  Hebrew  idiom,  it  signi- 
 fies '  the  son,  or  disciple  of  senators,'  that  is,  one  endued  with  an 
 extraordinary  wisdom  and  prudence;  accordingly  the  Samaritan, 
 Arabic,  and  Persian  versions  have  rendered  it, '  because  he  was  a 
 wise  and  prudent  son,'  though  even  this  comes  short  of  the  energy 
 of  the  idiom,  and  might  more  properly  be  rendered,  '  because  he 
 was  as  wise  and  prudent  as  a  senator.'  And  this  justifies  the 
 reason  of  Jacob's  extraordinary  love  to  Joseph,  because  it  is 
 natural  for  parents,  especially  for  fathers,  to  admire  those  children 
 who  show  any  degree  of  wisdom  above  their  years;  whereas,  to 
 be  fond  of  a  child  begotten  in  one's  old  age,  and  for  no  other 
 reason,  is  no  more  than  a  piece  of  dotage,  which  Moses  would 
 hardly  have  thought  worth  recording. —  Universal  History,  b.  1. 
 c.  7,  and  Howell's  History,  b.  1. 
 
 c  The  coat  whereby  Jacob  distinguished  his  son  Joseph  from 
 the  rest  of  liis  brothers,  is  generally  thought  to  signify  a  garment 
 that  was  wrought  with  threads  of  divers  colours,  or  made  up  of 
 pieces  of  silk  or  stuff,  which  had  much  variety  in  them ;  but  the 
 word  passim,  which  is  here  made  use  of,  according  to  some 
 learned  annotators,  does  properly  signify  a  long  garment,  down 
 to  the  heels  or  ankles,  with  long  sleeves  down  to  the  wrists, 
 which  had  a  border  at  the  bottom,  and  a  facing,  as  we  call  it,  at 
 the  hands,  of  a  colour  different  from  the  garment,  which  was 
 accounted  noble,  as  well  as  beautiful,  in  ancient  times. — Patrick  s 
 Commentary. 
 
 d  He  chose  the  sons  of  his  father's  concubines,  rather  than 
 those  of  his  wife  Leah,  to  be  his  companions,  on  purpose,  perhaps, 
 to  avoid  the  ill  consequences  of  the  latter's  envy  and  emulation 
 against  him.  For  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Leah's  sons,  consider- 
 ing the  excessive  love  which  their  father  had  for  him,  might 
 be  ready  to  suspect,  that  he  designed  to  bequeath  the  right  ol 
 primogeniture  to  him,  which  each  of  them  thinking  they  had  a 
 better  title  to,  might  thereupon  be  tempted  to  malign  and  mal- 
 treat him:  whereas,  among  the  sons  descended  from  concubines, 
 as  having  not  the  like  ambition,  he  might  find  better  quarter, 
 and  to  their  company  the  rather  resort,  out  of  a  principle  ol 
 humility  and  condescension,  and  to  discountenance  the  haughty 
 behaviour  of  the  sons  of  Leah  towards  the  sons  of  the  concubines. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Bildiotheca  Biblica  in  locum. 
 
 e  The  Hebrew  and  the  Alexandrian  Septuagint  have  it,  '  they 
 brought  unto  their  father  an  evil  report,'  or  '  grievous  complaints 
 against  Joseph,'  that  is,  they  began  their  base  and  barbarous  treat- 
 ment of  him  with  lies  and  calumnies.  However,  Aquila, 
 Symmachus,  and  the  Syriae,  make  Joseph  the  accuser;  but  of 
 what  crime  it  was,  that  he  accused  them  to  Iris  father,  and 
 whether  it  consisted  in  deeds  or  words  only,  is  a  subject  that  had 
 
Sbct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  227G.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 treat  him  so  very  surly,  that  whenever  he  spake  to  them, 
 they  would  scarce  give  him  a  civil  answer.  But  that 
 which  completed  their  envy  and  resentment,  or  rather 
 turned  them  into  an  irreconcilable  hatred,  was  his  inno- 
 cently telling  them  some  of  his  dreams,  which  seemed 
 to  portend  his  advancement  in  the  world  above  them. 
 
 He  told  them  that  one  night  he  dreamed,  that  as  lie  and 
 they  were  binding  sheaves  together  in  the  Held,  his  sheaf 
 stood  upright,  while  theirs  fell  prostrate  before  it,  as  if 
 they  had  been  doing  obeisance  ;  and  that  another  time, 
 he  fancied  himself  mounted  on  high,  and  the  sun,  moon, 
 and  eleven  stars,  doing  him  the  like  homage.  This 
 raised  the  indignation  of  the  rest,  as  thinking  it  a  dispar- 
 agement to  have  a  younger  brother  their  superior  :  which 
 their  father  perceiving,  in  hopes  of  mitigating  their 
 resentment,  a  thought  fit  to  discountenance  him  in  the 
 interpretation  of  his  dreams,  by  telling  him,  that  they 
 were  vain  and  chimerical,  and  what  could  never  come  to 
 pass ;  though,  in  himself,  he  could  not  but  think,  that 
 there  was  something  extraordinary  and  ominous  in  them. 
 His  brothers,  however,  instead  of  abating  their  hatred, 
 grew  every  day  more  and  more  exasperated  ;  so  that 
 they  resolved  at  last  to  cut  him  off,  and  only  waited  for 
 a  convenient  opportunity. 
 
 It  happened,  at  this  time,  that  Joseph's  ten  brethren 
 (for  Benjamin  was  as  yet  too  young  for  any  business) 
 were  keeping  their  flocks  not  far  from  Shechem,  when 
 their  father  not  having  heard  from  them  for  some  time, 
 and  *  being  not  a  little  anxious  for  their  welfare,  sent 
 Joseph  to  find  them  out,  and  know  how  they  did.  As 
 lie  drew  near  to  Shechem,  he  was  informed  by  a  person 
 whom  he  met  with  by  accident,  that  they  had  removed 
 from  thence,  and  were  gone  about  twenty  miles  farther 
 north  to  a  place  called  c  Dothan.     Thither  Joseph  went 
 
 occasioned  a  great  variety  of  conjectures  among  critics  and 
 commentators.  Some  will  have  it,  that  Joseph  told  of  their 
 unkindness  and  asperity  to  him ;  others,  of  their  quarrelling  and 
 contentious  way  of  living.  Some,  of  their  committing  sodomy 
 or  bestiality ;  while  those  who  confine  it  to  words  only,  suppose 
 it  to  be  passionate  and  undutifu]  reflections  they  might  make 
 upon  their  father,  for  loving  Joseph  more  than  themselves.  But 
 whatever  it  was,  it  may  be  gathered,  from  their  prepense  malice 
 to  him,  that  it  was  no  small  crime,  because  that  for  his  telling  it, 
 and  which  he  might  do  with  no  other  intent,  but  only  that  his 
 father's  rebukes  and  admonitions  might  reform  them,)  they  hated 
 him  even  unto  death. — Bibliuthcca  Biblica  and  Howell's  History. 
 
 a  St  Chrysostom,  in  his  homily  upon  the  place,  has  given  us 
 this  farther  reason. — "  Besides,"  says  he,  "  lie  might  think  it 
 convenient  to  give  this  calm  check  to  a  spirit  so  much  elated,  as 
 this  young  man  must  be,  by  those  great  and  certain  expectations 
 which  God  was  pleased,  in  so  extraordinary  a  manner,  to  set 
 before  him.  The  foreknowledge  of  all  that  greatness  and  glory, 
 which  was  one  day  infallibly  to  be  his  portion,  might  have  put 
 him  upon  a  wrong  bias  of  behaviour;  might  have  tempted  him 
 to  antedate  his  superiority ;  and  fail,  or  waver,  more  or  less  in 
 his  duty  to  his  elder  brethren,  if  not  to  his  father  himself;  and 
 this  seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  Jacob's  mentioning  his  mother, 
 who  was  dead,  and  did  not  so  well  comport  with  his  dream. 
 But  at  the  same  time,  that  in  prudence  he  was  willing  to  prevent 
 any  vain  aspiring  conceits,  or  tumours  in  his  son,  in  faith  he  was 
 persuaded,  that  the  fact  would  prove  such  as  it  was  foretold." 
 
 b  The  reason  of  Jacob's  uneasiness,  and  of  sending  his  son 
 Joseph  upon  this  errand,  will  be  very  obvious,  if  it  be  remem- 
 bered, that  the  sons  of  Jacob  had  so  incensed  the  neighbouring 
 places  by  the  massacre  of  the  Shechemites,  that  Jacob  was  obliged 
 immediately  to  quit  the  country,  for  fear  of  a  general  insurrec- 
 tion upon  him,  as  we  read,  Gen.  xxxiv.  30. 
 
 c.  It  was  a  town  about  twelve  miles  to  the  north  of  the  city  of 
 Samaria,  as  Eusebius  informs  us. — Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  vol.  1. 
 
 .  209 
 
 A.  M.  3.V2G.  A.  ('.  1888.  cr.N.  en.  xxxvij.  T()  THH  END 
 
 after  them  ;  and  no  sooner  did  they  see  him  appro*  hing, 
 but   their   old   malice  revived,   and    immediately    they 
 
 resolved  to  make  away  with  this  master-dreamer,  as 
 they  called  him,  and  to  persuade  their  father  that  some 
 wild  beast  had  devoured  him. 
 
 This  resolution,  barbarous  as  it  was,  had  certainly 
 been  put  in  execution,  d  had  not  Reuben,  who  waa  tlm 
 eldest,  interposed,  and,  dissuading  them  from  imbruing 
 their  hands  in  his  blood,  advised  rather  to  throw  him  into 
 the  next  pit,  with  a  design  himself  to  draw  him  out 
 privately,  and  convey  him  safe  home  to  Ida  (after. 
 Reuben's  advice  was  liked  ;  and  therefore,  as  soon  as 
 Joseph  came  up  to  them,  they  immediately  seized  him 
 pulled  off  his  fine  coat,  and  threw  him  into  a  pit,  whirh, 
 at  that  time,  chanced  to  be  dry  ;  whereupon  Reuben  with- 
 drew, to  contrive  some  means  for  rescuing  his  brother, 
 whilst  the  others,  as  if  they  had  done  some  glorious  act, 
 sat  down  to  eat,  and  drink,  and  regale  themselves. 
 
 In  the  mean  time  *  a  caravan  of  Ishmaelites,  who 
 were  travelling  from  Mount  (jilead  into  Egvpt  with 
 spices  and  other  merchandise,  appeared  in  sight,  which 
 put  Judah  in  the  thought  of  taking  their  brother  out  of 
 the  pit,  and  selling  him  to  these  merchants,  which  would 
 every  whit  answer  their  purpose  as  well,  or  better.  The 
 proposal  was  no  sooner  made,  than  it  was  approved  : 
 Joseph  was  taken  out  of  the  pit,  was  sold  to  the  merchants, 
 and  the  merchants  sold  him  again  to  Potiphar,  one  of 
 the  king's  chief  officers,  and  captain  of  his  guards. 
 Reuben  being  absent  while  this  was  done,  came  to  the 
 pit  not  long  after,  in  order  to  rescue  his  brother  ;  but 
 finding  him  not  there,  he  began  to  bewail  and  lament 
 himself  to  such  a  degree,  that  his  brethren,  to  pacify  his 
 
 d  He  either  thought  himself  most  concerned  to  save  his  brother, 
 as  being  the  first-born,  and  therefore  like  to  be  the  first  in  the 
 blame;  or  he  might  hope,  by  thus  piously  and  compassionately 
 preserving  the  favourite  Joseph,  to  recover  that  place  in  his 
 father's  affection,  which  he  had  lost  by  his  incest  with  Bilhah, 
 his  concubinary  wife.  The  speech  which  Josephm  Introduces 
 him  as  making  upon  this  occasion,  is  very  moving  and  very 
 rhetorical.  "It  were  an  abominable  wickedness,"  says  be,  ••  to 
 take  away  the  life,  even  of  a  stranger,  but  to  destroy  a  kinsman 
 and  a  brother,  and,  in  that  brother,  a  father  and  a  mother  too, 
 with  grief  for  the  loss  of  so  good,  and  so  hopeful  a  son.  Bethink 
 yourselves,  if  any  thing  can  be  more  diabolical.  Consider  that 
 there  is  an  all-seeing  God,  who  will  he  the  avenger,  as  well  as 
 witness  of  this  horrid  murder.  Bethink  yourselves,  1  say,  and 
 repent  of  your  barbarous  purpose.  Yon  must  never  expect  to 
 commit  this  flagitious  villany,  and  the  divine  vengeance  not 
 overtake  you;  for  God's  providence  is  everj  where,  in  the  wilder- 
 ness, as  well  as  in  the  city,  and  the  horror-  of  a  guilty  conscience 
 will  pursue  you  wherever  you  go.  Bat,  pal  the  ease,  rourbrotbaf 
 had  done  you  some  wrong;  jret  is  it  not  our  duty  to  |  a-s  over  the 
 slips  of  our  frii  oils  ?  When  the  simplicity  nfhisyouta  may  justly 
 plead  his  excuse,  his  brothers  certainly,  of  all  men  living,  should 
 be  his  friend,  and  guardians,  rather  than  his  murderers ;  a«j  1 1 
 
 when  the  ground  of  all  your  quarrel  is  this,  that  Cod   loves  your 
 
 in-oilier,  and  your  brother  loves  God." — J—epkm,  1>.  ?.  <•.  :i. 
 
 S  ThOUgh  we  name  the  Ulimaeliles  only,  yet  lure    m,i. 
 two,  if  not  three  sorts  of  merchants   mentioned    in   this   f 
 
 the  [ghmaelites,  the  Midamites,  and  Medanitae,  ias  they  are 
 called  in  the  Hebrew,  Gen.  \\\Nii.  86.  who  were  a  distinct 
 people  from  the  Midianltes,  as  descended  from  Medea,  one  ot 
 Abraham's  sonsbi  Keturah,  ami  brother  to  Midtan,  Gen.  sav.  '-'• 
 
 But  as  the}   and  the   Miilianites    lived    near   together    in    Aiabia, 
 
 not  far   from    the    Uunaelitsf,  ihey   all  join.,  In  this 
 
 caravan,  as  one    SOdety  of   merchant-.;   a-  it    i-   the  cnStBSB  •>«■ 
 
 to  this  day,  in  thSM  ea-tern   countries,  for  morrhan 
 
 to  travel  through  the  deserts  in  larse  compel  i<  -.  ;' :  !i  "r  "'  "ll<l 
 
 beasts  or  robbers.—  Patriot's  fmnmn.:  ■'■-  dmmtm- 
 
 tiuns. 
 
 -J  o 
 
210 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3526.  A.  C.  1835.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 grief,  were  forced  to  tell  him  in  what  manner  they  had 
 disposed  of  him  ;  whereupon  Reuben,  finding  it  impossi- 
 ble now  to  recover  him,  joined  with  them  in  contriving 
 how  to  manage  the  matter  with  their  father,  so  as  to  take 
 off  from  themselves  all  manner  of  suspicion. 
 
 To  this  purpose  they  killed  a  kid,  and  dipping 
 Joseph's  coat  in  the  blood  of  it,  a  sent  it  to  their  father, 
 as  if  they  had  found  it  in  the  Held,  and  were  fearful  that 
 it  was  their  brother.  Their  father  soon  perceived  whose 
 coat  it  was;  and  supposing  that  some  wild  beast  or 
 other  had  slain  his  son,  bhe  rent  his  clothes,  and  put  on 
 sackcloth,  and  began  to  mourn  for  his  death.  In  vain 
 did  the  rest  of  his  children  endeavour  to  comfort  him ; 
 his  grief  would  admit  of  no  remedy ;  his  resolution  was 
 to  c  lament  his  loss  to  the  hour  of  his  death ;  nor  did  he 
 ever  cease  this  disconsolate  way  of  life,  until  he  was 
 told  the  surprising  news  of  Joseph's  advancement  in 
 Egypt. 
 
 From  the  time  that  Joseph  had  admission  into  Poti- 
 phar's  family,  he  showed  such  diligence  and  fidelity, 
 and  proved  so  successful  in  every  thing  he  undertook, 
 that  his  master  soon  took  notice  of  him,  and  in  some 
 time,  having  made  him  his  steward,  d  put  all  his  affairs 
 under  his  management. 
 
 In  this  condition  Joseph  might  have  lived  very  happy, 
 
 a  In  one  and  the  same  verse  it  is  said,  that  '  they  sent  the 
 coat  of  many  colours,  and  they  brought  it  to  their  father:'  but 
 this  seeming  solecism  is  easily  resolved,  only  by  saying,  that  they 
 sent  it  by  the  hands  of  persons  who  brought  it  to  their  father ;  or 
 that  they  sent  it  by  a  messenger,  as  being  afraid  to  be  present  at 
 the  first  gust  of  their  father's  passion,  and  afterwards  brought 
 or  produced  it,  when  one  of  them,  as  Judah  is  supposed  to  have 
 been  their  spokesman,  related  the  tale  which  follows:  by  which 
 artifice  they  seemed  to  give  themselves  an  air  of  compassion, 
 since  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  afterwards  (as  in  the  case  of 
 Julius  Cresar,  and  Julia  his  daughter,  the  wife  of  Pompey),  on 
 mournful  occasions,  to  produce  such  affecting  relics  and  remains. 
 —  Bibliotheca  Biblica. 
 
 b  Rending  the  clothes  was  an  eastern  way  of  expressing  either 
 grief  for  calamity  or  horror  for  sin.  Reuben  was  the  first  we  read 
 of,  who,  to  denote  his  exceeding  sorrow,  rent  his  clothes;  and  as 
 Jacob  we  find  does  the  like,  we  may  well  suppose  that  it  was  an 
 usual  manner  of  expressing  all  grief  and  uneasiness  of  mind  in 
 those  days ;  and  by  putting  on  sackcloth,  which  Jacob  is  here 
 the  first  precodent  of  doing,  but  was  aftenvards  commonly  used 
 upon  all  mournful  occasions,  he  seemed  to  signify,  that  since  he 
 had  lost  his  beloved  son,  he  looked  upon  himself  as  reduced  to 
 the  meanest  and  lowest  condition  of  life. — Bibliotheca  Biblica, 
 Howell's  History,  and  Burder's  Oriental  Customs. 
 
 c  Jacob  expresses  his  sorrow  in  these  words,  '  I  will  go  down 
 unto  the  grave  unto  my  son.'  But  if  by  the  grave  we  are  here 
 to  understand  a  place  of  sepulture,  how  could  Jacob  say  that  he 
 would  go  down  thither  to  his  son,  when  he  presumes  here  that 
 he  was  not  buried,  but  torn  to  pieces  by  wild  beasts.  To  solve 
 this  difficulty,  some  imagine  that  the  particle  el  should  not,  in 
 this  place,  be  rendered  to,  but,  as  it  sometimes  means,  for,  or 
 in  the  stead  of;  and  so  the  sense  is,  '  I  will  go  down  to  the 
 grave  instead  of  my  son,'  who,  unhappy  child  as  he  was,  had  no 
 burial:  but  since  the  word  scholah,  in  Greek  aUns,  in  Latin 
 infernum,  signifies  veiy  frequently  the  state  of  the  dead  in 
 '  general,  the  much  clearer  sense  of  the  words  will  be,  '  I  will 
 .iot  cease  mourning  until  I  die,  and  be  laid  in  my  grave.' — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  he  knew  not  aught  he  had, 
 save  the  bread  which  he  did  eat;'  which  is  one  of  the  highest 
 expressions  of  confidence  that  we  can  imagine:  for  it  signifies, 
 that  he  was  utterly  careless  about  any  thing  that  concerned  his 
 estate,  not  minding  what  his  expense  or  receipts  were ;  but 
 taking  his  ease,  left  all  to  Joseph's  honesty.  In  short,  he 
 thought  of  nothing,  but  only  to  enjoy  what  he  had,  without  care 
 or  trouble. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 had  it  not  been  for  an  adventure  of  a  nature  someAvhat 
 singular.  He  was  now  in  the  bloom  of  his  youth,  and 
 of  a  beauty  and  comeliness  so  extraordinary,  that  his 
 master's  wife  could  not  forbear  conceiving  an  irregular 
 passion  for  him.  Upon  several  occasions,  she  had 
 given  him  indications  enough  of  her  ardent  desire  to 
 draw  him  into  a  wanton  familiarity  with  her,  but  he  was 
 blind  to  her  signs,  and  deaf  to  her  soft  speeches ;  so 
 that  she  was  at  last  resolved  to  break  through  the  rules 
 of  her  sex,  and  court  him  in  plain  terms.  But  how 
 great  was  her  surprise  when,  instead  of  a  ready  compli- 
 ance, as  she  probably  expected,  she  found  herself  not 
 only  denied,  but  severely  reprimanded  likewise  for  her 
 disloyal  passion  !  Being  willing,  however,  to  hope  that 
 another  opportunity  would  prove  more  favourable,  after 
 several  fruitless  attempts,  she  at  last  laid  hold  on  one, 
 when  all  the  family  was  abroad,  and  /  accosted  him  in 
 so  violent  and  passionate  a  manner,  that  she  would  not 
 hear  any  farther  denial.     In  vain  it  was  for  him  S"to 
 
 e  Joseph  at  this  time  was  about  seven  and  twenty  years  old. 
 For  he  was  seventeen  when  he  was  sold  to  Potiphar,  Gen. 
 xxxvii.  2,  and  he  was  committed  to  prison  immediately  upon 
 his  noncompliance  with  his  mistress's  temptation;  where,  as  far 
 as  it  appears,  he  had  not  been  long  before  he  interpreted  the 
 dreams  of  the  two  disgraced  courtiers ;  and  two  years  after  that 
 he  was  released  and  promoted,  namely,  when  he  was  thirty 
 years  old :  so  that  we  may  reasonably  conclude  that  this  tempta- 
 tion befell  him  about  three  years  before  his  releasement,  that  is, 
 in  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  his  age.  At  this  time  it  is  sup- 
 posable  that  he  was  a  comely  person  enough,  and  the  saying  is, 
 that  "a  comely  person  is  a  silent  recommendation ;".  but  the 
 stories  relating  to  his  excessive  beauty,  as  they  are  recorded  by 
 the  Talmudists,  are  ridiculous,  and  not  much  better  than  what 
 Mahomet,  in  his  history  of  the  patriarch,  tells  us,  namely,  that 
 his  mistress  having  invited  the  ladies  of  the  town  to  a  splendid 
 entertainment,  ordered  Joseph  to  be  called  for,  but  that,  as  soon 
 as  he  appeared,  they  were  amazed  at  his  beauty,  and  so  con- 
 founded, that  they  knew  not  what  they  did,  but  instead  of  eating 
 their  meat  they  ate  their  fingers,  and  said  among  themselves, 
 "  This  is  not  a  man,  but  an  angel." — Bibliotheca  Biblica  i?i 
 locum,  and  Alcoran,  chap,  of  Joseph. 
 
 f  Josephus  tells  us,  that  Potiphar's  wife  took  the  opportunity 
 of  a  certain  festival,  when  all  the  people  were  gone  a  merry- 
 making, to  tempt  Joseph;  that,  feigning  herself  sick,  she 
 decoyed  him  by  that  means  into  her  apartment,  and  then 
 addressed  herself  to  him  in  words  to  this  effect: — "  It  had  been 
 much  better  for  you,"  says  she,  "had  you  complied  with  my 
 first  request;  if  for  no  other  consideration,  in  regard  at  least  to 
 the  dignity  of  the  person  who  is  become  your  petitioner,  and  to 
 the  excess  of  my  passion.  Besides,  it  would  have  saved  me  the 
 shame  of  condescending  to  some  words  and  expressions,  which 
 I  am  still  out  of  countenance  when  I  think  of.  You  might 
 perhaps  make  some  doubt  before,  whether  I  was  in  earnest ;  but 
 this  is  to  satisfy  you  that  I  mean  no  ill  by  my  persisting  in  the 
 same  mind.  Take,  therefore,  your  choice  now,  whether  you 
 will  improve  this  opportunity  of  present  satisfaction,  in  the 
 embraces  of  a  creatine  that  loves  you  dearly,  and  from  whom 
 you  may  expect  still  greater  things;  or  stand  the  shock  of  my 
 hatred  and  revenge,  if  you  will  presume  to  value  yourself  upon 
 the  vain  conceit  of  your  chastity  more  than  my  favour,"  &c. — 
 Antiquities,  b.  2.  c.  4. 
 
 g  Josephus,  however,  brings  in  his  namesake  expostulating 
 the  matter  with  his  mistress,  and  reminding  her  of  her  duty  to 
 herself  and  her  husband,  to  piety,  and  common  fame.  "  What 
 signifies,"  says  he,  "a  momentary  pleasure,  with  a  certain 
 repentance  immediately  to  ensue ;  an  heaviness  of  heart  for  a 
 thing  once  done,  and  an  utter  impossibility  of  recalling  and 
 undoing  it,  together  with  perpetual  fears  of  discovery  and  dis- 
 grace ?  What  does  all  this  signify,  I  say,  in  balance  of  the 
 most  substantial  comforts,  and  the  most  necessary  duties  of 
 human  life  ?  Whereas,  in  a  conjugal  state,  the  selfsame  delights 
 are  all  free,  safe,  innocent,  and  warrantable,  both  before  God  and 
 man.     Consider  again,  how  it  would  lessen  your  authority,  to 
 
Sect.  IV.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2216.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3826.  A.  C.  1885.  GEN.  CII.  xxxvii.  TO  Till .   1  N  1) 
 
 211 
 
 expostulate  the  heinousness  of  the  crime  :  her  appetite 
 was  eager  and  impatient;  and  therefore  she  caught  him 
 by  the  cloak,  and  pressed  him  to  lie  with  her ;  and  he 
 having-  no  other  way  to  escape,  left  his  cloak  in  her 
 hand,  and  fled. 
 
 Whether  it  was  that  she  feared,  by  his  manner  and 
 behaviour,  that  he  might  accuse  her  to  her  husband,  or 
 that  she  was  enraged  at  the  slight  put  upon  her  proffered 
 love ;  but  so  it  was,  that  she  resolved  his  immediate 
 ruin :  and  accordingly  she  began  with  a  setting  up  a 
 most  horrid  outcry,  which  immediately  brought  in  all 
 that  were  within  hearing,  and  then  showing  them 
 Joseph's  cloak,  which  she  pretended  he  put  off  in  order 
 to  lie  with  her,  she  told  them  that  he  had  made  so 
 furious  an  attempt  upon  'ier  virtue,  that  nothing  but  her 
 loud  cries  could  have  saved  her. 
 
 By  the  time  that  her  husband  came  home,  J  she  had 
 dressed  up  her  story  so  well,  and  expressed  the  pre- 
 tended indignity  put  upon  her  with  such  an  air  of  resent- 
 ment, that  her  credulous  husband,  little  suspecting  his 
 wife's  treachery,  was  so  prepossessed  with  the  circum- 
 stance of  the  cloak,  that,  without  any  farther  inquiry,0  he 
 
 make  your  servant  your  equal,  by  a  shameful  participation  in 
 one  common  crime ;  and  pray,  is  it  not  better  to  trust  to  a  good 
 conscience,  that  fears  no  light,  than  to  commit  wickedness  in 
 the  dark,  and  then  live  all  your  days  in  a  restless  dread  of  being 
 detected,"  &c. — Antiquities,  b.  2.c.  4. 
 
 a  There  is  something  not  unlike  this  revengeful  artifice  in 
 Potiphar's  wife,  in  the  representation  which  the  poet  makes  of 
 Phtedra,  when,  in  an  affair  of  the  like  nature,  she  finds  herself 
 rejected  by  her  son-in-law  Hippolytus: — "I  myself  will  retort 
 the  crime,  and  spontaneously  accuse  him  of  an  illicit  love ; 
 favour  me,  ye  faithful  band  of  servants,  lend  me  thine  aid,  thou, 
 &c.  Lo,  rapidly  he  tied,  and  in  his  consternation  left  behind 
 his  sword;  still  yet  we  hold  the  token  of  his  crime." — Seneca, 
 Ilippol. 
 
 b  Upon  Potiphar's  coming  home,  Josephus  makes  his  wife 
 break  out  into  these  words: — "  You  will  never  deserve  to  live, 
 husband,  unless  you  make  an  example  of  that  perfidious  wretch, 
 your  man.  He  has  forgotten  what  he  was  when  you  took  him 
 into  your  house,  how  kindly  and  respectfully  he  has  been  treated 
 here,  to  a  degree  beyond  his  very  hope,  as  well  as  his  desert. 
 The  charge  of  your  whole  family  is  committed  to  him,  the 
 command  of  the  rest  of  your  servants,  and  the  trust  of  all  you 
 harve.  What  will  you  think  of  this  fellow  now,  who,  in  requital 
 of  all  your  bounty  and  good  offices,  could  have  the  impudence  to 
 attempt  the  violation  of  your  bed,  and  to  take  the  opportunity  of 
 this  festival  day,  when  you  were  out  of  the  way,  to  break  in 
 upon  my  privacy,  and  press  the  enjoyment  of  his  beastly  ends. 
 You  have  made  him,  in  effect,  master  of  all  things  under  your 
 roof;  and  would  nothing  serve  him,  but  he  must  have  your  wife 
 likewise  ?  Here  is  the  ungrateful  villain's  cloak,  which,  in  his 
 fright,  he  left  behind  him,  when  I  cried  out,  as  he  was  going  to 
 force  me." — Antiquities,  b.  2.  c.  4. 
 
 c  It  is  somewhat  wonderful,  that  if  Potiphar  believed  his  wife's 
 story,  he  did  not  immediately  put  him  to  death;  but  there  is  one 
 thing  which  might  check  the  violence  of  his  passion,  and  that 
 was  the  great  opinion  he  had  for  some  time  been  continued  in, 
 of  Joseph's  virtue  and  integrity.  Joseph,  he  saw,  was  young  and 
 beautiful,  and  therefore  he  might  think  it  a  thing  not  impossible 
 for  a  lady  of  distinction  to  be  in  love  with  him,  and  upon  a  dis- 
 appointment to  be  exasperated:  as  therefore  he  would  net  inflict 
 any  capital  or  corporal  punishment  on  him,  so  he  thought  it  pru- 
 dent to  hurry  him  away  to  prison  unheard,  lest,  being  allowed  to 
 speak  in  his  own  vindication,  he  might  clear  himself,  and  thereby 
 bring  discredit  upon  his  family.  It  must  not  be  denied,  howevi  r, 
 what  St  Chrysostom  has  observed,  that  here  again  was  a  special] 
 and  as  it  were  a  miraculous  intervention  of  the  divine  power, 
 which  preserved  his  life  as  it  did  before,  when  he  was  cast  into 
 the  pit.  The  superior  influence  which  softeni  d  the  heart  of 
 Reuben,  restrained  the  hand  of  Potiphar,  in  order  to  make  our 
 patriarch  a  more  glorious  example,  and  to  complete  thi  se  i  v<  nts 
 
 hurried  poor  Joseph  away,  and  dapped  bin  up  in  the 
 king's  prison  ;  where  we  shall  leave  him  for  a  while,  to 
 take  a  view  of  what  passed  in  his  father's  family. 
 
 d  Before  the  time  that  Joseph  was  sold  int..  Egypt, 
 Judah,  his  father's  son  by  Leah,  had  married «  a  Canaan- 
 itish  woman  name  Shuah,  by  whom  he  had  three  bom, 
 Er,  Onan,  and  Shelah.  Er  being  cut  off  for  his  wicked- 
 ness before  he  had  any  children  by  his  wife  Thamar 
 Judah  ordered  his  second  son  Onan,  according  to  die 
 custom  of  the  country,  to  marry  her,  and  f  to  raise  a 
 posterity  to  his  brother.  Onan  seemingly  obeyed  his 
 father,  but  not  brooking  the  thought  that  an\  of  his  chil- 
 dren should  inherit  his  brother's  name  who  was  dead,  lie 
 took  such  a  wicked  and  unnatural  way  to  prevent  ha\  rag 
 any,  that  God  was  provoked  to  punish  him  with  sudden 
 death  likewise.  His  third  son  Shelah  was  not  yel  lit  for 
 marriage  ;  and  therefore  Judah  desired  his  daughter-in- 
 law  to  retire  to  her  father's  house,  and  there  live  a  widow, 
 until  he  became  adult,  and  then  he  would  make  him  her 
 husband.  Thamar  did  so,  and  waited  till  Shelah  waa 
 come  to  man's  estate;  but  finding  no  performance  of 
 Judah 's  promise,  (as  indeed  he  never  heartiK  intended 
 any,)  she  was  resolved  to  make  herself  amends  some 
 other  way,  which  she  did  by  the  following  stratagem. 
 
 Judah  had  lately  buried  his  wife  ;  and  as  soon  as  the 
 usual  days  of  mourning  were  over,  he  took  a  particular 
 friend  with  him,  and  went  to  Timnah,  to  divert  himself  a 
 
 in  the  course  of  his  life,  which  God  had  predetermined  and  fore- 
 told.— Chrys.  Horn,  in  locum. 
 
 d  Though  the  latter  part  of  Judah's  story,  relating  to  the  incest 
 with  his  daughter  Thamar,  was  acted  after  Joseph  was  sold,  and 
 while  he  was  in  Egypt;  yet  the  former  part  of  it  relating  to  his 
 marriage,  and  the  birth  of  his  three  sons,  must  Deeds  fall  out 
 before  Joseph  was  sold.  For  since  there  wire  but  two  and 
 twenty,  or  at  the  most,  but  three  and  twenty  yens  between 
 Joseph's  being  sold  into  Egypt,  and  Jacob's  going  down 
 thither,  it  could  no  ways  be,  that  in  so  short  a  space  of 
 time,  Judah  could  marry  a  wife,  have  three  sons  at  three 
 several  times  by  her,  many  two  of  her  sons  successively  to  one 
 woman ;  defer  the  marriage  of  the  third  son  to  the  same  woman, 
 beyond  the  due  time;  afterwards  himself  have  sons  by  the  game 
 woman  his  daughter-in-law;  and  one  of  these  sons,  I': 
 beget  two  sons,  Hezron  and  Ilamul,  Gen.  xlvi.  IS.  It  can  00 
 ways  be,  I  say,  that  all  these  transactions  should  be  comprised  in 
 so  short  a  time.  And  therefore  we  must  suppose,  that  tin-  busi- 
 ness of  his  being  married,  and  having  children,  was  prior,  to 
 Joseph's  being  sold;  but  that  Moses,  net  willing  to  Entermingle 
 the  story  of  the  two  brothers  too  much,  brings  all  he  bad 
 concerning  Judah  into  the  compass  of  one  chapter,  ami  so  con- 
 cludes his  adventures,  before  he  proceeds  to  those  ol  Joseph. — 
 Howell's  History,  b.  1  ;  Universal  History,  b.  1.  e.  7  ;  and  Jtibtio- 
 tkeca  Biblica  in  locum. 
 
 e  It  was  not  so  bad  for  a  man  circumcised  to  marry  the  daughter 
 of  one  uncircumcised,  as  it  was  for  an  Israelite  t"  ghrs  adaughti  r 
 in  marriage  to  an  uncircumcised  husband,  Gen.  \\\i\.   14 j 
 an  uncircumcised  man  was  accounted  unclean,  though  I 
 renounced  idolatry; but  a  woman,  bornof  ondrcumciaed  | 
 if  she  embraced  the  true  religion,  was  not  so  accounted.     And 
 such  an  one  we  may  suppose  Judah's  wife  to  base  been;  other- 
 wise he  had  offended  bis  lather,  as  much  as  Esau  did  Isaac,  by 
 marrying  the  daughter  of  Eieth. — Patrick'*  Commentary. 
 
 /This  is  the  first  mi  ntion  we  have  of  this  custom,  whicl 
 theless  seems  to  have  been  a  rery  common  one,  and  well  under- 
 stood even  by  young  Oi  an;   for  lie  knew  that  the  lii  t-li  i  n  child 
 
 was  not  to  be  accounted  his,  tut  his  deceased  brother's,  w 
 
 called    by  his   name,  and    iulu  i  it    bis   e-lati  .      For   thi-. 
 
 Hebrew  doctors,  waa  an  ancient  custom  in  force  before  las  law 
 of  Moses,  that  when  a  man  died  without  issm  .  his  i"'  lh«  t  thetdd 
 
 marry  his  wife,  and  that  the  first    SOO,  upon  such   main'.: 
 to  be  reputed  her  deceased  husband's  heir.-— Pair 
 cii  re's  Commentary. 
 
212 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 little  at  the  shearing  feast.  Thamar  had  intelligence  of 
 this ;  and  therefore,  putting  off"  her  widow's  weed,  and 
 dressing  herself  like  a  courtezan,  she  threw  a  veil  over 
 her  face,  and  planted  herself  between  two  ways,  where 
 she  knew  her  father-in-law,  in  his  way  to  Timnah  was 
 obliged  to  pass. 
 
 Judah  no  sooner  saw  her,  but  taking  her  to  be  what 
 she  appeared,  he  began  to  make  his  addresses  to  her. 
 What  she  insisted  on  was  only  a  reward  for  her  compli- 
 ance, which  he  readily  agreed  to,  and  promised  to  send 
 her  a  kid ;  but  she  having  a  farther  design  upon  him, 
 demanded  a  pledge  for  the  performance  of  his  promise, 
 which  was  his  signet,  his  bracelet,  and  his  staff;  and  so, 
 being  agreed,  they  went  together,  had  their  enjoyment, 
 and  she  proved  with  child. 
 
 Judah,  according  to  his  promise,  sent  by  his  friend 
 Hirah  (for  th.at  was  his  name)  a  kid  to  redeem  his  pledge  ; 
 but  when  Hirah  came  to  the  place,  the  woman  was  gone, 
 nor  could  he  find,  upon  his  best  inquiry,  that  any  such 
 person  as  he  described  had  ever  been  there  :  so  that 
 Judah,  when  he  told  him  his  ill  success,  thought  it  the 
 wisest  way  to  let  her  go  off  with  the  pledges,  rather  than 
 run  the  hazard  of  his  reputation,  by  making  any  farther 
 search. 
 
 About  three  months  after  this,  word  was  brought  him, 
 that  his  daughter-in-law  had  played  the  harlot,  and  was 
 certainly  with  child.  Judah,  though  glad  perhaps  at  the 
 news,  because  her  death  would  free  him  from  the  promise 
 of  giving  his  son  Shelah  to  her,  pretended  however  to  be 
 highly  enraged  at  her  incontinency,  and  ordering  her  to 
 be  brought  forth,™  condemned  her  to  be  burnt  according 
 to  the  laws  of  the  country.  Thamar,  instead  of  being 
 surprised  at  this  dreadful  sentence  pronounced  against 
 her,  only  sent  the  pledges  to  Judah,  with  this  message, 
 That  the  owner  of  these  things  was  the  person  by  whom 
 she  was  with  child :  whereupon,  struck  with  confusion, 
 and  reflecting  on  the  injury  he  had  done  her,  in  with- 
 holding his  son,  he  acknowledged  her  b  less  culpable  in 
 
 a  Among  eastern  nations,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  women,  who 
 were  guilty  of  adultery,  were  more  severely  punished  than  the 
 men :  whether  it  was  that  the  injury  done  the  husband  was  reputed 
 to  be  more  heinous,  or  that  the  men,  having  the  power  of  making 
 aws,  took  care  to  enact  them  in  favour  of  themselves.  Thus  God 
 is  said,  '  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,'  to  have  indulged  the 
 Jews  in  the  matter  of  divorcing  their  wives;  but  the  wives  had 
 not  the  like  privilege  over  their  husbands.  In  many  places  a  man 
 mfght  have  as  many  wives  as  he  could  maintain,  but  the  women 
 were  to  be  content  with  one  husband.  And  in  like  manner,  here 
 Judah,  we  find,  condemns  Thamar,  though  a  widow,  for  her 
 crime,  to  be  burnt;  whilst  himself,  in  the  same  state  of  widow- 
 hood, thought  fornication  a  very  pardona'ile  crime.  It  is  ques- 
 tioned, however,  by  what  right  and  authority  he  could  pass  this 
 sentence  upon  her:  and  to  answer  this,  it  is  supposed,  that  every 
 master  was  judge  and  chief  magistrate  in  his  own  family;  and 
 that  therefore  Thamar,  though  she  was  a  Canaanite,  yet  being 
 married  into  Judah's  family,  and  having  brought  disgrace  upon 
 it,  was  properly  under  his  cognizance.  His  cognizance,  however, 
 according  to  the  opinion  of  some,  did  not  extend  so  far  as  to  have 
 her  burnt  at  the  stake,  as  we  call  it,  but  only  branded  in  the 
 forehead  for  a  whore ;  though  others  deny  that  his  authority  ex- 
 tended even  so  far:  for  being  in  a  strange  place,  it  can  hardly  be 
 thought,  that  the  power  of  life  and  death,  or  indeed  of  any  other 
 penalty,  was  lodged  in  him:  and  therefore  they  think  that  the 
 words  mean  no  more  than  this, — That  she  should  be  brought  before 
 a  court  of  judicature,  and  sentenced  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
 country. — Selden  de  Jure  Nat.  b.  7.  c.  5,  Le  Qerv's  and  Patrick's 
 Commentary,  Howell's  and  Universal  History. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  She  hath  been  more  righteous 
 
 A.  M.  3526.  A.  C.  1885.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 the  whole  affair  than  himself,  and  from  that  moment  took 
 her  home  to  his  house;  but  had  never  any  more  com- 
 munion with  her. 
 
 When  the  time  of  her  delivery  was  come,  she  was 
 brought  to  bed  of  twins,  but  the  manner  of  their  birth 
 was  somewhat  surprising ;  for  though  one  of  them  put 
 forth  his  hand,  about  which  the  midwife  tied  a  scarlet 
 thread,  to  distinguish  him  for  the  first-born  ;  yet  as  he 
 withdrew  it,  his  brother  got  before  him,  and  so  came  first 
 into  the  world  ;  which  occasioned  his  name  to  be  P/iarez, 
 that  is,  one  breaking  forth,  as  the  other  with  the  thread 
 on  his  hand  was  called  Zarali. 
 
 To  return  to  Joseph.  He  had  not  been  long  in  prison, 
 before  his  virtuous  and  obliging  deportment  gained  him 
 the  favour  of  the  keeper,  insomuch  that  he  was  intrusted 
 with  the  management  of  the  affairs  belonging  to  the  pri- 
 son, and  with  the  custody  of  the  prisoners  themselves. 
 
 At  this  time  there  were  two  persons  of  note,  the  king's 
 cupbearer,  and  his  chief  baker,  for  some  offence  or 
 other,  committed  to  the  same  prison  where  Joseph  was, 
 and  by  the  head-keeper,  intrusted  to  his  care  and  attend- 
 ance. To  this  purpose,  Joseph  coming  to  their  apartment 
 one  morning,  and  finding  them  both  pensive  and  melan- 
 choly upon  the  account  of  a  dream  which  each  of  them 
 had  had  the  night  before,  and  under  more  concern  still, 
 because  in  that  place,  they  could  have  no  person  to 
 interpret  for  them  ;  to  allay  their  superstitious  humour, 
 in  trusting  to  diviners  and  soothsayers,  he  told  them,  in 
 the  first  place,  that  the  interpretation  of  dreams  did  not 
 depend  upon  rules  of  art,  but  if  there  were  any  certainty 
 in  it,  it  must  proceed  from  a  divine  inspiration,  and  then 
 desired  to  know  what  it  was  that  they  dreamed. 
 
 The  cupbearer  began,  and  told  him  that  in  his  sleep 
 he  fancied  he  saw  a  vine,  with  three  branches,  which  all 
 on  a  sudden  budded,  then  blossomed,  and  so  bore  ripe 
 grapes ;  and  that  he  had  in  his  hand  the  king's  cup,  into 
 which  having  squeezed  the  juice  of  the  grapes,  he  gave 
 it  'to  the  king,  and  the  king  drank  it  from  his  hand  as 
 usual.  To  this  Joseph  replied,  that  as  the  three  branches 
 denoted  three  days,  it  would  not  exceed  the  compass  of 
 that  time,  before  the  king,  c  having  made  an  inquiry  into 
 
 than  I :'  not  more  virtuous  or  chaste,  for  she  knowingly  committed 
 adultery  and  incest  when  he  designedly  did  neither;  but  more 
 just,  in  that  he,  by  withholding  Shelah  from  her,  had  provoked 
 her  to  lay  this  trap  for  him.  So  that,  though  Thamar  was 
 wickeder  in  the  sight  of  God,  yet  she  may  be  said  to  be  juster 
 before  Judah,  or  to  have  done  no  more  in  drawing  him  into  this 
 scrape,  than  what  he  justly  deserved. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  expression  which  Joseph  here  makes  use  of  concerning 
 the  king's  cupbearer  and  baker,  '  Pharaoh  shall  lift  up  thy  head,' 
 seems  somewhat  too  literally  translated,  since  the  words  in  the 
 original  mean  no  more,  than  that  Pharaoh  would  have  them 
 brought  forth  and  examined.  The  ancients,  we  are  to  know,  in 
 keeping  their  reckonings  or  accounts  of  time,  or  their  list  of 
 domestic  officers  or  servants,  made  use  of  tables  with  holes  bored 
 in  them,  in  which  they  put  a  sort  of  pegs  or  nails  with  broad 
 heads,  exhibiting  the  particulars,  either  number  or  name,  or  what- 
 ever it  was.  These  nails  or  pegs  the  Jews  call  heads,  and  the 
 sockets  of  the  heads  they  call  bases.  The  meaning  therefore  of 
 '  Pharaoh's  lifting  up  his  head'  is,  that  Pharaoh  would  take  out  the 
 peg  which  had  the  cupbearer's  name  on  the  top  of  it  to  lead  it ;  that 
 is,  would  sit  in  judgment,  and  make  examination  into  his  accounts. 
 For  it  seems  very  probable,  that  both  he  and  the  baker,  had  been 
 either  suspected  or  accused  of  having  cheated  the  king,  and  that, 
 when  their  accounts  were  examined  and  cast  up,  the  one  was 
 acquitted,  while  the  other  was  found  guilty.  And  though  Jo- 
 seph uses  the  same  expression  in  both  cases,  yet  we  may  observe, 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 the  conduct  of  his  servants,  would  restore  him  to  his 
 favour  and  his  post  again.  Only  he  desired,  that  if  his 
 interpretation  proved  true,  he  would,  in  his  prosperity,  a 
 be  pleased  to  remember  him,  and  to  recommend  his  case 
 to  the  king- ;  since  the  truth  was  that  he  had  been  fraudu- 
 lently taken  *  from  his  own  country  and  cast  into  prison 
 without  any  fault  or  offence  of  his. 
 
 c  Hearing  so  happy  an  interpretation  of  this  dream, 
 the  baker  was  the  readier  to  propose  his,  which  was  to 
 this  effect : — That  while,  as  he  thought,  he  had  on  his 
 head  three  wicker  baskets,  in  the  uppermost  of  which 
 were  several  kmds  of  baked  meats  for  the  king's  table, 
 the  birds  came  and  ate  them  out  of  the  basket.  To  which 
 Joseph  immediately  replied,  that  the  three  baskets,  even 
 as  the  three  branches  had  done,  signified  three  days  ;  but 
 that  in  the  space  of  that  time,  the  king  having  made 
 scrutiny  into  his  behaviour,  and  found  him  guilty, 
 would  order  him  to  be  hanged  upon  a  gibbet,  for  the 
 fowls  of  the  air  to  devour  his  flesh.  And  as  Joseph 
 foretold,  so  it  came  to  pass  :  for  three  days  after  this, 
 the  cupbearer  was  restored  and  the  baker  hanged.  The 
 cupbearer,  however,  when  himself  had  got  into  prospe- 
 rity again,  thought  little  of  Joseph,  till,  in  about  two 
 years  after  this,  an  accident  happened  which  forced  him 
 in  a  manner  to  call  him  to  remembrance. 
 
 that  speaking  to  the  baker,  he  adds,  that  '  Pharaoh  shall  lift  up 
 thy  head  from  off  thee,'  that  is,  shall  order  thy  name  to  be  struck 
 out  of  the  list  of  his  servants  by  taking  the  peg  out  of  the  socket. 
 —Bibliotheca  Biblica  in  locum. 
 
 a  There  is  nothing  of  a  distrust  of  God's  goodness,  justice,  or 
 power,  in  making  use  of  human  means.  The  release  of  the  king's 
 cupbearer  appeared  to  Joseph  to  be  a  good  opportunity,  pointed 
 out  by  providence,  for  him  to  lay  hold  on,  and  lie  would  have 
 been  wanting  to  his  own  preservation,  had  he  not  employed  it. 
 Though  therefore  it  may  be  thought,  that  his  asking  this  court- 
 Dfficer  to  represent  his  case  to  the  king,  might  be  in  reward  or 
 compensation  for  his  prediction ;  yet  even  herein  he  may  be  jus- 
 tified by  apostolical  authority,  which  in  cases  of  this  nature 
 instructs,  (1  Cor.  ix.  4.  and  Gal.  vi.  6.,)  that  temporal  advan- 
 tages may  very  lawfully  be  both  asked  and  received.  In  the 
 cupbearer's  not  remembering  him,  however,  we  may  observe 
 something  that  seems  providentially  to  have  turned  to  his  advan- 
 tage, since  had  he  been  discharged  before  Pharaoh's  dream,  he 
 might  many  ways  have   missed  of  that    prodigious  favour  and 
 
 advancement,   which  by  this  means   he   attained Bibliotheca 
 
 Biblica  in  locum. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  from  the  land  of  the  Hebrews,' 
 which  some  men  suppose  were  added  by  Joshua,  or  some  other 
 writer,  after  the  death  of  Moses ;  because  in  Moses'  days,  and 
 much  less  in  Joseph's,  Canaan  was  not  known  by  that  name.  It 
 is  not  the  whole  land  of  Canaan,  however,  that  Joseph  here  means, 
 but  only  that  part  of  it  which  lay  about  Hebron,  where  Abraham, 
 Isaac,  and  Jacob,  had  for  a  long  while  lived;  (Gen.  xxii.  1,  2. 
 xxxv.  27.  xxxvii.  14.)  It  is  said,  indeed,  that  they  were  strangers 
 and  sojourners  in  the  country;  but  then  they  were  strangers  of 
 great  note  and  high  renown,  who  were  treated  as  princes,  lived 
 by  their  own  laws,  and  made  leagues  not  only  with  private  men, 
 but  with  cities  and  with  kings ;  (Gen.  xxiii.  (>.  xxi.  22.  xxvi.  28. 
 xxxiv.  6.;)  the  fame  of  whose  deeds  could  not  but  be  spread 
 abroad,  both  by  the  victory  which  Abraham  got  in  a  battle  over 
 several  kings,  and  by  the  sacking  of  Shechem,  which  their  neigh- 
 bours durst  not  revenge;  all  which  might  very  well  make  that 
 part  of  the  country  wherein  they,  for  three  generations,  had 
 resided,  not  improperly  be  called  'the  land  of  the  Hebrews.' — 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  As  flush  as  the  chief  baker  was  with  hopes,  there  is  this 
 obvious  difference  between  his  and  the  cupbearer's  presage, 
 namely,  that  he  was  not  an  agent,  but  a  sufferer  in  his  dream  : 
 for  he  did  not  give  a  cake  or  a  confection  to  the  king  as  the  other 
 did  the  cup,  but  the  fowls  of  the  air  descended  upon  his  basket, 
 and  fled  oft' with  the  dainties  that  were  in  it. —  Patrick's  Comment. 
 
 TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c.  213 
 
 A.  M.  3539.  A.  C.  1872.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 The  king  his  master  had,  in  one  night,  two  very  pur. 
 tentous  dreams,  which  gave  him  the  more  tineas 
 because  none  of  the  d  Egyptian  Magi  could  give  him  the 
 least  light  into  their  meaning.  Seeing  the  king  there- 
 fore in  this  perplexity,  the  cupbearer  could  not  forbear 
 telling  him,  that  while  he  and  the  chief  baker  were  under 
 his  majesty's  displeasure  in  prison,  cadi  of  tin  m,  in  the 
 same  night,  had  a  dream,  which  a  young  man,  an  Hebrew 
 then  in  prison  with  them,  interpreted  cxai  tly.  and  as  the 
 event  happened  ;  and  that,  in  his  opinion,  he  had  a  talent 
 that  way  much  superior  to  any  that  had  hitherto  been 
 consulted. 
 
 Pleased  with  this  discovery,  and  eager  to  have  his 
 dream  explained,  the  king  gave  orders  immediate  I  \  for 
 Joseph  to  be  sent  for  ;  who,  after  he  had  shaved  ami 
 dressed  himself,  was  introduced  into  his  presence,  where 
 he  had  not  been  long,  before  the  king  related  his  dream 
 to  him,  namely,  "  That  as  he  was  walking  on  the  banks 
 of  the  river  Nile,"  as  he  thought,  "  he  saw  seven  fat  kiue, 
 which  fed  in  the  meadows.  And  soon  after  that,  seven 
 others,  exceeding  lean,  and  frightful  to  behold,  which 
 came  and  ate  up  the  fat  ones,  and  yet  looked  not  a  bit 
 the  better ;  and  that,  after  this  he  dreamed  again,  and 
 fancied  that  he  saw  seven  full  ears  of  corn,  proceeding 
 all  from  the  same  stalk,  which  were  in  like  manner 
 devoured  by  seven  others,  that  were  blasted  and 
 withered." 
 
 As  soon  as  the  king  had  ended,  Joseph,  giving  him 
 first  to  understand  that  it  e  was  by  the  assistance  of  God 
 alone  that  he  was  enabled  to  be  an  interpreter  of  dreams, 
 told  him,  that  the  seven  kine,  and  seven  ears  of  corn, 
 signified  the  same  thing,  and  the  repetition  of  the  dream 
 
 d  The  Chaldeans  of  old  were  the  most  famous  people  in  the 
 world  for  divination  of  all  kinds;  and  therefore  it  is  very  proba- 
 ble that  the  word  Ilhartoumim,  which  we  render  mqoict 
 not  of  Hebrew,  but  Chaldee  origin.  The  roots,  however,  from 
 whence  it  springs  (if  it  be  a  compound  word,  as  probably  it  is] 
 are  not  so  visible;  and  therefore  commentators  are  perplexed  to 
 know  by  what  method  men  of  this  profession  proceeded  in  their 
 inquiry  into  secret  things;  whether  they  pretended  lo  expound 
 dreams,  and  descry  future  events,  by  natural  observations,  by  the 
 art  of  astrology,  which  cam.'  much  in  request  in  future  ages,  by 
 such  rules  as  are  now  found  in  the  books  of  oneirocritics ;  or  by 
 certain  characters,  images,  pictures,  and  figures  which  wm 
 engraved  with  magical  rites  and  ceremonies.  It  i-  not  to  be 
 doubted  indeed  but  that  the  magicians,  whom  Pharaoh  consulted 
 for  the  interpretation  of  his  dreams,  made  use  of  some  at 
 not  all  these  arts;  and  the  Jewish  doctors  would  make  us  believe, 
 that  after  several  attempts  of  divers  kind-,  they  came  at  last  to 
 this  exposition,  that  Pharaoh's  daughters  (for  thej  supposed  him 
 to  have  seven)  should  die.  and  that  be  should  bare  sevi  n 
 born  to  him  in  their  stead ;  but  this  being  not  at  all  satisfactory 
 to  their  master,  put  the  cupbearer  in  mind  ol  Joseph  - 
 abilities  that  way.— Ac  Ck  res  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  words  wherein  Joseph  prefaces  bis  interpretation  ol 
 Pharaoh's  dreams,  are  much  of  the  same  kin.!  with  what  we  find 
 Daniel  addressing  Nebuchadnesar  upon  the  like  occasion  :— 
 'The  secret  which  the  king  bath  demanded,  cannot  the  wise 
 men,  the  astrologers,  the  magicians,  the  soothsayers,  show  onto 
 the  king;  bul  there  Is  a  God  In  heaven,  who  revealeth 
 and  makethknown  unto  the  king  what  shall  be  In  the  lattei 
 days.'— (Dan.  li.  87,  K.)     Both  these  holy  nun  Insinuate,  that 
 
 the  interests  of  princes  are  re  especially  the  care  ol  divine 
 
 ,,ro\  idence,  and  that  therefore,  for  their  admonition, he  Ereqw  ntly 
 sends  dreams  and  visions  upon  them.     And  ibis  declai 
 previous  to  the  exposition,  was  perfectly  proper,  and  ol  n 
 force  to  bespeak  the  king's  attention  and  regard,  at  tin 
 time  that  Joseph  was  asserting  the  being  and  Interposition  of 
 Almighty  God  In  the  guidance  of  human  affairs. — I*  <  - 
 Commentary ,  and  Bibliotheca  BUIica  in  locum, 
 
214 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3539.  A.  C.  1872.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 only  denoted  the  certainty  of  the  event ;  that  therefore, 
 as  the  lean  kine  seemed  to  eat  up  the  fat,  and  the 
 withered  ears  to  consume  the  full  and  flourishing,  so, 
 after  seven  years  of  great  plenty,  other  seven  years  of 
 extreme  famine  should  succeed,  which  would  lay  waste 
 all  the  country,  and  leave  no  signs  of  the  former  plenty : 
 and  therefore,  since  it  had  pleased  God  thus  to  inform 
 the  king  what  seasons  he  intended  to  bring  upon  the 
 earth,  he  hoped  he  would  make  a  right  use  of  the  infor- 
 mation, by  appointing  a  wise  and  prudent  man  over  his 
 whole  kingdom,  who  should  take  care  to  build  granaries, 
 and  appoint  officers  under  him  in  every  province,  who 
 should  collect  and  lay  up  a  a  fifth  part  of  each  plentiful 
 year's  product  against  the  succeeding  years  of  famine. 
 
 b  This  interpretation,  and  the  good  advice  given  upon 
 it,  made  the  king  conceive  so  gTeat  an  opinion  of  Joseph's 
 wisdom,  that  he  thought  no  one  could  be  so  fit  to  manage 
 the  office  of  collecting  the  corn  in  the  years  of  plenty  as 
 he  who  had  suggested  a  scheme  so  very  beneficial.  He, 
 therefore,  in  a  short  time,  made  him  his  deputy  over  the 
 land  of  Egypt,  and  to  that  purpose  invested  him  with  the 
 usual  ensigns  of  that  station ;  gave  him  his  own  signet 
 from  off  his  finger ;  caused  him  to  be  clothed  in  a  robe 
 of  fine  linen,  and  put  a  golden  chain  about  his  neck  ; 
 ordered  him  to  ride  in  a  chariot  next  to  his  own  ;  and 
 wherever  he  went,  heralds  to  go  before,  and,  in  token 
 that  the  viceroy  was  coming,  to  proclaim  to  the  people,  c 
 
 a  Since  there  were  to  be  as  many  years  of  scarceness  as  of 
 plenty,  some  have  made  it  a  question  why  Joseph  advised  no 
 more  than  a  fifth  part  of  the  corn,  in  plentiful  years,  to  be  laid 
 up:  but  to  this  it  may  be  replied,  that  the  greater  and  richer 
 sort  were  used,  in  time  of  plenty,  to  fill  their  storehouses  with 
 provision  against  a  scarcer  year,  which  sometimes  happened ; 
 that  in  the  times  of  famine,  men  were  wont  to  live  more  frugally 
 and  parsimoniously,  as  the  Egyptians  at  this  time,  according  to 
 Josephus,  were  obliged  to  do  by  Pharaoh's  special  command ; 
 that,  even  in  the  years  of  famine,  tillage  went  on,  and  the  harvest 
 might  be  something,  (though  not  mentioned  by  reason  that  the 
 product  was  comparatively  inconsiderable,)  especially  in  the  lands 
 lying  near  the  Nile ;  and  that,  as  the  tenth  part  was  an  ordinary 
 tribute  due  to  the  kings  of  Egypt,  in  the  years  of  extraordinary 
 plenty,  (when  the  fifth  was  no  more  than  the  tenth  in  other 
 years,)  Pharaoh  might  think  it  proper  to  double  this  charge,  or, 
 what  is  rather  to  be  supposed  from  a  good  king  and  a  good  coun- 
 sellor, to  buy  as  much  more  as  was  his  tribute,  which  he  might 
 do  at  an  easy  rate,  when  such  a  vast  plenty  made  com  extremely 
 cheap .  —  Patrick 's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Here  we  may  observe  again,  that  Joseph  directs  Pharaoh  to 
 look  up  to  God  as  the  author  of  all  these  events,  and  that  not  in 
 an  ordinary,  but  extraordinary  manner,  since  such  fertility  and 
 such  famine  did  not  proceed  from  mere  natural  causes,  but  from 
 an  overruling  providence,  which  made  the  river  Nile  overflow 
 its  banks  so  largely  for  seven  years  together,  and  so  occasion  a 
 great  plenty;  and  then,  for  the  next  seven  years,  overflow  very 
 little,  if  at  all,  and  so  produce  a  very  sore  and  long  famine.  Nor 
 can  it  be  objected  to  Joseph  that  he  was  guilty  of  presumption 
 or  boldness  in  giving  his  advice  to  Pharaoh  concerning  the  pro- 
 vision that  was  to  be  made  against  the  ensuing  scarceness,  since 
 he  was  conscious  to  himself  that  he  was  best  able  to  give  such 
 advice,  and  would  have  been  guilty  of  the  sin  of  omission,  had 
 he  neglected  to  do  it,  in  so  great  and  so  general  a  concern. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Bibliotheca  Biblica  in  loctim. 
 
 c  Annotators  are  much  at  a  loss  to  determine  of  what  original 
 the  word  abrech  is,  some  pretending  that  it  is  altogether  Hebrew, 
 while  others  make  it  a  compound  of  Hebrew  and  Syriac,  and 
 others  contend,  at  the  same  time,  that  it  is  purely  Egyptian. 
 Those  who  pretend  that  it  is  Hebrew,  besides  the  signification 
 of  bowing  the  knee,  which  it  very  well  bears,  by  dividing  it  into 
 two  words,  make  it  import  a  tender  father,  and  suppose  that 
 Joseph  might  very  properly  be  called  a  father  in  point  of  his 
 consummate  wisdom,    and  young  or  tender  in  regard  to  his 
 
 '  bow  the  knee.'  Nor  was  this  all :  for  to  attach  him 
 still  closer  to  his  service,  and  make  him  forget  the  very 
 thoughts  of  ever  returning  to  his  own  country,  d  he 
 changed  his  name  to  that  of  Zaphnah-paancah,  which 
 signifies  a  prime  minister,  and  matched  him  into  a 
 noble  family,  to  Asenah,  the  daughter  of  e  Potipherah, 
 priest  or  prince  of  On ;  by  whom  he  had  two  sons,  the 
 former  of  whom  he  called  Manasseh,  intimating  that  God 
 made  him  forget  all  his  toils ;  and  the  other  Ephraim, 
 because  he  had  made  him  fruitful  in  the  laud  of  his 
 aliiiction. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  Joseph  being  now  about  thirty 
 years  old  when  he  was  raised  to  this  height  of  power, 
 took  a  progress  through  the  whole  kingdom  ;  built 
 granaries,  appointed  proper  officers  in  every  place,  and, 
 in    short,    ordered  all  things  with    such  prudence  and 
 
 years.  Those  who  make  it  a  mixture  of  Hebrew  and  Syriac, 
 divide  it,  in  like  manner,  into  two  words,  and  suppose  that  as 
 ab,  in  the  Hebrew,  is  father,  so  rech  or  rack,  in  the  Syrian 
 tongue,  is  king,  in  the  same  sense  that  Joseph  says  of  himself, 
 and  perhaps  with  allusion  to  this  very  name,  '  God  has  made  me  a 
 father  unto  Pharaoh,'  (Gen.  xlv.  8.)  that  is,  in  giving  him  whole- 
 some counsel,  even  as  a  father  does  his  children:  but  those  who 
 contend  for  its  being  purely  Egyptian,  do  freely  confess,  that  at 
 this  distance  of  time,  and  under  such  obsoleteness  of  that  lan- 
 guage, it  is  next  to  impossible  to  find  out  the  genuine  significa- 
 tion of  an  honorary  term,  as  this  very  probably  was;  and 
 therefore  they  observe,  that  as  the  Jewish  historian  makes  no 
 mention  of  this  circumstance  in  Joseph's  story,  he  might  be  in- 
 duced to  that  omission  by  reason  of  his  not  understanding  this 
 word  of  exotic  growth.  In  this  uncertainty  of  opinions,  there- 
 fore, we  have  thought  it  the  best  way  to  follow  that  translation 
 which  some  of  the  best  Hebrew  interpreters,  the  Septuagint  and 
 Vulgate  versions  have  approved. — Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar., 
 vol.  2.  Essay  20. 
 
 d  It  was  an  ancient  custom  among  eastern  princes,  upon  their 
 promotion  of  any  favourite,  to  give  him  a  new  name.  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, we  read,  (Dan.  i.  7.,)  imposed  new  names  upon 
 Daniel  and  his  companions  in  Babylon ;  and  it  was  the  custom  of 
 the  Mogul  never  to  advance  a  man,  but  he  gave  him  anew  name, 
 and  that  significative  of  something  belonging  to  him:  but  here 
 the  question  is,  what  the  meaning  of  the  name  which  Pharaoh 
 gave  Joseph  is  ?  In  the  Hebrew  text  it  is  Zaphnah-paaneah, 
 but  in  the  Egyptian  and  Greek  Pentateuch  it  is  Pson-thon- 
 phaneck.  The  oriental  versions,  however,  are  pretty  unanimous 
 in  rendering  it — a  revealer  of  secrets,  but  there  are  some  reasons 
 why  this  should  not  be  its  true  interpretation.  For  the  time 
 when  Pharaoh  gave  the  patriarch  this  name,  was  when  he 
 advanced  him  from  the  condition  of  an  imprisoned  slave  to  that 
 of  a  '  ruler  throughout  all  the  land  of  Egypt ;'  and,  therefore,  it 
 is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  gave  it  in  commemoration  of 
 such  promotion,  rather  than  of  his  expounding  dreams ;  because 
 to  have  called  him  an  interpreter  of  dreams  only,  had  been 
 degrading  him  to  the  level  of  magicians.  Now  if  Pharaoh  gave 
 him  this  name  in  memory  of  his  promotion,  it  is  very  likely 
 that  this  name  was  strictly  and  properly  Egyptian,  otherwise  the 
 common  people  could  not  have  understood  it,  though  Moses, 
 in  his  recording  it,  might  endeavour  to  accommodate  it  to  the 
 Hebrew  idiom ;  and  if  it  was  Egyptian,  the  word  in  that  lan- 
 guage signifies  what  we  call  a  prime  minister;  or  strictly  the 
 first,  or  prince  of  the  lords. — Bibliotheca  Biblica,  Occasional 
 Annotations,  41. 
 
 e  The  reader  must  remember  not  to  confound  this  name  with 
 Potiphar,  who  bought  Joseph  of  the  Ishmaelites,  because  their 
 names  in  Hebrew  are  not  differently  written.  The  one,  how- 
 ever, is  called  the  captain  of  the  guards,  the  other  the  prince  or 
 priest  of  On ;  so  that  the  former  must  have  had  his  residence  in 
 the  capital,  to  be  always  about  the  king;  but  the  latter  lived  at 
 On  or  Heliopolis,  about  twenty  miles  distant  from  Memphis, 
 the. metropolis  of  the  kingdom  :  nor  can  we  suppose  that  Joseph 
 would  ever  have  married  his  master's  daughter,  lest  she  should 
 have  proved  not  unlike  her  mother,  for  whose  incontinence  he 
 had  so  severely  smarted. —  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL 
 
 A.  M.  227G.  A.  C.  1728;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 application,  that  before  the  seven  years  of  plenty  were 
 expired,  he  had  amassed  together  an  immense  quantity 
 of  corn,  enough  to  supply  both  Egypt  and  the  neigh- 
 bouring countries ;  so  that  when  the  years  of  famine  came 
 on,  and  the  people  applied  themselves  to  Pharaoh,  he 
 remitted  them  to  Joseph,  who,  when  he  saw  it  (it,  opened 
 his  stores,  and  sold  provision  to  all  that  came. 
 
 In  the  second  year  of  the  famine,  Jacob,  who  was  not 
 exempt  from  the  common  calamity,  hearing  that  there 
 was  corn  to  be  bought  in  Egypt,  sent  ten  of  his  sons 
 thither  to  buy  some,  who,  upon  their  arrival,  were  directed 
 to  apply  to  Joseph  for  an  order,  and  as  soon  as  they 
 saw  him,  prostrated  themselves  before  him,  and  begged 
 tli.it  they  might  be  supplied  with  corn. 
 
 Joseph,  at  first  sight,  knew  his  brethren,  but  being 
 minded  to  terrify  them  a  little,  would  not,  as  yet,  dis- 
 cover himself  to  them  ;  and  therefore,  choosing  to  speak 
 by  an  interpreter,  with  a  severe  look  and  angry  tone, 
 he  asked  them  whence  they  came,  and  upon  their  answer- 
 ing from  the  land  of  Canaan,  he  charged  them  with 
 being  a  spies  who  were  come  to  discover  the  weakness  of 
 the  country.  To  which  they  replying,  that  they  came 
 with  no  other  intent,  than  purely  to  buy  corn  for  their 
 numerous  family,  being  all  the  °  sons  of  one  man,  who 
 once  indeed  had  twelve,  but  that  the  youngest  was  left  at 
 home,  and  the  next  to  him  dead  :  he  immediately  catched 
 at  their  words,  and  put  their  honesty  upon  this  probation  : 
 —That  since,  as  they  said,  they  had  a  younger  brother, 
 
 a  These  words,  '  Ye  are  spies,'  are  not  to  he  looked  upon  as  a 
 lie,  because  they  are  not  spoken  by  way  of  affirmation,  but  01"  pro- 
 bation only,  in  tiie  manner  that  judges  speak,  when  they  examine 
 suspected  persons,  or  inquire  into  a  crime,  of  which  men  are 
 accused ;  and  have  therefore  the  force  of  an  interrogation,  '  Are 
 ye  not  spies  ?'  or  I  must  take  you  to  be  such,  until  you  prove  the 
 contrary.  This,  though  it  was  but  a  pretensive  charge  of  Joseph, 
 had  yet  the  better  colour,  because  Egypt  was  defenceless  and 
 liable  to  incursions  only  on  that  side  from  whence  his  brethren 
 came ;  for  what  with  the  interposition  of  large  deserts,  and  shallow 
 seas,  it  was  pretty  well  secured  on  all  other  quarters.  (Le  derc's 
 and  Patrick' s  Commentaries  in  locum.) — To  conceive  the  full  force 
 and  heinousness  of  this  charge,  says  Dr  Hales,  it  is  necessary  to 
 state  briefly  the  situation  of  Egypt  at  the  time.  In  the  reign  of 
 Timaus,  or  Thamuz,  about  B.  C.  2159,  Egypt  had  been  invaded 
 and  subdued  by  a  tribe  of  Cushite  shepherds,  from  Arabia,  who 
 cruelly  enslaved  the  whole  country,  under  a  dynasty  of  six  kings, 
 until,  at  length,  the  native  princes,  weary  of  their  tyranny, 
 labelled,  and  after  a  long  war  of  thirty  years,  shook  oil' the  yoke, 
 and  expelled  the  shepherds  to  Palestine,  where  they  became  the 
 Philistines,  (from  Pallesthan,  "  the  shepherd  land/'  in  the  San- 
 scrit, or  primitive  Syriac,)  about  B.  C.  1899,  or  twenty-seven 
 years  before  Joseph's  administration.  But  the  memory  of  their 
 tyranny  was  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  Egyptians,  so  that 
 '  any  shepherd  was  an  abomination  to  the  Egyptians,'  Gen.  xlvi. 
 34;  and  '  they  could  not  endure  to  eat  bread  with  the  Hebrews.' 
 because  they  were  shepherds,  and  came  from  the  neighbourhood 
 of  Palestine.  And  they  were  greatly  apprehensive,  that  the 
 Philistines,  who  were  a  warlike  people,  might  attempt  to  regain 
 a  footing  in  Egypt,  weakened  as  it  had  been  by  so  long  a  war; 
 and  when  the  land  of  Goshen,  which  had  been  their  principal 
 settlement,  the  best  pasture  land  in  Egypt,  was  now  in  a  great 
 measure  waste.  (Hales'  Analysis,  vol.  2.  p.  141,  second  edition.) 
 This  circumstance  most  probably,  at  a  subsequent  period,  gave 
 rise  to  the  dread  of  the  Hebrews  becoming  more  powerful  than 
 them,  and  again  enslaving  them. — Ed. 
 
 b  By  this  they  suggested  the  impossibility  of  their  being  spies, 
 since  no  man,  in  his  wits,  would  send  so  many  and  all  his  own 
 sous,  upon  so  dangerous  and  capital  an  enterprise ;  nor  was  it 
 probable  that  one  man  could  have  a  design  upon  Egypt,  but  all 
 the  great  men  in  Canaan  must  have  joined  in  it,  and  then  they 
 would  have  sent  men  of  different  families,  and  not  all  of  one  only. 
 ~—  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c.  215 
 
 A.  M.3539.  A.  C.  1872.  GEN'.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 some  one  of  them  should  be  dispatched  to  briag  him, 
 whilst  the  rest  were  kept  in  custody  .  otherwise  he  should 
 look  upon  them  (and  there  he  spake  with  a  seeming 
 earnestness)  as  no  other  than  spies  and  enemies  :  and  SO 
 ordered  them  all  to  prison,  until  they  should  come  to  ■ 
 resolution. 
 
 After  three  days'  confinement,  however,  he  sent  f.»r 
 them  again,  and  then,  with  a  milder  air,  told  them  thai  :.- 
 himself  feared  God,  and  was  willing  to  act  justly  by  them, 
 he  was  loath  thai  their  family  should  want  provision  or 
 that  they  themselves  should  sutler,  if  innocent :  he  there 
 fore  propounded  this  expedient  to  them  : — "  That  one 
 of  them  should  be  confined,  as  an  hostage  for  the  rest, 
 while  they  returned  with  corn  for  the  family  ;  and  that 
 when  they  came  again,  and  brought  their  youngest 
 brother  with  them,  the  confined  should  be  released,  and 
 all  of  them  reputed  honest  men." 
 
 For  persons  in  their  circumstances  there  was  no  expos- 
 tulating with  one  who  had  them  at  his  mercy  ;  and  there- 
 fore they  consented  to  do  whatever  he  required.  Hut  in 
 the  interpreter's  absence,  they  supposing  that  no  one 
 else  understood  their  language,  began  to  bewail  their 
 unrelenting  cruelty  to  poor  Joseph,  and  to  condemn 
 themselves  severely  for  it;  while  Reuben,  who  was  not 
 so  culpable  in  the  matter,  put  them  in  mind,  that  all  this 
 mischief  might  have  been  prevented,  had  they  listened  to 
 his  counsel,  and  not  acted  so  inhumanly  to  their  innocent 
 brother,  for  whose  sake,  it  was  no  more  than  what  they 
 might  expect,  that  vengeance  at  one  time  or  other  would 
 certainly  overtake  them. 
 
 Their  discourse,  in  short,  was  so  very  dolorous  and 
 affecting,  that  Joseph  could  no  longer  contain  himself, 
 and  was  therefore  forced  to  withdraw  a  little  to  give  ins 
 tears  vent,  and  then  coming  in  again,  commanded  ' 
 Simeon  to  be  bound  and  sent  to  prison  :  but  Betting  th  ■ 
 rest  at  liberty,  he  ordered  the  officer  who  distributed  the 
 corn  to  supply  them  with  what  they  wanted,  and  at  the 
 same  time,  as  a  fresh  matter  for  their  surprise,  d  to  put 
 each  man's  money  into  the  mouth  of  his  sack.  1 1  is  orders 
 were  accordingly  obeyed  ;  and  therefore,  when  they  came 
 to  bait,  and  to  give  their  beasts  provender,  e  they  were 
 
 c  It  may  be  supposed,  perhaps,  that  because  Reuben  was  the 
 eldest,  he,  upon  this  occasion,  had  been  the  properesl  I 
 but  Reuben,  we  may  observe,  had  showed  himself  averse  to  those 
 lengths  of  wickedness  and  inhumanity,  in  which  most  <>l  the 
 other  brothers  were  agreed,  again-t  Joseph.  Reuben,  in  short, 
 resolved  to  save  him;  and  as  Judah  was  inclined  1"  »v<  ur  him, 
 had  Simeon  joined  with  them,  their  authority  mighl  haw  pre* 
 vailed  for  his  deliverance;  but  Simeon  was  the  person  who  was 
 
 most  exasperated  against  him.     He  w„s  the  eldest  oi  th who 
 
 had  proposed  to  murder  him.  and  was  therefore  a  61  proxy  for 
 the  rest;  the  man,  as  the  Hebrews  say,  who  put  Joseph  ...  the 
 pit,  and  was  now  very  justly  to  be  served  in  his  kinds  though 
 they  who  tell  us  this,  have  a  tradition,  that  as  M U  bij  bro- 
 thers were  gone,  Joseph  had  him  unbound,  and  ordered  aim 
 what  provisions  and  conveniences  ha  pleased,  during  1 
 (moment— Patrick's  Commentary,  and  BilMothm  JiM,ca  m 
 
 drThis  Joseph  might  do,  without  defreodtag  Pharaoh:  forhs 
 
 might  either  supply  them  out  of  that  stock  oi  provis s  which 
 
 belonged  properly  to  himself  j  or  it  the  provisions  wr.ethe  kin|  s, 
 he  mfght  pay  for  them  nut  of  hdi  0WO  pens.  NOI  is  there  any 
 occasion  to  conceive,  that  a  persons,,  entirely  in  fovour  an.l  con- 
 fidence with  bis  prince  ns  Joseph  was,  had  his  hands  ttad  up 
 ,,,„„  dlspasmg,  at  his  „w„  discretion  and  ptoesore,  ol  »,■"" 
 a  boon  as  this  to  his  friends,  for  their  relief  and   minim  t  — 
 
 Mutcvhu.  .       , ,  ,    ..        _«j. 
 
 e  If  it  should  be  made  a  question,  why  Joseph  s  brethren  made 
 
216 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  227fi.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 not  a  little  frightened  to  find  their  money  returned ;  nor 
 failed  they  to  make  all  the  dismal  reflections  hereupon 
 that  their  fears  could  suggest,  concluding  that  the 
 haughty  viceroy  had  done  this,  that  he  might  have  a 
 pretence  to  make  them  his  slaves  at  their  next  coming 
 down. 
 
 As  soon  as  they  were  got  home,  they  acquainted  their 
 father  with  all  these  adventures  ;  they  told  him  the  treat- 
 ment they  had  received  from  the  king's  prime  minister, 
 and  how  he  suspected  them  of  being  spies,  of  which  they 
 had  no  way  to  clear  themselves,  but  by  leaving  Simeon 
 bound  in  prison,  as  a  pledge,  till  they  should  bring 
 Benjamin,  to  show  that  what  they  told  him  of  their  family 
 was  true.  These  were  sad  tidings,  indeed,  and  what 
 made  their  poor  afflicted  father  break  out  into  this 
 melancholy  complaint: — "  That  one  way  or  other,  him 
 they  had  deprived  of  his  children  ;  that  Joseph  was  dead, 
 Simeon  was  left  in  Egypt,  and  now  they  were  going  to 
 take  Benjamin  from  him  likewise,  which  were  things  too 
 heavy  for  him  to  bear." 
 
 In  vain  it  was  for  Reuben,  in  order  to  prevail  with  his 
 father  to  comply,  to  offer,  as  he  did,  that  if  he  did  not 
 return  him  safe,  he  might  take  his  two  sons,  and  kill  them 
 if  he  pleased  :  the  death  of  a  grandson  was  no  compen- 
 sation for  the  loss  of  a  child ;  and  therefore,  instead  of 
 assuaging,  this  did  but  augment  his  grief,  and  make  him 
 absolutely  resolve  not  to  trust  Benjamin  with  them  :  for 
 "  his  brother  is  dead,"  says  he,  "  and  he  is  left  alone  ;  if 
 any  mischief  should  befall  him  by  the  way,  then  will  ye 
 bring  my  grey  hairs  with  sorrow  to  the  grave." 
 
 In  such  debates  as  these  they  spent  the  time,  till  the 
 famine  every  day  increasing,  and  their  stock  of  provision 
 being  well  nigh  gone,  necessity  put  them  in  the  thoughts 
 of  going  down  again  into  Egypt.  This  their  father  like- 
 wise reminded  them  of,  but  without  taking  any  notice  of 
 their  obligation  to  the  viceroy  to  bring  their  younger 
 brother  with  them  ;  which,  when  Judah  suggested  to  him, 
 and  set  before  him  withal  the  utter  impossibility  of  their 
 going  into  Egypt,  without  his  complying  with  that  con- 
 dition, he  began  to  complain  again,  that  he  thought  him- 
 self hardly  used  in  their  telling  the  viceroy  any  thing  of 
 the  state  of  his  family,  or  that  they  had  another  brother ; 
 which  Judah  endeavoured  to  excuse,  by  assuring  his 
 father,  that  what  was  said  upon  that  head,  proceeded 
 from  the  simplicity  of  their  hearts,  and  in  answer  to  the 
 interrogatories  which  the  viceroy  put  to  them,  without 
 ever  dreaming  that  he  intended  to  make  such  a  cruel 
 handle  of  it ;  and  then  perceiving  his  father  to  waver  a 
 little  in  hi3  resolution,  a  he  reiterates  the   necessity  of 
 
 use  of  their  own  stocks,  and  especially  in  a  time  of  so  great 
 scarcity,  in  a  public  inn  ?  the  answer  is  obvious, — That  the  inns, 
 or  resting-places  in  those  parts  of  the  world,  neither  were,  nor 
 are  as  yet,  such  as  we  meet  with  in  England,  and  some  other 
 parts  of  Europe.  They  afforded  no  accommodation  of  any  kind, 
 but  barely  house-room.  The  passengers  who  travelled  in  those 
 countries,  carried  most,  if  not  all  of  their  provisions  with  them; 
 nor  did  they  make  any  other  use  of  these  public  houses,  but  only 
 to  repose  themselves  in  at  the  end  of  their  stages.  (Musculus.) 
 > — The  khan  or  caravansara  is  seldom  more  than  four  bare  walls, 
 open  at  top,  and  perfectly  exposed ;  if  there  are  cells,  nothing  is 
 found  but  bare  walls,  dust,  and  sometimes  scorpions,  the  only 
 refreshment  being  the  water  generally  found  in  the  vicinity ;  nor 
 are  even  these  empty  mansions  always  to  be  met  with. 
 
 a  In  the  text,  the  words  wherein  Judah  delivers  himself  to 
 his  father,  are  these, — '  If  thou  wilt  send  our  brother  with  us,  we 
 will  go  down  and  buy  thee  food ;  but  if  thou  wilt  not   send  him, 
 
 A.  M.  3539.  A.  C.  1872.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 their  going  again,  and  presses  him  to  consent,  witli 
 this  solemn  promise,  that  at  the  hazard  of  his  OAvn  life, 
 he  would  take  care  and  return  him  safe :  '  '  Of  my 
 hand  shalt  thou  require  him,'  says  he ;  '  if  I  bring  him 
 not  unto  thee,  and  set  him  before  thee,  then  let  me  bear 
 the  blame  for  ever.' 
 
 But  it  was  not  so  much  his  son's  importunity,  as  the 
 necessity  of  affairs,  which  induced  Jacob  to  comply  ;  and 
 therefore,  perceiving  that  there  was  now  no  remedy,  he 
 delivered  up  Benjamin  ;  but  before  they  departed,  in- 
 structed them  what  to  do,  namely,  to  take  a  double 
 quantity  of  money  with  them,  for  fear  that  there  was 
 some  mistake  made  in  the  other  that  was  returned,  b  and 
 some  such  presents  as  the  country  afforded,  and  what 
 they  imagined  would  be  most  acceptable  to  the  viceroy  : 
 and  so  having  entreated  Heaven  for  their  success,  he 
 sent  them  away,  with  an  aching  heart,  but  a  resolved 
 acquiescence  in  God's  good  providence,  let  the  event  be 
 what  it  would. 
 
 As  soon  as  they  arrived  at  Egypt,  they  went  directly 
 to  the  king's  granaries,  and  presented  themselves  before 
 Joseph,  who  seeing  their  brother  Benjamin  with  them, 
 gave  orders  to  his  steward  to  conduct  them  to  his  house, 
 where  he  designed  they  should  dine  that  day.  Here 
 again  they  began  to  fear,  lest  this  might  be  a  contrivance 
 against  them  upon  account  of  the  money  which  was 
 returned  in  their  sacks ;  and  therefore,  before  they 
 entered  the  house,  they  acquainted  the  steward  with  the 
 whole  affair,  and  to  demonstrate  their  honesty,  told  him, 
 
 1  Gen.  xliii.  9. 
 we  will  not  go  down,'  Gen.  xliii.  4,  5 ;  which,  at  first  view,  seem 
 to  have  an  air  of  undutifulness  in  them,  but  upon  a  nearer  inspec- 
 tion, will  admit  of  this  apology,  namely,  that  this  was  not  the 
 first  proposal  made  to  Jacob  by  his  sons,  to  have  Benjamin  go 
 with  them  into  Egypt.  Reuben  had  once  before  offered  his  two 
 sons  for  pledges,  and  received  a  repulse.  Upon  Jacob's  renewing 
 his  orders  therefore  for  them  to  go,  Judah  only  had  courage  to 
 engage  in  this  fresh  remonstrance.  He  reminds  his  father,  first  of 
 the  solemnity  and  earnestness  with  which  Joseph  had  pretended, 
 that  without  Benjamin,  '  they  should  not  see  his  face:'  then  he 
 offers  to  go  very  willingly  in  obedience  to  his  father's  command, 
 but  desires  to  insist  upon  the  condition  of  Benjamin's  going 
 with  them,  as  finally,  indispensably,  and  absolutely  necessary. 
 For  the  words,  compared  with  those  of  Gen.  xliv.  26,  do  plainly 
 denote  as  much,  '  We  will  not  go  down,'  that  is,  it  is  impossible, 
 impracticable,  unallowable  for  us  to  go.  For  the  future  tense, 
 according  to  the  Hebrew  idiom,  will  bear  this  signification,  and 
 consequently  will  acquit  Judah  from  all  suspicion  of  rebellion  or 
 undutifulness  towards  his  father. — Bibliotheca  Biblica,  on  Gen. 
 Annotation  45. 
 
 b  The  present  which  Jacob  ordered  his  sons  to  cany  down  to 
 Joseph  is  thus  particularized  in  our  translation ;  '  a  little  balm, 
 a  little  honey,  spices,  and  myrrh,  nuts  and  almonds,'  Gen. 
 xliii.  11.  But  there  is  reason  to  suspect,  that  some  of  these  are 
 not  the  real  things  which  the  original  words  intend.  Balm, 
 indeed,  which  we  may  suppose  was  that  of  Gilead,  was  of  great 
 price  all  the  world  over,  and  a  small  quantity  of  it  was  a  present 
 worth  acceptance ;  but  unless  the  honey  in  Canaan  was  better 
 than  ordinary,  there  doubtless  was  no  want  of  it  in  Egypt  :  and 
 therefore,  it  is  much  more  likely  that  this  part  of  the  present 
 consisted'of  dates,  since  the  Hebrew  expresses  both  by  the  same 
 name ;  and  in  Judea,  especially  about.  Jericho,  as  both  Josephus 
 and  Pliny  tell  us,  there  was  a  great  plenty  of  them.  The  word 
 nckoth,  which  is  rendered  spices,  should  rather  signify  storax, 
 which  is  an  aromatic,  gum  put  into  all  precious  spicy  ointments. 
 And  the  word  loth,  which  is  translated  myrrh,  would  come  nearer 
 the  original  if  it  were  called  laudanum.  Botnim,  which  we  read 
 nuts,  are  what  we  call  pistachios,  which  were  highly  esteemed 
 by  the  ancients  as  a  delicious  food ;  and  with  these  almonds 
 might  not  improperly  be  joined  together. — Universal  History, 
 and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  227G.  A.  C.  1728  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 that  besides  the  money  which  they  found  returned,  they 
 had  brought  more  along  with  them,  to  buy  a  fresh  quan- 
 tity of  provisions. 
 
 The  steward,  on  the  other  hand,  being  let  into  the 
 secret,  and  perceiving  the  concern  they  were  in,  bade 
 them  dismiss  all  uneasy  apprehensions  ;  told  them,  that 
 what  they  found  in  their  sacks  they  ought  to  look  upon 
 as  a  treasure  sent  them  from  heaven  ;  owned  that  he 
 himself  had  fairly  received  their  money  ;  and  gave  them 
 assurance  that  they  should  never  hear  any  more  of  it ; 
 and,  that  they  might  believe  his  words  to  be  true,  he 
 went  and  brought  Simeon  unbound  to  them  ;  acquainted 
 them  that  they  were  to  dine  with  his  lord  that  day  ;  and 
 showed  them,  in  the  mean  while,  all  the  tokens  of  civility 
 that  were  fitting  for  welcome  guests. 
 
 Joseph  was  to  return  by  noon,  and  therefore  his 
 brothers  took  care  to  have  their  present  in  readiness  ; 
 and  when  he  was  come,  introduced  it  in  the  handsomest 
 and  most  submissive  manner  they  could.  He  received 
 them  all  with  a  friendly  countenance;  inquired  much 
 concerning  the  health  and  welfare  of  their  aged  father ; 
 and  then  turning  to  Benjamin,  asked  them,  if  he  was  the 
 younger  brother  they  had  mentioned  to  him  ;  and  without 
 staying  for  their  answer,  saluted  him  in  these  words, 
 '  God  be  gracious  to  thee,  my  son.'  But  finding  his 
 .affections  begin  to  work,  and  fearing  lest  he  should 
 discover  himself  too  soon,  he  retired  into  his  chamber, 
 and  there  vented  his  passion  in  a  flood  of  tears  ;  which 
 when  he  had  done,  he  washed  his  face,  and  returned  to 
 the  company,  and  ordered  the  dinner  to  be  served  up. 
 
 Three  tables  were  spread  in  a  large  dining-room  ; 
 one  for  himself  alone,  by  reason  of  his  dignity  ;  another 
 for  his  Egyptian  guests,  a  who  hate  to  eat  with  people 
 of  a  different  nation  ;  and  a  third  for  his  brethren,  who 
 were  amazed  to  find  themselves  placed  in  exact  order, 
 according  to  their  seniority,  and  did  not  a  little  wonder 
 what  this  unexpected  civility  might  end  in. 
 
 Joseph,  however,  during  the  whole  entertainment, 
 behaved   very   courteously.     From  his  own   table  h  he 
 
 a  The  reason  which  some  assign  for  the  Egyptians  refusing  to 
 eat  with  the  Hebrews,  was  their  sacrificing  some  creatures  which 
 the  Egyptians  worshipped ;  but  though,  in  after  ages,  they  cer- 
 tainly did  worship  several  kinds  of  animals,  yet  there  appears 
 nothing  from  the  story  that  they  did  so  in  Joseph's  days ;  for 
 their  worship  of  the  famous  ox,  called  Apis,  was  a  much  later 
 invention,  as  many  learned  men  have  demonstrated.  It  is  much 
 more  likely,  therefore,  that  this  great  abhorrence  should  be 
 resolved  into  their  different  manner  both  of  dressing  and  eating 
 their  victuals.  No  people,  as  Herodotus  tells,  (even  where  he  treats 
 of  their  manner  of  feasting,  Euterpe,  c.  41.)  were  more  tenacious 
 of  their  old  customs  than  the  Egyptians.  They  would  not  use 
 those  of  any  other  nation  whatever;  and  therefore  the  Hebrews 
 were  not  the  only  people  they  had  an  aversion  to.  For,  as  the 
 same  historian  informs  us,  an  Egyptian  man,  or  woman,  would 
 not  kiss  the  mouth  of  a  Greek ;  would  not  make  use  of  a  spit  or 
 a  pot  belonging  to  them;  nor  eat  any  meat  that  was  cut  witli 
 one  of  their  knives. — Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  manner  of  eating  among  the  ancients  was  not  for  all 
 the  company  to  eat  out  of  one  and  the  same  dish,  but  for  e\i'ry 
 one  to  have  one  or  more  dishes  to  himself.  The  whole  of  these 
 dishes  were  set  before  the  master  of  the  feast,  and  he  distributed 
 lo  every  one  his  portion.  As  Joseph,  however,  is  here  said  to 
 have  had  a  table  to  himself,  we  may  suppose  that  he  had  a  gnal 
 variety  of  little  dishes,  or  plates,  set  before  him;  and  as  it  was  a 
 custom  for  great  men  to  honour  those  who  were  in  their  favour, 
 by  sending  such  dishes  to  them  as  were  first  served  up  to  them- 
 selves. Joseph  showed  that  token  of  respect  to  his  brethren  j 
 but  to  express  a  particular  value  for  Benjamin,  he  sent  him  five 
 dishes  to  their  one,  which  disproportion  could  not  but  be  mai  vel- 
 
 217 
 
 A.  M.  a58a  A.  C.  1872.  ©BN.  CM.  xxNvii.TO  THE  IND. 
 
 sent  dishes  to  every  one  of  his  brothers,  but  to  Benjamin 
 he  sent  five  dishes  for  each  of  their  one;  which  was 
 another  mystery  they  could  not  unriddle  ;  however,  for 
 the  present,  they  were  very  cheerful  and  merry. 
 
 After  they  had  ate  and  drank  very  plentifully,  they 
 began  to  think  of  taking  their  leave,  and  of  going  about 
 the  affair  for  which  they  came:  but  Joseph  had  om» 
 fright  more  in  reserve  for  them  ;  and  therefore  he  ... 
 his  steward,  when  he   filled  their  sacks  with  coi 
 return  their  money,   as    he    bad  done  before,  but  into 
 Benjamin's  sack,  not  only  to  put  his  money,  but  the 
 silver  cup  likewise,  wherein  he  himself  used  to  drink, 
 and  after  they  were  gone  a  little  way  out  of  town, 
 and  overtake  them,  and  charge  them  witli  felony. 
 
 The  steward  did  as  he  was  commanded  :  and,  v,l, 
 he  came  up  with  Joseph's  brethren,  upbraided  them  with 
 ingratitude,  in  so  badly  requiting  his  lord's  civility,  as 
 to  steal  away  his  cup.  c  Conscious  of  their  own  inno- 
 cence, and  disdainful  of  so  vile  a  charge,  they  put  the 
 matter  upon  this  short  issue : — That  whoever,  upon  search 
 ahould  be  found  to  have  the  cup,  should  be  given  up  to 
 suffer  death,  and  themselves  become  all  his  lord's  bend 
 slaves.  So  said,  so  done  :  the  beasts  were  unloaded — 
 the  sacks  were  searched — and  to  their  great  astonish- 
 ment and  surprise,  the  cup  was  found  in  Benjamin's. 
 To  no  purpose  it  was  for  the  poor  youth  to  say  any 
 thing  in  his  own  defence  :  upon  such  a  demonstration 
 none  would  believe  him:  and  yet,  being  all  concerned 
 in  the  disgrace,  they  loaded  their  asses  again,  and  in  a 
 mournful  manner  returned  to  the  city. 
 
 Joseph  was  at  home  expecting  their  return,  and  when 
 they  came  before  him,  reprimanded  them  very  sharply, 
 while  they  lay  prostrate  at  his  feet,  and  ''  acknowledged 
 
 lous  and  astonishing  to  them,  if  what  Herodotus  tells  u-  be  true, 
 b.  vi.  c.  27.,  namely,  "  that  the  distinction  in  this  case,  even  to 
 Egyptian  kings  themselves,  in  all  public  feasts  and  banquet 
 no  more   than  a   double  mess." — Patrick's   Commentary,  and 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica. 
 
 c  Gen.  xliv.  5.  '  Whereby  indeed  he  divineth.'  Grotillfl 
 thinks  that  Joseph  meant  by  this  speech,  that  he  used  this  cup 
 in  his  drink-offerings,  when  he  sacrificed  to  prepare  himself  t" 
 receive  divine  presages;  but  I  think  we  had  better  say,  than 
 was  a  kind  of  divination  by  cups,  though  we  know  not  "hat  it 
 was,  as  we  are  certain  there  was  by  many  other  things  among 
 the  Greeks,  who  borrowed  much  of  their  religion  from  tin' 
 Egyptians.  Such  vessels  as  were  used  in  divine  service  were 
 not  used  in  their  own,  being  held  Bacred,  and  therefore  separated 
 from  common  use,  and  kept  so  safe,  no  doubt,  that  it  WSJ  i ■  •  -t 
 easy  to  steal  them.  He  speaks,  therefore,  of  some  divination 
 that  was  used  at  their  meals,  which  doth  nut  dgnifj  thai  Ji 
 practised  it.  But  the  words  are  still  capable  of  a  more  simple 
 interpretation,  for  machasM  sometimes  signifies  do  mors  than  u 
 make  an  experiment,  as  in  the  words  of  Labsn,  Gen.  na 
 and  so  the  meaning  may  !»■,  "  Might  you  not  bare  considered 
 that  thy  master  made  a  trial,  by  laj  ing  mi-  in  your  way,  whether 
 you  were  honest  men  or  filchers." — Patrick'*  Commentary  em 
 Genesis, 
 
 d  Judah,  in  behalf  of  himself  and  his  brethreu,  naif 
 well  have  pleaded  in  defence,  that  they  received  tb 
 the  officer  tied  up  a-  they  were,  without  ever  once  opi  ningthem; 
 and  that  the  same  hand  which  now,  for  these  t""  timi 
 returned  their  money,  "as  the  most  likely  t"  have  conveyi 
 cup  into  them  :  but  sine.'  then  was  a  manifest  juggle  in  the 
 thing,  In-  was  fearful  "i  Irritating  the  governor  if  he  should  xo 
 ahoul  to  detect  it;  and  therefbn  In-  thought  thai  the  l" 
 I'm-  him  and  his  brethren  to  escape  was  to  acknow  It  dge  tin'  crime, 
 
 though  th'V'  WOW  innocent  of  it,  and,  a>  it  they  bad    00   ]• 
 
 tionol  the  trick  that  was  pat  upon  them,  to  impton  hi-  pity 
 and  compassion,  bj  taken  from  othai    topics. —  Le 
 
 Clerc's  '  ommt  at. in/. 
 
218 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  227G.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3539.  A.  C.  1872.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii   TO  THE  END. 
 
 their  guilt;  but,  in  the  conclusion  of  his  speech,  he 
 assured  them,  that  the  person  only  who  was  detected  in 
 the  theft  should  remain  a  slave ;  the  rest  might  return 
 home  when  they  pleased  to  their  father. 
 
 Judah,who  had  taken  Benjamin  under  his  care,  being 
 by  this  time  recovered  from  his  surprise,  drew  near,  and 
 addressed  Joseph  in  the  most  submissive  and  pathetic 
 terms.  He  acquainted  him  with  the  whole  case  between 
 them  and  their  father,  in  relation  to  their  bringing  Benja- 
 min into  Egypt,  to  take  away  the  suspicion  of  their  being- 
 spies.  He  described  very  passionately  their  father's 
 melancholy  condition  for  the  loss  of  his  son  Joseph  ;  the 
 extreme  fondness  he  had  for  his  son  Benjamin ;  the 
 difficulty  they  were  under  to  prevail  with  him  to  trust 
 him  with  them,  so  that  he  himself  was  forced  to  become 
 security  for  his  safe  return  ;  and  that,  if  he  should  go 
 home  without  him,  his  father's  life  was  so  wrapt  up  in 
 the  child,  that  he  would  certainly  die  with  grief.  Rather 
 therefore  than  see  this  grief  of  his  aged  father,  and  his 
 grey  hairs  with  sorrow  descending  to  the  grave,  he 
 offered  himself  an  equivalent  for  his  brother  :  ' '  Now, 
 therefore,  I  beseech  thee,  my  lord,  let  me,  thy  servant, 
 abide  here  a  slave,  instead  of  the  lad,  and  let  him  go 
 up  with  his  brethren  ;  for  how  shall  I  see  my  father 
 without  him?  '  This  moving  speech,  and  generous  offer, 
 were  what  Joseph's  soul  coidd  not  withstand ;  and  there- 
 fore, being  able  to  contain  himself  no  longer,  he 
 ordered  all  the  company  to  leave  the  room,  that  he 
 might  have  a  more  affectionate  freedom  in  discovering 
 himself  to  his  brethren. 
 
 But  no  sooner  had  he  told  them  that  he  was  Joseph 
 their  brother,  which  was  all  that  his  full  heart  would  let 
 him  utter,  than,  reflecting  upon  what  they  had  once 
 done  to  him,  they  were  all  struck  with  such  a  surprise 
 and  confusion,  that  for  a  long  time  they  could  make  him 
 no  answer. 
 
 As  soon,  however,  as  he  had  recovered  himself,  he 
 desired  them  to  draw  near  unto  him  :  he  embraced  them 
 all  round  with  an  unfeigned  tenderness  ;  and  to  dispel 
 all  farther  apprehensions,  told  them,  that  their  selling 
 him  into  Egypt  was  directed  by  an  unforeseen  provi- 
 dence ;  that  therefore,  they  had  no  reason  to  be  angry 
 with  themselves  for  doing  it,  since  they  were  no  more 
 than  the  instruments  in  God's  hand  to  bring-  about  what 
 his  eternal  purpose  had  determined  ;  that  he  had  no 
 reason  to  resent  it,  since  by  that  means  he  had  been 
 advanced  to  the  honour  and  dignity  of  being  governor 
 of  all  Egypt ;  nor  his  father  or  any  of  his  family  to 
 murmur  at  it,  since  God  had  appointed  this  method  for 
 the  preservation  of  their  lives.  For  five  years  more,  he 
 told  them,  there  were  to  be  of  the  famine  ;  and,  there- 
 fore, he  bid  them  hasten  into  Canaan,  and  tell  his  father 
 of  all  his  glory  and  greatness,  and  desire  him  to  come 
 down,  that  he  might  take  care  of  him,  and  feed  him  in 
 this  time  of  dearth,  and  provide  him  with  a  country, 
 even  the  land  of  Goshen,  not  far  distant  from  him,  and 
 very  commodious  for  such  as  led  a  pastoral  life.  All 
 this,  he  owned,  would  be  strange  .and  surprising  for  them 
 to  tell ;  but  their  father  would  hardly  doubt  the  testimony 
 of  so  many  eye-witnesses  ;  above  all,  he  would  not  fail 
 to  believe  what  his  favourite  Benjamin  told  him :  and 
 with  that,  he  threw  himself  upon  Benjamin's  neck,  kissed 
 
 1  Gen.  xliv.  33,  34. 
 
 him,  and  wept  over  him  for  joy ;  and  having  treated 
 all  the  rest  in  the  same  kind  manner,  and  as  a  person 
 that  was  perfectly  reconciled  to  them,  they  began  to 
 take  courage,  and  conversed  more  familiarly  with  him. 
 
 A  rumour,  in  the  mean  time,  was  spread  through  the 
 court,  that  Joseph's  brethren  were  come  to  buy  corn  ; 
 which,  when  Pharaoh  heard,  he  sent  for  him,  and  told 
 him,  that  since  his  father's  family  was  so  numerous,  and 
 the  famine  as  yet  not  half  over,  his  best  way  would  be 
 to  send  for  them,  and  place  them  in  what  part  of  the 
 country  he  thought  fit ;  for  that  they  should  never  want 
 provisions  or  any  other  favour  that  he  could  show  them. 
 He  put  him  in  mind  likewise  to  send  them  a  fresh  supply 
 of  corn,  and  whatever  else  he  thought  would  be  necessary 
 in  their  journey,  with  chariots  and  wagons  to  bring 
 down  their  wives  and  children,  and  the  best  of  their 
 moveables. 
 
 Joseph  gladly  obeyed  the  king's  command  :  and, 
 besides  the  chariots  and  provisions,  sent  to  his  father 
 ten  asses,  laden  with  the  choicest  commodities  of  Egypt ; 
 to  his  brethren  he  gave  each  of  them  changes  of  gar- 
 ments, but  to  Benjamin  he  gave  five,  with  three  hundred 
 pieces  of  silver  ;  and  so  dismissed  them  with  this  kind 
 charge,  that  they  should  not  '  fall  out  by  the  way.' 
 With  hearts  full  of  joy  they  proceeded  in  their  journey 
 to  Canaan,  and  were  gladly  received  by  their  good  old 
 father,  especially  upon  the  return  of  his  two  sons, 
 Simeon  and  Benjamin,  whom  he  scarce  expected  to  have 
 seen  any  more.  But  when  they  informed  him  that  his 
 son  Joseph  was  likewise  alive,  and  in  what  pomp  and 
 splendour  he  lived  ;  that  he  was  the  very  man,  the  king's 
 prime  minister  and  governor  of  Egypt,  who  had  put 
 them  into  so  many  deadly  frights,  being" not  able  to  bear 
 so  much  good  news  at  once,  he  fainted  away  in  their 
 arms  :  but  when  he  came  to  himself  again,  and  they 
 showed  him  the  presents  which  Joseph  had  sent,  and  the 
 chariots  and  carriages  which  were  come  to  take  him  and 
 his  goods  away,  his  spirits  revived,  his  doubts  and  his 
 fears  vanished,  and  in  an  ecstasy  of  joy,  he  cried  out, 
 2  '  It  is  enough  !  Joseph  my  son  is  yet  alive  ;  I  will  go 
 and  see  him  before  I  die.' 
 
 To  see  so  dear  a  son,  for  whom  he  had  mourned  so 
 long-,  in  all  his  Egyptian  state  and  glory,  was  enough  to 
 make  him  hasten  his  journey;  but  as  his  gratitude  to 
 God  for  all  his  late  mercies  vouchsafed  unto  him,  and 
 his  farther  want  of  the  divine  protection  to  accompany 
 him  into  Egypt,  required  some  fresh  act  of  religion  from 
 him,  he  chose  to  go  to  Beersheba,  and  there  offer  some 
 sacrifices,  both  because  it  was  the  place  where  Abraham 
 and  Isaac  had  lived  so  long,  and  because  it  was  in  the 
 way  to  Egypt,  as  being  the  utmost  boundary  of  Canaan 
 towards'the  south. 
 
 Here  it  was  that  God  appeared  to  him  again  in  a 
 vision ;  bid  him  a  not  fear  to  go  down  into  Egypt,  since 
 
 *  Gen.  xlv.  28. 
 
 a  It  is  not  unlikely,  that  the  good  old  man  had  promised  him- 
 self the  comfort  of  spending  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  the 
 land  whirhGod  had  been  pleased  to  promise  him;  and  therefore, 
 after  so  much  labour  of  life,  and  change  of  place,  when  he  thought 
 himself  at  the  end  of  his  pilgrimage,  and  perhaps  depended  upon 
 the  patriarchal  line  being  put  in  possession  before  his  death,  to 
 be  obliged  to  leave  his  land,  and  to  go  into  a  foreign  one,  was 
 not  a  little  discouraging,  especially  if  he  retained  in  his  mind 
 the    melancholy  prediction   to   his   grandfather.  Gen.   xv    13, 
 
Sect.  IV.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  I8G3.  GEN.  Ul.  xxx,,i   TO  Ti,  i 
 
 219 
 
 he  would  be  with  him,  and  protect  him,  and  in  due  time 
 bring  his  posterity  out  of  it  again  to  enter  into  the  pos- 
 session of  the  promised  land  ;  and  that,  as  to  his  own 
 particular,  he  should  live  near  his  beloved  Joseph,  die 
 in  his  arms,  a  and  have  his  eyes  closed  by  his  hand. 
 So  that,  encouraged  by  this  divine  promise,  Jacob  left 
 Beersheba,  and  cheerfully  pursued  his  journey  into 
 Egypt,  where,  when  he  arrived,  b  he  and  his  family 
 made  up  in  all  just  c  the  complement  of  seventy  persons. 
 As  soon  as  he  came  within  the  borders  of  Egypt,  not 
 far  from  the  land  of  Goshen,  he  sent  Judah  before  to 
 acquaint  his  son  Joseph  with  his  arrival ;  who  instantly 
 took  his  chariot,  with  a  retinue  suitable  to  his  high  station, 
 
 I  Know  of  a  surety,  that  thy  seed  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  land 
 that  is  not  theirs,  four  hundred  years,  and  shall  serve  them.' — 
 Bibiiotheca  Biblicu  in  locum. 
 
 a  Gen.  xlvi.  4. — This  appears  to  have  been  a  veiy  ancient 
 and  general  custom,    as    there    are   evidences   of  its  existence 
 among   the    Jews,   Greeks,    and    Romans.      Homer   describes 
 Ulysses  thus  expressing  himself  on  the  death  of  Socus  : — 
 All,  wretch!  no  father  shall  thy  corpse  compose, 
 Thy  dying  eyes  no  tender  mother  close.  II.  xi. — Pope. 
 
 There  seems  to  be  something  of  a  reason  in  nature  why 
 inch  a  particular  regard  should  be  had  at  death  to  the  eyes,  and 
 that  is,  because  they  are  in  life  so  eminently  serviceable  both  to 
 body  and  mind.  We  close  the  eyes  of  the  dead,  because  no  part 
 of  the  body  looks  so  ghastly  after  death,  whereas  nothing  was  so 
 sprightly  and  beautiful  before  :  and  the  reason  why  the  nearest 
 in  blood  or  friendship  should  have  this  office  is  too  obvious  to 
 need  any  explication. — "  I  entreat  that  the  gods  may  ordain  that 
 when  I  am  doomed  to  pay  the  debt  of  nature,  he  may  be  there 
 to  close  my  eyes  and  thine." — Penel.  ad  Ulyss.  de  Telcmach. 
 
 b  The  whole  account  of  Jacob's  sons  and  grandsons,  who  went 
 along  with  him  into  Egypt,  stands  thus  : — By  Leah  32;  by 
 Zilpah  1(3;  by  Rachel  11;  by  Bilhah  7:  in  all  66,  exclusive  of 
 Jacob  himself,  and  of  Joseph,  and  his  two  sons,  which  make  up 
 the  70  :  and  it  was  necessary  indeed  that  these  genealogies 
 should  be  exactly  registered,  not  only  to  distinguish  each  tribe, 
 and  thereby  discover  the  Messias  when  he  came,  but,  as  it  is  in 
 the  case  before  us,  to  make  it  apparent,  that  the  increase  of 
 Israel,  even  under  oppression,  should  bear  a  fair  proportion  to  the 
 promise  made  to  Abraham,  namely,  '  That  his  seed  should  be 
 even  as  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  as  the  sand  upon  the  sea-shore 
 for  multitude.' — Universal  History,  and  Bibiiotheca  Biblica. 
 
 c  There  are  three  difierent  accounts  in  Scripture  of  the  num- 
 ber of  Jacob's  family,  when  they  came  down  into  Egypt.  In 
 Gen.  xlvi.  26,  it  is  said,  that  '  all  the  souls  which  came  with 
 Jacob  into  Egypt,  were  threescore  and  six  :'  in  the  very  next 
 verse,  and  in  Deut.  x.  22,  it  is  said,  that  '  they  were  threescore 
 and  ten ;'  and  yet  St  Stephen,  in  Acts  vii.  14,  tells  us  expressly 
 that  they  were  seventy-five.  Now,  in  order  to  reconcile  these 
 seeming  contradictions,  we  must  observe,  that  in  each  place 
 there  is  a  difierent  manner  of  computation.  In  the  first  cata- 
 logue, Moses  speaks  of  those  persons  only  who  came  out  of 
 Jacob's  loins,  that  is,  his  children  and  grandchildren  that  went 
 into  Egypt  with  him  ;  and  these  exclusive  of  Jacob  himself,  and 
 Joseph  and  his  two  sons,  who  were  in  Egypt  before,  were  exactly 
 sixty-six  :  whereas,  including  Jacob  himself,  together  with 
 Joseph  and  his  two  sons,  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  who,  though 
 they  were  in  Egypt  before,  yet  living  there  as  strangers  only, 
 and  having  their  original  from  the  land  of  Canaan,  may  be 
 reckoned  as  if  they  had  come  into  Egypt  with  Jacob,  the  number 
 is  exactly  seventy.  The  difference  between  Moses  and  St 
 Stephen  is  a  little  more  difficult  to  reconcile;  and  yet,  if  we 
 suppose  that  St  Stephen  follows  the  fust  number  of  Moses, 
 namely,  sixty-six,  out  of  which  he  excludes  Jacob,  Joseph,  and 
 his  two  sons,  and  to  which  he  adds  only  nine  of  his  sons'  wives, 
 for  Judah's  wife  was  already  dead,  and  Benjamin  is  supposed  to 
 be  still  unmarried,  and  Joseph's  wife  out  of  the  case,  these  nine 
 wives,  I  say,  which  though  out  of  Jacob's  blood,  yet  belonged 
 to  his  family,  and  to  Joseph's  kindred,  which  is  the  very  I 
 prcssion  St  Stephen  makes  use  of,  added  to  the  number  ol 
 sixty-six  other  persons,  will  amount  exactly  to  seventy-five, — 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  Universal  and  IIozvcll's  Histories. 
 
 and  with  infinite  satisfaction,  congratulated  his  arriv;il 
 at  a  place  where  he  had  it  in  big  power  to  make  hie  life 
 happy  and  comfortable.  What  the  expressions  of  filial 
 duty,  and  paternal  affection  were  upon  Una  occasion, 
 words  cannot  describe  :  tears  of  joy  Sowed  from  both 
 sides;  and  while  the  son  was  contemplating  the  good- 
 ness of  God,  in  bringing  him  to  the  eight  of  his  aged 
 father,  the  father,  on  the  other  hand,  thought  all  hie 
 happiness  upon  earth  completed  in  this  interview  :  and 
 therefore,  >  '  Now  let  ine  die,'  says  he  to  his  son, 
 I  have  seen  thy  face,  because  thou  art  yet  alive.' 
 
 As  soon  as  these  tender  greetings,  and  the  solemn 
 rejoicings  which  followed  upon  them,  were  over,  Joseph 
 proposed  to  his  father  and  brethren,  to  go  and  acquaint 
 Pharaoh  with  their  arrival  :  and  as  he  supposed  that  the 
 king  would  have  a  curiosity  to  see  sonic  of  them,  he 
 gave  them  in  charge,  that  in  case  he  should  ask  them 
 what  occupation  they  were  of,  their  answer  should  be, 
 that  they  were  shepherds,  as  their  ancestors,  for  many 
 generations,  had  been  before  them  ;  by  which  means  he 
 might  d  secure  for  them  the  land  of  Goshen,  which  would 
 be  a  separate  habitation,  and  a  happy  retreat  from  the 
 insults  of  the  Egyptians,  who  were  known  «  to  have  an 
 utter  detestation  to  shepherds. 
 
 1  Gen.  xlvi.  30. 
 
 d  By  the  general  consent  of  ancient  geographers,  the  land  of 
 Goshen  is  situate  in  the  eastern  part  of  Egypt,  between  the  Red 
 Sea  and  the  river  Nile,  upon  the  borders  of  Canaan.  It  was  a 
 fruitful  spot  of  ground,  very  fit  for  pasturage;  and  therefore 
 Josephus  tells  us  that  Pharaoh's  own  cattle  were  kept  there,  and 
 accordingly  we  find  him  ordering  Joseph  to  make  one  of  bis 
 brothers  the  inspector-general  over  them.  The  country  was 
 separate  from  Egypt:  and  for  this  reason  the  Israelites  inhabiting 
 it,  might  keep  themselves  in  a  body,  without  endangering 
 religion  or  manners,  by  intermixing  with  the  Egyptians,  and 
 without  incurring  their  envy  or  odium,  as  they  would  lia\  i 
 had  they  lived  among  them,  and  shared  any  power  or  pn  lit 
 in  the  government.  They  came  down  into  Egypt  upon  a  parti- 
 cular exigency,  and  were  to  return  again  to  take  possesion  of 
 the  promised  land;  and  therefore  a  country,  that  lay  in  a  manner 
 contiguous  to  it,  was  the  most  convenient  for  their  abode,  that 
 they  might  be  in  readiness  to  remove  whenever  God  should  order 
 them  to  leave  it,  which  they  would  not  have  found  n 
 thing  to  do,  had  they  been  settled  in  the  heart  of  Egypt.  —  PooU't 
 Annotations. 
 
 e  The  country  of  Egypt,  as  Diodorus  tells  us,  b.  1.,  was  div  Ided 
 into  three  parts,  whereof  the  priests  had  one,  the  kin^  a  n  cond, 
 and  the  soldiery  a  third;  but  under  these  there  were  three  other 
 ranks  of  men,  shepherds,  husbandmi  u,  and  artificers.  The  bu-- 
 bandmen  served  the  king,  and  the  oil, or  two  orders,  in  tilling  the 
 ground  for  very  small  wages,  and  so  did  the  shepherds,  In  their 
 capacities;  for  the  Egyptians,  we  must  remember,  bad  shi  i 
 oxen,  as  well  as  horses  and  asses,  which  they  sold  unto  Joseph,  in 
 the  time  of  the  famine.  It  cannot  bethought,  therefore,  that  they 
 abominated  all  shepherds  in  general,  but  only  Mich  sh.pl,. 
 were  foreigners,  and  for  what  reason  it  was  that  they  did  this,  is 
 
 not  so  easy  a  matter  to  resolve.     Some  are  of  opinion,  thai 
 herds  were  held  in  detestation,  because  they  were  a  people  in 
 those  days  addicted  to  robberj .  which  made  them  very  od 
 the  Egyptians;  but  others  Imagine,  that  theft  among  the  I 
 tianswas  not  reputed  so  abominable  a  crime;  and  tl 
 
 think,  that  the i  probable  rea for  I  bis  aversion  toshe| 
 
 and  to  the  Hebrews,  as  men,  was  the  great  oppression  and  ! . 
 
 under  which  they  bad  lately  -roan,  d,  when  the  Pho 
 
 herds  penetrated  Egypt,  wasted  their  cities,  burnt  their  )•  i 
 
 murdered  the  inhabitants,  and  seated  themselves  foi  a  considi 
 
 while  in  the  possession  of  it.     (See  nob 
 
 whatever  account  ll  was,  thai  the  Egypt  '""  to 
 
 shepherds,  it  certainly  was  an  Instance  of  Josi 
 
 and  love  of  truth,  that  be  was  not  ashamed  ■  pment, 
 
 so  mean  in  it-- 
 
 minded  to  make  the  most  of  the  matter,  be  might  have 
 
220 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  18G3.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.TO  THE  END. 
 
 With  this  caution  he  took  five  of  his  brothers  along 
 with  him;  and  having  informed  Pharaoh  that  his  father 
 and  family  were  come  as  far  as  Goshen,  he  presented 
 his  brothers  to  the  king,  who  for  his  sake  received  them 
 very  graciously  ;  and  when  he  asked  them  what  profession 
 they  were  of,  they  told  him  that  they  were  shepherds,  as 
 their  family  for  many  generations  had  been  ;  that  want 
 of  pasture  for  their  cattle,  and  of  sustenance  for  them- 
 selves, had  made  them  leave  Canaan  ;  but  that  since,  as 
 they  understood,  his  majesty  had  been  so  hospitable,  as 
 to  give  them  reception  in  his  dominions,  they  humbly 
 prayed,  that  they  might  be  allowed  to  settle  in  Goshen, 
 as  a  country  most  convenient  for  their  purpose  :  which 
 he  readily  granted,  and  offered  moreover  to  make  any 
 one  of  them,  whom  Joseph  should  appoint,  his  royal 
 shepherd. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  Joseph,  in  like  manner,  presented 
 his  father  to  Pharaoh,  who  seeing  him  look  very  hale  and 
 hearty,  and  desiring  to  know  of  what  age  he  might  be, 
 was  informed  by  Jacob,  that  he  was  a  an  hundred  and 
 thirty ;  which,  when  the  king  seemed  to  wonder  at,  he 
 told  him  moreover,  that  his  life  was  not  as  yet,  near  so 
 long  as  that  of  some  of  his  ancestors,  because  his  fate 
 had  been  to  have  too  large  a  share  of  troubles  and 
 fatigues  to  harass  and  wear  him  out  ;  and  so,  Avishing  his 
 majesty  abundance  of  health  and  prosperity,  he  returned 
 to  Goshen,  where  Joseph  took  care  to  supply  him,  and 
 all  his  family,  Avith  such  a  plentiful  provision  of  corn, 
 and  other  necessaries,  from  the  king's  storehouses,  as  in 
 the  time  of  the  greatest  scarceness  made  him  insensible 
 of  any  want. 
 
 But  Avhile  Jacob  .and  his  family  lived  in  plenty,  the 
 Egyptians  found  the  sad  effects  of  the  famine,  Avhich 
 increased  daily  upon  them,  and  Joseph  holding  up  his 
 corn  at  a  high  rate,  in  a  short  time  brought  all  their 
 money  into  the  king's  coffers  ;  and  Avhen  their  money 
 Avas  gone,  they  Avere  all,  except  the  priests,  avIio  Avere 
 furnished   from  the  king's  stores,  obliged  to  part  Avith 
 
 instructed  his  brothers  to  have  concealed  their  way  or  business 
 of  life ;  or  if  he  was  aware  that  they  would  follow  the  same  in 
 Egypt  that  they  had  done  in  Canaan,  he  might  nevertheless  have 
 put  into  their  mouths  the  high  dignity  of  their  descent,  and  the 
 wonderful  history  of  their  family,  namely,  that  Abraham  Avas 
 their  great-grandfather,  a  prince  renowned  for  his  defeat  of  four 
 confederate  monarchs ;  that  Isaac  was  their  grandfather,  whose 
 amity  and  alliance  had  been  courted  by  kings ;  and  that  Israel 
 was  their  father,  Avho  once  gained  a  victory  even  over  a  mighty 
 prince  of  the  celestial  host ;  all  great  men  in  their  generations, 
 and  dignified  with  the  conversation  of  God  himself.  This,  and 
 a  great  deal  more,  had  Joseph  been  minded  to  serve  the  purposes 
 of  vanity,  he  might  have  suggested  to  his  brethren ;  but  by  this 
 open  declaration,  we  may  perceive,  that  his  pleasure  and  ambi- 
 tion was,  that  the  wonderful  chain  of  the  divine  measures  and 
 counsels,  in  bringing  him  from  an  humble  condition  of  life,  to 
 such  a  sublimity  of  power  and  figure,  might  be  as  conspicuous 
 as  possible. — Poole's  Annotations,  Patrick's  Commentary,  and 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica  in  locum. 
 
 a  Pharaoh's  question  to  Jacob,  and  Jacob's  ansAver,  we  may 
 suppose,  Avere  not  all  the  discourse  that  passed  between  them, 
 but  only  what  most  deserved  to  be  mentioned ;  because  as  the 
 learned  Pererius  observes  this  answer  of  Jacob's  is  the  very 
 hinge  upon  Avhich  the  Avhole  chronology  of  the  patriarchal  times 
 turns.  The  same  excellent  commentator  remarks,  that  though 
 Jacob  lived  seventeen  years  after  this,  yet,  even  at  last,  he  did  not 
 attain  '  to  the  days  of  the  years  of  the  life  of  his  father,'  since  his 
 father  Isaac  lived  an  hundred  and  fourscore  years,  and  his  grand- 
 father Abraham  to  an  hundred  and  seventy-five. — Bibliotheca 
 Biblica. 
 
 their  cattle,  their  houses,  their  lands,  and  b  at  length, 
 their  very  selves,  for  provisions.  All  these  Joseph  pur- 
 chased of  the  people  in  the  king's  name,  and  for  the 
 king's  use ;  and  to  let  them  see  that  the  purchase  Avas  in 
 earnest,  and  that  their  liberties  and  properties  Avere  now 
 become  the  king's,  he  transplanted  them  from  their  former 
 places  of  abode,  into  distant  and  different  parts  of  the 
 kingdom,  that  they  might  in  time  lose  the  very  remem- 
 brance of  their  ancient  possessions.  c 
 
 This,  in  another  person,  might  have  been  thought  an 
 immoderate  zeal  for  an  absolute  poAver  in  the  king,  and 
 an  advantage  unjustly  taken  of  the  necessities  of  the 
 subject ;  but  Joseph  so  managed  the  matter  as  to  gain 
 the  commendation  of  both  prince  and  people  ;  for  Avhen 
 the  seventh  and  last  year  of  famine  Avas  come,  he 
 acquainted  them  that  they  might  noAV  expect  a  crop 
 against  next  year  ;  that  the  Nile  Avould  overfloAV,  and 
 the  earth  Avould  bring  forth  her  fruits  as  usual.  Here- 
 upon he  distributed  fresh  lands,  cattle  and  corn  to  them, 
 that  they  might  return  to  their  tillage  as  before  ;  but  upon 
 this  condition  he  did  it,  that  from  thenceforth  the  fifth 
 part  of  all  the  product  of  their  lands  should  go  to  the 
 king,  and  the  rest  be  theirs.  To  these  conditions  the 
 people  willingly  consented,  as  imputing  the  preservation 
 of  their  lives  entirely  to  Joseph's  care  ;  and  from  that 
 time  it  passed  into  a  laAv,  that  the  fifth  part  of  the  pro- 
 duct of  the  land  of  Egypt  should  always  belong  to  the 
 crown. 
 
 While  Joseph  was  enjoying  the  fruits  of  his  great 
 success  and  policy,  his  family  at  Goshen,  Avhichhe  failed 
 not  frequently  to  visit,  became  very  Avealthy,  and  very 
 numerous,  till  at  length  his  father  Jacob,  finding  himself 
 groAV  old  and  feeble,  and  perceiving  that  his  latter  end 
 Avas  near  approaching,  sent  for  him,  and  to  this  purpose 
 addressed  himself  to  him  :  "  Though  the  desire  of  see- 
 ing a  son,  so  dear  to  me  as  you  are,  raised  to  the  height 
 of  Egyptian  glory,  joined  to  the  raging  famine  Avhich 
 then  visited  our  land,  made  me  Avillingly  come  doAvn  into 
 this  strange  conntry  ;  yet  Canaan  being  the  inheritance 
 Avhich  God  promised  to  Abraham  and  his  posterity,  and 
 Avhere  he  lies  interred  with  my  father  Isaac,  and  some 
 others  of  our  family,  in  the  ground  which  he  purchased 
 of  the  inhabitants  for  that  purpose  ;  my  last,  and  dying 
 request  to  you  is,  d  that  you  Avill  not  suffer  me  to  be 
 
 b  When  the  Egyptians  were  driven  to  this  last  extremity,  in 
 our  translation  it  is  said  to  be  in  the  '  second  year;'  but  this  must 
 not  be  understood  to  be  the  second  year  of  the  seven  years  of 
 famine,  but  the  second  after  that  last  mentioned,  Avherein  they 
 had  sold  their  cattle,  Avhich  Avas  in  reality  the  last  year  of  the 
 famine ;  because  he  noAV  gave  them  corn  for  seed,  as  Avell  as  for 
 food ;  whereas  in  the  first  years,  there  was  neither  sowing  nor 
 reaping.     Gen.  xlv.  6. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  See  note  on  this  subject  in  the  following  chapter. — Ed. 
 
 d  Though  there  be  something  of  a  natural  desire  in  most  men 
 to  be  buried  in  the  places  where  their  ancestors  lie ;  yet  Jacob's 
 aversion  to  have  his  remains  deposited  in  Egypt  seems  to  be 
 more  earnest  than  ordinary,  or  otherwise  he  would  never  have 
 imposed  an  oath  upon  his  sons,  and  charged  them  all  Avith  his 
 dying  breath,  not  to  suffer  it  to  be  done.  For  he  very  Avell 
 knew,  that  had  his  body  been  buried  in  Egypt,  his  posterity, 
 upon  that  very  account,  would  have  been  too  much  Avedded  to 
 the  country,  ever  to  attempt  the  acquisition  of  the  promised 
 land ;  and  therefore,  to  wean  them  from  the  thoughts  of  continu- 
 ing in  Egypt,  and  fix  their  minds  and  affections  in  Canaan,  he 
 ordered  his  body  to  be  carried  thither  beforehand,  in  testimony 
 that  he  died  in  full  persuasion  of  the  truth  of  the  promises  Avhivli 
 were  given  to  him  and  his  ancestors:  nor  Avas  it  inconvenient, 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 221 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 burled  here,  but  swear  to  see  me  carried  to  Machpelah, 
 and  there  deposited  with  my  ancestors.  Your  great 
 power  with  the  king  will  easily  obtain  that  favour,  which 
 is  the  last  I  have  to  ask/'  Joseph  was  not  long  before 
 he  gave  his  father  a  satisfactory  answer.  He  promised, 
 and  he  swore  to  him,  that  he  would  fulfil  his  desire, 
 which  pleased  the  good  old  man  to  that  degree,  that  " 
 he  bowed,  and  made  his  acknowledgment  for  this  kind 
 assurance. 
 
 Joseph,  who  could  not  be  long  absent  from  court,  took 
 his  leave  of  his  father,  but  not  without  giving  strict 
 charge  to  some  of  the  family,  that  upon  the  very  first 
 appearance  of  danger,  they  should  immediately  send  for 
 him.  Accordingly,  as  soon  as  word  was  brought  him, 
 that  his  father  was  a  dying,  he  took  his  two  sons,  Ma- 
 nasseh  and  Ephraim  with  him,  and  went  to  visit  him  ; 
 who  when  he  heard  that  his  favourite  son  was  come,  sum- 
 moned all  his  spirits  together,  and  was  so  far  revived 
 as  to  be  able  to  sit  up  in  his  bed. 
 
 Here  he  began  with  recapitulating  all  the  glorious 
 promises  which  God  had  formerly  made  him,  concerning 
 his  numerous  posterity's  inhabiting  the  land  of  Canaan, 
 and   concluded  b  with  the  death  of  his  dear  Rachel. 
 
 that  future  generations,  after  their  return  to  Canaan,  should  have 
 before  their  eyes  the  sepulchre  of  their  forefathers,  for  a  record  of 
 their  virtues,  and  an  incitement  to  the  imitation  of  them.  But 
 the  strongest  motive  of  all  for  Jacob's  desiring  to  be  buried  in 
 Canaan,  supposing  that  he  foreknew  that  our  Saviour  Christ 
 was  to  live  and  die,  and  with  some  others,  rise  again  in  that 
 couutry,  was,  that  he  might  be  one  of  that  blessed  number;  as  it 
 was  indeed  an  ancient  tradition  in  the  church,  that  among  those 
 4  who  came  out  of  their  graves  after  our  Lord's  resurrection,' 
 Matth.  xxvii.  53,  the  patriarch  Jacob  was  one. — Poole  s  Anno- 
 tations, and  Hibliotheca  Biblica. 
 
 a  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  '  he  bowed  himself  upon  the 
 bed's  head,'  (Gen.  xlvii.  31,)  where  some  expositors,  presuming, 
 that  his  bowing  was  a  religious  action,  will  by  no  means  have  it 
 directed  to  Joseph,  but  to  God  only,  for  the  assurance  which  Jo- 
 seph had  given  him,  that  he  should  be  buried  according  to  his 
 desire.  But  if  the  word  must  be  translated  '  bowed,'  there  is  no 
 necessity  to  make  it  an  act  of  adoration,  but  only  a  common  form 
 of  civility,  wherewith  the  father  might  comply,  without  any  dimi- 
 nution to  his  superiority  over  his  son.  What  led  these  expositors 
 into  this  conception,  was  the  version  of  the  Septuagint,  and  the 
 Words  of  the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews,  where  Jacob  is  said,  in  al- 
 lusion, as  they  suppose,  to  this  passage,  to  have  '  worshipped  on 
 the  top  of  his  star]','  Heb.  xi.  21.  But  the  plain  truth  is,  that  the 
 ■jostle  here  speaks  of  another  thing,  not  of  what  Jacob  did  now, 
 when  Joseph  swore  unto  him,  but  of  what  he  did  when  he  blessed 
 his  other  children.  In  the  former  case,  he  seems  to  have  kept 
 08  bed  ;  but  in  the  latter,  to  have  received  fresh  spirits,  and  sat 
 uii'ii  it,  though  leaning  perhaps  'upon  his  staff.'  So  that  the 
 apostle's  words  are  not  taken  from  those  of  Moses,  but  are  a  reflec- 
 tion of  his  own,  whereby  he  signifies  the  strength  of  Jacob's  faith, 
 < ■  vi'ii  when  he  was  so  weak  as  not  to  be  able  to  bow  himself  and 
 worship,  without  the  help  of  his  staff.  This  clearly  removes  the 
 difficulty,  and  reconciles  Moses  and  the  apostle  very  perfectly. 
 But  there  seems  to  be  a  more  compendious  way  of  doing  this;  lor 
 since  the  word  Shacah,  which  signifies  to  bow  the  body,  may,  in 
 like  manner,  be  rendered  to  lie  or  fall  down,  the  most  easy 
 translation  seems  to  be,  he  laid  himself  down  upon  his  pillow,  B£ 
 weak  men  are  wont  to  do,  after  they  have  sat  up  a  while,  to  des- 
 patch some  business. — Patrick's  and  Le  Gere's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Since  Jacob  had  so  strictly  insisted  upon  his  being  buried 
 with  his  fathers,  and  bound  Joseph  with  an  oath  to  see  if  done,  it 
 was  proper  for  him  to  explain  and  clear  himself,  as  to  what  might 
 he  Becretly  objected  to  his  not  interring  Rachel,  Joseph's  own 
 mother,  and  Ins  best  beloved  consort,  in  that  burying-place,  where 
 he  so  earnestly  desired  to  lie  himself;  ami  for  his  excuse  in  this 
 respect  he  had  two  things  to  offer:  1st,  That  he  was  then  upon 
 his  journey,  and  in  his  return  from  Padan  ;  and,  2dly,  That  he  had 
 erected  a  monumeutal  pillar  upon  her  grave,  in  a  very  public 
 
 A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  1863.  GliN.  CU.  xxxvii.  TO  TIM-  IINR 
 "  How  tenderly  I  loved  her,"  continued  lie,  "  all  my 
 family  can  testify  ;  but  this  farther  proof  I  design  tfl  gW« 
 you  of  my  affection  to  her.  You  have  two  BOM  horn 
 in  a  foreign  country,  and  who,  according  to  the  BBU*] 
 order  of  inheritance,  should  have  onli  the  portion  of 
 grandchildren,  in  the  division  of  the  promised  laud:  hut 
 from  this  day  forward,  they  shall  be  .ailed  b]  my  name, 
 be  esteemed  my  sons,  and  as  heads  of  two  distinct 
 (for  they  shall  not  be  called  the  tribe  of  Joseph,  but  the 
 tribes  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh)  receive  a  double  por- 
 tion in  that  allotment.  But  it  must  not  be  so  with  the 
 other  sons  which  you  beget  after  these  :  they  come  in 
 only  for  the  portion  of  grandchildren:  and  to  yon  in 
 particular,  I  bequeath  that  tract  of  ground,  which,  by 
 force  of  arms,  I  took  from  the  Amorites,  that  it  may 
 descend  to  your  tribe  for  ever." 
 
 All  this  while  Jacob,  whose  sight  was  very  much  de- 
 cayed, talked  to  his  son  concerning  his  children.  U  if 
 they  had  been  absent ;  but  when  he  perceived  that  they 
 were  in  the  room,  he  rejoiced  not  a  little,  and  ordered 
 them  to  be  brought  near  him.  Joseph  placed  them  in  a 
 position  according  to  the  order  of  their  age,  to  receive 
 his  father  s  blessing  ;  but  Jacob,  crossing  his  bands,  laid 
 his  right,  which  carried  with  it  the  preference,  upon  the 
 younger,  and  his   left  upon  the  elder  of  them  ;  '   which 
 
 and  frequented  place;  to  which  a  right  reverend  commenta- 
 tor has  added  a  further  apology, — That,  as  she  died  in  childbed, 
 and  Jacob  in  his  travels  might  not  have  all  things  neces-ary  to 
 preserve  her  body  long,  he  was  constrained  to  bury  her  sooner 
 perhaps  than  otherwise  he  would  have  done. — Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary, and  Bibliothecu  BiLlica  in  locum. 
 
 c  Gen.  xlviii.  14.  'And  Israel  stretched  out  his  right  hand, 
 and  laid  it  upon  Ephraim's  head.'  Imposition  of  hands  »a~  a 
 Jewish  ceremony,  introduced,  not  by  any  divine  authority,  but 
 by  custom:  it  being  the  practice  among  these  people,  whenever 
 they  prayed  to  God  for  any  person,  to  lay  their  hand  on  his  head. 
 Our  Saviour  observed  the  same  custom,  both  when  he  conferred 
 his  blessing  on  children,  and  when  he  healed  the  sick,  adding 
 prayer  to  the  ceremony.  The  apostles  likewise  laid  hands  open 
 those  upon  whom  they  bestowed  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  priests 
 observed  the  same  custom  when  anyone  was  received  into  their 
 body.  And  the  apostles  themselves  underwent  the  impoaitii  n  of 
 hands  afresh  every  time  they  entered  upon  any  new  design.  In 
 the  ancient  church  imposition  of  hands  was  even  practised  n]  i  n 
 persons  when  they  married,  which  custom  the  Abyssinians  still 
 observe.  The  ceremony  of  the  imposition  of  bands  en  the  bead  of 
 the  victim,  has  been  usually  considered,  in  the  case  of  1 
 sacrifices,  as  a  symbolical  translation  of  the  mo-  of  the  ofli  ndl  i 
 iilion  the  head  of  the  sacrifice;  and  as  a  mode  ofde]  recal 
 evil  das  to  his  transgressions.  So  we  find  it  represented  by 
 Abarbinel,  in  the  introduction  to  his  commentarj  on  Lt  videos, 
 {Dc  /7c/,  p.  301,)  and  so  the  ceremony  of  the  scape-goat,  in 
 Levit.  xvi.  21,  seems  directly  to  assert.  And  it  is  certain  that 
 the  practice  of  imprecating  on  the  bead  of  the  victim,  the  I  I 
 which  the  Bacrificer  wished  to  avert  from  himself,  was  usual 
 amongst  the  heathen,  as  appears  particular!}  from  Herodotus, 
 (h.  ii.  c.  89.)  "I"1  relates  this  of  the  Bgyi  tians,  ami  at  the  nine 
 time  asserts  thai  no  Egyptian  would  so  mm  I,  as  tests  the  I 
 any  animal,  hut  under  the  inllmr.oe  of  this  religious  custom, 
 Hung    it    into   the  river.     (' ssdon  of  Bin  WBS  alwaj I'd 
 
 with  piacular  sacrifices.     (Levit  v.  5.;  svi.  SI.;  Numl 
 The  particular  forms  of  confession   u-«  d   in  the  different  I 
 piacular  sacrifices  are  handed  down  to  us  by  the  Jewish  «"'• ' -• 
 and  an,  given  by  Outram,  (Ds&er.b.  I.e.  16,  10,  11 
 ,-,„.,„  prescribed  for  the  individual  presenting  his  uwn  n< 
 seems  particularly  significant     "OGod,  1  nave  sinned,  I 
 done  perversely,  1  have  trespassed  before  thee,  and  I 
 
 and  so.      I..',  no"   1  repent,  and  r.m  trulysoiT)   !•  i   I 
 
 Lei  then  this  victim  be  my  t  xplation."    These  last  *»ords  wi  re 
 accompanied  by  the  action  of  laying  hands  onthevictin 
 were  considered  by  the  Jews  as  equivalent  to  this,  "  Let  the  ei 
 which  injustice  should  have  fallen  on  my  bead,  light  ep*  the 
 
222 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  227G.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  1863.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Joseph  supposing  to  proceed  from  a  mistake,  he  was  go- 
 ing to  rectify,  but  was  told  by  his  father,  that  what  he  did 
 was  by  divine  direction,  and  so  made  Ephraim  not  only 
 the  first  in  nomination,  but  gave  him  a  blessing  much 
 more  extensive  than  what  he  gave  his  brother. 
 
 By  this  time  Jacob,  finding  himself  grow  faint,  and 
 the  hour  of  his  departure  near  approaching,  called  the 
 rest  of  his  sons  together,  to  take  his  farewell  of  them, 
 and  distribute  his  blessing,  or  rather  to  foretell  what 
 should  befall  them  and  their  posterity  in  future  ages  : 
 and  so  directing  his  speech  to  them  severally,  he  began 
 with  Reuben  the  eldest,  and  told  him, — That  for  the 
 crime  of  incest,  in  polluting  his  father's  bed,  he  and 
 his  tribe  were  degraded  a  from  the  privileges  of  his 
 birthright.  He  told  Simeon  and  Levi,  whom  he  joined 
 together  upon  this  occasion,  that  for  their  impious 
 massacre  of  Hamor  and  his  people,  *  their  tribes  should 
 for  ever  be  separated  and  dispersed  among  the  other  ;  but 
 then  turning  to  Judah,  he  prophesied  of  him,  that  to 
 his  tribe  should  the  sovereignty  belong,  c  and  they  be  r! 
 situated  in  a  very  fruitful  country ;  that  from  his  name 
 
 head  of  this  victim." — See  Outram  De  Sacr.  b.  1.  c.  22.  5,  6,  9. 
 Jlagee  on  Atonement  and  Sacrifice,  vol.  1.  p.  341. 
 
 a  The  prerogatives  of  the  birthright  consisted  chiefly  in  the 
 honour  of  the  priesthood,  in  the  rule  and  government  of  the  family, 
 and  in  a  double  portion  of  the  inheritance,  which  at  this  time 
 were  all  taken  away  from  Reuben,  and  divided  severally ;  since 
 it  appears,  in  the  sequel  of  the  history,  that  the  tribe  of  Reuben 
 continued  all  along  in  obscurity,  while  the  priesthood  was  conferred 
 on  Levi,  the  government  on  Judah,  and  the  double  portion  on 
 Joseph,  to  descend  to  their  respective  tribes. — Howell's  History 
 of  the  Bible. 
 
 b  Jacob's  words,  in  this  place,  may  imply  a  double  dispersion, 
 namely,  of  the  two  tribes  from  each  other:  and  of  their  being 
 interspersed  among  the  rest:  and  accordingly  that  of  Levi  had  no 
 inheritance  among  his  brethren  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  but  only 
 a  certain  number  of  cities  assigned  to  them  in  every  tribe.  And 
 as  for  that  of  Simeon,  they  had  properly  no  more  than  a  portion 
 of  Judah's  inheritance,  (Josh.  xix.  1.)  if  we  except  some  few 
 places  which  they  got  upon  mount  Seir,  and  in  the  wilds  of  the 
 valley  of  Gedor,  1  Chron.  vi.  39,  &c. —  Universal  History, 
 b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 c  Gen.  xlix.  8.  '  Thy  hand  shall  be  in  the  neck  of  thine  ene- 
 mies.' This  expression  denotes  triumph  over  an  enemy,  and 
 that  Judah  should  subdue  his  adversaries.  This  was  fulfilled  in 
 the  person  of  David,  and  acknowledged  by  him.  '  Thou  hast 
 also  given  me  the  necks  of  mine  enemies,  that  I  might  destroy 
 them  that  hate  me,'  Ps.  xviii.  40.  Treading  on  the  neck  of  a 
 vanquished  foe  has  been  a  very  common  practice.  Amongst  the 
 Fianks  it  was  usual  to  put  the  arm  round  the  neck  as  a  mark  of 
 superiority  on  the  part  of  him  that  did  it.  When  Chrodin,  de- 
 clining the  office  of  mayor  of  the  palace,  chose  a  young  nobleman, 
 named  Gogen,  to  fill  that  place,  he  immediately  took  the  arm  of 
 that  young  man,  and  put  it  round  his  own  neck,  as  a  mark  of  his 
 dependance  on  him,  and  that  he  acknowledged  him  for  his  gene- 
 ral and  chief.  "  When  a  debtor  became  insolvent,  he  gave  him- 
 self  up  to  his  creditor  as  his  slave,  till  he  had  paid  all  his  debt: 
 and  to  confirm  his  engagement,  he  tock  the  arm  of  his  patron, 
 and  put  it  round  his  own  neck.  This  ceremony  invested  as  it 
 were,  his  creditor  in  his  person." — Stockdale's  Manners  of  the 
 Ancient  Nations,  vol.  1.  p.  356.  See  Gen.  xxvii.  40.  Deut. 
 xxviii.  4S.  Isa.  x.  27.  Jer.  xxvii.  S.  Josh.  x.  24.  Lam.  v.  5. 
 
 d  The  country  which  the  tribe  of  Judah  was  to  inhabit  is 
 thus  described  by  Jacob:  '  Binding  his  foal  unto  the  vine,  and  his 
 a=s  unto  the  choice  vine  ;  he  washed  his  garments  in  wine,  and  his 
 clothes  in  the  blood  of  grapes,'  (Gen.  xlix.  11,)  which  are  expres- 
 sions somewhat  hyperbolical  :  for  they  imply,  that  vines  in  this 
 country  should  be  as  common  as  thorns  in  other  places ;  and  wine 
 as  plentiful  as  water;  but  were,  in  a  great  measure,  answered 
 in  that  fertile  land  which  fell  to  the  tribe  of  Judah's  share.  For 
 here  was  the  valley  of  Escol,  a  bunch  of  whose  grapes  was 
 brought  by  the  spies  as  a  specimen  of  the  fruitfulness  of  the  land, 
 Numb.  xiii.  23.     Here  was  a  brook  or  torrent  of  the  same  name, 
 
 should  the  whole  nation  of  the  Jews  derive  their  appel- 
 lation ;  and  that  the  form  of  government  which  he  then 
 instituted,  should  endure  among  them  until  the  Messiah 
 came.  e  Of  Zebulun  /  he  foretold  that  his  tribe  should 
 be  planted  near  the  sea-coasts  ;  and  of  s  Issachar,  that 
 his  should  prove  a  pusillanimous  people,  and  be  lovers 
 of  inglorious  ease,  more  than  of  liberty  and  renown. 
 
 From  Leah's  sons  the  patriarch  passes  to  those  of  his 
 two  concubinary  wives  ;  and  h  of  Dan's  posterity  he 
 foretells,  that  though  they  were  descended  from  an  hand- 
 maid, yet  they  should  have  the  same  privileges  with  the 
 other  tribes,  should  become  a  politic  people,  and  greatly 
 versed  in  the  stratagems  of  war ;  of  i  Gad's,  that  they 
 should  be  frequently  infested  with  robbers,  but  overcome 
 them  at  last ;  of  Asher's,  that  they  should  be  situated  in 
 a  fruitful  and  exuberantly  rich  soil ;  and  *  of  Naphtali's, 
 that  they  should  spread  their  branches  like  an  oak,  and 
 multiply  exceedingly. 
 
 along  whose  banks  were  the  most  delicious  pasture-grounds  for 
 cattle ;  and,  as  modem  travellers  tell  us,  here  are  very  large 
 grapes  still  to  be  met  with,  especially  in  the  valley  of  Hebron, 
 which  in  all  probability  is  that  through  which  this  torrent 
 runs. — Poole's  Annotations,  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  and  Universal 
 History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 e  Gen.  xlix.  10.  'The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah.' 
 Sceptres,  or  staves  of  some  kind  or  other,  have  been  among  almost 
 all  nations  the  ensigns  of  civil  authority,  as  they  are  to  this  day, 
 being  in  themselves  very  proper  emblems  of  power  extended,  or 
 acting  at  a  distance  from  the  person.  Achilles,  who  was  the 
 chief  of  a  Grecian  tribe  or  clan,  is  described  in  Homer  as  holding 
 a  sceptre  or  stan",  which 
 
 The  delegates  of  Jove,  dispensing  laws, 
 Bear  in  their  hands. 
 
 This  remarkable  prophecy  fixes  the  date  of  the  Saviour's 
 coming,  which  was  not  to  exceed  the  time  that  the  descendants 
 of  Judah  were  to  continue  an  united  people, — that  a  king  should 
 rule  over  them — that  they  should  be  governed  by  their  own  laws, 
 and  that  their  judges  were  to  be  from  among  their  brethren. — Ed. 
 f  Had  Jacob  been  present  at  the  division  of  the  land  of  Canaan 
 he  could  hardly  have  given  a  more  exact  description  of  Zebulun's 
 lot  than  we  find  him  doing  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  it 
 happened.  For  it  extended  from  the  Mediterranean  sea  on  the 
 west,  to  the  lake  of  Genezareth  on  the  east,  and  lay  therefore 
 very  commodiously  for  trade  and  navigation.  The  foretelling  so 
 precisely  and  distinctly  the  situation  and  employment  of  this 
 tribe,  though,  at  first  appearance,  it  may  seem  a  matter  of  no 
 great  moment,  yet  will  be  found  to  be  quite  otherwise,  when  it 
 is  considered,  that  such  particularities  as  these  could  not  but  be 
 \ery  convincing  to  the  Israelites  that  it  was  not  chance,  nor 
 power,  nor  policy,  that  put  them  in  possession  of  the  land  of 
 Canaan,  but  '  God's  right  hand  and  his  arm,  and  the  light  of  his 
 countenance,  because  he  had  a  favour  unto  them.' 
 
 g  No  less  remarkable  is  the  description  of  Issachar's  tribe, 
 since,  though  they  were  a  very  laborious  people  in  all  rural  em- 
 ployments, yet  they  had  no  great  inclination  to  war;  and  were 
 therefore  frequently  infested  and  subjected  by  strangers,  especially 
 in  the  time  of  the  judges. 
 
 h  The  Jews  think,  that  the  prophecy  of  Dan's  destroying  his 
 enemies  by  craft  was  more  particularly  fulfilled  when  Sampson, 
 who  was  of  that  tribe,  pulled  dc^vn  the  temple,  which  crushed 
 himself  and  the  Philistines  to  death. 
 
 i  Gad's  lot  happened  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  where  they 
 were  continually  exposed  to  the  incursions  of  the  bordering 
 Arabs;  but,  by  their  watchfulness  and  bravery,  they  not  only 
 prevented  them,  but  several  times  caught,  and  plundered  them 
 in  their  turns,  insomuch  that,  in  one  battle,  they  took  from  them 
 fifty  thousand  camels,  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  sheep, 
 besides  an  hundred  thousand  men  prisoners. — Deut.  xxxiii. 
 22.,  &c. 
 
 k  The  words  in  our  translation,  '  Naphtali  is  a  hind  let  loose, 
 he  giveth  goodly  words,'  are  very  obscure,  and  scarce  intelligible. 
 For  though  the  former  part  of  the  prediction  is  commonly  applied 
 to  Barak's  overcoming  Sisera,  and  the  latter  to  that  noble  canticle 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES'    &-< 
 
 223 
 
 A.  M.  227C.  A.  C.  1728  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 Jacob  had  reserved  the  sons  of  his  beloved  Rachel 
 to  the  last ;  and  therefore  turning  to  a  Joseph  at  the 
 same  time  that  he  recollects  his  past  troubles,  and  sets 
 forth  the  future  gTeatness  of  his  tribe,  he  pours  down 
 upon  him,  and  in  him,  upon  his  posterity,  benedictions  of 
 all  kinds.  "  The  Lord,  even  the  God  of  thy  father," 
 says  he,  "  shall  bless  thee  '  with  the  dew  of  heaven,' 
 and  with  the  '  fatness  of  the  earth,'  with  the  '  fruit  of  the 
 womb,'  that  is,  with  a  numerous  posterity,  and  with  the 
 '  fruit  of  the  breast,'  with  plenty  of  all  sorts  of  cattle. 
 May  all  the  blessings  promised  to  me  and  my  forefathers 
 be  doubled  upon  Joseph's  royal  head  ;  may  they  out-top 
 and  outstretch  the  everlasting-  mountains,  and  prove  to 
 him  more  fruitful  and  more  lasting  than  they." 
 
 Whether  Jacob  might  foresee  no  merit  nor  happiness 
 extraordinary  in  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  or  that  its  being 
 afterwards  blended  with  the  tribe  of  Judah  might  make 
 it  partake  of  the  same  blessing  ;  but  so  it  was,  that  he 
 contented  himself  with  describing  its  J  fierce  and  war- 
 like disposition,  which,  like  a  ravenous  '  wolf,  would 
 shed  the  blood  of  its  enemies,  and  in  the  evening  divide 
 their  spoil.' 
 
 Thus  the  good  old  patriarch  having  given  his  e  bless- 
 
 which  Deborah  made  upon  that  occasion;  yet  the  exposition 
 which  the  learned  Bochart  gives  us  of  this  passage,  '  He  shall  be 
 like  a  tree  that  shooteth  out  pleasant  branches,'  is  both  more 
 agreeable  to  the  original,  and  more  answerable  to  the  event; 
 *ince  no  tribe  multiplied  so  wonderfully  as  this  of  Naphtali,  who 
 had  but  four  sons  when  he  came  into  Egypt,  and  yet  could 
 muster  upwards  of  fifty-three  thousand  men  fit  to  bear  arms, 
 when  he  came  out  of  it,  that  is,  in  less  than  220  years. — Essay 
 towards  a  Neto  Translation. 
 
 a  In  the  benediction  which  Jacob  gives  his  favourite  Joseph, 
 there  are  two  remarkable  titles  which  he  confers  upon  him.  1st, 
 '  That  he  was  the  shepherd,  and  the  stone  of  Israel/  which  seems 
 to  be  a  thankful  recognition  of  Joseph's  kindness  to  his  father 
 and  family,  in  keeping  and  feeding  them,  even  as  a  shepherd 
 does  his  sheep ;  by  which  means  he  became  the  foundation  or 
 basis,  as  it  were,  of  the  house  of  Jacob,  by  preserving  them  from 
 perishing  by  famine,  and  continuing  them  settled  in  the  best  part 
 of  the  Egyptian  kingdom,  for  a  considerable  time:  though  some 
 refer  it  rather  to  his  virtuous  resisting  the  temptations  of  his 
 mistress,  and  patiently  enduring  the  master's  severity,  to  both 
 of  which  he  remained  as  immoveable  as  a  stone.  2d,  The  other 
 title  is,  that  he  was  '  separate  from  his  brethren :'  where,  though  the 
 word  nazir  signifies  to  separate,  as  Joseph  was  certainly  separated 
 from  his  brethren,  when  he  was  sold  into  Egypt,  yet,  as  it  is 
 hardiy  snpposable,  that  Jacob  would  couch  so  cruel  an  action  in 
 so  soft  a  term,  it  is  rather  to  be  thought  that  he  used  the  word 
 nazir,  which  signifies  crowned,  in  allusion  to  the  superintendents 
 of  the  king's  household  in  all  the  eastern  countries,  who  were 
 called  nazirs,  and  wore  probably  some  kind  of  diadem  about 
 their  heads,  by  way  of  distinction  and  grandeur.  And  as  for 
 the  fruitfulness  promised  to  Joseph,  this  was  exemplified  in  the 
 Jargc  extent  of  his  twofold  tribe,  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  which, 
 at  their  first  numbering,  yielded  seventy-two  thousand  seven 
 hundred,  Num.  i.,  and  at  their  second,  eighty-five  thousand  and 
 two  hundred  men,  all  able  to  go  out  to  war.  Num.  xxvi. 
 
 b  How  brave  and  warlike  a  body  of  men,  and  how  veiy  expert 
 in  feats  of  arms,  this  tribe  became,  we  may  conceive  from  what 
 we  are  told  of  them,  namely,  that  '  there  were  seven  hundred 
 chosen  men  among  them,  left-handed,  every  one  of  whom  could 
 sling  stones  at  an  hair's  breadth,  and  not  miss.'  (Judges  xx.  lfi.) 
 And  how  pertinacious  they  were  in  their  undertakings  of  this 
 kind  is  manifest,  both  from  the  fierce  battles  which  they  fought 
 against  all  the  other  tribes,  though  in  a  very  bad  cause,  (Judges, 
 xix.)  wherein  they  twice  came  off  conquerors;  and  from  the  long 
 opposition  which  the  house  of  Saul,  descended  from  this  tribe, 
 made  against  the  accession  of  David  to  the  throne,  and  which 
 could  not  be  suppressed  until  Abner,  the  general  of  their  forces, 
 forsook  them.  Judges  and  1  Sam.  passim. 
 
 c  Besides  these  prophecies  of  Jacob,  which  were  sufficiently 
 
 A.  M.  3518.  A.  C.  18C3.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  ESI), 
 ing  to  his  children,  according  to  the  divine  direction 
 and  not  according  to  his  own  inclination,  reminded  (I,,,,, 
 all,   but  Joseph  more  especially,  to  bury   hi,,,  among 
 Ins  ancestors,  d  in  the  cave  of  Machpelah;  and  bo  lav  ml 
 himself  down  in  his  bed  again,  in  a  ehorl  time  expired 
 after  he  had  lived  147  years  in  all,  and  seventeen  of 
 these  in  Egypt. 
 
 The  loss  of  so  good  a  father  was  doubtless  lamented 
 by  all  his  family,  but  by  none  with  more  sincere  <•• 
 sions    of  filial   sorrow    than    by    Joseph.       At    ]• 
 remembering  his  dying  charge,  he  ordered   his   phygi! 
 cians,  «  according   to  the  custom  of  the    count 
 
 verified  by  their    events,    the    Jews  ascribe  some  other  works 
 to   him,    namely,   a  treatise  entitled  The   Ladder  to   H 
 and  another   called  Jacob's   Testament,  which    Pope  Gelasius 
 reckons  among  the   Apocrypha;  together  with   some  fo] 
 prayer,  which  tue  Jews  u-h:  ev^-y  night,  and  pretend  thai  they 
 were  composed  by  him.     As  to  the  commendations  which  they 
 so   plentifully  bestow    upon    this    patriarch,    these,    in    a  great 
 measure,  are  justified  by  the  character  which  the  author  i 
 clesiasticus  gives  him,  chap.  xliv.  23.    And  as  the  Mahometans 
 allow  him  not  only  to  be  a  prophet,   but  the  father  likl  n 
 all  the  prophets,   except  Job,  Jethro,  and   Mahomet;  - 
 believe,  that  the  royal  dignity  did  not  depart  from  hi-  posterity, 
 until  the  times  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  Jesus  Christ;  and  that 
 from  him  the  twelve  tribes  of  the  Jews  did  spring,  even  as  th,  ir 
 own  twelve  did  from  Ishmael — Calmefs  Dictionary,  urn! 
 word  Jacob. 
 
 d  Gen.  xlix.  29.  '  And  he  charged  them,  and  said  unto  them, 
 I  am  to  be  gathered  unto  my  people;  bury  me  with  my  lathers.' 
 Princes  and  persons  of  quality,  who  died  in  foreign  parts,  frere 
 usually  carried  into  their  own  country,  to  be  buried  with  their 
 fathers.  That  this  was  practised  in  the  patriarchal  times, 
 appears  from  the  injunction  which  Jacob  laid  upon  his  children 
 respecting  his  interment.     It  was  also  the  custom  of  the  <  I 
 
 Homer  represents  Juno  as  thus  speaking  concerning  Sai-pedon : 
 
 Give  the  bold  chief  a  glorious  fate  in  fight ; 
 And  when  th'  ascending-  soul  has  winsfd  her  Bight; 
 Let  sleep  and  death  convey,  by  thy  i-oramai.d. 
 The  breathless  body  to  his  native  land. 
 For  this  reason,  such  as  died  in  foreign  countries  had  usually 
 their  ashes  brought  home,  and  interred  in  the  sepulchre-  of  their 
 ancestors,  or  at  least  in  some  part  of  their  native  country;  it 
 being  thought  that  the  same  mother  which  gave  them   U 
 birth  was  only  fit  to  receive  their  remains,  and  aflbrd  then,  a 
 peaceful  habitation  after  death.     Hence  ancient  authors  afford 
 us  innumerable  instances  of  bodies  conveyed,  sometimes 
 command  of  oracles,  sometimes  by  the  good-will  of  their  i. 
 from  foreign  countries  to  the  sepulchres  of  their  lathers,  and  with 
 great  solemnity  deposited  there.     Thus  Theseus  was  removed 
 from  Scyrus  to  Athens,  Orestes  from  Tegea,  ami  his  MO  1 
 menes  from  Helice  to  Sparta,  and  Aristomenes  from  Rle  i 
 Messene. — Ed. 
 
 e  Gen.  1.  2.  '  And  Joseph  commanded  his  servant-,  the  physi- 
 cians, to  embalm  his  father.'     Concerning  thi  |  bysjc 
 in  Egypt,  Herodotus  says  that  it  was  di\  ided  amongst  the  faculty 
 in  this  manner — "Every  distinct  distemper  hath  it-  own  physi- 
 cian, who  confines  himself  to  the  study  and  care  of  that 
 and  meddles  witli  no  other:   so  that  all  places  are   crowded   with 
 physicians;  for  one  class  hath  the  cure  of  the  eyes,  another  of 
 the  head,  another  of  the  tieth.  another  of  the  region  of  the  bellj . 
 and  another  of  occult  distempers,'1  (b.  t.  c,  M.      After  I 
 shall  not  think  it  strange  that  Joseph's  physicians  are  rej  n 
 as  a  number.     ,\  body  of  these  domestics  would  now  appi 
 extravagant  piece  of  state,  even  in  a  tir-t  minister.      But  then  it 
 
 could  not  be  otherwise,  where  each  distemper  bad  it-  ■■ 
 physician;  so  that  every  great  family,  as  weD  as  city,  must 
 needs,  as  Herodotus  expn  ass  it,  swarm  with  the  faculty.    I 
 is  a  remarkable  passage   in  Jeremiah  (chap.  xlvi.    11.),  where, 
 foretelling  the  overthrow  of  Pharaoh's  army  at  the  Bupl 
 he  desci  ibes  Bgypi  by  this  characteristic  of  her  -kill  in  m>  i 
 '  Go  up  into  Gilead,  and  take  balm,' (or  b         ,)«Ovir| 
 daughter  of  Egypt ;  in  Tain  shalt  thou  use  many  n 
 thou  saalt  not  be  cured.' — fFarburton't   I  I  ■  b.  4. 
 
 b    ■.  3. 
 
221 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  227G.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  1863.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 "  embalm  his  father's  body,  and  all  preparations  for  his 
 funeral  to  be  made.  For  the  space  of  seventy  days  they 
 continued  their  mourning  for  him  ;  in  which  time  it  being- 
 improper  for  Joseph  to  appear  at  court,  he  desired  some 
 of  the  officers  about  the  king-,  to  acquaint  his  majesty, 
 that  his  father,  before  his  death,  had  obliged  him,  upon 
 oath,  to  bury  him  in  a  sepulchre  belonging  to  their  family, 
 in  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  and  that  therefore  he  begged 
 leave  to  go  and  fulfil  his  last  commands,  and  would, 
 without  delay,  return  again.  *  The  king  readily  con- 
 sented to  his  request,  and  ordered  moreover  the  chief 
 officers  of  his  household,  and  some  of  the  principal  nobi- 
 lity of  the  kingdom,  to  attend  the  funeral,  who,  joined 
 with  his  own  and  his  father's  whole  family,  some  in 
 chariots,  and  some  on  horseback,  made  c  a  very  large 
 and  pompous  procession. 
 
 a  The  manner  of  embalming  among  the  Egyptians  according 
 to  Herodotus,  Diodorus,  and  others,  was  as  follows.  When  a 
 man  died,  his  body  was  carried  to  the  artificers,  whose  business 
 it  was  to  make  coffins.  The  upper  part  of  the  coffin  represented 
 the  person  who  was  to  be  put  in  it,  whether  man  or  woman ; 
 and,  if  a  person  of  distinction,  was  generally  adorned  with  such 
 paintings  and  embellishments  as  were  suitable  to  its  quality. 
 When  the  body  was  brought  home  again,  they  agreed  with  the 
 embalmers;  but  according  to  the  quality  of  the  person,  the  prices 
 were  different.  The  highest  was  a  talent,  that  is,  about  three 
 hundred  pounds  sterling:  twenty  mince  was  a  moderate  one; 
 and  the  lowest  a  very  small  matter.  As  the  body  lay  extended, 
 one  of  them,  whom  they  called  the  designer,  marked  out  the 
 place  on  the  left  side  where  it  was  to  be  opened,  and  then  a  dis- 
 sector, with  a  very  sharp  Egyptian  stone,  made  the  incision, 
 through  which  they  drew  all  the  intestines,  except  the  heart  and 
 kidneys,  and  then  washed  them  with  palm  wine,  and  other  strong 
 and  binding  drugs.  The  brains  they  drew  through  the  nostrils, 
 with  an  hooked  piece  of  iron,  made  particularly  for  that  purpose, 
 and  filled  the  skull  with  astringent  drugs.  The  whole  body  they 
 anointed  with  oil  of  cedar,  with  myrrh,  cinnamon,  and  other 
 drugs,  for  about  thirty  days;  by  which  means  it  was  preserved 
 entire,  without  so  much  as  losing  its  hair,  and  sweet,  without 
 any  signs  of  putrefaction.  After  this  it  was  put  into  salt  about 
 forty  days ;  and  therefore  when  Moses  says,  that  forty  days  were 
 employed  in  embalming  Jacob,  (Gen.  1.  3.)  he  must  mean  the 
 forty  days  of  his  continuing  in  the  salt  of  nitre,  without  including 
 the  thirty  days  that  were  spent  in  the  other  operations  above 
 mentioned ;  so  that,  in  the  whole,  they  mourned  seventy  days  in 
 Egypt,  as  Moses  likewise  observes.  Last  of  all,  the  body  was  taker, 
 out  of  this  salt,  washed,  and  wrapped  up  in  linen  swaddling  bands 
 dipped  in  myrrh,  and  rubbed  with  a  certain  gum,  which  the 
 Egyptians  used  instead  of  glue,  and  so  returned  to  the  relations, 
 who  put  it  into  the  coffin,  and  kept  it  in  some  repository  in  their 
 houses,  or  in  tombs,  made  particularly  for  that  purpose. — Calmet's 
 Dictionary,  under  the  word  Embalm,  and  ff^arburton's  Divine 
 Legation,  vol.  2.  b.  3. 
 
 b  It  was  against  rule  for  any  person,  how  great  soever,  in 
 mourning  apparel,  to  appear  in  public,  and  especially  in  the  royal 
 presence,  because  in  that  state  they  were  looked  upon  as  defiled ; 
 and  therefore  Joseph  does  not  go  himself,  but  desires  some  of  the 
 courtiers  to  carry  his  request  to  the  king;  and  this  request  he 
 ivas  the  rather  bound  to  make,  because  the  retinue  and  guard 
 which  the  pomp  of  the  funeral,  and  the  danger  of  molestation 
 from  enemies,  made  necessary,  could  not  be  obtained  without 
 the  king's  leave. — Musculus. 
 
 c  The  splendour  and  magnificence  of  our  patriarch's  funeral 
 seems  to  be  without  a  parallel  in  history.  What  hitherto  has 
 most  affected  me  in  the  comparison,  were  indeed  the  noble  obse- 
 quies of  Marcellus,  as  Virgil  has  described  them,  but  how  do 
 even  these,  with  all  their  parade  of  poetry  about  them,  fall  short 
 of  the  plain  and  simple  narrative  before  us?  For  what  are  the 
 six  hundred  beds  for  which  the  Roman  solemnities  on  this  occa- 
 sion were  so  famous,  in  comparison  of  that  national  itinerant 
 multitude,  which  swelled  like  a  flood,  and  moved  like  a  river,  to 
 all  Pharaoh's  servants,  to  the  elders  of  his  house,  and  all  the  elders 
 of  the  land  of  Egypt,  that  is,  to  the  officers  of  his  household,  and 
 deputies  oi  his  provinces,  with  all  the  house  of  Joseph,  and  his 
 
 As  soon  as  they  were  entered  into  the  land  of  Canaan, 
 they  made  an  halt  at  d  the  thrashing-floor  of  Atad,  and 
 there  continued  mourning,  and  lamenting  the  death  of 
 their  friend  and  father  seven  days  ;  which  made  the 
 Canaanites,  perceiving  that  the  company  came  from 
 Egypt,  call  the  place  Abel-mizraim,  or  the  mourning  of 
 the  Egyptians,  ever  after.  They  thence  continued  their 
 march  till  they  came  to  the  field  of  Machpelah,  where  e 
 they  deposited  Jacob  in  the  cave  with  his  ancestors,  and 
 so  returned  to  Egypt  again. 
 
 As  soon  as  their  father  was  buried,  Joseph's  brethren 
 began  to  reflect  on  the  wrongs  they  had  formerly  done 
 him,  and  were  not  a  little  apprehensive,  that  as  ho 
 certainly  had  it  in  his  power,  he  might  now  have  it  in 
 his  intention,  to  avenge  himself  of  them  :  and  therefore 
 they  consulted  together,  and  framed  this  message, — 
 That  it  was  his  father's  earnest  request,  that  he  should 
 forget  all  past  injuries,  and  continue  them  under  his 
 protection,  as  formerly.  This,  when  Joseph  heard,  such 
 was  his  compassionate  temper,  that  he  could  not  refrain 
 from  weeping  ;  and  therefore,  to  remove  their  fears,  he 
 sent  immediately  for  them,  and  receiving  them  with  the 
 same  kind  affection  as  when  their  father  was  alive,  excused 
 the  actions  committed  against  him,  in  such  an  obliging 
 manner,  and  gave  them  such  assurances  of  his  future 
 love,  and  adherence  to  them  upon  all  occasions,  as  made 
 them  return  to  their  families  full  of  joy  and  satisfaction. 
 
 /  The  sacred  history  gives  us  no  further  account  of 
 
 brethren,  and  his  father's  house,  conducting  their  solemn  sorrow 
 for  near  three  hundred  miles  into  a  distant  country. — Bibliotheca 
 Biblica,  Occasional  Annotations,  46. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are, — '  And  they  came  to  the  thrash- 
 ing-floor of  Atad,  which  is  beyond  Jordan,'  Gen.  1.  10.  Where 
 this  place  was,  we  cannot  determine  from  any  account  in  Scrip- 
 ture ;  but  it  is  very  probable,  that  it  lay  not  far  from  the  place 
 where  Jacob  was  buried,  and  so  not  far  from  Hebron.  For  since 
 it  is  absurd  to  suppose,  that  the  corpse  of  Jacob  was  carried  to 
 the  cave  of  Machpelah  such  a  round  about  way  as  the  Israelites 
 went  afterwards  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  namely,  through  Arabia 
 Petraea,  quite  on  the  eastern  side  of  Jordan,  it  remains  to  suppose, 
 that  these  places  are  said  to  be  beyond  Jordan,  not  in  respect  of 
 Egypt,  from  whence  Jacob's  corpse  was  brought,  but  in  respect 
 of  the  place  where  Moses  was,  when  he  wrote  the  history,  that 
 is,  in  a  country  on  the  east  of  Jordan ;  and  consequently  the 
 places  beyond  Jordan  must  be  such  as  lay  on  the  west  of  Jordan; 
 but  why  they  made  the  thrashing-floor  of  Atad,  rather  than  the 
 place  of  interment,  the  scene  of  their  lamentations,  is  not  so  easy 
 to  resolve.  Perhaps  it  was  a  place  more  convenient  to  stay  in 
 for  seven  days,  than  the  field  of  Machpelah;  or  perhaps  it  might 
 be  the  custom,  at  the  very  entrance  of  the  country,  where  they 
 carried  the  corpse  to  be  buried,  to  fall  into  lamentations,  which 
 they  might  repeat  at  the  grave  again,  though  no  mention  be 
 made  of  it  here. — U'ells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol. 
 1.;  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  Jewish  doctors  have  a  tradition  of  a  bloody  fight  which 
 Joseph  had  at  his  father's  funeral,  with  one  Tzepho,  the  son  of 
 Eliphaz,  who  would  have  opposed  his  burying  him  in  the  cave  of 
 Machpelah,  as  disputing  his  title  to  the  ground,  but  that  Joseph, 
 and  his  men,  having  overcome  him,  carried  him  away  with  them 
 into  Egypt,  and  kept  him  there  prisoner  as  long  as  Joseph  lived ; 
 however,  as  soon  as  he  was  dead,  Tzepho  found  means  to  escape 
 into  Italy. —  Universal  History,  in  the  notes,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 f  The  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  has  given  us  an  encomium  of 
 the  patriarch  Joseph  in  these  words,  '  Of  Jacob  was  this  man  of 
 mercy  born,  who  found  favour  in  the  eyes  of  all  flesh.  He  was 
 bom  to  be  the  prince  of  his  brethren,  and  the  support  of  his 
 family ;  to  be  the  head  of  his  kinsmen,  and  the  firm  support  of 
 his  people.  His  bones  were  visited,  and  prophesied  after  his 
 death,'  (xlix.  15.)  His  meaning  is,  that  his  bones  were  removed 
 out  of  Egypt,  and  that  this  fell  out  as  a  consequence  of  his  pro- 
 phecy, that  God  would  visit  the  Hebrews,  and  bring  them  into 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 2'25 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  18C3.  GEN.  CII.  xxxvii.  TO  TI1K  END. 
 
 any  particulars  in  Joseph's  life,  though  he  lived  fifty- 
 four  years  after  his  father's  death.  It  informs  us,  that 
 he  lived  to  see  himself  the  happy  parent  of  a  numerous 
 offspring  in  his  two  sons,  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  even 
 to  the  third  generation  ;  and  all  this  while  we  may  pre- 
 sume, that  he  continued  in  high  favour  with  his  prince, 
 and  in  weighty  employments  under  him.  But  when  he 
 grew  old,  and  found  his  death  approaching,  he  sent  for 
 his  brethren,  and  with  the  like  prophetic  spirit,  that  his 
 father  Jacob  had  done,  told  them,  that  God,  according 
 to  his  promise,  would  not  fail  to  bring  their  posterity 
 out  of  Egypt  into  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  and  therefore  he 
 made  them  swear  to  him,  as  he  had  done  to  his  father, 
 that  when  it  should  please  God  thus  to  visit  them,  they 
 would  not  forget  to  a  carry  his  body  along  with  them  : 
 and  to  this  purpose,  as  soon  as  he  was  dead,  which  was 
 in  the  hundred  and  tenth  year  of  his  age,  they  had  his 
 body  embalmed,  and  b  kept  in  a  coffin,  c  until  the  time 
 their  deliverance  should  come. 
 
 the  promised  land.  The  Jewish  rabbins  have  taken  a  great 
 latitude  in  ascribing  several  particulars  to  this  great  man,  which 
 have  not  the  least  foundation  in  Scripture.  They  make  him  the 
 inventor  of  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  for  which  the  Egyptians 
 afterwards  became  so  famous :  and  attribute  to  him  the  composi- 
 tion of  several  books,  such  as  Joseph's  Prayer,  Joseph's  Mirror, 
 &c.  which  do  not  so  much  redound  to  his  credit.  Mahomet,  in 
 his  Coran,  (Surat.  12.)  relates  his  history  at  length,  but  blends 
 it  with  many  fabulous  circumstauces,  which  have  been  much 
 improved  by  the  eastern  people ;  for  they  made  him  in  a  manner 
 greater  than  the  Jewish  doctors  do.  They  tell  us  equally  that 
 he  taught  the  Egyptians  the  most  sublime  sciences,  and  particu- 
 larly geometry,  which  was  highly  necessary  in  their  division  of 
 the  land.  They  suppose,  that  all  the  wells,  and  baths,  and 
 granaries,  which  go  under  his  name,  nay,  that  all  the  ancient 
 pyramids  and  obelisks,  though  they  do  not,  were  of  his  erection; 
 and  they  believe,  that  he  had  all  along  upon  his  shoulder  a  point 
 of  light,  like  a  star,  which  was  an  indelible  mark  of  the  gift  of 
 prophecy  ;  with  many  more  fictions  of  the  like  nature. — Calmet's 
 Dictionary,  under  the  word  Joseph. 
 
 a  There  are  several  reasons  which  might  induce  Joseph  not  to 
 have  his  dead  body  immediately  carried  into  Canaan,  and  buried, 
 as  his  father  was.  1st,  Because  his  brethren,  after  hfs  decease, 
 might  not  have  interest  enough  at  court  to  provide  themselves  with 
 such  things  as  were  necessary  to  set  off  the  pomp  and  solemnity  of 
 a  funeral  befitting  so  great  a  personage.  2dly,  Because  he  might 
 foresee,  that  the  Egyptians,  in  all  probability,  as  long  as  their 
 veneration  for  his  memory  was  warm,  would  hardly  have  suffered 
 his  remains  to  have  been  carried  into  another  country.  3dly, 
 Because  the  continuance  of  his  remains  among  them,  might  be 
 a  means  to  preserve  the  remembrance  of  the  services  he  had  done 
 them,  and  thereby  an  inducement  to  them  to  treat  the  relations  he 
 had  left  behind  him  with  more  kindness.  4thly,  And  chit  fly, 
 because  the  presence  of  his  body  with  the  Israelites  might  be  a 
 pledge  to  assure  them,  and  a  means  to  strengthen  and  confirm 
 their  faith  and  hope  in  God's  promises  to  their  progenitors,  that 
 he  would  infallibly  put  their  posterity  in  possession  of  the  land 
 of  Panaan:  and  accordingly,  when  Moses  delivered  them  out  of 
 Egypt,  he  carried  Joseph's  body  along  with  him,  (Exod.  xiii.  I'».) 
 and  committed  it  to  the  care  of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  who  buried 
 it  near  Shechem,  (Josh.  xxiv.  32.)  in  the  field  which  Jacob,  a 
 little  before  his  death,  gave  to  Joseph,  as  his  peculiar  property. 
 —Pererius'  and  Patrick's  Commentary;  Poole's  Annotations,  and 
 Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word. 
 
 b  The  Jewish  rabbins  have  a  story,  that  the  Egyptian  magi- 
 cians came  and  told  Pharaoh,  that  if  he  had  a  mind  to  keep  the 
 Hebrews  in  his  dominions,  he  must  hide  Joseph's  body  in  some 
 certain  place  where  they  should  never  find  it,  because  it  would 
 be  impossible  for  them  to  go  out  of  Egypt  without  it ;  that  there- 
 upon his  body  was  put  into  a  chest  of  6000  lb.  weight,  which  was 
 sunk  in  the  mud  of  one  of  the  branches  of  the  river  Nile;  and 
 that  Moses  was  forced  to  work  a  miracle  to  get  it  out,  and  carry 
 it  away. — Calmet,  ibid. 
 
 c  Gen.  1.  26.  '  So  Joseph  died,  being  an  hundred  and  ten  years 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 The  most  material  objection  we  have  placed  last ;  and 
 because  it  relates  to  a  passage  in  Scripture,  which  is 
 known  to  have  its  difficulties,  it  may  not  be  improper, 
 in  order  to  give  it  a  clear  solution,  first  to  cite  the  pa 
 sage  itself,  and  then  to  explain  the  terms  contained  in  it  : 
 1  '  The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a  law- 
 giver from  between  his  feet,  until  Shiloh  come,  and  unto 
 him  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be.' 
 
 1.  Now  the  word  slievet,  which  we  render  sceptre 
 both  a  literal  and  a  figurative  signification.  In  its  literal, 
 it  denotes  a  rod,  a  wand,  a  sceptre,  a  shepherd \s  < 
 &c,  and  in  its  figurative,  it  either  implies  the  correction 
 and  punishment,  whereof  tiie  rod,  or  the  authority  and 
 power,  whereof  the  sceptre  is  the  ensign.  It  cannot  be 
 doubted,  I  think,  but  that  the  word  is  to  be  taken  in  a 
 figurative  sense  here  ;  and  yet  it  cannot  be  supposed  to 
 signify  punishment,  because  the  tribe  of  Judah  was  so 
 far  from  being  in  a  state  of  affliction,  that  it  always 
 flourished  exceedingly,  and  even  in  the  time  of  its  cap- 
 tivity, enjoyed  its  ow'n  form  of  government.  The  word 
 must  therefore,  in  this  place,  be  put  for  that  power  ami 
 dominion  whereof  the  sceptre,  in  ancient  times,  mu 
 thought  a  fitter  representation  than  either  the  crown  or 
 diadem. 
 
 2.  The  word  mecliokek,  which  wo  translate  lawgiver, 
 is  not  synonymous  with  the  former,  but  has  two  distinct 
 significations.  It  sometimes  signifies,  not  a  person 
 who  has  power  to  make  laws  himself,  but  only  to  teach 
 and  instruct  others  in  those  laws  that  are  already  made  : 
 and  in  this  sense  it  differs  very  little  from  the  scribes, 
 and  doctors,  and  teachers  of  the  law,  whereof  there  is  so 
 much  mention  made  in  our  Saviour's  days.  At  other 
 times,  it  denotes  a  person  invested  with  power  and 
 authority  even  to  make  laws,  but  then  this  authority  of 
 his  is  inferior  to  that  of  a  king  ;  so  that  properly  ho  may 
 be  called  an  inferior  magistrate  or  governor  set  over  a 
 people  by  the  license  of  some  monarch,  and,  by  his  com- 
 mission appointed  to  rule  :  and  in  this  sense  the  word 
 should  rather  be  taken  here,  because  there  were  such 
 governors  and  deputies  set  over  the  Jews,  after  their 
 return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity. 
 
 1  Gen.  xlix.  10. 
 old-  and  they  embalmed  him,  and  he  was  |>.U  in  n  coffin  in 
 Egypt.'  When  Joseph  died  he  was  not  wily  embalmed,  but  put 
 into  a  coffin.'  This  was  an  honour  appropriated  to  personaof  dis- 
 traction, coffins  not  being  universally  used  in  I  e  pt  MaiUet, 
 speaking  of  the  Egyptian  repositories  of  the  dead,  having  given 
 an  account  of  several  niches  thai  are  found  th- 
 ootbe  imagined,  that  the  bodies  depoaited  in  these  gtoomyapartr 
 ments  wee  all  enclosed  in  chests,  and  placed  ...  niches;  toe 
 greatest  part  were  rimply  embalmed,  and  swathed  affair  that 
 manner  that  everyone  hath  same  notion  of;  afterwhieh  Umj 
 laid  them  .me  by  the  ride  of  another,  without  any  ceremony: 
 some  were  even  put  Into  these  tombs  without  any  embalr. 
 
 :>r  such  a  slight  one,  that  there  remains  nothing  ol  men  m 
 
 all 
 
 and   tho-c 
 
 linen  i..  which  they  were  wrapped  but  the  bones, 
 hatf  rotten,*  (Letter  vii.  p.  881.)     Antique  coffins 
 sycamore  wood,  are  Mill  to  be  seen  in  Egypt     l' 
 Bomewere  form  rly  made  of  a  kind  of  pa 
 folding  and  gluing  cloth  togethi  r,  a  great  number  ol 
 were  curiously  plastered  and  painted  with  hierogrjrpuW.--*"*' 
 venot,  part  1.  p    1ST. 
 
 2  i 
 
226 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  1803.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 3.  The  phrase  which  we  render  '  between  his  feet,' 
 according  to  the  modesty  of  the  Scripture  expression, 
 means  nothing  else,  but  of  his  seed  or  posterity  ;  and  so 
 the  intendment  of  this  part  of  the  prediction  must  be, 
 that  '  the  tribe  of  Judah  shall  have  lawgivers  of  their  own 
 to  the  very  last  times.' 
 
 4.  From  whatever  radix  it  is  that  the  word  Shiloh  is 
 derived,  both  Jews  and  Christians  are  agreed  in  this,  that 
 by  the  person  to  whom  this  title  is  applied,  the  patriarch 
 intended  the  great  Saviour  of  the  world,  who  is  called 
 the  Messias,  or  Christ. 
 
 5.  By  Judah  here,  there  is  not  an  absolute  necessity  to 
 understand  the  people  of  that  tribe  only,  but  all  those 
 likewise  who  were  afterwards  called  Jews.     And, 
 
 6.  Whether  we  refer  the  gathering  of  the  people  to 
 the  tribe  of  Judah,  as  they  did  in  the  times  of  the  cap- 
 tivity, or  to  Shiloh,  when  he  should  come,  as  to  the 
 main  of  the  prophecy,  there  is  not  a  great  deal  of  differ- 
 ence ;  since  the  main  of  the  prophecy  is, — '  That  the 
 Messias  shall  come,  before  the  Jewish  government  would 
 totally  cease.'  And  therefore  the  question  is,  whether 
 there  was  any  form  of  government  subsisting  among  the 
 Jews,  and  particularly  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  at  the  time 
 when  Christ  was  born  ? 
 
 The  form  of  government  which  Jacob,  upon  his  death- 
 bed instituted,  was  that  of  dividing  his  family  into  tribes, 
 and  making  his  own,  and  the  two  sons  of  Joseph,  heads 
 over  their  respective  houses.  This  government  was  pro- 
 perly aristocratical ;  but  in  times  of  some  extraordinary 
 exigence,  all  authority  was  devolved  in  the  hands  of  a 
 judge,  who,  when  the  end  for  which  he  was  appointed 
 was  effected,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Roman  dictator 
 did,  resigned  up  his  power,  and  became  no  more  than 
 *'  one  of  the  princes  of  the  tribes  of  his  fathers.' 
 
 The  abuse  of  this  judicial  power,  however,  in  the 
 hands  of  Samuel's  sons,  made  the  people  desirous  of  a 
 regal  government ;  and  in  that  form  it  continued,  from 
 the  time  it  came  into  David's  hands,  who  was  of  the 
 tribe  of  Judah,  for  the  space  of  470  years.  The  division 
 of  the  kingdom  made  a  great  alteration  in  the  fortunes 
 of  the  people  ;  for  the  Assyrian  captivity  was  the  ruin  of 
 the  ten  tribes.  They  lost  their  government,  and  from 
 that  time  never  recovered  it ;  but  it  was  not  so  with  the 
 kingdom  of  Judah,  in  the  Babylonish  captivity.  1  For 
 if  we  consider  that  the  Jews  were  carried  to  Babylon, 
 not  to  be  slaves,  but  were  transplanted  as  a  colony,  to 
 people  that  large  city  ;  that  they  were  commanded  there- 
 fore, 2  by  the  prophet,  to  'build  houses,'  and  '  plant 
 gardons,'  and  to  seek  the  '  peace  of  the  city'  in  which  they 
 were  captives ;  and  that,  upon  the  expiration  of  their 
 seventy  years'  captivity,  many  of  them  were  so  well  set- 
 tled in  ease  and  plenty,  that  they  refused  to  return  to 
 their  own  country  again.  If  we  consider  farther,  that 
 the  Jews  lived  at  Babylon  as  a  distinct  people,  and  were 
 governed,  in  their  own  affairs,  by  their  own  elders ;  that 
 they  appointed  feasts  and  fasts,  and  ordered  all  other 
 matters  relating  to  their  civil  and  ecclesiastical  state 
 among  themselves  ;  and  that,  upon  their  return  from  Ba- 
 bylon, they  were  thought  a  people  considerable  enough 
 to  be  complained  of  to  Artaxerxes  ;  we  cannot  but  con- 
 
 1  Bishop  Sherlock's  third  dissertation,  annexed  to  his  Use  and 
 li-tent  of  Prophecy. 
 
 *  Jer.  xxix.  5,  7. 
 
 elude,  that  they  made  all  along  a  figure  far  from  com- 
 porting with  the  condition  of  mere  slaves,  subjected 
 entirely  to  a  foreign  yoke,  without  any  law  or  govern- 
 ment of  their  own. 
 
 After  the  time  of  this  captivity,  indeed,  the  Jews  were 
 never  so  free  a  people  as  they  had  been  before.  They 
 lived  under  the  subjection  of  the  Persian  monarch,  and 
 under  the  empire  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  to  their 
 last  destruction  ;  but  still  they  lived  as  a  distinct  people, 
 governed  by  their  own  laws  ;  and  the  authority  of  the 
 Persian,  and  other  kings  over  them,  destroyed  not  that 
 rule,  which,  in  all  the  vicissitudes  that  befell  them,  they 
 still  possessed. 
 
 How  the  case  stood  in  the  time  of, the  Asmonean 
 princes,  may  be  collected  from  several  passages  in  the 
 Maccabees :  and  that  the  like  government  subsisted, 
 to  the  very  death  of  Christ,  may  in  like  manner  be 
 evinced  from  many  instances  in  the  gospel ;  but  one  or 
 two  of  these  will  be  enough  to  illustrate  the  thing. 
 
 When  our  Saviour  tells  the  Jews,  3  '  The  truth  shall 
 make  you  free,'  and  they  reply,  '  We  are  Abraham's  chil- 
 dren, and  w  ere  never  in  bondage  to  any  man,'  surely  they 
 had  not  forgot  their  captivity  in  Babylon,  much  less  could 
 they  be  ignorant  of  the  power  of  the  Romans  over  them 
 at  that  time ;  and  yet  they  accounted  themselves  free  ; 
 and  so  they  were,  because  they  lived  by  their  own  laws, 
 and  executed  judgment  among  themselves.  When  our 
 Saviour  foretels  his  disciples,  that  they  4  '  should  be  deli- 
 vered up  to  councils,  and  scourged  in  the  synagogues,' he 
 shows,  at  the  same  time,  what  power  and  authority  were 
 exercised  in  the  councils  and  synagogues  of  the  Jews : 
 and,  to  mention  but  one  instance  more,  when  Pilate,  will- 
 ing to  deliver  Jesus,  says  to  the  Jews,  5  '  Take  ye  hiin, 
 and  crucify  him ;'  and  again,  6  '  Take  ye  him,  and  judge 
 him  according  to  your  own  law;'  he  likewise  shows,  that 
 the  Jews  lived  under  their  own  law,  and  had  the  exer- 
 cise of  judicial  authority  among  themselves. 
 
 By  this  deduction,  it  appears  evidently  that  the  sceptre, 
 placed  in  the  hand  of  Judah  by  his  father  Jacob  just 
 before  his  death,  continued  in  his  posterity  till  the  very 
 death  of  Christ.  From  that  time  all  things  began  to 
 work  towards  the  destruction  of  the  Jewish  polity,  and 
 within  a  few  years,  their  city,  temple,  and  government, 
 were  utterly  ruined,  and  the  Jews  not  carried  into  a  gen- 
 tle captivity,  to  enjoy  their  laws,  and  live  as  a  distinct 
 people,  in  a  foreign  country  ;  but  were  sold  like  beasts 
 in  a  market,  became  slaves  in  the  strictest  sense,  and 
 from  that  day  to  this,  have  neither  prince  nor  lawgiver 
 among  them :  so  that,  upon  the  whole,  7  the  sense  of 
 Jacob's  prophecy,  with  relation  to  Judah,  as  it  is  now 
 fulfilled,  may  not  improperly  be  summed  up  in  this  para- 
 phrase : — 
 
 "  The  power  and  authority  which  shall  be  established 
 ill  the  posterity  of  Judah,  shall  not  be  taken  from  them, 
 or  at  least  they  shall  not  be  destitute  of  rulers  and 
 governors,  (no,  not  when  they  are  in  their  declining  con- 
 dition,) until  the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  But  when  he 
 is  come,  there  shall  be  no  difference  between  the  Jews 
 and  Gentiles,  who  shall  be  all  obedient  to  the  Messiah  ; 
 and  after  that,  the  posterity  of  Judah  shall  have  neither 
 king  nor  ruler  of  their  own,  but  their  whole  common- 
 
 3  John  viii.  32,  33.  «  Mat.  x.  17.  s  John  xix.  6. 
 
 *  John  xviii.  31.         7  Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 
Sect.  IV.]  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES  ,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  18G3.  GEN.  CU.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END 
 
 makes  Cyrus  speak)  at  the  point  of  death  bee; 
 
 227 
 
 wealth  shall  quite  lose   all  form,  and  never  recover  it 
 again." 
 
 The  bequest  which  Jacob  makes  to  his  son  Joseph, 
 runs  into  this  form : — 1  '  Moreover,  I  have  given  to  thee 
 one  portion  above  thy  brethren,  which  I  took  out  of  the 
 hand  of  the  Amorite,  with  my  sword,  and  with  my  bow.' 
 But  when  did  we  ever  read  of  Jacob's  being-  a  military 
 man  ?  His  sons  indeed  invaded  Shechem,  and  took,  not 
 from  the  Amorites,but  the  Hivites,  the  adjacent  country, 
 as  we  may  suppose ;  but  so  far  is  he  from  approving  of 
 what  they  did,  that  to  his  very  dying  hour,  we  find  him 
 severely  remonstrating  against  it,  and  must  therefore  be 
 supposed  too  conscientious,  either  to  retain  himself,  or 
 to  consign  to  his  beloved  son,  a  portion  of  land  acquired 
 by  such  wicked  and  sanguinary  means. 
 
 The  tract  of  ground,  therefore,  which  he  mentions, 
 must  certainly  be  that  2  which  he  purchased  of  Hamor, 
 the  father  of  Shechem  ;  which  he  gave  Joseph  for  a 
 burying-place,  and  where  Joseph,  in  consequence  of  that 
 donation,  3  was  afterwards  buried,  and  not  in  the  field  of 
 Machpelah,  the  common  repository  of  most  of  his  ances- 
 tors. And  to  resolve  the  difficulty  of  his  saying,  that 
 he  took  it  from  the  Amorite  by  force  of  arms,  when  it  is 
 manifest  that  he  bought  it  of  Hamor  the  Hivite,  for  an 
 hundred  pieces  of  silver,  we  may  observe,  that  the  per- 
 sons who  are  called  Hivites  in  one  place,  may,  without 
 any  impropriety,  be  called  Amorites  in  another,  foras- 
 much as  the  Amorites,  being  the  chief  of  all  the  seven 
 nations  in  Canaan ,  might  give  denomination  to  all  the  rest, 
 in  like  manner  as  all  the  people  of  the  United  Provinces 
 are,  from  the  pre-eminence  of  that  one,  commonly  called 
 Hollanders  :  and  then,  if  we  can  but  suppose,  that  after 
 Jacob's  departure  from  Shechem,  for  fear  of  the  neigh- 
 bouring nations,  some  straggling  Amorites  came,  and 
 seized  on  the  lands  which  he  had  purchased,  and  that  he 
 was  forced  to  have  recourse  to  arms  to  expel  the 
 invaders  and  maintain  his  right,  all  the  difficulty  or 
 seeming  repugnance  of  the  passage  vanishes. 
 
 4  Jacob,  we  allow,  was  a  man  of  peace,  but  his  sons 
 were  warriors ;  and  to  them  he  might  the  rather  give 
 permission  to  recover  the  possession  of  what  he  had 
 bought,  because  he  looked  upon  it  as  an  earnest  of  his 
 posterity's  future  possession  of  the  whole  land.  5  And 
 though  we  read  nothing-  in  the  foregoing  history,  either 
 of  the  Amorites  invading  Jacobs  property,  or  of  his 
 expelling  them  thence ;  yet  this  is  far  from  being  the 
 only  instance  of  things  being  said  to  be  done  in  Scrip- 
 ture, 6  whose  circumstances  of  time,  place,  and  persons, 
 we  find  nowhere  recorded ;  and  a  much  easier  supposi- 
 tion it  is,  than  to  make,  as  some  have  done,  the  sword 
 and  the  bow,  here  mentioned,  to  signify  the  money 
 wherewith  he  purchased  this  small  territory. 
 
 Jacob  is  the  first,  that  we  read  of,  who  particularly 
 declared  the  future  state  of  every  one  of  his  sons,  when 
 he  left  the  world ;  but  it  has  been  an  ancient  opinion, 
 that  the  souls  of  excellent  men,  the  nearer  they  approach 
 to  their  departure  hence,  the  more  divine  they  grew,  had 
 a  clearer  prospect  of  things  to  come,  and  (as  '  Xenophon 
 
 1  Gen.  xlviii.  22. 
 
 1  Gen.  xxxiii.  19,  compared  with  Joshua  xxiv.  32 
 
 3  Josh.  xxiv.  32.  *  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 6  Patrick's  Commentary.  6  To  this  purpose,  see  Gen. 
 
 xlviii.  22.  Deut.  ii.  9,  10,  11.  Josh.  xxiv.  11.  '  B  8. 
 
 ...  aine  pro- 
 phetic. Though,  therefore,  the  last  words  which  we  find 
 our  patriarch  uttering  to  his  sons,. nay  be  rather  account- 
 ed prophecies  than  benedictions;  yet  since  the  text 
 assures  us,  that  8  <  he  blessed  every  one  with  a  separata 
 blessing,'  we  may  fairly  infer,  that  though  he  found 
 reason  to  rebuke  the  three  eldest  very  sharply  :  yet  if  |,jd 
 rebukes,  and  the  punishment  pronounced  against  then 
 had  the  good  effect  to  bring  them  to  a  due  sense  of  their 
 transgressions,  it  was  a  blessing  to  them,  though  nut  a 
 temporal  one  ;  though,  even  in  this  last  sense,  ft  cannot 
 be  said  but  that  he  blessed  them  likewise,  sinoa  he 
 assigned  each  of  them  a  lot  in  the  inheritance  of  the 
 promised  land,  which  it  was  in  his  power  to  have  de- 
 prived them  of. 
 
 However  this  be,  3  it  is  certain  that  all  impartial  cri- 
 tics have  observed,  that  the  style  of  these  blessings  or 
 prophecies,  call  them  which  we  will,  is  much  more  lofty 
 than  what  we  meet  with  in  the  other  parts  of  this  book  • 
 and  therefore  some  have  imagined,  that  Jacob  did  not 
 deliver  these  very  words,  but  that  Moses  put  the  sense  of 
 what  he  said  into  such  poetical  expressions.  But  to  me 
 it  seems  more  reasonable  to  think,  that  the  spirit  of  pro- 
 phecy, now  coming  upon  the  good  old  patriarch,  rained 
 his  diction,  as  well  as  sentiments  ;  even  as  Moses  him- 
 self is  found  to  have  delivered  lu  his  benedictions  in  a 
 strain  more  sublime  than  what  occurs  in  his  other  writings. 
 It  is  true,  indeed,  that  in  the  predictions  of  the 
 patriarch,  as  well  as  in  the  benedictions  of  Moses,  sever- 
 al comparisons  do  occur,  which  are  taken  from  brute 
 animals.  Thus  Judah  is  compared  to  a  lion,  lasacoar 
 to  an  ass,  Dan  to  a  serpent,  Benjamin  to  a  wolf,  and 
 Naphtali  to  an  hind  let  loose.  But  this  is  so  far  from 
 being  a  disparagement  to  the  prophetic  spirit,  that  it  is 
 a  commendation  of  it ;  since,  if  the  lion  be  a  proper 
 emblem  of  power  and  strength ;  if  the  ass  be  an  image 
 of  labour  and  patience  ;  if  the  serpent,  an  hieroglyphic 
 of  guile  and  subtlety;  if  the  wolf,  a  symbol  of  violence 
 and  outrage  ;  and  if  a  hind  let  loose  be  no  bad  repre- 
 sentation of  a  people  loving  liberty  and  freedom  ;  then 
 were  these  qualities,  which  nothing  but  a  Divine  Spirit 
 could  foresee,  abundantly  specified,  as  their  respective 
 histories  show,  in  the  posterity  of  the  several  heads  of 
 tribes  to  which  they  are  applied. 
 
 And  as  these  comparisons  are  a  kind  of  testimony  of 
 the  divine  inspiration  of  the  holy  patriarch  upon  this 
 occasion,  so  are  they  far  from  being  any  diminution  of 
 the  dignity  of  the  subject  he  was  then  treating  of  J  HUM 
 a  man  must  be  a  stranger  to  all  compositioiM  of  this 
 kind,  who  is  not  persuaded,  thai  comparisons  taken  from 
 the  animal  world,  are,  as  it  were,  the  -incus  and  support 
 of  what  we  call  the  sublime;  and  who  finds  not  himself 
 less  inclined  to  cavil  at  Jacob's  manner  of  expression, 
 when  he  perceives  the  lofty  Homer  comparing  US  heroea 
 so  frequently  to  a  lion,  a  wolf,  an  ass,  a  torrent,  or  a 
 tree  according  to  the  circumstances  be  places  them  En, 
 
 or  the  different  point  of  light  wherein  he  thinks  proper 
 to  take  them.  And  I  mention  it  as  an  argument  of  lbs 
 truth  and  excellency  of  the  Mosaic  history,  that  WS  'i"d 
 its  author  adhering  to  the  original  simplicity,  and  pur- 
 suing that  very  method  of  writing,   which   wai   certainly 
 
 'Ceii.  xlix.  28. 
 
 *  Patriek's  Commentary. 
 
 Dent,  \wiii. 
 
228 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2270.  A.  C.  1728 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HADES,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  1863.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 in  vogue,  when  the  most  ancient  books  that  we  know 
 any  thing  of  were  composed. 
 
 Moses'  method  of  writing,  as  we  have  had  occasion 
 more  than  once  to  take  notice,  is  very  succinct ;  and 
 therefore  when  he  tells  us,  that  upon  Joseph's  coming 
 into  Egypt,  and  being  sold  to  Potiphar,  captain  of  the 
 guard,  he  commenced  steward  of  his  household,  we 
 must  not  suppose,  that  there  did  not  a  sufficient  space  of 
 time  intervene  to  qualify  him  for  that  office.  What 
 therefore  some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  tell  us,  seems 
 not  improbable,  namely,  that  his  master,  as  soon  as  he 
 bought  him,  sent  him  to  school,  and  had  him  instructed, 
 not  in  the  language  only,  but  in  all  the  learning  of  the 
 Egyptians.  However  this  be,  it  is  certain  that  there  is 
 no  small  affinity  between  the  Hebrew  and  Egyptian 
 tongue  ;  so  that  a  person  of  good  natural  parts,  and  of 
 an  age  the  fittest  that  could  be  for  learning  any  thing, 
 might,  with  a  little  diligence  and  application,  make  him- 
 self master  of  it  in  a  very  short  time. 
 
 Joseph,  indeed,  as  we  may  observe,  talked  to  his 
 brethren  by  an  interpreter  ;  and  that  he  might  do,  though 
 the  difference  between  the  two  tongues  was  not  very 
 great.  1  A  Frenchman,  we  see,  is  not  understood  at 
 first  by  an  Italian  or  Spaniard,  though  all  the  three 
 languages  are  derived  from  the  same  original ;  but  when 
 once  he  is  let  into  the  knowledge  of  this,  and  comes  to 
 perceive  their  different  formations  and  constructions, 
 what  was  foreign  to  him  before,  soon  becomes  familiar. 
 And  in  like  manner,  Joseph,  with  a  small  matter  of 
 instruction,  and  some  observation  of  his  own,  might  be 
 let  into  the  secret  of  the  Egyptian  language,  the  nature 
 of  their  accounts,  and  the  customs  of  the  country,  and 
 so  become  every  way  qualified  to  give  the  content,  we 
 find  he  did,  in  the  place  to  which  he  was  advanced. 
 
 z  The  notion  that  Ave  have  of  an  eunuch,  is  a  person 
 who  has  lost  his  virility;  and  therefore  to  assign  him  a 
 wife,  as  we  find  Potiphar  had  a  very  naughty  one,  may 
 seem  a  manifest  incongruity  ;  but  for  this  there  is  an  easy 
 solution  to  be  given.  The  word  Saris  indeed  denotes 
 equally  an  '  eunuch,'  and  any  '  court  minister  ;'  and  the 
 reason  of  this  ambiguity  is, — That,  as  eastern  kings,  for 
 their  greater  security,  were  wont  to  have  slaves,  who 
 were  castrated,  to  attend  the  chambers  of  their  wives 
 and  concubines,  and  upon  the  proof  of  their  fidelity,  did 
 frequently  advance  them  to  the  other  court  employments, 
 such  as  being  privy-counsellers,  high-chamberlains,  cap- 
 tains of  their  guards,  &c,  it  hence  came  to  pass,  that  the 
 title  of  eunuch  was  conferred  on  any  who  Mere  promoted 
 to  those  posts  of  honour  and  trust,  even  though  they  were 
 not  emasculated.  And  indeed,  when  we  read,  in  the 
 books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles,  so  frequent  mention 
 made  of  eunuchs  about  the  person  of  David,  and  other 
 Jewish  princes,  we  must  be  far  from  supposing,  that 
 these  were  all  eunuchs  in  reality,  since  it  was  unlawful, 
 3  according  to  their  historian,  in  that  nation,  to  castrate 
 even  a  domestic  animal ;  and  according  to  the  institution 
 of  their  law,  an  express  prohibition  it  was,  that  *  '  he  who 
 had  his  privy  members  cut  of!)  should  not  enter  into  the 
 congregation  of  the  Lord.' 
 
 Both  the  Arabic  version,  and  the  Targum  of  Onkelos, 
 
 1  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  in  Gen.  xlii.  23. 
 *  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patriar.  vol.  2.  Essay  20. 
 3  Joseph.  Aotiq.  b.  4.  c.  8.         J  Deut.  xxiii.  1. 
 
 are  therefore  very  right  in  rendering  the  word,  a  prince 
 or  minister  of  Pharaoh :  for  if  we  compare  the  several 
 parts  of  his  history,  we  shall  find,  5  that  Potiphar  had 
 the  chief  command  of  the  forces  that  guarded  the  person 
 and  palace-royal ;  that  as  such  he  presided  in  all  courts 
 and  causes  that  had  a  more  immediate  relation  to  these  ; 
 that  he  had  power  under  the  king,  of  judging  and  deciding 
 all  cases  within  those  walls,  of  imprisoning  and  releas- 
 ing, of  life  and  death,  and  of  hastening  or  suspending 
 the  execution  of  capital  punishments. 
 
 And  if  Potiphar  was  a  person  invested  with  all  this 
 authority,  it  may  seem  a  little  strange,  why  he  did  not 
 immediately  put  Joseph  to  death  ;  since,  had  his  wife's 
 accusation  been  true,  his  crime  deserved  no  less  a  pun- 
 ishment. But  whether  it  was  that  Joseph  had  found 
 means  to  vindicate  himself,  by  the  mediation  of  the 
 keeper  of  the  prison,  who  was  Potiphar 's  deputy,  though 
 there  is  no  account  of  it  in  Scripture  ;  or  God,  in  behalf 
 of  the  righteous,  might  interpose  to  mollify  the  heart  of 
 this  great  man,  and  restrain  his  hand  from  doing  violence  , 
 the  issue  of  the  matter  shows,  that  he  was  in  a  short  time 
 convinced  of  his  innocence,  or  otherwise  it  cannot  be 
 believed  that  he  would  have  suffered  him  to  be  made  so 
 easy,  and  to  be  invested  with  so  much  power  in  the 
 prison  ;  though  at  the  same  time,  he  might  not  think 
 proper  to  release  him,  for  fear, that  so  public  an  acquit- 
 ment might  bring  disreputation  both  to  his  wife  and 
 himself. 
 
 Joseph  could  not  but  foresee,  that  to  live  in  the  palaces 
 of  kings,  and  to  accept  of  high  posts  and  honours,  would 
 be  very  hazardous  to  his  virtue.  6  But  when  he  per- 
 ceived the  hand  of  providence  so  visible  in  raising  him, 
 by  ways  and  means  so  very  extraordinary,  to  eminence, 
 and  an  office  wherein  he  would  have  it  in  his  power  to 
 be  beneficial  to  so  very  many,  he  could  not  refuse  the 
 offers  which  the  king  made  him,  without  being  rebellious 
 to  the  will  and  destination  of  God.  To  him  therefore 
 who  had  secured  him  hitherto,  he  might  in  this  case  com- 
 mit the  custody  of  his  innocence,  and  accept  of  the  usual 
 ensigns  of  honour,  without  incurring  the  censure  of  vanity 
 or  ostentation. 
 
 And  though,  in  after  ages,  all  marriages  with  infidels 
 were  certainly  prohibited,  yet  there  seems  to  be  at  this 
 time  a  certain  dispensation  current,  forasmuch  as  Judah 
 to  be  sure,  if  not  more  of  Joseph's  brethren,  had  done 
 the  same :  besides  that,  in  Joseph's  case,  there  was 
 something  peculiar.  7  For  as  he  was  in  a  strange 
 country,  he  had  not  an  opportunity  of  making  his 
 addresses  to  any  of  the  daughters  of  the  seed  of  Abra- 
 ham; as  the  match  was  of  the  king's  making,  he  was  not 
 at  liberty  to  decline  it,  without  forfeiting  his  pretensions 
 to  the  royal  favour,  and  consequently  to  the  means  of 
 doing  so  much  good ;  and  as  it  is  not  improbable  that 
 he  might  be  advised  to  it  by  a  particular  revelation,  so 
 it  is  highly  reasonable  to  believe  that  he  converted  his 
 wife,  at  least  to  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  before  he 
 espoused  her  :  even  though  there  should  be  nothing  in 
 that  opinion  of  the  rabbins,  that  he  made  a  proselyte 
 likewise  of  her  father,  the  priest  of  On,  who  could  not 
 but  be  desirous  to  purchase  at  any  rate  so  advantageous 
 
 5  Bibliotlitca   BibSica  on    Gen.  vol.   2.  Occasional  Annota- 
 tions, 39. 
 I      6  Heidegger's  Hist.  Patiiar.,  vol.  2.  Essay  20.         3  Ibid 
 
Sect.  IV.J  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &.-c. 
 
 A.  M.  227G.  A.  C.  1728 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  18G3.  GEN.  xxxvii.  TO  TIIE  END 
 
 229 
 
 an  alliance,  anil  took  this  occasion  to  establish  the  rite 
 of  circumcision,  if  not  in  all  Egypt,  at  least  among  per- 
 sons of  the  sacred  order,  who,  according  to  the  account 
 of  those  who  wrote  the  history  of  that  country,  in  very 
 early  days  certainly  were  not  without  it. 
 
 Some  may  imagine,  that  the  better  to  personate  an 
 Egyptian  lord,  and  thereby  conceal  himself  from  his 
 brethren,  or  rather  to  comply  with  the  language  of  the 
 court,  in  this  particular,  '  Joseph  swore  by  the  life  of 
 Pharaoh,'  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Romans,  in  adula- 
 tion to  their  emperor,  were  wont  to  swear  by  his  genius. 
 It  must  be  acknowledged  indeed,  that,  as  every  oath  is  a 
 solemn  appeal  to  God,  to  swear  by  any  creature  what- 
 ever must  needs  be  an  impious  and  idolatrous  act ;  and 
 therefore  the  proper  solution  of  this  matter  is, — not  that 
 oaths  of  this  kind  were  allowable  before  the  institution 
 of  Christianity,  but  that  Joseph,  in  making  use  of  these 
 words,  did  not  swear  at  all.  1  For  since  every  oath  im- 
 plies in  it  either  an  invocation  of  some  witness,  or  a 
 postulation  of  some  revenge,  as  our  great  Sanderson 
 terms  it,  to  say  that  Joseph  appealed  to  the  life  of 
 Pharaoh  as  a  witness  is  ridiculous  ;  and  without  a  very 
 forced  construction  indeed,  the  Avords  can  never  be  sup- 
 posed to  include  in  them  a  curse,  and  therefore  their 
 most  easy  signification  must  be,  what  we  call  indicative  : 
 I  By  the  life  of  Pharaoh,'  that  is,  as  sure  and  certain  as 
 Pharaoh  liveth,  'ye  are  spies  ;'  just  as  we  say,  '  By  the 
 sun  that  shines,  I  speak  truth,'  that  is,  as  sure  as  the  sun 
 shines  ;  neither  of  which  can  with  any  propriety  be  called 
 oaths,  but  only  vehement  asseverations. 
 
 The  words  which  Joseph's  steward,  sent  to  apprehend 
 his  brethren,  makes  use  of,  are,  2  '  Is  not  this  the  cup  in 
 which  my  lord  drinketh,  and  whereby  indeed  he  divineth  ?' 
 and  the  words  wherein  Joseph  accosts  them,  when  they 
 are  brought  before  him,  are ,  3  '  What  deed  is  this  that  ye 
 have  done  ?  Wot  ye  not,  that  such  a  man  as  I  can  cer- 
 tainly divine  ?'  And  from  hence  4  some  have  imagined, 
 that  Joseph  was  a  person  addicted  to  magical  arts,  and 
 by  virtue  of  this  single  cup,  could  discover  strange  and 
 wonderful  things.  But  in  answer  to  this,  others  have 
 observed,  s  that  the  word  nashah,  which  we  render  to 
 divine,  was  formerly  of  an  indefinite  sense,  and  meant 
 in  general  to  discover,  or  make  a  trial  of;  and  accord- 
 ingly they  have  devised  a  double  acceptation  of  the 
 steward's  words,  as  if  he  should  say, — By  this  cup  (viz  : 
 left  in  a  careless  and  negligent  manner)  my  master  was 
 minded  to  make  an  experiment,  whether  you  were 
 thieves,  or  honest  men ;  or  say, — By  this  cup,  wherein 
 he  drinketh,  my  a  master  discovers  and  finds  out  the 
 temper  and  dispositions  of  men,  when  they  are  in  liquor. 
 But  both  of  these  senses  seem  a  little  too  much  forced, 
 and  are  far  from  agreeing  with  the  other  words  of  Joseph. 
 It  must  be  acknowledged,  therefore,  that  as  magical 
 arts  of  divers  kinds  were  in  use  among  the  Egyptians, 
 many  years  before  Joseph's  time  of  coming  thither;  and 
 that  as  Joseph,  by  his  wonderful  skill  of  interpreting 
 
 1  Sanderson's  Praelec.  5.  sect.  7.  8  Gen.  xliv.  5. 
 1  (Jen.  xliv.  15.  4  See  Saurin's  Dissertation  3S. 
 5  Poole's  Annotation',  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  What  may  seem  to  give  some  small  sanction  to  this  sense, 
 is  tout  known  passage  in  Horace  : — "  Kings  are  said  to  have  sup- 
 plied liberal  potations  to  him  whom  they  wished  to  scrutinize, 
 if  he  was  worthy  of  their  friendship." 
 
 dreams,  had  gained  a  great  reputation  for  knowledge, 
 and  perhaps  among  the  populace,  might  pass  fur  a 
 diviner,  he  took  an  occasion  from  hence,  in  order  to 
 carry  on  his  design,  to  assume  a  character  thai  did  net 
 belong  to  him.  There  is  no  reason,  however,  to  infer  from 
 the  words,  that A  the  art  of  divining  l.y  the  cup,  as  it  tame 
 afterwards  to  be  practised,  was  then  in  use  in  Egypt' 
 b  because  the  words  before  us,  according  to  the  sense  ,,f 
 the  best  interpreters,  do  not  relate  to  this  cup  as  the 
 instrument,  but  as  the  subject  of  divination  ;  not  u  the 
 thing  with  which,  but  as  the  thing  concerning  which  tkk 
 magical  inquiry  was  to  be  made.  And  so  the  sense  of  the 
 steward's  words  will  be,  "  How  could  you  think,  but  that 
 my  lord,  who  is  so  great  a  man  at  divination,  would  use 
 the  best  of  his  skill  to  find  out  the  persons  who  had 
 robbed  him  of  the  cup,  which  he  so  much  prizes  ?"  And 
 this  tallies  exactly  with  the  subsequent  words  of  Joseph, 
 '  Wot  ye  not  that  such  a  man  as  I,'  "  I,  who  have  raised 
 myself  to  this  eminence,  by  my  interpretation  of  dreams, 
 and  may  therefore  well  be  accounted  an  adept  in  all 
 other  sciences,  should  not  be  long  at  a  loss  to  know  who 
 the  persons  were  that  had  taken  away  my  cup?"  This 
 seems  to  be  the  natural  sense  of  the  words  ;  the  only 
 one,  indeed,  that  they  will  fairly  bear :  7  and  though 
 they  do  not  imply  that  Joseph  was  actually  a  magician, 
 yet  they  seem  to  justify  the  notions  of  those  men  who 
 think,  that  he  carried  his  dissimulation  to  his  brethren  so 
 far,  as  to  make  them  believe  that  he  really  had  some 
 knowledge  that  way. 
 
 The  royal  psalmist,  in  his  description  of  the  Bufferings 
 of  Joseph,  8  tells  us,  that  he  was  not  only  sold  to  lie  a 
 '  bond-servant,'  but  that '  his  feet  were  hurt  in  the  stocks, 
 and  iron  entered  into  his  soul,'  which  signifies  at  least  that 
 he  endured  very  hard  usage,  before  'the  time  came  that 
 his  cause  was  known,'  and  his  innocence  discovered; 
 and  of  all  this  his  brethren,  when  they  sold  him  into 
 slavery,  were  properly  the  occasions.  So  that,  could 
 we  conceive,  that  any  angry  resentments  could  harbour 
 in  a  breast  so  fully  satisfied  of  a  divine  providence  in 
 all  this  dispensation,  we  might  have  imagined  that 
 Joseph  took  this  opportunity  to  retaliate  the  injuries 
 which  were  formerly  done  to  him  ;  but  this  lie  did  not 
 He  desired  indeed  to  be  informed  in  the  circumstances 
 of  their  family,  without  asking  any  direct  question  :  and 
 therefore  he  mentions  his  suspicion  of  their  beii  g  spies, 
 merely  to  fish  out  of  them,  as  we  call  it,  whether  hi 
 
 vol 
 
 IT,  18. 
 
 6  Heidegger's  Hit.  Patriar 
 
 '  Sauiin'^  l)i^-ei  lotions. 
 b  Julius  Serenus  tells  us  that   H»'  method  «(  divining  by 
 the   cup,  among  the    A     ■■       -■    < 
 to  fill  it  first  with  water,  (leu  to  throw   Into  it  thin  plal 
 £1.1.1   and  silver,  together  with  some  precious  stones,  whereon 
 were  engraven  certain  characters;  and  after  that,  the  : 
 who  came  to  consult  the  oracle,  used   certain  finis  of  incanta- 
 tion, and  so  calling  upon  the  devil,  were  won!  to  receive  their 
 answers  several  ways:  sometimes  by  articulate  Bounds;  some- 
 times by  the  characters  which  were  in  the  cup  rising  upon  the 
 surface  of  Hie  water,  and  by  their  arrangement  forming  the 
 answer:  and  many  times  by  the  visible  appearing  of  tie   | 
 themselves,   about  whom  the  arack  was  consulted.    Cornelius 
 Agrippa,  (De   Occult   Philoa.  l>.  1.  c.  57.)  tells  i 
 that  the  manner  of  some  wis,  to  pour  melted  wax  Into  tl 
 wherein  was  water,  which  wax  would  range  ItssU  in  order,  and 
 so  form  answers,  according  to  tie-  questions  |  '   """'•« 
 
 Dissertation  oS ;  and  £  V  *<*■ 
 
230 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IU. 
 
 A.  It  227G.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 father,  and  his  younger  brother  were  yet  alive.  For 
 upon  their  return,  we  may  perceive,  especially  consider- 
 ing- that  it  is  the  first  minister  of  a  mighty  state  that 
 speaks  to  a  company  of  poor  indigent  shepherds,  a 
 wonderful  tenderness  in  his  expressions :  •  '  Is  your 
 father  well ;  the  old  man  of  whom  you  spake,  is  he  still 
 alive  ?'  besides  the  instructions  which  he  plainly  gave 
 his  steward  to  bid  them  be  '  of  good  cheer.'  When  he 
 understood  that  his  father  and  brother  were  both  alive, 
 and  as  yet  had  not  matters  prepared  for  the  removal  of 
 his  father  and  family,  the  eagerness  of  his  affections  may 
 perhaps  be  thought  to  have  carried  him  a  little  too  far, 
 in  demanding  his  brother  to  be  brought  to  him  ;  but  we 
 are  not  to  doubt  but  that  Joseph,  by  the  Divine  Spirit 
 wherewith  he  was  endowed,  did  certainly  foresee  what 
 would  happen,2  and  that  his  father's  grieving  a  little  time 
 for  Benjamin,  would  be  so  far  from  endangering  his 
 health,  that  it  would  only  increase  his  joy,  when  he  saw 
 him  again,  and  dispose  him  the  better  for  the  reception 
 of  the  welcome  news  of  his  own  advancement  in  Egypt ; 
 which,  had  it  come  all  upon  him  at  once,  and  on  a 
 sudden,  might  have  been  enough  to  have  bereaved  him 
 of  his  senses,  if  not  of  his  life  itself,  by  a  surfeit  of  joy. 
 
 Upon  their  second  dismission,  after  a  very  kind  enter- 
 tainment, it  may  be  thought  perhaps  a  piece  of  cruelty 
 in  Joseph,  to  have  his  cup  conveyed,  of  all  others,  into 
 Benjamin's  sack,  and  thereupon  to  threaten  to  make  him 
 a  bond-slave  for  a  pretended  felony :  but  herein  was 
 Joseph's  great  policy  and  nicety  of  judgment.  He 
 himself  had  been  severely  treated  by  the  rest  when  he 
 was  young,  and  therefore  was  minded  to  make  an  expe- 
 riment, in  what  manner  they  would  now  behave  towards 
 his  brother  ;  whether  they  would  forsake  him  in  his  dis- 
 tress, and  give  him  up  to  be  a  bond-slave,  as  they  had 
 sold  him  for  one  ;  or  whether  they  would  stand  by  him 
 in  all  events,  make  intercession  for  his  release,  or  ad- 
 venture to  share  his  fate. 
 
 This,  perhaps,  may  be  thought,  was  carrying  the  matter 
 a  little  too  far  :  but,  without  this  conduct,  Joseph  could 
 not  have  known  whether  his  brethren  rightly  deserved 
 the  favour  and  protection  which  he  might  then  design, 
 and  afterwards  granted  them.  Without  this  conduct  we 
 had  not  had  perhaps  the  most  lively  images  that  are  to 
 be  met  with  in  Scripture,  of  injured  innocence,  of  meek- 
 ness and  forbearance,  and  the  triumphs  of  a  good  con- 
 science in  him ;  and  of  the  fears  and  terrors,  the  convic- 
 tions and  self-condemnations  of  long  concealed  guilt  in 
 them.  Without  this  conduct,  we  had  not  had  this  lovely 
 portraiture  of  paternal  tenderness,  as  well  as  brotherly 
 affection  ;  we  had  never  had  those  solemn,  sad,  and 
 melting  words  of  Jacob,  3  '  If  I  am  bereaved  of  my 
 children,  I  am  bereaved,'  enough  to  pierce  a  tender 
 parent's  heart;  or  those  words,  4  '  Joseph  is  yet  alive,  I 
 will  see  him  before  I  die,'  enough  to  raise  it  into  joy  and 
 exultation  again.  In  a  word,  without  this  conduct,  we 
 had  never  had  that  courteous,  that  moving,  that  pleasingly 
 mournful  speech,  wherein  Moses  makes  Judah  address 
 Joseph,  in  behalf  of  his  poor  brother  Benjamin,  which 
 exceeds  all  the  compositions  of  human  invention,  and 
 a  flows  indeed  from  such  natural  passions,  as  art  can 
 
 A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  18G3.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 never  imitate.  So  that,  upon  a  review  of  his  whole  con- 
 duct, Joseph  is  far  from  deserving  blame,  that  all  this 
 seeming  rigour  and  imperiousness  of  his  did  eventually 
 produce  a  great  deal  of  good  ;  and  was  in  reality  no 
 more  than  the  heightening  the  distress,  or  thickening  the 
 plot,  as  we  call  it  in  a  play,  to  make  the  discovery,  or 
 future  felicity  he  intended  his  family,  more  conspicuous 
 and  agreeable. 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged,  indeed,  that  Moses  has  done 
 justice  to  the  history  of  Joseph,  and  employed  most  of 
 the  tender  passions  of  human  nature  to  give  it  a  better 
 grace ;  but  we  must  not  therefore  infer,  either  that  he 
 hath  transcended  truth  or  committed  an  error,  in  record- 
 ing the  quality  of  the  persons  employed  to  embalm  his 
 father.  What  has  led  some  into  a  great  mistake  con- 
 cerning the  origin  of  physic,  and  that  it  was  of  no 
 vogue  in  the  world  until  the  days  of  Hippocrates,  was 
 the  great  superiority  of  skill  and  genius  which  he 
 demonstrated  both  in  his  practice  and  writings.  The 
 truth  is,  the  divine  old  man,  as  5  one  expresses  it,  did  so 
 totally  eclipse  all  who  went  before  him,  that  as  posterity 
 esteemed  his  works  the  canon,  so  did  it  look  upon  him 
 as  the  great  father  of  medicine.  But  if  we  will  credit 
 the  testimony  of  6  Galen,  who,  though  a  late  writer,  was  a 
 very  competent  judge,  we  shall  find,  that  he  was  far  from 
 being  the  first  of  his  profession,  even  among  the  Greeks. 
 
 Homer,  indeed,  in  his  poem  of  the  Trojan  war,  seems 
 to  have  cut  out  more  work  for  surgeons  than  physicians  ; 
 and  therefore  we  find  the  chief  of  the  faculty  only  em- 
 ployed in  healing  wounds,  extracting  arrows,  preparing 
 anodynes,  and  other  such  like  external  operations  ;  but 
 if  we  look  into  his  other  work,  which  is  of  a  more  pacific 
 strain,  we  shall  soon  discern  the  use  of  internal  applica- 
 tions, when  we  find  Helen  brought  in  as  giving  Telema- 
 chus  a  preparation  of  opium,  which,  as  the  poet  informs 
 us,  she  had  from  Polydamna,  the  wife  of  Thon,  an 
 Egyptian  physician  of  great  note.  And  well  might  the 
 physicians  of  Egypt  be  held  in  great  esteem,  "  when  (as 
 Herodotus  relates  the  matter)  every  distinct  distemper 
 had  its  proper  physician,  who  confined  himself  to  the 
 study  and  cure  of  that  only  ;  so  that  one  sort  having  the 
 cure  of  the  eyes,  another  of  the  head,  another  of  the 
 teeth,  another  of  the  belly,  and  another  of  occult  diseases, 
 we  need  not  wonder,  that  all  places  were  crowded  with 
 men  of  this  profession,  or  that  the  physicians  of  Joseph's 
 household  should  be  represented  as  a  large  number." 
 True  it  is  indeed,  that  these  physicians,  and  the  very 
 
 1  Gen.  xliii.  7.  2  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 *  Gen.  xliii.  14.  4  Gen.  xlv.  28. 
 
 o  The  observation  of  a  learned  author  upon  the  dialogue  be- 
 tween Jacob  and  his  sons,  as  well  as  the  soeech  of  Judal-   is  well 
 
 5  Warburton's  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  vol.  2.  b.  4.  sect.  3. 
 6  Meth.  Medic,  b.  1. 
 worth  our  notice  and  serious  consideration  "  Since  such  pas- 
 sages are  related  by  men,  who  affect  no  art.  and  who  lived  long 
 after  the  parties  who  first  uttered  them,  we  cannot  conceive  bow 
 all  particulars  rould  be  so  naturally  and  fully  recorded,  rvh;ss 
 they  had  been  suggested  by  his  Spirit,  who  gives  mouth  and 
 speech  to  man;  who,  being  alike  present  to  all  successions,  is  able 
 to  communicate  the  secret  thoughts  of  forefathers  to  their  children, 
 and  put  the  very  words  of  the  deceased,  never  registered  before, 
 into  the  mouths  or  pens  of  their  successors,  for  many  geneiutions 
 after,  and  that  as  exactly  and  distinctly  as  if  they  had  been  caught, 
 in  characters  of  steel  or  brass,  as  they  issued  out  of  their  mouths: 
 for  it  is  plain  every  circumstance  is  here  related,  with  such 
 natural  specifications,  as  he  terms  it,  as  if  Moses  had  heard  them 
 talk ;  and  therefore  could  not  have  been  thus  represented  to  us, 
 unless  they  had  been  written  by  his  divine  direction,  who  knows 
 all  things,  as  well  forepast,  as  present,  or  to  come." — Br  Jackson 
 on  ths  Creed,  b.  I.e.  4. 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 231 
 
 A.  M.  2276.   A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS, 
 
 best  of  them,  were  employed  in  embalming  the  dead  ;  but 
 then  there  was  a  wise  designation  in  this, *  namely,  not 
 only  to  improve  them  in  the  knowledge  of  anatomy,  but 
 to  enable  them  likewise  to  discover  the  causes  of  such 
 disorders  as  were  a  baffle  to  their  art.  And  therefore 
 it  was  the  custom  of  the  kings  of  Egypt,  as  Pliny 
 informs  us,  to  cause  dead  bodies  to  be  dissected,  on 
 purpose  to  find  out  the  origin  and  nature  of  all  diseases. 
 Thus  it  appears  from  the  concurring  testimony  of  other 
 historians,  that  the  practice  of  physic  was  a  common 
 thing  in  Egypt,  as  early  as  the  days  of  Joseph ;  that  the 
 multitude  of  its  professors  makes  it  no  strange  thing  his 
 having  a  number  of  them  in  his  family ;  and  that  the 
 nature  of  the  thing,  as  well  as  the  order  of  the  state, 
 obliged  the  very  best  of  them  to  become  dissectors  and 
 embalmers. 
 
 This  may  serve  for  a  vindication  of  what  the  sacred 
 historian  has  related  of  our  patriarch  in  his  private  life, 
 and  we  come  now  to  consider  him  in  his  public  capacity. 
 As  soon  as  he  had  foretold  the  king  the  long  famine 
 that  was  to  befall  Egypt,  he  gave  him  advice  to  have  the 
 fifth  part  of  the  product  of  the  country  laid  up  in  store 
 against  the  ensuing  want.  The  tenth  part,  according 
 to  the  constitution  of  the  nation,  belonged  to  the  king 
 already,  and  to  advise  him  to  purchase  as  much  more, 
 for  seven  succeeding  years,  was  to  consider  him  as  the 
 public  father  of  his  people,  for  whose  support  and  wel- 
 fare he  was  concerned  to  provide.  When  himself  was 
 appointed  to  the  offlce  of  gathering  in  the  corn,  he  took 
 care,  no  doubt,  to  have  his  granaries  in  fortified  places, 
 and  as  the  scarceness  increased,  to  have  them  secured 
 by  a  guard  of  the  king's  forces,  to  prevent  insurrections 
 and  depredations.  When  he  came  to  open  his  store- 
 houses, he  sold  to  the  poor  and  to  the  rich  ;  and  was  it 
 not  highly  reasonable,  that  he  who  bought  the  corn, 
 should  likewise  sell  it  ?  or  that  the  money,  which  by  the 
 king's  commission  and  order,  had  been  laid  out  for  such 
 a  stock  of  provisions  against  the  approaching  necessities 
 of  his  subjects,  should  return  to  the  king's  coders  again, 
 to  answer  his  occasions  ?  When  their  money  was  gone, 
 they  brought  him  their  cattle  ;  but  this  they  did  of  their 
 own  accord,  without  any  compulsion  or  circumvention  ; 
 and  might  he  not  as  legally  exchange  corn  for  cattle,  as 
 he  did  it  for  money  before  ?  His  com  he  kept  up  perhaps 
 at  a  high  rate  ;  but  had  he  sold  it  cheap,  or  given  it 
 gratis,  the  people,  very  likely,  would  have  been  profuse 
 and  wanton  in  the  consumption  of  it ;  whereas  his  great 
 care  and  concern  was,  to  make  it  hold  out  the  whole  time 
 of  the  famine.  He  obliged  the  inhabitants  of  one  city 
 and  district  to  remove,  or  make  room  for  those  of 
 another  ;  but  this  he  might  do,  not  so  much  to  show  their 
 subjection  to  Pharaoh,  as  to  secure  the  public  peace,  by 
 disabling  them  in  this  way  from  entering  into  any  sedi- 
 tious measures  and  combinations. 
 
 It  cannot  be  imagined,  indeed,  but  that,  in  a  time  of 
 such  general  want  and  calamity,  men's  minds  would  be 
 ripe  for  rapine,  violence,  and  mutiny ;  and  yet  we  meet 
 with  no  one  commotion,  during  the  whole  period  of  his 
 critical  ministry  ;  which  bespeaks  the  skill  of  the  mariner, 
 when  he  is  found  able  to  steer  steady  in  the  midst  of  so 
 tumultuous  a  sea.  In  line,  after  he  had  a  long  while 
 executed  his  high  trust,  and  the  years  of  famine  were 
 
 1  Warburton's  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  b.  4.  sect.  3. 
 
 A.  M.  8648.   A.  C.  18C3.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 come  to  a  conclusion,  he  gave  the  people  back  their 
 liberties  and  estates,  reserving  to  the  king  no  more  than 
 a  double  tenth  out  of  the  produce  of  their  lands,  as  a 
 tribute  of  their  vassalage  ;  which,  considering  the  rich- 
 ness of  the  soil,  and  the  little  pains  required  in  cultivat- 
 ing it,  was  an  imposition  far  from  being  burdensome  to 
 the  subject,  or  vastly  disproportionate  to  the  benefit  they 
 had  received.  a 
 
 There  is  but  one  thing  more  that  I  find  objected  to 
 Joseph,  in  this  public  station,  '  and  that  is,  his  favour 
 and  indulgence  to  the  priests,  and  priests  that  nw 
 idolaters,  in  sparing  their  lands,  and  laying  no  tax  upon 
 them. 
 
 The  Jewish  doctors  have  a  tradition,  that  when  Joseph 
 was  in  prison,  and  his  master  had  bad  designs  against 
 him,  it  was  by  the  interest  of  the  priests  that  he  was  set 
 free,  and  that,  consequently,  in  gratitude,  he  could  not 
 do  less  than  indulge  them  with  some  particular  marks  of 
 his  favour,  when  he  came  into  such  a  compass  of  power. 
 But  there  is  no  occasion  for  any  such  fiction  as  this. 
 2  The  priests  of  Egypt  were  taken  out  of  the  chief  fami- 
 lies of  the  nation  ;  they  were  persons  of  the  first  quality  ; 
 
 *  Lord  Shaftesbury's  Characteristics,  vol.  3.  Miscel.  3. 
 
 3  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  7. 
 a  This  is  rather  a  feeble  attempt  to  vindicate  the  conduct  of 
 Joseph  as  viceroy  of  Egypt ;  but  fortunately  that  conduct  stands 
 in  need  of  no  other  vindication,  than  to  be  fairly  stated.  If  credit 
 be  due  to  Diodorus  Siculus,  all  the  land  of  Egypt  wa«,  prior  to 
 this  period,  divided,  in  equal  shares,  among  the  king,  the  priest- 
 hood, and  army.  The  people  therefore  must  have  been,  from 
 the  beginning,  adscriptitii  ylebce;  and  they  were  not  likely  to 
 suffer  by  being  transferred  with  the  soil,  which  they  cultivated, 
 from  the  vassalage  in  which  they  had  hitherto  been  held  by  a 
 fierce  soldiery  to  the  common  sovereign  and  father  of  his  people. 
 But  let  us  suppose,  that  Diodorus  was  mistaken,  and  that  not 
 the  army  but  the  people  at  large,  shared  the  soil  in  equal 
 portions  with  the  king  and  the  priests.  Even  on  this  supposi- 
 tion they  were  gainers  by  the  new  regulation  of  Joseph;  for 
 they  henceforth  enjoyed  four-fifths  of  two-thirds  of  the  produce  of 
 the  whole  kingdom,  instead  of  one-third  as  formerly.  Indeed 
 whatever  was  the  state  of  the  Egyptians  before  this  famine,  it  was 
 happy  for  them  that  the  minister,  whom  they  acknowledged  to 
 have  saved  their  lives,  was  not  on  that  occasion  influenced  by 
 modern  notions  of  civil  and  political  liberty. — "  By  the  policy  of 
 Joseph,  the  whole  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  not  occupied  by  tho 
 priests,  became  the  property  of  the  sovereign,  and  the  people  with 
 their  children  his  slaves;  an  event,  which,  however  impropitious 
 it  might  be  in  any  other  country,  was  necessary  there,  where 
 every  harvest  depended  on  the  Nile,  and  where  the  equal  distri- 
 bution of  its  waters  could  alone  produce  a  general  cultivation. 
 When  the  lands  of  Egypt  were  private  property,  would  it  be 
 possible  to  induce  individuals  to  sacrifice  their  own  possessions, 
 that  they  might  be  turned  into  canals  for  the  public  benefit  ?  or, 
 when  the  canals  were  constructed,  would  it  be  poaeiblc  to  prevent 
 the  inhabitants  of  the  upper  provinces  from  drawing  oil  more 
 water  than  was  requisite  for  their  own  use,  ami  thereby  injuring 
 the  cultivators  lower  down  ?  But  when  the  whole  belonged  to 
 one  man,  the  necessary  canals  would  be  constructed ;  the  distri- 
 bution of  water  would  be  guided  by  prudence  ;  each  district  would 
 receive  its  necessary  proportion;  and  the  collateral  branches 
 would  then,  as  they  are  now,  be  opened  only  when  the  height  "i 
 the  river  justified  such  a  measure  for  the  public  benefit."  (Lora 
 J'alentia's  Travels,  vol.  .'i,  p.  S48.J — Our  author's  supposition, 
 that  the  people  who  had  sold  their  lands  to  preserve  their  lives, 
 were  transplanted  into  cities  far  from  their  former  places  of  abode, 
 that  they  might,  in  time,  lose  the  remembrance  of  their  ancient 
 possessions,  is  a  groundless  dream.  Granaries  were  formed,  and 
 cities  and  villages  built  in  every  district  of  the  kingdom;  and 
 when  cultivation  ceased,  the  people  were  transplanted,  lor  tho 
 easiness  of  distribution,  from  the  country  into  such  of  those  cities 
 as  were  nearest  to  them:  and  when  the  famine  ceased,  they  were 
 sent  back,  with  seed  to  sow  their  former  fields. 
 
232 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 were  consulted  upon  all  .affairs  of  consequence  ;  and, 
 upon  a  vacancy,  generally  some  one  of  them  succeeded 
 to  the  crown.  It  was  not  likely,  therefore,  that  persons 
 of  their  high  rank  and  station  wanted  Joseph's  assistance 
 to  strengthen  their  interest,  for  the  obtaining-  of  any 
 immunities  ;  nor  is  it  apparent  that  they  had  it.  On  the 
 contrary,  it  seems  evident  from  the  text,  that  whatever 
 peculiar  favours  they  were  vouchsafed,  proceeded  all, 
 not  from  Joseph's  good-will,  but  from  the  king's  imme- 
 diate direction  and  appointment ;  for  the  '  land  of  the 
 priests  bought  he  not,'  says  Moses,  (ci  chok  le  cohanitn 
 meeth  Pharaoh)  because  Pharaoh  had  made  a  decree 
 expressly  against  it,  or,  in  analogy  to  our  translation, 
 '  became  there  was  an  appointment  for  the  priests,  even 
 from  Pharaoh  ;  and  the  portion,  which  he  gave  them,  they 
 did  eat,  and  therefore  sold  not  their  lands.' 
 
 Why  Pharaoh,  when  he  thought  tit  to  lessen  the  pro- 
 perty of  his  common  subjects,  did  not,  at  the  same  time, 
 attempt  to  reduce  the  exorbitant  riches  of  the  priests,  we 
 may  in  some  measure  account  for,  if  we  consider,  that 
 according  to  the  constitution  of  the  kingdom,  the  Egyp- 
 tian priests  were  obliged  to  provide  all  sacrifices,  and  to 
 bear  all  the  charges  of  the  national  religion,  which,  in 
 those  days,  was  not  a  little  expensive  ;  so  very  expen- 
 sive, that  we  find,  in  those  countries  where  the  soil  Mas 
 not  fruitful,  and  consequently  the  people  poor,  men  did 
 not  well  know  how  to  bear  the  burden  of  religion ;  and 
 therefore  Lyctirgus,  when  he  reformed  the  Lacedemonian 
 state,  instituted  sacrifices,  the  meanest  and  cheapest  that 
 he  could  think  of.  But  Egypt,  we  know,  was  a  rich  and 
 fertile  country,  and  therefore,  in  all  probability,  the  king 
 and  people  being  desirous  that  religion  should  appear 
 with  a  suitable  splendour,  made  settlements  upon  the 
 priests  from  a  the  very  first  institution  of  government 
 among  them,  answerable  to  the  charges  of  their  function. 
 Add  to  tliis,  that  the  priests  of  Egypt  were  the  whole 
 body  of  the  nobility  of  the  land  ;  that  they  were  the  king's 
 counsellors  and  assistants  in  all  the  affairs  which  con- 
 cerned the  public;  1  were  joint  agents  with  him  in  some 
 things,  and  in  others,  his  directors  and  instructors.  Add 
 again,  that  they  were  the  professors  and  cultivators  of 
 astronomy,  geometry,  and  other  useful  sciences  ;  that 
 they  were  the  keepers  of  the  public  registers,  memoirs 
 and  chronicles  of  the  kingdom ;  and,  in  a  word,  that 
 under  the  king,  they  were  the  supreme  magistrates,  and 
 filled  all  prime  offices  of  honour  and  trust :  and  consider- 
 ing them  under  these  views,  we  may  possibly  allow,  that 
 Pharaoh  might  think  that  they  .had  not  too  much  to  support 
 the  station  they  were  to  act  in,  and  for  that  reason 
 ordered  that  no  tax  should  be  raised  upon  them. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  clear  the  sacred  history 
 from  all  imputations  of  improbability  or  absurdity,  as 
 well  as  Joseph's  conduct,  both  private  and  public,  from 
 all  unjust  censure,  during  this  period  of  time  ;  and  may 
 now  produce  the  testimony  of  several  heathen  writers, 
 in  confirmation  of  many  particulars  related  herein. 
 
 A.  M.  3M8.  A.  C.  18C3.  GEN.  CH.  xxxv'ii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Tiiat  the  memory  of  Joseph,  and  of  the  wonderful 
 benefits  he  did,  during  the  time  of  his  administration, 
 was  preserved  among  the  Egyptians,  under  the  worship 
 of  Apis,  Serapis,  and  Osiris  ;  that  the  Egyptian  manner 
 of  interpreting  dreams  was  taken  from  what  occurs  in 
 his  history  ;  and  that  the  Charistia,  mentioned  by  2  Vale- 
 rius and  3  Ovid,  namely,  festival  entertainments,  either 
 for  confirming  friendship,  or  renewing  it  when  broken, 
 were  transcripts  of  the  feast  which  Joseph  made  for  his 
 brethren,  is  the  general  opinion  of  such  learned  men  as 
 have  made  the  deepest  inquiry  into  these  matters. 
 
 That  the  patriarch  Jacob  went  down  with  his  whole 
 family  into  Egypt,  where  he  found  his  son  Joseph  in 
 great  power  and  prosperity,  is  reported  by  several  pagan 
 writers,  who  are  cited  4  by  Eusebius  ;  that  the  Egyptians, 
 according  to  what  Moses  tells  of  them,  had  an  unaccount- 
 able antipathy  to  shepherds,  especially  foreigners,  is 
 related  5  by  Herodotus  ;  that  the  priests  in  that  country 
 enjoyed  several  high  privileges,  and  were  exempted  from 
 paying  all  taxes  and  public  imposts,  is  every  where 
 apparent  6  from  Diodorus  ;  and  that  Joseph  was  just 
 such  a  person  as  Moses  has  represented  him,  the  testi- 
 mony 7  of  Justin,  with  which  we  conclude  the  patri- 
 arch's story,  is  enough  to  convince  us.  "  Joseph,  the 
 youngest  of  his  brethren,"  says  he,  "  had  a  superiority 
 of  genius,  which  made  them  fear  him,  and  sell  him  to 
 foreign  merchants,  who  carried  him  into  Egypt,  where 
 he  practised  the  magic  art  with  such  success  as  rendered 
 him  very  dear  to  the  king.  He  had  a  great  sagacity  in 
 the  explanation  of  prodigies  and  dreams  ;  nor  was  there 
 any  thing  so  abstruse,  either  in  divine  or  human  know- 
 ledge, that  he  did  not  readily  attain.  He  foretold  a 
 great  dearth,  several  years  before  it  happened,  and 
 prevented  a  famine's  falling  upon  Egypt,  by  advising 
 the  king-  to  publish  a  decree,  requiring  the  people  to 
 make  provision  for  divers  years.  His  knowledge,  in 
 short,  was  so  great,  that  the  Egyptians  listened  to  the 
 prophecies  coming  from  his  mouth,  as  if  they  had  pro- 
 ceeded, not  from  man,  but  from  God  himself." 
 
 1  Diodorus  Siculus,  b.  1. 
 a  It  is  the  opinion  of  some,  that  Mizraim,  the  founder  of  the 
 Egyptian  monarchy,  might,  in  memory  of  some  Noachical  tradi- 
 tion, set  apart,  at  the  very  first,  a  maintenance  for  the  priesthood, 
 however  degenerate  and  corrupt.  Be  this  as  it  will,  it  is  certain, 
 that,  in  process  of  time,  their  allotment  increased  to  such  a 
 degree,  that  they  became  possessors  of  one-third  part  of  the  whole 
 land,  according  to  Diodorus,  b.  1, 
 
 CHAP.   III.— Of  the  Person  and  Book  of  Job. 
 
 That  Job  was  a  real  person,  and  not  a  fictitious  char- 
 acter, and  his  story  matter  of  fact,  and  not  a  parabolical 
 representation,  *  is  manifest  from  all  those  places  in 
 Scripture  where  mention  is  made  of  him;  and,  there- 
 
 *  Diodorus  Siculus,  b.  2.  c.  1.  3  De  Fast.  b.  2. 
 
 4  Prep.  Evan.  b.  9.  5  lb.  b.  2.  c.  47.  6  lb.  b.  1.  7  lb.  b.  36.  c.  2. 
 b  Nay,  upon  the  supposition  that  the  whole  book  were  a  dram- 
 atic composition,  this  would  not  invalidate  the  proofs  which  we 
 have  from  Scripture,  of  the  real  existence  of  this  holy  patriarch, 
 or  the  truth  of  his  exemplary  stoiy.  On  the  contrary,  it 
 much  confirms  them;  seeing  it  was  the  general  practice  of 
 dramatic  writers,  of  the  serious  kind,  to  choose  any  illustrious 
 character,  and  well  known  story,  in  order  to  give  the  piece 
 its  due  dignity  and  eflicacy;  and  yet,  what  is  very  surprising, 
 the  writers  on  both  sides,  as  well  those  who  hold  the  book  of  Job 
 to  be  dramatical,  as  those  who  hold  it  to  be  historical,  have  fallen 
 into  this  paralogism,  that,  if  dramatical,  then  the  person  and: 
 history  of  Job  is  fictitious  :  which  nothing  but  their  inattention  j 
 to  the  nature  of  a  dramatic  work,  and  to  the  practice  of  dramatic! 
 writers,  could  have  occasioned. — JJ'arburton's  Divine  Lenation, 
 vol.  3.  b.  C. 
 
IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c 
 
 233 
 
 A.  M.  2279.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  18C3.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 fore  when,  in  the  Old  Testament,  we  find  Job  put  in 
 company  with  Noah  and  Daniel,  and  equally  dis- 
 tinguished for  his  righteousness,  as  in  the  New  he  is 
 commended  for  his  patience,  we  cannot  well  suppose 
 that  the  Spirit  of  God,  in  both  these  places,  intended  to 
 delude  us  with  a  phantom,  instead  of  presenting  us  with 
 a  real  man. 
 
 Whether  we  allow  that  the  book  of  Job  is  of  divine 
 revelation  or  not,  we  cannot  but  perceive,  that  it  has  in 
 it  all  the  lineaments  of  a  real  history  ;  since  the  name, 
 the  quality,  the  country  of  the  man,  the  number  of  his 
 children,  the  bulk  of  his  substance,  and  the  pedigree  of 
 his  friends,  together  with  the  names  and  situations  of 
 several  regions,  can  give  us  the  idea  of  nothing  else  ; 
 though  it  must  not  be  dissembled,  that  in  the  introduc- 
 tion more  especially,  there  is  an  allegorical  turn  given  to 
 some  matters,  which,  as  they  relate  to  spiritual  beings, 
 would  not  otherwise  so  easily  affect  the  imagination  of 
 the  vulgar. 
 
 1  Job,  according  to  the  fairest  probability,  was  in  a 
 direct  line,  a  descended  from  Abraham,  by  his  wife  Ke- 
 turah :  for  by  Keturah,  the  patriarch  had  several  sons, 
 whom  he,  being  resolved  to  reserve  the  chief  patrimony 
 entire  for  Isaac,  portioned  out,  as  we  call  it,  and  sent 
 them  into  the  east  to  seek  their  fortunes,  so  that  most  of 
 them  settled  in  Arabia  ;  and  for  this  reason  perhaps  it  is, 
 that  the  author  of  his  history  records  of  Job,  that  before 
 his  calamities  came  upon  him,  2  '  he  was  the  greatest  of 
 all  the  men  of  the  east.' 
 
 The  character  which  God  himself  gives  of  Abraham  is 
 this,  3  '  I  know  him  that,  he  will  command  his  children, 
 and  his  household  after  him,  and  that  they  shall  keep 
 the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice  and  judgment ;'  which 
 may  well  afford  another  argument  for  Job's  being 
 descended  from  the  house  of  Abraham,  since  we  find 
 dispersed  everywhere  in  his  speeches,  *  such  noble  sen- 
 timents of  creation  and  providence,  of  the  nature  of 
 angels  and  the  fall  of  man,  of  punishments  for  sin  and 
 justification  by  grace,  of  a  redemption,  resurrection,  and 
 final  judgment, — notions  which  he  could  never  have 
 struck  out  from  the  light  of  nature,  but  must  have  had 
 
 1  Spanheim's  History  of  Job,  c.  5.  8  Job,  1.  3. 
 
 *  Gen.  xviii.  19.  4  Spanheim's  History  of  Job,  c.  10. 
 
 a  At  the  end  of  the  Greek,  the  Arabic,  and  Vulgate  ver- 
 sions of  Job,  we  have  this  account  of  his  genealogy,  which  is 
 said  to  have  been  taken  from  the  ancient  Syriac: — "Job  dwelt 
 in  Ausitis,  upon  the  confines  of  Idumea  and  Arabia.  His  name 
 at  first  was  Jobab.  He  married  an  Arabian  woman,  by  whom 
 he  had  a  son  called  Ennon.  For  his  part,  he  was  the  son  of 
 Zerah,  of  the  posterity  of  Esau,  and  a  native  of  Bozrah ;  so  that 
 he  was  the  filth  from  Abraham.  He  reigned  in  Edom,  and  the 
 kings  before  him  reigned  in  this  order: — Balak,  the  son  of  Beor, 
 in  the  city  of  Dinhabah;  and  after  him,  Job,  otherwise  called 
 Jobab.  Job  was  succeeded  by  Hushair.,  prince  of  Teman ; 
 after  him  reigned  Hadad,  the  son  of  Bedad,  who  defeated  the 
 Midianites  in  the  field  of  Moab.  Job's  friends,  who  came  to  visit 
 him,  were  Eliphaz,  of  the  posterity  of  Esau,  king  of  Teman; 
 Bildad,  king  of  the  Shuhites ;  and  Zophar,  king  of  the  Naama- 
 thites."  According  to  this  account,  Job  must  be  contemporary 
 with  Moses,  and  the  three  friends  who  came  to  see  him  must  be 
 kings.  But  the  learned  Spanheim,  who  has  examined  this 
 matter  to  the  bottom,  finds  reason  to  think,  that  Job  was  a  dis- 
 tinct person  from  Jobab;  was  sprung  from  Abraham  by  his  wife 
 Keturah;  and  lived  several  years  before  the  time  of  Moses. — 
 Calmet's  Dictionary,  on  the  word  Job;  and  Spanheim's  Life  of 
 dim. 
 
 them  originally  from  the  instruction  of  his  parents,  as 
 they  successively  derived  them  from  the  first  '  father  of 
 the  faithful,'  who  had  them  immediately  from  God.  But, 
 what  is  an  undoubted  matter  of  fact,  by  his  wife  Ketu- 
 rah, s  Abraham  had  a  son,  whose  name  was  Shuah  ;  and 
 therefore  when  we  read  of  a  Bildad  the  Shuhite,  we  may 
 well  suppose,  that  he  was  a  descendant  from  that  family  ; 
 who  living  in  the  neighbourhood  perhaps,  might  think 
 himself  obliged  by  the  ties  of  consanguinity,  to  go  and 
 visit  his  kinsman,  in  such  sad  circumstances  of  distress. 
 In  what  part  of  the  world  the  land  of  Uz  lay,  various 
 opinions  have  been  started,  according  to  the  several 
 families  from  whence  Job  is  made  to  descend  ;  but,  upon 
 supposition  that  he  sprung  from  one  of  Keturah's  sons, 
 his  habitation  is  most  properly  placed  in  that  part  of 
 Arabia  Deserta  which  has  to  the  north,  Mesopotamia 
 and  the  river  Euphrates  ;  to  the  west,  Syria,  Palestine, 
 and  Idumea  ;  and  to  the  south,  the  mountains  of  the 
 Happy  Arabia.  And  this  description  receives  some 
 farther  confirmation  from  the  mention  which  the  history 
 makes  of  the  Chaldeans  and  Sabfeans  plundering  his 
 estate,  who  were  certainly  inhabitants  in  these  parts. 
 
 In  what  age  of  the  world  this  great  exemplar  of  suf- 
 fering lived,  the  difference  of  opinions  is  not  small,  even 
 though  there  be  some  criterions  to  direct  our  judgment 
 in  this  matter.  '  That  Job  lived  in  the  world  much 
 earlier  than  has  been  imagined,  is,  in  some  measure, 
 evident  from  his  mentioning  with  abhorrence,  that  ancient 
 kind  of  idolatry,  the  adoration  of  the  sun  and  moon,  and 
 yet  passing  by  in  silence  the  Egyptian  bondage,  which, 
 upon  one  occasion  or  other,  could  have  hardly  escaped 
 the  notice  either  of  him  or  his  friends,  had  it  not  been 
 subsequent  to  their  times.  That  he  lived  in  the  days  of 
 the  patriarchs  therefore  is  very  probable,  from  the  long 
 duration  of  his  life,  which,  continuing  an  hundred  and 
 forty  years  after  his  restoration,  could  hardly  be  less  in 
 all  than  two  hundred  ;  a  longer  period  than  either  Abra- 
 ham or  Isaac  reached.  That  he  lived  before  the  law, 
 may  be  gathered  from  his  making  not  so  much  as  one 
 allusion  to  it  through  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  and 
 from  his  offering,  even  with  God's  order  and  acceptance, 
 such  sacrifices  in  his  own  country  as  were  not  allowable 
 after  the  promulgation  of  the  law,  to  be  offered  in  any 
 other  place,  but  that  8  '  which  the  Lord  had  chosen  in 
 one  of  the  tribes  of  Israel ;'  and  that  he  lived  after 
 Jacob  may  be  inferred  from  the  character  given  him  by 
 God,  namely,  that  for  uprightness  and  the  fear  of  God, 
 there  was  none  'like  unto  him  upon  the  earth,'  which 
 large  commendation  could  not  be  allowed  to  any 
 whilst  Jacob,  God's  favourite  servant,  was  alive  ;  nor 
 can  we  suppose  it  proper  to  be  given  to  any,  even  while 
 Joseph  lived,  who,  in  moral  virtues  and  other  excel- 
 lencies, made  as  bright  a  figure  as  any  in  his  time.  • 
 
 Gen.  xxv.  2. 
 
 7  Spanhi  im,  c.  3. 
 
 6  Job  ii.  11. 
 8Deut.  xii.  13,  14. 
 b  The  Rev.  Dr  Hales,  from  a, variety  of  historical  and  astro- 
 nomical deductions,  calculates  the  time  of  Job's  trial  as  happening 
 B.  C.  23.17.  or  818  years  after  the  deluge,  184  years  before  the 
 birth  of  Abraham,  474  years  before  the  settlement  of  Jacoo  s 
 family  in  Egypt,  and  G89  years  before  their  departure  from  that 
 country.  Taking  this  view  of  the  era  of  Job — and  it  ia  tl 
 supported  of  any  yet  advanced — the  deduction  in  the  text  from 
 the  words,  '  and  there  was  none  like  unto  him  upon  the  earth,' 
 ■2  u 
 
234 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  227G.  A.  C.  1728;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 Thus  may  the  computation  be  reduced  to  a  very  narrow 
 compass  ;  and  though  it  be  extremely  difficult  to  point 
 out  the  precise  time,  yet  the  general  opinion  is,  that  he 
 lived  in  the  time  of  the  children  of  Israel's  bondage, 
 and  therefore  his  birth  is  placed  in  the  very  same  year 
 wherein  Jacob  went  down  into  Egypt,  and  the  beginning 
 of  his  trial  in  the  year  when  Joseph  died ;  '  though  it 
 might  probably  be  less  liable  to  exception,  if  his  birth 
 were  set  a  little  lower,  much  about  the  time  of  Jacob's 
 death  ;  and  then  Joseph,  who  survived  his  father  about 
 four  and  fifty  years,  will  be  dead  about  sixteen  years, 
 at  which  time  Job  might  justly  deserve  the  extraordinary 
 character  which  God  gave  him,  and  have  no  man  then 
 alive,  in  virtue  and  integrity,  able  to  compare  with  him. 
 
 How  considerable  a  figure  Job  made  in  the  world, 
 both  in  temporal  and  spiritual  blessings,  the  vastness  of 
 his  stock,  which  was  the  wealth  of  that  age,  consisting 
 of  seven  thousand  sheep,  three  thousand  camels,  five 
 hundred  yokes  of  oxen,  and  five  hundred  she-asses  ;  the 
 largeness  of  his  family,  consisting  of  seven  sons  and 
 three  daughters;  and  the  excellency  of  the  character 
 which  God  was  pleased  to  give  him,  together  with  the 
 greatness  of  his  sentiments,  and  the  firmness  and  con- 
 stancy of  his  mind  in  all  he  suffered,  are  a  sufficient 
 demonstration  :  and  yet  we  see,  that  as  soon  as  God 
 submitted  him  to  the  assaults  of  his  spiritual  enemy,  what 
 a  sad  catastrophe  did  befall  him.  The  Sabfeans  ran 
 away  with  his  asses  ;  the  Chaldeans  plundered  him  of 
 his  camels ;  a  fire  from  heaven  consumed  his  sheep  and 
 servants ;  a  wind  overwhelmed  all  his  children ;  and 
 while  the  sense  of  these  losses  lay  heavy  upon  his  spirits, 
 his  body  was  smitten  with  a  sore  disease,  insomuch 
 that  he  who  but  a  few  hours  before,  was  the  greatest  man 
 in  the  country,  in  whose  '  presence  the  young  men  were 
 afraid  to  appear,  and  before  whom  the  aged  stood  up,' 
 to  whom  princes  paid  the  most  awful  reverence,  and 
 whom  nobles,  in  humble  silence,  admired ;  divested  of 
 all  honour,  sits  mourning  on  a  bed  of  ashes,  and  instead 
 of  royal  apparel,  has  2  '  his  flesh  clothed,'  as  himself 
 expresses  it,  '  with  worms  and  clods  of  earth,'  and  is  all 
 overspread  with  sores  and  ulcers. 
 
 According  to  the  symptoms  which  Job  gives  us  of 
 himself,  his  distemper  seems  to  have  been  a  leprosy,  but 
 a  leprosy  of  a  more  malignant  kind,  as  it  always  is  in 
 hot  countries,  than  our  climate,  blessed  be  God,  is 
 acquainted  with ;  and  those  who  would  have  it  to  be  a 
 malady  of  a  more  opprobrious  name,  lose  all  the  sting 
 
 1  Howell's  Histoiy  of  the  Bible.  *  Job  vii.  5. 
 
 that  lie  must  have  lived  after  Jacob,  because  such  "  large  com- 
 mendation could  not  be  allowed  to  any  whilst  Jacob,  God's 
 favourite  servant,  was  alive,"  cannot  hold,  but  must  rather  be 
 applied  to  prove,  that  he  lived  before  Jacob,  or  any  of  the  patri- 
 archs of  Israel.  It  may  be  observed,  however,  that,  according 
 to  scripture  idiom,  the  passage  may  be  construed  to  signify  merely, 
 that  there  was  none  like  Job  in  the  land  of  Uz.  Among  other 
 reasons  for  assigning  to  Job  the  high  antiquity  given  him  by  Dr 
 Hales,  may  be  mentioned  the  following:  He  is  silent  respecting 
 the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  which  cities  lay  near 
 Idumea,  whore  the  scene  of  his  sufferings  is  laid.  He  lived  to 
 a  patriarchal  age,  surviving  his  trial  140  years,  while  he  must 
 have  been  old  when  that  took  place.  The  manners  and  customs 
 described  correspond  critically  with  all  that  is  known  of  that  early 
 period.  But,  above  all,  the  astronomical  allusions  of  Job  have 
 enabled  astronomers  to  determine  his  era  (as  given  above)  by 
 calculating  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes. — Ed. 
 
 A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  1863.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 of  the  sarcasm,  when  they  are  told,  that  this  distemper, 
 be  it  what  it  will,  was  not  of  Job's  contraction,  but  of 
 Satan's  infliction,  not  the  effect  or  consequence  of  his 
 vice,  but  the  means  appointed  for  the  trial  of  his  virtue. 
 
 Their  opinion,  however,  seems  to  be  well  founded,  who 
 make  this  distemper  of  Job  not  one  simple  malady,  but 
 a  complication  of  many.  For  since  the  great  enemy  of 
 mankind,  saving  his  life,  had  a  full  license  to  try  his 
 patience  to  the  uttermost,  it  is  not  to  be  questioned  but 
 that  he  played  all  his  batteries  upon  him ;  and  accord- 
 ingly we  may  observe,  that 3  besides  the  blains  pustulated 
 to  afflict  his  body,  the  devil  not  only  instigated  his  wife 
 a  to  grieve  his  mind,  but  disturbed  his  imagination  like- 
 wise to  terrify  his  conscience.  For  when  the  holy  man 
 complains, 4  '  Thou  scarest  me  with  dreams,  and  terrifiest 
 me  with  visions,'  the  analogy  of  the  history  will  not  suf- 
 fer us  to  interpret,  that  God  himself  did  inject  these 
 affrightening  dreams,  but  that  the  devil,  to  whose  tempta- 
 tions he  had  submitted  him,  did  raise  gloomy  thoughts, 
 and  frame  horrid  and  ghastly  objects  in  his  imagination, 
 thereby  to  urge  him  to  melancholy  and  despair. 
 
 How  long  this  load  of  various  calamity  lay  upon  him, 
 is  nowhere  mentioned  in  Scripture  ;  and  therefore  since 
 it  is  submitted  to  conjecture,  they  who,  to  magnify  the 
 sufferings,  prolong  the  duration  of  them  to  a  year,  and, 
 as  some  do,  to  seven,  s  seem  to  be  regardless  of  the 
 tender  mercies  of  the  Lord  ;  especially  when  there  are 
 some  circumstances  in  the  story,  which  certainly  do 
 countenance  a  much  shorter  time.  The  news  of  the  mis- 
 fortunes which  attended  his  goods  and  family,  came  close 
 upon  the  heels  of  one  another,  and  we  cannot  suppose 
 a  long  space  before  he  was  afflicted  in  his  body.  *  His 
 three  friends  seem  to  have  been  his  near  neighbours  ;  and 
 they  came  to  visit  him,  as  soon  as  they  heard  of  the  ill 
 news,  which  usually  flies  apace.  When  they  saw  his 
 misery,  seven  days  they  sat  with  him  in  silence  ;  after 
 this,  they  entered  into  a  discourse  with  him,  and  at  the 
 end  of  this  discourse,  which  could  not  well  last  above 
 another  week,  God  healed  his  sores  before  his  friends 
 who  being  men  of  eminence  in  their  country,  may  be 
 supposed  to  have  business  at  home,  as  soon  as  this 
 melancholy  occasion  was  over)  were  parted  from  him. 
 
 8  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  2.  4  Job  vii.  14. 
 
 5  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  3.  c.  4. 
 a  Some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  imagine,  that  Dinah,  the  daugh- 
 ter of  Leah,  was  this  wife  of  Job's ;  but  this  seems  to  be  a  mere 
 fiction.  The  moroseness  and  impiety  of  the  woman,  as  well  as 
 the  place  of  her  habitation,  do  no  ways  suit  with  Jacob's  daugh- 
 ter; and  therefore  the  more  probable  opinion  is,  that  his  wife 
 was  an  Arabian  by  birth,  and  that  though  the  words  which  we 
 render  '  curse  God  and  die,'  may  equally  bear  a  quite  contrary 
 signification,  yet  are  they  not  here  to  be  taken  in  the  most  favour- 
 able sense,  because  they  drew  from  her  meek  and  patient  husband 
 so  severe  an  imprecation,  '  Thou  speakest  as  one  of  the  foolish 
 women  speaketh.  What  !  shall  we  receive  good  at  the  hand  of 
 God,  and  shall  we  not  receive  evil  ?'  (Job  ii.  10.) — Spanheim's 
 History  of  Job,  c.  6. 
 
 b  Eliphaz,  the  Temanite,  was  the  grandson  of  Esau,  and  son 
 of  Teman,  who  dwelt  in  a  city  of  the  same  name  in  Idumea,  not 
 far  from  the  confines  of  Arabia  Deserta.  Bildad,  the  Shuh'ite, 
 was  descended  from  Shuah,  the  son  of  Abraham  and  Keturah. 
 It  is  almost  impossible  to  find  out  who  Zophar  the  Naamathite 
 was,  though  some  will  have  him  descended  from  Esau ;  but  as  for 
 Elihu,  who  comes  in  afterwards,  he  was  the  grandson  of  Buz,  the 
 son  of  Nahor ;  lived  in  the  southern  parts  of  Mesopotamia ;  and 
 upon  the  supposition  of  Job's  being  sprung  from  Abraham,  was 
 his  distant  relation.. — Spanheim's  Life  of  Job,  c.  11. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2276.  A.  C.  1728  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 Now,  since  all  this  may  be  included  in  the  space  of  a 
 month,  and  a  month  may  be  thought  time  enough  for 
 God  to  have  made  trial  of  his  faithful  servant ;  when 
 once  such  trial  was  made,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  that 
 he  would  withdraw  his  heavy  hand,  because  his  character 
 in  Scripture  is,  that  "  '  he  doth  not  afflict  willingly  nor 
 grieve  the  children  of  men.' 
 
 The  unaccountable  greatness  of  Job's  calamities  had 
 led  his  friends  into  a  misconception  of  him,  and  made 
 them  surmise,  that  it  must  be  the  vindictive  hand  of  God, 
 either  for  some  deep  hypocrisy,  or  some  secret  enormity, 
 that  fell  so  heavy  upon  him  ;  and  therefore  Eliphaz,  in 
 three  orations,  Bildad  in  as  many,  and  Zophar  in  two, 
 argue  from  common  topics,  that  such  afflictions  as  his 
 could  come  from  no  hand  but  God's  ;  and  that  it  was 
 inconsistent  with  his  infinite  justice  to  afflict  without  a 
 cause,  or  punish  without  guilt ;  and  thereupon  charging 
 Job  with  being  either  a  grievous  sinner,  or  a  great  hypo- 
 crite, they  endeavoured  by  all  means  to  extort  a  confes- 
 sion from  him.  But  Job,  conscious  of  his  sincerity  to 
 God,  and  innocence  to  man,  confidently  maintains  his 
 integrity  ;  and  in  speeches  returned  to  every  one  of  theirs, 
 refutes  their  wicked  suggestions,  and  reproves  their 
 injustice  and  want  of  charity  ;  but  always  observes  a 
 submissive  style  and  reverence  when  he  comes  to  speak 
 of  God,  of  whose  secret  end,  in  permitting  this  trial  to 
 come  upon  him,  being  ignorant,  he  often  begs  a  release 
 from  life,  lest  the  continuance  of  his  afflictions  should 
 drive  him  into  impatience. 
 
 During  these  arguments  between  Job  and  his  friends, 
 there  was  present  a  young  man,  named  Elihu,  who  hav- 
 ing heard  the  debates  on  both  sides,  and  disliking  both 
 their  censoriousness,  and  Job's  justification  of  himself, 
 undertakes  to  convince  them  both,  by  arguments  drawn 
 from  God's  unlimited  sovereignty  and  unsearchable  wis- 
 dom, that  it  was  not  inconsistent  with  his  justice  to  lay 
 his  afflictions  upon  the  best  and  most  righteous  of  the 
 sous  of  men  ;  and  that  therefore,  when  any  such  thing 
 came  upon  thein,  their  duty  was  to  bear  it  without  mur- 
 muring, and  to  acknowledge  the  divine  goodness  in  every 
 dispensation. 
 
 When  every  one  had  spoken  what  he  thought  proper, 
 and  there  was  now  a  general  silence  in  the  company,  the 
 Lord  himself  took  up  the  matter,  and  out  of  a  whirlwind 
 directed  his  speech  to  Job  ;  wherein  with  the  highest 
 amplifications,  describing  his  omnipotence  in  tiie  forma- 
 tion and  disposition  of  the  works  of  the  creation,  he  so 
 effectually  convinced  him  of  his  inability  to  understand 
 the  ways  and  designs  of  God,  that  with  the  profoundest 
 humility  he  breaks  out  into  this  confession  and  acknow- 
 ledgment :  '  Behold,  2  I  am  vile,  what  shall  I  answer 
 thee  ?  I  will  lay  my  hand  upon  my  mouth.  Once  have 
 I  spoken,  but  I  will  not  answer:  yea  twice,  but  I  will 
 proceed  no  farther.'  This  acknowledgment  pleased  God 
 so  well,  that  he  declared  himself  in  favour  of  Job  against 
 his  injurious  friends,  and  hereupon  putting  an  end  to  his 
 sufferings,  a  cured  him  of  all  his  grievances,  and  reward- 
 
 1  Lam.  iii.  33.  2  J0b  xl.  4,  5. 
 
 a  The  eastern  people  have  a  tradition,  that  upon  God's  pro- 
 posing to  make  no  farther  trial  of  Job,  the  angel  Gabriel  de- 
 scended from  heaven,  took  him  by  the  hand,  raised  him  from  the 
 place  where  he  was,  struck  the  ground  witli  his  foot,  and  caused 
 a  fountain  of  the  purest  water  to  spring  out  of  it,  where  Job  hav- 
 ing washed  his  body,  and  drank  a  cup  or  two  of  it,  found  himself 
 
 235 
 
 A.  M.  3548.  A.  C.  18C3.  GEN.  CH.  xxxvii.  TO  THE  END. 
 ed  his  faith  and  piety,  with  a  portion  of  earthly  felicity, 
 double  to  what  he  had  before,  and  with  the  prolongation 
 of  his  life,  beyond  the  common  extent  of  those  times. 
 
 This  is  a  brief  analysis  of  the  book  of  Job  :  and  who- 
 ever looks  into  it  with  a  little  more  attention,  will  soon 
 perceive,  that  the  author  of  it,  whoever  he  was, a  has  pot 
 in  practice  all  the  beauties  of  his  art,  to  make  the  four 
 persons,  whom  he  brings  upon  the  stage,  keep  up  each 
 his  proper  character,  and  maintain  the  opinions  which 
 they  were  engaged  to  defend  ;  will  soon  perceive,  that 
 for  its  loftiness  of  style,  and  sublimeness  of  thoughts,  for 
 its  liveliness  and  energy  of  expression,  for  the  variety  of 
 its  characters,  the  fineness  of  its  descriptions,  and  the 
 grandeur  of  its  imagery,  there  is  hardly  such  another 
 composition  to  be  found  in  all  the  records  of  antiquity, 
 which  has  raised  the  curiosity  of  all  ages  to  find  out  the 
 person  who  might  possibly  be  the  author  of  it. 
 
 Some  have  imagined,  that  as  it  has  been  no  uncom- 
 mon thing  in  all  ages,  for  persons  of  distinction  to  write 
 their  own  memoirs,  Job  himself,  or  some  of  his  friends 
 at  least,  who  bore  a  part  in  the  series  of  this  history, 
 might  set  about  the  inditing  it,  if  not  for  any  other  rea- 
 son, at  least  in  compliance  to  his  request.  4  '  Oh  that 
 my  words  were  now  written,  that  they  were  printed  in  i 
 book!'  But  though  some  family  records  may  possibly 
 be  kept  of  events  so  remarkable  as  those  that  occur  in 
 Job's  life,  b  yet  the  poetical  turn  which  is  given  to  the 
 latter  part  of  the  book  more  especially,  seems  to  savour 
 of  a  more  modern  composition  than  suits  with  the  era 
 wherein  we  suppose  Job  to  have  lived. 
 
 Others  therefore  suppose,  that  the  story  of  Job  was  at 
 first  a  plain  narrative,  written  in  the  Arabian  tongue,  but 
 that  Solomon,  or  some  other  poetical  genius  like  him, 
 gave  it  a  dramatic  cast ;  and  in  order  to  make  the  subject 
 more  moving,  introduced  a  set  of  persons  speaking 
 alternately,  and  always  in  character.  But  though  this 
 was  certainly  the  mode  of  writing  then  in  vogue,  yet  ho**1 
 there  came  so  much  of  the  Arabian  and  Syrian  dialect  tt> 
 creep  into  a  book  that  was  composed  at  a  time  when  the 
 Hebrew  tongue  was  in  its  very  height  of  perfection,  we 
 cannot  conceive  ;  nor  can  we  be  persuaded,  but  that,  in 
 
 J  Universal  Histoiy,  b.  1.  c.  7.  *  Job  xix.  23. 
 
 perfectly  cured,  and  restored  to  health  again. — Calmet's  Dic- 
 tiunary  under  the  word  Job. 
 
 b  St  Jerome,  in  his  preface  to  the  book  of  Job,  informs  us,  that 
 the  verse,  in  which  it  is  chiefly  composed,  is  heroic.  From  the 
 beginning  of  the  book,  to  the  third  chapter,  he  say-.,  it  i-  prose  j 
 but  from  Job's  words,  '  Let  the  day  perish  wherein  I  was  born, 
 &c,  (chap.  iii.  3.)  unto  these  words,  '  Wherefore  I  abhor  my- 
 self, and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes,'  (chap.  xlii.  G.)  the  v<  I 
 hexameter,  consisting  of  dactyls  and  spondees,  like  the  Greek 
 verses  of  Homer,  and  the  Latin  of  Virgil.  Marianus  Victo- 
 rius,  in  his  note  upon  this  |a-sage  of  St  Jerome,  says,  that 
 he  has  examined  the  hook  of  Job,  and  finds  St  Jerome's  observa- 
 tion to  be  true.  Only  we  must  observe,  that  the  several 
 sentences  directing  us  to  the  several  speakers,  such  as  these, 
 '  Moreover,  the  Lord  answered  Job  and  said,'  (chap.  xl.  1.) 
 'Elihu  also  proceeded  and  said,'  (chap,  xxxvi.  1.)  '  F.lilm  spake 
 moreover  and  said,'  (chap.  xxxv.  I.,  &c.)  are  in  pros,  aid  DO)  in 
 verse.  St  Jerome  makes  this  hither  remark,  that  the  verses  in 
 the  book  of  Job  do  not  always  consist  of  dactyls  and  spondeOB, 
 but  that  other  feet  ilu  frequently  00007  instead  of  them;  that  we 
 often  meet  in  them  a  word  of  four  syllables,  instead  of  a  dactyl 
 and  spondee;  end  that  the  measure  of  the  verses  frequently  dif- 
 fers in  the  number  of  the  syllables  of  the  several  bet,  bol  allowing 
 two  short  syllables  to  be  equal  to  one  long,  the  sums  of  the  mu- 
 snre  of  the  verses  are  always  the  same. — skuckford't  (Jonmitiui*, 
 vol.  >.  b.  9. 
 
23G 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  Ill  2433.  A.  C.  1571;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3683.  A.  C.  .728.  EXOD.  CH.  i.-xiii. 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 reading  the  whole,  we  taste  an  antiquity  superior  to  that 
 of  David  or   Solomon's  time.     And  yet,  this  notwith- 
 standing, l  some  have  endeavoured  to  bring  down  the 
 author  of  the  book  of  Job  to  the  times  of  the  Babylonish 
 captivity,  and  suppose  the  book  to  have  been  written  for 
 the  consolation  of  the  captives  in  distress.     But  if  we 
 suppose  it  mitten  for  the  sake  of  the  Jews,  is  it  not 
 strange,  that  in  a  discourse  of  such  a  kind,  there  should 
 not  be  one  single  word  of  the  law  of  Moses,  nor  so  much 
 as  one  distant  allusion  to  any  rite  or  ceremony  of  it,  or 
 to  any  of  the  forms  of  idolatry,  for  which  the  Jews 
 suffered  in  the  time  of  their  captivity  ?  The  Jews,  I  say, 
 certainly  suffered  for  their  iniquity  ;  but  the  example  of 
 Job  is  the  example  of  an  innocent  man,  suffering  for  no 
 demerit  of  his  own.     Now  apply  this  to  the  Jews  in  their 
 captivity,  and  the  book  contradicts   all   the   prophets 
 before,  and  at  the  time  of  their  captivity,  and  seems  to 
 be  calculated,  as  it  were,  to  harden  the  Jews  in  their 
 sufferings,  and  to  reproach  the  providence  of  God  for 
 bringing  them  upon  them.     Without  troubling  ourselves 
 therefore  to  examine,  whether  the  conjectures  of  these,  2 
 who  carry  the  date  of  this  book  even  lower  than  the 
 captivity,  and  impute  it 3  to  Ezra,  that  ready  scribe  in 
 the  law  of  Moses,  as  he  is  styled,  have  any  good  foun- 
 dation to  support  them,  we  may  sit  down  contented  with 
 what  is  the  common,  and  as  far  as  I  can  see,  as  probable 
 an  opinion  as  any,  namely,  that*  Moses,  as  soon  as  God 
 put  it  in  his  heart  to  visit  his  people,  either  while  he 
 continued  in  Egypt,  or  while  he  lived  in  exile  in  Midian, 
 either  translated  this  book  from  Arabic,  in  which  some 
 suppose  it  was  originally,  or  wrote  it  entirely  by  a  divine 
 inspiration  for  the  support  and  consolation  of  his  coun- 
 trymen the   Jews,  groaning  under  the  pressure  of  the 
 Egyptian  bondage  ;  that  by  a  proper  example,  he  might 
 represent  the  design  of  providence  in  afflicting  them, 
 and  at  the  same  time  give  them  assurance  of  a  release 
 and  restoration  in  due  time. 
 
 This  is  what  most  of  the  Jews,  and  several  Christian 
 writers  have  affirmed,  and  believed,  concerning  the  book 
 of  Job;  but  the  author  from  whom  I  have  compiled  a 
 great  part  of  this  dissertation,  has  by  several  arguments, 
 hardly  surmountable,  gone  a  great  way  to  destroy  the 
 received  opinion,  and  left  nothing  to  depend  on  but  this, 
 — That  the  writer  of  this  book  was  a  Jew,  and  assisted 
 therein  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  that  it  has  alwavs  been 
 esteemed  of  canonical  authority  ;  is  fraught  with  excel- 
 lent instructions  ;  and,  above  all,  is  singularly  adapted 
 to  administer  comfort  in  the  day  of  adversity.  Not  to 
 quit  therefore  this  subject  without  an  exhortation  to  this 
 purpose,  5  '  Ye  have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,'  says 
 the  apostle, '  and  have  seen  the  end  of  the  Lord  :"  and 
 therefore, B  when  we  find  our  spirits  begin  to  flag  under 
 the  sense  of  any  affliction,  or  bodily  pain ;  when  our 
 patience  begins  to  be  tired  with  sufferings,  which  are 
 greater  than  we  can  bear,  and  our  trust  in  God  to  be 
 shaken,  because  he  pours  down  his  judgments  upon  us; 
 let  us  enliven  our  fainting  courage,  by  setting  before  us 
 6iich  noble  patterns  as  this  ;  and  let  us  be  ashamed  to 
 
 1  Bishop  Sherlock's  Use  and  Intent  of  Prophecy,  Dissertation  2. 
 
 s  Warburton's  Divine  Legation,  vol.  3.  b.  6;  et  Seiitimens 
 de  quelques  Tlieol.  de  Hoi.  p.  183,  &c. 
 
 3  Ezra  vii.  6.  *  Spanheim's  Life  of  Job,  c.  13. 
 
 *  James  v.  1 1.       G  Bishop  Smalridge's  Sermon  of  Trust  in  God 
 
 ink  under  our  burdens,  in  their  weight  far  dispropor- 
 tionate to  those,  which  a  man  made  of  the  same  flesh  and 
 blood  as  we  are,  and  supported  by  no  other  helps  than 
 are  afforded  us,  without  murmuring  against  God,  without 
 lessening  his  confidence  in  him,  without  impeaching  his 
 justice,  and  without  desponding  of  his  goodness,  both 
 patiently  endured,  and  triumphantly  overcame. 
 
 SECT.    V. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — The  sufferings  of  the  Israelites,  and  the 
 means  of  their  Deliverance  out  of  Egypt. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 Not  long  after  the  death  of  Joseph,  there  happened  a 
 revolution  in  Egypt,  and  a  new  king,  who  had  no  know- 
 ledge of  the  great  services  which  Joseph  had  done  the 
 crown,  perceiving  the  vast  increase  of  the  Israelites, 
 began  to  fear,  that  in  case  of  an  invasion,  they  possibly 
 might  side  with  the  enemy,  and  depose  him  ;  and  therefore 
 he  called  a  council,  wherein  it  was  resolved,  not  only  to  a 
 impose  heavy  taxes  upon  the  people,  but  to  confine  them 
 likewise  to  the  hard  labour  of  bearing  burdens,  and 
 digging  clay,  making  bricks,  and  b  building  strong  cities 
 
 a  The  original  words,  scire  massim,  which  we  translate  task- 
 masters, do  properly  signify  tax-gat' erers,  and  the  burdens  are 
 afterwards  mentioned  as  distinct  things,  under  another  name ;  so 
 that  the  resolution  in  council  was,  both  to  lay  heavy  tributes 
 upon  them  to  impoverish,  and  heavy  burdens  to  weaken  them. 
 Philo,  in  his  life  of  Moses,  tells  us,  that  they  were  made  to  cany 
 burdens  above  their  strength,  and  to  work  night  and  day,  that 
 they  were  forced  at  the  same  time  to  be  workers  and  servers 
 both;  that  they  were  employed  in  brick-making,  digging,  and 
 building;  and  that  if  any  of  them  dropped  down  dead  under 
 their  burdens,  they  were  not  suffered  to  be  buried.  Josephus  in 
 his  Jewish  Antiquities,  (b.  2.  c.  9.)  tells  us  in  like  manner, 
 that  they  were  compelled  to  learn  several  laborious  trades,  to 
 build  walls  round  cities,  to  dig  trenches  and  ditches,  to  drain 
 rivers  into  channels,  and  cast  up  dykes  and  banks  to  prevent 
 inundations.  And  not  only  so,  but  that  they  were  likewise  put 
 upon  the  erection  of  fantastical  pyramids,  which  were  vast  piles 
 of  building,  raised  by  the  kings  of  Egypt  in  testimony  of  their 
 splendour  and  magnificence,  and  to  be  repositories  of  their  bodies 
 when  dead.  Thus,  by  three  several  ways,  the  Egyptians  endea- 
 voured to  bring  the  Israelites  under;  by  exacting  a  tribute  of 
 them,  to  lessen  their  wealth;  by  laying  heavy  burdens  upon 
 them,  to  weaken  their  bodies ;  and  by  preventing,  by  this  means, 
 as  they  imagined,  their  generating  and  increasing. 
 
 b  The  two  cities  here  mentioned,  namely,  Pithom  and  Raam- 
 ses,  are  said,  in  our  translation,  to  be  treasure-cities,  but.  not 
 places  where  the  king  reposited  his  riches,  but  rather  his  grain 
 or  corn ;  for  such  repositories  seem  to  have  been  much  in  use 
 among  the  Egyptians  ever  since  the  introduction  of  them  by 
 Joseph.  Considering,  however,  the  name  and  situation  of  these 
 two  cities,  that  Pithom,  according  to  Sir  John  Marsham,  was  the 
 same  with  Pelusium,  the  most  ancient  fortified  place  in  Egypt, 
 called  by  Ezekiel,  (xxx.  15,)  'the  strength  of  Egypt;'  and  by 
 Suidas,  long  after  him,  '  the  key  of  Egypt,'  as  being  the  inlet 
 from  Syria;  and  that  Raamses,  in  all  probability,  was  a  frontier 
 town  which  lay  in  the  entrance  of  Egypt  from  Arabia,  or  some 
 of  the  neighbouring  countries;  it  seems  hardly  consistent  with 
 good  policy  to  have  granaries,  or  store  cities  in  any  other  than 
 the  inland  parts  of  a  country;  and  therefore,  as  these  were 
 situated  in  the  out  parts  of  Egypt,  it  is  much  more  likely  that 
 they  were  fortified  places,  surrounded  with  walls,  and  towers,  and 
 deep  ditches,  which  would  cost  the  Hebrews  an  infinite  deal  of 
 labour  in  building,  than  that  they  were  repositories,  either  for 
 coin  or  treasure. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Wells'  Geography 
 \  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 237 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3683.  A.  C.  1728.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 for  the  king;  thereby  to  impoverish  their  spirits,  as  well  I  but  saved  male  and  female  alike  ;  and  when  the  kin" 
 
 sent  for  them,  and  reprimanded  them  for  their  disobedi- 
 
 as  wear  out  and  enfeeble  their  bodies. 
 
 This  resolution  of  council  was  soon  put  in  execution, 
 and  task -masters  accordingly  set  over  the  people,  who 
 should  keep  them  to  drudgery,  and  use  them  with  cruel- 
 ty, and  do  all  they  could,  in  short,  to  make  their  lives 
 miserable ;  but  such  was  the  goodness  of  God  to  them, 
 that  the  more  they  were  oppressed,  the  a  more  they  multi- 
 plied ;  insomuch  that  the  king,  finding  that  this  expedient 
 would  not  do,  sent  for  two  of  the  most  eminent  of  their 
 midwives,  whose  names  were  Shiphrah  andPuah,  and  gave 
 them  strict  charge,  that  whenever  they  were  called  to  do 
 their  office  to  any  Hebrew  woman,  they  should  privately 
 strangle  the  child,  °  if  it  was  a  male,  and  leave  only  the 
 *  females  alive.  But  they  abhorring  such  a  cruel  and 
 impious  practice,  had  no  regard  to  the  king's  command, 
 
 a  Commentators  observe,  that  in  this  passage  of  Scripture, 
 where  Moses  describes  the  vast  increase  of  the  Israelites,  he  em- 
 ploys a  great  variety  of  words  in  expressing  it;  and  because  the 
 words  he  makes  use  of  are  six  in  all,  some  of  the  Hebrew  exposi- 
 tors have  thence  concluded,  that  the  women  brought  forth  six 
 children  at  a  birth,  Aristotle,  indeed,  in  his  history  of  animals, 
 (b.  7.  c.  4.)  tells  us  that  the  country  of  Egypt,  where  the  Hebrew 
 women  bred  so  plentifully,  was  so  strangely  prolific,  that  some 
 of  their  women,  at  four  times,  brought  twenty  children.  But 
 without  having  recourse  to  such  prodigious  births  as  happened 
 but  seldom,  we  need  but  suppose,  that  the  Israelites,  both  men 
 and  women,  were  very  fruitful ;  that  they  began  soon,  and  con- 
 tinued long  in  begetting;  and  then  there  will  be  no  impossibility 
 for  70  males,  in  the  compass  of  215  years,  to  have  multiplied  to 
 the  number  specified,  even  at  the  rate  of  one  child  every  year. 
 For  according  to  Simler's  computation,  70  persons,  if  they  beget 
 a  child  every  year,  will,  in  30  years'  time,  have  above  2000 
 children;  of  which,  admit  that  one  third  part  only  did  come  to 
 procreate,  in  SO  years  more,  they  will  amount  to  9000.  The 
 third  of  them  will,  in  30  years  more,  be  multiplied  to  55,000; 
 and,  according  to  this  calculation,  in  210  years,  the  whole 
 amount  will  be  at  least  2,760,000.  So  that,  if  there  was  any 
 thing  miraculous  or  extraordinary  in  all  this,  it  was,  that  they 
 should  be  able  to  multiply  at  that  rate,  notwithstanding  their  hard 
 labour  and  cruel  bondage. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Uni- 
 versal History,  b.  I.e.  7. 
 
 b  Josephus  tells  us,  that  there  was  a  certain  scribe,  as  they 
 called  him,  a  man  of  great  credit  for  his  predictions,  who  told  the 
 king,  that  there  was  a  Hebrew  child  to  be  born  about  that  time, 
 who  would  be  a  scourge  to  the  Egyptians,  and  advance  the  glory 
 of  his  own  nation,  and  if  he  lived  to  grow  up,  would  be  a  man 
 eminent  for  virtue  and  courage,  and  make  his  name  famous  to 
 posterity;  and  that  by  the  counsel  and  instigation  of  this  scribe 
 it  was,  that  Pharaoh  gave  the  midwives  orders  to  put  all  the 
 Hebrew  male  children  to  death. — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  2.  c.  9. 
 c  For  this  distinction  in  his  barbarity  the  king  might  have 
 several  reasom.  As,  1.  To  have  destroyed  the  females  with  the 
 males  had  been  an  unnecessary  provocation  and  cruelty,  because 
 there  was  no  tear  of  the  '  women's  joining  to  the  king's  enemies, 
 and  fighting  against  him.'  2.  The  daughters  of  Israel  exceeded 
 very  much  their  own  women  in  beauty,  and  all  advantages  of 
 person;  and  therefore  their  project  might  be  to  ha\r  them 
 preserved  for  the  gratification  of  their  lust.  Philo  tells  us,  that 
 they  were  preserved  to  be  married  to  the  slaves  of  the  Egyptian 
 lords  and  gentry,  that  the  children  descended  from  them  might 
 be  slaves  even  by  birth.  But  suppose  they  were  married  to 
 freemen,  they  could  have  no  children  but  such  as  would  be 
 hall  Egyptians,  and  in  time  be  wholly  ingrafted  into  that 
 nation.  But,  3.  Admitting  they  married  not  at  all,  yet  as  the 
 female  sex,  among  the  Hebrews,  made  a  very  considerable  figure 
 in  Egypt  for  their  sense  and  knowledge,  the  care  of  their  families, 
 and  application  to  business,  and  for  their  skill  and  dexterity  in 
 many  accomplishments  that  were  much  to  be  valued  for  the  use 
 a<id  ornament  of  life,  such  as  the  distatl'and  the  loom,  dyeing, 
 painting,  embroidering,  &c,  such  women  as  these  would  make 
 excellent  servants  and  domestics  for  the  Egyptian  ladies,  who 
 had  no  relish  of  spending  their  time  any  other  way  than  in  idle- 
 ness and  Dleasure. — Biblioihcca  Jiiblica  in  locum. 
 
 ence,  they  had  this  answer  in  readiness : — <*  That  the 
 Hebrew  women  being  of  a  much  stronger  constitution 
 than  the  Egyptian,  were  generally  delivered  before  they 
 came. 
 
 This  was  a  piece  of  service  not  unacceptable  to 
 God,  but  to  Pharaoh  it  seemed  no  more  than  a  mere 
 evasion  ;  and  therefore  resolving  upon  a  more  effectual 
 method  to  extirpate  the  Hebrews,  he  published  an  edict 
 wherein  he  commanded  all  their  male  children  to  be 
 thrown  into  the  river  ;  and  that  they  might  be  more  sub- 
 ject to  the  inspection  of  his  searchers,  <-'  he  built  them 
 houses,  and  obliged  them  to  live  in  settled  habitations. 
 
 Some  years  before  this  edict,  Amram,  who  was  of  the 
 
 d  It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  midwives,  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, told  a  lie ;  but  there  is  no  reason  for  such  a  supposition, 
 though  possibly  they  might  conceal  some  part  of  the  truth,  which 
 is  not  unlawful,  but  highly  commendable,  when  it  is  to  preserve 
 the  innocent;  for  many  of  the  Hebrew  women  might  be  such  as 
 are  here  described,  though  not  every  one  of  them.  The  answer  of 
 the  midwives  therefore  is  so  far  from  being  a  sneaking  lie  to  save 
 their  lives,  that  it  is  a  bold  confession  of  their  faith  and  piety,  t» 
 the  hazard  of  them,  namely,  that  they  saw  so  plain  an  evidence 
 of  the  wonderful  hand  of  God,  in  that  extraordinary  vigour  in  the 
 travail  of  the  women,  that  do  what  Pharaoh  would,  they  durst 
 not,  would  not,  strive  against  it,  because  they  would  '  not  strive 
 against  God.' — Lightfoot's  Sermon  on  2  Sam.  xix.  29. 
 
 e  The  '  making  the  midwives  houses,'  is,  by  most  interpreters, 
 ascribed  to  God,  and  the  thing  is  supposed  to  have  been  done  in 
 a  metaphorical  sense,  that  is,  God  gave  them  a  numerous  oH- 
 spring  or  family,  and  a  very  lasting  succession  or  posterity.  For 
 there  are  five  things,  say  they,  which  go  to  complete  the  great- 
 ness or  eminence  of  a  family,  as  such;  its  largeness,  its  wealth, 
 its  honours,  its  power,  and  its  duration.  And  therefore,  since 
 the  midwives  hazarded  their  own  lives  to  save  those  of  the  He- 
 brew children,  and  to  preserve  the  Israelites  a  numerous  pri 
 and  posterity,  the  God  of  Israel,  in  return,  not  only  made  their 
 own  lives  long  and  prosperous,  but  gave  them  very  numerous 
 families,  and  an  enduring  posterity,  in  whom  they  might  be  said 
 to  live  after  death,  even  from  generation  to  generation.  But  all 
 this  is  a  very  forced  construction,  and  what  the  original  words 
 will  by  no  means  bear.  We  should  therefore  rather  think,  these 
 houses  were  built,  not  for  the  midwives  but  for  the  Israelite-, 
 and  that  it  was  not  God,  but  Pharaoh,  who  built  them.  The 
 case  seems  to  be  this: — Pharaoh  had  charged  the  midwives  to 
 kill  the  male  children  that  were  born  of  the  Hebrew  women; 
 the  midwives  feared  God,  and  omitted  to  do  what  the  king  had 
 commanded  them,  pretending  in  excuse  for  their  omission,  that 
 the  Hebrew  women  were  generally  delivered  before  they  could 
 get  to  them.  Pharaoh  hereupon  resolving  to  prevent  their  in- 
 crease, gave  charge  to  his  people  to  have  all  the  male  children  oi 
 the  Hebrews  thrown  into  the  river;  but  his  command  could  Dot 
 be  strictly  executed,  whilst  the  Israelites  lived  up  and  down  the 
 fields  in  tents,  which  was  their  ancient  and  customary  way  of 
 living;  fur  they  would  shift  here  and  there,  and  ledge  the  women 
 in  childbed  out  of  the  way,  to  save  their  children.  Pliaraoh 
 therefore  built  them  houses,  and  obliged  them  to  a  inure  settled 
 habitation,  that  the  people  whom  he  bad  Bet  over  them  might 
 know  where  to  find  evvry  family,  and  to  take  an  account  of  all 
 the  children  that  should  be  born.  So  that  this  was  a  very  cunning 
 contrivance  of  Pliaraoh,  in  order  to  have  hi-  charge  more  strictly 
 and  effectually  executed  than  it  could  otherwise  have  been  done; 
 and  was  a  particular  too  remarkable  not  to  be  Inserted  in  Most  i' 
 account  of  this  affair.  The  only  seeming  difficulty  is  to  recon- 
 cile the  words  in  the  text  to  what  has  been  here  advanced;  but 
 
 this  will  be  none  at  all,  if  the  words  be  rightly  translsti 
 the  verses  rightly  distinguished  in  this  manner:  —  Exod.  i.  20. 
 'And  God  dwelt  with  the  niiduives,  and  the  people  multiplied, 
 and  waxed  very  mighty,  and  tlu's  happened '  (or  was  to,  or  came 
 to  pass,)  'because  the  midwives  feared  God.'  Ver.  81,  22. 
 '  And  Pharaoh  built  them '  (that  is,  the  Israelites.'  'houses,  and 
 charged  all  his  people,  saying,  Every  son  that  is  bom,  ye  thai] 
 cast  into  the  ri\er,  and  every  daughter  ye  shall  save  alive . — 
 Shuck  for £*  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  7. 
 
238 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  C.  1571  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3683.  A.  C.  1728.  EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 house  of  Levi,  had  married  a  woman  named  a  Jochebed, 
 of  the  same  tribe,  and  by  her  had  a  daughter,  whose 
 name  was  Miriam,  and  four  years  after  that,  a  son  whom 
 they  called  Aaron  ;  and  in  the  time  of  this  cruel  perse- 
 cution, his  wife  was  again  delivered  of  a  line  lovely  boy, 
 whom  she  was  very  desirous  to  preserve.  For  three 
 months  therefore  she  *  kept  him  concealed  ;  but  fearing 
 at  length  a  discovery,  she  resolved  to  commit  him  to  the 
 providence  of  God:  and  accordingly  having  made  a 
 little  basket  or  boat  of  rushes,  she  plastered  it  within 
 and  without  with  bitumen  or  pitch,  to  make  it  keep  out 
 the  water.  Into  this  she  put  the  poor  infant ;  and  leav- 
 ing it  among  the  flags,  by  the  bank  of  the  river,  she 
 placed  his  sister  at  a  proper  distance  to  observe  the 
 
 event. 
 
 As  Providence  ordered  it,  Pharaoh's  daughter  at- 
 tended with  her  maids  of  honour,  in  a  short  time  after, 
 came  to  the  river  to  bathe  herself;  and  spying  the  basket 
 at  some  distance,  she  ordered  one  of  the  company  to 
 go  and  fetch  it  out ;  which  when  she  had  uncovered,  the 
 surprising  beauty  of  the  infant,  weeping  and  making  its 
 little  moan,  so  moved  her  heart  with  compassion,  that 
 she  immediately  declared  her  intention  to  have  it 
 brought  up,  notwithstanding  she  perceived  it  was  cer- 
 tainly one  of  those  children  whom  her  father,  in  his  edict, 
 had  ordered  to  be  drowned. 
 
 By  this  time  Miriam,  the  child's  sister,  had  conveyed 
 herself  into  the  company ;    and  c  hearing  the  princess 
 
 a  Jochebed  was  not  only  of  the  same  tribe,  but  own  aunt  like- 
 wise to  Amram.  For  the  Septuagint,  Vulgate,  and,  after  them, 
 many  learned  expositors,  both  pnpists  and  protestants,  have 
 thought  that  she  was  no  more  than  his  uncle  Kohath's  daughter, 
 and  consequently  his  cousin-german,  because  the  marriage  of  an 
 aunt  was  afterwards  forbidden  in  the  Levitical  law ;  yet  the  plain 
 matter  of  fact  is  repugnant  to  all  this.  In  Exod.  vi.  18.  it  is 
 said  expressly,  that  Kohath,  the  father  of  Amram,  was  the  son 
 of  Levi.  In  Num.  xxxvi.  59,  it  is  said,  that  Jochebed  was 
 Levi's  daughter,  and  born  in  Egypt ;  and  here  again,  in  Exod. 
 vi.  20,  it  is  said,  that  Amram  '  took  him  Jochebed,  his  father's 
 sister,  to  wife:  and  therefore,  without  subverting  the  natural 
 sense  of  these  texts,  we  cannot  but  conclude,  that  the  nephew 
 married  his  aunt.  For  the  prohibitions  made  upon  the  degrees 
 of  consanguinity,  do  not  flow  from  the  law  of  nature,  but  only 
 oblige  by  virtue  of  the  command  of  God  ;  and  therefore,  before 
 the  command  took  place,  relations  of  a  nearer  affinity  were 
 allowed  to  be  joined  together.  Nor  can  the  supposed  difference 
 of  their  age  be  any  argument  to  the  contrary,  since  Levi  might 
 have  her  when  he  was  an  hundred  years  old,  and  she,  conse- 
 quently, be  very  little,  if  any  at  all,  older  than  her  nephew. — 
 Sawin's  Dissertation,  43. 
 
 b  Josephus  tells  us  this  stoiy: — That  Amram  finding  his  wife 
 with  child,  and  being  solicitous  about  the  king's  edict,  prayed 
 earnestly  to  God  to  put  an  end  to  that  dreadful  persecution;  and 
 that  Cod  appeared  to  lum,  and  told  him,  that  he  would  in  due 
 time  free  bJS  people  from  it;  and  that  the  son  who  shortly  would 
 be  bom  unto  him,  should  prove  the  happy  instrument  of  their 
 glorious  deliverance,  and  eternize  his  own  name  thereby  : — That 
 this  made  him  conceal  him  as  long  as  he  could;  but  fearing  a 
 discovery,  he  resolved  to  trust  him  to  the  care  of  providence, 
 arguing  in  tins  manner, — That  if  the  child  could  be  concealed, 
 BS  it  was  very  difficult  to  do  it,  and  hazardous  to  attempt  it,  they 
 must  be  in  danger  every  moment;  hut  as  to  the  power  and 
 veracity  of  God,  lie  did  not  doubt  of  it,  but  was  assured,  that 
 whatever  he  had  promised  he  would  certainly  make  good ;  and 
 with  this  trust  and  persuasion,  he  was  resolved  to  expose  him. — 
 Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  2.  c.  9. 
 
 c  The  princess  is  called  by  Josephus  Thermuthis;  by  Arta- 
 phanes,  as  he  is  cited  by  Eusebius,  (Prarp.  b.  9  c.  4.)  Mercis; 
 and  in  the  Alexandrian  Chronicle,  Myrrinu.  But  Josephus  adds 
 farther,  that  Thermuthis  having  sent  for  several  wet  nurses,  one 
 
 inquire  for  a  nurse,  offered  her  service  to  go  and  fetch 
 one  out  of  the  neighbourhood  ;  which  when  she  was  or- 
 dered to  do,  she  hastened  to  her  mother,  who  came  with 
 all  speed,  and  took  the  child  from  the  princess,  who  pro- 
 mised to  see  her  well  paid  for  her  care  in  nursing  it. 
 
 When  the  child  was  of  an  age  fit  to  be  weaned,  his 
 mother  carried  him  to  court,  to  show  him  to  the  princess  ; 
 who  d  soon  grew  so  fond  of  him,  that  she  adopted  him 
 for  her  own,  and  in  remembrance  of  his  being  taken  out 
 of  the  river,  gave  him  the  e  Egyptian  name  of  Moses. 
 But  his  father  and  mother,  /  who  brought  him  up  in  his 
 
 after  another,  the  child  turned  its  head  scornfully  from  their 
 breasts,  and  would  not  suck:  whereupon  Miriam  told  the  princess, 
 that  if  the  nurse  and  child  were  of  different  i nations,  her  milk 
 would  never  agree  with  it,  but  that  if  an  Hebrew  woman  was 
 fetched,  he  would  probably  take  the  breast  from  her ;  and  that, 
 upon  this,  she  was  bid  to  go  for  one,  and  immediately  brought 
 her  own  and  the  child's  mother,  whom  he  fell  a  sucking  \ery 
 greedily,  to  the  admiration  of  all  the  by-standers. — B.  2.  c.  9. 
 
 d  And  well  might  the  princess  be  fond  of  the  child,  who, 
 according  to  Josephus,  had  charms  enough  to  engage  any  one's 
 affections.  "For,  as  he  grew  up,  he  showed  a  pregnancy  of  un- 
 derstanding much  above  those  of  his  years,  and  did  every  thing 
 with  such  a  grace,  as  gave  the  world  to  understand  what  they 
 might  in  time  expect  from  him.  After  three  years  of  age,  he 
 was  such  a  miracle  of  a  child  for  beauty  and  comeliness  of  stature, 
 that  people  would  stop  and  stand  gazing  on  him  with  delight  and 
 admiration  wherever  they  saw  him,  and  his  carriage  and  behavi- 
 our was  so  very  obliging,  that  he  won  upon  the  most  morose  and 
 unsociable  sort  of  men.  Thermuthis  herself,"  continues  our 
 author,  "  being  as  much  delighted  as  any,  wanting  issue  of  her 
 own,  and  having  resolved  to  adopt  him  for  her  son,  brought  him 
 one  day  to  her  father,  and  in  merriment  told  lum,  that  she  came 
 to  present  him  with  a  successor,  in  case  he  wanted  one.  The 
 king  received  him  with  an  affectionate  tenderness,  and  to  gratify 
 his  daughter,  took  oft'  his  crown  and  placed  it  upon  the  child's 
 head  ;  but  so  far  was  he  from  being  pleased  with  it,  that  he  threw 
 it  upon  the  ground,  and  trampled  upon  it  with  his  feet.  This 
 action  was  looked  upon  as  an  ill  omen  to  the  king  and  his  gov- 
 ernment, insomuch  that  the  scribe  we  mentioned  before,  being 
 then  in  the  company,  cried  out  to  have  the  child  killed :  '  For 
 this  is  the  child,'  says  he  to  the  king,  '  which  I  foretold  your 
 majesty  would  be  the  destruction  of  Egypt,  and  he  hath  now 
 confirmed  the  prophecy,  by  the  affront  he  hath  put  upon  your 
 government,  in  treading  the  crown  under  his  feet.  In  short  this 
 is  he  by  whose  death  alone  you  may  promise  yourself  to  be  secure. 
 For  take  him  but  out  of  the  way,  the  Hebrews  shall  have  nothing 
 more  to  hope  for,  and  the  Egyptians  nothing  more  to  fear.'  This 
 speech  gave  some  uneasiness  to  Thermuthis;  and  therefore  she 
 immediately  took  the  child  away,  without  any  opposition  from  the 
 king,  whose  heart  God  had  disposed  not  to  take  any  notice  of 
 what  the  scribe  had  said." — B.  2.  ibid. 
 
 e  Both  Philo,  Josephus,  and  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  will  have 
 the  word  Moses  to  be  derived  from  the  Egyptian  mo,  which,  ac- 
 cording to  them,  signifies  water,  and  ises  or  yses,  which  means 
 preserved,  as  much  as  to  say,  saved  from,  the  waters,  or  pre- 
 served from  drowning.  It  is  very  likely  indeed  that  the 
 princess  should  give  the  child  a  name  from  no  other  language 
 than  her  own;  but  then  it  is  to  be  considered,  that  the  Hebrew 
 word  moshah,  from  whence  the  name  naturally  flows,  and  to 
 which  the  princess  herself  owns  she  alludes,  might  have  the  same 
 signification  in  her  tongue  as  it  has  in  the  Hebrew,  where  it  al- 
 ways signifies  a  drawing  out  of  the  water,  (2  Sam.  xxii.  17; 
 Ps.  xviii.  16;  and  Isa.  xliii.  2.)  It  cannot  be  doubted  but  that 
 Moses  had  another  name  given  him  by  his  own  parents  at  the 
 time  of  his  circumcision  ;  but  what  that  name  was,  we  have  no 
 certainty,  nor  can  we  tell  from  what  authority  it  is  that  Clemens 
 informs  us  that  it  was  Joachim. — Patrick's  Commentary . 
 
 f  Besides  the  education  which  his  own  parents  gave  him, 
 Philo  acquaints  us,  that  from  his  Egyptian  masters,  he  was  taught 
 arithmetic,  geometiy,  physic,  music,  and  hieroglyphics,  otherwise 
 called  enigmatical  philosophy ;  that  from  the  Chaldeans  he  learned 
 astronomy;  from  the  Assyrians  their  character  or  manner  of 
 writing;  and  from  the  Grecians  all  their  liberal  arts  and  sciences. 
 But  that  was  not  a  time  for  the  Egyptians,  who  excelled  the  res? 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 239 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H 
 
 infancy,  had  taken  care  to  instruct  Iiim  in  such  tilings  as 
 related  to  the  religion  and  history  of  his  ancestors ;  and 
 therefore  when  he  arrived  to  maturity,  he  left  the  court, 
 and  coming  to  live  among  his  brethren,  was  himself  an 
 eye-witness  at  what  a  merciless  rate  the  Egyptian  task- 
 masters treated  them. 
 
 This  raised  his  resentment  and  indignation  to  such  a 
 degree,  that  seeing  one  day  an  Egyptian  abuse  a  Hebrew 
 in  a  very  gross  manner,  he  stepped  in  to  his  assistance, 
 and  perceiving  nobody  near,  slew  the  Egyptian,  and 
 buried  his  body  in  the  sand. 
 
 The  next  day,  as  he  walked  out  again,  he  found  two 
 Hebrews  in  contest  with  one  another;  whereupon  he 
 admonished  them  to  consider  that  they  were  brethren, 
 and  would  have  decided  the  quarrel  between  them  :  but 
 he  who  was  the  aggressor,  rejected  his  arbitration  with 
 contempt,  and  upbraided  him  with  the  murder  of  the  Egyp- 
 tian the  day  before.  This  gave  Moses  some  uneasy 
 apprehensions,  that  as  the  thing  was  now  blown,  it  might 
 not  be  long  before  it  reached  Pharaoh's  ear,  and  endan- 
 ger his  life  ;  so  that  he  thought  it  the  a  best  way  to  leave 
 
 of  the  world  in  all  sorts  of  learning,  to  send  for  masters  from 
 Greece,  which  rather  stood  in  need  of  Egyptian  teachers;  for  to 
 1  be  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,'  as  St  Stephen 
 asserts  of  Moses,  (Acts  vii.  22,)  was  to  have  the  best  and  most 
 liberal  education  that  the  whole  world  could  at  that  time  afford. 
 
 a  Josephus,  who  has  given  us  several  particulars  of  Moses' 
 life,  which  in  modesty  perhaps  he  might  not  think  proper  to  re- 
 cord of  himself,  has  assigned  a  farther  reason  for  his  leaving 
 Egypt,  of  which  it  may  not  be  improper,  in  this  place,  to  give 
 the  reader  this  short  abstract.  "  When  Moses  was  grown  to 
 man's  estate,  he  had  an  opportunity  offered  him  of  showing  his 
 courage  and  conduct.  The  Ethiopians,  who  inhabited  the  upper 
 land  on  the  soutli  side  of  Egypt,  had  made  many  dreadful  incur- 
 sions, plundered  and  ravaged  all  the  neighbouring  parts  of  the 
 country,  beat  the  Egyptian  army  in  a  set  battle,  and  were  become 
 so  elated  with  their  success,  that  they  began  to  march  towards 
 the  capital  of  Egypt.  In  this  distress,  the  Egyptians  had  re- 
 course to  the  oracle,  which  answered,  that  they  should  make 
 choice  of  an  Hebrew  for  their  general.  As  none  was  more  pro- 
 mising than  Moses,  the  king  desired  his  daughter  to  consent  that 
 he  should  go,  and  head  his  army;  but  she,  after  having  first 
 expostulated  with  her  father,  how  mean  a  thing  it  was  for  the 
 Egyptians  to  implore  the  assistance  of  a  man  whose  death  they  had 
 been  complotting,  would  not  agree  to  it,  until  she  had  obtained  a 
 solemn  promise  upon  oath,  that  no  practices  or  attempts  should  be 
 made  upon  his  life.  When  Moses,  by  the  princess's  persuasion, 
 had  at  last  accepted  the  commission,  he  made  it  his  first  care  to 
 come  up  with  tlie  enemy  before  they  were  aware  of  him;  and  to 
 this  purpose,  instead  of  marching  up  the  Nile  as  the  custom  was 
 before,  he  chose  to  cross  the  country,  though  the  passage  was  very 
 dangerous,  by  reason  of  the  poisonous  flying  serpents  which  in- 
 fested those  parts:  but  for  this  he  had  a  new  expedient.  The 
 bird  ibis,  though  very  friendly  to  every  other  creature,  is  a  mortal 
 enemy  to  all  serpents  ;  and  therefore  having  got  a  sufficient  num- 
 ber of  these,  he  carried  them  along  with  him  in  cages,  and  as  soon 
 as  they  came  into  any  dangerous  places,  he  let  them  loose  upon 
 the  serpents,  and  by  their  means  and  protection,  proceeded  with- 
 out any  harm  or  molestation.  He  entered  the  enemy's  country, 
 took  several  of  their  cities,  and  obliged  them  at  last  to  retreat 
 into  Saba,  the  metropolis  of  Ethiopia.  Moses  sat  down  before  it ; 
 but  as  it  was  situate  in  an  island,  with  strong  fortifications  about 
 it,  in  all  probability  it  would  have  cost  him  a  longer  time  to  carry 
 it,  had  notTharbis,  the  king  of  Ethiopia's  daughter,  who  had  the 
 fortune  once  to  see  him  from  the  walls  behaving  himself  with  the 
 utmost  gallantry,  fallen  in  love  with  him.  Whereupon  she  sent 
 privately  to  let  him  know,  that  the  city  should  be  surrendered  to 
 him  upon  condition  that  he  would  marry  her  immediately  after. 
 Moses  agreed  to  the  proposal ;  and  having  taken  possession  of 
 the  place,  and  of  the  princess,  returned  with  his  victorious  army 
 to  Egypt.  Here,  instead  of  reaping  the  fruits  of  his  great  achieve- 
 ment, the  Egyptians  accused  him  of  murder  to  the  king,  who 
 having  already  taken   some   umbrage  at  his  valour  and   great 
 
 ALES,  A.  M.  3683.  A.  C.  1728.  EXOD.  CI1.  i    xiii. 
 
 Egypt,  and  to  secure  himself  by  flying  into  the  country 
 of  Midian  beyond  the  Red  Sea. 
 
 In  the  plains  of  Midian,  there  is  a  well,  common  to 
 all  the  natives  of  the  place  :  here  it  was  that  Moses  had 
 stopped  to  refresh  himself,  when  seven  of  the  daughter! 
 of  Jethro,  *  the  chief  man  of  the  country,  came  to  draw 
 water  for  their  flocks;  but  when  they  had  filled  their 
 troughs,  a  parcel  of  rude  shepherds,  being  minded  to 
 serve  their  own  turn  first,  seized  on  their  water,  and 
 frightened  the  damsels  away  ;  which  Moses  perceiving 
 went  to  their  assistance,  and  forcing  the  shepherds  to 
 retire,  drew  the  young  virgins  more  water,  and  gave  it 
 to  their  flocks. 
 
 Hereupon  taking  their  leaves,  they  made  haste  home  ; 
 and  while  their  father  was  wondering  at  their  speedy 
 return,  they  informed  him  how  civil  a  certain  stranger 
 had  been,  both  in  watering  their  flocks,  and  protecting 
 them  from  the  insults  of  the  rustics ;  which  made  Jethro 
 send  and  invite  him  to  his  house,  and  treat  him  in  a 
 maimer  suitable  to  the  civility  he  had  shown  to  his 
 daughters ;  insomuch  that  Moses,  after  he  had  tarried 
 there  some  time,  was  so  pleased  with  his  courteous 
 reception,  that  he  expressed  a  willingness  to  take  up  his 
 abode  with  him,  c  and  become  his  shepherd.     This  pro- 
 
 reputation,  was  resolved  to  rid  himself  of  him  ;  but  Moses  having 
 some  suspicion  of  it  made  his  escape,  and  not  daring  to  go  by 
 the  common  roads,  for  fear  of  being  stopped  by  the  king's  guards, 
 was  forced  to  pass  through  a  great  desert  to  reach  the  land  of 
 Midian." 
 
 b  The  word  cohen  signifies  indifferently  either  priest  or  prince; 
 and  accordingly,  in  these  early  ages,  both  these  offices  were 
 frequently  united  in  one  and  the  same  person.  It  seems,  how- 
 ever, that  Jethro  was  scarce  a  prince  in  that  country;  far  then 
 one  would  think  that  the  shepherds  would  not  have  dared  to  have 
 been  so  insolent  to  his  daughters;  and  yet  if  he  was  a  priest,  it 
 is  made  a  matter  of  some  contest  between  two  farm  us  rabbins, 
 whether  he  was  an  idolater,  or  a  worshipper  of  the  tnie  God. 
 Abcn  Ezra  is  of  opinion,  that  as  he  was  descended  from  Midian, 
 the  son  of  Abraham,  by  Ketuiah,  in  all  probability  he  professed 
 the  true  religion ;  nor  can  he  suppose  that  Moses  would  have 
 married  his  daughter,  had  he  been  bred  up  in  a  faNe  one: 
 whereas  Moses,  it  is  plain,  not  only  owns  his  alliance  with  bis 
 family,  but,  upon  his  arrival  in  the  camp  of  Israel,  invites  him  to 
 offer  sacrifices  to  the  Lord,  (Exod.  xviii.  11,  12.)  as  one  who 
 adored  the  same  God  with  the  Israelites.  Kinuhi,  however,  "ii 
 the  other  hand,  affirms,  that  at  first  he  was  an  idolatrous  priest, 
 but  afterwards,  when  became  to  Moses  in  the  wilderness,  and 
 was  particularly  informed  of  all  those  great  and  wonderful  things 
 which  God  had  wrought  in  Egypt  for  the  deliverance  of  Uv 
 Hebrews,  he  became  a  convert  to  the  worship  of  the  true  (Jul; 
 and  for  this  he  produces  a  passage  in  the  same  chapter,  TOT.  1 1, 
 '  Now  I  know  that  the  Lord  is  greater  than  all  gods;  far  in  the 
 thing  wherein  they  dealt  proudly  he  was  above  them.'  Hut  besides 
 this,  there  is  a  farther  difficulty  in  relation  to  this  Jethro.  In 
 Exod.  iii.  1.  he  is  expressly  called  '  the  father-in-law  of  M 
 and  yet  the  father  of  the  young  women,  whom  Moses  defended 
 at  the  well,  and  whereof  be  certainly  married  one,  is  said  to  be 
 Reuel,  (ii.  18,)  and  not  Jethro:  either  therefore  this  Reuel 
 must  be  their  grandfather,  who,  being  head  of  the  family,  might, 
 in  a  larger  sense,  be  called  father,  as  we  find  instances  of  the  like 
 nature  in  Gen.  xxxi.  43;  2  Kings  riv.  14,  &<'.:  or,  as  others  »ill 
 have  it,  this  Reuel,  or  Jethro,  was  one  and  the  same  person, 
 under  different  denominations.  Upon  supposition,  therefor 
 he  was  descended  from  the  family  of  Cush,  it  i-  imagined,  that 
 while  he  continued  in  [dumtea,  his  name  might  be  Reuel,  but 
 Upon  bis  removal  into  Midian,  to  avoid  tin-  wall  and  tumults  in 
 his  own  country,  he  came  to  be  called  Jethro,  as  being  the  only 
 remainder  (for  so  the  word  signifies)  of  the  Cushites  in  that 
 country. — BXbHafkica  BUlica,  and  Bedford's  Scriphm  Ckroa* 
 olotjy,  b.  3.  c.  I. 
 
 e  It  can  hardly  he  supposed,  but  that  a  person  of  Mom  -'  educa- 
 tion would,  in  the  space  of  forty  year-,  which  he  abode  in  Midian 
 
210 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  3683.  A.  C.  1728.  EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 posal  Jethro  very  readily  embraced  ;  and  to  attach  him 
 the  more  to  his  interest,  gave  him  his  a  daughter  Zip- 
 porah  in  marriage,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons,  whereof 
 the  elder  he  named  Gershom,  which  signifies  a  stranger, 
 alluding  to  his  own  condition  in  that  country  ;  and  the 
 younger  Eliezer,  importing,  God  my  help,  in  grateful 
 acknowledgment  of  God's  having  delivered  him  from  the 
 hands  of  Pharaoh,  who  sought  his  life. 
 
 While  Moses  lived  in  the  family  of  Jethro,  the  king, 
 who  was  upon  the  Egyptian  throne  when  he  left  the 
 country,  died ;  but  his  successor,  who  was  no  less  a 
 tyrant,  and  oppressor  of  the  Israelites,  laid  such  heavy 
 burdens  upon  them,  as  made  their  lives  extremely 
 miserable,  till  at  length  their  complaints  reached  heaven  ; 
 and  as  the  time  of  their  deliverance  grew  near,  God 
 remembering  the  covenant  which  he  hgd  made  with  their 
 forefathers,  began  to  look  upon  them  with  an  eye  of  pity 
 and  compassion. 
 
 Moses  was  to  be  his  instrument  in  bringing  about  their 
 deliverance  :  and  therefore,  while  he  was  feeding  his 
 father-in-law's  flock,  and  as  they  wandered  in  their 
 feeding,  followed  them  as  far  into  the  desert  as  *  Mount 
 
 find  some  other  employment  for  himself  than  keeping  sheep ;  and 
 therefore  some  have  imagined,  that  in  this  time  he  wrote  the  book 
 of  Job,  as  we  mentioned  before,  to  comfort  the  Israelites,  by  the 
 example  of  his  admirable  patience,  under  their  heavy  oppression 
 in  Egypt,  and  the  book  of  Genesis  likewise,  that  they  might  the 
 better  understand  what  promises  had  been  made  to  their  ancestors, 
 Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  that  the  time  for  their  accom- 
 plishment was  approaching.  Nor  can  we  suppose,  but  that  the 
 several  arts  and  sciences,  which  he  had  been  taught  in  his  youth, 
 lie  took  care,  in  this  place  of  happy  retirement,  to  cultivate  and 
 improve. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  It  may  be  made  a  standing  observation,  that  divine  authors 
 do  not  relate  all  the  passages  of  a  story,  as  other  authors  delight 
 to  do,  but  such  only  as  are  most  material.  We  may  therefore 
 suppose,  that  a  great  many  things  intervened  between  Moses' 
 entrance  into  Jethro's  family,  and  his  marriage  to  his  daughter ; 
 especially  considering  that  his  children  were  so  young  at  the 
 time  of  his  return  into  Egypt.  The  observation  of  Philo,  how- 
 ever, is  not  altogether  to  be  neglected,  namely,  "  That  men  of  a 
 great  genius  quickly  show  themselves,  and  are  not  made  known 
 by  length  of  time;"  and  therefore  he  thinks,  "  That  Jethro, 
 being  first  struck  with  admiration  of  his  goodly  aspect,  and  then 
 of  his  wise  discourse,  immediately  gave  him  the  most  beautiful 
 of  all  his  daughters  to  be  his  wife,  not  staying  to  inquire  of  any 
 body  who  he  was,  because  his  own  most  excellent  qualities 
 sufficiently  recommended  him  to  his  affection." — Be  Vita  Mosis, 
 b.  1. 
 
 b  Horeb  is  a  mountain  in  Arabia  Petraa,  at  so  small  a  distance 
 from  Mount  Sinai,  that  they  seem  to  lie  no  more  than  two  tops 
 belonging  to  the  same  mountain.  Sinai  lies  to  the  east,  and 
 Horeb  to  the  west;  but  we  find  them  frequently  in  Scripture 
 used  promiscuously.  For,  whereas  the  author  of  the  Hebrews 
 several  times  asserts,  that  God  gave  his  law  to  the  Israelites  at 
 Horeb,  though  other  places  expressly  say,  that  it  was  at  Sinai, 
 tiii-  iv  easily  agreed,  by  observing,  that  they  both  made  but  as  it 
 were  one  mountain  with  two  tops,  whereof  that  of  Sinai  is  much 
 the  higher,  though  that  of  Horeb  exceeds  it  in  fruitfulness  and 
 pleasure.  It  is  not  for  that  reason,  however,  no  nor  yet  for  its 
 vast  height,  that  it  obtained  the  title  of  the  mount  of  God. 
 Josephus  indeed  tells  us,  (b.  2.  c.  12.)  that  the  people  of  the 
 country  had  a  tradition,  that  God,  in  a  more  particular  manner, 
 dwelt  there ;  and  that  therefore,  in  reverence  to  the  place,  they 
 always  declined  feeding  their  flocks  upon  it:  but  the  true  reason 
 of  its  being  so  called  is,  that,  in  after  ages,  it  became  famous  for 
 sundry  events,  and  at  this  time  received  its  name  by  way  of 
 anticipation.  For  here  it  was,  1.  That  God  appeared  to  Moses 
 in  the  bush ;  2.  That  he  manifested  his  glory  at  the  delivery  of 
 the  law;  3.  That  Moses,  with  his  rod,  brought  water  out  of  the 
 ruck ;  4.  That  by  lifting  up  his  hands,  he  made  Joshua  prevail 
 asainst  the  Amalekites;  5.  That  here  he  fasted  twice  forty  days 
 
 Horeb  he  saw  a  bush  on  fire,  and.  as  he  thought,  flaming 
 for  a  considerable  while,  but,  what  occasioned  his 
 astonishment,  not  in  the  least  damaged  or  consumed. 
 c  This  raised  his  curiosity  to  go  a  little  nearer,  and  see 
 if  he  could  discover  the  cause  of  it ;  but  as  he  was 
 approaching,  d  he  heard  a  voice  out  of  the  bush,  calling 
 unto  him,  and  ordering  him  to    e   pull    oft'  his    shoes, 
 
 and  forty  nights;  6.  That  from  hence  he  brought  the  two  tables 
 of  the  law;  and,  7.  That  here  Elijah  was  vouchsafed  a  noble 
 vision;  with  some  others  of  the  like  nature. — Calmefs  Diction- 
 ary, Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7,  and  f fells'  Geography  of  the 
 Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
 c  Exod.  iii.  2.  '  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  him 
 in  a  flame  of  fire.'  The  traditionary  notion  of  a  miraculous  light 
 or  fire  being  the  token  of  a  divine  presence,  prevailed  among  the 
 Greeks  in  the  time  of  Homer;  for  after  relating  that  the  goddess 
 Minerva  attended  on  Ulysses  with  her  golden  lamp,  or  rather 
 torch,  and  afforded  him  a  refulgent  light,  he  makes  Telemachus 
 cry  out  to  his  father  in  rapture, 
 
 What  miracle  thus  dazzles  with  surprise  ? 
 
 Distinct  in  rows  the  radiant  columns  rise. 
 
 The  walls,  where'er  my  wondering  sight  I  turn, 
 
 And  roofs,  amidst  a  blaze  of  glory  burn  : 
 
 Some  visitant  of  pure  ethereal  race 
 
 With  his  bright  presence  deigns  the  dome  to  grace. — Ed. 
 
 d  In  the  text  it  is  said,  that  '  the  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared 
 unto  him  in  a  flame  of  fire,  out  of  the  midst  of  the  bush,'  Exod. 
 iii.  2.  But  whether  it  was  a  created  angel,  speaking  in  the  person 
 of  God,  or  God  himself,  or,  as  the  most  received  opinion  is, 
 Christ  the  Son  of  God,  has  been  matter  of  some  controversy 
 among  the  learned.  Those  who  suppose  it  no  more  than  an 
 angel,  seem  to  imply,  that  it  would  be  a  diminution  of  the  majesty 
 of  God  to  appear  upon  every  occasion,  especially  when  he  has 
 such  a  number  of  celestial  ministers,  who  may  do  the  business  as 
 well.  But  considering  that  God  is  present  everywhere,  the 
 notification  of  his  presence,  by  some  outward  sign,  in  one  deter- 
 minate place,  which  is  all  we  mean  by  his  appearance,  is,  in  our 
 conception,  less  laborious  (if  any  thing  laborious  could  be  con- 
 ceived of  God)  than  a  delegation  of  angels,  upon  every  turn,  from 
 heaven,  and  seems  in  the  main  to  illustrate,  rather  than  debase, 
 the  glory  of  his  nature  and  existence.  But  however  this  be,  it 
 is  plain,  that  the  angel  here  spoken  of  was  no  created  being,  from 
 the  whole  context,  and  especially  from  his  saying,  '  I  am  the 
 Lord  God,  the  Jehovah,'  &c,  since  this  is  not  the  language  of 
 angels,  who  are  always  known  to  express  themselves  in  such 
 humble  terms  as  these,  '  I  am  sent  from  God,  I  am  thy  fellow 
 servant,'  &c.  It  is  a  vain  pretence  to  say,  that  an  angel,  as  God's 
 ambassador,  may  speak  in  God's  name  and  person;  for  what 
 ambassador  of  any  prince  ever  yet  said,  '  I  am  the  king  ?'  Since 
 therefore  no  angel,  without  the  guilt  of  blasphemy,  could  assume 
 these  titles,  and  since  neither  God  the  Father,  nor  the  Holy 
 Ghost,  are  ever  called  by  the  name  of  an  angel,  that  is,  a  mes- 
 senger, or  person  sent,  whereas  God  the  Son  is  called  by  the 
 prophet  Malachi,  chap.  iii.  1,  '  the  angel  of  the  covenant,'  it 
 hence  seems  to  follow,  that  this  angel  of  the  Lord  was  God  the 
 Son,  who  might  very  properly  be  called  an  angel;  because,  in 
 the  fulness  of  time,  he  was  sent  into  the  world  in  our  flesh,  as  a 
 messenger  from  God,  and  might  therefore  make  his  temporary 
 apparitions,  presages,  and  forerunners,  as  it  were,  of  his  more 
 solemn  mission. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  second  apology,  is  of  opinion,  that  the 
 custom  of  putting  off  the  shoes,  both  among  the  Jews  and  Gen- 
 tiles, before  they  began  to  officiate  in  holy  things,  took  its  rise 
 from  this  precept  given  to  Moses;  but  our  learned  Mr  Mede 
 seems  to  be  of  a  different  opinion,  namely,  that  Moses  did  not 
 give  the  first  occasion  to  this  rite,  but  that  it  was  derived  from 
 the  patriarchs  before  him,  and  transmitted  to  future  ages  from 
 that  ancient  general  tradition.  It  is  certain  that  Pythagoras, 
 who  took  his  institutes  chiefly  from  the  Egyptians,  delivers  it  as 
 a  rule  in  his  Rubric,  "he  who  sacrifices,  should  put  off  his  shoes, 
 and  so  approach  to  the  holy  ordinance ;"  and  therefore  God,  in 
 compliance  to  an  ancient  custom,  then  in  practice  among  the 
 Egyptians,  might  speak  to  Moses,  who  was  a  person  well 
 acquainted  with  their  ceremonies,  to  decalceate,  as  very  well 
 knowing,  that  it  would  be  a  means  to  create  in  him  a  greater 
 
Sfxt.  V.j 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 241 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1671 ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HA 
 
 because  the  ground  whereon  he  stood  was  holy.  Moses 
 obeyed ;  and  while  the  voice  went  on  to  declare  itself 
 the  God,  who  had  all  along  been  kind  to  his  ancestors, 
 and  had  now  with  compassion  seen  the  afflictions  of  his 
 brethren,  and  was  come  down  to  deliver  them  from  their 
 oppressors,  he  fell  down  upon  the  ground,  and  covered 
 his  face  with  his  garment,  as  being  unable  to  sustain  the 
 refulgency  of  the  divine  presence. 
 
 Moses,  by  this  time,  had  entirely  laid  aside  all 
 thoughts  of  rescuing  his  brethren,  the  Israelites,  from 
 their  thraldom  ;  nor  had  he  any  opinion  of  his  own  abili- 
 ties, if  he  should  make  the  attempt,  to  succeed  in  so 
 difficult  an  undertaking  ;  and  therefore,  when  God  pro- 
 posed the  thing  to  him,  and  opened  the  whole  manner  and 
 method  in  which  he  would  have  it  executed,  he  began  to 
 excuse  himself,  by  urging  his  meanness  and  insufficiency 
 to  take  upon  him  the  character  of  a  divine  ambassador. 
 This  difficulty  God  endeavoured  to  remove,  by  assuring 
 him  that  he  would  be  with  him,  and  assist  him  in  every 
 step  he  took ;  that  he  would  enable  him  to  accomplish 
 the  thing,  though  never  so  perplexed  and  arduous ;  and 
 for  a  token  of  his  veracity  herein,  that  within  a  small 
 compass  of  time,  he  should  see  that  very  people,  who 
 now  were  in  slavery,  set  free,  and  worshipping  him  on 
 that  very  mountain. 
 
 Moses,  still  unwilling  to  undertake  the  thing,  desired 
 to  know  what  he  was  to  say  to  the  people,  and  by  what 
 name  he  was  to  call  the  person  Avho  sent  him  upon  this 
 message.  To  which  request  God  was  pleased  to  reply, — 
 That  he  who  sent  him  was  an  eternal,  independent,  self- 
 existent  being,  a  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
 by  which  name  he  gloried  to  be  called  ;  and  therefore 
 he  required  him,  first  to  assemble  the  elders  of  Israel 
 together,  and  acquaint  them  with  his  design,  and  then  to 
 go  directly  to  the  king,  and  demand  of  him  a  dismission 
 of  the  Israelites,  at  least  for  three  days'  journey  into  the 
 wilderness,  in  order  to  sacrifice  to  their  God  ;  which, 
 though  at  the  first  he  knew  he  would  be  far  from  grant- 
 ing, yet  in  the  end,  would  be  glad  to  consent  to,  when 
 he  should  see  the  divine  power  exerted  upon  sundry 
 occasions,  and  so  many  miracles  wrought  before  his 
 eyes  as  would  compel  him  to  let  them  go. 
 
 Such  a  solemn  assurance  as  this  from  the  mouth  of 
 God  himself,  was  enough,  one  would  think,  to  have 
 gained  a  ready  compliance  ;  but  Moses  still  demurs  to 
 the  thing,  and  makes  it  an  objection,  that  the  people, 
 when  he  came  to  them,  might  possibly  question  his  cre- 
 dentials ;  and  therefore,  to  obviate  this,  God  promises 
 to  enable  him  to  work  miracles  for  their  conviction. 
 Ami  for  a  specimen  of  this,  when  he  bade  him  throw  the 
 
 reverence  to  the  divine  presence,  and  a  more  awful  attention  to 
 what  he  was  going  to  say. — Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's  Commen- 
 taries. 
 
 a  God  no  doubt  was  the  God  of  Noah,  and  of  ail  the  holy 
 patriarchs,  who  lived  before  these  three  were  bom;  hut  for  a 
 peculiar  reason  is  he  called  their  God,  because  of  his  covenant, 
 and  the  promise  made  to  each  of  them,  that  the  blessed  seed 
 should  spring  from  their  loins,  in  opposition  to  the  pretensions  of 
 Other  neighbouring  people,  who,  as  the  learned  Dr  Alix  observes, 
 were  their  rivals  in  that  hope.  And  so  the  word  will  denote,  as 
 lin)ch  as  if  he  had  said,  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  not  of  Lot,  as 
 the  Ammonites  and  Moabites  pretended;  the  God  of  Isaac,  and 
 not  of  Ishmael,  as  his  posterity  pretended  ;  and  the  God  of  Jacob, 
 and  not  of  Esau,  as  the  Edoniites  boasted — Patrick's-  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 LES,  A.  M.  37->3    A.  C.  JC8S.  EXOD.  Ca  i— xiii. 
 
 rod  that  was  in  his  hand  upon  the  ground,  it  instantlv 
 became  a  serpent  terrible  to  behold  ;  but  when  he  ordered 
 him  to  take  it  up,  it  resumed  its  former  shape  ;  when  he 
 put  his  hand  into  his  bosom,  *  upon  pulling  it  out.  it  was 
 all  over  leprous,  but  upon  putting  it  in,  and  pulling  it 
 out  again,  it  became  as  dean  as  before  ;  and,  as  if  this 
 were  not  enough,  to  gain  him  a  further  credit  among  the 
 people,  he  gave  him  a  standing  power  to  convert  water 
 into  blood,  whenever  there  was  occasion. 
 
 Jiiit  the  promise  of  all  this  miraculous  power  could 
 not  prevail  with  Moses  to  accept  of  this  office.  He 
 alleged  in  excuse,  his  want  of  eloquence,  and  r  the 
 natural  impediment  he   had  in  his   speech.      But  this 
 
 b  It  is  no  improbable  conjecture,  that  as  God  commandi  d 
 Moses  to  work  all  his  wonders  before  Pharaoh,  this  miracle  of 
 the  leprosy  gave  occasion  to  the  fabulous  story,  which  was  invent- 
 ed in  after  ages, 'namely,  That  Aloses  was  a  leper,  and  the 
 Israelites  a  scabby  race,  whom  the  Egyptians  were  forced  to 
 drive  out  of  their  country,  for  fear  of  the  infection.  This 
 defamation  is  fust  met  with  in  Manetho's  Egyptian  History; 
 from  Manetho  it  descended  to  Apion,  the  Greek  historian;  and 
 from  him  Justin  and  Tacitus,  two  noted  Roman  authors,  un- 
 doubtedly took  it.  But  as  Manetho  might  not  at  first  male 
 devise  it  out  of  his  own  head,  so  those  writers  from  whom  he 
 compiled  his  history,  might  derive  it  from  this  passage  of  Mo  es' 
 appearing  with  a  leprous  hand  before  Pharaoh,  which  w 
 sently  noised  about  the  country,  without  the  other  part  of  his 
 being  immediately  cured.  For,  according  to  the  argument  of 
 Josephus,  "there  needs  no  other  proof  of  his  being  no  leper, 
 than  what  arises  from  his  own  words,  namely,  that  no  lepers 
 should  be  admitted  into  any  towns  or  villages,  but  live  apart  in 
 a  distinct  habit  by  themselves;  that  whoever  touched  a  leper, 
 or  lodged  under  the  same  roof  with  him,  should  be  reputed 
 unclean ;  and  that  whoever  should  come  to  be  cured  of  that  dis- 
 ease, should  pass  through  certain  purifications,  wash  himself  with 
 fountain  water,  shave  oil'  all  his  hair,  and  offer  such  and  sueli 
 sacrifices,  before  he  should  be  received  into  the  holy  city.  Now 
 if  Moses,"  says  he,  "had  been  afflicted  with  this  distemper 
 himself,  it  is  incongruous  to  think,  that  he  would  ever  have  1  ei  :i 
 so  severe  upon  others  for  it."  The  leprosy  indeed  was  a  dis- 
 temper in  a  manner  peculiar  to  the  Egyptians.  "  The  leprosy 
 is  a  disease  which  arises  by  the  banks  of  the  Nile  in  Middle 
 Egypt,  and  nowhere  else,"  as  both  Lucretius  (b.  G.)  and  Plutarch 
 tell  us;  and  if  it  was  so  in  Moses"  time,  he  may  be  presumed 
 to  have  made  laws  more  strict  against  it,  with  an  intention  to 
 excite  the  people's  carefulness  to  avoid  a  distemper  which  they 
 had  already  seen  so  much  of,  but  had  now,  together  with  the 
 other  calamities  of  their  bondage,  happily  escaped.  For  that  the 
 people,  at  this  time,  were  in  good  health,  is  evident  from  the 
 long  journey  they  undertook,  and  which  on  all  hands  is  agreed, 
 they  did  perform;  and  that  they  were  not  expelled  bj  the  Egyp- 
 tians, but  went  away  from  them  sore  against  their  will,  their 
 pursuit  of  them  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  losing  all  their  lives  with 
 a  purpose  of  retaking  them,  facts  that  are  attested  l>\ 
 heathen  authors,  are  an  abundant  demonstration.— -J 
 contra  Apion,  Plutarch's  Quast.  Nat.,  BibUotheca  JULli, 
 2.  Essay  4.  and  Patrick'*  Commentary. 
 
 c  .Moses  here  tells  us  of  himself,  that  he  was  slow  of  speech, 
 which  most  interpret  to  be  a  stammerer,  or  stutterer;  and  yet 
 St  Stephen  (Acts  vii.  :!■>.'  declares  of  him,  that  '  hi 
 in  words  as  well  as  deeds;'  but  this  admits  of  an  easy  reconcilia- 
 tion, if  we  do  but  suppose,  that  the  mum-  of  what  be  spake  was 
 great  and  weighty,  though  his  pronunciation  was  nol  answerable 
 To  it.      As  God,  however,  tells  him,  fExod.  iv.  11.)  that  he  it  was 
 who  made  the   mouth,  and   could  consequently  give  to  at 
 what  faculties  he  thought  convenient,  or  remove  any  impediment 
 he  might  have,  it  seems  nut  im]  robable,  that  eithi  r  by  use  and 
 exercise,  or  else  l>v  God's  immediate  core  of  his  detect.  Moses 
 had  acquired  a  better  facility  in  delivering  his  mind,  sit 
 find  him  making  several  speeches  to  the  people,  < 
 excellent  discourse  before  his  death,  in  the  beginning  of  Di  uti  r- 
 onomy;  as  he  has  likewise,  where  his  Bong  occurs  towan 
 latter  end,  given  an  ample  demonstration,  that  he  wanted    ant 
 ;  words  when  he  pleased  to  employ  them. — Patrick's 
 
 Commentary . 
 
 2  H 
 
242  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571 ;  OK.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3723.  *.  C.  1G83.  EXOD.  OH.  i-xiii. 
 
 defect  likewise  God  promises  to  supply  in  an  extraor- 
 dinary manner ;  and  as  he  was  the  great  author  of 
 human  nature,  to  give  him  all  the  faculties  that  were 
 sary  for  the  business  he  put  him  upon.  So  that, 
 driven  from  all  his  subterfuges,  Moses  was  at  last  com- 
 pelled to  declare  downright,  that  he  had  no  inclination 
 to  the  office  ;  and  therefore  desired  of  God  to  let  him 
 alone,  and  iind  out  some  other  that  was  fitter  for  his 
 
 purpose. 
 
 So  blunt  a  refusal  was  not  so  pleasing-  to  God,  and 
 might  have  been  resented  with  indignation;  but  instead 
 of  that,  he  resumed  the  objection,  and  told  Moses,  that 
 as  to  his  defect  of  utterance,  this  his  brother  Aaron,  who 
 would  be  fond  of  the  office,  and  was  already  set  out  from 
 home  to  meet  him,  would  be  sufficiently  capable  of  sup- 
 pi}  ing-.  To  him,  therefore, he  bid  him  impart  the  whole 
 affair,  and  to  make  use  of  him  as  his  orator,  but  to  reserve 
 the  chief  conduct  of  it  to  himself,  and  not  to  forget  a  to 
 take  along  with  him  his  rod,  wherewith  he  would  enable 
 him  to  work  all  miracles. 
 
 By  these  persuasions,  and  demonstrations  of  a  mira- 
 culous power  to  assist  him,  Moses,  at  last,  was  prevailed 
 on  to  accept  the  commission,  and  accordingly  went  to 
 his  father-in-law,  and,  h  without  telling  him  the  occasion, 
 requested  leave  to  go  and  visit  his  brethren  who  were  in 
 Egypt.  His  father-in-law  readily  consented  to  it ;  so 
 that,  taking  his  wife  and  children  along  with  him,  he  was 
 proceeding  on  his  journey,  when,  to  his  great  surprise, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 a  Wonderful  are  the  stories  which  the  Hebrew  doctors  tell 
 us  of  this  rod,  namely,  that  it  originally  grew  in  paradise,  was 
 brought  away  hy  Adam,  from  him  passed  to  Noah,  and  so  through 
 a  succession  of  patriarchs,  till  it  came  to  be  transplanted  into 
 Jethro's  garden,  and  there  took  root  again,  God  knows  how; 
 that  it  was  called  Zaphir,  whence  Ziphorah  his  daughter  had  her 
 name,  and  had  the  Tetrogrammaton  written  upon  it;  that  when 
 Zipporah  fell  in  love  with  Moses,  her  father  consented  that  she 
 should  have  him,  it'  he  could  pluck  up  this  Zaphir-rod,  at  the 
 same  time  published  a  proclamation,  that  whoever  did  it  first 
 should  marry  his  daughter;  that  hereupon  several  lusty  young 
 men  came,  and  tried  their  strength  in  vain ;  but  that  Moses,  by 
 being  acquainted  with  the  true  pronunciation  of  the  name  of  God, 
 in  virtue  thereof,  did  it  with  ease,  and  so  not  only  obtained  his 
 daughter,  but  this  rod  into  the  bargain,  with  which  he  wrought 
 afterwards  all  his  wonders  in  Egypt.  But  how  fictitious  soever 
 all  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  in  Exod.  iv.  20.  tliis  staff  is 
 called  '  tin'  rod  of  God  ;'  and  that  partly  because  it  was  appro- 
 priated to  God's  special  service,  to  be  the  instrument  of  all  his 
 glorious  works,  and  partly  to  show  that,  whatever  was  done  by 
 that  rod,  was  not  done  by  any  virtue  in  it,  or  in  the  hand  of 
 Moses,  but  merely  by  the  power  of  God,  who  was  pleased,  for 
 the  greater  confusion  of  his  enemies,  to  use  so  mean  an  instru- 
 ment. Nor  is  it  an  improbable  conjecture,  that  the  wands  which 
 ministers  are  wont  to  carry  in  their  hands,  in  token  of  their 
 power  and  office,  were  originally  derived  from  this  of  Moses. — 
 Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7.  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  lie  was,  both  iu  justice  and  decency,  obliged  to  acquaint  his 
 father-in-law  with  hi;  intention  to  leave  Midian,  and  go  into 
 .  because  he  had  humid  himself  by  an  oath  to  live  with 
 him,  and  was  resolved  now  to  take  his  wife  and  children,  as  In  jng 
 well  assured  of  a  speedy  return.  But  he  thought  fit  to  conceal 
 from  him  the  errand  upon  which  God  sent  him,  lest  hi;  should 
 endeavour  to  hinder  or  discourage  him  from  so  difficult  and 
 dangerous  an  enterprise.  So  that  Moses,  in  this  instance,  has 
 given  us  a  rare  example  of  piety  and  prudence,  in  that  he  took 
 rue  to  avoid  all  occasions  and  temptations  to  disobedience  to  the 
 divine  commands;  as  well  as  of  a  singular  modesty  and  humility, 
 in  that  such  glorious  and  familiar  converse  with  God,  and  the 
 high  commission  with  which  he  had  honoured  him,  made  him 
 neither  forget  the  civility  and  duty  which  he  owed  to  his  father, 
 nor  break  out  into  any  public  and  vainglorious  ostentation  of  such 
 t  privilege. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 an  angel  appeared  to  him  in  the  inn  where  he  lodged, 
 and,  with  a  stern  countenance,  and  flaming  sword  in  his 
 hand,  threatened  to  kill  him,  because,  by  the  persuasions 
 of  his  wife,  or  his  own  indulgence,  he  had  neglected  to 
 circumcise  his  younger  son ;  which  when  his  wife  per- 
 ceived, she  immediately  took  a  knife,  made  of  a  sharp 
 c  flint,  and  therewith  circumcising  the  child,  pronounced 
 over  him  the  usual  form  of  admission  into  the  pale  ol 
 the  church  ;d  which  when  she  had  done,  the  angry  vision 
 disappeared,  and  gave  signs  that  God  was  appeased. 
 
 While  Moses  was  on  his  way  to  Egypt,  Aaron,  by  a 
 divine  revelation,  was  informed  thereof,  and  ordered  to 
 go  and  meet  him  in  the  wilderness.  Not  far  from  the 
 mount  of  Horeb  they  met ;  and,  after  mutual  embraces 
 and  endearments,  Moses  began  to  open  unto  him  the 
 purport  of  his  commission,  the  instructions  he  had  re- 
 ceived from  God,  and  the  miraculous  works  he  was 
 empowered  to  show  :  and  thus  proceeding  to  Egypt, 
 the  two  brothers  called  an  assembly  of  the  chief  elders 
 of  the  people,  wherein  Aaron  declared  unto  them  the 
 message  which  God  had  sent  by  Moses,  while  Moses,  to 
 confirm  the  truth  of  his  divine  mission,  wrought  the 
 several  miracles  which  God  had  appointed  him,  before 
 their  eyes  ;  insomuch  that  they  were  all  fully  convinced 
 that  he  was  a  true  prophet,  come  from  the  God  of  their 
 fathers,  who  had  at  length  commiserated  their  afflictions. 
 and  sent  now  to  deliver  them  from  their  bondage  :  and 
 with  this  persuasion,  they  kneeled  down  upon  their 
 knees,  and  worshipped  God. 
 
 Not  many  days  after,  Moses  and  Aaron  went  to  court, 
 and  having  obtained  admission  to  the  king,  requested  of 
 him  that  he  would  give  the  Israelites  leave  to  go  three 
 days'  journey  into  the  wilderness,  in  order  to  perform 
 a  solemn  service  to  the  Lord  their  God.  But  Pharaoh 
 was  so  far  from  complying  with  their  request,  that,  know- 
 
 c  Whether  it  was  required  that  the  instrument  made  use  of 
 in  the  circumcision  of  children,  was  to  be  of  stone  or  flint,  and 
 whether  the  Hebrews  never  used  any  other,  is  a  question  very 
 learnedly  discussed  by  Pererius,  in  his  disputation  on  this  place. 
 That  the  heathens  performed  such  sort  of  abscisions  with  sharp 
 flints  or  stones,  is  evident  from  several  authors;  and  though 
 Pererius  determines  against  the  constant  use  of  the  flint  among 
 the  Hebrews  in  circumcision,  and  against  its  being  prescribed  or 
 enjoined  in  the  institution,  yet  there  is  great  reason  to  presume, 
 that  this  operation  was  never  done  with  any  other  kind  of  instru- 
 ment, before  that  of  Joshua's  circumcising  the  Israelites  in  the 
 wilderness. — Bibliotheca  Biblica  in  locum. 
 
 d  Exod.  iv.  25,  '  A  bloody  husband  art  thou  to  me.'  The 
 learned  Joseph  Mede,  (Dissertation  xiv.  p.  52,)  has  given  to  these 
 words  of  Zipporah  the  following  singular  interpretation.  He 
 says  that  it  was  a  custom  among  the  Jews  to  name  the  child 
 that  was  circumcised,  by  a  Hebrew  word,  signifying  a  husband. 
 He  builds  his  opinion  upon  the  testimony  of  some  rabbins.  He 
 apprehends  that  she  applied  to  the  child,  and  not  to  Moses,  as 
 most  interpreters  think,  the  words  .above  mentioned.  Chaton, 
 which  is  the  term  in  the  original,  is  never  used  to  denote  the 
 relation  between  husband  and  wife,  but  that  which  is  between  i. 
 man  and  the  father  or  mother  of  the  person  to  whom  he  is  mar- 
 ried: it  signifies  a  son-in-law,  and  not  a  husband.  A  person 
 thus  related  is  a  son  initiated  into  a  family  hy  alliance.  It  is  in 
 this  view  of  initiated,  that  Zipporah  says  to  her  son,  'a  bloody 
 husband  art  thou  to  me;'  that  is  to  say,  it  is  I  who  have  initiated 
 thee  into  the  church  by  the  bloody  sacrament  of  circumcision. 
 He  endeavours  to  justify  his  criticism  upon  the  word  chaton,  by 
 the  idea  which  the  Arabians  affix  to  the  verb  from  whence  this 
 noun  is  derived.  The  Chaldee  Paraphrast  also  annexes  the  same 
 notion  to  the  words  of  Zipporah.  Saurin,  (Dissertation  on  Old 
 Test.  vol.  1.  p..371,)  does  not  seem  altogether  satisfied  with  this 
 interpretation  of  the  passage:  whether  it  be  just  or  not,  must  be 
 left  to  the  decision  of  the  learned  reader. — En. 
 
Sect.  V.J 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE   ISRAELITES',  &C. 
 
 213 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571  : 
 
 ing  no  being'  superior  to  himself,  he  profanely  questioned 
 the  existence  of  their  God  ;  or  if  there  was  such  a  thing ', 
 he  could  not  see  why  they  might  not  serve  him  in  Egypt, 
 as  well  as  elsewhere;  and  therefore  he  positively  refused 
 to  let  them  go. 
 
 The  truth  is,  he  suspected  that  they  had  a  design  of 
 revolting  from  his  service,  and  had  been  laying  schemes 
 to  get  out  of  his  dominions.  This  to  him  was  an  argu- 
 ment that  they  had  too  much  leisure  ;  and  an  effectual 
 way  to  check  their  indulging  themselves  in  such  contri- 
 vances, was  to  take  care  to  leave  them  fewer  vacant 
 hours  ;  and  therefore  he  ordered  greater  tasks,  and  more 
 work  to  be  laid  upon  them.  a  He  reprimanded  Moses 
 and  Aaron  for  going  among  the  people,  and  interrupting 
 them  in  their  employments.  He  gave  their  taskmasters 
 charge,  not  to  allow  them  any  more  b  straw,  and  yet  to 
 
 a  The  words  of  Pharaoh  are,  '  Why  do  ye,  Moses  and  Aaron, 
 let  the  people  from  their  works  ?  Gel  ye  to  your  burdens.9 
 Which  words  seem  to  be  directed,  not  so  much  to  the  elders  of 
 Israel,  who  might  possibly  go  along  with  them,  as  to  Moses  and 
 Aaron  themselves:  and  so  the  sense  of  the  reproof  will  be : — "So 
 far  am  I  from  granting  the  liberty  which  you  desire  for  the  peo- 
 ple, that,  as  a  just  punishment  upon  you  for  your  seditious 
 attempt,  I  command  you  also  to  go  with  the  rest,  to  take  your 
 share  in  their  burdens,  and  to  perform  the  ta^k  which  shall  be 
 required  of  you."  And  that  so  cruel  a  tyrant  did  not  proceed 
 farther  against  them,  must  be  ascribed  to  the  mighty  power  of 
 God,  who  governs  the  spirits,  and  restrains  the  hands  of  the 
 greatest  kings,  when  he  pleases.  This  seems  to  be  a  better 
 account  than  what  some  of  the  Jewish  fictions  give  us  of  it, 
 namely,  that  when  Moses  and  Aaron  came  into  Pharaoh's 
 presence,  they  were  raised  to  a  taller  stature  than  they  had 
 before;  had  a  splendour  in  their  countenances,  like  that  of  the 
 sun;  and  appeared  with  such  majesty,  as  quite  struck  him  with 
 terror  and  astonishment. — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 h  What  the  use  of  straw  was  in  making  bricks,  is  variously 
 conjectured.  Some  think  it  was  of  no  other  use  than  to  heat  the 
 kilns  wherein  they  were  burnt;  others,  who  will  have  it  that 
 they  were  never  burnt  at  all,  imagine  that  it  served  only  to  cover 
 them  from  the  too  intense  heat  of  the  sun,  and  that  they  might 
 he  baked  gradually;  but  as  it  is  evident  that  they  were  burnt  in 
 kilns  the  most  probable  opinion  is,  that  straw  was  mixed  with 
 the  clay,  to  make  them  more  solid  For,  according  to  a  passage 
 in  Lucilius,  mentioned  by  JJonius  Mareellus,  straw  was  an- 
 ciently employed  to  this  purpose.  "  For  what  forms  the  Mile  i> 
 made  up  of  nothing  more  than  common  clay,  mixed  with  straw, 
 and  mud  mixed  with  chaff." 
 
 On  this  subject  take  the  following  accounts  of  modem  tra- 
 vellers:— "  The  use  of  the  chopt  straw  and  stubble  in  making 
 bricks,"  (Exod.  v.)  "was  not  a^  fuel  to  burn  or  bake  them  with, 
 for  which  purpose  surely  neither  of  these  is  proper,  but  to  mix 
 with  the  clay,  in  order  to  make  the  bricks,  which  were  dried, or 
 baked  in  the  sun,  cohere."  So  Pltilo,  who  was  himself  of  Alex- 
 andria in  Egypt,  expressly  informs  us,  in  Vit.Mosis,  And  from 
 Dr  Shaw,  {Travels,  p.  136,)  we  Learn,  that  "  some  of  the  Egyp- 
 tian pyramids  are  made  of  bricks,  t  ho  composition  whereof  is 
 only  a  mixture  of  clay,  mud,  and  straw,  slightly  blended  and 
 kneaded  together,  and  afterwards  baked  in  the  sun.  The  straw 
 which  keeps  these  bricks  together,  and  still  preserves  its  original 
 colour,  seems  to  be  a  proof  that  these  bricks  were  never  burnt  or 
 made  in  kilns."  And  as  to  the  Egyptian  manner  of  building 
 in  modern  times,  Mr  Baumgarten,  in  his  Travels,  c.  L8,  speak- 
 ing of  Cairo  in  Egypt,  says,  "The  houses  for  the  most  part  are 
 of  brick  that  are  only  hardened  by  the  heat  of  the  sun,  and  mixed 
 with  straw  to  make  them  firm."  (Collection  of  Voyages  and 
 Travels,  I  vols,  folio,  vol.  1.  p.  443.  See  also,  Complete  System 
 of  Geography,  vol.  2.  p.  177,  col.  1.  ;  Hasselguist's  Travels, 
 p.  100.)  It  is  said  that  the  unburnt  bricks  of  Egypt  formerly 
 "ere,  and  still  are,  made  of  clay  mixed  with  straw.  Th 
 tian  pyramid  of  unburnt  bricks  Dr  Pococke  (Observations  mi 
 Egypt,  p.  53,)  says,  seems  to  be  made  of  the  earth  brought  by 
 the  Nile,  being  a  sandy  black  earth,  with  some  pebbles  and  shells 
 in  it:   it  is  mixea  up  with  chopped  straw,  in  order  to  bind  the 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37C3.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xih 
 
 exact  the  same  tale  of  bricks  from  them  without  abate- 
 ment. 
 
 This  charge  the  taskmasters,  who  were  Egyptians, 
 communicated  to  their  under  officers,  who  wen-  Hebrews. 
 And  when  the  people,  being  forced,  for  want  of  straw, 
 to  wander  all  the  country  over  to  pick  up  Btubble,  haul 
 not  time  to  make  as  many  bricks  as  were  exacted, these 
 Hebrew  officers  were  called  to  an  account,  anil  beaten. 
 They,  however,  not  well  knowing  from  whence  this 
 unreasonable  severity  proceeded,  whether  from  the  royal 
 edict,  or  the  rigour  of  the  taskmasters,  addressed  the 
 king  himself,  and  laid  their  grievances  before  him  in  the 
 most  humble  manner.  But  so  far  were  they  from  receiv- 
 ing any  redress,  that  the  answer  returned  them  was, 
 "  That  the  king  would  have  his  edict  executed,  be  it 
 never  so  severe;  and  would  exact  from  them  their  full 
 number  of  bricks,  though  he  was  resolved  to  allow  them 
 no  straw." 
 
 This  answer  was  enough  to  run  them  to  the  utmost 
 despair:  and  therefore,  as  they  returned  from  the  king, 
 meeting  Moses  and  Aaron,  they  discharged  their  grief 
 and  anger,  though  very  unjustly,  upon  them  ;  telling 
 them,  "  That  they  had  taken  care  to  infuse  an  odium  into 
 the  king  against  them,  and  given  him  a  plausible  handle 
 to  destroy  them,  which  they  wished  in  God  might  fall 
 upon  their  own  heads."  These  bitter  expressions 
 afflicted  Moses  to  that  degree,  that  he  expostulated  the 
 matter  with  God,  for  suffering  Pharaoh  to  be  so  exas- 
 perated against  his  people,  and  for  having  not  in  (he 
 least  mitigated  their  afflictions,  since  the  time  that  he 
 iirst  went  to  him. 
 
 His  concern  for  the  oppression  of  his  brethren  made 
 him  certainly  forget  die  promise  which  God  had  given  him, 
 and  the  perverseness  of  Pharaoh,  which  he  had  foretold 
 him  :  but,  notwithstanding  this,  God  was  pleased  to  give 
 him  fresh  assurances,  that  now  the  time  was  come, 
 wherein  he  would  manifest  his  almighty  power,  and 
 exert  the  full  force  of  the  e  name   which   he  had  taken 
 
 clay  together.     The  Chinese   have  great  occasion  for  ^traw  in 
 making  bricks,  as  they  put  thin  layers  of  straw  between  them, 
 without  which  they  would,  a*  they  dried,  run  or  adhere  togi  tin  r. 
 — Macartney's  Emb.,  p.  269. —  En. 
 c  The   words  of  God  upon  this  occasion  are, — '  1   appeared 
 
 unto  Abraham,  unto  [saac,  and  unto  Jacob,  by  the  name  ol    l.i- 
 
 Shaddai,  the  Almighty  God;  but  by  my  name  Jehovah  was  I 
 
 not  known  to  them,"  (Exod.  vi.  li.)       But  how  can  tin-;  he,  when 
 
 long  before  Moses'  time,  God  is  so  frequently  called  by  that 
 name  ?  For  did  not  the  sons  of  Seth  '  call  themselves  by  the 
 of  Jehovah,'  Co.  iv.  26.  ?  '  Did  Dot  Abraham  swear, 
 and  lift  up  his  hands  to  Jehovah,'  Co.  \i\.  22.  ?  Did  not  be 
 call  the  place  «l:ere  he  went  to  offer  I  aac,  '  Jehovah-jireh,' 
 Ceu.  xxii.  I  1.  ?  Did  not  the  Lord  say  unto  him,  '  I  am  t 
 Jehovah,  that  brought  thee  out  of  Ut  of  the  I  Beu.  xr. 
 
 7.  ?      And  when,  in  a  vision,  Jacob  saw  him   stand   before   hint, 
 
 did  not  he  Bay,  '  I  am  Jehovah,the  Cod  of  Abraham,  thy  father, 
 and  the  Cod  of  Isaac.'Gen.  xxxviii.  IS.  ?  These  passages  make 
 it  impossible  for  God  not  to  he  known  to  the  patriarchs  under 
 that  name:  and  therefore  several  learned  writers  upon  this  ti  \? 
 
 prehended  a  fault  in  our  transit  tion,  and  would  I 
 latti  r  part  of  the  vi  rse  t"  he  taken  interrogate  ly,  thus,  •  B 
 name  Jehovah  was  1  not  known  unto  them  ?'     If  we  t 
 .,  ntence  \vely,  say  they,  every  one  w  i 
 
 plainly  intimates,  that  the  Lord  had  revealed  himself  u  to  them 
 by  this  name,  which  is  agreeable  to  the  scripture  i 
 patriarchs'  knowledge  and  worship  of  him;  but  to  take  the  words 
 without  the  interrogation,  and  suppose  them  to  Intend,  i 
 Lord  who  appeared  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  "a-  net  known 
 to  them  by  his  name  Jehovah,  cannot  he  reconcili  d 
 express  passages  in  the  book  of  Genesis;  unless  we  can  suppose,. 
 
244  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 upon  himself,  in  the  deliverance  of  his  people  from  their 
 bondage,  and  in  the  performance  of  the  promises  made 
 to  their  forefathers,  by  giving  them  the  land,  the  rich 
 and  plentiful  land  of  Canaan  in  possession.  With  this 
 Mod  appointed  Moses  to  acquaint  the  children  of  Israel, 
 and  to  promise  them,  moreover,  that  he  would  make  them 
 his  peculiar  people,  and  take  them  under  his  immediate 
 protection  ;  so  that  in  the  event  they  should  plainly  see, 
 that  their  deliverance  and  admission  to  the  inheritance 
 he  had  spoken  of,  was  effected  by  that  God  who  is 
 always  faithful  to  his  promises.  But  though  Moses 
 failed  not  to  carry  these  tidings  to  the  people,  yet  such 
 was  their  affliction  of  mind,  upon  the  increase  of  their 
 servitude,  that  they  gave  little  or  no  attention  to  him. 
 
 God,  however,  pursuing  the  ends  of  his  providence, 
 commanded  Moses  to  go  again  to  the  king,  and  demand 
 the  release  of  his  people  ;  and  when  he  endeavoured  to 
 decline  the  office,  upon  pretence  of  the  a  impediment  in 
 
 that  as  Genesis  was  not  written  when  God  revealed  this  his  name 
 to  Moses,  Moses  makes  use  of  it  by  way  of  anticipation,  because 
 at  the  time  when  he  wrote,  the  Jews  commonly  used  it,  though 
 in  the  days  when  the  patriarchs,  whose  lives  he  was  giving  some 
 account  of,  lived,  it  was  a  thing  utterly  unknown.  There  is 
 another  way,  however,  of  expounding  these  words,  if,  by  the  name 
 Jehovah,  we  understand  not  the  letters  or  syllables,  but  what  is 
 properly  the  import  of  it,  namely,  not  only  God's  eternal  existence, 
 but  his  omnipotent  power  likewise,  and  unchangeable  truth,  which 
 give  being,  as  we  may  say,  to  his  promises  by  the  actual  per- 
 formance of  them.  That  this  is  the  sense  of  the  word  Jehovah, 
 is  apparent  from  several  passages  in  this  very  book  of  Exodus. 
 Thus,  chap.  vii.  5,  17,  '  And  the  Egyptians  shall  know  that  I  arn 
 Jehovah;  for  behold,  I  will  strike  with  the  rod,  that  is  in  thine 
 hand,  upon  the  rivers,  and  they  shall  be  turned  into  blood:'  so 
 that  the  meaning  of  the  whole  passage  will  fairly  be, — "  That 
 though  God  gave  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  such  demonstra- 
 tions of  his  power  as  could  not  but  convince  them  that  he  would 
 certainly  perform  his  promises;  yet  they  did  not  live  to  see  the 
 accomplishment  of  them,  which  he  was  now  going  to  set  before 
 the  Israelites.  They  believed  in  these  things,  but  they  did  not 
 experimentally  know  them.  They  had  dreams  and  visions  indeed, 
 but  -Moses  was  the  first  that  wrought  miracles  and  prodigies.  By 
 these  he  made  the  name  of  the  Lord  known  unto  the  world." 
 Ami  thereibre  Maimonides  well  concludes  from  this  place,  that 
 I ..  prophetic  spirit  of  Moseswas  more  excellent  than  that  which 
 bad  been  upon  any  before  his  time.  {Poole's  Annotations,  Le 
 Clrrc's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries,  and  More  Nevoch;  part  2. 
 e.  35.). — See  an   elaborate  dissertation  on  this  subject,  by  Mr 
 
 Bell,  in  his  edition  of  Rollin,  vol.  2.  p.  524,  et  seq. Ed. 
 
 a  The  phrase  in  the  text  is,  '  uncircumcised  in  lips;'  for  as 
 among  the  Jews,  circumcision  of  any  part  denoted  its  perfection, 
 50  uncircumcision  "as  set  to  signify  its  defectiveness,  or  inepti- 
 tude to  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  designed.  Thus  the  prophet 
 Bays  of  the  Jews,  that  '  their  ear  was  uncircumcised,'  and  adds 
 an  explanation  of  it,  because  '  they  cannot  hearken,'  Jer.  vi.  10. 
 Again  he  tells  us,  that  '  the  house  of  Israel  were  uncircumcised 
 
 :ear','  that  is,  would  not  understand  and  learn  their  duty, 
 Jer.  ix.  26.  And  in  like  manner  here,  '  uncircumcised  lips' 
 111 "  I  mean  a  person  that  was  a  bad  speaker,  and  wanted  eloquence ; 
 ami  what  might  possibly  induce  Moses  to  make  use  of  this  meta- 
 phor, rather  than  any  other,  might  be  the  consideration  of  his 
 ig  ;o  lately  neglected  to  circumcise  his  son.  Some  are  of 
 opinion,  that  the  word  circumcision  carries  in  it  an  idea  of  some- 
 tliing  superfluous  in  the  pan,  and  that  therefore  Moses'  tongue 
 
 be  i  ither  too  long,  or  too  big  for  his  mouth,  and  that  this 
 
 occasion  either  an  inelegance  or  hesitation  in  his  speech: 
 but  tlte  more  probable  opinion  is,  that  he  was  what  we  call 
 tongue-tied,  which  his  parents,  either  in  their  fright  might  not 
 perceive,  or  in  the  gi  neral  hurry  and  destruction  of  the  children, 
 might  not  dare  to  send  for  a  proper   person  to  remedy,  until  it 
 
 0  late.  However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  as  circumcision 
 was  the  first  and  greatest  sacrament  among  the  Jews,  so  uncir- 
 cumcision was  esteemed  by  than  the  greatest  scandal  and  dis- 
 grace; and  therefore  Moses  perhaps  thought  it  some  disparage- 
 
 his  speech,  which  he  might  possibly  think  was  the  reason 
 why  his  own  countrymen  did  not  hearken  unto  him,  and 
 how  then  could  he  expect  that  Pharaoh  should  do  it,  in  a 
 matter  so  much  to  his  loss  ?  God,  to  remove  this  objec- 
 tion, told  him, —  b  That  there  was  no  occasion  for  him- 
 self to  speak  unto  Pharaoh,  seeing  he  had  constituted 
 Aaron  to  be  his  interpreter ;  that  he  must  not  be 
 discouraged  at  some  few  repulses  ;  that  Pharaoh,  he 
 knew,  was  a  man  of  so  obstinate  a  temper,  that  the  more 
 he  was  punished,  the  less  he  would  relent,  but  that  the 
 less  he  relented,  the  more  would  his  wonders  be  shown  on 
 him  and  his  people  ;  that  to  this  purpose,  he  had  invested 
 him  with  the  power  of  working  miracles,  which  would 
 make  him  justly  terrible  ;  and  that  therefore,  when  they 
 came  into  Pharaoh's  presence,  ai.d  he  demanded  a  proof 
 of  the  truth  of  his  mission,  ho  should  direct  Aaron  to 
 cast  his  rod  upon  the  ground,  and  it  should  immediately 
 become  a  serpent. 
 
 With  these  instructions,  Moses  and  Aaron  came  again 
 to  the  king,  and  repeated  the  demand  of  his  dismissing 
 the  Israelites  ;  whereupon,  when  the  king  desired  them 
 to  show  him  some  miracle,  thereby  to  induce  him  to 
 believe,  that  the  God  whom  they  spake  so  much  of,  had 
 really  sent  them,  Aaron  threw  down  his  rod,  which  was 
 instantly  changed  into  a  serpent ;  but,  to  confront  this 
 miracle,  the  king  sent  for  the  magicians  and  sorcerers 
 of  Egypt,  and  ordered  them  to  try,  if  by  their  magical 
 arts,  they  could  cause  the  like  transmutation.  They 
 attempted,  and  succeeded  ;  they  changed  their  rods  into 
 serpents,  as  the  other  had  done,  but  with  this  remarkable 
 difference,  that  Aaron's  rod  swallowed  up  all  the  rods 
 of  the  magicians,  which  was  enough  to  have  convinced 
 the  proud  monarch  of  the  superior  power  of  the  God  of 
 Israel,  had  not  his  heart  been  so  averse  to  the  thoughts 
 of  parting  with  the  Hebrews,  that  he  did  not  let  this 
 circumstance  make  any  due  impression  upon  his  mind. 
 
 Some  time  after  this,  Moses  and  Aaron  put  themselves 
 
 ment  to  him,  that  he  was  not  able  himself  to  deliver  his  mind  in 
 an  handsome  manner  to  Pharaoh;  and  therefore  made  mention  of 
 this  again,  to  engage  the  divine  majesty  to  circumcise  his  lips, 
 as  they  term  it,  to  remove  this  impediment  in  his  speech,  as  we 
 have  some  reason  to  believe  that  he  did. — Pererius,  Patrick's, 
 and  Le  Clcrc's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  God,  to  silence  the  objection  which  Moses  had  more  than 
 once  made  of  his  defectiveness  in  speech,  tells  him,  '  I  have 
 made  thee  a  gcd  to  Pharaoh,  and  Aaron  shall  be  thy  prophet,' 
 Exod.  vii.  1 ;  by  which  he  does  not  only  mean,  that  he  had 
 invested  him  with  an  authority  to  require  of  Pharaoh  an  obedience 
 to  his  commands,  and  upon  his  refusal,  to  inflict  such  punish- 
 ments on  him,  as  none  but  God  could  inflict;  but  that  in  execut- 
 ing the  commission  he  was  putting  him  upon,  there  was  no 
 occasion  for  him  to  speak  to  Pharaoh  himself.  That  he  had 
 appointed  Aaron  to  do;  and  therefore  he  might  keep  himself 
 upon  the  reserve,  and  Pharaoh  at  an  awful  distance,  just  as  God 
 delivers  his  oracles  to  the  people  by  the  mediation  of  his  prophets. 
 Only  there  is  one  objection  against  the  passage  itself,  which 
 some  imagine  cannot  be  genuine,  because  Moses  makes  use  of 
 the  word  nabi,  for  a  prophet,  which  in  his  days,  must  have  been 
 expressed  by  another:  for  so  in  1  Sam.  ix.  9.  it  is  said  that  he 
 who  was  now  called  nabi,  a  prophet,  was  before  that  time  called 
 roeh,  a  seer;  which  seems  to  imply,  that  nabi  was  not  a  word  in 
 use  till  Samuel's  days.  But  this  is  vety  far  from  Samuel's 
 meaning,  whose  plain  sense  is  this, — That  he  who  foretold 
 things  to  come,  or  discovered  secrets,  was  anciently  called  a  seer, 
 not  a  prophet ;  for  a  prophet  heretofore  signified  only,  an  inter- 
 preter of  the  divine  will;  but  that  now,  in  Samuel's  days,  they 
 began  to  apply  the  word  nabi,  or  prophet,  to  those  who  could 
 reveal  any  secret,  or  foresee  things  to  come. — Poole's  Annotations, 
 Le  Cltn's  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES'    &c. 
 
 245 
 
 A.  M.  2133.  A.  C.  1571 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3703  A.  C.  1G4S.  EXOl).  CH.  i_xiii. 
 
 in  the  way  of  Pharaoh,  as  he  was  walking-  out  to  the  « 
 river  Nile,  and  urging  again  the  demand  they  had  made 
 for  the  departure  of  their  brethren,  as  a  farther  sign  that 
 God  had  really  sent  them,  upon  Aaron's  stretching  out 
 his  hand,  and  touching  the  waters  of  the  river  with  his 
 rod,  all  the  waters  of  the  land  of  Egypt  were  turned  into 
 blood,  and  continued  so  for  seven  days  ;  so  that  °  the 
 fish  died,  and  the  inhabitants  had  no  water  to  drink,  but 
 were  forced  to  dig  in  new  places  for  some  to  allay  their 
 thirst.     But  Pharaoh,  finding  that  his  magicians  did  turn 
 
 a  The  river  Nile  has  its  fountain-head  in  Upper  Ethiopia,  and 
 flows  through  Nubia  and  Egypt.  Below  Cairo,  where  it  is  1000 
 yards  wide,  it  divides  into  two  main  branches,  which  again 
 separate  into  several  arms,  the  extreme  eastern  and  western  of 
 which  give  to  the  lower  part  of  Egypt  the  form  of  a  delta.  There 
 were  anciently  reckoned  seven  principal  mouths  hy  which  its 
 waters  were  poured  into  the  Mediterranean ;  only  those  of 
 Damietta  and  Rosetta  are  at  present  navigable ;  the  others  have 
 been  choked  up.  The  name  Nile,  according  to  Spineto  {Lectures 
 on  Hieroglyphics),  is  Greek;  the  Egyptians  calling  it  merely 
 Iaro,  which  means  river.  The  true  Nile  is  formed  by  the  con- 
 fluence of  the  Bahr-el-Abiad  (white  river)  and  the  Bahr-el-Azrek 
 (blue  river),  in  lat.  15°  40'  N.  The  former,  rising  in  Abyssinia, 
 to  the  south-west  of  lake  Dembea,  comes  from  the  south-east, 
 and  was  considered  by  Bruce  as  the  Nile.  The  latter,  however, 
 which  comes  from  the  south-west,  and  is  supposed  to  rise  in  the 
 Mountains  of  the  Moon,  brings  down  the  greatest  mass  of  water, 
 and  is  considered  by  Cailliaud  as  the  true  Nile.  This  is  a  mere 
 dispute  about  words.  In  lat.  17°  40',  it  receives  the  Tacazze 
 from  the  east,  enters  Egypt  in  24°,  following  nearly  a  northern 
 course,  and  below  Cairo  (30°  15'  N.)  divides  into  the  two  main 
 arms  above-mentioned,  the  Damietta,  or  the  eastern,  and  the 
 Rosetta,  or  western  branch.  The  distance  from  the  confluence 
 of  its  two  head  branches  to  the  sea  is  about  1500  miles;  from  its 
 highest  sources,  probably  not  far  from  2500  miles.  The  cataracts 
 so  much  celebrated  by  the  ancients,  modern  discoveries  have 
 shown  to  be  insignificant;  they  appear  to  be  hardly  any  thing 
 more  than  what,  in  America,  are  called  rapids.  In  Upper  Egypt, 
 it  is  confined  between  two  ranges  of  mountains,  which  leave  only 
 a  narrow  strip  each  side  of  the  river.  Near  Cairo,  the  river  valley 
 widens,  and  the  level  nature  of  the  country  below  allows  it  to 
 spread  itself  over  a  wide  plain.  In  Upper  and  Middle  Egypt,  there 
 are  great  numbers  of  canals  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  which 
 serve  to  irrigate  the  country:  the  principal,  called  the  canal  of 
 Joseph,  communicates  with  lake  Moeris.  This  is  the  only  river  in 
 Egypt,  and  contains  all  the  water  the  inhabitants  have  to  drink, 
 which  made  the  turning  it  into  blood  an  heavy  judgment  upon  the 
 people.  The  overflowing  of  the  river,  which  most  impute  to  the  great 
 rains  which  fall,  and  melt  the  snow  in  the  mountains  of  Ethiopia, 
 is  the  cause  of  all  the  plenty  and  fruitfulness  of  the  whole  country ; 
 and  therefore  Plutarch  and  several  others  tell  us,  that  nothing 
 was  had  in  so  much  veneration  among  the  Egyptians ;  that  they 
 adored  and  invocated  it  as  the  greatest  of  gods,  not  only  under  the 
 name  of  Osiris,  but  of  Orus  and  Jupiter  likewise,  and  instituted 
 in  its  honour  the  most  solemn  of  their  feasts:  and  therefore  their 
 conjecture,  who  think  that  Pharaoh  went  to  pay  his  morning 
 devotions  to  the  river  Nile,  is  much  more  plausible,  than  that  of 
 the  Chaldee  Paraphrast,  namely,  that  he  went  to  observe  divin- 
 ation upon  the  water  as  a  magician,  when  in  all  probability  his 
 business  was  no  more  than  to  bathe  himself,  as  the  custom  among 
 the  Egyptians  was  to  do  almost  every  day. — Calmet's  Dictionary, 
 H'flts'  and  Moll's  Geographies,  and  Bedford's  Scripture  Chron- 
 ology, b.  3.  c.  4. 
 
 b  Diodorus  Siculus,  in  his  description  of  Egypt,  (b.  1.  p.  320 
 informs  us,  that  the  river  Nile  abounded  with  all  manner  of  fish, 
 though  later  travellers  tell  us,  that  there  are  not  at  present  many 
 in  it,  whether  this  be  attributed  to  the  muddiness  of  its  water,  or 
 to  the  havock  which  the  crocodiles  and  other  monsters  of  this 
 river  may  be  supposed  to  make  in  it.  But  whether  ancient  or 
 modern  geographers  are  right  in  this  particular,  it  is  certain,  that 
 this  putrefaction  of  the  water,  and  slaying  the  fish,  "as  a  heavy 
 judgment  upon  the  Egyptians,  who  abstained  from  the.  eating  ol 
 most  animals,  whose  liquor  was  generally'  (rater,  and  whose 
 constant  food  was  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  the  fish  of  this  riv<  r. 
 — Le  Clerc's  Commentary ,  and  /f'e/is'  Geography  of  the  t  id 
 Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
 water  into  Mood  likewise,  and  supposin-  the  thing  on 
 both  sides  to  be  equally  performed  hy  magical  skill, 
 was  not  convinced  by  the  miracle,  and  so  refused  to  let 
 the  Israelites  depart. 
 
 When  the  seven  days  were  expired,  Moses  and  Aaron 
 came  again  unto  him,  requiring  the  dismission  of  the 
 people,  and  withal  assuring  him,  that  if  he  did  not  pant 
 their  request,  they  should  bring  a  plague  of  '■  frogs  upon 
 all  the  land  ;  and  when  the  king  .seemed  to  set  them  at 
 defiance,  Moses  ordered  Aaron  to  stretch  his  rod  again 
 over  the  waters  ;  upon  doing  of  which  there  came  up 
 abundance  of  frogs,  so  as  to  cover  the  whole  land  of 
 Egypt,  and  to  swarm  in  their  houses,  their  chambers, 
 their  beds,  and  the  very  places  where  their  victuals  were 
 dressed;  but  here  it  also  happened,  that  the  magicians 
 likewise  performed  the  same,  so  that  Pharaoh  was  not 
 much  influenced  by  this  miracle.  Only,  as  his  magicians 
 could  not  remove  the  frogs,  he  was  forced  to  apply  him- 
 self to  Moses  for  relief,  who,  upon  his  address  to  God, 
 had  them  all  destroyed  the  next  day,  according  to  tin- 
 time  that  he  had  prefixed  ;  but  when  they  were  gathered 
 into  heaps,  their  number  was  so  great,  that  before  they 
 could  well  be  disposed  of,  they  infected  the  air,  and 
 made  the  whole  land  stink. 
 
 There  were  several  other  miracles  wrought  by  Mosess 
 and  Aaron  in  the  like  manner.  The  swarms  of  ''  lice 
 which  the  magicians  could  not  imitate  ;  the  murrain,  or 
 mortality  among  their  cattle,  wherein  the  Israelites  were 
 exempted  ;  e  the  plague  of  flies ;  the  boils  inflicted  upon 
 
 c  The  river  Nile  naturally  produces  frogs;  but  ^o  great  an 
 abundance  appearing  on  a  sudden,  tilling  the  country,  and  leaving 
 the  rivers  and  fields,  to  go  into  the  cities  and  houses,  was  really 
 miraculous.  How  they  got  into  the  cities  and  houses  is  not  so 
 hard  a  matter  to  conceive ;  for  if  expert  generals,  according  to 
 both  ancient  and  modern  history,  have  sometimes  surprised  an 
 enemy  by  entering  cities  through  the  common  sewers,  with  much 
 less  difficulty  might  the  frogs,  these  armies  of  the  divine  ven- 
 geance, find  a  conveyance  into  the  cities,  which  stood  all  upon 
 the  banks  of  the  river,  by  aqueducts  and  subterraneous  communi- 
 cations; and  being  got  into  the  cities,  they  might  find  apertures 
 in  the  walls  of  the  houses,  which  the  inhabitants  never  perceived 
 before. —  Bibliotheca  BibUca  in  locum. 
 
 d  Some  would  have  the  word  cinnim,  which  we  render  lice,  to 
 signify  gnats.  The  Septlttgint  calls  them  K>)»<Ti>-;  but  what 
 kind  of  creatures  these  were,  is  not  so  certainly  known.  Other-, 
 would  have  them  to  be  a  new  species  of  animals,  called  analogi- 
 cally by  an  old  name;  or  if  they  were  lice,  that  tiny  were  -in  h 
 as  had  wings,  and  cruelly  Stung  and  ulcerated  the  Egyptians. 
 But  upon  the  supposition  that  they  were  no  worse  than  common 
 lice,  this  was  plague  enough  to  the  Egyptians,  who  affected  neat- 
 ness to  such  a  degree,  that,  tiny  bathed  themselves  everyday, 
 and  Mime  ,,f  them  frequently  shaved  their  bodies  all  over,  for  fear 
 
 df  such  vermin.     Those  who  pretend  tint  these  lice  were  a  uei 
 species,  make  this  a  reason  why  the  magicians  could  not  counter- 
 feit this  miracle,  because,  though  they  could  easily  provide  the 
 serpents,  the  blood,  and  the  frogs,  yet  this  sort  of  animal  was  DOW 
 nowhere  to  be  had  :  and  therefore,  as  the  organs  of  Bight  an-  more 
 
 liable  to  be  imposed  upon  than  those  of  feeling,  the  magicians 
 
 might  impose  upon  the  king,  and  the  other  spectators,  with  fan- 
 tastical blood  and  I'm--,  but.  Visionary  lice  could  net  \.\  and 
 torment  the  body:   80  that  now   it  was  time  for  the  enchant,  i-   to 
 
 desist,  and  to  own  their  inability  to  mimic  Moses  any  I 
 But  supposing,  that  what  the  magicians  did,  in  the  three  form*  i 
 miracles,  was  not  illusion  and  imposition  upon  the  sensi 
 reality,  the  true  reason  why  they  could  proceed  do  ntrtht 
 thai  God  Almighty  bad  laid  bis  restraint  and  prohibition  up< 
 evil  spirits,  who  bad  hitherto  been  subservii  at  to  them,  that  tin  y 
 might  not  a"i-t  them  any  longer. —  l.c  Clerc's  Commentary,  and 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica  in  locum. 
 e  The  word  arai,  which  we  render  fly  in  general,  is  by  the 
 Int  call.. I  Kufouvim,  that  is,  day-fly,  from  its  biting ; 
 
246  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  JC48.  EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 [Book  II L 
 
 the  magicians  themselves ;  a  the  terrible    thunder   and 
 lightning,  b  rain  and  hail,  which  destroyed  the  fruits  of 
 
 fcstens  its  teeth  so  deep  in  the  flesh,  and  sticks  so  very  close,  that 
 it  oftentimes  makes  cattle  run  mad  ;  and  the  congruity  of  this 
 plague  seems  to  be  greater,  because  one  of  the  Egyptian  deities, 
 which  they  call  Anubis,  bore  the  head  of  a  dog.  The  Psalmist 
 indeed  tells  us,  that  '  God  sent  divers  sorts  of  Hies  among  them, 
 which  devoured  them,'  Ps.  lxxviii.  45.  So  that,  according  to 
 him,  it  was  not  one  particular  kind,  but  all  sorts  of  flies  mingled 
 together  in  one  prodigious  swarm  or  conflux.  Some  translate  it, 
 a  mixture  of  beasts,  which  they  suppose  went  into  Egypt  to  infest 
 and  destroy  the  country:  but  this  is  not  so  probable  a  construc- 
 tion, because  the  punishments  hitherto  inflicted  were  nauseous 
 and  trouble  ome.  rather  than  mortal ;  though  this  plague  of  infinite 
 numbers  of  small  tormentors,  is  so  great  a  one,  that  God  calls  it 
 '  his  army.'  Joel  ii.  25;  and  the  Greeks  thought  fit  (as  Pliny, 
 b.  20.  c  :'<,  tells  us)  to  have  a  god  to  deliver  them  from  it,  under 
 the  style  of  Myiagros,  or  Myiodes,  even  as  Beelzebub  signifies  the 
 lord  or  god  of  flies. — Bochart,  Hier.  part  2. 
 
 a  The  Hebrew  word  shechin  properly  signifies  an  inflamma- 
 tion, which  first  makes  a  tumour  or  boil,  as  we  translate  it,  and 
 thence  turns  a  grievous  ulcer.  Dr  Lightfoot  indeed  observes, 
 that,  in  the  hook  of  Job,  chap.  ii.  7,  8,  where  the  same  word 
 occurs,  it  signifies  only  a  burning  itch,  or  an  inflamed  scab; 
 an  intolerable  dry  itch,  which  Job  could  not  scratch  off  with 
 his  nails,  and  was  therefore  forced  to  make  use  of  a  potsherd; 
 but  then  he  confesses  that  this  shechin  here  spoken  of,  was  more 
 rancorous  than  that,  having  blains  and  ulcers  that  broke  out  with 
 it,  which  Job's  had  not.  So  that  the  Egyptians,  according  to 
 this,  must  have  been  vexed  with  a  triple  punishment  at  once, 
 a  punishment  fitly  calculated  for  the  mortification  of  a  delicate 
 and  voluptuous  people,  aching  boils,  nauseous  ulcers,  and  a  burn- 
 ing itch:  and  to  this  that  commination  of  Moses  to  the  people, 
 in  case  they  proved  disobedient,  does,  without  all  peradventure, 
 allude,  '  The  Lord  will  smite  thee  with  the  botch  of  Egypt,  and 
 with  the  emerods,  and  with  the  scab,  and  with  the  itch,  whereof 
 thou  canst  not  be  healed.'  Deut.  xxviii.  27. 
 
 Exod.  ix.  8.  'And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses  and  unto 
 Aaron,  take  to  you  handfuls  of  ashes  of  the  furnace,  and  let 
 Moses  sprinkle  it  toward  the  heaven,  in  the  sight  of  Pharaoh. 
 And  it  shall  become  small  dust  in  all  the  land  of  Egypt,  and 
 shall  be  a  boil  breaking  forth  with  blains  upon  man,  and  upon 
 beast,  throughout  all  the  land  of  Egypt.'  "  It  is  said,  that  when 
 tin  -  evil  was  to  be  brought  upon  the  Egyptians,  Aaron  and  Moses 
 were  ordered  to  take  ashes  of  the  furnace,  and  Moses  was  to 
 scatter  them  up  towards  heaven,  that  they  might  he  wafted  over 
 the  iaee  of  the  country.  This  mandate  was  very  determinate, 
 and  to  the  last  degree  significant.  The  ashes  were  to  be  taken 
 from  that  fiery  furnace,  which  in  the  scriptures  was  used  as  a 
 type  df  the  Israelites'  slavery,  and  of  all  the  cruelty  which  they 
 experienced  in  Egypt.  The  process  was  still  a  farther  allusion 
 to  an  idolatrous  and  cruel  rite,  which  was  common  among  the 
 Egyptians,  and  to  which  it  is  opposed  as  a  contrast.  They  had 
 several  cities  styled  Typhonium,  such  as  Heliopolis,  Idithyia, 
 Abarei,  and  lJusiris;  in  these,  at  particular  seasons,  they  sacri- 
 ficed men.  The  objects  thus  destined  were  persons  of  bright 
 hair,  and  a  particular  complexion,  such  as  were  seldom  to  be 
 found  amongst  the  native  Egyptians.  Hence  we  may  infer  that 
 they  w,re  foreigners;  and  it  is  probable,  that  while  the  Israelites 
 resided  in  Egypt,  they  were  chosen  from  their  body.  They 
 were  burnt  alive  upon  an  high  altar,  and  thus  sacrificed  for  the 
 'I  the  people.  At  the  close  of  the  sacrifice,  the  priests 
 gathered  together  the  ashes  of  their  victims,  and  scattered  them 
 upwards  i,,  the  air,  [  presume  with  this  view,  that  where  any 
 atom  of  this  dust  was  wafted,  a  blessing  might  be  entailed.  The 
 like  was  done  by  Moses  with  the  ashes  of  the  fiery  furnace, 
 but  with  a  different  intention;  they  were  scattered  abroad,  that 
 where  any  the  smallest  portion  alighted,  it  might  prove  a  plague 
 and  a  curse  to  this  ungrateful,  cruel,  and  infatuated  people. 
 Thus,  there  was  a  designed  contrast  in  these  workings  of  pro- 
 ^  idence— an  appan  nt  opposition  to  the  superstition  of  tlie  times." 
 —Bryant  on  the  Plagues  of  Egypt,  p.  no'.  Mages  on  Atone- 
 ment and  Sacrifices,  Diss.  5. Ki>. 
 
 I>  This  infliction  was  the  more  terrible  in  Egypt,  because, 
 according  to  tlie  account  of  Herodotus,  (l>.  .">.  c.  10,)  a  very  rare 
 t-'ing  it  was  to  sec  any  rain,  aud  much  more,  any  hail,  in  that 
 
 the  earth ;  the  plague  of  the  c  locusts,  or  grasshoppers, 
 which  devoured  what  escaped  from  the  hail  ;  and  that  of 
 thick  d  darkness,  which  covered  all  Egypt  for  three  days, 
 
 climate;  and  accordingly  he  mentions  it  as  a  kind  of  prodigy, 
 that  in  the  reign  of  Psammenitus,  there  happened  to  he  a  shower 
 in  Thebes,  which  was  never  known  before  in  the  memory  of 
 man,  nor  ever  after,  to  the  age  wherein  our  author  wrote.  Tlie 
 psalmist  has  given  us  a  very  poetic  description  of  this  judg- 
 ment: 'he  destroyed  the  vines  with  hail,  and  the  sycamore 
 trees  with  frost;  he  gave  up  the  cattle  also  to  the  hail,  and  their 
 flocks  to  hot  thunderbolts.'  Ps.  lxxviii.  47,  48.  And  from  the 
 plain  account  of  Moses,  where  he  mixes  thunder,  hail,  and  fire 
 together,  (Exod.  ix.  23,)  the  observation  is  obvious,  that  here 
 were  no  less  than  three  of  the  elements  in  confederacy  against 
 Pharaoh's  obstinacy;  the  air  in  the  thunder;  the  water  in  the 
 hail ;  and  the  fire  in  the  lightning,  all  jointly  demonstrating  and 
 proclaiming,  that  the  God  of  Israel  was  the  God  of  nature. 
 
 c  This  is  the  creature  which  we  properly  call  the  grasshopper; 
 and  wonderful  is  the  account  which  several  authors  give  of  them. 
 Thevenot,  in  his  Travels,  tells  us,  "  That  in  that  part  of  Scythia 
 which  the  Cossacks  now  inhabit,  there  are  infinite  numbers  of 
 them,  especially  in  dry  seasons,  which  the  north-east  wind  brings 
 over  from  Tartary,  Circassia,  and  Mingrelia,  which  are  seldom 
 or  never  free  from  them ;  that  they  fly  in  the  air  all  compact 
 together,  like  a  vast  cloud,  sometimes  15  or  18  miles  long,  and 
 about  10  or  12  miles  broad;  so  that  they  quite  darken  the  sky, 
 and  make  the  brightest  day  obscure;  and  that  wherever  they 
 light,  they  devour  all  the  com  in  less  than  two  hours'  time,  and 
 frequently  make  a  famine  in  the  country.  These  insects,"  says 
 he,  "live  not  above  six  months;  and  when  they  are  dead,  the 
 stench  of  them  so  corrupts  and  infects  the  air,  that  it  very  often 
 breeds  dreadful  pestilences."  God,  as  We  hinted  before,  calls  the 
 locust,  'the  canker-worm,  and  the  caterpillar,  and  the  palmer- 
 worm,  his  great  army,'  which  he  sends  amongst  a  wicked  and 
 rebellious  people,  (Joel  ii.  25.)  And  how  proper  the  expression  is, 
 in  relation  to  the  locust  in  particular,  will  appear  from  the  account 
 which  Aldrovandus  and  Fincelius  give  us  of  these  animals, 
 namely,  "that  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  852,  an  infinite  number 
 of  them  was  seen  to  fly  over  twenty  miles  in  Germany  in  one 
 day,  in  the  manner  of  a  formed  army,  divided  in  severai 
 squadrons,  and  having  their  quarters  apart  when  they  rested ; 
 that  the  captains  marched  a  day's  journey  before  the  rest,  and 
 chose  the  most  opportune  places  for  their  camp ;  that  they  never 
 removed  until  sunrising,  at  which  time  they  went  away  in  as 
 much  order  as  an  army  of  men  could  do:  that  at  last,  having 
 done  great  mischief  wherever  they  passed,  after  prayers  made  to 
 God,  they  were  driven  by  a  violent  wind  into  tlie  lielgie  ocean, 
 and  there  drowned ;  but  that,  being  cast  by  the  sea  upon  the 
 shore,  they  covered  140  acres  of  land,  and  caused  a  great  pesti- 
 lence in  the  country:"  which  is  enough  to  show  how  dreadful  a 
 punishment  this  was,  especially  considering,  that  these  locusts 
 were  such  as  were  never  known  before. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  Septuagint,  and  most  translations,  render  it,  '  a  dark- 
 ness which  miglit  be  felt,'  that  is,  consisting  of  black  vapours 
 and  exhalations,  so  condensed,  that  they  might  be  perceived  by 
 the  organs  of  touch.  But  some  commentators  think,  that  this  is 
 carrying  the  sense  too  far,  since,  in  such  a  medium  as  this, 
 mankind  could  not  live  an  hour,  much  less  for  the  space  of  three 
 days,  as  the  Egyptians  are  said  to  have  done ;  and  therefore  they 
 imagine,  that  instead  of  a  darkness  that  may  be  felt,  the  Hebrew 
 phrase  may  signify  a  darkness  wherein  men  were  groping  airl 
 feeling  about  for  every  thing  they  wanted.  And  in  this  sense 
 the  author  of  the  life  of  Moses  certainly  takes  it.  "  For  in  this 
 darkness,"  says  he,  "  they  who  were  in  bed  durst  not  get  up; 
 aud  such  as  their  natural  occasions  compelled  to  get  up,  went 
 feeling  about  by  the  walls,  or  any  other  thing  they  could  lay  hold 
 on,  as  if  they  had  been  blind."  What  it  was  that  occasioned 
 this  darkness,  whether  it  was  in  the  air,  or  in  their  eyes;  whether 
 it  was  a  suspension  of  light  from  the  sun  in  that  country,  or  a 
 black  and  thick  vapour,  which  totally  intercepted  it;  there  is 
 reason  to  think,  that  the  description  which  the  author  of  the  book 
 of  Wisdom  gives  us  of  their  inward  terrors  and  consternation  is 
 not  altogether  conjectural,  namely,  'That  they  were  not,  only 
 prisoners  of  darkness,  and  fettered  with  tlie  bonds  of  a  long  night, 
 but  were  horribly  astonished  likewise,  and  troubled  with  strange 
 apparitions;  for  while  over  them  was  spread  an  heavy  night,  they 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 247 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  )r,71  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  8763.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOU.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 while  the  land  of  Goshen,  where  the  Israelites  lived,  was 
 enlightened  as  usual.  All  these  miracles,  performed  by 
 the  word  of  Moses,  did  not  a  little  perplex  the  king'. 
 He  found  that  all  the  power  and  learning  of  the  magi- 
 cians could  not  equal  them.  Upon  attempting  one  of 
 them,  they  themselves  confessed  that  it  was  done  by 
 the  finger  of  God  ;  and  in  the  case  of  another,  they  were 
 equally  sufferers  in  the  common  calamity  :  so  that  the 
 king's  heart  was  several  times  almost  overcome.  He 
 offered  the  Israelites  leave  to  perforin  their  religious 
 offices  to  their  God,  provided  they  would  do  it  in  Egypt ; 
 hut  their  religion,  as  Moses  told  him,  was  so  very  dif- 
 ferent from  the  Egyptian,  that  were  they  to  do  what  (tod 
 required  of  them  in  Egypt,  the  inhabitants  would  a  rise 
 up  against  them,  and  stone  them.  The  king,  after  this, 
 offered  that  they  might  go  out  of  the  kingdom,  provided 
 adult  persons  only  would  go,  and  leave  their  children 
 behind,  as  pledges  for  their  return ;  but  to  this  Moses 
 peremptorily  replied,  that  none  should  be  left  behind, 
 the  young  and  the  old  should  go  together  ;  which  enraged 
 Pharaoh  so,  that  with  some  severe  menaces,  he  ordered 
 him  to  depart  from  his  presence.  However,  as  he  found 
 the  plagues  increase  upon  him,  he  came  to  a  farther  con- 
 cession, and  was  willing  that  the  people  should  go,  but 
 only  that  their  flocks  and  their  herds  should  be  stayed, 
 as  rightly  supposing,  that  this  might  be  a  means  to  acce- 
 lerate their  return  :  but  Moses  positively  insisted,  that 
 all  their  substance  should  be  taken  with  them,  and  not 
 one  hoof  be  left  behind;  whereupon  Pharaoh  grew  so 
 exceeding  angry,  that  he  charged  him  to  be  gone  from 
 his  presence,  and  never  attempt  to  see  him  more,  for 
 that,  if  he  did,  he  would  certainly  put  him  to  death. 
 
 Moses,  however,  by  the  divine  command,  went  once 
 more  to  Pharaoh,  with  the  severest  message  he  had  ever 
 brought  him  ;  and  represented  to  him,  that  at  midnight 
 God  would  strike  dead  the  first-born  of  every  family 
 throughout  all  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  that  thereupon 
 there  should  be  such  a  dread,  and  terror  among  the 
 Egyptians,  that  they  would  come  to  him  in  the  most  sub- 
 missive manner,  and  beg  of  hitu  to  lead  the  people  out 
 of  the  land;  and  after  that,  said  he,  I  shall  go:  which 
 put  Pharaoh  into  such  a  rage,  that  Moses,  having  no 
 intention  to  incense  and  provoke  him  farther,  turned 
 away,  and  left  him. 
 
 Four  days  before  this,  God  had  instructed  Moses  and 
 Aaron  to  direct  the  people  to  prepare  the  passover, 
 which  was  to  be  a  feast  in  commemoration  of  their  de- 
 parture out  of  Egypt ;  because  the  night  before  they  left 
 it,  the  destroying  angel,  who  slew  the  first-born  of  the 
 Egyptians,  passed  over  the  houses  of  the  Israelites, 
 without  doing  them  any  harm,  they  being  marked  with 
 
 were  to  themselves  more  grievous  than  darkness.' — Wisdom, 
 xvii.  2,  3,  21;  Le  Clerks  Commentary,  and  P/iilo's  Life  of 
 Moses. 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  Lo,  shall  we  sacrifice  the 
 Abominations  of  the  Egyptians  before  thejr  eyes,  and  shall  they 
 not  stone  us  ?'  Exod.  \  iii.  26.  Where  the  interrogation,  having 
 in  it  the  full  force  of  an  affirmation,  makes  the  sense  of  the 
 words  to  be  this:  "  If  we  should  oiler  those  creatures  which  the 
 Egyptians  worship  for  gods,  as  the  ox  and  the  sheep,  they  doubt- 
 less will  be  affronted  to  see  us  sacrifice  their  gods  to  our  God." 
 For  that  the  Egyptians  did  look  upon  several  animals  with  a 
 sacred  veneration,  is  evident  from  that  known  passage  in  the 
 satirist: — "  The  fleece-bearing  animals  are  served  up  on  notable  ; 
 and  it  is  a  crime  to  butcher  their  young.'' — Juven.  sat.  lo. 
 
 the  blood  of  the  lamb,  which  was  killed  the  evening 
 before.      And  the   injunction    which    Moses   gave    the 
 
 people,  was  to  this  effect: — That  *  every  family  of 
 Israel,  or  if  the  family  was  too  little,  two  neighbouring 
 families  joining  together,  should  on  the  tenth  day  of  tin? 
 month,  take  a  Iamb  or  a  kid,  c  and  shut  it  up  until  the 
 fourteenth  day,  and  then  kill  it ;  that  the  lamb  was  to  be 
 a  male,  not  above  a  year  old,  and  without  any  manner 
 of  blemish  ;  that  when  they  killed  it,  they  should  catch 
 its  blood  in  a  vessel,  and  with  a  bunch  of  hyssop  dipped 
 in  it,  sprinkle  the  lintel  and  side  posts  of  the  outer  door, 
 and  so  not  stir  out  of  the  house  until  next  morning  ;  that. 
 in  the  mean  time,  they  were  to  eat  the  lamb  or  kid, 
 dressed  whole,  and  without  breaking  a  bone  of  it,  neither 
 raw  nor  sodden,  but  roasted  with  unleavened  bread,  and 
 bitter  herbs  ;  that  if  there  was  more  than  they  could  dis- 
 pense with,  no  stranger  was  to  eat  of  it,  and  therefore  they 
 
 b  Some  learned  men  are  of  opinion,  that  God,  in  the  insti- 
 tution of  the  passover,  had  respect  to  these  impious  rites, 
 which  either  then  did  prevail,  or  in  a  short  time  were  to 
 prevail,  among  the  Egyptians,  and  other  nations  where  the 
 Israelites  were  to  dwell.  Thus  they  tell  us,  "That God  appoint- 
 ed a  lamb  to  be  slain,  and  eaten,  and  the  month  Nisan  or  March 
 to  be  the  particular  time  of  eating  it,  iii  contempt  of  the  Egyp- 
 tians, who  at  that  time,  when  the  sun  first  entered  into  Aries, 
 began  their  solemn  worship  and  adoration  of  this  creature,  and 
 that  celestial  sign;  that  lie  forbade  the  people  to  eat  tin-  flesh  of 
 the  paschal  lamb  raw,  or  sodden,  to  break  its  bones,  or  leave  any 
 fragment  of  it,  because,  in  the  profane  feasts  of  Bacchus,  it  was 
 a  custom  to  eat  the  raw  flesh  of  the  victims,  which  the)  • 
 to  that  god,  and  to  break  all  their  bones;  and  in  the  adoration  of 
 the  'iloui,  whom  the  Egyptians,  and  from  them  the  Athenian-, 
 reputed  goddesses,  they  boiled  all  their  sacrifices,  and  carried  con- 
 stantly some  part  of  them  home,  as  a  good  |  reservative 
 misfortunes."  But  there  is  no  need,  one  would  think,  for  such 
 i  laborate  explications,  when,  considering  the  situation  thi  I 
 ites  were  in,  sorely  oppressed  by  the  Egyptians,  and  shortly  to 
 be-  released,  and  sent  away  with  all  speed,  the  nature  and  quality 
 of  the  paschal  sacrifice,  as  well  as  the  manner  of  dressing  and 
 mannei-  of  eating  it,  may  perfectly  be  accounted  for.  Tim  .  if 
 was  to  hi1  a  male,  because  a  more  excellent  species  than  the 
 female;  '  without  blemish,'  to  render  it  acceptable  to  God ;  ' 
 a  year  old,"  Otherwise  it  could  not  properly  be  called  'a  lamb;' 
 and  'set  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  flock/  that  it  might  be  in 
 readiness  when  the  people  came  in  haste  to  oiler  it.  '  i 
 it  was  to  be,  and  not  boiled,' because  roasting  was  the  speedier 
 
 way  of  dressing  it;  but  '  roasted  thoroughly,'  because  the  whole 
 was  to  be  eaten;  and  'the  whole  was  to  be  eaten,' that  none 
 might  be  left,  for  the  Egyptians  to  profane.  It  was  t,.  1 .. 
 •  standing,  and  in  haste,'  and  with  other  circumstances  of  men 
 every  moment  expecting  to  begin  their  journey;  'with  bitter 
 herbs'  to  put  them  in  mind  of  their  cruel  servitud 
 'unleavened  bread,'  in  memory  of  their  deliverance  from  it,  so 
 suddenly,  that  they  had  net  even  time  to  leaven  thi  ir  bread  for 
 their  journey:  which  is  all  that  the  Israelites  understood,  and  all 
 perhaps  that  God  at  that  time  intended  they  should  me'. 
 
 by  the  directions  which  he  gave  them  COncen  likable 
 
 ordinance — Spencer  de  R«.  Heb,  Tom.  1.  b.  •-'.  c,  -I. 
 
 c  Exod.  xii.  3.      '  In   the  tenth  day  of   this   month,  they  shall 
 take    to   themselves    every   man  a   lamb;'   VW.  6.    'and    \. 
 keep  it  up  until  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  same   month.' 
 hence  it    appears  that  the  lamb  was   to   be   taken   from    th( 
 
 four  days  before  it  was  killed.     For  thi-  the  rabbi-  assign  the; 
 following  reasons:  that  the  providing  of  it  might  net,  thi 
 hurry  of  business,  especially  at  the  time  of  their  departure  from 
 Egypt,  be  neglected  till  it  was  too  late:  that  by  having  it  before 
 their  eyes  so  considerable  a  time,  they  might  be  mere  c  ffectually 
 
 reminded    of   the  mercy  of   their  deli\  crauce    out.'. 
 
 likewise  to  prepare  them  for  so  Meat  a  solemnity  as  the  ;•; . 
 
 ing  feast     On  these  accounts,  rabbis  h us, 
 
 ii  wa  ■  customary  to  have  the  lamb  tied  these  four  days  to  their  l  ed 
 posts:  a  rite  which  they  make  to  be  necessary  and  i  —  ntial  t  i  the 
 passover  in  all  ages. — Jennings'  Jewish  .-hit.  vol,  '-■  p.  187. — Ed, 
 
248 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book    HI. 
 
 M.  3433.  A.  C.  1;.71  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1C4S.  EXOU.  CH.  i- 
 
 were  to  burn  it ;  and,  lastly,  that  the  posture  in  which 
 they  were  to  eat  it,  was  to  be  in  a  hurry,  with  their 
 clothes  on,  and  their  staves  in  their  hands,  as  if  they 
 were  just  upon  the  point  of  going.  a 
 
 When  every  thing  was  thus  in  readiness  for  their 
 departure,  God,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  by  his 
 destroying  angel,  *  slew  the  lirst-born  of  every  house  in 
 
 a  Exod.  xii.  15.  '  Seven  days  shall  ye  cat  unleavened  bread.' 
 As  by  the  law  of  Moses,  no  leaven  of  any  kind  was  to  be  kept  in 
 the  houses  of  the  Israelites  for  seven  or  eight  days,  it  might  have 
 been  productive  of  great  inconvenience,  had  they  not  been  able  by 
 other  means  to  supply  the  want  of  it.  The  MS.  Chardin  informs 
 us,  that  they  use  no  kind  of  leaven  whatever  in  the  east,  but 
 dough  kept  till  it  is  grown  sour,  which  they  preserve  from  one 
 day  to  another.  In  wine  countries,  they  use  the  lees  of  wine 
 as  we  do  yeast.  If,  therefore,  there  should  be  no  leaven  in  all 
 the  country  for  several  days,  yet  in  twenty-four  hours,  some 
 would  be  produced,  and  they  would  return  to  their  preceding 
 state.  (Htiniifi;  vol.  1.  p.  253.) — 'The  first  day  ye  shall  put 
 away  leaven  out  of  your  houses.'  Concerning  this  matter  the 
 modern  Jews  are  euperstitiously  exact  and  scrupulous.  The 
 master  of  the  family  makes  a  diligent  search  into  every  hole  and 
 crevice  throughout  the  house,  lest  any  crumb  of  unleavened  bread 
 should  remain  in  it;  and  that  not  by  the  light  of  the  sun  or  moon, 
 but  of  a  candle.  And  in  order  that  this  exactness  may  not 
 appear  altogether  superfluous  and  ridiculous,  care  is  taken  to 
 conceal  some  scraps  of  unleavened  bread  in  some  corner  or  other, 
 the  discovery  of  which  occasions  mighty  joy.  This  search, 
 nevertheless,  strict  as  it  is,  does  not  give  him  entire  satisfaction. 
 After  all,  he  beseeches  God,  that  all  the  unleavened  bread  that 
 is  in  the  house,  as  well  as  what  he  has  found,  may  become  like 
 the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  be  reduced  to  nothing.  They  are  also 
 veiy  exact  and  scrupulous  in  making  their  bread  for  the  feast, 
 lest  there  should  be  anything  like  leaven  mixed  with  it.  The 
 corn,  of  which  it  is  made,  must  not  be  carried  to  the  mill  on  the 
 horse's  bare  back,  lest  the  heat  of  the  sun  should  make  it  ferment. 
 The  sack  in  which  it  is  put,  must  be  carefully  examined,  lest 
 there  should  be  any  remainder  of  old  meal  in  it ;  the  dough  must 
 be  made  in  a  place  not  exposed  to  the  sun,  and  must  be  put  into 
 the  oven  immediately  after  it  is  made,  lest  it  should  ferment 
 itself. — Jennings'  Jewish  Ayit.  vol.  2.  p.  211. — Ed. 
 
 b  The  word  Bekor,  signifies  sometimes  aperson  of  some  emi- 
 mence  or  excellence,  as  well  as  the  first-born:  and  therefore  it 
 may  n<'t.  be  an  unreasonable  supposition,  that  where  a  family  had 
 im  first-born,  the  principal  or  most  eminent  person  was  smitten 
 with  death;  which  is  certainly  better  than  to  imagine,  with 
 some,  both  Jewish  and  Christian  interpreters,  that  the  words  of 
 Moses  are  only  applicable  to  an  house  that  had  a  first-born,  or 
 with  St  Austin,  that  Providence  did  so  order  it  at  this  time,  that 
 every  house  had  a  first-born.  Since  this,  however,  is  the  con- 
 cluding judgment  which  Cod  sent  upon  the  Egyptians,  it  may 
 not  he  improper  here  to  inquire  a  little  how  long  Moses  was  in 
 working  all  these  miracles.  According  to  Archbishop  Usher, 
 then,  who  has  included  them  all  within  the  space  of  one  month, 
 we  may  suppose,  that  about  the  18th  of  the  sixth  month,  was 
 sent  the  plague  of  the  '  waters  turned  into  blood,'  which  ended 
 seven  days  after.  On  the  25th  came  the  second  plague  of  fro°s 
 which  was  removed  the  day  following,  and  on  the  27th,  that  of 
 the  lice.  About  the  28th,  Moses  threatened  the  fourth  plague  of 
 (lies  and  inflicted  them  on  the  29th.  On  the  1st  of  the°next 
 month,  which  was  afterwards  made  the  first  month  of  the  year, 
 In'  foretold  the  plague  of  the  murrain,  and  inflicted  it  the 
 next;  and  on  the  3d,  the  sixth  plague  of  boils,  which  fell  upon 
 the  magicians  themselves.  About  the  4th  day,  he  foretold  the 
 seventh  plague  of  thunder  and  hail,  and  on  the  5th  inflicted  it. 
 On  the  7th,  he  threatened  the  eighth  plague  of  locusts,  and  hav- 
 ing sen!  them  the  day  following,  removed  them  on  the  9th.  On 
 the  ldth,  he  instituted  the  feast  of  the  passover,  and  brought 
 upon  Egypt  the  ninth  plague  of  darkness,  which  lasted  for 
 three  days;  and  on  the  1  1th  he  ton  told  th,>  tenth,  namely,  the 
 destruction  of  all  their  first-born,  which  came  to  pass  the  night 
 following.  This  seems  to  be  a  reasonable  period  of  time;  and 
 the  gradual  increase  of  these  judgments  are  somewhat  remarka- 
 ble. The  four  first  plagues  were  loathsome,  rather  than  fatal  to 
 the  Egyptians;  but  after  that  of  the  flies,  came  the  murrain, 
 which  chiefly  spent  its  rage  upon  the  cattle;  the  boils  and  blains 
 
 Ejrypt,  from  the  prince  who  sat  upon  the  throne,  to  the 
 meanest  slave  ;  but  among  the  Israelites  none  was  hurt, 
 because  the  bloody  mark  upon  the  door-posts,  was  a 
 token  for  the  angel  not  to  strike  there.  At  midnight 
 there  was  a  sudden  outcry  and  confusion  among  the 
 Egyptians :  the  dying-  groans  of  their  children  awoke 
 them ;  and  when  they  perceived  that  in  every  family, 
 without  exception,  the  first-born,  both  of  man  and  beast, 
 were  dead,  they  came  immediately  to  Moses,  in  a  great 
 fright,  and  terror,  and  desired  him  to  get  the  people 
 together,  and  to  take  their  flocks,  and  their  herds,  and 
 all  that  belonged  to  them,  and  be  gone,  because  they 
 could  not  tell  where  such  dreadful  judgments  would  end. 
 Moses,  had  beforehand,  according-  to  God's  order, 
 directed  the  Israelites  to  borrow  of  the  Egyptians  silver 
 and  gold  vessels  to  a  great  value  ;  and  God  had,  at  this 
 time,  disposed  the  hearts  of  the  Egyptians  to  lend  them 
 every  tiling  they  asked  for.  The  truth  is,  they  were  in 
 a  manner  frighted  out  of  their  wits,  and  so  urgent  were 
 they  to  have  the  Israelites  gone,  that  they  would  not  let 
 them  stay,  so  much  as  to  bake  their  bread,  but  obliged 
 them  to  take  the  dough,  raw  as  it  was,  along  with  them, 
 and  bake  it,  as  well  as  they  could,  upon  the  road.  c  From 
 whence  it  came  to  be  a  law,  that  during  the  whole  eight 
 days  of  the  passover,  no  other  bread  than  what  was  un- 
 leavened, was  to  be  eaten.  d 
 
 CHAP.  II. 
 
 -Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 To  account,  in  some  measure,  for  the   occasion  of  the 
 sufferings  of  the  Israelites  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  Ave  must 
 
 reached  both  man  and  beast,  though  there  was  still  a  reserve  for 
 life.  The  hail  and  locusts  extended,  in  a  great  measure,  even  to 
 life  itself;  the  first  by  an  immediate  stroke,  and  both  conse- 
 quently by  destroying  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  That  of  darkness 
 added  consternation  to  their  minds,  and  lashes  to  their  con- 
 sciences ;  and  when  all  this  would  not  reclaim,  at  length  came 
 the  decisive  blow ;  first  the  excision  of  the  first-born,  and  then 
 the  drowning  of  the  incorrigible  tyrant  and  all  his  host:  '  Great 
 and  marvellous  are  thy  works,  O  Lord  God  Almighty!  just  and 
 true  are  thy  ways,  thou  King  of  saints!' — Rev.  xv.  3. 
 
 c  Exod.  xii.  34.  '  And  the  people  took  their  dough  before  it 
 was  leavened,  their  kneading-troughs  being  bound  up  in  their 
 clothes  upon  their  shoulders.'  The  vessels  which  the  Arabs 
 make  use  of  for  their  kneading  the  unleavened  cakes  which  they 
 prepare  are  only  small  wooden  bowls.  {Shaw's  Travels,  p.  231.) 
 On  these  they  afterwards  serve  up  their  provisions,  when  cooked. 
 It  is  not  certain  that  these  wooden  bowls  were  the  kneading- 
 troughs  of  the  Israelites ;  but  it  is  incontestable  that  they  must 
 have  been  comparatively  small  and  light,  to  be  so  easily  carried 
 away.  The  original  word  may  denote  a  kind  of  leathern  utensil. 
 such  as  the  Arabs  still  use,  when  spread  out  for  a  tablecloth,  and 
 which,  when  contracted  like  a  bag,  serves  them  to  cany  the 
 remnants  of  their  victuals,  and  particularly  sometimes  their  meal 
 made  into  dough.  (See  Harmers  Observations,  vol.  2.  p.  447, 
 &c. )  So  Niebuhr,  speaking  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Bedow- 
 een  Arabs  near  mount  Sinai  live,  says,  "  a  round  piece  of 
 leather  serves  them  for  a  tablecloth,  and  they  keep  in  it  the 
 remains  of  their  victuals." — Ed. 
 
 d  Exod.  xii.  26,  27.  '  Your  children  shall  say  unto  you,  what 
 mean  ye  by  this  service?'  A  custom  obtained  among  the  Jews, 
 that  a  child  should  ask  the  meaning  of  the  passover,  and  that  the 
 person  who  presided,  should  then  give  an  account  of  its  intent 
 and  origin,  that  so  the  remembrance  of  God's  mercy,  might  be 
 transmitted  to  their  latest  posterity.  This  was  called  the  declara- 
 tion, or  shoivinr;  forth. — Ed. 
 
St.ct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &,-. 
 
 249 
 
 A   M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763 
 
 observe,   that  in  the  fifth   year   of  Concharis,    (whom 
 
 Josephus,  from  Manetho,  calls  Timeus,and  who,  accord- 
 ing to  Syncellus,  was  the  twenty-fifth  king  of  the  land  of 
 Tanis,  or  Lower  Egypt,)  there  came  a  numerous  army  of 
 unknown  people,  and  invaded  Egypt  on  a  sudden.  They 
 overran  both  the  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt ;  burned  the 
 cities,  killed  the  inhabitants,  and,  having  in  a  little  time 
 subdued  all  before  them,  made  one  of  their  leaders,  whose 
 name  was  Salatis,  their  king  ;  who,  as  soon  as  he  was 
 settled  on  a  throne,  laid  the  land  under  tribute,  made  its 
 ancient  inhabitants  his  slaves ;  and  gave  the  possession 
 of  their  estates  to  his  own  people.  Who  this  Salatis  and 
 his  followers,  who  called  themselves  pastors  or  shep- 
 herds, were,  is  not  so  easy  a  matter  to  discover.  The 
 most  probable  conjecture  is,  that  they  were  some  of  the 
 Horites,  whom  the  children  of  Esau  drove  out  of  Seir, 
 a  country  which  lay  to  the  east  and  south  of  the  Dead 
 Sea,  because  the  Horites  were  a  people  who  lived  by 
 pasture,  and  happened  to  be  expelled  their  own  country 
 much  about  this  time.  Egypt  indeed  was  a  very- 
 flourishing  kingdom,  but  so  far  from  being  famous  for 
 war,  that  we  read  of  none  of  their  exploits  of  this  kind 
 from  the  time  of  their  first  establishment  to  this  very  day. 
 They  consumed  their  time  in  ease  and  wealth,  and 
 luxury ;  and  therefore  the  Horites,  if  they  were  the 
 Horites,  might  easily  conquer  them,  and  gain  themselves 
 a  settlement  in  their  kingdom,  even  as  the  Arcadians  did 
 in  Thrace,  and  the  Pelasgi,  and  afterwards  the  Trojans, 
 in  Italy. 
 
 However  this  be,  the  government  of  Egypt  being  by 
 this  means  subverted,  the  protection  and  happiness  which 
 the  Israelites  enjoyed  perished  with  it.  This  new  kins', 
 as  the  Scripture  calls  him,  knew  nothing  of  Joseph,  nor 
 did  he  regard  any  establishment  which  he  had  made. 
 He  had  forced  his  way  into  Egypt  with  his  sword,  and 
 settled  his  people  by  conquest,  in  such  a  manner  and 
 upon  such  terms  as  he  thought  fit :  only  as  the  Hebrews 
 were  a  great  and  increasing  people,  inhabiting  those 
 parts  which  he  most  suspected,  and  fearing  lest,  if  any 
 invasion  should  happen  from  the  east,  or  any  insurrec- 
 tion among  the  ancient  inhabitants,  they  possibly  might 
 join  with  them,  and  so  endanger  his  new  acquisition, 
 he  thought  it  a  point  of  good  policy  to  use  all  proper 
 means  to  keep  them  effectually  under. 
 
 One  of  the  great  mysteries  in  the  dispensations  of  pro- 
 vidence is,  God's  making  choice  of  the  children  of  Israel 
 for  his  peculiar  people,  when  it  is  so  manifest,  as  Moses 
 roundly  tells  them,  that  they  were  a  stiff-necked  nation. 
 and  l  '  had  been  rebellious  from  the  very  first  day  that 
 he  knew  them.'  2  '  God  will  be  gracious  to  whom  he  will 
 be  gracious,  and  will  shew  mercy  to  whom  he  will  shew 
 mercy  :'  but  upon  supposition  that  the  children  of  Israel 
 did  not  behave  so  well  during  their  abode  in  Egypt,  that 
 they  neglected  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  and  com- 
 plied too  much  with  the  idolatrous  customs  of  the  country, 
 this  will  afford  us  reason  enough,  why  God  might  suffer 
 their  sorrows  to  be  multiplied,  '  and  their  enemies  to 
 ride  over  their  backs.'  3'  He  does  not,'  indeed,  '  afflict 
 willingly,  nor  grieve  the  children  of  men  ;'  and  there- 
 fore we  may  presume,  that  this  severe  chastisement  of 
 his  rod  was  to  make  them  smart  for  some  great  and 
 national  defection;    was  to  remind  them   of  their   sail 
 
 1  Duut.  ix.  24. 
 
 '  Exod,  xxxiii.   19. 
 
 S3. 
 
 C.  IG48.  EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 degeneracy  from  the  virtue  of  their  ancestors  ;  and  so,  in 
 the  phrase  of  the  prophet, 4  *  to  look  unto  the  rock  whence 
 they  were  hewn,  and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  they 
 were  digged;  to  look  unto  Abraham  their  father,  and 
 unto  Sarah  that  bore  them.' 
 
 But  even  putting  the  case  that  they  had  not  been  thus 
 culpable;  yet,  since  5'  whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chas- 
 teneth,  and  scourgeth  every  son  whom  he  receiveth  ' 
 who  can  say,  but  that  God  might  justly  permit  such  cala- 
 mities to  befall  a  people  whom  he  had  adopted  for  his 
 own,  the  more  to  exercise  their  virtue  and  patience,  and 
 resignation  to  the  divine  will  ;  6  the  more  to  keep  up  a  dis- 
 tinction between  them  and  the  Egyptians,  which  a  friendly 
 usage  might  have  destroyed;  the  more  to  prepare  and 
 make  them  willing  to  leave  Egypt,  whenever  God  should 
 send  them  an  order  to  depart :  and  the  more  to  heighten 
 the  relish  of  their  future  deliverance,  and  to  make  them 
 more  thankful,  more  obedient  to  him,  and  his.  injunctions, 
 upon  every  remembrance  of  that  house  of  bondage, 
 wherein  they  had  suffered  so  much,  and  been  so  long 
 detained  ? 
 
 Of  all  the  writers  of  the  histories  of  their  own  times, 
 there  is  none  to  be  compared  to  Moses  in  this  regard, 
 that  he  reveals  his  own  faults  and  blemishes,  which  he 
 might  have  easily  concealed,  and  conceals  many  things 
 recorded  in  other  authors,  which  might  have  redounded 
 to  his  own  immortal  honour.  He  might  have  concealed 
 the  near  consanguinity  between  his  father  and  mother, 
 which,  in  after  ages,  made  marriages  unlawful,  though 
 then  perhaps  it  might  be  dispensed  with.  He  might  have 
 concealed  his  murder  of  the  Egyptian,  and,  for  fear  of 
 apprehension,  his  escape  into  Midian.  He  might  have 
 concealed  his  aversion  to  the  office  of  rescuing  his  bre- 
 thren from  their  bondage  ;  the  many  frivolous  excuse.-,  he 
 made,  and  the  flat  denial  he  gave  God  at  last,  till  God 
 was  in  a  manner  forced  to  obtrude  it  upon  him.  lie 
 might  have  concealed  his  neglect  in  not  circumcising  his 
 son,  which  drew  God's  angry  resentment  against  him, so 
 that  he  met  him  and  would  have  slain  him.  He  might 
 have  concealed  some  peevish  remonstrances  he  made  to 
 God  when  Pharaoh  proved  obstinate,  and  refused  to 
 comply.  Above  all,  he  might  have  concealed  the  whole 
 story  of  the  magicians,  their  working  three  miracles 
 equally  with  him,  and  every  other  circumstance  that 
 seemed  to  eclipse  his  glory  :  but  instead  of  this,  we  may 
 observe,  that  as  he  makes  a  large  chasm  in  his  life,  from 
 his  childhood  to  his  being  forty  years  old,  and  from  forty 
 to  fourscore;  so  he  has  left  us  nothing  of  the  incompa- 
 rable beauty  and  comeliness  of  his  person  ;  nothing 
 excellency  of  his  natural  parts,  and  politeness  of  his 
 education  ;  nothing  of  his  Ethiopian  expedition,  the  con- 
 quests he  made  there,  and  the  posts  of  honour  which  he  held 
 in  the  Egyptian  court  :  nothing  indeed  of  all  his  transae- 
 tions  of  the  preceding  part  of  hi-;  life,  hut  wl 
 author  to  the  Hebrews  has  taken  care  to  transmit,  name!) . 
 7  '  that  when  he  came  to  yean,  he  refused  to  be  i 
 the  son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  choosing  rather  to 
 
 affliction  with   the  people  of  God,  than   t<>  enjoy  the 
 
 pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season.'  So  that  here  we  have  a 
 signal  evidence  of  the  truth  and  honest)  of  our  historian, 
 that  in  the  passages  of  his  own  life,  he  conceals  such  ns 
 
 *  la.  li.  I,  :?.  8  Hcli.  xii.  0.         *  Slii-rluiki.il  I 
 
 •'  Hell 
 
250 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H 
 
 ail* impostor,  would  be  found  to  emblazon,  and  discovers 
 others  which  any  man  of  art  and  design  would  be  glad  to 
 conceal  ;  though  even  some  of  these  passages,  which  at 
 first  sight  may  seem  to  deserve  some  blame,  upon  a 
 farther  inquiry,  may  be  found  to  be  excusable  at  least, 
 if  not  to  be  justified. 
 
 Whoever  was  the  author  of  the  book  of  Job,  it  is  cer- 
 tain, that  he  was  a  writer  of  great  antiquity,  and  yet  he 
 makes  it  a  part  of  the  character  of  that  righteous  man, 
 that  he  l  'delivered  the  poor,  when  he  cried,  and  the 
 fatherless,  and  him  that  had  no  helper  ;'that '  he  brake  the 
 jaws  of  the  wicked,  and  plucked  the  spoil  out  of  his  teeth.' 
 If  this  may  be  thought  to  relate  to  Job,  as  a  public  magis- 
 trate only,  there  is  a  direction  in  the  Proverbs  of  Solo- 
 mon, which  seems  to  be  of  a  more  general  concernment; 
 -  '  If  thou  forbear  to  deliver  them  that  are  drawn  unto 
 death,  and  those  that  are  ready  to  be  slain  ;  if  thousayest, 
 Behold,  we  knew  it  not ;  doth  not  he  that  pondereth  the 
 heart  consider  it  ?  And  he  that  keepeth  thy  soul,  doth 
 not  he  know  it  ?  And  shall  not  he  render  to  every  man 
 according  to  his  works  ?'  If  this  be  thought  again  not  to 
 affect  Moses  at  all,  as  being  at  this  time  an  inhabitant 
 of  Egypt ;  there  was  in  Egypt  likewise  a  law,  3  which 
 perhaps  at  this  time  was  in  force,  and  obligatory  upon  all, 
 namely,  "  That  whoever  saw  his  fellow  creature  either 
 killed  by  another,  or  violently  assaulted,  and  did  not 
 either  apprehend  the  murderer,  or  rescue  the  oppressed 
 if  he  could  ;  or  if  he  could  not,  made  not  an  information 
 thereof  to  the  magistrate,  himself  should  be  put  to 
 death.''  Now  the  history  tells  us,  that  4  '  when  Moses 
 went  out  unto  his  brethren,  he  looked  on  their  burdens, 
 and  spied  an  Egyptian  smiting  an  Hebrew.'  So  that  it 
 is  but  supposing-,  that  this  Egyptian  was  one  of  the 
 taskmasters,  as  the  burdens  here  mentioned  seem  to 
 denote,  who  so  barbarously  treated  the  Hebrews,  and 
 was  now  going  to  beat  one  of  them  to  death  ;  and  accord- 
 ing to  the  law  of  the  land,  which  seems  indeed  to  be  the 
 law  of  all  nations,  then  in  being-,  he  was  obliged  to  inter- 
 pose ;  and  if,  upon  his  interposition,  the  Egyptian  turned 
 upon  him,  and  assaulted  him  briskly,  which  is  no  hard 
 matter  to  imagine,  he  was  obliged,  in  his  own  defence, 
 to  slay  him. 
 
 5  To  complain  to  the  magistrate  in  this  case,  and  im- 
 plore the  assistance  of  the  law,  was  to  no  manner  of 
 purpose.  The  whole  civil  power  was  lodged  in  such 
 hands  as  had  secret  instructions  from  court  to  vex  and 
 ill  treat  the  Israelites  ;  and  when  matters  were  come  to 
 this  crisis,  that  oppression  ruled,  and  the  government 
 was  turned  into  a  mere  latrociny,  private  force  upon  any 
 proper  occasion,  must  be  deemed  lawful  in  all,  but  in 
 Moses  much  more  so,  since  he  was  either  moved  and 
 animated  thereunto  by  a  divine  impulse,  or  invested  before 
 it  happened,  (as  G  St  Stephen's  comment  upon  the  place 
 gives  us  reason  to  think  he  was  so  invested,)  with  the 
 title  and  office  of  deliverer  of  the  people  of  God. 
 
 That  the  names  both  of  persons  and  things  were  of  the 
 greatest  importance  to  be  rightly  understood,  in  order 
 to  attain  the  truest  knowledge  that  could  be  had  of  their 
 natures,  was  the  opinion  both  of  Jews  and  heathens  ; 
 and  some  of  the  earliest  writers  of  the  Christian  church 
 
 1  Jobxxix.  )-.'.  17.  2Pn.v.  xxiv.  11,  12. 
 
 3  Diodorus  Siculus,  l>.  1.  p.  69.         4  Exod.  ii.  1. 
 4  Le  Clare's  Commentary  in  locum.        '  Act,  vii.25. 
 
 ALES,  A.  M.  :37G3.  A.  C.  1618.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 have  speculated  upon  this  subject,  with  so  much  philoso- 
 phical subtlety,  as  to  build  thereon  many  foolish  fancies 
 and  ridiculous  errors.  It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but 
 that  God,  in  giving  some  names  that  are  recorded  in 
 Scripture,  had  respect  to  the  nature  and  circumstances  of 
 the  persons  to  whom  they  belonged  ;  and  that,  in  imita- 
 tion of  him,  men  endeavoured,  even  from  the  beginning, 
 to  give  names  as  expressive  of  the  properties  of  the 
 things  named,  as  human  wisdom  could  direct  them  ;  and 
 therefore,  without  troubling  ourselves  with  what  the  an- 
 cients have  offered  concerning  the  science  of  names,  we 
 may  from  hence  deduce  the  true  reason  why  Moses 
 desired  to  be  informed,  at  this  time  more  especially, 
 what  the  name  of  God  was. 
 
 If  we  consider  the  small  advances  which  philosophy 
 had  made,  we  cannot  imagine  that  men  at  this  time  had 
 a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  works  of  the  creation,  to 
 be  able  thereby  to  demonstrate  the  attributes  of  God ; 
 nor  could  they  by  speculation  form  proper  and  just 
 notions  of  his  nature.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  the  philo- 
 sophers of  that  age,  thought  themselves  wise  enough  to 
 attempt  these  subjects ;  but  what  was  the  success  ?  7 
 '  professing  themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools, 
 and  changed  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God.'  After 
 they  had  speculated  never  so  long  on  any  element,  the 
 fire,  air,  or  water,  the  convex  of  the  firmament,  the  circle 
 of  the  stars,  or  the  lights  of  heaven,  not  forming  true 
 notions  of  their  natures,  they  were  either  delighted  with 
 their  beauty,  or  astonished  with  their  power,  and  so 
 framing  very  high,  but  false  estimates  of  them,  they  lost 
 the  knowledge  of  the  work-master,  and  took  the  parts  of 
 his  workmanship  to  be  God. 
 
 Moses,  indeed,  might  be  a  man  of  excellent  parts  ;  but 
 we  carry  our  compliment  too  far,  if  we  think  him  not 
 liable  to  have  fallen  into  these,  or  perhaps  more  danger- 
 ous errors,  had  he  endeavoured  to  form  his  notions  of 
 God,  either  from  the  Egyptian,  or  any  other  learning 
 that  was  then  extant  in  the  world.  Faith,  or  a  belief  of 
 what  God  had  revealed,  was  the  only  principle  upon 
 which  he  could  hope  rightly  to  know  God  ;  and  this  was 
 the  principle  which  Moses  here  desires  to  go  upon.  For 
 as  the  revelation  which  God  had  hitherto  made  of  himself 
 was  but  short  and  imperfect  ;  so  Moses,  by  desiring  to 
 know  God's  name,  desired  that  he  might  have  some  reve- 
 lation of  his  nature  and  attributes  vouchsafed  him  ;  for 
 that  the  name  of  God  does  frequently  signify  the  divine 
 nature  and  attributes,  is  evident  from  several  passages 
 in  Scripture. 
 
 When  Moses  desired  to  see  God's  glory,  he  obtained, 
 that  the  name  of  the  Lord  should  be  proclaimed  before 
 him,  and  the  proclamation  was,  8  '  The  Lord,  the  Lord 
 God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering,  and  abundant 
 in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for  thousands, 
 forgiving  iniquity,  transgression,  and  sin.'  And  in  like 
 manner,  Isaiah,  prophesying  what  the  Messiah  should  be, 
 declares  his  name  to  be,  9  '  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  the 
 Mighty  God,  the  everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of 
 Peace.'  In  both  these  places,  and  many  more  that  might 
 be  produced  to  the  same  purpose,  the  name  denotes  the 
 nature  of  God  ;  and  therefore  the  design  of  Moses,  in 
 asking  God's  name,  was  to  obtain  an  information  of  the 
 divine  attributes,  in  order  to  carry  a  report  of  them  to 
 
 '  Rom.  i.  22,  2?.         H  Exod.  xxxiv.  0,  7.         9  Isa.  ix  o. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES'   &c. 
 
 251 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 his  brethren.  And  indeed,  considering-  th.it  Moses  was 
 the  first  that  ever  carried  a  message  from  God  to  man,  it 
 was  natural  for  the  Israelites  to  ask  him  by  what  name  or 
 peculiar  attribute,  he  had  made  himself  known  unto  him, 
 so  as  to  authorize  him  to  speak  to  them  in  such  a  manner 
 as  no  man  before  had  ever  done  ;  which  question  he  could 
 not  pretend  to  answer,  unless  God  by  revelation  thought 
 fit  to  enable  him  ;  and  therefore  he  desired  to  be  con- 
 firmed, as  far  as  the  divine  goodness  would  be  pleased 
 to  discover,  what  name  he  would  be  called  by,  as  know- 
 ing very  well,  that,  by  obtaining  this,  he  might  form 
 proper  notions  of  his  nature  and  perfections. 
 
 And  accordingly  we  may  observe,  that  this  great 
 appellation  which  God  is  here  pleased  to  give  of  him- 
 self, expresses  his  incomprehensible  nature  in  such  open 
 and  proper  character,  that  St  Hilary,  as  he  tells  us  of 
 himself,  lighting  on  these  words  before  he  was  a  Chris- 
 tian, and  as  he  was  musing  about  God  and  religion,  was 
 struck  with  admiration,  because  he  could  think  of  nothing 
 so  proper  and  essential  to  God,  as  to  be.  God  himself, 
 however,  chooses  to  express  the  word  in  the  future  tense, 
 on  purpose,  as  some  imagine,  to  show  that  he  is  the  only 
 being  that  can  truly  say,  "  I  shall,  or  will  be,  what  I 
 am  ;"  forasmuch  as  all  other  beings  derive  their  exist- 
 ence from  him,  and  may  be  deprived  of  that  existence 
 whenever  he  pleases. 
 
 What  knowledge  the  wisest  of  the  heathen  world  might 
 have  of  this  incommunicable  name  of  God,  without  the 
 help  of  revelation,  is  a  matter  of  great  uncertainty.  It 
 it  more  than  probable  that  Plato's  definition  of  a  God, 
 namely,  "  a  being  that  is  always,  and  had  no  beginning," 
 was  borrowed  from  these  words  of  Moses  :  but  there  is  a 
 passage  in  Plutarch,  which  mentions  an  inscription  in  the 
 temple  of  Delphos,  consisting  of  these  letters  EI,  a 
 contraction,  as  some  imagine,  of  EIMI,  /  am,  which 
 (according  to  the  opinion  of  '  a  great  judge  in  those 
 days)  was  one  of  the  most  perfect  names  and  titles  of 
 the  Deity,  seeing  it  imported,  that  "  though  our  being  is 
 uncertain,  precarious,  temporary,  and  subject  to  change, 
 so  that  no  man  can  say  of  himself,  in  a  strict  and  abso- 
 lute sense,  lam;  yet  we  may  with  great  propriety  give 
 the  Deity  this  appellation,  because  God  is  independent, 
 immutable,  eternal,  always  and  everywhere  the  same :" 
 for,  2  '  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the 
 ending,  the  first  and  the  last,  saith  the  Lord,  which  is, 
 and  which  was,  and  which  is  to  come,  the  Almighty.' 
 
 But  all  this  would  not  work  upon  Moses  to  undertake 
 the  ollice  to  which  God  called  him  ;  and  yet  when  we 
 come  to  consider  his  case,  we  cannot  altogether  accuse 
 him  of  perverseness  or  obstinacy.  About  forty  years 
 before,  he  had  felt  some  extraordinary  motion  in  himself, 
 ai.d  as  he  was  then  in  the  fervour  of  his  youth,  he  took 
 it  for  a  certain  indication  that  God  intended  to  make  use 
 of  him  as  an  instrument  for  his  people's  deliverance ; 
 but  then  he  was  a  far  greater  man  than  now.  The  prin- 
 cess (if  alive)  who  had  adopted  him  for  her  son,  supported 
 his  interest  at  court ;  or  if  dead,  had  in  all  probability 
 left  him  a  fortune  sufficient  to  procure  himself  one.  But 
 now  age  had  made  him  cool  and  considerate.  The  loss 
 of  his  patroness  had  quashed  all  aspiring  thoughts.  A 
 long  habitude  had  perfectly  reconciled  him  to  an  obscure 
 course  of  life  :  and  therefore,  as  one  loath  to  be  roused 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  3768.  A.  C.  1CI8.  EXOI).  CII.  i-xiii. 
 from  his  solitude,  3  '  Who  am  I,'  says  he,  '  that  1  should 
 go  unto  Pharaoh,  and  that  I  should  bring  forth  the  chil- 
 dren of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  ?' 
 
 He  had  already  experimentally  known  the  ingratitude 
 and  disingenuity  of  the  Hebrews  :  *  <  Y\  hen  he  supposed 
 they  would  have  understood,  that  God,  b\  his  hand, 
 would  have  delivered  them,'  he  voluntarily  offered  his 
 service;  but  their  rejection  of  him,  when  in  the  height 
 of  his  power,  upon  so  great  an  alteration  in  his  circum- 
 stances, took  away  all  hopes  of  success  in  so  difficult  an 
 enterprise.  So  that  the  principal  error  which  Moses  in- 
 curred upon  this  occasion,  was  no  more  than  a  distemper 
 incident  to  the  generality  of  mankind,  namely,  the  mea- 
 suring of  God  by  himself,  and  judging  of  events  from 
 the  probabilities  or  improbabilities  of  second  causes. 
 
 But  there  is  another  reason  not  to  be  dissembled,  which 
 might  possibly  deter  Moses  from  returning  into  Egypt, 
 and  that  was  the  blood  of  the  man  for  which  he  had  tied 
 into  Midian,  and  his  certain  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 
 that  land,  namely,  s  that  "whoever  killed  another,  whe- 
 ther he  was  bond  or  free,  was  not  to  escape  with  his 
 own  life."  Just  before  God  appeared  to  him  in  the  bush, 
 and  had  this  discourse  with  him,  we  read,  that  ■  the  king 
 of  Egypt  died,  that  king,  to  wit,  in  whoso  reign  he  had 
 slain  the  Egyptian,  and  who  sought  to  apprehend  him, 
 that  he  might  put  him  to  death.  But  as  Moses  kept  no 
 manner  of  correspondence  with  Egypt,  the  news  of  this 
 king's  death  might  not  have  reached  his  ears,  or  if  it  had, 
 he  might  reasonably  think,  that  some  surviving  relation 
 of  the  slain  man  might  enter  a  process  against  him  for 
 the  murder.  So  that  here  he  fell  into  a  passion,  which 
 is  hardly  separable  from  human  nature,  namely,  the  love 
 of  life  and  dread  of  punishment ;  and  which  in  him  was 
 the  more  excusable,  because  God  as  yet  had  not  cleared 
 his  mind  from  the  fear  and  suspicion  it  lay  under. 
 
 It  must  not  be  denied  then,  but  that  there  were  some 
 tokens  of  human  frailty  in  Moses'  last  refusal  of  the 
 commission  which  was  offered  him  ;  but  then  there  is  this 
 to  say  in  excuse,  that  the  most  excellent  persons  are  the 
 least  forward  to  embrace  the  offers  of  great  preferment. 
 For  if  no  authority  (according  7  to  Plato)  is  designed 
 for  the  benefit  of  him  that  governs,  but  of  those  that  aro 
 governed,  no  wise  and  considerate  man  will  voluntarily 
 take  upon  him  the  government  of  a  people,  but  must 
 either  be  hired  or  compelled  to  it;  and  therefore  Moses, 
 considering  the  great  weight  of  the  employment,  out  of 
 a  due  sense  of  his  own  infirmities,  declined  it  as  long  as 
 he  could.  And  though  mention  is  made  in  the  Scripture  of 
 the  8  '  Lord's  being  angrj  with  him,'  yet  this  anger  could 
 amount  to  no  more  than  such  a  displeasure  as  a  father 
 conceives  at  his  child, when,  notwithstanding  all  that  can 
 be  said  and  done  to  create  in  him  a  just  confidence,  he 
 Still  continues  bashful  and  diffident  of  himself. 
 
 It  may  be  thought  perhaps  bj  some  a  farther  excuse 
 for  Moses'  backwardness,  or  at  least  no  great  encou- 
 ragement to  his  undertaking,  that  God  makes  the  sign 
 
 wherewith  he  would  seem  to  ratil\  his  promise,  ofa  date 
 subsequent  to  his  commission  :  "  '  1  will  certainl)  he  with 
 thee,  and  this  shall  be  a  token  unto  thee,  that  I  L.i'-e 
 sent  thee:  when  thou  bast  brought  forth  tin-  penile  OUtof 
 
 Ann 
 
 i.  B,  11. 
 
 '  Exod.  iii.  11. 
 '  Diodorus  Siculus,  !>.  I .  p 
 :  Dc  Repub.  b.  I. 
 
 •Acts  vil. 
 70.  'Exod.ii.  88. 
 
 lv.  14.  9  Exod.  iii. 
 
252 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2133.  A.  C.  1571  ;  OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 Egypt,  ye  shall  serve  God  upon  this  mountain.'  For 
 how  can  a  future  event  serve  for  a  sign  of  the  accom- 
 plishments of  a  present  promise  ?  The  common  solu- 
 tion of  this  difficulty  is, — That  God  designed  this  for  a 
 token  to  Moses,  in  order  to  root  out  of  his  heart  all 
 remains  of  infidelity,  which  might  perhaps  he  found  in 
 him,  even  after  he  had  delivered  the  Israelites  out  of 
 bondage  ;  hut  this  is  a  sense  by  no  means  allowable. 
 For  how  can  Ave  suppose,  that  after  God  had  brought  out 
 his  people  with  an  high  hand,  and  a  stretched  out  arm, 
 by  making  himself  justly  terrible  to  Pharaoh  and  all 
 his  court ;  by  turning  rivers  of  water  into  blood ;  by 
 changing  the  day  into  night ;  by  slaying  all  the  first- 
 born in  Egypt ;  and  by  causing  the  king  and  his  whole 
 army  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the  same  waves  of  the  sea, 
 which  ' '  were  a  wall  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,' 
 and  opened  a  way  for  his  own  people  to  pass ;  how  can 
 we  suppose,  I  say,  that  this  faithful  servant  of  his  should 
 have  the  least  doubt  whether  this  mighty  deliverance  was 
 to  be  ascribed  to  providence  or  chance  ?  Or,  if  there 
 was  any  further  occasion  for  tokens,  why  should  a  smaller 
 than  any  of  the  foregoing  be  proposed  ?  Or,  when  pro- 
 posed, why  should  it  be  presumed  sufficient  to  produce 
 an  effect  which  others,  much  more  considerable,  were 
 found  incompetent  to  do  ? 
 
 To  evade  these  questions,  some  of  the  Jewish  doctors 
 have  devised  a  new  partition  of  the  words  ;  and  when 
 God  says  to  Moses,  '  This  shall  be  a  token  unto  thee,' 
 they  think  he  means  it  of  the  bush,  from  whence  he  spake, 
 all  on  names  without  consuming,  which  was,  question- 
 less, token  enough  that  God  had  sent  him ;  and  there- 
 upon, they  make  the  subsequent  words  the  beginning  of 
 a  fresh  sentence,  and  declarative  of  a  farther  purpose, 
 for  which  God  would  bring  forth  his  people  out  of 
 Egypt,  even  that  from  that  mountain  he  might  give  them 
 a  law,  which  was  to  be  the  rule  and  directory  of  their 
 religious  worship  and  service.  But  there  is  no  necessity 
 for  this  subterfuge,  when  the  difficulty  may  be  fairly 
 resolved,  by  distinguishing  the  promises  of  God  into 
 two  kinds  ;  those  that  depend  on  certain  conditions,  and 
 those  that  have  no  conditions  at  all. 
 
 To  be  the  messenger  of  the  former  kind  of  promises, 
 is  exercising  a  glorious  ministry  ;  but  then  it  is  a  ministry 
 attended  with  danger.  He  upon  whom  God  confers  it, 
 may  live  in  perpetual  fear  of  promising  something  with- 
 out effect ;  because  they  to  whom  the  promise  is  made 
 may  forfeit  it  by  not  performing  the  requisite  condition  : 
 but  nothing  can  discourage  the  man  to  whom  God  has 
 given  a  commission  of  the  latter  kind ;  because  the 
 infallibility  of  the  event  supports  him  against  all  the 
 obstacles  that  can  possibly  arise. 
 
 Now  to  apply  this  to  the  case  in  hand.  When  God 
 promises  Moses  a  deliverance  of  his  people,  Moses 
 might  fear  that  their  impiety  or  unbelief  might  be  a  bar 
 and  obstruction  to  their  deliverance  ;  and  therefore  God, 
 in  order  to  cure  him  of  this  fear,  endeavours  to  make 
 him  sensible  that  the  promise  he  now  gives  him,  was  not 
 indefinite  and  general,  like  those  which  depended  on 
 certain  conditions  ;  but  that  it  was  one  of  those  whose 
 accomplishment  was  decreed  in  the  Divine  councils, 
 independent  on  any  event,  or  any  condition  :  and  there- 
 fore he  not  only  promises,  but  forctels,  and  particularizes 
 
 1  Exod,  &h 
 
 the  nicest  and  minutest  circumstances.  He  not  only 
 acquaints  him,  that  his  people  shall  be  delivered,  but  he 
 describes  to  him  the  exact  place  where,  after  they  found 
 themselves  set  at  liberty,  they  were  to  pay  their  homage 
 to  their  deliverer :  and  this  detail  is  the  token  that  God 
 gives  him  of  the  certainty  of  the  event. 
 
 To  illustrate  this  by  a  parallel  instance.  When  the 
 armies  of  Sennacherib  besieged  Jerusalem,  Hezekiah 
 began  to  fear  that  they  would  take  it :  to  secure  him 
 against  that  fear,  Isaiah  promises  him  an  approaching 
 deliverance.  Hezekiah  is  afraid  lest  the  sins  of  the 
 people  should  stand  between  him  and  the  Divine  good- 
 ness :  to  secure  him  against  this  apprehension  likewise, 
 and  to  convince  him  that  the  resolution  God  had  taken 
 to  deliver  his  people  was  irrespective  and  infallible  ; 
 ?< '  This  shall  be  a  sign  unto  thee,'  says  he,  '  ye  shall  eat 
 this  year  such  things  as  grow  of  themselves ;  and  in  the 
 second  year,  that  which  springeth  of  the  same ;  and  in 
 the  third  year,  sow  ye,  and  reap,  and  plant  vineyards, 
 and  eat  the  fruit  thereof.'     To  return  to  Moses. 
 
 Had  this  promise  indeed  been  the  only  sign  which 
 God  had  given  him,  it  might  have  administered  some 
 umbrage  of  suspicion  ;  but  when  it  was  attended  with 
 several  other  signs  and  mighty  wonders,  it  could  not  but 
 be  of  great  use  for  the  confirmation  of  his  faith  in  his 
 present  undertaking,  since  he  knew  it  was  as  certain  as 
 if  it  had  already  been  effected  ;  because  it  proceeded 
 from  the  mouth  of  the  Almighty',  whose  promises,  when 
 absolute  and  unconditional,  are  always  '  yea  and  amen.' 
 
 I  know  of  few  passages  more  difficult  to  be  under- 
 stood, than  that  which  contains  the  adventure  of  Moses' 
 family  in  the  inn,  3 '  where  the  Lord  met  him,  and  sought 
 to  kill  him,  until  Zipporah  took  a  sharp  stone,  and  cut 
 off" the  foreskin  of  her  son,  and  cast  it  at  his  feet,  and 
 said,  surely  a  bloody  husband  art  thou  to  me.'  Zipporah 
 is  commonly  represented  as  a  perverse  and  forward 
 woman,  who  looked  upon  circumcision  as  a  cruel  and 
 unnecessary  ordinance ;  and  therefore  prevailed  with 
 her  husband,  who,  perhaps,  might  be  too  indulgent  to 
 her  in  the  case  of  her  younger  son,  to  omit  it.  But  it 
 ought  to  be  considered,  that  as  she  was  a  Midianitish 
 woman,  and  descended  from  Abraham  by  his  wife  Ketu- 
 rah,  she  could  not  have  any  aversion  to  the  rite  of 
 circumcision,  in  which  she  acquiesced  in  the  case  of  her 
 elder  son  Gershom,  and  in  which  she  was  so  expert,  that 
 upon  her  husband's  incapacity,  she  herself  performed 
 the  operation  upon  the  younger. 
 
 The  Midianites  might  perhaps,  in  this  respect,  imitate 
 their  neighbours  the  lshmaelites,  who  did  not  circumcise 
 their  children  until  they  were  thirteen  years  of  age  ;  and, 
 for  this  reason,  some  have  imagined  that  Moses'  son 
 had  not  as  yet  undergone  the  operation  :  but  Moses 
 knew  very  well  that  there  was  a  limitation  of  time  in 
 the  institution  of  the  ordinance  ;  and  therefore  the  more 
 probable  reason  for  this  omission  seems  to  be,  that  they 
 were  now  upon  their  journey,  when  Zipporah  was  brought 
 to  bed,  and  that  therefore  they  might  think  that  the 
 danger  of  the  wound  to  the  infant  might  excuse  the 
 deferring  of  his  circumcision,  as  it  excused  the  Israelites 
 afterwards  in  the  wilderness. 
 
 But  as  it  does  not  appear  that  Moses  lay  under  any 
 necessity  of  taking  his  family,  especially  his  wife  with 
 
 2Ki 
 
 3  Exod.  iv.  2lf  25. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 253 
 
 A.  M.  2133.  A.  C.  1571  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  8768,  A.  C.  164 
 
 child,  along-  will)  him,  so  this  omission  of  circumcising 
 his  son  might  be  imputed  to  him  .as  a  greater  fault  than 
 ordinary,  because  he  may  be  supposed  to  have  under- 
 stood the  will  of  God  concerning  this  rite  more  perfectly 
 than  any  other  man,  and  was,  but  just  before,  reminded 
 of  the  benefit  of  that  covenant  whereof  this  ordinance 
 was  a  seal,  and  some  part  of  which  he  was  going  now  to 
 take  possession  of. 
 
 But  how  absurd  would  it  have  been  for  Moses  to  be 
 made  a  lawgiver  to  others,  when  himself  lived  in  an  open 
 violation  of  God's  laws  ?  or  to  be  appointed  a  chief 
 ruler  and  instructor  of  the  Israelites,  to  whom  he  was  to 
 inculcate  the  obligation  of  this  ordinance,  and  on  whom 
 he  was  to  inflict  pains  and  penalties  for  their  neglect  of 
 it,  when  himself  was  guilty  of  the  same  sin  ?  Nor  was 
 this  omission  only  a  great  sin  in  itself,  but  a  great 
 scandal  likewise  to  the  Israelites,  who,  by  his  example, 
 might  very  likely  be  led  into  the  same  miscarriage, 
 and  be  tempted  to  suspect  the  call  of  a  person  who 
 showed  such  a  visible  contempt  of  God's  law.  As  Moses 
 therefore  was  a  public  person,  and  just  invested  with  a 
 commission  from  God,  his  disobedience  to  a  known  law 
 was  more  enormous,  his  example  might  have  done  more 
 mischief;  and  therefore  God's  severity  against  him, 
 either  in  afflicting  him  with  some  sudden  sickness,  or 
 aft'rightening  him  with  some  terrible  apparition,  was 
 necessary  to  remind  him  of  his  duty.  And  accordingly, 
 whatever  the  means  was,  we  find,  that  it  brought  to  his 
 wife's  remembrance  the  neglect  of  their  not  having  cir- 
 cumcised the  child  :  but  we  injure  her  character,  if  we 
 think  that  the  words  which  she  is  made  to  utter  upon 
 this  occasion,  were  any  angry  taunt  or  exprobation  to 
 her  husband,  since,  according  to  the  exposition  1  of  a 
 very  learned  writer  upon  the  text,  they  are  not  directed 
 to  him,  but  to  her  son  ;  and  are  not  the  effect  of  any 
 angry  resentment,  but  a  solemn  form  of  speech  made  use 
 of  at  the  time  of  any  child's  circumcision. 
 
 Several  of  the  Jewish  doctors  tell  us,  that  it  was  a 
 custom  of  the  Hebrew  women  to  call  their  children, 
 when  they  were  circumcised,  by  the  name  of  Chatan, 
 that  is,  spouse,  as  if  they  were  now  espoused  to  God. 
 And  to  this  custom  the  apostle  perhaps  might  allude, 
 when  he  tells  his  Corinthians,  2i  I  am  jealous  over  you 
 with  an  holy  jealousy,  for  1  have  espoused  you  to  one 
 husband,  that  I  may  present  you  as  a  chaste  virgin  to 
 Christ.  However  this  be,  3  Zipporah,  who  was  an  Ara- 
 bian woman,  might  the  rather  make  use  of  this  term,  and 
 apply  it  to  her  son,  because  the  Arabians,  whose  language 
 has  a  great  affinity  to  the  Hebrew,  and  who  themselves, 
 as  descendants  from  Abraham,  did  all  along  use  the  rite 
 of  circumcision,  make  the  word  chatan  signify  to  circum- 
 cise, and  cliiten,  circumcision,  as  manifestly  appears  in 
 their  translation  of  the  New  Testament ;  which  can  no 
 otherwise  be  accounted  for  than  from  this  custom  of 
 calling  a  child  chatan  when  he  is  circumcised,  even  as 
 we,  because  a  child  in  baptism  is  made  a  christian,  use 
 the  word  christen  for  to  baptize. 
 
 If  Zipporah's  words  then  were  directed,  not  to  her 
 husband,  but  the  child  whom  she  had  just  now  circum- 
 cised, their  proper  meaning  must  be,  "I,  by  this  cir- 
 cumcision, pronounce  thee  to  be  a  member  of  the  church." 
 
 Mede's  Discourse  14.  *  2  Cor.  xi.  2. 
 
 3  Mede,  b.  1.  Discourse  1  I. 
 
 EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 "  For  the  child,  on  the  day  of  his  circumcision,"  says 
 Eben  Ezra  upon  this  text,  "  was  used  to  be  (ailed  chatan, 
 because  he  was  then  first  joined  to  the  people  of  God, 
 and  as  it  were  espoused  unto  God."  And  if  this  be  tlio 
 sense  of  the  matter,  Zipporah  was  so  far  from  expressing 
 any  angry  resentment,  or  giving  her  husband  any  oppro- 
 brious language  upon  this  occasion,  that  she  onK  did 
 the  office  of  circumcising  her  son,  when  she  perceived 
 that  the  delay  of  it  had  given  offimce  to  God,  and  in 
 doing  that  office,  pronounced  the  words  over  him,  which 
 used  to  be  pronounced  whenever  that  ceremony  was  duly 
 performed. 
 
 This  is  an  interpretation  which  not  only  the  Septua- 
 gint  and  Chaldee  Paraphrasts  seem  to  countenance,  but 
 what  most  modern  masters  of  Jewish  learning  hare 
 approved.  And  as  it  seems  to  clear  the  character  of 
 Zipporah,  so  may  it  receive  some  farther  confirmation 
 from  the  subsequent  behaviour  of  the  angel,  who,  as  soon 
 as  he  saw  the  ceremony  performed,  and  heard  the  solemn 
 form  pronounced  over  the  child,  4  '  let  Moses  go,  and 
 did  not  slay  him  ;'  whereas  had  the  operation  been  done 
 in  the  manner  that  some  pretend,  grudgingly,  and  of 
 necessity,  with  inward  regret  and  words  of  reproach  to 
 her  husband,  this,  one  would  think,  would  have  incensed 
 the  angel,  either  to  have  continued  the  punishment,  be  it 
 what  it  will,  upon  Moses,  or  rather  to  have  transferred 
 it  to  his  wife,  who,  upon  this  supposition,  seems  most 
 justly  to  have  deserved  it. 
 
 Upon  the  whole  therefore  it  appears,  that  the  words  of 
 Zipporah  were  addressed  to  her  son,  and  not  her  husband, 
 •and  were  the  usual*1  form  of  admission  into  the  Jewish 
 church  ;  that  it  was  at  the  child's  feet  that  she  laid  the 
 foreskin,  and  did  not  throw  it  at  her  husband  in  anger, 
 when  she  spake  the  words  .above-mentioned  ;  and  that  in 
 this  whole  affair,  there  was  neither  any  squabble  between 
 Moses  and  his  wife,  nor  any  indecent  behaviour,  or 
 opprobrious  language  used  by  her. 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  God,  from  the 
 very  first  day  that  he  appointed  Moses  to  go  to  Pharaoh, 
 intended  to  deliver  his  people  from  their  captivity,  and 
 when  once  they  were  departed  out  of  Egypt,  that  they 
 should  never  return  again  ;  and  yet  they  are  directed  to 
 demand  only  to  go  '  three  days' journey  into  the  wilder- 
 ness.' This  was  not  the  whole  of  what  was  intended  • 
 but  Moses  lay  under  no  obligation  to  let  so  liitter  an 
 enemy  as  Pharaoh  into  his  whole  design.  It  is  sufficient 
 to  absolve  him  from  any  imputation  of  disingenuitj ,  that 
 he  acted  according  to  the  instructions  which  God  gave 
 him;  5  and  God  certainly  was  not  obliged  to  acquaint 
 Pharaoh  with  all  his  mind,  but  only  SO  far  as  he  thought 
 proper:  and  for  wise  and  good  reasons,  he  thought 
 proper  to  make  the  demand  no  higher  at  lirst,  than 
 '  three  days'  journey  into  the  wilderness,'  that  by  his 
 denial  of  so  modest  a  request,  he  might  make  his  tyranny 
 more  manifest,  and  the  divine  vengeance  upon  him  more 
 just  and  remarkable. 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged  again,  that  the  expression  of 
 
 '  flowing  with    milk   and    honc\  ,'   when   applied   to  any 
 country,  like  that  of  king  Solomon's  '  making   silver  to 
 be  in  Jerusalem  like  stones,'1  is  h\  perbolical.    Itdei 
 very  rich  pastures  and  grounds  which  should  feed  cattle 
 
 •  Exod.  iv.  26. 
 
 5  Poole's  Annotations  in  locum. 
 •  1  Kinys  x.  ;'.: 
 
251 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 TBook  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2133.  A.  C.  1571 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H 
 
 yielding  abundance  of  milk,  and  which  should  produce 
 great  plenty  of  flowers  and  plants,  for  the  bees  to  make 
 honey.  It  represents  indeed  a  general  fruit  fulness  all 
 the  country  over;  for  which  Palestine,  according  to  the 
 account  of  writers  of  no  mean  character,  was  certainly 
 once  famous,  however  it  came  into  Strabo's  head  to 
 disparage  it.  For,  to  mention  an  author  or  two  of  some 
 note,  Aristeus,  who  was  there  to  bring  the  seventy  inter- 
 preters into  Egypt,  tells  us  that  immense  and  prodigious 
 was  the  produce  and  plenty  it  afforded  of  trees,  fruits, 
 pasture,  cattle,  honey,  besides  the  spicery,  gold,  and 
 precious  stones,  imported  from  Arabia,  '  Josephus 
 describes  the  country  as  it  was  in  his  time,  that  is,  in  the 
 time  of  our  Saviour  and  his  apostles,  as  most  remarkably 
 fruitful  and  pleasant,  and  abounding  in  the  very  choicest 
 productions  of  the  earth.  Bochart,  much  later,  and  since 
 the  country  has  been  inhabited  by  the  Turks,  lived  in  it 
 for  the  space  of  ten  years,  and  as  he  was  particularly 
 curious  and  diligent  in  informing  himself  in  everything, 
 speaks  the  greatest  things  imaginable  of  the  richness  of 
 its  soil,  and  the  choiceness  of  its  products  :  and  to  name 
 no  more,  our  own  countryman,  Mr  Sandys,  who,  in  the 
 beginning  of  the  last  century,  travelled  through  it,  gives 
 it  the  character  of  "  a  land  adorned  with  beautiful 
 mountains,  and  luxurious  valleys  ;  the  rocks  producing 
 excellent  waters,  and  no  part  empty  of  delight  or  profit." 
 And  certainly  those  who  either  were  natives,  or  have 
 sojourned  a  long  time  in  a  country,  may  be  supposed  to 
 have  a  more  perfect  knowledge  of  it  than  a  foreigner, 
 who  lived  at  a  distance,  as  Strabo  did. 
 
 The  truth  is,  if  we  consider  of  whu>t  a  small  compass 
 the  land  of  Canaan  is,  and  yet  what  a  prodigious  number 
 of  inhabitants,  both  before  and  after  the  Israelites  became 
 masters  of  it,  it  maintained,  we  must  conclude,  it  could 
 not  but  deserve  the  character  which  the  authors  above 
 cited  have  given  us  of  it;  and  the  barrenness  and  poverty 
 of  its  soil,  which  some  modern  travellers  seem  to  com- 
 plain of,  must  be  imputed  either  to  its  want  of  tillage  and 
 cultivation,  (which  the  Turks,  its  present  inhabitants,  are 
 utterly  ignorant  of,)  or  to  the  particular  judgment  of 
 God,  who,  for  the  wickedness  of  any  nation,  has 
 frequently  performed  what  he  threatened  to  the  Jews  of 
 old  :  *  '  1  will  break  the  pride  of  your  power,  and  1  will 
 make  your  heaven  as  iron,  and  your  earth  as  brass,  and 
 your  strength  shall  be  spent  in  vain  ;  for  your  land  shall 
 not  )  ield  her  increase,  neither  shall  the  trees  of  the  land 
 )  ield  their  fruits.' 
 
 Several  things  are  said  in  Scripture  to  be  done  by  God, 
 which  are  only  permitted  by  him  to  come  to  pass  in  their 
 ordinary  course  and  procedure  :  and  thus  God  may  be 
 said  to  harden  Pharaoh's  heart,  only  because  he  did  not 
 interpose,  but  suffered  him  to  be  carried,  by  the  bent  of 
 his  own  passions,  to  that  inflexible  obstinacy  which  proved 
 his  ruin.  That  Moses,  to  whom  God  used  these  expres- 
 sions concerning  Pharaoh,  understood  them  in  this  sense, 
 is  evident  from  many  parts  of  his  behaviour  to  him,  and 
 especially  from  his  earnestly  entreating  him  to  be  per- 
 suaded, and  to  let  the  people  go.  3  Had  Moses  known, 
 or  even  thought  that  God  had  doomed  Pharaoh  to 
 unavoidable  ruin,  it  had  been  an  unwarrantable  presump- 
 
 '  Antiquities,  b.  5  r's  Pis^ah-Sisht  of  Palestine. 
 
 "  Levit.  xxvi.  10,  20.     "  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  9. 
 
 ALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 tion  in  him  to  have  persuaded  him  to  have  avoided  it : 
 but  that  Moses,  with  all  possible  application,  endeavoured 
 to  make  an  impression  upon  Pharaoh  for  his  good,  is 
 manifest  from  this  passage,  4 '  glory  over  me,'  that  is,  do 
 me  the  honour  to  believe  me,  '  when  I  shall  entreat  for 
 thee,  and  for  thy  servants  ;'  wherein  he  makes  an  earnest 
 address  to  Pharaoh,  to  induce  him  to  be  persuaded  to 
 part  with  the  people,  which  he  certainly  never  would 
 have  done,  had  he  been  satisfied  that  God  himself  had 
 prevented  his  compliance,  on  purpose  to  bring  him  to 
 ruin. 
 
 It  is  farther  to  be  observed,  therefore,  that  not  only  in 
 the  Hebrew,  but  in  most  other  languages,  the  occasion  of 
 an  action,  and  what  in  itself  has  no  power  to  produce  it, 
 is  very  often  put  for  the  efficient  cause  thereof.  Thus  in 
 the  case  before  us,  '  God  sends  Moses  to  Pharaoh,  and 
 Moses,  in  his  presence,  does  such  miraculous  works  as 
 would  have  had  an  effect  upon  any  other  :  but  because 
 he  saw  some  of  the  miracles  imitated  by  the  magicians  ; 
 because  the  plagues  which  God  sent  came  gradually  upon 
 him,  and  by  the  intercession  of  Moses,  were  constantly 
 removed;  he  thence  took  occasion,  instead  of  being 
 softened  by  this  alternative  of  mercy  and  judgment,  to 
 become  more  sullen  and  obdurate.  When '  Pharaoh,' as 
 the  text  tells  us,  '  saw  that  the  rain,  and  the  hail,  and 
 the  thunder  ceased,  he  sinned  yet  more,  and  hardened 
 his  heart.'  The  mercy  of  God,  which  should  have  led  him 
 to  repentance,  had  a  contrary  effect  upon  him,  and  made 
 him  more  obstinate  :  6  "  for  an  hardened  heart  (as  one 
 expresses  it)  is  neither  cut  by  compunction,  nor  softened 
 by  any  sense  of  pity.  It  is  neither  moved  by  entreaties,  nor 
 yields  to  threatenings,  nor  feels  the  smart  of  scourges.  Itis 
 ungrateful  to  benefactors,  treacherous  to  counsels,  sullen 
 under  judgments,  fearless  in  dangers,  forgetful  of  things 
 past,  negligent  of  things  present,  and  improvident  for 
 the  future  :"  all  which  bad  qualities  seem  to  have  con- 
 centered in  Pharaoh.  For  whatever  might  have  contri- 
 buted to  his  obduration  at  first,  it  is  plain,  that  in  the 
 event,  even  when  the  magicians  owned  a  divine  power, 
 in  what  they  saw  done,  and  were  quite  confounded  when 
 they  felt  themselves  smitten  with  the  boils,  and  might 
 thereupon  very  likely  persuade  him  to  surrender,  he  is 
 so  far  from  relenting,  that  he  does  not  so  much  as  ask  a 
 remove  of  the  plague.  It  was  therefore  entirely  agree- 
 able to  the  rules  of  divine  justice,  when  nothing  would 
 reclaim  this  wicked  king,  when  even  that  which  wrought 
 upon  the  ministers  of  Satan  made  no  impression  upon 
 him,  to  let  his  crime  become  his  punishment,  and  to  leave 
 him  to  '  eat  the  bitter  fruit  of  his  own  ways,  and  to  be 
 filled  with  his  own  devices.' 
 
 The  Israelites,  Ave  own,  did  carry  out  of  the  land  of 
 their  captivity  several  things  of  great  value,  which  they 
 had  from  the  Egyptians.  But  then  we  are  to  consider., 
 that  the  word  which  our  translators  render  borrow,  does 
 more  properly  signify  to  ask  of  one;  rnd  what  they 
 render  to  lend,  is  as  literally  to  give.  For  the  case  stood 
 thus  between  the  two  nations.  ''  The  Egyptians  had  been 
 thoroughly  terrified  with  what  had  passed,  and  especially 
 with  the  last  terrible  plague  upon  their  first-born,  and 
 were  now  willing  to  give  the  Hebrews  any  thing,   or 
 
 4  Exod.  viii.  9.  s  jje  cierc's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Patrick's  Commentary      '  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  2. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 PROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES"    &c. 
 
 255 
 
 A.  M.  24:53.  A.  C.  1671  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763 
 
 every  thing,  only  to  get  quit  of  them.  They  therefore 
 bribed  them  to  be  gone,  and  courted  them  with  presents, 
 so  very  profusely,  as  even  to  impoverish  themselves. 
 But  for  this  the  Israelites  were  not  at  all  culpable, 
 because  they  only  accepted  of  what  the  others  gave  them, 
 and  what  was  freely  given,  they  doubtless  had  a  right  to 
 detain. 
 
 But  suppose  that  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  was,  that, 
 they  really  did  borrow  many  valuable  things  of  the 
 Egyptians  ;  yet  it  is  a  truth  allowed  on  all  hands,  that 
 God,  who  is  the  supreme  Lord  of  all  things,  may,  when 
 he  pleases,  and  in  what  manner  he  pleases,  transfer  the 
 rights  of  men  from  one  to  another.  Considering,  then, 
 that  God  was  now  become  the  king  of  the  Israelites,  in 
 a  proper  and  peculiar  manner  ;  and  considering  farther 
 what  insufferable  wrongs  the  king  and  people  of  Egypt 
 had  done  to  this  people  of  God,  who  were  now  become 
 his  peculiar  subjects  and  proprietary  lieges  ;  this  act  of 
 spoiling  the  Egyptians,  even  in  the  harshest  sense  of  the 
 word,  was,  according  to  the  laws  of  nations,  more  justi- 
 fiable than  royal  grants  of  letters  of  marque,  or  other  such 
 like  remedies,  as  kings  are  accustomed  to  make  use  of 
 against  other  powers  that  have  wronged  their  subjects, 
 or  suffered  them  to  be  wronged  by  those  that  are  under 
 their  command,  without  making  a  proper  restitution.  In 
 short,  whatever  the  Hebrews  took  from  the  Egyptians, 
 they  took  and  possessed  it  by  the  law  of  reprisals,  that 
 is,  by  virtue  of  a  special  warrant  from  the  Lord  himself, 
 who  was  now  become,  not  their  God  only,  but  their 
 peculiar  king. 
 
 a  That  some  compensation  was  due,  in  strict  justice, 
 from  the  Egyptians  to  the  Hebrews,  for  the  great  services 
 they  had  done  them,  is  what  can  hardly  be  denied  :  but 
 supposing  this  borrowing  and  lending  between  them  had 
 Oeen  without  any  such  regard,  yet  if  the  Israelites  ac- 
 quired a  right  to  these  things  afterwards,  there  was  then 
 no  obligation  for  them  to  make  any  restitution.  Now, 
 that  they  acquired  such  a  right,  is  manifest  from  the 
 Egyptians  pursuing  them  in  a  hostile  manner,  and  with 
 a  purpose  to  destroy  them,  after  they  had  given  them 
 free  liberty  to  depart ;  by  which  hostility  and  perfidious- 
 ness  they  plainly  forfeited  their  right  to  what  they  had 
 only  lent  before.  For  this  hostile  attempt,  which  would 
 have  warranted  the  Israelites  to  have  fallen  upon  the 
 Egyptians,  and  spoiled  them  of  their  goods,  did  cer- 
 tainly warrant  them  to  keep  them  when  they  had  them  ; 
 
 a  In  the  Gemarah  of  the  Sanhedrim,  there  is  a  memorable 
 story  concerning  the  transaction.  In  the  time  of  Alexander  the 
 Great,  the  Egyptians  brought  an  action  against  tin;  Israelites, 
 Desiring  that,  tiny  might  have  the  land  of  Canaan,  in  satisfac- 
 tion for  all  they  had  borrowed  of  them  when  they  went  out  of 
 Egypt.  To  this  Gibean  Ben  Ko  am,  who  was  advocati 
 Jews,  replied, — That  before  they  made  this  demand,  they  must. 
 prove  what  they  alleged,  namely,  that  the  Israelites  borrowed  any 
 thing  ot  their  ancestors.     To  which  the  Egyptians  thought    it 
 
 Sufficient  to  say,  that  they  found  it  recorded  in  their  own  I ks. 
 
 Well  thru,  says  the  advocate,  look  into  the  same  books,  and  ye 
 will  find  that  the  children  of  Israel  lived  four  hundred  and  thirty 
 years  in  Egypt;  (Exod.  xii.  40,)  pay  us  then,  said  he,  lor  all  the 
 labours  and  toils  of  so  many  thousand  people,  as  you  employed  us 
 all  that  time,  and  we  will  restore  what  we  borrowed;  to  which 
 they  had  not  a  word  to  answer.  (Patrick's  Commentary.)  It  is 
 to  be  observed,  however,  that  this  passage  in  Exodus,  which  the 
 advocate  refers  to,  had  respect  to  all  the  pilgrimages  of  A 
 and  his  posterity  from  the  time  of  his  setting  out  from  Charran 
 in  Mesopotamia,  to  this  their  departure  out  of  Egypt,  as  we  shall 
 have  occasion  to  show  very  soon. 
 
 C.  ids.  EXOD.  CH.i— xffi. 
 
 so  that  now  they  became  the  rightful  possessors  of  what 
 the;  had  only  upon  loan,  and  could  not  have  detained 
 without  fraud  and  injustice  before. 
 
 Thus,  in  what  view  soever  we  contemplate  this  fact, 
 whether  it  be  a  voluntary  donation  made  by  the  Egyp- 
 tians, or  an  act  of  reprisal  made  by  the  Hebrews,  or  a 
 deed  of  forfeiture  -which  the  former  incurred  by  an  unjust 
 invasion  upon  the  latter,  the  Hebrews  will  be  found  not 
 so  culpable  as  some  would  make  them  :  nor  can  we  see 
 where  the  pretended  ill  tendency  of  such  a  precedent 
 can  be,  since  it  is  allowed  on  all  hands,  that  it  is  in  no 
 case  to  be  followed,  unless  it  be  evidently  commanded 
 by  the  same  divine  authority. 
 
 Miracles  indeed,  we  own,  are  the  seals  and  attestations 
 of  God,  to  evidence  the  truth  of  any  thing  that  he  is  de- 
 sirous the  world  should  believe  ;  but  if  magicians,  by  the 
 assistance  of  evil  spirits,  have  power  to  impose  upon  our 
 senses,  or  to  work  such  wonders,  as  seem  altogether 
 miraculous,  we  are  left  under  a  great  uncertainty  how  to 
 determine  our  judgment  in  this  case  :  and  therefore,  to 
 give  a  full  solution  to  this  part  of  the  objection,  we 
 shall  first  premise  something  concerning  the  nature  of 
 magic,  and  how  far  its  powers  may  extend  towards  the 
 operation  of  miracles  ;  thence  proceed  to  inquire  who 
 the  particular  magicians  were  who  pretended  to  oppose 
 Moses,  and  upon  what  account  it  was  that  Pharaoh  sent 
 for  them ;  thence  to  consider  whether  the  miracles  they 
 seemingly  wTOUght  were  real  or  fictitious,  or  if  real, 
 why  God  permitted  them  to  perform  them  ;  and  thence 
 to  examine  whether  this  permission  tended  any  way  to 
 prejudice  the  evidence  of  Moses'  mission  from  God,  or 
 rather  not  to  confirm  it,  seeing  the  difference  between 
 them  and  Moses,  in  this  contest  of  working  miracles, 
 was  so  visible  and  conspicuous. 
 
 Those  who  have  professedly  treated  of  the  magic  art, 
 have  generally  divided  it  into  three  kinds,  natural,  artifi- 
 cial, and  diabolical.  '  The  first  of  these  is  no  other  than 
 natural  philosophy,  but  highly  improved  and  advanced, 
 whereby  the  person  that  is  well  skilled  in  the  power  and 
 operation  of  natural  bodies,  is  able  to  produce  many 
 wonderful  effects,  mistaken  by  the  illiterate  for  diabolical 
 performances,  even  though  they  lie  perfectly  within  the 
 verge  of  nature.  Artificial  magic  is  what  we  call  I 
 demain,  or  slight  of  hand,  whose  effects  are  far  from 
 being  what  they  seem.  They  are  deceptions  and  impos- 
 tures, the  very  tricks  of  jugglers,  (as  we  corrupt  the  word 
 joculatores ,)  far  from  exceeding  the  power  of  art.  and 
 yet  what  many  times  pass  with  the  vulgar  for  diabolical 
 iikewise.  Diabolical  magic  is  that  which  is  done  l.\ 
 the  help  of  the  devil,  who  having  great  skill  in  natural 
 .  and  a  large  command  over  the  air,  and  other 
 elements,  may  assist  those  that  are  in  league  and 
 nant  with  him  (in  Scripture  called  wizards,  BOT 
 diviners,  enchanters,  Chaldeans,  and  such  as  had  fami- 
 liar spirits)  to  do  man)  Btrange  and  astonishing  things.* 
 
 To  deny  that  there  ever  were  such  men   as  these,  is  to 
 
 1  Bishop  Wilkins'  Tract  on   Magic;  ami  Edward's  Body  ol 
 Divinity,  vol.  1. 
 
 //  The  Scripture  warrant  i  the  belief,  that,  in  early  ages,  i re 
 
 the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  God  permitted,  in  w>me  in 
 evil  demons  to  league  with  mortals,  but  after  the  divine  advent, 
 that  power  seems  to  have  been  restrained,  and  a  belii  l  in  it  i>  now 
 altogether  discarded  by  every  intelligent  Christian.  In  the  relation 
 given  by  Mo  as  of  the  miracles  performed  before  Pharaoh,  to  in- 
 duce him  to  allow  of  the  departure  of  the  Israelites,  we  read  tr.;.t 
 
256 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571  ;  OK,  ACCOKDING  TO  H 
 
 slight  the  authority  of  all  history  ;  and  to  guess  at  the 
 probable  rise  and  original  of  them,  we  may  suppose  it  to 
 be  this, — ■*  That  God  being  pleased  to  admit  the  holy 
 patriarchs  into  conference  with  him,  the  devil  endeavour- 
 ed to  do  the  same  ;  and  to  retain  men  in  their  obedience 
 to  him,  pretended  to  make  discoveries  of  secret  things  ; 
 and  that  when  God  was  pleased  to  work  miracles  for  the 
 truth,  he  in  like  manner  directed  those  who  were  familiar 
 with  him,  how  to  invoke  his  help,  for  the  performance  of 
 such  strange  things  as  might  confirm  the  world  in  their 
 error. 
 
 Under  which  of  these  denominations,  natural,  artifi- 
 cial, or  diabolical,  the  magicians  who  set  themselves  in 
 opposition  to  the  servants  of  the  Most  High  God,  are  to 
 be  ranked,  we  have  no  instructions  from  Scripture  ;  but 
 it  seems  highly  probable,  that  neither  would  Pharaoh 
 have  called  together  those  of  the  least  capacity  and 
 repute,  neither  would  the  devil,  as  far  as  his  power  ex- 
 tended, have  been  backward  to  assist  his  votaries  upon 
 such  a  solemn  and  momentous  occasion  as  this. 
 
 AVhothe  principal  of  these  magicians  were,  our  sacred 
 historian  makes  no  mention  ;  but  several,  both  Jewish 
 and  heathen  authors,  (from  whom  2  St  Paul  without 
 doubt  borrowed  their  names,)  have  informed  us,  that 
 among  the  Egyptians  they  were  called  Jannes,  and  Jam- 
 bres.  which  to  give  them  a  Latin  termination,  would  be 
 Johannes  and  Ambrosiutt ,  of  whom  Numenius  (as  he  is 
 quoted  by  Eusebius)  3  has  given  us  this  remarkable 
 account,  namely, — "  That  they  were  the  scribes  in  reli- 
 gious matters  among  the  Egyptians  ;  that  they  flourished 
 in  Egypt  at  the  time  when  the  Jews  were  driven  from 
 thence  ;  that  they  did  not  give  place  to  any  body  in  the 
 science  of  magical  secrets  ;  and  for  this  reason  were 
 chosen  unanimously  by  all  Egypt  to  oppose  Museus,  (so 
 he  calls  Moses,)  a  leader  of  the  Jews,  and  whose  prayers 
 were  very  prevalent  with  God." 
 
 Now,  supposing  that  these,  and  whoever  else  accom- 
 panied them,  acted  from  the  highest  principles  in  magic, 
 there  are  two  ways  wherein  we  may  imagine  it  in  the 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  fBooK  IH 
 
 ALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  IMS.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 2  2  Tim.  iii.  8.  3  Prsepar.  Evang.  b.  9.  c.  S. 
 '  Aaron  cast  down  his  rod  before  Pharaoh  and  his  servants,  and 
 it  became  a  serpent.  Then  Pharaoh  called  also  the  wise  men 
 and  the  sorcerers:  now  the  magicians  of  Egypt,  they  also  did  in 
 like  manner  with  their  enchantments:  for  they  cast,  down  every 
 man  Ins  rod,  and  they  became  serpents:  but  Aaron's  rod  swal- 
 lowed up  their  rods,'  (Exod.  vii.  10,  11,  12.)  The  apparent 
 miracle  of  the  Egyptian  magicians  can  be  thus  explained.  The 
 asp  of  Egypt  when  approached  or  disturbed,  like  the  cobra  da 
 atpello,  elevates  its  head  and  body  to  a  considerable  degree,  ex- 
 tends the  sides  of  its  neck,  and  appears  to  stand  erect  to  attack 
 the  aggressor.  That  circumstance  led  to  the  employment  of  the 
 asp  as  a  dancing  serpent  by  jugglers,  either  for  exhibition  as  a 
 source  of  profit,  or  to  impose  upon  vulgar  credulity.  The  asps 
 tor  this  purpose  are  carefully  deprived  of  their  fangs,  which  en- 
 ables their  owners  to  handle  them  with  impunity.  When  they 
 are  to  be  exhibited,  the  top  of  their  cage,  commonly  a  wicker- 
 basket,  is  taken  oil,  and  at  the  same  moment,  a  flute  or  pipe  is 
 played.  The  asp  immediately  assumes  the  erect  position,  and 
 the  balancing  motions,  made  during  its  protracted  efforts  to 
 maintain  this  attitude,  arc  what  is  called  dancing.  A  really 
 curious  circumstance  is  stated,  on  good  authority,  relative  to  the 
 asp,  which  is,  that  the  jugglers  know  how  to  throw  it  into  a  sort 
 of  catalepsy,  in  which  condition  the  muscles  are  rigidly  contract- 
 ed, and  the  whole  animal  becomes  still  ami  motionless.  This  is 
 done  by  compressing  the  cervical  spine  between  the  finger  and 
 thumb.  The  trick  is  called  '  changing  the  serpent  into  a  rod  or 
 stick.' — Ed. 
 
 power  of  the  devil  to  be  assistant  to  such  persons  a^ 
 tend  to  work  miracles. 
 
 The  first  is,  by  raising  false  images  and  appearance 
 things  ;  which  may  be  done  either  by  affecting  the  br 
 or  confusing  the  optic  nerves,  or  altering  the  medium 
 which  is  between  us  and  the  object.  That  he  did  some 
 such  thing  as  this  to  our  blessed  Saviour,  Avhen  from  the 
 top  of  an  high  mountain  he  pretended  4  '  to  shew  him  all 
 the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  the  glory  of  them  in  a 
 moment  of  time,'  is  very  plain  from  the  convexity  of  the 
 earth,  which  bounds  the  horizon,  and  admits  of  no  such 
 unlimited  prospect ;  so  that  all  he  could  be  presumed 
 capable  of  doing  in  this  case  (as  our  Saviour  was  not 
 insensible  what  he  did  do)  was  to  make  fictitious  repre- 
 sentations of  gay  and  magnificent  things  in  the  air. 
 
 Secondly,  The  other  way  wherein  the  devil  may  be 
 supposed  able  to  assist  these  magicians,  is  by  making  use 
 of  the  laws  of  nature,  in  producing  effects  which  are  not 
 above  the  natural  power  of  things,  though  they  certainly 
 exceed  what  man  can  do.  Thus  to  transport  a  body,  with 
 inconceivable  rapidity,  from  one  place  to  another ;  to 
 bring  together  different  productions  of  nature  which  sepa- 
 rately have  no  visible  effect,  but  when  united  work  wonders ; 
 to  make  images  move,  walk,  speak,  and  the  like  ;  these 
 may  come  within  the  compass  of  the  devil's  power, 
 because  not  transcending  the  laws  of  nature,  though  we 
 cannot  discern  by  what  means  they  are  effected. 
 
 Thirdly,  There  is  a  farther  supposition  "  of  some 
 learned  men,  namely,  that,  under  the  divine  permission, 
 wicked  spirits  have  a  power  to  work  real  miracles,  of 
 which  they  perceive e  some  intimations  given  us  in  Scrip- 
 ture, and  in  the  nature  of  the  thing  no  reasons  to  the 
 contrary ;  and  therefore  the  question  is,  whether  what 
 the  magicians  here  performed,  were  real  miracles  or  not  ? 
 
 Some  learned  writers  have  imagined,  that  there  was 
 not  any  real  transmutation,  when  the  rods  of  the  Egyptian 
 magicians  were  pretended  to  be  changed  into  serpents, 
 nor  any  real  miracle  exhibited,  when  the  water  was 
 turned  into  blood,  and  the  frogs  produced ;  but  that 
 either  the  magicians  played  their  parts  well,  as  dexterous 
 jugglers,  or  that  they  did  it  by  their  knowledge  of  some 
 secret  art ;  or  that  some  demons  assisted  them,  who  by  their 
 power  over  the  air,  enabled  them  to  a  deceive  the  sight  of 
 
 4  Mat.  iv.  8. 
 5  Stillingfieet's  Orig.  Sacra,  p.  236.  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 6Deut.  xiii.  1.  Matth.  xxiv.  24.  2  Thess.  ii.  9. 
 a  The  Mahometans,  in  the  account  they  give  us  of  these 
 transactions,  seem  to  think  them  legerdemain  tricks,  rather  than 
 any  real  miracles  in  the  magicians  ;  for  they  tell  us,  that  Moses 
 having  wrought  some  miracles  before  the  king  of  Egypt,  which 
 not  a  little  surprised  him,  he  was  advised  by  his  council  to  amuse 
 him  with  fair  hopes,  until  he  had  sent  for  some  of  his  most 
 expert  sorcerers  from  Thebais.  Accordingly  Sabour  and  Gadour, 
 two  brothers,  renowned  for  their  magic  skill,  were  sent  for;  and 
 before  they  came  to  Pharaoh's  court,  they  went  to  consult  the 
 manes  of  their  father  about  the  success  of  their  journey ;  acquaint- 
 ing him  withal,  that  the  two  magicians  which  they  were  sent  for 
 to  oppose,  had  a  rod,  which  they  turned  into  a  serpent,  and 
 devoured  all  that  made  head  against  it:  to  which  their  father's 
 ghost  answered,  that  if  that  rod  turned  itself  into  a  serpent 
 whilst  they  were  asleep,  they  must  never  expect  to  prevail 
 against  them.  However,  this  did  not  hinder  them  from  appear- 
 ing before  Pharaoh,  at  the  head  of  his  other  magicians,  to  the 
 number,  as  some  say,  of  70,000.  All  these  had  prepared  their 
 rods, and  cords  tilled  with  quicksilver,  which,  when  heated  by  the 
 sun,  imitated  the  winding  of  a  serpent:  but  Moses'  serpent  soon 
 destroyed    them,  to  the    great   surprise   of   all   the  spectators: 
 
&ECT.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1618.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 257 
 
 .  t"|^»eholders.   It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  in  the 
 
 nint  which  Moses  gives  us  of  the  miracles  performed 
 
 *\)y  himself  and  Aaron,  and  of  what  the  magicians  did  by 
 
 (  flWir    enchantments,  he   docs  not  hint   any  manner   of 
 
 difference,  as  to  the  reality  of  the  performance  of  either 
 
 of  them.      In  the  case   of  their  rods  being  turned  into 
 
 serpents,  he  does  not  say,  that  they  made  them  to  appear 
 
 to  be  such,  by  a  deception  of  the  sight,  but  that,  l  '  they 
 
 flung  down  every  man  his  rod,  and  they  became  serpents ;' 
 
 and  so  of  the  other  two  miracles,  which  Moses  exhibited, 
 
 1  that  the  magicians  did   so   with   their  enchantments.' 
 
 2  Now,  from  the  knowledge  of  natural  causes  and  effects, 
 which  by  the  help  of  experiment  and  philosophy,  has  of 
 late  been  introduced,  we  may  venture  to  say,  that  no 
 effects  like  what  these  men  pretended  to  accomplish  by 
 enchantments,  can  be  produced  by  any  or  all  the  powers 
 of  nature.  No  art,  no  study  of  occult  sciences,  can 
 enable  a  man  really  to  change  a  rod  into  a  living 
 serpent.  There  are  no  enchantments,  no  rules  in  sor- 
 cery sufficient  to  make  a  living  frog,  or  to  change  water 
 into  real  blood  ;  and  to  suppose  that  the  magicians  went 
 about  to  impose  upon  Pharaoh,  and  the  rest  of  the  spec- 
 tators, by  mere  artifice  and  slight  of  hand,  was  giving 
 Moses  and  Aaron,  whom  we  cannot  but  suppose  inquisi- 
 tive upon  this  occasion,  the  fairest  opportunity  imagin- 
 able to  detect  the  cheat,  and  expose  them  to  the  contempt 
 and  derision  of  the  whole  company. 
 
 Their  only  recourse,  in  this  case,  can  be  to  the  assist- 
 ance of  devils,  deluding  the  company  with  false  appear- 
 ances of  serpents,  frogs,  and  blood  :  but  let  any  one  try 
 to  give  a  satisfactory  account,  how  any  magician  could, 
 by  his  power  over  the  air,  either  by  himself,  or  by  the 
 assistance  of  a  demon,  represent  to  the  naked  view  of 
 beholders,  in  opposition  to  a  true  miracle,  serpents, 
 frogs,  and  water  converted  into  blood ;  nay,  and  so 
 represent  them,  as  that  the  fictitious  appearance  should 
 not  be  distinguishable  from  the  real,  but  should  bear  to 
 be  seen  with  them,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  in  the  same 
 light,  in  the  same  view  ;  for  so  the  magicians'  rods  turned 
 into  serpents  certainly  were,  when  Aaron's  rod  swal- 
 lowed them  up  :  I  say,  let  any  one  try  to  give  a  reason- 
 able account  of  this  fancy,  and  he  will  quickly  see,  that 
 he  may  more  reasonably  suppose  the  magicians  able  to 
 perform  a  true  and  real  transmutation,  than  to  ascribe  to 
 them  such  imaginary  powers  as  this  supposition  requires, 
 and  which  (if  they  could  be  conceived)  can  tend  only  to 
 destroy  the  certainty  of  all  appearances  whatever. 
 
 If  then  the  magicians  could  have  no  knowledge  of 
 any  mystic  arts,  or  powers  of  nature,  whereby  to  work 
 miracles ;  if  they  could  not  deceive  the  spectators  by 
 any  slight  of  hand,  nor  obtain  any  assistance  from  evil 
 spirits,  sufficient  to  impose  upon  them  by  false  appear- 
 ances ;  the  consequence  seems  to  be,  that  the  miracles 
 which  they  wrought  were  equally  true  with  those  which 
 Moses  and  Aaron  did.  But  then,  as  the  magicians  had 
 no  power  inherent  in  themselves,  they  could  not  tell, 
 even  when  they  set  about  imitating  Moses,  what  the 
 success  of  their  attempt  would   be.     Their  rods  were 
 
 1  Exod.  vii.  11,  12.  2  Shuckforcrs  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  9. 
 whereupon  Sabour  and  Gadour  renounced  their  profession,  and 
 embraced  the  religion  of  Moses,  which  gave  Pharaoh  such  a  dis- 
 gust, that  he  had  them  both  put  to  death,  as  holding  secret  cor- 
 respondence with  Moses. — Herbelofs  Biblioth.  Orient,  p.  64S, 
 and  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Jewries. 
 
 turned  into  serpents,  they  saw,  but  how  that  was  effected , 
 they  could  not  tell.  Had  they  had  any  certain  rules  of 
 art  or  science  to  work  by,  or  any  superior  help  or  assist- 
 ance to  depend  on,  they  would  at  once  have  known  what 
 to  attempt,  and  what  not,  and  not  have  exposed  them- 
 selves to  scorn,  by  not  being  able  to  produce  lice ,  u 
 well  as  frogs.  If  what  they  did  was  by  the  agency  of 
 evil  spirits,  it  is  plain,  that  that  agency  was  under  the 
 divine  control,  and  could  go  no  farther  than  the  God  of 
 Israel  permitted  it;  and  the  reasons  of  his  permitting  it 
 might  be  these  : 
 
 The  learned  in  Egypt  thought,  that  miracles,  prodi- 
 gies, and  omens,  were  given  by  the  planetary  and  ele- 
 mentary influences;  and  that  students,  deeply  versed  in 
 the  mysteries  of  nature,  could  cause  them  by  art  and 
 incantation.  Pharaoh  Blight  possibly  be  of  this  opinion  ; 
 and  therefore,  seeing  Moses  do  very  strange  things, 
 and  knowing  that  his  magicians  were  great  adepts  in 
 these  sciences,  he  thought  proper  to  send  for  them,  in 
 order  to  know  whether  the  wonders  which  Mose3  wrought 
 were  the  effect  of  the  art  of  man,  of  the  power  of  nature, 
 or  of  the  finger  of  God  ;  for  he  seems  to  have  argued 
 thus — If  his  magicians  could  perform  what  Moses  did, 
 Moses  was  such  an  one  as  they,  and  endeavoured  to 
 delude  him  with  artificial  wonders,  instead  of  real 
 miracles.  Fit  therefore  it  was,  that  these  practitioners 
 should  be  suffered  to  exert  the  utmost  of  their  power 
 against  Moses,  in  order  to  clear  him  from  the  imputation 
 of  magic,  or  sorcery,  which,  considering  the  prevailing 
 notions  of  that  age,  both  Hebrews  and  Egyptians  might 
 have  been  apt  to  entertain,  had  not  this  competition  hap- 
 pened, and  his  antagonists  thereupon  acknowledged  the 
 superiority  of  the  principle  by  which  he  acted,  in  com- 
 parison of  which,  all  their  arts  and  knowledge  of  occult 
 sciences  availed  nothing. 
 
 The  Israelites,  it  must  be  owned,  were  a  people  of  a 
 very  suspicious,  diffident,  and  desponding  temper.  AVhen 
 Moses  came  to  them  with  a  message  from  God,  at  first 
 they  seemed  to  receive  him  gladly,  and  to  rejoice  at 
 their  approaching  deliverance  ;  and  when  he  had  shown 
 them  the  credentials  which  God  appointed  him  to  exhibit, 
 it  is  said,  3  '  that  the  people  believed,  and  when  they 
 heard  that  the  Lord  had  looked  upon  their  affliction, 
 they  bowed  their  heads,  and  worshipped  :'  but  within  tin- 
 space  of  a  day  or  two,  when  they  saw  that  every  thing 
 did  not  answer  their  expectation,  but  that  their  petition, 
 to  an  imperious  tyrant  was  rejected  with  scorn  :  how 
 is  their  tone  changed  to  their  very  deliverers,  and  the 
 blame  of  all  their  grievances  laid  upon  them!  *  '  The 
 Lord  look  upon  you,  and  jndge,  because  \ou  have 
 made  our  savour  to  be  abhorred  in  the  eyes  of  Pharaoh, 
 and  in  the  eyes  of  his  servants,  to  put  a  sword  into 
 their  hands  to  slay  us:'  and  therefore,  for  the  confirma- 
 tion of  the  faith  of  these  wavering  and  uncertain  people, 
 it  was  highly  necessary  that  this  contest  between  RIOOM 
 and  the  magicians  should  be  permitted,  thai  the  disparity 
 of  persons  acting  by  the  power  of  God,  and  bj  the  power 
 of  Satan,  in  such  a  contraposition,  might  lie  more  COD- 
 spicuous. 
 
 And  indeed,  what  could  more  contribute  to  raise  in 
 the  Israelites  a  confidence  in  God's  promises,  and  I 
 joyful  hope  of  a  speedy  deliverance,  than  to  see  the 
 
 *  Exod.  It.  31. 
 
 *  Exod.  v.  21. 
 
258 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2133.  A.  C.  1571;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H 
 
 great  disparity  between  the  opposers  and  maintainors  of 
 their  cause  ?  To  see,  I  say,  that  though,  by  the  Divine 
 permission,  the  magicians  could  change  their  rods  into 
 serpents,  yet,  as  a  manifest  token  of  superiority,  Moses' 
 rod  devoured  all  theirs  ;  though  they  could  turn  water 
 into  blood,  yet  it  was  above  their  skill  to  restore  it  to 
 its  former  nature  ;  though  they  made  a  shift  to  produce 
 frogs,  yet  they  were  utterly  unable  to  clear  the  Egyptian 
 palaces  and  houses  of  them  ;  though  they  did,  in  short, 
 some  things,  which  only  contributed  to  the  calamities  of 
 Egypt,  yet  they  could  do  no  one  thing  to  redress  them, 
 no  even  to  relieve  themselves  against  the  plague  of  the 
 boils  ?  So  true,  and  so  severe  withal,  is  that  observa- 
 tion of  the  author  of  the  book  of  Wisdom,  '  "  As  for  the 
 illusions  of  the  art  magic,  they  were  put  down,  and  their 
 vaunting  in  wisdom  was  reproved  with  disgrace  :  for  they 
 who  promised  to  drive  away  terrors,  and  troubles  from  a 
 sick  soul,  were  sick  themselves  of  fear,  and  worthy  to  be 
 laughed  at." 
 
 But  now  Moses  not  only  does  such  miracles  as  the 
 magicians  never  pretend  to  do,  (the  storm  and  hail,  the 
 thunder  and  lightning,  and  thick  darkness,  &c,  they 
 never  once  attempted  to  imitate,)  but,  supposing  that 
 Pharaoh  might  be  addicted  to  astrologers,  who  fancied 
 that  all  things  here  below  might  be  governed  by  the 
 motion  and  influence  of  the  stars,  he  very  frequently 
 gives  him  the  liberty  to  name  the  time  when  he  would 
 have  any  plague  removed,  that  thereby  he  might  know 
 that  God  alone  was  the  author  of  them,  and  that  conse- 
 quently there  was  no  day  or  hour  under  so  ill  an  aspect, 
 but  that  he  could  prevail  with  him,  at  whatever  moment 
 he  should  assign,  to  rescue  and  deliver  him. 
 
 Had  Moses  met  with  no  opposition  in  working  his 
 miracles,  Pharaoh  had  neither  had  so  strong  a  convic- 
 tion, nor  could  Moses  himself  have  exhibited  so  clear  a 
 testimony  of  his  divine  mission.  2  As  the  nature  of  the 
 Egyptian  learning  then  was,  the  king  might  have  sus- 
 pected that  the  prophet's  miracles  proceeded,  if  not  from 
 natural  means  and  enchantment,  at  least  from  the  influ- 
 ence of  some  planetary  or  elementary  powers  :  but  when 
 men  of  equal  skill  and  abilities-  in  all  points  of  abstruse 
 learning,  were  brought  to  contest  the  matter  with  him, 
 and  acknowledged  their  inability  to  proceed  in  a  con- 
 flict where  their  adversary  had  a  divine  power  apparently 
 assisting  him  ;  this  established  the  truth  of  Moses'  pre- 
 tensions, though  it  made  the  other's  obstinacy  and  infi- 
 delity inexcusable  ;  and  3  a  signal  instance  of  God's 
 wisdom  it  was,  to  permit  these  sorcerers  to  proceed  for 
 eorue  time  in  their  contest  with  his  servant,  which  added 
 disgrace  to  the  one's  defeat,  as  it  did  no  small  glory  to 
 the  other's  conquest. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  satisfy  the  objections 
 which  are  usually  advanced  against  some  parts  of  the 
 Scripture  history  comprised  in  this  period;  and  for  the 
 farther  satisfaction  of  our  reader,  shall  conclude  with 
 the  testimony  of  some  heathen  writers,  who,  in  all  ages, 
 have  more  or  less  taken  notice  of  the  birth,  life,  and 
 several  adventures  of  Moses,  so  far  as  we  have  hitherto 
 advanced.  4  That  of  his  being  taken  out  of  the  river 
 Nile,  for  instance,  is  sung  by  the  author  of  the  Orphic 
 
 ALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1G48.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 verses,  under  the  title  vloyivvi;,  or  born  of  the  ivater  : 
 that  the  beauty  and  gracefulness  of  his  person,  which 
 recommended  him  to  every  one's  affection,  is  remembered 
 by  Justin  5  out  of  Trogus  Pompeius,  and  that6  the  whole 
 fable  of  Venus  falling  in  love  with  Adonis,  in  all  pro- 
 bability arose  from  the  story  of  Moses  and  Pharaoh's 
 daughter  :  that  the  wonder  of  the  burning  bush  is  recorded 
 by  Antipanus,  with  a  small  variation,  as  he  is  cited  7  by 
 Eusebius :  that  several  of  the  plagues  upon  Egypt  are 
 mentioned  in  the  fragments  of  Eupolemus,  preserved  8 
 by  the  same  Eusebius ;  and  that  the  slaughter  of  their 
 first-born,  in  particular,  is  commemorated  in  that  mourn- 
 ful feast  of  Osiris,  wherein  they  rise  at  midnight,  light 
 candles,  and  go  about  weepmg  and  groaning:  that 
 Moses'  calling  the  God  of  heaven  Jao,  or  Jehovah,  is 
 mentioned  9  by  Biodorus  Siculus  :  that  the  names  of 
 Jannes  and  Jambres,  and  the  opposition  they  made 
 against  him,  is  preserved  10  in  Eumenes,  u  Pliny,  and 
 12  Apuleius ;  and,  to  go  no  farther,  that  the  Israelites' 
 departure  out  of  Egypt,  and  settling  in  the  land  of 
 Canaan,  is  I3  by  Tacitus,  who  took  it  from  some  Egyp- 
 tian authors,  thus  related.  "  The  Hebrews  were  de- 
 scended from  the  Assyrians,  and  possessing  a  great  part 
 of  Egypt,  led  the  life  of  shepherds  :  but  afterwards  being- 
 burdened  with  hard  labour,  they  came  out  of  Egypt 
 under  the  command  of  Moses,  with  some  Egyptians 
 accompanying  them,  and  went  through  the  country  of  the 
 Arabians,  into  Palestine  Syria,  and  there  set  up  rites 
 contrary  to  those  of  the  Egyptians."  So  fully  does  the 
 testimony  of  aliens  tend  to  the  confirmation  of  thy 
 revelations,  O  God ! 
 
 1  Wisdom  xvii.  7,  8.  2 Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.2,  b.  9. 
 
 3  Stillingfleet's  Origin.  Sacra. 
 
 4  Eusebius1  Prop.  Evang.  I>.  13.  c.  12. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  the  sacred  chronology ,  and  profane 
 history,  learning,  religion,  idolatry,  and  monumental 
 works,  Sfc,  but  chiefly  of  the  Egyptians,  during  this 
 period. 
 
 Before  we  enter  upon  the  historical  matters  which  are 
 contained  in  this  period,  between  God's  call  to  Abra- 
 ham out  of  Mesopotamia,  and  the  children  of  Israel's 
 departure  out  of  Egypt,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  settle 
 its  chronology,  and  to  take  notice  of  some  exceptions 
 that  may  possibly  be  made  to  it. 
 
 The  difference  between  the  Hebrew,  Samaritan,  and 
 Septuagint  computations,  in  the  former  periods  of  time, 
 ran  wide ;  and  it  was  some  part  of  our  care,  either  to 
 determine  which  was  most  probably  in  the  right,  or  to 
 reconcile  the  seeming  opposition  between  them  :  but  in 
 this  the  variation  is  so  small,  that  they  seem  almost 
 unanimously  to  agree,  that  14  from  the  promise  made  to 
 Abraham,  to  his  posterity's  exodus  out  of  Egypt,  are  430 
 years,  which,  according  to  the  learned  Usher,  may  very 
 properly  be  divided  into  two  halves. 
 
 1.  15  From  the  time  of  the  promise,  when  Abraham  was 
 in  the  75th  year  of  his  age,  to  the  birth  of  Isaac,  are 
 25  years  ;  16  from  the  birth  of  Isaac  to  the  birth  of  Jacob, 
 60  years  ;  from  the  birth  of  Jacob  to  his  descent  into 
 
 *  B.  36.  c.  2.  6  Huetius'  Dem.  Evang.  prop.  4.  c.  3. 
 
 Eusebius'  Pirep.  Evang.  b.  9.  c.  22.  *  Ibid. 
 
 9  B.  1.  'o  Eusebius,  b.  8.  c.  S.  :1  B.  30.  c.  1. 
 
 J*  Apolog.  2.  »  B  5  14  Exod  xii  40> 
 
 i       *  Gen.  xii.  4.— xxi.  5.  '«  Gen.  xxv.  26. 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAEL  1TES',  &c. 
 
 259 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H 
 
 Egypt,  with  his  whole  family,  130  years ;  so  that  the 
 whole  of  this  division  amounts  to  215  years. 
 
 2.  The  other  part  of  the  division  is  thus  reckoned  up. 
 Joseph,  the  son  of  Jacob,  was  30  years  old  when  he 
 expounded  Pharaoh's  dreams  :  the  seven  years  of  plenty 
 were  run  out,  and  *  the  third  year  of  famine  begun,  when 
 his  father  came  down  into  Egypt :  so  that  by  this  time 
 Joseph  was  39.  Now,  39  years  taken  from  the  1 10 
 which  Joseph  lived,  will  make  the  time  which  the  Is- 
 raelites had  continued  in  Egypt,  before  Joseph's  death, 
 to  be  71  :  and  as  *  from  the  death  of  Joseph  to  the  birth 
 of  Moses,  are  precisely  64  years  ;  so  3  from  his  birth  to 
 the  time  of  the  Israelites'  departure,  .are  80  years.  The 
 several  articles  of  this  division,  therefore,  being  put 
 together,  amount  in  like  manner  to  215  years  ;  and  the 
 two  gross  sums  make  exactly  430. 
 
 The  history  indeed  tells  us,  that  4  '  the  sojourning  of 
 the  children  of  Israel,  who  dwelt  in  Egypt,  was  430 
 years  :'  but  it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  they  dwelt 
 in  Egypt  all  that  time.  They  came  into  Egypt  with 
 Jacob,  A.  M.  2298,  according  to  Hales,  A.  M.  3548, 
 and  went  out  of  Egypt,  A.M.  2513,  Ibid.  3763;  so 
 that  they  lived  in  it  just  215  years.  Their  sojourning, 
 therefore,  must  not  be  limited  to  their  living  in  Egypt, 
 but  be  taken  in  a  more  general  sense,  and  extended 
 equally  to  the  time  of  their  living  in  Canaan,  which 
 being  added  to  the  time  of  their  continuance  in  Egypt, 
 makes  exactly  the  number  of  430  years. 
 
 That  this  is  the  sense  of  the  divine  historian,  is  mani- 
 fest from  the  authority  of  the  Samaritan  text,  which  has 
 the  whole  verse  thus :  '  Now  the  inhabiting  of  the  children 
 of  Israel,  and  their  fathers,  whereby  they  inhabited  in 
 the  land  of  Canaan,  and  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  were  four 
 hundred  and  thirty  years ;'  whereupon  the  learned  Dr 
 Prideaux  5  has  this  observation,  "  That  the  additions 
 herein  do  manifestly  mend  the  text;  they  make  it  more 
 clear  and  intelligible,  and  add  nothing  to  the  Hebrew 
 copy,  but  what  must  be  understood  by  the  reader 
 to  make  out  its  sense  :"  and  upon  this  presumption  it 
 may  very  reasonably  be  supposed, b  that  the  ancient 
 Hebrew  text  was,  in  this  verse,  the  same  with  the  present 
 Samaritan,  and  that  the  words  which  the  Samaritan  has 
 in  this  place  more  than  the  Hebrew,  have  been  dropped 
 by  the  negligence  of  some  transcribers. 
 
 Again  in  the  promise  which  God  makes  to  Abraham, 
 he  tells  him,  7  '  That  his  seed  should  be  a  stranger  in  a 
 land  which  was  not  theirs  ;  that  there  they  should  serve  the 
 inhabitants,  and  they  afflict  them  for  four  hundred  years  ; 
 but  that,  in  the  fourth  generation,  they  should  return  to 
 Canaan  again  ;'  whereas  four  hundred  years  are  not  the 
 number  specified  in  the  place  just  now  examined,  nor  are 
 four  generations  equivalent  to  the  space  of  time  wherein 
 the  Hebrews  sojourned  in  strange  countries.  It  is  to 
 be  observed,  however,  that  both  in  sacred  and  profane 
 authors,  a  common  thing  it  is,  to  mention  only  the  large 
 6um,  and  drop  the  less,  especially  when,  to  preserve  the 
 exactness  of  chronology,  the  precise  number  is  in  other 
 places  inserted :  and  that  though  a  generation  does  usually 
 denote  a  term  of  an  hundred  years  ;  yet,  taking  the  words 
 to  relate  to  the  whole  sojourning  of  the  Hebrews,  from 
 
 1  Gen.  xlvii.  4.  2  Compare  Gen.  xli.  4fi.  with  xlv.  (i. 
 
 3  Exod.  vii.  7.  4  Exod.  xii.  40. 
 
 '  Connection,  vol.  2.  part  1.  b.  6.  p.  000. 
 6  Shucjfbrd's  Connection,  vol.2,  b.  9.         '  Gen.  xv.  13;  10. 
 
 ALES,  A.  M.  37C3.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 their  going  into  Canaan  to  their  going  out  of  Egypt, 
 the  odd  number  of  thirty  years  may  here  be  supposed  to 
 be  omitted,  to  make  it  a  round  sum,  as  well  as  in  the 
 former  sense  :  but  then  taking  a  generation  to  mean  no 
 more  than  one  descent,  the  matter  of  fact  is,  that  from 
 the  Israelites'  going  down  into  Egypt,  until  the  time  of 
 their  leaving  it,  in  some  of  the  sons  of  Jacob,  (particu- 
 larly in  Levi,  who  begat  Cohath,  and  Cohath,  Amrani, 
 and  Amram,  Moses,  who  conducted  the  people  out  of 
 Egypt,)  there  were  no  more  than  four  descents. 
 
 Whether,  therefore,  we  take  the  word  generation  to 
 denote  an  age  of  years,  or  a  succession  of  lives,  there  is 
 plainly  no  incongruity  in  the  expression  ;  because,  bating 
 the  odd  number  of  thirty,  Abraham  and  his  posterity 
 sojourned  in  a  strange  land  for  the  space  of  400  years, 
 and  yet,  allowing  it  to  be  meant  of  a  descent  of  lives, 
 at  the  Israelites'  return  to  Canaan,  from  the  time  of  their 
 going  down  to  Egypt,  several  persons  of  the  fourth 
 generation  were  not  extinct. 
 
 Egypt  indeed  was  the  most  considerable  nation  with 
 whom  the  Israelites  had  any  intercourse  during  tin's 
 period  :  what  dealings  they  had  with  the  several  parts  of 
 Canaan,  will  be  best  related  when  we  come  to  treat  of 
 the  history  of  that  country.  In  the  mean  time  we  cannot 
 but  lament  our  want  of  the  ancient  records  of  those 
 times,  which  forces  us,  instead  of  a  continued  history,  to 
 present  our  reader  with  nothing  but  a  jejune  catalogue 
 of  the  succession  of  the  Egyptian  kings,  which,  as  far  as 
 they  relate  to  our  present  purpose,  we  have  thought  pro- 
 per «to  subjoin  at  the  bottom  of  the  page  ;  and  shall  only 
 
 a  In  the  year  of  the  world  1849,  reigned  in  Thebais,  or  the 
 Upper  Egypt,  Menes,  whom  the  Scripture  calls  Mizraim,  62 
 years:  in  the  year  191  J,  Athothes,  59  years:  in  the  year  1970, 
 Athothes  II.,  32  years-,  in  the  year  2002,  Diabies,  19  years:  in 
 the  year  2021,  Pemphos,  18  years:  in  the  year  2039,  Tegar 
 Amachus,  79  years:  in  the  year  2118,  Stoechus,  6  years:  in  the 
 year  2 124,  Gofermies,  30  years :  in  the  year  2454,  Mares,  26  years. 
 
 In  the  time  .of  these  flourished  the  royal  shepherds  in  the 
 Lower  Egypt;  and  in  the  year  of  the  world  1920,  Salatis,  the 
 first  pastoral  king,  reigned  19  years:  in  the  year  1939,  Beon,  the 
 second  pastoral  king,  44  years:  in  the  year  1983,  Apachnas,  the 
 third  pastoral  king,  36  years:  in  the  year  2020,  Apophis,  the 
 fourth  pastoral  king,  Cl  years:  in  the  year  2081,  Janias,  the 
 fifth  pastoral  king,  50  years  and  one  month;  and  alter  these  He- 
 rules  Assis,  49  years  and  two  months. 
 
 Then  follow  the  Tlieban  kings  in  this  order.  In  the  year  of 
 the  world  2180,  Anoypb.es,  (who  by  Archbishop  Usher  is  nam- 
 ed Tethmosis,  and  is  said  to  have  expelled  the  royal  shepherds, 
 reigned  20  years:  in  the  year  2200,  Sirieius,  18  years:  in  the 
 year  2218,  Cneubus  Cneurus,  27  years:  in  the  year  2245,  Ra- 
 mims,  13  years:  in  the  year  2268,  Biyris,  lOyears:  in  the  year 
 2268,  Saophis,  29 years:  in  the  year  2297 Sensaophis,  27  years: 
 in  the  year  2324,  Moscheris,  31  years:  in  the  year  2.'>55,  Mar- 
 tin's, 33  years:  in  the  year  2388,  Pamnus  Arcbadnes,  whom 
 Usher  calls  Etatholis,  35  years:  and  in  the  year  2423,  Apaxus 
 Maximus,  100  years.  After  the  expulsion  of  the  race  of  the  royal 
 pastors,  in  the  year  of  the  world  2205,  Chebron  succeeded  to  the 
 kingdom  of  the  Lower  Egypt,  and  reigned  IS  years:  in  the  year 
 2218,  Amenopliis,  20  Tears  and  7  months:  in  theyeai 
 Ameses,  21  years  and  9  months:  in  the  year  2261,  Mephres,  12 
 years  and  9  months:  in  the  year  8273,  Mi-phiagmuthis,  25 
 years  and  10  months:  in  the  year  2899  Thmosis,  9  years  and 
 8  months:  in  the  year  2309,  Amenophis  11.  80  years  and  HI 
 months:  in  the  year  2340,  OrUB,  36  years  and  5  months:  in  tli« 
 year  2376,  Aehenchres  12  years  and  1  month:  in  the  year 
 2388,  Rathotis,  9 years:  in  the  year  2;(97,  Aeeneheies,  12  years 
 and  5  months:  in  the  year  2410,  Aeeneheies  II.  12  years  and 
 3  months:  in  the  year  2422,  Acmais,  4  years  and  1  month;  In 
 the  year  2426,  Ramesses,  I  year  and  3  months:  In  the  year 
 2427,  Ramesses  Miamun,  66  years  and  2  months:  and  in  the 
 year  2493,  Amenophis  III.  19  years  and  (i  months:  "ho  is  the 
 J&st  we  meet  with  in  this  period. 
 
260 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2433.   A.  C.  1571;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1048.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 take  notice  here  in  particular,  that  A.  M.  2084,  when 
 Abraham  and  his  nephew  Lot,  went  down  into  Egypt, 
 Te«ar  Amachus  was  then  upon  the  throne  ;  that  A.  M. 
 2260,  when  Joseph  was  born,Biyris  was  king;  and  when  he 
 was  sold  into  Egypt,  about  seventeen  years  after,  Saophis 
 had  succeeded  ;  that  this  Saophis  was  the  prince  whose 
 dreams  he  expounded,  and  by  whom  he  was  promoted  to 
 great  honour  in  the  kingdom ;  that  he  died,  however, 
 before  his  dreams  were  accomplished,  for  it  was  A.  M. 
 2298,  that  the  first  year  of  the  famine  began,  when  Sen- 
 saophis,  who  was  probably  his  son,  and  held  Joseph  in 
 equal  favour,  swayed  the  sceptre  ;  that  this  was  the  prince 
 to  whom  Jacob  and  his  sons,  upon  their  coming  down 
 into  Egypt,  in  the  third  year  of  the  famine,  were  pre- 
 sented, and  with  whom  Israel  had  the  conversation  above 
 mentioned  ;  that  A.  M.  2369,  when  Joseph  died,  Masthis 
 was  king,  by  whom,  and  some  of  his  successors,  the 
 Israelites  were  well  treated,  in  remembrance  of  the  ser- 
 vices he  had  done  the  public,  until  there  happened  a 
 revolution  in  the  government,  which  some  choose  to  place 
 about  this  time ;  that  A.  M.  2427,  the  Israelites  began 
 to  be  oppressed,  and  severely  treated  by  Ramesses 
 Miamun,  in  whose  reign  Moses  was  born,  slew  the 
 Egyptian,  and  fled  into  Midian ;  that  A.  M.  2493, 
 Amenophis  succeeded  his  father  in  his  kingdom  and  in 
 his  cruelty  to  the  Israelites  ;  but  that  being  compelled 
 at  last,  by  the  mighty  hand  of  God,  to  let  them  go,  he, 
 and  all  his  army,  in  endeavouring  to  retake  them,  were 
 A.  M.  2513,  swallowed  up  in  the  Red  Sea. 
 
 Salatis,  and  his  successors,  not  only  oppressed  the 
 Israelites,  as  we  said  before,  but  by  the  violence  of  their 
 conquests,  so  terrified  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  land, 
 that  many  persons  of  the  first  figure  thought  it  better  to 
 leave  their  native  country,  than  to  endeavour  to  sit  down 
 under  such  calamities  as  they  saw  were  coming  upon 
 them.  Cecrops,  about  this  time,  departed  from  Egypt; 
 and  after  some  years'  travel  in  other  places  came  at 
 length  to  Greece,  and  lived  in  Attica,  where  he  was 
 kindly  received  by  Actaeus,  the  king  of  the  country ; 
 married  his  daughter,  and  upon  his  demise  succeeded  to 
 his  throne  ;  and  thereupon  he  taught  the  people,  who 
 were  vagrant  before,  the  use  of  settled  habitations ;  re- 
 strained all  licentious  lusts  among  them ;  obliged  each 
 man  to  marry  one  wife  ;  and,  in  shoit,  gave  wise  rules 
 for  the  conduct  of  their  lives,  and  the  exercise  of  all 
 civil  and  religious  offices.  About  thirty  years  after  the 
 death  of  Cecrops,  Cadmus  "  came,  either  directly  from 
 Egypt,  as  some  think,  or  rather  from  Phoenicia,  as  others 
 will  have  it,  and  with  several  people  that  followed  his  for- 
 tune, 6  of  which  some  authors  gives  us  a  strange  account 
 
 a  The  true  account  of  Cadmus  is, — That  his  father,  whose 
 name  is  unknown,  was  an  Egyptian,  who  left  Egypt  about  the 
 time  that  Cecrops  came  from  thence,  and  obtained  a  kingdom  in 
 Phoenicia,  as  Cecrops  did  in  Attica;  and  that  his  two  sons  Phoe- 
 nix and  Cadmus,  were  born  after  his  settlement  in  that  country: 
 and  hence  it  came  to  pass  that  Cadmus,  having  had  an  Egyptian 
 father,  was  brought  up  in  the  religion, and  was  well  acquainted  with 
 the  history  of  that  country,  which  occasioned  several  writers  of 
 his  life  to  account  him  an  Egyptian ;  and  at  the  same  time  being 
 born  and  educated  in  Phoenicia,  he  became  master  of  the  lan- 
 guage and  letters  of  the  country,  and  had  likewise  a  Phoenician 
 name,  which  has  induced  several  others  that  have  wrote  of  him, 
 to  conclude,  with  good  reason,  that  he  was  a  native  of  that  coun- 
 try,— Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  8. 
 
 b  The  account  which  Ovid,  in  his  Metamorphosis,  (b.  3.  fab. 
 1.)  gives  us  of  this  matter  is,— That  Cadmus'  followers  were  all 
 
 having  expelled  the  ancient  inhabitants,  settled  himself 
 in  Bceotia,  and  built  Thebes. 
 
 Danaus  was  another  considerable  person,  who,  about 
 this  time,  left  Egypt  and  came  into  Greece.  He  was 
 originally  descended  from  a  Grecian  ancestor,  and  being 
 now  at  Argos,  when  the  crown  was  vacant,  he  stood  can- 
 didate for  it  against  Galenor,  the  son  of  Sthenelus,  and, 
 c  by  the  superstition  of  the  people  who  were  his  electors, 
 carried  it.  But  of  all  the  refugees  who  quitted  Egypt 
 much  about  this  time,  Belus,  the  son  of  Neptune,  seems 
 to  be  the  most  famous.  He,  with  some  Egyptian  priests, 
 went  to  Babylon,  and  there  obtained  leave  to  settle,  and 
 cultivate  their  studies  in  the  same  manner,  and  with  the 
 same  encouragement  that  had  been  granted  them  in  their 
 own  country. 
 
 The  chief  aim  of  the  ancient  astronomers  seems  to 
 have  been,  to  observe  the  times  of  the  rising  and  setting 
 of  the  stars  ;  and  the  first  and  most  proper  places  that 
 they  could  think  of  for  that  purpose  were  very  large  and 
 open  plains,  where  they  could  have  an  extensive  view  of 
 the  horizon,  without  interruption ;  and  such  plains  as 
 these  were  the  observatories  for  many  generations.  But 
 the  Egyptians  had,  for  above  three  hundred  years  before 
 the  time  of  this  Belus,  invented  a  method  to  improve 
 their  views  by  the  building  of  pyramids,  from  the  top  of 
 which  they  might  take  a  prospect  with  greater  advan- 
 tage ;  and  therefore  it  is  no  improbable  conjecture,  that 
 Belus  taught  the  Babylonians  the  use  of  such  structures, 
 and  might  possibly  project  for  them  that  lofty  tower 
 which  was  afterwards  called  by  his  name. 
 
 For  this  tower  seems  to  have  been  an  improvement  of 
 the  Egyptian  pyramids.  It  was  raised  to  a  much  greater 
 height ;  had  a   more  commodious   space  at  top,  more 
 
 devoured  by  a  serpent,  which  when  Cadmus  had  killed,  and  sown 
 its  teeth  in  the  ground,  there  sprang  up  from  them  a  number  of 
 armed  men,  who,  as  soon  as  they  appeared  above  ground,  fell  a 
 fighting  one  another,  and  were  all  killed  exceptfive,  who,  surviving 
 the  conflict,  went  with  Cadmus,  and  helped  him  to  build  Thebes. 
 And  the  mythologic  sense  of  all  this  story,  according  to  the  con- 
 jecture of  a  learned  author,  is  no  more  than  this, — That  when 
 Cadmus  came  into  Boeotia,  and  had  conquered  the  inhabitants  of 
 it,  it  might  be  recorded  of  him  in  the  Phoenician  or  Hebrew  lan- 
 guage, which  anciently  was  the  same,  that  he  Nashah  Chail  Cha- 
 rnesh  Anoshim,  Noshehim  be  Shenei  Nachash;  but  now  there 
 being  several  ambiguities  in  these  words,  where  the  vowels  were 
 not  originally  written,  (Chamesh,  for  instance,  may  signify  five, 
 as  well  as  warlike;  Shenei,  teeth,  as  spears;  and  Nachash  a  ser- 
 pent, as  well  as  brass,)  a  fabulous  translator  might  say,  "  lie 
 raised  a  force  of  five  men,  armed  with  the  teeth  of  a  serpent ;" 
 whereas  the  words  should  be  rendered,  "  he  raised  a  warlike  force 
 of  men  armed  with  spears  of  brass  ;"  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  the 
 Greeks,  who  were  so  fond  of  disguising  all  their  ancient  accounts 
 with  fable  and  allegory,  should  give  the  history  of  Cadmus  this 
 turn,  when  the  words,  in  which  his  actions  are  recorded,  give 
 them  so  fair  an  opportunity. — Shuckford's  Connection,  vol. 
 2.  b.  8. 
 
 c  The  dispute  between  Danaus  and  Galenor,  concerning  their 
 titles  to  the  crown,  was  argued,  on  both  sides,  for  a  whole  day ; 
 and  when  Galenor  was  thought  to  have  offered  as  weighty  and 
 strong  arguments  for  his  pretensions,  as  Danaus  could  for  his, 
 the  next  day  was  appointed  for  the  further  hearing  and  deter- 
 mining their  claims,  when  an  accident  put  an  end  to  the  dispute. 
 For  not  far  from  the  place  where  the  people  were  assembled,  there 
 happened  a  fight  between  a  wolf  and  a  bull,  wherein  the  wolf  got 
 the  better.  This  was  thought  a  thing  not  a  little  ominous;  and 
 therefore,  as  the  wolf  was  a  creature  they  were  less  acquainted 
 with  than  the  bull,  they  thought  it  was  the  will  of  the  gods, 
 declared  by  the  event  of  this  accidental  combat,  that  he  who  was 
 the  stranger  should  rule  over  them.— Shuckford's  Connection, 
 vol.  2.  b.  8. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &i 
 
 2G1 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1618.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 useful  and  large  apartments  within ;  and  yet  was  a  less 
 bulky  building,  and  raised  upon  a  narrower  foundation  : 
 so  that  the  contriver  of  this  seems  to  have  been  well 
 acquainted  with  the  Egyptian  pyramid  and  its  defects, 
 and  to  have  herein  designed  a  structure  much  more 
 excellent,  which  can  be  ascribed  to  none,  with  so  great 
 a  show  of  probability,  as  to  the  Belus  we  are  now 
 speaking  of. 
 
 That  the  Egyptians,  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world, 
 were  very  famous  for  wisdom  and  learning,  is  evident 
 from  many  ancient  writers,  as  well  as  the  testimony  of 
 the  Scriptures  themselves  ;  for  when,  among  other  things, 
 to  the  honour  of  Moses,  it  is  said,  that '  '  he  was  learned 
 in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians  ;'  and  to  magnify  the 
 knowledge  of  Solomon,  we  are  told,  that  3  'he  excelled 
 all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt ;'  we  cannot  but  infer,  that  this 
 nation,  above  all  others,  had  gained  a  reputation  even 
 for  the  invention  of  several  useful  sciences. 
 
 The  tillage  of  the  ground  made  the  study  of  astronomy 
 absolutely  necessary,  in  order  to  their  knowing,  from 
 the  lights  of  heaven,  the  times  and  seasons  for  the  several 
 parts  of  agriculture  ;  and  the  nature  of  their  country, 
 overflowed  every  year  by  the  Nile,  and  every  year  losing 
 its  land  marks,  made  it  of  continual  use  to  them  to  study 
 geometry  ;  and,  as  a  necessary  handmaid  to  that,  to 
 make  themselves  expert  in  arithmetic. 
 
 It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  hitherto  they 
 had  carried  the  study  either  of  astronomy  or  geography 
 to  any  great  height.  They  observed  the  places  of  the 
 stars,  tind  the  periodical  motions  of  the  planets.  They 
 kept  registers  of  their  observations  for  a  long  course  of 
 years,  and  took  account  of  the  weather  and  seasons  that 
 followed  their  several  observations.  They  recorded  the 
 times  of  sowing  and  reaping  this  or  that  grain,  and,  by 
 their  long  experience,  became  able  prognosticators  of 
 the  weather  and  the  seasons,  and  excellent  directors  for 
 the  tillage  of  the  ground  :  and  in  like  manner,  by  their 
 knowledge  in  geometry,  they  contrived  very  proper 
 methods  of  marking  out,  and  describing  the  several 
 parts  of  their  country,  and  were  very  careful,  no  doubt, 
 in  making  draughts  of  the  flow  and  ebb  of  their  river 
 Nile  every  year  ;  but  when  it  is  considered,  that  the 
 Egyptians  did  not  as  yet  apprehend  that  the  year  con- 
 sisted of  more  than  3(i0  days,  and  that  a  both  Thales 
 and  Pythagoras,  many  ages  after  these  times,  made 
 great  improvements  in  geometry  beyond  what  they  had 
 learned  in  Egypt ;  that  Thales  was  the  first  who  ven- 
 tured to  foretell  an  eclipse  ;  and  Eudoxus  and  Ptolemy 
 to  reduce  the  heavenly  motions  into  tables ;  we  can 
 hardly  think,  that  cither  astronomy  or  geometry  were  as 
 yet  carried  to  any  great  perfection. 
 
 1  Kings  iv.  30. 
 Egypt   for  the  sake  of  thei 
 
 I  Acts  vii.  22. 
 a  Thales,  who  travelled  into 
 learning,  after  his  return  home,  sacrificed  an  ox  to  the  gods  for 
 joy  that  he  had  hit  on  the  method  of  inscribing  a  rectangled 
 triangle  within  a  circle;  and  Pythagoras  uo  less  than  a  whole 
 hecatomb,  for  his  finding  out  the  proportion  of  the  longest  side 
 of  a  right-angled  triangle  to  the  other  two,  which  is  no  more  than 
 a  common  proposition  of  the  first  book  of  Euclid  ;  and  yet  these 
 two  philosophers  could  not  have  the  invention  of  these  things  from 
 the  Egyptians,  unless  we  suppose,  either  that  the  Egyptians  did 
 not  teach  them  all  that  they  knew,  or  that  the  disciples  concealed 
 the  thing,  and  vainly  arrogated  to  themselves  what,  in  strict  truth, 
 they  had  borrowed  from  their  masters. — Biog.  Laert.  in  Pjfthog. 
 tt  Thaletc. 
 
 The  science  of  physic  is  generally  imputed  to  jEscu- 
 lapius  ;  which  name  was  given  to  Sethorthrus,  a  king  of 
 Memphis,  who  stands  second  in  the  third  dynasty  of 
 Manetho,  for  his  great  skill  in  that  art ;  and  though  no 
 great  credit  is  to  be  given  to  h  their  boasted  proficiency 
 in  chemistry,  yet  it  is  reasonable  to  believe,  from  their 
 constant  practice  of  dissections,  that  they  could  not  well 
 fail  of  a  competent  knowledge  in  anatomy. 
 
 The  science,  however,  for  which  they  were  most 
 famous,  and  for  which  indeed  they  valued  themselves 
 most,  was  magic,  though  the  whole  structure  of  it  had 
 no  other  foundation  than  a  superstitious  belief  of  the 
 great  influence  which  heavenly  bodies  are  supposed  to 
 have  upon  this  inferior  world.  To  this  purpose  they 
 imagined,  that  the  seven  planets  governed  the  seven 
 days  of  the  week  ;  and  pretended,  that,  by  a  long  ob- 
 servation of  the  motion  of  the  celestial  bodies,  they  had 
 obtained  the  art  of  foreseeing  future  events.  They 
 believed,  in  short,  that  the  sun,  moon,  stars,  and  ele- 
 ments, were  endued  with  intelligence,  and  appointed  by 
 the  supreme  Deity  to  govern  the  world ;  and  though 
 they  acknowledged  that  God  might,  upon  extraordinary 
 occasions,  work  miracles,  reveal  his  will  by  audible 
 voices,  visions,  dreams,  prophecies,  &c,  yet  they  ima- 
 gined also,  that,  generally  speaking,  prodigies  were 
 caused,  oracles  given,  and  visions  occasioned  in  a  natural 
 way,  by  the  observation,  or  influence  of  the  courses  of 
 the  heavenly  bodies,  or  by  the  operations  of  the  powers 
 of  nature ;  and  therefore  they  conceived,  that  their 
 learned  professors  could  work  miracles,  obtain  omens, 
 and  interpret  dreams,  merely  by  their  skill  in  natural 
 knowledge,  which,  though  strange  and  unaccountable  to 
 the  vulgar,  was  very  obvious  to  persons  of  science  and 
 philosophy. 
 
 In  later  ages  indeed,  and  when  the  Egyptians  began 
 to  worship  their  departed  princes,  a  notion  prevailed 
 that  spirits  or  demons,  of  a  nature  superior  to  men,  were 
 employed  in  the  government  of  the  world,  and  had  their 
 several  provinces  appointed  them  by  God.  To  this 
 honour  they  imagined  that  the  souls  of  departed  heroes 
 and  extraordinary  persons  were  admitted  ;  and  for  this 
 reason  they  supposed,  that  they  were  not  only  endowed 
 with  powers  far  exceeding  those  of  mortal  men,  but  had 
 likewise  miracles,  visions,  oracles,  and  omens, submitted 
 to  their  ministry  and  direction  ;  and  consequently,  in  all 
 their  demands  or  exigencies  of  this  kind,  made  them  the 
 objects  of  their  incantations  and  prayers. 
 
 These  were  some  of  the  chief  arts  and  sciences  (for 
 
 b  Some  modem  assertors  of  the  great  antiquity  of  chemistry, 
 tell  us  of  a  medicine  used  onlj  by  the  Egyptian  priests,  and 
 kept  secret,  even  from  most  of  the  natives,  thai  i>  of  efficacy 
 almost  to  do  any  thing  but  restore  the  dead  to  life  again.  This, 
 say  they,  was  the  grand  elixir,  or  chemical  preparation  made 
 with  the  philosopher's  stun.-,  the  Invention  of  Hermes,  by  the 
 help  of  which  the  Egyptian  kings  were  enabled  to  build  the 
 pyramids,  with  the  treasures  which  their  furnaces  afforded  them; 
 but  these  fables  me  sufficiently  confuted  by  the  profound  silence 
 of  all  antiquity  in  this  matter.  They  are  indeed  built  upon  sus- 
 picious authorities,  uncertain  conjectures,  and  allegorical  Inter- 
 pretations of  the  fabulous  stories  of  the  Greeks,  which  these  men 
 will  have  to  i»-  chemical  secrets  In  disguise;  insomuch  that  they 
 fancy  that  the  golden  fleece,  which  Jason  fetched  from  Cokhls, 
 
 Was   Only  a  receipt    to    make    the    philosopher's    stone;    and    that 
 
 Medea  restored  ASsou's  father  to  his  youth  again,  by  the  grand 
 elixir.— r/»iver«aj  History,  1>.  1.  c.  '.i;  and  fFettm't  Re/Uttoms 
 
 on  Amicnt  and  Modem  Learning,  c.  9. 
 
262  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1G48.  EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 their  architecture,  painting,  sculpture,  and  mechanics  of 
 all  kinds,  for  which  they  were  so  justly  famous,  Ave  have 
 but  just  room  to  mention)  that  flourished  at  this  time 
 among  the  Egyptians  ;  and  we  come  now  to  observe  a 
 little  by  what  means  it  was  that  this  learning  of  theirs 
 came  to  be  preserved  and  transmitted  to  posterity. 
 
 The  Egyptian  language  was  certainly  one  of  the  most 
 ancient  in  the  world  ;  for  considering  its  structure  and 
 constitution,  "  wherein  it  widely  differs  from  all  oriental 
 and  European  languages,  it  must  needs  be  an  original, 
 or  mother  tongue,  formed  at  the  confusion  of  Babel. 
 Their  most  ancient  way  of  writing  was  by  hieroglyphical 
 figures  b  of  various  animals,  and  plants,  the  parts  of 
 human  bodies,  and  mechanical  instruments  ;  for  in  these 
 things  did  the  hieroglyphics  both  of  the  Ethiopians  and 
 Egyptians,  whereof  Hermes  is  said  to  have  been  the 
 inventor,  most  certainly  consist :  but,  besides  these,  they 
 made  use  likewise  of  literal  characters,  whereof  they  had 
 two  kinds,  calling  the  one  the  sacred  letters,  in  which 
 their  public  registers,  and  all  matters  of  an  higher  nature 
 were  written ;  and  the  other  the  vulgar,  which  every  one 
 
 a  For  the  Copts  neither  decline  their  nouns  nor  conjugate 
 their  verbs,  not  even  those  of  foreign  extract,  otherwise  than  by 
 prefixing  particles,  sometimes  of  one  or  more  syllables,  and  some- 
 times of  a  single  letter,  which  denote  case,  gender,  number,  and 
 person,  several  of  which  are  often  joined  together  in  one  word, 
 and  the  primitive  word  usually  placed  last:  so  that  the  difficulty 
 of  this  language  consists  in  the  incredible  combination  of  the 
 words  and  particles,  in  the  change  of  the  vowels  in  transposing 
 tlir  middle  part  of  the  word,  and  adding  superfluous  letters, 
 whicl  it  requires  no  small  labour  and  skill  to  distinguish. — 
 Wilkin's  Dissert,  de  Lingua  Coptica,  p.  120. 
 
 b  Of  these  there  were  three  kinds  among  the  Egyptians,  which 
 seem  to  have  more  or  less  art  in  them,  according  to  the  period  of 
 their  invention.  The  lrfwas,  to  make  the  principal  circumstance 
 of  thi'  subject  stand  for  the  whole.  Thus,  when  they  would 
 describe  a  battle,  or  two  armies  in  array,  they  painted  two  hands, 
 one  holding  a  shield,  and  the  other  a  bow:  when  a  tumult,  or 
 popular  insurrection — an  armed  man  casting  arrows,  &c:  when 
 a  siege — a  scaling  ladder.  The  2d  was,  to  put  the  instrument 
 hi' tin-  thing,  whether  real  or  metaphorical,  for  the  thing  itself. 
 Thus  an  eye,  eminently  placed,  was  designed  to  represent  God's 
 omniscience:  an  eye  and  sceptre — a  monarch:  and  a  ship  and 
 pilot — the  governor  of  the  universe.  The  3d  was,  to  make  one 
 thing  represent  another,  where  there  was  perceived  any  quaint 
 analogy,  or  similitude  between  the  representative  and  the  thing 
 properly  intended.  Thus,  the  universe  was  designed  by  a  serpent 
 in  a  circle,  whose  variegated  spots  signified  the  stars ;  and  the 
 rising  of  the  sun  by  the  two  eyes  of  a  crocodile,  because  they 
 seem  to  emerge  from  his  head  ;  a  tyrannical  king  was  represented 
 by  an  eagle;  and  a  cruel  or  improvident  parent,  by  a  hawk. 
 Thus,  from  the  nature  of  the  things  themselves,  or  their  resem- 
 blance to  something  else,  from  the  principal  circumstance  of  any 
 action,  or  the  chief  instrument  employed  in  doing  it,  hierogly- 
 phic at  first  seem  to  have  been  invented.  But  whether  their 
 invention  was  prior  to  that  of  letters,  has  been  matter  of  some 
 debate  among  the  learned;  though  one  can  hardly  forbear  think- 
 ing, that  a  picture  character,  as  hieroglyphics  are,  would  scarce 
 In'  intelligible  unless  men  could  be  supposed  to  delineate  the 
 form-;  and  pictures  of  things  more  accurately  than  can  well  be 
 imagined:  but  even  if  that  were  granted,  they  would  at  best 
 have  been  but  a  very  imperfect  character,  since  they  could  only 
 hit  of?' the  idea  <>i'  things  visible,  and  must  therefore  be  defective 
 in  a  multitude  of  signs  to  express  the  full  meaning  of  a  man's 
 mind  :  for  which  reason  some  have  supposed,  that  even  the  Egyp- 
 tians themselves  were  wont  to  intermingle  letters  with  hiero- 
 glyphics, to  fdl  up  and  connect  sentences,  and  to  express  actions 
 mure  fully  than  pictures  were  found  to  do.  These  hieroglyphics 
 "err  at  first  in  common  use,  but  in  process  of  time  were  appro- 
 priated to  sacred  and  religious  matters,  and  wrote  and  understood 
 by  the  priests  only. —  Warburton's  Divine  Legation,  h.  4.  and 
 Shtickford's  Connection,  b.  8. 
 
 made  use  of  in  their  common  business.  But  both  these 
 characters  are  at  present  lost,  unless  they  remain  in 
 some  old  inscriptions,  that  are  unintelligible,  and  cannot 
 be  deciphered. 
 
 Not  only  the  Egyptians,  but  several  other  nations, 
 used  to  preserve  the  memory  of  things  by  inscriptions  on 
 pillars.  The  columns  of  Hermes,  upon  which  he  is  said 
 to  have  wrote  all  his  learning,  are  mentioned  by  several 
 writers  of  good  note ;  and  from  them  both  the  Grecian 
 philosophers  and  Egyptian  historians  are  supposed  to 
 have  taken  many  valuable  hints  :  but  to  these  inscriptions 
 succeeded  the  sacred  books,  which  contained  not  only 
 what  related  to  the  worship  of  the  gods,  and  the  laws  of 
 the  kingdom,  but  historical  collections  likewise,  yea, 
 and  all  kinds  of  miscellaneous  and  philosophical  matters 
 of  any  moment,  which  the  priests  or  sacred  scribes  were 
 obliged  to  insert  in  these  public  registers,  in  order  to  be 
 transmitted  to  posterity. 
 
 A  nation  so  renowned  for  their  knowledge  and  learn- 
 ing, and  who  had  such  certain  methods  of  preserving  the 
 traditions  of  their  ancestors,  might  have  kept  the  original 
 religion,  one  would  think,  with  more  than  ordinary 
 purity  ;  at  least  would  not  have  run  into  the  same  excess 
 of  idolatry  and  polytheism,  that  other  people  at  this  time 
 were  so  strangely  addicted  to :  and  yet,  if  we  look  a 
 little  into  their  history,  we  shall  soon  find  more  corrup- 
 tion of  this  kind  among  them  than  in  any  other  nation. 
 Some  of  their  wiser  sort,  indeed,  are  said  to  have 
 acknowledged  one  supreme  God,  the  Maker  and  Ruler 
 of  the  world,  whom  they  sometimes  called  by  the  name  of 
 Osiris,  or  Serapis  ;  sometimes  by  that  of  Isis  ;  and  at 
 other  times  by  that  of  Neith,  on  whose  temple  at  Sais 
 was  the  following  remarkable  inscription — "  I  am  all 
 that  has  been,  is,  or  shall  be,  and  my  veil  hath  no  mortal 
 yet  uncovered."  But  though  some  parts  of  Egypt  might 
 at  first  be  free  from  all  idolatrous  worship  ;  yet  when  the 
 humour  once  began  to  spread,  it  soon  overran  the  whole 
 kingdom.  The  heavenly  luminaries  were  the  first  objects 
 of  profane  adoration  ;  and  in  Egypt,  the  sun  and  the 
 moon  went  under  the  denomination  of  Osiris  and  Isis. 
 After  these,  the  elements,  and  other  parts  of  nature,  such 
 as  Vulcan,  meaning  thereby  the  fire  ;  Ceres,  the  earth  ; 
 Oceanus,  the  water  ;  and  Minerva,  the  air,  were  admitted 
 into  the  number  of  their  deities. 
 
 But,  besides  the  celestial,  they  had  terrestrial  gods 
 likewise  ;  for  most  of  their  princes  who  had  merited  well 
 of  the  people,  were  after  their  death  canonized  and  invo- 
 cated  under  the  names  of  Sol,  Saturnus,  Rhea,  Jupiter, 
 Juno,  Vulcanus,  Vesta,  and  Mercurius  ;  which,  according- 
 to  Diodorus,  were  the  eight  first  hero  gods  which  the 
 Egyptians  worshipped.  Nay,  and  what  is  scarcely  cred- 
 ible, they  came  at  last  to  give  divine  honours  to  several 
 animals,  and  that  with  so  great  a  variety  and  disagree- 
 ment among  themselves,  that,  except  some  of  the  principal 
 deities  which  were  honoured  all  the  kingdom  over,  there 
 was  almost  in  every  town  or  village  a  different  god  held 
 in  veneration  in  one  place,  and  detested  in  the  next, 
 which  often  occasioned  bitter  animosities,  and  sometimes 
 inveterate  quarrels,  and  dangerous  wars. 
 
 Now  the  reason  why  the  Egyptians  adopted  such  a 
 variety  of  animals  into  the  number  of  their  gods,  was  not 
 so  much  from  any  consideration  of  their  subserviency  to 
 human  life,  as  from  a  certain  similitude  they  perceived 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &< 
 
 263 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1071  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H 
 
 between  them  and  the  deity  to  whom  they  were  devoted. 
 Thus  the  hawk  was  made  sacred  to  Osiris,  as  an  emblem  of 
 the  supreme  Deity,  by  reason  of  its  piercing  sight  and  swift- 
 ness ;  the  crocodile  and  river-horse  were  sacred  to  Typho, 
 the  evil  principle  ;  Anubis  was  said  to  be  thedogstar,  and 
 the  dog  was  sacred  to  him  ;  the  serpent  or  dragon  was  con- 
 secrated to  Nephthe  ;  and  other  suitable  animals  to  their 
 respective  gods:  nor  is  the  conjecture  a  of  our  learned 
 countryman  '  at  all  to  be  rejected,  namely,  That  the  use  of 
 the  hieroglyphical  figures  of  animals,  might  introduce  this 
 strange  worship  which  the  Egyptians  in  process  of  time 
 came  to  pay  them.  For  as  those  figures  were  made  choice 
 of  according  to  the  respective  properties  of  each  animal, 
 to  express  the  qualities  and  dignities  of  the  persons  they 
 represented,  which  were  generally  their  gods,  princes, 
 and  great  men,  the  people  became  gradually  accustomed 
 to  these  figures  which  they  used  to  place  in  their  temples 
 as  the  images  of  their  deities  ;  and  from  hence  it  is  not 
 absurd  to  imagine,  that  they  came  at  length  to  pay  a 
 superstitious  veneration  to  the  living  animals  themselves. 
 
 But  whatever  might  be  the  reason  or  inducements  to 
 this  kind  of  idolatry,  nothing  was  so  remarkable  in  the 
 Egyptian  religion,  as  the  preposterous  worship  which 
 that  nation  paid  to  animals,  such  as  the  cat,  the  dog,  the 
 ibis,  the  wolf,  the  crocodile,  and  several  others  which 
 they  had  in  high  veneration,  not  when  they  were  alive 
 only,  but  even  after  they  were  dead. 
 
 "Whilst  they  were  living,  they  had  lands  set  apart  for 
 the  maintenance  of  each  kind,  and  both  men  and  women 
 were  employed  in  feeding  and  attending  them.  The 
 children  succeeded  their  parents  in  the  office,  which  was 
 so  far  from  being  declined,  or  thought  despicable  among 
 the  Egyptians,  that  they  gloried  in  it  as  an  high  honour  ; 
 and  wearing  certain  badges  to  distinguish  them  at  a  dis- 
 tance, were  saluted  by  bending  the  knee,  and  other 
 demonstrations  of  respect. 
 
 If  any  person  killed  any  of  these  sacred  animals 
 designedly,  he  was  punished  with  immediate  death  ;  if 
 involuntarily,  his  punishment  was  deferred  to  the  discre- 
 tion of  the  priests  ;  but  if  the  creature  slain  was  a  cat,  a 
 hawk,  or  an  ibis,  whether  the  thing  was  done  with  design 
 
 1  Sir  John  Marsham,  Can.  Chron.  p.  38. 
 a  This  conjecture  the  learned  author  of  the  Divine  Legation  of 
 Moses  abundantly  confirms ;  for  having  enumerated  the  several 
 things  that  might  give  occasion  to  brute-worship  among  the  Egyp- 
 tians, such  as,  I.  A  grateful  sense  of  the  benefits  received  from 
 animals.  2.  The  considering  these  animals  as  symbols  of  the  divine 
 nature.  3.  The  notion  of  God's  pervading,  and  being  present  in 
 all  things,  4.  The  Egyptian  use  of  asterisms,  or  denoting  constel- 
 lations by  the  name  of  animals.  5.  The  doctrine  of  metempsy- 
 chosis, or  human  souls  transmigrating  into  the  bodies  of  animals. 
 And,  6.  The  invention  of  some  Egyptian  king  or  other,  for  his 
 private  ends  of  policy.  All  these  causes  or  occasions,  I  say,  our 
 author  having  examined  and  refuted,  carries  the  point  somewhat 
 farther  than  the  learned  Marsham,  and  concludes,  that  the  true 
 original  of  brute-worship  among  the  Egyptians,  was  their  use  of 
 symbolical  writing;  for  which  he  assigns  a  further  reason, 
 namely,  That  when  the  use  of  writing  by  letters,  as  much  more 
 commodious  than  the  other,  came  generally  to  prevail,  the  priests 
 still  continued  the  hieroglyphic  characters  in  their  works  of 
 science  and  religion;  and  as  the  other  grew  abstruse  and  obsolete 
 to  the  vulgar,  to  make  them  more  sacred,  the  priests  in  a  short 
 time  were  the  only  persons  that  could  read  them,  and  then  to 
 make  them  more  sacred  and  mysterious,  gave  it  out,  that  the 
 gods  themselves  were  the  inventors  of  them,  which  might  easily 
 induce  a  deluded  people  to  worship  the  very  creatures,  as  having 
 something  extraordinary  in  them,  which  their  gods  had  thought 
 proper  to  delineate. — B.  4. 
 
 ALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1C48.  EXOD.  CH.  i-xiii. 
 
 or  no,  *  the  person  was  to  die  without  mercy,  and  some- 
 times without  any  formal  trial  or  process.  The  extra- 
 vagant worship  which  they  paid  to  some  of  these  animal 
 deities,  (as  to  the  bull  at  Memphis,  the  goat  at  Mendes, 
 the  lion  at  Leontapolis,  c  the  crocodile  at  the  lake 
 Moeris  ;  and  to  many  others  at  different  places,)  exceeds 
 all  belief;  for  they  were  kept  in  consecrated  enclosures, 
 and  well  attended  on  by  men  of  high  rank,  who  at  great 
 expense  provided  victuals  for  them,  which  consisted  of 
 the  greatest  dainties.  Nor  was  this  all  ;  for  these  crea- 
 tures were  washed  in  hot  baths,  and  anointed  with  the 
 most  precious  ointments,  and  perfumed  with  the  most 
 odoriferous  scents.  They  lay  on  the  richest  carpets,  and 
 other  costly  furniture  ;  and,  that  they  might  want  nothing 
 to  make  their  lives  as  happy  as  possible,  they  had  the 
 most  beautiful  females  of  their  several  kinds,  to  which 
 they  gave  the  name  of  concubines,  provided  for  them. 
 
 When  any  of  these  animals  died,  the  Egyptians 
 lamented  them  as  if  they  had  been  their  dearest  children, 
 and  frequently  laid  out  more  than  they  were  worth  in 
 their  burials.  If  a  cat  died  in  any  house,  all  the  family 
 shaved  their  eyebrows  ;  and  if  a  dog,  their  whole  body  ; 
 and  thus,  putting  themselves  in  mourning,  they  wrapped 
 the  dead  body  up  in  fine  linen,  and  carried  it  to  be 
 embalmed  ;  where,  being  anointed  with  oil  of  cedar  and 
 other  aromatic  preparations  to  keep  it  from  putrefaction, 
 it  was  buried  with  great  solemnity  in  a  sacred  coffin. 
 So  true  is  that  reflection  8  of  the  apostle,  and  with 
 regard  to  these  Egyptians  certainly  it  was  made,  that 
 '  though  they  knew  God,  yet  they  glorified  him  not  as 
 God  ;  but  changed  the  glory  of  God  into  the  image  of 
 four-footed  beasts,  and  his  truth  into  a  lie  ;  and  worship- 
 ped and  served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator,  who 
 is  blessed  for  ever.    Amen.' 
 
 Before  we  leave  Egypt,  the  sacred  historian  seems  to 
 remind  us  to  take  a  view  of  some  of  the  monumental 
 works  that  are  found  there,  and  which,  having  been  built 
 within  the  compass  of  the  period  we  are  now  upon,  may 
 well  be  presumed  to  be  the  product  of  some  of  the  bur- 
 dens and  hard  labour  which  the  Egyptian  kings  laid  upon 
 the  Israelites. 
 
 d  The  pyramids  were  justly  reckoned  one  of  the  won- 
 
 2  Rom.  i.  21,  23,25. 
 b  Herodotus  gives  us  an  instance  of  this  in  a  Roman,  who  hap- 
 pening accidentally  to  kill  a  cat,  the  mob  immediately  gathered 
 about  the  house  where  he  was,  and  could  neither  by  the  entrea- 
 ties of  some  principal  men  sent  by  the  king,  nor  by  the  fear  of 
 the  Romans,  with  whom  they  were  then  negotiating  a  peace,  be 
 prevailed  on  to  spare  his  life.  And,  what  may  seem  still  mow 
 incredible,  it  is  reported  that  at  a  time  when  there  was  a  famine 
 in  Egypt,  which  drove  the  inhabitants  to  such  extremity,  that 
 they  were  forced  to  bed  on  one  another,  then-  was  no  one  person 
 accused  of  having  tasted  of  any  of  these  sacred  animated— I  «*■ 
 
 versal  History,  b.  1 .  C  3. 
 
 c  The  crocodile  seems  to  be  the  last  animal  to  which  mankind 
 could  be  tempted  to  pay  divine  adoration;  but  that  this  might  be 
 done  with  more  safety,  ane  of  these  creatures  "as  trained  up  to 
 be  tame  and  familiar  for  the  purpose,  and  bad  bis  ears  adorned 
 with  strings  of  jewels  and  gold,  and  his  |„re  teet  with  chains.  \W 
 wasfedwith  consecrated  provisions  at  the  public  charge:  and 
 when  strangers  went  to  Bee  him,  which  often  happened  oul  ol 
 
 curiosity,  they  also  carried  him  a  present  of  a  cake,  dn I  meat, 
 
 and  nine,  or  a  drink  made  with  honey,  which  was  oflered  toJnm 
 by  the  priests;  and  when  he  died  bis  body  was  embalmed,  «na 
 buried  in  a  sacred  coffin  at  AntDM.—Herodotv*,  b.  2.  and  Stra- 
 ta, b.  17.  ..  .     .    .     , 
 
 d  It  is  a  common  opinion,  that  the  word pyrtmud  is  denvea 
 from  the  Greek  pyr  or  pur,  Jire;  end  that  these  structures  were 
 
264 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H 
 ders  of  the  world,  and  there  is  more  of  them  now  remain- 
 ing, than  of  all  the  other  six,  which  have  been  so  much 
 celebrated.  Not  far  from  the  place  where  Memphis  once 
 stood,  there  are  three  of  these  structures  at  no  great 
 distance  from  each  other  ;  two  of  which  are  shut  up,  but 
 the  third,  which  is  the  largest,  and  stands  open  for  the 
 inspection  of  travellers,  we  shall  here  describe,  as  a 
 probable  specimen  of  all  the  rest.  a 
 
 so  called  from  their  shape,  which  ascended  from  a  broad  basis, 
 and  ended  in  a  point  like  a  (lame  of  fire.  Others,  whose  opinion 
 Vossius  seems  to  approve,  say  that  the  name  comes  from  the  word 
 pyros,  which,  in  the  same  language,  signifies  wheat,  because  they 
 suppose  them  to  have  been  the  granaries  of  the  ancient  Egyptian 
 kings.  But  a  late  writer,  versed  in  the  Coptic  tongue,  has  given 
 us  another  etymology  from  that  language,  wherein pouro  signifies 
 a  king,  and  mist,  a  race  or  generation,  and  the  reason  why  the 
 pyramids  had  this  name  given  them,  was,  as  he  tells  us,  because 
 they  were  elected  to  preserve  the  memory  of  the  princes,  who 
 were  their  founders,  and  their  families. —  JFilkins'  Dissert,  de 
 Ling.  Copt.  p.  108. 
 
 a  We  shall  here  give  the  result  of  the  investigations  of  modern 
 travellers,  regarding  the  pyramids  of  Egypt.  The  three  largest 
 are  situated  at  Geez  or  Djiza,  nearly  opposite  to  Grand  Cairo, 
 and  are  named  from  their  supposed  founders,  Cheops,  Chephren, 
 and  Mycerines.  Their  height  has  been  differently  represented, 
 and,  owing  to  incorrectness,  or  different  standards  of  measure, 
 has  been  stated  at  all  the  gradations  from  about  800  to  500 
 feet.  The  following  dimensions,  however,  taken  by  the  French 
 engineers  may  be  given  as  \ery  nearly  accurate:  That  of 
 Cheops,  448  feet  in  height,  and  728  on  each  side  of  the  base; 
 Chephren,  398  feet  in  height,  and  C55  on  each  side  of  the 
 base;  and  Mycerines,  162  feet  in  height,  and  280  on  each  side 
 of  the  base. 
 
 The  pyramid  of  Cheops,  which  is  the  largest,  is  ascended  by 
 an  uninterrupted  series  of  steps,  diminishing  from  four  to  two 
 and  a  half  feet  high  in  approaching  the  top.  The  breadth  of  each 
 step  is  equal  to  its  height.  Upon  the  top  there  is  a  platform 
 thirty-two  feet  square,  consisting  of  nine  large  stones,  about  a  ton 
 each,  though  inferior  to  some  of  the  other  stones,  which  vary 
 from  five  to  thirty  feet  long,  and  from  three  to  four  feet  high. 
 From  this  platform  Dr  Clarke  saw  to  the  south  the  pyramids  of 
 Saccara,  and  on  the  east  of  these,  smaller  monuments  of  the 
 same  kind  nearer  to  the  Nile.  He  remarked  also  an  appearance 
 of  ruins  which  might  be  traced  the  whole  way  from  the  pyramids 
 of  Djiza  to  those  of  Saccara,  as  if  the  whole  had  once  constituted 
 one  great  cemetery.  The  stones  upon  this  platform,  as  well  as 
 most  of  the  others  employed  in  constructing  the  decreasing 
 ranges  from  the  base  upwards,  are  of  soft  limestone,  of  the  same 
 nature  as  the  calcareous  rock  upon  which  the  pyramids  stand. 
 The  pyramids  are  built  with  common  mortar  externally,  but  no 
 appearance  of  mortar  is  discerned  in  the  more  perfect  masonry 
 of  the  interior.  It  has  been  calculated,  that  this  pyramid  was 
 built  490  years  before  the  first  Olympiad,  or  about  3000  years 
 ago.  It  was  explored  by  Mr  Davidson  in  1763;  and  with  more 
 success  by  Captain  Caviglia  in  1817. 
 
 The  second  pyramid,  that  of  Chephren,  is  thought  to  have 
 been  covered  by  stucco  of  gypsum  and  flint.  Belzoni  discovered 
 its  entrance  in  the  north  front,  in  1818.  Advancing  along  a  nar- 
 row passage,  100  feet  long,  he  found  the  great  chamber  forty-six 
 feet  long  hy  sixteen  wide,  and  twenty-three  high,  cut  out  of  the 
 solid  rock.  It  contained  a  granite  sarcophagus,  half  sunk  in  the 
 floor,  with  many  bones,  some  of  which  have  proved  to  be  those 
 of  the  bull.  A  little  to  the  east  of  this  pyramid  is  the  sphynx, 
 cut  out  of  the  same  sort  of  rock  upon  which  the  pyramids  are 
 built;  its  height  from  the  knees  to  the  top  of  the  head  is  thirty- 
 eight  frit. 
 
 To  the  south  of  these  pyramids  there  are  others,  which  shoot 
 far  into  the  deserts  of  Libya,  and  are  generally  called  the  pyra- 
 mids of  Saccara.  These  erections  appear  to  be  more  ancient 
 than  those  about  Geez.  They  are  less  perfect,  and  some  of  them 
 are  formed  of  unburned  bricks.  The  most  ancient  bricks  of  Egypt 
 were  only  dried  by  the  heat  of  the  sun ;  and  that  they  might  stick 
 more  closely  together,  the  clay  was  mixed  with  chopped  straw; 
 and  hence  the  Israelites,  while  in  slavery  in  Egypt,  made  use  of 
 straw  in  making  bricks.  Some  of  these  pyramids  are  rounded 
 at  the  top,  and  are  like  hillocks  cased  with  stone.     One  of  thera 
 
 AXES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1G48.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 It  is  situate  on  a  rocky  hill,  which,  in  a  gentle  and 
 easy  ascent,  rises  100  feet,  in  the  sandy  desert  of  Libya, 
 about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  plains  of  Egypt.  Its 
 basis  is  generally  supposed  to  be  an  exact  square,  and 
 every  side,  according  to  those  that  have  been  as  careful 
 as  possible  in  its  mensuration,  about  693  English  feet : 
 so  that  the  whole  area  of  it  contains  480,249  square 
 feet,  or  something  more  than  eleven  acres  of  ground. 
 
 has  steps  like  that  of  Cheops.  The  ranges  or  steps  are  six  in 
 number,  each  range  being  twenty-five  feet  high  and  eleven  feet 
 wide.     The  total  height  of  this  pyramid  is  150  feet. 
 
 According  to  Herodotus,  the  pyramids  were  formed  by  dis- 
 tinct courses  of  stone,  which  successively  diminished  in  size  as 
 the  proportions  of  the  edifices  required  it.  Every  course  was  so 
 much  within  that  immediately  below  it,  as  to  make  each  front  of 
 the  pyramid  form  a  sort  of  stair.  This  agrees  with  the  descrip- 
 tions of  modern  travellers.  A  very  simple  machine,  according 
 to  the  same  author,  placed  upon  the  first  course,  served  to  raise 
 the  stones  destined  for  the  construction  of  the  second.  The  second 
 being  finished  a  similar  machine  was  fixed  upon  it,  and  so  on  for 
 the  rest,  one  or  more  of  the  machines  being  always  left  upon  each 
 of  the  courses  already  laid,  to  serve  successively  for  raising  the 
 stones  from  step  to  step.  It  is  pretty  certain,  that  the  pyramids 
 had  all  originally  an  outward  coat  either  of  square  flags  of  marble 
 or  of  bricks,  so  that  they  presented  to  the  eye  a  perfectly  even 
 slope ;  but  much  of  this  has  disappeared,  through  the  dilapidation 
 of  time  and  other  causes. 
 
 Many  unsatisfactory  conjectures  have  been  formed,  and  theories 
 adopted,  with  regard  to  the  original  design  or  use  for  which  pyra- 
 mids were  built.  The  greater  number  of  writers  on  the  subject 
 are  of  opinion,  that  they  were  erected  for  the  tombs  of  kings  and 
 conquerors,  to  preserve  their  remains  inviolate,  and  hand  down 
 their  memory  to  the  latest  posterity.  Herodotus  states,  that  the 
 Egyptians  considered  thepyramidal  form  as  emblematical  of  human 
 life,  the  broad  base  on  the  earth  representing  the  commencement, 
 and  the  gradation  to  a  point,  the  termination  of  our  existence. 
 The  emblem,  if  inverted,  would  bear  an  equally  natural  inter- 
 pretation: yet  this  is  the  reason  he  alleges  for  pyramids  being 
 used  for  sepulture.  That  they  were  erected  for  astronomical 
 purposes  is  a  fanciful  conjecture,  although  it  is  certain  that  they 
 are  constructed  on  scientific  principles,  and  give  evidence  of  some 
 progress  in  astronomy,  for  their  sides  are  accurately  adapted  to 
 the  four  cardinal  points.  That  they  were  meant  for  altars  to  the 
 gods,  their  tapering  form  being  in  imitation  of  flame,  as  the  Per- 
 sians and  other  nations  worshipped  fire ;  or  that  they  were  con- 
 structed as  a  permanent  memorial  of  the  proper  length  of  the  cubit, 
 of  which  it  is  said,  that  all  their  dimensions  contain  a  certain 
 number  of  multiples,  appear  to  be  conjectures  equally  strained 
 and  fanciful.  Still  less  were  they  adapted  to  the  purpose  of 
 granaries,  as  some  have  supposed.  That  they  were  originally 
 intended  to  remedy  the  disadvantage  of  the  Delta,  and  particu- 
 larly Upper  Egypt,  by  attracting  the  clouds  and  eliciting  a  dis- 
 charge of  rain,  may  be  considered  as  in  some  measure  sanctioned 
 by  the  enormous  sphinx  found  in  their  vicinity,  and  its  relation 
 to  the  fertilizing  of  Egypt  by  the  waters  of  the  Nile,  the  sphinx, 
 representing  the  head  and  bosom  of  a  woman  with  the  body  of  a 
 lion,  being  designed  to  symbolize  the  annual  inundation,  which 
 takes  place  while  the  sun  passes  through  the  signs  of  the  zodiac, 
 denominated  the  Virgin  and  the  Lion.  But  whatever  their  ori- 
 ginal destination  was,  or  whether  they  ever  served  any  purpose 
 farther  than  gratifying  the  vanity  of  their  builders,  they  now,  as 
 has  been  well  remarked,  harmonize  admirably  with  a  dewless 
 heaven,  a  sandy  waste,  a  people  that  have  been.  There  is  now  a 
 sublimity  in  their  uselessness.  Standing  on  the  same  earth  which 
 has  entombed  so  many  thousand  generations,  pointing  to  the  same 
 sky  which  heard  the  cry  of  the  oppressed  when  they  were  build- 
 ing ;  they  no  longer  belong  to  Cheops  or  Sesostris,  Pharaohs  or  Pto- 
 lemies, Mamelukes  or  Turks,  but  to  the  imagination  of  mankind. 
 "  The  humblest  pilgrim,"  says  Dr  Clarke,  "pacing  the  Libyan 
 sands  around  them,  while  he  is  conscious  that  he  walks  in  the 
 footsteps  of  many  mighty  and  renowned  men,  imagines  himself  to 
 be,  for  an  instant,  admitted  into  their  illustrious  conclave.  Persian 
 satraps,  Macedonian  heroes,  Grecian  bards,  sages,  and  historians, 
 all  of  every  age,  and  nation,  and  religion,  have  participated,  in 
 common  with  him,  the  same  feelings,  and  have  trodden  the  same 
 ground." — En. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES'    &f 
 
 265 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1G48.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 Its  altitude,  if  measured  by  its  perpendicular,  is  481  I  are  all  made  of  vast  and  exquisite  tables  of  Thebaic 
 feet,  but  if  taken  according  to  the  inclination  of  the 
 pyramid,  as  it  ascends,  it  is  exactly  equal  to  a  side  of 
 its  basis. 
 
 The  ascent  to  the  top  of  this  structure  is  by  degrees, 
 or  steps,  which  run  round  the  whole  pyramid  in  a  level, 
 and  if  the  stones  were  entire  on  every  side,  would  make 
 a  narrow  walk.  The  first  of  these  steps  is  near  four  feet 
 in  height  and  three  in  breadth  ;  but  the  higher  one  ascends, 
 they  proportionably  diminish.  They  are  made  of  massy 
 and  polished  stone,  so  very  large,  that  the  breadth  and 
 depth  of  every  step  is  one  single  stone  ;  but  as  the  weather 
 has  in  many  places  worn  these  steps,  this  pyramid  cannot 
 be  ascended  without  some  difficulty.  According  to  the 
 computation  of  most  modern  travellers,  the  steps  are  207 
 or  208  in  number,  which  end  a  on  the  top,  in  a  handsome 
 platform,  covered  with  nine  stones,  besides  two  that  are 
 wanting  at  the  corners,  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  feet 
 square,  from  whence  you  have  a  pleasant  prospect  of 
 Old  Cairo,  and  the  adjacent  country. 
 
 On  the  sixteenth  step  from  the  bottom  of  this  pyramid, 
 there  is  a  door  or  entry  of  three  feet  and  a  half  in  height, 
 and  a  little  less  in  breadth,  through  which  you  descend 
 insensibly,  much  about  seventy-six  feet,  and  then  come 
 to  another  passage,  which  very  probably  is  of  the  same 
 dimensions  with  the  first  entrance,  but  is  so  choked  up 
 with  the  sand,  which  the  wind  blows  in,  that  it  is  no 
 easy  matter  for  a  man  of  any  bulk  to  squeeze  himself 
 through  it.  Having  passed  this  strait,  however,  you 
 meet  with  nothing  deserving  observation,  till  on  the  left 
 hand  you  enter  a  passage  which  leads  into  a  gallery  16 
 feet  high,  and  1G2  feet  long;  a  very  stately  piece  of 
 work  indeed,  and  not  inferior  either  in  curiosity  of  art, 
 or  richness  of  materials,  to  the  most  sumptuous  and 
 magnificent  buildings  !  The  stone  of  which  this  gallery 
 is  built,  is  a  white  polished  marble,  very  evenly  cut  into 
 large  tables,  and  jointed  so  close,  as  hardly  to  be  per- 
 ceived by  the  most  curious  eye  :  but  what  adds  a  grace 
 to  the  whole  structure,  though  it  makes  the  passage  the 
 more  slippery  and  difficult,  is  the  acclivity  or  rising  of 
 the  ascent,  which,  however,  is  not  a  little  facilitated  by 
 certain  holes  made  in  the  floor,  about  six  hands1  breadth 
 from  one  another,  into  which  a  man  may  set  his  feet, 
 while  he  holds  by  a  bench  of  marble,  which  runs  all 
 along  the  gallery,  with  one  hand,  and  carries  his  light  in 
 the  other. 
 
 As  soon  as  you  come  to  the  end  of  this  gallery,  you 
 enter  another  square  hole,  much  of  the  same  dimensions 
 with  the  former,  which  brings  you  into  two  little  rooms, 
 lined  with  a  rich  kind  of  speckled  marble  ;  and  thence 
 you  proceed  into  the  chamber  of  the  tombs  or  sepulchres, 
 which  is  very  large  and  spacious,  32  feet  long,  l(i  feet 
 wide,  and  19  feet  high.  This  room  stands,  as  it  were, 
 in  the  heart  and  centre  of  the  pyramid,  equidistant  from 
 all  the  sides,  and  almost  in  the  midst  between  the  basis 
 and  the  top.     The  floor,  the  sides,  and  the  roof  of  it 
 
 a  On  this  platform  Proclus  supposed  that  thu  Egyptian  priests 
 made  their  astronomical  observations;  hut  it  is  far  from  being  pro- 
 bable that  these  structures  were  designed  for  observatories,  and  it 
 is  scarce  to  be  conceived  that  the  priests  would  take  the  pains  to 
 ascend  so  high,  when  they  might  make  the  same  observations 
 with  more  case,  and  as  much  certainty  below,  having  as  free  and 
 open  a  prospect  of  the  heavens,  and  over  the  plains  of  Egypt, 
 from  the  rock  whereon  it  was  built,  as  from  the  pyramid  itself. 
 —  Universal  History. 
 
 marble,  which,  if  they  were  not  sullied  with  the  steam  of 
 torches,  would  certainly  appear  very  bright  and  shining. 
 From  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  chamber,  there  are 
 about  six  ranges  of  this  stone,  which  being  all  sized  to 
 an  equal  height,  run  very  gracefully  round  it.  The  roof 
 is  flat,  and  consists  but  of  nine  stones,  whereof  seven 
 in  the  middle,  are  each  four  feet  wide,  and  16  feet  long, 
 but  the  other  two,  which  are  at  each  end,  appear  not 
 above  two  feet  broad  apiece,  because  the  other  half  of 
 them  is  built  into  the  wall.  The  stones  lie  athwart, 
 over  the  breadth  of  the  chamber,  with  their  ends  resting 
 upon  the  walls  on  each  side. 
 
 At  the  end  of  this  glorious  room  stands  an  empty 
 tomb,  three  feet  and  an  inch  wide,  and  seven  feet  two 
 inches  long  ;  the  stone  which  it  is  made  of  is  the  same 
 with  the  lining  of  the  room,  a  beauteous  speckled  marble, 
 above  five  inches  thick,  and  yet,  being  hollow  within, 
 and  uncovered  at  the  top,  whenever  it  is  struck  it  sounds 
 like  a  great  bell :  which  is  just  such  a  wonder  as  the 
 surprising  echo  that  is  heard  in  this  place,  and,  as  some 
 travellers  tell  us,  will  repeat  the  same  sound  some  ten 
 or  twelve  times  together.  The  figure  of  this  tomb  is  like 
 an  altar,  or  two  cubes  finely  set  together.  It  is  cut 
 smooth  and  plain,  exquisitely  finely  polished,  but  without 
 any  sculpture  or  engraving.  It  is  not  to  be  doubted, 
 but  that  the  tomb  was  placed  here  before  the  pyramid 
 was  finished  ;  and  one  reason  for  its  want  of  ornaments 
 may  be  what  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  tell  US, 
 namely,  that  it  was  built  for  the  sepulchre  of  a  king  who 
 was  never  buried  in  it ;  and  the  common  opinion  is,  that 
 it  was  the  same  Pharaoh  who,  by  the  just  judgment  of 
 God,  was  drowned  in  the  Red  Sea. 
 
 These  are  the  principal  things  that  have  been  observed 
 of  this  pyramid ;  only,  to  give  us  a  still  fuller  idea  of 
 the  vastness  of  its  structure,  Pliny  has  taken  care  to 
 inform  us,  that  it  was  20  years  in  building;  that  37,000 
 men  were,  every  day,  employed  in  the  work ;  and  that 
 1800  talents  were  expended  upon  them  merely  for 
 radishes  and  onions.  Which  last  article  may  seem  in- 
 credible perhaps  to  those  that  were  never  in  the  country  ; 
 
 but  when  it  is  considered,  that  this  is  the  ordinary  f I 
 
 of  the  common  people,  and  that  almost  all  those  who 
 were  employed  in  raising  these  great  piles  were  slaves 
 and  mercenaries,  who,  besides  bread  and  water,  had 
 nothing  but  radishes  and  onions,  there  will  be  no  occa- 
 sion for  any  surprise  or  wonder  at  the  supposed  large- 
 ness of  this  account. 
 
 A  building  of  the  like  date,  and  not  of  inferior  gran- 
 deur, was  the  labyrinth  which  stood  in  the  Heracleotic 
 Nome,  or  province,  near  the  citj  of  Arainoe,  and  not  far 
 from  the  lake  Moeris.  The  design  of  this  structure 
 seems  to  have  been  both  for  a  pantheon,  or  universal 
 temple  for  all  the  gods  that  were  worshipped  in  the 
 several  places  of  Egypt,  and  also  for  a  general  con- 
 vention-house, for  the  states  of  the  whole  nation  to  meet, 
 and  enact  laws,  and  determine  causes  of  great  import- 
 ance :  and  therefore  it  is  said  by  some  to  bare  been 
 built  at  the  common  charge  of  the  twelve  kings  who,  in 
 those  days, reigned  all  at  once  in  Egypt, as  a  monument 
 
 of  their  magnificence,  and  a  place  for  their  sepulture. 
 To  this   purpose    Herodotus  '  tells  u-\  that   each   prn- 
 
 •  B. 
 
 2  i 
 
266 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  III. 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  15V1 ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HA 
 
 vince  or  nonie  had,  in  this  building,  a  distinct  hall,  where 
 its  principal  magistrates  used  to  meet ;  that  these  halls 
 were  vaulted,  were  surrounded  with  pillars  of  white 
 stone,  finely  polished,  and  had  an  equal  number  of  doors 
 opposite  to  one  another,  six  opening  to  the  north,  and 
 six  to  the  south,  all  encompassed  by  the  same  wall ; 
 that  there  were  three  thousand  chambers  in  this  edifice, 
 fifteen  hundred  in  the  upper  part,  and  as  many  under 
 ground  ;  and  that  he  viewed  every  room  in  the  upper 
 part,  but  was  not  permitted  by  those  who  kept  the  palace, 
 to  go  into  the  subterraneous  part,  because  the  sepulchres 
 of  the  holy  crocodiles,  and  of  the  kings,  who  built  the 
 lain  rinth,  were  there.  What  he  saw  there,  as  he  reports, 
 seemed  to  surpass  the  art  of  man  ;  so  many  ways  out, 
 by  various  passages,  and  infinite  returns,  afforded  a 
 thousand  occasions  of  wonder,  as  he  passed  from  a  spa- 
 cious hall  to  a  chamber,  from  thence  to  a  private  closet, 
 then  again  into  other  passages  out  of  the  closet,  and  out 
 of  the  chambers,  into  more  spacious  rooms,  where  all 
 the  walls  and  roofs  were  not  only  encrusted  with  marble, 
 but  richly  adorned  likewise  with  figures  of  sculpture. 
 
 To  this  description  of  Herodotus,  others  add,  that  this 
 edifice  stood  in  the  midst  of  an  immense  square,  sur- 
 rounded with  buildings  at  a  great  distance;  that  the 
 porch  was  of  Parian  marble,  and  all  the  other  pillars  of 
 the  marble  of  Syene;  that  within  it  were  the  temples  of 
 the  several  deities,  and  galleries  to  which  one  ascended 
 by  !)0  steps,  adorned  with  many  columns  of  porphyry, 
 images  of  their  gods,  and  statues  of  their  kings,  of  a 
 monstrous  size ;  that  the  whole  edifice  consisted  of 
 stone,  the  floors  were  laid  with  vast  tables,  and  the  roof 
 looked  like  one  continued  field  of  stone  ;  that  the  pas- 
 sages met  and  crossed  one  another  with  so  much  intri- 
 cacy, that  it  was  impossible  for  a  stranger  to  find  his 
 way,  either  in  or  out,  without  a  guide  ;  and  that  several 
 of  the  apartments  were  so  contrived,  that  upon  opening 
 the  doors,  there  was  heard  within  a  terrible  noise  of 
 thunder. 
 
 Such  was  the  strength  of  this  wonderful  building,  that 
 it  withstood,  for  many  ages,  not  only  the  rage  of  time, 
 but  that  of  the  inhabitants  of  Heracleopolis,  who,  wor- 
 shipping the  ichneumon,  or  water-rat,  the  mortal  enemy 
 of  the  crocodile,  which  was  a  peculiar  deity  of  Arsinoe, 
 bore  an  inconceivable  hatred  to  the  labyrinth,  which  was 
 the  sepulchre,  as  we  said,  of  the  sacred  crocodiles;  and 
 therefore    assaulted    and  demolished  it,  though  a  there 
 
 a  The  remains  of  this  noble  structure  are  thus  described  by 
 our  author.  M  The  first  thing  you  see  is  a  large  portico  of  marble, 
 facing  the  rising  sun,  and  sustained  by  four  great  marble  pillars, 
 but  romposed  of  several  pieces.  Three  of  these  pillars  are  still 
 standing,  but  one  of  the  middle  ones  is  half  fallen.  In  the  middle 
 is  a  door  whose  sides  and  entablature  are  very  massy;  ;md  above 
 is  a  frieze,  whereon  is  represented  an  head  with  wings,  stretched 
 
 out  along   the  frieze,  and   several  hieroglyphics  underneath 
 
 Passing  through  this  portico,  you  enter  into  a  fine  large  hall, 
 above  10  feet  high,  all  of  marble  The  roof  consists  of  twelve 
 tables  of  marble,  exquisitely  joined,  each  25  feet  long,  and 
 three  broad,  which  cross  the  room  from  one  end  to  the  other; 
 and  as  the  room  is  not  arched,  but  flat,  you  cannot  but  he  struck 
 with  admiration  at  the  boldness  of  its  architecture,  since  it  is 
 scarcely  conceivable  how  it  could  continue  so  many  ages  in  a 
 position  so  improper  to  support  so  prodigious  a  weight.  At  the 
 end  of  this  hall,  over  against  the  first  door,  there  is  a  second  por- 
 tico, with  the  same  ornaments  as  the  first,  but  less,  by  which  you 
 enter  into  B  second  hall,  not  SO  big  as  the  first,  but  covered  with 
 eight  stones.    At  the  end  of  this  room,  straight  forwards,  there  is 
 
 LES,  A.  M.  3703.  A.  C.  1C48.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 are  some  remains  of  it  still  to  be  seen,  which  retain 
 manifest  marks  of  its  ancient  splendour. 
 
 One  building  more,  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  tin's 
 period,  though,  according  to  modern  accounts,  it  still 
 stands  firm  and  entire,  is  the  well  of  the  patriarch 
 Joseph.  It  is  entirely  hewn  out  of  a  rock,  in  a  kind  of 
 an  oval  or  oblong  form,  being  eighteen  feet  wide,  twenty- 
 four  long,  and  in  the  whole  two  hundred  and  seventy-six 
 deep.  The  depth  is  properly  divided  into  two  parts, 
 which  we  may  call  the  upper  and  the  lower  well ;  and  to 
 each  of  these  there  is  a  wheel,  which  being  turned  round 
 by  two  oxen  in  each  place,  draws  up  the  water  by  a  long 
 chain,  to  which  are  fastened  several  leathern  vessels, 
 that  fill  and  empty  themselves  alternately  as  the  wheel 
 goes  round. 
 
 To  go  down  to  the  second  well,  as  we  call  it,  which 
 is  but  fifteen  feet  long,  and  nine  wide,  there  is  a  stair- 
 case of  so  easy  a  descent,  that  some  say  the  oxen  which 
 draw  the  water  below,  are  every  day  drove  down  and  up 
 it ;  though  others  report,  that  they  are  let  down  and 
 drawn  up  upon  a  platform.  However  this  be,  it  is  cer- 
 tain that  the  staircase  turns  twelve  times  round  the  well, 
 for  which  reason  the  Arabs  call  it  the  well  of  the  wind- 
 ing staircase,  and  of  these  turnings,  six  have  eighteen 
 steps  each,  and  the  other  six  have  nineteen,  which  make 
 two  hundred  and  twenty -two  steps  in  all :  and  to  secure 
 you  from  falling,  as  you  go  down,  you  have,  on  the  left 
 hand,  the  main  rock,  and  on  the  right,  some  of  the  same 
 rock  left,  which  serves  both  as  a  wall  to  the  well  on  the 
 inside,  and  on  the  other  side  as  a  wall  to  the  staircase, 
 which,  at  convenient  distances,  has  windows  cut  in  it, 
 that  convey  the  light  down  from  the  mouth  of  the  well. 
 
 When  you  go  down  to  the  lower  well,  which  has  like- 
 wise a  staircase,  but  neither  so  wide,  nor  so  deep  as  the 
 other,  and  no  parapet  on  the  side  of  the  well,  which 
 makes  the  descent  dangerous,  it  is  here  that  you  see  the 
 oxen  at  work,  turning  the  wheel,  and  drawing  the  water 
 from  a  spring  at  the  bottom,  about  eight  or  nine  feet 
 deep  ;  which  water,  passing  through  a  pipe  into  a  large 
 cistern,  is  from  thence  drawn  up  again  by  two  other 
 oxen,  which  turn  the  wheel  above  ;  and  so  from  a  re- 
 servoir at  the  top  of  the  well,  the  water  is  conveyed  into 
 all  the  apartments  of  the  castle  of  Grand  Cairo,  which, 
 by  the  bye,  as  Thevenot  tells  us,  both  for  strength  and 
 beauty,  is  one  of  the  finest  palaces  he  ever  saw  ;  a  work 
 not  unworthy  the  ancient  Pharaohs  and  Ptolemies  who 
 built  it,  and  which  conies  not  behind  the  pomp  and  mag- 
 nificence of  the  pyramids. 
 
 There  are  some  other  buildings  in  this  place,  such  as 
 Joseph's  hall,  Joseph's  prison,  Joseph's  granaries,  &c, 
 which  the  inhabitants  ascribe  to  that  patriarch,  as  they 
 do  indeed  every  fine  piece  of  antiquity  :  but  as  there  is 
 
 a  third  portico,  still  less  than  the  second,  as  well  as  the  hall  into 
 which  it  leads,  though  it  has  sixteen  stones  to  roof  it;  and  at  the 
 end  of  this  third  hall,  there  is  a  fourth  portico  set  against  the 
 wall,  and  placed  there  for  symmetry  only,  and  to  answer  the 
 rest.  The  length  of  these  three  halls  i.3  the  whole  depth  of  the 
 building,  in  its  present  condition.  It  was  on  the  two  sides,  and 
 especially  under  ground,  that,  the  prodigious  number  of  rooms 
 and  avenues,  mentioned  by  the  ancients,  were  built. — What 
 is  now  remaining  of  it  seems  to  be  no  more  than  a  fourth  part  of 
 the  inner  edifice,  which,  in  all  probability,  had  four  fronts, 
 and  twelve  halls  answering  to  them  :  the  rest  are  decayed  by 
 time,  or  demolished  by  design,  as  appears  from  the  prodigious 
 ruins  which  are  to  be  seen  all  around  it. — Lulus'1  Voyugts,  b. 
 2.  p.  IS.,  &c. 
 
Sfxt.  V.] 
 
 FROM  ABRAHAM'S  CALL  TO  THE  ISRAELITES',  &< 
 
 267 
 
 A.  M.  2433.  A.  C.  1571  ;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1018.  KXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 little  or  no  probability  that  any  of  these  came  under  the 
 period  we  are  now  upon,  we  must  refer  the  reader,  who 
 is  minded  to  satisfy  his  curiosity  in  this  matter,  1  to  the 
 authors  who  have  purposely  treated  of  them ;  and  shall 
 only  take  notice  farther,  that  the  great  Selden  in  his 
 Arundel  Marbles,  reckons  the  fabulous  stories  of  Greece, 
 such  as  the  flood  of  Deucalion,  the  burning-  of  Phaeton, 
 the  rape  of  Proserpine,  the  mysteries  of  Ceres,  the  story 
 of  Europa,  the  birth  of  Apollo,  and  the  building  of 
 Thebes  by  Cadmus,  together  with  the  fables  of  Bacchus, 
 Minos,  Perseus,  iRsculapius,  Mercury,  and  Hercules, 
 to  have  fallen  out  under  this  period ;  and  it  is  certain 
 
 1  See  Delia  Valle,  Thevenot,  Le  Bruyn,  Lucas,  Marco  Gri- 
 mani,  &c.  travels;  and  Well's  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament, 
 vol.  2. 
 
 that2  the  learned  Spanheiiu  makes  several  ancient  king- 
 doms, as  that  of  the  Argives,  the  Cretans,  the  Phrygians, 
 the  Ethiopians,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Midianites,  Cannan- 
 ites,  Idunueans,  and  Nabatheans,  either  to  have  been 
 founded,  or  to  have  flourished  in  this  time.  But  as 
 these,  and  other  heathen  nations,  had  no  historian  or 
 chronologer  of  their  own,  and  the  Greeks,  who  under- 
 took to  write  for  them,  for  want  of  a  certain  knowledge 
 of  their  affairs,  have  stuffed  their  accounts  with  the  rapes 
 and  robberies  of  their  gods  ;  we  thought  it  more  proper 
 to  stop  here  than  to  enter  into  a  barren  land,  where  the 
 country  for  a  long  way  lies  waste  and  uncultivated  .  or 
 if  perchance  any  fruit  is  to  be  seen,  like  the  famed  ficti- 
 tious apples  about  the  banks  of  the  Dead  Sea,  it  crumbles 
 at  the  very  first  touch  into  dust  and  ashes. 
 
 *  See  Hist.  Vet.  Test. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE 
 
 BOOK   IV. 
 
 CONTAINING  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THINGS  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  OUT  OF  EGYPT,  TO   THEIR 
 ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  LAND  OF  CANAAN,  IN  ALL  FORTY  YEARS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 In  contemplating  the  extraordinary  deliverance  of  the 
 Israelites  from  Egypt,  we  must  advert  to  the  instrument 
 employed  by  divine  providence  in  its  accomplishment. 
 Moses,  who  was  called  to  this  difficult  and  perilous  task, 
 was  pre-eminently  fitted  by  his  talents  and  his  temper 
 for  its  performance.  '  There  arose  not  a  prophet  like 
 unto  Moses,  whom  the  Lord  knew  face  to  face,  in  all 
 the  signs  and  wonders  which  the  Lord  sent  him  to  do  in 
 the  land  of  Egypt,  to  Pharaoh,  and  to  all  his  servants, 
 and  to  all  his  land,  and  in  all  that  mighty  land,  and  in 
 all  the  great  terror,  which  Moses  showed  in  the  sight  of 
 all  Israel.'  He  himself  having  been  rescued  when  an 
 infant  from  the  most  imminent  danger,  was  preserved  to 
 be  the  deliverer  of  his  nation. 
 
 The  redemption  of  the  Israelites  from  the  land  of 
 Egypt,  is  the  greatest  type  of  Christ's  redemption,  of 
 any  providential  event  whatsoever.  It  was  intended  to 
 shadow  forth  that  greater  redemption  from  the  captivity 
 of  sin  and  Satan,  which  was  wrought  out  by  the  Son  of 
 God,  when  he  destroyed  principalities  and  powers,  and 
 made  a  show  of  them  openly,  triumphing  over  them  in 
 his  cross. 
 
 Nor  can  we  fail  to  observe  in  the  narrative  of  the 
 period  on  which  we  are  now  entering,  how  much  the 
 giving  of  the  law  at  Sinai  tended  to  prepare  the  way  for 
 the  accomplishment  of  this  great  redemption.  It  is  here 
 seen  how  the  covenant  of  works  operates  as  a  school- 
 master in  leading  us  to  Christ;  how  the  law  which  is 
 holy,  just,  and  good,  shuts  us  up  to  the  faith  of  the 
 gospel.  That  it  might  have  full  effect  in  this  way,  God 
 was  pleased  to  institute  at  the  same  time  the  ceremonial 
 law — full  of  various  and  innumerable  typical  represen- 
 tations of  good  things  to  come  ;  by  which  the  Israelites 
 were  directed  every  day,  month,  and  year  in  their  religi- 
 ous actions — in  all  that  appertained  to  their  ecclesias- 
 tical and  civil  state,  so  that  the  whole  nation  by  this  law 
 was,  as  it  were,  constituted  in  a  typical  state.  The 
 great  outlines  of  gospel  truth  were  thus  held  forth  to  the 
 nation ;  and  the  people  were  thus  directed,  from  age  to 
 
 age,  to  look  for  salvation  to  the  Lamb  that  was  slain 
 from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
 
 We  must  also  observe  the  wisdom  and  the  goodness 
 of  God  in  giving,  for  the  first  time,  a  written  communi- 
 cation from  himself.  That  written  and  infallible  word, 
 with  its  subsequent  accessions  of  infallible  wisdom,  was 
 the  means,  as  it  was  designed  to  be,  of  carrying  on  in 
 the  world  the  work  of  redemption.  The  word  of  God 
 had  previously  been  transmitted  from  age  to  age  by  tra- 
 dition ;  but  now  the  ten  commandments,  the  five  books 
 of  Moses,  and  probably  the  book  of  Job,  were,  by  the 
 special  command  of  God,  committed  to  writing,  and  were 
 laid  up  in  the  tabernacle,  to  be  kept  there  for  the  use  of 
 the  church. 
 
 That  the  church  might  derive  instruction  from  typical 
 representation,  in  the  character  and  actions  of  intelli- 
 gent beings,  the  progress  of  the  redeemed  through 
 this  world  to  that  rest  which  remaineth  for  them  in  the 
 heavenly  Canaan,  was  shadowed  forth  by  the  journey  of 
 the  children  of  Israel  through  the  wilderness,  from 
 Egypt  to  Canaan.  The  low  and  wretched  condition 
 from  which  they  are  delivered, — the  price  paid  for  their 
 redemption, — the  application  of  that  redemption  in  their 
 conversion  to  God, — the  various  trials,  difficulties,  and 
 temptations  which' they  have  to  encounter  in  their  chris- 
 tian course, — the  manner  in  which  they  are  safely  con- 
 ducted through  this  world  by  their  great  Leader,  to  their 
 immortal  inheritance,  are  all  typified  and  represented  in 
 the  history  of  Israel  from  their  departure  out  of  Egypt, 
 to  their  entrance  into  the  promised  land.  '  All  these 
 things  happened  unto  them  for  ensamples,  and  they  were 
 written  for  our  admonition,  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the 
 world  are  come.'  * 
 
 These  typical  representations  were  at  the  time  accom- 
 panied with  clearer  predictions  of  Christ  than  had  before 
 been  given.  '  I  will  raise  up  a  prophet, '  says  God  unto 
 Moses,  '  from  among  their  brethren,  like  unto  thee,  and 
 will  put  my  words  in  his  mouth,  and  he  shall  speak  unto 
 them  all  that  I  command  him.'     It  is  unnecessary  to  say, 
 
 »  1  Cor.  x.  11. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 269 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1048.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii— xxxiv.  24. 
 
 bow  clearly  the  mediatorial  office  of  the  Redeemer  is 
 pointed  out  in  this  remarkable  prophecy.  Balaam, 
 also,  during  this  period  bore  testimony  to  Christ,  in  the 
 sublime  prediction  which  he  uttered  concerning  him  in 
 the  well  known  words — '  There  shall  come  a  star  out  of 
 Jacob,  and  a  sceptre  shall  arise  out  of  Israel : — Out  of 
 Jacob  shall  come  he  that  shall  have  dominion.' 
 
 Finally,  we  ought  to  notice  in  the  narrative  of  God's 
 procedure  towards  his  ancient  people,  on  which  we  are 
 about  to  enter,  the  outpouring  of  his  Holy  Spirit  on 
 the  young  generation  in  the  wilderness,  or  that  genera- 
 tion which  entered  into  Canaan.  Concerning  this  gen- 
 eration God  had  said  to  their  fathers — '  But  your  little 
 ones,  which  you  said  should  be  a  prey,  them  will  I  bring 
 in,  and  they  shall  know  the  land  which  ye  have  despised.' 
 This  generation  was,  accordingly,  brought  into  Canaan. 
 They  were  distinguished  for  their  piety,  and  their  zeal- 
 ous adherence  to  all  the  will  of  God. 
 
 SECT.    I. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — From  their  Departure  to  the  Building  of 
 the  Tabernacle. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 When  the  Israelites  set  out  from  Egypt,  they  made 
 Rameses,  the  chief  city  of  Goshen,  the  place  of  their 
 general  rendezvous  ;  and  from  thence,  on  the  15th  day 
 of  the  first  month,  they  travelled  about  ten  or  twelve 
 miles  to  Succoth,  where  they  made  a  stop,  and  reviewed 
 their  company,  which  consisted  of  600,000  persons, 
 besides  children  and  strangers  ;  for  strangers  of  several 
 nations,  having  seen  the  wonders  which  were  wrought 
 for  their  deliverance,  left  Egypt  at  the  same  time,  with 
 a  purpose  to  accompany  their  fortunes. 
 
 While  the  sense  of  their  deliverance,  and  God's  judg- 
 ments was  fresh  in  their  minds,  Moses  was  commanded 
 to  let  the  people  know,  that  when  they  came  to  be  settled 
 in  the  land  of  Canaan,  the  first-born  both  of  man  and 
 beast,  in  remembrance  of  God's  having  spared  their 
 first-born  when  he  destroyed  the  Egyptians,  should  be 
 set  apart  and  dedicated  to  him  :  and  as  Joseph,  dying 
 in  the  faith  of  this  their  deliverance,  had  laid  an  injunc- 
 tion upon  his  brethren,  whenever  they  should  go  from 
 thence,  to  carry  his  bones  out  of  Egypt,  so  Moses  "  took 
 care  to  have  the  coffin,  wherein  he  had  lain  for  above 
 140  years,  not  left  behind. 
 
 6  From  Succoth  their  nearest  way  to  Ciinaan  was 
 certainly  through  the  country  of  the  Philistines ;  but  for 
 
 a  The  Jews  tell  us,  that  upon  the  Israelites'  departure  out  of 
 Egypt,  every  tribe  took  care  to  bring  along  with  them  the  huiies 
 of  the  ancestor  of  their  family;  but  though  they  are  not  always 
 to  be  credited  in  matters  of  this  nature,  and  Josephus  does  not 
 seem  to  have  dreamed  of  any  such  act  of  filial  piety,  or  else  he 
 would,  in  all  probability,  have  recorded  it;  yet  St  Stephen, 
 (Acts  vii.  15,  16,)  seems  to  allude  to  some  tradition  among 
 them,  when  he  tells  us,  that  '  Jacob  and  the  fathers  went  down 
 into  Egypt,  aud  were  carried  over  into  Sychem,  and  laid  in  the 
 sepulchre  which  Abraham  had  bought  of  the  sons  of  Emmor.' — 
 Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 b  It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  make  out  the  geography  of  the 
 places  where  the  Hebrews  encamped,  between  their  palling  from 
 Rameses  and  their  arrival  at  the  Red  Sea;  but  the  account  of 
 
 fear  that  a  people  unaccustomed  to  war  should,  in  case 
 of  any  opposition,  repent  of  their  deliverance,  and  take 
 it  into  their  heads  to  return  into  Egypt,  God  ordered 
 them  to  take  their  route  along  the  coasts  of  the  Hod  Sen ; 
 and  for  their  greater  encouragement  and  securiu  ,  himself 
 undertook  to  guide  and  direct tfaem,  both  in  their  marches 
 and  encampments,  by  the  wonderful  appearance  <>f  a 
 cloud,  in  the  form  of  a  large  column,  which  shaded  them 
 from  the  heat  of  the  sun  by  day,  and  in  the  night-tuna 
 became  a  pillar  of  fire,  or  a  bright  cloud,  to  supply  the 
 sun's  absence,  and  illuminate  their  camp.  By  this  means 
 they  were  enabled,  upon  any  occasion,  to  march  both  day 
 and  night :  and,  under  this  auspicious  guide,  proceeding 
 from  Succoth,  they  came  to  Etham,  which  gives  name  to 
 the  wilderness  on  whose  borders  it  is  situated,  and  there 
 they  encamped. 
 
 In  the  mean  time  the  c  king  of  Egypt  had  information 
 brought  him,  that  the  Israelites,  instead  of  returning  to 
 his  dominions,  were  attempting  their  escape  into  the 
 deserts  of  Arabia,  by  the  cape  of  the  Red  Sea;  and 
 therefore  grieving  at  the  loss  of  so  many  useful  slaves, 
 and  supposing  that  by  speedy  marches  he  might  overtake 
 
 those  who  have  wrote  upon  the  subject  is, — That  though  there 
 are  two  places  named  Rameses,  which  are  a  little  differently 
 pointed,  yet  they  are  but  one  and  the  same,  or,  at  the  most,  tha'. 
 they  dirler  only  in  this,  that  the  one  was  the  province,  and  the 
 other  the  chief  city  of  it ;  that  Succoth,  not  far  from  Rameses, 
 in  the  way  to  the  Red  Sea,  had  its  name  from  the  tents  (for  so 
 the  Hebrew  word  signifies)  which  the  Israelites  pitched  here,  as 
 we  find  upon  the  like  occasion  another  place  between  Jordan  and 
 the  brook  Jabbock,  so  named:  that  Etham  lay  on  the  confines  of 
 Egypt  and  Arabia  Petraea,  not  far  from  the  Red  Sea,  and  gave 
 the  denomination  to  the  wilderness  adjacent:  that  Pi-hahiroth, 
 which  in  our  English,  and  some  other  translations,  is  rendered  as 
 one  proper  name,  is  by  the  Septuagint  made  part  of  it  an  appel- 
 lative, so  as  to  signify  a  mouth,  for  so  the  word  pi  may  mean,  or 
 a  narrow  passage  between  two  mountains,  lying  not  far  from  the 
 western  coast  of  the  Red  Sea:  that  magaol  was  probably  a  tower 
 or  castle,  for  the  word  carries  that  signification  in  it,  upon  the  top 
 of  one  of  these  mountains,  which  might  give  denomination  to  the 
 city,  which,  as  Herodotus  informs  us,  lay  not  far  distant  from  it ; 
 and  that  Baal-Zephon  was  by  some  learned  men  thought  to  be  an 
 idol  set  up  to  keep  the  borders  of  the  country,  and  to  hinder  slaves 
 from  making  their  escape.  Baal,  indeed,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue, 
 signifies  lord;  and  hence  the  name  is  generally  applied  to  the 
 eastern  idols ;  and  the  word  zephon  is  thought  to  be  derived  from 
 the  radix  zapah,  to  watch  or  spy;  and  from  hence  it  is  conjectured, 
 that  this  idol  has  its  temple  on  the  top  of  some  adjacent  mountain, 
 and  that  the  sacred  historian  particularly  takes  notice  of  it,  to 
 show  how  unable  it  was,  whatever  opinion  the  Egyptians  might 
 have  of  it,  to  hinder  the  Israelites  from  going  out  of  Egypt. 
 There  is  but  small  certainty,  however,  to  be  gathered  from  the 
 etymology  of  words;  and 'therefore  the  authority  of  Eusebius 
 should  ponderate  with  us,  who  makes  it  not  an  idol,  but  a  town, 
 standing  upon  the  northern  point  of  the  Red  Sea,  where  the 
 ancients,  especially  the  Jews,  think  that  the  Israelites  pawed  it. 
 and  where  there  stands  to  this  day  a  Christian  monastery.— 
 Patrick's  and  Calwefs  Commentaries,  his  Dissertation  on  the 
 Passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  /felts'  Geography  </  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment, vol.  2. 
 
 e  It  is  not  unlikely,  that  some  of  the  mixed  multitude  (Exod. 
 xii. 38.)  which  went  along  with  the  Israelite-,  observing  this  alter- 
 ation in  their  route,  and  not  being  able  to  perei  i\e  the  reason  of 
 
 it,  might  forsake  them,  and  returning  to  Pharaoh,  inform  him, 
 that  they  had  lost  their  way,  and  were  entangled  among  the 
 mountains;  or,  what  is  more  likely,  some  spies,  which  Pharaoh 
 had  upon  them,  seeing  them  Nave  the  way  to  I  Ion  b,  where  they 
 desired  to  go  three  days' journey,  in  order  to  oner  sacrifio 
 eluded  that  they  never  intended  to  return  to  Egypt,  but  were 
 running  quite  away,  aud  might  therefore  bring  Pharaoh  the  news 
 thereof,  as  we  may  suppose,  upon  the  i  ighte*  nth  day.— Paleidft 
 Commentary. 
 
270 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii-xxxiv.  24. 
 
 and  recover  them,  he  mustered  up  what  forces  he  could, 
 and  for  the  greater  expedition,  a  considerable  quantity 
 of  a  chariots  and  horsemen,  and  with  these  *  put  himself 
 upon  the  pursuit.  But  God,  who  well  understood  what 
 measures  were  taking  in  Pharaoh's  court,  instead  of 
 suffering  the  Israelites  to  march  round  the  point  of  the 
 c  Red  Sea,  as  they  probably  intended,  ordered  them  to 
 
 o  Josephus,  who  loves  to  magnify  matters,  when  they  tend  to 
 the  glory  of  his  countrymen,  as  well  as  conceal  what  would 
 occasion  their  disgrace,  tells  us,  that  the  Egyptian  army  consisted 
 of  GOO  chariots,  50,000  horse,  and  200,000  foot:  but  how  so 
 large  a  number  could  be  raised  in  so  short  a  time,  or  what  need 
 there  was  of  so  vast  an  armament  against  a  weak  and  defenceless 
 people,  is  hardly  conceivable.  As  therefore  we  may  presume, 
 that  the  haste  which  the  Egyptians  were  in,  lest  the  Israelites 
 should  get  out  of  the  straights  wherein  they  were  entangled,  or 
 make  their  escape  some  other  way,  before  they  came  up  with 
 them,  made  them  pursue  them  with  chariots  and  horsemen  for 
 the  greater  expedition;  so  we  may  observe,  that  the  chariots  they 
 employed  in  tins  pursuit,  are  called  chosen  chariots,  which  most 
 interpreters  imagine  to  be  such  as  were  armed  with  scythes, 
 which  being  drawn  with  horses,  and  filled  with  men,  who  threw 
 darts  and  spears  and  other  offensive  weapons  from  them,  could 
 not  but  make  a  strange  havock  wherever  they  came ;  and  the 
 number  which  the  Scripture  mentions,  under  proper  captains, 
 who  might  have  the  direction  of  them,  was  enough  to  destroy  all 
 the  Israelites,  being  worn  with  hard  bondage,  wearied  with  march- 
 in-,  destitute  of  arms,  strangers  to  war,  and  now  encamped  in  a 
 very  disadvantageous  situation. — Josephus'  Antiquities,  b.  2.  c. 
 15.,  Ainsworth's  Annotations,  and  Howell's  History. 
 
 b  "  Of  all  the  infatuated  resolutions,"  to  use  the  words  of  the 
 learned  Dr  Jackson,  b.  10.  c.  11.,  "  that  either  king  or  people 
 adventured  on,  the  pursuing  the  Israelites  with  such  a  mighty 
 army,  after  they  had  so  irritated  and  urged  them  to  leave  their 
 country,  may  well  seem,  to  every  indifferent  reader,  the  most 
 stupid  tliat  ever  was  taken."  And  so  indeed  the  author  of  the 
 Book  of  Wisdom,  c.  xix.  3.,  justly  censures  it:  "  For  whilst  they 
 were  yet  mourning,"  says  he,  "  and  making  lamentation  at  the 
 graves  of  the  dead,  they  added  another  foolish  device,  and 
 pursued  them  as  fugitives,  whom  they  had  entreated  to  be  gone." 
 But  how  much  soever  it  was  that  the  Egyptians  had  suffered  for 
 detaining  the  Hebrews ;  yet,  now  that  they  were  gone,  they  possibly 
 might  be  of  the  same  mind  with  the  Syrians,  (1  Kings  xx.  23.) 
 who  fancied,  that  the  God  of  Israel  might  not  be  alike  powerful 
 in  all  places;  or,  if  he  was,  they  might  nevertheless  think,  that 
 Moses'  commission  extended  no  farther  than  the  meridian  of 
 Egypt,  or  that  if  it  did,  it  might  however  have  no  power  over 
 mighty  hosts  and  armies.  They  knew,  at  least,  that  the  Israelites, 
 as  we  said,  had  no  skill  in  military  matters,  no  captains  of  infantry, 
 no  cavalry  at  all,  no  weapons  or  engines  of  war;  whereas  they 
 were  well  furnished  and  equipped  with  eveiy  thing  of  this  nature ; 
 and  upon  these  and  the  like  presumptions,  it  was  that  they  became 
 foolhardy,  and  desperately  resolute,  either  to  bring  back  the 
 Israelites  to  their  slavery,  or  to  be  revenged  upon  them  for  all 
 the  losses  they  had  sustained,  and  the  penalties  they  had  suffered. 
 —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  Red  Sea,  called  by  the  ancients  Sinus  Arahicus,  and 
 now  Gulfo  de  Mecca,  is  that  part  or  branch  of  the  southern  sea 
 which  interposes  itself  between  Egypt  on  the  west,  and  Arabia  Felix 
 and  some  part  of  Petrcea  on  the  east;  while  the  northern  bounds 
 of  it  touch  upon  Idumea,  or  the  coast  of  Edom.  Edom,  in  the 
 Hebrew  tongue,  signifies  red,  and  was  the  nickname  given  Esau 
 for  Belling  his  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage.  The  country 
 which  his  posterity  possessed  was  called  after  his  name,  and  so 
 was  the  sea  which  adjoined  to  it;  but  the  Greeks,  not  understand- 
 ing the  reason  of  the  appellation,  translated  it  into  their  tongue, 
 and  called  it  l? vfyx  (aXaatrn ;  thence  the  Latins,  Mare  Rubrwm, 
 and  we,  the  Red  Sea.  The  Hebrews  call  it  the  sea  of  Suph,  or 
 Flags,  by  reason  of  the  great  abundance  of  that  kind  of  weed, 
 which  grows  at  the  bottom  of  it;  and  the  Arabs  at  this  day  name 
 it  Buhr  el  Chalsem,  that  is,  the  Sea  of  Clysma,  from  a  town 
 situate  on  its  western  coast,  much  about  the  place  where  the 
 Israelites  passed  over  from  the  Egyptian  to  the  Arabian  shore. 
 But  as  the  word  clysma  may  denote  a  droivning  or  overflowing 
 with  water,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  town  built  in  (his  place, 
 as  well  iis  this  part  of  the  sea,  might  have,  such  a  name  given  it, 
 
 advance  along  the  coasts  of  it,  until  they  came  to  Pi- 
 hahiroth,  which  lies  between  Migdol  and  the  sea,  and 
 there  to  encamp. 
 
 By  this  time  Pharaoh  and  his  army  were  come  up  with 
 them ;  and  when  the  Israelites  perceived  themselves 
 hemmed  in  on  every  side,  with  the  sea  in  their  front, 
 huge  mountains  on  their  flanks,  and  the  Egyptian  army 
 in  the  rear,  they  began  to  despair  of  any  means  of 
 escape,  and  to  clamour  against  Moses  for  having 
 induced  them  to  leave  Egypt,  and  for  bringing  them  into 
 the  wilderness  to  be  sacrificed.  Moses,  however,  being 
 apprized  of  God's  design,  instead  of  d  resenting  their 
 reproaches,  endeavoured  to  comfort  them  by  giving  them 
 assurance  that  God  himself  would  certainly  fight  for  them, 
 and  by  his  almighty  power  bring  matters  to  such  an 
 issue,  that  these  very  Egyptians,  of  whom  they  were  so 
 much  afraid,  should  not  one  of  them  live  to  molest  them 
 any  more. 
 
 With  these  comfortable  words,  he  ordered  them  to 
 advance  towards  the  sea-side  ;  and  as  they  were  advanc- 
 ing, the  miraculous  cloud,  we  were  speaking  of,  removed 
 from  the  front  to  the  rear  of  the  Israelites'  camp,  and  so 
 turning  its  dark  side  towards  the  Egyptians,  made  them 
 incapable  of  knowing  what  they  were  about ;  while  by 
 its  bright  or  fiery  side,  which  it  turned  to  the  Israelites, 
 it  gave  them  a  sufficiency  of  light,  and  kept  the  two 
 camps  from  joining  that  night. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  Israelites  came  to  the  brink  of  the  sea, 
 Moses  waved  his  sacred  rod,  and  immediately  a  strong- 
 east  wind  blew,  and  drove  the  waves  back  from  the  land, 
 and  by  dividing  the  waters,  which  stood  suspended  as  it 
 were  a  wall  on  each  hand,  made  a  dry  and  safe  passage 
 for  the  Israelites,  until  they  had  gained  the  other  shore. 
 The  Egyptians,  in  the  mean  while,  never  suspecting  but 
 that  they,  with  their  chariots  and  horsemen,  might  safely 
 follow,  where  they  saw  the  Israelites  go  on  foot,  entered 
 after  them  into  the  midst  of  the  sea ;  but  about  break  of 
 day  they  began  to  see  their  error,  and  e  their  whole  army 
 
 in  memory  of  the  fate  of  the  Egyptians,  who  were  drowned 
 herein. — JFells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
 d  The  words  which  Moses  makes  himself  speak  upon  this 
 critical  occasion,  (Exod.  xiv.  13,  14.)  discover  a  wonderful  spirit 
 and  bravery;  and  it  is  no  bad  comment  which  the  Jewish  histo- 
 rian has  given  us  of  them.  "  Put  the  case,"  says  he,  "  that  you 
 had  deposited  some  great  trust  in  the  hands  of  a  person  that  had 
 hitherto  managed  all  well  and  wisely  for  you,  might  not  you 
 reasonably  depend  upon  that  man  for  the  same  care  and  kindness, 
 and  in  the  same  case  too,  over  again  ?  What  a  madness  is  it  for 
 you  to  despond  then,  where  God  himself  has  taken  you  under  his 
 protection,  and  of  his  own  free  bounty,  performed  every  thing  by 
 me  that  can  contribute  to  your  freedom  and  security  ?  Nay,  the 
 very  difficulty  of  the  case  you  are  in,  is  an  argument  to  inflame 
 your  hope  rather  than  discourage  it.  He  hath  brought  you  into 
 this  distress,  on  purpose  to  show  Iris  power  and  kindness  in  bring- 
 ing you  out  again,  even  to  the  surprise  and  admiration  of  your- 
 selves, as  well  as  your  enemies.  It  is  not  God's  time  to  interpose 
 with  his  almighty  power  in  small  matters,  but  in  great  and  tiying 
 calamities;  when  all  hopes  of  human  help  fail  us,  that  is  the 
 season  for  him  to  work  out  the  deliverance  of  those  who  cast 
 themselves  upon  him.  And  therefore  fear  nothing,  so  long  as 
 you  have  him  for  your  protector  and  defender,  who  is  able  to 
 raise  the  lowly  and  oppressed,  and  to  lay  the  honour  of  their 
 persecutors  in  the  dust.  Be  not  afraid  of  the  Egyptian  armed 
 troops,  neither  despond  of  your  lives  and  safeties,  because  you  are 
 at  present  locked  up  between  the  sea  and  the  mountains,  and  have 
 no  visible  way  in  nature  to  come  off;  for  the  God  whom  you 
 serve,  is  able  to  level  all  these  mountains,  and  lay  the  ocean  dry. 
 His  will,  in  fine,  be  done." — Josephus'  Antiquities,  b.  2.  c.  15. 
 
 e  The  expression  in  the  text  is,  that  '  God  troubled  the  host  of 
 
Sect.  I.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  Sec. 
 
 A.  M.  2.M3.  A.  C.  1491  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1G48.  EXOD.  CM.  xiii-xxxiv.  24. 
 
 271 
 
 in  the  utmost  confusion.  Their  chariots  were  some  of 
 them  broken,  others  ran  into  quicksands,  and  others 
 cast  off  their  carriages  ;  so  that,  perceiving-  the  hand  of 
 God  against  them,  they  were  turning  about,  and  offering 
 to  flee,  but  all  in  vain.  As  soon  as  the  Israelites  were 
 all  landed,  Moses,  by  the  divine  command,  stretched  out 
 his  rod  again  over  the  sea  :  whereupon  the  roaring  waves 
 break  loose  from  their  invisible  chain,  and  come  rushing 
 upon  Pharaoh  and  his  army,  and  overwhelm  them  all  : 
 while  the  Israelites,  beholding  with  wonder  and  amaze- 
 ment, the  carcasses  and  rich  spoils  of  their  enemies 
 thrown  upon  the  sea-shore,  began,  at  least  seemingly,  to 
 fear  God,  and  to  reverence  his  servant  Moses  ;  who,  to 
 celebrate  this  joyful  deliverance,  having  composed  a 
 triumphant  hymn,  wherein  he  extols  the  greatness  of 
 God's  power,  and  his  amazing  mercy  to  his  people  dis- 
 played on  this  occasion,  divided  the  company  into  two 
 great  choirs  ;  and,  setting  himself  and  his  brother  Aaron 
 at  the  head  of  the  men,  and  his  sister  Miriam  with  a 
 timbrel  in  her  hand,  at  the  head  of  the  women,  they  sung 
 and  played  alternately,  and  in  the  height  of  their  joy 
 intermixed  dances.* 
 
 But  notwithstanding  all  these  thankful  acknowledg- 
 ments of  God's  goodness,  scarce  had  the  Israelites 
 travelled  three  days  from  the  Red  Sea  into  the  wilderness 
 of  Shur,  before  their  excessive  thirst,  and  want  of  water, 
 put  them  out  of  all  patience  :  and  when  in  a  short  time 
 they  met  with  some,  at  a  place  which  is  called  Marah, 
 it  proved  so  *  bitter,  that  they  could  not  drink  it.     This 
 
 the  Egyptians;'  and  to  enforce  the  strength  of  this  expression,  the 
 Jew  Mi  historian  tells  us,  that  before  God  let  loose  the  waves  upon 
 the  Egyptians,  fierce  winds  and  tempests,  storms  of  hail  and  rain, 
 terrible  thunderings  and  lightnings,  and  whatever  else  could  make 
 their  condition  horrible,  were  sent  down  upon  them  from  above; 
 and  therefore  it  is  not  without  good  reason,  that  these  words 
 or  the  Psalmist  have  been  applied  to  this  occasion,  '  The  waters 
 saw  thee,  0  (id,  the  waters  saw  thee,  and  were  afraid;  the 
 depths  also  were  troubled :  the  clouds  poured  out  water,  the  air 
 thundered,  and  thine  arrows  went  abroad.  The  voice  of  thy 
 thunder  was  heard  round  about,  the  lightning  shone  upon  the 
 ground,  the  earth  was  moved  and  shook  withal.  Thy  way  is  in 
 the  sea,  and  thy  paths  in  the  great  waters,  and  thy  footsteps  are 
 not  known:'  whereupon  it  follows,  '  thou  leadest  thy  people  like 
 sheep,  by  the  hand  of  Moses  and  Aaron.' — Josephus's  Antiquities, 
 b.  2.,  and  Psal.  lxxvii.  Hi.  &c. 
 
 a  Exod.  xv.  20.  '  And  Miriam  the  prophetess,  the  sister  of 
 Aaron,  took  a  timbrel  in  her  hand,  and  all  the  women  went  out 
 after  her  with  timbrels  and  with  dances.'  Lady  M.  \\  .  Mon- 
 tague, speaking  (if  the  eastern  dances,  says,  "  Their  manner  is 
 certainly  the  same  that  Diana  is  said  to  have  danced  on  the  banks 
 of  Eurotas.  The  great  lady  still  leads  the  dance,  and  is  followed 
 by  a  troop  of  young  girls,  who  imitate  her  steps,  and,  it  she  sings, 
 make  up  the  chorus-.  The  turns  arc  extremely  gay  and  lively, 
 yc!  with  something  in  them  wonderfully  soft.  Their  steps  are 
 varied  according  to  the  pleasure  of  her  that  leads  the  dance,  but 
 always  in  exact  time."  {Letters,  vol.  ii.  p.  45.)  This  ghes  us 
 a  different  apprehension  of  the  meaning  of  these  words  than  we 
 should  otherwise  form.  Miriam  the  prophetess,  the  sister  ol 
 Aaron,  took  a  timbrel  in  her  hand,  and  all  the  women  went  out 
 after  her,  with  timbrels  and  dances.  She  led  the  dance,  and 
 they  imitated  her  steps,  which  were  not  conducted  by  a  set  well 
 known  form,  but  extemporaneous.  Probably  David  did  not 
 dance  alone  before  the  Lord,  when  the  ark  was  removed,  but  led 
 the  dance  in  the  same  authoritative  kind  of  way.  (2  Sam.  vi.  14. 
 Judges  xi.  34.  1  Sam.  xviii.  G.)  Representations  similar  to  this 
 arc  frequently  to  be  met  with  in  the  ancient  writers. — Sec 
 Chandler's  Life  of  David,  vol.  2.  p.  116. — Ed. 
 
 b  The  word  Marah,  in  the  Hebrew  language,  signifies  bitter- 
 ness}  and  it  was  from  the  taste  of  the  waters  that  the  place 
 received  its  name.  That  there  arc  several  fountains  of  bitter 
 water  not  far  from  the  Red  Sca,*at  some  small  distance-  from  the 
 
 disappointment  inflamed  their  thirst,  and  exasperated 
 their  murmurings  against  Moses,  until,  by  the  divine 
 direction,  he  made  use  of  the  wood  of  a  certain  tree. 
 which  as  soon  as  it  was  thrown  into  the  water,  changed 
 its  offensive  quality,  and  made  it  sweet.6 
 
 From  Marah  they  went,  and  encamped  at  d  Elini, 
 where  there  were  twelve  wells  of  water,  and  a  good 
 quantity  of  palm  or  date  trees,  and  here  they  continued 
 for  some  time.  From  hence  they  removed  towards  the 
 wilderness  of  Sin;  but  before  they  entered  it,  the  .sup- 
 posed scarceness  of  provisions  made  them  begin  to  dis- 
 trust God,  and  to  repent  from  their  very  hearts,  that  they 
 had  suffered  themselves  to  be  decoyed  from  the  plenty 
 they  enjoyed  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  into  a  barren  wild 
 waste,  where  they  could  have  no  other  prospect  but  to 
 die  with  hunger  :  and  therefore,  to  convince  these  mur- 
 muring people  of  his  almighty  power  and  providence, 
 God  was  pleased  to  inform  them,  tiiathe  would  take  can- 
 to supply  them  with  food  from  heaven,  which  accord- 
 ingly came  to  pass.  For  that  very  evening,  he  caused 
 •  quails  to  fall  among  them  in  such  great  quantities,  as 
 
 city  Arsinoe,  is  attested  by  Strabo,  Diodorus,  and  most  modem 
 travellers;  but  then  the  question  is,  whether  it  was  by  the 
 miraculous  power  of  God,  or  by  the  natural  virtue  of  the  weed  to 
 which  Moses  was  directed,  that  these  bitter  waters  were  at  this 
 time  made  sweet?  The  author  of  that  excellent  book  called 
 Ecclesiasticus,  seems  to  be  of  the  latter  opinion:  for,  having 
 treated  of  the  honour  and  esteem  due  to  a  physician,  he  adds, 
 '  The  Lord  has  created  medicines  out  of  the  earth,  and  he  that  is 
 wise  will  not  abhor  them.  Was  not  the  water  made  sweet  with 
 wood,  that  the  virtue  thereof  might  be  known  !'  Ecek-s.  xxxviii. 
 5.  But,  notwithstanding  the  authority  of  this  writer,  we  have 
 reason  to  think,  that  there  was  no  tree  in  these  parts  of  this  vir- 
 tue, because  had  its  virtue  once  been  known,  there  is  mi  question 
 to  be  made,  but  that  others,  as  well  as  Moses,  would  have  made 
 use  of  it  to  the  same  purpose ;  but  that  the  writers  who  make 
 mention  of  these  bitter  waters,  would  have  told  us,  at  the  sarin? 
 time,  of  a  tree  or  trees  growing  hard  by,  which  had  a  medicinal 
 quality  to  correct  the  taste  of  them;  but  since  we  meet  with 
 nothing  of  this  kind,  we  may  reasonably  suppose  that  the  author 
 of  Ecclesiasticus,  a  book  of  modern  composition  in  comparison  of 
 Moses'  writings,  speculating  in  tin-  chapter  upon  the  medicines 
 which  God  had  provided  for  man's  u>e,  offered  this  hint  purely  from 
 his  own  fancy,  and  without  any  authority  for  it ;  and  consequently 
 we  may  conclude,  that  the  correction  of  the  quality  of  this  tri  '  i 
 is  in  be  ascribed,  not  so  much  to  the  virtue  of  the  wood,  as  to  the 
 power  of  God,  who  used  it  rather  as  a  sign  to  the  Israelites,  than 
 a^  an  instrument  to  himself  in  doing  it. —  Ac  Clerc*s  Comm 
 and  Poole's  Annotations,  and  Shuckford's  Connection, 
 b.  10. 
 
 c  Exod.  xv.  23.     'And  when  the)-  came  to   Marah,   they 
 could  not  drink  of  the  waters  of  Marah,  for  they  were  bitter.' 
 Dr  Shaw  {Trav.  p.  314.)  thinks  that   these  waters  may  I  ■ 
 perly  fixed  at  Corondel,  where  there  is  a  small  rid,  «hich,  mil.-, 
 it  be  dilated  by  the  dews  and   rain,  is   very  brackish.      Anotbi  r 
 
 traveller  tells  us  that,  at  the  lent  of  the  untain  of  Hamamel 
 
 Far  on,  a  small  but  most  delightful  valley,  a  place  called  Garondi  e, 
 
 is  a  i  ivulel  that  comes  f i  the  mountain,  the  water  of  which  is 
 
 tolerably  good  and  sufficiently  plentiful,  bul  i-  Utter,  thong 
 clear.      Pococke  says,  there  i-  a  mountain  known  to  this  day  by 
 the  name  of  Le  Marah,  and  toward  the  368    is   a  -alt  well  called 
 
 Birhammer,  which  is  probably  the  tame  here  called  Marah.—  En. 
 d  In  remarking  the  si  vera!  stations  of  the  Israelites,  from  the 
 
 Kid  Sea,  until  tiny  came  to  the  Mount  Sinai,  we  must  obsei *■ , 
 that  Moses  does  not  sei  down  every  place  where  they  encamped, 
 
 as  hi'  does  in  Numbi  rs,  i  bap.  xxxiii.,  but  only  th win  n 
 
 remarkable  thing  was  don.-:  but  Blim,  when-  tiny  wire  new 
 encamped,  was  esteemed  a  pleasant  and  fruitful  place, al  Ii 
 
 conipari-ou  of  the  desert  and  barren  parts  about  it:  anil  that  [In: 
 desert  of  Sin,  which  was  their  eighth  station.  ai;d  Re|  hidim  tin  ir 
 tenth,  lav  at  equal  distances,  in  their  way  to  the  boly  mountain. 
 —  Wells'  Geography  if  the  old  Testament,  voL  2. 
 
 c  The  word  which  we  render  quail,  according   to   the   Colifes- 
 
272 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491  ;  OR, 
 quite  covered  their  camp  ;  and  on  the  next  morning,  as 
 soon  as  the  dew  was  gone,  there  lay  upon  the  ground  a 
 little  white  round  thing,  much  in  the  shape  of  a  coriander 
 seed,  Avhich  when  the  people  saw,  they  were  struck  with 
 admiration,  and  said  one  to  another,  a  '  What  is  this  ?  ' 
 And  from  whence  they  gave  it  the  name  of  '  manna.' 
 
 This  was  the  bread  which  the  Israelites  were  to  eat 
 for  the  space  of  forty  years  ;  and  therefore  God  was 
 pleased  to  give  these  special  directions  concerning  it, — 
 That  it  was  to  be  gathered  by  measure,  an  homer  for 
 every  head,  according  to  the  number  of  each  family ; 
 but  this  direction  some  persons  slighting,  and  gathering 
 above  the  proportion  that  was  allowed  them,  found 
 their  quantity  miraculously  lessened,  while  the  more 
 moderate  had  theirs  increased  :  that  it  was  to  be  gathered 
 fresh  every  morning,  and  all  that  was  gathered  consumed 
 that  day  ;  which  precept  some  persons  likewise  neglect- 
 ing, and  keeping  a  part  of  it  until  the  next  morning, 
 found  that  it  was  putrefied  and  stunk:  that  on  the 
 seventh  day,  which  was  the  *  Sabbath,  there  was  none 
 
 sion  of  the  Jews  themselves,  is  of  uncertain  signification,  and 
 may  denote  a  locust  as  well  as  a  quail.  But  what  should  rather 
 incline  us  to  the  latter  acceptation,  is  that  passage  of  the  Psal- 
 mist, (lxxviii.  27,)  where  he  tells  us,  that  'God  rained  flesh 
 upon  them,  as  thick  as  dust,  and  feathered  fowls,  like  as  the  sand 
 of  the  sea;'  which  cannot,  with  any  tolerable  propriety,  be  applied 
 to  insects.  But  here  we  must  remember,  that  this  was  done  in 
 the  middle  of  April,  when  these  birds  are  known  to  fly  out  of 
 Egypt  cross  the  Red  Sea  in  vast  quantities;  so  that  the  sum  of 
 this  miracle  will  consist,  not  so  much  in  the  prodigious  number 
 of  them  that  fell  in  the  Israelites'  camp,  as  in  God's  directing 
 them  thither,  and  in  that  very  evening  too,  according  to  his 
 promise,  and  his  servant  Moses'  prediction. —  Universal  History, 
 b   1.  c.  7. 
 
 a  Our  translation,  and  some  others,  make  Moses  fall  into  a 
 plain  contradiction,  in  relating  this  story  of  the  manna,  which 
 they  Hinder  thus:  '  And  when  the  children  of  Israel  saw  it,  they 
 said  one  to  another,  it  is  manna,  for  they  wist  not  what  it  was,' 
 (Ex.  xvi.  15.)  whereas  the  Septuagint,  and  several  authors  both 
 ancient  and  modern,  have  translated  the  text  according  to  the 
 original,  'The  Israelites  seeing  this,  said  one  to  another,  what 
 is  this?  for  they  knew  not  what  it  was?'  For  we  must  observe, 
 that  the  word  by  which  they  asked,  '  what  is  this?'  was,  in  their 
 language,  man,  which  signifies  likewise  meat  ready  prepared}  and 
 therefore  it  was  always  afterwards  called  man  or  manna.  Various 
 are  the  conceits  which  the  Jewish  writers  have  entertained  con- 
 cerning the  taste  of  this  manna,  and  some  of  them  not  unlikely  have 
 been  borrowed  from  the  author  of  the  book  of  Wisdom,  where  he 
 tells  us  of  manna,  "that  it  was  able  to  content  every  man's 
 delight,  agreeing  to  every  taste,  and  attempering  itself  to  every 
 man's  liking."  (Wisd.  xvi.  20,  21.)  Whereupon  some  have 
 affirmed,  that  it,  had  the  taste  of  any  sort  of  fish  or  fowl,  accord- 
 ing to  the  wish  of  him  that  ate  it;  but  these  are  idle  fancies ; 
 what  we  know  of  certainty  is  this, -■- That  here,  in  Exodus, 
 Moses  tells  us,  that  its  '  taste  was  like  wafers  made  with  honey,' 
 and  in  Numbers,  he  says,  that  the  cakes  made  of  it  had  the  '  taste 
 >ii  fresh  oil,'  (c.  xi.  8.)  so  that  we  may  conjecture,  that  it  had 
 a  sweetness,  when  gathered,  which  evaporated  in  the  grinding, 
 and  baking.  It  tasted  like  honey,  when  taken  oft'  the  ground, 
 but  the  cakes  made  of  it  were  as  cakes  kneaded  with  oil. — Essay 
 for  a  New  Translation;  and  Shuck/or d's  Connection,  vol.3,  b.  10. 
 
 b  This  seems  to  be  the  first  time  that  the  '  rest  on  the  seventh 
 day  '  was  solemnly  appointed.  God,  indeed,  from  the  very  first 
 intended  to  preserve  tlie  memory  of  the  creation  in  six  days,  by 
 appointing  the  seventh  day  to  be  kept  holy;  but  when,  before  the 
 flood,  men  grew  so  wicked  as  to  neglect  the  thoughts  of  God, 
 they  very  little  regarded  the  distinction  between  this  day  and 
 others;  and  after  the  flood,  the  dispersion  of  mankind  very  much 
 blotted  it  out  of  their  minds,  as  it  did  many  other  good  things. 
 In  the  family  of  Abraham,  we  may  presume,  the  remembrance 
 of  it  was  preserved,  though  not  with  such  a  strict  abstinence  from 
 all  labour  as  was  afterwards  enjoined;  and  therefore  we  read 
 nothnig  of  their  resting  from  their  travels  upon  that  day,  before 
 
 ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37C3.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii— xxxiv.  24. 
 
 to  he  found ;  and  therefore,  on  the  sixth  they  were  to 
 gather  a  double  portion,  which  being  laid  up,  according 
 to  God's  direction,  against  the  ensuing  day,  was  never 
 once  known  to  corrupt :  and  that,  to  perpetuate  the 
 memory  of  this  e  miraculous  bread,  wherewith  God  had 
 fed  their  forefathers  in  the  wilderness  so  long,  an  homer 
 of  it  should  be  put  in  a  pot,  and  reposited  in  the  ark  of 
 the  covenant  within  the  sanctuary. 
 
 From  the  desert  of  Sin,  the  Israelites  had  not  advanced 
 many  days'  journey  towards  Horeb,  until  coming  to  Re- 
 phidim,  and  finding  no  water  there,  they  fell  into  their 
 old  way  of  distrusting  God's  providence,  and  murmuring 
 against  Moses  ;  but  on  this  occasion  they  seemed  to  be 
 more  mutinous  and  desperate  than  ever.  '  It  was  in  vain 
 for  Moses  to  endeavour  to  persuade  them  to  be  patient 
 a  little,  and  wait  God's  leisure.  His  words  did  but 
 inflame  and  carry  them  to  such  a  height  of  rage,  that 
 they  even  threatened  to  stone  him  ;  so  that  he  was  forced 
 to  have  recourse  to  God,  who  was  soon  pleased  to  dis- 
 sipate his  fears,  by  promising  to  signalize  that  place  by 
 a  miraculous  supply  of  water,  as  he  had  lately  done 
 another  by  a  miraculous  supply  of  food.  d  Taking, 
 therefore,  the  elders  of  the  people,  who  might  bear  tes- 
 timony to  the  fact,  along  with  him,  Moses,  as  he  was 
 commanded  by  God,  went  to  a  certain  rock  on  the  side 
 of  Mount  Horeb,  which  was  distinguished  from  all  the 
 rest  by  the  divine  appearance  resting  upon  it,  and  no 
 sooner  had  he  smitten  it  with  his  rod,  but  water  in 
 abundance  gushed  out  at  several  places,  and  joining 
 in  one    common  stream, e   ran   down  to   the   camp   at 
 
 their  coming  out  of  Egypt.  The  truth  is,  they  were  kept  under 
 such  severe  servitude,  and  day  and  night  so  pressed  by  their 
 taskmasters  to  hard  labour  without  intermission,  that  all  obser- 
 vation of  the  Sabbath  was,  very  likely,  laid  aside  ;  but  when  God 
 brought  them  out  of  slavery,  he  renewed  his  commandment  for 
 it,  with  this  addition,  in  memory  of  the  Egyptian  bondage,  that 
 they  should  rest  from  all  manner  of  labour  upon  that  day. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Whether  this  manna  had  those  extraordinary  qualities  in  it 
 or  no,  which  some  imagine,  it  must  be  allowed  to  be  truly  mira- 
 culous upon  the  following  accounts.  1.  That  it  fell  but  six  days 
 in  the  week.  2.  That  it  fell  in  such  prodigious  quantity  as  sus- 
 tained almost  three  millions  of  souls.  3.  That  there  tell  a  double 
 quantity  tvery  Friday,  to  serve  them  for  the  next  day,  which 
 was  their  Sabbath.  4.  That  what  was  gathered  on  the  first  five 
 days  stunk,  and  bred  worms,  if  kept  above  one  day ;  but  that 
 which  was  gathered  on  Friday  kept  sweet  for  two  days.  And 
 lastly,  That  it  continued  falling  while  the  Israelites  abode  in  the 
 wilderness,  but  ceased  as  soon  as  they  came  out  of  it,  and  had 
 got  corn  to  eat  in  the  land  of  Canaan. —  Universal  History,  b.  1. 
 c.  7. 
 
 d  Exod.  xvii.  12.  '  The  elders  of  Israel.'  Not  only  fathers, 
 but  old  men,  had  great  authority  among  the  Israelites,  and  all 
 the  people  of  antiquity.  They  everywhere,  in  the  beginning, 
 chose  judges  for  private  affairs,  and  counsellors  for  the  public, 
 out  of  the  oldest  men.  Thence  came  the  name  of  senate  and 
 fathers  of  Rome,  and  that  great  respect  for  old  age  which  they 
 borrowed  from  the  Lacedemonians.  As  soon  as  the  Hebrews 
 began  to  be  formed  into  a  people,  they  were  governed  by  old 
 men. — En. 
 
 e  It  was  this  same  water  which  served  the  Israelites,  not  only 
 in  this  encampment  of  Rephidim,  and  in  that  of  Mount  Sinai, 
 but  in  their  other  encampments  likewise,  perhaps  as  far  as 
 Kadesh-Barnea,  For  the  Jews  have  a  tradition,  that  as  these 
 waters  were  granted  for  the  sake  of  the  merits  of  Miriam, 
 Moses'  sister,  so  they  happened  to  fail  as  soon  as  she  died:  and 
 hence  it  is,  that  at  the  encampment  of  Kadesh-Barnea,  which 
 was  soon  after  the  death  of  Miriam,  we  find  the  people  falling 
 into  murmurings  again  for  want  of  water.  St  Paul,  speaking  of 
 this  miraculous  rock,  which  he  makes  the  type  of  Jesus  Christ, 
 tells  ii,  that  '  it  followed  them.'  (1  Cor.  x.  4.)     And  from  hej.ce 
 
Skct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 273 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1401  ;  OR.  ACCORDIN(i  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1G18.  EXOl).  CII.  xiii-xxNiv.  24. 
 
 llephidim. a  This  station,  however,  because  it  was  so 
 infamous  for  the  mutiny  of  the  people,  and  their  distrust 
 of  God,  Moses,  as  a  caution  and  remembrance  to  them 
 for  the  future,  thought  proper  to  have  called  Massah 
 and  Meribah,  which  signify  temptation  and  contention.  b 
 
 While  the  Israelites  continued  at  Rephidim,  they  were 
 alarmed  by  the  approach  of  an  army  of  Amalekites,  who 
 were  just  upon  their  heels,  and  ready  to  fall  upon  them. 
 Hereupon  Moses  ordered  Joshua,  a  valiant  young  man 
 who  was  always  about  him,  to  draw  out  a  party  of  the 
 choicest  men  in  the  camp,  against  next  morning-,  and  to 
 give  the  Amalekites  battle.  When  the  next  morning 
 came,  Moses,  attended  by  Aaron  and  Hur,  went  to  the 
 top  of  an  eminence,  from  whence  they  might  have  a  view 
 of  the  field  of  battle ;  and  as  the  two  armies  were  en- 
 gaged, so  it  was,  that  while  Moses  held  up  his  hands  to 
 God  in  prayer,  and  in  one  of  them  his  wonder-working 
 rod,  the  Israelites  prevailed  ;  but  when,  through  weari- 
 ness, his  hands  began  to  drop,  the  Amalekites  had  the 
 better  ;  which  Aaron  and  Hur  perceiving,  set  him  down 
 upon  a  stone,  and  supported  his  hands  upon  each  side, 
 until  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  in  which  time  the  Ama- 
 lekites were  quite  routed,  and  put  to  the  sword. 
 
 This  good  success,  in  their  first  martial  enterprise, 
 gave  the  Israelites  great  encouragement ;  and  the  action 
 
 some  have  inferred,  either  that  the  streams  which  gushed  out  of 
 the  rock  formed  themselves  into  a  kind  of  river,  which  followed 
 them  through  all  their  encampments,  or  that  they  carried  the 
 rock  itself  in  a  cart,  like  a  great  tun  always  full,  and  always  open 
 to  those  that  had  an  inclination  to  drink.  But  these  are  idle 
 fictions,  drawn  from  words  that  are  n^t  to  be  understood  in  a 
 literal  sense;  what  we  may  learn  of  certainty  from  modern  tra- 
 vellers is, — That  at  the  foot  of  the  Mount  Horeb,  there  is  still 
 to  be  seen  a  brook  of  water,  but  as  for  the  rock  itself,  which  is  a 
 vast  large  stone  standing  separate  by  itself,  there  is  no  water 
 that  now  runs  from  it,  though  there  are,  at  present,  to  be  seen 
 twelve  holes  or  mouths,  as  it  were,  from  whence  the  water  did 
 flow  heretofore. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Rephidim, 
 and  Morizcm's  J'oyagcs,  b.  I.e.  1. 
 
 a  Exod.  xvii.  1.  '  Rephidim.'  "  After  we  had  descended,  with 
 no  small  difficulty,  the  western  side  of  Mount  Sinai,  we  came 
 into  the  other  plain  that  is  formed  by  it,  which  is  Rephidim. 
 Here  we  still  see  that  extraordinary  antiquity,  the  rock  of  Meri- 
 bah, which  hath  continued  down  to  this  clay,  without  the  least 
 injury  from  time  or  accident.  It  is  a  block  of  granite  marble, 
 about  six  yards  square,  lying  tottering,  as  it  were,  and  loose  in 
 the  middle  of  the  valley,  and  seems  to  have  formerly  belonged  to 
 Mount  Sinai,  which  hangs  in  a  variety  of  precipices  all  over  this 
 plain.  The  waters  which  gushed  out,  and  the  stream  which 
 flowed,  have  hollowed,  across  one  corner  of  this  rock,  a  channel 
 about  two  inches  deep  and  twenty  wide,  appearing  to  be  encrusted 
 all  over,  like  the  inside  of  a  tea-kettle  that  had  been  lung  in  use. 
 Besides  several  mossy  productions  that  are  still  preserved  by  the 
 dew,  we  see  all  over  this  channel  a  great  number  of  holes,  some 
 of  them  four  or  five  inches  deep,  and  one  or  two  in  diameter,  the 
 lively  and  demonstrative  tokens  of  their  having  been  formerly  so 
 many  fountains.  It  likewise  may  be  further  observed  that  art 
 or  chance  could  by  no  means  be  concerned  in  the  contrivance, 
 for  every  circumstance  points  out  to  us  a  miracle;  and  in  the 
 same  manner  with  the  rent  in  the  rock  of  Mount  Calvary  at 
 Jerusalem,  never  fails  to  produce  a  religious  surprise  in  all  who 
 see  it." — Shaw's  Travels,  p.  'A5:i. — Ed. 
 
 b  Exod.  xvii.  6.  '  Thou  shalt  smite  the  rock,  and  there  shall 
 come  water  out  of  it.'  This  remarkable  interposition  of  God  for 
 the  Israelites  appears  to  have  been  imperfectly  known  in  other 
 countries;  and  the  remembrance  of  it  is  still  retained  in  some 
 of  the  heathen  fables.  There  is  a  manifest  allusion  to  it  in  Euri- 
 pides, (Baccha:,  703.)  where  he  makes  one  smite  the  rock  at 
 Citharon,  and  waters  gush  out.  Smiting  rocks,  and  producing 
 water,  is  recorded  among  the  fabulous  miracles  of  heathen  mytho- 
 logy.—  Callimachus,  Ilymu  1.  v.  31. — Ed. 
 
 indeed  was  so  very  remarkable,  that  to  transmit  it  to 
 posterity,  Moses  was  ordered  to  record  it  in  a  book,  for 
 Joshua's  future  instructions,  and  to  offer  a  sacrifice  of 
 thanksgiving  :  whereupon,  he  raised  upon  the  spot  an 
 altar,  which  he  called  Jehovah  Nissi,  the  Lord  in  my 
 banner,  as  never  doubting  but  that  God,  who  had  com- 
 manded him  to  denounce  c  incessant  war  against  the 
 Amalekites,  would  not  fail  to  crown  it  with  success. 
 
 The  defeat  of  the  Amalekites  opened  a  way  for  the 
 Israelites  to  Mount  Sinai,  where  God  at  lirst  appeared 
 to  Moses  in  the  burning  bush,  and  not  far  from  the  place 
 where  his  father-in-law  Jethro  dwelt ; <l  who  having  hoard 
 what  mighty  things  God  had  done  for  him  and  the  peo- 
 ple he  conducted,  took  his  daughter,  Zipporah,  Moses1 
 wife,  and  the  two  sons  Gershom,  and  Eliezar,  which  he 
 had  by  her,  and  brought  them  to  the  lsraclitish  camp  ; 
 where,  after  mutual  salutations   and  embraces,  Moses 
 
 c  The  Amalekites  were  a  people  descended  from  Amalek,  the 
 son  of  Eliphaz,  the  son  of  Esau,  by  a  concubine,  (Gen.  xxxvi. 
 12.)  And  the  ground  of  their  enmity  against  the  Israelites  is 
 generally  supposed  to  have  been  an  innate  hatred,  hum  the 
 remembrance  of  Jacob's  depriving  their  progenitor,  botli  of  his 
 birthright  and  blessing.  Their  falling  upon  them,  however, 
 and  that  without  any  provocation,  when  they  saw  them  reduced 
 to  so  low  a  condition  by  the  fatigue  of  their  march,  and  the  ex- 
 cessive drought  they  laboured  under,  was  an  inhuman  action, 
 and  justly  deserved  the  defeat  which  Joshua  gave  them;  but 
 then  the  reason  why  God  thought  fit  to  denounce  a  perpetual 
 war  against  them  is  to  be  resolved  into  this, — That  knowing  the 
 Israelites  were  pre-ordained  by  God  to  be  put  in  possession  of 
 the  land  of  Canaan,  they  came  against  them  with  an  armed 
 force,  in  hopes  of  frustrating  the  designs  of  Providence  come  ru- 
 ing them.  And  this  is  the  reason  which  Moses  himself  assigns 
 for  this  declaration  of  war,  '  because  liis,'  that  is  Amalek's,  '  hand 
 is  against  the  throne  of  God,'  that  is,  against  God  himself, 
 '  therefore  the  Lord  will  wage  war  against  him  from  one  genera- 
 tion to  another,'  (Exod.  xvii.  1G.)  The  injury  done  the  Israelites 
 was  not  so  much  as  the  affront  offered  to  the  divine  Majesty; 
 and  therefore  God  threatens  utterly  to  extirpate  the  designers  of 
 it. Universal  History,  b.  I.  c.  7,  and  Patrick  I  Commentary. 
 
 d  When  it  was  that  Jethro  came  from  Midian  to  visit  his 
 son-in-law  Moses,  whether  immediately  after  the  fight  with  the 
 Amalekites,  as  it  is  here  set  down,  or  some  time  after,  when  the 
 Israelites  were  better  settled,  is  a  matter  much  controverted 
 amongst  interpreters.  The  Jews  are  generally  agreed,  and  to 
 them  do  some  other  great  names,  as  well  as  the  learned  Usher 
 and  Selden,  assent,  that  this  visit  happened  after  the  promul- 
 gation of  the  law,  in  the  first  year  of  their  coming  from  Egypt, 
 and  in  the  month  Tisri,  say  the  Jews,  above  three  months  after 
 God  gave  Moses  the  second  tables;  though  others  "ill  have  it 
 to  have  b(  <  11  in  the  second  year.  It  sums  reasonable  to  think, 
 however,  that  Jethro  would  take  the  first  opportunity  I 
 Moses,  and  to  bring  him  and  so  near  relations  tog)  th(  r,  whi  n 
 once  he  had  heard  the  news  of  their  departure  from  Egypt,  and 
 passingtheRedSea:  which  he,  as  a  borderer  upon  the  wild 
 could  not  long  be  a  stranger  to.  It  is  to  be  observed  farth 
 had  the  law  been  given  before  Jethro'a  arrival  in  the  Israi  litista 
 camp,  Moses  could  hardly  have  escaped  saying  something  oi  the 
 most  remarkable  passage  of  all  others,  God's  glorious  app 
 upon  Mount  Sinai,  and  the  decalogue  which  be  pronounced  from 
 thence:  whereas  all  that  he  relates  at  this  meeting  is,  wl 
 had  done  to  Pharaoh  and  the  Egyptians;  in  what  maimer  he  '  bad 
 delivered  his  people;'  and  •  what  travail  had  come  upon  them  by 
 the  way,'  which  comprehend  their  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  their 
 want  of  water  and  broad,  their  engagement  with  the  Amalekites, 
 and,  in  short,  whatever  we  read  in  the  foregoing  chapters.  Hut 
 of  the  most  momentous  thing  of  all,  we  find  him  making  no 
 mention,  nor  Jethro,  in  the  congratulations  which  he  gives  Ion,. 
 
 takin"    any  manner   of  notice;  which   we    can    hardly   sup] 
 
 would,  on  either  side,  have  been  omitted,  had  they  Ix  en  |  |  ioi  to 
 this  interview;  nor  can  we  eoiie,  i\ ,  ,  1.  r  what  reaSOO  MoM 
 should  place  the  account  of  this  interview  in  ilium  diate  succes- 
 sion, bad  it   not   followed   the  fight  with  the   Amalekites.-  Pa- 
 
 trick's Commentary. 
 
 2  M 
 
274 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  149!;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  IG48.  EXOD.  CH.  i— xiii. 
 
 day,  for  that  within  three  days,  b  he  would  come  dowr 
 upon  the  mountain,  and  make  a  covenant  with  them.  In 
 the  mean  time  he  gave  him  strict  charge  to  set  bounda- 
 ries about  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  which  none  might 
 adventure  to  pass,  under  the  severest  penalties ;  c  and 
 when  he  had  thus  done,  and  the  people  had  prepared 
 themselves  according  to  the  divine  injunction,  on  the 
 third  day  they  saw  early  in  the  morning,  the  mountain 
 surrounded  with  a  thick  cloud,  out  of  which  proceeded 
 such  terrible  thunder  and  lightnings  as  rilled  them  with 
 horror  and  amazement. 
 
 The  signal  for  the  people  to  approach  the  mountain, 
 was  upon  the  first  sounding  of  the  trumpet ;  and  there- 
 fore as  soon  as  it  began,  Moses  brought  them  out  of  the 
 camp,  as  near  to  the  mountain  as  the  barrier  would  per- 
 mit, and  there  they  observed  the  whole  top  of  Sinai 
 covered  with  fire  and  smoke,  while  the  foundations  of 
 it  seemed  to  tremble  and  shake  under  them.     d  In  the 
 
 entertained  him  with  a  particular  account  of  every  thing 
 that  had  befallen  him  during  his  absence  ;  and  in  return, 
 Jethro,  who  was  a  devout  man,  offered  up  solemn  praises 
 to  God,  and  joined  with  Moses,  and  the  rest  of  the  elders 
 of  Israel,  in  sacrifices,  and  such  holy  rejoicings  as  were 
 thought  proper  upon  this  occasion. 
 
 While  Jethro  staid  in  the  camp,  he  could  not  but  per- 
 ceive the  great  weight  of  business,  in  hearing  complaints, 
 and  determining  differences  among  so  numerous  a  peo- 
 ple, which  Moses  must  necessarily  labour  under  ;  and 
 therefore  he  gave  him  advice,  to  substitute  under  him  a 
 certain  number  of  officers,  men  of  parts  and  men  of  cou- 
 rage, such  as  '  feared  God,  and  hated  covetousness,'  to 
 be  rulers,  some  over  thousands,  some  over  hundreds, 
 some  over  fifties,  and  some  over  tens,  with  proper  autho- 
 rity for  them  to  hear,  and  determine  a  all  such  matters, 
 as  they  were  able ;  but  where  causes  were  too  difficult 
 for  their  decision,  these  to  refer  to  him  ;  which  in  the 
 event,  as  he  told  him,  would  prove  a  great  ease  and  ad- 
 vantage both  to  himself  and  the  people  :  and  this  advice 
 of  his,  as  soon  as  he  saw  put  in  execution,  Jethro  took 
 leave  of  his  son-in-law,  and  returned  into  his  own 
 country. 
 
 It  was  three  months  after  their  departure  out  of  Egypt, 
 when  the  Israelites  came,  and  encamped  in  the  wilder- 
 ness of  Sinai,  before  the  mount  of  God  :  and  they  had 
 not  been  long  there,  before  God  called  Moses  to  come 
 up  to  him  on  the  mount,  and  there  charged  him  to  remind 
 the  Israelites  of  the  many  wonders  he  had  wrought  in 
 their  favour  ;  and  that,  notwithstanding  their  frequent 
 murmurings  and  distrust  of  his  providence,  if,  for  the 
 future,  they  would  become  obedient  to  his  laws,  he  would 
 still  look  upon  them  as  his  peculiar  people,  a  favourite 
 nation,  and  a  royal  priesthood. 
 
 Upon  his  descent  from  the  mount,  Moses  made  a 
 report  to  the  elders,  and  they  to  the  people,  of  the  gra- 
 cious message  which  God  had  sent  them  ;  which  as  soon 
 as  the  people  heard,  they  promised  in  return  all  possible 
 obedience  to  the  divine  commands.  With  this  answer  of 
 the  people's  Moses  ascended  the  mountain  again,  and 
 received  a  command  from  God,  that  all  the  people  should 
 purify  themselves,  and  be  in  readiness  against  the  third 
 
 a  The  words  of  the  text  are,  '  Every  great  matter  they  shall 
 bring  to  thee,  but  every  small  matter  they  shall  judge,'  (Exod. 
 xviii.  22.)  And  from  hence  some  have  imagined,  that  there  were 
 several  sorts  of  causes,  that  might  not  at  first  be  brought  before 
 inferior  courts,  and  these  they  make  to  be  four.  1.  All  sacred 
 matters,  or  things  relating  to  God  and  religion.  2.  All  matters 
 of  equity,  where  the  rigour  of  the  law  was  to  be  mitigated.  3. 
 All  capital  cases,  and,  lastly,  all  such  cases  as  the  rulers  of 
 thousands  referred  to  Moses.  What  the  other  rulers  referred  to 
 him  was  indeed  properly  under  his  cognizance,  because  it  sup- 
 posed an  incapacity  in  them,  either  for  the  want  of  some  law,  or 
 a  non-agreement  among  themselves,  to  determine  it;  but  where 
 nothing  of  this  happened,  they  had  a  full  power  to  judge  finally. 
 Neither  was  it  the  people,  when  a  cause  was  thought  intricate, 
 that  were  to  bring  it  primarily  before  Moses,  but  when  any  such 
 difficulty  arose,  as  they  were  not  able  to  surmount,  the  judges, 
 as  Moses  himself  directs  them,  (Deut.  i.  17.)  were  the  persons 
 that  were  to  order  the  appeal  to  him:  '  Bring  it  to  me,'  says  he, 
 '  and  I  will  hear  it ;'  which  shows  that  the  cause  had  been  before 
 the  bar  of  inferior  courts  before,  ouly  they  were  not  skilful  enough 
 to  determine  it.  So  that  the  words  in  the  text  do  not  intimate, 
 that  there  were  some  causes  which  the  other  judges  might  not  try, 
 if  they  were  able ;  but  only  where  the  causes  were  heavy,  and 
 they  incompetent  to  decide,  them,  these  they  were  to  refer  to 
 Moses. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  It  must  be  observed  here,  as  also  in  other  places  of  the  like 
 nature,  that  the  Scripture,  suiting  itself  to  man's  common  way 
 of  speaking  and  thinking,  assigns  such  things  to  God,  as  are  only 
 proper  to  the  effects.  Thus  it  is  said  that  God  '  descended  on 
 the  mountain,'  because  he  made  his  presence  more  visible  there 
 by  sensible  and  surprising  effects ;  and  whereas  it  is  said  by  the 
 protomartyr,  St  Stephen,  (Acts  vii.  53,)  '  that  the  Jews  receiv- 
 ed the  law  by  the  disposition  of  angels:'  and  by  St  Paul  to  the 
 Galatians,  (iii.  19,)  '  that  the  law  was  ordained  by  angels  in  the 
 hand  of  a  mediator ;'  there  is  in  these,  and  the  like  passages,  no 
 contradiction  between  the  new  and  old  testament,  which  assigns 
 all  this  dispensation  to  God  himself.  For  though  it  was  God 
 who  descended,  in  the  sense  we  have  explained  it,  upon  the 
 mount,  yet  the  angels,  these  courtiers  of  heaven,  attended  him,  and 
 made  up  his  train ;  and  though  he  himself  pronounced  the  law, 
 yet  the  thunder  and  lightnings,  and  noise  resembling  the  sound 
 of  a  trumpet,  which  were  preparatory  to  such  pronunciation, 
 may  not  improperly  be  ascribed  to  the  ministry  of  angels.  The 
 intent,  however,  of  these  passages  in  the  new  testament,  is  only 
 to  oppose  the  gospel  to  the  law  in  this  respect,  namely,  that  when 
 God  gave  the  law,  he  was  surrounded  with  an  awful  host  of  angels, 
 but  when  our  Lord  delivered  the  gospel,  he  was  clothed  in  our 
 flesh,  and  adapted  himself  to  our  weakness. — Howell's  History  of 
 the  Bible,  and  Millar's  Church  History. 
 
 c  Exod.  xix.  13.  'He  shall  surely  be  stoned.'  To  be  stoned 
 to  death  was  a  most  grievous  punishment.  When  the  offen- 
 der came  within  four  cubits  of  the  place  of  execution,  he  was 
 stript  naked,  only  having  a  covering  before,  and  his  hands  being 
 bound,  he  was  led  up  to  the  fatal  place,  which  was  an  eminence 
 twice  a  man's  height.  The  first  executioners  of  the  sentence 
 were  the  witnesses,  who  generally  pulled  off  their  clothes  for  the 
 purpose:  one  of  them  threw  him  down  with  great  violence  upon 
 his  loins:  if  he  rolled  upon  his  breast  he  was  turned  upon  his 
 loins  again,  and  if  he  died  by  the  fall,  there  was  an  end ;  but  if 
 not,  the  other  witness  took  a  great  stone  and  dashed  upon  his 
 breast,  as  he  lay  upon  his  back ;  and  then,  if  he  was  not  des- 
 patched, all  the  people  that  stood  by  threw  stones  at  him  till  he 
 died. — Lewis'  Origines  Hebriea,  vol.  1.  p.  74. — Ed. 
 
 d  Of  all  the  descriptions  that  I  ever  read,  there  is  no  one  seems 
 to  me  so  awful  and  tremendous,  as  this  descent  of  God  upon 
 Mount  Horeb,  and  the  amazing  phenomena  that  attended  it. 
 The  pomp  pretended  to  by  pagan  deities,  even  when  set  off  with 
 the  grandeur  of  poetiy,  and  the  magic  of  numbers,  is  uncouth, 
 ridiculous,  and  profane.  The  procession  of  Bacchus,  as  it  is  de- 
 scribed by  Ovid,  (b.  3.)  is  neither  more  nor  less,  than  a  downright 
 drunken  riot,  or  the  brutal  pastime  of  a  disorderly  country  wake. 
 The  boisterous  expedition  of  Neptune,  even  as  it  is  painted  by 
 the  great  master  Homer,  (Iliad,  13,)  seems  to  represent  nothing 
 more  august  than  the  roaring  of  London  bridge,  or  a  rabble  of  sea 
 monsters  frisking  in  a  storm ;  nay,  that  very  famous  speech  of 
 Jupiter,  (Iliad,  18,)  where  he  maintains  his  supereminence,  by 
 shaking  Olympus  with  his  imperial  nod,  and  menacing  his  re- 
 fractory offspring,  in  case  they  should  rebel,  though  it  certainly 
 be  embellished  with  the  utmost  force  of  words  and  stretch  of  art, 
 is  at  the  best  but  a  lame  and  imperfect  copy,  in  the  main  strokes 
 of  it,  from  the  native  majesty  of  this  unlaboured  prose,  in  the 
 
Skgt.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 275 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3703.  A.  C.  1G48.  EXOD.  I'll,  xiii— xxxiv.  21. 
 
 midst  of  this  dreadful  scene,  the  trumpet  was  heard  to 
 sound  louder  and  louder,  claps  of  thunder  and  flashes  of 
 tire  were  more  and  more  ingeminated,  till  all  on  a  sud- 
 den every  thing  was  hush  and  silent,  and  then  God  was 
 heard  from  the  midst  of  the  fire  and  smoke  (which 
 still  continued)  to  pronounce  the  law  of  the  decalogue, 
 or  a  ten  commandments,  which  is  indeed  a  complete 
 system  of  the  moral  part  of  the  Jewish  institutes,  and  in 
 few  but  significant  words,  comprehends  their  duty  to 
 God,  to  their  neighbour,  and  to  themselves. 
 
 In  the  mean  time  the  people,  astonished  at  what  they 
 saw  and  heard,  removed  farther  oft';  and  as  soon  as  the 
 divine  voice  had  ceased  speaking,  came  to  Moses,  and 
 in  the  height  of  their  fear  and  surprise,  besought  of  him, 
 that  for  the  future,  he  would  speak  to  them  in  God's 
 stead,  and  whatever  he  enjoined  them  they  would  obey, 
 because  they  were  conscious,  that  were  they  to  hear  his 
 dreadful  voice  again,  they  should  certainly  die  with 
 horror  and  astonishment  This  motion,  as  it  bespake 
 their  reverence  and  respect,  was  not  displeasing  to 
 Moses ;  and  therefore  he  assured  them,  that  all  this 
 wonderful  scene  was  not  exhibited  to  them  with  a  design 
 to  create  in  them  any  slavish  fear,  but  a  iilial  confidence, 
 and  submission  to  such  laws  as  the  divine  wisdom  should 
 hereafter  think  fit  to  enjoin  them  :  and  with  these  words 
 he  went  up  to  the  mount  again,  where,  in  addition  to  the 
 decalogue,  he  received  from  God  several  other  laws, 
 both  ceremonial  and  political,  which  seem  to  have  been 
 calculated  with  a  wise  design  to  preserve  the  people  in 
 their  obedience  to  God,  to  prevent  their  intermixture 
 with  other  nations,  and  to  advance  the  welfare  of  their 
 commonwealth,  by  securing  to  all  the  members  of  it  a 
 quiet  enjoyment  of  their  lives  and  properties.* 
 
 19th  chapter  of  Exodus.  It  must  be  owned,  however,  that  our 
 English  poet  Milton,  has  in  several  places  described  the  usual 
 display  of  the  divine  Majesty,  in  a  very  magnificent  manner. 
 
 Clouds  began 
 
 To  darken  all  the  hill,  and  smoke  to  roll 
 
 In  dusky  wreaths,  reluctant  flames,  the  sight 
 
 Of  wrath  awaked  :  nor  with  less  dread  the  loud 
 
 Ethereal  trumpet  from  on  high  'gan  blow, 
 
 At  which  command  the  powers  militant, 
 
 That  stood  for  heaven,  in  mighty  quadrate  joined 
 
 Of  union  irresistible,  moved  on 
 
 In  silence  their  bright  legions  to  the  sound 
 
 Of  instrumental  harmony. 
 
 Again, 
 
 He  on  his  impious  foes  right  onward  drove. 
 Gloomy  as  night :  under  his  burning  wheels 
 The  stedfast  empyrean  shook  throughout, 
 All  but  the  throne  of  God. 
 
 And 
 
 again, 
 
 He  ended,  and  the  sun  gave  signal  high 
 To  the  bright  minister  that  watched  :  He  blew 
 His  trumpet,  heard  on  Oreb  since  perhaps 
 When  God  descended,  and  perhaps  once  more 
 
 To  sound  the  general  doom. . — 
 
 Paradise  Lost,  b.  6.  and  11. 
 a  These  ten  commandments,  as  contained  in  the  20th  chapter 
 of  Exodus,  are  so  very  well  known,  that  there  is  no  occasion  here 
 for  the  repetition  of  them :  and  in  what  manner  they  are  to  be 
 disposed  of  in  the  two  tables,  whether  four  are  to  be  placed  in 
 the  first,  and  six  in  the  second  table,  which  is  the  common  dis- 
 tribution, or  an  equal  number  is  to  be  appropriated  to  each  table, 
 as  Philo  and  his  followers  among  the  Jewish  rabbins  contend,  is 
 not  a  question  of  moment  enough  to  be  discussed  in  this  place. 
 
 b  Exod.  xx.  12.  '  That  thy  days  may  be  long  upon  the  land.'  As 
 disobedience  to  parents  is,  by  the  law  of  Moses,  threatened  to  be 
 punished  with  death,  so  on  the  contrary  long  life  is  promised  to 
 the  obedient;  and  that  in  their  own  country,  which  God  most 
 peculiarly  enriched  with  abundance  of  blessings.  Heathens  also 
 gave  the  same  encouragement,  saying,  that  such  children  should 
 
 With  this  body  of  laws,  which  were  all  that  God  for 
 the  present  thought  lit  to  enjoin,  Moses  returning  from 
 the  mount,  erected  an  altar  to  God,  c  and  offered  burnt- 
 sacrilices  and  peace-offerings  upon  it ;  and  having 
 caused  the  contents  of  this  new  covenant  to  be  read  to 
 all  the  people,  and  exacted  a  solemn  promise  from  them, 
 that  they  would  keep  it  faithfully,  he  confirmed  this 
 covenant,  by  sprinkling  the  altar,  the  book,  and  the 
 people  with  the  blood  of  the  victims  which  were  slain 
 upon  this  occasion  ;  and  then  ordered  twelve  pillars  to 
 be  raised,  according  to  the  number  of  the  twelve  tribes, 
 as  a  standing  monument  of  this  alliance  between  God 
 and  them. 
 
 As  soon  as  Moses  had  made  an  end  of  this  ceremony, 
 he  took  Nadab,  Abihu,  and  seventy  of  the  elders  of 
 Israel,  some  part  of  the  way  towards  the  mountain, 
 where,  without  incurring  any  hurt,  they  were  vouchsafed 
 a  prospect  of  the  divine  presence,  and  where,  having 
 committed  the  care  of  the  people  to  them,  he  took 
 Joshua  along  with  him,  and  went  up  higher  to  the  top 
 of  the  mount,  where  he  continued  for  the  space  of  forty 
 days. 
 
 Here  it  was  that  God,  calling  him  nearer  to  himself, 
 and  into  the  cloud  where  he  then  resided,  instructed 
 him  in  what  manner  the  tent  or  tabernacle,  wherein 
 he  intended  to  be  worshipped,  was  to  be  made.  He 
 described  to  him  the  form  of  the  sanctuary,  the  table  for 
 the  shew-bread,  the  altar  of  frankincense,  the  altar  for 
 burnt-offerings,  the  court  of  the  tabernacle,  the  basin  to 
 wash  in,  the  ark,  the  candlestick,  and  all  the  other  sacred 
 utensils.  He  gave  him  the  form  of  the  sacerdotal  vest- 
 ments, and  taught  him  how  the  priests  were  to  be  conse- 
 crated ;  what  part  of  the  oblation  they  were  to  take,  and 
 in  what  manner  the  perpetual  sacrifice  was  to  be  offered. 
 He  named  the  two  chief  men,  Bezaleel,  of  the  tribe  of 
 Judah,and  Aholiah,  of  the  tribe  of  Dan,  who  were  to  be 
 the  builders  of  the  tabernacle  ;  and  having  recommended 
 a  strict  observation  of  the  Sabbath, d  he  gave  him  the  two 
 
 be  dear  to  the  gods,  both  living  and  dying.  So  Euripides.  It 
 was  also  one  of  their  promises,  thou  shalt  live  long,  if  thou 
 nourish  thy  ancient  parents. — Patrick  in  locum. —  En. 
 
 c  Exod.  xx.  24.  '  An  altar  of  earth  shalt  thou  make  unto  me.' 
 This  command  certainly  imports,  that  the  altars  of  the  Lord  were 
 to  be  as  simple  as  possible.  They  were  to  be  made  either  of  sods 
 and  turfs  of  earth,  which  were  easily  prepared  in  most  places, 
 while  they  strayed  in  the  wilderness,  or  of  rough  and  unpolished 
 stone,  if  they  came  into  rocky  places,  where  no  sods  were  to  be 
 obtained;  that  there  might  be  no  occasion  to  grave  any  imago 
 upon  them.  Such  altars,  Tertullian  observes,  [Apolog.  ■ 
 were  among  the  ancient  Romans  in  the  days  of  Numa;  when,  as 
 they  had  no  sumptuous  temples,  nor  images,  so  they  had  only 
 altars  hastily  huddled  up  of  earth,  without  any  art. — Patrick  in 
 locum. — Ei>. 
 
 d  Exod.  xxiii.  12.  '  On  the  seventh  day  thOU  Shalt  rest ;  that 
 thine,  ox  and  thine  ass  may  rest.'  We  should  here  observe  the 
 great  clemency  of  God,  who  by  this  law  requires  sonic  goodness 
 and  mercy  to  be  exercised  even  to  brute  animals,  that  be  might 
 remove  men  the  farther  from  cruelly  to  each  other.  The  slaughter 
 of  a  ploughing  ox  was  prohibited  by  a  law  common  to  the  Phry- 
 gians, Cyprians,  and  Romans,  as  we  find  recorded  by  Varro, 
 Pliny  and  others.  The  Athenians  made  a  decree  that,  a  mole 
 worn  out.  by  labour  ami  age,  ami  which  used  to  accompanj 
 mules  drawing  burdens,  should  be  fed  at  the  public  expense. 
 
 Exod.  xxiii.  16.  'The  feast  of  ingathering,  which  i--  in  the  end 
 of  the  year,  when  thou  has)  gathered  in  thy  labours  oul  ol  the 
 field.'  The  same  custom  prevailed  among  the  Gentiles,  "ho  at 
 the  end  of  the  year,  when  they  gathered  in  their  fruits,  offered 
 solemn  sacrifices,  with  thanks  to  God  for  his  blessings.  Aristotle 
 
276 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii-xxxiv. 
 
 a  tables  of  stone,  wherein  with  his  own  hand,  at  least  by 
 his  own  direction,  were  written  the  ten  great  command- 
 ments, which  were  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  moral 
 law.6 
 
 While  Moses  was  conversing  with  God  on  the  mount, 
 and  Joshua  waiting-   for   his  return,  the  people  in  the 
 
 {Ethic,  b.  viii.)  says,  that  the  ancient  sacrifices  and  assemblies 
 were  after  the  gathering  in  of  the  fruits,  being  designed  for  an 
 oblation  of  the  first-fruits  unto  God. — Ed. 
 
 a  Who  was  the  first  inventor  of  letters,  and  what  nation  had 
 the  invention  soonest  among  them,  is  variously  disputed  by  the 
 learned.  The  invention  seems  to  be  a  little  too  exquisite  to  have 
 proceeded  from  man;  and  therefore  we  have,  not  without  reason, 
 in  a  former  page,  derived  its  original  from  God  himself,  who  might 
 teach  it  Adam,  and  Adam  his  posterity.  As  to  particular  nations, 
 however,  some  say  that  the  Phoenicians,  others  the  Ethiopians, 
 and  others  again  that  the  Assyrians,  had  the  first  invention  of 
 them ;  but  upon  better  grounds,  it  is  thought  by  Eusebius  (in  his 
 Pnepar.  Evan.  b.  IS.)  that  Moses  first  taught  the  use  of  letters  to 
 the  Jews,  ami  that  the  Phoenicians  learned  them  from  them,  and  the 
 Grecians  from  the  Phoenicians.  The  matter  whereon  men  wrote  in 
 ruder  times  was  different;  some  on  the  rinds  of  trees,  others  on 
 tiles,  and  others  on  tables ;  which  last  was  chiefly  in  use  among 
 the  Jews;  and  probably  from  this  example  given  them  by  God. 
 The  instrument  wherewith  they  wrote,  was  not  a  pen,  but  a  kind 
 of  engraver  made  of  iron  or  steel,  called  a  stylus,  which  was 
 sharp  at  one  end,  for  the  more  convenient  indenting,  or  carving 
 the  character,  and  broad  at  the  other  for  the  purpose  of  scraping 
 it  out.  To  perpetuate  the  memory  of  any  thing,  the  custom  of 
 writing  on  stone  or  brick  was  certainly  very  ancient,  and  (as 
 Josephus,  in  the  case  of  Seth's  pillars,  tells  us,  Antiquities,  b.  1 1.) 
 older  than  the  time  of  the  flood.  The  words  of  the  decalogue, 
 spoken  by  God  himself,  were  such  as  deserved  to  be  had  in  ever- 
 lasting remembrance ;  and  therefore  God  was  willing  to  have 
 them  engraved  upon  durable  matter ;  but  then  the  question  is, 
 whether  it  was  God  himself,  with  his  own  finger,  as  we  say,  or 
 some  other  person  from  God's  mouth,  who  wrote  them.  In 
 Exod.  xxxiv.  27,  2S.  we  are  toki,  that  '  the  Lord  said  unto 
 Moses,  Write  thou  these  words ;  for  after  the  tenor  of  these  words 
 have  I  made  a  covenant  with  thee  and  with  Israel;'  and  that 
 accordingly  '  he  wrote  upon  the  tables  the  words  of  the  covenant, 
 even  the  ten  commandments.'  Now  since  it  is  a  common  form 
 of  speech,  that  what  a  superior  commands  to  be  done,  that  he  does 
 himself;  the  meaning  can  be  no  more,  than  that  the  words  of 
 the  decalogue  were  written  by  the  hand  of  Moses,  but  by  the 
 direction  and  dictation  of  God. — Howell' 's  and  Universal  History. 
 
 b  Exod.  xxiv.  11.  '  And  upon  the  nobles  of  the  children  of 
 Israel  he  laid  not  his  hand.'  It  is  usually  said  that  God  '  laid  not 
 his  hand'  in  a  way  of  terror,  or  anger,  on  these  nobles  on  account 
 of  their  intrusion:  but  in  the  Monthly  Magazine  for  January, 
 1804,  is  the  following  description  of  the  appearance  at  court  of 
 the  Mogul's  officers,  who  partake  of  his  bounty  or  rewards. 
 "  Those  officers  of  the  districts,  whose  time  has  expired,  or  who 
 have  been  recalled  from  similar  appointments,  repair  to  the 
 imperial  presence,  and  receive  the  reward,  good  or  evil,  of  their 
 administration.  When  they  are  admitted  into  the  presence,  and 
 retire  from  thence,  if  their  rank  and  merit  be  eminent,  they  are 
 called  near  to  his  majesty's  person,  and  allowed  the  honour  of 
 placing  their  heads  below  his  sacred  foot.  The  emperor  lays  his 
 hand  on  the  back  of  a  person,  on  whom  he  means  to  bestow  an 
 extraordinary  mark  of  favour.  Others  from  a  distance  receive 
 token  of  kindness,  by  the  motion  of  the  imperial  brow  or  eyes." 
 Now  if  the  nobles  of  Israel  were  not  admitted  to  the  same  near- 
 ness of  approach  to  the  Deity  as  Moses  and  Aaron,  perhaps  this 
 phrase  should  he  taken  directly  contrary  to  what  it  has  been. 
 '  lie  laid  not  his  hand '  in  a  way  of  special  favour,  nevertheless 
 they  saw  God,  and  did  eat  and  drink  in  his  presence.  This  sense 
 of  laying  on  the  hand  is  supported  by  a  passage  in  Bell's  Travels 
 tn  Persia,  p.  103.  "  The  minister  received  the  credentials,  and 
 laid  them  before  the  Shah,  who  touched  them  with  his  hand,  as  a 
 mark  of  respect.  This  part  of  the  ceremony  had  been  very  diffi- 
 cult to  adjust;  for  the  ambassador  insisted  on  delivering  his 
 letters  into,  the  Shah's  own  hands.  The  Persian  ministers,  on 
 the  other  hand,  affirmed  that  their  king  never  received  letters 
 directly  from  the  ambassadors  of  the  greatest  emperors  on  earth." 
 —  Theological  Magazine,  vol.  iv.  p.  140. — En. 
 
 camp,  who  by  reason  of  his  long  absence  began  now  to 
 <>"ive  him  over  for  lost,  assembled  themselves  in  a  riotous 
 manner  about  Aaron's  tent,  and  demanded  of  him  to 
 make  them  some  gods  to  go  before  them.  The  demand 
 was  astonishing,  and  such  was  his  weakness,  and  want  of 
 courage,  that  instead  of  expostulating  the  matter  with 
 them,  he  tamely  submitted  to  their  request;  nay,  he  con- 
 tributed not  a  little  to  their  idolatry,  by  ordering  thein 
 to  bring  a  sufficient  quantity  of  their  golden  ornaments, 
 which  when  he  received  from  them,  c  he  tied  in  a  bag,  and 
 thereof  made  them  a  molten  calf.  Nor  was  this  all,  for 
 seeing  them  so  highly  delighted  with  their  new  made 
 god,  he  set  it  upon  a  pedestal,  in  full  sight  of  the  camp, 
 built  an  altar  before  it,  and  appointed  the  next  day  for  a 
 solemn  festival,  which  was  begun  with  offering  of  sacri- 
 fices to  it,  and  concluded  with  feasting  and  dancing,  and 
 all  d  kinds  of  noisy  mirth. 
 
 God,  in  the  mean  time,  who  knew  what  had  passed  in 
 the  camp,  acquainted  his  servant  Moses,  that  the  people 
 whom  he  had  brought  out  of  Egypt  had  so  soon  forgot 
 their  promises  and  engagements,  that  at  that  very  time 
 they  had  made  them  a  molten  image,  and  were  worship- 
 ping a  golden  calf;  a  defection  so  provoking,  that  he 
 threatened  to  extirpate  the  whole  nation  of  them,  but  at 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  are  these,  '  All  the  people  brake  off 
 the  golden  ear-rings  which  were  in  their  ears,  and  brought  them 
 unto  Aaron,  and  he  received  them  at  their  hands,  and  fashioned 
 it  with  a  graving  tool,  after  he  had  made  it  into  a  molten  calf,' 
 Exod.  xxxii.  3,  4.  But  here  seems  to  be  a  great  mistake  in 
 most  versions  as  well  as  our  own,  and  what  but  few  critics  and 
 expositors  have  yet  espied.  For  it  may  very  well  be  asked,  who 
 taught  Aaron  to  engrave,  or  how  could  this  idol  be  engraven  so 
 soon,  since  it  is  said  that  Aaron  presented  it  to  the  people  on 
 the  morrow  !  If  the  custom  of  engraving  molten  work  was  then 
 known,  how  comes  it,  that  we  hear  nothing  of  it  even  in  Solomon's 
 time,  since  it  may  be  presumed,  that  the  furniture  of  Solomon's 
 temple  was  wrought  with  much  more  art  than  the  figure  of 
 Aaron's  calf?  The  whole  foundation  of  this  mistake  seems  to 
 lie  in  the  ambiguity  of  the  Hebrew  word  Tsour,  which  sometimes 
 signifies  to  fashion,  and  sometimes  to  bind  or  tie,  and  of  the  word 
 Chereth,  which  signifies  a  graving  tool,  and  sometimes  a  sack  or 
 bag,  2  Kings  v.  23.  And  therefore  the  nature  and  circumstances 
 of  the  thing  here  spoken  of  might  have  directed  the  translators  to 
 think  of  putting  the  great  quantity  of  ear-rings,  which  were 
 brought  to  Aaron,  into  a  bag ;  which  would  have  prevented  the 
 incongruity  that  the  Geneva  version  has  incurred,  of  engraving 
 the  calf  before  it  was  molten ;  for  so  it  runs,  '  he  fashioned  the 
 ear-rings  with  a  graving  tool,  and  made  a  molten  calf  of  them.' 
 Essay  for  a  New  Translation. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,  (Exod.  xxxii.  C.)  '  the  people  sat 
 down  to  eat,  and  to  drink,  and  rose  up  to  play ;'  and  from  hence 
 some  have  supposed  their  sense  to  be,  that  after  the  Israelites 
 had  eaten  of  the  sacrifices  offered  to  this  new  idol,  and  drunk 
 very  plentifully,  they  committed  fornication,  after  the  manner  of 
 heathen  worshippers,  and  as  in  after  ages  they  were  induced  to 
 do  in  the  case  of  Baal-peor,  Numb.  xxv.  1,  2.  It  cannot  be 
 denied,  indeed,  but  that  those  sacrificial  feasts  among  the  heathens 
 were  usually  attended  with  drunkenness  and  lasciviousness,  which 
 generally  go  together;  and  that  the  word  which  we  render  play, 
 is  the  same  which  Potiphar's  wife  makes  use  of,  when  she  tells 
 her  husband,  that  his  Hebrew  slave  came  in  to  mock  her,  that 
 is,  violate  her  chastity ;  but  since  there  is  no  intimation  of  this 
 in  the  story,  but  only  of  their  singing  and  dancing,  it  is  hardly 
 presumable,  that  they  could  become  so  very  profligate  the  very 
 first  day  of  their  setting  up  idol-worship.  Much  more  reasonable 
 it  is  therefore  to  suppose,  that  all  this  merriment  of  theirs  was 
 in  imitation  of  the  Egyptians,  who,  when  they  had  found  out 
 their  god  Apis,  whereof  this  golden  calf  was  designed  as  an 
 emblem,  were  used  to  bring  him  in  solemn  pomp  to  Memphis, 
 the  royal  city,  with  children  going  before  in  procession,  and 
 all  the  company  singing  a  song  of  praise  to  the  Deity. — Pat- 
 rick's Commentary. 
 
Sect.  1.1 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 277 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii— xxxiv.  24. 
 
 the  same  time  promised  to  make  him  the  father  and 
 founder  of  a  nation  as  numerous,  and  more  powerful 
 than  these  ungrateful  rebels  were.  But  so  far  was  Moses 
 from  seeking  his  own  interest  in  their  destruction,  that 
 he  threw  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  Lord,  and  interceded 
 for  their  pardon  with  so  much  importunity,  that  having 
 obtained  a  kind  of  promise  of  it,  he  took  the  tables  and 
 his  servant  Joshua  with  him,  and  so  hastened  down  from 
 the  mount. 
 
 As  soon  as  they  were  come  to  the  bottom,  Joshua  hear- 
 ing the  noise  which  the  people  were  making,  expressed 
 his  apprehensions,  that  possibly  there  might  be  some 
 alarm  or  engagement  in  the  camp;  but  Moses,  who  knew 
 what  had  happened,  told  him  that  the  noise  seemed  to 
 be  an  indication  of  joy,  rather  than  of  war ;  and  as  they 
 drew  near,  and  saw  the  golden  calf,  and  the  people  sing- 
 ing and  dancing  about  it,  Moses,  for  indignation  throw- 
 ing down  the  tables  he  had  in  his  hands,  brake  them  in 
 pieces  ;  and  then  taking  the  idol  calf,  he  put  it  in  the 
 fire,  and  melted  it,  and  so  a  reducing  it  to  powder,  and 
 mixing  the  powder  in  water,  to  make  them  more  sensible 
 of  their  folly  in  worshipping  that  for  a  god  which  was  to 
 pass  through  their  bodies,  he  made  them  drink  it  up. 
 
 After  this,  Aaron  was  called  to  give  an  account  how 
 he  came  to  indulge  the  people  in  this  idolatrous  humour ; 
 but  all  the  excuse  that  he  could  make  turned  upon  their 
 tumultuous,  and  his  timorous  temper,  which  compelled 
 him  to  comply  with  their  demand.  But  Moses'  business 
 was,  to  take  vengeance  on  the  idolaters ;  and  therefore 
 turning  from  his  brother  Aaron,  he  called  such  to  his  aid 
 as  had  not  been  guilty  in  the  late  rebellion  ;  and  seeing 
 some  of  the  tribe  of  Levi  adjoin  themselves  to  him,  b  he 
 appointed  them  to  take  their  swords,  to  go  through  the 
 camp,  and  without  any  respect  to  age  or  quality,  friend- 
 ship or  consanguinity,  to  kill  all  the  ringleaders  of  this 
 
 a  This  action  of  Moses,  in  melting,  grinding,  and  pounding 
 this  golden  idol,  in  order  to  make  the  people  drink  it,  is  by  some 
 thought  contrary  to  our  present  philosophy,  and  t'.ic  account  which 
 alehymists  give  us  of  the  nature  of  gold.  The  goldbeater  can 
 reduce  gold  to  the  thickness  of  one  fifteen  hundredth  part  of  an 
 inch,  in  the  form  of  leaves,  which  may  be  easily  heat  into  pow- 
 der, thrown  into  a  liquid,  and  drunk.  A  strong  current  of 
 electricity  being  made  to  play  upon  gold,  will  cause  it  to  bum, 
 and  be  dissipated  in  the  form  of  a  very  fine  purple  powder,  which 
 may  also  be  thrown  into  water  and  drunk.  Gold  may  also  be 
 dissolved  in  nitru-muriatie  acid  and  drunk?  By  the  help  of 
 a  file,  Moses  might  grate  it  into  a  dust,  as  fine  as  flour  that  is 
 ground  in  a  mill.  But  the  rabbinical  reason  for  his  giving  the 
 people  this  gold  powder  to  drink,  namely,  that  he  might  distin- 
 guish the  idolaters  from  the  rest,  because  as  soon  as  they  had 
 drunk,  the  beards  of  the  former  turned  red,  is  a  little  too 
 whimsical  to  be  regarded. —  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 b  This  may  be  thought  too  hazardous  an  undertaking,  and,  for 
 a  few  Levites  to  kill  3000  of  the  people  impracticable ;  but  as 
 they  had  God's  warrant  for  what  they  did,  and  knew  at  the  same 
 time  how  timorous  guilt  is  apt  to  make  men,  they  might  be 
 confident,  that  none  would  have  courage  to  oppose  them.  Before 
 that  Moses  called  any  avengers  to  his  assistance,  the  text  tells 
 us,  that  'he  saw  that  the  people  were  naked,  for  Aaron  had 
 made  them  naked  to  their  shame,'  (Exod.  xxxii.  25.)  where,  if 
 by  '  nakedness  '  we  are,  with  some  expositors,  to  understand  their 
 want  of  arms,  which  they  had  laid  aside,  that  they  might  be 
 more  light  and  nimble  to  dance  about  the  idol,  it  is  plain,  that 
 the  Levites  might  have  less  trouble  in  slaying  such  a  number  of 
 people,  loaded  with  liquor  perhaps,  and,  as  it  usually  happens  in 
 the  conclusion  of  a  festival,  weary  with  dancing  and  sports, 
 and  without  any  weapons  about  them  to  make  resistance. — 
 Patrick's  and  Lc  Clercs  Commentaries. 
 
 idolatrous  defection,  and  their  adherents;  which  the 
 Levites  accordingly  executed;  so  that  at  this  time  there 
 were  about  three  thousand  persons  slain.  Nor  did  the 
 Levites,  in  consideration  of  this  their  laudable  zeal  and 
 obedience,  go  long  unrewarded  ;  for,  upon  the  instituti  on 
 of  the  priesthood,  they  were  appointed  to  the  honour 
 and  emoluments  of  that  office,  though  in  subordination 
 to  that  of  Aaron  and  his  posterity. 
 
 The  people,  in  the  mean  time,  having  seen  this  dread- 
 ful example  on  the  delinquents,  were  not  in  ?  little  fear 
 and  consternation.  But  Moses,  the  next  day  contented 
 himself  with  reproving  them  for  their  ingratitude  and 
 extreme  folly,  and  at  the  same  time  promised  them  that 
 he  would  go  up  to  the  mount  again,  and  try  c  how  far 
 his  prayers  would  prevail  with  the  divine  mercy,  to  avert 
 the  punishment  which  they  justly  deserved.  To  show, 
 however,  how  highly  they  had  ofiended  God  by  their 
 wicked  apostasy,  he  took  a  tent,  and  pitching  it  out  of 
 the  camp  at  a  good  distance,  he  called  it  '  the  tabernacle 
 of  the  congregation,'  whither  the  cloudy  pillar,  (to  let 
 them  see  that  God  would  no  longer  dwell  among  tlieni.) 
 immediately  repaired  ;  and  whither  Moses,  whenever  he 
 wanted  to  consult  the  divine  oracle,  was  wont  to  resort. 
 Nor  was  it  long  after  this,  that  God,  to  comfort  and 
 encourage  him  under  all  the  fatigue  that  he  had  with  an 
 obstinate  people,  granted  his  request,  and  showed  him 
 as  much  of  his  glory  as  his  nature  was  able  to  bear,  and 
 gave  him  fresh  orders  to  prepare  two  other  tallies  of 
 stone,  and  to  come  up  again  to  turn  on  the  mountain  all 
 alone.  Moses,  accordingly,  early  next  morning,  repair- 
 ed to  the  mountain,  with  the  two  tables,  and  having 
 prostrated  himself  before  God,  implored  of  him  to  par- 
 don the  sins  of  his  people;  which  God  graciously  con- 
 descended to  do,  and  withal  to  make  a  farther  covenant 
 with  them,  upon  condition  that  they  would  keep  his 
 commandments ;  would  observe  his  Sabbaths,  his  pass- 
 over,  and  other  appointed  festivals ;  and  would  not 
 worship  the  gods  of  the  Canaanites,  nor  make  any 
 alliances  with  the  people  of  the  country. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Objections  answered  and  Difficulties 
 explained. 
 
 That  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  and  such  extended  [Jains 
 (for  there  were  no  cities,  rivers,  or  mountains  for  land- 
 marks,) it  was  a  general  custom,  before  the  invention  of 
 the  compass,  to  carry  lire  before  armies,  in  order  to 
 direct  their  march  ;  and  that,  notwithstanding  the  present 
 use  of  the  compass,  the  guidance  of  fire  is  practised 
 
 c  Moses  indeed  was  by  lineage  and  descent  of  the  tribe  of 
 Levi,  which  though  it  forfeited  the  primogeniture  and  regalia, 
 by  being  concerned  in  the  blood  of  the  Shechcmites,  was  never- 
 theless dignified  with  the  priesthood,  which  gave  him  ■  right  of 
 approaching  God,  as  an  Intercessor  for  a  rebellious  and  backslid- 
 ing people.  Aaron,  in  strictness,  "as  both  the  high  priesl  ;'.<»! 
 his  elder  brother,  but  besides  that,  he,  by  his  imi  indent  com- 
 pliance in  the  business  of  the  golden  calf,  had  at  this  time  not 
 only  forfeited  the  honour  of  mi  diation,  bnt  Btood  himself  in  need 
 of  an  atonement:  there  seems  to  be  something  in  I 
 that  is  given  of  Moses'  singular  meekness,  that  might  entitle 
 him  to  the  spirit  of  Intercession,  and  make  the  younger,  in  tins 
 office,  be  preferred  before  the  elder.  —  />'// /,'.•//«<  </  BibUca  Ap- 
 pend, i >f  t lie  Chens.  Annul. 
 
278 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii— xxxiv.  24. 
 
 among  the  caravans  in  the  east,  and  by  the  great  number 
 of  pilgrims,  who  go  every  year  from  Grand  Cairo  in 
 Egypt,  to  Mecca  in  Arabia,  cannot,  by  any  one  that  is 
 acquainted  either  with  ancient  or  modern  history,  be 
 denied ;  and  had  the  sole  intent  of  the  cloudy  pillar 
 been  to  guide  and  conduct  the  Israelites  in  their  journeys, 
 there  might  have  been  more  grounds  for  asserting,  that  it 
 was  a  mere  machine  of  human  contrivance,  and  had  nothing 
 miraculous  or  supernatural  in  it.  But  when  it  shall 
 appear,  that  this  pillar  of  a  cloud  was  of  much  greater  use 
 to  the  children  of  Israel  than  barely  to  conduct  them  ; 
 that  in  it  resided  a  superior  power,  upon  whom  the  name 
 and  attributes  of  God  are  conferred ;  that  from  it  pro- 
 ceeded oracles,  and  directions  what  the  people  were  to 
 do,  and  plagues  and  punishments,  when  they  had  done 
 amiss  ;  and  that  to  it  are  ascribed  such  motions  and 
 actions,  as  cannot,  with  any  propriety  of  speech,  be 
 applied  to  any  natural  fire  ;  it  will  from  hence,  I  hope, 
 be  concluded,  that  this  guidance  of  the  cloud  was  a  real 
 miracle  ;  its  substance  quite  different  from  that  of  porta- 
 ble fire  preceding  armies  ;  and  its  conductor  something 
 more  than  a  mere  man. 
 
 The  first  mention  that  is  made  of  this  phenomenon  is  in 
 the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Exodus,  where  Moses,  describ- 
 ing the  route  which  the  Israelites  pursued,  tells  us  that ' 
 '  they  took  their  journey  from  Succoth,  and  encamped 
 at  Etham,  at  the  edge  of  the  wilderness,  and  the  Lord 
 went  before  them,  by  day,  in  a  pillar  of  a  cloud,  and,  by 
 night,  in  a  pillar  of  fire  :'  and  what  we  are  to  understand 
 by  '  the  Lord,  that  went  before  them,'  we  are  advertised 
 in  another  place  ;  2  '  Behold  I  send  my  angel  before 
 thee,  to  keep  thee  in  the  way,  and  to  bring  thee  into  the 
 place  which  I  have  prepared.  Beware  of  him,  and  obey 
 his  voice  ;  provoke  him  not,  for  he  will  not  pardon  thy 
 transgression,  for  my  name  is  in  him,'  that  is,  my  name 
 Jehovah,  which  is  the  proper  and  incommunicable  title 
 of  God.  Another  place  wherein  we  find  this  pillar  of 
 a  cloud  mentioned,  is  in  the  14th  chapter  ;  3  and  '  the 
 angel  of  God,  which  went  before  the  camp  of  Israel, 
 removed,  and  went  behind  them,  and  the  pillar  of  the 
 cloud  went  from  before  their  face,  and  stood  behind 
 them,  and  it  came  between  the  camp  of  the  Egyptians, 
 and  the  camp  of  Israel,  and  it  was  a  cloud  and  darkness 
 to  them,  but  it  gave  light  to  these.'  There  is,  in  the 
 same  book,  another  place  where  this  pillar  is  taken  notice 
 of,  and  that  is  in  the  33d  chapter,  where  God  being 
 highly  offended  at  the  people's  impiety  in  making  the 
 golden  calf,  refuses  to  conduct  them  any  longer  himself 
 and  proposes  to  depute  an  angel  to  supply  his  place  : 
 * '  When  the  people  heard  these  evil  tidings,  they  mourn- 
 ed ; — and  it  came  to  pass,  as  Moses  entered  into  the 
 tabernacle,  the  cloudy  pillar  descended  and  stood  at  the 
 door  of  the  tabernacle,  and  the  Lord  talked  with  Moses. 
 All  the  people  saw  the  cloudy  pillar  at  the  tabernacle 
 door,  and  they  rose  up,  and  worshipped,  every  man 
 at  his  tent  door.  We  have  occasion  to  mention  but 
 one  place  more,  and  that  is  in  the  10th  chapter  of  Num- 
 bers, where  the  people  murmured  for  the  loss  of  Korah 
 and  his  company  :  5  '  And  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  the 
 congregation  was  gathered  against  Moses,  and  against 
 Aaron,  they  looked  towards  the  tabernacle  of  the  con- 
 
 1  Exod.  xiii.  20,  21.  *  Exod.  xxiii.  20,  21. 
 
 "  Ver.  19,  20.       4  Chap,  xxxiii.  -1,  &c      5  Num.  xvi.  42,  &c. 
 
 gregation,  and  behold  the  cloud  covered  it,  .and  the 
 glory  of  the  Lord  appeared,  and  Moses  and  Aaron  came 
 before  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation,  and  the  Lord 
 spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Get  you  up  from  among  this 
 congregation,  that  I  may  consume  them,  as  in  a  moment, 
 and  they  fell  upon  their  faces ;  and  Moses  said  unto 
 Aaron,  Take  a  censer,  and  put  fire  therein  from  oft*  the 
 altar,  and  put  on  incense,  and  go  quickly  into  the  con- 
 gregation, and  make  an  atonement  for  them,  for  there  is 
 wrath  gone  out  from  the  Lord,  the  plague  is  begun.' 
 Now,  from  a  bare  recital  of  these  passages,  we  cannot 
 but  observe,  that  the  Israelites'  pillar  made  quite  another 
 appearance  than  any  combustible  matter,  when  set  on 
 fire,  and  carried  upon  a  pole,  can  be  supposed  to  do ; 
 that  in  this  pillar  resided  a  person  of  divine  character 
 and  perfections,  and  therefore  called  '  the  Lord,  the 
 angel,  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  and  the  angel  of  his  pres- 
 ence,' &c. ;  that  this  person  was  invested  with  a  power 
 of  demanding  homage  and  observance,  of  both  punishing 
 and  pardoning  transgressions,  and  to  whom  even  Moses 
 and  Aaron,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  congregation, 
 might  fall  down  on  their  faces,  and  pay  obeisance,  with- 
 out the  imputation  of  idolatry.  The  whole  tenor  of  the 
 narration,  in  short,  seems  to  denote,  that  every  one  in 
 the  congregation  looked  upon  the  pillar  as  something 
 awful  and  tremendous,  and  the  person  residing  therein 
 above  the  rank  and  dignity  of  any  created  essence  :  and 
 therefore,  the  most  general  opinion  is,  that  he  to  whom 
 these  divine  appellation",  divine  powers,  and  divine 
 honours  are  ascribed,  was  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  with 
 a  troop  of  blessed  angels  attending  him  in  bright  and 
 luminous  forms  ;  and  who,  either  by  the  display  or  con- 
 traction of  their  forms,  could  make  the  cloud  they 
 inhabited  either  condense  or  expand  itself,  either  put  on 
 a  dark  or  radiant  appearance,  according  as  the  great 
 Captain  of  their  host  signified  his  pleasure.  For  to 
 suppose  that  mere  lire,  without  any  supernatural  direc- 
 tion, could  appear  in  different  forms  at  the  same  time, 
 with  darkness  to  one  sort  of  people,  and  light  to  another, 
 is  a  thing  incongruous  to  its  nature. 
 
 For  how  many  purposes  this  miraculous  pillar  might 
 serve  the  Israelites,  it  would  be  presumption  to  deter- 
 mine ;  but  this  we  may  say  with  safety, — That  besides 
 its  guiding  them  in  their  journey,  6it  was  of  use  to 
 defend  them  from  their  enemies,  that  they  might  not 
 assault  them  ;  of  use  to  cover  them  from  the  heat  of  the 
 sun  in  the  wilderness,  where  there  were  few  trees,  and 
 no  houses  to  shelter  them  ;  and  of  use  to  convey  the 
 divine  will,  and  to  be,  as  it  were,  a  standing  oracle 
 whereunto  they  might  resort  upon  all  occasions.  In 
 this  cloud,  we  are  told  expressly,  that  7  the  Lord  ap- 
 peared from  the  tabernacle  ;  from  this  cloud,  that  8  he 
 called  Aaron  and  Miriam  to  come  before  him ;  and  out 
 of  this  cloud  again,  that  he  sent  forth  the  expresses  of 
 his  wrath,  as  well  as  the  tokens  of  his  love,  among  the 
 whole  congregation  :  and  therefore  this  cloud  could, 
 at  that  time,  be  nothing  else  but  the  vehicle  of  God,  as 
 we  may  call  it,  or  the  place  of  his  majestic  appearance. 
 Nor  is  the  conjecture  improbable,  that  from  this  very 
 instance  the  poets  first  took  the  hint  of  making  their 
 gods  descend  in  a  cloud,  and  arrayed  with  a  bright 
 efiulgency. 
 
 6  Patrick's  Commentary.        7  Deut.  xxxi.  15.       8  Num.  xii.  5. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 279 
 
 A.  M.  2.)13.  A.  C.  1491 ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1G48.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii— xxxiv.  24. 
 
 his  3  '  sending  down  manna  upon  them,  and  giving  them 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  the  Jews  were 
 persuaded  of  the  divinity  of  their  guide  ;  otherwise  they 
 would  not  have  expressed  such  undissembled  sorrow  and 
 concern  upon  hearing  the  news  of  his  intention  to  leave 
 them  :  nor  could  Moses,  with  all  his  authority,  have 
 ever  prevailed  with  them  to  wander  so  long  in  the  wil- 
 derness, exposed  to  so  many  dangers  and  hardships, 
 had  they  been  satisfied  that  it  was  no  more  than  a  man, 
 with  some  tire,  elevated  upon  a  pole,  that  was  their  con- 
 ductor. It  may  be  allowed,  indeed,  that  a  multitude  of 
 such  fiery  machines  might  be  of  service  to  an  army  in  a 
 march ;  but  the  thing  is  utterly  inconceivable,  how  a 
 company  of  six  hundred  thousand  men,  besides  women 
 and  children,  and  no  small  number  of  associates, 
 together  with  all  their  cattle,  could  receive  any  great 
 benefit  from  only  one  of  these,  which,  at  a  moderate 
 distance,  would  diminish  into  a  small  light,  and  at  a 
 larger  be  quite  lost ;  or  every  moment  was  in  danger  of 
 being  blown  aside  by  the  wind,  or  extinguished  by  the 
 rain. 
 
 The  Scriptures  everywhere  represent  the  Israelites 
 going  out  of  Egypt  with  a  high  hand,  marching  in  a 
 regular  order,  and  1  '  covered  by  God,  in  the  day,  with  a 
 cloud,  and  led,  all  the  night  through,  with  a  light  of  fire ;' 
 but  a  sufficient  company  of  link  boys,  placed  in  a  regular 
 order  to  illuminate  each  column  as  they  moved,  would 
 have  certainly  been  of  more  use,  and  made  a  much 
 better  appearance,  than  this  pretended  mixture  of  smoke 
 and  flame,  smothering  from  an  iron  pot,  at  the  end  of  a 
 long  pole.  For  from  my  heart  1  cannot  conceive  what 
 manner  of  comparison  there  can  be  between  the  dark, 
 fuliginous  smoke  arising  from  a  culinary  fire,  and  the 
 glorious,  heavenly,  and  bright  appearance  of  2  '  that 
 burning  pillar  of  fire,  which,'  as  the  author  of  the  book 
 of  Wisdom  expresses  it,  '  was  both  a  guide  of  their 
 unknown  journey,  and  an  harmless  sun  to  entertain  them 
 honourably.' 
 
 The  Scripture  indeed  assigns  but  one  reason  for  God's 
 conducting  the  Israelites  by  the  way  of  the  wilderness, 
 which  was  so  much  about,  to  the  land  of  Canaan,  and 
 that  is, — An  apprehension  that  the  Philistines,  through 
 whose  country  they  were  to  go,  being  a  bold  and  warlike 
 people,  would,  in  all  probability,  have  disputed  the 
 passage  with  them,  which  the  others,  destitute  of  arms 
 as  they  were,  and  having  their  spirits  broken  with  a  long 
 servitude,  were  in  no  condition  to  make  good  :  but  as 
 the  almighty  power  of  their  conductor  was  sufficient  to 
 make  them  superior  to  all  such  obstacles,  Ave  may  well 
 suppose,  that  a  farther  end  which  the  divine  Providence 
 might  have  herein,  was  to  manifest  his  glory  and  good- 
 ness by  his  constant  attendance  upon  them  in  this 
 luminous  appearance,  and  by  the  many  wonderful  works 
 which  he  did  to  oblige  them  to  his  service. 
 
 According  to  the  course  of  the  country,  Moses  might 
 have  marched  the  people  a  much  shorter  way  ;  but  then, 
 we  had  heard  nothing  of  the  '  angel  of  God's  presence' 
 visibly  preceding  them  ;  nothing  of  his  dividing  the  sea 
 to  facilitate  their  passage  ;  nothing  of  his  overwhelming 
 their  enemies  in  those  very  floods,  which  to  them  were 
 a  kind  of  wall  on  each  side  ;  nothing  of  his  drawing 
 out  rivers  of  water  from   the    stony  rock;    nothing  of 
 
 food  from  heaven  :'  nothing  of  his  '  raining  flesh,  u  thick 
 as  dust,  and  feathered  fowls,  like  as  the  sand  of  the  sea  ;' 
 nothing  of  his  amazing  descent  upon  Mount  Sinai,  when, 
 in  the  lofty   words   of  the   Psalmist,   *  '  he    bowed  the 
 heavens  and  came  down,  and  it  was  dark  under  his  feel  ; 
 he  rode  upon  the  cherubim,  and  did  fly  ;  he  came  flying 
 upon  the  wings  of  the  wind  ;  he  made  darkness  his  secret 
 place,  his  pavilion  round  about  him  with  dark  water,  ami 
 thick  clouds  to  cover  him  ;  there  went  a  smoke  out  of  his 
 presence,  hail-stones,  and  coals  of  lire,  so  that  the  earth 
 trembled  and  quaked,  the  very  foundations  also  of  the 
 hills   shook,  and  were    removed.'     The  wilderness,  in 
 short,  was  the  scene  which  God  had  made  choice  of  for 
 the  display  of  his  almighty  power  and  goodness :  there 
 it  was,  that  he  '  laid  bare  his  arm,'  as  he  calls  it,  to  the 
 Israelites  ;  that  every  day  he  took  care  of  their  meat 
 and  drink,  and  indeficiency  of  their  clothing ;  and  had 
 he  not  detained  them  there  so  long,  he  had  not  been  so 
 kind.     It  may  be    considered  farther,  that  before  this 
 people  were  to  be  admitted  into  the  possession  of  the 
 inheritance  which  God  had  promised  them,  all  matters 
 were  to  be  adjusted  between  him  and  them  ;  and  to  this 
 purpose  laws  were  to  be  given,  ordinances  instituted, 
 and  covenants  sealed ;  but  a  work  of  this   importance 
 could  nowhere  be  so  commodiously  transacted  as  in  the 
 retirement  of  the  wilderness.     Here  it  was  that  God,  in 
 the  bush,  talking  with  Moses,  gave  it  as  a  token  of  his 
 promise,  that  the  people  after  their  deliverance  should 
 come  to  Mount  Horeb,  and  '  there  worship  him  ;  and  lit 
 it  was,  that  such  an  engagement  on  God's  part  should 
 now  receive  its  accomplishment.     And  since  it  was  no 
 more  than  requisite,  that   a  nation   designed  for  such 
 peculiar  favours  from  God,  should  be  held  some  time  in 
 a  state  of  probation,  before  they   were  admitted  to   it, 
 and  until  the  people,  whom  they  were  appointed  to  reject, 
 had  filled  up  the  measure  of  their  iniquity,  and  were  ripe 
 for  extirpation;  therefore  it  is,  that  Moses  calls  upon 
 them  s  '  to  remember  all  the  way,  which  the  Lord  their 
 God  led  them,  for  these  forty  years,  in  the  wilderness, 
 to  humble  them,  and  to  prove  them,  and  to  know   what 
 was  in  their  hearts,  whether  they  would  keep  his  com- 
 mandments or  no.' 
 
 These  commandments,  it  must  be  owned,  were  deli- 
 vered to  the  Israelites  with  all  the  ensigns  of  horror, 
 which  the  Psalmist,  so  lately  quoted, has  described  ;  but 
 that  there  is  no  ground  to  suspect  any  deceit  i"  this 
 wonderful  occurrence,  is  manifest  from  Moses'  dealing 
 so  openly  with  the  people  in  this  matter,  and  suffering 
 them  to  go  up  into  the  mountain,  after  the  Lord  had 
 departed  from  it.  7  '  When  the  trumpet  sonndeth  long, 
 they  shall  come  up  to  the  mount.'  This  is  the  signal 
 which  God  himself  gives  them  ;  whereas,  had  there  been 
 any  fallacy  in  the  phenomenon,  Moses  would  have 
 debarred  them  from  going  up  for  ever.  And  therefore, 
 as  we  need  not  doubt  but  that  several  upon  this  signal 
 went  up,  we  cannot  but  think,  that  the  cheat  would  hare 
 soon  been  discovered,  had  there  been  any  marks  of  a 
 natural  eruption  of  fire  discernible  upon  the  top  of  the 
 mountain. 
 
 Those  who  give  u.^  an  account  of  volcanos,  or  burning 
 
 1  Ps.  lxxviii.  14.  and  cv.  39. 
 
 *  Wisil.  xviii.  3. 
 
 3  Ps.  lxxviii.  2J,  &r. 
 6  Deut. 
 
 *  Ps.  xviii.  9,  &c. 
 2.  "  Exod.  xix. 
 
 I'.xud. 
 
 12. 
 
 IS. 
 
280 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  JG48.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii-xxxiv.  24. 
 
 mountains,  do  all  agree  in  this,  as  the  nature  of  the  thing 
 indeed  seems  to  require  it,  1  that  on  their  tops  they  have 
 always  an  open  mouth,  which  the  ancients  called  crater, 
 through  which  they  belch  out  their  flames  ;  and  that  after 
 the  fire  is  expended,  it  will  still  appear  in  the  form  of  a 
 monstrous  gap,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  And 
 therefore,  since  all  travellers,  both  ancient  and  modern, 
 who  have  taken  an  accurate  survey  a  of  the  Mount  Sinai, 
 could  never  discern  the  least  appearance  of  any  such 
 gap,  bvit,  on  the  contrary,  a  continued  surface,  whereon 
 there  stands  at  present  a  little  chapel  of  St  Catherine  ; 
 all  this  supposed  contrivance  of  Moses,  to  make  a 
 natural  volcano  pass  upon  the  people  for  the  majestic 
 presence  of  God  upon  the  sacred  mount,  can  be  deemed 
 no  other  than  a  crude,  nonsensical  fiction,  wherein  the 
 lovers  of  infidelity  are  found  to  show  their  ignorance,  as 
 well  as  their  malice,  when  they  pretend  to  tax  this  rela- 
 tion of  Moses,  representing  God's  appearance  in  a  flame 
 of  fire,  in  thunder,  and  lightning,  &c,  with  any  incon- 
 gruity, or  invent  any  groundless  stories  to  account  for 
 it ;  since  nothing  can  be  more  agreeable  to  the  ancient 
 divinity,  or  common  notions  of  the  heathen  world,  *than 
 that  the  apparition  of  their  gods,  whenever  they  descend 
 
 1  Nicholls'  Conference,  part  2.  p.  279. 
 a  The  mountains  of  Sinai  and  Horeb  are  promiscuously  used 
 by  the  sacred  historian,  by  reason  of  their  contiguity ;  and  yet  it 
 is  certain,  that  they  are  two  different  places.  Sinai,  which  the 
 Arabians  at  this  day  call  Tor,  or  the  Mountain,  by  way  of  emi- 
 nence, or  otherwise,  Gibel  Mousa,  the  Mount  of  Moses,  stands 
 in  a  kind  of  peninsula,  formed  by  two  arms  of  the  Red  Sea, 
 one  of  which  stretches  out  towards  the  north,  and  is  called  the 
 Gulf  of  Kolsom ;  the  other  towards  the  east,  and  is  called  the 
 Gulf  of  Elan,  or  the  Elanitish  Sea.  Sinai  is  at  least  one-third 
 part  higher  than  Horeb,  and  of  a  much  more  difficult  ascent; 
 whose  top  terminates  in  an  uneven  and  rugged  space,  capable  of 
 containing  about  sixty  persons.  Here,  as  we  said,  is  built  the 
 little  chapel  of  St  Catherine,  where  it  is  thought  that  the  body  of 
 this  saint  rested  for  330  years,  but  was  afterwards  removed  to 
 the  church  which  is  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  Not  far  from 
 this  chapel  issues  out  a  fountain  of  good  fresh  water,  which  is 
 looked  upon  as  miraculous,  because  it  is  not  conceivable  how  water 
 can  rise  from  the  brow  of  so  high  a  mountain.  Horeb  is  to  the 
 west  of  Sinai,  so  that  at  sunrising  the  shadow  of  Sinai  entirely 
 covers  Horeb.  At  the  foot  of  this  mount  there  is  a  fountain,  which 
 supplies  water  to  the  monastery  of  St  Catherine,  and  about  five 
 or  six  paces  from  it,  they  show  us  a  stone,  about  four  or  five  feet 
 high,  and  three  broad,  which,  as  they  tell  us,  is  the  very  same 
 from  whence  Moses  caused  the  waters  to  gush  out.  It  is  of  a 
 spotted  grey  colour,  stands  by  itself,  as  it  were,  and  where  no 
 other  rock  appeals,  and  has  twelve  holes  about  a  foot  wide,  from 
 whence  it  is  thought  that  the  water  came  forth  which  the  Israelites 
 did  drink. — Calmrt's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Sinai. 
 
 b  That  fire  and  lightning  should  attend  the  presence  of  God, 
 is  a  notion  so  frequent  in  the  most  ancient  and  oriental  theology, 
 that  it  might  possibly  give  occasion  to  the  worship  of  fire  among 
 the  Chaldeans  and  Persians;  to  the  Magi,  among  the  Cappado- 
 cians  called  Purrethi,  which  Strabo  mentions,  and  to  the  vestal 
 fires  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  as  well  as  ancient  Britons. 
 "  V,  hen  yen  l»  hold  the  formless  sacred  flame  boundingly  gleam- 
 ing from  earth's  black  abysses,  then  hark  to  the  voice  of  Fire," 
 say  the  Chaldaic  oracles:  and  as  for  earthquakes,  or  shaking  of 
 mountains,  this  is  no  more  than  what  all  nations  suppose  have 
 ever  come  to  pass,  upon  God's  manifesting  himself  at  any  time; 
 for  it  is  not  only  the  Psalmist  who  tells  us,  that  '  the  earth  shook, 
 and  the  heaven  dropped  at  the  presence  of  God;'  but  in  the 
 description  which  Virgil  gives  us  of  the  approach  of  Phoebus,  he 
 does  in  a  manner  translate  the  words  of  Moses,—"  All  things 
 seemed  on  a  sudden  to  quake,  even  the  halls  and  laurel  trees  of 
 the  god ;  the  whole  mountain  around  was  trembling,  and  the 
 tripos  groaned  in  the  inner  recesses  of  the  temple." — See 
 Nicholls'  Conference,  part  2. 
 
 upon  the  earth,  is  usually  attended  with  such  like  harb 
 ingers. 
 
 Sundry  lawgivers,  no  doubt,  have  pretended  to  a  fami- 
 liarity with  their  respective  deities,  as  well  as  Moses  did 
 with  the  God  of  Israel ;  but,  besides  the  attestation  of 
 miracles  in  his  favour,  which  none  of  them  laid  any  claim 
 to,  we  may  venture  to  put  his  character  upon  this  issue, 
 namely,  the  excellency  of  his  laws,  above  what  Athens, 
 or  Lacedemon,  or  even  Rome  itself  ever  had  to  produce. 
 For  what  a  complete  system  of  all  religious  and  social 
 virtues  do  the  ten  commandments,  delivered  on  the 
 Mount,  contain,  taking  them,  as  we  ought  to  do,  in  their 
 positive  as  Avell  as  negative  sense.  In  the  second  of 
 these,  indeed,  there  is  a  passage,  of  '  God's  visiting  the 
 sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,'  which  seems  to 
 bear  a  little  hard  upon  his  mercy  and  justice  ;  but  this  is 
 entirely  owing  to  the  mistake  of  our  translation.  For  if 
 the  preposition  lamed,  and  hal,  which  we  there  render 
 upon,  may,  2  according  to  the  sense  of  some  critics,  be 
 rendered  by,  or  in  favour  of;  then  may  the  words  now 
 under  consideration  be  properly  translated,  "  God's 
 punishing  the  wickedness  of  the  father,  by  or  in  favour 
 of  the  children."  In  the  former  of  these  senses,3 
 David's  murder  and  adultery  was  justly  punished  by  his 
 favourite,  but  wicked  son  Absalom  ;  and  in  the  latter, 
 the  meaning  will  be,  that  God  frequently  inflicts  remark- 
 able judgments  upon  a  wicked  father,  in  order  to  deter 
 his  children,  even  to  the  third  and  fourth  generations, 
 from  the  like  provocations. 
 
 What  more  just,  as  well  as  merciful  constitution  could 
 there  be  devised,  than  to  ordain  cities  of  refuge  for  the 
 innocent  manslayer  to  fly  to,  thereby  to  avoid  the  rage 
 and  ungovernable  fury  of  the  dead  man's  relations,  who, 
 according  to  the  custom  of  those  times,  were  wont  imme- 
 diately to  revenge  their  kindred's  death,  and  thereby  to 
 gain  time  to  prepare  a  plea  in  his  own  vindication ; 
 which,  if  it  was  found  insufficient,  and  the  man  adjudged 
 guilty  of  wilful  murder,  could  not,  according  to  the  tenor 
 of  the  same  law,  secure  him  from  being  dragged  even 
 4  '  from  the  horns  of  the  altar  ?' 
 
 '  An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,'  may 
 seem  to  us,  who  live  under  a  milder  dispensation,  a  rigid 
 and  severe  decree  ;  but  then  we  may  observe,  that  it  was 
 no  more  than  what  was  thought  reasonable  in  other 
 nations,  and  obtained  a  place  among  the  c  celebrated 
 Roman  laws  of  the  twelve  tables.  It  was  in  some  measure 
 necessary  to  restrain  quarrelsome  and  unruly  tempers 
 from  violence  ;  and  in  case  that  death  did  not  ensue,  the 
 law  was  always  mitigated,  and  the  talio  commuted  for  a 
 pecuniary  mulct. 
 
 Several  of  the  Jewish  laws,  which  to  us  may  seem 
 frivolous,  had  a  valid  reason  for  their  institution  at  first, 
 if  it  were  but  to  discriminate  them  from  other  nations, 
 and  to  guard  them  against  the  common  infection  of  idol- 
 atry. The  wearing  of  linsey-woolsey  was  probably  a 
 proud,  fantastical  fashion  of  the  heathens  at  that  time, 
 which  the  Jews  were  forbid  to  imitate.  An  ox  and  an 
 ass  were  not  to  be  coupled  together  in  the  same  carriage, 
 
 2  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 J  2  Sam.  xi.  and  some  following  chapters.        *  Exod.  xxi.  14. 
 c  Aulus  Gellius  sets  down  this  law  of  the  twelve  tables  in  this 
 manner: — "  Whoever  breaketh  a  member  of  the  body,  uidess  he 
 come  to  terms  with  the  injured,  let  him  suffer  the  same  punish- 
 ment." 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 281 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3703 
 
 with  this  merciful  intent,  th.it  one  beast  of  greater 
 strength  might  not  strain  a  poor  creature  of  less  beyond 
 its  ability  ;  and  as  sowing  the  ground  with  mixed  seeds, 
 in  some  men's  opinion,  is  an  effectual  way  to  wear  it  out, 
 it  was  therefore  a  practice  prohibited,  in  commiseration, 
 if  I  may  so  say,  to  our  mother  earth,  as  well  as  to  set 
 bounds  to  the  husbandman's  covetousness ;  though,  as 
 others  imagine,  these  three  injunctions,  as  they  stand 
 altogether  in  the  same  place,  might  perhaps  have  some- 
 thing emblematical  in  them,  besides  the  precept,  to  make 
 men  have  a  greater  abhorrence  of  all  venereal  mixtures, 
 contrary  to  nature. 
 
 It  is  an  injunction  which  God  often  inculcates  to  his 
 people  the  Jews, '  '  After  the  doing  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
 wherein  ye  dwelt,  ye  shall  not  do  :  and  after  the  doing 
 of  the  land  of  Canaan,  whither  1  bring  you,  ye  shall  not 
 do :  I  am  the  Lord  your  God,  ye  shall  therefore  keep 
 my  statutes  and  my  judgments  ;'  which  words  seem  to 
 imply,  not  only  that  the  idolatrous  rites  of  the  Gentiles 
 were  forbidden,  but  that  those  of  God's  appointment 
 were  made  in  direct  opposition  to  them ;  and  to  this 
 purpose  we  find  2  the  Roman  historian  representing  the 
 Jews  as  a  people  whose  religious  rites  were  so  contrary 
 to  all  the  world  besides,  that  what  in  others  was  most 
 sacred,  they  accounted  profane,  and  allowed  as  lawful 
 what  other  nations  were  wont  to  abominate. 
 
 Now,  if  the  Mosaic  laws  and  ceremonies  were  given  to 
 the  Jews,  as  barriers  against  idolatry,  and  formally 
 repugnant  to  the  customs  of  the  heathens,  we  may 
 appeal  to  any  sober  and  considerate  man,  whether  it  be 
 consistent  with  good  sense,  or  congruous  to  truth  and 
 reason,  that  God  should  make  laws  exactly  contrary  to 
 the  Egyptians  and  other  pagan  nations,  showing  thereby, 
 that  he  hated  the  very  semblance  of  their  rites,  and  yet 
 at  the  same  time  take  the  rise  of  his  institutions  from  the 
 customs  and  practice  of  these  pagans  :  nay,  whether  it 
 gives  us  not  such  an  idea  of  God,  as  reverence  to  his 
 tremendous  majesty  will  not  suffer  me  to  name,  3  to 
 represent  him  making  up  all  the  vain,  ludicrous,  super- 
 stitious, impious,  impure,  idolatrous,  magical,  and  diabo- 
 lical customs,  which  had  been  first  invented,  and  after- 
 wards practised  by  the  most  barbarous  nations,  and 
 out  of  these  patching  up  a  gre.it  part  of  the  religion 
 which  he  appointed  his  own  people. 
 
 It  cannot  well  otherwise  be,  but  that,  in  matters  of 
 tradition,  which  have  equally  descended  among  all  nations 
 perhaps  from  Noah,  a  man  of  some  learning  and  fancy 
 may  form  a  similitude  between  the  religious  rites  and 
 usages  of  one  people  with  another  ;  but  it  would  really 
 rack  ones  invention  to  find  out  the  great  agreement 
 between  the  Jewish  high  priest  and  the  Egyptian  chief 
 justice  ;  since  the  Urim  and  Thuiumim  "■  of  the  one  was  ;i 
 piece  of  cloth,  about  a  span  square,  beset  with  jewels, 
 but  the  Alathea,  as  they  call  it,  of  the  other,  was  a 
 golden  medal,  representing  the  figure  of  a  bird  ;  since 
 
 i  Lev.  xviii.  3,  4.  *  Tacitus,  b.  viii.  e.  4. 
 
 3  Edwards'  Survey  of  Religion,  vol.  1. 
 a  Exod.  xxviii.  30.  '  The  Urim  and  the  Thummim.'  There 
 Was  a  remarkable  imitation  of  this  sacred  ornament  among  the 
 Egyptians;  for  we  learn  from  Diodorus,  (I).  1.  p.  fi8.  ed.  II hod.) 
 and  from  /Elian,  {Far.  Hist.  b.  14.  c.  34.)  that  "  their  chief 
 priest,  who  was  also  their  supreme  judge  in  civil  matters,  wore 
 About  his  jieck,  by  a  golden  chain,  an  ornament  of  precious 
 stones  called  truth,  and  that  a  cause  was  not  opened  till  the 
 supreme  judge  had  put  on  this  ornament." — Ed. 
 
 C.  1GIS.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii-xxxiv.  24. 
 the  robe  of  the  one  was  made  of  scarlet,  blue,  and 
 purple  woollen  cloth,  only  embroidered  with  wreaths  of 
 fine  linen;  but  the  garment  of  the  other  was  made  of 
 linen  only,  because  it  was  unlawful,4  as  Herodotus  tells 
 us,  for  the  Egyptian  magistrates  to  wear  any  thing  else. 
 When  the  tables  of  the  covenant  were  delivered  to 
 Moses,  it  seems  no  more  than  requisite,  that  souk;  care 
 
 should  be  taken  of  them  :  and  if  so,  what  could  ho  a  i •<■ 
 
 apposite  contrivance  for  that  purpose  than  a  chest  ? 
 Moses,  even  by  his  enemies,  is  reputed  a  very  cunning 
 man  ;  but  they  certainly  mean  it  as  a  compliment,  and 
 not  his  due,  if  they  think  him  not  capable  of  so  small  a 
 contrivance  as  this,  without  copying  from  the  Egyptian 
 cista,  wherein  the  priests  were  wont  to  lock  up  their 
 religious  trinkets  from  the  eyes  of  the  vulgar;  and  as 
 for  the  cherubim  which  overshadowed  this  ark,  there 
 certainly  seems  nothing  analogous,  but  rather  a  parti- 
 cular opposition  in  these  to  the  Egyptian  idolatry. 
 For,  whereas  their  temples  were  generally  filled  with 
 the  images  of  monkeys,  calves,  and  serpents,  the  repre- 
 sentations of  real  animals,  which,  according  to  the 
 natural  deism  of  those  times,  they  fancied  to  be  parts 
 and  exhibitions  of  the  Deity  ;  Moses  here  *  orders  figures 
 to  be  made,  which  had  little  or  no  resemblance  of  any 
 thing  in  the  world,  and  were  expressive  of  the  angelical 
 nature  only,  which  every  one  knew  was  subordinate  to 
 God's.  So  little  cong-ruity  is  there  to  be  found  between 
 the  Egyptian  and  Jewish  laws  and  ceremonies,  '-'  less 
 
 4  B.  2.  c.  37. 
 b  What  the  particular  figure  of  these  cherubim  was,  it  is  hard 
 to  imagine  at  this  distance.  Grotius,  indeed,  and  some  others, 
 have  ingeniously  conjectured,  from  the  creatures  seen  by  Ezekit  I 
 in  his  vision,  c.  i.  5.  and  x.  15.,  which  he  calls  cherubim,  that 
 they  had  the  lace  of  a  man,  the  wings  of  an  eagle,  the  mane  of  a 
 lion,  the  feet  of  an  ox;  and  by  this  they  will  have  the  dispensa- 
 tions of  divine  providence,  by  the  ministry  of  angels,  symbolically 
 represented;  the  lion  exhibiting  the  severity  of  Ins  justice;  the 
 eagle  the  celerity  of  his  bounty;  the  man  his  goodnes-.  ami 
 mercy;  the  ox  the  slowness  of  his  punishment;  which  comes,  as 
 the  Greek  proverb  says,  fioilu  t«$<,  with  an  ox's  foot. — Nichollt' 
 Conference,  part  2. 
 
 c  To  this  purpose,  we  are  informed,  that  the  brahmins,  the 
 Indian  priests,  wear  bells  about  them  like  the  Jewish  high  priest, 
 were  alone  allowed  to  go  into  the  inward  part  of  the  temple,  and 
 were  like  him  obliged  to  marry  virgins.  Slaves  then'  have  their 
 ears  bored  through;  a  perpetual  light  is  kept  in  their templi  s,  and 
 cakes  are  set  before  their  idols  like  shewbrcad.  Nay.  even  the 
 barbarous  Tartars  have  many  things  not  unlike  the  Jews;  for  they 
 celebrate  their  new  moons  with  songs  and  computations;  they 
 bewail  their  dead  thirty  days;  they  breed  no  hogs,  and  puuisb 
 adultery  with  death.  The  like  may  be  Baid  of  (he  people  of 
 the  new  world.  Those  of  Jucatan  are  circumcised;  thine  of 
 Mexico  keep  a  perpetual  fire  in  the  temples;  and  the  Charibeane 
 celebrate  the  new  moon  with  the  sound  of  a  trumpet,  and  abstain 
 from  swine's  flesh:  and  therefore  if  a  similitude  in  ceremonies  i- 
 admitted  as  a  valid  argument,  we  may  as  well  say  that  the 
 Jews  had  their  laws  and  religious  ordinances  from  any  of  these, 
 as  that  they  had  them  from  the  Egyptians. — NicAolls'  Confer- 
 ence, part  2. 
 
 Exod.  xxviii.  33.  '  Hells."  "  The  bell  seems  to  have  been  a 
 sailed  ulciisil  of  very  ancient  use  in  Asia.  Golden  I"  II-  formed 
 a  part  of  the  ornaments  of  the  pontifical  robe  of  the  Jewish  high 
 priest,  with  which  he  invested  himself  upon  those  grand  and 
 peculiar  festival1-',  when  he  entered  Into  the  sanctuary.  Thai  robe 
 was  very  magnificent,  it  was  ordained  to  be  of  sky  bine,  and  the 
 border  of  it.  at  the  bottom,  was  adorned  with  pomegranates  and 
 gold  bells  intermixed  equally,  and  at  equal  distances.     The  use 
 
 and  intent  of   tlie-e  hells  is  evident  from    these  word-:  — '  And    it 
 
 shall  be  upon  Aaron  to  minister,  and  his  Bound  Bhall  be  1m  aid 
 when  he  goeth  in  unto  the  holy  place  before  the  Lord,  ami  when 
 he  coineth  out,  that  he   die   not.'     The  sound  of  the   numerous 
 
 •2  N 
 
282 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M    2513.   A.  C.  1491;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii— xxxiv.  24. 
 
 perhaps  than  might  be  discovered  in  several  other 
 nations,  were  we  disposed  to  be  prolix  upon  this  sub- 
 ject.    But  let  us  return  to  their  legislator. 
 
 That  God,  who  is  a  pure  spirit,  eternal  and  omni- 
 present, has  neither  body  nor  parts,  nor  any  affections 
 thereunto  belonging,  is  a  proposition  which  our  reason 
 cannot  but  assent  to  ;  and  yet  when  we  set  ourselves  to 
 explain,  as  we  call  it,  the  divine  nature  and  attributes, 
 we  soon  find  ourselves  under  a  necessity  to  borrow 
 expressions  from  corporeal  beings,  the  better  to  accom- 
 modate the  loftiness  of  our  subject  to  our  reader's  com- 
 prehension. For  unless  we  could  contrive  a  perfect  set 
 of  new  words,  there  is  no  speaking  at  all  of  the  Deity 
 without  using  our  old  ones  in  a  tralatitious  sense.  Pro- 
 vidence and  mercy,  for  instance,  are  two  known  attri- 
 butes of  God  ;  but  if  we  respect  their  original  use,  and 
 do  not  take  them  in  a  metaphorical  meaning,  they  are 
 altogether  as  absurd,  when  applied  to  God,  as  are  his 
 eye,  or  hand,  or  back  parts,  in  their  grossest  sense. 
 For  how  improper  is  it,  literally  speaking,  to  say,  that 
 Ood  looks  before  him,  like  men  when  they  act  cautiously ; 
 or  that  he  has  that  relenting  of  heart,  or  yearning  of 
 bowels,  which  merciful  men  feel  at  the  sight  of  a  miser- 
 able object?  The  truth  is,  languages  were  composed  to 
 enable  men  to  maintain  an  intercourse  with  one  another, 
 and  not  to  treat  of  the  nature  of  that  Being  who  dwelleth 
 in  light  that  is  inaccessible.  No  form  of  words,  be  they 
 ever  so  exquisite  and  well  chosen,  can  reach  those  trans- 
 cendent perfections  that  are  unutterable  ;  and  therefore  if 
 we  consider  the  low  capacity  of  the  people  to  whom  the 
 real  poverty  of  the  language,  in  which,  and  the  vast 
 sublimity  of  the  subject,  about  which  Moses  wrote,  we 
 shall  have  less  occasion  to  blame  this  metaphorical  way 
 of  expressing  the  divine  nature,  which  upon  experiment 
 he  certainly  found  the  best  adapted,  both  to  inform  the 
 understanding,  and  animate  the  affections  of  the  people  ; 
 while  a  number  of  dry,  scholastic  and  abstracted  terms, 
 would  have  lain  flat  upon  their  minds,  and  served  only 
 iv>  amuse  and  confound  them. 
 
 Though  therefore  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  there 
 is  indeed  an  impropriety  in  language,  when  corporeal 
 parts  or  actions  are  imputed  to  the  Deity  ;  yet  since  the 
 narrowness  of  the  Hebrew  tongue  would  not  furnish 
 Moses  with  a  sufficiency  of  abstract  terms,  and  the 
 dulness  of  the  people,  had  he  had  a  sufficiency,  would 
 not  have  permitted  him  to  employ  them,  he  was  under 
 a  necessity  of  speaking  according  to  the  common  usage, 
 which  was  secured  from  giving  the  people  any  gross 
 
 lulls  that  covered  the  hem  of  his  garment,  gave  notice  to  the 
 assembled  people  that  the  most  awful  ceremony  of  their  religion 
 had  commenced.  When  arrayed  in  this  garb,  he  bore  into  the 
 sanctuary  the  vessel  of  incense;  it  was  the  signal  to  prostrate 
 themselves  before  the  Deity,  and  to  commence  those  fervent 
 ejaculations  which  were  to  ascend  with  the  column  of  that  incense 
 to  the  throne  of  heaven."  "  One  indispensable  ceremony  in  the 
 Indian  Pooja  is  the  ringing  of  a  small  bell  by  the  officiating 
 brahmin.  The  women  of  the  idol,  or  dancing  girls  of  the  pagoda, 
 have  little  golden  lulls  fastened  to  their  feet,  the  soft  harmonious 
 tinkling  of  which  vibrates  in  unison  with  the  exquisite  melody  of 
 their  voices."  {Maurice's  Indian  Antiquities,  vol.  5.  p.  189.) — 
 ••  The  ancient  lungs  of  Persia,  who,  in  tact,  united  in  their  own 
 nersons  the  regal  and  sacerdotal  office,  were  accustomed  to  have 
 the  fringes  of  their  robes  adorned  with  pomegranates  and  golden 
 hells.  The  Arabian  courtesans,  like  the  Indian  women,  have 
 little  golden  hells  fastened  round  their  legs,  neck,  and  elbows,  to 
 Lie  sound  of  which  they  dance  before  the  king. Ed. 
 
 ideas  of  God,  because  these  phrases  were  always  under- 
 stood to  be  spoken  with  the  feelings  of  a  man  ;  and 
 therefore  l  a  Jewish  rabbin  acquaints  us,  that  whenever 
 they  meet  with  an  expression  concerning  the  Deity,  of 
 this  nature,  they  are  used  to  interpose  a  cabiacal,  or,  if 
 /  may  so  speak. 
 
 Interpreters  indeed  are  at  some  variance  what  we  are 
 to  understand  by  the  hand,  face,  and  hinder  parts  of  God. 
 "  The  face  of  God,"  2  says  an  ingenious  glossary,  "  sig- 
 nifies his  essence,  before  the  beginning  of  the  world,  and 
 his  hinder  parts,  his  creation  and  providence  in  the 
 government  of  the  world  :"  but  3  Maimonides  is  of  opi- 
 nion, that  these  words  may  be  interpreted  according  to 
 the  Targum,  namely,  that  God  made  his  majesty,  that  is, 
 an  exceedingly  bright  representation  of  himself,  though 
 not  in  its  full  glory,  pass  before  Moses,  in  so  much 
 splendour  as  human  nature  could  bear,  which  may  be 
 termed  his  back  parts ;  but  not  in  his  unveiled  bright- 
 ness, which  may  signify  his  face,  and,  as  the  apostle 
 speaks,  is  inaccessible  ;  and  4  the  hand,  wherewith  God 
 covered  him,  while  he  passed  by,  may  probably  denote 
 a  cloud,  which  God  cast  about  him,  that  he  might  not  be 
 struck  dead  by  the  inconceivable  force  and  refulgency 
 of  those  rays,  which  came  from  the  face  or  full  lustre  of 
 the  divine  Majesty. 
 
 In  this  sense  the  ancient  Jews  could  not  but  under- 
 stand their  legislator,  when  they  found  him  conveying 
 sublime  truths  under  outward  and  sensible  representa- 
 tions. For,  to  clear  him  from  all  unjust  imputation,  we 
 need  but  call  to  mind  the  glorious  descriptions  he  gives, 
 almost  everywhere,  but  especially  in  Deuteronomy,  of 
 the  Deity,  and  what  pains  he  takes  to  deter  them  from 
 making  any  representation  of  it,  under  any  form  what- 
 ever, by  reminding  them,  that  when  God  was  pleased  to 
 display  his  glory  upon  Mount  Sinai,  at  the  delivering  of 
 the  ten  commandments,  they  saw  no  shape  or  likeness, 
 but  only  heard  his  dreadful  voice.  5  These  so  frequent 
 inculcations  may  therefore  be  looked  upon  as  so  many 
 intimations  given  them,  in  what  sense  they  were  to 
 understand  all  those  other  expressions  which  he  had  been 
 forced  to  accommodate  to  their  capacity,  that  is,  not  in  a 
 literal,  but  in  such  a  one,  as  was  becoming  the  Deity, 
 and  suitable  to  the  dignity  of  the  subject. 
 
 Moses,  no  doubt,  was  a  good  governor,  and  zealously 
 affected  for  the  welfare  of  his  people  :  but  we  injure  his 
 memory  much,  if  we  think  him  either  so  ignorant  of  a 
 future  state,  or  so  negligent  of  his  own  salvation,  as  to 
 wish  himself  damned,  in  his  deprecation  of  God's  judg- 
 ments, for  their  salvation.  The  case  is  this, — The 
 Israelites,  in  making  a  golden  calf  to  worship,  had 
 highly  offended  God :  God  renounces  all  relation  to 
 them,  and  in  his  displeasure,  threatens  either  to  abandon 
 or  destroy  them  ;  whereupon  Moses  intercedes  for  their 
 pardon,  and  among  other  motives,  makes  use  of  this  :  6 
 '  Oh,  my  God,  this  people  have  sinned  a  great  sin,  and 
 have  made  them  gods  of  gold  ;  yet  now,  if  thou  wilt, 
 forgive  their  sins  ;  and  if  not,  blot  me,  I  pray  thee,  out 
 of  the  book  which  thou  hast  written  :'  7  not  that  God 
 stands  in  need  of  a  book  wherein  to  register  or  recoid 
 
 'Quoted  by  Hottinger  in  his  Dissert.  Theolog.  Philol. 
 
 8  Elias  Cretensis.         3  More  Nevoch.  part  1.  c.  21. 
 
 4  Patrick's  Commentary  on  Exod.  xxxiii. 
 
 *  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7.         6  Exod.  xxxii.  32. 
 
 '  Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 2S3 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491 : 
 
 any  of  his  purposes  :  a  but  the  Scripture  makes  use  of 
 this  form  of  expression,  in  allusion  to  the  custom  of 
 numbering  the  people,  and  setting  down  their  names  in 
 a  scroll  or  register,  1  as  Moses  did  at  their  coming  out 
 of  the  land  of  Egypt.  The  same  method  was  likewise 
 observed  at  the  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity,  as 
 may  be  seen  in  the  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  ;  and 
 those  who  were  enrolled  in  this  book,  are  said  a  '  to  be 
 written  for  life,'  or  '  among  the  living,'  because  every 
 year  they  blotted  out  of  this  catalogue  the  names  of  those 
 that  were  dead. 
 
 According  to  this  construction  of  the  phrase,  and  this 
 is  certainly  the  true  construction,  Moses  can  by  no  means 
 be  supposed  to  wish  his  own  damnation,  which  would 
 look  like  an  enthusiastic  rant,  rather  than  divine  inspir- 
 ation ;  which  would  be  impious  for  him  to  ask,  and 
 unrighteous  for  God  to  do  ;  but  only  that,  "  rather  than 
 live  to  see  the  calamities  which  would  befall  the  people 
 in  case  God  should  either  desert  or  destroy  them,  he 
 desires  to  be  discharged  from  life,  that  so  he  may  escape 
 the  shock  of  so  woeful,  so  terrible  a  spectacle." 
 
 In  a  former  communion  with  God,  wherein  he  threatens 
 either  to  extirpate  or  disinherit  his  people,  he  promises 
 Moses  to  3  '  make  him  a  greater  nation,  and  mightier  than 
 they  ;'  but  instead  of  that,  Moses  here  desires  to  die  with 
 them ;  and,  as  a  learned  father  of  the  church  observes,  4 
 "  there  is  a  great  deal  of  pious  art  and  policy  in  the 
 petition,  or  proposal,  as  we  may  call  it,  which  this  great 
 favourite  and  confident  of  God  offers  to  him.  He  does 
 not  make  it  at  all  adventures,  as  one  less  acquainted  with 
 the  divine  mind  might  do  ;  nor  does  he  make  it  out  of  a 
 slight  and  contempt  of  life,  as  one  whose  circumstances 
 had  brought  him  into  despair  might  do.  He  knew  God's 
 goodness  was  infinite,  as  Avell  as  his  justice  ;  so  that,  in 
 this  alternative,  '  either  be  thou  pleased  to  slay  me  and 
 them  together,  or  to  spare  them  and  me  together,'  he  was 
 sensible  he  should  engage  God's  mercy  to  pardon  the 
 criminals,  whilst,  on  their  behalf,  he  devoted  himself  at 
 the  same  time  to  that  justice  which  cannot  be  supposed 
 capable  of  hurting  the  innocent." 
 
 One  great  commendation  which  we  have  frequently 
 remarked  of  the  author  of  the  Pentateuch,  above  any 
 other  historian,  is,  that  he  consults  truth  more  than  plau- 
 sibility in  his  narrations,  and  conceals  no  material  point, 
 even  though  it  tends  to  the  dishonour  of  the  people  whose 
 actions  he  is  recording.  Josephus  wrote  the  Jewish 
 history  of  these  times  as  well  as  Moses  ;  and  yet,  when 
 
 1  Num.  i.  *  Is.  iv.  3. 
 
 3  Numb.  xiv.  12.  'Paulin.  epist.  21. 
 
 a  To  this  purpose  the  royal  Psalmist,  in  relation  to  his  own 
 formation  in  the  womb,  bespeaks  God,  and  says,  '  Thine  eyes  did 
 see  my  substance,  yet  being  imperfect,  and  in  thy  book  were  all 
 my  members  written,'  as  if  God  kept  a  catalogue  of  the  children 
 that  were  bom,  (Ps.  cxxxix.  16.)  And  again,  speaking  of 
 wicked  men,  he  says,  '  Let  them  be  wiped  out  of  the  book  of 
 the  living,  and  not  be  written  among  the  righteous,  (Ps.  lxix. 
 28.)  Nor  is  this  form  of  speech  to  be  found  only  among  sacred 
 writers,  but  even  Plautus  himself,  having  occasion,  in  one  of  his 
 prologues,  to  take  some  notice  of  the  divine  Providence,  makes 
 use  of  these  words: — "  Those  who  by  false  witnesses  wish  to  gain 
 unjust  pleas,  those  who  in  a  suit  deny  by  oath  money  which  they 
 owe,  have  their  names  inscribed  in  the  rolls  of  Jupiter;  he 
 knoweth  every  day  who  here  ask  for  what  is  unjust.  The  wicked 
 who  wrongfully  entreat  to  gain  their  suit,  who  obtain  false  deci- 
 sions from  the  judge,  he  hath  marked  in  one  tablet, — the  good 
 are  enrolled  in  another." — Le  Clerc's  Comment.  <id  Exod,  c.  32. 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37C3.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii-xxxiv.  24. 
 
 he  comes  to  the  proper  period,  he  quite  conceals  their 
 blind  idolatry  in  worshipping  the  golden  calf,  whereas 
 Moses  relates  it  in  all  its  aggravating  circumstances, 
 and  seems  to  fix,  in  a  manner,  the  whole  odium  of  it  upon 
 his  brother  Aaron.  And  therefore,  to  inform  ourselves 
 how  far  Aaron  was  culpable  in  this  particular,  we  must 
 attend  a  little  to  the  probable  occasion  of  it. 
 
 AYhile  Moses  was  gone  up  into  the  Mount,  he  appointed 
 Aaron  and  Hur  to  be  the  rulers  of  the  people  in  his 
 absence ;  but  as  his  absence  proved  longer  than  was 
 expected,  the  people  began  to  be  uneasy.  They  saw 
 'the  glory  of  the  Lord,  which  was  like  a  devouring  lire 
 on  the  top  of  the  mount,'  and  thereupon  they  concluded 
 that  Moses,  who  tarried  so  long,  was  certainly  destr«i\  ed 
 in  the  flames.  They  saw  too  that  the  '  pillar  of  the 
 cloud,'  which  used  to  conduct  them  in  their  marches  was 
 gone,  and  in  no  likelihood  of  returning  again  ;  and  here- 
 upon having  lost  their  guide,  and  the  visible  token  of 
 God's  presence  among  them,  they  came  unto  Aaron,  and 
 in  a  tumultuous  manner,  demanded  of  him  to  make  them 
 another  representation  of  the  divine  presence,  in  the 
 room  of  what  was  departed  from  them.  5  Up,  say  they, 
 and  make  us  gods,  or  (as  the  Hebrew  text  will  bear  *>,) 
 '  make  us  a  god  which  shall  go  before  us.'  6  Not  that 
 they  were  so  stupid  as  to  imagine,  that  the  true  God 
 could  be  made  by  any  man,  or  that  any  image  could  be 
 a  means  of  conducting  them,  either  forward  into  Canaan, 
 or  back  again  into  Egypt;  but  what  they  wanted,  was 
 some  outward  object  to  supply  the  want  of  the  cloud,  by 
 being  a  type  and  symbol  of  the  Deity,  and  where  they 
 might  depose  the  homage  which  they  intended  to  pay  to 
 the  supreme  God  ;  for  so  some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  have 
 expounded  the  text  of  Moses  :  7 '  They  desired  a  sensi- 
 ble object  of  divine  worship  to  be  set  before  them,  not 
 with  an  intention  to  deny  God,  who  brought  them  out  of 
 Egypt,  but  that  something,  in  the  place  of  God,  might 
 stand  before  them,  when  they  declared  his  wonderful 
 works.' 
 
 The  commandment  against  making  images  had  so 
 lately,  in  so  terrible  a  manner,  been  enjoined  by  God 
 himself,  that  though  some  reason  may  be  given  win  the 
 children  of  Israel  were  so  forward  to  make  the  demand, 
 yet  none  can  be  imagined,  why  Aaron  should  comply 
 with  it,  without  making  any  remonstrance  5  and  yet  \\<- 
 meet  with  no  refusal  recorded  by  Moses.  All  that  we 
 have  in  extenuation  of  Aaron's  fault,  is  from  the  sug- 
 gestion of  the  rabbins,  who  pretend  that  his  compli- 
 ance proceeded  from  his  fear  ;  that  the  people  had  '  mur- 
 dered  Hur  the  other  deputy,  for  opposing  their  desire  ; 
 
 5  Exod.  xxxii.  1.  *  Saurin's  Dissertations. 
 
 7  R.  Jehudah,  in  b.  Cozri,  part  1.  Beet.  97. 
 b  It  has  been  argued  by  some  learned  men,  thai  the  Israelites 
 intended  here  to  fall  entirely  Into  the  Egyptian  religion,  and  that 
 the  Deity  they  made  the  calf  to,  was  some  god  of  the  Eg]  ptians: 
 but  to  me  this  seems  not  to  be  the  fact  In  this  calf  the  Israelites 
 evidently  designed  to  worship  the  < i»«l  who  brought  them  OUl  01 
 the  land  of  Egypt,   and   accordingly  their   feast   was   proclaimed, 
 
 not  to  any  Egyptian  deity,  but  to  the  Lord,  to  Jehovah,  their 
 own  God,  (Exod.  xxxii.  4.)  So  that  their  idolatry  consisted  not 
 in  really  worshipping  R  false  deity,  but  in  making  an  image  of 
 the  true  and  living  God,  which  the  second  commandment  ex- 
 pressly did  Uubid.—Skuckford't  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  11. 
 
 c  What  authority  they  had  for  these  assertions,  1  cannot  say; 
 but  if  what  they  offer  be  true,  this  dues  not  at  all  prove  Aaron 
 to  be  innocent;  because   00  obstinacy   of  the   people   COldi 
 
 forced  him  without  his  own  fault,  and  he  should  have  been  will- 
 
284 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2813.  A.  C.  1401;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALl 
 that  to  discourage  them  from  pursuing  their  design, 
 Aaron  demanded  all  their  golden  ear-rings,  in  hopes 
 that  they  would  not  insist  upon  having  an  idol  which 
 would  cost  them  so  dear  ;  but  that  when  nothing  would 
 avail,  he  took  their  gold,  and  cast  it  into  the  fire,  and, 
 contrary  to  his  intention,  by  some  magical  or  diabolical 
 art,  there  immediately  came  out  a  calf,  which  much 
 increased  the  people's  superstition.  But  this,  and  abun- 
 dance more  of  the  like  nature,  seem  to  be  conceits 
 invented  for  the  excuse  of  Aaron,  who  is  plainly  enough 
 said  to  have  l  '  made  this  molten  calf,'  which  he  could 
 not  have  done,  without  designing  it,  and  running  the 
 gold  into  a  mould  of  that  figure. 
 
 The  word  which  we  here  render  calf,  ?' does,  in  other 
 places  of  Scripture,  signify  an  ox :  and  as  an  ox's  head 
 was,  in  some  countries,  an  emblem  of  strength,  and  the 
 horns  a  common  sign  of  kingly  power  ;  so  3  a  learned 
 prelate,  out  of  a  design  to  apologize  for  Aaron,  is  will- 
 ing to  insinuate,  that  his  design  in  making  an  ox  the 
 symbol  of  the  divine  presence,  was  to  remind  the  Israel- 
 ites of  the  power  of  God,  and  to  express  the  great  tokens 
 which  they  had  seen  of  it,  in  their  wonderful  deliverance. 
 But  how  ingenious  soever  this  hypothesis  may  be,  it 
 wants  this  foundation  for  its  support,  that  this  hierogly- 
 phic of  the  divine  power  was  not  in  use  in  the  time  of 
 Moses  ;  for  if  it  was,  we  cannot  imagine  why  Aaron, 
 when  called  to  an  account  by  his  brother,  should  forget 
 to  plead  it  in  excuse  for  himself;  or  why  God  should  be 
 so  highly  incensed  against  him,  had  his  design  been  only 
 to  exhibit  a  symbol  of  the  divine  power  and  authority  to 
 a  people  of  too  gross  sentiments,  without  such  a  visible 
 representation,  ever  to  comprehend  it. 
 
 Another  learned  prelate  of  our  own,  4  equally  inclined 
 to  excuse  this  action  of  Aaron,  supposes  that  he 
 took  his  pattern  from  part  of  what  he  saw  on  the  holy 
 mount,  when  the  Shechinah  of  God  came  down  upon  it, 
 attended  witli  angels,  some  of  which  were  cherubim,  or 
 angels  appearing  in  the  form  of  oxen  :  but  this  opinion 
 is  inconsistent  with  the  great  care  which  was  taken  on 
 Mount  Sinai,  not  to  furnish  any  pretext  for  idolatry,  and 
 the  caution  which  Moses  gives  the  people  to  that  pur- 
 pose. *  '  Take  ye  therefore  good  heed  to  yourselves,  for 
 ye  saw  no  manner  of  similitude,  on  the  day  that  the 
 Lord  spake  unto  you  in  Horeb,  out  of  the  midst  of  the 
 tire,  lest  ye  corrupt  yourselves,  and  make  you  a  graven 
 image,  the  similitude  of  any  figure,  the  likeness  of  any 
 male  or  female,  the  likeness  of  any  beast  that  is  on  the 
 earth  ;  the  likeness  of  any  winged  fowl  that  ilieth  in  the 
 air  ;  the  likeness  of  any  thing  that  creepeth  on  the 
 ground ;  the  likeness  of  any  fish,'  &c.  where  the  Holy 
 Spirit  enumerates  animals  of  all  kinds,  and  positively 
 assures  us,  that  none  of  their  forms  or  figures  appeared 
 upon  the  mount. 
 
 The  most  common   therefore,  and  indeed  the  most 
 probable  opinion  is,  that   Aaron   made   choice  of  the 
 
 1  Exod.  xxxii.  35.  s  Ps.  cvi.  20. 
 
 J  Patrick  in  his  Commentary  in  locum. 
 4  Tennison  on  Idolatry,  c.  6.  5  Dent.  iv.  15,  &c. 
 
 ing,  and  adventured  to  die,  rather  than,  hy  a  timorous  compli- 
 ance, have  made  himself  partaker  of  their  sins.  "Neither  the 
 instigation  of  citizens  shouting  for  crime,  nor  the  stern  look  of 
 the  oppressive  tyrant,  ran  move  from  his  rooted  determination, 
 the  man  upright  and  resolute  in  his  purpose,"  &e. —  Bur.  Carm. 
 dc  3. 
 
 iS,  A.  M.  37G3.  A.  C.  IG48.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii— xxxiv.  24. 
 
 figure  of  an  ox  or  calf,  in  compliance  to  the  prejudice  of 
 the  people,  and  because  that  creature  was  worshipped 
 in  Egypt.  That  the  Israelites  were  sorely  infected  with 
 the  idolatry  of  the  Egyptians,  we  have  many  plain  proofs 
 6  from  Scripture  to  convince  us,  that  all  sorts  of  animals 
 were  worshipped  by  the  Egyptians,  and  among  the  ter- 
 restrial, more  especially  the  ox,  is  what  '  the  several 
 authors,  who  have  treated  of  the  affairs  of  Egypt,  do 
 abundantly  testify  ;  and  that  the  idolatry  of  animals,  and 
 more  especially  of  the  ox,  was  established  in  Egypt 
 during  the  sojourning  of  the  Israelites  in  that  land,  is 
 more  than  probable  from  these  words  of  Moses  to 
 Pharaoh ;  8  '  If  we  sacrifice  the  abomination  of  the 
 Egyptians  before  their  eyes  ;'  that  is,  if  we  sacrifice  to 
 our  God,  oxen,  sheep,  and  goats,  which  the  Egyptians 
 worship  and  adore,  and  consequently  make  an  abomina- 
 tion to  the  Lord,  '  will  they  not  stone  us  ?  '  So  that  it 
 seems  most  rational  to  suppose,  that  this  image  was 
 made  in  compliance  to  the  giddy  humour  of  the  people, 
 who,  upon  the  supposed  death  of  Moses,  were  probably 
 all  for  turning  back  again,  and  in  imitation  of  the 
 Egyptians,  who  worshipped  their  idol  Apis,  or  Serapis, 
 not  only  in  a  living  ox,  but  in  an  image  made  after  the 
 similitude  of  an  ox,  bethought  themselves  of  the  like 
 representation  of  a  deity  to  go  before  them :  the  only 
 question  is,  whether  the  worship  of  the  Egyptian  Apis 
 was  prior  to  the  formation  of  this  golden  calf?  which 
 happens  to  be  a  point  wherein  9  the  learned  are  not  so 
 well  agreed. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  give  a  full  answer  to 
 several  objections  which  have  been  raised  against  the 
 sacred  historian,  during  the  period  which  is  at  present 
 under  consideration :  and  for  a  further  confirmation 
 hereof,  we  might  now  produce  some  foreign  testimonies 
 and  traditions  concerning  the  truth  and  veracity  of  his 
 narrations.  That  the  miraculous  pillar,  for  instance, 
 which  conducted  the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness,  very 
 probably  gave  rise  to  the  ancient  fables, lu  how  Hercules 
 and  Bacchus,  (who  under  different  shapes,  are  both  sup- 
 posed to  denote  Moses,)  set  up  pillars  in  testimony  of 
 their  travels  and  expeditions  ;  that  the  Israelites'  safe 
 passage  over  the  Red  Sea,  upon  its  being  divided  by 
 the  rod  of  Moses,  and  the  tradition  which  the  people  of 
 Memphis  have  thereupon,  are  related  by  Antipanus,  as 
 he  is  quoted  u  by  Eusebius ;  that  upon  the  return  and 
 conrlux  of  the  waters,  the  armies  which  pursued  them 
 were  swallowed  up  in  the  deep,  is  mentioned  12  by  Dio- 
 dorus,  as  a  current  story  among  the  people  inhabiting 
 the  western  coast  of  the  Red  Sea ;  that  on  this  coast 
 there  are  several  lakes  and  springs  of  a  salt  and  brackish 
 taste,  in  the  manner  that  Moses  has  recorded,  and  no 
 such  thing  found  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  is  testified, 
 u  by  Orosius,  as  well  as  several  ancient  geographers , 
 that  God's  sending  down  manna  for  bread  to  the  Israel- 
 ites, and  great  plenty  of  quails  for  meat,  is  mentioned 
 by  Antipanus,  as  he  is  cited  again  M  by  Eusebius  ;  that, 
 from  Moses'  striking  the  rock  with  his  rod,  the  fable  of 
 
 B  See  Josh.  xxiv.  14.   Ezek.  xx.  7,  S.  and  xxii.  3,  8. 
 
 7  See  Straho,  h.  17.  de  Egyptians  templis,  Herod,  b.  2.  Diod. 
 b.  1.  et  Plutar.  de  Iside  et  Osiride.  8  Exod.  viii.  2(5. 
 
 9  See  Ger.  Vos.  de  Idolat.  c.  9.  Borhart  Hieros.  part  1 .  b. 
 2.  and  Tennison  on  Idolatry.  '"Huetius  Qucest.  Alnet.  b.  1. 
 
 11  Pr»p.  Evan.  b.  9.  ,2  Prtep.  Evan.  b.  3.  p.  174. 
 
 r  Huetius  Quicst.  Atiiet.  b.  2.  M  Prap.  Evan.  b.  9,  c.  27. 
 
Sect.  I.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1191;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1C48.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii 
 
 285 
 
 Bacchus'  doing  the  same  with  his  Thyrsus,  in  order  to 
 extract  water  for  the  relief  of  the  virgin  Aura,  had  its 
 original :  and,  to  name  no  more,  that  from  Moses' 
 receiving  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai,  most  of  the  lawgivers 
 of  other  nations  took  the  hint  to  borrow  their  institutions 
 from  some  god  or  goddess  or  other ;  Minos,  from  Jupi- 
 ter ;  Lycurgus,  from  Apollo  ;  Zeleucus,  from  Minerva ; 
 Numa,  from  Egeria,  &c. ;  so  well  was  the  world  per- 
 suaded of  the  truth  and  authority  of  the  Jewish  legisla- 
 tor, when  they  seemed  to  agree  in  this, — That  even  a 
 distant  imitation  of  him  was  enough  to  give  sanction  to 
 their  several  fictions. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  the  Israelites  passing  the  Red  Sea. 
 
 The  passage  of  the  Israelites  through  the  Red  Sea  is 
 what  we  have  reserved  for  the  subject  of  our  dissertation, 
 because  it  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  events  in  this 
 period,  if  not  in  the  whole  Jewish  history  ;  and  yet  has 
 had  the  misfortune  to  meet  with  more  suggestions  against 
 its  miraculousness,  than  any  other  that  we  find  upon 
 record. 
 
 AVhat  has  contributed  to  this  perverseness,  may  not 
 unlikely  be  the  fond  conceits  which  some  ancient 
 doctors,  both  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  church,  have 
 been  pleased  to  affix  to  this  miracle,  namely,  that  God 
 divided  the  sea  into  twelve  passages,  according  to  the 
 twelve  tribes  ;  that  to  facilitate  their  passage,  he  pulled 
 up  the  weeds,  removed  huge  stones,  levelled  the  rugged 
 places,  and  made  the  sand  at  the  bottom  as  hard  as  a 
 rock  ;  that  the  waters,  upon  being  divided,  were  imme- 
 diately congealed,  and  stood  in  array,  like  a  wall  of 
 glass  ;  and  that  some  fragments  of  the  Egyptian  chariot- 
 wheels  may  even  to  this  day  be  seen  at  the  bottom,  as 
 far  as  the  sight  can  reach.  For  it  is  not  improbable, 
 that  in  prejudice  to  these  extravagant  fancies,  others 
 have  exercised  all  their  wit  and  learning  to  depreciate 
 the  miracle  by  asserting, — That  there  was  no  more  in  it, 
 even  as  Josephus  himself  seems  to  insinuate,  than  in 
 Alexander's  passing  the  sea  of  Pamphylia  ;  *  that  the 
 Red  Sea,  especially  in  the  extreme  part  of  it,  where  the 
 Israelites  passed,  is  not  above  two  or  three  miles  over, 
 and  very  often  dry,  by  reason  of  the  great  reflux  of  the 
 tide  ;  and  that  Moses,  who  perfectly  understood  the 
 country,  and  had  made  his  observations  upon  the  flux 
 and  reflux  of  the  sea,  led  down  his  men  at  the  time  of 
 ebb,  when,  being  favoured  by  a  strong  wind  blowing 
 from  the  shore,  he  had  the  good  luck  to  get  safe  to  the 
 other  side ;  while  Pharaoh  and  his  army,  hoping  to  do 
 the  same,  but  mistaken  in  their  computation,  had  the 
 misfortune  to  be  lost.  And  therefore,  to  give  this  matter 
 a  fair  hearing,  we  shall  first  endeavour  to  establish  the 
 truth  of  the  miracle,  and  then  examine  into  the  preten- 
 sions of  those  who  are  willing  either  to  ascribe  it  to 
 natural  causes,  or  to  compare  it  with  other  events,  as 
 they  suppose,  of  the  like  nature. 
 
 Without  entering  far  into  Moses'  character,  we  will 
 suppose  him  at  present  a  man  of  common  sense,  and  who 
 
 1  See  Lc  Clcvc's  Dissertation  concerning 
 Red  Sea. 
 
 the  Passage  of  the 
 
 xxxiv.  M. 
 
 had  some  honour  and  modesty  in  him  ;  and  yet  if  he  had, 
 we  can  hardly  conceive  how  he  durst  have  recorded  so 
 palpable  an  untruth,  supposing  this  passage  to  have 
 nothing  miraculous  in  it,  when  there  was  such  a  multi- 
 tude of  living  witnesses  to  confront  him  ;  or  L'  what  pos- 
 sible artifice  he  could  use  to  persuade  above  two  millions 
 of  persons  that  God,  by  his  hand,  had  wrought  a  stupen- 
 dous miracle,  when  they  knew  as  well  as  lie  that  there 
 was  no  such  thing  transacted.  Among  such  a  contuma- 
 cious and  mutinous  set  of  people,  Moses  must  necessarily 
 have  made  himself  ridiculous,  and  his  authority  despi- 
 cable, had  he  ever  once  attempted  to  foist  such  a  fable 
 upon  them.  And  therefore,  when  Ave  find  other  sacred 
 writers  bearing  testimony  to  what  he  relates,  and  relating 
 the  matter  in  the  like  lofty  expressions  ;  when  we  find 
 the  royal  Psalmist  assuring  us,  that 3  '  God  dividing  the 
 sea,  made  the  waters  to  stand  up  on  an  heap,  and  caused 
 the  Israelites  to  pass  through  ;'  when  we  find  the  prophet 
 Isaiah  demanding,  4  '  where  is  he,  that  brought  them  up 
 out  of  the  sea,  that  led  them  by  the  right  hand  of  Moses, 
 by  his  glorious  arm  dividing  the  water  before  him,  to 
 make  him  an  everlasting  name  ?'  when  we  find  the  pro- 
 phet Habakkuk  declaring  upon  this  occasion,  that5'  the 
 Lord  made  himself  a  road  to  drive  his  chariot  and  horses 
 cross  the  sea,  across  the  mud  of  the  great  waters  :'  and 
 when  we  find  the  author  of  the  book  of  Wisdom  thus  re- 
 cording the  story ;  "  '  Where  water  stood  before,  dry 
 land  appeared  ;  out  of  the  Red  Sea  a  way  without  im- 
 pediment, and  out  of  the  violent  stream  a  green  field, 
 where-through  all  the  people  went,  that  were  defended 
 by  thy  hand,  seeing  thy  marvellous  strange  wonders  ;  for 
 they  went  at  large  like  horses,  and  leaped  like  lambs, 
 praising  thee,  O  Lord,  who  hadst  delivered  them  :'  when 
 we  find  these,  I  say,  and  several  more  writers  of  great 
 authority,  asserting  the  wonderfubiess  of  this  passage, 
 unless  we  can  suppose  that  they  were  all  combined  to 
 impose  upon  us,  we  cannot  but  assent  to  the  truth  of  the 
 fact  itself,  how  poetical  soever  we  may  think  the  words 
 of  that  sacred  hymn  to  be  wherein  Moses  endeavours  to 
 display  it :  "'  '  By  the  blast  of  thy  nostrils  the  waters 
 were  gathered  together,  the  flood  stood  upright  as  an 
 heap,  and  the  depths  were  congealed  in  the  heart  of  the 
 sea.' 
 
 In  an  event  so  wonderful  and  so  unaccountable  to 
 human  reason,  it  cannot  be  expected  but  that  traditions 
 should  difler,  and  accounts  be  various  :  but  certainly  it 
 is  no  small  confirmation  of  the  testimony  which  the  sacred 
 writers  give  us  of  it  that  we  find  Antipanus,  in  his  history 
 of  the  Jews,  as  he  is  quoted1  by  *  Eusebiua,  and  '  Cle- 
 mens of  Alexandria,  giving  us  this  narration  of  the 
 matter.  "  The  people  of  Memphis  tell  us,  that  Moses, 
 who  was  acquainted  with  all  the  country,  knowing  the 
 time  when  the  tide  would  be  out,  carried  over  all  his 
 army  at  low  water  :  but  those  of  lleliopolis  say  other- 
 wise, namely,  that  the  king,  following  the  Jews  going 
 away  with  what  they  had  borrowed  of  the  Egyptians, 
 carried  witli  him  a  great  army  J  but  that  Moses,  by  an 
 order  from  heaven,  struck  the  sea  with  a  rod,  whereupon 
 the  waters  immediately  separated,  and  he  led  over  his 
 
 s  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Passage  of  the  Red  Sea. 
 :!  IV.  Iwviii.  IS.  "  Is.  lxiii.  12.  '  Hal',  iii.  15. 
 
 '■  \\  i-.i.  xi\.  7,  be.  rExod.  x\.  B. 
 
 s  Pnap.  Evan.  l>.  !>.  c.  27.  ■  Strom.  i».  I. 
 
286 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1491  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3763.  A.  C.  1648.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii— xxxiv.  24. 
 
 forces  in  a  dry  track ;  but  that  the  Egyptians,  attempting 
 the  same  passage,  were  dazzled  by  lightning,  and  as  the 
 sea  returned  upon  the  paths  they  were  in,  were  all 
 destroyed  either  by  fire  or  water."  So  that  if  the  joint 
 testimony  both  of  friends  and  foes  can  have  any  weight 
 with  us,  we  cannot  but  believe  that  this  passage  of  the 
 Israelites,  as  it  is  recorded  by  Moses,  was  certainly  matter 
 of  fact,  and  a  fact  so  very  wonderful  and  miraculous, 
 that  nothing  in  history  can  stand  in  competition  with  it. 
 The  passage  of  Alexander  the  Great  over  the  sea  of 
 Pamphylia  bears  no  manner  of  resemblance  to  this  of  the 
 Israelites.  Alexander,  as  *  Arian,  a  and  others  relate 
 it,  was  to  march  from  Phaselis,  a  seaport,  to  Perga,  an 
 inland  city  of  Pamphylia.  The  country  near  Phaselis, 
 upon  the  shore  of  the  Pamphylian  sea,  was  mountainous 
 and  rocky ;  so  that  he  could  not  find  a  passage  for  his 
 army,  without  either  taking  a  great  compass  round  the 
 mountains,  or  attempting  to  go  over  the  strand  between 
 the  rocks  and  the  sea.  The  historian  remarks,  that  there 
 is  no  passing  along  this  place  unless  when  the  wind 
 blows  from  the  north ;  and  therefore  Alexander,  when 
 he  came  to  Phaselis,  perceiving  that  the  wind  blew  from 
 this  quarter,  laid  hold  of  the  opportunity,  and  having 
 sent  some  of  his  army  over  the  mountains,  went  himself 
 with  the  rest  along  the  shore.  But  now  what  miracle 
 was  there  in  all  this,  unless  we  call  the  wind's  blowing 
 opportunely  for  Alexander's  purpose  a  miracle  ?  It  is 
 certain  that,  according  to  Plutarch's  account  of  the 
 thing,  Alexander  himself  thought  that  there  Mas  nothing 
 extraordinary  in  it ;  and  therefore  we  may  justly  wonder 
 h  at  Josephus'  comparing  this  passage  with  that  of  the 
 
 1  Exped.  Alex.  b.  1 ;  and  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  2.  b.  9. 
 
 2  In  Alexand.  p.  674. 
 
 a  Strabo  relates  the  matter  thus.  "  About  Phaselis  there  are 
 straits  towards  the  sea,  through  which  Alexander  passed  his 
 army.  There  is  also  a  mountain  called  Climax,  which  lies  to 
 the  Pamphylian  sea,  leaving  a  strait  passage  to  the  shore, 
 which  is  quite  bare  in  good  weather,  but  when  the  waves  arise, 
 it  is  for  the  most  part  covered  with  them.  Now,  the  road  by 
 the  mountain  is  about,  and  difficult;  and  therefore,  in  calm 
 weather,  they  go  by  the  shore.  But  Alexander  coming  hither 
 in  stormy  weather,  and  trusting  to  his  fortune,  would  go  over 
 before  the  waves  were  abated,  which  made  his  soldiers  go  all  day 
 up  to  the  navel  in  water."  (b.  14.)  And  much  to  the  same 
 purpose  is  the  account  which  Plutarch  gives  us.  "  The  march 
 through  Pamphylia,"  says  he,  "has  been  the  subject  to  many 
 historians  of  mighty  wonder,  and  fine  declamation,  as  if  the  sea 
 by  order  of  the  gods,  gave  place  to  Alexander,  which  almost 
 always  is  rough  there,  and  does  very  rarely  open  a  smooth  pas- 
 sage under  those  broken  rocks.  But  Alexander  himself,  in  his 
 epistles,  speaks  of  no  miracle,  but  only  says,  that  he  passed  by 
 Climax,  as  he  came  from  Phaselis."  {Vita  Mex.)  Now,  by  the 
 joint  authority  of  these  two  excellent  historians,  this  passage  is 
 no  more  than  an  ordinary  thing;  but  the  Mosaic  transit  must 
 still  remain  a  miracle,  until  we  find  as  good  historians  to -vouch 
 for  a  passage  over  the  Red  Sea. — Nicholls'  Conference,  part  2. 
 
 b  The  words  of  Josephus  are  these.  "  I  have  been  more  par- 
 ticular in  these  relations,  because  I  find  them  in  holy  writ;  and 
 let  no  man  think  this  story  incredible  of  the  sea's  dividing  to 
 save  the  Hebrews,  for  we  find  it  in  ancient  records,  that  this 
 hath  been  seen  before,  whether  by  God's  extraordinary  will,  or 
 by  the  course  of  nature,  it  is  indifferent.  The  same  thing  hap- 
 pened one  time  to  the  Macedonians,  under  the  command  of 
 Alexander,  when,  for  want  of  another  passage,  the  Pamphylian 
 sea  divided  to  make  them  way,  God's  providence  making  use  of 
 Alexander  at  that  time  as  his  instrument  for  destroying  the 
 Persian  empire."  (b.  2.  c.  10.)  But  it  is  evident  that  Josephus 
 was  ignorant  of  the  account  of  the  above  cited  historians,  other- 
 wise he  would  have  said  nothing  of  the  Pamphylian  sea's  dividing 
 
 Israelites,  when  there  is  so  manifest  a  disparity  between 
 them.  The  Israelites  crossed  over  a  sea,  where  no  his- 
 torian makes  mention  of  any  persons,  but  they,  that  ever 
 found  a  passage ;  whereas  Alexander  only  marched 
 upon  the  shore  of  the  sea  of  Pamphylia,  where  the  several 
 historians  who  most  magnify  the  divine  providence  in 
 protecting  him,  do  all  freely  allow,  that  any  one  may  at 
 any  time  go,  when  the  tide  retreats,  and  the  same  wind 
 blows  that  favoured  him. 
 
 What  the  breadth  of  the  Red  Sea  may  be  at  the  place 
 where  the  Israelites  passed  over,  is  not  so  easy  a  matter 
 to  determine,  c  because  both  geographers  and  travellers 
 mightily  differ  in  their  computations.  But  if,  according 
 to  some  of  the  lowest  accounts,  we  suppose  it  to  be  much 
 about  two  leagues,  most  writers  agree,  that  the  sea  in 
 this  place  is  very  boisterous  and  tempestuous,  which  is 
 hardly  consistent  with  a  shallowness,  much  less  a  total 
 desertion  of  water,  upon  any  hasty  reflux.  The  wind, 
 it  must  be  owned,  if  it  blew  from  a  right  quarter,  might 
 both  forward  the  ebb,  and  retard  the  flux  ;  but  the  wind, 
 which  blew  at  this  time,  we  are  told,  was  an  east  wind, 
 whereas  it  must  have  been  a  west,  or  north-west  wind,  to 
 have  driven  the  water  from  the  land's  end  into  the  main 
 body  of  the  sea,  as  any  one  who  looks  into  a  map  may 
 easily  perceive.  But  now  the  east  wind  blows  cross  the 
 sea,  and  the  effect  of  it  must  be,  to  drive  the  waters 
 partly  up  to  the  extremity  of  the  bay,  and  partly  down 
 to  the  ocean,  which  probably  is  the  meaning,  if  we  must 
 allow  an  hyperbole  in  the  expression,  of  the  waters 
 '  being  a  wall  to  the  Israelites  on  their  right  hand,  and 
 on  their  left,'  because  they  so  defended  them  on  both 
 sides,  that  the  Egyptians  could  no  way  come  at  them, 
 but  by  pursuing  them  in  the  same  path  which  they  took. 
 
 Why  they  ventured  to  pursue  the  Israelites,  the  sacred 
 historian  seems  plainly  to  intimate,  when  he  tells  us,  3 
 that  '  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  which  went  before  the  camp, 
 removed,  and  went  behind  them  :  it  came  between  the 
 camp  of  the  Egyptians  and  the  camp  of  Israel,  and  was 
 a  cloud  and  darkness  to  the  one,  but  gave  light  by  night 
 to  the  other  :'  so  that  the  true  reason  why  the  Egyptians 
 went  in  after  the  Israelites  into  the  midst  of  the  sea, 
 was,  that  they  knew  not  where  they  were.  They  imagined, 
 perhaps,  that  they  were  still  upon  the  land,  or  at  least 
 upon  the  shore,  whence  the  sea  had  retired  ;  the  dark- 
 ness of  the  night,  and  the  preternatural  darkness  of  the 
 cloud,  not  suffering  them  to  see  the  mountains  of  water 
 on  each  side.  But  4  '  when  the  Lord  looked  on  the  host 
 of  the  Egyptians  through  the  pillar  of  fire,'  that  is,  when 
 he  turned  the  bright  side  of  the  cloud  upon  them,  to  let 
 them  see  the  danger  they  were  in,  and  at  the  same  time, 
 as  Josephus  adds,  poured  out  a  storm  of  thunder  and 
 lightning,  and  hailstones  upon  them  from  the  cloud,  5 
 
 »  Exod.  xiv.  19,  20.  4  Exod.  xiv.  19.  5  Exod.  xiv.  25. 
 for  the  passage  of  the  Macedonian  army,  when  the  matter  of 
 fact  was  no  such  thing. 
 
 c  One  affirms  that  the  sea  is  six  leagues  wide  at  this  place ; 
 another  makes  it  but  fifteen  furlongs;  one  says  it  is  narrow,  and 
 long  like  a  river,  and  another  allows  it  to  be  the  breadth  of  one 
 league.  Thevenot  makes  it  eight  or  nine  miles  in  breadth,  but 
 Andricomius  will  have  it  to  be  no  more  than  six.  The  transit 
 most  probably  took  place  at  the  embouchure  of  the  valley  of  Bedea, 
 or  about  twenty  miles  below  Suez,  at  which  point,  according  to 
 Bruce,  the  gulf  is  three  leagues  over,  with  fourteen  fathoms  of 
 water  in  the  channel. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 2S7 
 
 A.  M.  2513.  A.  C.  1 191  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37C3.  A.  C.  1G48.  EXOD.  CH.  xiii 
 
 *  Let  us  flee,1  cried  they,  '  from  the  face  of  Israel,  for 
 the  Lord  fighteth  for  them.' 
 
 It  is  not  to  be  questioned,  but  that  Moses  was  a  per- 
 son of  excellent  judgment :  by  his  being  so  long  a 
 general  of  an  army,  he  could  not  but  know  the  proper 
 advantages  that  might  be  made  in  marches  and  retreats  ; 
 and  yet  he  seems  to  give  no  great  specimen  of  his  skill, 
 by  declining  the  mountains,  which  possibly  were  inac- 
 cessible to  the  chariots  and  horsemen,  and  marching  his 
 men  along  the  sea  coasts,  where  Pharaoh's  army  might 
 make  after  him,  as  we  find  they  did,  had  not  God  com- 
 manded him  to  take  this  route,  and  foretold  him  the 
 event.  Upon  the  approach  of  the  Egyptian  army, 
 Moses  has  sufficiently  described  the  consternation  which 
 the  Israelites  were  in  ;  and  can  any  one  suppose,  that 
 such  a  situation  of  tilings  was  matter  of  their  own  choice, 
 or  that  their  leader  would  of  his  own  head  have  brought 
 them  into  a  place  where  there  was  no  possibility  of 
 escaping  the  fury  of  their  enemies,  without  crossing  the 
 sea  ?  l  Had  Pharaoh  laid  hold  of  this  advantage,  and 
 nothing  but  a  miraculous  interposition  could  have  hin- 
 dered him,  how  could  Moses,  with  all  his  sweet  words, 
 and  address,  have  prevailed  with  his  people  to  run  into 
 the  sea  ?  Or,  supposing  that  he  trusted  to  the  tide  at 
 ebb,  how  could  he  know  for  certainty,  that  this  ebb 
 would  begin  precisely  at  the  close  of  the  day,  and  that 
 the  Egyptians  would  allow  him  time  to  decamp,  without 
 their  guards  giving  them  intelligence,  or  their  forces 
 pursuing  him  in  his  retreat ;  which  had  they  done,  to 
 what  dismal  extremities  must  he  and  his  people  have 
 been  reduced  ?  If  we  suppose  that  this  was  an  hasty 
 resolution,  which  the  difficulties  he  found  himself  in 
 compelled  him  to  take  ;  yet  we  shall  still  be  at  a  loss  to 
 know,  how  lie  could  possibly  answer  for  the  event,  or 
 with  what  face  he  could  promise  the  people,  that  ~  '  the 
 Lord  would  fight  for  them  ;  that  they  should  stand  still 
 and  see  the  salvation  which  he  would  show  them ; ' 
 and  that  the  Egyptians,  who  had  given  them  so  much 
 molestation,  '  they  should  see  them  again  no  more  for 
 ever  ?' 
 
 He  might  not  be  ignorant  perhaps  of  the  course  of  the 
 tide,  and  might  easily  discern  the  favourable  disposition 
 of  the  wind ;  but  was  there  never  a  man  in  all  the  great 
 army  which  Pharaoh  brought  with  him,  of  equal  observa- 
 tion and  skill  ?  It  is  incongruous  to  think,  that  the 
 Egyptians,  who  excelled  at  that  time  all  other  nations  in 
 their  knowledge  and  observation  of  celestial  bodies, 
 should  be  ignorant  of  the  fluxes  and  refluxes  of  the  sea, 
 in  their  own  country,  in  their  own  coast,  and  in  their 
 own  most  trading  and  frequented  ports  and  havens,  and 
 if  they  were  not  ignorant  of  the  time  of  the  reflux,  it  is 
 hardty  to  be  imagined,  that  any  eagerness  of  pursuit 
 would  have  made  them  venture  into  the  gulf,  when  they 
 could  not  but  be  sensible,  that  in  case  they  niiscomputed, 
 the  returning  waves  would  devour,  and  swallow  them  up. 
 
 But  the  truth  is,  their  taking  the  tide  at  the  ebb  would 
 serve  the  purposes,  neither  of  the  Israelites  escaping, 
 nor  the  Egyptians  pursuing  them.  That  it  badly  answer- 
 ed the  design  of  the  Egyptians  is  plain  from  the  event ; 
 and  that  the   Israelites   could  promise    themselves    no 
 
 1  Calmet'.s  Dissertation  on  the  Passage  of  the  Red  Sea. 
 2  Exod.  xiv.  13,  14. 
 
 xxxiv.  24. 
 
 security  by  it,  is  evident  from  the  nature  of  its  motion. 
 3  Every  one  knows,  that  in  the  flux  of  the  sea,  its  waters 
 come  on  gradually,  and  for  the  space  of  six  hours,  swell 
 higher  and  higher  upon  the  banks ;  and  then  continuing 
 in  this  state  for  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  they  sink  by 
 degrees  for  six  hours  more,  and  retreating  from  tin- 
 shores,  which  is  called  the  reflux,  they  remain  at  their 
 lowest  ebb,  as  long  as  they  had  done  at  their  highest 
 flux,  and  then  begin  to  change  their  course,  and  creep 
 in  towards  the  shore  again;  and  in  this  revolution  they 
 always  go  on,  with  the  variation  only  of  three  quarters 
 of  an  hour,  and  some  minutes,  in  each  tide. 
 
 That  the  Red  Sea  does  ebb  and  flow  like  other  seas 
 that  have  communication  with  the  main  ocean,  we  readily 
 grant ;  but  then  we  are  told  by  those  who  have  made  the 
 exactest  observations,  that  the  greatest  distance  that  it 
 falls  from  the  place  of  high  water,  is  not  above  three 
 hundred  yards,  and  that  these  three  hundred  yards,  which 
 the  sea  leaves  uncovered  at  the  time  of  low  water,  can- 
 not continue  so  above  half  an  hour  at  most ;  because, 
 during  the  first  six  hours,  the  sea  does  only  retire  by 
 degrees,  and  in  less  than  half  an  hour,  it  begins  to  flow 
 again  towards  the  shore  ;  so  that  upon  a  moderate  com- 
 putation, the  most  that  can  be  allowed,  both  of  time  and 
 space  of  passable  ground,  is  but  about  two  hundred 
 yards,  during  six  hours,  and  an  hundred  and  fifty  during 
 eight.  But  now  it  is  plain,  that  a  multitude  of  above 
 two  millions  of  men,  women,  and  children,  encumbered 
 with  great  quantities  of  cattle  and  household  stuff',  could 
 never  be  able  to  cross,  even  though  we  suppose  it  to  be 
 that  arm  or  point  of  the  sea,  which  is  not  far  distant 
 from  the  port  of  Suez,  and  allow  them  withal  a  double 
 portion  of  time,  and  a  double  space  of  ground  to  perform 
 it  in ;  whereas  the  general  tradition  is,  that  the  place 
 where  the  Israelites  entered  the  Red  Sea  on  the  Egyp- 
 tian side,  is  two  or  three  leagues  below  this  northern 
 point,  at  a  place  called  Kolsum ;  and  the  place  where 
 they  came  out  of  it,  on  the  Arabian  side,  is  at  present 
 called  4  Corondal,  where  the  sea  is  about  eight  or  nine 
 miles  in  breadth. 
 
 From  the  breadth  of  the  sea,  and  the  Israelites  coming 
 out  of  it  at  a  place  *  of  the  same  name  with  that  of 
 their  entrance,  some  have  imagined,  that  they  did  not 
 cross  from  shore  to  shore,  but  only  took  a  short  compass 
 along  the  strand  that  was  left  dry  at  low  water,  and  BO 
 came  out  a  little  farther  in  the  bay,  which  the  Egyptians 
 attempting  to  do,  by  the  unexpected  return  of  the  tide, 
 were  all  lost.  Now,  besides  the  incongruity,  as  we  said 
 before,  of  supposing  the  Israelites  better  judges  of  the 
 tide  than  the  Egyptians  were,  we  do  not  find,  that  the 
 Scriptures  any  where  determine  the  length  of  time  which 
 the  former  employed  in  passing  this  sea.  '  In  the  morn- 
 ing watch,'  which  continued  from  two  to  six  in  the 
 morning,  it  is  said  indeed,  that  6  '  the  Lord  troubled  the 
 host  of  the  Egyptians,  and  took  oft*  their  chariot  wheel- ;' 
 but  how  long  the  Israelites  might  have  entered  the 
 channel,  before  the  Egyptians  met  with  this  obstrui  tion, 
 is  nowhere  said ;  so  that  the  computation  of  time  will 
 depend  upon  the  supposed  breadth  of  the  sea. 
 
 Supposing  then,  as  we  said  before, that  the  breadth  of 
 
 '  Calmet's  Dissert,  ibid.        "  Theveoot'a  Voyage  de  Levant 
 
 s  Compare  Exod.  xiii.  '20.  with  Num.  xxxxiii.  <',  «• 
 «Exod.  xiv.  -2\,  :*5. 
 
288 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1100;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI.ES,  A.  M.  3704.  A.  C.  1G47.  EXOD  xxxiv.  28-NUM.  xviii. 
 
 the  sea,  was  about  eight  miles  in  all,  we  cannot  but 
 imagine,  that  a  people,  '  full  of  strength  and  vigour,  as 
 the  Psalmist  represents  them,  pursued  by  so  dreadful  and 
 enraged  an  enemy,  would  make  the  best  of  their  way : 
 nor  can  we  see  any  absurdity,  in  an  event  so  abounding 
 with  miracles,  to  suppose  one  more.  2  Now,  if  God 
 interposed  his  power  to  disable  the  chariots  of  Pharaoh, 
 lest  the  return  of  the  waters  should  excite  the  Egyptians' 
 fears,  and  their  fears,  by  improving  their  diligence, 
 save  them  from  destruction,  why  might  not  God  interpose 
 the  same  power,  if  there  was  occasion,  to  quicken  and 
 accelerate  the  Israelites,  and  make  them  perform  their 
 passage  in  due  time  ?  Nay,  if  we  will  allow  his  own 
 words  to  be  a  good  comment  upon  his  actions,  we  cannot 
 but  suppose  that  he  did  so,  when  we  find  him,  after  all 
 was  over,  recounting  his  kindness  to  them  thus  :  3 '  Ye 
 have  seen  what  I  did  unto  the  Egyptians,  and  how  I  did 
 bear  you  on  eagle's  wings,'  where  the  expression  cer- 
 tainly denotes  some  extraordinary  assistance  given  them 
 in  their  passage,  '  and  brought  you  unto  myself.'  It  can- 
 not be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  some  ambiguity  may  arise 
 as  to  the  place  where  the  Israelites  came  on  shore,  since 
 they  were  at  Etham  but  two  days  before,  and  now  landed 
 in  a  wilderness  of  the  same  name  ;  yet  if  we  will  but  sup- 
 pose that  there  were  two  Ethams,  the  one  a  town  where 
 they  encamped  on  the  Egyptian  side,  and  the  other,  on 
 the  Arabian  side,  a  wilderness  ;  or  if  we  will  needs  have 
 the  wilderness  of  Etham  denominated  from  the  town, 
 supposing  that  the  town  was  situated  near  the  upper  part 
 of  the  Red  Sea,  and  gave  denomination  to  a  great 
 desert,  which  surrounded  the  head  of  the  bay,  and  reached 
 down  a  considerable  space  on  both  sides  of  it,  we  may 
 easily  perceive  that  though  the  Israelites,  in  the  evening, 
 marched  from  the  wilderness  of  Etham  cross  the  gulf, 
 yet,  upon  their  landing  in  the  morning,  they  would  but 
 be  in  another  part  of  the  wilderness  of  Etham  still. 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  it  appears,  that  the  Israelites 
 coasting  it  along  the  Egyptian  shore,  in  a  kind  of  semi- 
 circle, is  both  a  needless  and  groundless  supposition. 
 For  had  this  been  all,  upon  the  return  of  the  tide  the 
 drowned  Egyptians  must  have  been  brought  back  upon 
 their  own  shore  ;  whereas  the  scripture  account  of  this 
 matter  is,  that,  as  soon  as  * '  Moses  stretched  out  his 
 hand  over  the  sea,  it  returned  to  its  strength,  and  the 
 waters  returned,  and  covered  the  Egyptians  who  fled 
 against  them  ;'  which  certainly  can  denote  no  less,  than 
 that  the  mountains  of  waters  were  first  dissolved  where 
 they  were  first  congealed,  that  is,  on  the  Egyptian  side, 
 and  that  there  beginning  to  reunite,  in  order  to  stop  the 
 Egyptians'  return,  they  came  rushing  upon  them  in  vast 
 inundations,  and  of  course  swept  them  away  to  the 
 contrary,  that  is,  the  Arabian  shore,  where  all  the  host 
 of  Israel  was  safely  arrived. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  evince  the  reality  of 
 this  miraculous  event,  and  to  examine  the  pretences  of 
 those  who  have  either  compared  it  with  others  recorded 
 in  profane  story,  or  ascribed  it  to  natural  causes,  or 
 espied  some  seeming  contradictions  in  it ;  and  have 
 nothing  now  more  to  do,  but,  with  the  grateful  Psalmist, 
 to  acknowledge  upon  this  occasion,  5 '  Thy  way,  O  Lord, 
 is  in  the  sea,  and  thy  paths  in  the  great  waters,  and  thy 
 
 footsteps  are  not  known.     Thou  art  a  God  that  doest 
 wonders,  and  hast  declared  thy  power  among  the  people.' 
 
 Ps.  p.v.  37.  *  Saurin's  Dissert.         3  Exod.  \ix.  -1. 
 
 *  tixod.  \iv.  27,  2S.  5  Ps.  lxxvii.  11,  1.). 
 
 CHAP.  VI. — On  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  and 
 journeyings  of  the  Israelites. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL. 
 
 The  following  very  satisfactory  article  on  the  geography 
 of  the  Israelites'  route  from  Egypt  to  Canaan,  is  taken 
 from  Mansford's  Scripture  Gazetteer,  the  best  recent 
 work  on  Scripture  geography  that  we  hav,e  met  with. 
 
 "The  Almighty  having  punished  the  Egyptians  for 
 their  blindness  and  obduracy  by  the  plagues  which  they 
 had  suffered,  and  prepared  his  people,  by  their  mira- 
 culous preservation  during  these  scenes  of  terror,  to 
 place  an  unlimited  confidence  in  their  leader,  moved 
 the  hardened  mind  of  Pharaoh  that  he  should  order  their 
 departure  in  the  middle  of  the  night.  '  And  Pharaoh 
 rose  up  in  the  night,  he  and  all  his  servants ;  and  he 
 called  for  Moses  and  Aaron  by  night,  and  said,  Rise 
 up,  and  get  you  forth  from  among  my  people,  both  ye 
 and  the  children  of  Israel,  and  go,  serve  the  Lord  as 
 ye  have  said.  And  the  Egyptians  were  urgent  upon  the 
 people,  that  they  might  send  them  out  of  the  land  in 
 haste :  for  they  said,  We  be  all  dead  men.  And  the 
 children  of  Israel  journeyed  from  Rameses  to  Succoth.'6 
 Rameses  was  a  city  built  by  the  Israelites  in  the  land  of 
 Goshen,  a  little  to  the  south  of  the  Babylon  of  the  Per- 
 sians, the  Grecian  Letopolis,  and  about  six  or  eight 
 miles  above  the  modern  Cairo.  Here  they  assembled, 
 and  from  hence  they  took  their  departure  ;  making  their 
 first  march  towards  the  east,  or  to  Succoth,  which  is 
 estimated  to  have  been  about  thirty  miles. 
 
 In  this  first  part  of  their  route,  they  were  obliged  to 
 incline  a  little  to  the  north,  to  round  the  mountain  called 
 the  mountain  of  Arabia,  which  shuts  in  the  valley  of 
 Egypt  on  the  eastern  side  through  its  whole  length,  and 
 which  sinks  into  the  plain  towards  the  north  at  a  line 
 nearly  parallel  with  the  point  of  the  Delta.  Succoth 
 implies  nothing'  more  than  a  place  o  pens  or  booths ; 
 and  was  probably  either  a  halting-station  in  the  route 
 towards  the  Desert,  or  an  enclosure  for  cattle  during  the 
 inundation  of  the  Nile.  Their  stay  here  appears  to  have 
 been  short.  '  And  they  took  their  journey  from  Suc- 
 coth, and  encamped  in  Etham,  on  the  edge  of  the  Wil- 
 derness.' This  was  a  long  march  of  not  less  than  sixty 
 miles,  according  to  the  present  computed  distance ; 
 which,  as  no  intervening  place  of  halt  is  mentioned, 
 must  be  considered  as  having  been  performed  at  once. 
 But  it  must  be  remembered,  that  they  were  flying  from 
 a  treacherous  and  inexorable  enemy,  whose  pursuit  they 
 had  reason  to  fear  ;  and  that  they  were  besides  experi- 
 encing the  particular  protection  and  support  of  that 
 power  which  could  as  easily  prevent  their  being  wearied 
 in  a  forced  march  of  sixty  miles,  as  he  could  save  their 
 shoes  from  being  worn  out,  or  find  them  a  passage 
 through  the  Red  Sea.  But  the  real  distance  was  probably 
 not  then  so  much  by  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  as  at  the 
 
 6  Exod.  xii. 
 
Sect.  L]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.   A.  C.  1490;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3764.  A.  C.  1647.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  24-NUM.  xviii. 
 
 289 
 
 present  day  ;  as,  according  to  the  concurrent  reports  of 
 travellers,  there  are  undoubted  marks  of  the  gulf  having 
 extended  several  miles  in  a  north-west,  or  N.N.'NV. 
 direction  beyond  its  present  limits.  This  was  precisely 
 in  the  route  of  the  Israelites,  and  was  just  so  much 
 taken  from  their  day's  march,  reckoning  to  where  Suez 
 now  stands ;  the  traveller  having  now  to  bend  consi- 
 derably to  the  south-east,  to  arrive  at  that  place,  after 
 rounding  the  Arabian  mountain,  or  Djibel  Atakka. 
 
 Etham  is  said  to  have  been  in,  or  upon,  the  edge  of 
 the  wilderness.  But  it  must  not  be  imagined  from 
 hence  that  the  wilderness  began  here.  It  is  probable 
 that  the  whole  way  from  Succoth  to  this  place  was,  as  it 
 is  at  this  day,  the  same  kind  of  parched  and  stony 
 desert :  but  here,  at  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Red 
 Sea,  it  first  assumed  the  name  of  Etham  ;  which  it  bore 
 for  some  distance  to  the  north,  east  and  south.  Arrived 
 at  this  place,  the  Israelites  may  be  said  to  have  been 
 safe  from  all  fear  of  the  Egyptians,  as  another  such  a 
 march  as  that  from  Succoth  would  carry  them  into  the 
 heart  of  a  desert,  where  no  army,  without  a  miracle, 
 could  subsist.  They  were  now  on  the  high  road  to 
 Canaan,  with  nothing  to  interrupt  their  progress :  but 
 in  the  midst  of  their  hopes  and  rejoicings,  an  order 
 comes  to  turn.  This  must  have  been  a  grievous  disap- 
 pointment :  such  an  order,  indeed,  as  no  body  of  people 
 in  their  senses,  unless  convinced  of  the  Divine  appoint- 
 ment and  supernatural  power  of  their  leader,  would  ever 
 have  complied  with.  Just  congratulating  one  another 
 on  their  escape,  they  were  directed  to  return  in  the  very 
 face  of  their  enemy  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  to  place  them- 
 selves in  a  situation  where  they  would  be  rendered  inca- 
 pable either  of  resistance  or  of  flight.  '  And  the  Lord 
 spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of 
 Israel,  that  they  turn,  and  encamp  before  Pi-hahiroth 
 (or  Phi-Hiroth),  between  Migdol  and  the  sea,  over 
 against  Baal-Zephon  ;  before  it  shall  ye  encamp  by  the 
 sea.'  The  situation  into  which  their  obedience  to  this 
 decree  brought  them,  was  a  narrow  delile,  shut  in  by  the 
 mountains  on  the  west,  the  sea  on  the  east,  and  (dosed 
 up  on  the  south  by  a  small  bay  or  inlet  of  the  latter : 
 they  were,  indeed,  "  entangled  in  the  land."  Some  of 
 them,  at  least,  must  have  been  acquainted  with  the  posi- 
 tion they  were  about  to  occupy  ;  but  they  entered,  and 
 gave  vent  to  no  murmur  until  they  saw  themselves  all  at 
 once  in  the  power  of  their  enemy,  who  stood  before  them 
 in  the  only  opening  by  which,  without  a  miracle,  it  was 
 possible  to  escape.  At  this  sight  their  faith  and  courage 
 failed ;  '  and  they  said  unto  Moses,  Because  there  were 
 no  graves  in  Egypt,  hast  thou  taken  us  away  to  die  in 
 the  wilderness  ?'  But  the  God  who  brought  them  there, 
 was  about  to  show  his  power  by  again  interposing  in 
 their  behalf.  '  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Speak 
 unto  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go  forward :  but 
 lift  thou  up  thy  rod,  and  stretch  out  thine  hand  over  the 
 sea,  and  divide  it;  and  the  children  of  Israel  shall  go 
 on  dry  ground  through  the  midst  of  the  sea.  And  Moses 
 stretched  out  his  hand  over  the  sea  ;  and  the  Lord  caused 
 the  sea  to  go  back  by  a  strong  east  wind  all  that  night, 
 and  made  the  sea  dry  land,  and  the  waters  were  divided. 
 And  the  children  of  Israel  went  into  the  midst  of  the  sea 
 upon  the  dry  ground :  and  the  waters  were  a  wall  unto 
 them  on  their  right  hand  and  on  their  left.'  While  the 
 Egyptians,  hardened  as  usual,  and  blind  to  the  power  of 
 
 the  God  of  Israel,  ventured  to  pursue,  and  were  quickly 
 overwhelmed  in  the  water. 
 
 The  precise  site  of  this  miracle  has  much  engaged  the 
 attention  of  travellers  and  of  the  learned  ;  who  have 
 differed  more  or  less  according  to  their  respective  views 
 and  prejudices.  The  first  step  in  our  inquiry  for  the 
 situation  of  this  place,  must  obviously  be  to  fix  that  of 
 the  previous  encampment.  Before  taking  up  this  en- 
 campment, it  will  be  recollected  that  the  last  position 
 was  at  Etham,  at  the  bottom  of  the  gulf,  which  will  be 
 found  in  the  map  twelve  miles  north-west  of  its  present 
 termination  at  Suez;  and  which  carries  up  that  position 
 to  meet  the  road  towards  Caanan,  and  makes  the  subse- 
 quent'turn'  completely  retrograde.  This  turn  was  to 
 bring  them  by  another  day's  march  beside  Pi-hahiroth, 
 before  Migdol,  and  over  against  Baal-Zephon.  The 
 Hebrew  word  Pi  answers  to  the  modern  Fum  of  the 
 Arabic,  and  implies  an  opening  in  the  mountains.  Pi- 
 hahiroth,  then,  means  an  opening  or  cleft  in  the  moun- 
 tain leading  into  the  valley  of  that  name.  If,  then,  such 
 an  opening  at  a  proper  distance  from  Etham  can  be 
 found,  the  situation  of  Pi-hahiroth  may  be  considered  as 
 fixed.  Just  such  an  opening,  and  no  other,  presents 
 itself  about  twenty  miles  to  the  soutii  of  Suez,  and  thirty  - 
 two  or  thirty-five  from  the  ancient  position  of  Etham  : 
 which  answers  exactly  to  the  required  distance  ;  and 
 being  the  only  one  of  the  kind,  leaves  little  doubt  of  its 
 identity.  Into  this  opening,  which  runs  quite  through  the 
 mountains  to  the  valley  of  Egypt,  an  inlet  of  the  Red 
 Sea,  now  dry,  extended  itself;  closing  up  all  possibility 
 of  advance  in  that  direction.  The  situation  of  Migdol 
 and  Baal-Zephon  are  not  so  clear  ;  but  from  the  preci- 
 sion with  which  that  of  Pi-hahiroth  can  be  fixed,  their 
 exact  recognition  is  not  so  material.  .Migdol  implies  a 
 fortress  ;  and  nothing  can  be  more  likely  than  that  tin; 
 Egyptians  should  station  a  garrison  at  this  important 
 entrance  into  their  country.  Such  might  be  inferred 
 from  strong  probability  ;  but  there  are,  in  fact,  distinct 
 historical  traces  of  such  a  fortress  in  this  situation.  Mr 
 Bryant,  in  his  learned  Dissertation  on  the  Egyptian 
 Plagues,  cites  a  passage  from  Harduin's  Notes  on  Pliny 
 to  the  following  purpose  :  "  At  this  present  time,  in  the 
 cosmography  which  was  made  during  the  consulships  of 
 Julius  Cajsar  and  Mark  Antony,  1  find  it  written,  that  a 
 part  of  the  river  Nile  flows  into  the  Red  Sea,  near  the 
 city  Ovila  and  the  Camp  of  Monseus  {Monsci):'  the  la.-a 
 word  is  evidently  a  misprint  for  Muusct.  This  document 
 is  invaluable  from  the  traditional  evidence  it  bears  of 
 the  situation  of  the  miracle  being  at  this  place  ;  and  the 
 "  Camp  of  Moses  "  must  imply  either  the  place  of  en- 
 campment of  the  Israelites,  or  the  fortress  which  always 
 existed  at  the  embouchure  of  the  valley,  to  which  the 
 natives  might  probably  enough  have  given  the  name  of 
 Moses.  Mr  Bryant  thinks  die  former  :  but  here,  too,  on 
 the  same  spot,  were  the  iI>»ot/f<&v,  or  1'ra  sidiuni  Clysmatis 
 of  Ptolemy,  and  the  Castrum  Clysmatis  of  Hicrocles  ; 
 both  undoubtedly  referring  to  the  same  fortress,  or  Mig- 
 dol of  the  Egyptians. 
 
 Of  Baal-Zephon  we  have  no  traces.  The  name  implies 
 the  god  of  tlir  watch-tower;  and  it  was  probably  a 
 beacon  for  mariners  on  the  opposite  coast,  over  against 
 which  the  camp  was  to  be  pitched.  The  position  of  this 
 camp  is  now  determined.  It  was  in  front  of  Pi-hahiroth, 
 or  the  gorge  in  the  mountains  opening  into  the  valley  of 
 2  o 
 
290 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.   A.  C.  1490;  OR 
 
 Hiroth  ;  which  extended  through  the  mountains  all  the 
 way  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  It  was  also  in  front  of 
 Migdol,  which  we  have  the  strongest  reasons  to  believe 
 was  a  fortress  at  the  opening  of  the  valley,  at  the  north- 
 ern angle  of  the  mountains,  to  defend  it  on  the  side  of  the 
 Arabian  Desert,  for  from  the  south  there  was  no  approach. 
 Something  remains  yet  to  be  said  in  illustration  of 
 the  topography  of  this  interesting  spot.  Thus  far  the 
 Israelites  had  advanced  without  meeting  with  any  ob- 
 stacle ;  but  how  came  they  to  be  stopped  at  this  precise 
 spot,  without  the  possibility  of  proceeding  another  mile  ? 
 How  came  they  just  here  to  be  so  "  entangled  in  the 
 land  "  that,  without  a  miracle,  they  must  have  fallen  an 
 immediate  prey  to  their  enemies  ?  for  neither  in  the 
 maps,  nor  in  the  general  accounts  given  of  this  miracle, 
 is  there  any  explanation  of  this  difficulty.  After  quitting 
 Etham,  they  entered  a  lengthened  defile,  in  which  they 
 advanced  about  thirty  miles,  having  the  mountains  on 
 their  right  hand  and  the  sea  on  their  left — both  impas- 
 sable. Arrived  thus  far,  their  further  progress  southward 
 was  arrested,  either  by  the  impracticable  nature  of  the 
 country  beyond,  or  by  an  estuary  of  the  Red  Sea,  which 
 ran  up  into  the  valley  of  Hiroth  ;  from  which  inlet,  it 
 appears  by  the  above  cited  passage  from  Harduin,  a 
 canal  of  communication  was,  in  the  time  of  the  Ptole- 
 mies, carried  on  to  the  Nile.  The  latter  opinion  the 
 reader  will  find  ably  maintained  by  Mr  Bryant,  in  the 
 work  already  referred  to.  This  estuary  probably  came 
 so  close  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  as  to  admit  only 
 of  a  difficult  passage  in  that  direction  ;  which  was 
 guarded  by  the  fortress  of  Migdol.  Besides,  if  it  had 
 been  free  of  access,  the  Israelites  could  have  had  no 
 inclination  to  take  such  a  course,  which  would  only  have 
 led  them  back  again  into  the  heart  of  Egypt.  They  were 
 accordingly  hemmed  in,  in  a  kind  of  cul  de  sac,  which 
 rendered  the  subsequent  miracle  for  their  deliverance  as 
 necessary  as  it  was  signal. 
 
 The  place  of  this  estuary  is  now  dry  ;  having  been, 
 in  the  course  of  ages,  partly  filled  up  by  the  fallen 
 materials  of  the  mountains,  and  partly  left  dry  by  the 
 retreat  of  the  sea  itself :  it  is  called  Bedea  by  the  Arabs 
 — a  name  which  may  be  referred  to  the  same  origin  with 
 the  Phrygian  word  BsSy,  water.  The  inlet  itself,  some 
 remnant  of  which  perhaps  existed  in  the  time  of  the 
 Greeks,  was  by  them  denominated  Clysma  ;  which  like- 
 wise signifies  water,  or  an  inundation,  and  might  refer 
 either  to  the  place  or  the  miracle.  From  the  inlet,  the 
 name  A\as  transferred  to  a  town  and  fortress  on  its 
 borders  ;  which  was  probably  in  the  same  situation  as 
 the  Migdol  of  the  Egyptians,  and  was  subsequently  the 
 Kolsum  of  the  Arabs,  a  word  denoting  drowning,  and 
 which  gave  its  name  to  the  adjoining  sea,  which  is  still 
 called  Bayer-al-Colsum. 
 
 The  position  and  agreement  of  these  places  are,  how- 
 ever, not  so  clear,  but  that  some  authors  of  eminence 
 have  entertained  a  different  opinion.  Mr  Bryant,  and 
 more  recently  Mr  Home,  adopting  the  arguments  of  the 
 former,  contend  that  Clysma  and  Kolsum  were  not  the 
 same  place  ;  and  that  the  mistakes  of  former  writers 
 from  confounding  the  two,  and  thereby  embarrassing 
 the  attempts  to  fix  the  precise  place  of  passage,  may  by 
 this  means  be  rectified.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  they 
 might  not  have  been  the  same  place  ;  and  the  difficulties 
 arising  out  of  their  supposed  identity,  and  the  situation 
 
 ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  3764.  A.  C.  1G47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 of  Kolsum  at  Suez,  would  thus  be  obviated.     But  with 
 deference  to  the  learned  authorities  who  have  espoused 
 this  opinion,  the  grounds  on  which  it  is  formed  are  not 
 to  be  depended  upon  ;  and  new  and  equal  difficulties 
 will  be  found  to  attach  to  them.     Mr  Bryant,  confiding 
 in  the  astronomical  observations  of  Ptolemy  and  Ulug 
 Beg,  makes  a  distance  of  seventy  miles  from  Herman 
 to  Clysma,  but  of  only  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  to 
 Kolsum ;  thus  separating  them  by  nearly  fifty  miles  of 
 latitude.     According  to  Ptolemy,  the  latitude  of  Herouiu 
 was  29°  50',  and  that  of  Clysma  28°  50'.     According  to 
 Ulug  Beg,  the  latitude  of  Kolsum  was  29°  30'.     Now  if 
 the  reader  will  take  the  trouble  to  consult  a  map,  he  will 
 perceive  that  these  positions   are   impassible  ;  that  of 
 Herouni  would  be  7'  south  of  the  present  head  of  the 
 gulf  at  Suez,  while  that  of  Clysma  would  be  far  down 
 the  gulf,  where  no  town  and  no  communication  with  the 
 interior  ever  existed.     These  observations  of  Ptolemy 
 then  must  be  erroneous,  and   permit  no  well-founded 
 argument  to  be  derived  from  them.     But  the  position 
 assigned  to   Kolsum  by  Ulug  Beg  is,  in  fact,  within  a 
 few  minutes  of  a  degree  of  that  of  Clysma,  and  the  dif- 
 ference is  on  the  south  instead  of  the  north.     Whether 
 Heroum  ever  stood  on  the  gulf,  as  Mr  Bryant  infers,  or, 
 in  other  words,  whether  the  gulf  ever  extended  up  to 
 that  city,  is  not  here  of  consequence.     The   canal   of 
 Ptolemy  Philadelphus  passed  by  it  in  its  way  to  the  Red 
 Sea ;  but  it  cannot  be  shown  that  it  ever  stood  on  its 
 shores.     AVhether  it  did  or  not,  does  not,  in  fact,  affect 
 the  calculations  in  question  ;  the  latitudes  are  evidently 
 erroneous,  and  all  conclusions  derived  from  them  must 
 be  erroneous  also.    The  actual  distance,  however,  given 
 by  Ptolemy,  between  Heroum  and  Clysma,  may  be  cor- 
 rect, though  not  on  the  meridian.     This  distance  is,  in 
 fact,  corroborated  by  Antoninus,  who  makes  it  sixty-eight 
 miles ;  but  then  it  is  not  in  a  direct  line  from  north  to 
 south,  but  in  a  south-eastern  one,  which  diminishes  the 
 amount  in  point  of  latitude  one-half,  or  to  thirty-four 
 miles,  equal    as    near    as   may  be  to   half  a   degree. 
 D'Anville  has  placed  Clysma  in  29°  40'  north  latitude, 
 and  Heroum,  or  Heroopolis,  in  30°  17';  difference  37', 
 equal  to  about  forty -three  English,  or  forty-seven  Roman 
 miles;  to  which,  if  half  of  the  amount,  or  23.}  miles  be 
 added  for  the  easting,  it  comes  as  near  the  distance  of 
 Antoninus  as  can  be  expected. 
 
 Nothing,  then,  in  these  calculations  affects  the  true 
 position  of  either  Clysma  or  Kolsum,  or  the  arguments 
 founded  on  their  identity.  One  thing,  indeed,  is  clear  : 
 that  no  measurement  from  Heroum,  on  the  Trajanus 
 Amnis,  to  Kolsum  at  Suez,  will  give  the  required  dis- 
 tance between  the  former  and  Clysma  ;  and  as  to  the 
 difficulties  which  have  been  supposed  to  have  arisen  out 
 of  the  identity  of  the  two  places,  they  may,  it  is  hoped, 
 be  shown  to  be  far  from  formidable.  These  difficulties 
 have  chiefly  arisen  from  the  frivolous  and  sceptical 
 arguments  of  the  celebrated  traveller  Niebuhr  ;  which 
 are  altogether  founded  in  misconception,  and  in  a  cul- 
 pable inattention  to  the  scope  and  letter  of  the  sacred 
 history  ;  and  which  from  a  writer  of  less  repute  would 
 be  totally  undeserving  of  notice. 
 
 In  the  first  place,  then,  this  author,  overlooking  the 
 obvious  route  of  the  Israelites  round  by  Etham,  which 
 he  himself  places  at  the  head  of  the  gulf,  makes  them 
 pass  through  the  valley  of  Bedea  to  the  sea  ;  and  then 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT    &;c. 
 
 291 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALE 
 
 wonders  how  they  could  be  said  to  be  '  entangled  in  the 
 land,  and  stmt  in  by  the  wilderness,'  with  the  way  open 
 before  them  straight  up  to  Suez.  This  obvious  difficulty 
 is  sufficient  alone  to  show  that  this  was  not  their  route. 
 Yet  the  intelligent  Bruce  has  fallen  into  the  same  error. 
 Niebuhr  reasons  on  the  march  of  the  Israelites  as  on  that 
 of  a  modern  caravan  ;  and  intimates,  that  as  no  mention 
 is  made  of  their  being  apprized  that  a  miracle  would  he 
 wrought  for  their  deliverance,  it  is  not  likely  that  they 
 would  suder  themselves  to  be  led  blindfold  into  such  a 
 snare.  "  Amongst  so  many  thousand  persons,"  says 
 he,  "  some  would  be  well  acquainted  with  the  way,  and 
 would  surely  have  opposed  the  design  of  Moses,  if  he 
 had  made  them  take  a  route  which  plainly  led  to  their 
 destruction.  One  need  only  travel  with  a  caravan  which 
 meets  with  the  least  obstacle,  a  small  torrent  for  instance, 
 to  be  convinced  that  the  Orientals  are  not  deficient  in 
 intelligence,  and  that  they  do  not  suffer  themselves  to 
 be  led  like  fools  by  their  Caravan-Baschi,"  or  leader. 
 After  indulging  in  this  style  of  reasoning,  our  author, 
 wishing  to  diminish  the  force  of  the  miracle,  though  not 
 entirely  to  destroy  it,  contends  for  a  higher  passage 
 near  Suez,  where  the  channel  is  narrower,  and  the  pas- 
 sage itself  may  be  supposed  to  have  come  more  within 
 the  reach  of  natural  causes ;  and  here,  to  give  some 
 countenance  to  his  argument,  are  the  ruins  of  a  town 
 called  Kolsum.  And  as  the  Arabic  tradition  has  always 
 placed  the  site  of  the  miracle  near  that  town ;  as  the 
 name  of  this  town  is  also  supposed  to  be  only  a  variation 
 of  Clysma  ;  and  has,  further,  been  taken  by  travellers  to 
 be  the  same  with  Arsinoe,  or  Suez  ;  Mr  Bryant  took  the 
 above-mentioned  mode  of  proving-  that  they  were  not 
 the  same  :  in  doing  which  he  proved  too  much.  But  if 
 the  ruins  in  question  be  indeed  those  of  a  town  called 
 Kolsum,  there  is  nothing  conclusive  to  be  drawn  from 
 thence.  The  original  town  of  this  name  was  very  pro- 
 bably built  on  the  true  site  of  Clysma  ;  from  whence,  in 
 course  of  time,  for  greater  convenience  of  trade,  or  to 
 be  nearer  water,  or  for  many  purposes  with  which  we 
 may  be  unacquainted,  it  was  removed  to  the  site  of  the 
 present  ruins,  carrying  its  name  along  with  it.  This  is 
 nothing  more  than  what  is  perfectly  analogous  to  what 
 has  happened  in  every  country.  Or  if  these  ruins  be 
 those  of  the  first  and  only  town  of  Kolsum,  what  is  there 
 improbable  in  the  supposition  that  this  name  should  have 
 been  given  to  it  ?  The  distance  from  Clysma  is  com- 
 paratively insignificant :  the  event  which  the  name  re- 
 cords was  too  stupendous  to  be  forgotten  ;  while  the 
 precise  spot  in  which  it  occurred,  might,  to  the  unlettered 
 Arabs,  though  known  to  be  near,  be  totally  lost. 
 
 We  again,  then,  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  posi- 
 tion of  this  town,  and  its  being  or  not  the  same  as 
 Clysma,  cannot  mislead  us.  Niebuhr,  then,  stands  inex- 
 cused,  even  upon  this  principle,  in  endeavouring  to  fritter 
 the  miracle  down  to  nothing,  by  placing  it  in  a  narrow 
 and  shallow  part  of  the  channel;  and  the  following 
 argument,  like  most  of  his  others  on  this  subject,  admits 
 as  little  of  palliation  :  "  Pharaoh,"  says  he,  "  would  not 
 appear  to  me  to  have  been  inconsiderate  in  attempt- 
 ing to  pass  the  sea  at  Suez,  where  it  is  not  above  half  a 
 league  over  ;  but  he  must  have  lost  all  prudence,  if,  after 
 seeing  such  prodigies  in  Egypt,  he  ventured  to  enter  the 
 sea  where  it  was  more  than  three  leagues  in  breadth." 
 
 These  remarks  of  Niebuhr  were  called  forth  by  some 
 
 S,  A.  M.  8764.  A.  C.  1647.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28-SUM.  xviii. 
 sceptical  queries  proposed  by  the  celebrated  critic  Mi- 
 chaelis;  namely,  "  Whether  there  were  not  some  ridges 
 of  rocks  where  the  water  was  shallow,  so  that  an  army  at 
 particular  times  may  pass  over?  Secondly,  Whether 
 the  Etesian  winds,  which  blow  strongly  from  the  north- 
 west, could  not  blow  so  violently  against  the  sea  as  to 
 keep  it  back  on  aheap,  so  that  the  Israelites  might  have 
 passed  without  a  miracle  ?"  How  different  to  those  of 
 Niebuhr  are  the  observations  of  the  sensible  Bruce  to 
 whom  the  same  queries  were  proposed  !  These  observa- 
 tions are  indeed  inimitable  ;  and  the  author  quotes  them 
 at  length  with  the  greater  pleasure  as  he  has  more  than 
 once,  in  the  course  of  the  present  work,  found  occasion 
 to  dissent  from  his  opinions. 
 
 "  I  must  confess,"  says  Mr  Bruce,  "however  learned 
 the  gentlemen  were  who  proposed  these  doubts,  1  did 
 not  think  they  merited  any  attention  to  solve  them.  This 
 passage  is  told  us  by  Scripture  to  be  a  miraculous  one; 
 and  if  so;  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  natural  causes.  If 
 we  do  not  believe  Moses,  we  need  not  believe  the  trans- 
 action at  all,  seeing  that  it  is  from  his  authority  alone 
 we  derive  it.  If  we  believe  in  God  that  he  made  the 
 sea,  we  must  believe  he  could  divide  it  when  he  sees 
 proper  reason;  and  of  that  he  must  be  the  only  judge. 
 It  is  no  greater  miracle  to  divide  the  Red  Sea,  than  to 
 divide  the  river  Jordan. 
 
 "  If  the  Etesian  wind,  blowing  from  the  north-west  in 
 summer,  could  keep  up  the  sea  as  a  wall  on  the  right,  or 
 to  the  south,  of  fifty  feet  high,  still  the  difficulty  would 
 remain  of  building  the  wall  on  the  left,  or  to  the  north. 
 Besides,  water  standing  in  that  position  for  a  day,  must 
 have  lost  the  nature  of  fluid.  Whence  came  that  cohesion 
 of  particles  which  hindered  that  wall  to  escape  at  the 
 sides  ?  This  is  as  great  a  miracle  as  that  of  Moses.  If 
 the  Etesian  winds  had  done  this  once,  they  must  have 
 repeated  it  many  a  time  before  and  since,  from  the  same 
 causes.  Yet  Diodorus  Siculus,  '  says,  the  Troglodytes, 
 the  indigenous  inhabitants,  of  that  very  spot,  had  a  tradi- 
 tion from  father  to  son  from  their  very  earliest  ages,  that 
 once  this  division  of  the  sea  did  happen  there  ;  and  that 
 after  leaving  its  bottom  some  time  dry,  the  sea  again 
 came  back,  and  covered  it  with  great  fury.  The  words 
 of  this  author  are  of  the  most  remarkable  kind  :  we  can- 
 not think  this  heathen  is  writing  in  favour  of  revelation  : 
 he  knew  not  Moses,  nor  says  a  word  about  Pharaoh  and 
 his  host;  but  records  the  miracle  of  the  division  of  the 
 sea  in  words  nearly  as  strong  as  those  of  Moses,  from 
 the  mouths  of  unbiassed,  undesigning  pagans. 
 
 "  Were  all  these  difficulties  surmounted,  what  could  we 
 do  with  the  pillar  of  fire  ?  The  answer  is, — We  should 
 not  believe  it.  Why  then  believe  the  passage  at  all? 
 We  have  no  authority  for  the  one  :  but  what  is  for  the 
 other:  it  is  altogether  contrary  to  the  ordinary  nature  of 
 things  :  and  if  not  a  miracle  it  must  be  a  fable," 
 
 The  instrument  employed  by  the    Almighty   lor  the 
 
 division  of  the  sea.  IS  said  to  be  '  a  Btrong  east  wind.' 
 But  it  is  remarkable  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  na- 
 tural east  w  inil  in  all  this  country  :  the  monsoon  blows 
 invariably  half  the  year  from  the  north,  or  north-north- 
 west, and  the  other  half  from  the  opposite  points. 
 
 Some  authors  have  supposed,  thai  Moses  having  lived 
 long  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Red  Sea.  had  become 
 
 1  B.  :i.  p.  1 K. 
 
292 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3764.  A.  C.  1647.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28.— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 acquainted  with  the  phenomena  of  its  tides,  and  took 
 advantage  of  the  time  of  ebb  to  pass  ;  while  Pharaoh, 
 less  acquainted  with  them,  rashly  ventured  in  and  was 
 swallowed  up.  It  was  thus  that  the  priests  of  Memphis 
 explained  the  miracle.  But  this  subterfuge  falls  at  once 
 to  the  ground,  as  the  tides  in  this  sea  are  exceedingly 
 trilling ;  the  difference  between  high  and  low  water  at 
 Suez  never  being  more,  according  to  Nicbuhr,  than  from 
 three  to  four  feet. 
 
 In  the  maps  and  descriptions  accompanying  Calmet's 
 dictionary,  the  Israelites  are  represented  to  have  crossed 
 the  gulf  at  Kolsum,  or  Suez,  where  Niebuhr  places  the 
 pas-age.  Baal-Zephon  is  made  to  be  Suez  ;  Migdol, 
 Magdolus,  far  to  the  north  in  the  isthmus ;  and  Pi-hahi- 
 roth,  the  mouth  of  the  gullet  now  filled  up  with  sand. 
 Without  entering  into  any  further  discussion  on  the 
 situation  of  these  places  than  has  already  been  done, 
 there  are  two  weighty  arguments,  in  addition  to  those 
 before  advanced,  against  such  an  opinion.     The  first  is, 
 
 That  in  this  position  the  Israelites  were  in  an  open 
 
 country,  with  no  natural  barriers  by  which  they  could 
 have  been  said  to  have  been  so  '  entangled  in  the  land' 
 as  to  be  considered  a  certain  and  easy  prey  to  the 
 Egyptians  ;  nor  could  the  latter  doubt  but  that  their  ad- 
 vance through  such  a  country  would  be  perceived  by  the 
 Israelites,  time  enough  to  evade  the  pursuit,  and  to  effect 
 a  retreat  into  the  Desert,  by  resuming  their  tract,  and 
 rounding  the  head  of  the  gulf.  But  the  position  twenty 
 miles  lower  down,  shut  in  on  all  sides  by  the  sea  and  by 
 mountains,  except  a  narrow  opening  towards  the  north, 
 precluded,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Egyptians  (who  made  no 
 attempt  to  pursue  them,  till  informed  of  their  critical 
 situation),  all  possibility  of  escape,  if  they  could  reach 
 unperceived  the  entrance  to  this  defile,  which,  under 
 cover  of  the  long  mountain  barrier,  on  the  west,  acting 
 as  a  screen,  they  were  enabled  to  do. 
 
 The  next  objection  to  the  above  opinion  is,  that  the 
 gulf  narrowing  as  it  advances  northwards,  the  point  at 
 which  the  passage  is  supposed  to  have  been  effected, 
 is,  according  to  the  scale  of  the  maps  in  question,  scarcely 
 a  mile  in  width  ;  which  takes  much  from  the  sublimity  at 
 least  of  the  miracle,  if  not  from  the  reality  of  it.  And 
 if  it  be  contended  that  the  passage  through  a  mile  of 
 water  is  no  less  a  miracle  than  that  of  nine,  which  is  not 
 denied,  or  than  that  of  the  Jordan,  of  far  less  breadth, 
 where  without  an  equal  miracle  a  passage  could  certainly 
 not  have  been  effected  ;  it  is  replied,  that  we  have  not 
 merely  to  seek  a  body  of  water,  the  division  of  which 
 was  sufficient  to  amount  to  a  miracle,  but  an  expanse, 
 the  returning  surge  of  which  could  bury  at  once  the 
 numerous  army  of  the  Egyptians,  consisting  of  '  six  hun- 
 dred chosen  chariots,  and  all  the  chariots  of  Egypt,'  with 
 horse  and  foot,  amounting  no  doubt  to  many  thousands. 
 It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  .number  implied  by  all 
 the  chariots  of  Egypt ;  but  if  we  may  judge  by  those  with 
 which  Shishak  invaded  Judea,  they  were  not  less  than 
 1200  :  the  proportion  of  horsemen  to  which  was  60,000, 
 with  people  on  foot  out  of  number.  Even  supposing  the 
 whole  army  not  to  have  exceeded  this  number,  it  is  im- 
 possible to  conceive  such  a  body,  together  with  1200 
 chariots  with  their  horses,  impacted  in  the  closest  order 
 in  which  it  is  possible  for  an  army  to  move  on  the  line 
 of  march,  and  with  every  allowable  extension  laterally, 
 6hould  all  be  engulfed  together  in  the  waters  of  a  sea  a 
 
 mile  wide,  and  where,  from  the  sandy  and  shelving  nature 
 of  the  beach  on  both  sides,  the  centre  only  would  afford 
 sufficient  depth.  For  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  front 
 of  Pharaoh's  army  was  still  standing  on  the  bed  of  the 
 sea,  when  the  rear  had  also  entered  it. 
 
 Nor  does  it  appear  that  the  original  channel  of  the 
 gulf,  to  the  north  of  its  present  termination,  has  been 
 filled  up  by  sand,  as  supposed.  There  is  a  remarkable 
 statement  of  Burckhardt,  when  crossing  this  tract,  which 
 renders  this  supposition  next  to  impossible.  He  ob- 
 served the  ground,  about  five  miles  north  of  Suez, 
 and  beyond  the  present  high  water  mark  in  the  marshy 
 creek,  covered  with  a  saline  crust,  and  traversed,  in  the 
 direction  of  the  ancient  channel,  with  a  layer  of  small 
 white  shells,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  over  ;  while  still 
 farther  to  the  north  are  salt  marshes.  These  are  un- 
 doubted proofs  that  the  sea  once  extended  over  this 
 ground  ;  and  that  the  cause  of  its  retreat  is  not  the  influx 
 of  sand,  but  the  gradual  recession  of  the  sea  itself — a 
 phenomenon  common  to  all  inland  seas.  If  the  former 
 had  been  the  case,  the  shells  which  mark  the  true  bed  of 
 the  sea,  which  once  covered  them,  as  well  as  the  saline 
 crust,  must  have  been  buried  also.  But  the  inference 
 from  these  discoveries,  the  most  to  our  purpose  in  the 
 present  inquiry,  is,  that  although  this  part  was  once 
 covered  by  the  waters  of  the  gulf,  the  change  has  been 
 effected  by  a  very  trifling  subsidence  of  its  level.  If 
 sand  had  been  the  agent  employed  in  effecting  this  change 
 it  might  be  contended  that  the  channel  had  been  filled 
 up  to  an  indefinite  depth ;  but  the  shelly  bed  refutes  this 
 idea,  and  shows  that  the  present  level  of  the  ground  was 
 at  some  time  or  other  the  true  bed  of  the  estuary,  which, 
 it  cannot  be  doubted,  a  rise  of  a  few  feet  above  the  pre- 
 sent level  of  the  sea  would  again  cover,  as  well  as  the 
 marshes  beyond  it.  To  draw  accurate  conclusions  from 
 these  premises  it  should  also  be  known,  by  other  marks, 
 what  the  actual  fall  of  the  sea  has  been  :  but  as  the  coun- 
 try for  a  considerable  extent  on  both  sides,  is  represented 
 as  a  plain,  and  the  saline  crust  is  limited  to  a  stripe  in 
 the  centre,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  fall  cannot  have 
 been  great.  The  canal  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphia  also 
 taking  this  direction,  shows  how  little  was  the  inclination 
 of  the  ground. 
 
 All  these  difficulties  are  removed  by  fixing  the  pas- 
 sage where  it  has  been  placed  above,  namely,  twenty 
 miles  below  Suez,  opposite  the  valley  of  Bedea  :  where 
 every  thing  conspired  at  once  to  cover  the  advance  of 
 Pharaoh,  and  to  render  the  escape  of  the  Israelites  im- 
 possible without  a  miracle ;  where  the  channel  was 
 sufficiently  deep  and  broad  to  make  that  miracle  worthy 
 of  its  author  and  its  object ;  and  where  without  a  second 
 miracle,  was  sufficient  space  to  receive  the  entire  host 
 of  the  Egyptians,  so  that  they  should  be  at  once  over- 
 whelmed, without  the  escape  of  a  single  man. 
 
 The  precise  place  of  the  transit  may,  then,  with  as 
 much  certainty  as  we  can  ever  hope  to  arrive  at,  be  fixed 
 at  the  embouchure  of  the  valley  of  Bedea,  or  about  twenty 
 miles  below  Suez  ;  where,  according  to  Bruce,  the  gulf 
 is  three  leagues  over,  with  fourteen  fathoms  of  water  in 
 the  channel ;  and  where  the  division  of  the  waters  would 
 indeed  form  '  a  wall'  of  fearful  aspect,  on  the  right  hand 
 and  on  the  left.  It  may  also  be  added,  on  the  authority 
 of  the  same  traveller,  and  as  an  additional  corrobora- 
 tion, that  the  north  cape  of  the  bay,  opposite  the  valley 
 
Sect.  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 293 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 of  Bedea,  which  marks  the  place  of  the  ancient  creek  of 
 Clysma,  is  called  Ras  Musa,  or  the  cape  of  Moses. 
 
 Arrived  on  the  opposite  shore,  the  Israelites  entered 
 the  desert  of  Etham  ;  where  is  a  sandy  and  gravelly 
 plain,  called  by  Niebuhr,  Etti,  and  by  Burckhardt,  El 
 Alitha — both  bearing-  sufficient  vestiges  of  the  ancient 
 name  of  the  country.  In  this  wilderness  they  went  three 
 days'  journey,  which  brought  them  to  Marah  ;  whose  bit- 
 ter waters  were  rendered  sweet  for  their  use.  The  posi- 
 tion of  Marah  answers  to  that  of  the  bitter  well  of 
 Howara,  about  eighteen  hours  from  Suez.  Burckhardt 
 says,  that  this  is  the  usual,  and,  as  it  appears,  the  exclu- 
 sive route  to  Mount  Sinai.  He  says  also  that  there  is  no 
 other  road  of  three  days'  march  in  the  way ;  nor  any 
 other  well  absolutely  bitter  on  the  whole  of  this  coast  as 
 far  as  Ras  Mohammed,  at  the  entrance  of  the  gulf. 
 Burckhardt,  indeed,  has  adopted  the  error  of  Niebuhr  in 
 supposing  the  transit  to  have  been  near  Suez,  and  reckons 
 his  three  days  to  Howara  accordingly.  But  his  argu- 
 ments with  respect  to  this  place  will  answer  equally  well 
 if  we  deHuct  twenty  miles,  or  about  six  hours,  for  the 
 difference  in  the  distance  between  Suez  and  the  true 
 place  of  passage.  There  will  then  remain  twelve  hours, 
 or  three  days  of  four  hours,  equal  to  about  twelve  miles 
 for  each  day's  journey — a  rate  of  progress  which  may  be 
 considered  as  sufficiently  suited  to  the  condition  of  a 
 people  who  had  just  escaped  from  the  presence  of  an 
 enemy ;  who  now  could  have  no  doubt  of  their  perfect 
 safety ;  and  had  nothing  to  impel  them  to  the  forced 
 marches  which  they  had  made  from  Rameses  to  Clysma. 
 
 The  next  journey  was  to  Elim ;  where  were  '  twelve 
 wells  of  water,  and  threescore  and  ten  palm  trees.'  Both 
 Niebuhr  and  Burckhardt  agree  in  placing  Elim  in  the 
 Wady  Gharendel,  distant  three  hours  from  Howara  ; 
 which  answers  very  well  with  the  rate  of  march  above 
 assumed,  in  a  country,  too,  where  the  position  of  the 
 encampments  must  be  regulated  very  much  by  the  situa- 
 tion of  water.  In  the  wady  or  valley  of  Gharendel, 
 which  is  about  a  mile  broad,  are  date  or  palm  trees, 
 tamarisks,  and  acacias ;  and  a  copious  spring.  This 
 single  spring,  unusually  abundant  for  this  arid  country, 
 may  be  considered  rather  as  a  confirmation  of  the  opinion, 
 than  as  an  argument  against  it ;  as  Niebuhr  attests,  that 
 water  may  easily  be  obtained  any  where  by  digging  for 
 it,  although  the  apertures  will  quickly  be  rilled  up  again 
 by  the  sands.  To  search,  in  fact,  after  a  lapse  of  3500 
 years,  for  the  identical  twelve  wells  of  Elim,  rudely  con- 
 structed in  a  sandy  soil,  is  little  better  than  absurd.  The 
 wells  of  rocky  countries,  indeed,  are  perhaps  the  most 
 durable  of  all  the  monuments  of  antiquity,  and  serve  to 
 fix  with  unerring  certainty  the  scene  of  many  a  memor- 
 able event ;  but  the  case  is  widely  otherwise  on  a  moving 
 surface  of  sand,  where  the  shallow  excavations,  and  the 
 simple  masonry  of  Arabs,  would  not  require  centuries  to 
 obliterate  :  or,  which  is  frequently  the  case,  the  wells 
 may  have  been  wantonly  destroyed  in  the  dissen- 
 sions of  the  tribes.  It  is  sufficient  that  water  exists 
 here  in  abundance,  and  is  to  be  obtained  in  as  many 
 wells  as  the  traveller  chooses  to  dig;  while  the  accord- 
 ance of  this  position  with  the  next  movement  from 
 Howara,  and  the  absence  of  any  other  springs  that  could 
 be  relied  upon  for  a  distance  of  many  hours  in  the  same 
 route,  leave  little  doubt  of  its  being  that  of  Elim.  Former 
 travellers,  indeed,  amongst  whom  are  Monconys,  Theve- 
 
 A.  M.  37G4.  A.  C.  1G47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 not,  Pococke,  and  Shaw,  considered  a  valley  near  Tor, 
 where  are  date-trees  and  springs,  to  be  Elim  ;  an  opi- 
 nion which  has  been  supported  by  Mr  Bryant,  who 
 endeavours  also  to  show  that  this  position  was  the  same 
 witli  the  Phoenicon,  or  palm-grove,  of  Strata  and  Diod- 
 orus,  which  it  probably  was  ;  but  it  cannot,  with  strict 
 attention  to  the  route  of  the  Israelites,  be  considered  ai 
 Elim.  In  the  first  place,  the  distance  from  Howara  to 
 Tor  is  little  less  than  a  hundred  miles  ;  and  as  all  the 
 stations  in  this  part  of  the  journey  appear  to  be  laid 
 down  with  great  accuracy  ;  as  no  mention  is  made  of  any 
 between  Marah  and  Elim;  and  as  the  Israelites  were 
 hastening  to  mount  Sinai,  we  have  no  reason  to  conclude 
 that  any  halt  did  actually  take  place  ;  and  with  still  less 
 reason  can  we  suppose  this  distance  to  have  been  per- 
 formed in  a  single  march.  In  the  next  place,  if  Elim  be 
 Tor,  the  four  encampments  between  that  place  and  Sinai 
 will  be  crowded  into  a  space  which  it  is  difficult  to  recon- 
 cile with  any  motive,  or  with  any  similar  rate  of  progress 
 in  other  parts  of  the  march.  After  quitting  Elim,  the 
 Israelites  encamped  by  the  Red  Sea;  then  in  the  wilder- 
 ness of  Sin ;  then  at  Dophkah ;  then  at  Alush  ;  then  at 
 Rephidim  ;  and  then  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai.  Now 
 the  rocky  region  which  constitutes  the  desert  of  Sinai, 
 extends  to  within  twenty  miles  of  the  coast ;  so  that  the 
 four  encampments,  from  that  on  the  Red  Sea,  to  Rephi- 
 dim, at  the  edge  of  the  desert,  could  not  have  been  more 
 than  four  or  five  miles  apart :  a  series  of  petty  move- 
 ments across  the  barren  plain  of  El  Kaa,  i\hich,  if  they 
 had  been  making  their  approaches  to  a  fortress,  might 
 have  had  some  object,  but  which,  in  the  situation  in  which 
 they  were,  must  have  been  frivolous  and  vexatious,  and 
 without  a  parallel  elsewhere.  Nor  is  it  likely,  as  Sinai 
 was  their  destination,  that  they  should  have  retrograded 
 without  any  mention  being  made  of  such  a  course,  or 
 any  cause  assigned  for  it.  Lastly,  the  position  of  Elim 
 at  Tor  is  incompatible  with  the  situation  of  the  desert  of 
 Sin.  This  desert  is  expressly  said  (Exod.  xvi.  I.)  to 
 have  been  between  Elim  and  Sinai ;  but  it  could  only 
 have  formed  a  small  part  of  the  distance,  as  only  one  of 
 the  live  intervening  encampments  took  place  within  its 
 limits.  In  Num.  xxxiii.  10 — 12,  it  is  said,  that  the 
 Israelites  '  removed  from  Elim,  and  encamped  by  the 
 Red  Sea;  and  they  removed  from  the  Red  Sea,  and 
 encamped  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin  ;  and  they  took  their 
 journey  out  of  the  wilderness  of  Sin,  and  encamped  at 
 Dophkah.'  Now  the  whole  space  between  Tor  and  the 
 encampment  of  the  desert  of  Sinai,  is  a  plain,  hearing 
 one  name,  and  but  of  one  day's  journey,  bounded  BTOTJ 
 way  to  the  north  by  the  group  of  Sinai ;  so  that  the 
 Israelites  quitting  the  wilderness  of  Sin  after  a  single 
 encampment  in  it,  must  either  have  retraced  their  .steps 
 towards  Elim,  or  have  proceeded  towards  the  ea-tern  or 
 Elanitic  gulf  of  the  lied  Sea,  beyond  Sinai   altogether: 
 
 of  neither  of  which  circumstances  is  an)  intimation  given; 
 
 on  the  contrary,  both  are  at  variance  with  the  order  of 
 the  route,  and  the  destination  of  the  people,  which  was 
 Sinai,  to  receive  the  law.  But  in  the  Datura!  and  estab- 
 lished route,  the  whole  is  conformable  with  the  scripture 
 
 narrative,  and  confirmed  by  the  local  knowledge  we 
 
 p088eSS  of  the  country. 
 
 From  the  desert  of  Etham  to  the  second  march  beyond 
 
 Elim,  the  road,  as  it  does  now,  ran  parallel  with  the  gulf 
 
 of  Suez,  and  at  DO  great  distance  from   it.      At  the  end 
 
294 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES 
 
 of  the  first  day's  march  from  Elim,  an  indentation  of  the 
 coast  brought  them  at  once  upon  the  sea,  where  was  the 
 encampment  mentioned.  Towards  the  end  of  the  second, 
 the  coast,  which  had  hitherto  inclined  in  a  south-east 
 direction,  turning  directly  to  the  south,  quite  away  from 
 the  direct  road  to  Sinai,  obliged  them  to  quit  the  vicinity 
 of  the  sea,  which  they  had  hitherto  constantly  had  on 
 their  right  hand,  and  to  enter  farther  into  the  heart  of 
 the  desert ;  which  in  that  part  bore  the  name  of  Sin. 
 This  is  precisely  the  route  pursued  at  the  present  day  ; 
 and  near  the  point  where  the  road  leaves  the  coast,  at 
 the  south-west  foot  of  the  mountainous  ridge  called  El 
 Tyh,  is  the  sandy  plain  of  El  Seyh,  extending  two  days' 
 journey  eastward.  The  western  extremity  of  this  plain 
 only  would  the  Israelites  have  to  cross,  which  they  would 
 soon  traverse,  and  have  only  one  encampment  to  make 
 on  its  surface  ;  when  the  remaining-  stations  of  Dophkah, 
 Alush,  and  Rephidim,  would  bring  them,  by  marches  of 
 fifteen  or  sixteen  miles,  to  the  borders  of  the  desert  of 
 Sinai. 
 
 Of  Dophkah  and  Alush,  we  can  only  know  the  relative 
 situations;  and  as  nothing  more  is  said  of  them  than' 
 their  bare  mention  as  places  of  passage,  it  is  of  little 
 consequence.  But  to  Rephidim  much  interest  is  attached. 
 Here,  or  hard  by,  the  miraculous  supply  of  water  took 
 place  ;  and  here  the  Israelites  were,  for  the  first  time, 
 attacked  by  their  implacable  enemies  the  Amalekites.  It 
 is  not  a  little  curious,  that  a  person  of  Mr  Bryant's 
 sagacity  should  have  found  it  necessary,  in  order  to 
 explain  this  attack  of  the  Amalekites,  to  carry  Rephidim 
 far  up  to  the  northward,  towards  the  borders  of  that 
 people.  There  is  nothing  surely  surprising  in  a  people, 
 who  were  probably  apprized  of  the  ultimate  destination 
 of  the  Israelites,  wishing  to  carry  the  war  from  their 
 own  homes,  and,  by  advancing  on  their  enemy,  to  attack 
 him  at  a  disadvantage.  But  in  Exod.  xvii.  8,  it  is  said, 
 that  Ainalek  '  came  and  fought  with  Israel  at  Rephidim.' 
 And  in  1  Sam.  xv.  2,  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  1 
 remember  that  which  Amalek  did  to  Israel,  how  he  laid 
 wait  for  him  in  the  way  when  he  came  up  from  Egypt:' 
 that  is,  that  he  came  down  to  Rephidim,  and  took  the 
 Israelites  by  surprise.  It  could  not  have  been  repre- 
 sented in  this  way,  if  the  latter  had  approached  the  terri- 
 tories of  the  Amalekites.  To  set  this  question  at  rest, 
 however,  the  Israelites  were  encamped  at  Rephidim 
 when  they  were  miraculously  supplied  with  water  from 
 Horeb ;  consequently  it  must  have  been  close  to  that 
 mountain,  or,  in  other  words,  on  the  edge  of  the  desert 
 of  Sinai,  where  it  has  already  been  placed. 
 
 The  next  encampment,  after  that  at  Rephidim,  was  in 
 the  desert  of  Sinai  itself,  where  the  people  arrived  in 
 the  third  month,  and  where  they  remained  encamped 
 eleven  months,  during  which  time  the  law  was  delivered. 
 
 At  length,  on  the  20th  day  of  the  second  month,  in  the 
 second  year,  the  signal  for  removing  from  Sinai  was 
 given  by  the  pillar  of  the  cloud  being  removed  from  the 
 tabernacle,  and  preceding  the  line  of  march  into  the 
 wilderness  of  Paran  ;  into  which,  or  at  least  from  their 
 encampment  in  the  desert  of  Sinai,  the  Israelites 
 advanced  for  three  days  before  a  convenient  resting- 
 place,  for  any  time,  was  found  them,  in  all  probability 
 for  want  of  water.  The  lirst  station  in  this  wilderness 
 of  Paran,  '  that  great  and  terrible  wilderness,'  which 
 extended    all    the   way    from    Sinai    to  the    borders  of 
 
 A.  M.  37C4.  A.  C.  1G47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 Canaan,  and  in  which  they  spent  the  greatest  part  of  the 
 time  they  were  condemned  to  wander,  was  at  Taberah, 
 or  Kibroth-hattaavah  :  the  former  name  being  given  by 
 Moses,  because  here  many  of  the  people  were  consumed 
 by  lire  from  heaven  for  their  complaining  ;  and  the  latter, 
 because,  at  the  same  place,  the  people  lusted  for  flesh, 
 and  many  more  died  while  the  quails,  which  had  been 
 miraculously  sent  them,  were  yet  in  their  mouths.  From 
 this  place,  the  stations  mentioned  northwards  are  Hazer- 
 oth,  Rithmah,  Rimmon-parez,  Libnah,  and  Kadesh- 
 barnea,  where  the  camp  was  lixed  while  the  spies  were 
 sent  to  explore  the  promised  land ;  from  whose  evil 
 report  the  people  were  so  intimidated,  and  so  unmindful 
 of  the  promises  they  had  received,  and  the  protection 
 they  were  under,  that,  as  a  punishment  for  their  ingrati- 
 tude and  disobedience,  they  were  ordered  to  turn  back, 
 and  '  get  them  into  the  wilderness,  by  the  way  of  the 
 Red  Sea,'  Numb.  xiv.  25.  This  retrograde  movement 
 carried  them  back  southwards,  through  the  same  wilder- 
 ness of  Paran,  but  by  a  more  eastern  route,  nearer  mount 
 Seir,  to  Eziongeber,  on  the  eastern  gulf  of  the  Red  Sea. 
 The  stations  enumerated  in  this  route  are,  Rissah,  Kehe- 
 lathah,  mount  Shapher,  Haradah,  Makkeloth,  Tahath, 
 Tarah,  Mithcah,  Hashmonah,  Moseroth,  Bene-jaakan, 
 Hor-hagidgad,  Jot-bathah,  Ebronah,  and  Ezion-geber. 
 What  space  of  time  was  spent  in  these  several  encamp- 
 ments is  not  mentioned.  The  cloud  resting  on  the 
 tabernacle  was  the  guide  for  the  people  :  when  and 
 where  that  moved,  thither  they  followed,  and  rested 
 where  it  rested  ;  and  '  whether  it  were  two  days,  or  a 
 month,  or  a  year,  that  the  cloud  tarried  upon  the  taber- 
 nacle, remaining  thereon,  the  children  of  Israel  abode 
 in  their  tents,  and  journeyed  not ;  but  when  it  was  taken 
 up,  they  journeyed,'  Numb.  ix.  22. 
 
 In  the  map  of  this  route,  in  the  last  edition  of  Cal- 
 met's  dictionary,  it  is  made  to  extend  westward,  towards 
 Egypt,  instead  of  southward,  towards  the  Red  Sea. 
 Libnah,  stated  in  the  description  to  be  west  of  Mount 
 Hor,  is  yet  supposed  to  be  the  same  Libnah  which 
 Joshua  smote.  (Josh.  x.  29,  30.)  This  Libnah,  which 
 was  evidently  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  is  placed  by  Eusebius 
 and  Jerom  in  the  district  of  Eleutheropolis ;  and  Lachish, 
 the  next  place  taken  by  Joshua,  only  seven  miles  south 
 of  that  city.  In  fact,  the  places  successively  captured 
 by  Joshua  in  his  march  southwards  after  Makkedah, 
 were,  first  Libnah,  then  Lachish,  then  Eglon,  and  then 
 Hebron ;  consequently  both  Libnah  and  Lachish  were 
 north  of  the  last  mentioned  city.  Rissah,  the  next  place 
 in  the  route,  is  supposed  to  be  El  Arish,  and  mount 
 Shapher  mount  Casius,  on  the  confines  of  Egypt ;  but 
 this  track  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  would, 
 with  more  propriety,  have  been  termed  "  by  the  way  of 
 the  Great  Sea,"  than  of  the  Red  Sea.  Besides,  this 
 route  would  have  brought  the  Israelites  again  to  the  very 
 edge  of  Egypt,  and  within  reach  of  their  incensed  ene- 
 mies, who  may  be  supposed  in  this  interval  to  have 
 recruited  their  armies,  and  might  have  attacked  them  in 
 this  situation  to  much  greater  advantage  than  they  did  at 
 Pi-hahiroth.  But  if  no  danger  was  to  be  apprehended 
 from  hostile  attack,  there  was  another  of  greater  con- 
 sideration. '  Let  us,'  said  the  Israelites  just  before, 
 disheartened  at  their  sentence  of  retrogradation,  and 
 wearied  with  the  privations  and  monotony  of  the  desert, 
 '  Let  us  make  a  captain,  and  let  us  return  into  Egypt.' 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 29Z 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1480;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  37G4.  A.  C.  1647.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 This  was  their  ready  cry  on  all  occasions  ;  and  it  is  not 
 likely  that  God  in  his  providence,  or  Moses  in  his 
 policy,  would  have  trusted  them  so  near  a  country  whose 
 idols,  and  whose  fleshpots,  they  were  ever  hankering 
 after,  and  from  which  such  mighty  efforts  and  miracles 
 had  been  employed  to  deliver  them. 
 
 In  the  continuation  of  this  supposed  route,  Moseroth 
 is  conjectured  to  be  the  present  Fountains  of  Moses,  so 
 called,  or  Ain-el-Mousa,  seven  or  eight  miles  from  Suez. 
 This  would  bring  them  again  nearly  into  their  old  track 
 in  the  desert  of  Etham  or  Shur ;  and  it  is  strange  that  no 
 mention  should  be  made  of  these  well-known  places. 
 But  Moses  says,  that,  after  leaving  Kadesh-barnea, 
 '  they  turned,  and  took  their  journey  into  the  wilderness 
 by  the  way  of  the  Red  Sea ;  and  they  compassed  mount 
 Seir  many  days,'  Deut.  ii.  1  :  plainly  implying,  that  the 
 retrograde  route  was  not  by  the  Mediterranean  and 
 towards  Egypt,  but  towards  the  nearest  point  of  the  Red 
 Sea  in  the  route  next  designed  for  them  ;  stretching 
 along  the  western  side  of  the  desert  of  Sin  and  mount 
 Seir  to  Ezion-geber.  AY  hat  is  meant  by  the  way  of  the 
 Red  Sea,  is  further  distinctly  told  us  in  Numbers  xxi.  4; 
 where  it  is  said,  that  the  Israelites,  departing  from  Mount 
 Hor,  '  journeyed  by  the  way  of  the  Red  Sen,  to  compass 
 the  land  of  Edom ;'  or,  in  other  words,  to  get  to  the 
 eastern  side  of  that  mountainous  country  by  crossing  the 
 plain  of  Elath  and  Ezion-geber.  The  whole  of  this 
 scheme  of  the  western  route  of  the  Israelites  is,  in  fact, 
 founded  in  a  misconception  of  the  true  extent  and  posi- 
 tion of  mount  Seir.  It  is  true,  that  the  precise  situation 
 of  Libnah,or  of  either  of  the  other  stations  in  the  desert 
 after  leaving  mount  Sinai,  cannot  be  accurately  known  ; 
 but  the  general  course  of  the  route  from  Sinai  to  Kadesh- 
 barnea,  and  from  thence  to  Ezion-geber,  is  sufficiently 
 indicated. 
 
 There  is  a  curious  anachronism  in  the  above  map.  It 
 was  published  in  1808  ;  but  has  the  route  of  Burckhardt 
 in  1812  marked  on  it,  without,  however,  adopting  any 
 of  the  improvements  indicated  by  his  discoveries.  It 
 retains,  indeed,  all  the  old  errors  ;  the  insulated  and 
 northern  position  of  Mount  Hor — the  double  peak  of  a 
 single  mountain,  representing  Sinai  and  Horeb' — the 
 forked  extremity  of  the  gulf  of  Elali  or  Acaba — and  the 
 undefined  position  of  the  desert  of  Sin  ;  while  Mount 
 Seir  is  laid  down,  by  letters  only,  transversely  across  the 
 desert  of  Paran.  The  labours  of  Burckhardt  have  en- 
 abled us  to  correct  these  errors  ;  while  the  description  of 
 Moses  directs  us  where  to  trace  the  course  from  Kadesh- 
 barnea  to  Ezion-geber. 
 
 Thus  far  all  is  clear  :  but  the  ensuing  part  of  the 
 journey  is,  for  the  most  part,  but  ill  explained  by  com- 
 mentators ;  nor  lias  any  map  come  within  the  inspection 
 of  the  author,  in  which  it  is  intelligibly  laid  down.  The 
 passage  from  the  western  to  the  eastern  side  of  Mount 
 Seir,  round  by  Ezion-geber,  is  uniformly  represented  as 
 one  continuous  route  ;  Mount  Seir  itself  is  variously  dis- 
 torted from  its  true  position  ;  Mount  Hor,  an  eminence 
 of  the  former,  is  carried  high  up  towards  the  borders  of 
 Moab,  where  it  will  be  seen  that  it  could  not  possibly 
 have  been  ;  and  very  confused  notions  are  entertained  of 
 the  true  situation  of  the  desert  of  Sin.  These  inaccu- 
 racies have  arisen,  in  part,  from  a  strange  inattention 
 to  the  scripture  narrative,  and,  in  part,  from  the  geo- 
 graphical  errors   more   or   less   inseparable    from    the 
 
 want  of  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  true  features  of  a 
 country. 
 
 With  respect  to  the  first  cause  of  error,  it  will  be  the 
 author's  fault,  and  not  any  want  of  precision  in  the 
 scripture  account,  if  this  part  of  the  journey  lie  not  ren- 
 dered sufficiently  perspicuous  ;  and  to  obviate  the  latter, 
 Burckhardt  has  furnished  us  with  abundant  information 
 It  will  be  found,  indeed,  that,  instead  of  a  Bingle  pa 
 through  the  plain  of  Elath  and  Ezion-geber,  this  plain 
 was  twice  passed,  or  at  least,  that  the  places  situated  in 
 it  were  twice  visited;  and  that  Mount  Seir,  instead  of 
 having  been  merely  doubled  by  a  straight  course,  down 
 one  side  and  up  the  other,  was  four  times  skirted  at  its 
 southern  extremity,  well  illustrating  the  passage  which 
 says  '  Ye  have  encompassed  this  mountain  long  enough.1 
 In  Numbers  xxxiii.  3(i,  37,  after  the  Israelites  are  des 
 cribed  as  having  descended  to  Ezion-geber  from  their  long 
 sojourn  in  the  desert  on  the  north,  it  is  said,  '  And  they 
 removed  from  Ezion-geber,  and  pitched  in  the  wilder- 
 ness of  Sin,  which  is  Kadesh,  and  they  removed 
 from  Kadesh,  and  pitched  in  Mount  Hor,  in  the  edge  of 
 the  land  of  Edom.'  In  chapter  xx.  1,  22,  it  is  said, 
 '  Then  came  the  children  of  Israel,  even  the  whole 
 congregation,  into  the  desert  of  Sin,  in  the  first  month  ; 
 and  the  people  abode  in  Kadesh.  And  the  children  of 
 Israel,  even  the  whole  congregation,  journeyed  from 
 Kadesh,  and  came  unto  Mount  Hor  :' where  Aaron  died, 
 and  was  buried  :  and  where  a  thirty  days'  mourning 
 was  performed  for  him.  In  chapter  xxi.  4,  it  is  said, 
 'And  they  journeyed  from  Mount  Hor  by  the  wa\  of 
 the  Red  Sea,  to  compass  the  land  of  Edom.'  In  other 
 words,  the  children  of  Israel,  from  their  first  descent  to 
 Ezion-geber,  ascended  northwards,  up  the  desert  of  Sin, 
 to  Kadesh;  and  from  Kadesh  to  Mount  Hor,  'in  the 
 edge  of  Edom;'  where  having  buried  Aaron,  and  paid 
 the  last  respects  to  his  memory,  they  turned  again  south- 
 wards, to  the  plain  of  Elath  and  Ezion-geber,  to  compass 
 the  land  of  Edom,  and  enter  the  plains  of  Midian. 
 
 In  order  to  the  better  understanding  of  the  relative 
 position  of  these  places,  it  will  lie  necessary  first  to 
 describe  that  of  Mount  Seir;  which  will  form  a  key  to 
 the  rest.  Mount  Seir  of  Edom  is  a  mountain  chain, 
 which,  under  the  modern  names  of  Djebel  Sherar,  Djebel 
 Hesma,  and  Djebal,  extends  from  the  southern  extremity 
 of  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  northern  one  of  the  eastern  gulf 
 of  the  Red  Sea,  about  a  hundred  miles.  On  its  western 
 side,  it  rises  boldly  from  a  valley  which  accompanies  its 
 whole  length;  but  sinks  by  an  easier  slope  towards  the 
 east,  into  the  elevated  plains  of  Arabia  Petrtea.  Its 
 western  border  is  so  strong,  as  to  be  easily  defended  ; 
 so  that  the  Israelites,  when  denied  a  passage  bj  the  king 
 of  Edom,  dared  not  make  any  attempt  to  force  one,  but 
 were  compelled  to  return,  and  get  round  the  mountain 
 by  the  plain  of  Iv/ion-gcber.  It  was  on  a  conspicuous 
 eminence  on  this  western  border,  called  1  lor.  about  forty 
 miles  north  from  the  plain  of  Elath,  that  Aaron  died,  and 
 was  buried  by  the  Israelites — an  office  in  which,  either 
 not  alarmed,  or  informed  of  their  pious  intention,  the 
 Edomites  do  not  appear  to  have  molested  them.  Tra- 
 dition has  preserved  the   situation  of  this  mount  :   which 
 
 is  still  visited  as  the  tomb  of  Aaron,  by  both   ."Mali c- 
 
 tans  and  Christians. 
 
 This  description  of  Mount  Seir  will  facilitate  that  of 
 the  desert  of  Sin.      There  is,  as  was  observed,  a  valley 
 
296 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 stretching  along-  the  whole  western  side  of  Mount  Seir  ; 
 which,  like  it,  extends  from  the  Dead  Sea  on  the  north, 
 to  the  Red  Sea  on  the  south.  This  valley  is  a  sandy 
 plain,  at  a  low  level,  having  the  chain  of  Mount  Seir  on 
 the  east,  and  a  ridge  of  hills,  of  a  lower  elevation  than 
 those  of  Seir,  on  the  west,  and  separating  it  from  the 
 desert  of  Paran.  It  is  about  five  miles  across  ;  and  is 
 at  present  known  in  its  northern  part,  by  the  name  of  El 
 Ghor,  and  in  its  southern,  by  that  of  El  Araba  :  it  appears 
 before  the  catastrophe  of  Sodom,  to  have  afforded  a 
 course  for  the  Jordan  into  the  Red  Sea.  This  can  be 
 no  other  than  the  desert  of  Sin,  or  Kadesh ;  with  which 
 it  accords  in  all  the  required  conditions.  It  had  no 
 water ;  neither  is  there  any  there  now  : — from  hence 
 messengers  were  sent  to  request  a  passage  through  the 
 country  of  the  Edomites  ;  and  from  hence  only,  with  any 
 show  of  purpose,  could  such  a  request  be  sent : — from 
 hence,  also,  the  Israelites  ascended  Mount  Hor ;  and 
 from  hence  only  could  the  ascent  of  that  mountain  be 
 made  without  penetrating  the  whole  breadth  of  Edom 
 from  the  opposite  side,  where  it  is  clear  that  they  never 
 yet  had  been  : — and,  lastly,  into  this  desert  it  was  that 
 the  Israelites  entered  from  the  plain  of  Elath  and  Ezion- 
 geber  ;  and  this  valley  does  strictly  open  from  that  plain, 
 and  is  the  only  desert  region  answering  to  the  name  and 
 the  narrative  into  which  they  possibly  could  enter  :  they 
 could  not,  in  fact,  move  from  their  encampment  at  Ezion- 
 geber  in  any  other  direction,  without  passing  to  the  east 
 of  Mount  Seir,  which,  as  has  been  shown,  they  did  not 
 do  till  after  their  return  from  Mount  Hor,  or  retracing 
 their  steps  into  the  desert  of  Paran,  which  it  is  equally 
 certain  they  did  not  do. 
 
 This  desert  was  likewise  called  Kadesh  :  in  which 
 also  was  a  place  more  particularly  so  termed,  and 
 situated  in  the  '  uttermost  border'  of  Edom,  that  is  to 
 say,  at  the  very  foot  of  the  chain,  bordering  on  the 
 desert;  from  whence  the  Israelites  sent  messengers  to 
 the  king  of  Edom  to  solicit  a  passage  through  his 
 country.  No  situation  can  be  allotted  more  probable  as 
 the  position  of  this  place,  than  that  by  which  the  modern 
 road  passes  from  Maan,  on  the  east  of  Mount  Seir,  by 
 the  AVady  Mousa,  through  the  mountains,  and  across  the 
 valley  of  the  Ghor  or  desert  of  Sin,  to  Gaza — the  very 
 route,  in  fact,  of  the  Nabathasi  from  their  capital  Petra. 
 As  this  is  one  of  only  two  or  three  routes,  at  great  dis- 
 tances, which  penetrate  the  region  of  Seir  ;  as  it  passes 
 close  by  mount  Hor ;  and  as  that  mountain  would  be 
 most  easy  of  access  by  its  means  from  the  valley  below  ; 
 we  cannot  hesitate  in  fixing  the  position  of  Kadesh 
 Proper  at  the  point  where  the  road,  quitting  the  moun- 
 tains, enters  on  that  valley. 
 
 To  recapitulate.  The  children  of  Israel  having  arrived 
 at  Ezion-geber  from  the  desert  of  Paran,  and  at  the 
 southern  foot  of  Mount  Seir,  made  a  detour  northwards 
 up  the  desert  of  Sin,  or  El  Araba,  on  the  western  side 
 of  that  mountain,  and  separated  from  the  desert  of 
 Paran  by  a  ridge  of  hills,  but  which  formed  no  part  of 
 Mount  Seir.  This  course  they  pursued  to  Mount  Hor, 
 '  in  the  edge  of  Edom,'  a  mountainous  eminence  rising 
 abruptly  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  desert  of  Sin,  and 
 standing  on  the  western  edge  of  Seir.  Here  they  staid 
 to  bury  Aaron,  and  to  complete  their  mourning  for  his 
 loss.  The  purpose  for  which  they  entered  the  desert  of 
 Sin  was  obviously  to  obtain  a  shorter  and  better  passage 
 
 A.  M.  37GI.  A.  C.  1G47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 across  Mount  Seir,  or  through  the  land  of  Edom,  to 
 Canaan.  Defeated  in  this  object,  nothing  was  left  for 
 them  but  to  return  to  the  plain  of  Ezion-geber,  and  to 
 make  the  circuit  of  the  mountain  on  its  southern  side. 
 
 The  next  encampment  mentioned,  after  the  return  from 
 Mount  Hor,  is  at  Zalmonah.  Where  Zalmonah  was  is 
 not  known ;  but  it  was  probably  in  or  near  the  plain  of 
 Elath,  as  there  was  no  water  in  Sin.  This  was  a  long 
 march  ;  but  the  people  could  not  tarry  in  a  region  which 
 was  destitute  of  the  most  indispensable  article  of  sub- 
 sistence. Besides,  the  period  of  their  wandering  was 
 now  drawing  to  a  conclusion  ;  and  they  were  hastening 
 with  confidence  to  the  termination  of  their  fatigues  and 
 privations  in  the  promised  land.  The  same  reason  led 
 them,  by  stages  of  thirty  miles,  by  Punon,  Obotli,  and 
 Ije-abarim,  to  the  brook  Zared  ;  where  they  arrived  at 
 the  end  of  the  thirty-eighth  year  from  the  time  of  their 
 leaving  Kadesh -barnea,  and  the  fortieth  from  their  de- 
 parture from  Egypt,  and  when  all  the  adults  then  living 
 were  dead.  This  brook,  which  appears  to  be  the  Wady 
 Beni  Hammed,  descends  from  the  mountains  of  Kerek, 
 and  falls  into  the  Dead  Sea  near  the  middle  of  its 
 western  shore.  From  the  Zared,  the  Israelites  made 
 one  march  across  the  Anion,  the  Modjeb  of  modern 
 geography,  to  Dibon  Gad  ;  the  ruins  of  which,  under 
 the  name  of  Diban,  are  shown  about  four  miles  to  the 
 north  of  the  river.  From  Dibon,  the  encampments  of 
 Beer,  Almon-diblathaim,  Mattanah,  Nahaliel,  and  Ba- 
 moth,  brought  them  to  the  mountains  of  Abarim,  on  the 
 east  of  the  Jordan  ;  which  mountains  they  crossed  at 
 Pisgah,  a  part  of  the  chain,  where  Moses  was  indulged 
 with  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  promised  land,  and  where 
 he  died.  Descending  from  these  mountains,  they  pitched 
 between  Beth-jesimoth  and  Abel-shittim,  on  the  banks 
 of  the  Jordan a  itself ;  whose  waters,  deep  and  rapid, 
 were  divided  for  their  passage,  as  those  of  the  Red  Sea 
 had  been.  And  thus  this  extraordinary  journey  of  forty 
 years  terminated  with  a  similar  miracle  to  that  with  which 
 it  commenced. 
 
 There  are  two  facts  worthy  of  mentioning  in  this 
 place.  The  first  is,  that  the  whole  of  the  tribes,  during 
 their  wanderings  in  the  desert,  had  sustained  a  decrease 
 of  only  1820  ;  their  numbers  being  at  this  time  601,730, 
 and  before,  6*03,550.  The  other  fact  alluded  to  is,  that 
 as  all  the  males  above  twenty  years  of  age  at  Kadesh- 
 barnea  fell  subsequently  in  the  wilderness,  none  who 
 crossed  the  Jordan,  with  the  exception  of  Joshua  and 
 Caleb,  could  exceed  fifty -eight ;  consequently  the  whole 
 of  the  adult  males  may  be  considered  as  effective  for  the 
 purposes  of  war. 
 
 The  map,  illustrative  of  the  journeyings  of  the  Israel- 
 ites, has  been  carefully  constructed,  so  as  to  exhibit  the 
 physical  features  of  the  country,  as  laid  down  by  Burck- 
 
 a  The  average  breadth  of  tin's  celebrated  stream  may  be  com- 
 puted at  thirty  yards,  and  its  depth  about  nine  feet;  but  from 
 the  rapidity  of  its  current,  it  discharges  a  much  greater  body  of 
 water  than  many  rivers  of  larger  dimensions ;  it  rolls,  indeed,  so 
 powerful  a  volume  of  deep  water  into  the  Dead  Sea,  that  the 
 strongest  and  most  expert  swimmer  would  be  foiled  in  any 
 attempt  to  swim  across  it  at  its  point  of  entrance.  Its  banks  are 
 beautifully  picturesque,  being  shaded  by  the  thick  foliage  of 
 closely  planted  trees,  and  so  beset  with  tamarisks,  willows. 
 oleander,  and  other  shrubs,  that  the  stream  is  not  visible,  except 
 on  the  nearest  approach.  Its  waters  are  generally  turbid,  and 
 its  annual  overflowing  takes  place  in  the  first  month,  which 
 answers  to  our  March. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &<■.. 
 
 297 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS 
 
 hardt  and  others ;  and  the  line  of  route  has  been  taken 
 from  the  map  which  Mr  Mansford  constructed  to  accom- 
 pany the  preceding-  article,  in  his  Scripture  Gazetteer. 
 
 SECT.    II. 
 
 CHAP.   I. — From  the  Building  of  the  Tabernacle  to 
 the  Death  of  Korah,  fyc. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 For  full  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  Moses  continued 
 upon  Mount  Sinai,  as  he  had  done  before,  without  either 
 eating  or  drinking ;  and  when  he  came  down  from 
 thence  his  face  had  contracted  such  a  lustre,  by  his  hold- 
 ing so  long  a  conference  with  God,  that  the  people  were 
 not  able  to  approach  him  ;  and  therefore,  whenever  he 
 talked  with  Aaron,  or  any  of  them,  he  was  accustomed 
 to  put  a  veil  over  his  face,  as  long  as  the  lustre  lasted, 
 but  never  made  use  of  any  when  he  went  into  the  taber- 
 nacle to  receive  the  divine  commands. 
 
 While  he  was  on  the  mount,  God  gave  him  the  ten 
 commandments,  written  in  two  tables,  and  withal  full 
 instructions  in  what  manner  the  tabernacle,  intended  for 
 his  own  habitation  among  them,  and  all  its  sacred  uten- 
 sils, were  to  be  made ;  which  he  now  conununicated  to 
 the  people,  and  at  the  same  time  exhorted  them  to  bring 
 in  their  several  offerings  to  that  purpose.  This  they  did 
 in  such  abundance,  that  he  thought  it  convenient,  by  a 
 public  proclamation,  to  restrain  their  further  liberality  ; 
 and  having  thus  made  a  sufficient  collection  of  all  kinds 
 of  materials,  he  gave  them  to  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab,  the 
 two  great  artists  in  building,  and  all  manner  of  work- 
 manship, whom  God  had  before  made  choice  of. 
 
 In  less  than  six  months  the  tabernacle  and  all  its  rich 
 furniture  were  finished,  and  on  the  first  day  of  the  first 
 month,  in  the  second  year  after  the  Israelites'  departure 
 out  of  Egypt,  it  was  set  up  :  when,  as  soon  as  this  was 
 done,  the  '  pillar  of  the  cloud,'  °  which  is  called  '  the 
 glory  of  the  Lord,'  covered,  and  quite  filled  it,  so  that 
 Moses  for  some  time  was  not  able  to  enter  in.  How- 
 ever, when  he  entered  in,  he   received  instructions  from 
 
 a  'The  glory  of  the  Lord,'  what  the  Jews  call  Shekinah,  was 
 a  particular  manifestation  of  the  divine  presence,  appearing 
 usually  in  the  shape  of  a  cloud,  but  sometimes  breaking  out  into 
 a  bright  and  refulgent  fire.  For  we  must  not  suppose  that  the 
 cloud  and  the  glory  of  God  were  two  different  things,  but  one  and 
 the  same,  even  as  tin'  pillar  of  thecloud  and  fire  were  ;  for  outwardly 
 it  was  a  cloud,  and  inwardly  afire.  And,  in  like  manner  here, 
 the  external  part  of  it  covered  the  tabernacle  without!  while  the 
 Inward  part  of  it  shone  in  full  glory  within  the  house;  in  which 
 sense  the  account  of  this  ap|>uaraiice  (Exod.  xvi.  10.)  is  to  be 
 understood:  the  glory  of  'the  Lord  abode  upon  Mount  Sinai, 
 and  the  cloud  covered  it,'  that  is,  covered  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  not 
 the  mount,  'six  days;'  for  on  the  seventh  day,  this  glory  broke 
 through  the  cloud,  and  appeared  like  a  devouring  tire  in  the 
 sight  of  all  the  people,  (Exod.  xxiv.  17.)  This  wonderful  ap- 
 pearance, whether  occasioned  by  the  presence  of  angels,  or,  as 
 others  imagine,  by  the  residence  of  the  second  person  in  the 
 ever  blessed  Trinity,  took  possession  of  the  tabernacle,  on  the 
 day  of  its  consecration,  and,  as  the  Jews  believe,  passed  into  the 
 sanctuary  of  Solomon's  temple,  on  the  day  of  its  dedication, 
 where  it  continued  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  temple 
 by  the  Chaldeans;  after  which  time  it  was  never  more  seen. — 
 Calmefs  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Shekinah;  and  Patrick'* 
 Commentary. 
 
 A.  M.  3704.   A.  C.  L647.  EXOD.  \>:mv.  28-  NUM.  xviii. 
 
 God,  which  he  communicated  to  the  people,  in  what 
 manner,  according  to  this  new  institution,  he  was  to  be 
 worshipped  by  sacrifices  and  oblations;  ;  what  festivals 
 were  to  be  observed,  and  how  celebrated;  what  meats 
 were  forbidden ;  what  the  instances  of  uncleannees 
 were;  and  what  the  degrees  of  consanguinity  prohibited 
 in  marriage.  And  having  appointed  these  and  sum.' 
 other  ordinances,  he  solemnly  consecrated  Aaron  to  tin- 
 high  priest's  office  ;  his  sons,  and  in  them  their  posterity  , 
 he  made  priests ;  and  to  these  he  adjoined  the  whole 
 tribe  of  Levi,  to  serve  in  the  tabernacle,  with  particular 
 allowances  for  their  subsistence,  and  some  restraining 
 laws,  as  to  their  persons,  their  conduct,  and  marriages. 
 
 Eight  days  after  his  consecration,  Aaron  offered  hie 
 first  burnt-sacrifice  for  himself  and  the  people,  which 
 God  was  pleased  to  manifest  his  acceptance  of,  in  the 
 sight  of  all  the  people,  by  sending  down  fire  from 
 heaven,  which,  by  consuming  the  offering,  struck  them 
 with  such  reverence,  that  they  all  fell  prostrate,  in 
 humble  adoration,  before  the  divine  Majesty.  The  fire, 
 thus  miraculously  kindled,  was,  l  by  the  divine  com- 
 mand, to  be  *  kept  perpetually  burning,  and  no  other  to 
 be  used  in  all  the  oblations  that  were  made  to  God 
 But  Nadab  and  Abihu,  two  unhappy  sons  of  Aaron, 
 unmindful  of  this  command,  took  common  fire  on  their 
 censers,  and  so  entering  the  tabernacle,  began  to  offer 
 incense;  but  by  this  their  profane  approach,  the]  so 
 offended  God,  that  he  immediately  struck  them  dead  with 
 lightning  ;  and  to  inject  terror  to  the  rest,  ordered  them  to 
 be  carried  forthwith  out,  and  there  buried  without  any 
 mourning  or  funeral  pomp.  And  much  about  the  same 
 time,  he  gave  another  instance  of  his  severity  against 
 sin,  in  a  certain  person,  the  son  of  an  Israelitish  woman 
 indeed,  but  whose  father  was  an  Egyptian,  who,  (ur  his 
 cursing  and  blaspheming  the  name  of  God,  was  l>\  him 
 directly  ordered  to  be  stoned  to  death  ;  from  which  it 
 became  a  standing  law, .*'  though  there  was  no  es 
 
 1  Lev.  vi.  12,  13. 
 
 l>  If  it  be  asked  how  this  fire  could  be  preservi  d,  when  both  the 
 tabernacle,  and  the  altar  whereon  it  burnt,  were  in  motion  ! 
 they  evidently  were,   when  the    Israelites  journeyed   in   Is 
 derness,)  I  see  no  reason  why  we  may  not  suppose,  thi  I 
 these  occasions,  there  might  be  a  certain  portable  conser 
 of  this  sacred  lire,  distinct   from   the  altar:   and   that   then 
 some  such  vessel  made  use  of,  seems  manifest  from  the  injunc- 
 tion, that  at  such  times  '  the  ashes  should  be  removed  from  i  I 
 the   altar,   and   a  purple   cloth   spread    over   it,'    Num.  h. 
 Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  1,  Occasional  Annotations  2. 
 
 c  The  criminal,  and   his  offence,  are  only  thus  recorded  by 
 Moses:  '  The  son  of  an  Israelitish  woman,  whose  li 
 Egyptian,  and  a  man  of  Israel,  strove  together  in  thi  ■ 
 the   Israelitish  woman's  sou  blasphemed  the  name  ■ 
 and    cursed,1   (Lev.  xxiv.  1 1  1     Hut   the  Jews,   in  explaining 
 these  words,  have  followed  either  that  superstitious  respeel  which 
 they   pay  to  the  name  Jehovah,    or  their   wonted  humour  ol 
 supplying  the  silence  of  the  sacred  history,  with  circumstances 
 nowhere  to  be  found  but  in  their  own  imaginations.     In  pur- 
 suance to  their  superstition,  they   fancy,  that   the   crime   I 
 blasphemer  consisted  simply  in  hi-  pronouncing  the  nami 
 
 van,  forasmuch  a-  they  Bup] ,  that  there  can  be  no  blasphemy 
 
 without  such  pronunciation;  and  in  pursuance  to  their  humour 
 of  supplying  the  silence  ol  Scripture,  they  have  invented  i 
 
 alogy  for  this  blasphemer.      For  they  tell  US,  that  hi 
 
 of  one  of  those  taskmasters  who  were  set  on  r  the 
 Egypt,  and  of  that  very  taskmaster,  «bo,  by  pet  onati 
 
 i,  violated  the  chastity  of  the  Jewish  matron  Shelometh, 
 and  was  afterwards  slain  by  Moses,  for  using  the  tame  husband 
 with  great  barbarity;  that  the  sen,  who  is  hue  mentioned,  quar» 
 
298  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M  251  I.  A   C.  1  190;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAEES,  A.  M.  31CA    A.  C.  1G47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  23-NUM.  xviii. 
 
 precept  to  that  purpose  before,  that  whoever  was  guilty 
 of  the  like  offence,  whether  stranger  or  Israelite,  was  to 
 undergo  the  same  punishment. 
 
 Nay,  and  not  long  after  this,  another  instance  of  the 
 divine  severity  was  upon  a  man,  who  by  a  post-fact-law 
 was  likewise  adjudged  to  be  stoned  to  death,  for  violat- 
 ing the  Sabbath,  which  God  had  so  strictly  enjoined  to 
 be  observed,  by  gathering  some  sticks  on  that  day.  There 
 was  no  penalty  annexed  to  the  violation  of  this  com- 
 mandment ;  and  therefore  the  people  who  brought  him 
 before  Moses,  were  ordered  to  keep  him  in  custody,  until 
 he  should  know  the  divine  pleasure  concerning  Sabbath- 
 breakers  ;  and  when  he  acquainted  them,  that  such  trans- 
 gressors were  to  be  punished  with  death,  *  they  immedi- 
 ately led  him  out  of  the  camp,  and  there  stoned  and 
 buried  him. 
 
 While  the  Israelites  lay  encamped  in  the  wilderness 
 of  Sinai,  God  appointed  Moses  first  a  to  renew  the  ordi- 
 nance of  the  passover,  and  then,  with  the  help  of  Aaron, 
 and  the  heads  of  each  tribe,  to  make  a  general  muster  of 
 the  men  that  were  able  to  bear  arms ;  which  accordingly 
 was  done,  and  the  Avhole  number,  exclusive  of  the  tribe 
 of  Levi,  which  were  appointed  to  attend  the  service  of 
 the  tabernacle,  amounted  to  six  hundred  and  three  thou- 
 sand five  hundred  and  fifty  men ;  and  upon  this  muster, 
 God  appointed  their  encampment,  ever  after,  to  be  in 
 this  manner. 
 
 The  whole  body  of  the  people  were  disposed  under 
 four  large  battalions,  so  placed  as  to  enclose  the  taber- 
 nacle, and   each  under  *  one   general  standard.     TI»o 
 
 '  Num  xv.  31,  &c. 
 
 nlling  with  a  man  of  the  tribe  of  Dan,  because  he  would  not  let 
 him  encamp  in  the  same  district,  brought  his  cause  before  Moses ; 
 but  that  being  condemned  at  his  tribunal,  he  began,  out  of  mere 
 rage  and  madness,  to  blaspheme.  Of  all  this,  however,  Moses 
 nimself  says  nothing,  out  of  a  scruple,  as  we  may  well  suppose,  to 
 relate  the  circumstances  of  a  crime  which  his  very  thoughts 
 detested. — Sawrin's  Dissertatio?is,  58. 
 
 a  During  the  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  wilder- 
 ness, they  seem  to  have  had  a  divine  dispensation  from  observing 
 the  ordinances  both  of  circumcision  and  the  passover.  Circum- 
 cision did  not  consist  with  their  itinerant  course  of  life,  and  for 
 the  celebration  of  the  passover,  they  had  not,  in  every  encamp- 
 ment, all  the  materials  that  were  necessary.  But  having  now 
 rested  in  the  confines  of  the  holy  mount  for  almost  the  space  of  a 
 whole  year,  after  the  tabernacle  was  set  up,  the  high  priest  con- 
 secrated, and  his  first  oblation  honoured  with  a  gracious  accept- 
 ance, God  thought  it  not  an  improper  time  to  re-ordain  the 
 celebration  of  the  passover,  that  so  remarkable  a  deliverance  as 
 their  escape  out  of  Egypt,  which,  by  their  repeated  desires'  of 
 returning  thither,  seemed,  in  a  great  measure,  to  have  been  for- 
 gotten, might  not  be  altogether  obliterated.  And  if  it  should  be 
 asked,  whence  they  could  have  a  sufficiency  of  lambs  and  kids  for 
 so  wast  a  multitude  to  feast  on;  there  is  no  reason  to  deny,  even 
 supposing  they  had  not  a  supply  of  their  own,  but  that  they 
 might  traffic  with  the  Ishmaelites,  and  ancient  Arabs  inhabiting 
 these  part-,  for  such  a  number  of  small  cattle,  and  being  not  far 
 distant  from  Midian,  (Exod.  iii.  1.)  by  the  interest  of  Jethro, 
 might  from  thence  be  furnished  with  such  a  quantity  of  meal  for 
 ened  bread,  as  this  one  passover,  as  this  was  the  only  one 
 they  kept  in  the  wilderness,  may  be  presumed  to  require. — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary,  anil  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  All  the  twelve  tribes  were  distinguished  from  one  another  by 
 particular  standards,  and  each  staudard  is  supposed  by  some  to 
 have  been  of  the  colour  of  that  stone  in  Aaron's  pectoral,  upon 
 which  the  name  of  the  tribe  « hereunto  it  belonged  «as  written. 
 The  figures  on  the  standards  of  the  four  principal  tribes  that  we 
 have  mentioned,  are  these, — In  that  of  Judah  was  borne  a  lion  ; 
 in  that  of  Ephrajm,  an  ox  ;  in  that  of  Reuben,  the  head  of  a  man  ; 
 and  in  that  of  Dan,  an  eagle  and  a  serpent  in  his  talons;   which 
 
 standard  of  the  camp  of  Judah  was  first.  It  consisted  oi 
 the  tribes  of  Judah,  Issachar,  and  Zebulun,  the  sons  ol 
 Leah,  which  pitched  on  the  east  side  of  the  tabernacle, 
 towards  the  rising  of  the  sun.  On  the  south  side  Mas  the 
 standard  of  the  camp  of  Reuben,  under  which  were  the 
 tribes  of  Reuben  and  Simeon,  the  sons  of  Leah  like- 
 wise, and  that  of  Gad,  the  son  of  Zilpah,  her  maid.  On 
 the  west  side  was  the  standard  of  the  camp  of  Ephraim, 
 under  which  Avere  the  tribes  of  Ephraim,  Manasseh,  and 
 Benjamin.  And  on  the  north  side  was  the  standard  of 
 the  camp  of  Dan  and  Naphtali,  the  sons  of  Bilhah, 
 Rachel's  maid,  and  that  of  Asher  the  son  of  Zilpah. 
 Between  these  four  great  camps  and  the  tabernacle,  were 
 pitched  the  four  less  camps  of  the  priests  and  the 
 Levites,  who  had  their  attendance  about  it.  On  the  east 
 side  encamped  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  Aaron's  sons,  who 
 had  the  charge  of  the  sanctuary.  On  the  south  side  were 
 the  Kohathites,  a  part  of  the  Levites  descended  from 
 Kohath,  the  second  son  of  Levi.  On  the  west  side  were 
 the  Gershonites,  another  part  of  the  Levites,  descended 
 from  Gershon,  Levi's  eldest  son  ;  and  on  the  north  side 
 were  the  Merarites,  the  remaining  part  of  the  Levites, 
 who  sprang  from  Merari,  Levi's  youngest  son. 
 
 This  was  the  order  of  the  Israelites  encamping  ;  and 
 in  like  manner,  the  method  of  their  marching  Avas  thus, 
 — Whenever  they  Avere  to  decamp,  Avhich  always  Avas 
 Avhen  the  pillar  of  cloud  Avas  taken  up  from  the  taber- 
 nacle, the  trumpet  sounded,  and  upon  the  first  alarm, 
 the  standard  of  Judah  being  raised,  the  three  tribes  which 
 belonged  to  it  set  forward ;  Avhereupon  the  tabernacle 
 Avas  immediately  taken  down,  and  the  Gershonites  and 
 the  Merarites  attended  the  Avagons,  Avith  the  boards  and 
 staves  of  it.  When  these  Avere  on  their  march,  a  second 
 alarm  was  sounded,  upon  Avhich  the  standard  of  Reuben's 
 camp  advanced  Avith  the  three  tribes  under  it ;  and  after 
 them  folloAved  the  Kohathites  bearing  the  sanctuary, 
 Avhich,  because  it  Avas  more  holy,  and  not  so  cumbersome 
 as  the  pillars  and  boards  of  the  tabernacle,  Avas  not  put 
 into  a  Avagon,  but  carried  upon  their  shoulders.  Next 
 folloAved  the  standard  of  Ephraim's  camp,  with  the  three 
 tribes  belonging  to  it;  and  last  of  all,  the  other  three 
 tribes  under  the  standard  of  Dan  brought  up  the  rear. 
 
 After  that  the  Israelites  had,  for  some  time,  continued 
 in  ease  and  rest,  not  far  from  the  skirts  of  Mount  Sinai, 
 the  pillar  of  the  cloud  gave  them  a  signal  to  decamp  ; 
 but  they  had  not  marched  above  three  days  into  the 
 Avilderness,  before  they  began  to  complain  of  the  Aveari- 
 ness  of  their  journey,  and  to  murmur  against  God  ; 
 Avhich  so  provoked  him,  that  he  c  sent  doAvn  fire,  and 
 destroyed  the  loiterers,  and  such  as  Avere  found  in  the 
 extreme  parts  of  the  camp ;  so  that  though,  upon 
 Moses'  intercession,  the  fire  ceased,  the  place  never- 
 
 are  indeed  the  four  most  perfect  animals,  forasmuch  as  the  lion  is 
 the  most  noble  among  wild  beasts;  the  ox  among  beasts  of  labour; 
 the  eagle  among  birds ;  and  the  man  among  all  other  creatures. 
 — Lamy's  Introduction,  b.  1. 
 
 c  The  fire  winch  God  sent  upon  the  Israelites,  came  either 
 immediately  from  heaven  like  lightning,  or  did  issue  from  the 
 pillar  oi  the  cloud  Avhich  Avent  before  the  tabernacle;  or,  accord- 
 ing to  the  conjecture  of  a  learned  commentator,  that  which  is  here 
 called  fire,  might  be  a  hot  burning  wind,  in  these  desert  places 
 not  unusual,  and  many  times  very  pestilential,  and  on  this  occa- 
 sion pretematurally  raised  in  the  rear  of  the  army,  to  punish  the 
 stragglers,  and  such  as,  out  of  a  pretence  of  weariness,  lagged 
 behind. — Lr  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &■< 
 
 299 
 
 A.  M.  3514.  A.  C.  1490;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G1.  A.  C.  1647.  EXOl).  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 theless  obtained  the  name  of  Taberah,  wbich  signifies 
 burning. 
 
 This  fresh  instance  of  the  people's  stubbornness  made 
 Moses  apprehensive,  that  though  he  had  certainly  eased 
 himself,  in  some  measure, by  constituting  such  magistrates 
 as  Jethro  his  father-in-law  had  advised  him  to  ;  yet  the 
 work  of  governing  so  numerous,  and  so  mutinous  a 
 people,  would  still  be  an  overmatch  for  him ;  and  there- 
 fore, by  God's  immediate  direction,  "■  he  made  choice 
 of  seventy  of  the  chief  of  the  elders  of  the  people,  men 
 of  renown  for  their  wisdom  and  integrity,  and  every  way 
 tit  to  be  erected  into  a  supreme  court. 
 
 To  these  God  imparted  a  portion  of  the  same  spirit 
 that  he  had  given  unto  Moses,  which  enabled  them  to  be 
 highly  assistant  to  him  in  the  government  of  a  people, 
 which  almost  every  day  were  discovering  a  spirit  of  dis- 
 content. For  no  sooner  were  they  removed  from  Ta- 
 berali, but  they  began  to  murmur  at  the  manna  they  had 
 so  long  ate,  and  to  regret  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt  they 
 had  parted  with  ;  and  hereupon  they  beset  Moses'  tent 
 on  all  sides,  and  in  a  tumultuous  manner  demanded  of 
 him  a  supply  of  flesh,  instead  of  manna;  which,  how 
 unreasonable  soever  it  was  for  them  to  request,  God 
 nevertheless  promised  Moses  to  perform ;  and  ac- 
 cordingly caused  the  south  wind  to  arise,  which  drove 
 vast  quantities  of  quails  from  the  sea  coast  to  within  a 
 mile  of  the  camp  where  they  lay,  about  a  yard  thick  upon 
 the  ground.  But  while  they  were  regaling  themselves 
 with  these  dainties,  the  anger  of  the  Lord  fell  upon  them, 
 and  smote  a  great  number  of  them  with  a  sore  disease, 
 whereof  they  suddenly  died  ;  in  memory  of  which  the 
 place  came  to  be  called  Kibroth-Hattaavali,  that  is,  the 
 graves,  or  sepulchres  of  lust  and  concupiscence. 
 
 From  this  place  the  people  took  their  journey  to  Ha- 
 zeroth,  where  another  unhappy  accident  befell  them.  For 
 Aaron  and  his  sister  Miriam,  observing  what  great  power 
 their  brother  Moses  had  with  the  people,  and  that  God 
 chiefly  made  use  of  him  in  the  delivery  of  his  oracles  to 
 
 a  It  may  be  supposed,  indeed,  that  Moses  had  no  occasion  for 
 any  more  assisting  magistrates  after  what  had  been  constituted  by 
 the  advice  of  Jethro,  his  father-in-law:  but  it  is  higlily  probable, 
 that  those  of  Jethro's  advising  were  appointed  to  hear  and  judge 
 only  in  smaller  causes;  whereas  all  weighty  and  difficult  [joints, 
 as  well  as  last  appeals  in  smaller  matters,  still  were  left  upon 
 Moses;  and  that  it  was  to  ease  himself  of  this  burden,  that  he 
 made  choice  of  these  seventy,  as  men  of  superior  capacity  and 
 understanding,  anil  who  wire  to  be  assisted  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
 in  their  judgments  and  determinations.  This  assembly  of  the 
 seventy  elders,  not  only  the  Jews,  but  even  Grotius,  and  some 
 other  Christians,  will  needs  have  to  be  the  same  with  that  famous 
 council  which  afterwards  obtained  the  name  of  Sanhedrim.  The 
 rabbins  have  left  no  stone  unturned  to  prove,  that  the  Sanhedrim 
 did  constantly  subsist  ever  since  its  first  institution  by  Moses,  and 
 that  the  members  of  it  always  assembled  themselves  before  the 
 tabernacle,  wherever  that  was  set  up,  either  in  the  wilderness, 
 or  in  the  promised  land,  till  the  erecting  of  the  temple  by  Solo- 
 mon, who,  at  the  same  time,  built  them  a  stately  room  or  hall 
 to  convene  in.  They  add  farther,  that  this  supreme  court  was 
 continued  in  Babylon,  during  their  captivity  there,  and  that,  at 
 their  return,  it  had  the  same  place  rebuilt  in  the  second  temple, 
 and  so  continued  till  its  total  extinction  under  the  Romans.  But 
 as  they  bring  no  authority  for  these,  and  many  other  particulars 
 relating  to  this  assembly,  but  merely  their  own  traditions,  they 
 are  justly  rejected  by  the  major  part  of  Christians,  who  can  find 
 no  footsteps  of  any  such  high  court,  either  in  the  times  of  Joshua, 
 of  the  Judges,  or  of  the  Kings,  nor  indeed  after  the  Babylonish 
 captivity,  till  the  time  of  the  Maccabees. — Gdbnefs  Disserta- 
 tions sur  la  police  des  Ancient  Hebcrauxf  and  Universal  History, 
 b.  1   c.  7. 
 
 them,  began  to  envy  him  ;  but  to  give  some  colour  to 
 their  quarrel,  they  pretended  to  fall  out  with  him  upon 
 account  of  his  marrying  a  foreigner,  whom  they  called  in 
 contempt  an  Ethiopian.  This  Moses  could  not  but  per- 
 ceive ;  but  as  it  was  a  personal  pique,  he  took  no  notice 
 of  it.  God,  however,  would  not  suffer  it  to  go  off  so  ; 
 and  therefore  calling  Moses,  Aaron,  and  Miriam  before 
 the  door  of  the  tabernacle,  he  sharply  rebuked  the  two 
 latter.  He  gave  them  to  understand  the  disparity  6  in 
 point  of  divine  revelation,  between  them  and  him,  ami, 
 to  leave  a  brand  upon  their  contumaciously  affecting  an 
 equality,  he  immediately  smote  Miriam  e  witli  a  leprosy  ; 
 and  though,  upon  Moses'  intercession,  lie  promised  to 
 remove  it,  yet  because  the  offence  was  public,  he  ordered 
 her  to  be  turned  out  of  the  camp  for  seven  days,  in  the 
 manner  of  any  common  leper,  that  others  might  be  deter- 
 red from  the  like  seditious  practices.  After  several 
 encampments,  the  people  came  at  length  to  d  Kadesh- 
 Barnea,  on  the  frontiers  of  Canaan,  where  Moses  was 
 commanded  to  choose  twelve  fit  men,  out  of  each  tribe 
 one,  among  whom  were  Joshua  and  Caleb,  to  take  a  view 
 of  the  country  :  and  accordingly,  having  received  their 
 instructions  from  him,  to  examine  diligently  into  the 
 strength  of  its  cities  and  inhabitants,  the  nature  and  fer- 
 
 b  The  Jewish  commentators  make  the  difference  between 
 Moses  and  other  prophets,  to  consist  in  these  particulars:  1st, 
 That  God  spake  to  others  by  a  mediator,  that  is,  as  they  explain 
 it,  by  some  angel;  but  to  him  by  himself,  without  the  interven- 
 tion of  any  other.  2dly,  That  they  never  prophesied,  but  their 
 senses  were  all  bound  up,  either  in  visions  or  in  dreams ;  whereas 
 he  was  perfectly  awake  as  we  are,  when  we  discourse  one  with 
 another.  3dly,  That  after  the  vision  was  over,  they  were  often- 
 times left  so  weak  and  feeble,  that  they  could  scarce  stand  upon 
 their  feet,  (as  appears  from  Dan.  viii.  18  ;)  whereas  Moses  spake 
 with  the  divine  Majesty  without  any  consternation  or  alteration. 
 And  4thly,  That  no  prophet  but  he  could  know  the  mind  of  God 
 when  he  pleased,  because  he  communicated  himself  to  them  only 
 when  he  thought  proper;  whereas  Moses  might  at  any  time  have 
 recourse  to  God,  to  inquire  of  him,  and  receive  an  answer. — Pa- 
 trick's Commentary. 
 
 c  A  leprosy,  as  well  as  all  other  distempers,  such  as  the  scurvy, 
 ring-worm,  itch,  &c,  which  bear  resemblance  to  it,  does  pro- 
 cci  <l  originally  from  a  previous  ill  disposition  both  in  the  Mi  nil 
 and  juices,  but  the  more  immediate  cause  of  it  is  an  infinity  of 
 small  imperceptible  worms,  that  insinuate  themselves  between 
 the  Besh  and  skin,  which  first  prey  upon  the  Scarf-skin  and 
 then  upon  the  inner  skin,  and  afterwards  upon  the  extremities  of 
 the  nerves  and  muscles,  from  whence  arises  a  total  COITUpUi  D  oi 
 the  whole  mass  of  blood,  ami  all  the  other  symptoms  attending 
 it.  Hut  the  leprosy  here  inflicted  upon  Miriam  »i>  sudden 
 and  instantaneous.  The  juices  of  her  body  were  not  corrupted 
 by  a  gradual  decay,  but  turned  at  once  into  these  corroding  ani- 
 mals. And  as  this  was  a  lit  punishment  fur  her  pride  and 
 detraction,  so  by  its  being  inflicted  on  her,  and  not  on  Aaron,  it 
 seems  not  improbable  that  she  was  first  in  the  tran-giosjon,  and 
 drew  Aaron,  who  seems  in  some  instances  to  be  a  person  of  too 
 much  facility,  over  to  her  party.     Aaron  indeed,  by  his  office, 
 
 was  appointed  to  judge  ofleprosy,  which  he  could  not  have  done 
 
 had  himself  been  infected»with  it;  ami  as  he  was  lately  conse- 
 crated his  high  priest,  Cod.  for  the  preservation  of  his  authority, 
 might  net  think  it  proper  I"  make  him  so  soon  become   vile  and 
 
 contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  as  this  distemper  was 
 
 known  to  make  i — Calmefs  Dissertation  sur  In  Suture,  Ac., 
 
 dc  la  Leprej  ami  Patrick's  Commentary, 
 
 ,/  Most  ei matins  and   geographers  are  of  ..pinion,  that 
 
 whatever  is  said  of  Kadesh,  in  the  travels  of  the  Israelites,  i-  to 
 be  understood  of  one  ami  the  same  place;  whereas  the 
 history  plainly  makes  mention  ol  two  places,  of  the  same  name, 
 one  adjoining  to  the  wilderness  of  Paran,  which  is  mentioned 
 Num.  xiii.  26,  ami  the  other  lying  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin, 
 mentioned  in  Num.  \\.  1.  and  xwiii.  36,—lTeBs'  Geography  if 
 Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
300 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 tility  of  its  soil,  and  the  like,  tliey  set  out  upon  their 
 progress,  and  finished  it  in  forty  days. 
 
 At  their  return  they  passed  through  a  valley,  which, 
 for  its  fertility  in  vines,  is  called  the  valley  of  Es/tcol, 
 which  signifies  a  cluster  of  grapes  ;  and  here  they  cut 
 down  a  branch  with  but  one  cluster  upon  it,  which,  a  by 
 reason  of  its  immoderate  largeness,  as  well  as  to  pre- 
 serve the  grapes  from  being  bruised,  they  hung  upon  a 
 pole,  and  carried  between  two  men's  shoulders.  Nor 
 was  this  the  only  product  of  that  happy  soil ;  the  golden 
 fig,  and  beautiful  pomegranate,  adorned  the  trees,  and  a 
 variety  of  other  fruits,  of  which  they  brought  samples 
 along  with  them,  loaded  the  luxuriant  branches. 
 
 Being  at  length  happily  arrived  in  the  camp,  they 
 went  and  made  their  report  to  Moses  and  Aaron,  in  the 
 presence  of  the  elders,  and  of  all  the  people.  They 
 began  indeed  with  extolling  the  riches  of  the  land, 
 and  showed  them  a  specimen  of  some  of  the  fruits  which 
 it  produced  ;  but  when  they  perceived  that  this  account 
 had  fired  the  people  with  a  desire  to  become  the  happy 
 possessors  of  it  by  a  speedy  conquest,  ten  of  them  then 
 began  to  alter  their  tone,  and  to  represent  it  as  a 
 thing  impossible,  both  by  reason  oi  the  strength  of  its 
 fortified  towns,  and  the  valour  and  gigantic  stature  of  its 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Joshua  and  Caleb  were  the  only  two  that  remained 
 true  to  their  report,  and  gave  them  all  imaginable  en- 
 couragement that  the  enterprise  was  practicable  ;  but  the 
 cowardly  account  of  the  other  ten  had  got  such  a  power- 
 ful possession  of  them,  that  they  cried  out,  one  and  all, 
 that  they  could  never  hope  to  overcome  such  powerful 
 nations,  in  comparison  of  which  they  looked  upon 
 themselves  as  mere  grasshoppers  and  reptiles ;  and 
 their  murmuring,  in  short,  grew  to  such  a  height 
 by  the  next  morning,  *  that  a  return  to  Egypt  was 
 thought  more  advisable,  than  to  face  such  an  enemy. 
 Nay,  in  the  hearing  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  of  Caleb 
 and  Joshua,  who  endeavoured  to  dissuade  them  all 
 they   could,   even   to   the   hazard  of  being   stoned  by 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  37G4.  A.  C.  IG47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 a  That  there  are  vines  and  grapes  of  a  prodigious  bigness  in 
 those  eastern  and  southern  parts  of  the  world,  is  a  matter  recorded 
 by  several  writers.  Stralio  tells,  that  in  Margiana,  and  other 
 neighbouring  countries,  there  were  vines  so  very  thick  about, 
 that  two  men  could  scarce  fathom  them,  and  that  they  produced 
 bundles  of  grapes  of  two  cubits  long.  Pliny  informs  us,  that  in 
 the  inland  parts  of  Africa  there  are  bunches  (if  grapes  bigger  than 
 young  children.  Olearius,  in  his  travels  into  Persia,  acquaints 
 us,  that  not  far  from  Astracan,  he  saw  vines  which  a  man  could 
 hardly  grasp  with  both  his  arms,  and  a  cluster  which  produced 
 three  Scotch  gallons  of  wine ;  and  the  learned  Huetius  affirms 
 that  in  Crete,  Chios,  and  other  islands  in  the  Archipelago,  there 
 iii'  bunches  of  grapes  from  ten  to  forty  pounds  in  weight. — 
 Quasi.  Alnet.  b.  2.,  and  Lc  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Though  they  might  in  their  raging  tits  speak  of  returning 
 into  V.y.  i>t  ;  yet  it  is  an  amazing  thing,  that  they  should  continue 
 in  their  madness,  and  deliberate  about  it,  nay  actually  appoint 
 them  a  leader,  as  Nehemiah  (ix.  17.)  says  they  did.  For  how 
 could  they  get  thither  without  food,  which  they  could  not  expect 
 that  God  would  send  from  heaven,  when  they  had  thus  shame- 
 fully forsaken  him  ?  How  could  they  hope  to  find  their  way, 
 when  the  cloud  which  directed  them  was  withdrawn  from  them,  or 
 think  oi'  coping  with  such  nations  as  would  oppose  their  passage, 
 in  case  they  should  hit  upon  the  right  way?  And  after  all,  if 
 they  came  into  Egypt,  what  reception  could  they  expect  from  a 
 ;ieople,  whose  king,  and  princes,  and  first-born  had  lately  been 
 destroyed  upon  their  accounts?  Nothing  can  be  said  in  answer  to 
 these  questions,  but  that  outrageous  discontent  infatuates  men's 
 minds,  and  will  not  suffer  them  to  consider  any  thing  but  that 
 wuit'ti  grieves  them.—  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 them,  they  were  deliberating  upon  a  proper  person  to 
 reconduct  them  into  the  land  of  their  former  thraldom  ; 
 when,  all  on  a  sudden,  the  glory  of  God  appeared  in  a 
 brighter  lustre  than  ordinary,  in  the  tabernacle,  and  from 
 thence  was  heard  to  speak  to  Moses  in  such  threatening 
 terms  as  gave  the  people  cause  to  fear  that  some  speedy 
 and  terrible  judgment  would  be  the  reward  of  their 
 rebellion  and  ingratitude. 
 
 Here  Moses  was  forced  again,  as  at  several  other 
 times,  to  become  their  intercessor,  and  made  use  of  such 
 powerful  arguments,  and  expostulations,  as  did  in  some 
 measure  avert  the  divine  vengeance ;  but,  as  their  in- 
 gratitude and  infidelity  were  become  intolerable,  not- 
 withstanding God's  constant  care  in  providing  against 
 their  wants,  screening  them  from  their  enemies,  and 
 preserving  them  from  all  dangers,  he  solemnly  declared, 
 that  none  of  that  generation,  above  twenty  years  of  age, 
 except  c  Joshua  and  Caleb,  who  received  his  commen- 
 dations for  their  fidelity,  should  enter  into  the  promised 
 land,  but  should  Avander  from  place  to  place  in  the  wil- 
 derness, for  the  space  of  <*  forty  years ;  and  as  for  the  false 
 spies,  the  immediate  authors  of  this  rebellion,  they  were 
 all  destroyed  by  a  sudden  death,1  and  became  the  first 
 instances  of  the  punishment  denounced  against  the  whole 
 nation. 
 
 This  severe  punishment,  joined  with  the  sentence  of 
 exclusion  from  the  promised  land,  gave  the  humours  of 
 the  people  soon  another  turn  :  for,  supposing  that  their 
 forwardness  now  would  make  some  atonement  for  their 
 former  cowardice,  they  assembled  themselves  together 
 next  morning,  and  offered  to  go  upon  the  conquest. 
 Moses  endeavoured  what  he  could  to  dissuade  them  from 
 so  rash  an  enterprise,  by  telling  them  that  it  was  contrary 
 to  God's  express  command,  and  therefore  could  not 
 prosper  ;  that,  by  their  late  undutiful  behaviour,  they 
 had  forfeited  his  assistance  and  protection,  without 
 which  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  succeed  ;  and  that, 
 as  the  Amalekites  and  Canaanites  had  gained  the  passes 
 of  the  mountains  before  them,  there  was  no  fighting  them 
 
 Num.  xiv.  36,  37. 
 
 c  Josephus  introduces  Joshua  and  Caleb,  in  order  to  pacify 
 the  tumultuous  people,  delivering  themselves  in  words  to  this 
 effect.  "  How  is  it  possible  for  you,  good  people,  to  distrust  the 
 veracity  and  goodness  of  God,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give 
 credit  to  stories  and  amazements  about  the  land  of  Canaan,  that 
 are  propagated  on  purpose  to  abuse  you  ?  Why  should  not  you 
 rather  believe  and  follow  those  who  have  taken  so  much  pains  to 
 put  you  into  the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  the  blessings  you 
 desire  ?  What  is  the  height  of  mountains,  or  depths  of  rivers,  to 
 men  of  undaunted  spirits,  and  of  honourable  resolutions ;  espe- 
 cially when  God  is  both  their  protector  and  defender  ?  Where- 
 fore let  us  advance  and  attack  the  enemy,  without  ever 
 questioning  the  event.  Only  trust  God  for  your  guide,  and  fol- 
 low us  where  we  shall  lead  you." — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  3.  c.  14. 
 
 d  Moses  here  makes  use  of  a  round  number,  in  allusion  to  the 
 forty  days  of  the  spies  searching  the  land;  though  it  is  plain, 
 that  the  children  did  enter  into  the  land  of  Canaan  in  less  than 
 thirty-nine  years  after  this  sentence  was  pronounced  against  their 
 fathers.  The  truth  is,  Moses  reckons  the  time  past  since  they 
 came  first  into  the  wilderness,  which  was  a  year  and  a  half;  so  that 
 the  meaning  of  the  sentence  is, — That  they  should  wander  for 
 forty  years  in  all,  before  they  went  out  of  the  wilderness:  which, 
 however,  is  not  to  be  understood  so  precisely,  as  to  want  nothing 
 at  all  of  it:  for  since  they  came  out  of  Egypt  on  the  15th  day  of 
 the  first  month,  and  arrived  in  Canaan,  and  pitched  their  tents 
 in  Gilgal,  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  first  month,  of  the  one  and 
 fortieth  year  after  their  departure  out  of  Egypt,  (Josh.  iv.  19,) 
 it  is  plain,  that  there  wanted  five  days  of  full  forty  years. —  Uni- 
 [  versal  History,  1>.  1.  c.  7.:  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
Skct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT. 
 
 301 
 
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 upon  the  par.  But  all  this  admonition  had  no  weight 
 with  them,  notwithstanding  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
 went  not  with  them,  notwithstanding  Moses  their  general 
 was  not  at  the  head  of  them,  yet  out  they  marched  to  the 
 top  of  the  mountains,  where  the  enemy  surprised,  de- 
 feated, and  having  slain  many  of  them,  pursued  the  rest 
 as  far  as  Hormah. 
 
 While  the  people  continued  in  the  wilderness,  many 
 remarkable  occurrences  befell  them,  and  seditions  almost 
 innumerable  were  daily  fermenting ;  but  one  in  parti- 
 cular was  hatched,  with  the  utmost  deliberation,  in  the 
 breast  of  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and 
 countenanced  by  some  of  the  most  considerable  men  in 
 the  whole  camp. 
 
 a  Korah,  the  great  grandson  of  Levi  by  his  father 
 Jahar,  and  consequently  one  of  the  heads  of  that  tribe, 
 impatient  to  behold  Aaron  and  his  family  raised  to  the 
 highest  office  in  the  priesthood,  to  which  he  thought  him- 
 self had  an  equal  title,  was  always  caballing  against 
 him,  until  he  had  drawn  a  considerable  number  of  emi- 
 nent persons  into  his  interest,  and  among  these,  Dathan, 
 Abiram,  and  On,  who  were  heads  of  the  house  of  Reu- 
 ben. As  soon  as  things  were  ripe  for  an  open  rupture, 
 Korah  appeared  at  the  head  of  the  faction,  and  publicly 
 upbraided  Moses  and  Aaron  with  an  unjust  ambition,  in 
 usurping  upon  the  liberties  of  the  people,  in  engrossing 
 all  power  into  their  own  hands,  and  excluding  every 
 body  else. 
 
 Surprised  at  the  boldness  of  this  accusation,  Moses, 
 for  concern,  fell  prostrate  upon  his  face  ;  but  when  he 
 rose  again,  he  desired  that  the  determination  of  their 
 controversy  might  be  left  to  God,  and  for  that  purpose 
 appointed  them  to  appear  on  the  morrow  at  the  door  of 
 the  tabernacle,  with  every  man  his  censer  in  his  hand  : 
 and  then  addressing  himself  to  Korah,  and  the  rest  of 
 the  Levites,  he  put  them  in  mind  of  their  ingratitude  and 
 arrogance,  in  not  being  content  with  the  dignity  and 
 privileges  which  God  had  annexed  to  their  tribe,  without 
 aspiring  at  the  high  priesthood,  which  he  had  reserved 
 lo  Aaron  and  his  posterity. 
 
 Dathan  and  Abiram  were  at  some  distance  when  Moses 
 thus  talked  with  the  rest ;  .and  therefore  supposing  that 
 they  had  been  drawn  into  the  conspiracy  by  Korah's 
 insinuations,  he  sent  privately  to  them,  with  a  design  to 
 argue  the  case  more  calmly  with  them  ;  but  instead  of  a 
 civil  answer,  he  received  a  haughty  message,  wherein 
 
 a  At  what  time,  or  in  what  encampment  this  rebellion  of 
 
 Korah  and  his  adherents  happened,  the  sacred  history  has  not 
 informed  us;  but  as  the  general  opinion  is,  that  the  cause  of  the 
 mutiny  was  his  resentment  upon  the  advancement  of  Aaron  and 
 his  family  to  the  office  of  the  high  priest;  so  we  find  Josephus 
 introducing  him,  as  addressing  himself  to  his  accomplices  in 
 words  to  this  purpose:  "A  scandal  it  is,  and  a  thing  nut  to  be 
 endured,  for  Moses  to  take  upon  him  at  this  rate;  to  carry  on 
 his  ambition  thus,  under  the  mask  of  holiness  and  religion,  and 
 by  that  means  to  raise  himself  a  reputation  to  the  wrong  of  other 
 men.  He  gave  lately  the  priesthood,  and  other  dignities,  to  his 
 brother  Aaron,  without  any  right  or  colour  for  it.  No  consent 
 of  the  people  was  asked,  nor  any  pretence  of  authority  produced, 
 save  only  his  own  arbitrary  will  and  pleasure — for  what  has  he 
 to  say  for  himself  for  so  doing  ?  If  God  lias  annexed  the  honour 
 to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  I  myself  may  pretend  a  right  to  the  pre- 
 ference, being  of  the  same  stock  with  Moses,  and  his  superior 
 both  in  riches  and  years  :  or  if  it  be  to  pass  by  seniority,  it  be- 
 longs to  the  tribe  of  lteuben,  viz.  to  Dathan,  Abiram,  and  Phalu, 
 who  are  the  seniors  of  that  tribe,  and  men  of  eminent  credit  every 
 way  among  them." —  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  1.  c.  2. 
 
 they  upbraided  him  with  a  non-performance  of  his 
 promise,  and  "  that  he  had  decoyed  the  whole  nation 
 from  the  rich  and  fertile  land  of  Egypt,  under  the  pre- 
 tence of  bringing  them  into  a  much  better,  hut  instead  of 
 that,  had  only  detained  them  in  a  barren  wilderness 
 there  to  domineer  and  tyrannize  over  them."'  At  which 
 message  Moses  was  so  highly  provoked,  that  he  ap- 
 pealed to  God  against  the  injustice  of  it,  and  at  the 
 same  time  requested  of  him  not  to  regard  the  prayers 
 and  offerings  of  such  ungrateful  wretches. 
 
 Early  next  morning,  Moses  and  Aaron  went  towards 
 the  tabernacle,  whither  Korah,  at  the  head  of  his  party, 
 with  each  man  a  b  censer  in  his  hand,  attended  with  a  vast 
 promiscuous  multitude,  which  came  in  all  probability  to 
 be  spectators  of  this  famous  contest,  failed  not  to  repair. 
 The  first  thing  that  drew  their  eyes  was  the  amazing 
 splendour  which  issued  from  the  cloud  over  the  taber- 
 nacle, from  which  God  called  to  Moses  and  Aaron  to 
 withdraw  from  that  rebellious  crew,  lest  they  should 
 be  swallowed  up  in  the  destruction  which  he  was  going 
 to  bring  upon  them.  Hereupon  Moses  having  first 
 requested  of  him  not  to  slay  the  innocent  with  the  guilty, 
 advertised  the  people,  if  they  consulted  their  own  safety, 
 to  separate  themselves  from  the  company  of  these  wicked 
 men  ;  and  then  bespake  the  assembly  to  this  purpose  : — 
 "  That  if  these  rebels  died  in  the  common  way  of  nature, 
 he  would  give  them  leave  to  call  in  question  his  divine 
 mission ;  but  that  if  the  earth  did  immediately  open 
 itself  in  a  miraculous  manner,  and  swallow  them  up  alive, 
 he  then  hoped  that  they  would  look  upon  him  only  as  an 
 instrument  in  God's  hand,  and  sufficiently  authorized  for 
 all  he  did."  And  no  sooner  had  he  ended  these  words, 
 but  the  earth  clave  asunder  under  their  feet,  and  swal- 
 lowed them  up  alive,  together  with  their  families,  and 
 all  their  substance  ;  while  at  the  same  time,  Korah,  and 
 his  company,  who  stood  with  their  censers  before  the 
 court  of  the  tabernacle,  were  all  destroyed  by  a  miracu- 
 lous fire  from  heaven  ;  and  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
 this  judgment,  as  well  as  to  deter,  for  the  future,  any 
 but  the  sons  of  Aaron,  from  presuming  to  burn  incense 
 before  the  Lord,  Eliezar  was  ordered  to  gather  up  the 
 censers  of  the  dead,  and  to  have  them  beat  into  broad 
 plates  for  a  covering  of  the  altar. 
 
 So  terrible  a  punishment,  one  would  think,  might  have 
 been  sufficient,  for  some  time  at  least,  to  have  kept  the 
 Israelites  within  the  bounds  of  their  obedience  ;  but  no 
 sooner  were  they  recovered  from  their  fright,  than  they 
 began  to  murmur  afresh,  and  to  accuse  Moses  and  Aaron 
 for  having  'murdered  the  people  of  the  Lord,'  as  they 
 were  not  ashamed  to  call  that  seditious  crew.  Blosea 
 and  Aaron  were  well  aware  of  the  unruly  temper  of  the 
 people,  and  therefore  fearing  to  what  degree  of  madness 
 
 b  The  250  princes  had  not  as  y.t  ofiered  any  incense, 
 because  they  were  prevented  by  death;  however,  it  may  be  pre- 
 sumed, that  they  had  lighted  their  censers  at  the  holy  Are,  by 
 which  they  obtained.  at  least   in  the  opinion  ot"  the  people,  a  kind 
 
 of  consecration;  ami  therefore,  to  kei  p  up  among  them  a  reputa- 
 tion and  esteem  for  things  consecrated,  a-  well  aa  to  show  the 
 difference  between  his  own  institution  and  men's  contrivances, 
 God  ordered  all  these  brazen  censers  to  be  wrought  into  broad 
 plates,  anil  to  cover  the  altar  with  them;  that  being  polished 
 bright,  they  might  by  their  belie  put  the  people  in  mind  of  the 
 offence  ot  those  who  wen-  once  owners  of  them,  and  so  caution 
 others  against  the  like  oil.  nee. —  BowcU't  History  of  the  Bible, 
 b.  :.'. 
 
302  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3764.  A.  C.  1G47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 .mil  outrage  they  might  proceed,  they  took  sanctuary  in 
 the  tabernacle  ;  where  they  had  no  sooner  entered,  but 
 God  threatened  to  destroy  all  the  rest  of  the  congrega- 
 tion, as  it  were,  in  a  moment,  and  had  already  sent  out 
 a  plague  amongst  them  ;  which  Aaron,  at  his  brother's 
 directions,  endeavoured  to  assuage  by  his  interposing, 
 with  a  censer  of  incense,  between  the  dead  and  the 
 living ;  but  the  plague,  in  this  short  time,  had  raged  so 
 violently,  that  no  less  than  fourteen  thousand  and  seven 
 hundred  persons,  besides  those  that  perished  in  the 
 sedition  of  Korah  and  his  company,  were  carried  off 
 by  it. 
 
 This  was  enough,  in  all  reason,  to  establish  the  autho- 
 rity, civil  and  ecclesiastical,  in  the  hands  of  the  two 
 brothers  :  however,  to  put  Aaron's  claim  beyond  all 
 manner  of  dispute,  God  was  pleased  to  confirm  it  by  one 
 miracle  more.  Aaron,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  heads 
 of  every  tribe  on  the  other,  were  ordered  to  bring  each 
 man  his  rod,  with  their  respective  names  written  upon 
 them,  and  these  were  to  be  deposited  in  the  tabernacle, 
 until  the  next  morning  ;  by  which  time  God  would  decide 
 in  favour  of  that  family  on  whose  rod  some  miraculous 
 change  should  be  seen.  Accordingly,  when  they  came 
 to  examine  them  next  morning,  a  Aaron's  rod  alone  was 
 found  not  only  to  have  budded,  but  blossomed  likewise, 
 and  brought  forth  ripe  almonds  ;  in  memory  of  which 
 remarkable  decision,  God  ordered  the  rod  to  be  laid  b 
 
 a  Some  will  needs  have  this  rod  of  Aaron's  to  have  been  the 
 same  with  that  of  Moses,  wherewith  he  wrought  so  many  mira- 
 cles in  Egypt  and  at  the  Red  Sea;  but  there  is  this  argument 
 against  them,  that  the  miracle  of  its  blossoming  had  not  been  a 
 sufficient  conviction  to  the  Israelites,  if  so  be  that  Aaron's  rod 
 bad  not  been  of  the  same  kind  of  the  rest.  For  whatever  had 
 come  to  pass,  they  might  have  ascribed  it  to  the  singular  quality 
 and  virtue  of  the  rod,  especially  had  it  been  Moses'  wonder- 
 working rod,  and  not  to  the  special  hand  of  God  interposing  to 
 establish  the  authority  of  Aaron;  whereas,  on  the  contrary,  we 
 rind  that  the  miracle  had  its  intended  effect,  and  silenced  for 
 ever  the  pretences  of  other  people  to  the  priesthood.  It  is  pre- 
 sumed therefore  by  some  learned  men,  that  the  rods  which  the 
 several  princes  brought  Moses,  were  neither  their  common 
 walking  staves,  nor  any  such  wands  as  were  a  badge  of  their 
 I  ower  and  authority  in  their  respective  tribes,  but  rather  certain 
 twigs  that  were  cut  of  from  some  almond-tree,  and  not  improba- 
 bly from  one  and  the  same  tree,  that  there  might  be  no  manner 
 of  difference  between  them  The  difference,  however,  next 
 morning,  appeared  in  this: — That  on  the  twig  which  bore 
 Aaron's  name,  there  was,  in  some  places,  an  appearance  of  buds 
 coming  forth;  in  others,  the  buds  were  opened,  and  shot  forth 
 into  blossoms;  and  in  others,  the  blossoms  were  knotted,  and 
 grown  into  almonds. — Le  Gere's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 h  It  is  made  a  matter  of  some  inquiry,  whether  this  rod  of 
 Aaron's  was  put  within  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  or  only  by  it. 
 God  commanded  Moses  to  put  it  only  in  the  tabernacle  (Num. 
 xvii.  -4.)  to  be  preserved  there;  but  St  Paul  in  Heb.  ix.  4,  says, 
 that  it  was  placed  within  the  ark,  with  a  pot  of  manna,  and  the 
 t  iblea  of  the  law.  Others  affirm,  that  it  was  not  put  within,  but 
 only  by  the  side  of  the  ark;  and  for  their  opinion  they  allege  a 
 ;c  in  I  Kings  viii.  9,  which  seems  to  intimate,  that  there 
 was  nothing  in  the  ark  but  the  tables  of  the  law;  but  then  their 
 adversaries  contend,  that  St  Paul,  in  that  passage  to  the  Hebrews, 
 is  to  be  understood  literally;  that  there  could  be  no  hinderance 
 for  its  being  put  into  tin'  ark,  since  the  ark  was  five  feet  lung, 
 and  could  not  be  but  of  capacity  enough  to  hold  it;  and  there- 
 fore, when  the  Scripture  says,  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  ark 
 but  the  tables  of  the  law,  they  conceive  that  it  may  be  under- 
 stood with  this  limitation, — That  nothing  else  was  originally  in 
 it,  because  the  ark  was  primarily  intended  for  that  use;  but  this 
 need  not  hinder  but  that  afterwards  other  tilings  likewise  might 
 be  put  in  it.  How  Ion,;  this  wonderful  rod  continued  in  this 
 repository,  is  nowhere  mentioned  in  Scripture.     When  the  ark 
 
 up  in  the  '  ark  of  the  covenant,'  and  gave  an  express 
 prohibition,  that  none  but  the  sons  of  Aaron  should 
 presume  to  come  into  the  tabernacle,  under  pain  of 
 death. 
 
 CHAP.   II. — Objections  Answered  and  Difficulties 
 Obviated. 
 
 In  this  state  of  our  infirmity,  indeed,  we  are  obliged  to 
 repair  the  gradual  decays  of  our  bodies  with  a  supply  of 
 daily  food  :  but  in  that  of  a  greater  perfection,  there 
 will  be  no  occasion  for  these  weak  supports  of  human 
 nature.  In  the  mean  time  we  .are  assured,  that x  '  man 
 doth  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that 
 proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God,'  by  whose  command 
 our  natural  perspiration  may  be  so  shut  up,  and  the  instru- 
 ments of  our  digestion  so  retarded,  as  to  make  a  small 
 quantity  of  meat  subsist  us  for  a  considerable  time. 
 Elijah,  we  read,  had  2  but  '  a  cake  baken  on  the  coals, 
 and  a  cruise  of  water'  for  his  whole  repast,  even  when 
 he  was  going  to  undertake  a  long  journey  ;  and  yet  we 
 find,  that  both  under  the  fatigue  of  body,  and  expense 
 of  spirits,  which  travelling  must  necessarily  occasion, 
 he  was  enabled  to  '  go  in  the  strength  of  that  meat  forty 
 days  and  forty  nights.'  And  for  the  like  reasons  we 
 may  suppose,  that  Moses  being  now  received  within  the 
 cloud  on  Mount  Sinai,  might  find  no  uneasy  cravings  of 
 appetite  during  his  stay,  and  long  conversation  with  God. 
 
 The  Jews  have  a  proverb,  with  relation  to  this  long 
 fasting  of  his,  3  which  tends  to  this  purpose,  that  above, 
 where  there  is  neither  eating  nor  drinking,  Moses  staid 
 eighty  days,  namely,  at  two  different  times,  and  became 
 like  the  angels  ;  and  below,  where  men  do  eat  and 
 drink,  ministering  angels  come  down  and  eat  and  drink 
 like  them."  Whereby  they  seem  to  impute  this  altera- 
 tion of  appetite  in  both  to  a  change  of  climate,  rather 
 than  a  miracle.  But  whether  the  climate  contributes  to 
 it  or  no,  it  is  certain,  that  God,  by  influences  and  ema- 
 nations from  himself,  can  support  a  man  as  long  as  he 
 thinks  fit,  and  keep  up  his  spirits  in  their  just  height, 
 without  the  common  recruits  of  any  kind  of  aliment. 
 
 It  is  another  notion  of  the  Jews,  4  that  as  eating  and 
 drinking  are  actions  which  prejudice  the  understanding, 
 God,  who  intended  to  prepare  his  servant  for  the  recep- 
 tion of  the  revelations  he  was  going  to  communicate, 
 withheld  all  meat  and  drink  from  him,  that  by  depressing 
 his  bodily  faculties  he  might  exalt  his  intellectual.  In 
 the  case  of  Daniel,  it  is  certain,  that  in  order  to  dispose 
 him  for  the  heavenly  vision,  s  '  he  did  eat  no  pleasant 
 bread,  neither  came  flesh  or  wine  in  his  mouth,  for  three 
 whole  weeks  together,'  as  himself  testifies ;  and  there- 
 fore, considering  the  many  wonderful  things  which  God 
 intended  to  impart  to  Moses,  there  seems  to  be  a  pro- 
 priety at  least,  if  not  an  absolute  necessity,  of  his  being 
 
 1  Mat.  iv.  4.  *  1   Kings  xix.  6,  8.  3  See  Buxtorf. 
 
 '  Patrick's  Commentary.  5  Dan.  x.  3 
 
 was  brought  into  Solomon's  temple,  (1  Kings  viii.  9.)  there  is  no 
 notice  taken  of  it;  and  yet  it  seems  reasonable  to  think,  that  it 
 should  have  been  preserved  for  some  considerable  time,  and 
 preserved  in  that  very  verdure,  wherein  it.  now  appeared,  with 
 its  buds,  blossoms,  and  fruit,  for  the  conviction  of  posterity.— 
 CalmeVs  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Rod. 
 
Sf.ct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &-c. 
 
 303 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1-190;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 put  under  the  like  regimen,  to  enable  him,  with  more 
 facility,  to  comprehend  them. 
 
 St  Paul  is  supposed  to  speak  of  himself,  though 
 modesty  makes  him  conceal  it,  when  he  expresses  his 
 visions  in  these  words  : —  l '  I  knew  a  man  in  Christ, 
 above  fourteen  years  ago,  (whether  in  the  body  I  cannot 
 tell,  or  whether  out  of  the  body,  I  cannot  tell,  God 
 knoweth,)  such  an  one  caught  up  to  the  third  heaven  ; 
 and  I  knew  such  a  man,  (whether  in  the  body,  or  out  of 
 the.  body  I  cannot  tell,  God  knoweth,)  how  he  was 
 caught  up  into  paradise,  and  heard  unspeakable  words 
 which  it  is  not  lawful,'  or,  as  the  marginal  note  has  it, 
 '  not  possible  for  man  to  utter.'  Now  wherever  the  divine 
 presence  is,  there  is  paradise,  and  there  is  heaven :  and 
 therefore,  if  St  Paul,  when  he  was  in  a  vision,  and 
 thought  himself  translated  to  the  regions  above,  in  the 
 contemplation  of  the  wonderful  things  he  saw  and  heard 
 there,  lost  all  sense  of  his  body,  and  perception  of  its 
 affections  ;  why  may  we  not  suppose,  that  the  joy  and  ecs- 
 tasy where  with  Moses  was  transported,  upon  the  like  occa- 
 sion, made  him  never  think  of  once  eating  or  drinking  ? 
 
 A  man  must  be  a  stranger  to  deep  study  and  medita- 
 tion, who  has  not  experienced  in  himself  a  total  forget- 
 fulness  for  some  time,  not  only  of  the  nimble  minutes,  as 
 they  passed  away,  but  of  the  necessities  of  nature  likewise, 
 as  they  came  upon  him ;  and  even  found,  at  length,  that 
 his  recollection,  and  sensation  of  these  things,  proceeded 
 from  an  imbecility  of  his  mind,  which  was  not  able  to 
 endure  a  continued  intention,  or  stretch  of  thought,  more 
 than  any  natural  call,  which  seems  to  have  been  sus- 
 pended as  long  as  his  superior  faculties  were  thus  agree- 
 ably employed.  With  much  more  reason,  therefore,  we 
 may  conclude,  that  in  the  presence  of  God,  where  the 
 mind  might  be  impregnated  with  a  power  to  sustain  the 
 fatigue  of  close  perpetual  thinking,  the  variety  of  objects 
 which  presented  themselves  would  be  so  great,  and  the 
 entertainment  of  its  intellectual  faculties  so  very  strong, 
 as  would  quite  absorb  all  corporeal  desires  and  appetites. 
 
 Had  Moses  therefore  been  employed  in  no  farther 
 capacity,  than  barely  in  contemplating  the  many  amaz- 
 ing wonders  of  God's  infinite  being,  which  the  irradia- 
 tions from  his  beatific  presence  must  have  transfused  upon 
 his  mind,  this  had  been  enough  to  suspend  all  other  oper- 
 ations, and  engross,  as  it  were,  the  whole  complex  of  his 
 faculties.  But  besides  this,  the  Scripture  informs  us, 
 that  *  he  took  a  review  of  the  model  of  the  tabernacle, 
 and  its  furniture,  which  God  had  showed  him  when  he 
 waa  with  him  before,  and,  as  we  may  suppose,  received 
 fresh  instructions  from  God.  This  could  not  but  take  up 
 some  portion  of  his  time  ;  as  most  of  the  remainder  of  it 
 seems  to  have  been  spent  in  3  prayer  and  intercession 
 with  God  for  the  people,  that  he  would  restore  them 
 entirely  to  his  favour,  and  bring  them,  in  his  good 
 appointed  time,  to  their  inheritance. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  it  appears,  that  as  Moses 
 was  in  the  presence  of  God  all  the  while  that  he  con- 
 tinued on  the  mount;  had  a  full  employ  for  his  mind 
 and  thoughts  during  that  time  ;  and  by  the  divine  influ- 
 ence, had  his  spirits  sustained  in  their  proper  height,  and 
 his  animal  part  preserved  without  wasting  ;  he  could  have 
 
 1  2  Cor.  xii.  2,  &c. 
 ''  From  the  beginning  of  the  25th  chapter  of  Exodus  to  tin  end 
 of  i  he  30th  chapter. 
 '  Dent.  ix.  18,  10,  25,  20.  and  x.  10. 
 
 A.  M.  3764.  A.  C.  1647.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28.— NUM.  xviii. 
 no  leisure  to  think  of  eating  and  drinking,  or  that,  had 
 he  thought  thereon,  he  could  find  in  himself  no  rail  or 
 occasion  for  it. 
 
 The  word  karan,  which  our  translators  have  mado 
 alibiing,  is  by  the  Vulgate  rendered  cornutus,  or  horned} 
 and  from  this  misapplication  of  ideas,  painters  verj 
 probably  have  been  induced  to  draw  Moses  with  a  pair 
 of  horns  branching,  as  it  were,  out  of  his  forehead  ; 
 whereas  the  proper  representation  of  him  should  be  with 
 a  glory  covering  his  head,  in  the  manner  that  the 
 are  painted  in  the  Roman  church  ;  for  it  is  not  improb- 
 able, that  the  hair  of  his  head  was  interspersed  with  rays 
 of  light,  at  tin:  same  time  that  a  certain  beauteous  In- 
 proceeded  from  his  face,  and  dazzled  the  eyes  of  its 
 beholders. 
 
 Moses  was  certainly  in  this,  as  well  as  many  other 
 things,  an  eminent  type  of  our  Saviour  Christ,  and  the 
 change  of  his  countenance  an  emblem  of  our  Lord's 
 transfiguration  upon  the  mount,  when  4  '  his  face  (as  the 
 evangelist  relates  the  matter)  did  shine  as  the  sun,  and 
 his  raiment  was  white  as  the  light.'  In  both  rase-,  if 
 was  the  glorious  being  5  within  the  cloud,  that  transfused 
 this  radiant  splendour  around  his  Son  and  servant :  but 
 the  reason  why  Moses,  at  his  first  time  of  being  upon  the 
 mount,  and  conversing  with  God,  did  not  contract  this 
 wonderful  brightness,  seems  to  be  this, — That  he  had 
 not  then  seen  the  divine  Majesty  in  so  great  a  splendour 
 as  he  did  now.  He  was  obliged  then  to  keep  at  a  more 
 awful  distance  from  the  tremendous  throne  of  God,  and 
 not  come  within  the  circle  of  its  refulgency;  but  now, 
 upon  his  humble  petition,  God  was  pleased  to  vouchsafe 
 him  such  a  sight  of  his  glory  as  his  human  nature  could 
 bear.  So  that,  by  being  permitted  to  come  within  the 
 circumference  of  it,  he  carried  off',  though  unknown  to 
 himself,  a  such  a  beamy  lustre  from  the  divine  refulgency 
 as,  like  the  lambent  fires  wherewith  the  poets  adorn  the 
 temples  of  their  heroes,  played  about  his  head  and  face, 
 and  there  was  permanent  for  some  considerable  time  : 
 for  Moses  being  now  to  bring  down  the  tables  of  the 
 covenant  from  the  mount,  that  the  people  might  not 
 suspect  him  of  any  fallacy  or  collusion,  or  think  that  his 
 pretence  to  a  correspondence  with  the  Deity,  as  that  of 
 some  subsequent  lawgivers  proved,  was  vain  ami  ficti- 
 tious, God  was  pleased  to  send  along  with  him  this  testi- 
 mony, as  it  were,  of  his  having  held  communion  with 
 God.  For  the  miraculous  radianc]  wherewith  he  was 
 adorned,  showed  in  what  company  he  had  been  during 
 his  absence;  confirmed  his  message  to  the  people  ;  and 
 in  every  respect  carried  new  credentials  in  it. 
 
 It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  indeed,  why  a  people  --'< 
 immediately  under  the  guidance  of  God,  should  every 
 day  stand  in  need  of  so  man]  new  credentials,  and  upon 
 every  little  emergency,  fall  a  murmuring  and  rebelling 
 aeainst  the  God  of   Israel,  ami  his  servant  Moses.      Si 
 
 1  .Mat.  xvii.  •>.  '  M«t  *»"•  5. 
 
 a  It  was  a  custom  amongst  the  ancient  heathens, and  probably 
 derived  from  what  here  i-  represent  ti 
 
 beamy  glory  around  their  heads,  /<-  Kirry  rays  about  their 
 as  Lucian  De  Ded  Syria  has  it.     And  hence  it  was,  that  the 
 Roman  emperors,  who  were  raised  bo  much  above  tin 
 mankind,  that  tiny  were  honoured  as  a  sort  of  deities,  were  thus 
 represented,  as  appears  from  the  testimony  "t  Pliny,among  many 
 more,  "ho,   in  his   panegyric  to  Trajan,  n  iiatum 
 
 pomitiam  "</<<t  the  subject  <>t'  some  banti  i .—  I 
 tary. 
 
304 
 
 THE  HISTORY  QF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1130;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3764.  A.  C.  1G47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 Stephen,  in  quoting  the  prophet  Amos,  has  let  us  into 
 the  cause  of  this  people's  frequent  prevarications  :  '  '  0 
 ye  house  of  Israel,  have  ye  offered  to  me  slain  beasts 
 and  sacrifices,  by  the  space  of  forty  years  in  the  wilder- 
 ness ?  Yea,  ye  took  up  the  tabernacle  of  Moloch,  a  and 
 the  star  of  your  god  Remphan,  figures  which  ye  made  to 
 worship  them.'  By  Moloch,  the  learned  are  pretty  well 
 agreed,  that  we  are  to  understand  the  image  of  the  sun, 
 and  by  Remphan,  that  of  the  planet  Saturn ;  and  that 
 the  worship  of  these  idols  was  a  common  thing  among 
 the  Israelites,  in  the  time  of  their  sojourning  in  the  wild- 
 erness, is  manifest  from  that  passage  of  the  prophet, 
 where  he  introduces  God  thus  complaining  of  the  per- 
 verseness  of  that  people  :  2  '  In  the  day  that  I  chose 
 Israel,  and  lifted  up  my  hand  unto  the  seed  of  the  house 
 of  Jacob,  to  bring  them  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
 unto  a  land  that  1  had  espied  for  them,  flowing  with  milk 
 and  honey,  then  said  I  unto  them,  "  Cast  ye  away  every 
 man  the  abominations  of  his  eyes,  and  defile  not  your- 
 selves with  the  idols  of  Egypt :  I  am  the  Lord  your 
 God."  But  they  rebelled  against  me,  and  would  not 
 hearken  unto  me  ;  they  did  not  every  man  cast  away  the 
 abominations  of  their  eyes,  neither  did  they  forsake 
 the  idols  of  Egypt.'  Nay,  so  far  were  they  from  forsak- 
 ing the  idols  of  Egypt,  that  we  find  them  adopting 
 strange  gods  from  every  other  neighbouring  nation, 
 which  occasioned  that  severe  commination  in  God  :  a  '  I 
 will  set  my  face  against  that  man,  and  will  cut  him  off 
 from  among  his  people,  because  he  hath  given  his  seed 
 unto  *  Moloch,  to  defile  my  sanctuary,  and  to  profane  my 
 
 1  Acts  vii.  42,  43.       2  Ezek.  xx.  5,  &c.       3  Lev.  xx.  3,  &c. 
 
 a  Thus  the  Seventy,  from  whom  St  Stephen  took  this  pas- 
 sage in  Amos,  translate  it;  but  the  import  of  the  Hebrew  text  is 
 this,  '  Ye  have  borne  the  tabernacle  of  your  kings,  and  the 
 pedestal  (so  the  word  Chiun  signifies)  of  your  images,  the  star  of 
 your  gods,  which  ye  made  to  yourselves.'  So  that  it  seems  very 
 probable  that  the  LXX  read  Rephan  or  Revan,  instead  of  Chiun 
 or  Chevan,  and  thereby  mistook  the  pedestal  for  a  god.  Kircher, 
 however,  and  Salmasius  assert,  that  Kiion  is  Saturn;  that  his 
 star  is  called  Keiran  among  the  Persians  and  Arabians,  and  that 
 Remphan,  or  Rephan,  signified  the  same  thing  among  the 
 Egyptians ;  and  therefore  they  suppose,  that  the  Septuagint,  who 
 made  their  translation  in  Egypt,  changed  the  word  Chiun  into 
 that  of  Remphan,  because  they  had  the  same  signification. 
 llemphan  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  an  Egyptian  god ; 
 and  Hammond,  in  his  notes  upon  Acts  vii.  43,  is  of  opinion,  that 
 this  was  the  name  of  a  certain  king  of  Egypt,  who,  after  his  death, 
 was  deified  by  his  subjects:  but  of  what  make  and  figure  the 
 image  of  this  idol  was,  or  in  what  manner  he  was  worshipped, 
 we  can  nowhere  learn. — Calmct's  Dictionary,  under  the  words 
 Chiun  and  Remphan. 
 
 b  The  rabbins  assure  us,  that  the  idol  Moloch,  which  was  the 
 same  as  Baal,  the  sun,  or  Lord  of  heaven,  worshipped  by  all  the 
 people  in  the  east,  had  its  image  made  of  brass,  sitting  upon  a 
 throne  of  the  same  metal,  having  the  head  of  a  calf,  adorned 
 with  a  royal  crown,  and  his  arms  extended  as  it  were  to  embrace 
 any  thing;  but  what  the  children's  passing  through  the  fire  means, 
 they  are  not  so  well  agreed.  Some  of  them  are  of  opinion,  that 
 parents,  in  the  worship  of  this  idol,  did  not  actually  burn  their 
 children,  but  only  caused  them  to  leap  through  tire  that  was 
 lighted  before  it,  or  to  pass  between  two  fires  placed  opposite  to 
 each  other,  by  way  of  lustration;  but  the  expressions  of  David 
 are  a  little  too  Strong  to  admit  of  this  interpretation.  For  when 
 lie  tells  us,  that  '  they  sacrificed  their  sons  and  daughters  unto 
 devils,  and  that  they  shed  innocent  blood,  even  the  blood  of  their 
 sons  and  daughters,  whom  they  sacrificed  to  the  idols  of  Canaan,' 
 Fs.  cvi.  37,  3S,  we  cannot  but  infer,  that  they  did  actually 
 murder  their  children  in  this  execrable  way.  When  any  infants 
 were  to  be  sacrificed,  the  idol  was  made  hot  by  kindling  a  great 
 fire  in  the  inside  of  it ;  and  when  it  was  heated  to  a  most  intense 
 
 holy  name.'  And  if  any  one  fail  to  punish  this  idolater, 
 '  then  will  I  set  my  face,'  says  God,  '  against  that  man, 
 and  against  his  family,  and  will  cut  him  off,  and  all  that 
 go  a  whoring  after  him,  from  among  their  people.' 
 
 Now,  if  idolatry  was  a  practice  which  the  Israelites 
 retained,  and  in  some  instances  improved,  after  their  de- 
 parture out  of  Egypt,  there  is  great  reason  to  presume  that 
 these  idolaters  were  the  very  murmurers  also  who  infected 
 the  camp  with  their  infidelity.  They  might  believe,  be- 
 cause they  saw  so  many  manifestations  of  it,  the  residence 
 of  a  God  among  them  ,  but  then  it  is  not  unlikely,  that 
 they  thought  of  him,  as  most  of  the  heathens  thought  of 
 their  gods,  that  he  was  a  local  and  limited  deity,  who 
 had  done  something  for  them  indeed,  but,  could  not  do 
 all  they  wanted  ;  who  had  brought  them  into  the  wilder- 
 ness, but  had  not  the  power  to  conduct  them  into 
 Canaan. 
 
 In  this  manner  it  is,  that  the  Psalmist  represents  them 
 reasoning  with  themselves.  4  '  Shall  this  God  of  ours 
 prepare  us  a  table  in  the  wilderness  ?  He  smote  the 
 stony  rock  indeed,  that  the  water  gushed  out,  and  the 
 streams  flowed  withal  ;  but  can  he  give  bread  also,  and 
 provide  flesh  for  his  people  ?  Many  of  these  miracles 
 they  saw  wrought  before  their  eyes  ;  but  then  they  might 
 look  upon  Moses  who  did  them,  5  to  be  no  more  than  a 
 mere  magician,  though  perhaps  of  a  better  sort  than 
 those  of  Egypt ;  and  consequently  might  be  apprehensive 
 that  upon  every  new  turn  and  exigence,  his  art  would 
 fail  him  ;  and  therefore  having  no  better  notions  of  God, 
 and  so  gross  a  conception  of  their  leader,  it  is  no  man- 
 ner of  wonder  that  they  ran  into  murmuring  and  discon- 
 tent, into  riot  and  disorder,  upon  every  little  difficulty 
 that  pressed  them. 
 
 Two  times  Ave  find  them  complaining  for  the  want  of 
 such  food  as  they  desired  ;  once  6  in  the  wilderness  of 
 Sin,  a  few  days  after  their  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  and 
 again  at  the  encampment 7  of  Kibroth-Hattaavah,  not 
 long  after  their  departure  from  Mount  Sinai  ;  and  at 
 both  of  these  times  God  thought  proper  to  send  them 
 quails;  not  out  of  any  destitution  or  scarcity  of  other 
 provision,  'for  8  all  the  beasts  of  the  forest  are  his,  and 
 so  are  the  cattle  upon  a  thousand  hills  ;  he  knows  all  the 
 fowls  upon  the  mountains,  and  the  wild  beasts  of  the 
 field  are  in  his  sight,' but  for  this  very  reason, — that  how 
 willing  soever  he  might  be  to  supply  his  people's  neces- 
 sities, he  had  no  design  to  pamper  their  appetites  with  a 
 needless  variety,  or  to  multiply  miracles  without  any 
 just  occasion.  And  therefore,  as  both  these  events  hap- 
 pened in  the  spring,  when  quails,  which  are  found  in 
 great  quantities  upon  the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea,  are 
 accustomed  to  pass  from  Asia  into  Europe,  God  caused 
 a  wind  to  arise,  which  in  their  Might  drove  them  towards 
 the  camp  of  the  Israelites,  and,  9  as  the  eastern  tradition 
 has  it,  was  so  very  violent,  that  it  broke  their  wings,  and 
 made  them  fall  at  a  convenient  distance,  and  in  proper 
 condition  to  be  taken  up. 
 
 4  Ps.  lxxviii.  20.  21. 
 
 5  Bibliothi  ea  Biblica,  vol.  iv.  Occasional  Annotations,  5. 
 
 6Exod.  xvi.  3,  13.        7  Num.  xi.  34.         8  Fs.  1.   10,  11. 
 
 9  See  Bibl.  Orient,  p.  749,  col.  1. 
 
 degree,  the  miserable  victim  was  put  into  its   arms,  and  soon 
 
 consumed  by  the  violence  of  the  heat;  but  that  the  cries  of  the 
 
 children  might  not  be  heard  in  their  extremities,  the  people  w<  re 
 
 wont  to  make  a  noise  with  drums  and  other  instruments  about 
 
 the  idol. —  Calmet's  Dictionary,  and  Dissertations. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &< 
 
 305 
 
 A.  M.  2511.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 That  quails  among  us  are  very  excellent  food,  cannot 
 be  denied ;  but  the  same  tradition  informs  us,  that  these 
 birds  in  Arabia  Felix,  do  vastly  surpass  all  others,  and 
 as  our  author  expresses  it,  have  neither  bones,  veins,  nor 
 sinews  in  them,  that  is,  are  very  fat  and  tender,  some- 
 thing like  our  fig-peckers  and  ortolans.  And,  therefore, 
 though  God  refused  to  gratify  their  palates  with  a  pro- 
 fuse variety  of  dainties,  yet  is  there  no  fault  to  be  found 
 with  his  provision,  since  the  food  he  sent  them  was  deli- 
 cious in  its  kind,  and  a  whole  year  had  now  intervened 
 between  the  former  and  latter  flight  of  quails,  to  whet 
 their  appetites,  and  prevent  any  danger  of  being  cio\ed 
 with  the  same  dish. 
 
 Something,  however,  there  was  in  their  behaviour, 
 which  provoked  God  in  this  their  latter,  more  than  their 
 former  complaint  for  want  of  flesh,  to  punish  them  so 
 severely.  '  The  desire  of  flesh  for  food  is  in  itself  but 
 natural,  and,  absolutely  speaking,  far  from  being  cri- 
 minal, or  provoking  to  the  Author  of  nature,  who  created 
 every  appetite  of  man,  as  well  as  his  understanding  ; 
 but  when  this  breaks  out  into  murmuring,  mutiny,  and 
 disorder,  the  case  is  then  entirely  altered.  In  the  former 
 of  these  cases,  the  people  were  in  want  of  bread,  and 
 really  pinched  with  hunger  ;  but  in  the  latter,  they  had 
 bread  from  heaven  in  abundance,  and  may  therefore  be 
 said  to  complain  not  out  of  need  but  wantonness.  Their 
 discontent  in  the  former  case  was  expressed,  compara- 
 tively, in  modest  terms  ;  but  here  their  tone  is,  2  '  Who 
 shall  give  us  flesh  to  eat  ?  We  remember  the  fish  which  we 
 did  eat  in  Egypt  freely,  the  cucumbers,  and  the  melons, 
 and  the  leeks,  and  the  onions,  and  the  garlick ;  but  now 
 our  soul  is  dried  away  ;  there  is  nothing-  at  all  besides 
 this  manna  before  our  eyes.'  This  same  contempt  of 
 the  manna,  which  God  so  miraculously  sent  from  heaven, 
 especially  in  persons  so  well  instructed  in  the  divine  will, 
 was  such  an  instance  of  baseness  and  ingratitude,  as 
 justly  deserved  the  punishment  it  met  with. 
 
 In  the  former  time  of  their  complaining,  God  winked 
 at  their  ignorance,  and  pitied  their  distress ;  he  had  not 
 then  given  them  his  laws  for  the  rule  of  their  actions  and 
 appetites  ;  and  therefore,  never  looking  to  reap,  where 
 he  had  not  sowed,  he  was  not  so  extreme  as  to  mark 
 what  they  had  done  amiss  ;  but  after  he  had  published 
 his  precepts  from  the  holy  mount,  and  many  more  in- 
 structions from  the  tabernacle,  he  then  expected  that 
 their  obedience  should  keep  pace  with  their  knowledge, 
 and  was  more  provoked  at  their  backslidings  than  before, 
 because  they  proceeded  not  from  the  ignorance  of  their 
 minds,  but  the  perverseness  of  their  wills  :  for  this  was 
 the  true  and  the  just  cause  of  their  3  '  condemnation,  that 
 even  when  light  was  come  into  the  world,  they  loved 
 darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  were 
 evil.' 
 
 In  the  11th  chapter  of  the  book  of  Leviticus,  we  have 
 a  catalogue  of  the  beasts,  fishes,  and  fowls,  which  God 
 either  permitted,  or  prohibited  the  Israelites  to  eat. 
 From  his  first  making  choice  of  them,  God's  purpose  was 
 to  distinguish  them  from  other  nations,  and  more  espe- 
 cially from  the  Egyptians,  among  whom  they  had  long- 
 lived,  had  contracted  their  manners,  and  were  too  tena- 
 cious of  their  customs ;  and  therefore,  in  opposition   to 
 
 1  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  vol.  iv.  Occasional  Annotation?,  3, 
 a  Num.  :xi.  5,  &e.  3  John  iii.  19. 
 
 A.  M.  37G4.  A.  C.  1C17.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 these,  he  enjoined  them  to  eat  such  creatures  as  were 
 worshipped  in  Egypt,  which  would  be  an  effectual  means 
 to  render  the  pretences  of  these  sham  deities  contempti- 
 ble ;  as,  on  the  contrary,  he  ordered  them  to  abstain  from 
 those  that  were  held  in  the  greatest  delicacy  anions 
 them.  And  because  the  Egyptians  would  have  nothing 
 to  do  with  such  animals  as  had  hoofs  and  horns,  the  Jews 
 were  allowed  to  eat  none  but  what  parted  the  hoof,  as 
 well  as  chewed  the  cud. 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed  farther,  that  in  the  very  make  and 
 nature  of  some  animals,  there  are  certain  qualities  which 
 prejudice  mankind  against  them,  and  seem  as  it  were  to 
 desecrate  their  use ;  that  some,  for  instance,  are  mon- 
 strously big,  others  very  ugly  and  deformed  ;  some  conic 
 from  heterogeneous  mixtures,  others  feed  upon  dead 
 bodies,  and  to  others  most  men  have  an  inbred  antipathy  ; 
 so  that,  in  the  main,  what  the  law  forbad;;  the  Jews  in 
 this  regard,  was  nature's  aversion  before  :  but  then  the 
 question  is, — Why  the  things  which  they  were  naturally 
 averse  to,  and  would  have  refrained  without  it,  were 
 made  the  matter  of  a  divine  interdiction  ? 
 
 Now,  if  we  trace  the  history  of  this  people,  we  shall 
 find,  that  they  had  their  seasons  of  affliction  and  scarcity 
 as  well  as  of  prosperity  and  plenty.  At  the  very  time 
 when  these  prohibitions  were  given  them,  they  were  tra- 
 velling, and  were  to  continue  travelling  for  many  yean 
 in  a  waste  and  barren  desert,  Avhich  being  destitute  of 
 the  conveniences,  and  necessaries  of  life,  might  tempt 
 them  to  make  experiment  upon  the  flesh  of  some  of  those 
 animals  that  they  naturally  abhorred,  but  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, as  they  thought,  might  innocently  make  use  of  :  and 
 therefore,  to  set  a  stronger  guard  upon  human  nature, 
 God  thought  proper  to  confirm  this  their  innate  aversion, 
 by  the  sanction  and  establishment  of  laws,  which  were  to 
 last  beyond  the  term  of  their  continuance  in  the  wil- 
 derness. 
 
 The  truth  is,  this  people,  by  their  gross  impieties,  and 
 prevarications  with  God,  brought  frequently  upon  them- 
 selves famines,  and  sieges,  and  other  calamities,  wherein 
 they  suffered  very  grievously.  To  pass  by  the  famines, 
 which  happened  4  in  Judea,  ''  in  the  times  of  the  Judges, 
 and  6  in  David's  days  ;  in  the  reign  of  Ahab  there  was  a 
 dreadful  one  in  Samaria,  when  an  '  ass's  head  sold  for 
 fourscore  pieces  of  silver,  and  the  fourth  part  of  a  cab 
 of  doves'  dung  (it  should  be  rendered  pulse)  lor  fire 
 pieces  of  silver;'  and,  what  is  more  lamentable  still, 
 when  mothers  entered  into  compact  about  eating  their 
 own  children.  But  the  most  tragical  account  of  all,  is 
 that  which  their  own  historian  has  recorded  of  them,  at 
 the  siege  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  when  wires  snatched 
 the  necessaries  of  life  from  their  husbands,  children  from 
 their  parents,  and  parents  from  their  children;  '  when 
 mothers  were  forced,  for  their  own  .support,  to  defraud 
 their  infants  of  the  little  milk  which  was  in  their  breasts, 
 while  the  infants  were  dying  in  their  arms  for  want  of  it ; 
 when  hunger  and  necessity  turned  every  thing  into  vic- 
 tuals and,  what  is  shocking  to  human  nature  but  barely 
 to  think  on, 9  made  one  Jewish  lady  of  quality  eat  her 
 own  child. 
 
 Bibliotheca  Bibliea,  voL  iii.  <  (crasional  Annotations,  3. 
 5  Ruth  i.  1.  6  2  Sam.  xxi.  1.         '  2  Kings  vi.  26. 
 
 8  Joseph.  De  Bello  Jud.  b.  5.  c.  10. 
 
 »  Joseph.  De  Bello  Jud.  h.  fi.  c.  3. 
 2q 
 
306 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3764.  A.  C.  1647.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 Now  the  use  that  I  would  make  of  this  melancholy 
 part  of  their  history,  is  this, — That  as  to  God's  pre- 
 science, were  present  from  everlasting  all  the  wicked- 
 nesses and  rebellions  of  this  people  ;  so  were  those 
 penalties  and  judgments  which  his  infinite  wisdom  deter- 
 mined to  be  most  suitable  to  them.  For  what  method 
 can  be  thought  more  proper  to  make  an  impression  upon 
 those  that  forsake  God,  than  that  he  should  forsake  them, 
 that  is,  so  far  at  least,  as  to  withdraw  the  succours  of  life 
 from  them  ?  And  considering  his  prohibition  of  certain 
 animals  for  food  under  this  view,  it  was  certainly  a  kind 
 and  generous  warning-  to  his  people,  not  to  bring-  them- 
 selves, in  consequence  of  these  provocations,  (which  he 
 foreknew,  and  against  which  he  had  so  strictly  cautioned 
 them,)  into  such  circumstances,  as  would  oblige  them 
 either  to  forbear  the  very  last  means  of  sustaining  life, 
 or  to  break  more  of  God's  commandments  than  they  had 
 done  before. 
 
 But  there  is  a  farther  reason  arising  from  the  quality 
 of  animals,  why  God  might  enact  a  discrimination  of 
 meats,  and  that  is, — to  give  his  people  therein  a  mystical 
 system  of  morality.  Thus  the  birds  which  were  allowed 
 to  be  eaten,  the  pigeon,  the  dove,  the  partridge,  for 
 instance,  were  either  tame,  or  of  gentle  nature,  feeding 
 on  grain  or  pulse  ;  whereas  all  the  species  that  lived  on 
 prey,  and  such  as  gorge  themselves  with  flesh  and  blood, 
 were  utterly  forbidden,  thereby  to  bring  into  reputation 
 justice  and  mercy,  and  moderation,  and  at  the  same  time 
 to  discountenance  the  contrary  disposition  to  rapine, 
 oppression,  and  cruelty.  It  is  a  noted  allegory,  that  in 
 Homer,  of  Circe's  changing  Ulysses'  friends  into  hogs. 
 By  Circe,  the  poet  intends  that  we  should  understand 
 sensual  pleasures ;  by  Ulysses,  reason  and  discretion  ; 
 and  by  his  retinue,  the  inferior  faculties  and  powers  ; 
 and  in  like  manner,  the  prohibition  of  swine's  flesh,  was 
 designed  to  restrain  the  Jews  from  such  lusts  as  Avar 
 against  the  spirit,  as  pollute  and  debase  human  nature, 
 like  that  creature's  wallowing  in  the  mire  :  for,  as  a 
 learned  author  observes,  1  the  Jewish  law  was  more 
 remarkably  strict  in  its  prohibitions  of  things  that  were 
 sordid  and  slovenly  ;  wherein  it  seems  to  have  had  an 
 especial  aim  to  the  training  and  forming  of  a  people  that 
 had  lived  uncultivated,  by  reason  of  their  long  slavery 
 in  Egypt,  and  their  dirty  work  in  clay  and  bricks,  to  an 
 elegancy  and  politeness  of  manners,  as  well  as  a  detes- 
 tation of  all  filthy  and  brutal  lusts,  '  that  being  set  free 
 from  sin,'  as  the  apostle  expresses  it,  2  '  they  might 
 glorify  God  in  purity  and  holiness,  both  in  their  bodies, 
 and  in  their  spirits,  which  were  his.' 
 
 The  same  apostle,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  has 
 informed  us,  '  that  3  the  law  made  nothing  perfect,  but 
 the  bringing  in  of  a  better  hope,  by  which  we  draw  nigh 
 unto  God,  did.'  The  Jewish  high  priest  was  a  type  of 
 our  blessed  Saviour,  and  his  entrance  into  the  holy  of 
 holies,  of  our  Lord's  ascension  into  heaven,  after  his 
 resurrection.  The  sacrilices  which  were  offered  under 
 the  Levitical  law,  were  previous  representations  of  the 
 death  of  Christ ;  and  the  redemption  of  mankind  by  the 
 effusion  of  his  blood  was  exhibited  every  day  in  the 
 several  oblations  in  the  tabernacle  :  '  4  for  if  the  blood  of 
 bulls  and  of  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  an  heifer,  sprinkling 
 
 '  Spencer  tie  Legilms  Heb. 
 3  Ch.  vii.  19. 
 
 2  1  Cor.  vi.  20. 
 4  Heb.  ix.  13. 
 
 the  unclean,  sanctifieth  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh ; 
 how  much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who  through 
 the  eternal  Spirit,  offered  himself  without  spot  to  God, 
 purge  the  conscience  from  dead  works,  to  serve  the  liv- 
 ing God  ?'  Now,  besides  the  arguments  which  might  be 
 drawn  from  the  grossness  of  the  Jews'  understanding, 
 and  their  incapacity  to  receive  a  more  spiritual  dispen- 
 sation, God  might  have  this  farther  design  in  setting 
 before  them  the  mystery  of  man's  redemption  under  such 
 typical  representations,  namely,  that  thereby  he  might 
 excite  their  industry,  and  give  a  fuller  scope  to  the 
 exercise  of  their  faith.  For  that  the  faith,  and  hope, 
 and  other  graces  of  the  patriarchs  and  devout  Jews, 
 were  more  effectually  proved  by  the  exhibition  of  things 
 ambiguous  and  obscure,  than  if  they  had  been  altogether 
 opened  in  the  fullest  and  plainest  propositions,  is  a 
 matter  that  can  hardly  be  contested.  To  rest  assured, 
 that  God  would  bring  to  pass  what  he  had  expressly  and 
 circumstantially  foretold,  showed  indeed  a  sincere  and 
 true  faith  in  general ;  but  to  be  persuaded,  that  faint 
 resemblances,  and  the  remotest  hints  were  pregnant  with 
 certainty  and  solidity,  and  would,  in  their  proper  time, 
 be  gloriously  completed,  how  unintelligible  soever  they 
 might  be  at  present,  was,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  a  special  ad- 
 vance of  heroic  faith,  and  rendered  their  dependence  and 
 resignation  as  complete  as  possible.  And  accordingly 
 the  apostle,  having  enumerated  several  ancient  worthies, 
 who  by  faith  extended  their  views,  and  looked  upon  the 
 dispensation  they  were  under,  as  no  more  than  a  system 
 of  types  and  shadows  of  the  good  things  to  come,  con- 
 cludes their  character  in  the  following  manner  :  5  '  And 
 these  all,  having  obtained  a  good  report  through  faith, 
 received  not  the  promise  :  God  having  provided  some 
 better  thing  for  us,  that  they  without  us  should  not  be 
 made  so  perfect.'  So  that  the  Jewish  religion  and 
 worship  was,  in  some  respects,  adapted  to  the  capacity 
 and  genius  both  of  the  learned  and  ignorant :  of  the 
 ignorant,  as  being  made  up  of  pomp  and  show  enough 
 to  attract  their  attention  ;  and  of  the  learned,  as  abound- 
 ing with  shadows  and  emblems  of  higher  matters,  enough 
 to  exercise  their  deepest  contemplation. 
 
 What  the  sin  of  '  offering"  strange  fire  before  the  Lord 
 was,'  and  upon  what  account  it  raised  the  divine  indig- 
 nation against  Nadab  and  Abihu,the  two  sons  of  Aaron, 
 will  best  appear  by  attending  a  little  to  the  probable 
 occasion  of  it.  After  the  consecration  of  Aaron  and  his 
 sons  to  the  priestly  office,  we  are  told,  that  a  miraculous 
 '  fire  from  the  Lord,'  that  is,  a  fire  which  either  came 
 immediately  down  from  heaven,  or  out  of  the  cloud 
 which  covered  the  tabernacle,  consumed  the  first  victim 
 which  Aaron  offered  for  a  burnt-offering ;  that  God  had 
 expressly  commanded,  that  6  '  the  fire  which  was  upon 
 the  altar  should  not  be  suffered  to  go  out,'  which,  accord- 
 ing to  the  consent  of  most  interpreters,  signifies,  that 
 the  said  miraculous  fire  which  had  confirmed  the  instal- 
 lation of  Aaron  and  his  sons  after  so  surprising  a  man- 
 ner, should  be  kept  alive,  and  burning-  with  the  utmost 
 care  ;  and  that,  as  at  this  very  fire,  Aaron  was  7  required 
 to  light  the  incense  which  he  offered  to  God  in  the  most 
 holy  place,  on  the  greiit  day  of  expiation  ;  so  may  we 
 take  it  for  granted,  that  the  like  injunction  was  imposed 
 
 5  Heb.  ix.  39,  40. 
 
 Lev. 
 
 12. 
 
 Lev.  xvi.  12. 
 
Sect.  II. J 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 307 
 
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 on  the  inferior  priests,  with  relation  to  the  incense  which 
 they  were  to  offer  every  day  before  God  in  the  holy 
 place.  We  have  indeed  no  mention  made  of  such  a  law  ; 
 but  the  history  we  are  commenting  upon  gives  us  a 
 strong  presumption,  that  the  use  of  this  Hre  only  was 
 permitted ;  and  therefore  the  words  '  in  the  text,  '  which 
 he  commanded  them  not,'  is  thought  to  imply  an  express 
 prohibition  of  any  other. 
 
 The  crime  then  of  Nadab  and  Abihu  consisted  in  their 
 kindling  the  incense,  which  their  office  of  priests  obliged 
 them  to  offer  every  morning  and  evening,  with  fire  difier- 
 ent  from  that  which  was  continually  on  the  altar  of  burnt- 
 oft'erings ;  and  consequently  different  from  what  God 
 ordered  them  to  use.  a  Other  offences  indeed  have  been 
 laid  to  their  charge.  Some  pretend,  that  they  endea- 
 voured to  intrude  into  the  most  holy  place,  which  was 
 not  permitted  them  to  enter  ;  because  immediately  after 
 the  recital  of  the  manner  of  their  death,  Moses,  in 
 another  place  relates,  that  God  commanded  him  to  speak 
 unto  Aaron,  2  '  That  he  should  not  come,  at  all  times, 
 into  the  holy  place,  within  the  veil,  before  the  mercy- 
 seat,  that  he  died  not;'  but  others  insinuate,  that  they 
 were  guilty  of  intemperance,  at  the  entertainment  made 
 at  their  installation,  because  after  the  account  of  their 
 fatal  end,  Moses,  by  God's  order,  gives  this  injunction 
 to  Aaron,  and  the  remainder  of  his  sons :  3  '  Do  not 
 drink  wine,  nor  strong  drink,  thou,  nor  thy  sons  with 
 thee,  when  ye  go  into  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation, 
 lest  ye  die.  R  shall  be  a  statute  for  ever  through  your 
 generations,  that  ye  may  put  difference  between  holy 
 and  unholy,  between  unclean  and  clean.'  Rut  these 
 are  no  more  than  bare  surmises,  that  iiave  no  proper 
 foundation  in  the  foregoing  texts ;  nor  is  there  any 
 occasion  to  hunt  out  for  passages  to  augment  these 
 offenders'  crime. 
 
 Nadab  and  Abihu  had  not  only  been  admitted,  in  com- 
 mon with  the  rest  of  their  brethren,  to  the  honour  of  the 
 priesthood,  which  among  the  Jews  was  a  dignity  of  no 
 small  esteem ;  but  had  particular  motives  which  the 
 others  had  not,  to  the  observance  of  all  God's  com- 
 mandments, as  having  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  the 
 symbols  of  the  divine  presence,  on  the  formidable 
 mount  from  whence  his  laws  were  promulged,  with- 
 out being  consumed.  The  higher  therefore  their  station 
 was,  and  the  more  distinguishing  the  favours  they  had 
 received,  the  more  provoking  was  their  affront,  in 
 attempting  to  adulterate  an  ordinance  of  God's  institu- 
 tion. Common  fire,  they  thought,  might  serve  the 
 purpose  of  burning  incense,  as  well  as  that  which  was 
 held  more  sacred :  at  least,  in  the  gaiety,  or  rather 
 naughtiness  of  their  hearts,  they  were  minded  to  make 
 the  experiment,  even  in  opposition  to  the  divine  com- 
 
 1  Lev.  x.  1.  *  Lev.  xvi.  2.  3  Lev.  x.  9,  10. 
 
 a  The  author  of  the  Connexion  so  often  cited,  supposes  another 
 kind  of  innovation  to  have  been  the  occasion  of  their  untimely 
 death.  God  as  yet,  says  he,  had  given  no  law  for  the  offering 
 of  incense  in  censers:  all  that  he  had  been  commanded  about  it, 
 was  that  Aaron  should  bum  it  upon  '  the  altar  of  incense  '  every 
 morning  and  every  evening;  hut  these  men  took  upon  them  to 
 begin,  and  introduce  a  service  into  religion,  which  was  not 
 appointed,  and  which  if  it  had  been  suffered,  would  have  opened 
 a  door  to  great  irregularities;  and  therefore  God,  by  an  exemplary 
 judgment  upon  the  first  offenders,  put  an  effectual  stop  to  it. — 
 Shiukford,  vol.  iil.  b.  11. 
 
 mand,  and  therefore  4  it  was  just  and  requisite  in  God, 
 especially  in  the  beginning  of  the  priesthood,  and  when 
 one  alteration  of  a  divine  precept  might,  in  process  of 
 time,  be  productive  of  many  more,  to  inflict  an  exem- 
 plary punishment,  that  others  might  '  hear,  and  fear,  and 
 not  commit  the  like  abomination.' 
 
 And  for  this  reason,  namely,  the  injection  of  terror 
 into  others,  Moses  is  commanded  to  make  no  lamenta- 
 tion or  funeral  pomp  for  them;  which  among  the  JeMTSi 
 who,  of  all  other  nations,  were  so  very  sumptuous  in 
 their  obsequies  of  their  deceased  friends,  was  accounted 
 a  sore  judgment.  In  the  case  of  Jehoiakim  the  king  of 
 Judah,  the  connnination  of  God  is  thought  very  terrible. 
 5  They  shall  not  lament  for  him,  saying,  Ah  !  my  brother, 
 or  ah  !  sister  :  they  shall  not  lament  for  him,  saying,  ah  ' 
 lord,  or  ah  !  his  glory.  He  shall  be  buried  with  the 
 burial  of  an  ass,  drawn,  and  cast  forth  beyond  the  gates 
 of  Jerusalem.'  Temporal  judgments,  however,  are  not 
 always  sure  indications  of  the  final  condemnation  of  the 
 persons  on  whom  they  fall  ;  and  therefore  Aaron  had  no 
 occasion  utterly  to  despond  :  on  the  contrary,  lie  might 
 presume  that  the  justice  of  God  being  satisfied  with  the 
 present  punishment  of  his  sons,  might  be  appeased  with 
 relation  to  their  eternal  state ;  and  that  though  their 
 6 '  flesh  was  destroyed,  yet  their  spirits  might  be  saved 
 in  the  day  of  the  Lord.'  He  knew  too,  how  much  him- 
 self had  offended  in  the  matter  of  the  golden  calf,  and 
 might  justly  think,  that  God  had  called  his  sin  to  remem- 
 brance in  the  destruction  of  his  two  sons.  He  acknow- 
 ledged, therefore,  the  righteousness  of  God,  in  all  that 
 he  had  brought  upon  him,  and  in  the  phrase  of  Scripture, 
 7  '  was  dumb,  and  opened  not  his  mouth,  because  it  was 
 the  Lord's  doing.' 
 
 What  the  occasion  of  the  difference  between  Moses 
 and  his  brother  Aaron,  and  sister  Miriam  was,  is  not  so 
 very  evident.  The  history  indeed  tells  us,  that  8  '  they 
 spake  against  Moses,  because  of  the  Ethiopian  or  rather 
 Arabian  woman,  whom  he  had  married.'  The  generality 
 of  interpreters  suppose  this  woman  to  be  Zipporah, 
 the  daughter  of  Jethro,  whom  he  married  in  Midian  ;  for 
 those  who  imagine  her  to  have  been  another,  can  hardly 
 get  over  this  difficulty, — Why  Moses  should  set  so  bad 
 an  example  as  to  marry,  at  two  several  times,  a  foreigner, 
 rather  than  one  of  the  daughters  of  his  people.  The 
 first  time,  indeed,  that  he  did  so,  was  when  he  lived  in 
 a  state  of  exile,  but  was  nevertheless  kindly  received  in 
 a  family  of  the  best  distinction  in  the  place,  which  might 
 be  inducement  enough  for  his  matching  himself  with  one 
 of  the  daughters,  since  no  express  precept  against 
 matches  of  this  kind  was  then  in  force.  Hut  now  that 
 he  was  set  at  the  head  of  a  people,  who  wen  to  be 
 separated  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  was  conducting 
 them  into  a  country,  with  whose  inhabitants  they  were  to 
 have  no  matrimonial  intercourse,  for  fear  of  introducing 
 idolatry,  it  would  have  been  highly  indecent  and  unpo- 
 pular, ail  affront  upon  his  own  countrywomen,  as  well 
 as  a  dangerous  inlet  to  impiety,  for  him  to  hive  married 
 into  an  idolatrous  nation:  nor  would  his  brother  and 
 sister  have  been  the  only  persons  to  clamour  against 
 him,  but  the  whole   congregation  would  have  risen  up  in 
 
 1  Le  Clerc's  Commentary.  'Jen  xnm-  IS  If. 
 
 6  1  Cor.  v.  5.  7  Ps.  xxxix.  9.  Num.  xii.  1. 
 
308 
 
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 [Book  IV. 
 
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 arms,  upon  so  notorious  a  provocation.  Since,  therefore, 
 we  hear  of  no  such  commotion,  we  may  reasonably  con- 
 clude, that  this  Cushite,  or  Arabian  woman,  was  the 
 same  Zipporah,  whom  he  had  married  some  forty  years 
 before.  But  then  why  they  should  quarrel  with  him 
 upon  her  account,  at  this  time,  and  no  sooner,  is  the 
 difficulty. 
 
 Now,  to  resolve  this,  we  must  observe,  that  when 
 Jethro,  his  father-in-law,  was  in  the  camp,  it  was  by  his 
 advice  that  Moses  I  instituted  judges  to  determine  lesser 
 causes;  and  that  he  found  his  son  Hobab  so  very  ser- 
 vice able  to  him  in  the  capacity  of  a  camp-master-general, 
 that  a  he  earnestly  entreated  him  to  continue  with  him, 
 and  received  him,  no  doubt,  into  great  confidence.  It  is 
 to  be  observed  farther,  that  in  the  foregoing  chapter,  we 
 have  an  account  of  the  creation  of  the  office  of  the  seventy 
 ol  ders  to  assist  in  the  administration,  and  that  these  elders 
 were  nominated  by  Moses,  without  ever  consulting  Aaron 
 or  Miriam.  As  therefore  this  story  of  their  quarrelling 
 with  him  is  immediately  subjoined,  it  seems  very  likely, 
 that  taking  themselves  to  be  neglected,  in  so  great  an 
 alteration  made  in  the  government  without  their  advice, 
 they  were  very  angTy ;  but  not  daring  to  charge  Moses 
 directly,  they  fell  foul  upon  his  wife,  giving  her  oppro- 
 brious names,  and  complaining  to  the  people,  very  pro- 
 bably, that  she  and  her  brother  had  too  much  power 
 and  influence  over  Moses. 
 
 Josephus,  in  his  Jewish  history,  makes  no  mention  of 
 this  family  difference,  as  thinking  that  it  might  reflect 
 discredit  upon  his  nation  ;  but  Moses  was  an  author  of 
 more  veracity  than  to  conceal  any  action  which  was 
 proper  for  mankind  to  know,  even  though  it  tended  to 
 the  lasting  disgrace  of  his  own  family.  For  he  does 
 not  affect  to  aggrandize  the  thing,  or  to  make  his  family 
 appear  more  considerable,  when  he  introduces  God  as 
 arbitrating-  the  difference  between  them  ;  but  purely  to 
 acquaint  us,  that  as  the  Israelites  lived  then  under  a 
 theocracy,  God  himself  being  their  immediate  King, 
 undertook  to  decide  the  controversies  depending  upon 
 such  of  his  chief  ministers  as  were  not  accountable  to 
 any  other  judge  ;  nor  was  the  divine  Majesty  any  more 
 debased  in  condescending  to  make  this  decision,  than 
 any  earthly  prince  would  be,  by  interposing  his  authority 
 to  determine  a  controversy  between  two  of  his  great  and 
 powerful  subjects. 
 
 1  Exod.  xviii.  21,  22. 
 
 a  Moses'  words  to  Hobab  are  these  :  '  Leave  us  not,  I  pray 
 thee,  forasmuch  as  thou  knowest  how  we  are  to  encamp  in  the 
 w'ilderness,  and  thou  mayest  be  to  us  instead  of  eyes,'  (Num.  x. 
 31.)  But  if  the  being  which  resided  in  the  miraculous  cloud 
 was  their  guide,  what  need  was  there  for  Hobab's  stay  ?  Now 
 the  design  of  the  cloud  was  to  direct  the  people  when  to  decamp 
 and  where  to  encamp  again:  but  for  the  securing  of  their  camp 
 against  all  hostile  force,  they  were  left  to  human  means:  and 
 therefore  Hobab,  having  lived  long  a  borderer  upon  the  wilder- 
 ness, was  well  acquainted  with  every  part  of  it,  and  the  better 
 able  to  advise  them,  both  whence  to  provide  themselves  with 
 such  things  as  they  wanted,  and  how  to  secure  themselves  against 
 any  neighbouring  powers  that  should  attempt  to  assault  them; 
 and  for  these  reasons  Moses  was  so  pressing  for  his  staying 
 with  him  ;  though  the  Septuagint  understand  the  passage  as  if  he 
 desired  him  to  continue  to  be  what  he  had  hitherto  been  in  the 
 wilderness,  namely,  a  good  adviser,  like  his  father  Jethro,  and 
 withal  assured  him,  that  he  would  look  upon  him  as  an  elder.— 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 Moses  indeed  inserts  a  passage  to  show  that  the  occa- 
 sion of  this  family  quarrel  was  not  from  him ;  that  he 
 was  a  man  of  a  meek  and  peaceable  disposition  ;  and 
 therefore  not  addicted  to  strife  and  contention,  especially 
 with  those  of  his  own  kindred  ;  and  why  might  he  not 
 insert  this,  when  it  was  no  more  than  what  was  due  to 
 his  character,  and  perhaps  at  that  time  necessary  for  his 
 own  vindication  ?  St  Paul,  to  clear  himself  from  some 
 aspersions  which  the  malice  of  his  enemies  had  cast  upon 
 him,  enters  upon  his  own  commendation,  though  it  be 
 with  some  reluctancy,  and  to  give  it  a  better  gloss,  tries 
 all  the  powers  of  eloquence  in  working  it  up.  s '  Where- 
 insoever any  is  bold,'  says  he,  '  I  speak  foolishly,  I  am 
 bold  also.  Are  they  Hebrews  ?  So  am  I.  Are  they 
 Israelites  ?  So  am  I.  Are  they  the  seed  of  Abraham  ? 
 So  am  I.  Are  they  ministers  of  Christ?  I  speak 
 as  a  fool,  I  am  more :  In  labours  more  abundant,  in 
 stripes  above  measure  :  In  prisons  more  frequent :  In 
 deaths  often. — In  perils  of  waters,  in  perils  of  robbers, 
 in  perils  by  my  own  countrymen,  in  perils  by  the 
 heathen,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness, 
 in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among  false  brethren  :  In 
 weariness  andpainfulness,in  watchings  often  ;  in  hunger 
 and  thirst,  in  fastings  often ;  in  cold  and  nakedness ; 
 besides  those  things  that  are  without,  that  which  cometh 
 upon  me  daily,  the  care  of  all  the  churches.'  These  are 
 the  words  of  our  apostle,  setting  oft*  the  faithful  discharge 
 of  his  ministry  ;  and  yet  no  one  ever  suspected  the  genu- 
 ineness of  this  his  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  upon  that 
 account :  as  little  reason  have  we,  therefore,  to  call  in 
 question  the  authenticity  of  this  book  of  Moses,  because 
 we  find  a  passage  or  two  that  speaks  favourably  of  him. 
 
 That  all  historians,  both  ancient  and  modern,  when 
 they  come  to  speak  of  the  part  and  concern  they  had  in 
 such  and  such  actions,  are  commonly  accustomed  to 
 speak  in  the  third  person  ;  and  that  the  most  modest  man 
 upon  earth  may  sometimes  see  occasion  to  magnify  his 
 office,  or  vindicate  himself,  without  deserving  the  impu- 
 tation of  vanity  or  arrogance,  cannot  be  denied.  Now, 
 considering  what  share  it  was  that  Moses  himself  bore  in 
 the  facts  which  he  relates,  and  that  the  narrations,  laws, 
 and  admonitions  which  he  recorded,  were  not  designed 
 for  that  age  only,  but  directed  to  all  succeeding 
 generations  of  the  world ;  and  withal  considering,  that 
 the  seditious  and  turbulent  behaviour  of  his  brother 
 and  sister  at  that  time  obliged  him  to  justify  and  clear 
 himself ;  there  was  no  imaginable  way  more  proper 
 for  him  to  express  himself  in,  than  that  which  he  made 
 use  of,  even  had  it  been  a  matter  of  his  own  study 
 and  contrivance  :  but  then,  if  we  suppose  that  he  wrote 
 by  divine  inspiration,  the  commendation  that  is  given  of 
 his  natural  lenity  and  good  nature,  must  be  looked  upon 
 rather  as  the  Holy  Ghost's  testimony  concerning  Moses, 
 than  Moses'  testimony  concerning  himself. 
 
 Though  Moses  was  certainly  a  good-natured  man, 
 and  therefore  could  not  live  long  at  variance  with  his 
 brother  Aaron,  yet  we  can  hardly  suppose,  that  his  love 
 and  affection  for  him  Mould  ever  prevail  with  him  to  enter 
 into  any  fraudulent  measures,  in  order  to  raise  him  to 
 the  pontificate.  The  rod  which  gave  Aaron  the  prefer- 
 ence, was  not,  as  we  noted  before,  Moses'  wonder- 
 
 8  2  Cor.  xi.  21,  &c 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 309 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES; 
 
 working  rod,  but,  in  all  probability,  one  of  the  same  tree 
 from  whence  the  princes  of  the  other  tribes  cut  theirs. 
 All  these  rods,  with  the  names  of  the  several  tribes 
 engraved  upon  them,  were  delivered  to  Moses  in  the  face 
 of  the  whole  congregation,  and  by  him  were  instantly 
 carried  into  the  tabernacle :  and  that  he  did  not  palm  upon 
 the  people,  when  his  back  was  turned,  and  put  an  almond 
 twig  into  the  place  of  Aaron's  rod,  is  evident  from  what 
 is  related  of  it,  namely,  that  it  had  leaves,  buds,  blos- 
 soms, and  ripe  fruit  upon  it,  all  at  one  time,  which  no 
 tree  of  any  kind  ever  was  known  to  have  before. 
 
 Some  of  the  vulgar,  and  less  curious,  might  perhaps, 
 at  a  cursory  review,  have  been  imposed  upon  by  a  sham 
 appearance  of  these  things  painted  on  Aaron's  rod  ;  but 
 Moses  knew  very  well,  that  he  had  the  heads  of  each 
 tribe  to  deal  with  ;  men  of  sagacity  and  observation,  and 
 who  were  too  nearly  concerned  in  the  experiment  to  let 
 any  pretence  to  a  miracle  go  unexamined  :  and  therefore 
 we  may  very  well  imagine  that  when  he  brought  forth  all 
 the  rods  the  next  morning,  they  surveyed  every  one  very 
 carefully,  and  made  diligent  search  into  the  alteration 
 which  had  passed  upon  that  which  belonged  to  Aaron  ; 
 and  had  they  found  any  deception  in  it,  would  have 
 exposed  the  two  brothers  to  contempt  and  ridicule,  or 
 rather  have  deposed  them  from  all  rule  and  power  for 
 the  future,  as  a  couple  of  vile  and  impious  impostors. 
 But  instead  of  that,  we  rind  that  this  miracle  silenced  all 
 cavils  for  ever  after  against  Aaron  and  his  family ;  con- 
 firmed the  authority  of  Moses ;  and  made  the  people, 
 when  he  told  them,  that  by  God's  appointment,  he  had 
 laid  up  Aaron's  rod  to  be  a  witness  against  them,  that  if 
 they  murmured  any  more,  they  should  most  certainly  be 
 destroyed,  break  out  into  this  doleful  complaint :  1  '  Be- 
 hold we  die,  we  perish,  we  all  perish,  and  shall  be  con- 
 sumed with  dying  :'  for  they  began  now  to  believe  God's 
 threatenings,  and  to  fear,  that  at  one  time  or  other  they 
 should  experience  some  heavy  and  severe  punishment, 
 as  by  this  new  sign  he  had  convinced  them  that  they  had 
 justly  deserved  it. 
 
 Thus  I  have  endeavoured  to  answer  most  of  the 
 material  objections  which  have  industriously  been  raised 
 against  the  sacred  history  of  this  period  ;  and  were  it  any 
 farther  confirmation  of  its  truth  and  authority,  I  might 
 add,  2  that  the  whole  matter  of  Korah,  how  he  rebelled 
 against  Moses,  and  made  a  defection  among  the  people, 
 for  which  he  suffered  the  very  judgment  that  the  Scrip- 
 ture relates,  was  doubtless  of  standing  tradition  in  the 
 east,  which  the  Mahometans  have  borrowed,  and  given 
 us  at  second  hand  :  that  the  consumption  of  Aaron's 
 {Sacrifice,  3  '  by  the  fire  which  came  from  the  Lord,' 
 raised  the  report,  "  that,  in  ancient  times,  men  did  not 
 kindle  fire  upon  their  altars,  but  called  it  down  from 
 heaven  by  prayer,  and  that  the  Hame  was  produced  by 
 the  deity  to  whom  the  sacrifice  was  offered :  that  the  irra- 
 
 1  Num.  xvii.  12,  IS. 
 
 *  Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Korah. 
 3  Lev.  ix.  24. 
 
 a  Servius  in  JEiwid,  b.  12.  v.  200.  and  Patrick's  Comment- 
 ary in  locum.  From  the  fire  of  the  altar,  which,  in  the  Mosaic 
 language,  was  called  '  the  fire  of  the  Lord,'  as  it  came  down 
 from  heaven,  and  was  perpetually  kept  burning,  it  is  obvious,  at 
 first  sight,  that  the  Greeks  derived,  in  the  way  of  etymology, 
 their  ict'io.,  and  the  Romans  their  vestal  fire,  SO  famous  in  all 
 history. —  Bibliothcca  Biblica  on  Num.  Annot.  2. 
 
 A.  M.  3704.  A.  C.  1C47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 diation  of  Moses'  face,  when  he  came  down  from  the 
 mount,  introduced  the  custom  among  the  heathens,  of 
 adorning  the  images  of  their  gods  and  heroes  with  a 
 beamy  glory  about  their  heads  :  that  the  veneration  paid 
 to  his  wonder-working  rod,  established  an  usage  which 
 prevails  almost  every  where, 4  for  the  great  ministers  of 
 state  to  carry  in  their  hands  wands,  as  ensigns  of  their 
 office,  whenever  they  appear  at  court;  and  that  the  bud- 
 ding of  his  brother  Aaron's  rod,  in  all  probability,  uave 
 rise  to  J  the  fable  of  Hercules'  club,  when  left  in  the 
 ground,  striking  root  downward,  and  so  reviving  and 
 repullulating.  But  I  choose  rather,  in  this  place,  to 
 remark  the  great  affinity  between  the  divine  and  human 
 laws,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  what  we  call  the  decalogue, 
 insomuch,  that  whatever  the  ancient  heathen  lawgivers 
 have  enacted  about  these  matters,  seems  little  more  than 
 a  transcript  from  the  ten  commandments,  which  Moses 
 delivered  to  the  Jews. 
 
 Thus  the  unity  of  God,  and  the  folly  of  making  any 
 image  of  him,  which  constitute  the  two  first  command- 
 ments, was  an  B  institution  of  Numa,  which  lie  took  from 
 Pythagoras,  who  maintained,  that  there  was  only  one 
 supreme  Being,  and  that,  as  he  is  perfectly  spiritual,  and 
 the  object  of  the  mind  only,  no  visible  representation 
 can  be  made  of  him.  The  reverence  of  God's  holy  name, 
 which  is  the  subject  of  the  third,  was  recognised  by  the 
 heathens  in  all  their  solemn  contracts,  promises,  and 
 asseverations  ;  and  for  this  reason  Plato,  in  his  book 
 de  Legibus,  acquaints  us,  that  "  it  is  7  an  excellent 
 lesson,  to  be  very  cautious  and  tender,  in  so  much  as 
 mentioning  the  very  name  of  God."  The  setting  apart 
 one  day  in  seven,  and  the  observation  of  it  for  religious 
 purposes,  was  a  practice  so  general  in  the  pagan  world, 
 that,  according  to  Philo,  this  seventh  day  was  truly  called 
 Ecqtvi  Trcfjhri/x.o; ,  or  the  universal  festival,  and  by  the 
 Athenians,  according  to  the  laws  then  in  force,  was 
 observed  with  the  utmost  strictness,  anil  such  as  admitted 
 of  no  servile  work.  The  honour  and  respect  due  to 
 parents  was  secured  by  that  excellent  law  made  by  Solon, 
 which  declares,  8  "  that  if  any  one  strike  his  parents,  or 
 do  not  maintain  them,  and  provide  them  a  dwelling, 
 and  all  things  necessary,  let  him  be  utterly  disregarded, 
 and  banished  from  all  civil  society."  The  prohibition  of 
 murder  is  confirmed  by  the  laws  of  Athens,  which  make 
 its  punishment  capital,  when  wilfully  committed  :  banish- 
 ment, when  by  chance  medley;  and  for  every  maim 
 designedly  given,  imposes  both  a  confiscation  of  goods, 
 and  a  proscription  from  the  city  where  the  injured  person 
 dwells.  The  prohibition  of  adulter)  was  sufficiently 
 enforced  by  Solon,  when  he  left  the  guilt)  persons,  when 
 deprehended  in  the  fact,  to  the  mercy  of  the  injured 
 husband,  who,  if  he  suffered  them  to  escape  with  their 
 
 lives,  had  license  to  handle  the  man  very  roughly,9 
 and  to  divorce  the  woman,  who  for  her  crime  \\;i-  ex- 
 cluded from  all  places  of  public  concourse,  and  reduced 
 below  the  condition  of  a  slave.  The  prohibition  of  theft 
 was  supported  by  a  law  of  Draco's,  which  made  felons 
 of  what  denomination   soever   lose   their    lives  for  their 
 
 *  Huet.  Quest  Aln.t.  Hui  I.  ibid. 
 
 6  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  b.  5;  ami  Bibliothera  Biblica  on  Bxod. 
 xx.  4.  7  De  I. eg.  b.  ■>. 
 
 K  Bibliotheca  Biblica  mi  Deut.  Dissertation  3. 
 ■Archbishop  1'ottei's  Greek  Antiquities. 
 
310  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G4.  A.  C.  1647.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  28.— NUM.  xviii. 
 
 crime  ;  but  this  being  thought  too  severe,  Solon's  insti- 
 tution was,  that  every  petty  larceny  should  be  punished 
 with  double  restitution,  and  sometimes  imprisonment, 
 but  every  greater  robbery,  to  the  value  of  fifty  drachms, 
 with  death.  The  prohibition  of  false  witness  was,  l  rati- 
 fied by  the  Athenian  laws,  which  not  only  punished  the 
 o (tenders  with  fines,  confiscation  of  goods  and  banish- 
 ment, but  degraded  them  likewise  from  all  dignity,  as 
 persons  extremely  ignominious,  and  who,  according  2  to 
 the  law  of  the  twelve  tables,  deserved  to  be  thrown  from 
 the  Tarpeian  rock.  The  prohibition  of  covetousness  of 
 all  kinds,  which  is  the  tenth  and  last  commandment,  no- 
 where occurs  in  the  edicts  of  any  ancient  legislator;  for, 
 as  3  a  pious  bishop  well  observes,  "  all  the  laws  that 
 were  ever  made  by  any  governors  upon  earth,  respected 
 only  the  words  and  actions,  or  the  outward  carriage  and 
 behaviour  of  their  subjects.  None  ever  offered  to  give 
 laws  to  the  minds  or  hearts  of  men,  what  they  should  think, 
 or  love,  or  desire,  or  the  like  ;  and  it  would  have  been 
 ridiculous  and  absurd  to  have  done  it,  because  they  could 
 never  have  known  whether  such  laws  were  observed  or  no;" 
 so  proper  is  the  question,  which  their  great  lawgiver  puts 
 to  the  Jews,  4  '  What  nation  is  there  so  great  that  hath 
 statutes  and  judgments  so  righteous  as  all  this  law,  which 
 1  set  before  you  this  day  ?'  So  just  the  commendation 
 which  the  royal  Psalmist  gives  of  it :  '  The  law  of  the 
 Lord  is  an  undefiled  law,  converting  tire  soul :  the  testi- 
 mony of  the  Lord  is  sure,  and  giveth  wisdom  unto  the 
 simple.  Moreover  by  them  is  thy  servant  taught,  and  in 
 keeping  of  them  there  is  great  reward.' 
 
 CHAP.  lU.—Ofthe  Jewish  Tabernacle,  fyc. 
 
 From  the  very  first  beginning  of  time,  God  had  always 
 some  place  appropriated  to  the  solemn  duties  of  religi- 
 ous worship.  5  Even  during  the  small  space  of  his  con- 
 tinuance in  paradise,  Adam  had6  where  to  present  himself 
 before  the  Lord ;  and  after  his  expulsion  from  thence, 
 his  sons  in  like  manner,  had  7  whither  to  bring  their 
 oblations  and  sacrifices.  The  patriarchs,  both  before 
 and  after  the  flood,  used  8  altars,  and  9  mountains,  and 
 1U  groves,  for  the  self-same  purpose.  Here  they  had 
 their  proseucha;,  or  places  for  prayer,  which  were  certain 
 plats  of  ground,  encompassed  with  a  wall,  or  some  other 
 enclosure,  and  open  above.  But  since  the  first  place 
 of  this  kind,  that  made  any  considerable  figure,  was  the 
 tabernacle  which  God  ordered  Moses  to  erect  in  the  wil- 
 derness, as  an  habitation  for  his  majestic  presence  to 
 reside  in,  it  may  not  be  improper,  in  this  place,  to  give 
 some  account  of  it,  and  the  other  holy  things  appertain- 
 ing to  it. 
 
 The  tabernacle  was  a  tent  covered  with  curtains  and 
 skins,  but  much  larger  than  other  tents.  It  was  in  the 
 form  of  an  oblong  square,  thirty  cubits  in  length,  and  ten 
 in  height  and  breadth,  and  was  properly  divided  into  two 
 parts,  namely,  the  holy  place,  and  the  holy  of  holies. 
 
 1  Bibliotheca  Biblica  on  Deut.  Dissertation  3. 
 *  A.  Gell.  b.  12.  c.  1.  s  Bishop  Beveridge  upon  the 
 
 Catechism.  *  Deut.  iv.  S.  and  Ps.  xix.  7,  &c. 
 
 Hooker's  Ercles.  Polity,  b.  5.      6  Gen.  iii.  8.      '  Gen.  iv.  3. 
 8  Gen.  xiii.  4.         9  Gen.  xxii.  1.         10  Gen.  xxi.  33. 
 
 The  holy  place  was  twenty  cubits  long,  and  ten  wide, 
 where  stood  the  table  of  shewbread,  the  golden  candle- 
 stick, and  the  altar  of  incense.  The  holy  of  holies,  which 
 was  likewise  called  the  sanctuary,  was  ten  cubits  long, 
 and  ten  broad,  contained  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  and 
 was  separated  from  the  holy  place  by  a  veil,  or  hanging, 
 made  of  rich  embroidered  linen,  which  hung  upon  four 
 pillars  of  shittim  or  cedar  wood,  that  were  covered  with 
 plates  of  gold,  but  had  their  bases  made  of  brass  ;  and  at 
 the  entrance  of  the  tabernacle,  instead  of  a  door,  there 
 was  a  veil  of  the  same  work,  sustained  by  the  like  pil- 
 lars, which  separated  it  from  the  outward  court. 
 
 The  boards  or  planks  whereof  the  body  of  the  taberna- 
 cle was  composed,  were  in  all  forty-eight,  each  a  cubit 
 and  a  half  wide,  and  ten  cubits  high.  Twenty  of  them 
 went  to  make  up  one  side  of  the  tabernacle,  and  twenty 
 the  other,  and  at  the  west  end  of  it  were  the  other  eight, 
 which  were  all  let  into  one  another  by  two  tenons  above 
 and  below,  and  compacted  together  by  bars  running  from 
 one  end  to  the  other ;  but  the  east  end  of  it  was  open, 
 and  only  covered  with  a  rich  curtain. 
 
 The  roof  of  the  tabernacle  was  a  square  frame  of  planks, 
 resting  upon  their  basis  ;  and  over  these  were  coverings 
 or  curtains  of  different  kinds.  Of  these  the  first,  on  the 
 inside,  was  made  of  fine  linen,  curiously  embroidered  in 
 various  colours  of  crimson  and  scarlet,  and  purple  and 
 hyacinth  ;  the  next  was  made  of  goats'  hair  neatly  woven 
 together ;  and  the  last  of  sheep  and  badgers'  skins, 
 (some  dyed  red,  and  others  of  azure  blue,)  which  were 
 to  preserve  the  rich  curtains  from  wet,  and  to  protect 
 the  tabernacle  itself  from  the  injuries  of  the  weather. 
 
 Round  about  the  tabernacle  was  a  large  oblong  court, 
 an  hundred  cubits  long,  aud  fifty  broad,  encompassed 
 with  pillars  overlaid  with  silver,  and  whose  capitals  were 
 of  the  same  metal,  but  their  bases  were  of  brass.  Ten 
 of  these  pillars  stood  towards  the  west,  six  to  the  east, 
 twenty  to  the  north,  and  twenty  to  the  south,  at  five 
 cubits  distance  from  each  other  ;  and  over  these  hung- 
 curtains  made  of  twined  linen  thread,  in  the  manner  of 
 net-work,  which  surrounded  the  tabernacle  on  all  sides, 
 except  at  the  entrance  of  the  court,  which  was  twenty 
 cubits  wide,  and  sustained  with  four  columns,  overlaid 
 with  plates  of  silver.  These  columns  had  their  capitals 
 and  bases  of  brass  ;  were  placed  at  proportionable  dis- 
 tances, and  covered  with  a  curtain  made  of  richer 
 materials. 
 
 In  this  court,  and  opposite  to  the  entrance  of  the 
 tabernacle,  stood  the  altar  of  burnt-offerings  in  the  open 
 air,  that  the  lire,  which  was  kept  perpetually  upon  it,  and 
 the  smoke  arising  from  the  victims  that  were  burnt  there, 
 might  not  spoil  the  inside  of  the  tabernacle.  It  was  five 
 cubits  long,  as  much  in  width,  and  three  cubits  high  ; 
 was  placed  upon  a  basis  of  stone  work,  and  covered  both 
 within  and  without  with  brass  plates.  At  the  four  cor- 
 ners of  this  altar  there  was  something  like  four  horns, 
 covered  with  the  same  metal,  and  as  the  altar  itself  was 
 hollow,  and  open  both  at  top  and  bottom,  from  these 
 horns  there  hung  a  grate  made  of  brass,  fastened  with 
 four  rings  and  four  chains,  whereon  the  wood  and  the 
 sacrifice  were  burnt ;  and  as  the  ashes  fell  through,  they 
 were  received  below  in  a  pan.  At  a  very  small  distance 
 from  this  altar  there  stood  on  the  south  side,  a  brazen 
 vessel,  which,  on  account  of  its  extraordinary  size,  was 
 called  the  brazen  sea,  in  which  the  priests  were  used  to 
 
Sect.  11.1 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 311 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 wash  their  feet,  whenever  they  were  to  offer  sacrifice,  or 
 to  go  into  the  tabernacle. 
 
 In  that  part  of  the  tabernacle  which  was  called  the 
 holy  place,  there  was  on  the  north  side,  a  table  made  of 
 Shittim  or  cedar  wood,  covered  with  gold,  two  cubits 
 long,  one  in  breadth,  and  one  and  a  half  in  length. 
 About  the  edge  of  it  was  an  ornament,  or  border  made 
 of  gold,  together  with  a  crown  of  gold  in  the  middle, 
 and  at  each  end  was  placed  the  offering  of  the  shew- 
 bread,  namely,  six  loaves  in  a  pile  to  represent  the 
 twelve  tribes.  The  bread  was  changed  every  Sabbath-day, 
 and  not  allowed  to  be  eaten  by  any  one  but  the  priests. 
 
 Over  against  this  table,  on  the  south  side,  stood  the 
 candlestick,  which  was  made  of  pure  gold,  upon  a  basis 
 of  the  same  metal,  and  had  seven  branches  on  each  side, 
 and  one  in  the  middle.  These  branches  were  at  equal 
 distances,  adorned  with  six  flowers  like  lilies,  with  as 
 many  knobs  like  apples,  and  little  bowls  like  half  almond 
 shells,  placed  alternately ;  and  upon  each  of  these 
 branches  there  was  a  golden  lamp,  which  was  lighted 
 every  evening,  and  extinguished  every  morning. 
 
 Betwixt  the  table  and  the  candlestick,  was  placed  the 
 altar  of  incense,  which  was  but  one  cubit  in  length  and 
 breadth,  and  two  cubits  high  ;  but  was  covered  with  plates 
 of  gold,  and  had  a  crown  of  gold  over  it.  Every  morn- 
 ing and  evening,  the  priest  in  waiting  for  that  week, 
 offered  incense  of  a  particular  composition  upon  this 
 altar,  and  to  this  end  carried  a  smoking  censer,  filled 
 with  fire,  which  he  took  from  the  altar  of  burnt-offerings 
 into  the  tabernacle,  and  so  placing  it  upon  this  other 
 altar,  retired. 
 
 The  persons  appointed  to  officiate  about  holy  things 
 were  of  three  kinds,  the  high  priest,  priests,  and  Levites : 
 and,  what  is  very  remarkable,  in  the  first  of  this  order, 
 is  the  singularity  of  his  vestments,  which  were  the  breast- 
 plate, the  ephod,  the  robe,  the  close  coat,  the  mitre,  and 
 the  girdle.  The  ephod,  the  robe,  and  the  close  coat 
 were  all  of  linen,  and  covered  the  whole  body  from  the 
 neck  to  the  heel.  Over  these  was  a  purple  or  blue 
 tunic,  which  reached  not  so  low,  but  was  curiously 
 wrought  all  over,  and  at  the  bottom  of  it  had  pomegra- 
 nates, and  bells,  intermixed  at  equal  distances.  The 
 pomegranates  were  made  of  blue,  purple,  and  crimson 
 wool,  and  <*  the  bells  of  gold. 
 
 a  What  the  number  of  bells  worn  by  the  high  priest  was,  the 
 Scripture  is  silent,  and  authors  are  not  so  well  agreed;  but  the 
 sacred  historian  has  let  us  into  the  use  and  intent  of  them  in 
 these  words  :  '  And  it  shall  be  upon  Aaron  to  minister:  and  his 
 sound  shall  be  heard  when  he  goeth  into  the  holy  place  before  the 
 Lord,  and  when  he  cometh  out,  that  he  die  not.'  The  kings  of 
 Persia  are  said  to  have  the  hem  of  their  robes  adorned,  like  the 
 Jewish  high  priest,  with  pomegranates  and  gold  bells.  The 
 ladies  who  are  about  his  person,  and  whose  business  it  is  to  please 
 and  divert  him,  have  little  gold  bells  fastened  to  their  legs,  their 
 neck,  and  elbows,  and  when  they  dance,  the  sound  of  these  make 
 a  very  agreeable  harmony.  The  Arabian  princesses  wear  large 
 hollow  gold  rings,  which  are  filled  with  little  Mints,  and  make  a 
 sound  like  little  bells  when  they  walk ;  and  besides  these,  they 
 have  abundance  of  little  fiat  bobs  fastened  to  the  ends  of  their  hair; 
 which  make  a  noise  as  often  as  they  stir,  and  give  notice  that  the 
 mistress  of  the  house  is  going  by,  that  so  the  servants  of  the 
 family  may  behave  themselves  respectfully,  and  strangers  retire, 
 to  avoid  seeing  the  person  that  is  passing.  It  was  therefore  in 
 all  probability,  witli  a  design  of  giving  notice,  that  the  high  priest 
 was  passing  by,  that  he  too  wore  little  bells  on  the  hem  of  his 
 robe ;  or  rather  it  was,  as  it  were,  a  kind  of  public  notice,  that 
 
 A.  M.  3764.  A.  C.  1C47.  EXOD.  xxxiv.  2S.-NUM.  xriii. 
 
 The  ephod  was  a  kind  of  girdle,  made  of  gold  thread, 
 and  other  threads  of  divers  colours,  which  being  brought 
 from  behind  the  neck,  and  over  the  two  shoulders, 
 was  put  cross  upon  the  stomach  ;  then  carried  round  the 
 waist,  and  brought  back  again  about  the  body,  did  i;ird 
 the  tunic  like  a  sash,  and  so  fell  down  before,  and  hung 
 as  low  as  the  feet.  Upon  that  part  of  the  ephod,  which 
 came  upon  the  high  priest's  shoulders,  were  two  large 
 precious  stones,  whereon  were  engraven  the  names  of 
 the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  on  each  stone  six  ;  and  where 
 the  ephod  crossed  the  high  priest's  breast,  there  w.is  a 
 square  ornament,  called  the  pectoral,  or  rational, 
 wherein  were  twelve  precious  stones  set,  with  the  names 
 of  the  twelve  tribes  engraven  on  them,  on  each  stone 
 one.  The  mitre  was  of  fine  flax  :  it  covered  the  head  ; 
 and  on  the  forehead  was  a  plate  of  gold,  whereon  were 
 engraved  these  words,  Holiness  to  the  Lord,  which 
 was  tied  behind  the  head  with  two  ribbons  fastened  to 
 its  ends. 
 
 These  were  the  chief  of  the  solemn  ornaments  which 
 belonged  to  the  high  priest.  The  other  priests  had  only 
 a  simple  tunic,  a  linen  mitre,  and  a  girdle  ;  but  th<\  all 
 of  them  wore  linen  or  cotton  breeches,  which  covered 
 their  legs  and  thighs,  and  reached  up  to  their  waist.  The 
 Levites  had  no  peculiar  habit  in  the  ceremonies  of  reli- 
 gion ;  but  about  the  sixty-second  year  of  Christ,  they 
 obtained  of  king  Agrippa  leave  to  wear  a  linen  tunic, 
 as  well  as  the  priests. 
 
 The  high  priest  was  at  the  head  of  all  religious  affairs, 
 and  the  ordinary  judge  of  all  the  difficulties  which 
 related  to  them.  He  only  had  the  privilege  of  entering 
 into  the  sanctuary  once  a  year,  which  was  on  the  day  of 
 solemn  expiation,  to  make  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the 
 whole  people.  The  ordinary  priests  attended  the  sor\  ice 
 of  the  tabernacle ;  they  kept  up  a  perpetual  lire  upon 
 the  altar  of  burnt-offerings  ;  lighted  and  extinguished 
 the  lamps  of  the  golden  candlestick  ;  made  the  loaves 
 of  shewbread  ;  offered  them  on  the  golden  altar  in  the 
 sanctuary  ;  changed  them  every  Sabbath-day  ;  and  every 
 day,  at  night  and  morning,  carried  in  a  smoking  censer 
 of  incense,  and  placed  it  upon  the  golden  table,  which, 
 upon  this  account,  was  likewise  called  the  altar  of 
 incense. 
 
 iStit  the  chief  business  of  the  priests  was  to  offer  sacri- 
 fices, of  which  there  were  four  kinds.  I.  The  burnt- 
 offering,  which  was  totally  consumed  by  fire  upon  tin- 
 altar,  after  that  the  feet  and  entrails  had  been  washed. 
 •2.  The  peace-ofiering,  whereof  the  inward  fat ,  or  tallow, 
 made  up  with  the  liver  and  kidneys,  was  onU  burnt  upon 
 the  altar:  the  breast  and  right  shoulder  was  the  perqui- 
 site of  the  priests,  who  were  obliged  to  eat  them  in  the 
 holy  place  ;  and  the  remainder  belonged  to  tin-  person 
 who  offered  the  sacrifice.  3.  The  sacrifice  for  sin.  com 
 mitted  either  wilfully  or  ignorantly :  and  in  this  the 
 priest  took  some  of  the  blood  of  the  rictim,  dipped  hi 
 
 he  was  going  into  the  sanctuary;  for  as  in  the  king  of  P 
 court,  no  one  was  suffered  to  «nter  the  apartments,  without  giv- 
 ing notice  thereof  by  the  Bound  of  something;  so  the  high  priest, 
 
 out  of  respect  to  the  divine  presence,  residing  in  the  holy  of 
 
 holies,  did,  by  the  sound  of  little  hells,  fastened  to  the  botfa  in    of 
 
 bis  robe  desire,  as  it  were  permission  to  enter,  that  the  sound 
 of  the  bells  might  he  heard,  and  he  not  punished  with  death,  lor 
 an  unmannerly  intrusion. — Calmed  Dictionary  under  the  word 
 lid!. 
 
312 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G4.  A.  C.  1647.  EXO.TX  xxxiv.  28-NUM.  xviii. 
 
 finger  in  it,  and  sprinkled  it  seven  times  towards  the 
 veil  of  the  sanctuary.  The  same  parts  of  the  victim 
 were  burnt  on  the  altar  in  this  as  in  the  former  sacrifice. 
 The  rest,  if  the  sacrifice  was  offered  for  the  sin  of  the 
 high  priest,  or  for  the  people,  was  carried  without  the 
 camp,  and  there  burnt ;  but  if  it  was  for  a  private  person, 
 the  victim  was  divided,  as  we  said  before,  between  the 
 priest  and  the  offerer.  4.  The  sacrifice  of  oblation  was 
 either  fine  flour,  or  incense,  cakes  of  fine  flour,  and  oil 
 baked,  or  the  first-fruits  of  new  corn.  Oil,  salt,  wine, 
 and  frankincense  went  always  along  with  every  thing 
 that  was  offered.  All  the  frankincense  was  cast  into 
 the  fire  ;  but  of  the  other  things  the  priest  only  burnt  a 
 part,  and  the  rest  he  reserved  to  himself. 
 
 Thus  we  have  taken  a  cursory  view  of  the  Jewish 
 tabernacle,  and  its  utensils  ;  of  the  Jewish  priesthood, 
 and  its  offices  ;  and  have  nothing  more  to  do,  but  to 
 inquire  a  little  for  what  a  ends  and  uses  God  was  pleased 
 to  institute  these  things.  To  this  purpose  St  Paul  in- 
 forms us,  that  the  Jewish  law  was  an  imperfect  dispen- 
 sation from  the  very  first,  and  '  '  atlded  only  because  of 
 transgressions,  until  the  seed  should  come,  to  whom  the 
 promise  was  made  :'  that  in  great  condescension,  it  was 
 adapted  to  the  weakness  of  the  Jewish  people,  whom  he 
 compares  to  an  heir  under  a  tutor  or  governor ;  for  these 
 are  his  words  :  2i  I  say  then,  that  an  heir,  as  long  as  he 
 is  a  child,  diftereth  nothing  from  a  servant,  though  he  be 
 lord  of  all:  Even  so  we,  when  we  were  children,  were 
 in  bondage,  under  the  elements  of  the  world ;'  so  that 
 3  '  the  law  was  our  schoolmaster,  to  bring  us  unto  Christ,' 
 and  4  '  having  only  a  shadow  of  good  things  to  come, 
 and  not  the  very  image  of  the  things,  it  could  never, 
 
 1  Gal.  iii.  19. 
 
 2  Gal.  iv.  1,  &c. 
 4  Heb.  x.  1. 
 
 3  Gal.  iii.  24. 
 
 a  Josephus,  having  treated  of  the  tabernacle,  and  the  several 
 things  appertaining  to  it,  makes  the  use  and  design  of  them  a 
 little  too  mystical  and  allegorical.  "  Let  but  a  man  consider," 
 says  he,  "  the  structure  of  the  tabernacle,  the  sacerdotal  vest- 
 ments, and  the  holy  vessels  that  are  dedicated  to  the  service  of 
 the  altar,  and  he  must  of  necessity  be  convinced,  that  our  law- 
 giver was  a  pious  man. — For  what  are  all  these  but  the  image  of 
 the  whole  world  ?  The  tabernacle  consisting  of  thirty  cubits, 
 and  being  divided  into  three  parts,  whereof  two  are  for  the  priests 
 in  general,  and  of  free  access,  resembles  the  earth  and  the  sea ; 
 while  the  third,  where  no  mortal,  except  the  high  priest,  is  per- 
 mitted to  enter,  is  an  emblem  of  heaven,  reserved  for  God  alone. 
 The  twelve  loaves  of  shewbread  upon  the  table,  signify  the  twelve 
 months  in  the  year.  The  candlestick, -which  is  made  up  of 
 seventy  pieces,  refers  to  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac,  through 
 which  the  seven  planets  take  their  course  ;  and  the  seven  lamps, 
 on  the  top  of  the  seven  branches,  bear  an  analogy  to  the  planets 
 themselves.  The  curtains  with  the  four  colours  that  are  wrought 
 in  them,  represent  the  four  elements. — By  the  high  priest's  linen 
 garment  is  designed  the  whole  body  of  the  earth;  and  by  the 
 violet  colour,  the  heavens.  The  pomegranates  answer  to  light- 
 ning; and  the  noise  of  the  bells  to  thunder.  The  four-coloured 
 ephod  bears  a  resemblance  to  the  very  nature  of  the  universe, 
 and  the  interweaving  it  with  threads  of  gold,  to  the  rays  of  the 
 sun,  which  give  us  light.  The  pectoral  or  rational,  in  the  midde 
 of  it,  intimates  the  position  of  the  earth  in  the  centre  of  the 
 world;  the  girdle  about  the  priest's  body,  is  the  sea  about  the 
 globe  of  the  earth;  the  two  sardonyx  stones,  on  the  shoulders, 
 represent  the  sun  and  moon ;  and  by  the  twelve  other  stones  on 
 the  breast,  may  be  understood  either  the  twelve  months,  or  the 
 twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac."  But  all  this  is  too  light  and  fanciful, 
 one  would  think,  for  so  grave  an  author  as  Josephus,  had  not 
 this  way  of  allegorizing  thiugs  been  the  prevailing  custom  of  the 
 age. — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  3.  c.  7. 
 
 with  those  sacrifices  which  were  offered,  year  by  year 
 continually,  make  the  comers  thereunto  perfect.'  In 
 order  therefore  to  illustrate  this  point,  namely,  that  the 
 Jewish  religion  was,  in  a  great  measure,  intended  to 
 typify  and  prefigure  the  more  perfect  dispensation  of 
 the  gospel,  we  shall  instance  in  some  of  its  particulars 
 already  enumerated. 
 
 Thus  the  tabernacle  itself  was  a  type  of  the  Redeemer 
 dwelling  in  our  nature  ;  for  so  St  John  tells  us,  that 
 5 '  the  AVord  was  made  flesh,  and  lax.v\vuatv  iv  iiftlv,  dwelt 
 among  us,'  as  in  a  tabernacle.  The  altar  of  burnt- 
 offerings  in  the  court,  pointed  out  the  death  and  sacrifice 
 6  of  our  Lord,  by  the  shedding  of  whose  blood  our  sins 
 are  pardoned,  and  we  received  into  merpy  and  favour. 
 The  altar  of  incense  within  the  holy  place  denoted  our 
 Lord's  powerful  intercession  for  us,  in  his  exalted  state 
 of  glory  ;  and  the  '  ark  of  the  covenant  in  the  holy  of 
 holies,'  was  an  eminent  emblem  of  him,  from  whose 
 mouth  we  received  a  law,  '  founded  upon  better 
 promises  ;'  by  whose  intercession  we  have  access  to  the 
 '  throne  of  grace  with  all  boldness  ;'  and  whose  satisfac- 
 tion to  the  divine  justice  is  our  true  propitiatory  or 
 mercy-seat. 
 
 What  a  manifest  type  the  Jewish  high  priest  was  of 
 our  Lord  and  Saviour,  the  author  to  the  Hebrews  has 
 declared  in  more  instances  than  one.  The  Jewish  high 
 priest  was  the  only  man  who  was  permitted  to  enter  into 
 the  '  holy  of  holies  ;'  and  7 '  we  have  such  an  high  priest,' 
 says  the  apostle,  '  who  is  set  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
 throne  of  the  Majesty  in  the  heavens,  a  minister  of  the 
 sanctuary,  and  of  the  true  tabernacle,  which  the  Lord 
 pitched,  and  not  man.'  The  Jewish  high  priest  offered 
 a  solemn  expiatory  sacrifice  once  a  year ;  our  Lord 
 8 '  appeared  once  in  the  end  of  the  world  to  put  away  sin 
 by  the  sacrifice  of  himself.'  After  the  expiatory  sacri- 
 fice, the  Jewish  high  priest  went  into  the  holy  place, 
 there  to  offer  incense  on  the  golden  altar  ;  our  Lord, 
 '  when  he  had  purged  our  sins,  9  sat  down  on  the  right 
 hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high,'  there  10 '  to  appear  in  the 
 presence  of  God,'  and  by  the  incense  of  his  merits,  to 
 make  continual  intercession  for  us. 
 
 In  like  manner,  whether  we  consider  the  several  qua- 
 lifications of  the  sacrifices  under  the  law,  or  the  several 
 sorts  of  them,  we  shall  find  them  to  be  types  and  prefigu- 
 rations  of  Christ.  The  conditions  of  a  Jewish  sacrifice 
 were, — That  it  should  be  without  blemish,  publicly  pre- 
 sented before  the  congregation,  substituted  in  the  sinner's 
 room,  and  the  iniquities  of  the  sinner  laid  upon  him. 
 With  relation  to  these  properties,  our  Saviour  is  said  to 
 be  '  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  and  separated  from  sin- 
 ners.' That  he  might  '  sanctify  his  people,'  he  is  said 
 '  to  have  lI  suffered  without  the  gate,  bearing  our  re- 
 proach ;'  and  that  I2 '  he,  who  knew  no  sin,  became  sin 
 for  us,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God 
 in  him.' 
 
 And  so,  if  we  look  to  the  several  sorts  of  sacrifices 
 appointed  under  the  law,  we  shall  soon  perceive  that 
 these  equally  lead  us  to  Christ.  For  he  was  the  trespass- 
 offering,  in  that  '  he  was  made  sin  for  us  ; '  the  peace- 
 offering  because  13 '  he  made  peace  by  the  blood  of  his 
 
 5  John  i.  14.  6  Heb.  xiii.  10.  '  Heb.  viii.  1,  2. 
 
 8  Heb.  ix.  26.         9  Heb.  i.  3.         «•  Heb.  9.  24. 
 
 11  Heb.  xiii.  12,  13.         ™  2  Cor.  v.  21.         ,3  Col.  i.  20. 
 
Skct.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c.  313 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G5.  A.  C.  1G4C.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 that  religion,  which  in  its  essence  is  always  the  same, 
 
 cross;'  the  meat  and  drink  offering,  for  ''his  flesh  is 
 meat  indeed,  and  his  blood  is  drink  indeed  ;'  the  scape- 
 goat, for  he  hath  carried  away  our  sins,  2  never  to  be  more 
 remembered  against  us  ;  the  paschal  lamb,  for  3 '  Christ, 
 our  passover,  is  sacrificed  for  us ;  the  great  sacrifice  of 
 atonement,'  for  4 '  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous  is  both  our 
 advocate  with  the  Father,  and  a  propitiation  for  our  sins  : ' 
 and  in  line,  5 '  his  blood,  who,  through  the  eternal  Spirit, 
 offered  himself  to  God,  without  spot,  is  more  effectual 
 than  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats,  to  purge  our  con- 
 sciences from  dead  works,  to  serve  the  living  God.' 
 
 Thus  it  appears,  that  the  chief  end  of  the  several  in- 
 stitutions relating  to  the  ceremonial  part  of  the  Jewish 
 worship,  was  to  prefigure  the  person  and  transactions  of 
 our  blessed  Saviour,  6  '  when  the  fulness  of  time  was 
 come  that  God  should  send  forth  his  Son,  made  of  a 
 woman,  made  under  the  law,  to  redeem  those  that  were 
 under  the  law,  that  we  might  receive  the  adoption  of 
 sons.'  And  therefore,  since  the  ceremonies  of  the 
 Jewish  law  could  never  be  of  any  esteem  in  the  sight  of 
 God,  any  otherwise  than  as  they  promoted  this  end,  and 
 prepared  men's  minds  for  the  reception  of  a  more  per- 
 fect institution  of  religion,  it  is  manifest,  that  when  this 
 more  perfect  institution  was  once  settled,  the  former  and 
 more  imperfect  was,  of  course,  to  cease ;  7 '  there  being 
 necessarily  a  disannulling  of  the  commandment  going 
 before,  for  the  weakness  and  unprofitableness  thereof.' 
 
 And  from  hence  we  may  finally  infer,  that  though  the 
 essence  of  religion  be  eternally  and  immutably  the  same, 
 yet  the  form  and  institution  of  it  may  be,  and  often  has 
 been,  changed.  8  The  essence  of  all  religion  is  obedi- 
 ence to  that  moral  and  eternal  law,  which  obliges  us  to 
 imitate  the  life  of  God  in  justice,  mercy,  and  holiness, 
 that  is,  '  to  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly,  in  this 
 present  world.'  This  is  the  sum  of  all  natural  religion, 
 as  appears  from  the  discourses  of  those  wiser  heathens, 
 who  were  freest  from  prejudice  and  superstition.  This 
 was  the  sum  of  the  Jewish  religion,  as  appears  from  the 
 frequent  and  earnest  protestations  of  God  to  that  people 
 by  his  servants  the  prophets ;  and  this  likewise  is  the 
 sum  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  the  apostles  every- 
 where inculcate.  But  though  religion  itself  is  thus  im- 
 mutably the  same,  yet  the  form  and  institution  of  it  may 
 be  different. 
 
 When  natural  religion,  by  reason  of  its  obscurity,  in 
 this  corrupt  estate  of  human  nature,  proved  ineffectual 
 to  make  men  truly  religious,  God  left  them  no  longer  to 
 the  guidance  of  their  reason  only,  but  gave  them  first 
 the  patriarchal,  and  afterwards  the  Mosaic  dispensation  ; 
 and  when,  through  the  incumbrance  with  so  many  ritual 
 observances,  this  latter  proved  ineffectual  to  the  same 
 great  end,  God  abolished  this  form  of  religion  likewise, 
 and  instituted  the  Christian.  In  all  which  proceeding, 
 there  is  no  reflection  at  all  upon  the  immutable  nature 
 of  God.  For  as  the  divine  nature  is,  in  the  truest  and 
 highest  sense,  unchangeable  ;  so  religion  itself,  in  its 
 nature  and  essence,  is  likewise  unchangeable.  But  as 
 the  capacities,  the  prejudices,  and  the  circumstances  of 
 men  are  different,  so  the  institution  and  outward  form  of 
 
 may,  with  the  good  pleasure  of  God,  be  changed ;  even 
 as  a  careful  nurse,  to  use  a  scripture  comparison  upon 
 this  occasion,  adapts  the  diet  to  the  strength  and  consti- 
 tution of  the  person  she  attends :  '  For  every  one  that 
 usetli  milk,'  as  the  elements  of  the  Jewish  dispensation 
 were,  '  is  unskilful  in  the  word  of  righteousness,  for  he 
 is  a  babe  ;  but  strong  meat,'  or  a  religion  of  a  greater 
 perfection,  as  the  Christian  is,  '  belongeth  to  them  that 
 are  of  full  age  ;  even  those,  who,  by  reason  of  use,  have 
 their  senses  exercised  to  discern  both  good  and  evil.' 
 
 1  John  vi.  55. 
 4  1  John  ii.  1,  2. 
 r  I  Id),  vii.  IS. 
 
 »  John  i.  29.  3  1  Cor.  v.  7. 
 
 ••  Heb.  ix.  13,  14.        "Gal.iv.  4,  5. 
 s  Dr  Samiu'l  Clarke's  Sermon,  vol.  x. 
 
 SECT.    III. 
 
 CHAP.   I. — From  the  Death  of  Korah,  to  the  Israel- 
 ites' Entrance  into  Canaan  ;  in  all,  38  years. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 After  the  establishment  of  the  high  priest's  office  in 
 Aaron,  and  his  family,  the  Israelites  moved  about  from 
 place  to  place,  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  but  chiefly  about 
 the  mountains  of  Idumsea,  until  God,  "  shortening  the 
 period  of  human  life,  had  taken  away  almost  all  that 
 generation,  9  '  of  whom  he  had  sworn  in  his  wrath,'  as  the 
 Psalmist  expresses  it,  '  that  they  should  not  enter  into 
 his  rest.'  And  indeed,  good  reason  had  he  to  be  angry 
 with  them,  since  during  the  remainder  of  their  peregrina- 
 tion they  were  guilty  of  many  more  murmurings  and 
 idolatries  than  Moses  has  thought  proper  to  record,  which 
 are  nevertheless  mentioned,  with  no  small  severity,  1U 
 by  other  inspired  writers. 
 
 As  the  time,  however,  for  their  entrance  into  the  Holy 
 Land  now  drew  near,  from  Ezion-geber  they  advanced 
 towards  Kadesh  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin,  designing  very 
 probiibly  to  enter  the  country  through  those  narrow  pas-* 
 sages,  which,  at  that  time  were  called,  '  tiie  ways  of  the 
 spies;'  but  u  they  were  repulsed  by  the  king  of  Arad, 
 who  coming  out  against  them  with  a  strong  force,  slew  a 
 considerable  number,  and  took  from  them  much  booty. 
 In  their  second  attempt,  however,  they  succeeded  better  ; 
 for  they  defeated  the  king's  army,  sacked  some  of  his 
 towns,  and  vowing  at  another  opportunity  (*  which  hap- 
 pened in  the  time  of  12  Joshua)  the  utter  destruction   of 
 
 9Ps.  xcv.  11. 
 
 10  See  Amos  v.  26 ;  Ezek.  and  Ps.  passim  ;  Acts  Tii.  13. 
 
 "  Num.  xxi.  1,  11.  n  Josh.  xxii.  14. 
 
 a  After  the  many  judgments  and  calamities  sent  U| 
 
 by  reason  of  their  rebellions  against  God,  Moses  perceiving  the 
 divine  threatenings  to  be  daily  accomplished  bj  Ihe  frequent 
 deaths  of  those  who  came  out  of  Egypt,  and  'whose  carcassei 
 were  to  fall  in  the  wilderness,1  composed  the  ninetieth  psalm, 
 wherein  he  mentions,  the  reduction  of  human  life  to  the  term  ad 
 
 years    wherein    it    has    ever  sinee   slopped,    and    makes 
 
 wholesome  reflections  thereupon:  'The  days  of  our  age  are 
 threescore  years  and  ten :  and  though  nun  be  so  strong,  thai  they 
 come  to  fourscore  yeai  ,  yel  is  their  strength  then  but  labour  and 
 sorrow;  so  soon  passeth  it  away,  and  we  are  gone.  <•  teach  os 
 therefore  to  number  our  days,  that  we  may  apply  our  heart-  unto 
 wisdom.' — Vex.  10,  11. 
 
 /<  The  Jews  have  a  tradition,  founded   on   an  express   text    in 
 
 Deuteronomy,  (chap.  \\.  10,  &c,)thal  the  Israelites  were  obliged 
 t<>  send  an  herald  to  offer  peace  in  their  name,  to  every  city  and 
 people,  before  they  attempted  to  conquer  them  by  the  sword;  that 
 in  case  they  accepted  it  they  only  became  tributaries  to  them; 
 2it 
 
311 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.   A.  C.  U80j  OK,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1G4G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 the  whole  nation,  they  took  their  route  for  the  present 
 another  way,  and  so  arrived  again  at  Kadesh. 
 
 Here  it  was  that  Miriam,  the  sister  of  Moses  and 
 Aaron,  ("  who  was  older  than  either  of  them,)  in  the 
 hundred  and  thirty -third  year  of  her  age  died,  was  buried 
 with  great  pomp,  and  by  the  Israelites  lamented  for  the 
 space  of  a  whole  month.  Here  it  was  that  the  people  fell 
 again  into  their  old  way  of  murmuring  for  want  of  water, 
 which  God  ordered  Moses  to  supply,  by  speaking  only  to 
 a  certain  rock  ;  but  some  way  or  other  he  deviating  from 
 his  instructions,  either  through  impatience  or  diffidence, 
 offended  God  to  such  a  degree,  as  to  deserve  a  denun- 
 ciation, that  neither  he,  nor  his  brother  Aaron,  who  seems 
 to  have  been  equally  in  the  offence,  should  be  permitted 
 to  enter  into  Canaan.  Hence  likewise  it  was,  that  Moses 
 sent  an  embassy  to  the  king  of  Edom,  desiring  a  free  pas- 
 sage through  his  country,  and  promising  to  commit  no 
 hostilities,  nor  give  the  least  molestation  to  any  of  his 
 subjects.  But  the  haughty  Edomite  was  so  far  from 
 granting  his  request,  that  he  came  out  with  a  strong  army 
 to  oppose  him ;  which  Moses,  no  doubt,  would  have 
 resented  as  the  thing  deserved,  had  not  God,  whom  he 
 consulted  upon  this  occasion,  ordered  him,  for  the  pre- 
 sent, not  to  engage  with  the  Edomites  :  so  that  decamp- 
 ing from  Kadesh,  he  came  to  Mount  Hor,  not  far  from 
 the  borders  of  Edom,  where  God  gave  Aaron  notice  of 
 his  approaching  death,  and  not  long  after,  commanded 
 Moses  to  take  him  and  Eleazar  his  son,  who  was  to  suc- 
 ceed him  in  the  office  of  the  high  priest,  to  the  top  of  the 
 mount,  and  there  to  strip  Aaron  of  his  sacerdotal  robes, 
 and  put  them  upon  his  son  :  which  when  Moses  had  done, 
 Aaron  h  died  on  the  top  of  Mount  Hor,  being  an  hundred 
 
 out  if  they  refused  their  offer,  they  were  then  to  be  vowed  to 
 destruction.  Maimouides  has  taken  great  pains  to  prove,  that 
 all  those  nations  which  were  cut  on"  by  the  Israelites,  owed  their 
 destruction  to  their  choosing  to  try  the  fortune  of  war,  rather 
 than  accept  of  peace  upon  such  terms.  There  is  one  objection 
 however,  which  seems  to  stand  a  little  in  his  way,  and  that  is, — 
 the  stratagem  which  the  Gibeonites  made  use  of  to  obtain  peace 
 from  Israel,  which  would  have  been  needless,  had  the  latter 
 been  obliged  to  offer  it  before  they  began  any  hostilities:  but  to 
 this  the  learned  Rabbi  answers, — That  the  reason  of  the  Gibeon- 
 ites' policy  was,  that  they  had  in  common  with  their  neighbours, 
 refused  the  first  offer  of  peace,  and  were  consequently  doomed  to 
 the  same  fate  with  them ;  and  that,  for  the  prevention  of  this, 
 their  ambassadors  feigned  themselves  to  come  from  a  country 
 vastly  distant  from  any  of  the  other  seven,  and  by  that  means 
 obtained  the  desired  peace. — Maimon.  ap.  Cunceum;  et  Basnag, 
 Rep.  Hob.  vol.  i.  b.  2.  c.  20. 
 
 a  Miriam  was  older  than  either  Aaron  or  Moses.  Moses  was 
 the  youngest:  and  when  he  was  bom  she  might  probably  be  about 
 twelve  years  of  age,  because  when  he  was  exposed  upon  the  banks 
 of  the  river  Nile,  she,  we  find,  had  address  enough  to  offer  her 
 service  to  Pharaoh's  daughter,  to  go  and  fetch  her  a  nurse,  which 
 can  hardly  be  supposed  of  one  younger.  Some  of  the  ancient 
 fathers  are  of  opinion  that  she  .died  a  virgin,  and  was  the  legisla- 
 trix  or  governess  of  the  Jewish  women,  as  Moses  was  of  the  men; 
 but  the  more  probable  opinion  is,  that  she  was  married  to  Hur, 
 a  man  of  chief  note  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  on  several  occa- 
 sions a  person  of  great  confidence  with  Moses:  but  it  does  not 
 appear  that  she  had  any  children  by  him.  She  was  buried,  as 
 Josephus  tells  us,  with  great  solemnity,  at  the  charge  of  the  pub- 
 lic, and  her  sepulchre,  a>  Eusebius  reports,  was  extant  in  his  time 
 at  Kadesh,  not  far  distant  from  the  city  Petra,  the  metropolis  of 
 Arabia  Petraea. —  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7;  and  Calmet's 
 Dictionary. 
 
 b  The  Mount  Hor  was  on  the  coast  of  the  land  of  Edom,  to- 
 wards the  east,  in  some  part  of  that  tract,  which  was  afterwards 
 denoted  by  the  Mount  Seir.      In  Deuteronomy  (ii.  12.)  we  are 
 
 and  twenty -three  years  old  ;  and  when  the  people  under- 
 stood that  he  was  dead, c  they  bewailed  him  thirty  days. 
 As  soon  as  the  days  of  mourning  were  over,  they 
 removed,  and  encamped  at  Zalmanah,  which  took  its 
 name  from  the  image  of  the  serpent,  which  Moses  caused 
 to  be  set  up  there.  For  the  Israelites,  being  tired  with 
 the  length  of  their  journey,  the  narrowness  of  their 
 passes,  and  the  barrenness  of  the  country,  began  to 
 relapse  into  their  old  humour  of  murmuring  and  repining, 
 which  provoked  God  to  send  great  d  swarms  of  fiery 
 
 told  expressly  that  the  Horims  dwelt  in  Seir  before-time;  and  ac- 
 cordingly we  read  (Gen.  xiv.  6.)  that  Chedorlaomer,  king  of  Elam, 
 with  his  confederates,  smote  the  Horites  in  their  Mount  Seir. 
 Now  it  seems  very  probable,  that  as  places  at  first  were  wont  to 
 take  their  names  from  their  inhabitants,  both  this  place,  and  the 
 people  might  derive  their  names  from  one  Hor,  whom  they  de- 
 scended from,  and  who  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  inhabited 
 this  country ;  and  that  though,  in  process  of  time,  the  name  of 
 Mount  Seir  came  to  be  used  to  denote  the  same  tract,  yet  the  old 
 name  of  Mount  Hor  was  preserved  in  that  part  of  it,  where  stood 
 the  mountain  here  so  called  by  Moses,  and  on  which  Aaron  died. 
 There  seems  to  be  however  no  small  difficulty  in  reconciling  this 
 passage  in  Numbers  xx.  23 — 28,  with  what  we  read  in  Deuter- 
 onomy x.  6.  That  '  the  children  of  Israel  took  their  journey  from 
 Beeroth,  of  the  children  of  Jaakan,  to  Mosera:  there  Aaron  died, 
 and  there  lie  was  buried.'  So  that  Moses  seems  to  have  forgot 
 himself,  when  in  one  place  he  tells  us,  that  his  brother  Aaron 
 was  buried  on  Mount  Hor,  and  in  another  in  Mosera.  To  re- 
 concile this,  some  have  supposed  that  Mount  Hor  was  so  near  to 
 Mosera,  where  the  Israelites  had  their  encampment  when  Aaron 
 died,  that  either  place  might,  with  propriety  enough,  be  called 
 the  place  of  his  death  and  his  interment.  It  seems,  however, 
 from  the  account  which  we  have  of  their  encampments,  in  Num- 
 bers xxxiii.  very  plain,  that  Mount  Hor  and  Mosera  were  two 
 distinct  places ;  and  therefore  others  have  maintained,  that  the 
 sixth  and  seventh  verses  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  Deuteronomy, 
 in  the  common  Hebrew  text,  have  been  extremely  corrupted  by 
 the  ignorance  of  some  transcribers,  because  the  Hebrew  Samari- 
 tan or  old  Hebrew  text,  makes  the  account  in  Deuteronomy  x. 
 6,  7,  exactly  agree  with  the  order  of  the  encampments,  mentioned 
 in  Numbers  xxxiii.  32,  38.  and  there  it  is  said  that  Aaron  died, 
 and  was  buried  in  Mount  Hor. — Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  vol.  ii. 
 
 c  The  author  of  Ecclesiasticus,  having  given  us  a  long  com- 
 mendation of  Aaron,  and  his  vestments,  comes  at  last  to  tell  us, 
 that  "  God  chose  him  out  of  all  men  living,  to  offer  sacrifices 
 to  the  Lord,  incense,  and  a  sweet  savour,  for  a  memorial,  and 
 to  make  reconciliation  for  his  people ;  that  he  gave  unto  him  the 
 commandments  and  authority  in  the  statutes  of  judgments, 
 that  he  should  teach  Jacob  the  testimonies,  and  inform  Israel 
 in  the  laws;  that  strangers  conspired  together  against  him, 
 and  maligned  him  in  the  wilderness — this  the  Lord  saw,  and  it 
 displeased  him,  and  in  his  wrathful  indignation,  they  were  con- 
 sumed.— But  he  made  Aaron  more  honourable,  and  gave  him 
 an  heritage,  and  divided  unto  him  the  first-fruits  of  the  increase ; 
 so  that  he  did  eat  the  sacrifices  of  the  Lord,  which  he  gave  unto 
 him  and  to  his  seed,"  &c.  He  died  in  the  arms  of  Moses  his 
 brother,  and  Eleazer  his  son,  and  successor  in  the  high  priest- 
 hood. They  buried  him  in  some  cave  belonging  to  Mount  Hor, 
 and  kept  the  place  of  his  interment  from  the  knowledge  of  the 
 Israelites,  perhaps  from  an  apprehension  that  in  after  ages  they 
 might  pay  some  superstitious  worship  to  him ;  or  rather,  that  the 
 Arabians,  among  whom  they  then  dwelt,  might  not  at  any  time 
 take  it  in  their  heads  to  violate  the  sanctity  of  his  grave. — 
 Ecclus.  xlv.  13,  &c. 
 
 d  Some  authors  are  of  opinion,  that  these  serpents  were  only 
 little  worms,  which  bred  in  the  skin,  and  were  of  so  venomous 
 a  nature,  that  they  immediately  poisoned  those  who  were  infecttd 
 by  them.  But  it  is  very  evident,  that  not  only  the  original  words, 
 tiecashim  seraphim,  signify  a  burning  or  winged  serpent,  but 
 that  these  creatures  are  very  common  both  in  Egypt  and  Arabia, 
 insomuch,  that  there  would  be  no  living  in  those  countries,  if 
 these  serpents  had  not  by  Providence  been  debarred  from  multi- 
 plying as  other  serpents  do.     For  the  Arabians  tell  us,  that  after 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  cVc" 
 
 315 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 serpents  among  them;  but  after  the  death  of  several, 
 and  upon  the  humiliation  of  the  rest,  he  commanded 
 Moses  to  cast  a  a  brazen  serpent,  of  the  same  size  and 
 figure  with  those  that  infested  them,  and  to  lix  it  upon  a 
 pole,  situate  on  some  eminent  ground,  that  as  many  as 
 were  bitten  by  the  living  serpents,  might  look  up  to  the 
 brazen  one,  and  be  healed.  Which  accordingly  was 
 done,  and  had  its  intended  miraculous  effect. 
 
 Several  were  the  marches  and  encampments  which  the 
 Israelites,  without  committing  the  least  hostilities,  made 
 between  the  countries  of  Moab  and  Amnion,  till  they 
 came  at  length  to  the  country  of  the  Amorites.  And 
 from  hence  Moses  b  sent  ambassadors  to  Sihon  their 
 king,  demanding  a  passage  through  his  country,  and 
 offering  to  pay  for  all  manner  of  necessaries,  without 
 giving  him  the  least  disturbance.     e  But  the  Amorite 
 
 that  they  had  coupled  together,  the  female  never  fails  to  kill  the 
 male,  and  that  her  young  ones  kill  her,  as  soon  as  they  are 
 hatched.  Herodotus,  who  had  seen  several  of  those  serpents, 
 tells  us,  that  they  very  much  resemble  those  which  the  Greeks 
 and  Latins  call  hydra ;  and  Bochart  has  quoted  a  great  Dumber 
 both  of  ancient  and  modern  authors  to  prove  that  they  really  are 
 tin-  hydra.  They  are  but  short,  are  spotted  with  clivers  colours, 
 and  have  wings  like  those  of  a  bat.  The  ibis  is  their  mortal 
 enemy ;  and  Herodotus  tells  us,  that  at  Butos  in  Egypt,  he  had 
 Been  a  vast  quantity  of  their  skeletons,  whose  flesh  these  birds 
 had  devoured.  They  love  sweet  smells,  frequent  such  trees  as 
 bear  spices,  and  the  marshes  where  the  aromatic  reed,  or  cassia, 
 grows;  and  therefore,  when  the  Arabians  goto  gather  the  cassia, 
 they  clothe  themselves  with  skins,  and  cover  all  their  heads  over, 
 except  their  eyes,  because  their  biting  is  very  dangerous. — 
 Bochart  de  Animal.  Sacr.  part  2.  b.  3.  c.  13. 
 
 a  The  brazen  serpent  continued  among  the  Jews  above  700 
 years,  even  to  the  time  of  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah;  but  when 
 it  came  to  be  made  an  object  of  idolatry,  and  the  people  for  some 
 time  had  paid  their  incense  and  adoration  to  it,  that  pious  prince 
 caused  it  to  be  broken  in  pieces;  and  by  way  of  contempt,  called 
 it  nehughtan,  that  is  to  say,  a  brazen  1m wide,  or  trifle.  At 
 Milan,  however,  in  the  church  of  St  Ambrose,  they  pretend  to 
 show  you  a  serpent  made  of  brass,  which  they  tell  you  is  the 
 same  with  that  of  Moses.  But  every  one  may  believe  of  this  as 
 lie  pleases. — Calmets  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Serpent. 
 
 b  It  may  here  be  proposed  as  a  difficulty,  how  Moses  came  to 
 ofTer  the  Amorites  terms  of  peace,  considering  that  the  Israelites 
 were  commanded  to  destroy  them,  and  to  take  possession  of  their 
 country.  But  to  this  it  lias  been  answered  by  some  learned 
 men,  that  notwithstanding  God  had  expressly  doomed  this  people 
 to  an  extermination,  yet  Moses  thought  himself  at  liberty  to  in- 
 dulge his  usual  meekness,  and  to  begin  with  gentle  and  amicable 
 ires,  though  In-  might  at  the  same  time  lie  persuaded,  that 
 they  would  avail  nothing;  and  this  probably  at  the  suggestion  of 
 God  himself,  to  cut  off  all  occasions  or  pretence  of  complaint 
 from  the  Amorites,  as  if  they  had  not  been  honourably  and  fairly 
 dealt  with,  and  that  the  equity  and  righteousness  of  God's  pro- 
 ceeding  with  a  prince  of  so  savage  and  obstinate  a  temper,  might 
 appear  in  a  stronger  light,  when  tin;  consequence  of  his  refusing 
 a  free  passage  to  the  Israelites,  and  bringing  his  army  into  the 
 field  against  them,  should  happen  to  be  his  own  defeat  and 
 destruction.' — Bibliotheca  Biblica  on  Num.  xxi.  21. 
 
 c  Grotius,  in  his  second  book  on  the  Right  of  War  and 
 Peace,  C.  'I.  sect.  13,  is  of  opinion,  that  according  to  the  law  of 
 nations,  the  highways,  seas,  and  rivers  of  every  country,  ought 
 to  be  free  to  all  passengers  upon  just  occasions.  He  produces 
 several  examples  from  heathen  history  of  such  permission  being 
 granted  to  armies,  and  thence  he  infers,  that  Sihon  and  Og, 
 denying  the  Israelites  this  privilege,  gave  a  just  ground  of  war: 
 nor  does  lie  think  that  the  fear  which  these  princes  might  con- 
 i'i  ive  is  any  excuse  at  all  for  not  granting  the  thing,  because  no 
 man's  fear  can  take  away  another  man's  right,  especially  when 
 several  ways  might  have  been  found  out  to  have  made  their  passage 
 sal'i-  mi  both  sides.  But  when  all  is  said,  it  seems  not  clear  that 
 all  men  have  such  a  right  as  this  great  man  thinks  they  may 
 claim.     No  man,  we   know,  can  challenge   a   passage   through  a 
 
 M.  3765.  A.  C.  1G1G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEDT. 
 
 prince,  not  thinking  it  safe  to  receive  so  numerous  a 
 people  into  the  heart  of  his  kingdom,  not  only  denied 
 them  a  passage,  but,  accounting  it  better  policy  to  attack, 
 than  to  be  attacked,  gathered  what  forces  he  could 
 together,  and  marched  out  to  give  them  battle.  Bui  not 
 far  from  Jahaz,  where  the  engagement  was,  the  Israelites 
 overthrew  him  :  and  having  made  themselves  masters  of 
 his  country,  put  all,  both  man,  woman,  and  child  to  the 
 sword  :  and  not  long  after  this,  Og,  d  king  of  Bashan 
 e  a  man  of  a  prodigious  gigantic  size,  attempting  to 
 obstruct  their  passage,  underwent  the  same  fat.'.  For 
 they  seized  his  country,  and  utterly  destrovod  the  inha- 
 bitants thereof,  reserving  only  the  cattle,  and  spoils  of 
 the  cities,  as  a  prey  to  themselves,  as  they  had  done 
 before  in  the  case  of  Sihon. 
 
 Encouraged  by  these  successes,  the  Israelites  marched 
 to  the  plains  of  Moab,  and  encamped  on  the  banks  of 
 the  river  Jordan,  opposite  to  Jericho.  This  put  Balak, 
 who  was  then  king  of  Moab,  into  a  terrible  consterna- 
 tion ;  for  supposing  himself  not  able  to  engage  the 
 mighty  force  of  Israel,  he  had  not  only  made  a  strong 
 alliance  with  the  Midianites  and  Ammonites,  his  neigh- 
 bours, in  order  to  stop  their  progress,  but  thought  it 
 advisable  likewise,  before  he  began  any  hostilities 
 against  them,  to  try  how  far  the  power  of  Balaam's  en- 
 chantments (a  noted  magician  in  Pethor,  a  <it\  of  Meso- 
 potamia) might  go,  in  turning  the  fortune  of  the  war 
 towards  his  side. 
 
 To  this  purpose  he  despatched  a  select  number  of  his 
 nobles,  with  costly  presents  to  /Balaam,  entreating  him 
 
 private  man's  ground  without  his  leave:  and  every  prince  has 
 the  same  dominion  in  all  his  territories  that  a  private  man  lias 
 in  his  land.  As  for  the  examples,  therefore,  of  those  who  had 
 permitted  armies  to  pass  through  their  kingdoms,  they  are  ex- 
 amples of  fact  rather  than  of  light,  and  of  such  as  were  net  in  a 
 condition  to  refuse  what  was  demanded  of  them.  For  the  thing 
 is  notorious,  that  several  countries  have  suffered  very  grievously 
 by  granting  this  liberty ;  and  therefore  no  prince,  who  ci 
 his  subjects'  safi  tv,  is  to  be  blamed  for  not  granting  it;  nor  was 
 the  war  with  the  Amorites  founded  upon  this  reason,  as  we  shall 
 see  hereafter. —  Patrick's  Com/mentary. 
 
 d  The  land  of  Banian  was  one  of  the  most  fertile  C8J 
 Canaan,  which  reached  on  the  east  to  the  river  Jordan,  en  the 
 west  to  the  mountains  of  Gilead,  on  the  south  to  the  brook  dab- 
 bock,  and  on  the  north  to  the  land  of  Geshur.  The  who  • 
 dom  took  its  name  from  the  hill  of  Bashan,  which  is  situate  in 
 it,  and  has  since  bei  u  called  liattanaa.  It  had  no  less  than  sixty 
 walled  towns  in  it,  besides  villages.  It  afforded  an  excellent 
 breed  of  cattle,  and  Stately  oak-,  and  was,  in  shell,  a  plentiful 
 and  populous  country. —  Universal  History,  b.  I.e.  ,. 
 
 e  The  description  of  this  gigantic  king,  who  was  the 
 the  race  of  the  Rephaims,  or  <■-  t  prodigious  nun.  we  have  in 
 Deuteronomy  iii.  ll.,  and  from  the  size  of  hi-  bad,  which  was 
 preserved  a  leu-  time  in  the  city  of  Rabbatb,  the  capital  of  the 
 Ammonites,  we  may  guess  at  his  stature.  It  was  nine  cubits 
 long,  and  four  cubits  broad,  that  is.  fifteen  feet  loir  in. 'lies  and  a 
 
 half  long,  and  six  feet  ten  inches  bread.    Bot  the  Jewish  di 
 
 imt  content  with  Burn  pigmy  wonders,  have  improved  the  story 
 
 tii  their  own  liking.     For  they  tell  us,  that  this  bed  of  nine  CUbitl 
 
 could  I,,,  no  more  than  bis  cradle,  aince  himself  was  si\  - * 
 
 cubits  high,  whin  full  grown;  that  he  lived  before  the  fiood,  and 
 
 that  the  waters  of  it.  «  ben  at  the  highest,  reached  only  up  to  his 
 
 knees;  that,  however,  bethought  proper  to  g<  t  u] the  top  o 
 
 the  roof  of  the  ark,  where  Noah  supplied  him  with  provision, 
 not  out  of  any  compassion  to  him,  but  that  the  nun  who  came 
 aftei.  t]„.  ,  i,t  see  how  great  the  |  ower  ol  God  was,  wh  i 
 
 had  destroyed  such  monsters  from  the  fece  of  the  earth. — '-'ti- 
 met and  Munsttr  in  Pent.  c.  S. 
 
 f  I,,  t    Pel  i    ii.    15,   Balaam   is  said   to  be   the   son   at 
 Bosor,  according  to  our  version;  but  as  the  words,  '  the  son,'  are 
 
316 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3705.  A.  C.  1G46.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 in  the  king's  name  to  come,  and  curse  him  a  people 
 who  were  arrived  upon  the  borders  of  his  territories  ;  but 
 God  for  that  time,  would  not  permit  him  to  go  :  where- 
 upon Balak,  supposing  either,  that  the  number  and  qua- 
 lity of  his  messengers  did  not  answer  Balaam's  ambi- 
 tion, or  the  value  of  the  presents  his  covetousness,  sent 
 messengers  of  a  more  honourable  rank,  with  larger  pro- 
 posals, and  promises  of  high  promotion,  if  he  would  but 
 gratify  him  in  this  one  thing. 
 
 1  '  Balaam  loved  the  wages  of  unrighteousness  ;'  and 
 therefore  blinded  with  this  passion,  he  addressed  God 
 for  leave  to  go ;  which  God  in  his  anger  granted,  but 
 tinder  such  restrictions,  as  would  necessarily  hinder  all 
 his  fascinations  from  doing  the  Israelites  any  harm. 
 
 With  this  permission  he  set  forward  with  the  princes  of 
 Moab ;  but  as  he  was  on  the  road,  an  angel  met  him,  whom, 
 though  he  perceived  him  not,  his  ass  plainly  saw,  and 
 therefore  turned  aside  into  the  field  to  avoid  him.  With 
 much  ado,  Balaam  beat  his  ass  into  the  road  again ;  but 
 when  the  angel  stood  in  a  narrow  passage  between  two 
 walls,  which  enclosed  a  vineyard,  the  ass  for  fear  ran 
 against  one  of  the  walls,  and  crushed  Balaam's  leg, 
 which  provoked  him  so,  that  he  beat  her  again.  At 
 last,  the  angel  removed,  and  stood  in  a  place  so  very 
 narrow,  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  getting  by  him, 
 whereupon  the  ass  fell  down  under  her  rider,  and  would 
 go  no  farther.  This  enraged  the  prophet  still  more ;  and 
 as  he  was  beating  and  belabouring  the  poor  creature 
 most  unmercifully,  God  was  pleased  to  give  the  ass  the 
 faculty  of  speech,  wherein  she  expostulated  the  hard 
 usage  she  had  met  with  ;  and  as  Balaam  was  going  to 
 justify  himself,  he  was  likewise  pleased  to  open  the 
 prophet's  eyes,  and  let  him  see  the  angel  standing  in  the 
 way  with  a  naked  sword  in  his  hand,  which  so  terrified 
 him,  that  he  fell  down  upon  his  face,  asked  pardon  for 
 his  trespass,  and  offered  to  return  home  again,  if  so  be 
 his  journey  was  displeasing  to  God. a 
 
 1  2  Peter  ii.  15. 
 not  found  in  the  original,  but  were  inserted  by  the  transla- 
 tors, to  supply  the  sense,  as  they  imagined,  the  word  Bosor  may 
 denote  a  place  as  well  as  a  person;  and  accordingly  Grotius 
 understands  St  Peter's  words,  not  as  if  Bosor  was  the  father,  but 
 the  city  of  Balaam ;  for  what  was  anciently  called  Pethor,  the 
 Syrians  in  after  ages  called  Bosor,  by  an  easy  change  of  two 
 letters,  which  is  a  thing  not  unusual. —  Universal  History,  b.  1. 
 c.  7. 
 
 a  Num.  xxii.  31.  '  Then  the  Lord  opened  the  eyes  of  Balaam, 
 and  he  saw  the  angel  of  the  Lord  standing  in  the  way.'     There 
 are  several  instances  to  be  found,  both  in  the  scriptures  and  in 
 profane  authors,  where  the  eyes  have  been  opened   by  a  divine 
 power  to  perceive  that  which  they  could  not  see  by  mere  natural 
 discernment.     Thus  the  eyes  of  Hagar  were  opened,  that  she 
 might  sec  the  fountain,  Gen.  xxi.  19.     Homer  also  presents  us 
 with  an  example  of  this  kind.     Minerva  says  to  Diomede, 
 Go,  while  the  darkness  from  thy  sight  I  turn, 
 That  thou  alike  both  God  and  man  discern.  —  Sotheby. 
 And  in  Virgil,  Venus  performs  the  same   office  to  iEneas,  and 
 shows  him  the  gods  who  were  engaged  in  the  destruction  of  Troy. 
 Now  cast  your  eyes  around:  while  I  dissolve 
 The  mists  and  films  that  mortal  eyes  involve, 
 Purge  from  your  sight  the  dross,  and  make  you  see 
 The  shape  of  each  avenging  deity.  Dryden. 
 
 Milton  seems  likewise  to  have  imitated  this,  when  he  makes 
 Michael  open  Adam's  eyes  to  see  the  future  revolutions  of  the 
 world,  and  the  fortunes  of  his  posterity. 
 
 Then  purged  with  euphrasy  and  rue 
 
 The  visual  nerve,  for  he  had  much  to  see. 
 And  from  the  well  of  life  three  drops  instill'd. 
 
 I'ar.idiie  Lost,  b.  II.  41!.-  ED 
 
 That  his  journey  was  displeasing  to  God,  he  himself 
 could  not  be  ignorant,  because,  in  his  first  address,  God 
 had  expressly  interdicted  his  going.  Being  resolved, 
 however,  out  of  the  man's  wicked  inclination,  to  raise 
 some  kind  of  advantage,  and  to  make  him,  who  was 
 hired  to  curse,  the  instrument  of  pronouncing  a  blessing 
 upon  his  people,  God  gave  him  now  free  leave  to  pro- 
 ceed. When  Balak  understood  that  Balaam  was  on  the 
 road,  himself  went  to  receive  him  upon  the  confines  of 
 his  dominions  ;  and  having,  in  a  friendly  manner,  blamed 
 him  for  not  coming  at  his  first  sending,  which  Balaam 
 excused  upon  account  of  the  restraint  which  God  had 
 laid  on  him,  he  conducted  him  to  his  capital  city,  and 
 there  entertained  him  publicly,  with  his'  princes  and 
 nobles  that  day ;  and  the  next  morning  carried  him  to 
 the  high  places  consecrated  to  °  Baal,  that  from  thence 
 he  might  take  a  view  of  the  extremity  of  the  Israelitish 
 camp.  Whilst  they  were  here,  the  prophet  ordered 
 c  seven  altars  to  be  erected,  d  and  seven  oxen,  and 
 seven  rams  to  be  got  ready  ;  and  having  «  offered  an 
 
 b  The  word  Baal  signifies  Lord,  and  was  the  name  of-  several 
 gods,  both  male  and  female,  as  Selden  (De  Diis  Syris,  c.  1.) 
 shows.  The  god  of  the  Moabites  was  Chemosh,  but  here  very 
 probably  is  called  by  the  common  name  of  Baal.  And  as  all 
 nations  worshipped  their  gods  upon  high  places,  so  this  god  of 
 Moab,  having  more  places  of  worship  than  one,  Balak  carried 
 Balaam  to  them  all,  that  from  thence  he  might  take  the  most 
 advantageous  prospect  of  the  Israelites.  These  high  places  were 
 full  of  trees,  and  shady  groves,  which  made  them  commodious 
 both  for  the  solemn  thoughts  and  prayers  of  such  as  were  devout, 
 and  for  the  filthy  inclinations  and  abominable  practices  of  such  as 
 affected  to  be  wicked. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  According  to  the  account  which  both  Festus  and  Servius  give 
 us  of  ancient  times,  the  heathens  sacrificed  to  the  celestial  gods 
 only  upon  altars:  to  the  terrestrial,  they  sacrificed  upon  the 
 earth;  and  to  the  infernal,  in  holes  digged  in  the  earth.  And 
 though  the  number  seven  was  much  observed  among  the 
 Hebrews,  even  by  God's  own  appointment,  Lev.  iv.  6,  yet  we 
 do  not  read  of  more  than  one  altar  built  by  the  patriarchs, 
 when  they  offered  their  sacrifices,  nor  were  any  more  than  one 
 allowed  by  Moses:  and  therefore,  we  may  well  suppose,  that 
 there  was  something  of  heathen  superstition  in  this  erection  of 
 seven  altars,  and  that  the  Moabites,  in  their  worship  of  the  sun, 
 who  is  here  drincipally  meant  by  Baal,  did  at  the  same  time 
 sacrifice  to  the  seven  planets.  This  was  originally  a  part  of  the 
 Egyptian  theology;  for  as  they  worshipped  at  this  time  the  lights 
 of  heaven,  so  they  first  imagined  the  seven  days  of  the  week  to  be 
 under  the  respective  influence  of  these  seven  luminaries.  Belus, 
 and  his  Egyptian  priests,  having  obtained  leave  to  settle  in 
 Babylon,  about  half  a  century  before  this  time,  might  teach  the 
 Chaldeans  their  astronomy,  and  so  introduce  this  Egyptian  notion 
 of  the  influence  of  the  seven  ruling  stars,  which  Balaam,  being 
 no  stranger  to  the  learning  of  the  age  and  country  he  lived  in, 
 might  pretend  to  Balak  to  proceed  upon  in  his  divinations  and 
 auguries. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary  in  locum,  and  Shuckford  s 
 Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12. 
 
 d  Num.  xxiii.  1.  •  Build  me  here  seven  altars,  and  prepare 
 me  here  seven  oxen  and  seven  rams.'  The  ancients  were  very 
 superstitious  about  certain  numbers,  supposing  that  God  delighted 
 in  odd  numbers. 
 
 Around  his  waxen  image  first  I  wind 
 
 Three  woollen  fillets,  of  three  colours  joined  ; 
 
 Thrice  bind  about  his  thrice  devoted  head, 
 
 Which  round  the  sacred  altar  thrice  is  led. 
 
 Unequal  numbers  please  the  gods.  En. 
 
 e  In  the  text  it  is  said,  that  Balak  and  Balaam  '  offered  on 
 every  altar  a  bullock  and  a  ram,'  Num.  xxiii.  2.  But  though  it 
 was  customary,  in  those  early  days,  for  kings  to  officiate  as  priests, 
 yet  it  is  rather  to  be  supposed,  that  Balak  only  presented  the 
 sacrifices,  and  that  Balaam  performed  the  office  of  sacrificing 
 them ;  but  then  it  may  be  made  a  question,  to  whom  the  sacri- 
 fices were  offered.  And  to  this  it  may  be  answered,  that  they 
 might  both  have  a  different  intention;  that  Baiak  might  suppli- 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 317 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 ox  and  a  ram  on  each  altar,  he  left  Balak  to  stand  by 
 the  sacrifices,  while  himself  withdrew  to  consult  the 
 Lord;  and  upon  his  return,  acquainted  the  king,  "  How 
 impossible  it  was  for  him  to  do  the  thing-  that  he  might 
 expect  from  him,  namely, the  cursing  of  a  people  who  were 
 so  signally  under  the  protection  of  heaven  ;  and  so  mag- 
 nifying their  prosperity  and  increase,  he  concludes  with 
 a  wish,  that  his  fate  might  be  theirs,  both  in  life  and 
 death." 
 
 Balak,  at  these  words,  expressed  no  small  surprise ; 
 but  still  not  discouraged,  he  hoped  that  the  change  of 
 the  place  might  possibly  produce  some  better  luck ;  and 
 therefore  taking  Balaam  to  the  top  of  Mount  Pisgah,  he 
 tried  whether  he  might  not  be  permitted  to  curse  them 
 from  thence.  But  all  in  vain.  The  same  number  of 
 altars  were  erected,  the  bullocks  and  rams  were  offered, 
 and  the  prophet  withdrew  to  consult  God,  as  before ; 
 but  still  he  returned  with  no  better  news  :  for  the  purport 
 of  his  declaration  was, "  That  God  was  fixed  and  immut- 
 able, in  his  favour  to  the  Israelites ;  that  he  would  not 
 suffer  any  bloody  designs,  or  any  frauds  or  enchant- 
 ments to  prevail  against  them,  but  would  finally  make 
 them  victorious  wherever  they  came." 
 
 This  was  so  great  a  mortification  to  Balak,  that  to 
 silence  Balaam,  he  forbade  him  either  to  curse  or  bless  ; 
 but  he  soon  changed  his  mind,  and  desired  him  to  make 
 a  further  trial  at  another  place.  Accordingly  another 
 place  was  made  choice  of.  Fresh  altars  were  raised, 
 and  fresh  sacrifices  offered ;  but  all  to  no  purpose  : 
 Balaam  perceiving  that  God  was  resolved  to  continue 
 blessing  Israel,  without  retiring,  as  aforetimes,  under  pre- 
 tence of  consulting  God,  at  the  first  cast  of  his  eye  upon 
 the  tents  of  the  Israelites,  brake  out  into  ejaculations  of 
 praise  ;  and  then,  in  proper  and  significant  metaphors, 
 foretold  their  extent,  fertility,  and  strength,  and  that 
 '  those  that  blessed  them,  should  be  blessed,  and  those 
 that  cursed  them,  should  be  cursed.' 
 
 By  this  time  Balak,  enraged  to  hear  Balaam,  whom  he 
 had  sent  for  to  curse  the  children  of  Israel,  thus  three 
 times  successively  bless  them,  could  no  longer  contain 
 himself,  but  smiting  his  hands  together,  he  bade  him 
 haste  and  be  gone,  since,  by  his  foolish  adherence  to 
 God'a  suggestions,  he  had  both  abused  him,  and  de- 
 frauded himself.   a  Balaam  had  recourse  to  his  old  excuse, 
 
 M.  8765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 of  not  daring  to  transcend  the  divine  commands  ;  but 
 being  willing  to  gratify  the  king,  and  in  compliance  to 
 his  covetous  temper,  to  gain  some  reward  to  himself, 
 he  offered  to  advertise  him  of  what  the  Israelites  would 
 do  to  his  people  in  subsequent  ages ;  but  still,  against 
 his  own  inclination,  he  bestowed  blessings  on  Israel, 
 and  prophesied,  '  That  a  star  *  should  conic  forth  from 
 Jacob,  and  a  rod  from  Israel;'  that  it  should  smite 
 the  chiefs  of  Moab,  and  destroy  the  children  of  Seth  : 
 that  Edom  should  fall  under  its  power ;  and  that  the 
 Anialekites  and  Kenites  should  be  extirpated  :  in  fine, 
 that  the  western  nations,  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
 should  vanquish  the  Assyrians,  destroy  the  Hebrews,  and 
 perish  themselves. 
 
 After  these  predictions,  as  if  vexed  at  his  own  disap- 
 pointment in  missing  the  reward  he  expected,  and  with 
 a  purpose  to  revenge  himself  on  the  Israelites,  as  the 
 occasion  of  it,  he  instructed  the  Moabitesand  Midianites 
 in  a  wicked  c  device  ;  which  was  to  send  their  daughters 
 
 rate  Baal,  while  Balaam  was  making  his  addresses  to  the  Lord, 
 though  with  such  superstitious  ceremonies,  as  it  is  likely,  were 
 used  liy  the  worshippers  of  Baal.  Or  why  may  not  we  suppose, 
 that  Balaam,  telling  Balak,  that  he  could  effect  nothing  without 
 the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  persuaded  him  to  join  with  him  at 
 that  time  in  his  worship,  that  they  might  more  powerfully  pre- 
 vail with  him  to  withdraw  his  presence  from  the  Israelites  ?  For 
 there  is  no  reason  to  imagine,  that  Balaam  would  go  to  inquire 
 of  the  Lord,  immediately  after  he  had  sacrificed  to  other  gods. 
 —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  Josephus  brings  in  Balaam  making  his  apology  for  himself, 
 in  order  to  pacify  Balak's  rage,  for  his  having  blessed  the  Israel- 
 ites, instead  of  cursing  them,  "And  does  king  Balak  think, 
 that  where  prophets  are  upon  the  subject  of  fatalities,  or  things  to 
 come,  they  are  left  to  their  own  liberty,  what  to  say,  and  what 
 not,  or  to  make  their  own  speeches  ?  We  are  only  the  passive 
 instruments  of  the  oracle.  The  words  are  put  in  our  mouths; 
 and  we  neither  think  nor  know  what  we  say.  I  remember  well, 
 says  he,  that  I  was  invited  hither  with  great  earnestness,  both  by 
 yourself  and  by  the  Midianites;  and  that  it  was  at  your  request 
 1  came,  and  with  a  desire  to  do  all  that  in  me  lay,  for  your  ser- 
 vice. But  what  am  I  able  to  do  against  the  will  and  power  of 
 God  ?     I  had  not  the  least  thought  of  speaking  one  good  word  oi 
 
 the  Israelites'  army,  or  of  the  blessings  which  God  hath  in  store 
 for  them;  but  since  God  has  decreed  to  make  them  great  and 
 happy,  I  have  been  forced  to  speak,  as  you  have  heard,  instead 
 of  what  I  had  otherwise  designed  to  say." — Jewish  Antiquities, 
 b.  4.  c.  C. 
 
 b  Num.  xxiv.  17.  '  There  shall  come  a  star  out  of  Jacob.' 
 This  prophecy  may  possibly  in  some  sense  relate  to  David,  but 
 without  doubt  it  belongs  principally  to  Christ.  Hire  the  meta- 
 phor of  a  sceptre  was  common  and  popular,  to  denote  a  ruler, 
 like  David:  but  the  star,  though,  like  the  other,  it  signified  in 
 prophetic  writings  a  temporal  prince  or  rider,  yet  had  a  secret 
 and  hidden  meaning  likewise.  A  star  in  the  Egyptian  hiero- 
 glyphics denoted  God.  Thus  God  in  the  prophet  Amos,  reprov- 
 ing the  Israelites  for  their  idolatry  on  their  first  Cuming  out  of 
 Egypt,  says,  '  have  ye  offered  unto  me  sacrifices  and  offerings  in 
 the  wilderness  forty  years,  O  house  of  Israel  ?  but  ye  have  borne 
 the  tabernacle  of  your  Moloch  and  Chiun,  your  images,  the  star 
 of  your  god  which  ye  mai'e  to  yourselves,'  Amos  v.  25,  2t>.  The 
 star  of  your  God  is  a  noble  figurative  expression  to  signify  the 
 image  of  your  god;  for  a  star  being  employed  in  the  hierogly- 
 phics to  signify  God,  it  is  used  here  with  great  elegance  to  signify 
 the  material  image  of  a  god:  the  words,  the  star  of  your  god, 
 being  only  a  repetition  of  the  preceding,  Chiun,  your  image;  and 
 not,  as  some  critics  suppose,  the  same  with  your  god  star.  Henco 
 we  ((include  that  the  metaphor  here  used  by  Balaam  of  a  star 
 was  of  that  abstruse,  mysterious  kind,  and  so  to  be  understood, 
 and  consequently  that  it  related  only  to  Christ,  the  eternal  Son 
 of  God."  (JVarhurton' s  Divine  Legation,  b.  iv.  sec.  4.)—  Bishop 
 Newton,  however,  is  of  opinion,  that  the  literal  meaning  oi  the 
 prophecy  respects  the  person  and  actions  of  David. —  DtSSt  rtatiuns 
 on  the  Prophecies,  vol.  1 .  p.  1 39. — Ed. 
 
 c Though  Moses  makes  no  mention  of  this  contrivance,  where 
 he  describes  the  interview  between  Balaam  and  Balak;  yet  in 
 the  .-i  I  st  chapter  of  Numbers,  ver.   16,  he   lays    the   whole  blame 
 
 upon  Balaam:  and  Josephus  accordingly  informs  us  that  after  he 
 had  gone  as  far  as  the  river  Euphrates,  In-  bethoughl  himself  of 
 this  project,  and  having  sent  for  Balak,  and  the  princes  of  Midian, 
 
 he  thus' addressed  himself  to  them.  "  To  the  end  that  kin-  Ba- 
 lak," says  he,  "  and  you  the  princes  of  Midian,  may  know  the 
 great  desire  I  have  to  please  you,  though,  in  seine  sort,  against 
 the  will  of  God;  I  have  thought  of  an  expedient,  that  may  perhaps 
 be  for  your  service.  Never  flatter  yourselves  that  the  Hebrews 
 are  to  be  destroyed  by  wars,  pestilence,  famine,  or  any  othi  r  of 
 ommon  calamities;  for  they  are  BO  secure  under  God's 
 special  providence,  thai  they  are  never  totally  to  be  extinguished 
 by  any  ef  these  depopulating  judgments:  but  if  any  small  and 
 temporary  advantage  against  them  will  give  you  any  satisfaction, 
 
 hearken  to  my  advice.      Send  into  their  camp  a  procession  ol  the 
 
 loveliest  virgins  you  can  pick  up;  and  to  improve  nature,  dress 
 them  up  with  all  the  omami  Mi  J  of  art,  and  give  them  thi  ir  li  -sens 
 hew  td  behave  themselves  upon  all  occasions  of  courtship  and 
 amour,  [ftheyoung  men  shall  make  love,  and  proceed  to  any 
 importunities,  let  them  threaten  immediately  to  be  gone,  unless 
 they  «iil  actually  renounce  their  country's  laws,  and  the  honour 
 
318 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE 
 
 [Book   IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37C5.  A.  C.  1G4C.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 into  the  camp  of  the  Israelites,  in  order  to  draw  them 
 first  into  lewdness,  and  then  into  idolatry,  the  sure  me- 
 thod to  deprive  them  of  the  assistance  of  that  God  who 
 protected  them.  This  artifice  succeeded  ;  (for  the  very 
 next  account  we  have  of  the  Israelites  is,  that  they  lay 
 encamped  at  Shittim,  where  many  of  them  a  were  deluded 
 by  these  strange  women,  not  only  to  commit  whoredom 
 with  them,  but  to  assist  at  their  sacrifices,  and  worship 
 their  gods,  even  *  Baal-peor,)  which  was  a  crime  so  detes- 
 table to  God,  that  he  punished  it  with  a  plague,  which,  in 
 a  short  time,  carried  off  c  about  2 1,000  of  the  offenders. 
 This,  however,  was  not  the  only  punishment  which  God 
 exacted  ;  for  he  commanded  Moses  d  to  erect  a  court  of 
 
 of  that  God  who  prescribed  them,  and  finally  engage  themselves 
 to  worship  after  the  manner  of  the  Midiam'tes  and  Moabites. 
 This,  says  he,  will  provoke  God,  and  draw  vengeance  upon  their 
 heads/' — Jewish  Antiquities,  ibid. 
 
 a  The  Jewish  doctors  tell  us,  that  on  a  great  festival,  which 
 the  Moabites  made  in  honour  of  their  god  Baal-peor,  some  Israel- 
 ites, who  happened  to  be  there,  casting  their  eyes  upon  their 
 young  women,  were  smitten  with  their  beauty,  and  courted  their 
 enjoyment ;  but  that  the  women  would  not  yield  to  their  motion, 
 upon  any  other  condition  than  that  they  would  worship  their  gods. 
 Whereupon  pulling  a  little  image  of  Peor  out  of  their  bosom,  they 
 presented  it  to  the  Israelites  to  kiss,  and  then  desired  them  to 
 cat  of  the  sacrifices,  which  had  been  offered  to  him.  But  Jose- 
 phus,  tells  the  story  otherwise,  namely,  that  the  women,  upon 
 some  pretence  or  other,  came  into  the  Israelitish  camp,  and  when 
 they  had  enamoured  the  young  Hebrews,  according  to  their  in- 
 structions, they  made  a  pretence  as  though  they  must  be  gone ; 
 but  upon  passionate  entreaties,  accompanied  with  vows  and  oaths 
 on  the  other  side,  the  subtle  enchantresses  consented  to  stay  with 
 them,  and  grant  every  thing  that  they  desired,  upon  condition 
 that  they  would  embrace  their  religion. — Patrick's  Commentary, 
 and  Jusephus,  ibid. 
 
 b  The  Jewish  doctors  are  generally  of  opinion,  that  this  Baal- 
 peor  was  the  same  with  Priapus,  the  idol  of  Turpitude ;  and  that 
 the  worship  of  him  consisted  in  such  obscene  practices,  or  postures 
 at  least,  as  were  not  fit  to  be  named.  Others  have  asserted  that 
 this  god  was  the  same  with  Saturn,  a  deity  adored  in  Arabia;  nor 
 is  it  unlikely,  that  the  adventure  related  of  Saturn,  and  his  cas- 
 tration by  his  own  son,  may  have  introduced  the  obscenities  that 
 are  practised  in  the  worship  of  this  idol.  But  others,  with  great 
 assurance  maintain,  that  Peor  was  the  same  with  Adonis,  whose 
 feasts  were  celebrated  in  the  manner  of  funerals,  but  the  people 
 who  observed  them  at  that  time,  committed  a  thousand  dissolute 
 actions,  particularly  when  they  were  told  that  Adonis,  whom  they 
 had  mourned  for  as  dead,  was  returned  to  life  again.  However 
 this  be,  it  is  xcry  probable  that  as  Peor  was  the  name  of  a  moun- 
 tain in  the  country  of  Moab,  the  temple  of  Baal  stood  upon  it, 
 and  thence  he  was  called  Baal-peor. — Calmct's  Commentaries  and 
 Dissertations;  Patrick's  Commentary;  and  Selden  De  Siis 
 Syriis. 
 
 c  St  Paul,  in  his  observation  upon  the  judgments  which  befell 
 the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness,  tells  us  expressly,  that  the  num- 
 ber of  those  who  were  cut  off  in  this  plague  was  no  more  than 
 2.'S,000,  (1  Cor.  x.  8.)  Whereas  Moses  makes  them  no  less  than 
 24,000.  But  this  difference  is  easily  reconciled,  if  we  do  but 
 consider,  that  in  the  24,000,  which  Moses  computes,  the  thou- 
 sand who  were  convicted  of  idolatry,  and  thereupon  were  slain 
 with  the  sword,  'in  the  day  of  the  plague,'  (Num.  xxv.  5,  IS,) 
 are  comprehended  ;  whereas  the  apostle  speaks  of  none  but  those 
 that  died  of  the  pestilence. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  According  to  our  translation,  the  command  which  God  gave 
 Moses,  runs  thus, — '  Take  all  the  heads  of  the  people,  and  hang 
 them  up  before  the  Lord,  against  the  sun,  that  the  fierce  anger  of 
 the  Lord  may  be  turned  away  from  Israel,'  (Num.  xxv.  4.)  But 
 unless  we  can  suppose  that  the  heads  of  each  tribe  were  guilty  of 
 this  lewdness  and  idolatry,  the  sentence  here  denounced  would 
 have  been  highly  unjust:  and  what  others  allege,  that  they  were 
 guilty  of  a  shameful  neglect  in  not  opposing  the  growing  mischief, 
 and  punishing  the  offenders;  this  might  be  very  probably  out  of 
 t!>.  ir  power,  since  even  Moses  himself,  very  frequently  found 
 then  too  headstrong  for  him.      It  was  somewhat  strange,  tin  re- 
 
 judicature  consisting  of  the  heads  of  all  the  families, 
 and  to  try  and  hang  all  that  had  been  guilty  of  this 
 whoredom  and  idolatry,  without  respect  to  friendship  or 
 kindred ;  which  was  accordingly  done,  and  about  1000 
 more  were  in  this  manner  put  to  death. 
 
 By  this  time,  the  greatest  part  of  the  people  being 
 come  a  little  to  themselves,  were  bewailing  their  folly 
 and  wickedness,  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  ;  when 
 they  were  surprised  with  «  an  instance  of  the  most  unpa- 
 ralleled boldness  in  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe  of 
 Simeon,  named  Zimri,  who,  in  the  sight  of  Moses,  and 
 the  whole  congregation,  had  brought  a  young  Midianitish 
 princess,  whose  name  was  Cozbi,  into  the  camp,  and 
 was  leading  her  into  his  tent.  Their  impudence,  how- 
 ever did  not  go  unpunished  ;  for  Phinehas,  the  son  of 
 Eleazar  the  high  priest,  fired  with  a  just  indignation  and 
 holy  zeal,  followed  them  into  the  tent,  with  a  javelin  in 
 his  hand,  where,  in  the  very  act  of  whoredom, /he  thrust 
 
 fore,  that  our  translators  should  take  the  passage  in  this  sense, 
 when  the  Samaritan  copy,  the  Jerusalem  Targum,  most  of  the 
 ancient  translations,  and  several  later  commentators  of  great  note, 
 have  made  the  word  otl.am,  that  is,  them,  not  to  refer  to  the 
 heads  of  the  people,  but  to  such  as  had  joined  themselves  to  Baal- 
 peor:  and  so  the  meaning  of  the  command  will  be,  that  the  heads 
 of  the  people  should  divide  themselves  into  several  courts  of  judg- 
 ment, and  examiue  who  had  committed  idolatry,  and,  after  con- 
 viction, cause  them  to  be  hanged,  that  is,  hanged  after  they  were 
 stoned:  for  among  the  Hebrews  none  were  hanged  alive,  but  in 
 the  cases  of  idolatry  or  blasphemy,  were  first  stoned,  and  then 
 hanged  up  against  the  sun,  that  is,  publicly  and  openly,  that  all 
 the  people  might  see,  and  fear  to  sin. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  When  the  Israelites,  at  the  instigation  of  the  strange  women 
 they  had  received  into  the  camp,  were  fallen  from  lust  into  idol- 
 atry, Moses,  according  to  Josephus,  perceiving  that  the  infection 
 began  to  spread,  called  the  people  together,  and,  in  a  general 
 discourse,  reminded  them  how  unworthy  a  thing  it  was,  and  how 
 great  a  scandal  to  the  memory  of  their  ancestors,  for  them  to 
 value  the  gratifying  of  their  lusts  and  appetites  above  the  rever- 
 ence they  owed  to  their  God,  and  their  religion ;  how  incongruous 
 a  thing,  for  men  that  had  been  virtuous  and  modest  in  the  desert, 
 to  lead  such  profligate  lives  in  a  good  country,  and  squander  away 
 that  in  luxury  which  they  had  honestly  acquired  in  the  time  of 
 their  distress ;  and  thereupon  he  admonished  them  to  repent  in 
 time,  and  to  show  themselves  brave  men,  not  in  the  violation  of 
 the  laws,  but  in  the  mastery  of  their  unruly  affections.  This  he 
 spoke  without  naming  any  one:  but  Zimri,  who  took  himself  to 
 be  pointed  at,  rose  up,  and  made  the  following  speech: — "  You 
 are  at  liberty,  Moses,"  says  he,  "  to  use  your  own  laws :  they  have 
 been  a  long  time  in  exercise,  and  custom  is  all  that  can  be  said  for 
 their  strength  or  credit.  Were  it  not  for  this,  you  would,  to  your 
 cost,  have  found  long  since,  that  the  Hebrews  are  not  to  be  im- 
 posed upon ;  and  I  myself  am  one  of  the  number,  that  never  will 
 truckle  to  your  tyrannical  oppression.  For  what  is  your  business 
 all  this  while,  but  under  a  bare  pretext,  and  talk  of  laws  and 
 God,  to  bar  us  not  only  from  the  exercise,  but  the  very  desire  of 
 liberty  ?  What  are  we  the  better  for  coming  out  of  Egypt,  if  it 
 be  only  in  exchange  for  a  more  grievous  bondage  under  Moses? 
 You  are  to  make  here  what  laws  you  please,  and  we  are  to  abide 
 the  penalties  of  them,  when  at  the  same  time,  it  is  you  only  that 
 deserve  to  be  punished  for  abolishing  such  customs  as  are  autho- 
 rized by  the  common  consent  of  nations,  and  setting  up  your  own 
 will  and  fancy  against  general  practice  and  reason.  For  my  own 
 part,  what  I  have  done,  I  take  to  be  well  done,  and  shall  make  no 
 difficulty  to  confess  and  justify  it.  I  have,  as  you  say,  married  a 
 strange  woman.  I  speak  thr»  with  the  liberty  of  an  honest  man  ; 
 and  I  care  not  who  knows  it.  I  never  meant  to  make  a  secret 
 of  it,  and  you  need  look  no  farther  for  an  informer.  I  do  ac- 
 knowledge too,  that  I  have  changed  my  way  of  worship,  and 
 reckon  it  very  reasonable  for  a  man  to  examine  all  things,  that 
 woidd  find  out  the  truth,  without  being  tied  up,  as  if  it  were  in  a 
 despotic  government,  to  the  opinion  and  humour  of  one  single 
 man." — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  4  c.  G. 
 
 /Upon  this  fact  the  Jews  found  what  they  call  the  judgment 
 
Sact.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT    &c. 
 
 319 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;   OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 them  both  through  the  body,  and  by  this  action,  not  only 
 obtained  an  high  commendation  from  God,  but  an  estab- 
 lishment likewise  of  a  the  Aaronical  priesthood  in  him, 
 and  his  posterity,  for  ever  after. 
 
 As  soon  as  this  disorder  was  quieted,  and  the  offenders 
 punished,  Moses  began  to  bethink  himself  of  revenging 
 the  indignity  which  the  Moabitesand  Midianites  had  put 
 upon  Israel ;  and  to  this  purpose  commanded  a  detach- 
 ment of  12,000  choice  men,  that  is,  b  1000  out  of  every 
 tribe  to  go  against  them  ;  among  whom  was  the  gallant  '' 
 
 of  zeal,  which  authorized  such  as  were  full  of  this  holy  fervour, 
 to  punish  any  violent  offenders,  those,  to  wit,  who  blasphemed 
 God,  or  profaned  the  temple,  &<•.,  in  the  presence  of  ten 
 men  of  Israel,  without  any  formal  process.  But  this  example 
 of  Piiinehas  countenances  no  such  practice;  nor  can  this 
 action,  done  upon  an  extraordinary  occasion,  by  a  person  in  a 
 public  authority,  moved  thereunto  by  a  strong  divine  impulse, 
 and  (what  is  a  circumstance  that  some  people  add)  in  a  common- 
 wealth not  perfectly  settled,  be  made  a  precedent  tor  private 
 men,  under  a  different  situation,  to  invade  the  office  of  a  magis- 
 trate, and  witli  an  enthusiastic  rage,  to  persecute  even  those  that 
 are  most  innocent;  as  we  plainly  find  it  happened  among  the 
 Jews,  when,  in  the  latter  times  of  their  government,  they  put 
 this  precedent  in  execution;  of  which  St  Stephen  whom  they 
 inhumanly  stoned,  and  St  Paul  whom  they  vowed  to  assassinate, 
 without  any  form  of  justice,  are  notorious  instances. — Patrick's 
 and  Le  Clcrc's  Commentaries. 
 
 a  This,  however,  is  to  be  understood  with  a  certain  limitation  ; 
 because  it  is  manifest,  that  after  some  successions  in  the  line  of 
 Phinehas,  the  priesthood  came,  for  a  while,  into  the  family  of  Eli, 
 who  was  descended  from  Ithamar,  the  youngest  son  of  Aaron. 
 The  reason  of  this  interruption  is  not  mentioned  in  Scripture ; 
 but  some  great  sin,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  provoked  God  to 
 set  aside  the  line  of  Eleazar  for  some  years,  till  Eli's  sons  like- 
 wise became  so  wicked,  that  the  priesthood  was  taken  from  them, 
 and  restored,  in  the  days  of  Solomon,  to  the  posterity  of  Phine- 
 has,  with  whom  it  continued  as  long  as  the  priesthood  lasted. 
 And  this  is  enough  to  verify  the  promise  of  an  everlasting  priest- 
 hood, since  the  words  everlasting,  perpetual,  and  the  like,  in  a 
 general  and  indefinite  sense,  denote  no  more  than  a  long  duration. 
 But  there  is  another  way  of  solving  this  difficulty:  God  had, 
 before  this  time,  limited  the  priesthood  to  Aaron  and  his  de- 
 scendants, and  to  them  it  was  to  be  '  an  everlasting  priesthood 
 throughout  their  generations,'  (Exod.xl.  15.);  upon  this  account 
 it  might  properly  enough  be  called,  as  limited  to  that  family, 
 '  the  everlasting  priesthood.'  So  that  God  does  not  here  promise 
 Phinehas,  and  his  seed  after  him,  an  everlasting  grant  of  the 
 priesthood,  as  some  commentators  take  it;  nor  a  grant  of  an 
 everlasting  priesthood,  as  our  English  version  renders  it,  but 
 rather  a  grant  of  the  everlasting  priesthood,  that  is,  of  the 
 priesthood  limit,  d  to  Aaron  and  his  descendants  by  that  appella- 
 tion.— Selden  de  Success,  Pontif.  b.  1.  c.  2.  Shuckford's  Con- 
 nection, vol.  3.  b.  12. 
 
 b  The  Scripture  gives  us  no  account  of  the  order  of  battle  be- 
 tween these  two  armies;  but,  in  all  probability,  they  were  dis- 
 posed according  to  the  metiu>d  of  the  ancient  people  of  Asia: 
 and  therefore  we  may  range  the  Israelites  upon  one  line,  formed 
 of  twelve  corps,  consisting  of  a  thousand  men  each,  at  the  head 
 of  which  was  the  '  ark  of  the  covenant,'  surrounded  by  the  priests 
 and  Levites,  whose  business  it  was  to  sound  the  charge,  as  well 
 as  defend  the  ark.  The  Midianites,  we  may  suppose,  were,  in 
 like  manner,  ranged  in  a  phalanx,  upon  one  line,  and  as  the 
 Israelites  were  doubtless  much  inferior  in  number  to  their  ene- 
 mies, they  made  much  larger  intervals  between  the  corps  of  a 
 thousand  men  each,  in  order  to  penetrate  the  enemy's  line  in 
 different  places.  This  was  the  constant  practice  of  the  Jews, 
 whenever  they  wore  inferior  in  number  to  their  enemies. — Cut- 
 tact's  Dictionury,  under  the  word  Midianites. 
 
 c  Whether  this  Phinehas  was  sent  to  command  the  troops 
 which  were  appointed  by  God  to  take  vengeance  on  the  Midian- 
 ites, or  whether  he  went  along  with  the  army  only  to  perform 
 such  sacred  offices  as  should  be  required  by  the  general,  who, 
 with  more  probability  perhaps,  is  thought  to  be  Joshua,  are 
 questions  arising  from  the  silence  of  Scripture  concerning  the 
 chief  commander.     Phinehas,  indeed,  was  a  man  of  great  com  age, 
 
 M.  37C'».  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 Phinehas,  who  took  with  him  the  ark,  and  what  wag 
 reposited  therein,  together  with  the  sacred  trumpets,  to 
 blow  in  the  time  of  action,  in  order  to  animate  the 
 men.  The  Jewish  army  was  but  small  in  comparison 
 with  the  vast  numbers  they  marched  against;  but  God, 
 who  put  them  upon  the  expedition,  blessed  them  with 
 such  success,  that   they  slew  five    kings,  and,  among 
 
 them,  the  wicked  prophet  Balaam;  put  every to  the 
 
 sword,  except  women  and  children  ;  and  returned  to 
 Moses  with  a  very  considerable  booty  ;  one  fiftieth  part 
 of  which  ho  ordered  to  be  given  to  the  priests,  another 
 fiftieth  to  the  Levites,  and  the  rest  to  be  divided  among 
 the  soldiery. 
 
 The    remembrance,    however,   of  what   damage   the 
 Midianitish  women  had  done,  by  alluring  the  Israeli;. 
 to  idolatry,  made  him  think  it  unsafe    to   spare   their 
 lives;  and  therefore,  he  ordered  all  those  that  had  ever 
 known  man,  as  well  as  all  the   ''  male  children  to   h  ■ 
 
 and  had  lately  performed  a  singular  piece  of  service,  which  had 
 gained  him  great  reputation,  and  from  hence  some  have  imagined 
 that  he  was  the  fitter  person  to  be  sent  with  an  army  '  to  avenge 
 the  Lord  of  Midian;'  as  it  is  certain,  that  in  after  agi 
 cabees,  who  were  of  the  family  of  the  priests,  wen-  ap] 
 chief  commanders.     But  then  it  must  be  considered,  that  the  a 
 Maccabees  were  the  supreme  governors  of  the  people,  and  as 
 such,  had  a  right  to  the  military  command;  that  in  the  war  with 
 the  Amorites,  Moses  had  sent  the  forces  under  Joshua1 
 duct :  anil  that  Phinehas,  ill  short,  had  another  prot  ince  appoint,  d 
 him,  which  was  to  take  care  of  the  holy  instruments:   but  what 
 these  instruments  were,  is  another  question.     Several  interpre- 
 ters are  of  opinion,  that  tluy  were  the  [Trim  and  Thummim 
 which  Phinehas  might  take  along  with  him,  in  order  to  I 
 God,  in  case  of  any  difficulty  that  might  arise  in  the  manage- 
 ment of  the  war;  and  to  countenance  this,  they  supp 
 Eleazar  was  superannuated,  and  his  son  substituted  in  his  room. 
 But  it  may  be  justly  doubted  whether  Phinehas,  being  the  only 
 son  of  the  high  priest,  and  not  yet  capable  of  that  office,  could  be 
 substituted  to  perform  this  great  charge,  which  belonged  to  the 
 high  priest  alone-,  nor  do  we  find  any  warrant  for  consulting  the 
 Lord  by  Urim  and  Thummim,  but  only  before  the  tabernacle. 
 It  seems,  therefore,  much  more  likely,  that  by  the  holy  Instru- 
 ments, Moses  means  the  ark  of   the   covenant,  and  what  was  in- 
 cluded in  it,  which,  in  the  following  ages,  was  went  to  be  carried 
 
 into  the  field,  when  the  people  went  to  fight  against  their  ene- 
 mies.   Nay,  Joshua  himself,  not  long  after  this,  ordered  the  ark 
 to  be  carried  with  priests  blowing  trumpets  before   it,  when  ho 
 surrounded  Jericho,  (Josh.  vi.  4,  &c) ;  and  therefore,  since  the 
 holy  instruments  are  here  joined  with  the  trumpets,  it  lot 
 probable  that  they  should  signify  the  ark.     Nor  can  we  ap] 
 that  Moses  ran  any  risk  in  venturing  the  ark  u]  on  this  ' 
 because  God  had  assured  his  people,  that  they  should  obtain  a 
 complete  victory  over  the  Midianites.  It  mu  I 
 ever,  that  the  ark  is  never  thus  expressed  in  any  other  part  of 
 Scripture;  and  therefore,  perhaps  the;  give  as  true  a  Bense  of  the 
 words  as  any,  who  make  the  holy  Instruments  and  trump 
 one  and  the  same  thing,  ami  the  latter  no  more  than  an  I  I 
 tion  of  the  former;  which  trumpets  the  priests  were  commanded 
 to  take  with  them,  that  they  might  sound  a  charge  when  the 
 
 engagement  began,  according  to  their  direct! Num.  a 
 
 and  as  the  prat  tice  was  in  futurt  .    2  Chron.  xiii.  I 
 
 d  Moses  ordered  the  male  children  to  be  -lain,  that  then  lb)  i  8 
 might  extirpate  the  whole  nation,  as  far  BS  lay  in  his  DOT 
 
 prevent  their  avenging  the  death  of  their  parents,  in  cm 
 were  suffered  to  live  to  man's  ,•  Late.     Tor  it  Is  no  hard  man.  r 
 to  conceive  how  dangerous  Buch  a  number  of  slaves,  conscious 
 
 that  they  were  born  \\<c.  and  had  lost  their  liberty  with  the  ma  - 
 
 sacre  of  their  parents,  might  have  proved  to  a  commonwealth, 
 every  where  Burrounded  with  enemies.  Why  be  was  bo  severe 
 !!„■  women,  we  need  not  wonder,  if  we  do  but  consider, 
 that  either  bj  prostituting  themselves  or  their  daughters,  they 
 had  been  the  chief  Instruments  of  drawing  the  Israelii 
 idolatry. — "  Though  no  illustrious  fame  is  got  bj  taking 
 I  on  a  woman,  and  Mich  a  victory  is  attended  with  i 
 
320 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1439;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  376S.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 immediately  despatched,  and  none  a  but  virgins  to  be  saved 
 alive  ;  and  yet,  what  shows  the  greatness  of  the  victory, 
 the  virgm  captives  amounted  to  32,000,  and  the  plunder 
 of  cattle  and  flocks  consisted  of  675,000  sheep,  72,000 
 oxen,  and  61,000  asses,  besides  a  great  quantity  of  rich 
 goods  and  ornaments  :  and,  what  makes  the  victory  still 
 more  miraculous,  not  6  one  man  on  the  Israelites'  side, 
 as  appears  from  the  report  of  the  officers  made  upon  the 
 muster,  was  lost  in  this  engagement. 
 
 The  officers  of  the  army  were  very  sensible,  that  in 
 saving  the  captive  women  alive,  they  had  transgressed 
 their  commission  ;  and  therefore  c  they  presented  a  great 
 quantity  of  jewels,  and  other  rich  spoils,  both  as  an 
 expiatory  offering  to  atone  for  their  offence,  and  for  a 
 gratulatory  offering,  in  acknowledgment  of  God's  good- 
 ness, in  giving  them  so  great  and  signal  a  victory. 
 
 The  Israelites,  by  this  time,  had  made  themselves 
 masters  of  the  country  that  lay  on  the  Midianitish  side 
 of  Jordan  ;  and  the  tribes  of  d  Reuben  and  Gad,  together 
 
 shall  I  be  praised  for  having  put  an  end  to  what  is  base,  and  in- 
 flicted deserved  punishment."' — Virg.  JEn.  b.  2.  v.  5S3,  &c. 
 Bibliotkeca  Biblica,  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  Num.  xxxi. 
 17. 
 
 a  The  Jews  have  a  tradition,  that  in  order  to  find  out  who 
 were  real  virgins,  the  young  women  were  placed  at  a  proper 
 distance  with  other  women,  and  all  commanded  to  fix  their  eyes 
 upon  the  high  priest's  mitre ;  whereupon  those  who  had  known 
 man  turned  instantly  as  pale  as  ashes,  and  those  that  had  not 
 became  as  red  as  fire.  But  there  seems  to  be  no  great  occasion 
 for  this  miracle,  when  either  the  appearance  of  an  unqualified 
 age,  or  the  examination  of  some  select  matrons,  might  determine 
 the  matter  as  well. —  Bibliotkeca  Biblica  on  Num.  xxxi.  18. 
 
 b  In  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  1st  book  of  Maccabees,  we  have 
 an  account  of  another  victory  of  the  like  nature,  when  Judas, 
 after  having  several  times  defeated  Timotheus,  the  heathen 
 general,  assaulted  the  city  of  Ephron  a  whole  day  and  a  night, 
 and  all  without  the  loss  of  a  man.  For  '  they  went  up  to  mount 
 Sion  with  joy  and  gladness,  where  they  offered  burnt-offerings, 
 because  not  one  of  them  was  slain,  until  they  had  returned  in 
 peace.'  And,  if  other  historians  may  be  credited,  the  like  has 
 happened  among  other  nations.  After  the  famous  and  bloody 
 battle  of  Leuctra,  the  Lacedemonians  and  Arcadians  had  a  \ery 
 sharp  engagement,  in  which  the  latter  lost  many  thousands  of 
 men,  and  the  former  not  one ;  and  in  a  sea  engagement,  between 
 the  Portuguese  and  the  Indians,  Osorius  Lusitanus  tells  us,  that 
 the  Portuguese  admiral,  Pacheco,  succeeded  so  well,  that  he 
 killed  above  1500  of  the  infidels,  without  the  loss  of  one  man. 
 {Be  Rebus  Emman,  b.  3.)  But  whether  this  had  any  thing 
 miraculous  in  it,  or  was  only  the  effect  of  God's  ordinary  provi- 
 dence, we  shall  not  pretend  to  determine. — Bibliotkeca  Biblica 
 on  Num.  xxi.  49. 
 
 c  The  Jerusalem  Targum  supposes,  that  when  these  officers 
 made  their  offerings,  they  addressed  themselves  to  Moses  in  the 
 following  manner.  '  Forasmuch  as  the  Lord  has  delivered  the 
 Midianites  into  our  hands,  and  we  have  subdued  the  country, 
 entered  into  their  chambers,  and  seen  their  fair  and  charming 
 daughters,  took  their  crowns  of  gold  from  off  their  heads,  their 
 rings  from  their  ears  and  fingers,  their  bracelets  from  their  arms, 
 and  their  jewels  from  their  necks  and  bosoms;  therefore  far  be 
 it  from  us  to  have  turned  our  eyes  towards  them.  We  had  no 
 manner  of  concern  or  conversation  with  them,  lest  we  should 
 thereby  die  thedeath  of  the  wicked  in  Gehenna.  And  let  this 
 lie  had  in  remembrance  on  our  behalf,  in  the  clay  of  the  great 
 judgment,  to  make  a  reconciliation  for  our  souls  before  the  Lord.' 
 
 </  In  the  division  of  the  country,  which  the  Israelites  took  from 
 Sihon  and  Og,  two  vanquished  kings  that  lived  on  the  east  side 
 of  Jordan,  and  whose  dominions  extended  from  the  river  Anion 
 even  as  far  as  mount  Ilermon,  (Deut.  iii.  S.)  Moses  gave  to 
 the  tribe  of  Reuben  the  southern,  or  rather  the  south-west  part  of 
 the  country,  so  that  they  were  bounded  to  the  south  with  the 
 river  Anion;  to  the  west  with  Jordan,  and  to  the  north  and  east 
 with  the  tribe  of  Gad.     In  this  tribe  stood  Heshbon,  the  capital 
 
 with  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  observing  that  the  coun- 
 try was  fertile,  and  stored  with  good  pasturage,  desired 
 of  Moses  that  they  might  be  permitted  to  settle  there,  as 
 a  place  very  commodious  for  them,  who  had  large  stocks 
 of  cattle  ;  which,  upon  condition  that  they  should  go  over 
 Jordan,  and  assist  their  brethren  in  the  conquest  of  the 
 land  of  Canaan,  Moses  consented  to.  And  as  they  were 
 now  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Canaan,  and  just  ready  to 
 enter  upon  the  possession  of  it,  he  took  this  opportunity 
 to  appoint  the  limits  of  what  they  were  to  conquer,  and 
 the  distribution  of  it  by  e  way  of  lot,  which  he  committed 
 to  the  management  of  Joshua  and  Eleazar,  at  the  head 
 of  the  chiefs  of  each  tribe. 
 
 Joshua  was  appointed  by  God  to  succeed  Moses  in 
 his  commission ;  and  therefore,  to  prevent  any  contest 
 after  his  death,  he  first  laid  his  own  hands  upon  him,  and 
 then  presented  him  to  Eleazar  the  high  priest,  who  in  a 
 solemn  form  of  admission,  and  in  the  presence  of  all  the 
 people  invested  him  with  the  office  of  being  the  leader 
 and  general  of  all  Israel,  after  Moses  had  given  him 
 several  directions  relating  to  his  office,  and  one  more 
 especially,  which  concerned  his  consulting  of  God  by 
 way  of  Urim  and  Thummim  upon  every  great  emergency. 
 In  the  division  of  the  country,  Moses  assigned  eight  and 
 forty  cities,  together  with  their  suburbs,  for  the  Levites 
 to  live  in,  and  withal  ordered,  that  six  of  these  should 
 be  made  cities  of  refuge,  whither  /  the  innocent  man- 
 
 city  of  the  kingdom  of  Sihon,  situate  on  the  hills  over  against 
 Jericho,  about  twenty  miles  distant  from  the  river  Jordan.  The 
 tribe  of  Gad  was  bounded  with  the  river  Jordan  to  the  west ; 
 with  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh  to  the  north;  with  the  Ammon- 
 ites to  the  east;  and  with  the  tribe  of  Reuben  to  the  south.  In 
 this  tribe  stood  Ashtaroth,  the  capital  city  of  the  kingdom  of  Og, 
 which  very  likely  obtained  its  name  from  an  idol,  which  was 
 much  worshipped  in  those  times  and  parts.  How  the  half  tribe 
 of  Manasseh  came  to  choose  to  stay  on  the  east  side  of  Jordan, 
 the  sacred  history  makes  no  mention ;  but  it  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
 pose that  after  they  found  that  the  tribes  of  Reuben  and  Gad  had 
 succeeded  in  their  petition,  they  likewise  might  represent  to  Moses 
 the  great  stock  of  cattle  which  they  had  ;  that  the  country  would  be 
 equally  commodious  for  them,  and  was  over  large  for  two  tribes 
 alone  to  occupy ;  nor  is  it  to  be  doubted,  but  that  Moses  was 
 inclinable  to  listen  to  their  allegation,  because  the  sons  of  Machir 
 the  son  of  Manasseh,  had  by  their  valour  subdued  a  great  part  of 
 the  country,  where  they  settled  ;  which  was  bounded  by  the  tribe  of 
 Gad  to  the  south ;  with  the  sea  of  Cinnereth,  afterwards  called 
 the  lake  of  Gennesareth,  or  the  sea  of  Galilee,  together  with  the 
 course  of  the  river  Jordan,  from  its  head  to  the  said  sea  to  the 
 west;  with  Mount  Lebanon,  or  more  peculiarly  Mount  Hermon, 
 to  the  north  and  north-west;  and  with  the  mountains  of  Gilead 
 to  the  east.  —  Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
 e  Nothing  could  more  prudently  be  contrived,  than  this  par- 
 tition of  the  country  by  lot,  and  making  Joshua  and  the  high 
 priest  superintendents  of  it ;  since  it  was  the  only  one  that  could 
 effectually  prevent  all  murmurings  and  quarrellings  among  such 
 an  obstinate  people  as  the  Jews  were.  However,  as  the  Jots 
 were  to  bear  a  proportion  to  the  bigness  of  each  tribe  and  family, 
 it  is  supposed  from  what  followed,  that  every  tribe  first  drew  its 
 lot  for  its  own  canton,  and  that  then  there  were  proper  persons 
 appointed  to  measure  out  a  quantity  of  land  for  each  family, 
 according  to  their  bigness ;  but  whether  this  last  was  done  by  this 
 or  any  other  method;  whether  the  subdivisions  between  the 
 families  were  likewise  carried  on  by  lot  or  otherwise,  sure  it  is. 
 that  we  read  of  no  broils  or  jealousies  that  it  ever  occasioned 
 among  them. —  Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 f  The  person,  who  without  any  premeditated  malice,  killed 
 his  neighbour  accidentally  had  the  best  provision  imaginable 
 made  for  his  escape.  For  the  ways  that  led  to  the  cities  of 
 refuge,  were  to  be  made  very  plain  and  broad,  and  kept  in  good 
 repair.     Two  students  of  the  law  were  to  accompany  him,  that 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 321 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  USD:  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A. 
 slayer,  who  had  killed  his  neighbour  by  chance,  might 
 betake  himself  and  live ;  though  at  the  same  time  he 
 made  all  proper  provision,  that  the  wilful  murderer 
 should  certainly  be  put  to  death  ;  but  in  this,  and  all 
 other  capital  cases,  he  made  it  a  law,  that  none  should 
 be  convicted  upon  the  evidence  of  one  single  person. 
 
 The  nearer  that  Moses  approached  his  death,  the  more 
 he  expressed  his  concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  people  ; 
 and  therefore,  on  the  first  day  of  the  eleventh  month, 
 which  answers  to  our  January,  and  in  the  fortieth  year 
 from  their  departure  out  of  Egypt,  being  then  encamped 
 on  the  plains  of  Moab  by  the  banks  of  the  river  Jordan, 
 he  called  them  all  together,  and  at  different  times  made 
 two  very  tender  and  pathetic  speeches,  wherein  he  briefly 
 related  to  them  all  that  had  befallen  their  fathers,  since 
 the  time  they  left  Egypt ;  the  gracious  dealings  of  God 
 with  them  ;  their  continual  murmurings  and  rebellions 
 against  him  ;  and  the  many  severe  judgments  that  had 
 followed  thereupon,  even  to  his  own  exclusion  from  the 
 promised  land.  He  gave  them  a  summary  of  all  the 
 laws  which  the  divine  goodness  had  calculated  for  their 
 happiness ;  and  having  repeated  the  decalogue  almost 
 word  for  word,  he  reminded  them  of  the  solemn  and 
 dreadful  manner  in  which  it  was  delivered  from  mount 
 Sinai,  and  of  the  manifold  obligations  they  lay  under 
 to  a  strict  observance  of  it.  He  encouraged  them  to  be 
 faithful  to  God,  by  assuring  them,  that  if  they  kept  his 
 commandments,  they  should  not  fail  of  having  innumer- 
 able blessings  heaped  upon  them,  and  by  threatening  them 
 with  all  manner  of  calamities,  if  so  be  they  departed 
 from  them.  He  renewed  the  covenant  which  their  fathers 
 had  made  with  God  at  Horeb  ;  commanded  them  to 
 proclaim  on  a  the  mountains  of  Gerizim  and  Hebal 
 beyond  Jordan,  blessings  to  those  that  observed,  and 
 curses  to  those  that  broke  this  covenant ;  and  to  erect 
 an  altar  there,  whereon  they  were  to  *  write,  in  a  legible 
 character,  the  terms  and  conditions  of  it. 
 
 if  the  avenger  of  blood  should  overtake  him  before  he  got  to  the 
 city,  they  might  endeavour  to  pacify  him  by  wise  persuasions; 
 and  that  he  might  not  miss  his  way  to  the  place,  whither  lie 
 intended  to  flee,  there  were  posts  erected,  where  two  or  three 
 ways  met,  with  the  word  Miklul,  that  is  the  city  of  refuge, 
 inscribed  on  them,  to  direct  him  into  the  right  road  that  led  to 
 it. — Patrick's  Commentary  on  Num.  xxxv.  13. 
 
 a  These  two  mountains  are  situate  in  the  tribe  of  Ephraim, 
 near  Shechem,  in  the  province  of  Samaria,  and  are  so  near  to  one 
 another,  that  nothing  but  a  valley  of  about  two  hundred  paces 
 wide  parts  them;  so  that  the  priests,  standing  and  pronouncing 
 the  blessings  and  curses,  that  were  to  attend  the  doers  or  violators 
 of  the  law,  in  a  very  loud  and  distinct  manner,  might  well 
 enough  be  heard  by  the  people  that  were  seated  on  the  sides  of 
 the  two  hills,  especially  if  the  priests  were  advanced  upon  pulpits, 
 as  Ezra  afterwards  was,  (Neh.  viii.  4.)  and  had  their  pulpits 
 placed  at  proper  distances. — Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentary 
 in  Deut.  xxvii. 
 
 b  In  this  twenty-seventh  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  the  Israel- 
 ites were  commanded  to  write  upon  certain  stones,  all  the  words 
 of  the  law  very  plainly,  ver.  8.  How  many  these  stones  were, 
 the  Scripture  makes  no  mention;  but  some  are  of  opinion,  that 
 they  were  twelve,  according  to  the  number  of  the  pillars  which 
 Moses  employed  (Exod.  xxiv.  4.)  when  he  made  the  covenant 
 between  God  and  his  people.  Knew  we  for  certainty  the  number 
 of  the  stones,  we  might  better  guess  what  part  of  the  law  it  was 
 which  Moses  ordered  to  be  engraven  upon  them,  since,  by  reason 
 of  this  uncertainty,  some  will  have  it  to  be  the  whole  Pentateuch  ; 
 others,  no  more  than  the  decalogue;  some,  that  summary  of  the 
 laws  which  is  contained  in  this  book  of  Deuteronomy  ;  and  others, 
 the  curses  which  follow  from  Deut.  xxvii.  15.  to  the  end  of 
 chap,  xxviii.  which  seems  to  be  more  likely,  because  they  con- 
 
 M.  3765.  A.  C.  1C4G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DKUT. 
 
 These,  and  several  other  directions  relating  to  their 
 future  conduct  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  Moses  not  only 
 delivered  to  the  people  by  word  of  mouth,  but  ordered 
 to  be  written  in  a  book  which  he  committed  to  the  care 
 and  custody  of  the  Levites,  who,  by  God's  appointment, 
 laid  it  up  on  the  side  of  the  ark,  there  to  remain  a  wit- 
 ness against  the  children  of  Israel,  in  case  they  should 
 rebel.  And  that  they  might  never  want  a  proper  fund  o  f 
 devotion,  he  composed  a  song,  or  poem,  which  he  not 
 only  repeated  to  the  people,  but  gave  orders  likewise 
 that  they  should  all  learn  it  by  heart :  for  therein  he  hail 
 expressed  in  a  very  elegant  manner,  the  many  benefits 
 and  favours  of  God  to  his  people  ;  their  ingratitude  and 
 forgetfulness  of  him  ;  the  punishments  wherewith  he  had 
 afflicted  them  ;  and  the  comminations  of  greater  judg- 
 ments, if  they  persisted  to  provoke  him  by  a  repetition 
 of  their  follies. 
 
 Such  was  the  care  and  concern  of  the  Jewish  lawgiver 
 for  the  welfare  of  the  people  after  he  was  gone  :  and 
 therefore,  perceiving  that  the  time  of  his  dissolution  was 
 now  at  hand,  he  called  them  together  ;  and  having  taken 
 a  solemn  farewell  of  them,  in  a  prophetic  blessing,  which 
 he  pronounced  upon  each  tribe,  as  Jacob  had  done  just 
 before  his  death,  he  went  e  up  to  the  top  of  Pisgah,  over 
 against  Jericho,  from  whence  he  might  take  a  full  view 
 of  the  country  which  God  had  promised  to  Abraham's 
 posterity.  For  though  he  was  an  hundred  and  twenty 
 years  old,  yet  his  natural  strength  and  vigour  was  not 
 impaired,  nor  had  his  eyesight  in  the  least  failed  him  ;  so 
 that  he  was  able  to  survey  the  beauteous  prospect,  which 
 the  delightful  town  and  plains  of  Jericho,  and  the  fair  ditTs 
 and  lofty  cedars  of  Lebanon  aflbrded  him ;  and  having 
 done  this,  he  resigned  his  soul  into  the  hands  of  seraphim, 
 who  were  waiting  to  convey  it  into  a  happier  Canaan 
 than  what  he  had  been  surveying;  and  to  prevent  the 
 danger  of  the  people's  idolizing  him  when  he  was  gone/* 
 
 tain  select  precepts,  and  the  last  of  them  seems  to  comprise  the 
 whole  law,  ver.  26.  and  Josh.  viii.  34.  But  however  we  under- 
 stand this,  it  is  certain,  that  before  the  use  of  paper  was  found 
 out,  the  ancients,  particularly  the  Phoenicians  and  Egyptians, 
 were  wont  to  write  their  minds  upon  stones,  as  several  authors 
 mentioned  by  Huetius  {Dcmonstrat.  Emu.  prop.  1.  chap.  2.)  do 
 abundantly  testify.  Nay,  he  observes,  that  this  custom  continued 
 lung  after  the  invention  of  paper,  especially  if  men  desired  that 
 any  thing  should  be  publicly  known  and  transmitted  down  (0 
 posterity. — Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12,  and  I'utrick't 
 Commentary. 
 
 c  The  mountains  of  Abarim  were  a  ridge  of  hills  between  the 
 two  rivers  Anion  and  Jordan.  One  part  of  these  mountains  wis 
 distinguished  by  the  name  of  Nebo,  as  it  appears  from  Deut  \xxii. 
 19;  and  comparing  this  with  Dent.  xx\n.  I.  we  shall  find  that 
 Nebo  and  Pisgah  were  one  and  the  same  mountain,  and  that  if 
 there  was  any  distinction  between  the  name-,  it  was  probably 
 this,  that  the  top  of  the  mountain  WM  more  peculiarly  calk. I 
 Pisgah,  because  it  comes  from  a  root  which  signifies  to  elevate,  or 
 raise  up,  and  so  may  very  properly  denote  the  top  or  tummU  ol 
 any  mountain.  Not  far  from  Nebo,  was  Beth-peer,  which  very 
 probably  was  so  called  from  Borne  deity  of  the  same  name,  that 
 was  worshipped  there.  But  of  all  these  mountains  it  must  he 
 observed,  that  though  they  arc  said  to  be  in  the  land  ol  Moab, 
 yet.  they  reallv  Stood   in  the  territories  nf  Sihon,  kfalg  of  the  Amo- 
 
 rites,  however  they  retained  their  old  names,  because  once  they 
 
 hell. lined   to  the   .\  I  oahi  tes. —  Num.  \\i.  SB. 
 
 ,/This  very  reason  we  have  m  Ft.  Levi  Ben  Gershom, 
 "  Future  generations,"  says  he,  "  might  perhaps  have  made  a 
 god  of  him,  because  of  the  fame  of  his  miracles;  for  do  we  not 
 see  how  some  of  the  [am  litem  erred  in  the  brazen  serpent  which 
 
 Moses  mad.'  ?      And  what  then  would  they  not   have  done,  had 
 they  but  known  where  his  remains  were  laid  ?"    For  this  n  u-  on, 
 
 Ss 
 
322 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I"V. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  U89;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 God  himself  took  care  to  bury  his  body  in  so  secret  a 
 manner,  in  the  land  of  Moab,  over  against  Beth-peor,  that 
 the  place  of  his  a  sepulchre  was  never  yet  discovered. 
 Thus  died  b  Moses,  the  e  illustrious  prophet  and  servant 
 
 very  likely  it  was,  that  how  much  soever  Moses  was  in  love  with 
 Canaan,  he  did  not  desire  to  be  carried  thither  to  be  buried  with 
 his  ancestors,  as  Joseph  did ;  because  his  interment  in  that 
 country  might  have  proved  of  dangerous  consequence,  if  in  their 
 distress,  especially  in  the  captivity  of  the  land,  the  children  of 
 Israel  should  have  run  to  his  sepulchre,  and  begged  of  him  to 
 pray  for  them,  whose  prayers  and  intercession,  in  their  behalf, 
 they  had  found  in  his  lifetime  so  \ery  prevalent. — Patrick's 
 Commentary  on  Deut.  xxxiv.  6. 
 
 a  But  notwithstanding  all  this  precaution  of  God,  the  Christians 
 boast,  that  they  have  discovered  the  sepulchre,  which  has  been 
 kept  secret  for  so  many  ages.  For  in  the  year  1655,  some  goats 
 that  were  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  flock,  went  to  feed  in  a 
 certain  place,  in  the  mountain  Nebo,  and  returned  from  thence 
 so  odoriferous  and  perfumed,  that  the  shepherds,  astonished  at  so 
 wonderful  a  prodigy,  ran  presently  to  consult  with  the  patriarch 
 of  the  Maronites,  who  sent  thither  two  monks  from  Mount  Leb- 
 anon, and  they  discovered  a  monument,  on  which  was  this  in- 
 scription, "  Moses,  the  servant  of  the  Lord."  But  there  is  too 
 much  reason  to  think  that  this  is  all  a  fiction,  on  purpose  to  raise 
 the  reputation  of  the  Maronites,  as  Basnage  in  his  history  and 
 religion  of  the  Jews  has  sufficiently  proved. — B.  4.  c.  17. 
 
 b  Nothing  can  be  plainer  from  the  text,  than  that  Moses  did 
 die,  and  was  really  buried ;  nay,  Josephus  tells  us,  that  the 
 Scripture  affirms  that  he  died  lest  people  should  think,  because  of 
 the  excellency  of  his  person,  that  he  was  still  alive,  and  with 
 God.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  this,  some  of  the  Jewish  doctors 
 do  positively  affirm,  that  he  was  translated  into  heaven,  where  he 
 stands  and  ministers  before  God :  and  of  those  who  admit  of  his 
 death,  and  that  his  soul  and  body  were  really  separated,  the 
 major  part  will  not  allow  that  he  died  a  common  death;  for  their 
 notion  is,  that  his  soul  departed  with  a  kiss,  because  he  is  said  to 
 die  al  pi,  at  the  mouth  (as  it  is  literally  in  the  Hebrew,  that  is, 
 according  to  the  word)  uf  God;  but  if  there  be  any  sense  in  the 
 expression,  it  must  be  that  he  parted  with  his  soul  with  great 
 cheerfulness  and  serenity  of  mind. — interns'  Miscel.  Sacra. 
 
 c  The  commendation  which  the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  gives 
 Moses,  is  conceived  in  these  words: — '  Moses  was  beloved  of 
 God  and  men,  and  his  memorial  is  blessed.  The  Lord  made  him 
 like  to  the  glorious  saints,  and  magnified  him  so,  that  his  enemies 
 stood  in  fear  of  him,  and  by  his  word  he  caused  the  wonders  to 
 cease,  and  he  made  him  glorious  in  the  sight  of  kings,  gave  him 
 ordinances  for  his  people,  and  showed  him  part  of  his  glory.  He 
 sanctified  him  in  his  faithfulness  and  meekness,  and  chose  him 
 out  of  all  men.  He  made  him  to  hear  his  voice,  and  brought 
 him  into  the  dark  cloud,  and  gave  him  commandments  before  his 
 face,  even  the  law  of  life  and  knowledge,  that  he  might  teach 
 Jacobins  covenant,  and  Israel  his  judgments,'  chap.  xlv.  1,  &c. 
 The  character  which  Josephus  gives  him  is  to  this  effect: — "  He 
 was  a  man  of  admirable  wisdom,  and  one  that  made  the  best  use 
 of  what  he  understood :  an  excellent  speaker,  and  no  man  better 
 skilled  in  moving  the  affections  of  the  people  than  himself;  and 
 so  great  a  master  of  his  passions,  that  he  lived  as  though  he  had 
 none,  or  as  if  he  only  knew  them  by  their  names,  or  by  observ- 
 ing them  in  otlicrs.  Never  was  there  a  greater  captain,  nor  a 
 prophet  equal  to  him;  for  all  his  words  were  oracles."  So  true 
 is  the  character  which  the  sacred  writer  has  given  of  him. 
 '  There  arose  not  a  prophet  since  in  Israel,  like  unto  Moses, 
 whom  the  Lord  knew  face  to  face,  in  all  the  signs,  and  the 
 wonders,  which  the  Lord  sent  him  to  do  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
 to  Pharaoh,  and  to  all  his  servants,  and  to  all  the  land,  and  in  all 
 that  mighty  hand,  and  in  all  that  great  terror  which  Moses 
 showed  in  the  sight  of  all  Israel,'  Deut.  xxxiv.  10,  &c.  "  Nor 
 was  he  less  famous  to  posterity  for  his  writings,  than  he  was  to 
 the  age  he  lived  in  for  his  actions."  For  besides  the  Pentateuch, 
 winch  is  all  of  his  own  composition,  except  the  conclusive  chapter, 
 (he  ancients  generally  thought,  that  he  was  author  of  the  book  of 
 Job,  and  of  eleven  psalms,  which  begin  at  the  90th,  and  end 
 with  the  100th;  as  thru?  were  once  other  books,  as  his  Lesser 
 Genesis,  the  Revelation  of  Moses,  the  Ascension  of  Moses,  the 
 Assumption  of  Moses,  and  the  mysterious  books  of  Moses,  cited 
 by  some  ancient  writers,  which  were  likewise  ascribed  to  him. 
 And  though  they  have  long  since  lost  their  authority,  and  been 
 
 of  God  ;  and  when  the  people  of  Israel  came  to  under- 
 stand that  he  was  dead,  with  great  solemnity,  they 
 lamented  for  him  for  the  space  of  thirty  days.  a 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Objections  Ansvjered  and  Difficulties 
 Explained. 
 
 Both  Philo  and  Josephus  are  of  opinion,  that  the 
 account  of  Moses'  death  and  burial,  of  the  mourning 
 which  the  Israelites  made  for  him,  and  of  the  character 
 which,  in  the  conclusion  of  Deuteronomy,  we  find  re- 
 corded of  him,  was  penned  by  Moses  himself,  in  conse- 
 quence of  the  prescience  which  God  was  pleased  to  com- 
 municate to  him  :  and  the  reason  '  which  Josephus  gives 
 for  his  thus  relating  the  circumstances  of  his  death  before- 
 hand, is,  that  the  people,  out  of  the  great  veneration 
 they  had  for  his  person,  might  not  imagine  that  he  was 
 translated. 
 
 But  suppose  this  account  to  have  been  written  after 
 the  death  of  Moses,  by  Joshua,  Eleazar,  or  the  seventy 
 elders,  or,  as  some  imagine,  much  later,  by  Samuel,  or 
 even  by  Ezra  himself,  who,  after  the  Babylonish  cap- 
 tivity, made  a  revisal  of  the  sacred  books  ;  suppose  it,  I 
 say,  to  have  been  written  by  any  other  hand  whatever, 
 yet  this  can  no  ways  affect  the  authority  of  the  rest  of 
 the  Pentateuch,  or  imply  that  Moses  was  not  the  writer 
 of  it,  unless  we  will  be  so  perverse  as  to  say,  that  the 
 addition  of  some  few  lines,  or  even  of  a  whole  page,  as 
 an  appendix  to  another  man's  book,  makes  the  book 
 no  longer  his. 
 
 There  is  another  opinion,  which  seems  very  conso- 
 nant both  to  reason,  and  matter  of  fact,  and  that  is,  that 
 the  last  of  the  books  of  Moses,  namely,  the  book  of 
 
 1  Jewish  History,  b.  4.  c.  7. 
 exploded  as  spurious ;  yet  are  they  still  an  argument  of  the  great- 
 ness of  his  name,  when  so  many  authors,  to  recommend  their 
 own  performances,  were  so  ambitious  to  assume  it." — Josephus' 
 Antiquities,  b.  4.  c.  8.,  and  Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word 
 Moses. 
 
 The  noblest  trait  of  his  moral  character,  was  his  patriotic  dis- 
 interestedness. He  twice  refused  the  tempting  offer  of  the 
 aggrandizement  of  his  own  family,  when  God  threatened  to  reject 
 the  Israelites  for  their  rebellions,  and  make  of  him  '  a  great 
 nation '  in  their  stead.  And  he  left  his  sons  without  rank  or 
 patrimony,  as  private  Levites,  to  subsist  on  the  national  bounty 
 in  common  with  their  brethren  !  And,  melancholy  to  relate,  his 
 grandson,  '  Jonathan  the  son  of  Gershom,'  and  his  family,  became 
 idolatrous  priests  to  the  Danites,  until  the  capture  of  the  ark  bv 
 the  Philistines,  Judges  xviii.  30;  where  the  Masorite  doctors 
 to  hide  the  disgrace  to  his  memory,  changed  '  Moses'  into  '  Man- 
 assus,'  by  interpolating  the  letter  N  in  the  present  copies  of  the 
 Hebrew  text.  The  posterity  of  his  son  Eliezer,  were  numerous 
 in  Solomon's  time,  and  some  of  them  high  in  office.  I  Chr. 
 xxiii.  14 — 17;  xxvi.  24,  25 — Hales'  Analysis,  vol.  2.  p.  25G,, 
 8vo  edition. — En. 
 
 d  It  was  usual  in  the  east  to  mourn  for  such  persons  as  weie 
 absent  from  home  when  they  died,  and  were  buried  at  a  distance 
 from  their  relations.  Irwin  relates,  [Travels,  p.  254,)  that  one 
 of  the  inhabitants  of  Ghinnah  being  murdered  in  the  desert,  gave 
 birth  to  a  mournful  procession  of  females,  which  pressed  through 
 the  different  streets,  and  uttered  dismal  cries  for  his  death.  Jos- 
 ephus expressly  declares  it  was  a  Jewish  custom,  and  says,  that 
 upon  the  taking  of  Jotapata  it  was  reported  that  he  (Josephus) 
 was  slain,  and  that  these  accounts  occasioned  very  great  mourn- 
 ing at  Jerusalem.  It  was  after  this  manner  that  the  Israelites 
 lamented  the  death  of  Moses.  He  was  absent  from  them  when 
 he  died,  neither  did  they  carry  him  to  the  grave,  but  they  wept 
 for  him  in  the  plains  of  Moab. — Harmer,  vol.  3.  p.  392. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 Deuteronomy,  ended  with  this  prophetic  blessing"  upon 
 the  twelve  tribes,  *  '  happy  art  thou,  O  Israel !  AVho  is 
 like  unto  thee,  O  people,  saved  by  the  Lord,'  &rc.  ?  and 
 that  what  makes  now  the  last  chapter  of  Deuteronomy, 
 was  formerly  the  first  of  Joshua,  but  thence  removed  and 
 adjoined  to  the  other  by  May  of  supplement. 
 
 Before  the  invention  of  sections,  and  other  divisions, 
 or  so  much  as  of  pauses,  and  points  of  distinction  ;  and 
 when  sometimes  several  books  were  connected  together 
 and  following  each  other  upon  the  same  roll,  as  the  an- 
 cient method  of  writing  was,  it  is  no  hard  matter  to 
 conceive,  how  easily  the  beginning  of  one  book  might 
 be  transferred  to  the  end  of  another,  and,  in  process  of 
 time,  make  that  to  be  reputed  the  conclusion  of  Deuter- 
 onomy, which  was  originally  intended  for  the  introduc- 
 tion to  the  book  of  Joshua.  And  if  this  be  the  case,  it  is 
 no  wonder  that  we  meet  with  several  passages  in  this 
 introduction  which  were  in  reality  wrote  by  a  later  hand 
 than  Moses.  But  then,  by  whomsoever,  or  at  what  time 
 soever,  these  passages  were  wrote,  whether  before  or 
 after  the  destruction  of  the  first  temple,  they  can  no  way 
 invalidate  the  authority  of  the  other  parts  of  the  book  of 
 Deuteronomy,  to  which  imprudently,  and  by  way  of 
 mistake  perhaps,  they  came  to  be  annexed  :  nor  can  the 
 canonicalness  of  these  very  passages  be  called  in  ques- 
 tion ;  since  it  is  agreed  on  all  hands,  that  they  Mere 
 written  by  a  person  of  a  prophetic  spirit,  and  had  in  all 
 ages  the  sanction  of  the  great  synagogue. 
 
 But  whoever  was  the  author  of  this  additional  chapter 
 in  Deuteronomy,  it  cannot  well  be  accounted  an  impos- 
 sible thing  for  God  to  show  Moses  the  compass  of  the 
 land  of  Canaan,  from  the  top  of  Mount  Nebo.  The 
 Jews  indeed  have  a  notion,  that  God  laid  before  him  a 
 map  of  the  whole  country,  and  showed  him  therein  how 
 every  part  of  it  was  situate  ;  where  each  valley  lay,  each 
 mountain  stood,  each  river  ran,  and  for  what  remarkable 
 product  each  place  was  renowned  :  but  if  this  had  been 
 all,  we  cannot  see  for  what  reason  Moses  was  ordered  to 
 go  upon  the  highest  part  of  the  mount,  since  in  the  lowest 
 plains  of  Moab,  he  might  have  given  him  a  demonstration 
 of  this  kind  every  whit  as  well. 
 
 It  was  for  some  purpose,  therefore,  that  the  sacred 
 historian  has  informed  us,  that  though  Moses  was  120 
 years  old,  '  yet  his  eyes  were  not  dim  :'  and  if  we  sup- 
 pose that  upon  this  occasion  God  strengthened  them 
 with  a  greater  vigour  than  ordinary,  to  enable  him  to  take 
 a  larger  prospect  of  the  country,  so  that  from  this  emin- 
 ence, he  might  see  Dan  and  Mount  Lebanon,  to  the 
 north  ;  the  lake  of  Sodom  and  the  city  of  Zoar  to  the 
 south  ;  the  Mediterranean  sea  to  the  west ;  and,  as  the 
 town  and  country  of  Jericho  were  just  at  hand,  he  might 
 easily  discern  the  land  of  Gilead  to  the  north-east.  This 
 indeed  may  be  a  compass  above  the  stretch  of  human 
 sight ;  but  if  God  was  pleased  to  assist  his  visive  facul- 
 ties a  little,  the  matter  might  easily  have  been  done  ;  and 
 accordingly  2  some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  have  been  wise 
 enough  in  putting  together  both  the  natural  clearness  of 
 Moses'  eyes,  and  the  additional  strength  which  God  at 
 this  time  vouchsafed  to  give  them:  "  For  God  showed 
 him,"  say  they,  "  the  whole  land  as  in  a  garden-plot ; 
 
 1  Deut.  xxxiii.  29.         *  Patrick's  Comment,  on  Deut.  xxxiv. 
 a  All  the  tribes  are  blessed,  except  the  tribe  of  Simeon,  and  his 
 is  included  in  what  is  said  concerning  Judah. 
 
 323 
 
 M.  3705.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 and  gave  his  eyes  such  power  of  contemplating  it,  from 
 the  beginning  to  the  end,  that  be  saw  hills  and  dales, 
 what  was  open  and  what  was  enclosed,  remote  or  nigh' 
 at  one  single  view  or  intuition." 
 
 The  Talmudists  have  a  very  odd  conceit,  that  the  great 
 sin  for  which  Moses  was  hindered  from  going  into  the  land 
 of  Canaan,  was,  because  he  called  the  people  of  God  J 
 rebels  ;  and  from  thence  they  have  formed  a  maxim,  that 
 "he  who  treats  the  church,  which  ought  to  be  honoured 
 with  contempt,  is,  as  if  he  blasphemed  the  name  «>f  (iod." 
 But  in  opposition  to  this,  it  should  be  considered,  that 
 Moses  on  this  occasion,  uses  the  very  same  language  that 
 God  himself  does,  when  he  bids  him  4  '  lay  up  the  rod  of 
 Aaron,  as  a  token  against  the  rebels ;'  and  that  if  this 
 was  the  thing  wherein  he  offended  God,  he  not  long  after 
 committed  the  same  thing,  which  he  would  hardly  have 
 done,  considering  already  that  it  had  cost  him  so  dear, 
 when  he  told  the  people  plainly,  s  '  Ye  have  been  rebel- 
 lious against  the  Lord,  ever  since  I  knew  you.1 
 
 Several  Christians,  as  well  as  Jewish  expositors,  think, 
 that  the  transgression  of  Moses  lay  in  smiting  the  rock, 
 when  his  instructions  only  were  to  speak  to  it ;  and  for 
 the  support  of  this,  they  allege  that  God  is  an  absolute 
 sovereign,  expecting  an  absolute  obedience,  and  exact- 
 ing punishment  even  of  his  gTeatest  favourites,  when  they 
 pretend  to  vary  from  his  commands,  or  to  mix  their  own 
 conceptions  with  his  directions  :  and  that  there  was  some 
 such  prevarication  in  the  conduct  of  Moses  and  Aaron, 
 seems  to  be  implied  in  God's  remonstrance,  which  imme- 
 diately follows;  6  '  because  ye  believe  me  not,'  or,  as 
 it  should  be  translated,  because  '  ye  were  not  faithful  to 
 me,  to'  (sanctify  and)  'glorify  me  in  the  eyes  of  the 
 children  of  Israel;  therefore  ye  shall  not  bring  this  con- 
 gregation into  the  land  which  I  have  given  them.' 
 
 It  is  granted,  indeed,  that  God  ordered  Moses  to  take 
 his  rod  with  him,  and  why  should  he  take  it,  unless  it 
 were  to  strike  the  rock,  as  he  had  done  before  ?     But 
 the  Israelites  perhaps  began  now  to  entertain  a  super- 
 stitious fancy  of  the  virtue  of  this  rod,  which  had  been  the 
 instrument  of  so  many  miracles  wrought  before  them  ;  and 
 therefore  God  was  minded  to  give  Moses  an  opportunity 
 of  convincing  them  of  their  folly,  by  making  it  appear, 
 that  neither  himself,  nor  Aaron,  nor  the  rod,  was  of  any 
 importance;  that  he  alone  was  the  worker  of  miracles, 
 which  he  was  able  at  any  time  to  do,  by  a  words  speak- 
 ing.    This  had  been  doing  justice  to  the  honour  of  (mil, 
 but  instead  of  this  Moses  spake  and  acted  '  unadvisedly. 
 that  is,  he  spake  and  acted  of  himself,  and  what  he  had 
 no  commission  to  do,  and  thereby  gave  the  Israelites  an 
 opportunity  to  imagine,  that  the  suppl]  of  water  might 
 come  from  him,  from  his  power  and  ability  to  procure 
 it      The   truth   is,  the  divine  writers,  who  have  touched 
 upon  this  history,  have  made  mention  of  two  defaults  in 
 Moses,  namely,  his  impatience  and  his  infidelity;  and 
 therefore  we  may  suppose,  that    (the  water  now  ceasing 
 at  the  time, 8  when  his  sister  Miriam  died)  he  was  exceed- 
 ingly troubled  on  both  these  accounts  ;  that  unexpectedly 
 assaulted   by  the    people,  who  ought  to   have  paid  him 
 more  reverence,  especially   in  a  time  of  mourning,  he 
 fell  into  a  greater  commotion  of  anger  and  indignation, 
 than  was  usual  in  him  ;  and  that  this  anger  gave  such  a 
 
 3  Num.  xx.  10. 
 *  Num.  xx.  12. 
 
 4  Num.  xvii.  10. 
 7  Ps.  cvi.  :tf. 
 
 5  Deut  ix.  24. 
 
 8   Num.  xx.  1. 
 
324 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 disturbance  to  his  mind,  and  so  disordered  his  thoughts, 
 that  when  God  bade  him  '  take  his  rod,  and  go,  and 
 speak  to  the  rock,'  he  fell  into  some  doubt,  whether  the 
 divine  goodness  would  grant  the  people  the  same  favour 
 he  had  done  before  ;  that  therefore  he  struck  the  rock 
 with  diffidence,  believing  it  improbable  that  such  worth- 
 less and  rebellious  wretches  should  deserve  a  miracle  ; 
 and  that  the  water  not  issuing  out  at  the  first  stroke,  his 
 diffidence  increased  into  unbelief,  and  a  settled  persua- 
 sion that  they  should  have  none  at  all. 
 
 There  is  one  conjecture  more  of  a  very  learned '  man, 
 which  I  shall  but  just  mention,  namely,  that  Moses  began 
 to  distrust  God's  promise  of  entering  into  the  land  of 
 Canaan  at  the  end  of  forty  years,  and  to  imagine,  that  if 
 he  brought  water  again  out  of  the  rock,  it  must  follow 
 them  as  long  as  the  other  had  done,  and  engage  them  again 
 in  the  like  wanderings  ;  and  therefore  the  comment  which 
 he  makes  upon  Moses'  words  is  this  : — "  What,  ye  rebels, 
 must  we  bring  water  out  of  the  rock,  as  we  did  at  Horeb  ? 
 Are  all  our  hopes  and  expectations  of  getting  out  of  the 
 wilderness  come  to  this  ?  We  never  fetched  water  out  of 
 the  rock  but  once,  and  that  was,  because  we  were  to  stay 
 a  long  time  in  the  wilderness  ;  and  must  Ave  begin  our 
 abode  here  again,  when  we  thought  we  had  attained  to 
 the  end  of  our  travels  ?  And  with  that  he  smote  the  rock 
 in  a  passion  twice  ;  whereas  God  had  commanded  him 
 only  to  speak  to  it.  But  whichsoever  of  these  conjectures 
 we  are  inclined  to  think  most  plausible,  there  are  few 
 writers  who  are  not  disposed  to  extenuate  the  fault  of 
 Moses,  as  not  deserving  so  severe  a  punishment,  had  not 
 God,  in  passing  the  sentence  of  exclusion  upon  him, 
 considered  the  eminence  and  dignity  of  a  person  in  his 
 station,  in  whom  a  transgression  of  any  kind  could  not  but 
 be  far  more  grievous  and  inexcusable,  than  in  an  ordi- 
 nary man. 
 
 For  this  reason  we  may  observe,  that  when  Moses  has 
 related  the  wickedness  and  punishment  of  Zimri,  he 
 takes  care  to  inform  us  2  of  his  family,  his  titles,  and  his 
 high  station  in  life.  He  was  the  prince  of  a  tribe,  the 
 head  of  thousands  in  Israel,  and  one  of  the  renowned 
 men  of  the  congregation.  In  this  capacity  he  had  a  right 
 to  be  an  assessor  with  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  the  other 
 rulers  in  the  government  of  the  people  ;  and  consequently 
 could  not  regularly  be  brought  under  the  sentence  of 
 those  judges  who  were  inferior  to  him.  This  he  knew  full 
 well ;  and  therefore,  in  defiance  of  the  laws,  and  in 
 contempt  of  all  authority,  3  while  '  the  children  of  Israel 
 were  weeping  before  the  door  ot  the  congregation  in  the 
 sight  of  Moses,  and  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people,  he 
 brought  a  Midianitish  woman  into  his  tent.  Moses  had 
 ordered  the  4  'judges  to  slay  every  one  his  men  that 
 were  joined  to  Baal-peor  ;'  but  we  hear  of  none  that 
 were  punished  for  this  wickedness,  except  this  Zimri, 
 and  those  that  afterwards  died  in  the  plague  :  the  trans- 
 gression was  become  too  universal  to  be  corrected  by  a 
 judiciary  proceeding,  and  the  example  of  so  leading  a 
 man  was  enough  to  bear  all  down  before  it,  and  make 
 the  infection  spread.  God  had  already  ordered,  that 
 the  persons  who  committed  this  great  offence  should  3  be 
 punished  in  a  very  exemplary  manner  :  in  regard  to  God, 
 
 1  Lightfoot's  Chronica  Temp.  s  Num.  xxv.  14. 
 
 3  Num.  xxv.  0'.  *  Num.  xxv.  5.  *  Num.  xxv.  4 
 
 M.  37G5.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 therefore,  Zimri  was  under  sentence  of  condemnation, 
 and  as  his  guilt  was  too  glaruig  and  notorious  to  need 
 conviction,  and  the  judges  were  found  timorous  and  re- 
 miss in  the  execution  of  their  office,  there  was  certainly 
 wanting,  on  this  important  occasion,  a  proper  person  to 
 supply  their  place. 
 
 Now,  that  the  act  of  Phinehas  in  slaying  Zimri  was  not 
 the  effect  of  zeal,  and  warm  resentment  only,  but  of  a 
 divine  impulse  and  instigation  so  to  do,  I  think  is  evident 
 from  the  testimony  of  God  himself,  when  he  declares  to 
 Moses,  '  that  Phinehas,'  by  the  death  of  Zimri,  6'  had 
 made  an  atonement  for  the  children  of  Israel.'  For 
 what  atonement  could  he  pretend  to  make,  unless  God 
 had  appointed  him  ?  7 '  No  man  taketh  this  honour  upon 
 himself,'  neither  can  any  one  perform  this  office  to  good 
 purpose,  '  but  he  that  is  called  of  God,  as  was  Aaron.' 
 And  therefore,  there  is  no  propriety  in  the  words,  unless 
 we  suppose  that  God  ordered  Phinehas  to  make  a  pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice  of  the  blood  of  the  offenders  ;  and  for 
 the  confirmation  of  this,  we  find  God  requiring  of  Moses 
 to  say  to  the  people,  8 '  Behold  I  give  unto  him  my 
 covenant  of  peace  ;'  or,  as  it  should  more  truly  be 
 rendered,  '  Behold  it  was  1  who  gave  unto  him  my  cove- 
 nant of  peace:'  the  intent  of  which  declaration  is  to 
 inform  the  congregation,  that  Phinehas  had  not  done  a 
 rash  action  out  of  his  own  mere  motion  and  warmness  of 
 heart,  but  that  he  had  the  immediate  direction  and  ap- 
 pointment of  God  for  what  he  did ;  that  God  had  made 
 a  previous  covenant  with  him  to  that  purpose  ;  and  given 
 him  positive  assurance,  that  upon  the  death  of  Zimri  and 
 Cosbi,  slain  by  his  hands,  the  wickedness  that  had 
 been  committed  in  the  camp  should  be  forgiven.  And 
 therefore  we  find  God  espousing  the  deed,  and  in  a  kind 
 of  exultation,  declaring  9  '  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eleazar. 
 the  son  of  Aaron,  the  priest,  in  being  thus  zealous  for 
 my  sake,  hath  turned  away  my  wrath  from  the  children 
 of  Israel.'  In  this  view  of  the  fact  all  is  clear  ;  nor  can 
 this  example  lay  any  foundation  for  a  dangerous  imita- 
 tion, because  it  will  in  no  Avise  prove  that  an  illegal 
 action,  though  proceeding  from  a  most  upright  heart, 
 zealously  affected  in  a  good  thing,  is  ever  to  be  justified, 
 unless  God,  by  an  express  and  well-attested  revelation 
 from  heaven,  declares  his  patronage  and  acceptance 
 of  it. a 
 
 The  Jews,  who  love  to  magnify  miracles  sometimes 
 beyond  their  proper  bounds,  have  a  current  tradition 
 that  the  clothes  grew  bigger  according  as  the  children 
 themselves  increased  in  bulk  and  stature  :  but  there  is 
 no  occasion  for  any  such  supposition  as  this ;  since  the 
 younger,  in  their  proper  degrees,  might  succeed  to  the 
 vestments  of  the  elder,  and  the  miracle  still  remain 
 wonderful  enough,  that  God  should  preserve  these  vest- 
 ments from  decaying,  or  their  feet,  by  so  long  travelling 
 in  hot  and  stony  places,  from  swelling,  or  being  callous, 
 as  some  translate  it,  for  the  space  of  forty  years.  Some, 
 indeed,  will  have  the  phrase  to  denote  that  their  feet 
 
 6  Num.  xxv.  13.  1  Heb.  v.  4. 
 
 9  Num.  xxv.  11. 
 
 8  Num.  xxv.  12. 
 
 a  It  may  be  remarked,  that  God  had  pronounced  sentence  of 
 death  against  all  who  had  ofi'ended,  or  should  offend,  as  Zimri 
 had  done,  (ver.  3,  5.) ;  and  that  Phinehas  in  slaying  him,  did 
 nothing  but  what  it  was  the  duty  of  any  man  to  do,  who  had 
 courage  to  undertake  it. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 325 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37C5   A.  C.  164G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT 
 
 But  how  well  soever  God  might  provide  for  the  Israel 
 ites  in  this,  and  all  other  instances  of  his  paternal  care, 
 
 were  not  sensible  of  any  uneasiness  or  fatigue,  through 
 the  whole  vast  length  of  their  journey  ;  but  this  construc- 
 tion is  plainly  repugnant 1  to  the  Scripture  account  we 
 have  of  their  travels  ;  and  therefore  the  easier  interpre- 
 tation will  be,  if,  by  way  of  nietonomy,  we  take  the  shoe 
 for  the  foot,  and  so  make  the  latter  agree  with  the  former 
 part  of  the  verse,  and  bring  the  whole  to  this  meaning, 
 namely,  "  that  as  their  clothes  which  covered  the  whole 
 body,  did  not  become  useless  through  age,  so  neither 
 did  their  shoes  decay,  or  burst,  or  grow  out  of  shape, 
 (for  in  all  these  senses  may  the  original  word  be  taken,) 
 though  they  were  engaged  in  so  tedious  a  march." 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the  Hebrews  wanted 
 neither  flocks  nor  herds  in  the  wilderness  ;  and  the 
 hangings,  and  other  works  belonging  to  the  tabernacle, 
 sufficiently  show  that  they  were  no  strangers  to  the  art 
 of  weaving.  But  supposing  they  did  not  manufacture 
 their  own  clothes,  they  might,  however,  purchase  them 
 from  the  Arabians,  and  other  neighbouring  nations,  and 
 could  therefore  be  under  no  want  of  a  sufficient  supply 
 of  this  kind  of  necessaries.  And,  from  these  considera- 
 tions, ?a  learned  commentator  concludes,  that  the  sense 
 of  the  words,  '  thy  raiment  waxed  not  old  upon  thee,' 
 must  be — That  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  the  Israelites 
 had  so  great  a  plenty  of  clothes,  and  so  many  changes 
 of  raiment,  that  they  were  under  no  more  necessity  to 
 wear  them  tattered,  or  threadbare,  than  if  they  had  lived 
 in  one  of  the  most  plentiful,  rich,  and  cloth-working 
 countries.  And  thy  feet  did  not  swell,  or  grow  callous, 
 as  poor  people's  feet  are  wont  to  do,  when  the  soles  of 
 their  shoes  are  worn  out,  and  they  forced  to  tread  upon 
 the  hard  ground  ;  for  so  it  is  explained  in  another  place, 
 3  '  thy  shoe  did  not  wax  old  upon  thy  foot,'  that  is,  thy 
 poverty  did  not  oblige  thee  to  wear  thy  shoes  (as  poor 
 people  do)  until  they  were  old,  and  grown  so  very  thin, 
 that  in  hard  and  stony  ways  they  hurt  thy  feet,  and  made 
 them  swell.  Poverty,  we  know,  necessarily  occasions  a 
 meanness  of  apparel ;  but  men  of  large  fortunes  have  a 
 variety  of  suits,  and  commonly  cast  their  clothes  ofl* 
 before  they  are  too  far  worn :  and,  in  like  manner,  the 
 historian's  design  is,  in  this  instance  of  raiment,  to  sig- 
 nify to  us,  that  the  Israelites,  while  they  abode  in  a 
 barren  wilderness,  lived  like  men  of  affluence  ;  *  '  for 
 the  Lord  their  God  was  with  them,'  as  he  tells  us  else- 
 where, 'and  they  lacked  nothing.' a 
 
 '  See  Deut.  viii.  4.,  and  xxix.  5. 
 *  Le  Clerc's  Comment,  in  Deut.  viii.  4.  '  Dent.  xxix.  5. 
 4  Deut.  ii.  7. 
 a  The  common  opinion,  that  the  raiment  and  shoes  of  the 
 Israelites  wore  not,  is  certainly  absurd.  That  they  had  carvers, 
 engravers,  silversmiths,  and  jewellers  among  them,  plainly  ap- 
 pears from  the  account  we  have  of  the  tabernacle  and  its  utensils ; 
 and  that  they  knew  how  to  spin  and  weave,  is  evident  from  Exod. 
 xxxv.  25,  26.  The  meaning  therefore  is,  that  God  provided 
 them  with  all  sufficient  clothing.  On  any  other  supposition  lie 
 would  require,  not  one  miracle,  but  a  chain  of  the  most  astonish- 
 ing miracles  ever  wrought  to  account  for  the  thing;  for  as  there 
 were  not  less  than  600,000  males  born  in  the  wilderness,  it  would 
 imply  that  the  clothes  of  the  infant  grew  up  with  the  increase  of 
 his  body  to  manhood,  which  would  require  a  miracle  to  be  con- 
 tinually wrought  on  every  thread,  and  on  every  particle  of  matter 
 of  which  that  thread  was  composed.  And  this  is  not  all:  it 
 would  imply  that  the  clothes  of  the  parent  became  miraculously 
 lessened  to  fit  the  body  of  the  child,  with  whose  growth  they  were 
 again  to  stretch  and  grow,  &c.  No  such  miraculous  Interference 
 was  necessary. — Ed. 
 
 yet  we  cannot  think  with  some  predestinarians,  that,  like 
 an  over-fond  parent,  he  was  blind  to  their  faults.  The 
 word  area,  which  we  translate  iniquity,  and  the  word 
 amal,  which  we  render  perverseness,  do  both  ver\  fre- 
 quently signify  in  Scripture  the  highest  kind  of  wicked- 
 ness,  that  is,  idolatry;  and  so  the  reason  which  Balaam 
 assigns  why  God  had  blessed  the  Israelites,  and  would 
 not  curse  them,  is,  that  they  had  not  as  yet  incurred  the 
 sin  of  idolatry.  *  Some  private  men  might  perhaps  be 
 guilty  of  it,  but  it  was  not  yet  become  national  and  epi- 
 demical ;  nor  were  there  any  hopes  that  God  would  ever 
 deliver  them  into  the  power  of  their  enemies,  unless, 
 some  way  or  other,  they  should  be  seduced  into  that 
 sin  ;  and  therefore  Balaam  advised  the  prince  of  Moab, 
 by  the  allurements  of  some  beautiful  women,  to  entice 
 them  into  it,  as  the  likeliest  way  to  deprive  them  of  the 
 divine  protection. 
 
 Others  take  the  words  in  a  common  sense,  to  denote 
 sin,  or  wickedness  in  general;  but  then,  by  the  words 
 see,  or  behold,  they  understand  such  an  observation  of 
 this  wickedness  as  marks  it  out  for  punishment.  Ac- 
 cording to  this  observation,  they  make  the  meaning  of 
 the  phrase  to  be,  that  "  though  the  Israelites  were  con- 
 fessedly guilty  of  many  great  crimes,  yet  since  they 
 were  not  universally  so,  God  would  have  more  regard  to 
 his  own  promises  than  to  the  sins  of  some  particulars ; 
 because  he  is  a  God  of  perfect  veracity,  and  the  unbelief 
 and  impiety  of  ill  men  shall  not  have  force  enough  with 
 him  to  recall  and  annul  his  promises  to  the  good." 
 
 There  is  another  signification  of  the  word,  which  we 
 render  behold,  and  that  is,  '  to  look  upon  with  pleasure 
 and  approbation  :'  and  5  therefore,  as  the  particle  belli 
 does  frequently  signify  against,  as  well  as  in,  and  '  so 
 occurs  in  several  parts  of  Scripture,  the  sense  of  the 
 words  will  naturally  run  thus,  "  God  does  not  approve 
 of  any  wicked  designs  or  practices  against  Jacob  ;"  for 
 the  words  which  we  render  iniquity  and  perverteneu, 
 do  equally  signify  outrage  or  oppression,  deceit,  or 
 machinations  of  any  kind,  which  God  declares  he  would 
 not  suffer  to  be  attempted  against  his  people.  And 
 therefore  Balaam,  upon  a  review  of  the  many  blei 
 and  deliverances  which  God  had  vouchsafed  them,  breaks 
 out  into  this  reflection,  and  therewith  concludes  his  pro- 
 
 4  An  Essay  towards  a  New  Version  of  tin'  Scripture, 
 "See  Exod.  xiv.  25 — xx.  16;  Num.  xii.  1 — uiii.  23,  <t  alibi. 
 
 b  Boothroyd,   following  the  Samaritan   and    Syriae    versions, 
 translates  the  verses  here  referred  to  (Num.  xxiii.  80,  B 1  0  thus: — 
 Behold  !  1  have  received  a  command  to  blesa ; 
 For  God  hath  blessed,  and  1  cannot  revoke  it. 
 I  behold  no  trouble  in  Jacob, 
 
 Nor  do  I  see  distress  in  Israel. 
 
 Jehovah  their  God  Ii  witb  them. 
 
 And  to  liim  they  ibout  as  their  kinir. 
 This    preserves   the  order  of  the  narrative  ;  and   the   two  latter 
 lines  contain  the  reason   of   their  happy  circumstances      The 
 common  version  is  at  variance  » ith  the  «  hole  narrative  oi  Moses. 
 
 How    frequently    are    WS    told    of  their    iniquities    and    pn.r-e- 
 ness.      (Boothroyd  on   the  passage.)      The  TsrgUm  of  OnkeloS, 
 
 however,  supports  die  vis*  given  in  tin'  text,  and  paraphrases 
 
 the   verse   thus: — "  1  see    thai   there  are  none  who  worship  idols 
 in  the  DOUSe  of"  Jacob,  (and  there  appears  to   have  Keen  i  ■ 
 
 that  period,)  nor  any  ttrvants  of  trouble  or  i  anity,"  n  idols  wers 
 
 called  in  Israel. — See  also  Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Taylor  t 
 Hebrew  Concordance. — Ei>. 
 
326 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 photic  speech  :  1 '  Behold,  the  people  shall  rise  up  as  a 
 great  lion,  and  lift  up  himself  as  a  young  lion ;  he  shall 
 not  lie  down  until  he  eat  of  the  prey,  and  drink  of  the 
 blood.' 
 
 Thus,  in  what  sense  soever  we  take  the  words,  whether 
 as  relating  to  idolatry,  of  which  the  Israelites,  in  the 
 main,  were  not  at  that  time  guilty  ;  or  to  wickedness  in 
 general,  which  God's  promises  to  the  forefathers  re- 
 strained him  from  punishing-,  though  they  might  be 
 guilty ;  or  to  the  evil  designs  and  practices  against  his 
 people,  which  his  justice  and  goodness  both  obliged 
 him  to  disapprove  ;  we  shall  have  no  reason  to  accuse 
 him  of  a  blind  partiality  towards  them,  but  much,  very 
 much,  to  cry  out  with  the  inspired  writers,  a  '  Righteous 
 art  thou,  0  Lord,  and  true  is  thy  judgment ;  3  with  the 
 holy,  thou  shalt  be  holy  ;  and  with  the  upright  man  thou 
 shalt  be  perfect;  for  the  Lord  knoweth  who  are  his,  and' 
 can  rightly  distinguish '  between  those  that  serve  him,  and 
 those  that  serve  him  not.' 
 
 Of  the  number  of  those  who  served  not  God,  Balaam 
 was  certainly  one  ;  and  yet  we  have  reason  to  presume, 
 that  he  nevertheless  was  a  real  prophet.  The  Jews, 
 indeed,  are  generally  of  opinion,  that  he  was  a  busy  and 
 pretending  astrologer,  who,  observing  when  men  were 
 under  a  bad  aspect  of  the  stars,  pronounced  a  curse  upon 
 them  ;  which  sometimes  coming  to  pass,  gained  him,  in 
 some  neighbouring  nations,  a  reputation  in  his  way. 
 Several  of  the  ancient  fathers  suppose  him  to  be  no  more 
 than  a  common  soothsayer,  for  so  he  4  is  called,  who 
 undertook  to  foretell  future  events,  and  discover  secrets, 
 &c,  but  by  no  good  and  justifiable  arts.  Origen  will 
 needs  have  it,  that  he  was  no  prophet,  but  only  one  of 
 the  devil's  sorcerers :  and  that  of  him  he  went  to  inquire ; 
 but  God  was  pleased  to  prevent  him,  and  a  to  put  what 
 answers  he  pleased  into  his  mouth.  It  cannot  be  denied, 
 however,  but  that  s  the  Scripture  expressly  calls  him  a 
 prophet ;  and  therefore  some  later  writers  have  imagined, 
 that  he  had  been  once  a  good  man,  and  a  true  prophet, 
 till  loving  the  wages  of  iniquity,  and  prostituting  the 
 honour  of  his  office  to  covetousness,  he  apostatized  from 
 God,  and  betaking  himself  to  idolatrous  practices,  fell 
 under  the  delusion  of  the  devil,  of  whom  he  learnt  all 
 his  magical  enchantments  ;  though  at  this  juncture,  when 
 the  preservation  of  his  people  was  concerned,  it  might 
 consist  with  God's  wisdom  to  appear  to  him,  and  vouch- 
 safe his  revelations. 
 
 Balaam  indeed  was  a  man  of  no  great  probity,  and 
 might  by  profession  be  a  diviner ;  but  by  the  free  access 
 he  had  to  God,  it  seems  to  be  apparent,  that  he  was  no 
 common  sorcerer,  or  prophet  of  the  devil :  for  did  ever 
 any  sorcerer  address  his  prayers  to  the  supreme  God, 
 and  receive  answers  and  instructions  from  him  ?  Did  ever 
 
 1  Num.  xxiii.  24.  •  Vs.  cxix.  137.  3  Ps.  xviii.  25. 
 
 4  Num.  xxii.  5.  and  Josh.  xiii.  22.  s  2  Pet.  ii.  16. 
 
 a  To  this  purpose  Philo,  in  his  life  of  Moses,  brings  in  an 
 angel  discoursing  with  Balaam  to  this  effect.  "  It  will  be  in 
 vain  for  you  to  contend ;  lor  I,  without  your  privity  or  know- 
 ledge, will  guide  the  organs  of  your  mouth,  and  make  you  speak 
 what  upon  this  occasion  is  fit  and  proper.  I  will  direct  your 
 speech,  and  cause  you  to  utter  prophecies,  though  you  know 
 nothing  of  the  matter."  Several  passages  to  the  same  purpose, 
 are  likewise  to  be  found  in  Josephus,  (Antiquities,  b.  4.  c.  7.) 
 though  there  is  no  foundation  for  them  in  what  Moses  tells  us 
 concerning  these  adventures  of  Balaam. 
 
 any  sorcerer  prescribe  a  law  to  himself,  to  say  nothing 
 less  or  more  than  what  the  Spirit  of  God  should  dictate  ? 
 The  Spirit  of  God,  when  did  it  ever  come  upon  an 
 enchanter  ?  Or  was  it  ever  known,  that  an  oracle,  upon 
 a  remote  event,  and  what  God  alone  was  capable  of 
 revealing,  should  be  declared  by  a  mere  magician  ? 
 
 When  God  was  pleased  to  give  answers  to  his  inqui- 
 ries, to  make  his  angel  appear  to  him,  and  to  put  the 
 word  of  prophecy  in  his  mouth,  on  all  these  occasions, 
 we  find  him  expressing  no  surprise  at  all,  as  if  he  had 
 been  perfectly  well  acquainted  with  these  several  ways 
 of  divine  communication  ;  and  therefore,  bad  as  he  was, 
 and  a  slave  to  his  passions,  he  must  nevertheless  be 
 deemed  a  true  prophet  of  God.  The  tinly  suspicious 
 passage  in  his  conduct,  is  his  having  recourse  to  enchant- 
 ments ;  for  6  '  what  concord  hath  God  with  Belial  ?'  Or 
 what  service  could  he  possibly  promise  himself  by 
 making  use  of  these  ?  But  to  this  it  may  be  replied, 
 that  7  the  arts  of  magicians,  and  their  incantations  to 
 procure  oracles  and  prodigies,  were,  by  the  greatest 
 philosophers  of  those  times,  held  in  great  veneration, 
 and  by  them  reputed  to  be  true.  Though  therefore  this 
 Balaam  was  really  a  prophet,  yet  as  a  man  of  learning, 
 he  might  not  be  a  stranger  to  the  theory  of  what  human 
 science,  and  the  then  reputed  natural  knowledge  had 
 advanced  upon  these  subjects  :  and  as  Saul,  though  he 
 had  before  8  '  put  away  those  that  had  familiar  spirits, 
 and  the  wizards  out  of  the  land  ;'  was  yet  induced, '  when 
 the  Lord  answered  him  not,  neither  by  dreams,  nor  by 
 Urim,  nor  by  prophets,  to  go  to  a  woman  that  had  a 
 familiar  spirit,  and  inquire  of  her  ;'  so  Balaam  finding 
 nothing  but  a  full  disappouitment  in  all  his  views,  in  the 
 several  revelations  which  God  was  pleased  to  make  to 
 him,  and  being  warmly  inclined  to  purchase,  if  he  might 
 with  any  colour  be  able  to  do  it,  the  advancement  which 
 Balak  had  offered  him,  was  tempted  to  try  what  might  be 
 the  event,  if  he  used  some  of  the  arts  which  most  learned 
 nations  held  in  the  highest  repute,  and  esteemed  to  be 
 of  the  greatest  efficacy.  He  tried,  but  '  found  3  no 
 enchantment  against  Jacob,  nor  any  divination  against 
 Israel.' 
 
 To  enter  therefore  into  the  character  of  this  true  pro- 
 phet and  enchanter  both,  we  must  observe,  1st,  That 
 before  the  giving  of  the  law,  and  the  conquest  of  the 
 promised  land,  there  were  other  *  true  worshippers  of 
 God,  besides  the  descendants  of  Abraham,  dispersed 
 over  the  face  of  the  earth.  2dly,  That  this  worship  of  God 
 c  was  frequently  mixed  with  such  superstition  and  idol- 
 atry, even  among  them  who  professed  to  adore  that  one 
 God  of  heaven  and  earth.  3dly,  That  this  odious  mixture 
 did  not  hinder  God  d  from  revealing  himself  to  those 
 who  practised  such  a  monstrous  and  motley  religion. 
 4thly,  That  supernatural  gifts  in  general,  and  those  of 
 prophecy   in   particular,   though   they  enlightened  the 
 
 6  2  Cor.  vi.  15.         7  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12 
 8  1  Sam.  xxviii.  3,  &c.  9  Num.  xxiii.  23. 
 
 b  Thus  Job  and  his  friends  dwelt  in  Arabia;  Jethro  and  his 
 posterity  in  the  country  of  Midian ;  and  Abraham's  abode  in 
 Mesopotamia,  where  Balaam  lived,  might  leave  behind  him  some 
 proselytes  to  the  true  religion. 
 
 c  The  Teraphim  of  Laban  proves  this. 
 
 d  Abimelech  and  Nebuchadnezzar  are  instances  of  this,  Gen. 
 xxvi.  and  Dan.  ii.  1. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c.  327 
 
 A.  M.251!>.  A.  C.  1-189;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  37G5.  A.  C.  1G1C.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THK  END  OF  DBUT. 
 
 minds  of  the  prophets,  yet,  *  many  times,  did  not  sanctify 
 their  hearts  and  affections.  And,  5thly,  That  the  greatest 
 weakness  or  wickedness  of  prophets  never  went  so  far, 
 as  to  make  them  pronounce  oracles  contrary  to  what 
 was  dictated  to  them  by  the  Spirit  of  God :  '  '  If  Balak 
 would  give  me  his  house  full  of  silver  and  gold,  I  cannot 
 go  beyond  the  word  of  the  Lord,  to  do  either  good  or 
 bad  of  my  own  mind,  but  what  the  Lord  saith  that  must 
 I  speak.' 
 
 It  is  not  to  be  questioned,  therefore,  but  that  Balaam 
 was  conscious  of  his  own  inspiration,  and  did  knowingly 
 obey  the  divine  will ;  but  still  he  could  have  wished,  for 
 Balak's  sake,  as  well  as  his  own,  that  he  might  have  been 
 permitted  to  pronounce  different  things,  to  what  he  did; 
 even  as  the  prophets  of  Israel,  in  future  ages,  when 
 ordered  to  denounce  judgments  against  the  people, 
 would  have  desired  liberty,  no  doubt,  to  prophesy  things 
 of  a  more  grateful  relish  ;  but  as  they  could  not  have 
 that  permission,  they  obeyed,  though  with  some  reluc- 
 tancy,  and  when  they  came  to  the  point,  did  nevertheless 
 pronounce  boldly  what  they  were  ordered  to  promulge. 
 
 And  this,  by  the  way,  will,  in  some  measure,  account 
 for  the  odd  mixture  in  Balaam's  behaviour,  namely,  his 
 seeking  for  enchantments  in  one  minute,  and  falling  into 
 a  fit  of  devotion  in  the  next.  For  besides  that  the  words 
 which  he  utters  upon  this  occasion,  are  not  properly  his 
 own,  but  infused  into  him  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  for 
 \v  Inch,  consequently,  he  is  not  responsible,  to  hear  a  wicked 
 man  sometimes  come  out  with  a  pious  wish,  or  holy  ejacu- 
 lation, can  be  no  incongruous  thing  at  all.  2  The  char- 
 acter of  virtue  is  so  very  beautiful,  its  end  so  comfort- 
 able, and  the  odour  of  its  memory  so  sweet,  that  even 
 wicked  men  cannot  see  and  hear  it,  without  secretly  pre- 
 ferring it,  and  inwardly  sighing  for  it,  and  wishing  at 
 least  that  it  were  their  own  :  and  therefore  it  is  no 
 wonder,  that  even  Balaam,  under  some  sudden  compunc- 
 tion of  mind,  or  conviction  of  the  amiableness  and 
 happy  estate  of  virtue,  both  here  and  hereafter,  should 
 desire  to  die  the  righteous  man's  death.  But  there  is 
 something  more  to  be  said  for  Balaam  in  this  respect, 
 than  for  other  wicked  men  ;  and  that  is,  the  business  he 
 was  now  about.  The  whole  series  of  his  behaviour 
 indeed  shows  him  to  be  a  vain  and  ostentatious  man. 
 By  the  preamble  to  his  prophecies,  3  '  Balaam,  the  son 
 of  Beor,  hath  said,  and  the  man  whose  eyes  are  open, 
 who  knew  the  knowledge  of  the  most  High,  and  saw 
 the  vision  of  the  Almighty,  hath  said,'  &c,  he  would 
 make  us  believe,  that  he  was  a  man  of  no  small 
 consideration,  vastly  familiar  with  God,  and  ''  quite 
 superior  to  the  little  pretenders  of  his  age  ;  and  as  we 
 may  farther  observe,  tli.it  in  all  his  intercourse  with 
 Balak,  he  never  pretended  to  consult  any  but  God,  we 
 cannot  but  think,  that  to  seem  to  be  in  earnest  about  the 
 matter,  and  now  and  then  drop  a  religious  sentence,  was 
 
 Num.  xxii.  3s.  *  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  2. 
 
 3  Num.  xxiv.  15,  IG. 
 
 a  For  so  we  read, '  the  heads  of  God's  people  judge  for  reward, 
 and  the  priests  thereof  teach  for  hire,  and  the  prophets  thereof 
 divine  for  money,'  Mirah  iii.  II. 
 
 A  The  Jerusalem  Targum  paraphrases  Balaam's  words  in  a 
 manner  that  shows  his  ostentatiousness  :  "  The  man  said,  who 
 was  honoured  above  his  brethren,  to  whom  that  was  revealed, 
 which  was  hidden  from  all  the  prophets." — Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary on  Num.  xxiv.  3. 
 
 no  more  than  what  became  the  business  he  was  upon,  and 
 the  character  he  thought  proper  to  assume,  even  suppos- 
 ing the  words  to  have  been  of  his  own  invention,  which, 
 as  we  said  before,  were  of  divine  inspiration. 
 
 Of  all  the  prophecies  which  God  at  this  time  delivered 
 from  the  month  of  Balaam,  there  was  one  of  a  more  emi- 
 nent and  peculiar  nature  :  4  '  I  shall  see  him,  but  not 
 now  ;  I  shall  behold  him,  but  not  nigh  ;  there  shall  come 
 a  star  out  of  Jacob,  and  a  sceptre  shall  arise  out  of 
 Israel,  and  shall  smite  the  corners  of  Moab,  and  destroy 
 all  the  children  of  Seth.'  All  opinions  agree  in  this, 
 that  Balaam  here  speaks  of  a  king  and  conqueror  ;  and 
 perhaps  in  calling  him  a  star,  he  accommodates  himself 
 to  the  long  established  notion,  •  that  the  appearances  of 
 comets  denoted  either  the  exaltation  or  destruction  of 
 Ju'ngdoms :  but  the  great  question  is,  of  what  king  or 
 conqueror  is  it  that  he  speaks  ? 
 
 s  Some  have  applied  the  prophecy  entirely  to  David, 
 the  most  illustrious  of  the  Jewish  monarchs,  who  extend- 
 ed his  conquests  far  and  wide.  6  Others  have  applied  it 
 as  entirely  to  the  Messiah,  supposing  that  the  metaphor 
 of  a  star  comports  better  with  him,  and  his  celestial  origin, 
 than  with  David  ;  and  that  the  main  strokes  of  the  pro- 
 phecy resemble  an  heavenly,  more  than  an  earthly  con- 
 queror. The  matter,  however,  may  be  compromised,  if 
 we  will  but  allow  :  of  a  learned  man's  observation, 
 namely,  that  the  most  remarkable  prophecies  in  the  Old 
 Testament,  bear  usually  a  twofold  sense  ;  one  relating 
 to  the  times  before  the  Messiah,  and  the  other,  either  ful- 
 filled in  the  person  of  the  Messiah,  or  in  the  members  of 
 his  body,  the  church,  of  which  kind  we  may  justly  esteem 
 the  preceding  prophecy.  For  though  its  primary  aspect 
 may  be  towards  David,  yet  whoever  considers  it  atten- 
 tively shall  perceive,  that  its  ideas  are  too  full  to  extend 
 no  farther,  and  must  therefore,  in  a  secondary  and  more 
 exalted  sense,  refer  us  to  Christ,  '  whose  kingdom  rulcth 
 over  all,'  and  '  to  whom  all  things  are  put  in  subjection 
 under  his  feet.' 
 
 In  this  sense,  the  generality  of  Jews  as  well  as  Chris- 
 tians, have  all  along  understood  it;  and  it  is  no  ini|  ro- 
 bable  conjecture,  d  whatever  some  may  think  of  it,  that 
 by  the  strength  of  this  prophecy,  kept  upon  record  among 
 the  oriental  archives,  the  magi  of  that  country,  at  our 
 Saviour's  nativity,  were  directed  to  Jerusalem,  and 
 inquired,  8  '  Where  is  the  king  of  the  Jews,  for  we  have 
 seen  his  star  in  the  east  ?'  And,  upon  a  farther  suppo- 
 sition, that  these  very  magi  were  descended  from  Balaam 
 in  a  direct  line,  he  might  then,  with  propriety   enough, 
 
 *  Num.  xxiv.  17. 
 1  he  Gere  s  Commentary  on  Num.  xxiv. 
 6  Patrick's  Commentary,  ibid.  r  Grotlus  in  Mat.i.  22. 
 
 8  Mat.  ii.  2. 
 c  Justin,  in  his  history,  speaking  of  Mithridates,  tells  us  that 
 in  the  several  years  of  his  birth  and  accession  to  his  kingdom,  ■ 
 comet  slume  with  such  a  lustre,  as  ii  the  whole  heavens  had  l*en 
 afire;  (b.  37.  c.  2.)  Lucau,  iu  the  description  which  he  gives 
 us  of  the  civil  wars  of  Rome,  among  the  several  prodigies  which 
 
 were  seen  both  Oil  earth  and  III  heaven,  reckons  lip  this;  "The 
 locks  Olh  (bead  planet,  and  a  comet  shaking  the  kingdoms  ol  the 
 earth."  And  Diodorus  Siculus  delivers  it  as  a  doctrine  cum  »t 
 among  the  Chaldeans,  that  the  rising  of  comets  is  either  benefi- 
 cial or  hurtful  not  only  to  nations  and  states,  but  even  to  kiligl 
 themselves,  and  sometimes  to  private  persons. — B.2.  p.  I  "'• 
 
 </  Witsius,  in  his  Miscel.  Sacra,  h.  i.  IG.  seems  to  explode  lliu 
 conjecture  of  Origen's,  but  act  upon  sufficient  grounds. 
 
328 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1G1G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 pronounce  of  the  Messiah,  '  I  shall  see  him,'  that  is,  see 
 him  in  my  posterity,  '  but  not  now  ;  I  shall  behold  him 
 but  not  near.' 
 
 The  promise  or  prediction  which  God  orders  Moses  to 
 make  to  the  Israelites,  is  this,  '  '  I  will  raise  them  up  a 
 prophet,  from  among  their  brethren,  like  unto  thee,  and 
 will  put  my  words  in  his  mouth,  and  he  shall  speak  unto 
 them  all  that  I  command  him.'  Now  in  order  to  dis- 
 cover wherein  the  similitude  between  Moses  and  this 
 prophet  was  to  consist,  we  must  inquire  into  the  particu- 
 lars that  distinguished  Moses  from  the  rest  of  the  pro- 
 phets ;  and  accordingly  we  rind  God  himself,  upon  a 
 small  sedition  that  Aaron  and  his  sister  were  engaged  in 
 against  him,  making  this  declaration  in  his  favour  :  2 '  If 
 there  be  a  prophet  among  you,  I  the  Lord  will  make  my- 
 self known  to  him  in  a  vision,  and  will  speak  unto  him  in 
 a  dream  ;  but  my  servant  Moses  is  not  so,  who  is  faithful 
 in  all  his  house,  with  him  will  I  speak  mouth  to  mouth, 
 even  apparently,  and  not  in  dark  speeches :'  and  what 
 he  means  by  speaking  apparently,  we  find  explained, 
 when  we  are  told,  '  that 3  the  Lord  spake  to  Moses  face 
 to  face,  as  a  man  speaketh  to  his  friend.'  This  was  the 
 distinguishing  character  of  Moses,  and  in  this  particular 
 neither  Joshua,  nor  any  of  the  succeeding  prophets  could 
 pretend  to  be  like  unto  him.  They  never  saw  God's 
 glorious  presence,  nor  heard  him  speak  distinctly.  He 
 did  not  converse  familiarly  with  them,  but  whatever  he 
 had  to  communicate,  he  did  it  by  way  of  visions,  or 
 dreams,  or  some  dark  and  enigmatical  expressions. 
 
 *  They  indeed  had  no  special  commission,  no  new  in- 
 stitutes of  religion  to  publish,  nor  had  they  usually  any 
 extraordinary  credentials  to  produce.  Their  business 
 in  short,  was  to  explain  and  inculcate  the  law  which 
 Moses  gave,  and  even  in  this  it  is  hardly  supposable, 
 that  they  were  always  infallibly  directed,  because  it  is 
 said  of  several  of  them,  that  5  '  they  erred  in  vision,  and 
 stumbled  in  judgment.'  So  that  with  no  propriety  can  it 
 be  affirmed  of  them  that  '  they  were  like  Moses,'  much 
 less  can  that  additional  character  belong  to  them  '  1  will 
 put  my  words  in  his  mouth,  and  he  shall  speak  unto  them 
 all  that  I  shall  command  him  ;'  which  certainly  implies 
 an  extraordinary  commission  to  publish  something  that 
 was  not  revealed  before. 
 
 But  now,  when  it  is  said  of  the  blessed  Jesus,  that  lie 
 was  8 '  a  teacher  sent  from  God,  for  that  no  man  could 
 do  the  miracles  which  he  did,  except  God  were  with  him  ;' 
 that  he  came,  to  7 '  declare  God,'  or  what  is  all  one,  to 
 reveal  a  new  religion,  8  'which  was  confirmed  by  signs 
 and  mighty  wonders  ;'  and  to  qualify  him  for  this,  that 
 he  9 '  was  from  the  beginning-  with  God,'  and  10  '  is  in  the 
 bosom  of  the  Father  :'  when  it  is  expressly  said,  that  he 
 is  lI  '  the  mediator  of  a  new  covenant  in  his  blood,  for 
 the  redemption  of  the  transgressions  of  the  former  cove- 
 nant ;'  and  ls  '  as  Moses  was  faithful  in  all  his  house,  as  a 
 servant,  for  a  testimony  of  these  things  which  were  to  be 
 spoken  after;  so  he,  as  a  Son,  was  faithful  to  him  that 
 appointed  him,  and  was  counted  worthy  of  more  glory 
 than  Moses,  inasmuch  as  he,  who  hath  built  the  house, 
 hath  more  honour  than  the  house  :'  when  all  this,  I  say, 
 
 Deut.  xviii.  18,         2  Num.  xii.  6,  &c.  "Exod.  xxxiii.  11. 
 
 4  Sykes'  Essay  upon  the  truth  of  the  Christian  Religion. 
 
 1  Is.  xxviii.  7.  6  John  iii.  2.       '  John  i.  18.        *  Acts  ii.  22. 
 
 f  John  i.  2.     10  John  i.  l».     "  Heb.  viii.   6.     ls  Heb.  iii.  2,  &c, 
 
 is  affirmed  and  verified  of  Christ,  it  is  manifest,  that  the 
 great  lines  of  the  prophetical  description  we  are  now 
 considering,  in  their  true  primary  sense,  meet  only  in 
 him,  who  is  the  '  express  image  of  his  Father,  13  in  whom 
 are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom,  and  knowledge.' 
 But  to  return  to  Balaam. 
 
 Whatever  opinion  we  may  have  of  the  matter,  it  is 
 certain,  that  some  of  the  wisest  nations  among  the  hea- 
 thens had  a  great  conception  of  the  power  of  their  pro- 
 phets, and  thought  that  they  were  persons  in  high  favour 
 and  esteem  with  their  gods,  who  were  always  inclinable  to 
 listen  to  and  ratify  either  their  benedictions  or  execrations. 
 a  The  imprecations  of  these  men,  as  14  Plutarch  informs  us, 
 were  by  the  Romans  held  so  very  efficacious,  that  whoever 
 was  under  them,  could  not  possibly  escape  ;  and  therefore 
 we  need  not  wonder,  that  in  conformity  to  this  custom,  we 
 find  Balak  sending  for  '  Balaam  to  come  and  curse'  the 
 Israelites  for  him,  since  it  was  his  settled  persuasion,  1S 
 '  that  he  whom  he  blessed  was  blessed,  and  he  whom  he 
 cursed  was  cursed.' 
 
 But  though  Balak  acted  according  to  the  prevailing 
 prejudices  of  that  age,  in  sending  for  Balaam,  yet  God 
 had  sufficient  reason  to  be  angry  with  him  for  going. 
 He  had  once  consulted  God  about  cm-sing  the  people 
 of  Israel,  and  had  received  a  very  full  and  peremptory 
 answer,  forbidding  him  to  go  about  it ;  '  Thou  shalt  not 
 curse  the  people,  for  they  are  blessed.'  This  reason, 
 however,  he  kept  to  himself ;  for  had  he  communicated 
 it  to  the  ambassadors  at  first,  in  all  probability,  they 
 would  not  have  importuned  him  anew  to  go  :  but  his 
 covetousness  urged  him  on,  and  the  rich  presents  and 
 promises  which  the  messengers  the  second  time  brought, 
 began  to  operate  so  very  powerfully,  that  he  forgot  his 
 reverence  to  the  divine  Majesty,  and  presumed  once  more 
 to  consult  him  about  going. 
 
 Upon  this  occasion  the  sacred  historian  relates  the  mat- 
 ter thus  : — lfl  '  And  God  came  unto  Balaam  at  night,  and 
 said  unto  him,  If  the  men  come  to  call  thee,  rise  up  and 
 go  with  them :  and  Balaam  rose  up  in  the  morning,  and 
 saddled  his  ass,  and  went  with  the  princes  of  Moab,  and 
 God's  anger  was  kindled  because  he  went.'  AVhat,  angry 
 for  what  himself  commanded  him  to  do  ?  ir  Our  trans- 
 lators indeed  thus  render  the  text ;  but  the  Hebrew  words 
 
 13  Col.  ii.  3.  14  [n  vita  Crassi,  p.  553.  ,B  Num.  xxii.  6. 
 16  Num.  xxii.  20.  ,r  Shuckfortl's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12. 
 a  The  Romans  were  of  opinion,  that  by  a  certain  form  of  im- 
 precation, they  could  demolish  towns,  and  defeat  whole  armies 
 of  their  enemies:  and  what  the  usual  form  for  this  purpose  was, 
 Macrobius  has  taken  care  to  leave  us  in  these  words: — "  O  father 
 Pluto,  or  Jove,  or  by  whatever  other  name  it  is  proper  to  address 
 thee,  I  entreat  that  thou  mayest  load  with  fear,  alarm,  and  con- 
 sternation, the  whole  of  that  city  and  army,  which  I  feel  that  I 
 am  pronouncing;  and  may  thou  drag  hence  and  deprive  of  the 
 light  of  life  all  those  who  bear  arms  against  us,  our  legions,  and 
 armies:  destroy  these  armies,  these  foes,  these  men,  their  terri- 
 tories, and  all  who  dwell  in  their  dominion,  in  town  or  country. 
 Deliver  up  to  the  hands  of  their  enemies,  the  cities  and  territo- 
 ries of  those  whom  I  feel  that  I  now  pronounce ;  reckon  as 
 accursed  and  damned  the  whole  of  their  cities,  lands,  and  persons ; 
 granting  assurance  and  safety  to  mc,  my  fealty,  and  office, — to 
 the  legions  and  armies  engaged  in  performing  these  purposes; — 
 for  myself,  oath,  office,  and  the  Roman  people,  their  legions,  and 
 armies  I  deliver  up  and  devote  in  our  stead,  these  enemies,  as 
 substitutes  for  punishment.  II  these  things  are  done,  in  testi- 
 mony thereof,  I  do  vow  that  I  will  offer  in  sacrifice,  three  black 
 sheep  to  thee,  O  mother  Earth,  and  thee,  O  Jupiter,  father  of 
 the  gods.'' — Saturn,  b.  3.  r.  9. 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 329 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G5.  A.  C.  1GIG.  NUM.  xviii 
 
 are  clear  of  this  absurdity  ;  for  they  tell  us,  that  '  God's 
 anger  was  kindled,'  not  ci  lialalc, '  because  he  went,'  but 
 ci  halak  hua, '  because  he  went  of  himself,'  that  is,  without 
 staying  for  Balak's  messengers  to  come  in  the  morning 
 to  call  him.  He  had  told  them  over  night,  that  an  '  house 
 full  of  silver  and  gold '  could  not  tempt  him  to  go  counter 
 to  what  God  should  direct  him  to  do  ;  and  by  this  vaunt- 
 ing speech  they  very  possibly  might  think  their  master's 
 offers  neglected,  and  be  tempted  to  go  away  next  morn- 
 ing without  him  ;  but  so  full  were  his  head  and  heart  of 
 expectations  from  the  journey,  that  he  would  not  run  the 
 hazard  of  their  calling ;  but  rose  up  early  in  the  morn- 
 ing, went  himself  to  them,  which  was  acting  directly 
 contrary  to  God's  express  order,  for  which  reason  he  sent 
 his  '  angel  to  stand  in  his  way  for  an  adversary  against 
 him.'  By  the  mouth  of  his  angel,  however,  God  per- 
 mitted him  to  go,  as  knowing  very  well  that  his  journey 
 would  tend  to  his  confusion,  and  the  manifestation  of  his 
 people's  glory.  For  though  there  was  nothing  but 
 malice  in  the  prophet's  heart,  and  a  fixed  determination 
 to  do  all  the  harm  he  could  to  the  Israelites ;  yet  God, 
 by  his  overruling  providence,  directed  his  words  so,  as 
 to  make  them,  upon  every  essay  to  curse,  pregnant  with 
 blessings.  Had  not  God  forbidden  the  prophet  to  go 
 upon  his  first  application  for  leave,  he  had  not  declared 
 his  aversion  to  Balak's  wicked  project :  had  he  not 
 allowed  him  to  go  upon  his  further  importunity,  he  had 
 not  exposed  his  folly  and  madness,  as  well  as  the  weak- 
 ness of  his  magical  arts,  so  effectually  :  but  now,  in  the 
 wise  method  which  he  took,  he  defeated  the  designs  of 
 the  wicked,  and  '  made  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him  ;' 
 he  hath  shown  us,  that  no  enchantments,  no  machina- 
 tions can  prevail,  where  he  undertakes  to  protect;  and1 
 has  left  us  this  lesson  of  instruction,  "  That  when  men 
 are  foolish  and  self-willed,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
 corrupt  views,  will  follow  their  own  ways,  notwithstand- 
 ing many  kind  hints  and  admonitions  to  the  contrary, 
 God  then  abandons  them  to  their  own  imaginations, 
 which,  in  the  event,  very  frequently  prove  their  ruin." 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  God  gave  Balaam 
 sundry  admonitions,  not  to  follow,  in  this  headstrong 
 manner,  the  pursuit  of  his  avarice.  His  enjoining  him 
 not  to  go,  when  the  princes  of  Moab  first  came  for  him  ; 
 his  sending  an  .angel  in  the  road  to  rebuke  him  for  his 
 rash  and  unadvised  proceeding  ;  and  when  he  was  come 
 to  Balak,  his  overruling  his  words  upon  three  different 
 attempts,  and  making  him  pronounce  what  was  least  of 
 all  his  intention,  were  sufficient  remembrancers,  that  his 
 ways  could  not  possibly  be  right  before  God.  But  of  all 
 others,  the  speaking  of  his  ass  was  such  a  miraculous 
 incident,  as  would  have  made  any  considering  man,  one 
 would  think,  retract  his  purpose. 
 
 This  indeed  is  so  wonderful  an  instance,  that  several 
 of  the  Jewish  doctors,  who,  upon  other  occasions,  are 
 fond  enough  of  miracles,  seem  as  if  they  would  hardly 
 be  induced  to  assent  to  this.  Philo,  in  his  life  of  Moses, 
 passes  it  over  in  silence  ;  and  2  Maimonides  pretends, 
 that  it  only  happened  to  Balaam  in  a  prophetic  vision. 
 An  inspired  writer  in  the  New  Testament  assures  us, 
 that  it  was  a  real  fact,  as  Moses  relates  it.  Moses  saj  s, 
 that  '  the  Lord  opened  the  mouth  of  the  ass,  and  she 
 said  unto  Balaam  ;'  and  St  Peter  tells  us,  that  the  ass, 
 
 Scripture  Vindicated,  part  2.      3  More  Nevoch.  part  2.  c.  24. 
 
 TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 '  speaking  with  man's  voice,  forbade  the  madness  of  the 
 prophet ;'  an  human  voice  came  out  of  (he  mouth  of  the 
 ass;  but  I  do  not  apprehend,  that  this  voice  proceeded 
 from  her  own  sentiments.  Her  tongue  was  miraculously 
 moved,  not  by  any  power  of  hers  so  to  move  it,  and  it 
 spake  what  it  was  moved  to  utter,  without  any  connex- 
 ion of  her  words  and  sentiments,  and  without  her  under- 
 standing the  very  words  she  uttered  upon  this  occasion. 
 This  seems  to  have  been  the  fact,  and  the  severest  philo- 
 sophy, 1  hope,  cannot  deny,  that  God  is  as  able  to  make 
 creatures,  destitute  of  understanding,  pronounce  articu- 
 late and  rational  words,  as  it  is  for  a  musician,  by  the 
 different  touches  he  gives  any  instrument,  to  make  it 
 express  a  variety  of  notes. 
 
 It  may  seem  a  little  strange  indeed,  that  Balaam 
 should  show  no  kind  of  surprise,  when  he  heard  his  ass 
 speak  like  a  human  creature  :  but  to  this  3  some  reply, 
 that  Balaam  might  probably  have  imbibed  the  doctrine 
 of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  which  was  certainly  very 
 common  in  the  east,  and  from  thence  might  be  less 
 astonished  to  hear  any  brute  speak  ;  whereas  4  others 
 suppose,  that  he  was  in  such  a  rage  and  fury  at  the  sup- 
 posed perverseness  of  his  beast '  crushing  his  foot,'  and 
 '  falling  down  under  him,'  that  for  the  present,  he  could 
 think  of  nothing  else  ;  though  the  conciseness  of  Moses' 
 narration,  that  must  be  presumed  to  have  omitted  many 
 circumstances,  which  if  rightly  known  would  dispel  this, 
 and  many  more  difficulties  that  may  be  imagined  in  this 
 transaction,  does  certainly  furnish  us  with  a  better  and 
 more  satisfactory  answer.  For,  5  though  we  could  not 
 assign  a  sufficient  reason  why  God  thought  fit  to  work 
 this  miracle,  yet  who  shall  therefore  dare  to  infer  that  it 
 was  never  wrought  ?  The  account  which  we  have  here 
 even  of  the  most  ancient  times  is  very  short ;  nor  can  we 
 rightly  form  a  judgment  what  the  prevailing  sentiments 
 of  the  world  might  be,  in  the  age  when  Balaam  lived. 
 The  counsels  of  God  are  likewise  a  great  deep,  nor  can 
 any  man  so  far  penetrate  into  them,  as  to  pronounce 
 what  is  proper  or  improper  for  him  to  do.  Upon  this 
 occasion,  however,  there  seems  to  be  some  reason  for  his 
 giving  the  ass  the  faculty  of  speech,  namely,  that  thereby 
 he  might  convince  the  princes  of  Moab,  who  are  sup- 
 posed to  be  in  company  with  Balaam,  how  easy  a  thing 
 it  was  for  him,  who  had  opened  the  mouth  of  this  dumb 
 creature,  to  stop  that  of  its  owner,  or  to  direct  his  words 
 to  what  purposes  he  pleased  ;  and  c  how  weak  and  impo- 
 tent was  the  man  in  whom  they  confided,  when,  with  all 
 his  curses  and  imprecations,  he  could  not  gel  the  better 
 of  a  poor  brute,  and  much  less  then  of  the  people,  so 
 immediately  under  the  divine  protection. 
 
 The  Scripture  indeed  informs  US,  that  after  his  fruit- 
 less negotiation  with  Balak,  7<  he  returned  to  his  own 
 place:'  and  so  he  might  return  to  Mesopotamia,  and 
 yet  when  he  heard  of  the  success  of  his  advice  against 
 the  Israelites,  and  how  many  thousands  of  them  had  I n 
 
 cut  off  in  consequence  of  it,  he  might  go  back  again  to 
 
 the  Midiauiles  in  hopes  of  obtaining  an   ample  reward 
 for  his  services;  or  when  war  was  declared  against  them, 
 
 ;    ;(  i-  l,r  Clere's  ('nmnii'iitary. 
 *  Sec  Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 ■■  I..  Clere's  Commentary  in  Num.  wiii. 
 0  Bibliotheca  Biblica  in  Num.  xxii. 
 '  Ibid,  in  Num.  xxiv.  14,  25. 
 
 9    T 
 
330 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1645.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 the  Midianites  themselves  might  possibly  send  for  him 
 again,  and  he  be  the  rather  inclined  to  go,  because  now 
 he  might  have  some  hopes  of  cursing  the  Israelites  with 
 success,  since  they  had  apostatized  from  the  worship  of 
 their  God,  and  fallen  into  idolatry,  which  while  they 
 stood  clear  of,  he  knew  he  would  not  be  permitted  to 
 do  ;  and  it  is  not  imlikely,  that  for  this  purpose  he  was 
 carried  into  the  field  of  battle,  and  there  became  a  sacri- 
 fice to  his  own  evil  policy. 
 
 It  is  a  sad  perversion  of  the  sense  of  Scripture,  when 
 God,  in  condescension  to  our  capacities,  is  pleased  to 
 make  use  of  human  words  and  phrases,  to  account  that 
 condescension,  not  only  an  impropriety  of  speech,  but  a 
 disparagement  likewise  to  the  divine  nature  and  perfec- 
 tions. The  Scripture  indeed  makes  mention  of  God's 
 '  swearing  in  his  wrath  ;'  but  who  would  ever  think,  that 
 the  form  of  this  expression  should  give  any  disgust,  or 
 
 1  the  sense  of  it  be  thought  repugnant  to  the  natural 
 notions  we  have  of  God  ?  He  that  at  all  considers  the 
 end  and  intent  of  an  oath,  must  allow  it  to  be  a  solemn 
 asseveration,  made  as  strong  and  binding  as  possible, 
 in  order  to  beget  faith  and  confidence  in  others,  or  to 
 procure  a  sure  belief  of  what  is  so  affirmed.  When  men 
 swear,  nothing  can  make  their  asseveration  so  strong  and 
 binding,  as  the  invocation  of  God  to  be  their  witness,  or 
 avenger  :  and  in  like  manner,  when  God  himself  is  said  to 
 swear,  we  are  to  suppose,  that  he  enforces  and  strengthens 
 his  asseveration  as  much  as  possible,  or  as  much  as  is 
 proper,  to  beget  the  highest  trust  and  confidence  in  his 
 revelations,  not  by  invoking  a  superior,  for  that,  we  may 
 say,  is  not  in  his  power,  but  by  condescending  to  make 
 use  of  human  forms  of  swearing,  with  such  proper  alter- 
 ations as  the  case  requires.     Thus,  when   God  swears 
 
 2  by  himself,  or  3  by  his  great  name,  or  4  by  his  life, 
 or  5  by  his  right  hand,  or  6  by  his  holiness,  or  7  by  his 
 truth,  or  8  his  excellency,  or  any  other  of  his  attributes 
 or  perfections,  the  meaning  of  these  expressions  is  much 
 the  same,  namely,  that  he  thereby  declares  the  thing 
 to  be  as  certain,  and  as  surely  to  be  depended  on, 
 as  his  own  being  or  attributes  are.  This,  I  say,  is  the 
 whole  purport  of  the  thing  ;  and  God  is  therefore  said  to 
 make  use  of  this  manner  of  speaking,  only  because  it  is 
 more  awful  and  solemn,  and  consequently  apt  to  make 
 deeper  impressions,  and  beget  a  stronger  confidence  in 
 the  hearers  than  a  naked  declaration  can. 
 
 It  is  the  manner  of  the  Scripture  to  ascribe  to  God 
 hands,  eyes,  and  feet ;  but  the  design  is  not  that  we 
 should  believe  that  he  has  any  of  these  members  accord- 
 ing to  the  literal  signification  ;  but  only  that  he  has  a 
 power  to  execute  all  those  acts,  to  which  these  members 
 in  us  are  so  very  subservient.  It  is  the  manner  of  the 
 same  Scripture,  to  represent  him  as  affected  with  the  like 
 passions  that  we  feel  in  ourselves,  when  we  are  angry  or 
 pleased,  have  our  hearts  attendered  or  provoked  to  re- 
 venge ;  and  yet,  upon  reflection,  we  cannot  think  that 
 any  of  these  passions  are  inherent  in  the  divine  nature  ; 
 but  the  meaning  only  is  9  that  God  will  as  certainly 
 punish  the  wicked,  as  if  he  were  inflamed  with  the  pas- 
 sion of  anger  or  revenge  ;  and  as  infallibly  relieve  or 
 
 1  See  Christianity  as  old  as  the  Creation,  p.  250. 
 a  Gen.  xxii.  16.  3  Jer.  xliv.  26.  *  Jer.  li.  14. 
 
 s  Is.  lxii.  8.  c  Amos  iv.  2.  i  Ps.  lxxxix.  40. 
 
 8  Amos.  viU.  7.     9  Bishop  King's  Sermon  of  Diviiuj  Pred. 
 
 reward  the  good,  as  we  will  those  for  whom  we  have 
 tender  compassion  or  affectionate  love.  So  that  it  i8 
 only  by  way  of  analogy  and  comparison,  that  the  nature 
 and  passions  of  men  are  ascribed  to  God  ;  and  therefore 
 certainly,  when  he  is  pleased  to  express  himself  in  ac- 
 commodation to  our  capacities,  instead  of  making  it  a 
 matter  of  cavil  and  reproach,  we  ought  to  be  thankful 
 for  his  condescension,  and  to  interpret  his  words  in  a 
 sense  suitable  to  his  divine  Majesty. 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  the  utter  extirpa- 
 tion of  the  Canaanites  carries  a  face  of  rigour  and 
 severity,  not  so  very  consistent  with  God's  frequent 
 declarations  of  his  mercy  and  long-sufterjng ;  but  then 
 it  should  be  considered,  that  as  he  is  full  of  lenity  and 
 mercy  to  those  that  endeavour  to  please  him,  so  he  has 
 thought  fit  to  declare  with  the  same  breath,  that  he  will 
 10 '  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty.'  Let  us  then  see  how 
 the  case  stood  between  God  and  these  nations,  when  the 
 Israelites  were  sent  to  dispossess  them. 
 
 There  is  no  question  to  be  made,  but  that  most  of 
 these  people  had  at  first  the  true  worship  of  God  insti- 
 tuted amongst  them,  and  that  their  several  progenitors 
 took  care  to  leave  behind  them  worthy  conceptions  of 
 him  ;  but  notwithstanding  this,  in  the  days  of  Moses  we 
 find  their  notions  so  corrupted,  and  all  kinds  of  idolatry 
 so  publicly  established,  that  the  land  is  said  to  have 
 been  defiled  with  them,  and  like  a  stomach  overcharged 
 with  unwholesome  diet,  to  have  nauseated,  "  '  and  spued 
 them  up.' 
 
 In  denouncing  the  sentence  of  their  excision,  there- 
 fore, ISs  Ye  shall  smite  them,  and  utterly  destroy  them, 
 and  save  alive  nothing  that  breatheth,'  God  intimates  the 
 reason  of  his  severity  by  the  enumeration  of  these  par- 
 ticulars ;  a  '  Ye  shall  destroy  their  altars,  and  break 
 down  their  statues,  and  cut  down  their  groves,  and  burn 
 their  graven  images  with  fire  ;'  even  the  images  of  Che- 
 mosh,  and  Peor,  and  Moloch,  and  other  detestable  idols, 
 to  whom  they  are  said  to  have  offered  human  sacrifices, 
 and  to  have  I4'made  their  seed  pass  through  the  fire.' 
 Nor  was  their  idolatry  less  provoking,  than  the  corrup- 
 tion of  their  morals,  since  adultery  and  bestiality  of  all 
 kinds,  incest,  and  all  manner  of  uncleanness  they  both 
 avowedly  practised,  and  15 '  took  pleasure  in  those  that 
 did  them.' 
 
 The  Midianitish  women,  in  particular,  by  prostituting 
 their  bodies,  in  order  to  draw  the  young  Israelites  into 
 idolatry,  had  given  sufficient  evidence  of  their  incor- 
 rigible attachment  to  wickedness,  and  how  impossible  it 
 would  be  for  the  people  whom  God  had  selected  from 
 the  rest  of  the  world  to  preserve  their  integrity,  if  these, 
 and  such  like  public  seducers,  were  permitted  to  live 
 among  them ;  and  therefore  God  assigns  this  as  another 
 reason  for  their  extirpation  :  I6 '  Because  thou  art  an  holy 
 people  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  he  hath  chosen  thee 
 to  be  a  special  people  unto  himself,  above  all  people 
 that  be  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  ;'  17  therefore  '  shalt 
 thou  consume  all  the  people,  which  the  Lord  thy  God 
 shall  deliver  into  thy  hands  ;  thine  eyes  shall  have  no 
 pity  upon  them,  lest  they  turn  thee  away  from  following 
 
 10  Num.  xiv.  18.  "  Lev.  xviii.  28. 
 
 12  Deut.  vii.  2.,  and  xx.  16.  13  Deut.  vi 
 
 14  Lev.  xviii.  21.  1S  Rom.  i.  32.  16  Deut. 
 
 17  Deut.  vii.  16.,  and  Exod.  xxiii.  33. 
 
 5. 
 
 vii.  6. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &r. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G5.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT 
 
 331 
 
 me,  to  serve  other  gods,  which  will  surely  be  a  snare 
 unto  thee.' 
 
 Now,  if  either  the  incorrigible  wickedness  of  any  peo- 
 ple, or  the  danger  of  their  corrupting  others  by  their 
 enticements  and  bad  examples,  may  be  deemed  a  suffi- 
 cient reason,  as  it  is  in  all  civil  governments,  to  cut  oft* 
 obnoxious  members,  for  God  to  rid  himself  of  any  nation 
 that  has  incurred  his  highest  displeasure,  the  Israelites, 
 who  were  only  instruments  in  God's  hands,  are  no  more 
 to  be  blamed  for  executing  the  Almighty's  commands, 
 than  the  person  who  apprehends  a  malefactor,  and  brings 
 him  to  condign  punishment,  is  to  be  thought  culpable  by 
 the  laws  of  the  land.  And  though  the  malefactor  may 
 possibly  plead  for  himself,  that  he  never  did  the  appre- 
 hender,  or  even  the  executioner,  any  wrong  ;  yet  this 
 will  be  of  no  weight  or  significance  to  the  magistrate, 
 when  he  calls  upon  the  inferior  officer  to  do  his  duty. 
 
 1  Do  but  then  allow  the  high  and  mighty  magistrate  of 
 heaven  and  earth  as  much  right  as  his  deputies  have  that 
 act  under  him,  and  a  judgment  sufficient  to  determine 
 what  concerns  the  public  good,  and  then  certainly  the 
 Israelites,  acting  by  his  orders,  had  at  least  as  clear  a 
 right  to  destroy  the  Canaanites  as  any  executioner  can 
 have  to  take  away  life  by  command  of  authority. 
 
 There  is  something,  perhaps,  that  we  may  think  more 
 affecting  in  the  case  of  the  innocent  children,  which  fell 
 in  this  common  devastation  ;  but  then  we  are  to  con- 
 sider, that  as  the  lives  of  all  mankind  are  in  the  hands 
 of  God  that  gave  them,  so  may  he  demand  them  back 
 again,  when,  or  in  what  manner  he  pleases  ;  and  as  well 
 may  we  quarrel  with  his  providence,  for  sending  a  de- 
 stroying angel  armed  with  a  famine,  a  deluge,  or  a 
 pestilence,  which  sweeps  away  young  and  old  together, 
 as  we  may  with  his  deputing  the  Hebrews  to  be  the 
 agents  of  his  high  behests,  in  a  general  and  promiscuous 
 slaughter  of  such  nations,  as  his  divine  justice  and  wis- 
 dom had  predestinated  to  destruction. 
 
 The  Jews,  it  must  be  owned,  have  several  rules  of  life, 
 and  customs  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  by  a  rigorous 
 observance  of  these,  they  contracted  among  other  nations 
 the  character  of  being  a  sullen  and  unsociable  people, 
 haters  of  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  averse  to  all  civil 
 society  and  commerce.     Thus  Manetho,  as  he  is  quoted 
 
 2  by  Grotius,  lays  this  heavy  charge  upon  them,  "  That 
 they  would  hold  no  manner  of  correspondence  with  any 
 mortal  that  was  not  initiated  into  their  religion."  Ta- 
 citus says  of  them,  "  That  though  they  are  courteous 
 enough  to  one  another,  yet  they  pursue  foreigners  with 
 the  utmost  rage  of  exasperated  enemies."  And,  to  name 
 no  more,  Diodorus  relates,  "  That  they  were  the  only 
 people  in  the  world  who  rejected  all  commerce  and 
 friendship  with  foreigners  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  treated 
 them  as  enemies."  But  all  this  must  certainly  be  a  gross 
 mistake,  because  the  law  of  Moses  expressly  commands 
 those  that  live  under  it  to  do  good  to  mankind  in 
 general ;  not  only  to  lovo  their  neighbours,  3  but  '  to 
 love  the  stranger'  likewise,  and  in  '  no  case  4  to  vex  or 
 oppress  him,'  for  this  very  reason,  '  because  they  were 
 s*xangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt  :'  and  therefore  Josephus, 
 in  his  book  5  against  Appion,  tells  us,  that  though  their 
 lawgiver  would  not  admit  those  who  came  occasionally 
 
 1  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  2. 
 3  Dent,  x.  19.  *  Exod. 
 
 *  Annot.  in  Doiit.  vii. 
 xxii.  21.  *  B.  2. 
 
 only  to  the  solemnities  of  their  religion ;  yet,  among 
 other  things,  these  he  enjoined  as  necessary,  and  almost 
 essential  clauses  in  his  law,  namely,  to  supply  every  one 
 with  fire,  water,  and  provisions,  that  was  in  want,  and  to 
 direct  the  traveller  in  the  road  ;  which  plainly  contra- 
 dicts the  representation  which  the  "  Roman  satirist 
 thought  fit  to  give  of  them. 
 
 If  we  consult  the  practice  of  the  first  founders  of  the 
 Jewish  nation,  we  shall  find  Abraham  G  making  an  alli- 
 ance with  Abimelech,  king  of  Gerar,  at  Beersheba,  and 
 assisting  even  the  impious  Sodomites,  when  he  thought 
 them  unjustly  invaded  by  their  enemies  :  we  shall  find 
 Isaac  7  entering  into  a  covenant  with  the  same,  or  another 
 king  of  the  same  name,  at  the  same  place  ;  and  Jacob  8 
 signing  articles  of  agreement  with  Laban,  his  father-in- 
 law.  Nor  can  we  think,  that  the  promulgation  of  the 
 Jewish  ordinances  made  any  alteration  in  this  particular, 
 or  laid  any  restraint  upon  their  votaries  from  joining  in 
 treaties  of  commerce,  or  any  other  negotiations  that 
 tended  to  the  benefit  of  human  society.  For,  had  this 
 been  the  case,  we  cannot  conceive  how  9  both  David  and 
 Solomon  could  have  ventured  to  make  a  league  with 
 Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  without  offending  God  ;  which 
 they  were  so  far  from  doing,  that  Solomon  in  particular, 
 as  10  the  sacred  history  informs  us,  was  directed  by  '  that 
 wisdom,  which  he  received  from  God,'  when  he  made  his 
 confederacy  with  this  heathen  prince. 
 
 Excepting  then  those  several  people  whom  God  had 
 appointed  the  Israelites,  at  their  entrance  into  Canaan, 
 to  destroy,  and  some  other  kings  and  nations  afterwards, 
 against  whom  he  had  sent  out  his  prophets  to  denounce 
 vengeance  for  their  sad  impieties,  the  Jews  were  for- 
 bidden to  maintain  a  civil  intercourse  with  none ;  but, 
 on  the  contrary,  were  frequently  excited  to  use  kindness 
 and  hospitality  to  aliens,  as  well  as  others,  that  all  the 
 world  might  see,  as  "  Josephus  puts  the  words  into 
 Solomon's  mouth,  at  the  dedication  of  the  temple,  "  That 
 the  Hebrews  were  not  so  inhuman,  as  to  envy  strangers 
 the  common  dispensations  of  the  author  and  fountain  of 
 all  our  happiness." 
 
 And  for  this  very  reason, 12 1  am  confident  it  was,  that 
 the  Hebrews  are  so  often  reminded  by  God  of  their 
 having  been  strangers  and  bond-slaves  in  the  land  of 
 Egypt,  that  by  their  hospitality  and  charity,  they  might 
 comfort  and  relieve  those  who  were  in  the  like  condition  : 
 that,  in  the  words  of  the  prophet,  u  '  the]  might  draw  out 
 their  soul  to  the  hungry,  and  satisfy  the  afflicted  soul  : 
 that  they  might  bring  the  poor  that  were  cast  out.  to  their 
 houses  ;  cover  the  cold  and  naked,  and  not  hide  them- 
 selves from  their  own  flesh.'  Per  thifl  eaOM  are  th<\  m 
 frequently  called  upon,  in  the  words  of  the  same  pro- 
 phet 14  '  to  look  unto  the  rock  whence  they  were  hewn, 
 and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  they  were  digged,  to 
 look  unto  Abraham  their  father,  and  to  Sarah  that  bare 
 them  :'  that  the  happy  change  of  their  circumstances 
 might  beget  in  them  a  perpetual  gratitude  to  their  great 
 
 •Gen.  xxi.  22.  7  Gen.  \\\i.  83. 
 
 8  Gen.  xxxi.  44.         ■  t  Sam.  v.  ll  »  I  Kings  t.  12. 
 
 "  Jewish  Antiq.  l>.  riii.  c,  '-. 
 
 "See  Exod.  xxii.  21  ;  Lev.  xxv.  42,  55;  and  !>"'!.  >■    Ift 
 
 13  Is.  lviii.  10,  7.  M  Is.  li.  1,  2. 
 
 a  "  Not  to  point  out  the  way  to  any  one,  unli"  ;i  worshipper  of 
 
 the  same  sacred  things,  and  to  conduct  the  circumcised  alone  to 
 
 the  wished-fbr  fountain." — Jhv.  Sat.  14. 
 
332 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 benefactor,  and  the  obscurity  of  their  origin  teach  them 
 to  be  humble. 
 
 It  is  part  of  the  admonition  of  Moses  to  the  Israelites, 
 1 '  Thou  shalt  remember  all  the  way,  which  the  Lord  thy 
 God  led  thee,  these  forty  years,  in  that  terrible  wilder- 
 ness, wherein  were  fiery  serpents,  to  humble  thee,  and  to 
 prove  thee,  to  know  what  was  in  thy  heart,  and  whether 
 thou  wouldest  keep  his  commandments  or  no.'  What 
 restrained  the  serpents,  which  were  so  numerous  in  the 
 wilderness,  from  stinging-  the  Hebrews,  was  doubtless 
 that  great  and  sovereign  being,  who  resided  in  the  pillar 
 of  the  cloud,  to  cover  the  camp  in  their  march,  and  make 
 every  noxious  creature  flee  before  them.  2  Several 
 authors  are  of  opinion,  that  the  serpents  which  bit  the 
 Israelites,  were  of  the  flying  kind,  and  might  be  called 
 fiery,  by  reason  of  their  colour.  Herodotus  informs  us, 
 that  Arabia  produced  this  sort  of  serpents  in  great  abun- 
 dance ;  and  the  time  of  the  year  wherein  the  Israelites 
 were  under  this  calamity  was  in  the  season  when  these 
 creatures  usually  are  upon  the  wing,  to  visit  the  neigh- 
 bouring and  adjacent  countries  ;  and  might  now  be  direct- 
 ed into  the  camp  of  the  Israelites  as  a  great  army ;  for 
 so  God  3  calls  '  the  locust,  the  canker-worm,  the  catter- 
 pillar,  and  the  palmer-worm,  his  great  army,'  to  destroy 
 and  depopulate  without  control.  For  however  the  divine 
 presence  had  protected  them  before,  the  people  were 
 now  in  a  state  of  rebellion  ;  they  were  murmuring  at  the 
 tediousness  of  their  journeyings,  and  at  their  want  of 
 provisions,  though  every  day  fed  by  providence  at  the 
 expense  of  a  miracle.  So  that  God,  being  angry  with 
 them,  had  removed  their  heavenly  safeguard;  and  no 
 sooner  was  it  removed,  than  things  were  left  to  their 
 natural  course.  The  serpents  resumed  their  venom ; 
 and  *  as  it  was  now  in  the  heat  of  summer,  when 
 creatures  of  this  kind  are  naturally  most  poisonous, 
 they  raised  such  sores,  and  sudden  inflammations  where- 
 ever  they  fell,  as  occasioned  death  in  some  of  the  most 
 guilty,  and  violent  pains  in  all,  until  God  was  pleased 
 to  provide  them  with  a  remedy  of  a  nature  somewhat 
 extraordinary.  a 
 
 1  Deut.  viii.  2.         *  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12. 
 
 3  Joel  ii.  25.  4  Patrick's  Commentary  on  Num.  xx. 
 
 a  The  fiery  serpeut  mentioned  Num.  xxi.  C.  Deut.  viii.  15. 
 Is.  xiv.  29.  was  so  called,  probably  from  the  burning  sensation 
 which  its  bite  occasioned.  Plutarch  thus  speaks  of  a  similar  kind 
 of  reptiles  :  "  The  inhabitants  of  the  country  round  the  Red  Sea, 
 were  tormented  in  such  a  manner  as  was  never  heard  of  till  that 
 time.  Little  dragons  bit  their  arms  and  legs:  and  if  you  touched 
 them  ever  so  lightly,  they  fixed  themselves  to  the  flesh,  and  their 
 bite  was  intolerably  painful,  and  like  fire."  The  Hebrew 
 original  signifies  also  a  winged  serpent;  and  we  are  told  that 
 such  were  very  common  both  in  Egypt  and  Arabia.  The  learned 
 Bochart  describes  them  as  short,  spotted  with  divers  colours,  and 
 with  wings  resembling  those  of  the  bat.  The  heathen  writers 
 concur  in  testifying  that  the  deserts  wherein  the  Israelites  jour- 
 neyed produced  serpents  of  so  venomous  a  kind,  that  their  bite 
 was  deadly  beyond  the  power  of  any  art  then  known  to  cure  it. 
 The  ancients  observed  in  general,  that  the  most  sandy  and  barren 
 deserts  had  the  greatest  number,  and  the  most  venomous  of  ser- 
 pents. 
 
 The  viper  is  one  of  the  deadliest  among  the  serpent  tribes,  as 
 appears  from  the  allusion  of  Zophar:  '  the  viper's  tongue  shall 
 slay  the  wicked ;'  that  is,  he  shall  as  certainly  die  as  if  a  viper 
 had  bitten  him.  Every  touch  of  the  viper's  tongue  is  instant 
 death;  for  when  the  barbarians  in  Malta  saw  the  venomous 
 reptile  leap  from  the  fire,  and  fasten  upon  the  hand  of  Paul,  they 
 looked  when  he  should  have  swollen,  or  fallen  down  dead  sudden- 
 ly.  (Acts  xxviii.  6.)  The  prophet  Isaiah  mentions  it  among  the 
 
 M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii—  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 Whether  the  sight  of  brass,  as  some  naturalists  say,  be 
 hurtful  or  no  in  such  cases,  this  is  certainly  a  prescrip- 
 
 venomous  reptiles,  which  in  extraordinary  numbers  infest  the 
 land  of  Egypt:  '  from  whence  come  the  young  and  old  lion,  the 
 viper  and  fiery  flying  serpent.'  (Is.  xxx.  6.)  In  illustrating  the 
 mischievous  character  of  wicked  men,  and  the  ruinous  nature  of 
 sin,  he  thus  alludes  to  the  dangerous  creature:  "they  hatch 
 cockatrice  eggs,  and  weave  the  spider's  web ;  he  that  eateth  of 
 their  eggs  dieth ;  and  that  which  is  crushed  breaketh  out  into  a 
 viper."  The  cockatrice  here  undoubtedly  means  the  viper;  for 
 the  egg  of  one  creature  never  produces,  by  any  management,  one 
 of  a  different  species.  When  the  egg  is  crushed,  the  young 
 viper  is  disengaged,  and  leaps  out,  prepared  for  mischief.  It 
 may  be  objected,  that  the  viper  is  not  an  oviparous  but  a  vivipar- 
 ous animal;  and  consequently,  the  prophet  must  refer  to  some 
 other  creature.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered,  that  although  the 
 viper  brings  forth  its  young  alive,  they  are  hatched  from  eggs, 
 perfectly  formed  in  the  belly  of  the  mother.  The  viper  alone 
 of  all  terrestrial  animals,  produces  within  itself  an  egg  of  an  uni- 
 form colour,  and  soft  like  the  eggs  or  roe  of  fishes.  This  curious 
 natural  fact,  reconciles  the  statement  of  the  sacred  Scripture, 
 with  the  truth  of  natural  history. 
 
 The  certain  and  speedy  destruction  which  follows  the  bite  of 
 this  creature,  clearly  proves  the  seasonable  interposition  of 
 almighty  power  for  the  preservation  of  the  apostle  Paul.  Exas- 
 perated by  the  heat  of  the  fire,  the  deadly  reptile,  leaping  from 
 the  brushwood,  where  it  had  concealed  itself,  fixed  the  canine 
 teeth,  which  convey  the  poison  into  the  wound  which  they  had 
 made,  in  his  hand.  Death  must  have  been  the  consequence,  had 
 not  the  power  of  God,  which  long  before  had  shut  the  lions' 
 mouths,  that  they  might  not  hurt  the  prophets,  neutralized  the 
 viper's  deadly  poison,  and  miraculously  preserved  the  valuable 
 life  of  his  servant.  The  viper,  on  this  memorable  occasion, 
 exhibited  every  symptom  of  rage,  and  put  forth  all  its  powers: 
 the  deliverance  of  Paul,  therefore,  was  not  accidental,  nor  the 
 effect  of  his  own  exertion,  but  of  the  mighty  power  of  that  Master 
 whom  he  served,  whose  voice  even  the  deadly  viper  is  compelled 
 to  obey.  This  conclusion  was  in  effect  drawn  by  the  barbarians 
 themselves:  for  when  'they  had  looked  a  great  while,  and  saw 
 no  harm  come  to  him,  they  changed  their  minds  and  said,  that 
 he  was  a  god:'  they  did  not  hesitate  to  attribute  his  preservation 
 to  divine  power ;  they  only  mistook  his  real  character,  not  the 
 true  nature  of  that  agency  which  was  able  to  render  the  bite  of 
 the  viper  harmless. 
 
 To  the  deadly  malice  with  which  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
 persecuted  the  blessed  Redeemer  and  his  followers  after  his 
 ascension  into  heaven,  John  the  Baptist  pointedly  alludes  in  these 
 words:  '  O  generation  of  vipers,  who  hath  warned  you  to  flee 
 from  the  wrath  to  come!'  And  our  Lord  addresses  them  in 
 the  same  terms :  '  ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers,  how  can 
 ye  escape  the  damnation  of  hell?' 
 
 The  fiery  flying  serpents : — The  brazen  figure  of  this  creature 
 was  a  type  of  our  blessed  Redeemer,  who,  for  our  salvation,  was 
 lifted  up  upon  the  cross,  as  the  serpent  was  elevated  in  the  camp 
 of  Israel,  for  the  preservation  of  that  people.  It  is  the  only 
 species  of  serpent  which  the  Almighty  Creator  has  provided  with 
 wings,  by  means  of  which,  instead  of  creeping  or  leaping,  it  rises 
 from  the  ground,  and,  leaning  upon  the  extremity  of  its  tail, 
 moves  with  great  velocity.  It  is  a  native  of  Egypt  and  the 
 deserts  of  Arabia;  and  receives  its  name  from  the  Hebrew  verb 
 saraph,  which  signifies  to  bum,  in  allusion  to  the  violent  inflam- 
 mation which  its  poison  produces,  or  rather  its  fiery  colour, 
 which  the  brazen  serpent  was  intended  to  represent. 
 
 Bochart  is  of  opinion,  that  the  seraph  is  the  same  as  the 
 hydrus,  or,  as  Cicero  calls  it,  the  serpent  of  the  waters.  For  in 
 the  book  of  Isaiah,  the  land  of  Egypt  is  called  the  region  from 
 whence  came  the  viper  and  flying  seraph,  or  burning  serpent. 
 iElian  says,  they  came  from  the  deserts  of  Lybia  and  Arabia, 
 to  inhabit  the  streams  of  the  Nile;  and  that  they  have  the  form 
 of  the  hydrus. 
 
 The  existence  of  winged  serpents  is  attested  by  many  writers 
 of  modern  times.  A  kind  of  snakes  were  discovered  among  the 
 Pyrenees,  from  whose  sides  proceeded  cartilages  in  the  form  of 
 wings ;  and  Scaliger  mentions  a  peasant  who  killed  a  serpent  of 
 the  same  species  which  attacked  him,  and  presented  it  to  the 
 king  of  France.  Le  Blanc,  as  quoted  by  Bochart,  says,  at  the 
 head  of  the  lake  Chiamay,  are  extensive  woods  and  vast  marshes, 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 333 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 tion  of  physicians,  that  such  people  as  are  bitten  with 
 any  venomous  beast,  should  be  kept  from  the  sight  of 
 the  very  image  of  the  beast  from  which  they  received 
 such  hurt ;  and  therefore  God  might  take  occasion,  from 
 the  incongruity  of  the  means,  to  magnify  his  own  power, 
 making  use  of  this  kind  of  remedy,  that  the  Israelites 
 might  know,  and  be  convinced,  that  both  the  disease  and 
 medicine  came  from  him.  When  our  blessed  Saviour 
 cured  the  blind  man  in  the  gospel,  '  he  spit  on  the  ground 
 and  made  clay,  and  spread  it  all  over  his  eyes,'  which 
 some  standers  by  might  be  apt  to  believe  was  a  likelier 
 way  to  put  them  quite  out,  than  to  recover  them  ;  but 
 when  they  saw  the  thing  have  its  effect,  they  glorified 
 God,  and  said,  '  '  How  can  a  man  that  is  a  sinner  do 
 such  miracles  ?'  because  they  could  not  but  perceive, 
 that  it  was  a  greater  miracle  to  work  the  cure  by 
 incompetent  or  incongruous  means,  than  by  none  at  all. 
 And  in  like  manner,  if,  instead  of  setting  up  this  brazen 
 serpent  upon  a  pole,  God  had  ordered  the  Israelites  to 
 apply  a  leaf  of  any  common  herb  to  the  bite  of  these 
 poisonous  serpents,  as  he  did  Hezekiah  to  8  '  lay  a  lump 
 of  figs  for  a  plaster  upon  his  boil,'  the  cure  might  have 
 been  the  same  ;  but  then  the  singularity  of  it  had  not  been 
 so  remarkable.    Men  might  have  imputed  it  to  some  secret 
 
 1  John  ix.  16.  2  Is.  xxxviii.  21. 
 
 which  it  is  very  dangerous  to  approach,  because  they  are  infested 
 by  very  large  serpents,  which,  raised  from  the  ground  on  wings 
 resembling  those  of  bats,  and  leaning  on  the  extremity  of  their 
 tails,  move  with  great  rapidity.  They  exist,  it  is  reported, 
 about  these  places  in  such  great  numbers,  that  they  have  almost 
 laid  waste  the  neighbouring  provinces. 
 
 The  original  term  (Mespheph)  does  not  always  signify  flying 
 with  wings;  it  often  expresses  vibration,  swinging  backwards 
 and  forwards,  a  tremulous  motion,  a  fluttering;  and  this  is  pre- 
 cisely the  motion  of  a  serpent,  when  he  springs  from  one  tree  to 
 another.  Niebuhr  mentions  a  sort  of  serpents  at  Bassorah ;  they 
 commonly  keep  upon  the  date  trees;  and  as  it  would  be  laborious 
 for  them  to  come  down  from  a  very  high  tree,  in  order  to  ascend 
 another,  they  twist  themselves  by  the  tail  to  a  branch  of  the 
 former,  which  making  a  spring  by  the  motion  they  give  it, 
 throws  them  to  the  branches  of  the  second.  Hence  it  is  that  the 
 modern  Arabs  call  them  flying  serpents.  Admiral  Anson  also 
 speaks  of  the  flying  serpents  that  he  met  with  at  the  island  of 
 Quibo,  but  which  were  without  wings. 
 
 The  hydri,  it  is  true,  are  produced  and  reared  in  marshy 
 places;  not  in  burning  and  thirsty  deserts,  where  the  people  of 
 Israel  murmured  because  they  could  find  no  water.  But  although 
 that  people  might  find  no  water  to  drink,  it  will  not  follow,  that 
 the  desert  contained  no  marshy  place.  Besides,  it  is  well  known, 
 that  when  water  falls,  these  serpents  do  not  perish,  but  become 
 chersydri,  that  is,  seraphim,  or  burners.  These  chersydri,  it  is 
 extremely  probable,  were  the  serpents  which  bit  the  rebellious 
 Israelites;  and  in  this  state  they  were  more  terrible  instruments 
 of  divine  vengeance;  for,  exasperated  by  the  want  of  water,  and 
 the  intense  heat  of  the  season,  they  injected  a  deadly  poison, 
 ami  occasioned  to  the  miserable  sufferers  more  agonizing  torments. 
 The  time  of  the  year  when  Jehovah  sent  these  serpents  among 
 his  people,  proves  that  this  is  no  vain  conjecture.  According  to 
 Nicander,  the  hydri  became  chersydri,  and  beset  the  path  of  the 
 traveller,  about  the  dog-days.  Now,  Aaron  died  on  the  first  day  of 
 the  tilth  month,  that  is,  the  month  Abib,  which  corresponds  with 
 the  nineteenth  day  of  July.  The  Israelites  mourned  for  him  thirty 
 days:  immediately  after  which,  they  fought  a  battle  with  Arail, 
 the  Canaanite,  and  destroyed  the  country:  then  recommencing 
 their  journey,  they  murmured  for  want  of  water,  and  the  serpents 
 were  sent.  This,  then,  must  have  happened  about  the  end  of 
 August;  the  season  when  the  hydri  become  seraphim,  and  inflict 
 the  most  cruel  wounds.  The  words  of  Moses  seem  to  countenance 
 the  idea,  that  the  hydri  employed  on  this  occasion,  were  not 
 generated  on  the  spot,  but  sent  from  a  distance.  '  And  the  Lord 
 sent  fiery  serpents,  or  seraphim,  among  the  people.'  (Num.  xxi. 
 6.)  From  these  words  it  is  natural  to  conclude,  that  they  came 
 
 M.  3765.  A.  C.  1616.  NUM.   xviii.  TO  THE   KM)  OP  DEUT. 
 
 virtue  in  the  plant,  which  now  can  he  ascribed  to  nothing 
 but  the  superlative  power  of  God,  who,  even  by  contrary 
 means,  can  bring  about  what  ends  he  pleases. 
 
 The  design  of  those  men,  however,  can  hardly  be 
 good,  who,  to  rob  God  of  the  glory  of  the  cure,  would 
 impute  it  to  some  secret  quality  in  the  brazen  serpent 
 itself.  3  A  talisman,  which,  according  to  (he  common 
 account,  is  a  certain  piece  of  metal,  made  under  the 
 influence  of  such  and  such  planets  ami  constellations. 
 with  a  wonderful  power  to  beget  love,  and  overcome 
 enemies  ;  to  drive  away  noxious  animals,  and  cure  dis- 
 eases, &c,  is  a  chimerical  notion  ;  and  4  to  resemble  the 
 figure  which  God  appointed  Moses  to  set  up,  to  any  of 
 these  vain  devices,  is  a  scheme  that  "  deserves  our  scorn, 
 more  than  our  confutation.  The  author  of  the  book  of 
 Wisdom,  addressing  himself  to  God,  and  speaking  of 
 the  Israelites,  has  imputed  the  virtue  of  this  serpent  to 
 its  true  cause.  5  '  He  that  turned  himself  towards  it, 
 was  not  healed  by  the  thing  which  he  saw,  but  by  thee, 
 who  art  the  Saviour  of  all.'  And  accordingly,  in  the 
 foregoing  verse,  he  calls  it  '  a  sign,  or  symbol  of  salva- 
 tion, to  put  them  in  remembrance  of  the  commandment  of 
 the  law. 
 
 The  only  considerable  difficulty  in  the  whole  transac- 
 tion is,  why  God,  who  had  forbidden  all  manner  of 
 images,  should,  on  this  occasion,  command  one  to  be 
 made.     This  the   Jewish  doctors,  as  b  Justin  Martyr 
 
 3  Saurin's  Dissertations. 
 4  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  Numbers  xxi. 
 5  Wisd.  xvi.  7. 
 from   that  land   of  rivers,  through  which   the  congregation  had 
 lately  passed.     Nor  will  this  be   reckoned   too  long  a  journey, 
 when  it  is  recollected,  that  they  travel  from  both  the  Lybian  and 
 Arabian  deserts,  to  the  streams  of  the  Nile. 
 
 They  inflicted  on  this  memorable  occasion  an  appropriate 
 chastisement  on  the  perverse  tribes.  That  rebellious  people  had 
 opened  their  mouth  against  the  heavens;  they  had  sharpened 
 their  tongues  like  serpents;  and  the  poison  of  asps  was  under 
 their  lips;  therefore  they  were  made  to  suffer  by  the  burning 
 poison  of  a  creature  which  they  so  marly  resembled.  In  this 
 state  of  helplessness,  they  had  recourse  to  him  whom  they  had 
 provoked,  and  whose  patience  and  goodness  they  had  so  long 
 experienced;  they  entreated  Moses  to  intercede  for  them  with 
 God,  that  he  might  forgive'  their  sins,  and  remove  this  calamity. 
 lie  recommended  Moses  to  make  a  brazen  serpent  in  exact 
 resemblance  to  the  fiery  serpent,  and  to  raise  it  on  a  pole  in  the 
 view  of  the  people,  so  that  the  wounded  might  look  to  it,  and  be 
 healed.  There  seemed  to  be  no  connexion  between  the  means 
 and  the  end,  between  a  piece  of  brass,  whatever  might  be  its 
 shape,  and  the  cure  which  the  looking  to  it,  was  designed  to 
 effect.  But  it  was  the  appointment  of  God,  and  a  just  concep- 
 tion of  his  character  would  at  once  lead  to  the  conclusion,  that  he 
 who  can  accomplish  his  purposes  without  means  as  easily  as  with 
 them,  would  not  fail  to  render  his  own  institution  efficacious. 
 Accordingly,  when  Moses  made  a  serpent  of  brass,  and  put  it 
 upon  a  pole,  it  came  to  pass,  that  if  a  serpent  had  bitten  any  man, 
 when  he  beheld  the  serpent  of  bra-,  he  lived.  Our  Lord  has 
 taught  us,  '  that  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  w  ilderness, 
 even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lilted  up;  that  whoso  belicvclh 
 in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.'— En. 
 
 a  Sir  John  Maraham  has  collected  several  passages  from  the 
 profane  writers,  which  bint  at  charms  and  enchantments  to  cure 
 
 the  bite  of  solvents;  and  he  BB.V8  the  Hebrews  made  n-e  of 
 enchantments  for  this  very  purpose  j  "Inch  assertion  he  endea- 
 vours to  support  by  a  citation  from  Ps.  Iviii.  J,  6j  by  another 
 from  EcclesiasteB,  chap.  x.  8j  and  by  a  third  from  Jeremiah, 
 chap.  viii.  17:  and  from  the  whole  of  what  hi'  offers,  he  would 
 intimate,  that  the  cure  of  the  Israelites  was  not  miraculous,  lot 
 that  the  brazen  Borpeul  "a-  properly  a  charm  for  thecalan 
 an  amulet  for  the  distemper;  but  it  would  be  trifling  to  refute 
 this  opinion. — ShuckfortFt  Connection,  vol.  ,'J.  b.  12. 
 
 h  In  his  book  against  Trypho,  he  insists  upon   this  serpent  as 
 
S34 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  164G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 observes  in  his  days,  could  give  no  account  of ;  but  had 
 they  known  Jesus  Christ,  and  hint  crucified,  they  might 
 have  soon  perceived,  '  that  God  intended  it  for  a  type 
 of  the  death  of  Christ,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  was 
 to  die  ;  and  that  the  effects  of  the  brazen  serpent  upon 
 them  who  looked  on  it,  did  represent  the  virtue  received 
 by  true  believers  from  the  death  of  their  Redeemer.  For 
 so  we  find  our  Saviour  himself  applying  the  mysterious 
 meaning  of  it :  2  '  As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the 
 wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up ; 
 that  whoso  believeth  in  him,  should  not  perish,  but  have 
 eternal  life.' 
 
 Thus  we  have  answered  the  several  doubts  and  objec- 
 tions that  have  been  made  to  that  part  of  the  history  of 
 Moses  which  includes  this  period  of  time  :  and  if  the 
 attestation  of  profane  writers,  may  be  thought  any  con- 
 firmation of  what  has  been  said,  we  have  the  practice  of 
 most  subsequent  lawgivers,  in  imitation  of  this  great  Jew- 
 ish leader,  pretending  to  a  familiarity  with  some  fictitious 
 deity  or  other,  and  thence  deriving  their  institutions  :  and 
 whoever  compares  the  sacred  and  fabulous  account  of 
 tilings  together,  will  find  a  near  resemblance  between 
 Aaron  and  the  heathen  Mercury ;  and  that  as  this  false 
 deity  is  said  to  have  been  an  Egyptian  by  birth,  the  mes- 
 senger and  interpreter  of  the  gods,  and  is  generally 
 painted  with  a  caduceus,  or  wand  in  his  hand  twisted  about 
 with  snakes ;  so  Aaron  was  himself  born  in  Egypt,  and 
 appointed  by  God  to  be  3  an  interpreter  to  his  brother 
 Moses,  and  a  messenger  to  Pharaoh  and  the  Egyptians, 
 in  whose  presence  he  threw  down  his  wonder-working 
 rod,  and  it  immediately  became  a  serpent. 
 
 The  whole  history  of  Balaam,  as  romantic  as  it  seems. 
 is  still  upon  record  in  the  ancient  oriental  writers,  from 
 whence  the  present  Mahometans  have  borrowed  many 
 things.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  speaking  of  his 
 ass  gave  handle  to  the  fiction  of  several  other  brute 
 creatures,  upon  less  momentous  occasions,  accosting 
 their  masters.  That  the  deserts  wherein  the  Israelites 
 journeyed,  were  infested  with  serpents  of  so  venomous 
 a  kind,  that  their  biting  was  deadly,  and  above  the  power 
 of  art  to  cure,  both  Strabo  and  Diodorus  testify.  And, 
 to  instance  no  farther,  the  worship  of  Jilsculapius,  the 
 known  god  of  physic,  under  the  form  of  a  serpent, a  and 
 what  some  late  travellers  tell  us  of  the  Indians  carrying 
 about  a  wreathed  serpent  upon  a  perch,  to  which  they 
 pay  their  adorations  every  morning,  had  manifestly  their 
 original  from  some  tradition  or  other  of  this  serpent's 
 image,  which  Moses  was  directed  to  set  up.  So  true  is 
 the  character,  confirmed  by  testimony  of  all  kinds,  which 
 the  sacred  writers  give  us  of  this  Moses,  the  servant  of 
 the  Lord,  that  both  as  the  leader,  the  lawgiver,  and 
 historian  of  his  people,  4  '  he  was  found  faithful  in  all 
 his  house.' 
 
 Kidder's  Demonstration,  p. 
 s  Exod.  vii.  1,  2. 
 
 2  John  iii.  1-1,  15. 
 4  Heb.  iii.  5. 
 
 a  type  of  Christ,  and  appealing  to  the  company,  what  reason 
 (exclusive  of  that)  could  be  given  of  this  matter,  one  of  the  Jews 
 confessed  that  he  was  in  the  right,  and  that  he  himself  had 
 inquired  for  a  reason  among  the  Jewish  masters,  and  could  meet 
 with  none. — Kidder's  Demonstration,  p.  73. 
 
 a  There  is  something  very  remarkable,  and  truly  horrid,  in 
 what  Clemens  Alexandrinus  mentions — that  in  the  orgies  of 
 Bacchus  Maenolis  (or  the  mad)  his  worshippers  were  crowned 
 with  serpents,  and  yelled  out  Eve,  Eve,  even  her  by  whom  the 
 ♦ransgression  came. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — On  the  Character  and  Conduct  of 
 Balaam. 
 
 [SUPLEMENTAL  BY   THE  EDITOR.] 
 
 Different  opinions  have  been  entertained  in  regard  to 
 the  real  character  of  Balaam.  The  opinion  of  bishop 
 Patrick,  Dr  Waterland,  bishop  Butler,  bishop  Horsley, 
 and  Dr  Hales,  is,  that  he  was  a  true  prophet  of  Jehovah, 
 to  whom,  on  this  occasion,  he  offered  the  sacrifices  which 
 he  had  desired  Balak  to  prepare.  Others  maintain,  that 
 he  was  merely  an  eminent  soothsayer  or  diviner,  who, 
 it  was  supposed,  could  influence  the  fate  of  individuals 
 and  nations  by  his  enchantments.  Origen,  Chrysostoni, 
 Basil,  and  Augustine,  among  the  ancients,  and  Bryant 
 and  bishop  Gleig,  among  the  moderns,  were  of  the  latter 
 opinion. 
 
 It  is  certain,  as  bishop  Gleig  has  observed,  that  there 
 is  nothing  recorded  in  Scripture  which  has  excited  more 
 profane  ridicule  among  arrogant  jnfidels  than  the  story 
 of  Balaam  rebelling,  or  striving  to  rebel,  against  his 
 God ;  reproved  for  that  rebellion  by  a  contemptible 
 animal ;  blessing  the  people  whom  he  was  requested  to 
 curse,  and  whom  he  wished  to  curse ;  advising  the 
 seduction  of  that  people  to  idolatry  and  fornication, 
 immediately  after  blessing  them,  under  the  influence  of 
 the  Spirit  of  God,  for  their  abstinence  from  these  vices ; 
 praying  that  he  might  himself  die  the  death  of  the 
 righteous,  and  soon  afterwards  falling  in  battle  with 
 those  who,  at  his  instigation,  had  provoked  to  war  that 
 very  people  to  whom  in  his  prayer  he  alludes  as  the 
 righteous.  That  a  true  prophet,  long  blessed  with  a 
 familiar  though  supernatural  intercourse  with  Jehovah, 
 and  such  Balaam  is  supposed  to  have  been,  should  have 
 persisted,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  in  deliberately  thwart- 
 ing, as  far  as  he  was  able,  the  very  designs  of  Jehovah 
 which  he  declared  were  revealed  to  himself,  and  that  he 
 should  at  last  have  enticed  to  idolatry  those  whom  he 
 had  been  compelled  to  bless  because  they  were  not 
 idolaters,  and  have  taken  up  arms  against  them  with 
 whom  he  had  prayed  with  such  apparent  earnestness 
 that  he  might  live  and  die,  is  an  extraordinary  picture 
 of  human  nature. 
 
 Is  this  really  the  picture  of  Balaam  exhibited  by  the 
 inspired  lawgiver  of  the  Hebrews?  If  Balaam  was  a 
 prophet  of  Jehovah,  by  whom  he  had  long  been  inspired 
 with  the  knowledge  of  future  events,  and  whom  he 
 named  as  the  only  true  God,  it  certainly  is  :  but  if  he 
 was  an  idolatrous  diviner  or  soothsayer,  as  he  is  else- 
 where styled,  and  compelled,  on  this  occasion,  to  bless 
 where  he  intended  to  curse,  and  to  foretell,  in  language 
 not  his  own,  future  events  of  the  highest  and  most 
 general  importance,  the  character  and  conduct  of 
 Balaam,  as  described  by  Moses,  will  be  found  perfectly 
 consistent  with  itself ;  whilst  those  who  have  attended 
 to  the  import  of  the  miracles  which  were  wrought  in 
 Egypt  for  the  deliverance  of  Israel,  will  at  once  per- 
 ceive the  wisdom  of  making  the  ass  the  instrument  of 
 rebuking  the  madness  of  this  diviner. 
 
 My  own  opinion  is,  that  Balaam  was  originally  a 
 diviner,  or  magician  of  great  renown  ;  but  having  ac- 
 quired some  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  perhaps  by 
 hearing  of  the  wonderful  works  performed  by  Moses  in 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 335 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  BALES,  A. 
 
 his  name,  he  endeavoured  to  render  this  knowledge  sub- 
 servient to  his  interested  and  ambitious  purposes,  by 
 professing-  himself  a  prophet  of  Jehovah,  and  uttering 
 divinations  as  revelations  from  him.  Thus  the  exorcists, 
 observing  how  efficacious  the  name  of  Jesus  proved  in 
 the  mouth  of  the  apostle,  attempted  to  cast  out  devils, 
 'adjuring  them  by  Jesus  whom  Paul  preached:'  and 
 thus  Simon  Magus,  finding  the  miracles  of  Philip  so 
 much  superior  to  the  effects  of  his  magic,  embraced 
 Christianity ;  and  afterwards  ottered  Peter  money  to 
 confer  on  him  the  same  power  which  he  exercised, 
 doubtless  intending  to  enrich  or  aggrandize  himself  by 
 it.  On  this  supposition,  Balaam's  case  of  incantations, 
 even  in  seeking  Jehovah,  was  the  natural  effect  of  the 
 association  of  his  old  practices  with  his  new  pretensions.1 
 There  is  no  evidence  that  God  had  ever  spoken  to  him, 
 or  by  him,  before  this  event :  but  there  is  ample  proof 
 that  he  lived  and  died  a  wicked  man,  and  an  enemy  of 
 God  and  his  people.  This,  however,  has  not  been  a 
 singular  case.  2  Balaam  dwelt  in  or  near  Mesopotamia  ; 
 but  his  reputation  had  reached  so  far,  and  he  was  so 
 celebrated,  that  he  was  sent  for,  as  it  appears,  in  conse- 
 quence of  the  counsel  given  to  Moab  by  the  elders  of 
 Midian  ;  being  the  only  person  who  was  able  to  contend 
 with  Moses,  the  prophet  of  Israel.  For  we  may  suppose 
 that  they  ascribed  to  the  superior  skill  of  Moses  in  some 
 unknown  arts  all  that  power  by  which  Israel  had  been 
 brought  out  of  Egypt,  notwithstanding  Pharaoh's  deter- 
 mined opposition  ;  had  subsisted  for  so  many  years  in 
 the  wilderness,  and  had  obtained  their  late  victories  over 
 the  Ammonites. 
 
 Bishop  Patrick  does  not  think  that  Balaam  was,  at 
 the  time  when  visited  by  the  messengers  of  Balak,  either 
 a  true  prophet,  or  a  devout  worshipper  of  Jehovah  ;  but 
 that  he  had  formerly  been  both,  till  becoming  so  covet- 
 ous as  to  love  the  wages  of  unrighteousness,  he  addicted 
 himself  to  superstitious  rites  and  ceremonies,  making 
 use  of  teraphim,  which  had  been  of  ancient  practice  in 
 his  country,  and  worshipping  God  perhaps  by  other 
 images.  No  evidence,  however,  can  be  adduced  in  sup- 
 port of  these  suppositions  :  for  we  know  nothing  of 
 Balaam  but  from  what  is  related  of  him  in  the  book  of 
 Numbers,  and  in  other  books  of  sacred  Scripture,  which 
 allude  to  the  circumstances  which  are  there  mentioned. 
 
 My  own  opinion  is,  that  Balaam  was  a  soothsayer  ; 
 and  yet  that  he  was  inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
 utter  important  predictions.  He  was  probably  one  of 
 those  early  idolaters  who  did  not  entirely  renounce  the 
 true  God,  or  cease  to  worship  him,  but  only  associated 
 with  him,  in  their  vain  imaginations,  a  number  of  subor- 
 dinate divinities,  to  whom  they  supposed  that  he  had 
 committed,  under  his  own  superintendence,  the  adminis- 
 tration of  the  affairs  of  this  world,  assigning  to  the  care 
 of  different  deities  different  countries.  To  these  fictitious 
 beings,  of  whom  they  soon  found  images,  they  paid  a 
 kind  of  subordinate  worship,  without,  however,  neglect- 
 ing the  worship  of  Jehovah.  Of  this  we  have  one  instance 
 in  the  case  of  Laban,  who,  while  he  appears  to  have 
 acknowledged  the  supreme  divinity  of  Jehovah,  worship- 
 ped certain  inferior  gods,  of  which  his  daughter  Rachel 
 contrived  to  carry  away  the  images.  Such  appears 
 likewise  to  have  been  the   state  of  religion  in  Egypt, 
 
 Aits 
 
 *  Mat.  vii.  21—23,  and  1  Cor.  xiii.  1—1. 
 
 M.  3705.  A.  C.  1G4G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  1)1  I  I 
 when  Joseph  was  first  carried  thither  :  for  it  was  the 
 true  God  that  sent  to  Pharaoh  the  dreams  which  Joseph 
 interpreted,  for  the  good  of  the  country  of  which  Pha- 
 raoh was  the  sovereign;  and  such  was  the  case  in 
 Canaan,  during  the  reign  of  the  two  Abimelechs,  of 
 whom  we  read  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 
 
 Balaam,  as  it  appears  to  me,  was  an  idolater  who 
 never  was  a  true  prophet  of  the  true  God ;  but  who  had 
 heard  of  Jehovah,  and  acknowledged  not  only  his  exist- 
 ence, but  even  his  power  as  the  tutelar  God  of  the 
 Israelites,  though  he  may  have  been  doubtful  at  first,  as 
 the  Syrians  were  at  a  later  period,  whether  the  God  of 
 Israel,  or  his  own  god,  were  most  powerful.  The 
 ancient  idolaters  never  hesitated  to  acknowledge  each 
 others'  gods,  or  to  worship,  along  with  their  own,  the 
 gods  of  those  nations  in  which  they  had  occasion  to 
 reside ;  and  the  Jews  and  Christians  would  never  have 
 been  persecuted  by  the  Roman  emperors  for  worshipping 
 the  true  God,  had  they  not  refused  to  worship  together 
 with  him,  the  idol  deities  of  the  empire. 
 
 According  to  Mr  Bryant,  the  goat,  the  baboon,  the 
 ass,  and  the  ram,  were  all  considered  sacred,  and  all  for 
 the  same  reason,  by  the  Egyptians,  and  some  other 
 eastern  nations.  All  these  animals  were  considered,  in 
 the  countries  in  which  Baal-peor  was  the  favourite  deitj , 
 as  emblems  of  that  god,  who  was,  in  different  temples, 
 worshipped  under  their  different  similitudes. 
 
 On  a  sacred  ass  then,  Balaam,  the  priest  of  Peor, 
 zealous  for  the  cause  of  his  own  god,  and  eager  to  gain 
 the  wages  of  iniquity,  was  prosecuting  his  journey  to 
 curse  the  worshippers  of  the  true  God,  when  he  was 
 encountered  by  an  angel  on  the  way.  After  various 
 attempts  to  escape,  the  ass  fell  down  before  the  angel, 
 who  had  displayed  himself  to  her,  though  not  yet  to  her 
 rider  :  that  is,  the  emblem  of  the  god  of  Balaam  bowed 
 down  before  the  servant  of  the  God  of  Israel  ;  and  at 
 last,  words  proceeded  from  her  mouth  expressive  of  the 
 severest  reproof  that  could  be  given  to  the  madness  and 
 obstinacy  of  the  soothsayer  of  Pethor.  It  was  a  rule 
 with  the  God  of  Jacob  to  display  his  supremacy  to  his 
 people,  by  making  all  other  deities  and  their  agents 
 subservient  to  his  will.  On  this  account,  lie  often  forced 
 their  representatives,  and  their  prophets,  to  be  (he  un- 
 willing ministers  of  his  commands ;  to  attest  the  supe- 
 riority of  his  power;  and  even  to  execute  his  vengeance 
 on  their  own  votaries.  This  was  remarkably  the  case 
 in  all  the  miracles  wrought  by  the  ministry  of  ."Moses  in 
 the  land  of  Egypt,  when  Jehovah  made  the  gode  <>f  that 
 country  the  instruments  of  his  vengeance  <>n  Pharaoh 
 and  his  host.  In  every  step  of  his  progress,  Balaam 
 was  foiled  at  his  own  weapons.  The  instrument  by 
 which  he  was  first  rebuked  on  the  way ,  though  contemp- 
 tible in  our  eyes,  was  sacred  to  the  god  in  whom  he 
 trusted;  and  therefore  the  speaking  ass,  though  it  hafl 
 often  been  the  subject  of  ridicule  among  ignorant  infi- 
 dels, affords  one  of  the  most  illustrious  proofs  of  the 
 divine  wisdom.  God,  if  he  had  pleased,  might  hare 
 reproved  Balaam  in  the  way  without  the  intervention  of 
 the  ass  ;  when  the  soothsayer  arrived  at  the  end  of  his 
 journey,  he  mighl  have  Keen  compelled  by  the  over- 
 powering influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  pour  forth 
 all  the  predictions  which  he  afterwards  uttered,  without 
 having  recourse  to  any  one  of  his  enchantments  ;  but  the 
 proof  of  Jehovah's  superiority  over  the  gods  of  Midian 
 
338 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  14S9;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37C5.  A.  C.  1C46.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 and  Moab  would  not  have  been  so  conspicuous  to  the 
 grovelling  minds  either  of  those  nations  or  of  the 
 Israelites  themselves,  had  a  single  circumstance  been 
 omitted  which  actually  took  place.  Balaam  was  every- 
 where compelled  to  bless  the  people  whom  it  was  his 
 wish  to  curse  :  and  to  foretell  the  future  destruction,  by 
 that  people,  of  all  the  nations  which  worshipped  the 
 gods  of  Egypt,  Midian,  and  Moab. * 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— Of  the  Profane  History,  Religion,  Go- 
 vernment, fyc.,  of  such  nations  as  the  Israelites  had 
 dealings  with  during  this  period. 
 
 Towards  the  conclusion  of  the  foregoing  book,  we 
 carried  the  succession  of  the  Egyptian  kings  down  to 
 the  reign  of  Amenophis,  who,  according  to  the  most 
 received  accounts,  was  that  obstinate  prince,  that  in 
 pursuit  of  the  Hebrews,  together  with  all  his  army,  was 
 lost  in  the  waves  of  the  Red  Sea  :  nor  should  we,  as  yet, 
 concern  ourselves  any  farther  with  the  history  of  that 
 nation,  but  that  his  son  and  successor,  Sesostris, a  who 
 
 1  See  Gleig,  Horsley,  Butler,  and  Bryant,  on  the  character 
 of  Balaam. 
 
 a  It  is  a  matter  of  no  small  dispute  among  chronologers,  in 
 what  time  it  was  this  Sesostris  lived.  The  seeming  analogy  of 
 the  name  makes  Sir  John  Marsham  think,  that  Sesostris  was  the 
 same  with  Shishak,  '  king  of  Egypt,  who,  in  the  days  of  Reho- 
 boam,  came  up  against  Jerusalem,  and  took  away  the  treasures 
 of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  the  treasures  of  the  king's  house,  and 
 all  the  shields  which  Solomon  had  made,'  &c.  (1  Kings  xiv.  25, 
 26.)  What  confirms  him  in  this  opinion,  is  a  passage  in  Jose- 
 phus,  wherein  he  tells  us,  that  "  God  avenged  himself  upon 
 Rehoboam,  by  the  hand  of  Shishak,  king  of  Egypt,  concerning 
 whom  Herodotus  (being  mistaken)  ascribes  what  he  did  to  Se- 
 sostris." (Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  8.  c.  4.)  But  what  if,  in  this 
 matter,  Josephus  himself  should  he  mistaken,  and  not  Herodo- 
 tus ?  Josephus  certainly  took  his  antiquities  from  the  records 
 of  the  Jews,  which  gave  a  full  account  of  what  happened  to 
 Abraham  and  his  posterity,  both  before  and  after  they  inherited 
 the  land  of  Canaan  ;  but  gave  no  account  at  all  of  that  country 
 while  it  was  in  other  hands,  and  particularly  while  the  Israelites 
 were  in  the  wilderness:  and  therefore  it  is  more  probable,  that 
 Josephus  knew  of  no  conquest  of  the  land  of  Canaan  by  the 
 Egyptians,  before  the  time  of  Rehoboam.  For  when  he  applies 
 what  Herodotus  says  of  Sesostris'  setting  up  several  infamous 
 pillars,  to  stigmatize  the  countries  which  he  conquered  for 
 cowardice,  to  Shishak,  after  his  expedition  against  the  Jews,  he 
 plainly  gives  us  to  understand,  that  he  knew  of  no  other  expedi- 
 tion from  Egypt  against  the  land  of  Canaan  before  that.  And 
 indeed  these  very  pillars  are  enough  to  decide  the  matter,  that 
 our  Sesostris  was  not  Shishak.  Shishak  made  an  irruption  into 
 Judea,  plundered  the  temple  and  the  country,  and  so  went  back 
 again  into  Egypt.  Now,  had  he  set  up  such  pillars,  as  a  per- 
 petual mark  of  infamy  upon  the  Jews,  can  we  imagine  that  they 
 would  have  let  them  stand,  even  to  be  seen  in  Herodotus'  time, 
 and  not  immediately  pulled  them  down  upon  his  retreat  ?  But,  on 
 the  other  hand,  if  Sesostris,  who  succeeded  the  Pharaoh  that  was 
 drowned  in  the  Red  Sea,  conquered  Canaan,  and  set  up  such 
 pillars,  there  is  good  reason  to  think,  that  they  might  continue 
 a  long  while,  because  the  Canaanites,  who  were  a  conquered 
 people,  dared  not  pull  them  down  in  his  reign,  and  in  the  time 
 of  the  deputies  who  governed  under  him  ;  and  the  Israelites,  who 
 knew  that  these  pillars  were  no  reflection  on  them,  but,  only  on 
 their  enemies,  would  be  inclinable  enough  to  let  them  stand.  It 
 is  much  more  probable  then,  that  the  mistake  belongs  to  Jose- 
 phus, and  not  to  Herodotus ;  because  Herodotus,  in  what  he 
 asserts  of  Sesostris,  agrees  with  Diodorus  and  others:  but,  to  fix 
 the  actions  of  Sesostris  upon  Shishak,  there  is  no  one  ancient 
 author  that  will  agree  with  Josephus.  Aristotle  affirms,  (Polit., 
 V>.  I.e.  10.)  that  the  kingdom  of  Sesostris  was  much  older,  in 
 
 lived  in  the  time  of  the  Israelites'  peregrination  in  the 
 wilderness,  and  may  therefore  properly  take  his  place 
 here,  was  a  person  of  so  distinguished  a  character,  that 
 to  pass  him  by  in  silence  would  be  doing  an  injury  to 
 our  reader. 
 
 As  soon  as  Sesostris  was  born,  some  historians  tell 
 us,  that  Vulcan  appeared  to  his  father,  in  his  sleep,  and 
 informed  him,  that  his  son  should  conquer  the  whole 
 world  :  upon  which  presumption  it  was,  that  he  took  so 
 much  care,  not  of  his  education  only,  but  of  every  male 
 child's  likewise  that  was  born  on  the  same  day  with  him, 
 even  through  all  his  kingdom  of  Egypt.  The  number  of 
 these  is  said  to  have  amounted  to  1700  in  all,;  and  the  king 
 gave  orders  that  they  shoidd  be  trained  up  in  the  same 
 
 point  of  time,  than  that  of  Minos  iu  Crete,  which  every  one  owns 
 was  in  the  time  of  Joshua.  Pliny  maintains,  (Nat.  Hist.,  b.  37. 
 c.  8.)  that  Troy  was  taken  in  the  time  of  Ramesses,  who  was 
 the  third  descendant  from  Sesostris.  Strabo  avers,  (b.  ult.)  that 
 Sesostris  was  long  before  the  Trojan  times ;  and  Sir  John 
 Marsham,  and  in  general  all  the  writers  of  the  Argonautic  ex- 
 pedition, owa  plainly,  that  the  colonies  of  Sesostris  had  been  at 
 Colchis  before  that,  which  all  agree  to  have  been  a  century 
 before  the  fall  of  Troy.  And,  if  to  these  we  may  add  two 
 moderns,  both  the  learned  prelate  Usher,  and  the  learned  bishop 
 Cumberland,  do  unanimously  agree  in  making  Sesostris  to  be  the 
 son  of  that  Pharaoh  who  was  drowned  in  the  Red  Sea;  which 
 the  latter  of  these  has  given  several  arguments  to  prove,  (San- 
 ction., p.  402.)  But  these  the  learned  author  of  the  Connection  of 
 the  Sacred  and  Profane  History  has  endeavoured  to  invalidate  ;  and 
 thereupon  concludes,  "That  Sesostris  should  be  the  son  of  Pha- 
 raoh who  was  drowned  in  the  Red  Sea,  and  that  in  the  state 
 which  his  father's  misfortunes  must  have  reduced  Egypt  to,  he 
 should  immediately  find  strength  sufficient  to  subdue  kingdom 
 after  kingdom,  and  to  erect  himself  a  large  empire  over  many 
 great  and  flourishing  nations;  this  must  be  thought,  by  any  one 
 who  duly  considers  things,  at  first  sight,  a  most  romantic 
 fiction;"  (vol.  3.  b.  11.)  Shuckford  is  undoubtedly  right  when 
 he  says,  in  his  Connection,  that  Sesostris  could  not  have  been 
 the  son  of  Pharaoh  who  was  drowned  in  the  Red  Sea.  For 
 it  seems  self-evident  that  the  son  of  that  monarch  could  not 
 have  been  in  a  condition  to  attempt  the  conquests  which  Sesostris 
 is  known  to  have  achieved.  Had  Sesostris  returned  flushed 
 with  victory,  and  known  that  the  Israelites  were  wandering  in 
 the  desert,  as  our  author  supposes,  there  is  little  doubt  but  that, 
 in  his  thirst  for  universal  empire,  he  would  have  attempted  to 
 reduce  them  again  to  bondage ;  and  as  the  desert  in  which  the 
 Israelites  spent  the  time  of  their  journeyings  was  close  upon 
 Egypt,  it  would  not  have  been  a  very  difficult  task  to  one  who  had 
 carried  an  army  through  so  many  inhospitable  countries,  to  have 
 penetrated  the  desert  and  attacked  the  Israelites,  and  had  he 
 done  so  unsuccessfully,  Moses  would  undoubtedly  have  recorded 
 his  defeat.  But  Dr  Hales  has  shown,  that  there  was  not  less 
 than  seventeen  kings  between  the  date  of  the  exode  of  the 
 Israelites  and  Sesostris,  whose  joint  reigns  amounted  to  340 
 years.  During  all  this  period,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  king 
 of  any  note  except  Amenophis,  or  Moeris,  the  father  and  imme- 
 diate predecessor  of  Sesostris,  who  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the 
 best  and  wisest  of  the  Egyptian  kings.  The  formation  of  the 
 lake  that  goes  by  his  name  is  ascribed  to  him ;  but  the  extent  of 
 it,  and  other  circumstances,  make  it  evident  that  it  could  not 
 have  been  excavated  by  human  labour.  But  he  seems  to  have 
 opened  a  communication  between  the  river  and  this  vast  natural 
 basin,  eighty  stadia  in  length,  and  three  stadia,  or  a  hundred 
 yards  in  breadth,  according  to  Diodorus;  and  this  converted  the 
 lake  into  a  vast  reservoir  for  the  redundant  waters  of  the  river 
 while  inundated.  A  stupendous  work,  and  far  more  glorious  than 
 either  the  pyramid  or  labyrinth,  if  we  consider  its  various  and 
 important  uses  for  agriculture,  commerce,  fishery,  &c.  At 
 present  this  canal  is  called  Bahr  Jussuf,  or  "  Joseph's  river," 
 and  is  vulgarly  ascribed  to  the  patriarch  Joseph,  while  regent  of 
 Egypt;  but  was  most  probably  repaired  and  denominated  from 
 the  famous  sultan,  Joseph  Saladin,  who  made  that  wonder  of 
 Cairo,  called  "  Joseph's  well." — See  Hales'  Analysis,  vol.  4.  p. 
 431,  8vo  second  edition. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 337 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 discipline  and  exercises  with  his  son,  as  justly  supposing 
 that  they  who  had  been  the  constant  and  equal  com- 
 panions of  his  childhood  and  youth,  would  prove  his 
 most  faithful  ministers,  and  affectionate  fellow  soldiers. 
 1  Having  therefore  provided  tutors  and  masters,  and 
 every  thing  necessary  for  this  purpose,  he  had  them,  by 
 degrees,  inured  to  laborious  and  manly  exercises,  as 
 weil  as  instructed  in  all  liberal  and  useful  sciences,  that, 
 as  they  grew  up,  by  the  strength  of  their  bodies,  and  the 
 cultivation  of  their  minds,  they  might  be  equally  fitted 
 either  to  command  or  execute. 
 
 Amenophis,  after  he  had  been  at  this  vast  expense 
 and  trouble  in  laying  the  foundation  of  his  son's  future 
 grandeur,  resolved  to  give  him  and  his  companions  an 
 opportunity  of  displaying  the  good  effects  of  their  edu- 
 cation ;  and  accordingly  sent  him,  and  them  along  with 
 him,  at  the  head  of  an  army  into  Arabia.  In  this  expe- 
 dition, the  young"  Sesostris  surmounted  all  the  dangers 
 of  serpents  and  venomous  creatures,  all  the  wants  and 
 hardships  of  a  dry  and  barren  country,  and  in  the  end, 
 conquered  the  Arabians,  a  rude  and  barbarous  people, 
 that  had  never  been  vanquished  before. 
 
 From  Arabia  his  father  ordered  him  westward,  where 
 he  subdued  the  greatest  part  of  Africa;  but  while  he  was 
 engaged  in  this  expedition,  news  was  brought  him,  that 
 his  father,  and  all  his  army,  were  drowned  in  the  Red 
 Sea,  which  made  him  desist  from  his  conquests,  and 
 hasten  home  with  his  army,  in  order  to  secure  his  suc- 
 cession to  the  kingdom.  AYhether  it  was  that  he  called 
 to  mind  the  prediction  of  the  god  Vulcan,  or  was  in- 
 structed by  Mercury,  who  prepared  him  for  the  war ; 
 was  assured  of  success  by  divination,  by  dreams  in  tiie 
 temple,  or  prodigies  in  the  air,  or  persuaded  to  it  by  his 
 daughter  Athyrte,  a  young  lady  of  uncommon  under- 
 standing, and  who  made  it  out  to  her  father  that  the 
 thing  was  practicable  ;  but  so  it  was,  that  no  sooner  was 
 he  settled  upon  the  Egyptian  throne,  but  his  thoughts 
 began  to  swell,  and  his  mind  to  grasp  at  an  universal 
 monarchy. 
 
 His  own  country  indeed  he  found  but  in  a  lamentable 
 estate.  The  Israelites,  who  were  their  slaves,  were 
 gone.  All  their  veteran  soldiers,  with  their  arms, 
 chariots,  and  horses,  were  lost:  the  first-born  of  every 
 family  was  slain,  the  cattle  killed,  the  fruit  of  the  earth 
 destroyed,  and  nothing  but  famine  was  to  be  expected  : 
 and  yet,  notwithstanding  all  this  discouragement,  he  was 
 resolved  to  put  in  practice  his  scheme  for  a  general 
 conquest.  But  then  considering  that  this  would  oblige 
 him  to  be  long  absent,  and  far  distant  from  Egypt,  he 
 could  not  but  deem  it  necessary  to  gain  the  love  and 
 affection  of  his  subjects,  that  those  who  followed  him 
 might  lay  down  their  lives  more  cheerfully  in  his  service, 
 and  they  whom  he  left  behind  might  not  be  induced  to 
 attempt  any  innovations  while  he  was  gone. 
 
 To  this  purpose  he  endeavoured,  in  the  first  place,  to 
 oblige  every  one  to  the  utmost  of  his  power  ;  some  by 
 largesses  in  money ;  others  by  donations  in  land ; 
 many  by  the  concession  of  free  pardons ;  and  every 
 one  by  fair  speeches,  and  a  courteous  and  aflable 
 behaviour  upon  all  occasions.  Those  that  were  con- 
 demned for  high  treason  he  released  with  impunity,  and 
 
 1  The  chief  of  this  account  is  taken  from  Diodorus  Siculus, 
 ted  Herodotus   in  his  Euterpe,  b.  1. 
 
 M.  3705.  A.  C.  1C4G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  EST)  OF  DEUT. 
 
 by  paying  what  they  owed,  discharged  such  as  were  in 
 prison  for  debt.  In  the  next  place,  he  resettled  the 
 ancient  division  of  the  country  into  six  and  thirty  parts, 
 which  the  Egyptians  call  nomi,  or  provinces  ;  assign- 
 ed a  governor  to  each  of  these;  and  constituted  his 
 brother  Armais,  (whom  the  Greeks  called  Danaus,) 
 supreme  regent.  Him  lie  invested  with  ample  power  and 
 authority,  but  restrained  him  from  wearing  the  crown, 
 from  offering  any  injury  to  the  queen  and  her  family,  and 
 from  having  any  dealings  with  the  royal  concubines. 
 
 Having  thus  settled  the  government,  he  proceeded  in 
 the  last  place,  to  raise  an  army  equal  to  the  vastness  of 
 his  design,  which  consisted  of  600,000  foot,  21,000 
 horse,  and  27,000  warlike  chariots.  His  principal 
 officers  were  taken  out  of  those  brave  men  who  were 
 trained  up  with  him  in  martial  exploits  ;  and  that  they 
 might  always  be  in  readiness,  without  submitting  to  any 
 mean  employ,  to  attend  him  to  the  wars,  he  took  care  to 
 bestow  on  them  large  estates  in  land,  in  some  of  the 
 richest  and  most  fertile  parts  of  Egypt.  AVith  this  army 
 he  marched  at  first  against  the  Ethiopians,  whom  he  soon 
 conquered,  and  made  them  pay  a  tribute  of  ebony,  gold, 
 and  elephants'  teeth.  But  his  land  forces  alone  were 
 not  answerable  to  the  conquests  he  intended  ;  and  there- 
 fore he  fitted  out  two  fleets  of  tall  ships,  somewhat 
 resembling  our  modern  form,  one  in  the  Mediterranean 
 Sea,  and  the  other  in  the  Arabian  Gulf.  With  the  Me- 
 diterranean squadron  he  conquered  Cyprus,  the  sea 
 coasts  of  Phoenicia,  and  several  of  the  Cyclades ;  and 
 from  the  Arabian  Gulf,  he  sailed  into  the  Indian  Sea, 
 and  there  subdued  all  the  coasts  thereof,  till  happening 
 to  come  into  a  shallow,  and  his  ships  drawing  more 
 water  than  usual,  he  either  was  unable  or  afraid  to  go 
 any  farther,  and  so  returned  into  Egypt. 
 
 But  he  had  not  been  long  returned,  before  his  ambition 
 began  to  operate  afresh  ;  and  therefore  advising  with 
 his  priests,  he  recruited  his  army,  and  marched  into  Asia. 
 The  Israelites  were  at  this  time  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia, 
 and  therefore  it  may  look  a  little  strange,  why  a  man  of 
 Sesostris'  spirit  should  not  have  been  tempted  to  pursue 
 them.  But  besides  the  barrenness  of  the  country,  which 
 could  never  support  so  vast  a  multitude  as  he  carried 
 with  him,  he  could  not  but  relied  on  his  father's  fate  : 
 and  therefore  dreading  the  like  miraculous  OTerthrow,  he 
 declined  the  Israelites,  and  marched  directly  Bgl  ins 
 Canaan,  which,  without  the  least  opposition,  at  once 
 submitted  to  him;  so  that,  imposing  an  annual  tribute 
 upon  the  people,  and  putting  governors  in  all  their 
 principal  towns,  he  proceeded  in  the  course  of  his  con- 
 quests, and  in  a  short  time  overran  all  Asia  and  some 
 parts  of  Europe. 
 
 He  passed  the  river  Ganges,  and  pierced  through  all 
 India;  as  far  as  the  main  ocean  eastward:   then   "he 
 
 a  Though  Herodotus,  Diodorus,  and  others,  relate,  that  he  was 
 victorious  in  these  countries;  jret  some  "ill  have  it  thai  lie  met 
 with  a  repulse,  Bed  from  the  Scythians,  ami  was  worsted  by  the 
 Colchians.  For  Justin  tells  us  that  Vexoris,  or  Sesostris,  despatch- 
 ing ambassadors  before  him  to  summon  the  Scythians  to  surren- 
 der, they  sent  back  bis  messengers  with  contempt,  and  threats,  and 
 
 defiance,  Slid  immediately  took  up  arms;  that  Sesostris  bt  ing  in- 
 formed  Uiat  they  were  advancing  tow  aids  him,  by  hasty  mat 
 suddenly  turned  about,  and  lied  from  before  them,  leaving  all  his 
 baggage  and  warlike  apparel  to  the  pursuers,  who  followed  him 
 till  he  came  on  the  borders  of  Egypt  (b.  2.  C.  3.)  Pliny  relates 
 (b.  33.  c.  3.)  tiiat  lie  was  overthrown  by  the  king  of  Colchis;  tnd 
 Su 
 
338 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2M5.  A.  C.  1480;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G5.  A.  C.  164G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 subdued  the  Scythians,  as  far  as  the  river  Tanais,  which 
 divides  Europe  from  Asia:  here  he  brought  into  subjec- 
 tion the  other  parts  of  Asia ;  and  from  hence  lie  went 
 into  Thrace  in  Europe ;  but  as  he  was  marching  along 
 the  deserts,  he  was  in  danger  of  losing  his  army  through 
 the  want  of  provisions,  and  difficulty  of  passes  ;  and 
 therefore  "■  erecting,  as  his  custom  was,  his  pillars  there, 
 he  adventured  to  proceed  no  farther  :  though  the  occa- 
 sion of  his  return  may  rather  be  imputed  to  the  news 
 which  he  received  from  the  Egyptian  high  priest,  of  his 
 brother's  revolt  and  usurpation. 
 
 For,  encouraged  with  his  long  absence,  and  great  dis- 
 tance, Armais  had  done  every  thing  that  was  interdicted 
 him  ;  had  assumed  the  diadem,  violated  the  queen,  made 
 promiscuous  use  of  the  king's  concubines,  and  by  the 
 advice  of  his  false  friends,  was  now  meditating  to  main- 
 tain his  usurpation  by  force  of  arms  :  but  hearing  of  his 
 brother's  return,  he  feigns  himself  of  another  temper ; 
 meets  him  at  Pelusium,  a  frontier  town,  before  he  could 
 have  certain  intelligence  of  what  had  passed ;  and  there 
 received  him  with  all  the  appearance  of  submission  and 
 joy,  but  with  a  real  design,  not  only  to  take  away  his 
 life,  but  quite  extirpate  his  whole  family.  To  this  end 
 he  invited  the  king  his  brother,  the  queen,  and  her  chil- 
 dren, to  a  banquet,  which  he  had  prepared  for  their 
 refreshment ;  but  when  they  had  all  drank  very  plenti- 
 fully, and  were  now  gone  to  rest,  he  caused  a  great 
 quantity  of  dried  reeds,  which  he  had  before  prepared 
 for  that  purpose,  to  be  laid  round  the  king's  pavilion, 
 and  set  on  fire,  in  hopes  to  destroy  them  all.  Sesostris 
 perceiving  the  danger  he  Avas  in,  and  expecting  no  assis- 
 tance from  his  guards,  who  were  all  overcome  with  wine, 
 *  lifted  up  his  hands,  and  implored  the  gods  in  behalf  of 
 his  wife  and  children,  he  rushed  with  them  through  the 
 flames  ;  and  being  thus  unexpectedly  preserved,  he  made 
 oblations  to  several  of  the  gods,  but  more  especially  to 
 Vulcan, by  whose  protection  he  thought  himself  delivered. 
 The  traitor  Armais  being  thus  defeated  in  his  wicked 
 design,  betook  himself  to  arms,  but  was  soon  discomfited 
 by  Sesostris,  and  forced  to  flee  into  Greece,  where  he 
 settled  at  Argos,  and  not  long  after  was  chosen  king  ; 
 
 Valerius  Flaccus  insinuates,  that  he  was  repulsed  with  great 
 slaughter,  and  put  to  flight  in  these  parts. — Argonaut,  b.  5. 
 
 a  It  was  the  custom  of  this  great  warrior,  to  set  up  pillars  in 
 every  country  he  conquered,  with  an  inscription  to  this  effect, — 
 "  Sesostris  king  of  kings,  and  lord  of  lords,  subdued  this  coun- 
 try by  the  power  of  his  arms."  If  the  nation  had,  without 
 opposition,  ignobly  submitted  to  him,  besides  the  inscription,  he 
 caused  the  privities  of  a  woman  to  be  carved,  as  a  mark  of  their 
 effeminacy  and  baseness;  but  if  they  had  defended  themselves 
 bravely,  the  pillars  bore  the  distinction  of  the  contrary  sex,  in 
 testimony  of  their  courage.  Besides  these,  he  left  statues  of  him- 
 self behind  him,  two  of  which  were  to  be  seen  in  Herodotus'  time, 
 one  on  the  road  between  Ephesus  and  Phocsea,  and  the  other 
 between  Smyrna  and  Sardis.  They  were  armed  after  the  Ethio- 
 pian and  Egyptian  manner;  held  a  javelin  in  one  hand,  and  a 
 bow  in  the  other;  and  across  the  breast,  had  aline  drawn  from 
 shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  which  was  this  inscription:  —  "This 
 region  I  obtained  by  these  my  soldiers." — Universal  History, 
 b.   I.e.  3. 
 
 l>  Herodotus  adds  one  circumstance  more:  that  waking  out  of 
 sleep,  and  finding  his  danger,  he  consulted  with  his  qaeen  what 
 to  do  in  this  extremity,  who  advised  him  to  throw  two  of  his 
 children  into  the  flames  that  they  might  serve  as  a  bridge  for  all 
 the  rest;  which  he  accordingly  did,  and  so  they  all  escaped.  But 
 this  is  generally  deemed  a  mistake  in  our  historian,  or  a  circum- 
 stance crept  in,  on  purpose  to  make  the  distress  appear  more 
 affecting. — Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  4.  c.  5. 
 
 while  his  victorious  brother,  after  nine  years'  absence, 
 returning  in  triumph  to  Egypt,  adorned  the  temples  with 
 rich  spoils  :  and  having  disbanded  his  army,  after  he  had 
 rewarded  them  according  to  their  merit,  he  began  to  ap- 
 ply his  mind  to  such  stupendous  works  as  might  immor- 
 talize his  name,  and  everlastingly  contribute  to  the  public 
 good. 
 
 He  built  a  temple  in  every  city  in  Eg-ypt,  and  dedi- 
 cated it  to  the  peculiar  god  of  the  place.  This  was  a 
 work  wherein  he  employed  none  but  captives  ;  and  there- 
 fore he  had  it  inscribed  upon  each  temple,  "  None  of  the 
 natives  were  put  to  labour  here."  He  raised  vast  mounts 
 and  hills  of  earth,  to  which  he  removed  the  cities  that 
 had  before  too  low  a  situation,  in  order  t6  secure  both 
 man  and  beast  from  the  danger  of  the  Nile's  inundations. 
 All  the  way,  from  Memphis  to  the  sea,  he  dug  canals, 
 which  from  the  Nile  branched  out,  and  not  only  made  an 
 easier  conveyance  from  place  to  place,  but  greatly  ad- 
 vanced the  trade  and  prosperity  of  the  kingdom.  All 
 the  towns  that  were  upon  the  frontiers,  and  lay  before 
 exposed  to  any  superior  number  of  forces,  he  fortified 
 against  the  incursions  of  enemies,  and  made  them  of 
 difficult  access.  He  defended  the  east  side  of  Egypt 
 against  the  irruptions  of  the  Syrians  and  Arabians,  with 
 a  wall  drawn  from  Pelusium,  through  the  deserts,  as  far 
 as  Heliopolis,  which  is  at  least  1500  furlongs.  He 
 caused  a  ship  of  2S0  cubits  long,  to  be  built  all  of  cedar, 
 gilded  over  with  gold  without,  and  lined  with  silver  with- 
 in ;  and  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  his  actions,  he 
 erected  two  obelisks  of  polished  marble,  120  cubits  high, 
 on  which  was  inscribed  an  account  of  the  extent  of  his 
 empire,  the  value  of  his  revenue,  and  the  number  of  the 
 nations  which  he  had  conquered.  One  thing,  however  is 
 reported  of  him,  which  argues  an  horrid  insolence,  in  so 
 great  a  man,  and  tarnishes  his  character  not  a  little,  and 
 that  is,  that  at  set  times  his  custom  was,  to  have  the  tri- 
 butary kings,  and  such  as  held  their  dominions  under  his 
 favour,  to  come  into  Egypt  to  pay  their  homage  ;  and 
 though  he  received  them  at  first  with  all  signs  of  honour 
 and  respect,  yet  on  certain  occasions,  he  would  have  his 
 horses  unharnessed,  and  some  four  or  more  of  these  kings 
 yoked  together,  and  made  to  draw  his  chariot :  but,  bat- 
 ing this  opprobrious  piece  of  arrogance,  c  and  whereof 
 he  was  cured  before  he  died,  he  was  certainly  in  all 
 respects,  the  greatest  prince  that  ever  sat  upon  the 
 Egyptian  throne  ;  and  (what  some  have  accounted  an 
 augmentation  of  his  greatness)  after  he  had  reigned 
 three  and  thirty  years,  he  lost  his  eyesight,  and  out  of 
 disgust,  laid  violent  hands  upon  himself,  thereby  making 
 his  magnanimity  in  death,  as  they  call  it,  equal  to  the 
 glorious  actions  of  his  life. 
 
 After  that  the  children  of  Israel  had  left  the  Egyp- 
 
 c  The  manner  in  which  he  was  cured  is  said  to  be  this: — One 
 day,  as  some  of  these  tributary  kings  were  drawing  him  along,  he 
 perceived  one  of  them  to  look  back  upon  one  of  the  wheels,  with 
 a  very  great  stedfastness;  and  thereupon  inquiring  what  might  be 
 the  subject  of  his  thoughts,  or  the  occasion  of  his  deep  attention, 
 he  received  an  answer  to  this  effect: — "  The  going  round  of  the 
 wheel,  O  king,  calls  to  my  mind  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune:  for 
 as  every  part  of  the  wheel  is  uppermost  and  lowermost  by  turns, 
 so  it  is  with  men,  who  one  day  sit  on  a  throne,  and  on  the  next 
 are  reduced  to  the  vilest  degree  of  slavery."  Which  answer 
 struck  the  king  with  such  compunction,  that  for  ever  after  he  gave 
 off  this  inhuman  practice. — Diodorus,  b.  1 ;  and  Universal  His- 
 tory, b.  1.  c.  3. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 339 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1C4G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 tians  in  the  Red  Sea,  the  first  people  that  gave  them  any 
 molestation  were  the  Amalekites.  Amalek  was  the  son 
 of  Eliphaz,  by  his  concubine  Tinuia,  as  Eliphaz  was  the 
 first-born  of  Esau.a  He  gave  name  both  to  the  people 
 and  country  where  he  lived,  and  notwithstanding-  the 
 spuriousness  of  his  birth,  is,  l  in  the  catalogue  of  the 
 dukes  of  Edom,  reckoned  as  one  of  them..  The  country 
 of  the  Anialekites  lay  somewhere  between  Egypt  and 
 Palestine,  and  was  therefore  very  probably  bounded  by 
 Canaan  to  the  north  ;  by  Egypt  or  its  dependent  terri- 
 tories to  the  south  ;  by  Edom,  or  the  land  of  Seir,  to  the 
 east ;  and  by  the  deserts  towards  the  sea,  or  perhaps  by 
 the  margin  of  the  sea  itself,  to  the  west. 
 
 Their  religion  was  at  first  no  doubt  the  same  that  was 
 taught  in  the  house  of  Abraham  ;  but  in  process  of  time 
 they  were  carried  away  with  the  general  corruption, 
 and  fell  into  the  same  idolatry  that  their  brethren  the 
 Edomites  practised.  And  as  to  their  commerce  or  trade, 
 the  situation  of  their  country  might  favour  them,  as  much 
 as  their  neighbours,  and  the  superiority  of  the  power  and 
 greatness  to  which  they  had  advanced  themselves,  looks 
 as  if  they  had  improved  it  more  than  others. 
 
 Their  form  of  government  was  monarchical ;  and  as 
 it  appears  that  the  first,  at  least  one  of  the  first,  and  the 
 last  of  their  kings  was  called  Agag,  it  is  no  unlikely 
 supposition,  that  all  their  intermediate  kings  bore  the 
 same  name.  However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  at  this 
 time  they  were  a  flourishing  nation,  and  grown  up  to  such 
 a  *  sudden  height  of  power  and  grandeur,  that  their  king 
 is  spoken  of  as  much  superior  to  any  other ;  and  therefore, 
 when  Balaam  foretels  the  future  majesty  of  the  Jewish 
 state,  he  expresses  himself,  that  a  '  their  king  should  be 
 higher  than  Agag,'  and  styles  them  the  '  first  of  the 
 nations  :'  which  seems   to   countenance   the   wonderful 
 
 1  Gen.  xxxvi.  12.  *  Num.  xxiv.  7. 
 
 a  This  genealogy  of  the  Amalekites  seems  to  be  altogether 
 erroneous.  The  Amalekites  are  mentioned  (Gen.  xiv.  7.)  as  a 
 people  of  some  consequence  at  the  time  of  the  wars  of  Chedor- 
 laomer,  and  must  therefore  have  been  a  nation  before  the  era  of 
 Abraham  and  Lot,  which  is  a  proof  that  they  did  not  derive  their 
 origin  from  Amalek,  the  grandson  of  Esau,  but  from  some  older 
 stock.  That  stock,  according  to  the  Arabian  writers,  was 
 Amalek,  or  Amlak,  a  son  of  Ham,  and,  of  course,  grandson  of 
 Noah.  This  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Amalekites  certainly 
 agrees  better  than  our  author's,  with  the  description  of  them  by 
 Balaam  as  the  first  of  the  nations  in  that  part  of  the  world ;  for 
 had  their  common  ancestor  been  a  grandson  of  Esau,  they  must, 
 in  the  days  of  that  soothsayer,  have  been  a  nation  of  no  antiquity. 
 It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  there  is  no  Amalek  or  Amlak 
 mentioned  by  Moses  among  the  sons  of  Ham ;  but  that  is  a  very 
 slight  objection  to  the  Arabian  account,  it  being  universally 
 admitted  that  it  is  only  of  the  family  of  Shem  that  the  Jewish 
 legislator  gives  a  full  and  minute  genealogy. — See  Bishop  New- 
 ton's Dissertation  on  the  Prophecies  of  Balaam. 
 
 b  The  kingdom  of  Edom  commenced  much  about  the  time  of 
 the  Israelites'  departure  out  of  Egypt;  and  that  of  Amalek  could 
 not  be  much,  if  any  thing  at  all,  older;  and  therefore  when 
 Balaam  expressed  himself  in  so  high  a  strain,  concerning  Agag, 
 and  his  monarchy,  it  could  not  have  been  much  above  forty  years' 
 standing.  The  expression  of  Amalek's  being  'the  first  of  the 
 nations,'  our  version  turns  otherwise  in  the  margin,  '  the  first  of 
 the  nations  that  warred  against  Israel ;'  and  if  we  compare  what 
 is  said  of  Agag,  but  thirteen  verses  before,  we  shall  not  be  at  a 
 loss  for  the  right,  at  least  for  a  natural,  explication  of  the  words, 
 namely,  that  they  were  the  greatest  and  most  noble  nation  at  that 
 time;  and  accordingly  Le  Clerc's  version  styles  them,  'the  first- 
 fruits  of  the  nations,'  by  which  in  his  Commentary,  he  under- 
 stands them  to  have  been  the  most  ancient  and  potent  nation  of 
 any  of  those  which  proceeded  from  the  loins  of  Abraham  and  Lot. 
 —  Universal  History,  b.  I.  c.  4. 
 
 things  which  the  Arabian  historians  tell  us  of  these  peo- 
 ple, namely,  that  they  once  conquered  Egypt,  and  pos- 
 sessed the  throne  of  that  kingdom  for  several  genera- 
 tions. The  truth  is,  these  Anialekites  were  a  bold  and 
 daring  people  from  the  very  first.  No  sooner  had  the 
 Israelites  set  foot  upon  the  Arabian  shore,  but  they  con- 
 spired against  them,  and  falling  on  their  rear,  in  their 
 march  to  Horeb,  made  some  slaughter  among  them, 
 which  Joshua,  as  soon  as  he  had  got  his  fighting  men  in 
 order,  took  care  to  repay  ;  though  it  must  be  confessed, 
 that  Ood  for  some  time,  was  pleased  to  make  use  of  this 
 nation,  in  conjunction  with  some  of  the  Canaanites,  to 
 3  'be  scourges  in  the  sides,  ami  thorns  in  the  eyes,'  that 
 is,  his  instruments  for  the  punishment  of  the  diffidence 
 and  disobedience  of  his  own  people. 
 
 Esau,  who  either  from  the  colour  of  his  hair  and  com- 
 plexion, or  for  selling  his  birthright  to  Jacob  for  a  mess 
 of  red  pottage,  had  the  name  of  Edom  given  him,  was  the 
 progenitor  likewise  of  this  people.  Their  ancient  king- 
 dom, when  in  its  meridian,  was  bounded  on  the  north  by 
 the  land  of  Canaan  and  the  Salt  Sea  ;  on  the  south  by  the 
 Arabian  gulf ;  on  the  east,  by  the  land  of  Midian  ;  and 
 on  the  west,  by  the  kingdom  of  Amalek:  and  in  this 
 compass  of  ground,  they  had  several  remarkable  cities, 
 besides  two  eminent  sea-ports,  Elath  and  Ezion-geber, 
 on  the  Arabian  gulf;  but  the  latter  of  these  became  so 
 infamous  for  the  many  wrecks  which  befell  the  shipping 
 that  frequented  it,  that  in  time  it  came  to  be  disused. 
 
 The  people  were  naturally  bold  and  courageous ; 
 jealous  of  their  rights,  and  always  in  a  disposition  to 
 maintain  them  ;  as  those  who  claim  the  empire  of  the 
 sea,  in  the  manner  that  they  did,  should  always  be.  As 
 they  were  descended  from  Abraham,  we  are  not  to  doubt, 
 but  that  their  belief  and  practice  were  right  at  first, 
 though,  by  degrees,  *  they  fell  into  idolatry,  and  if  we 
 can  suppose  that  the  book  of  Job  was  of  as  ancient  date 
 as  is  pretended,  and  that  he  himself  lived  among  these 
 people,  we  cannot  but  acknowledge,  that  the  *  invention 
 and  use  of  constellations  in  astronomy, c  the  art  of  writ- 
 ing, 7  the  art  of  navigation,  and  many  more  parts  of 
 truly  useful  knowledge,  were  begun,  and  cultivated 
 among  them. 
 
 The  form  of  their  civil  constitution  seems  to  have 
 varied  according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times.  The 
 Horites,  who  very  early  inhabited  this  country,  MN 
 ruled,  at  first,  by  their  respective  patriarchs,  or  heads  of 
 families;  "till  being  overcome  by  Chedorlaomor,  king 
 of  Elam,  who  swept  them  before  him  with  other  nations, 
 they,  to  secure  themselves  for  the  time  to  come,  changed 
 the  constitution  into  an  elective  monarchy;  and  it  was 
 under  this  form  of  government  that  Ksau  and  his  family 
 lived  for  some  time  sojourners  in  this  land.  The  mon- 
 archy, however,  did  not  last  above  seven  or  eight  .suc- 
 cessions, till,  some  way  or  other,  it  came  to  be  divided 
 into  several  little  independent  principalities,  or  duke- 
 doms; and  as  the  posterity  of  Esau  exceeded  all  others 
 in  the  number  of  their  dukes,  it  cannot  08  incongruous 
 to  suppose,  that  they  had  the  greatest  hand   in   bringing 
 
 about  this  revolution,  and  the  largest  share  in  the  gov- 
 ernment that  was  founded  thereupon. 
 
 3  Josh,  xxiii.  13.  '  -2  Kings  riii.  20.  it  8. 
 
 Job  \i\.  24.  7  Job  ix. 
 
 8  Bishop  Cumberland's  <  >i  i y .  Gent  Ant. 
 
340 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  164G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 And  as  they  had  the  largest  share  in  the  government,    not  permitted  to  mix  or  intermarry  with  the  Hebrews  ;  but 
 
 it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  farther,  that  in  conse- 
 quence of  their  power,  they  soon  expelled  the  Horite 
 dukes,  and  at  the  same  time  might  force  Amalek,  or  his 
 spurious  offspring,  to  leave  their  dominions.  For  in  the 
 next  generation, the  posterity  ofEsau,who  are  styled  abso- 
 lute dukes  of  Edom,  were  only  eleven  in  number,  and  in 
 all  the  country  had  no  rivals.  But  as  the  approach  of  the 
 children  of  Israel  put  them,  and  every  nation  else,  in  a 
 great  consternation,  they  thought  it  most  conducive  to 
 
 as  the  Midianites,  whose  history  we  are  now  come  to,  were 
 more  particularly  instrumental  in  seducing  them  to  idola- 
 try, their  punishment,  for  the  present,  was  more  severe. 
 Midian,  the  fourth  son  of  Abraham  by  his  wife  Ketu- 
 rah,  is  generally  reputed  to  have  given  name  to  the 
 country,  and  to  have  been  the  progenitor  of  the  Midian- 
 ites, who,  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  were  confounded 
 with  2  the  Ishmaelites,  and  soon  after  seem  to  be  con- 
 joined with  the    Moabites,  as  if  they  had  been  both  one 
 
 their  «-eneral  safety,  to  unite  under  one  common  head ;    nation  ;  when  the  true  reason  of  this  seeming  commix 
 and   thereupon   having   made   choice  of  a  king,  they    ture  was,  that  according  as  they  lived  to  the  northern 
 
 resolved  to  maintain  their  ground  against  any  invasion. 
 It  was  to  this  nameless  king,  or  perhaps  his  successor, 
 that  Moses  sent  ambassadors,  desiring  a  free  passage 
 through  his  country,  which  he  absolutely  denied,  and  to 
 let  him  see  that  he  was  in  earnest,  immediately  took  the 
 
 or  southern  parts  of  the  country,  of  course  they  joined 
 themselves  either  to  the  Moabites  or  Ishmaelites  ;  and 
 upon  that  account  are  oftentimes  promiscuously  mention- 
 ed in  Scripture. 
 
 What  the  limits  of  their  country  were,  it  is  not  so  easy 
 
 field  •  but  as  his  design  was  to  act  upon  the  defensive    a  matter  to  perceive.     Its  boundary  on  the  east  is  un 
 
 only,  and  not  distress  a  people  that  were  his  brethren,  in 
 matters  wherein  he  could  relieve  them,  without  danger 
 to  himself,  '  he  supplied  them,  for  their  money,  with 
 whatever  necessaries  they  wanted.  And  thus  far  the 
 history  of  the  Edomites,  during  this  period,  goes. 
 
 Moab,  the  son  of  Lot,  by  an  incestuous  commerce 
 with  the  elder  of  his  daughters,  was  the  progenitor  of 
 this  people,  and  gave  name  to  their  country  ;  which  was 
 bounded  on  the  east  by  the  deserts  of  Arabia ;  on  the 
 west,  by  the  mountains  that  lie  east  from  the  Dead  Sea ; 
 on  the  north,  by  the  country  of  the  Ammonites,  the 
 descendants  of  Lot  by  his  younger  daughter  ;  and  on  the 
 south,  by  the  brook  or  little  river  Zerid,  which  runs  into 
 the  Dead  Sea  ;  so  that,  in  the  whole,  it  is  about  forty 
 miles  in  length,  and  as  much  in  breadth. 
 
 That  the  people  had  once  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
 God,  can  hardly  be  doubted ;  but  in  time  they  loved  not 
 to  retain  that  knowledge,  but  introduced  the  worship  of 
 false  gods,  with  such  monstrous  and  obscene  ceremonies, 
 as  are  not  fit  to  be  named.  Their  principal  idols  were 
 Chemosh  and  Baal-peor ;  and  to  these  they  sacrificed, 
 on  mountains  dedicated  to  that  service,  and  in  temples 
 built  in  their  cities,  not  only  oxen  and  rams,  but  upon 
 extraordinary  occasions,  human  victims. 
 
 The  form  of  their  government  was  regal,  and  the  first 
 inhabitants  of  their  country  were  the  Emims,  a  great  and 
 powerful  people,  of  extraordinary  strength  and  stature, 
 very  probably  the  descendants  of  Ham,  and  of  the  same 
 gigantic  race  with  the  Anakims  and  Rephaims,  though 
 the  Moabites  called  them  by  the  name  Emims,  which,  in 
 Hebrew  signifies  terrible.  And  too  terrible  an  enemy 
 had  they  been  for  the  Moabites,  had  not  Chedorlaomer 
 and  his  allies,  by  their  frequent  incursions,  much  weak- 
 ened them,  and  made  them  an  easy  prey.  The  Moabites, 
 however,  when  they  had  thus  dispossessed  them,  kept  not 
 their  new  dominions  long  entire  ;  for  Sihon  king  of  the 
 Amorites,  who  bordered  on  them  eastward,  fought  against 
 the  king  of  Moab,  and  took  from  him  all  his  kingdom  to 
 the  north  of  the  river  Arnon. 
 
 The  successor  to  this  king  was  Balak,  who  was  then 
 upon  the  throne,  when  the  Israelites  came  and  encamped 
 in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  country.  His  tampering  with 
 the  infamous  Balaam  was  the  reason  why  his  people  were 
 
 1  Deut.  ii.  28,  29. 
 
 certain,  but  on  the  west,  it  was  contiguous  to  the  land  of 
 Edom  ;  on  the  north  to  the  country  of  Moab  ;  and  on 
 the  south,  to  the  Red  Sea. 
 
 Its  inhabitants  were  very  numerous,  and  may  be  dis- 
 tinguished into  two  sorts,  shepherds  and  merchants.  The 
 shepherds  moved  up  and  down  in  tents  ;  they  drove  their 
 cattle  before  them,  even  when  they  went  to  war ;  and 
 seem  to  have  had  few  or  no  fixed  habitations,  except 
 some  strongholds  near  the  borders  of  their  country. 
 The  merchants,  in  like  manner,  travelled  from  place  to 
 place  in  companies,  or  caravans,  as  it  is  the  custom  in 
 those  parts  even  to  this  day,  and  the  only  settlements 
 they  seem  to  have  had  were  their  marts,  and  stations,  in 
 places  convenient  for  their  trade. 
 
 By  these  two  different  employs,  however,  the  whole 
 nation  flourished  to  a  great  degree.  The  merchants 
 grew  excessively  rich  ;  and  the  shepherds  by  exchanging 
 with  them,  their  cattle  for  gold,  and  jewels  of  all  kinds, 
 were  enabled  to  make  a  much  better  appearance  than 
 other  nations.  But  as  their  affluence  in  these  things  soon 
 introduced  luxury,  they  were  a  people  remarkable  for  all 
 kinds  of  vanity,  riot,  and  excess.  Though  their  learning- 
 could  not  be  great,  yet  their  merchants  Avere  obliged  to 
 know  something  of  writing  and  arithmetic,  in  order  to 
 keep  their  accounts ;  and  as  they  were  traders,  and  situate 
 on  the  Red  Sea,  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  but  that  they 
 applied  themselves  to  ship-building,  in  order  to  explore 
 not  only  their  own  coasts,  but  those  of  other  countries 
 likewise,  that  lay  contiguous  to  them  ;  and  consequently 
 could  not  be  without  some  tolerable  skill  in  geography 
 and  geometry. 
 
 Their  religion  differed  according  to  the  part  of  the 
 country  which  they  inhabited.  These  Avho  lived  in  the 
 north  of  Midian,  fell  into  all  the  abominations  of  the 
 Moabites,  and  in  their  endeavour  to  corrupt  the  Israel- 
 ites, quite  exceeded  them.  But  those  that  were  placed 
 more  towards  the  south,  if  we  may  take  Jethro,  who  is 
 said  to  have  ruled  over  a  people  near  the  Red  Sea,  for 
 a  pattern,  retained  just  notions  of  God,  and  of  the  form 
 of  worship  which  he  had  prescribed  to  their  forefathers  ; 
 for  they  offered  up  praises,  and  thanksgivings,  and  sacri- 
 fices to  him,  though  their  religious  rites  and  ceremonies 
 are  not  specified. 
 
 Gen.  xxxvii.  25,  28. 
 
 i  Gen.  xxxvi.  35. 
 
Sect.  111.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &. 
 
 311 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 Their  form  of  government,  might,  in  the  like  manner, 
 be  different,  according  to  the  part  of  the  country  which 
 they  inhabited,  though  in  the  main,  it  looks  as  if  it  had 
 been  aristocratical  rather  than  monarchical.  Jethro, 
 indeed,  in  our  translation  is  called  a  priest,  and  because 
 the  word  in  the  original  does  equally  signify  a  prince, 
 it  has  generally  been  concluded,  that  he  had  the  honour 
 of  being  both.  Mention  is  likewise  made  of  other 
 princes  ;  and  the  five  who  fell  by  the  hand  of  Israel,  are 
 sometimes  styled  kings,  and  sometimes  dukes  of  Midian : 
 so  that  this  nation  seems  to  have  been  governed  by  a 
 multitude  of  dukes,  or  petty  princes,  who,  perhaps,  in 
 their  own  jurisdiction,  were  independent  on  each  other, 
 and  yet  some  way  or  other,  were  in  Moses'  time,  1  feu- 
 datory under  Sihon,  king  of  the  Aniorites.  Sihon  had 
 indeed  made  a  conquest  from  the  Moabites  of  the  best 
 part  of  the  country  he  then  possessed,  and  having  settled 
 himself  in  their  place,  made  several  of  the  neighbouring 
 princes  tributary  to  him  ;  but  refusing  a  passage  to  the 
 Hebrews,  and  coming  without  a  any  provocation  to  at- 
 tack them,  he  himself  was  slain,  and  his  whole  army 
 routed  ;  Heshbon,  his  capital  city,  was  taken,  and  all  the 
 rest  of  his  dominions  distributed  among  the  Israelites. 
 
 There  were  the  several  nations  on  the  other,  that  is, 
 on  the  east  side  of  Jordan,  which  God  delivered  into  the 
 hands  of  his  people  ;  and  more  we  shall  have  to  say  of 
 them,  as  they  meet  us  in  our  way.  In  the  mean  time  the 
 progress  which  the  Israelites  have  hitherto  made,  the  ene- 
 mies they  have  vanquished,  and  the  kingdoms  they  have 
 seized  and  divided  among  themselves,  notwithstanding 
 all  the  artifices  to  prevent  them,  do  sufficiently  verify  that 
 conclusion,  at  the  end  of  their  leader's  last  exhortation  : 
 2 '  Happy  art  thou,  O  Israel !  Who  is  like  unto  thee,  O 
 people,  saved  by  the  Lord,  the  shield  of  thy  help  ;  and 
 who  is  the  sword  of  thy  excellency !  Thine  enemies 
 shall  be  found  liars  unto  thee,  and  thou  shalt  tread  upon 
 their  high  places.  The  fountain  of  Jacob  shall  be  upon 
 a  land  of  corn  and  wine,  and  his  heavens  shall  drop 
 down  dew.'* 
 
 '  Josh.  xiii.  21. 
 
 2  Deut.  xxxiii.  28,  29. 
 
 a  It  is  reckoned  good  policy  in  a  general,  when  he  has  any 
 great  design  in  agitation,  which  cannot  so  well  be  executed 
 without  passing  through  a  neutral  country,  not  to  ask  leave  at 
 first,  because  too  much  civility  would  lay  him  under  the  suspicion 
 of  fear;  but  first  of  all  to  enter  the  prince's  country,  and  then  to 
 send  and  desire  permission  for  his  troops  to  march  through  it. 
 But  this  was  not  Moses'  practice.  He  first  sent  ambassadors  to 
 the  king  of  the  Amorites,  with  this  peaceable  message:  '  Let  me 
 pass  through  thy  land,  we  will  not  turn  into  the  fields,  or  into  the 
 vineyards;  we  will  not  drink  the  waters  of  the  well;  but  we  will 
 go  along  by  the  king's  highway,  till  we  be  past  the  borders  ? 
 Thou  shalt  sell  me  meat  for  money,  that  I  may  eat,  and  give  me 
 water  for  money,  that  I  may  drink;  only  I  will  pass  through  on 
 my  feet,'  Num.  xxi.  22.  After  so  civil  a  message  as  this,  if 
 Sihon  thought  not  proper  to  let  the  children  of  Israel  pass  through 
 his  country,  he  might  have  contented  himself  with  so  doing, 
 because  it  does  not  appear  that  the  Israelites  ever  threatened  to 
 force  their  passage.  But  when,  instead  of  acting  upon  tin1  defen- 
 sive, which  was  all  that  in  reason  he  should  have  done,  he  gets 
 himself  at  the  head  of  his  forces,  and  marches  out  to  fight,  the 
 war  must  be  deemed  unjust  on  his  side,  and  the  fate  he  met 
 with  no  more  than  his  desert. —  Calmet's  Dictionary. 
 
 b  In  hot  countries  where  showers  were  less  frequent,  the  morn- 
 ing and  evening  dews  were  a  great  refreshment  to  the  earth,  and 
 productive  of  much  plenty,  as  was  fully  exemplified  in  the  blessed 
 land  of  Canaan,  which  was  fruitful  and  abounding  with  every 
 product  of  the  earth. 
 
 M.  3765.  A.  C.  1C4S.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— On  the  Land  of  Canaan. 
 
 BY   THK  EDITOR. 
 
 Though  reference  has  already  been  made,  both  in  a  typo- 
 graphical and  historical  point  of  view,  to  Canaan,  we 
 think  it  may  be  instructive  to  insert  a  few  additional 
 paragraphs  on  the  same  subject.  The  land  of  Canaan 
 is,  on  many  accounts,  entitled  to  more  particular  consi- 
 deration ;  but  chiefly  because  it  was  the  residence  of  the 
 chosen  seed,  and  the  theatre  of  our  redemption. 
 
 When  the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth  appointed  to  the 
 nations  their  inheritance,  the  country  which  is  bounded 
 on  the  west,  by  the  Mediterranean,  on  the  east  by  the 
 river  Jordan,  the  lake  Asphaltites,  and  the  sea  of  Tibe- 
 rias, on  the  north  by  the  mountain  Antilibanus,  and  on 
 the  south  by  ldumea,  fell  to  the  lot  of  Canaan,  one  of 
 the  sons  of  Ham.  It  extends  about  200  miles  in  length 
 and  80  in  breadth.  From  the  grandson  of  Noah,  by  whom 
 it  was  peopled,  it  was  first  called  the  land  of  Canaan. 
 It  has  since  been  distinguished  by  other  names,  as  the 
 land  of  promise,  the  holy  land,  Judea,  from  the  tribe 
 of  Judah,  which  possessed  its  finest  and  most  fertile 
 divisions,  and  Palestine,  from  the  Philistines,  by  whom 
 a  great  part  of  it  was  inhabited. 
 
 The  descendants  of  Canaan,  the  original  possessor  of 
 this  highly  interesting  country,  are  thus  enumerated  by 
 Moses  : — '  Canaan  begat  Sidon,  his  first-born,  and  Heth, 
 and  the  Jebusite,  and  the  Amorite,  and  the  Girgashite, 
 and  the  Hivite,  and  the  Arkite,  and  the  Senite,  and  the 
 Arvadite,  and  the  Zemarite,  and  the  Hamathite.'  All 
 these  families  were  settled  at  first  within  the  limits  of 
 Canaan,  but  the  increase  of  population,  or  what  is  more 
 likely,  the  spirit  of  emigration  and  adventure,  which  is 
 strongly  felt  in  countries  where  much  land  remains  to  be 
 occupied,  soon  carried  them  beyond  the  prescribed  limits 
 of  their  paternal  inheritance.  The  original  extent  of 
 the  land  of  Canaan,  is  accurately  stated  by  Moses  in 
 these  words  : — '  The  border  of"  the  Canaanites  was  from 
 Sidon,  as  thou  comest  to  Gerar,  unto  Gaza  ;  and  astbotl 
 goest  unto  Sodom,  and  Gomorrah,  and  Admah,  and  Ze- 
 boini,  even  unto  Lasha.'3  But  the  sacred  historian 
 informs  us,  that  several  Canaanitish  families,  in  process 
 of  time,  settled  in  the  circumjacent  countries  :  his  words 
 are — '  And  afterwards  were  the  families  of  the  Canaanitea 
 spread  abroad,'  namely,  beyond  their  original  bounds, 
 which  he  then  proceeds  to  describe. 
 
 The  true  situation  of  the  inheritance  of  Sidon.  the 
 first-born  of  Canaan,  is  clearly  determined  by  the  famous 
 city  of  that  name.  Sidon  was  one  of  the  most  ancient 
 cities  in  the  world,  and  Long  the  wealthiest  and  greatest 
 of  which  Phcr-nicia could  boast.  It  was  very  strong  both 
 by  nature  and  art.  On  the  north  side,  a  citadel,  built 
 on  an  inaccessible  rock,  and  environed  on  all  sides  by 
 the  sea  ;  and  on  the  south  side,  another  fort  defended 
 the  mouth  of  the  harbour.  Secured  on  all  sides  against 
 the  assaults  of  her  enemies,  and  enriched  by  the  exten- 
 sive commerce  which  *l>e  carried  on  with  the  surrounding 
 
 nations  of  Asia  and  Europe,  her  inhabitants  lived  ill 
 profound  security,  and  indulged,  without  restraint,  in 
 every  voluptuous   gratification.      So   great  was  their 
 
 1  Den.  x.  19. 
 
342 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 luxury,  that '  to  live  after  the  manner  of  the  Sidonians,' 
 became  a  sort  of  proverbial  phrase  for  living  quietly  and 
 securely  in  ease  and  pleasure.  l  But  their  wealth  and 
 luxury  do  not  seem,  at  least  for  several  ages,  to  have 
 enervated  their  minds,  and  destroyed  their  powers  of 
 exertion,  and  habits  of  industry  ;  for  we  know,  from  the 
 testimony  of  an  inspired  writer,  that  in  the  days  of  Solo- 
 mon, '  none  were  skilled  to  hew  timber  like  the  Sidon- 
 ians.' They  are  represented  by  writers,  both  sacred  and 
 profane,  as  excellent  artificers  in  several  other  profes- 
 sions or  trades  ;  and  in  proof  of  this  fact,  many  of  them 
 were  retained  in  the  pay  of  Solomon,  and  employed 
 as  his  principal  workmen  in  building  the  temple  of  Je- 
 hovah. a 
 
 Though  the  Tyrians  were  accustomed  to  boast  of  the 
 great  antiquity  of  their  city,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
 Sidon  can  trace  her  history  to  a  still  remoter  date  ;  for 
 in  the  same  chapter,  where  the  prophet  Isaiah  records  the 
 vain  boast  of  the  Tyrians,  he  expressly  calls  Tyre  the 
 daughter  of  Sidon  ; 2  by  which  he  means  that  the  Tyrians 
 were  a  colony  of  the  Sidonians.  Indeed,  Tyre  rose  by 
 degrees  to  a  height  of  greatness  and  splendour,  which 
 her  illustrious  parent  was  never  able  to  reach  ;  yet  it  is 
 evident  from  ancient  writers,  that  she  was  for  several 
 ages  greatly  her  inferior.  The  former  was  distinguished 
 by  the  name  of  the  strong  city,  so  early  as  the  days  of 
 Joshua  ;  but  in  the  very  same  passage,  the  latter  receives 
 the  more  significant  and  honourable  title  of  '  the  great 
 Sidon,'  to  intimate  that  she  was  then  the  capital  of  Phoe- 
 nicia. Nor  ought  it  to  be  forgotten,  that  Homer  never 
 mentions  Tyre  in  any  part  of  his  writings,  while  he  often 
 celebrates  the  ingenuity  and  industry  of  the  Sidonians. 
 Many  years  after  Sidon  was  built,  says  an  ancient  wri- 
 ter, the  Sidonians  being  attacked  by  the  king  of  Ascalon, 
 
 1  Judges  xviii.  7.  *Is.  xxiii.  7,  12. 
 
 a  Sidon  was  taken  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  who,  however,  con- 
 sented to  receive  the  submission  of  the  Sidonians,  and  permitted 
 them  to  retain  their  own  kings.  Entering  afterwards  into  a  league 
 with  Nectanebu*,  king  of  Egypt,  against  Darius  Ochus,  king  of 
 Persia,  they  were  besieged  by  the  latter ;  when  in  despair  they  burnt 
 their  ships  and  their  city  ;  in  which  latter  was  so  great  a  quantity 
 of  gold  and  silver  melted  down  by  the  fire,  that  Ochus  sold  the 
 ashes  for  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  The  city  was,  however, 
 soon  rebuilt ;  as  about  eighteen  years  after,  we  find  it  submitting 
 to  Alexander.  It  subsequently  shared  in  the  fortunes  of  the  rest 
 of  Phoenicia,  being  alternately  oppressed  by  the  Grecian  kings  of 
 Syria  and  Egypt;  while  its  trade,  together  with  that  of  Tyre,  was 
 diverted  to  Alexandria ;  though  its  declension  was  never  so  com- 
 plete as  that  of  the  latter  city.  After  the  subversion  of  the 
 Grecian  empire  by  the  Romans,  Sidon  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
 latter ;  who,  to  put  an  end  to  the  frequent  revolt  of  the  inhab- 
 itants deprived  it  of  its  freedom.  It  then  fell  successively 
 under  the  power  of  the  Saracens,  the  Seljukian  Turks,  and  the 
 Sultans  of  Egypt,  who  in  1289,  that  they  might  never  more  afford 
 shelter  to  the  Christians,  destroyed  both  it  and  Tyre.  But  it 
 again  recovered,  and  has  ever  since  been  in  the  possession  of  the 
 Ottoman  Turks.  Sidon,  at  present  called  Saide,  is  still  a  consi- 
 derable trading  town,  and  the  chief  mart  for  Damascus  and 
 Upper  Syria ;  but  the  port  is  nearly  choked  up  with  sand.  Though 
 presenting  an  imposing  appearance  at  a  distance,  as  it  rises  from 
 the  water's  edge,  it  is  like  all  Turkish  towns  ill-built  and 
 dirty,  and  full  of  ruins;  having  still  discoverable,  without  the 
 walls,  some  fragments  of  columns  and  other  remains  of  the  ancient 
 city.  Mr  Conner  made  the  number  of  inhabitants  15,000;  of 
 .vhom  2000  are  Christians,  chiefly  Maronites,  and  400  Jews, 
 who  have  one  synagogue.  They  are  principally  employed  in 
 spinning  cotton ;  which,  with  some  silk,  and  boots  and  shoes, 
 er  slippers,  of  Morocco  leather,  form  the  chief  articles  of  com- 
 merce.— En. 
 
 M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 escaped  in  their  ships,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  Tyre, 
 sometime  before  the  destruction  of  Troy.  b  This  event 
 happened,  according  to  Josephus,  about  240  years  before 
 the  building  of  Solomon's  temple.  But  after  the  taking 
 of  Sidon,  by  the  Persians,  the  city  of  Tyre  rapidly  in- 
 creased in  wealth  and  greatness,  and  became  in  a  short 
 time,  the  capital  of  Phoenicia,  and  the  mart  of  the  whole 
 earth.  At  the  time  it  was  besieged  by  Alexander,  it  was 
 in  every  respect,  the  greatest  commercial  city  in  the 
 world.  Including  ancient  Tyre  it  was  nineteen  miles  in 
 circuit :  the  houses  were  spacious  and  magnificent,  con- 
 sisting of  several  stories,  and  higher  that  those  of  Rome. 
 Pre-eminent  in  riches  and  splendour,  rose  the  mag- 
 nificent temples  of  Olympian  Jove,  Astarte,  and  other 
 deities  adored  by  the  Tyrians,  constructed  by  Hiram, 
 adorned  with  pillars  of  gold,  glittering  with  precious 
 stones,  and  enriched  with  the  splendid  offerings  of  many 
 kings.  The  city  was  defended  by  a  wall  of  gTeat 
 height,  formed  of  huge  stones  cemented  with  lime. 
 Two  harbours  received  its  innumerable  vessels,  one 
 looking  towards  Sidon,  the  other  to  Egypt.  Strabo 
 places  it  nearly  at  the  distance  of  twenty-five  miles 
 from  Sidon,  its  renowned  parent.  The  inhabitants  of 
 Tyre,  like  the  Sidonians,  from  whom  they  derived  their 
 origin,  were  distinguished  for  the  acuteness  and  ver- 
 satility of  their  genius.  They  were  skilled  in  arith- 
 metic and  astronomy  :  but  in  the  mechanical  parts  they 
 were  scarcely  equalled,  certainly  not  surpassed,  by  any 
 people.  For  the  brilliant  colour  known  to  the  an- 
 cients by  the  name  of  the  Tyrian  purple,  the  kings  of 
 the  east  were  indebted  to  their  ingenuity.  The  fabrics 
 produced  in  the  Sidonian  looms  rivalled  the  fine  linen 
 of  Egypt;  while  the  productions  of  the  artificer  in  iron, 
 in  brass,  and  in  crystal,  were  not  less  remarkable  for 
 the  beauty  of  the  device,  than  for  the  delicacy  of  the 
 execution.  It  is,  therefore,  a  true  account  which  the 
 inspired  prophet  has  given  of  the  greatness  and  splen- 
 dour of  Tyre.  Isaiah  calls  her,  '  a  mart  of  nations ;  the 
 crowning  city,  whose  merchants  are  princes,  whose 
 traffickers  are  the  honourable  of  the  earth  ; '  andEzekiel, 
 who  alluding  to  old  Tyre,  places  her  '  at  the  entry  of 
 the  sea;'  and  in  another  passage,  to  the  new  city,  'in 
 the  heart  of  the  seas,'  recounts  the  various  nations  that 
 carried  on  a  lucrative  commerce  with  the  Tyrians. 
 
 But  the  pride  and  luxury  which  her  unrivalled  power 
 and  riches  produced  among  all  ranks  of, her  citizens,  and 
 above  all,  the  cruel  and  unbrotherly  triumph  in  which  the 
 Tyrians  indulged,  when  the  chosen  people  of  God  yield- 
 ed to  the  arms  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  were  led  away 
 captive  beyond  the  river  of  Babylon,  excited  against 
 them  the  displeasure  of  heaven.  As  a  just  punishment 
 of  their  crimes,  continental  Tyre  was  taken  and  destroy- 
 ed by  the  Chaldeans,  after  a  siege  of  thirteen  years  ;  c 
 
 b  But  from  the  mention  of  it  in  the  time  of  Joshua,  (chap.  xix. 
 29,)  noticed  above,  it  must  have  been  much  more  ancient  than 
 this. — Ed. 
 
 c  At  the  end  of  this  long  period,  continental  Tyre  was  taken 
 by  assault  and  utterly  destroyed,  the  ruins  of  which  were  after- 
 wards called  Pake  Tyrus,  or  Old  Tyre.  But  before  this  was 
 effected,  the  inhabitants,  foreseeing  what  must  happen,  and  the 
 blockade  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  for  want  of  a  navy  to  second  his 
 land  operations,  being  incomplete,  transported  all  their  valuable 
 effects  into  a  small  island  about  a  third  of  a  mile  from  the  shore, 
 where  they  laid  the  foundations  of  New  Tyre,  which,  by  the  Vcist 
 resources  of  its  trade,  rose  in  a  few  years  to  an  equal  eminence 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 313 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G5 
 
 and  remained  in  a  state  of  ruin  and  desolation  seventy 
 years,  a  term  of  equal  duration  with  the  captivity  of 
 Judah,  whom  they  had  so  barbarously  insulted  in  the  hour 
 of  her  distress.  At  the  end  of  that  period,  Tyre  recovered 
 her  wealth  and  splendour ;  an  event  which  the  prophet 
 Zechariah  describes  in  these  striking  terms :  '  and  Tyrus 
 did  build  herself  a  stronghold,  and  heaped  up  silver  as  the 
 dust,  and  fine  gold  as  the  mire  of  the  streets.  But  with  her 
 commerce  and  prosperity,  her  wickedness  returned  ;  and 
 the  judgments  of  God  quickly  followed.  In  fulfilment  of 
 ancient  prophecies  which  sealed  her  doom,  and  even  de- 
 scribed the  manner  of  her  future  destruction,  Alexander 
 besieged,  and  took,  and  set  the  city  on  fire  :  but  so  gTeat 
 was  the  forbearance  of  heaven,  so  numerous  and  efficient 
 were  her  resources,  that  in  the  short  period  of  nineteen 
 years,  she  was  able  to  withstand  the  fleets  of  Antigonus, 
 and  to  sustain  a  siege  of  fifteen  months  before  she  was 
 taken.  But  the  time  of  her  final  desolation  at  length 
 arrived ;  and  nothing  could  divert  or  retard  the  full  accom- 
 plishment of  the  divine  purpose  long  before  expressed  by 
 an  inspired  prophet :  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  behold  I 
 am  against  thee,  0  Tyrus,  and  will  cause  many  nations 
 to  come  up  against  thee,  as  the  sea  causeth  her  waves  to 
 come  up  :  and  they  shall  destroy  the  walls  of  Tyrus, 
 and  break  down  her  towers ;  I  will  also  scrape  her  dust 
 from  her,  and  make  her  like  the  top  of  a  rock  :  it  shall 
 be  a  place  for  the  spreading  of  nets  in  the  midst  of 
 the  sea,  for  I  have  spoken  it,  saith  the  Lord  God.'  * 
 To  show  the  certainty  of  this  fearful  sentence,  it  is 
 repeated :  '  I  will  make  thee  like  the  top  of  a  rock  ; 
 thou  shalt  be  a  place  to  spread  nets  upon  ;  thou  shalt  be 
 built  no  more ;  for  I  the  Lord  have  spoken  it,  saith  the 
 Lord  God.'  And  again  ;  '  I  will  make  thee  a  terror,  and 
 thou  shalt  be  no  more  ;  though  thou  be  sought  for,  yet 
 shalt  thou  never  be  found  again,  saith  the  Lord  God.'2 
 The  exact  fulfilment  of  this  prediction  in  all  its  parts,  is 
 attested  by  so  many  travellers  of  unimpeachable  veracity, 
 who  beheld  and  examined  the  ruins  of  this  once  great, 
 powerful,  and  splendid  city,  that  the  most  stubborn 
 unbeliever  is  awed  into  silence." 
 
 The  descendants  of  Heth,  or  the  Hittites,  the  second 
 family  of  Canaan  mentioned  by  Moses,  were  planted 
 about  Hebron,  in  the  southern  division  of  the  country. 
 Moses  informs  us,  that  Sarah  died  at  Hebron,  and 
 *  Abraham  spake  to  the  sons  of  Heth'  about  the  purchase 
 
 1  Ezek.  xxvi.  3.  *  Ezek.  xxiii.  3 — 5. 
 
 with  the  old  city  which  had  been  destroyed.  The  rage  of 
 Nebuchadnezzar  was  so  great  at  finding  the  place  almost  deserted, 
 and  entirely  cleared  of  every  thing  valuable,  that  lie  razed  the 
 buildings  to  the  ground,  and  killed  every  inhabitant  that  could  be 
 {bund.  Two  hundred  years  afterwards,  Alexander,  by  forming 
 a  causeway  from  the  mainland  to  the  island,  reduced  New  Tyre, 
 after  a  seven  months'  siege. — Ed. 
 
 a  Tyre  has  again  partially  revived:  Mr  Buckingham,  who 
 visited  it  in  IS  16,  represents  it  as  containing  800  substantial 
 stone  built  houses,  and  from  5000  to  8000  inhabitants.  But 
 Mr  Jowett,  on  the  authority  of  the  Greek  archbishop,  reduces 
 this  number  to  less  than  4000;  namely,  1200  Greek  catholics, 
 100  Maronites,  100  Greeks,  1000  Moutonalis,  and  100  Turks. 
 Mr  Jowett  observed  numerous  and  beautiful  columns  stretched 
 along  the  beach,  or  standing  in  fragments,  half  buried  in  the 
 sand  that  lias  been  accumulating  for  ages.  '  The  broken  aqueduct, 
 and  the  ruins  which  appear  in  its  neighbourhood,  exist  as  an 
 allecting  monument  of  the  fragile  and  transitory  nature  of  earthly 
 grandeur."  The  old,  or  continental  Tyre,  has  long  since:  dis- 
 appeared, and  its  \ery  site,  like  that  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon, 
 cauuot  now  be  accurately  recognised. — Ed. 
 
 C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DBUT. 
 of  a  burying-place  ;  and  adds  in  a  subsequent  verse, 
 '  Abraham  stood  up  and  bowed  himself  to  the  people  of 
 the  land,  even  to  the  children  of  Heth  ;'  which  sufficient- 
 ly proves  their  claim  to  that  part  of  the  family  inheri- 
 tance. The  principal  settlements  of  the  Hittites,  were 
 in  the  mountainous  part  of  the  country  ;  for  the  Hittites 
 are  mentioned  with  the  Jebusites  as  dwelling  in  the 
 mountains. 
 
 The  city  of  Hebron  was  originally  called  Kirjath 
 Arba,  or  the  city  of  Arba,  a  great  man  among  the  Ana- 
 kirns.  3  It  was  a  place  of  gTeat  antiquity  ;  for,  according 
 to  Moses,  it  was  built  seven  years  before  Zoan  in  Egypt, 
 the  naval  city  of  the  Pharaohs,  the  ancient  kings  of 
 Egypt ;  and  was  one  of  the  oldest  cities  in  that  kingdom. 
 Hebron  was  situated  among  the  mountains,  on  the  ridge 
 which  runs  southward  from  Jerusalem.  It  became 
 famous  for  the  long  residence  of  Abraham  in  its  neigh- 
 bourhood, and  for  being  the  burying-place  of  his  family. 
 In  succeeding  times,  it  was  the  chosen  abode  of  David 
 during  the  first  seven  years  of  his  reign  ;  and  is  supposed 
 to  have  been  the  dwelling-place  of  Zacharias  and  Elisa- 
 beth, the  parents  of  John  the  baptist.  Hebron  was  also 
 one  of  the  cities  of  refuge,  and  was  given  to  the  tribe  of 
 Levi,  by  the  appointment  of  Jehovah. 
 
 In  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  this  city,  was  the 
 plain  of  Mamre,  called  in  another  passage  of  Scripture, 
 the  vale  of  Hebron.  It  lies  on  the  south  side  of  the 
 town,  at  a  distance  of  about  two  miles  ;  and  is  represent- 
 ed as  remarkably  fertile  and  pleasant ;  a  circumstance 
 sufficiently  attested  by  the  protracted  residence  of  the 
 venerable  patriarch,  who  had  a  right  to  select  the  richest 
 pastures  of  Canaan.  His  tent  was  pitched  under  the 
 shade  of  a  spreading  oak,  from  whence,  reposing  at  his 
 ease,  he  could  see  his  flocks  and  his  herds  feeding  at 
 large  on  the  surrounding  hills.  But  what  chiefly  recom- 
 mended Mamre  and  its  umbrageous  oak  to  him,  was  the 
 vision  of  angels  with  which  he  was  honoured,  on  their 
 way  to  execute  the  vengeance  of  God  in  the  cities  of  the 
 plain ;  a  circumstance  which  has  rendered  that  fertile 
 vale  memorable  to  every  succeeding  age.* 
 
 Next  to  the  Hittites  in  the  same  tract  of  country,  were 
 planted  the  sons  of  Jebus,  who  seem  to  have  been  its 
 original  inhabitants.  The  capital  city  of  their  posses- 
 sions was  called  Jebus,  in  honour  of  their  venerable 
 founder;  a  name  which  it  afterwards  exchanged  for 
 Jerusalem,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  on  the  records  of 
 history.  These  facts  are  explicitly  stated  b)  the  inspired 
 writer:  'And  David  and  all  Israel  went  to  Jerusalem 
 which  is  Jebus  ;  where  the  Jebusites  were  the  inhabitants 
 of  the  land.'4  This  city  is  first  mentioned  in  Scripture 
 under  the  name  of  Salem,  which  is  by  interpretation, 
 peace;  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  over  which  Bfelchi- 
 zedek  reigned.  The  name  by  which  it  was  afterwards 
 known    seems  to  be   compounded   of  both    Jebus   and 
 
 8  Josh.  xiv.  15.  1  1  (In-  si.   I- 
 
 b  It  is  at  present  called  Hebroun  and  Khalyl,  Is  situated  in  a 
 hilly  country,  twenty  mil''-  Bouth  of  Jerusalem,  at  tin-  !■>■  I 
 eminence,  on  which  are  some  ruins,  the  misshapen  remain 
 ancienl  castle.  The  adjacent  country  is  ■  sort  of  oblong  hoUow, 
 6,  or  6  leaguesin  length,  and  not  disagreeably  varied  by  rocky 
 hillocks,  groves  of  fir-trees,  and  often  plantations  ol  vines  and 
 olive-trees.  Hew  are  some  small  manufactories  of  cotton,  soap, 
 and  trinkets;  in  consequence  of  which,  Hebron  is  the  most 
 powerful  village  in  this  quarter — Ed. 
 
344. 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1G46.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 Salem,  and  to  have  been  originally  written  Jebussalem, 
 but,  for  the  sake  of  the  sound,  afterwards  softened  into 
 Jerusalem.  In  Hebrew  the  word  assumes  the  dual 
 form,  and  is  commonly  read  .lerusalaim  ;  probably  to 
 denote  that  the  city  consisted  of  two  parts,  of  which  one 
 was  the  old  city,  where  Melchizedek  and  the  Jebusites 
 dwelt ;  and  the  other  the  new  city  built  by  David  and 
 his  successors  on  the  throne  of  Israel  and  Judah,  which 
 for  its  extent  might  be  regarded  as  a  new  city,  or  new 
 Jerusalem.  This  term,  the  Greeks,  adapting  it  to  their 
 language,  according  to  their  usual  practice,  changed 
 into  Hierosolyma,  which  literally  signifies  the  sacred 
 city. 
 
 The  old  city  founded  by  the  Jebusites  before  Abra- 
 ham arrived  in  Canaan,  is  styled  by  some  writers  the 
 city  of  Melchizedek,  not  because  he  was  the  founder, 
 but  because  it  was  the  seat  of  his  government.  This 
 ancient  city  was  so  strongly  fortified  both  by  nature  and 
 art,  that  the  people  of  Israel  could  not  drive  out  the 
 Jebusites,  its  original  inhabitants,  but  were  reduced  to 
 live  with  them  at  Jerusalem.  The  armies  of  Israel 
 indeed  seized  the  city  ;  but  the  Jebusites  kept  possession 
 of  the  strong  fort  which  defended  the  town,  till  the  reign 
 of  David,  who  took  it  by  storm,  and  changed  its  name 
 to  the  city  of  David,  to  signify  the  importance  of  the 
 conquest,  and  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  event. 
 Having  chosen  Jerusalem  for  the  place  of  his  residence 
 and  the  capital  of  his  kingdom,  he  adorned  the  fortress 
 with  a  royal  palace  for  his  own  accommodation,  and  a 
 variety  of  other  buildings,  which,  from  the  continual 
 additions  made  to  them  in  succeeding  reigns,  increased 
 to  the  size  of  a  considerable  city,  and  covered  nearly 
 the  whole  of  Mount  Zion.  The  largeness  of  the  city  of 
 David,  may  be  inferred  from  the  expression  of  the 
 sacred  historian  :  '  David  built  round  about  from  Millo 
 and  inward.'  *  This  passage,  and  particularly  the  word 
 Millo,  has  greatly  exercised  the  genius  and  divided  the 
 sentiments  of  commentators  ;  and  is  therefore  entitled 
 to  more  particular  notice.  That  Millo  was  situate  in 
 the  city  of  David,  the  inspired  historian  expressly 
 asserts.2  It  seems  to  have  been  a  public  building, 
 where  the  king  and  his  princes  met  in  council  about 
 affairs  of  state.  The  words  of  the  historian  are  :  '  And 
 this  is  the  reason  of  the  levy  (or  tax)  which  king  Solo- 
 mon raised  ;  for  to  build  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  his 
 own  house,  and  Millo,  and  the  wall  of  Jerusalem,  and 
 Hazor.  and  Megiddo,  and  Gezer.'  But  every  ground 
 of  hesitation  is  removed  by  the  sacred  writer  of  the 
 second  book  of  Kings,  who  calls  it  expressly  '  the  house 
 of  Millo.'3  That  it  was  a  public  building,  in  one  of 
 whose  apartments  the  council  of  state  met  to  deliberate 
 upon  public  affairs,  is  rendered  extremely  probable  by 
 one  of  the  kings  of  Judah  losing  his  life  there  by  the 
 hands  of  his  princes  ;  for  we  are  told,  that  '  the  servants 
 of  king  Joash  arose  and  made  a  conspiracy,  and  slew 
 him  in  the  house  of  Millo,'  whither  he  had  probably  come 
 to  consult  with  his  princes  and  other  principal  persons 
 upon  some  affairs  of  state. 
 
 This  interpretation  is  greatly  strengthened  by  a  pas- 
 sage in  the  book  of  Judges,  which  informs  us,  that  '  all 
 the  men  of  Shechem  gathered  together,  and  all  the  house 
 of  Millo,  and  went  and  made  Abimelech  kinff.'     The 
 
 1  2  Sam. 
 
 3  2  Chron.  xxxii.  5.         3  2  Kings  xii.  20. 
 
 city  of  Shechem  then  had  also  its  house  of  Millo,  and  a 
 great  number  of  persons  connected  with  it,  whom  the 
 sacred  writer  distinguishes  from  the  men  of  the  city. 
 Now,  since  both  were  concerned  in  making  Abimelech 
 king,  it  is  natural  to  conclude,  that  the  men  of  the  city 
 were  the  inferior  inhabitants,  and  the  house  of  Millo  the 
 chief  men  of  the  place  :  both  of  whom  on  this  occasion 
 met  in  the  senate -house,  to  set  the  crown  upon  the  head 
 of  their  favourite. 
 
 The  house  of  Millo  upon  Mount  Zion,  appears  to 
 have  been  a  place  of  great  strength,  and  essentially 
 connected  with  the  defence  of  Jerusalem ;  for  when 
 Hezekiah  discovered  that  Sennacherib  meditated  the 
 reduction  of  Jerusalem,  '  he  strengthened  himself,  and 
 built  up  all  the  wall  that  was  broken,  and  raised  it  up  to 
 the  towers,  and  another  wall  without,  and  repaired  Millo 
 in  the  city  of  David,  and  made  darts  and  shields  in 
 abundance.'*  From  the  intimate  connexion  between 
 the  repairing  of  Millo  and  the  making  of  darts  and  other 
 implements  of  war,  it  has  been  conjectured  by  some 
 writers  that  one  part  of  that  public  building  was  occupied 
 as  an  armoury,  in  which  there  is  nothing  improbable. 
 
 The  possessions  of  the  Philistines  were  divided  into 
 five  lordships,  denominated  from  their  chief  towns, 
 Gaza,  Ashdod,  Eshkalon,  Gath,  and  Ekron. 
 
 Gaza  lay  in  the  southern  extremity  of  that  narrow 
 strip  of  country  which  submitted  to  the  arms  of  the  Phil- 
 istines ;  and  the  city  of  Gaza,  from  which  the  lordship 
 took  its  name,  stood  in  the  south-west  angle  of  the  land 
 of  Canaan.  This  was  the  city  whose  gates  Samson 
 carried  away  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  and  where  he  was 
 kept  in  prison  by  his  cruel  and  ungenerous  enemies. 
 It  was  famous  for  the  temple  of  Dagon,  which  the 
 renowned  Israelite  pulled  down  upon  himself  and  his 
 unfeeling  tormentors,  in  revenge  for  the  loss  of  his 
 sight  and  his  liberty.  This  place  was  afterwards  chosen 
 by  the  Persians,  to  be  the  treasury  where  they  deposited 
 the  tribute  of  the  western  provinces  of  their  immense 
 empire  ;  whence  all  riches  received,  at  length,  among 
 the  people  of  those  countries,  the  name  of  Gaza.  It 
 was  destroyed  by  Alexander  the  Great,  as  the  prophet 
 had  foretold,  and  consigned  to  perpetual  desolation. 
 The  city  built  by  Constantine,  and  called  by  the  name 
 of  Gaza,  is  nearer  to  the  sea  than  the  ancient  city,  and 
 by  consequence  does  not  affect  the  truth  of  the  prediction. 
 
 Next  to  Gaza,  northward,  rose  the  city  of  Askelon, 
 styled  by  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  Ascalon,  and  situate 
 also  on  the  sea  shore.  It  is  said  to  have  been  famous 
 among  the  idolatrous  nations  of  antiquity,  for  a  temple 
 dedicated  to  Decreto,  the  mother  of  Semiramis,  who 
 was  adored  here  under  the  form  of  a  mermaid ;  and  for 
 a  temple  of  Apollo,  in  which  Herod,  the  father  of  Anti- 
 pater,  and  grandfather  of  Herod  the  great,  officiated  as 
 priest. 
 
 Above  Ascalon,  still  farther  to  the  north,  stood  the 
 city  of  Ashdod,  called  by  the  Greeks,  Azotus,  and  men- 
 tioned under  that  name  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  It 
 lies  near  the  shores  between  Gaza  and  Joppa,  and  was 
 distinguished  by  the  temple  of  Dagon.  Into  this  temple 
 the  captive  ark  of  Jehovah  was  brought,  by  the  triumph- 
 ant idolaters,  and  set  by  the  side  of  their  unsightly  idol. 
 But  their  joy  was  of  short  duration,  the   object  of  their 
 
 4  2  Chron.  xxxii.  5. 
 
Sbct.  Ill]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 3ti 
 
 A.  M.  2M5.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H    LES,  A. 
 
 stupid  veneration  was  cast  prostrate  before  the  symbol 
 of  the  divine  presence,  and  broken  in  pieces,  and  a 
 severe  but  righteous  vengeance  inflicted  on  themselves, 
 for  their  presumption.  The  passage  is  too  important  to 
 be  omitted.  '  And  when  they  of  Ashdod  rose  early  on 
 the  morrow,  behold  Dagon  was  fallen  on  his  face  to  the 
 earth,  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord  :  and  they  took  Dagon 
 and  set  him  in  his  place  again.  And  when  they  rose 
 earlyr  on  the  morrow  morning,  behold  Dagon  was  fallen 
 on  his  face  to  the  ground,  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord  ; 
 and  the  head  of  Dagon,  and  both  the  palms  of  his  hands 
 were  cut  oft' upon  the  threshold,  only  the  stump  of  Dagon 
 was  left  to  him.'  Nor  was  this  all  ;  '  The  hand  of  the 
 Lord  was  heavy  upon  the  men  of  Ashdod  ;  and  he  de- 
 stroyed and  smote  them  with  emrods,  even  Ashdod,  and 
 the  coast  thereof.  And  when  the  men  of  Ashdod  saw 
 that  it  was  so,  they  said,  The  ark  of  the  God  of  Israel 
 shall  not  abide  with  us  ;  for  his  hand  is  sore  upon  us, 
 and  upon  Dagon  our  god.  They  sent,  therefore,  and 
 gathered  all  the  lords  of  the  Philistines  unto  them,  and 
 said,  What  shall  we  do  with  the  ark  of  the  God  of  Israel  ? 
 And  they  answered,  Let  the  ark  of  the  Gotl  of  Israel  be 
 carried  about  unto  Gath.  And  they  carried  the  ark  of 
 the  God  of  Israel  thither.'  l 
 
 Gath,  lying-  still  farther  to  the  north  than  Ashdod,  was 
 memorable  in  the  history  of  the  Old  Testament,  for  being 
 the  birthplace  of  the  giant  Goliah,who  defied  the  armies 
 of  the  living  God,  and  suffered  the  punishment  due  to 
 his  impiety,  from  the  hand  of  David.  The  city  was  dis- 
 mantled by  this  prince,  but  was  afterwards  rebuilt  by 
 Rehoboam  his  grandson,  and  after  being  again  disman- 
 tled by  Azias,  king  of  Judah,  was  totally  destroyed  by 
 Hazael,  king  of  Syria.  But  from  this  catastrophe  it 
 gradually  recovered,  and  retained  its  ancient  name  in 
 the  days  of  Eusebius  and  Jerome,  who  place  it  about 
 four  miles  from  Eleutheropolis,  towards  Diospolis,  or 
 Lydda. 
 
 Gath  suffered  severely  while  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
 was  detained  within  its  walls  :  '  The  hand  of  the  Lord,' 
 says  the  sacred  writer,  '  was  against  the  city  with  a  very 
 great  destruction  ;  and  he  smote  the  men  of  the  city, 
 both  small  and  great ;  and  they  had  emrods  in  their  secret 
 parts.  Therefore  they  sent  the  ark  of  God  to  Ekron.' z 
 This  city  was  placed  in  the  northern  extremity  of  the 
 country,  which  submitted  to  the  yoke  of  the  Philistines. 
 It  was  called  by  the  Greeks  Accaron  ;  was  a  place  of 
 great  wealth  and  power,  and  held  out  a  long  time  against 
 the  armies  of  Israel.  Ekron  is  frequently  mentioned  in 
 the  holy  Scriptures,  and  particularly  for  the  idolatrous 
 worship  of  Beelzebub,  that  is,  the  lord  of  flies  ;  a  name 
 given  him  by  the  Jews,  either  in  contempt  of  his  divinity, 
 and  the  rites  of  his  worship,  or  in  allusion  to  the  numer- 
 ous swarms  of  flies  which  attended  his  sacrifices.  But 
 whatever  might  be  the  reason  for  distinguishing  by  this 
 name,  certain  it  is,  in  this  city  was  the  principal  seat  of 
 his  worship  :  here  he  was  held  in  the  highest  honour,  and 
 is  therefore  called  in  Scripture,  '  the  God  of  Ekron.' 
 
 The  inhabitants  of  Ekron,  less  hardened  in  crime,  or 
 less  insensible  to  danger  than  their  neighbours,  were  the 
 first  that  advised  the  Philistines  to  restore  the  ark  of 
 Jehovah,    the    God    of    Israel.     '  The  Ekronites    cried 
 
 M.  37G5.  A.  C.  1C4G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  BKD  OF  DEUT. 
 
 out,  saying,  They  have  brought  about  the  ark  of  the 
 God  of  Israel  to  us,  to  slay  us  and  our  people.  So 
 they  sent  and  gathered  together  all  the  lords  of  the 
 Philistines,  and  said,  Send  away  the  ark  of  the  God  of 
 Israel,  and  let  it  go  to  its  own  place;'  and  the  destruc- 
 tive calamity  which  hung  over  their  devok'cl  fcfty  was 
 averted. 
 
 The  land  of  Canaan  was  reserved  by  the  wisdom  and 
 goodness  of  Heaven,  for  the  possession  of  his  peculiar 
 people,  and  the  display  of  the  most  stupendous  wonders. 
 The  theatre  was  small,  but  admirably  situated  fur  the 
 convenient  observation  of  the  human  race, — at  the  junc- 
 tion of  the  two  great  continents  of  Asia  and  Africa,  and 
 almost  within  sight  of  Europe.  From  this  highly  favoured 
 spot,  as  from  a  common  centre,  the  report  of  God's  won- 
 derful works,  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  through  the 
 obedience  and  sufferings  of  his  eternal  Son,  might  he 
 rapidly  and  easily  wafted  to  every  part  of  the  globe,  and 
 circulated  through  every  nation,  When  the  most  High, 
 therefore,  fixed  the  boundaries  of  the  post-diluvian  king- 
 doms, he  reserved  the  inheritance  of  Canaan,  for  the 
 future  seat  of  his  glory  ;  and  while  powerful  states,  and 
 extended  empires  rose  and  flourished,  in  the  circumja- 
 cent regions,  his  secret  providence  parcelled  out  the 
 land  of  promise  among  a  number  of  petty  kings,  whose 
 individual  weakness  and  jarring  interests,  gave  them  an 
 easy  prey  to  the  armies  of  Israel.  To  this  arrangement 
 the  inspired  prophet  certainly  refers  in  these  words,  '  Re- 
 member the  days  of  old,  consider  the  years  of  many 
 generations  ;  ask  thy  father,  and  he  will  show  thee,  thy 
 elders,  and  he  will  tell  thee.'  When  the  most  High 
 divided  to  the  nations  their  inheritance,  when  he  sepa- 
 rated the  sons  of  Adam,  he  set  the  bounds  of  the  people, 
 according  to  the  number  of  the  children  of  Israel.  Ca- 
 naan and  his  posterity  were  directed  to  take  possession 
 of  Palestine,  rather  than  any  other  branch  of  Noah's 
 descendants,  because  he  had  already  fallen  under  the 
 solemn  malediction  of  his  grandfather  Noah,  for  his  un- 
 natural conduct;  and  they  were  permitted  to  fill  up  the 
 measure  of  their  iniquity  by  a  general  corruption  of 
 manners,  and  particularly,  by  departing  from  the  know- 
 ledge of  the  true  God,  to  the  service  of  idols  :  and 
 therefore  might  be  justly  driven  out,  when  the  time  fixed 
 in  the  divine  purpose  arrived,  to  make  room  for  the 
 chosen  people  of  Jehovah.  '  Their  bounds,'  Bays  the  in- 
 spired writer,  '  he  set,  according  to  the  number  of  the 
 children  of  Israel;'  for  Canaan  anil  his  eleven  sons 
 exactly  correspond  with  the  twelve  bribes,  into  which  the 
 family  of  Jacob  was  divided.  3 
 
 1  Sam.  v.  2- 
 
 1  Sam.  v.  <>,  iO. 
 
 CHAP.  V. —  On  the  Mountains  of  Canaan. 
 
 BY   THE  EDITOR. 
 
 Palestine  is,  in  general,  a   mountainous  country:  even 
 the  whole  of  Syria,  of  which  the  Holy  hand  U  reckoned 
 
 a  part,  is  in  some  degree  a  chain  of  mountains,  branching 
 
 oft*  in    various   directions,  from  one  great  and   leading 
 ridoe.     Whether  the  traveller  a|  proacfa  it  from  the  sea, 
 
 ■  Paxton'a  [Omtntians,  vol.  l.  p.  Tir—  IU 
 2x 
 
346 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  37G5.  A.  C.  1G4G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 or  from  the  immense  plains  of  the  desert,  he  beholds, 
 at  a  great  distance,  a  lofty  and  clouded  chain  running 
 north  and  south  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach ;  and  as  he 
 advances,  sees  the  tops  of  the  mountains  sometimes 
 detached,  and  sometimes  united  in  ridges,  uniformly 
 terminate  in  one  great  line,  towering  above  them  all. 
 This  line,  which  extends  without  interruption,  from  its 
 entry  by  the  north  quite  into  Arabia,  runs  at  first  close 
 to  the  sea,  between  Alexandretta  and  the  Orontes  ;  and 
 after  opening  a  passage  to  that  river,  proceeds  to  the 
 southward,  quitting  for  a  short  distance  the  shore,  and 
 in  a  chain  of  summits  stretches  as  far  as  the  sources  of 
 the  Jordan ;  where  it  divides  into  two  branches,  to 
 enclose,  as  it  were,  in  a  capacious  basin,  this  river  and 
 its  three  lakes.  During  its  course,  a  countless  number 
 of  branches  separate  from  the  main  trunk,  some  of  which 
 are  lost  in  the  desert,  where  they  form  various  enclosed 
 hollows,  as  those  of  Damascus  and  Haran;  while  others 
 advance  towards  the  sea,  where  they  sometimes  end  in 
 steep  declivities  as  at  Carmel,  or  Nekoura,  or  by  a  gentle 
 descent  sink  into  the  plains  of  Antioch  and  Tripoli,  of 
 Tyre  and  Acre. 
 
 Such  is  the  general  appearance  of  the  country  which 
 Moses  taught  his  people  to  expect,  while  they  traversed 
 the  burning  and  dreary  wilderness  :  '  for  the  land  whither 
 thou  goest  in  to  possess  it,  is  not  as  the  land  of  Egypt, 
 from  whence  ye  came  out,  where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed, 
 and  wateredst  it  with  thy  foot  as  a  garden  of  herbs  :  but 
 the  land  whither  ye  go  to  possess  it,  is  a  land  of  hills 
 and  valleys,  and  drinketh  water  of  the  rain  of  heaven.'  1 
 The  striking  contrast,  in  this  short  but  glowing  descrip- 
 tion, between  the  land  of  Egypt,  where  the  people  of 
 Israel  had  so  long  and  so  cruelly  suffered,  and  the 
 inheritance  promised  to  their  fathers,  where  Jehovah 
 reserved  for  them  and  their  children  every  blessing  that 
 a  nation  can  desire,  must  have  made  a  deep  impression 
 on  their  minds.  In  Egypt,  the  eye  is  fatigued  with  wan- 
 dering over  an  immense  fiat  plain,  intersected  with  stag- 
 nant canals,  and  studded  with  mud-walled  towns  and 
 cottages  ;  seldom  refreshed  with  a  single  shower  ;  exhib- 
 iting, for  three  months,  the  singular  spectacle  of  an 
 extensive  sheet  of  water,  from  which  the  towns  and 
 villages  that  are  built  upon  the  higher  grounds,  are  seen 
 like  islands  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean,  marshy  and  rank 
 with  vegetation  for  three  others — and  parched  and  dusty 
 the  remainder  of  the  year.  They  had  seen  a  population 
 of  naked  and  sunburnt  peasants,  tending  their  buffaloes, 
 or  driving  their  camels,  or  sheltering  themselves  from 
 the  overwhelming  heat  beneath  the  shade  of  the  thinly 
 scattered  date  or  sycamore  trees  ;  below,  natural  or 
 artificial  lakes,  cultivated  fields,  and  vacant  grounds  of 
 considerable  extent — overhead,  a  burning  sun,  darting 
 his  oppressive  rays  from  an  azure  sky,  almost  invariably 
 free  from  clouds.  In  that  "  weary  land,"  they  were 
 compelled  to  water  their  corn  fields  with  the  foot ;  a 
 painful  and  laborious  employment,  rendered  necessary 
 by  the  want  of  rain.  Those  vegetable  productions  which 
 require  a  greater  quantity  of  moisture  than  is  furnished 
 by  the  periodical  inundations  of  the  Nile,  they  were 
 obliged  to  refresh  with  water  drawn  out  of  the  river  by 
 machinery,  and  lodged  afterwards  in  capacious  cisterns. 
 "When  the  melons,  sugar    canes,   and  other  vegetables 
 
 1  Dent.  xi.  11. 
 
 that  are  commonly  disposed  in  rills,  required  to  be 
 refreshed,  they  struck  out  the  plugs  which  are  fixed  in  the 
 bottoms  of  the  cisterns  ;  and  then  the  water  gushing  out, 
 is  conducted  from  one  rill  to  another  by  the  husbandman 
 who  is  always  ready,  as  occasion  requires,  to  stop  and 
 divert  the  torrent,  by  turning  the  earth  against  it  with  his 
 foot,  opening  at  the  same  time  with  his  mattock  a  new 
 trench  to  receive  it.  2  Such  is  the  practice  to  which 
 Moses  alludes  ;  and  it  continues  to  be  observed  without 
 variation  to  this  day.  But  from  this  fatiguing  uniformity 
 of  surface,  and  toilsome  method  of  watering  their 
 grounds,  the  people  of  Israel  were  now  to  be  relieved  ; 
 they  were  going  to  possess  a  land  of  hills  and  valleys, 
 clothed  with  woods,  beautified  and  enriched  with  foun- 
 tains of  water,  divided  by  rivers,  streams,  and  brooks, 
 flowing  cool  and  pure  from  the  summits  of  their  moun- 
 tains, and,  with  little  attention  from  the  cultivator, 
 exciting  the  secret  powers  of  vegetation,  and  scattering 
 plenty  wherever  they  came. 
 
 Sometimes  the  drought  of  summer  renders  frequent 
 waterings  necessary  even  in  Judea.  On  such  occasions, 
 the  water  is  drawn  up  from  the  wells  by  oxen,  and 
 carried  by  the  inhabitants  in  earthen  jars,  to  refrigerate 
 their  plantations  on  the  sides  of  the  hills.3  The  necessi- 
 ty to  which  the  Jewish  husbandman  is  occasionally 
 reduced,  to  water  his  grounds  in  this  manner,  is  not 
 inconsistent  with  the  words  of  Moses,  which  distinguish 
 the  Holy  Land  from  Egypt,  by  its  drinking  rain  from 
 heaven,  while  the  latter  is  watered  by  the  foot.  The 
 inspired  prophet  alludes,  in  that  passage,  not  to  gardens 
 of  herbs,  or  other  cultivated  spots  on  the  steep  declivities 
 of  the  hills  and  mountains,  where,  in  so  warm  a  climate 
 as  that  of  Canaan,  the  deficiency  of  rain  must  be  supplied 
 by  art,  but  to  their  corn  fields ;  which,  in  Egypt,  are 
 watered  by  artificial  canals,  in  the  manner  just  described ; 
 in  Canaan  by  the  rain  of  heaven. 
 
 The  most  remarkable  mountains  in  Palestine,  are  those 
 of  Lebanon,  so  frequently  celebrated  in  the  holy  Scrip- 
 tures. This  lofty  range,  described  by  ancient  and 
 modern  historians  under  the  names  of  Libanus  and 
 Antilibanus,  is  the  highest  point  of  all  Syria,  and  serves 
 equally  as  a  boundary  to  Judea  and  Assyria  ;  but,  so 
 frequent  mention  is  made  of  them  in  the  writings  of  the 
 prophets,  that  they  are  generally  included  within  the 
 confines  of  the  land  of  promise.  They  reach  their  highest 
 elevation  to  the  south-east  of  Tripoli ;  and  their  tower- 
 ing summits  capped  with  clouds,  are  discerned  at  the 
 distance  of  thirty  leagues.  The  superior  height  of 
 Lebanon,  is  ascertained  by  the  course  of  the  rivers. 
 The  Orontes,  flowing  from  the  mountains  of  Damascus, 
 loses  itself  below  Antioch  ;  the  Kasmia  which,  north  of 
 Balbec,  shapes  its  course  towards  Tyre ;  the  Jordan, 
 forced  by  the  declivities  towards  the  south,  prove  this  to 
 be  the  highest  point.  Next  to  Lebanon,  the  highest  part 
 of  the  country  is  Akkar,  which  becomes  visible  as  soon 
 as  the  traveller  leaves  Marra  in  the  desert.  It  appears 
 like  an  immense  flattened  cone,  and  is  constantly  seen 
 for  two  days'  journey.  The  height  of  these  mountains 
 has  not  been  ascertained  by  the  barometer  ;  but  we  may 
 deduce  it  from  a  circumstance  mentioned  by  every 
 traveller  who  visits  the  land  of  promise.  In  winter, 
 their  tops  are  entirely  covered  with  snow,  from  Alexan- 
 
 2  Shaw's  Travels 
 
 Pococke's  Travels. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c 
 
 347 
 
 A.  M.  2515.   A.  C.  1489;  OK,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 dretta  to  Jerusalem,  but  after  March,  it  melts,  except  on 
 Mount  Lebanon  ;  where,  however,  according  to  Volney, 
 it  does  not  continue  the  whole  year,  unless  in  the  highest 
 cavities,  and  towards  the  north-east,  where  it  is  sheltered 
 from  the  sea  breeze,  and  the  rays  of  the  sun.  In  this 
 situation,  that  traveller  saw  it  at  the  very  time  he  com- 
 plains of  being  nearly  suffocated  with  heat  in  the  valley 
 of  Balbec.  Now  since  it  is  fully  ascertained,  that  snow 
 in  this  latitude,  requires  an  elevation  of  fifteen  or  sixteen 
 hundred  fathoms,  we  may  conclude  that  to  be  the  height 
 of  Lebanon.  It  is  therefore  much  lower  than  the  Alps, 
 or  even  than  the  Pyrenees  :  Mont  Blanc,  the  loftiest  of 
 the  Alps,  is  estimated  at  two  thousand  four  hundred 
 fathoms  above  the  level  of  the  sea ;  and  the  peak  of 
 Apian  in  the  Pyrenees,  at  nineteen  hundred. 
 
 Lebanon,  which  gives  its  name  to  the  extensive  range 
 of  the  Kessauan,  and  the  country  of  the  Drusez,  presents 
 to  the  traveller  everywhere  majestic  mountains.  At 
 every  step,  he  meets  with  scenes  in  which  nature  displays 
 beauty  or  grandeur,  sometimes  romantic  wildness,  but 
 always  variety.  The  sublime  elevation  and  steep  ascent 
 of  this  magnificent  rampart,  which  seems  to  enclose  the 
 country  ;  the  gigantic  masses  which  shoot  into  the  clouds, 
 inspire  him  with  astonishment  and  reverence.  Should 
 he  scale  these  summits  which  bounded  his  view,  and 
 ascend  the  highest  point  of  Lebanon,  distinguished  by 
 the  name  of  the  Sannin,  the  immensity  of  space  which 
 expands  around  him,  becomes  a  fresh  subject  of  admira- 
 tion. On  every  side,  he  beholds  a  horizon  without 
 bounds  ;  whilst,  in  clear  weather,  the  sight  is  lost  over 
 the  desert,  which  extends  to  the  Persian  gulf,  and  over 
 the  sea,  which  washes  the  coasts  of  Europe.  He  seems 
 to  command  the  whole  world  ;  while  the  wandering  eye, 
 now  surveying  the  successive  chains  of  mountains,  trans- 
 ports the  mind  in  one  instant,  from  Antioch  to  Jerusalem  ; 
 and  now,  approaching  the  surrounding  objects,  observes 
 the  distant  profundity  of  the  coast,  till  the  attention  at 
 last  fixed  by  distincter  objects,  more  minutely  examines 
 the  rocks,  the  woods,  the  torrents,  the  sloping  sides  of 
 the  hills,  the  villages  and  the  towns  ;  and  the  mind 
 secretly  exults  at  the  diminution  of  objects,  which 
 formerly  appeared  so  great.  He  sees  the  valleys 
 obscured  by  stormy  clouds,  with  fresh  delight,  and  smiles 
 at  hearing  the  thunder,  which  so  often  burst  over  his 
 head,  growling  beneath  his  feet ;  while  the  threatening 
 summits  of  the  mountains  are  diminished,  till  they  ap- 
 pear like  the  furrows  of  a  ploughed  field,  or  the  steps 
 of  an  amphitheatre,  and  he  feels  himself  gratified  by  an 
 elevation  above  so  many  lofty  objects,  on  which  he  now 
 looks  down  with  inward  satisfaction. l 
 
 On  visiting  the  interior  parts  of  these  mountains,  the 
 roughness  of  the  roads,  the  steep  descents  and  preci- 
 pices, strike  him  at  first  with  terror  ;  but  the  sagacity  of 
 the  mule  which  he  rides,  the  only  beast  of  burden  which 
 can  traverse  them  with  safety,  soon  relieves  him,  and  he 
 calmly  surveys  those  picturesque  scenes  that  entertain 
 him  in  quick  succession.  There  he  travels  whole  days 
 together,  to  reach  a  place  which  was  in  sight  at  his 
 departure  ;  he  winds,  descends,  skirts  the  hills,  and 
 climbs  their  precipitous  sides  ;  and  in  this  perpetual 
 change,  it  seems  as  if  magic  herself  varied  for  him  at 
 every  step,  the  decorations  of  the  scenery.     Sometimes 
 
 1  Volney 's  Travels,  vol.  1.  p.  203. 
 
 M.  3765.  A.  C.  1C4G.  NUM.  .wiii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 he  sees  villages  gliding  from  the  steep  declivities  on 
 which  they  were  built,  and  so  arranged,  that  the  terraces 
 of  one  row  of  houses,  serve  as  a  street  to  those  above 
 them.  Sometimes  he  sees  the  habitation  of  a  recluse, 
 standing  on  a  solitary  height;  here  a  rock,  perforated 
 by  a  torrent,  and  become  a  natural  arch  ;  there  another 
 rock,  worn  perpendicular,  resembles  a  high  wall.  On 
 the  sides  of  the  hills,  he  frequently  sees  beds  of  stones 
 uncovered  and  detached  by  the  waters,  rising  up  like 
 artificial  ruins.  In  many  places,  the  waters  meeting 
 with  inclined  beds,  have  excavated  the  intermediate 
 earth,  and  formed  caverns  ;  in  others,  subterraneous 
 channels  are  formed,  through  which  flow  rivulets  for  a 
 part  of  the  year.  These  subterraneous  rivulets  are 
 common  throughout  Syria  ;  they  are  found  near  Damas- 
 cus, at  the  sources  of  the  Orontes,  and  at  those  of  the 
 Jordan.  That  of  the  Mar-Kanna,  near  the  village  of 
 Shouair,  opens  by  a  gulf  called  Elbaloisa,  or  the 
 Swallower.  It  is  an  aperture  of  about  ten  feet  wide, 
 in  the  middle  of  a  hollow ;  at  the  depth  of  fifteen 
 feet,  is  a  sort  of  first  bottom,  but  it  only  hides  a  very 
 profound  lateral  opening.  Some  years  before  Volney 
 visited  Lebanon,  it  was  shut,  as  it  had  served  to  conceal 
 a  murder.  The  winter  rains  coming  on,  the  waters 
 collected  and  formed  a  pretty  deep  lake ;  but  some 
 small  streams  penetrating  among  the  stones,  they  were 
 soon  stripped  of  the  earth  which  fastened  them,  and  the 
 pressure  of  the  mass  of  water  prevailing,  the  whole 
 obstacle  was  removed  with  an  explosion  like  thunder ; 
 and  the  re-action  of  the  compressed  air  was  so  violent, 
 that  a  column  of  water  spouted  up,  and  fell  upon  a  house 
 at  the  distance  of  at  least  two  hundred  paces.  The 
 current  thus  occasioned,  formed  a  whirlpool,  which 
 swallowed  up  the  trees  and  vines  planted  in  the  hollow, 
 and  threw  them  out  by  the  second  aperture. 
 
 These  picturesque  situations  often  become  tragical. 
 By  thaws  and  earthquakes,  rocks  have  been  known  to 
 lose  their  equilibrium,  roll  down  on  the  neighbouring 
 houses,  and  bury  the  inhabitants.  This  happened  about 
 twenty  years  before  Volney 's  visit,  when  a  fragment  of 
 the  mountain,  slipping  from  its  base,  overwhelmed  a 
 whole  village,  without  leaving  a  single  trace  where  it 
 formerly  stood.  Still  more  lately,  and  near  the  sane 
 place,  says  that  traveller,  the  entire  side  of  a  hill  covered 
 with  mulberries  and  vines,  was  detached  by  a  sudden 
 thaw,  and  sliding  down  the  rock,  was  launched  like  a 
 ship  from  the  rocks,  into  the  valley  below.  It  might  be 
 supposed,  that  such  accidents  would  disgust  the  inhabi- 
 tants of  these  mountains;  but,  besides  that  they  happen 
 seldom,  they  are  compensated  by  an  advantage,  which 
 makes  them  prefer  their  perilous  habitations,  to  (he  most 
 stable  and  fertile  plains, — the  security  they  enjoy  from 
 the  oppressions  of  the  Turks.  This  security  is  esteemed 
 so  great  a  blessing  by  the  inhabitants,  that  they  have 
 discovered  an  industry  on  these  rocks,  which  we  may 
 elsewhere  expect  in  vain.  By  mere  art  and  labour,  they 
 have  fertilized  a  rocky  soil.  Sometimes  to  gain  water, 
 they  conduct  it  by  a  thousand  windings  along  the  decli- 
 vities, or  stop  it  by  dams  in  the  valleys  ;  while  in  other 
 places  they  support  the  ground,  ready  t<>  crumble  down, 
 by  walls  and  terraces.  Almost  all  these  mountains  cul- 
 tivated in  this  manner,  have  the  appearance  of  a  flight 
 of  stairs,  or  an  amphitheatre,  every  step  of  which  is  a 
 row  of  vines  or  mulberry  trees.     Our  author  computed 
 
348 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3705.  A.  C.  I64G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  of  these 
 gradations  on  the  same  declivity.  In  many  places, 
 their  summits  are  flattened  and  stretched  into  vast  plains  ; 
 which  reward  the  toil  of  the  cultivator  with  luxuriant 
 crops  of  corn  and  all  kinds  of  pulse.  Numerous  rivulets 
 of  excellent  water  intersect  these  elevated  regions,  and 
 diffuse  on  every  side  the  nicest  verdure.  The  soil  which 
 covers  the  declivities,  and  the  narrow  valleys  which 
 separate  them,  is  extremely  fertile,  and  produces  in 
 abundance,  corn,  wine,  and  oil,  which  D'Arvieux  pro- 
 nounces to  be  the  best  in  Syria. 
 
 These  mountains  consist  of  a  hard  calcareous,  whitish, 
 stone,  sonorous  like  freestone,  and  disposed  in  strata 
 variously  inclined.  This  stone  has  nearly  the  same  ap- 
 pearance in  every  part  of  Syria  :  sometimes  it  is  quite 
 bare  and  peeled  ;  such,  for  instance,  is  that  of  the  hills 
 on  the  north  side  of  the  road  from  Antioch  to  Aleppo, 
 and  that  which  serves  as  a  bed  to  the  upper  part  of  the 
 rivulet  which  passes  by  the  latter  city.  In  travelling 
 from  Aleppo  to  Hama,  veins  of  the  same  rock  are  con- 
 stantly to  be  met  with  in  the  plain ;  while  the  mountains 
 on  the  right  present  huge  piles,  which  appear  like  the 
 ruins  of  towns  and  castles.  The  same  stone,  under  a 
 more  regular  form,  likewise  composes  the  greater  part 
 of  Lebanon,  Anti-Lebanon,  the  mountains  of  the 
 Drusez,  Galilee,  and  Mount  Carmel,  and  stretch  to  the 
 south  of  the  lake  Asphaltites.  The  inhabitants  every- 
 where build  their  houses,  and  make  lime  with  it.  Of 
 this  beautiful  stone  was  the  temple  of  Jehovah  built, 
 and  the  other  splendid  edifices  with  which  Solomon 
 adorned  the  capital  of  his  kingdom.  He  '  had  three- 
 score and  ten  thousand  that  bare  burdens,  and  fourscore 
 hewers  in  the  mountains  ;  and  the  king  commanded,  and 
 brought  great  stones,  costly  stones,  and  hewed  stones, 
 to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  house.  And  Solomon's 
 builders  and  Hiram's  builders  did  hew  them,  and  the 
 stone-squarers.' * 
 
 Volney  never  heard  that  these  stones  contained  any 
 petrified  shells  in  the  upper  regions  of  Lebanon ;  but 
 he  found  between  Batround  and  Djebail,  in  the  Kes- 
 raonan,  not  far  from  the  sea,  a  quarry  of  schistus  stone, 
 the  flakes  of  which  bear  the  impressions  of  plants,  fish, 
 shells,  and  particularly  the  sea  onion.  The  bed  of  the 
 torrent  of  Azkalon,  in  Palestine,  is  also  lined  with  a 
 heavy  stone,  porous  and  salt,  which  contains  many  small 
 volutes  and  bivalves  of  the  Mediterranean.  Pococke 
 found  a  large  quantity  of  them  in  the  rocks  which  border 
 on  the  Lead  Sea.  These  are  indubitable  remains  of 
 the  antediluvian  world,  and  afford  an  additional  proof, 
 if  any  were  needed,  of  the  existence  and  prevalence  of 
 the  deluge  over  the  surface  of  our  globe. 
 
 So  famous  was  this  stupendous  mountain  (Lebanon) 
 in  the  days  of  Moses,  that  to  be  permitted  to  see  it,  was 
 the  object  of  his  earnest  desires  and  repeated  prayers  ; 
 and,  as  the  strongest  expression  of  his  admiration,  he 
 connects  it  in  his  addresses  to  the  throne  of  his  God,, 
 with  Zion  the  future  seat  of  his  divine  glory.  '  I  pray 
 thee,  let  me  go  over  and  see  the  good  land  that  is 
 beyond  Jordan  ;  that  goodly  mountain  and  Lebanon.' 
 
 The  storms  and  tempests  which,  gathering  on  the 
 highest  peak  of  Lebanon,  burst  on  the  plains  and  val- 
 leys below,  are  often  very  severe.     When  De  la  Valle 
 
 1  1  Kings  v.  15,  17,  18. 
 
 was  travelling  in  the  neighbourhood  of  that  mountain, 
 in  the  end  of  April,  a  wind  blew  from  its  summit  so 
 vehement  and  so  cold,  with  so  great  a  profusion  of  snow, 
 that  though  he  and  his  companions  were  in  a  manner 
 buried  in  their  quilted  coverlets,  yet  it  was  sensibly  felt, 
 and  proved  very  disagreeable.  It  is  not,  therefore, 
 without  reason  that  Lebanon,  or  the  white  mountain,  as 
 the  term  signifies,  is  the  same  by  which  that  lofty  chain 
 is  distinguished  ;  and  that  the  sacred  writers  so  fre- 
 quently refer  to  the  snow  and  the  gelid  waters  of  Leba- 
 non. They  sometimes  allude  to  it  as  a  wild  and  deso- 
 late region  ;  and  certainly  no  part  of  the  earth  is  more 
 dreary  and  barren  than  the  Sannin,  the  region  of  per- 
 petual snow.  On  that  naked  summit,  the^  seat  of  storm 
 and  tempest,  where  the  principles  of  vegetation  are 
 extinguished,  the  art  and  industry  of  man  can  make  no 
 impression  ;  nothing  but  the  creating  power  of  God  him- 
 self, can  produce  a  favourable  alteration.  Thus,  pre- 
 dicting a  wonderful  change,  such  as  results  from  the 
 signal  manifestations  of  the  divine  favour  to  individuals 
 or  the  church,  the  prophet  demands,  '  Is  it  not  yet  a 
 very  little  while,  and  Lebanon  shall  be  turned  into  a 
 fruitful  field  ? ' 2  The  contrast  in  this  promise  between 
 the  naked,  snowy,  and  tempestuous  summit  of  Lebanon, 
 and  a  field  beautified  and  enriched  with  the  fairest  and 
 most  useful  productions  of  nature,  expresses  with  great 
 force,  the  difference  which  the  smiles  of  Heaven  produce 
 in  the  most  wretched  and  hopeless  circumstances  of  an 
 individual  or  a  nation. 
 
 Lebanon  was  justly  considered  as  a  very  strong  barrier 
 to  the  land  of  promise  ;  and  opposing  an  almost  insur- 
 mountable obstacle  to  the  movements  of  cavalry  and 
 chariots  of  war.  When  Sennacherib,  therefore,  in  the 
 arrogance  of  his  heart,  and  the  pride  of  his  strength, 
 wished  to  express  the  ease  with  which  he  had  subdued 
 the  greatest  difficulties,  and  how  vain  was  the  resistance 
 of  Hezekiah  and  his  people,  he  says,  '  By  the  multitude 
 of  my  chariots  am  I  come  up  to  the  height  of  the  moun- 
 tains, to  the  sides  of  Lebanon  ;  and  I  will  cut  down  the 
 tall  cedars  thereof,  and  the  choice  fir-trees  thereof;  and 
 I  will  enter  into  the  height  of  his  border,  and  the  forest 
 of  his  Carmel.'  What  others  accomplish  on  foot  with 
 much  labour  and  the  greatest  difficulty,  by  a  winding 
 path  cut  into  steps,  which  no  beast  of  burden,  except  the 
 cautious  and  surefooted  mule,  can  tread,  that  haughty 
 monarch  vaunted  he  could  perform  with  horses  and  a 
 multitude  of  chariots.  Surrounded  by  crouching  slaves, 
 and  accustomed  to  see  every  obstacle  vanish  before  him, 
 he  vainly  supposed  he  could  gratify  the  most  inordinate 
 desire  ;  and  what  the  world  accounted  physical  impos- 
 sibilities, must  yield  to  his  power. 
 
 The  lofty  summits  of  Lebanon  were  the  chosen  haunts 
 of  various  beasts  of  prey ;  the  prints  of  whose  feet, 
 Maundrell  and  his  party  observed  in  the  snow.  To 
 these  savage  tenants  of  the  desert,  the  prophet  Habakkuk 
 seems  to  allude  in  that  prediction  :  '  For  the  violence 
 of  Lebanon  shall  cover  thee,  and  the  spoil  of  beasts, 
 which  made  them  afraid,  because  of  men's  blood,  and 
 for  the  violence  of  the  land.' 3  The  violence  of  Leba- 
 non is  a  beautiful  and  energetic  expression,  denoting 
 the  ferocious  animals  that  roam  on  its  mountains,  and 
 lodge  in  its  thickets  ;  and  that,  occasionally  descending 
 
 11  Is.  xxix.  1* 
 
 Hab.  ii.  8. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 319 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 into  the  plain  in  quest  of  prey,  ravage  the  fold  or  seize 
 upon  the  unwary  villager.  To  such  dangers  Solomon 
 expressly  refers,  in  the  animated  invitation  which,  in  the 
 name  of  the  Redeemer,  he  addresses  to  the  church  : 
 '  Come  with  me  from  Lebanon,  my  spouse,  with  me  from 
 Lebanon  :  look  from  the  top  of  Aniana,  from  the  top  of 
 Shenir  and  Hermon,  from  the  lions'  dens,  from  the 
 mountains  of  the  leopards.'1  AYith  these  fierce  and 
 ravenous  animals,  the  prophet  Jeremiah  joins  the  wolves 
 of  the  evening,  and  sends  them  to  lay  waste  the  habita- 
 tions of  his  guilty  and  unrepenting  nation  :  '  Wherefore 
 a  lion  out  of  the  forest  shall  slay  them,  and  a  wolf  of 
 the  evening  shall  spoil  them  ;  a  leopard  shall  watch  over 
 their  cities,  every  one  that  goeth  out  thence  shall  be  torn 
 in  pieces  ;  because  their  transgressions  are  many,  and 
 their  backslidings  are  increased.'  Near  the  base  of  the 
 mountains,  the  traveller  is  entertained  with  a  more 
 pleasing  sight  than  the  lion  slumbering  in  his  den,  or 
 the  print  of  his  feet  in  the  snow ;  he  sees  the  hart  or  the 
 deer  shooting  from  the  steep,  to  quench  his  thirst  in  the 
 stream. a  It  was  when  David  wandered  near  the  foot  of 
 Lebanon,  driven  by  his  unnatural  son  Absalom  from 
 Zion  and  the  fountain  of  Israel,  the  scenes  of  divine 
 manifestation,  that  he  marked  the  rapid  course  of  these 
 animals  to  the  rivulets  which  descended  from  the  sides 
 of  the  mountains.  He  saw  the  hart  panting  for  the 
 water  brooks,  and  the  sight  reminded  him  of  his  former 
 enjoyments,  while  the  circumstances  of  the  creature  bore 
 a  striking  analogy  to  his  own  situation  and  feelings  at 
 the  time.  The  passage,  in  which,  prompted  by  the 
 casual  incident,  he  poured  out  the  ardent  longings  of 
 his  soul  for  the  waters  of  life,  is  wonderfully  beautiful 
 and  tender  :  '  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks, 
 so  pants  my  soul  after  thee,  O  God.  My  soul  thirsteth 
 for  God,  the  living  God  ;  when  shall  I  come  and  appear 
 before  God  ?' 3 
 
 Though  the  upper  regions  of  Lebanon  are  unfit  for 
 the  habitation  of  man,  they  still  contribute  to  his  advan- 
 tage. From  their  accumulated  snows  descend  a  thousand 
 streams  of  pure  and  wholesome  water,  to  irrigate  the 
 fields  below,  to  clothe  them  with  verdure,  and  enrich 
 them  with  the  choicest  products.  The  fountains  and  the 
 streams  of  Lebanon,  furnish  accordingly  a  number  of 
 pleasing  figures  to  the  inspired  writers.  The  church  is 
 described  in  the  Song  of  Solomon,  as  a  fountain  of 
 gardens,  a  well  of  living  waters,  and  streams  from 
 Lebanon.  *  And  the  prophet,  in  reproving  the  folly  and 
 perverseness  of  his  people,  demands,  '  A\  ill  a  man 
 leave  the  snow  of  Lebanon  which  cometh  from  the  rock 
 of  the  field  ?  or,  shall  the  cold  flowing  waters  that  come 
 from  another  place  be  forsaken?'*  No  man,  in  the 
 sober  exercise  of  reason,  would  leave  the  pure  and  re- 
 freshing streams  which  descend  from  the  sides  of  that 
 stupendous  mountain,  for  the  miry  puddle  or  the  insipid 
 waters  of  the  cistern  ;  yet,  with  still  greater  absurdity 
 than  such  conduct  betrays,  had  the  chosen  people  of 
 God  forsaken  the  worship  of  his  name,  for  the  degrading 
 and  unprofitable  service  of  idols. 
 
 The  approach  to  Lebanon  is  adorned  with  olive  plan- 
 tations, vineyards,  and  luxuriant  fields ;  and  its  lower 
 regions,  besides  the  olive  and  the  vine,  are  beautified  with 
 
 1  Song  iv.  8. 
 '  Ps.  xlii.  J. 
 
 "  Maundrcll's  Travels. 
 4  Son"  iv.  15.  5  Jer.  xviii.  I  J. 
 
 M.  37C5.  A.  C.  164G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 the  myrtle,  the  styrax,  and  other  odoriferous  shrubs  ;  and 
 the  perfume  which  exhales  from  these  plants  is  increased 
 by  the  fragrance  of  the  cedars,  which  crown  the  summits, 
 or  garnish  the  declivities  of  the  mountain.  The  great 
 ravine,  which  runs  a  long  way  up  into  the  mountain,  and 
 is  on  both  sides  exceedingly  steep  and  high,  is  clothed 
 from  the  top  to  the  bottom  with  fragrant  evergreens,  and 
 everywhere  refreshed  with  streams,  descending  from  the 
 rocks  in  beautiful  cascades,  the  work  of  divine  wisdom 
 and  goodness.  These  cool  and  limpid  streams,  uniting 
 at  the  bottom,  form  a  large  and  rapid  torrent,  whose 
 agreeable  murmur  is  heard  over  all  the  place,  and  adds 
 greatly  to  the  pleasure  of  that  romantic  scene. 6  The 
 fragrant  odours  wafted  from  the  aromatic  plants  of  this 
 noble  mountain,  have  not  been  overlooked  by  the  sacred 
 writers.  The  eulogium  which  Christ  pronounces  on  the 
 graces  of  the  church,  contains  the  following  direct 
 reference  :  '  The  smell  of  thy  garments  is  like  the  smell 
 of  Lebanon;'  and  the  prophet  Hosea,  in  his  glowing 
 description  of  the  future  prosperity  of  Israel,  converts 
 the  assertion  of  Solomon  into  a  promise  :  '  His  branches 
 shall  spread,  and  his  beauty  shall  be  as  the  olive-tree, 
 and  his  smell  as  Lebanon.' 
 
 The  richness  and  llavour  of  the  wines  produced  in  its 
 vineyards  have  been  celebrated  by  travellers  in  all  ages. 
 Rauwolf  declares,  that  the  wine  which  he  drank  at 
 Canobin,  a  Greek  monastery  on  Mount  Libanus,  far 
 surpassed  any  he  had  ever  tasted.  His  testimony  is 
 corroborated  by  Le  Bruin,  who  pronounces  the  wines  of 
 Canobin  better  and  more  delicate  than  are  to  be  found 
 any  where  else  in  the  world. 7  They  are  red,  of  a  beauti- 
 ful colour,  and  so  oily  that  they  adhere  to  the  glass  ; 
 these  are  so  excellent,  that  our  traveller  thought  he 
 never  tasted  any  kind  of  drink  more  delicious.  The 
 wines  produced  on  other  parts  of  the  mountain,  although 
 in  much  greater  abundance,  are  not  nearly  so  good.  To 
 the  delicious  wines  of  Canobin,  the  prophet  Hosea  cer- 
 tainly refers  in  this  promise  :  '  They  that  dwelt  under 
 his  shadow  shall  return  ;  they  shall  revive  as  the  corn, 
 and  grow  as  the  vine  :  the  scent  thereof  shall  be  as  the 
 wine  of  Lebanon.' 8 
 
 In  striking  allusion  to  the  scenery  and  productions  of 
 that  mountain,  it  is  promised  in  the  sixth  verse  :  '  His 
 branches  shall  spread,  and  his  beauty  shall  be  as  the 
 olive-tree,  and  his  smell  (or  his  memorial,  as  the  original 
 term  signifies,)  as  Lebanon.'  His  branches  shall  spread 
 like  the  mighty  arms  of  the  cedar,  every  one  of  which  is 
 equal  in  size  to  a  tree;  his  beauty  shall  be  as  the  olive- 
 tree,  which  is  admitted  by  all  who  have  seen  it,  to  he 
 one  of  the  most  beautiful  productions  of  nature  ;  and  his 
 smell,  his  very  memorial,  shall  be  as  the  wine  of  Leba- 
 non, which  delights  the  tatte,  and  the  very  recoiled  inn 
 of  which  excites  the  commendation  of  those  that  have 
 drunk  it,  long  after  the  banquel  is  over.  The  meaning 
 of  these  glorious  figures  undoubted!)  is.  that  the  righte- 
 ous man  shall  prosper  by  the  distinguishing  favour  «>f 
 Heaven  ;  shall  become  excellent,  ami  useful,  and  highly 
 respected  while  he  lives  ;  and  after  his  death,  his  memory 
 shall  be  blessed,  and  embalmed  in  the  affectionate  recol- 
 lection of  the  church,  f. >r  the  benefit  of  many  who  h.nl 
 not  the  opportunity  of  profiting  by  his  example. 
 
 6  Maundrell'a  Travels,  7  Harmer'a  Observations. 
 
 8  Ilosca  xiv.  7. 
 
350 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1 189  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 The  fragrant  odour  of  the  wines  produced  in  the  vine- 
 yards of  Lebanon,  seems  chiefly  to  have  attracted  the 
 notice  of  our  translators.  This  quality  is  either  ficti- 
 tious or  natural.  The  orientals,  not  satisfied  with  the 
 fragrance  emitted  by  the  essential  oil  of  the  grape,  fre- 
 quently put  spices  into  their  wines  to  increase  their 
 flavour.  To  this  practice  Solomon  alludes  in  these 
 words  :  '  I  would  cause  thee  to  drink  of  spiced  wine  of 
 the  juice  of  my  pomegranate.'1  But  Savary,  in  his 
 Letters  on  Greece,  affirms,  that  various  kinds  of  naturally 
 perfumed  wines  are  produced  in  Crete  ;  and  the  wine  of 
 Lebanon,  to  which  the  sacred  writer  alludes,  was  pro- 
 bably of  the  same  species. 
 
 The  cedar  of  Lebanon  has,  in  all  ages,  been  reckoned 
 an  object  of  unrivalled  grandeur  and  beauty  in  the  veget- 
 able kingdom.  It  is  accordingly  one  of  the  natural 
 images  which  frequently  occur  in  the  poetical  style  of 
 the  Hebrew  prophets,  and  is  appropriated  to  denote 
 kings,  princes,  and  potentates  of  the  highest  rank.  Thus, 
 the  prophet  Isaiah,  whose  writings  abound  with  meta- 
 phors and  allegories  of  this  kind,  in  denouncing  the 
 judgments  of  God  upon  the  proud  and  arrogant,  declares, 
 that  2  '  the  day  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  shall  be  upon  all 
 the  cedars  of  Lebanon  that  are  high  and  lifted  up,  and 
 upon  all  the  oaks  of  Bashan.'  The  king  of  Israel  used 
 the  same  figure,  in  his  reply  to  the  challenge  of  the 
 king  of  Judah  :  3  '  the  thistle  that  was  in  Lebanon,  sent 
 to  the  cedar  that  was  in  Lebanon,  saying,  Give  thy 
 daughter  to  my  son  to  wife  :  and  there  passed  by  a  wild 
 beast  that  was  in  Lebanon,  and  trod  down  the  thistle.' 
 The  spiritual  prosperity  of  the  righteous  man,  is  com- 
 pared by  the  psalmist  to  the  same  noble  plant :  '  The 
 righteous  shall  flourish  as  the  palm-tree  ;  he  shall  grow 
 as  the  cedar  in  Lebanon.'  Whatever  is  majestic  and 
 comely  in  the  human  countenance  ;  whatever  commands 
 the  reverence,  and  excites  the  love  of  the  beholder, — 
 Lebanon  and  its  towering  cedars  are  employed  by  the 
 sacred  writers  to  express. 
 
 To  break  the  cedars,  and  shake  the  enormous  mass  on 
 which  they  grew,  are  the  figures  that  David  selects,  to 
 express  the  awful  majesty  and  infinite  power  of  Jehovah  : 
 4  '  The  voice  of  the  Lord  is  powerful :  the  voice  of  the 
 Lord  is  full  of  majesty.  The  voice  of  the  Lord  breaketh 
 the  cedars :  yea,  the  Lord  breaketh  the  cedars  of  Leb- 
 anon. He  makes  them  also  to  skip  like  a  calf :  Leb- 
 anon and  Sirion  like  a  young  unicorn.'  This  descrip- 
 tion of  the  divine  majesty  and  power,  possesses  a  char- 
 acter of  awful  sublimity,  which  is  almost  unequalled, 
 even  in  the  page  of  inspiration.  Jehovah  has  only  to 
 speak,  and  the  cedar  which  braves  the  fierce  winds  of 
 heaven  is  broken,  even  the  cedar  of  Lebanon,  every  arm 
 of  which  rivals  the  size  of  a  tree  ;  he  has  only  to  speak, 
 and  the  enormous  mass  of  matter  on  which  it  grows, 
 shakes  to  its  foundation,  till,  extensive,  and  lofty,  and 
 ponderous  as  it  is,  it  leaps  like  the  young  of  the  herd  in 
 their  joyous  frolics,  and  skips  like  the  young  unicorn, 
 the  swiftest  of  the  four-footed  race. 
 
 The  stupendous  size,  the  extensive  range,  and  great 
 elevation  of  Libanus  ;  its  towering  summits  capped  with 
 perpetual  snow,  or  crowned  with  fragrant  cedars  ;  its 
 olive  plantations  ;  its  vineyards  producing  the  most  deli- 
 
 M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 cious  vines  ;  its  clear  fountains  aud  cold-flowing  brooks  ; 
 its  fertile  vales  and  odoriferous  shrubberies, — combine 
 to  form  in  Scripture  language,  '  the  glory  of  Lebanon.' 
 The  extensive  forests  of  cedars  which  adorned  and  per- 
 fumed the  summits  and  declivities  of  those  mountains, 
 have  almost  disappeared.  Only  a  small  number  of  these 
 '  trees  of  God,'  which,  according  to  the  usual  import  of 
 the  phrase,  signally  displayed  the  divine  power,  wisdom, 
 and  goodness,  now  remain.  Their  countless  number, 
 in  the  days  of  Solomon,  and  their  prodigious  bulk,  must 
 be  recollected,  in  order  to  feel  the  force  of  that  sublime 
 declaration  of  the  prophet :  5  '  Lebanon  is  not  sufficient 
 to  burn,  nor  the  beasts  thereof  for  a  burnt-oftering.' 
 Though  the  trembling  sinner  were  to  make  choice  of 
 Lebanon  for  the  altar ;  were  to  cut  down  all  its  forests 
 to  form  the  .pile ;  though  the  fragrance  of  this  fuel, 
 with  all  its  odoriferous  gums  were  the  incense ;  the 
 wine  of  Lebanon  pressed  from  all  its  vineyards  the  liba- 
 tion ;  and  all  its  beasts  the  propitiatory  sacrifice ;  all 
 would  prove  insufficient  to  make  an  atonement  for  the 
 sins  of  men  ;  would  be  regarded  as  nothing  in  the  eyes 
 of  the  supreme  Judge  for  the  expiation  of  even  one 
 transgression.  The  just  and  holy  law  of  God  requires 
 a  nobler  altar,  a  costlier  sacrifice,  and  a  sweeter  perfume, 
 — the  obedience  and  death  of  a  divine  person  to  atone 
 for  our  sins,  and  the  incense  of  his  continual  intercession, 
 to  secure  our  acceptance  with  the  Father  of  mercies,  and 
 admission  into  the  mansions  of  eternal  rest. 
 
 The  conversion  of  the  Gentile  nations  from  the  worship 
 of  idols  and  the  bondage  of  corruption,  to  the  service 
 and  enjoyment  of  the  true  God,  is  foretold  in  these 
 beautiful  and  striking  terms  :  fi  '  The  wilderness  and  the 
 solitary  place  shall  be  glad  for  them  ;  and  the  desert 
 shall  rejoice,  and  blossom  as  the  rose.  It  shall  blossom 
 abundantly,  and  rejoice  even  with  joy  and  singing ;  the 
 glory  of  Lebanon  shall  be  given  unto  it,  the  excellency 
 of  Carmel  and  Sharon :  they  shall  see  the  glory  of  the 
 Lord,  and  the  excellency  of  our  God.7  In  the  animated 
 description  which  the  same  prophet  gives  of  the  pros- 
 perity to  which  the  kingdom  of  Christ  was  destined  to 
 rise  in  the  New  Testament  dispensation,  the  following 
 allusion  to  the  glory  of  Lebanon  again  occurs  :  7  '  And 
 it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  that  the  mountain 
 of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  established  in  the  top  of  the 
 mountains,  and  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills,  and  all 
 nations  shall  flow  into  it.'  By  these  words,  the  prophet 
 meant  to  inform  his  nation,  what  the  event  has  fully  veri- 
 fied, that  the  church  of  the  Gentiles  was  to  be  of  great 
 extent,  like  the  range  of  Lebanon,  intersecting  the 
 country  in  various  directions ;  was  to  be  firmly  estab- 
 lished in  the  earth,  like  a  fortress  built  upon  the  summits 
 of  a  steep  and  lofty  mountain  ;  was  to  overcome  all 
 opposition,  set  at  defiance  the  hostile  movements  of  all 
 her  enemies,  and  regard  with  indifference  or  contempt, 
 the  envious  exertions  of  every  competitor  ;  for  she  shall 
 be  exalted  above  the  hills,  and  all  nations  shall  flow 
 into  her.  The  rapid  growth  of  the  New  Testament 
 church,  her  great  extent,  and  the  countless  number  of  her 
 converts,  are  fully  described  in  the  figurative  language 
 of  the  psalmist :  8  '  There  shall  be  an  handful  of  corn 
 in  the  earth  upon  the  top  of  the  mountains  ;  the  fruit 
 
 1  Song  viii.  2. 
 
 4  Is.  ii.  12,  13. 
 4  Ps.  xxix.  4 — 6. 
 
 2  Kings  xiv.  9. 
 
 5  Is.  xl.  16. 
 
 6  Is.  xxxv.  1. — 6. 
 8  Ps.  lxxii.  16. 
 
 7  Is.  ii.  2. 
 
Shct.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.36ia.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3705.  A.  C.  lGlfi.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT 
 
 351 
 
 thereof  shall  shake  like  Lebanon  ;  and  they  of  the  city 
 shall  flourish  like  grass  of  the  earth.'  The  forests  of  the 
 east,  always  near  the  point  of  ignition,  under  the  intense 
 beams  of  a  vertical  sun,  from  the  carelessness  or  malice 
 of  those  who  take  shelter  in  their  recesses,  are  frequently- 
 set  on  fire  ;  and  the  devouring  element  sometimes  con- 
 tinues its  ravages,  till  extensive  plantations  are  consumed. 
 To  such  a  terrible  conflagration,  the  prophet  justly  com- 
 pares the  destructive  operations  of  the  Roman  armies 
 under  the  command  of  Vespasian  and  Titus,  against  the 
 nation  of  the  Jews,  when  the  nobles  and  rulers  were 
 slaughtered,  the  city  and  temple  reduced  to  ashes,  the 
 people  either  put  to  the  sword  or  sold  into  slavery,  and 
 the  whole  country  laid  waste.  '  '  Open  thy  doors,  O 
 Lebanon,  that  the  fire  may  devour  thy  cedars.  Howl, 
 fir-tree,  for  the  cedar  is  fallen  ;  because  the  mighty  is 
 spoiled  :  howl,  O  ye  oaks  of  Bashan ;  for  the  forest  of 
 the  vintage  is  come  down.' 
 
 The  north-east  part  of  this  mountain,  adjoining  to  the 
 Holy  Land,  is  in  Scripture  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
 Hermon.  It  lies  on  the  east  of  Jordan  ;  and  is  known  in 
 Scripture  by  different  names :  the  Sidonians  call  it 
 Sirion,  and  the  Amorites  Shenir.  This  Mount  Hermon 
 is  thought,  not  without  some  probability,  to  be  the  same 
 with  Mount  Hor,  mentioned  by  Moses  in  his  description 
 of  the  promised  land.2 
 
 Besides  this  Mount  Hermon  in  the  northern  border  of 
 the  country  beyond  Jordan,  we  read  of  another  mountain 
 of  the  same  name,  lying  within  the  land  of  Canaan,  on 
 the  west  of  the  river  Jordan,  not  far  from  Mount  Tabor. 
 To  this  mountain  the  holy  psalmist  is  thought  to  refer  in 
 these  words  :  '  The  north  and  the  south,  thou  hast  created 
 them  :  Tabor  and  Hermon  shall  rejoice  in  thy  name.' 
 And  in  the  following  passage,  '  As  the  dew  of  Hermon, 
 and  as  the  dew  that  descends  about  the  mountains  of 
 Zion.' 
 
 Another  branch  of  Lebanon,  which  extended  for  a 
 considerable  way  along  the  eastern  coast  of  the  country 
 beyond  Jordan,  is  mount  Gilead,  where  Laban  overtook 
 Jacob  in  his  return  to  his  father's  house ;  and  being 
 warned  of  God  in  a  dream,  not  to  injure  the  patriarch, 
 made  a  covenant  with  him,  and  in  witness  of  the  solemn 
 transaction,  in  conjunction  with  his  son-in-law,  made  a 
 heap  of  stones,  and  entertained  their  followers  upon  it, 
 in  token  of  sincere  and  lasting  friendship.  From  this 
 incident,  the  place  was  called  Galeed,  the  heap,  or 
 circle  of  witness,  and  Mizpah,  a  beacon  or  watch-tower  ; 
 for,  said  Laban  to  his  son-in-law,  3  '  The  Lord  watch 
 between  me  and  thee,  when  we  are  absent  one  from 
 another,  if  thou  shalt  afflict  my  daughters,  or  if  thou 
 shalt  take  other  wives  beside  my  daughters  :  no  man  is 
 with  us;  see,  God  is  witness  between  me  and  thee.' 
 That  this  was  done  in  a  mountain,  we  are  expressly  told  ; 
 and  from  the  name  given  to  the  heap  of  stones  con- 
 structed on  that  occasion,  the  whole  mount,  together  with 
 the  circumjacent  country,  received  in  succeeding  times, 
 the  name  of  Gilead.  It  lies  on  the  east  of  the  sea  of 
 Galilee,  forming  part  of  the  ridge  of  mountains  which 
 run  from  Mount  Lebanon  toward  the  south,  on  the  east 
 of  Canaan  ;  and  included  the  mountainous  region,  called 
 in  the  New  Testament,  Trachonitis. 
 
 The  mountains  of  Abarini  lie  beyond  Jordan,  in  the 
 
 Zee.  xi.  1,       2  Num.  xxxiv.  7,  8. 
 
 Gen.  xxxi.  •! — 8. 
 
 southern  division  of  the  country.  One  part  of  these 
 mountains,  or  hills,  was  distinguished  by  the  names  of 
 Mount  Nebo  and  Pisgah.  God  said  unto  Moses,  4  '  (Vet 
 thee  up  into'this  mountain  Abarini,  unto  Mount  Nebo, 
 which  is  in  the  land  of  Moal>,  over  against  Jericho.' 
 And  that  this  was  the  same  as  Pisgah,  from  whose  sum- 
 mit Moses  obtained  a  sight  of  the  promised  land,  and 
 where  he  terminated  a  career  of  greater  glory  than  ever 
 fell  to  the  lot  of  any  mortal,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fol- 
 lowing words :  5'  And  Moses  went  up  from  the  plains  of 
 Moab,  unto  the  mountain  of  Nebo,  to  the  top  of  Pisgah 
 that  is  over  against  Jericho.'  From  this  account  it 
 seems  probable  that  Pisgah,  was  the  highest  pinnacle  of 
 Nebo,  a  mountain  in  the  great  range  of  Abarini ;  for  tho 
 term  Pisgah  may  be  derived  from  a  root  which  signifies 
 to  elevate,  or  raise  up  ;  and  therefore  may  justly  denote 
 the  top  of  the  loftiest  peak  of  that  mountain. 
 
 On  the  south  of  Canaan  lay  Mount  Seir,  whither  Esau 
 retired  from  the  presence  of  his  brother  Jacob.  This 
 mountainous  country  was  originally  inhabited  by  the 
 Horites,  or  Horims,  the  descendants  of  Hor,  or  Hori, 
 from  whom  the  mountain  was  afterwards  called  Mount 
 Hor.  It  was  on  a  mountain  of  this  name,  by  the  coasts 
 of  Edom,  that  Aaron  died.  It  is  therefore  probable, 
 that  the  whole  tract  was  formerly  called  Mount  Hor  ; 
 since  we  find  that  the  inhabitants  were  formerly  called 
 Horites. 
 
 Gilboa  was,  according  to  Jerome  and  Eusebius,  a 
 ridge  of  mountains,  six  miles  from  Bethshan,  among 
 which  stood  a  town  of  the  same  name.  These  mountains 
 were  remarkable  for  the  death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan,  and 
 the  total  defeat  of  their  forces,  in  a  general  battle  with 
 the  Philistines;  an  event  which  the  holy  psalmist  laments 
 in  the  most  tender  elegiac  strains.  •'  The  beauty  of 
 Israel  is  slain  upon  thy  high  places  :  how  are  the  mighty 
 fallen!  Ye  mountains  of  Gilboa,  let  there  be  no  dew, 
 neither  let  there  be  rain  upon  you,  nor  fields  of  offering, 
 for  there  the  shield  of  the  mighty  is  vilely  cast  away,  the 
 shield  of  Saul,  as  though  he  had  not  been  anointed  with 
 oil.' 
 
 The  only  remarkable  mountain  on  the  western  border 
 of  Canaan,  is  Carmel,  which  lies  on  the  B68  coast,  at  the 
 south  end  of  the  tribe  of  Asher,  and  is  frequently  men- 
 tioned in  the  sacred  writings.  On  this  mountain,  which 
 is  very  rocky,  and  about  2000  feet  in  height,  the  prophet 
 Elijah  fixed  his  residence.  The  fields  around  it  have 
 been  celebrated  in  all  ages,  for  the  extent  of  their  pas- 
 tures, and  the  richness  of  their  verdure.  So  great  was 
 the  fertility  of  this  region,  that,  in  the  language  of  tho 
 sacred  writers,  the  name  Carmel  is  often  equivalent  to  a 
 fruitful  field. 
 
 Tabor  is  a  lofty  mountain  of  a  conical  form,  which 
 rises  in  the  plain  of  Es.lraelon,  at  two  hours'  distance 
 eastward  from  Nazareth.  On  the  lofty  summit  of  thif 
 beautiful  mountain,  by  the  constant  and  universal  Buflragl 
 of  antiquity,  our  Saviour  was  transfigured  before  his 
 disciples :  when  the  fashion  of  his  countenance  was 
 altered,  his  face  shone  like  the  sun.  and  liis  raiment  be- 
 came white  and  glistering. 
 
 The  rough  mountainous  trait,  ! \ i n u  between  the  hills 
 of  Gilead  and  the  river  .Ionian,  was  called  Bashan.  I;y 
 the  (.reeks    it  was  named  Trarhonitis.      It  furnishes  the 
 
 '  Dent,  xxxii.  49. 
 
 1  Deut  xxxiv.  1.         6  1  Sam.i.  19. 
 
352 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Rook  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  37G5.  A.  C.  164G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 sacred  writers  with  many  beautiful  allusions,  and  apt 
 illustrations.  So  beautiful  and  stately  were  the  oaks  of 
 Bashan,  that  the  prophet  Isaiah  classes  them  with  the 
 cedars  of  Lebanon.  l '  The  day  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  shall 
 be  upon  every  one  that  is  proud  and  lofty,  and  upon 
 every  one  that  is  lifted  up,  and  he  shall  be  brought  low: 
 and  upon  all  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  that  are  high  and 
 lifted  up,  and  upon  all  the  oaks  of  Bashan.' 
 
 Bashan  was  celebrated  for  the  extent  and  luxuriance 
 of  its  pastures ;  so  much  so,  that,  when  the  prophet  Mi- 
 cah  foretells  the  restoration  of  his  people,  and  their 
 rapid  prosperity  under  the  fostering  care  of  Jehovah, 
 he  exclaims,  '  Let  them  feed  in  Bashan  and  in  Gilead, 
 as  in  days  of  old.'  The  cattle  that  grazed  on  these  ver- 
 dant mountains,  were  remarkable  for  their  size,  their 
 strength,  and  fatness.  Moses,  in  his  dying  song,  makes 
 butter  of  kine,  and  milk  of  sheep,  with  fat  of  lambs  and 
 rams  of  the  breed  of  Bashan,  a  distinguished  part  of  the 
 portion  which  God  bestowed  on  his  peculiar  people.  The 
 oppressors  of  Israel  are  frequently  compared  to  the 
 strong  and  fierce  cattle  reared  in  the  same  region  : 
 s '  Strong  bulls  of  Bashan,'  cried  the  psalmist,  in  the  name 
 of  the  Saviour,  '  have  beset  me  round.' 
 
 Salmon  is  a  mountain  which  stood  in  the  neighbour- 
 hood of  Shechem.  Its  declivities  were  clothed  with  lofty 
 woods,  and  its  summits  were  capped  with  snow.  To 
 both  these  circumstances  there  are  allusions  in  Scrip- 
 ture. 3 
 
 With  respect  to  the  hills  in  or  near  Jerusalem,  the 
 most  celebrated  is  Mount  Zion,  on  whose  summit  stood 
 the  city  of  David,  and  where  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
 rested  under  the  tent  which  that  pious  monarch  pitched 
 for  it.  The  holy  hill  of  Zion  stood,  according  to  some 
 writers,  in  the  north  part  of  Jerusalem  ;  but  the  more 
 probable  and  general  opinion  is,  that  it  is  the  same  hill 
 which  is  taken  for  Zion  in  modern  times,  situate  on  the 
 south  of  the  present  city,  for  the  most  part  without  the 
 walls.  But  when  Jerusalem  was  in  the  height  of  her 
 power  and  splendour,  in  the  reign  of  Solomon  and 
 David,  Mount  Zion  was  enclosed  within  the  walls,  and 
 formed  the  southern  district  of  that  celebrated  metro- 
 polis. 
 
 The  only  other  eminence  deserving  of  notice  is  the 
 mount  of  Olives  ; a  a  name  certainly  derived  from  the 
 number  of  olive  trees  with  which  it  was  covered.  It  is 
 a  part  of  a  long  ridge  of  hills  extending  from  north  to 
 south,  with  three  summits.  The  mount  of  Olives  is  cele- 
 brated in  the  history  of  our  Lord.  To  this  mountain  it 
 was  his  custom  to  retire  in  the  evening,  after  he  had 
 spent  a  laborious  day  in  teaching  the  multitudes  that 
 attended  his  ministry  in  Jerusalem:  it  was  from  one  of 
 its  summits  that  he  beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it,  and 
 predicted  its  final  destruction  ;  in  the  garden  which  lay 
 at  the  bottom,  he  commenced  the  scene  of  his  last  suffer- 
 ings, for  the  sins  of  his  people  ;  and  from  the  highest 
 peak,  as  is  generally  supposed,  after  he  had  finished  the 
 work  of  our  redemption  on  earth,  he  ascended  into  his 
 Father's  presence  with  unspeakable  joy  and  glory.  4 
 
 1  Is.  ii.  10—14.  ■  Ps.xxii.  3  Judg.  ix.  47;  Ps.  lxviii.  14. 
 4  Paxton's  Illustrations,  &c.  vol.  1.  p.  118. 
 a  It  lies  to  the  east  of  Jerusalem,  beyond  the  brook  Kedion,  and 
 on  it  still  grows  abundance  of  that  plant,  from  which  it  is  named  ; 
 on  its  summits  are  the  remains  of  some  ancient  edifices.  It  is 
 without,  mount  Moriah  being  alone  within  the  city. 
 
 CHAP.  VI. — On  the  Lakes  and  Rivers  of  Palestine. 
 
 BY  THE    EDITOR. 
 
 The  only  considerable  lakes  in  the  land  of  promise, 
 are  those  of  Tiberias,  and  the  salt  sea.  The  lake  of 
 Tiberias  was  also  known  to  the  sacred  writers  by  the 
 name  of  the  sea  of  Galilee,  and  the  lake  of  Gennesa- 
 reth.  It  was  called  the  sea  of  Tiberias  from  a  town  of 
 that  name  on  its  western  border ;  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
 from  the  province  of  Galilee,  in  general ;  and  the  lake 
 of  Gennesareth,  from  that  particular  tract  of  Galilee 
 which  skirted  its  western  shore.  The  breadth  of  this 
 lake  or  sea  is  stated  by  Josephus  at  40,  and  the 
 length  at  1 40  furlongs.  Mr  Buckingham  says  it  is  twelve 
 to  fifteen  miles  in  its  greatest  length,  and  a  variable 
 breadth  from  six  to  nine  miles.  Its  water  is  limpid, 
 sweet,  and  wholesome ;  and  lying  upon  gravel,  is  softer 
 than  the  water  either  of  a  river  or  fountain  ;  and,  at  the 
 same  time,  so  cold,  that,  says  the  Jewish  historian,  it 
 cannot  be  Avarmed  by  exposure  to  the  sun,  in  the  hottest 
 season  of  the  year.  It  abounds  in  a  great  variety  of 
 fish,  which,  for  taste  and  shape,  are  peculiar  to  itself. 
 The  lake  of  Tiberias  is  properly  a  dilatation  of  the  river 
 Jordan,  which  through  the  middle  of  it  pursues  his  course 
 to  the  Dead  Sea.  The  country  on  both  sides  is  uncom- 
 monly fruitful  and  pleasant.  So  fertile  is  the  soil,  that 
 every  plant  thrives  in  it ;  and  so  great  is  the  felicity  of 
 the  climate,  that  nuts,  palms,  figs,  and  olive-trees, 
 flourish  here  in  great  profusion,  although  they  naturally 
 require  a  quite  different  temperature  ;  which,  observes 
 the  historian,  looks  as  if  Providence  took  delight  in  this 
 place,  to  reconcile  contradictions ;  and  as  if  the  very 
 seasons  themselves  were  in  a  competition  which  should 
 be  most  obliging.  The  durable  character  of  the  fruits 
 produced  in  this  delightful  region,  is  not  less  remarkable 
 than  their  great  variety  and  excellence.  Figs  and 
 grapes  continue  in  season  there  ten  months  in  the  year ; 
 and  other  fruits  the  whole  year  round.  Gennesareth  is 
 not  more  celebrated  for  its  delicious  air  and  tempera- 
 ture, than  for  a  spring  of  living  waters,  clear  as  crystal, 
 to  which  the  nations  give  the  name  of  Capernaum.  The 
 length  of  the  country  along  the  lake  is  about  four  miles, 
 and  the  breadth  four  miles  and  a  half.  This  district 
 was,  in  the  time  of  Josephus,  inhabited  by  a  skilful  and 
 industrious  people,  who  wisely  availing  themselves  of 
 the  singular  advantages  which  the  soil  and  climate  of 
 their  highly  favoured  country  afforded  them,  carried  the 
 improvement  of  their  lands  to  the  highest  degree  of  per- 
 fection. From  the  extraordinary  fruitfulness  of  this 
 tract,  some  conjecture  that  the  word  Gennesareth  is 
 compounded  of  two  words,  Gan  and  Sai  ;  of  which  the 
 first  denotes  in  Hebrew  a  garden,  the  last  a  prince,  and 
 consequently  the  compound,  the  garden  of  a  prince,  or 
 a  princely  garden.  But,  although  the  name  in  this  view 
 sufficiently  corresponds  with  the  nature  of  the  country, 
 it  is  more  probable  that  the  word  Gennesareth,  in  the 
 New  Testament,  owes  its  existence  to  the  term  Chin- 
 nereth,  or  Cinnereth,  in  the  Old  .•  for,  in  the  days  of 
 Joshua,  Cinnereth  was  a  fortified  city  in  the  tribe  of 
 Naphtali ;'  and  it  is  evident  from  a  passage  in  the  first 
 
 5  Josh.  xix.  35. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 353 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  164G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 book  of  Kings,  that  it  gave  its  name  to  the  surrounding 
 country. l  The  Jewish  legislator  in  several  parts  of  his 
 writings,  and  Joshua  in  the  history  of  his  proceedings, 
 place  the  city  uf  Chinnereth  on  the  shore  of  the  lake 
 Tiberias,  calling  it  by  the  same  name,  the  sea  of  Chin- 
 nereth. 2  Hence,  it  is  more  than  probable,  that  Genne- 
 sareth  in  the  New  Testament,  is  only  a  corruption  of 
 Cinnereth,  the  name  by  which  the  city  and  the  Jake  on 
 which  it  stood  were  known  to  the  ancient  Israelites. 
 The  city  had  indeed  perished  in  the  wars  between  the 
 kings  of  Syria  and  Israel,  long  before  the  coming  of 
 Christ,  which  is  the  true  reason  that  no  mention  is  made 
 of  it  in  the  New  Testament,  while  the  district  where  it 
 stood  retained  its  name  for  many  ages  after  its  fall. 
 The  date  of  its  destruction  may,  with  great  probability, 
 be  fixed  in  the  reign  of  Baasha  king  of  Israel,  about 
 958  years  before  Christ,  when  Benhadad  king  of  Syria 
 invaded  his  dominions,  and  '  smote  Ijon  and  Dan,  and 
 Abel-beth-maachah,  and  all  Cinnereth,  with  all  the 
 land  of  Naphtali.'  Upon  the  ruins  of  ancient  Cinne- 
 reth afterwards  arose  the  city  of  Capernaum,  deriving 
 its  name  from  the  excellent  fountain  already  mentioned, 
 near  which  it  was  built ;  but  the  lake  and  the  adjacent 
 lands  were  permitted  to  retain  their  ancient  name,  till, 
 in  the  lapse  of  ages,  or  by  a  change  of  dialect,  it  was 
 moulded  into  Gennesareth.  It  was  a  common  saying 
 among  the  Jews,  in  reference  to  the  lake  of  Gennesareth, 
 that  "  God  loved  that  sea  more  than  all  the  other  seas." 
 And,  in  one  sense,  the  observation  is  quite  correct ;  for 
 it  was  honoured,  above  all  others,  with  the  presence  of 
 our  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour,  both  before  and  after  his 
 resurrection.  He  made  choice  of  Capernaum,  which 
 stood  upon  the  margin  of  the  lake,  as  his  ordinary  place 
 of  residence,  on  account  of  which  it  is  called  '  his  own 
 city.' 3  On  its  shores  he  found  several  of  his  apostles 
 pursuing  the  humble  employment  of  fishermen,  and  called 
 them  to  be  witnesses  of  his  mighty  works,  and  the  heralds 
 of  his  kingdom.  It  was  on  this  sea  he  came  to  them, 
 walking  upon  the  waters  ;  where  he  rebuked  the  winds 
 and  the  waves,  and  the  furious  storm  was  in  a  moment 
 changed  into  a  profound  calm  ;  and  where  he  filled  their 
 nets  with  a  miraculous  draught  of  lishes.  a  On  the  shore 
 of  this  lake  he  appeared  to  his  disciples  after  his  resur- 
 rection, and  after  rebuking  Peter  for  his  unfaithfulness, 
 and  exacting  a  threefold  confession,  corresponding  to 
 his  threefold  denial,  restored  him  to  his  office  as  an 
 apostle,  and  to  his  station  as  a  pillar  in  the  church. 
 
 The  only  other  lake  connected  with  the  illustration  of 
 Scripture,  is  that  called  by  modems  the  Dead  Sea,  from 
 a  tradition  commonly  but  erroneously  received,  that  no 
 
 I  Kings  xv.  20.     *  Num.  xxxiv.  It ;  Dent.  iii.  17  ;  Josh.  xii.  3. 
 8  Mat.  ix.  1. 
 
 a  Tn  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  it  is  plain  that  ships  sailed  on 
 the  surface  of  this  lake;  and  during  the  wars  between  the  Jews 
 and  Romans,  fleets  of  some  force  were  stationed  here,  and  bloody 
 battles  fought  between  them.  But  the  case  is  greatly  altered 
 now,  as  not  a  boat  is  found  to  disturb  its  waters.  Mr  Bucking- 
 ham says,  "  This  fine  piece  of  water  abounds  with  a  great  variety 
 of  excellent  fish ;  but  from  the  poverty,  and  one  must  add,  the 
 ignorance,  and  the  indolence  of  the  people  who  live  on  its  hin- 
 ders, there  is  not  a  boat  or  a  raft,  either  largo  or  small,  throughout 
 its  whole  extent.  Some  three  years  since,  a  boat  did  exist  here, 
 but  this  being  broken  up  from  decay,  has  never  been  replaced,  so 
 that  the  few  fish  taken,  are  caught  by  lines  from  the  shore,  nets 
 never  being  used. 
 
 living  creature  could  exist  in  its  saline  waters.  It  was 
 anciently  called  the  Sea  of  the  Plain.4  from  its  situation 
 in  the  great  hollow  or  plain  of  Jordan  ;  the  Salt  Sea," 
 from  the  extreme  saltness  of  its  waters  :  and  tin-  East 
 Sea,6  from  its  situation  relative  to  Judea.  It  is  like- 
 wise called  by  Josephus,  and  by  the  Greek  and  Latin 
 writers,  Lacus  Asphaltites,  from  the  bitumen  found  in  it ; 
 and  is  at  present  known  in  Syria  by  the  names  of  Abuo- 
 tanah  and  Bahar  Loth.  This  remarkable  expanse  of 
 water  covers  the  fruitful  vale  where  once  flourished  the 
 cities  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  with  the  other  cities  of 
 the  plain;  a  vale  so  rich  and  beautiful,  that  the  sacred 
 historian  compares  it  to  the  garden  of  paradise.7  It 
 was  changed  into  its  present  condition  by  an  immediate 
 interposition  of  God.  '  The  Lord  rained  upon  Sodom 
 and  upon  Gomorrah  brimstone  and  fire  from  the  Lord 
 out  of  heaven.  And  he  overthrew  those  cities,  and  all 
 the  plain,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities,  and  that 
 which  grew  upon  the  ground.'  The  destruction  was 
 complete  and  irreparable  ;  the  country  was  in  a  manner 
 extinguished,  by  converting  it  into  a  deep  lake  ;  so  fierce 
 was  the  indignation,  so  terrible  the  overthrow. 
 
 The  learned  Michaelis  ascribes  the  destruction  <>f 
 those  cities  to  material  causes.  It  is  possible  that  the 
 sovereign  Ruler  of  the  universe  employed  the  operation 
 of  such  causes  on  that  occasion.  Sodom  was  built  upon 
 a  mine  of  bitumen,  as  we  know  from  the  testimony  of 
 Moses  and  Josephus,  who  speak  of  wells  abounding  with 
 bitumen  in  the  valley  of  Siddim.  Lightning,  pointed  by 
 the  hand  of  Omnipotence,  kindled  the  combustible  mass, 
 and  the  cities  sunk  in  the  subterraneous  conflagration. 
 Nor  is  the  ingenious  suggestion  of  31.  Malte  Brun  to  be 
 omitted,  that  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  themselves  might 
 have  been  built  of  bituminous  stones,  and  set  in  Haines 
 by  the  fire  of  heaven. 
 
 The  lake  Asphaltites  is  enclosed  on  the  east  and  west 
 with  exceeding  high  mountains  ;  on  the  north  it  is  bound- 
 ed with  the  plains  of  Jericho,  on  which  side  it  receirel 
 the  waters  of  the  Jordan  ;  on  the  south  it  is  open,  and 
 extends  beyond  the  reach  of  the  eye."  It  is  said  to  be 
 seventy  miles  long,  and  twenty  miles  broad ;  and  is 
 fringed  in  some  places  with  a  kind  of  coppice  of  bushes 
 and  reeds.  In  the  midst  of  this  border,  not  a  furlong 
 from  the  sea,  rises  a  fountain  of  brackish  water,  which 
 
 4  Deut.  iii.  17.  iv.  19.  5  Deut.  iii.  17;  Jos.  xn.  5. 
 6  Ezek.  xlvii.  18;  Joel  ii.  20.  '•  Gen.  xlii.  10. 
 a  This  opening  leads  into  the  valley  of  El  Ghor,  which 
 with  a  southern  continuation  called  El  Araba,  both  Inspected  by 
 Burckhardt,  descends  uninterruptedly  to  the  Elanitic  Gulf  of  the 
 Red  Sea;  which  it  joins  at  Akaba,  the  rite  of  the  indent  Bzun- 
 geber.  This  Mr  Burckhardt  supposes  to  be  the  prolongation  of 
 the  ancient  channel  of  the  Jordan,  which  discharged  itself  into 
 the  sea  before  its  absorption  in  the  expanded   lake  of  Sodi  m. 
 
 This  is  extremely  probable;  and  there  cai t  be  a  man  Inter*  it 
 
 ing  country  in  the  world  than  this  to  be  made  tie'  subject  of  an 
 accurate  geological  sun.  v.  N  8  may  infer,  however,  this  much 
 from  what  we  know,  that  before  the  face  of  the  country  "as 
 changed  by  the  judgment  that  fell  upon  it,  tin'  ground  now 
 covered  by  the  water  of  the   Dead   Sea,  was  an  e\ti  n-i\e  valley, 
 
 and  through  "huh  the  Jordan  flowed  in  its  course  to  i 
 That  it  flowed  through  the  vale,  may  be  Inferred  from  the  great 
 fertility  of  the  latter;  and  that  it  passed  beyond  it,  is  equally  to 
 be  inferred  from  the  want  of  space  over  which  the  (rater  could 
 expand  to  be  exhausted  by  evaporation.  But  the  discover;  of 
 the  opening  on  the  southern  border  of  the  lake,  and  the  inclined 
 valley  leading  from  thence  to  the  sea,  have  rendered  these 
 inferences  almost  conclusive. — ^fansford. 
 
354 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  164G.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 was  pointed  out  to  Maundrell  by  his  Arab  conductor ;  a 
 sure  proof  that  the  soil  is  not  equally  impregnated  with 
 saline  particles.  The  ground,  to  the  distance  of  half  an 
 hour  from  the  sea,  is  uneven,  and  broken  into  hillocks, 
 which  Mr  Maundrell  compares  to  ruinous  lime  kilns ; 
 but  whether  these  might  be  the  pits  at  which  the  kings  of 
 Sodom  and  Gomorrah  were  overthrown  by  the  four  kings 
 who  invaded  their  country,  he  could  not  determine. 
 
 The  water  of  the  lake  is  intensely  salt,  extremely 
 bitter,  and  nauseous,  and  very  heavy  ;  a  its  depth  seems  to 
 be  altogether  unknown  ;  nor  does  it  appear  that  a  boat 
 has  ever  navigated  its  surface.  No  verdure  is  to  be 
 seen  on  its  banks  ;  but  it  is  not  true  that  its  exhalations 
 are  as  pestiferous  as  to  kill  birds  that  attempt  to  fly 
 over  it.  Mr  Maundrell  saw  several  birds  flying  about, 
 and  skimming  the  surface  of  the  waters,  without  any 
 visible  harm.  The  same  fact  is  attested  by  Volney,  who 
 states  it  as  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  swallows  dipping 
 for  the  water  necessary  to  build  their  nests.  The  soil 
 around  it,  impregnated  also  with  salt,  produces  no 
 plants  ;  and  the  air  itself,  which  becomes  loaded  with 
 saline  particles  from  evaporation,  and  which  receives 
 also  the  sulphureous  and  bituminous  vapours,  cannot  be 
 favourable  to  vegetation  :  hence  the  deadly  aspect  which 
 reigns  around  the  lake.  The  ground  about  it,  however, 
 is  not  marshy,  and  its  waters  are  limpid  and  incorrupti- 
 ble, as  must  be  the  case  with  a  dissolution  of  salt.1  Mr 
 Maundrell  questions  the  truth  of  the  common  tradition, 
 which  is  admitted  by  Volney  in  all  its  extent ;  that  the 
 waters  of  the  Dead  Sea  are  destructive  to  animal  exis- 
 tence, having  observed  on  the  shore,  two  or  three  shells 
 of  fish,  resembling  oyster  shells.  That  respectable 
 traveller,  willing  to  make  an  experiment  of  its  strength, 
 went  into  it,  and  found  it  bore  up  his  body  in  swimming, 
 with  an  uncommon  force ;  but  the  relation  of  some 
 authors,  that  men  wading  into  it,  are  buoyed  up  to  the 
 top  as  soon  as  the  water  reaches  to  the  middle,  he  found 
 upon  experiment  untrue. 
 
 A  recent  traveller,  on  visiting  the  lake,  found  a  crust 
 of  salt  covering  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  resem- 
 bling a  snowy  plain,  from  which  a  few  stunted  shrubs 
 reared  their   heads.     No   murmur,   no   cooling  breeze 
 
 1  Volney's  Travels,  vol.  1. 
 
 a  The  water  of  this  sea  is  far  more  salt  than  that  of  the  ocean ; 
 containing  one  fourth  part  of  its  weight  of  saline  contents  in  a 
 state  of  perfect  desiccation,  and  forty-one  parts  in  a  hundred  in  a 
 state  of  simple  crystallization ;  that  is  to  say,  a  hundred  pounds 
 by  weight  of  water,  will  yield  forty-one  pounds  of  salt;  while  the 
 proportion  of  saline  contents  in  the  water  of  the  Atlantic  is  not 
 more  than  l-27th  part  in  a  state  of  dryness,  and  about  six  pounds 
 of  salt  in  a  hundred  of  the  water.  The  specific  gravity  of  the 
 water  is  1-211;  that  of  common  water  being  1000.  A  phial  of 
 it  having  been  brought  to  England  by  Mr  Gordon  of  Clunie,  at 
 the  request  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  was  analyzed  by  Dr  Marcet, 
 who  states  that  this  water  is  perfectly  transparent,  and  does  not 
 deposit  any  crystals  on  standing  in  close  vessels.  Its  taste  is 
 peculiarly  bitter  and  pungent;  the  contents  of  100  grains  of  the 
 water  were  as  follows. 
 
 Muriate  of  Lime,  .     .     .     3-920 
 Muriate  of  Magnesia,     .     10246 
 Muriate  of  Soda,     .     .     .  10-3G0 
 Sulphate  of  Lime,      .     .       0"054 
 By  this  it  appears  that  the  water  of  this  sea  is  in  fact,  a  mineral 
 water ;  while  the  excessive  quantity  of  solid  contents,  and  its  con- 
 sequent greater  specific  gravity,  enable  it  to  support  on  its  surface 
 substances  that  would  sink  in  any  other  water;  a  circumstance 
 ■which  has  given  rise  to  many  marvellous  tales. 
 
 announced  the  approach  to  its  margin.  The  strand, 
 bestrewed  with  stones  was  hot,  the  waters  of  the  lake 
 were  motionless,  and  absolutely  dead  along  the  shore  : 
 he  found  it  impossible  to  keep  the  water  in  his  mouth  ; 
 it  far  exceeded  that  of  the  sea  in  saltness,  and  produced 
 upon  the  lips  the  effect  of  a  strong  solution  of  alum. 
 Before  his  boots  were  completely  dry,  they  were  covered 
 with  salt;  his  clothes,  his  hat,  his  hands,  in  less  than 
 three  hours,  were  impregnated  with  this  mineral.  About 
 midnight  he  heard  a  noise  from  the  lake,  and  was  inform- 
 ed by  the  Arabs,  that  it  proceeded  from  legions  of  small 
 fish,  which  come  and  leap  about  on  the  shore. 
 
 The  extreme  saltness  of  this  lake,  has  been  ascribed 
 by  Volney  to  mines  of  fossil  salt  in  the  side  of  the 
 mountains,  which  extend  along  the  western  shore,  and 
 from  time  immemorial  have  supplied  the  Arabs  in  the 
 neighbourhood,  and  even  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  He 
 does  not  attempt  to  invalidate  the  credit  of  the  Mosaic 
 narrative  ;  but  only  insinuates,  that  these  saline  deposi- 
 tions were  either  coeval  with  the  mountains  in  which  they 
 were  found,  or  entered  into  their  original  conformation. 
 The  extraordinary  fruitfulness  of  the  vale  of  Siddim, 
 before  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  is 
 asserted  by  Moses  in  terms  so  clear  and  precise,  that 
 the  veracity  of  the  sacred  writer  must  be  overthrown, 
 before  a  reasonable  doubt  can  be  entertained  of  the  fact. 
 No  disproportionate  quantity  of  saline  matter,  could 
 have  been  present  either  in  the  soil  or  the  surrounding 
 mountains.  That  it  abounded  with  bitumen,  some  have 
 inferred  from  the  assertion  of  Moses,  that  the  vale  of 
 Siddim  was  full  of  slime  pits  :  where  the  Hebrew  word 
 chemar,  which  we  render  slime,  others,  and  particularly 
 the  seventy  interpreters,  render  bitumen.  But  gopfmith 
 and  c/temar,  is  the  word  Moses  employs  to  denote  brim- 
 stone, in  his  account  of  the  judgment  that  overwhelmed 
 the  cities  of  the  plain ;  and  by  consequence,  brimstone 
 is  not  meant,  when  chemar  is  used,  but  bitumen,  a  very 
 different  substance.  Hence  the  brimstone  which  now 
 impregnates  the  soil  of  the  salt  sea,  and  banishes  every 
 kind  of  vegetation  from  its  shores,  must  be  regarded, 
 not  as  an  original,  but  an  accidental  ingredient,  remain- 
 ing from  the  destruction  of  the  vale  by  fire  and  brimstone 
 from  heaven.  The  same  remark  applies  to  the  mines  of 
 fossil  salt,  on  the  surrounding  mountains ;  the  saline 
 matter  was  deposited  in  the  cavities  which  it  now  occu- 
 pies at  the  same  time,  else  the  vale  of  Siddim,  instead 
 of  verdant  pastures,  and  abundant  harvests,  had  exhibited 
 the  same  frightful  sterility  from  the  beginning,  for  which 
 it  is  remarkable  in  modern  times.  Bitumen,  if  the 
 Hebrew  word  chemar  denotes  that  substance,  abounds 
 in  the  richest  soils ;  for  in  the  vale  of  Shinar,  the  soil  of 
 which,  by  the  agreement  of  all  writers,  is  fertile  in  the 
 highest  degree,  the  builders  of  the  tower  of  Babel  used 
 it  for  the  mortar.  The  ark  of  bulrushes  in  which  Moses 
 was  embarked  on  the  Nile,  was  in  like  manner  daubed 
 with  bitumen,  chemar,  and  pitch  ;  but  the  mother  of 
 Moses,  considering  the  poverty  of  her  house,  cannot  be 
 supposed  to  have  procured  it  from  a  distance,  nor  at  any 
 great  expense  :  she  must  therefore  have  found  it  in  the 
 soil  of  Egypt,  near  the  Nile,  on  whose  borders  she  lived. 
 It  is,  therefore,  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  bitumen 
 abounded  in  Goshen,  a  region  famed  for  the  richness  of 
 its  pastures.  Hence  it  may  be  fairly  concluded,  that 
 the  vale  of  Siddim,  before  its  destruction,  in  respect  of 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c. 
 
 355 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 natural  fertility,  resembled  the  plain  of  Shinar,  and  the 
 land  of  Egypt  along  the  Nile.  But  it  is  well  known, 
 that  wherever  brimstone  and  saline  matter  abound,  there 
 sterility  and  desolation  reign.  Is  it  not  then  reasonable 
 to  infer,  that  the  sulphureous  and  saline  nifitters,  dis- 
 covered in  the  waters  and  on  the  shores  of  the  lake  As- 
 phaltites,  are  the  relics  of  the  divine  vengeance  executed 
 on  the  cities  of  the  plain,  and  not  original  ingredients  in 
 the  soil 
 
 If  we  listen  to  the  testimony  of  the  sacred  writers, 
 what  was  reasonable  hypothesis  rises  into  absolute  cer- 
 tainty. Moses  expressly  ascribes  the  brimstone,  the 
 salt,  and  the  burning,  in  the  overthrow  of  Sodom,  to  the 
 immediate  vengeance  of  heaven.  '  When  they  see  the 
 plagues  of  that  land, — that  the  whole  land  is  brimstone, 
 and  salt,  and  burning  ;  that  it  is  not  sown,  nor  beareth, 
 nor  any  grass  groweth  thereon,  (like  the  overthrow  of 
 Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  Admah  and  Zeboim,  which  the 
 Lord  overthrew  in  his  anger  and  in  his  wrath)  ;  even  all 
 nations  shall  say,  Wherefore  has  the  Lord  done  thus  unto 
 this  land  ?  What  meaneth  the  heat  of  this  great  anger  ?'  ' 
 In  this  passage,  the  brimstone,  salt,  and  burning,  are  true 
 and  proper  effects  of  the  divine  wrath ;  and  since  this 
 fearful  destruction  is  compared  to  the  overthrow  of 
 Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  the  brimstone  and  salt  into  which 
 the  vale  of  Siddim  was  turned,  must  also  be  the  true  and 
 proper  effects  of  divine  anger.  This,  indeed,  Moses 
 asserts  in  the  plainest  terms :  '  Then  the  Lord  rained 
 upon  Sodom  and  upon  Gomorrah,  brimstone  and  fire 
 from  the  Lord  out  of  heaven  ;  and  he  overthrew  those 
 cities,  and  all  the  plain,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
 cities,  and  that  which  grew  upon  the  ground.' 2  But 
 since  the  brimstone  and  the  fire  were  rained  from  heaven, 
 so  must  the  salt,  with  which  they  are  connected  in  the 
 former  quotfition  ;  and  this  is  the  opinion  received  by 
 the  Jewish  doctors.  The  frightful  sterility  which  follow- 
 ed the  brimstone,  salt,  and  burning,  in  the  first  quotation, 
 is  in  the  same  manner  represented  as  an  effect  of  the 
 divine  judgment  upon  the  vale  of  Siddim ;  '  it  is  not 
 sown,  nor  beareth,  nor  any  grass  groweth  thereon.' 
 
 The  barrenness  and  desolation  that  result  from  the 
 action  of  brimstone  and  salt,  are  introduced  by  the  pro- 
 phet in  these  words  :  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  cursed  be 
 the  man  that  trusteth  in  man,  and  maketh  flesh  his  arm, 
 and  whose  heart  departeth  from  the  Lord.  For  he  shall 
 be  like  the  heath  in  the  desert,  and  shall  not  see  when 
 good  cometh,  but  shall  inhabit  the  parched  places  in  the 
 wilderness,  in  a  salt  land  and  not  inhabited.' 3  In 
 this  passage,  the  salt  is  assigned  as  the  cause  that  the 
 parched  places  in  the  wilderness  remain  in  a  state  of 
 perpetual  sterility.  In  the  judgments  which  the  prophet 
 Zephaniah  was  directed  to  predict  against  the  kingdom 
 of  Moab,  he  alludes  expressly  to  the  punishment  of 
 Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  intimates  that  one  part  of 
 that  punishment  consisted  in  the  vale  being  turned  into 
 salt :  '  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  surely  Moab  shall  be 
 as  Sodom,  and  the  children  of  Amnion  as  Gomorrah, 
 even  the  breeding  of  nettles  and  salt  pits,  and  a  perpetual 
 desolation.'4 
 
 Some  writers  suppose  the  Dead  Sea  to  be  the  crater 
 of  a  volcano,  but  this  opinion  is  entirely  without  founda- 
 
 tion :  for  all  extinguished  volcanoes  exhibit  the  same 
 characters,  that  is  to  say,  mountains  excavated  in  the 
 form  of  a  tunnel,  lava  and  ashes,  which  exhibit  incon- 
 testible  proofs  of  the  agency  of  fire.  The  Dead  Sea,  on 
 the  contrary,  is  a  lake  of  great  length,  curved  like  a 
 bow,  placed  between  two  ranges  of  mountains,  which 
 have  no  natural  coherence  in  form,  no  homogeneousness 
 of  soil.  They  do  not  meet  at  the  two  extremities  of  the 
 lake  ;  but  continue,  and  run  northward  as  far  as  the  lake 
 of  Tiberias ;  the  other  is  lost  in  the  sands  of  Yemen. 
 
 The  rugged  mountains  and  spacious  caverns  on  the 
 south-west  shore  of  the  lake  Asphaltites,  the  chosen 
 refuge  of  the  oppressed  in  every  age,  acquired  additional 
 celebrity  from  the  secure  retreat  which  they  afforded  to 
 David  and  his  men,  from  the  violence  of  Saul.  '  It  was 
 told  Saul,  saying,  behold,  David  is  in  the  wilderness  of 
 En-gedi.  Then  Saul  took  three  thousand  chosen  men 
 out  of  all  Israel,  and  went  to  seek  David  and  his  men 
 upon  the  mountains  of  the  wild  goats.' 
 
 The  rivers  that  water  the  land  of  promise,  are  not  so 
 remarkable  as  the  mountains  and  the  lakes  which  diver- 
 sify its  surface.  The  greater  part  of  them,  as  the  Kidron, 
 the  Jabbok,  and  the  Arnon,  are  only  brooks  or  moun- 
 tain torrents,  some  of  which  are  dry  for  the  greater  part 
 of  the  year,  or  only  run  with  a  flowing  stream  during  the 
 melting  of  the  snows  on  the  peaks  of  Lebanon,  or  the 
 fall  of  the  former  and  the  latter  rain. 
 
 But  the  largest  and  the  most  celebrated  stream  in 
 Palestine  is  the  Jordan.  It  pursues  its  course  through 
 the  whole  extent  of  the  Holy  Land  from  north  to  south  ; 
 and  empties  itself  into  the  lake  Asphaltites.  It  may  be 
 said  to  have  two  banks,  of  which  the  inner  marks  the 
 ordinary  height  of  the  stream  ;  and  the  outer  its  eleva- 
 tion during  the  rainy  season,  or  the  melting  of  the 
 snows  on  the  summits  of  Lebanon.  * 
 
 CHAP.  VII.— The  General  Fertility  of  Palestine. 
 
 BY  THE   EDITOR. 
 
 1  Deut.  xxix.  22. 
 *Jer.  xvii.  5,6. 
 
 »Gen.  xix.  21. 
 4  Zeph.  ii.  9. 
 
 The  early  promises  which  were  made  to  Abraham,  Isaac, 
 and  Jacob,  with  respect  to  the  multiplication  of  their 
 seed,  seem  to  imply  a  proportionable  fertility  in  the  land 
 of  Canaan,  which  it  was  foretold  at  the  same  time  should 
 be  given  to  them.  The  prophetic  assurances,  also, 
 which  described  the  land,  spoke  of  it  as  abounding  with 
 cattle  and  productions  favourable  to  the  support  of 
 human  life. 
 
 Jacob,  in  expressing  his  blessing  to  Judah,  promises 
 not,  as  to  Issachar  or  Asher,  that  'the  land  .-hall  be 
 pleasant,  or  his  broad  fat,' but  that,  ' binding  his  foal 
 unto  the  vine,  and  his  ass's  colt  unto  the  choice  vine,  he 
 shall  wash  his  garments  in  wine,  and  his  clothes  in  tin- 
 blood  of  grapes  ;  that  his  eyes  shall  be  red  with  wine 
 and  his  teeth  white  with  milk  ;'  and  when  God  appeared 
 to  Moses,  he  declared  that  '  he  would  bring  the  Israelites 
 into  a  good  land  and  a  large,  into  a  land  flowing  with 
 milk  and  honey  ;'  6  figures  expressive  of  abundance,  and 
 the  luxuries  only  of  a  simple  state. 
 
 »  Paxtan's  Illustrations,  vol.  1.  p.  100.  Clark.'-;  Trawls. 
 
 Gen.  xlix.  IS;  Cant.  v.  12;  Gui.  xlix.S;  >\»t.  n  on  UV  Proph. 
 
356 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1C46.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 The  whole  history  of  the  Jews  tends  to  demonstrate 
 the  accomplishment  of  the  promises,  with  respect  to  the 
 wonderful  increase  of  this  peculiar  people.  Notwith- 
 standing- the  frequent  Avars  in  which  the  nation  was 
 engaged,  and  the  wasting  dispersions  by  which  they  were 
 scattered,  the  country  continued  to  maintain  prodigious 
 numbers  in  every  age,  excepting-  during-  the  captivity. 
 
 The  support  of  those  numbers  required  a  very  large 
 produce,  and  Judea  appears  to  have  displayed  a  consid- 
 erable fertility.  The  sacred  writers  describe,  in  inter- 
 esting pictures,  the  multitude  of  its  cattle,  covering  the 
 hills,  the  luxuriance  of  its  trees,  and  the  rich  produce  of 
 its  vineyards.  The  grapes  brought  to  Moses  exhibited 
 an  early  proof  of  the  fidelity  of  the  prophetic  descrip- 
 tions ;  and  the  vast  multitudes  of  people  which  are 
 enumerated  on  various  occasions  confirmed  the  assurance. 
 The  people,  not  addicted  to  commerce,  cultivated  the 
 soil  with  regular  industry,  and  with  that  attachment 
 which  resulted  from  the  nature  of  a  tenure,  which  could 
 not  be  alienated  permanently,  as  the  land  reverted  to  its 
 original  proprietor  every  fifty  years. 
 
 That  the  divine  blessing  increased  its  exuberance  may 
 reasonably  be  supposed,  as  indeed  it  was  especially 
 promised  ;  and  a  miraculous  plenty  must  have  been  im- 
 parted every  sixth  year,  or  the  land  could  not  have 
 remained  uncultivated  on  the  sabbatical  year,  as  we 
 learn  even  from  heathen  writers,  that  it  did  ;  who  men- 
 tion also  many  particulars  which  tend  to  confirm  the 
 report  which  has  been  given. 
 
 Notwithstanding  these  testimonies,  however,  Mons.  de 
 Voltaire,  in  order  to  indulge  a  sarcastic  vein  against  the 
 historical  accounts  of  the  Old  Testament,  gives  vent  to 
 some  remarks  upon  the  subject  which  are  not  founded  on 
 accurate  information,  and  which  do  not  authorize  any 
 supposition  of  exaggeration  in  the  sacred  accounts. 
 
 This  writer  in  his  history  of  the  crusades,  represents 
 Judea  to  have  been,  as  he  describes  it  to  be  at  present, 
 one  of  the  worst  of  all  the  inhabited  countries  of  Asia, 
 as  almost  entirely  covered  with  parched  rocks,  with  one 
 layer  of  soil,  and  such  as,  if  cultivated,  might  be  com- 
 pared to  Switzerland. 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  this  unfair  writer 
 has  totally  overlooked  many  circumstances  which  explain 
 and  confirm  the  accounts  of  the  sacred  historian,  and  it 
 would  tend  but  little  to  justify  his  remarks,  even  if  he 
 could  prove  that  the  soil  of  Judea  is  now  barren  ;  since 
 it  would  not  be  unwarrantable  to  contend,  that  the  divine 
 favour  might  have  conferred  extraordinary  fertility  upon 
 it  in  former  times,  and  the  divine  curse  have  afterwards 
 condemned  it  to  sterility  ;  but  in  truth,  there  is  no  proof 
 that  it  is  now  barren,  while  there  is  sufficient  evidence, 
 that  it  was  formerly  very  productive,  and  capable  of 
 sustaining  its  vast  population." 
 
 a  If  the  untitled  and  waste  places  at  the  present  day  afford  no 
 very  prepossessing  appearance,  it  ought  to  be  remembered,  that 
 they  were  predicted  by  Moses,  Deut.  xxix.  22,  et  seq.  and  that 
 the  country  lias  been  laid  waste  successively  by  Assyrians,  Chal- 
 deans, Syrians,  Persians,  Saracens,  the  European  crusaders,  the 
 Turks,  and  Moguls,  and  that  it  now  groans  under  the  dominion 
 of  the  Turks,  who  neither  protect  the  agriculturist  from  the  in- 
 cursions of  the  Arabs,  nor  afford  him  any  encouragement,  but  the 
 contrary.  And  yet  it  is  the  unanimous  testimony  of  travellers, 
 in  regard  to  this  country,  that,  where  it  is  cultivated,  it  is  ex- 
 tremely fertile.     It  produces  all  sorts  of  fruit  trees;  and  vines 
 
 The  great  number  of  inhabitants  which  this  country  is 
 represented  to  have  supported,  was  not  more  than  the 
 exertion  of  the  nation  and  their  wars  might  seem  to  have 
 required ;  and  indeed,  the  accounts  on  this  subject  are 
 confirmed  by  heathen  testimonies,  and  by  Josephus.6 
 
 Tacitus  describes  the  climate  as  dry,  and  the  soil  as 
 fruitful,  exuberant  in  its  produce,  like  that  of  Italy,  and 
 bearing  the  palm  and  the  balsam,  x  the  former  of  great 
 size  and  beauty  :  this  account  is  attested  by  Pliny,  and 
 Galen, 2  not  to  mention  Josephus,  who  represents,  the  soil 
 to  have  been  rich  and  fruitful,  3  as  does  also  Aristasus. 4 
 
 Strabo  describes  part  of  the  country  as  rocky,  but 
 commends  that  about  Jordan  and  Jericho.5  Hecatasus, 
 mentioned  by  Josephus,  speaks  of  the  soil  as  being  very 
 fertile.  Whatever  sterility  and  want  of  population  may 
 be  complained  of  at  present,  should  be  attributed  in  a 
 great  measure,  to  the  influence  of  political  changes,  to 
 the  vexatious  tyranny  and  bad  policy  of  the  government, 
 and  to  the  consequent  neglect  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
 their  want  of  industry  and  of  numbers  to  work  the  soil. 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed  also,  that  in  the  time  in  which 
 great  population  prevailed  in  Judea,  it  was  sustained 
 under  favourable  circumstances,  resulting  from  simpli- 
 city of  manners,  and  the  frugal  habits  of  the  people. 
 The  land  was  not  covered  by  those  masses  of  buildings, 
 and  those  extensive  gardens,  woods,  and  parks,  which 
 occupy  such  large  spaces  of  productive  ground  in  other 
 countries,  in  modern  times.  All  was  open  to  cultivation 
 or  to  pasture. 
 
 As  the  people  also  were  interdicted  from  commerce, 
 and  few  devoted  themselves  to  the  arts  of  refinement  or 
 to  science,  no  class  was  exempted  from  the  employ- 
 ments of  industry,  and  every  part  of  the  land  was  culti- 
 vated. 
 
 If  the  country  was  mountainous,  it  is  to  be  considered 
 that  the  extension  of  the  surface  thence  resulting,  (con- 
 taining, according  to  Hecatceus,  3,000,000  of  acres,) 
 afforded  great  range  for  cattle  in  climates  of  the  latitude 
 of  Judea ;  it  is  the  mountain  which  affords  the  short  and 
 rich  pasture,  in  which  the  herds  particularly  delight,  and 
 
 1  Hist.  b.  v.  sec.  6. 
 
 2  Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  13.  19;  Galen  de  Alimentis,  b.  xvi.  p.  761. 
 edit.  Par.  p.  1104—1195. 
 
 3  De  Bell.  Jud.  b.  ii.  sec.  234.  *  Cont.  Apion,  b.  i. 
 
 5  See  also  Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  13.  19;  Galen  de  Alimentis,  b. 
 xvi.  p.  761,  edit.  Par.  p.  1104 — 1195. 
 
 are  not  wanting  although  the  Mahometans  do  not  drink  wine. 
 — John's  Archaology . — Ed. 
 
 b  Josephus  (Jewish  War,  b.  iii.  c.  3.  sec.  3.)  praises  Perea, 
 which  at  the  present  time  is  a  desert,  for  its  vines  and  its  palm 
 trees ;  and  particularly  celebrates  the  region  near  the  lake  of 
 Gennesareth,  also  the  plains  of  Jericho,  which  are  now  uninhab- 
 ited, and  desolate,  (b.  iii.  c.  10.  sec.  8.  b.  iv.  c.  8.  sec.  3.) 
 Indeed  we  are  informed  by  Josephus,  that  in  Galilee  there  were 
 204  cities  and  towns,  that  the  largest  of  the  cities  had  150,000, 
 and  the  smallest  towns  15,000  inhabitants.  Hence  we  can 
 account  for  it,  that  Josephus  himself,  in  this  small  province,  short 
 of  forty  miles  long  and  thirty  broad,  collected  an  army  of  nearly 
 100,000  men.  (Jewish  War,  b.  ii.  c.  20.  sec.  6.)  As  so  many 
 people  were  collected  in  such  a  small  extent  of  country,  it  is  clear 
 that  the  arts  and  commerce  must  have  been  patronized,  and  con- 
 sequently the  sciences;  which  leaves  us  to  conclude,  that  the 
 miracles  of  Jesus  were  performed  in  a  country  where  they  could 
 be  examined  and  fairly  discussed.  The  reproach,  which  is  cast 
 upon  Galilee,  in  John  vii.  22.,  has  no  reference  to  the  character 
 of  its  soil  or  climate,  but  only  to  the  fact,  that  the  prophet  or 
 Messiah  was  not  to  be  expected  from  that  part  of  Palestine. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &c.  357 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT 
 
 by  which  their  milk  and  flesh  are  improved,  and  hence 
 it  was  that  Hebron  was  granted  to  Caleb  as  a  favour. 
 
 It  is  not  to  be  conceived  that  writers  who  addressed 
 tlieir  countrymen,  and  who  professed  to  reveal  the  pro- 
 mises of  God,  and  to  relate  their  accomplishment,  could 
 describe  that  as  fertile,  which  in  fact  was  barren,  or 
 speak  of  a  population  which  did  not  exist,  and  there  are 
 still  sufficient  proofs  of  its  fruitfulness  to  justify  this  per- 
 suasion. 
 
 Nothing  can  be  more  unphilosophical  than  to  rest  on 
 the  vague  and  hasty  reports  of  some  travellers  who  have 
 visited  this  country  in  later  times,  and  to  set  them  up, 
 even  when  contradicted  by  others  more  intelligent  a  in 
 the  present  day,  in  opposition  to  the  description  of  those 
 who  were  contemporaries  and  witnesses  of  the  particu- 
 lars which  they  relate,  and  who,  if  they  had  stated  false- 
 hoods, eould  not  have  excited  the  respect  which  they 
 received. 
 
 greater  quantity.  Josephus,  accordingly  calls  Jericho 
 the  honey-bearing  country.  The  great  abundance  of 
 wild  honey  is  often  mentioned  in  Scripture,  a  memor- 
 able instance  of  which  occurs  in  the  first  book  of 
 Samuel :  '  And  all  they  of  the  land  came  to  a  wood,  and 
 there  was  honey  upon  the  ground  ;  and  when  the  people 
 were  come  to  the  wood,  behold  the  honey  dropped.'1 
 This  circumstance  perfectly  accords  with  the  view  which 
 Moses  gave  of  the  promised  land,  in  the  song  with  which 
 he  closed  his  long  and  eventful  career  :  '  He  made  him 
 to  suck  honey  out  of  the  rock,  and  oil  out  of  the  flinty 
 rock.'4  That  good  land  preserved  its  character  in  the 
 time  of  David,  who  thus,  celebrates  the  distinguishing 
 bounty  to  his  chosen  people  :  '  He  would  have  fed  them 
 also  with  the  finest  of  the  wheat,  and  with  honey  out  of 
 the  rock,  would  I  have  satisfied  thee.'4  In  these  holy 
 strains,  the  sacred  poet  availed  himself  of  the  most  valu- 
 j  able  products  of  Canaan,  to  lead  the  faith  and  hope  of 
 
 The  barrenness,  or  scarcity  rather,  of  which  some  his  nation  to  bounties  of  a  higher  order,  of  greater 
 authors  may  either  ignorantly  or  maliciously  complain,  '  price,  and  more  urgent  necessity,  than  any  which  the 
 does  not  proceed,  in  the  opinion  of  Dr  Shaw,  from  the    soil  even  of  that  favoured  region,  stimulated  and  sus- 
 
 incapacity  or  natural  unfruitfulness  of  the  country,  but 
 from  the  want  of  inhabitants,  and  from  the  great  aversion 
 to  labour  and  industry  in  those  few  by  whom  it  is  pos- 
 sessed. The  perpetual  discords  and  depredations 
 among  the  petty  princes  who  share  this  fine  country, 
 greatly  obstruct  the  operations  of  the  husbandman,  who 
 must  have  small  encouragement  to  sow,  when  it  is  quite 
 uncertain  who  shall  gather  in  the  harvest.  It  is  in  other 
 respects  a  fertile  country,  and  still  capable  of  affording 
 to  its  neighbours,  the  like  ample  supplies  of  corn  and 
 oil,  which  it  is  known  to  have  done  in  the  time  of 
 Solomon,  who  gave  yearly  to  Hiram,  twenty  thousand 
 measures  of  wheat  for  food  to  his  household,  and  twenty 
 measures  of  pure  oil. 
 
 The  parts  about  Jerusalem  particularly,  being  rocky 
 and  mountainous,  have  therefore  been  supposed  to  be 
 barren  and  unfruitful:  yet,  granting  this  conclusion,  which 
 is,  however,  far  from  being  just,  a  country  is  not  to  be 
 characterized  from  one  single  district  of  it,  but  from  the 
 whole.  And  besides,  the  blessing  which  was  given  to 
 Judah,  was  not  of  the  same  kind  with  the  blessing  of 
 Asher,  or  of  Issachar,  that  '  his  bread  should  be  fat  or 
 his  land  pleasant,'  but  that  '  his  eyes  should  be  red  with 
 wine,  and  his  teeth  should  be  white  with  milk.'2  In  the 
 estimation  of  the  Jewish  lawgiver,  milk  and  honey,  the 
 chief  dainties  and  subsistence  of  the  earlier  ages,  as  they 
 still  continue  to  be  of  the  Bedouin  Arabs,  are  the  glory 
 of  all  lands;  these  productions  are  either  actually 
 enjoyed  in  the  lot  of  Judah,  or  at  least,  might  be  obtain- 
 ed by  proper  care  and  application.  The  abundance  of 
 wine  alone,  is  wanting  at  present ;  yet,  the  acknowledged 
 goodness  of  that  little,  which  is  still  made  at  Jerusalem 
 and  Hebron,  clearly  proves,  that  these  barren  rocks,  as 
 they  are  called,  would  yield  a  much  greater  quantity,  if 
 the  abstemious  Turk  and  Arab  would  permit  the  vine  to 
 be  further  propagated  and  improved. 
 
 Wild  honey,  which  formed  a  part  of  the  food  of  John 
 the  Baptist  in  the  wilderness,  may  indicate  to  us  the  great 
 plenty  of  it  in  those  deserts ;  and,  that  consequently 
 taking  the  hint  from  nature,  and  enticing  the  bees  into 
 hives  and  larger  colonies,  it  might  be  produced  in  much 
 
 tained,  as  it  certainly  was,  by  the  special  blessing  of 
 heaven,  produced, — the  bounties  of  sovereign  and  re- 
 deeming mercy,  purchased  with  the  blood,  and  imparted 
 by  the  Spirit  of  the  Son  of  God. 
 
 As  the  mountains  of  Palestine  abound  in  some  places 
 with  thyme,  rosemary,  sage,  and  other  aromatic  plants, 
 in  which  the  bee  chiefly  delights  ;  so,  in  other  places, 
 they  are  covered  with  shrubs  and  a  delicate  short  gTass, 
 which  is  more  grateful  to  the  cattle,  than  that  which 
 the  fallow  grounds  or  the  meadows  produce.  The  graz- 
 ing and  feeding  of  cattle  is  not  peculiar  to  Judea,  it  is 
 still  practised  all  over  Mount  Libanus,  the  Castravan 
 mountains,  and  Barbary,  where  the  higher  grounds  are 
 appropriated  to  this  purpose,  while  the  plains  and 
 valleys,  are  reserved  for  tillage. 
 
 But  even  laying  aside  the  profits  which  might  arise 
 from  grazing,  by  the  sale  of  butter,  milk,  wool,  and  the 
 great  number  of  cattle,  which  were  to  be  daily  disposed 
 of,  particularly  at  Jerusalem,  for  common  fooil  and  for 
 the  service  of  the  temple ;  these  mountainous  tracts 
 would  be  highly  valuable  on  another  account,  especially 
 if  they  were  planted  with  olive-trees,  one  acre  of  which 
 is  of  more  value  than  twice  the  extent  of  arable  ground. 
 It  may  be  presumed,  in  like  manner,  that  the  vine  was 
 not  neglected  in  a  soil  and  exposure  so  well  adapted  to 
 its  cultivation. 
 
 Few  traces  are  now  to  be  found,  except  at  Jerusalem 
 and  Hebron,  of  those  extensive  vineyards,  which  in 
 better  times  adorned  the  lulls  of  Canaan,  and  so  amply 
 rewarded  the  labours  of  the  cultivator  :  but  this  is  owing 
 not  to  the  ungratefulness  of  the  soil,  but  to  the  llotfa  and 
 bigotry  of  the  present  possessors.  The  vine  is  not  of  so 
 durable  a  nature  as  the  olive,  and  requires,  besides,  an 
 unceasing  culture  and  attention;  while  the  supersti- 
 tious Turk  scruples  to  encourage  the  propagation  si  a 
 plant,  whose  fruit  may  be  applied  to  uses  forbidden  by 
 the  rules  of  his  religion.  But  the  general  benefit  arising 
 from  the  olive-tree,  and  its  longevity  and  hardiness, 
 have  been  the  means  of  continuing  down  to  the  present 
 times,  clumps  <>l  several  thousands,  to  mark  out  to  us 
 the  possibility,  as  they  are  undoubtedly  the  remains,  of 
 
 1  As  Shaw,  Maundrell,  &c. 
 
 »  Gen.  xlix.  12. 
 
 »  1  Sam.  xiv.  25. 
 
 '  Dtut.  xxxii.  1J. 
 
 Ps.  lxxxi.  16. 
 
358 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 more  extensive  plantations.  Now,  if  to  these  produc- 
 tions be  joined  several  plots  of  arable  ground,  which 
 lie  scattered  all  over  the  valleys  and  windings  of  the 
 mountains  in  the  lot  of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  we  shall 
 find,  that  the  inheritance  even  of  these  tribes  which  are 
 supposed  to  have  had  the  most  barren  part  of  the  coun- 
 try, fell  to  them  in  pleasant  places,  and  that  theirs  was 
 a  goodly  heritage. 
 
 Besides  the  great  quantity  of  grapes  and  raisins,  says 
 Dr  Shaw,  in  a  note,  which  are  brought  daily  to  the 
 markets  of  Jerusalem  and  the  neighbouring  villages, 
 Hebron  alone  sends  every  year  to  Egypt,  three  hundred 
 camel  loads  of  the  robb  which.they  call  dabash,  the  same 
 word  which  is  simply  rendered  honey  in  the  sacred 
 volume  ;  as  in  the  command  of  the  patriarch  Jacob  to 
 his  sons :  '  Carry  down  the  man  a  present  of  the  best 
 things  of  the  land,  a  little  balm  and  a  little  honey  :'  for 
 honey,  properly  so  called,  could  not  be  a  rarity  there, 
 so  great  as  dabash  must  be,  from  the  want  of  vineyards 
 in  Egypt.  Several  different  substances  appear  to  have 
 obtained  the  name  of  honey  among  the  ancient  Israelites, 
 which  may  be  inferred  from  this  precept :  l  '  Ye  shall 
 burn  no  leaven,  nor  any  kind  of  honey  in  any  offering.' 
 Besides  the  honey  of  grapes,  of  bees,  and  of  the  palm, 
 the  honey  of  the  reed,  or  sugar,  might  be  of  great  anti- 
 quity. 
 
 The  mountainous  parts  of  the  Holy  Land  are  so  far 
 from  being  inhospitable,  unfruitful,  or  the  refuse  of  the 
 land  of  Canaan,  that  in  the  division  of  this  country,  the 
 mountain  of  Hebron  was  granted  to  Caleb  as  a  parti- 
 cular favour  :  2  '  Now  therefore,  give  me  this  mountain, 
 of  which  the  Lord  spake  in  that  day.'  In  the  time  of 
 Asa,  the  '  hill  country  of  Judah  '  mustered  five  hundred 
 and  eighty  thousand  men  of  valour ;  3  an  argument 
 beyond  dispute,  that  the  land  was  able  to  maintain  them. 
 Even  in  the  present  times,  though  cultivation  and  im- 
 provement are  exceedingly  neglected,  while  the  plains 
 and  valleys,  although  fruitful  as  ever,  lie  almost  entirely 
 desolate,  every  little  hill  is  crowded  with  inhabitants. 
 If  this  part  of  the  Holy  Land  was  composed,  as  some 
 object,  only  of  naked  rocks  and  precipices,  why  is  it 
 better  peopled  than  all  the  plains  of  Esdraelon,  Rama, 
 Acre,  or  Zabulon,  which  are  all  of  them  extremely  fertile 
 and  delightful  ?  It  cannot  be  urged  that  the  inhabitants 
 live  with  more  safety  on  the  hills  and  mountains,  than  on 
 the  plains,  as  there  are  neither  walls  nor  fortifications  to 
 secure  their  villages  and  encampments ;  and  except  in 
 the  range  of  Lebanon,  and  some  other  mountains,  few 
 or  no  places  of  difficult  access  ;  so  that  both  of  them  are 
 equally  exposed  to  the  insults  of  an  enemy.  But  the 
 reason  is  obvious ;  they  find  among  these  mountainous 
 rocks  and  precipices,  sufficient  conveniences  for  them- 
 selves, and  much  greater  for  their  cattle.  Here  they 
 have  bread  to  the  full,  while  their  flocks  and  their  herds 
 browse  upon  richer  herbage,  and  both  man  and  beast 
 quench  their  thirst  from  springs  of  excellent  water,  which 
 is  but  too  much  wanted,  especially  in  the  summer  season, 
 through  all  the  plains  of  Syria.  This  fertility  of  Canaan 
 is  fully  confirmed  by  writers  of  great  reputation,  whose 
 impartiality  cannot  justly  be  suspected.  Tacitus  calls  it 
 a  fruitful  soil,  and  Justin  affirms,  that  in  this  country  the 
 
 Lev.  ii.  11.         2  Josh.  xiv.  12. 
 
 2  Chron.  xiv.  S. 
 
 purity  of  the  air,  and  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  are  equally 
 admirable. 
 
 The  justice  of  these  brief  accounts,  Dr  Shaw,  and 
 almost  every  modern  traveller,  fully  verifies.  When  he 
 travelled  in  Syria  and  Phoenicia,  in  December  and  Jan- 
 uary, the  whole  country,  he  remarks,  looked  verdant  and 
 cheerful :  and  the  woods  particularly,  which  are  chiefly 
 planted  with  the  gall-bearing  oak,  were  every  where  be- 
 strewed with  a  variety  of  anemones,  ranunculuses,  col- 
 chicas,  and  mandrakes.  Several  pieces  of  ground  near 
 Tripoli  were  full  of  liquorice  ;  and  at  the  mouth  of  a 
 famous  grotto,  he  saw  an  elegant  species  of  the  blue 
 lily.  In  the  beginning  of  March,  the  plains,  particularly 
 between  Jaffa  and  Rama,  were  every  where  planted  with 
 a  beautiful  variety  of  fritillaries,  tulips  of  innumerable 
 hues,  and  a  profusion  of  the  rarest  and  most  beautiful 
 flowers  ;  while  the  hills  and  the  mountains  were  covered 
 with  yellow  pollium,  and  some  varieties  of  thyme,  sage, 
 and  rosemary.* 
 
 The  account  which  has  now  been  given  of  the  soil  and 
 productions  of  Canaan,  will  enable  the  reader  to  per- 
 ceive with  great  clearness,  the  force  and  justice  of  the 
 promise  made  by  Moses  to  his  nation,  a  little  before  he 
 died  :  5  '  The  Lord  thy  God  bringeth  thee  into  a  good 
 land,  a  land  of  brooks  of  water,  of  fountains  and  depths, 
 that  spring  out  of  valleys  and  hills  ;  a  land  of  wheat  and 
 barley,  and  vines  and  fig-trees,  and  pomegranates,  a 
 land  of  olive  oil  and  honey.' 
 
 If  to  the  natural  fertility  of  this  highly  favoured 
 country  be  added,  the  manner  in  which  it  was  divided 
 among  the  tribes  of  Israel,  it  will  furnish  an  easy  and 
 satisfactory  answer  to  the  question  which  the  infidel  has 
 often  put :  "  How  could  so  small  a  country  as  Canaan 
 maintain  so  immense  a  population,  as  we  find  in  the 
 writings  of  the  Old  Testament  ?"  That  rich  and  fertile 
 region  was  divided  into  small  inheritances,  on  which  the 
 respective  proprietors  lived  and  reared  their  families. 
 Necessity,  not  less  than  a  spirit  of  industry,  required 
 that  no  part  of  the  surface  should  be  suffered  to  lie  waste. 
 The  husbandman  carried  his  improvements  up  the  sides 
 of  the  steepest  and  most  rugged  mountains,  to  the  very 
 top  ;  he  converted  every  patch  of  earth  into  a  vineyard, 
 or  olive  plantation ;  he  covered  the  bare  rocks  with  soil, 
 and  thus  turned  them  into  fruitful  fields  ;  where  the  steep 
 was  too  great  to  admit  of  an  inclined  plane,  he  cut  away 
 the  face  of  the  precipice,  and  built  walls  around  the 
 mountain  to  support  the  earth,  and  planted  his  terraces 
 with  the  vine  and  the  olive.  These  circles  of  excellent 
 soil  were  seen  rising  gradually  from  the  bottom  to  the 
 top  of  the  mountains,  where  the  vine  and  the  olive,  shad- 
 ing the  intermediate  rocks  with  the  liveliest  verdure,  and 
 bending  under  the  load  of  their  valuable  produce,  amply 
 rewarded  the  toils  of  the  cultivator.  The  remains  of 
 these  hanging  gardens,  these  terrace  plantations,  after 
 the  lapse  of  so  many  centuries,  the  revolutions  of  empire, 
 and  the  long  decline  of  industry  among  the  miserable 
 slaves  that  nowr  occupy  that  once  highly  favoured  land, 
 may  still  be  distinctly  traced  on  the  hills  and  mountains 
 of  Judea.  Every  spot  of  ground  was  in  this  manner 
 brought  into  a  state  of  cultivation  ;  every  particle  of  soil 
 was  rendered  productive ;  and  by  turning  a  stream  of 
 
 *  Shaw's  Travels. 
 
 5  Deut.  viii.  7. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  DEPARTURE  FROM  EGYPT,  &( 
 
 A.M.  2515.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 water  into  every  field  where  it  was  practicable,  and  lead- 
 ing the  little  rills  into  which  they  divided  it,  to  every 
 plantation,  every  tree  and  every  plant,  they  secured  for 
 the  most  part,  a  constant  succession  of  crops.  Such  was 
 the  management  which  Virgil  recommended  to  the  culti- 
 vators of  Italy.  "  Then  on  the  springing  corn  drives 
 the  stream,  and  ductile  rills.  And  when  the  field  is 
 scorched  with  raging  heat,  the  herbs  all  dying,  Jo,  from 
 the  brow  of  a  hilly  tract  he  decoys  the  torrent,  which 
 falling  down  the  smooth-worn  rocks,  awakes  the  hoarse 
 murmur,  and  with  gurgling  streams  allays  the  thirsty 
 lands."  » 
 
 "  This  much  is  certain,"  says  Volney,  "  and  it  is  the 
 advantage  of  hot  over  cold  countries,  that  in  the  former, 
 wherever  there  is  water,  vegetation  may  be  perpetually 
 maintained,  and  made  to  produce  an  uninterrupted  suc- 
 cession of  fruits  to  flowers,  and  flowers  to  fruits.  In 
 cold,  nay  even  in  temperate  climates,  on  the  contrary, 
 nature  benumbed  for  several  months,  loses  in  the  sterile 
 slumber  the  third  part,  or  even  half  the  year.  The  soil 
 which  has  produced  grains,  has  not  time  before  the  de- 
 cline of  summer  heat  to  mature  vegetables ;  a  second 
 crop  is  not  to  be  expected ;  and  the  husbandman  sees 
 himself  condemned  to  a  long  and  fatal  repose.  Syria  is 
 exempt  from  these  inconveniences  ;  if,  therefore,  it  so 
 happens  that  its  productions  are  not  such  as  its  natural 
 advantages  would  lead  us  to  expect,  it  is  not  less  owing 
 to  its  physical,  than  its  political  state." 
 
 On  this  question  we  have  to  add  the  temperament  of 
 the  people  to  the  physical  powers  of  the  country.  The 
 Israelite  lived  upon  his  own  farm,  in  all  the  simplicity 
 of  rural  life  ;  was  content  with  the  produce  of  his  own 
 fields  ;  a  little  wheat  in  the  ear,  or  in  meal,  a  few  grapes 
 and  olives,  dates  or  almonds,  generally  constituted  his 
 repast ;  and  the  great  heat  of  the  climate  imperiously 
 required  him  to  lead  a  frugal  and  abstemious  life.  It 
 is  well  known,  that  the  inhabitants  of  warm  countries 
 subsist  on  much  less  and  much  lighter  food  than  the  peo- 
 ple of  colder  latitudes,  and  by  consequence,  are  capable 
 of  living  in  more  crowded  habitations.  If  all  these  cir- 
 cumstances are  duly  considered,  the  countless  numbers 
 of  people,  which,  according  to  the  Old  Testament  writ- 
 ers, once  inhabited  the  land  of  promise,  will  neither 
 appear  incredible  nor  exaggerated. 
 
 The  extraordinary  fruitfulness  of  Canaan,  and  the 
 number  of  its  inhabitants,  during  the  prosperous  times  of 
 the  Jewish  commonwealth,  may  be  traced  to  another, 
 and  still  more  powerful  cause,  than  any  that  has  been 
 mentioned, — the  special  blessing  of  heaven,  which  that 
 favoured  people,  for  many  ages,  exclusively  enjoyed. 
 We  know  from  the  testimony  of  Moses,  that  the  tribes  of 
 Israel  reposed  under  the  immediate  care  of  Jehovah, 
 their  covenanted  God  and  king,  enjoyed  his  peculiar 
 favour,  and  were  multiplied  and  sustained  by  a  special 
 compact,  in  which  the  rest  of  the  nations  had  no  share. 
 *  The  Lord  shall  make  thee  plenteous  in  goods,  in  the 
 fruit  of  thy  body,  and  in  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle,  and  in 
 the  fruit  of  thy  ground,  in  the  land  which  the  Lord  sware 
 unto  thy  fathers  to  give  it.'  2  But  the  blessing  of  Jeho- 
 vah converts  the  desert  into  a  fruitful  field  ;  for  thus  it  is 
 promised,  (and  what  God  promises  he  is  able  also  to 
 
 359 
 
 M.  37G5.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 perform,)  '  The  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  shall 
 be  glad  for  them,  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice  and  blos- 
 som as  the  rose  ;  it  shall  blossom  abundantly,  and 
 rejoice  even  with  joy  and  singing  ;  the  glory  of  Lebanon 
 shall  be  given  unto  it,  the  excellency  of  Camel  and 
 Sharon ;  they  shall  see  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
 excellency  of  our  God  ;  for  in  the  wilderness  shall  the 
 waters  break  out,  and  streams  in  the  desert,  and  the 
 parched  land  shall  become  a  pool,  and  the  thirsty  land 
 springs  of  water :  in  the  habitations  of  dragons,  where 
 each  lay,  shall  be  grass,  with  reeds  and  rushes.'  3  In 
 this  passage  the  blessings  of  salvation  as  exhibited  in  the 
 present  dispensation  of  grace,  are  certainly  intended ; 
 but  the  use  of  these  figures  would  be  quite  improper  if 
 the  special  favour  of  God  could  produce  no  such  impor- 
 tant changes  on  the  face  of  nature. 
 
 Indeed  the  divine  blessing  has  not  bestowed  the  same 
 degree  of  fruitfulness  on  every  part  of  Canaan.  This 
 fertile  country  is  surrounded  by  deserts  of  immense  ex- 
 tent, exhibiting  a  dreary  waste  of  loose  and  barren  sand, 
 on  which  the  skill  and  industry  of  man  are  able  to  make 
 no  impression.  The  only  vegetable  productions  which 
 occasionally  meet  the  eye  of  the  traveller  in  these  fright- 
 ful solitudes,  are  a  coarse  sickly  grass,  thinly  sprinkled 
 on  the  sand  ;  a  plot  of  senna,  or  other  saline  or  bitter 
 herb,  or  an  acacia  bush  ;  even  these  but  rarely  present 
 themselves  to  his  notice,  and  afford  him  little  satisfac- 
 tion when  they  do,  because  they  warn  him  that  he  is  yet 
 far  distant  from  a  place  of  abundance  and  repose.  Moses, 
 who  knew  those  deserts  well,  calls  them  '  great  and  ter- 
 rible,' '  a  desert  land,'  '  the  waste  howling  wilderness.' 
 But  the  completest  picture  of  the  sandy  desert  is  drawn 
 by  the  pencil  of  Jeremiah,  in  which,  with  surprising  force 
 and  brevity,  he  has  exhibited  every  circumstance  of 
 terror,  which  the  modern  traveller  details  with  so  much 
 pathos  and  minuteness  :  '  Neither  say  they,  where  is  the 
 Lord  that  brought  us  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  that 
 led  us  through  the  wilderness,  a  land  of  deserts  and  of 
 pits,  a  land  of  drought,  and  of  the  shadow  of  death,  a 
 land  which  no  man  passed  through,  and  where  no  man 
 dwelt.'  4 
 
 Besides  these  inhospitable  deserts  which  environ  the 
 land  of  promise,  the  inspired  writers  mention  several 
 wildernesses  within  its  proper  limits.  In  sacred  lan- 
 guage, a  mountainous  or  less  fruitful  tract,  where  the 
 towns  and  villages  are  thinly  scattered,  and  single  habita- 
 tions few  and  far  between,  is  distinguished  by  the  name 
 of  the  wilderness.  The  forerunner  of  our  Lord  resided 
 in  the  wilderness  of  Judah  till  he  commenced  his  public 
 ministry.  We  are  informed  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  that 
 Ishmael  settled  in  the  wilderness  of  Paran,  and  in  the 
 first  book  of  Samuel,  that  David  took  refuge  from  the 
 persecution  of  Saul,  in  the  same  desert,  where  it  ap- 
 pears the  numerous  flocks  of  Nabal  the  Carmelite  were 
 pastured.  Such  places,  therefore,  were  not  absolute  de- 
 serts, but  thinly  peopled,  or  less  fertile  districts.  l?ut 
 this  remark  will  scarcely  apply  to  the  wilderness,  where 
 our  Lord  was  tempted  of  the  devil.  It  is  B  most  miser- 
 able, dry,  and  barren  solitude,  "  consisting  <>f  high  rocky 
 mountains,  so  torn  and  disordered,  .is  if  the  earth  had 
 here  suffered  some  great  convulsion,  in  which  its  very 
 
 'Geor.  b.  1.  I.  110. 
 
 >Deut.  xxviii.  1,  2. 
 
 "  Is.  xxxv.  7. 
 
 *  Jor.  ii.  <i. 
 
350 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 [Book  IV. 
 
 A.  M.  25J5.  A.  C.  1489;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3765.  A.  C.  1646.  NUM.  xviii.  TO  THE  END  OF  DEUT. 
 
 bowels  had  been  turned  outwards."  '  A  more  dismal 
 and  solitary  place  can  scarcely  be  found  in  the  whole 
 earth.  About  one  hour's  journey  from  the  foot  of  the 
 mountain  which  environs  this  wilderness,  rises  the  lofty 
 Quarantania,  which  Maundrell  was  told  is  the  mountain 
 to  which  the  devil  carried  our  blessed  Saviour,  that  he 
 might  show  him  all  the  kingdoms  and  glory  of  the  world. 
 
 1  Maundiell's  Travels. 
 
 It  is,  as  the  evangelist  styles  it,  *  an  exceeding  high 
 mountain,' and  in  its  ascent  both  difficult  and  dangerous. 
 It  has  a  small  chapel  at  the  top,  and  another  about  half- 
 way up,  founded  on  a  prominent  part  of  the  rock.  Near 
 the  latter  are  several  caves  and  holes  in  the  sides  of  the 
 mountain,  occupied  formerly  by  hermits,  and  even  in 
 present  times,  the  resort  of  religious  devotees,  who  repair 
 to  these  lonely  cells  to  keep  their  lent,  in  imitation  of 
 our  Lord's  fasting  in  the  wilderness  forty  days. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE 
 
 BOOK  V. 
 
 CONTAINING  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THINOS  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTRANCE  INTO  TIIK  LAND  OF  CANAAN,  TO 
 THE  BUILDING  OF  SOLOMONS  TEMPLE,  IN  ALL  447  YEARS,— ACCORDING  TO  DR  HAI.11S,  681    YEARS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Thk  people  of  Israel  are  at  length  settled  in  Canaan, 
 under  the  guidance  of  Joshua.  While  we  were  contem- 
 plating the  character  of  Moses,  we  beheld  that  astonish- 
 ing dispensation,  the  deliverance  of  the  whole  nation  of 
 the  Hebrews  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt,  their  passage 
 through  the  Red  Sea,  and  their  miraculous  support  and 
 guidance  in  the  wilderness  for  forty  years.  This  indeed 
 was  the  Lord's  doing ;  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes. 
 But  Moses  was  employed  as  the  chief  instrument  of  exe- 
 cuting the  wondrous  plan, — for  the  entire  regulation  of 
 every  thing  was  committed  to  him.  While  the  Israelites 
 were  yet  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and  had  not  entered 
 the  promised  land ;  while  they  were  preparing  to  attack 
 their  strongest  and  most  formidable  enemies ;  in  that 
 very  critical  and  dangerous  situation,  their  leader  and 
 commander  was  taken  from  them,  and  we  were  ready  to 
 ask,  what  now  will  become  of  Israel  ? — not  remembering 
 that  He  who  had  raised  up  Moses  for  their  deliverance, 
 and  had  fitted  him  for  every  service  to  which  he  had  been 
 called,  is  all-sufficient. 
 
 The"  history  of  Joshua,  the  successor  of  Moses,  who 
 had  been  nominated  to  his  charge  by  the  Lord  himself, 
 is  contained  chiefly  in  the  book  which  bears  his  name, 
 written  probably  by  himself.  Here,  though  we  read  of 
 battles  and  conquests,  in  which  we  may  seem  to  have  no 
 concern,  we  shall  perceive  the  divine  perfections  dis- 
 played and  exercised  in  a  very  eminent  degree.  The 
 power  of  God  is  exhibited,  altering  the  course  of  nature 
 for  the  defence  of  his  people  ;  his  justice  taking  signal 
 vengeance  on  the  wicked  inhabitants  of  Canaan,  when 
 they  had  filled  up  the  measure  of  their  iniquities  ;  his 
 veracity  giving  the  Israelites  the  possession  of  Canaan 
 in  completion  of  his  promises  and  his  holy  covenant ; 
 and  his  grace  and  mercy,  encouraging  and  assisting  them 
 in  all  their  diliiculties,  till  he  had  granted  them  rest  and 
 deliverance  from  their  enemies. 
 
 The  Lord  did  all  this  for  his  people  by  his  servant 
 Joshua,  who  was  an  eminent  type  of  Christ,  and  who 
 with  a  reference  to  him  was  distinguished  by  the  same 
 name, — the    Hebrew  of  Jesus  being-   Joshua.     In   two 
 
 passages  1  we  read  Jesus,  where  the  Israelitish  general 
 is  intended,  and  the  word  should  more  properly  have 
 been  translated  Joshua.  The  office  which  this  name 
 denotes,  (Saviour,)  Joshua  did  not  take  to  himself;  but 
 he  was  expressly  called  to  it,  and  invested  with  it  by  the 
 highest  authority.  He  received  his  commission  immedi- 
 ately from  God,  and  entered  upon  his  work  with  the 
 strongest  assurances  of  the  divine  direction  and  support. 
 Our  exalted  Leader,  in  like  manner,  was  constituted  the 
 Head  of  the  church  by  a  particular  designation;  and 
 therefore  he  declared  that  "  he  came  down  from  heaven, 
 not  to  do  his  own  will,  hut  the  will  of  Him  that  sent 
 him."  Though,  according  to  his  original  state,  he 
 was  equal  with  God,  anil  possessed  the  same  glory  as 
 the  Father,  yet  he  submitted  for  our  sakes  to  become  a 
 servant;  and  in  his  mediatorial  character,  as  if  he  had 
 been  an  inferior,  he  was  set  apart  for  his  gTcat  under- 
 taking, and  furnished  with  full  powers  for  its  execution. 
 
 It  is  allowed  that  Joshua  was  qualified  for  his  office, 
 as  being  possessed  of  all  necessary  abilities.  And  shall 
 we  not  maintain  that  Jesus  was  every  way  fitted  for  his 
 great  undertaking?  His  power,  wisdom,  love,  and  faith- 
 fulness, have  all  been  demonstrated  with  unquestionable 
 evidence.  We  rejoice  then  that  he  is  able  to  save  to  the 
 uttermost,  that  he  will  finish  the  work  in  righteousness, 
 and  that  he  will  not  fail,  nor  be  discouraged,  till  be  have 
 set  judgment  in  the  earth,  ami  fully  accomplished  the 
 salvation  of  his  people. 
 
 If  Joshua  in  a  triumphant  manner  conducted  th> 
 of  Israel    into   Canaan,  assigned   to   the   various  tribes 
 their  respective  portions,  and  saw  them  settled  in  peace 
 and  prosperity  around  him, — lesu.-, '  the  Captain  of  the 
 Lord's  hosts,'  stands  engaged  to  bring  all  bis  followers 
 
 into  heaven — to  put  them  in  the  secure  possession  of  the 
 
 kingdom  which  was  prepared  for  them  from  the  founda- 
 tion of  the  world.  For  the  accoraplislunenl  of  his  pur- 
 pose, he  relinquished  the  throne  of  his  glory,  became 
 obedient  to  the  law,  was  made  ■  curse,  died,  went  down 
 into  the  grave,  and  rose  again  :  and  be  is  now  carrying 
 on  the  same  work  :  with  a  particular  regard  to  it,  he  will 
 
 1  Acts  vi 
 
 •15.  1Kb.  It.  8. 
 
 -J   /. 
 
362 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2.153.  A.  C.  1451;  OK. 
 continue  to  maintain  universal  dominion,  until  the 
 redemption  of  the  purchased  possession,  unto  the  praise 
 of  his  glory.  Not  one  of  his  faithful  followers  shall 
 fail  of  attaining  the  eternal  inheritance  ;  for  it  is  reserved 
 in  heaven  for  them,  and  they  are  kept  by  the  power  of 
 God  through  faith  unto  salvation.  His  grace  and  truth 
 are  pledged  for  their  present  security,  and  for  their 
 final  admission  into  the  joy  of  their  Lord.  They  shall 
 sit  with  him  in  his  throne,  and  shall  reign  for  ever  and 
 ever. 
 
 The  circumstances  which  claim  the  particular  attention 
 of  the  reader  during  this  period  are, — the  regular  observ- 
 ance of  divine  ordinances  in  Canaan,  as  these  had  been 
 instituted  in  the  wilderness  ; — the  preservation  of  Israel 
 from  this  time  forward,  when  all  the  males  went  up,  three 
 times  in  the  year,  to  the  place  which  God  had  chosen  for 
 the  celebration  of  the  great  festivals  which  he  had 
 commanded  them  to  observe  : — their  preservation,  too, 
 although  they  were  so  often  subdued,  and  brought  under 
 the  dominion  of  their  enemies  ; — and  the  preservation  of 
 true  religion,  notwithstanding  their  frequent  apostasies. 
 Nor  should  we  fail  to  observe  the  frequent  appearance  of 
 Christ  during  this  period,  in  the  form  of  that  nature 
 which  he  took  upon  him  in  his  incarnation.  He  appeared 
 in  this  form  to  Moses  when  God  spake  to  him  face  to 
 face,  as  a  man  speaketh  to  his  friend,  and  he  beheld  the 
 similitude  of  the  Lord.1  In  this  form  he  appeared  to  the 
 seventy  elders  ; 2  to  Joshua,  when  he  was  near  the  walls  of 
 Jericho ; 3  to  Gideon ; 4  to  Manoah.s  Christ  thus  appeared, 
 time  after  time,  in  the  form  of  that  nature  which  he  was 
 afterwards  to  assume  for  our  redemption,  because  he  was 
 now  carrying  on  that  mighty  design,  and  preparing  the 
 way  for  its  accomplishment. 
 
 It  was  in  this  period  that  the  school  of  the  prophets 
 was  first  instituted.  In  Samuel  there  was  begun  a  suc- 
 cession of  prophets,  that  was  maintained  continually  from 
 that  era  till  the  spirit  of  prophecy  ceased  about  the  time 
 of  Malachi  ;  and  therefore  Samuel  is  spoken  of  in  the 
 New  Testament  as  the  beginning  of  this  succession  of 
 prophets.  5  '  And  all  the  prophets  from  Samuel,  and  those 
 that  follow  after,  as  many  as  have  spoken  have  fore- 
 told of  these  days.'  The  young  men  that  belonged 
 to  these  schools  were  called  the  sons  of  the  prophets. 
 At  first  they  were  under  the  tuition  of  Samuel ;  after- 
 wards of  Elijah,  Elisha,  and  others.  They  were  often 
 favoured  with  a  degree  of  inspiration,  while  they  con- 
 tinued under  tuition  in  the  schools  of  the  prophets  ;  and 
 God  commonly,  when  he  called  any  one  to  the  constant 
 exercise  of  the  prophetical  office,  or  to  any  extraor- 
 dinary service,  took  them  out  of  these  schools,  though  not 
 always.  For  the  prophet  Amos  informs  us  that  he 
 had  not  been  educated  in  the  schools  of  the  prophets, 
 and  that  he  was  not  one  of  the  sons  of  the  prophets. 
 The  main  design  of  this  institution  was  to  foreshow 
 the  great  Redeemer,  and  the  glorious  redemption  that 
 he  was  to  accomplish  by  his  obedience  unto  death. 
 '  To  him  gave  all  the  prophets  witness, — those  things 
 which  God  before  had  showed  by  the  mouth  of  all  his 
 prophets,  that  Christ  should  suffer,  he  hath  so  fulfilled.' 
 There  had  before  been  occasional  prophecies  of  Christ : 
 but  now  as  the  time  was  drawing  nearer  when  the  Re- 
 deemer should  come,  it  pleased  God  to  appoint  a  certain 
 
 Num.  xii.  8.      *  Exod.  xxiv.  f) — 1  ]. 
 4  Judges  iv.  11.     5  Judges  xiii.  17 — 21 
 
 ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1C08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 order  of  men,  in  constant  succession,  whose  main  busi- 
 ness it  should  be  to  foreshow  Christ  and  his  redeeming 
 work,  and  as  his  forerunners  to  prepare  the  way  for  his 
 coming. 
 
 In  the  latter  part  of  this  period  the  scripture  history 
 leads  us  to  consider  God's  providence  towards  that  par- 
 ticular person  whence  Christ  was  to  proceed,  namely, 
 David.  It  pleased  God  to  select  that  person  for  whom 
 Christ  was  to  come,  from  all  the  thousands  of  Israel,  and 
 to  put  a  most  honourable  mark  of  distinction  upon  him, 
 by  anointing  him  to  be  king  over  his  people.  But  we 
 are  required  to  look  up  to  him  with  veneration,  as  a 
 preacher  of  righteousness,  a  prophet  of  the  Lord,  and 
 one  of  the  inspired  penmen  of  the  holy  scriptures.  His 
 poetical  compositions  evince  the  sublimity  of  his  genius  : 
 but  they  are  to  be  regarded  as  superior  to  the  produc- 
 tions of  mere  human  abilities  ;  for  they  are  the  word  of 
 God  :  it  was  the  Holy  Ghost  who  spoke  by  the  mouth 
 of  David.  These  divine  hymns  were  intended,  not  for 
 instruction  only,  but  as  models  of  prayer  and  praise  for 
 the  church  in  all  ages,  to  assist  us  in  our  private  and 
 public  devotions.  They  describe  more  clearly  than  any 
 other  portion  of  the  Old  Testament,  him  who  was  to 
 come, — '  the  consolation  of  Israel.'  They  teach  us 
 with  great  fulness,  the  high  dignity  and  mysterious  per- 
 son of  Christ,  who  is  David's  son,  and  David's  Lord  ; 
 wheat  office  he  sustains  for  his  people,  as  their  prophet, 
 priest,  and  king  ;  their  shepherd,  leader,  and  interces- 
 sor ;  that  we  are  to  view  him  in  the  different  stages  of 
 his  humiliation,  assuming  our  nature,  making  his  abode 
 on  earth  in  circumstances  of  poverty,  contempt,  and 
 persecution,  and  at  last  closing  a  suffering  life  by  a 
 painful  and  ignominious  death.  The  very  manner  in 
 Avhich  he  was  to  be  betrayed,  mocked,  scourged,  and 
 crucified,  is  pointed  out  with  astonishing  exactness.  We 
 hear  the  derision  of  his  enemies,  and  his  own  heavy 
 complaints  in  his  sufferings.  We  are  led  with  him  to  the 
 grave  ;  but  we  also  observe  him  rising  from  the  dead, 
 before  he  saw  corruption.  We  are  also  told  that  he 
 ascended  up  on  high,  leading  captivity  captive,  that  he 
 has  received  gifts  for  men,  even  for  the  rebellious,  also, 
 that  God  the  Lord  might  dwell  among  them. 
 
 It  is  certain  that  David  was  an  eminent  type  of  Christ ; 
 and  that  he  frequently  spake  as  concerning  himself,  what 
 was  applicable  only  to  the  great  Antitype.  In  the  Old 
 Testament  the  Messiah  is  pointed  out  by  the  name  of 
 David,  not  merely  because  it  was  designed  that  in  his 
 human  nature  he  should  descend  from  the  same  family, 
 but  because  there  should  be  a  designed  resemblance  in 
 him  to  that  illustrious  progenitor.  The  blessings  of 
 redemption  are  on  this  account,  called  '  the  sure  mercies 
 of  David.'  For  the  same  reason  also,  long  after  that 
 prince  was  laid  in  the  dust,  it  was  declared  that  the  na- 
 tion should  be  recovered  from  their  captivity,  and  serve 
 the  Lord  their  God,  and  David  their  king.'  7  '  And  I 
 will  set  up  one  shepherd  over  them,  and  he  shall  feed 
 them,  even  my  servant  David.'  In  the  New  Testament 
 Christ  is  called  '  the  root  and  offspring  of  David.' 
 
 The  covenant  of  grace  was  solemnly  renewed  with 
 David,  that  covenant  which  was  all  his  salvation,  and  all 
 his  desire.  This  was  the  fifth  establishment  of  the  cove- 
 nant of  grace  after  the  fall ;  the  first  was  with  Adam,  the 
 second  was  with  Noah,  the  third  was  with  the  patriarchs, 
 
 Josh.  v.  13,  14. 
 6  Acts  iii.  24. 
 
 7  Jer.  xxx.  9 ;  Ezek.  xxxiv.  23,  24. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 363 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1 151  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  F.XD. 
 
 Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  the  fourth  was  in  the  wil- 
 derness by  Moses,  and  now  the  fifth  is  made  with 
 David.  It  is  to  this  that  a  large  portion  of  the  eighty- 
 ninth  psalm  refers. 
 
 Finally,  the  reader  should  take  notice  that,  towards  the 
 close  of  the  period  on  the  narrative  of  which  he  is  now 
 entering,  God  chose  a  particular  city  out  of  .all  the 
 tribes  of  Israel,  to  place  his  name  there.  There  is  men- 
 tion made  in  the  law  of  Moses,  of  the  children  of  Israel's 
 bringing  their  oblations  to  the  place  which  God  should 
 choose,  l  but  God  had  never  proceeded  to  do  it  till 
 now.  The  city  of  Jerusalem  having  been  entirely 
 taken  from  the  Jebusites  by  David,  the  ark  was  brought 
 thither,  and  the  very  spot  was  pointed  out  by  divine 
 direction  on  which  the  temple  of  God,  should  be  built. 
 This  city,  as  the  city  of  God,  the  holy  place  of  his 
 rest  for  ever  became  a  type  of  the  church  of  Christ, 
 the  habitation  of  God.  This  was  the  city  in  which 
 the  scattered  followers  of  Christ  were  gathered  toge- 
 ther after  his  resurrection  ;  in  which  the  apostles  and 
 primitive  Christians  were  favoured  with  that  remarkable 
 outpouring  of  the  Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pentecost;  and 
 in  which  was  formed  the  first  Christian  church,  which  is 
 the  mother  of  all  other  churches  throughout  the  world. 
 2 '  Out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the 
 Lord  from  Jerusalem.  The  Lord  shall  send  the  rod  of 
 thy  strength  out  of  Zion  :  rule  thou  in  the  midst  of  thine 
 enemies.  The  Lord  hath  chosen  Zion  :  he  hath  desired 
 it  for  his  habitation.  This  is  my  rest  for  ever  :  here  will 
 I  dwell ;  for  I  have  desired  it.' 
 
 CHAP.  I. 
 
 SECT.    I. 
 
 -From  their  Entrance  to  the  Death  of 
 Joshua. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Moses,  Joshua,  who  had  a  long  while 
 been  his  prime  minister,  by  the  command  of  God,  under- 
 took the  conduct  of  the  children  of  Israel:  and  as  it  was 
 a  very  momentous  charge,  he  was  not  a  little  anxious 
 how  he  should  be  enabled  to  execute  it.  He  saw  himself 
 indeed  at  the  head  of  six  hundred  thousand  fighting  men; 
 but  then  the  nations  which  he  was  to  subdue,  were  a  war- 
 like and  gigantic  people,  that  had  already  taken  the 
 alarm,  and  therefore  made  early  preparations  for  a 
 defence  ;  had  fortified  their  cities,  and  confederated  their 
 forces  against  him.  And  while  he  was  musing  on  these 
 things,  to  give  him  encouragement  in  his  undertaking,  a 
 God  was  pleased  to  assure  him,  that  he  would  not  fail  to 
 
 1  DeuU  xii.  5 — 7. 
 *  Is.  ii.  1 — 3;  Ps.  ex.  2;  exxxii.  13,  14. 
 
 a  It  is  the  opinion  of  most  interpreters,  that  whenever  God  is 
 said  to  speak  to  Moses,  to  Joshua,  or  any  other  pious  man  in  the 
 Old  Testament,  he  does  not  do  it  by  himself,  but  by  an  angel 
 only.  This  perhaps  might  be  his  most  common  way  of  commu- 
 nicating himself;  but  there  want  not  several  instances  in  Scrip- 
 ture, where  God  himself,  or,  as  others  will  have  it,  the  eternal 
 Logos,  converses  with  his  servants.  And  this  he  may  do,  either 
 by  a  mental  locution,  wherein  he  objects  to  their  minds  the  ex- 
 press idea  of  what  such  a  number  of  words  would  convey;  or  by 
 a  corporal  locution,  when  he    assumes  an    appareut  body,  and 
 
 protect  and  assist  him  in  it,  in  the  same  manner  as  ho 
 had  done  his  predecessor  Moses,  and  provided  he  took 
 care  to  obey  his  laws,  as  Moses  had  done,  make  the 
 whole  land  of  Canaan  a  cheap  and  easy  conquest  to  him  : 
 and  therefore  without  perplexing  his  mind  any  further, 
 he  ordered  him  immediately  to  set  about  the  work. 
 
 b  The  city  of  Jericho  was  just  opposite  to  the  place 
 where  he  was  to  c  pass  the  river  Jordan ;  and  as  it  was 
 the  first  that  he  intended  to  attack,  he  thought  it  advis- 
 
 speech,  in  the  same  manner  that  men  speak.  But  in  the  place 
 before  us,  whether  it  were  an  angel,  or  God  himself,  he  seems  to 
 have  spoken  to  Joshua  out  of  the  sanctuary,  from  whence  he  liad 
 spoken  to  him  a  little  before  Moses'  death,  and  gave  him  encour- 
 agement to  perform  strenuously  what  he  is  now  putting  upon 
 him. — Dent.  xxxi.  14,  23. 
 
 b  Jericho  was  a  city  of  Canaan,  which  afterwards  fell  to  the 
 lot  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  about  seven  leagues  distant  from 
 Jerusalem,  and  two  from  Jordan.  Moses  calls  it  likewise  '  tho 
 city  of  palm  trees,'  Deut.  xxxiv.  3,  because  there  were  great 
 numbers  of  them  in  the  plains  of  Jericho ;  and  not  only  of  palm 
 trees,  but  as  Josephus  tells  us,  (Antiquities,  b.  4.  c.  5.)  balsam 
 trees  likewise,  which  produced  the  precious  liquor  in  such  high 
 esteem  among  the  ancients.  The  plain  of  Jericho  was  watered 
 with  a  rivulet,  which  was  formerly  salt  and  bitter,  but  was  after- 
 wards sweetened  by  the  prophet  Elisha,  2  Kings  ii.  21 ,  22  ;  where- 
 upon the  adjacent  country,  which  was  watered  by  it,  became  not 
 only  one  of  the  most  agreeable,  but  most  fertile  spots  in  all  that 
 country.  As  to  the  city  itself,  after  it  was  destroyed  by  Joshua, 
 it  was,  in  the  days  of  Ahab  king  of  Israel,  rebuilt  by  Hiel  the 
 Bethelite,  1  Kings  xvi.  34 ;  and  in  the  times  of  the  last  kings  of 
 Judea,  yielded  to  none,  except  Jerusalem.  For  it  was  adorned 
 with  a  royal  palace,  wherein  Herod  the  Great  died;  with  an 
 hippodromus,  or  place  where  the  Jewish  nobility  learned  to  ride 
 the  great  horse,  and  other  arts  of  chivalry,  with  an  amphitheatre 
 and  other  magnificent  buildings;  but  during  the  siege  ot  Jeru- 
 salem, the  treachery  of  its  inhabitants  provoked  the  Romans  to 
 destroy  it.  After  the  siege  was  over  there  was  another  city  built, 
 but  not  upon  the  same  place  where  the  two  former  stood ;  for  the 
 ruins  of  them  both  are  seen  to  this  day.  Of  what  account  and 
 bigness  it  was,  we  have  no  certain  information;  but  some  later 
 travellers  inform  us,  that  at  present  it  is  no  more  than  a  poor, 
 nasty  village  of  the  Arabs. — /Fells'  Geography  of  the  Old  and 
 New  Testament,  and  MavndreU's  Journey  from  Aleppo. 
 
 This  village,  called  Rieha,  or  Itihha,  was  long  supposed  to  be 
 situated  on  the  site  of  ancient  Jericho.  But  Mr  Buckingham 
 has  shown  that  the  real  site  of  the  ancient  city  was  about  four 
 miles  higher  up  the  valley,  where  he  traced  to  a  considerable 
 extent  the  boundary  of  its  walls,  and  found  portions  of  ruined 
 buildings,  shafts  of  columns,  &c,  scattered  about  over  the  wider/ 
 extended  heaps  of  this  ruined  city,  which  seemed  to  carer  a  sur- 
 face of  a  square  mile.  The  once  celebrated  "  City  of  Palms 
 cannot  now  boast  of  a  single  tree  of  any  kind,  either  palm  or 
 balsam;  and  there  is  scarcely  any  verdure  or  bushes  to  be  Been 
 about  the  site  of  this  deserted  city.  But  the  desolation  with  which 
 its  ruins  are  surrounded,  Mr  Buckingham  observes,  is  rather  t.. 
 be  attributed  to  the  cessation  of  the  usual  agricultural  laboun  OB 
 the  soil,  and  the  want  of  a  distribution  of  water  over  it  by  the 
 aqueducts,  the  remains  of  which  evince  that  they  were  chiefly 
 constructed  fur  that  purpose,  tban  to  any  change  in  the  climate 
 or  soil. — Ed. 
 
 c  Jordan  is  supposed  te  derive  its  name  from  the  Hebrew 
 word  Jor,  which  signifies  a  spring,  and  Dan,  which  is  a  small 
 town,  and  not  far  from  the  fountain-head  of  this  river.  It  is 
 certainl\  a  ri\er  of  very  great  DOta  in  li'.iy  \M'it,  and  ol  it  the 
 Jewish  historian  gives  us  the  billowing  account;  "The  head  of 
 this  river  has  bei  n  though!  to  be  Pinion ;  but,  in  troth,  it  i  imea 
 
 hither  under  ground,  and  tin-  BOUTCC  of  it    is  l'hiala,  an  hundred 
 
 and  twenty  furlongs  from  Cseserea  Phihppi,  a  little  on  the  right 
 
 hand,  and    not  much  out  of  the  way  to  Tracheitis,      from  the 
 
 cave  of  Panion  it  crosses  the  bogs  and  fens  of  the  lake  Bemecho- 
 
 nitis,  and  alter  a  course  of  an  hundred  and  twenty  farloaff 
 further,  passes  under  the  city  of  Julias,  or  Bethsaida,  and 
 the  lake  C.ennesareth,  or  Tiberias,  and  then  running  along 
 through  a  wilderness  or  deqert,  it  empties  fiseif  Into  the  lake 
 Asphaltites,  or  the  Dead  Sea."  New  Bfnee  the  cave  Panion  lies 
 at  the  foot  of  Mount  Lebanon,  and  the  lake  Asphaltites  reaches 
 
3G4 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3S03.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH 
 
 able  to  send  two  spies  thither,  to  take  a  view  of  the  situ- 
 ation and  strength,  and  avenues  of  the  place.  As  soon 
 as  the  spies  were  gone,  he  bade  the  officers  go  through 
 the  camp,  and  give  the  people  notice,  that  within  three 
 days  they  were  to  pass  the  Jordan,  in  order  to  take  pos- 
 
 i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 to  the  very  extremity  of  the  south  of  Judea,  the  river  Jordan 
 must  extend  its  course  quite  from  the  northern  to  the  southern 
 boundary  of  the  holy  land.  [Burckhardt,  however,  who  visited 
 its  source,  does  not  notice  this  distribution;  but  says,  that  it  rises 
 an  hour  and  a  quarter,  or  about  four  miles,  north-east  from 
 Banias,  or  Cresarea  Philippi,  in  the  plain,  near  a  hill  called  Tel- 
 el-Kadi.  There  are,  he  says,  two  springs,  near  each  other,  one 
 smaller  than  the  other,  whose  waters  unite  immediately  below. 
 Both  sources  are  on  level  ground,  amongst  rocks,  of  what  Burck- 
 hardt calls  tufwacke.  The  larger  source  immediately  forms  a 
 river  twelve  or  fifteen  yards  across,  which  rushes  rapidly  over  a 
 stony  bed  into  the  lower  plain.  The  few  houses  at  present  inhab- 
 ited near  this  spot,  are  called  Enkeil.  It  is  soon  after  joined  by 
 the  river  of  Banais,  which  rises  on  the  north-east  of  the  city. 
 Over  the  source  of  this  river  is  a  perpendicular  rock,  in  which 
 several  niches  have  been  cut  to  receive  statues ;  the  largest  of  which 
 is  above  a  spacious  cavern,  beneath  which  the  river  rises.  This 
 niche,  the  editor  of  Burckhardt  sensibly  conjectures,  contained  a 
 statue  of  Pan ;  whence  the  name  of  Paneas  given  to  the  city,  and 
 of  Uatuov  to  the  cavern.  This  explains  the  error  of  Josephus ; 
 who  considered  this  to  be,  not  the  source  of  a  distinct  river,  but 
 the  second  head  of  Jordan,  after  emerging  from  its  subterraneous 
 channel.]  But  the  largeness  of  this  river  is  far  from  being  equal 
 to  its  extent.  It  may  be  said  indeed  to  have  two  banks,  whereof 
 the  first  and  uttermost  is  that  to  which  the  river  does,  or  at  least 
 anciently  did,  overflow  at  some  seasons  of  the  year ;  but  at  pre- 
 sent, (whether  the  rapidity  of  the  current  has  worn  its  channel 
 deeper,  or  its  waters  are  directed  some  other  way)  so  it  is,  that 
 it  seems  to  have  forgot  its  ancient  greatness:  for  "  we,"  says  Mr 
 Maundrell,  "  could  discern  no  sign  or  probability  of  such  overflow- 
 ing, though  we  were  there  on  the  30th  of  March,  which  is  the 
 proper  time  for  its  inundations.  Nay,  so  far  was  the  river  from 
 overflowing,  that  it  ran  at  least  two  yards  below  the  brink  of  its 
 channel.  After  you  have  descended  the  outermost  bank,  (con- 
 tinued he,)  you  go  about  a  furlong  upon  the  level  strand,  before 
 you  come  to  the  immediate  bank  of  the  river,  which  is  so  beset 
 with  bushes  and  trees,  such  as  tamarisks,  willows,  oleanders,  &c, 
 that  you  can  see  no  water,  until  you  have  made  your  way  through 
 them.  In  this  cover  of  the  banks,  lions,  and  other  wild  creatures 
 are  said  to  hide  themselves  in  summer,  but  upon  the  inundation 
 of  the  river,  they  are  forced  to  dislodge."  To  which  the  prophet 
 seems  to  allude  in  these  words,  '  he  shall  come  like  a  lion  from 
 the  swelling  of  Jordan,'  (Jer.  xlix.  19). — Wells  and  Maundrell. 
 The  course  of  the  Jordan  is  about  one  hundred  miles;  its 
 breadth  and  depth  are  various.  Dr  Shaw  computed  it  to  be 
 about  thirty  yards  broad,  and  three  yards  or  nine  feet  in  depth; 
 and  states  that  it  discharges  daily  into  the  Dead  Sea  about 
 6,090,000  tons  of  water.  Viscount  Chateaubriand,  who  travelled 
 nearly  a  century  after  him,  found  the  Jordan  to  be  six  or  seven 
 feet  deep  close  to  the  shore,  and  about  fifty  paces  in  breadth. 
 The  late  count  Volney  asserts  it  to  be  scarcely  sixty  paces  wide 
 at  its  embouchure.  Messrs  Bankes  and  Buckingham,  who  crossed 
 it  in  January,  1816,  pretty  nearly  at  the  same  ford  over  which  the 
 Israelites  passed  on  their  first  entering  the  promised  land,  found 
 the  stream  extremely  rapid ;  and  as  it  flowed  at  that  part  over  a 
 bed  of  pebbles,  its  otherwise  turbid  waters  were  tolerably  clear, 
 as  well  as  pure  and  sweet  to  the  taste.  The  passage  of  this  deep 
 and  rapid  river  by  the  Israelites,  at  the  most  unfavourable  season, 
 when  augmented  by  the  dissolution  of  the  winter  snows,  was  more 
 manifestly  miraculous,  if  possible,  than  that  of  the  Red  Sea;  be- 
 cause here  was  no  natural  agency  whatever  employed  ;  no  mighty 
 winds  to  sweep  a  passage  as  in  the  former  case;  no  reflux  in  the 
 tide  on  which  minute  philosophers  might  fasten  to  depreciate  the 
 miracle.  It  seems,  therefore,  to  have  been  providentially  designed, 
 to  silence  cavils  respecting  the  former:  it  was  done  at  noonday,  in 
 the  presence  of  the  neighbouring  inhabitants;  and  it  struck  terror 
 into  the  kings  of  the  Amorites  and  Canaanites  westward  of  the 
 river,  'whose  hearts  melted,  neither  was  there  any  spirit  in  them 
 any  more,  because  of  the  children  of  Israel.'  (Josh.  v.  1.)  The 
 place  where  the  Israelites  thus  miraculously  passed  this  river,  is 
 supposed  to  be  the  'fords  of  Jordan  '  mentioned  in  Judg.  iii.  28. 
 — Ed. 
 
 session  of  the  promised  land,  and  were  therefore  a  to 
 provide  themselves  with  victuals  for  their  march.  b  The 
 spies  who  were  sent  upon  this  hazardous  expedition,  got 
 safe  into  the  city,  and  took  up  their  lodgings  in  a  public 
 house  that  was  kept  by  a  widow  woman,  whose  name 
 was  Rahab.  But  they  had  not  been  long  there,  before 
 intelligence  was  brought  to  the  king,  so  that  he  ordered 
 the  gates  to  be  shut,  and  search  to  be  made  for  the  men : 
 but  their  hostess,  having  had  some  notice  of  it,  hid  them 
 undersome  hempen  stocks,  which  lay  dryingfupontheroof 
 of  her  house,  and  when  the  king's  officers  came,  she  told 
 them,  "  that  there  had  indeed  been  two  strangers  there, 
 who  had  made  a  short  stay  at  her  house,  but  that,  a  little 
 before  sunset,  they  went  away,  but  might  easily  be  over- 
 taken, because  they  had  not  been  long  gone:"  where 
 upon  they  sent  out  messengers  after  them,  as  far  as  the 
 fords  of  Jordan  ;  but  in  vain.  Having  thus  eluded  the 
 king's  officers,  Rahab  goes  up  to  the  spies,  and  tells 
 them,  "  That  she  was  very  confident  their  God,  who 
 was  the  only  true  God,  both  in  heaven  and  earth, 
 had  delivered  that  country  into  their  hands ;  that  the 
 actions  which  he  had  done  for  them,  in  making  all 
 opposition  fall  before  them,  had  struck  a  panic  fear  into 
 all  its  inhabitants  ;  and  that  therefore,  as  she  was  confi- 
 dent that   this   would  be  the  event,    and  had,    in  this 
 
 a  The  Israelites'  usual  food,  while  they  sojourned  in  the  wil- 
 derness, was  manna:  but  as  they  approached  the  promised  land, 
 where  they  might  have  provision  in  the  ordim  ry  way,  that  mira- 
 culous bread  did  perhaps  gradually  decrease ;  and  in  the  space  of 
 a  few  days  after  this,  was  totally  withdrawn.  They  were  now  in 
 the  countries  of  Sihon  and  Og,  which  they  had  lately  conquered, 
 and  the  victuals  which  they  were  commanded  to  provide  them- 
 selves with,  were  such  as  their  new  conquest  afforded:  for  being, 
 after  three  days,  (Josh.  iii.  1.)  to  remove  very  early  in  the  morn- 
 ing, they  might  not  perhaps  have  had  time  to  gather  a  sufficient 
 quantity  of  manna,  and  to  bake  it,  before  they  were  obliged  to 
 march. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  eastern  writers  tell  us,  that  these  spies,  whom  they  make 
 to  be  Caleb  and  Phineas,  were  valiant  and  religious  men,  and  in 
 the  prime  of  their  youth;  that  to  pass  unobserved,  they  changed 
 their  habits,  as  if  they  had  come  from  a  distant  country;  and  if 
 any  one  asked  them  any  questions,  their  reply  was  to  this  effect: 
 "  We  are  people  from  the  east,  and  our  companions,  have  heard 
 of  this  powerful  people,  who  were  forty  years  in  the  wilderness, 
 without  either  guide  or  provision:  and  it  was  reported  to  us,  that 
 they  had  a  God  whom  they  called  '  the  King  of  heaven  and 
 earth,'  and  who,  as  they  say,  hath  given  them  both  your  and  our 
 country.  Our  principals  have  therefore  sent  us  to  find  out  the 
 truth  hereof,  and  to  report  it  to  them.  We  have  likewise  heard 
 of  their  captain,  whom  they  call  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun,  who  put 
 the  Amalekites  to  flight,  who  destroyed  Sihon  and  Og,  the  kings 
 of  Midian  and  Moab.  Wo  therefore  be  to  us,  and  you,  and  all 
 that  flee  to  us  for  shelter  !  They  are  a  people  who  pity  none, 
 leave  none  alive,  drive  all  out  of  their  country,  and  make  peace 
 with  none.  We  are  all  accounted  by  them  infidels,  profane, 
 proud,  and  rebellious.  Whoever  of  us  or  you,  therefore,  that  in- 
 tend to  take  care  of  themselves,  let  them  take  their  families  and 
 be  gone,  lest  they  repent  of  their  stay,  when  it  is  too  late."  By 
 this  means  they  imposed  upon  the  people  ;  and,  as  Josephus  informs 
 us,  went  whither  they  would,  and  saw  whatever  they  had  a  mind 
 to,  without  any  stop  or  question.  They  took  a  view  of  the  walls, 
 the  gates,  the  ramparts,  and  passed  the  whole  day  for  men  ot 
 curiosity  only,  without  any  design.  So  that  if  any  credit  may 
 be  given  to  this  account,  it  was  but  just  that  they  who  thus  im- 
 posed upon  the  Canaanites  should,  in  the  same  manner,  be  im- 
 posed upon  by  the  Gibeonites. — A  Samaritan  Chronicle  written 
 in  Arabic,  p.  65,  and  Josephus'  Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  1. 
 
 c  The  roofs  of  houses  were  then  very  flat,  and  having  prob- 
 ably battlements  round  them  to  secure  people  from  falling  oft",  as 
 the  manner  of  building  was  afterwards  among  the  Jews,  Deut. 
 xxii.  8,  were  made  use  of  for  places  to  walk,  or  at  any  time  to 
 fry  any  kind  of  goods  upon. 
 
Sect.  I]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  IG08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END 
 
 365 
 
 instance,  shown  them  uncommon  kindness,  her  only  request 
 was,  that  when  they  came  against  the  city,  they  would,  in 
 return,  spare  hers  and  her  family's  lives ;  for  which  she 
 desired  of  them  some  assurance."  An  offer  so  generous 
 and  so  unexpected,  joined  with  so  liberal  a  confession, 
 could  not  but  engage  the  two  spies  to  a  compliance  with 
 what  she  requested  ;  and  therefore  they  promised,  and 
 solemnly  swore  to  her,  that  whenever  they  became 
 masters  of  the  city,  not  only  she,  and  her  family,  but 
 every  one  else  that  was  found  in  her  house,  should  be 
 exempted  from  the  common  ruin. 
 
 The  gates  were  so  closely  shut  and  guarded,  that  there 
 was  no  possibility  for  making  their  escape  that  way  ;  but 
 Rahab's  house  being  happily  situated  upon  the  city  wall, 
 as  soon  as  it  was  conveniently  dark,  she  first  charged 
 them  to  make  to  the  neighbouring  mountains,  where  they 
 might  keep  themselves  concealed,  until  the  messengers 
 were  returned,  and  then  let  them  down  by  a  silken  cord 
 from  one  of  her  windows,  which  faced  the  country.  But 
 before  they  parted,  they  agreed  that  this  same  cord,  hung 
 out  at  her  window,  should  be  the  token  between  them  ; 
 and  therefore  they  desired,  that  whoever  she  was  minded 
 to  save,  might,  when  their  army  approached  the  city,  be 
 kept  within  doors.  The  spies,  having  thus  luckily 
 escaped,  took  Rahab's  advice,  and  concealed  themselves 
 in  the  mountains,  until  those  who  were  sent  out  to  pursue 
 them  were  returned  to  the  city,  and  then  they  made  the 
 best  of  their  way  to  the  camp ;  where  they  informed 
 Joshua  of  their  whole  adventure,  and  withal  gave  him  to 
 understand,  that  the  general  consternation  which  they 
 found  the  people  in,  was  to  them  a  sure  omen  that  God 
 Almighty  intended  to  crown  their  arms  with  success. 
 
 Pleased  with  this  news,  Joshua  gave  orders  for  the 
 army  to  decamp ;  but  before  he  did  that,  he  reminded 
 the  tribes  of  Reuben  and  Gad,  and  the  half-tribe  of 
 Manasseh,  of  the  promise  they  had  made  to  Moses  to 
 assist  their  brethren  in  the  conquest  of  Canaan  ;  °  which 
 they  readily  consented  to  do,  and  not  only  in  that,  but  in 
 every  thing  else  he  commanded  them  to  do,  promised  to 
 obey  him  with  the  same  cheerfulness  that  they  had  done 
 Moses :  so  that  forty  thousand  of  them  decamped  with 
 him,  and  fell  down  to  the  banks  of  the  Jordan. 
 
 It  was  now  in  the  time  of  the  barley-harvest,  which  in 
 these  hot  countries  falls  early  in  the  spring,  when,  by 
 reason  of  hasty  rain,  and  the  melting  of  the  snow  upon 
 Mount  Lebanon,  the  river  is  generally  full  of  water,  and 
 sometimes  overflows  its  banks  :  and  as  soon  as  the  army 
 was  come  within  a  small  distance  of  the  place  where  it 
 was  intended  they  should  cross,  Joshua  sent  and  com- 
 municated to  every  tribe  the  order  that  was  to  be  observed 
 in  this  solemn  march.  The  priests,  bearing  the  ark, 
 were  to  begin  the  procession  ;  each  tribe,  in  the  order  in 
 
 a  The  two  tribes  and  an  half  had  the  countries  which  had 
 been  lately  conquered,  and  were  now  given  to  them  in  possession, 
 to  preserve  against  the  attempts  of  the  nations  from  whom  they 
 had  taken  them;  and  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  go,  one  and  all, 
 along  with  their  brethren,  to  the  conquest  of  the  countries  which 
 lay  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  Jordan.  In  the  last  muster  of 
 the  army,  they  consisted  of  above  an  hundred  thousand  able 
 soldiers;  and  we  can  hardly  suppose  that  at  this  time  their  num- 
 ber was  decreased.  The  forty  thousand  that  went  over  Jordan, 
 were  but  a  part  of  them,  and  the  rest  were  left  behind  to  guard 
 their  new  conquests  against  the  vanquished  nations,  that  had 
 abundant  reason  to  become  their  enemies. — Saurin,  vol.  M,  Dis- 
 sertation I. 
 
 which  they  used  to  march,  were  to  follow.  When  the 
 priests  were  got  into  the  middle  of  the  channel,  the* 
 they  were  to  stand  still,  till  the  whole  multitude  was  got 
 safe  to  the  other  shore ;  ami  that  this  wonderful  passage 
 might  be  more  regarded,  they  were  all  enjoined  to  sanc- 
 tify themselves,  by  washing  their  clothes,  avoiding  all 
 impurities,  and  abstaining  from  matrimonial  intercourse 
 the  night  before. 
 
 Before  they  crossed  the  river,  Joshua,  by  God's  direc- 
 tion, appointed  twelve  men,  out  of  every  tribe  one,  to 
 choose  twelve  stones,  according  to  the  number  of  their 
 tribes,  in  the  midst  of  the  channel,  where  the  priests,  with 
 the  ark,  were  ordered  to  stand,  and  *  there  to  set  them 
 up,  that  they  might  be  seen  from  each  side  of  the  river, 
 when  the  waters  were  abated,  as  a  monument  of  this  mat 
 miracle  ;  and  to  bring  twelve  more  ashore  with  them  for 
 the  like  purpose. 
 
 With  these  orders  and  instructions,  the  army  set  for- 
 ward. The  priests  with  the  ark  led  the  van  ;  and  as  soon 
 as  they  touched  the  river  with  their  feet,  the  stream 
 divided.  The  waters  above  went  back,  and  rose  up  on 
 heaps  as  far  as  the  city  c  Adam;  whilst  those  that  were 
 below,  continuing  their  course  towards  the  Ded  Sea, 
 opened  a  passage  of  above  sixteen  or  eighteen  miles  for 
 the  Israelites  to  cross  over,  and  all  the  time  that  they 
 were  thus  crossing,  the  priests  with  the  ark  stood  in  the 
 middle  of  the  channel,  till  every  thing  was  done  that 
 Joshua  commanded  ;  and  then,  upon  their  coming  out  of 
 it,  the  river  returned  to  its  wonted  course. 
 
 By  this  miraculous  passage,  Joshua  having  gained  the 
 plains  of  Jericho,  encamped  in  a  (!  place  which  was  after- 
 wards calledGifc>al;and  while  the  whole  country  la)  under 
 a  great  terror  and  consternation,  God  commanded  '  the 
 
 I  It  has  been  a  custom  in  all  nations  to  erect  monuments  of 
 stone,  in  order  to  preserve  the  memory  of  covenants,  victories, 
 and  other  great  transactions ;  and  though  there  was  no  inscrip- 
 tion upon  these  stones,  yet  the  number  of  them,  and  the  place 
 where  they  lay,  which  was  not  at  all  stony,  was  sufficient  to 
 signify  some  memorable  thing,  which  posterity  would  not  fail  to 
 hand  down  from  one  generation  to  another. — Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary on  Joshua  iv.  7. 
 
 c  Adam,  or  Adorn,  is  a  place  situate  on  the  hanks  of  the 
 river  Jordan,  towards  the  south  of  the  sea  of  Cfnnereth,  orthoses 
 of  Galilee. — JJ'dL-'  Geography  of  Ike  Old  Testament. 
 
 d  Gilgal,  the  place  where  the  Israelites  encamped  fat  some 
 time  after  their  passage  over  the  river  Jordan,  was  so  called, 
 because  here  the  rite  of  circumcision,  which  had  long  been  dis- 
 used, was  renewed:  whereupon  '  the  Lord  said  unto  Joshua,  this 
 day  have  I  rolled  away  the  reproach  of  Egypt  (thai  Is,  uncircum- 
 cision)  from  off  you;  wherefore  the  name  <  -i'  the  place  is  called 
 Gilgal  (that  is,  rolling)  unto  this  day,'  Josh.  v.  >).  Prom  this 
 expression  the  place  received  its  name,  and  if  we  look  into  its 
 situation,  we  shall  find,  that  as  the  Israelites  passed  over  '  Jordan 
 
 right  against  Jericho,' Josh.  iii.   Mi.  and  encamped    iii    Gilgal,   ill 
 
 the  eastern  border  of  Jericho,  it  is  plain,  that  (iileal  must   be 
 
 situated  between  Jordan  and  Jericho;  anil   therefore,  -ino    Ji      - 
 
 phus  tells  us,  that  Jericho  was  sixty  furlongs  distant  from  Jordan, 
 atul  the  camp  of  Gilgal  was  fifty  furlongs  from  the  same  river;  it 
 
 hence  follows,  that  Gilgal  was  ten  furkmgS    that  i-.  about  a  mile 
 
 and  a  quarter)  from  Jordan  eastward.  Hut  is  some  learned  nun 
 have  observed,  that  five  of  the  furlongs  used  by  Josephus  make 
 up  an  Italian  mile,  so  the  distance  between  Gilgtl  ami  Jericho 
 will  be  just  two  mile-;  which  exactly  agrees  with  the  testimony 
 of  Si  Jerome,  "ho  make-  it  two  miles  distant  from  Jericho,  and  a 
 place  h.ld  in  great  veneration  by  the  inhabitants  oi  the  country 
 in  his  days. — JPelW  Geography,  vol.  •>.  <•.  -I. 
 
 r  The  command  which  God  gives  Joshua,  concerning  the  rite 
 of  circumcision,  i-  tin-, — •  Make  thee  sharp  knms,  and  circum- 
 cise the  children  of  Israel  the  second  time,'  Josh.  v.  '„'.   Aad  after 
 
366 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Boon  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3303.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 rite  of  circumcision,  which  for  the  space  of  almost  forty 
 years  had  been  intermitted,  to  be  renewed,  that  the 
 people  might  be  qualified  to  partake  of  the  ensuing 
 passover.  This  was  the  third  time  of  their  celebrating 
 that  festival  :  the  first  was  at  their  departure  out  of 
 Egypt ;  the  second  at  the  erection  of  their  tabernacle, 
 at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai ;  and  now  that  they  were 
 arrived  in  a  country  wherein  there  was  a  sufficient  pro- 
 vision of  corn  for  unleavened  bread,  God  insisted  upon 
 the  observance  of  his  ordinances :  he  was  minded,  in- 
 deed, that  all  things  now  should  go  on  in  their  regular 
 way;  and  therefore,  for  the  future,  he  left  them  to  the 
 provision  which  this  land  of  plenty  afforded  them,  and 
 ceased  to  supply  them  any  longer  with  manna. 
 
 Gilgal  was  much  about  two  miles  from  Jericho,  and 
 therefore  Joshua  might  possibly  go  out  alone  to  recon- 
 noitre the  city,  and  to  think  of  the  properest  way  of 
 besieging  it ;  when,  all  on  a  sudden,  there  a  appeared  to 
 
 the  rite  was  performed,  God  said,  '  This  day  have  I  rolled  away 
 the  reproach  of  Egypt  from  off  you,'  ver.  9.  Both  of  which  pas- 
 sages have  given  no  small  trouble  to  commentators.  The  sharp 
 knives  are  allowed  to  be,  what  our  marginal  notes  call  them, 
 knives  of  flint,  which  stones  could  not  but  be  plentiful  in  the 
 mountains  of  Arabia,  and  when  made  very  sharp,  were  the  knives 
 commonly  made  use  of  in  the  eastern  countries:  but  St  Jerome 
 himself,  as  great  an  Hebraist  as  he  was,  could  not  find  out  what 
 was  this  circumcision,  which  was  to  pass  upon  the  Israelites  a 
 second  time.  Some  of  the  Jews  from  these  words  of  Jeremiah, 
 '  I  will  punish  the  circumcised  that  lias  a  foreskin,'  c.  ix.  25. 
 have  undertaken  to  prove,  that  it  was  possible  to  bring  the  fore- 
 skin again  by  art,  which  the  Israelites  had  done,  during  then- 
 abode  in  the  wilderness,  and  for  this  reason  were  ordered  to 
 be  circumcised  afresh ;  and  those  Christians  who  have  embraced 
 this  notion,  pretend  to  support  it  by  the  words  of  St  Paul,  '  If 
 any  man  is  called  being  circumcised  p.h  \inirsa.ix6ai,  let  him  not 
 become  uncircumeised.'  But  whether  the  recovery  of  a  prepuce 
 be  a  thing  probable  or  not,  it  is  certain,  that  all  the  difficulty  of 
 the  words  arises  from  the  misunderstanding  the  idiom  of  the 
 original,  and  may  easily  be  removed,  if  they  were  translated,  or 
 paraphrased  thus, — Let  the  ceremony  of  circumcision,  which  has 
 been  so  long  discontinued,  be  renewed,  as  it  was  heretofore. 
 While  the  Israelites  lived  in  Egypt,  we  do  not  read  of  any 
 neglect  of  this  rite  of  circumcision  among  them ;  but  while  they 
 abode  in  the  wilderness,  there  are  several  reasons  that  might 
 oblige  them  to  omit  it,  until  they  arrived  in  the  promised  land, 
 when  they  were  to  renew  the  ordinance  of  the  passover,  and, 
 previous  to  that,  were  all  to  be  circumcised ;  because  no  uncir- 
 cumeised person,  nor  any  one  who  had  a  son  or  a  man-servant 
 in  his  house  uncircumeised,  was  capable  of  being  admitted  to  it, 
 (Exod.  xii.  43.)  2d.  'The  rolling  away  the  reproach  of  Egypt,' 
 is  supposed  by  some  to  relate  to  the  reproaches  which  the  Egyp- 
 tians used  to  cast  upon  the  Israelites,  namely,  that  the  Egyptians, 
 seeing  the  Israelites  wander  so  long  in  the  wilderness,  reproached 
 and  flouted  them,  as  if  they  were  brought  to  be  destroyed  there, 
 and  not  conducted  into  the  promised  land,  from  which  reproaches 
 God  now  delivered  them,  when,  by  enjoining  circumcision,  he 
 gave  them  assurance,  that  they  should  shortly  enjoy  the  country 
 which  no  uncircumeised  person  might  inherit.  Our  learned 
 Spencer  thinks  the  reproach  of  Egypt  to  be  the  slavery  to  which 
 they  had  long  been  there  subject,  but  were  now  fully  declared  a 
 free  people,  by  receiving  a  mark  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  and 
 being  made  heirs  of  the  promised  land.  But  the  most  common 
 opinion  is,  that  by  the  '  reproach  of  Egypt '  is  meant  nothing  else 
 hut  uncircumcision,  with  which  the  Israelites  always  upbraided 
 other  people,  and  particularly  the  Egyptians,  with  whom  they 
 had  lived  so  long,  and  were  best  acquainted ;  and  admitting  this 
 to  be  the  true  (as  it  is  the  most  unconstrained)  sense,  this  pas- 
 sage is  a  plain  proof,  that  the  Israelites  could  not  learn  the  rite 
 of  circumcision  from  the  Egyptians,  as  some  pretend,  but  that 
 the  Egyptians,  contrariwise,  must  have  had  it  from  them. — 
 Universal  History,  b.  1.  c.7  ;  Spencer  De  Leg.  Heb.  b.  1.  c.  4; 
 Patrick's  Commentary;  and  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12. 
 a  Who  this  persou  was  that  appeared  to  Joshua,  is  not  so  well 
 
 him  a  person  clothed  in  armour,  and  standing  at  some 
 distance,  with  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand.  Undaunted 
 at  this  unusual  sight,  Joshua  advances  to  him,  and  having 
 demanded  of  what  party  he  was,  the  vision  replied,  that 
 he  was  for  the  host  of  Israel,  whose  captain  and  guardian 
 he  was  ;  and  as  Joshua,  in  humble  adoration,  was  fallen 
 prostrate  before  him,  he  ordered  him,  in  the  manner  he 
 had  done  Moses  at  the  burning  bush,  to  loose  his  sandals 
 from  off" his  feet,  and  then  proceeded  to  instruct  him  in 
 what  form  he  would  have  the  siege  carried  on,  that  the 
 Canaanites  might  perceive  that  it  was  something  more 
 than  the  arm  of  flesh  that  fought  against  them. 
 
 The  form  of  the  siege  was  this  : — All  the  army  was  to 
 march  round  the  city,  with  seven  priests  before  the  ark, 
 having  in  their  hands  trumpets  made  of  rams'  horns,  six 
 days  successively.  On  the  seventh,  after  the  army  had 
 gone  round  the  city  seven  times,  upon  a  signal  given, 
 the  priests  were  to  blow  a  long  blast  with  their  trumpets, 
 and  the  people  on  a  sudden  set  up  a  loud  shout ;  at  which 
 instant  the  walls  of  the  city  should  fall  so  flat  to  the 
 ground,  that  they  might  directly  walk  into  it  without  any 
 let  or  obstruction.  These  orders  were  put  in  execution  ; 
 and  accordingly,  on  the  seventh  day,  the  walls  fell,  and 
 the  Israelites  entered.  They  put  every  one,  men,  women, 
 and  children,  nay  the  very  beasts  to  the  sword,  and 
 spared  no  living  creature,  but  Rahab  only,  and  such 
 relations  as  she  had  taken  under  the  protection  of  her 
 roof,  according  to  the  stipulation  which  had  been  made 
 with  her.  For  Joshua  had  given  the  two  spies  a  strict 
 charge  beforehand,  that  when  the  town  was  going  to  be 
 sacked,  they  should  repair  to  her  house,  and  convey 
 everything  safe  out  that  belonged  to  her  ;  which  accord- 
 ingly they  did,  and  then  the  whole  army  fell  on,  and  set 
 fire  to  the  city,  and  destroyed  every  thing  in  it,  except 
 the  silver  and  gold,  and  such  vessels  of  brass  and  iron 
 as  were  to  be  put  into  the  treasury  of  the  house  of  the 
 Lord,  as  they  had  done  once  before  '  in  a  case  of  the 
 like  nature  :  and  that  it  might  never  be  rebuilt  again, 
 Joshua  b  denounced  a  prophetic  imprecation  on  the  man 
 
 '  Num.  xxxi.  22,  23. 
 
 agreed  among  commentators.  Some  are  of  opinion  that  it  was 
 an  angel,  who,  because  the  Hebrew  calls  him  Gcbir,  is  supposed 
 to  be  Gabriel ;  but  there  are  several  reasons,  in  this  very  account 
 of  his  apparition,  which  denote  him  to  be  a  divine,  and  not  a 
 created  being.  For,  in  the  first  place,  besides  his  assuming  the 
 title  of  '  the  captain  of  the  host  of  the  Lord,'  an  image  under 
 which  God  himself  is  frequently  represented  in  Scripture, 
 Joshua's  calling  him  'Jehovah,'  or  the  '  Lord,'  a  name  which 
 neither  Joshua  should  have  given,  nor  he  accepted  of,  had  he 
 been  no  more  than  an  angel;  his  falling  down  and  worshipping 
 him,  which  he  durst  not  have  done,  since  God  alone  is  to  be 
 adored,  nor  would  the  other  have  permitted,  but  rather  have 
 reproved  him,  as  we  find  one  of  them  did  St  John,  (Rev.  xxii. 
 10.)  are  the  surest  evidence  of  the  divinity  of  his  person.  For, 
 when  instead  of  reproving  him  for  doing  him  too  much  honour, 
 we  find  him  commanding  him  to  do  more,  by  requiring  him  to 
 loose  '  his  shoes  from  oft'  his  feet,'  insisting  upon  the  highest  ac- 
 knowledgment of.  a  divine  presence  that  was  used  among  the 
 eastern  nations,  we  cannot  but  think  ourselves  obliged  (with  a 
 learned  rabbin)  freely  to  confess,  "  That  this  angel  who  suffered 
 himself  to  be  worshipped,  and  by  whose  presence  the  place  where 
 he  appeared  was  sanctified,  so  that  Joshua  was  commanded  to 
 '  put  oil  his  shoes,'  no  doubt  was  the  veiy  same  whom  all  the 
 angels  of  heaven  do  worship." — Joh.  a  Cock,  upon  the  Gemara 
 of  the.  Sanhedrim,  vol.  3.  Dissertation  2. 
 
 b  The  words  of  Joshua's  execration  are  these  :  '  Cursed  he 
 the  man  before  the  Lord,  that  raiseth  up,  and  buildeth  this  city 
 
Sect.  I.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.   A.  C.  1451;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1C08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 367 
 
 (namely,  that  it  should  occasion  the  utter  ruin  of  his 
 family)  that  should  attempt  it. 
 
 a  Ai  was  a  little  city,  about  twelve  miles  distant  from 
 Jericho  ;  and  as  Joshua  knew  that  it  was  neither  popu- 
 lous nor  well  defended,  he  detached  a  small  body,  of 
 3000  men  only,  to  go  and  attack  it.  But,  contrary  to 
 their  expectation,  the  inhabitants  of  the  place  sallied 
 out  upon  them,  and  having-  slain  some  few,  put  the  rest 
 to  flight,  and  pursued  them  as  far  as  their  own  camp. 
 This  defeat,  how  small  soever,  struck  such  a  damp  upon 
 the  people's  courage,  th.it  *  Joshua  was  forced  to  have 
 recourse  to  God,  who  immediately  answered  him,   (by 
 
 Jericho;  he  shall  lay  the  foundation  thereof  in  his  first-born,  and 
 in  his  youngest  son  shall  he  set  up  the  gates  of  it.'  (Josh.  vi.  2b'.) 
 "This  anathema,"  says  Maimonidos,  "  was  pronounced,  that  the 
 miracle  of  the  subversion  of  Jericho  might  be  kept  in  perpetual 
 memory;  for  whosoever  saw  the  walls  sunk  deep  into  the  earth," 
 as  he  understands  it,  "  would  clearly  discern,  that,  this  was  not 
 the  form  of  a  building  destroyed  by  men,  but  miraculously  thrown 
 down  by  God."  Hiel,  however,  in  the  reign  of  Aiiab,  either 
 not  remembering,  or  not  believing  this  denunciation,  was  so 
 taken  with  the  beauty  of  its  situation,  that  he  rebuilt  Jericho, 
 and,  as  the  sacred  history  informs  us,  '  laid  the  foundation  thereof 
 in  Abiram,  his  first-born,  and  set  up  the  gates  thereof  in  his 
 youngest  son  Segub,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  which 
 he  spake  by  Joshua,  the  son  of  Nun.'  (1  Kings  xvi.  34.)  How- 
 ever, after  that  Hiel  had  ventured  to  rebuild  it,  no  scruple  was 
 made  of  inhabiting  it ;  for  it  afterwards  became  famous  upon 
 many  accounts.  Here  the  prophet  sweetened  the  waters  of  the 
 spring  that  supplied  it  and  the  neighbouring  countries.  Here  | 
 Herod  built  a  sumptuous  palace.  It  was  the  dwelling-place  of 
 Zaccheus ;  and  was  honoured  with  the  presence  of  Christ,  who 
 vouchsafed  likewise  to  work  some  miracles  here. — Universal 
 History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 a  We  have  this  plare  mentioned  in  the  history  of  Abraham, 
 who  both  before  and  after  his  going  into  Egypt,  pitched  his  tent 
 between  Bethel  and  Ai,  or  Hai,  as  it  was  then  called ;  and  from 
 both  Gen.  xii.  8.  and  Josh.  vii.  2.  it  appears  that  this  city  lay  to 
 the  east  of  Bethel,  about  three  leagues  from  Jericho,  and  one 
 from  Bethel,  as  Masias  informs  us;  and  the  reason  why  Joshua 
 sent  so  small  a  detachment  against  it  was,  because  the  place  in 
 itself  was  neither  strong  nor  large.  For  when  it  was  taken,  the 
 number  of  the  slain,  both  in  it  and  Bethel,  which,  as  some  think, 
 was  confederate  with  it,  were  'hut  twelve  thousand,  both  of  men 
 and  women.'  (Josh.  viii.  25.)  The  providence  of  God,  however, 
 was  very  visible,  in  sending  so  small  a  party  against  Ai:  for  if 
 the  flight  of  three  thousand  men  put  the  Israelites  into  such  a 
 consternation,  as  we  read  Josh.  vii.  5,  G.,  what  a  condition  would 
 they  have  been  in  if  all  the  people  had  been  discomfited,  as  doubt- 
 less it  would  have  happened,  while  the  guilt  of  Achan's  sacrilege 
 remained  unpunished. —  Wells'1  Geograjihy,  vol.2,  c.  4. 
 
 b  The  spirits  of  the  army,  as  Josephus  tells  us,  were  so  sunk 
 upon  this  disorder,  and  cast  down  into  such  a  desperation  of 
 better  things  to  come,  that  after  they  had  spent  the  whole  day 
 in  fasting,  weeping,  and  mourning,  Joshua  addressed  himself, 
 with  a  more  than  ordinary  importunity,  to  Almighty  God,  in 
 words  to  this  effect:  "  It  is  not  any  temerity,  O  Lord,  or 
 ambition  of  our  own,  that  has  brought  us  hither  to  make  war 
 upon  this  people,  but  a  pure  deference  and  respect  to  the 
 persuasion  of  thy  servant  Moses,  that  has  incited  us  to  this 
 undertaking,  and  not  without  a  warrant  of  many  signs  and 
 miracles,  to  convince  us,  that  he  had  reason  and  authority  on  his 
 side,  when  he  told  us,  that  thou  thyself  hadst  promised  us  the 
 possession  of  this  country,  and  to  give  us  victory  over  all  our 
 enemies.  But  what  a  change  is  here,  all  on  a  sudden,  in  the 
 disappointment  of  our  hopes,  and  in  the  loss  of  our  friends  !  As 
 if  either  Moses'  prediction  had  not  been  of  divine  inspiration,  or 
 otherwise  thy  promises  and  purposes  variable.  If  this  be  the  be- 
 ginning of  a  war,  we  cannot  but  dread  the  further  progress  of  it, 
 for  fear  that  this  miscarriage,  upon  the  first  experiment,  should 
 prove  only  the  earnest  of  greater  evils  to  come.  But,  Lord,  thou 
 alone,  that  art  able  to  give  us  relief,  help  us,  and  save  us. 
 Vouchsafe  unto  us  comfort  and  victory;  and  be  graciously  pleased 
 to  preserve  us  from  the  snare  of  despairing  for  the  future.'-  Jew- 
 ish Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  I. 
 
 Urim  as  is  supposed,)  that  his  commands  had  been  sa- 
 crilegiously infringed  ;  and  therefore  ordered  him  to  have 
 the  orlender  punished  with  death,  and  directed  him  to 
 a  method  how  to  discover  who  he  was. 
 
 Before  the  taking  of  Jericho,  '  Joshua  had  cautioned 
 the  people  not  to  spare  any  thing  that  was  in  it,  but  to 
 burn  and  destroy  all  that  came  in  their  way,  except  sil- 
 ver and  gold,  and  brass,  and  iron,  which  were  to  In;  con- 
 secrated to  the  Lord :  but  notwithstanding  his  strict 
 charge  against  reserving  any  thing  that  was  either  devot- 
 ed to  this  general  destruction,  or  consecrated  to  the 
 Lord,  a  man  of  the  tribe  of  Judith,  whose  name  was 
 Achan,tOok  some  of  the  rich  plunder  anil  concealed  it  in 
 his  tent.  To  find  out  the  person  therefore,  Joshua,  early 
 next  morning,  called  all  the  tribes  together  before  the  ta- 
 bernacle, where,  d  by  casting  the  lot,  lirst  upon  the  tribes, 
 and  so  proceeding  from  tribe  to  family,  from  family  to 
 household,  and  from  household  to  particular  persons,  the 
 criminal  was  at  last  found  to  be  Achan  ;  who  upon 
 Joshua's  admonition,  confessed  the  fact,  namely,  that  he 
 had  secreted  d  a  royal  robe,  two  hundred  shekels  of  sil- 
 ver, and  a  large  wedge  of  gold  ;  and  when  upon  search, 
 the  things  were  produced  in  the  presence  of  all  the  peo- 
 ple, they  took  him,  and  all  his  family,  his  cattle,  his 
 tent,  and  all  his  moveables,  and  carrying  them  to  a 
 neighbouring  valley,   which,  from  that  time,  <•'  in  allu- 
 
 1  Josh.  vi.  18,  19. 
 
 c  Some  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  in  the  discovery  of 
 the  guilty  person,  there  was  no  use  made  of  lots  at  all,  but  that 
 all  Israel  being  ordered  to  pass  by  the  high  priest,  who,  on  this 
 occasion  had  his  pectoral  on,  in  which  were  the  twelve  stones, 
 with  the  names  of  the  twelve  tribes  engraven  on  them,  when  the 
 tribe  to  which  the  guilty  person  belonged,  was  called,  the  stOUB 
 in  which  was  the  name  of  that  tribe,  changed  colour,  and 
 turned  black;  and  so  it  did  when  the  family,  the  household,  and 
 the  person  was  called.  But  this  is  a  mere  fiction.  There  is 
 much  more  probability  in  the  opinion  of  those  who  suppose  that, 
 at  first,  twelve  lots  or  tickets  were  put  into  one  urn,  on  each 
 of  which  was  written  the  name  of  one  of  these  twelve  tribes:  that 
 when  one  of  the  twelve  tribes  was  found  guilty,  then  were  there  as 
 many  lots  put  in  as  there  were  families  in  that  tribe;  alter  that, 
 as  many  as  there  were  householders  in  that  family;  and  at  la^t, 
 as  many  as  there  were  heads  in  that  household,  until  the  criminal 
 was  detected.  But  others  will  have  it,  that  this  was  dune  by  the 
 high  priest  alone,  who,  by  a  divine  inspiration,  at  that  time,  was 
 enabled,  without  any  more  to  do,  to  declare  who  the  culpable 
 person  vtas. — Saurins  Dissertations,  vol.  3.  I.e  Clerc's  ai 
 trick's  Commentaries  on  Joshua  vii. 
 
 (/  In  the  original,  this  robe  is  called  a  garment  of  Shinar,  that 
 is,  of  Babylon;  and  the  general  opinion  is,  that  the  rlchni 
 excellency  of  it  consisted  not  so  much  in  tin-  B tuff  whereat 
 made,  as  in  the  colour  whereof  it  «as  t\yit\,  which  most  suppose 
 to  have  been  scarlet,  a  colour  in  high  esteem  among  the  ancients 
 and  fur  which  the  Babylonians  were  justly  famous.  Bochart, 
 however,  maintains,  that  the  colour  of  this  robe  was  Tartan 
 not  all  of  one  sort ;  that  the  scarlet  colour  the  Babylonians  &  I 
 received  from  Tyre,  but  the  parly  colour,  whether  so  woven  or 
 wrought  with  the  needle,  was  of  their  own  invention,  for  which 
 hi'  produces  many  passages oul  of  heathen  anthers.  Such  as:  — 
 '  I  would  net  prefer  the  gaudily  coloured  Babylonian  robes,  which 
 are  variegated  with  Egyptian  needlework."  (Mart.  Bp.  b.  80 
 ••The  land  et"  Memphis  affords  these  gifts;  the  comb  ol  I 
 is  superior  to  the  Babylonian  needle,"  (Ibid.  b.  14.)  with  many 
 more  citations  out  of  several  other  writers.  However  mis  be, 
 it  is  certain  that  the  robe  could  not  fail  of  being  a  very  rich  and 
 splendid  one,  and  therefore  captivated  either  Achan's  piide.it 
 rather  covi  tousness;  since  bis  purpose  seems  to  havi  been,  not  ■■ 
 much  to  wear  it  himself,  as  to  sell  it  fur  a  large  pi  ice.  —  />'.- 
 chart's  Phaleg.  b.  I.e.  9. ;  Samrim,  b.  '.i.  Dissertation  3. 
 
 e  Though  his  name  was  primarily  Achan,  yet,  <  ver  alter  I  is 
 execution  he  was  called  Achar,  (so  the  Syriac  version,  Josephus, 
 
368 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 sion  to  that  man's  name,  was  called  the  valley  of  A<:har, 
 "  there  they  stoned  him,  and  those  belonging  to  his 
 family,  as  accomplices  in  his  crimes.  Whatever  goods 
 or  utensils  he  had,  these  they  consumed  with  fire,  and 
 so  raised  a  great  heap  of  stones  over  all,  that  thereby 
 they  might  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  crime,  and  deter 
 others  from  the  like  provocation. 
 
 After  this  execution  of  the  divine  justice,  God  ordered 
 Joshua  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  Ai  once  more,  and 
 promised  him  success  ;  which  might  best  be  obtained,  as 
 he  told  him,  by  laying  an  ambuscade  somewhere  behind 
 the  city,  towards  Bethel.  b  30,000  men  were  there- 
 fore drawn  out,  and  sent  away  by  night  upon  this  expe- 
 dition, with  instructions  to  enter  the  city  as  soon  as  the 
 signal,  which  was  to  be  a  spear  with  a  banner  upon  it, 
 was  given  them  :  and  early  next  morning,  he  himself 
 marched  with  the  remainder  of  his  forces  against  the  city. 
 As  soon  as  the  king  of  Ai  perceived  him,  he  sallied 
 hastily  out  of  the  town,  with  all  his  troops,  and  all  his 
 people,  and  fell  upon  the  Israelites,  who,  at  the  first  on- 
 set, fled  as  if  they  had  been  under  great  terror.  But  this 
 was  only  a  feint,  to  draw  the  enemy  into  the  plain  ;  and 
 therefore  as  soon  as  Joshua  saw,  that,  by  stratagem,  the 
 city  was  pretty  well  emptied,  he  gave  the  signal  to  the 
 ambuscade  ;  which  finding  it  now  defenceless,  imme- 
 diately entered,  and  set  it  on  fire. 
 
 By  the  ascent  of  the  smoke,  Joshua  discerned  that  his 
 men  had  got  possession  of  the  town ;  and  therefore 
 facing  about,  he  began  to  charge  the  enemy  very  briskly  ; 
 who,  little  expecting  that  the  Israelites  would  rally,  began 
 now  to  think  of  retreating  to  the  city  ;  but  when  they 
 saw  it  all  in  flames,  and  the  party  which  had  set  it  on 
 fire  issuing  out,  and  just  going  to  fall  upon  their  rear, 
 they  were  so  dismayed  and  dispirited,  that  they  had 
 power  neither  to  fight  nor  flee.  So  that  all  the  army 
 was  cut  to  pieces  ;  the  city  was  burned,  and  made  an  heap 
 of  rubbish;  every  soul  in  it,  man,  Avoman,  and  child, 
 were  put  to  the  sword  ;  and  the  king,  who  was  taken  pri- 
 soner,  was   ordered   to   be  hanged  upon  a  gibbet  till 
 
 Athanasius,  Basil,  and  others  mentioned  by  Bochart,  name  him,) 
 which  signifies  the  troubler  of  Israel. — Patrick's  Commentary  on 
 Joshua  viii. 
 
 a.  Since  the  law  against  sacrilege  condemns  transgressors  to  the 
 flames,  and  God  commanded  the  person  here  guilty  to  be  burned 
 accordingly,  (Josh.  vii.  18.)  the  Jews  affirm  that  Achan  was 
 actually  burned:  and  whereas  it  is  said  in  the  text  that  '  he  was 
 stoned,'  they  think  that  this  was  done  not  judicially,  but  acciden- 
 tally, by  the  people,  who  were  so  highly  provoked,  that  they  could 
 not  forbear  casting  stones  at  him  as  lie  was  led  to  execution. — See 
 MunH.  on  Joshua  vii. 
 
 b  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  this  detachment  of  thirty  thousand 
 made  up  the  whole  force  that  was  employed  in  this  expedition 
 against  Ai:  and  that,  out  of  these,  5000  were  sent  to  lie  in  am- 
 bush, that,  at  a  convenient  time,  they  might  set  fire  to  the  city: 
 but  this  is  so  directly  contrary  to  God's  command,  of  Joshua's 
 '  taking  all  the  people  of  war  with  him,'  which  accordingly  in 
 chap.  viii.  3,  11,  we  are  told  he  did,  that  there  is  no  foundation 
 for  it.  And  therefore  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  the  whole 
 body  designed  for  the  ambuscade  consisted  of  30,000  men;  and 
 that  the  5000  mentioned  in  the  12th  verse,  was  a  small  party 
 detached  from  these,  in  order  to  creep  closer  to  the  city,  while 
 the  25,000  kept  themselves  absconded  behind  the  mountains, 
 until  a  proper  signal  was  given,  both  from  the  city,  when  this 
 small  party  had  taken  it,  and  from  the  grand  army,  when  they 
 had  repulsed  the  enemy,  that  then  they  might  come  out  from 
 their  ambush,  and  intercept  them  as  they  were  making  their 
 flight. — Patrick's  Commentary  on  Joshua  viii. 
 
 sunset,  when  he  was  taken  down,  thrown  in  at  a  gate  of 
 the  city,  and  a  great  heap  of  stones  raised  over  him. 
 
 After  this  action  was  over,  the  cattle,  and  all  the  spoil 
 of  the  city  was,  by  God's  appointment,  given  to  the  sol- 
 diers ;  and  as  Joshua  was  now  not  far  distant  from  the 
 mountains  of  Gerizim  and  Ebal,  this  reminded  him  of 
 the  command  which  1  Moses  had  given  about  reading  the 
 law,  with  the  blessings  and  curses  thereunto  annexed, 
 from  those  two  mountains  ;  which  he  not  only  order- 
 ed to  be  done,  but  had  an  altar  likewise  erected,  whereon 
 not  only  sacrifices  were  offered,  to  give  God  the  glory 
 of  all  his  victories,  but  c  an  abridgment  of  the  law,  or 
 some  remarkable  part  of  it,  was  likewise  engraven,  at 
 the  same  time  that  the  whole  of  it  was  read  in  a  large 
 assembly  of  all  the  tribes. 
 
 Joshua's  success  against  the  two  towns  of  Jericho  and 
 Ai,  and  the  terrible  slaughter  he  had  made  among  their 
 inhabitants,  had  ,l  so  alarmed  the  kings  on  that  side  the 
 Jordan,  that  they  confederated  together,  and  entered 
 into  league  for  their  mutual  defence  ;  but  the  Gibeonites, 
 foreseeing  the  destruction  that  was  hastening  upon  them, 
 endeavoured  by  a  stratagem  to  gain  a  peace  with  the 
 Israelites,  which  they  effected  in  this  manner.' — They 
 chose   a   certain   number   of  artful   men,    who  e  were 
 
 1  Deut.  xi.  29.  and  xxvii.  1 — 13. 
 
 c  It  is  a  question  (as  we  said  before,  p.  321,  in  the  notes) 
 among  the  learned,  what  it  was  that  was  written  upon  these 
 stones.  But  besides  other  conjectures  already  enumerated,  some 
 think  it  not  unlikely  to  have  been  a  copy  of  the  covenant,  by 
 which  the  children  of  Israel  acknowledged  that  they  held  the  land 
 of  Canaan  of  God,  upon  condition  that  they  observed  his  laws,  to 
 which  they  and  their  posterity  had  obliged  themselves;  for  this 
 was  the  third  time  that  the  covenant  between  God  and  his  people 
 was  renewed,  and  therefore  the  contents  of  that  covenant,  might 
 be  very  proper  at  this  time  to  be  thus  monumentally  recorded. — 
 Patrick  on  Deut.  xxvii.  3.  and  Josh.  viii.  32. 
 
 d  The  Jews  in  the  Talmud  tell  us  likewise,  that  a  farther 
 cause  of  the  Gibeonites'  fear  was,  the  inscription  which  they  had 
 met  with  upon  Mount  Ebal,  where,  among  other  parts  of  the  law 
 which  Joshua,  as  they  pretend,  wrote  upon  stones,  they  found 
 the  orders  which  both  he  and  Moses  had  received  from  God, 
 utterly  to  extirpate  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  of  Canaan. — 
 Saurin,  b.  3.  Dissertation,  4. 
 
 e  It  is  a  question  among  the  casuists,  whether  the  Gibeonites 
 could,  with  a  good  conscience,  pretend  that  they  were  foreigners, 
 and  tell  a  lie  to  save  their  lives  ?  And  to  this  Puflendorf,  (Droit 
 de  la  Nature,)  b.  4.  c.  2,  thus  replies ;  "  The  artifice  of  the 
 Gibeonites,"  says  he,  "had  nothing  blameable  in  it,  nor  does  it 
 properly  deserve  the  name  of  a  lie:  for  what  crime  is  there  in 
 any  one's  making  use  of  an  innocent  fiction,  in  order  to  elude 
 the  fury  of  an  enemy  that  would  destroy  all  before  them?  Nor 
 did  the  Israelites  indeed  properly  receive  any  damage  from  this 
 imposture ;  for  what  does  any  one  lose  in  not  shedding  the  blood 
 of  another,  when  he  has  it  in  his  power  to  take  from  him  all  his 
 substance,  after  having  so  weakened  and  disarmed  him  that  he 
 is  no  more  able  to  rebel  against  him?"  But  the  opinion  of  this 
 great  man  seems  to  be  a  little  erroneous  in  this  case.  Had  the 
 Israelites  indeed  been  a  pack  of  common  murderers,  who,  with- 
 out any  commission  from  heaven,  were  carrying  blood  ana 
 desolation  into  countries  where  they  had  no  right;  or  had  the 
 Gibeonites  been  ignorant  that  a  miraculous  providence  conducted 
 these  conquerors,  the  fraud  which  they  here  put  upon  them 
 might  then  be  deemed  innocent:  for  there  is  no  law  that  obliges  us 
 under  the  pretence  of  sincerity,  to  submit  to  such  incendiaries,  and 
 merciless  usurpers,  as  are  for  setting  fire  to  our  cities,  and  putting 
 us  and  our  families  to  the  edge  of  the  sword.  But  the  case  of  the 
 Gibeonites  was  particular;  and  if  in  other  things  they  went  con- 
 trary to  truth,  in  this  they  certainly  adhered  to  it,  when  they  told 
 Joshua,  '  We  are  come,  because  of  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy 
 God,  lor  we  have  heard  of  the  fame  of  him,  and  all  that  he  did  iu 
 Egypt,  and  all  that  he  did  to  the  two  kings  of  the  Amorites,  that 
 
Skct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 3G9 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI 
 
 instructed  to  feign  themselves  ambassadors  come  from  a 
 far  distant  country,  in  order  to  obtain  a  league  with 
 the  people  of  Israel ;  and,  to  gain  credit  to  this  their 
 pretence,  they  dressed  themselves  in  old  clothes,  had  old 
 clouted  shoes  on  their  feet,  carried  dry  musty  bread  in 
 their  bags,  and  the  bottles  wherein  they  kept  their  wine, 
 were  a  all  sadly  tarnished  and  torn.  6     In  this  plight 
 
 were  beyond  Jordan,'  &c.  (Josh.  ix.  9,  10.)  The  idea  which 
 they  had  conceived  of  the  God  of  Israel  should  have  put  them 
 upon  some  other  expedient  than  that  of  lying  and  deceit.  They 
 should  have  inquired,  as  far  as  the  obscure  dispensation  they  were 
 under  would  have  permitted  them,  into  the  cause  of  God's 
 severity  against  them.  They  should  have  acknowledged,  that 
 it  was  their  grievous  sins  which  drew  down  this  heavy  judgment 
 upon  their  nation;  and  after  they  had  repented  thereof  in  sack- 
 cloth and  ashes,  they  should  have  committed  the  rest  to  providence, 
 never  doubting,  but  that  he  who  had  changed  the  very  course 
 of  nature  to  punish  the  guilty,  would  always  find  out  some  means 
 or  other  to  save  the  penitent;  but  this  they  did  not  do;  and 
 therefore  they  were  culpable. — Suurin,  vol.  3.  Dissertation  4. 
 
 a  These  bottles  were  not  of  glass,  or  clay,  as  those  in  use 
 among  us,  but  were  made  of  leather,  in  which  they  formerly, 
 and  even  now  in  some  countries,  kept  their  wine. 
 
 b  Chardin  informs  us  that  the  Arabs,  and  all  those  that  lead 
 a  wandering  life,  keep  their  water,  milk,  and  other  liquors,  in 
 leathern  bottles.  **  They  keep  in  them  more  fresh  than  other- 
 wise they  would  do.  These  leathern  bottles  are  made  of  goat- 
 skins. When  the  animal  is  killed,  they  cut  off  its  feet  and  its 
 head,  and  they  draw  it  in  this  manner  out  of  the  skin,  without 
 opening  its  belly.  They  afterwards  sew  up  the  places  where  the 
 legs  were  cut  off,  and  the  tail,  and  when  it  is  filled  they  tie  it 
 about  the  neck.  These  nations,  and  the  country  people  of  Persia, 
 never  go  a  journey  without  a  small  leathern  bottle  of  water 
 hanging  by  their  side  like  a  scrip.  The  great  leathern  bottles 
 are  made  of  the  skin  of  an  he  goat,  and  the  small  ones  that  serve 
 instead  of  a  bottle  of  water  on  the  road,  are  made  of  a  kid's  skin." 
 These  bottles  are  frequently  rent  when  old  and  much  used,  and 
 are  capable  of  being  repaired  when  bound  up.  This  they  do, 
 Chardin  says,  "sometimes  by  setting  in  a  piece;  sometimes 
 by  gathering  up  the  wounded  place  in  manner  of  a  purse;  some- 
 times they  put  in  a  round  flat  piece  of  wood,  and  by  that  means 
 stop  the  hole."  Maundrell  gives  an  account  exactly  similar  to 
 the  above.  Speaking  of  the  Greek  convent  at  Bellmount,  near 
 Tripoli,  in  Syria,  he  says,  "  the  same  person  we  saw  officiating 
 at  the  altar  in  his  embroidered  sacerdotal  robe,  brought  us  the 
 next  day,  on  his  own  back,  a  kid  and  a  goat's  skin  of  wine,  as  a 
 present  from  the  convent."  (Journey,  March  12.)  These  bottles 
 are  still  used  in  Spain,  and  called  borrachas.  Mr  Bruce  gives  a 
 description  of  the  girba,  which  seems  to  be  a  vessel  of  the  same 
 kind  as  those  now  mentioned,  only  of  dimensions  considerably 
 larger.  "A  girba,  is  an  ox's  skin,  squared,  and  the  edges 
 sewed  together  very  artificially,  by  a  double  seam  which  does 
 not  let  out  water,  much  resembling  that  upon  the  best  English 
 cricket  balls.  An  opening  is  left  at  the  top  of  the  girba,  in  the 
 same  manner  as  the  bung-hole  of  a  cask.  Around  this  the  skin  is 
 gathered  to  the  size  of  a  large  handful,  which  when  the  girba  is 
 full  of  water,  is  tied  round  with  whipcord.  These  girbas  gener- 
 ally contain  about  sixty  gallons  each,  and  two  of  them  are  the 
 
 load  of  a  camel.     They  are  then  all  besmeared  on  th itside 
 
 with  grease,  as  well  to  hinder  the  water  from  oozing  through,  as 
 to  prevent  its  being  evaporated  by  the  heat  of  the  sun  upon  the 
 girba,  which  in  fact  happened  to  us  twice,  so  as  ti>  put  US  in 
 imminent  danger  of  perishing  with  thirst."  {Travels,  vol.  iv. 
 p.  3:31.)  See  Harmer,  vol.  1.  p.  132. 
 
 Homer  mentions  wine  being  brought  in  a  goat's  skin.  (11.  iii. 
 217.  Odys.  vi.  78. 
 
 Now,  to  confirm  the  solemn  pledges  ?ivpn, 
 Ami  ratify  the  vows  address'd  to  heaven, 
 
 The  herald  bore  the  lambs  to  feed  the  inline, 
 And  goatskins  charged  with  consecrated  wine. 
 
 Sutheby. 
 
 Her  mother  placed  rich  food  the  chest  within. 
 And  charged  with  wine  the  goat's  capacious  skin. 
 
 Sotheby. 
 
 Herodotus,  ii.  121.  refers  to  the  same  custom. — Ed. 
 
 ES,  A.  M.  38(13  A.  C.  1G0S.  JOSH.  i.  TO  TUP.  TNT), 
 they  came  to  the  camp  at  Gilgal :  and  being  introduced 
 to  Joshua,  they  iota  him,  '  That  the  fame  of  many  mira- 
 cles which  God  had  wrought  lor  them  in  the  land  of 
 Egypt,  and  the  wonderful  successes  wherewith  he  had 
 blessed  their  arms  against  every  power  that  had  opposi  d 
 them  in  their  coining  to  that  place,  had  reached  oven 
 their  remote  and  distant  country  ;  for  which  reason  their 
 states  and  rulers  had  sent  them  a  long  way,  that  by  all 
 means  imaginable,  they  might  obtain  a  peace  with  a 
 people  so  renowned  all  the  world  over,  and  so  favoured 
 and  honoured  by  God.'  And  then  showing  their  clothes, 
 shoes,  and  other  tokens  of  the  long  journey  the\  had 
 taken,  they  solemnly  assured  them,  that  all  these  things 
 were  quite  new  when  at  first  they  sei  out  from  home,  and 
 thence  left  them  to  judge  how  distant  and  remote  their 
 country  was. 
 
 This  plausible  story,  confirmed,  as  they  thought,  by 
 so  many  evidences,  gained  credit  with  the  Israelites,  so 
 that  they  entered  into  an  amicable  alliance  with  them  : 
 and  the  other  took  care  to  have  the  treaty  immediately 
 ratified,  both  by  Joshua  and  all  the  princes  of  the  con- 
 gregation. In  three  days'  time  the  imposture  was  dis- 
 covered ;  and  they  who  pretended  to  come  from  a  distant 
 country  were  found  to  be  near  neighbours,  and  some  of 
 those  very  people  whom  Joshua  was  commissioned  to 
 destroy.  So  that  when  the  thing  came  to  be  rumoured 
 about,  the  people  began  to  murmur  against  their  princes 
 for  their  indiscretion,  and  were  for  having  the  league 
 cancelled  ;  but  as  it  was  confirmed  by  a  solemn  oath, 
 this  they  could  not  do  without  incurring  the  divine  dis- 
 pleasure. And  therefore,  though  they  might  not  take 
 away  their  lives,  they  might,  nevertheless,  hold  them  in 
 a  state  of  servitude,  and,  as  long  as  they  lived,  make 
 them  useful  drudges,  hewers  of  wood,  and  drawers  of 
 water,  and  the  like,  which  would  both  punish  them  much, 
 and  prove  fully  as  beneficial  to  the  commonwealth  ;  and 
 with  this  apology  the  people  were  appeased.  Joshua, 
 however,  sent  for  some  of  the  chief  of  the  GibeoniteS;  and 
 having  expostulated  the  cheat  with  them,  which  they 
 excused  upon  the  score  of  saving  their  own  lives,  he  told 
 them  what  the  determination  of  the  princes  was,  naraelj  . 
 that  they  should  remain  in  a  state  of  perpetual  bondage  : 
 which  they  received  without  any  manner  of  murmuring, 
 and  humbly  acquiesced  in  whatever  was  thought  proper 
 to  be  imposed  upon  them. 
 
 The  confederate  princes,  hearing  of  this  separata 
 treaty  which  the  Gibeonites  had  made  with  Israel,  wen- 
 resolved  to  be  revenged  of  them  for  their  desertion  of 
 the  common  cause;  and  accordingly,  joining  all  their 
 forces  together,  they  came  and  invested  their  town. 
 The  Gibeonites  in  this  distress,  not  daring  to  tru-t  to 
 their  own  strength, sent  an  express  to  Joshua  i»r  speed) 
 help;  who  set  out  with  an  expedition,  and,  b)  quick 
 marches,  and  the  favour  of  the  night,  came  upon  the 
 enemy  sooner  than  they  expected,  and  early  next  morning 
 
 fell  upon  them,  and  routed  them.  In  this  expedition 
 God  had  all  along  encouraged  Joshua,  and  promised 
 him  success;  and  therefore,  as  the  confederate  forces 
 were  endeavouring  to  escape,  and  save  themselves  by 
 flight,  he   poured   such   a    storm   of  hail  '"  upon    them  as 
 
 destroyed  more  than  what  perished  1>\  the  sword. 
 
 ,.  x.  11.     The  common  English  translatii 
 'The  Lord  cast  down  greet  stones  from  heaven.'    Seme 
 
 ii  a 
 
370 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Joshua,  on  the  other  hand,  was  very  desirous  to  make 
 the  most  of  this  happy  opportunity ;  and  therefore,  in 
 full  chase  of  victory,  he  addressed  himself  to  God,  that 
 the  sun  and  moon  might  stand  still,  and  so  prolong  the 
 day  until  he  had  completed  his  victory  ;  which  God  was 
 pleased  to  grant.  So  that  this  was  the  most  memorable 
 day  that  ever  happened,  wherein  the  '  Almighty  listened 
 to  the  voice  of  a  man,'  to  change  the  course  of  nature, 
 and  stop  the  motion  of  those  rolling  orbs. 
 
 The  confederate  kings  being  thus  put  to  flight,  and 
 either  frightened  at  the  storm  of  hail,  or  at  the  close 
 pursuit  of  the  enemy,  made  to  a  cave  near  a  Maldcedah, 
 and  there  ran  in  to  hide  themselves.  But  Joshua,  having 
 intelligence  of  it,  commanded  the  cave  to  be  blocked 
 up,  and  a  guard  to  be  set  over  it,  and  so  continued  his 
 pursuit,  that  he  might  cut  oft'  as  many  as  he  possibly 
 could  before  they  reached  to  their  fortified  towns.  In 
 his  return  he  ordered  the  cave  to  be  opened,  and  the 
 kings  to  be  brought  forth  ;  and  when  execution  was  done 
 upon  them,  he  caused  their  bodies  to  be  hanged  upon 
 several  trees  until  the  evening,  when  they  were  taken 
 down,  and  cast  into  the  cave,  where  they  thought  to  have 
 hid  themselves  ;  so  that  the  place  of  their  intended 
 sanctuary  became  their  sepulchre.  After  this  signal 
 victory,  Joshua  took  all  the  southern  parts  of  Canaan  ; 
 which  afterwards  belonged  to  the  tribes  of  Judah, 
 Simeon,  Benjamin,  Dan,  and  Ephraim  :  and  having  thus 
 ended  his  second  campaign,  he  returned  with  his  army 
 to  the  camp  at  Gilgal. 
 
 Here  he  continued  for  some  time  without  entering 
 upon  any  fresh  action,  until  several  princes  of  the  north 
 of  Canaan,  under  Jabin  king  of  Hazor,  confederated 
 together,  and  raised  a  vast  number  of  forces,  which 
 encamped  not  far  from  b  the  waters  of  Merom  ;  and  what 
 
 writers  are  of  opinion  that  this  was  hail,  of  which  violent 
 storms  frequently  occur  in  Arabia,  but  that  this  was  larger,  and 
 more  violent  than  usual;  others  maintain  that  Joshua  is  to  be 
 understood  literally  of  a  shower  of  stones ;  such  a  circumstance, 
 so  far  from  being  impossible,  has  several  times  occurred.  The 
 Romans,  who  looked  upon  showers  of  stones  as  very  disastrous, 
 have  noticed  many  instances  of  them.  Under  the  reign  of 
 Tullus  Hostilius,  when  it  was  known  to  the  people  of  Rome, 
 that  a  shower  of  stones  had  fallen  on  the  mountain  of  Alba,  at 
 first  it  seemed  incredible.  They  sent  out  proper  persons  to 
 inquire  into  this  prodigy,  and  it  was  found  that  stones  had  fallen 
 after  the  same  manner  as  a  storm  of  hail  driven  by  the  wind. 
 {Tit.  Liv.  b.  1.  decad.  1.  p.  12.;  Idem,  b.  xxv.  xxx.  xxxiv. 
 xxxv.  et  alibi  passim)  Some  time  after  the  battle  of  Cannrc, 
 there  was  seen  upon  the  same  mountain  of  Alba,  a  shower  of 
 stones,  which  continued  for  two  days  together.  In  153S,  near 
 a  village  in  Italy,  called  Tri  pergola,  after  some  shocks  of  an 
 earthquake,  there  was  seen  a  shower  of  stones  and  dust,  which 
 darkened  the  air  for  two  days,  after  which  they  observed  that  a 
 mountain  had  risen  up  in  the  midst  of  the  Lucrine  Lake. 
 (Monfaucon  Diar.  Italic,  c.  21.)  Dr  A.  Clarke,  in  his  commen- 
 tary on  this  passage,  has  given  a  long  and  interesting  account  of 
 various  showers  of  stones  and  hail  which  have  fallen  in  various 
 places,  and  to  which  the  curious  reader  is  referred.  As  a  most 
 stupendous  miracle  was  wrought  in  this  instance,  in  causing  the 
 sun  and  moon  to  stand  still,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  shower 
 of  stones  whether  hail  or  otherwise  was  also  miraculous. — Ed. 
 
 a  It  was  a  city  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  about  eight  miles  distant 
 from  Elcutheropolis;  which  place,  though  it  is  nowhere  men- 
 tioned in  the  Scripture  history,  because  it  was  built  after  the 
 destruction  of  Jerusalem,  is  nevertheless  frequently  taken  notice 
 of  by  Eusebius  and  Jerome,  as  a  point  from  whence  they  measure 
 the  distances  of  other  places.  Its  name  imports  a  '  free  city,' 
 and  was  itself  situate  in  the  tribe  of  Judah. — Wells'  Geography 
 of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2.  c.  4. 
 
 b  These  waters  are  generally  supposed  by  learned  men  to  be 
 
 'made  the  army  more  formidable,  was  the  great  number 
 of  horses  and  d  armed  chariots  they  had,  whereas  the 
 Israelites  were  all  on  foot.  This,  however,  did  not  in 
 the  least  discourage  Joshua,  who,  in  pursuance  of  the 
 instructions  which  God  had  given  hiin,  immediately  took 
 the  field,  inarched  directly  towards  the  enemy,  fell  sud- 
 denly upon  them,  and  put  all,  except  e  those  that  made 
 
 the  lake  Semechon,  which  lies  between  the  head  of  the  river 
 Jordan  and  the  lake  of  Gennesareth ;  since  it  is  agreed  on  all 
 hands,  that  the  city  Hazor,  where  Jabin  reigned,  was  situate 
 upon  this  lake.  But  others  think,  that  the  waters  of  Merom,  or 
 Merome,  were  somewhere  about  the  brook  Kishon ;  since  there 
 is  a  place  of  that  name  mentioned  in  the  account  of  the  battle 
 against  Sisera,  Judg.  v.  21.  And  it  is  more  rational  to  think, 
 that  the  confederate  kings  advanced  as  far  as  the  brook  Kishon, 
 and  to  a  pass  which  led  into  their  country,  to  hinder  Joshua  from 
 penetrating  it,  or  even  to  attack  him  in  the  country  where  he 
 himself  lay  encamped,  than  to  imagine,  that  they  waited  for  him 
 in  the  midst  of  their  own  country,  leaving  all  Galilee  at  his 
 mercy,  and  the  whole  tract  from  the  brook  of  Kishon,  to  the  lake 
 Semechon. — Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3.  c. 
 5;  Rcland's  Palest,  b.  1.  c.  40;  and  Cahnet  on  Josh.  xi.  5. 
 
 c  Their  whole  army,  according  to  Josephus,  was  computed  to 
 amount  to  three  hundred  thousand  foot,  ten  thousand  horse,  and 
 two  thousand  chariots;  and  to  oppose  against  these  the  Israelites 
 had  no  horse  in  their  armies,  because  God  had  interdicted  them, 
 (Deut.  xvii.  16.)  lest  a  traffic  into  Egypt  for  that  sort  of  cattle 
 should  be  a  snare  to  entangle  them  in  idolatry ;  or  lest,  having  a 
 quantity  thereof,  they  should  put  their  confidence  rather  in  them, 
 than  in  the  divine  assistance;  for  which  reason  the  prophet  de- 
 nounces a  '  woe  upon  them  that  go  down  into  Egypt  for  help, 
 and  stay  on  horses,  and  trust  in  chariots,  because  they  are  many ; 
 and  in  horsemen,  because  they  are  strong,  but  they  look  not  to 
 the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  neither  seek  they  the  Lord.' — Is.  xxxi.  1. 
 
 d  The  chariots,  which  the  ancient  historians  usually  call  currus 
 falciferi,  coisini  falciferi,  quadriga  falcatce,  (scythe-bearing 
 chariots,)  &c,  are  described  after  the  following  manner: — "  The 
 beam  to  which  the  horses  were  fastened,  was  armed  with  spikes 
 with  iron  points,  which  projected  forward:  the  yokes  of  the  horses 
 had  two  cutting  falchions,  of  three  cubits'  length:  the  axle-trees 
 had  fixed  to  them  two  iron  spits,  with  scythes  at  their  extremities  ; 
 the  spokes  of  the  wheels  were  armed  with  javelins,  and  the  very 
 felloes  with  scythes,  which  tore  every  thing  they  met  with  to 
 pieces.  The  axle-tree  was  longer,  and  the  wheels  stronger  than 
 usual,  that  they  might  be  the  better  able  to  bear  a  shock,' and  the 
 chariot  less  liable  to  be  overturned."  The  charioteer,  who  was 
 covered  all  over  with  armour,  sat  in  a  kind  of  tower  made  of 
 very  solid  wood,  about  breast  high,  and  sometimes  men  well 
 armed  were  put  into  the  chariot,  and  fought  from  thence  with 
 darts  and  arrows.  So  that  a  dreadful  slaughter  these  machines 
 must  at  first  have  made,  when  they  met  v/ith  the  enemy's  troops  ; 
 but  in  time,  when  men  came  to  find  out  the  way  of  declining 
 them,  they  did  not  do  so  much  execution,  and  were  consequently 
 disused.' — See  Diodorus  Sieulus,  b.  17;  Quint.  Curtius,  b.  4; 
 Xenophon.  Cyropced.  b.  6 ;  Lucretius  de  Iter.  Nat.  b.  6. 
 
 e  Some  Jewish  authors  will  needs  have  it,  that  when  Joshua 
 went  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  he  proposed  three  things  to  the 
 inhabitants  thereof,  either  that  they  should  leave  the  country,  or 
 come  and  make  their  submission,  or  take  up  arms  and  fight  him. 
 But  this  is  said,  in  some  measure  to  excuse  the  Jewish  general, 
 and  to  mollify  the  rigour  of  his  proceedings.  His  express  com- 
 mand from  God  was,  to  extirpate  the  seven  nations,  without 
 making  any  treaty,  or  giving  quarter:  and  though  the  Gibcunites 
 by  guile  had  obtained  a  kind  of  league  with  him,  yet  the  condi- 
 tions which  he  thereuponA»posed  were  so  very  hard,  that  they 
 could  not  but  deter  others  from  making  the  like  attempt.  It  is 
 not  therefore  to  be  wondered,  that  the  Canaanites,  who  saw  them- 
 selves driven  to  the  necessity  either  of  death  or  slavery,  after 
 they  had  tried  the  fate  of  their  arms  so  often  to  no  purpose,  should 
 endeavour  to  make  their  escape  from  a  people  everywhere  vic- 
 torious, arM  who  were  enjoined  to  be  cruel  and  remorseless  by 
 their  very  God  who  had  given  them  this  success.  Nor  can  we 
 suppose  but  that  God,  who  was  minded  to  make  room  for  his 
 own  people,  did  (according  to  his  promise,  Exod.  xxiii.  27.)  inject 
 upon  this  occasion  a  terror  so  extraordinary  into  the  natives  of 
 the  country,  and  make  them  desire  to  be  gone.     And  when  they 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &-<•. 
 
 371 
 
 A.M.  2553.  A.  C.  1151;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 their  escape  into  other  countries,  to  tlie  sword ;  ham- 
 strung their  horses,  and  burned  their  chariots  with  (ire. 
 Jabin  had  been  the  head  of  the  confederacy  against  him  ; 
 and  therefore  he  killed  him,  and  caused  his  city  to  be 
 burned  to  the  ground  ;  but  the  other  cities,  whose  inhabit- 
 ants were  slain  in  battle,  he  left  standing,  and  gave  the 
 plunder  of  them  to  the  soldiers. 
 
 Thus  Joshua  subdued  all  the  land  of  Canaan  a  by 
 degrees.  He  put  its  inhabitants,  its  kings,  who  were 
 one  and  thirty  in  number,  and  all  the  giants  that  dwelt 
 therein,  except  some  few  that  still  remained  among  the 
 Philistines,  to  the  sword ;  and  having  now  extended  his 
 conquest  as  far  as  it  was  convenient  at  that  time,  he  began 
 to  think  of  dividing  the  country  among  the  tribes  that 
 were  yet  unprovided  for,  and  of  dismissing  the  two  tribes 
 and  an  half  who  had  accompanied  him  in  the  wars,  but 
 had  their  habitations  already  settled  by  Moses,  on  the 
 east  side  of  the  river  Jordan.  To  this  purpose  he 
 appointed  commissioners,  who  should  take  an  exact  sur- 
 vey of  the  country,  and  bring  in  a  full  report  without  delay; 
 which  when  he  had  done,  *  the  country  was  divided  into 
 
 were  desirous  to  be  gone,  they  had  the  ports  lying  upon  the 
 Mediterranean  sea  very  commodious  for  their  purpose.  For 
 whether  thy  towns  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  were  at  this  time  built  or 
 no,  it  is  certain,  that  the  places  where  these  towns  stood,  could 
 not  but  be  proper  harbours  for  shipping;  and  as  the  Phoenicians 
 were  still  masters  of  the  sea  coasts,  by  their  assistance  the 
 Canaanites  might  make  their  escape  into  what  part  they  pleased. 
 The  Phoenicians,  much  about  this  time,  did  certainly  send  out 
 a  vast  many  colonies;  but  as  it  cannot  be  supposed,  that  so  small 
 a  country  should  produce  such  swarms,  the  greatest  part  of  them 
 are  presumed  to  be  the  refugees  of  Canaan,  who  made  their  escape 
 by  shipping  to  all  the  coasts  which  lay  round  the  Mediterranean 
 arid  ^igean  seas,  and  even  to  other  parts  of  Europe,  Asia,  and 
 Africa,  as  the  learned  Bochart  has  given  us  a  large  account  in 
 his  Canaan,  from  page  345  to  page  C99. — Cahnet's  Dissertation 
 on  the  country  where  the  Canaanites,  pursued  by  Joshua,  saved 
 themselves. 
 
 a  These  great  achievements  may  be  allowed  to  have  taken  up 
 some  years.  The  history  indeed  informs  us,  that  '  Joshua  made 
 war  a  long  time  with  all  these  kings,'  Josh.  xi.  IS.  And  from 
 the  words  of  Caleb,  wherein  he  gives  Joshua  an  account  of  his 
 age,  and  that  it  was  five  and  forty  years  since  he  was  sent  a  spy 
 to  Kadesh-Barnea,  there  cannot  be  well  less  than  between  six 
 and  seven  years  spent  in  this  war;  and  why  the  war  was  so  long 
 continued,  God  himself  assigns  this  reason: — '  I  will  not  drive 
 them  out  from  before  thee  in  one  year,  lest  the  land  become 
 desolate,  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  multiply  against  thee:  by 
 little  and  little  will  I  drive  them  out  from  before  thee,  until  thou 
 be  increased  and  inherit  the  land,'  Exod.  xxiii.  29,  30. 
 
 6  Those  who  are  minded  to  know  what  particular  towns  and 
 territories  fell  to  each  tribe,  had  best  consult  what  Josephus,  in 
 his  Jewish  Antiquities;  Jerome,  de  Locis  Hebraicis;  'Roland  de 
 Uibibus  et  Vieis  Palestine;  Masius,  in  Joshuam ;  Fuller,  in  his 
 Pisgah-sight ;  Raleigh,  in  his  History,  part  1.  b.  2.;  Wells,  in  his 
 Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2.;  Patrick,  Poole,  Le 
 Clerc,  and  several  others,  in  their  commentaries,  have  said  on 
 this  subject.  We  shall  make  this  one  remark,  which  Masius,  in 
 his  rich  Commentary  upon  Joshua,  furnishes  us  with,  namely, 
 that  as  Jacob  and  Moses,  at  the  approach  of  their  deaths,  fore- 
 told the  very  soil  and  situation  of  every  particular  country  that 
 should  fall  to  each  tribe;  so,  upon  this  division  by  lots,  It  accord- 
 ingly came  to  pass.  To  the  tribe  o^anlah  there  fell  a  country 
 abounding  with  vines  and  pasture  grounds  (Gen.  xlix.  11.)  To 
 that  of  Ashur,  one  plenteous  in  oil,  iron,  and  brass,  (Deut.  xxxiii. 
 24,  25.)  To  that  of  Naphtali,  one  extending  from  the  west  to 
 the  south  of  Judea,  (Deut.  xxxiii.  23.)  To  that  of  Benjamin,  one 
 in  which  the  temple  was  afterwards  built  (Deut.  xxxiii.  12.)  To 
 those  of  Zebulun  and  Issachar,  such  as  had  plenty  of  seaports, 
 (Gen.  xlix.  13.)  To  those  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  such  as 
 were  renowned  for  their  precious  fruits,  (Deut.  xxxiii.  14.1  And 
 to  those  of  Simeon  and  Levi,  no  particular  countries  at  all;  tol- 
 as much  as  the  former  had  a  portion  with  Judah,  and  the  other 
 was  interspersed  among  the  several  tribes.     Since,  therefore,  as 
 
 equal  portions,  for  which  each  tribe,  according '  to  God's 
 
 directions,  cast  lots.  But  because  some  tribes  W6M 
 larger,  and  some  territories  richer  than  others,  Joshua 
 and  Eleazar,  together  with  the  princes  of  the  people, 
 took  care  to  adjust  the  proportion  of  the  land  to  the 
 largeness  of  the  tribe,  and  in  subdividing  that,  to  con- 
 sider the  number  of  each  family  and  household  :  pursuing 
 exactly  the  orders  which  God  gave  to  his  .servant  Moses  : 
 2 'Unto  these  the  laud  shall  be  divided  for  an  inherit- 
 ance, according  to  the  number  of  names.  To  many  thou 
 shalt  give  the  more  inheritance;  and  to  few,  thou  Bhalt 
 give  the  less  inheritance. — Notwithstanding,  the  land 
 shall  be  divided  by  lot; — according  to  lot  shall  the  pos- 
 session thereof  be  divided  among  many,  and  few.' 
 
 Having  thus  divided  the  country  on  the  west  side  of 
 the  Jordan,  Joshua  had  a  little  place  given  him  for  his 
 own  habitation,  not  far  from  Shiloh,  where,  after  the  wars, 
 the  tabernacle  was  set  up,  that  he  might  have  an  oppor- 
 tunity of  consulting  <iod  upon  any  occasion  ;  and,  after 
 all  things  were  in  this  manner  regulated,  he  called 
 together  the  Reubenites,  Gadites,  and  the  half  tribe  of 
 Manasseh,  who  had  served  for  almost  seven  years,  as 
 auxiliaries  in  the  war3  of  Canaan,  and  gave  them  an 
 honourable  dismission.  "  He  acknowledged  that  they 
 had  duly  executed  the  condition  which  they  promised 
 to  Moses,  in  accompanying  their  brethren,  and  helping 
 them  to  subdue  their  enemies,  and  commended  their 
 courage  and  fidelity  for  so  doing.  He  exhorted  them, 
 now  that  they  were  going  to  separate  from  the  taber- 
 nacle,  never  to  neglect  the  service  of  God,  but  to  beat 
 always  in  mind  those  venerable  laws  which  he  had  given 
 them  by  his  great  legislator.  He  advised  them  to  dis- 
 tribute a  share  of  the  rich  booty  they  had  taken  from  the 
 Canaanites,  among  their  brethren  on  the  other  side  of 
 Jordan  ;  because,  though  they  had  not  partaken  of  the 
 peril  of  the  late  war,  they  had  nevertheless  done  them 
 great  service,  in  protecting  their  families  from  the  insults 
 of  their  enemies  on  every  side."  And  c  with  these 
 acknowledgments  and  exhortations,  together  with  many 
 sincere  wishes  for  their  prosperity  and  welfare,  d  he  sent 
 
 1  Josh.  xiv.  2. 
 
 8  Num.  xxvi.  53,  &c. 
 
 our  commentator  reasons,  each  particular  lot  answered  '.exactly 
 to  each  prediction,  it  must  needs  be  the  height  of  Insolence  er 
 stupidity  not  to  acknowledge  the  divine  inspiration  in  these  i  re- 
 dictions,  and  the  divine  direction  in  these  lots. 
 
 c  Josephus,  in  the  speech  which  he  introduces  Joshua  i 
 to  the  Reubenites,  8ic,  at  their  parting,  concludes  with  then 
 words:— "But,  I  pray  yen,  let  no  distance  of  place  set  limits  to 
 our  friendship.  The  interposition  of  rivers  must  never  divide 
 our  affections;  for  on  which  bank  soever,  wears  ail  Hebrews 
 still.  Abraham  was  the  common  father  of  us  nil,  let  our  abode 
 be  where  it  will.  It  was  from  one  and  the  same  God  that  all 
 em-  forefathers  received  their  being;  and  that  God  we  are  all  to 
 worship,  according  to  the  ordinances  and  institutions  Mi  us  by 
 Moses.  So  long  a^  we  stand  lii  iii  to  that  way  "i"  religion,  we 
 maybe  sure  of  the  favour  and  protection  <'t'  that  God  !"i  our 
 comfort;  but  whenever  you  apostatise  into  an  hankering  after 
 strange  sods,  the  God  of  your  lathers  "ill  cast  you  off." — Jewitk 
 Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  1. 
 
 rfThe  Chroni Samaritanum,  If  we  may  believe  what  it 
 
 reports,  pages  92,  93,  tell-  us  that  when  Joshua  sent  thi 
 benites'away,  he  appointed  Nephiel  to  be  his  deputy  on  thi 
 side  of  Jordan;  that  he  clothed   him  with  a  royal  robe, 
 
 crown  on  bja  head,  and  mad.'  him  ride  OD  a  bone  of  stall-,  whiUt 
 
 a  crier  went  before  him.  proclaiming,  "This  is  the  king  ol  the 
 two  tribes  and  a  half,  the  president  of  justice,  the  director  ol 
 allairs,  and  the  general  in  the  camp.  Let  his  determination  be 
 conclusive.     In  all  difficult  casus  let  him  desire  an  answer  from 
 
372 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
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 them  away  ;  but  they  had  not  been  long-  gone,  before  a 
 sad  misunderstanding  had  like  to  have  happened  between 
 them  and  the  other  tribes. 
 
 Upon  their  arrival  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  they 
 erected  an  altar  near  the  place  where  they  and  their 
 brethren  had  miraculously  passed  over,  not  for  any 
 religious  use,  but  as  a  memorial  to  succeeding  genera- 
 tions, that  though  they  were  parted  by  the  river,  yet  they 
 were  of  the  same  extract  and  religion,  and  held  an  equal 
 right  to  the  tabernacle  at  Shiloh,  and  to  the  worship  of 
 God  performed  there,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  other 
 side  had.  But  whether  those  on  the  other  side  were 
 misinformed  or  misapprehended  their  intent,  so  it  was, 
 that  they  fell  into  a  violent  rage  against  them,  as  apos- 
 tates from  the  true  religion  ;  and  immediately  took  up 
 arms  for  the  vindication  of  the  worship  and  religion  of 
 their  forefathers,  and  to  avenge  the  cause  of  God  upon 
 the  heads  and  chief  authors  of  this  defection.  But  before 
 they  proceeded  to  these  extremities,  they  were  advised 
 by  their  rulers  to  suspend  the  execution  of  their  wrath, 
 until  they  had  sent  a  deputation  to  them  in  order  to  know 
 the  reason  of  their  building  such  an  altar  ;  which  accord- 
 ingly they  did,  and  made  choice  of  Phinehas,  the  son  of 
 Eleazar,  with  ten  other  persons  of  eminent  distinction, 
 to  go  upon  the  embassy.  As  soon  as  they  were  come 
 into  the  land  of  a  Gilead  h  they  represented  the  great 
 surprise  that  the  rest  of  the  tribes  were  in  at  their  build- 
 ing this  altar ;  and  told  them  very  roundly,  that  they 
 feared  it  portended  a  defection  into  idolatry.  To  dis- 
 suade them,  therefore,  from  that,  they  put  them  in  mind 
 of  the  calamities  which  God  had  formerly  sent  upon 
 them  for  their  worship  of  Baal-peor ;  and  that  if  so  lately 
 he  had  been  so  severe  upon  them  for  the  offence  of  one 
 man,  namely,  Achan  only,  what  might  they  not  expect 
 when  two  tribes  and  a  half  were  going  to  make  a  general 
 revolt !     And  as  they  suspected  that  the  absence  of  the 
 
 Elea/ar  the  high  priest;  and  if  any  one  shall  contradict  his  sen- 
 tence, or  withdraw  from  his  allegiance,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any 
 one  to  kill  that  man,  and  the  whole  congregation  shall  be 
 blameless." 
 
 a  Gilead,  which  took  its  name  from  Gilead  the  son  of  Maehir, 
 and  grandson  of  Manasseh,  is  often  put  for  the  whole  country 
 that  lies  on  the  east  side  of  Jordan,  which  the  children  of  Israel 
 took  from  the  Moabites,  Midianites,  &c. 
 
 b  Josephus  makes  Phinehas  the  speaker  upon  this  occasion,  who 
 delivers  his  commission  in  words  to  this  effect: — "  We  are  very 
 sensible  that  the  crime  charged  upon  you  at  present  is  too  heinous 
 to  be  punished  by  words  only;  but  we  have  not  taken  up  arms, 
 hand  over  head,  to  execute  a  vengeance  according  to  the  degree 
 of  the  iniquity.  For  it  is  out  of  respect  to  our  allies,  and  in 
 hopes  that  second  and  sounder  thoughts  may  bring  you  to  better 
 reason,  that  we  are  engaged  upon  this  embassy,  and  speak  in 
 this  assembly.  We  do  but  desire  to  be  sincerely  informed,  upon 
 what  motives,  and  with  what  design  you  have  now  raised  this 
 altar.  If  you  have  done  it  out  of  any  pious  end,  we  have  no 
 quarrel  with  you;  but  if  you  are  gone  over  to  a  false  worship,  it 
 is  for  our  God,  and  our  religion,  that  we  must  draw  our  swords 
 against  you.  We  speak  our  fears:  for  we  cannot  think  it  credible 
 yet,  that  a  people  so  well  instructed  in  the  will  and  in  the  laws 
 of  God,  our  friends  and  allies  that  we  have  but  just  now  parted 
 with ;  a  people  newly  established  in  the  lot  of  a  plentiful  posses- 
 sion by  God's  special  grace  and  providence:  we  cannot,  I  say, 
 believe  you  to  be  so  insensible  and  ungrateful,  as  to  abandon  the 
 holy  tabernacle,  the  ark,  the  altar,  and  the  worship  of  your  fore- 
 fathers, to  join  with  the  Canaanites  in  the  worship  of  false  gods. 
 Or,  if  unhappily  you  should  have  been  so  misled,  do  but  repent, 
 and  disclaim  your  error,  and  return  to  that  reverence  you  owe 
 to  the  laws  of  God,  and  of  your  country,  and  you  shall  be  still 
 received,"  &c. — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  1. 
 
 tabernacle  might  give  some  occasion  to  this  innovation, 
 they  invited  them  to  come  and  live  among  them,  where 
 they  might  not  want  an  opportunity  of  serving  God, 
 according  to  the  custom  of  their  ancestors. 
 
 Concerned  to  hear  the  ill  opinion  which  their  brethren 
 had  thus  conceived  of  them,  the  Reubenites,  Gadites,  and 
 Manassites,  c  protested  their  innocence  of  any  idola- 
 trous intention,  and  made  a  solemn  appeal  to  God,  that 
 so  far  were  they  from  setting  up  any  altar  in  opposition 
 to  his,  that  the  only  design  of  that  structure  Avas,  to  per- 
 petuate their  title  to  the  service  of  the  tabernacle,  and 
 to  prevent  their  latest  posterity  from  being  excluded  from 
 it.  Which  when  Phinehas  and  the  rest  of  the  deputies 
 heard,  they  expressed  no  small  satisfaction ;  and  as  they 
 related  the  account  of  the  whole  matter  upon  their  return, 
 the  people  were  infinitely  pleased  with  the  result  of  their 
 embassy,  and  changed  their  angry  thoughts  of  war  into 
 the  tender  affections  of  brotherly  love  and  peace  :  while 
 the  Reubenites,  on  the  other  hand,  to  take  away  all 
 further  umbrage  of  suspicion,  called  the  altar  by  the 
 name  of  Ed,  as  being  intended  for  a  standing  witness, 
 (for  so  the  word  signifies,)  that,  though  they  lived  at  a 
 distance  from  the  rest  of  their  brethren,  yet  had  they  both 
 but  one  origin,  and  one  God,  who  was  the  common  God 
 and  father  of  all  Israel. 
 
 Thus  were  the  Israelites,  on  both  sides  of  the  river 
 Jordan,  settled  in  a  quiet  possession  of  their  conquests  : 
 when  Joshua,  being  now  grown  old,  and  perceiving  the 
 time  of  his  death  approaching,  called  a  general  as- 
 sembly of  the  princes  and  magistrates,  and  as  many 
 of  the  common  people  as  could  be  got  together  upon 
 this  occasion,  to  Shechem ;  and  having,  in  a  very 
 tender  and  affectionate  speech,  enumerated  the  many 
 blessings  which  God's  providence  had  bestowed  upon 
 them  and  their  ancestors  ;  how  he  had  preserved  them 
 in  all  their  dangers  and  distresses,  and  relieved 
 them  in  all  their  wants ;  and  had  made  them  victori- 
 ous over  all  their  enemies,  and  from  a  mean  begin- 
 ning, raised  them  to  the  highest  degree  of  reputation, 
 and  brought  them  into  the  quiet  possession  of  a  land  that 
 abounded  with  all  manner  of  plenty  ;  in  gratitude  to  so 
 great  a  protector  and  benefactor,  he  exhorted  them  to  a 
 faithful  observance  of  his  laws,  and  invited  them  to  a 
 solemn  renewal  of  the  covenant  which  their  forefathers 
 had  made  with  him.  Which  when  they  had  done,  he  not 
 only  recorded  the  covenant  in  the  book  of  the  law,  but 
 
 c  If  we  can  suppose  any  truth  in  the  Samaritan  tradition,  Ne- 
 phiel,  who  is  said  to  have  been  Joshua's  lieutenant  over  the  two 
 tribes  and  a  half,  may  very  properly  be  thought  the  person  who 
 answered  Phinehas  in  these  words,  which  Josephus  thus  puts  in 
 his  mouth  : — "  We  are  not  conscious  of  having  ever  departed 
 from  our  alliance,  neither  are  we,  in  any  sort,  guilty  of  that  atlec- 
 tation  of  novelty,  in  erecting  this  altar,  which  is  now  charged  upon 
 us.  We  know  but  one  God,  and  that  God  is  the  God  of  all  the 
 Hebrews ;  and  but  one  altar,  which  is  the  brazen  altar  before  the 
 tabernacle.  As  for  this  altar  here,  which  we  are  suspected  for, 
 it  was  never  intended  for  any  religious  use,  but  only  for  a  civil 
 memorial  to  future  times  of  our  friendship  and  alliance,  and 
 rather  to  keep  us  steady  in  our  ancient  religion,  than  to  be  any 
 ways  introductive  to  the  violation  of  it.  We  can  safely  appeal  to 
 God,  that  we  had  no  such  thought  in  setting  up  this  altar  as  is 
 imputed  to  us  :  and  therefore  let  us  intreat  you  to  have  a  better 
 opinion  of  your  brethren  for  the  future,  than  to  think  us  guilty  of 
 so  mortal  an  apostasy  from  the  rights  and  customs  of  our  proge- 
 nitors, a  sin  not  to  be  expiated  in  any  of  the  sons  of  Abraham, 
 but  with  the  loss  of  his  life." — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  1. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 373 
 
 A.  M.  2514.  A.  C.  1490;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALE 
 
 set  up  a  great  stone  likewise,  under  an  oak,  near  a  place 
 of  religious  worship,  as  a  testimony  against  them,  in  case 
 they  should  prevaricate  from  God's  service  ;  and  being 
 now  in  the  110th  year  of  his  age,  a  not  long  after  this  he 
 died,  and  was  buried  at  Timnath-serah,  in  Mount 
 Ephraim,  a  place  which  the  Israelites,  in  acknowledg- 
 ment of  his  great  services,  had  given  him.  b 
 
 In  a  short  time  after,  Eleazar  the  son  of  Aaron,  the 
 priest,  who  lived  near  Joshua,  and  died  soon  after  him. 
 was  buried  not  far  from  him,  in  one  of  the  hills  of 
 Ephraim,  c  a  place  which  the  Israelites  had  in  like  man- 
 as  Jesus  the  son  of  Sirach  gives  us  a  long  commendation  of 
 Joshua,  (Ecclus.  xhi.  1,)  &C. ;  but  Josephus  is  more  concise  in  liis 
 character,  where  he  tells  us, — "  That  he  was  a  man  of  political 
 prudence,  and  endued  also  with  a  singular  felicity  of  popular  elo- 
 quence in  expressing  his  thoughts;  brave  and  indefatigable  in  war; 
 and  no  less  just  and  dexterous  in  peace  ;  and,  in  short,  that  he  was 
 a  person  qualified  for  all  great  purposes."  He  is  generally  re- 
 puted to  be  the  author  of  the  book  that  goes  under  his  name.  In 
 the  2Cth  verse  of  the  last  chapter  it  is  expressly  said,  that  '  he 
 wrote  these  things,'  (Ecclus.  xlvi.  1.)  The  son  of  Sirach  has  made 
 him  successor  to  Moses  in  the  prophetic  ministry.  And  both 
 the  church  and  synagogue  have  all  looked  on  the  book  as  canoni- 
 cal. The  truth  is,  Joshua  was  the  only  sacred  penman  we  know 
 of  that  the  Israelites  had  in  his  age.  After  he  had  finished  the 
 division  of  the  land,  it  is  said,  chap,  xxiii.  1.  that  he  had  many 
 years  of  great  leisure,  which  he  very  probably  employed  in  giv- 
 ing an  account  of  the  death  and  burial  of  Moses,  and  from  thence 
 continued  a  narrative  of  what  had  been  transacted  under  his  own 
 administration,  filling  it  up  with  a  general  terrier  of  the  settle- 
 ments of  the  tribes,  which  was  highly  expedient  for  the  Israelites 
 to  have  recorded,  in  order  to  prevent  confusion  about  their  inhe- 
 ritances in  future  ages.  Now  if  this  supposition  be  right,  the 
 work  of  Joshua  must  begin  where  that  of  Moses  ended,  namely  at 
 the  34th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  and  ended  at  the  27th  verse 
 of  the  24th  chapter  of  Joshua.  For  as  Joshua  at  the  end  of 
 Deuteronomy,  added  an  account  of  Moses'  death ;  so  what  we 
 find  horn  the  28th  verse  of  the  24th  chapter  of  Joshua  to  the  end 
 of  that  book,  was  unquestionably  not  written  until  Joshua  andal! 
 tin-  riders  his  contemporaries  were  gone  off  the  stage,  and  was 
 therefore  added  to  the  end  of  the  book  of  Joshua  by  some  sacred 
 penman,  (most  probably  by  Samuel,)  who  was  afterwards  em- 
 ployed to  record  the  subsequent  state  of  allairs  of  Israel. — Shuck- 
 ford's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12;  and  Patrick's  Commentary,  on 
 Josh.  xxiv.  33.  13ut  there  is  not  the  like  certainty  of  another 
 book  of  Joshua's,  which  the  Samaritans  preserve  with  much  re- 
 spect, and  make  great  use  of  in  the  support  of  their  pretensions 
 against  the  Jews;  neither  can  we  tell  whether  Joshua  was  the 
 author  of  that  prayer  which  the  Jews  repeat  as  oft  as  they  go  into 
 the  synagogues,  and  begins  thus  : — "  It  is  our  duty  to  praise  the 
 Lord  of  the  universe,  and  to  celebrate  the  creation  of  the  world  ; 
 for  he  hath  not  made  us  like  unto  the  nations  of  the  earth,  but 
 hath  prepared  for  us  an  inheritance  infinitely  richer  and  greater, 
 &c. —  WagensaWs  Fiery  Darts  of  Satan,  p.  223;  and  Calmct's 
 Dictionary,  under  the  word. 
 
 b  Josh.  xxiv.  SO.  '  And  they  buried  him  in  the  border  of  his 
 inheritance,  in  Timnath-serah.'  This  place  is  in  Judges  called 
 Timnath-hteres,  because  of  the  image  of  the  sun  engraven  on  his 
 sepulchre,  in  memory  of  that  famous  day  when  the  sun  stood  still 
 till  he  had  completed  his  victory,  (chap,  x.)  This  is  asserted  by 
 several  of  the  Jewish  authors.  Memorials  alluding  to  particular 
 transactions  in  the  lives  of  great  men,  were  frequently  made  use 
 of  to  adorn  their  tombs.  Tully  has  recorded  concerning  Archi- 
 medes, that  a  sphere  and  a  cylinder  were  put  upon  his  monument. 
 —Patrick  in  locum. 
 
 c  This  place  is,  in  the  Hebrew  called  the  hill  of  Phinchas;  it 
 being  customary  in  those  days  for  men  to  call  places  by  the  name 
 of  their  eldest  son.  But  then  the  question  is — To  whom  did  the 
 Israelites  give  this  hill?  The  most  probable  answer  is,  that,  they 
 gave  it  to  Eleazar;  for  he  being  the  high  priest  at  the  time  of  the 
 division  of  the  land,  they  thought  proper  to  give  him  a  peculiar  por- 
 tion, distinct  from  other  cities  of  the  priests,  which  were  all  in  the 
 tribes  of  Judah,  Benjamin,  and  Simeon,  and  none  in  the  tribe  of 
 Ephraim, (Josh.  xxii.  9,  17,  19.)  And  they  made  choice  of  this 
 country  the  rather,  that  he  might  be  near  the  tabernacle,  which 
 
 S,  A.  M.  3714.  A.  C.  1G47.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 ner  presented  him  with,  and  which  afterwards  descended 
 to  Phinehas,  his  son  and  successor  in  the  priesthood. 
 And  as  the  funerals  of  these  two  great  men,  so  near  the 
 same  time  and  place,  called  to  remembrance  the  bonefl 
 of  Joseph,  which,  at  his  request,  ''  had  been  brought  out 
 of  Egypt,  but  not  yet  interred  ;  the  two  tribes  of  Ephraim 
 and  Manasseh  took  this  opportunity  to  perform  their 
 obsequies  to  the  remains  of  their  great  progenitor,  in  a 
 parcel  of  ground  near  Shecheni,  which  Jacob  having 
 formerly  bought,  had  '  given  to  his  son  Joseph,  and  was 
 now  become  the  inheritance  of  his  posterity. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 2  '  AVho  is  like  unto  thee,  O  Lord,  among  the  gods  ?  Who 
 is  like  unto  thee,  glorious  in  holiness,  fearful  in  praises, 
 doing  wonders  ?  Thou,  in  thy  mercy,  hast  led  forth  the 
 people,  whom  thou  hast  redeemed  ;  thou  hast  guided 
 them  in  thy  strength,  unto  thy  holy  habitation.  The 
 people  shall  hear  and  shall  be  afraid  ;  sorrow  shall  take 
 hold  on  the  inhabitants  of  Palcstina.  The  elders  of  Edom 
 shall  be  amazed  ;  the  mighty  men  of  Moab  shall  tremble, 
 and  all  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan  shall  melt  away. 
 Fear  and  dread  shall  fall  upon  them.  By  the  greatness 
 of  thine  arm  they  shall  be  still  as  a  stone,  till  thy  people 
 pass  over,  O  Lord  till  thy  people  pass  over,  whom  thou 
 hast  purchased  :  thou  shall  bring  them  in,  and  plant  them 
 in  the  mountain  of  thine  inheritance,  in  the  place,  0 
 Lord,  which  thou  hast  made  for  them  to  dwell  in  ;  in  the 
 sanctuary,  O  Lord,  which  thy  hand  hath  established.' 
 
 These  words  are  part  of  that  triumphant  song,  which 
 Moses  made  upon  the  destruction  of  the  Egyptians  in 
 the  Red  Sea.  They  are  plain  predictions  of  what  befell 
 the  Israelites  forty  years  after,  and  a  declaration  they 
 are,  that  the  conquest  of  their  country,  was  not  only  by 
 the  order  and  appointment,  but  by  the  immediate  help 
 and  assistance  of  God  ;  3  '  for,'  as  the  Psalmist  expresses 
 it,  '  they  got  not  the  land  in  possession  through  their 
 own  sword,   neither  was  it  their  own  arm  that  helped 
 
 1  Gen.  xlviii.  22.  ■  Exod.  xv.  11,  &C  3  Ps.  xliv.  3,  4. 
 was  at  Bhiloh,  and  near  to  Joshua,  who  lived  at  Shecheni,  to  be 
 ready  on  all  occasions,  to  advise  him  and  consult  the  oracle  forhim. 
 But  then  against  this  there  lies  an  objection, namely, tha<  m  l 
 or  priest  was  to  have  any  portion  in  the  ili\  IsJon  of  the  land  ;  and 
 therefore  it  is  a  received"   opinion   among  the   Jews,   that    .  itli.-i 
 
 Eleazar  or  Phinehas  had  this  inheritance  in  right  of  his  wife: 
 though  we  cannot  see  why  the  high  priest  especially,  who  was 
 
 certainly  the  second  peiM.n    in   the   gOI  eminent,  might  not  have 
 a  mansion-house,  ami  some  domains  allotted  him,  for  the  g 
 state  and  dignity  of  his  living,  without  any  great  infringement 
 upon  the  general  laws. — Patrick's  Commentary  on  Joshua  xxiv. 
 
 38.  ,  , 
 
 d  It  may  reasonal  ly  be  thought,  that  the  bodies  a  the  rest  of 
 the  sons  of  Jacob,  from  whom  the  twelve  tribes  descended,  were 
 brought  into  Canaan,  to  be  'here  interred,  as  JosephlU 
 from  ancient  tradition,  Antiqu&u.  b.  2.  c.  1:)  and  a-  - 
 phen  confirms  it,  (Acts  vii.  16.)  Por  though  Joseph  excelled 
 them  in  all  dignity,  and  gave  this  special  charge  about  hi-  body, 
 vet  every  tribe,  no  doubt,  bad  a-  great  a  regard  for  their  progeni- 
 tor, and  would  be  inclined  to  do  the  same  tor  their  fathers,  that 
 Joseph's  descendants  did  for  him:  but  whether  they  buried  them 
 in  the  sepulchre  of  Machpelah,  or  in  some  eminent  |  lace  in  their 
 own  tribe,  a-  Joseph  was,  there  is  no  one  that  gives  ls  an/ 
 account. — Patrick's  Commentary  on  Joshua  xxiv.  'M. 
 
374 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3808.  A.  C.  1C08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 them  ;  but  thy  right  hand,  and  thine  arm  and  the  light 
 of  thy  countenance,  because  thou  hadst  a  favour  unto 
 them.'  And  if  God  so  immediately  concerned  himself 
 in  the  conquest  of  the  country,  we  need  not  wonder,  that 
 Ave  hear  of  the  people  who  were  to  defend  it,  being 
 amazed,  and  trembling,  and  melting-  away  for  fear.  The 
 Jewish  doctors  have  a  tradition,  that  the  vast  heaps  of 
 waters,  piled  upon  one  another,  while  the  Israelites 
 passed  over  the  river  Jordan,  being  seen  by  the  people 
 of  Jericho,  and  other  adjacent  places,  occasioned  so 
 general  a  consternation  that  they  never  once  thought  of 
 maintaining  the  pass.  And  indeed  their  consternation 
 must  have  been  very  great,  when  we  find  them  inclosing 
 themselves  within  their  walls,  and  suffering  the  Israelites 
 to  surround  them  seven  days  successively,  without  even 
 once  attempting  to  make  a  sally.  They  saw,  in  short, 
 that  a  power,  superior  to  all  human  opposition,  was 
 engaged  against  them ;  and  therefore  whatever  prior 
 measures  they  had  taken  for  their  mutual  defence,  upon 
 the  approach  of  an  army  commanded  by  one,  who,  when 
 he  pleases,  1  '  maketh  the  devices  of  the  people  ineffec- 
 tual, and  casteth  out  the  counsels  of  princes,'  they  were 
 all  broken  and  disconcerted. 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  in  ancient  times, 
 there  Mas  a  great  affinity  between  the  business  of  an 
 hostess  and  an  harlot.  Those  who  kept  inns,  or  public 
 houses  for  the  entertainment  of  strangers,  made  no 
 scruple  of  prostituting-  their  bodies  ;  and  for  this  reason 
 perhaps  it  is,  that,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  there  is  but 
 one  word,  namely,  zonafi,  to  denote  persons  of  both 
 professions.  For  this  reason  very  likely  it  was,  that  the 
 Septuagint,  speaking  of  Rabab,  gives  her  the  appellation 
 of  an  harlot,  and,  as  the  Septuagint  was  at  this  time  the 
 common  translation  of  the  Jews,  for  this  very  reason, 
 the  two  apostles,  2  St  Paul,  and  St  3  James,  as  they 
 found  it  in  the  translation,  might  make  use  of  the  same 
 expression.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  as  the 
 expression  is  capable  of  another  sense,  the  Chaldee 
 paraphrast  calls  her  by  a  word,  which  comes  from  the 
 Greek  ■zcci/Zoxsvtqi'c&,  or,  a  woman  that  kept  a  public 
 house,  without  any  work  of  infamy  ;  and  therefore  charity 
 should  incline  us  to  think  the  best  of  a  person,  whom 
 both  these  apostles  have  ranked  with  Abraham,  the 
 father  of  the  faithful,  and  propounded  as  an  example  of 
 faith  and  good  works  ;  who  was  admitted  into  the  society 
 of  God's  people  ;  married  into  a  a  noble  family  of  the 
 tribe  of  Judah ;  and  of  whose  posterity  Christ,  the 
 Saviour  of  the  world,  was  born. 
 
 To  save  the  lives  of  the  innocent  is  certainly  a  very 
 commendable  thing  ;  but  whether  it  may  be  done  by  the 
 help  of  dissimulation  and  falsehood,  or  whether  Rahab, 
 in  concealing  the  spies,  and  pretending  to  the  king's 
 messengers,  that  they  were  just  gone,  did  not  incur  the 
 sin  of  wilful  lying,  is  a  question  not  so  very  easy  to  be 
 resolved.  Men,  as  they  are  members  of  a  civil  society, 
 have  certainly  a  right  to  truth,  and  the  very  design  of 
 speech  is  to  be  the  conveyance  of  our  real  sentiments  to 
 
 1  Ps.  xxxiii.  10.  Heb.  xi.31.  3  James  ii.  25. 
 
 a  Rahab  married  Salmon,  a  prince  of  Judah,  by  whom  she 
 had  Boaz.  Boaz  was  father  of  Obed,  Obed  of  Jesse,  and  Jesse 
 of  king  David ;  so  that  Jesus  Christ  did  not  disdain  to  reckon 
 this  Canaanitish  woman  among  his  ancestors. — Calmefs  Diction- 
 ary, 
 
 one  another  ;  but  some  casuists  are  of  opinion,  that  cir- 
 cumstances may  so  happen,  as  to  make  it  both  lawful 
 and  necessary,  not  only  to  disguise  the  truth,  but  to 
 impose  upon  others  by  a  false  information.  Suppose  a 
 madman,  for  instance,  with  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand, 
 should  pursue  a  friend  of  mine,  with  a  full  intent  to  kill 
 him  ;  and  my  friend,  by  the  benefit  of  some  short  turning, 
 gives  him  the  drop,  so  that,  having  lost  sight  of  him,  he 
 comes  and  demands  of  me,  which  way  he  took;  but  I, 
 instead  of  setting  him  right,  point  the  assassin  another 
 way ;  in  this  case,  I  presume,  I  commit  no  crime, 
 because  the  man,  in  these  circumstances,  has  forfeited 
 all  right  to  truth  ;  nor  could  I  indeed  impart  it  to  him, 
 without  making  myself  instrumental  to  niy  friend's  mur- 
 der. This,  in  a  great  measure,  was  Rahab 's  case.  Her 
 design  was  to  save  the  spies  from  the  hands  of  those 
 that  were  sent  to  apprehend  them  ;  but  in  vain  had  she 
 formed  such  a  design,  unless  she  was  resolved  to  put  it  in 
 execution  ;  and  yet,  what  other  way  had  she  of  executing 
 it,  but  by  telling  a  lie  ?  It  had  been  to  no  purpose  for 
 her  to  have  hid  them  on  the  roof  of  her  house,  if,  for  the 
 sake  of  truth,  she  had  thought  herself  obliged  to  discover 
 the  place  of  their  concealment ;  if  her  silence  had  given 
 any  umbrage  of  suspicion  to  their  pursuers  ;  if  she  had 
 not,  in  short,  by  a  bold  assertion,  diverted  their  inquiry 
 some  other  way.  In  this  case  the  design,  and  the  means 
 of  executing  it  were  inseparable.  And  yet,  since  a 
 design,  which  could  no  ways  be  executed  without  the 
 help  of  a  lie,  is  both  praised  and  proposed  in  the  Scrip- 
 ture, as  a  pattern  for  the  church  to  imitate,  what  right 
 have  we  to  condemn  it  ?  Or,  upon  what  presumption 
 can  we  imagine,  that  Rahab  would  have  acted  more 
 agreeably  to  the  mind  of  God,  in  discovering  the  spies 
 out  of  respect  to  truth,  than  she  did,  in  preserving  them 
 byr  virtue  of  a  feigned  story  ?  *  But  there  is  another 
 way  of  accounting  for  Rahab 's  conduct,  and  that  is  this  : 
 4  The  author  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  informs  us, 
 that 5  '  by  faith  she  perished  not  with  them  that  believed 
 not,  when  she  had  received  the  spies  with  peace  ;  where 
 the  Greek  words  are  not  to7;  d7riaroi;,  with  the  unbeliev- 
 ers, but  <rois  dLTzsiGyioaot,  with  the  disobedient,  or  those 
 that  were  not  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  what  was  told 
 them.  But  how  the  inhabitants  of  Jericho  can  be  said 
 to  be  unconvinced  or  disobedient,  if  God  had  revealed 
 nothing  to  them,  or  required  nothing  of  them,  we  cannot 
 conceive.  Some  information  must  have  been  given 
 both  to  them  and  Rahab,  otherwise  they  could  not  be 
 condemned  for  disobedience,  nor  she  commended  for 
 her  faith,  that  is,  for  believing  and  acting  according  to 
 the  will  of  God,  made  known  unto  her.  Upon  the  sup- 
 position, then,  that  the  design  of  God  towards  the  inha- 
 bitants of  Canaan  was  some  way  or  other  revealed  to 
 
 4  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12.  5  Heb.  xi.  31. 
 
 b  The  first  part  of  our  author's  attempt  to  vindicate  the  con- 
 duct of  Rahab  is  very  little  to  the  purpose;  his  supposed  mad- 
 man would  have  no  right  to  truth,  but  unquestionably  the  king 
 and  magistrates  of  Jericho  had:  the  remaining  portion  of  his 
 remarks  are  much  more  to  the  purpose ;  but  in  fact  there  is  no 
 need  for  any  elaborate  inquiry,  how  far  she  may  be  considered 
 guilty,  or  how  far  she  may  be  excused  in  this  circumstance  ;  the 
 inspired  writer  sets  down  the  fact  as  it  stood,  without  making 
 the  Spirit  of  God  responsible  for  her  dissimulation;  and  though 
 it  is  intimated  in  other  places  of  the  Scriptures,  that  she  was 
 rewarded  for  her  conduct,  it  is  evident  that  she  was  rewarded 
 for  her  hospitality  and  faith,  not  for  her  lie. — En. 
 
Sect.  I.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  US!  ;   OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3S03.   A.  C.  lfifiS.  JOSH.  i.  TO  TIIF.  END. 
 
 375 
 
 the  king"  ami  people  of  Jericho,  and  both  he  and  they 
 had  been  sufficiently  warned  to  save  themselves  from  the 
 destruction  that  was  coming  upon  them,  if  they  would 
 not  obey  ;  but  if  Rahab  did  and  acted  conformably  to 
 the  information  that  was  given  her,  her  whole  behaviour 
 will  not  only  stand  clear  of  every  criminal  imputation, 
 but  be  highly  commendable,  and  justly  deserve  a  rank 
 among  those  illustrious  patterns  which  the  apostle  pro- 
 poses to  our  imitation,  as  being  a  person  justified  not 
 only  by  her  faith,  I  but  her  works  likewise,  '  when  she 
 received  the  messengers,  and  sent  them  out  another  way.' 
 The  declaration  which  their  kind  protectress  makes  to 
 them,  ~  '  I  know  that  the  Lord  hath  given  you  the  land, 
 and  that  your  terror  is  fallen  upon  us,  and  that  all  the 
 inhabitants  of  the  land  faint  because  of  you,  for  the  Lord 
 your  God,  he  is  God  in  heaven  above,  and  in  earth  be- 
 neath,' bespeaks  the  full  persuasion  of  her  mind ;  and 
 therefore,  not  doubting,  but  that  the  Ruler  of  the  universe 
 had  an  uncontrollable  right  to  dispose  of  all  kingdoms 
 and  countries  according  to  his  good  pleasure,  she  judged 
 it  reasonable  '  to  obey  God  rather  than  man,'  and  there- 
 upon endeavoured,  as  much  as  in  her  lay,  to  deliver  up 
 the  land  to  the  true  owners,  to  those  whom  God,  by  his 
 donation,  had  made  its  rightful  proprietors. 
 
 An  order  from  heaven  most  certainly  releases  the  sub- 
 ject from  his  allegiance  to  his  prince,  and  the  citizen 
 from  the  engagement  he  lies  under  to  those  that  are  of  the 
 same  society  ;  and  therefore  Rahab,  having  such  an  order, 
 or  at  least  what  was  equivalent  to  it,  was  at  full  liberty 
 to  espouse  what  party  she  pleased,  and  must  have  been 
 perfidious  to  God,  and  forgetful  of  her  own  preservation, 
 if  she  had  acted  otherwise  than  she  did.  For  s  even 
 setting  aside  her  faith,  a  for  which  she  is  so  justly  com- 
 mended in  the  gospel,  if  she  had  heard  of  the  destruc- 
 tion of  Pharaoh  in  Egypt,  and  of  the  other  two  kings  on 
 the  east  side  of  Jordan,  the  king  of  Jericho  can  hardly 
 be  supposed  to  be  ignorant  of  their  fate  :  and  therefore 
 it  was  as  natural  for  her  to  be  terrified  at  it,  and  to  pro- 
 vide for  her  safety,  as  it  was  for  him  to  make  a  brave 
 resistance,  or  perish  in  the  attempt.  If  therefore  what 
 the  Scripture  seems  to  intimate  be  true,  namely,  that 
 Joshua  was  obliged  to  offer  peace,  before  he  made  use 
 of  the  sword  against  any  of  the  Canaanitish  nations  ;  it 
 was  as  lawful  for  her,  or  any  other  subject,  to  accept 
 this  peace,  as  it  was  glorious  perhaps  for  a  monarch  to 
 refuse  it.  At  least  we  cannot  but  think,  that  the  refusal 
 of  such  advantageous  terms  from  an  irresistible  con- 
 queror, at  the  risk  of  being  all  infallibly  massacred  by 
 him,  for  the  sake  of  a  king,  who,  for  aught  that  appears 
 to  the  contrary,  might  be  a  petty  tyrant,  or  for  the  sake 
 of  a  people  whom  fear  had  rendered  incapable  of  making 
 any  tolerable  resistance  ;  when  perhaps  the  difference  of 
 being  under  the  natural  monarch,  if  he  was  really  such, 
 or  the  conqueror,  was  inconsiderable,  or,  it  may  be,  on 
 the  side  of  the  latter  :  we  cannot  but  think,  1  say,  that 
 6uch  a  refusal  would  have  been  an  instance  of  patriotism, 
 not  to  be  expected  from  a  Canaanite,  and  much  less 
 from  such  a  young  hostess,  as  Rahab  must  have  been, 
 
 '  Jam.  ii.  25.  *  Josh.  ii.  9,  11.  3  Univers.  Hist.  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 a  This  is  rather  a  strange  suggestion.  If  we  set  aside  her 
 faith,  her  conduct  cannot  be  vindicated.  And  as  it  was  lor  her 
 faith  she  was  rewarded,  as  the  apostle  assures  us,  we  can  neither 
 doubt  it  nor  set  it  aside. — Ed. 
 
 since  we  read  of  her  being  the  mother  of  Boaz,  above 
 thirty  years  after  this.  So  that,  upon  the  whole,  she 
 acted  a  part  that  might  naturally  be  expected  from  her, 
 no  ways  inglorious  in  itself,  and  highly  agreeable  to  the 
 will  of  God,  when  she  adjoined  herself  to  those,  who, 
 by  his  almighty  arm,  were  so  visibly  supported  ;  and 
 abandoned  the  interests  of  those,  who,  upon  so  many 
 accounts,  were  very  justly  devoted  to  destruction. 
 
 AVhat  the  Spirit  says  unto  the  church  at  Thyatira,  *  '  I 
 gave  her  space  to  repent  of  her  fornication,  but  she 
 repented  not;  behold,  I  will  cast  her  into  a  bed,  and 
 them  that  commit  adultery  with  her  into  great  tribulation, 
 and  I  will  kill  her  children  with  death,  and  give  unto 
 every  one  according  to  his  works,'  is  very  applicable  to 
 the  several  nations  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  Four  hun- 
 dred years  were  to  intervene  between  the  commencement 
 of  the  promise  to  Abraham,  and  this  completion  of  it; 
 and  the  reason  which  God  gives  for  this  long  delay  is, 
 that  5  '  the  iniquity  of  the  Amorites,'  and  by  the  Amorites 
 he  means  all  the  other  nations  of  Canaan,  '  was  not  yet 
 full  :  "  And  6  even  though,'*  as  the  author  of  the  book 
 of  AVisdom  argues,  "  he  could  have  destroyed  them  all 
 with  one  rough  word,  yet  executing  his  judgments  by 
 little  and  little,  he  gave  them  place  of  repentance,  not 
 being  ignorant  that  they  were  an  haughty  generation, 
 and  that  their  malice  was  bred  in  them,  and  their  cogita- 
 tion would  never  be  changed."  For  instead  of  reform- 
 ing, the  only  effect  which  this  delay  had,  was  to  make 
 them  more  confirmed  in  wickedness,  and' because  7  'this 
 sentence  against  their  evil  works  was  not  speedily 
 executed,  therefore  were  their  hearts  the  fuller  set  in 
 them  to  do  evil.' 
 
 What  the  nature  and  heinousness  of  their  iniquities 
 were,  we  may  best  learn  from  8  the  many  precautions 
 which  God  gives  his  people  against  them  ;  "  for  he 
 hated  them,"  as  the  9  same  author  has  drawn  up  the 
 articles  of  accusation  against  them,  "  for  doing  most 
 odious  works  of  witchcraft,  and  wicked  sacrifices,  for 
 their  merciless  murdering  of  children,  devouring  of  man's 
 flesh,  and  feasting  upon  blood  ; "  and  if  we  may  suppose 
 that  God,  some  way  or  other,  had  given  these  nations 
 sufficient  notice  of  his  intended  severity  against  them  if 
 they  did  not  repent;  had  abundant  reason  to  preserve 
 his  own  people  from  the  infection  of  the  abominations  : 
 and  before  their  extirpation  was  executed,  did  "'  bj  his 
 servant  Joshua,  offer  them  conditions  of  peace  :  though 
 the  divine  counsels  are  a  secret  to  us,  yet,  even  upon 
 this  face  of  things,  wo  cannot  find  any  fault  with  his 
 treatment  of  them,  since  when  he  had  given  them  '  space 
 to  repent,  and  they  repented  not."  his  justice  was  certainly 
 then  at  liberty  to  take  what  vengeance  his  divine  wisdom 
 should  think  fit. 
 
 And  indeed  this  seems  to  be  one  of  the  reasons  why 
 God  divided  the  river  for  the  Israelites,  who  were  to  be 
 the  instruments  of  this  his  vengeance,  to  pass  over,  name. 
 ly,  that  thereby  he  might  inject  a  terror  into  the  inhabi- 
 tants of  Canaan,  ami  so  facilitate  the  conquest  of  their 
 country.  On  the  side  of  Jordan,  the  kings  of  the  neigh- 
 bourhood feared  no  invasion.  The  depth  of  the  river, 
 especially  at  the  time  of  its  overflowing,  which  was  in 
 
 *  Rev.  ii.  21,  &c.         '  Gen.  xv.  Ifi.         »  WlsA.  \ii.  0,  10. 
 7  Be.  viii.  1 1.  "  See  Lev.  xviii.  4. ;  Deirt.  ix.  4,  lie. 
 
 9  W'isd.  xii.  4,  5.  ,0  Dent.  xx.  10,  11.;  Josh.  xi.  llJ. 
 
376 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2J53   A.  C.  1151;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3S03.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 the  harvest,  when  the  Israelites  l  passed  it,  was  barrier 
 sufficient,  they  thought,  against  all  that  the  Israelites 
 could  do.  For  in  those  days,  pontoons  were  things 
 never  heard  of  in  military  expeditions  ;  and  the  a  stream 
 is,  even  at  this  day,  allowed  to  be  too  fierce  and  rapid 
 for  any  one  to  swim  over :  and  therefore,  as  they 
 expected  no  danger  from  that  quarter,  and  might  for  that 
 reason  draw  out  no  forces  to  defend  that  side  of  their 
 frontier  ;  so  the  sacred  historian  has  taken  care  to  inform 
 us,  that,  2  '  when  all  the  kings  of  the  Amorites  which  were 
 on  the  side  of  Jordan  westward,  and  all  the  kings  of  the 
 Canaanites  which  were  by  the  sea,  heard  that  the  Lord 
 had  dried  up  the  waters  of  Jordan  from  before  the 
 children  of  Israel,  until  they  were  passed  over,  their 
 hearts  melted,  neither  was  there  spirit  in  them  any  more.' 
 
 And  as  this  miraculous  passage  could  not  but  iill  their 
 enemies  with  confusion,  so  it  added,  no  doubt,  fresh 
 courage  to  the  Israelites,  when  they  came  to  consider, 
 that  the  same  God,  about  forty  years  before,  had  wrought 
 the  like  miracle  for  them  in  their  passage  of  the  Red 
 Sea ;  that  then  he  divided  the  waves,  3  to  confirm  the 
 commission  which  he  had  given  Moses,  and  now  had 
 parted  the  stream,  to  strengthen  the  authority  of  his  suc- 
 cessor, Joshua,  and  to  give  them  assurance  that  4  '  he 
 would  be  with  the  one,  as  he  had  been  with  the  other, 
 and  empower  the  latter  to  make  good  their  possession  of 
 '  the  land  of  promise,'  even  as  he  had  enabled  the  former 
 to  accomplish  their  deliverance  '  out  of  the  land  of 
 bondage.' 
 
 In  all  rivers  whatever,  there  questionless  are  some 
 shallower  places  than  ordinary,  or  some  passages,  either 
 by  boats  or  bridges,  that  may  be  called  fords  ;  but  that 
 the  Jordan,  at  this  time,  was  either  so  vastly  overflown 
 as  to  render  these  fords  impassable,  or  that  the  Israel- 
 ites crossed  it  at  places  which  the  enemy  never  thought 
 of,  and  where  none  of  these  passes  were  to  be  found,  is 
 pretty  evident  from  the  Canaanites  making  no  prepara- 
 tion to  defend  their  coasts  on  the  river  side,  and  from 
 the  gTeat  consternation  we  find  them  in,  when  once  they 
 understood  that  the  Jewish  army  had  got  over.  For, 
 whatever  opinion  we,  at  this  distance  of  time,  may  have 
 of  the  matter,  they  justly  inferred,  that  the  suspension 
 of  a  river's  course  could  be  effected  no  other  way  than 
 
 1  Josh.  iii.  15;  1  Chron.  xii.  15;  and  Ecclus.  xxiv.  26. 
 
 8  Josh.  v.  1 . 
 
 3  Saurin's  Dissertation  on  the  Passage  of  the  Jordan.    4  Josh.  i.  17. 
 
 a  That  the  sacred  writings  do  constantly  represent  this  river  as 
 not  fordable,  except  at  some  particular  places,  very  probably  made 
 by  art,  that  the  countries  on  each  side  may  have  a  freer  com- 
 munication, is  plain  from  the  passages  to  which  these  several 
 citations,  (Josh.  ii.  2;  Judg.  iii.  28,  and  xii.  5;  2  Kings  ii.  14,) 
 do  refer.  That  it  was  not  a  poor  and  inconsiderable  stream,  such 
 as  some  have  represented  it,  is  evident  from  the  account  of 
 Thevenot,  (in  his  Travels,  p.  193,)  who  himself  went  near  the 
 place  where  the  Israelites  passed  over,  and  describes  it  to  be 
 '  half  as  broad  as  the  Seine  at  Paris,  very  deep,  and  very  rapid ;' 
 which  agrees  very  well  with  what  Maundrell  (in  his  Journey 
 from.  Aleppo,  p.  83)  says  of  it,  namely,  "  That  its  channel  is 
 twenty  yards  over,  deeper  than  a  man's  height,  and  runs  with 
 such  a  current,  that  there  is  no  swimming  against  it:"  and  that, 
 whatever  the  present  condition  of  Jordan  may  be,  it  is  certain, 
 when  the  Israelites  came  into  Canaan,  it  was  a  much  larger  river 
 than  now  it  is;  for  even  in  Pliny's  time  (Natural  History,  b.  5.) 
 its  channel  was  much  larger  than  what  it  now  runs  in,  having 
 then  the  title  of  Amnis  Ambinosus ;  and  in  the  days  when  Strabo 
 wrote,  (according  to  his  Geoff,  h.  16,)  even  vessels  of  burden 
 might  navigate  in  it. — Shuc/iford' 's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12. 
 
 by  a  divine  power,  either  immediately  acting  itself  or  by 
 the  instrumentality  of  its  angels.  And  though  there  pos- 
 sibly may  be  some  instances  in  history,  wherein,  by  the 
 violence  of  adverse  winds,  the  course  of  rivers  has  either 
 been  retarded,  or  *  driven  back  ;  yet  as  we  read  of  no 
 such  wind  concerned  in  this  event,  the  prediction  of 
 Joshua,  and  the  promises  of  God  concerning  this  miracle, 
 the  time  in  which  he  chose  to  work  it,  and  the  analogy 
 it  bears  with  what  before  was  wrought  at  the  Red  Sea ; 
 these,  and  several  other  circumstances,  make  this  trans- 
 action beyond  compare,  and  rank  it,  not  only  among 
 those  prodigies  which  very  rarely  come  to  pass,  but 
 among  those  stupendous  works,  which,  contrary  to  the  laws 
 of  nature,  the  great  Author  and  Ruler  of  the  universe, 
 for  the  preservation  of  his  people,  and  the  manifestation 
 of  his  own  glory,  is  sometimes  observed  to  do. 
 
 5  '  He  that  is  born  in  thy  house,  or  he  that  is  bought 
 with  thy  money,  must  needs  be  circumcised,  and  my 
 covenant  shall  be  in  your  flesh  for  an  everlasting  cove- 
 nant ;  and  the  uncircumcised  man-child,  whose  flesh  of 
 his  foreskin,  is  not  circumcised,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off 
 from  his  people  ;  he  hath  broken  my  covenant.'  These 
 are  the  words  of  the  precept,  and  they  seem  to  be  so 
 very  urgent  and  express,  that  one  would  really  think 
 the  ordinance  was  intended  not  only  for  a  distinction 
 between  Jew  and  Gentile,  but  for  an  institution  likewise, 
 to  take  away  the  guilt  of  original  sin.  And  yet,  eveu 
 upon  this  supposition,  6  the  people's  frequent  moving 
 from  place  to  place,  the  uncertainty  of  their  decamp- 
 ments, and  the  inconvenience  of  their  travelling,  which 
 would  make  it  dangerous  for  children  to  be  circumcised 
 before  a  march,  might  be  some  apology  for  their  omit- 
 ting the  observation  of  this  rite,  even  though  they  had 
 no  divine  dispensation  for  it. 
 
 7  It  is  one  of  the  general  rules  among  the  Jews,  that 
 no  precept,  (always  meaning  no  ceremonial  precept,  for 
 some  precepts  there  are  that  were  to  be  observed,  even 
 at  the  expense  of  their  lives,)  whose  observation  occa- 
 sions death,  is  to  be  attended  to  because  the  Scriptures 
 say,  that  '  he  who  observeth  these  laws  shall  live,'  not 
 die,  '  by  them.'  But  how  frivolous  soever  this  reason 
 may  be,  it  is  certain,  that  in  case  they  apprehended  any 
 danger  from  the  operation,  they  carried  this  dispensation 
 so  far,  as  to  exempt  the  next  child  from  having  this  ordi- 
 nance pass  upon  him,  if  so  be  that  his  brother  before  him 
 died  of  the  wound  which  he  received  in  circumcision. 
 And  for  a  farther  excuse,  they  add,  that  during  their 
 
 5  Gen.  xvii.  13,  14. 
 
 6  Saurin's  Dissertation  on  the  taking  of  Jericho. 
 
 7  Lightfoot's  Hor.  Heb.  in  1  Cor.  vii.  19. 
 
 h  Something  of  this  nature  seems  to  have  happened  in  Augus- 
 tus' time,  according  to  that  known  passage  in  Horace: — "  Wo 
 saw  the  yellow  Tiber,  with  its  waves  violently  beaten  back  on 
 the  Etrurian  shore,  rush  forth  to  cover  the  monuments  of  the 
 king,  and  the  temples  of  the  Vestal  Virgin." — B.  1.  Ode  2. 
 
 Granting  that  we  admit  the  truth  of  the  poetical  story,  which 
 would  be  stretching  our  belief  to  its  utmost  limits;  and  supposing 
 it  possible  that  the  waters  of  the  Jordan,  running  at  such  a  rapid 
 rate  as  they  are  known  to  do,  (see  note,  pp.  3(33-4,)  could  have  been 
 kept  back  by  a  wind  blowing  against  the  course  of  the  stream;  it 
 is  evident  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  a  multitude  of 
 men,  women,  and  children,  to  have  marched  across  in  the  course 
 of  that  wind.  The  simplest  way,  therefore,  is  to  admit  the 
 miracle  on  the  testimony  of  the  inspired  writer,  and  not  search 
 for  natural  causes,  which  involve  us  in  a  labyrinth  of  difficulties. 
 —Ed. 
 
Skct.  LI  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  j  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END 
 
 377 
 
 sojourning  in  the  wilderness  for  one  crime  or  other,  their 
 forefathers  were  generally  under  the  divine  displeasure, 
 in  which  condition  it  would  have  been  a  profanation  of 
 the  sacrament  to  have  administered  it. 
 
 But  then,  if  the  other  notion  of  this  ordinance  be  admit- 
 ted, namely,  that  it  was  no  more  than  a  note  of  distinction 
 between  the  Israelites  and  other  nations,  as  the  Israelites 
 were  now  alone  in  the  wilderness,  there  was  no  danger 
 of  their  mixing  with  others,  and  consequently  less  reason 
 for  their  observation  of  this  distinguishing  rite,  until  they 
 should  enter  upon  the  possession  of  a  country  where 
 every  kind  of  idolatry  surrounded  thorn  on  all  hands. 
 
 Thus,  whether  we  look  upon  the  rite  of  circumcision 
 as  a  sacrament  of  initiation  into  the  Jewish  church,  or  a 
 character  of  distinction  only  between  them  and  other 
 people,  the  Israelites  might,  without  the  imputation  of 
 much  guilt,  omit  the  outward  observance  of  it,  if  so  be 
 that  they  did  but  attend  to  what  was  the  true  intent  and 
 meaning  of  it,  namely,  *  '  the  circumcising  the  foreskin 
 of  their  hearts  ;' 2 '  for  he  is  not  a  Jew  (as  St  Paul  excel- 
 lently argues)  who  is  one  outwardly,  neither  is  that  cir- 
 cumcision, which  is  outward  in  the  flesh  ;  but  he  is  a  Jew, 
 who  is  one  inwardly,  and  circumcision  is  that  of,  the 
 heart,  in  the  spirit,  and  not  in  the  letter,  whose  praise  is 
 not  of  men,  but  of  God.' 
 
 In  like  manner,  the  observation  of  the  Sabbath-day 
 was  a  precept  of  severe  injunction  ;  but  whether  the 
 destruction  of  Jericho  happened  on  that  day,  or  any 
 other  of  the  week,  as  the  Israelites  were  ordered  to  com- 
 pass the  city  for  seven  days  successively,  it  is  certain 
 that  one  of  these  days  must  necessarily  have  been  the 
 Sabbath ;  and  yet  we  must  not  suppose  that  they  com- 
 mitted any  great  offence  in  what  they  did,  because  the 
 same  authority  which  made  the  law  for  the  observation 
 of  it,  gave  now  a  full  license  for  the  profanation  of  it. 
 The  person  who  met  Joshua,  and  prescribed  the  form  of 
 the  siege  of  Jericho,  by  his  assumption  of  divine  honours 
 and  appellations,  was  doubtless  the  same  who  delivered 
 the  law  from  Mount  Sinai :  and  therefore  we  need  not 
 question  but  that  now  he  acted  in  as  full  power  in  sus- 
 pending, since  his  orders  could  not  be  executed  without 
 such  suspension,  as  he  then  did  in  enjoining  the  observ- 
 ation of  the  Sabbath  ;  and  it  is  in  allusion,  as  some 
 imagine,  to  this  very  passage,  that  our  blessed  Saviour 
 pronounced  that  maxim  in  the  gospel,  3  '  the  Sabbath 
 was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath.' 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  before  our  Saviour's 
 'lays,  the  Jews  carried  the  observation  of  the  Sabbath  to 
 a  great  degree  of  rigour.  In  the  time  of  the  Maccabees, 
 they  would  not  so  much  as  defend  themselves  against  the 
 assault  of  their  enemies  on  that  day,  4  but  yielded  their 
 throats  to  be  cut,  rather  than  stir  a  hand  in  their  own 
 vindication  :  whereas  this  example  of  their  forefathers 
 investing,  if  not  sacking,  Jericho  on  the  Sabbath-day, 
 blight  have  taught  them,  one  would  think,  that  in  cases  of 
 this  nature,  it  was  allowable,  not  oidy  to  defend  them- 
 selves, but  to  prevent  their  enemies  annoying  them,  nay 
 even  to  fall  upon  and  destroy  them,  whenever  a  favour- 
 able opportunity  presented  itself  on  that  day. 
 
 In  the  conquest  of  Jericho,  however,  some  have  ima- 
 gined that  rams'  horns  were  not  proper  materials  whereof 
 
 1  Deut.  x.  16.         2  Rom.  ii.  28,  29.         "  Mark  ii.  27. 
 4  Pritkaux's  Connection,  part  2.  vol.  4. 
 
 to  make  trumpets  ;  that  they  are  not  so  easily  perforated, 
 nor  can  they  ever  be  brought  to  make  a  sound  shrill  and 
 extensive  enough  for  their  particular  purposes;  and 
 therefore  they  conceive,  that  brass  or  silver,  or  any 
 other  metal,  had  been  more  convenient  for  this  use  ■ 
 whereupon  5  they  derive  the  word  Jobel,  in  the  singular 
 which  we  render  a  ram's  horn,  not  from  the  Arabic,  which 
 signifies  a  ram,  but  from  Jubal,  the  name  of  him  who 
 was  the  first  inventor  of  musical  instruments  :  and  accord- 
 ing to  this  sense,  the  trumpets  which  the  priests  upon 
 this  occasion  used,  may  be  said  to  have  been  fashioned 
 according  to  those  which  Jubal  first  invented." 
 
 This  interpretation  of  the  words,  which  is  no  bad  one, 
 removes  all  the  incongruity  that  may  seem  to  arise  from 
 the  matter  whereof  those  trumpets  were  composed:  but 
 then,  it  is  to  be  considered,  that  as  the  first  instruments 
 of  this  kind  were  probably  made  of  horns,  so  has  the 
 notion  of  the  impossibility  of  boring  a  rams  horn  been 
 sufficiently  confuted  by  our  learned  Spencer.  The  truth 
 is,  every  one  knows,  that  in  the  inside  of  it  there  is  a 
 softer  part,  which  may  be  drawn  out  by  art ;  after  which 
 it  is  hollow  all  the  way  up,  except  four  or  five  inches 
 towards  the  top,  part  of  which  is  sawed  off,  to  make  it 
 broad  enough  for  the  mouth,  and  then  the  rest  is  easily 
 bored.  But  whether  there  is  any  foundation  for  that 
 fancy  of  the  Jews,  that  these  horns  were  retained  in  the 
 proclamation  of  some  of  their  greatest  festivals,  in 
 memory  of  Isaac's  being  rescued  from  his  father  Abra- 
 ham's knife,  by  the  substitution  of  a  ram  in  his  stead,  is 
 a  point  that  we  leave  to  the  speculations  of  the  curious. 
 
 Whatever  materials  these  trumpets  were  made  of,  it  is 
 impossible  to  conceive  that  there  should  lie  any  power  in 
 their  sound  to  demolish  cities  ;  and  though  the  noise  of 
 a  great  number  of  people  might  be  very  loud,  yet  still  it 
 would  require  a  miracle  in  Joshua  to  know  what  the  just 
 proportion  was  between  their  noise,  and  the  strength  of 
 the  walls  of  Jericho,  since  the  least  deviation  in  this 
 respect  would  have  defeated  the  whole  experiment. 
 
 What  the  effect  of  gunpowder,  or  of  other  sulphureous 
 matter  fired  under  ground,  or  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth, 
 is,  no  one  that  has  seen  either  the  springing  of  a  mine, 
 
 or  felt  the  convulsions  of  an  earthquake,  d Is  be  told  ; 
 
 but  that  no  stratagem  of  this  kind  could  be  employed  in 
 the  siege  of  Jericho,  is  manifest,  because  the  invention 
 of  gunpowder  is  a  novel  thing;  nor  had  the  Israelites 
 been  long  enough  on  the  western  side  of  Jordan,  to  have 
 undermined  its  walls,  even  though  they  had  bad  the 
 secret  of  some  inflammatory  stratum,  to  have  lodged 
 under  them.  On  the  contrary,  the  whole  process  of  this 
 siege,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  was  managed  at  such  a  rate, 
 as  plainly  discovered  an  expectance  of  a  miracle  to  In- 
 wrought :  for  had  not  this  been  the  case,  instead  of  saun- 
 tering-about  the  walls  for  seven  da\s.  they   should   have 
 
 5  Masius  in  Josh.  \  i.  •  ;   Bochart's   1 1  i<  i  ••-.  b,  'I.  c.  4.'!;  and 
 Calnict  in  locum. 
 
 a  Boothroyd,  following  Coverdale,  renders  the  phrase  translated 
 in  the  common  text,  '  trumpets  of  rams'  horns,' jubilee  trumpets; 
 and  Parkhursl  observes,  "  I  cannot  find  that  the  word  Lz  • 
 ever  signifies  "  mm;  nor  have  tin-  Septuagint,  Vulgate,  or  other 
 ancient  versions,  ever  so  rendered  it:  (Exod.  \i\.  13,)  is  plain 
 against  this  rabbinical  sense  of  the  word."  [n  the  in\i  verse 
 tiTey  an-  called  horns,  but  this  might  be  their  form.  01  whati  ver 
 materials  they  might  be,  they  were  such  as  were  used  at  the 
 Jubilee,  according  to  the  Vulgate. — Ed. 
 3b 
 
378  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2553.   A.  C.  1451;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 been  working  in  their  trenches,  and  carrying  on  their 
 approaches,  as  we  now  call  it. 
 
 The  art  of  war  was  then  but  in  its  infancy ;  and  as  the 
 manner  of  undermining  and  blowing  up  the  most  ponder- 
 ous bodies,  was  what  the  ancients  were  unacquainted 
 with,  so  was  the  battering-ram  an  invention  of  a  later 
 date  than  some  imagine.  '  Pliny  indeed  seems  to  say, 
 that  Epeus  first  made  use  of  it  at  the  siege  of  Troy ;  but 
 in  all  probability,  2  Ezekiel  is  the  earliest  author  that 
 mentions  this  machine,  and  perhaps  the  first  time  that  it 
 was  employed  was  under  Nebuchadnezzar,  at  the  siege 
 of  Jerusalem. 
 
 But  there  is  no  need  to  ransack  history  for  the  confu- 
 tation of  this  system,  which  3  they  who  propose  it  do 
 nevertheless  acknowledge,  that  though  the  walls  of 
 Jericho  might  have  fallen  without  any  extraordinary  act 
 of  divine  power,  yet  by  the  circumstances  of  the  whole 
 account,  it  appears  that  this  event  was  altogether  mir- 
 aculous. Nor  should  Joshua's  denouncing  an  anathema 
 over  the  vanquished  city  be  thought  a  thing  unprece- 
 dented, or  a  token  of  a  furious  and  implacable  spirit, 
 since  the  like  practice  has  been  observed  by  some  of  the 
 greatest  generals  of  other  nations  ;  forasmuch  as  4  Aga- 
 memnon, after  he  had  taken  Troy,  denounced  a  curse 
 upon  those  who  should,  at  any  time,  attempt  to  rebuild 
 it ;  the  Romans  published  a  decree  of  execration  against 
 them  who  should  do  the  like  to  Carthage ;  and  when 
 *  Crassus  had  demolished  Sidon,  which  had  been  a  lurk- 
 ing-place to  the  tyrant  Glaucias,  he  wished  the  greatest 
 evils  imaginable  upon  the  head  of  that  man  who  should 
 but  so  much  as  build  a  wall  about  the  place  where  it  once 
 stood. a 
 
 Of  all  the  questions  in  the  Jewish  schools,  there  is 
 none  more  difficult  than  What  we  are  to  understand  by 
 the  Urim  and  Thunnuim,  which  Moses  takes  notice  of  as 
 something  belonging  to  the  attire  of  the  high  priest,  and 
 withal  enabling  him  to  give  responses  to  such  as,  by  his 
 mediation,  came  to  consult  God.  6  The  two  words  are 
 variously  translated  ;  but  in  the  main,  all  the  transla- 
 tions amount  much  to  the  same  purport ;  and  as  this 
 sacred  thing,  be  it  what  it  will,  was  to  be  placed  on  the 
 high  priest's  breast,  it  very  properly  reminded  him  of  the 
 
 1  B.  vii.  c.  56.  2  Ezek.  iv.  1,  2.  and  xxi.  22. 
 
 s  P.  Mersenne,  in  his  Commentary  on  Genesis,  and  D.  Geo. 
 Merhof.  de  Scypho  vitreo  per  certum  humans  vocis  tonum 
 fracto. 
 
 4  Strabo,  b.  13.  p.  898.  s  Zonarae  Annal.  b.  9.  p.  409. 
 
 6  Edwards'  Inquiry  into  Difficult  Texts,  part  2. 
 
 a  All  these  events  were  long  posterior  to  the  destruction  of 
 Jericho,  and  though  they  had  not,  the  conduct  of  Agamemnon  or 
 Crassus  could  have  served  nothing  to  the  vindication  of  Joshua. 
 The  case  appears  to  have  been  this, — Jericho  was  taken  and 
 destroyed  in  so  singular  a  manner  that  it  seems  to  have  been  the 
 wish  of  the  Hebrew  leader,  approved  by  God,  to  preserve  a 
 memorial  of  one  of  the  greatest  miracles  that  were  wrought  for 
 Israel,  by  leaving  the  ruins  of  the  city  as  a  monument,  to  the 
 latest  posterity,  of  the  power  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  his  hatred 
 of  polytheism,  and  of  such  vices  as  sprang  from  polytheism,  and 
 were  practised  in  Jericho.  Accordingly  Joshua  adjured  the 
 ciders  of  the  people,  or  made  them  bind  themselves  by  a  solemn 
 oath,  to  leave  the  ruins  of  the  city  as  a  perpetual  warning  to 
 their  posterity  of  the  consequences  of  idolatry  and  vice ;  and  to 
 give  additional  sanctity  to  the  oath,  he  pronounced  a  curse  upon 
 any  one  of  them  or  their  descendants,  by  whom  it  should  be  viol- 
 ated. It  was  one  of  the  many  extraordinary  precautions  taken 
 to  preserve  the  Israelites  from  worshipping  the  idol  deities  of  the 
 surrounding  nations. — Bhhcp  Glcig. — Ei>. 
 
 great  qualifications  requisite  in  those  of  his  order ;  light, 
 or  sufficiency  of  spiritual  knowledge  ;  and  perfection,  or 
 the  virtue  and  sanctity  of  his  life. 
 
 The  general  opinion  indeed  is,  that  this  Urim  and 
 Thummim  were  one  and  the  same  thing.  But  an  '  inge- 
 nious writer  of  our  own  nation,  conceives  them  to  be  two 
 different  oracles,  and  applied  to  different  purposes  ;  that 
 Urim  was  the  oracle  whereby  God  gave  answer  to  those 
 who  consulted  him  in  difficult  cases,  and  Thummim, 
 that  whereby  the  high  priest  knew  whether  God  did 
 accept  the  sacrifice  or  no ;  that  therefore  the  former  is 
 called  '  light,'  as  giving  knowledge,  which  dispels  the 
 darkness  of  our  minds  ;  and  the  other  '  int^grity,'  or '  per- 
 fection,' because  they  whose  sacrifices  God  accepted, 
 were  accounted  Thummim,  that  is,'  just  and  righteous  in 
 his  sight :'  in  short,  that  by  the  former,  the  Jews  were 
 ascertained  of  the  counsel  or  will  of  God ;  by  the  latter, 
 of  his  favour  and  good  acceptance.  But  this  distinction 
 has  not  met  with  a  general  approbation,  because,  how- 
 ever there  may  be  8  passages  where  the  one  is  mentioned 
 without  the  other,  yet  in  this  case,  the  one,  which  is 
 generally  the  Urim,  may  well  enough  be  supposed  to 
 include  both. 
 
 The  Jewish  doctors  are  mostly  of  opinion,  that  the 
 Urim  and  Thummim  were  nothing  else  but  the  precious 
 stones,  which  were  set  upon  the  breastplate  ;  and  that 
 9  by  the  shining  or  protuberating  of  the  letters  in  the 
 names  of  the  twelve  tribes,  engraven  upon  the  twelve 
 stones,  the  high  priest  when  he  came  to  consult  God, 
 could  read  the  answer  :  but  in  this  opinion  there  are  some 
 difficulties  hardly  to  be  surmounted.  For  besides  that 
 all  the  letters  in  the  Hebrew  alphabet  are  not  to  be  found 
 on  the  pectoral,  since  there  are  four,  namely,  Hcth,  Teth, 
 Zade,  and  Koph,  manifestly  wanting ;  1U  the  question  is, 
 by  what  rules  the  high  priest  could  make  a  combination 
 of  these  letters,  supposing  there  were  enough  of  them, 
 and  so  put  them  together,  as  to  spell  out  the  divine  ora- 
 cle ;  because  it  is  not  pretended  that  these  letters  moved 
 out  of  their  places,  but  only  swelled,  or  raised  themselves 
 above  the  rest  ?  Suppose,  for  instance,  that  any  six  of 
 these  letters  should  have  swelled,  or  shone  with  a  more 
 than  ordinary  lustre,  yet  how  should  the  high  priest  know 
 to  dispose  of  them  in  right  order,  and  which  should 
 be  first,  and  which  last  ?  If  it  be  said — By  the  spirit  of 
 prophecy  ;  this  vacates  all  the  necessity  of  the  Urim  and 
 Thummim  ;  because  a  prophetic  spirit  would  teach  him 
 what  he  desired  to  know,  without  any  farther  assistance. 
 
 11  Christophorus  a  Castro,  and  from  him  12  Dr  Spencer 
 will  needs  have  it  that  this  Urim  and  Thummim  were 
 two  little  images,  (much  of  the  same  make  with  the  Gen- 
 tile teraphim,)  which  being  folded  in  the  doubling  of  the 
 breastplate,  did  from  thence  give  oracular  answers  by 
 an  audible  voice,  and  that  this  device  was  taken  from 
 the  Egyptians.  But  besides  that  the  word  teraphim,  to 
 which  these  others  were  compared,  is  seldom  or  never 
 taken  in  a  good  sense,  it  seems  a  little  improbable,  that 
 in  a  matter  so  solemn  and  sacred,  the  Jews  should  be 
 left  to  follow  the  example  of  the  idolatrous  Egyptians. 13 
 
 "  Mcde's  Discourse  35.    8  Num.  xxvii.  21  ;  1  Sam.  xxviii.  6. 
 
 9  Prideaux's  Connection,  part  2.  b.  3. 
 
 10  Calmtt's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Urim. 
 
 "  De  Vatiiinio.  12  Dissert.  De  Urim  tt  Thummim. 
 
 13  Edwards'  Inquiry,  part  2. 
 
Skct.  I.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THK  END 
 
 379 
 
 Tlie  sacred  records  indeed  inform  us,  that  the  Jews 
 borrowed  of  the  Egyptians  'jewels  of  silver,  and  gold, 
 and  raiment :'  but  they  nowhere  intimate,  that  the  .Jewish 
 high  priest  borrowed  his  pontifical,  and  particularly  his 
 oracular  habit,  from  them  ;  and  therefore  to  think  that 
 God  who  declares  himself  so  positively  against  the  idola- 
 trous practice  of  the  Gentiles,  should,  by  these  images 
 of  pagan  invention,  take  the  ready  way  to  give  them 
 countenance  and  encouragement ;  or  to  think,  that  the 
 Jews,  who  were  expressly  commanded  not  to  '  learn  the 
 way  of  the  heathen,'  and  '  '  after  the  doings  of  the  land 
 of  Egypt,  where  they  had  dwelt,  not  to  do  ;'  were  per- 
 mitted, nay,  commanded  to  make  use  of  this  magical  and 
 superstitious  rite,  is  such  a  heap  of  odd  and  wild  con- 
 ceits, as  no  unprejudiced  mind  can  ever  entertain. 
 
 Others  therefore  are  of  opinion,  that  it  was  the  tetra- 
 granmiaton,  or  ineffable  name  of  God  ;  and  others,  that 
 it  was  no  more  than  the  two  plain  words  Urim  and 
 Thunnnim,  written  or  engraved  on  some  plate  of  gold  or 
 precious  stones,  which,  when  placed  upon  the  pectoral, 
 would  give  it  an  oracular  power  :  -  but  the  most  proba- 
 ble opinion  is,  that  it  was  no  corporeal  thing  at  all,  but 
 only  a  certain  virtue,  which  God  was  pleased  to  give  to 
 the  breastplate,  at  its  consecration,  of  obtaining  an  ora- 
 cular answer  from  him,  whenever  the  high  priest  should 
 put  it  on  in  order  to  ask  counsel  of  him,  in  the  manner 
 that  he  had  appointed  ;  and  that  the  names  of  Urim  and 
 Thummim  were  given  it,  only  to  denote  the  clearness 
 and  perspicuity  which  those  answers  of  God  had,  namely, 
 that  they  were  not  like  the  heathen  oracles,  enigmatical 
 and  ambiguous,  but  plain  and  manifest,  and  such  as  never 
 fell  short  of  perfection,  either  in  the  fulness  of  the  answer, 
 or  the  certainty  of  the  truth  of  it. 
 
 Whether  this  oracle  was  only  consulted  in  the  great 
 and  important  affairs  of  the  state,  or  might  be  advised 
 with  in  questions  of  a  low  nature,  is  not  entirely  deter- 
 mined by  the  learned  ;  but  the  most  prevailing  opinion  is, 
 that  the  high  priest,  who  was  the  only  officiating  minister 
 in  this  ceremony,  was  not  allowed  to  address  it  for  any 
 private  person,  but  only  for  the  king,  the  president  of 
 the  sanhedrim,  the  general  of  the  army,  or  some  other 
 public  governor  in  Israel ;  and  that  not  upon  any  private 
 affairs,  but  such  only  as  related  to  the  public  interest  of 
 the  nation,  whether  in  church  or  in  state. 
 
 AVhen  therefore  any  such  matter  happened,  wherein  it 
 was  necessary  to  consult  God,  the  custom  was  for  the 
 high  priest  to  put  on  his  robes  and  breastplate,  and  so 
 present  himself,  not  within  the  veil  of  the  holy  of  holies, 
 for  thither  he  never  entered  but  once  a  year,  on  the  great 
 day  of  expiation,  but  without  the  veil  in  the  holy  place, 
 and  there  standing  with  his  face  directly  towards  the  ark, 
 or  mercy-seat,  whereon  the  divine  presence  rested,  he 
 propounded  the  matter ;  and  at  some  distance  behind 
 him,  but  without  the  holy  place,  stood  the  person  for 
 whom  the  oracle  was  consulted,  in  devout  expectation  of 
 the  answer,  which  (as  3  it  seems  most  congruous  to  the 
 thing)  was  given  him  in  an  audible  voice  from  the  mercy- 
 seat,  which  was  within  behind  the  veil. 
 
 Here  it  was  that  Moses  went  to  ask  counsel  of  God  in 
 all  cases ;  and  from  hence  he  was  answered  in  an  audi- 
 ble voice  :    and  in  like  manner,  when  the   high   priest 
 
 1  Lev.  xviii.  3.  *  Prideaux's  Connection,  part  I.  b.  3. 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Connection,  part  1.  b.  3. 
 
 presented  himself  before  God,  according  to  the  prescrip- 
 tion of  the  divine  law,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe,  that 
 God  gave  him  an  answer  in  the  same  way  that  he  did 
 Moses,  that  is,  by  an  audible  voice  from  the  inercy-eeat : 
 and  for  this  reason  it  is,  that  such  address  for  counsel  is 
 called  '  inquiring  at  the  mouth  of  God,'  and  the  holy  of 
 holies  (the  place  where  the  mercy-seat  stood,  and  from 
 which  the  answer  was  given)  is  so  often  in  scripture 
 styled,  4  'the  oracle;'  because  from  thence  were  the 
 oracles  of  God  delivered  to  such  as  came  to  ask  counsel 
 of  him. 
 
 "  Such  was  the  standing  oracle  which  the  Israelites 
 might  have  had  recourse  to  upon  all  important  occasions ; 
 and  if,  in  their  league  with  the  Gibeonites,  they  were  loo 
 hasty  and  precipitate,  their  unadvisedness  is  only  to  be 
 blamed,  and  not  the  insufficiency  of  that  means  which 
 God  had  appointed  for  their  better  information.  The 
 short  of  the  matter  is,  the  pretended  foreign  ambassadors 
 drew  them  in  by  a  wile  and  artilice.  The  story  of  their 
 old  shoes  and  mouldy  bread  was  so  well  contrived,  and 
 seemed  so  very  plausible,  that  they  took  the  thing  for 
 granted,  as  we  say.  5  '  They  took  of  their  victuals,'  as 
 the  text  expresses  it,  or  received  them  without  any  far- 
 ther inquiry,  upon  the  account  of  the  staleness  of  their 
 provision,  and  6  '  asked  not  counsel  of  the  mouth  of  the 
 Lord  ;'  and  therefore,  no  wonder  that  God  should  suffer 
 them  to  be  outwitted,  when  they  had  an  infallible  direc- 
 tor so  near  at  hand  ;  and  yet  in  a  matter  of  such  moment 
 as  that  of  entering  into  a  national  treaty,  never  once 
 bethought  themselves  to  consult  him. 
 
 But  there  was  a  greater  error  in  their  conduct  with 
 relation  to  the  Gibeonites.  The  orders  and  directions 
 which  God  gave  them,  when  they  entered  into  a  state  of 
 war,  were  to  this  effect — 7  That  to  all  cities  which,  upon 
 their  summons  surrendered  to  them,  they  were  to  give 
 quarter ;  to  save  their  lives,  but  at  the  same  time  to  make 
 them  their  slaves  and  tributaries  ;  but  that  to  such  as 
 slighted  their  summons,  and  stood  upon  their  defence, 
 they  were  not  to  use  the  same  treatment.  If  they  were 
 a   distant   nation,  or  not  belonging  to  the   country  of 
 
 *  Exod.   xxv.    18,  20;  chap,  xxvii.  G;   Lev.  x\i.  2;    1  Kings 
 vi.  5,  &e. ;  2  Chron.  iii.  16 ;  chap.  iv.  20,  &e. ;  Ps.  xxviii.  2. 
 4  Josh.  ix.  14.  «  Ibid.  '  Pent.  xx.  18,  &C. 
 
 a  The  Jewish  doctors  think,  that  the  custom  of  consultfi 
 by  Urim  ami   Thummim   continued   no   longer  than  under  (lie 
 tabernacle:  for  it  is  a  maxim  among  them,  that  the  I  lily  Spirit 
 spake  to  the  children  of  Israel  by  Trim  and  Thummim,  while  the 
 tabernacle  lasted;  under  the  first  temple,  that  is,  the  temple  of 
 Solomon,  by  the  prophets;  and  under  the  second  temple, oi  after 
 the  captivity  of  Babylon,  by  the  bath-col,  or  daughter  of  the  voice, 
 by  which  they  mean  a  voice  sent  from  heaven,  such  as  ua-;  heard  at 
 our  Saviour's  baptism  and  transfiguration,   (.Mat.  iii.  17.)     Our 
 learned  Spencer  seems  to  have  adopted  this  opinion,  and  endea- 
 vours to  support  it  by  these  arguments,  namely:  That  the  Urim 
 and  Thummim  were  a  consequence  d  the  theocracy  of  the  He- 
 brews ;  for  while  the  Lord  immediately  governed  bis  people,  ft 
 was   necessary,   that  there   should   always  be  a  means  at   hand, 
 whereby  to  consult  him  upon  aiiairs  that  concerned  the  common 
 interest  of  the  whole  nation  ;  but  since  the  theocracy  ceased,  when 
 the  kingdom  became  hereditary  in  the  person  and  family  i 
 man,  and  the  Interest  of  the  nation  coaeod  to  be  cemmi  n 
 the  division  of  Israel  into  two  monarchies,  the  a  ades  of  the  I  rim 
 and  Thummim  must  necessarily  cease.      And  accordingly,  ii  HI 
 consult  the  sacred  history,  »c  shall  meet  with  no  footstep!  of  thus 
 applying  to  God,  from  tlie  building  of  Solomon's  temple,  to  the 
 time  of  its  destruction  ;  and  after  its  destruction,  all  are  sen  '  d, 
 that  this  oracle  was  never  restored  again. — Spencer  De  Urim  et 
 Tfiummim,  c.  2. 
 
!S0 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3808.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Canaan,  upon  their  taking  any  place,  they  were  to  put 
 the  men  only  to  the  sword,  sparing-  the  women,  and 
 children,  and  other  living-  creatures  that  were  found  in 
 it ;  but  if  they  were  a  neighbouring,  or  Canaanitish  state 
 that  stood  out  and  resisted,  they  were  to  destroy  all  without 
 exception  ;  and  save  alive  nothing  that  breathed.  In  the 
 whole,  however,  there  was  this  injunction,  that  of  what 
 country  soever  the  people  were,  and  whether  they 
 resisted  or  resisted  not,  the  Israelites  were  to  make  no 
 1  '  covenant  with  them,  nor  with  their  gods ;'  and  the 
 reason  hereof  is  this, — 2  That  as  a  league  between  two 
 nations  implies,  in  the  very  notion  of  it,  their  having 
 upon  some  terms  given  their  faith  to  each  other,  to 
 observe  punctually  what  had  been  stipulated  between 
 them ;  and  as,  when  such  public  faith  was  given  and 
 taken,  the  parties  to  the  treaty  swore  solemnly  to  each 
 other  by  their  respective  gods ;  the  Israelites,  who 
 looked  upon  the  gods  of  these  nations  as  vanity  and 
 nothing-,  who  were  obliged  to  3  '  overthrow  their  altars, 
 burn  their  groves,  hew  down  their  images,  and  utterly 
 extirpate  their  religion,  were  totally  debarred  from 
 entering  into  any  treaty  or  alliance  with  them,  because 
 they  could  not  recognise  their  idols  as  gods,  nor  take 
 any  public  faith  from  the  worshippers  of  them.  For  so 
 the  people  seem  to  say  to  the  Gibeonites,  at  their  first 
 coming  into  the  camp  to  propose  a  treaty, '  peradventure 
 you  dwell  among  us,'  "  are  some  of  those  neighbouring 
 nations,  whom  we  are  ordered  to  destroy,  whose  gods  we 
 are  to  drive  out,  and  whose  country  we  are  come  to  take 
 possession  of,"  '  and  how  shall  we  make  a  league  with 
 you?'  "  The  interdiction  we  are  under  will  not  permit 
 us;  and  therefore,  if  you  pretend  to  impose  upon  us  in 
 this  matter,  the  covenant  of  course  is  null  and  invalid :" 
 and  so  in  reality  it  was. 
 
 It  is  reasonable,  however,  to  imagine,  that  after  the 
 fraud  of  the  Gibeonites  was  discovered,  the  princes  of 
 Israel  might  reflect  upon  their  neglect,  in  not  consulting 
 the  divine  oracle  before  ;  and  as  the  peace,  which  they 
 had  entered  into  was  plainly  repugnant  to  God's  com- 
 mand of  exterminating  all  the  Canaanites,  the  question 
 was,  what  they  should  do  in  this  case  ?  whether  abide  by 
 the  treaty,  and  so  postpone  the  command  ;  or  execute 
 the  command,  and  so  disannul  the  treaty  ?  The  whole 
 stress  of  the  question  turns  upon  this, — 4  Whether  God 
 commanded  the  Israelites  to  destroy  all  the  people  of 
 Canaan  absolutely,  and  without  exception  ;  or  whether 
 he  allowed  them  to  spare  such  as  voluntarily  submitted 
 themselves,  and  came  to  implore  their  pity  and  protec- 
 tion ?  The  words  of  the  injunction  in  this  case  are  full, 
 and  express  enough  :  5  '  When  thou  goest  nigh  unto  a 
 city  to  fight  against  it,  then  proclaim  peace  unto  it,  and 
 if  it  make  thee  answer  of  peace,  and  open  unto  thee, 
 then  shall  all  the  people  that  are  found  therein  be  tribut- 
 aries to  thee,  and  shall  serve  thee.  Thus  shalt  thou  do 
 unto  all  the  cities  which  are  very  far  ofF  from  thee,  and 
 which  are  not  of  these  Canaanitish  nations.  But  of  the 
 cities  of  these  people,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  doth  give 
 thee  for  an  inheritance,  thou  shalt  save  alive  nothing 
 that  breatheth,  but  shalt  utterly  destroy  them,  that  they 
 teach  thee  not  to  do  all  their  abominations,  which  they 
 
 have  done  to  their  gods.'  But  here  some  great  writers 
 have  observed,  that  this  utter  extinction  of  the  Canaan- 
 itish nations,  considering  the  reasons  that  are  given  for 
 it,  both  here  and  6  elsewhere,  is  to  be  looked  upon  7  as  a 
 permission,  rather  than  a  positive  command,  and  should, 
 at  least,  s  be  understood  with  this  limitation  :  '  unles.« 
 they  immediately  submitted,  renounced  their  idolatry, 
 and  did  every  thing  that  was  enjoined  them.'  And  to 
 this  purpose  9  the  Jews  have  a  tradition,  that  Joshua, 
 before  he  declared  war  against  the  seven  nations,  wrote 
 letters  to  them,  wherein  he  offered  them  three  condi- 
 tions,— that  if  they  were  minded  to  depart,  they  should 
 quit  the  country  immediately  ;  if  they  were  desirous  to 
 make  peace,  they  should  come  and  treat  with  the  Israel- 
 ites ;  but  that  if  they  intended  to  fight  it  out,  they  might 
 betake  themselves  to  their  arms  :  and  they  farther  add, 
 that  the  first  of  these  conditions  the  Girgashites  embraced, 
 and  fled  into  Egypt ;  the  second  the  Gibeonites  accepted, 
 and  made  a  league  with  Joshua ;  and  the  third  the  con- 
 federate kings  made  their  choice,  when  they  took  up  arms 
 against  the  Israelites,  and  were  all  defeated. 
 
 But  this  is  no  more  than  a  bare  hypothesis,  invented 
 on  purpose  to  solve  the  difficulty,  and  seems  not  to  have 
 near  so  good  a  foundation  as  that  which  supposes  that 
 the  princes  of  Israel,  remembering  their  former  omission, 
 and  their  insecurity  in  acting  upon  their  own  bottom, 
 might,  in  this  perplexity,  have  recourse  to  God  for 
 advice,  and  that  this  answer  might  be,  '  that  the  league 
 should  be  ratified.'  Of  this  indeed  we  have  no  express 
 mention  in  Scripture  ;  but  in  so  short  a  history  of  such 
 a  variety  of  transactions  as  that  of  Joshua  is,  we  may 
 well  imagine,  that  several  circumstances  may  be  omitted. 
 For  that  some  such  ratification  of  this  treaty  was  deter- 
 mined by  God,  we  have  great  presumption  to  believe,10 
 from  the  severe  punishment  which  he  afterwards  inflicted 
 upon  the  Israelites,  and  the  posterity  of  Saul,  for  his 
 having  slain  some  of  the  descendants  of  these  Gibeonites, 
 not  improbably  u  at  the  sacking  of  the  town  of  Nob.  For 
 though  this  action  of  Saul's  was  cruel  and  inhuman, 
 because  the  decree  for  the  extirpation  of  the  Canaanites 
 was  now  extinct ;  yet  what  made  it  more  heinous  and 
 provoking  to  God,  was  the  infraction  of  the  treaty,  which 
 had  subsisted  about  four  ages,  and  which  cost  the  lives 
 of  seven  of  that  bloody  prince's  sons  and  grandsons  to 
 atone. 
 
 The  heathens,  it  must  be  owned,  had  no  small  respect 
 and  veneration  for  oaths  :  whenever  they  took  one,  it 
 was  in  the  most  solemn  and  religious  manner.  12  They 
 looked  upon  the  gods  as  inspectors  and  witnesses  of 
 what  they  said,  more  especially  at  such  a  time  as  this. 
 They  believed  that  the  furies  were  appointed  to  be 
 avengers  of  all  perjury  ;  and  that  as  13  disgrace  attended 
 it  in  this  world,  so  destruction  would  pursue  it  in  the 
 next.  And  as  this  was  the  general  notion  of  most  heathen 
 nations,  so  the  Gibeonites,  who  had  hitherto  conceived 
 a  good  opinion  of  the  God  of  Israel,  would  have  been 
 strangely  scandalized,  a  had  they  found  his  people  pre- 
 
 1  Exod.  xxiii.  32.  *  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12. 
 
 3  Deut.  xii.  3. 
 
 *  Fuffendorf  de  Jure  Gent.  I).  4.  c.  2.  sec.  7.  de  Juramentis,  &c. 
 
 5  Deut.  xx.  10,  &c. 
 
 6  Exod.  xxiii.  33;  and  Deut.  vii.  4.  7  Puffendorf,  ibid. 
 
 8  Grotius  de  Jure  Belli,  b.  2.  c.  13. 
 
 3  Saurin's  Dissertation  on  the  Artifice  of  the  Gibeonites,  vol.  3. 
 
 10  2  Sam.  xxi.  ] ,  &c  "1  Sam.  xxii.  19. 
 
 12  See  Hesiod.  Dies,  v.  38,  &c. 
 
 13  The  divine  punishment  of  perjury  is  destruction ;  the  human, 
 
 disgrace. 
 
 a  St  Ambrose,  treating  of   this  story,  speaks  of  it  in  this 
 
Sect.  I.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c.' 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451 ;  OR,  ACCOKDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END 
 
 381 
 
 varicating  with  their  oaths,  even  though  they  were  made 
 upon  a  false  supposition.  For  fear,  therefore,  lest  any 
 dishonour  should  fall  ultimately  upon  that  divine 
 Majesty  whose  servants  they  were,  the  princes  of  the 
 congregation  unanimously  agree,  and  there  seems  to  be 
 something  of  a  divine  inspiration  in  this  their  unanimity, 
 and  declare  it  as  their  joint  opinion,  '  '  We  have  sworn 
 unto  them,  by  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,'  and  therefore 
 without  breaking  our  oath,  or  forfeiting  his  favour,  '  we 
 may  not  touch  them.' 
 
 It  was  the  same  commendable  zeal  for  the  honour  of 
 God,  that  made  the  Israelites  on  one  side  of  Jordan 
 conceive  such  angry  resentments  against  their  brethren 
 on  the  other,  upon  suspicion  that  they  had  apostatized 
 from  his  worship  into  the  idolatry  of  the  nations  that 
 were  round  about  them.  The  two  tribes  and  a  hall", 
 upon  their  return  from  the  wars,  erected  an  altar,  in 
 memory  of  their  relation  to  the  tribes  and  tabernacle 
 which  they  had  left  behind  them.2  This  altar,  it  seems, 
 was  of  an  height  somewhat  extraordinary  ;  and  as  it  was 
 the  custom  for  heathens  to  worship  their  gods,  which 
 were  generally  celestial  bodies,  upon  high  places,  as 
 presuming  that  thereby  they  made  nearer  approaches  to 
 them  ;  their  brethren  on  the  west  side  of  the  river  conjec- 
 tured from  thence,  that  this  was  an  altar  raised  for  the 
 worship  of  the  sun,  or  some  other  planetary  god.  But  if 
 even  they  were  mistaken  in  that  conjecture,  sufficient 
 reason  they  had  to  suspect  that  it  was  intended  for  no  good 
 purpose,  since  God  had  expressly  forbidden  them  to  offer 
 their  sacrifices  at  any  other  place  but  the  tabernacle,  or 
 upon  any  other  altar  but  that  which  was  built  by  his 
 appointment :  for  these  are  directions  which  Moses  gives 
 them :  3  '  Ye  are  not  yet  come  to  the  rest,  and  to  the 
 inheritance  which  the  Lord  your  God  giveth  you :  but 
 when  you  shall  be  put  in  possession  of  it, '  ye  shall  not  do 
 after  all  these  things,  that  we  do  here  this  day,  every  man 
 whatsoever  is  right  in  his  own  eyes  :  but  in  the  place  which 
 the  Lord  shall  choose,  in  one  of  thy  tribes,  there  shalt 
 thou  otter  thy  burnt-offerings ;  thither  shalt  thou  come, 
 and  there  shalt  thou  do  all  that  I  command  thee.' 
 
 Now  when  they  had  sufficient  reason,  as  they  thought, 
 to  suspect  their  brethren  of  a  defection  into  idolatry, 
 what  should  they  do?  Why,  herein  they  punctually 
 follow  the  rules  which  God  himself  had  prescribed  them 
 in  such  a  case:  4  '  If  thou  shalt  hear  say,  in  one  of  thy 
 cities  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  given  thee  to  dwell 
 there,  saying,  Certain  men,  the  children  of  Belial,  are  gone 
 out  from  among  you,  and  have  withdrawn  the  inhabitants 
 of  their  city,  saying,  Let  us  go,  and  serve  other  gods, 
 (which  ye  have  not  known,)  then  shalt  thou  inquire,  and 
 make  search,  and  ask  diligently ;  and  behold,  if  it  be  truth, 
 and  the  thing  certain,  that  sucli  abomination  is  wrought 
 among  you,  thou  shalt  surely  smite  the  inhabitants  of  that 
 city  with  the  edge  of  the  sword ;  destroying  it  utterly, 
 and  all  that  is  therein,  and  the  cattle  thereof,  with  the 
 edge  of  the  sword  ;  and  thou  shalt  gather  all  the  spoil  of 
 
 1  Josh.  ix.  19.     2  Saurin's  Dissertation  on  Joshua's  dismissing 
 the  Reuhenites. 
 
 »  Dent.  xii.  9,  8,  14.  *  Deut.  xiii.  12,  13,  &c. 
 
 manner: — "  Joshua  did  not  think  fit  to  break  the  peace  which 
 he  had  granted,  because  it  was  confirmed  by  the  awful  solemnity 
 of  an  oath,  lest,  whilst  he  was  blaming  the  perfidiousoess  oJ 
 others,  he  himself  should  be  worse  than  his  word,  and  forfeit  his 
 own  honour." — Be  Ojfkiis,  b.  3,  c.  10. 
 
 it  into  the  midst  of  the  street  thereof,  and  shalt  burn  with 
 fire  the  city  and  all  the  spoil  thereof,  every  whit,  for  the 
 Lord  thy  God  ;  and  it  shall  be  a  heap  for  ever,  it  shall 
 not  he  built  again.'  And  if  the  Israelites  on  the  west  of 
 Jordan,  having  this  cause  of  suspicion,  pursued  these 
 orders  to  a  tittle,  who  shall  say  that  they  did  amiss,  or 
 that  their  zeal  for  God's  glory  was  rash  and  precipitate  ? 
 They  took  the  properest  method,  which  was  sending  an 
 embassy,  for  the  discovery  of  the  truth  ;  and  if,  upon 
 inquiry,  their  fears  were  found  to  be  groundless,  yet  it 
 seems  to  be  an  error  on  the  better  side,  as  we  commonly 
 say,  and  an  instance  of  no  contemptible  prudence,  in 
 matters  of  so  dangerous  a  consequence,  always  to  sus- 
 pect the  worst. 
 
 It  may  be  doubted  perhaps,  whether  the  Israelites  were 
 a  people  of  the  greatest  bravery  in  the  world,  but  it  may 
 truly  be  said,  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  their  being 
 so;  because,  upon  all  occasions  they  had  the  Lord  of  host3 
 to  protect  them,  and  to  fight  their  battles  for  them.  Sup- 
 ported by  his  aid,  *  how  did  one  of  them  chase  a  thou- 
 sand, and  two  put  ten  thousand  to  flight,  except  their 
 rock  had  sold  them,  and  the  Lord  had  shut  them  up  ?' 
 But  when  this  was  the  case,  no  wonder  at  all,  that  ' 
 '  the  hearts  of  the  people  melted  away  and  became  like 
 water. ' 
 
 The  short  of  the  story  was  this, — They  had  all  along 
 hitherto  been  victorious  ;  had  subdued  a  country  beyond 
 Jordan  ;  passed  that  river,  and  conquered  the  capital  of 
 the  adjacent  province  by  miracle  :  and  now  having  sent 
 out  a  party  to  summon  a  small  place  to  surrender,  upon 
 the  first  sally  that  the  inhabitants  make,  they  are  all  on  a 
 sudden  seized  with  a  panic,  forget  their  courage,  and 
 flee,  without  so  much  as  striking  a  stroke.  This  they 
 could  not  but  perceive  was  the  effect  of  God's  displeasure, 
 and  therefore,  considering  themselves  in  an  enemy's 
 country,  they  had  just  reason  to  dread,  that  if  God 
 should  desert  them  in  this  situation  of  their  affairs,  the 
 people  of  the  land,  hearing  the  report  of  their  defeat, 
 would  come,  and,  as  Joshua  expresses  it, 7 '  environ  them 
 round,  and  cutoff  their  name  from  the  earth.' 
 
 Good  reason  therefore  had  the  Israelites  to  be  dis- 
 consolate, when  they  found  that  God,  to  whom  they  owed 
 all  their  valour  and  victories,  had  forsaken  them.  But  in 
 the  mean  time,  how  did  they  behave  upon  this  occasion  ? 
 AVhy  '  they  fell  to  the  earth  upon  their  knees,'  in  humble 
 supplication  to  God  for  mercy  ;  they  continued  .ill  the 
 day  long  in  fasting  and  praying,  and  expressed  their 
 sorrow,  and  (he  sense  of  their  unworthiness  with  the  usual 
 tokens  of  grief.  And  was  not  this  better  than  to  become 
 obdurate  under  (.oil's  afflicting  hand,  as  were  the  Egyp- 
 tians? Nay,  was  not  this  the  very  behaviour  1>\  which 
 the  Ninevites  moved  the  divine  mercy  to  reverse  the 
 sentence  of  excision  that  had  gone  out  against  them  '  Be 
 
 that,  all  things  considered,  the  Israelites,  in  this  regard 
 are  not  to  be  blamed  ;  since  the}  who  had  lost  '  the  rock 
 of  their  might,'  and  had  'the  terrors  of  the  ford  set  in 
 array  against  them,  were  far  from  fearing  where  no  fear 
 was.' 
 
 And  in  like  manner,  if  to  the  reasons  we  have  already 
 alleged  for  their  conduct  at  .lericlio,  we  add  this  OOO 
 consideration,  namely,  that  they  were  ju.-t  now  entering 
 Upon  their  conquests  ;   that  this  was  the  lirst  city  the]  had 
 
 5  Duut.  xxxii.  30. 
 
 0  Josh.  >ii.  5. 
 
 7  Jo-h.  vii.  9. 
 
382 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 taken  on  the  west  side  of  Jordan ;  and  that  the  people 
 they  had  to  contend  with,  were  to  be  terrified  into  sub- 
 mission rather  than  entreated,  we  cannot  but  be  of  this 
 opinion,  that  an  example  or  two  of  high  severity,  at  the 
 first  setting  out,  was  no  less  than  necessary  to  reduce  the 
 country  more  speedily,  and  with  a  less  effusion  of  blood  ; 
 as  well  as  to  verify  the  promise  of  him  who  appointed 
 them  :  l  '  This  day  will  I  begin  to  put  the  dread  of  thee, 
 and  the  fear  of  thee  upon  the  nations  that  are  under  the 
 whole  heaven,  who  shall  hear  report  of  thee,  and  shall 
 tremble  and  be  in  anguish  because  of  thee.' 
 
 in  any  crime,  is  as  culpable  as  the  person  who  commits 
 it ;"  and  therefore,  if  we  suppose  that  Achan's  family 
 was  privy  to  what  their  father  had  done,  and  did  con- 
 ceal it,  there  could  be  no  injustice  in  including  them  in 
 the  punishment.  It  may  be  pretended,  perhaps,  that 
 some  of  them  were  infants,  and  so  must  be  deemed  inno- 
 cent ;  but  the  text  says  nothing  of  this  :  it  only  calls 
 them  4  '  sons  and  daughters  ;'  and  considering-  that 
 Achan,  in  all  probability,  was  an  old  man,  as  b  being 
 the  fifth  descendant  from  Judah,  it  seems  most  likely, 
 that  his  children  6  were   grown  up,  and   so  capable  of 
 
 Without  entering  therefore  into  any  farther  vindica-    knowing,  and  of  either  concealing  or  discovering  the 
 
 tion  of  the  Jewish  nation,  we  may  safely  say,  that  in  the 
 cases  we  have  had  under  consideration,  they  were  neither 
 zealous  nor  timorous,  nor  cruel  without  a  cause  ;  that  in 
 the  first  of  these  cases,  they  expressed  their  concern  for 
 
 fact. 
 
 But,  after  all,  there  is  no  occasion  for  our  running 
 ourselves  into  any  difficulty.  The  text  does  not  say, 
 neither  is  it  any  way  implied,  that  Achan's  sons   and 
 
 God's  honour  ;  in  the  second  their  dread  of  his  departing    daughters  were  executed  with  him.      In  the  sentence  de- 
 froin  them ;  and  in  the  third,  their  obedience  to  his  com-  |  nounced  against  him,  we  find  no  mention  made  of  them, 
 
 mand. 
 
 It  is  a  law  of  God's  own  enacting,  that  a  '  the  fathers 
 shall  not  be  put  to  death  for  the  children,  neither  shall 
 the  children  be  put  to  death  for  the  fathers,  but  every 
 man  shall  be  put  to  death  for  his  own  sin :'  but  then  we 
 are  to  consider,  that  this  law  was  given  to  man,  and  not 
 to  God,  who  has  certainly  a  more  absolute  right  and 
 sovereignty  over  men,  than  one  man  has  over  another. 
 That  as  the  Israelites  at  this  time  lived  under  a  theocra- 
 cy, and  in  a  proper  sense  had  God  for  their  civil  governor, 
 every  wilful  transgression,  such  as  Achan's  was,  must 
 have  been  deemed,  not  only  a  violation  of  the  divine 
 command,  but  a  crime  of  lese  majesty  likewise  ;  and  that 
 in  crimes  of  this  kind,  the  practice  of  all  "  governments, 
 ancient  as  well  as  modern,  has  been,  to  make  children 
 suffer  for  the  iniquity  of  the  parent,  (as  in  cases  of  at- 
 taint of  blood,  and  confiscation  of  estate,)  and  that  with 
 the  reputation  of  the  highest  equity.  Upon  the  supposi- 
 tion then  that  Achan's  family  were  not  accessory  to  their 
 father's  crime,  yet  God  who  gave  them  life,  had  undoubt- 
 edly a  full  power  to  take  it  away,  at  what  time,  or  in 
 what  manner  he  thought  fit ;  and  if  in  cases  of  high 
 treason  among  men,  it  is  thought  reasonable  to  devolve 
 some  part  of  the  parent's  penalty  upon  the  children,  there 
 is  this  farther  argument  why  Achan's  family  should  be  made 
 to  suffer  with  him,  because  God  could  not  express  his 
 severity  against  sin,  nor  take  their  lives  away,  at  a  more 
 convenient  opportunity  than  in  the  beginning  of  a  new 
 empire,  and  when  each  man's  right  and  property  was 
 going  to  be  settled  ;  that  such  a  dreadful  example  of  his 
 indignation  against  stealth  might  deter  others,  if  not  for 
 their  own,  at  least  for  their  dear  children's  sake,  to  ab- 
 stain from  such  dangerous  and  pernicious  practices.  3 
 The  Jews  have  a  maxim,  "  That  he  who  is  an  accomplice 
 
 1  Deut.  ii.  25.  2  Deut.  xxiv.  16. 
 
 *  Saurin's  Dissertation  on  the  Crime  of  Achan. 
 a  Thus  Cicero,  to  excuse  the  confiscations  decreed  against  Lepi- 
 dus,  which  aiTected  his  children,  the  nephews  of  Brutus,  has  these 
 words: — "  I  well  observe  how  cruel  it  is  that  children  should  be 
 punished  for  the  crimes  of  their  parents,  but  this  has  been  beau- 
 tifully explained  by  the  laws,  that  a  love  for  their  children  might 
 render  the  parents  more  friendly  to  the  state."  (To  Brutus, 
 b.  1.  Epis.  12.")  And  again, — "  In  which  there  seems  to  be 
 something  cruel,  that  punishment  should  be  inflicted  on  the 
 children,  who  have  never  committed  any  crime :  but  it  is  a  law 
 as  ancient  as  it  is  general."  (Epis.  15.) — Warhurton's  Divine 
 Legation,  b.  5.  sec.  5.  note  2. 
 
 and  why  then  should  we  suppose  that  they  were  partakers 
 in  his  punishment,  any  other  ways  than  as  they  were 
 brought  out  to  be  spectators  of  it  ?  *  And  a  piercing  sight 
 no  doubt  it  was,  for  persons  so  nearly  related  to  behold 
 the  sad  fate  of  their  chief,  first  stoned  to  death,  and  then 
 with  all  his  goods  and  chattels,  as  well  as  those  accursed 
 things  for  which  he  was  condemned,  committed  to  the 
 flames.  His  oxen,  and  asses,  and  sheep,  are  here  taken 
 notice  of,  to  let  us  see  that  Achan  was  a  wealthy  man, 
 and  therefore  was  inexcusable  in  committing  this  fact. 
 And  though  they  were  not  capable  of  sin,  nor  conse- 
 quently of  punishment  properly  so  called  ;  yet  as  they 
 were  made  for  man's  use,  they  might  fairly  die  for  his 
 instruction,  namely,  to  convince  him  of  the  sad  and  con- 
 tagious nature  of  sin,  which  even  involves  innocent 
 creatures  in  its  plagues  ;  and  emblematically  to  show 
 him,  how  much  sorer  punishments  are  reserved  for  man, 
 who  having  a  law  given  for  the  conduct  of  his  life,  and 
 the  gifts  of  reason  and  will  to  restrain  him  from  the 
 transgression  of  it,  will  adventure  upon  things  forbidden, 
 and  thereby  contract  greater  guilt,  and  draw  upon  him- 
 self severer  expressions  of  the  divine  wrath. 
 
 God  indeed  styles  himself  '  The  Lord  of  hosts,'  and 
 had  so  immediate  a  hand  in  the  conduct  of  Israel,  that 
 every  military  achievement  of  theirs  might  very  properly 
 be  ascribed  to  him  :  but  when  he  ordered  Joshua  7 '  to  go 
 up  against  Ai,  and  to  lay  an  ambuscade  behind  it,'  he 
 might,  notwithstanding  this,  leave  the  whole  glory  of  the 
 invention  and  execution  of  it  to  him  as  an  able  and 
 expert  general ;  for  if  he  had  always  wrought  miracles 
 in  favour  of  his  people,  and  left  nothing  for  Joshua  to 
 perform,  we  cannot  see  how  he  could  have  merited  the 
 character  of  an  extraordinary  man. 
 
 In  other  events,  where  the  whole  may  be  said  to  be 
 under  the  guidance  of  God,  he  takes  care  to  direct  every 
 particular  of  the  transaction.  In  passing  the  river 
 Jordan,  and  surrounding  the  walls  of  Jericho,  he  pre- 
 scribes the  form  and  order  of  the  people's  march,  and 
 how,  upon  every  occasion,  they  were  to  behave  ;  but 
 
 *  Josh.  vii.  24. 
 «  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 Josh.  vii.  1. 
 7  Josh.  vii. 
 
 b  Bishop  Patrick,  Dr  A.  Clarke,  and  others,  take  the  same 
 view  as  our  author,  and  it  seems  to  be  the  correct  one.  Achan's 
 family  were  brought  out  to  the  valley,  that  they  might  see  and 
 fear,  and  be  for  ever  deterred,  by  their  father's  punishment,  from 
 following  his  example. — Ed. 
 
Skct.  I. 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &f 
 
 383 
 
 A.  M.  2.-S53.  A.  C.  1451;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 here,  in  the  affair  of  Ai,  he  contents  himself  with  merely 
 suggesting  the  means,  as  things  that  Joshua  was  no 
 stranger  to,  and  leaves  to  him  the  contrivance  and  appli- 
 cation of  them.  This  stratagem  indeed  is  the  first  that 
 we  find  any  mention  of  in  Scripture  ;  but  we  must  not 
 from  thence  infer  that  there  was  never  any  before  put  in 
 execution.  The  art  of  war  began  very  soon,  and  was 
 carried  on,  no  doubt,  with  great  application.  The  whole 
 excellence  of  its  management  consists  in  circumventing 
 and  doubling  upon  the  enemy  with  dexterity  ;  and  there- 
 fore, no  question  but  that  the  wits  of  mankind  were 
 always  employed  in  taking  advantage  of  each  other,  and 
 in  gaining  a  victory  with  the  least  expense  of  blood  on 
 their  own  side.  '  The  Romans  fell  frequently  into  the 
 snares  which  were  laid  lor  them,  because  their  generals 
 were  men  of  no  military  skill ;  and  therefore,  to  excuse 
 their  ignorance,  they  alleged  that  they  made  war  like 
 honest  men,  without  deceit  or  artifice.  And  if  Alex- 
 ander disclaimed  the  use  of  stratagems,  it  was  because 
 he  knew  the  cowardice  of  his  enemies,  and  how  easy  a 
 matter  it  was  to  gain  a  conquest  in  a  fair  and  open  field. 
 For  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that  had  he  been  to  attack 
 any  other  nation,  except  the  effeminate  Persians,  he 
 would  have  taken  his  friend  Parmenio's  advice,  and, 
 without  blushing  at  a  victory  gained  by  good  manage- 
 ment, fallen  upon  his  enemy  under  cover  of  the  night. 
 
 However  this  be,  that  stratagems  are  lawful  in  war 
 we  have  good  presumption  to  think,  from  God's  directing 
 Joshua  to  make  use  of  one  ;  and  though  he  does  not,  as 
 other  warriors  do,  employ  any  of  these  at  a  pinch,  or 
 because  he  cannot  accomplish  his  designs  without  them  ; 
 though  he  could,  with  one  single  act  of  his  will,  have 
 destroyed  the  city  of  Ai,  and  all  the  inhabitants  thereof, 
 and  without  suffering  his  people  to  strike  one  blow,  have 
 put  them  in  possession  of  the  promised  land ;  yet  choosing 
 to  act  by  secondary  means,  he  proceeded  in  the  ordinary 
 way,  and  leaving  a  good  deal  to  Joshua's  skill  and 
 management,  assisted  him  only  at  some  critical  con- 
 junctures, that,  by  a  prolongation  of  the  war,  the  repu- 
 tation of  his  people  might  be  raised,  and  more  frequent 
 opportunities  occur  for  the  display  of  his  miraculous 
 works. 
 
 2  Josephus,  indeed,  seems  not  to  have  consulted  the 
 honour  of  Joshua  much,  when  he  ascribes  the  delay  of 
 the  conquest  of  Canaan  to  the  weakness  of  his  army,  and 
 the  impregnable  strength  of  the  places  he  was  to  attack. 
 But  3  some  other  Jews  make  the  matter  much  worse, 
 when  they  tell  us,  that  he  desired  to  prolong  the  war, 
 not  only  to  retain  the  office  and  dignity  of  being  cap- 
 tain-general, but  because  he  was  informed  by  the  oracle, 
 that  as  soon  as  the  conquest  was  finished,  he  himself  was 
 to  die.  God,  however,  seems  to  have  given  us  much  better 
 reasons  for  this  retardation,  when  he  acquaints  Moses 
 with  his  intention  :  4 '  I  will  not  drive  the  Canaanites 
 out  from  before  thee  in  one  yecir,  lest  the  land  become 
 desolate,  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  multiply  against 
 thee ;'  and  when  he  complains  of  their  sad  defection 
 after  the  death  of  Joshua,  s '  1  will  not  henceforth  drive 
 out  any  from  before  them  of  the  nations  which  Joshua 
 
 1  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Ai. 
 
 2  Antiquities,  l>.  5.  c.  1. 
 
 3  See  Scholar.  Bibliotheoa  of  Old  and  New  Test.  vol.  2.  p.  402. 
 
 *  Exod.  xxiii.  29,  30.  *Judg.  ii.  21,  22. 
 
 left  when  he  died,  that  through  them  I  may  prove  Israel, 
 whether  they  will  keep  the  May  of  the  Lord  to  walk 
 therein,  as  their  fathers  did  keep  it,  or  no:'  whereupon, 
 the  historian  tells  us,  that  God  accordingly  '  did  leave' 
 these  nations  without  driving  them  out  ;'  ami  a. I. Is 
 another  reason  for  their  continuance  in  the  country 
 namely,  that  the  Israelites,  by  having  an  enemy  to  con- 
 tend with,  might  be  trained  up  in  the  art  and  mystery  of 
 war:  for  B '  these  are  the  nations,' says  be, '  which  the 
 Lord  left  to  prove  Israel,  that  by  them  they  might  teach 
 those  war,  who  before  knew  nothing  of  it.' 
 
 So  that  here  are  three  reasons  given  us,  why  God  de- 
 layed the  entire  subjection  of  Canaan,  namely,  because 
 the  children  of  Israel  were  as  yet  too  few  in  number  to 
 replenish  the  whole  country ;  because  God  by  keeping 
 the  Canaanites  in  being,  was  willing  both  to  make  trial 
 of  his  people's  obedience,  and  to  train  them  and  their 
 posterity,  for  some  ages,  up  in  military  discipline  and 
 exercise. 
 
 But  there  is  another  reason  which  Joshua,  in  his  dying 
 speech,  assigns  for  their  not  enlarging  their  conquests  ti- 
 the utmost  bounds  which  God  had  given  them  :  '  '  Take 
 good  heed  therefore,'  says  he,  '  unto  yourselves,  that  \o 
 love  the  Lord  your  God;  else  if  ye  do  in  anywise  go 
 back,  and  cleave  unto  the  remnants  of  these  nations, 
 even  those  that  remain  among-  you,  and  shall  make 
 marriages  with  them,  and  go  in  unto  them,  and  they  to 
 you  ;  know  for  a  certainty,  that  the  Lord  voir  God  will 
 no  more  drive  out  any  of  these  nations  from  before  you.' 
 
 So  that  the  promise  which  God  made  to  the  Israelites 
 was  conditional ;  and  as  they  manifestly  falsified  their 
 part  of  the  obligation,  by  engaging  first  in  affinity,  and 
 then  in  idolatry  with  the  nations,  which  they  were  bound 
 to  destroy  ;  so  God  might  very  well  think  himself  releas- 
 ed from  his,  and  under  no  farther  concern  for  their  suc- 
 cess, or  the  enlargement  of  their  conquest ;  8  but  as 
 they  had  been  the  ministers  of  his  vengeance,  in  punish- 
 ing the  disorders  of  the  Canaanites,  they,  in  their  turn, 
 were  now  made  the  instruments  of  his  chastising  the 
 disobedience  of  his  own  people  :  9  '  They  shall  be  snares 
 and  traps  to  you,  and  scourges  in  your  sides,  and  thorns 
 in  your  eyes,  until  ye  perish  from  the  good  land  which 
 the  Lord  your  God  hath  given  you.' 
 
 And  indeed  if  we  consider  how  violently,  in  alter 
 ages,  the  Israelites  were  opposed  l>\  their  enemies,  and 
 by  many  battles  and  captivities,  harassed  and  diminished 
 in  their  numbers,  we  shall  find  no  necessity  of  enlarging 
 their  possessions ;  because  the  country  which  the]  con- 
 quered in  the  first  six  years,  was  spacious  enough  to 
 contain  them.  10  The  promise,  however,  which  God 
 made  was  sufficiently  accomplished  in  the  reigns  of 
 David  and  Solomon,  when  the  kingdom  of  Israel  was  in 
 its  zenith  ;  and  though  its  territories  did  not  extend  to 
 the  Euphrates,  yet  its  dominion  did,  since  all  that  tract 
 of  land  between  Jerusalem  and  that  great  river  was 
 either  subdued,  or  made  tributary  to  them. 
 
 Upon  the  whole  therefore  it  is  evident,  that  the  author 
 of  the  book  of  Joshua,  be  he  who  he  will,  in  the  three 
 instances  which  we  have  been  considering,  has   left    no 
 
 imputation  upon  God :  forasmuch  asthoughhe  commanded 
 
 6  Judp.  iii.  1.  2.  7  Jo*.  odH.  11,  &c. 
 
 H  Seurm's  Dissertation,  vol.  3.  Dissertation  10. 
 »  josh.  xxiii.  13.  ,0  Toole's  Annotation*. 
 
384 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1C08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Achan  to  be  put  to  death,  yet  it  does  not  appear  that 
 his  children  suffered  with  him ;  or  if  they  did,  there  is 
 presumption  to  believe  that  they  were  accomplices  in  his 
 crime  :  though  he  ordered  the  taking  of  Ai  by  a  strata- 
 gem, yet  the  whole  form  and  contrivance  of  it  he  left  to 
 the  general ;  and  though  the  Israelites  did  not  actually 
 possess  all  that  he  had  promised  them,  yet  this  was 
 occasioned  by  their  own  disobedience  and  cowardice, 
 and  the  falsification  of  those  conditions,  upon  which  the 
 full  conquest  of  the  land  of  Canaan  was  suspended. 
 
 There  is  but  one  objection  more,  in  the  course  of  this 
 period,  which  is  usually  alleged  against  the  sacred 
 history,  and  that  is,  the  seeming  contradiction  of  the 
 ark's  being  said  to  be  at  Shechem,  when  it  was,  in  reality, 
 at  Shiloh  ;  but  in  answer  to  this,  some  have  imagined, 
 that  as  Joshua  was  now  grown  old  and  infirm,  the  ark  ' 
 upon  this  occasion,  was  removed  from  Shiloh,  the  settled 
 place  of  the  divine  residence,  to  Shechem,  the  place  of 
 Joshua's  habitation,  that  he  might  with  greater  solemnity, 
 and  m  the  presence  of  God,  whereof  the  ark  was  the 
 proper  emblem,  deliver  his  charge  to  the  people.  But 
 other  learned  men  have  observed,  that  by  a  '  the  sanctu- 
 ary of  the  Lord,'  we  are  to  understand,  not  the  '  ark  of 
 the  covenant,'  but  only  some  certain  place  of  religious 
 worship,  such,  very  probably,  as  the  Jewish  oratories 
 were.  That  the  holy  ark  was  not,  on  this  occasion  set 
 up  here  at  Shechem,  is  evident,  they  say,  from  that  pro- 
 hibition given  by  God,  3  '  Thou  shalt  not  plant  a  grove 
 of  any  trees  near  unto  the  altar  of  the  Lord  thy  God, 
 which  thou  shalt  make  thee,  neither  shalt  thou  set  up  a 
 pillar,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hateth  :'  whereas  in  this 
 sanctuary,  we  read  both  of  an  oak  planted,  and  a  pillar, 
 or  statue  erected  under  it ;  which  is  certainly  such  a 
 violation  of  the  divine  command,  as  Joshua,  upon  no 
 occasion,  can  be  supposed  capable  of  incurring.  4  It 
 is  a  very  probable  opinion,  therefore,  that  the  place 
 where  Joshua  set  up  this  monumental  pillar,  was  one  of 
 those  which  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  to  whom  Shechem 
 belonged,  had  consecrated,  and  set  apart  for  a  proseucha, 
 or  a  place  to  assemble  in  for  public  prayer  ;  and  that 
 they  made  choice  of  this  rather  than  any  other,  to  per- 
 form their  devotions  in,  because  it  was  that  particular 
 spot  where  God  appeared  to  Abraham,  and  promised 
 his  posterity  the  possession  of  the  land  of  Canaan. 
 
 a  That  there  were  such  oratories,  or  places  of  public 
 
 1  Poole's  Annotations  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 *  Josh.  xxiv.  26.  3  Deut.  xvi.  21,  22.         4  Mede's  Dis.  8. 
 
 a  Epiphanius,  who  was  a  Jew  bred,  and  born  in  Palestine, 
 speaking  of  some  heretics,  (b.  1.  hceres.  61.)  whom  he  calls 
 Massalians,  and  who,  according  to  his  account,  were  neither 
 Jews,  Christians,  nor  Samaritans,  but  pagans,  tells  us,  that  they 
 nevertheless  pretended  to  worship  the  one  true  God,  and  for  that 
 purpose  had  certain  open  places,  which  they  called  proseuchre. 
 And  that  the  Jews,  as  also  the  Samaritans,  had  places  for  religious 
 worship  of  the  same  denomination,  he  proves  from  the  Acts  of 
 the  Apostles,  (chap.  xvi.  13.)  where  Lydia  is  said  to  have  met 
 St  Paul,  and  to  have  heard  him  preach  in  that  place,  which 
 '  seemed  to  be  a  place  of  prayer.'  There  is  also  at  Shechem, 
 which  is  now  called  Neapolis,  continues  he,  about  a  mile  with- 
 out the  city,  a  proseucha,  a  place  of  prayer,  like  a  theatre, 
 which  was  built  in  the  open  air,  and  without  a  roof,  by  the 
 Samaritans,  who  affected  to  imitate  the  Jews  in  all  things. 
 Juvenal,  in   his  third  satire,  describing  the   manner  in  which 
 
 prayer  among  the  Jews,  and  that  they  were  generally 
 beset,  or  shaded  with  trees,  is  evident  from  such  a  variety 
 of  testimonies,  that  it  can  hardly  be  contested;  but 
 whether  they  were  of  so  early  a  date  as  Joshua's  time, 
 or  not  rather  introduced  after  the  captivity  of  Babylon, 
 is  a  question  not  easy  to  determine.  In  the  main,  how- 
 ever, we  may  conclude,  that  whether  the  ark  of  the 
 covenant  was  occasionally  brought  to  Shechem,  or  at 
 Shechem  there  happened  to  be  such  an  oratory,  as  in 
 after  ages  became  frequent  in  Judea,  there  can  be  no 
 incongruity  in  the  sacred  penman's  saying,  that  the  sanc- 
 tuary of  the  Lord  (since  either  the  ark  or  the  oratory 
 might  merit  that  name)  was  at  Shechem.  There  is 
 another  solution,  however,  of  this  difficulty,  which  ought 
 not  to  be  disregarded. 5  Shechem  and  Shiloh  were  about 
 twelve  miles  distant  from  each  other,  and  in  the  midway 
 between  them,  was  Timnath-serah,  the  place  where  Joshua 
 lived.  Since,  therefore,  the  text  informs  us,  that  6  '  he 
 gathered  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  to  Shechem,  and  called 
 for  their  elders,  for  their  heads,  for  their  judges,  and  for 
 their  officers,  and  they  presented  themselves  before  God ;' 
 we  may  reasonably  suppose,  that  though  all  the  people 
 met  at  Shechem,  yet  their  elders  and  chief  officers  only 
 presented  themselves  before  God.  That  so  great  a  mul- 
 titude could  not  meet  together,  and  encamp  in  anyplace 
 but  where  there  is  a  proportionable  compass  of  ground, 
 is  a  matter  self-evident ;  and  that,  in  the  confines  of 
 Shechem,  there  was  a  large  and  open  country,  extending 
 
 5  Shuckford's  Connection,  vol.  3.  b.  12.  6  Josh.  xxiv.  1. 
 ately  in  what  unprotected  niche  I  will  seek  you ;"  whereby  he 
 either  intimates,  that  he  was  some  poor  wretch,  who  dwelt  in  a 
 house  that  could  not  keep  out  wind  and  weather,  but,  like  the 
 Jewish  proseuchte,  was  all  open  above ;  or  he  alludes  to  the  state 
 of  the  Jews  at  that  time,  who  were  banished  out  of  Rome  by 
 Domitian,  and  had  no  place  of  shelter,  but  their  oratories,  which 
 were  without  the  walls  of  the  city.  For  that  the  Jews  had  their 
 proseuchae  about  the  city  of  Rome,  is  evident  from  that  passage 
 in  Philo,  (de  Legatione  ad  Caium) .  wherein  he  commends  the 
 clemency  and  moderation  of  Julius  Csesar,  who  knew  that  the 
 Jews  had  such  places  of  public  worship,  where  they  always  assem- 
 bled on  the  Sabbath-day,  and  yet  gave  them  no  molestation,  as 
 Caius  had  done.  Josephus  (in  his  life,  sect.  54.)  makes  mention 
 of  a  proseucha  at  Tiberias  in  Galilee,  and  in  several  places  of  the 
 New  Testament,  the  same  term  is  made  use  of  in  the  same  sig- 
 nitic.ation ;  (see  Mede's  Discourse  18.)  But  then  the  question  is, 
 whether  it  be  not  a  mistake  in  some  learned  men,  to  apply  a 
 usage,  that  is  mentioned  at  such  and  such  a  time,  to  a  people 
 who  lived  many  ages  before. 
 
 Philo  Judieus,  (de  Legatione  ad  Caium,)  speaking  of  the  bar- 
 barous outrage  of  some  Gentiles  against  the  Jews,  dwelling  then 
 at  Alexandria,  acquaints  us,  "  That  of  some  of  their  proseuchte, 
 they  cut  down  the  trees,  and  others  they  demolished  to  the  very 
 foundations."  The  poet  Juvenal  alludes  to  the  very  same  cus- 
 tom of  having  trees  planted  where  the  Jewish  oratories  were, 
 when,  speaking  of  a  fortune-teller  of  that  nation,  he  thus  describes 
 her: — "The  trembling  Jewess  secretly  importunes  for  alms, 
 though  she  be  the  interpreter  of  her  country's  laws, — the  great 
 priestess  of  the  tree — and  the  faithful  ambassadress  of  high 
 heaven."  (Sat.  6.)  And  in  auother  place,  complaining  that 
 through  the  corruption  of  the  times,  the  once  sacred  grove  of 
 Capena,  which  had  formerly  been  the  habitation  of  the  muses, 
 and  the  place  where  Numa  was  wont  to  meet  the  goddess  y£ge- 
 ria,  was  now  let  out  to  the  beggarly  Jews  for  a  proseucha,  his 
 expressions  are  these: — "  Here,  where  Numa  used  to  meet  his 
 mistress  by  night,  are  now  to  be  found  groves  and  shrines  sacred 
 to  the  Jews,  the  whole  furniture  of  which  is  but  a  coffer  and 
 some  hay ;  for  every  tree  is  commissioned  to  give  a  hire,  and  the 
 muses  being  now  expelled  from  it,  the  wood  is  gone  a  begging." 
 some  wild  young  fellows  were  wont,  in  their  drunken  frolics,  to  (Sat.  3.)  For  it  is  hard  to  conceive  what  affinity  there  should 
 affront  and  abuse  every  poor  man  they  met  with  in  the  streets  in  be  between  Jews  and  trees,  unless  it  be  from  the  custom,  that 
 the  uight  time,  brings  them  in  speaking  thus;  "  Tell  me  immedi-  |  their  oratories  were  usually  shaded  with  them. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 385 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH,  i 
 
 perhaps  as  far  as  Shiloh,  and  very  commodious  for  their 
 reception,  we  have  the  attestation  of  holy  writ.  But 
 then,  since  it  is  impossible  for  one  man  to  speak  to  such 
 a  number  of  people  and  be  heard,  Joshua  very  probably 
 singled  out  the  chief  and  principal  of  them,  such  as  he 
 foresaw  would  succeed  him  in  the  government  after  his 
 demise,  and  these  he  took  with  him  to  Shiloh,  a  place 
 in  the  neighbourhood,  where  was  the  ark,  or  sanctuary 
 of  the  Lord,  that  he  might  there,  with  the  greater  solem- 
 nity, give  them  his  final  charge,  which  they,  in  their 
 turns,  might  deliver  to  their  respective  tribes. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  satisfy  the  several  ob- 
 jections, which  are  usually  made  against  sonic  passages 
 in  the  sacred  history,  during  the  government  of  Joshua  : 
 and  if  profane  testimonies  would  be  of  any  force,  we 
 might  produce  the  accounts  which  their  historians  give 
 us  of  Neptune's  drying  up  the  river  Inachus,  and  of 
 Agamemnon's  denouncing  a  curse  against  any  one  that 
 should  repair  Troy,  to  justify  the  narrative  we  have  in 
 Scripture  of  the  miraculous  passage  of  Jordan,  and  the 
 resentment  and  indignation  which  Joshua  conceived 
 against  Jericho.  The  ancient  Hercules  was  certainly 
 the  same  with  Joshua.  He  is  said  to  have  waged  war 
 in  behalf  of  the  gods,  against  Typhosus,  and  the  rest  of 
 the  giants  of  old,  even  as  Joshua  fought  the  battles  of  the 
 Lord  against  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan,  men  of  a  vast 
 stature,  and  at  that  time  under  the  displeasure  of  heaven. 
 In  conformity  to  the  sacred  record  of  God's  destroy  jng 
 the  confederate  army  of  the  Amorites  with  hailstones, 
 the  ancient  heathens  say,  that  Hercules  was  thus  assisted 
 in  his  war  against  the  sons  of  Neptune;  and  Plutarch, 
 in  his  life  of  Timoleon,  tells  us,  that  a  terrible  storm  of 
 bail,  in  the  face  of  the  Carthaginian  army,  gave  him, 
 though  he  had  but  very  few  forces  to  encounter  them,  a 
 complete  victory  over  them.  The  sun  standing  still  is 
 no  new  story.  Callimachus  a  represents  him  as  stopping 
 the  wheels  of  his  chariot  to  hear  the  melody  of  a  chorus 
 of  nymphs,  wherewith  he  was  so  delighted,  that  it  made 
 him  prolong  the  day  :  and  though  they  are  mistaken  in 
 the  cause,  yet  the  ancient  poets  discover  a  tradition  of 
 this  miraculous  event,  *  when  they  describe  the  heaven's 
 blushing,  and  the  sun's  standing  still  at  the  sight  of  the 
 unnatural  murder  which  Atreus  committed.  For  if 
 Statius  mistake  not,  this  bloody  fact  happened  in  the 
 time  of  the  Theban  war,  which,  according  to  the  best 
 chronologists,  was  much  about  the  time  of  Joshua's  con- 
 quest of  Canaan.  Hut  even  supposing  Statius,  or  any 
 other  author  from  whom  lie  took  the  hint,  are  mistaken 
 in  their  chronology, ''  the  time  of  Phaeton's  life,  whose 
 story  of  misguiding  the  chariot  of  the  sun,  is  supposed 
 to   take   its  rise    from   hence,  will  synchronize  with  the 
 
 a  His  words  are  these: — "  Jupiter  Apollo  never  came  near 
 
 that  beauteous  choir,  but  checking  his  chariot,  lie  would  gaze  in 
 ecstasy,  and  cause  the  morning  rays  to  linger." — CaUimdchus 
 to  Diana. 
 
 b  "  Jupiter  more  slowly  rolled  away  the  darkness  from  the 
 humid  sky,  and,  as  I  think,  with  merciful  care,  delayed  the 
 driven-back  air,  while  the  fates  forbade  it;  but  the  unaccustomed 
 darkness  remained  only  till  the  sun  hail  resumed  his  usual 
 strength." — Statins'  Thebais,  b.  1  and  5. 
 
 c  The  sun  stood  still  in  the  days  of  Joshua,  A.M.  2551, 
 when  Phaeton  was  about  twenty-four  years  r.ld,  an  age  of  ambi- 
 tion enough  to  desire,  though  not  of  ability  to  execute,  the  diffi- 
 cult  province  which  ho  undertook.— Shuckford's  Connection, 
 v.  3.  b.  12. 
 
 TO  THE  BMD. 
 
 year  of  the  sun's  standing  still  in  the  days  of  Joshua. 
 So  that,  as  to  the  most  wonderful  transactions  which  in 
 this  space  of  time  we  meet  with  in  holy  writ,  God  has 
 not  left  himself  without  a  witness  :  forasmuch  as  the 
 heathen  writers,  though  with  some  variation  or  disguise 
 according  to  the  humour  of  their  mycologists,  are  blown 
 to  relate  the  same  things. 
 
 CHAP.  III.. 
 
 ■Of  the  Shower  of  Stones,  and  the  Surfs 
 standing  still. 
 
 Of  all  the  miraculous  things  that  happened  in  Joshua's 
 wars  with  the  people  of  Canaan,  the  shower  of  stones 
 which  God  sent  upon  his  enemies,  while  they  lied,  and 
 the  stop  which  he  put  to  the  course  of  the  sun,  that  he 
 might  have  a  longer  space  to  destroy  them  in  their  flight, 
 are  the  most  remarkable,  and  do  therefore  deserve  a 
 more  particular  consideration. 
 
 The  former  of  these  events  the  sacred  history  repre- 
 sents in  this  manner, — '  '  And  it  came  to  pass  that  as 
 they,'  namely,  the  army  of  the  Amorites,  '  lied  from 
 before  Israel,  and  were  in  the  going  down  u>  Beth- 
 horon,  the  Lord  cast  down  great  stones  from  heaven  upon 
 them  unto  Azekah,  and  they  died.  They  were  more 
 which  died  of  the  hailstones,  than  they  whom  the  children 
 of  Israel  slew  With  the  sword.'  Put  the  difference 
 among  commentators  is,  whether  we  are  to  understand 
 this  miracle  of  a  shower  of  stones,  propterh  so  (ailed,  or 
 of  a  shower  of  hail. 
 
 The  learned  Calmet,  in  a  dissertation  prefixed  to  his 
 commentary  upon  Joshua,  has  taken  a  great  deal  of  pains 
 to  show,  that  the  stones,  which  the  Lord  is  said  to  have 
 
 cast  upon   the  Amorites,  were  not  ordinary  hailsl s; 
 
 (since  it  would  be  incongruous,  as  he  thinks,  to  interest 
 God  in  so  common  an  occurrence,)  but  real  solid  stones, 
 which  he  supposes,  might  have  been  engendered  in  the 
 air  by  a  whirlwind  carrying  up  sand  or  gravel  into  a 
 cloud,  and  there  mixing  it  with  some  such  oil)  <>r  nitro- 
 sulphureous  matter  as  might  consolidate,  and  form  it 
 into  a  combustible  body  ;  that  so,  when  by  frequent  agi- 
 tation, it  came  to  be  fired,  it  might  burst  through  the 
 cloud,  and  scattering  itself  upon  the  explosion, might  fall 
 down  upon  the  earth  in  the  nature  of  a  perfect  shower  of 
 stones. 
 
 That  great  quantities  of  stones  have  in  this  manner 
 been  discharged  from  the  clouds,  is  evident  from  -■ 
 historians.  DiodorUS  Siculus  -'  informs  us,  lh;it  as  the 
 Persian  army  was  on  their  march  to  plunder  the  temple 
 at  Delphos,  thunder  and  lightning,  and  a  violent  storm 
 of  stones  fell  in  their  camp,  ami  destroyed  a  great  ,mm_ 
 berofmen.  3  In  the  reign  of  Tullus  Hostilius,.when  news 
 
 was  brought  to  the  government,  lli.it  it  had  rained  stones 
 upon  mount  Alba,  those  who  were  sent  to  inquire  into 
 the  matter,  brought  word,  not  only  that  the  fad  was  true, 
 but  that  these  stones  had  fallen  from  the  skies  with, an 
 impetuosity  equal  to  the  most  violent  storm  of  hail.  '  Not 
 Ion"-  after  the  battle  of  (ann.e,  the  same  author  I 
 us,  that  a  storm  id'  the  same  kind,  fell  on  the  same  moun- 
 tain, which  lasted  for  two  whole  days;  and  events  oT  this 
 
 1  Josh,  x.  1).         2  Vol.  ii.  b.  li.         5  Liv.  b.  l.dsc  l. 
 4  Liv.  h.25,  30,  34. 
 
 3c 
 
386 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  :  OR, 
 
 nature,  attested  by  the  best  authors,  have  been  so  fre- 
 quent at  Rome,  at  Capua,  at  Lavinium,  and  several 
 other  places  in  Italy,  that  a  man  must  be  destitute  of  all 
 modesty,  who  pretends  to  deny  them  absolutely. 
 
 Nay,  not  only  great  quantities  of  smaller  stones,  but 
 sometimes  stones  of  a  prodigious  size,  have  been  known 
 to  fall  from  the  clouds,  whereof  this  learned  author,  1 
 among  many  others,  gives  us  several  instances,  both  of 
 ancient  and  modern  date.  But  then  it  is  justly  to  be 
 questioned,  whether  these  authors  have  not  suffered  them- 
 selves to  be  imposed  on  by  the  too  confident  narrations 
 of  others.  We  may  suppose  indeed,  that  whirlwinds,  or 
 hurricanes,  may  raise  the  sand  or  gravel,  and  carry  it  on 
 high,  or  some  sudden  irruptions  of  subterraneous  fire  may 
 discharge  gTeat  quantities  of  cinders,  or  ashes,  into  the 
 air,  where  meeting  with  some  exhalations  of  a  sulphu- 
 reous oily,  or  nitroline  quality,  they  may,  by  the  pressure 
 of  the  clouds,  be  condensed  and  hardened  into  a  stony 
 substance  ;  yet,  how  any  cloud  should  be  able  to  sup- 
 port such  a  quantity  of  smaller  stones,  much  more  of  vast 
 massy  ones,  as  would  be  necessary  to  destroy  the  army 
 of  the  five  confederate  kings,  and  to  continue  falling 
 down  upon  them  from  Beth-horon'  to  Azekah,  places 
 which  lay  in  different  tribes,  and  can  hardly  be  supposed 
 less  than  twelve  or  fourteen  miles  distant,  (to  say  nothing 
 of  the  many  apertures  in  the  earth,  which  must  have  been 
 seen  afterwards  in  these  parts,  upon  the  supposition  that 
 the  thing  was  effected  by  volcanoes,)  is  a  matter  not 
 altogether  so  credible.  a 
 
 1  See  Saurin's  Dissertation  likewise,  who  has  given  us  a  large 
 account  hereof. 
 
 a  Since  our  author  wrote  much  light  lias  been  thrown  on  the 
 disputed  subject  as  to  showers  of  stones,  either  large  or  small; 
 and  the  fact  has  been  established  that  the  descent  of  such  bodies 
 is  by  no  means  uncommon.  They  are  solid  semi-metallic  sub- 
 stances which  fall  from  the  atmosphere,  and  are  known  by  the 
 name  of  aerolites,  or  meteoric  stones.  As  it  is  possible  that  such 
 bodies  were  employed  by  the  Almighty  in  this  instance  to  effect 
 his  purpose,  we  subjoin  a  short  account  of  them,  and  the  conjec- 
 tures as  to  their  origin.  The  larger  stones  have  been  seen  as 
 luminous  bodies  moving  with  great  velocity,  descending  in 
 oblique  directions,  and  frequently  with  a  loud  hissing  noise, 
 resembling  that  of  a  mortar-shell  when  projected  from  a  piece  of 
 ordnance ;  they  are  sometimes  surrounded  with  a  flame,  tapering 
 off  to  a  narrow  stream  at  the  hinder  part,  are  heard  to  explode, 
 and  seen  to  fly  in  pieces.  Of  course  these  appearances  have  been 
 observed  only  in  the  night;  when  the  stones  have  fallen  in  the 
 daytime,  the  meteor  has  not  been  observed,  but  the  report 
 and  the  shower  of  stones  only  have  been  noticed.  The  same 
 meteoric  mass  has  often  been  seen  over  a  great  extent  of  country ; 
 in  some  instances  100  miles  in  breadth,  and  500  in  length,  which 
 implies  that  they  must  have  had  a  great  elevation.  Indeed  from 
 various  calculations,  it  appears,  that  during  the  time  in  which  they 
 are  visible,  their  perpendicular  altitude  is  generally  from  20  to  100 
 miles;  and  their  diameter  has,  in  some  instances, been  estimated 
 to  be  at  least  half  a  mile.  Their  velocity  is  astonishing.  Though 
 rarely  visible  for  more  than  a  minute,  yet  they  are  seen  to  traverse 
 many  degrees  in  the  heavens.  Their  rate  of  motion  cannot  ac- 
 cording to  calculation,  be  generally  less  than  300  miles  in  a 
 minute.  From  the  dimensions  of  these  moving  bodies,  which 
 certainly  have  not  been  overrated,  since  they  have  been  known 
 to  illuminate,  at  once,  a  region  of  one  or  two  hundred  miles  in 
 extent,  we  are  warranted  in  the  conclusion  that  the  stones  which 
 come  to  us  from  them,  form  but  a  very  small  portion  of  their 
 bulk,  while  the  main  body  holds  on  its  way  through  the  regions 
 of  the  heavens.  The  velocity  with  which  the  pieces  strike  the 
 earth  is  very  gra*t,  frequently  penetrating  to  a  considerable 
 depth,  and  when  taken  up,  they  have  been  found,  in  some  cases, 
 still  hot,  and  bearing  evident  marks  of  recent  fusion.  Such  falls 
 have  happened  in  cloudy  as  well  as  in  clear  weather,  which  leads 
 
 ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 The  truth  is,  there  is  no  reason  for  carrying  this 
 miracle  so  high ;  since  a  shower  of  hailstones  will  not 
 only  do  the  work  every  whit  as  well,  but  seems  to  be  the 
 genuine  import  of  Joshua's  words,  who  having  acquainted 
 
 to  the  belief  that  they  are  wholly  unconnected  with  the  state  of 
 the  atmosphere.  The  most  remarkable  circumstance  respecting 
 them  is,  that  they  invariably  resemble  each  other  in  certain  easily 
 cognizable  characters,  both  as  respects  their  external  properties 
 and  chemical  composition,  so  as  to  render  it  possible  for  a  mine- 
 ralogist or  a  chemist  to  recognize  them  with  certainty,  though  he 
 should  have  no  information  of  their  origin  or  fall.  Those  speci- 
 mens in  which  earthy  matter  preponderates,  resemble  pretty 
 closely  certain  varieties  of  the  trachytic  rocks,  or  ancient  lavas, 
 but  they  invariably  contain,  disseminated  through  their  substance 
 an  alloy  of  iron  and  nickel,  which  has  as  yet  never  been  disco- 
 vered among  the  productions  of  our  earth.  The  earthy  minerals 
 of  which  they  are  composed,  are  feldspar,  olivine,  and  augite — 
 the  former  greatly  preponderating;  and  of  metallic  substances," 
 besides  the  native  iron,  magnetic  iron  pyrites  is  a  frequent  in- 
 gredient. The  alloy  of  iron  and  nickel  often  contains  chrome, 
 manganese,  and  cobalt,  in  minute  proportions-.  This  alloy  va- 
 ries in  the  proportion  which  it  bears  to  the  earthy  matters,  in 
 stones  which  have  fallen  at  different  times:  sometimes  it  is 
 scarcely  to  be  detected  without  the  aid  of  the  microscope ;  at 
 other  times  it  forms  more  than  one  half  the  bulk  of  the  stone, 
 and  immense  masses  are  found  consisting  entirely  of  native  iron: 
 such  masses  are  called  meteoric  iron,  while  the  expression  me- 
 teoric stones  is  applied  more  strictly  to  those  in  which  the  earthy 
 minerals  preponderate.  These  last  are  invariably  coated  on  the 
 outside  with  a  thin  black  incrustation,  and  have  in  general  a 
 spherical  figure  in  which  we  often  observe  indentations,  similar 
 to  those  which  are  presented  by  a  mass  that  has  been  impressed 
 with  the  fingers.  These  constant  characters,  as  respects  their 
 fall,  and  chemical  and  mechanical  composition,  indicate  a  com- 
 mon origin,  and  have  given  rise  to  a  variety  of  hypotheses  to 
 account  for  their  phenomena.  We  can  only  hint  at  these  hypo- 
 theses. Some  attribute  them  to  terrestrial,  and  others  to  lunar 
 volcanoes.  They  have  again  been  supposed  to  be  concretions 
 formed  in  the  regions  of  our  atmosphere ;  while  others  have  con- 
 sidered them  as  small  planets  circulating  about  the  sun  or  earth, 
 which,  coming  in  contact  with  our  atmosphere,  take  fire  from  the 
 resistance  and  friction  which  they  meet  with  in  passing  through 
 it.  With  regard  to  the  first  supposition,  namely,  that  these 
 stones  proceed  from  terrestrial  volcanoes,  it  will  be  sufficient  to 
 observe,  that  no  remarkable  irruption  has  been  known  to  have 
 happened  at  or  near  the  time  of  their  fall ;  and  that  such  bodies 
 have  been  found  at  the  distance  of  some  thousand  miles  from  any 
 known  volcano;  besides  the  immense  force  that  would  be  neces- 
 sary to  project  bodies  of  such  enormous  dimensions  as  these 
 meteors  are  known  to  possess,  far  exceeds  any  force  that  we  can 
 conceive  of,  not  to  notice  the  want  of  similarity  between  meteoric 
 stones  and  ordinary  volcanic  exuvice.  As  to  the  theory  that  they 
 proceed  from  volcanoes  in  the  moon,  it  has  a  greater  degree  of 
 probability.  The  same  force  that  would  project  a  body  from  the 
 moon  to  the  earth,  would  not,  if  it  were  exerted  at  the  earth's 
 surface  send  the  same  body  to  the  distance  of  ten  miles,  in  con- 
 sequence of  the  superior  gravity  of  our  planet  and  the  density  of 
 the  atmosphere.  It  is  computed  that  a  body  projected  from  a 
 favourable  spot  on  the  moon's  surface, — say  the  centre  of  her  disk 
 opposite  the  earth, — with  a  velocity  about  four  times  that  com- 
 monly given  to  a  cannon  ball,  or  8220  feet  per  second,  would 
 carry  it  beyond  the  centre  of  attraction,  and  consequently  into  the 
 sphere  of  the  earth's  activity ;  whence  it  must  necessarily  either 
 fall  to  the  surface  of  the  earth,  or  circulate  about  us  as  a  satellite. 
 A  body  so  projected  from  the  moon  to  the  earth,  would  take  three 
 days  in  its  passage ;  which  is  not  so  long  but  that  it  might  retain 
 its  heat,  particularly  as  it  is  doubtful  whether  in  passing  through 
 a  vacuum,  or  very  attenuated  medium,  it  would  be  possible  for 
 the  caloric  to  escape,  not  to  say  that  it  might  acquire  a  fresh 
 accumulation  of  heat,  by  passing  through  the  denser  parts  of  our 
 atmosphere.  Besides,  eruptions,  resembling  those  of  our  volca- 
 noes, have  been  frequently  observed  in  the  moon  ;  and  her  atmo- 
 sphere is  extremely  rare,  presenting  but  little  resistance  to 
 projected  bodies.  This  theoiy  might  perhaps  be  tenable  if  we 
 had  only  to  account  for  those  showers  of  stones  which  come  to  our 
 earth's  surface;  but  these  it  has  been  seen,  are  a  very  trilling 
 part  of  the  main  masses  from  which  they  descend,  and  which  are 
 
Sect.  1.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 3V7 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH 
 
 us  that  the  Lord  cast  down  great  stones  upon  the  Ainor- 
 ites,  adds,  by  way  of  explication,  'that  they  were  more 
 that  died  by  the  hailstones  than  by  the  sword  ;'  where 
 it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  had  there  been  great 
 stones  as  well  as  hail,  the  death  of  the  greater  numbers 
 of  those  that  perished  would  not  have  been  attributed  to 
 the  hail  only. 
 
 It  is  some  confirmation  of  this  exposition,  that  we  find 
 the  Septuagint,  in  both  places  of  the  text,  translating  it 
 Aidovs  XaAa^Vjj,  which  Josephus  1  calls  "  a  violent  tem- 
 pest of  hailstones  of  a  prodigious  size  ;"  and  the  author 
 of"  Ecclesiasticus  thus  recounts  the  whole  matter  :  "  With 
 hailstones  of  a  mighty  power  he  made  the  battle  to  fall 
 violently  upon  the  nations,  and  in  the  descent  of  Betli- 
 horon,  he  destroyed  them  that  resisted." 
 
 The  prophet  Ezekiel,  in  his  predictions  against  Gog, 
 
 1  Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  1.  !  Chap.  xlvi.  G. 
 
 believed  to  be   in   some  instances  more  than    a    mile    in  cir- 
 cumference.     And  since  it  is  conceived  that  we  experience  a 
 shower   of  these  stones  every   few  months  in  some  part  of  the 
 world,    it   is  obvious   that  at  this  rate  the  whole  mass  of  the 
 moon  most  soon  be  shot  away.     Nor  is  this  all.     Among  a  num- 
 ber of  bodies,  thrown  at  random  from  the  moon,  it  is  not  probable 
 that  one  in  10,000  would  have  precisely  that  direction  and  that 
 rate  of  motion  which  would  he  requisite  to  cause  it  to  pass  through 
 our  atmosphere,  without  falling   to   the   ground.      With  regard 
 to  the  theory  of  these  bodies  being  concretions  formed  in    the 
 air,  there  is  one   principal  objection,  namely,  that  the  velocity 
 with  which  they  strike  the  earth,  estimated  by  the  depth  to  which 
 they  have  been  known  to  penetrate,  is  so  great  as  to  indicate  their 
 having  fallen  from  heights  far  exceeding  the  limits  of  the  terres- 
 trial atmosphere.     The  remaining  theory,  especially  that  modi- 
 fication   of   it   which   conceives   these    meteoric   masses  to   be 
 terrestrial  comets,  appears  encumbered  with  fewer   difficulties 
 than  either  of  the  others.     The  solar  comets,  it  is  well   known, 
 revolve  round  the  sun  in  very  eccentric  orbits.      In  fine  part  of 
 their  revolution,  they  sometimes  come  so  near  as  almost  to  strike 
 his  body.     They  then   move  oft*  far  beyond  the  orbits  of  all  the 
 planets;  and  in  some  instances  are  gone  hundreds  of  years  before 
 they  return.     The  earth,  it  is  imagined,  in  like  manner  is  fur- 
 nished with  its  system  of  comets,  whose  size  and  periods  of  revo- 
 lution are  proportioned  to  the  comparative  smallness  of  the  primary 
 body  about  which  tiny  revolve,  and  which  like  the  solar  comets, 
 fly  off  in  very  elliptical  orbits ;  and  during  the  greatest  part  of 
 their  circuit  are  too  far  distant  to  be  visible.     In  their  approach 
 to  the  earth,  they  fall  within  our  atmosphere  ;  by  the  friction   ot 
 the  air  they  are  heated,  and  highly  electrified,  and  the  electricity 
 is  discharged  with  a  very  violent  report,  accompanied  with  the 
 detachment  of  a  portion  of  the  mass,  which  descends  in  fragments 
 to  the  earth.      This  hypothesis  certainly  accounts,    in  a  very 
 happy  manner,  for  most  of  the  phenomena  attending  the  fall  of 
 aerolites.     The  velocity  of  the  meteor  corresponds  with  the  mo- 
 tion of  a  terrestrial  comet,  passing  through  the  atmosphere  in  an 
 elliptical  orbit.   A  body  moving  near  the  earth  with  a  velocity  less 
 than  300  miles  in  a  minute,  must  fall  to  its  surface  by  the  power 
 of  gravitation.     If  it  move  in  a  direction  parallel  to  the  horizon, 
 more  than  430  miles  in  a  minute,  it  will  tly  oil'  in  the  curve  of 
 a  hyperbola;  and  will  never  return,  unless  disturbed  in  its  motion 
 by  some  other  body  besides  the  earth.      Within   these  two  limits 
 of  300  miles  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  430  on  the  other  (some 
 allowance  being  made  for  the  resistance  of  the  air,  and  the  mo- 
 tion of  the  earth),  the  body  will  revolve  in  an  ellipsis,  returning 
 in    regular  periods.     Now,  the  velocity  of  the  meteors,  which 
 have  been  observed,  lias  generally  been  estimated  to  be  rather  more 
 than  300  miles  in  a  minute.     In  some  instances  it  is  perhaps  too 
 great  to  sutler  the  body  ever  to  return;  but  in  most  cases,  it  is 
 calculated  to  be  such  as  would  be  necessary  in  describing   the 
 lower  part  of  an  elliptical  orbit.     Various  lists  of  the  periods, 
 places,  and  appearances  of  these  showers  of  stones  have  been  given 
 from  time  to  time  in  the  scientific  journals.   One  of  the  latest  and 
 most  complete  is  that  published  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Edin. 
 Phil.  Jour.,  compiled  partly  from  a  printed  list  by  Chladni,  and 
 partly  from  a  manuscript  one  of  Mr  Allan,  read  some  years  ago, 
 at  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh. 
 
 TO  THE  END. 
 
 introduces  God  as  threatening,  that 3  '  lie  would  plead 
 against  him  with  pestilence,   ami  with   blood,  with   an 
 overflowing  rain,  and  great  hailstones,  lire,  and  brim- 
 stone.'    And  in  another  place,  speaking  of  false  pro- 
 phets, who  seduced  his  people,  into  an  opinion  of  their 
 security,  as  if  they  had  been  fortified  within   a  wall,  he 
 pursues  the  metaphor,  and  tells  those  who    daubed    it 
 with  untempered  mortar,  4  '  that  it  should  fall  :  for  there 
 shall  be  an  overflowing  shower,'  says  he,  '  and  ye,  <> 
 great  hailstones,   shall    fall,  and  a  stormy  wind  shall 
 rent  it.'     So  that  from  these  and  several  other  passages 
 of  the  like  nature,  we  may  learn,  that  in  executing  his 
 judgments  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  hailstones  arc  very 
 frequently  arrows  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty  :  and  of 
 what  force  they  are  to  do  execution,  we  are  advertised 
 in  what  befell  the  Egyptians,  when,  as  the  sacred  history 
 has  related  it,  5  '  The  Lord   sent  thunder  and  hail,  and 
 the  fire  ran  upon  the  ground  :   and  the  Lord  rained  hail 
 upon  the  land  of  Egypt;  so   there  was   hail,  and  lire 
 mingled  with  hail,  very  grievous,  such  as  there  was  none 
 like  it  in  all  the  land  of  Egypt,  since  it  became  a  nation. 
 And  the  hail  smote  throughout  all  the  land  of  Egypt,  all 
 that  was  in  the  field,  both  man  and  beast  :  it  smote  every 
 herb  of  the  field,  and  brake  every  tree  of  the  field.'   Nor 
 are  there  examples  of  a  later  date  wanting,  especially 
 in  our  philosophical  transactions,  of  the  vast  havock  and 
 destruction  that  hailstones    (from  8  one  to  five  pounds 
 weight)  have  done  in  several  places ;  killing  both  man 
 and  beast,  and  laying  the  whole  country  waste,  for  some 
 sixty  or   seventy  miles  round.     And  therefore,  since  it 
 is  agreed  on  all  hands,  that  hailstones  have  frequently 
 fallen  large  enough  to  destroy  never  so  great  a  Dumber 
 of  people,  when  naked   and  defenceless    against  their 
 blows,  what  need  is  there  for  our  having  recourse  to  any 
 other  solution  ? 
 
 A  shower  of  hail,  indeed,  may  be  supposed  to  proceed 
 from  a  mere  natural  cause  ;  but  when  the  event  happened 
 at  the  very  instant  wherein  God  promised  to  assist  his 
 people  against  their  enemies  ;  when,  though  it  might 
 have  annoyed  either  army,  it  fell  only  on  that  which 
 God  had  before  determined  to  ruin;  and  fell  BO  rerj 
 heavily  upon  it,  as  to  destroy  more  than  the  sword  of 
 the  conquerors  had  done;  such  an  event  as  this,  1  Bay, 
 cannot  but  be  looked  upon  as  a  miraculous  interposition 
 of  providence,  how  fortuitous  soever  the  concourse  01 
 second  causes  may  be.  In  working  miracles.  God 
 usually  employs  natural  causes  ami  productions.  He 
 does  not  create  any  new  tiling  for  tin-  purpose  :  bul 
 makes  use  of  what  is  already  created,  in  a  new  and 
 extraordinary  manner  ;  and  therefore,  though  the  shower 
 of  hail,  and   probably  the   wind   too.  which   made  it  fall 
 
 with  such  impetuosity,  were  both  of  diem  natural:  yet 
 
 the  sending  them  at  the  very  nick  of  time,  and  directing 
 them  to    fall    upon  the   enenrj    only,    in  this  there   was 
 
 manifestly  the  hand  of  God,  and  something  supernatural. 
 
 The    other    miracle    is    thus    related    in    holy    writ. 
 "  <  Joshua  said,  in  the  sight  of  ail   Israel,  Sun,  stand  thou 
 
 still   upon 
 
 Gibeon,    and    thou    moon     ill    the    valle\     of 
 
 Ajalon  :   and   the  sun   stood   still ,  and  the  moon  sta\  cd, 
 until  the  people  had  avenged  themselves  of  their  en< 
 
 ■  Ezek.  xxxviii.  28.  *  Ezek.  xiii.  11. 
 
 »  Bxod.  ix.  23,  &c. 
 «  Saurin's  DisserUtiou  on  the  defeat  of  the  five  Kings. 
 \.  IS,  be. 
 
388 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Is  not  this  written  in  the  book  of  Jasher  ?  So  the  sun 
 stood  still  in  the  midst  of  heaven,  and  hastened  not  to 
 go  down  about  a  whole  day ;  and  there  was  no  day  like 
 that,  before  or  after  it,  that  the  Lord  hearkened  unto 
 the  voice  of  a  man  ;  for  the  Lord  fought  for  Israel.' 
 Now,  for  the  better  understanding  of  these  words,  we 
 must  observe, 
 
 1.  That  nothing  is  more  common  in  Scripture,  than 
 to  express  things,  not  according  to  the  strict  rules  of 
 philosophy,  but  according  to  their  appearances,  and 
 the  vulgar  apprehension  concerning  them.  The  sun  and 
 moon,  for  instance,  are  called  x  'two  great  lights;'  but 
 however  that  title  may  agree  with  the  sun,  it  is  plain, 
 that  the  moon  is  but  a  small  body,  much  less  than 
 many  others  in  the  planetary  system,  and  that  it  has 
 no  light  at  all,  but  what  it  borrows,  and  reflects  from  the 
 rays  of  the  sun  ;  and  yet,  because  it  is  placed  near  us, 
 it  appears  to  us  larger  than  other  heavenly  luminaries, 
 and  from  that  appearance  the  holy  Scriptures  give  it 
 such  an  appellation. 
 
 And  in  like  manner,  because  the  sun  seems  to  us  to 
 move,  and  the  earth  to  be  at  rest,  the  Scriptures  speak  a 
 great  deal  of  the  pillars,  and  bases,  and  foundations  of 
 the  earth,  and  of  the  sun's  2  'rejoicing-,  like  a  giant,  to 
 run  his  race,'  and  of  3  '  his  arising  and  going  down,  and 
 hasting  to  the  place  where  he  arose,'  &c.  Whereas  it  is 
 certain,  that  *  if  the  sun  were  made  to  revolve  round 
 about  the  earth,  the  a  general  law  of  nature  would  there- 
 by be  violated  ;  the  harmony  and  proportion  of  the 
 heavenly  bodies  destroyed  ;  and  no  small  confusion  and 
 disorder  brought  into  the  frame  of  the  universe  :  but,  on 
 the  contrary,  if  the  earth  turning  upon  its  own  axis  every 
 day,  be  made  to  go  round  the  sun  in  the  space  of  a  year, 
 it  will  then  perform  its  circulation,  according  to  the 
 same  law  which  the  other  planets  observe  ;  and,  without 
 the  least  exception,  there  will  be  a  most  beautiful  order 
 and  harmony  of  motions  everywhere  preserved  through 
 the  whole  frame  of  nature.  As  therefore  the  Scriptures 
 were  designed  to  teach  us  the  art  of  holy  living,  and  not  to 
 instruct  us  in  the  rudiments  of  natural  knowledge,  it  can 
 be  deemed  no  diminution  either  to  their  perfection,  or 
 divine  authority,  that  they  generally  speak  according-  to 
 the  common  appearance  of  things,  and  not  according  to 
 their  reality  or  philosophic  truth.     The  plain  matter  of 
 
 1  Gen.  i.  10.  *  Ps.  xix.  5. 
 
 *  Keil's  Astronomical  Lectures. 
 
 Ec.  i.  5. 
 
 a  Besides  tin's  general  argument  of  Mr  Keil's,  Mr  Winston 
 has  one,  which  he  accounts  no  less  than  a  demonstration  :  "  If 
 the  earth,"  says  he,  "have  an  annual  revolution  ahout  the  sun, 
 it  must  affect  the  apparent  motion  of  all  the  other  planets,  and 
 comets;  and  notwithstanding  the  regularity  of  their  several 
 motions  in  their  own  orbits,  must  render  these  regular  motions, 
 to  >is,  as  living  upon  the  moving  earth,  sometimes  direct,  and 
 that  swiftly  or  slowly;  sometimes  stationary,  and  sometimes 
 retrograde,  and  that  swiftly  or  slowly  also;  and  all  this,  at  such 
 certain  periods,  in  such  certain  places,  for  such  certain  durations, 
 and  according  to  such  certain  circumstances,  as  geometry  and 
 arithmetic  will  certainly  determine,  and  not  otherwise.  Now 
 that  this  is  the  real  case  in  fact,  and  that  every  one  of  these  par- 
 ticulars are  true  in  the  astronomical  world,  all  that  are  skilful  in 
 that  science  do  freely  confess,  even  those  who  do  not  think  fit  to 
 declare  openly  for  this  annual  revolution  of  the  earth,  which  yet 
 
 is  the  natural  and   certain   con&equence   of  that  concession." 
 
 (JFhiston's  Astron.  Princ.  of  Relig.)  Tire  reader  that  is  desirous 
 to  know  more  both  of  the  annual  and  diurnal  motion  of  the  earth, 
 may  consult  Dr  Derham's  Prelim.  Disc,  to  his  Astro-Theol. 
 
 fact  is,  that  in  the  early  ages,  both  before,  and  long  after 
 the  days  of  Joshua,  the  most  learned  astronomers  had 
 no  notion  of  the  improvements  which  our  modern  pro- 
 fessors have  since  attained  to.  They  never  once  dreamed 
 of  the  earth's  rotation,  upon  its  own  axis  ;  but  according 
 to  common  appearance,  were  fully  persuaded,  that  the 
 sun  and  moon,  had  their  respective  courses.  Upon  this 
 supposition  they  formed  their  schemes,  and  thought 
 themselves  able  to  answer  every  phenomenon  by  them. 
 And  therefore,  if  God  had  prompted  Joshua  to  desire 
 the  prolongation  of  the  day  in  a  manner  more  agreeable 
 to  our  new  astronomy,  or  to  record  the  miracle  in  terms 
 more  suitable  to  it,  this  would  have  been  a  plain  con- 
 trariety to  all  the  rules  of  science  then  in  use.  The 
 people  who  heard  him  utter  the  words,  '  Earth,  rest  upon 
 thy  axis,'  would  have  thought  him  distracted,  and  those 
 who  read  his  account  of  what  had  happened,  if  related 
 in  suitable  expressions,  would  have  decried  it  as  false  in 
 fact,  or  passed  it  by  with  contempt  and  disregard,  as  a 
 wild  fancy  or  blunder  of  his  own. 
 
 2.  In  relation  to  the  places  over  which  the  two  heaven- 
 ly bodies  were  to  stand,  the  sun  '  over  Gibeon,'  and  the 
 moon  '  over  the  valley  Ajalon,'  we  must  observe,  that, 
 even  upon  the  supposition  of  the  sun's  motion,  the  Jew- 
 ish general  cannot  be  thought  to  speak  in  a  proper  and 
 philosophic  sense.  For  since  the  sun  is  almost  a 
 million  of  times  bigger  than  the  earth,  and  some  millions 
 of  miles  distant  from  it,  to  justify  the  strict  sense  of  the 
 words,  a  line  drawn  from  the  centre  of  the  sun  to  that 
 of  the  earth,  must  exactly  pass  by  Gibeon,  which  we 
 know  it  cannot  do,  because  no  part  of  the  Holy  Land 
 lies  within  the  tropics :  and  therefore  Ave  must  conclude, 
 that  Joshua  here  speaks  according  to  the  outward 
 appearance  of  things,  which  makes  the  sense  of  his 
 words  plain  and  intelligible. 
 
 Wherever  we  are,  if  so  be  we  are  not  hindered  by 
 objects  immediately  surrounding  us,  we  can  cast  our  eye 
 upon  part  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  at  the  same 
 time  take  into  our  prospect  some  small  extent  of  the 
 firmament  of  heaven,  which  seems,  as  it  were,  to  cover 
 the  other  ;  and  each  celestial  body,  which  we  perceive 
 in  this  extent  above,  appears  to  us  to  be  directly  over 
 such  and  such  part  of  the  earth,  as  we  alternately  turn 
 our  eyes  to  :  and  it  was  thus,  that  the  sun,  when  Joshua 
 spake,  seemed  to  him,  and  to  those  that  were  with  him,  to 
 '  be  over  Gibeon,  and  the  moon  to  be  over  the  valley  of 
 Ajalon.'  This  valley,  in  all  likelihood,  took  its  name 
 from  some  adjacent  town  ;  but  then,  as  there  are  three 
 Ajalons  mentioned  in  Scripture,  one  5  in  the  tribe  of 
 Ephraim,  another  in  6  Zebulun,  and  another  in  7  Dan,  it 
 is  reasonable  to  think,  that  the  place  here  spoken  of 
 was  in  Dan,  the  most  remote  province  from  Gibeon ;  for 
 we  must  suppose  that  these  two  places  were  at  some  con- 
 siderable distance,  otherwise  Joshua  could  not  see  the 
 sun  and  moon  both  appear  at  the  same  time,  as  it  is 
 probable  they  were  both  in  his  eye  when  he  uttered  these 
 words. 
 
 3.  In  relation  to  the  time  when  this  miracle  began, 
 and  how  long  it  lasted,  the  Scripture  expression  is, 
 that  the  '  sun  stood  still  in  the  midst  of  heaven,  and 
 hasted  not  to  go  down  about  a  whole  day  :'  which  words 
 can  import  no  less,  than  that  the  sun  stood  still  in  the 
 
 5  Chron.  vi.  69. 
 
 Judg.  xii.  12. 
 
 7  Josh.  xix.  42. 
 
Sbct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 389 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAL 
 
 meridian,  or  much  about  noon,  and  that  in  this  position 
 it  continued  for  the  space  of  a  civil  or  artificial  day,  that 
 is,  for  twelve  hours.  But  '  Maimonides  is  of  opinion, 
 and  in  this  he  is  followed  2  by  some  Christian  writers, 
 that  there  Mas  no  such  cessation  of  the  sun  and  moon's 
 motion,  but  that  the  whole  purport  of  the  miracle  was 
 this  : — "  That  God,  at  Joshua's  request,  granted  him  and 
 his  soldiers  such  a  degree  of  spirits,  activity,  and  des- 
 patch,  as  enabled  them  to  gain  a  complete  victory,  and 
 do  as  much  execution  in  one  day  as  might  otherwise  have 
 taken  up  two."  But  this  is  a  construction  so  repugnant 
 to  the  genuine  sense  of  the  words  as  to  need  no  formal 
 confutation. 
 
 There  is  something  more,  however,  to  be  said  to  the 
 notion  of  other  learned  men,  who  with  regard  to  the  time 
 when  Joshua  might  send  up  his  request,  and  the  miracle 
 begin,  think  it  more  probable  that  he  should  pray  for  a 
 longer  day,  when  he  perceived  the  sun  just  going  to 
 leave  him,  than  when  it  was  in  its  height.  But  Joshua, 
 no  doubt,  had  reasons  for  what  he  did :  he  was  an  old 
 experienced  general,  eager  for  a  complete  victory,  and 
 able  to  compute  what  time  it  would  take  to  achieve  it :  so 
 that  his  fear  of  losing  any  part  of  the  present  advantage  , 
 might  make  him  pray  that  the  day  might  be  thus  pro- 
 longed until  he  had  obtained  the  whole.  If  the  sun,  in 
 its  declension,  had  stopped  its  course,  it  might  have 
 answered  his  purpose  perhaps  ;  but  then  it  had  given  a 
 juster  handle  to  the  suggestions  of  those  who  would 
 deny  the  whole  merit  of  the  miracle.  For,  if  the  retard- 
 ation of  the  sun  had  not  happened  until  it  was  going  to 
 set,  s  Spinosa  might,  with  a  much  better  grace,  hare 
 attributed  the  extraordinary  length  of  this  day  to  the 
 refraction  of  its  rays  from  the  clouds,  which  at  that  time 
 were  loaded  with  hail ;  or  4  Peirerius,  to  some  aurora 
 borealis,  or  par  helium,  which,  after  the  setting  of  the 
 sun,  might  appear  about  the  territories  of  Gibeon,  and 
 so  be  mistaken  for  the  sun's  standing  still :  but  now,  by 
 fixing  it  in  its  meridian  point,  all  these  cavils  are  effec- 
 tually silenced  ;  and  5  God,  no  doubt,  who  heard  him  so 
 readily,  inspired  the  Hebrew  general  with  that  wish  or 
 prayer,  which  otherwise  perhaps  would  never  have  come 
 into  his  head. 
 
 4.  In  relation  to  the  book  of  Jasher,  (or  of  just  and 
 upright  men,)  which  Joshua  quotes  as  a  voucher  of  the 
 truth  of  this  miracle,  the  opinions  of  learned  men  are 
 much  divided.  °  Some  think,  that  it  was  the  book  of 
 Genesis,  which  is  here  so  called,  because  it  treats  of  the 
 lives  of  Abraham,  Isaac*,  and  Jacob,  three  of  the  most 
 righteous  men  that  the  world  then  knew.  The  Targum 
 of  Jonathan  calls  it  '  the  book  of  the  law,'  as  containing 
 not  only  the  chief  precepts  which  God  gave  his  people, 
 but  several  promises  likewise  of  the  wonders  which  he 
 Btended  to  work  for  them.  7  Josephus,  and  some  inter- 
 preters after  him,  will  have  it  to  be  certain  annals  of  the 
 lives  and  particular  adventures  of  some  Jewish  worthies, 
 and  of  other  things  remarkable  that  happened  to  that 
 nation  ;  though  others  again  suppose  that  this  was  only  a 
 collection  of  some  verses,  which  the  Israelites  thought 
 themselves  concerned  to  learn  by  heart,  the  better  to 
 
 1  More  Nevoch.  part  2.  c.  39.     2  Grotius  and  Masius  in  locum. 
 
 3  Tract.  Theolog.  Politic,  c.  2.         *  Pnedam.  b.  1.  c.  (i. 
 
 5  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Commandment,  &c. 
 
 6  J.  Jarcli.  in  Jos.  x.  13.  7  Antiquities,  b.  10.  c.  17. 
 
 ES,  A.  M.  3R0.1.  A.  C.  1C08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  BKD. 
 
 remember  the  miracles  which  God  had  been  pleased  to 
 vouchsafe  them.  But  whatever  the  subject  of  this  book 
 was,  or  «  whether  it  was  composed  in  prose  or  rerse,  it 
 is  a  groundless  conjecture  to  say,  '  that  it  was  wrote  in  a 
 figurative  and  hyperbolical  style,  or  that  the  quotation 
 
 which  Joshua  lakes  from  it,  is  so  to  be  undersl I.   The 
 
 design  of  the  quotation  is  only  to  confirm  what  Joshua 
 affirms,  that  the  sun  did  stand  still,  that  of  Jasher   in 
 what  style  soever  it  was  written,  must   necessarily  be 
 supposed  to  do  the  same  ;  otherwise  it  would  have 
 to  no  purpose  to  have  cited  it. 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that,  upon  some  occa- 
 sions, the  sacred  penmen  do  use  figures,  and  poetical 
 expressions;  but  then  the  sense  and  chain  of  the  dis- 
 course do  easily  discover  it  when  they  do  so.  When- 
 ever they  intend  to  express  themselves  in  a  figurative 
 manner,  there  is  usually  something  going  before,  which 
 prepares  the  reader  for  it  ;  ami  besides  that  figurative 
 expressions  cannot  be  long  continued,  there  is  always 
 something  apparently  in  them,  that  can  li\  no  means  be 
 reduced  to  a  literal  sense.  But  now,  in  the  Scripture 
 account  of  this  transaction,  where  do  we  perceive  any 
 thing  like  this?  9  Joshua,  seeing  the  enemy  put  to  the 
 rout,  begs  of  God  to  give  him  a  complete  victory,  and, 
 at  the  same  time,  out  of  the  zeal  and  fervour  of  his  mind, 
 commands  the  sun  and  moon  not  to  advance  any  farther, 
 until  he  had  effected  his  desire.  The  sacred  historian 
 tells  us,  that,  at  his  command,  these  heavenly  luminaries 
 actually  did  stand  still ;  and  to  evince  the  credibility  of 
 a  thing  so  marvellous,  having  produced  the  testimony  of 
 another  author  that  makes  mention  of  the  same  event, 
 he  thereupon  concludes,  that  ""there  was  no  day  like 
 that,  before  it  or  after  it,  that  God  hearkened  to  the 
 voice  of  a  man.'  Here,  we  see.  are  all  the  tokens  ima- 
 ginable of  a  simple,  literal,  and  historical  narration  : 
 and  the  reader  must  therefore  lie  stronglj  prejudiced 
 against  the  belief  of  all  miracles  whatever,  who  can 
 possibly  distort  such  plain  and  uniform  expressions  into 
 any  figurative  or  metaphorical  sense,  in  order  to  evade 
 the  force  of  this. 
 
 "  Hut  if  there  really  was  such  a  miracle  wrought,  it  is 
 somewhat  strange,  that  the  author  of  the  epistle  to  the 
 Hebrews,  when  he  certainly  makes  mention  of  things  of 
 less  moment,  should  entirely  forget  this,  or  that  we 
 should  have  no  memorial  of  it  recorded  b)  any  profane 
 
 8  Gmtius  ami  Le  Clerc  in  locum, 
 9  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Commandment,  8ic.      'Josh.  x.  14. 
 a  M.  Le  Clerc  has  taken  the  pains  t<>  versify  the  two  places 
 where  mention  is  made  of  the  sun's  standing  still, 
 position  of  some  words,  in  order  to  make  i:  appeal  al  less! 
 alile,  that  the  auth.ir  of  the  book  of  Joshua,  In  quoting  them  cut 
 
 of  that  of  Jasher,  had  only  reduced  them  to  historical  pr by 
 
 tlic  contrary  transposition.  Bui  besides  the  difficulty  of  telling 
 us  what  kind  of  mi-.-  these  aref  since  the  art  of  scanning 
 Hebrew  poesy  has  been  l"-t  as  long  a-  St  Jerome's  days,  it  he 
 
 supposes  tin-in  to  i ily  rhymes  and  cadences,  it  is  no  uncommon 
 
 thing,  we  know,  to  meet  with  several  passages  both  in  tin'  scrip- 
 tural and  other  prase  writers,  which,  with  a  small  reflation  of 
 
 the  text,  are  capable  of  till—  harmonious  turn,  and  \  el  Wl  r Igin- 
 
 ally  never  so  intruded.     It  is  tn   lie   observed,  however,  that 
 
 though  the  words,  '  so  the  bud  stood  still  in  the  midst  et  I 
 
 and  hastened  not  to  go  down  about  a  whole  day.'  are  probably 
 
 cited  from  some  ancient  record,  yet  the  preceding  ones,  '  and 
 
 the  Bun  stood  still,  and   the  moon  stayed,  until  the  people  hail 
 
 avenged  themselves  upon  their  enemies, '  (Josh.  s. 
 
 anther's  own,  "herein  he  talks,  net  in  the  loftiness  of  a  pi 
 
 in  the  plainness  and  simplicity  of  an  historian:  and  therefore  it 
 
390 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 writer.  God  is  not  so  prodigal  of  his  miracles,  one 
 would  think,  as  to  reverse  the  whole  order  of  nature,  and 
 stop  the  sun  in  its  regular  course,  merely  that  a  victory 
 might  be  obtained  in  one  day,  which,  every  whit  as  well, 
 might  have  been  gained  in  two  ;  though  it  cannot  be 
 denied,  but  that,  if  it  was  so,  his  '  hearkening  to  the 
 voice  of  Joshua,'  gave  him  a  pre-eminence  far  above 
 Moses,  forasmuch  as  all  his  miracles  were  nothing  in  com- 
 parison of  this,  even  though  the  Scriptures  say  expressly, 
 that * '  there  rose  not  a  prophet,  in  all  Israel,  like  unto 
 Moses,  in  all  signs  and  wonders,  which  the  Lord  sent 
 him  to  do  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  in  the  wilderness.' 
 
 The  author  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  in  2  the 
 chapter  now  under  debate,  meant  no  more,  than  to  give 
 his  reader  some  notable  instances  of  the  wonderful  power 
 of  faith.  To  have  been  too  curious  in  the  choice  of 
 these  instances,  especially  when  he  wrote  to  persons  of 
 the  same  nation,  and  who  were  as  well  acquainted  with 
 these  things  as  himself,  wjuld  have  savoured  too  much 
 of  art  and  human  wisdom,  which  inspired  authors  always 
 professedly  avoid ;  and  to  have  been  too  prolix  in  the 
 commemoration  of  them,  would  have  spoiled  the  form  of 
 his  epistle,  by  swelling  that  part  of  it  beyond  its  due 
 proportion. 
 
 The  apostle  himself  seems  to  be  sensible  of  this  ;  and 
 therefore  we  find  him  cutting  himself  short,  omitting 
 some,  and  reckoning  up  several  other  instances  in  the 
 gross  ;  and  3 '  what  shall  I  more  say  ?  For  the  time 
 would  fail  me,  to  tell  of  Gideon,  and  of  Barak,  and  of 
 Samson,  and  of  Jephtha  ;  of  David  also,  and  Samuel, 
 and  all  the  prophets.'  You  see,  that  in  the  catalogue 
 of  his  worthies,  he  observes  no  great  method  in  enu- 
 merating them,  nor  does  he  so  much  as  mention  Joshua, 
 though  his  character  be  vastly  superior  to  that  of  Gideon, 
 and  others  that  he  takes  notice  of ;  and  therefore,  if  his 
 omitting  this  particular  of  the  '  sun's  standing  still '  may 
 be  deemed  a  sufficient  argument  against  its  reality,  by 
 parity  of  reason,  all  the  other  miraculous  transactions 
 which  he  has  thought  proper  not  to  mention,  such  as  the 
 plagues  of  Egypt,  the  wonders  in  the  wilderness,  the 
 passage  of  Jordan,  and  several  others  of  the  like  nature, 
 must  be  reputed  destitute  of  truth,  how  frequently  soever 
 they  may  be  recorded  in  other  parts  of  holy  writ. 
 
 And  in  like  manner,  though  we  find  no  mention  made 
 of  this  wonderful  event  in  heathen  writers,  yet  this  is  no 
 valid  objection  against  it,  because  it  happened  many 
 ages  before  there  were  any  historians  or  chronologers, 
 that  we  know  of,  extant  to  record  it.  Or  if  we  think 
 that  a  fact  so  very  remarkable  could  have  hardly  escaped 
 a  general  observation,  why  may  we  not  suppose,  that 
 the   public  archives    or  monuments  wherein  it  was  re- 
 
 1  Deut.  xxx  i v.  10,  11. 
 
 2  Hub.  xi. 
 
 3  Heb.  xi.  32. 
 
 is,  at  least,  a  bold  assumption  to  say,  that  a  writer,  who  barely 
 appeals  to  another  for  the  truth  of  a  single  instance,  has  taken 
 the  whole  from  him.  The  most  that  can  be  fairly  concluded  from 
 such  an  appeal  is,  that  the  fact  is  equally  affirmed  by  both,  either 
 in  the  same  or  equivalent  terms;  whereas,  had  the  terms  of  the 
 '  sun's  standing  still  in  the  midst  of  heaven'  been  intended  to 
 mean  no  more,  than  that  there  remained  so  much  light  after  its 
 setting,  occasioned  by  some  unusual  refraction,  as  made  the 
 whole  army  think  it  was  still  above  the  horizon,  no  honest  man, 
 for  fear  of  imposing  on  his  reader,  would  have  cited  them,  without 
 modifying  their  sense,  or  giving  them  an  explanation. — Saurin's 
 Dissertation  on  the  Defeat  of  the  Five  Kings,  and  Universal 
 History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 corded,  in  the  long  and  obscure  time  that  intervened 
 before  any  of  our  present  historians  arose,  have  been 
 lost ;  and  that  nothing  has  been  transmitted  to  us,  (ex- 
 cept what  we  have  in  sacred  writ,)  but  an  uncertain 
 tradition,  clouded  with  fable,  and  poetical  fictions. 
 
 It  can  hardly  be  thought,  indeed,  but  that  the  humour 
 which  the  poets  had,  a  of  imputing  to  magic  the  power 
 of  stopping  the  stars  in  their  courses,  and  what  they 
 relate  of  their  heroes  and  demigods  being  able  to 
 lengthen  days  or  nights,  as  it  best  served  their  military 
 or  amorous  purposes,  proceeded  from  something  :  and 
 to  what  can  we  ascribe  it  more  properly,  than  to  a  glim- 
 mering knowledge  which  they  might  from  tradition  have 
 of  this  miraculous  event?  But  however  this  be,  it  is 
 certain  that  the  argument  drawn  from  the  silence  of 
 heathen  authors,,  can  be  of  no  validity  against  the  truth 
 of  this  miracle,  since  it  did  not  happen  in  any  age  when 
 the  earliest  of  them  lived,  and  might  therefore  be  what 
 they  knew  nothing  of ;  since  all  their  works  have  not 
 descended  to  us,  and  in  what  is  lost,  they  perhaps  might 
 have  related  it,  as  in  what  is  extant,  we  are  sure  they 
 say  nothing  to  contradict  it. 
 
 4  It  must  be  reckoned  a  point  of  justice  then,  and  a 
 kind  of  right  belonging  to  all  nations,  to  be  determined, 
 in  what  concerns  the  history  of  any  country,  by  the 
 history  of  those  people,  who  are  presumed  to  be  better 
 acquainted  with  their  own  affairs  than  any  strangers  can  : 
 and  therefore  we  cannot,  without  apparent  prejudice, 
 deny  this  privilege  to  the  Hebrew  writers,  even  though 
 we  find  some  heathen  testimonies  not  entirely  according 
 with  them.  But  when  nothing  of  this  is  pretended  ;  on  the 
 contrary,  when  as  far  as  those  dark  times  would  permit, 
 there  is  a  concurrence  and  harmony  between  them,  there 
 can  be  no  shadow  of  reason  for  calling  in  question  their 
 veracity,  unless  the  things  which  they  relate  be  either 
 impossible  or  contradictory,  which,  in  the  case  before 
 us,  can  never  be  affirmed  ;  because  it  is  sure  and  self- 
 evident,  that  the  Author  of  nature,  who  gave  being  and 
 motion  to  the  sun  and  stars,  may  stop  that  motion,  and 
 make  them  stand  still,  when,  and  as  long  as  he  pleases ; 
 especially  when  their  rest  will  contribute  to  his  glory, 
 as  it  certainly  did  in  this  instance,  as  much  as  their  con- 
 tinued motion  does. 
 
 God  indeed  never  Avorks  any  miracle,  but  upon  a  just 
 and  proper  occasion  ;  but  then  we  ought  to  remember, 
 that  this  battle  against  the  confederate  kings,  was  fought 
 not  offensively,  but  defensively,  on  the  side  of  Israel,  in 
 order  to  save  a  people  whom  they  had  solemnly  taken 
 under  their  protection.  The  Gibeonites,  as  is  generally 
 supposed,  were  a  commonwealth,  for  which  reason  they 
 might  not  enter  into  a  league  with  the  five  kings  ;  and  as 
 a  free  people,  they  had  a  right,  no  doubt,  to  take  all 
 proper  measures  for  their  safety.  Joshua,  therefore, 
 could  not  but  look  upon  the  confederacy  against  them  as 
 cruel,  and  unjust,  and  himself  obliged  in  honour  not  to 
 refuse  the  oppressed  the  succours  they  requested  of  him, 
 upon  any  pretence  whatever  ;  since  God's  honour  was 
 likewise  concerned  in  the  preservation  of  a  people  who 
 had  entered  into  an  alliance  with  his  own  inheritance, 
 
 *  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Commandment,  &c. 
 a  "  At  the   charms   of  her  song,  the   vicissitudes  of  nature 
 stopped,  time  stood  still  in  a  lingering  darkness;  the  air  obeyed 
 no  law,  and  the  listening  world  fell  into  a  torpid  trance." — L«- 
 can's  rhursalia,  b.  6'. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &-c. 
 
 391 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1 151  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 and  had  their  alliance  ratified  by  the  mouth  of  his  high 
 priest,  and  with  the  sanction  of  his  most  blessed  name. 
 Upon  these  considerations,  Joshua  loses  no  time,  but 
 marches  all  the  night  to  their  assistance ;  and  on  the 
 next  day,  God  is  pleased  to  reward  his  faithfulness  and 
 zeal  with  a  most  miraculous  victory,  whereby  he  not 
 only  rescued  his  allies,  but  made  all  the  land  of  Canaan 
 sensible  likewise,  that  a  gTeater  and  more  powerful  Grod 
 was  on  Israel's  side  than  any  whom  they  worshipped,  ' 
 by  stopping  the  sun  and  moon  (which  were  two  of  the 
 principal  deities  whom  those  idolatrous  people  adored) 
 in  the  midst  of  their  course. 
 
 God  might,  no  doubt,  in  the  compass  of  two  days, 
 have  enabled  the  Israelites  to  have  gained  a  complete 
 conquest  over  their  enemies,  without  the  expense  of  a 
 miracle,  as  these  men  call  it.  But  then,  had  this  been 
 obtained  by  the  dint  of  the  sword  only,  it  would  have 
 been  imputed  to  their  superior  valour  and  strength,  and 
 deemed  no  more  than  the  common  fate  of  war  :  or  had 
 there  nothing  more  remarkable  happened  in  it,  than  a 
 shower  of  large  hailstones,  this  might  have  been  thought 
 owing-  to  chance,  or  natural  causes,  or  at  most,  been  only 
 known  in  that  neighbourhood  ;  whereas,  the  stopping  of 
 the  two  great  luminaries,  in  the  height  of  their  career, 
 (which  could  not  but  be  universally  seen  and  felt,)  was 
 enough  to  convince  these  poor  deluded  people,  that  the 
 gods,  whom  they  trusted  in,  were  subject  to  the  God  of 
 Israel,  and  at  the  same  time  deter  the  Israelites  from 
 falling  into  the  like  idolatry,  from  2  '  kissing  their  hand, 
 as  Job  expresses  that  form  of  worship,  '  when  they  be- 
 held the  sun  as  it  sinned,  or  the  moon  walking  in  its 
 brightness  ;'  to  convince  them,  I  say,  that  3  '  the  gods  of 
 the  heathens  were  but  idols,'  and  that  it  is  the  Lord  who 
 made,  and  who  ruleth  in  the  heavens. 
 
 It  cannot  be  questioned  but  that  the  fame  of  this 
 miracle  raised  Joshua's  reputation  to  an  high  degree, 
 nor  4  can  we  see  any  inconvenience  in  admittuig,  that 
 this  was  a  more  remarkable  miracle  than  any  which 
 Moses  ever  did  ;  because  it  does  not  therefore  follow, 
 that  Joshua,  in  other  respects,  was  .a  person  of  greater 
 eminence  than  Moses.  Our  blessed  Saviour  tells  his 
 disciples,  5  '  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  be- 
 lieveth  on  me,  the  works  that  I  do,  shall  he  do  also,  and 
 greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do  :  because  I  go  unto 
 my  Father.  And  yet  he  gives  us  to  understand,  in  ano- 
 ther place,  that B  '  the  disciple  is  not  above  his  master, 
 nor  the  servant  above  his  lord.' 
 
 Elisha  was  the  servant  and  attendant  on  the  prophet 
 Elijah,  and  yet  it  is  certain,  that,  according  to  our  esti- 
 mate, he  did  more  and  greater  miracles  than  his  master 
 did  :  for  even  7  "  after  his  death  his  body  prophesied  ;" 
 as  the  son  of  Sirach  expresses  it ;  "  he  did  wonders  in 
 his  life,  and  at  his  death  were  his  works  marvellous." 
 And  therefore  we  need  not  account  it  a  strange  thing, 
 that  we  find  Joshua  here  doing  a  miracle,  which  in  our 
 opinion  surpasses  all  that  ever  Moses  did :  because 
 God's  making  use  of  the  ministry  of  one  man,  rather  than 
 another,  in  his  surpassing  works  of  wonder,  is  no  certain 
 proof  of  the  man's  superior  merit ;  since  in  this,  as  well 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 2  Job  xxxi.  26.  3  Ps.  xcvi.  5. 
 
 <  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Commandment,  &c. 
 John  xiv.  12.         6  Mat.x.  24.         "  Ecclus.  xlviii.  13,  14. 
 
 as  any  other  dispensation,  he  is  at  perfect  liberty  8  '  to 
 choose,'  if  he  pleases,  '  the  weak  tilings  of  the  world  to 
 confound  the  things  that  are  mighty;  yea,  and  base  things, 
 and  things  that  are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things  that 
 are,  that  no  flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence. 
 
 But  after  all,  we  talk  of  greater  and  less  miracles,  when 
 in  reality,  there  are  no  such  degrees  of  comparison  be- 
 tween them.  For  what  is  it  that  makes  us  account  one 
 work  of  this  kind  greater  than  another  ?  if  it  be,  because 
 we  conceive  more  difficulty  in  doing  it ;  this,  with  regard 
 to  God,  the  sole  author  of  all  miracles,  is  a  great  mis- 
 take, for  as  much  as  all  things  are  equally  easy  to  his 
 almighty  power.  The  motion,  and  other  properties  of 
 every  created  being  were  at  first  impressed  by  him  : 
 9'  He  spake,  and  it  was  done  ;  he  commanded,  and  it 
 stood  fast ;'  and  with  the  same  facility,  he  can  retard  or 
 suspend  their  operations  ;  for  they  have  no  power  of 
 resisting  the  very  first  beck  of  his  will.  Since  every 
 thing,  therefore,  that  is  contrary  to  the  ordinary  course  of 
 nature  requires  the  interposition  of  an  almighty  power, 
 and  whatever  is  not  impossible  in  itself,  is  equally  pos- 
 sible to  God ;  with  him  there  can  be  no  difference 
 between  passing  the  Jordan  and  passing  the  Red  Sea, 
 between  drawing  water  out  of  the  stony  rock  and  arrest- 
 ing the  sun  in  the  firmament  of  heaven  ;  10for  'whatever 
 he  pleased  that  did  he,  in  heaven,  and  in  the  earth,  in 
 the  sea,  and  in  all  deep  places.' 
 
 Some  of  the  Objections  to  the  Credibility  of  the  Old 
 Testament  Considered  and  Answered. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY  THE  EDITOR. 
 
 Some  of  the  objections  which  infidels  have  advanced 
 against  the  credibility  and  divine  authority  of  the  Old 
 Testament  scriptures,  and  more  especially  against  the 
 part  of  them  that  has  now  been  surveyed,  are  frivolous  ; 
 others  are  founded  on  a  mistranslation  of  the  original ; 
 and  all  of  them  may  be  easily  and  satisfactorily  an- 
 swered. 
 
 1.  The  first  which  I  shall  notice,  is  the  command  of  God 
 to  the  Israelites,  to  destroy  the  seven  nations  of  Canaan, 
 and  to  take  possession  of  their  land.  The  transaction 
 to  which  this  injunction  refers,  is  explained  by  Bishop 
 Watson  in  his  Apology  for  the  Bible,  in  a  manner  which 
 most  persons  consider  to  be  satisfactory.  The  dispen- 
 sation complained  of,  and  which  is  supposed  to  be  irre- 
 concilable with  the  justice  and  the  benevolence  of 
 the  Deity,  is  as  consistent  with  these  attributes  of  the 
 divine  nature,  as  many  occurrences  which  happen  in  the 
 ordinary  course  of  providence.  "  If  it  be  consistent," 
 as  has  been  remarked,  "  with  the  justice  and  benevolence 
 of  the  Supreme  Being,  that  the  Jewish  nation,  his  own 
 peculiar  people,  should,  on  account  of  the  enormity  of 
 their  sins,  be  in  their  turn  attacked  in  their  inheritance  ; 
 be  subjugated  to  a  foreign  power  ;  become  the  prey  and 
 plunder  of  a  long  succession  of  capricious,  cruel,  and 
 avaricious  tyrants  ;  have  their  city  and  temple  at  length 
 assaulted;  be  loaded  with  every  possible  calamity  which 
 
 1  Cc 
 
 9  Ps.  xxxiii.  9. 
 
 27,  &c. 
 
 10  Ps.  exxxv.  G. 
 
392 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2.353.  A.  C.  1451 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3803.  A.  C.  1608.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END 
 
 pestilence,  famine,  and  torture,  their  own  mutual  treache- 
 ries and  animosities,  and  the  implacable  enmity  and 
 ingenuity  of  their  adversaries,  could  invent,  during  the 
 continuance  of  this  tremendous  siege  ;  if  it  be  consistent 
 with  the  same  adorable  attributes,  that  upwards  of  a 
 million  of  them  should  fall  victims  to  so  complicated  a 
 scourge,  and  that  the  wretched  remnant  who  escaped, 
 should  be  suffered  to  wander  about  as  outcasts  and  vaga- 
 bonds over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  equally  despised 
 and  derided  by  every  nation  among  whom  they  might 
 acquire  a  temporary  abode  ;  if  it  be  consistent  with 
 these  attributes,  that  this  terrible  visitation  should  be 
 persevered  in  for  a  period  of  at  least  eighteen  centuries, 
 thus  punishing  from  age  to  age,  the  children  for  the  sins 
 of  their  fathers ;  if  the  case  before  us,  which  we  cannot 
 but  believe,  be  consistent  with  the  justice  and  benevo- 
 lence of  the  Deity,  surely  the  case  recorded,  a  case  of 
 far  inferior  vengeance,  demands  no  great  credulity  to 
 obtain  our  assent,  nor  strength  of  reasoning  to  reconcile 
 it  with  the  moral  perfections  of  the  Supreme  Being."  x 
 Jt  is  not  the  fact,  however,  that  the  Canaanites  were  all 
 destroyed.  The  Gibeonites  and  Jebusites,  were  per- 
 mitted to  live.  Rahab  was  saved,  because  she  professed 
 her  faith  in  God. 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  destruction  of  the  nations 
 of  Canaan  was  not  an  arbitrary  infliction  of  vengeance, 
 but  the  merited  punishment  of  their  wickedness.  This 
 is  fully  proved  by  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  Leviticus, 
 where,  after  mentioning  their  corrupt  and  abominable 
 practices,  it  is  said,  '  In  all  these  the  nations  are  defiled 
 which  I  cast  out  before  you  ;  for  all  these  abominations 
 have  the  men  of  the  land  done.'  They  were  early 
 idolaters  ;  sacrificed  their  infants  to  idol  deities  ;  they 
 were  addicted  to  unnatural  lusts,  and  sunk  in  every  kind 
 of  vice.  It  was  on  account  of  these  enormities,  which 
 were  general  and  habitual  among  them,  that  the  nations 
 of  Canaan  were  destroyed.  This  is  expressly  affirmed  : 
 '  In  all  these,  the  nations  are  defiled  which  I  cast  out 
 before  you  :  and  the  land  is  defiled :  therefore  I  do 
 visit  the  iniquity  thereof  upon  it. — Ye  shall  not  commit 
 any  of  these  abominations,  that  the  land  spue  not  you 
 out  also,  as  it  spued  out  the  nations  which  were  before 
 you.'2  The  very  land  is  represented  as  sick  of  its  in- 
 habitants ;  of  their  odious  and  brutal  practices  ;  of  their 
 corruption  and  wickedness.  This  was  the  reason  for 
 destroying  them ;  and  not,  as  has  been  imagined,  to 
 make  way  for  the  Israelites. 
 
 God's  treatment  of  the  persons  guilty  of  those  crimes 
 was  impartial,  without  distinction,  and  without  respect 
 of  nations  or  individuals.  The  words  which  point  out 
 the  divine  impartiality,  are  those  in  which  Moses  warns 
 the  Israelites  against  falling  into  any  of  the  like  wicked 
 courses  :  '  That  the  land,'  says  he,  '  cast  not  you  out 
 also,  when  you  defile  it,  as  it  cast  out  the  nations  that 
 were  before  you  ;  for  whoever  shall  commit  any  of  these 
 abominations,  even  the  souls  that  commit  them,  shall  be 
 cut  oft"  from  among  their  people. — Ye  shall  not  walk  in 
 the  way  of  the  nations  which  I  cast  out  before  you  :  for 
 they  committed  all  those  things,  and  therefore  I  abhorred 
 them ;  as  the  nations  which  the  Lord  destroyed  before 
 
 '  Dr  GoodV  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Dr  Alex. 
 Geddes. 
 
 *  Lev.  xviii.  28. 
 
 your  face,  so  shall  ye  perish :  because  ye  were  not  obe- 
 dient unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  your  God.' 
 
 Nor  were  the  Canaanites  destroyed  without  warning, 
 and  much  patience  and  long-suffering  on  the  part  of 
 God.  The  stroke  was  suspended  during  several  genera- 
 tions, till  their  wickedness  rendered  its  infliction  inevi- 
 table. In  the  15th  chapter  of  Genesis,  God  says  to 
 Abraham  that  his  descendants  of  the  fourth  generation 
 should  return  into  that  country,  and  not  before  :  '  for 
 the  iniquity  of  the  Amorites,'  says  he,  '  is  not  yet  full.' 
 
 Even  when  this  period  arrived,  they  were  still  per- 
 mitted to  flee  elsewhere,  as  in  fact  many  of  them  did,  or 
 to  renounce  their  idolatries,  and  serve,  the  God  of 
 Israel  ;  in  which  case  it  appears  that  mercy  was  exercised 
 to  them.  The  case  of  the  Gibeonites,  and  of  Rahab, 
 already  referred  to,  would  seem  to  favour  this  view  of 
 the  subject.  We  are  told  3 '  that  there  was  not  a  city  that 
 made  peace  with  the  children  of  Israel,  save  the  Hivites, 
 the  inhabitants  of  Gibeon  ;  all  other  they  took  in  battle  :' 
 from  which  words  it  is  inferred,  that  the  Canaanites 
 might  have  had  peace,  if  they  had  thought  proper  to 
 accept  the  proposed  terms.  Had  they  submitted  to  these 
 terms,  they  would  have  turned  from  idols  to  the  worship 
 of  God ;  ceased  from  the  practice  of  wickedness,  and 
 consequently  would  not  have  been  a  snare  to  Israel,  by 
 teaching  them  to  do  after  their  abominations.'1 
 
 The  objection  therefore  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  to  the 
 destruction  of  the  Canaanites :  because,  when  God,  for 
 the  wickedness  of  a  people,  sends  an  earthquake,  or  a 
 fire,  or  a  plague  amongst  them,  there  is  no  complaint  of 
 injustice,  especially  when  the  calamity  is  known,  or 
 expressly  declared  beforehand,  to  be  inflicted  for  the 
 wickedness  of  such  a  people.  It  is  rather  regarded  as 
 an  act  of  exemplary  penal  justice,  and,  as  such  con- 
 sistent with  the  character  of  the  moral  Governor  of  the 
 universe.  The  wickedness  of  the  Canaanites  accounts 
 for  their  destruction.  To  that  merely  no  objection  can 
 therefore  be  made.  The  manner  in  which  this  was 
 effected  is  that  which  is  complained  of.  But  where  is 
 the  great  difference,  as  Dr  Paley  observes,  even  to  the 
 sufferers  themselves,  whether  they  were  destroyed  by  an 
 earthquake,  a  pestilence,  a  famine,  or  by  the  hands  of 
 an  enemy  ?  Where  is  the  difference,  even  to  our  imper- 
 fect apprehensions  of  divine  justice,  provided  it  be,  and  is 
 known  to  be,  for  their  wickedness  that  they  are  destroyed? 
 But  this  destruction,  you  say,  confounded  the  innocent 
 with  the  guilty.  The  sword  of  Joshua,  and  of  the  Jews, 
 spared  neither  women  nor  children.  Is  it  not  the  same 
 with  all  other  national  visitations  ?  Would  not  an 
 earthquake,  or  a  fire,  or  a  plague,  or  a  famine  amongst 
 them,  have  done  the  same.  Even  in  an  ordinary  and 
 natural  death,  the  same  thing  happens.  God  takes  away 
 the  life  he  lends,  without  regard,  that  we  can  perceive, 
 to  age,  or  sex,  or  character.  But,  after  all,  promiscu- 
 ous massacres,  the  burning  of  cities,  the  laying  waste  of 
 countries,  are  things  dreadful  to  reflect  upon.  Who 
 doubts  it  ?  So  are  all  the  judgments  of  Almighty  God. 
 The  effect,  in  whatever  way  it  shows  itself,  must  neces- 
 sarily be  tremendous,  when  the  Lord,  as  the  Psalmist 
 expresses  it,  moves  out  of  his  place  to  punish  the  wicked. 
 But  it  ought  to  satisfy  us — that  it  was  for  excessive, 
 wilful,  and  forewarned  wickedness,  that  all  this  befell 
 
 Josh.  xi.  10,  20. 
 
 'Dent.  xx.  10—19. 
 
Sect.  1.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 393 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451  ;  OK.  ACCORDING  TO  HAI 
 
 them,  and  that  it  is  all  along  so  declared  in  the  history 
 which  recites  it. 
 
 Besides,  satisfactory  reasons  may  be  assigned  for 
 giving-  to  the  mode  in  which  the  Canaanites  were 
 punished  the  preference  to  every  other.  The  superiority 
 of  their  own  gods  above  the  gods  of  the  nations  which 
 they  conquered  was,  in  the  opinion  of  the  people  of 
 those  early  ages,  evinced,  by  their  giving  them  victory 
 in  war.  This  being  the  actual  persuasion  which  then 
 prevailed  in  the  world,  how  were  the  neighbouring 
 nations,  for  whose  admonition  this  dreadful  example 
 was  intended,  how  were  they  to  be  convinced  of  the 
 supreme  power  of  the  God  of  Israel  above  the  pretended 
 gods  of  other  nations,  and  of  the  righteous  character  of 
 Jehovah — that  is,  of  his  abhorrence  of  the  vices  which 
 prevailed  in  the  land  of  Canaan  :  how  were  they  to  be 
 convinced  so  well,  or  at  all  indeed,  as  by  enabling  the 
 Israelites,  whose  God  he  was  known  and  acknowledged 
 to  be,  to  conquer  under  his  banner,  and  drive  out  before 
 them,  those  who  resisted  the  execution  of  that  commis- 
 sion with  which  the  Israelites  declared  themselves  to  be 
 invested,  namely,  the  expulsion  and  extermination  of 
 the  Canaanitish  nations  ?  This  convinced  surrounding 
 countries,  and  all  who  were  observers  or  spectators  of 
 what  passed,  first,  that  the  God  of  Israel  was  a  real 
 God  :  secondly,  that  the  gods  which  other  nations  wor- 
 shipped were  either  no  gods,  or  had  no  power  against 
 the  God  of  Israel  :  and,  thirdly,  that  it  was  he,  and  he 
 alone,  who  possessed  both  the  power  and  the  will  to 
 punish,  to  destroy,  and  to  exterminate,  from  before  his 
 face,  both  nations  and  individuals,  who  gave  themselves 
 up  to  the  crimes  and  wickedness  for  which  the  Canaanites 
 were  notorious.  Nothing  of  this  sort  would  have 
 appeared,  or  with  the  same  evidence,  however,  from  an 
 earthquake,  or  a  plague,  or  any  natural  calamity.  These 
 might  not  have  been  attributed  to  divine  agency  at  all, 
 or  not  to  the  interposition  of  the  God  of  Israel. 
 
 First,  the  destruction  of  the  Canaanites,  then,  was  an 
 act  of  penal  justice.  It  was  merited  by  their  Avickedness. 
 Secondly,  the  infliction  of  this  punishment  by  the  instru- 
 mentality of  the  Israelites,  made  it  more  manifestly 
 appear  to  proceed  from  the  God  of  Israel,  by  whose 
 miraculous  power  the  devoted  nations  were  subdued. 
 Thirdly,  their  general  destruction  was  not  only  just,  but 
 it  was  rendered  necessary,  to  prevent  the  pernicious 
 example  of  their  crimes  from  gradually  seducing  the 
 children  of  Israel  to  the  practice  of  their  vices  and 
 .abominations.  '  Thou  shalt  utterly  destroy  them,  that 
 they  teach  you  not  to  do  after  all  their  abominations, 
 which  they  have  done  unto  their  gods.'  Fourthly,  the 
 supreme  moral  Governor  of  the  world  was  impartial  in 
 this  exercise  of  punitive  justice,  because  he  threatened 
 his  chosen  people  with  similar  retribution,  if  they  should 
 be  guilty  of  similar  crimes.  Fifthly,  this  dispensation 
 regarding  the  Canaanites,  which  has  been  the  subject 
 of  cavil  and  complaint,  is  shown  to  be  as  consistent  with 
 the  justice  and  benevolence  of  God,  as  many  occurrences 
 which  happen  in  the  ordinary  course  of  providence. 
 Sixthly,  the  circumstances  of  the  Jews  when  they  inflicted 
 this  punishment  on  the  Canaanites,  prove  that  they  acted 
 by  divine  commission.  If  we  suppose  the  contrary,  we 
 must  believe  that  Moses  in  this  instance  indicated  a  line 
 of  conduct  directly  opposed  in  its  tendency  to  the 
 peaceful  habits   which  the   facility  given  to   the    Jews 
 
 ES,  A.  M.  3S03.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 required  and  implied.  "  Up  to  a  certain  point  they 
 were  to  be  trained  in  the  worst  possible  discipline  for 
 peaceful  citizens ;  to  encourage  every  disposition 
 opposite  to  those  inculcated  by  the  general  spirit  of  the 
 law.  Those  who  were  to  be  merciful  to  the  meanest 
 beast — who  were  not  to  exercise  any  oppression  what- 
 ever towards  a  stranger  of  another  race,  on  the  capture 
 of  a  Canaanitish  city,  were  to  put  all  to  the  sword. — 
 At  a  given  point  their  arms  were  to  fall  from  their  hands, 
 the  thirst  of  conquest  subside  ;  and  a  great  unambitious 
 agricultural  republic,  with  a  simple  religion,  an  equal 
 administration  of  justice,  a  thriving  and  industrious 
 population,  brotherly  harmony  and  mutual  good-will 
 between  all  ranks,  domestic  virtues,  purity  of  morals, 
 gentleness  of  manners,  was  to  arise  in  the  midst  of  the 
 desolation  their  arms  had  made,  and  under  the  very  roofs, 
 in  the  vineyards  and  corn  fields,  which  they  had  obtain- 
 ed by  merciless  violence." 
 
 II.  Another  class  of  objections  made  to  the  divine 
 authority  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  is 
 founded  on  a  mistranslation    of  the  original.       Thus, 
 
 1  God  is  said  in  the  authorized  version  to  have  directed 
 the  Israelites  to  borrow  of  the  Egyptians  :  it  should 
 have  been  rendered,  to  ask  or  demand.  They  were 
 instructed  to  ask  that  which  was  their  due:  and  the 
 minds  of  the  Egyptians  were  so  overruled  that  they 
 readily   complied   with   the   demand  which  was  made. 
 
 2  '  My  (that  is  God's)  breach  of  promise.'  This  is  highly 
 improper  :  it  should  have  been  rendered,  my  displeasure 
 or  indignation.  3  According  to  the  common  translation 
 Jephthah  is  represented  as  promising  to  ofl'er  his  daughter 
 in  sacrifice  :  but  when  the  particle  ")  van,  is  translated 
 or  instead  of  and,  the  objection  founded  on  this  passage 
 falls  to  the  ground.  '  Jephthah  vowed  a  vow  unto  the 
 Lord,  and  said,  if  thou  shalt  surely  give  the  children  of 
 Amnion  into  my  hand,  then  it  shall  be,  that  whatsoever 
 cometh  out  of  the  doors  of  my  house  to  meet  me,  when 
 I  return  in  peace  from  the  children  of  Amnion,  shall 
 either  be  the  Lord's,  or,  I  will  offer  it  up  for  a  burnt- 
 offering.'  That  is,  if  what  meets  me  on  my  return,  be 
 what  the  law  allows  for  a  burnt-offering,  I  will  ofl'er  it, 
 if  not,  it  shall  be,  in  as  far  as  the  nature  of  the  case 
 will  admit,  consecrated  to  God.  4  The  dying  charge  of 
 David  to  Solomon,  relative  to  Shimei,  has  been  often 
 the  subject  of  cavil  to  sceptics  :  but  the  objection  is 
 founded  on  a  mistranslation  :  the  Hebrew  word  should 
 be  read  disjunctively,  as  in  the  former  passage  ;  and 
 then  we  have,  '  Neither  hold  him  guiltless,  for  thou  art  a 
 wise  man  :  nor  his  hoary  head  bring  thou  down  to  the 
 grave  with  blood.'  That  is,  he  is  an  artful,  designing, 
 dangerous  person,  who  requires  to  be  strictly  watched  ; 
 but  nevertheless  spare  his  life,  and  do  not  let  him  die  by 
 the  hand  of  justice. 
 
 The  conduct  of  David  towards  the  Ammonites,  as 
 described  2  Sam.  xii.  31,  in  'putting  them  under  saws 
 and  harrows  of  iron,'  has  been  represented  as  an  instance 
 of  extreme  cruelty.  The  subject  of  complaint  is  founded 
 on  a  mistranslation.  The  Hebrew  prefix  ^,  (ovth) 
 signifies  to  as  well  as  tender}  and  to  put  the  people  to 
 saws,  harrows,  axes,  and  the  brick  kiln,  means  no  more 
 than  to  employ  them  in   the   most  menial  and  laborious 
 
 Exod.  xi.  'I.  xii.  ,'i"). 
 
 3  Judgea  xi.  30,  '.'A. 
 
 -  Num.  xiv.  31. 
 4  I  Kinjrs  ii.  9. 
 
394 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2553.  A.  C.  1451;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3S03.  A.  C.  1G08.  JOSH.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 offices.  "  This  form  of  expression,"  as  Mr  Home 
 remarks,  "is  an  Anglicism  as  well  as  a  Hebraism;  and 
 we  still  say  to  put  a  person  to  the  plough,  to  the 
 anvil.  We  render  the  passage  thus :  '  He,'  David, 
 '  brought  forth  the  people  that  were  therein,  and  put 
 them  to  saws  and  to  harrows  of  iron,  or  iron  mines, 
 and  to  axes  of  iron,  and  made  them  pass  through  the 
 brick  kiln.'  In  a  similar  passage,  '  Dr  Kennicott 
 has  proved,  that  in  place  of  the  word,  ait  ivith  saws, 
 the  word  he  put  them  should  be  inserted  :  so  that  this 
 passage  must  be  rendered  and  understood  in  the  same 
 manner  as  the  former. 
 
 Finally,  we  are  always  to  bear  in  mind  that  the 
 character  of  this  was  peculiar  to  itself,  in  its  not  being 
 intended  to  recover  violated  rights,  or  to  procure  indem- 
 nity for  past  injuries,  or  security  against  future  ;  but  to 
 vindicate  the  cause  of  God  against  the  incorrigible,  and 
 to  exhibit  them  as  examples  of  divine  retribution. 
 Regard  to  the  interests  of  those  who  engaged,  was  not 
 the  only,  or  the  prevailing  principle  of  this  war.  The 
 main  object  was,  the  manifestation  of  the  righteousness 
 and  honour  of  God  as  the  supreme  moral  Governor  of 
 the  world.  His  authority,  his  attributes,  and  even  his 
 being  had  long  been  treated  with  the  utmost  indignity  ; 
 and  this  was  the  peculiar  method  which  he  prescribed 
 for  their  full  vindication. 
 
 III.  A  third  class  of  objections  is  founded  on  alleged 
 contradictions  to  morality.  An  acquaintance  with  the 
 manners  and  customs  of  eastern  nations,  so  different 
 from  those  of  the  moderns,  will  account  for  the  circum- 
 stances which  have  been  adduced  either  from  ignorance 
 or  from  design,  as  offensive  to  the  feelings  of  delicacy. 
 
 It  is  also  necessary  to  recollect  the  peculiar  and  extra- 
 ordinary constitution  of  the  Jewish  polity  and  govern- 
 ment. God  was  the  immediate  and  temporal  sovereign 
 of  the  Jews,  whose  laws  were  enforced  by  present 
 rewards  and  punishments.  There  were  certain  sins,  such 
 as  idolatry,  which  were  regarded  as  a  renunciation  of  his 
 authority,  as  high  treason  against  the  state,  and  which 
 were  therefore  punished  with  death. 
 
 IV.  It  is  alleged,  that  some  of  the  things  which  are  men- 
 tioned in  the  Old  Testament  are  contradicted  by  philoso- 
 phy. In  consequence  of  the  progress  of  science,  this  objec- 
 tion is  now  seldom  advanced,  at  least  by  well  informed 
 persons.  AVe  have  already  adduced  proofs  from  natural 
 history  of  the  reality  of  the  deluge.  Science  also  furnishes 
 evidence  in  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  account 
 of  the  creation.  "  The  structure  of  the  earth,"  says  Pro- 
 fessor Jamieson, "  and  the  mode  of  distribution  of  extra- 
 neous fossils  or  petrifactions,  are  so  many  direct  evidences 
 of  the  truth  of  the  Scripture  account  of  the  formation  of 
 the  earth  ;  and  they  might  be  used  as  proofs  of  its  author 
 having  been  inspired,  because  the  mineralogical  facts 
 discovered  by  modern  naturalists  were  unknown  to  the 
 sacred  historian.  Even  the  periods  of  time,  the  six  days 
 of  the  Mosaic  description, — are  not  inconsistent  with  our 
 theories  of  the  earth."  2  Nor  are  the  phenomena  of  the 
 heavenly  bodies  at  all  contradictory  to  the  Mosaic  his- 
 tory. To  the  objection,  that  the  historian  speaks  of 
 light  before  the  creation  of  the  sun,  and  calls  the  moon 
 a  great  light,  when  every  one  knows  it  to  be  an  opaque 
 
 1  1  Chron.  xx.  3. 
 1  Preface  to  Kerr's  Translation  ofCuviers  Essay  on  the  Earth. 
 
 body,  modern  philosophy  furnishes  the  answer.  It  has 
 discovered,  that  the  sun  is  not  the  original  source  of 
 light;  and  therefore  Moses  does  not  call  either  the  sun 
 or  the  moon  a  great  light,  though  he  represents  them  both 
 as  great  luminaries  or  light-bearers.  Surely  the  moon 
 is  as  much  an  instrument  of  conveying  light,  as  the 
 reflector  placed  behind  the  lamps  of  a  light-house,  for 
 the  purpose  of  transmitting  to  the  mariner  at  sea  the 
 light  of  those  lamps  which  would  otherwise  have  passed 
 in  an  opposite  direction  to  the  land.  Though  the  moon 
 is  not  a  light  in  itself,  yet  is  that  secondary  planet  a 
 light  in  its  effects,  as  it  reflects  the  light  of  the  sun  to  us. 
 And  both  the  sun  and  the  moon  are  with  great  propriety 
 called  great, — not  as  being  absolutely  greater  than  all 
 other  stars  and  planets,  but  because  they  appear  greater  to 
 us,  and  are  of  greater  use  and  consequence  to  this  world. 
 And  now,  after  all  our  improvements  in  philosophy  and 
 astronomy,  we  still  speak  of  the  light  of  the  moon,  as 
 well  as  of  the  sun's  motion,  rising,  and  setting.  And 
 the  man  who  in  a  moral,  theological,  or  historical  dis- 
 course,should  use  a  different  language,  would  only  render 
 himself  ridiculous. 
 
 In  like  manner,  had  objectors  referred  to  the  original 
 Hebrew  of  Gen.  i.  6,  7,  8,  (which  in  our  English  author- 
 ized version,  as  well  as  in  other  modern  versions,  is 
 erroneously  rendered  firmament,  after  the  Septuagint 
 and  Vulgate  Latin  versions,)  they  would  have  rendered 
 it  expanse  ;  and  they  might  have  known  that  it  meant 
 the  air  or  atmosphere  around  us,  in  which  birds  fly 
 and  clouds  are  formed,  and  that  it  had  no  reference 
 whatever  to  a  solid  firmament ;  though  such  an  idea  was 
 entertained  by  the  ancient  Greek  philosophers,  who, 
 with  all  their  boasted  wisdom,  were  nearly  as  ignorant 
 of  the  works,  as  they  were  of  the  nature  of  God.  And 
 does  not  this  circumambient  air  divide  the  waters  from 
 the  waters,  the  waters  of  the  sea  from  the  waters  which 
 float  above  us  in  clouds  and  vapours  ?  For  3  '  there  is  a 
 multitude  of  waters  in  the  heavens,  and  He  causeth  the 
 vapours  to  ascend  from  the  ends  of  the  earth.' 
 
 Moses  also  represents  the  earth  at  first  in  a  state  of 
 fluidity.  4  '  The  Spirit  of  God,'  says  he,  '  moved  upon 
 the  face  or  surface  of  the  waters.'  The  apostle  Peter 
 also  speaks  of  the  earth  as  being  formed  out  of  a  fluid  : 
 '  The  earth  standing  out  of  the  water  and  in  the  water.' 
 The  same  tradition  reached  also  some  of  the  ancient 
 heathen  philosophers  ;  and  Thales,  in  particular,  one  of 
 the  seven  wise  men,  and  the  wisest  of  them  all,  as  Cicero 
 informs  us,  said  that  all  things  were  made  out  of  the 
 water.  Others,  after  him,  taught  the  same  doctrine  ;  and 
 is  it  in  the  least  degree  contradicted  or  disproved  by 
 modern  discoveries  ?  On  the  contrary,  is  it  not  more  and 
 more  confirmed  and  illustrated  by  them  ?  It  is  well  known 
 that  if  a  soft  or  elastic  globular  body  be  rapidly  whirled 
 round  on  its  axis,  the  parts  at  the  poles  will  be  flattened, 
 and  the  parts  on  the  equator,  midway  between  the  north 
 and  south  poles,  will  be  raised  up.  This  is  precisely 
 the  shape  of  our  earth ;  it  has  the  figure  of  an  oblate 
 spheroid,  a  figure  bearing  a  close  resemblance  to  that  of 
 an  orange.  Now,  if  the  earth  was  ever  in  a  state  of 
 fluidity,  its  revolution  round  its  axis  must  necessarily 
 induce  such  a  figure,  because  the  greatest  centrifugal 
 force  must  necessarily  be  near  the  equatorial  parts,  and 
 
 '  Jer.  x.  13. 
 
 4  Gen.  i.  2. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 395 
 
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 consequently  there  the  fluid  must  rise  and  swell  most. 
 It  has  been  demonstrated  by  experiment,  that  the  earth 
 is  flattened  at  the  poles  and  raised  at  the  equator  :  and 
 thus  do  the  Scriptures  and  philosophy  agree  together, 
 and  confirm  each  other.  The  Scriptures  assert  that  the 
 earth  was  in  a  state  of  fluidity  ;  and  philosophy  evinces 
 that  it  must  have  been  in  such  a  state  from  its  very  figure. 
 
 It  has  been  alleged  also  that  the  circumstance  of  the 
 sun  and  moon  standing  still,  which  is  recorded  in 
 Joshua  x.  12,  is  contrary  to  philosophy.  Let  it,  how- 
 ever, be  recollected  that  the  sacred  historian  expressly 
 relates  it  as  a  miracle:  it  is  therefore  impossible  to 
 account  for  it  on  philosophical  principles ;  it  must  be 
 resolved  wholly  into  the  power  of  God,  who  hearkened 
 to  the  voice  of  a  man,  to  stop  the  luminaries  in  their 
 diurnal  courses,  or  perhaps  the  earth's  rotation,  and  by 
 prolonging  the  day  of  battle,  to  make  them  fight  for 
 Israel.  From  the  circumstances  of  the  narrative,  we 
 may  collect  the  time  of  the  day  and  of  the  month  when 
 it  happened,  namely,  soon  after  sunrise,  and  when  the 
 moon  was  rather  past  the  full. 
 
 Joshua,  when  summoned  by  the  Gibeonites  to  come  to 
 their  succour  against  the  confederate  kings,  went  up 
 from  Gilgal  all  night,  and  came  suddenly  (we  may  con- 
 clude about  daybreak)  upon  the  enemy,  whom  he  dis- 
 comfited with  great  slaughter,  and  chased  along  the  way 
 from  Gibeon  to  Beth-horon,  in  a  westerly  direction,  the 
 Lord  co-operating  in  their  destruction  by  a  tremendous 
 shower  of  great  hailstones,  Avhich  slew  more  than  the 
 sword  of  the  Israelites,  but  did  not  touch  the  latter.  In 
 this  situation,  the  sun  appeared  to  rise  over  Gibeon  east- 
 ward, and  the  moon  to  set  over  Ajalon  westward,  near 
 the  Mediterranean  sea,  in  the  tribe  of  Dan ;  when 
 Joshua,  moved  by  a  divine  impulse,  uttered  this  invoca- 
 tion in  the  sight  of  Israel : — '  Sun,  stand  thou  still  over 
 Gibeon,  and  thou  Moon,  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon.'  So 
 the  sun  stood  still  in  the  hemisphere,  and  hasted  not  to 
 go  down  about  a  whole  day, — which  in  that  climate,  and 
 shortly  after  the  vernal  equinox,  might  have  been  about 
 thirteen  hours  long,  thus  giving  him  daylight  for  the 
 destruction  of  his  enemies  for  twenty -six  hours,  during 
 which  he  took  the  city  of  Makkedah,  and  slew  the  five 
 kings  who  hid  themselves  in  a  cave  near  it.  1 
 
 Many  inquiries  have  been  made  concerning  the  way 
 in  which  this  miracle  was  wrought,  and  many  difficulties 
 and  objections  have  been  urged  against  understanding 
 it  literally.  But  the  fact,  as  far  as  we  are  concerned 
 about  it,  is  authenticated  by  the  divine  testimony  ;  and 
 the  maimer  in  which  it  was  accomplished,  lies  entirely 
 out  of  our  province,  because  beyond  our  discovery  and 
 comprehension.  Is  any  thing  too  hard  for  the  Lord  ? 
 This  question  forms  a  sufficient  answer  to  ten  thousand 
 difficulties  which  puny  objectors,  under  the  assumed  title 
 of  philosophers,  have,  in  every  age,  been  starting 
 against  the  truth  of  God  in  his  written  word.  If  the 
 earth's  diurnal  motion  was  gradually  stopped,  it  does 
 not  appear  that  it  would,  in  respect  of  the  dry  land, 
 make  a  more  sensible  difference  to  the  inhabitants,  than 
 casting  anchor,  when  a  ship  is  under  full  sail,  does  to 
 the  mariners :  and  the  power  which  caused  the  deluge, 
 was  sufficient  to  prevent  the  effects  of  this  change,  on 
 
 i  Josh.  x.  1—2.-!.  Dr  Hales,  Dr  A.  Clarke's  Note  on  the 
 Passage,  Home's  Introduction,  vol.  1.  p.  o'5S — 602. 
 
 the  seas  and  oceans,  and  keep  them  from  overflowing 
 any  part  of  the  globe. 2  As  there  are  no  records  of  pro- 
 fane history  so  ancient  as  this  event,  it  cannot  be  any 
 cause  for  wonder,  that  pagan  authors  have  not  mentioned 
 it.  Though  some  intimation  of  it  seems  given,  in  the 
 fable  of  Phaeton  driving  the  chariot  of  the  sun,  and 
 throwing  all  things  into  disorder,  so  that  there  was  one 
 day  wholly  unlike  all  before  or  after  it.  This  extraor- 
 dinary miracle  not  only  gave  Israel  an  opportunity  of 
 completing  their  victory,  but  rendered  Joshua  honourable 
 in  the  eyes  of  all  the  people  ;  and  both  him  and  them 
 terrible  to  the  surrounding  nations.  It  was  also  a 
 public;  attestation,  that  the  God  of  Israel  was  the  Lord 
 of  the  whole  earth,  and  of  the  heavens  ;  and  a  protest 
 against  idolatry,  whilst  the  sun  and  moon,  the  worship 
 of  which  formed  the  most  ancient  and  plausible  kind  of 
 idolatry,  were  obedient  to  the  commands  of  the  servants 
 of  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel.  3 
 
 With  respect  to  the  shower  of  stones,  I  am  inclined 
 to  believe  with  bishop  Gleig,  that  the  stones  were  meteoric 
 stones,  and  not  ordinary  hailstones.  Hailstones  are 
 not  only  natural,  but  common  phenomena,  and,  there- 
 fore, were  not  calculated  to  make  such  an  impression 
 on  the  minds  either  of  the  Israelites  or  of  the  Gibeonites 
 as  a  shower  of  fire-balls,  or  ignited  stones.  There 
 seems,  indeed,  to  be  little  room  for  doubt,  but  that  the 
 one  kind  of  stone  is  formed  in  the  atmosphere  by  some 
 natural  process,  as  well  as  the  other  ;  but  in  what  man- 
 ner, or  by  what  law  of  nature  the  ignited  metallic  stones 
 are  formed,  is,  I  believe,  equally  unknown  to  the  philo- 
 sopher and  to  the  peasant.  One  of  the  most  scientific 
 chemists  of  the  present  day,  after  describing  a  great 
 variety  of  such  metallic  stones,  which  are  to  be  found  in 
 every  quarter  of  the  globe,  says,  that  we  may  consider 
 them  all  as  fragments  of  fire-balls,  which  have  burst  in 
 the  atmosphere  ;  but  that  the  origin  and  physical  cause 
 of  those  fire-balls,  will,  perhaps,  for  ages,  baffle  all  the 
 .attempts  of  philosophers  to  investigate  them.  The 
 pouring  down  of  such  a  shower  of  stones,  by  whatever 
 process  formed,  on  the  army  of  the  Canaanites  con- 
 federated against  Israel,  was  a  miracle  admirably  cal- 
 culated to  convince  the  Israelites  and  Gibeonites  of  the 
 superiority  of  Jehovah,  over  the  gods  of  Canaan. 
 
 SECT.    II. 
 
 CHAP.   I. — From  the  Death  of  Joshua  to  the  Death 
 of  Samson. 
 
 THE   HISTORY. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Joshua,"  no  particular  person,  that 
 we  read   of,  succeeded    him  in  the    government ;  and 
 
 8  Gen.  vii.  10—12. 
 3  Dent.  iv.  19.  See  Scott  on  the  passage. 
 a  The  Samaritan  Chronicle  tells  us,  indeed,  that  in  the  last 
 assembly  which  Joshua  held  he  nominated  twelve  chiefs,  of 
 every  tribe  one,  and  put  it  to  the  lot,  who  should  succeed  him 
 in  the  government  ;  that  the  lot  fell  upon  Ins  nephew  Abel,  whom 
 lie  accordingly  Crowned,  and  invested  with  other  ensigns  of 
 honour,  &c,  but  this  is  thought  to  be  no  more  than  a  fabulous 
 account,  invented  to  fill  up  this  void  Space  of  time — Saurtn'i 
 DtSStr.  on  llrjlon,  king  of  the  MoabtUs,  ivho  wus  killed,  &c. 
 
396 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3849.  A.  C.  1564.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 therefore,  the  most  probable  opinion  is,  that  every  tribe 
 was  governed  by  their  respective  heads,  or  elders,  (which 
 form  of  government  subsisted  about  thirty  "    years,)  and 
 
 a  Dv  Hales,  following  the  chronology  of  Josephus,  with  some 
 collections,  makes  the  whole  period  from  the  time  of  Joshua  and 
 the  elders  who  survived  him,  to  the  election  of  Saul,  498  years, 
 which  he  accounts  for  thus: — In  the  general  introduction  of  his 
 Analysis  of  Scripture  Chronology,  lie  endeavours  to  show  that 
 the  interval  from  the  exodus  to  the  foundation  of  Solomon's 
 temple,  was  021  years;  from  which,  subtracting  123  years, 
 namely,  forty  years  from  the  exodus  to  this  return,  eighty  years 
 from  the  two  reigns  of  Saul  and  David,  and  the  first  three  years 
 of  Solomon,  the  remainder  is  498  years.  "  But,"  says  the 
 learned  and  indefatigable  doctor,  "although  we  are  indebted  to 
 Josephus  for  this,  and  for  supplying  some  material  chasms  in  the 
 sacred  annals,  such  as,  1st,  the  administration  of  Joshua  and  the 
 elders,  25  years;  2d,  the  ensuing  anarchy,  18  years;  3d,  the 
 administration  of  Shamgar,  1  year;  and,  4th,  of  Samuel,  12 
 years;  still  his  detail  of  the  outline  there  given  requires  cor- 
 rection. 
 
 For,  1.  The  year  ascribed  to  Shamgar's  administration  is  too 
 short,  as  is  evident  from  Deborah's  account,  (Judges  v.  6.) ;  I 
 have  therefore  included  it,  with  David  Ganz,  in  Ehud's  enormous 
 administration  of  80  years,  and  transferred  the  one  year  to 
 Joshua's,  making  that  26  years.  2.  I  have  restored  Abdon's 
 administration  of  8  years  omitted  by  Josephus,  and  deducted  it 
 from  the  18  years  he  assigns  to  the  anarchy,  thereby  reducing 
 the  latter  to  its  correct  length  of  10  years.  3.  I  have  dated  the 
 first  division  of  the  conquered  lands  in  the  sixth  year,  which 
 Josephus  reckoned  in  the  fifth  year;  because  Caleb  was  40  years 
 old  when  Moses  sent  him  as  one  of  the  spies  from  Kadesh-barnea, 
 in  the  second  year  after  the  exode ;  consequently  he  was  39 
 years  old  at  the  exode,  and  therefore  79  years  old,  40  years 
 after,  at  the  arrival  in  Canaan;  but  he  was  85  years  old  when  he 
 claimed  and  got  the  hill  of  Hebron  for  an  inheritance,  which 
 therefore  must  have  been  six  years  after  the  arrival  in  Canaan. 
 Compare  Num.  x.  11 ;  xiii.  6.,  with  Josh.  xiv.  6 — 15.  4.  Jo- 
 sephus has  omitted  the  date  of  Samuel's  call  to  be  a  prophet, 
 (1  Sam.  iii.  1 — 19.)  which  St  Paul  reckons  450  years  after  the 
 division  of  lands,  (Acts  xiii.  19,  20.) ;  and  which,  therefore, 
 commenced  with  the  10  last  years  of  Eli's  administration  of  40 
 years.  This  last  most  important  chronological  character,  from 
 the  New  Testament  verifies  the  whole  of  this  rectification ;  while 
 it  demonstrates  the  spuriousness  of  the  period  of  480  years  in 
 the  present  Masorite  text  of  1  Kings  vi.  1.,  from  the  exode  to 
 the  foundation  of  Solomon's  temple.'' 
 
 Following  the  chronology  of  Josephus,  in  preference  to  the 
 Hebrew  text,  his  table  of  the  Judges  is  as  follows: — 
 
 1  Joshua  and  the  Elders,    . 
 First  division  of  lauds,    . 
 Second  do.  do. 
 Anarchy,  or  interregnum, 
 
 I.  Servitude  to  the  Mesopotami 
 
 2  Othniel, 
 
 II.  Servitude  to  the  Moabites, 
 
 3  Ehud  and  Shamgar, 
 
 III.  Servitude  to  the  Canaanites, 
 
 4  Deborah  and  Barak, 
 
 IV.  Servitude  to  the  Midianites, 
 
 5  Gideon, 
 
 (3  Abimelech,    . 
 
 7  Tola,    .... 
 
 8  Jair,      .... 
 
 V.  Servitude  to  the  Ammonites 
 
 9  Jephthah, 
 
 10  Ib/an, 
 
 11  Eton 
 
 12  Abdon, 
 
 VI.  Servitude  to  the  Philistines, 
 
 13  Samson,  .  , 
 
 14  Eli,      .... 
 Samuel  called  as  a  prophet, 
 
 VII.  Servitude  to  the  Philistines, 
 
 15  Samuel, 
 
 Years. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 2b' 
 
 1008 
 
 1602 
 
 1595 
 
 10 
 
 1582 
 
 ans,   S 
 
 1572 
 
 40 
 
 1564 
 
 18 
 
 1524 
 
 80 
 
 1506 
 
 20 
 
 1426 
 
 40 
 
 1406 
 
 7 
 
 1366 
 
 40 
 
 1359 
 
 3 
 
 1319 
 
 23 
 
 1316 
 
 22 
 
 1293 
 
 ,     18 
 
 1271 
 
 6 
 
 1253 
 
 7 
 
 1247 
 
 10 
 
 1240 
 
 8 
 
 1230 
 
 40,   20 
 
 1222 
 
 20 
 
 1202 
 
 40,   30 
 
 1182 
 
 JO 
 
 1152 
 
 20 
 
 1142 
 
 12 
 
 1122 
 
 Saul  elected  king, 
 
 498 
 
 1110 
 
 that,  in  their  wars  with  the  Canaanites,  they  made  them 
 their  commanders.  For  several  of  the  Canaanitish 
 kings  remaining  still  unconquered,  the  Israelites  unani- 
 mously resolved  to  set  about  their  reduction  ;  ant1 
 accordingly  repaired  to  the  oracle  at  Shiloh,  to  ask 
 directions  of  God,  which  tribe  should  begin  the  war. 
 God's  orders  were,  that  the  tribe  of  Judah  should  begin  ; 
 and  therefore,  they,  taking  to  their  assistance  the  tribe 
 of  Simeon,  first  set  upon  the  cruel  °  king  of  Bezek  : 
 sacked  the  town,  killed  ten  thousand  of  its  inhabitants, 
 and,  as  he  was  endeavouring  to  make  his  escape,  seized 
 him,  and  cut  c  oft' his  thumbs  and  great  toes,  in  the  like 
 manner  as  he  had  done  to  no  less  than  'seventy  little 
 kings  d  or  princes,  whom  he  compelled  to  gather  their 
 meat,  like  dogs,  under  his  table  :  so  that  the  similitude 
 of  his  punishment  made  the  tyrant  reflect  upon  his  own 
 cruelty,  and  acknowledge  the  justice  of  God  in  what  he 
 had  brought  upon  him. 
 
 After  the  conquest  of  Bezek,  the  two  united  tribes  e 
 invested  Jerusalem,  and  having  taken  it,  put  the  inhabi- 
 tants to  the  sword,  and  set  the  place  on  fire.  They 
 thence  marched  to  Hebron,  and  having  made  themselves 
 masters  of  it,  went  to  attack  Debir,  which  was  part  of 
 
 "  The  only  alteration  here  made  in  the  present  text  of  Jose- 
 phus is  the  insertion  of  Tola,  and  his  administration  of  23  years, 
 (Judges  x.  1,  2.),  which  are  inadvertently  omitted  between 
 Abimelech  and  Jair,  {Ant.  5,  7,  15;)  but  evidently  were  included 
 in  the  original  scheme  of  Josephus,  as  being  quite  requisite  to 
 complete  the  period  of  621  years.  To  Abdon  no  years  are 
 assigned  by  Josephus,  {Ant.  5,  7,  15.),  perhaps  designedly,  for 
 Clemens  Alexandrinus  relates,  that  some  chronologers  collected 
 together  the  years  of  Abathan  and  Ebron,  (Abdon  and  Elon,)  or 
 made  them  contemporaries.  But  we  may  easily  reconcile  Jose- 
 phus with  Scripture,  by  only  deducting  eight  years  from  the  IS 
 years'  interregnum  after  Joshua,  which  will  give  Abdon  his  quota 
 of  years,  and  leave  that  interregnum  its  juster  length  of  10  years. 
 
 "  It  is  truly  remarkable,  and  a  proof  of  the  great  skill  and 
 accuracy  oi  Josephus  in  forming  the  outline  of  this  period,  that 
 he  assigns,  with  St  Paul,  a  reign  of  40  years  to  Saul,  (Acts  xiii. 
 21.),  which  is  omitted  in  the  Old  Testament.  His  outline  also 
 corresponds  with  St  Paul's  period  of  450  years,  from  the  division 
 of  the  conquered  lands  of  Canaan,  until  Samuel  the  prophet." — 
 See  Dr  Hales'  Chronology,  vol.  1.  p.  298;  vol.  2.  p.  257.  ct  scq. 
 second  edition. — En. 
 
 b  There  is  another  place  in  Scripture,  namely,  1  Sam.  xi.  8. 
 where  Bezek,  is  mentioned ;  and  since  Eusebius  and  Jerome 
 tell  us,  that  there  were  in  their  days  two  towns,  about  seventeen 
 miles  from  Shechem,  of  the  same  name,  and  not  far  distant  from 
 each  other,  we  see  nothing  of  moment  to  hinder  them  from  being 
 both  but  one  city  in  former  times. — Wells'  Geography  of  the 
 Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
 c  The  reason  of  their  mutilating  him  in  this  manner,  was  to 
 make  him  incapable  of  war  any  more,  being  unable  to  handle 
 arms,  by  reason  of  the  loss  of  his  thumbs,  or  to  run  swiftly, 
 which  was  a  notable  quality  in  a  warrior  in  those  days,  by  the 
 loss  of  his  great  toes. — Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 
 d  From  this  it  seems  very  probable,  that  the  different 
 Canaanitish  tribes  were  convened  by  a  sort  of  chieftains,  similar 
 to  those  among  the  claus  of  the  ancient  Scottish  Highlanders. 
 —En. 
 
 e  We  do  not  read  that  Jerusalem  was  ever  taken  by  Joshua, 
 though  it  seems  highly  probable,  that  when  he  took  the  king  of 
 Jerusalem,  he  did  to  it  as  he  did  to  the  rest  of  the  cities  belong- 
 ing to  those  kings,  (Josh.  x.  3 — 23.)  But  when  he  was  gone 
 to  conquer  other  parts  of  the  country,  it  is  likely  that  the  o'd  in- 
 habitants returned  again,  and  took  possession  of  it,  for  the  laud 
 was  not  then  divided  among  the^lsiaelites.  But  as  Joshua,  a 
 little  before  his  death,  divided  the  land,  and  this  city  fell,  in 
 part,  to  the  share  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  they  dispossessed  the  Jehu- 
 sites  that  dwelt  there,  of  all  but  the  strong  fortress  on  the  top  of 
 mount  Sion,  which  held  out  till  the  clays  of  David. — Patrick  s 
 Commentary. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 397 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C,  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 Caleb's  allotment,  though  the  Canaanites  at  that  time 
 had  possession  of  it.  Caleb, a  who  in  all  probability  was 
 general  in  these  wars,  being-  resolved  to  storm  the  place, 
 made  proclamation  in  the  camp,  that  whoever  should 
 attack  and  carry  it,  should  have  his  daughter  Achsah  as  a 
 reward  of  his  valour  ;  which  his  gallant  nephew  Othniel, 
 son  to  his  younger  brother  Kenaz,  achieved,  and  so,  not 
 only  obtained  the  beauteous  damsel  for  his  wife,  but 
 with  her  a  large  estate  likewise,  in  a  well-watered  coun- 
 try, which,  at  her  request,  her  father  very  generously 
 bestowed  on  him. 
 
 Thus  the  tribe  of  Simeon  assisted  that  of  Judah  to 
 subdue  the  mountainous  parts  about  Jerusalem,  and  the 
 southern  parts  adjoining  to  the  wilderness  of  Paran  ;  and 
 when  this  was  done,  the  tribe  of  Judah  in  like  manner, 
 assisted  the  Simeonites  to  take  Gaza,  Askelon,  and 
 Zephah,  which  was  then  called  Hormah  ;  so  that  these 
 places,  in  after  ages,  came  into  their  possession.  *  En- 
 couraged by  these  successes,  the  family  of  Joseph 
 undertook  the  conquest  of  Bethel ;  and  to  this  purpose 
 sent  out  spies,  to  take  a  survey  of  the  town,  and  to  gain 
 what  intelligence  they  could.  They  perceiving  a  man 
 coming  out  of  it,  immediately  seized  him,  but  promised 
 to  spare  his  life,  upon  condition  that  he  would  give  them 
 the  best  information  he  could,  in  what  way  the  town  was 
 approachable.  The  man  did  so  ;  and  by  his  informa- 
 tion they  succeeded  so  well,  that  sending  for  their  forces, 
 they  entered  the  place,  and  put  all  the  inhabitants  to  the 
 sword,  except  the  man  who  had  given  them  intelligence, 
 and  his  family. 
 
 The  other  tribes  had  equally  good  success  in  gaining 
 the  possession  of  the  lands  that  were  allotted  them  ; 
 only  the  tribe  of  Dan  was  compelled  to  quit  the  plains 
 for  fear  of  the  Amorites,  and  to  retire  into  the  mountain- 
 ous parts  of  the  country,  where  they  were  pent  up  for 
 some  time,  until  the  family  of  Joseph  came  to  their 
 assistance  ;  and  having  restrained  the  insolence  of  their 
 enemies,  reduced  them  to  a  narrower  tract  of  land  than 
 what  they  had  at  first. 
 
 One  great  default,  however,  in  those  that  were  suc- 
 cessful against  the  Canaanites,  was,  that  they  did  not 
 make  a  right  use  of  their  victories,  but  either  through  a 
 misplaced  lenity,  or  covetousness,  instead  of  destroying 
 them,  (as  they  were  commanded,)  suffered  them  to  live 
 promiscuously  among  them,  and  contented  themselves 
 with  making  them  tributary  ;  which  so  far  incensed  God, 
 
 a  Who  was  their  general  upon  this  occasion,  is  not  expressly 
 mentioned  either  in  Scripture,  Josephus,  or  any  other  ancient 
 historian ;  and  yet  it  is  hardly  to  he  questioned,  hut  that  Caleh 
 was  tht!  person.  He  was  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  older  than  any 
 other  by  twenty  years;  and  yet,  like  Moses,  he  continued  in  his 
 lull  strength  and  vigour.  lie  and  Joshua,  were  the  only  two 
 spies,  who,  having  searched  out  the  land,  gave  a  true  report  of  it; 
 and  therefore,  as  Joshua  was  the  first  general,  he  had  the  greatest 
 right  to  succeed  him;  and  this  might  be  the  reason  why  Joshua, 
 at  his  death,  named  no  other.  He  and  Joshua,  were  the  only 
 two  persons  to  whom  the  Israelites  gave  inheritances  for  their 
 signal  services;  and  as  his  inheritance  lay  uneonquered  in  this 
 tribe,  he  had  the  greatest  reason  to  be  active  in  reducing  it. 
 His  name  alone  is  mentioned  in  all  these  wars,  and  as  his  son- 
 in-law,  Othniel,  was  the  fust  deliverer  of  the  Israelites  from  their 
 oppressions,  he  seems  to  have  Succeeded  Caleb  in  this  dignity,  as 
 his  nearest  and  most  valiant  relation. — Bedford's  ScrijiiioT 
 Chronology,  b.  5.  c.  3. 
 
 b  The  Septuagint  in  this  place,  (Judges  i.  IS,)  reads,  'But 
 Judah  did  tint  possess  Gaza  nor  the  coasts  thereof;  neither  Aska- 
 lon  uor  the  coasts  thereof;  neither  Ekron.  nor  the  coasts  thereof; 
 
 M.  3849.  A.  C.  1564.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 that  he  sent  an  e  angel  from  Gilgal,  to  expostulate  the 
 matter  with  them  ;  to  remind  them  of  the  favour  which 
 he  had  vouchsafed  them,  in  delivering  them  out  of  Egypt, 
 and  bringing  them  into  that  happy  land,  of  his  punctual 
 performance  of  all  the  promises  he  had  made  them,  and  of 
 their  vile  ingratitude  in  rejecting  his  precepts,  for  which 
 he  had  very  justly  withdrawn  his  protection  from  them. 
 
 The  reproof  made  the  people,  for  the  present,  a  little 
 sensible  of  their  transgression,  so  that  they  fell  into  a 
 general  lamentation  ;  and  deploring  the  wretchedness  of 
 their  condition,  offered  sacrifices  to  God,  in  order  to  ap- 
 pease his  wrath.  But  no  sooner  was  this  fit  of  humilia- 
 tion over,  but  continuing  still  their  correspondence  with 
 the  Canaanites,  indulging  themselves  in  their  loose  con- 
 versation, and  making  intermarriages  with  them,  they  fell 
 into  idolatry,  and  worshipped  Baal  and  Ashtaroth,  and 
 other  idols  of  the  heathen,  which  so  provoked  the  Lord, 
 that  he  left  them  to  themselves  ;  and  they,  without  his 
 protection,  made  so  weak  a  defence,  that  they  were  often 
 taken,  and  enslaved  by  their  enemies. 
 
 The  first  oppressor  that  the  Israelites  had,  was  named 
 Chushan  Rishathaim.  He  was  king  of  Mesopotamia, 
 and  when  he  invaded  the  territories  of  Israel,  he  made 
 an  easy  conquest,  and  imposed  a  tribute  on  them,  which 
 lasted  for  eight  years  ;  but  at  the  expiration  of  that  time, 
 God  raised  up  Othniel,  Caleb's  son-in-law,  (who  was  the 
 first  of  those  whom  the  Scripture  calls  Judges,)  and 
 inspired  him  with  courage  and  resolution  to  take  up  arms 
 against  the  king  of  Mesopotamia,  whom  he  soon  defeated, 
 and  settled  the  Israelites  in  a  state  of  peace  and  tran- 
 quillity, which  lasted  for  forty  years.  But  during  this 
 space  of  time,  the  people  fell  into  a  general  apostasy, 
 and  corruption  of  manners,  whereof  the  <l  two  following 
 stories  are  sad  and  remarkable  instances. 
 
 neither  Azotus  nor  its  adjacent  places:  and  the  Lord  was  with 
 Judah.'  This  is  the  reading  of  the  Vatican  and  other  copies 
 of  the  Septuagint;  but  the  Alexandrian  MS.,  and  the  text  of  the 
 Complutensian  and  Antwerp  polyglots  agree  more  nearly  with 
 the  Hebrew  text.  St  Augustine  and  Procopius  read  the  same 
 as  the  Vatican  MS. ;  and  Josephus  expressly  says,  the  Israel- 
 ites took  only  Askelon  and  Azotus,  but  did  not  take  Gaza  nor 
 Ekron.  And  the  whole  history  shows  that  these  cities  were  not 
 .in  the  possession  of  the  Israelites,  but  of  the  Philistines;  and  if 
 the  Israelites  did  take  them  at  this  time,  as  the  Hebrew  text 
 states,  they  certainly  lost  them  in  a  very  short  time  after. — Dr 
 A.  Clar/te. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  Jews  are  generally  of  opinion,  that  by  this  angel,  we 
 are  to  understand  a  prophet  who  was  sent  by  God  as  a  messen- 
 ger which  the  very  word  often  imports;  and  this  messenger  they 
 commonly  take  to  have  been  Phinehas,  who  was  employed  upon 
 this  errand.  We  can  see  no  reason,  however,  fur  their  departing 
 from  the  usual  signification  of  the  word,  especially  when  there  is 
 no  absurdity  in  it,  and  the  sense  of  the  context  seems  to  require 
 our  retaining  it.  Nay,  there  is  reason  to  say,  that  the  person 
 who  here  reproves  the  Israelites,  was  something  more  than  a 
 created  angel;  for  who  but  Goil  can  speak  in  this  style,  '  I  made 
 you  to  go  out  of  Egypt?'  No  prophet,  nor  any  created  angel 
 durst  have  been  so  bold;  and  therefore  the  opinion  of  most  Chris- 
 tian interpreters  is,  that  it  was  the  Son  of  God,  who  is  frequently 
 in  Scripture  called  '  the  angel  of  the  covenant.'  And  lit  it  was  I"!' 
 him  to  appear  now,  as  coming  from  Gilgal,  to  put  them  in  mind 
 of  his  illustrious  appearance  near  that  place  once  before,  of  the 
 assurance  he  then  gave  them  of  his  presence  with  them  in  the 
 conquest  of  the  land,  and  of  the  solemn  covenant  he  made  with 
 them,  by  renewing  of  circumcision.  The  angel's  coming  up 
 from  Gilgal  is  therefore  mentioned  as  a  very  pertinent  cir- 
 cumstance, to  upbraid  tin;  Israelites  with  their  base  ingratitude  to 
 God,  and  with  their  sloth  in  not  endeavouring  to  expel  the  Ca- 
 naanites.—  Patrick'*  Commentary. 
 
 (/These  two  stories  are  related  in  the  17th,  18th,  and  VM\ 
 
398 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 The  tribe  of  Dan,  as  we  said  before,  being  pent  up  in 
 the  mountainous  parts,  found  their  territories  much  too 
 narrow  for  them  ;  and  therefore  they  sent  out  of  their 
 body  five  spies,  to  survey  the  country,  and  bring  them  in 
 intelligence,  in  what  part  of  the  regions  round  about, 
 they  might  most  likely  extend  their  bounds.  The  spies, 
 in  their  journey,  came  to  the  house  of  Micah  of  Mount 
 Ephraim,  whose  mother,  thinking  it  too  much  trouble  to 
 go  to  Shiloh  to  worship,  and  ofi'er  sacrifices  there,  had 
 made  an  idol,  and  placed  it  in  a  private  chapel  of  her 
 son's  building :  for  her  son  had  an  a  ephod  and  teraphim, 
 and  for  some  time,  had  consecrated  one  of  his  own  sons 
 to  be  his  priest ;  until  a  Levite,  who  had  dwelt  some 
 time  at  Bethlehem-Judah,  travelling  from  thence  to  seek 
 a  better  settlement,  happened  to  call  at  Micah's  house, 
 and  by  him  was  hired  to  execute  that  office  ;  whereupon 
 the  man  was  fond  enough  to  believe,  that  God  would 
 prosper  him  not  a  little,  now  that  he  had  got  a  Levite  to 
 be  his  priest. 
 
 It  so  happened,  that  some  of  these  spies  being  acquaint- 
 ed with  this  Levite,  and,  after  some  discourse,  understand- 
 ing in  what  capacity  he  served  Micah,  desired  of  him  to 
 ask  counsel  of  God,  what  success  they  might  possibly 
 promise  themselves  in  the  enterprise  they  were  going 
 upon,  and  with  the  encouragement  which  he  gave  them, 
 they  proceeded  on  their  search,  until  they  came  to  Laish  \b 
 
 chapters  of  Judges,  and  being  so  placed,  they  may  seem  to  be- 
 long to  the  latter  part  of  this  period ;  whereas,  in  the  judgment 
 of  most  learned  men,  they  were  transacted  much  about  this  time. 
 It  is  plain  from  the  text,  (chap.  xvii.  6.)  that  these  things  hap- 
 pened '  when  there  was  no  king,'  that  is,  no  ruler,  for  properly 
 speaking  there  had  hitherto  been  no  king,  '  in  Israel,  but  every 
 man  did  what  was  right  in  his  own  eyes ;'  and  the  reason  why 
 Samuel,  or  whoever  was  the  author  of  this  book,  places  them  here, 
 is  because  he  was  not  willing  to  break  the  thread  of  his  history,  by 
 intermixing  these  matters  with  it,  but  reserved  them  to  be  re- 
 lated apart  by  themselves. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  That  the  divine  service  might  be  performed  with  a  greater 
 resemblance  of  what  was  done  at  the  tabernacle  in  Shiloh,  he  made 
 priestly  ornaments ;  for  so  some  learned  men  take  the  ephod  to 
 comprehend,  not  only  the  breastplate  adjoining  to  it,  but  all  the 
 rest  of  the  vestments  used  by  the  high  priest.  His  intention  was 
 to  set  up  an  oracle  in  his  own  house,  in  imitation  of  the  sanc- 
 tuary of  Moses ;  and  therefore,  to  make  the  conformity  the  greater, 
 it  is  supposed  that  he  erected  a  kind  of  ark,  whereon  he  placed 
 two  teraphim,  to  answer  the  two  cherubim  in  the  tabernacle,  as 
 he  caused  the  priest  who  officiated  for  him  to  wear  an  ephod,  in 
 the  manner  that  the  high  priest  did  when  he  consulted  God. 
 Mr  Selden  (in  his  Syntagma  1.  de  diis  Syriis,  c.  2,)  well 
 observes,  that  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  and  of  idols,  was  here 
 blended  together.  The  ephod  and  the  Levite,  which  Micah 
 afterwards  provided,  were  intended,  no  doubt,  for  the  service  of 
 the  true  God;  but  the  graven  image  and  teraphim,  by  which 
 the  children  of  Dan  desired  the  Levite  to  inquire  of  God, 
 belonged  unto  demons.  They  neither  trusted  to  the  ephod 
 alone,  which  related  to  God,  nor  to  their  teraphim  alone,  which 
 was  their  own  invention,  but  thought  it  necessary  to  join  both 
 together  in  divine  worship:  and  thus  began  idolatry  in  Israel, 
 by  the  superstition  of  an  old  woman,  who  put  this  in  her  son's 
 head.  This  woman,  many  of  the  Jews  suppose  to  be  the  same 
 with  Delilah,  who,  having  got  so  much  money  of  every  one  of 
 the  lords  of  the  Philistines,  thought  it  expedient  to  employ  some 
 of  it  in  expressing  her  devotion.  But  this  is  an  idle  conceit, 
 that  has  no  other  foundation,  than  Delilah's  being  mentioned  in 
 the  foregoing  chapter;  whereas  Micah  was  some  hundred  years 
 prior  to  her. — Patrick's  Comvuntary ,  and  Jarieu's  History  of 
 Doctrines  and  TForship,  part  3. 
 
 b  The  text  reads,  '  Then  the  five  men  departed,  and  came  to 
 Laish,  and  saw  the  people  that  were  therein,  how  they  dwelt 
 careless,  after  the  manner  of  the  Zidonians,  quiet  and  secure ; 
 and  there  was  no  magistrate  in  the  landj  that  might  put  them  to 
 
 M.  3849.  A.  C.  1564.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 where  observing  a  pleasant  and  fruitful  country,  and 
 the  people  living  in  a  secure  and  negligent  manner, 
 without  any  rule  or  discipline  among  them,  they  returned 
 to  their  brethren,  and  gave  them  an  account,  how  fruitful 
 the  country  was,  and  how  easily,  in  their  opinion,  the 
 place  might  be  taken  by  surprise. 
 
 Upon  this,  the  Danites  drew  out  a  party  of  six  hun- 
 dred men,  and  sent  them  to  take  possession  of  the  city 
 Laish ;  but  in  their  way  through  Mount  Ephraim,  they 
 called  at  Micah's  house,  and,  in  his  absence,  seized  the 
 Levite,  the  ephod,  and  teraphim,  and  other  images  that 
 Micah  had  made  ;  and  as  the  Levite  was  remonstrating 
 against  what  they  had  done,  they  soon  pacified  him,  by 
 representing  the  advantage  of  being  a  priest  to  a  whole 
 tribe  rather  than  any  one  family ;  and  with  the  hopes  of 
 that  he  went  very  willingly  along  with  them. 
 
 Micah  returning  home,  and  understanding  that  his 
 priest  and  his  gods  were  gone,  musters  up  his  friends, 
 and  pursues  the  Danites  ;  but  when  he  came  up  with 
 some  of  the  hindmost  of  them,  and  was  making  his  com- 
 plaint against  the  injury  they  had  done,  they  wished 
 him  to  be  gone  ;  for  that  if  he  persisted  to  irritate  the 
 rest  of  the  party,  it  would  certainly  cost  him  and  his 
 friends  their  lives  :  and  so  continuing  their  march,  on 
 the  third  day  they  came  to  Laish,  where  finding  it  un- 
 guarded, they  burnt  the  city,  destroyed  the  inhabitants, 
 and  took  possession  of  the  country  ;  but  in  a  short  time 
 after,  they  rebuilt  the  city,  which,  after  the  name  of  their 
 father,  was  called  Dan,  and  here  setting  up  the  images 
 which  they  had  stolen  from  Micah,  they  made  this  same 
 Levite,  whose  name  was  Jonathan,  their  priest ;  and  in 
 this  state  of  idolatrous  worship  they  continued  for  about 
 three  hundred  years,  even  unto  the  time  c  that  the  ark  of 
 
 shame  in  any  thing;  and  they  were  far  from  the  Zidonians,  and 
 had  no  business  with  any  man.'  The  following  remarks  of  Dr 
 A.  Clarke,  throw  much  light  on  this  passage;  he  thinks  that 
 probably  the  people  of  Laish  or  Leshem  were  originally  a  colony 
 of  Sidonians,  who  were  an  opulent  people ;  and  being  in  posses- 
 sion of  a  strong  city  lived  in  a  state  of  security,  not  being  afraid 
 of  their  neighbours.  And  that  in  this  the  Leshemites  imitated 
 them,  though  the  sequel  proves  that  they  had  not  the  same  reason 
 for  confidence — that  being  a  Sidonian  colony  they  might  naturally 
 expect  succour  from  their  countrymen ;  but  being  far  from  Sidon 
 the  Danites  saw  they  could  strike  the  decisive  blow  before  the 
 news  of  the  invasion  could  reach  Sidon,  and  consequently  before 
 the  Leshemites  could  receive  any  succours  from  that  city.  The 
 last  clause,  'and  had  no  business  with  any  man,'  in  the  most 
 correct  copies  of  the  Septuagint  reads,  '  and  they  had  no  transac- 
 tions with  Syria.'  Now  it  is  evident  that  instead  of  cna,  Adam, 
 man,  they  read  di»,  Aram,  Syria;  words  so  nearly  similar  that 
 the  difference  which  exists  is  only  between  the  1  resk,  and  T 
 dalcth;  and  this  both  in  MS.  and  printed  books  is  often  {indiscer- 
 nible. This  reading  is  found  in  the  Codex  Alexandrinus,  in  the 
 Complutensian  polyglot,  in  the  Spanish  polyglot,  and  in  the 
 edition  cf  the  Septuagint,  published  by  Aldus.  It  may  be  proper 
 to  observe  that  Laish  was  on  the  frontiers  of  Syria;  but  as  they 
 had  no  intercourse  with  the  Syrians,  from  whom  they  might  have 
 received  the  promptest  assistance,  this  was  an  additional  reason 
 why  the  Danites  might  expect  success. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  words  of  the  text  are ; — '  And  the  children  of  Dan  set 
 up  the  graven  image,  and  Jonathan,  the  son  of  Gershom,  the  son 
 of  Manasseh,  he  and  his  sons,  were  priests  to  the  tribe  of  Dan, 
 until  the  day  of  the  captivity  of  the  land,'  (Judges  xviii.  30.) 
 But  then  the  question  is,  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the  capti- 
 vity of  the  land?  Now  there  are  two  times  mentioned  in  Scrip- 
 ture, when  the  children  of  Israel  were  carried  away  captive,  by 
 Tiglath-Pileser,  when  he  '  took  Hazor,  and  Gilead,  and  Galilee, 
 all  the  land  of  Naphtali,  and  carried  them  into  Assyria,' (2  Kings 
 xv.  29 ;")  and  2dly,  by  Salmonasser,  who  '  carried  Israel  away, 
 and  plated  them  in  Halah.  and  in  Habor,  by  the  river  Gozan, 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 399 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.   A.  C.  M43;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  3849.  A.  C.  15G4.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 God  was  taken  captive  by  the  Philistines,  which  was  in 
 the  days  of  Samuel. 
 
 Not  long-  after  this,  the  war  of  the  Benjamites  broke 
 out,  which  is  another  tragical  piece  of  history,  and  as 
 pregnant  a  proof  of  the  people's  immorality,  as  the 
 other  is  of  their  apostasy.  The  substance  of  the  story 
 is  this. — a  A  Levite  of  Mount  Ephraiin,  having-  taken  a 
 wife  out  of  Bethleheiu-Judah,  who  proved  a  lewd  woman, 
 she  made  an  elopement  from  her  husband  to  her  father's 
 house,  where  she  continued  for  some  months.  The 
 Levite,  however,  being  willing-  to  be  reconciled  to  her, 
 went  to  bring-  her  home  ;  but,  in  his  return  happening-  to 
 be  benighted,  he  was  obliged  to  turn  *  into  Gibeah, 
 where  an  old  man  of  Mount  Ephraim,  who  was  only  an 
 inmate  there,  after  some  conversation,  received  him  into 
 his  lodgings.  But  while  they  were  at  supper,  the  men 
 of  the  city  beset  the  house,  and  demanded  to  have  the 
 stranger  brought  out  to  them,  that  according  to  the  sin 
 
 and  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes,'  (2  Kings  xviii.  11.)  And  to  one 
 of  these,  the  words  of  the  text  are  supposed  by  some  learned  men 
 to  refer;  hut  then  it  must  necessarily  follow,  that  this  hook  was 
 written  in  later  times,  even  after  the  former  of  these  captivities  at 
 least.  It  can  hardly  he  supposed,  however,  that  these  images 
 should  be  suffered  to  continue  in"  the  days  of  David,  who  was  a 
 man  after  God's  own  heart,  and  studied  to  advance  true  religion 
 to  the  utmost  of  his  power  all  the  country  over,  from  Dan  to 
 Beer-sheba;  and  therefore  others,  with  good  reason  conclude, 
 that  by  '  the  captivity  of  the  land,'  is  meant  the  taking  of  the  ark 
 hy  the  Philistines,  and  carrying  it  captive  into  the  temple  of 
 Dagon;  for  so  the  Psalmist  expressly  calls  that  unlucky  event: 
 'he  forsook  the  tabernacle  in  Shiloh,  even  the  tent  that  he  had 
 pitched  among  them ;'  he  delivered  their  power  into  captivity, 
 and  their  beauty  into  the  enemies'  hands,'  (Ps.  lxxviii.  (iO,  61.) 
 (Patrick's  and  Le  C/erc's  Commentaries.)  Instead  of  Manasseh, 
 as  observed  in  a  former  note,  we  should  read  Moses,  as  it  is 
 found  in  some  MSS.,  the  Vulgate  and  the  concession  of  the  most 
 intelligent  Jews.  U.  D.  Kimchi  acknowledges  that  the  Jews 
 have  changed  Moses  into  Manasseh,  because  they  think  it  would 
 be  a  great  reproach  to  their  legislator  to  have  had  a  grandson 
 who  was  an  idolater;  that  Gershom  the  son  of  Moses  is  here 
 intended,  is  very  probable.  See  the  arguments  urged  by  Dr 
 Kennicott,  (Dissertation  1.  p.  55,  &c. ;)  and  the  Var.  Lect.  of 
 de  Rossi  on  this  place.  We  may  add  the  following  in  support  of 
 the  opinion,  that  by  '  the  captivity  of  the  land,'  the  taking  of  the 
 ark  is  meant.  Hubigant  contends  that,  instead  of  tptm  kaarets, 
 the  LAND,  we  should  read  rmtn haaron,  the  ark;  for  nothing  is 
 easier  than  for  the  i  van,  and  {  final  nun,  to  be  mistaken  for  the  v 
 final  tsadc,  which  is  the  only  difference  between  '  the  captivity  of 
 the  land,'  and  the  '  captivity  of  the  ark  ;'  and  this  conjecture  is  the 
 more  likely,  because  the  next  verse  tells  us  that  Micah's  graven 
 image  continued  at  Dan  all  the  time  the  house  of  God  was  at 
 Shiloh;  which  was  till  the  ark  was  taken  hy  the  Philistines. — 
 See  Calmet,  Poole's  Synopsis,  and  Dr  A.  Clarke. — En 
 
 a  Josephus  relates  this  story  with  a  good  deal  of  variation 
 from  the  sacred  history  ■ — That  the  Levitc's  wife  was  not  a  lewd 
 woman,  but  one  who  did  not  well  agree  with  her  husband,  for 
 which  reason  she  left  him,  and  went  to  her  father;  that  the  young 
 men  of  Gibeah,  seeing  her  to  be  a  very  beautiful  woman,  took 
 notice  of  the  house  where  she  went  in,  and  came  and  demanded 
 her,  and  not  the  Levite  himself,  as  the  Scripture  has  it;  that  the 
 Levite  did  not  turn  her  out,  but  that  the  young  men  took  her  by 
 force,  and  carried  her  to  their  own  quarters,  where  they  spent 
 the  whole  night  in  all  manner  of  bestial  liberties,  and  then  sent 
 her  hack  again  next  morning;  that  upon  her  return,  she  fell  into 
 such  a  confusion  of  thought,  for  what  had  befallen  her  that  night, 
 that,  what  between  shame  and  indignation,  she  sank  down  upon 
 the  ground,  and  expired;  that  the  Israelites  met  in  convention, 
 sent  to  the  Benjamites  to  deliver  up  the  malefactors,  who  had 
 committed  this  brutal  violence  upon  the  Lcvite's  wife,  which  they 
 refused  to  do,  as  thinking  it  dishonourable,  for  fear  of  a  war,  to  sub- 
 mit to  rules  of  other  people's  prescribing,  &c — Josephus,  b.  5.  c.  2. 
 
 b  Gibeah  lay  north  of  Jerusalem,  about  twenty  or  thirty  fur- 
 longs from  it,  and  was  built  upon  a  hill,  as  its  name  imports. — 
 Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  W. 
 
 of  Sodom,  they  might  know  him.  It  was  vain  to  use 
 entreaties  to  so  rude  a  rabble.  The  good  old  man 
 offered  them  his  own  daughter  who  was  a  virgin  ;  and, 
 at  length,  by  consent  the  Levite's  wife  was  turned  out 
 among  them.  They  abused  her  all  that  night ;  and  the 
 next  morning,  she  was  found  dead  at  the  threshold,  which 
 enraged  her  husband  to  such  a  degree,  that  taking  her 
 home  with  him,  he  cut  her  dead  body  into  twelve  parts 
 and  sent  one  to  every  tribe,  with  an  account  of  the  in- 
 hospitable treatment  he  met  with  at  Gibeah  ;  that  so  in 
 a  general  assembly  of  Israel,  it  might  be  resolved,  what 
 method  of  revenge  it  was  proper  to  take  upon  this  dis- 
 mal occasions 
 
 The  assembly  agreed,  that  never  so  inhuman  an  act 
 had  been  known  in  Israel  since  the  time  they  left  Egypt ; 
 and  thereupon  came  to  a  resolution  to  bring  the  offenders 
 to  condign  punishment,  and  in  order  to  that,  sent  mes- 
 sengers to  them  demanding  the  men  that  had  committed 
 this  outrage  ;  but  they  refused  to  deliver  them,  and  in 
 order  to  defend  the  criminals,  mustered  up  all  their 
 forces.  The  army  of  the  Benjamites  consisted  but  of 
 six  and  twenty  thousand,  whereas  that  of  all  Israel 
 amounted  to  four  hundred  thousand  men  ;  and  yet,  in 
 two  several  engagements,  the  Benjamites  had  the  better 
 of  them  ;  for  in  the  former,  they  killed  them  twenty-two 
 thousand,  and  in  the  latter  eighteen  thousand  men.  But 
 the  misconduct  of  the  Israelites  upon  this  occasion  was, 
 that  being  too  confident  of  the  goodness  of  their  cause, 
 
 c  Judg.  xix.  29.  '  And  when  he  was  come  into  his  house, 
 he  took  a  knife,  and  laid  hold  on  his  concubine,  and  divided  her, 
 together  with  her  bones,  into  twelve  pieces,  and  sent  her  into  all 
 the  coasts  of  Israel.'  Interpreters  say  but  little  concerning  the 
 real  views  of  the  Levite  in  this  transaction :  they  merely  inti- 
 mate, that  it  was  done  to  excite  a  general  indignation  against 
 the  authors  of  the  injury  he  had  sustained.  His  motives  certain- 
 ly were  good  and  regular.  He  intended  to  unite  the  whole 
 nation  in  vengeance  against  a  crime,  in  which  it  was  interested: 
 but  as  they  might  be  checked  in  the  extent  of  the  punishment  by 
 the  number,  the  credit,  and  the  power  of  the  offenders;  by  the 
 natural  commiseration  which  is  felt  for  those  who  are  of  the 
 same  blood;  or  by  an  aversion  to  involve  the  city  in  destruction; 
 he  sought  and  seized  a  method  which  put  them  to  the  indispen- 
 sable necessity  of  espousing  his  cause.  The  only  part  which  he 
 had  to  take  was,  to  cut  in  pieces  the  body  of  his  wife,  which  In; 
 did,  or  else  that  of  an  ox,  or  other  like  animal,  which  had  either 
 been  devoted,  or  offered  in  sacrifice,  and  to  send  a  part  of  it  to 
 each  tribe.  In  consequence  of  this,  every  tribe  entered  into  an 
 indissoluble  engagement  to  see  justice  done  him  for  the  injury  lie 
 had  received.  This  is  what  the  interpreters  of  Scripture  seem 
 not  to  have  known,  and  which  it  is  necessary  to  explain. 
 
 The  ancients  had  several  ways  of  uniting  themselves  together 
 by  strict  ties,  which  lasted  for  a  stipulated  time:  amOngst  these 
 may  be  noticed  the  sacrifice  of  Abraham,  the  circumstances  of 
 which  are  mentioned,  Gen.  xv.  9,  &C.  Another  method  was, 
 to  take  a  bullock  offered  or  devoted  in  sacrifice,  Cut  it  in  pieces 
 and  distribute  it.  All  who  had  a  piece  of  this  devoted  bullock 
 were  thenceforward  connected,  and  were  to  concur  in  carrying  mi 
 the  affair  which  had  given  occasion  for  the  sacrifice;  but  as  this 
 devoting  and  dividing  was  variously  practised,  it  also  produced 
 different  engagements.  If  he  who  was  at  the  expense  of  the 
 sacrifice,  were  a  public  person,  or  in  lii",li  office,  he  sent  of  his 
 own  accord  a  piece  of  the  victim  to  all  who  were  subject  to  him; 
 and  by  this  act  obliged  them  to  enter  into  his  views.  If  the 
 sacrifice  were  offered  by  a  private  person,  those  only  who  volun- 
 tarily took  a  piece  of  the  sacrifice,  entered  into  a  strict  engage- 
 ment to  espouse  his  interest. 
 
 These  circumstances,  compared  with  the  account  given  of  the 
 Levite's  conduct,  and  the  subsequent  behaviour  of  the  tribes. 
 clearly  point  out,  that  the  method  used  hy  the  Levite  to  obtain 
 redress,  was  consistent  with  the  established  usages  of  tin-  times, 
 and  effected  the  retribution  he  desired  to  see  accomplished. — 
 Bur  dor's  Orient.  Custom*,  vol.  1.  p.  182. — En. 
 
400 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2.-)Gl.  A.  C.  1 143;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3849.  A.  C.  1564.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 and  the  superiority  of  their  numbers,  wherf  they  went  to 
 consult  God,  they  only  inquired  of  him  which  of  the 
 tribes  should  lead  the  van,  without  placing  their  confi- 
 dence in  him,  or  depending-  upon  his  assistance  for  suc- 
 cess, which  these  repeated  defeats  brought  to  their 
 remembrance ;  and  therefore,  before  the  third  engage- 
 ment, they  humbled  themselves  in  a  proper  manner 
 before  God,  and  from  his  encouragement,  attacked  the 
 Benjamites  once  more.  But  to  make  their  victory  the 
 more  secure,  they  laid  an  ambuscade  behind  the  city, 
 which,  while  they  pretended  to  fly,  entered  it,  and  set  it 
 on  fire ;  whereupon  the  main  body  of  the  Israelitish 
 army  faced  about,  and  charged  so  furiously  upon  the 
 Benjamites,  that  they  slew  five  and  twenty  thousand  of 
 them,  set  fire  to  their  city,  and  destroyed  all  that  belonged 
 to  them.  It  so  happened,  however,  that  six  hundred  of 
 them,  which  were  all  that  remained  of  the  tribe,  made 
 their  escape  into  the  wilderness,  and  sheltered  themselves 
 in  the  fortress  of  Rimmon. 
 
 When  the  heat  of  the  action  was  over,  and  the  Israel- 
 ites began  to  reflect  coolly  on  what  they  had  done,  they 
 were  grieved  not  a  little  ;  and  that  the  rather,  because  at 
 the  beginning  of  this  war,  they  had  all  taken  a  rash  oath 
 not  to  marry  their  daughters  to  any  of  the  Benjamites  : 
 so  that  how  to  recruit  the  tribe  they  could  not  tell,  until 
 they  bethought  themselves  of  these  two  expedients. 
 When  the  war  first  broke  out,  they  had  bound  themselves 
 by  oath,  to  put  all  to  the  sword  who  would  not  join  them 
 in  the  common  cause  against  the  Benjamites ;  and  find- 
 ing by  their  muster-roll,  that  the  people  of  Jabesh-Gilead 
 had  neglected  to  come,  they  despatched  twelve  thousand 
 men,  with  orders  to  put  man,  woman,  and  child  to  the 
 sword,  except  such  virgins  as  Avere  marriageable,  whom 
 they  intended  to  give  to  the  Benjamites  for  wives.  For 
 by  this  time  the  Benjamites  were  reconciled  to  the  rest 
 of  the  people,  had  left  their  stronghold,  and  were  come 
 into  the  camp  ;  so  that  when  the  men  returned  from  the 
 slaughter  of  the  Gileadites,  they  brought  four  hundred 
 virgins  along  with  them,  which  were  immediately  given 
 to  the  Benjamites ;  but  as  the  Benjamites  were  six 
 hundred  in  number,  there  was  not  for  every  man  one,  and 
 therefore  they  betook  themselves  to  another  expedient. 
 
 Once  every  year,  a  there  was  a  festival  kept  at  Shiloh, 
 whither  the  young  women  of  the  country  used  constantly 
 
 a  All  the  three  great  festivals  were  to  be  observed  in  the  place 
 where  God  settled  his  habitation,  which  was  now  at  Shiloh; 
 and  therefore  some  are  of  opinion,  that  the  feast  here  mentioned 
 was  one  of  these  ;  particularly  they  think  it  was  the  feast  of  taber- 
 nacles, because  this  was  a  season  of  great  joy,  for  having  newly 
 gathered  their  vintage,  and  the  only  season  wherein  the  Jewish 
 virgins  were  allowed  to  dance.  At  this  time  they  dwelt  in  booths 
 too,  behind  which  the  Benjamites,  as  they  fancy,  might  very 
 conveniently  conceal  themselves,  and  so  watch  an  opportunity  of 
 carrying  away  the  virgins:  but  what  seems  to  make  against  this 
 opinion  is,  that  at  any  of  these  public  festivals,  the  concourse  of 
 people  would  have  been  too  great  for  a  design  of  this  nature  to  be 
 put  in  execution,  since  the  violence  which  must  of  course  have 
 been  offered  to  the  young  women  would  hardly  have  met  with  a 
 general  connivance.  It  is  much  more  probable,  therefore,  that 
 this  was  some  festival  peculiar  to  the  people  of  Shiloh,  which  the 
 Benjamites  perhaps  might  know  nothing  of,  and  were  therefore 
 put  in  mind  of  it  by  '  the  elders  of  the  congregation.'  Josephus 
 tells  us  that  it  was  celebrated  thrice  every  year:  and  on  this 
 festival  it  might  be  a  custom  for  the  young  women  to  go  out  into 
 the  fields,  and  there  dance  by  themselves,  which  might  give  their 
 ravishers  the  very  opportunity  they  wanted. — Le  Clerc's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 to  come  and  dance.  The  Israelites  therefore  suggested 
 to  the  Benjamites,  that  as  many  as  wanted  wives  might 
 at  this  time  repair  to  the  place,  and  concealing  them- 
 selves in  the  vineyards,  seize  upon  the  young  women  as 
 they  came  out  adancing,  and  carry  them  oft'  to  their 
 own  habitations.  The  Benjamites  accordingly  pursued 
 their  instructions  ;  and,  watching  their  opportunity,  took 
 every  one  his  damsel  away  with  him :  so  that,  having  by 
 this  means  got  themselves  wives,  they  settled  again  in 
 their  own  country,  and  began  by  degrees  to  recruit  their 
 tribe. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Othniel,  the  Israelites  again  revolted 
 from  the  service  of  God,  and  God,  to  chastise  them  for 
 it,  suffered  Eglon,  king  of  Moab,  to  subdue  them ;  so 
 that,  for  eighteen  years  together,  they  were  forced  to  be 
 tributary  to  him.  But  upon  their  humiliation  and  repent- 
 j  ance,  he  raised  them  up  a  man,  even  out  of  the  dimi- 
 ]  nished  tribe  of  Benjamin,  who  wrought  their  deliverance, 
 but  in  a  method  no  ways  to  be  justified,  under  a  less 
 supposition  than  that  he  had  a  divine  commission  for  so 
 doing. 
 
 Every  year  it  was  customary  for  the  Israelites  to  send 
 a  present  or  tribute  to  the  king-  of  Moab,  and  for  that 
 year  Ehud,  the  son  of  Gera,  was  appointed  to  go  with  it. 
 He  was  a  left-handed  man  ;  and  having  a  design  either 
 to  free  his  country  from  this  oppression,  or  perish  in  the 
 attempt,  he  had  for  this  purpose  provided  himself  with  a 
 poniard,  which  he  concealed  on  his  right  side.  After  he 
 had  delivered  the  present,  pretending  he  had  something 
 of  great  importance  to  communicate  to  the  king,  he 
 obtained  a  private  audience  of  him,  when,  taking  his 
 opportunity,  he  stabbed  him  with  the  poniard  to  the 
 heart,  and  so  shutting  the  door  after  him,  had  time  to 
 make  his  escape.  For  as  the  king  was  a  very  corpulent 
 man,  his  attendants  supposed  that  he  was  either  reposing 
 or  easing  himself,  and  therefore  forbore  to  enter  into 
 his  apartment  until  Ehud  was  quite  gone.  As  soon  as  he 
 came  to  Mount  Ephraim,  he  gathered  together  the  Israel- 
 ites that  lay  nearest  him  ;  acquainted  them  with  what  he 
 had  done  ;  and  then  securing  the  fords  of  Jordan,  that 
 none  of  them  might  escape,  he  fell  upon  the  Moabites, 
 and  destroyed  them  all  ;  so  that,  after  this  conquest,  the 
 eastern  part  of  the  land  of  Canaan  enjoyed  a  settled 
 peace  '  for  the  space  of  fourscore  years. 
 
 b  There  are  two  ways  wherein  '  the  land,'  as  it  is  in  the  text, 
 may  be  said  to  have  '  had  rest  fourscore  years.'  If  by  the  '  laud,' 
 we  understand  the  whole  kingdom  of  Israel,  the  meaning  must 
 be,  that  it  rested  about  fourscore  years,  or  the  greatest  part  of 
 fourscore  years.  Because  it  is  a  very  common  thing  in  Scrip- 
 ture to  use  numbers  in  this  latitude,  and  instead  of  a  minute 
 computation,  to  make  mention  of  the  round  sum.  Thus  the 
 Israelites  are  said  '  to  bear  their  iniquities  forty  years  in  the 
 wilderness,  (Num.  xiv.  33.)  when  there  wanted  almost  two  years 
 of  that  number;  and  to  'dwell  in  Egypt  four  hundred  and 
 thirty;'  when,  strictly  speaking,  there  wanted  several  of  it:  and  in 
 like  manner,  the  land  is  here  said  '  to  have  had  rest  fourscore  years,' 
 when  it  is  declared  at  the  same  time,  that  the  people  served  the 
 king  of  Moab  eighteen  of  them  ;  nor  is  it  any  uncommon  thing  in 
 other  authors,  as  well  as  the  sacred,  to  use  this  form  of  expression. 
 But,  2dly,  if  by  the  land,  we  understand  only  such  or  such  a  part 
 of  it,  the  solution  is  easy.  For  it  is  but  supposing  that  there  were 
 scarce  any  of  the  judges  who  ruled  over  the  wholecountry  of  Israel, 
 but  some  in  one  part,  and  some  in  another ;  so  that,  at  the  same 
 time,  there  were  several  judges  in  the  land,  and  peace  in  one 
 part,  when  there  was  war  in  another;  and  then  we  may,  with 
 the  learned  Sir  John  Marsham,  understand  here,  by  '  the  land 
 which  had  rest  fourscore  years,'  not  the  whole  laud  of  Israel,  but 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &rc. 
 
 401 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3849.  A.  C.  1564.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 But  though  the  eastern  coast  was  at  rest,  yet  the  west 
 part  of  the  kingdom  was  sadly  molested  by  the  incur- 
 sions of  the  Philistines,  who  dwelt  upon  the  same  shore 
 of  the  Mediterranean  sea.  Upon  this  occasion,  a  Sham- 
 gar,  the  son  of  Anath,  asserted  the  cause  of  Israel ;  and 
 having  received  extraordinary  vigour  from  above,  with 
 no  better  weapon  than  an  ox-goad, b  slew,  at  divers 
 times,  six  hundred  of  these  invaders,  and  preserved  the 
 peace  of  the  country  for  eight  years. 
 
 In  the  north  part  of  the  country,  however,  the  idola- 
 try, which  Micah  began,  propagated  apace  ;  so  that  God 
 being  highly  incensed  at  the  people's  impieties,  per- 
 
 the  eastern  part  of  it  only,  which  had  shaken  off  the  yoke  of 
 Moab,  while,  in  the  mean  time,  the  Philistines  invaded  the 
 western  parts,  even  as  Jabin  afflicted  the  northern,  as  we  may 
 see  in  the  following  chapter. — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 a  Of  what  tribe  this  valiant  person  was,  we  are  nowhere  in- 
 formed ;  but  it  is  not  unlikely,  that  he  was  one  of  those  tribes 
 which  bordered  upon  the  Philistines,  Judah,  Dan,  or  Ephraim, 
 because  what  he  did  was  against  them.  It  is  disputed  by  some, 
 whether  he  is  to  be  reckoned  among  the  number  of  the  judges; 
 but  for  this,  1  think,  there  is  no  foundation.  The  short  account 
 which  the  Scripture  gives  of  him,  is  this: — 'And  after  him,' 
 that  is,  after  Ehud,  '  was  Shamgar,  the  son  of  Anath,  which 
 slew  of  the  Philistines  six  hundred  men  with  an  ox-goad,  and 
 also  delivered  Israel.'  (Judges  iii.  31.)  After  Ehud  was  Sham- 
 gar,  that  is,  he  succeeded  him  in  the  office  of  a  judge,  for  this  is 
 the  natural  sense  of  the  words;  and  'he  also  delivered  Israel,' 
 which  is  the  very  phrase  whereby  the  judges  are  described.  It 
 is  not  said,  indeed,  from  what  oppressions  he  delivered  them; 
 but  he  is  a  deliverer  who  preserves  a  nation  from  being  oppressed, 
 as  well  as  he  who  rescues  them  from  an  oppression  when  they 
 groan  under  it.  This,  in  all  probability,  was  Shamgar's  case, 
 who,  when  the  Philistines  invaded  his  country,  gave  them  a  re- 
 pulse, with  the  loss  of  COO  of  their  men,  which  was  enough  to 
 discourage  them  from  all  future  attempts.  And  indeed,  the 
 great  slaughter  which  he  made  among  them,  with  a  weapon,  in 
 all  appearance,  so  incompetent  for  the  work,  argues  him  to  have 
 been  a  judge,  and  possessed  of  a  divine  power,  as  much  as  Sam- 
 son was,  who  slew  1000  of  his  enemies  '  with  the  jaw-bone  of 
 an  ass.'  (Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries.) — Dr  Hales 
 supposes  Shamgar's  administration  in  the  west  to  be  included  in 
 Ehud's  administration  of  80  years  in  the  east ;  and  as  Shamgar's 
 administration  might  have  been  of  some  continuance,  so  this  ser- 
 vitude of  the  Philistines,  which  is  not  noticed  elsewhere,  might 
 have  been  of  the  same  duration,  as  may  be  incidentally  collected 
 from  Deborah's  thanksgivings Ed. 
 
 b  Judges  iii.  31.  '  And  after  him  was  Shamgar,  the  son  of 
 Anath,  which  slew  of  the  Philistines  six  hundred  men  with  an 
 ox-goad.'  Mr  Maundrell,  (Journey,  at  April  15,)  has  an  obser- 
 vation which  at  once  explains  this  transaction,  and  removes 
 every  difficulty  from  the  passage.  He  says,  "  The  country 
 people  were  now  every  where  at  plough  in  the  fields,  in  order  to 
 sow  cotton.  It  was  observable,  that  in  ploughing  they  used 
 goads  of  an  extraordinary  size;  upon  measuring  of  several,  I 
 found  them  about  eight  feet  long,  and  at  the  bigger  end,  six 
 inches  in  circumference.  They  were  armed  at  the  lesser  end 
 with  a  sharp  prickle  for  driving  the  oxen,  and  at  the  other  end 
 with  a  small  spade,  or  paddle  of  iron,  strong  and  massy,  for 
 cleansing  the  plough  from  the  clay  that  encumbers  it  in  working. 
 May  we  not  from  hence  conjecture,  that  it  was  with  such  a  goad 
 as  one  of  these  that  Shamgar  made  that  prodigious  slaughter 
 related  of  him,  Judges  iii.  21.  I  am  confident  that  whoever 
 should  see  one  of  these  instruments,  would  judge  it  to  be  a 
 weapon  not  less  fit,  perhaps  fitter,  than  a  sword  for  such  an 
 execution.  Goads  of  this  sort  1  saw  always  used  hereabouts, 
 and  also  in  Syria;  and  the  reason  is,  because  the  same  single 
 person  both  drives  the  oxen,  and  also  holds  and  manages  the 
 plough ;  which  makes  it  necessaiy  to  use  such  a  goad  as  is  above 
 described,  to  avoid  the  incumbrance  of  two  instiuments." 
 
 From  Homer,  (Iliad  vi.  line  130,  &c.)  it  should  seem  that,  the 
 ox-goads  used  in  his  time  and  country  were  of  a  similar  kind  ; 
 since  he  there  describes  the  votaries  of  Bacchus  as  pursued  and 
 slaiu  by  Lycurgus  with  an  ox-goad. — Ed. 
 
 mitted  Jabin,  who,  at  that  time,  assumed  the  title  of  king 
 of  Canaan,  and  c  had  fixed  his  imperial  seat  at  Hazor, 
 to  oppress  them  with  great  severity  for  forty  years. 
 This  prince  had  made  Sisera,  d  an  experienced  soldier 
 no  doubt,  general  of  his  forces,  wherein,  besides  great 
 store  of  other  military  munition,  there  were  900  armed 
 chariots,  which  terrified  the  Israelites  to  such  a  degree, 
 that  e  several  tribes,  1  despairing  of  relief,  sat  still  under 
 their  oppression,  and  some  of  them  were  going*  to  trans- 
 port themselves  into  other  countries.  For  their  enemies 
 were  so  very  cruel  to  them,  that  they  durst  not  travel  the 
 common  roads,  nor  dwell  in  villages,  for  fear  of  being 
 murdered  or  plundered ;  and  having  no  arms  left  to 
 defend  themselves,  they  were  forced  to  retire  to  fortified 
 places,  and  there  live  together,  in  the  utmost  conster- 
 nation. 
 
 In  the  midst  of  this  distress,  /  Deborah,  the  prophetess, 
 
 '  Judges  v.  15,  16. 
 
 2  Judges  viiii  17. 
 
 c  It  is  very  certain  that  Jo;hua  burnt  the  city  Hazor,  and 
 slew  the  king  thereof,  whose  name  in  like  manner  was  Jabin, 
 which  might  possibly  be  the  common  name  to  all  the  kings  of 
 the  country,  as  those  of  Egypt  were  called  Pharaoh.  But  it 
 seems  not  improbable,  that  this  Hazor  might  be  retaken,  and 
 rebuilt  by  its  ancient  inhabitants,  and  this  king  mijffit  be  a 
 descendant  of  the  other.  Some,  indeed,  interpret  the  words 
 thus:  That  this  Jabin  was  king  of  that  part  of  Canaan  which  lay 
 in  the  country  where  Hazor  formerly  stood,  and  whose  seat  then 
 was  at  Harosheth  of  the  Gentiles;  for  they  understand  this  place 
 to  be  mentioned  in  the  text,  as  the  dwelling-place,  not  of  Sisera, 
 but  of  Jabin  himself,  whose  general  Sisera  was.  But  there  is  no 
 reason  for  this  inversion  of  the  order  of  the  words,  since  the 
 Canaanites  might,  between  the  time  of  Joshua  and  Deborah, 
 find  frequent  opportunities,  considering  the  corruption  and  idle- 
 ness of  the  Israelites,  to  re-establish  their  ancient  kingdom  in 
 these  parts,  to  rebuild  their  former  capital,  and  to  set  up  one  of 
 the  old  royal  line  to  be  their  king ;  who,  according  to  the  common 
 usages  of  those  ages,  retained  one  and  the  same  name  with  his 
 predecessors. —  /fells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 c.  (5. 
 
 d  This  Sisera,  as  Josephus  informs  us,  was  a  very  great 
 favourite  of  the  king,  for  the  services  he  had  done  in  reducing 
 the  Israelites,  whom  he  worsted  upon  several  encounters,  time 
 after  time,  and  would  never  give  over  the  pursuit,  till  he  brought 
 them  at  last  to  be  absolute  slaves,  and  tributaries  to  his  master. 
 — Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  6. 
 
 e  This  is  the  sense  of  those  obscure  passages  in  the  song  of 
 Deborah :  '  For  the  divisions  of  Reuben  there  were  great 
 thoughts  of  heart.  Why  abodest  thou  among  the  sheepfolds,  to 
 hear  the  bleatings  of  the  flocks  ?  Gilead  abode  beyond  Jordan, 
 and  why  did  Dan  remain  in  ships  ?  Asher  continued  on  the 
 sea  shore,  and  abode  in  his  creeks,'  &c.  (Judges  v.  15,  &c.) 
 
 f  The  words  prophet  and  prophetess,  are  of  very  ambiguous 
 signification  in  both  Testaments  :  sometimes  they  denote  persons 
 extraordinarily  inspired  by  God,  and  endued  with  the  power  of 
 working  miracles,  and  foretelling  things  to  some  ;  and  sometimes 
 they  are  used  for  persons  endued  with  special,  though  not  mira- 
 culous gifts  or  graces,  for  the  better  understanding  and  explaining 
 the  word  of  God ;  and  of  this  sort  were  the  sons  of  the  prophets, 
 or  such  as  were  brought  up  in  the  schools  of  the  prophets.  As, 
 therefore,  we  read  nothing  of  any  miraculous  action  that  Deborah 
 did,  she  perhaps  was  only  a  woman  of  eminent  holiness,  and 
 prudence,  and  knowledge  of  the  holy  Scripture,  by  which  she 
 was  singularly  qualified  to  judge  the  people,  that  is,  to  determine 
 causes  and  controversies  among  them,  according  to  the  won! 
 of  God.  For  though  Jabin  oppressed  them  sorely,  yet  it  was 
 lather  by  rigorous  taxations,  than  infringing  their  laws,  which 
 he  still  suffered  to  be  administered  by  their  own  officers:  and  of 
 this  he  might  take  the  less  notice,  because  the  supreme  judicature 
 was  exercised  by  a  woman,  from  whose  power  and  authority  he 
 thought  there  was  no  reason  to  apprehend  any  danger;  though 
 this  certainly  gave  her  an  opportunity  of  endearing  herself  to  the 
 people,  and  made  lit  r,  by  this  means,  the  fitter  an  instrument 
 to  rescue  them  from  oppression. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 3e 
 
402 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2361.   A.  C.   1143;  OK,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 a  woman  of  great  eminence,  and  who,  for  some  time 
 had  administered  justice  to  the  neighbouring  tribes,  sent 
 to  Barak,  the  son  of  Abinoam,  a  message  from  God, 
 that  he  should  get  together  10,000  men  of  the  tribes  of 
 Zebulun  and  Naphtali,  and  march  them  to  a  Mount 
 Tabor,  whither  Sisera,  with  all  his  numerous  army, 
 coming  to  give  him  battle,  should  infallibly  be  routed. 
 Barak  readily  agreed  to  the  motion,  upon  condition  that 
 the  prophetess  would  go  with  him  :  and  so  having  mus- 
 tered up  all  his  complement  of  forces,  they  both  went 
 together,  and  posted  themselves  upon  Mount  Tabor. 
 Sisera  had  soon  intelligence  of  this,  and,  getting  a 
 powerful  army  together,  he  made  hasty  marches  from 
 6  Harosheth  ;  passed  the  °  river  Kishon  ;  and  encamped 
 
 a  Tabor  is  a  very  remarkable  mountain  in  Galilee,  not  far 
 from  Kadesh,  in  the  tribe  of  Zebulun,  and  in  the  confines  of  Issa- 
 char  and  Naphtali.  It  has  its  name  from  its  eminence,  because 
 it  rises  up  in  the  midst  of  a  wide  champaign  country,  called  '  the 
 valley  of  Jezreel,'  or  '  the  great  plain'  (Esdraelon),  two  leagues 
 south-east  of  Nazareth.  Josephus  tells  us,  that  the  height  of  this 
 mountain  is  thirty  stadia,  and  that  on  the  top  of  it,  there  is  a 
 •beautiful  plain  of  twenty  stadia  in  circumference. — [According 
 to  the  statements  of  Burckhardt  and  Buckingham,  it  appears 
 to  be  1400  or  1500  feet  high,  and  is  represented  as  entirely  cal- 
 careous. Dr  Richardson  describes  it  as  a  dark-looking,  insulated, 
 conical  mountain,  rising  like  a  tower  to  a  considerable  height 
 above  those  around  it. — Ed.] 
 
 By  all  which  it  appears  how  commodious  a  place  this  mountain 
 was,  to  be  the  rendezvous  of  Barak's  forces,  since  it  stood  upon 
 the  confines  of  so  many  different  tribes,  was  not  accessible  by  the 
 enemies'  horses  and  chariots,  and  had,  on  the  top  of  it,  a  spacious 
 plain,  where  he  might  conveniently  marshal  and  discipline  his 
 army.  What  modern  travellers  tell  us  of  this  mountain  is  much 
 to  the  same  purpose  : — "  After  a  very  laborious  ascent,"  says  Mr 
 Maundrell,  "  we  reached  the  highest  part  of  the  mountain,  which 
 has  a  plain  area  at  top,  fertile  and  delicious,  and  of  an  oval  figure, 
 about  one  furlong  in  breadth,  and  two  in  length.  This  area  is 
 enclosed  with  trees  on  all  parts,  except  towards  the  south,  and 
 from  hence  you  have  a  prospect,  which  (if  nothing  else)  well 
 rewards  the  labour  of  ascending  it;  for  it  is  impossible  for  the  eyes 
 of  man  to  behold  any  greater  gratification  of  tlus  nature.  The 
 top  of  this  mountain  was  anciently  environed  with  walls  and 
 trenches,  and  other  fortifications,  of  which  some  remains  are  still 
 visible;  and,  for  many  ages,  it  has  been  believed  that  here  it  was 
 that  our  blessed  Saviour  was  transfigured,  in  the  presence  of  his 
 three  apostles,  Peter,  James,  and  John,  though  some  late  writers 
 have  made  a  doubt  of  it. — Calmet's  Commentary,  Poole's  Anno- 
 tations, and  Maundrell's  Journey  from,  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem. 
 
 b  A  place  situate  upon  the  lake  Semechon,  in  the  Upper  Gali- 
 lee, and  is  in  Scripture  called  '  Harosheth  of  the  Gentiles,' 
 because  the  people  of  several  nations  fled  thither  to  be  under 
 Jabin's  protection,  when  they  heard  that  he  had  possessed  him- 
 self of  that  country,  and  kept  the  Israelites  out  of  it.  —  Wells' 
 Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
 c  This  river  rises  up  out  of  Mount  Tabor,  and  passing  along 
 the  valley  of  Jezreel,  now  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  empties  itself 
 into  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Some  geographers  will  needs  have 
 it,  that  this  river  runs  two  ways,  partly  westward  into  the  Medi- 
 terranean, and  partly  eastward,  into  the  Sea  of  Galilee ;  but  this 
 is  a  thing  incredible,  and  what  is  known  of  no  other  river  in  the 
 world ;  and  therefore,  if  there  be  any  thing  in  it,  tiie  matter  must 
 be  this, — that,  from  Mount  Tabor,  as  it  happens  from  many  other 
 hills,  there  flow  waters  out  of  its  two  sides,  some  shaping  their 
 course  westward,  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  others  eastward, 
 into  the  Sea  of  Galilee:  so  that  there  are  two  spring  heads,  and 
 two  distinct  rivers,  though  both  arising  from  the  same  mountain, 
 and  perhaps  both  called  by  the  same  name.  But  whatever  becomes 
 of  the  river  that  runs  eastward,  it  is  plain,  from  another  passage, 
 that  the  Kishoa  which  is  mentioned  in  Scripture,  ran  westward 
 into  the  Mediterranean  sea ;  for  when  Elijah  had  convinced  the 
 people  assembled  together  at  Mount  Carmel,  that  Baal  was  not 
 the  true  God,  he  enjoined  them  to  seize  all  his  priests,  and  to 
 bring  them  down  to  the  brook  Kishon,  there  to  he  slain  (1  Kings 
 xviii.)     So  that  the  brook   Kishon,  which  rises  out  of  Mount 
 
 A.  M.  3985.  A.  C.  I42G.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH, 
 at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  in  hopes  of  cutting  ofi'Barak1s 
 retreat.  Upon  this  Deborah  advised  Barak  not  to  stay 
 till  Sisera  came  up  to  him,  but  early  next  morning,  to 
 march  directly  down,  and  fall  upon  him,  with  all  the 
 assurance  imaginable  of  success.  The  Hebrew  general 
 followed  her  directions  ;  and  coming  down  upon  the 
 enemy  before  they  were  aware,  he  charged  them  with 
 such  fury,  d  whilst  God,  at  the  same  time,  by  a  driving 
 storm  of  rain  and  hail  in  their  faces,  struck  with  such 
 terror,  that  they  were  not  able  to  stand  before  the 
 Israelites,  but  were  soon  broken,  and  put  to  flight.  The 
 pursuit,  however,  continued  all  day  ;  and  as  the  night 
 approached,  the  stars  shone  with  an  uncommon  bright- 
 ness, to  give  light  to  the  pursuers  ;  and  the  river  Kishon, 
 e  being  swelled  with  the  hasty  rain,  drowned  the  pursued, 
 and  carried  the  dead  bodies  away  towards  the  Mediter- 
 ranean sea. 
 
 Sisera,  in  the  mean  time,  seeing  his  whole  army 
 broken  and  dispersed,  quitted  his  chariots,  and  was  mak- 
 ing his  escape  on  foot,  when  Jael,  the  wife  /  of  Heber 
 
 Tabor,  must  run  by  Mount  Carmel,  which  stands  on  the  sea- 
 shore: and  as  Carmel  stands  west  of  Mount  Tabor,  the  course  of 
 this  river,  which  extends  from  the  one  to  the  other,  must  be  so 
 likewise. — Wells'1  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2.  c.  6. 
 
 [After  a  course  of  thirty  miles  it  falls  into  the  Mediterranean 
 at  a  place  called  Caipha,  in  a  gulf  formed  by  Mount  Carmel  and 
 the  Point  of  Acre.  Near  the  mouth  of  this  river,  in  the  same 
 gulf,  another  smaller  stream  discharges  itself,  which  was  called 
 by  the  ancients  Belus,  and  was  celebrated  for  its  sands,  which 
 were  used  in  making  glass.  It  is  at  present  called  Nahr  Haloro.] 
 —Ed. 
 
 d  Josephus  relates  the  matter  of  God's  interposition  in  this 
 action  in  the  following  words: — "  The  armies  were  no  sooner 
 engaged,  but  there  arose  a  violent  wind,  with  a  most  impetuous 
 tempest  of  hail  and  rain  along  with  it.  The  storm,  driving  just 
 in  the  face  of  the  Canaanites,  made  not  only  their  bows  and 
 slings  useless,  but  their  weapons  likewise  designed  for  close  fight ; 
 for  they  could  not  so  much  as  open  their  eyes  against  the  weather ; 
 and  their  fingers  were  so  benumbed  with  cold,  too,  that  they 
 could  not  handle  their  arms.  In  the  conclusion,  it  came  to  pass, 
 that  the  Canaanites'  army  was  broken,  dispersed,  and  cut  to 
 pieces :  so  that  betwixt  those  that  fell  by  the  sword,  and  those 
 that  were  trampled  to  death  under  the  horses'  feet,  those  that 
 were  torn  to  pieces  by  the  chariots,  and  those  that  fled  away, 
 and  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Israelites  in  their  flight,  this  pro- 
 digious army,  which,  according  to  our  author,  consisted  of  thirty 
 thousand  foot,  ten  thousand  horse,  and  three  thousand  armed 
 chariots,  was,  in  effect,  totally  destroyed." — Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  6. 
 
 e  Mr  Maundrell  tells  us,  that  in  the  condition  wherein  he  saw 
 this  river,  its  waters  were  low  and  inconsiderable ;  but  in  passing 
 along  the  side  of  the  plain,  he  discerned  the  tracts  of  many  lesser 
 torrents  falling  down  into  it  from  the  mountains,  which  must 
 needs  make  it  swell  exceedingly  upon  sudden  rains. — Journey 
 from  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem. 
 
 f  He  was  of  the  posterity  of  Hobab,  the  son  of  Jethro,  father- 
 in-law  of  Moses,  and  is  here  called  a  Kenite,  because  originally 
 he  descended  from  those  people  who  dwelt  westward  of  the  Dead 
 Sea,  and  extended  themselves  pretty  far  into  Arabia  Petrsea. 
 The  word  Ken,  from  whence  they  took  their  name,  signifies  a 
 nest,  a  hole,  or  a  cave ;  and  to  this  the  prophet  might  allude, 
 when  he  addresses  himself  to  them  in  these  words:  '  Strong  is 
 thy  dwelling  place,  and  thou  puttest  thy  nest  on  a  rock:  never- 
 theless the  Kenite  shall  be  wasted,  until  Ashur  shall  cany 
 thee  away  captive,  Num.  xxiv.  21.  These  Kenites,  indeed, 
 were  some  of  the  people  whose  lands  God  had  promised  to 
 the  descendants  of  Abraham;  nevertheless,  in  consideration 
 of  Jethro,  all  that  submitted  to  the  Israelites  were  permitted 
 to  live  in  their  own  country.  In  Num.  x.  29,  we  find  that 
 Hobab  was  invited  by  Moses  to  accompany  him  into  the  land 
 of  Canaan,  and,  in  all  probability,  he  accepted  the  invita- 
 tion. At  their  first  coming,  they  settled  themselves  in 
 the  territories  of  Jericho;  but  having  contracted  a  particular 
 friendship  with  the  tribe  of  Judah,  they  removed  with  them  into 
 
Shct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 403 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 the  Kenite,  seeing  him  coming,  went  to  meet  him,  and 
 invited  him  into  her  tent ;  a  which  he  readily  accepted, 
 as  apprehending  no  danger  from  her  whose  husband  was 
 his  master's  ally.  The  fatigue  of  the  day  had  made  him 
 very  thirsty,  and  therefore  he  entreated  Jael  to  give  him 
 a  little  water  ;  but  when,  instead  of  water,  she  had  given 
 him  as  much  milk  as  he  desired  ;  *  and  he  had  strictly 
 charged  her  to  deny  him,  in  case  that  any  body  should  in- 
 quire for  him,  he  laid  himself  down  to  rest.  No  sooner 
 was  he  well  asleep,  but  Jael,  taking  an  hammer  and  a 
 long  tent-nail,  set  it  to  his  temple,  and,  struck  with 
 such  a  force,  that  it  quite  pierced  through  his  head,  and 
 pinned  him  to  the  ground  ;  and  when  Barak,  in  pursuit 
 of  him,  came  that  way,  she  called  him  in,  and  showed 
 him  the  place  and  posture  in  which  his  enemy  lay. 
 
 This  victory,  which  was  followed  c  with  new  successes 
 every  day,  put  an  end  to  the  oppression  of  the  north 
 for  forty  years.  It  proved  the  utter  ruin  of  this  king- 
 dom of  the  Canaanites  in  Hazor :  and,  upon  many 
 accounts,  was  attended  with  so  many  signal  events,  that 
 the  prophetess  Deborah  composed  a  triumphant  song  in 
 commemoration  of  it,  rf  wherein  she  magnifies  the  deliv- 
 
 the  country  that  fell  to  their  lot,  (Judges  i.  16.)  Every  family 
 of  them  did  not  so:  for  this  Heher  we  find,  for  some  reasons  that 
 are  not  mentioned,  had  settled  his  habitation  in  the  tribe  of  Naph- 
 tali,  (Judges  i.  11.)  The  Kenites  indeed,  although  they  were 
 proselytes,  and  worshipped  the  true  God  according  to  the  Mosaic 
 law,  yet  being  strangers  by  birth,  and  so  not  pretending  to  any 
 right  or  title  to  the  land  of  Canaan,  held  it  best  policy,  in  these 
 troublesome  times,  to  observe  a  neutrality,  and  maintain  peace, 
 as  well  as  they  could,  both  with  the  Israelites  and  Canaanites; 
 and  upon  this  foot  it  was,  that  there  was  a  peace  between  king 
 Jabin  and  the  house  of  Heber,  and  that  Sisera,  in  his  distress, 
 lied  to  Heber's  tent  for  protection,  and  put  confidence  in  the 
 feigned  civilities  of  his  wife. — Howell's  History  of  the  Bible. 
 
 a  Judges  iv.  17 — 20.  Pococke,  giving  an  account  of  the  man- 
 ner in  which  he  was  treated  in  an  Arab  tent,  in  his  journey  to 
 Jerusalem,  says,  his  conductor  led  him  two  or  three  miles  to  his 
 tent,  and  that  there  he  sat  with  his  wife  and  others,  round  a  fire. 
 "The  Arabs  are  not  so  scrupulous  as  the  Turks  about  their  wo- 
 men, and  ihough  they  have  their  harem,  or  women's  part  of  the 
 tent,  yet  such  as  they  are  acquainted  with  come  into  it.  I  was 
 kept  in  the  harem  for  greater  security;  the  wife  being  always 
 with  me,  no  stranger  ever  daring  to  come  into  the  women's 
 apartment,  unless  introduced."  (Vol.  2.  p.  5.)  Nothing  can  lie 
 a  better  comment  on  this  passage  than  this  story. 
 
 b  Judges  iv.  19.  '  And  she  opened  a  bottle  of  milk,  and  gave 
 him  drink.'  Jael  certainly  showed  her  regard  to  Israel  by  de- 
 stroying Sisera,  but  it  is  as  certain  that  she  did  not  do  it  in  the 
 most  honourable  manner;  there  was  treachery  in  it;  perhaps  in 
 the  estimation  of  those  people,  the  greatest  treachery.  Among 
 the  later  Arabs,  giving  a  person  a  drink  has  been  thought  to  be 
 the  strongest  assurance  of  their  receiving  him  under  their  pro- 
 tection. When  Guy  de  Lusignan,  king  of  Jerusalem,  was  taken 
 prisoner,  and  was  conducted  before  Saladin,  he  demanded  drink, 
 and  they  save  him  fresh  water,  which  he  drank  in  Saladin's  pre- 
 sence:  but  when  one  of  his  lords  would  have  done  the  same, 
 Saladin  would  not  sutler  it,  because  he  did  not  intend  to  spare 
 his  life;  on  the  contrary,  advancing  to  him,  after  some  expostu- 
 lation, he  cut  off  his  head. —  D'Heruelot,  p.  371;  Harmer,  vol. 
 2.  p.  469,  p.  175. 
 
 c  Josephus  farther  acquaints  us,  that  immediately  after  this 
 victory,  Barak  marched  with  his  army  towards  Hazor,  where  he 
 encountered  Jabin  by  the  way,  and  slew  him;  and  having  killed 
 tin- king,  laid  the  city  level  with  the  ground,  and  afterwards  go- 
 verned Israel  for  a  matter  of  forty  years. — Antiquities,  1).  5.  c.  6. 
 
 d  Dr  Hales,  in  his  Analysis  of  Chronology,  vol.  ii.  second 
 edition,  has  given  a  new  and  beautiful  translation  of  this  song, 
 more  literal  and  elegant  than  the  common  English  version.  The 
 translations  of  Boothroyd  and  Kennicott  are  also  excellent, 
 although  the  arrangement  of  the  latter  is  too  artificial;  there  is 
 nothing  more  elegant  and  sublime  than  this  song  in  the  whole 
 
 .  M.  3085.  A.  C.  H2G.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 erance  it  wrought,  by  recounting  the  many  calamities 
 which  the  Israelites  before  laboured  under ;  acknow- 
 ledges its  proceeding  from  the  same  divine  Being,  who 
 descended  in  great  majesty  to  give  the  law  on  Mount 
 Sinai  ;  calls  upon  all  those  who  partook  in  the  benefits 
 of  it,  to  join  in  the  praises  of  its  great  Author  ;  commends 
 those  tribes  that  came  readily  to  the  war,  and  upbraids  ( 
 all  those  who  declined  their  country's  service. 
 
 During  this  forty  years'  peace,  the,  people  again 
 rebelled  against  God,  and  God  took  the  punishment  of 
 them  into  his  own  hands,  by  sending  upon  them  a  griev- 
 vous  famine,  wherein  several  were  forced  to  remove 
 into  strange  countries  ;  and,  among  the  rest,  /  one 
 Elimelech,  a  man  of  Bethlehem,  with  his  wife  Naomi, 
 and  his  two  sons,  Mahlon  and  Chilion,  went  into  the  land 
 of  Moab  to  live.  Elimelech  died  there,  and  his  relic 
 married  her  sons  to  two  women  of  the  country,  whose 
 names  were  Orpah  and  Ruth.  About  two  years  after 
 this,  Naomi's  two  sons  died,  and  she,  resolving  to  return 
 to  her  own  country,  desired  her  daughters-in-law  to 
 remain  in  Moab.  Orpah,  with  tears,  took  leave  of  her 
 mother ;  but  Ruth  could,  by  no  means,  be  persuaded  to 
 part  with  her ;  and  therefore  she  accompanied  her  to 
 Bethlehem,  where,  by  S  her  mother's  art  and  contrivance, 
 she  so  managed  the  matter,  that  she  married  Boaz,  by 
 whom  she  had  Obed,  who  was  the  father  of  Jesse,  and 
 the  grandfather  of  David,  and  from  whom,  according  to 
 the  flesh,  the  Saviour  of  the  Avorld  was  lineally  de- 
 scended. 
 
 range  of  sacred  poetry,  and  neither  Homer  nor  Virgil  have  come 
 near  it. — Ed. 
 
 c  Judges  v.  30.  '  Have  they  not  divided  the  prey:  to  Sisera 
 a  prey  of  divers  colours,  a  prey  of  divers  colours  of  needlework,  of 
 divers  colours  of  needlework  on  both  sides.'  This  allusion  in  the 
 triumphant  song  of  Deborah  is  to  the  richest  part  of  the  spoil,  which 
 was  highly  esteemed  by  the  people.  Pliny  mentions  a  great  va- 
 riety of  them,  both  in  his  own  and  in  ancient  times;  for  lie  takes 
 notice,  that  Homer  speaks  of  painted  garments,  which  shone  in 
 flowers  and  trees  in  beautiful  colours.  The  Phrygians  afterwards 
 wrought  these  with  needles,  and  Attalus  invented  the  interweav- 
 ing of  gold  into  them.  But,  for  these  garments,  Babylon  was 
 above  all  places  famous ;  from  whence  they  had  the  name  of  Baby- 
 lonish garments,  and  were  much  valued,  (Josh,  vii.)  It  ;<\  pi  are 
 from  Homer,  (II.  vi.  line  2S9,  &c.)  that  the  women  of  Sidon 
 were  famous  for  such  kind  of  variegated  works  before  the  Trojan 
 war.  We  find  that  Helen  and  Andromache  were  employed  on 
 such  at  their  looms.—  Ed. 
 
 /The  book  of  Ruth,  which  takes  its  title  from  tiie  person  whose 
 story  is  there  principally  recorded,  is  properly  an  appendix  to  the 
 book  of  Judges,  and  an  introduction  to  that  of  Samuel;  and  is 
 therefore  not  only  placed  between  them,  but  supposed  to  be  wrote 
 by  one  and  the  same  hand.  Its  subject  is  very  different  from 
 the  rest,  and  is  therefore  made  a  distinct  treatise.  It  is  indeed 
 of  so  private  a  nature,  that  at  the  time  of  its  being  wrote,  the 
 generality  of  the  people  might  have  thought  it  not  worth  record- 
 ing; but  we  Christians  may  plainly  see  the  wisdom  of  God  in 
 having  it  done.  It  had  been  foretold  to  the  Jews,  that  the  Messiah 
 should  be  of  the  tribe  of  Jlldah,  and  it  was  afterwards  revealed  far- 
 ther, that  he  should  be  of  the  family  of  David  :  and  therefore  it  was 
 necessary,  for  the  full  understanding  of  these  prophecies,  that  the 
 history  of  the  family  of  David,  in  that  tribe,  should  be  written 
 before  these  prophecies  were  reveak  d,  that  so  there  might  not  be 
 the  least  sivpicion  of  any  fraud  or  design.  And  thus  this  book, 
 these  prophecies,  and  the  accomplishment  of  them,  serve  to  illus- 
 trate and  explain  <  ach  other. — Bedford's  Scrip.  Chtvn.,  b.  5.  c.  5. 
 
 a  The  whole  management  of  this  allair  i«  recorded  in  the  book 
 of  Ruth,  to  which  we  refer  our  reader,  having  less  reason  to  be 
 prolix  in  a  matter  that  concerns  a  private  family  only,  and  what 
 had  not  been  related  ill  such  a  particular  manner,  but  for  the 
 reasons  that  we  have  already  assigned. 
 
404 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Deborah  and  Barak,  the  Israelites 
 fell  again  into  their  old  impiety,  and  were  again  given 
 up  into  the  hand  of  their  enemies.  The  Midianites  were 
 a  people  situated  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  Jordan, 
 whom  the  children  of  Israel,  in  their  passage  to  the  land 
 of  Canaan,  l  had  almost  totally  destroyed  ;  but  it  is  not 
 improbable,  that  some  of  that  nation,  saving  themselves 
 by  flight  into  other  countries,  and  after  the  Israelites 
 were  settled  in  Canaan  returning  thither  again,  might, 
 in  the  space  of  200  years,  repossess  the  land  where 
 they  dwelt  before,  and  still  retain  the  name  of  Midian- 
 ites. These  people,  together  with  their  neighbours,  the 
 Amalekites,  «  and  some  other  eastern  nations,  for  seven 
 years,  kept  the  Israelites  in  such  subjection,  that  they 
 were  forced  to  betake  themselves  to  the  mountains,  and 
 to  dwell  in  dens  and  caves,  and  fortified  places,  from 
 whence,  as  the  spring  came  on, they  stole  out  to  cultivate 
 and  sow  their  land  ;  but  all  to  no  purpose  :  for  towards 
 the  time  of  harvest,  these  enemies  made  inroads  into  the 
 country,  and  having  destroyed  the  increase  of  the 
 earth,  and  killed  all  the  cattle  which  fell  into  their 
 hands,  they  then  returned  home,  and  left  the  poor 
 Israelites  nothing  to  support  themselves  withal.  Upon 
 this  sore  calamity,  the  people  began  to  be  sensible  of 
 their  apostasy,  and  to  humble  themselves  under  the 
 afflicting  hand  of  God  ;  whereupon  God  *  sent  them  a 
 prophet  who  reproached  them  sharply  with  their  base 
 ingratitude  ;  but  at  the  same  time,  c  sent  his  angel  to 
 
 1  Num.  xxxi.  7,  &c. 
 
 a  Though  the  Midianites  were  the  principal  people  concerned 
 in  these  invasions  and  inroads,  yet,  besides  the  Amalekites,  they 
 had  other  confederate  nations,  who  are  called  '  the  children  of  the 
 east,  (Judges  vi.  3,  3-3,)  by  whom  we  may  understand  the  Am- 
 monites and  Moabites,  as  lying  east  of  the  land  of  Israel,  if  not 
 the  Ishmaelites,  and  others  that  inhabited  the  parts  of  Arabia. 
 The  children  or  people  of  the  east,  in  Gen.  xxix.  1.  denote  the 
 inhabitants  of  Mesopotamia;  but  these  seem  to  be  too  far  distant 
 to  have  any  part  in  these  incursions ;  and  therefore  since  we 
 read,  (Gen.  xxv.  G.)  that  Abraham  sent  away  the  sons  of  his  con- 
 cubines, particularly  the  sons  of  Keturah,  one  whereof  was  Midian, 
 the  father  of  the  Midianites,  eastward,  into  the  east  country,  it 
 may  not  improbably  be  inferred,  that  by  'the  children  of  the 
 east,'  in  this  history  of  Gideon,  are  denoted  the  descendants  of 
 the  other  sons  of  Keturah,  and  of  the  oilier  brothers  of  Midian, 
 who  had  settled  themselves  in  the  eastern  parts  adjoining  to  Mi- 
 dian.—  Wells'  Geography  of  the.  Old  Testament. 
 
 b  Who  this  prophet  was,  we  have  no  manner  of  intimation 
 given  us.  The  Jews  generally  fancy  that  he  was  Phinehas ; 
 but  Phinehas  must  by  this  time  have  been  above  five  hundred 
 years  old,  which  far  exceeded  the  stated  period  of  human  life 
 then.  St  Austin  is  of  opinion,  that  he  was  the  same  with  the 
 angel  which  soon  after  appeared  to  Gideon;  but  it  is  far  more 
 likely,  that  God  still  continued  other  prophets  among  the  Israel- 
 ites, besides  the  high  priest,  to  put  them  in  mind  of  their  duty, 
 and  to  call  them  to  repentance,  when  they  forsook  him:  for,  from 
 the  case  of  Deborah,  who  is  said  to  have  had  the  spirit  of  pro- 
 phecy, it  appears,  that  at  least  in  extraordinary  cases,  God  failed 
 not  to  raise  up  such  persons  among  them.  It  is  remarked, 
 however,  of  this  prophet,  be  he  who  he  will,  that  he  gave  the  Israel- 
 ites no  hopes  of  the  divine  assistance,  but  only  upbraided  them 
 with  their  sins.  However,  when  he  tells  them,  that  their  cala- 
 mities were  occasioned  by  their  idolatry,  he  plainly  intimates, 
 that  if  they  would  return  to  the  true  worship  of  God,  he  would 
 hgairi  look  graciously  upon  them  and  deliver  them;  and  accord- 
 ingly we  find,  that  the  history  of  their  deliverance  immediately 
 follows. —  Patrick's  and  Le  Clcrc's  Commentaries. 
 
 c  That  he  was  not  a  mere  created  angel,  is  plain  from  the 
 incommunicable  name,  Jehovah,  which  he  assumes,  and  where- 
 by he  sutlers  himself  so  frequently  to  be  called,  (Judges,  vi.  14, 
 1<>,  23,  24,  25,  27.)  And  therefore  the  Jews,  according  to 
 tlnir  Targum,  which   styles  him  'the  Word  of  the  Lord,'  look 
 
 M.  3985.  A.  C.  142G.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 Gideon,  the  son  of  Joash,  who  dwelt  at  d  Ophrah,  and 
 was  then  thrashing  out  his  corn,  in  a  private  and  unsus- 
 pected place,  the  better  to  conceal  it  from  the  depreda- 
 tion of  the  enemy. 
 
 To  him  the  angel  signified  the  purport  of  his  message, 
 which  was  to  acquaint  him,  that  the  Lord  had  made 
 choice  of  him  for  the  deliverance  of  his  people.  Gideon 
 at  first  excused  himself  upon  account  of  the  obscurity  of 
 his  family  and  fortune  ;  and  when  the  angel  urged  the 
 thing,  he  desired  of  him  some  token  of  the  divine  mission, 
 and  at  the  same  time,  requested  him  to  accept  of  a  small 
 entertainment  from  his  hands. e  The  angel  seemed  not 
 to  refuse  the  invitation,  whereupon  Gideon  hastened,  and 
 having  boiled  a  kid,  and  made  some  unleavened  cakes,  he 
 spread  a  table,  and  set  them  before  him  ;  but  the  angel 
 ordered  him  to  take  them  hence,  and  place  them  upon  a 
 rock  hard  by,  and  so  pour  the  broth  upon  them,  which, 
 though  it  might  seem  a  little  strange,  Gideon  did ;  and, 
 as  soon  as  the  angel  had  touched  them  with  the  staff  that 
 was  in  his  hand,  immediately  there  issued  fire  out  of  the 
 rock,  which  consumed  them,  whilst  himself,  at  the  same 
 time,  vanished  out  of  sight. 
 
 Convinced  by  this  miracle,  that  it  was  a  messenger 
 from  heaven  who  appeared  to  him,  Gideon  began  to  fear, 
 as  the  notion  then  was,  that  he  should  not  long  survive 
 it ;  but  being  assured  by  the  angel,  though  then  invisible, 
 that  no  harm  should  befall  him,  he  built  a  monument, 
 which  he  called  Jehovah-shalom,  that  is,  the  Lord  of 
 peace,  in  commemoration  of  this  gracious  interview  ; 
 and  being  that  night  admonished  in  a  dream  to  destroy 
 the  altar  of  Baal,  and  cut  down  the  grove  that  surrounded 
 it ;  to  build  an  altar  to  God  upon  the  top  of  this  wonder- 
 ful rock,  and  to  offer  a  burnt-sacrifice  to  him  with  one 
 of  his  father's  bullocks,  he  readily  obeyed  :  and  taking 
 ten  of  his  father's  servants  with  him,  he  demolished  the 
 one,  and  erected  the  other  by  next  morning ;  choosing 
 the  night  to  do  it  in,  that  he  might  meet  with  no  obstruc- 
 
 upon  this  angel,  not  merely  as  an  heavenly  messenger  sent  horn 
 God,  but  as  the  Son  of  God  himself,  appearing  in  the  form  of  an 
 angel. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Gideon  was  of  the  family  of  Abiezer,  of  the  tribe  of  Manas- 
 seh ;  and  so  the  Ophrah  where  he  dwelt  must  be  understood  to  be 
 situated  in  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  on  the  west  side  of  Jordan  ; 
 and  for  this  reason  it  is  styled  '  Ophrah  of  the  Abiezrites,' 
 (Judges  viii.  32.)  to  distinguish  it  from  another  Ophrah  that  lay 
 in  the  tribe  of  Benjamin. —  /Fells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment, vol.  3.  c.  6. 
 
 e  Judges  vi.  19.  And  Gideon  went  in,  and  made  ready  a 
 kid,  and  unleavened  cakes  of  an  ephah  of  flour:  the  flesh  he  put 
 in  a  basket,  and  he  put  the  broth  in  a  pot,  and  brought  it  out 
 to  him  under  the  oak,  and  presented  it.'  There  is  one  passage 
 in  Dr  Shaw,  that  affords  a  perfect  commentary  on  this  text.  It 
 is  in  his  preface,  (p.  12.)  "  Besides  a  bowl  of  milk,  and  a  basket 
 of  figs,  raisins,  or  dates,  which,  upon  our  arrival,  were  presented 
 to  us  to  stay  our  appetites,  the  master  of  the  tent  where  we 
 lodged,  fetched  us  from  his  flock,  according  to  the  number  of  our 
 company,  a  kid,  or  a  goat,  a  lamb,  or  a  sheep ;  half  of  which  was 
 immediately  seethed  by  his  wife,  and  served  up  with  cuscasoce: 
 the  rest  was  cut  into  pieces  and  roasted ;  which  we  reserved  for 
 our  breakfast  or  dinner  next  day. 
 
 May  we  not  imagine  that  Gideon,  presenting  some  slight 
 refreshment  to  the  supposed  prophet,  according  to  the  present 
 Arab  mode,  desired  him  to  stay  till  he  could  provide  something 
 more  substantial  for  him;  that  he  immediately  killed  a  kid, 
 ■Seethed  part  of  it,  cut  into  pieces  and  roasted  another  part  of  it, 
 and  when  it  was  ready,  brought  out  the  stewed  meat  in  a  pot, 
 with  unleavened  cakes  of  bread  which  he  had  baked ;  the  roasted 
 pieces  in  a  basket  for  his  carrying  away  with  him  for  some  after 
 repast  in  his  journey. — Harmer,  vol.  1.  p.  330. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 405 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3985.  A.  C.  1426.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 tion.  On  the  morrow,  when  the  people  understood  that 
 Gideon  was  the  person  who  had  put  this  affront  upon 
 Baal,  they  came  and  demanded  him  of  his  father,  that 
 they  might  put  him  to  death  ;  but,  instead  of  complying 
 with  their  demand,  his  father's  answer  was,  '  that  a  if 
 Baal  was  a  god,  it  was  his  business,  and  not  theirs,  to 
 avenge  his  own  quarrel ;'  and  from  this  answer,  where- 
 with he  appeased  the  tumult,  Gideon  ever  after  obtained 
 the  name  of  Jerub-baal,  that  is,  the  opposer  of  Baal.6 
 
 About  this  time  the  Midianites  and  their  company,  c 
 passing  over  the  river  Jordan,  came  and  encamped  in 
 d  the  valley  of  Jezreel ;  upon  which  Gideon,  being 
 moved  by  a  divine  impulse,  summoned  all  those  of  his 
 own  family  to  take  up  arms  first,  and  then  sent  messen- 
 gers to  several  adjacent  tribes,  exhorting  them  to  shake 
 oft'  the  yoke  of  the  Midianites,  and  to  join  with  him  ; 
 which  accordingly  they  did,  and  came  in  such  numbers, 
 that,  in  a  short  time,  his  army  amounted  to  two  and 
 thirty  thousand  men,  though  small  in  comparison  of  the 
 enemy's  forces,  which  consisted  of  no  less  than  a  hun- 
 dred and  thirty-five  thousand. 
 
 As  soon  as  each  tribe's  complement  of  men  was  arrived, 
 Gideon,  being  willing  to  satisfy  them  that  he  did  not  act 
 this  on  his  own  head,  but  was  the  person  appointed  by 
 heaven  to  be  their  leader  and  deliverer,  desired  of  God 
 to  give  them  some  token  of  his  commission  ;  and  the 
 token  which  he  made  choice  of  was, — that  upon  his  lay- 
 
 er It  is  generally  supposed  that  Gideon's  father  had  been  a 
 worshipper  if  not  a  priest  of  Baal ;  and  therefore  it  is  not  unlike- 
 ly, that  he  had  by  tins  time  been  convinced  by  his  son,  that  God 
 had  given  him  a  commission  to  recover  his  people,  and  to  begin 
 with  this  reformation ;  and  this  made  him  appear  so  boldly  in 
 his  son's  cause,  because  he  knew  it  was  the  cause  of  God. — 
 Poole's  Annotations,  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Boothroyd  renders  this  passage,  (Judges  vi.  31,)  as  follows: 
 '  And  Joash  said  to  all  that  stood  against  him,  will  ye  contend 
 for  Baal?  Should  ye  preserve  him  who  hath  contended  with 
 him,  he  will  die  ere  morning.  If  he  be  a  god  he  will  con- 
 tend for  himself,  with  him  who  hath  broken  down  his  altar.' 
 And  adds  in  a  note  ;  "  I  have  adhered  to  the  order  of  the  text,  and 
 the  sense  given,  I  am  satisfied,  is  that  intended.  The  common 
 version  is  contradictory ;  it  makes  Joash  propose,  that  he  who 
 pleadeth  for  Baal,  should  be  immediately  put  to  death,  and  then 
 assert  that  Baal  would  plead  for  himself."  "  I  have  followed 
 Menochius,  (see  Poole)  and  consider  the  meaning  to  be,  '  If 
 Baal  be  really  a  god,  ye  need  not  avenge  his  quarrel,  or  desire 
 the  death  of  my  son:  Baal  will  speedily  avenge  himself;  and 
 you  will  see  the  demolisher  of  his  altar  die  a  sudden  death.'" — 
 En. 
 
 c  That  is,  '  the  Amalekites  and  the  children  of  the  east.'  (Jud. 
 vi.  3.)  This  included  the  posterity  of  Abraham's  sons  by  Ketu- 
 rah,  of  whom  the  Midianites  were  the  principal  nation,  and 
 appear  to  have  taken  the  lead  in  the  enterprise  here  recorded. 
 (Jud.  xxv.  (J.)  It  also  included  the  Ishmaelites,  (Jud.  viii.  24.) 
 who  had  settled  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Midianites  in  the  wilder- 
 ness of  Paran.  (Gen.  xxxvii.  28.  xxi.  21.) — Ed. 
 
 d  The  city  of  Jezreel,  which  gave  name  to  the  valley,  belonged 
 to  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  on  the  west  of  Jordan,  and  lay  in 
 the  confines  of  that  half  tribe  and  the  tribe  of  Issachar,  as  appears 
 from  Josh.  xix.  18.  In  the  history  of  the  kings  of  Israel,  this 
 city  is  frequently  made  mention  of,  where,  by  reason  of  the 
 pleasantness  of  its  situation,  some  of  them  had  a  royal  palace, 
 though  their  capital  was  Samaria.  The  vale  of  Jezreel,  which, 
 as  we  said  before,  is  now  called  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  is,  accord- 
 ing to  Mr  Maundrell,  of  a  vast  extent,  [It  is  estimated  at  thirty 
 miles  in  length  and  twenty  in  breadth.]  very  fertile,  but  uncul- 
 tivated, and  only  serving  the  Arabs  for  pasturage:  but  some  have 
 supposed,  that  the  valley  of  Jezreel  here  mentioned,  denotes 
 some  other  lesser  valley,  lying  between  Mount  Hermon  and 
 Mount  Gilboa.  —  Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 c.  6. 
 
 ing  a  fleece  of  wool  on  the  ground,  e  the  dew  might  be 
 upon  the  fleece  only,  and  the  earth  round  about  it  be  dry, 
 which  accordingly  happened  ;  and  then,  inverting  the 
 former  manner,  he  desired  that  the  fleece  might  be  dry, 
 while  the  ground  all  around  it  was  wet;  which  accord- 
 ingly came  to  pass  likewise.  /  Confirmed  by  these 
 signs,  that  it  was  the  will  of  God  that  he  should  enter 
 upon  action,  Gideon  marched  directly  to  the  camp  of 
 the  Midianites,  who  then  lay  in  the  plain  of  Jezreel  ; 
 but  before  he  came  thither,  God  rightly  foreseeing,  that 
 if  this  army  conquered  the  Midianites,  they  would  vainly 
 impute  it  to  their  own  courage  or  numbers,  and  not  to 
 his  assistance,  ordered  Gideon  to  make  proclamation  in 
 the  camp,  that  whoever  was  diffident  of  the  success  of 
 the  undertaking,  should  have  liberty  to  return  home.  S 
 Whereupon  22,000  quitted  the  field,  so  that  10,000  only 
 remained  with  him.  It  might  be  thought  possible,  how- 
 ever, for  these  10,000  to  defeat  the  army  of  the  Midian- 
 ites ;  and,  therefore,  God,  resolving  that  the  glory  of 
 the  whole  victory  should  be  accounted  his  own,  ordered 
 
 e  He  supposed  that  the  dew  which  was  distilled  from  heaven, 
 was  a  divine  gift,  as  the  Scripture  after  testifies,  and  therefore 
 he  desired  that  it  might  be  directed  by  God,  that  though  it 
 commonly  falls  everywhere,  by  his  extraordinary  providence,  it 
 might  now  water  only  his  fleece.  Some  are  apt  to  think,  that  he 
 chose  a  fleece  for  this  purpose,  not  only  because  it  was  ready  at 
 hand,  but  the  better  to  express  how  the  land  was  shorn  by  the 
 Midianites,  even  as  the  sheep  had  been  !-y  him;  that  when  he 
 begged  the  dew,  as  a  sign  of  the  divine  favour,  might  fall  upon 
 the  fleece,  it  was  to  represent  the  kindness  of  God  to  him;  and 
 when  he  begged  it  might  fall  upon  the  whole  ground,  to  repre- 
 sent his  favour  to  all  the  people.  But  there  is  farther  reason 
 why  he  might  desire  to  have  the  miracle  inverted  :  for,  as  it  is 
 in  the  very  nature  of  the  wool  to  draw  moisture  to  it,  some  might 
 be  apt  to  think,  that  there  was  no  great  matter  in  this ;  and, 
 therefore,  he  requested  of  God  a  second  miracle,  which  was 
 contrary  to  the  former.' — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 f  Judges  vi.  3S.  '  And  it  was  so  :  for  he  rose  up  early  on  the 
 morrow,  and  thrust  the  fleece  together,  and  wrung  the  dew  out 
 of  the  fleece,  a  bowl  full  of  water.'  It  may  seem  a  little  impro- 
 bable to  us,  who  inhabit  these  northern  climates,  where  the  dews 
 are  inconsiderable,  how  Gideon's  fleece,  in  one  night,  should 
 contract  such  a  quantity,  that  when  he  came  to  wring  it,  a  bowl 
 full  of  water  was  produced.  Irwin,  in  his  voyage  up  the  Red 
 Sea,  when  on  the  Arabian  shores,  says,  "difficult  as  we  find  it 
 to  keep  ourselves  cool  in  the  daytime,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to 
 defend  our  bodies  from  the  damps  of  the  night,  when  the  wind 
 is  loaded  with  the  heaviest  dews  that  ever  fell ;  we  lie  exposed 
 to  the  whole  weight  of  the  dews,  and  the  cloaks  in  which  we 
 wrap  ourselves,  are  as  wet  in  the  morning  as  if  they  had  been 
 immersed  in  the  sea  " — p.  87. 
 
 g  The  text  reads,  '  Whosoever  is  afraid  let  him  return,  and 
 depart  early  from  Mount  Gilead.'  Gideon,  however,  was  cer- 
 tainly not  at  Mount  Gilead  at  this  time,  but  rather  mar  Mount 
 Gilboa.  Gilead  was  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan.  Calmet  thinks 
 there  must  either  have  been  two  Gileads,  which  does  not  from 
 Scripture  appear  to  be  the  case,  or  that  the  Hebrew  text  is  here 
 corrupted,  and  that  for  Gilead,  we  should  read  Gilboa.  This 
 reading,  though  adopted  by  Houbigant  and  Le  Clerc,  whom 
 Boothroyd  follows,  is  not  countenanced  by  any  MS.,  nor  by  any 
 of  the  versions.  Dr  Hales  endeavours  to  reconcile  the  passage 
 as  it  stands  with  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  by  the  supposition 
 that  there  were  in  Gideon's  army  many  of  the  eastern  Manas- 
 sites  who  came  from  Mount  Gilead;  and  that  these  probably 
 were  more  afraid  of  their  neighbours,  the  Midianites,  than  the 
 western  tribes  were;  and  therefore  proposes  to  read  the  text  thus: 
 '  Whosoever  from  Mount  Gilead  is  fearful  and  afraid,  let  him 
 return  (home)  and  depart  early.  So  there  returned  (home)  22,000 
 of  the  people.'  Dr  Adam  Clarke  thinks  this  perhaps,  on  the 
 whole,  the  best  method  of  solving  the  difficulty — the  intelligent 
 reader  will  form  his  own  opinion. — See  Clarke  and  Boutin oyd 
 on  the  passage,  and  Hales'  Analysis,  vol.  1.  p.  424 — 425,  and 
 vol.  2.  p.  281.— Ed. 
 
406 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  1143 ;  OR,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  3985.  A.  C.  142G.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 Gideon  a  to  lead  the  soldiers  down  to  the  water  to  drink, 
 where  he  would  give  him  a  signal  what  men  were  fit  for 
 his  purpose,  and  what  not ;  and  the  signal  was  this, — 
 That  they  who  *  took  up  water  in  their  hands,  and  lapped 
 it,  should  go  with  him ;  but  they  who  laid  themselves 
 down  to  drink,  should  be  dismissed  ;  which  experiment 
 reduced  them  to  no  more  than  300. 
 
 These  300  men  he  ordered  to  hold  themselves  in 
 readiness,  and  to  have  every  one  a  trumpet,  a  lamp,  and 
 an  empty  pitcher  to  conceal  the  light  which  the  lamp 
 would  otherwise  give  ;  and  while  they  were  providing 
 themselves  with  these,  he  took  his  servant  with  him,  and 
 went  down  to  the  enemies'  camp,  where  he  heard  a 
 Midianite  relating  his  dream  to  his  companion,  which 
 the  other  interpreted  in  Gideon's  favour  ;  so  that  return- 
 ing to  the  camp,  he  drew  his  men  out,  and  dividing  them 
 into  three  companies  of  100  men  each,  he  came  upon  the 
 enemy  c  in  the  dead  time  of  the  night.  The  watchword 
 was, '  the  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon  ;'  and  as  every 
 
 a  Mr  Le  Clere  is  of  opinion,  that  the  sacred  historian  has 
 omitted  one  circumstance,  which,  nevertheless,  in  the  very 
 nature  of  the  thing  is  implied,  namely,  that  Gideon,  when  he 
 led  his  men  down  to  the  water,  did  forbid  them  to  make  use  of 
 any  cup  or  pot,  or  such  like  thing  :  for  lie  thinks  it  incongruous 
 (as  well  he  may)  that  among  such  a  number  as  10,000  men,  no 
 one  should  be  furnished  with  some  drinking  vessel  or  other. 
 But  then,  had  any  of  these  been  permitted  to  be  used  upon  this 
 occasion,  the  experiment  could  not  have  been  made. — Comment. 
 on  Judges  vii.  6. 
 
 b  Interpreters  arc  at  a  sad  puzzle  to  conceive,  for  what  possible 
 reason  God  made  a  distinction  between  the  soldiers  who  lapped 
 water  in  their  hands,  and  those  that  laid  themselves  down  to 
 drink.  Some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  all 
 except  300  who  lapped,  had  been  accustomed  to  the  worship 
 of  Baal,  which  they  unwarily  discovered  by  their  kneeling 
 to  drink:  but  this  is  a  groundless  and  far-fetched  conceit. 
 The  notion  of  those  who  impute  these  300  men's  lapping, 
 some  to  their  sloth  and  laziness,  and  others  to  their  timorousness, 
 and  the  great  fear  they  were  in  of  being  surprised  by  the  enemy, 
 is  of  no  more  validity:  for  though  God,  if  he  thought  fit,  might 
 have  employed  the  most  dastardly  among  them  upon  this  expedi- 
 tion, that  the  glory  of  the  victory  might  entirely  redound  to  him- 
 self; yet,  since  we  are  told  all  the  fearful  persons  were  dismissed 
 before,  and  since  it  but  badly  befits  the  character  of  the  courage- 
 ous to  be  lazy,  this  action  of  lapping  is  rather  to  be  accounted  a 
 token  of  their  temperance,  and  of  the  nobleness  of  their  spirit, 
 which  made  them  so  desirous  to  engage  the  enemy,  that  they 
 would  not  stay  to  drink,  but,  though  they  were  very  thirsty,  con- 
 tented themselves  to  moisten  their  mouths,  as  we  say,  with  a 
 little  water;  whereas  the  rest  indulged  themselves  so  far,  as  to 
 drink  their  bellyful.  But,  after  all,  the  true  reason  and  design 
 of  this  method  seems  to  be  only  this, — That  God  was  minded  to 
 reduce  Gideon's  army  to  a  very  small  number,  which  might 
 very  likely  be  done  by  this  means.  For,  as  the  season  of  the 
 year  was  hot,  and  the  generality  of  the  soldiers  weary,  thirsty, 
 and  faint,  it  was  most  probable,  that  they  would  lie  down,  as 
 indeed  they  did,  and  refresh  themselves  plentifully,  and  scarce 
 to  be  expected  that  any  great  number  would  deny  themselves  in 
 this  matter. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Sawtin's  Gideon's  de- 
 feat of  the  Midianites. 
 
 i  The  expression  in  the  text  is,  '  in  the  beginning  of  the 
 middle  watch:'  for  though  the  Romans,  in  after  ages,  divided  the 
 night  into  four  watches,  (Mat.  xiv.  25.),  yet,  in  the  eastern 
 parts,  and  in  more  ancient  times,  it  consisted  but  of  three, 
 whereof  the  first  began  at  six,  and  continued  four  hours.  The 
 second,  therefore,  is  called  the  '  middle  watch,'  and  began  at 
 ten;  so  that  we  may  suppose,  that  it  was  some  time  after 
 this,  that  Gideon  alarmed  the  Midianitish  camp;  and  the  reasons 
 why  he  chose  this  part  of  the  night  to  do  it  in,  are  obvious,  be- 
 cause the  trumpets  would  then  seem  to  sound  louder,  and  the 
 lights  to  shine  brighter,  and  so  both  increase  the  consternation  of 
 the  enemy,  and  conceal  the  smallness  of  his  own  army. — Poole's 
 Annotations. 
 
 soldier  had  directions  to  do  as  his  general  did,  they 
 all  broke  their  pitchers,  brandished  their  lamps,  and 
 sounded  their  trumpets  together. 
 
 The  Midianites,  hearing  so  many  trumpets,  and  seeing 
 so  many  lights  at  once,  supposed  themselves  to  be 
 attacked  by  a  formidable  army  ;  and  so  rising  in  a 
 fright,  and  mistaking  their  friends  for  their  enemies,  d 
 they  fell  upon  one  another,  until  they  had  put  every 
 thing  into  the  utmost  confusion.  By  this  means,  Gideon 
 having  obtained  an  easy  victory,  sent  to  the  rest  of  the 
 army,  who,  upon  his  proclamation,  had  withdrawn  them- 
 selves, some  to  pursue  the  routed  enemy,  and  others  to 
 secure  the  passes  of  the  river  Jordan,  in  order  to  prevent 
 their  retreat. 
 
 The  passes,  however,  could  not  all  be  secured ;  so 
 that  some  of  the  enemy's  troops  having  made  a  shift  to 
 cross  the  river,  Gideon,  with  his  300  men,  pressed  hard 
 after  them,  while  the  other  part  of  the  army  destroyed 
 those  who  stayed  behind  ;  and  having  taken  the  two 
 Midianitish  princes,  e  Oreb  and  Zeeb,  they  cut  off  their 
 heads,  and  sent  them  to  Gideon. 
 
 Gideon,  in  the  mean  time,  and  his  small  party,  were  in 
 full  chase  of  two  other  princes  of  Midian,  Zeba,  and  Zal- 
 munna  ;  and  when  he  came  to  Succoth  and  Penuel,  two 
 towns  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  in  the  tribe  of  Gad, 
 he  desired  of  them  some  provision  for  his  men,  because 
 they  were  faint  and  weary  ;  but  instead  of  giving  him 
 any  refreshment,  they  ridiculed  the  smallness  of  his  army, 
 for  which  insolence  he  vowed  to  be  revenged  of  them, 
 upon  his  return.  Continuing  his  pursuit,  therefore,  with 
 his  small  fatigued  party,  he  came  up  with  the  enemy  at 
 Karcor,  where  the  two  Midianitish  kings,  thinking  that 
 they  had  now  sufficiently  escaped,  were  regardless  of  all 
 danger ;  but  Gideon  falling  upon  them  unexpectedly, 
 surprised  and  defeated  them,  and  having  taken  them  pri- 
 soners, carried  them  in  triumph  with  him  into  Succoth, 
 where  he  executed  the  vengeance  which  he  had  threatened, 
 by  crushing  the  princes  of  that  place  to  death,  under 
 thorns  and  briars,  killing  the  people  of  Penuel,  and  de- 
 molishing its  fortifications.  Zeba  and  Zahnumia,  in  their 
 march,  had  laid  all  the  country  waste,  and  put  many  to 
 the  sword,  otherwise  Gideon  was  inclinable  to  have 
 shown  them  some  mercy  ;  but  understanding  by  their  own 
 confession,  that  they  had  slain  his  brethren  at  Tabor,  he 
 
 d  There  might  be  several  reasons  for  their  doing  this: — 
 Either  because  the  night  was  so  dark  that  they  could  not  dis- 
 tinguish friends  from  foes ;  or  because  the  thing  was  so  sudden, 
 that  it  struck  them  with  horror  and  amazement;  or  because  they 
 suspected  treachery,  as  they  might  easily  do,  since  the  army 
 consisted  of  several  nations,  (Jud.  vi.  o,),  or  because  God  had 
 infatuated  them,  as  he  had  many  others  on  the  like  occasions. — 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  As  the  language  of  the  Ishmaelites,  the  Midianites,  and  the 
 Amalekites,  who  dwelt  in  Arabia,  was  originally  the  same,  be- 
 cause they  all  descended  from  Abraham,  their  common  father ; 
 so  we  may  infer,  that  there  was  little  or  no  difference  in  them 
 at  this  time.  Oreb,  in  the  Hebrew,  signifies  a  crote,  and  Zeeb, 
 a  wolf;  and  these  are  no  improper  words  to  represent  the  saga- 
 ciousness  and  fierceness  which  should  be  in  two  such  great  com- 
 manders. Nor  was  it  an  uncommon  thing  for  great  families,  in 
 ancient  times,  to  derive  their  names  from  such  like  creatures, 
 either  as  omens,  or  monuments  of  their  undaunted  courage  and 
 dexterity  in  military  achievements.  But  after  all,  it  seems 
 every  whit  as  probable,  that  these  were  only  nicknames,  which 
 the  Israelites  gave  these  two  princes  of  Midian,  to  denote  their 
 fierceness  and  rapaeioumess  of  prey. — Bedford's  Scripture 
 Chronology,  b.  5.  c.  3;  Lc  Clcrc's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  INTO  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 407 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443:  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 ordered  his  son  Jether  to  fall  upon  them,  but  as  he 
 was  but  a  youth,  and  seemed  a  little  timorous,  «  he  him- 
 self despatched  them  with  his  own  hand,  having  first  or- 
 dered them  to  be  stripped  of  their  royal  ornaments,  u  and 
 their  camels  of  their  rich  trappings  and  furniture. 
 
 These  great  and  glorious  actions,  in  defence  of  his 
 country's  liberty,  raised  Gideon's  name  to  such  a  height 
 that  the  people  came,  and  voluntarily  offered  to  settle 
 the  government  upon  him  and  his  family  ;  which  he  mo- 
 destly and  generously  rejecting,  and  desiring  only,  as 
 an  acknowledgment  of  his  services,  to  have  the  pendants 
 or  ear-rings  taken  in  the  plunder  of  the  Midianites  given 
 him,  the  people  readily  consented,  and,  over  and  above 
 these,  threw  in  the  costly  ornaments,  and  the  robes  of  the 
 kings,  together  with  the  golden  c  chains,  which  were 
 about  the  camels'  necks,  the  whole  amounted  to  a  prodi- 
 gious value  ;  and  of  these  rich  materials  he  made  an 
 ephod,  and  placed  it  in  the  city  of  Ophrah,  as  a  monu- 
 ment only  of  his  victory,  though  in  after  times,  it  came 
 to  be  perverted  to  a  bad  use,  gave  occasion  to  a  fresh 
 apostasy,  and  proved  the  ruin  of  Gideon's  family. 
 
 Gideon,  while  he  lived  had  several  wives,  by  whom, 
 in  all,  he  had  seventy  sons,  besides  one  by  a  concubine, 
 d  whom  she  named  Abimelech.  As  soon  as  his  father 
 was  dead,  this  Abimelech,  who  was  a  bold  aspiring  youth, 
 
 a  In  ancient  times,  it  was  as  much  a  custom  for  great  men  to 
 do  execution  upon  offenders,  as  it  is  now  a  usual  thing  for  them 
 to  pronounce  sentence  upon  them.  They  had  not  then,  as  we 
 have  now,  such  persons  as  the  Romans  called  carnifices,  or  public 
 executioners;  and  therefore  Saul  bade  such  as  waited  on  him 
 kill  the  priests;  and  Doeg,  one  of  his  chief  officers,  did  it,  (1 
 Sam.  xxii.  17,  18.)  But  the  reason  why  Gideon  would  have  had 
 his  son  do  this  execution,  was  that  he  might  be  early  animated 
 against  the  enemies  of  Israel,  even  as  Hannibal  is  reported,  when 
 he  was  a  boy,  to  have  been  incensed  against  the  Romans.  {Pa- 
 trick's Commentary^)  In  these  ages  it  would  be  thought  barba- 
 rous for  a  king  to  command  his  son  to  perform  an  execution  like 
 that  mentioned  in  this  passage:  but  anciently  it  was  thought  no 
 dishonour.  Homer  (Odyss.  b.  xxii.)  represents  Ulysses  as  en- 
 joining such  a  task  upon  his  son,  which  was  instantly  performed. 
 See  also  Virgil,  /En.  xi.  15. — Ed. 
 
 b  Judges  viii.  26.  '  And  purple  raiment  that  was  on  the 
 kings  of  Midian.'  Purple  seems  anciently  to  liave  been  appro- 
 priated to  kings,  and  to  them  only  on  whom  they  bestowed  it. 
 It  is  here  mentioned  by  the  sacred  historian  as  being  found  on 
 the  Midianitisli  kings.  A  garment  of  fine  linen  and  purple  is 
 given  to  a  favourite  by  king  Ahasuerus,  (Esther  viii.  15.)  The 
 Jews  made  a  decree  that  Simon  should  wear  purple  and  gold,  and 
 that  none  of  the  people  should  wear  purple,  or  a  buckle  of  gold, 
 without  his  permission,  in  token  that  he  was  the  chief  magistrate 
 of  the  Jews,  (1  Maccab.  xlii.)  Thus  also  Homer  describes  a 
 king;— 
 
 Iu  ample  mode 
 A  robe  of  military  purple  llow'd 
 O'er  all  his  frame:  illustrious  on  his  breast, 
 The  double  clasping-  gold  the  king  confess'd. 
 
 Odyss.  xix.  261.   Pope. 
 
 c  The  word  which  we  render  chains,  is  in  the  original,  little 
 moons,  which  the  Midianites  might  wear  strung  together  about 
 their  camels'  necks,  either  by  way  of  ornament  or  superstition, 
 because  they,  as  well  as  all  other  people  of  Arabia,  were  very 
 zealous  worshippers  of  the  moon. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 d  What  the  name  of  his  other  sons  were,  we  have  no  mention 
 made  in  sacred  writ;  but  the  name  of  this  one  is  particularly 
 set  down,  because  the  following  story  depends  upon  it:  and  not 
 only  so,  but  his  mother  perhaps  might  give  him  this  name, 
 which  signifies,  my  father  a  king,  out  of  pride  and  arrogance,  that 
 she  might  be  looked  upon  as  the  wife  of  one  who  was  thought  to 
 deserve  a  kingdom,  though  he  did  not  accept  it:  and  it  is  not 
 improbable,  that  the  very  sense  of  this  might  be  one  means  to 
 inflame  the  mind  of  her  son  afterwards,  to  affect  the  royal  dignity. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 M.  4045.  A.  C.  1366.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH, 
 tampered  with  the  people  of  Shechem,  the  place  of  his 
 nativity,  and  where  his  mother's  family  had  no  small  in- 
 terest, to  make  him  their  king.  They,  by  his  persuasions, 
 were  inclinable  to  do  it;  and,  that  he  might  not  want 
 money  to  carry  on  his  design,  furnished  him  with  some 
 out  of  the  treasury  of  «  their  god  Baal-berith,  wherewith 
 he  hired  a  company  of  profligate  fellows  to  attend  him. 
 With  these  he  repaired  to  his  father's  at  Ophrah,  and 
 having  seized  all  his  brethren,  except  Jotham  the  young- 
 est, who  made  his  escape,  he  slew  them  all  /upon  one 
 stone,  and  when  he  returned  to  Shechem,  instead  of 
 meeting  with  detestation  for  this  unnatural  murder,  was 
 in  a  general  assembly  of  the  people  elected  their  king. 
 
 AY  hen  young  Jotham  heard  of  tliis,  he  went  upon 
 Mount  Gerizim,  which  overlooks  the  city  of  Shechem, 
 and  from  thence,  in  a  parabolic  speech,  represented  to 
 s  the  people  his  father's  modesty  and  self-denial,  in  refus- 
 
 e  The  learned  Bochart  is  of  opinion,  that  the  Baal  here  men- 
 tioned was  the  same  with  Beroe,  the  daughter  of  Venus  and 
 Adonis,  desired  in  marriage  by  Neptune,  but  given  to  Bacchus: 
 and  that  she  gave  her  name  to  Berith  in  Phoenicia,  where  she 
 was  much  worshipped,  and  thence  translated  a  goddess  into 
 other  parts.  But  though  the  word  Baal,  as  he  maintains, 
 be  frequently  used  in  a  feminine  sense,  yet  it  can  hardly 
 be  imagined,  but  that  the  sacred  historian,  if  he  had  been 
 minded  to  express  a  goddess,  might  have  found  out  some  way  of 
 distinguishing  her;  might  have  called  her,  for  instance,  Bahalah- 
 berith,  the  lady,  or  goddess  of  Berith,  without  making  both  the 
 words  of  a  masculine  termination.  And  therefore  the  most  sim- 
 ple and  natural  manner  of  explaining  the  name,  is  to  take  it  in 
 general  for  the  god  who  presides  over  covenants  and  contracts,  to 
 whom  it  belongs  to  maintain  them,  and  to  punish  all  those  that 
 violate  them.  For  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  most  barbarous 
 as  well  as  the  most  knowing,  the  most  religious  as  well  as  the 
 most  superstitious  nations,  have  always  looked  upon  God  as  the 
 witness,  as  well  as  the  vindicator  of  oaths  and  covenants ;  that  the 
 Greeks  had  their  Zeus  Horkios,  as  well  as  the  Latins  their  Jupi- 
 ter Pistius,  or  Deus  Fidius,  or  Fecialis,  whom  they  looked  upon 
 as  a  god  of  honesty  and  uprightness,  always  superintending  in 
 treaties  and  alliances.  And  for  this  reason  not  improbably,  the 
 house  of  their  god  Berith  was  the  citadel,  the  arsenal,  and  the  trea- 
 sury of  the  Shechemites,  even  as  Plutarch  informs  us,  that  in  the 
 temple  of  Saturn  the  Romans  reposited  both  their  archives  and 
 public  wealth. — Bochart,  Canaan,  b.  2.  c.  17. ;  Poole's  Annota- 
 tions in  locum ;  Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Baal-berith} 
 and  Jurieu's  History  of  Dogmas  and  Religions,  part  4.  c.  1. 
 
 /This  stone  some  will  have  to  be  an  altar,  which  Abimelech 
 dedicated  to  the  idol  Berith,  and  erected  in  the  same  place  where 
 his  father  Gideon  had  destroyed  his  altar  before;  and  so  they  ac- 
 count that  this  slaughter  of  his  sons  was  designed  for  an  expiatory 
 sacrifice  of  their  father's  crime  in  demolishing  the  altar  and  grove 
 dedicated  to  that  idol.  But  this  is  a  little  too  far-fetched,  though 
 there  is  hardly  any  other  reason  to  be  given,  why  they  should 
 all  be  murdered  upon  one  and  the  same  stone. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary, and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 g  This  is  the  first  fable  that  we  find  any  where  upon  record  ; 
 and  from  hence  it  appears,  that  such  fictions  as  these,  wherein 
 the  most  serious  truths  arc  represented,  were  in  use  among  tin- 
 Jews,  as  they  are  still  in  the  eastern  countries,  long  before 
 the  time  of  iEsop,  or  any  other  author  that  we  know  of.  Various 
 are  the  reasons  that  may  be  assigned  for  the  first  invention  of 
 them;  but  these  two  seem  to  be  the  principal:  1.  Because  men 
 would  sutler  themselves  to  be  reprehended  in  this  guise,  when 
 they  would  not  endure  plain  wards;  and,  2.  Because  they  heard 
 them  with  delight  and  pleasure,  and  remembered  them  better 
 than  any  grave  or  rational  discourses. 
 
 '  The  trees  went  birth  on  a  time,  to  anoint  a  king  over  them,' 
 (so  that  anointing  was  in  use  2CO  years  before  the  first  kings  of 
 Israel:)  '  and  they  said  unto  the  olive-tree,  Reign  over  US.  But 
 the  olive-tree  said  unto  them,  Should  I  leave  my  fatness,  where- 
 with by  me  they  honour  Goil  and  man,'  (because  oil  was  ofiered 
 in  sacrifice  to  God,  and  fed  the  lamps  of  his  house,  besides  all  the 
 other  uses  wherein  it  was  serviceable  to  man,)  '  and  go  to  be  pro- 
 
408 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 LBook  V. 
 
 A.  M.  3561.  A.  C.  1413;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4045.  A.  C.  1366.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 irig-  to  have  the  government  settled  on  him  and  his  family, 
 which  they  had  now  conferred  on  one,  as  much  inferior 
 in  virtue  and  honour  to  Gideon,  and  his  lawful  sons,  as 
 the  bramble  is  to  the  olive-tree,  the  fig-tree,  or  the  vine. 
 And  then  expostulating  the  injury  done  his  family,  and 
 upbraiding  them  with  their  ingratitude,  he  appeals  to  their 
 consciences,  whether  they  had  done  right  or  not,  and 
 denounces  a  curse  against  them  for  their  siding  with 
 Abimelech  in  all  his  wicked  deed  . 
 
 Having  thus  delivered  himself  to  the  Shechemites, 
 Jotham  made  his  «  escape  to  Beer,  where  he  lived  secure 
 from  Abimelech's  rage ;  and  it  wa  not  long  before  his 
 curse  began  to  operate.     For  the  people  of  Shechem,  b 
 
 moted  over  the  trees  ?  And  the  trees  said  to  the  fig-tree,  Come 
 thou  and  reign  over  us.  But  the  fig-tree  said  to  them,  Should  I 
 forsake  my  sweetness,  and  my  good  fruit,  (an  apt  representation 
 of  that  content  and  fulness  of  pleasure  which  may  be  enjoyed  in 
 a  private  life,  and  cannot  without  folly  be  exchanged  for  the 
 troubles  and  cares  that  men  meet  with  in  the  management 
 of  public  affairs,)  '  and  go  to  be  promoted  over  the  trees  ? 
 Then  said  the  trees  unto  the  vine,  Come  thou  and  reign 
 over  us.  And  the  vine  said  unto  them,  Should  I  leave  my  wine, 
 which  cheereth  God  and  man,'  (a  form  of  speech  imitated  by 
 heathen  authors,  especially  by  Virgil,  (Georg.  b.  2,)  where, 
 speaking  of  some  generous  wine,  he  terms  it  "  even  beloved  by 
 the  gods  in  their  carousals,"  since  wine,  as  well  as  oil,  was  used 
 both  in  Jewish  and  heathen  sacrifices,*)  'and  goto  be  promoted 
 over  the  trees  ?  Then  said  all  the  trees  unto  the  bramble,'  (the 
 meanest  of  all  trees,  good  for  nothing  but  to  be  burned,  and  there- 
 fore fitly  resembling  Abimelech,  from  whom  the  Shechemites 
 could  expect  no  manner  of  benefit,  but  a  great  deal  o.  trouble  and 
 vexation,)  '  Come  thou,  and  reign  over  us.  And  the  bramble 
 said  unto  the  trees,  If,  in  truth,  ye  anoint  me  king,  then  come 
 and  put  your  trust  in  my  shadow,'  (an  apt  emblem  of  Abime- 
 lech's  ridiculous  vanity,  to  imagine  that  he  should  e  able  to 
 maintain  the  authority  of  a  king,  any  more  than  the  bramble 
 could  afibrd  a  shadow  or  shelter,)  '  and  if  not,  let  fire  come  out 
 of  the  bramble,  and  devour  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  (words  that 
 carry  a  lively  image  of  Abimelech's  ostentatious  spirit,  and  me- 
 naces to  take  severe  vengeance  on  the  nobles  of  Shechem,  such  as 
 the  house  of  Millo,  who  had  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  his  pro- 
 motion, in  case  they  should  desert  him.)  This  is  the  parable, 
 and,  in  some  measure,  the  interpretation.  The  only  difficulty  is, 
 to  know  whom  these  trees  are  set  to  signify.  And  here,  some 
 have  thought,  that  by  the  olive-tree  we  are  to  understand  Othniel; 
 by  the  fig-tree,  Deborah;  and  by  the  vine  Gideon;  for  to  the  two 
 former,  they  suppose  the  offer  of  the  kingdom  was  made  for  the 
 services  done  their  countiy,  and  by  them  rejected,  as  well  as  by 
 the  last.  But  for  this  there  is  no  authority ;  neither  is  there  any 
 necessity  in  the  explication  of  such  fables,  to  assign  a  particular 
 reason  for  every  image  that  is  drawn  in  them.  It  is  sufficient  if 
 we  can  but  hit  off  their  main  intendment,  which,  in  this  of 
 Jotham,  was  to  convince  the  Shechemites  of  their  folly  in  choos- 
 ing a  man  for  their  king,  who  was  no  more  able  to  protect  them, 
 than  a  bramble  was  to  cover  other  trees  that  should  resort  to  it, 
 under  the  shadow  of  its  branches. — Saurin's  Dissertations,  and 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  This  was  a  city  that  stood  on  the  northern  frontiers  of  the 
 tribe  of  Judah,  about  twelve  miles  from  Jerusalem,  in  the  way 
 to  Shechem  and  Napoloze,  which  did  not  acknowledge  Abime- 
 lech for  king;  and  therefore  Jotham  knew,  that  he  might  have 
 sure  refuge  and  protection  there.  Dr  Richardson  says,  Beer 
 seems  to  have  been  once  a  place  of  considerable  consequence.  It 
 has  a  well  of  good  water,  and  close  to  it  are  the  mouldering  walls 
 of  a  ruined  Khan,  and  on  the  top  of  the  hill  two  large  arches  of 
 a  ruined  convent. — Ed. 
 
 b  In  the  text  the  expression  is,  '  Then  God  sent  an  evil  spirit, 
 or  spirit  of  discord,  between  Abimelech  and  the  men  of  Shechem,' 
 (Judg.  ix.  23,)  which,  in  Scripture,  is  an  usual  form  of  speech, 
 and  denotes  not  any  positive  action,  but  a  permission  only,  or,  at 
 must,  a  direction  from  God.  It  is  observed,  however,  that  this 
 manner  of  expression  may  possibly  have  given  rise  to  some 
 notions  in  the  theology  of  the  heathens,  when  they  suppose,  that 
 
 *  Wine,  as  the  Jewish  doctors  assert,  was  not  only  used  in  their  sacrifices,  but  till  the 
 diiiuVotte.  ing  was  poured  out,  they  did  not  sing  the  hymn  that  was  then  sung  to  God. 
 
 growing  jealous  and  distrustful  of  their  new  king,  were 
 for  apprehending  and  killing  him,  which  made  him  leave 
 the  place,  and  escape  for  his  life.  As  soon  as  he  was 
 gone,  they  set  up  another  vile  wretch,  Gael,  the  son  of 
 Ebed,  to  be  their  governor.  Under  his  protection,  the 
 people  ventured  out  to  reap  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and 
 having  upon  this  occasion,  made  themselves  merry,  they 
 expressed  their  detestation  of  Abimelech,  and  none  was 
 more  forward  than  Gael  to  speak  contemptibly  of  him, 
 and  make  his  boasts  what  he  would  do  with  him,  if  he 
 could  but  once  catch  him.  Zebul,  whom  Abimelech 
 intrusted  with  his  concerns  in  his  absence,  gave  him 
 intelligence  of  all  that  passed,  and  advised  him  to  come 
 with  some  forces,  before  it  was  too  late. '  Accordingly, 
 he  marches  all  night,  divides  his  army  into  four  parts, 
 and  early  in  the  morning  had  beset  the  city.  Gael,  though 
 a  very  coward,  seeing  matters  reduced  to  this  extremity, 
 marched  out  with  what  forces  he  had,  but  was  soon 
 defeated  and  slain.  Abimelech,  next  day,  stormed  the 
 place,  and  killed  all  the  inhabitants  that  came  in  his  way  ; 
 but  some  having  betaken  themselves  to  a  fort  belonging 
 to  the  temple  of  their  god  Berith,  he  set  fire  to  it,  and 
 destroyed  them  all  together. 
 
 During  these  times  of  confusion,  the  town  of  Thebez, 
 not  far  distant  from  Shechem,  revolted ;  and  Abimelech, 
 being  now  flushed  with  victory,  besieged  and  took  it ; 
 but  the  inhabitants  flying  to  a  strong  tower,  c  he  endea- 
 voured to  burn  that,  as  he  had  done  the  other,  but  not 
 with  the  same  success.  For  while  he  was  encouraging 
 his  men,  and  helping  them  to  set  the  gate  on  fire,  <*  a 
 woman  threw  down  a  piece  of  millstone  upon  him,  which 
 
 the  furies  are  appointed  by  the  gods  to  sow  the  seeds  of  discord 
 among  men. 
 
 Thus  having  said,  she  sinks  beneath  the  ground, 
 
 With  furious  haste,  and  shoots  the  Stygian  sound, 
 
 To  rouse  Alecto  from  the  infernal  seat 
 
 Of  her  dire  sisters,  and  their  dark  retreat. 
 
 This  Fury,  fit  for  her  intent,  she  chose  ; 
 
 One  who  delights  in  wars  and  human  woes. 
 
 And  a  little  lower, 
 
 'Tis  thine  to  ruin  realms,  o'erturu  a  stale, 
 Betwixt  the  dearest  friends  to  raise  debate, 
 And  kindle  kindred  blood  to  mutual  hate. 
 Now  shake,  from  out  thy  fruitful  breast,  the  seeds 
 Of  envy,  discord,  and  of  cruel  deeds : 
 Confound  the  peace  establish'd,  and  prepare 
 Their  souls  to  hatred,  and  their  hands  to  war. 
 
 f'iroil,  Mn.  7. 
 
 c  Jud.  ix.  51.  '  But  there  was  a  strong  tower  within  the 
 city,  and  thither  fled  all  the  men  and  women,  and  all  they  of  the 
 city,  and  shut  it  to  them.'  Besides  fortified  towns  and  cities, 
 we  find  that  in  the  time  of  the  croisades  they  had  towers  for  the 
 people  of  open  towns  to  fly  to  in  time  of  danger.  Thus  in  the 
 reign  of  Baldwin  the  Second,  when  the  strength  of  the  kingdom 
 was  collected  together  to  the  siege  of  Tyre,  the  people  of  As- 
 kalon  suddenly  invaded  the  country  about  Jerusalem,  and  put  to 
 the  sword  the  greatest  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  town  called 
 Mahomesia,  five  or  six  miles  from  Jerusalem.  But  tlie  old  men, 
 the  women,  and  the  children,  betaking  themselves  to  a  tower, 
 escaped.  {Gesta  Dei,  per  Francos,  p.  840.)  Towers  of  this  sort 
 appear  to  have  been  in  use  in  very  early  times. — Harmer,  vol.  2. 
 
 p.  2m. 
 
 d  Thus  Plutarch  relates,  that  Pyrrhus,  at  the  siege  of  Argos, 
 was  killed  by  a  woman  throwing  a  tile  upon  his  head ;  but  there 
 is  something  more  remarkable  in  Abimelech's  death  by  a  stone, 
 because,  as  he  slew  all  his  brethren  upon  one  stone,  for  him  to 
 die  by  no  other  instrument  carried  some  stamp  of  his  sin  upon  it. 
 The  manner  of  his  death,  however,  puts  me  in  mind  of  what  the 
 same  author  records  of  the  Spartan  general  Lysander,  who  fell 
 ingloriously  under  the  walls  of  Haliartus.   "  Thus  he  died,"  says 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c 
 
 409 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 fractured  his  skull ;  so  that  finding  himself  mortally 
 wounded,  he  called  to  his  armour-bearer  to  put  an  end  to 
 his  life,  that  it  might  not  be  said  he  died  by  the  hand  of 
 a  woman.  Thus  God,  in  his  abundant  righteousness, 
 punished  both  Abhnelech  and  the  men  of  Shechem 
 according  to  their  deserts  ;  and  within  the  space  of  three 
 years  after  their  crimes  were  committed,  made  them  the 
 instruments  of  each  others'  destruction. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Abimelech,  Tolah  the  son  of  Puah, 
 an  eminent  man  of  the  tribe  of  Issachar,  undertook  the 
 government,  and  continued  in  it  for  three  and  twenty 
 years.  He  dwelt  on  Mount  Ephraim,  near  the  centre 
 of  the  country,  that  the  people  might  with  more  con- 
 veniency,  resort  to  him  for  judgment ;  and  though  there 
 is  not  much  recorded  of  him,  yet  he  seems  to  have  been 
 a  prudent  and  peaceable  man ;  raised  up  to  reform  abuses, 
 to  put  down  idolatry,  to  appease  tumults,  and  heal  the 
 wounds  which  were  given  to  church  and  state,  during 
 Abimelcch's  usurpation. 
 
 He  was  succeeded  by  Jair,  a  Gileadite,  of  the  tribe 
 of  Manasseh,  the  first  governor  that  was  raised  up  out  of 
 any  of  the  tribes  beyond  Jordan,  and  who,  in  the  main, 
 seems  to  have  been  more  solicitous  to  a  aggrandize  his 
 own  family,  than  to  mind  the  concerns  of  religion.  For 
 during  his  administration  the  people  not  only  worship- 
 ped Baalim,  and  Ashtaroth,  as  they  had  frequently  done 
 before,  but  adopted  the  gods  likewise  of  every  neigh- 
 bouring nation,  of  the  Syrians,  the  Zidonians,  the  Am- 
 monites, the  Moabites,  and  the  Philistines  ;  so  that  God 
 being  enraged  against  them,  incited  the  Philistines  and 
 the  Ammonites  to  invade  them  on  all  quarters  in  one  and 
 the  same  year.  Nor  did  these  people  make  their  incur- 
 sions only  upon  the  tribes  that  were  on  the  east  side  of 
 Jordan,  but  passing  the  river,  gave  the  tribes  of  Judah, 
 Benjamin,  and  Ephraim,  no  small  molestation,  and  by 
 their  sundry  defeats,  made  them  feel  the  weight  of  their 
 power. 
 
 The  Israelites,  finding  themselves  not  able  to  cope 
 with  such  powerful  enemies,  grew  sensible  of  their  folly  ; 
 and,  to  recover  the  protection  of  God,  renounced  all 
 
 he,  "  but  not  like  Cleombrotus,  who  was  slain  while  he  was 
 gloriously  making  head  against  an  impetuous  enemy  at  Leuctra, 
 not  like  Cyrus,  or  Epaminondas,  who  received  a  mortal  wound, 
 while  he  was  rallying  his  men,  and  securing  to  them  the  victory. 
 These  great  men  died  in  their  callings.  They  died  the  deatli  of 
 kings  and  commanders:  whereas  he,  like  some  common  soldier, 
 or  one  of  the  forlorn  hope,  cast  away  his  life  ingloriously ;  giving 
 this  testimony  to  the  ancient  Spartans,  that  they  did  not  well  to 
 avoid  storming  of  walls;  in  which  the  stoutest  man  may  chance 
 to  fall  by  the  hand,  not  only  of  an  abject  fellow,  but  by  that  of  a 
 boy,  or  a  woman,  as  they  say  Achilles  was  slain,  in  the  gates  of 
 Troy,  by  the  hands  of  the  effeminate  Paris." — Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary, and  Plutarch's  Comp.  of  Lysunder  and  Sylla. 
 
 a  The  reasons  which  the  Scripture  gives  us  to  think,  that  he 
 really  did  aggrandize  his  own  family,  are,  1st,  because  he  is  said 
 to  have  thirty  sons,  that  rode  on  thirty  asses'  colts:  for  as  in  those 
 days  the  Israelites  had  but  few  chariots,  and  were  not  allowed  to 
 keep  many  horses,  the  most  honourable  of  them  were  used  to  be 
 mounted  on  these  creatures,  which,  in  the  eastern  countries', 
 were  much  higher,  and  more  beautiful  than  they  are  with  us. 
 2dly,  '  They  had  thirty  cities  or  villages,  called  after  their  own 
 name,  in  the  land  of  Gilead.'  For  as  we  read  that  Jair,  the  son 
 of  Manasseh,  went  and  took  the  small  towns  of  Gilead,  and  called 
 them  Ilavoth-jair,  (Num.  xxxii.  41.  and  Dent.  iii.  14.)  so  we 
 may  presume  that  this  Jair  who  was  afterwards  judge  of  Israel, 
 recovered  the  places  which  his  ancestor  conquered,  and  perhaps 
 added  some  more  to  them,  that  each  son  of  his  might  have  one. — 
 Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 A.  Iff.  4158.  A.  C.  12.r>3.  JUD.  i.  TO  THK  KND  OF  RUTH. 
 
 their  idols,  and  betook  themselves  to  his  service  in  good 
 earnest;  whereupon  *  his  mercy  returning  with  their 
 repentance,  he  soon  found  out  means  to  effect  their 
 deliverance. 
 
 There  was,  at  that  time,  in  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh, 
 which  settled  on  the  east  side  of  Jordan,  a  man  of  note 
 among  his  people,  whose  name  was  Gilead,  of  the  family 
 of  that  Gilead,  the  son  of  Machar,  to  whom  Moses  gave 
 the  1  city  of  Gilead,  from  whence  the  family  took  their 
 name.  This  man  had  by  his  wife  several  sons,  and  one 
 c  by  a  concubine,  whom  he  named  Jephthah  ;  but  when 
 his  sons  grew  up,  and  their  father  was  dead,  they  expel- 
 led Jephthah,  as  having  no  right  of  inheritance  with 
 them,  so  that  he  was  sent  to  seek  his  fortune,  and,  at 
 length,  settled  in  the  d  land  of  Tob  ;  where,  being  a  man 
 of  great  courage  and  bravery,  he  was  soon  made  the 
 captain  of  a  small  army,  with  whom  he  used  to  make 
 excursions  into  the  enemies'  country,  and  sometimes  bring 
 off  rich  spoils. 
 
 The  Ammonites  had  now  raised  a  large  army  with  a 
 design  to  invade  the  country  of  Gilead  itself.  The 
 Gileadites  on  the  other  hand,  were  resolved  to  defend 
 their  country,  and,  to  that  purpose,  had  got  together 
 
 1  Num.  xxxii.  29. 
 
 b  This  is  the  most  remarkable  repentance  and  reformation  that 
 we  meet  with  in  the  history  of  the  judges ;  and  it  seems  to  be 
 serious,  that  in  the  times  of  those  three  governors  who  succeeded 
 Jephthah,  we  read  nothing  of  their  relapsing  into  idolatry.  And 
 as  their  repentance  was  sincere,  so  the  expression  of  the  divine 
 compassion  towards  them,  namely,  '  that  his  soul  was  grieved 
 for  the  misery  of  Israel,'  (Judg.  x.  16.)  is  the  strongest  that  we 
 meet  with ;  though  every  one  knows,  that  the  divine  nature  is 
 not  capable  of  grief  properly  so  called;  but  the  meaning  is,  that 
 he  quite  altered  his  former  intention,  and  in  much  mercy,  resolv- 
 ed, upon  their  repentance,  to  deliver  them. 
 
 c  Several  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  the  word  Zonah 
 may  signify  either  one  of  another  tribe,  or,  one  of  another  nation; 
 and  so  Josephus  calls  Jephthah  %ivo;  -rtfi  <r<jv  /^uri^a,  a  stranger 
 by  the  mother's  side.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  among 
 the  Jews,  if  such  persons  as  were  deemed  strangers  embraced 
 the  law,  their  children  were  capable  to  inherit  among  the  rest  of 
 their  brethren.  Jephthah  indeed  complains  of  the  hard  usage  lie 
 met  with,  but  it  was  upon  this  occasion,  when  his  country  lie 
 found  stood  in  need  of  him ;  for  had  he  been  unjustly  dispossessed 
 of  his  right  of  inheritance  before,  we  can  hardly  suppose,  that  a 
 man  of  his  courage  and  martial  spirit  would  have  sat  down  con- 
 tented with  his  exclusion.  It  is  not  to  be  doubted,  therefore, 
 but  that  he  '  was  the  son  of  an  harlot,'  properly  so  called.  But 
 then  the  question  is,  why  God  should  make  choice  of  a  person  of 
 his  character  for  so  great  an  instrument  of  his  glory  ?  To  which 
 it  may  be  replied,  1st,  That  God  has  prescribed  laws  to  men,  but 
 none  to  himself;  and  can  therefore  alter  his  dispensations  as  he 
 pleases,  according  to  the  circumstances  and  exigencies  of  things. 
 2dly,  That  as  he  chooses  to  act  by  second  causes,  he  always 
 makes  use  of  such  instruments,  as,  all  things  considered,  are 
 properest  for  this  purpose,  without  regard  to  any  blemishes,  for 
 which  they  themselves  are  not  accountable:  and  3dly,  That  he 
 might  purposely  dispense  with  the  law  in  this  case,  to  show,  that 
 those  who  are  basely  born,  ought  not  to  despond,  but  by  a  virtu- 
 ous and  good  life,  expect  a  share  of  God's  blessings. — BoweWi 
 History,  b.  4.  in  the  notes.  [Although  it  is  asserted  above,  that 
 Jcphtliah's  mother  was  an  harlot,  this  is  by  no  means  clear; 
 as,  if  she  was  a  Canaanite,  (which  seems  very  probable,  and  in 
 addition  to  this,  was  only  a  secondary  wife,  or  concubine,)  then 
 Jephthah  could  not  have  a  title  to  a  share  of  the  inheritance.] — 
 Ed. 
 
 d  We  read  no  where  else  of  this  country,  which  very  probably 
 was  not  far  from  Gilead,  upon  the  borders  of  the  Ammonites,  in 
 the  entrance  of  the  Arabia  Deserta;  or  perhaps  it  is  the  same 
 with  what  is  called  Ish-tob,  (2  Sam.  viii.  0",  S.)  which  was  in 
 Syria,  and  so  near  the  Ammonites,  that  liny  hired  forges  from 
 thence,  as  well  as  from  other  nations,  to  fight  against  David. — 
 Patrick's  Com mentary. 
 
 3  F 
 
410 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.25S1.  A.  C.  1443  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 what  forces  they  could  ;  but  then  they  were  at  a  loss  for 
 a  general.  Jephthah,  they  knew,  was  a  man  of  courage 
 and  conduct,  who  had  signalized  himself  on  frequent 
 occasions  against  the  enemy ;  and  therefore,  in  a  full 
 assembly  of  their  chiefs,  it  was  resolved  to  send  him  an 
 offer  of  the  command  of  their  army.  Surprised  at  this 
 sudden  change,  and  remonstrating  a  little  their  former 
 unkindness  to  him,  he  consented  at  last  to  accept  of 
 the  command  ;  but  it  was  on  this  condition,  that  if  he 
 happened  to  be  successful  in  the  war,  they  should  estab- 
 lish him  their  governor  for  life,  which  they  readily  con- 
 sented to,  and  solemnly  ratilied.  Being  invested  with 
 this  power  and  authority,  Jephthah  sent  ambassadors  to 
 the  king  of  Amnion,  to  demand  the  reason  of  his  invad- 
 ing the  Gileadites;  to  whom  that  prince  replied,  that 
 their  land  was  his,  and  that  the  Israelites,  in  their  pas- 
 sage from  Egypt,  had  taken  it  from  his  ancestors,  which 
 he  now  intended  to  recover.  Jephthah  returned  him, 
 by  other  ambassadors,  in  answer,  that  if  either  conquest 
 or  prescription  conferred  a  title,  they  had  a  just  right 
 to  the  country  they  possessed,  since  they  took  it,  not 
 from  them,  but  from  the  Amorites,  and  had,  for  300  years, 
 been  in  quiet  possession  of  it ;  but  all  would  not  do. 
 The  Ammonites  were  resolved  upon  a  war,  and  Jephthah 
 made  all  things  ready  to  receive  them.  But  before  he 
 took  the  field,  he  made  a  vow,  that  if  he  returned  with 
 victory,  the  first  thing  that  came  out  of  his  house  to  meet 
 him,  he  would  certainly  offer  unto  the  Lord,  which  many 
 think  was  the  occasion  of  the  sacrificing  his  own 
 daughter. a 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  when  he  returned 
 out  of  the  country  of  Amnion,  where  his  battles  were 
 fought  with  success,  he  met  with  some  disturbance  at 
 home ;  for  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  not  long  after,  passed 
 the  river  Jordan,  on  purpose  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  him, 
 because,  as  they  pretended,  he  had  not  sent  for  them  to 
 join  the  army,  and  share  in  the  victory.  °  At  other 
 times  they  had  been  noisy  and  clamorous  enough,  but 
 now  they  proceeded  so  far  as  to  threaten  to  burn  his 
 house  over  his  head.  Jephthah  endeavoured  what  he 
 could  to  pacify  them  with  good  words  ;  but  when  he 
 found  that  reasoning  would  not  do,  he  fell  upon  them 
 with  his  army,  and  put  them  to  flight :  and  being  re- 
 solved to  hinder  them  from  giving  him  the  like  molesta- 
 tion any  more,  he  sent  and  secured  all  the  passes  over 
 Jordan  in  their  way  home  ;  so  that,  as  fast  as  they  came 
 thither,  if  upon  examination  they  owned  themselves 
 Ephraimites,  they  were  immediately  put  to  the  sword  : 
 
 a  Judges  xi.  30.  '  And  Jephthah  vowed  a  vow  unto  the  Lord.' 
 Though  he  did  not  doubt,  yet  he  supposed  that  he  should  be  more 
 certain  of  the  victory,  if  he  made  a  religious  vow  beforehand,  of 
 being  grateful  to  God  for  it.  In  this  he  acted  conformably  to 
 the  general  practice  of  great  warriors  in  all  ages.  Livy  fre- 
 quently mentions  it  as  the  custom  of  the  Roman  generals,  who 
 used  to  vow  to  Jupiter  or  Apollo  part  of  the  spoil  they  should 
 take  in  war,  or  to  build  temples  to  their  honour.  Thus  the 
 Israelites,  when  Arad  came  against  them  as  they  were  going  to 
 Canaan,  made  a  vow  respecting  his  country,  if  God  would  de- 
 liver it  into  their  hands. — Num.  xxi.  2. 
 
 b  Though  Gideon  had  called  the  Ephraimites  to  assist  in  the 
 pursuit  of  the  Midianites,  and  had  given  them  the  advantage  of 
 plunder,  and  the  honour  of  taking  Oreb  and  Zeeb,  two  princes  ot 
 Midian,  prisoners ;  yet,  because  they  were  not  called  at  first  to 
 the  battle,  they  took  upon  them  to  reprehend  him  very  sharply, 
 which  he,  like  a  prudent  man,  took  patiently,  and  pacified  them 
 with  good  words. — Howell's  History,  b.  4.,  in  the  notes. 
 
 M.  1458.  A.  C.  1253.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 if  they  denied  it,  they  had  c  the  test-word  Shibboleth 
 given  them,  which,  if  they  pronounced  it  Sibboleth,  dis- 
 covered their  country,  and  cost  them  their  lives ;  inso- 
 much, that  what  in  the  field,  and  what  on  the  banks  of 
 the  river,  no  less  than  d  4:2,000  Ephraimites  were  slain. 
 
 Thus  Jephthah,  having  delivered  his  country  from  the 
 attempts  both  of  foreign  and  domestic  foes,  lived  the 
 remainder  of  his  days  in  peace,  and  after  the  adminis- 
 tration of  public  affairs  for  six  years'  continuance  in  all, 
 he  died,  and  was  honourably  buried  in  his  own  country. 
 
 He  was  succeeded  by  Ibzan  of  Bethlehem,  who,  after 
 he  had  governed  seven  years,  was  succeeded  by  Elon, 
 of  the  tribe  of  Zebulun  ;  and  he,  after  he  had  ruled  ten 
 years,  by  Abdon,  of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  who  ruled 
 eight.  Of  these  judges  the  sacred  history  says  nothing 
 remarkable,  only  that  some  of  them  had  a  numerous 
 issue,  which  is  mentioned  to  show  that  the  government, 
 at  that  time,  was  not  hereditary. 
 
 During  the  administration  of  these  judges,  the  Israel- 
 ites, enjoyed  a  peace  of  three  and  twenty  years'  continu- 
 ance ;  but  when  they  relapsed  into  their  old  impieties, 
 God  suffered  the  Philistines  to  invade  and  oppress  them, 
 whereupon  Samson's  valiant  acts  began  to  display  them- 
 selves.    He  was  the  son  of  Manoah,  e  of  the  tribe  of 
 
 c  Nothing  is  more  notorious  than  that  the  people  of  the  same 
 nation,  who  speak  the  same  language,  differ  very  much,  in  their 
 pronunciation  of  it,  in  several  parts  of  the  country.  In  Pales- 
 tine, the  people  in  Galilee,  and  those  that  lived  in  Jerusalem, 
 spake  the  same  tongue,  and  yet,  in  the  time  of  Christ,  the  latter 
 could  tell  St  Peter,  that  his  '  speech  bewrayed  him,'  (Mat.  xxvi. 
 73.)  In  Greece  all  spake  Greek,  and  yet  the  Iouians,  Attics, 
 Dorians,  and  ^Eolians  pronounced  very  differently.  And  here, 
 though  the  Gileadites  and  Ephraimites  were  all  of  one  nation,  yet 
 the  latter,  we  find,  could  not  pronounce  the  letter  schin.  There 
 were  doubtless,  therefore,  many  other  words  which  they  could 
 not  frame  their  mouths  to  speak,  as  the  Gileadites  did,  but  this 
 one  was  chosen,  because  it  was  fit  for  their  purpose.  For  as 
 Shibboleth  signifies  floods  of  ivater,  the  Gileadites,  when  they 
 saw  any  Ephraimites  appear,  might  put  this  test  to  him,  and  bid 
 him  say,  Let  me  pass  over  tiie  water. — Le  Clerks  and  Patrick's 
 Commentaries. — In  Arabia,  the  difference  of  pronunciation  by 
 persons  of  various  districts  is  much  greater  than  in  most  other 
 places,  and  such  as  easily  accounts  for  the  circumstance  men- 
 tioned in  this  passage.  Niebuhr,  (Travels,  p.  72.),  relates 
 something  similar  to  it.  "  The  king  of  the  Hamjares,  at  Dha- 
 far,  said  to  an  Aral),  a  stranger,  Theb,  meaning  to  say,  Sit  down} 
 but  as  the  same  word  in  the  dialect  of  the  stranger  signified  leap, 
 he  leaped  from  a  high  place,  and  hurt  himself;  when  this  mis- 
 take was  explained  to  the  king,  he  said,  Let  the  Arab  who 
 cometh  to  Dhafar  first  learn  the  Hamjare  dialect."  He  further 
 says,  "  Not  only  do  they  speak  quite  differently  in  the  mountains 
 of  the  small  district  which  is  governed  by  the  imam  of  Yemen, 
 from  what  thoy  do  in  the  flat  country;  but  persons  of  superior 
 rank  have  a  different  pronunciation,  and  different  names  for 
 things  from  those  of  the  peasants.  The  pronunciation  of  certain 
 letters  also  differs.  Those  which  the  Arabs  of  the  north  and 
 west  pronounce  as  K  or  Q,  at  Muskat  are  pronounced  Tsch;  so 
 that  bukkra  kiab  is  by  some  called  butscher  tschiab." — Ed. 
 
 d  This  was  a  terrible  slaughter  for  one  tribe  to  make  of  another: 
 but  the  Ephraimites  seemed  to  have  deserved  it,  as  a  just  punish- 
 ment of  their  pride  and  insolence,  in  despising  so  great  a  man  as 
 Jephthah,  who  had  saved  all  the  people  of  Israel,  and  threatening 
 to  destroy  his  house,  after  so  glorious  a  victory;  in  reviling  their 
 brethren  likewise;  invading  them  without  a  cause,  and  attempt- 
 ing to  drive  them  out  of  their  country. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  As  the  tribe  of  Dan  lay  bordering  upon  the  Philistines,  it 
 was  most  exposed  to  their  incursions  and  invasions ;  and,  there- 
 fore, God,  out  of  that  tribe,  chose  Samson  to  be  a  scourge  to 
 them,  and  a  revenger  of  his  people,  which  is  very  agreeable  to 
 the  prophecy  of  Jacob,  when  he  blessed  his  sons,  a  little  before 
 his  death :  '  Dan  shall  be  a  serpent  by  the  way,  an  adder  in  the 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 411 
 
 A.  M.  25C1.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A, 
 
 Dean,  and  of  a  mother,  whose  name  we  nowhere  find  in 
 Scripture.  This  woman  was  a  long-  time  barren,  and 
 had  no  children  ;  and,  therefore,  when  an  angel  appeared 
 to  her,  while  she  was  alone,  and  gave  her  assurances 
 that  she  would  be  mother  of  a  son,  who  was  to  be  a 
 a  Nazarite  from  his  birth ;  to  drink  no  wine  or  strong 
 liquor  ;  and  *  never  have  his  hair  shaved  :  upon  her  tell- 
 ing her  husband  these  glad  tidings,  he  requested  of  God 
 to  vouchsafe  him  a  sight  of  the  same  heavenly  messenger, 
 which  accordingly  God  granted  him,  and,  when  Manoah 
 entreated  the  angel  to  accept  of  a  small  entertainment, 
 which  he  chose  rather  to  have  converted  into  a  sacrifice, 
 Manoah  made  ready  a  kid,  and  wine  for  libations  ;  and 
 having  placed  them  upon  an  altar  made  of  stone,  as  the 
 smoke  of  the  sacrifice  began  to  ascend,  the  c  angel 
 mounted  up  in  the  flame,  and  so  disappeared. 
 
 At  the  time  appointed  the  divine  promise  was  accom- 
 plished, and  the  woman  was  delivered  of  a  son,  whom 
 she  named  Samson.  While  he  was  yet  a  youth,  the  Spirit 
 of  God  began  to  appear  in  him,  and  to  exert  itself  in 
 some  notable  exploits  and  feats  of  activity,  in  what  was 
 called  d  the  old  camp  of  Dan,  lying  between  e  Zorah 
 
 path,  biting  the  heels  of  the  horse,  so  that  his  rider  shall  fall 
 backwards.' — Gen.  xlix.  17. 
 
 a  A  Nazarite  was  one  who,  under  the  Levitical  law,  either 
 to  attain  the  favour,  or  avert  the  judgments,  or  acknowledge  the 
 mercies  of  Almighty  God,  vowed  a  vow  of  particular  purity,  and 
 separated  himself,  for  so  the  word  signifies,  in  an  extraordinary 
 manner,  to  the  service  of  God.  The  time  of  this  vow  lasted 
 usually  for  eight  days,  sometimes  for  a  month,  and,  in  some 
 cases,  for  the  person's  whole  life.  During  this  time,  the  persons 
 (for  women  as  well  as  men  might  enter  into  this  engagement) 
 bound  themselves  to  abstain  from  wine,  and  all  strong  liquors: 
 not  to  cut  the  hair  of  their  heads:  not  to  come  near  a  dead 
 corpse,  nor  assist  at  a  funeral:  nay,  the  matter  was  so  high,  that 
 if  any  happened  to  die  suddenly  in  their  presence,  the  whole 
 ceremony  of  this  separation  was  to  begin  anew.  After  the 
 time  that  their  separation  was  ended,  they  were  to  ofler  such 
 sacrifices  as  the  law  appointed,  and  then,  being  absolved  from 
 their  vow  by  the  priest,  they  might  drink  wine,  and  use  the 
 same  freedom  that  other  people  did.  Samson's  Nazaritism, 
 to  which  he  was  consecrated  by  his  parents,  was  to  last  the 
 whole  term  of  his  life  :  but  his  frequent  intercourse  with  the  Philis- 
 tines, and  the  great  havock  and  slaughter  that  he  so  often  made 
 among  them,  would  induce  one  to  think,  that  lie  had  a  particular 
 dispensation  exempting  him  from  the  observation  of  some  of 
 the  foregoing  rules. — See  Num.  vi. :  Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's 
 Commentaries  upon  it;  and  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the 
 word. 
 
 b  Long  hair  was  esteemed  very  much  among  the  Jews;  and 
 such  persons  as  were  made  Nazarites  by  their  parents,  and  con- 
 secrated to  God  from  the  womb,  were  required  to  wear  their  hair 
 Jong  and  uncut,  because  it  was  a  token  not  only  of  beauty,  but  of 
 majesty  and  veneration. —  Howell's  History,  in  the  notes, 
 
 c  Angels'  bodies,  which  the  Platonists  called  ixvftxra,  or 
 vehicles,  are  not  subject  to  the  laws  of  gravity,  as  ours  are.  After 
 our  Saviour's  resurrection,  the  history  of  the  gospel  informs  us, 
 how  immediately,  and  in  an  instant,  his  body  could  move  from 
 place  to  place;  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder,  that  Manoah  and 
 his  wife  should  discover  the  person  that  appeared  to  them  to  be 
 an  angel,  by  the  manner  of  his  ascension. — Le  C/erc's  Comment. 
 
 ({This  camp  of  Dan  was  probably  the  place  where  the  Danites 
 made  their  encampment,  in  their  expedition  and  enterprise  against 
 Laish,  (Judg.  xviii.  1 1.>;  for  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  the  Phi- 
 listines, who  had  the  Israelites,  at  that  time,  entirely  under  their 
 Subjection,  should  sutler  them  to  have  any  standing  camp.  And 
 this,  by  the  bye,  is  a  good  argument,  that  the  story  of  Micah,  and 
 the  Danites'  expedition,  was  transacted  before  Samson's  time, 
 though  the  compilers  of  the  Bible  have  placed,  it  after. — HoweU's 
 History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 e  I  >oth  these  were  towns  in  the  tribe  of  Dan,  whereof  Zorah  lay 
 on  the  frontiers  of  Judah;  and  tor  this  reason  Rehoboam,  upon 
 the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  seems  to  have  kept  this  place,  though 
 
 M.  415S.  A.  C.  1253.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 and  Eshtaol,  the  place  where  he  was  born.  When  he 
 came  to  man's  estate,  he  fell  in  love  with  the  daughter 
 of  a  Philistine,  who  lived  at  Timnath  ;  and  though  his 
 parents  did  not  so  well  approve  of  the  match,  because 
 she  was  sprung  from  an  idolatrous  family,  yet,  such  was 
 their  tenderness  for  their  son,  that  they  indulged  his 
 passion,  and  went  both  of  them  with  him  to/  Timnath  to 
 treat  about  the  marriage.  As  they  were  on  their  journev, 
 and  Samson  was  straggling  a  little  from  the  company,  all 
 on  a  sudden  a  young  lion  came  running  at  him  with  open 
 mouth,  but  he  took  it,  and  slew  it  with  as  much  ease  as 
 if  it  had  been  a  kid  ;  and  some  time  after,  as  he  passed 
 that  way,  which  was  when  his  father  and  mother  went 
 with  him  to  solemnize  his  nuptials,  he  turned  aside  to  see 
 what  was  become  of  the  lion's  carcass,  and,  to  his  great 
 surprise,  found  a  s  swarm  of  bees,  and  some  honey  in  it, 
 which  he  took,  and  gave  part  of  it  to  his  parents,  but  did 
 not  tell  them  whence  he  had  it. 
 
 It  was  customary  in  those  days  to  continue  the  nuptial 
 entertainment  for  seven  days,  *  and,  to  do  the  bride- 
 groom greater  honour,  his  wife's  relations  had  brought 
 *  thirty  of  their  prime  youth  to  bear  him  company,  to 
 whom,  as  the  manner  then  was,  he  propounded  a  riddle, 
 J  which  if  they  could  explain  in  the  time  that  the  feast 
 
 lying  in  one  of  these  tribes,  and  to  have  fortified  it  for  a  barrier 
 town,  on  that  side  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah ;  as  he  did  also  Aija- 
 lon,  another  town  belonging  to  the  same  tribe. — JFells'  Geography 
 of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2.  c.  6. 
 
 f  It  is  not  improbably  thought,  that  the  place  which  is  called 
 Timnath,  (Josh.  xv.  10.)  and  Timnatha,  (Josh.  xix.  43.)  was  the 
 same  with  this.  It  was  assigned  at  first  to  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
 but  afterwards  to  the  tribe  of  Dan,  and  was,  in  all  likelihood,  the 
 place  whither  Judah,  the  patriarch  of  the  tribe  that  was  called 
 after  him,  went  up  to  his  sheep-shearers. — Gen.  xxxviii.  12. — 
 Wells'  Geography,  ibid. 
 
 g  Bees  are  observed  by  Aristotle  and  others  to  abhor  stinking 
 smells,  and  to  abstain  from  flesh;  which  has  made  some  think  it 
 strange,  that  a  swarm  of  bees  should  be  found  in  the  carcass  of  a 
 lion:  but  it  is  no  hard  matter  to  suppose  that  either  time  had 
 consumed,  or  birds  and  beasts  devoured  all  the  flesh,  so  that  no- 
 thing was  left  of  the  lion  but  the  skeleton,  in  which  the  bees  did 
 not  breed,  (for  the  notion  of  insects  breeding  in  that  manner  is  now 
 quite  exploded,)  but  only  settle  themselves,  when  they  swarmed 
 as  they  have  sometimes  done  in  dead  men's  skulls,  and  in  their 
 tombs. — BocharCs  Hieros.  part  2.  b.  4.  10;  and  Le  Clerc's 
 Commentary. 
 
 h  This  was  according  to  the  custom  of  all  countries;  it  was 
 called  by  the  Jews  the  nuptial  joy.  No  other  feast  was  to  be  in- 
 termixed  with  it,  and  all  labour  ceased  as  long  as  it  lasted. — 
 Seldm,  Uxor.  Heir.  b.  2.  c.  2.  p.  172. 
 
 i  During  the  time  of  the  marriage-feast,  which,  for  a  virgin, 
 lasted  seven,  but  for  a  widow,  only  three  days,  it  was  customary 
 among  the  Jews,  to  have  a  chosen  set  of  young  men,  whom  the 
 Greeks  call  Para/nymphs,  and  the  Hebrews  Seheliachim,  to  keep 
 the  bridegroom  company;  as  also  a  certain  number  of  young  wo- 
 men were  about  the  bride  all  this  time.  These  young  men  were 
 generally  of  the  bridegroom's  relations  and  acquaintance;  but 
 at  Samson's  marriage,  they  belonged  to  his  wife's  family,  and 
 were  sent,  as  some  of  the  Jews  think,  not  so  much  to  do  him 
 honour  at  the  time  of  his  nuptials,  as  to  be  a  guard  over  him, 
 lest  he  should  make  any  disturbance,  of  which  the  Philistines 
 «cre  afraid, when  they  understood  that  he  was  a  man  of  so  much 
 strength  and  might. — /.amy's  Introduction,  b.  1.  c.  14.;  and 
 Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Marriages  of  the  Jems. 
 
 /This  riddle  which  Samson  proposed  at  his  nuptials,  i 
 what  singular.  As  the  men  and  women  were  not  permitted  to 
 be  together  in  these  eastern  countries,  they  could  not  amuse  them- 
 selves with  their  conversation;  and  as  they  could  not  spend  their 
 time  merely  in  dull  eating  am!  drinking,  it  is  hence  presumed  that 
 their  custom  was,  in  their  compotations  and  leasts,  (as  we  find  it 
 afterwards  among  the  Greeks,)  to  propose  questions  and  hard 
 problems  to  be  rcaolvul,  in  order  to  exercise  the  wit  and  sagacity 
 
412 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443 ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 lasted,  he  obliged  himself  to  give  them  thirty  suits  of 
 clothes,  and  an  equal  number  of  shirts  ;  but  if  they  could 
 not,  they  were  to  forfeit  the  like  to  him.  The  words  of 
 the  riddle  were,  '  Out  of  the  eater  came  forth  meat,  and 
 out  of  the  strong  came  forth  sweetness  ;'  which  so  puzzled 
 the  young  men,  that  they  could  not  for  their  hearts  devise 
 what  it  meant ;  and  therefore  applying  themselves  to 
 Samson's  wife,  what  with  threats,  what  with  entreaties, 
 they  prevailed  with  her  to  get  the  secret  out  of  her 
 husband  :  which,  when,  with  much  importunity,  she  had 
 done,  she  told  it  them,  and  they  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
 feast,  gave  him  to  understand  that  they  knew  it.  He 
 told  them,  however,  by  whose  information  they  had  it, 
 and,  being  desperately  enraged,  went  down  to  a  Askelon 
 a  city  of  the  Philistines,  where  having  slain  l>  thirty  men, 
 he  gave  their  clothes  to  those  that  expounded  the  riddle  ; 
 but  taking  the  thing  very  ill  of  his  wife,  he  left  her,  and 
 went  down  to  his  father's  house,  while  she,  in  his  absence, 
 was  married  to  one  of  the  young  men  that  had  been  his 
 companion  all  the  wedding  week. 
 
 As  soon  as  his  resentment  was  abated,  and  his  anger 
 appeased,  Samson  took  a  kid  for  a  present  to  his  wife, 
 and  went  to  her  father's  house,  with  a  full  purpose  of  be- 
 ing reconciled  to  her  ;  but  to  his  great  amazement,  was 
 denied  admittance  to  her  room,  and  told  by  her  father 
 that,  upon  presumption  he  had  quite  forsaken  her,  he 
 had  married  her  to  one  of  his  companions,  but  had  ano- 
 ther daughter  younger,  and  more  beautiful,  that  was  at 
 his  service.  This  answer  was  far  from  satisfying  him  ; 
 and  therefore,  imagining  that  the  affront  was  not  so  much 
 the  act  of  his  father-in-law,  as  the  general  contrivance  of 
 the  Philistines,  he  turned  about  short,  and  vowed  revenge, 
 which  he  afterwards  executed  in  the  following  manner. 
 
 of  the  company. — Seldcn  de  Uxor.  Hebr.  b.  2.  c.  16.  But  as  to 
 this  riddle  of  Samson's,  some  people  are  apt  to  find  exceptions. 
 The  opposition,  they  say,  is  manifest  in  the  former  part  of  it,  but 
 not  in  the  latter;  for  weakness  is  opposed  to  strength,  not  sweet- 
 ness, whose  opposite  is  bitterness  or  sharpness.  But  Bochart  has 
 ingeniously  observed,  that  these  two  words,  strong  and  sharp, 
 are  oftentimes  used  promiscuously.  For,  in  the  Arabic  language, 
 the  word  mirra,  which  signifies,  strength,  comes  from  marra, 
 which  signifies  to  be  sharp  or  bitter;  and  so  it  is  in  the  Latin, 
 where  acer,  a  sharp  man,  is  as  much  as  a  valiant  man,  one  who 
 eagerly  (as  we  speak)  engages  his  enemy,  and,  what  is  more,  we 
 find,  in  some  of  the  best  authors,  this  particular  epithet  applied  to 
 lions,  "  The  impetuous  race  of  lions,"  (Ovid.  Fast.)  And 
 therefore  the  antithesis  of  the  word  is  this,' — "  Food  came  from 
 the  devourer,  and  sweetness  from  what  is  eager,  or  sharp,"  that 
 is  violent  and  fierce. — Patrick's  and  Le  Gere's  Commentaries. 
 
 a  It  is  a  city  in  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  situated  between 
 Azoth  and  Gaza,  upon  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  sea,  about 
 520  furlongs  distant  from  Jerusalem.  It  is  said  to  have  been  of 
 great  note  among  the  Gentiles,  for  a  temple  dedicated  to  Der- 
 ceto,  the  mother  of  Semiramis,  here  worshipped  in  the  form  of  a 
 mermaid ;  and  for  another  temple  of  Apollo,  where  Herod,  the 
 father  of  Antipater,  and  grandfather  of  Herod  the  Great,  served 
 a-  priest.  The  place  subsists  to  this  day,  but  is  now  very  incon- 
 siderable. Some  mention  there  is  made  of  the  wine  of  Askalon, 
 and  the  cypress-tree,  (a  shrub  that  was  anciently  in  great  esteem, 
 and  very  common  in  this  place,)  but  modern  travellers  say  no 
 such  thing  of  it  now. — Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word ;  and 
 Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament, ,  vol.  3. 
 
 b  It  may  well  be  questioned,  upon  what  occasion  Samson  could 
 meet  with  thirty  Philistines,  all  clothed  in  their  new  and  best 
 attire,  even  though  we  allow  that  he  went  with  a  disposition  to 
 pick  a  quarrel  with  them,  and  slay  them ;  but  then  it  is  but  sup- 
 posing, that  at  this  time,  there  was  a  merry-making,  either  in  the 
 fields,  or  in  the  city,  at  some  public  solemnity,  when  great  com- 
 panies used  to  be  gathered  together,  and  appear  in  their  best 
 apparel,  and  the  thing  is  done. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 By  some  means  or  other,  he  got  together  a  multitude 
 of  foxes  to  the  number  of  300  ;  and,  tying  them  two  and 
 two  together  by  the  tails,  with  a  lighted  torch  between 
 each  pair,  he  turned  them  into  the  standing  corn  at  dif- 
 ferent places,  and  so  not  only  set  the  field  on  fire,  but  the 
 vine  and  olive  yards  likewise,  insomuch  that  the  whole 
 country  was  in  a  blaze.  When  the  Philistines  under- 
 stood that  it  was  Samson  who  had  done  this,  in  revenge 
 to  the  affront  which  his  father-in-law  had  put  upon  him, 
 they  came  in  a  body  and  fired  the  house  over  his  head, 
 and  so  burnt  him  and  Samson's  wife  together.  This  was 
 a  fresh  provocation,  for  which  Samson  threatened  to  be 
 revenged  ;  and,  thereupon,  without  any  ceremony,  fell 
 immediately  upon  them,  and  <-"  slew  a  great  number  of 
 them. 
 
 Samson,  being  conscious  to  himself,  that  he  must  have 
 highly  provoked  the  Philistines  by  this  last  slaughter  of 
 them,  took  up  his  residence  thenceforwards  on  the  dtop 
 of  the  rock  Etam,  e  which  was  in  the  tribe  of  Judah. 
 Hereupon  the  Philistines  came  down  with  an  armed  force, 
 and  demanded  Samson  to  be  delivered  up  to  them.  The 
 people  of  Judah,  fearing  the  consequence  of  this  inva- 
 sion, detached  a  body  of  3000  men  to  Samson ;  who, 
 after  they  had  expostidated  the  injury  he  had  done  them 
 in  provoking  their  enemies  so  highly,  told  him  in  plain 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text,  according  to  our  translation  are, 
 '  And  he  smote  them  hip  and  thigh  with  a  great  slaughter,'  (Jud. 
 xv.  8.)  But  the  words  in  the  original  will  admit  of  this  signifi- 
 cation, "  He  smote  them  with  his  leg  on  their  thigh,  and  gave 
 them  great  hurts  or  wounds;'  and  to  justify  this  sense,  a  learned 
 commentator  supposes,  that  there  was,  at  this  time,  somewhere 
 among  the  Philistines,  wrestling  matches  and  other  rural  exer- 
 cises, to  which  every  one  was  invited,  and  that  Samson,  among 
 the  rest,  might  go  thither;  that  there  he  threw  great  numbers 
 of  the  Philistines,  who  might  value  themselves  upon  their  acti- 
 vity that  way;  and,  in  the  midst  of  the  grapple  with  them, 
 broke  their  thighs  with  a  kick  or  twist  of  his  leg.  If  this  suppo- 
 sition be  right,  the  phrase,  "  to  squeeze  the  leg  on  the  thigh," 
 seems  to  be  much  the  same  with  what  the  Greeks  call  trxsXi^uv ; 
 or  avotrxiX't^uv ;  for,  though  this  kind  of  exercise  grew  into  high 
 esteem  among  the  Grecians,  who  were  so  famous  for  their  gymnic 
 sports;  yet  that  wrestling  was  an  exercise  not  unknown  among 
 the  people  of  the  east  is  manifest  from  Gen.  xxv.  20.  xxx.  8.  and 
 xxxii.  24.  This  our  commentator  offers  but  as  a  conjecture  in- 
 deed ;  but  it  seems  much  more  feasible  than  the  interpretation 
 either  of  the  Vulgate  or  Chaldee  paraphrast. — Le  Clerc  in  locum. 
 
 d  This  was  a  strong  place  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  as  Josephus 
 relates  to  the  top  of  which  no  more  than  one  man  could  come 
 abreast,  and  therefore  easily  defensible ;  by  all  this,  however, 
 and  what  follows  in  this  history  of  Samson,  it  is  plain  that  he  had 
 no  commission  from  God,  nor  was  moved  by  any  extraordinary 
 impulse  to  make  open  war  (as  did  Gideon,  Jephthah,  and  others) 
 for  the  deliverance  of  Israel  from  the  yoke  of  the  Philistines,  but 
 only  to  weaken  them  and  keep  them  in  awe,  that,  out  of  dread  of 
 him,  they  might  be  less  cruel  in  their  oppression ;  and  that  this 
 was  all  that  God  intended  to  do  by  him,  is  pretty  plain  from  the 
 words  of  the  angel,  (Judg.  xiii.  5.)  '  He  shall  begin  to  deliver 
 Israel.' — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Judg.  xv.  8.  '  And  he  went  down  and  dwelt  on  Hie  top  oi 
 the  rock  Etam.'  It  appeals  that  rocks  are  still  resorted  to  as 
 places  of  security,  and  even  capable  of  sustaining  a  siege.  So  we 
 read  in  De  La  Roque,  (p.  205.)  "  The  Grand  Siguier,  wishing 
 to  seize  the  person  of  the  Emir,  gave  orders  to  the  Pacha  to  take 
 him  prisoner;  he  accordingly  came  in  search  of  him,  with  a  new 
 army  in  the  district  of  Chouf,  which  is  a  part  of  Mount  Lebanon, 
 wherein  is  the  village  of  Gesin,  and  close  to  it  the  rock  which 
 served  for  retreat  to  the  Emir.  The  Pacha  pressed  the  Emir  so 
 closely,  that  this  unfortunate  prince  was  obliged  to  shut  himself 
 up  in  the  cliff  of  a  great  rock,  with  a  small  number  of  his  officers. 
 The  Pacha  besieged  him  here  several  months,  and  was  going  to 
 blow  up  the  rock  by  a  mine,  when  the  Emir  capitulated. —  Tra- 
 vels in  Palestine. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c 
 
 413 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1413;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 terms,  that  they  were  come  to  seize,  and  deliver  him  up 
 to  the  Philistines. 
 
 Samson  submitted  to  have  himself  bound,  which  was 
 done  with  new  strong  cords,  upon  condition  that  they 
 themselves  would  not  side  with  the  enemy  against  him  ; 
 and  so  being  brought  to  the  place  where  the  Philistines 
 were  encamped,  they  now  thought  they  had  him  secure, 
 and  therefore  ran  out  with  joy  to  receive  him.  But  as 
 they  came  near  him,  he  snapped  the  cords  asunder,  and 
 happening  to  espy  a  fresh  jaw-bone  of  an  ass,  he  made 
 use  of  that  for  want  of  a  better  weapon,  and  therewitli 
 slew  no  less  than  a  thousand  men ;  from  which  achieve- 
 ment, the  place  was  afterwards  called,  either  simply  Lehi, 
 that  is,  the  jaw-bone,  or  Ramah-Lehi,  the  lifting  of  the 
 jaw-bone.  Fatigued  with  this  light,  and  being  now  ex- 
 cessively thirsty,  in  a  place  where  no  water  was  to  be  had, 
 he  made  his  supplication  to  God,  and  God  immediately 
 caused  a  fountain  of  delicious  water  to  issue  from  a  hol- 
 low rock  adjacent  to  Lehi,  wherewith  Samson  allayed  his 
 thirst,  and  was  revived  ;  and  from  this  event,  the  place 
 was  called  En-hakkor,  the  well  of  him  that  prayed, 
 ever  after. 
 
 After  this  action  Samson  made  nothing  of  the  Philis- 
 tines, but  went  openly  into  a  one  of  their  cities  called 
 Gaza,  and  took  up  his  lodging  in  a  public  house  of  en- 
 tertainment. The  governor  of  the  place  had  soon  intel- 
 ligence of  him,  and  sent  guards  to  beset  the  house,  and 
 to  watch  the  gates  of  the  city  for  his  going  out  next 
 morning  ;  but  Samson,  being  informed  of  this,  rose  in 
 the  midnight,  and  taking  the  two  gates  of  the  city,  gate- 
 posts, bars,  bolts,  chain  and  all,  he  laid  them  on  his 
 shoulders,  and  carried  them  to  the  top  of  an  hill,  J  that 
 looks  towards  Hebron,  and  there  left  them. 
 
 a  This  city  was,  by  Joshua,  made  part  of  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
 but,  after  him,  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines,  and  was 
 one  of  their  five  principalities,  situated  between  Raphia  and 
 Askelon,  towards  the  southern  extremity  of  the  promised 
 land.  The  advantageous  situation  of  this  place  was  the  cause 
 of  the  many  revolutions  to  which  it  became  subject.  At  first  of 
 all  it  belonged  to  the  Philistines,  but  in  Joshua's  time,  was  con- 
 quered by  the  Hebrews.  In  the  reigns  of  Jotham  and  Ahaz,  it 
 recovered  its  liberty,  but  was  conquered  by  Hczekiah.  It  was 
 made  subject  to  the  Chaldeans,  when  they  reduced  Syria  and 
 Phoenicia;  and  afterwards  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Persians. 
 They  were  masters  of  it  when  Alexander  besieged,  took,  and 
 demolished  it.  It  afterwards  rose  again,  but  not  nearly  of  the 
 same  magnitude,  under  the  name  of  Majuma,  which  underwent 
 as  many  vicissitudes  as  the  former.  The  kings  of  Egypt  had  it 
 for  some  time  in  possession:  Antiochus  the  Great  took  and 
 sacked  it;  the  Asmoneans,  or  Maccabees,  took  it  several  times 
 from  the  Syrians;  Alexander  Janiiicus,  king  of  the  Hebrews, 
 destroyed  it;  Gabinius  repaired  it.  Augustus  gave  it  to  Herod 
 the  Great;  Constantino  gave  it  the  name  of  Constantia,  with 
 many  independent  privileges,  in  honour  of  his  son;  but  the  em- 
 peror Julian  destroyed  and  deprived  it  of  all. — Calmct's  Dictio?i- 
 ary. — Gaza  lies  44  miles  south-west  of  Jerusalem,  and  about  one 
 mile  from  the  Mediterranean  sea,  in  long.  34°  40'  E.,  and  lat. 
 .'51°  25'  N.,  and  has  a  population  of  about  5000.  The  environs 
 are  exceedingly  fertile,  and  produce  pomegranates,  oranges,  dates, 
 and  flowers,  in  great  request  even  at  Constantinople.  The 
 manufacture  of  cotton  employs  500  looms  in  the  town  and  neigh- 
 bourhood.  There  are  likewise  great  quantities  of  ashes  made  by 
 the  Arabs,  and  used  in  the  manufacture  of  soap;  this  manufac- 
 ture has  lately  declined.  Gaza  is  at  present  divided  into  two 
 parts,  called  the  upper  and  lower.  Both  of  these  parts  taken 
 together  are  now  called  Gazara;  and  the  upper  part  where  the 
 castle  is  situated  has  the  same  name,  but  the  lower  part  is,  by 
 the  Arabs,  distinguished  under  the  name  of  Harel  el  Segiage. — 
 En. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  that  '  he  carried  them  up  to  the 
 
 .  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 At  length  a  more  fatal  adventure  than  any  of  these 
 befell  him  :  for  falling  in  love  with  a  beautiful  woman, 
 named  c  Delilah,  Avho  lived  in  the  vale  of  Sorek,  which 
 lay  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  he  was  so  infatuated  to  her, 
 that  he  lost  all  regard  to  his  own  safety.  The  princes 
 of  the  Philistines,  observing  his  passion  for  this  woman, 
 came  and  promised  her  d  a  round  sum  of  money,  if  she 
 would  learn  of  him,  and  discover  to  them  what  might  be 
 the  cause  of  this  his  wonderful  strength,  and  e  how  he 
 might  be  deprived  of  it.  This  she  undertook  to  do  ;  and 
 failed  not  to  employ  all  her  art  and  solicitation  to  get 
 the  important  secret  from  him.  For  some  time  he  amused 
 her  with  fictions,  and  made  her  believe,  that  his  strength 
 consisted  sometimes  in  one  thing,  and  sometimes  in 
 another;  first,  that  binding  him  with  bands  made  of 
 green  withes,  then,  that  tying  him  Avith  ropes  that  had 
 never  been  used,  and  again,  /weaving  his   hair  into 
 
 top  of  a  hill,  that  is  before  Hebron,'  (Judges  xvi.  3.) ;  but  the 
 word  which  we  render  ' before,'  does  equally  signify  'in  the 
 sight  of  Hebron;'  and  therefore,  since  the  distance  between 
 Gaza  and  Hebron  is  no  less  than  twenty  miles,  it  is  more  proba- 
 ble, that  the  hill  where  Samson  left  these  gates,  lay  between  the 
 two  cities,  and  in  view  of  both,  that  the  inhabitants  of  one  city 
 might  behold  them  to  their  confusion,  and  they  of  the  other,  to 
 their  encouragement  to  hope  for  a  future  deliverance. — Patrick's 
 Commentary . 
 
 c  It  is  certain  that  Sorek  was  a  place  in  the  land  of  Judea, 
 famous  for  choice  wines,  as  may  be  gathered  from  Gen.  xlvi. 
 11.;  Isaiah  v.  12.;  and  Jer.  ii.  21.,  and  lay  not  above  a 
 mile  and  a  half  from  Eshcol,  from  whence  the  spies  brought  a 
 bunch  of  grapes  for  a  sample  of  the  fruitfulness  of  the  country ; 
 but  whether  Delilah,  who  is  said  to  live  here,  was  a  woman  of 
 Israel,  or  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  Philistines,  (who  at  this 
 time  were  rulers  in  the  country  of  Judah,)  or  whether  site  was 
 his  wife,  or  an  harlot  only,  is  not  expressed  in  her  story.  St 
 Chrysostom,  and  others,  are  of  opinion  that  lie  was  married  to 
 her;  but  if  so,  some  mention,  one  would  think,  there  should 
 have  been  of  the  marriage  ceremonies  in  this,  as  well  as  in  Ins 
 former  wife's  case.  Nor  can  we  think  that  the  Philistines  would 
 have  been  so  bold  as  to  attempt  to  draw  her  into  their  party,  and 
 to  bribe  her  to  betray  him  into  their  hands,  had  she  been  his 
 lawful  wife.  It  appears,  indeed,  by  her  whole  behaviour,  that 
 she  was  a  mercenary  woman,  who  would  do  any  thing  to  get 
 money;  and  accordingly,  Josephus,  (Antiquities,  b.  5.  c.  1.,) 
 calls  her  a  common  prostitute  of  the  Philistines. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary, and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  princes  of  the  Philistines,  from  their  five  chief  cities, 
 Accaron,  Askalon,  Gaza,  Azoth,  and  Gath,  (I  Sam.  vi.  17.,) 
 are  supposed  to  be  five  in  number,  so  that,  if  they  made  her  a 
 common  purse,  as  we  say,  of  five  times  1100  pieces,  or  5,500 
 shekels  of  silver,  it  would  amount  to  about  343  pounds  fifteen 
 shillings. — Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 e  There  is  a  good  deal  of  probability  in  Josephus's  manner  Oi 
 telling  this  story,  namely,  That  while  they  were  eating  and 
 drinking  together,  and  he  was  caressing  her,  she  fell  into  an 
 admiration  of  his  wonderful  deeds;  and  having  highly  extolled 
 them,  desired  him  to  tell  her  how  he  came  so  much  to  excel 
 all  other  men  in  strength.  For  we  cannot  suppose,  that  she 
 came  bluntly  upon  him  all  at  once,  and  desired  to  know,  as  it  is 
 in  the  text,  'wherewith  he  might  be  bound  and  afflicted.'  This 
 had  been  discovering  her  wicked  design  against  him  at  once, 
 and  defeating  herself  of  an  opportunity  of  betraying  him;  anil 
 therefore,  we  must  conclude  thai  the  sacred  history  in  this  place, 
 as  it  frequently  does  elsewhere,  gives  only  the  sum  and  substance 
 of  what  Delilah  said  to  her  paramour,  without  taking  notice  of 
 all  the  cunning  and  artful  speeches  wherewith  she  dressed  it  up 
 — Le  Clcrc's  Commentary. 
 
 f  We  have  followed  in  this  passage,  which  indeed  is  a  very 
 obscure  one,  the  notion  of  the  learned  Spencer,  (On  the  I.mr  of 
 Moses'  Rites,  b.  3.  C.  0.  Dissert.  1.,)  concerning  the  hair  of  the 
 Nazarite;  but  a  learned  commentator  is  of  another  opinion, 
 namely,  that  Samson's  hair,  being  very  long,  was  interwoven 
 with  the  threads  and  warp  of  a  web  of  cloth.  And  to  this  im- 
 pose  he   supposes,  that  in  the  room  where   he   sometimes   slept 
 
414 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  1222 
 
 tresses,  and  so  filleting  them  up,  would  bereave  him  of 
 his  strength.  But  these  were  no  more  than  mock  stories, 
 for,  upon  trial,  she  found  that  all  these  signified  nothing ; 
 and  therefore,  betaking  herself  to  all  her  arts  and  wiles, 
 she  complained  of  his  falseness,  and  upbraided  him  with 
 his  want  of  love,  since  he  withheld  a  thing  from  her 
 which  she  was  so  impatient  to  know  :  and  thus,  by  daily 
 teazing  and  importuning  him;  she  prevailed  with  him  at 
 length  to  tell  her  the  secret,  namely,  that '  in  the  pre- 
 servation of  his  hair  (for  he  was  a  Nazarite  from  his 
 birth)  his  strength  and  security  lay.' 
 
 There  was  something  in  his  manner  of  telling  her  this, 
 that  made  Delilah  believe  she  had  now  got  the  true 
 secret  from  him  ;  and  therefore,  she  sent  word  thereof 
 to  some  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Philistines,  who  came  and 
 paid  her  the  money  they  had  covenanted  to  give  her : 
 and  when  she  had  cut  off  Ins  hair,  as  he  lay  sleeping  in 
 her  lap,  they  fell  upon  him,  bound  him,  and  put  out  his 
 eyes  ;  and  having  carried  him  to  Gaza,  they  shut  him  up 
 in  prison,  and  made  him  a  grind  in  the  mill  like  a  slave. 
 
 In  process  of  time,  however,  his  hair  grew  again,  and 
 with  it  his  former  strength  returned :  so  that,  when 
 several  of  the  princes  and  nobility  of  the  Philistines 
 were  met  in  a  general  assembly,  to  return  thanks  to  their 
 god  &  Dagon,  for  having  delivered  their  worst  and  sorest 
 
 upon  a  couch,  there  might  stand  very  near  a  loom,  wherewith 
 Delilah,  as  the  custom  then  was,  at  her  leisure  hours,  might  work 
 and  divert  herself;  and  that  now,  by  his  permission  and  conniv- 
 ance, she  might  take  the  locks  of  his  hair,  work  it  into  the  web, 
 and,  to  hinder  it  from  being  pulled  out,  secure  it  with  an  iron 
 pin  thrust  into  the  beam,  but  that  Samson,  when  he  awoke,  took 
 the  loom  along  with  him  at  his  hair.  And,  indeed,  without 
 some  such  supposition  as  this,  we  cannot  very  well  tell  what  to 
 make  of  his  going  away  with  '  the  pin  of  the  beam,  and  with  the 
 web.'   (Jud.  xvi.  14.) — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 a  Before  the  invention  of  wind  and  water  mills,  men  made 
 use  of  hand  mills,  wherewith  to  grind  their  corn ;  and  as  this  was 
 a  very  laborious  work,  we  find  masters,  especially  in  most  comic 
 authors,  threatened  their  servants  with  it,  in  case  of  any  delin- 
 quency. It  was  the  work,  indeed,  of  malefactors,  as  well  as 
 slaves ;  and  therefore,  it  seems  very  probable,  that  in  this  prison, 
 where  Samson  was  put,  there  was  a  public  mill,  as  Socrates 
 (Hist.  Ecdes.  b.  5.  c.  18.)  tells  us  there  were  several  afterwards 
 in  Rome,  in  the  time  of  Theodosius.  So  that  from  this  and 
 some  other  circumstances,  we  may  learn,  that  the  Philistines' 
 purpose  was  not  to  put  Samson  to  death,  even  as  they  had  pro- 
 mised Delilah  they  would  not,  but  to  punish  him  in  a  manner, 
 namely,  with  blindness,  hard  labour,  and  insults,  much  worse, 
 and  more  intolerable  than  death  itself. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  word  Dagon  is  taken  from  the  Phoenician  root  Dag, 
 which  signifies  a  fish  ;  and  accordingly  the  idol  is  usually  re- 
 presented, as  the  heathens  do  Tritons  and  Syrens,  in  the  shape 
 of  a  woman,  with  the  lower  parts  of  a  fish, — desinit  in  piscem, 
 mulier  formosa  superne. — For  this  reason  learned  men  have 
 imagined,  that  Dagon  was  the  same  with  Dereeto,  which  the 
 people  of  Askelon  worshipped,  and  near  which  place  there  was 
 a  great  pond  full  of  fish,  consecrated  to  this  goddess,  from  which 
 the  inhabitants  superstitiously  abstained,  out  of  a  fond  belief  that 
 Venus,  having  heretofore  cast  herself  into  this  pond,  was  meta- 
 morphosed into  a  fish.  The  learned  Jurieu  is  of  another  opinion, 
 namely,  That  Dagon  whose  termination  is  masculine,  both  in 
 sacred  and  profane  writings,  is  always  represented  as  a  male 
 deity,  and  may  therefore  very  properly  be  thought  to  be  the 
 Neptune  of  the  ancients.  The  Phoenicians  in  particular,  from 
 whom  both  the  Greeks  and  Romans  borrowed  their  gods,  living 
 upon  the  sea  coast,  and  by  their  navigation  and  commerce, 
 gaining  great  advantages  from  that  element  can  hardly  be  sup- 
 posed to  want  a  deity  to  preside  over  it.  Saturn,  and  his  three 
 sons,  Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Pluto,  were  their  principal  idols  : 
 and  as  Saturn  was  their  Moloch,  Jupiter  their  Baal,  and  Pluto 
 their  Baal-zebub;  so  have  we  reason  to  presume,  that  Neptune 
 was  their  Dagon.     This  however  will  not  hinder  us  from  sup- 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1443.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 enemy  into  their  hands ;  and  after  they  had  feasted  a 
 while,  and  were  now  grown  merry,  they  ordered  that 
 this  same  Samson  should  be  sent  for,  that  they  might 
 have  pleasure  in  ridiculing  his  misery,  and  making  sport 
 with  his  blindness,  and  accordingly  Samson  was  brought. 
 A  large  number  of  people  was  upon  this  occasion  met 
 together,  and  the  building  Avhere  the  feast  was  celebrated 
 had  oidy  two  large  pillars  to  support  the  roof.  After 
 the  Philistines  therefore  had  insulted  Samson  as  long  as 
 they  thought  fit,  he  desired  the  boy,  that  led  him,  to 
 guide  him  to  one  of  those  pillars  that  he  might  rest  him- 
 self a  little  against  it.  The  boy  did  so:  and  Samson, 
 by  this  means,  having  laid  hold  of  the  two  main  suppor- 
 ters, the  one  with  his  right  hand,  and  the  other  with  his 
 left,  after  a  short  ejaculation  to  God  for  the  restoration 
 of  his  former  strength,  he  gave  them  such  a  terrible 
 shake,  that  down  came  the  house,  and  crushed  no  less 
 than  three  thousand  persons  to  death  under  its  ruins, 
 and  Samson  among  the  rest. 
 
 c  Thus  died  this  hero,  in  the  midst  of  his  enemies,  as 
 he  desired  ;  and  when  his  relations  heard  of  his  death, 
 they  sent,  and  <*  took  away  his  body,  and  buried  it 
 honourably  in  the  sepulchre  of  his  fathers. 
 
 posing  that  there  might  be  two  deities,  a  male  and  a  female, 
 worshipped  in  the  same  country,  and  under  the  same  figure  or 
 form  :  and  that  as  the  pagan  theology  gives  Jupiter  a  Juno,  to 
 be  his  consort  in  heaven  ;  and  Pluto  a  Proserpine,  to  keep  him 
 company  in  hell  ;  so  Neptune  had  his  Amphitrite,  to  be  the 
 partner  of  his  liquid  empire  in  the  sea.  According  to  this  sup- 
 position, the  Dagon  of  Gaza  or  Ashdod  must  be  Neptune  and  the 
 Dereeto  of  Askelon,  a  few  leagues  distant,  Amphitrite,  the 
 daughter  of  Doris  and  Oceanus.  Nor  can  it  be  thought  incon- 
 gruous to  suppose  farther,  that  the  universal  god  of  the  sea  might, 
 in  one  place  be  represented  as  a  male,  as  at  Ashdod,  and  in  an- 
 other, as  at  Askelon,  as  a  female,  to  signify  the  fecundity  of  that 
 element,  which  produces  and  nourishes  so  many  living  creatures. 
 — Le  Clerc's  Commentary;  Calmct's  Dictionary  ;  and  Jurieu, 
 History  of  Opinions  and  Religion,  part  4.  c.  6. 
 
 e  It  is  made  a  question  among  the  casuists  and  divines,  whe- 
 ther Samson  ought  to  have  died  in  this  manner,  with  a  spirit 
 of  revenge  and  self-murder?  St  Austin  excuses  him  indeed, 
 but  it  is  upon  the  supposition  that  he  was  urged  thereunto  by 
 the  inward  motions  of  him  who  is  the  great  Arbiter  of  our  life 
 and  death  ;  and  St  Bernard  affirms  that  if  he  had  not  a  pecu- 
 liar inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  move  him  to  this,  he  could 
 not  without  sin  have  been  the  author  of  his  own  death  ;  but 
 others  maintain,  that  without  having  recourse  to  this  superna- 
 tural motive,  this  action  of  his  might  be  vindicated  from  his 
 office,  as  being  the  judge  and  defender  of  Israel,  and  that  ho 
 might  therefore  devote  his  life  to  the  public  good,  as  some 
 heathens  have  merited  the  commendation  of  posterity  by  so 
 doing,  without  having  any  thing  in  view  but  the  death  of  his 
 enemies,  and  the  deliverance  of  his  own  people. — Cohort's  Dic- 
 tionary ;  and  Saurin's  Dissertation  on  the  various  feats  of 
 Samson. 
 
 d  How  the  people  of  Gaza  came  to  permit  Samson's  relations 
 to  come  and  take  away  his  body,  is  not  so  obvious  to  conceive. 
 In  all  nations,  there  was  formerly  so  much  humanity,  as  not  to 
 prohibit  enemies  from  interring  their  dead,  nor  did  any  of  the 
 Israelites  join  with  Samson  in  his  enterprises  ;  he  stood  alone  in 
 what  he  did  :  but  this  last  slaughter  which  he  had  made  among 
 them,  might  have  provoked  them,  one  would  think,  to  some 
 acts  of  outrage  even  upon  his  dead  body.  It  is  to  be  observed, 
 however,  that  instead  of  any  acts  of  violence,  they  might  per- 
 haps be  much  humbled  and  mollified  by  this  late  disaster  ;  and 
 might /ear,  that  if  they  denied  him  burial,  the  God  of  Israel, 
 who  had  given  him  such  extraordinary  strength  in  his  lifetime, 
 would  not  fail  to  take  vengeance  of  them.  And  therefore,  dread- 
 ing his  very  corpse,  they  were  desirous  to  get  quit  of  it, 
 even  as  they  were  of  the  ark  afterwards,  and  glad  that  any  came 
 to  take  such  a  formidable  object  out  of  their  sight. — Patrick's 
 and  he  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 415 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  1.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 Judges,  which  in  Hebrew,  are  Shophetim,  were  a  kind 
 of  magistrates,  not  much  unlike  the  archontes,  among' 
 the  Athenians,  and  the  dictators,  among-  the  Romans. 
 
 The  Carthaginians,  a  colony  among  the  Tyrians,  had 
 a  sort  of  rulers,  whom  they  called  suffetes  or  shophetim, 
 much  of  the  same  extent  of  power  ;  and  Grotius,  in  the 
 beginning-  of  his  Commentary  on  this  book  of  Judges, 
 compares  them  to  those  chiefs  that  were  in  Gaul,  in 
 Germany,  and  in  Britain,  before  the  Romans  introduced 
 another  form  of  government.  Their  power  consisted  in 
 a  medium  (as  it  were)  between  that  of  a  king-  and  an 
 ordinary  magistrate,  superior  to  the  latter,  but  not  so 
 absolute  as  the  former.  They  were  indeed  no  more 
 than  God's  vicegerents,  and  every  attempt  to  raise  them- 
 selves to  regal  dignity  was  looked  upon  as  an  usurpa- 
 tion upon  his  right,  who  alone  was  to  be  considered  as 
 the  sovereign  of  the  Hebrews  ;  and  therefore  we  find 
 Gideon  refusing"  this  supreme  authority  when  it  was 
 offered  him  :  1  '  I  will  not  rule  over  you,  neither  shall 
 my  son  rule  over  you  ;  the  Lord  shall  rule  over  you.' 
 
 The  honour  of  these  judges  lasted  for  life,  but  their 
 succession  was  not  always  continued  ;  for  there  were 
 frequent  interruptions  in  it,  and  the  people  lived  often 
 under  the  dominion  of  strangers,  without  any  govern- 
 ment of  their  own.  According  to  common  custom,  they 
 were  generally  appointed  by  God.  The  gifts  which  he 
 invested  them  with,  and  the  exploits  he  enabled  them  to 
 do,  were  a  call  sufficient  to  that  office  :  but  in  cases  of 
 extreme  exigence,  the  people  sometimes  made  choice  of 
 such  as  they  thought  best  qualified  to  rescue  them  out  of 
 their  oppression,  without  waiting  for  any  divine  desig- 
 nation. 
 
 Their  right  extended  so  far,  as  to  arbitrate  in  all 
 affairs  of  war  and  peace,  and  to  determine  all  causes ; 
 but  then  they  had  none  at  all  to  make  any  new  laws,  or 
 lay  any  new  taxes  upon  the  people.  Their  dominion 
 did  seldom  reach  over  all  the  land ;  but,  as  it  often  hap- 
 pened, that  the  oppressions  which  occasioned  a  recourse 
 to  their  assistance,  were  felt  in  particular  tribes  or  pro- 
 vinces only  ;  so  the  judges  which  were  either  raised,  or 
 chosen  to  procure  a  deliverance  from  those  grievances, 
 did  not  extend  their  command  over  all  the  land  in  gen- 
 eral, but  over  that  district  only  which  they  were  ap- 
 pointed to  deliver. 
 
 In  short,  these  judges  were  by  their  office  the  protec- 
 tors of  the  laws,  the  defenders  of  religion,  and  the 
 avengers  of  all  crimes,  especially  of  that  of  idolatry ; 
 and  yet  it  must  be  owned,  that  these  were  men  of  the 
 like  passions  and  infirmities  with  others,  and  that  the 
 great  advantages  which,  under  God,  they  procured  for  the 
 Israelites,  did  not  exempt  them  from  that  frailty  which 
 is  incident  to  all  human  things. 
 
 The  sacred  story  indeed  tells  us,  that  2  '  the  Lord 
 raised  up  judges,  which  delivered  the  Israelites  out  of 
 the  hands  of  those  that  spoiled  them,'  and  that  '  when  he 
 raised  them  up,  he  was  with  them,'  that  is,  he  communi- 
 cated to  them  gifts,  both  natural  and  supernatural, 
 according  to  the  exigencies  of  his  people,  and,  in  all 
 
 1  Judg.  viii.  23. 
 
 Judg.  ii.  16,  18. 
 
 their  encounters  with  their  enemies,  attended  them  with 
 a  peculiar  providence  :  but  as  well  may  we  infer,  that 
 every  general  who  fights  the  king  of  England's  battles 
 with  success,  should  be  a  man  of  singular  sanctity,  as 
 that  those  who  were  employed  under  God  in  that  capa- 
 city, should  lead  lives  answerable  to  their  high  character. 
 The  power  of  working  miracles  is  not  always  accom- 
 panied with  a  holy  life.  Many,  that  shall  say  unto 
 Christ,  2  '  have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy  name,  and  in 
 thy  name  cast  out  devils,  and  in  thy  name  done  many 
 wonderful  works,'  by  reason  of  the  iniquity  of  their  lives, 
 shall  find  no  acceptance  with  him.  What  wonder  is  it 
 then,  to  behold  some,  both  kings  and  conquerors,  even 
 while  they  ride  in  triumph  over  the  vanquished  foes, 
 tamely  led  captive  by  their  own  passions  ;  so  that  while 
 we  cannot  but  admire  them  for  their  military  exploits, 
 we  are  forced  to  blame  and  censure  them  for  their  private 
 conduct  ? 
 
 To  mention  one  for  all,  Samson,  a  person  born  for 
 the  castigation  of  the  Philistines,  and  to  be  a  pattern  of 
 valour  to  all  succeeding  heroes,  forgot  himself  in  the 
 arms  of  a  Delilah,  and  to  the  passion  he  had  for  a  base 
 perfidious  woman,  sacrificed  those  gifts  which  God  had 
 bestowed  on  him  for  the  deliverance  of  his  church,  and 
 so,  to  all  ages,  he  became  a  sad  example  of  the  corrup- 
 tion and  infirmities  of  human  nature.  The  like  perhaps, 
 in  other  respects,  may  be  said  of  the  rest  of  the  judges  : 
 but  then  we  are  to  remember,  that  they  were  persons 
 under  a  particular  economy  of  providence  ;  that  their 
 conduct  therefore  is  no  direction  to  us,  though  their 
 passions  the  Almighty  might  make  use  of,  and  therefore 
 tolerate,  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  wise  ends : 
 * '  Howbeit,  they  meant  not  so,  neither  did  their  hearts 
 think  so,'  as  the  prophet  expresses  himself  upon  the 
 like  occasion. 
 
 Whether  it  be  lawful,  according  to  the  right  of  nature 
 and  nations,  for  subjects  to  rescue  themselves  from 
 tyranny  by  taking  away  the  life  of  the  tyrant,  and  to 
 recover  their  country,  which  has  been  unjustly  taken 
 from  them,  by  destroying  the  usurper,  is  a  question  that 
 has  been  much  debated,  and  what,  at  present,  we  need 
 not  enter  into,  for  the  vindication  of  Ehud's  fact.  It  is 
 the  observation  of  the  learned  5  Grotius,  that  the  autho- 
 rity of  the  king  of  Moab  was  never  legitimized  by  any 
 convention  of  the  Israelites,  and  consequently  that  they 
 were  at  liberty  to  shake  oft'  his  yoke  whenever  they 
 found  a  convenient  opportunity.  The  only  difficulty  is 
 6  whether  a  private  man  might  make  himself  an  instru- 
 ment in  effecting  this,  in  the  manner  that  Ehud  did?  But 
 to  this  it  is  replied,  that  Ehud  was  no  private  man,  but 
 acted  by  warrant  and  authority  from  God ;  and  to  this 
 purpose,  the  history  acquaints  us,  that 7  '  when  Ehud  had 
 made  an  end  of  offering  the  present'  which  the  Israelites 
 sent  to  Eglon,  he  was  upon  his  return  home,  and  '  had 
 gone  as  far  as  the  quarries  which  were  by  Gilgal.'  The 
 word  pesil,  which  is  here  rendered  quarries,  most  com- 
 monly signifies,  as  indeed  it  is  in  the  marginal  note,  as 
 well  as  the  Septuagint  and  Vulgate,  graven  images, 
 which  it  is  not  improbable  the  Moabites  had  set  up  in 
 this  placo-rather  than  any  other,  in  pure  contempt  of  the 
 
 '  Mat.  vii.  22.  *  Is.  x.  7. 
 
 On  the  law  of  War  and  Peace,  b.  J.  c.  4.  sect.  19. 
 
 6  Saurin'a  Dissertation  on  I  legion  killed  by  Ehud. 
 
 '  Judg.  iii.  11,  &c. 
 
416 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  418!).  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 God  of  Israel,  who  had  for  so  long  a  time  made  Gilgal 
 famous  by  his  presence  in  the  tabernacle  while  it  stood 
 there. 
 
 These  images  when  Ehud  beheld,  his  x  spirit  was 
 stirred  with  a  just  indignation  within  him  ;  and  therefore, 
 proceeding  no  farther  on  his  journey  home,  he  dismissed 
 his  attendants,  and  went  himself  back  with  a  resolution 
 to  revenge  this  affront  to  God,  as  well  as  the  oppression 
 of  his  people. 
 
 That  this  his  return  was  directed  by  a  divine  impulse 
 and  instigation,  is  evident,  I  think,  from  the  hazard  of 
 the  enterprise  he  was  going  upon,  and  the  many  unfa- 
 vourable occasions  that  accompanied  the  execution  of  it. 
 For,  how  could  any  man,  in  his  senses,  think  that  a 
 single  person  as  he  was,  should  ever  be  able  to  compass 
 the  death  of  a  king,  amidst  the  circle  of  his  guards  and 
 attendants  ?  How  could  he  expect  that  an  enemy,  as 
 he  was,  should  be  admitted  to  a  private  audience  ?  or  that, 
 if  he  should  prove  so  lucky,  the  king  should  be  so  far 
 infatuated  as  to  order  all  the  company  to  quit  the  room  ? 
 The  killing  the  king  must  have  been  a  great  difficulty 
 under  these  circumstances  ;  but  then  his  making  his  escape 
 had  all  the  signs  of  an  impossibility  in  it :  and  yet,  without 
 his  escaping,  the  design  of  delivering  his  country  must 
 have  been  abortive.  Upon  the  whole  therefore  it  appears, 
 that  nothing  but  a  divine  instinct  could  have  given  him 
 courage  to  set  about  the  thing ;  and  therefore  it  was  not 
 all  fallacy,  when  he  told  Eglon,  that '  he  had  a  message 
 from  God  unto  him,'  because  God  had  sent  and  commis- 
 sioned him  to  kill  him  :  so  that  what  he  did  in  this  case, 
 he  did  not  of  himself,  or  from  his  own  mere  motion,  but 
 by  virtue  of  an  order  which  he  had  received  from  God, 
 who  had  destinated  this  oppressor  of  his  people  to  this 
 untimely  kind  of  death. 
 
 This  seems  to  be  the  only  way  whereby  we  can  apolo- 
 gize for  Ehud,  in  a  fact  which  by  no  means  is  to  be  made 
 a  precedent,  and,  without  a  divine  warrant,  is  in  no  case 
 to  be  justified.  But  as  for  the  Holy  Scriptures,  wherein 
 this  action  is  related  simply,  and  without  either  dislike 
 or  approbation,  why  should  they  suffer  in  our  esteem 
 upon  that  account,  any  more  than  Livy,  Thucydides,  or 
 any  other  heathen  author,  for  recording  the  various 
 transactions,  and  some  of  them  full  as  base  and  barbarous 
 as  this,  that  happened  in  the  ages  whereof  they  treat  ? 
 
 It  is  a  mistake  to  think,  that  every  person  whom  the 
 Scripture  mentions,  nay,  whom  the  Scripture  commends 
 in  some  respects,  should,  in  all  others,  be  faultless  and 
 unblamable  ;  and  it  would  be  a  much  greater  imputation 
 upon  the  truth  and  authority  of  these  sacred  records,  if 
 the  people  of  God  were  all  made  saints,  and  no  black 
 actions  recorded  of  them ;  since  it  is  the  received 
 character  of  a  good  historian,  '  That  as  he  should  not 
 dare  to  relate  any  thing  that  is  false,  so  neither  should 
 he  conceal  any  thing  that  is  true.' 
 
 There  is  something  peculiar  in  relation  to  the  fact  of 
 Jael,  and  that  is  the  words  of  the  prophetess,  in  her 
 triumphant  song  :  2  '  Blessed  above  women  shall  Jael, 
 the  wife  of  Heber,  the  Kenite,  be  ;  blessed  shall  she  be 
 above  women  in  the  tent ;'  which  some  look  upon  as  a 
 commendation  of  Jael,  and  consequently  an  approbation 
 of  the  murder  of  Sisera  :   3  But   Deborah  herein  might 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 3  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 *  Judg.  v.  24. 
 
 only  prophesy  how  and  in  what  manner  the  Israelites 
 would  be  affected  towards  that  woman,  by  whose  means, 
 though  not  in  the  most  commendable  way,  they  had  been 
 delivered  from  a  very  dangerous  enemy. 
 
 It  is  natural  for  us,  when  at  any  time  we  are  rescued 
 from  an  adversary,  by  whom  we  have  suffered  much,  and 
 have  reason  to  dread  more  ;  it  is  natural,  I  say,  for  us 
 to  wish  well  to  the  person  by  whose  means  he  was  taken 
 off;  nor  are  we  apt  to  consider  the  action  according  to 
 the  measure  of  strict  virtue,  by  reason  of  the  benefit 
 which  accrues  to  us  thereby.  Deborah  might,  therefore, 
 mean  no  more  than  what  were  the  common  notions  of 
 mankind  in  a  case  of  this  nature.  But,  even  "  admitting 
 her  words  to  be  a  commendation  of  the  fact,  we  might, 
 very  likely,  perceive  several  reasons  for  it,  if  we  had 
 but  a  knowledge  of  some  circumstances,  which  we  may 
 reasonably  suppose,  though  the  Scripture  has  not  related 
 them  to  us. 
 
 It  is  certain,  that  the  Kenites,  descended  from  Hobab, 
 the  son  of  Jethro,  father-in-law  to  Moses,  were  4  at  first 
 invited  to  go  with  the  Israelites  into  the  land  of  Canaan, 
 and  were  all  along  kindly  treated  by  them.  They,  in- 
 deed, had  no  share  in  the  division  of  the  land,  nor  were 
 they  permitted  to  dwell  in  their  cities  ;  yet  they  had  the 
 free  use  of  their  country,  and  were  allowed  to  pitch 
 their  tents  (as  their  manner  of  life  was)  wherever  they 
 thought  fit  for  the  convenience  of  their  cattle,  though 
 generally  they  chose  to  continue  in  the  tribe  of  Judah. 
 By  this  means  a  strict  friendship  interfered,  and  a  firm 
 alliance  was  always  subsisting  between  the  Israelites 
 and  these  people  ;  whereas,  between  the  Kenites  and 
 Jabin,  there  was  no  more  than  a  bare  cessation  of  hos- 
 tilities ;  and  though  Heber  and  they  continued  neutral 
 in  this  war,  yet  it  was  not  without  wishing  well  to  their 
 ancient  friends  the  Israelites,  among  whom  they  lived. 
 
 Now,  it  is  a  received  maxim  among  all  civilians,  That 
 where  two  compacts  stand  in  competition,  and  cannot 
 be  both  observed,  the  stronger  should  always  have  the 
 
 4  Num.  x.  2D. 
 a  One  of  our  annotators  has  another  way  of  accounting  for  the 
 commendation  which  is  given  to  Jael  in  Deborah's  song,  and 
 that  is,  by  giving  up  the  divine  inspiration  of  it.  "  It  is  not  to 
 be  denied,"  says  he,  "but  that  there  are  some  words,  passages, 
 and  discourses  recorded  in  Scripture,  which  are  not  divinely  in- 
 spired, because  some  of  them  were  uttered  by  the  devil,  and 
 others  by  the  holy  men  of  God,  but  mistaken  :  such  is  the  dis- 
 course of  Nathan  to  David,  (2  Sam.  vii.  3.)  which  God  presently 
 contradicted,  (ver.  4,  5.)  and  several  discourses  in  Job,  which 
 God  himself  declares  to  be  unsound :  '  Ye  have  not  spoken  of  me 
 the  thing  that  is  right,  as  my  servant  Job  hath,'  (Job  xlii.  7.) 
 This  being  so,"  continues  he,  "  the  worst  that  any  malicious 
 man  can  infer  from  this  place  is,  That  this  song,  though  indicted 
 by  a  good  man  or  woman,  was  not  divinely  inspired,  but  only 
 composed  by  a  person  piously  minded,  and  transported  with  joy 
 for  the  deliverance  of  God's  people,  but  subject  to  mistake ;  who, 
 therefore,  out  of  zeal  to  commend  the  happy  instrument  of  so 
 great  a  deliverance,  might  easily  overlook  the  indirectness  of  the 
 means  by  which  it  was  accomplished,  and  commend  that  which 
 should  be  disliked.  If  it  be  urged,  that  the  song  was  composed 
 by  Deborah,  a  prophetess,  and  must,  consequently,  be  divinely 
 inspired,  the  answer  is,  1st.  That  it  is  not  certain  what  kind  of 
 prophetess  Deborah  was,  whether  extraordinary  and  infallible,  or 
 ordinary,  and  so  liable  to  mistake.  But,  2dly,  That  every  ex- 
 pression, even  of  a  true  and  extraordinary  prophet,  was  not 
 divinely  inspired,  as  is  evident  from  Nathan's  mistake  above 
 mentioned,  and  from  Samuel's  error  concerning  Eliub,  whom, 
 from  his  outward  stature  and  comeliness,  he  took  to  be  the 
 Lord's  anointed.''    V,l  Sam.  xvi.  6.) — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 417 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1 113  i  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 preference.  An  agreement,  for  instance,  says  Puft'en- 
 dorf, 1  that  is  made  with  an  oath,  should  always  super- 
 sede that  which  is  made  without  one.  It  is  but  supposing 
 then,  that  the  two  depending-  treaties  were  of  these  dif- 
 ferent kinds,  and  this  will  be  a  circumstance  in  favour 
 of  Jael  ;  but  then,  if  we  may  suppose  farther,  that  Jabin 
 was  a  grievous  tyrant,  and  Sisera  the  chief  instrument 
 of  his  tyranny  ;  this, 2  according  to  the  opinion  of  some, 
 will  supply  us  with  a  full  apology  for  what  she  did. 
 "  For  there  are  certain  monsters  in  nature,"  say  they, 
 "  in  whose  destruction  all  civil  society  is  concerned. 
 To  do  any  thing  to  preserve  them,  nay  to  slip  a  proper 
 opportunity  of  ridding  the  world  of  them,  whatever  terms 
 we  happen  to  be  under  with  them,  is  to  be  false  to  what 
 we  owe  to  the  whole  community,  under  the  pretence  of 
 fidelity  to  a  base  ally.  When  matters  are  come  to  such 
 an  extremity,  that  we  must  light  with  men,  as  we  do  with 
 wild  beasts,  fallacy  of  any  kind,  which  at  other  times  is 
 justly  detested,  may,  in  some  measure,  be  then  excused; 
 nor  have  they,  who,  in  their  dealings  with  others,  are 
 regardless  of  all  laws,  both  human  and  divine,  any 
 reason  to  complain,  if,  upon  some  occasions,  they  meet 
 with  a  retaliation.1' 
 
 Jael,  when  she  took  the  hammer  and  nail  in  her  hand, 
 might  have  this,  perhaps,  and  much  more,  to  say  in  her 
 own  vindication  :  but  what  absolves  her  most  effectually 
 with  us  is,  the  declaration  which  God  had  made  in  favour 
 of  the  Israelites,  by  the  wonderful  defeat  of  Jabin's 
 army,  and  the  direction  and  impulse  wherewith  he  excited 
 her  to  despatch  his  vanquished  general.  3  Had  she  been 
 left  to  herself,  she  would  have  been  contented,  one  would 
 think,  to  have  let  him  lain  still,  until  Barak,  who  was  in 
 pursuit  of  him,  had  come  up,  and  surprised  him.  To  fall 
 upon  him  herself  was  an  enterprise  exceeding  bold  and 
 hazardous,  and  above  the  courage  of  her  sex ;  and 
 therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that  if  it  was  God  who 
 inspired  her  with  this  extraordinary  resolution,  she  was 
 not  to  be  blamed,  notwithstanding'  the  peace  between 
 Jabin  and  her  family,  for  being  obedient  to  the  heavenly 
 impulse  ;  because  all  obligations  to  man  must  necessarily 
 cease,  when  brought  in  competition  with  our  higher  obli- 
 gations towards  God.  a 
 
 1  On  the  Law  of  Nature  and  Nations,  b.  4.  c.  2. 
 
 -  See  Le  Clerc's  Commentary,  and  Saurin's  Dissertation  on 
 Die  defeat  of  Jaliin. 
 
 3  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  3. 
 
 a  This  is  very  inconclusive  reasoning.  When  our  duty  to 
 God,  and  to  any  individual  man  become  inconsistent  with  each 
 other,  no  one  ever  supposed  that  the  latter  is  not  to  be  superseded 
 by  the  former;  but  I  am  not  aware  that  any  duty,  either  to  God 
 or  to  the  Israelites,  made  it  necessary  for  Jael  to  violate  the  laws 
 of  hospitality  to  Sisera  the  captain  of  the  host  of  Hazor.  The 
 house  of  Heber  her  husband  was  equally  at  peace  with  Israel  and 
 with  Jaban  king  of  Canaan.  The  Kenites  had  indeed  been  much 
 more  indebted  to  the  Israelites  than  to  the  Canaanites.  Jael 
 might  therefore  have  refused  to  receive  Sisera  under  her  roof, 
 because  she  could  not  protect  him  from  his  enemies  should  they 
 come  in  pursuit  of  him,  without  violating  an  obligation  much 
 stronger  than  any  under  which  she  was  either  to  him  or  to  his 
 master ;  but  when  he  came  under  her  roof  she  was  surely  to  pro- 
 tect him  as  far  as  that  superior  obligation  would  permit.  He 
 was  not  her  personal  enemy ;  and  granting  himself  and  his  mas- 
 ter, to  have  been  such  tyrants  as  our  author  supposes,  neither 
 Jael  nor  any  other  private  individual  had  a  right  to  rid  the  world 
 either  of  the  sovereign  or  of  his  servant,  by  treachery!  She  might, 
 without  the  breach  of  any  duty,  have  received  Sisera  into  her 
 tent;  but  when  she  had  received  him,  she  could  not,  without  in- 
 curring guilt  of  the  deepest   dye,  murder   him  with  her  own 
 
 Whoever  looks  into  the  catalogue  of  the  worthies 
 whom  the  author  of  the  Hebrews  enumerates,  will  soon 
 perceive,  that,  as  he  is  far  from  being  exact  in  the  order 
 wherein  he  places  them ;  so,  by  the  faith  for  which  he 
 commends  them,  he  means  no  more  than  a  belief  of  what 
 God  told  them,  and  ready  obedience  to  his  commands, 
 whenever  they  were  signified  to  them  by  a  proper  autho- 
 rity. Deborah  was,  at  this  time,  a  very  remarkable 
 woman,  famous  for  the  administration  of  justice,  and 
 determination  of  controversies  among  the  people ;  but 
 notwithstanding  this,  it  would  have  been  rashness  in 
 Barak  to  have  gone  upon  so  hazardous  an  undertaking 
 without  any  farther  assurance  than  this.  He  did  not 
 absolutely  refuse  to  go,  nay,  he  offered  to  go  upon  the 
 first  notice,  and  for  this  his  faith  is  commended  in  Scrip- 
 ture; but  then  he  was  minded  to  have  some  farther  con- 
 viction that  this  notice  was  from  God,  and  of  this  he 
 coidd  not  have  a  better  proof,  than  if  the  prophetess 
 herself  would  go  and  share  with  him  the  fate  of  the 
 battle. 
 
 The  enemy  was  as  formidable  a  one  as  ever  the 
 Israelites  had  to  encounter.  Nine  hundred  chariots  of 
 iron,  when,  4  In  times  of  greater  military  preparation, 
 Mithridates  had  but  100,  and  Darius  no  more  than  200 
 in  their  armies,  was  enough  to  inject  terror  into  any  com- 
 mander, whose  forces  consisted  all  of  foot,  and  had  no 
 proper  defence  against  these  destructive  engines.  Good 
 reason  had  he,  therefore,  to  apprehend,  that  the  people 
 would  not  so  readily  have  enlisted  themselves  into  the 
 public  service,  had  there  not  been  a  person  of  her  char- 
 acter to  appear  at  the  head  of  it.  She  was  a  prophetess, 
 and  had  received  frequent  revelations  from  God ;  and 
 therefore,  when  the  people  saw  her  personally  engaged 
 in  it,  they  would  be  the  apter  to  be  persuaded,  that  the 
 expedition  was  by  God's  appointment,  and  therefore, 
 without  all  peradventure,  would  be  attended  with  success. 
 And  as  Deborah's  joining  with  Barak  in  the  expedition 
 might  be  thought  a  good  expedient  to  raise  a  sufficient 
 number  of  forces  ;  so  might  it  equally  be  thought  a 
 means  effectual,  both  to  prevent  their  desertion,  and  to 
 animate  them  to  the  fight :  and  accordingly  s  Josephus 
 tell  us,  "  that  when  the  two  armies  lay  encamped,  one 
 within  the  sight  of  the  other,  the  Israelites  were  struck 
 with  such  a  terror  at  the  infinite  odds  of  the  enemy  in 
 numbers,  that  both  general  and  soldiers  were  once  upon 
 the  very  point  of  shifting  for  themselves,  without  so 
 much  as  striking  a  blow;  but  upon  Deborah's  assurance, 
 that  it  was  the  cause  of  God,  and  that  he  himself  would 
 assist  and  bring  them  oft',  they  were  prevailed  upon  to 
 stand  the  shock  of  the  battle." 
 
 4  Le  Clerc's  Commentary.  5  Antiq.  lib.  5.  c.  C. 
 
 hands!  She  could  not  indeed,  with  innocence,  have  gone  to  the 
 tent  door,  and  voluntarily  betrayed  him  to  Barak;  but  had  she 
 remained  quietly  within,  ami  Barak  had  come  to  demand  if  he 
 was  there,  she  could  not,  without  a  breach  of  the  higher  duty 
 which  she  oweil  to  Israel,  have  preserved  Sisera  at  the  expense 
 of  a  lie.  It  is  perfectly  in  vain  to  attempt  a  vindication  of  her 
 conduct;  for  God  can  never  have  authorized  falsehood  and  trea- 
 chery in  such  a  case  as  hers  with  Sisera;  nor  do  the  words  of 
 Deborah  at  all  imply  an  approbation  of  Jael's  moral  conduct. 
 They  are  merely  a  wish  or  prayer  that  she  might  be  rendered 
 happy  in  this  world,  for  the  services  that  she  had  rendered  to 
 Israel;  and  perhaps  it  is  not  possible  for  the  most  upright  mind, 
 in  such  circumstances,  to  avoid  the  forming  of  such  a  wish. — 
 Bishop  Gleig. 
 
 3  a 
 
418 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  H43;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 But  there  is  one  advantage  more  which  Barak  might 
 more  especially  promise  to  himself  in  having  Deborah's 
 company  in  this  expedition,  and  that  is,  that  he  might 
 not  want  an  oracle  to  resort  to  upon  any  emergency  that 
 might  happen  ;  because  he  was  persuaded,  that  God, 
 who,  by  her  means,  had  put  his  people  upon  this  enter- 
 prise, would  not  fail,  by  her  mouth,  to  direct  him  in  the 
 management  of  it.  And,  accordingly,  in  the  grand 
 point  of  all,  namely,  when  it  was  the  properest  time  to 
 engage  the  enemy,  we  find  the  benefit  which  he  received 
 from  her  company  and  conversation.  '  l  Up,'  says  she, 
 '  for  this  is  the  day  in  which  the  Lord  hath  delivered 
 Sisera  into  thy  hand.  Is  not  the  Lord  gone  out  before 
 thee  ?  So  Barak  went  down  from  mount  Tabor,  and 
 ten  thousand  men  after  him,  and  the  Lord  discomfited 
 Sisera,  and  all  his  chariots,  and  all  his  host,  with  the 
 edge  of  the  sword.' 
 
 The  faith  of  those  persons  whose  actions  are  recorded 
 in  the  Old  Testament,  and  fame  commemorated  in  the 
 New,  consisted,  as  we  said,  in  a  firm  belief  of  God's  de- 
 clarations, and  a  ready  obedience  to  his  commands  ;  and 
 how  can  we  account  Gideon  culpable  in  either  of  these 
 respects  ?  When  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  or  a  person 
 much  superior,  as  some  suppose,  appeared  to  him,  and 
 brought  him  the  news  of  God's  having  appointed  him  to 
 deliver  his  people  from  the  oppression  of  the  Midianites, 
 he  seems  indeed  at  first  to  be  willing  to  decline  the 
 office,  as  conscious  of  his  own  incapacity ;  but  desires 
 withal  to  have  some  conviction  given  him,  as  who,  upon 
 the  like  occasion,  would  not  have  desired  some  ;  that 
 the  messenger  came  from  heaven,  and  was  in  reality  no 
 impostor ;  but  when  once  he  was  satisfied  in  this,  he 
 never  pretended  to  dispute  the  divine  command. 
 
 He  knew  very  well,  that,  when  he  pulled  down  the 
 altar  and  grove  of  Baal,  he  must  necessarily  incense  the 
 whole  country  against  him,  and  run  the  hazard  of  his 
 own  life  ;  and  yet,  to  do  it  more  effectually,  he  took  to 
 his  aid  ten  of  his  father's  servants,  and,  that  he  might 
 meet  with  no  molestation,  did  it  in  the  night.     He  knew 
 very  well,  that  when  he  sounded  a  trumpet,  in  order  to 
 form  an  insurrection  in  the  country,  and  to  raise  some 
 forces  to  assert  his  nation's  liberty,  the  Midianites  would 
 interpret  this  as  an  open  declaration  of  war,  and  come 
 against  him  with  an  army  as  numerous  as  the  sand  on 
 the  sea  shore  for  multitude ;  but  this  he  mattered  not. 
 He  knew  that  two  and  thirty  thousand  men,  when  he  had 
 raised  them,  were  but  a  handful,  in  comparison  of  the 
 enemy  ;  and  yet,  to  see  two  and  twenty   thousand  of 
 these  desert  him  all  at  once,  and  of  the  ten  thousand 
 that  remained,  no  more  left  at  last  than  bare  three  hun- 
 dred ;  this  was  enough  to  stagger  any  one's  mind,  that 
 had  not  a  firm  reliance  on  the  word  and  promises  of 
 God.     He  knew,  that  three  hundred  men,  had  they  been 
 all  giants,  and  armed  cap-a-pee  with  coats   of  mail, 
 would  not  be  able  to  do  any  great  execution  against  so 
 numerous   a  foe  ;  but  when  he  found,  that,  instead  of 
 being  armed,  he  was  to  attack  the  enemy  naked,  and 
 instead  of  swords  and  spears,  as  usual,  his  soldiers  were 
 to  march  in  such  a  plight  as  never  was  seen  before,  with 
 every  one  a  light,  a  pitcher,  and  a  trumpet  in  his  hand ; 
 and,  when  they  came  up  with  their  enemy,  were  to  break 
 their  pitchers,  flourish  their  lights,  sound  their  trumpets, 
 
 .  M.  41S9.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 and,  instead  of  regular  fighting,  were  only  to  shout  and 
 roar,  like  so  many  men  either  mad  or  drunk ;  who  but  a 
 Gideon,  that  had  his  faith  confirmed  by  so  many  visions 
 and  miracles  before,  would  have  obeyed,  and  put  in 
 execution  such  orders  as  must  have  been  thought  wild, 
 frantic,  and  absurd,  had  they  proceeded  from  any  other 
 mouth  but  God's  ? 
 
 Well  therefore  might  he  be  allowed  to  request  a  repe- 
 tition, nay,  a  multiplication  of  miracles,  who  Mas  to 
 have  the  trial  of  his  faith  and  obedience  carried  to  such 
 an  extremity  :  but  the  truth  of  the  matter  is,  that  it  was 
 not  for  his  own  sake  that  he  made  this  request.  He  had 
 been  sufficiently  convinced  by  the  fire's  breaking  out  of 
 the  rock,  at  the  touch  of  the  rod  in  the  angel's  hand, 
 that  nothing  was  impossible  to  God,  and  that  the  means 
 which  he  directed,  how  incongruous  soever  they  might 
 appear  to  men,  would  certainly  not  fail  of  their  effect : 
 but  it  was  for  the  sake  of  his  allies  that  had  just  now 
 joined  him  in  this  expedition,  that  he  sent  up  this  peti- 
 tion to  God,  to  have  them  likewise  satisfied  ;  and  there- 
 fore we  may  observe,  that  when  all  the  quotas  were 
 come  up,  and  encamped  together,  then  very  likely  in 
 the  audience  of  the  whole  army,  he  requested  of  God, 
 '  2  and  said,  if  thou  wilt  save  Israel  by  my  hand,  as  thou 
 hast  said,  behold  I  will  put  a  fleece  of  wool  on  the  floor,' 
 &c.  It  was  for  their  sakes,  I  say,  that  the  miracles 
 were  wrought,  that  they  who  were  to  share  in  so  hazard- 
 ous a  war,  and  to  destroy  the  army  of  the  aliens  with  so 
 small  a  force,  nay,  with  no  force  at  all,  should  have 
 some  assurance  given  them,  that  the  God  of  Israel,  who 
 had  so  often  promised  their  forefathers,  that  if  they 
 would  continue  in  his  favour,  ' 3  one  of  them  should 
 chase  a  thousand,  and  two  of  them  put  ten  thousand  to 
 flight,'  was  determined  to  assist  them  in  this  enterprise. 
 If  ever  this  promise  was  literally  fulfilled,  it  was  in 
 this  defeat  which  Gideon  gave  the  Midianites  :  but  the 
 iii!:a!jitants  of  Succoth  and  Penuel,  it  seems,  made  but  a 
 jest  and  ridicule  of  it,  for  which  they  received  a  condign 
 punishment ;  but  of  what  kind  their  punishment  was, 
 commentators  are  not  so  well  agreed.  4  The  word  in 
 the  Hebrew  signifies  tltrashing ,  and  thence  it  is  gener- 
 ally inferred,  that  Gideon  caused  the  principal  men  of 
 Succoth,  who  had  denied  his  soldiers  provision  in  their 
 distress,  to  be  stripped  naked,  laid  flat  on  the  ground,  ° 
 and  a  good  quantity  of  thorns  and  briers  heaped  on 
 them;  that  so,  by  cart-wheels,  or  other  heavy  carriages 
 passing  over  them,  their  flesh  might  be  pierced  and 
 torn,  and  themselves  tortured,  if  not  quite  crushed  to 
 death. 
 
 This  was  a  punishment  not  much  unlike  what  David 
 inflicted  on  the  Ammonites,  after  he  had  taken  their  city 
 Kabbah  ;  but  the  Ammonites,  in  my  opinion,  did  not  so 
 much  deserve  it  as  these :  for  thus  stands  the  case. 
 Gideon  was  now  in  pursuit  of  two  kings,  who,  after  the 
 general  rout  of  their  army,  were  making  their  escape 
 with  a  party  of  five  thousand  men.  Coming  to  two 
 places  in  the  tribe  of  Gad,  who  were  Israelites  as  well 
 as  he,  and  equally  concerned  to  have  been  venturing 
 their  lives  for  the  public  liberty,  he  is  denied  a  small 
 refreshment   for   his   men,  fatigued   all  the    night  with 
 
 Jadg.ir.  14. 
 
 8  Judg.  vj.  37. 
 3  Dent.  *xxii.  30.    4  Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 a  This  vas  the  maimer  of  thrashing  their  corn  in  the  eastern 
 countries. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &<• 
 
 419 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  MALES, 
 
 fiwhtino-  for  them,  and  without  some  recruit,  in  no  con- 
 dition to  continue  their  pursuit :  so  that,  as  far  as  in 
 them  lay,  instead  of  assisting  their  gallant  countrymen, 
 who  had  merited  every  thing  from  their  hands,  these 
 Gadites  took  part  with  the  enemy,  and  did  what  they 
 could  to  facilitate  their  escape,  by  denying  some  relief 
 to  their  weary  pursuers.  By  the  right  of  war  Gideon 
 might  have  demanded  this  help  from  any  nation,  but  much 
 more  from  a  people  who  were  embarked  in  the  same 
 cause,  and  whose  refusal  of  so  small  a  boon  had  the 
 aggravation  of  perfidy  and  ingratitude,  as  well  as  hard- 
 heartedness,  to  inflame  its  guilt. 
 
 Nor  was  this  all.  His  brethren  the  Gadites,  not  only 
 refused  him  this  common  courtesy,  but  were  very  witty 
 likewise,  in  making  their  jests  and  sarcasms  upon  Gideon. 
 They  upbraided  him  with  the  smallness  of  his  army,  and 
 magnified  the  strength  of  his  enemies,  and  thereby  not 
 only  did  all  they  could  to  discourage  his  men  in  their 
 pursuit,  but  endeavoured  likewise  to  have  it  believed, 
 that  there  was  no  interposition  of  God  in  gaining  this 
 victory,  and  that  Gideon  would  never  be  able  to  accom- 
 plish it :  and  so,  to  their  other  vile  qualities,  they  added 
 insult  and  irreligion,  a  contempt  of  God,  and  a  dispar- 
 agement of  the  man  '  whom  the  Lord  had  made  so  strong 
 for  himself.'  And  therefore  it  is  not  at  all  to  be  won- 
 dered at,  that  Gideon,  under  all  this  exasperation,  should 
 choose  to  bring  the  two  captive  kings,  with  whom  they 
 had  upbraided  him,  in  triumph  to  these  two  places,  and 
 then  resent  the  affront  which  was  done  to  God,  as  well 
 as  himself,  by  making  a  severe  example  of  some  of  the 
 chief  offenders. 
 
 It  is  suggested  indeed  by  some,  that  Gideon  was  as 
 great  an  offender  as  any,  in  his  making  an  ephod  for  the 
 purpose  of  idolatry  ;  but  before  we  admit  of  so  rash  a 
 censure,  we  should  inquire  a  little  into  the  nature  of  this 
 ephod,  and  for  what  possible  purpose  it  was  at  first 
 made. 
 
 1  An  ephod,  we  know,  is  a  common  vestment  belong- 
 ing to  priests  in  general ;  but  that  of  the  high  priest  was 
 of  very  great  value.  This  vestment,  however,  was  not 
 so  peculiar  to  the  priests,  but  that  sometimes  we  find  the 
 laity,  as  in  the  case  of  David  bringing  home  the  ark  of 
 God,  allowed  to  wear  it :  and  therefore  some  have 
 imagined,  that  the  ephod  which  Gideon  made,  was  only 
 a  rich  and  costly  robe  of  state,  which,  on  certain  occa- 
 sions, he  might  wear,  to  denote  the  station  he  held  in 
 the  Jewish  republic.  But  if  his  intent  was  only  to 
 distinguish  himself  from  others  by  such  a  particular 
 vestment,  how  this  could  give  occasion  to  the  people's 
 falling  into  idolatry,  or  any  way  become  a  snare  to 
 Gideon  and  his  house,  we  cannot  conceive. 
 
 Others  therefore  suppose,  that  the  word  ephod  is  a 
 short  expression  to  denote  the  high  priest's  breastplate, 
 together  with  the  Urim  and  Thummim  ;  and  hence,  by 
 an  easy  figure,  they  are  led  to  think,  that  to  make  an 
 ephod  is  to  establish  a  priesthood ;  and  thereupon  con- 
 clude, that  Gideon's  crime,  in  making  this  ephod,  was 
 not  to  establish  idolatry,  but  only  to  institute  another 
 priesthood,  besides  that  which  God  had  appointed  in 
 Aaron  and  his  posterity :  and,  to  this  purpose,  they 
 suppose,  that  he  erected  a  private  tabernacle,  an  altar, 
 
 1  Le  Clerc's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries;  Pool  's  Annota- 
 tions, &c. 
 
 A.M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 a  mercy-seat,  with  cherubim,  &c.,  that  being  now  made 
 the  supreme  governor,  he  might  consult  God  at  his  own 
 house,  in  such  difficult  points  as  occurred  in  his  admin- 
 istration. 
 
 But  besides  that  it  is  not  easy  to  imagine,  that  a  man 
 familiar  with  God,  and  chosen  by  him,  as  Gideon  was, 
 should,  after  so  signal  a  victory  as  he  had  obtained 
 immediately  apostatize,  as  he  must  have  done,  had  he 
 set  up  an  oracle  in  his  own  house,  there  seems  to  have 
 been  no  manner  of  necessity  for  it,  because  Shiloh,  where 
 the  tabernacle  stood,  was  in  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  which 
 adjoined  to  that  of  Manasseh,  whereunto  Gideon  belong- 
 ed. 2  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten,  that  this  ephod  was 
 3  '  set  up  in  Oplirah,'  which  place  Gideon  4  quitted,  as 
 soon  as  he  had  resigned  his  public  employ,  and  retiring 
 to  a  country-house  of  his  own,  in  all  probability  left  this 
 ephod  behind  him  :  there  is  reason  therefore  to  believe, 
 that  the  design  of  setting  it  up,  was  merely  to  be  a 
 monument  of  his  remarkable  victory  over  the  Midianites, 
 in  like  manner  as  other  conquerors  had  done  before  him  ; 
 only  as  the  common  custom  was,  to  erect  a  pillar,  or 
 hang  up  trophies  upon  the  like  occasion,  he  chose  rather 
 to  make  an  ephod,  or  priest's  habit,  perhaps  all  of  solid 
 gold,  as  a  token  that  he  ascribed  this  victory  only  to 
 God,  and  triumphed  in  nothing  so  much,  as  in  the  refor- 
 mation of  the  true  religion  by  that  means.  This  was  an 
 action  of  no  bad  intent  in  Gideon,  though,  in  after-times, 
 when  the  people  began  to  return  to  idolatry,  and  had 
 this  fancy  among  others,  that  God  would  answer  them 
 at  Ophrah,  where  this  ephod  was,  as  well  as  his  taber- 
 nacle in  Shiloh,  it  was  perverted  to  a  bad  purpose.  But 
 as  this  abuse  arose  from  the  mad  caprice  of  the  people, 
 and  not  from  any  ill  intent  in  Gideon,  he  is  no  more 
 chargeable  therewith,  than  Moses  was  with  the  idolatrous 
 worship  which  the  Israelites,  in  future  ages,  paid  to  the 
 brazen  serpent,  which  he,  for  very  beneficial  purposes, 
 at  first  set  up. 
 
 It  is  generally  supposed,  5  that  the  sacred  history  has 
 not  furnished  us  with  a  complete  catalogue  of  the  several 
 judges  that  governed  Israel,  from  the  death  of  Joshua 
 to  the  reign  of  Saul ;  and  that  even  of  those  whom  it 
 takes  notice  of,  it  relates  nothing  but  what  was  most 
 remarkable  in  their  lives  and  actions  :  and  yet,  notwith- 
 standing this  conciseness,  it  is  far  more  exact  and  in- 
 structive than  the  history  of  Josephus,  to  which  '  Scaliger 
 seems  to  give  a  preference  above  all  others.  The  fault 
 of  Josephus,  as  any  one  may  perceive  it,  is  this  : — That 
 he  omits  the  account  of  several  miracles  which  the  Holy 
 Scripture  relates,  for  fear  that  other  nations,  to  whom 
 he  writes,  should  think  that  he  gives  too  much  into  the 
 marvellous,  though  at  the  same  time,  he  makes  no  scruple 
 of  sacrificing  the  glory  of  God  to  his  own  private  char- 
 acter. 
 
 For  this  reason  it  is,  that 7  he  says  nothing  of  the 
 angel's  touching  with  the  end  of  his  rod  the  sacrifice 
 which  Gideon  had  prepared,  and  so  causing  fire  to  flame 
 out  of  the  rock  and  consume  it;  nothing  of  the  two 
 signs  which  God  was  pleased  to  grant  him,  for  the  con- 
 firmation of  his  and  his  confederates'  faith,  exhibited  in 
 the  fleece's  being  at  one  time  wet,  and  at  another  dry  ; 
 
 Patrick's  Commentary.       ■  Jiuic.  viii.  27.       4  Jodg.  viii.  29. 
 
 4  Saurin's  Dissertation  on  I  legion  killed  by  Khud. 
 6  Pioleg.  de  Emend.  Temp.  7  Antiii.  b.  v.  c.  3. 
 
420 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 nothing1  of  his  zeal  in  demolishing  the  altar  and  gTOve 
 of  Baal,  for  which  he  drew  upon  himself  the  indignation 
 of  all  the  abettors  of  idolatry  ;  and  here,  in  the  matter 
 of  Shamgar,  he  suppresses  the  circumstance  of  his  slay- 
 ing 600  Philistines  with  an  ox-goad,  though  this  be  the 
 only  remarkable  action  recorded  of  him,  and  what  may, 
 not  improbably,  be  thus  accounted  for. 
 
 In  not  many  ages  after  this,  we  read  that  these  very 
 Philistines,  with  whom  he  had  here  to  do,  had  disarmed 
 the  Israelites  to  that  degree,  that  l  none  in  their  whole 
 army,  when  they  came  to  action,  had  either  sword  or 
 spear,  but  only  Saul  and  Jonathan  his  son  ;  nay,  that 
 they  would  not  so  much  as  suffer  a  smith  to  live  among 
 them,  for  fear  of  their  providing  themselves  with  military 
 weapons,  but  obliged  them  to  repair  to  them,  whenever 
 they  wanted  to  sharpen  or  repair  their  instruments  of 
 husbandry. 
 
 Now,  it  must  be  allowed,  that  the  Scriptures  say 
 nothing  of  any  such  reduction  as  this,  in  the  days  of 
 Shamgar :  but  if  such  was  the  policy  of  the  Philistines, 
 in  the  beginning  of  Saul's  reign,  why  may  we  not  sup- 
 pose that  it  commenced  some  time  sooner  ?  This  cer- 
 tainly the  Scripture  tells  us  expressly,  that  2 '  in  the  days 
 of  Shamgar,  the  highways  were  unoccupied,  and  the 
 inhabitants  of  the  villages  ceased,'  by  reason  of  the 
 Philistines,  who  came  and  plundered  the  country,  and 
 carried  off  what  booty  they  pleased,  without  molestation  : 
 and  therefore,  it  is  not  unlikely,  that  for  want  of  some 
 regular  arms,  whereof  the  Philistines  had  stripped  the 
 Israelites,  Shamgar  might  make  himself  a  goad,  so  well 
 contrived,  that  with  it  he  could  kill  any  man,  without 
 any  manner  of  suspicion  that  it  was  made  for  that  pur- 
 pose, but  only  for  common  use  ;  that  with  this  instrument 
 he  usually  went  to  plough  ;  a  and  when,  at  any  time,  the 
 Philistines  made  their  inroads  into  his  lands,  he,  with 
 the  assistance  of  his  servants,  who,  perhaps,  were  armed 
 in  the  like  manner,  fell  upon  them,  and,  at  several  times, 
 killed  to  the  number  of  GOO  of  them  in  the  space  of 
 about  twenty  years.  This  is  a  fair  analysis  of  the  sense 
 of  the  words  ;  and  where  is  the  great  incongruity  of 
 this?  Or  what,  indeed,  is  there  in  the  whole,  that  an 
 ordinary  master  of  a  family,  with  his  domestics  about 
 him,  might  not  do,  even  though  we  should  not  call  in 
 any  supernatural  strength  to  his  assistance  ? 
 
 There  is  more  reason,  however,  why  we  should  have 
 recourse  to  the  supernatural  aid  of  God,  in  Samson's 
 slaying  1000  of  these  Philistines,  at  one  heat  as  it  were, 
 Avith  no  other  weapon  than  the 'jaw-bone  of  an  ass.' 
 *  For  though  asses  in  Syria,  as  the  learned  affirm,  are 
 both  stronger  and  larger  than  what  we  have  with  us,  and 
 their  bones  consequently  fitted  for  such  hard  service  as 
 this ;  yet  it  must  be  owned,  that  it  was  by  the  wonderful 
 strength  that  God  infused  into  him,  and  not  to  any  apti- 
 tude of  the  instrument  he  made  use  of,  that  he  was 
 enabled  to  do  all  this  execution,  which  is  only  incredible 
 to  those  *  that  do  not  consider  the  power  of  God,  who 
 can  raise  our  natural  strength  to  what  degree  he  pleases, 
 and,  at  the  same  time,  enfeeble  the  spirits  of  those  who 
 oppose  his  designs,  in  such  a  manner,  that  they  shall 
 have  no  power  to  help  themselves. 
 
 1  I  Sam.  xiii.  20,  &c  *  Judg.  v.  6,  7. 
 
 *  Poole's  Annotations.  4  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  The  description  of  tli?  goad  in  common  use,  as  given  in  a 
 preceding  note,  renders  this  supposition  unnecessary. — Ed. 
 
 It  must  be  owned,  however,  that  there  are  some  cir- 
 cumstances in  this  transaction  which  might  possibly 
 intimidate  the  Philistines,  and  thereby  contribute  to 
 facilitate  the  slaughter  which  Samson  made  among  them. 
 The  people  of  Judah  had  now  prevailed  with  him  to 
 suffer  himself  to  be  bound,  and  conducted  to  the  Philis- 
 tines' camp.  The  Philistines,  as  soon  as  they  saw  him 
 coming,  ran  out  with  joy  to  receive  him,  and  very  likely 
 forgot  to  take  their  arms  with  them,  as  knowing  for  cer- 
 tainty, that  he  Mas  safe  enough  now,  and  bound,  as  we 
 say,  to  his  good  behaviour.  But  when,  contrary  to  their 
 expectation,  they  saw  him  first  break  the  cords  so  easily 
 and  suddenly,  and  then  coming  upon  them  with  such  fury 
 and  vengeance,  5  it  is  not  unlikely  this  might  put  them 
 in  no  small  confusion,  and  as  they  straggled  about  in 
 their  flight,  gave  him  the  opportunity  of  slaying  them 
 one  by  one,  as  he  came  up  with  them. 
 
 This,  we  must  allow,  is  the  highest  instance  of  per- 
 sonal prowess  that  we  any  where  read  of ;  and  yet  pro- 
 fane historians  inform  us  of  other  men,  who,  by  their 
 mere  natural  courage,  unassisted  by  any  divine  power, 
 (as  the  Scripture  informs  us  Samson  was,)  have  made 
 great  havock  among  their  enemies.  For  Flavius  Vopiscus 
 reports,  that  in  the  Sarmatic  war,  Aurelian  slew  forty- 
 eight  men  in  one  day,  and  in  several  days  b  950,  which 
 diminishes  the  wonder  of  this  achievement  of  Samson's 
 not  a  little  ;  especially  considering,  that  the  Philistines, 
 in  their  surprise,  might  think  that  this  was  all  a  trick  and 
 management  of  his  conductors  to  get  so  many  unarmed 
 men  into  their  power,  and  that  they  too  were  ready  to 
 fall  upon  them,  and  assist  him,  in  case  they  should  make 
 any  opposition  against  their  champion. 
 
 That  Samson,  after  so  long  a  fatigue,  should  be  almost 
 ready  to  c  die  with  thirst,  is  no  strange  thing  at  all ;  but 
 the  question  is,  how,  in  a  place  where  no  water  was,  he 
 came  to  have  this  thirst  allayed  ?  The  Hebrew  word 
 mactes  does  properly  signify  the  socket,  in  which  the 
 great  teeth  in  the  jaw  are  fastened  ;  and  from  hence 
 Bochart,  among  many  others,  endeavours  to  maintain  by 
 arguments,  that  God  made  one  of  these  teetli  drop  out 
 of  the  jaw,  wherewith  Samson  had  done  all  this  execu- 
 tion, and  immediately  a  stream  of  water  gushed  out  from 
 thence.  But  with  all  due  deference  to  the  learning  of 
 so  great  a  man,  6  it  is  somewhat  strange,  that  he  should 
 
 6  Patrick's  Commentary.  6  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Upon  this  occasion  the  boys  made  a  song,  not  much  unlike 
 that  which  Samson  made  of  himself,  (Judg.  xv.  16.),  which, 
 after  a  military  manner,  they  shouted  in  their  dances:  "  We,  a 
 single  man,  have  slain  a  thousand  men — a  thousand  we  have 
 slain — long  life  to  him  who  slew  his  thousands — no  one  has  as 
 much  wine  as  the  blood  shed  by  him." 
 
 c  Josephus  gives  us  a  strange  account  of  the  reason  of  Sam- 
 son's thirst,  and  what  there  is  no  matter  of  foundation  for  in  the 
 Scripture.  "  Samson,"  says  he,  "was  so  transported  with  the 
 thoughts  of  this  victory,  that  he  had  the  vanity  to  assume  the 
 honour  of  the  action  to  himself,  without  ascribing  the  glory  of  it 
 to  God's  power  and  providence,  as  he  ought  to  have  done.  But 
 while  this  arrogant  and  overweening  humour  was  yet  upon  him, 
 he  found  himself  seized  with  a  violent  parching  thirst,  which 
 gave  him  to  understand,  that,  after  all  his  successes,  he  was  but 
 flesh  and  blood  still,  and  liable  to  human  infirmities.  The  sense 
 of  this  disorder  brought  him  to  the  knowledge  of  himself,  and  to 
 a  penitent  confession  that  the  victory  was  God's,  and  that  lie  was 
 able  to  do  nothing  of  himself  without  the  divine  assistance.  He 
 begged  pardon  for  his  past  vanity  and  presumption.  His  prayers 
 were  not  in  vain;  for  immediately  there  gushed  out  of  a  rock, 
 that  was  hard  by,  a  stream  of  delicious  water  to  relieve  him  in 
 his  "aging  drought." — slntiquities ,  b.  5.  c.  I. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 42  J 
 
 A.  M.  25C1.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 not  observe,  when  he  had  this  passage  under  considera- 
 tion, that  such  a  miracle  as  this  would  be  inconsistent 
 with  the  words  which  follow  :  'wherefore  '  he  called  the 
 name  thereof,'  that  is,  of  the  fountain  of  water  which 
 gushed  out,  '  En-hakkor,'  or  '  the  well  of  him  that  cried 
 to  God,  which  is  in  Lehi  even  unto  this  day.'  Lehi  is 
 here  therefore  the  proper  name  of  a  place.  This  place 
 had  doubtless  its  appellation  from  this  adventure  of 
 .""ainson's  with  the  jaw-bone,  and  from  this  place  God 
 caused  a  spring  to  arise,  that  he  might  allay  his  hero's 
 thirst.  For  it  is  incongruous  to  think,  that  the  jaw  of 
 an  ass,  or  any  other  creature,  could  have  subsisted  to  the 
 time  when  the  author  of  this  book  of  Judges  lived  ;  or 
 (if  all  this  while  none  should  have  had  the  curiosity  to 
 take  away  this  wonderful  bone)  that  God  should,  out  of 
 the  socket  of  one  of  its  teeth,  cause  a  stream  of  water  to 
 flow,  by  one  continual,  useless  miracle. 
 
 It  must  then  be  a  mistake  in  our  version,  to  render 
 the  words,  '  God  clave  a  hollow  place,  which  was  in  the 
 jaw,'  when,' according  to  the  a  sense  of  the  ancients  upon 
 this  place,  they  should  be  translated,  '  which  was  in 
 Lehi.'  For  the  truth  of  the  matter  is,  that  though  this 
 jaw  be  long  extinct  and  gone,  yet  those  who  have  tra- 
 velled through  this  part  of  Palestine  do  inform  us,  that 
 in  the  suburbs  of  Eleutheropolis,  where  Lehi  very  likely 
 stood,  the  fountain  which  arose  upon  this  occasion  is 
 still  remaining,  and  called  the  fountain  of  the  jaw  to 
 this  day. 
 
 But  be  that  as  it  will,  whether  the  water  which  refreshed 
 Samson  in  this  his  distress  came  from  the  jawbone,  or, 
 others  think,  from  a  clift*  in  a  rock,  or  a  hollow  in  the 
 earth,  the  miracle  is  the  same,  though  it  may  not  be  im- 
 proper, whenever  we  can  by  an  easier  interpretation,  to 
 take  away  occasion  from  those  that  seek  occasion  to 
 disparage  the  oracles  of  God. 
 
 We  are  not,  however,  concerned  to  vindicate  Samson 
 in  all  his  extravagant  and  outrageous  actions;  such  as 
 his  marrying  an  idolatress,  and  then  leaving  her;  his 
 loving  lewd  women,  and  discovering  the  great  secret 
 whereon  his  all  depended  to  a  common  prostitute  ;  his 
 killing  some  and  maiming  others,  who  perhaps  had  never 
 done  him  any  personal  injury  ;  and  setting  the  whole 
 country  on  fire,  to  burn  their  corn-fields  and  vineyards, 
 with  many  other  things  that  might  be  alleged  against 
 him.  All  that  we  have  to  say  is,  that  God  raised  him  up 
 to  be  a  scourge  to  the  Philistines,  and  that  had  there  not 
 been  some  peculiarities  in  his  temper,  he  had  not  been 
 so  proper  an  instrument  in  his  hand  ;  or  that,  had  he  not 
 run  himself  so  often  into  praemunires,  he  would  not  have 
 had  so  frequent  occasion  to  employ  the  strength  which 
 God  had  given  him,  in  extricating  himself  from  thence 
 by  the  death  and  destruction  of  his  enemies.     Though 
 
 1  Judg.  xv.  19. 
 a  To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that  the  Seventy  inter- 
 preters, the  Chaldee  Paraphrast,  and  Josephus  in  his  history, 
 make  it  to  be  a  proper  name  of  a  place,  whence  the  waters  gushed 
 out.  The  words  in  the  Septuaghit  are,  '  God  clave  a  hollow 
 place  in  the  ground,  which  was  afterwards  called  Lehi,  or  Siagon, 
 and  out  of  it  issued  water.'  Josephus  is  quoted  before,  only  he 
 had  these  words  farther,  "which  rock,"  says  our  translator  of 
 Josephus,  "  from  the  exploit  of  Samson,  bears  the  name  of  a  jaw 
 unto  this  very  day."  And  the  words  of  the  Paraphrast  are 
 directly  to  the  same  purpose:  so  that  it  is  much  to  be  wondered 
 at,  how  so  learned  and  acute  a  man  as  Bochart,  should  overlook 
 these  sentiments  of  the  ancients.—  Le  Ckrc's  Commentary. 
 
 A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 therefore  there  was  no  fatality  in  making  him  of  this 
 unruly  disposition,  (for  that  he  contracted  himself,)  yet 
 there  was  a  wise  direction  of  God's  providence  in  making 
 his  rugged  temper  subservient  to  his  purposes,  and  even 
 out  of  his  faults  and  enormities  extracting  the  plagues 
 and  punishment  of  his  foes ;  for  2  '  surely  the  wrath  of 
 man  shall  praise  thee,'  says  the  Psalmist,  '  and  the  re- 
 mainder of  his  wrath  shalt  thou  restrain.'  This  we  may 
 lay  down  as  a  general  reason  for  God's  making  use  of 
 so  furious  an  instrument  as  Samson  was,  in  the  execution 
 of  his  will :  and  now,  let  us  examine  a  little  into  the 
 other  inconsistencies  which  some  pretend  to  espy  in  the 
 sequel  of  this  story. 
 
 A  certain  anonymous  author,  *  in  a  dissertation  upon 
 Samson's  foxes,  has  solved  the  whole  difficulty  of  that 
 piece  of  history,  if  we  will  but  admit  of  his  suppositions. 
 He  supposes  that  the  word  schualim,  which  we  render 
 foxes,  should,  with  a  little  variation,  be  written  schoalim, 
 which  denotes  sheaves,  or  rather  shocks  of  corn  ;  and 
 that  the  word  zanab,  which,  in  our  translation,  is  a  tail, 
 equally  signifies  the  extreme  or  outermost  part  of  any 
 thing.  Thus,  in  an  orchard  planted  in  the  form  of  a 
 quincunx,  the  farthermost  tree  is  called  zanab  ;  and,  in 
 like  manner,  the  extreme  or  outside  shocks  in  a  field 
 may  be  so  called  here  :  and  then  the  sense  of  the  words 
 will  be,  "  That  Samson,  at  different  places,  set  fire  to 
 300  shocks  of  corn,  which  stood  in  the  out  parts  of  the 
 fields  belonging  to  the  Philistines,  and  so,  by  the  fire's 
 spreading  from  shock  to  shock,  destroyed,  in  a  manner, 
 all  their  crop." 
 
 But  without  entertaining  any  novel  interpretation, 
 and  which,  upon  examination,  perhaps  will  hardly  bear 
 the  test,  we  may  adventure  to  say,  that  these  300  foxes, 
 which  Samson  is  said  to  have  caught,  are  not,  even  in  a 
 literal  sense,  so  incredible  a  thing,  nor  so  liable  to  ridi- 
 cule, as  some  may  imagine.  For  we  are  to  consider, 
 (as  the  learned  3  Bochart,  from  the  account  of  several 
 travellers,  evinces,)  that  the  whole  country,  especially 
 that  part  of  it  which  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Gad,  so 
 abounded  with  foxes,  that  from  them  4  several  places 
 took  their  names  :  that  under  the  name  of  foxes  may  not 
 improperly  be  comprehended  a  creature  very  much  like 
 them,  called  thoes,  which  go  in  such  herds,  that  200  of 
 them  have  been  seen  together  at  once ;  that  the  manner 
 of  catching  them  was  not,  as  we  may  imagine,  by  hunting 
 only,  but  by  snares  and  nets,  as  the  above-mentioned 
 author  plainly  demonstrates ;  and  that  Samson  did  not 
 do  this  alone  by  himself,  in  a  day  and  night's  time,  but 
 that,  being  assisted  by  his  servants  and  neighbours,  as 
 he  was  a  man  of  considerable  eminence  in  his  country, 
 he  might  possibly  be  some  weeks  in  accomplishing  his 
 design. 
 
 His  design,  however,  will  not  appear  so  romantic,  if 
 
 2  Ps.  lxxvi.  10. 
 3  Hieroz.  i.  3.  c.  10.  (  Judg.  i.  35. 
 
 6  Mr  Bernard,  in  his  Republic  of  Letters,  October,  1707,  p. 
 407.,  makes  mention  of  a  small  treatise  in  ISmo,  entitled  "  Dis- 
 sertation on  lialaam's  ass,  the  foxes  of  Samson,  the  jawbone  of 
 the  ass,"  &c,  from  whom  I  have  extracted  the  author's  senti- 
 ment, as  Mr  Bernard  has  represented  it;  but  could,  by  no 
 means,  meet  with  the  book  itself,  and  cannot  therefore  properly 
 enter  into  an  examination  of  the  author's  opinion.  However,  I 
 thought  convenient  to  make  mention  of  it,  because  there  seems 
 to  I"  something  ingenious,  as  well  as  singular  in  it. 
 
122 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 we  consider  what  collections  have  been  made  of  creatures 
 much  wilder  and  rarer  than  foxes  :  that  '  Lucius  Sylla, 
 when  he  was  praetor,  ordered  to  be  shown,  on  the 
 amphitheatre,  a  hundred  lions;  Julius  Caesar,  when  he 
 was  dictator,  four  hundred  ;  and  that  2  the  emperor  Pro- 
 bus,  at  one  spectacle,  exhibited  a  thousand  ostriches,  a 
 thousand  stags,  a  hundred  Lybian,  and  a  hundred  Sy- 
 rian leopards,  and  an  infinite  number  of  other  strange 
 creatures :  and  why  then  should  it  be  thought  to  be  a 
 thing  so  incredible,  as  to  need  the  intervention  of  a 
 miracle,  as  some  contend,  for  Samson,  with  the  assist- 
 ance of  his  friends,  who  might  be  let  into  his  design,  to 
 get  together,  in  some  time,  three  hundred  foxes,  in  a 
 country  that  everywhere  abounded  with  them  ? 
 
 Foxes,  we  are  none  of  us  ignorant,  are  very  apt  to  do 
 a  great  deal  of  mischief  wherever  they  abound,  and  3 
 therefore  Samson  might  have  this  farther  aim  in  collect- 
 ing so  many,  namely,  that  thereby  he  might  clear  his 
 own  country  of  such  noxious  animals,  and  at  the  same 
 time,  that  he  very  well  knew,  no  creature  could  be  more 
 convenient  for  his  purpose  of  annoying  and  detrimenting 
 his  enemies.  For  as  these  creatures  are  very  swift  of 
 foot,  and  have  a  natural  dread  of  fire,  they  could  not 
 well  fail,  when  once  they  were  turned  into  it,  of  setting 
 the  standing  corn  in  a  blaze,  and  then,  as  they  were  tied 
 in  couples,  tail  to  tail,  this  would  make  them  draw  one 
 against  the  other,  and  so  being  retarded  in  their  flight, 
 and  staying  longer  in  a  place,  they  would  give  the  fire 
 more  time  to  spread  itself,  and  make  a  conflagration 
 universal. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that  the 
 mustering  up  such  a  number  of  foxes,  in  order  to  burn 
 up  the  Philistines'  corn,  was  neither  a  foolish  nor  im- 
 practicable thing,  supposing  Samson  was  at  liberty  to 
 prosecute  his  revenge   in  this  manner.     a  But  for  his 
 
 '  Pliny,  b.  2.  c.  16.  2  In  Vopiscus  on  Probus. 
 
 :<  Calmet's  Commentary  on  Judg.  xxv. 
 a  Dr  Kennicott  contends  for  the  translation  noticed  above, 
 namely,  that  instead  of  fores  we  should  read  handfuls  or  sheaves, 
 but  this  meaning  does  not  seem  borne  out  by  the  use  of  the  word 
 in  other  places,  nor  is  it  supported  by  the  context  in  this  place. 
 The  following  strictures  on  this  criticism,  and  remarks  on  this 
 subject  generally,  we  quote  from  Dr  Harris's  Natural  History 
 of  the  Bible.  "  However  plausible  this  turn  may  seem,  I  think 
 that  it  is  as  far  from  the  sense  of  the  sacred  historian  as  it  is 
 from  our  translation,  which,  I  imagine,  truly  expresses  his 
 meaning.  For  the  word  -13S  lakar,  which  our  Translators  have 
 rendered  '  caught,'  never  signifies  simply  to  get,  take,  or  fetch, 
 but  always  to  catch,  seize,  or  take  by  assault,  stratagem,  or  stir- 
 prise,  &c,  unless  the  following  place,  1  Sam.  xiv.  47,  '  So 
 Saul  took  the  kingdom  over  Israel,'  be  an  exception.  Again, 
 admitting  the  proposed  alteration  in  the  word  Sjniv,  shuol,  it  will 
 be  difficult  to  prove  that  even  then  it  means  a  sheaf.  The  word 
 is  used  but  three  times  in  the  whole  Bible.  Its  meaning  must 
 be  gathered  from  the  connexion  in  which  it  stands  here.  The 
 first  place  is  1  Kings  xx.  10,  where  it  is  rendered  '  handfuls,' 
 not  of  grain,  but  of  dust.  '  The  gods  do  so  unto  me,  and  more 
 also,'  says  Benhadad,  king  of  Syria,  '  if  the  dust  of  Samaria 
 shall  suffice  for  handfuls  for  all  the  people  that  follow  me.'  In 
 Isaiah  xl.  12.  the  same  word  is  translated,  'the  hollow  of  the 
 hand.'  '  Who  hath  measured  the  waters  in  the  hollow  of  his 
 hand,  and  meted  out  the  heavens  with  a  span.'  The  last  place 
 in  which  the  word  occurs  is  Ezekiel  xiii.  9.  '  And  will  ye  pol- 
 lute me  among  my  people  for  handfuls  of  barley,  and  for  pieces 
 of  bread  ?'  The  connexion  here  with  pieces  of  bread  seems  evi- 
 dently to  point  out  to  us  handfuls  of  barley  in  the  grain,  not 
 handfuls  or  sheaves  in  the  ear  and  straw.  In  fine,  from  the 
 places  quoted,  taken  in  their  several  connexions,  the  word  plainly 
 appears  to  mean  a  measure  of  capacity,  as  much  as  the  hollow 
 of  the  hand  can  hold ;  as  a  hand-breadth  is  used  in  Scripture  for 
 
 righteousness  in  this,  and  many  of  his  other  proceedings, 
 we  are,  as  we  said  before,  no  ways  accountable,  unless  his 
 
 a  measure  of  extension.  Add  to  this,  that  in  all  other  places 
 of  Scripture  where  we  meet  with  the  word  handful,  that  is,  as 
 much  grain  in  the  stock  as  the  reaper  can  grasp  in  his  hand,  or 
 sheaf,  a  collection  of  such  handfuls  bound  together,  different 
 terms  from  that  in  dispute,  are  always  made  use  of  in  the  origi- 
 nal; as  Ruth  ii.  15,  16,  and  elsewhere. 
 
 "  The  supposed  incredibleness  of  the  stoiy,  as  it  stands  in  our 
 bibles,  is,  I  imagine,  the  only  reason  for  forcing  it  into  another 
 meaning.  The  language  of  the  critics  I  oppose,  is  this:  'The 
 action  of  Samson,  as  represented  in  our  translation,  is  so  ex- 
 traordinary, that  it  must  be  miraculous.  The  occasion  was  un- 
 worthy of  the  divine  interposition.  Therefore  the  Translators 
 of  the  Bible  must  in  this  particular  have  mistaken  the  meaning 
 of  the  sacred  historian.'  But  we  have  shown  above,  from  an 
 examination  of  the  principal  terms,  that  the  translation  is  just. 
 It  remains  then  to  be  shown,  either  that  the  occasion  was  not 
 unworthy  of  the  divine  interposition,  or  that  the  action  was  not 
 above  human  capacity.  The  latter,  I  am  fully  persuaded,  is 
 the  truth  of  the  case,  though  I  am  far  from  thinking  the  former 
 indefensible.  The  children  of  Israel  were,  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
 separated  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  for  this  purpose  more  es- 
 pecially, to  preserve  in  the  world,  till  the  times  of  general  refor- 
 mation should  come,  the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the  one  true 
 God.  At  sundry  times,  and  in  divers  manners,  did  the  Deity 
 for  this  end  interpose.  Many  instances  of  this  kind  are  recorded 
 in  the  book  of  Judges.  When  this  people  perverted  the  end  of 
 their  distinguished  privileges,  God  suffered  them  to  be  enslaved 
 by  those  idolatrous  nations  whose  false  deities  they  had  worshipped. 
 By  this  means  they  were  brought  to  a  sense  of  their  error;  and 
 when  they  were  sufficiently  humbled,  '  the  Lord  raised  up  judges, 
 which  delivered  them  out  of  the  hand  of  those  that  spoiled  them.' 
 Jud.  ii.  16.  In  such  a  state  of  servitude  to  the  Philistines  were 
 they  at  this  time.  Samson  was  raised  up  in  an  extraordinary 
 manner  to  be  their  deliverer;  and  his  intermarriage  with  the 
 Philistines  was  a  means  which  Providence  saw  fit  to  make  use 
 of  to  effect  their  deliverance.  Thus  the  affair  is  represented. 
 Samson  proposes  his  intentions  to  his  parents.  They  expostu- 
 late with  him.  '  Is  there  never  a  womau  among  the  daughters 
 of  thy  brethren,  or  among  all  thy  people,  that  thou  goest  to  take 
 a  wife  of  the  uncircumcised  Philistines  ?'  '  But  they,'  adds  the 
 sacred  historian,  '  were  ignorant  that  it  was  of  the  Lord,  that  he 
 sought  an  occasion  against  the  Philistines ;  for  at  that  time  the 
 Philistines  had  dominion  over  Israel.'  Though  Samson,  then, 
 might  propose  to  himself  nothing  more  in  forming  a  connexion 
 with  a  foreign  lady,  than  the  gratification  of  his  own  inclinations, 
 yet  we  are  warranted  to  say,  an  overruling  Providence  had  a 
 further  design.  The  same  may  be  affirmed  of  other  actions  of 
 Samson,  which  appear  to  have  proceeded  from  passions  of  a 
 more  rugged  complexion.  His  intention  in  them  might  be  un- 
 worthy of  a  divine  interposition;  but  the  end  which  God  had  in 
 view,  the  deliverance  of  a  people  chosen  to  preserve  his  worship 
 in  the  world,  would  make  it  highly  fit  and  necessary.  Nor 
 ought  it  to  be  reckoned  strange,  that  such  means  should  be  used ; 
 for  we  are  authentically  assured,  that  the  wrath  of  man,  and,  by 
 parity  of  reason,  other  passions  too,  are  sometimes  made  to  praise 
 the  Lord.  Thus  much  I  thought  necessaiy  to  say,  for  the  sake 
 of  those  to  whom  a  solution  on  natural  principles  shall  seem  un- 
 satisfactory.    Such  a  solution  I  now  proceed  to  give. 
 
 "  In  the  first  place,  it  is  evident  from  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
 that  Palestine  abounded  with  foxes,  or  that  animal,  be  it  what  it 
 will,  which  is  signified  by  the  Hebrew  word  Syiu>.  shuol.  This 
 appears  from  many  passages.  Psalm  Ixiii.  10;  Cant.  ii.  15; 
 Lam.  v.  IS;  1  Sam.  xiii.  17;  Josh.  xv.  28;  xix.  3.  From  their 
 numbers,  then,  the  capture  would  be  easy. 
 
 "  Further:  under  the  Hebrew  word  Sjw,  shuol,  was  probably 
 comprehended  another  animal,  very  similar  to  the  fox,  and  very 
 numerous  in  Palestine ;  gregarious,  and  whose  Persic  name  is 
 radically  the  same  with  the  Hebrew.  It  is  no  easy  matter  to 
 determine,  whether  the  Hebrew  Syw,  shuol,  means  the  common 
 fox  (canis  vulpes,)  or  the  Jackal,  (canis  aureus,)  "  the  little 
 eastern  fox,'  as  Hasselquist  calls  him.  Several  of  the  modern 
 oriental  names  of  the  jackal,  that  is,  the  Turkish  chical,  the 
 Persian  sciagal,  sciugal,  sciachal,  or  schacal  (whence  the  French 
 chacai,  and  English  jackal,)  from  their  resemblance  to  the 
 Hebrew,  favour  the  latter  interpretation.  Perhaps  the  term 
 may  include  both  animals,  although  it  seems  most  probable  that 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &r< 
 
 423 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 being  considered  as  a  chief  among  the  Israelites,  (whom 
 God  had  raised  up  to  annoy  the  Philistines,  and  in  such 
 methods  as  this,  rather  than  open  war,  to  weaken  them 
 by  his  personal  valour  and  strength,)  may  be  admitted  in 
 justification  of  what  he  did.     But  to  proceed. 
 
 1  Whether  Samson's  hair  was  the  physical,  or  only 
 moral  cause  of  his  strength,  needs  not,  I  think,  be  made 
 any  question.  For  though  plenty  of  hair  may  be  some 
 indication  of  bodily  strength,  yet  since  he  that  is  natur- 
 ally strong  becomes  not  less  so  by  having  his  hair  cut 
 oft',  though  this  was  certainly  the  case  of  Samson,  it 
 must  necessarily  follow,  that  his  hair  was  no  natural 
 cause  of  his  strength,  but  that  it  was  a  supernatural  and 
 
 1  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Samson. 
 it  was  the  jackal  that  Samson  employed.  Dr  Shaw  is  of  this 
 opinion,  and  observes,  that  "  as  these  are  creatures  by  far  the 
 most  common  and  familiar,  as  well  as  the  most  numerous  of  any 
 in  the  eastern  countries,  we  may  well  perceive  the  great  possi- 
 bility there  was  for  Samson  to  take,  or  cause  to  be  taken,  three 
 hundred  of  them.  The  fox  properly  so  called,  he  adds  is 
 rarely  to  be  met  with,  neither  is  it  gregarious."  So  Hasselquist 
 remarks:  "Jackals  are  found  in  great  numbers  about  Gaza;  and, 
 from  their  gregarious  nature,  it  is  much  more  probable  that 
 Samson  should  have  caught  three  hundred  of  them,  than  of  the 
 solitary  quadruped,  the  fox.*'  Allowing  this  to  be  the  animal, 
 the  story  is  easily  admissible  to  belief,  without  the  supposition 
 of  a  miracle.  For  it  is  not  said,  that  Samson  caught  so  many 
 foxes  in  one  hour,  or  one  day;  or,  that  he  caught  them  all  with 
 his  own  hands.  Being  then  judge  of  Israel,  he  might  employ 
 many  hands,  and  yet  be  said,  according  to  the  common  use  of 
 language,  to  do  it  himself. 
 
 "  Add  to  this,  that  the  season,  the  days  of  wheat  harvest,  was 
 extremely  favourable  for  hunting  these  animals;  and,  as  they 
 were  gregarious,  many  might  be  surrounded  or  entrapped  at  once. 
 
 "  I  shall  conclude  with  an  argument  more  iu  favour  of  the 
 justness  of  our  translation,  in  rendering  the  word  S>W,  shuol,  '  a 
 fox,'  not  a  sheaf.  It  has  been  esteemed  by  some  persons  of  ex- 
 tensive literature  to  be  a  demonstrative  argument.  I  shall 
 mention  it,  and  leave  it  to  stand  on  its  own  bottom.  At  the 
 feast  of  Ceres,  the  goddess  of  corn,  celebrated  annually  at  Rome 
 about  the  middle  of  April,  there  was  the  observance  of  this  cus- 
 tom,— to  fix  burning  torches  to  the  tails  of  a  number  of  foxes, 
 and  to  let  them  run  through  the  circus  till  they  were  burnt  to 
 death.  This  was  done  in  revenge  upon  that  species  of  animals, 
 for  having  once  burned  up  the  fields  of  corn.  The  reason,  in- 
 deed, assigned  by  Ovid,  is  too  frivolous  an  origin  for  so  solemn 
 a  rite;  and  the  time  of  its  celebration,  the  17th  of  April,  it 
 seems,  was  not  harvest  time,  when  the  fields  were  covered  with 
 corn, — '  vestitos  messibus  agros;'  for  the  middle  of  April  was 
 seed-time  in  Italy,  as  appears  from  Virgil's  Georgics.  Hence 
 we  must  infer  that  this  rite  must  have  taken  its  rise  from  some 
 other  event  than  that  by  which  Ovid  accounted  for  it;  and  Sam- 
 son's foxes  are  a  probable  origin  of  it.  The  time  agrees  exactly, 
 as  may  be  collected  from  several  passages  of  Scripture.  For 
 instance,  from  the  book  of  Exodus  we  learn,  that  before  the  Pass- 
 over, that  N,  before  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month  A  bib,  or 
 March,  barky  in  Egypt  was  in  the  ear;  (xii.  IS;  xiii.  4.)  And 
 in  eh.  ix.  31,  38,  it  is  said,  that  the  wheat  at  that  time  was  not 
 grown  up.  Barley  harvest,  then,  in  Egypt,  and  so  in  the  coun- 
 try of  the  Philistines  which  bordered  upon  it,  must  have  fallen 
 about  the  middle  of  March.  Wheat  harvest,  according  to  Pliny, 
 N.  II.  lib.  viii.  c.  7,  was  a  month  later.  'In  Egypt  barley  is 
 reaped  on  the  sixth  month  after  sowing,  corn  on  the  seventh.' 
 Therefore,  wheat  harvest  happened  about  the  middle  of  April; 
 the  very  time  in  which  the  burning  of  foxes  was  observed  at 
 Rome. 
 
 "  It  is  certain  that  the  Romans  borrowed  many  of  their  rites 
 and  ceremonies,  both  serious  and  ludicrous,  from  foreign  nations: 
 and  Egypt  and  Phoenicia  furnished  them  with  more,  perhaps, 
 than  any  other  country.  From  one  of  these,  the  Romans  might 
 either  receive  this  rite  immediately,  or  through  the  hands  of 
 their  neighbours  the  Carthaginians,  who  were  a  colony  of  Phoe- 
 nicians; and  so  its  true  origin  may  be  referred  back  to  the  story 
 which  we  have  been  considering." 
 
 M.  4189.  A.  C.1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH, 
 miraculous  gift,  not,  s perhaps  always  inherent  in  him, 
 but  only  dispensed  at  certain  times,  when  the  Spirit  of 
 God  came  upon  him.  3  It  depended  indeed  on  the 
 covenant  made  between  God  and  him,  the  sign  of  which 
 covenant  was  his  hair  ;  and  therefore  when,  in  com- 
 pliance to  his  harlot,  he  suffered  his  hair  to  be  cut  off 
 he  broke  the  covenant  with  God,  and  forfeiting  the  spirit 
 of  strength  and  courage,  was  left  to  his  own  natural 
 weakness,  and  so  became  an  easy  prey  to  his  enemies. 
 But  having  been  now  a  considerable  time  in  prison, 
 wherein  he  was  cruelly  used,  he  began  to  repent  no 
 doubt  of  his  folly  ;  and  therefore  making  fervent  sup- 
 plications to  God  for  pardon  of  the  violation  of  his 
 Nazaratism,  he  renewed  his  vow,  and  so,  being  restored 
 to  the  condition  he  was  in  before  he  lost  the  favour  of 
 God,  his  strength  began  to  grow  and  increase,  in  pro- 
 portion as  his  hair  did. 
 
 When  his  hair  was  thus  grown,  and  his  strength  re- 
 turned, it  is  made  a  question,  whether  the  house,  as  it 
 is  called  in  Scripture,  which  he  pulled  down,  was  the 
 temple  of  Dagon,  for  whose  honour  this  festival  was  ap- 
 pointed, or  some  other  edifice  ? 
 
 That  it  was  not  a  common  house,  is  evident  from  the 
 multitude  of  the  people  which  it  contained ;  and  though 
 the  temples  of  the  Philistines  are  supposed  *by  some  to 
 have  been  of  the  same  figure  and  make  with  those  in 
 Egypt,  that  is  a  kind  of  rotunda,  flat-roofed,  with  a  large 
 portico  without,  and  pillars  within  to  sustain  the  build- 
 ing; yet  this  seems  to  be  no  more  than  a  fiction,  devoid 
 of  all  authority,  and  accommodated  to  the  purpose  of 
 solving  this  difficulty.  It  is  not  certain,  that  the  Egyp- 
 tian temples  were  built  in  this  manner,  and  much  more 
 probable  it  is  that  this  house  of  their  famous  god  Dagon 
 was  made  of  stone  ;  and  though  it  wanted  no  proper 
 supports,  yet  it  is  scarce  supposable,  that  in  a  structure 
 of  this  kind,  the  whole  weight  should  be  supported  by 
 two  pillars  only,  and  these  so  very  contiguous,  that 
 Samson  could  lay  hold  on  them  both  at  one  time. 
 
 The  most  general  opinion,  therefore,  is,  that  this  was 
 a  structure  which  the  Philistines  made  use  of,  upon  such 
 occasions  as  this,  built  all  of  wood,  and  supported  by 
 wooden  pillars,  in  the  form  of  the  theatres  which  in  af- 
 ter-times were  in  great  request  among  the  Romans.  To- 
 wards the  middle  of  this  building,  we  may  suppose  that 
 there  were  two  large  beams,  upon  which  the  weight  of 
 the  whole  structure  lay  ;  and  that  these  beams  were  sup- 
 ported by  two  pillars,  which  stood  in  a  manner  conti- 
 guous to  each  other.  So  that,  as  soon  as  Samson  had 
 moved  and  unsettled  these,  down  must  the  principals, 
 and  with  them  the  whole  building,  come.  The  only  re- 
 maining difficulty  is,  how  a  building  made  of  wood,  and 
 supported  by  two  pillars  only,  should  be  able  to  contain 
 such  a  multitude  of  men  and  women  ?  But  whoever 
 reads  '«  Pliny's   Natural    History,    will   therein    find   a 
 
 *  Patrick's  Commentary.  3  Collier's  Introduction. 
 4  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 a  The  words  of  Pliny  upon  this  occasion  are  so  very  remark- 
 able, that  I  thought  it  not  improper  to  quote  them.  '  He  erected 
 two  vast  wooden  theatres,  suspended  each  on  a  hinge  that  rested 
 on  a  moveable  pillar:  while  the  forenoon  spectacle  of  the  games 
 was  exhibiting,  they  were  opposite  to  one  another,  lest  the  nol  W 
 of  exhibition  should  disturb  tin  ir  mutual  attention  ;  but  no  Boonei 
 was  the  exhibition  over,  than  by  a  sudden  impulse  they  went 
 forced  round  again,  so  that  they  stood  in  juxtaposition  ;  and  in 
 the  evening  by  the  taking  down  of  the  scenery,  and  by  combining 
 
424 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4089.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF   RUTH. 
 
 description  of  two  theatres,  built  by  Curio,  capable  of 
 containing  a  much  greater  number  of  people  than  the 
 Philistines  are  here  said  to  be,  and  yet  what  was  a  wonder 
 much  greater  than  the  two  pillars  here,  whenever  they 
 were  turned  round,  as  they  frequently  were,  to  meet  and 
 make  one  amphitheatre,  they  both  rested  upon  one  hinge 
 only,  which,  had  it  happened  to  slip,  must  have  occa- 
 sioned, as  our  author  tells  us,  a  much  greater  slaughter 
 than  what  was  at  the  battle  of  Cannae  ;  as,  by  the  actual 
 fall  of  an  amphitheatre,  built  by  Atilius,  no  fewer  than 
 fifty  thousand  persons  as  a  Tacitus  relates  the  story, 
 were  killed,  wounded,  and  maimed:  which  is  enough, 
 one  would  think,  to  silence  the  cavils  of  those  who  are 
 apt  to  fancy  that  a  building  of  such  capacity  could  not 
 be  so  contrived  as  to  rely  only  on  two  supporters.* 
 
 the  two  wings,  an  amphitheatre  was  formed,  and  the  gladiatorial 
 spectacles  were  exhibited,  it  was  capable  of  enclosing  the  whole 
 of  the  Roman  freemen  who  had  become  gladiators  for  hire.  But 
 in  this  erection  what  can  we  most  admire  ?  the  inventor  or  the 
 invention  ?  the  workman  or  the  planner  ?  that  any  one  should 
 dare  to  plan  or  execute  it  ?  should  act  as  servant  or  master  in  it  ? 
 Besides  all  these  there  was  added  the  madness  of  the  people, 
 who  dared  to  sit  on  a  foundation  so  imperfect  and  unstable, 
 ready  every  moment  to  be  overwhelmed  in  ruin." — B.  36.  c.  15. 
 
 a  The  fall  of  this  amphitheatre  Tacitus  relates  in  these  words  : 
 "  In  the  consulship  of  Marcus  Licinus  and  Lucius  Calpumius, 
 the  horror  of  an  unforeseen  calamity  equalled  the  havock  of  mighty 
 conflicting  armies.  Its  beginning  and  termination  were  simul- 
 taneous. A  certain  freed  man,  named  Atilius,  erected  an  amphi- 
 theatre at  Fidenre  for  the  exhibition  of  gladiatorial  combats;  but 
 its  wooden  texture  was  utterly  devoid  of  all  solidity  and  safety, 
 for  he  was  urged  to  its  erection  by  no  superfluity  of  riches  nor 
 desire  of  municipal  honours,  but  by  the  base  love  of  money.  At 
 the  command  of  the  emperor  Tiberius,  vast  crowds  of  both  sexes 
 and  of  every  age  and  class,  were  seen  eagerly  rushing  to  FideiiEe, 
 and  as  the  distance  from  Rome  to  Fidente  was  but  small,  (only 
 five  miles)  so  on  that  account  the  misfortune  was  rendered  the 
 greater;  no  sooner  was  the  building  crammed  with  the  multi- 
 tude, than  all  at  once  it  gave  way,  some  parts  of  it  falling  in, 
 •dragging  headlong,  and  burying  the  spectators,  while  the  other 
 parts  of  it  falling  outwards,  overwhelmed  the  crowded  masses 
 of  people  around  its  walls.  By  this  disaster,  50,000  beings 
 are  said  to  have  been  killed  or  mutilated." — Annul,  iv.  62. 
 
 b  The  sentiments  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren  on  this  subject, 
 will  doubtless  be  considered  as  important.  "  In  considering 
 what  this  fabric  must  have  been,  that  could  at  one  pull  be  de- 
 molished, I  conceive  it  was  an  oval  amphitheatre,  the  scene  in 
 the  middle,  where  a  vast  roof  of  cedar  beams  resting  round  upon 
 the  walls  centered  all  upon  one  short  architrave,  that  united  two 
 cedar  pillars  in  the  middle.  The  pillars  would  not  be  sufficient 
 to  unite  the  ends  of  at  least  one  hundred  beams,  that  tended  to 
 the  centre ;  wherefore,  I  say,  there  must  be  a  short  architrave 
 resting  upon  two  pillars,  upon  which  all  the  beams  tending 
 to  the  centre  of  the  amphitheatre,  might  be  supported.  Now  if 
 Samson  by  his  miraculous  strength  pressing  upon  one  of  these 
 pillars,  moved  it  from  its  basis,  the  whole  roof  must  of  necessity 
 fall." — Parentalia,  p.  359.  "The  eastern  method  of  building 
 may  assist  us  in  accounting  for  the  particular  structure  of  the 
 temple  or  house  of  Dagon,  (Judg.  xvi.)  and  the  great  number  of 
 people  that  were  buried  in  the  ruins  of  it,  by  pulling  down  the 
 two  principal  pillars.  We  read  (v.  27.)  that  about  three  thou- 
 sand persons  were  upon  the  roof  to  behold  while  Samson  made 
 sport.  Samson  must  therefore  have  been  in  a  court  or  area 
 below  them,  and  consequently  the  temple  will  be  of  the  same 
 kind  with  the  ancient  sacred  enclosures,  surrounded  only  in  part 
 or  altogether  with  some  plan  or  cloistered  buildings.  Several 
 palaces  and  dua-wanas,  as  they  call  the  courts  of  justice  in  these 
 countries,  are  built  in  this  fashion;  where  upon  their  festivals  and 
 rejoicings,  a  great  quantity  of  sand  is  strewed  upon  the  area  for 
 the  wrestlers  to  fall  upon,  whilst  the  roof  of  the  cloisters  round 
 about  is  crowded  with  spectators  of  their  strength  and  agility. 
 I  have  often  seen  hundreds  of  people  diverted  in  this  manner 
 upon  the  roof  of  the  dey's  palace  at  Algiers;  which,  like  many 
 niure  of  the  same  quality  and  denomination,  hath  an  advanced 
 
 And  indeed  all  the  other  exceptions,  which  are  usually 
 made  to  Samson's  character  and  conduct,  are  in  eflect 
 no  more  than  mere  cavils,  which  arise  in  a  great  measure 
 from  an  unacquaintedness  with  the  idiom  of  the  Hebrew 
 tongue.  For  as,  when  in  Jotham's  parable,  '  wine '  is 
 said  1  '  to  cheer  both  God  and  man  :  the  words  Elo/u'm, 
 and  Anashim,  may  signify  as  well  high  and  low,  princes 
 and  -peasants,  that  is,  all  conditions  of  men  do  find 
 themselves  cheered  and  refreshed  with  wine  ;  so  when  it 
 is  said,  that  2'  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  came  mightily  upon 
 Samson,'  we  are  not  to  understand  thereby,  that  he  had 
 any  grace  extraordinary,  or  sanctifying  influences  of  the 
 Blessed  Spirit  communicated  to  him,  but  only  that  he  was 
 endued  with  wonderful  courage  and  fortitude,  an  un- 
 daunted mind,  and  a  supernatural  strength  of  body  at 
 such  and  such  times,  which  enabled  him  to  do  great  acts, 
 but  made  no  alteration  in  his  manners.  And  in  like 
 manner,  when  he  is  said  to  3  '  have  judged  Israel  twenty 
 years,'  we  need  not  infer,  that  he  was  the  supreme 
 magistrate  in  the  republic,  for  that  very  probably  was 
 Eli,  but  only  that  he  was  the  chief  man  of  war,  whose 
 valour  was  renowned,  and  who  did  many  great  and 
 signal  exploits,  in  order  to  rescue  his  countrymen  from  the 
 oppression  of  their  enemies,  and  to  restore  them  to  their 
 former  liberty  :  I  say,  in  order  to  this,  for  he  did  not 
 perfect  their  deliverance  :  only,  by  the  several  defeats 
 which  he  gave  them,  and  the  great  damages  he  did  them, 
 he  infused  into  the  Israelites  such  a  spirit  and  resolu- 
 tion, that  not  many  years  after,  they  took  up  arms,  and 
 appearing  in  the  field  against  them,  defeated,  and  sub- 
 dued them  ;  so  that,  in  all  the  days  of  Samuel,  we  hear 
 of  no  farther  molestation  from  that  quarter. 
 
 The  Scripture,  however,  furnishes  us  with  a  reason  why 
 idolatry  was  not  abolished,  and  a  thorough  reformation 
 of  religion  established,  during  this  period  :  for  it  tells 
 us,  that  *  '  in  those  days,'  namely,  between  the  death  of 
 Joshua,  and  the  first  institution  of  the  judges,  '  there  was 
 no  king,'  that  is,  no  chief  ruler  or  magistrate,  for  the 
 regal  authority  did  not  as  yet  begin,  in  Israel,  '  but  every 
 one  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes ;'  so  that 
 considering  the  natural  propensity  of  the  people  to 
 idolatry,  and  the  want  of  a  supreme  power  lodged  in 
 some  one's  hand  to  control  them,  we  need  not  wonder, 
 that  before  the  institution  of  judges,  they  fell  into  the 
 like  practices  with  the  nations  among  whom  they  lived. 
 
 The  judges  indeed  were  invested  with  authority  to 
 suppress  these  practices ;  but  then  we  are  to  consider, 
 that  few  or  none  of  them  had  a  jurisdiction  over  the 
 whole  land  of  Israel,  but  were  only  rulers  of  some  par- 
 ticular cantons,  which  they  undertook  to  deliver  from 
 imminent  danger ;  and  therefore  how  zealous  soever  they 
 
 1  Judg.  ix.  13.  8  Judg.  xiv.  6. 
 
 3  Judg.  xvi.  31.  *  Judg.  xvii.  6. 
 
 cloister  over  against  the  gate  of  the  palace,  (Esth.  v.  1.)  made 
 in  the  fashion  of  a  large  pent-house,  supported  only  by  one  or 
 two  contiguous  pillars  in  the  front,  or  else  in  the  centre.  In 
 such  open  structures  as  these,  in  the  midst  of  their  guards  and 
 counsellors,  are  the  bashas,  kadees,  and  other  great  officers, 
 assembled  to  distribute  justice,  and  transact  the  public  affairs  of 
 their  provinces.  Here  likewise  they  have  their  public  enter- 
 tainments, as  the  lords  and  others  of  the  Philistines  had  in  the 
 house  of  Dagon.  Upon  a  supposition  therefore,  that  in  the  house 
 of  Dagon,  there  was  a  cloistered  structure  of  this  kind,  the  pull- 
 ing down  of  the  front,  or  centre  pillars  only,  which  supported  it, 
 would  be  attended  with  the  like  catastrophe  that  happened  to  the 
 Philistines." — Shaw's  Travels,  p.  283. — El). 
 
Shot.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES    ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 425 
 
 A.  M.  3S61.  A.  C.  1443 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 might  be  for  a  reformation,  yet  since  their  authority  was 
 not  of  sufficient  extension,  the  wonder  is  not  great,  that 
 1  idolatry  should  still  be  practised  in  some  dark  corners 
 of  the  land,  and  that  in  the  tribe  of  Dan,  which  was  so 
 far  distant,  '  there  should  be  set  up  Micah's  graven  image 
 which  he  made,  at  the  time  that  the  ark  of  the  Lord  was 
 at  Shiloh.' 
 
 Shiloh  indeed  was  so  far  distant  from  several  parts  of 
 the  land  of  Canaan,  that  people  began  to  account  it  too 
 much  trouble  to  go  up  thither  to  pay  their  vows  and 
 oblations,  and  therefore  bethought  themselves  of  setting 
 tip  private  chapels,  wherein,  as  they  supposed,  they 
 might  serve  God  as  well ;  and  in  the  institution  of  these, 
 being  left  to  their  own  fancies,  they  generally  intermixed 
 some  idolatrous  practices,  and,  partly  in  imitation  of  the 
 cherubim  at  Shiloh,  and  the  teraphim  among  their 
 heathen  neighbours,  chose  to  worship  God  through  some 
 visible  representation,  which,  by  one  means  or  other, 
 was  carried  on  in  time  to  direct  idolatry. 
 
 The  Moabites,  we  know,  even  when  the  Israelites  were 
 in  a  state  of  independency,  and  had  reason  sufficient  to 
 have  a  jealous  eye  over  them,  by  their  arts  and  contri- 
 vances drew  them  into  the  worship  of  their  god  Baal- 
 peor ;  and  much  more  might  the  nations,  to  whom  they 
 were  now  in  subjection,  succeed  in  their  attempts,  either 
 of  recommending,  or,  if  need  required  it,  of  forcing  their 
 religion  upon  them  :  so  that  it  was  not  to  be  wondered 
 at,  if  things  ran  into  such  disorder,  when  there  was,  if 
 not  a  total  dissolution,  at  least  a  grievous  relaxation  of 
 government ;  when  some  of  the  governors  themselves 
 were  far  from  being  the  best  of  men  ;  and  through 
 inclination,  entreaty,  or  compulsion,  the  people  were  so 
 liable,  upon  many  occasions,  to  relapse  into  idolatry. 
 
 What  Micah's  intention  might  be  in  setting  up  a  tera- 
 phim, and  other  kind  of  images  in  his  house,  commenta- 
 tors are  not  so  well  agreed.  Those  that  are  willing  to 
 apologize  for  the  thing,  are  ready  to  say,  2  that  as  he 
 lived  in  a  time  of  great  trouble  and  confusion,  wherein 
 the  public  worship  of  God  was  much  neglected,  if  not 
 totally  disused,  his  design  was  to  erect  a  kind  of  domes- 
 tic tabernacle,  wherein  he  might  serve  God  in  private, 
 since  he  could  not,  without  much  difficulty,  do  it  in 
 public  ;  and  that  the  sacred  habiliments  he  made,  his 
 ephod,  his  teraphim,  &c.  were  no  more  than  what  he  had 
 seen  at  Shiloh  :  but  since  the  laws  of  God  condemn  3 
 the  making  images  of  any  kind,  as  objects  of  adoration; 
 the  setting  up  any  religious  worship,  different  from  what 
 he  had  established ;  the  offering  sacrifices,  or  4  perform- 
 ing any  public  service  any  where  but  in  the  tabernacle  ; 
 and  the  employing  any  priests  in  his  worship  but  such  as 
 were  of  the  race  of  Aaron  ;  it  is  certain  that  Micah  was 
 guilty  of  a  violation  of  all  these  prohibitions,  and  in  the 
 matter  of  these  graven  and  molten  images,  cannot  be 
 excused  from  the  crime  of  idolatry. 
 
 And  indeed,  unless  he  intended  to  patronize  that, 
 what  reasons  could  he  have  to  make  any  innovations  in 
 religion,  since,  according  as  we  date  this  action,  either 
 Phinehas  or  Eli  wore  then  in  the  high  priest's  office  at 
 Shiloh,  where  the  public  worship  was  performed  in  all 
 iis  formality,  and  from  whence  Micah,  who  lived  in  the 
 
 '  Judg.  xviii.  31.  !  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 a  Exod.  xx.  4.  and  xxxiv.  17;  Deut.  iv.  15,  16. 
 4  Lev.  xvii.  8.  and  Deut.  xii.  14. 
 
 mountains  of  Ephraim,  was  not  so  very  distant,  but  that 
 he  might  have  gone  thither  upon  all  solemn  occasions. 
 
 The  Spirit  of  God  therefore,  in  repeating  the  admo- 
 nition, that  '  in  those  days  there  was  no  king  in  Israel,' 
 &c.  before  it  begins  to  relate  this  story  of  Micah,  seems 
 to  insinuate,  that  this  was  a  wicked  and  enormous  prac- 
 tice of  his  ;  that  the  worship  he  instituted  was  idolatrous, 
 and  the  priest  he  had  procured  to  officiate,  a  renegado  : 
 and  if  so,  the  answer  this  priest  received  in  behalf  of  the 
 Danites,  and  wherein  he  promised  them  the  success  they 
 met  with,  must  have  proceeded  from  no  good  principle, 
 unless  we  suppose,  what  seems  indeed  most  reasonable, 
 that  the  Levite  promised  them  success,  because  he  was 
 minded  to  please  them,  merely  out  of  his  own  head, 
 though,  to  give  it  a  better  sanction,  he  might  pretend  to 
 receive  it  from  this  fictitious  oracle.  In  this  case,  there 
 was  no  occasion  of  having  recourse  to  any  oracle  what- 
 ever; because  any  man  of  a  moderate  foresight,  con- 
 sidering the  undaunted  courage  and  valour  of  the 
 Danites,  and  the  supine  negligence  and  cowardice  of  the 
 people  of  Laish,  if  once  they  came  to  action,  might, 
 without  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  foretell  the  event. 
 
 The  directions  which  God  gave  Moses  concerning 
 Joshua's  consulting  the  divine  oracle,  are  conceived  in 
 these  words  : — 5  '  He  shall  stand  before  Eleazar  the 
 priest,  who  shall  ask  counsel  for  him,  after  the  judgment 
 of  Urim,  before  the  Lord  ;  at  his  word  shall  they  go  out, 
 and  at  his  word  shall  they  come  in,  both  he  and  all  the 
 children  of  Israel  with  him,  even  all  the  congregation.' 
 In  all  the  book  of  Joshua  indeed  we  do  not  find,  that  he 
 had  this  constant  recourse  to  the  oracle,  6  and  from 
 hence  some  Jewish  doctors  conclude,  that  he  was  bound 
 to  do  this  only  at  his  first  entrance  upon  his  office,  to 
 demonstrate  to  the  people  that  he  was  Moses'  successor ; 
 but  that  afterwards  the  spirit  of  prophecy  rested  upon 
 him,  so  that  he  knew  how  to  conduct  all  public  affairs, 
 without  having  occasion  for  this  oracular  advice.  Moses 
 we  know  made  no  use  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  to 
 consult  God  by  the  mediation  of  the  high  priest :  he 
 went  immediately  and  directly  to  God  himself:  but  we 
 do  not  read  that  Joshua  was  admitted  to  such  familiari- 
 ty, nor  had  he  such  frequent  revelations  from  God,  as 
 his  predecessors  had.  And  therefore,  as  God  was 
 pleased,  in  supplying  that  defect,  to  remit  him  to  this 
 method  of  consulting  him  ;  we  cannot  but  think,  that 
 upon  every  momentous  occasion,  especially  in  the 
 weighty  affairs  of  war,  he  was  always  careful  to  pursue 
 it :  and  therefore  the  words  in  the  beginning  of  Judges, 
 '  Now  after  the  death  of  Joshua,  the  children  of  Israel 
 asked  of  the  Lord,  saying,  Who  shall  go  up  for  us  against 
 the  Canaanites  ?'  do  not  import,  that  they  never  consulted 
 God  by  way  of  Urim  and  Thummim,  during  the  life  of 
 Joshua,  but  rather  that  after  the  death  of  so  great  a 
 commander,  they  were  at  a  stand  what  to  do,  nor  would 
 they  adventure  to  proceed  in  the  war  of  Canaan,  without 
 following  the  same  directions  which  were  given  to  Joshua, 
 and  which  he  had  so  long  pursued  with  so  good  success. 
 
 Nay,  the  consulting  of  the  divine  oracle,  especially  in 
 matters  of  war,  was  accounted  so  very  necessary,  in 
 order  to  obtain  success,  that  some  commentators  have 
 esteemed  this  the  only  reason  why  the  Israelites,  in  so 
 just   a   cause    as    punishing   the    Benjainites    for    their 
 
 ■'  Num.  xxvii.  '21. 
 
 0  Sue  Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 
 3    H 
 
426 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  25G1.  A.  C.  1143;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 unheard  of  wickedness,  were,  in  two  several  battles, 
 defeated  ;  even  because  they  did  not  previously  apply 
 to  God,  as  they  should  have  done.  '  They  sent  up 
 indeed  to  the  house  of  the  Lord,  '  and  asked  counsel  of 
 him,  and  said,  Which  of  us  shall  go  up  first  to  the  battle 
 against  the  children  of  Benjamin  ?'  that  is,  which  of 
 their  tribes  should  have  the  honour  or  hazard  of  making 
 the  first  attack :  3  but  it  is  observable,  that  they  had 
 come  to  a  full  resolution  of  making  war  against  the 
 Benjamites,  and,  to  that  purpose,  had  made  draughts  of 
 the  men  that  were  to  be  employed  in  it,  without  ever  con- 
 sulting God,  whether  an  enterprise  of  this  nature,  wherein 
 there  was  likely  to  be  such  an  effusion  of  the  blood  of 
 their  brethren,  would  be  pleasing  to  him  or  no.  3  The 
 truth  is,  they  never  questioned  his  approbation  of  what 
 they  accounted  so  laudable  :  they  presumed  upon  his 
 protection  and  assistance  ;  and  the  vast  superiority  of 
 their  forces  made  them  confident  of  success.  But  now, 
 in  a  matter  of  such  moment  as  this,  to  overlook  the 
 divine  oracle,  and  be  determined  by  their  own  counsels 
 only,  and  to  march  against  one  of  their  own  tribes,  with 
 a  full  purpose  of  destroying  them  utterly,  before  they 
 knew  any  thing  whether  God  had  decreed  their  destruc- 
 tion or  no,  was  not  only  an  instance  of  their  rashness 
 and  presumption,  but  an  act  likewise  of  rebellion  against 
 the  majesty  of  God,  who  was  the  king  of  Israel,  and 
 upon  that  account  alone,  had  right  to  declare  whether 
 they  were  to  wage  war  against  their  brethren  the  Ben- 
 jamites or  no. 
 
 But  supposing  that  the  grounds  of  the  war  were  justi- 
 fiable, and  God  consenting  to  it,  yet  why  might  not  he 
 take  the  opportunity  of  punishing  the  Israelites,  by 
 means  of  the  Benjamites,  for  their  tame  permission  of 
 crimes  more  enormous  than  what  they  had  now  taken  into 
 their  heads  to  chastise  ;  *  for  suffering  spiritual  adultery 
 among  them,  even  while  they  were  so  hot  upon  punishing 
 carnal  ? 
 
 The  laws  which  God  gave  the  Israelites  against  the 
 sin  of  idolatry,  were  so  very  severe,  that  whoever  did 
 but  so  much  as  entice  another  to  the  commission  of  it 
 was  to  lose  all  title  to  pity  and  compassion,  though  he 
 was  ever  so  dear  a  friend,  ever  so  near  a  relation : 
 5  '  Thine  eyes  shall  not  pity  him,  neither  shalt  thou  spare, 
 neither  shalt  thou  conceal  him,  but  thou  shalt  surely  kill 
 him ;  thy  hand  shall  be  first  upon  him  to  put  him  to 
 death,  and  afterwards  the  hands  of  all  the  people.'  But 
 now  in  the  case  of  Micah,  and  the  whole  tribe  of  Dan, 
 who  had  notoriously  fallen  into  idolatry,  the  rulers  of 
 Israel  were  so  far  from  putting  this  law  in  execution, 
 that  they  connived  at  their  apostasy  :  and  therefore  God 
 took  occasion,  from  this  quarrel  between  the  other  tribes 
 and  that  of  Benjamin,  to  make  use  of  the  latter  as 
 scourges  to  punish  this  base  connivance  of  the  former  ; 
 ami  after  he  had  twice  employed  them  to  this  purpose, 
 he  inverted  the  fate  of  the  war,  and  in  so  doing,  made 
 the  confederate  army  of  Israel  the  instruments  of  that 
 terrible  vengeance  which  he  took  upon  the  Benjamites, 
 in  the  punishment  of  their  execrable  lewdness.  Fortius 
 is  the  wonderful  wisdom  of  God's  providence,  to  employ 
 
 1  Judg.  xx.  18. 
 s  Calmet's  Commentary  on  Judg.  xx. 
 3  Sam  iii's  Dissertations,  vol.  4.  Dissertation  18. 
 Patrick's  Commentary  on  Judg.  xx.  *  Deut.  xiii.  S, 
 
 M.  41S9.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 the  passions  of  men  to  his  purposes,  and  to  make  one 
 wicked  set  of  people  the  instruments  of  his  punishing 
 another,  even  as  he  expresses  himself  in  another  case, 
 that  in  some  measure  is  not  incongruous  to  this  :  6  '  Woe 
 unto  the  Assyrian,  the  rod  of  mine  anger,  and  the  staff" 
 in  their  hand,  is  mine  indignation  : — against  the  people 
 of  my  wrath  will  I  give  him  charge  to  take  the  spoil, 
 and  to  take  the  prey,  and  to  tread  them  down  like  mire  in 
 the  streets.  Howbeit  he  meaneth  not  so,  neither  doth  his 
 heart  think  so  ;  but  it  is  in  his  heart  to  destroy,  and  to 
 cut  oft'  nations  not  a  few.  Wherefore  it  shall  come  to 
 pass,  that  when  the  Lord  hath  performed  his  whole  work 
 upon  Mount  Sion,  and  on  Jerusalem,  I  will  punish  the 
 fruit  of  the  stout  heart  of  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  the 
 glory  of  his  high  looks  ;'  and  in  like  manner  here,  when 
 by  the  hand  of  the  Benjamites,  he  had  chastised  the  rest 
 of  the  Israelites,  by  the  hand  of  the  Israelites  he  punished 
 the  Benjamites  for  their  gross  impieties,  making  use  of 
 their  respective  passions,  and  furious  resentments,  to 
 accomplish  his  will :  albeit  '  they  meant  it  not  so,  neither 
 did  their  hearts  think  so  ;  but  it  was  only  in  their  hearts 
 to  cut  off  one  another.' 
 
 When  the  heat  of  their  fury,  however,  was  abated,  and 
 the  Israelites  began  to  look  back  with  a  little  coolness 
 upon  what  they  had  done  ;  how  they  had  almost  totally 
 destroyed  one  tribe  of  their  brethren,  and  bound  them- 
 selves by  an  oath  never  to  marry  their  daughters  to  any 
 of  the  poor  remains  of  it,  which  could  not  but  prove  the 
 extirpation  of  the  whole,  the  joy  and  triumph  of  their 
 late  victory  was  turned  into  mourning  and  bitter  lamen- 
 tation. 
 
 Whether  this  oath  against  contracting  any  affinity  with 
 the  Benjamites,  was  in  itself  lawful  and  obligatory,  or 
 no,7  some  interpreters,  without  any  manner  of  reason, 
 as  I  think,  have  disputed.  For,  whatever  was  attended 
 with  such  pernicious  consequences,  as  to  oblige  their 
 brethren  either  to  live  unmarried,  which  would  prove  the 
 extinction  of  their  tribe,  or  to  marry  the  daughters  of  the 
 heathens,  which  was  contrary  to  their  divine  law,  or  to 
 take  to  themselves  wives  wherever  they  could  find  them 
 by  force  and  violence,  which  was  contrary  to  the  univer- 
 sal law  of  nations :  whatever,  I  say,  was  attended  with 
 such  evil  consequences  as  these,  could  not  be  lawful  in 
 itself,  nor  of  any  obligation  to  the  consciences  of  those 
 that  made  it ;  and  therefore  it  is  somewhat  wonderful, 
 how  the  Israelites,  when  they  found  themselves  involved 
 in  such  difficulties,  as  8  they  themselves  testify,  that  for 
 the  preservation  of  this  their  oath,  they  were  forced  to 
 have  recourse  to  acts  of  the  utmost  cruelty  and  violence, 
 did  not  perceive  the  illegality  of  it,  and  themselves, 
 consequently,  absolved  from  its  observation. 
 
 It  is  not  the  intent  of  the  sacred  historian  to  relate 
 matters  otherwise  than  they  happened  ;  nor  is  it  any  part 
 of  our  business  to  apologize  for  actions  that  in  them- 
 selves are  abominable,  and  will  admit  of  no  excuse. 
 The  massacre  of  the  people  of  Jabesh-gilead,  without 
 ever  sending  to  know  the  reason  of  their  absenting  them- 
 selves from  the  war,  was  a  cruel  expedient  to  extricate 
 the  Israelites  from  a  difficulty  in  which  their  superstitious 
 observance  of  an  unlawful  oath  had  involved  them  ;  and 
 a  sad  instance  it  is  of  the  iniquity  and  barbarity  of  these 
 times :  for  how  severe  soever  the  laws  of  military  dis- 
 
 6  Is.  x.  5,  &c.    '  See  Calmet's  Commentary.    8  Judg.  xxi.  C,  &c. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &«. 
 
 427 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALE3,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 cipline  may  be,  or  with  l  what  justice  soever  recusants, 
 as  well  as  deserters  in  war  may  be  deemed  guilty,  and 
 the  Jabeshites  be  called  public  enemies,  because  they 
 did  not  obey  the  order  of  the  whole  congregation,  and 
 by  refusing  to  join  with  them  against  the  Benjamites, 
 made  themselves  partakers  of  their  crimes  :  yet  certainly 
 to  slay  the  innocent  with  the  guilty,  and  to  put  women 
 and  children  to  death,  who  were  never  made  to  bear 
 arms,  was  the  very  height  of  injustice  and  barbarity.  If 
 it  be  said,  that  the  cfierem,  or  the  sentence  of  utter  exe- 
 cration was  passed  upon  them,  I  do  not  see  with  what 
 justice  the  virgins  could  be  spared,  as  we  find  they  were 
 by  a  public  decree,  unless  we  suppose  that  God,  from 
 the  tabernacle  at  Shiloh,  before  which  the  Israelites  were 
 now  assembled,  signified  his  intentions  of  dispensing 
 with  the  full  execution  of  the  sentence,  by  reason  of  the 
 public  necessity. 
 
 And,  indeed,  the  public  necessity  is  the  only  good 
 reason  that  can  be  given  for  that  other  act  of  violence, 
 the  rape  of  the  virgins  at  Shiloh.  For  whatever  may  be 
 said  in  vindication  of  the  Benjamites,  namely,  that  what 
 they  put  in  execution  was  by  order  and  advice  of  their 
 superiors,  and  that  their  intent  in  doing  it  was  just  and 
 honest,  and  devoid  of  that  brutal  lust  which  is  incident  to 
 common  ravishers ;  whatever  may  be  said  in  excuse  of 
 these,  the  elders  of  Israel,  who  gave  them  this  counsel 
 and  authority,  had  certainly  no  right  to  dispose  of  other 
 people's  children  without  their  parents'  consent  and 
 approbation. 
 
 °  The  rape  of  the  Sabine  virgins  is  usually  produced 
 as  a  piece  of  history  parallel  to  this  ;2  but  Romulus,  in 
 whose  reign  it  happened,  was  one  of  those  princes  who 
 accounted  every  point  that  contributed  to  the  establish- 
 
 i  Judg.  xxi.  6,  &c. 
 2  Saurin's  Dissertation   18.  vol.  4. 
 
 a  This  piece  of  history  we  find  thus  related:  "  Romulus,  per- 
 ceiving that  his  new  city  was  surrounded  by  several  \ery  powerful 
 and  warlike  nations,  who  bore  them  no  very  good  will,  i'onried  a 
 design  to  make  them  his  friends,  by  contracting  marriages  with 
 them:  but  considering  with  himself,  that  these  neighbouring  na- 
 tions would  hardly  enter  into  that  affinity  with  a  people,  as  yet 
 famous  neither  for  their  riches  nor  great  exploits,  without  being 
 in  some  measure  compelled  into  it,  he  was  resolved  to  put  in 
 practice  the  stratagem  of  his  uncle  Numitor,  and  to  enter  into 
 this  alliance  with  them  by  carrying  oil'  their  daughters.  This 
 design  he  communicated  to  the  senate,  and  having  obtained  their 
 approbation  of  it,  he  proclaimed  a  public  feast  to  be  celebrated  in 
 honour  of  Neptune,  and  invited  all  the  neighbouring  cities  to 
 the  many  diversions  and  spectacles  which  he  then  intended  to 
 exhibit.  Crowds  of  people,  with  their  wives  and  children, 
 flocked  to  the  feast;  but  on  the  last  day,  when  it  began  to  draw 
 to  a  conclusion,  Romulus  ordered  all  the  young  men,  that  upon 
 a  signal  given,  they  should  seize  and  cany  on"  every  one  a  virgin, 
 keep  them  all  night,  without  offering  any  rudeness  to  them,  and 
 bring  them  the  next  morning  before  him.  The  young  men  took 
 care  to  execute  his  orders:  for  dispersing  themselves  into  small 
 companies,  as  soon  as  they  saw  the  sign,  they  seized  on  the 
 damsels,  who,  upon  this  occasion,  made  a  hideous  outcry,  as 
 expecting  much  worse  usage  than  they  met  with.  The  next 
 day,  when  they  were  brought  before  Romulus,  he  spoke  very 
 courteously  to  them,  and  told  them,  That  it  was  to  do  them  no 
 dishonour,  but  merely  to  procure  them  husbands,  that  he  ordered 
 that  rape,  which  was  an  ancient  custom  derived  from  the  Greeks, 
 and  the  most  noble  and  gallant  manner  of  contracting  marriage. 
 He  therefore  entreated  them  to  be  well  affected  towards  those 
 husbands  which  fortune  had  given  them;  and  so,  distributing  the 
 young  women,  which  were  6\S3,  among  an  equal  number  of  un- 
 married men,  he  dismissed  them." — Diongs.  Halicarn.  Antiq., 
 b.  2.  c.  21. 
 
 ment  of  his  dominions,  not  only  lawful,  but  glorious,  and 
 that  every  thing  ceased  to  be  a  crime,  when  once  it  be- 
 came necessary  for  reasons  of  state :  but  the  rulers  of 
 Israel  either  had,  or  should  have  had,  different  notions. 
 They  were  governed  by  God,  '  whose  throne  is  estab- 
 lished in  righteousness,'  and  should  therefore,  one  would 
 think,  have  contrived  some  other  means  for  re-establishing 
 a  diminished  tribe  than  those  violent  ways  of  rapes  and 
 forced  marriages.  But  the  sacred  historian  has  assigned 
 a  reason  for  these  unrighteous  proceedings,  when,  in 
 3  four  different  places  in  the  book  of  Judges,  he  tells  us, 
 that '  in  those  days  there  was  no  king  in  Israel :'  and  4 
 for  want  of  such  a  supreme  authority,  every  tribe,  and 
 every  city,  nay,  which  is  more,  every  private  man  com- 
 mitted many  horrid  things,  which  were  not  publicly 
 allowed.  This  5  was  the  cause  of  Micah's  idolatry,  as 
 we  noted  before ;  of  the  Benjamites'  filthiness  and 
 abominable  lusts  ;  and  of  all  the  enormous  things  done 
 by  the  main  body  of  the  Israelites ;  their  killing  all  the 
 Benjamites  without  distinction  ;  their  binding  themselves 
 by  rash  and  unlawful  oaths  ;  their  killing  all  the  women 
 of  Jabesh-gilead  who  were  not  virgins  ;  and  here,  their 
 permitting,  nay,  their  ordering  this  rape,  for  the  preser- 
 vation of  a  rash  and  unjustifiable  oath  :  and  this  should 
 teach  us  to  be  very  thankful  for  the  authority  that  is  set 
 over  us,  in  order  to  preserve  us  from  the  commission 
 of  such  like  enormities  ;  for  which  end  the  custom  was, 
 among  the  ancient  Persians,  as  our  learned  Usher  ob- 
 serves, to  let  the  people  loose  to  do  even  what  they 
 listed,  for  five  days  after  their  king  died ;  that  by  the 
 disorders  which  were  then  committed,  they  might  see 
 the  necessity  of  having  a  king  to  govern  them,  and  when 
 one  was  settled  in  the  throne,  the  great  reason  of  being 
 obedient  to  him. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  clear  up  most  of  the 
 passages  in  the  book  of  Judges,  which  seem  to  imply 
 any  inconsistency  or  incredibility,  during  this  period  : 
 and  if  any  heathen  testimonies  may  be  thought  a  farther 
 confirmation  of  their  truth,  we  may  say,  that  the  seeming 
 incongruity  of  Shamgar's  slaying  so  many  Philistines 
 with  an  ox-goad  is  mightily  abated,  by  what  is  told  of 
 Lycurgus,  namely,  that  he  overthrew  the  forces  of  Bac- 
 chus with  the  self-same  weapon ;  that  from  Deborah's 
 being  a  prophetess,  a  governess,  and  dwelling  upon  a 
 mount,  the  story  of  the  Theban  sphinx,  as  some  learned 
 men  imagine,  was  invented  by  the  Greeks ;  that  their 
 Hercules  was  certainly  the  Samson  of  sacred  writ,  his 
 Omphale  and  Delilah  the  same,  and  that  his  pillars  at 
 Cales  were  of  near  affinity  with  those  of  Gaza  ;  *  that 
 
 3  Judg.  xvii.  C.  xviii.  1.  xix.  1.  and  xxi.  25. 
 
 4  Patrick's  Commentary.  5  Ibid. 
 
 b  The  stony  is  thus  told  by  Ovid.  Nisus  was  beshi;.,!  i  13 
 Minos  in  his  capital  city  Megara.  The  fate  of  that  city,  which 
 was  the  strength  of  his  kingdom,  depended  upon  a  certain  lock 
 of  red  bair,  which  was  concealed  under  the  rest.  The  siege 
 had  now  beeu  continued  for  six  months,  when  the  daughter  of 
 Nisus,  who  had  frequent  opportunities  of  beholding  her  father's 
 enemy  Minos  from  a  lower  thai  looked  into  his  camp,  was  so 
 taken  with  his  goodly  mien  and  deportment,  tint  she  fell  desper- 
 ately in  low  with  him.  Her  love,  and  the  occasion  of  it,  the  pa  I 
 has  thus  related,  "  In  her  opinion  Minos  appealed  beautiful  when 
 he  concealed  his  head  in  a  helmet  with  dangling  plumes,  and 
 alike  so  when  he  assumed  his  shield  all  glittering  with  told,  &C. 
 but  when  by  taking  off  the  armour  In-  displayed  hi  animattd 
 countenance,  ami  when  in  a  purple  dress  he  graceful!)  slrod 
 
428 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C-  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 his  fatal  locks  gave  rise  to  the  fable  of  Nisus  king  of 
 Megara,  upon  whose  hair  the  fortune  of  his  kingdom 
 depended  ;  that  his  foxes  were  commemorated  at  Rome, 
 every  return  of  their  harvest,  *  by  a  similar  ceremony  of 
 tying  them  tail  to  tail,  and  so  letting  them  go  ;  and  to 
 name  no  more  that  Jephthah's  sacrificing  his  daughter 
 to  God,  is  partly  adumbrated  by  Agamemnon's  offering 
 his  Iphigenia  to  Diana,  and  partly  by  Idomeneus's  pro- 
 mising to  make  a  victim  to  Neptune  of  the  first  thing  he 
 should  meet  on  shore,  if  he  escaped  the  present  storm, 
 which  happened  to  be  his  own  son.  So  happily  do  many 
 fictions  of  the  poets  concur  to  confirm  the  truth  and 
 authority  of  holy  writ. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Jephthah1  s  rash  vow. 
 
 This  vow  of  Jephthah's,  which  has  employed  the  thoughts 
 and  pens  of  so  many  learned  men,  is  conceived  in  these 
 words : — '  And  Jephthah  vowed  a  vow  unto  the  Lord, 
 and  said,  if  thou  shalt  without  fail  deliver  the  children 
 of  Amnion  into  my  hands,  then  it  shall  be,  that  whoso- 
 ever cometh  forth  out  of  the  doors  of  my  house  to  meet 
 me,  when  I  return  in  peace  from  the  children  of  Amnion, 
 shall  surely  be  the  Lord's,  and  I  will  offer  it  up  for  a 
 burnt-offering.'  And  the  result  of  this  vow  was,  that 
 '  Jephthah  passed  over  unto  the  children  of  Amnion  to 
 fight  against  them,  and  the  Lord  delivered  them  into  his 
 hands ;'  whereupon  '  he  came  to  Mizpeh  unto  his  house, 
 and  behold  his  daughter  came  out  to  meet  him,  with 
 timbrels,  and  with  dances,  and  she  was  his  only  child  : 
 beside  her  he  had  neither  son  nor  daughter.  And  it 
 came  to  pass,  when  he  saw  her,  that  he  rent  his  clothes, 
 and  said,  alas  !  my  daughter,  thou  hast  brought  me  very 
 low,  and  thou  art  one  of  them  that  trouble  me ;  for  I 
 
 milkwhite  steed  decorated  with  variegated  trappings,  scarcely 
 was  the  Niseian  virgin  mistress  of  her  reason.  Happy,  she  said,  is 
 the  javelin  which  he  holds,  and  happy  is  the  bridle  pressed  by 
 his  lovely  hand."— Met.  b.  S.  The  result  of  this  passion  was, 
 that  this  perfidious  daughter  stole  into  the  chamber,  while  her 
 father  was  fast  asleep,  cut  off  the  lock  whereon  the  fate  of  his 
 kingdom  depended,  and  carried  it  to  Minos,  as  an  undoubted 
 pledge  of  her  love.  But  if  this  fable  and  Samson's  history  have 
 a  near  resemblance  in  some  of  their  first  circumstances,  they  are 
 very  different  in  the  conclusion  :  for  Minos  rejected  the  present 
 with  scorn,  and  slighted  the  woman  because  of  her  perfidy: 
 whereas  the  princes  of  the  Philistines  took  the  advantage  against 
 Samson,  which  Delilah's  treachery  gave  them. — Saurin,  vol.  4. 
 Dissert.  17. 
 
 b  There  was  anciently  a  feast  in  Rome,  called  Vulpinalia,  or 
 the  feast  of  the  foxes,  which  Ovid  makes  mention  of,  for,  in- 
 quiring into  the  custom  of  tying  lighted  torches  to  their  tails, 
 that  is  to  say  "  the  cause  why  foxes  when  let  loose  bore  burning 
 torches  bound  to  their  tails,"  he  resolves  the  matter,  by  telling  us, 
 thata  certain  youth,  having  caught  a  fox  which  had  destroyed  much 
 poultry,  was  going  to  burn  it.  His  words  are  these  ;  "  He  first 
 wrapped  the  captive  all  round  with  straw  and  hay,  and  then  set 
 fire  to  it,  when  all  in  a  flame  the  animal  escaped  from  his  hand, 
 and  wherever  it  fled,  the  produce  of  the  fields  were  set  in  a 
 blaze,  the  wind  giving  strength  to  the  destructive  element.  The 
 story  of  the  deed  has  perished,  but  its  monument  remains  ;  for 
 the  Carseolane  law  declares  that  every  fox  that  is  caught  must  be 
 pvit  to  death.  To  avenge  for  the  deed,  this  race  of  animals  is  burned 
 with  straw,  and  have  to  perish  in  the  same  manner  that  their 
 progenitor  destroyed  the  cornfields." — Fast.  b.  4. 
 
 But  Bochart  has  confuted  this  notion  of  Ovid's  concerning  the 
 origin  of  this  custom,  and  endeavours  to  refer  it  to  this  piece  of 
 history  in  Samson's  life. — Saurin,  vol.  4.  Dissert.  17. 
 
 have  opened  my  mouth  to  the  Lord,  and  I  cannot  go 
 back.  And  she  said  unto  him,  My  father,  if  thou  hast 
 opened  thy  mouth  unto  the  Lord,  do  to  me  according 
 to  that  which  proceeded  out  of  thy  mouth,  forasmuch  as 
 the  Lord  has  taken  vengeance  for  thee  of  thine  enemies, 
 even  of  the  children  of  Amnion :  only  let  me  alone  two 
 months,  that  I  may  go  up  and  down  upon  the  mountains, 
 and  bewail  my  virginity,  I,  and  my  fellows.  And  he 
 said,  go  ;  and  he  sent  her  away  for  two  months,  and  she 
 went  with  her  companions,  and  bewailed  her  virginity 
 upon  the  mountains.  And  it  came  to  pass,  at  the  end 
 of  two  months,  that  she  returned  to  her  father,  who  did 
 with  her  according  to  his  vow,  which  he  had  vowed,  and 
 she  knew  no  man.  And  it  was  a  custom  in  Israel,  that 
 the  daughters  of  Israel  went  yearly  to  lament  the  daugh- 
 ter of  Jephthah,  four  days  in  a  year.'  I  set  the  whole 
 passage  before  the  reader,  that  he  may  the  better  judge 
 of  the  depending  controversy  there  is  among  commen- 
 tators, whether  this  daughter  of  Jephthah's  was  really 
 sacrificed  or  no  :  and  for  his  farther  satisfaction  in  this 
 point,  I  will  fairly  state  the  arguments  on  both  sides  ; 
 consider  a  little  on  which  side  they  preponderate  ;  and 
 then  inquire,  in  case  he  did  sacrifice  his  daughter,  or  as 
 others  will  have  it,  devote  her  only  to  God's  service  in 
 a  single  life,  whether  the  thing  was  lawful  for  him  to  do, 
 and  what  might  possibly  be  the  motive  of  his  doing  it. 
 
 Those  l  who  maintain  the  negative,  or  more  merciful 
 side  of  the  question,  argue  in  this  manner  : — That  Jeph- 
 thah was  certainly  a  very  good  man,  because  we  find 
 him  ranked  among  the  worthies  of  old,  that  are  com- 
 memorated with  honour  by  the  author  of  the  Hebrews  : 
 That  he  was  an  Israelite,  and  as  such  lived  under  the 
 law,  which  prohibited  human  sacrifices  by  the  severest 
 penalties  :  that  had  the  vow  been  intended  in  this  sense, 
 God  would  never  have  vouchsafed  Jephthah  so  signal  a 
 victory  as  he  did,  which  must  have  terminated  in  the  vio- 
 lation of  his  own  laws  :  and  therefore  they  conclude,  that 
 so  kind  and  tender  a  father  as  Jephthah  is  represented, 
 would  never  have  sacrificed  an  innocent,  dutiful,  and 
 obedient  child,  as  her  whole  carriage  seems  to  denote 
 her,  in  discharge  of  a  rash  and  inconsiderate  vow ;  es- 
 pecially when,  according  to  the  prescription  of  the  law, 
 he  might  have  redeemed  his  daughter  at  a  price  so  in- 
 considerable, 2 '  as  ten  shekels  of  silver.' 
 
 It  must  be  something  else,  therefore,  say  they,  that 
 Jephthah  did  unto  his  daughter,  and  that,  according  to 
 the  import  of  the  text,  was  to  devote  her  to  a  state  of 
 celibacy,  or  that  she  might  live  in  the  manner  of  a  reli- 
 gious nun  all  the  days  of  her  life  :  for  the  particle  vau, 
 which  we  render  and,  '  it  shall  surely  be  the  Lord's,  and 
 I  will  offer  it  up,'  is  a  disjunctive  in  this  place,  as  it  is 
 elsewhere,  and  signifies  or  ;  so  that  the  true  version  of 
 the  passage  should  be,  '  whatever  cometh  forth  to  meet 
 me  shall  surely  be  the  Lord's,  or  I  will  offer  it  up  for  a 
 burnt-offering,'  that  is,  if  it  be  a  human  creature,  I 
 will  dedicate  it  to  the  service  of  God  ;  if  a  beast  of  any 
 kind,  proper  for  sacrifice,  I  will  instantly  offer  it  up : 
 for  that  in  this  sense  the  vow  is  to  be  understood,  is  evi- 
 dent from  her  going  into  the  mountains  to  bewail  her 
 virginity,  which,  had  she  been  doomed  to  be  sacrificed, 
 
 1  Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries.  Jenkin's  reason- 
 ableness, vol.  2.  c.  18.  Selden  on  the  Law  of  Nature  and  Na- 
 tions, b.  4.  c.  11.     Howell's  History,  &c.         *  Lev.  xxvii.  o. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 429 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 had  not  been  near  so  proper,  as  to  bewail  her  untimely 
 end.  Nor  can  we  think  that  Jephthah  would  have  ever 
 suffered  her  to  have  made  a  circuit  of  two  months  among 
 her  companions,  for  fear  of  her  making  her  escape,  or 
 procuring  some  of  her  friends  and  acquaintance  either  to 
 rescue  her,  or  intercede  for  her,  had  she  been  destined 
 to  suffer  death  upon  her  return. 
 
 On  the  contrary,  when  she  returned  to  her  father,  and 
 he  had  done  to  her  according  to  his  vow,  it  immediately 
 follows,  that  she  knew  not  man ;  which  shows  that  the 
 purpose  of  his  vow  was  answered  by  obliging  her  to  a 
 state  of  perpetual  virginity,  in  some  retired  place,  where 
 she  was  secluded  from  all  society,  except  that  the 
 daughters  of  Israel,  those  especially  of  her  acquaintance, 
 went  up,  either  to  talk  and  converse  with  her,  or  to 
 celebrate  her  praise,  or  to  comfort  her  concerning  her 
 solitary  condition,  for  to  all  these  senses  may  the  word 
 letannoth  be  applied,  four  days  in  the  year,  that  is,  one 
 day  every  quarter. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  they  infer,  that  Jephthah's 
 daughter  did  not  fall  a  sacrifice,  but  was  consecrated  to 
 God  and  his  service,  that  is,  devoted  to  a  single  life,  and 
 to  remain  a  recluse  all  her  days  ;  which  could  not  but 
 occasion  Jephthah  no  small  grief  and  trouble,  because 
 by  this  means,  his  family  became  extinct,  and  himself 
 destitute  of  issue  to  inherit  his  estate,  and  perpetuate 
 his  name. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  most  plausible  arguments  that 
 are  generally  employed  to  prove,  not  the  sacrifice  of 
 Jephthah's  daughter,  but  only  her  obligation  to  a  per- 
 petual virginity  in  the  worship  and  service  of  God. 
 
 Those  l  that  maintain  the  affirmative,  or  harsher  side 
 of  the  question,  namely,  that  Jephthah,  in  pursuance  of 
 his  vow,  did  actually  sacrifice  his  daughter,  form  their 
 arguments  in  this  manner.  2  That  the  times  wherein 
 Jephthah  lived,  were  so  sadly  addicted  to  idolatry,  that 
 3 '  to  burn  their  sons  and  daughters  in  the  fire  to  their 
 gods,'  was  a  common  practice  among  the  Israelites,  as 
 well  as  other  nations;  and  that  the  manner  4  in  which 
 he  lived,  before  he  was  called  to  the  assistance  of  his 
 country,  which  was  chiefly  by  plunder  and  rapine,  and 
 bloodshed,  might  make  him  not  incapable  of  vowing  to 
 sacrifice  the  first  of  his  domestics  that  should  meet  him 
 upon  his  victorious  return.  That  this  vow  is  delivered 
 in  general  and  indefinite  terms,  namely,  '  that  whosoever 
 should  come  forth  out  of  the  doors  of  his  house  to  meet 
 him,  that  should  surely  be  the  Lord's,  and  it  should  be 
 the  Lord's,  by  being  offered  up  for  a  burnt-offering  :' 
 that  though  the  particle  vau  be  sometimes  used  in  a  dis- 
 junctive sense,  yet  it  can  only  be  so,  where  things  are 
 really  distinct  and  different  from  each  other,  but  cannot 
 be  admitted,  where  the  one  manifestly  includes  the  other, 
 as  it  is  in  the  passage  before  us ;  that  therefore  it  is 
 much  more  congruous  to  all  the  rules  of  good  sense  to 
 understand  the  words  of  Jephthah  so,  as  that,  by  pro- 
 mising whatsoever  he  met  should  be  the  Lord's,  he  ob- 
 liged himself  in  general  to  consecrate  it  to  God,  and 
 that,  by  promising  farther,  that  he  would  offer  it  up  for 
 a  burnt-offering,  he  specified  the  manner  in  which  he  in- 
 fended  to  make  his  consecration. 
 
 '  Edward's  Inquiry  into  some  Remarkable  Texts. 
 8  Deut.  xii.  31.  3  Saurin,  vol.  .3.  Dissertation  15. 
 
 1  Grotius  on  the  passage.  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  Jephthah's 
 Vow,  and  Saurin  on  the  same,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 Vows  of  perpetual  virginity,  say  they,  are  institutions 
 of  a  modern  date  :  the  word  of  God  knows  nothing  of 
 them;  nor  has  this  pretended  celibacy  of  Jephthah's 
 daughter  any  manner  of  foundation  in  Scripture  ;  and 
 therefore,  when  this  circumstance  is  inserted,  that  '  she 
 knew  no  man,  it  is  not  to  signify,  that  she  lived  a  per- 
 petual virgin,  but  only,  that  she  was  so  unhappy  as  to 
 leave  the  world  in  her  youth,  and  before  she  had  the 
 knowledge  of  a  man. 
 
 Had  Jephthah  meant  no  more,  say  they,  by  perform- 
 ing his  vow,  than  consecrating  his  daughter,  a  perpetual 
 virgin,  to  the  service  of  God,  what  cause  was  there  for 
 renting  his  clothes,  and  bemoaning  himself,  as  we  find 
 he  did  ?  Had  Jephthah  made  only  a  vow  of  celibacy 
 for  his  daughter,  whereby  she  was  bound  to  nothing  more 
 painful,  than  to  lead  a  single  life,  what  reason  was  there 
 for  mailing  this  as  a  grievous  calamity,  which  some 
 in  i  account  a  thing  so  eminently  glorious  and  honour- 
 able ?  Is  the  being  shut  up  as  a  recluse,  and  entered 
 into  the  list  of  perpetual  virgins,  a  matter  of  such  bitter 
 complaint  and  lamentation  ?  Was  this  so  sore  an  evil, 
 an  affliction  so  extraordinary,  that  not  only  before  she 
 underwent  it,  she  and  her  companions  should,  for  two 
 months  together,  be  allowed  to  bewail  it ;  but  that,  after 
 she  had  undergone  it,  the  daughters  of  Israel  should  be 
 required  to  lament  it  four  times  a  year  ?  5  If  she  was 
 actually  put  to  death,  in  execution  of  her  father's  vow, 
 it  is  easy  then  to  understand,  why  the  particular  circum- 
 stance of  her  dying  without  issue,  when  she  was  the  only 
 daughter  of  her  father,  avid  had  no  other  prospect  of 
 posterity  to  keep  up  his  family,  should  be  represented 
 as  a  sore  aggravation  of  her  violent  and  untimely  death  : 
 but  it  seems  very  difficult  to  account  for  that  bitter 
 lamentation,  made  by  her  father,  by  herself,  by  her 
 companions,  and  by  all  the  daughters  of  Israel  in  suc- 
 ceeding times,  if  she  suffered  no  other,  no  severer  pun- 
 ishment, than  that  of  being  devoted  to  a  single  life. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  most  prevailing  arguments  on  the 
 affirmative  side  ;  and  for  the  confirmation  of  them,  it  is 
 farther  alleged,  that  both  Josephus  and  the  Chaldee 
 Paraphrast  testify  the  same  thing  ;  that  the  ancient  doc- 
 tors, both  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  church,  were  of  the 
 same  opinion;  and  that,  as  to  the  substance  of  the  fact, 
 the  compilers  of  the  homilies  of  our  church,  do  perfectly 
 agree  with  these  ancient  writers  :  so  that  how  desirous  so- 
 ever we  may  be  to  clear  Jephthah  from  the  imputation  of  so 
 cruel,  so  impious,  so  unnatural  an  act,  as  that  of  mur- 
 dering his  own  daughter  ;  yet  if  we  will  adhere  to  the 
 more  easy  and  obvious  construction  of  the  words,  and  as 
 they  appear  to  us  at  first  view;  or  if  we  retain  any  just 
 esteem  and  veneration  for  the  sense  of  antiquity,  we 
 must  necessarily  conclude,  that  when  it  is  said  of  him, 
 that  '  he  did  with  his  daughter  according  to  the  vow  which 
 he  had  vowed,'  the  meaning  can  be  no  less,  than  that  he 
 did  really  put  her  to  death  :  but  whether  he  acted  well  or 
 ill  in  so  doing,  is  another  inquiry  we  are  now  to  pursue. 
 
 The  law  of  Cherem,  as  the  Hebrews  call  it,  which  is  a 
 law  of  a  peculiar  nature,  is  delivered  in  these  words  :  " 
 '  No  devoted  thing,  which  a  man  shall  devote  to  the  Lord, 
 of  all  that  he  hath,  both  of  man  and  beast,  and  of  thfl 
 field  of  his  possession,  shall  be  sold  or  redeemed  ;  every 
 devoted  thing  is  most  holy  to  the  Lord.     None  devoted, 
 
 '  Bishop  Smalridge's  Sermons. 
 
 Lev.  xxkii.  'is,  g9. 
 
430 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.   A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 which  shall  be  devoted  by  men,  shall  be  redeemed,  but 
 shall  surely  be  put  to  death.'  Of  this  sort,  a  very  learn- 
 ed 1  commentator  supposes  this  vow  of  Jephthah's  to 
 have  been,  and  that  therefore  he  could  not  redeem  his 
 daughter,  but  was  necessitated  to  put  her  to  death.  It 
 is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  2  Cherem  (which  is  the 
 term  here  made  use  of)  signifies  either  persons  devoted 
 to  slaughter  for  their  execrable  impieties,  as  were  the 
 Amalekites  and  other  nations,  whom  God  commanded 
 the  Israelites  to  extirpate,  or  things  destined  to  de- 
 struction, as  were  Jericho  and  Ai,  for  the  wickedness  of 
 those  to  whom  they  appertained;  so  that  the  law  of 
 Cherem  related  only  to  such  persons  or  things,  as  by  an 
 irrevocable  vow,  were  destined  to  utter  destruction  for 
 their  horrid  crimes,  and  because  indeed  there  was  parti- 
 cular command  from  God,  both  for  the  making  or 
 putting  such  a  vow  in  execution  ;  but  it  can  by  no  means 
 be  pretended,  either  that  Jephthah's  daughter  merited 
 such  a  punishment,  or  that  her  father  had  any  order  or 
 commission  from  God  to  inflict  it.  On  the  contrary,  all 
 human  sacrifices  are  expressly  forbidden,  as  odious  and 
 detestable  to  God :  3  '  Thou  shalt  not  do  so  to  the  Lord 
 thy  God  ;  thou  shalt  not  burn  thy  sons,  and  thy  daughters 
 in  the  fire,'  as  the  heathens  used  to  do  to  their  gods  ;  '  for 
 every  abomination  to  the  Lord,  which  he  hateth,  have 
 they  done.' 
 
 There  is  one  law,  indeed,  which  seems  to  be  of  some 
 moment  in  the  case  before  us,  and  that  is  this  :— ' 4  If  a 
 man  vow  a  vow  unto  the  Lord,  or  swear  an  oath  to  bind 
 his  soul  with  a  bond,  he  shall  not  break  his  word,  he  shall 
 do  according  to  all  that  proceedeth  out  of  his  mouth.' 
 But  then  all  sober  casuists  are  agreed,  that  a  vow  has 
 only  a  constructive,  not  a  destructive  force,  that  is,  that 
 it  can  only  lay  a  new  obligation,  where  there  is  none, 
 or  where  there  is  one,  strengthen  it ;  but  that  it  camiot 
 cancel  a  former  obligation,  or  superinduce  one  that  is 
 repugnant  to  it.  Now  all  our  obligations  to  obedience 
 proceed  from  God.  s  He  hath  an  uncontrollable  right 
 to  give  laws  to  his  creatures :  but  if  men,  by  entering 
 into  vows,  could  free  themselves  from  the  obligation  of 
 his  laws,  they  might  then,  whenever  they  pleased,  by 
 their  own  act,  defeat  his  authority.  Whatever,  therefore, 
 is  in  itself  forbidden  by  God,  and  for  that  reason  unlaw- 
 ful ;  whatever  is  against  any  precept  of  natural  or 
 revealed  religion  ;  whatever  is  inconsistent  with  those 
 relative  duties  which  men  owe  to  one  another  ;  whatever, 
 in  short,  is  in  any  respect  sinful,  cannot,  by  being  made 
 the  matter  of  a  vow,  become  justifiable.  So  that  he  who 
 hath  vowed  to  do  what  cannot  be  done  without  sin,  is  so 
 far  from  being  obliged  to  perform  his  vow,  that  he  is, 
 notwithstanding  his  vow,  obliged  not  to  perform  it ;  be- 
 cause there  is  not  only  great  obliquity  in  making  such 
 an  unlawful  vow,  but  this  obliquity  is  so  far  from  being- 
 lessened,  that  it  is  aggravated  by  keeping  it. 
 
 'Since,  therefore,  the  thing  vowed  by  Jephthah  seems 
 to  have  been  in  itself  unlawful  ;  since  his  daughter  was 
 innocent,  and  had  done  nothing  to  deserve  death  ;  since 
 the  running  out  to  meet  her  father  with  joy  and  congra- 
 tulation, was  an  act  of  piety,  which  seemed  to  entitle  her 
 
 1  Diatribe  of  Lud.  Cappel  concerning  Jephthah's  Vow. 
 *  Edward's  Inquiry  into  several  texts. 
 Deut.  xii.  31.     *  Num.  xxx.  2.     4  Bishop  Smalridge's  Serm. 
 "  Ibid. 
 
 A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH, 
 to  his  love  and  favour ;  since  the  natural  affection  of  a 
 father  towards  his  child  ought  to  be  stifled, before  he  could 
 give  way  to  the  execution  of  the  sentence  of  death  upon 
 her  ;  since  the  sacrificing  of  children  to  their  gods  was  a 
 crime,  for  which  the  heathen  nations  were  justly  detested, 
 and  punished  by   God ;    since  Jephthah's   offering  his 
 daughter  as  a  victim  to  the  Lord,  might  reflect  a  disho- 
 nour upon  the  true  God,  as  if  he  also  delighted  in  such 
 sacrifices  ;  since  these,  I  say,  and  several  other  things, 
 might  be  urged  in  aggravation   of  this  action,  we  may 
 safely  and  confidently  aver,  7  with  the  Jewish  historian, 
 "  that  the  sacrifice   which   Jephthah  offered  was  neither 
 lawful  nor  acceptable  to  God,"  but  on  the  contrary  a  very 
 impious  act,  and  an  abominable  crime,  though  it  might 
 possibly  proceed  from  a  mistaken  principle  of  religion. 
 The  religious  observation  of  oaths  and  vows  has,  at 
 all  times,  been  esteemed  a  duty  incumbent  on  those  that 
 made  them  ;  insomuch,  that  even  when  they  have  been  pro- 
 cured by  guile,  they  have  not  been  thought  destitute  of 
 their   obligation.       The  Gibeonites   certainly  imposed 
 upon  the  children  of  Israel,  when  they  obtained  from 
 them  a  league  of  amity  and  friendship  ;  and  yet  we  may 
 observe  what  notions  the  Israelites  had  of  this  kind  of 
 obligation,  when,  in  their  public  consultations,  they  say, 
 6  '  We  have  sworn  unto  them  by  the  Lord  God  of  Israel ; 
 now  therefore  we  may  not  touch  them.'     This  was  a 
 remarkable  instance  before  Jephthah's  days,  and  it  is 
 not  improbable,  that  he  might  have  it  in  his  remembrance, 
 and  imprudently  make  use  of  it,  as  a  precedent  of  the 
 irreversibleness  of  oaths,  and  of  the  inviolable  tie  he  was 
 under  by  reason  of  his  vow :  but  in  succeeding  times, 
 there  is  a  passage  in  Scripture,  which  comes  nearer  to 
 the  case  now  before  us.     Saul,  in  the  day  of  battle,  per- 
 ceiving his  enemies  to  give  ground,  out  of  the  abundance 
 of  his  zeal,  made  a  vow  to  God,  that  whoever  would 
 taste  any  food  before  the  pursuit  was  over,  should  cer- 
 tainly die  ;  and  upon  this  occasion  his  own  son  Jonathan 
 had  like  to  have  been  made  a  sacrifice,  merely  because 
 his  father  would  have  been  thought  religious  and  austere 
 to  the  observation  of  his  oath  ;  notwithstanding  he  was 
 plainly  excused  from  the  obligation  of  it  as  to  his  son, 
 who   was   both   in  another  place,  and  ignorant  of  his 
 father's  will,  and  under  necessity  of  taking  some  small 
 refreshment  when  he  was  so  faint  and  hungry.     What 
 wonder  then  if  Jephthah,  who,  we  have  reason  to  believe, 
 was  a  person  much  more  religiously  inclined  than  Saul, 
 should  think  himself  under  an  obligation  to  observe  his 
 vow,  even  though  it  was  to  the  destruction  of  his  own 
 and  only  daughter. 
 
 What  the  acceptableness  of  Abraham's  offering  his  son 
 Isaac  was,  he  had  read  in  the  book  of  Moses  ;  and  this 
 might  possibly  lessen  the  horror  of  the  fact  he  was  going 
 to  commit.  For  though  Abraham  had  the  positive  com- 
 mand of  God  for  what  he  did,  which  Jephthah  could  not 
 pretend  to,  so  that  there  was  a  great  disparity  between 
 their  two  cases ;  yet  it  was  plain,  from  the  acceptable- 
 ness of  Abraham's  offering,  and  the  great  reward  bestowed 
 on  him  for  his  intended  oblation,  that  the  sacrificing  a 
 beloved  child  was  not,  in  all  cases,  and  under  all  cir- 
 cumstances sinful,  but  might  be  so  circumstantiated  as 
 to  be  an  act  of  piety,  and  approved  in  the  sight  of  God  : 
 and  when  this  example  proved  such  an  action,  as  to  the 
 
 Josephus'  Antiquities,  b.  v.  c.  9. 
 
 Josh.  ix.  19. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 431 
 
 A.  M.  25fil.  A.  C.  1443;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 matter  and  substance  of  it,  not  only  lawful  but  commend- 
 able, Jephthab  might  from  hence  be  led  into  an  opinion 
 that  the  difference  between  his  case  and  that  of  Abraham 
 was  not  so  great,  as  that  what  was  laudable  and  almost 
 meritorious  in  the  one,  should  be  imputed  as  an  unpar- 
 donable crime  to  the  other. 
 
 He  had  read  likewise  in  the  law,  that  *  '  when  thou 
 shalt  vow  a  vow  unto  the  Lord,  thou  shalt  not  be  slack 
 to  pay  it ;'  and  was  sensible  that  a  wilful  neglect  of  this 
 was  a  heinous  crime,  2a  mocking  of  God,  a  dissembling 
 with  Heaven,  and  an  act  of  injustice  and  unfaithfulness 
 towards  him,  who  is  a  severe  exactor  of  vows,  and  is 
 wont  to  avenge  the  breach  of  them  by  the  infliction  of 
 the  sorest  punishments ;  and  upon  these  premises  he 
 might  possibly  argue  with  himself  in  this  manner : 
 "  Though  I  know  that  the  performance  of  my  vow  will 
 be  accompanied  with  murder,  yet  I  consider  likewise 
 that  my  not  performing  it  will  be  attended  with  down- 
 right perjury.  Seeing  then  there  is  a  necessity  of  sinning 
 one  way  or  other,  I  am  resolved  to  choose  the  former  ; 
 for  though  that  be  an  injury  to  my  daughter,  yet  the 
 other  is  an  affront  to  God.  My  child  is  dear  to  me  in- 
 deed, but  my  God,  my  Father,  is  much  more  so.  It  is 
 better  therefore  to  be  cruel  than  impious  ;  to  be  guilty 
 of  bloodshed,  than  to  be  perjured  and  false  to  the  Lord 
 of  heaven  and  earth.  '  I  have  opened  my  mouth  unto  the 
 Lord,  and  I  cannot  go  back.'  I  must  not  reverse,  I 
 dare  not  revoke  the  sacred  promise  which  I  have  made 
 to  the  Almighty  ;  but  my  firm  and  unshaken  purpose  is 
 to  perform  it."  Thus  the  mistaken  sense  of  the  indis- 
 soluble obligation  which  his  vow  had  laid  upon  him, 
 blinded  his  eyes,  and  ran  him  upon  this  fatal  rock. 
 
 He  could  not  but  know,  had  he  considered  at  all, 
 that  no  vow  is  obligatory,  where  the  matter  of  it  is  un- 
 lawful ;  or  that,  what  is  unlawful  in  itself,  cannot  possi- 
 bly be  made  otherwise  by  the  interposition  of  a  vow. 
 Nay,  he  could  not  but  know,  that  to  act  unlawfully,  in 
 virtue  of  a  vow,  was  a  double  sin,  since  not  only  the  vow 
 itself  was  sinful,  but  the  act  consequent  thereupon 
 was  sinful  likewise  ;  and  yet  so  blind  sometimes  is  the 
 zeal  of  an  erroneous  conscience,  that  it  will  not  suffer 
 men  to  perceive,  at  least  to  be  governed  by  the  most 
 rational  and  self-evident  principles. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that  how 
 great  soever  this  sin  of  Jephthah's  was,  yet,  properly 
 speaking  it  was  the  sin  of  ignorance,  and  the  effect  of  a 
 misguided  conscience.  By  the  bitter  complaint,  which 
 he  uttered  upon  the  first  sight  of  his  daughter  coming 
 out  to  meet  him,  it  is  evident  that  he  was  under  great 
 trouble  and  perplexity ;  and  as  she  had  done  nothing  to 
 alienate  his  affections  from  her,  but  in  this  very  act  of 
 meeting  him,  had  done  something  to  engage  his  affec- 
 tions more  strongly  towards  her,  the  bowels  of  a  father 
 must  necessarily  yearn  to  save  the  life  of  a  loving  and 
 a  beloved  child.  The  generous  offer  which  she  made 
 him,  that  he  might  do  to  her  what  he  pleased,  according 
 to  his  vow,  though  it  made  the  doing  of  it  less  unjust, 
 could  not  but  add  a  fresh  sting  to  his  grief,  and,  if  he 
 had  any  generosity  in  his  breast,  make  him  do  it  with 
 more  reluctancy.  No  one  who  is  a  parent ;  no  one  who 
 has  felt  the  workings  of  nature  towards  his  own  issue  ; 
 no  one  who  hath  suffered,  or  who  hath  feared  the  loss  of 
 
 1  Dent.  sxih'.  21. 
 
 2  Edward's  Inquiry  into  several  texts, 
 
 M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH, 
 an  only  child,  but  must  be  sensible  of  what  pangs  of 
 sorrow,  what  meltings  of  compassion,  what  agonies  of 
 grief,  must  pierce  the  soul  of  Jephthah,  when  he  ima- 
 gined himself  under  the  sad  necessity  of  sacrificing  his 
 own,  his  only,  his  virgin  daughter,  whom  he  could  not 
 offer  up  for  a  burnt-offering,  without  sacrificing,  at  the 
 same  time,  all  the  propensions  of  nature,  all  the  ease  and 
 pleasure  of  his  life,  all  the  prospect  of  keeping  up  his 
 family.  Nothing  less  than  a  mistaken  opinion  of  the 
 indispensable  obligation  of  his  vow  could  prevail  with 
 him  thus  to  overrule  the  strong  motives  of  interest  and 
 inclination  ;  and  a  mistake  which  took  its  rise  from  so 
 good  a  principle  must,  without  question,  at  least  exten- 
 uate the  guilt,  in  the  judgment  both  of  good-natured 
 men,  and  of  an  all-merciful  God. 
 
 We  cannot,  however,  part  with  this  remarkable  piece 
 of  history,  without  making  one  inference,  namely,  that 
 we  should  be  strictly  careful  how  we  engage  ourselves 
 in  any  rash  and  indeliberate  vows  ;  because,  as  a  vow  is 
 confessedly  an  act  of  religion,  when  once  '  we  have 
 opened  our  mouths  unto  the  Lord,'  we  cannot,  without 
 manifest  prevarication  and  contempt  of  God's  authority, 
 'go  back.'  And  therefore,  to  conclude  in  the  words  of 
 a  great  3  divine  already  quoted  upon  this  subject,  "  as 
 in  civil  life,  men  of  the  best  character  for  integrity,  and 
 such  as  are  most  punctual  in  keeping  their  words,  are 
 observed  to  be  very  sparing  in  making  promises  ;  so  in 
 religion,  the  best  way  we  can  take  to  observe  the  pre- 
 cept given  us  by  Solomon,  4  '  that  when  we  vow  a  vow 
 unto  God,  we  should  not  defer  to  pay  it,'  will  be,  in  the 
 first  place,  to  observe  another  precept,  which  he  lays 
 down  before  this,  namely,  that  5  '  we  should  not  be  rash 
 with  our  mouths,  nor  let  our  hearts  be  hasty  to  utter  any 
 thine-  before  God.'  " 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— On  Jephthah's  Vow. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY  THE  EDITOR. 
 
 In  the  course  of  the  previous  section,  our  author  states, 
 that  Josephus  and  the  Jewish  writers  in  general,  as  well 
 as  the  principal  writers  of  the  early  ages  of  the  church, 
 were  of  opinion  that  Jephthah,  in  consequence  of  his  vow, 
 offered  his  daughter  as  a  burnt-offering  to  the  Lord,  and 
 he  seems  himself  decidedly  to  incline  to  the  same  view. 
 This  opinion  has  been  adopted  by  very  respectable  mo- 
 dern commentators.  But  from  this  view  of  the  matter  I 
 dissent,  as  I  conceive  that  Jephthah  only  devoted  his 
 daughter  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  the  service  of  the  Lord. 
 1  am  confirmed  in  the  accuracy  of  this  opinion,  by  all 
 that  is  recorded  of  the  piety  of  this  judge,  as  well  as  by 
 the  language  in  which  his  vow  is  couched.  He  is  uni- 
 formly represented  in  Scripture,  as  a  man  who  feared 
 God.  He  is  mentioned  bj  the  apostle  Paul  as  one  of 
 the  eminent  men  who  obtained  a  good  report  through 
 faith  :  and  it  is  declared,  that  at  this  rerj  time, — the 
 time  in  which  he  uttered  his  vow, — that  he  was  under  the 
 influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  I  maintain,  that  all  this 
 is  irreconcilable  with  the  supposition,  that  Jephthah  de- 
 liberately vowed  to  commit  murder;  for  he  must  have 
 knowingly  done  so,  if  we  may  imagine  that  he  bound 
 
 •J  Smalridge's  Sermons. 
 
 Eccli 
 
 '  Eccl»s.  v.  2. 
 
432 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 fBoos  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2561.  A.  C.  1413;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4189.  A.  C.  1222.  JUD.  i.  TO  THE  END  OF  RUTH. 
 
 himself  by  an  oath  to  kill  the  first  man,  woman;  or  child, 
 that  should  meet  him  on  his  return.  He,  who  in  his  expos- 
 tulation with  the  king  of  Amnion,  showed  that  he  was  well 
 acquainted  with  the  history  of  Israel,  could  not  be  igno- 
 rant of  the  law  which  said,  '  Thou  slialt  not  kill,'  and 
 which  expressly  forbade  to  imitate  the  heathen  in  offering 
 human  sacrifices.  He  who  was  aware  that  the  law  pre- 
 scribed that,  if  a  man  even  unintentionally  should  kill 
 his  slave,  should  be  punished,  could  not  imagine  that 
 the  law  permitted  him  intentionally  and  deliberately  to 
 kill  his  own  daughter. 
 
 There  is  no  similarity  between  the  case  of  Jephthah 
 and  that  of  Abraham  offering  up  his  son  Isaac.  Abra- 
 ham acted  in  obedience  to  the  divine  command ;  but 
 (here  is  no  intimation  that  the  Spirit  of  God,  under  whose 
 influence  he  was,  gave  any  such  order  to  him.  Nor  even 
 if  such  a  sacrifice  had  been  required  for  the  trial  of 
 his  faith,  can  we  conceive  that  he  would  be  allowed 
 to  carry  it  into  effect. 
 
 But  the  idea  of  Jephthah's  sacrificing  his  daughter,  is 
 not  more  irreconcilable  with  what  we  know  of  his  piety 
 than  it  is  with  the  provisions  which  the  law  itself  made  in 
 such  a  case.  It  permitted  a  valuation  to  be  made  of 
 any  thing  devoted,  and  the  ransom  money  to  be  offered 
 in  its  stead.  The  valuation,  in  the  case  of  a  human  be- 
 ing, varied  according  to  the  age  and  sex  of  the  person  ; 
 but,  if  it  were  a  beast,  the  offerer  was  required  to  give  as 
 the  price  of  its  redemption,  a  fifth  more  than  its  esti- 
 mated value.  No  ransom  could  be  given  for  cities  or 
 possessions  which  God  had  declared  accursed,  and  had 
 devoted  to  destruction ;  such  were  the  Amalekites  and 
 Canaanites,  to  spare  whom  was  to  sin  against  God.  We 
 are  entitled  to  presume,  that  Jephthah,  who  was  so  well 
 acquainted  with  the  history  of  his  people,  was  also  ac- 
 quainted with  the  law  concerning  vows  and  things 
 devoted ;  and  that  in  making  his  vow,  therefore,  he  had 
 in  his  view  those  exceptions  in  things  offered,  which  the 
 law  made,  and  those  exchanges  which  it  admitted.  Even 
 if  he  had  been  ignorant  of  this,  can  we  suppose,  that  the 
 priests  were  so  ill  instructed,  and  so  forgetful  as  to  over- 
 look it?  Especially  as  the  execution  of  the  vow  was 
 deferred  for  two  months,  and  great  lamentation  made  o:: 
 account  of  it?  It  is  true,  idolatry  with  its  attendants, 
 ignorance  and  superstition,  prevailed  over  the  land  ;  but 
 at  no  period  did  it  prevail  to  the  utter  extinction  of  the 
 worship  of  God,  and  neglect  of  his  law.  Besides,  Jeph- 
 thah, and  the  people  of  Israel,  had  united  in  a  reforma- 
 tion of  religion ;  and  in  doing  so  had  obtained  signal 
 marks  of  the  peculiar  favour  and  presence  of  God. 
 Would  the  people  allow  the  instrument  of  their  deliver- 
 ance, on  his  return  from  victory,  to  sacrifice  his  own 
 daughter  ?  Would  they  not  have  interposed  for  her 
 safety,  as  they  did  at  a  subsequent  period  of  their  his- 
 tory, on  behalf  of  Jonathan  when  his  father  Saul  had 
 doomed  him  to  destruction  ? 
 
 There  is  nothing  in  the  language  in  which  the  vow  of 
 Jephthah  is  couched,  which  requires  us  to  suppose  that 
 he  devoted  his  daughter  to  death.  The  conjunction  vau 
 rendered  and  in  our  version,  might  be  rendered  or  :  and 
 it  is  often  thus  translated  in  other  passages,  '  Whatsoever 
 cometh  forth  of  the  doors  of  my  house  to  meet  me,  shall 
 surely  be  the  Lord's,  or,  I  will  offer  it  for  a  burnt-offer- 
 ing :'  '  Whatever  it  may  happen  to  be,  it  shall  be  con- 
 secrated  to  God  :  or,  should  it  be  fit  to  be  offered   in 
 
 sacrifice  to  the  Lord,  it  shall  be  presented  as  a  burnt- 
 offering.'  To  satisfy  us  that  this  is  a  correct  translation, 
 it  may  be  remarked  that  the  conjunction  vau  must  be 
 rendered  disjunctively  in  Lev.  xxvii.  28,  where  the  law 
 regarding  tilings  devoted  is  recorded.  '  Notw  ithstanding 
 no  devoted  thing,  that  a  man  shall  devote  unto  the  Lord 
 of  all  that  he  hath,  either  of  man  or  of  beast,  or  of  the 
 field  of  his  possessions  shall  be  sold  or  redeemed.' 
 
 These  considerations,  when  viewed  in  connexion  with 
 those  which  I  am  about  to  mention,  prove  conclusively 
 that  Jephthah  neither  did  sacrifice  his  daughter,  nor  was 
 under  any  obligation  from  his  vow  to  do  so.  The  sacri- 
 fice of  children  was  an  abomination  to  the  Lord  :  he 
 repeatedly  expressed  his  abhorrence  of  the  practice  ;  and 
 it  was  prohibited  by  law  under  pain  of  death.  '  No 
 father  could,  by  his  own  authority,  put  an  offending,  much 
 less  an  innocent  child  to  death  upon  any  account,  with- 
 out the  sanction  of  the  magistrates,  and  the  consent  of 
 the  people,  as  in  the  case  of  Jonathan.  2  The  Mishna 
 says,  that  "  if  a  Jew  should  devote  his  son  or  daughter, 
 his  man  or  maid  servant,  the  devotement  would  be  void, 
 because  no  man  can  devote  what  is  not  his  own." 
 
 In  Avhat  way,  then,  did  Jephthah  fulfil  his  vow  ?  The 
 consideration  of  this  question  will  lead  us  to  the  same 
 conclusion  as  that  to  which  we  have  already  come. 
 After  Jephthah  had  subdued  the  children  of  Ammon,  we 
 read  that  he  '  came  to  Mispeh  unto  his  house,  and  behold 
 his  daughter  came  out  to  meet  him  with  timbrels  and 
 with  dances,  and  she  was  his  only  child  ;  beside  her,  he 
 had  neither  son  nor  daughter.  And  it  came  to  pass 
 when  he  saw  her,  that  he  rent  his  clothes,  and  said,  Alas! 
 my  daughter  !  Thou  hast  brought  me  very  low,  and  thou 
 art  one  of  them  that  trouble  me  :  for  I  have  opened  my 
 mouth  unto  the  Lord,  and  I  cannot  go  back.  And  she 
 said  unto  him,  My  father,  if  thou  hast  opened  thy  mouth 
 unto  the  Lord,  do  to  me  according  to  that  which  hath 
 proceeded  out  of  thy  mouth.  And  she  said  unto  her 
 father,  let  this  thing  be  done  for  me,  let  me  alone  two 
 months,  that  I  may  go  up  and  down  upon  the  mountains, 
 and  bewail  my  virginity,  I  and  my  fellows.  And  he 
 said  go  : — And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  two 
 rnonths,  that  she  returned  unto  her  father,  who  did  with 
 iier  according  to  his  vow  which  he  had  vowed.  And  it 
 was  a  custom  in  Israel,  that  the  daughters  of  Israel  went 
 yearly  to  lament  the  daughter  of  Jephthah  the  Gileadite 
 four  days  in  a  year.' 
 
 The  first  thing  in  this  narrative  which  claims  our  atten- 
 tion, is  the  notice  which  Jephthah's  daughter  takes  of 
 the  effect  of  this  vow  on  herself.  If  we  understand  the 
 vow  as  subjecting  her  to  a  life  of  celibacy,  and  of  seclu- 
 sion from  the  world,  and  consecration  to  the  service  of 
 God,  her  language  on  the  occasion  is  natural,  and  what 
 might  have  been  expected  from  her :  but  had  she  been 
 doomed  to  death,  to  this  she  would  doubtless  have 
 alluded,  and  have  made  it  the  ground  of  her  lamentation, 
 If  it  be  supposed  that  her  piety  would  have  made  her 
 silent  as  to  death,  the  same  piety  would  have  led  her 
 silently  to  acquiesce  in  the  other  calamity;  and  like 
 Isaac,  be  willing  to  forego  every  prospect  in  regard  to 
 the  promised  land.  If  it  be  alleged,  that  on  the  suppo- 
 sition of  her  only  being  doomed  to  a  life  of  celibacy 
 and  seclusion  from  the  world,  it  was  not  necessary  for 
 
 Lev.  xx.  ?.,  3. 
 
 "Deut.  xxi.  18—21. 
 
Shot.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  111G;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4259.  A.  C.  1152.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 433 
 
 her  to  ask  two  months  to  bewail  her  fate,  since  she  might 
 have  years  to  mourn  over  it ; — we  may  reply,  and  the 
 reply  is  sufficient,  that  in  the  apprehension  of  the  Israel- 
 ites, who  looked  for  the  promised  Messiah,  it  was  a 
 heavy  affliction  to  die  childless,  that  the  affliction  was 
 greatly  increased  in  the  present  instance,  by  the  circum- 
 stance that  she  was  Jephthah's  only  daughter,  and  that 
 in  her  all  the  honours  of  her  house  would  become  extinct. 
 Her  fate  was  a  kind  of  death  by  anticipation,  and  it  was 
 meet,  therefore,  that  there  should  have  been  a  marked 
 and  public  mourning  on  account  of  it. 
 
 The  language  in  which  her  father  is  said  to  have  ful- 
 filled his  vow,  next  deserves  our  notice.  '  Her  father 
 did  with  her  according  to  his  vow  which  he  had  vowed.' 
 Here  there  is  no  mention  of  her  death  or  of  her  having 
 been  offered  in  sacrifice  to  the  Lord.  While  the  allu- 
 sions to  her  life  of  celibacy  and  seclusion  from  the 
 world  are  frequent,  there  is  not  a  single  hint  concerning 
 her  death, — a  circumstance  for  which  we  cannot  account, 
 but  on  the  supposition  that  that  event  was  not  contem- 
 plated, and  that  it  did  not  really  happen.  If  she  had 
 been  dead,  it  would  not  have  been  necessary  for  the 
 daughters  of  Israel  to  assemble  in  any  particular  place, 
 since  they  might  as  well  conduct  their  lamentations  on 
 her  account,  on  the  supposition  of  her  death,  in  their 
 respective  dwelling  places. 
 
 On  these  grounds,  then,  I  am  decidedly  of  opinion 
 that  Jephthah's  daughter  was  not  offered  in  sacrifice  ; 
 but  that  she  was  devoted  to  a  life  of  celibacy  and  seclu- 
 sion from  the  world. 
 
 To  this  view  of  the  matter,  it  is  objected  ;  first,  that 
 we  have  no  intimation  in  Scripture  of  vows  of  perpetual 
 celibacy,  and  that  they  appear  to  be  a  modern  invention. 
 But  is  there  not  quite  as  little  said  in  Scripture  of 
 devoting  to  death  a  human  being  in  honour  of  God  ? 
 Nay,  is  not  the  testimony  of  Scripture  against  any  such 
 practice  ?  If  the  silence  of  Scripture  be  deemed  a  valid 
 objection  in  one  case,  its  express  prohibition  is  surely 
 to  be  reckoned  an  insuperable  objection  in  the  other. 
 
 Secondly,  it  is  further  objected,  that  parents  had  no 
 right  to  devote  a  child  to  a  life  of  entire  seclusion  from 
 the  world.  This  may  be  true  ;  and  I  would  oidy  say  by 
 way  of  reply,  that  far  less  had  parents  a  right  to  devote 
 8  child  to  death.  The  devotement  of  Jephthah's 
 daughter  to  the  service  of  the  tabernacle,  took  place 
 with  her  own  consent. 
 
 Thirdly,  the  most  specious  objection  to  the  view  of 
 the  matter  which  we  have  taken,  is,  that  she  might  have 
 been  thus  devoted  to  the  service  of  God,  and  at  the  same 
 time  enter  into  the  married  state.  Thus,  Samson, 
 Samuel,  and  others,  who  were  devoted  to  God  from  the 
 womb,  were  married.  But  in  answer  to  this  objection, 
 it  may  be  answered,  that  in  ancient  times,  the  condition 
 of  females  was  different  from  that  of  males  ;  that  while 
 the  latter  were  allowed  to  act  for  themselves,  the  former 
 were  in  some  measure  restrained  by  the  w ill  of  others ; 
 and  that,  therefore,  it  was  necessary,  that  the  daughter 
 «f  Jephthah,  who  had  been  consecrated  by  a  vow  to  the 
 Lord,  should  be  under  no  control  in  giving  herself  up  to 
 the  service  to  which  she  had  been  thus  devoted.1 
 
 To  these  arguments,  I  am  not  aware  of  any  reply  that 
 can  be  made,  except  that  which  is  urged  by  Warburton — 
 
 1  Num.  x\x.  1  .'j. 
 
 that  Jephthah  was  a  semi-pagan,  who  knew  little  of  the 
 law,  and  had  long  been  accustomed  to  disregard  it. 
 This,  however,  as  Bishop  Gleig  observes,  is  said  without 
 the  shadow  of  proof ;  and  is  indeed  so  directly  contrary 
 to  all  that  we  know  of  Jephthah's  character  and  conduct, 
 that  the  ingenious  prelate  is  forced  to  confess,  that  after 
 he  was  appointed  judge  or  chief  ruler  of  Israel,  Jephthah 
 appears  to  have  acquired  a  competent  knowledge  of  the 
 law  :  but  this  confession  completely  destroys  the  argu- 
 ment of  this  learned  critic.  For,  it  was  after  this  period 
 that  Jephthah  devoted  his  daughter. 
 
 SECT.    III. 
 
 CHAP.   \.—From  the  Birth  of  Samuel  to  the  Death 
 of  Saul. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 During  the  time  of  Samson's  great  exploits,  both  the 
 civil  and  ecclesiastical  administration  seems  to  have 
 been  in  the  hands  of  Eli  the  high  priest,  in  the  beginning 
 of  whose  government  Samuel  was  born.  B  He  was  the 
 son  of  Elkanah,  a  Levite  who  dwelt  in  Ramah,  h  a  city 
 belonging  to  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  and,  as  the  custom 
 of  those  times  was,  had  two  wives,  whose  names  were 
 
 a  According  to  the  arrangement  of  the  period  by  Dr  Hales, 
 given  at  the  commencement  of  the  preceding  section,  page  396, 
 this  statement  is  incorrect,  as  it  is  there  stated  that  Samson's 
 administration  of  20  years  commenced  B.  C.  1202,  and  termi- 
 nated B.C.  11S2,  when  Eli's  administration  of  40  years  began. 
 That  he  succeeded  Samson  is  asserted  by  Josephus,  (Antiq.  v. 
 9.  1.)  Eli  was  5S  years  of  age  when  he  began  his  administra- 
 tion, (1  Sam.  It.  15 — 18,)  and  was  the  first  high  priest  of  the 
 line  of  Ithamar,  the  younger  son  of  Aaron.  The  date  of  Samuel's 
 birth  is  not  noticed  in  any  part  of  the  book  called  by  his  name ; 
 but  it  is  ascertained  by  the  research  of  Josephus,  that  Samuel  at 
 the  time  of  his  prophetic  call  was  12  years  old  ;  but  his  call  was 
 450  years  after  the  first  division  of  the  conquered  lands,  (Acts 
 xiii.  20.)  and  therefore  happened  in  the  thirty-first  year  of  Eli's 
 administration,  and  consequently  his  birth  in  the  nineteenth 
 year  of  it.  Samuel  died  about  two  years  before  Saul,  and  there- 
 lore  lived  about  92  years. — Dr  Hales'  Analysis,  b.  2.  pp.  299 — 
 302.— Ed. 
 
 b  Ramah  signifies  an  eminence,  or  high  situation,  and  is 
 therefore  an  appellation  given  to  several  places  that  an-  built  in 
 this  maimer.  This  is  said  to  have  stood  upon  Mount  Ephraim, 
 thereby  to  distinguish  it  from  other  towns,  in  different  tribes,  ol 
 the  same  denomination ;  and  the  reason  why  it  is  here  called 
 ltamathaim,  in  the  dual  number,  is,  as  some  imagine,  because 
 it  was  built  upon  two  hills,  which  made  it  appear  a  double  city: 
 and  because  it  was  situate  on  high,  and  had  a  watch-tower  built 
 in  it,  it  therefore  had  the  title  of  Zophim  added  to  it.  It  stood 
 upon  the  road  that  led  from  Samaria  to  Jerusalem;  and  for  this 
 reason,  as  well  as  its  advantageous  situation,  Baasha  king  of 
 Israel  caused  it  to  be  fortifx  id,  that  there  might  be  no  passage 
 out  of  the  land  of  Judah  into  that  of  Israel,  (1  Kings  xv.  17., 
 and  2  Chron.  xvi.  1.)  but  in  St  Jerome's  days  it  was  no  more 
 than  a  small  village.  Here  it  was  that  Samuel  passed  a  great 
 part  of  his  time;  for  his  mother's  dedication  of  him  to  the  ser- 
 vice of  God  did  not  confine  him  to  Shiluh,  after  that  God  had 
 called  him  out  to  a  public  employ,  and  appointed  him  his  resi- 
 dence in  a  place  mine  convenient  for  the  execution  of  it.  The 
 truth  is,  after  the  captivity  of  the  ark,  and  the  death  of  Eli,  all 
 religious  ceremonies  seem  to  have  ceased  at  Shiloh,  for  which 
 reason  it  is  said,  that  Samuel  built  an  altar  at  Ramah,  the  place 
 of  his  residence,  to  the  intent  that  the  people  might  resort  to 
 him  cither  to  receive  judgment,  or  to  offer  sacrifices,  which, 
 though  it  was  contrary  to  the  law  of  Moses,  seems  to  be  a  case 
 of  necessity;  I"  eau-e  the  ark  being  at  one  place,  and  the  taber- 
 nacle at  another,  neither  of  them  could  properly  be  resorted  to 
 3i 
 
434 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.288S.  A.  C.  1116  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4259.  A.  C.  1152.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Hannah  and  Peninnah.  a  Thrice  every  year  he  used  to 
 go  to  Shiloh,  there  to  offer  up  his  usual  sacrifice,  and  as 
 he  was  a  pious  and  religious  man,  he  generally  took  his 
 two  wives  with  him,  that  they,  in  like  manner,  might 
 make  their  oblations.  Now  Hannah,  though  she  had  no 
 children,  was  his  favourite  wife,  and  therefore,  at  *  every 
 feast  upon  the  peace-offering,  he  usually  sent  her  a 
 separate  mess,  and  of  the  choicest  of  the  meat ;  which 
 the  other  perceiving,  was  wont  to  c  upbraid  her  with  her 
 sterility,  or  want  of  children.  Hannah  took  this  so  sore 
 to  heart  that  all  the  kind  things  which  her  husband  said 
 to  her,  could  not  assuage  or  comfort  her ;  but  as  soon 
 as  she  rose  from  table,  away  she  hastens  to  the  taber- 
 nacle, and  there  pours  out  her  soul  before  God,  desiring 
 of  him  to  bless  her  with  a  son,  which  favour  if  he  would 
 grant  her,  she  promised  to  make  him  a  Nazarite,  and  all 
 the  days  of  his  life  devote  him  to  his  service. 
 
 Her  prayers  were  heard,  and,  in  a  proper  time,  she 
 conceived,  and  brought  forth  a  son,  whom  she  called 
 Samuel,  even  because  she  had  '  asked  him  of  the  Lord,' 
 for  so  his  name  imports,  and  after  he  was  grown  to  a 
 competent  age,  she  brought  him  to  Shiloh,  anil  in  a  very 
 joyful  and  thankful  manner,  presented  him  to  Eli,  who 
 gladly  received  him,  and  immediately  clothed  him  with 
 a  proper  habit,  even  with  a  linen  a  ephod,  that  he  might 
 attend  upon  the  service  of  the  tabernacle. e 
 
 Eli  himself  was  a  very  good  man,  but  by  much  too 
 indulgent  to  his  children.  He  had  two  sons,  Hophni 
 and  Phinehas,  who  were  mere  libertines.  They  domineer- 
 either  for  sacrificing,  or  any  other  part  of  public  worship. — Pa- 
 trick's, Le  Clerc's,  and  Calmet's  Commentaries;  and  Universal 
 History. 
 
 a  The  precept  is  exactly  thus, — '  Three  times  in  the  year  all 
 thy  males  shall  appear  before  the  Lord  thy  God,'  (Exod.  xxiii. 
 1  7.)  which  were  at  the  feast  of  the  passover,  the  pentecost,  and 
 that  of  the  tabernacles;  but  women  were  exempted  from  this  at- 
 tendance ;  and  therefore  it  was  an  extraordinary  act  of  piety  for 
 Elkanah  to  take  his  two  wives  with  him. 
 
 b  The  blood  of  this  peace-offering  was  shed  at  the  foot  of  the 
 altar,  the  fat  was  burnt,  the  breast  and  right  shoulder  was  the 
 priest's  perquisite,  and  all  the  rest  belonged  to  the  person  who 
 brought  the  victim.  With  this  he  made  a  feast  of  charity,  to 
 which  he  called  his  friends  and  relations,  and  in  several  places 
 of  Scripture,  God  reminds  him  to  invite  the  Levite,  the  poor, 
 the  fatherless,  and  the  widow. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Sterility  was  looked  upon  among  the  Jews  as  one  of  the 
 greatest  misfortunes  that  could  befall  any  woman;  insomuch  that 
 to  have  a  child,  though  the  mother  immediately  died  thereupon, 
 was  accounted  a  less  affliction  than  to  have  none  at  all.  And  to 
 this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that  the  midwife  comforts  Rachel 
 in  her  labour,  even  though  she  knew  her  to  lie  at  the  point  of 
 death,  in  these  terms,  '  Fear  not,  for  thou  shalt  have  this  son 
 also,'  Gen.  xxxv.  17. — Saurin,  in  vol.  4.  Dissertation  17. 
 
 d  The  ephod  which  the  high  priest  wore  (as  we  have  de- 
 scribed it  elsewhere,)  was  a  very  rich  habit  indeed,  (Exod. 
 xxviii.  6.)  but  there  were  other  kinds  of  ephods,  which  not 
 only  priests  and  Levites,  but  even  laymen,  upon  some  occa- 
 sions wore,  as  we  find  in  the  instance  of  David,  (2  Sam.  vi.  14.) 
 which  was  not  a  sacred,  but  an  honorary  garment,  as  we  may 
 call  it,  and  such  as  the  high  priest  might  order  Samuel  to  wear, 
 to  distinguish  him  from  some  other  inferior  officers  belonging  to 
 the  tabernacle. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  1  Sam.  ii.  19.  The  women  made  wearing  apparel,  and  their 
 common  employment  was  weaving  stuffs,  as  making  cloth  and 
 tapestry  is  now.  We  see  in  Homer  the  instances  of  Penelope, 
 Calypso,  and  Circe.  There  are  examples  of  it  in  Theocritus, 
 Idyll.  15.  But  what  appears  most  wonderful  is,  that  this  cus- 
 tom was  retained  at  Rome  among  the  greatest  ladies  in  a  very 
 corrupt  age,  since  Augustus  commonly  wore  clothes  made  by  his 
 wife,  sister,  and  daughter. — Suet.  Aug.  73.  Prov.  xxxi.  13 
 — 19.  Fleury's  Hist,  of  the  Israelites,  p.  72. 
 
 ed  over  the  men,  and  debauched  the  women  at  their  de- 
 votions ;  and  so  far  were  they  from  being  content  with  the 
 portions  which  God  had  allotted  them  as  priests,  that 
 they  forced  from  the  people  even  before  they  had  made 
 their  oblations,  what  part  of  the  sacrifice  they  pleased  ; 
 which  gave  so  general  a  disgust,  that  religion  grew  into 
 contempt,  and  the  worship  of  God  came  to  be  disused. 
 
 Eli  was  not  unacquainted  with  his  sons'  ill  conduct ; 
 but  instead  of  chastising  them  as  his  authority  required, 
 he  contented  himself  with  reproving  them  now  and  then, 
 but  that  in  such  gentle  and  mild  terms,  as  rather  en- 
 couraged than  deterred  them  from  proceeding  in  their 
 wicked  practices  ;  till  at  length,  God,  being  provoked 
 with  this  his  remissness,  /  sent  a  prophet  to  threaten 
 him  and  his  family  with  utter  destruction ;  to  upbraid 
 him  with  his  ingratitude  in  slighting  the  sacerdotal  honour 
 which  he  had  conferred  on  him  ;  to  foretell  the  death 
 of  his  two  sons  both  in  one  day,  ffthe  removal  of  his 
 priesthood  into  another  and  better  family,  and  the  ex- 
 treme poverty  which  his  posterity  would  fall  into,  upon 
 their  ejection  from  the  sacerdotal  office.  Nor  was  it 
 long  before  God  discovered  the  same  heavy  judgments 
 to  Samuel,  which  was  the  first  revelation  he  made  to  this 
 young  prophet,  and  which  Eli,  when  he  was  told  it,  re- 
 ceived with  a  mind  fully  resigned  to  the  divine  pleasure  : 
 1 '  It  is  the  Lord,  let  him  do  what  seemeth  him  good.' 
 
 In  these  days  7j  there  were  but  few  prophets,  and  re- 
 velations were  very  scarce  ;  and  therefore  when  the  Is- 
 raelites perceived,  by  the  truth  of  his  predictions,  that 
 God  had  appointed  Samuel  to  the  prophetic  office,  they 
 were  not  a  little  rejoiced  :  and  it  was  from  the  great 
 expectations  they  had  of  God's  favour  in  renewing  this 
 order  of  men  among  them,  that  they  took  up  arms  ;  in 
 order  to  rescue  themselves  from  the  Philistines'  yoke. 
 The  army  of  the  Israelites  encamped  at  a  place  which 
 was  afterwards  called  *  Eben-ezer,  and  that  of  the  Pliil- 
 
 '  1  Sam.  iii.  18. 
 f  Who  this  prophet  was,  commentators  are  at  a  loss  to  know. 
 Some  imagine,  that  it  was  Phinehas  the  son  of  Eleazar,  but  Phi- 
 nehas very  probably  was  dead  long  before  this  time.  Others 
 therefore  will  needs  have  it  to  have  been  Elkanah,  Samuel's 
 father;  and  some  Samuel  himself:  but  we  nowhere  read,  that 
 the  father  was  endued  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  and  the  son 
 was  certainly  then  too  young,  and  unacquainted  with  the  voice 
 of  God.  The  safest  way  therefore  is,  to  own  our  ignorance  of 
 what  the  sacred  historian  hath  not  thought  proper  to  discover  to 
 us.  — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 g  The  high  priesthood  was  originally  settled  upon  Eleazar, 
 the  son  of  Aaron,  by  a  divine  decree ;  but  that  decree  being 
 conditional  only,  it  is  reasonable  to  presume  that  there  was  some 
 great  offence  or  other  in  Eleazar's  family,  though  not  recorded 
 in  Scripture,  which  provoked  God  to  remove  it  into  the  family 
 of  Ithamar,  who  was  Aaron's  youngest  son,  and  from  whom 
 Eli  descended ;  and  here,  for  the  abominable  practices  of  his 
 sons,  which  he  was  too  negligent  to  restrain,  God  threatens  to 
 translate  the  priesthood  back  again  from  the  family  of  Ithamar 
 to  that  of  Eleazar,  which  accordingly  happened  in  the  reign  o' 
 king  Solomon,  who  deposed  Abiathar,  the  last  of  Eli's  line,  iron; 
 the  pontificate,  and  set  up  Zadok  in  his  stead. — Poole's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 h  Whatever  revelations  God  might  impart  to  some  pious  per- 
 sons privately,  there  was  at  this  time  none  publicly  acknowledged 
 for  a  prophet,  unto  whom  the  people  might  resort  to  know  the 
 mind  of  God:  nay,  so  little  acquainted  were  these  ages  with  the 
 prophetic  spirit,  that  we  read  of  no  more  than  two  prophets, 
 (Judg.  iv.  4.  and  vi.  8.)  in  all  the  days  of  the  Judges. — Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 i  This  place  is  here  mentioned  prophetically:  for  it  had 
 not  this  name  till  about  twenty  years  after,  (1  Sam.  iv.  1.)  when 
 
Skct.  111.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c 
 
 435 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  I11G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4258.  A.  C.  1152.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  BND. 
 
 istines  <it  Aphek,  a  city  of  Judah  ;  but  when  they  came 
 to  join  battle,  the  Israelites  were  defeated  with  the  loss 
 of  four  thousand  men. 
 
 The  reason  of  this  defeat  was  imputed  by  some  to 
 their  want  of  the  ark  in  the  army,  which  as  the  symbol  of 
 God's  pretence,  would  be  a  sure  means  of  success  ;  and 
 therefore  they  sent  to  Hophni  and  Phineas  to  bring-  it 
 with  them,  and  when  it  arrived  in  the  camp,  received  it 
 with  many  a  joyful  acclamation.  The  Philistines  at 
 first,  were  dispirited  at  the  news,  as  much  as  their  ene- 
 mies were  animated  :  but  at  length,  taking  heart,  and 
 exhorting  one  another  to  act  courageously,  they  repulsed 
 the  Israelites,  when  they  came  to  attack  them  ;  and  hav- 
 ing slain  thirty  thousand  of  their  foot,  among  whom  were 
 Hophni  and  Phineas,  they  routed  the  rest,  and  put  them 
 all  to  flight,  so  that  the  ark  of  the  Lord  fell  into  their 
 hands. 
 
 This  ill  news  a  soldier  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin, 
 escaping  from  the  field  of  battle,  brought  to  Shiloh  that 
 very  day,  with  the  usual  emblems  of  extreme  sorrow,  a 
 his  clothes  rent,  and  earth  upon  his  head  ;  and  then  there 
 was  no  small  outcry  and  lamentation  in  the  city.  Eli, 
 inquiring  the  cause  of  it,  had  the  soldier  brought  before 
 liiui,  who  gave  him  an  account,  °  that  the  Israelites  were 
 routed,  his  two  sons  slain,  and  the  ark  taken.     Eli  heard 
 
 Samuel  fought  with  the  Philistines,  and  gave  them  a  total  over- 
 throw, and  set  up  a  monument  of  his  victory,  for  the  proper 
 name  signifies  the  stone  of  help,  in  the  field  of  battle,  which  lay 
 on  the  north  border  of  Judah,  not  far  from  Mizeph,  and  Aphek, 
 where  the  Philistines  encamped,  must  not  be  far  distant  from  it. — 
 Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 a  If  we  consult  Josh.  vii.  6.  Job  ii.  12.  and  Ezek.  xxvii.  39. 
 we  shall  find  that  this  was  the  manner  of  men's  expressing  their 
 deep  sorrow  for  any  great  calamity  that  had  befallen  them.  And 
 accordingly  we  find  Virgil  representing  Latinus  rending  his 
 clothes,  and  throwing  dust  upon  his  gray  hairs,  when  he  laments 
 his  private  and  public  calamities:  'with  his  garment  rent,  Latinus, 
 defiling  his  hoary  head  with  dust,  proceeds.' — JEnvid.  12. 
 
 b  Who  this  Benjamite  was  that  brought  the  ill  news  to  Shiloh 
 of  the  loss  of  the  battle,  the  history  is  silent,  and  the  conjecture 
 of  some  Jews,  that  it  probably  was  Saul,  is  very  uncertain  and 
 precarious:  but  there  is  something  very  remarkable  in  the 
 account  which  he  gives  of  the  action.  The  words  are  these ; 
 '  And  Eli  said  to  the  Ben.jamite,  What  is  there  done  in  the 
 battle,  my  son?  And  the  messenger  answered  and  said,  Israel  is 
 lied  before  the  Philistines,  and  there  hath  been  also  a  great 
 slaughter  among  the  people,  and  thy  two  sons  Hophni  and 
 Phineas,  are  dead,  and  the  ark  of  God  is  taken.'  (1  Sam.  iv.  ](), 
 27.)  Madam  Dacier  highly  commends  the  manner  wherein 
 the  sacred  historian  makes  his  messenger  speak,  and  compares 
 these  words,  '  Hophni  and  Phineas  are  dead,  and  the  ark  of  the 
 Lord  is  taken,'  with  those  of  Antilochus  to  Achilles,  when  he  tells 
 him  the  sad  news. — "  l'atroclus  is  stretched  a  corpse  ;  the  Greeks 
 fight  around  him  lying  naked,  and  Hector  with  the  dazzling 
 helmet,  is  in  possession  of  his  armour."  (//.  18.)  Whereupon  she 
 quotes  the  glossary  which  Eustathius  has  upon  this  passage  iu 
 Homer.  "This  speech  of  Antilochus,"  says  that  excellent 
 ciitic,  "  affords  us  a  pattern,  with  what  brevity  such  melancholy 
 news  should  be  related ;  for,  in  two  verses,  it  comprises  every 
 thing  that  happened,  the  death  of  Patroclus,  the  person  who  slew 
 him,  the  encounter  about  his  body,  and  his  arms  in  the  posses- 
 sion of  his  enemy.  The  Greek  tragic  poets  have  not  been  so 
 wise  as  to  imitate  this;  and,  of  all  others  Euripides,  who,  upon 
 the  most  doleful  occasion,  is  so  apt  to  make  long  recitals,  is  most 
 egregiously  defective  herein.  Homer  is  the  only  author  that 
 deserves  to  be  followed.  Nothing  is  more  ridiculous,  than  to 
 hear  a  messenger,  when  he  is  to  report  some  very  bad  news, 
 running  into  tedious  circumstances,  and  pathetic  expressions. 
 All  he  talks  is  not  minded  ;  for  he  to  whom  he  addresses  himself, 
 cannot  attend  to  what  he  says;  the  first  word  that  acquaints  him 
 with  the  misfortune,  makes  him  deaf  to  every  thing  else." — 
 Sattrin,  vol.  4.  Dissertation  23. 
 
 the  defeat  of  the  army,  and  the  death  of  his  sons  with 
 courage  and  unconcern  enough:  but  when  he  .aim-  t.. 
 understand,  that  the  ark  of  the  Lord  was  fallen  into  the 
 enemy's  hand,  his  spirits  forsook  him,  and  being  both 
 heavy  and  aged,  he  fell  from  his  seat,  and  broke  his 
 neck  and  died,  after  he  had  been  the  supreme  magistrate 
 in  Israel  c  for  the  space  of  forty  years  :  and,  what  was 
 a  farther  family  misfortune,  his  son  Phineas  had  a  wife, 
 then  big  with  child,  and  near  her  time,  who  hearing  of 
 her  father's  and  husband's  death,  and,  what  was  the 
 worst  of  all,  of  the  captivity  of  the  ark,  fell  in  labour  at 
 the  news,  and  being  delivered  of  a  son,  had  just  strength 
 to  name  him  Ichabod,  that  is,  no  glory,  before  she  died; 
 because  the  ark  which  was  the  glory  of  Israel,  as  she 
 assigns  the  reason,  '  was  departed  from  them.' 
 
 The  Philistines  having  thus  got  possession  of  the  ark, 
 d  carried  it  in  triumph  to  one  of  their  principal  cities, 
 named  Ashdod,  and  there  placed  it  in  the  temple  of  their 
 god  Dagon  hard  by  his  image.  The  next  morning  the 
 people  of  e  Ashdod,  going  into  the  temple,  found  Dagon 
 
 c  The  Septtiagint,  and  some  ancient  manuscripts,  make  the 
 term  of  Eli's  magistracy  to  be  no  more  than  twenty  years;  and 
 to  reconcile  this  with  the  Hebrew  text,  some  suppose,  either  that 
 he  had  Samson  joined  in  the  government  with  him  for  the  first 
 twenty  years  of  his  administration,  or  his  sons,  for  the  last;  but 
 there  is  no  reason  for  the  solution  of  a  difficulty  which  arises  from 
 nothing  else  but  a  fault  in  the  text  of  the  Septuagint. — Gaimefs 
 Commentary.  [See  note  on  this  subject  at  the  beginning  of 
 this  section.] — Ed. 
 
 d  It  was  a  custom  among  the  heathens,  to  carry  in  triumph 
 the  images  of  the  gods  of  such  nations  as  they  had  vanquished. 
 Isaiah  prophesies  of  Cyrus,  that  in  this  manner  he  would  treat 
 the  gods  of  Babylon:  'Bel  boweth,  Nebo  stoopeth ;  their  idols 
 were  upon  the  beasts,  and  upon  the  cattle,  and  themselves  are 
 gone  into  captivity,'  (Isa.  xlvi.  1,  2.)  Daniel  foretells  of 
 Ptolemy  Euergetes,  that  he  would  'carry  captive  into  Egypt  the 
 gods  of  the  Syrians,  with  their  princes.'  (Dan.  xi.  8.)  And  the 
 like  predictions  are  to  be  met  with  in  Jeremiah  xlviii.  7.  and  in 
 Amos  i.  15.  We  need  less  wonder,  therefore,  that  we  find 
 Plutarch,  in  the  life  of  Maicellus,  telling  us.  that  he  took  away 
 out  of  the  temple  of  Syracuse,  the  most  beautiful  pictures  and 
 statues  of  their  gods;  and  that  afterwards  it  became  a  reproach 
 to  Marcellus,  and  raised  the  indignation  of  other  nations  against 
 Rome,  "  That  he  carried  along  with  him,  not  men  only,  but  the 
 very  gods  captive,  and  in  triumph." — Saurin,  vol.  4.  Di 
 tion  24. 
 
 e  The  Philistines  were  descendants  from  Mizraim  the  lather 
 of  the  Egyptians,  and  so,  in  all  probability,  having  their  first 
 settlement  in  Egypt,  or  the  parts  adjoining,  lay  to  the  south-west 
 of  the  land  of  Canaan.     In  process  of  time,  however,  tin  y  made 
 inroads  upon  Canaan,  and,  in  Abraham's  day-,  had  got  pi 
 of  a  good  part  of  the  territories  which  lay  along  the  w<  stern 
 of  the  Mediterranean  sea.     This  tract  of  ground  was  divided  into 
 fwe  principalities,  or  little  kingdoms,  namely,   Gaza,  Askelon, 
 Ashdod,  Gath,  and  Akron;  which  for  the  better  understanding 
 te  particulars  related  of  the  ark,  during  its  stay  in  this 
 country,  it  will  not  be  improper  to  describe  all  together. 
 city  of  Gaza,  from  which  the  territory  took  its  nam.,  stood,  as  it 
 were,  on  the  very  south-west  angle,  or  corner  of  the  land  of 
 Canaan;  but  of  this  place  we    have    spoken  before.       To    the 
 north    of   Gaza    lay   next   the   city   of    Askelon,   called    by    the 
 Greeks   Ascalon,  and  of  great   note  among  the   (untiles  for  a 
 temple  dedicated  to  Dirceto,  the  mother  of  Simiramis,  wl 
 lure  worshipped  in  the  form  of  a  mermaid.    To  the  north  of 
 Ascalon  lay  Ashdod,  called  by  the  Greeks  Azotus,  and  I 
 for  the  temple  of  the  god  Dagon,  whereof  we  have  taken  notice 
 before.     Still  more  to  the  north  lay  Gath,  memorable  for  being 
 the  birth-place  of  the  giant  Goliath,  whom  David  slew,  and  of 
 several  others  of  the  same  gigantic  race.     It  was  dismantled  by 
 O/ies  king  of  Judah,  and  finally  laid  waste  by  Hazael  king  of 
 Syria:  however  it  recovered  itself)  and  retained  it-  old  name  in 
 
 the  days  of  EusebiUS  and  St  Jerome,  who  place  it  about  foul 
 
 from  EleutheropoliB,  in  the  way  to  Lidda.     The  most  northern 
 
436 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V, 
 
 A.  M.28S8.  A.  C.  1116;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4259.  A.  C.  1152.  I  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 fallen  down  upon  his  face  before  the  ark  ; a  but  suppos- 
 ing this  to  be  an  accident,  they  set  him  up  again  ;  and 
 again,  next  morning,  found  him  not  only  fallen  down, 
 but  his  head  and  the  palms  of  his  hands  broken  off,  and 
 lying  upon  the  threshold  ;  whence  there  arose  a  super- 
 stitious use  among  the  Philistines,  that  neither  priest  nor 
 people  would  ever  *  tread  upon  his  threshold. 
 
 By  this  means  the  people  of  Ashdod  could  not  but 
 perceive  that  their  Dagon  was  far  inferior  to  the  God  of 
 Israel,  who,  to  make  them  still  more  sensible  of  this, 
 smote  them,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  places  adjacent, 
 with  emerods,  and  destroyed  the  fruits  of  their  grounds 
 with  swarms  of  mice ;  so  that,  to  redress  their  com- 
 plaints, the  princes  of  the  Philistines  ordered  the  ark  to 
 be  removed  to  Gath,  where  the  same  judgments  befell 
 the  people  of  that  place  ;  and  when  from  thence  it  was 
 carried  to  Ekron,  not  only  the  c  plague  of  the  emerods, 
 
 of  these  cities,  still  upon  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  sea,  was 
 Ekron,  called  by  the  Greeks  Accaron,  a  place  of  great  wealth 
 and  power,  and  famous  for  the  idolatrous  worship  of  Beelzebub, 
 who  had  here  a  celebrated  temple  and  oracle.  But  of  this  idol 
 we  shall  have  occasion  to  say  more,  when  we  come  to  the  reign 
 of  Ahaziah,  king  of  Judah,  who  sent  in  his  illness  to  consult 
 him. — Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
 a  1  Sam.  v.  4.  The  destruction  of  Dagon  before  the  ark  of 
 the  Lord,  clearly  discovered  the  vanity  of  idols,  and  the  irresis- 
 tible power  of  God.  The  circumstances  attending  his  demoli- 
 tion are  remarkable ;  and  in  them  it  is  possible  may  be  traced  a 
 conformity  with  the  manner  in  which  different  nations  treated 
 the  idol  deities  of  each  other.  Dagon  was  not  merely  thrown 
 down,  but  was  also  broken  to  pieces,  and  some  of  these  fragments 
 were  found  on  the  threshold.  There  is  a  circumstance  related 
 in  Maurice's  Modern  History  of  Hindostan,  (vol.  1.  part  2.  p. 
 296.)  which  seems  in  some  points  similar  to  what  is  recorded  of 
 Dagon.  Speaking  of  the  destruction  of  the  idol  in  the  temple  at 
 Sumnaut,  he  says,  that  "  fragments  of  the  demolished  idol  were 
 distributed  to  the  several  mosques  of  Mecca,  Medina,  and  Gaza, 
 to  be  thrown  at  the  threshold  of  their  gates,  and  trampled  upon 
 by  devout  and  zealous  Mussulmans."  In  both  instances  the  situa- 
 tion of  the  fragments  at  the  threshold  seems  to  intimate  the  com- 
 plete triumph  of  those  who  had  overcome  the  idols,  and  might 
 possibly  be  a  customary  expression  of  indignity  and  contempt. 
 
 Tibullus  informs  us,  that  to  beat  the  head  against  the  sacred 
 threshold  was,  with  many,  an  expiatory  ceremony.     It  probably 
 originated  with  the  Egyptians  in  the  worship  of  Isis. 
 For  crimes  like  these  I'd  abject  crawl  the  ground, 
 Kiss  her  dread  threshold,  and  ray  forehead  wound. 
 
 Grainger. — Ed. 
 
 b  It  is  somewhat  strange,  that  when  the  Philistines  saw  their 
 Dagon  cast  down  before  the  ark  of  God,  with  his  head  and  hands 
 broken  off,  they  should  not  thence  infer,  that  he  was  no  more 
 than  a  vain  idol:  but  instead  of  that,  we  find  them  honouring 
 the  very  threshold,  whereby  he  received  these  maims,  as  if  they 
 had  been  consecrated,  or  had  some  divinity  infused  into  them,  from 
 the  mere  touch  of  this  idol.  This  is  a  sore  instance  of  blindness 
 and  infatuation ;  but  it  is  no  more  than  what  other  heathen  na- 
 tions fell  into.  For  whether  the  custom  took  its  first  rise  from 
 this  practice  of  the  Philistines  or  no,  it  is  certain,  that  among 
 the  Romans  the  threshold  was  consecrated  to  the  goddess  Vesta, 
 and  those  which  belonged  to  temples,  were  always  held  in  the 
 highest  veneration,  as  appears  from  Juvenal,  "  adore  the  Tar- 
 peian  threshold ;"  and  that  other  passage  in  Tibullus,  "  If  I  was 
 deserving  I  would  not  hesitate  to  fall  down  before  tho  temples 
 and  kiss  their  consecrated  thresholds.'"'  B.  1.  el.  5.  Nay,  at  this 
 very  day,  there  are  some  mosques  in  Persia,  whose  thresholds 
 are  covered  over  with  plates  of  silver,  and  which  the  people  are 
 not  allowed  to  tread  on;  for  that  is  a  crime  which  cannot  be  ex- 
 piated, without  undergoing  very  severe  pains  and  penalties. 
 — Caltnet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  word  Apholim,  which  only  occurs  here  and  in  the 
 28th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  is,  by  different  interpreters,  sup- 
 posed to  signify  different  things.  Some  take  it  for  a  dysentery, 
 others  for  what  they  call  procidentia  ani;  some  for  a  cancer,  and 
 others  for  something  venereal  in  that  part.     The  Scripture  tells 
 
 but  a  wasting  pestilence  likewise,  went  along  with  it ; 
 so  that  the  people  were  resolved  to  send  it  away,  and  to 
 that  purpose  called  their  priests  together  to  advise  with 
 them  in  what  manner  they  might  best  do  it. 
 
 The  priests  advised  them  to  provide  a  new  cart,  and 
 to  yoke  to  it  two  milch  kine,  that  had  never  drawn 
 before,  but  to  keep  up  their  calves  confined.  In  this 
 cart  they  ordered  them  to  place  the  ark,  and,  because  it 
 was  proper  to  make  some  trespass-offering  to  the  God 
 of  Israel,  to  have  five  golden  emerods,  and  as  many 
 golden  mice,  d  according  to  the  number  of  the  principal 
 cities  of  the  Philistines,  made,  and  put  in  a  coffer  by  the 
 side  of  the  ark.  But  above  all,  they  cautioned  them  to 
 take  notice,  which  way  the  e  kine  went ;  for  if  they  took 
 
 us  expressly,  that  '  God  smote  his  enemies  in  the  hinder  parts,' 
 Ps.  Ixxviii.  66.  And  therefore  our  translation  is  not  amiss, 
 which  supposes  their  malady  to  have  been  such  painful  tumors 
 in  the  fundament  as  very  frequently  turn  into  ulcers. — Patrick's 
 and  Calmefs  Commentaries. 
 
 d  1  Sam.  vi.  4.  The  ancient  heathens  used  to  consecrate  to 
 their  gods  such  monuments  of  their  deliverances,  as  represented 
 the  evils  from  which  they  were  rescued.  They  dedicated  to 
 Isis  and  Neptune,  a  table  containing  the  express  image  of  the 
 shipwreck  which  they  had  escaped.  Slaves  and  captives,  when 
 they  had  regained  their  liberty,  offered  their  chains.  The  Phil- 
 istines hoping  shortly  to  be  delivered  from  the  emerods  and 
 mice,  wherewith  they  were  afflicted,  sent  the  images  of  them  to 
 that  god  from  whom  they  expected  deliverance.  This  is  still 
 practised  among  the  Indians.  Tavernier,  {Travels,  p.  92.)  re- 
 lates, that  when  any  pilgrim  goes  to  a  pagod  for  the  cure  of  any 
 disease,  he  brings  the  figure  of  the  member  affected,  made  either 
 of  gold,  silver,  or  copper  according  to  his  quality ;  this  he  offers 
 to  his  god,  and  then  falls  a  singing,  as  all  others  do  after  they 
 have  offered.  Mr  Selden  also  has  observed,  that  mice  were 
 used  amongst  the  ancient  heathen  for  lustration  and  cleansing. 
 — De  Diis  Syris,  Syntag.  1.  cap.  6. 
 
 Such  offerings  have  been  made  from  time  immemorial  by  the 
 Hindoos.  The  women,  in  many  parts  of  India,  hang  out  offer- 
 ings to  their  deities;  either  a  string  of  beads,  or  a  lock  of  hail", 
 or  some  other  trifling  present,  when  a  child,  or  any  one  of  their 
 family,  has  been  recovered  from  illness.  Among  the  Greeks,  it 
 was  customary  to  devote  within  their  temples,  something  more 
 than  the  mere  symbol  of  a  benefit  received.  Inscriptions  were 
 added  to  such  signs,  setting  forth  the  nature  of  the  remedy  that 
 had  been  successful,  or  giving  a  description  of  the  peculiar  grace 
 that  had  been  recorded.  Dr  Clarke,  {Travels,  vol.  iii.  p.  329.) 
 in  a  long  note  from  Walpole's  MS.  Journal,  gives  many  curious 
 instances  of  this  custom.  The  following  are  selected  from  it. 
 In  the  island  of  Santerin  there  are  some  singular  representations 
 of  the  rock.  Tomasini  gives  the  votive  figure  of  a  man  in  a 
 dropsical  state.  At  Phocrea,  in  the  ancient  Lydia,  at  Eleusis, 
 at  Athens,  and  other  parts  of  Greece,  are  to  lie  seen  holes  of  a 
 square  form,  cut  in  the  limestone  rock,  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
 ceiving their  votive  offerings.  Sometimes  in  the  offerings  them- 
 selves, eyes,  feet,  hands,  have  been  discovered.  AtCyzicum  there 
 is  a  representation  of  two  feet  on  marble,  with  an  inscription, 
 probably  the  vow  of  some  person  who  had  performed  a  prosper- 
 ous journey.  The  temples  of  iEsculapius  were  adorned  with 
 tablets  presented  by  persons  restored  to  health.  Invalids  were 
 allowed  to  sleep  in  the  porticoes,  to  obtain  directions  from  the 
 gods  in  their  dreams.  The  medicine  itself  was  sometimes 
 placed  in  the  temples;  as  in  the  case  of  a  goldsmith,  who  on  his 
 deathbed,  bequeathed  an  ointment  to  a  temple,  which  those  who 
 were  unable  to  see  the  physicians  might  use.  Such  votive  offerings 
 were  fixed  sometimes  in  the  rock,  near  the  sacred  precincts  of  a 
 temple;  sometimes  appended  to  the  walls  and  columns  of  the 
 temples,  and  sometimes  fastened  by  wax  to  the  knees  or  other 
 parts  of  the  statues  of  the  gods.  (Juven.  Sat.  x.  54.  Prudent. 
 contra  Symm.  b.  1.  Lucian  Philop.)  The  temples  of  the  Greeks 
 were  used  by  different  states,  as  banks.  To  this  circumstance 
 was  owing,  in  part,  the  vast  wealth  which  they  contained ;  and 
 this  was  increased  by  the  costly  offerings  in  gold  and  silver 
 presented  on  various  occasions.— Ed. 
 
 e  It  was  no  bad  policy  in  the  Philistines  to  take  milch  kine, 
 that  had  never  been  yoked  before,  to  draw  the  cart,  in  order  to 
 
Shct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 437 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4259.  A.  C.  1152.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 towards  Judea,  they  might  conclude  that  these  judg- 
 ments were  of  the  God  of  Israel's  infliction,  if  any  other 
 way,  they  might  look  upon  them  only  as  common  acci- 
 dents. 
 
 When  all  things  were  thus  got  ready,  the  kine  were 
 let  go  ;  and  taking  the  road  which  led  to  Bethshemesh, 
 in  the  way  to  Judea,  they  went  lowing  along  until  they 
 came  to  the  field  of  one  Joshua,  and  there  stood  still  by 
 a  great  stone.  Bethshemesh  was  one  of  the  cities  be- 
 longing to  the  Levites,  and  therefore,  when  word  was 
 brought  them  of  the  arrival  of  the  ark,  they  went  and 
 took  it  down,  and  the  coffer  with  it ;  and  cleaving  the 
 wood  of  the  cart  for  a  fire,  sacrificed  the  two  kine  for  a 
 burnt-ottering  to  the  Lord.  But  whether  out  of  joy  or 
 curiosity,  so  it  was,  that  some  of  the  Bethshemites  ad- 
 venturing to  look  into  the  ark,  which  was  expressly 
 against  the  divine  command,  were  immediately  slain  to 
 the  number  of  seventy,  which  so  terrified  the  rest,  that 
 they  sent  to  the  people  of  Kirjath-jearim,  acquainting 
 them  that  the  Philistines  had  brought  back  the  ark,  and 
 desiring  them  to  come  and  fetch  it ;  which  accordingly 
 they  did,  and  placed  it  in  the  house  of  one  Abinadab, 
 whose  son  was  consecrated  to  keep  it,  and  there  it  con- 
 tinued for  the  space  of  twenty  years. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Eli,  Samuel  succeeded  to  the 
 government ;  and  having  called  the  people  together, 
 very  probably  upon  the  occasion  of  removing  the  ark 
 from  Bethshemesh  to  Kirjath-jearim,  a  he  exhorted  them 
 very  earnestly  to  renounce  their  idolatrous  practices,  and 
 to  devote  themselves  entirely  to  the  worship  of  God,  and 
 then  they  need  not  doubt  but  that  he  would  deliver  them 
 from  all  their  enemies.  This  the  people  promised  him 
 faithfully  to  do  :  so  that  Samuel  dismissed  them  for  the 
 
 know  whether  there  was  the  hand  of  God  in  what  had  befallen 
 them.  As  these  creatures  were  unacquainted  with  the  yoke,  it 
 would  be  a  wonder  if  they  should  go  jointly  together,  and  not 
 thwart  and  draw  counter  to  each  other ;  it  would  be  a  wonder  if 
 their  natural  affection  would  not  incline  them  to  return  to  their 
 calves,  which  were  left  behind ;  and  it  would  still  be  a  greater 
 wonder,  if,  when  there  were  so  many  different  ways  to  take, 
 they  should  go  directly  forward  to  Judea,  without  any  manner 
 of  deviation.  It  was  therefore  a  matter  of  no  small  sagacity  for 
 them  to  make  this  experiment.  To  say  nothing,  that  it  was  a 
 received  opinion  among  the  heathens,  that  in  the  motions  of  a 
 heifer  or  cow  that  was  never  yoked,  there  was  something  omin- 
 ous anil  declarative  of  the  divine  will.  "  Apollo  says  thou  shalt 
 in  the  lone  field  be  met  by  an  ox  that  has  never  felt  the  yoke,  or 
 been  oppressed  by  the  crooked  harrow ;  with  her  as  your  guide 
 proceed  on  your  way.' — Ovid.  Met.  b.  3. 
 
 a  The  speech,  which  according  to  Josephu=,  Samuel  makes  to 
 the  people,  upon  this  occasion,  is  to  this  effect: — "Ye  men  of 
 Israel,  since  ye  find  by  experience,  that  the  malice  of  your  ene- 
 mies is  implacable,  and  that  your  earnest  supplications  to  God  for 
 relief  are  graciously  received  ;  you  should  do  well  to  consider,  that 
 your  wishing  for  the  freedom  you  want  will  never  do  the  busi- 
 ness, without  exerting  your  power  to  the  uttermost,  upon  the 
 proper  means  of  procuring  it:  for  to  do  otherwise,  is  but  praying 
 one  way,  and  acting  another.  Wherefore,  in  the  first  place,  be 
 careful  not  to  bring  scandal  upon  your  profession  by  ill  manners, 
 but  turn  yourselves  to  the  love  and  practice  of  justice,  without 
 partiality  or  corruption.  Purge  your  minds  of  all  gross  affec- 
 tions. Turn  to  God,  call  upon  him,  adore  him,  and  honour  him 
 in  your  lives  and  conversations,  as  well  as  with  your  lips.  Do 
 good  things  and  good  will  come  on  it,  that  is,  liberty  and  victory; 
 tor  these  are  blessings  not  to  be  obtained  by  force  of  men,  strength 
 ot  body,  or  bands  of  soldiers;  but  God,  who  is  truth  itself,  lias 
 promised  them,  as  the  rewards  of  probity  and  righteousness,  and 
 you  may  depend  upon  it,  he  will  never  disappoint  you." — Jewish 
 Antiquities,  b.  (>.  c.  2. 
 
 present,  but  ordered  them  to  meet  him  again,  within  a 
 certain  time,  at  6  Mizpeh. 
 
 Here  they  held  a  solemn  fast  and  humiliation  to  the 
 Lord.  They  wept,  and  prayed,  confessed  their  sins, 
 offered  sacrifices,  and  c  made  libations  ;  and  Samuel 
 took  this  opportunity  to  administer  justice  among  them. 
 The  Philistines  hearing  of  this  their  assembly,  took  the 
 alarm,  and  coming  upon  them  unawares,  put  them  into 
 no  small  consternation.  Upon  Samuel's  sacrifice  and 
 intercession,  however,  God  declared  himself  manifestly 
 in  favour  of  the  Israelites  :  for  as  soon  as  the  fight  be- 
 gan, there  was  heard  d  such  a  dreadful  peal  of  thunder, 
 as  struck  terror  and  amazement  into  the  enemy,  so  that 
 they  betook  themselves  instantly  to  flight,  and  were  pur- 
 sued by  the  Israelites  as  far  as  Bethcar.  The  truth  is, 
 this   was  so  signal  a  victory,  that  for  a  long  time  the 
 
 b  The  Mizpeh  here  mentioned,  as  appears  from  the  circum- 
 stances of  the  story,  must  be  different  from  that  which  is 
 remarked  in  the  history  of  Jephthah.  There  is  indeed  another 
 Mizpeh  mentioned  among  the  cities  of  Judah,  (Josh.  xv.  38,) 
 and  a  third  among  those  of  Benjamin,  (Josh,  xviii.  26.)  Some 
 are  of  opinion,  that  these  two  cities  are  one  and  the  same,  and 
 are  oidy  supposed  to  be  two,  because  they  lie  in  the  confines  of 
 each  tribe:  but  if  they  are  not  the  same,  it  seems  most  probable, 
 that  the  Mizpeh  in  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  was  the  city  which  is 
 here  spoken  of.  And  we  may  observe  farther,  that  as  Mizpeh  is 
 said  to  be  situated  not  far  from  Eben-ezer,  and  probably  on  the 
 east  or  north  side ;  so  Shen  (if  it  be  the  name  of  a  place,  and  not 
 rather  of  some  sharp  rock  thereabouts)  was  situated  not  far  from 
 it  on  the  opposite,  that  is,  on  the  west  or  south-west  side,  to  which 
 Bethcar  must  needs  be  contiguous. —  Wells?  Geography  of  the 
 Old  Testament,  vol.  3.  c.  I. 
 
 c  The  words  in  our  translation  run  thus: — 'And  they  gath- 
 ered together  to  Mizpeh,  and  drew  water,  and  poured  it  out 
 before  the  Lord,'  (1  Sam.  vii.  6.)  but  what  we  are  to  under- 
 stand by  this  water,  the  conjectures  of  commentators  have  been 
 various.  Some  take  these  words  in  a  metaphorical  sense,  to 
 denote  those  tears  of  contrition,  which  were  drawn  as  it  were, 
 from  the  bottom  of  their  hearts,  and  fell  from  their  eyes  before 
 the  Lord.  Others  think,  that  with  this  water  they  washed  their 
 bodies,  as  they  are  supposed  to  have  done  upon  another  occasion, 
 (Exod.  xix.  20.)  to  signify  the  purification  of  their  souls  from  the 
 pollution  of  sin.  Others  that  they  made  use  of  it  to  cleanse  the 
 ground  where  Samuel  was  to  erect  an  altar,  that  it  might  not 
 stand  upon  an  impure  place.  Some  suppose  that  it  was  employed 
 as  an  emblem  of  humiliation,  of  prayer,  of  expiation,  of  execra- 
 tion, and  I  know  not  what  besides.  But  the  most  probable 
 opinion  is,  that  this  water  was,  upon  this  occasion,  poured  out, 
 by  way  of  libation,  before  God :  and  for  support  of  this,  it  is  com- 
 monly alleged,  that  libations  of  this  kind,  were  very  customary 
 in  ancient  times;  that  Theophrastus,  as  he  is  cited  by  Porphyry, 
 (Of  Abstinenec,  b.  2.)  tells  us,  that  the  earliest  libations  wereot 
 water,  though  afterwards  honey  and  wine  came  into  ropiest ;  that 
 Virgil,  {JEneid,  iv.)  mentions  the  practice  of  sprinkling  the 
 water  of  the  lake  Avernus ;  and  that  Homer,  (Odyssey,  12.)  re- 
 marks, that  for  want  of  wine  the  companions  of  Ulysses  poured 
 out  water  in  a  sacrifice,  which  they  offered  to  the  gods.  It  is 
 certain,  that  David  poured  out  unto  the  Lord  the  water  which  tin- 
 three  gallant  men  in  his  army  brought  him  from  the  well  of 
 Bethlehem,  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  (2  Sam.  xxiii.  16;)  and 
 therefore,  though  the  law  does  nol  enjoin  any  such  libations  of 
 water;  yet  since  there  is  00  positive  prohibition  of  them,  why 
 may  we  not  suppose,  that  upon  this  extraordinary  occasion, 
 something  singular  and  extraordinary  might  have  been  done. — 
 Patrick's  and  Cut  nut's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  Josephus  gives  us  (his  account  of  the  whole  transaction: — 
 "  In  some  places  God  shook  the  foundations  ot  the  earth  under 
 the  feet  of  the  Philistines,  so  that  they  could  not  stand  without 
 staggering:  in  others,  it  opened  and  swallowed  them  up  alive, 
 I, clure  they  knew  where  they  were;  v\hile  the  claps  ot  thunder, 
 and  the  flashes  of  fire  were  so  violent,  that  their  very  eyes  and 
 limbs  were  scorched  to  such  a  degree,  thai  thej  couW  ui  Itl 
 their  way  before  them,  nor  handle  their  arms." — Jewish  Anti- 
 qtttties,  b,  6.  c.  •>. 
 
438 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4259.  A.  C.  1152.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Philistines  durst  not  appear  upon  the  frontiers  of  Israel, 
 but  were  forced  to  restore  the  cities  which  they  had  taken 
 from  them :  so  that  Samuel  had  a  good  reason  to  set  up 
 a  monument  (which  he  did  between  Mizpeh  and  Shen, 
 calling  it  '  Eben-ezer,'  that  is,  '  the  stone  of  help,')  in 
 memory  of  so  great  a  deliverance. 
 
 After  this  action,  the  most  part  of  Samuel's  govern- 
 ment was  employed  in  a  peaceable  administration  of 
 justice. 
 
 For  which  purpose  he  took  a  circuit  every  year  round 
 a  great  tract  of  the  country  :  but  as  he  grew  in  years,  he 
 appointed  his  two  sons  Joel  and  Abiah  to  the  execution 
 of  that  office,  who  degenerating  °  from  their  father's  ex- 
 ample, became  such  mercenary  and  corrupt  judges,  that 
 the  elders  of  Israel  came  in  a  body  to  Samuel,  com- 
 plained of  the  grievances  they  lay  under,  by  reason  of 
 his  infirmity,  and  his  sons'  mal-administration,  and 
 thereupon  demanded  to  have  the  form  of  their  govern- 
 ment changed,  and  a  king  instituted  among  them,  as 
 there  was  in  other  nations. 
 
 This  demand  was  far  from  being  agreeable  to  Samuel ; 
 however,  he  consulted  God  upon  it,  who  gave  him  an- 
 swer, that  he  should  comply  with  the  people  in  what  they 
 desired,  notwithstanding  the  affront  did  not  terminate 
 so  much  upon  Samuel  as  himself;  but  before  they  pro- 
 ceeded to  the  choice  of  a  king,  he  ordered  him  to 
 acquaint  them  with  what  his  prerogatives  were,  and  what 
 rights  they  might  expect,  that  he  would  demand  from 
 them  ;  and  withal  to  inform  them,  b  that  slavery  to  them 
 and  their  children,  subjection  to  the  meanest  offices,  loss 
 of  liberty,  heavy  taxes,  constant  war,  and  many  other 
 inconveniences  would  be  the  consequence  of  a  kingly 
 power.     But  "  all  these  remonstrances  availed  nothing  : 
 
 a  It  may  probably  be  made  a  question,  why  God  did  not  punish 
 Samuel,  as  he  did  Eli,  for  the  wickedness  of  his  sons  ?  But  to 
 this  it  may  be  answered,  that  Samuel's  sons  were  not  so  bad  as 
 those  of  Eli;  since  taking  bribes  privately  was  not  like  openly 
 profaning  the  tabernacle,  and  making  the  worship  of  God  con- 
 temptible. And  besides  this,  it  is  possible  that  Samuel  might  be 
 ignorant  of  the  corruption  of  bis  sons,  since  he  lived  at  Ramah, 
 and  they  at  Beersheba.— Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 h  The  rules  of  conduct  which  God  prescribes  to  the  person  that 
 should  at  any  time  be  constituted  king  over  Israel,  are  of  a  quite 
 different  sort  from  this  practice.  '  He  shall  not  multiply  horses 
 to  himself,  neither  shall  he  multiply  wives  to  himself,  neither 
 shall  he  greatly  multiply  to  himself  silver  or  gold.  He  shall 
 write  him  a  copy  of  the  law  in  a  book,  and  he  shall  read  therein 
 all  the  days  of  his  life,  that  he  may  learn  to  fear  the  Lord  his 
 God,  and  to  keep  all  the  words  of  this  law,  and  those  statutes,  to 
 do  them,  that  his  heart  be  not  lifted  up  above  his  brethren,  and 
 that  he  turn  not  aside  from  the  commandments  to  the  right  hand 
 or  to  the  left,'  (Deut.  xvii.  16.)  &c.  So  that  Samuel  does  not  in 
 the  words  before  us,  define  what  are  the  just  lights  of  kings,  but 
 describes  only  such  practices  as  the  kings  of  the  east,  who  were 
 despotic  princes,  and  looked  upon  their  subjects  as  so  many  slaves, 
 were  generally  accustomed  to:  and  the  prophet  had  reason  to 
 draw  a  king  in  those  black  colours,  because  the  Israelites  desired 
 such  a  one  as  their  neighbours  had,  who  were  all  under  the 
 absolute  dominion  of  their  princes.— Le  Clerc's  and  Calmet's 
 Commentaries. 
 
 c  It  is  generally  supposed,  that  what  made  the  Israelites  so 
 urgent  at  this  time  for  a  king,  was  a  present  strait  they  thought 
 themselves  in,  for  want  of  an  able  leader:  for  Nahash  the  king 
 of  the  Amorites  coming  up  to  Jabesh  Gilcad,  and  encamping 
 before  it,  had  put  the  inhabitants  into  such  a  fright,  that,  without 
 more  to  do,  they  offered  to  surrender  upon  terms,  telling  him, 
 that  *  they  would  become  subjects  to  him,  if  he  would  make  a 
 b-ague  with  them.'  (1  Sam.  xi.  1.)  But  the  haughty  Amorite 
 in  contempt  of  Israel,  let  them  know,  that  if  he  made  a  league 
 with  them,  the  condition  thereof  should  be,   '  that  they  should 
 
 the  people  persist  in  the  desire  of  a  king,  and  God  tells 
 Samuel,  that  he  will  not  fail  to  give  them  one. 
 
 The  appearance  of  providence  in  the  election  of  their 
 king  was  indeed  very  remarkable.  Saul  the  son  of  Kish, 
 of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  Avas  a  very  tall,  handsome 
 youth  ;  and  it  so  happening  at  this  time,  that  some  of  his 
 father's  asses  being  gone  astray,  he,  and  a  servant  along 
 with  him,  were  sent  to  look  for  them.  They  wandered 
 about  a  great  way  without  gaining  any  intelligence,  till 
 coming  to  Ramah,  the  place  of  Samuel's  residence,  at 
 his  servants'  instigation,  he  went  to  advise  d  with  him 
 concerning  the  asses.  God  had  apprized  Samuel  with 
 the  coming  of  the  person  that  day,  who  was  to  be 
 appointed  king  ;  and  therefore  Samuel,  when  he  saw  him, 
 showed  him  all  the  respect  that  was  due  to  his  former 
 
 come  out  to  him,  and  let  him  thrust  out  all  their  right  eyes,  and 
 lay  it  for  a  reproach  upon  all  Israel.'  The  elders  of  Jabesh,  in 
 this  sad  circumstance,  demanded  seven  days'  respite,  that  they 
 might  send  messengers  unto  all  the  coasts  of  Israel,  and  if  in 
 that  time  no  succours  arrived,  they  would  submit.  This,  it  is 
 thought,  was  the  reason  for  their  pressing  so  hard  upon  Samuel 
 at  this  time  a  king;  whereas  their  duty  was,  to  have  inquired  of 
 the  Lord,  as  they  had  done  at  other  times,  who  it  was  that  he 
 would  be  pleased  to  constitute  the  general  in  this  exigence,  to 
 lead  out  their  forces  against  their  enemies. — Hoivcll's  History  in 
 the  notes. 
 
 d  The  narration  of  this  circumstance  we  have  in  the  text, 
 1  Sam.  ix.  5 — 8,  as  follows,  we  quote  Bootluoyd's  version: — 
 "  When  they  were  come  to  the  land  of  Zuph,  Saul  said  to  his 
 young  man  who  was  with  him,  come  let  us  return,  lest  my  father 
 cease  to  think  on  the  asses,  and  become  anxious  for  us.  And  he 
 said  unto  him,  behold  now,  there  is  in  this  city  a  man  of  God, 
 and  he  is  an  honourable  man ;  all  that  he  saith  assuredly  cometh 
 to  pass:  let  us  now  go  thither;  perhaps  he  may  show  us  the  way 
 in  which  we  should  go.  Then  said  Saul  to  his  young  man,  But, 
 behold  should  we  go,  what  shall  we  present  to  the  man?  for  the 
 bread  which  was  in  our  bags  is  spent,  and  we  have  not  a  present 
 to  bring  to  the  man  of  God;  what  have  we?  And  the  young 
 man  answered  Saul  again,  and  said,  Behold  I  have  in  my  posses- 
 sion the  fourth  part  of  a  shekel  of  silver;  that  let  us  give  to  the 
 man  of  God,  that  he  may  show  us  the  way."  Presenting  gifts  is 
 one  of  the  most  universal  methods  of  doing  persons  honour  in  the 
 east.  Maundrell  {Journey,  p.  26.)  says,  "Thursday,  March, 
 11,  this  day  we  all  dined  at  consul  Hastings'  house,  and  after 
 dinner  went  to  wait  upon  Ostan,  the  bassa  of  Tripoli,  having 
 first  sent  one  present,  as  the  manner  is  among  the  Turks,  to 
 procure  a  propitious  reception.  It  is  counted  uncivil  to  visit  in 
 this  country  without  an  offering  in  hand.  All  gentlemen  expect 
 it  as  a  kind  tribute  due  to  their  character  and  authority,  and 
 look  upon  themselves  as  affronted,  and  indeed  defrauded,  when 
 this  compliment  is  omitted.  Even  in  familiar  visits  amongst 
 inferior  people,  you  shall  seldom  have  them  come  without  bring- 
 ing a  flower,  or  an  orange,  or  some  other  such  token  of  their 
 respect  to  the  person  visited ;  the  Turks,  in  this  point,  keeping 
 up  the  ancient  oriental  custom  hinted,  1  Sam.  ix.  7.  'If  we  go,' 
 says  Saul,  '  what  shall  we  bring  the  man  of  God?  there  is  not  a 
 present,'  &c. ;  which  words  are  questionless  to  be  understood  in 
 conformity  to  this  eastern  custom,  as  relating  to  a  token  of  re- 
 spect, and  not  a  price  of  divination."  To  this  account  it  may 
 be  added,  that  when  Lord  Macartney  had  his  interview  with 
 the  emperor  of  China,  in  his  embassy  to  that  prince,  in  1793, 
 the  receiving  and  returning  of  presents,  made  a  considerable 
 part  of  the  ceremony.  Presents  of  some  kind  or  other  are  the 
 regular  introducers  of  one  party  to  another  in  the  east.  Pococke 
 tells  us  of  a  present  of  fifty  radishes.  Bruce  relates,  that  in 
 order  to  obtain  a  favour  from  him,  he  received  a  very  inconsider- 
 able present.  "  I  mention  this  trifling  circumstance,"  he  says, 
 "  to  show  how  essential  to  humane  and  civil  intercourse  presents 
 are  considered  to  be  in  the  east:  whether  it  be  dates  or  whether 
 it  be  diamonds,  they  are  so  much  a  part  of  their  manner,  that 
 without  them,  an  inferior  will  never  be  at  peace  in  his  own  mind, 
 or  think  that  he  has  hold  of  his  superior  for  his  protection.  But 
 superiors  give  no  presents  to  their  inferiors." — Travels,  vol.  i. 
 p.  68.;  Forbes's  Oriental  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  260. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 439 
 
 A.  M.  2888.   A.  C.  111C;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI 
 
 character.  He  took  him  with  him  a  to  the  high  place, 
 where  lie  was  going  to  sacrifice ;  lie  invited  him  to  feast 
 with  him  upon  the  sacrifices  that  were  to  be  offered  ;  and 
 had  invited  thirty  guests  more  to  bear  him  company. 
 He  seated  him  in  the  highest  place,  and  distinguished 
 him  likewise  by  ordering  the  choicest  dishes  to  be  served 
 up  to  him.6  That  evening  lie  had  a  long  conference  with 
 him  in  private,  and  the  next  morning  c  as  he  was  waiting 
 on  him  out  of  town,  he  ordered  d  the  servant  to  be  sent 
 before  him,  that  he  might  acquaint  him  with  God's  pur- 
 pose of  exalting  him  to  the  regal  dignity ;  and  having 
 e  anointed  him  to  be  king  of  Israel,  he  foretold    him 
 
 a  In  several  places  of  Scripture,  the  Canaanites  are  said  to 
 have  had  their  high  places  whereon  tliey  worshipped  their  idols: 
 hut  this  is  the  first  instance  of  any  belonging  to  the  people  of 
 God ;  and  it  is  the  opinion  of  some  learned  men,  that  this  ap- 
 pointment of  a  private  or  inferior  place  of  worship,  even  while 
 the  ark  and  tabernacle  were  in  being,  by  so  great  an  authority 
 as  that  of  Samuel,  gave  rise  to  the  institution  of  synagogues  and 
 proseuchas  in  so  many  places  of  the  kingdom  afterwards. — 
 Patrick's  Com  mentary. 
 
 b  l'Sam.  ix.  24.  '  And  the  cook  took  up  the  shoulder,  and  that 
 which  was  upon  it,  and  set  it  before  Saul.'  The  shoulder  of  a 
 lamb  is  thought  in  the  east  a  great  delicacy.  Abdolmelek  the 
 Caliph,  (Ockley's  History  of  the  Saracens,  vol.  ii.  p.  277.)  upon 
 entering  into  Cufah,  made  a  splendid  entertainment.  '  When  he 
 was  sat  down,  Amron  the  son  of  Hereth,  an  ancient  Mechzu- 
 mian,  came  in:  he  called  him  to  him,  and  placing  him  by  him 
 upon  his  sofa,  asked  him  what  meat  he  liked  best  of  all  that  ever 
 lie  had  eaten.  The  old  Mechzumian  answered,  an  ass's  neck 
 well  seasoned  and  well  roasted.  You  do  nothing,  says  Abdolme- 
 lek: what  say  you  to  a  leg  or  a  shoulder  of  a  sucking  lamb,  well 
 roasted  and  covered  over  with  butter  and-  milk  ?"  This  suffi- 
 ciently explains  the  reason  why  Samuel  ordered  it  for  the  future 
 king  of  Israel,  as  well  as  what  that  was  which  was  upon  it,  the 
 butter  and  milk. — Hornier,  vol.  i.  p.  319. — Ed. 
 
 c  Boothroyd  following  the  Septuagint  translates,  (1  Sam.  ix. 
 25,  26,)  as  follows.  *  They  then  came  down  from  the  high 
 place  unto  the  city,  and  Samuel  communed  with  Saul  on  the  roof 
 of  the  house ;  for  in  the  roof  a  bed  had  been  made  for  Saul,  in 
 which  he  slept.  Now  when  the  morning  dawned,  Samuel  called 
 to  Saul  on  the  roof  of  the  house,  saying,  Arise,  that  I  may  send 
 thee  away.  And  Saul  arose,  and  both  he  and  Samuel  went  out 
 abroad.'  This  makes  the  matter  clear  and  satisfactory,  and  is 
 in  accordance  with  tiie  customs  of  the  east. 
 
 Sleeping  on  the  top  of  the  house  has  always  been  customary  with 
 the  eastern  people.  "  It  has  ever  been  a  custom  with  them, 
 eiinally  connected  with  health  and  pleasure,  to  pass  the  night  in 
 summer  upon  the  house  tops,  which  for  this  very  purpose  are 
 made  flat,  and  divided  from  each  other  by  walls.  We  found  this 
 way  of  sleeping  extremely  agreeable;  as  we  thereby  enjoyed  the 
 cool  air,  above  the  reach  of  the  gnats  and  vapours,  without  any 
 other  covering  than  the  canopy  of  the  heavens,  which  unavoida- 
 bly presents  itself  in  different  pleasing  forms  upon  every  inter- 
 ruption of  rest,  when  silence  and  solitude  strongly  dispose  the 
 mind  to  contemplation." — /Food's  Bailee,  Introduction,  and 
 Fur/irx's  Oriental  Memoirs,  vol.  iii.  p.  234. — En. 
 
 d  This  was  with  design  to  let  Saul  understand,  that  what  he 
 was  going  to  do  was  by  the  divine  order  and  appointment;  and 
 that  when  it  should  come  to  the  casting  of  lots,  (as  it  did  after- 
 wards, 1  Sam.  x.  20.)  he  might  perceive  that  he  was  not  chosen 
 king  by  chance  of  a  lot.  There  might  be  likewise  this  further 
 reason  for  Samuel's  bidding  Saul  to  send  away  his  servant, 
 namely,  lest  the  people  suspecting  Samuel  to  do  this  by  his  own 
 will,  more  than  by  God's  appointment,  might  be  inclinable  to 
 mutiny.  Since  this  royal  unction  then  was  only  designed  for 
 Saul's  private  satisfaction,  it  was  necessary  not  to  have  it  pub- 
 lished before  the  people  had  proceeded  to  a  public  election  of  their 
 king. — Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 e  \\  e  read  of  no  express  command  fpr  the  anointing  of  kings, 
 and  yet  it  is  plain  from  the  parable  of  Jotham,  (Jud.  ix.  3.)  that 
 this  was  a  custom  two  hundred  years  before  this  time.  Why 
 oil,  lather  than  any  other  liquid,  was  the  symbol  of  conveying 
 a  regal  authority,  we  are  nowhere  informed.  It  is  true,  that 
 God  directed  Moses  to  consecrate  Aaron  to  the  high  priest's 
 
 ES,  A.M.  1259.   A.  C.  1152.  I  SAM.  i.   TO  THE  K.V1). 
 
 several  /events  which  should  befall  him  in  his  return 
 home,  in  token  of  the  truth  of  his  designation  to  that 
 office.^ 
 
 Thus  Saul  was  appointed  king ;  but  then  it  was  only 
 between  Samuel  and  himself.  To  make  his  choice  and 
 inauguration  therefore  more  public,  Samuel  called  an 
 assembly  of  the  people  together  at  Mizpeh,  to  which 
 place  the  ark  of  the  Lord  was  brought,  that  they  might, 
 with  more  solemnity,  proceed  to  the  election  of  a  king. 
 The  method  of  their  electing  was  this  : — First,  the  lot 
 was  cast  for  every  tribe  separately,  to  know  out  of  whicl 
 the  king  was  to  be  chosen,  and  the  lot  fell  upon  that  of 
 Benjamin :  next,  it  was  cast  for  all  the  families  of  this 
 tribe,  and  fell  upon  that  of  Matri  ;  and  lastly,  it  was 
 cast  for  all  the  persons  of  this  family,  and  fell  upon 
 Saul,  the  son  of  Kish,  who,  when  he  came  into  the 
 assembly,  for  he  chose  to  be  absent  at  the  time  of  the 
 election,  and  had  been  recommended  by  Samuel  in  a  short 
 speech  upon  that  occasion,  appeared  so  portly,  and  with 
 so  much  majesty,  that  he  gained  the  affections  and  good 
 wishes  of  all,  except  some  few  disorderly  persons,  who 
 disapproved  of  the  choice,  and,  in  pure  contempt,  re- 
 fused to  h  make  him  the  usual  presents  ;  which  Saul 
 
 office,  by  anointing  his  head  with  oil,  (Exod.  xxix.  7.)  But 
 the  anointing  of  kings,  we  may  presume,  was  of  a  prior  date. 
 Unction  indeed,  in  the  days  of  Jacob,  was  the  common  method 
 of  setting  apart  from  common  use  even  things  inanimate.  (Gen. 
 xxviii.  18.) ;  and  therefore  it  may  well  be  supposed  that  persons 
 of  such  designation,  as  kings  were,  were  all  along  admitted  by 
 the  same  ceremony,  which  might  be  of  divine  appointment, 
 perhaps  at  the  first  institution  of  government,  in  the  antediluvian 
 world,  and  thence  handed  down,  by  a  long  tradition,  to  future 
 generations.  This  rite  of  unction,  in  short,  was  so  much  the 
 divine  care,  that  we  find  God  giving  Moses  a  prescription  how 
 to  make  the  consecrating  oil,  (Exod.  xxx.  23.)  But  though 
 Solomon  was  anointed  with  oil  taken  from  the  tabernacle,  v  t 
 since  Samuel  was  no  priest,  and  could  not  therefore  have  any 
 access  to  the  tabernacle,  which  at  this  time  was  at  some  distance 
 from  him,  it  is  more  reasonable  to  think,  though  some  Jewish 
 doctors  will  have  it  otherwise,  that  what  he  made  use  of,  upon  this 
 occasion,  was  no  more  than  common  oil. — Patrick's  Comment. 
 
 f  The  events  which  Samuel  told  Saul  he  should  meet  with  in 
 his  return  home,  were  these: — That  near  Rachel's  tomb,  he 
 should  meet  two  men,  who  should  inform  him,  that  his  father's 
 asses  were  found  again ;  that  departing  thence,  he  would  met 
 three  men  going  to  Bethel,  one  of  them  carrying  three  kids, 
 another  three  cakes  of  bread,  and  the  third  a  bottle  of  wine, 
 and  that  they  should  give  him  two  parts  thereof;  and  that 
 when  he  came  to  Geb,  which  was  commonly  called  the 
 hill  of  God,  where  there  was  a  garrison  of  the  Philistines,  ho 
 should  meet  a  company  of  prophets  going  into  the  city,  where 
 the  Spirit  of  God  should  fall  upon  him,  and  he,  to  the  wonder  of 
 all  that  should  hear  him,  should  begin  a  prophesy  among  them: 
 all  which  signs  happened  exactly  as  Samuel  had  foretold  them. 
 (1  Sam.  x.  2,  &c.) 
 
 g  The  text  (1  Sam.  x.  1.)  says,  'Then  Samuel  took  a  vial  of 
 oil,  and  poured  it  upon  his  head,  and  kissed  him,  and  said,  Is  it 
 not  because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  thee  to  be  captain  over  his 
 inheritance?'  The  kiss  of  homage  was  one  of  the  ceremonies 
 performed  at  the  inauguration  of  the  kings  of  Israel.  The  Jews 
 called  it  the  kiss  of  majesty.  There  is  probably  an  allusion  to 
 it  in  Psalm  ii.  12. — Ed. 
 
 Alt  was  a  constant  custom  among  the  eastern  nations,  and  is 
 even  to  this  day,  whenever  they  approached  the  prince,  to  pre- 
 sent him  with  something;  but  here,  in  the  case  of  Saul,  at  his 
 first  accession  to  the  throne,  it  was  the  proper  method  of  recognis- 
 ing him.  The  Chaldee  paraphrase  says,  that  "  they  did  not 
 come  to  salute  him,  or  wish  him  an  happy  reign;"  but  this  is 
 the  same  thing,  because  the  first  salutation  offered  to  a  king  was 
 always  attended  with  presents,  which  carried  with  them  a  sign 
 of  peace  and  friendship,  of  congratulation  and  joy,  and  of  sub- 
 jection and  obedience. — Catmefs  Commentary. — See  this  sub- 
 ject illustrated  in  a  preceding  note. — Ed. 
 
440 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1UG;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALE 
 
 could  not  but  perceive,  though  in  point  of  prudence  he 
 thought  proper  at  that  time  a  to  overlook. 
 
 Saul  had  not  been  many  days  upon  the  throne,  before 
 there  happened  a  fit  occasion  for  him  to  exert  himself. 
 Nahash,  king  of  the  Ammonites,  laid  siege  to  b  Jabesh- 
 Gilead  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and  had  so  closely 
 begirt  it,  that  the  people  offered  to  capitulate ;  but  on 
 no  better  conditions  would  he  permit  them,  than  that  each 
 man  should  have  c  his  right  eye  put  out.  Hereupon  they 
 sent  to  Gibeah  to  demand  aid  of  king  Saul  d  in  the 
 space  of  seven  days,  (for  that  was  all  the  time  allowed 
 them ;)  and  he,  having  summoned  all  Israel  to  come  to 
 their  assistance  upon  pain  of  death,  in  a  very  short  time 
 had  an  army  of  300,000  Israelites,  besides  30,000  of  the 
 tribe  of  Judah,  and  with  these  he  promised  to  relieve  the 
 besieged  the  very  next  day.  Nor  was  he  worse  than  his 
 word:  for  dividinghis  army  into  three  parts,  and  falling  up- 
 on the  besiegers  about  daybreak,  he  so  totally  routed  and 
 dispersed  them,  that  scarce  two  of  them  were  left  together. 
 
 This  victory,  e  and  the  deliverance  which  it  procured 
 from  a  barbarous  and  insulting  enemy,  raised  their  new 
 
 a  In  this  Saul  acted  a  very  wise  and  politic  part,  as  being 
 unwilling  to  begin  his  reign  with  any  disorder  or  tumult,  which 
 his  just  resentment  of  such  an  affront  might  perhaps  have  occa- 
 sioned. These  sons  of  Belial,  as  they  are  termed,  were  very 
 likely  persons  of  some  rank  or  quality ;  and  therefore  they  despised 
 Saul,  for  his  having  been  related  to  a  small  tribe,  and  sprung  from 
 an  obscure  family.  If  then  he  had  taken  notice  of  this  affront, 
 and  not  revenged  it,  he  had  shown  himself  mean-spirited ;  and  if 
 he  had  resented  it  as  it  deserved,  he  might  both  have  provoked 
 a  party  against  him,  and  at  his  first  setting  out,  incurred  the 
 censure  of  rashness  and  cruelty:  a  prejudice,  which,  in  the  future 
 course  of  his  reign,  would  have  beeu  far  from  doing  any  good. — 
 Howell's  History  in  the  notes. 
 
 b  This  town  lay  on  the  east  side  of  Jordan,  and  not  far  distant 
 from  the  Ammonites  who  besieged  it.  It  was  in  being  in  the 
 times  of  Eusebius  and  St  Jerome,  and  was  situate  onahill about  six 
 miles  distant  from  Pella,  as  one  goes  to  Gerasa.  It  is  sometimes 
 in  Scripture  simply  called  Jabesh,  and  what  the  inhabitants 
 thereof  are  further  remarkable  for,  is — their  grateful  remembrance 
 of  the  benefits  they  had  received  from  Saul,  when,  after  his  death, 
 having  heard  that  the  '  Philistines  had  fastened  his  body  to  the 
 wall  of  Bethshan,  they  went  all  night,  and  took  the  body  of  Saul, 
 and  the  bodies  of  his  sons  from  the  wall,  and  came  to  Jabesh,  and 
 burnt  them  there,  and  took  their  bones  and  buried  them  under  a 
 tree  at  Jabesh,  and  fasted  seven  days ;'  for  which  they  were 
 highly  commended  by  David,  (2  Sam.  ii.  5.) — /Fells'  Geography 
 of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 c  The  reason  why  Nahash  was  for  Having  their  right  eye  put 
 out,  was  not  only  to  bring  a  reproach  upon  Israel,  as  himself  de- 
 clares, but  to  disable  them  likewise  from  serving  in  war;  for,  as 
 the  manner  of  fighting  in  those  days,  was  chielly  with  bow  and 
 arrow,  sword  and  shield,  the  loss  of  the  right  eye  made  them  in- 
 capable of  either;  because,  in  combat,  the  left  eye  is  covered  with 
 the  shield,  and  in  shooting  with  the  bow,  it  is  usual  to  wink  with 
 "t;  so  that  depriving  them  of  their  right  eye,  made  them  useless 
 in  war:  and  yet  this  barbarous  king  thought  it  not  proper  to  put 
 out  both  their  eyes:  for  then  he  would  have  made  them  utterly 
 incapable  of  doing  the  service,  or  acquiring  the  tribute  for  him, 
 which  he  expected  from  them. — Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 d  It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  that  this  barbarous  prince  should 
 be  willing  to  allow  the  Jabeshites  the  respite  of  seven  days  ;  but 
 Josephus  assigns  this  reason  for  it,  namely,  that  he  had  so  mean 
 an  opinion  of  the  people,  that  he  made  no  difficulty  to  comply 
 with  their  request.  Saul  indeed  had  been  appointed  king,  but 
 having  not  as  yet  taken  upon  him  the  government,  he  lived  just 
 as  he  did  before,  in  a  private  condition,  (1  Sam.  xi.  5.)  So  that 
 had  he,  upon  this  notice,  endeavoured  to  levy  an  army,  he  could 
 not  think  it  possible  to  be  done  in  so  short  a  space  as  seven  days ; 
 and  therefore  he  thought  he  might  grant  them  these  conditions 
 without  any  danger,  and  without  driving  them  to  desperation  as 
 he  might  have  done,  had  he  denied  them  their  request. — Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  Josephus  acquaints  us,  that   Saul    did   not  content  himself 
 
 S,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 king's  fame  to  such  a  degree,  that  some,  remembering 
 the  indignities  that  were  put  upon  him  at  his  corona- 
 tion, were,  in  the  height  of  their  zeal,  for  having  them 
 now  punished  with  death  ;  but  Saul  very  prudently  op- 
 posed the  motion,  and  expressed  his  aversion  to  have 
 the  glories  of  that  day,  sullied  with  the  blood  of  any  of 
 his  subjects. 
 
 From  this  victory,  however,  Samuel  took  occasion  to 
 give  those  who  had  hitherto  refused  their  allegiance,  an 
 opportunity  of  coming  in,  and  recognising  the  king;  and 
 for  that  purpose  ordered  a  general  meeting  at  Gilgal  to 
 confirm  Saul's  election ;  which  accordingly  was  cele- 
 brated with  mirth  and  joy  between  both  king  and  people, 
 as  well  as  with  sacrifices  and  thanksgivings  to  God,  as 
 the  author  of  all  their  successes. 
 
 Samuel  was,  at  this  time,  to  resign  the  government 
 entirely  into  the  hands  of  Saul ;  and  therefore,  in  the 
 speech  which  he  made  upon  this  occasion,  he  insisted  not 
 a  little  upon  the  vindication  of  his  administration.  He 
 reminded  them  of  the  great  transgressions  which  they 
 and  their  forefathers  committed  :  he  set  before  them  the 
 blessings  consequent  upon  their  obedience,  and  the  judg- 
 ments which  would  certainly  attend  their  disobedience  to 
 the  laws  of  God  :  he  gave  them  to  understand,  that  they 
 had  been  /far  from  doing  an  acceptable  thing  to  God, 
 in  rejecting  his  government,  and  desiring  a  king ;  and 
 (that  they  might  not  think  that  he  mentioned  this  out  of 
 any  prejudice,  or  indeed  without  a  divine  direction)  he 
 gave  them  this  sign — That  God  would  immediately  send 
 a  storm  of  thunder  and  rain,  which,  in  the  8  time  of 
 wheat  harvest,  as  it  was  then,  was  a  thing  unusual ;  and 
 
 with  barely  relieving  Jabesh,  but  carried  on  a  war  against 
 the  Ammonites,  slew  their  king,  laid  waste  their  country, 
 enriched  his  army  with  spoils,  and  brought  the  people  safe  and 
 victorious  to  their  homes  again. — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  6.  c.  6. 
 
 /That  part  of  the  speech,  which  Josephus  introduces  Samuel, 
 as  making  to  the  people,  and  complaining  of  their  importunity  for 
 a  change  of  government,  is  conceived  in  these  terms: — "  What 
 should  you  choose  another  king  for,  after  the  experience  of  so 
 many  signal  mercies,  and  miraculous  deliverances,  while  you 
 were  under  God's  protection,  and  owned  him  for  your  governor  ? 
 You  have  forgotten  the  story  of  your  forefather  Jacob's  coming 
 into  Egypt  with  only  seventy  men  in  his  train,  and  purely  for 
 want  of  bread  ;  how  God  provided  for  them,  and  by  his  blessing, 
 how  they  increased  and  multiplied.  You  have  forgotten  the 
 slavery  and  oppression  they  groaned  under,  till,  upon  their  cries 
 and  supplications  for  relief,  God  rescued  them  himself,  without  the 
 help  of  kings,  by  the  hands  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  who  brought 
 them  out  of  Egypt  into  the  land  you  are  now  possessed  of.  How 
 can  you  then  be  so  ungrateful  now,  after  so  many  blessings  and 
 benefits  received,  as  to  depart  from  the  reverence  and  allegiance 
 you  owe  to  so  powerful  and  so  merciful  a  protector  ?  How  often 
 have  you  been  delivered  up  into  the  hands  of  your  enemies  for 
 your  apostasy  and  disobedience,  and  as  often  afterward  restored 
 to  God's  favour,  and  your  liberty,  upon  your  humiliation  and 
 repentance  ?  Who  was  it  but  God,  that  gave  you  victory  first 
 over  the  Assyrians,  then  over  the  Ammonites,  and  then  over  the 
 Moabites,  and  last  of  all  over  the  Philistines,  not  by  the  influence 
 and  direction  of  kings,  but  under  the  conduct  of  Jephthah  and 
 Gideon  ?  What  madness  has  possessed  you  then,  to  abandon  an 
 heavenly  governor,  for  an  earthly." — Jewish  Jlntiq.  b.  6.  c.  6. 
 
 g  It  is  an  observation  of  St  Jerome,  that  this  harvest  in  Judea 
 began  about  the  end  of  June,  or  the  beginning  of  July,  in  which 
 season  thunder  and  rain  were  never  known,  but  only  in  the  spring 
 and  autumn,  the  one  called  the  former,  and  the  other  the  latter 
 rain ;  and  therefore  Samuel  by  this  preamble,  '  Is  it  not  wheat  har- 
 vest to-day?'  (chap.  xii.  17.)  meant  to  signify  the  greatness  of 
 the  miracle  God  was  going  to  work;  that  he  could,  in  an  instant, 
 and  in  a  time  when  they  least  of  all  expected  it,  deprive  them  of 
 all  the  comforts  of  life,  as  they  justly  deserved,  for  their  rejecting 
 him  and  his  prophet,  who  was  so  powerful  with  him,  as  by  his 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &ro. 
 
 441 
 
 A.  M.  288*  A.  C.  111!:  ()K.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES. 
 this,  coming  to  pass  according  to  his  prediction,  so  terri- 
 fied the  people,  that  they  acknowledged  their  offence, 
 and  entreated  Samuel  to  intercede  for  them ;  which  he 
 not  only  promised  them  to  do,  but  to  assist  them  like- 
 wise with  his  best  instructions,  so  long  as  they  adhered 
 to  the  observation  of  God's  laws ;  but  if  they  despised 
 them,  they  were  to  expect  to  be  destroyed,  both  they 
 and  their  king. 
 
 After  this  victory  over  the  Ammonites,  Saul,  in  the 
 second  year  of  his  reign,  disbanded  all  his  army,  except 
 3000  men,  two  of  which  he  kept  for  his  bodyguard,  and 
 the  other  thousand  were  to  attend  his  son  Jonathan ;  who 
 being  a  prince  of  great  bravery,  had  taken  an  opportu- 
 nity, and  cut  off  a  garrison  of  the  Philistines  in  "  Geba, 
 which  in  effect  was  a  declaration  of  war. 
 
 The  Philistines,  upon  this  occasion,  raised  a  very 
 powerful  army,  which  consisted  of*  3000  chariots,  (i000 
 horse,  and  a  multitude  of  foot,  almost  innumerable,  and 
 came  and  encamped  at  c  Michmash.  The  Israelitish 
 army,  which  was  to  rendezvous  at  Gilgal,  came  in  but 
 very  slowly,  and  of  those  that  did,  several  were  so  faint- 
 prayers,  to  produce  such  wonders. — Patrick's,  Calmet's,  and  Le 
 Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 a  Among  the  cities  of  Benjamin,  mentioned  in  Joshua  xviii. 
 24,  fee,  we  read  of  Gaba,  Gibeah,  and  Gibeon ;  and  in  Joshua 
 xxi.  17.,  we  read,  that  the  two  cities  given  to  the  children  of 
 Aaron,  out  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  were  Gibeon  and  Geba; 
 whence  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that  Gaba,  mentioned  in 
 chap,  xviii.  was  the  same  with  Geba,  that  we  read  of  in  chap.  xxi. 
 But  then  it  will  no  ways  follow,  that  this  Geba  or  Gaba,  is  the 
 same  with  Gibeah,  because  this  Gibeah  was  the  royal  city  where 
 Saul  dwelt,  and  is  therefore  expressly  called  'Gibeah  of  Saul;' 
 and  for  that  reason  it  cannot  be  supposed,  that  the  Philistines  at 
 this  time  had  a  garrison  there. — JFells'  Geography  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 6  The  words  in  the  original,  and  in  our  translation,  are,  thirty 
 thousand ;  but  the  Syiiac  and  Arabic  versions,  which  we  have 
 thought  proper  to  follow,  make  them  no  more  than  three  thou- 
 sand: and  indeed  whoever  considers,  that  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt 
 when  he  had  mustered  all  his  forces  together,  could  bring  no  more 
 than  600  of  these  chariots  into  the  field,  and  all  the  other  princes 
 whose  equipages  are  related  in  Scripture,  much  fewer,  must 
 needs  think  it  a  thing  incredible,  that  the  Philistines,  out  of 
 their  small  territories  which  extended  no  farther  than  the  two 
 tribes  of  Simeon  and  Dan,  along  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean 
 sea,  could  ever  be  able  to  raise  so  vast  an  armament;  no,  nor 
 all  the  nations  they  could  possibly  call  to  their  assistance.  For 
 besides  that,  in  the  account  of  all  armies,  the  cavalry  is  always 
 more  numerous  than  the  chariots  of  war,  which  is  different  here, 
 the  largest  armies  that  we  ever  read  of  were  able  to  compass  a 
 veiy  few  of  these  chariots,  in  comparison  of  the  number  here 
 specified.  Mithridates,  in  his  vast  army,  had  hut  an  hundred; 
 Darius  but  two;  and  Antioclius  Epipiianes,  (2  Mac.  xiii.  2.) 
 but  three.  Sn  that  we  must  either  say,  that  the  transcribers 
 made  a  mistake  in  the  Hebrew  copy,  or  with  some  other  com- 
 mentators suppose  that  this  30,000  chariots,  were  not  chariots 
 of  war,  but  most  of  them  carriages  only,  fur  the  conveyance  of 
 the  burgage  belonging  to  such  a  vast  multitude  of  men,  or  for 
 the  deportation  of  the  plunder  they  Imped  to  be  masters  of  by 
 having  conquered  the  country. —  Lc  Clerc's  Commentary,  and 
 Universal  History. 
 
 c  Eusebius  and  St  Jerome  inform  us,  that  in  their  time,  there 
 was  a  large  town  of  this  name,  lying  about  nine  miles  from  Jeru- 
 salem, near  Ramah:  and  the  text  tells  that  it  was  eastward  from 
 Beth-aven.  Now  Beth-aven  which  sanities  'the  house  of  ini- 
 quity,' is  supposed  to  be  the  same  with  Bethel,  and  was  so  called 
 after  that  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat  had  set  up  his  golden  calves 
 to  be  worshipped  here:  but  as  Bethd  lay  to  the  east  of  Michmash, 
 and  not  Michmash  to  the  east  of  Bethel,  as  the  text  seems  to  say, 
 the  translation  should  be,  that  they  encamped  at  Michmash,  hav- 
 ing Beth-aven  on  the  east,  that  is,  they  seized  on  that  post  which 
 Savil  had  before  in  Michmash,  on  Mount  Bethel,  ver.  2.—  Cal- 
 met's Commentary. 
 
 \.  M.  1301.  A.  C.1110.  1  SAM.  i.  T\>  THE  END. 
 
 hearted,  as  to  hide  themselves  in  the  rocks  and  caves  ; 
 and  others,  thinking  themselves  never  safe  enough,  retir- 
 ed even  beyond  the  Jordan.  The  truth  is,  that  both 
 prince  and  people  were  sadly  intimidated,  because 
 Samuel,  whose  company  at  this  juncture  was  impatiently 
 expected,  was  not  yet  come  ;  so  that  the  king,  fearing 
 that  the  enemy  would  fall  upon  him  before  he  had  made 
 his  addresses  to  God  for  success,  ordered  sacrifices  to 
 be  made  ;  and  the  burnt-offering  was  just  finished,  when 
 news  was  brought  him  that  Samuel  was  arrived. 
 
 Samuel  had  told  him  beforehand,  that  by  the  expira- 
 tion of  seven  days,  he  would  not  fail  to  meet  him  at 
 Gilgal  ;  and  therefore,  being  offended  at  his  diffidence 
 and  impatience,  he  not  only  sharply  rebuked  him,  but 
 declared  likewise  that  God,  by  this  way  of  proceeding, 
 would  in  time  be  provoked  to  remove  the  kingdom  from 
 him  and  his  posterity,  and  give  it  to  another  that  better 
 deserved  it ;  and  so  having  left  Gilgal,  he  went  to  Gi- 
 beah, whither  Saul  and  his  son  Jonathan  followed  him, 
 witli  a  small  army  of  about  0000,  and  these  so  badly 
 provided  for  action,  that  they  had  no  manner  of  weapons, 
 but  what  they  could  make  out  of  their  working  tools, 
 because  the  Philistines  would  not,  at  that  time,  rf  permit 
 so  much  as  a  smith  to  live  amonjr  them. 
 
 dThe  precaution  which  the  Philistines  took  to  hinder  the  Is- 
 raelites from  providing  themselves  with  weapons  is  no  more  than 
 what  other  conquerors  have  done  to  the  nations  they  have  van- 
 quished. Porsenna,  when  he  made  peace  with  the  Romans,  res- 
 trained them  from  the  use  of  all  iron  but  what  was  necessary  in  the 
 tillage  of  their  ground.  Cyrus,  when  he  subdued  the  Lydians,  for 
 fear  of  a  revolt,  took  from  them  the  use  of  arms,  and  instead  of  a 
 laborious  life  spent  in  war,  Buffered  them  to  sink  into  softness 
 and  luxury,  so  that  they  soon  lost  their  ancient  valour:  and  (to 
 instance  in  one  prince  more)  Nebuchadnezzar,  when  he  had  made 
 himself  master  of  Judea,  took  along  with  him  into  '  Babylon  all 
 the  craftsmen  and  smiths,  that  the  poorest  of  the  people,  which 
 he  left  behind,  might  be  in  no  condition  to  rebel,"  (2  Kings  xxiv. 
 14.)  The  only  wonder  is,  why  the  Israelites,  after  they  had  re- 
 gained their  liberty,  under  the  government  of  Samuel,  and  given 
 the  Philistines  so  total  an  overthrow  at  Eben-ezer,  did  not  re- 
 store those  artificers,  and  so  provide  themselves  with  proper  arms 
 against  the  next  occasion  ?  But  besides  the  extreme  sloth  and 
 negligence  which  appears  in  the  Israelites'  whole  conduct  during 
 this  period,  it  was  not  so  easy  a  matter,  in  so  short  a  time,  to 
 recover  a  trade  that  was  lost;  especially  among  a  people  that  had 
 no  iron  mines,  and  were  so  wholly  addicted  to  the  feeding  ol 
 cattle,  that  they  made  no  account  of  any  mechanical  art.  In 
 the  famous  victory  which  they  gained  over  Sisera,  we  are  t'  Id, 
 that  '  there  was  not  a  shield  or  spear  seen  among  fifty  thousand 
 men  of  Israel,'  (Judges  v.  8.)  but  notwithstanding  this,  they  had 
 hows  and  arrows,  and  slings  which  the  men  of  Gibeah  could 
 manage  to  a  wonderful  advantage'  (Judg.  xx.  16.)  And  besides 
 these,  the  Israelites,  upon  this  occasion,  might  convert  their  in- 
 struments of  husbandry,  their  hatchets,  their  s| lades,  their  forks, 
 their  mattocks,  fee,  into  instruments  of  war;  a  mneh  better  shift 
 than  what  we  read  of  some,  who,  in  ancient  tint)  -.  had  no  nthl  r 
 arms  than  clubs  and  sharpened  stakes,  hardened  in  the  lire. 
 "The  rural  contest  is  not  now  carried  on  with  hard  clubs  and 
 stakes  bunted  at  the  point."—  f'iryil,  JEneid.  7.  [The  policy  of 
 the  Philistines  has  been  imitated  in  modern  times.  Mulei  Is- 
 mael  went  farther  towards  a  total  reduction  of  these  parts  of 
 Africa  than  his  predecessors  had  done.  Indeed  the  vigorous 
 Mulei  Hashid,  his  brother  and  predecessor,  laid  the  foundation 
 of  that  absoluteness ;  but  was  cut  oil  in  the  bright  of  his  vigour, 
 his  horse  running  away  with  him  in  so  violent  a  manner,  thai  be 
 dashed  out  his  brains  against  a  tree.  But  this  sherd'  bn  Ught 
 multitudes  of  sturdy  Arabs  and  Africans,  who  used  to  be  courted 
 liy  the  kings  of  .Morocco,  Fez,  fee,  to  such  a  pass,  that  it  was  as 
 much  ;ts  all  their  li\es  \w  re  worth  to  ha\e  any  weapon  in  a 
 whole  village  or  community,  more  than  one  knife,  ami  that  with- 
 out a  point,  wherewith  to  cut  the  throat  of  any  sheep  or  other 
 creature,  when  in  danger  of  dying,  lest  it  should  die  with  the 
 
 3   K 
 
442 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116 j  OK.   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 While  the  Philistine  army  lay  at  Michmash,  they  sent 
 out  parties  several  ways  to  ravage  the  country,  and  met 
 with  no  manner  of  opposition  ;  till  Jonathan,  accom- 
 panied with  a  his  armour-bearer  only,  found  means  to 
 ascend  a  steep  rock  where  the  enemy  least  of  all  ex- 
 pected an  invasion,  and  so  falling  upon  them  unawares, 
 in  a  short  time  killed  about  twenty  of  them  ;  which  put 
 the  rest  *  into  such  a  consternation,  that  mistrusting 
 friends  for  foes,  they  began  to  slaughter  and  destroy 
 one  another,  Saul  had  soon  intelligence  of  this  disorder 
 in  the  enemies'  camp,  and  therefore,  willing  to  make  the 
 most  of  such  an  opportunity,  he  got  together  what  forces 
 he  could,  and  fell  upon  the  Philistines  with  such  fury, 
 that  he  totally  routed  and  defeated  them. 
 
 In  the  heat  of  the  chase,  he  caused  a  proclamation  to 
 be  made,  that  upon  pain  of  death,  none  should  dare  to 
 eat  any  thing  until  it  was  night,  that  the  slaughter  of  the 
 enemy  might  not  be  retarded.  But  herein  he  defeated 
 his  own  purpose ;  for  the  people,  for  want  of  refresh- 
 ment, grew  faint  in  the  pursuit,  so  that  the  enemy  es- 
 caped into  their  own  country :  and  what  was  another 
 grievous  consequence  of  this  interdict,  his  son  Jonathan, 
 who  had  been  absent  when  the  proclamation  was  made, 
 had  like  to  have  fallen  a  sacrifice  to  his  father's  rash 
 vow,  c  merely  for  eating  a  little  honey,  when  he  was 
 
 Wood  in  it,  and  become  unlawful  for  food."]—  Morgan's  History 
 of  Algiers,  p.  19fi. — Ed. 
 
 a  This  action  of  Jonathan's,  considered  in  itself,  was  doubt- 
 less a  very  rash  attempt,  and  contrary  to  the  laws  of  war,  which 
 prohibit  all  under  command  as  he  was,  from  engaging  the  enemy, 
 or  entering  upon  any  enterprise,  without  the  general's  order ; 
 but  what  may  very  justly  be  said  in  excuse  of  it  is,  that  he  had 
 a  divine  incitation  to  it,  which  he  might  probably  feel  upon  the 
 sight  of  the  Philistines  appearing  as  if  they  intended  to  assault 
 Gibeah,  and  upon  the  information  which  he  might  receive  of 
 the  great  spoil  which  the  three  parties  made  of  the  poor  people 
 in  the  country. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  How  two  men  could  put  the  whole  army  into  such  a  con- 
 sternation, may  seem  somewhat  extraordinary;  but  it  should  be 
 considered,  that  Jonathan  and  his  armour-bearer,  climbing  up 
 a  way  that  was  never  attempted  before,  might  come  upon  them 
 unawares,  and  surprise  them:  that  this  action  might  happen,  as 
 Josephus  thinks,  early  in  the  morning,  when  a  great  part  of  the 
 Philistines'  army  was  asleep;  that  even,  had  they  been  all  awake, 
 Jonathan  might  have  so  posted  himself,  as  Horatius  Codes  did 
 on  a  bridge,  so  as  to  be  able  to  maintain  his  pass  against  all  the 
 force  of  the  enemy;  that  those  who  made  at  him,  as  only  one 
 perhaps  could  at  a  time,  he  with  one  stroke  might  lay  flat  on  the 
 ground,  and  his  armour-bearer  immediately  despatch  them ;  that 
 the  rest,  seeing  them  act  thus  intrepidly,  might  take  them  for 
 two  scouts,  or  van-couriers  only  of  a  great  army  that  was  coming 
 up,  and  ready  to  tall  upon  them ;  that  the  army  of  the  Philistines, 
 being  made  up  of  different  nations,  might  be  in  the  greater  con- 
 fusion, as  either  not  understanding  or  else  suspecting  one  ano- 
 ther; and  what  might  complete  their  consternation,  that  God  at 
 this  time  might  send  a  panic  fear  upon  them,  which,  whenever 
 lie  does  it,  even  in  the  opinion  of  heathens  themselves,  is  enough 
 to  make  the  stoutest  tremble,  and  the  most  heroic  spirits  betake 
 themselves  to  flight.  "  In  frantic  dread  even  the  children  of  the 
 gods  (valiant  heroes)  fly  away." — Pindar,  Nemea  9. 
 
 c  When  Saul  told  his  son  Jonathan,  that  for  eating  this  honey, 
 contrary  to  his  interdict,  he  should  surely  die,  'because  the  re- 
 verence which  he  had  for  his  vow,  was  more  to  him  than  all  the 
 kindred  and  tenderness  of  nature,'  Josephus  introduces  the  son 
 making  his  father  an  answer,  not  unlike  that  which  Jephthah's 
 daughter,  upon  a  like  occasion,  returned  to  him:  "That  death, 
 says  he,  shall  be  welcome  to  me,  which  acquits  my  father  of  the 
 obligation  of  a  religious  vow,  and  only  befalls  me,  in  consequence 
 ■J  so  glorious  a  victory  to  him  that  gave  me  being.  I  have  lived 
 long  enough,  since  I  have  lived  to  see  the  pride  and  insolence  of 
 the  Philistines  brought  down  by  the  Hebrews,  which  will  serve 
 me  for  a  consolation  in  all  my  sufferings."     And   the  historian 
 
 ready  to  die  with  hunger,  had  not  the  people  interposed, 
 and  pleaded  the  merit  of  that  young  prince,  to  whom 
 the  honour  of  the  day  was  chiefly  owing. 
 
 After  this  victory,  Saul  ruled  the  kingdom  with  an 
 higher  hand,  and  repulsed  his  enemies  wherever  they 
 assailed  him.  He  had  indeed  a  very  large  and  flour- 
 ishing family.  Abinoam,  the  daughter  of  Ahimaaz,  was 
 his  wife  ;  Jonathan,  Ishui,  and  Melchishua,  were  his 
 sons;  Michal  and  Merab  his  daughters  ;  Abner  his  cousin- 
 german,  was  general  of  his  forces  ;  and  as  himself  was 
 a  warlike  prince,  God  made  choice  of  him  to  put  in  exe- 
 cution a  sentence,  '  which,  for  many  years  before,  he  had 
 decreed  against  the  Amalekites,  for  their  opposing  the 
 Israelites  in  their  passage  out  of  the  land  bf  Egypt. 
 
 His  commission  was  utterly  to  destroy  the  Amale- 
 kites, men,  women,  and  children,  and  to  leave  not  so 
 much  as  one  creature  of  any  kind  alive  ;  but  instead  of 
 executing  this  according  to  the  letter  of  the  precept,  d 
 he  saved  Agag  their  king,  and  the  best  of  their  cattle 
 alive  ;  and  when  Samuel  came  to  expostulate  the  matter 
 with  him,  his  pretence  was,  that  what  he  had  spared  was, 
 in  pure  respect  to  God,  in  order  to  have  them  offered  to 
 him  in  sacrifice.  But  Samuel,  who  knew  very  well  that 
 this  reserve  was  made  out  of  a  principle  of  avarice  more 
 than  devotion,  first  laid  before  him  the  iniquity  of  his 
 conduct,  and  then  declared  to  him  God's  immoveable 
 purpose  of  alienating  the  kingdom  from  his  family ; 
 which  made  so  deep  an  impression  upon  him,  that  he  ac- 
 knowledged his  fault,  entreated  the  prophet,  who  was 
 going  abruptly  to  leave  him,  to  stay,  and  make  inter- 
 cession  for  him,   and  so  far  to  honour  him  before  the 
 
 1  See  Exod.  xvii.  8,  &c.  and  Deut.  xxv.  17,  &c. 
 tells  us  farther,  that  the  whole  multitude  was  so  charmed  with 
 the  piety  and  bravery  of  the  young  man,  that  in  ecstasy  of  ten- 
 derness and  compassion,  they  took  him  away  out  of  the  hands 
 of  his  incensed  father,  with  an  oath,  "  that  they  would  not  suffer 
 an  hair  of  that  person's  head  to  be  touched,  who  had  been  so 
 instrumental  in  a  victory  that  tended  to  the  preservation  of  them 
 all." — Antiquities,  b.  6.  c.  7. 
 
 d  Josephus  seems  to  hint,  that  Saul  saved  this  Amalekite 
 king  alive,  because  he  was  taken  with  the  comeliness  and  ma- 
 jesty of  his  person ;  but  others  rather  think  that  he  intended  him 
 to  decorate  his  triumph.  For  when  it  is  said  of  Saul,  that  he 
 came  to  Carmel  after  his  victory,  and  '  set  him  up  a  place',  (1 
 Sam.  xv.  12.)  the  word  Jab,  they  say,  will  signify  an  arch,  as 
 well  as  any  thing  else ;  and  thence  they  conclude,  that  Saul's 
 purpose  was  to  erect  a  triumphal  arch,  in  memory  of  his  defeat 
 of  the  Amalekites ;  and  that  he  kept  their  king  alive  to  be  led 
 captive  in  that  magnificent  procession,  wherein  he  was  to  make 
 a  display  of  his  victory. — Calmet's  Commentary.  ["  In  this  place 
 the  LXX.  read  a  hand,  probably  because  the  trophy  or  monument 
 of  victory,  was  made  in  the  shape  of  a  large  hand,  the  emblem 
 of  power,  erected  on  a  pillar.  These  memorial  pillars  were 
 much  in  use  anciently,  and  the  figure  of  a  hand  was  by  its  em- 
 blematical meaning  well  adapted  to  preserve  the  remembrance  of 
 a  victory." — Niebuhr,  {Voyage  en  Arabia,  torn.  ii.  p.  211. 
 French  Edition)  speaking  of  Ali's  mosque  at  Mesched-Ali, 
 says,  that  "  at  the  top  of  the  dome,  where  one  generally  sees  on 
 the  Turkish  mosques  a  crescent,  or  only  a  pole,  there  is  here  a 
 hand  stretched  out,  to  represent  that  of  Ali."  Another  writer 
 informs  us  that  at  the  Alhambra,  or  red  palace  of  the  Moorish 
 kings,  in  Grenada,  "  on  the  key-stone  of  the  outward  arch  (of 
 the  present  principal  entrance)  is  sculptured  the  figure  of  an 
 arm,  the  symbol  of  strength  and  dominion.*' — {Annual  Register 
 for  1779,  Antiquities,  p.  124.)  To  this  day,  in  the  East  Indies, 
 the  picture  of  a  hand  is  the  emblem  of  power  or  authority.  When 
 the  Nabob  of  Arcot,  who  was  governor  of  fh/e  provinces,  appeared 
 on  public  occasions,  several  small  flags  with  each  a  hand  painted 
 upon  them,  and  one  of  a  large  size  with  five  hands,  were  so- 
 lemnly carried  before  him.] — Ed. 
 
111.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 44:i 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  lllfi;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 people,  from  whom  he  apprehended  a  revolt,  as  to  join 
 with  him  in  worship  to  God,  which  Samuel  consented  to 
 do :  but  before  he  departed,  he  ordered  Agag,  who  by 
 this  time  began  to  hope  for  mercy,  to  be  brought  forth 
 to  him,  and  himself,  with  his  own  hands,  fell  upon  him, 
 and  slew  him. 
 
 This  was  the  last  interview  which  Samuel  had  with 
 Saul :  for,  after  this  action,  he  retired  to  his  house  at 
 Ramah,  where,  though  he  visited  Saul  no  more,  he 
 ceased  not  to  lament  the  sad  condition  into  which  he 
 was  fallen.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  God 
 awoke  him  out  of  his  pensive  mood,  and  sent  him  to 
 Bethlehem,  under  colour  of  sacrificing  there,  to  anoint 
 David,  the  son  of  Jesse,  king  and  successor  to  Saul. 
 Jesse  had  eight  sons,  and  when  Samuel  came  to  his 
 house,  seven  of  them  were  brought  before  him,  Eliab, 
 the  eldest,  was  a  goodly  personage,  and  him  the  pro- 
 phet supposed,  at  first  sight,  to  have  been  the  person 
 whom  God  had  pitched  upon  to  succeed  Saul ;  but  being- 
 instructed  otherwise,  and  upon  inquiry,  finding  that 
 Jesse  had  another  son,  who  at  that  time  was  in  the  fields 
 keeping  the  sheep,  he  ordered  him  to  be  sent  for  ;  and 
 as  he  was  a  very  fair  and  beautiful  youth,  immediately 
 upon  his  entering  the  room,  he  perceived  that  he  was 
 the  person  whom  God  had  made  choice  of ;  and  accord- 
 ingly he  took  an  opportunity,  and  "  singling  him  out 
 from  the  rest  of  his  brethren,  poured  oil  on  his  head,  and 
 anointed  him  king.  Nor  was  the  ceremony  useless  ;  for 
 from  that  time  forward  David  found  himself  inwardly 
 possessed  with  a  spirit  of  wisdom,  and  prudence,  and 
 courage,  and  other  qualifications  both  of  body  and  mind 
 that  are  requisite  in  a  prince.  b 
 
 Saul,  in  the  mean  time,  declined  more  and  more  in 
 the  favour  of  God  ;  and  as  he  was  naturally  of  a  timorous 
 and  suspicious  temper,  an  unhappy  turn  of  mind  grew 
 
 a  Our  translation  says,  that  'Samuel  anointed  him  in  the 
 midst  of  his  brethren,'  and  for  this  it  is  pretended,  that  as  this 
 unction  was  a  solemn  act,  and  the  only  title  which  David  had  to 
 the  kingdom,  it  was  necessary  to  have  it  done  in  the  presence  of 
 some  witnesses,  for  which  purpose  none  were  more  proper  than 
 those  of  his  own  family.  But  it  is  plain,  from  his  brother  Eliab's 
 treating  him  after  this,  (1  Sam.  xvii.  28.)  that  he  was  not  privy 
 to  his  being  anointed  king-elect  over  God's  people;  and  there- 
 fore,  since  the  words  will  equally  hear  the  sense  of  '  from  the 
 midst,'  as  well  as  '  in  the  midst  of  his  brethren, '  it  is  more  reason- 
 able to  suppose,  that  as  this  was  the  ceremony  of  his  designation 
 tu  tlic  kingdom  only,  few  or  none  except  his  father  perhaps,  were 
 admitted  to  it.  And  there  was  the  less  reason  for  witnesses  upon 
 this  occasion,  because  Uavid  never  laid  claim  to  the  crown  till 
 after  Saul's  decease,  and  was  then,  at  two  several  times,  first, 
 when  he  was  made  king  over  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  second, 
 wain  made  king  over  all  the  tribes  of  Israel,  anointed  publicly. 
 — Calmet's  and  Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Howell's  History, 
 in  the  notes. 
 
 I>  They  who  credit  the  scripture  history  in  this  affair,  will 
 easily  account  for  these  extraordinary  accomplishments  and  im- 
 provements ;  for  that  assures  us,  '  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  came 
 upon  Dai  id  from  that  day  forward,'  (1  Sam.  xvi.  13.)  and  I  should 
 be  glad  to  learn  from  those  who  do  not  credit  this  circumstance 
 of  the  history,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  text,  how  otherwise  they 
 can  account  for  these  extraordinary  effects  and  endowments 
 which  immediately  ensued  on  David's  designation  to  the  throne; 
 how  a  designation  to  empire,  I  say,  which,  in  its  ordinary  course, 
 is  too  apt  to  corrupt,  debase,  and  overset  with  vanity,  should 
 raise  an  obscure  youth,  uneducated,  and  little  accounted  of,  even 
 in  the  esteem  of  a  parent's  partiality,  in  an  obscure  age  and 
 country,  without  the  advantage  either  of  instruction  or  example, 
 iiit<.  the  greatest  musician,  the  noblest  poet,  and  the  most  con- 
 summate hero  of  all  antiquity. —  The  T/ife  of  David,  by  the  Author 
 of  Revelation  Examined. 
 
 upon  him,  and  settled  at  last  in  a  confirmed  melancholy, 
 but  such  an  one  as  was  frequently  attended  with  violent 
 perturbations,  and  sometimes  with  direct  frenzy.  In  this 
 condition,  some  of  his  courtiers  advised  him  to  music, 
 which  would  be  of  some  use  to  lull  his  disturbed  mind  to 
 rest;  and  accordingly  recommended  David,  not  only  as 
 an  excellent  master  this  way,  but  a  man  of  other  rare 
 qualifications,  both  internal  and  external,  enough  to 
 engage  his  favour. 
 
 Upon  this  recommendation  he  was  sent  for  to  court,  c 
 where  Saul  was  greatly  taken  with  the  beauty  of  his  per- 
 son ;  but  when  he  heard  him  exercise  his  skill  upon  the 
 harp,  he  was  pleased  above  measure,  and  quite  trans- 
 ported from  all  uneasy  and  melancholy  thoughts.  rl  Saul, 
 in  short,  conceived  such  a  kindness  for  David  for  having 
 cured  him  of  his  malady,  that  he  made  him  one  of  his 
 armour-bearers,  though  David,  when  he  found  the  king- 
 better,  returned  to  his  father's  house  again.  e 
 
 The  Philistines  not  long  before  had  received  a  remark- 
 able defeat  from  Saul ;  but  having  now  recruited  their 
 forces,  they  came  and  encamped  between  /  Succoth  and 
 Azekah,  while  Saul,  with  his  army,  took  ground  upon 
 the  hill  that  is  above  the  valley  of  Elah,  which  separat- 
 ed the  two  camps.  AYhile  the  armies  lay  thus  facing 
 each  other  a  champion  named  Goliath,  of  a  prodigious 
 gigantic  stature,  S  being  full  ten  feet  high,   with  arms 
 
 c  1  Sam.  vi.  17.  This  command  of  Saul  might  originate  in  a 
 desire  to  obtain  such  a  person  as  might  by  his  skill  in  playing 
 equally  contribute  to  his  gratification  and  state.  It  seems  to 
 have  formed  a  part  of  royal  eastern  magnificence,  to  have  had 
 men  of  this  description  about  the  court.  "Professed  storytellers," 
 it  may  also  be  observed,  "  are  of  early  date  in  the  east.  Even  at 
 this  day  men  of  rank  have  generally  one  or  more,  male  or  female, 
 amongst  their  attendants,  who  amuse  them  and  their  women, 
 when  melancholy,  vexed,  or  indisposed;  and  they  are  generally 
 employed  to  lull  them  to  sleep.  Many  of  their  tales  are  highly 
 amusing,  especially  those  of  Persian  origin,  or  such  as  have  been 
 written  on  their  model.  They  were  thought  so  dangerous  by 
 Mahommed,  that  he  expressly  prohibited  them  in  the  Koran." — 
 Rickardso?i's  Dissertation  on  the  Manners  of  the  East,  p.  69. 
 and  Forbes's  Oriental  Memoirs,  vol.  iii.  p.  182. — Ed. 
 
 d  1  Sam.  xvi.  23.  The  power  of  music  upon  the  affections  is 
 very  great.  Its  effect  upon  Saul  was  no  more  than  it  has  pro- 
 duced in  many  other  instances.  Timotheus  the  musician  could 
 excite  Alexander  the  Great  to  arms  by  the  Phrygian  sound,  and 
 allay  his  fury  with  another  tune,  and  excite  him  to  merriment. 
 So  Eric,  king  of  Denmark,  by  a  certain  musician,  could  be 
 driven  to  such  a  fury  as  to  kill  some  of  his  best  and  most  trusty 
 servants.  —  /*.  Fossius  de  Pocmatum  eantii  et  rythmi  riribnx. 
 —Ed. 
 
 e  It  seems  very  doubtful  whether  this  was  1  he  case.  The  t>  \t 
 in  this  part  is  confused  and  unsatisfactory,  see  note  on  this  sub- 
 ject in  the  following  chapter. — En. 
 
 /Succoth  and  Azekah  lay  to  the  south  of  Jerusalem,  and  the 
 east  of  Bethlehem,  about  four  leagues  from  the  former,  and  the 
 from  the  latter;  and  the  ancient  valley  of  Elah  must  consequently 
 lie  not  far  distant  from  them,  though  later  travellers  plan  it  at 
 no  more  than  a  league's  distance  from  Jerusalem. — Cahnet'i 
 Commentary. 
 
 g  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  whose  height  was  six  cubits 
 and  a  span  ;'  so  that  taking  a  cubit  to  be  twenty  inches  and  a 
 half,  and  a  span  to  be  three  inches,  and  a  little  more,  the  whole 
 will  amount  to  about  twelve  feet  and  an  half:  a  stature  above  as 
 tall  again  as  usual  !  The  lowest  computation  of  the  cubit  how- 
 ever brings  it  to  near  ten  feet,  which  is  the  standard  that  «'■ 
 have  set  it  at;  though  it  musl  not  be  dissembled,  that  both  the 
 Septuagint  and  Josephus  have  reduced  it  to  little  more  than 
 feet,  which  badly  comports  with  the  weight  and  raStneSS 
 armour,  though  it  might  suit  their  design  perhaps,  in  accommo- 
 dating their  account  to  the  credibility  of  their  heathen  readers. 
 Hut  be  that  as  it  will,  several  authors,  to  slum  this  vast  size  of 
 the  man  not  to  be  beyond  the  bounds  of  probability,  have  written, 
 
444 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.2888.  A.  C.  1116  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 and  armour  proportionable,  came  out  of  the  camp  of  the 
 Philistines  for  forty  days  successively,  and  challenged 
 any  one  of  the  Israelites  to  a  single  combat.  a  This 
 single  combat  was  to  decide  the  fate  of  the  war :  but 
 none  of  the  Israelites  durst  adventure  upon  it,  until 
 David,  who  happened  at  this  time  to  come  to  the  camp,  b 
 with  provisions  for  his  three  elder  brethren,  that  were 
 then  in  the  service,  seeing  this  great  gigantic  creature 
 thus  vaunt  himself,  and  hearing  withal  what  reward  the 
 king  had  promised  to  the  person  that  should  kill  him, 
 namely,  that  he  c  would  give  him  his  daughter  in  mar- 
 riage and  ennoble  his  family,  was  moved  by  a  divine 
 impulse  to  accept  of  the  challenge,  which  he  some  ways 
 d  isco vered  to  the  standers  by.    His  eldest  brother,  Eliab, 
 
 ev  professo  de  gigantibus,  among  whom  Hermannus  Conringius, 
 in  his  book  de  antiquo  statu  Holmstadii,  and  in  another  de  habitu 
 corporum  Germanorum,  have  demonstrated,  that  the  ancient 
 Germans  were  of  a  vast  size,  even  as  Cfesar,  de  bello  Gall,  tes- 
 tifies of  them,  by  calling  them  '  men  of  a  huge  greatness  of 
 body.'  Nay,  even  Josephus  himself,  who  is  quoted  for  denying 
 the  existence  of  giants,  furnishes  us  with  an  argument  in  their 
 behalf,  when  he  gives  us  an  account  of  some  bones  of  a  prodigi- 
 ous size  which  were  found  in  Hebron ;  as  Acosta,  in  his  History 
 of  the  Indies,  (b.  1.  c.  10.)  makes  mention  of  bones  of  an  incred- 
 ible bigness,  and  of  a  race  of  giants  of  such  an  height,  that  an 
 ordinary  man  could  scarce  reach  their  knees. — Le  Clerc's  and 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word 
 Goliath;  and  Dissertation  of  the  giants. 
 
 a  Tiie  words  in  which  Goliath's  challenge  is  expressed,  are 
 these:  '  Why  are  you  come  out  to  set  your  battle  in  array  ?  Am 
 I  not  a  Philistine,  and  you  servants  to  Saul  ?  Choose  you  a  man 
 for  you,  and  let  him  come  down  to  me:  if  he  be  able  to  fight 
 with  me,  and  to  kill  me,  then  will  we  be  your  servants:  but  if  I 
 prevail  against  him,  and  kill  him,  then  ye  shall  be  our  servants, 
 and  serve  us.'  (1  Sam.  xvii.  8.)  Antiquity  furnishes  us  with 
 examples  of  several  such  like  combats  as  Goliath  here  proposes, 
 but  with  none  more  remarkable  than  that  between  the  Horatii 
 and  Curiatii,  related  by  Livy,  b.  1.  c.  23.  "  In  which  case,' 
 as  Grotius  expresses  himself,  {On  the  Law  of  War  and  Peace, 
 b.  2.  c.  23.)  "  though  the  champions  perhaps  cannot,  with  all 
 the  innocence  imaginable,  engage  in  the  combat,  yet  their  re- 
 spective states  may,  at  least  allow  of  it,  as  a  less  evil;  as  an 
 expedient  whereby  a  decision  is  made,  without  the  effusion  of 
 much  blood,  or  any  considerable  loss  on  either  side,  which  of  the 
 two  nations  shall  have  the  dominion  over  the  other.  "  Strabo," 
 says  he,  '"makes  mention  of  this  as  an  ancient  custom  among 
 the  Greeks;  and  /Eneas  appeals  to  the  Latins,  whether  it  is  not 
 highly  ju^t  and  equitable,  that  he  and  Turnus  should  determine 
 the  controversy  between  them  even  in  this  manner."  But 
 whether  there  was  any  combat  stipulated  to  be  decisive  of  the 
 quarrel  between  the  two  contending  nations,  it  is  certain  that 
 this  speech  of  Goliath's  was  a  mere  bravado,  proceeding  from  a 
 high  opinion  he  had  of  his  own  matchless  strength,  as  if  he  had 
 been  the  whole  support  of  the  nation,  which  was  to  stand  or  fall 
 together  with  him.  For  that  he  had  no  authority  from  the  princes 
 of  the  Philistines  to  make  any  such  declaration,  is  evident 
 from  the  event;  since  so  far  were  the  Philistines  from  yielding 
 themselves  slaves  to  the  Hebrews,  upon  the  death  of  this  cham- 
 pion, that  they  made  the  best  of  their  way  into  their  own  country, 
 Mid  there  defended  themselves,  and  fought  many  battles  with 
 them  afterwards. — Saurin's  Dissertation,  vol.  4.  Dis.  32.  and 
 Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  In  those  days  it  was  customary  for  men  to  serve  their  king 
 and  country  in  the  wars  at  their  own  expense;  and  therefore, 
 Jesse  sent  a  supply  of  provisions  to  such  of  his  sons  as  were  in 
 l he  service:  but  since  he  had  other  sons  at  home,  while  David 
 was  chiefly  in  the  fields,  it  seems  to  be  a  divine  direction  that 
 he  sent  him  from  the  sheep  upon  this  errand. 
 
 c  This  was  no  bad  policy  in  Saul  to  promise  largely  upon  so 
 important  an  occasion,  forasmuch  as  Caleb  won  Kirjath-sepher, 
 by  offering  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  the  person  that  should 
 take  it.  And  David  himself,  when  he  came  to  the  crown,  en- 
 couraged his  soldiers  to  assault  the  strong  fort  of  Sion,  by  promis- 
 ing to  make  him  commander-in-chief  of  all  his  forces  who  should 
 fust  enter  it. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 hearing  such  words  drop  from  him,  took  him,  and  re- 
 proved him  for  his  rashness ;  but,  as  his  declaration,  by 
 this  time,  had  reached  the  king's  ears,  the  king  sent  for 
 him,  and  having  surveyed  his  youth,  told  him  with  con- 
 cern, that  he  feared  he  would  never  be  able  to  encounter 
 a  man  that  was  so  much  older  and  stronger,  and  a  soldier 
 from  his  cradle.  d  But  to  this  David  replied,  that  he 
 had  already  done  as  great  things  as  killing  this  giant 
 could  possibly  be ;  that  he  had  slain  a  lion  and  a  bear 
 with  his  bare  hands  ;  and  therefore  did  not  doubt,  but 
 that  the  same  almighty  power  which  delivered  him  then, 
 would  not  fail  to  shield  and  protect  him  now. 
 
 Saul  was  not  a  little  pleased  with  this  gallant  answer  ; 
 and,  to  equip  him  as  well  as  he  could  for  the  combat, 
 offered  him  his  own  armour  :  but  when  David  had  put  it 
 on,  he  found  it  too  large  and  cumbersome  ;  and  there- 
 fore, taking  only  his  staff,  a  sling,  and  e  five  smooth 
 stones,  which  he  picked  out  of  the  brook  that  ran  by,  he 
 advanced  towards  the  Philistine,  who,  perceiving  him  to 
 be  but  a  youth,  and  of  a  fair  effeminate  complexion,  took 
 the  thing  as  done  in  contempt  and  derision  of  him;  and 
 therefore  he  cursed  him  by  his  gods,  Dagon  and  Ashta- 
 roth,  and  vowed  to  cut  him  in  pieces,  the  very  moment 
 he  came  at  him.  But  David's  reply  was  of  another 
 kind,  namely,  that  he  came  against  him,  not  in  any  con- 
 fidence of  his  own  strength,  but  in  the  name  of  that  God 
 whose  name  he  had  blasphemed,  and  power  defied./ 
 And  with  these  words  he  let  fly  a  stone  at  him,  with  such 
 force  and  direction,  that  it  hit  him  on  his  forehead,  and 
 S  piercing  his  brain,  sunk  into  it,  so  that  he  fell  flat  on 
 
 d  Josephus  introduces  David  as  reasoning  with  the  king  in 
 this  manner:  "David  perceiving,"  says  he,  "that  Saul  took 
 his  measures  from  the  common  reason  of  other  encounters,  gave 
 the  king  to  understand,  That  this  was  not  so  much  a  challenge 
 to  the  army,  as  a  defiance  to  Heaven  itself;  neither  was  the 
 combat  to  be  taken,  in  truth,  for  a  trial  of  skill  between  Goliath 
 and  David,  but  between  Goliath  and  the  Lord  of  hosts.  '  For 
 it  is  not  my  arm,'  says  he,  '  that  fights  the  battle,  but  the  power 
 of  a  gracious  and  invincible  God,  that  many  times  brings  to 
 pass,  even  by  the  weakest  instruments,  the  noblest  of  his  divine 
 purposes,  for  his  greater  glory.' '"' — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  b'. 
 c.  10. 
 
 e  Smooth  stones,  one  would  think,  part  best  from  the  sling, 
 and,  as  they  meet  with  the  least  obstruction  from  the  air,  fly  with 
 the  greatest  rapidity,  and  in  the  most  direct  line;  and  yet  Ludo- 
 vicus  de  Dieu,  is  of  a  quite  contrary  opinion,  namely,  that  rough 
 and  sharp  stones  were  properer  for  David's  purpose;  whereupon 
 he  translates  the  words  '  five  pieces  of  stone,'  as  the  Hebrew 
 indeed,  without  its  punctuation,  will  bear.  But  it  is  in  vain  to  be 
 nice  and  elaborate  about  trifles,  since  of  what  form  soever  the 
 stone  which  penetrated  Goliath's  forehead  was,  it  is  plain,  that  it 
 had  both  the  direction  and  rapidity  of  its  motion  from  the  hand 
 of  God. 
 
 /  1  Sam.  xvii.  45.  The  decision  of  national  controversies  by 
 the  duels  of  the  chiefs,  was  frequent  in  ancient  times.  That 
 between  the  Horatii  and  Curiatii  is  well  known:  and  even  before 
 that,  Romulus  and  Aruns,  king  of  the  Ceninenses,  ended  their 
 national  quarrel  by  the  like  method ;  Romulus  killing  his  adver- 
 sary, taking  his  capital,  and  dedicating  the  spoils  to  Jupiter 
 Feretrius. —  J'al.  Max.,  b.  viii.  c.  2.  s.  3.  Chandler's  Life  of 
 David,  vol.  1.  p.  70,  note. — Ed. 
 
 g  If  it  should  be  asked  how  this  possibly  could  be,  when  Goliath 
 was  armed  so  completely,  and  in  particular,  is  said  to  have  had 
 an  '  helmet  of  brass  upon  his  head  ? '  It  is  but  supposing  that 
 this  arrogant  champion,  in  disdain  of  his  inferior  combatant, 
 might  come  negligently  towards  him,  with  his  helmet  turned 
 back,  and  his  forehead  bare.  It  is  highly  probable,  that  when 
 he  made  his  menacing  speech  to  David,  he  might  turn  back  his 
 helmet,  both  to  speak  and  be  heard  more  distinctly ;  and  there 
 was  no  such  terror  in  David's  appearance,  as  might  induce  him 
 to  cover  his  forehead  again.     But  admitting  he  did  not,  it  is  but 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c 
 
 445 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  I  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 his  fare,  and  David  ran  up  to  him,  and  with  the  giant's 
 sword  cut  oft'  his  head  ;  a  at  the  sight  of  which  the  Phi- 
 listines' army  fled,  and  were  pursued  by  the  Hebrews  as 
 far  as  the  gates  of  Ekron  witli  a  very  great  slaughter. 
 
 When  Saul  saw  David  marching  against  the  Philis- 
 tines, he  inquired  of  Abner,  who  he  was?  which  Abner 
 could  not  resolve  him  ;  but  upon  his  return  from  victory, 
 introduced  him  to  the  king,  with  the  champion's  head  in 
 his  hand.  The  king  received  him  with  the  highest 
 applauses ;  and  upon  his  inquiry,  David  informed  him, 
 that  he  was  the  son  of  Jesse  the  Bethlemite.  Every 
 one  entertained  indeed  a  high  conception  for  the 
 author  of  so  great  an  action,  but  none  expressed  so 
 entire  a  satisfaction  as  did  Jonathan,  b  who,  being  him- 
 self a  prince  of  extraordinary  bravery,  was  so  taken  with 
 his  courage  and  conduct  in  this  engagement  that  he  c 
 
 supposing  that  David  levelled  his  stone  so  right,  as  to  hit  the 
 place  which  was  left  open  for  his  adversary's  eyes,  or  threw  it 
 with  such  a  violent  force,  as  would  penetrate  both  helmet  and 
 head  together.  To  make  these  suppositions  more  probable,  we 
 need  only  remember  what  we  read  in  Judges  xx.  l(j.,  of  no  less 
 than  seven  hundred  men  in  one  place,  who  were  so  expert  with 
 their  left  hands,  that  every  one  could  sling  stones  to  a  hair- 
 breadth, and  not  miss;  or  what  we  read  in  Diodorus  Siculus,  b. 
 5.,  of  some  slingers,  who  threw  stones  with  such  violence  that 
 nothing  could  resist  their  impression;  and  that  when  they  made 
 use  of  lead  instead  of  stone,  the  very  lead  would  melt  in  the  air 
 as  it  flew,  by  reason  of  the  rapidity  of  the  motion  which  they 
 gave  it. — (Patrick's-  and  Calmet's  Commentaries.) — "  The  arms 
 which  the  Achaans  chiefly  used  were  slings.  They  were  trained 
 to  the  art  from  their  infancy,  by  slinging  from  a  great  distance 
 at  a  circular  mark  of  a  moderate  circumference.  By  long  prac- 
 tice they  took  so  nice  an  aim,  that  they  were  sure  to  hit  their 
 enemies  not  only  on  the  head,  but  on  any  part  of  the  face  they 
 chose.  Their  slings  were  of  a  different  kind  from  the  Balea- 
 riaus,  whom  they  far  surpassed  iu  dexterity." — Polybius,  p. 
 125. — Ed. 
 
 a  1  Sam.  xvii.  51.  Niebuhr  presents  us  with  a  very  similar 
 scene  in  his  Description  of  Arabia,  p.  263,  where  the  son  of  an 
 Arab  chief  kills  his  lather's  enemy  and  rival,  and  according  to 
 the  custom  of  the  Arabs,  cuts  oft*  his  head,  and  carries  it  in 
 triumph  to  his  father.  In  a  note  he  adds,  cutting  oft*  the  head 
 of  a  slain  enemy,  and  carrying  it  in  triumph,  is  an  ancient  cus- 
 tom. Xenophon  remarks  that  it  was  practised  by  the  Chalybes, 
 (J>.  iv.)  Herodotus  attributes  it  to  the  Scythians,  (b.  iv.  c. 
 CO.)— Ed. 
 
 b  The  text  says,  (1  Sam.  xviii.  3,  4.)  '  Then  Jonathan  and 
 David  made  a  covenant,  because  he  loved  him  as  his  own  soul. 
 And  Jonathan  stripped  himself  of  the  robe  that  was  upon  him, 
 and  gave  it  to  David,  and  his  garments,  even  to  his  sword  and 
 to  his  bow,  and  to  his  girdle.'  It  was  anciently  a  custom  to 
 make  such  military  presents  as  these  to  brave  adventurers. 
 Besides  the  present  instance  of  the  kind,  two  others  may  be 
 quoted:   the  first  is  from  Home)-. 
 
 "  Next  him  Ulysses  took  a  shining  sword, 
 A  bow  and  quiver,  with  bright  arrows  stored  ; 
 
 A  well  proved  casque,  with  leather  braces  bound, 
 
 iThy  gift,  Meriones,)  his  temples  crowii'd." 
 
 11.  x.  807.     Pope. 
 The  other  is  from  Virgil,  in  the  story  of  Nisus  and  Euryalus. 
 "  Nor  did  his  eye  less  longingly  behold 
 The  girdle  belt,  with  nails  of  buroish'd  gold ; 
 This  present  Cadicus  the  rich  bestow'd 
 On  Romulus,  when  friendship  first  they  vow'd, 
 And  absent!  join'd  in  hospitable  ties: 
 He  dying,  to  his  heir  bequeathed  the  prize ; 
 Till  by  his  eonq'riug  Ardean  troops  oppress'd, 
 He  fell,  and  they  the  glorious  gift  possessed."— JEn.  b.  9.— Ed. 
 
 c  Plutarch,  in  his  book  On  Intense  Friendship,  makes  mention 
 ot  several  great  men  such  as  Theseus  and  Pirithous;  Achilles 
 and  Patroclus;  Orestes  and  Pylades ;  Pythias  and  Damon,  &C, 
 who  were  joined  together  in  the  yoke  of  friendship,  as  he  calls  it: 
 but  none  of  these  were  comparable  to  what  we  read  of  Jonathan 
 and  David,  who  entered  into  the  most  sacred  bonds  of  mutual 
 
 contracted  the  tenderest  and  most  endearing  friendship 
 with  him,  which  lasted  as  long  as  they  two  lived  together  ; 
 but  in  their  return  home  from  this  expedition,  one  thing 
 happened  which  occasioned  Saul's  jealousy.  Among 
 the  crowds  that  came  out  to  meet  them,  and  to  grace 
 their  triumph,  there  was  a  chorus  of  women,  d  who  sung 
 to  the  musical  instruments  upon  which  they  played,  a 
 certain  song,  whose  chief  burden  was,  '  Saul  has  slain 
 his  thousands,  and  e  David  his  ten  thousands  ;'  which  so 
 enraged  Saul  against  David,  that  from  that  time  lie 
 never  looked  on  him  with  a  gracious  eye.  For  though 
 he  thought  proper  to  retain  him  in  his  service,  and,  for 
 the  present,  conferred  upon  him  some  command  in  the 
 army  ;  yet  the  reward  for  his  killing  Goliath,  which  was 
 to  be  the  marriage  of  his  eldest  daughter,  /  he  deprived 
 him  of  by  giving  her  to  another. 
 
 When  Saul  returned  to  his  own  house,  the  same  spirit 
 of  melancholy  came  upon  him  as  before ;  and  while  David 
 was  touching  his  harp  before  him  as  usual,  iu  order  to 
 alleviate  his  malady,  the  outrageous  king  threw  a  javelin 
 at  him  with  such  fury,  as  would  certainly  have  destroyed 
 him,  had  not  providence  turned  it  aside.  Hereupon 
 David  thought  proper  to  withdraw  ;  yet  Saul  would  still 
 continue  him  in  his  service,  to  have  the  more  opportu- 
 nities against  his  life. 
 
 It  happened,  too,  that  by  this  time  his  second  daughter, 
 whose  name  was  Michal,  had  entertained  kind  thoughts 
 of  David,  which  her  father  was  not  unconscious  of;  and 
 therefore  he  signified  to  him,  that  upon  condition  he 
 would  kill  him  an  hundred  Philistines,  (but  not  without 
 some  hopes  of  himself  falling  in  the  attempt,)  he  should 
 have  the  honour  to  become  the  king's  son-in-law.  David 
 accepted  the  condition,  though  he  could  not  but  perceive 
 the  latent  malice  of  it ;  and  taking  some  choice  men 
 along  with  him,  invaded  the  Philistines,  slew  double  the 
 number  of  them,  and  for  a  testimony  thereof,  S  sent  their 
 
 assistance  and  defence,  to  their  very  death,  and  of  kindness  to 
 their  posterity,  even  after  either  of  them  should  be  dead.  Jona- 
 than, in  particular,  through  the  w hole  story,  shows  towards 
 D&vid  such  a  greatness  of  soul,  such  a  constancy  of  mind,  and 
 disinterestedness  of  heart,  as  few  romances  can  produce  examples 
 of. —  Calmet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  1  Sam.  xviii.  G.  The  dancing  and  playing  on  instruments 
 of  music  before  persons  of  distinction,  when  they  pass  near  the 
 dwelling  places  of  such  as  are  engaged  in  country  business,  ^'iil 
 continues  in  the  east.  This  was  practised  by  some  persons  in 
 compliment  to  the  Baron  Du  'Pott.  He  says,  (Memoirs,  part 
 I.  p.  181),  "I  took  care  to  cover  my  escort  with  my  small 
 troop  of  Europeans,  and  we  continued  to  march  on  in  this  order, 
 which  had  no  very  hostile  appearance,  when  we  per©  ived  a  mo- 
 tion in  the  enemy's  camp,  from  which  several  of  the  Turc m 
 
 advanced  to  meet  us:  and  I  soon  had  the  musicians  of  the  dil- 
 ferent  hordes  playing  and  dandng  before  nic,  all  the  time  we 
 were  passing  by  the  side  of  their  camp." — Banner,  vol.  3,  p. 
 'i92.— Et>. 
 
 e  Namely,  in  his  lulling  Goliath;  for  all  the  conquest  gained 
 afterwards  was  no  more  than  the  consequence  of  his  death. 
 
 /'  This  was  a  high  affront  u>  David,  and  one  of  the  greatest 
 
 injuries   that   could   be   done    him;   however,  for  the    present,  he 
 
 thought  proper  to  dissemble  it.  Hew  Jonathan  resented  this 
 usa«e,  we  are  nowhere  told.  It  is  likely,  that  bis  duty  to  his 
 father  made  him  prevail  with  David  to  take  it  patiently,  as 
 coming  from  a  man  w  ho  was  sometimes  beside  himself,  and  knew 
 i.,,t  well  what  he  did:  and  that  David  might  be  the  more  in- 
 clinable to  do  this,  a^  hai  ing  Borne  intimations  given  him  ol  the 
 good  esteem  which  the  second  daughter  began  to  entertain  oi 
 him. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 ,j  The  reason  why  Saul  exacted  the  foreskins  of  David  was, 
 to  pn  vent  all  cheat  or  collusion  In  the  matter,  and  thai  he  might 
 
440  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  28SS.  A.  C.  DIG;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  V 
 
 foreskins,  according  to  covenant,  to  the  king;  so  that, 
 all  things  being-  thus  gallantly  accomplished,  and  in  so 
 public  a  manner,  the  king  could  not  refuse  him  his 
 daughter,  but  at  the  same  time  laid  many  other  schemes 
 to  take  away  his  life. 
 
 Nay,  to  such  desperate  lengths  did  his  jealousy  run 
 him,  that  he,  casting  oft'  all  disguise,  a  commanded  his 
 son  Jonathan,  and  some  of  the  principal  men  of  his 
 court,  at  any  rate  to  despatch  David;  which  Jonathan 
 all  along  took  care  to  acquaint  him  with,  and  at  the 
 same  time,  advised  him  to  provide  himself  with  some 
 place  of  safe  retreat,  until  he  should  have  an  opportu- 
 nity of  h  expostulating  the  matter  with  his  father ;  which 
 accordingly  he  did,  and  with  so  good  success,  that  his 
 father  was,  seemingly  at  least,  reconciled  to  David ; 
 and  Jonathan  next  day  introduced  him  into  his  presence  : 
 but  the  increase  of  David's  fame,  upon  several  defeats 
 given  the  Philistines,  still  renewing  and  increasing 
 Saul's  jealousy,  would  not  suffer  this  reconciliation  to 
 last  long.  Saul  was  taken  with  another  fit  of  phrenzy, 
 and  David  was  desired  to  play  to  him  :  but  while  he  was 
 employed  in  tuning  his  harp,  the  other  took  an  oppor- 
 tunity, as  he  had  done  before,  of  darting  a  javelin  at 
 him,  which  David,  having  a  watchful  eye  upon  him, 
 nimbly   declined,    and   so   retired    to    his   own   house. 
 
 be  sure  they  were  Philistines  only  whom  he  killed.  Had  he 
 demanded  the  heads  only  of  so  many  men,  David  he  might 
 think,  might  perhaps  cut  off  those  of  his  own  subjects,  and  bring 
 them  instead  of  the  Philistines;  but  now,  the  Philistines  being 
 the  only  neighbouring  people  who  were  uncircumcised,  (for  the 
 Arabians,  as  descended  from  Ishmael,  and  all  the  other  nations 
 which  sprung  from  Esau,  were  circumcised,  as  well  as  the  He- 
 brews,) in  producing  their  foreskins  there  could  be  no  deception. 
 Besides  that,  this  would  be  a  gross  insult  upon  the  Philistines 
 in  general,  to  whom  Saul  was  desirous  to  make  David  as  odious 
 as  possible,  that,  at  one  time  or  other,  he  might  fall  into  their 
 hands , — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 a  It  is  strange,  that  Saul  should  speak  to  Jonathan  to  murder 
 David,  if  he  knew  the  friendship  he  had  for  him;  and  he  could 
 Dot  be  ignorant  of  it,  since,  in  1  Sam.  xviii.  3,  4.,  he  had  made 
 so  public  a  declaration  of  it.  But  he  imagined,  perhaps,  that 
 his  love  to  a  father  would  overcome  his  love  to  a  friend ;  and, 
 taking  an  estimate  from  himself,  might  think  it  no  mean  incite- 
 ment to  his  son,  that  David  was  going  to  deprive  not  only  the 
 father  of  the  present  possession,  but  the  son  likewise  of  the  right 
 of  succession  to  the  throne  of  Israel.  But  whatever  Saul's 
 reasons  might  be  for  desiring  Jonathan's  assistance  in  so  vile  a 
 fact,  it  is  plain  that  there  was  a  peculiar  providence  of  God  in 
 his  disclosing  himself  so  freely  on  this  head,  since  thereby  David 
 came  to  a  right  information  of  his  danger.^ — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 b  The  speech  which  Josephus  puts  in  Jonathan's  mouth  upon 
 Ibis  occasion,  is  expressed  in  these  terms: — "  You  have  con- 
 ceived, Sir,  a  terrible  displeasure  against  this  young  man,  and 
 given  orders  fur  his  death;  but  upon  what  provocation,  or  for 
 what  fault,  great  or  little,  I  cannot  apprehend.  He  is  a  person 
 to  whom  we  stand  indebted  for  our  safety,  and  the  destruction  of 
 the  Philistines;  for  vindicating  the  honour  of  our  nation  from 
 the  scandal  of  a  forty  days'  affront,  in  the  challenge  of  a  giant, 
 whom  not  a  creatine,  but  this  innocent  youth,  had  a  heart  to 
 encounter;  a  person  who  purchased  my  sister  for  his  wife  at 
 your  own  price;  and,  in  line,  a  person  entitled  to  your  esteem 
 and  tenderness,  both  as  a  brave  man,  and  a  member  of  your  own 
 family.  lie  pleased  to  consider,  then,  what  injury  you  do  your 
 own  daughter,  in  making  her  feel  the  mortification  of  being  a 
 widow,  before  she  enjoys  the  blessing  of  being  a  mother.  Be 
 pleased  to  remember  who  it  was  that  cured  you  of  your  dark 
 melancholic  tits,  and  by  that  means  laid  an  obligation  upon  the 
 whole  family;  and  who  it  was  that,  next  under  God,  delivered 
 us  from  our  implacable  enemies.  These,  Sir,  are  benefits  never 
 to  be  forgotten,  without  the  infamy  of  the  blackest  ingratitude." 
 ■ — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  0.  e.  13. 
 
 Thither  the  king  sent  his  guards,  as  soon  as  it  was  light, 
 to  apprehend  him ;  but  by  the  contrivance  of  his  wife 
 Michal,  who  let  him  down  from  a  window,  he  made  his 
 escape,  and  by  the  benefit  of  a  dark  night,  came  to  his 
 old  friend  Samuel  at  Ramah,  to  whom  he  told  all  his 
 complaints,  and  with  whom,  for  the  better  security  of 
 his  person,  he  went  to  Najoh,  which  was  c  a  school  or 
 college  of  the  prophets,  and  there  dwelt. 
 
 It  was  not  long  before  Saul  had  intelligence  of  hi9 
 abode,  and  d  sent  a  party  of  soldiers  to  apprehend  him  ; 
 but  they,  upon  their  arrival  at  the  place,  where  they 
 found  Samuel  teaching  and  instructing  the  younger 
 prophets,  were  seized  with  a  prophetic  spirit,  and  re- 
 turned not  again.  After  these,  he  sent  fresh  messengers, 
 and  after  them  others  again  ;  but  no  sooner  were  they 
 come  within  the  verge  of  the  place,  but  they  all  began 
 to  be  affected  in  like  manner.  Saul  at  length,  impatient 
 of  these  delays,  went  himself;  but  as  he  drew  near  to 
 Najoh,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  came  upon  him,  so  that  he 
 went  along  e  prophesying,  until  he  came  to  the  place 
 where  Samuel  and  David  were,  and  there  /stripping 
 
 c  VVhen  these  schools  of  the  prophets  were  at  first  instituted 
 is  nowhere  indicated  in  Scripture:  but,  as  the  first  mention  we 
 find  of  them  is  in  Samuel's  time,  we  can  hardly  suppose,  that 
 they  were  much  prior  to  it.  It  may  be  presumed,  therefore,  that 
 the  sad  degeneracy  of  the  priesthood,  at  first  occasioned  the  insti- 
 tution of  these  places,  for  the  better  education  of  those  that  were' 
 to  succeed  in  the  sacred  ministry,  whether  as  prophets  or  priests. 
 According  to  the  places  that  are  specified  in  Scripture,  (1  Sam. 
 x.  5,  10,  and  xix.  20;  2  Kings  ii.  5.,  iv.  38.  and  xxii.  14.) 
 they  were  first  erected  in  the  cities  of  the  Levites,  which,  for 
 the  more  convenient  instruction  of  the  people,  were  dispersed  up 
 and  down  in  the  several  tribes  of  Israel.  In  these  places  the 
 prophets  had  convenient  colleges  built,  whereof  Najoh  seems  to 
 be  one,  for  their  abode ;  and  living  in  communities,  had  some 
 one  of  distinguished  note,  very  probably  by  divine  election,  set  , 
 over  them  to  be  their  head  or  president.  Here  it  was,  that  they 
 studied  the  law,  and  learned  to  expound  the  several  precepts  of  it. 
 Here  it  was,  that,  by  previous  exercise,  they  qualified  themselves 
 for  the  reception  of  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  whenever  it  should 
 please  God  to  send  it  upon  them.  Here  it  was,  that  they  were 
 instructed  in  the  sacred  art  of  psalmody,  or,  as  the  Scripture  calls 
 it,  (1  Chron.  xxv.  1,  7.)  in  '  prophesying  with  harps,  with  psal- 
 teries, and  cymbals.'  And  hence  it  was,  that  when  any  blessings 
 were  to  be  promised,  judgments  denounced,  or  extraordinary 
 events  predicted,  the  messengers  were  generally  chosen:  so  that 
 these  colleges  were  seminaries  of  divine  knowledge,  and  nurse- 
 ries of  that  race  of  prophets  which  succeeded  from  Samuel  to 
 the  time  of  Malachi. — Stillingfleet' s  Orig.  Sacra;  JVhcatly  on 
 the  Schools  of  the  Prophets;  and  Jacob  Abting,  dc  Repub. 
 Heb. 
 
 d  Such  was  Saul's  implacable  hatred  to  David,  that  it  had 
 abolished,  not  only  all  respect  and  reverence  to  Samuel,  under 
 whose  protection  David  then  was,  but  all  regard  likewise  to  the 
 college  of  the  prophets,  which  in  those  days  had  obtained  the 
 privilege  of  a  sanctuary. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Grotius 
 on  the  Law  of  JJ'ar  and  Peace,  b.  3.  c.  1 1 . 
 
 e  This  is  a  word  of  an  extensive  signification,  and  may  denote 
 sometimes  such  actions,  motions,  and  distortions,  as  prophets, 
 in  their  inspiration,  are  wont  to  express  "  Things  dubious, 
 while  led  on  in  an  inspired  course;  for  when  the  spirit  is  present 
 in  the  heart,  man  becomes  frantic ;"  (Sen.  in  Medea:)  which, 
 perhaps,  may  be  very  justly  applied  to  Saul  upon  this  occasion. 
 Hut  the  generality  of  interpreters,  in  this  place,  take  'prophesy- 
 ing '  to  signify  Saul's  singing  of  psalms,  or  hymns  of  thanksgiving 
 and  praise,  which  even  against  his  will  he  was  compelled  to  do, 
 to  teach  him  the  vanity  of  his  designs  against  David,  and  that 
 in  them  he  fought  against  God  himself. — Calmet's  Commentary 
 on  1  Sam.  xviii.  10;  and  Poole's  Annotations  on  xix.  23. 
 
 f  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  '  And  he  stripped  off  his 
 clothes  also,  and  lay  down  naked,  all  that  day,  and  all  that  night.' 
 (1  Sam.  xix.  24.)  In  which  words,  and  some  other  portions  of 
 the  like  import,  we  are  not  to   imagine  that  the  persons  there 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 447 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HAKES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE    INI). 
 
 himself  of  Ins  upper  garments,  he  lay,  as  it  were  in  an 
 ecstasy,  almost  naked  on  the  ground,  all  that  day  and 
 the  next  night. 
 
 David  took  this  opportunity  to  make  a  private  visit  to 
 his  friend  Jonathan,  with  whom  he  expostulated  his 
 father's  unkindness,  which  the  other  could  no  ways  ex- 
 cuse, only  he  assured  him  of  his  best  "  offices  ;  that  lie 
 would  make  what  discovery  he  could  of  his  father's 
 designs  against  him,  and  not  fail  to  acquaint  him  with 
 them.  In  the  mean  time  he  renewed  the  league  of 
 friendship  that  was  between  them,  and  directed  him 
 where  to  conceal  himself  for  a  day  or  two,  until  he  could 
 learn,  whether  it  was  proper  for  him  to  appear  or  no  ; 
 which  he  was  to  signify  to  him  by  his  shooting  some 
 arrows,  in  such  a  manner  as  they  concluded  on,  and  so 
 mutually  embracing,  they  parted. 
 '    *  The  feast  of  the  new-moon  was  now  come,  which 
 
 j  Saul  returned  from  Naioth  to  celebrate  ;  but  as  he  ob- 
 served that  c  David's  seat  at  the  table  had  for  two  days 
 been  empty,  he  inquired  of  Jonathan  d  what  was  become 
 of  the  son  of  Jesse,  as  he  called  him  in  contempt.  Jo- 
 nathan told  him  that  he  had  given  him  leave  to  go  to  an 
 anniversary  feast  of  his  family  at  Bethlehem  ;  whereupon 
 Saul,  suspecting  very  probably  the  reality  of  his  answer, 
 fell  into  a  passion  with  his  son,  and  upbraided  him  with 
 his  friendship  for  David,  which,  as  he  told  him,  would 
 prove  fatal  to  himself,  and  injurious  to  his  succession  : 
 and  therefore  he  commanded  him  to  produce  him  ;  for 
 resolved  he  was,  that  this  rival  of  theirs  should  die. 
 Jonathan  was  going  to  interpose  something  in  vindica- 
 tion of  his  friend,  and  the  unreasonableness  of  his  father's 
 indignation  against  him,  which  provoked  his  father  to 
 such  a  degree,  that,  forgetting  all  ties  of  paternal  love, 
 e  he  threw  a  javelin  at  him  with  an  intent  to  kill  him.  / 
 
 spoken  of  were  entirely  naked,  but  only  that  they  were  divested 
 of  some  external  habit  or  other,  which,  upon  certain  occasions, 
 they  might  lay  aside.  For,  whereas  it  is  said  of  some  prophets, 
 (Is.  xx.  2.  and  Mic.  i.  8.)  that  they  went  about  naked,  we  can 
 hardly  think  that  they  could  be  guilty  of  so  much  indecency, 
 and  especially  by  the  express  order  of  God,  who  had  always  testi- 
 fied his  abhorrence  of  nudity,  and  enjoined  his  priests  the  use  of 
 several  garments  to  cover  the  body,  that  thus  they  might  be  dis- 
 tinguished from  the  pagan  priests,  who  were  not  ashamed  to 
 appear  naked.  The  words  in  the  original,  therefore,  which  we 
 render  '  naked,'  or  'to  be  naked,'  signify  no  more,  than  either 
 to  have  part  of  the  body  uncovered,  or  to  be  without  a  gown  or 
 upper  garment,  which  the  Romans  called  toga,  and,  according  to 
 the  custom  of  the  eastern  people,  was  wont  to  be  put  on  when 
 tiny  went  abroad,  or  made  any  public  appearance.  And  there- 
 fore it  was  some  such  vestment  as  this,  or  perhaps  his  military 
 accoutrements,  which  Saul,  upon  this  occasion,  put  off;  and  that 
 this  was  enough  to  denominate  him  naked,  is  manifest  from  what 
 A  melius  Victor,  speaking  of  those  who  were  sent  to  Lucius 
 Quintus  Cinciiniatus,  to  bring  him  to  the  senate  to  be  made 
 dictator,  says,  That  they  found  him  naked,  ploughing  on  the 
 other  side  of  Tiber;  whereas  Livy,  who  relates  the  same  story, 
 observes  that  he  called  to  his  wife  Rucca  for  his  gown,  or  toga, 
 that  he  might  appear  lit  to  keep  them  company. — Essay  toivurds 
 a  New  Translation. 
 
 a  The  speech  which  Josephus  puts  in  Jonathan's  mouth,  upon 
 this  occasion  is  very  tender  and  pathetic: — "That  God,  who 
 fills  and  governs  the  universe,  and  knows  the  thoughts  of  my 
 heart  iu  the  very  conception  of  them;  that  God,"  says  he,  "be 
 witness  to  the  faith  that  is  vowed  and  promised  betwixt  us;  that 
 I  will  never  give  over  searching  into,  and  sifting  the  private 
 deliberations  and  purposes  of  my  father,  till  I  have  discovered 
 the  bottom  of  his  heart,  and  whether  there  be  any  secret  rancour 
 in  his  thoughts,  or  not,  that  may  work  to  your  prejudice.  And 
 if  I  shall  be  able  to  make  any  thing  out  at  last,  whether  it  be 
 for  or  against  you,  it  shall  be  the  first  thing  I  do  to  give  you  in- 
 formation of  it.  The  Searcher  of  hearts  will  bear  me  witness 
 that  this  is  true,  and  that  I  have  ever  made  it  my  earnest  prayer 
 to  Almighty  God,  to  bless  and  prosper  you  in  your  person  and 
 desigus,  and  you  may  assure  yourself,  that  he  will  be  as  gracious 
 to  you  for  the  future,  as  he  has  been  hitherto,  and  lay  all  your 
 enemies  at  your  feet.  In  the  mean  while,  pray,  be  sure  to  keep 
 these  things  in  memory,  and  when  I  am  gone,  to  take  care  of 
 my  poor  children. — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  6.  c.  14. 
 
 b  The  Jewish  mouths  were  lunar,  and  never  began  before  the 
 moon  appeared  above  the  horizon ;  for  which  purpose  there  were 
 certain  persons  placed  upon  the  mountains,  some  time  before 
 the  new-moon  was  expected,  to  give  notice  by  the  sound  of  an 
 horn,  when  it  first  appeared,  that  so  the  news  thereof  might  im- 
 mediately be  carried  to  Jerusalem.  But  lest  there  should  be 
 any  mistake  in  this  method  of  making  their  observation,  from 
 this  example  of  Saul's,  it  is  supposed,  that  they  celebrated  this 
 festival  for  two  days  together.  Whether  the  heathens  had  this 
 rite  from  the  Jews  or  not,  it  is  certain,  that  other  nations  had 
 leasts  at  the  beginning  of  every  month,  and  that,  with  the  Ro- 
 mans, the  calends  in  particular  were  festival  days,  consecrated 
 
 to  Juno,  to  whom  sacrifices,  at  this  time,  were  offered. — Calmet's 
 Commentary.  1  Sam.  xx.  5.  "  [As  soon  as  the  new-moon  was 
 either  consecrated  or  appointed  to  be  observed,  notice  was  given  by 
 the  Sanhedrim  to  the  rest  of  the  nation,  what  day  had  been  fixed 
 for  the  new-moon,  or  first  day  of  the  month,  because  that  was  to 
 be  the  rule  and  measure,  according  to  which  they  were  obliged 
 to  keep  their  feasts  and  fasts  in  every  month  respectively.  This 
 notice  was  given  to  them  in  time  of  peace,  by  firing  beacons 
 set  up  for  that  purpose,  (which  was  looked  upon  as  the  readiest 
 way  of  communication,)  but  in  time  of  war,  when  all  places  were 
 full  of  enemies,  who  made  use  of  beacons  to  amuse  our-  nation 
 with,  it  was  thought  fit  to  discontinue  it,  and  to  delegate  some 
 men  on  purpose  to  go  and  signify  it  to  as  many  as  they  possibly 
 could  reach,  before  the  time  commanded  for  the  observation  of 
 the  feast  or  fast  was  expired."] — Lewis'  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of 
 the  Jews,  p.  25. — Ed. 
 
 c  That  sitting  at  table  was  an  ancienter  custom  than  either 
 lying  or  leaning  at  meat,  is  obvious  from  this  passage.  The 
 Egyptians,  when  they  ate  at  Joseph's  entertainment,  sat  at  table, 
 and  so  did  the  Hebrews.  Homer  always  introduces  his  heroes 
 in  this  posture;  and  that  this  was  the  known  custom  among  the 
 ancient  people  of  Italy,  Virgil,  in  these  words,  testifies:  "  Our 
 ancestors  were  always  accustomed  to  sit  at  their  meals." — JEneid. 
 7.  It  is  not  to  be  dissembled,  however,  that  very  early,  and 
 even  in  the  times  of  Saul,  the  use  of  table  beds,  or  beds  to  lie  or 
 lean  upon  at  meals,  had  obtained  among  the  Jews,  for  when  the 
 witch  of  Endor,  with  much  entreaty,  prevailed  with  Saul  to  take 
 a  little  refreshment,  it  is  said,  that  '  he  arose  from  the  earth,  and 
 sat  upon  the  bed,'  1  Sam.  xxviii.  23. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  that  Saul,  who  had  so  often 
 endeavoured  to  kill  David,  and  was  now  just  returned  from  an 
 expedition  undertaken  against  his  life,  should  ever  expect  to  see 
 him  at  his  table  any  more.  But  he  might  think,  perhaps,  that 
 i ) ;i \  i 1 1  was  inclinable  to  overlook  all  that  had  passed,  as  the 
 effect  of  his  frenzy  and  melancholy ;  that  now  he  had  been  pro- 
 phesying at  Naioth,  he  was  returned  to  a  sound  mind,  ami  be- 
 come a  new  man;  and  that,  because  after  the  first  javelin  darted 
 at  him,  David  had  ventured  into  his  presence  again,  he  might, 
 for  the  future,  be  guilty  of  the  like  indiscretion. —  Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 e  If  it  be  asked,  how  it  came  to  pass  that  Saul  always  had  a 
 javelin  or  spear  in  readiness  as  on  this  and  other  occasions,  to 
 execute  his  evil  purposes  ?  The  answer  is,  that  spears  wire  the 
 sceptres  of  those  ages,  which  IdngS  always  carried  in  their  hands. 
 That  they  always  carried  the  sceptres  in  their  hands  appears 
 from  Homer,  and  that  these  sceptres  were  spears  is  evident  from 
 Justin,  (b.  23.  c.  3.)  where  speaking  of  the  first  age  of  the  Ro- 
 mans, which  Dr  Patrick  thinks  was  about  the  age  of  Saul,  he 
 tells  us  that  as  yet,  in  these  times,  kings  had  spears  as  en  i-ri- 
 of  royalty,  which  the  Greeks  called  sceptres. — The  Life  of  David, 
 by  the  Author  of  Revelation  Examined. 
 
 f  1  Sam.  xx.  30.  '  Thou  son  of  the  perverse  rebellious  woman.' 
 In  the  east,  when  tiny  an'  angry  with  a  person,  they  abuse  and 
 vilify  his  parents.  Saul  thought  of  nothing  but  venting  his 
 anger  against  Jonathan,  nor  had  any  design  to  reproach  his  wife 
 personally:  the  mention  of  her  was  only  a  vehicle  by  which,  ac- 
 cording  to  oriental   modes,   he   was   to  convey  his  resentment 
 
448 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   V. 
 
 A.  M.  2R88.    \.  C.  1116;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  4311.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO   THE  END. 
 
 But  lie  avoided  the  blow,  and  retired  ;  and  the  next 
 morning  went  into  the  fields,  under  pretence  of  shooting 
 with  his  bow  and  arrows,  to  give  David  the  signal.  To 
 him  he  communicated  all  that  had  passed  between  his 
 father  and  him  ;  that  his  father  was  implacable,  and  de- 
 termined to  destroy  him,  and  therefore  he  advised  him 
 to  escape  for  his  life  :  and  so,  having  made  new  pro- 
 testations to  each  other  of  perpetual  friendship,  they 
 embraced  and  parted. 
 
 Ever  alter  this  David  was  banished  from  court,  and 
 lived  in  the  nature  of  an  outlaw.  The  first  place  that 
 lie  betook  himself  to  was  n  Nob,  where  stood  the  taber- 
 nacle at  that  time,  and  where  b  Ahimelech  was  high 
 priest ;  but   as  he  had  no  attendants,  he  pretended  to 
 
 against  .Tonal lian  into  the  minds  of  those  about  him.  {Harmer, 
 vol.  ii.  p.  492.)  An  instance  of  the  prevalence  of  the  same  prin- 
 ciple in  Africa,  which  induced  Saul  thus  to  express  himself  to 
 Jonathan,  occurs  in  the  travels  of  Mungo  Park.  Maternal  af- 
 fection is  everywhere  conspicuous  among  the  Africans,  and 
 creates  a  correspondent  return  of  tenderness  in  the  child.  Strike 
 me,  said  my  attendant,  but  do  not  curse  my  mother.  The  same 
 sentiment,  I  found  universally  to  prevail,  and  observed  in  all 
 parts  of  Africa,  that  the  greatest  affront  which  could  be  offered 
 to  a  negro,  was  to  reflect  on  her  who  gave  him  birth.'7 — Travels, 
 p.  264. 
 
 a  There  is  mention  made  of  two  cities  of  this  name,  one  on 
 the  east,  or  further  side,  and  the  other  on  the  west  or  hither  side 
 of  Jordan.  The  generality  of  interpreters  will  have  the  city 
 here  specified  to  be  that  which  stood  on  the  west  side,  and  in 
 the  tribe  of  Benjamin.  Though  it  is  not  reckoned  among  the 
 number  of  the  cities  that  were  at  first  assigned  to  the  priests, 
 yet  that  it  afterwards  became  one  of  the  sacerdotal  towns,  and 
 especially  as  we  may  imagine,  when  the  tabernacle  came  to  be 
 moved  thither,  is  evident  from  1  Sam.  xxii.  19.  and  Neh. 
 xi.  32.  and  some  suppose  it  stood  about  four  leagues  from  Gi- 
 bcali. — Calmet's  Commentary;  and  Wells'  Geography  of  the 
 Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 b  The  words  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  in  Mark  ii.  25.  are  these, 
 '  Have  you  never  read  what  David  did,  when  he  had  need,  and 
 was  an  hungered,  he  and  they  that  were  with  him,  how  he  went 
 into  the  house  of  God  in  the  days  of  Abiathar  the  high  priest, 
 ami  did  eat  the  shew-bread,  and  gave  also  to  them  that  were  with 
 him  ?'  Now  there  are  two  things  which  the  author  of  this  book 
 uf  Samuel  asserts,  quite  contrary  to  what  our  Saviour  declares, 
 namely,  1st,  That  '  David  was  alone,  and  no  man  with  him,' 
 cli.  xxxi.  1.  and  2dly,  that  Ahimelech  was  at  that  time  high 
 priest;  whereas  our  Saviour  affirms,  both  that  David  had  com- 
 pany along  witli  him,  and  that  Abiathar  was  then  in  the  ponti- 
 ficate. Now,  1st,  that  David  had  company  with  him,  and  that 
 Ahimelech  knew  it,  is  evident  from  his  words  in  the  fourth 
 verse:  'There  is  no  common  bread  in  my  hand,  but  there  is 
 hallowed  bread,  if  the  young  men  have  kept  themselves  at  least 
 from  women ;'  and  therefore  Ahimelech's  meaning  must  be,  that 
 David  had  no  guards  to  attend  him,  as  it  was  usual  for  persons  of 
 his  quality  to  have;  or  at  least  those  that  were  with  him  mi<ditbe 
 ordered  to  keep  at  a  distance,  and  so  Ahimelech  when  he  \ittered 
 these  words,  might  not  see  them,  though,  when  he  came  into  a 
 closi  r  conference  with  David,  David  might  inform  him,  what 
 ri  tinue  he  had  brought,  and  consequently  that  all  the  show-bread 
 was  no  more  than  what  they  wanted  for  their  present  support. 
 2dly,  Though  it  be  granted  that  the  name  of  high  priest,  in  its 
 strictest  sense,  did  not  at  this  time  belong  to  Abiathar,  yet  since 
 it  is  generally  agreed,  that,  he  was  the  sagan,  as  the  Jews  of 
 latter  days  call  him,  who  is  the  high  priest's  vicar,  he  might 
 well  enough,  in  a  qualified  sense,  be  called  the  high  priest;  espe- 
 cially considering  his  immediate  succession  to  his  father,  and 
 how  short  his  father's  continuance  in  the  office  was,  after  this 
 interview  with  David.  Nor  can  we  see  any  great  impropriety 
 in  saying,  that  such  a  thing  was  done  in  '  the  days  of  Abiathar 
 the  high  priest,  though  done  somewhat  before  he  was  invested 
 with  that  dignity,  any  more  than  in  saying,  that  such  things 
 happened  in  the  days  of  Henry  VIII.,  which  strictly  came  to 
 .,me  days  before  he  began  to  reign. — Patrick's  Com- 
 Tru-ntury. 
 
 Ahimelech,  that  he  was  sent  by  the  king  upon  c  a  busi- 
 ness of  such  despatch  that  he  had  time  neither  to  take  arms 
 nor  provision  with  him ;  and  therefore  obtained  of  the 
 high  priest f?  Goliath's  sword,  which  had  been  deposited 
 in  the  tabernacle,  and  some  of  the  show-bread,  which 
 the  day  before  had  been  taken  off  from  the  golden  table, 
 and  with  these  he  proceeded  to  Oath,  as  not  thinking 
 himself  safe  in  any  part  of  Saul's  dominions. 
 
 He  had  not  been  long  in  Gath,  however,  before  he 
 was  discovered,  and  the  king  informed  of  his  being  that 
 great  man  of  war  in  Israel,  who  had  so  often  defeated 
 and  destroyed  the  Philistines  ;  so  that,  to  get  clear  of 
 this  information,  he  Avas  forced  to  counterfeit  madness,  e 
 and  an  epilepsy,  which  he  did  so  artfully,  that  by  this 
 means  he  evaded  the  suspicion  of  the  king,  and  made 
 his  escape  to/  Adullam,  a  town  in  the  tribe  of  Judah; 
 where  his  brethren  and  relations,  together  with  many 
 malcontents,  and  men  of  desperate  fortunes,  met  him, 
 and  made  up  a  little  army  oi  about  400  in  number.  S 
 
 c  It  must  he  owned,  that  David,  in  this  pretence,  did  not 
 speak  direct  truth,  nor  are  we  from  hence  to  take  an  example 
 for  speaking  lies ;  but  one  thing  may  be  said  in  his  excuse,  that 
 as  he  saw  Doeg  there,  who  he  knew  would  inform  Saul  of  what 
 had  passed  between  him  and  Ahimelech,  his  pretence  of  business 
 was  on  purpose  to  furnish  the  high  priest,  if  he  were  called  to 
 an  account,  with  a  better  apology  for  his  reception  of  David, 
 since  he  knew  no  other,  but  that  he  came  express  from  the  king: 
 and  accordingly  we  may  observe,  that  Ahimelech  insists  on  that 
 chiefly.  It  is  a  melancholy  consideration,  however,  that  the 
 wickedness  of  the  world  should  be  such,  as  to  put  even  excellent 
 men  sometimes  on  the  necessity  of  lying  to  preserve  their  lives, 
 which  cannot  be  safe  without  it. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  It  was  an  ancient  custom  not  only  among  the  Jews,  but  the 
 heathens  likewise,  to  hang  up  the  arms  that  were  taken  from 
 their  enemies  in  their  temples  ;  and  in  conformity  thereunto, 
 the  sword  wherewith  he  cut  oft'  Goliath's  head  David  dedicated 
 to  the  Lord,  and  delivered  to  the  priest,  to  be  kept  as  a  monu- 
 ment of  his  victory,  and  of  the  Israelites'  deliverance.  And  as 
 it  was  customary  to  hang  up  arms  in  the  temples,  so  when  the 
 occasions  of  the  state  required  it,  it  was  no  unusual  thing  to 
 take  them  down,  and  employ  them  in  the  public  service;  from 
 whence  came  that  saying  of  Seneca,  "  Even  temples  are  some- 
 times stripped  bare  for  the  sake  of  the  state." — Calmet's  Comr- 
 mentary. 
 
 e  David  is  not  the  only  instance  of  this  kind.  Among  the 
 easterns,  Baihasus  the  Arabian,  sumamed  Naama,  had  several 
 of  his  brethren  killed,  whose  death  he  wanted  to  revenge.  In 
 order  to  it  he  feigned  himself  mad.  till  at  length  he  found  an 
 opportunity  of  executing  his  intended  revenge,  by  killing  all  who 
 had  a  share  in  the  murder  of  his  brethren.  Among  the  Greeks, 
 Ulysses  is  said  to  have  counterfeited  madness,  to  prevent  his 
 going  to  the  Trojan  war.  Solon  also,  the  great  Athenian  law- 
 giver, practised  the  same  deceit,  and  by  appearing  in  the  dress 
 and  with  the  air  of  a  madman,  and  singing  a  song  to  the  Athe- 
 nians, carried  his  point,  and  got  the  law  repealed  that  prohibited, 
 under  the  penalty  of  death,  any  application  to  the  people  for  the 
 recovery  of  Salamis. — Pint.  J'it.  Solon,  p.  82 ;  Chandler's  Life 
 of  David,  vol.  i.  p.  102.  note. 
 
 f  It  was  a  town  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  of  some  considerable 
 note  in  the  days  of  Eusebius,  and  about  ten  miles  from  Eleu- 
 theropolis  eastward,  where  there  was  a  rock  of  the  same  name, 
 in  which  was  a  cave,  naturally  strong  and  well  fortified,  to  which 
 David  retreated;  as  indeed  most  of  the  mountains  of  Palestine 
 were  full  of  caverns,  whither  the  country  people  generally  betook 
 themselves  for  safety  in  time  of  war. —  Calmet's  and  Patrick's 
 Commentaries ;  Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  2. 
 
 g  It  appears  to  have  been  usual  in  ancient  times  for  such  per- 
 sons as  are  described  in  this  passage,  to  devote  themselves  to  the 
 perpetual  service  of  some  great  man.  The  Gauls  in  particular 
 are  remarkable  for  this  practice.  The  common  people,  who  are 
 generally  oppressed  «ith  debt,  heavy  tributes,  or  the  exactions 
 of  their  superiors,  make  themselves  vassals  to  the  great,  who 
 |  exercise  over  them  the  same  jurisdiction  as  masters  do  over 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 449 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  U1G 
 
 After  his  family  had  thus  joined  him,  he  could  not  but 
 be  apprehensive  that  the  wrath  of  Saul  would  fall  upon 
 his  aged  parents,  and  therefore  his  next  care  was  to 
 provide  them  with  a  safe  retreat ;  which  he  did  by  putting 
 both  himself  and  them  under  the  protection  of  the  king 
 of  Moab,  who  was  then  at  enmity  with  Saul.  And  with 
 his  parents  he  thus  continued,  until  the  prophet  Gad, 
 who  attended  him,  advised  him  to  leave  Moab,  and  to 
 return  into  the  land  of  Judah  ;  which  accordingly  he  did, 
 and  took  up  his  station  in  the  a  forest  of  Hareth,  where 
 Abiathar  the  priest  came  to  him,  and  upon  this  sad 
 occasion,  brought  along  with  him  all  the  pontifical 
 ornaments. 
 
 During  David's  short  stay  at  Nob,  Doeg  the  king's 
 principal  herdsman,  was  there,  and  upon  his  return  to 
 court,  gave  Saul  information  of  all  that  had  passed  be- 
 tween the  high  priest  Ahimelech,  and  David.  Hereupon 
 Saul  sent  for  Ahimelech,  and  the  rest  of  the  priests,  and 
 having  accused  them  of  a  conspiracy,  and  traitorous 
 practices  against  him,  4  notwithstanding  all  the  high 
 priest  could  say  in  vindication  of  himself  and  his 
 brethren,  he  commanded  them  to  be  put  to  death.  His 
 guards,  who  stood  by,  and  heard  Ahimelech's  defence, 
 c  would  not  undertake  so  barbarous  an  oflice  ;  but  Doeg, 
 
 OH.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1 
 
 slaves.' — Caesar's  Commentaries  of  Ms  Wars  in  Gaul,  b.  vi.  c. 
 13.— Ed. 
 
 a  Both  St  Jerome  and  Eusebius  make  mention  of  a  place  of 
 tins  name  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  lying  westward  of  Jerusalem ; 
 of  which  Rabbi  Solomon,  upon  the  credit  of  some  ancient  tradi- 
 tion, says,  that  being  before  dry,  barren,  and  impassable,  upon 
 David's  coming,  it  became  fruitful  and  irriguous,  and  that,  in 
 the  -23d  psalm,  where  he  considers  God  as  his  shepherd,  who 
 would  lead  him  into  fruitful  pastures,  and  under  his  protection, 
 keep  him  safe  in  the  most  dangerous  scenes,  he  alludes  to  this: 
 '  He  shall  feed  me  in  a  green  pasture,  and  lead  me  forth  by  the 
 waters  of  comfort-.'  for  surely  it  is  impossible  but  that  this,  which 
 was  before  a  barren  desert,  might  now,  by  a  singular  blessing 
 from  God  upon  the  industry  of  David  and  his  companions,  be- 
 come a  green  and  well-watered  pasture. — Wells'  Geography  of 
 the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. ;  and  the  History  of  David,  by  the 
 author  of  Revelation  Examined. 
 
 b  The  speech  which  Josephus  draws  up  for  the  high  priest 
 upon  this  occasion  is  directed  to  Saul,  and  conceived  in  these 
 words:  "  I  did  not  receive  David  as  your  majesty's  enemy,  but 
 BS  the  faithfulest  of  your  friends  aud  officers,  and,  what  is  more, 
 in  the  quality  of  your  son  too,  and  a  relation  in  so  tender  a  de- 
 -iii'  of  affinity  and  alliance.  For  how  should  any  body  imagine 
 that  man  to  be  your  enemy,  upon  whom  you  have  conferred  so 
 many  honours  ?  Or  why  should  not  I  rather  presume  such  a 
 person,  without  any  further  inquiry,  to  be  your  singular  friend? 
 He  told  me,  that  he  was  sent  in  haste  by  yourself,  upon  earnest 
 business;  and  if  I  had  not  supplied  him  with  what  he  wanted,  it 
 would  have  reflected  an  indignity  upon  yourself,  rather  than  upon 
 him.  Wherefore,  I  hope,  that  the  blame  will  not  fall  upon  me, 
 even  though  David  should  be  found  as  culpable  as  you  suspect 
 him;  unless  an  act  of  pure  commission  and  humanity,  abstracted 
 from  the  least  thought,  knowledge,  or  imagination  of  any  evil 
 intention,  shall  be  understood  to  make  me  privy  to  a  conspiracy: 
 for  the  service  I  did  him,  was  matter  of  respect  to  the  king's 
 son-in-law,  and  the  king's  military  officer,  not  to  the  person  or 
 interest  of  David." — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  6.  c.  14. 
 
 c  In  this  they  were  to  be  commended:  but  much  more  praise 
 they  would  have  deserved,  if  they  had  orlered  up  their  petitions 
 fur  these  innocent  people;  if  they  had  remonstrated  to  the  king, 
 that  he  was  going  to  commit  a  thing  that  was  contrary  to  all  laws 
 both  divine  and  human  ;  and  if,  when  they  saw  that  neither  their 
 reasons  nor  petitions  availed,  they  had  looked  upon  this  order  as 
 the  effect  of  one  of  the  king's  distracted  fits,  and  accordingly 
 seized  and  secured  him,  until  the  priests  had  made  their  escape, 
 and  he  returned  to  a  better  mind.  For  to  stand  wringing  their 
 hands,  while  they  saw  so  many  innocent  creatures  murdered, 
 mid  foreign  soldiers  made  the  instruments  of  the  king's  cruelty, 
 
 SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 who  had  been  their  accuser,  at  the  king's  command, 
 became  their  executioner,  and  with  his  sacrilegious  hand, 
 slew  no  less  than  d  eighty-five  of  them.  Nor  did  Saul's 
 bloody  resentment  stop  here  :  e  for,  sending  a  party  to 
 Nob,  he  commanded  them  to  kill  man,  woman,  and 
 child,  and  even  every  living  creature ;  so  that  of  all 
 the  children  of  Ahimelech,  none  escaped  but  Abiathar, 
 as  we  said  before,  who  came  to  David,  and  told  him  the 
 dismal  tidings  of  this  massacre,  which  David  could  not 
 but  sadly  condole,  and  in  some  measure  look  upon  him- 
 self as  the  innocent  occasion  of  it.  However  he  gave 
 Abiathar  assurances  of  his  protection,  that  he  should 
 share  the  same  fate  with  him  ;  and  that,  with  his  own  life, 
 he  would  shield  him  from  all  danger. 
 
 While  Saul  was  embruing  his  hands  in  the  innocent 
 blood  of  his  subjects,  David  was  employing  his  arms  in 
 the  necessary  defence  of  his  country  ;  for,  hearing  that 
 the  Philistines  had  made  an  incursion  upon  Keilah,  a 
 city  of  Judah,  /he  went  and  relieved  the  place,  repulsed 
 the  enemy  with  a  great  loss  of  men,  and  took  from  them 
 a  considerable  booty  of  cattle.  Saul  had  soon  intelli- 
 gence of  this  action  ;  and  supposing  that  David  would 
 now  fortify  himself  in  this  stronghold,  he  sent  an  army 
 to  invest  it :  but  David  having  consulted  the  divine  ora- 
 cle upon  this  emergency,  found  that  the  inhabitants  of 
 the  place  would  prove  perfidious  to  him,  and  therefore 
 he  left  them,  and  retired  into  a  wood  in  the  s  deserts  of 
 Ziph,  whither  Saul,  for  want  of  intelligence,  could  not 
 
 was  much  the  same  thing  as  to  betray  all  divine  and  human 
 rights,  merely  to  please  a  tyrant. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 See  Josephus's  Jewish  Antiq.,  b.  6.  c.  14.,  who  has,  upon  this 
 occasion,  a  curious  descant  about  the  use  of  power  in  kings,  when 
 at  once  from  a  low,  they  come  to  be  exalted  to  a  high  station 
 in  life. 
 
 d  The  Septuagint,  as  well  as  the  Syrian  version,  makes  the 
 number  of  priests  slain  by  Doeg  to  be  305,  and  Josephus  385, 
 which  is  a  large  variation  from  the  Hebrew  text. — Millar's  His- 
 tory of  the  Church. 
 
 e  This  party,  as  Josephus  informs  us,  was  commanded  by 
 Doeg,  the  vile  informer  and  murderer,  who  taking  some  men 
 as  wicked  as  himself  to  his  assistance  slew  in  all  385  persons, 
 and  in  addition  to  these,  it  is  thought  by  some,  that  the  Gibe- 
 onites,  (upon  whose  account  there  was  so  sore  a  famine  in  the 
 days  of  David)  who  might  now  be  at  Nob,  in  attendance  upon 
 the  priests,  were  at  this  time  slain.  It  is  certain,  Saul  was  now 
 become  a  mere  tyrant,  and  against  those  poor  people  acted  more 
 cruelly  than  he  did  against  the  Amalekites,  some  of  whom  he 
 spared,  even  contrary  to  God's  command;  but  in  this  case  he  let 
 none  escape,  on  purpose  to  deter  others  from  giving  the  least 
 shelter  or  assistance  to  David,  and  to  incite  them  the  rather  to 
 come  and  give  him  information  wherever  his  haunts  or  lurking 
 places  were. — Josephus'  Antiq.,  b.  6.  c.  14. 
 
 f  We  read  of  no  embassy,  that  the  people  of  Keilah  sent  to 
 David,  to  desire  his  assistance,  nor  of  any  particular  affection 
 they  had  for  him ;  and  therefore  we  may  suppose,  that  David  un- 
 dertook this  expedition  out  of  pure  love  to  his  countrymen,  to  let 
 the  world  see,  how  serviceable  he  could  be  to  them,  in  case  he 
 was  restored  to  his  dignity  again,  and  that,  what  ill  treatment 
 soc-ver  he  should  meet  with  from  the  hand  of  Saul,  nothing 
 should  provoke  him  to  abandon  his  love  for  his  country. — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 g  In  Josh.  xv.  55.  we  read  of  a  town  of  this  name  where  men- 
 tion is  likewise  made  of  Carmel,  and  Maon,  and  therefore  it  pro- 
 bably was  adjacent  to  them.  And  here,  in  the  story  of  David, 
 we  find  Carmel  and  Maon  mentioned  as  adjoining  to  Ziph ;  so 
 that  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  that  by  the  Ziph  in  the  wilderness, 
 whiic  David  now  concealed  himself,  we  are  to  understand  the 
 Ziph  which  was  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Carmel  and  Maon,  in 
 the  southern  part  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and,  according  to  St  Je- 
 rome, about  eight  miles  eastward  from  Hebron.  —  Wells'  Geo- 
 graphy  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 3t 
 
450  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.   A.  C.  1116 j  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A,  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END 
 
 pin-sue  turn  ;  but  his  son  Jonathan,  having  private  no- 
 tice sent  him,  went  to  him,  and  gave  him  all  the  comfort 
 and  encouragement  that  he  could  ;  assuring  him,  that  his 
 father's  malice  would  never  reach  him  ;  that  he  still  hoped 
 to  see  him  king  of  Israel,  and  himself  his  second  ;  and 
 with/these  words,  confirming  the  covenant  of  friendship 
 between  them,  they  embraced  and  parted. 
 
 The  people  of  the  wilderness  were  very  officious  in  send- 
 ing Saul  intelligence  where  David  was,  and,  if  he  would 
 supply  them  with  a  sufficient  force,  undertook  to  betray 
 him  into  his  hands ;  but  David  having  taken  notice  of 
 their  intended  treachery,  retired  farther  into  the  desert 
 of  Maon,  whither  Saul  pursued  him,  and  pressed  him  so 
 close,  that  there  was  but  a  valley  between  the  two  armies. 
 David's  army  was  so  very  small,  that  Saul  was  thinking 
 of  encompassing  the  mountain,  where  he  encamped,  in 
 order  to  prevent  his  escape,  when  news  was  brought  him 
 that  the  Philistines  had  invaded  the  country  on  the  other 
 side,  so  that  he  was  forced  to  drop  his  private  resent- 
 ment for  the  public  weal,  and  divert  his  arms  another 
 way :  but  as  soon  as  the  Philistines  were  repulsed,  he 
 with  3000  choice  men,  renewed  his  pursuit  of  David, 
 who  by  this  time  was  retired  into  the  strongholds  of  a 
 Engedi. 
 
 As  Saul  was  on  his  march,  he  happened  to  turn  into  a 
 cave  by  the  way-side,  where  David  and  some  of  his  men 
 lay  hid.  His  men,  when  they  saw  the  king  entering 
 alone,  thought  it  a  lucky  opportunity  that  providence 
 had  put  in  their  hands,  and  accordingly  instigated  David 
 to  dispatch  him.  But  David  rejected  the  offer  with  ab- 
 horrence :  b  '  God  forbid  that  I  should  stretch  forth  my 
 hand  against  the  Lord's  anointed  ;'  and  only,  to  show 
 Saul  how  much  he  was  in  his  power,  went  softly,  and  e 
 cut  off  the  skirt  of  his  robe.  When  Saul  was  gone  out 
 of  the  cave,  David  called  to  him  at  a  distance,  and  show- 
 ing him  the  skirt  of  his  raiment,  declared  his  innocence 
 in  such  tender  terms,  and  with  such  submissive  behaviour, 
 that  he  made  the  king's  heart  relent.     So  that  with  the 
 
 a  Engedi  (now  called  Anguedi)  in  the  clays  of  St  Jerome,  was 
 a  large  village,  situated  in  the  deserts,  which  lay  upon  the  west- 
 ern coasts  of  the  Salt  or  Dead  Sea,  not  very  far  from  the  plains 
 of  Jericho:  and  as  the  country  thereabouts  abounded  with  moun- 
 tains, and  these  mountains  had  plenty  of  vast  caves  in  them,  it 
 was  a  very  commodious  place  for  David  to  retire  to,  and  conceal 
 himself  in.  Eusebius  makes  it  famous  for  excellent  balm,  and 
 Solomon,  in  his  Song,  for  vineyards,  which,  in  all  probability, 
 were  planted  by  his  father,  during  his  retirement  in  this  place ; 
 and  therefore  so  peculiarly  celebrated  by  the  son. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary; Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3.;  and 
 The  History  of  King  David,  by  the  Author  of  Revelation  Exa- 
 mined. 
 
 b  This  one  example  of  David's,  under  all  the  provocations  he 
 had  received  from  Saul,  abundantly  shows  us,  that  the  persons  of 
 kings  are  sacred  and  inviolable.  "The  authority  of  powerful 
 kings  is  over  their  own  flocks,  that  of  Jove  is  over  kings  them- 
 selves,"— I/or.  Od. 
 
 c  If  it  be  asked,  how  David  could  do  this  without  Saul's  per- 
 ceiving  it  ?  The  answer  might  be,  that  this  possibly  might  be 
 some  upper  loose  garments,  which  Saul  might  put  off,  and  lay 
 aside  at  some  distance  from  him  upon  this  occasion  ;  and  that  as 
 there  were  several  rooms,  or  particular  cells,  in  these  large  ca- 
 verns, which  might  have  secret  passages  from  one  to  another,  Saul, 
 at  the  mouth  of  one  of  these  cells,  might  lay  down  his  upper  gar-r 
 ment,  which  David  perceiving,  and  knowing  all  the  passages  of 
 the  place,  might  go  some  secret  way,  and  cut  oil' some  small  part 
 of  it.  Nor  could  the  noise  which  David's  motion  might  make 
 be  well  heard  by  Saul,  because  it  must  have  been  drowned  by  a 
 much  greater  noise  which  Saul's  army,  waiting  for  him  at  the 
 mouth  of  the  cave,  may  be  supposed  to  make. — Poole's  Annota- 
 tions, 
 
 utmost  compunction,  he  acknowledged  his  guilt  in  thus 
 persecuting  the  just ;  and  from  the  many  escapes  which 
 God  had  vouchsafed  David,  concluding  assuredly  that 
 he  was  to  succeed  in  the  kingdom,  he  conjured  him,  by 
 all  that  was  sacred,  <l  not  to  destroy  his  family  ;  and 
 having  obtained  this  promise,  he  returned  home  :  but 
 David,  e  not  daring  to  trust  to  his  fair  word,  still  kept 
 himself  close  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  hills. 
 
 Much  about  this  time /the  prophet  Samuel  died,  and 
 was  buried  at  Ramah,  the  place  of  his  habitation,  in 
 great  solemnity,  and  s  with  the  general  lamentation  of 
 
 d  But  how  did  David  absolve  his  promise,  or  keep  his  oath 
 with  Saul,  when  in  2  Sam.  xxi.  8.  he  slew  so  many  of  his  sons? 
 The  reply  that  is  usually  made  to  this  is, — That  this  promise  or 
 oath  of  David's  could  never  be  absolute  or  unconditional,  because, 
 upon  supposition  that  any  of  Saul's  family  had  become  rebellious 
 they  had  nevertheless  been  obnoxious  to  the  sword  of  justice ;  that 
 though  David  could  bind  himself  with  his  oath,  yet  he  could  not 
 bind  God,  to  whose  will  and  pleasure  all  private  obligations  must 
 be  submitted;  and  what  is  more,  that  this  execution  was  not 
 done  by  David's  order,  but  at  the  desire  of  the  Gibeonites,  to 
 whom  God  had  promised  that  satisfaction  should  be  made  for  Saul's 
 bloody  endeavours  to  destroy  them. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  It  is  an  old  saying,  and  a  wise  one,  '  remember  not  to  be 
 too  credulous ;'  and  the  advice  of  the  son  of  Sirach  is  this,  '  Never 
 trust  thine  enemy;  though  he  humble  himself,  yet  take  good 
 heed,  and  beware  of  him.' — Ecclus.  xii.  10,  11. 
 
 jr"The  Jews  are  of  opinion,  that  Samuel  died  only  four  months 
 before  Saul.  But  by  the  generality  of  Christian  chronologers, 
 he  is  supposed  to  have  died  about  two  years  before  the  death  of 
 that  prince,  and  in  the  ninety-eighth  year  of  his  age,  twenty  of 
 which  had  been  spent  in  the  government  of  Israel,  (though 
 Sir  John  Marsham  will  have  it  no  more  than  sixteen,)  before 
 Saul's  inauguration,  after  which  he  lived  about  eighteen.  He 
 was  indeed,  while  he  lived,  an  excellent  governor,  and  through 
 his  whole  administration  above  vanity,  corruption,  or  any  private 
 views.  Those  that  attend  to  his  life  may  observe,  that  he  was 
 modest  without  meanness,  mild  without  weakness,  firm  without 
 obstinacy,  and  severe  without  harshness ;  or  as  the  author  of  Ec- 
 clesiasticus  has  recorded  his  actions,  and  consecrated  this  eulogy 
 to  his  memory. — '  Samuel  the  prophet  of  the  Lord,  says  he, 
 beloved  of  the  Lord,  established  a  kingdom,  and  anointed  princes 
 over  his  people.  By  the  law  of  the  Lord  he  judged  the  congrega- 
 tion, and  the  Lord  had  respect  unto  Jacob.  By  his  faithfulness 
 he  was  found  a  true  prophet,  and  by  his  word  he  was  known  to 
 be  faithful  in  vision.  He  called  upon  the  mighty  God  when  his 
 enemies  pressed  upon  him  on  every  side,  when  he  offered  the 
 sucking  lamb ;  and  the  Lord  thundered  from  heaven,  and  with 
 a  great  noise  made  his  voice  to  be  heard.  He  destroyed  the 
 rulers  of  the  Syrians,  and  all  the  princes  of  the  Philistines.  Be- 
 fore his  long  sleep,  he  made  protestations  in  the  sight  of  the 
 Lord,  and  his  anointed,  and  after  his  death  he  prophesied  and 
 showed  the  king  his  end.' — Ecclus.  xlvi.  13,  &c.  But  besides 
 the  things  that  are  recorded  of  this  prophet  in  the  first  book  oS 
 Samuel,  there  are  some  other  passages  concerning  him  in  the 
 first  book  of  Chronicles ;  as,  that  he  enriched  the  tabernacle  with 
 several  spoils  which  he  took  from  the  enemies  of  Israel  during 
 his  administration,  ch.  xxv.  2S.  That  he  assisted  in  regulating 
 the  distribution  of  the  Levites,  which  David  afterwards  pre- 
 scribed for  the  service  of  the  temple,  ch.  ix.  22.  And,  lastly, 
 That  he  wrote  the  history  of  David,  in  conjunction  with  the 
 prophets  Nathan  and  Gad.  But  as  he  was  dead  before  David 
 came  to  the  throne,  this  can  be  meant  only  of  the  beginning  of  that 
 history,  which  by  the  other  two  prophets  might  be  continued 
 and  concluded.  There  is  great  probability,  indeed,  that  he  com- 
 posed the  twenty-four  first  chapters  of  the  first  book  of  Samuel, 
 which  contain  the  beginning  of  David's  life,  and  several  histo- 
 rical facts  wherein  he  himself  had  a  large  share ;  but  as  for  the 
 latter  part  of  it,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  write  it,  because, 
 in  the  beginning  of  the  25th  chapter,  there  is  mention  made 
 of  his  death. 
 
 g  When  they  saw  the  disorders  of  Saul's  reign,  they  had  great 
 reason  to  lament  their  loss  of  Samuel,  and  their  sin  in  rejecting 
 so  great  a  prophet,  and  so  good  a  magistrate.— Millars  History 
 of  the  Church. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2883.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 451 
 
 the  people  :  during  which  time,  David  took  the  oppor- 
 tunity to  remove  from  En-gedi,  and  to  retire  farther  into 
 the  wilderness  of  Paran,  not  far  from  Maon,  where  he 
 had  been  once  before. 
 
 In  the  neighbourhood  of  this  place,  there  lived  a 
 wealthy  man,  whose  name  was  Nabal,  but  himself  was 
 of  a  surly  and  morose  disposition.  While  David  abode 
 in  this  wilderness  the  time  before,  he  had  taken  great 
 care  to  restrain  his  men  from  doing  any  injury  to  Nabal's 
 flocks,  and  now  in  the  time  of  his  sheep-shearing,  (which 
 in  these  countries  was  always  a  season  of  great  festivity 
 and  entertainment,)  he  sent  messengers  to  him,  that  in 
 consideration  of  the  many  civilities  he  had  shown  him, 
 he  would  be  pleased  to  send  some  provisions  for  the 
 support  of  his  army.  But  Nabal  received  the  messen- 
 gers very  rudely,  and  with  some  opprobrious  reflections 
 upon  David  himself,  sent  them  away  empty,  which  so 
 exasperated  David,  that  in  the  heat  of  his  resentment, 
 he  vowed  to  destroy  all  Nabal's  family  before  next 
 morning,  and  with  this  resolution  he  set  forward.  But 
 Abigail,  Nabal's  wife,  who  was  a  very  beautiful  woman, 
 and  in  temper  the  very  reverse  of  her  husband,  being 
 informed  by  her  servant  of  what  had  passed,  took  this 
 expedient  to  divert  his  ire. 
 
 She  ordered  her  servants  immediately  to  pack  up  two 
 hundred  loaves  of  bread,  a  two  bottles  of  wine,  five 
 sheep  ready  dressed,  five  measures  of  parched  corn,  an 
 hundred  clusters  of  raisins,  and  two  hundred  cakes  of 
 figs  ;  and  with  this  present  she  made  haste  to  meet  David- 
 David  was  marching  with  all  speed,  to  put  in  execution 
 his  rash  vow  ;  but  Abigail  when  she  met  him,  approached 
 him  with  that  respect,  and  addressed  him  *  in  such  mov- 
 ing language,  that  she  soon  disarmed  him  of  his  rage, 
 and  stopped  the  effects  of  his  indignation ;  so  that  they 
 botli  parted  with  mutual  satisfaction ;  he,  for  being  thus 
 prevented  from  shedding  of  blood,  and  she,  for  having 
 thus  happily  succeeded  in  her  embassy. 
 
 AA  hen  she  got  home,  she  found  her  husband  rioting  and 
 drinking;  so  that  she  deferred  telling  him  of  what  had 
 passed  until  he  was  a  little  soberer  the  next  morning. 
 But  when  he  came  to   understand  the  danger   he  had 
 
 a  It  must  be  obvious  to  every  reader,  that  two  bottles  of  wine 
 would  bear  no  proportion  to  the  other  parts  of  the  present,  nor 
 answer  the  exigencies  which  David's  army  might  be  in,  if  they 
 be  understood  of  such  bottles  as  are  now  commonly  in  use  with 
 us:  but  in  these  eastern  countries,  they  used  to  carry  and  keep 
 their  wine  and  water  in  leathern  bags,  made  on  purpose  to  hold 
 liquid  things,  which  vessels  they  called,  or  at  least  we  translate, 
 botiks.  Such  were  the  bottles  which  the  Gibeonites  brought  to 
 Joshua's  camp,  which  they  said  were  worn  out,  and  toru  in  their 
 pretended  long  journey,  Josh.  ix.  13.  And  of  such  as  those  it 
 is  not  unlikely,  that  our  Saviour  speaks,  Mat.  ix.  17.  where, 
 in  the  marginal  note  of  our  old  Bible,  bottles  are  explained  by 
 bags  of  leather,  or  skins,  borachios,  wherein  wine  was  carried  on 
 asses  or  camels;  and  that  two  such  vessels  as  these  might  hold 
 a  quantity  of  wine  proportionate  to  the  rest  of  the  present,  which 
 Abigail  carried  with  her,  needs  not  to  be  disputed. — Howell's 
 History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 6  The  speech  which  the  sacred  historian  puts  in  Abigail's 
 mouth,  upon  this  occasion,  is  certainly  an  artful  piece  of  elo- 
 quence, full  of  fine  turns  and  insinuations;  nor  is  that  of  Jose- 
 phus,  especially  in  the  conclusion,  much  amiss ; — '  Be  pleased, 
 Sir,  I  beseech  you,  to  accept  of  the  good  will  of  your  poor  servant 
 in  these  small  presents,  and  upon  my  humble  request,  to  pass 
 oyer  the  offence  of  my  husband,  who  has  so  justly  incurred  your 
 displeasure;  for  there  is  nothing  so  well  becoming  the  character 
 of  a  person,  whom  providence  designs  for  a  crown,  us  clemency 
 and  compassion.'— Jctvish  Antiquities,  b.  6".  c.  11. 
 
 been  in,  he  was  so  terrified  at  the  thoughts  of  it,  that  e 
 he  turned  quite  stupid,  and  in  the  space  of  ten  days 
 died :  whereupon  David  sent  for  his  wife  and  married 
 her,  as  he  did  likewise  another  woman,  whose  name  was 
 Ahinoam,  a  Jezreelite  ;  for  his  first  wife,  who  was  Saul's 
 daughter,  by  her  father's  command,  d  was  at  this  time 
 given  to  another. 
 
 The  Ziphites,  as  we  said  before,  were  always  forward 
 to  give  Saul  information  where  David  and  his  men  were 
 concealed  ;  and  therefore,  understanding  from  them, 
 that  he  was  somewhere  about  the  mountain  Hachilah,  e 
 he  took  3000  men,  and  went  in  quest  of  him.  David 
 had  intelligence  where  Saul's  army  lay  encamped ;  and 
 therefore,  going  first  of  all  privately  himself,  to  recon- 
 noitre it,  he  /took  with  him  at  night  his  nephew  Abishai, 
 and  entering  the  camp,  found  Saul  and  Abner,  and  all 
 the  rest  of  the  host  fast  asleep,  Abishai,  would  have 
 gladly  made  use  of  this  opportunity  to  despatch  the 
 king-,  but  David  would  by  no  means  permit  him,  for  the 
 same  reasons  that  he  had  saved  his  life  in  the  cave  ;  only 
 the  s  spear,  and  cruise  of  water,  that  were  at  his  bed's 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  original  are,  '  lie  became  a  stone ;'  but  our 
 translation  has  wisely  supplied  the  particle  as,  which  should  al- 
 ways be  done,  when  the  Scripture  affirms  something  of  another 
 that  is  not  absolutely  of  the  same  nature.  We  may  observe 
 however,  that  this  manner  of  expression  is  very  common  among 
 profane  authors.  Thus  Ovid  brings  in  Ariadne  expressing  her 
 griefs  and  astonishment  at  the  loss  of  Theseus,  who  had  left  her 
 in  the  island  Dia:  "  Cold  and  wan  I  sat  on  a  rock,  gazing  on  the 
 sea,  and  as  much  as  the  stone  was  my  scat  so  much  was  I  myself 
 a  stone." — The  like  expression  is  used  of  Hecuba,  when  she  saw 
 the  dead  body  of  her  son  Polydorus:  "  Like  the  hard  stone  she 
 stood  dumb  and  torpid."  But  in  the  case  of  Niobe,  who  is  said 
 to  be  turned  into  a  statue  of  stone,  Cicero,  in  his  Tusculan 
 Questions,  observes,  that  this  fable  only  represents  her  perpetual 
 silence  in  mourning:  and  accordingly  Josephus  tells  us  of  Nabal, 
 that  when  his  wife  told  him  of  the  danger  he  had  escaped,  he 
 was  struck  with  such  an  astonishment,  that  he  fell  into  a  dead 
 numbness  all  over  his  body,  of  which  he  soon  died. — Le  Clerc's 
 Commentary,  and  Dis.  dc  statua  salis. 
 
 d  The  reason  of  Saul's  putting  this  indignity  upon  David,  was 
 to  extinguish  as  far  as  he  could,  all  relation  and  kindred,  and  to 
 cut  off  his  hopes  and  pretences  to  the  crown  upon  that  account: 
 but  as  the  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  this  Phalti,  to 
 whom  she  was  given,  was  a  veiy  pious  man,  and  would  never 
 approach  her,  because  she  was  another  man's  wife,  and  as  David 
 had  never  been  divorced  from  her,  he  received  her  again,  when 
 he  came  to  the  throne. — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Calmct's 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  The  inconstancy,  falseness,  and  implacable  rage  of  this  prince 
 is  really  inconceivable.  Not  long  ago,  he  was  obliged  to  David 
 for  his  life,  and  acknowledged  his  error,  and  made  David  swear 
 that  he  would  be  kind  and  merciful  to  his  posterity;  and  yet  now 
 he  openly  declares  himself  again  his  enemy,  and  goes  in  pursuit 
 of  him  to  kill  him. —Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 /This  may  seem  a  bold  and  strange  attempt  for  two  persons 
 to  go  into  the  midst  of  an  army  of  3000  chosen  men ;  but  in 
 answer  to  this,  many  things  may  be  considered:  as  that,  accord- 
 ing to  the  accounts  of  many  credible  historians,  several  gallant 
 men  have  attempted  things  of  no  less  danger  and  difficulty  than 
 this  was;  that  David  had  all  along  assurance  given  him,  that 
 God  would  preserve  him  in  all  dangers  to  succeed  in  the  king- 
 dom ;  and  that  at  tin's  time,  he  might  have  a  particular  impulse 
 and  incitement  from  God  to  go  upon  this  enterprise,  and  might 
 possibly  be  informed  by  him,  that  lie  had  cast  them  into  a  deep 
 sleep,  that  he  might  give  him  this  second  opportunity  of  mani- 
 festing to  Saul  his  innocence,  and  the  justness  of  his  cause.  Nit 
 to  say,  that  as  secrecy,  at  this  time,  was  the  great  point,  David 
 might,  think  himself  safer,  in  this  respect,  with  one  single  com- 
 panion, than  with  nunc — Poole's  Annotations,  and  The  Life  of 
 King  David, 
 
 g  That  it  was  customary  for  warriors,  when  they  laid  them 
 down  to  rest,  to  have  their  arms  placed  in  order  by  them,  is  evi- 
 
452 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  28S8.  A.  C.  111G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 head,  a  he  bid  him  bring  with  him,  that  he  might  show 
 the  king  how  much  his  life  had  been  at  his  mercy :  and 
 accordingly  Avhen  they  had  got  at  a  convenient  distance, 
 David,  with  a  loud  voice,  called  unto  Abner,  and,  in 
 an  *  ironical  manner,  upbraided  him  with  this  neglect  of 
 preserving  the  king's  life,  since  his  spear,  and  the  cruise 
 of  water  that  were  so  near  his  bed's  head,  were  so  easily 
 taken  from  him  :  and  when  Saul,  upon  hearing  his  voice, 
 came  out  of  the  camp,  and  spake  to  him,  he  expostulated 
 with  him,  much  in  the  same  manner  as  he  did  after  his 
 escape  from  the  cave,  with  this  additional  complaint, 
 that  by  thus  expelling  him  from  his  own  country,  he 
 forced  him  to  converse  with  infidels,  and,  as  much  as  in 
 him  lay,  to  embrace  their  religion.  Whereupon  Saul, 
 accusing  himself  of  cruelty,  and  applauding  David's 
 generosity,  confessed  his  guilt,  and  promised,  for  the 
 future,  never  to  make  any  further  attempts  upon  his 
 life. 
 
 But  notwithstanding  these  specious  declarations,  Da- 
 vid, who  knew  the  instability  of  Saul's  temper,  and  how 
 impossible  it  was  for  him  to  live  in  safety,  while  he  con- 
 tinued in  his  dominions,  determined  at  last  to  go  over 
 to  the  Philistines  ;  and  having  obtained  from  c  Achish, 
 
 dent  from  what  Silius  Italicus  tells  us  of  Mago,  Hannibal's  bro- 
 ther. "  He,  following  the  warlike  custom  of  his  forefathers,  lay 
 resting  his  wearied  limbs  on  a  bull's  hide,  and  in  sleep  forgot  the 
 heavy  cares  of  life ;  not  far  from  the  hero  was  his  sword  fixed  in 
 the  earth,  and  on  its  hilt  was  suspended  his  tremendous  helmet, 
 while  around  him  on  the  ground  his  shield  and  coat  of  mail  and 
 spear,  and  bow,  and  sling,  lay  huddled  together." — B.  vii.  But 
 long  before  Silius,  Homer  describes  the  Thracians  sleeping  in 
 tin's  maimer  in  their  tents:   "  The  toil-worn  heroes  slept  and  near 
 
 them    their  beautiful  armour  hung  in   graceful  order,"  &c. 
 
 //.  x. 
 
 a  1  Sam.  xxvi.  7.  A  description  very  similar  to  this  is  given 
 by   Homer  of  Diomed  sleeping  in  his  arms  with  his  soldiers 
 about  him,  and  spears  sticking  upright  in  the  earth. 
 Without  his  tent  bold  Diomed  they  found, 
 All  sheath'd  in  arms,  his  brave  companions  round  ; 
 Each  sunk  in  sleep,  extended  on  the  field, 
 His  head  reclining  on  his  heavy  shield ; 
 A  wood  of  spears  stood  by,  that  fixed  upright, 
 Shot  from  their  flashing  points  a  quivering  light. 
 
 Iliad,  iii.  89.— Pope.— Ed. 
 b  This  speech,  which  David  makes  to  Abner,  according  to 
 Josephus,  is  to  this  effect.  '  Are  not  you  a  fit  man  to  be  a 
 prince's  favourite,  a  general  of  his  army,  to  take  upon  you  the 
 guard  of  his  royal  person,  and  under  all  these  honourable  obliga- 
 tions, to  lie  dozing,  and  stretching  yourself  at  ease,  when  your 
 master's  life  is  in  danger  ?  Can  you  tell  me,  what  is  become 
 of  the  king's  lance,  and  the  pitcher  of  water,  that  were  this  night 
 taken  by  the  enemy  out  of  his  tent,. and  from  his  very  bedside 
 and  you,  in  the  mean  time,  all  snoring  about  him,  without 
 knowing  any  thing  of  the  matter?  Whether  this  was  neglect 
 or  treachery,  it  is  the  same  thing;  you  certainly  deserve  to°lose 
 your  head  for  it.'' — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  G.  c.  14. 
 
 c  Whether  this  was  the  same  Achish,  mentioned  1  Sam.  xxi. 
 10.  with  whom  David  took  shelter  at  his  first  flight  from  Saul,' 
 or  some  Buccessor  of  the  same  name,  is  a  matter  of  some  con- 
 '■:  His  being  called  '  Achish,  the  son  of  Maoch,'  seems  to 
 imply  that  he  was  a  different  person;  because,  in  the  nature  of 
 things,  tin-,:  words  can  have  no  use,  but  only  to  distinguish  this 
 Achish  from  another  of  the  same  name.  But  whoever  it  was, 
 it  is  highly  probable,  that  he  either  had  invited  David  to  come 
 thither  for  his  security,  or  that  David  had  sent  beforehand  am- 
 bassadors to  treat  witb.  him,  and  to  obtain  his  royal  promise  of 
 protection.  And  this  we  are  the  rather  induced  to  believe,  be- 
 cause both  found  their  advantage  by  this  alliance:  David  se- 
 cured himself  against  the  persecutions  of  Saul;  and  Achish, 
 Knowing  David's  valour,  and  the  number  of  troops  which  came 
 along  with  him,  thought  he  should  give  ;i  powerful  diversion  to 
 the  forces  of  Israel,  if  ho  could  at  this  time  attach  David  to  his 
 
 king  of  Gath,  a  safe-conduct  for  himself  and  his  retinue, 
 he,  for  some  time,  lived  in  the  royal  city  ;  but  not  liking 
 his  accommodation  here  so  well,  as  he  grew  in  favour 
 with  the  king  ever  more  and  more,  he  obtained  of  him 
 at  last  to  have  the  d  town  of  Ziklag-  assigned  for  his  ha- 
 bitation, and,  as  soon  as  he  was  settled  here,  several  of 
 Saul's  best  officers  and  soldiers  came  over  to  him. 
 David  at  first  had  some  suspicion  of  them ;  but  having, 
 for  some  time,  made  trial  of  their  fidelity,  he  received 
 them  into  his  service,  and  gave  them  commands :  and 
 with  this  accession  to  his  army  he  was  enabled  to  make 
 several  excursions  against  the  e  Amalekites,  and  other 
 nations,  in  which  he  was  accustomed  to  kill  all,  that 
 none  might  carry  information,  and,  at  the  Scime  time,  /  by 
 certain  ambiguous  expressions,  made  the  king  believe, 
 that  the  booty  he  brought  back  with  him,  was  taken  from 
 the  Israelites,  which  was  no  unpleasant  news. 
 
 In  short,  to  such  a  degree  of  confidence  was  he  grown 
 with  Achish,  that  he  proposed  taking  him  along  with 
 him  to  the  war,  which  the  Philistines  had  at  this  time 
 declared  against  Saul ;  but  some  of  the  chief  men  about 
 him  declaring  against  it,  as  being  apprehensive  that  in 
 the  day  of  battle  he  might  possibly  turn  against  them, 
 prevailed  with  the  king  to  dismiss  him.  This  was  an 
 agreeable  turn  to  David ;  yet  he  so  far  dissembled  the 
 
 interest.  But  whether  David  did  well  or  ill  in  either  suing  for 
 or  accepting  of  the  protection  of  this  foreign  king,  is  a  point 
 that  we  shall  have  occasion  to  discuss  hereafter. — Patrick's  and 
 Calmet's  Commentaries;  and  The  Life  of  King  David, 
 
 d  Ziklag  vvas  situate  in  the  extreme  parts  of  the  tribe  of  Judah 
 southwards,  not  far  from  Hormah,  where  the  Israelites  received 
 a  defeat  while  they  sojourned  in  the  wilderness.  In  the  division 
 of  the  land  of  Canaan,  it  was  first  given  to  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
 (Josh.  xv.  31.)  and  afterwards  to  that  of  Simeon,  (Josh.xix.  5.) 
 but  the  Philistines  seem  all  along  to  have  kept  possession:  so  that 
 it  never  came  into  the  hands  of  either  tribe,  until  by  the  gilt  of 
 Achish,  it  became  the  peculiar  inheritance  of  David  and  his  suc- 
 cessors. Why  David  desired  of  Achish  the  liberty  to  retire  to 
 this  place,  was  to  avoid  the  envy  which  the  number  of  his  at- 
 tendants might  possibly  occasion;  to  secure  his  people  from  the 
 infection  of  idolatry ;  to  enjoy  the  free  exercise  of  his  own  reli- 
 gion; and  to  gain  an  opportunity  of  enterprising  something 
 against  the  enemies  of  God,  without  the  knowledge  or  observa- 
 tion of  the  Philistines. — Calmefs  Commentary,  and  Poole's 
 Annotations. 
 
 e  In  1  Sam.  xv.  7.  we  read,  that  '  Saul  smote  the  Amalekites, 
 and  utterly  destroyed  all  the  people  with  the  edge  of  the  sword;' 
 and  yet  we  find  here  David  making  frequent  incursions  upon  the 
 Amalekites  ;  and  therefore  the  meaning  of  the  former  passage 
 must  be,  that  Saul  destroyed  as  many  of  them  as  fell  into  his 
 hands;  for  several  of  them  might  make  their  escape  from  Saul 
 into  the  deserts  that  lay  towards  Arabia  Felix,  and  upon  his 
 retreat,  return  and  repossess  their  old  habitation. — Le  Clerc's 
 Commentary. 
 
 f  The  words  wherein  David  answered  this  question  of  Achish, 
 '  Whither  have  you  made  a  road  to-day  ?'  are  these,  '  Against 
 the  south  of  Judah,  and  against  the  south  of  the  Jerahmeelites, 
 and  against  the  south  of  the  Kenites,'  (1  Sam.  xxvii.  10.)  By 
 which  nations  David,  in  reality,  meant  the  Geshurites,  and  the 
 Gezerites,  who  were  both  of  them  relicts  of  the  Cauaanites,  whom 
 God  ordered  to  be  extirpated,  and  who  did,  in  truth,  live  to  the 
 south  of  Judah;  but  Achish  understood  him  in  a  quite  contrary 
 sense,  namely,  that  he  had  fallen  upon  his  own  countrymen.  So 
 that  since  the  formality  of  a  lie  consists  in  our  imposing  upon 
 those  with  whom  we  converse,  we  cannot  but  allow,  that  though 
 David's  answer  may  not  be  called  a  downright  lie,  yet  it  is  am 
 equivocation  with  an  intent  to  deceive,  badly  comporting  with 
 that  honesty  and  simplicity  which  became  David,  both  as  a  prince 
 and  professor  of  the  true  religion,  wherein  he  is  no  way  to 
 be  excused,  and  much  less  to  be  imitated..— Poole's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 matter,  that  the  king,  to  oblige  his  nobles,  was  forced  to 
 be  very  pressing  and  importunate  with  him  to  return  to 
 Ziklag;  which  accordingly  he  did,  and  in  his  march 
 thither,  was  joined  by  several  of  the  tribe  of  Manasseh, 
 as  those  of  Gad  and  Benjamin  had  done  before,  to  a 
 considerable  augmentation  of  his  forces.  And  well  it  so 
 happened ;  for  upon  his  return  to  Ziklag,  he  found  that 
 the  Amalekites  had  burned  and  pillaged  the  place, a  and 
 carried  away  his  two  wives,  and  all  the  people  that  were 
 therein  ;  and,  what  was  no  small  accession  to  this  mis- 
 fortune, his  soldiers  mutinied  against  him,  as  if  he  had 
 been  *  the  occasion  of  it.  David,  however,  marching 
 away  immediately,  and  having  gained  intelligence  which 
 way  the  enemy  took,  soon  came  up  with  them,  fell  upon 
 them,  and  cut  them  to  pieces ;  and  not  only  recovered  all 
 the  persons  and  the  booty  which  they  had  taken,  but  seve- 
 ral rich  spoils  likewise,  that  they  had  robbed  others 
 of  in  this  expedition,  whereof  he  made  presents  to  his 
 friends.  c 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  Philistine  army,  lay  at  d  Shu- 
 nem,  and  Saul  and  his  forces  were  encamped  in  Mount 
 Gilboa,  from  whence  having  a  prospect  of  the  enemy's 
 strength,  e  his  courage  failed  him,  when  he  saw  how 
 much  more  numerous  the  Philistines  were,  and  found,  at 
 the  same  time,  that  God,  in  this  pressing  juncture,  would 
 not  be  consulted  by  him,  nor  give  him  any  instructions 
 what  to  do.  He  had,  some  time  before,  banished  all  the 
 wizards,  and  such  as  dealt  with  familiar  spirits,  out  of  the 
 nation  ;  but  being  now  in  the  utmost  perplexity,^ he  was 
 
 453 
 
 resolved  to  consult  some  one  of  this  profession,  in  order 
 to  know  what  the  fate  of  this  war  would  be.  At  Endor, 
 about  three  leagues  from  Mount  Gilboa,  he  was  told 
 there  lived  a  s  witch  or  sorceress :  and  therefore  dis- 
 guising himself,  and  taking  but  two  servants  with  him, 
 that  he  might  not  be  suspected,  he  came  to  the  woman  * 
 by  night,  and  desired  of  her  '  to  raise  up  the  ghost  of 
 Samuel. 
 
 Whether  it  was  the  ghost  of  Samuel,  which  God,  upon 
 this  occasion,  permitted  to  appear,  or  some  evil  spirit 
 whom  the  witch,  by  her  enchantments,  might  raise  up  ; 
 but  so  it  was,  that  from  this  spectre  k  the  woman  learned 
 that  it  was  Saul  who  had  employed  her ;  and  Saul,  when 
 he  saw  it,  bowed  his  face  to  the  ground.  The  appari- 
 tion spake  first,  and  demanding  the  reason  l  why  he  had 
 
 a  It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  that  the  Amalekites,  who  had 
 so  often  been  cut  to  pieces  by  David,  should  not,  upon  their  suc- 
 cess, slay,  rather  than  cany  away,  the  people,  which  they  found 
 in  Ziklag:  but  this  may  be  imputed  either  to  their  covetousness, 
 who  might  keep  them  for  sale,  and  to  make  money  of  them  as 
 captives ;  or  to  their  cruelty,  who  might  reserve  them  for  more 
 lingering  and  repeated  torments,  or  perhaps  for  the  gratification 
 of  their  brutal  lusts ;  though  principally  it  is  to  be  ascribed  to 
 God's  overruling  providence,  who  restrained  and  set  bounds  to 
 their  rage. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  This  he  might  seem  to  be,  in  relinquishing  his  own  country, 
 and  coming  to  Ziklag;  in  provoking  the  Amalekites  by  the 
 slaughter  of  all  that  came  in  his  way;  and  in  going  with  Achish 
 to  war,  while  he  left  the  place,  where  their  wives  and  children 
 were,  unguarded. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  His  friends  were  chiefly  those  of  his  own  tribe;  but  besides 
 these,  we  find  lie  sent  to  others,  namely,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
 city  of  Bethel,  which  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  and  this 
 lie  did,  not  only  in  the  acknowledgment  of  the  shelter  and  support 
 which  he  had  received  from  them  in  his  banishment,  but  in  pros- 
 pect of  their  future  favour  and  interest,  in  case  there  should  hap- 
 pen a  vacancy  in  the  throne. — Le  Clerc's  and  Patrick's 
 Commentaries. 
 
 d  Shunem  was  a  city  on  the  borders  of  the  tribe  of  Issachar, 
 about  five  miles  to  the  south  of  Muunt  Hermon,  according  to  St 
 Jerome  and  Eusebius,  who  tells  us  likewise,  that  Gilboa  was  a 
 ridge  of  mountains,  six  miles  distant  from  Scythopolis,  anciently 
 called  Bethshan ;  and  that  Endor  was  a  town  in  the  valley  of 
 Jczreel,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Gilboa. — Wells'  Geography  of  the 
 Old  Testament;  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  Philistines  must  have  had,  on  this  occasion,  several  hired 
 forces,  otherwise  Saul  had  no  reason  to  have  been  afraid  of  them, 
 because  the  small  tract  which  the  Philistines  inhabited  could  not 
 possibly  supply  them  with  an  army  any  thing  equal  to  the  He- 
 brews,  who,  in  some  of  their  wars,  have  carried  to  the  field  some 
 hundred  thousands  of  men. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 f  A  strange  infatuation  this  of  Saul  !  He  had  banished  all 
 wizards  and  sorcerers  out  of  his  kingdom,  as  a  dangerous  sort  of 
 people,  who  made  profession  of  a  wicked  and  unwarrantable  art; 
 and  yet  he  here  inquires  after  one,  and  puts  his  whole  confidence 
 iu   what  he  had  so  wisely  exploded  before;  as  if  a  witch  with 
 
 her  incantations,  and  other  diabolical  arts,  was  capable  of  allay- 
 ing the  uneasiness  of  his  mind,  or  securing  him  from  the  appre- 
 hensions of  danger.  It  may  be  observed,  however,  that  he 
 mentions  a  woman  rather  than  a  man  to  be  consulted  upon  this 
 occasion,  because  he  might  mention  that  the  weaker  sex  might 
 more  easily  be  deceived  by  evil  spirits,  and  were  generally  more 
 addicted  to  these  unlawful  practices. — Calmet's  and  Patrick's 
 Commentaries. 
 
 g  The  Septuagint  have  called  her,  '  a  woman  that  speaks  from 
 her  belly,  or  stomach,'  as  most  magicians  affected  to  do:  and 
 some  modern  authors  have  informed  us,  that  there  were  women 
 who  had  a  demon,  which  spake  articulately  from  the  lower  part 
 of  their  stomachs,  in  a  very  loud,  though  hoarse  tone:  "The 
 spirit  conversing  with  the  witch  shrieked  loud  and  dismally."— 
 Hor.  Sat.  8. 
 
 h  They  could  not  go  the  direct  way;  for  then  they  must  have 
 passed  through  the  enemy's  camp;  and  therefore  they  took  a 
 compass,  and  travelled  by  night,  that  they  might  not  be  discov- 
 ered ;  besides  that  the  night  was  the  properest  time  to  consult 
 those  that  pretended  to  magical  incantations,  it  being  a  common 
 opinion  among  the  Greeks,  as  perhaps  now  it  might  be  among 
 the  Hebrews,  that  none  of  the  terrestrial  demons  did  appear  in 
 the  daytime. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 i  It  was  a  common  pretence  of  magicians,  that  they  could 
 raise  up  ghosts  from  below,  or  make  dead  persons  appear  to  de- 
 clare unto  them  future  events.  "  Gore  was  poured  out  into  a 
 dish  that  thereby  they  might  draw  out  the  manes,  those  spirits  of 
 prophecy." — Hor.  Sat.  b.  1.  And  therefore  Saul  addresses  the 
 woman,  as  if  he  believed  her  abilities  in  that  way.  This  how- 
 ever shows,  not  only  the  antiquity  of  necromancy,  but  the  pre- 
 vailing opinion  then,  that  the  soul,  after  the  death  of  the  body, 
 did  survive ;  otherwise  it  would  have  been  impertinent  for  Saul 
 to  desire  the  woman  to  raise  up  Samuel.  Which  makes  it  the 
 greater  wonder,  that  we  have  nowhere,  in  the  Old  Testament, 
 a  positive  declaration  of  the  soul's  immortality. — Calmet's  and  Le 
 Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 k  How  the  woman  came  to  know  it  to  be  Samuel,  we  may 
 thus  imagine.  She  saw  an  apparition  she  did  not  expect ;  she 
 knew  the  prophet;  she  knew  the  veneration  which  Saul  had  for 
 him;  she  knew  that  prophets  were  only  sent  to  kings;  and  she 
 knew  withal,  that  her  art,  whatever  it  was,  had  never  before 
 that  time  exhibited  a  person  of  that  figure  to  her;  and  from 
 hence  she  concluded,  that  the  apparition  must  needs  be  Samuel, 
 and  the  person  who  came  to  consult  her,  in  all  probability  was 
 Saul. — The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David, 
 
 I  The  words  of  Samuel  are,  '  why  hast  thou  disquieted  me, 
 and  brought  me  up  ?'  which,  seem  to  imply,  that  Samuel  was 
 raised  up  by  the  force  of  this  woman's  enchantments.  But  as  it 
 is  not  in  the  power  of  witches  to  disturb  the  rest  of  good  men, 
 and  bring  them  into  the  world  when  they  please,  it  is  much 
 more  rational  to  think,  that  the  Scripture  here  expresses  itself  in 
 a  manner  suitable  to  the  prejudice  of  the  vulgar,  among  whom 
 it  was  a  common  notion,  that  these  incantations  gave  trouble  to 
 the  souls  that  were  at  rest.  For  which  reason,  they  were  cither 
 to  be  appeased  by  offerings,  or  constrained  by  the  force  of  enchant- 
 ments: for  so  the  tragedian  has  informed  us,  "He  pours  out 
 the  magic  song,  and  in  a  threatening  tone  hurriedly  sings  what- 
 ever either  appeases  or  constrains  the  airy  spirit." — Seneca  in 
 <Epid. 
 
451 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.2888.  A.  C.  1110  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 raised  him  from  the  dead,  was  answered  by  Saul,  that 
 the  Philistines,  with  a  powerful  army  had  invaded  him, 
 and  in  his  distress,  God  had  forsaken  him,  and  would 
 give  no  answer  a  which  way  soever  he  consulted  him. 
 To  whom  the  spirit  replied,  that  for  his  disobedience  in 
 not  destroying  the  Amalekites,  God  had  taken  away  the 
 kingdom  from  his  family,  and  given  it  to  David  ;  and  as 
 to  the  fate  of  the  war,  the  Philistines,  b  the  next  day, 
 should  rout  his  army,  and  he  and  his  sons  fall  in  the 
 battle. 
 
 Saul  had  no  sooner  heard  his  doom,  but  he  fainted 
 away  ;  and  as  he  had  eaten  nothing  for  some  consider- 
 able time,  c  the  woman  and  his  servants,  with  much  ado, 
 prevailed  with  him  to  take  some  refreshment :  which 
 when  he  had  done,  he  went  away,  and  marched  all  night, 
 that  he  might  come  early  enough  to  the  camp  next 
 morning. 
 
 The  next  morning  the  two  armies  met,  and  engaged  ; 
 but  the  Israelites  were  forced  to  give  way,  and  main- 
 tained a  running  fight,  until  they  came  to  mount  Gilboa, 
 where,  gaining  the  advantage  of  the  ground,  they  at- 
 tempted to  rally  again,  but  with  as  little  success  as  be- 
 fore. Saul  and  his  sons  did  all  that  was  possible  for 
 brave  men  to  do  ;  but  the  Philistines  aiming  wholly  at 
 them,  in  a  short  time,  overpowered  them  with  numbers, 
 d  so  that  Jonathan  and  two  others  of  his  brothers,  Abin- 
 
 a  The  sacred  historian  has  reckoned  up  three  several  ways  of 
 inquiring  of  God,  namely,  by  dreams,  by  Urim,  and  by  pro- 
 phets ;  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  observe,  that  there  were  the 
 same  methods  of  consulting  their  gods  among  the  Gentiles; 
 as  it  appears  by  what  Achilles  says  in  the  council  of  the 
 Greeks,  when  met  together  to  consult  about  the  plague  which 
 Apollo  sent  among  them.  "  Come  now  let  us  address  some  pro- 
 phet or  priest,  or  interpreter  of  dreams,  for  dreams  ever  are  from 
 Jove." 
 
 b  The  phrase  wherein  Samuel  expresses  himself,  is  this,  '  to- 
 morrow shalt  thou  and  thy  sons  be  with  me.'  Where  the  word 
 to-morrow,  as  some  interpreters  imagine,  is  not  to  be  taken  in  a 
 strict  sense,  because,  as  they  conceive,  this  battle  was  not  fought 
 till  some  time  after;  but  in  the  passage  before  us,  there  seems 
 to  be  no  reason  why  to-morrow  should  not  be  taken  literally. 
 For  as  Endor  was  at  no  great  distance  from  the  Israelites'  camp, 
 Saul  might  go  that  night,  consult  the  witch,  stay,  and  eat  with 
 her,  and  get  back  to  the  camp  before  it  was  light.  The  next 
 day  the  battle  begins ;  Saul  is  vanquished,  and  seeing  his  army 
 routed,  despairs,  and  stabs  himself.  All  this  might  very  well  be 
 done  in  the  space  of  twelve  or  fourteen  hours ;  and  therefore  I 
 see  no  occasion  why  we  should  depart  from  the  plain  significa- 
 tion of  the  words — Calmei's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Josephus  seems  to  be  veiy  warm  in  his  commendation  of 
 this  woman's  generosity  to  Saul.  '  Shu  received  him,  treated 
 him,  and  relieved  him  ;  and  all  this  so  cheerfully,  and  so  frankly, 
 that  she  gave  him  all  she  had,  without  any  prospect  of  reward  • 
 for  she  knew  that  he  was  doomed  to  die.  And  what  is  more 
 this  she  did  for  the  very  man  whose  prohibition  had  been  her 
 ruin.'  But  he  rashly  supposes,  that  in  the  words  of  the  sacred 
 history,  the  narration  is  accurate,  and  defective  in  no  one  cir- 
 cumstance ;  whereas,  for  any  thing  we  know,  this  woman  was  far 
 from  being  poor;  Saul  had  amply  rewarded  her  for  raising  up 
 Samuel,  arid  his  attendant  might  give  her  a  round  price  for  her 
 lamb.  And  though  it  must  be  owned,  that  her  address  to  the 
 king  is  tender  and  respectful  enough ;  yet  whether  it  proceeded 
 from  fear  or  affection,  may  admit  of  some  debate. — Lc  Ckrc's 
 Commentary, 
 
 d  It  was  certainly  no  small  grief  to  David  to  hear  of  Jonathan's 
 death,  and  a  trial  it  might  be  of  his  patience  and  resignation  to 
 the  divine  will;  but  still  there  seems  to  be  a  direction  of  provi- 
 dence in  suffering  him  to  be  slain,  that  David  might  more  easily 
 come  to  the  throne.  For  though  Jonathan,  no  doubt,  would  have 
 made  a  voluntary  dedition  of  it,  yet  as  he  was  the  people's  great 
 favourite,  some  there  might  possibly  be,  who  would  not  allow  of  the 
 
 adab  and  Malchishua,  were  killed  upon  the  spot,  and  the 
 whole  army  put  in  confusion. 
 
 Saul  defended  himself  as  well  as  man  could  do  ;  but 
 the  small  party  that  remained  with  him,  being  entirely 
 broken,  and  the  e  enemy's  archers  pressing  hard  upon 
 him,  he  found  himself  so  weakened  with  his  wounds  and 
 loss  of  blood,  that  for  fear  of  falling  into  their  hands, 
 and  being  insulted,  he  fell  upon  his  own  sword,  and  so 
 died.  He  had  requested  of  his  armour-bearer  before 
 this  to  despatch  him ;  but  his  armour-bearer  was  startled 
 at  the  proposal  and  refused  to  do  it :  however,  when  he 
 saw  his  master  dead,  /  he  desperately  followed  his 
 example,  and  in  the  same  manner  put  an  end  to  his  life. 
 
 The  next  day,  when  the  Philistines  came  to  take  a  view 
 of  the  field  of  battle,  finding  the  bodies  of  Saul  and  his 
 sons  among  the  slain,  they  stripped  them  of  their  ar- 
 mour, cut  off  their  heads,  and  sent  expresses  to  every 
 place  of  their  victory,  g  Their  armour  they  sent  to  the 
 temple  of  Ashtaroth,  h  their  heads  they  fixed  up  in  the 
 
 dedition,  and  so  a  civil  war  might  have  arisen  concerning  the 
 successor,  which,  by  his  dying  in  this  manner,  was  prevented. — 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  There  is  no  mention  of  archers  in  any  of  the  Philistines' 
 armies,  or  battles,  before  this,  in  which  they  are  said  to  have 
 pressed  hard  upon  Saul,  as  doubtless  they  were  of  great  advantage 
 to  the  Philistines  in  making  their  attack ;  1st,  because  an  assault 
 with  this  kind  of  weapon  was  new  and  surprising,  and  therefore 
 generally  successful;  and,  2dly,  because  the  arrows  destroying  the 
 Israelites  at  a  distance,  before  they  came  to  close  fight,  threw 
 them  naturally  into  terror  and  confusion.  And  for  this  reason 
 some  think,  that  when  David  came  to  the  throne,  he  taught  the 
 Israelites  the  use  of  the  bow,  (as  we  read  2  Sam.  i.  18.)  that  they 
 might  not  be  inferior  to  the  Philistines,  nor  fall  into  the  like  dis- 
 aster that  Saul  had  done;  and  for  this  reason  it  certainly  was, 
 that  when  he  had  made  a  peace  with  the  Philistines,  he  took  some 
 of  their  archers,  who  in  the  following  books  are  frequently  men- 
 tioned under  the  name  of  Cherethites,  to  be  his  body  guards. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  and  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King 
 David. 
 
 f  The  learned  and  ingenious  author  of  the  Historical  Account 
 of  the  Life  of  King  David,  seems  to  make  it  evident,  that  Saul 
 and  his  armour-bearer  died  by  the  same  sword,  namely,  that 
 which  belonged  to  the  armour-bearer.  '  Now,  it  is  an  established 
 tradition  of  the  Jewish  chinch,'  says  he, '  that  this  armour-bearer 
 was  Doeg  the  Edomite,  who,  by  Saul's  command,  slew  such  a 
 number  of  priests  in  one  day,  (1  Sam.  xxii.  IS.)  and  if  so,  then 
 Saul  and  his  executioner  fell  both  by  the  same  weapon  wherewith 
 they  had  before  massacred  the  servants  of  the  Lord.  Even  as 
 Brutus  and  Cassius  killed  themselves  with  the  same  swords  with 
 which  they  treacherously  murdered  Caesar;  I  say  treacherously 
 murdered,  because  they  lay  in  his  bosom  at  the  same  time  that 
 they  meditated  his  death.' — Vol.  1. 
 
 g  We  have  taken  notice  before,  that  it  was  an  ancient  custom 
 among  sundry  nations  to  hang  up  the  arms  and  other  spoils  taken 
 from  the  enemy,  in  the  temples  of  their  gods,  as  trophies  and 
 monuments  of  their  victory;  and  need  only  remark  here,  that  the 
 custom  prevailed  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  as  appeals 
 from  this  passage  of  Virgil: — "  In  the  hallowed  halls  hang  many 
 an  instrument  of  war;  battle  chariots  taken  from  the  foe,  shattered 
 axes,  helmets,  huge  bars  of  gates,  javelins,  shields,  and  rostra 
 wrenched  from  war  ships." — JEncid  7. 
 
 h  1  Sam.  xxxi.  10.  The  custom  of  dedicating  to  the  gods  the 
 spoils  of  a  conquered  enemy,  and  placing  them  in  their  temples 
 as  trophies  of  victory,  is  very  ancient.  Homer  represents  Hec- 
 tor as  promising  that,  if  he  should  conquer  Ajax  in  single  combat, 
 he  would  dedicate  his  spoils  to  Apollo: 
 
 And  if  Apollo,  in  whose  aid  I  trust, 
 
 Shall  stretch  your  daring  champion  in  the  dust, 
 
 If  mine  the  glory  to  despoil  the  foe, 
 
 On  Phcebos'  temple  I'll  his  arms  bestow. 
 
 Iliad. —  Pope. 
 Pausanias  says,   the    architraves   of    the  temple  of   Apollo    at 
 Delphi  were  decorated  with  golden  armour,  bucklers  suspended 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 455 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.    1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 temple  of  Dagon,  and  their  bodies  they  hung  upon  gib- 
 bets against  the  walls  of  Bethshan.  But  the  inhabitants 
 of  Jabesh-Gilead,  hearing  of  this  indignity,  and  retain- 
 ing a  grateful  sense  of  the  services  Saul  had  done  them, 
 sent  a  party  of  their  best  soldiers  by  night,  who  took 
 down  their  bodies,  and  brought  them  away  to  Jabesh, 
 where  the  people  first  a  burned  the  remains  of  their  flesh  ; 
 next  honourably  interred  their  bones  and  ashes,  in  a 
 grove  that  was  near  their  city  ;  and  then  for  the  space  of 
 b  seven  days,  fasted  and  made  great  lamentation  for 
 them. 
 
 CHAP.   II. 
 
 -Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 In  the  fourth  chapter  of  this  book  of  Samuel  we  read, 
 that  upon  a  defeat  which  the  Israelites  had  received  from 
 the  Philistines,  the  elders  of  Israel  advised  together  in 
 council  what  might  be  the  occasion  of  their  ill  success  ; 
 '  Wherefore,'  say  they,  '  hath  God  smitten  us  to-day, 
 before  the  Philistines?'  The  justness  of  their  cause, 
 they  thought,  was  enough  to  entitle  them  to  God's  favour, 
 how  wicked  soever  they  were  in  their  lives ;  and  there- 
 fore, without  any  thought  of  amending  these,  they 
 devised  another  expedient  that  would  not  fail  of  securing 
 them  victory  :  ' '  Let  us  fetch  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of 
 the  Lord,'  say  they,  '  out  of  Shiloh,  that  when  it  comes 
 among  us,  it  may  save  us  out  of  the  hand  of  our  enemies.' 
 -  They  had  good  reason  to  look  upon  the  ark  of  the 
 covenant  as  a  certain  token  of  the  presence  of  God 
 among  them,  and  of  his  protection  over  them.  They  had 
 had  frequent  experience  of  battles  won  by  virtue  of  his 
 presence,  and  lost  in  the  absence  of  it ;  and  whenever  they 
 had  this  token  of  the  divine  assistance  along  with  them, 
 they  always  esteemed  themselves  invincible.     They  re- 
 
 1  1  Sam.  iv.  3. 
 
 2  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 hy  the  Athenians,  after  the  battle  of  Marathon,  and  shields 
 taken  from  the  Gauls  under  Brennus. — Chandler's  Travels  in 
 Greece,  p.  262. — Ed. 
 
 a  It  is  certain  that  the  usage  among  the  Hebrews  was  not  to 
 burn,  but  to  embalm  the  bodies  of  their  dead  with  aromatic 
 spices;  but  in  this  case  the  people  of  Jabesh  might  act  otherwise, 
 either  because  the  bodies  of  Saul  and  his  sons  were,  by  this  time, 
 so  dried  or  corrupted,  that  they  were  not  fit  to  be  embalmed ;  or 
 because  they  were  apprehensive,  that  if  they  should  embalm 
 them,  and  so  bury  them,  the  people  of  Bethshan  might,  at  one 
 time  or  other,  come  and  dig  them  up,  and  fix  them  against  their 
 walls  again ;  and  therefore  the  Jabeshites  thought  it  advisable  to 
 recede  from  their  common  practice,  and  for  the  greater  security, 
 to  imitate  the  heathens  in  this  particular:  "  Weeping  for  their 
 gentle  companion,  they  gathered  up  his  whitened  bones  into  a 
 golden  urn."  {Hum.  II.  xxiii.) — Calmet's  and  Le  Gere's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 b  It  seems  a  little  strange,  that  we  nowhere  read  of  any  gene- 
 ral mourning  that  was  made  for  Saul  and  his  sons,  who  died  in 
 battle ;  but  the  national  troubles,  which  followed  upon  his  death, 
 Alight  perhaps  be  an  obstruction  to  this.  David  and  his  men 
 mourned  but  one  day  for  Saul:  and  therefore,  when  it  is  said  of  the 
 Jabeshites,  that  they  fasted  seven  days,  their  fasting  must  not  be 
 understood  in  a  strict  sense,  as  if  they  ate  nothing  all  this  time, 
 1'iit  in  a  more  large  and  general  signification,  as  it  is  used  both  in 
 sacred  and  profane  writers,  namely,  that  they  lived  very  abste- 
 miously, ate  little,  and  that  seldom,  and  that  but  mean  food,  and 
 instead  of  wine  drank  water  only. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and 
 I'u  tie's  Annotations, 
 
 meinbered  the  story  of  the  walls  of  Jericho  3  falling  down 
 by  the  power  of  this  ark's  seven  times  surrounding  them. 
 They  had  heard 4  of  the  defeat  which  their  forefathers 
 had  suffered,  when  they  presumed  to  march  against  the 
 Canaanites  without  their  leader,  and  without  this  ark  ; 
 and  were  fond  enough  to  imagine,  that  God  himself 
 might  be  looked  upon  a3  overcome,  if  the  Philistines 
 should  have  the  advantage,  when  the  ark  of  his  presence 
 was  with  them.  By  this  means,  therefore,  they  thought  to 
 interest  his  honour  in  the  war,  and  make  him  responsible 
 as  it  were,  for  any  disaster  that  should  befall  them ;  and 
 upon  these  motives  it  was  that  they  sent  for  the  ark. 
 
 But  because  they  presumed  to  send  for  it,  without  ever 
 consulting  God,  as  they  used  to  do  upon  all  momentous 
 affairs  ;  because  the  iniquities  of  the  people  were  become 
 so  enormous,  as  not  to  deserve  any  longer  the  divine 
 presence  among  them  ;  and  because  the  flagitiousness  of 
 the  priests,  who  were  killed  in  defending  the  ark,  had 
 for  a  long  time,  called  for  some  judgment  upon  them  ; 
 that  therefore  his  predictions  concerning  the  sons  of  Eli 
 might  be  fulfilled,  he  permitted  the  ark  to  be  taken,  as 
 thinking  it  more  inconsistent  with  his  honour  to  afford 
 assistance  to  the  wicked  and  presumptuous,  than  to  admit 
 of  the  profanation  even  of  the  most  sacred  things.  AVhat 
 an  affliction  the  loss  of  this  ark  was  to  the  people  of 
 Israel  we  may  learn  from  the  sad  fate  of  Eli,  and  his 
 daughter-in-law,  who  both  died  for  grief  at  the  bare 
 hearing  of  it ;  and  therefore  we  may  suppose  that  a  far- 
 ther reason  for  God's  permitting  it,  might  be,  to  bring 
 his  own  people  to  a  sense  of  their  apostasy  and  ingra- 
 titude to  him,  when  they  came  to  consider  what  a  damage 
 they  suffered  in  the  departure  of  this  symbol  of  his  pre- 
 sence, which  was  deservedly  esteemed  *  the  glory  of 
 Israel. 
 
 What  afflictions  the  taking  or  withholding  the  ark 
 brought  upon  the  Philistines,  the  fall  of  their  god  Dagon, 
 the  mice,  the  emerods,  the  pestilence,  and  other  sore 
 judgments,  do  abundantly  testify;  and  therefore  we  may 
 suppose  yet  farther,  that  God's  design  in  permitting  this 
 capture  of  the  ark,  was  to  demonstrate  his  power  among 
 the  heathens,  and  to  let  the  Philistines  know,  that  his 
 dominion  reached  everywhere ;  that  he  was  equally  the 
 Lord  both  of  the  conquerors  and  conquered ;  and  that 
 the  pretended  deities  whom  they  adored,  in  comparison 
 of  him,  were  of  no  avail. 
 
 It  was  from  an  intent,  therefore,  to  illustrate  his  al- 
 mighty power,  and  not  from  any  inability  to  preserve  it ; 
 that  God  suffered  this  ark  of  the  covenant  to  be  taken  ; 
 and  though  what  the  Jews  call  the  shechinah,  or  visible 
 token  of  God's  presence,  which  abode  under  the  two 
 cherubim  upon  the  propitiatory,  or  covering  of  the  ark, 
 in  the  shape  of  the  cloud,  might  not  be  so  apparent,  after 
 it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines  ;  yet  that  it  had 
 divine  and  miraculous  power  attending  it,  is  evident  by 
 their  own  confession,  who,  upon  seeing  the  destruction 
 that  its  presence  had  occasioned,  do  frankly  declare, 
 that  6  '  the  ark  of  the  God  of  Israel  should  not  abide  with 
 them,  because  his  hand  was  sore  upon  them,  and  upon 
 Dagon  their  god.' 
 
 It  was  a  particular  prohibition,  '  that  not  only  the 
 common  people,  but  even  the  Levites  themselves,  should 
 
 Josh 
 
 vi.  4.         4  Num. 
 
 c  1  Sam.  v.  7. 
 
 11 
 
 45.         5  1  Sam. 
 '  Num.  iv.  20. 
 
 22. 
 
456  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2SS8.  A.  C.  IU6;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 not  dare  to  look  into  the  ark,  or  any  other  of  the  holy 
 utensils,  belonging-  to  the  service  of  God,  upon  pain  of 
 death  ;  and  the  severity  of  this  law  will  not  seem  so  un- 
 reasonable, when  it  is  considered,  that  in  every  nation  it 
 Mas  always  accounted  a  great  profaneness,  and  frequently 
 attended  with  exemplary  punishments,  for  such  as  were 
 not  initiated, '  to  obtrude  into  the  mysteries  of  religion  ; 
 and  that,  if  the  Philistines,  for  their  irreverence  to  the 
 ark,  were  treated  with  less  rigour  than  the  Bethshemites, 
 it  was  because  the  former  were  not  instructed  in  the  laws 
 of  God,  nor  obliged  to  observe  them. 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged,  indeed,  that  there  is  a  mis- 
 take in  our  translation,  as  well  as  in  several  others. 
 Bethshemesh  is  a  place  of  no  great  note  in  sacred  history, 
 and  -  by  Josephus  it  is  called  no  more  than  a  village ; 
 and  therefore  it  is  hardly  conceivable,  how  it  could 
 contain  such  a  number  as  fifty  thousand  and  threescore 
 and  ten  inhabitants,  or  why  God,  who  is  goodness  itself, 
 should  make  such  a  slaughter  among  those  who  received 
 his  ark  with  so  much  joy,  and  testified  their  gladness, 
 by  their  oblation  of  sacrifices.  To  solve  this  difficulty, 
 therefore,  some  have  observed,  that  the  words  in  the  ori- 
 ginal, and  according  to  their  natural  construction,  stand 
 thus: — He  smote  of  the  people  '  threescore  and  ten  men, 
 fifty  thousand  men  ;'  where  there  is  plainly  wanted  some 
 particle  or  other,  to  make  the  sense  complete.  They 
 observe  further,  that  if  this  is  to  be  taken  for  a  total  sum, 
 the  order  of  the  words  is  plainly  inverted,  and  that 
 the  thousands  should  go  before  the  inferior  numbers,  as 
 is  usual  in  all  languages :  and  therefore,  since  there 
 is  a  manifest  defect  in  the  copy,  they  think  it  not 
 amiss  to  supply  it  with  the  particle  mem,  out  of,  which  in 
 many  other  instances  is  known  to  be  omitted,  and  here 
 makes  the  sense  complete,  namely,  that  of  the  people  of 
 Bethshemesh,  for  their  irreverence  to  the  ark,  he  smote 
 '  seventy  men  out  of  fifty  thousand.'  For  though  fifty 
 thousand  men  can  hardly  be  supposed  in  so  small  a 
 place;  yet,  upon  hearing  of  the  arrival  of  the  ark,  the 
 country  might  Hock  in  from  other  parts,  and  in  a  few 
 days  make  up  that  number  ;  and  though  possibly  most  of 
 them  might  be  guilty  of  the  same  profane  rudeness,  yet 
 God,  in  his  great  clemency,  might  punish  no  more  than 
 seventy  of  them,  and  that  on  purpose  to  deter  others 
 from  the  like  irreverence.  a  For  it  is  not  unlikely,  that 
 these  people  might  hold  the  ark  in  more  contempt,  since 
 the  time  that  it  had  been  conquered,  as  it  were,  and  led 
 captive  by  their  enemies  ;  and  for  this  reason  God 
 might  the  rather  exert  his  vindictive  arm,  on  purpose  to 
 teach  them,  that  this  symbol  of  his  presence  had  lost 
 none  of  its  miraculous  power,  by  the  ill  usage  it  had  met 
 with  in  its  absence. 
 
 Upon  the  removal  of  the  ark  from  Bethshemesh,  3  it 
 is  not  unlikely  that  there  was  a  general  assembly  of  the 
 elders  of  Israel,  and  that  to  prevent  the  like  offence,  the 
 
 1  See  Hueti  Qurcst.  Alent.  b.  2,  c.  12.  p.  200. 
 *  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  6.  c.  2.        3  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 a  There  is  without  doubt  an  interpolation  in  the  Hebrew  text 
 here,  as  fifty  thousand  is  too  great  a  number.  Boothroyd  and  Dr 
 Clark  follow  the  reading  of  Josephus  adopted  by  the  author,  and 
 makes  the  whole  number  70  men,  while  Dr  Hales  contends  for 
 the  reading  of  the  Syriac  and  Arabic  versions,  which  have  5070 
 men.  See  Clarke  and  Hoothroyd  on  the  passage,  and  Hales' 
 Analysis,  vol.  ii.  p.  304.  Seventy  men  out  of  a  small  place  in  a 
 harvest  da}-,  was  a  great  slaughter. — Ei>. 
 
 ceremony  was  performed  with  the  greatest  order  and 
 solemnity  ;  but  whyr  it  was  not  carried  to  Shiloh,  and  re- 
 posited  in  the  tabernacle,  the  most  probable  opinion  is, 
 that  after  the  death  of  Eli,  the  Philistines  had  destroyed 
 the  place,  and  the  tabernacle  was  removed  from  thence 
 to  Nob,  where  it  continued  until  the  death  of  Samuel. 
 As  Kirjath-jearim  therefore  stood  at  no  great  distance, 
 was  a  place  of  considerable  strength,  and  had  a  remark- 
 able eminence  in  it,  proper  for  the  reception  of  the  ark, 
 thither  it  was  ordered  to  be  removed  for  the  present, 
 with  a  design,  no  doubt,  to  have  it  restored  to  its  an- 
 cient seat,  at  a  convenient  season  :  but  through  the 
 neglect  of  religion,  as  well  as  the  disturbance  of  the 
 times,  its  removal  was  deferred  from  day  to  day :  so 
 that,  though  David  first  brought  it  to  the  house  of  Obed- 
 edom,  and  then  to  his  palace  at  Sion,  yet  we  nowhere 
 read  b  of  its  being  replaced  in  the  tabernacle  any  more. 
 
 When  Samuel  was  highly  displeased  with  the  elders 
 of  Israel  for  desiring  a  king,  and  thereupon  applied 
 himself  for  advice,  the  answer  which  God  returned  him 
 was  this  :  '  *  Hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  people  in 
 all  that  they  say  unto  thee  ;  for  they  have  not  rejected 
 thee,  but  they  have  rejected  me,  that  I  should  not  reign 
 over  them.'  These  are,  no  doubt,  the  words  of  an  angry 
 sovereign,  resenting  the  slight  upon  his  government,  and 
 the  indignity  done  to  his  person  ;  and  therefore,  to  give 
 a  full  answer  to  the  objection,  we  shall  first  consider  the 
 nature  of  the  government  they  were  under,  and  of  that 
 which  they  desired,  and  from  thence  deduce  the  several 
 aggravations  of  their  guilt,  in  being  so  importunate  for 
 a  change. 
 
 Josephus  5in  his  book  against  Apion  has  these  re- 
 markable words :  "  Several  nations  have  their  several 
 forms  of  government,  and  their  diversities  of  customs. 
 Some  governments  are  committed  to  a  single  person, 
 others  to  a  certain  number  of  select  men,  and  others 
 again  to  all  the  people  in  general ;  but  our  lawgiver," 
 says  he,  "  has  declared,  that  ours  shall  c  be  a  theocracy, 
 
 4  1  Sam.  viii. 
 
 15. 
 
 b  The  future  history  of  this  sacred  ark  is  this.  After  the 
 building  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  Solomon  had  it  removed 
 from  Sion,  into  a  proper  place  that  was  consecrated  for  it,  where 
 it  remained  with  all  suitable  respect,  till  the  times  of  the  latter 
 kings  of  Judah,  who  gave  themselves  up  to  idolatry,  and  were 
 not  afraid  to  put  the  images  of  their  gods  in  the  holy  place  itself. 
 Hereupon  the  priests,  being  unable  to  endure  this  profanation, 
 took  the  ark,  and  carried  it  from  place  to  place,  that  by  this 
 means  it  might  escape  the  fury  of  these  impious  princes:  but 
 Josiah,  who  was  a  good  man,  and  restored  the  true  worship  of 
 God,  commanded  them  to  bring  it  back  to  the  sanctuary,  and 
 forbade  them  to  carry  it  into  the  country,  as  they  had  done. 
 The  Talmudists,  however,  have  a  tradition,  that  Solomon  having 
 learned  by  revelation,  that  the  Assyrians  would  one  day  burn 
 the  temple,  which  he  had  lately  built,  and  cany  away  all  the 
 rich  materials  which  he  had  placed  there,  took  care  to  have  a 
 private  hole  made  under  ground,  where  in  case  of  necessity,  he 
 might  conceal  the  most  valuable  things  belonging  to  it  from  the 
 knowledge  of  any  enemies;  and  that  Josiah,  having  a  foresight 
 ol  the  calamities  which  were  coming  upon  the  Jewish  nation, 
 here  hid  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  together  with  Aaron's  rod,  the 
 pot  of  manna,  the  high  priest's  pectoral,  and  the  holy  oil ;  but 
 that  during  the  Babylonish  captivity,  the  priests  having  lost  all 
 knowledge  of  the  place  where  these  things  were  concealed,  they 
 were  never  seen  more,  and  were  not  in  the  second  temple. — 
 Calmet's  Dictionari/,  under  the  word  Ark. 
 
 c  As  God's  design  in  separating  the  Israelites  from  the  rest 
 ot  mankind,  was  to  perpetuate  the  knowledge  of  himself,  and  the 
 doctrine  of  his  unity,  amidst  an  idolatrous  and  polytheistic  world ; 
 
Sect.  III.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  111G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 457 
 
 and  has  ascribed  all  rule  and  sovereign  power  to  God 
 alone."  For  though  it  was  necessary,  for  the  due  exe- 
 cution of  his  commands,  that  there  should  be  some  visible 
 minister  between  him  and  his  people,  such  as  Moses  and 
 Joshua  were  in  the  time  of  their  administration  ;  yet  it  is 
 certain,  that  they  never  ordained  any  thing  of  moment 
 without  a  special  command  from  him.  The  same  direc- 
 tion which  was  given  Joshua,  that  ' *  he  should  stand 
 before  Eleazar  the  priest,  who  should  ask  counsel  for 
 him,  after  the  judgment  of  Urim  before  the  Lord,'  was 
 required  of  all  other  persons  that  presided  in  public 
 all'airs.  2  In  all  cases  of  weighty  concern,  they  were  to 
 have  recourse  to  him,  who  always  reserved  to  himself 
 the  sole  power  of  establishing  laws,  and  appointing  ma- 
 gistrates, and  making  war.  Nay,  so  very  desirous  was 
 God  to  show  himself  to  be  King  of  the  Hebrews,  that 
 there  was  no  ensign  of  royalty  belonging  to  earthly 
 princes  that,  by  his  own  appointment,  was  not  provided 
 for  him,  on  purpose  to  engage  the  people's  attention, 
 (as  the  Commentator  on  Maimonides  speaks,)  and  to 
 make  them  perceive,  that  their  King,  who  was  the  Lord 
 of  hosts,  was  in  the  midst  of  them. 
 
 What  design  God  Almighty  had  in  constituting  him- 
 self the  King  of  this  people,  is  evident  from  the  instruc- 
 tions which  he  gives  Moses  ;  '  3  Thus  shalt  thou  say  to 
 the  house  of  Jacob,  and  tell  the  children  of  Israel,  ye 
 have  seen  what  I  have  done  unto  the  Egyptians,  and 
 how  1  bore  you  on  eagles'  wings,  and  brought  you  unto 
 myself.  Now  therefore,  if  ye  will  obey  my  voice  in- 
 deed, and  keep  my  covenant,  then  ye  shall  be  a  peculiar 
 treasure  unto  me  above  all  people ;  for  all  the  earth  is 
 mine,  and  ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  kingdom  of  priests,  and 
 an  holy  nation.' 
 
 No  government  can  certainly  be  imagined  more  happy, 
 more  safe,  more  free,  more  honourable,  than  that  wherein 
 the  fountain  of  all  wisdom  and  power,  of  all  justice  and 
 goodness,  presides  ;  and  therefore  the  least  that  we  can 
 say  of  the  Israelites,  in  desiring  to  change  this  form  for 
 such  a  one  as  was  in  use  in  the  nations  round  about 
 them,  that  is,  for  an  absolute  and  despotic  government, 
 where  the  princes  were  tyrants,  and  the  subjects   all 
 
 1  Num.  xxvii.  21.  *  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 3  Saurin's  Dissertation  25.  vol.  4 ;    Exod.  xix.  3,  &c. 
 
 so  was  he  pleased  to  stand  in  two  arbitrary  relations  towards 
 tliem,  in  that  of  a  tutelar  deity  and  protector,  and  in  that  of  a 
 supreme  magistrate  and  lawgiver;  besides  the  natural  relation 
 in  which  he  stood  towards  them  and  all  other  nations  in  common: 
 but  how  long  this  theocracy  continued  among  the  Jews,  the 
 learned  are  not  so  well  agreed ;  some  thinking,  that  from  the 
 first  commencement  of  regal  power,  or  especially  from  its  settle- 
 ment in  the  line  of  David,  it  ceased,  as  God's  words  to  Samuel 
 seem  to  import,  '  they  have  not  rejected  thee,  but  they  have  re- 
 jected me,  that  1  should  not  reign  over  them,'  1  Sam.  viii.  7. 
 Whilst  others  imagine,  that  from  God's  first  espousing  the  cause 
 of  the  Israelites,  in  the  time  of  their  tribulation  in  Egypt,  even 
 to  the  coming  of  his  blessed  Son  our  Saviour  Christ  in  the  flesh, 
 it  all  along  subsisted,  though  with  some  abatements,  sometimes 
 with  seeming  interruptions;  and  to  this  they  apply  that  famous 
 prophecy  of  Jacob,  '  The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah, 
 nor  the  lawgiver  from  between  his  feet,  until  Shiloh  come,' 
 •  ii'ii.  xlix.  10:  that  is,  the  theocracy  shall  continue  over  the 
 Jews,  until  Christ  come  to  take  possession  of  his  father's  king- 
 dom. For  what  lawgiver  was  there  ever  in  Judah,  until  the 
 coming  of  Christ,  but  God,  by  the  ministry  of  Moses. — Opinions 
 <;/  several  Theologians,  letter  7.  Simon's  Critical  History  of  the 
 old  Testament;  and  fParSurton's  Divine  Legation  if  Moses, 
 vol.  2.  part  2. 
 
 slaves,  argues  at  least  a  great  pitch  of  folly  and  indis- 
 cretion, a  baseness  of  mind,  an  ingratitude  of  temper, 
 a  spirit  of  rebellion,  and  a  secret  attachment  to  the 
 idolatrous  practices  of  those  people,  whose  king  they 
 were  so  eager  to  imitate.  For,  '  make  us  a  king  to 
 judge  us,'  was  equivalent  in  their  mouths,  as  *  one  ex- 
 presses it,  to  what  their  forefathers  demanded  of  Aaron, 
 ' 5  make  us  gods  that  they  may  go  before  us  ;  because  in 
 this  manner,  he  who  best  knew  the  secrets  of  their  hearts, 
 in  his  answer  to  Samuel,  has  expounded  their  meaning  : 
 '  They  have  not  rejected  thee,  but  they  have  rejected 
 me,  that  I  should  not  reign  over  them ;  according  to  all 
 the  works  which  they  have  done,  since  the  day  that  1 
 brought  them  up  out  of  Egypt,  even  unto  this  day,  they 
 have  forsaken  me,  and  served  other  gods.' 
 
 We  have  but  one  thing  more  to  remark  upon  this  sub- 
 ject, and  that  is,  that  the  manner  in  which  they  demanded 
 a  king,  was  no  less  culpable  than  the  ends  they  propos- 
 ed by  it :  for  instead  of  consulting  God  upon  an  affair 
 of  this  consequence,  they  went  hastily  to  Samuel,  and 
 when,  by  fair  remonstrances,  he  is  attempting  to  dissuade 
 them  from  so  dangerous  an  enterprise,  they  turn  impetu- 
 ously upon  him,  and  say,  '  nay,  but  we  will  have  a  king  ;' 
 and  this  may  be  the  reason  perhaps  why  God  gave  them 
 one  in  his  anger,  descended  of  the  meanest  tribe  in  Is- 
 rael, and  of  the  meanest  family  in  that  tribe,  to  show 
 them,  that  he  himself  was  not  satisfied  with  their  pro- 
 ceedings, nor  could  be  pleased  with  any  thing  that  was 
 extorted  from  him  by  undutiful  importunities. 
 
 The  meanness  of  Saul's  family  indeed  was  the  reason 
 that  some,  who  were  present  at  his  election,  openly  de- 
 spised him,  and  said,  6 •'  How  can  this  man  save  us  ?'  And 
 therefore  it  is  not  unlikely,  that  as  these  seditious  men 
 refused  to  submit  to  his  government,  he  might  leave  the 
 public  affairs  in  Samuel's  hands,  and  return  to  his  fa- 
 ther's house,  and  there  live  privately,  until  some  oppor- 
 tunity of  better  establishing  his  authority  should  happen 
 to  present  itself.  But  even  in  this  interval,  supposing 
 he  did  betake  himself  to  some  rural  employment;  yet 
 where  is  the  great  disparagement  of  this,  when  we  find 
 the  same  done  in  other  nations,  by  persons  of  the  like 
 rank  and  quality  ?  AY  hen  we  find  your  Curii,  your  At- 
 tilii,  your  Cincinnati,  and  several  other  illustrious  Ro- 
 mans, leaving  the  plough  to  assume  the  reins  of  go- 
 vernment, and  afterwards  leaving  the  government  to 
 return  to  the  plough. 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that  Saul's  exter- 
 nal qualifications,  namely,  the  stature  and  comeliness  of 
 his  person,  was  no  small  recommendation  to  a  people 
 who  desired  a  king,  such  as  their  neighbours  had.  For 
 whatever  we  may  think  of  the  matter,  the  people  of  the 
 east  had  always  a  regard  to  these  in  the  choice  of  then- 
 kings  ;  and  accordingly  Herodotus,  having  taken  a  re- 
 view of  Xerxes's  whole  army,  after  a  short  pause  de- 
 clares himself  thus ;  '  that  ~  among  such  a  multitude  of 
 people  there  was  not  one,  who,  for  tallness  and  goodli- 
 ness  of  person,  did  deserve  the  throne  so  much  as  he  ;* 
 and  in  another  place  assures  us,  '  that 8  the  Ethiopians 
 always  esteemed  him  who  was  of  the  most  advantageous 
 stature,  the  fittest  to  be  chosen  king;'  which  cannot  but 
 remind  us  of  what  Samuel  says  to  the  people  when  he 
 
 Saurin's  Dissertation  25.  vol.  4 :       Exod.  xix.  3,  &C. 
 Exod.  xxxii.  1.      u  1  Sam.  x.  27.       7  Herodotus,  b.  6.  c.  77. 
 
 8  Ibid.  b.  vi.  c.  20. 
 
 3   M 
 
458  THE  HISTORY  OF    THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  JSS8.  A.  C.  111G;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  1301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 presents  Saul  to  them :  ' '  See  ye  him  whom  the  Lord 
 hath  chosen,  that  there  is  none  like  him  among  the 
 people  ;'  for  the  historian  hath  told  us  before,  that 
 2 '  from  his  shoulders  and  upwards,  he  was  higher  than 
 any  of  the  people.' 
 
 Nay,  had  I  leisure  to  gratify  the  curious,  I  might 
 show,  that  not  only  in  the  east,  but  in  the  western  and 
 most  polite  countries,  this  tallness  of  stature,  and  grace- 
 fulness of  appearance  were  always  deemed  no  unbecom- 
 ing qualifications  for  the  regal  dignity;  and  therefore 
 we  find  Pliny,  who  certainly  was  a  fine  speaker,  and 
 knew  how  to  single  out  the  proper  qualities  in  any  great 
 man,  telling  his  audience,  in  his  panegyric  to  Trajan, 
 that  "  the  strength  and  tallness  of  his  body,  the  noble- 
 ness of  his  aspect,  the  dignity  of  his  countenance,  and 
 the  gracefulness  of  his  speech,  did  everywhere  denote 
 and  proclaim  the  prince."  As  on  the  contrary,  what 
 notions  the  ancients  had  of  a  prince  of  a  low  stature, 
 and  mean  appearance,  Ave  may  gather  from  the  fine 
 which  3  Plutarch  tells  us  the  Lacedemonians  set  upon 
 their  king,  for  marrying  a  little  woman,  who  was  likely 
 to  bring  '  not  kings,  but  kinglings,'  to  reign  over  them. 
 It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  tallness  of  sta- 
 ture was  not  the  only  thing  that  recommended  Saul  to 
 the  kingdom.  His  father  is  said  to  have  been  *  '  a  mighty 
 man  of  power ;'  which  though  it  may  not  signify  his 
 great  wealth,  and  interest  in  his  country,  because  5  Saul 
 himself  declares  the  contrary,  yet  it  doubtless  denotes 
 his  strength,  and  courage,  and  fortitude  of  mind,  which 
 in  a  great  measure  he  transmitted  to  his  son.  For  who 
 in  war  was  more  brave  and  undaunted  than  he,  had  he 
 but  known  how  to  use  his  victories  as  well  as  acquire 
 them  ?  But  here  was  his  great  misfortune,  that  when  he 
 was  successful,  he  was  too  apt  to  be  unmindful  of  what 
 God  had  enjoined  him.  AVho  in  peace  was  more  pru- 
 dent and  politic  than  he,  till  his  fears  and  jealousies  of 
 David,  mixed  with  an  unhappy  temper  of  blood,  made 
 him  malicious  and  implacable?  Nothing  can  be  sup- 
 posed more  wise  and  discreet,  than  his  6 '  holding  his 
 peace,'  and  taking  no  notice  of  the  slights  which  were 
 put  upon  him  at  his  first  election ;  nothing  more  great 
 and  generous,  than  his  answer  to  some  who  would  have 
 prompted  him  to  revenge,  after  he  had  established  his 
 throne  by  a  glorious  conquest ;  ' '  There  shall  not  a 
 man  be  put  to  death  this  day ;  for  to-day  the  Lord  hath 
 wrought  salvation  in  Israel.' 
 
 Nothing  certainly  was  more  different,  than  Saul's  mo- 
 destly declining  the  offer  of  a  kingdom ;  when  elected, 
 passing  by  indignities,  and  returning  to  a  private  life  ; 
 when  called  out  to  action,  mustering  his  forces,  leading 
 out  his  armies,  vanquishing  his  enemies,  relieving  his 
 friends :  and  when  settled  in  peace,  forgiving  injuries, 
 ami  conferring  benefits  ;  and  the  same  Saul,  sullen  and 
 discontented  with  himself,  false  to  his  promises,  jealous 
 of  his  friends,  listening  to  sycophants,  quarrelling  with  his 
 relations,  attempting  the  life  of  his  own  son,  murdering 
 a  whole  city  of  God's  priests,  and  instead  of  consulting 
 the  divine  oracle,  Hying  to  the  devil  for  advice  in  his 
 distress  ;  and  therefore  we  need  less  wonder,  that  we 
 
 1  I  Sam.  x.  24.  *  l  Sam.  ix.  2. 
 
 J  In  the  beginning  of  his  book  on  the  Instruction  of  Children. 
 •  1  Sam.  ix.  1.       5  1  Sam.  ix.  21.        '  1  Sam.  x.  27. 
 '  1  Sam.  xi.  13. 
 
 find  the  beginning  of  his  reign  so  prosperous,  and  the 
 latter  part  of  it  ending  in  so  sad  a  catastrophe. 
 
 Whether  Saul  deserved  this  fate  or  no,  we  may  best 
 perceive  by  a  review  of  some  instances  wherein  he  is 
 said  to  have  offended  God.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
 third  year  of  his  reign,  the  Philistines  raised  so  powerful 
 an  army  against  him,  that  his  own  forces  for  fear  of  them, 
 deserted  in  great  numbers.  Gilgal  was  the  place  of 
 their  rendezvous,  and  Samuel,  who  had  hitherto  trans- 
 acted matters  between  God  and  Saul,  had  given  him 
 assurance,  that  in  seven  days'  time,  he  would  come  thi- 
 ther, 8  '  to  offer  sacrifices  and  peace-offerings,  and  to 
 show  him  what  he  was  to  do  ;'  but,  as  Abarbinel  has  ob- 
 served, every  one  of  these  articles  he  transgressed.  For, 
 besides  that  he  distrusted  Samuel's  word,  or  thought  it 
 scorn  perhaps,  that  the  king  should  stay  for  a  prophet, 
 instead  of  waiting  till  the  appointed  days  were  expired, 
 he  called  for  the  sacrifices  on  the  seventh  morning;  in- 
 stead of  ordering  a  proper  person  to  officiate,  himself 
 adventured  to  offer  up  the  sacrifice ;  and  instead  of 
 inquiring  of  God  in  a  regular  way,  he  was  determined  to 
 begin  the  war  without  any  previous  consultations  :  so 
 that,  in  this  behaviour  of  his,  there  were  all  the  signs  of 
 pride  and  ingratitude,  impatience  and  distrust,  neglect  of 
 God,  contempt  of  his  prophet,  and  an  apparent  invasion 
 of  the  priestly  office  ;  upon  which  accounts  Samuel  de- 
 clares, that  9  God  would  reject  him,  and  not  continue 
 the  kingdom  in  his  family. 
 
 God,  no  doubt,  by  his  divine  omniscience,  foresaw  what 
 other  sins  Saul  would  commit,  and  might  therefore  with- 
 out any  breach  of  his  mercy,  have  pronounced  a  per- 
 emptory sentence  against  him  ;  but  the  passage  before 
 us  implies  no  such  thing.  It  is  no  more  than  a  threat, 
 or  a  simple  denunciation  of  what  God  would  do,  if  he 
 were  not  more  observant  for  the  future,  and  might 
 have  been  revoked,  had  he  not  persisted  in  his  disobedi- 
 ence, and  committed  a  much  greater  offence  against  the 
 divine  Majesty  in  the  war  against  Amalek. 
 
 The  opposition  which  these  people  gave  the  Israelites, 
 while  they  were  on  their  journey  to  the  land  of  Canaan, 
 provoked  God  to  such  a  degree,  that,  as  the  historian 
 relates  the  matter,  he  swore,  that w  '  he  would  have  war 
 with  Amalek  from  generation  to  generation  ;'  and  there- 
 fore commanded  Moses  '  to  write  it,  for  a  memorial,  in  a 
 book,  and  to  rehearse  it  in  the  ears  of  Joshua,  that  he 
 would  utterly  put  out  the  remembrance  of  Amalek  from 
 under  heaven  :  and  when  they  were  upon  the  point  of 
 entering  upon  the  promised  land,  they  were  reminded 
 of  the  same  divine  decree  against  that  wicked  people  : 
 11  '  Remember  what  Amalek  did  unto  thee  by  the  way, 
 when  ye  were  come  forth  out  of  Egypt,  how  he  met 
 thee  by  the  way,  and  smote  the  hindmost  of  thee, 
 even  all  that  were  feeble  behind  thee,  when  thou  wast 
 faint  and  weary,  and  he  feared  not  God :  therefore 
 it  shall  be,  when  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  given  thee 
 rest  from  all  thine  enemies  round  about  in  the  land, 
 which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee  for  an  inheritance 
 to  possess  it,  that  thou  shalt  blot  out  the  remembrance  of 
 Amalek  from  under  heaven  ;  thou  shalt  not  forget  it.'  In 
 this  passage  we  have  some  reasons  assigned,  why  God 
 was  so  highly  incensed  against  the  Amalekites.12    They 
 
 1  Tarn.  x.  8.  3  1  Sam.  xiii.  11.  '«  Exod.  xvii.  13,  14. 
 
 11  Deut.  xxv.  17,  &c.  a  Gen.  xxxvi.  12 
 
Srct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES-  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 459 
 
 A    U    2888.  A.  C.  111G  ;  OR,  ACCOKDING  TO  HAI 
 
 were  descendants  of  Esau,  and  therefore  by  pedigree, 
 were  allied  to  the  Israelites,  and  of  the  stock  of  Abra- 
 ham. *  They  seem  to  have  broke  off  with  the  Edomites 
 very  early,  and  to  have  joined  themselves  with  the  old 
 Horites,  a  nest  of  idolaters,  that  lived  on  Mount  Seir  ; 
 and  so  turned  apostates  from  the  religion  of  Abraham. 
 These  apostates  were  the  first  that  drew  the  sword  against 
 the  Israelites,  who  were  their  brethren  in  blood,  and 
 without  any  manner  of  provocation,  took  the  advantage, 
 and  came  upon  their  rear,  while  they  were  feeble,  faint, 
 and  weary,  which  was  not  only  a  great  inhumanity,  but 
 done  with  an  intent  to  defeat  Gods  design  in  bringing 
 up  the  people  of  Israel,  and  to  hinder,  if  possible,  their 
 entrance  into  Canaan ;  for  which  reason  the  impiety  of 
 these  people  is  particularly  taken  notice  of,  namely, 
 '  that  they  feared  not  God,  but  that  their  hand  was  lifted  up 
 against  the  throne  of  the  Lord,  against  the  throne  of  the 
 God  of  Abraham,'  their  father,  which  was  no  small  ag- 
 gravation of  their  crime.  It  was  for  these  reasons,  then, 
 that  God  had  determined  to  destroy  the  whole  race  of 
 Amalek,  and  had  made  choice  of  Saul  to  put  his  decree 
 in  execution  :  and  if,  to  indulge  his  own  covetousness,  he 
 thought  proper  to  prevaricate  in  the  matter,  he  became 
 guilty  of  the  like  sin  (to  use  the  words  of  the  learned 
 Dr  Jackson)  "  as  if  a  judge  or  inferior  magistrate,  being- 
 intrusted  to  do  justice  in  a  matter  unto  which  his  sove- 
 reign had  peremptorily  and  determinately  sworn,  should 
 upon  a  bribe,  or  other  sinister  respect,  neglect  his  duty, 
 and,  as  much  as  in  him  lay,  make  his  master  forsworn." 
 And  as  a  judge  that  would  dare  to  do  this,  deserves  more 
 deaths  than  one  ;  so,  considering  the  infinite  difference 
 between  God  and  man,  and  the  long  train  of  wickedness 
 which  Saul  afterwards  ran  into,  the  severity  can  hardly 
 be  thought  excessive,  in  God's  punishing  his  contempt  of 
 this  great  command,  by  the  alienation  of  the  crown  from 
 his  family. 
 
 "  But  why  should  the  Amalekites,  for  offences  com- 
 mitted by  their  forefathers  so  many  years  before,  deserve 
 this  punishment  ?  Or  suppose  they  did,  why  should  young 
 children  and  infants  suffer  as  guilty,  for  the  crimes  of 
 their  parents  ?"  Our  blessed  Saviour,  in  a  case  some- 
 what like  this,  has  helped  us  to  a  solution  of  the  former 
 part  of  this  question,  when  he  tells  the  Jews  of  his  time, 
 that  2  '  they  built  the  sepulchres  of  the  prophets,  which 
 their  fathers  had  killed  :  that  in  so  doing,  they  allowed 
 or  approved  of  their  deeds  :  and  that  therefore  the  blood 
 of  all  the  prophets,  which  had  been  shed  from  the  foun- 
 dation of  the  world,  should  be  required  of  that  genera- 
 tion.' From  whence  we  may  draw  this  inference, — That 
 when  any  particular  people  commit  the  same  crimes  that 
 their  ancestors  did  ;  when  they  approve  of  them,  when 
 they  imitate  them,  and,  by  the  like  actions,  declare,  that 
 if  they  were  in  their  circumstances,  they  would  pursue 
 the  same  steps,  they  are  justly  punishable,  even  in  virtue 
 of  the  sentence  which  passed  upon  their  ancestors  ;  and 
 that  tlie  divine  suspension  of  that  sentence,  in  order  to 
 try  whether  they  would  reform  and  amend,  is  so  far  from 
 being  an  hardship,  that  the  longer  it  is  continued,  the 
 more  it  is  an  instance  of  God's  mercy,  and  patience,  and 
 long-suffering. 
 
 Now,  whoever  looks  into  the  conduct  of  the  descen- 
 dants of  these  old  Amalekites,  and  considers  the  several 
 
 1  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  2. 
 
 Luke  \i.  17,  &<•. 
 
 ES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 oppressions  which  occasioned  the  exploits  of  Ehud,  Gi- 
 deon, Jephthah,  and  Saul,  will  soon  perceive,  that  these 
 later  generations  were  every  moment  renewing  the  ran- 
 cour and  hostilities  of  their  forefathers  against  the 
 children  of  Israel,  and  consequently  were  very  justly 
 comprised  under  the  sentence  which  had  originally  pass- 
 ed upon  them. 
 
 3  '  Children  indeed  shall  not  be  put  to  death  for  their 
 fathers  :'  but  this  prohibition,  we  must  observe  relates  to 
 men,  and  not  to  God.  *  Men,  when  they  put  a  child  to 
 death  for  the  sin  of  his  father,  assume  an  authority  that 
 they  have  no  right  to.  The  law  which  authorizes  them 
 to  punish  the  father,  gives  them  no  power  over  the  life  of 
 the  child,  a  but  God  is  sovereign  Lord  and  Master  of  the 
 lives  of  both.  Men  who  kill  the  child,  to  aggravate  the 
 punishment  of  the  father  can  give  the  child  no  equivalent 
 for  the  loss  of  his  life  ;  but  God,  in  the  future  dispensa- 
 tion of  things,  can  render  him  an  ample  compensation  for 
 it:  and  therefore,  since  in  a  general  devastation,  whe- 
 ther of  war,  famine,  or  pestilence,  without  a  divine 
 interposition  for  every  particular  person,  the  innocent 
 must  necessarily  suffer  with  the  guilty,  it  is  satisfaction 
 enough  to  think,  that  these  innocent  persons  do  not 
 finally  perish  when  they  die,  but  are  thenceforward  taken 
 under  God's  immediate  care,  and  in  the  world  to  come, 
 will  find  their  retribution.  5  Those,  of  all  others  who  die, 
 in  their  infancy,  in  what  manner  soever  it  be,  have 
 reason  to  bless  God,  what  grief  soever  it  may  give  their 
 parents,  for  being  delivered  out  of  the  miseries  of  this  life, 
 in  order  to  be  made  happy  in  another. 
 
 Several  of  the  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  after 
 the  death  of  Eli  and  his  sons,  Samuel,  by  God's  parti- 
 cular election,  succeeded  to  the  high  priest's  office  ;  and 
 this  they  are  the  rather  induced  to  believe,  because  they 
 read  of  his  offering  sacrifices  in  places  distinct  from  the 
 tabernacle  ;  of  his  wearing  an  ephod,  which  was  a  vest- 
 ment peculiar  to  the  priest ;  of  his  consecrating  two 
 kings,  Saul  and  David  ;  and  find  6  the  Psalmist  placing 
 him  among  persons  of  that  order  and  distinction.  But 
 the  more  probable  opinion  is,  that  he  was  no  more  than 
 a  Levite,  and,  by  birth,  incapable  of  the  priesthood, 
 which  was  only  annexed  to  Aaron's  family  ;  that  there  is 
 no  mention  made  in  Scripture  of  his  having  any  particu- 
 lar designation  to  that  office  ;  that  there  is  no  reason  to 
 think,  that  God  would  breakthrough  his  own  laws  and  or- 
 dinances, in  favour  of  him,  when  there  was  no  occasion  for 
 it,  since  Hophni  and  Phinehas,  when  they  died,  h  might 
 have  sons  of  sufficient  age  to  succeed  them  ;  that  his  put- 
 ting on  an  ephod,  Mas  no  more  than  what  David  did  ;  his 
 sacrificing  from  the  tabernacle,  what  Gideon  and  Saul 
 
 3  Deut.  xxiv.  10.  4  Saurin's  Dissertation  30.  vol.  4. 
 
 5  Le  Clerc's  Comment,  on  1  Sam.  xv.  3.         6  Ps.  xcix.  G. 
 
 a  God,  indeed,  in  a  law  given  to  the  Jews,  threatens  that  ho 
 will  punish  the  children  for  their  fathers'  iniquity;  but  God  hatt 
 the  highest  right  of  authority  both  over  our  affairs  as  well  as  our 
 life  since  it  is  but  his  gift,  which  he,  without  any  cause,  and  at 
 any  period,  can  take  from  man  when  lie  pleaseth. — Grotii/s  </« 
 the  Rigid  of  War,  vol.  2. 
 
 b  It  is  generally  supposed,  but  without  any  grounds  that  the 
 exercise  of  the  high  priest's  function  was  not  entered  upon  till 
 such  an  age;  and  that  Eli's  grand-children  were  not  as  yet  quali- 
 fied for  it:  but  Josephus  (Antiq,  b.  15.  c.  2.)  informs  us,  that 
 Aristobulus  the  brother  of  Mariamne,  was  both  admitted  into  that 
 place,  and  officiated  in  it,  when  he  was  no  more  than  seventeen 
 rears  old. —  Cahnet'i  Commentary,  on  1  Sam.  xxv.  1 
 
4S0  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  288a  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 did  ;  and  his  anointing  kings,  what  both  Elias  and  Eli- 
 sha  did  :  so  that  these  little  incidents  of  his  life  could 
 never  give  him  that  character.  And  though  it  be  granted 
 that  the  Psalmist  has  thought  proper  to  place  him  in 
 company  with  Moses  and  Aaron,  yet,  at  the  same  time, 
 he  has  taken  care  to  point  us  out  the  difference  between 
 them  ;  Moses  and  Aaron  among  the  priests,  and  Samuel 
 '  among  such  as  call  upon  his  name,'  that  is,  who  sing 
 God's  praise,  which  was  the  common  employment  of  the 
 Levites.  Put  the  case,  then,  that  Samuel  was  no  priest, 
 yet  it  seems  to  be  a  privilege  indulged  to  some  great 
 men,  upon  some  extraordinary  occasions,  to  offer  sacri- 
 fices, where  there  was  neither  the  tabernacle,  nor  any 
 altar,  but  what  they  themselves  erected.  Thus  '  Gideon 
 and  Manoah  both,  by  the  directions  of  an  angel,  made 
 their  burnt-ollerings  just  by  their  own  habitations,  and 
 upon  no  other  altar  than  a  rock ;  and  yet,  that  they  were 
 accepted  by  God,  is  evident  from  the  miraculous  fire 
 that  did  consume  them. 
 
 In  most  countries,  indeed,  the  priesthood  was  a  privi- 
 lege annexed  to  the  regal  dignity,  and  even  in  the  Jewish 
 economy,  where  the  sacerdotal  office  was  distinct.  Thus 
 David,  upon  the  reduction  of  the  ark,  sacrificed  oxen  and 
 fatlings,  2  and  Solomon,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
 and  before  the  temple  was  built,  sacrificed  in  high  places. 3 
 But  there  is  much  more  to  be  said  for  Samuel :  he  lived 
 in  a  place  that  was  an  academy  of  the  prophets,  and 
 whither  much  people  resorted  to  be  instructed  in  the  law. 
 Shiloh  was  now  laid  desolate,  and  the  ark,  which  was 
 the  tabernacle's  chief  furniture,  was  separated  from  it : 
 so  that  till  God  had  declared  his  choice  of  some  other 
 place,  the  people  were,  in  a  great  measure,  at  liberty 
 where  to  offer  their  devotions;  and  Samuel  more  especial- 
 ly, in  a  city  of  so  great  concourse,  and  where  he  himself 
 presided,  was  obliged  in  conscience  to  provide  the  peo- 
 ple in  the  best  manner  he  could,  with  a  public  place  of 
 worship.  He  himself  did  but  rarely,  and  upon  extraor- 
 dinary occasions,  officiate  in  the  sacrifice,  yet  that, 
 whenever  he  did  it,  he  did  it  with  the  acceptance  and 
 approbation  of  God,  is  plain  from  the  testimony  of 
 Scripture,  and  the  success  which  God  gave  him  against 
 his  enemies,  after  he  had  performed  such  an  act  of  devo- 
 tion :  for  thus  the  account  is,  4  '  And  Samuel  took  a 
 sucking  lamb,  and  offered  it  for  a  burnt-offering  wholly 
 unto  the  Lord ;  and  Samuel  cried  unto  the  Lord  for 
 Israel,  and  the  Lord  heard  him,  and  the  Lord  thundered 
 with  a  great  thunder  on  that  day  upon  the  Philistines, 
 and  discomfited  them,  and  they  were  smitten  before 
 Israel.' 
 
 °  The  Jews  themselves  acknowledge,  that  a  prophet  is 
 not  subject  to  the  ceremonial  law,  but  may,  at  any  time, 
 himself  sacrifice  in  what  place  he  pleases  :  and  therefore, 
 when  Samuel  went  to  Bethlehem  to  anoint  David,  it 
 cannot  be  questioned,  but  that  he  had  a  right  to  sacrifice 
 there,  though  there  was  neither  ark  nor  tabernacle  in  the 
 place  ;  nor  can  it  be  denied,  but  that  one  part  of  his  er- 
 rand was  to  offer  the  sacrifice  which  he  carried  along 
 with  him.     He  had  indeed  an  affair  of  greater  conse- 
 
 1  Judg.  vi.  gO.  and  xiii.  19.  2  2  Sam.  vi.  13. 
 
 3  1  Kings  ill.  2,  3.  "1  Sam.  vii.  9,  10. 
 
 a  The  authority  of  a  prophet  causes,  that  whenever  he  is  pre- 
 
 m  nt.  and  superintends,  sacrifice  may  be  done  in  the  due  form  ;  for 
 
 by  the  confession  of  the  .lews,  the  ritual  laws  are  subject  to  the 
 
 command  of  a  prophet. — Crntitis  on  Sam.  xvi.2. 
 
 quence  to  transact  at  the  same  time ;  but  I  cannot  see 
 under  what  obligation  he  was  to  discover  that.  5  Secrecy 
 is  of  great  use  in  all  important  negotiations,  and  the 
 concealing  of  one  design,  under  the  umbrage  of  another 
 is  as  just  and  laudable  a  practice,  as  the  drawing  of  a 
 curtain  to  keep  out  spies.  Acts  of  religion  indeed  are 
 sometimes  made  cloaks  for  iniquity ;  but  it  is  hard  to 
 conceive,  Avhat  possible  prevarication  there  could  be,  in 
 performing  one  act  of  obedience  towards  God,  in  order 
 to  facilitate  the  performance  of  another.  The  short  of 
 the  matter  is,  when  there  are  two  ends  of  any  action,  as 
 there  were  in  the  case  now  before  us,  a  man  may,  with- 
 out any  injury  to  truth,  declare  the  one,  and  conceal  the 
 other  ;  nor  can  any  imputation  justly  fall  upon  God,  for 
 suggesting  an  expedient  to  his  servant,  in  the  execution 
 of  which  there  confessedly  was  no  sin. 
 
 And  for  the  same  reason,  because  it  was  by  God's 
 direction,  or  the  instigation  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  that 
 Samuel  cut  Agag  in  pieces,  we  cannot  say  that  this  re- 
 sentment carried  him  beyond  the  bounds  of  respect  that 
 was  due  to  his  sovereign.  Agag  had  been  a  bloody 
 tyrant,  and  was  now  cut  off',  not  for  the  sins  of  his  an- 
 cestors only,  but  for  his  own  "merciless  cruelty.  His 
 death  had  been  predicted  above  400  years  before,  6  by 
 the  prophet  Balaam ;  but  Saul,  out  of  a  mistimed  com- 
 passion, and  in  opposition  to  the  express  commands  of 
 God,  had  thought  proper  to  spare  him.  Here  therefore 
 was  a  fit  occasion  for  Samuel  to  exert  himself,  and,  not- 
 withstanding the  presence  of  his  prince,  to  vindicate  the 
 honour  of  his  God,  by  expressing  a  zeal  suitable  to  7  that 
 of  Phinehas,  in  slaying  Zimri,  or  of  that  noble  band  of 
 Levites,  8  who  destroyed  the  worshippers  of  the  golden 
 calf,  though  it  does  not  necessarily  follow,  that  he  slew 
 him  himself,  9  because  what  he  commanded  might  be 
 called  his  own  act,  though  it  was  nevertheless  done  by 
 the  public  executioner  of  justice. 
 
 Some  commentators  have  been  so  far  carried  away 
 with  the  manner  of  the  Scripture  expression,  viz.,  that 
 10 '  an  evil  spirit  from  the  Lord  troubled  Saul,'  as  to  think 
 that  he  was  really  possessed  with  a  devil,  which  at  cer- 
 tain times  came  strongly  upon  him,  and  threw  him  into 
 all  the  mad  fits  whereof  we  read  :  but  it  should  be  consi- 
 dered, that  the  word  '  spirit,'  in  the  sacred  language,  is 
 of  a  very  extensive  signification,  and  denotes  frequently, 
 not  only  the  dispositions  of  the  mind,  n  but  those  of  the 
 body  likewise  ;  that  the  custom  of  the  Jews  was  to 
 imagine,  that  everyr  affliction,  whose  cause  they  were 
 ignorant  of,  proceeded  immediately  from  God ;  and  that 
 it  is  a  very  common  thing  to  find  the  Scripture  phrase 
 accommodating  itself  to  this  vulgar  prejudice.  Now,  in 
 our  interpretation  of  Scripture,  this  I  think  should  be  a 
 rule  : — That  when  a  passage  is  capable  of  two  senses, 
 whereof  the  one  supposes  a  miracle,  and  the  other  a 
 natural  event  only,  the  latter  should  take  place,  especi- 
 ally when  there  are  no  circumstances  to  determine  us  to 
 the  contrary.  But  now  in  the  case  before  us,  12  the  fre- 
 quent access  of  Saul's  malady,  the  symptoms  that  attended 
 it,  and  the  remedy  made  use  of  to  assuage  it,  do  suffi- 
 ciently denote,  that  it  proceeded  from  a  deep  melancholy, 
 
 »  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  2.  6  Num.  xxiv.  7.  7  Num.  xxv.  7 
 8  Exod.  xxxii.  27.  9  Patrick's  Comment,  on  1  Sam.  xii.  33. 
 1    t  Sam.  xvi.  14.  ^  "  See  Job  xvii.  I.  awl  Hosea  iv.  12. 
 
 "  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Sam.  >vi.  14. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 461 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4310.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 or  black  bile  inflamed  ;  and  that  the  man  was  hypochon- 
 driac, rather  than  possessed.  Agreeable  to  this  bad 
 complexion  of  body  was  the  natural  temper  of  his  mind, 
 which  through  his  whole  conduct  was  suspicious,  diffident, 
 cruel,  passionate,  and  vindictive.  Add  to  this,  that  the 
 remorses  of  his  conscience,  the  menaces  of  Samuel, 
 God's  rejection  of  him,  and  his  continual  apprehensions 
 of  being  either  dethroned  or  put  to  death,  by  his  compe- 
 titor, confirmed  still  more  and  more  the  evil  dispositions 
 which  his  temper  engendered,  and  carried  them  by  fits 
 into  downright  madness  :  and  as  madness  is  occasioned 
 by  an  atrabilious  humour  highly  inflamed,  and  diffused 
 through  the  blood,  and  from  melancholic  vapours  which 
 ascend  to  the  brain,  and  make  an  alteration  in  its  tem- 
 perature, it  is  no  hard  matter  to  conceive,  that  the  agree- 
 able sound  of  a  musical  instrument,  which  occasions  joy 
 and  self-complacency,  should  dissipate  these  bad  hu- 
 mours, and  make  the  blood  and  spirits  return  to  their 
 equal  and  natural  motion. 
 
 What  the  power  of  music  is,  to  sweeten  the  temper, 
 and  allay  and  compose  the  passions  of  the  mind,  we  have 
 some  examples  from  sacred  history,  but  many  more  from 
 the  profane.  As  this  same  Saul  was  returning  from 
 Samuel,  he  met,  at  the  place  which  is  called  x  '  the  hill 
 of  God,'  a  company  of  prophets,  playing  on  several  instru- 
 ments ;  and  such  was  the  effect  of  their  melody,  '  that 
 the  Spirit,'asthe  Scripture  expresses  it, '  came  upon  him, 
 and  he  was  turned  into  another  man.'  When  Elisha  was 
 desired  by  Jehoshaphat,  to  tell  him  what  his  success 
 against  the  king  of  Moab  would  be,  the  prophet  required 
 a  minstrel  to  be  brought  unto  him,  2  '  and  when  the  min- 
 strel played,  (it  is  said)  that  the  hand  of  the  Lord  came 
 upon  him  :  3  not  that  we  are  to  suppose,  that  the  gift  of 
 prophecy  was  the  natural  effect  of  music,  but  the  meaning 
 is,  that  music  disposed  the  organs,  the  humours,  the 
 blood,  and  in  short  the  whole  mind  and  spirit  of  the  pro- 
 phet, to  receive  the  supernatural  impression.  The  truth 
 is,  common  experience,  as  well  as  the  testimony  of  the 
 gravest  authors,  does  prove,  that  there  is  in  music  a 
 certain  charm,  to  revive  the  spirits,  mellow  the  humours, 
 allay  the  passions,  and  consequently,  to  dissipate  that 
 rage,  or  melancholy,  which  either  fumes  up  into  the  brain 
 in  vapours,  or  overspreads  the  heart  with  grief  and  dejec- 
 tion. We  need  less  wonder,  therefore,  that  we  find  4  the 
 Pythagoreans,  whenever  they  perceived,  cither  in  them- 
 selves or  others,  any  violent  passion  beginning  to  arise, 
 immediately  betaking  themselves  either  to  their  flute  or 
 guitar  ;  that  we  find 5  Theophrastus  declaring  that  music  is 
 an  excellent  remedy  against  several  distempers,  both  of 
 the  mind  and  body  ; s  others,  that  Asclepiades,  a  renown- 
 ed physician  among  the  ancients,  was  used  to  cure  madness 
 by  the  power  of  symphony  ;  and  7  others  again,  that  the 
 most  violent  poison,  that  of  the  sting  of  the  tarantula, 
 has  been  expelled  very  frequently  by  this  means.  The 
 only  remaining  difficulty  is,  how  David,  with  his  single 
 harp,  and  unassisted  with  any  other  instruments,  could 
 effect  such  a  cure  upon  Saul  ?  And  to  satisfy  this, 
 1  must  be  obliged  to  inquire  a  little  into  the  nature  of  the 
 Jewish  music  which  was  possibly  in  vogue  at  that  time. 
 
 1  1  Sam.  x.  5,  &c.  2  2  Kings  ill.  15. 
 
 3  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Sam.  xxvi.  17. 
 
 *  ABlisnu*  Var.  Hist.  b.  14.  c.  27.     »  In  a  book  on  Frantic  Fits. 
 
 6   Censorinus  de  Die  Natali,  b.  12. 
 
 7  See  Saurin,  vol.  4.  dissertation  :->3. 
 
 Music,  though  an  art  of  no  necessity  to  human  life, 
 was  certainly  of  a  very  early  invention.  Before  the 
 deluge,  Jubal  is  called  the  father,  or  master  of  those 
 who  played  upon  the  harp,  and  a  ancient  organ,  as  the 
 two  Hebrew  words  8  in  that  place  are  generally  translated. 
 In  the  time  of  Jacob,  we  find  his  father-in-law  complain- 
 ing of  him,  9  that  he  had  stolen  away  from  him,  and  not 
 given  him  an  opportunity  of  dismissing  him  honourably, 
 with  mirth,  and  with  song,  with  tabret,  and  with  harp. 
 
 10  Moses,  upon  his  passage  over  the  Red  Sea,  com- 
 posed a  song,  which  was  sung  in  parts  by  himself,  at  the 
 head  of  the  men,  and  by  ]1  his  sister,  with  timbrels  and 
 dancing,  leading  up  the  women.  Samuel,  upon  his 
 institution  of  the  schools  of  the  prophets,  introduced 
 several  kinds  of  music  :  so  that  before  Saul's  election  to 
 the  kingdom,  I2  we  read  of  the  psaltery,  and  tabret,  the 
 pipe,  and  the  harp,  in  use  among  them.  The  kings  of 
 the  east  made  it  a  point  of  their  grandeur  and  magni- 
 ficence, to  have  men  to  play  to  them  upon  several  occa- 
 sions ;  and  therefore  we  may  suppose,  that  Saul,  when 
 he  came  to  the  throne,  in  some  reasonable  time,  con- 
 formed to  the  mode.  David,  who  was  himself  a  great 
 master  of  music,  kept  in  his  house  "  some  companies  of 
 singing  men  and  singing  women,  as  the  words  of  old 
 Barzillai  seem  to  imply;  and  Solomon,  who  denied  his 
 heart  no  pleasure,  came  not  behind  his  father  in  this 
 respect ;  for  he  had  his  M  men-singers  and  women-singers 
 likewise,  and  musical  instruments  of  all  sorts.  Josephus 
 tells  us,  that  he  had  made  four  hundred  thousand,  merely 
 for  the  use  of  the  temple  ;  and  therefore  we  may  well 
 suppose,  that  he  had  no  small  variety  of  them,  for  the 
 use  of  the  musicians  that  attended  his  person. 
 
 M.  Le  Glerc  seems  to  be  of  opinion,  that  the  music  of 
 the  ancient  Hebrews  was  not  very  regular  :  "  They  were  a 
 nation,"  says  he,  "  entirely  given  to  agriculture,  and  had 
 neither  theatres  nor  any  public  diversions  of  this  kind  ; 
 all  the  use  which  they  made  of  their  music,  consisted  in 
 singing  some  sacred  hymns,  which  David  instituted  ;  but 
 we  have  no  reason  to  think,  that  their  performances  of 
 this  kind  were  either  harmonious  or  methodical ;"  but 
 now  the  learned  Kircher  has  confuted  all  this.  For  I5  "  it 
 is  not  probable,"  says  he,  "  that  such  an  innumerable 
 quantity  of  musical  instruments,  made  by  the  most  skil- 
 ful hands,  should  serve  only  to  produce  some  rude  and 
 inartificial  sounds.  Among  the  Hebrews  there  was  cer- 
 tainly a  wonderful  order  of  songs  and  chanters,  a  won- 
 derful distribution  of  the  singers,  and  a  wonderful 
 agreement  of  words  fitted  to  harmonious  notes  ;  neither 
 is  it  likely  that  all  the  instruments  of  one  choir,  did  per- 
 form their  parts  in  unison,  but  that  they  made  a  various 
 harmony,  with  an  admirable  and  accurate  contexture  of 
 the  upper  parts  with  their  respective  basses." 
 
 But  suppose  we,  as  some  imagine,  that  they  wanted 
 the  harmony  of  a  concert,  or  several  parts  of  music  go- 
 ing on  at  the  same  time  ;  yet  it  is  much  to  be  questioned, 
 whether  that  simplicity  of  composition,  which  resembles 
 nature  most,  is  not  a  greater  beauty  and  perfection  than 
 
 B   Gen.  iv.  21.  :l    Gen.  xxxi.  27.  I0  Exo.l.  xv. 
 
 "  Exod.  xv.  :>0.  l2  1  Sam.  x.  5.  13  2  Sam.  xix.  H5. 
 
 M  Ec.  ii.  S.  I5  Musurgia  Univer.  b.  2.  c.  4. 
 
 a  This  instrument  in  Hebrew  is  named  Hugah,  and  was  a 
 kind  of  llnte  composed  of  several  pipes,  of  a  different  bigness, 
 joined  to  one  another. — Cahnefs  DicHonary,  under  the  word 
 Music. 
 
462  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  111G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 that  combination  of  several  voices  and  tunes,  which  con- 
 stitutes our  concerts.  For,  to  use  the  words  of  another 
 author,  in  a  science  wherein  I  profess  to  be  no  adept, 
 
 1  "  The  ancients,"  says  he,  "  had  as  great  a  number  of 
 instruments  as  we  ;  they  had  their  symphonies,  and  voices 
 of  all  sorts,  as  well  as  we  ;  but  then  they  had  this  ad- 
 vantage above  us,  that  their  singing  voices  and  instru- 
 ments neither  drowned  the  words  nor  destroyed  the  sense 
 of  what  they  sung.  While  their  ears  were  charmed  with 
 the  melody,  and  their  hearts  touched  with  the  delicacy  of 
 the  song,  their  minds  were  transported  with  the  beauty 
 of  the  words,  with  the  liveliness,  grandeur,  or  tenderness 
 of  the  sentiments.  So  that,  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
 they  had  all  the  pleasurable  impressions  and  sensations 
 that  the  most  exact  imagery  of  thoughts  and  sentiments, 
 joined  with  symphony,  or  a  true  harmony,  could  produce 
 in  their  breasts  ;"  and  for  this  reason,  it  is  rightly  sup- 
 posed by  Josephus,  that  while  David  played  upon  his 
 harp,  he  sung  psalms  and  hymns  to  king  Saul,  whose 
 words  very  probably  were  adapted  to  the  occasion,  and 
 that  both  these  put  together  were  conducive  to  his  cure  ; 
 though  God  without  doubt,  who  gave  a  blessing  to  his 
 endeavours,  was  the  principal  cause  of  the  removal  of 
 the  malady. 
 
 That  David's  skill  in  playing  upon  the  harp,  in  a  great 
 measure  removed  Saul's  melancholy,  is  manifest  from  his 
 retiring  from  court  to  his  father's  house,  and  betaking 
 himself  to  his  usual  occupation  of  a  shepherd.  How 
 long  lie  continued  with  his  father,  the  Scripture  is  silent ; 
 but  a  short  time  might  be  sufficient  to  impair  the  king's 
 remembrance  of  him,  especially  when  he  appeared  in 
 another  dress  than  what  he  wore  at  court,  and  was  just 
 now  come  oft' rough  from  a  journey.  He  had  played  to 
 the  king  indeed,  and  happily  relieved  his  disorder  :  but 
 who  knows,  but  that  he  then  wore  an  habit  proper  for  his 
 profession  as  a  musician,  and,  as  clothes  make  a  great 
 alteration  in  a  man,  appeared  now  quite  another  creature 
 in  his  plain  shepherd's  garb  ?     Who  knows,  but  that  the 
 
 2  minister,  whoever  he  was,  that  recommended  him  to 
 the  king,  finding  that  his  music  proved  medicinal  to 
 him,  might  take  the  freedom  to  send  to  his  father,  and 
 request  that  his  son  might  continue  a  little  longer  at 
 court,  even  without  the  king's  knowledge  or  direction  ? 
 And  it  seems  not  unlikely,  that  the  office  of  armour- 
 bearer,  whatever  it  imported,  was  a  place  of  honour  and 
 respect,  more  than  strict  duty  and  attendance,  because 
 Ave  find  David  sometimes  retiring  to  his  father's  house  as 
 not  obliged  always  to  reside  at  court. 
 
 Without  our  supposing  then,  as  some  commentators 
 have  done,  that  Saul's  distemper  had  disturbed  his  head 
 and  impaired  his  memory,  Ave  need  but  consider  the 
 humour  and  fashions  of  a  court,  the  hurry  of  business 
 the  multitude  of  servants,  the  variety  of  faces,  and  the 
 shoals  of  comers  and  goers,  that  are  every  day  seen 
 there  ;  and  withal,  consider  the  momentous  issue  of  a 
 battle  lost  or  won,  and  what  full  employ  the  king  or  his 
 chief  commander  must  have  for  all  his  thought  and  atten- 
 tion, when  an  army  is  drawn  up  in  array,  and  ready  to 
 engage  ;  and  then  we  may  easily  account  both  for  Saul 
 and  Abner's  wanting  recollection,  when  they  saw  David 
 disguised  in  his  shepherd's  coat,  and  now  entering  upon 
 
 an  action  that  was  quite  contrary  to  the  character  of  a 
 musician. 
 
 3  But  after  all,  the  words  in  the  text  say  nothing  of 
 Saul's  forgetfulness  of  David,  or  that  he  inquired  who 
 he  was.  They  only  intimate,  that  he  was  ignorant  of 
 his  family,  and  desired  to  be  informed  from  what  parent 
 he  was  descended  ;  and  considering  how  many  servants 
 there  are  in  every  court,  especially  in  a  lower  station, 
 whose  pedigree  the  king  knows  nothing  of,  and  how  apt 
 Ave  are  all  to  forget  the  names  of  those  that  live  at  a 
 distance,  as  Jesse  did  from  Saul,  and  with  whom  Ave  hold 
 little  or  no  intercourse,  Ave  need  not  much  AAonder,  that 
 Saul,  avIio  had  no  concern  for  David's  family  before  this 
 adventure,  should  quite  forget  the  name  of  his  father, 
 living  in  another  country,  and  Avhich  he  had  cursorily 
 heard  perhaps,  but  never  once  fixed  in  his  mind  :  but 
 noAv  that  the  son  Avas  going  upon  a  desperate  enterprise, 
 and  Avas  4  to  have  gTeat  riches,  as  Avell  as  the  king's 
 daughter,  if  he  came  oft'  victorious,  it  did  not  a  little  be- 
 hove the  king  to  Ioioav  something  more  of  the  parentage 
 of  this  young  champion,  and  into  Avhat  family  he  Avas  to 
 match  his  daughter  :  and  upon  this  presumption,  there 
 is  no  madness,  no  absurdity,  no  incongruity,  in  his  bid- 
 ding Abner  5  '  to  inquire  Avhose  son  the  stripling  is.' 
 "  It  is  a  brave  and  gallant  youth.  I  am  charmed  with 
 his  behaviour.  If  he  falls  in  the  attempt,  he  shall  have 
 an  honourable  interment ;  if  he  succeeds,  and  slays  the 
 giant,  he  shall  be  my  son-in-laAV."  a 
 
 The  JeAvs  give  a  very  romantic  reason  for  David's 
 going  to  Achish,  the  king  of  the  Philistines,  namely,  that 
 it  Avas  to  demand  an  execution  of  the  treaty,  AAhereby 
 the  conqueror  Avas  to  have  a  sovereign  power  and  domin- 
 ion over  the  conquered,  which  Goliath  proposed  Avhen  he 
 challenged  the  Israelites  ;  and  that  upon  this  account, 
 the  chief  ministers  about  that  king  were  so  alarmed  at 
 his  arrival, '  Is  not  this  David,  the  king  of  this  our  land  P* 
 as  some  take  the  Avoids.  It  is  apparent,  hoAvever,  from 
 the  context,  that  the  land,  to  which  these  words  relate, 
 is  Judea,  and  that  David,  at  this  time,  Avas  in  no  condi- 
 tion to  make  any  high  demands. 
 
 Saul's  rancour  and  rage  against  him  were  so  implaca- 
 ble, and  iioav  that  somanyAvere  turned  informers  against 
 him,  his  poAver  to  apprehend  him  Avas  become  so  great, 
 that  there  Avas  no  staying  any  longer  in  his  dominions  ; 
 
 '  Calmet's  Dissertation  mi  the  Music  » ,f  tin 
 3  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  !  Sam.xxvii, 
 
 Ancients. 
 55. 
 
 3Saurin's  Dissertation  on  the  Combat  of  David.  4 1  Sam.  xvii.  25. 
 s  1  Sam.  xvii.  56.  b  See  Sol.  Jarchi  on  1  Sam.  xxi.  12. 
 
 a  The  suppositions  of  our  author  to  aceount  for  Saul's  inquiry 
 who  David  was,  after  we  are  told  in  the  text,  that  lie  had  been 
 made  Saul's  armour-bearer,  and  had  played  for  a  time  before  him, 
 is  perhaps  the  best  that  could  be  made  in  the  circumstances,  but 
 is  by  no  means  satisfactory.  In  fact,  the  whole  account  in  the 
 text  is  so  incoherent,  that  we  can  hardly  record  it  as  a  part  of  the 
 original.  Accordingly  we  find,  that  in  the  Septuagint,  ver.  12 
 — 31,  ver.  41  and  ver.  54  to  the  end  of  chap.  xvii.  are  awant- 
 ing,  as  also,  verses  1 — 5,  9,  10,  11,  17,  18,  19,  of  chap,  xviii. ; 
 and  if  the  narrative  is  read,  omitting  the  verses,  it  will  be  seen 
 that  nothing  is  awauting  to  complete  the  sense,  and  make  if 
 connected.  These  verses  are  all  awauting  in  the  Vatican  copy 
 of  the  Septuagint;  and  though  they  are  found  in  the  Codex 
 Alexandrinus,  Kennieott  has  shown,  that,  in  all  probability,  they 
 were  not  there  till  Origen  inserted  them.  See  Kennicott's  Gen. 
 Diss.  p.  9,  and  Pilkinton's  remarks  on  this  passage.  Miehaelis, 
 Dathe,  Houbigant,  Boothroyd,  Dr  A.  Clarke,  and  other  critics, 
 consent  that  these  passages  are  interpolated.  Dr  Clarke  has 
 quoted  a  considerable  part  of  Kennicott's  remarks,  and  some  most 
 judicious  observations  ■uill  lie  found  in  Boothroyd's  English 
 ,  Translation,  and  also  in  his  Hebrew  Bible.— Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN    &c. 
 
 463 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  111G;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HAL 
 
 and  therefore  David's  business  was  to  find  out  some  safe 
 retreat.  All  the  other  neighbouring  princes  were  at 
 peace  with  Saul,  and  must  have  delivered  him  up,  had 
 Saul  demanded  him.  Achish  was  the  only  one  in  hos- 
 tility with  him,  and  therefore  his  kingdom  the  most 
 proper  place  for  David's  refuge,  where,  though  he 
 might  not  hope  to  lie  long  concealed,  yet  he  might 
 nevertheless  promise  himself  kind  quarter,  from  the  ad- 
 vantages that  would  accrue  to  Achish,  in  attaching  to 
 his  interest  a  person  that  was  evidently  the  strength  of 
 the  Jewish,  and  terror  of  the  Philistine,  army.  Hard 
 was  the  fate  of  David,  it  must  be  owned,  when  he  was 
 forced  to  fly  for  protection  to  those  whom  he  had  reason 
 to  believe  were  his  bitterest  enemies  ;  but  many  great 
 men  have  been  compelled  to  the  same  thing;  Themis - 
 tocles  to  go  over  to  the  Persians,  and  Alcibiades  to  the 
 Lacedemonians,  without  turning  apostates  to  the  interest 
 of  their  country. 
 
 Self-preservation  is  one  of  the  first  laws  of  nature, 
 and  therefore,  if  David,  when  he  came  to  the  court  of 
 Achish,  found  his  life  in  manifest  danger,  I  cannot  see 
 why  he  might  not  make  use  of  any  means,  consistent 
 with  a  good  conscience  for  the  preservation  of  it.  He 
 chose  to  personate  the  fool,  because  he  presumed  that 
 Achish  would  readily  conclude,  that  the  troubles  he  had 
 suffered  under  Saul's  persecution  of  him,  had  stupified 
 his  senses,  and  turned  his  head.  But  he  was  not  the 
 last  wise  man  who  put  on  that  disguise  ;  for  1  did  not 
 Solon,  when  he  found  that  the  Athenians  were  going  to 
 surrender  Salamine,  his  native  country,  into  the  hands 
 of  the  people  of  Megara,  counterfeit  the  madman,  that 
 he  might  with  more  impunity  take  the  freedom  to  divert 
 them  from  it  ?  And  2  Lucius  Brutus,  that  wise  imitator 
 of  the  fool,  as  he  is  called,  made  use  of  the  same  arti- 
 fice, to  escape  the  suspicion  of  Tarquin,  who  had  al- 
 ready murdered  his  father  and  eldest  brother,  in  order 
 to  seize  on  their  great  riches. 
 
 But  supposing  that  there  were  no  examples  of  other 
 wise  men  to  countenance  this  practice  of  David's ;  yet 
 wherever  did  we  read,  in  the  word  of  God,  that  strata- 
 gems were  not  allowable  against  an  enemy  ?  When  the 
 Israelites  besieged  Ai,  God  himself  gave  them  orders  to 
 make  a  feint,  as  though  they  iled,  that  they  might  there- 
 by draw  the  people  out  of  the  city  ;  and  can  the  differ- 
 ence be  so  great,  in  pretending  to  a  want  of  courage, 
 and  in  counterfeiting  a  deprivation  of  reason  ?  A  divine 
 direction  indeed  was  in  the  one,  and  we  do  not  read 
 that  it  was  in  the  other  case ;  but  why  might  not  God, 
 who  had  David  always  under  his  immediate  care  and 
 protection,  put  him  upon  this  expedient,  as  the  only 
 escape  he  had  for  his  life  ?  Or  if  the  expedient  was 
 matter  of  his  own  invention,  since  the  circumstances  he 
 was  in  did  absolutely  require  it,  it  cannot  deserve  our 
 blame,  according  to  that  common  distich,  that  goes  under 
 no  less  a  name  than  Cato's  : 
 
 Insipiens  esto,  cum  tempus  postulat,  aut  res; 
 Stultitiam  simulare  loco,  prudentia  summa  est.  a 
 
 1  his  might  be  some  apology  for  David's  conduct  at 
 th"s  critical  juncture,  supposing  that  he  personated  the 
 tool  or  madman.     But  if  we  look  into  the  Scripture  ac- 
 
 '  Diogenes  Laertius,  b.  1.  in  Solone. 
 8  Dionysins  Ilalicarn.  Antiq.  Rom.  b.  4. 
 a  Be  foolish,  when  time  or  circumstance  demands;  seasonably 
 to  pretend  foolishness,  is  the  highest  wisdom. 
 
 KS.  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  To  THE   END. 
 
 count  of  this  transaction  a  little  more  narrowly,  we  may 
 possibly  perceive,  that  David  did  not  dissemble  or  act 
 a  part  upon  this  occasion,  but  that  he  was  really  seized 
 with  a  distemper ;  and  that  distemper,  in  all  probability, 
 was  an  epilepsy,  or  falling-sickness. 
 
 For  whereas  it  is  said  of  David,  that  3  <  he  was  struck 
 to  the  heart  (for  so  it  should  be  rendered)  at  the  words 
 which  the  officers  of  Achish  said  to  their  master,  and 
 thereupon  was  sore  afraid  of  the  king,  lest,  at  their  in- 
 stigation, he  should  put  him  to  death  ;'  nothing  is  known 
 to  cause  an  epilepsy  sooner  *  than  a  sudden  and  violent 
 fright.  Whereas  it  is  said  in  our  translation,  that  4  '  he 
 changed  his  behaviour  before  them  ;'  the  words  in  the 
 Hebrew  are  '  his  taste,'  whereby  some  understand  his 
 reason,  <  was  changed  ;'  but  the  Septuagint  seem  to  have 
 hit  upon  the  right  sense,  '  his  visage,  or  countenance, 
 was  changed  ;'  for  every  one  knows  what  a  sudden  alter- 
 ation a  fit  of  this  distemper  occasions  in  any  one's  looks. 
 Whereas  it  is  said  in  our  translation,  that  he  '  feigned 
 himself  mad  in  their  hands,'  the  Septuagint  render  it, 
 '  he  trembled,  and  was  convulsed  in  his  hands,'  as  having 
 no  power  to  direct  their  motions,  which  is  another  known 
 effect  of  an  epilepsy.  Whereas,  again,  our  translation 
 says,  '  that  he  scrabbled,  or  according  to  the  marginal 
 note,  made  marks  f  upon  the  doors  of  the  gate,' the  Sep- 
 tuagint render  the  words,  '  he  fell  down  against  the  door 
 of  the  gate,  and  the  Hebrew  word  tctva  implies,  with 
 such  force  and  violence,  as  even  to  leave  marks  or 
 prints  upon  them  ;  so  that  he  could  not  but  bruise  and 
 hurt  himself  very  much  by  these  falls.  Nor  is  this  all ;  for 
 there  is  something  in  the  words  of  Achish,  if  we  will 
 but  adhere  to  the  version  of  the  Septuagint,  that  shows 
 David's  distemper  to  have  been  the  falling-sickness, 
 beyond  all  controversy.  For,  whereas  our  translation 
 is;  '  Lo,  you  see  the  man  is  mad,  wherefore  then  have 
 you  brought  him  to  me  ?  I  have  no  need  of  madmen  ;' 
 the  words  of  the  Septuagint  are,  *  Why  did  ye  bring  this 
 man  before  me  ?  Ye  see  that  he  is  in  an  epilepsy,  and 
 epileptic  men  I  do  not  want,  AVhy  then  did  ye  bring 
 him  to  be  taken  with  a  fit  in  my  presence  ?'  Had  David 
 all  this  while  been  only  playing  the  fool,  as  our  trans- 
 lation makes  him,  he  might  possibly  have  given  Achish 
 some  diversion  (as  c  fools  in  great  houses  were  often 
 kept  to  give  diversion)  by  his  awkward  or  frantic  tricks ; 
 5  but  the  horror  wherewith  the  king  was  struck  at  the 
 first  sight  of  him,  and  his  indignation  against  his  officers, 
 ior  bringing  him  into  his  presence,  are  enough  to  make 
 
 3  1  Sam.  xxi.  12.  4  1  Sam.  xxi.  13. 
 
 4  Sauiin,  vol.  4.  Dissertation  34.  in  Mr  Dumont's  Letter. 
 
 b  The  author  of  the  book,  which  goes  under  the  name  of  Hip- 
 pocrates, written  professedly  upon  this  subject,  irifi  "licovi  voriiv, 
 among  many  other  causes  of  this  distemper,  makes  mention  of 
 a  sudden  fright  as  one:  "It  passes  away  by  reason  of  an  un- 
 expected fright." 
 
 c  Tarquin  the  Proud  kept  L.  Junius  Brutus  as  a  fool,  for  so 
 lie  pretended  to  be,  to  divert  his  children  with  his  absurd  dis- 
 course and  actions.  But  Anacharsis,  who  lived  about  three 
 hundred  years  after  David,  complains  of  this  custom  among  the 
 Grecians,  by  telling  us,  that  a  man  was  a  creature  too  serious  to 
 be  designed  for  so  ridiculous  a  purpose ;  and  to  show  the  con- 
 tinuance of  this  custom,  Pliny,  writing  to  one  of  his  friends,  who 
 had  complained  to  him,  that  at  a  great  entertainment,  he  had 
 passed  his  time  but  very  disagreeably,  by  reason  of  the  kept  fools, 
 who  were  always  interrupting  conversation,  tells  him,  that  every- 
 one has  his  taste,  but,  as  for  himself,  he  could  never  be  delighted 
 with  such  extravagancies,  though  some  complaisance  was  due  to 
 those  of  another  way  of  thinking. — Epist.  1 7. 
 
464 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1UG;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALE 
 
 one  believe,  that  his  distemper  had  made  him  a  frightful 
 object :  and  therefore  the  king  commanded  immediately  to 
 have  him  removed  out  of  his  presence,  and  out  of  the 
 palace. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that  as 
 David  had  the  true  symptoms  of  an  epilepsy  upon  him, 
 Avhich,  in  all  probability,  was  occasioned  by  a  violent 
 fright;  God,  in  his  good  providence,  might  permit  this 
 distemper  to  befall  him  at  this  juncture,  in  order  to  facili- 
 tate his  escape  out  of  the  hands  of  Achish,  and  as  soon 
 as  the  danger  was  over,  restored  him  to  his  former  health 
 again.  For  this  reason  we  find  him,  in  those  psalms, 
 which  he  is  thought  to  have  composed  upon  this  occasion, 
 alluding  both  to  the  nature  of  his  distemper,  and  to 
 God's  goodness,  in  preserving  him  in  it,  and  delivering 
 him  from  it :  1  '  Great  are  the  troubles  of  the  righteous  ; 
 but  the  Lord  delivereth  him  out  of  them  all.  He 
 keepeth  all  his  bones,  so  that  none  of  them  is  broken  ;' 
 and  therefore  2  '  unto  thee,  O  God,  will  I  pay  my  vows, 
 unto  thee  will  I  give  thanks  ;  for  thou  hast  delivered  my 
 soul  from  death,  and  my  feet  from  falling,  that  I  may 
 walk  before  God  in  the  light  of  the  living.' 
 
 David,  upon  his  escape  from  the  court  of  Achish,  not 
 knowing  of  any  other  place  of  retreat,  betook  himself  to 
 tfie  cave  of  Adullam,  where  he  found  it  necessary  to  pro- 
 vide for  his  security,  by  putting  himself  upon  some  foot 
 of  defence.  Jonathan,  from  full  conviction,  had  told 
 him,  (as  himself  from  frequent  experience  had  found,) 
 that  his  father,  at  all  adventures,  Mould  endeavour  to  take 
 away  his  life.  His  family  by  this  time  were  fallen  under 
 the  displeasure  of  Saul,  and  were  in  danger  of  being  all 
 cut  off' (as  lately  were  the  priests  of  Nob)  under  pretence  of 
 a  conspiracy  against  him  ;  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder, 
 that  his  brethren,  having  this  apprehension  of  danger  be- 
 fore their  eyes,  resorted  to  him  for  their  own  security  ;  no 
 wonder,  that  in  a  times  of  national  discord,  refugees  of  all 
 kinds,  either  through  their  private  wants,  or  the  oppression 
 of  their  enemies,  a  disaffection  to  the  government,  or  a  zeal 
 for  the  next  successor,  should  flock  to  David  :  nor  was 
 David  any  ways  blamable,  for  receiving  them,  3  since 
 we  have  abundant  reason  to  presume,  that  he  took  none 
 under  his  protection,  but  such  as  were  forced  to  fly  from 
 Saul's  injustice  and  oppression,  nor  screened  any  debt- 
 ors, but  such  as  were  under  a  real  inability  to  satisfy 
 their  creditors,  and  were  therefore  necessitated  either  to 
 
 1  Ps.  xxxiv.  IS.  2  Ps.  lvi.  12,  13. 
 
 3  Caimet's  Commentary  on  1  Sam.  xxii.  2. 
 a  Though  there  be  no  comparison  between  the  proceedings  of 
 a  very  righteous  and  a  very  wicked  man,  David  and  CatiHne 
 yet  it  may  not  be  amiss,  upon  this  occasion,  to  take  notice  of 
 what  Sallust  says  of  Manlius,  Catiline's  agent  and  ambassador. 
 In  Ktruria  Manlius  was  engaged  in  collecting  those  individuals 
 who,  oppressed  by  poverty  and  grief  in  having  by  the  tyranny 
 of  Sylla  lost  their  property  and  effects,  were  become  desirous  of 
 revolution;  robbers  also  of  every  description,  and  in  no  scant 
 numbers,  flocked  around  his  standard,  &c.  It  is  not  improbable, 
 however,  that  the  usage  now  prevailed  among  the  Jews,  which 
 Csesar  tells  us,  anciently  obtained  among  the  Gauls,  for 
 those  that  woe  in  debt,  oppressed  by  tributes,  or  the  tyranny  of 
 the  great,  to  betake  themselves  to  the  service  of  some  eminent 
 man  for  protection.  By  him  they  were  maintained,  and  to  him 
 they  devoted  themselves,  under  a  solemn  obligation  to  live  and 
 die  with  him.  These  were  called  in  the  Gallic  language,  Sol- 
 dnrii,  from  whence  the  word  soldier  is  derived;  and  as  they 
 might  be  honest  and  good  men,  though  they  had  the  misfortune 
 to  be  in  debt,  or  could  not  submit  to  tyrannical  treatment;  so,  in 
 all  probability,  David's  companions  were. — Sec  the  Life  of  David, 
 by  the  author  of  Revelation  Examined. 
 
 S,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 leave  their  country  or  lose  their  liberty.  The  submission 
 and  discipline  wherein  he  kept  his  people,  and  the  high 
 notions  of  respect  and  reverence  which  he  always  infused 
 into  them,  for  the  government  and  person  of  the  king, 
 are  an  ample  testimony  that  he  meditated  no  defection 
 or  revolt ;  and  the  debtors  whom  he  secured  from  cruel 
 prosecutions  or  slavery,  he  put  in  a  condition  to  pay 
 their  creditors,  by  leading  them  against  the  enemies  of 
 Israel,  from  whom,  in  several  expeditions,  they  returned 
 laden  with  rich  spoils. 
 
 There  is  one  part,  however,  of  David's  conduct,  that 
 cannot  so  well  be  vindicated  ;  and  that  is,  what  passed 
 between  him  and  Achish,  upon  his  second  retreat  to  his 
 court.  We  may  suppose,  indeed,  that  during  this  inter- 
 val, an  alliance  was  made  between  Achish  and  him, 
 (though  the  sacred  historian  makes  no  mention  of  it,) 
 and  that  this  new  ally,  hearing  how  violently  Saul  perse- 
 cuted him,  might  in  hopes  of  making  the  breach  wider,  and 
 of  exasperating  David  against  him,  voluntarily  invite  him 
 into  his  dominions ;  but  certainly  we  cannot  but  say, 
 that  David  should  by  no  means  have  gone.  God  had 
 expressly  commanded  him  by  his  prophet  to  return  into 
 the  tribe  of  Judah,  and,  at  the  same  time,  gave  him  assu- 
 rance, that  he  would  be  his  safeguard  and  protector.  It 
 was  therefore  an  apparent  diffidence  of  God's  providence, 
 which  had  been  so  long  employed  in  his  preservation, 
 to  make  an  enemy's  country  the  place  of  his  refuge  ;  and 
 a  breach  it  was  of  truth  and  fidelity  to  his  new  ally,  to 
 make  him  believe  that  he  was  fighting  against  his  foes, 
 when  all  the  while  lie  was  destroying  his  confederates. 
 
 But  what  can  we  say  for  his  conduct,  when  he  joins 
 forces  with  the  enemies  of  his  country,  takes  the  field 
 with  them,  promises  to  act  offensively,  and  looks  upon 
 it  as  a  kind  of  slight  and  indignity  to  be  dismissed  ? 
 4  '  What  have  I  done,'  says  he  to  Achish,  '  that  I  may 
 not  go  fight  against  the  enemies  of  my  lord  the  king  ?' 
 One  would  really  suspect,  by  his  asking  the  question, 
 that  he  had  an  intention,  not  unlike  that  of  the  famous 
 Marti  us  Cariolanus,  who,  to  revenge  himself  of  the 
 ingratitude  of  his  country,  joined  with  the  Volsci  to 
 destroy  it.  But  if  his  intention  was  either  to  stand 
 neuter,  or  to  turn  against  the  Philistines  in  the  day  of 
 battle,  his  perfidy  and  ingratitude  to  Achish  must  be 
 open  and  conspicuous. 
 
 In  short  how  well  soever  we  may  wish  David's  cha- 
 racter, there  is  no  vindicating  his  conduct  in  this  parti- 
 cular. Which  party  soever  he  had  taken,  he  must  have 
 been  culpable  ;  and  one  party  he  must  have  taken,  had  not 
 Providence  so  timely  interposed  to  preserve  his  honour, 
 without  injuring  his  conscience.  However,  if  we  would 
 suppose  any  thing  in  extenuation  of  his  fault,  we  must 
 represent  to  ourselves  a  fugitive,  pursued  by  a  formidable 
 enemy,  and  every  moment  in  danger  of  falling  into  his 
 hands  ;  this  fugitive  kindly  received  at  a  foreign  court, 
 and  protected  by  a  prince  that  was  in  hostility  with  his 
 persecutor  ;  this  prince  expecting  of  his  refugee,  in  con- 
 sideration of  the  favours  he  had  conferred  on  him,  that 
 he  should  attend  him  to  the  war,  and  espouse  his  cause 
 against  their  common  enemy  ;  and  all  this  while  the  other 
 bound  in  gratitude  not  to  be  uncivil,  and  considering  the 
 dangerous  situation  of  his  own  affairs,  not  daring  to  dis- 
 cover his  real  purposes.     If  we  imagine  this,  1  say,  we 
 
 1  Sam,  xxix.  8. 
 
 Ibid.  xiii.  14.  and  xv.  28. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 465 
 
 A.   M.  if 
 
 A.  C.  111G;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 must  allow,  that  if  in  any  case,  what  they  call  a  finesse 
 in  policy  were  allowable,  it  was  in  this  of  David's,  when 
 he  had  unhappily  brought  himself  into  these  circumstances. 
 
 It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  perhaps,  that  David,  who 
 in  these  and  several  other  grosser  instances,  could  not 
 but  be  culpable  in  the  eyes  of  God,  should  nevertheless 
 be  styled  in  Scripture,  '  '  the  man  after  his  own  heart;' 
 but,  whoever  observes  the  occasion  of  that  expression, 
 will  find  that  it  ought  to  be  taken  in  a  comparative  sense 
 only,  and  in  derogation  indeed  to  Saul,  whose  trans- 
 gression, in  sparing  Amalek,  the  prophet  Samuel  was 
 then  reproving ;  that  in  executing  his  decrees  upon  the 
 idolatrous  nations  round  about  him,  David  would  be 
 more  punctual,  and  not  so  remiss  as  Saul  had  been  ;  and 
 in  this  respect  would  conform  to  the  divine  will,  or  be 
 the  man  after  God's  own  heart.  This  seems  to  be  the 
 primary  sense  of  the  words,  though  the  common  solution, 
 viz.  that  though  David  was  a  great  and  grievous  sinner, 
 yet  the  severity  of  his  repentance  cleared  him  in  the 
 sight  of  God,  and  made  an  amends  for  the  enormity  of 
 his  transgressions,  be  not  much  amiss. 
 
 It  cannot,  however,  with  justice  be  said,  that  David 
 was  any  ways  culpable  in  sparing  the  life  of  Saul, 
 even  when  Providence  seems  to  have  put  it  in  his  hand. 
 This  trial  God  made  of  his  virtue  and  clemency ;  and  a 
 glorious  conquest  it  was,  not  only  to  overcome  his  own 
 resentments,  which  were  justly  enough  founded  against 
 Saul,  but  the  arguments  and  instigations  likewise  of  those 
 about  him  :  2  '  Behold  the  day,  of  which  the  Lord  said 
 unto  thee,  Behold,  1  will  deliver  thine  enemy  into  thine 
 hand,  that  thou  mayest  do  to  him,  as  it  shall  seem  good 
 unto  thee.'  God  had  delivered  him  into  his  hand,  indeed  ; 
 but  had  given  him  no  order,  or  permission  to  slay  Saul. 
 3  He  had  promised  him  the  kingdom  likewise,  but  would 
 by  no  means  allow  him  to  ascend  the  throne  by  blood. 
 His  title  to  the  succession  was  real  and  incontestable,  but 
 not  allowed  to  be  put  in  force,  or  himself  to  attempt,  by 
 ways  of  violence,  the  possession  of  the  crown,  as  long  as 
 Saul  was  permitted  by  God  to  reign,  and  recognised  as 
 sovereign  by  the  people.  David,  as  yet,  being  only  a 
 private  man,  had  no  authority  to  wage  war  against  Saul ; 
 and  though  it  be  allowable  for  any  one  to  defend  him- 
 self against  any  unjust  aggressor,  and  to  repel  force  by 
 force,  yet  this  must  be  done  only  in  order  to  secure  his 
 own  life,  and  not  to  take  away  that  of  his  adversary  ;  for 
 what  the  apostle  says  of  judging,  or  censuring,  is  much 
 more  forcible  in  the  matter  of  killing :  4  '  Who  art  thou 
 that judgest  another  man's  servant?  To  his  own  master 
 he  standeth,  or  falleth  ;  for  there  is  one  lawgiver,  who 
 is  able  to  save,  and  to  destroy  :  who  art  thou  then  that 
 judgest  another  ?'  And  these  rules,  which  ought  to  be 
 observed  by  private  persons,  are  much  more  extensive 
 when  they  relate  to  a  prince  and  his  subject.  The  sub- 
 ject is  obliged  in  duty,  even  though  he  be  innocent,  to 
 bear  patiently  the  ill-treatment  of  his  prince.  David, 
 no  doubt,  was  conscious  of  his  own  integrity  ;  but  Mere 
 it  not  for  the  preceding  promises  of  God  in  his  favour, 
 and  the  orders  which,  from  time  to  time,  he  received 
 from  the  high  priest's  oracle,  it  would  not  have  been  so 
 easy  a  matter  to  justify  some  part  of  his  conduct.     His 
 
 1  1  Sam.  xiii.  14.  and  xv.  28.         2  1  Sam.  xxiv.  4. 
 *  Calmet.'s  Commentary  on  1   Sam.  xxiv.  4. 
 4  Rom.  xiv.  4.  and  Jam.  iv.  12. 
 
 flying  from  his  country,  enlisting  men,  and  putting  him- 
 self in  a  condition  of  defence,  would,  even  under  our  mild 
 government,  be  looked  upon  as  seditious  and  rebellious 
 proceedings.  And  therefore  we  may  suppose,  that  David 
 himself  might  not  have  so  favourable  an  opinion  of  the 
 course  of  life  he  was  compelled  at  that  time  to  follow ; 
 might  think  that  he  gave  some  umbrage  to  Saul's  jea- 
 lousy, and  suspicion  of  him  ;  and  might  thereupon  be 
 more  inclinable  to  excuse  the  violence  of  his  persecu- 
 tion, and  to  make  no  other  use  of  the  advantages  he  had 
 against  him,  than  to  demonstrate  his  own  innocence,  and 
 the  groundlessness  of  the  other's  suspicions ;  for  such 
 seems  to  be  the  sense  of  his  own  words  :  5  '  Wherefore 
 doth  my  lord  thus  pursue  after  his  servant  ?  For,  what 
 have  I  done,  or  what  evil  is  in  my  hand  ?  Wherefore 
 hearest  thou  men's  words,  saying,  David  seeketh  thy  hurt  ? 
 Behold  this  day  thine  eyes  have  seen  how  the  Lord  hath 
 delivered  thee  into  mine  hand  in  the  cave,  but  mine  eye 
 spared  thee  ;  therefore  cursed  be  they  before  the  Lord, 
 who  make  this  difference  betwixt  us  ;  for  they  have 
 driven  me  out  this  day  from  abiding  in  the  inheritance 
 of  the  Lord.'  For  herein  he  not  only  pleads  his  own 
 innocence,  and  good  intentions  towards  the  king,  but,  in 
 some  measure,  excuses  the  king's  conduct  towards  him, 
 as  being  under  the  influence  of  evil  counsellors,  who 
 both  imposed  upon  the  king's  credulity,  and  compelled 
 him  to  such  a  method  of  life  as  was  far  from  being  agree- 
 able to  his  interest  or  inclination. 
 
 Upon  many  accounts,  therefore,  it  was  an  act  of  his 
 great  and  generous  soul,  for  David  to  spare  the  life  of 
 his  severest  enemy.  But  though  we  cannot,  in  like  man- 
 ner, justify  his  indignation  against  Nabal,  and  the  oath 
 which  he  swore  to  destroy  his  whole  family  ;  yet  some- 
 thing may  be  offered  in  excuse  of  it,  if  we  attend  a  little 
 to  what  occasioned  it,  and  the  too  common  effect  which 
 such  treatment,  as  Nabal's  was,  is  apt  to  have  upon  such 
 spirits  as  we  may  suppose  David's  to  have  been.  David 
 while  he  continued  in  the  wilderness  of  Paran,  had  given 
 his  men  charge,  not  only  to  do  no  injury  to  Nabal's 
 shepherds  and  herdsmen,  but  even  to  protect  and  assist 
 them,  in  case  they  were  invaded  by  any  of  the  neigh- 
 bouring Arabians  ;  and  now  that  their  master  was  shear- 
 ing his  sheep,  which  was  always  a  festival  season,  not  far 
 from  the  place  where  David  was  encamped,  to  showhiin 
 the  greater  respect,  he  sent  no  less  than  ten  young  men 
 of  his  company  to  make  his  compliments  to  him,  and,  in 
 the  most  civil  manner,  to  request  something  of  him,  as  it 
 was  the  custom  to  be  generous  and  liberal  at  such  a  time 
 as  that,  for  the  relief  of  himself  and  his  followers, in  this 
 form  :  6  '  Peace  be  to  thee,'  as  the  young  men's  instruc- 
 tions were,  '  and  peace  be  to  thine  house,  and  peace  be 
 unto  all  thou  hast.'  Peace,  in  the  sacred  language,  com- 
 prehends all  manner  of  blessings,  both  spiritual  and 
 temporal ;  and  therefore  a  higher  compliment,  as  he 
 say,  or  a  more  affectionate  salutation,  could  not  have 
 been  devised :  '  And  now  I  have  heard  that  thou  hast 
 shearers,  and  thy  shepherds,  which  were  with  us,  we  hurt 
 them  not,  neither  was  there  ought  missing  unto  them,  all 
 the  while  that  they  were  in  Carmel  :'  a  sufficient  argu- 
 ment, one  would  think,  to  engage  Nabal's  grateful  ac- 
 knowledgment :  because  it  certainly  was  a  matter  of 
 DO  small  courtesy,  for  a  body  of  men  in  arms,  and  in 
 
 1  Sam.  xxiv.  9,  10. 
 
 6  1  Sam.  xxv.  &c. 
 
466 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1UC 
 want  of  the  common  necessaries  of  life  not  to  take  by 
 violence  what  they  could  not  be  hindered  from.  Such 
 men  claim  a  kind  of  license  to  do  injuries  with  impunity  ; 
 and  therefore  it  ought  to  be  deemed  a  great  favour,  when 
 they  do  them  not  David  and  his  men,  however,  are  so 
 far  from  magnifying  their  services  to  Nabal,  that  they 
 only  say, !  '  they  did  them  no  hurt ;'  whereas  his  own 
 servants  acknowledge,  '  that  they  were  a  defence, 
 and  a  wall  to  them  both  by  night  and  by  day,  all  the 
 while  that  they  were  with  them  keeping  sheep.'  Upon 
 this  presumption,  the  matter  of  their  request  was, 
 '  Let  the  young  men  find  favour  in  thine  eyes,  (for  we 
 come  in  a  good  day ;)  give,  I  pray  thee,  whatsoever 
 cometh  unto  thine  hand  unto  thy  servants,  and  thy  son 
 David.'  Words  can  hardly  be  invented  more  full  of  re- 
 spect and  humility  ;  2  for  he  pays  a  deference  to  Nabal, 
 either  upon  the  account  of  his  seniority,  or  descent  from 
 the  same  tribe,  and  desires  no  rarities,  no  delicates,  but 
 any  tiling  that  first  came  to  hand,  and  what  he  could  most 
 conveniently  spare. 
 
 Nabal,  as  we  just  now  hinted,  was  of  the  same  tribe 
 with  David,  and  could  not  therefore  be  supposed  igno- 
 rant either  of  his  exploits  in  defence  of  his  country,  or 
 of  the  true  cause  of  Saul's  indignation  against  him : 
 and  yet,  observe  the  rudeness  and  insolence  of  his 
 answer  to  such  a  civil  message  and  humble  request : 
 3 '  Who  is  David,  and  who  is  the  son  of  Jesse  ?  There 
 are  many  servants  now-a-days,  that  break  every  man 
 from  his  master.  Shall  I  take  the  provisions  I  have 
 made,  for  my  shearers,  and  give  them  unto  men,  whom 
 I  know  not  whence  they  are  ?'  Nothing  certainly  could 
 be  more  provoking  than  such  an  answer  as  this.  The 
 charging  David  with  being  a  vagabond,  and  rebel  to  his 
 prince,  was  a  reproach  insufferable  to  a  man  of  a  liberal 
 spirit,  who  knew  himself  innocent :  and  therefore  no 
 wonder  that  David,  upon  the  report  of  the  messengers, 
 who  were  themselves  brought  under  the  same  predica- 
 ment, and  therefore  had  no  reason  to  alleviate  matters, 
 was  resolved,  in  his  passion,  to  be  revenged  upon  Nabal. 
 For  4  there  were  four  things  in  the  matter  before  us  that 
 seem  to  have  inflamed  his  resentment,  and  put  him  upon 
 this  sanguinary  design.  1st,  The  want  which  both  he 
 and  his  companions,  at  present  laboured  under,  but 
 hoped  to  have  relieved  out  of  the  abundance  of  a  wealthy 
 man,  who  might  easily  have  done  it  without  hurting  him- 
 self. 2dly,  the  deception  he  was  under,  in  finding  no 
 compensation  made  him,  for  the  care  which  he  and  his 
 people  had  taken  of  Nabal's  cattle,  though  perhaps  he 
 had  given  them  his  word  and  assurance  that  something 
 of  tliis  kind  would  be  done.  3dly,  The  resentment  which 
 easily  rises  in  the  breast  of  any  generous  man,  when, 
 instead  of  thanks,  and  a  grateful  acknowledgment,  he 
 meets  with  contumely  and  opprobrious  language.  And 
 ■lthly,  The  vexation  which  an  innocent  man,  conscious  of 
 his  own  merits,  and  the  services  he  had  done  his  king  and 
 country,  must  necessarily  feel,  when  he  perceives  him- 
 self vilified  and  treated  as  a  scoundrel.  *  Fugitive  and 
 slave  are  imputations  of  the  grossest  nature  ;  and  when 
 retorted  by  an  ungrateful  person  upon  his  guardian  and 
 benefactor,  are  provocations  past  bearing. 
 
 Any  one  of  these  things  singly  was  enough  to  irritate 
 
 A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 OK.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301. 
 
 a  man  of  a  lofty  spirit ;  but  all  put  together,  could  hardly 
 fail  of  inflaming  his  mind  to  such  a  degree,  as  to  make 
 him  lose  the  government  of  his  passions,  and  fall  into  the 
 most  vindictive  rage,  which  is  generally  more  observ- 
 able in  military  men,  whose  courage  and  spirits  run  high, 
 and  being  too  much  accustomed  to  blood  and  slaughter, 
 even  in  lawful  wars,  have  not  that  dread  and  abhorrence 
 of  cruel  and  outrageous  executions,  as  the  rest  of  man- 
 kind have,  who  live  more  retired  and  peaceable  lives. 
 
 It  was  to  the  sudden  transport  of  Davids  passion 
 then,  and  perhaps  that  exasperated  by  the  instigations  of 
 his  own  men,  that  we  are  to  impute  his  vow,  and  design 
 of  destroying  Nabal's  family  :  and  though  in  this  we 
 cannot  commend  him,  yet  certainly  there' is  something- 
 praiseworthy  in  his  speedy  reconciliation  upon  Abi- 
 gail's  first  address  and  application  to  him,  in  the  room  of 
 her  husband  : 6 '  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  which 
 sent  thee  this  day  to  me  ;  and  blessed  be  thy  advice,  and 
 blessed  be  thou,  which  hast  kept  me  this  day  from  coming 
 to  shed  blood,  and  from  avenging  myself  with  mine  own 
 hand.'  7 '  In  a  word,  the  resolution  against  Nabal,  as 
 one  elegantly  expresses  it,  was  the  resolution  of  a  mor- 
 tal, not  to  say  a  military  man,  too  much  injured  and 
 provoked,  and  urged  by  necessity  and  self-preservation  : 
 the  change  and  the  thanksgiving,  upon  being  averted 
 from  evil,  were  the  sentiments  of  an  hero  and  a  saint.' 
 
 The  Jews  indeed,  as  Ave  quoted  the  objection  from 
 Josephus,  give  us  an  high  commendation  of  Saul,  and 
 seem  to  prefer  him  before  David  himself,  in  regard  to 
 the  magnanimity  of  his  death.  But  it  is  much  to  be 
 questioned,  whether  self-murder,  which  was  certainly 
 Saul's  case,  be  an  act  of  magnanimity  or  not.  For  be- 
 sides that  the  laws  of  all  nations  have  condemned  it,  as 
 abhorrent  to  the  dictates  of  nature  and  reason,  of  self- 
 love  and  self-preservation,  the  wisest  of  the  heathen 
 world  ever  looked  upon  it  as  an  instance  of  madness 
 and  brutality,  and  with  great  wisdom  have  concluded, 
 that  such  an  action  is  so  far  from  savouring  of  true  cour- 
 age and  generosity,  that  a  it  is  the  sure  effect  of  a  weak 
 and  pusillanimous  temper  of  mind  ;  since  true  greatness 
 of  soul  as  they  justly  argue,  consists  in  supporting  the 
 evils  of  adversity,  and  not  in  shifting  them  off*,  which  is 
 a  mark  of  a  poor  impatient  spirit,  sinking  under  the  com- 
 mon calamities  of  life,  and  not  knowing  how  to  bear  the 
 blows  of  bad  fortune.  8 '  Draw  thy  sword,  and  thrust 
 me  through  therewith,  lest  the  uncircumcised  come  and 
 mock,  or  abuse  me,'  b  was  the  request  which  Saul  made 
 to  his  armour-bearer,  and  shows  that  it  was  not  bravery 
 and  courage,  but  the  fear  of  insults,  and  a  conscious 
 
 1  Sam.  xxv.  16.         2  Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 »  J  6am.  xxv.  10,  II.       <  Le  Clerc's  Comment,  in  locum. 
 '  The  Life  of  King  David. 
 
 G  1  Sam.  xxv.  32,  33.  7  Life  of  King  David.    8  1  Sam.  xxxi.  4. 
 
 a  By  the  proper  understanding  of  the  right  rules  of  reason, 
 that  is  not  reckoned  a  true  greatness  of  soul  when  any  one,  in 
 not  being  able  to  endure  the  calamities  of  life,  undertakes  to  end 
 them  by  laying  violent  hands  on  himself;  for  it  is  rather  a  dis- 
 play of  weakness  of  mind  when  a  man  cannot  endure  either  the 
 oppressive  slavery  of  his  own  body,  or  the  sneer  of  a  dastardly 
 world,  and  surely  greater  magnanimity  must  deservedly  be  said 
 to  belong  to  him  who  would  rather  fight  than  fly  from  the  struggle 
 of  a  calamitous  life.—  Aug.  de  Civit.  Dei,  b.  1.  c.  22.  And  to 
 the  same  purpose  is  that  in  an  heathen  author:  'It  is  an  easy 
 matter  to  despise  a  life  of  adversity ;  he  is  the  true  hero  who  can 
 bo  miserable.' — Martial,  Epig. 
 
 b  How  much  nobler  was  that  resolution  of  Darius,  who,  find- 
 ing himself  betrayed,  and  that  he  was  either  to  be  murdered  by 
 his  own  subjects,  or  delivered  into  the  hands  of  Alexander,  would 
 not  however  be  his  own  executioner.  '  I  had  rather,'  says  he, 
 '  die  by  another's  guilt,  than  my  own.' — Curtius,  b.  5. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 467 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  tllG;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 inability  to  bear  them  with  a  becoming  superiority  of 
 mind,  that  made  him  shun  the  storm,  when  he  saw  it  ap- 
 proaching-, by  withdrawing'  from  the  stage  of  life. 
 
 Saul's  case  indeed  was  very  dolorous ;  but  he  had  not 
 therefore  any  authority  to  destroy  himself.  His  life  was 
 a  sacred  depositum  of  God's,  and  not  to  be  taken  away 
 without  invading  his  right,  and  violating  his  laws  at  the 
 same  time.  For  whatever  some  may  think  of  the  silence 
 of  the  Scripture  concerning  self-murder,  there  is  no 
 question  to  be  made,  but  that  it  is  included  in  the  sixth 
 commandment,  under  which  Saul  then  lived.  1  The 
 commandment  forbids  murder  in  general ;  and  it  is  cer- 
 tainly as  much  murder,  to  kill  ourselves,  as  to  kill  ano- 
 ther man :  and  the  reason  which  the  Scripture  gives, 
 why  we  are  not  allowed  to  do  it,  in  both  cases,  is  the 
 same,  because  2'  in  the  image  of  God,  made  he  man.' 
 For  if  I  must  not  shed  the  blood  of  another,  because  he 
 is  made  in  the  image  of  God;  I  must  not  shed  the  blood  of 
 mine  own  self,  because  I  also  am  a  man,  and  made  in  the 
 image  of  God,  as  well  as  he.  The  reason  therefore  why 
 we  have  not  more  frequent  prohibitions  against  this  sin 
 is  plainly  this,  3  that  whatever  sins  or  offences  God,  as  a 
 lawgiver,  prohibits,  he  prohibits  with  a  penalty,  that  is, 
 he  affixes  such  a  punishment  to  such  a  crime,  and  he 
 who  commits  the  crime,  is  to  undergo  the  punishment  in 
 this  world,  whether  it  be  restitution,  loss  of  limb,  or  loss 
 of  life  itself.  But  now  this  can  never  happen  in  the 
 case  of  self-murder,  because  self-murder  prevents  all 
 punishment,  the  man  being  dead,  before  any  cognizance 
 can  be  taken  of  his  offence,  and  therefore  prevents  all 
 laws  concerning  it ;  and  can,  consequently,  only  be  in- 
 cluded under  general  commands,  and  forbidden  as  a  sin, 
 whereof  God  alone  can  take  cognizance  in  the  world  to 
 come. 
 
 Since,  upon  the  whole  then,  Saul  may  be  said  to  have 
 died  in  an  act  of  cowardice,  and  in  the  violation  of 
 God's  law,  whereof  he  had  no  space  to  repent,  it  has 
 been  a  matter  of  some  inquiry,  what  we  are  to  think  of 
 his  salvation.  The  Scripture  indeed  tells  us,  that4  '  Saul 
 died  for  his  transgression,  which  he  committed  against 
 the  Lord,  and  also  for  asking  counsel  of  one  who  had  a 
 familiar  spirit,  to  inquire  of  it,  and  inquired  not  of  the 
 Lord  ;  and  therefore  the  Lord  slew  him.'  But  it  is 
 doing  a  manifest  violence  to  the  sense  of  these  words, 
 to  apply  them  as  some  have  done,  to  his  final  perdition, 
 when  they  plainly  relate  to  no  more  than  his  temporal 
 death.  The  dangerous  and  destructive  nature  of  self- 
 murder  is,  that  it  makes  repentance,  the  only  revealed 
 condition  of  man's  salvation,  impossible ;  but  then  we 
 are  to  know,  that  in  that  inexhaustible  fountain  of  good- 
 ness, there  may  be  some  uncovenanted  mercy,  some  so- 
 vereign and  prerogative  grace,  that  may  make  favour- 
 able allowances  for  the  distraction  of  men's  thoughts  or 
 passions,  the  violence  of  their  fears  or  troubles,  or  the 
 over-bearing  weight  of  any  other  temptation. 
 
 But  to  determine  this  question  more  peremptorily, 
 though  it  certainly  be  consonant  to  the  mercy  and  good- 
 ness of  (jod,  to  think,  that  no  man  shall  answer  for  any 
 miscarriage  which  is  wholly  occasioned  by  the  power  of 
 a  disease,  or  the  distraction  of  the  brain,  because  what- 
 ever is  committed,  in  such  a  case,  is  not  the  man's  free 
 
 1  Fleetwood  against  Self-murder. 
 
 »  Fleetwood  against  Self-murder. 
 
 2  Gen.  xi.  G. 
 ■  1  Chi  on.  x.  13,14. 
 
 act,  and  consequently  cannot  be  his  guilt ;  yet  we  have 
 no  reason  to  presume,  that  the  case  is  not  so  with  those, 
 who,  out  of  pride,  or  haughtiness,  fear  of  miseries  to 
 come,  or  impatience  under  present  sufferings,  distrust  of 
 God's  providence,  or  despair  of  his  mercy,  lay  violent 
 hands  upon  themselves ;  because  the  act  was  both  vol- 
 untary and  vicious,  and  not  to  be  amended  by  repent- 
 ance :  but  without  limiting  thy  goodness,  O  Lord,  unto 
 thy  mercy  we  commit  their  souls  ! 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  satisfy  most  of  the  po- 
 pular objections  which  have  been  raised  against  several 
 facts,  occurring  in  the  first  book  of  Samuel ;  and  for  the 
 farther  confirmation  thereof,  we  shall  only  instance  in 
 one  or  two  ancient  traditions  among  the  heathens,  which 
 in  all  probability  derived  their  original  from  this  part  of 
 sacred  history.  The  Scythians,  upon  their  return  out  of 
 Egypt,  passiiig  through  the  country  of  the  Philistines, 
 robbed  the  temple  of  Venus  at  Askalon,  and  for  their 
 punishment  (as  5  Herodotus  tells  us)  they,  and  their  pos- 
 terity, were  for  a  long  while  afflicted  with  emerods. 
 Whereupon  °  the  learned  Prideaux  remarks,  that  the  Phi- 
 listines had  till  then  preserved  the  memory  of  what  they 
 had  formerly  suffered  on  account  of  the  ark  of  God.  The 
 Athenians  when  the  mysteries  of  Bacchus  were  brought 
 out  of  Bceotia,  having  not  received  them  with  all  the 
 pomp  and  solemnity  that  the  god  expected,  were  smitten 
 7  with  a  disease  in  their  secret  parts,  which  resembled 
 the  malady  of  the  people  of  Ashdod,  and  so  did  their 
 cure  too  ;  for  having  consulted  the  oracle,  they  were  in- 
 formed, that  the  way  to  get  rid  of  their  plague,  was  to 
 offer  unto  Bacchus  golden  figures  of  the  part  wherein 
 they  were  afflicted.  The  Grecians,  at  the  taking  of 
 Troy,  discovered  an  ark  dedicated  to  Bacchus ;  and 
 when  Eurypilus,  as  Pausanias  8  tells  us,  adventured  to 
 open  it,  he  found  therein  the  image  of  the  god,  but  was 
 immediately  deprived  of  his  senses  for  daring  to  look 
 into  it ;  which  seems  to  be  a  plain  transcript  from  the 
 irreverence  and  fate  of  the  Bethshemites.  9  Clemens 
 Alexandrinus  has  observed,  that  the  fable  of  JSacus's 
 praying  for  rain  in  a  great  drought,  and  when  Greece 
 was  sadly  distressed  for  want  of  corn,  was  borrowed 
 from  that  part  of  Samuel's  history,  where  he  is  said  to 
 have  called  down  thunder  and  rain,  in  the  time  of 
 wheat  harvest,  when  the  sky  was  all  serene  and  clear : 
 and  therefore  we  need  less  wonder  at  the  story  be- 
 tween Saul  and  the  witch  of  Endor,  when  we  read  of 
 Circe,  Medea,  Erichtho,  Manto,  Antonoe,  and  several 
 other  women,  who,  in  the  heathen  world,  became  famous 
 for  their  necromancy,  and  of  the  many  votaries  that  re- 
 sorted to  them  ;  when  we  find  Statius  introducing  Tire- 
 sias,  as  raising  altars,  making  libations,  and  offering 
 sacrifices,  a  with  solemn  invocations  to  the  infernal  gods  ; 
 and  Homer  himself,  spending  a  great  part  of  1U  one  book 
 of  his  poem,  in  representing  Ulysses  as  invocating  the 
 ghost  of  this  same  Tiresias,  and  attending  to  the  oracles 
 which  proceeded  from  his  mouth.  These  things  had 
 their  foundations  in  some  early  traditions,  which  at  first 
 
 5  B.  1.  "  Connection  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  part 
 1.  b.  1.  |>.  44.  7  See  Aiistonh.  Scholiast,  in  Acfaarn.  act.  2. 
 
 8  In  Achaic.  c  10.  |>.  572.        9  Stromat.  6.     10  Odyss.  11. 
 
 a  The  winds  of  his  invocation  are  these:  "  To  him  that  knocks 
 unfold  the  silent  dens,  and  from  their  abodes  of  gloom  call  forth 
 the  aerial  subjects  of  the  cruel  l\  rsephone's  murky  realms,  that 
 the  Stygian  ferryman  may  return  with  a  full  cargo." 
 
468 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 arose  from  the  facts  contained  in  the  sacred  writings, 
 which  are  confessedly  the  most  ancient  records  we  have  ; 
 and  in  this  respect  are  an  argument  of  their  veracity, 
 since  we  find  them  alluded  to  by  subsequent  authors,  who 
 had  no  regard  to  their  authority. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — On  the  Jewish  Theocracy. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY  THE  EDITOR. 
 
 It  is  of  great  importance  to  have  a  right  understanding 
 of  the  nature  and  design  of  that  government  under  which 
 the  Israelites  were  placed  on  their  departure  from  the 
 land  of  Egypt.  This  has  been  called  a  Theocracy,  that 
 is,  a  government  of  which  God  is  the  immediate  Head. 
 The  persons  to  whom  the  administration  of  this  govern- 
 ment was  committed,  were  neither  legislators  nor  sover- 
 eigns ;  but  merely  officers  who  acted  under  the  authority 
 of  God,  whose  duty  it  was  to  see  the  laws  which  he  had 
 enacted  put  in  force. 
 
 It  is  evident  that  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 
 Mosaic  law  was  the  maintenance  of  one  true  God,  and 
 the  prevention,  or  rather  proscription,  of  polytheism  and 
 idolatry.  The  covenant  of  Jehovah  with  the  Hebrew 
 people,  and  their  oath  by  which  they  bound  their  allegi- 
 ance to  Jehovah  their  God  and  King,  was,  that  they 
 should  receive  and  obey  the  laws  which  he  should 
 appoint  as  their  supreme  Governor,  with  a  particular 
 engagement  to  keep  themselves  from  the  idolatry  of  the 
 nations  around  them.  In  keeping  this  allegiance  to 
 Jehovah,  as  their  immediate  and  supreme  Lord,  they 
 were  to  expect  the  blessings  of  God's  immediate  and 
 particular  protection,  in  the  security  of  their  liberty, 
 peace,  and  prosperity,  against  all  attempts  of  their 
 idolatrous  neighbours;  but  if  they  should  break  their 
 allegiance  to  Jehovah,  or  forsake  his  covenant,  by  going 
 and  serving  other  gods,  then  they  should  forfeit  these 
 blessings  of  God's  protection.1  In  this  constitution,  it 
 will  be  observed,  that  it  is  enforced  chiefly  by  temporal 
 sanctions,  and  with  singular  wisdom,  for  temporal  bless- 
 ings and  evils  were  at  that  time  the  common  and  prevail- 
 ing incitements  to  idolatry  ;  but  bythus  taking  them  into 
 the  Hebrew  constitution,  as  rewards  to  obedience  and 
 punishments  for  disobedience,  they  became  motives  to 
 continuance  in  the  true  religion,  instead  of  encourage- 
 ments to  idolatry.2 
 
 In  the  theocracy  of  the  Hebrews,  the  laws  were  given 
 to  them  by  God,  through  the  mediation  of  Moses,  and 
 they  were  to  be  of  perpetual  force  and  obligation,  so 
 long  as  their  policy  subsisted.  The  judges  by  whom 
 these  laws  were  administered,  were  represented  as  holy 
 persons,  and  as  sitting  in  the  place  of  God.3  These 
 judges  were  usually  taken  from  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and 
 the  chief  expounder  of  the  law  was  the  high  priest.  In 
 difficult  cases  of  law,  however,  relating  both  to  govern- 
 ment and  war,  God  was  to  be  consulted  by  Urim  and 
 Thunimiin  ;  and  in  matters  which  concerned  the  welfare 
 of  the  state,  God  frequently  made  known  his  will  by  pro- 
 
 1  Deut.  xix.25— • 27. 
 '  Lovrman  on  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Hebrews;  Dr 
 GravesV  Lecture!!  on  the  Pentateuch,  v.  2.  pp.  HI 1^5. 
 
 8  Deut.  i.  17;  xix.  7. 
 
 phets,  whose  mission  was  duly  attested,  and  the  people 
 were  bound  to  hearken  to  their  voice.  In  all  these  cases, 
 Jehovah  appears  as  sovereign  King,  ruling  his  people 
 by  his  appointed  ministers. 
 
 A  subordinate  design  of  this  constitution  of  the 
 Hebrew  government  was,  the  prevention  of  intercourse 
 between  the  Israelites  and  foreign  nations.  The  preva- 
 lence of  the  most  abominable  idolatry  among  those 
 nations,  and  the  facility  with  which  the  Israelites  had, 
 on  more  than  one  occasion,  adopted  their  idolatrous 
 rites,  during  their  sojourning  in  the  wilderness,  rendered 
 this  seclusion  necessary,  in  order  to  secure  the  funda- 
 mental principle  of  the  Mosaic  law  above-mentioned ; 
 and  many  of  the  peculiar  laws  will,  on  this  principle,  be 
 found  both  wisely  and  admirably  adapted  to  secure  this 
 design.4 
 
 The  form  of  the  Hebrew  republic  was  unquestionably 
 democratic.  When  Moses  promulgated  the  laws,  he 
 convened  the  whole  congregation  of  Israel,  to  whom  he 
 is  repeatedly  said  to  have  spoken  ;  but  as  he  could  not 
 possibly  be  heard  by  six  hundred  thousand  men,  we 
 must  conclude  that  he  only  addressed  a  certain  number 
 of  persons,  who  were  deputed  to  represent  the  rest  of  the 
 Israelites.  By  comparing  Deut.  xxix.  9.  with  Joshua 
 xxiii.  2.  it  appears  that  these  representatives  were  the 
 heads  of  tribes,  of  families,  and  judges,  and  officers. 
 
 All  the  various  branches  of  Abraham's  descendants, 
 like  the  ancient  Germans,  or  the  Scottish  clans,  kept 
 together  in  a  body  according  to  their  tribes  and  families  ; 
 each  tribe  forming  a  lesser  commonwealth,  with  its  pecu- 
 liar interests,  and  all  of  them  at  last  uniting  into  one 
 great  republic.  The  same  arrangement,  it  is  well  known, 
 obtained  among  the  Israelites,  who  appear  to  have  been 
 divided  into  twelve  great  tribes,  previously  to  their 
 departure  from  Egypt.  By  Moses,  however,  they  were 
 subdivided  into  certain  great  families,  which  are  called 
 families  by  way  of  distinction  :  each  of  whom,  again,  had 
 their  heads,  which  are  sometimes  called,  heads  of  Jtonses 
 of  fathers,  and  sometimes  simply  heads.  These  are  like- 
 wise the  same  persons,  who  in  Josh,  xxiii.  2.  and  xxiv.  1. 
 are  called  elders.  It  does  not  appear  in  what  manner  these 
 heads  or  elders  of  families  were  chosen,  when  any  of 
 them  died.  The  princes  or  heads  of  tribes  did  not 
 cease  with  the  monarchy ;  for  it  is  evident  that  they  sub- 
 sisted in  the  time  of  David ;  5  and  they  must  have 
 proved  a  powerful  restraint  upon  the  power  of  the 
 king. 
 
 It  will  now  be  readily  conceived  how  the  Israelitish 
 state  might  have  subsisted  not  only  without  a  king,  but 
 even  occasionally  without  that  magistrate  who  was  called 
 a  judge.  Every  tribe  had  always  its  own  chief  magis- 
 trate, who  may  not  inaptly  be  compared  to  the  lords 
 lieutenants  of  our  British  counties  :  subordinate  to  them, 
 again,  were  the  heads  of  families,  who  may  be  repre- 
 sented as  their  depute-lieutenants,  and  if  there  were  no 
 general  ruler  of  the  whole  people,  yet  there  were  twelve 
 smaller  commonwealths,  who  in  certain  cases  united 
 together,  and  whose  general  convention  would  take 
 measures  for  their  common  interest.  In  many  cases  par- 
 ticular tribes  acted  as  distinct  and  independent  republics, 
 not  only  when  there  was  neither  king  nor  judge,  but  even 
 
 1  Michaelis's  Commentaries,  &c.  vol.  1. 
 5  1  Chr.  xvii.  10—22. 
 
Srct.  1 11.1 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 469 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 during  the  times  of  the  kings.  Instances  of  wars  being 
 carried  on  by  one  or  more  particular  tribes,  both  before 
 and  after  the  establishment  of  the  regal  government,  may 
 be  seen  in  Josh.  xvii.  15 — 17.  Judg.  iv.  11.  and  xviii— 
 xx.  1  Chron.  iv.  18 — 23.  It  appears  from  1  Chron.  xxiii. 
 11.  that  a  certain  number  of  persons  was  necessary  to  con- 
 stitute a  family,  and  to  empower  such  a  family  to  have  a 
 representative  head  :  for  it  is  there  said,  that  the  four 
 sons  of  Shimei  had  not  a  numerous  progeny,  and  were 
 therefore  reckoned  only  as  one  family.  Hence  we  may 
 explain  why,  according  to  Micah  v.  1.  Bethlehem  may 
 have  been  too  small  to  be  reckoned  among  the  families 
 of  Judah.  It  is  impossible  to  ascertain,  at  this  distance 
 of  time,  what  number  of  individuals  was  requisite  to 
 constitute  a  house  or  family.1 
 
 The  judges  who  were  appointed  by  Moses,  had  also 
 a  right  by  virtue  of  their  office,  to  be  present  in  the  con- 
 gregation, or  convention  of  the  state.  After  the  depar- 
 ture of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt,  Moses,  for  some  time, 
 was  their  sole  judge.  Jethro,  his  father-in-law,  observ- 
 ing that  the  daily  duties  of  this  office  were  too  heavy 
 for  him,  suggested  to  him  the  institution  of  judges,  or 
 rulers  of  tens,  of  fifties,  of  hundreds,  and  of  thousands, 
 who  determined  every  affair  of  little  importance  among 
 themselves,  but  brought  the  hard  causes  to  Moses.  2  Of 
 the  judges  of  tens,  therefore,  there  must  have  been  sixty 
 thousand;  of  the  judges  of  fifties,  twelve  thousand;  of 
 the  judges  of  hundreds,  six  thousand  ;  and  of  the  judges 
 of  thousands,  six  hundred.  These  judges  seem  to  have 
 been  a  sort  of  justices  of  the  peace  in  several  divisions, 
 probably  taken  from  the  military  division  of  a  host  into 
 thousands,  hundreds,  fifties,  and  tens ;  this  was  a  model 
 proper  for  them  as  an  army  marching,  and  not  unsuit- 
 able to  their  settlement  as  tribes  and  families,  in  a  sort 
 of  counties,  hundreds,  and  tithings. 
 
 After  the  Hebrews  were  established  in  the  land  of 
 Canaan,  Moses  ordained  that  judges  should  be  appointed 
 in  every  city, 3  and  it  should  seem  that  they  were  chosen 
 by  the  people.  In  succeeding  ages  these  judicial  of- 
 fices were  filled  by  the  Levites,  most  probably  because 
 they  were  the  persons  best  skilled  in  the  law  of  the 
 Hebrews. 
 
 During  the  sojourning  of  the  Israelites  in  the  wilder- 
 ness, Moses  established  a  council  or  senate  of  seventy, 
 to  assist  him  in  the  government  of  the  people.  The 
 Jewish  rabbinical  writers,  who  have  exercised  their  in- 
 genuity in  conjecturing  why  the  number  was  limited  to 
 seventy,  have  pretended  that  this  was  a  permanent  and 
 supreme  court  of  judicature ;  but  as  the  sacred  writers 
 are  totally  silent  concerning  such  a  tribunal,  we  are 
 authorized  to  conclude  that  it  was  only  a  temporary 
 institution.  After  their  return  from  the  Babylonish 
 captivity,  it  is  well  known  that  the  Jews  did  appoint  a 
 Sanhedrim  or  council  of  seventy  at  Jerusalem,  in  imita- 
 tion of  that  which  Moses  had  instituted.  In  the  New 
 Testament,  very  frequent  mention  is  made  of  this  su- 
 preme tribunal,  of  which  an  account  will  be  found  in  a 
 subsequent  part  of  this  work. 
 
 Thus,  the  form  of  the  Jewish  government  was,  as  .lo- 
 sephus  very  properly  terms  it,  a  theocracy,  under  which 
 sins  as  well  as  crimes  were   punished,   and  piety  and 
 
 1  Michael.  Commentary,  vol.  I.  p.  844.    3  Exod.xvii.  14,  26. 
 s  Deut.  xvi.  18. 
 
 private  virtue,  as  well  as  public  services  to  the  state, 
 rewarded  even  in  this  world.  No  other  government,  at 
 least  since  the  earliest  ages,  has  been,  or  indeed  could 
 be,  administered  in  this  manner,  for  no  government  ad- 
 ministered by  mere  man  can  either  punish  or  reward 
 any  thing  but  overt  acts  ;  nor  do  ordinary  civil  govern- 
 ments concern  themselves  with  the  practice  of  religious 
 duties  or  private  virtues,  farther  than  those  duties  arid 
 virtues  affect  the  peace  of  society.  Without  taking 
 cognizance  of  these  things,  however,  the  civil  constitu- 
 tion of  the  Israelites-  would  not  have  answered  the  pur- 
 pose for  which  that  people  was  separated  from  the  rest 
 of  the  world  ;  for  their  minds  in  general  were  too  gro- 
 velling to  have  been  restrained  from  the  universal  pro- 
 pensity to  polytheism  and  idolatry  which  then  prevailed, 
 by  any  thing  but  immediate  rewards  for  duties  performed, 
 and  immediate  punishment  for  impiety  and  vice. 
 
 That  this  theocratic  government  continued  until  the 
 elevation  of  Saul  to  the  throne  is  unquestionable.  From 
 the  death  of  Joshua  to  that  period,  the  highest  per- 
 manent officer  in  the  state  as  well  as  in  the  church  was 
 evidently  the  high  priest :  and  this  was  the  natural  con- 
 sequence of  God  himself  being  the  supreme  civil  gover- 
 nor of  the  nation.  Occasional  magistrates  were  indeed 
 raised  up  from  time  to  time  under  the  denomination  of 
 judges  ;  but  from  their  history  it  appears  that  their  of- 
 fice was  rather  military  than  civil ;  that  most  of  them 
 were  employed  in  leading  armies  to  battle  against  the 
 oppressors  of  their  country  rather  than  in  dispensing 
 justice  to  the  people ;  that  they  were  raised  up  by  an 
 immediate  impulse  from  heaven,  and  not  by  the  choice  of 
 the  nation  ;  and  that  when  they  were  not  themselves 
 supernaturally  enlightened  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they 
 were  to  undertake  nothing  of  importance,  either  in  peace 
 or  in  war,  but  by  the  direction  of  the  high  priest,  after 
 he  had  consulted  God  for  them  by  Urim. 
 
 Such  was  the  theocratic  government  of  Israel  in  the 
 time  of  the  judges  ;  but  when,  toward  the  end  of  Samuel's 
 administration,  the  people  mutinously  demanded  a  king 
 to  reign  over  them,  and  God  directed  the  prophet  to 
 comply  with  their  request,  the  general  opinion  till  very 
 lately,  was,  and  perhaps  still  is,  that  the  government  of 
 Israel  ceased  to  be  theocratic,  and  became  such  a  mon- 
 archy as  other  civil  governments  which  are  administered 
 by  one  man.  Such  indeed  they  wished  it  to  be ;  for 
 their  demand  was  to  "  have  a  king  over  them,  that  they 
 also  might  be  like  the  nations  ;"  and  in  this  sense  their 
 demand  was  understood  both  by  God  and  by  the  prophet. 
 '  They  have  not  rejected  thee,  said  the  Lord  to  Samuel, 
 but  they  have  rejected  me,  that  I  should  not  reign  over 
 them ;'  and  had  their  demand  been  granted  to  the  ut- 
 most extent  of  their  wishes,  they  would  very  quickly 
 have  proceeded  to  abrogate  the  law,  and  to  reject  Je 
 hovah  as  their  only  God. 
 
 The  magistrate  called  a  king  in  those  days  and 
 countries  around  them,  was  supreme  and  absolute.  His 
 edicts  were  laws,  which  he  could  enforce,  suspend,  or 
 abrogate,  at  his  pleasure  ;  but  such  authority  never  was 
 possessed  by  Saul,  by  David,  or  by  any  other  king, 
 either  of  Israel  or  of  Judah.  All  writers  on  politics 
 have  agreed,  indeed  all  men  capable  of  reflection  must 
 agree,  that  in  every  government  there  is  necessarily  a 
 power,  from  which  the  constitution  has  provided  no 
 appeal,  and   which  may  therefore  be  termed   absolute, 
 
470 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.2888.  A.  C.  111G  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 that  Solomon  sat  on  the  throne  of  the  Lord  as  king  in- 
 stead of  David  his  father.  And  the  queen  of  Sheba,  who 
 had  doubtless  been  informed  by  Solomon  of  the  true  na- 
 ture of  his  kingdom,  compliments  him  in  these  words, 
 '  Blessed  be  the  Lord  thy  God,  which  delighteth  in  thee 
 to  set  thee  on  his  throne,  to  be  king  for  the  Lord  thy 
 God.'  In  like  manner,  Ahijah  says  to  the  house  of 
 Israel,  on  their  defection  from  Rehoboam ;  '  And  now 
 ye  think  to  withstand  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  in  the 
 hands  of  the  sons  of  David.'  l 
 
 VII.  "  The  penal  laws  against  idolatry  were  still  in 
 force  during  their  kings,  and  put  in  execution  by  their 
 best  rulers;  which  alone  is  a  demonstration  of  the  sub- 
 sistence of  the  theocracy ;  because  such  law  would  be 
 absolutely  unjust  under  any  other  form  of  government.  2 
 
 VIII.  "  It  appears  that  a  certain  degree  of  inspiration 
 was  vouchsafed  to  their  several  kings,  or  at  least  to 
 the  first  of  each  dynasty  of  kings,  to  enable  them  to 
 discharge  properly  the  duties  of  God's  vicegerents, 
 and  that  this  gift  was  not  withdrawn  till  they  were  re- 
 jected from  their  high  office,  or  had  rendered  themselves 
 unworthy  of  it.  Thus  when  Saul  was  anointed  to  be 
 captain  over  the  Lord's  inheritance,  as  soon  as  he  had 
 turned  his  back  to  go  from  Samuel,  God  gave  him  ano- 
 ther heart,  and  turned  him  into  a  new  man,  to  qualify 
 him,  as  Bishop  Patrick  observes,  for  the  government  of 
 his  people  ;  but  when  he  had  rendered  himself,  by  his 
 rebellions  against  his  divine  sovereign,  unworthy  of  the 
 office,  that  spirit  was  withdrawn  from  him,  and  conferred 
 on  David,  who  was  anointed  to  succeed  him.  In  like 
 manner,  when  Solomon  succeeded  to  the  kingdom,  God 
 bestowed  on  him  '  a  wise  and  understanding  heart,  to 
 enable  him  to  govern  and  judge  the  people,'  who  are 
 expressly  called  not  Solomon's,  but  God's  people."  3 
 
 It  is  justly  observed  by  Warburton,  that  had  the  peo- 
 ple's demand  of  a  king  been  complied  with  in  the  sense 
 and  to  the  extent  that  they  meant  it,  the  equal  and  ex- 
 traordinary providence,  rewarding  piety  and  virtue  in 
 this  world,  and  punishing  idolatry  and  vice,  must  have 
 been  withdrawn  from  them  ;  and  that  they  could  not  then 
 have  supported  themselves  under  an  ordinary  providence 
 in  which  '  all  things  here  come  alike  to  all,'  surrounded 
 as  they  were  by  exasperated  enemies,  more  powerful 
 than  themselves.  But  it  is  of  more  importance  perhaps 
 to  consider  the  equal  and  extraordinary  providence  as 
 necessary  at  that  period,  and  long  afterwards,  to  check 
 their  propensities  to  idolatry,  and  to  prepare  them  gra- 
 dually for  the  reception  of  that  future  Messiah,  promised 
 to  their  forefathers,  in  whom  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
 were  to  be  blessed.  A  long  succession  of  prophets  was 
 accordingly  sent  to  open  up  gradually  the  nature  of  that 
 dispensation,  which  Moses  had  taught  them  to  expect 
 from  a  prophet  to  be  raised  up  among  them  like  unto 
 him ;  and  to  remove,  by  little  and  little,  the  shadows  of 
 their  law,  as  they  became  more  and  more  able  to  bear 
 the  splendour  of  the  light  within.  That  splendour, 
 however,  the  nation  at  large  was  never  considered 
 fully  able  to  bear  ;  and  therefore  the  extraordinary  pro- 
 vidence was  never  wholly  withdrawn  from  them  till  some 
 time  after  their  return  from  their  Babylonish  captivity, 
 by  which  they  appear  to  have  been  completely  cured  of 
 
 omnipotent,  and  uncontrollable.  But  this  power  can  be 
 nothing  else  than  the  legislature  ;  and  where  the  right  of 
 enacting  and  executing  the  laws  is  vested  in  different 
 bodies,  the  government  is  more  or  less  free  according 
 to  circumstances.  The  sole  legislator  of  Israel  was 
 God  ;  and  therefore,  as  the  kings  could  neither  enact  a 
 new  law  nor  repeal  an  old  one,  the  government  continued 
 to  be  a  theocracy,  as  well  under  their  permanent  admin- 
 istration, as  it  was  under  the  occasional  administration 
 of  the  judges  ;  and  the  only  difference  that  we  can 
 discover  between  the  two  species  of  government,  is,  that 
 the  conduct  of  Judges  was  generally  directed  by  him, 
 and  that  of  the  kings  either  by  the  inspiration  of  God 
 vouchsafed  to  themselves,  or  by  prophets  raised  up  from 
 time  to  time  to  reclaim  them  when  deviating  from  their 
 duty  as  laid  down  by  the  law.  That  the  theocracy  ended 
 not  with  the  judges,  has  been  proved  by  Bishop  Warbur- 
 ton in  so  masterly  a  manner,  that  I  should  do  my  reader 
 injustice  were  I  not  to  lay  before  him  an  abstract  of  that 
 learned  and  ingenious  prelate's  reasoning  on  the  subject. 
 
 I.  "  Though  the  people's  purpose,  in  their  clamours 
 for  a  king,  was  indeed  to  live  under  a  Gentile  monarchy, 
 like  their  idolatrous  neighbours  ;  yet  in  compassion  to 
 their  blindness,  God,  in  this  instance,  as  in  many  others, 
 indulged  their  prejudices,  without  exposing  them  to  the 
 fatal  consequences  of  their  project,  which,  if  complied 
 with  in  the  sense  in  which  they  had  formed  it,  would  have 
 been  a  withdrawing  from  them  of  his  extraordinary  pro- 
 vidence, at  a  time  when  they  could  not  support  them- 
 selves without  it.  He  therefore  gave  them  a  king  ;  but 
 such  a  one  as  was  only  his  viceroy  or  deputy  :  and  who, 
 on  that  account,  was  not  left  to  the  people's  election, 
 but  chosen  by  himself,  and  chosen  foe  life,  which  it  does 
 not  appear  that  all  the  judges  were. 
 
 II.  "  This  king  had  an  unlimited  executive  power  as 
 God's  viceroy,  for  which  he  was  amenable  to  God  alone, 
 whom  David  therefore  repeatedly  calls  his  own  King,  as 
 well  as  the  King  of  Israel. 
 
 III.  ':  He  had  no  legislative  authority,  which  every 
 king  then  had,  but  which  no  viceroy  could  possibly  have. 
 David  and  Solomon  indeed  appointed  the  courses  of  the 
 priests  ;  but  the  latter  is  said  to  have  done  so  according 
 to  the  order  of  the  former,  who  is  expressly  styled  '  the 
 man  of  God,'  who,  therefore,  acted  under  the  direction 
 of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
 
 IV.  "  The  king  was  placed  and  displaced  by  God  at 
 pleasure,  of  which  as  viceroy,  we  see  the  perfect  fitness  ; 
 but  as  sovereign,  by  the  people's  choice  or  by  any  other 
 right,  we  cannot  easily  account  for.  No  doubt  God  is 
 by  inherent  right  the  sovereign  Dispenser  of  all  things 
 both  in  heaven  and  in  earth  ;  but  in  the  establishing  of 
 the  government  of  Israel,  he  appears  to  have  treated 
 with  that  people,  as  men  equally  independent  treat  with 
 each  other,  and  to  have  left  it  at  first  to  their  own  option 
 wlielher  they  would  have  himself  for  their  King. 
 
 V.  "  The  very  same  punishment  was  ordained  for 
 cursing  'the  king  as  for  blaspheming  God,  namely, 
 stoning  to  death  ;  and  the  reason  is  intimated  in  these 
 words  of  Abishai  to  David — '  Shall  not  Shimei  be  put  to 
 dcntli  for  this,  because  he  cursed  the  Lord's  anointed  ?' 
 the  common  title  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and  of  Judah. 
 
 VI.  "  The  throne  and  kingdom  of  Judea  is  all  along 
 expressly  declared  to  be  God's  throne  and  God's  king- 
 dom.    Thus,  in  the  first  book  of  Chronicles,  it  is  said, 
 
 2Di 
 
 1  1  Sam.  ix. 
 b,  5.  sec.  '3. 
 
 2  6am.  iii.  5 — 15. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 471 
 
 A.  M.  28S3.  A.  C.  1116;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  1301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  3AM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 their  propensities  to  polytheism,  and  led  to  turn  their 
 attention  more  steadily  to  the  prospect  of  that  future 
 state,  which  had  been  presented  to  them  by  some  of  their 
 later  prophets. 
 
 During  the  captivity  Bishop  Warburton  supposes  that 
 the  administration  of  the  theocracy  lay,  as  it  were,  in 
 abeyance,  but  it  appears  that  the  Jews  were  there  per- 
 mitted to  live  as  far  as  possible,  that  is,  to  regulate 
 their  own  private  concerns,  by  their  own  laws  ;  and  we  are 
 sure  that  they  were  protected  by  a  miraculous  interposi- 
 tion of  providence,  from  the  tyranny  of  those  who 
 attempted  to  compel  them  to  worship  idols  or  to  neglect 
 the  worship  of  their  own  God. l  On  their  return  to  their 
 own  country,  however,  the  theocratic  government  was 
 again  administered,  as  is  evident  from  the  declaration  of 
 the  Almighty,  by  the  prophet  Haggai :  '  yet  now  be 
 strong,  O  Zerubbabel,  saith  the  Lord ;  and  be  strong,  O 
 Joshua,  son  of  Josedech  the  high  priest ;  and  be  strong 
 all  ye  people  of  the  land,  saith  the  Lord,  and  work,  for 
 I  am  with  you,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts  :  according  to 
 the  word  that  I  covenanted  with  you  when  you  came  out 
 of  Egypt,  so  my  Spirit  remaineth  amongst  you  :  fear  ye 
 not.'  a  "  What  was  that  covenant?"  asks  the  Bishop. 
 "  That  Israel  should  be  his  people,  and  he  their  God 
 and  King.  It  cannot  barely  mean,  that  he  would  be  their 
 God,  and  they  should  be  his  people  ;  for  this  was  but 
 part  of  the  covenant.  Nor  can  it  mean  that  they  should 
 be  conducted  by  an  extraordinary  providence,  as  at  their 
 coming  out  of  Egypt,  and  during  the  first  periods  of  the 
 theocracy,  for  this  was  but  the  effect  of  the  covenant, 
 which  soon  ceased  after  their  re-establishment  in  their 
 own  country." 
 
 Then  indeed  the  extraordinary  providence  was  wholly 
 withdrawn  from  the  Jews,  among  whom,  as  among  other 
 nations,  there  was  thenceforth,  '  one  event  in  this  world, 
 to  the  righteous  and  to  the  wicked,'  whose  prosperity  or 
 adversity  appeared  no  longer  to  be  the  result,  as  for- 
 merly, of  their  righteousness  or  their  sins.  Still,  however, 
 their  government  continued  to  be  a  theocracy  ;  for  they 
 were  governed  by  laws  which,  as  they  were  given  by  God, 
 none  but  God  could  repeal  or  change.  If  then,  as  all 
 writers  on  political  philosophy  agree,  every  government 
 receives  its  denomination  from  the  supreme  or  sovereign 
 power  of  the  state  ;  and  if  no  power  can  be  supreme,  but 
 that  in  which  resides  the  power  of  legislation,  it  is  obvious 
 that  the  government  or  constitution  of  the  Jewish  state 
 continued  to  be  a  theocracy  till  the  coming  of  that  pro- 
 phet, who  was  to  be  a  lawgiver  like  unto  Moses  ;  for 
 none  else  had,  or  could  have  authority  to  repeal,  or  in  any 
 way  change  those  laws  which  they  had  received  from  God, 
 by  his  ministry.  Jesus  the  promised  Messiah  erected,  in- 
 deed, a  new  and  spiritual  kingdom,  to  be  governed  by 
 a  new  and  spiritual  law  ;  and  proved  the  divine  origin 
 of  that  kingdom,  by  miracles  equally  numerous  and  stu- 
 pendous with  those  by  which  the  theocracy  had  been 
 originally  established  ;  whilst  he  completely  abolished 
 the  Mosaic  dispensation,  by  rendering  it  impossible  to 
 administer  even  the  form  of  the  theocratic  government.  3 
 
 Dan. 
 
 i.6.  2  Haggai  ii.  4,  5. 
 
 3  Warburton,   Home,  Gleig. 
 
 CHAP.  III.— Of  SamuePs  appearing  to  Said  at  the 
 Witch  of  Endor's. 
 
 How  long  the  profession  of  necromancy,  or  the  art  of 
 raising  up  the  dead,  in  order  to  pry  into  future  events, 
 or  to  be  informed  of  the  fate  of  the  living,  has  obtained 
 in  the  world,  we  have  no  indications  from  history.  We 
 perceive  no  footsteps  of  it  in  the  ages  before  the  flood ; 
 and  yet  it  is  strange,  that  a  people,  abandoned  to  all 
 kinds  of  wickedness  in  a  manner,  could  keep  themselves 
 clear  of  this  :  but  our  account  of  these  times  is  very 
 short.  The  first  express  mention  that  we  meet  with  of 
 magicians  and  sorcerers,  is  almost  in  the  beginning  of 
 the  book  of  Exodus,  where  Moses  is  soliciting  the  deliv- 
 erance of  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt;  and 
 therefore  Egypt,  which  affected  to  be  the  mother  of  most 
 occult  sciences,  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  inventress 
 of  this.  From  Egypt  it  spread  itself  into  the  neigh- 
 bouring countries,  and  soon  infected  all  the  east :  for 
 as  it  undertook  to  gratify  man's  inquisitiveness,  and  su- 
 perstitious curiosity,  it  could  not  long  want  abettors. 
 From  Egypt  it  is  certain  that  the  Israelites  brought 
 along  with  them  no  small  inclination  to  these  detestable 
 practices ;  and  were  but  too  much  addicted  to  them ; 
 notwithstanding  all  the  care  that  the  state  had  taken  to 
 suppress  them,  and  the  provision  which  God  had  made, 
 by  establishing  a  method  of  consulting  him,  to  prevent 
 their  hankering  after  them. 
 
 The  injunction  of  the  law  is  very  express.  4  '  When 
 thou  art  come  into  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God 
 giveth  thee,  thou  shalt  not  learn  to  do  after  the  abomina- 
 tions of  those  nations.  There  shall  not  be  found  among 
 you  any  that  useth  divination,  or  an  observer  of  times, 
 or  an  enchanter,  or  a  witch,  or  a  charmer,  or  "a  con- 
 
 4  Deut.  xviii.  9,  &c. 
 
 a  What  our  English  translation  makes  a  familiar  spirit,  the 
 Septuagint  and  Vulgate  render  the  spirit  of  Python;  but  the 
 Hebrew  calls  it  the  spirit  of  Ob,  The  word  Ob,  or  Oboth,  in 
 its  primary  signification,  is  a  bottle  or  vessel  of  leather,  wherein 
 liquors  were  put;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  this  name  was 
 given  to  witches  and  wizards,  because,  when  they  were  in  their 
 fits  of  enthusiasm,  they  swelled  in  their  bellies  like  a  bottle. 
 The  occasion  of  this  swelling  is  said  by  some  to  proceed  from  a 
 (lemon's  entering  into  the  sorceress  per  partes  genitales,  and  so 
 ascending  to  the  bottom  of  her  stomach,  from  whence  at  that  time, 
 she  uttered  her  predictions ;  and  for  this  reason  the  Latins  call 
 such  persons  'ventriloqui,'  and  the  Greeks  lyyaaT^tfiviot,  'people 
 who  speak  out  of  their  bellies.'  That  there  have  been  such  people 
 as  these,  might  be  shown  by  several  examples  both  in  ancient 
 and  modern  history ;  but  at  present,  we  shall  content  ourselves 
 with  one  taken  from  Ca?lius  Rhodiginus,  (Lecti.  Antiq.  b.  8.  C. 
 10.)  his  words  are  to  this  etlect.  "  While  I  am  writing,"  says 
 he,  "concerning  ventriloquous  persons,  there  is,  in  my  own 
 country,  a  woman  of  a  mean  extract,  who  has  an  unclean  spirit 
 in  her  belly,  from  whence  may  be  heard  a  voice,  not  very  strong 
 indeed,  but  very  articulate  and  intelligible.  Multitudes  of  people 
 have  heard  this  voice,  as  well  as  myself,  and  all  imaginable  pre- 
 caution has  been  useil  in  examining  into  the  truth  of  this  fact. 
 Quando  futuri  avida  portentus  mens,  sffipe  accersitam  ventrilo- 
 quam,  ac  exutam  amictu  nequid  fraudis  occultaret,  inspectare  et 
 audire  eoncupivit.  This  demon,"  as  our  author  adds,  "  is  called 
 Cincinuatulus,  and  when  the  woman  calls  upon  him  by  his  name, 
 he  immediately  answers  her."  In  like  manner  several  ancient 
 writers  have  informed  us,  that  in  the  times  of  paganism,  evil 
 spirits  had  communion  with  these  ventriloqui  per  partes  secre-. 
 tiores;  but  at  present,  we  shall  only  take  notice  of  a  remarkable 
 passage  in  St  Chrysostom,  which  we  choose  to  give  the  reader  in 
 Latin.    "  Traditur  I'ythia  famina  fuisse,  qua  in  Tripodes sedena 
 
472 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V- 
 
 A.  M.  -2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 suiter  with  familiar  spirits,  or  a  wizard,  or  a  necroman- 
 cer ;  for  all  that  do  these  things  are  an  abomination  to 
 the  Lord ;'  and  therefore  their  punishment  was  this. 
 1  '  A  man,  or  a  woman,  that  hath  a  familiar  spirit,  or 
 that  is  a  wizard,  shall  surely  be  put  to  death.  They 
 shall  stone  them  with  stones,  their  blood  shall  be  upon 
 them.'  Nor  was  it  only  the  practisers  of  such  vile  arts, 
 but  those  likewise  that  resorted  to  them  upon  any  occa- 
 sion, were  liable  to  the  same  punishment ;  for  2  '  the  soul 
 that  turneth  after  such  as  have  familiar  spirits,  and  after 
 wizards  to  go  a-whoring  after  them,  I  will  even  set  my 
 face  against  that  soul,  and  will  cut  him  off  from  among 
 his  people,'  saith  the  Lord. 
 
 Such  was  the  severity  of  the  Jewish  laws  against  those 
 who  either  practised,  or  encouraged,  any  manner  of  ma- 
 gical arts  ;  and  it  must  be  said  in  Saul's  commendation, 
 that  he  put  the  laws  in  execution  against  such  vile 
 people ;  he  had  destroyed  and  driven  away  3 '  those  that 
 had  familiar  spirits,  and  the  wizards  out  of  the  land ;' 
 and  yet,  observe  the  weakness  as  well  as  the  wickedness 
 of  the  man  !  when  himself  fell  into  distress,  and  had 
 abundant  reason  to  believe  that  God  had  forsaken  him, 
 he  flies  to  one  of  these  creatures  for  relief,  and  requests 
 of  her  to  raise  up  his  old  friend  Samuel,  as  expecting, 
 very  probably,  some  advice  from  him.  But  whether  this 
 was  really  done  or  no,  or  if  done,  in  what  manner  it  was 
 effected,  are  points  that  have  so  much  exercised  the 
 heads  and  pens,  both  of  ancient  and  modern,  both  of 
 Jewish  and  Christian,  writers,  that  little  or  nothing  new- 
 can  be  said  upon  them ;  and  therefore  all  that  I  shall 
 endeavour  to  do,  will  be  to  reduce  their  several  senti- 
 ments into  as  narrow  a  compass,  and  to  state  them  in  as 
 fair  a  light,  as  I  can,  by  inquiring  into  these  three  par- 
 ticulars : 
 
 1.  Whether  there  was  a  real  apparition. 
 
 2.  What  this  apparition,  if  real,  was  ;  and, 
 
 3.  By  what  means,  and  for  what  purposes,  it  was  effected. 
 
 1.  It  cannot  be  denied  indeed  but  that  those  who  ex- 
 plode the  reality  of  the  apparition,  and  make  it  to  be 
 all  nothing  but  a  cheat  and  juggle  of  the  sorceress,  have 
 found  out  some  arguments,  that  at  first  sight  make  a 
 tolerable  appearance.  They  tell  us,  4  that  the  sacred 
 history  never  once  makes  mention  of  Saul's  seeing 
 Samuel  with  his  own  eyes.  It  informs  us,  indeed,  that 
 Saul  knew  him  by  the  description  which  the  woman 
 gave,  and  that  he  held,  for  some  considerable  time,  a 
 conversation  w  ith  him ;  but  since  it  is  nowhere  said  that 
 he  really  saw  him,  "  Why  might  not  the  woman  counter- 
 feit a  voice,  and  pretend  it  was  Samuel's  ?  When  Saul 
 asked  her  to  «  raise  him  up  Samuel,  that  is,  to  disturb 
 
 1  Lev.  xx.  27.  8  Lev.  xx.  6.  3  1  Sam.  xxviii.  3. 
 
 4  Scot  and  Webster  upou  Witchcraft, 
 expansa  malignum  spiritum  per  interna  immissum,  et  per  geni- 
 tales  partes  subeuntem  excipiens,  furore  repleretur,  ipsaque 
 resolutis  crinibus  baccharetur,  ex  ore  spumam  emittens,  et  sic 
 furoris  verba  loquebatur,"  &c.— Saurin,  vol.  4.  Dissertation  36. 
 a  \\  hat  forms  of  enchantment  were  anciently  used  in  the 
 practice  of  necromancy,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  know;  because  we 
 read  of  none  that  the  Pythoness  of  Endor  employed ;  but  this 
 might  probably  happen,  because  the  ghost  of  Samuel  came  upon 
 her  sooner  than  she  expected,  and  before  she  had  begun  her  in- 
 cantations. That  however  there  were  several  rites,  spells,  and 
 invocations  used  upon  these  occasions,  we  may  learn  from  almost 
 every  ancient  author;  but  from  none  more  particularly  than  from 
 Lucaxi,  who  brings  in  Erichtho  animating  a  dead  body,  in  order 
 to  tell  young  Pompey  the  fate  of  the  civil  war.     The  ceremonies 
 
 the  ghost  of  so  great  a  prophet,  she  might  think  he  was 
 no  common  man  ;  and  when  5  •  he  sware  unto  her  by  the 
 Lord,'  that  he  would  defend  her  from  all  danger,  he 
 gave  her  intimation  enough  that  he  was  the  king.  6  The 
 crafty  woman,  therefore,  having  picked  up  the  knowledge 
 of  this,  might  retire  into  her  closet  or  cell,  and  there, 
 having  her  familiar,  that  is,  some  cunning  artful  man,  to 
 make  proper  responses,  in  a  different  voice,  might  easily 
 impose  upon  one  who  was  distracted  with  anxious 
 thoughts,  and  had  already  shown  sufficient  credulity,  in 
 thinking  there  was  an  efficacy  in  magical  operations  to 
 evocate  the  dead. 
 
 "  The  controversy  between  Saul  and  David  every 
 one  knew ;  nor  was  it  now  become  a  secret,  that  the 
 crown  was  to  devolve  upon  the  latter  :  and  therefore  that 
 part  of  the  discourse  which  passed  between  Saul  and 
 Samuel,  any  man  of  a  common  genius  might  have  hit  off", 
 without  much  difficulty.  Endor  was  not  so  far  distant 
 from  Gilboa  or  Shunem,  but  that  the  condition  of  the  two 
 armies  might  easily  be  known,  and  that  the  Philistines 
 were  superior  both  in  courage  and  numbers  ;  and  there- 
 fore his  respondent,  without  all  peradventure,  might 
 prognosticate  Saul's  defeat ;  and  though  there  were  some 
 hazard  in  the  last  conjecture,  viz.  that  he  and  his  sons 
 would  die  in  battle  ;  yet  there  was  this  advantage  on  the 
 side  of  the  guess,  that  they  were  all  men  of  known  and 
 experienced  valour,  who  would  rather  sacrifice  their  lives, 
 than  turn  their  backs  upon  their  enemies."  Upon  the 
 whole,  therefore,  the  maintainers  of  this  hypothesis  con- 
 
 5  1  Sam.  xxviii.  10. 
 6  See  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  1  Sam.  xxviii.  passim. 
 
 she  uses  for  this  purpose,  are  thus  described  in  our  excellent 
 translator  of  that  poet. 
 
 This  said  ;  she  runs  the  mangled  carcass  o'er, 
 
 And  wipes  from  every  wound  the  crusty  gore  ; 
 
 Now  with  hot  blood  the  frozen  breast  she  warms, 
 
 And  with  strong  lunar  dews  confirms  her  charms. 
 
 Anon  she  mingles  ev'ry  monstrous  birth, 
 
 Which  nature,  wayward  and  perverse,  brings  forth. 
 
 Nor  entrails  of  the  spotted  lynx  she  lacks, 
 
 Nor  bony  joints  from  fell  hyaenas'  backs  ; 
 
 Nor  deers'  hot  marrow,  rich  with  snaky  blood, 
 
 Nor  foam  of  raging  dogs,  that  fly  the  flood. 
 
 Her  store  the  tardy  re  mora  supplies, 
 
 With  stones  from  eagles  warm,  and  dragons'  eyes  ; 
 
 Snakes  that  on  pinions  cut  their  airy  way, 
 
 And  nimbly  o'er  Arabian  deserts  play,  &e. 
 
 To  these  she  joins  dire  drugs  without  a  name, 
 
 A  thousand  poisons  never  known  to  fame ; 
 
 Herbs,  o'er  whose  leaves  the  hag  her  spells  had  sung, 
 
 And  wet  with  cursed  spittle,  as  they  sprung, 
 
 With  every  other  mischief  most  abhorr'd, 
 
 Which  hell,  or  worse  Erichtho,  could  afford. 
 Having  thus  prepared  the  body,  she  makes  her  invocation   in 
 these  words  : — 
 
 Ye  furies  !  and  thou  black,  accursed  hell ! 
 
 Ye  woes,  in  which  the  damn'd  for  ever  dwell ! 
 
 Chaos,  the  world's  and  form's  eternal  foe  ! 
 
 And  thou,  sole  arbiter  of  all  below, 
 
 Pluto  !  whom  ruthless  fates  a  god  ordain, 
 
 And  doom  to  immortality  of  pain, 
 
 Ye  fair  Elysian  mansions  of  the  blest, 
 
 Where  no  Thessalian  charmer  hopes  to  rest ! 
 
 Styx  !  and  Persephone,  compelled  to  fly 
 
 Thy  fruitful  mother,  and  the  cheerful  sky  ! 
 
 Third  Hecate  !  by  whom  my  whispers  breathe 
 
 My  secret  purpose  to  the  shades  beneath  ! 
 
 Thou  greedy  dog,  who  at  th'  infernal  gate, 
 
 In  everlasting  hunger  still  must  wait ! 
 
 And  thou,  old  Charon,  horrible  and  hoar  ! 
 
 For  ever  lab'ring  back  from  shore  to  shore,  &c. 
 
 Hear  all  ye  powers  !  if  e'er  your  hell  rejoice 
 
 In  the  lov'd  horrors  of  this  impious  voice,  &c. 
 
 Hear,  and  obey,  &c.  Pharaalia,  b.  C. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  HIG;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1    SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 473 
 
 elude  that  as  there  is  no  reason,  so  there  was  no  neces- 
 sity for  any  miraculous  interposition  in  this  affair,  since 
 this  is  no  more  than  what  any  common  gypsy,  with 
 another  in  confederacy  to  assist  her,  might  do  to  any 
 credulous  person  who  came  to  consult  her. 
 
 They  who  undertake  to  oppose  this  opinion,  lay  it 
 down  for  a  good  rule  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture, 
 that  we  should,  as  far  as  we  can,  adhere  to  the  primary 
 sense  of  the  words,  and  never  have  recourse  to  any 
 foreign  or  singular  explication,  but  where  the  literal  is 
 inconsistent  either  with  the  dictates  of  right  reason,  or 
 the  analogy  of  faith.  Let  any  indifferent  person  then, 
 say  they,  take  into  his  hand  the  account  of  Saul's  con- 
 sulting this  sorceress,  and  upon  the  first  reading  it,  he 
 must  confess,  that  the  notion  which  it  conveys  to  his 
 mind,  is  that  of  a  real  apparition  ;  and  since  the  passages 
 that  both  precede  and  follow  it,  are  confessedly  to  be 
 taken  in  their  most  obvious  meaning,  why  should  a 
 strange  and  forced  construction  be  put  upon  this  ? 
 1  Have  we  not  as  much  reason  to  entertain  a  good 
 opinion  of  the  author  of  this  history,  his  ability,  his  inte- 
 grity, his  knowledge  of  what  he  wrote  about,  and  his 
 undesigningto  deceive  us,  as  we  can  have  of  any  critic  or 
 commentator  upon  it  ?  And  therefore  when  he  gives  us 
 to  understand  that  the  woman  saw  Samuel,  upon  what 
 presumption  are  we  led  to  disbelieve  it  ?  Saul  and  his 
 companions  might  possibly  be  deceived  by  an  impostor 
 in  Samuel's  guise  ;  but  was  the  sacred  historian  there- 
 fore deceived,  or  did  he  mean  to  deceive  us,  when  he 
 gives  us  this  plain  account  of  an  apparition  ?  Saul  was 
 a  bold  man,  and  too  sagacious  to  become  a  dupe  to  a 
 silly  woman.  He  and  his  two  attendants  came  upon  her 
 by  night,  and  before  she  was  prepared  to  act  any  juggle 
 or  imposture.  They  were  too  well  acquainted  with  the 
 voice,  and  stature,  and  figure  of  Samuel,  for  any  other 
 to  personate  him,  without  being  detected.  But  admitting 
 the  cheat  passed  upon  them,  how  can  we  think  but  that  the 
 author  of  this  account,  who  pretends  to  relate  the  trans- 
 action as  it  really  happened,  and  is  supposed  to  have 
 written  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  would  in 
 some  measure,  have  let  us  into  the  secret  of  this  impos- 
 ture ?  His  business  doubtless  was  to  expose  such  prac- 
 tices, as  far  as  truth  would  allow  ;  and  therefore  it  is 
 unaccountable  (unless  he  meant  to  delude  us  with  a  false 
 persuasion)  that  he  should  admit  everything  that  tended 
 to  discover  the  fraud,  and  in  his  narration,  insert  every 
 thing  that  tended  to  confirm  the  reality  of  the  prophet's 
 appearance. 
 
 2  That  spirits  of  another  world  may  assume  such  vehi- 
 cles as  may  admit  them  to  a  sensible  commerce  with  us, 
 in  like  manner  as  our  spirits  are  clothed  with  these 
 bodies  of  ours,  the  best  philosophy  will  admit ;  and  that 
 they  have  done  so  upon  extraordinary  occasions,  3  the 
 appearance  of  Moses  and  Elias,  and  their  conversing 
 with  our  Saviour  on  the  mount,  do  abundantly  testify. 
 And  therefore  if  God,  for  wise  reasons  of  his  providence, 
 thought  fit  either  to  appoint,  or  permit  Samuel  to  appear 
 to  Saul  upon  this  occasion,  there  seems  to  be  no  more 
 difficulty  in  the  thing,  than  his  appearing  to  him  at  any 
 other  time,  while  he  was  alive,  and    subsisting  in  the 
 
 '  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David. 
 
 3  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David,  vol.  1. 
 
 3  Mat.  xvii. .". 
 
 world :  for  Saul  saw  his  spirit  then  no  more  than  he 
 did  now,  and  his  spirit  was  every  whit  as  able  to  bear  a 
 body  as  it  was  then. 
 
 It  is  owned,  indeed,  that  according  to  the  series  of 
 the  narration,  Saul  did  not  see  the  apparition,  be  it 
 what  it  will,  so  soon  as  the  woman  did,  because  probably 
 the  woman's  body,  or  some  other  object, might  interpose 
 between  him  and  the  first  appearance  ;  or  perhaps  be- 
 cause the  vehicle,  which  Samuel  assumed  upon  this 
 occasion,  was  not,  as  yet,  condensed  enough  to  be  visible 
 to  Saul,  though  it  was  to  the  woman :  but  that  he  did 
 actually  see  him  is  manifest,  because  when  he  perceived, 
 which  word  in  the  original  signifies  seeing  so  as  to  be 
 assured  of  our  object,  that  it  was  Samuel,  a  '  he  stooped 
 with  his  face  to  the  g-round,  and  bowed  himself;'  which 
 a  man  is  not  apt  to  do  to  bare  ideas  or  imaginations. 
 
 Persons  of  this  woman's  character,  who  are  under  the 
 displeasure  of  the  government,  generally  affect  obscu- 
 rity, live  privately,  and  are  little  acquainted  with  affairs 
 of  state.  But  suppose  her  to  have  been  ever  so  great 
 a  politician,  and  ever  so  intimate  with  what  had  passed 
 between  Saul  and  Samuel  heretofore,  ever  so  well  as- 
 sured that  God  had  rejected  him,  and  elected  David  in 
 his  stead  ;  yet  how  could  she  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
 this,  namely,  that  the  battle  should  be  fought  the  next 
 day,  the  Israelites  be  routed,  Saul  and  his  sons  slain, 
 and  their  spoils  fall  into  the  enemy's  hands  :  since  each 
 of  these  events,  even  in  the  present  situation  of  Saul's 
 affairs,  was  highly  casual  and  uncertain  ?  For  might 
 not  this  prince  lose  a  battle,  without  losing  his  life  ?  Or, 
 if  he  himself  fell  in  the  action,  why  must  his  three  sons 
 be  all  cut  off'  in  the  same  day  ?  Whatever  demonstra- 
 tions of  innate  bravery  he  had  given  in  times  past,  after 
 such  severe  menaces  as  he  now  received  from  the  appa- 
 rition ;  prudence,  one  would  think,  would  have  put  him 
 upon  providing  for  his  safety,  either  by  chicaning  with 
 the  enemy,  or  retiring  from  the  field  of  battle,  without 
 going  to  expose  himself,  his  sons,  and  his  whole  army, 
 to  certain  and  inevitable  death.  These  are  things  which 
 no  human  penetration  could  reach,  and  which  only  he, 
 who  is  the  absolute  and  almighty  Ruler  of  all  causes  and 
 events,  could  either  foresee  or  foretell.  And  how  un- 
 likely is  it,  that  God  Almighty  should  make  use  of  this 
 sorceress  4  as  a  prophetess,  and  give  her  the  honour  of 
 revealing  his  counsels,  when,  at  the  same  time,  he  con- 
 curred with  her  in  the  imposition  put  upon  Saul,  by- 
 making  him  believe  that  Samuel  appeared  and  talked, 
 when  there  was  no  Samuel  there  ? 
 
 4  Waterland's  Sermons,  vol.  2. 
 
 a  That  '  Saul's  stooping  to  the  ground,' and  '  bowing  himself,' 
 was  a  certain  indication  of  his  seeing  Samuel,  is  apparent  from 
 several  expressions  of  the  same  nature  in  the  sacred  history. 
 Thus,  when  Jacob  met  Esau,  the  text  tells  us,  that  the  '  hand- 
 maids, and  Leah,  and  Rachel,  and  their  children  bowed  them- 
 selves,' Gen.  xxxiii.  C,  7.  When  David  arose  out  of  his  hiding- 
 place,  upon  the  signal  that  Jonathan  gave  him,  the  text  tells  u  . 
 that  '  he  fell  with  his  face  to  the  ground,  and  bowed  himself,' 
 1  Sam.  xx.  41.  And  when  the  messenger  from  Saul's  camp 
 came  to  David  at  Ziklag,  the  text  tells  us,  that  '  he  fell  to  the 
 earth,  and  did  obeisance,'  2  Sam.  i.  2.  But  the  text  takes  no 
 notice,  either  of  the  messenger's  seeing  David,  or  David's  seeing 
 Jonathan,  or  Jacob's  family  seeing  Esau.  This  is  sufficiently 
 implied  in  their  making  their  obeisance  to  them;  because  it  is 
 incongruous  to  suppose,  that  any  would  bow,  and  show  other 
 tokens  of  outward  reverence  and  respect,  to  persons  they  did  not 
 [  Sce. —  The  History  of  the  Life  of  Kino  David,  vol.  1. 
 3o 
 
474  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.   A.  C.  IMG;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,    A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 But  the  truth  is,  those  menacing  predictions,  how 
 proper  soever  for  a  messenger  sent  from  God  to  utter, 
 were  highly  imprudent,  either  in  this  witch's,  or  her  ac- 
 complice's mouth.  For,  since  they  knew  nothing  of 
 futurity,  and  were,  at  the  best,  but  put  to  conjecture,  it 
 is  much  more  reasonable  to  believe,  that  at  such  a  junc- 
 ture as  this,  l  they  would  have  bethought  themselves  of 
 flattering  the  king,  and  giving  him  comfort,  and  pro- 
 mising success,  and  not  of  thundering  out  such  commina- 
 tions  against  him,  as  might  probably  incense  him,  but 
 could  do  themselves  no  good.  They  could  not  but 
 know,  that  the  temper  of  most  kings  is  to  hate  to  hear 
 shocking  truths,  and  to  receive  with  the  utmost  despite 
 those  that  bring  them  ill  news.  And  therefore  it  is  na- 
 tural to  suppose,  that  had  these  threatening  replies  been 
 of  the  woman's  or  her  confederate's  forming,  they  would 
 have  given  them  quite  another  turn,  and  not  run  the 
 hazard  of  disobliging  the  king  to  no  purpose,  by  laying 
 an  additional  load  of  trouble  upon  him.  In  short,  2  the 
 whole  tenor  of  Samuel's  speech  to  king  Saul  is  too 
 rough  and  ungrateful,  too  grave  and  solemn,  I  may  also 
 add,  too  full  of  truth  and  reality,  ever  to  have  proceeded 
 from  their  contrivance  and  invention  only. 
 
 The  woman,  by  her  courteous  entertainment  of  Said, 
 seems  to  be  a  person  of  no  bad  nature  ;  and  therefore, 
 if  she  had  any  accomplice,  who  understood  to  make  the 
 most  of  his  profession,  his  business  at  this  time  must 
 have  been  to  soothe  and  cajole  the  king,  which  would 
 have  both  put  money  in  his  pocket,  and  saved  the  credit 
 of  his  predictions.  For,  had  he  foretold  him  of  success 
 and  victory,  and  a  happy  issue  out  of  all  his  troubles, 
 he  and  the  woman  had  been  sure  of  reputation,  as  well 
 as  farther  rewards,  in  case  it  had  happened  to  prove  so  ; 
 and  if  it  had  not,  since  no  one  was  privy  to  their  com- 
 munion, the  falsehood  of  the  prediction,  upon  Saul's 
 defeat  and  death,  must,  in  course,  have  been  buried  with 
 him. 
 
 From  these  reasons,  then,  we  may  infer,  that  the  wo- 
 man in  this  transaction  did  not  impose  upon  Saul,  since 
 he  had  a  plain  sight  of  the  apparition.  What  the  ap- 
 parition foretold  him  was  above  human  penetration ; 
 and  upon  the  supposition  of  a  juggle,  the  witch  and  her 
 confederate  would  have  certainly  acted  clean  contrary 
 to  what  they  did.     And  so  the  next— 
 
 2.  Inquiry  meets  us,  namely,  what  this  apparition 
 was  ?  Some  of  the  ancient  doctors,  both  of  the  Jewish 
 and  Christian  church,  have  made  an  evil  angel  the  sub- 
 ject of  this  apparition,  in  pure  regard  to  the  honour  of 
 (iod.  "  God,"  say  they,  "  had  sufficiently  declared  his 
 hatred  against  necromancy,  and  all  kinds  of  witchcraft, 
 in  the  severe  laws  which  he  enacted  against  them ;  but 
 it  is  certainly  denying  himself,  and  cancelling  his  own 
 work,  to  seem  in  tha  least  to  countenance  or  abet  them, 
 as  he  necessarily  must  do,  if,  on  the  evocation  of  an  old 
 hag,  any  messenger  is  permitted  to  go  from  him.  Far 
 be  it  from  us,  therefore,  to  have  such  conceptions  of 
 (iod.  He  is  holy,  and  just,  and  uniform  in  all  his  ways  ; 
 and  therefore  this  coming  at  a  call,  and  doing  the  witch's 
 drudgery,  must  only  appertain  to  some  infernal  spirit, 
 who  might  possibly  lind  his  account  in  it  at  last.  It 
 was  one  of  tills  wicked  crew,  that  either  assumed  a  phan- 
 
 1  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Apparition  of  Samuel. 
 2  Waterland,  ibid. 
 
 torn  or  a  real  body,  appeared  in  a  mantle  like  Samuel, 
 spake  articulately,  and  held  this  conversation  with  Saul ; 
 which  considering  his  knowledge  and  foresight  of  things, 
 he  was  well  enough  qualified  to  do,  notwithstanding  the 
 sundry  predictions  relating  to  future  contingencies,  which 
 are  contained  in  it." 
 
 How  far  the  honour  of  God  is  concerned  in  this  trans- 
 action, will  more  properly  fall  under  our  next  inquiry. 
 In  the  mean  time,  I  cannot  but  observe,  that  whatever 
 incongruity  may  be  supposed  in  the  real  appearance  of 
 Samuel,  it  is  not  near  so  much,  as  to  find  one  of  the 
 apostate  spirits  of  hell  expressing  so  much  zeal  for  the 
 service  of  the  God  of  heaven,  and  upbraiding  Saul  with 
 those  very  crimes  which  he  himself  tempted  him  to  com- 
 mit ;  as  to  find  this  wicked  and  impure  spirit  making 
 use  of  the  name  of  God,  that  sacred  and  tremendous 
 name  whose  very  pronunciation  was  enough  to  make  him 
 quake  and  shiver,  no  less  than  seven  times  in  this  inter- 
 course with  Saul,  without  any  manner  of  uneasiness  or 
 hesitation ;  as  to  find  this  angel  of  darkness  and  father 
 of  lies  prying  into  the  womb  of  futurity,  and  determining 
 the  most  casual  events  positively  and  precisely.     3  We 
 do  not  indeed  deny,  but  that  the  devil's  knowledge  is 
 vastly  superior  to  that  of  the  most  accomplished  human 
 understanding  ;  that  his  natural  penetration,  joined  with 
 his  long  experience,  is  such,  that  the  greatest  philoso- 
 phers, the  subtlest  critics,  and  the  most  refined  politicians 
 are  mere  novices  in  comparison  of  him  :  yet  what  genius, 
 however  exalted  and  improved,  without  a  divine  revela- 
 tion, could,  as  we  said  before,  be  able  to  foretell  things 
 that  were  lodged  in  God's  own  breast,  namely,  the  pre- 
 cise time  of  the  two  armies  engaging,  the  success  and 
 consequence  of  the  victory,  and  the  very  names  of  the 
 persons  that  were  to  fall  in  battle  ?  This  is  what  the  appa- 
 rition plainly  revealed  to  Saul :  and  yet  this,  we  dare 
 maintain,  is  more  than  any  finite  understanding,  by  its  " 
 own  mere  capacity,  could  ever  have  been  able  to  find  out. 
 But   without  this  multitude  of  arguments,  if  we  are 
 to  take  the    Scripture  in  its   plain  and   literal   sense, 
 read  we  over  the  story  of  Saul  and  the  w  itch  of  Endor 
 ever  so  often,  we  shall  not  so  much  as  once   find  the 
 devil  mentioned  in  it.     And  therefore  it  is  somewhat 
 wonderful,  that  he  should  be  brought  upon  the  stage  by 
 many  learned  men,  merely  to  solve  a  difficulty,  which, 
 upon  examination,  appears  to  be  none  at  all.     But  now 
 on  the  other  hand,  it  appears,  that,  through  the  whole 
 narration,  Samuel  is  the  only  thing  that  is  mentioned. 
 It  is  Samuel,  whom  Saul  desires  to  be  called  up ;  Samuel, 
 who  appeared  to  the  woman  ;  Samuel,  whom  the  woman 
 describes ;    Samuel,   whom   Saul  perceives,   and   bows 
 himself  to,  with  whom  he  converses  so  long,  and  because 
 of  whose  words  he  was  afterwards  so  sore  afraid. 
 
 The  Scripture  indeed  speaks  sometimes  according  to 
 the  appearance  of  things,  and  may  call  that  by  the  name 
 of  Samuel,  which  was  only  the  semblance  or  phantom  of 
 him  :  but,  that  this  cannot  be  the  sense  of  the  matter  here, 
 we  have  the  testimony  of  the  wise  son  of  Sirach,  an  ex- 
 cellent interpreter  of  canonical  scriptures,  who  tells  us 
 expressly,  that  4  Samuel,  '  after  his  death,  prophesied, 
 and  showed  the  king  his  end  ;'  pursuant  to  what  we  read 
 in  the   version  of  the   Septuagint,  namely,  that  5  Saul 
 
 Sauiin,  vol.  4.  Dissertation  36. 
 5  1  Chron.  > 
 
 4  Ecclus.  xlvi.  20. 
 
 13. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 475 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;   OU,  ACCOKDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4301.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 '  asked  counsel  of  one  that  had  a  familiar  spirit,  and 
 Samuel  answered  him.'  So  that,  upon  the  whole,  we 
 may  be  allowed  to  conclude,  that  it  was  the  real  soul  of 
 Samuel,  clothed  in  some  visible  form,  which  at  this  time 
 appeared  to  the  king  of  Israel :  but  by  what  means,  or 
 for  what  purposes  it  appeared,  is  the  other  question  we 
 are  now  to  determine. 
 
 3.  Several  of  the  '  fathers  of  the  Christian  church 
 were  of  opinion,  that  the  devil  had  a  certain  limited 
 power  over  the  souls  of  the  saints,  before  Jesus  Christ 
 descended  into  hell,  and  rescued  them  from  the  tyranny 
 of  that  prince  of  darkness.  '  St  Austin,  in  particular, 
 thinks,  that  there  is  bo  absurdity  in  saying,  that  the  devil 
 was  as  able  to  call  up  Samuel's  soul,  as  he  was  to  pre- 
 sent himself  among  the  sons  of  God,  or  to  set  our 
 Saviour  on  one  of  the  pinnacles  of  the  temple  ;  and  a  3 
 learned  Jewish  doctor  supposes,  that  devils  have  such  a 
 power  over  human  souls,  for  the  space  of  a  year  after 
 their  departure,  as  to  make  them  assume  what  bodies 
 they  please;  and  thereupon  he  concludes,  but  very  erro- 
 neously, that  it  was  not  a  year  from  the  time  of  Samuel's 
 death  to  his  appearance.  But  these  are  such  wild 
 and  extravagant  fancies,  as  to  deserve  no  serious  confu- 
 tation. It  is  absurd  to  say  that  the  souls  of  saints,  such 
 as  we  are  now  speaking  of,  were  ever  in  hell,  and  more 
 absurd  to  say,  that  if  they  are  in  heaven,  it  is  in  the 
 power  of  any  magical,  nay,  of  any  diabolical  incanta- 
 tions to  call  them  down  from  thence.  4  Great,  without 
 all  doubt,  is  the  power  of  apostate  angels  ;  but  misera- 
 ble, we  may  say,  would  the  state  of  the  blessed  be,  if  the 
 other  had  any  license  to  disturb  their  happiness,  when, 
 and  as  long  as  they  pleased  :  for  "  God  forbid,"  s  says 
 Tertullian,  "  that  we  should  believe,  that  the  soul  of  any 
 holy  man,  much  less  of  a  prophet,  should  be  so  far  under 
 his  disposal,  as  to  be  brought  up  at  pleasure  by  the  power 
 of  the  devil." 
 
 Since  the  devil  then  has  no  power  to  disturb  the  hap- 
 piness of  souls  departed,  this  apparition  of  Samuel  could 
 not  proceed  from  any  magical  enchantments  of  the 
 sorceress,  but  must  have  been  effected  by  the  sole  power 
 and  appointment  of  God,  who  is  the  sovereign  Lord  both 
 of  the  living  and  of  the  dead  :  and  accordingly,  we  may 
 observe,  from  the  surprise  which  the  woman  discovered 
 upon  Samuel's  sudden  appearing,  that  the  power  of  her 
 magic  was  not  concerned  therein,  but  that  it  was  the 
 effect  of  some  superior  hand.  The  scripture  relates  the 
 matter  thus  :  6  '  When  the  woman  saw  Samuel,  she  cried 
 with  a  loud  voice  ;  and  the  woman  spake  unto  Saul,  say- 
 ing, Why  hast  thou  deceived  me,  for  thou  art  Saul  ? 
 And  the  king  said  unto  her,  be  not  afraid  :  what  sawest 
 thou  ?  And  the  woman  said  unto  Saul,  I  saw  gods  as- 
 cending out  of  the  earth.'  Now,  it  is  plain  from  this 
 narration,  that  the  woman  saw  something  she  was  not 
 accustomed  to  see.  7  Her  necromancy  had  ordinarily 
 power  over  demons  only,  or  such  wretched  spirits  as 
 were  submitted  to  the  devil's  tyranny  ;  but  on  this  occa- 
 sion, she  saw  an  object  so  august,  so  terrible,  so  majestic, 
 so  contrary  indeed  to  any  thing  she  had  ever  raised  before, 
 
 1  Justin  Martyr,  in  Dial,  cum  Tryph.  and  Origen  on  1  Sam.  c.  28. 
 
 »  De  Diver.  Quajst.  b.  2.  p.  4. 
 
 3  R.  Manas.  Bun.  Israel,  de  Resur.  Mort. 
 
 *  Saurin,  vol.  4.  Dissert.  'Mi.  5  De  Anima,  c.  57. 
 
 6  1  Sam.  xxviii.  12,  13. 
 
 7  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Apparition  of  Samuel. 
 
 and  that  coming  upon  her  before  she  had  begun  her  en- 
 chantments, that  she  could  not  forbear  being  frightened, 
 and  crying  out  with  a  loud  voice,  as  being  fully  satisfied 
 that  the  apparition  came  from  God. 
 
 "  But  since  the  scripture  assures  us,  that  God  had 
 wholly  withdrawn  himself  from  Saul,  and  would  answer 
 him  neither  by  prophets  nor  by  dreams  ;  how  can  we 
 imagine  that  he  should,  all  on  a  sudden,  become  so  kind, 
 as  to  send  Samuel  to  him,  or  that  Samuel  should  be  in 
 any  disposition  to  come,  when  it  was  impossible  for  him 
 to  do  any  good  by  his  coming." 
 
 8  Now  there  seems  to  be  some  analogy  between  God's 
 dealing  with  Saul  in  this  particular,  and  his  former  treat- 
 ment of  the  prophet  Balaam.  Balaam  was  for  disobey- 
 ing the  orders  which  God  had  given  him  to  bless  the 
 Israelites  ;  and  was  searching  into  magical  secrets  for 
 what  he  could  not  obtain  of  God,  namely,  a  power  to 
 change  into  curses  the  blessings  which  God  had  pro- 
 nounced by  his  mouth.  In  this  case  there  was  but  small 
 likelihood,  that  God  would  continue  to  communicate  him- 
 self to  a  person  so  unworthy  of  any  extraordinary  reve- 
 lation ;  and  yet  he  did  it :  but  then  it  was  with  a  design 
 to  reveal  to  him  those  very  miseries,  from  which  his 
 mercenary  mind  was  so  desirous  to  rescue  the  Midian- 
 ites.  The  application  is  easy :  and  it  farther  suggests 
 this  reason,  why  God  appointed  Samuel  at  this  time  to 
 appear  unto  Saul,  namely,  that  through  him,  he  might 
 give  him  a  meeting  where  he  least  of  all  expected  one  ; 
 and  might  show  him,  that  the  fate  which  his  own  disobe- 
 dience had  brought  upon  him,  was  determined  ;  that  there 
 was  no  reversing  the  decrees  of  Heaven,  no  procuring 
 aid  against  the  Almighty's  power,  no  flying,  though  it 
 were  to  hell,  from  his  presence,  no  hiding  himself  ir. 
 darkness  from  his  inspection,  9  '  with  whom  darkness  is 
 no  darkness  at  all,  but  the  night  is  as  clear  as  the  day, 
 and  the  darkness  and  light  are  both  alike.' 
 
 111  That  the  souls  of  men  departed  have  a  capacity, 
 and,  no  doubt,  an  inclination,  to  be  employed  in  the 
 service  of  men  alive,  as  having  the  same  nature  and 
 affections,  and  beingmore  sensible  of  our  infirmities,  than 
 any  pure  and  abstracted  spirits  are,  can  hardly  be  con- 
 tested; that,  in  their  absent  state,  they  are  imbodied  with 
 aerial  or  ethereal  vehicles,  which  they  can  condense  o;- 
 rarefy  at  pleasure,  and  so  appear  or  not  appear  to  human 
 sight,  is  what  some  of  the  greatest  men,  both  of  the  hea- 
 then and  Christian  religion,  have  maintained  ;  and  that 
 frequent  apparitions  of  this  kind  have  happened  since 
 the  world  began,  cannot  be  denied  by  any  one  that  is 
 conversant  in  its  history.  If  therefore  the  wisdom  of 
 God,  for  reasons  already  assigned,  thought  proper  to 
 despatch  a  messenger  to  Saul  upon  this  occasion,  there 
 may  be  some  account  given,  why  the  soul  of  Samuel, 
 upon  the  supposition  it  was  left  to  its  option,  should  ra- 
 ther be  desirous  to  be  sent  upon  that  errand  :  for  whatever 
 mav  be  said  in  diminution  of  Saul's  religious  character, 
 it  is  certain,  that  he  was  a  brave  prince  and  commander  : 
 had  lived  in  strict  intimacy  with  Samuel ;  professed  a 
 great  esteem  for  him,  in  all  things  ;  and  n  was  by  Samuel 
 not  a  little  lamented,  when  he  had  fallen  from  his  obedi- 
 ence to  God.  Upon  these  considerations,  we  may  ima- 
 gine, that  the  soul  of  Samuel  might  have  such  a  kindness 
 
 s  Saurin,  vol.  4.  Dissertation  36.        5  Ps.  oxxxix.  12. 
 See  Glanville's  Sadducismus  Triunrphatus.     "  1  Sam.  xvi  I. 
 
476 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2888.  A.  C.  1116;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4311.  A.  C.  1110.  1  SAM.  i.  TO   THE  END. 
 
 for  him,  as  to  be  ready  to  appear  to  him  in  the  depth  of 
 his  distress,  in  order  to  settle  his  mind  by  telling  him  the 
 upshot  of  the  whole  matter,  namely,  that  he  should  lose 
 the  battle  and  lie  and  his  sons  be  slain  ;  that  so  he  might 
 give  a  specimen,  as  the  Jews  love  to  speak  in  commen- 
 dation of  him,  of  the  bravest  valour  that  was  ever 
 achieved,  by  any  commander  ;  fight  boldly  when  he  was 
 sure  to  die  ;  and  sell  his  life  at  as  dear  a  price  as  possi- 
 ble ;  that  so  in  his  death,  he  might  be  commemorated 
 with  honour,  and  deserve  the  Threnodia  which  his  son-in- 
 law  made  on  him  :  x  '  The  beauty  of  Israel  is  slain  upon 
 the  high  places.  How  are  the  mighty  fallen  !  From  the 
 blood  of  the  slain,  from  the  fat  of  the  mighty,  the  bow 
 of  Jonathan  turned  not  back,  and  the  sword  of  Saul  re- 
 turned not  empty.  How  are  the  mighty  fallen  in  the 
 midst  of  this  battle  !' 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— Ore  the  Witch  of  Endor. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY  THE  EDITOR. 
 
 I  aghee  with  the  author  in  the  opinion,  that  it  was  the 
 spirit  of  Samuel  himself,  wearing,  as  Dr  Hales  observes, 
 the  same  mantle  in  appearance,  which  was  rent  at  the  final 
 rejection  of  Saul  from  the  kingdom,  which  appeared  on 
 this  occasion.  Many  authors  of  reputation  maintain  that 
 this  was  a  mere  imposition  practised  upon  Saul  by  the 
 witch  ;  but  it  is  evident,  that  the  witch  herself  expected 
 not  to  see  such  a  spectre  as  presented  itself  before  her ; 
 and  that  the  spectre  made  its  appearance  before  it  was 
 called. 
 
 "  I  have  myself,"  says  Bishop  Gleig,  "  conversed  with  a 
 ventriloquist,  who  performed  the  most  extraordinary  feats 
 in  his  art,  who  was  extremely  communicative  on  the  subject 
 of  his  art,  and  ready  to  answer  every  question  which  I 
 put  to  him ;  but  he  was  unfortunately  so  very  illiterate 
 as  to  speak  a  language  which  was  hardly  intelligible.  I 
 found  no  difficulty  whatever  in  tracing  his  art  to  the 
 principles  on  which  it  was  founded,  but  he  would  not 
 tell  me  in  language  which  I  could  understand,  by  what 
 means  he  produced  his  acoustic  deceptions.  That  he 
 was  a  great  master  of  his  art,  however,  he  gave  me,  and 
 thousands  besides  me,  the  most  complete  proofs,  making 
 his  voice  appear  to  come  sometimes  from  the  roof  of  the 
 room,  sometimes  from  without  the  door,  sometimes  from 
 below  the  floor,  and  once  from  the  pocket  of  a  gentle- 
 man who  was  sitting  close  by  me.  Had  this  man  com- 
 bined with  his  ventriloquism  that  phantasmagoric  art, 
 by  which  some  of  our  modern  jugglers  frighten  the  vulgar 
 in  a  darkened  room,  he  easily  could  have  exhibited  such 
 a  ghost  as  I  have  no  doubt  the  witch  of  Endor  meant 
 and  expected  to  exhibit  to  Saul." 
 
 The  ghost,  however,  which  really  came  was  sent  by  a 
 different  and  a  higher  power,  and  sent  for  the  same  pur- 
 pose that  the  dumb  ass  was,  for  the  ass  was  made  to 
 reprove  the  madness  of  Balaam,  and  that  enchanter  him- 
 self made  to  bless  Israel.  Necromancy  was  among  the 
 arts  forbidden  by  the  law  of  Moses.  Saul  had  in  obedi- 
 ence to  that  law,  lately  exterminated,  as  he  thought,  all 
 such  impious  diviners  from  Israel ;  and  yet,  finding  him- 
 
 1  2  Sam.  i.  19. 
 
 self,  in  his  capacity  of  king,  forsaken  by  God,  he  had 
 recourse  in  his  extremity  to  one  of  those  wretched  beings 
 who  had  escaped  from  the  effects  of  hi?  righteous  zeal. 
 But  even  Saul  himself,  conscious  as  he  was  of  being  for- 
 saken of  God,  could  not  expect  from  her  the  information 
 which  he  wanted,  but  through  some  means  forbidden  by 
 that  law  which  it  was  his  duty  to  enforce  ;  and  if  she  was 
 not  aided  by  a  familiar  spirit,  she  must  have  practised 
 arts  calculated  to  persuade  the  people  that  she  was. 
 These  arts  were  of  heathen  invention,  and  led  to  that 
 idolatry  which  Saul  Avas  bound  to  root  entirely  out  of 
 the  land ;  and  no  method  can  be  conceived  better  cal- 
 culated to  confound  the  impious  monarch,  and  to  pre- 
 vent the  wretched  woman  from  practising  her  impious 
 arts  for  the  future,  than  that  which  the  supreme  Disposer 
 of  events  adopted  on  this  occasion.  Before  she  com- 
 menced her  incantations,  the  real  Samuel  appeared 
 before  her,  and  gave  to  the  infatuated  king  such  an 
 answer  as  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  he  would  have 
 received  from  any  pretended  Samuel  exhibited  by  her. 
 
 It  has  been  maintained  by  some  respectable  writers 
 that  the  apparition  was  an  evil  angel,  who  appeared  in 
 the  mantle  and  in  the  shape  of  Samuel.  As  the  ground 
 of  this  opinion,  they  mention  the  abhorrence  which  God 
 had  shown  against  those  who  practised  the  arts  of  necro- 
 mancy and  witchcraft,  and  its  being  inconsistent  with 
 this  declared  hatred,  so  far  to  countenance  these  arts  as 
 to  send  a  messenger  from  the  invisible  state,  at  the  mo- 
 ment when  this  woman  was  engaged  in  them.  To  this  it 
 may  be  answered,  that  if  the  appearance  of  Samuel  on 
 the  present  occasion  be  deemed  inconsistent  with  the 
 divine  procedure,  there  is  much  greater  difficulty  in  be- 
 lieving that  the  apparition  was  an  evil  spirit,  since  the 
 whole  strain  of  his  address  to  Saul  is  at  variance  with 
 the  character  of  an  angel  of  darkness. 
 
 It  may  indeed  seem  strange,  that  God,  who  had  rejected 
 Saul,  and  who  answered  him  not  when  he  consulted  him, 
 should  now  send  a  departed  prophet,  to  tell  him  his  fate. 
 But  the  reason  is  plain.  To  have  answered  his  inquiry 
 when  he  consulted  him,  not  in  a  private  capacity,  but  as 
 the  king  of  Israel,  not  with  the  view  of  obtaining  recon- 
 ciliation, but  of  ascertaining  his  fate,  would  have  been 
 an  acknowledgment  of  him  in  this  character  ;  whereas 
 he  had  been  for  many  years  rejected  and  disowned  of 
 God  as  his  deputy  :  when,  however,  he  applied  not  to 
 him,  but  to  another,  for  the  purpose  of  learning  his  fu- 
 ture destiny,  and  had,  for  the  time,  ceased  to  be  king, 
 God  gave  him  through  his  servant  such  an  answer  as  lie 
 had  not  expected. 
 
 SECT.    IV. 
 
 CHAP.     I. —From   the   Death   of  Saul,   to   that   of 
 Absalom.     In  all  thirty-three  years. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 David  was  at  Ziklag  Avhen  news  was  brought  him  of  the 
 defeat  of  the  Israelitish  army,  and  of  the  death  of  Saul. 
 The  messenger  was  an  Amalekite,  a  who  pretended  that 
 
 a  By  the  account  which  we  have  of  king  Saul's  death,  in  the 
 conclusion  of  the  foregoing  book,  namely,  that  he  '  fell  upon  his 
 own  sword,  and  expired,'  (I  Sam.  xxxi.  4.)  it  seems  v^ry  evident, 
 
Skct.  IV.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 477 
 
 he  was  the  person  who  despatched  the  king  after  he 
 found  himself  mortally  wounded  ;  and,  however  he  came 
 by  them,  produced  Saul's  crown  and  bracelet  to  verify 
 what  he  said.  He  expected,  no  doubt,  an  ample  com- 
 pensation for  tiiis  message  and  present ;  but  instead  of 
 that,  David  ordered  his  guards  to  fall  upon,  him,  because, 
 according  to  his  own  declaration,  he  had  been  accessory 
 to  the  king's  death.  a 
 
 Upon  this  conjuncture,  David,  *  by  God's  directions, 
 removed  with  his  family  and  forces  c  to  Hebron,  whither 
 the  princes  of  Judali  in  a  short  time,  came  to  congratu- 
 late his  return  into  his  native  country,  and  to  offer  him 
 the  crown  of  their  particular  tribe  ;  for,  by  this  time, 
 Abner  the  late  king's  uncle,  and  general  of  his  army, 
 who  had  proclaimed  his  son  Ishbosheth  successor  to  the 
 throne,  had  taken  up  his  residence  at  d  Mahanaim,  on 
 
 that  the  whole  story  of  this  Amalekite  was  a  mere  fiction  of  his 
 own  inventing,  on  purpose  to  ingratiate  himself  with  David,  the 
 presumptive  successor  to  the  throne.  But  then  the  question  is, 
 how  he  came  by  Saul's  crown  and  bracelet,  since  it  is  incongru- 
 ous to  think  that  he  would  ever  wear  them  in  the  time  of  action, 
 and  thereby  expose  himself  as  a  public  mark  ?  As  therefore  it 
 is  presumed,  that  they  were  carried  into  the  field  of  battle  by 
 some  of  his  attendants,  in  order  to  put  on,  in  case  he  had  ob- 
 tained the  victory,  and  returned  in  triumph ;  so  the  Jews  have 
 a  conceit,  that  Doeg,  the  infamous  murderer  of  the  priests  at 
 Nob,  1  Sam.  xxii.  18.  who  at  this  time  was  his  armour-bearer, 
 had  them  in  his  possession,  and  before  he  killed  himself,  gave 
 them  to  his  son,  this  young  Amalekite,  and  ordered  him  to  carry 
 them  to  David,  but,  to  his  cost,  found  that  David's  reception 
 was  quite  different  to  what  lie  expected.  For  being  shortly  to 
 ascend  the  throne  himself,  he  was  willing  to  have  it  believed, 
 that  to  slay  the  Lord's  anointed,  upon  any  account  whatever, 
 was  in  itself  an  execrable  crime,  and  therefore,  to  clear  himself 
 from  the  imputation  of  being  any  ways  accessory  to  so  foul  a  fact, 
 as  his  enemies  would  have  been  apt  to  imagine,  had  he  given 
 countenance  to  this  pretended  king-killer,  he  ordered  him  im- 
 mediately to  be  put  to  death,  and  therein  at  least,  acted  the  part 
 of  a  good  politician,  if  not  of  a  righteous  judge. — Le  Clerc's  and 
 Patrick's  Commentaries,  on  2  Sam.  i. 
 
 a  2  Sam.  i.  16.  The  malediction  expressed  in  this  passage 
 occurs  in  the  same  sense  in  other  passages  of  Scripture,  particu- 
 larly Josh.  ii.  19.  1  Kings  ii.  37.  It  appears  to  have  been  custo- 
 mary so  to  speak,  both  with  the  Jews  and  Greeks,  as  repeated 
 instances  of  it  are  found  in  the  best  writers  of  the  last  mentioned 
 people.  It  was  usual  with  the  Romans  to  wash  their  hands  in 
 token  of  innocence  and  purity  from  blood.  Thus  the  Roman 
 governor  washed  his  hands,  and  said  respecting  Christ,  '  I  am 
 innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just  person,'  (Mat.  xxvii.  24.) — Ed. 
 b  Though  David,  after  Saul's  demise,  had  a  right  to  the  king- 
 dom by  virtue  of  God's  designation ;  yet  as  God  had  nowhere 
 declared,  at  what  time  he  was  to  make  use  of  this  right,  he  would 
 not  enter  into  possession,  nor  take  the  administration  of  public 
 
 alliiirs  upon  him,  without  having  first  consulted  him Patrick's 
 
 Commentary. 
 
 c  Hebron  was  situate  in  the  midst  of  the  tribe  of  Judah ;  and 
 as  it  was  a  very  ancient  city,  the  metropolis  of  the  whole  tribe, 
 and  the  possession  of  those  priestly  families  who  espoused  David's 
 interest,  it  was  a  very  commodious  city  for  him  to  make  the 
 place  of  his  residence  at  this  juncture,  as  being  not  insensible, 
 that  the  determination  of  the  metropolis  in  his  favour  would  be 
 of  great  weight  to  influence  the  whole  tribe.  And  accordingly 
 we  find,  that  he  was  soon  invested  with  the  sovereignty  thereof. 
 1  For  the  men  of  Judah,'  saith  the  text,  '  came,  and  there  they 
 anointed  David  king  over  the  house  of  Judah,'  2  Sam.  ii.  4. — 
 The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David,  vol.  2. 
 
 d  This  was  a  place  in  the  tribe  of  Gad,  which  had  its  name 
 from  the  appearance  of  an  host  of  angels  to  Jacob,  as  he  came 
 with  his  family  and  all  his  substance  to  Padan-aram,  (Gen.  xxxii. 
 1.)  and  the  reasons  for  Abner's  retreating  hither,  in  the  begin- 
 ning of  the  new  king's  reign,  were,  that  he  might  secure  tin- 
 people  on  that  side  of  the  Jordan,  and  especially  the  gallant  in- 
 habitants of  Jabesh-gilead,  who  were  great  lovers  of  Saul,  and 
 attached  to  his  family;  that   he   might   prevent  the  Philistines 
 
 the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and  by  his  interest  and  great 
 authority,  prevailed  with  all  the  other  tribes  to  recog- 
 nise him. 
 
 David,  however,  at  the  request  of  the  princes  of  his 
 own  tribe,  was  anointed  king  of  Judah.  For  two  years 
 there  were  no  hostilities  on  either  side ;  but  not  long 
 after  this,  a  war  commenced  between  the  two  rival  prin- 
 ces, in  which  there  were  several  engagements,  but  none 
 so  remarkable,  as  that  which  was  occasioned  by  Abner's 
 sending  Joab  who  was  the  general  of  David's  forces,  a 
 challenge  e  to  fight  twelve  men,  with  an  equal  number  of 
 his,  in  single  combat.  The  men  met,  and  to  a  man 
 killed  one  another  upon  the  spot ;  whereupon  a  fierce 
 battle  ensued,  in  which  Abner  and  his  men  were  defeated, 
 and  put  to  flight.  In  the  pursuit,  Asahel,  a  younger 
 brother  of  Joab's,  being  very  nimble  and  swift  of  foot, 
 made  after  Abner.  When  he  came  up  with  him,  Abner, 
 who  knew  him,  desired  him  to  desist,  and  not  pretend 
 to  attack  him,  because  he  was  loath  to  kill  him ;  but  the 
 young  man,  ambitious  of  taking  a  general  prisoner, 
 pressed  so  hard  upon  him,  that,  /  with  a  back-stroke  of 
 his  spear,  Abner  gave  him  a  wound,  whereof  he  imme- 
 diately died. 
 
 The  victorious  army,  when  they  came  to  the  place 
 where  Asahel's  body  lay  slain,  stood  still,  and  ceased 
 their  pursuit ;  so  that  Abner  had  an  opportunity  to  rally 
 his  scattered  forces,  and  making  a  stand  upon  an  ad- 
 vanced ground,  where  he  could  not  well  be  attacked, 
 sounded  a  parley,  and  reminded  Joab,  that  they  were 
 all  brethren,  of  the  same  nation,  of  the  same  religion, 
 so  that  if  they  persisted  in  hostilities,  both  armies  would 
 have  reason  to  rue  it.  Whereupon  they  parted,  Abner 
 who  had  lost  three  hundred  and  sixty  men  in  the  engage- 
 ment to  Mahanaim,  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and 
 Joab,  who,  except  his  brother  Asahel,  had  lost  no  more 
 than  nineteen,  to  Hebron. 
 
 During  the  course  of  this  civil  war,  which  lasted  for 
 some  years,  David's  forces,  in  most  rencounters,  had  the 
 advantage,  and  his  interest  in  the  nation  increased,  as 
 that  of  Ishbosheth  sensibly  declined.  Abner  indeed,  as 
 being  both  a  brave  and  experienced  warrior,  and  a  man 
 of  a  great  power  and  influence  in  all  the  tribes,  more 
 especially  in  that  of  Benjamin,  was  his  main  support ; 
 but  with  him  he  unhappily  differed,  upon  account  of 
 Rizpah,  one  of  Saul's  concubines,  whom  Abner  had  de- 
 bauched. To  have  any  commerce  with  the  relicts  of 
 princes  of  what  denomination  soever  they  were,  was,  in 
 
 from  falling  upon  the  king,  whom  he  had  under  his  protection, 
 in  the  infancy  of  this  reign;  and  chiefly,  that  he  might  be  at  a 
 great  distance  from  David,  have  the  new  king  more  absolutely 
 under  his  command,  and  a  better  opportunity  of  raising  recruits 
 among  a  people,  not  only  brave  and  courageous,  but  very  well 
 affected  to  the  cause  which  he  had  espoused. — Caimet's  Commen- 
 tary, and  Poole's  Annotations, 
 
 e  The  expression  in  the  text  is,  '  let  the  young  men  now  arise, 
 and  play  b<  fore  us.'  By  which  Abner  seems  to  have  meant,  not 
 that  they  should  fall  upon,  and  destroy  one  another,  but  merely 
 that  they  slum  Id  practise  a  little  their  military  exercises,  or  play 
 at  sharps,  as  gladiators  anciently  at  Rome,  and  now  among  us, 
 arc  wont  to  do,  not  with  :m.v  purpose  to  kill  one  another,  but  only 
 in  divert  the  spectators. — Caimet's  Commentary. 
 
 f  The  expression  in  the  text  is,   '  that  with  the  hinder  part 
 of  the   spear,  he  smote   him  under  the  fifth  rib;'  which  Virgil, 
 speaking  of  s  mortal  wound,  has  not  unhappily  imitated:   "  Im-     * 
 mediately  he  seized  his  spear  and  hurled  it  at  the  very  life  s 
 citadel,  where  the  ribs  guard  the  heart." — JEneid,  12. 
 
478 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 these  days,  looked  upon  as  an  indignity  offered  to  the 
 royal  family,  and  an  a  affectation  of  the  kingdom.  For 
 this  reason  Ishbosheth  remonstrated  the  matter  to  Abner  ; 
 but  Abner,  who  was  a  hot  man,  and  impatient  of  re- 
 proof, was  so  incensed  at  what  he  said,  that  he  upbraided 
 him  with  ingratitude,  and  threatened  not  only  to  b  with- 
 draw his  own  allegiance  from  him,  but,  as  far  as  in  him 
 lay,  to  carry  all  Israel  over  to  David's  interest.  And 
 as  he  threatened,  so  he  did.  From  that  very  moment 
 he  entered  into  a  private  correspondence  with  David, 
 and  not  long  after,  had  a  public  interview  with  him.  At 
 this  interview  David  entertained  Abner  and  his  atten- 
 dants which  were  in  all  but  twenty  persons,  very  splen- 
 didly ;  and,  in  return,  Abner  assured  him,  that  he  would 
 use  his  utmost  endeavours  to  prevail  with  the  other  tribes 
 to  come  over  to  his  side.  But  no  sooner  was  he  gone, 
 than  Joab,  returning  from  an  expedition  against  the 
 Philistines,  wherein  he  had  been  successful  and  taken 
 abundance  of  spoil,  and  being  soon  informed  that  Abner 
 had  been  there,  and  how  kindly  the  king  had  received 
 him,  not  only  expostulated  the  matter  with  the  king  in 
 high  terms,  as  having  entertained  a  man  that  came  only 
 as  a  spy  upon  him,  but  sent  likewise  a  messenger  after 
 Abner,  desiring  him  to  return,  because  the  king  had 
 something  more  to  communicate  to  him ;  and  so,  having 
 waylaid  him,  under  pretence  of  saluting  him,  he  stabbed 
 him  to  the  heart,  c  out  of  jealousy  partly,  and  partly  in 
 revenge  of  the  blood  of  his  brother  Asahel. 
 
 David  was  extremely  displeased  at  this  cruel  and  in- 
 hospitable action  ;  but  his  affairs  were  in  so  unsettled  a 
 
 a  What  notion  the  world,  at  this  time,  had  of  marrying  any 
 royal  relict,  is  evident  from  the  case  of  Adonijah,  whom  Solo- 
 mon put  to  death  for  desiring  but  to  ask  for  Abishag,  one  of 
 David's  concubines,  though  he  had  employed  Bath-sheba,  the 
 king's  mother,  to  be  his  intercessor,  and  was  himself  his  brother, 
 (I  Kings  ii.  17.)  It  maybe  said  perhaps,  that  Adonijah  was  at 
 this  time  aspiring  at  the  throne,  which  Solomon  perceiving,  took 
 occasion  from  this  his  request,  to  fall  out  with  him,  and  prevent 
 it.  But  however  this  be,  a  general  rule  it  was,  not  among  the 
 Jews  only,  but  among  other  nations,  that  no  private  person 
 should  presume  to  marry  the  king's  widow ;  for  this  made  him 
 appear  as  a  rival  and  competitor  for  the  crown. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 b  Abner  is  an  instance  of  what  a  strange  alteration  the  study 
 of  revenge  will  work  in  a  man.  It  was  but  just  lately  that  we 
 found  him  going  about  the  country  to  confirm  the  Israelites  in 
 their  attachment  to  the  house  of  Saul,  and  opposition  to  David; 
 but  now,  upon  a  slight  disgust,  he  is  not  only  for  deserting  him- 
 self, but  for  carrying  all  the  strength  of  his  interest  over  "to  the 
 opposite  party.  For,  "  such  is  the  genius  of  many  great  minis- 
 ters," says  one,  "  that  upon  slight  occasions,  they  are  irritated 
 and  do  rather  rule  over  kings,  than  are  ruled  by  them." Pa- 
 trick's Commentary. 
 
 c  Abner  was  a  man  longer  versed  in  military  affairs  than 
 himself,  who,  in  the  time  of  Saul's  distraction,  had  been  regent 
 of  the  nation,  and,  since  the  time  that  he  had  set  up  Ishbosheth 
 to  be  king,  prime  minister.  And  therefore  Joab  had  reason  to 
 suspect,  that  in  case  he  once  got  into  David's  favour,  as  the 
 service  he  was  able  to  do  him,  gave  him  a  title  to  it,  it  would 
 not  be  long  before  he  would  gain  a  superior  ascendant;  and  there- 
 fore he  took  this  wicked  method  to  prevent  him.  For  to  use  the 
 reflection  which  Josephus  makes  upon  this  occasion.  "  What 
 will  men  not  dare  to  do,  who  are  covetous,  ambitious,  and  will 
 be  inferior  to  none  ?  They  press  forward  to  the  end,  without 
 ever  considering  the  means,  and  will  commit  a  thousand  crimes 
 in  pursuit  of  what  they  desire.  Nor  are  they  less  bold  in  main- 
 taining, than  they  were  in  acquiring  their  places  and  preferments 
 by  evil  practices;  insomuch  that,  rather  than  suffer  the  disgrace 
 of  losing  what  they  have  unjustly  gotten,  they  will  plunge  them- 
 selves still  deeper  and  deeper  in  wickedness,  to  retain  it."— 
 Jewish  Antiq.  b.  7.  c.  I. 
 
 state,  and  Joab,  at  that  time,  had  so  much  credit  with 
 the  army,  that  he  could  not  call  him  to  an  account  for 
 what  he  had  done.  And  therefore  contented  himself 
 with  declaring  publicly  d  his  detestation  of  it,  and  with 
 making  a  magnificent  funeral  for  Abner,  wherein  he 
 himself  followed  the  corpse  as  chief  mourner. 
 
 David  indeed  had  reason  to  lament  the  death  of  Abner, 
 which,  in  all  probability,  had  defeated  the  measures  that 
 were  concerted  for  the  union  of  the  two  kingdoms,  had 
 not  the  sudden  and  untimely  death  of  Ishbosheth  paved 
 the  way  for  it  afresh.  Ishbosheth,  upon  the  loss  of 
 Abner,  began  to  despair  of  his  affairs,  grew  negligent 
 of  himself,  and  fell  under  the  contempt  of  his  subjects  ; 
 so  that  Rechab  and  Baanah,  e  two  Benjamites,  that  were 
 of  his  household,  came  upon  him,  as  he  was  asleep  in  the 
 heat  of  the  day,  and  having  cut  off"  his  head,  /  car- 
 ried it  as  a  present  to  David  at  Hebron ;  but  instead 
 of  the  reward  which  they  expected,  he  £  rebuked  them 
 
 d  And  good  reason  he  had  to  express  his  detestation  of  so  foul 
 a  fact.  For  besides  that  Abner  was  himself  a  man  of  great 
 power  and  authority,  and  at  this  time,  the  head  of  the  contrary 
 party,  it  carried  an  air  of  suspicion,  that  David  might  have  some 
 concern  in  the  murder ;  especially  since  Joab,  his  first  minister, 
 and  general  of  his  forces,  was  the  wicked  instrument  of  it.  Abner 
 had  been  reconciled  to  David  indeed ;  but  this  made  the  matter 
 still  worse,  and  added  the  breach  of  faith  and  hospitality  to  the 
 sin  of  murder,  which  was  enough  to  alienate  the  minds  of  the 
 Israelites  from  him  for  ever.  And  therefore  Josephus  gives  us 
 this  account  of  David's  behaviour  upon  so  critical  an  occasion, 
 not  only  to  testify  his  abhorrence  of  so  base  a  practice,  but  to 
 purge  himself  likewise,  upon  the  strictest  niceties  of  faith  and 
 honour,  that  he  had  been  true  to  Abner.  '  The  moment  he 
 heard  of  Abner's  death,  he  stretched  out  his  right  hand  towards 
 heaven  in  an  appeal  and  protestation,  that  he  was  neither  privy, 
 nor  consenting  to  the  fact,  and  cursed  most  bitterly  the  assassin, 
 whoever  he  was,  his  family,  and  accomplices.  He  appointed, 
 by  proclamation,  a  public  mourning  for  him,  with  all  the  solem- 
 nities of  tearing  garments,  and  putting  on  sackcloth,  &c.  Him- 
 self, with  his  great  ministers,  and  officers,  assisted  at  the  funeral, 
 and  gave  sufficient  demonstration,  by  wringing  their  hands, 
 beating  their  breasts,  and  other  expressions  of  sorrow,  both  of 
 the  veneration  they  had  for  Abner's  memory,  and  the  sense  they 
 had  of  so  inestimable  a  loss ;  so  that,  in  the  conclusion,  all  the 
 people  were  perfectly  satisfied  that  David  was  far  either  from 
 approving  or  consenting  to  so  execrable  a  deed.' — Jewish  Antiq. 
 b.  7  c.  1 ;  Le    Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 e  This  is  added,  to  show  us,  that  these  two  regicides  were 
 not  only  officers  in  the  king's  army,  but  of  the  same  tribe  with 
 Saul,  and  therefore  had  more  ties  than  one  upon  them,  to  be 
 honest  and  faitliful  to  his  family.  For  there  is  reason  to  be- 
 lieve, that  Saul,  who  lived  in  the  borders  of  Benjamin,  conferred 
 more  favours  upon  that  tribe  than  any  other,  and  might 
 therefore  justly  expect,  both  to  him  and  his,  a  greater  esteem 
 and  fidelity  from  those  of  his  own  tribe,  than  from  others.  This 
 patronymic  is  therefore  very  properly  prefixed  to  the  names  of 
 Rechab  and  Baanah,  to  show  what  vile  ungrateful  villains  they 
 were,  and  how  justly  they  deserved  the  severe  and  exemplary 
 punishment  which  David  inflicted  on  them. — Le  Clerc's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 fit  may  seem  a  little  strange,  that  these  two  ruffians  were 
 not  discouraged  by  David's  punishing  the  Amalekite  for  killing 
 Saul,  and  by  the  detestation  he  had  publicly  shown  of  Joab's 
 baseness  in  murdering  Abner ;  but  the  former  of  these  cases,  they 
 might  think,  was  not  parallel  to  theirs ;  because  Saul  was  anointed 
 king  by  God's  immediate  direction,  whereas  Ishbosheth,  having 
 never  had  such  sacred  unction,  was  no  more  than  a  usurper; 
 and  as  for  the  latter,  they  might  think,  that  David's  conduct  in 
 relation  to  Abner's  death,  proceeded  from  art  and  policy,  rather 
 than  any  serious  dislike  of  the  thing  itself;  and  in  this  opinion, 
 they  might  the  rather  be  confirmed,  when  they  saw  Joab,  instead 
 of  being  punished,  continuing  in  the  veiy  same  post  and  power 
 that  he  had  before. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 g  The  manner  in  which  Josephus  makes  David  express  him- 
 self upon  this  occasion,  is  to  this  effect; — "  Wicked  wretches 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 479 
 
 A.  M.  ';949.  A.  C.  I0f>5;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i-xix. 
 
 severely,  and  ordered  their  hands  and  feet  to  be  cut  off, 
 and  themselves  hung  up  in  a  public  place,  for  the  terror 
 of  all  regicides  ;  but  the  head  of  Ishbosheth  was  honour- 
 ably interred  in  Abner's  tomb. 
 
 When  Ishbosheth  was  dead,  all  the  tribes  of  Israel 
 gent  their  deputies  to  David,  acknowledging  his  title,  and 
 promising  him  their  allegiance,  upon  condition  that  he 
 would  reign  righteously  a  over  them  ;  so  that  now  he  was 
 anointed  king  over  all  the  tribes,  after  that  he  had  reign- 
 ed at  Hebron,  over  that  of  Judah  only,  for  the  space  of 
 seven  years  and  six  months. 
 
 Being  thus  invested  with  full  regal  power,  and  having 
 *  a  multitude  of  brave  and  gallant  officers  to  attend  him, 
 he  made  his  (irst  expedition  against  Jerusalem,  to  dis- 
 possess the  Jebusites  of  the  fort  of  Zion,  which  com- 
 manded the  city,  and  was  thought  so  impregnable,  that 
 when  he  summoned  the  besieged  to  surrender,  they,  in 
 
 that  you  are!  prepare  yourselves  immediately  to  receive  the  just 
 reward  of  your  villany.  Do  not  you  know  that  I  required  tiie 
 murder  of  Saul,  when  he,  who  had  taken  away  that  sacred  life, 
 had  the  confidence  to  bring  me  his  golden  crown,  for  an  ostenta- 
 tion of  the  service  he  had  done  me  in  it  ?  And  yet  it  was  at  the 
 instance  of  Saul  that  he  did  it,  and  to  prevent  the  indignity  of 
 his  being  taken  alive  by  his  enemies.  And  am  not  I  the  same 
 man  now  that  I  was  then  ?  or  do  you  think  that  I  am  turned  so 
 abandoned  a  wretch  since,  as  to  countenance  the  most  profligate 
 of  men  and  actions,  or  to  account  myself  under  any  obligation  to 
 you,  for  dipping  your  hands,  upon  my  account,  as  you  would  have 
 it  thought,  in  the  blood  of  your  lord ;  for  cutting  the  throat  of  a 
 person,  and  in  his  bed  too,  so  just,  that  he  never  did  any  man 
 wrong,  and  so  generous  a  patron  and  benefactor  to  your  ungrate- 
 ful selves,  that  all  the  advantages  you  can  pretend  to  in  this  world, 
 are  but  what  you  stand  indebted  for  to  his  bounty  and  goodness? 
 You  shall  therefore  now  be  sure  to  pay,  both  for  your  breach  of 
 faith  to  your  master,  and  the  scandal  you  have  cast  upon  me. 
 For  what  greater  wound  can  any  man  give  me  in  my  reputation, 
 than  to  expose  me  for  a  person  that  can  take  pleasure  in  the  tid- 
 ings, or  give  countenance  to  the  committing  of  so  barbarous  an 
 assassination."  {Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  2.)  Which  speech  of 
 David's  has  a  good  deal  of  the  spirit  of  Alexander  the  Great  in 
 it,  whose  exacting  of  punishment  of  Bessus  for  his  murder  of  Da- 
 rius, drew  from  the  historian  this  reflection:  "For  he  thought 
 that  Darius  had  not  been  so  much  the  foe  as  the  friend  of  him 
 by  whom  he  was  slain." — Justin,  b.  12.  c.  6. 
 
 a  This  was  David's  part  of  the  covenant,  which  the  elders  of 
 Israel  suggested  to  him  in  a  very  elegant  metaphor,  which  here 
 occurs  the  first  time,  though  afterwards  it  is  frequently  used  in 
 sacred  writ,  especially  in  the  prophets,  as  well  as  some  profane 
 authors.  The  expression  is  '  Thou  shalt  feed  my  people  Israel ;' 
 which  was  the  rather  made  use  of,  to  put  David  in  mind  that  he 
 was  created  a  king,  not  so  much  for  the  advancement  of  his  own 
 honour  and  interest,  as  for  the  good  and  benefit  of  the  community, 
 which  he  was  to  rule  with  all  tenderness,  and  watch  over  with  all 
 diligence.  The  very  manner  of  the  expression  implies,  that 
 kings  ought  to  have  the  same  care  for  their  people,  as  the  shep- 
 herd has  over  his  floclc ;  and  that,  as  the  shepherd  is  not  the  owner 
 of  the  sheep  he  keeps,  so  should  no  king  look  upon  his  subjects 
 as  his  own  peeulium,  but  as  a  flock  committed  to  him  by  the  only 
 true  Lord  of  all  mankind,  and  to  whom  he  must  give  an  account 
 of  his  administration.  "  For  this  is  the  greatest  grace  of  a  king, 
 that  he  certainly  believes  himself  to  be  made  a  king  by  God,  for 
 the  sake  of  the  people ;  and  let  him  often  call  to  mind,  that  the 
 people  were  not  created,  or  ordained,  by  God  for  the  king,"  says 
 Goaradus  Pelicanus  upon  these  words. — Patrick's  Commentary, 
 and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  In  this  account  of  David's  worthies,  which  are  meationed 
 both  in  the  second  book  of  Samuel,  and  the  first  of  Chronicles, 
 there  is  a  great  difference  of  names;  and  the  reason  is,  because 
 the  catalogue  in  Chronicles  was  made  in  the  beginning  of  David's 
 reign,  that  in  Samuel,  at  the  latter  end ;  and  so  the  former  men- 
 tions those  men  who  had  helped  David  to  his  settlement  in  the 
 kingdom,  whereas  the  latter  takes  notice  of  those  who  had  stuck 
 to  him  all  the  time  of  his  reign,  and  died  iu  his  service. — Bed- 
 ford's Scripture  Chronology,  b.  5.  C.  5. 
 
 derision,  replied,  that  the  meanest  of  them  all,  c  their 
 blind  and  lame,  were  able  to  defend  it  against  all  he 
 could  do.  This  incensed  David  to  such  a  degree,  that  he 
 caused  proclamation  to  be  made  through  the  camp,  that 
 whoever  first  took  the  fort,  should  be  made  captain- 
 general  of  all  his  forces  ;  whereupon  Joab,  who  was  a 
 bold,  pushing  man,  undertook  to  storm  it,  and  carried  it 
 sword  in  hand.  After  this,  David,  for  the  reception  of 
 his  guards  and  domestics,  enlarged  the  buildings  of  the 
 place,  and  made  it  his  royal  palace  ;  while  Joab  repaired 
 and  beautilied  the  old  city  Jebus,  or  Jerusalem,  for  the 
 more  commodious  habitation  of  his  subjects. 
 
 d  Hiram,  who  had  lately  made  himself  king  of  Tyre 
 and  Sidon,  hearing  how  prosperous  David  was  in  all  his 
 affairs,  sent  an  embassy  to  congratulate  his  accession  to 
 the  throne,  and  withal  a  present  of  cedar  trees,  with  car- 
 penters and  other  artificers  to  assist  him  in  his  buildings. 
 But  the  Philistine  princes  had  other  notions  of  David's 
 growing  greatness,  which  they  took  for  a  sure  presage  of 
 their  own  downfall ;  and  therefore  to  put  a  stop  to  it  as 
 soon  as  possible,  they  raised  one  great  army,  which,  as 
 they  approached  to  Jerusalem,  he  defeated;  and  the 
 next  year,  when  they  came  e  with  a  much  larger,  God 
 manifestly  interposed  in  his  favour.  For  instead  of  ad- 
 vancing directly  upon  them,  he  ordered  him  to  take  a 
 
 c  The  blind  and  the  lame,  says  Luther  upon  this  place,  were 
 the  idols  of  the  Jebusites,  which,  to  irritate  David,  they  set  upon 
 their  walls,  as  their  patrons  and  protectors ;  and  these  they  call 
 blind  and  lame  sarcastically,  and  with  respect  to  David's  opinion: 
 as  if  they  had  said,  "  These  gods  of  ours,  whom  ye  Israelites  re- 
 proach as  blind  and  lame,  and  so  unable  to  direct  or  defend  us,  will 
 secure  us  against  you,  and  to  your  cost,  make  you  find  that  they  are 
 neither  blind  nor  lame,  but  have  eyes  to  watch  for  us,  and  hands 
 to  fight  against  you,  so  that  you  must  conquer  and  subdue  them, 
 before  you  take  this  place."  But  this  interpretation  seems  to  be  a 
 little  tuo  metaphorical  and  forced,  for  which  reason  we  have  rather 
 chosen  the  construction  which  Josephus  (b.  7,  c.  2.)  puts  upon 
 this  passage,  namely,  that  they  imagined  their  fortress  to  be  so 
 impregnable,  that  by  way  of  contempt,  they  told  David  that  their 
 very  blind  and  lame  would  be  able  to  defend  it  against  him  and 
 all  his  forces:  and  this  is  a  sense  so  extremely  plain  and  obvious, 
 that  the  renowned  Bochart  wonders  why  any  man  of  learning 
 should  seek  for  any  other.  The  only  exception  to  it  is,  that 
 these  blind  and  lame  (which  were  rather  objects  of  compassion) 
 are  said  to  have  been  extremely  hated  by  David.  But  we  may 
 observe,  that  David  here  retorts  the  sarcasm  upon  them ;  '  the 
 lame  and  blind,'  that  is,  those  who  are  said  to  defend  the  place, 
 and  who,  as  they  pretended,  were  to  be  only  the  lame  and  the 
 blind.  And  these  were  hateful  to  David,  because  they  had 
 wickedly  and  insolently  defied  the  armies  of  the  living  God. — 
 Poole's  Annotations  y  Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  Abibalus  was  his  primitive  name,  but  before  he  entered  into 
 a  league  of  amity  with  David,  he  changed  it  to  Hiram,  that  so 
 it  might  be  the  standing  name  of  him  and  his  successors,  as  Pha- 
 raoh, and  after  that  Ptolemy  in  Egypt,  Abimelech  among  the 
 Philistines,  and  C;esar  among  the  Roman  emperors.  The  name 
 in  their  language  signifies,  "  he  lives  that  is  exalted ;"  or,  "  let  him 
 live  who  is  exalted,"  that  is,  "let  the  king  live  for  ever;"  and 
 his  sending  to  David  only  under  this  name,  is  the  true  reason 
 why  no  other  name  is  mentioned  in  Scripture. — Bedford's  Scrip- 
 ture Chronology,  b.  5.  C.  4. 
 
 e  It  cannot  well  be  supposed,  that  the  Philistines,  out  of  their 
 small  territories,  could  produce  such  vast  numbers  of  men  as 
 they  brought  against  the  Israelites;  and  therefore  the  remark, 
 which  Josephus  makes,  helps  to  explain  this  matter,  namely 
 "  That  Syria  and  Phoenicia,  as  well  as  several  other  warlike 
 nations,  were  engaged  in  the  confederacy:"  but  this  cannot  be 
 mi  ant  of  Hiram,  who  was  in  a  league  of  the  strictest  amity 
 with  David,  but  of  such  Phoenicians  only  as  would  not  submit  to 
 him,  and  therefore  joined  with  the  Philistines,  first  to  subdue  his 
 ally,  and  then  to  subdue  him,  before  his  government  could  be 
 settled. — Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  5.  c.  4. 
 
480 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.   M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 compass  round  by  a  wood  of  mulberry  trees,  which  would 
 cover  and  conceal  his  march,  and  when  he  heard  a  sound, 
 or  rushing  in  the  trees,  which  would  aftrighten  the  Phil- 
 istines, then  to  fall  upon  them ;  which  he  accordingly 
 did,  and  gave  them  so  total  a  defeat,  that  for  many  years 
 after,  they  never  pretended  to  give  Israel  any  more  dis- 
 turbance. 
 
 This  time  of  rest,  and  public  security,  David  thought 
 a  proper  season,  wherein  to  bring  home  the  ark  of  God, 
 which  for  almost  fifty  years  had  continued  in  the  house 
 of  Abinadab,  into  a  place  which  he  had  prepared  for  it 
 in  his  own  city.  To  this  purpose,  attended  with  the  a 
 principal  men  of  the  nation,  and  the  chief  officers  of  his 
 court,  together  with  a  strong  guard  for  the  convoy  of 
 the  ark,  in  case  any  enemy  should  attempt  to  surprise 
 them,  he  came  to  Kirjath-jearim :  but,  either  through 
 inadvertency,  or  neglect  of  the  l  divine  law,  which  ob- 
 liged them  to  carry  it  upon  men's  shoulders,  they  in 
 imitation  of  the  Philistines,  put  it  in  a  cart,  and  when 
 the  cart  had  like  to  have  been  overturned,  Uzzah,  who 
 was  one  of  its  drivers,  taking  hold  of  the  ark  to  prevent 
 its  falling,  was  immediately  struck  dead  upon  the  spot ; 
 so  that  David,  terrified  at  this  judgment,  durst  not  at 
 that  time  carry  it  into  Jerusalem,  but  left  it  near  the 
 city,  in  the  house  of  Obed-Edom,  a  Levite,  whom  God 
 blessed  with  a  large  increase  of  all  his  substance,  for 
 the  little  time  that  it  continued  with  him.  In  the  space 
 of  three  months,  the  king,  recollecting  that  none  were  to 
 carry  the  ark  but  the  Levites,  though  they  themselves 
 were  expressly  forbidden  2  to  touch  it,  he  adventured  to 
 remove  it  from  Obed-Edom's,  which  he  did  in  great 
 form  and  solemnity.  The  Levites,  who  were  to  bear 
 the  ark  on  their  shoulders,  he  caused  to  be  sanctified ; 
 himself,  clothed  in  a  linen  ephod,  and  b  dancing  before 
 it,  brought  it  into  a  convenient  place  which  he  had  pre- 
 pared for  it ;  offered  a  great  quantity  of  c  sacrifices  upon 
 
 1  Num.  iv.  15.  a  Num.  iv.  15;  xviii.  3. 
 
 a  It  is  supposed  by  some,  that  this  bringing  back  of  the  ark 
 was  appointed  to  be  one  of  the  great  festivals ;  and  the  reason 
 why  David  might  summon  so  many  of  his  principal  ministers 
 and  officers  to  accompany  him  in  the  expedition,  might  be,  to 
 possess  the  young  people,  who  perhaps  had  heard  little  or  nothing 
 of  the  ark,  by  reason  of  its  having  been  absent  so  long,  with  a 
 mighty  veneration  for  it  when  they  saw  the  king,  and  so  many 
 of  the  chief  nobility  waiting  on  it,  with  such  a  variety  of  music, 
 and  such  public  declarations  of  joy. — Miller's  History  of  the 
 Church. 
 
 b  Strabo  tells  us,  that  it  was  customary  among  the  Greeks,  as 
 well  as  other  nations,  to  use  music  and  dancing  in  the  processions 
 before  their  gods,  (b.  10.)  Callimachus  mentions  the  chori,  and 
 dancings  of  the  youth  at  the  altar  of  Apoilo;  Plato  observes  that 
 among  the  Egyptians,  all  kinds  of  music,  songs  and  dances  were 
 consecrated  to  their  gods ;  (De  legibus,  b.  3.)  And  even  Lucian 
 (De  Saltatione)  expressly  says  that  among  the  ancients,  no  cere- 
 monial of  religion,  no  expiation,  no  atonement  was  accounted 
 rightly  accomplished  without  dancing.  So  that  David  was  far 
 from  being  singular  in  ins  behaviour  upon  this  occasion;  nor 
 was  his  behaviour,  in  this  particular,  any  disparagement  to  his 
 regal  dignity.  His  dancing,  that  is,  his  moving  in  certain  serious 
 and  solemn  measures,  suited  to  music  of  the  same  character  and 
 tendency,  was  an  exercise  highly  conducive  to  the  purposes  of 
 piety,  and  his  mixing  with  the  public  festivities  of  his  people, 
 was  a  condescension,  as  Tacitus  relates  of  Augustus  the  Roman 
 emperor,  not  unbecoming  the  greatest  monarch.  Policy  taught 
 Augustus  to  put  himself  upon  a  level  with  his  subjects  in  the 
 public  rejoicings ;  piety  taught  David,  that  all  men  are  upon  a 
 level  in  the  solemnities  of  religion.  So  that  David  was  not  sin- 
 gular in  his  behaviour  upon  this  occasion. —  Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary, and  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David,  vol.  2. 
 
 c  The  words  iu  the  text  arc,  '  And  it  was  so,  that  when  they 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 this  occasion  :  and,  with  the  rest  of  the  company  that 
 attended  this  solemnity,  feasted  and  rejoiced. 
 
 d  His  wife  Michal,  who  was  Saul's  daughter,  and 
 proud  perhaps  on  account  of  her  pedigree,  e  upbraided 
 him  upon  this  occasion  with  his  humility,  as  a  diminu- 
 tion of  his  regal  dignity  ;  but  he,  in  reply  to  the  sarcastic 
 manner  wherein  she  spake  it,  only  told  her,  "  That  what 
 he  had  done  was  in  honour  of  that  God,  who  had  chosen 
 him  to  govern  Israel  rather  than  any  of  her  family  ;  and 
 that  such  condescensions  as  these  would  never  bring 
 him  under  any  just  contempt." 
 
 that  bare  the  ark  of  the  Lord  had  gone  six  paces,  he  sacrificed 
 oxen  and  fatlings,'  (2  Sam.  vi.  13.)  From  which  words  some 
 would  infer,  that  David,  having  measured  the  ground  between 
 Obed-Edom's  house,  and  the  place  he  had  built  for  the  reception 
 of  the  ark,  had  altars  raised  at  the  distance  of  every  six  paces, 
 whereon  he  caused  sacrifices  to  be  offered,  as  the  ark  passed  by. 
 But  it  is  easy  to  imagine,  what  a  world  of  confusion  this  would 
 create  in  the  procession ;  and  therefore  the  more  rational  con- 
 struction is,  that  after  those  who  carried  the  ark  had  advanced 
 six  paces,  without  any  such  token  of  divine  wrath  as  Uzza  had 
 undergone,  then  did  they  offer  a  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  to 
 God,  which  might  consist  of  several  living  creatures,  all  sacri- 
 ficed and  offered  up  at  once.  But,  even  supposing,  that,  at  set 
 distances,  there  were  sacrifices  all  along  the  way  that  they  went; 
 yet  we  are  to  know,  that  it  was  no  unusual  thing  for  heathens  to 
 confer  on  their  gods,  nay,  even  upon  their  emperors,  the  same 
 honours  that  we  find  David  here  bestowing  upon  the  ark  of  the 
 God  of  Israel.  For  in  this  manner,  as  Suetonius  tells  us,  was 
 Otho  received,  "  when  during  all  the  journey  on  his  right  and 
 left,  victims  were  slain  by  the  inhabitants  of  towns."  And  the 
 like  he  relates  of  Caligula:  "When  he  left  Misenum,  he  pro- 
 ceeded through  a  dense  body  of  persons  meeting  him,  and  sur- 
 rounded by  altars,  and  victims,  and  burning  torches." — Calmefs 
 Commentary. 
 
 d  After  that  David  was  by  Saul  banished  from  court,  and 
 forced  to  seek  for  shelter  in  foreign  countries,  Saul,  to  cast  the 
 more  contempt  upon  him,  gave  his  wife  away  to  one  Phalti,  or 
 Phaltiel,  son  of  Laish  of  Gallim ;  but  David,  when  he  came  to 
 the  crown  of  Judah,  had  her  restored  to  him  again ;  for  which 
 purposes  he  sent  messengers  to  Ishbosheth,  who  then  reigned 
 over  the  eleven  tribes  at  Mahanaim,  to  demand  her,  and  who, 
 according  to  that  demand,  took  her  from  Phaltiel,  and  sent  her 
 back  to  David.  The  Hebrews  pretend  that  Phaltiel  never  came 
 near  Michal,  who,  in  strictness,  could  not  be  his  wife,  because 
 she  had  never  been  divorced  by  David;  but  others  believe,  that 
 she  had  five  sons  by  Phaltiel,  which  were  given  up  to  the  Gibe- 
 onites  to  be  executed,  (2  Sam.  xxi.  8,  9.)  But,  in  this  place 
 there  seems  to  be  an  error  crept  into  the  text,  which  should  be 
 read  Merob  instead  of  Michal. — Calmefs  Dictionary,  under  the 
 word  Michal. 
 
 e  The  words  of  Michal,  wherein  she  upbraids  David,  are  these : 
 '  How  glorious  was  the  king  of  Israel  to-dav,  who  uncovered 
 himself  to-day,  in  the  eyes  of  the  handmaids  of  his  servants,  as 
 one  of  the  vain  fellows  shamelessly  uncovereth  himself;'  (2  Sam. 
 vi.  20.)  At  first  reading,  they  seem  to  intimate,  that  David,  in 
 his  dancing,  had  exposed  his  naked  body,  and  acted  some  way 
 or  other  immodestly.  But  these  words,  we  are  to  consider,  were 
 spoken  in  a  fit  of  passion,  and  when  Michal  was  minded  to  ag- 
 gravate matters ;  for  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that  David  kept 
 himself  within  the  bounds  of  modesty,  how  joyous  soever  he 
 might  be.  It  was  a  command  which  God  gave  the  Israelites, 
 that  they  should  rejoice  in  their  feasts,  (Deut.  xii.  7.)  but  then, 
 their  joy  was  not  to  be  lascivious  or  petulant,  but  pious  and  mo- 
 derate. In  the  case  before  us,  David  was  in  the  more  imme- 
 diate presence  of  God,  and  about  a  very  sacred  business ;  and 
 therefore  it  is  incongruous  to  think,  that  he  would  commit  any 
 thing  immodest.  And,  that  he  could  not  expose  his  nakedness, 
 as  his  wife  would  insinuate,  is  evident  from  his  having  not  only 
 an  ephod  on,  but  being  clothed  with  a  robe  of  fine  linen,  besides 
 his  usual  under  garments,  (1  Chron.  xv.  27.)  and  therefore,  though 
 his  putting  off  his  regal  robes  might  give  some  occasion  to  Mi- 
 chal's  expression  of  his  '  uncovering  himself,'  yet  it  must  be 
 owned,  that  this  opprobrious  term  proceeded  from  nothing  but 
 the  overflowing  spleen  of  a  proud  passionate  woman. —  Calmefs 
 and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c 
 
 481 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  i0-'>5;  OH,  ACCORDING   TO 
 
 By  Uiis  time  the  palace,  which  Hiram  king  of  Tyre 
 had  furnished  David  with  men  and  materials  to  build, 
 was  finished  ;  and,  as  he  was  reflecting  upon  the  mean- 
 ness of  God's  habitation  in  comparison  of  his  own,  it 
 came  into  his  mind  to  build  a  noble  fabric  for  his  religi- 
 ous worship,  which  design  he  communicated  to  a  Nathan. 
 Nathan  at  first  approved  of  it;  but  the  night  following, 
 he  was  commanded  to  forbid  it,  with  this  assurance,  that 
 God  accepted  of  his  sincere  intentions ;  promised  that 
 his  son  should  succeed  him,  and  build  him  a  temple  ;  and 
 that  his  posterity  should  reign  b  for  many  generations. 
 
 David  was  a  man  of  war,  and  therefore,  since  God  had 
 refused  him  the  privilege  of  building  him  a  temple,  and 
 had  reserved  that  work  for  his  son  Solomon,  whose  name 
 denotes  peaceable,  to  execute,  he  thought  himself  bound 
 to  subdue  al!  his  enemies  on  every  side,  that,  when  his 
 son  came  to  undertake  that  great  afl'air,  he  might  meet 
 with  as  little  molestation  as  possible. 
 
 In  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  the  Philistines  had  twice 
 invaded  him,  and  therefore  he  began  with  them.  Their 
 royal  city  of  Gath,  which  was  called  Metheg-Ammah,  or 
 the  bridge  of  Ammali,  because  it  stood  upon  a  hill  of 
 that  name,  and  was  a  bridle  to  curb  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
 and  keep  them  in  obedience,  he  took  and  made  it  a 
 barrier  against  themselves.  The  Moabites  he  utterly 
 subdued  ;  and,  having  dismantled  all  their  strong  places, 
 he  c  slew  the  greater  part  of  them,  reserving  such  only 
 as  were  requisite  to  till  the  ground.     From  hence  he 
 
 «  At  what  time  this  prophet  began  to  appear  in  Israel,  we  are 
 nowhere  informed.  This  is  the  first  time  that  the  scripture 
 makes  mention  of  him.  He  was  a  man  of  great  temper,  pru- 
 dence, and  fine  address,  who  knew  to  mitigate  the  rigour  of  his 
 reproofs  with  a  great  ileal  of  sweetness  and  wisdom,  which  qual- 
 ified him  so  well  for  the  conversation  of  kings,  and  other  great 
 persons.  He  was  always  equally  esteemed  and  beloved  by  David, 
 and,  in  his  conduct  towards  him,  maintained  a  just  medium 
 between  an  inflexible  austerity  and  a  servile  flattery. — Calmct's 
 Commentary. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  I  will  establish  the  throne  of  his 
 kingdom  for  ever;'  which,  in  their  primary  sense,  do  relate  to 
 the  terrestrial  kingdom  of  David's  family,  and  the  long  duration 
 of  it,  enough  to  justify  the  expression  'for  ever,'  taken  in  a  less 
 strict  signification.  But  if  we  take  it  in  a  more  sublime  and 
 absolute  sense,  it  can  belong  to  none  but  that  Sou  of  David,  to 
 whom  God  the  Father  gave  an  eternal  kingdom,  properly  so 
 called,  over  all  things  both  in  heaven  and  earth,  which  though  it 
 was  not  so  well  known  in  the  times  when  this  prophecy  was  ut- 
 tered, was,  by  the  event  afterwards,  made  plain  and  evident. — 
 l.e  Clerics  Commentary, 
 
 C  There  is  no  small  obscurity  in  the  words  of  the  text,  which 
 are  these:  '  He  smote  Moab,  and  measured  them  with  a  line, 
 casting  them  down  to  the  ground;  even  in  two  lines  measured 
 he  to  put  to  death,  and  with  one  line  to  keep  alive.'  Which 
 words  seem  to  allude  to  a  custom  among  the  kings  of  the  east, 
 when  they  were  thoroughly  incensed  against  any  nation,  namely, 
 to  make  the  captives  all  come  together  in  one  place,  and  prostrate 
 themselves  upon  the  ground;  that,  being  divided  into  two  parts, 
 as  it  were  with  a  line,  their  conqueror  might  appoint  which  part 
 he  pleased  either  for  death  or  life,  which  was  sometimes  deter- 
 mined by  casting  of  lots.  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  David  made 
 three  lots  or  parts  of  these  Moabites,  two  of  which  he  ordered  to 
 be  slain,  and  one  part  only  to  be  kept  alive.  The  reason  of  this 
 severity  against  this  miserable  people,  the  rabbins  assure  us, 
 was,  because  they  had  slain  his  parents  and  brethren,  whom  he 
 bad  committed  to  tin'  custody  of  the  king  of  Moab  during  bis 
 exile.  But  of  the  reality  of  this  motive  there  is  no  manner  of 
 appearance;  and  since  this  execution  which  David  inflicted  may 
 relate  either  to  the  whole  nation,  or  the  army  only,  to  clear 
 David  from  the  imputation  of  ton  much  cruelty  we  should  rather 
 conceive  it  of  the  third,  or  half  part  at  most,  of  the  army.  /,e 
 Cltrc's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4311.  A.  C.    1070.  2  SAM.  i-xix. 
 
 marched  his  army  to  secure  his  territories,  which  border- 
 ed upon  the  Euphrates.  The  Syrians  of  Zobah,  under 
 the  command  of  d  Hadadezer,  came  with  a  strong  force, 
 and  gave  him  battle  :  but  he  soon  routed  them,  and, 
 besides  a  great  number  of  foot  prisoners,  took  a  thou- 
 sand chariots,  and  seven  thousand  horsemen  that  attend- 
 ed them  ;  but,  reserving  to  himself  no  more  horses  than 
 were  necessary  for  an  hundred  chariots,  the  rest  he  ham- 
 stringed, to  make  them  unserviceable  for  war.  e  The 
 Syrians  of  Damascus,  hearing  of  Hadadezer's  ill  success, 
 came  to  his  assistance.  But  David  put  them  to  the  rout 
 likewise,  and  having  slain  two  and  twenty  thousand  of 
 them,  he  became  master  of  their  country  ;  put  garrisons 
 into  their  fortified  cities,  and  made  them  tributary  ;  and 
 (what  was  another  victory  in  this  expedition)  in  his  return 
 from  Syria,  he  engaged  a  great  body  of  Edomites  /  in 
 the  valley  of  salt,  slew  eighteen  thousand  of  them,  and 
 brought  them  under  the  like  subjection. 
 
 Thus  loaded  with  honour  and  spoils  David  returned 
 from  this  campaign  ;  but  all  the  rich  materials  that  he 
 had  compiled  together,  namely,  gold,  silver,  and  brass, 
 he  dedicated  to  the  Lord,  or  laid  them  up  for  the  future 
 use  of  the  temple.  And,  what  was  no  small  addition  to 
 his  store,  Toi,  the  king  of  Hamath,  hearing  of  his  vic- 
 tories, sent  his  own  son  to  congratulate  him  thereupon, 
 and,  in  a  large  present  of  vessels  of  gold,  and  vessels 
 of  silver,  &c,  to  acknowledge  his  kindness  in  breaking 
 the  power  of  his  most  inveterate  enemies. 
 
 All  the  while  that  David  was  thus  engaged  in  foreign 
 wars,  he  took  care  to  have  justice  administered  to  his 
 subjects  at  home,  and  a  certain  number  of  very  great 
 
 d  In  the  fragment  of  Nicolaus  Damascenus,  which  Josephua 
 has  preserved,  this  prince  is  simply  called  Adad,  which  was  the 
 common  name  of  the  kings  of  Syria,  who,  according  to  the  man- 
 ner of  other  eastern  princes,  took  their  titles  from  the  celestial 
 bodies,  and,  in  their  language,  Adad  signifies  the  stin.  The 
 fragment,  recorded  by  Josephus  is  to  this  effect.  "  A  long  time 
 after,  one  Adad,  a  valiant  man,  and  a  native  of  the  place,  had 
 the  command  of  Damascus  and  Syria,  Phoenicia  only  excepted. 
 There  happened  to  be  a  war  between  the  same  Adad  and  David 
 the  king  of  the  Jews,  and  several  encounters  between  them ; 
 but,  in  the  end  Adad  was  overcome  at  Euphrates,  behaving 
 himself  with  the  resolution  of  a  brave  prince  and  a  great  captain." 
 The  same  author,  speaking  further  of  his  posterity,  says,  "  That 
 the  government  was  handed  down  from  father  to  son  to  the  tenth 
 generation,  and  that  the  successor  still  received  the  father's  name 
 with  the  empire,  as  the  Ptolemies  did  among  the  Egyptians.'' — 
 Jeicish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  6. 
 
 c  Aram  Damasek,  which  we  translate  Syria  of  Damascus,  was 
 that  part  of  Syria  which  lay  between  Libanus  and  Antilibanus, 
 whose  chief  city  was  Damascus,  situate  in  a  valley,  called  by 
 several  names  in  Scripture,  and  watered  by  t\\o  rivers,  the  two 
 principal  of  which,  namely,  Abana  and  Pharphar,  (mentioned  in 
 2  Kings  v.  12.)  descended  from  mount  Hermonj  whereof  the 
 latter  washed  the  walls  of  Damascus,  aud  the  ether  ran  through 
 it,  and  divided  the  city  into  two  parts. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 f  The  valley  of  salt  lure  is  thought  by  many  to  be  the  place 
 adjoining  to  the  Dead  sea.  But,  as  i  In'  country  of  the  Edomites, 
 whom  David  subdued  in  his  return  from  his  expedition  into  Syria, 
 must  necessarily  lie  towards  the  east  of  Canaan,  we  must  look 
 for  some  other  valley  of  salt  in  the  confines  of  that  country. 
 Now,  about  a  league  southward  from  the  city  of  Palmyra,  or 
 Tadmor,  in  the  road  to  Edom,  we  find  a  large  plain  abounding 
 with  salt  pits,  whence  a  great  part  of  Syria  is  furnished  with 
 that  commodity;  and  therefore  it  is  very  probable,  that  the  battle 
 between  David's  generals  and  the  Edomites  was  fought  in  this 
 plain;  which  i^  about  two  days'  journey  from  Bozrah,  the  capital 
 city  of  the  eastern  Edom,  wlier.ee  the  people  might  march  out 
 to  meet  David's  forces,  and  oppose  them  in  their  return  home — 
 Calmct's  Commentary, 
 
482 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES, 
 
 M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 men  employed  in  the  highest  offices  of  trust.  Joab,  as 
 we  said  before,  was  captain-general ;  Jehoshaphat, a 
 chancellor  of  the  kingdom ;  Abiathar,  was  high  priest ; 
 Seraiah,  secretary  of  state  ;  Benaiah,  °  captain  of  his 
 guard ;  and  his  own  sons,  the  prime  ministers  of  his 
 household,  such  as  lord  chamberlain,  lord  treasurer,  lord 
 steward,  as  we  call  them  ;  and  to  these  he  added  one 
 more,  Mephibosheth,  the  son  of  Jonathan,  to  whom  he 
 restored  all  his  grandfather  Saul's  estate  ;  and  though 
 he  was  a  cripple,  c  and  lame  of  both  his  feet,  yet,  for  the 
 love  he  had  for  his  father,  he  entertained  him  with  great 
 kindness,  and  ordered  him  to  sit  with  his  own  sons  at  the 
 royal  table  every  day. 
 
 David,  not  long  after  this,  hearing  that  his  rf  old  friend 
 
 a  The  word  in  our  translation  is  recorder,  which  in  the  mar- 
 ginal note,  is  remembrancer,  or  writer  of  chronicles;  an  employ- 
 ment of  no  mean  estimation  in  the  eastern  world,  where  it  was 
 customary  witli  kings  to  keep  daily  registers  of  all  the  transactions 
 of  their  reigns;  and  a  trust,  which,  however  discharged  to  pur- 
 pose, must  be  let  into  the  true  springs  and  secrets  of  action, 
 and  consequently  must  be  received  into  the  inmost  confidence. 
 For  whether  the  office  of  a  lord  chancellor  was  consistent  with 
 the  constitution  of  the  Jewish  state,  a  modern  author  seems  to 
 doubt. — History  of  the  Life  of  King  David,  vol.  2. 
 
 b  These  guards  are  called  in  the  text  'the  Cherethites  and  the 
 Pelethites;'  but  who  they  were,  is  variously  conjectured.     That 
 they  were  soldiers,  is  evident,  from  their  being  mentioned  as 
 present  at  the  proclamation  of  king  Solomon,  against  Adonijah, 
 which  could  not  conveniently  have  been  done  without  some  armed 
 force,  to  protect  the  persons  who  proclaimed  him;  and  that  they 
 woe  not  common  soldiers,  but  the  constant  guards  of  David's 
 person,  is  manifest  from  the  title  of  l&iftaroQuXuxis,  keepers  of 
 the  body,  which  Josephus  gives  them.     Some  are  of  opinion,  that 
 they  were  men  of  a  gigantic  stature ;  but  we  find  no  grouud  for 
 that,  though  they  were  doubtless  proper  and  robust  men,  as  we 
 speak,  and  of  known  fidelity  to  their  prince,  (2  Sam.  xv.  18.  and 
 xx.  7.)    Others  again,  think  that  they  were  Philistines;  but  it  is 
 hardly  supposable,  that   David  would  have  any  of  these   hated 
 uncircumcised  people  to  be  his  body  guard,  neither  can  we  be- 
 lieve, that  the  Israelitish  soldiers  would  have  taken  it  patiently, 
 to  see  foreigners  of  that  nation  put  in  such  places  of  honour  and 
 trust.     Cherethite,  however,  is  certainly  but  another  name  for 
 Philistine,  as  appears  from  Zephaniah  ii.  5.;  and  therefore  the 
 question  is,  how  came  any  of  David's  subjects  to  be  called  after 
 that  name  ?  And  the  answer  to  this  is  obvious, — They  were    so 
 called,  because  they  went  at  first  with  him  into  Philistia,  and 
 continued  there  with  him,  all  the  time  that  he  was  under  the 
 protection  of  Achish.     These  were  the  persons  who  accompanied 
 him  from  the  beginning,  in  his  utmost  distress,  and  clave  to  him 
 in  all  calamities;  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder,  if  men  of  such 
 approved  fidelity  were  made  choice  of  for  his  body  guards ;  nor  is  it 
 any  uncommon  thing  in  history,  for  legions,  or  bands  of  soldiers, 
 to  take  their  names,  not  from  the  place  of  their  nativity,  but  their 
 residence,  and  very  frequently  from  the  name  of  their  captain  or 
 commander.     Since  therefore,  in  1  Chron.  xii.  3.  we  find  men- 
 tion made  of  one  Pelet,  the  son  of  Azmaveth,  who  resorted   to 
 David  while  he  was  at  Ziklag,  but  still  under  the  protection  of 
 Achish,  it  is  but  supposing  him  to  be  their  captain,  and  then  we 
 come  to  the  reason  why  they  were  called   Pelethites,  unless  we 
 suppose  them  rather  denominated  from  Peleth  son  of  Jonathan, 
 who   was  of  the  king's    own   tribe. — Patrick's    Commentary; 
 Poole's  Annot.;  and  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David. 
 
 c  Mephibosheth  was  very  young  when  his  father  Jonathan  was 
 killed  at  the  battle  of  Gilboa,  which  put  his  nurse  into  so  great  a 
 consternation,  that  she  let  the  child  fall,  as  she  was  making  haste 
 to  escape  with  him,  and  from  that  time  he  was  lame  of  both  feet 
 for  ever  after. — 2  Sam.  iv.  4. 
 
 d  What  the  particular  benefits  which  David  had  received  from 
 Nahash  were,  we  are  no  where  told  in  Scripture  ;  but  some  of  the 
 Jews  say,  that  he  fled  to  him,  when  he  durst  stay  no  longer  with 
 Achish  king  of  the  Philistines,  and  that  he  received  him  very 
 kindly;  others,  that  he  entertained  his  relations  when  the  king 
 of  Moab,  to  whom  he  had  committed  them,  slew  some  of  them: 
 but  the  most  likely  opinion  is,  that  as  he  was  a  bitter  enemy  to 
 Saul,  who  had  given  him   a  great  overthrow,  he,   for  that  very 
 
 Nahash  was  dead,  sent  his  compliments  of  condolence 
 to  his  son  and  successor  Hanun ;  but  the  great  men 
 that  were  about  the  young  king,  made  him  believe,  that 
 the  sole  intent  of  David's  sending  this  embassy  was  to 
 spy  out  the  weakness  of  the  city,  and  in  what  place  it 
 might  most  advantageously  be  assaulted  :  so  that  the  too 
 credulous  prince  ordered  the  ambassadors  to  be  treatea 
 in  the  most  ignominious  manner,  and  with  e  their  beards 
 half-shaved,  and  their  clothes  cut  short,  even  to  the  mid- 
 dle of  their  buttocks,  to  be  sent  about  their  business. 
 
 The  ambassadors  being  ashamed  to  return  home,  were 
 ordered  to  continue  at  Jericho,  until  their  beards  grew 
 again  ;  but  as  for  the  indignity  put  upon  them,  David 
 gave  them  assurance  that  he  would  resent  it  in  a  proper 
 manner.  Accordingly  he  sent  an  army  under  the  com- 
 mand of  Joab,  to  call  these  unhospitable  Ammonites  to 
 an  account.  The  Ammonites  were  apprised  of  his  de- 
 sign, and  therefore  provided  against  the  worst,  by  pro- 
 curing 33,000  mercenaries  of  the  Syrians,  who  lay 
 encamped  at  some  distance  in  the  fields,  whilst  their  own 
 forces  covered  the  city. 
 
 Upon  this  situation  of  the  enemy,  Joab  divided  his 
 army  into  two  bodies,  one  of  which  he  gave  to  his  bro- 
 ther Abishai,to  keep  the  Ammonites  in  play,  while  him- 
 self with  the  other,  which  consisted  of  his  choice  men, 
 attacked  the  Syrians.  Their  agreement  was,  to  relieve 
 each  other,  in  case  there  was  occasion  :  but  Joab,  at  the 
 first  onset,  charged  the  Syrians  so  home,  that  as  they  were 
 but  mercenaries,  and  thought  not  the  cause  their  own, 
 they  soon  gave  way,  which  made  the  Ammonites,  who 
 depended  much  upon  their  courage,  endeavour  to  secure 
 themselves  by  retreating  into  their  city ;  for  the  season 
 of  the  year  being  too  far  advanced,  made  it  imprac- 
 ticable for  Joab  to  besiege  it. 
 
 Hadadezer  had  assisted  the  Ammonites,  with  some 
 forces  the  last  campaign  ;  and  being  apprehensive  that 
 David  would  fall  foul  upon  him,  he  resolved  to  be  be- 
 
 reason,  became  a  friend  to  David,  when  he  perceived  how  Saul 
 persecuted  him,  and  thereupon  might  send  him  relief  and  assist- 
 ance, and  perhaps  offer  him  protection  in  his  kingdom. — Patrick'* 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  This  was  one  of  the  greatest  indignities  that  the  malice  of 
 man  could  invent,  in  those  countries  where  all  people  thought 
 their  hair  so  great  an  ornament,  that  some  would  rather  have 
 submitted  to  die  than  part  with  it.  What  a  foul  disgrace  and 
 heavy  punishment  this  was  accounted  in  ancient  times,  we  may 
 learn  from  Nicolaus  Damascenus,  as  mentioned  by  Stobseus, 
 (tit.  42.)  who  says,  that  among  the  Indians,  the  king  command- 
 ed the  greatest  offenders  to  be  shaven,  as  the  heaviest  punishment 
 that  he  could  inflict  upon  them ;  and  to  the  like  purpose  Plutarch 
 (in  Agesil)  tells  us,  that  whenever  a  soldier,  among  the  Lacedemo- 
 nians, was  convicted  of  cowardice,  he  was  obliged  to  go  with  one 
 part  of  his  upper  lip  shaved,  and  the  other  not.  Nay,  even  at 
 this  day,  no  greater  indignity  can  be  offered  to  a  man  of  Persia, 
 than  to  cause  his  beard  to  be  shaved ;  and  therefore  Tavernier, 
 in  liis  travels,  relates  the  story,  that  when  the  sophi  caused  an 
 ambassador  of  Aureng-zebe's  to  be  used  in  this  manner,  telling 
 him  that  he  was  not  worthy  to  wear  a  beard,  the  emperor,  even 
 in  the  manner  that  David  here  did,  most  highly  resented  the 
 affront  that  was  done  to  him  in  the  person  of  his  ambassador. 
 And  as  shaving  David's  ambassadors,  was  deservedly  accounted 
 a  grievous  affront,  so  the  cutting  off  half  the  beard,  which  made 
 them  look  still  more  ridiculous,  was  a  great  addition  to  it,  where 
 beards  were  held  in  great  veneration ;  and  where  long  habits  down 
 to  the  heels  were  worn,  especially  by  persons  of  distinction,  without 
 any  breeches  or  drawers,  the  cutting  their  garments,  even  to  the 
 middle,  thereby  to  expose  their  nakedness,  was  such  a  brutal 
 and  shameless  insult,  as  would  badly  become  a  man  of  David's 
 martial  spirit,  and  just  sentiments  of  honour,  to  have  tamely 
 passed  by. — Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES   ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 483 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055  ;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 forehand  with  him.  To  this  purpose  levying  a  vast  army, 
 not  only  in  Syria,  but  in  Mesopotamia  likewise,  he  sent 
 it,  under  the  command  of  Shobach  his  general,  over  the 
 river  Euphrates,  as  far  as  Helam,  a  town  in  the  borders 
 of  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh.  This  David  had  soon 
 intelligence  of,  and  therefore  uniting  all  his  forces,  he 
 marched  with  the  utmost  expedition,  and  coming  upon 
 the  enemy  sooner  than  was  expected,  slew  seven  thou- 
 sand men,  who  attended  seven  hundred  chariots ;  which 
 so  disheartened  the  rest,  that  he  soon  despatched  forty 
 thousand  more,  together  with  their  general,  who  fell  in 
 the  action,  and  died  upon  the  spot.  Upon  this  success, 
 several  petty  kings  who  had  assisted  Hadadezer  in  this 
 expedition,  fearing  some  worse  consequence,  made  a 
 peace  with  David,  and  became  tributary  to  him  ;  and 
 even  Hadadezer  himself,  being  thus  forsaken  by  his 
 confederates,  gave  him  assurance  that  he  would  no  lon- 
 ger espouse  the  cause  of  the  Ammonites,  but  leave  them 
 to  shift  for  themselves,  thereupon  David  sent  Joab 
 against  them  with  a  powerful  army,  who  laid  the  country 
 waste,  destroyed  all  that  came  in  his  way,  and  to  make 
 short  of  the  matter,  laid  siege  to  their  royal  city  of 
 Rabbah. 
 
 AYhile  Joab  was  carrying  on  the  siege  of  Rabbah, 
 David  continued  in  Jerusalem,  and  walking  one  evening 
 a  on  the  top  of  his  palace  to  take  the  fresh  air,  he 
 chanced  to  *  espy  a  beauteous  woman  bathing  herself  in 
 her  garden.  The  unguarded  king,  as  soon  as  he  saw 
 her,  was  smitten  ;  and  inquiring  who  she  was,  was  in- 
 formed that  she  was  Bathsheba,  the  daughter  of  Ainmiel, 
 and  wife  of  Uriah  c  the  Hittite,  an  officer  in  his  army, 
 ■who  was  then  with  Joab  at  the  siege  of  Rabbah.  David 
 sent  for  her,  lay  with  her,  and  dismissed  her.  But,  in  a 
 short  time,  finding  herself  with  child,  she  apprized  him 
 of  it,  and  desired  him  withal  to  consult  her  honour  and 
 
 a  The  manner  of  building,  in  all  eastern  countries,  was  to  have 
 their  houses  flat-roofed,  with  a  terrace  and  parapet  wall,  for  the 
 convenience  of  walking  in  the  cool  air;  and  as  David's  palace 
 was  built  on  one  of  the  highest  places  of  Mount  Sion,  he  might 
 easily  look  down  upon  the  lower  parts  of  the  town,  and  take  a 
 view  of  all  the  gardens  that  were  within  due  distance. — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Thus  Jupiter  is  said  to  have  seen  Proserpina  washing  her- 
 self, and  exposing  her  whole  body  to  his  view,  which  inflamed 
 his  lust  after  her.  But  whether  it  was  in  her  garden,  or  court- 
 yard, overlooked  by  the  palace,  or  in  some  apartment  in  her 
 house,  whose  windows  opened  that  way,  that  this  woman  bathed 
 herself,  it  is  not  so  certain.  Tradition  points  out  the  place  of  a 
 fountain  still  called  after  her  name,  which  would  make  it  prob- 
 able that  she  bathed  in  a  garden,  did  not  Josephus  expressly  de- 
 clare that  it  was  in  her  own  house,  as  indeed  the  natural  mo- 
 desty and  decency  of  her  sex,  as  well  as  the  circumstance  of  the 
 time,  for  then  it  was  evening,  make  his  account  more  probable; 
 nor  can  it  be  doubted,  but  that  the  declining  rays  of  the  sun, 
 shooting  into  the  inmost  recesses  of  her  chamber,  and  throwing 
 a  great  lustre  around  her,  might  discover  her  very  clearly  to 
 very  distant  eyes,  without  the  least  suspicion  on  her  part,  of  any 
 possibility  of  being  seen,  and  consequently  with  all  the  reserve  of 
 modesty  proper  to  her  sex. —  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King 
 David,  vol.  3. 
 
 c  Uriah,  though  an  Hittite  by  nation,  was  proselyted  to  the 
 .Jewish  religion,  and  so  marrying  with  a  Jewish  woman,  lived 
 in  Jerusalem;  or  as  he  was  one  of  the  king's  lifeguard,  which 
 for  reasons  above  mentioned,  seem  to  have  been  all  natives,  and 
 of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  this  additional  name  might  perhaps  be 
 given  him,  for  some  gallant  action  achieved  against  the  Ilittites, 
 in  the  same  manner  as  a  Roman,  in  after  ages,  came  to  be  called 
 Afiicanus,  Germanicus,  Parthicus,  &c,  upon  account  of  the  vic- 
 tories obtained  over  the  Africans,  Germans,  or  Parthians. — 
 Calmed  Commentary. 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 safety  in  devising  some  means  to  conceal  it.  Hereupon 
 he  sent  a  despatch  to  Joab  for  Uriah  to  come  to  him,  as 
 if  he  had  something  particular  to  inquire  of  him  ;  but  his 
 whole  intent  was  to  give  him  an  opportunity  of  lying 
 with  his  wife,  that  so  the  child,  when  it  was  born,  might 
 be  reputed  his.  Uriah  came ;  and  after  the  king  had 
 asked  him  some  few  questions  concerning  the  condition 
 of  the  army,  and  the  advances  of  the  siege,  he  ordered 
 him  to  go  home,  d  and  refresh  himself  after  his  journey, 
 and  sent  a  handsome  collation  after  him  for  his  enter- 
 tainment. But  so  it  was,  that  instead  of  going  near 
 his  wife,  he  chose  to  sleep  in  the  guard  room. 
 
 David  was  informed  of  this  the  next  morning ;  and 
 was  therefore  resolved  to  make  use  of  another  expedient. 
 He  invited  him  to  sup  at  his  own  table,  and  prevailed 
 with  him  to  drink  to  such  a  pitch,  that  he  did  not  doubt 
 but  that  the  heat  of  the  liquor  would  have  inflamed  his 
 appetite,  and  made  him  go  home  to  his  wife ;  but  still  lie 
 lay  in  the  guard  room,  and  in  excuse  to  thejeing,  said, 
 that  he  thought  it  was  his  duty  so  to  do,  while  the  rest 
 of  the  soldiers  were  encamped.  So  that  finding  himself 
 still  disappointed,  the  king  ordered  him  at  last  back  to 
 the  army,  and  e  sent  him  with  letters  to  Joab,  wherein 
 he  commanded  him  to  manage  matters  so,  that  Uriah 
 might  be  killed  by  the  Ammonites,  which  accordingly 
 came  to  pass :  for  in  an  assault  upon  the  town,  Uriah, 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  go  down  to  thy  house,  and  wash 
 thy  feet,'  (2  Sam.  xi.  8.)  for  in  these  countries,  where  it  was  not 
 the  custom  to  wear  shoes,  but  sandals  only,  and,  in  some  places 
 to  go  barefoot,  washing  the  feet  was  a  great  refreshment  after  a 
 journey,  and  a  common  compliment  that  the  master  of  the  house 
 usually  made  to  any  stranger  at  his  first  entrance.  But  tin's 
 custom  of  washing  the  feet,  was  not  only  after  a  journey,  to 
 cleanse  them  from  dirt  and  dust,  but  very  much  used  likewise, 
 before  people  sat  down  to  meat;  and  therefore  David's  meaning 
 in  the  expression  is,  that  Uriah  should  go  down  and  feast  with 
 his  wife,  for  which  reason  he  sent  a  collation  to  his  house,  and 
 after  so  long  an  absence,  indulge  himself  in  her  company.  For 
 David's  intention  hitherto  was,  neither  to  murder  Uriah,  nor 
 marry  his  wife,  but  only  to  screen  her  honour  and  his  own  crime. 
 — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  It  may  be  thought  perhaps,  that  Uriah  suspected  something 
 of  his  wife's  adultery,  and  therefore,  resolving  that  it  should  be 
 discovered,  would  not  be  persuaded  to  go  down  to  his  house. 
 But  if  he  did,  he  certainly  acted  the  part  of  a  trusty  servant, 
 when  he  would  not  open  the  king's  letter  to  know  what  was  in 
 it,  though,  upon  supposition  that  he  suspected  his  criminal 
 commerce  with  his  wife,  he  had  reason  to  expect  no  good.  This 
 puts  one  naturally  in  mind  of  the  story  of  Bellerophon's  carrying 
 letters  from  Prostus  to  his  father-in-law  Jobates,  king  of  Lycia, 
 with  an  order  to  kill  him;  from  whom  it  came  into  a  proverb, 
 to  carry  Bellerophon's  letter  or  a  death  warrant  against  one's 
 self,  according  to  that  passage  in  Plautus:  "Aha!  thy  son  hath 
 now  made  me  a  Bellerophon,  I  myself  have  brought  the  warrant 
 for  my  bondage." — Bacchid.  For  the  fable  of  Uriah  and  Bellero- 
 phon are  so  xery  much  alike,  that,  the  fable  of  the  latter  seems  tn 
 be  founded  upon  the  story  of  the  former.  Bellerophon,  who,  as 
 some  scholiasts  think,  should  be  read  Boulephoron,  a  council 
 carrier,  was  a  stranger  at  the  court  of  Prostus,  as  Uriah  being  a 
 Hittite,  was  at  the  court  of  David.  He  declined  the  embraces 
 of  Sthenoboea,  as  Uriah  did  the  bed  of  Bathsheba;  and  was  for 
 that  reason,  sent  to  Jobates,  general  of  Prostus's  army,  with 
 letters,  which  contained  a  direction  to  put  him  to  death,  as  Uriah 
 was  sent  to  Joab,  David's  general.  By  debates  he  was  sent, 
 with  a  small  guard,  upon  an  attack,  in  which  it  was  intended, 
 lie  should  be  slain,  as  Uriah  was  by  Joab  to  that  in  which  he 
 fell.  The  main  of  the  history  is  the  same  in  both:  the  simili- 
 tude of  Jobates  and  Joab's  name  is  very  remarkable;  and  the 
 variation  in  the  whole  only  lies  in  some  such  ornamental  em- 
 bellishments, as  might  well  be  expected  in  a  poetical  composi- 
 tion.— Ctilmet's  Commentary,  and  The  History  of  the  Life  if 
 Kill j  Da  rid. 
 
484. 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF    THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 being  deserted  by  the  other  soldiers,  who  had  private 
 orders  to  retire  when  the  onset  began,  a  fell  immediately 
 by  the  enemy's  sword. 
 
 As  soon  as  Uriah  was  dead,  Joab  sent  an  express 
 thereof  to  the  king,  who  returned  him  orders  to  carry  on 
 the  siege  with  more  vigour,  until  he  had  made  himself 
 master  of  it ;  and  then  to  raze  it  even  to  the  ground,  and 
 to  put  all  the  inhabitants  to  the  sword,  without  sparing 
 so  much  as  one  man.  Upon  this  order  Joab  advanced 
 his  approaches,  and  renewed  his  assaults  every  day,  until 
 he  had  got  possession  of  *  the  water  works  which  sup- 
 plied the  town  ;  and  then  sent  a  courier  to  acquaint  the 
 king,  that  the  city  was  reduced  to  the  utmost  extremity ; 
 was  in  no  condition  to  hold  out  much  longer,  and  there- 
 fore he  desired  him  to  come  in  person,  that  he  might 
 have  the  honour  of  taking  it.  The  king,  according  to 
 his  general's  desire,  went  with  a  strong  reinforcement, 
 took  the  place  by  storm,  gave  the  plunder  of  it  to  his 
 soldiers,  but  reserved  to  himself  what  belonged  to  the 
 king,  among  which  was  the  crown  of  inestimable  value. 
 Having  thus  wasted  the  city  and  divided  the  spoil, 
 he  put  the  men  who  had  held  it  out  against  him,  to  the 
 most  exquisite  torments  ;  and  other  places  that  would 
 not  immediately  surrender,  he  treated  with  the  same 
 severity. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Uriah,  his  wife  c  Bathsheba  pre- 
 tended to  mourn  for  him  ;  but  it  was  not  long  before 
 David  sent  for  her,  d  and  declared  her  his  wife  :  and  in 
 
 a  The  fate  and  fall  of  the  gallant  Uriah  is  thus  related  by  Jose- 
 phus: — "  Joab  put  Uriah  upon  a  desperate  forlorn,  and  to  cover 
 his  design,  gave  him  several  brave  men  to  back  him,  with  a  pro- 
 mise to  support  him  with  the  whole  army,  in  case  there  was  any 
 possibility  of  entering  the  town  ;  and  at  the  same  time  recom- 
 mended it  earnestly  to  him,  to  maintain  the  reputation  he  had 
 already  acquired  with  the  king  and  the  army,  by  acquitting 
 himself  gallantly  upon  this  occasion.  Uriah  with  great  cheer- 
 fulness undertook  the  post,  while  Joab  gave  his  companions  pri- 
 vate orders  to  withdraw,  and  leave  him,  as  soon  as  they  found 
 themselves  in  clanger.  The  Hebrews  pressed  hard  upon  the 
 wall,  and  put  the  Ammonites  under  a  dreadful  apprehension, 
 that  they  would  force  the  town ;  whereupon  the  besieged  threw 
 open  their  gates,  and  made  a  desperate  sally,  which  was  as  good 
 as  a  signal  to  those  that  were  with  Uriah,  to  abandon  him  ;  which 
 accordingly  they  did,  and  left  him  to  be  cut  to  pieces.  He  did 
 all  the  execution  that  was  possible  to  be  done  by  one  single  man 
 against  numbers,  and  after  several  wounds  received,  fell  like  a 
 man  of  honour,  with  his  faco  to  the  enemy." — Jewish  Antiqui- 
 ties, b.  7.  c.  7. 
 
 b  Some  learned  men  are  of  opinion,  that  this  royal  city  of  Rab- 
 bah  was  likewise  called  the  '  city  of  waters,'  either  because  it  stood 
 upon  a  river,  or  was  encompassed  with  water  both  for  its  defence 
 and  delight.  But  Junius  renders  it,  that  "  he  cut  off  the  waters 
 which  supplied  the  town ;"  which  translation  not  only  Josephus 
 seems  to  favour  by  telling  us,  that  Joab  seized  on  all  the  aque- 
 ducts which  led  into  the  city ;  but  Polybius  (b.  5.)  likewise,  speak- 
 ing of  the  siege  of  this  same  place  by  Antiochus,  relates  the  story, 
 how  a  certain  deserter  discovered  to  that  prince  a  subterraneous 
 passage  through  which  the  besieged  came  to  draw  water,  which 
 Antiochus  stopped  up,  and  by  reason  of  their  thirst  compelled  them 
 to  surrender. — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Calmct's  Commentary . 
 
 c  How  long  widows  were  to  mourn  for  their  husbands,  there  is 
 no  express  precept  in  the  law;  but  the  usual  time  for  common 
 mourners  was  no  more  than  seven  days;  and  we  cannot  suppose 
 that  Bathsheba  was  much  longer,  considering  the  reason  we  ha\e 
 tn  apply  to  her  the  words  of  Lucan:  "Unwilling  she  shed  the 
 trickling  tears,  and  from  a  heart  of  joy  heaved  forth  groans." 
 
 d  According  to  the  Jewish  doctors  it  was  utterly  unlawful  for 
 any  to  marry  another  man's  wife  in  case  he  had  defiled  her  be- 
 fore. The  canonical  law  declares  such  marriages  null  and  void, 
 as  are  contracted  between  an  adulterous  man,  and  a  woman  that 
 was  partner  with  him  in  the  crime;  and  though  the  law  of  Moses 
 
 this  state  he  continued  without  any  molestation,  or  ap- 
 prehension of  having  done  wrong,  for  the  space  of  several 
 months,  till  at  length  God  sent  e  Nathan  the  prophet  to 
 rouse  him  out  of  his  adulterous  lethargy,  and,  by  r  an 
 
 does  not  expressly  forbid  them,  yet  we  may  not  thence  infer  that 
 they  were  permitted  among  the  Jews.  For  these  reasons  some 
 have  thought  that  this  marriage  of  David  and  Bathsheba  was 
 null  and  invalid  ;  but  others,  upon  better  grounds,  have  supposed 
 that  though  there  were  many  criminal  circumstances  attending 
 it,  yet  these  did  not  vacate  its  effect,  and  in  short,  though  it 
 ought  not  to  have  been  done,  yet  being  done,  the  marriage  was 
 good,  and  the  children,  which  were  afterwards  born,  were  legiti- 
 mate.— Caimet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  We  learn  little  more  of  this  great  man  in  the  sacred  writings, 
 but  that  he  was  David's  prophet,  intimate  counsellor,  and  his- 
 toriographer. Josephus  says  of  him,  that  he  was  a  polite  and  a 
 prudent  man,  one  who  knew  how  to  temper  the  severity  of  wis- 
 dom with  sweetness  of  manners.  And  Grotius  compares  him  to 
 Manius  Lepidus,  of  whom  Tacitus  says  that  he  had  a  talent  of 
 turning  away  Tiberius's  mind  from  those  cruel  purposes,  to  which 
 the  vile  flattery  of  others  inclined  him,  and  was,  at  the  same  time, 
 in  equal  favour  and  authority  with  him.  Nathan  certainly  knew 
 the  art  of  reproving  kings  with  authority,  and  yet  without  giving 
 oflence.  So  far  from  that,  he  grew  in  his  prince's  favour  and 
 estimation,  as  long  as  he  lived ;  insomuch,  that  David,  as  tradi- 
 tion tells  us,  called  one  son  after  his  name,  and  committed 
 another,  even  his  beloved  Solomon,  to  his  care  and  tuition. — The 
 History  of  the  Life  of  King  David,  vol.  3. 
 
 f  There  is  a  passage  of  Seneca,  (Epist.  59.)  where  he  treats 
 of  the  style  fit  for  philosophic  writing,  which  suits  so  well  with  this 
 parable  of  Nathan's,  that  I  choose  to  give  it  in  his  own  words,  as  a 
 fit  preamble  to  the  short  comment  which  follows  it: — "  I  find," 
 says  he,  "  images,  which  if  any  one  forbids  us  to  use,  and  deems 
 that  they  ought  to  be  allowed  to  poets  only,  yet  it  is  my  opinion, 
 that  none  of  the  ancients  ever  read  them  who  was  not  capti- 
 vated with  the  beautiful  diction.  Those  who  spoke  in  a  simple 
 manner,  and  with  the  view  of  proving  something,  made  great 
 use  of  parables,  which  I  think  necessary,  not  for  the  same  reason 
 that  poets  use  them,  but  that  they  might  be  of  assistance  to  our 
 weakness,  and  further  both  teacher  and  listener  to  the  point  in 
 hand."  For  parables,  like  histories,  wherein  we  have  no  concern, 
 are  heard  with  more  attention,  and  are  so  contrived,  as  to  give  no 
 oflence,  even  though  they  provoke  the  man  to  whom  they  are 
 addressed,  to  condemn  himself.  '  There  were  two  men  in  one 
 city,  the  one  rich,  and  the  other  poor;  and  the  rich  man  had 
 exceeding  many  flocks  and  herds;'  as  David  had  many  wives  and 
 concubines,  with  whom  he  might  have  been  well  satisfied,  with- 
 out violating  another  man's  bed;  '  but  the  poor  man  had  nothing 
 save  one  little  ewe  lamb,  which  he  had  bought  and  nourished 
 up.'  Bathsheba,  very  likely,  was  the  only  wife  that  Uriah  had, 
 with  whom  lie  was  highly  pleased  and  delighted,  and  she  very 
 probably  with  him,  till  David's  temptations,  had  perverted  her 
 mind.  '  And  it  grew  up  together  with  him  and  with  his  chil- 
 dren ;  it  did  eat  of  his  own  meat,  and  drank  of  his  own  cup,  and 
 lay  in  his  bosom,  and  was  unto  him  as  a  daughter.'  Nathan,  in 
 his  resemblance,  cannot  be  said  to  have  surpassed  the  truth,  con- 
 sidering how  fond  many  persons  were  anciently,  not  only  of 
 lambs,  but  of  several  other  creatures,  which  they  suffered  to  eat 
 with  them  at  their  tables,  and  lie  with  them  in  their  beds ;  and 
 that  even  at  this  day  it  is  a  custom  in  Arabia,  which  is  contigu- 
 ous to  Judea,  to  have  one  of  the  finest  lambs  in  the  flock  brought 
 up  in  the  house,  and  fed  with  the  children.  '  And  there  came  a 
 traveller  to  the  rich  man ;'  this  denotes  David's  straggling  appe- 
 tite, which  he  suffered  to  wander  from  his  own  home,  and  to 
 covet  another  man's  wife:  and  of  this  appetite  the  Jewish  doctors 
 have  this  observation,  that  "  in  the  beginning  it  is  but  a  traveller, 
 but  in  time  it  becomes  a  guest,  and  in  conclusion  is  the  master 
 of  the  house."  '  And  he  spared  to  take  of  his  own  flock,  and 
 his  own  herds,'  wherewith  he  might  have  satisfied  his  appetite, 
 '  but  took  the  poor  man's  lamb,  and  dressed  it  for  the  wayfaring 
 man  that  was  come  to  him.'  Most  commentators  here  take  no- 
 tice, that  Nathan  did  not  go  so  far  in  the  parable,  as  to  say  any 
 thing  of  the  rich  man's  killing  the  poor  man.  This  certainly 
 would  have  made  the  resemblance  more  complete,  but  it  is 
 therefore  omitted,  that  David  might  not  so  readily  apprehend  Na- 
 than's meaning,  and  so  be  induced  unawares  to  pronounce  a  sen- 
 tence   of  condemnation  upon  himself;  whereupon  the  prophet 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &< 
 
 485 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  1341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 elegant  parable,  to  represent  the  baseness  and  wicked- 
 ness of  what  he  had  done,  and  to  make  him  pronounce 
 sentence  against  his  guilty  self. 
 
 David  accordingly  condemns  himself,  and  confesses 
 his  guilt,  and  humbly  begs  pardon  for  what  he  had  done  : 
 Whereupon  Nathan  was  sent  again  to  inform  him,  that  a 
 God  had  pardoned  his  transgression,  namely,  the  eternal 
 punishment  due  to  his  transgression  God  had  remitted, 
 but  the  b  temporal  should  be   inflicted  on  him.     That 
 
 had  a  fair  opportunity  to  show  him,  that  if  the  rich  man,  who 
 took  away  thy  poor  man's  lamb,  deserved  death,  according  to  his 
 own  judgment,  how  much  more  did  he  deserve  it,  who  had  not 
 only  taken  another  man's  wife,  but  caused  him  to  be  slain  like- 
 wise by  the  enemies  of  Israel. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  It  may  very  well  be  asked,  how  God  so  readily  came  to  for- 
 give David,  when  he  acknowledged  his  transgression,  and  yet 
 did  not  forgive  Saul,  though  he  made  the  like  confession.  '  I 
 have  sinned.'  But  the  answer  is  obvious,  that,  be  the  form  of 
 expression  what  it  will,  unless  it  proceeds  from  the  sincerity  of 
 the  heart,  the  great  Searcher  of  hearts  will  not  regard  it.  The 
 true  reason,  therefore,  why  Saul  could  not  obtain  a  revocation  of 
 his  sentence  of  rejection,  was,  because  his  repentance  was  not 
 sincere ;  it  did  not  proceed  from  an  humble  and  contrite  spirit. 
 At  the  same  time  that  he  acknowledged  his  sin,  he  desired 
 Samuel  '  to  honour  him  before  the  people,'  and  persisted  in  his 
 disobedience  ever  after.  Whereas  David,  on  the  contrary,  hum- 
 bled himself,  wept  and  lamented  for  his  sin,  and  of  his  penitence 
 has  left  us  a  perpetual  and  eternal  monument  in  Psalm  li.  '  Have 
 mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  after  thy  great  goodness ;  according  to 
 the  multitude  of  thy  mercies,  do  away  mine  offences;  wash 
 me  thoroughly  from  my  wickedness,  and  cleanse  me  from 
 my  sin,'  &c. 
 
 6  In  the  threats,  which  God  orders  Nathan  to  denounce  against 
 David,  the  expressions  are,  '  I  will  raise  up  evil  against  thee  out 
 of  thine  own  house,  aud  I  will  take  thy  wives  before  thine  eyes, 
 and  give  them  unto  thy  neighbour,  and  he  shall  lie  with  thy 
 wives  in  the  sight  of  the  sun;  for  thou  didst  it  secretly:  but  I 
 will  do  this  thing  before  all  Israel,  and  before  the  sun;'  (2  Sam. 
 xii.  11 — 12.)  Where  the  words,  '  I  will  raise  up,  I  will  take, 
 I  will  do,'  do  not  denote  any  positive  actions  of  God,  as  if  he 
 prompted  wicked  men  to  do  the  same  things,  wherewith  he 
 threatens  David,  insomuch  that,  without  such  prompting,  they 
 would  not  have  done  them,  but  by  it  were  necessitated  to  do 
 them.  Such  a  construction  as  this  is  injurious  to  the  divine 
 attributes,  aud  makes  God  the  author  of  evil.  But  the  true 
 meaning  is,  that  God,  at  that  time,  saw  the  perverse  disposition 
 of  one  of  his  sons,  and  the  crafty  wiliness  of  one  of  his  counsel- 
 lors, which,  without  restraining  them,  would  not  fail  to  create 
 David  no  small  uneasiness.  And  therefore,  because  David  had 
 violated  his  law,  and,  to  gratify  his  lust,  had  committed  both 
 adultery  and  murder,  God  would  not  interpose,  but  suffered  the 
 tempers  of  these  two  wicked  persons  to  follow  their  own  course, 
 and  have  their  natural  swing ;  whereupon  the  one,  being  ambi- 
 tious of  a  crown,  endeavours  to  depose  his  father,  and  the  other, 
 Trilling  to  make  the  breach  irreparable,  advised  the  most  de- 
 tested thing  he  could  think  of.  This  indeed  was  the  very  tiling 
 that  God  had  foretold,  but,  without  any  imputation  upon  his 
 attributes,  we  may  say,  that  God  can  so  dispose  and  guide  a 
 train  of  circumstances,  that  the  wickedness  of  any  action  shall 
 happen  in  this  manner  rather  than  another,  though  lie  do  not 
 infuse  into  any  man  the  will  to  do  wickedly.  "  To  the  torrent 
 of  iniquity,  if  I  may  so  speak,"  for  I  give  you  the  commentator's 
 own  words,  because  there  is  something  very  accurate  in  them, 
 "  he  adds  no  strength,  but  prevents  its  outbreaking  to  one  side 
 rather  to  another,  and  all  the  circumstances  (which  have  no  vice 
 in  themselves)  he  so  directs  and  regulates  that  they  may  attain 
 to  some  certain  issue.  But  there  are  innumerable  circumstances 
 of  such  a  nature,  having  no  real  evil  in  themselves,  but  in  which 
 however  the  events  arc  varied  according  to  the  will  of  God,  and 
 the  Almighty  hath  many  methods  by  which  he  overrules  all  things 
 without  any  diminution  of  his  glory,  and  all  in  such  a  manner  as 
 to  leave  to  men  the  liberty  either  of  breaking  or  obeying  his 
 commandments."  So  that  from  such  scripture  phrases  as  these, 
 w'e  may  not  infer,  that  God  either  does,  or  can  do  evil,  but  only, 
 thai  he  permits  that  evil  to  be  done,  which  he  foreknew  would 
 he  done,  but  might  have   prevented  had  he  pleased ;  or,  in  other 
 
 therefore  the  son,  for  by  this  time  Bathsheba  was  brought 
 to  bed  of  a  son,  begotten  in  this  adulterous  congress, 
 should  not  live  ;  that  several  of  his  family  should  come 
 to  an  untimely  death ;  that  some  one  of  his  sons  should 
 rise  up  in  rebellion  against  him  ;  and  his  own  wives  be 
 defiled  publicly,  and  in  the  sight  of  all  the  world,  be- 
 cause he  had  given  such  scandal  to  his  own  people, 
 and  c  such  occasion  to  the  enemies  of  God  to  blaspheme. 
 Nor  was  it  long  before  part  of  this  sentence  began  to 
 be  executed  upon  him.  For  the  child,  which  he  had  by 
 Bathsheba,  was  taken  sick  and  died.  While  it  was  sick,  d 
 David  fasted  and  prayed,  if  possibly  he  might  appease 
 the  divine  wrath,  and  intercede  for  its  life  ;  but  when  it 
 was  dead,  he  acknowledged  the  justice  of  God,  and, 
 cheerfully  submitting  to  his  will,  made  his  ardent  sup- 
 plications to  him,  that  the  remainder  of  his  afflictions 
 might  be  mixed  with  mercy.  This  in  some  measure  was 
 done  ;  for,  in  a  proper  space  of  time,  he  had  another  son  e 
 
 terms,  that  he  suffers  men,  naturally  wicked,  to  follow  the  bent 
 of  their  tempers,  without  any  interposition  of  his  providence  to 
 restrain  them. — Le  Gere's  Commentary. 
 
 c  David's  crime,  which  at  first  was  secret,  was  in  time  dis- 
 covered, and  the  report  of  it  carried  to  the  neighbouring  nations. 
 The  Syrians,  the  Ammonites,  the  Moabites,  the  Edomites,  the 
 Philistines,  people  whom  he  had  subdued,  and  who,  out  of  pure 
 malice,  had  always  a  jealous  eye  upon  his  conduct,  would  not 
 fail  upon  this  occasion  to  murmur,  and  say,  "How  could  God 
 thus  favour  an  adulterer  and  murderer  ?  Where  is  his  justice 
 and  his  providence  ?  Is  this  the  God  who  is  said  to  be  so  equit- 
 able in  his  dealings  with  men,  and  so  severe  an  avenger  of  ini- 
 quity, and  yet  makes  choice  of  such  a  monster  as  this  to  govern 
 his  people  !  This  is  the  David,  the  man  after  God's  own  heart, 
 whom  lie  preferred  before  Saul,  on  whom  he  hath  poured  down 
 innumerable  blessings,  and  for  whom  he  hath  many  rich  promises 
 in  reserve;  and  yet  did  Saul  ever  commit  such  horrid  enormi- 
 ties as  this  man  has  done,  and  still  continues  to  be  the  favourite 
 of  God  ?"  Such  reflections  we  may  reasonably  imagine  would 
 David's  transgressions  have  occasioned  among  strangers  and 
 enemies,  who  might  thence  be  induced  to  despise  a  religion  they 
 were  acquainted  with,  and  which  he,  who  should  have  been  its 
 main  support,  so  little  regarded. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  David's  acts  of  humiliation  for  his  sins  are  thus  described 
 by  Sylvian,  On  the  Government  of  God.  "  He  put  off  his  purple, 
 threw  away  his  royal  ornaments,  laid  down  his  diadem,  wholly 
 stripped  himself  of  his  kingship,  and  appeared  as  a  penitent,  in 
 a  squalid,  rueful  garb,  fasting,  lying  on  the  ground,  confessing, 
 mourning,  repenting,  deprecating,  &C,  and  yet,  with  all  his 
 humiliation  and  compunction,  he  could  not  obtain  a  revocation 
 of  this  punishment."  But  why  should  the  death  of  this  child, 
 who,  had  he  lived,  would  have  been  a  perpetual  monument  of 
 guilt,  and  a  brand  of  infamy  upon  his  parents,  be  accounted  by 
 David  so  great  a  punishment  ?  The  true  way  to  account  for  tin?, 
 is  to  ascribe  it  to  David's  excess  of  passion  for  Bathsheba,  which 
 so  strongly  attached  him  to  every  orlspriug  of  hers,  and  made  him 
 forget  eveiy  thing  in  this  child,  but  that  motive  of  endearment. 
 Besides  this,  there  is  something  in  human  nature,  which  prompts 
 us  to  rate  things  after  a  manner  seemingly  unaccountable  ;  and  to 
 estimate  them,  not  according  to  their  real  worth,  but  according  to 
 the  expense  or  trouble,  or  even  the  distress  they  cost  us.  Nor 
 should  it  be  forgot,  that  this  excessive  mourning  did  not  proceed 
 simply  from  the  fear  of  the  loss  of  the  child,  but  from  a  deep 
 sense  of  his  sin,  and  of  the  divine  displeasure  manifested  in  the 
 child's  sickness,  and  particularly  from  a  just  apprehension  of  the 
 injury  which  he  hail  dene  the  infant  by  his  sin,  and  which  ho 
 thought  himself  bound  in  justice,  by  prayer  and  intercession,  as 
 much  as  he  was  able,  to  repair. —  Patrick's  Commentary,  and 
 Poole 's  Annotation  -v. 
 
 e  It  is  very  observable,  that  in  the  whole  compass  of  this 
 story,  there  is  not  a  word  said  either  of  Bathsheba's  guilt  or  pun- 
 ishment; but  this  might  be,  because,  as  to  the  matter  ol  her 
 husband's  death,  she  was  innocent:  to  the  adultery  which  she 
 Committed,  she  was  enticed  by  the  ofl'ers  of  a  powerful  king;  and 
 in  tin'  eal. unities  which  befell  him,  she,  no  doubt,  bad  he i  share, 
 and  felt  her  punishment. —  Patrick's  Cummcntaty. 
 
483 
 
 THE  HISTORY  V.F  THE  BIBLE.. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H 
 
 by  Bathsheba,  who  was  named  a  Solomon,  in  confidence 
 of  the  promise  which  God  had  made,  that  his  reign 
 should  be  crowned  with  peace  :  but  this  did  not  hinder 
 the  divine  justice  from  being  true  to  its  threats,  as  well 
 as  its  promises. 
 
 David  had  several  sons,  but  only  one  daughter,  that 
 we  read  of,  whose  name  was  Tamar,  sister  to  Absalom, 
 by  Maacha,  the  daughter  of  Talmai  king  of  Geshur,  h  a 
 princess  of  excellent  beauty,  and  with  whom  Amnon,  his 
 eldest  son  by  another  queen,  fell  desperately  in  love, 
 and  pined  away  with  a  c  hopeless  desire  of  obtaining 
 her ,  till  at  length,  by  the  advice  and  contrivance  of 
 Jonadab,  his  intimate  friend,  and  d  cousin-german,  he 
 found  means  to  decoy  her  into  his  apartment,  where,  e 
 
 a  The  word  Solomon  is  properly  derived  from  Scholam,  which 
 signifies  peace,  intimating  that  his  reign  should  be  peaceable; 
 but,  by  God's  appointment,  Nathan  gave  him  another  name, 
 viz.  Jedidiah,  that  is,  the  Beloved  of  God.  The  Scripture,  how- 
 ever, never  calls  him  by  this  name,  but  only  by  that  of  Solo- 
 mon, for  what  reason  we  cannot  tell,  unless  we  may  suppose, 
 that  the  people  being  long  harassed  in  war  during  his  father's 
 reign,  might  be  pleased  with  this  name,  and  use  it  rather  than 
 the  other,  to  intimate  their  hopes  and  longing  desire  of  peace. 
 And  for  this  reason  (among  others)  it  may  be  inferred,  that 
 Solomon  was  born  after  the  conclusion  of  the  Ammonitish  war, 
 though  the  sacred  history  takes  occasion,  from  the  death  of 
 Bathsheba's  first-born,  to  relate  that  event  first.  Not  long  after 
 this,  David  had  another  son  by  Bathsheba,  (2  Sam.  v.  14.  and 
 1  Cliron.  iii.  5.)  whom  he  called  Nathan,  after  the  name  of  the 
 prophet;  and  of  these  two  Christ  was  bom,  though  in  different 
 lines:  for  Joseph,  his  supposed  father,  came  from  Solomon,  as 
 Matthew  (chap.  i.  ver.  6,  7.  relates  it;)  and  Mary,  his  real 
 mother,  came  from  Nathan,  as  it  is  in  Saint  Luke,  chap.  iii. 
 ver.  34. —  Le  Clero's  Commentary  ;  and  Bedford's  Scripture 
 Chronology,  b.  5.  c.  4. 
 
 b  The  borders  of  the  Geshurites  and  Maachathites  (as  we  read 
 Josh.  xiii.  1J,  13.)  were  given  by  Moses  to  the  Israelites  that 
 seated  themselves  on  the  east  of  Jordan;  nevertheless  'the 
 children  of  Israel  expelled  not  the  Geshurites  and  Maachathites, 
 but  they  dwell  among  the  Israelites  unto  this  day:'  from  whence 
 it  is  evident,  that  the  cities  of  Geshur  and  Maacha,  the  two 
 capitals  of  two  small  kingdoms,  lay  within  the  borders  of  the  land 
 of  Israel :  and  though  it  does  not  appear  how  they  were  situated 
 in  respect  of  each  other,  yet  it  is  certain  that  they  both  lay  on  the 
 south  side  of  Mount  Libanus,  in  the  north  part  of  the  half  tribe 
 of  Manasseh,  and  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  Jordan. — Wells' 
 Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 c  Virgins  of  the  blood  royal  were  kept  secluse  in  apartments, 
 separate  from  the  commerce  of  men,  into  which  not  only  stran- 
 gers, but  even  their  own  fathers,  were  not  permitted  to  enter. 
 Amnon,  however,  at  some  time  or  other,  had  seen  the  beautiful 
 Tamar,  or  otherwise  he  could  not  have  conceived  so  stron"  a 
 passion  for  her.  Upon  some  certain  ceremonial  occasions, 
 indeed,  it  was  customary  for  the  young  women  to  walk  out,  and 
 show  themselves;  but,  considering  their  close  confinement  at 
 other  times,  it  was  hardly  possible  for  Amnon  to  find  an  oppor- 
 tunity of  declaring  his  passion,  much  more  of  gratifying  it;  and 
 therefore,  out  of  pure  despair,  he  pined  himself  into  a  consump- 
 tion.'— Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 d  Jonadab  was  the  son  of  Shimeah,  the  brother  of  David. 
 e  There  is  something  so  moving,  and  the  arguments  are  so 
 strong  in  Tamar's  speech  to  Amnon,  that  one  would  almost 
 wonder  why  it  did  not  prevail  with  him  to  desist.  'Nay,  my 
 brother,  do  not  force  me.'  Here  she  reminds  him  of  his  relation 
 to  her,  fur  which  she  hoped  he  would  have  such  a  reverence  as  not 
 to  meddle  with  her,  though  she  herself  were  willing,  much  less 
 to  offer  violence  to  her,  which  it  was  abominable  to  do  even  to  a 
 stranger,  much  more  to  one  of  the  same  blood.  '  For  no  such 
 thing  ought  to  he  done  in  Israel.'  Whatever  other  nations  did, 
 who  had  not  the  knowledge  of  God's  laws,  she  begs  of  him  to  con- 
 sider, that  they  both  belonged  to  a  nation  which  was  God's  pecu- 
 liar people,  had  been  instructed  better,  and  therefore  should  act 
 otherwise.  '  Do  not  thou  this  folly.'  She  prays  him,  besides 
 the  scandal  it  would  give,  to  reflect  with  himself  on  the  heinous- 
 ness  of  the  crime,  aud  how  highly  offensive  it  would  be  to  the 
 
 ALES,  A.  M.  4311.  A.  C.   1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 notwithstanding  all  her  entreaties  and  expostulations 
 with  him,  he  first  ravished  her,  and  when  his  brutish  pas- 
 sion was  satisfied,  in  a  sullen  humour  /  bid  her  begone  ; 
 and  when  she  remonstrated  the  ill  usage,  had  her  turned 
 out  by  main  force. 
 
 g  In  this  mournful  and  distracted  condition,  Tamar 
 repairs  to  her  brother  Absalom,  and  tells  him  the  whole 
 transaction  of  her  rape  :  but  her  brother,  though  natu- 
 rally a  man  of  a  high  spirit,  advised  her  to  be  silent  in 
 point  of  prudence,  because  her  ravisher  was  heir -appa- 
 rent to  the  crown  ;  and  himself  so  h  artfully  concealed 
 
 divine  Majesty.  '  And  I,  whither  shall  I  cause  my  shame  to 
 go?'  She  beseeches  him,  '  besides  the  sin  against  God,'  to  consi- 
 der the  disgrace  it  would  be  to  her,  who,  after  such  a  foul  act, 
 must  be  ashamed  to  look  any  one  in  the  face.  '  And  as  for  thee, 
 thou  shalt  be  as  one  of  the  fools  in  Israel.'  Lastly,  she  puts  him 
 in  mind  of  his  own  reputation,  which  so  vile  an  action  would 
 tarnish  for  ever,  and  make  him  be  looked  upon  as  a  man  void  of 
 all  sense,  religion,  honour,  and  humanity.  '  Now  therefore,  I 
 pray  thee,  speak  to  the  king;  for  he  will  not  withhold  me  from 
 thee.'  It  is  a  common  opinion  among  the  Jewish  doctors,  that 
 in  the  war  which  king  David  had  with  the  king  of  Geshur,  he 
 took  Maacha  his  daughter  captive,  and,  as  they  fancy  their  law 
 allows,  (Deut.  xxi.  11.)  lay  with  her  for  once  only,  and  then  be- 
 gat this  daughter;  but  that,  upon  her  becoming  a  proselyte  to  the 
 Jewish  religion,  he  married  her,  and  afterwards  had  Absalom. 
 Tamar,  therefore,  being  born  while  her  mother  was  a  Gentile, 
 they  suppose  that  she  was  not  David's  legal  child,  and  that 
 Amnon  consequently  might  marry  her:  but  all  this  is  mere  talk, 
 without  any  shadow  of  proof.  The  most  probable  opinion  is,  that 
 she  was  neither  ignorant  of  the  law  (Lev.  xviii.  11.)  which  pro- 
 hibited such  incestuous  marriages,  nor  thought  her  father's 
 power  so  great,  as  that  he  might  dispense  with  the  law  upon  this 
 occasion,  but  merely  that  she  said  auy  thing  which  she  thought 
 would  please  him,  to  stop  his  solicitations,  and  rude  attempts, 
 and  to  escape  for  the  present  out  of  his  hands. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary^ and  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  8. 
 
 /"Interpreters  seem  to  be  at  a  great  loss  to  find  out  the  reason, 
 why  Amnon's  love  to  his  sister  should  so  soon  be  converted 
 into  such  an  hatred,  as  to  make  him  act  so  rudely,  so  brutally 
 towards  her;  but  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  men  of  violent  and 
 irregular  passions,  to  pass  from  one  extreme  to  another.  The 
 shame,  which  accompanies  every  base  action,  the  remorse  and 
 repentance,  and  many  bad  consequences,  that  immediately  pur- 
 sue it,  make  a  recoil  in  eveiy  man's  temper;  and  therefore 
 it  is  no  wonder,  that  a  libidinous  young  man,  who  would 
 not  spare  so  much  as  his  own  sister,  should  after  fruition, 
 and  when  the  ardour  of  his  lust  was  satisfied,  be  seized  with  a 
 contrary  passion,  and  hate  the  object  he  loved  so  much  before, 
 when  he  came  coolly  to  compare  the  pleasure  and  the  sin  to- 
 gether, the  shortness  of  the  one,  and  the  heinousness  of  the  other. 
 He  hated  his  sister,  when  he  should  have  hated  himself;  and  as 
 this  outrageous  treatment  of  her  made  it  impossible  for  his  guilt 
 to  be  concealed,  so  God  seems  to  have  abandoned  him  to  the 
 tumult  of  his  intemperate  mind,  on  purpose  to  make  this  punish- 
 ment of  David's  adultery  more  flagrant,  and  the  prophet's  pre- 
 diction of  '  raising  up  evil  to  him  out  of  his  own  house,'  (2  Sam. 
 xii.  11.)  more  conspicuous. — Calmefs  and  Le  Clerc's  Commen- 
 taries; and  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David. 
 
 g  The  manner  of  Tamar's  signifying  her  vexation  for  the  in- 
 jury and  disgrace  which  her  brother  had  put  upon  her,  is  expressed 
 by  her  putting  ashes  upon  her  head,  (2  Sam.  xiii.  19.)  And  that 
 this  was  an  ancient  custom,  whereby  to  denote  one's  grief  and 
 concern  for  any  great  loss  or  calamity,  is  evident  from  that 
 passage  of  the  prophet  concerning  the  people  of  Tyre:  '  They 
 shall  cry  bitterly,  cast  dirt  upon  their  heads,  and  wallow  them- 
 selves in  the  ashes,'  (Ezek.  xxvi.  30.)  from  Achilles's  behaviour 
 upon  the  death  of  Patroclus,  as  we  have  it  in  Homer: — "  With 
 both  his  hands  he  grasped  the  burning  sand,  pouring  on  his  head 
 and  defiling  his  fair  face."  (Iliad  18.)  And  from  what  Me- 
 zentius  did  upon  the  death  of  his  Lausus,  according  to  Virgil: — . 
 "  With  filthy  dust  he  pollutes  his  hair,  and  to  the  heaven  high 
 stretches  out  both  his  hands." — JEneid,  10. 
 
 h  By  this  means  Amnon  was  lulled  asleep  into  a  belief  that  Ab- 
 salom would  not  trouble  him  for  what  he  had  done,  because  he 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 487 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 his  own  resentment  that  every  one  believed  he  had  taken 
 no  notice  of  it.  But  about  two  years  after,  under  the 
 pretence  of  a  sheep-shearing-  entertainment,  which  in 
 those  countries  used  to  be  attended  with  great  mirth  and 
 jollity,  he  invited  his  friends  and  relations,  and  with  the 
 king's  consent,  though  himself  declined  going,  all  the 
 princes  of  the  blood,  and  more  especially  his  brother 
 Amnon,  to  his  country  seat  at  Hazor  ;  where  while  they 
 were  engaged  in  feasting  and  drinking,  his  servants,  by 
 his  direction,  and  through  the  promise  of  an  impunity, 
 fell  upon  Amnon,  as  Absalom  gave  the  signal,  and  im- 
 mediately despatched  him.  This  put  the  rest  of  the 
 princes  into  such  a  consternation,  that  they  made  the  best 
 of  their  way  from  the  house,  as  expecting  the  like  fate, 
 and  the  king,  when  he  heard  the  first  news  of  the  thing, 
 supposing  that  Absalom  had  killed  all  the  rest  of  his 
 brothers,  was  thrown  into  the  utmost  grief  and  despair, 
 till,  by  the  information  of  Jonadab,  who  seems  to  have 
 been  privy  to  the  design,  and  the  safe  arrival  of  the 
 other  princes,  he  was  certified  that  Amnon  only  was 
 dead  ;  but  his  death  alone  was  matter  of  sorrow  and  la- 
 mentation enough. 
 
 Absalom,  who  knew  very  well  how  highly  his  father 
 would  resent  this  treacherous  and  barbarous  murder,  a 
 fled  to  his  mother's  relations,  and  was  entertained  by 
 his  grandfather,  Talmai,  at  Geshur,  for  three  years.  But, 
 length  of  time  having  worn  out  David's  grief,  and  Joab 
 perceiving  that  he  had  a  secret  desire  to  see  Absalom 
 again,  if  he  could  but  find  out  a  handsome  excuse  for 
 such  a  purpose,  procured  a  good  artful  woman  *  from 
 Tekoah,  who  c  in  a  speech,  which  he  had  contrived  for 
 
 did  not  threaten,  nor  so  much  as  expostulate  with  him,  or  take 
 any  notice  of  what  had  passed,  though,  in  reason  he  ought  to  have 
 been  more  afraid  that  he  was  meditating  a  terrible  revenge:  ac- 
 cording to  the  lesson  which  the  mouse  gave  her  young  one,  when 
 she  perceived  her  affrighted  at  the  noise  of  the  crowing  cock,  but 
 regardless  of  the  sly  approaches  of  the  cat,  namely,  "  That  there 
 was  no  danger  to  be  feared  from  the  fluttering  cock,  but  from  the 
 silent  cat  present  death.'' — Patrick'*  Commentary. 
 
 a  In  the  case  of  wilful  murder,  the  law  is,  '  That  the  avenger 
 of  blood  shall  slay  the  murderer ;  when  he  meeteth  him  he  shall 
 slay  him,'  (Num.  xxxv.  21.)  from  whence  it  seems  to  follow,  that 
 it  was  not  in  any  man's  power  to  protect  the  wilful  murderer,  be- 
 cause the  avenger  of  blood,  that  is,  the  nearest  relation  of  the  per- 
 son murdered,  might,  with  impunity,  wherever  he  met  him,  kill 
 him.  As  Absalom  therefore  had  committed  a  designed  murder, 
 his  own  life  was  every  moment  in  danger;  and  as  there  were  no 
 cities  of  refuge  in  his  own  country,  that,  in  this  case,  would 
 yield  him  protection,  he  was  forced  to  fly  out  of  the  kingdom  to  his 
 mother's  father. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Tekoah  was  a  city  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  which  lay  south  of 
 Jerusalem,  and  about  twelve  miles  distant  from  it.  And  herein 
 does  Joab's  cunning  appear  not  a  little,  that  he  made  choice  of  a 
 woman  rather  than  a  man,  because  women  can  more  easily  ex- 
 press their  passions,  and  sooner  gain  pity  in  their  miseries;  a 
 widow,  which  was  a  condition  of  life  proper  to  move  compassion; 
 a  grave  woman,  as  Josephus  calls  her,  which  made  her  better 
 fitted  for  addressing  the  king;  and  a  woman  not  known  at  Jeru- 
 salem, but  living  at  some  distance  in  the  country,  that  the  case 
 Which  she  was  to  represent,  might  not  too  readily  be  inquired 
 into. —  Poole 'fi  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  art  and  contrivance  of  this  widow  of  Tekoah's  speech  is 
 very  remarkable.  '  When  the  woman  of  Tekoah  spake  to  the 
 king,  she  fell  on  her  face  to  the  ground,  and  did  obeisance,  and 
 said,  Help,  O  king  !  And  the  king  said  to  her,  What  aileth 
 thee  ?  And  she  said,  I  am  indeed  a  widow  woman,  and  my 
 husband  is  dead,  and  thy  handmaid  had  two  sons,  and  the  two 
 strove  together  in  the  field,  and  there  was  none  to  part  them, 
 but  the  one  smote  the  other  and  slew  him;  and  behold  the  whole 
 family  is  risen  against  thy  handmaid,  and  they  say,  deliver  him 
 that  smote  his  brother,  that  we  may  kill  him,  for  the  life  of  his 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 her,  was  to  convince  the  king,  that  in  some  cases  the  life 
 of  a  murderer  might  be  saved.  The  woman  Joab  intro- 
 duced ;  and  when  she  had  told  her  tale,  so  as  to  induce 
 the  king  to  a  compliance  with  her  feigned  petition,  she 
 gave  him  at  length  to  know,  that  the  case  she  had  been 
 stating  was  Absalom's  :  and  that  if,  in  a  private  man,  the 
 king  was  disposed  to  be  merciful,  there  was  much  more 
 reason  for  his  pardoning  his  own  son,  whose  absence  the 
 people  lamented,  and  for  whom  they  had  so  general  an 
 affection. 
 
 The  king,  being  apprized  that  Joab  had  put  the  woman 
 upon  this  artifice,  ordered  him  to  recall  Absalom,  but 
 d  confined  him  to  live  in  his  own  house,  and,  as  yet, 
 would  not  seem  so  far  reconciled  to  him,  as  to  admit  him 
 into  his  presence.  But,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  Absa- 
 lom prevailed  with  Joab  to  intercede  further  for  a  full 
 pardon,  and  to  introduce  him  to  the  king,  who,  upon  his 
 humbling  himself  and  begging  pardon,  took  him  up  from 
 the  ground,  where  he  lay  prostrate,  and  gave  him  a  kiss, 
 as  a  token  of  his  forgiveness  and  royal  favour. 
 
 Absalom  was  certainly  one  of  the  most  comely  persons 
 in  all  Israel,  without  the  least  blemish  from  top  to  toe, 
 and  with  a  head  of  hair,  which  in  those  days  was  thought 
 a  great  beauty,  prodigiously  long  and  thick,  so  that  his 
 person  drew  every  one's  eye  to  him,  as  soon  as  he  was 
 restored  to  favour  at  court.  But  as  Amnon,  his  eldest 
 brother,  was  slain,  and  Chileah,  his  second,  by  this  time 
 dead,  he  began  to  look  upon  himself  as  presumptive 
 heir  to  the  crown,  and  thereupon  to  affect  a  state  and 
 equipage  greater  than  usual.  He  provided  himself  with 
 chariots  and  horses,  and  had  a  guard  of  fifty  men  to  at- 
 tend his  person  :  but,  notwithstanding  this,  he  would  be 
 e  so  obsequious  and  humble,  as  to  stoop  to  the  meanest 
 
 brother  whom  he  slew,  and  we  will  destroy  the  heir  also:  and 
 so  they  shall  quench  my  coal  that  is  left,'  that  is,  deprive  me 
 of  the  little  comfort  of  my  life  which  remains,  and  is,  as  it  were, 
 a  coal  buried  in  the  ashes,  '  and  leave  to  my  husband  neither 
 name  nor  remainder  upon  the  earth,'  (2  Sam.  xiv.  4,  &c.)  Now 
 the  scope  of  all  this  speech  was  to  frame  a  case  as  like  to  David's 
 as  she  could  devise,  that,  by  prevailing  with  him  to  determine  it 
 in  her  favour,  he  might  be  convinced,  how  much  more  reason- 
 able it  was  to  preserve  Absalom.  But,  how  plausible  soever  the 
 likeness  might  be,  there  was  a  wide  difference  between  her  case 
 and  his:  for  her  son,  as  she  pretended,  was  slain  inaseuflle  with 
 his  brother;  whereas  Amnon  was  taken  off  by  a  premeditated 
 murder:  he  was  slain  in  the  field,  where  there  were  no  witnesses, 
 whether  the  fact  was  wilfully  done  or  no ;  whereas,  all  the  king's 
 sons,  saw  Amuon  barbarously  murdered  by  his  brother:  and, 
 lastly,  he  was  her  only  son,  by  whom  alone  she  could  hope  tohaye 
 her  husband's  name  perpetuated  j  whereas  David's  family  was  in 
 no  danger  of  beiug  extinct,  even  although  he  had  given  up  Ab- 
 salom to  justice.  But  there  was  a  great  deal  of  policy  in  not 
 making  the  similitude  too  close  and  visible,  lest  the  king  should 
 perceive  the  drift  of  the  woman's  pctitfi,  before  she  had  obtain- 
 ed a  grant  of  pardon  for  her  son,  and  came  to  make  the  applica- 
 tion, to  the  king:  and  though,  upon  her  making  the  application, 
 the  king  might  have  argued  the  disparity  of  the  two  cases,  yet  he 
 thought  proper  to  wave  this,  and  admit  her  reasoning  to  be  good, 
 because  he  was  as  desirous  to  have  Absalom  recalled  as  were 
 any  of  his  subjects. —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  This  small  severity  to  Absalom,  small  in  comparison  of  the 
 heinousness  of  his  crime,  David  might  think  necessary,  not  only 
 to  put  upon  him  a  sincere  humiliation  and  repentance  for  what 
 he  had  done,  when  he  found  that  the  king,  indulgent  as  he  was, 
 had  not  fully  pardoned  him,  but  to  convince  the  people  like- 
 wise, how  detestable  his  crime  was  in  the  king's  esteem,  and  how- 
 averse  he  would  be  to  pass  by  the  liko  in  another  person,  who 
 could  not  endure  the  sight  of  a  son,  whose  hand  was  defiled  with 
 a  brother's  blood. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  It  is  an  observation  of  Plato,  that  when  any  one  intends  tc 
 
488 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  1311.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i-xix. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 people  that  had  any  thing-  to  say  to  him ;  would  offer 
 his  service  to  solicit  every  one's  cause  that  had  any 
 business  at  court ;  and,  upon  proper  occasions,  not  fail 
 to  instil  into  the  people's  minds  a  bad  opinion  of  the 
 present  administration,  as  if  the  public  affairs  were  ne- 
 glected, but  that,  if  he  were  at  the  helm,  things  should 
 be  conducted  at  an  other -guise  rate. 
 
 a  By  these  arts  and  insinuations,  which  were  advanta- 
 geously seconded  by  the  comeliness  of  his  person,  as 
 we  said,  and  the  familiarity  of  his  address,  he  gained  to 
 himself  the  affections  of  the  people,  and  insensibly 
 alienated  them  from  David.  *  AYhen  therefore  he  ima- 
 gined that  matters  were  ripe  for  his  purpose,  he  desired 
 leave  of  his  father  to  go  to  Hebron,  pretending  that  he 
 had  vowed  a  vow,  in  his  exile,  that  whenever  it  should 
 please  God  to  bring  him  back  to  Jerusalem,  he  would 
 offer  in  that  place  a  solemn  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving. 
 
 make  himself  a  tyrant  in  a  popular  state,  he  no  sooner  enters  on 
 the  government,  but  "  he  smiles  upon,  and  kindly  salutes,  all 
 sorts  of  people,  wherever  he  meets  them ;"  avowing  that  he  hates 
 tyranny,  promising  great  things  both  in  private  and  public, 
 "and  making  as  if  he  would  be  mild,  and  gentle,  and  fatherly  to 
 all;"  even  as  Tacitus  relates  of  Otho,  "  that  he  used  to  kiss, and 
 shake  hands  with  any  one,  court  and  adore  the  mob,  and  do  every 
 little  servile  thing,  to  get  possession  of  the  government." — Plato 
 de  Republica,  b.  S;  and  Tacitus' 's  History,  b.  1. 
 
 a  It  is  an  observation  of  Aristotle,  in  his  Politics,  (b.  5.  c.  4.) 
 that  all  changes  and  revolutions  in  government  are  made  by  one 
 of  these  two  ways,  "  either  by  force  and  violence,  or  else  by  deceit 
 and  craft."  Nor  ever  was  there  a  man  better  formed  by  nature 
 to  manage  matters  in  this  latter  way,  than  was  Absalom,  who 
 was  a  person  of  courage  and  gallantry,  of  civility  and  courtesy, 
 young,  and  wonderfully  beautiful,  descended  from  kings,  both  by 
 father's  and  mother's  side,  and  prodigal  enough  of  large  and 
 magnificent  promises,  if  ever  he  came  to  be  king;  a  character 
 not  unlike  that  of  Turnus  in  Virgil:  "The  well  formed  shape 
 influences  one,  royal  ancestry  another,  and  chivalry  another." — 
 JEneid,  b.  7. 
 
 b  This  is  said  in  the  text  to  have  been  '  after  forty  years,'  (2 
 Sam.  xv.  7.)  but  where  to  date  the  beginning  of  the  forty  years 
 lias  occasioned  much  disagreement  among  commentators.  Some 
 compute  them  from  the  time  that  the  Israelites  demanded  a  king 
 of  Samuel;  others,  from  the  first  time  that  David  was  anointed 
 king;  others,  from  the  first  commencement  of  his  reign  over 
 Judah;  and  others  again,  from  the  time  that  he  took  possession 
 of  the  whole  kingdom.  The  two  latter  of  these  opinions  are  in- 
 supportable, because  David  reigned  but  forty  years  in  all,  and 
 was  now  so  hale  and  hearty,  as  to  be  able  to  walk  on  foot;  where- 
 as in  the  latter  end  of  his  life  he  was  very  infirm  and  bed-rid. 
 The  learned  Usher  indeed  makes  these  forty  years  to  commence 
 from  the  time  of  David's  first  unction;  and  therefore  he  was 
 threescore  years  old  when  this  rebellion  broke  out,  and  lived  ten 
 years  after  it.  But  with  all  due  deference  to  so  great  authority, 
 both  this  and  the  other  opinion,  that  computes  from  the  time 
 that  a  demand  of  a  king  was  made,  are  forced  and  unnatural ; 
 have  no  affinity  to  the  text,  nor  do  they  suggest  any  reason  why 
 the  sacred  historian  should  begin  his  account  of  this  unnatural 
 rebellion  with  an  '  andcit  came  to  pass,  that  after  forty  years;' 
 whereas,  if  we  consider  the  account  of  what  went  before,  how 
 Absalom,  by  all  the  arts  of  popularity,  a  splendid  equipage,  con- 
 descensive  behaviour,  large  promises,  and  flattering  speeches,  had 
 alienated  the  hearts  of  the  people  from  his  father,  we  cannot  but 
 be  tempted  to  think  that  there  is  an  error  crept  into  the  text ; 
 that  instead  of  arbaim,  forty,  as  our  copies  have  it,  the  word 
 should' be  arba,four  only,  that  is,  four  years  after  that  Absalom 
 was  re-established  in  Jerusalem,  and  had  used  all  his  alluring 
 arts  to  gain  the  nation's  allections,  the  first  step  that  he  took,  was 
 to  go  to  Hebron.  This  makes  the  sense  easy  and  entire,  and  is 
 confirmed  by  the  authority  of  the  Syriac  and  Arabic  versions, 
 the  judgment  of  several  able  critics,  and  the  testimony  of  Jose- 
 phns  himself,  whose  words  are,  that  "  four  years  after  his  father 
 w;is  reconciled  to  him,  this  conspiracy  broke  out." — Calmet's 
 Commentary,  Howell's  History  in  the  notes;  and  Josephus'  Jewish 
 Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  8. 
 
 The  king,  little  suspecting  his  hidden  design,  and  being- 
 desirous  that  all  religious  services  should  be  punctually 
 performed,  gave  him  free  leave  to  go,  and  wished  him  a 
 good  journey.  Hebron  was  the  place  of  his  own  nati- 
 vity, and  where  the  royal  seat  had  been,  in  the  begin- 
 ning of  David's  reign ;  and  therefore  he  thought  it  the 
 properest  for  his  wicked  enterprise.  And  no  sooner 
 was  he  settled  there,  but  he  sent  his  emissaries  about 
 to  sound  the  inclinations  of  the  several  tribes,  and  to 
 exhort  those  whom  they  should  gain  over  to  his  party, 
 to  be  ready  to  take  up  arms  c  as  soon  as  they  should 
 hear  that  he  was  proclaimed  king. 
 
 This  occasioned  a  general  insurrection.  Absalom  was 
 the  nation's  darling ;  and,  upon  this  summons,  d  people 
 flocked  to  him  from  every  part :  so  that  David,  Mho 
 had  intelligence  of  all  this,  thought  it  not  safe  for  him 
 to  continue  any  longer  in  Jerusalem,  e  but  leaving  the' 
 
 c  The  expression  in  the  text  is,  '  as  soon  as  you  hear  the  sound 
 of  the  trumpet,'  (2  Sam.  xv.  10.)  which  looks  as  if  Absalom  had 
 planted  trumpeters  at  proper  distances  to  take  the  sound  from 
 one  another,  and  disperse  it  over  all  the  kingdom,  that  so  they, 
 who  were  lovers  of  his  cause,  might  instantly  resort  to  his  as- 
 sistance and  support;  to  which  they  were  encouraged,  no  doubt, 
 by  the  suggestions  of  his  emissaries,  who  might  persuade  the 
 people,  that  all  this  was  done  by  the  king's  consent  and  approba- 
 tion, who,  being  aged  and  infirm  himself,  was  willing  to  resign 
 his  kingdom  to  his  eldest  and  most  noble  son,  who  was  descended 
 from  a  king  by  both  parents. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary,  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  It  would  really  make  one  wonder,  how  any  people  could  so 
 easily  abandon  a  prince,  so  brave,  so  happy,  and  successful  as 
 David  had  been ;  how  they  could  forget  his  excellent  qualities, 
 or  be  unmindful  of  the  services  he  had  done  the  nation ;  but  for 
 this  there  may  be  some  reasons  assigned.  In  every  nation  there 
 are  always  some  turbulent  and  discontented  spirits,  who  are  uneasy 
 with  the  present  state  of  things,  and  promise  themselves  some 
 benefit  from  a  change.  Saul's  party  was  not  as  yet  entirely  ex- 
 tinct, and  Joab,  who  was  David's  prime  minister,  behaved  with 
 an  insufferable  pride  and  insolence.  His  crimes,  which  were 
 very  black,  and  which  the  king  durst  not  punish,  redounded  upon 
 him;  and  the  king  himself  had  given  his  enemies  umbrage 
 enough  against  him,  in  living  with  Bathsheba,  after  he  had  mur-. 
 dered  her  husband.  But,  what  gave  the  fairest  pretence  of  all, 
 was  the  obstruction  of  justice  in  the  civil  administration:  for 
 had  there  not  been  something  of  this,  Absalom  could  have  had 
 no  grounds  for  making  such  loud  complaints.  These  were  some 
 of  the  causes  of  so  general  a  revolt  in  the  people.  And  yet, 
 after  all,  there  might  be  something  in  what  Abarbinel  imagines, 
 namely,  that  neither  Absalom,  nor  the  elders  of  Israel,  nor  the 
 rest  of  the  people  who  were  misled  by  them,  had  any  intention 
 to  divest  David  of  his  crown  and  dignity,  much  less  to  take  away 
 his  life ;  but  only  to  substitute  Absalom,  as  coadjutor  to  him, 
 for  the  execution  of  the  royal  authority  during  his  lifetime,  and 
 to  be  his  successor  after  his  death.  For,  as  it  would  have  been 
 monstrously  wicked  in  Absalom  to  have  designed  the  destruction 
 of  so  kind  a  father,  so  it  is  hard  to  conceive,  how  he  could  have 
 gained  to  his  party  such  a  multitude  of  abettors  in  so  villanous 
 an  enterprise.  This  however  we  may  observe,  that  David  looked 
 upon  their  proceedings,  (2  Sam.  xv.  14.  and  xvi.  11.)  as  an  at- 
 tempt upon  his  life;  and  that,  whatever  their  first  intentions  were, 
 they  came  at  last  to  a  resolution  to  have  him  killed,  to  make 
 way  for  their  own  better  security.  Which  may  be  a  sufficient 
 warning  to  all  men,  never  to  begin  anything  that  is  wrong, 
 for  fear  that  it  should  lead  them  to  the  commission  of  that,  which 
 they  at  first  abhorred,  when  they  find  they  cannot  be  safe  in  one 
 wickedness  without  perpetrating  a  greater. — Calmet's  and  Pa- 
 trick's Commentaries. 
 
 e  Though  the  fort  of  Zion  was  very  strong  and  impregnable, 
 yet  there  are  several  reasons,  which  might  induce  David  to  quit 
 Jerusalem.  He  had  not  laid  in  provisions  for  a  long  siege,  nor 
 was  Jerusalem,  in  every  part  of  it,  defensible ;  and  if  Absalom 
 bad  once  taken  it,  as  it  was  the  capital,  he  would  soon  have  been 
 master  of  the  whole  kingdom.  There  was  some  reason  to  suspect 
 likewise,  that  the  inhabitants  were  faulty,  and  so  much  addicted 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 4S9 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 place,  with  a  design  to  retire  beyond  Jordan,  he  was  at- 
 tended by  his  guards,  his  best  troops,  and  principal 
 friends.  a  Zadok  and  Abiathar  the  priests,  understand- 
 ing that  the  king  was  departed  from  Jerusalem,  brought 
 the  ark  of  the  covenant  to  accompany  him  in  his  distress  ; 
 but  °  he  desired  them  to  carry  it  back,  and  to  continue 
 in  Jerusalem,  because  they  might  be  of  use  to  gain  him 
 intelligence  of  the  enemy's  motions  and  designs,  and 
 their  character  was  too  sacred,  to  fear  any  violence  from 
 the  usurper.  Hushai,  c  the  Archite,  his  faithful  friend 
 and  counsellor,  came  likewise  to  attend  him,  and,  with 
 all  expressions  of  sorrow,  to  see  his  royal  master  in  such 
 distress,  offered  to  share  his  fortune  :  but  David  enjoined 
 him  to  return,  and  told  him,  that  he  would  be  more  ser- 
 viceable to  him  in  the  city,  by  pretending  to  adhere  to 
 Absalom,  and  by  defeating  the  counsels  of  Ahithophel, 
 who,  as  he  understood  for  certainty,  was  <l  engaged  in 
 his  son's  measures,  and  whose  great  abilities,  which  the 
 
 to  the  contrary  party,  that  had  he  stood  a  siege,  and  been  redured 
 to  straits,  they  might  possibly  deliver  him  up  to  Absalom.  Nor 
 was  the  preservation  of  the  city  itself,  which  David  had  beauti- 
 fied, and  adorned  with  a  fine  and  stately  palace,  and  where  God 
 had  appointed  to  put  his  name  and  worship,  the  least  part  of  his 
 concern ;  and  therefore  he  thought  it  more  conducive  to  his  in- 
 terest in  all  respects,  rather  than  be  cooped  up  in  a  place  which 
 he  desired  to  preserve  from  being  the  seat  of  war,  to  march  abroad 
 into  the  country,  where  he  might  probably  raise  a  considerable 
 army,  both  for  his  own  defence,  and  the  suppression  of  the  rebels. 
 — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  2  Sam.  xv.  30.  '  And  David  went  up  by  the  ascent  of 
 mount  Olivet,  and  wept  as  he  went  up,  and  had  his  head  covered  ; 
 and  he  went  barefoot:  and  all  the  people  that  was  with  him  co- 
 vered every  man  his  head,  and  they  went  up,  weeping  as  they 
 went  up.'  This  was  an  indication  of  great  distress:  for  in  an- 
 cient times  the  shoes  of  great  and  wealthy  persons  were  made  of 
 very  rich  materials.  When  any  great  calamity  befell  them,  either 
 public  or  private,  they  not  only  stripped  themselves  of  these 
 ornaments,  but  of  their  very  shoes,  and  walked  barefoot.  In  this 
 manner  prisoners  taken  in  war,  were  forced  to  walk,  both  for 
 punishment  and  disgrace. — Burder's  Oriental  Customs,  vol.  1. 
 p.  231. 
 
 6  This  he  might  do  for  several  reasons;  for  either  he  might 
 think  it  not  decent  to  have  the  ark  wander  about  with  him  he 
 knew  not  whither,  and  to  expose  it  to  all  the  hazards  and  incon- 
 veniences which  he  himself  was  like  to  undergo;  or  he  might 
 suppose  that  this  would  be  a  means  to  expose  the  priests  to  the  vio- 
 lence of  Absalom's  rage,  as  he  had  before  exposed  them  to  Saul's 
 jury  upon  another  occasion,  if  God,  in  his  judgment,  should  per- 
 mit him  to  prevail;  or  this  might  look  as  a  distrust  of  the  divine 
 goodness,  and  that  he  placed  more  confidence  in  the  token  of 
 God's  presence,  than  he  did  in  God  himself,  who  had  preserved 
 him  in  the  long  persecution  of  Saul,  when  he  had  no  ark  with 
 him.  But  what  seems  the  chief  reason  at  that  time,  for  his 
 Bending  back  the  ark,  was, — That  the  priests  and  Levites,  of 
 whose  fidelity  he  was  sufficiently  satisfied,  by  giving  him  intel- 
 ligence of  the  enemies'  motions,  might  do  him  more  service  in 
 Jerusalem,  than  they  could  do  in  his  camp. — Poole's  Annot. 
 
 (•This  man  might  be  of  the  ancient  race  of  the  Archites,  de- 
 scendants from  Canaan,  of  whom  Moses  speaks,  (Gen.  x.  17.)  but 
 since  the  name  of  these  ancient  people  is  differently  written,  I 
 should  rather  think  that  this  additional  name  was  given  him  from 
 the  place  of  his  nativity,  namely,  Archi,  a  town  situated  on  the 
 frontiers  of  Benjamin  and  Ephraim,  to  the  west  of  Bethel. — 
 Joshua  xvi.  2. 
 
 d  The  Jews  are  of  opinion,  that  Ahithophel  was  incensed 
 against  David,  and  therefore  ready  to  go  over  to  the  adverse 
 party,  because  he  had  abused  Bathsheba,  whom  they  take  to  have 
 been  his  grand-daughter,  because  she  was  the  daughter  of  Eliam,  (2 
 Sam.  xi.  3.)  and  Ahithophel  had  a  son  of  that  name,  (2  Sam. 
 xxiii.  34.)  for  this  reason  they  imagine,  that  he  advised  Absalom 
 to  lie  with  his  father's  concubines,  that  he  might  he  repaid  in 
 kind;  though  the  Scripture  assigns  another,  namely,  that  he  and 
 his  father  might  thereby  become  irreconcilable  enemies. — 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i-xix. 
 
 king  was  not  unacquainted  with,  gave  him  no  small  un. 
 easiness. 
 
 David  had  scarce  passed  over  Mount  Olivet,  which 
 lies  to  the  eastward  of  Jerusalem,  when  Ziba,  whom 
 he  had  made  steward  to  Mephibosheth,  his  friend  Jona- 
 than's son,  came,  and  presented  him  with  a  e  considerable 
 quantity  of  wine,  and  other  provisions ;  but,  upon  the 
 king's  inquiring  for  his  master,  who  he  thought  above  all 
 men,  in  point  of  gratitude,  should  have  kept  firm  to  his 
 interest,  the  perfidious  wretch  accused  him  of  staying 
 behind  in  Jerusalem,  in  hopes  that  himself  might  be 
 made  king  ;  and  the  too  credulous  king,  in  this  general 
 distraction  of  his  affairs,  believing  the  accusation  to  be 
 true,  made  a  hasty  grant  of  all  Mephibosheth 's  estate  to 
 this  base  servant  and  treacherous  sycophant. 
 
 As  David  drew  near  to  Bahurim,  a  city  in  the  tribe  of 
 Benjamin,  f  one  Shiinei,  a  descendant  from  the  family 
 of  Saul,  and  who  dwelt  in  that  place,  came  out,  and 
 threw  stones  at  him,  and,  in  the  hearing  of  the  whole 
 company,  loaded  him  with  the  bitterest  reproaches  and 
 execrations,  so  that  Abishai  desired  leave  of  the  king  to 
 go  and  despatch  the  insolent  rebel ;  but  by  no  means 
 would  the  king  permit  him,  but  bore  all  with  an  admira- 
 ble patience,  £  and  resignation  to  the  will  of  God,  as 
 being  conscious  of  his  own  guilt  in  the  case  of  Uriah, 
 and  of  the  divine  justice  in  thus  afflicting  him. 
 
 While  David  continued  at  Bahurim,  Absalom  and  his 
 party  entering  Jerusalem,  were  received  with  the  general 
 acclamations  of  the  people,  and  Hushai,  not  forgetful  of 
 the  king's  instructions,  went  to  compliment  him,  and 
 offered  him  his  service.  Absalom  knew  that  he  was  his 
 father's  intimate  friend  and  counsellor,  and  therefore 
 bantered  him  at  first,  upon  his  pretending  to  desert  his 
 
 e  And  yet  the  text  tells  us,  it  was  but  one  bottle:  but  what  we 
 render  bottle,  was,  in  those  times,  a  bag,  or  vessel  made  of  lea- 
 ther, which  might  contain  a  great  deal  of  wine;  because  we 
 cannot  suppose,  but  that  the  liquor  was  proportionate  to  the  rest 
 of  the  present. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 f  Whether  this  man  had  been  a  personal  sufferer  in  the  fall  of 
 Saul's  family,  or  what  else  had  exasperated  him  against  David, 
 it  nowhere  appears ;  but  it  seems  as  if  he  had  conceived  some 
 very  heinous  offence  against  him,  when  neither  the  presence  of  a 
 king,  nor  the  terror  of  his  guards,  could  restrain  him  from  throwing 
 stones,  and  bitter  speeches,  at  him:  and  it  looks  as  if  the  king 
 were  fallen  into  the  utmost  contempt,  when  one  private  man 
 could  think  of  venting  his  malice  at  him  in  so  gross  a  manner 
 with  impunity. — Howell's  History  in  the  notes. 
 
 ff  The  words  of  David  upon  this  occasion  are,  '  So  let  him 
 curse,  because  the  Lord  hath  said  unto  him,  curse  David:  let 
 him  alone,  let  him  curse,  for  the  Lord  hath  bidden  him ;'  not 
 that  God  commanded  it  by  his  word,  for  that  severely  forbids 
 cursing,  (Exod.  xxii.  28.)  nor  moved  him  to  it  by  his  Spirit ;  for 
 neither  was  that  possible,  because  G^tempteth  no  man  (Jas. 
 i.  13.)  But  the  meaning  is,  that  th«ecn  t  providence  of  God 
 did  overrule  and  determine  him  so  to  ftflfthat  is,  God  did  not  put 
 any  wickedness  into  Shimei's  heart,  for  he  had  of  himself  an 
 heart  full  of  malignity  and  venom  against  David,  but  only  left 
 him  to  his  own  wickedness:  took  away  that  common  prudence, 
 which  would  have  restrained  him  from  so  dangerous  an  action; 
 directed  his  malice,  that  it  should  be  exercised  against  David, 
 rather  than  any  other  man ;  and  brought  him  into  so  distressed  a 
 condition,  that  he  might  seem  a  proper  object  of  his  scorn  and 
 contempt,  which  is  enough  to  justify  the  expression,  '  The  Lord 
 hath  bidden  him,'  in  the  same,  manner  that  we  read  of  his  'com- 
 manding the  ravens,'  (1  Kings  xvii.  4.)  and  sometimes  inanimate 
 creatures,  (Ps.  cxlvii.  15,  18.)  The  short  is,  David  looked  upon 
 Shimei  as  an  instrument  in  God's  hands,  and  therefore  took  all 
 his  abuses  patiently,  out  of  a  consciousness  of  his  sinfulness, 
 and  a  reverence  to  that  Deity  who  had  brought  him  so  low,  as  to 
 deserve  the  insults  of  this  vile  Benjamite.— Poole's  Annot. 
 
 3a 
 
490 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A   M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i-xlx. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 old  master ;  but  Hushai  a  excused  himself  in  such  a  man- 
 ner, and  answered  all  his  questions  with  that  subtlety, 
 that  he  passed  upon  the  prince  for  a  worthy  friend,  and 
 accordingly  was  received  into  his  privy  council. 
 
 A  council  was  presently  called,  wherein  Ahithophel, 
 who  was  president,  and  stood  highest  in  Absalom's 
 esteem,  spake  first ;  and  the  two  chief  things  which'  he 
 advised  him  to  do,  were,  first  to  place  a  tent  on  the  top 
 of  the  palace,  (for  by  this  time  he  had  taken  possession 
 of  his  father's  palace,)  and  to  lie  publicly  with  his 
 lather's  concubines,  that  all  the  soldiers  might  see,  and 
 conclude  that,  after  such  an  indignity,  there  could  be  no 
 hopes  of  a  reconciliation,  and  thereby  be  incited  to  fight 
 more  desperately  to  secure  him  in  the  possession  of  the 
 throne.  This  advice  was  suitable  perhaps  to  the  young 
 man's  vicious  inclinations,  and  therefore  he  delayed  not 
 to  put  it  in  execution:  but,  as  for  the  second  thing 
 which  Ahithophel  proposed,  viz.  "  To  take  twelve  thou- 
 sand choice  men,  and  pursue  after  David  that  *  very 
 night,  and  to  fall  upon  his  guards,  which  were  fatigued 
 with  their  march,  and  unable  to  make  resistance,  and  so 
 surprise  the  king,  and  kill  him,"  he  desired  to  consult 
 Hushai  herein ;  who,  seeming  not  to  slight  Ahithophel's 
 proposal,  advised  rather  to  delay  the  attempt,  until  he 
 had  got  all  the  forces,  of  the  kingdom  together.  "  For, 
 as  David  and  his  men  were  known  to  be  brave,  and,  at 
 that  time,  both  exasperated,  c  and  desperate,  in  case 
 they  should  worst  the  party,  sent  against  them,  this 
 would  be  a  means  to  discourage  others,  and  be  thought  a 
 very  inauspicious  beginning  :  whereas  if  they  staid  till  a 
 
 a  The  manner  in  which  Jostphus  makes  Hushai  answer  Ab- 
 salom, is  artful  enough,  though  hardly  becoming  an  honest  man. 
 "  There  is  no  contending,"  says  he,  "  with  the  will  of  God,  and 
 the  consent  of  the  people ;  and  so  long  as  you  have  them  on  your 
 side,  you  may  be  secure  of  my  fidelity.  It  is  from  God  that  you 
 have  received  your  kingdom ;  and  if  you  can  think  me  worthy  of 
 a  place  in  the  number  of  those  you  will  vouchsafe  to  own,  you 
 shall  find  me  as  true  to  yourself  as  ever  I  was  to  your  father. 
 No  man  is  to  account  the  present  state  of  things  uneasy,  so  long 
 as  the  government  continues  in  the  same  line,  and  a  son  of 
 the  same  family  succeeds  to  the  throne. — Jewish  Antiquities, 
 b.  7.  c.  8. 
 
 b  It  is  a  wise  observation  in  Tacitus,  "  In  civil  discords 
 nothing  is  more  appropriate  than  haste,  for  in  them  there  is  more 
 need  for  action  than  deliberation."  Ahithophel  therefore  thought 
 it  highly  necessary  to  make  despatch  upon  this  occasion ;  because 
 he  knew,  that  if  he  should  give  the  people,  that  had  revolted 
 from  their  allegiance,  leisure  to  think  of  what  they  were  doing 
 against  their  lawful  prince,  he  would  give  that  prince  time  to 
 raise  some  regular  troops,  and  those  that  were  about  him  space  to 
 recover  from  their  first  fright;  Absalom's  party  would  dwindle 
 
 into  nothing,  and  David's  grow',  stronger  and  stronger: "  He 
 
 would  grant  repentance  to  the  wicked,  agreement  to  the  good — 
 for  crimes  strengthen  by -impetuosity,  and  good  counsel  by  delay." 
 (Tacitus,  Hist.  b.  1.)  .JBH  therefore  he  advised  marching  imme- 
 diately against  him,  wHait  giving  him  a  moment's  time  to 
 recover  himself. — Calmn Commentary. 
 
 c  There  is  something  very  plausible,  and  elegant  too,  in  the 
 advice  which  Hushai  gives  Absalom,  not  immediately  to  pursue 
 and  fall  upon  David:  'Thou  knowest  thy  father  and  his  men, 
 that  they  be  mighty  men,  and  they  be  chafed  in  their  minds,  as 
 a  bear  robbed  of  her  whelps  in  the  field.'  (2  Sam.  xvii.  7.)  Eveiy 
 one  knows,  that  a  bear  is  a  very  fierce  creature ;  but  she-bears, 
 as  Aristotle  tells  us,  are  more  fierce  than  the  male,  particularly 
 when  they  have  young  ones,  but,  most  of  all  when  these  young 
 ones  are  taken  from  them.  For  this  reason  the  Scriptures  make 
 frequent  use  of  this  similitude:  '  I  will  be  unto  them  as  a  lion,' 
 says  God,  in  relation  to  the  people  of  Israel,  '  and  as  a  leopard 
 by  the  way;  I  will  meet  them  as  a  bear,  that  is  bereaved  of  her 
 w  hilps,  and  will  rent  the  caul  of  their  hearts,'  (Hosea  xiii.  7,  8. 
 See  Prov.  xvii.  12,  &c.)    So  that  the  purport  of  Hushai's  advice 
 
 numerous  army,  were  come  together,  d  they  might  be 
 assured  of  victory."  Absalom,  and  the  rest  of  the 
 council  approved  of  this  last  advice,  and  Hushai  imme- 
 diately despatched  two  messengers  to  David,  acquaint- 
 ing him  with  what  had  passed  in  council,  and  advising 
 him  instantly  to  pass  the  Jordan,  lest  Absalom  should 
 change  his  mind,  and  come  and  fall  upon  him  on  a 
 sudden. 
 
 The  messengers,  as  they  were  making  the  best  of  their 
 way,  happened  to  meet  some  of  Absalom's  party,  but  had 
 the  good  fortune  to  conceal  themselves  in  a  well,  until 
 their  pursuers  were  returned ;  and  then  proceeding  on 
 their  journey,  came  and  delivered  their  despatches  to  the 
 king,  who  decamped  by  break  of  day,  passed  the  Jordan, 
 and  came  to  Mahanahn,  a  city  of  Gilead,  where  he  was 
 kindly  received.  As  soon  as  Ahithophel  heard  that 
 David  was  out  of  danger,  either  taking  it  amiss  that  his 
 counsel  was  slighted,  or  perceiving  by  Absalom's  weak 
 conduct  that  things  were  not  likely  to  succeed,  and  he 
 consequently  e  liable  to  be  exposed  to  David's  hottest 
 indignation,  for  the  counsel  he  had  already  given ;  partly 
 out  of  pride,  and  partly  out  of  fear  of  worse  torments,  he 
 went  to  his  own  house,  where  he  first  made  his  will,  and 
 then  hanged  himself. 
 
 David  had  not  been  long  at  Mahanaim,  before  Ab- 
 salom, having  got  together  a  numerous  army,  which  was 
 commanded  by  Amasa,  the  son  of  Ithra,  a  relation  of 
 Absalom's  by  marriage,  left  Jerusalem  and  passed  the 
 Jordan,  in  pursuit  of  his  father.  The  king  hearing  of 
 the  approach  of  his  rebel  son,  and  foreseeing  that  a 
 battle  was  unavoidable,  divided  his  army  into  three 
 bodies.  The  first  to  be  commanded  by  Joab,  the  second 
 by  his  brother  Abishai,  and  the  third  by  /  Ittai  the  Gittite, 
 
 is  founded  on  this  maxim,  "  That  we  should  not  drive  an  enemy 
 to  despair,  nor  attack  those  who  are  resolved  to  sell  their  lives  at 
 as  dear  a  rate  as  possible." — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  benefits  which  Hushai  suggests,  from  Absalom's  having 
 a  large  army,  are  thus  expressed  in  an  hyperbolical  way,  suitable 
 to  the  genius  of  that  insolent  young  man,  to  whom  he  gave  his 
 advice ;  and  therefore  more  likely  to  prevail  with  him ;  '  Moreover 
 if  he  be  gotten  into  a  city,  then  shall  all  Israel  bring  ropes  to  that 
 city,  and  we  will  draw  it  into  the  river,  until  there  be  not  one 
 small  stone  found  there,'  (2  Sam.  xvii.  13.)  Where  his  meaning 
 is,  that  if  David  should  quit  the  open  field,  and  betake  himself  to 
 the  strongest  of  their  cities,  encompassed  with  high  walls  and 
 deep  ditches,  such  a  numerous  army,  as  he  proposed,  would  be 
 sufficient  to  begirt  it  round,  and  by  ropes  put  about  the  walls, 
 draw  them  down,  and  all  the  houses  of  the  city,  into  the  ditch 
 that  ran  about  it:  not  that  any  such  practices  were  ever  used  in 
 war,  and  therefore  the  words  must  be  looked  upon  as  merely 
 tluasonical,  and  calculated  to  please  Absalom ;  unless  we  will  say 
 with  some,  that  the  word  in  the  original  may  denote  such  ma- 
 chines as  are  worked  by  ropes,  and  were  at  that  time  in  use  to 
 batter  down  walls.  — Calmet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  Josephus  thus  relates  the  matter: — "When  Ahithophel  was 
 come  home  to  Galmon,  he  called  his  family  together,  and  told 
 them  the  advice  which  he  had  given  Absalom,  but  that  he 
 would  not  follow  it ;  and  that  in  a  short  time  that  refusal  would 
 be  his  ruin :  for  David  would  certainly  baffle  him,  and  soon 
 recover  his  kingdom.  "  Now  it  is  more  honourable  for  me,"  says 
 he,  "  to  die  asserting  my  liberty  like  a  man,  than  to  wait  sneak- 
 ing till  David  comes  in  again,  and  to  be  slain  at  last  for  the 
 services  I  have  done  the  son  against  the  father." — Jewish  Anti- 
 quities, b.  7.  c.  9. 
 
 /In  2  Sam.  xv.  18.  we  read,  that  'all  theGittites,  six  hundred 
 men,  which  came  after  him,'  namely,  David,  '  from  Gath,  passed 
 on  before  the  king;'  but  who  these  Gittites  were,  it  is  hard  to  de- 
 termine ;  because  we  have  no  mention  made  of  them  in  any  other 
 part  of  Scripture.  Some  imagine  that  they  were  natives  of  Gath, 
 who,  taken  with  the  fame  of  David's  piety,  aud  happy  success, 
 
Skoi.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 491 
 
 A.  M.2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 and  himself  intended  to  go  in  person  with  them.  But  by 
 the  importunity  of  the  people  about  him,  he  was  prevailed 
 with  not  to  hazard  his  person  in  battle  ;  and  perhaps  was 
 more  easily  dissuaded  from  it,  because  the  battle  was  to 
 be  against  a  son,  for  whom  he  still  retained  so  tender  an 
 affection,  that  he  gave  the  three  generals  a  strict  charge, 
 in  the  hearing  of  the  soldiers,  that  for  his  sake,  they 
 should  use  Absalom  kindly,  in  case  he  should  fall  into 
 their  hands. 
 
 The  two  armies  met  in  the  a  wood  of  Ephraim,  which 
 belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Manasseh,  where  Absalom's 
 army,  though  much  superior  in  number,  was  defeated, 
 and  put  to  flight :  for  the  loyalists,  upon  this  occasion, 
 behaved  so  gallantly,  that  they  killed  *  twenty  thousand 
 of  the  rebels  upon  the  spot,  and  would  doubtless  have 
 carried  the  slaughter  farther,  had  not  Absalom,  the  chief 
 cause  of  all  this  mischief,  been  taken  and  slain. 
 
 His  hair,  as  we  said  before,  was  of  a  prodigious  length 
 and  largeness ;  and  as  he  was  now  in  flight  from  the 
 enemy,  and  riding  with  great  speed  under  the  trees,  it 
 happened  to  c  entangle  itself  on  one  of  the  boughs  in 
 
 came  along  with  Ittai,  whom  the  Jews  suppose  to  have  been  the 
 son  of  Achish,  king  of  Gath,  and  being  proselyted  to  the  Jewish 
 religion,  became  a  part  of  David's  guard,  and  attended  him  in 
 his  wars.  But  others  rather  think,  that  they  were  men  of  Jewish 
 extract,  but  had  this  additional  name,  from  their  flying  unto 
 David,  probably  under  the  conduct  of  Ittai,  while  he  was  at 
 Gath,  and  accompanying  him  ever  after,  not  only  in  the  time 
 of  Saul's  persecution  of  him,  but  even  after  his  accession  to  the 
 united  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  This  wood  was  so  called,  as  some  imagine,  because  the  Eph- 
 raimites  were  wont  to  drive  their  cattle  over  Jordan  to  feed 
 them  in  it;  but  others  with  more  probability,  suppose,  that  it 
 had  its  name  from  the  great  slaughter  (related  in  Jud.  xii.)  which 
 Jephthah  had  formerly  made  of  the  Ephraimites  in  that  place. — 
 Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 b  The  expression  in  the  text  is,  '  The  wood  devoured  more 
 people  that  day,  than  the  sword  devoured,'  (2  Sam.  xviii.  8.) 
 which  some  think  was  occasioned  by  their  falling  into  pits,  pres- 
 siug  one  another  to  death  in  strait  places,  creeping  into  lurking 
 holes,  and  there  being  starved  to  death,  or  otherwise  devoured 
 by  wild  beasts,  which  met  them  in  their  flight:  but  the  most 
 easy  and  simple  meaning  of  the  passage  is,  that  there  were  more 
 slain  in  the  wood  than  in  the  field  of  battle.  The  field  of  battle, 
 (as  Josephus  tells  us,  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  9.)  was  a  plain, 
 with  a  wood  contiguous  to  it ;  and  therefore,  when  Absalom's 
 army  was  put  to  the  rout,  and  betook  themselves  to  the  wood 
 for  refuge,  their  pursuers  made  a  greater  slaughter  of  them  there, 
 than  they  otherwise  would  have  done,  because  they  could  not  run 
 away  so  fast  in  the  wood,  as  they  might  have  done  in  the  open 
 field. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text,  indeed,  make  no  mention  of  Absa- 
 lom's hair  in  this  place.  They  only  inform  us,  that  '  Absalom 
 rude  upon  a  mule,  and  the  mule  went  under  the  thick  boughs  of 
 a  great  oak,  and  his  head  caught  hold  of  the  oak,  and  he  was 
 taken  up  between  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  and  the  mule,  that 
 was  under  him,  went  away,'  (2  Sam.  xviii.  9.)  From  whence 
 some  infer,  that  the  meaning  of  the  historian  is,  not  that  Ab- 
 salom hung  by  his  hair,  but  that  his  neck  was  so  wedged  between 
 the  boughs,  by  the  swift  motion  of  the  mule,  that  he  was  not 
 able  to  disengage  himself.  For  it  is  hardly  to  be  questioned, 
 say  they,  but  that  when  he  went  to  battle,  he  had  an  helmet  on; 
 and  an  helmet,  which  covered  his  head,  would  have  hindered  his 
 hair  from  being  entangled  in  the  boughs:  but  it  is  only  supposing, 
 either  that  his  helmet  was  such,  as  left  a  great  deal  of  his  hair 
 visible  and  uncovered,  or  that,  if  it  was  large  enough  to  enclose 
 the  whole,  he  might,  upon  this  occasion,  throw  it  on",  as  well  as 
 his  other  heavy  armour,  to  make  himself  lighter,  and  expedite 
 his  flight;  and  then  there  will  be  no  incongruity  in  the  common 
 end  received  opinion,  to  which  the  authority  of  Josephus  adds 
 some  confirmation,  namely,  "  That  as  Absalom  was  making  his 
 escape,  upon  the  whiflling  of  the  air,  a  snagged  hough  of  a  tree 
 took  hold  of  his  hair,  and  the  mule,  running  forward  from  under 
 him,  leit  him  dangling  in  the  air." — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  9. 
 
 such  a  manner,  that  it  lifted  him  off  his  saddle,  and  his 
 mule,  running  from  under  him,  left  him  there  hanging  in 
 the  air,  and  unable  to  disengage  himself. 
 
 In  this  condition  a  private  soldier  found  him,  and  told 
 it  unto  Joab,  who  blamed  him  for  not  having  killed  him : 
 and  when  the  man  in  excuse  urged  the  command  which 
 he  heard  the  king  give  the  generals,  to  be  very  tender 
 and  careful  of  his  son's  life,  Joab,  looking  upon  all  this 
 as  nothing,  or  as  a  command  fitter  for  a  parent  than  a 
 king,  went  to  the  place  where  he  was  d  hanging,  and 
 having  first  given  him  his  death's  wound  himself,  ordered 
 the  people,  which  were  by,  to  despatch  him ;  and  so 
 went  and  sounded  a  retreat,  to  prevent  any  farther  effu- 
 sion of  blood,  and  to  give  Absalom's  party  an  oppor- 
 tunity of  escaping  to  their  respective  homes. 
 
 Thus  died  the  wicked  and  rebellious  Absalom,  and 
 instead  of  an  honourable  interment,  fit  for  a  king's  son, 
 his  body  was  taken  down,  and  thrown  into  a  pit,  and 
 covered  with  an  e  heap  of  stones. 
 
 CHAP.   II. — Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 David,  no  doubt,  was  a  very  fond  father  to  his  children, 
 and  a  tender  husband  to  his  wives  :  of  these,  it  must  be 
 owned,  he  had  too  many,  eighteen  in  number,  if  we  will 
 reckon  his  concubines  into  that  relation,  which,  in  those 
 days  did  not  much  differ  from  the  other,  except  in  some 
 rites  and  solemnities  o"f  marriage.      But  as  polygamy 
 
 d  Commentators  have  observed  the  justice  of  God,  in  bringing 
 Absalom  to  a  condign  punishment,  and  such  a  kind  of  death,  as 
 was  ordained  by  the  law  for  offences,  like  unto  his.  For  whereas, 
 in  the  first  place,  he  was  hanged  as  it  were,  this  was  declared  by 
 the  law  to  be  an  accursed  death,  (Deut.  xxi.  23.)  and  was  after- 
 wards, in  some  measure,  stoned ;  this  was  the  particular  kind  of 
 death  that  the  law  prescribed  for  a  stubborn  and  rebellious  son. — 
 Deut.  xxi.  21. 
 
 e  In  the  description  of  the  Holy  Land,  some  geographers  tell 
 us,  that  this  heap  of  stones  remained  even  to  their  days,  and  that 
 all  travellers,  as  they  passed  by  it,  were  wont  to  throw  a  stone 
 to  add  to  the  heap,  in  detestation  of  his  rebellion  against  his  la- 
 ther. For  though  it  became  a  custom  among  the  Greeks,  to  raise 
 an  heap  of  stones  in  the  place  where  any  great  person  was  in- 
 terred, as  a  monument  of  honour  and  respect;  yet  it  is  plain, 
 that  none  of  David's  army  intended  any  honour  to  Absalom's 
 memory  in  accumulating  stones  upon  him;  nor  can  wc  think, 
 that  David  himself,  though  too  foud  of  this  rebel  son,  made  any 
 alteration  afterwards  in  the  form  o^his  burial,  for  fear  of  enraging 
 the  people  against  him.  Somc,^pkver,  are  of  a  quite  contrary 
 opinion,  namely,  that  David,  w^Mmicntcd  him  with  such  ex- 
 cess, removed  him  from  this  pit,  in  order  to  have  him  laid  iu 
 the  sepulchre"  belonging  to  the  I.in^sflfcr  perhaps  somewhere 
 about  the  place  where  the  monument  £^P>  g'",s  under  his  name, 
 and  even  to  this  day,  is  shown  to  traveflPs,  was  dug  in  a  rock. 
 It  is  a  little  chamber  wrought  with  a  chisel,  out  of  one  piece  of 
 rock,  which  stands  at  some  distance  from  the  rest  of  the  moun- 
 tain, and  is  a  square  of  eight  paces  from  out  to  out.  The  inside 
 of  this  chamber  is  all  plain,  but  the  outside  is  adorned  with  Bome 
 pilasters  of  the  same  kind  of  stone.  The  upper  part,  or  covering, 
 is  made  in  the  form  of  a  conic,  pyramid,  pretty  high  and  large, 
 with  a  kind  of  flowerpot  on  its  top.  The  pyramid  is  composed 
 of  several  stones,  but  the  monument  itself  is  square,  and  all  cut 
 out  of  one  block.  In  the  time  of  Josephus,  the  monument,  which 
 was  said  to  be  Absalom's,  was  nothing  more  than  one  marble 
 pillar,  widely  diffennt  from  what,  at  present,  goes  under  his 
 name;  and  which  therefore  must  be  accounted  a  more  modern 
 building. — Le  Clerc's  and  Patrick's  Conunentariis;  Jewish  An- 
 tiquities, b.  ?.  C.  9;  and  Caimet't  Dictionary,  under  the  word 
 Absalom. 
 
492 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2049.   A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 was  then  tolerated  among- the  Jews,  '  and  the  prohibition  ; 
 of  a  king's  multiplying  wives  to  himself  does  nowhere 
 limit  the  number  of  them,  David  might  conceive,  that  this 
 polygamy  was  no  transgression  of  the  law,  and  thence 
 be  induced  more  readily  to  comply  with  it,  in  order  to 
 enlarge  his  family,  and  attach  the  principal  nobility,  of 
 his  own  nation,  as  well  as  some  foreign  potentates,  more 
 closely  to  his  interest.  2  For  it  was  always  looked  upon 
 as  a  piece  of  political  wisdom  in  princes,  to  endeavour 
 to  have  many  children,  that  by  matching-  them  into  sev- 
 eral powerful  families,  they  might  have  more  supporters 
 of  their  authority,  and  more  assistance,  in  case  of  any 
 invasion  of  it. 
 
 This  however  is  no  part  of  David's  commendation, 
 how  much  soever  it  might  tend  to  his  security  ;  but  that 
 a  father  should  be  fond  of  a  son,  and  in  some  instances 
 carry  that  fondness  to  excess  ;  that  he  should  be  blind 
 to  his  lesser  faults,  and  always  inclinable,  upon  proper 
 tokens  of  repentance  to  forgive  the  g-reater ;  that  he 
 should  love  to  see  every  thing-  look  gay  and  handsome 
 about  him,  be  liberal  to  his  decent  expenses,  and  ready 
 to  overlook  some  little  extravagancies ;  that  he  should 
 be  uneasy  in  his  absence,  joyous  to  see  him,  and  when 
 he  is  in  any  imminent  danger,  very  solicitous  for  his 
 preservation,  which  are  all  the  articles  brought  against 
 David  in  relation  to  his  son  Absalom,  These  are  faults, 
 if  faults  they  be,  which  every  good-natured  parent,  who 
 feels  the  tender  propensities  of  human  nature  towards 
 those  of  his  own  flesh,  will  easily  be  induced  to  forgive  : 
 and  well  were  it  for  David,  if  we  could  make  the  like 
 apology  for  that  great  enormity  of  his,  in  the  matter  of 
 Uriah  ;  but  a  instead  of  attempting  any  extenuation  of 
 it,  we  shall  rather  take  notice  of  the  several  aggravations 
 which  moralists  have  discovered  in  it,  and  of  the  reasons 
 for  which  the  Spirit  of  God  thought  proper  to  record  it 
 in  holy  writ. 
 
 To  this  purpose,  some  have  observed,  1st,  That  3  as 
 '  David  tarried  at  Jerusalem  at  the  time  when  kings 
 went  forth  to  battle,  he  there  indulged  himself  in  ease 
 and  luxury,  which  are  the  bane  and  rust  of  the  mind, 
 and  so  insensibly  fell  into  those  loose  desires  which 
 drew  him  into  such  vile  perpetrations ;  so  that  the  first 
 cause  of  his  sin  was  idleness.  2d,  They  observe  it  as 
 an  aggravation  of  his  crime,  4  that  he  certainly  knew  that 
 Bathsheba  Mas  another  man's  wife,  and  yet  deliberately 
 and  advisedly  committed  the  sin  ;  nay,  that  she  was  the 
 wife  of  one  who  was  a  proselyte  to  the  Jewish  religion, 
 and  therefore  added  scandal  to  his  wickedness,  or,  as 
 the  text  expresses  it,  5*gave  g-reat  occasion  to  the 
 enemies  of  the  Lordto  blaspheme.'  3d,  They  observe 
 that  there  was  perfi^f  added  to  this  guilt,  and  a  sinful 
 
 1  Deut.  xvii.  17.      "Patrick's  Commentary  on  2  Sam.  v.  13. 
 
 *  2  Sam.  xi.  1.  *  2  Sam.  xi.  1.  5  2  Sam.  xii.  14. 
 
 <*  But  contrary  to  this,  the  Jewish  writers  have  endeavoured  to 
 justify  David  in  this  whole  transaction;  and  to  this  purpose  have 
 invented  laws  and  customs,  that  are  nowhere  to  be  found,  either 
 in  the  books  of  Moses,  or  in  the  compass  of  their  history.  They 
 pretend  that  David  was  married  to  Bathsheba  before  her  husband 
 was  dead,  because  it  was  a  custom,  as  they  say,  for  soldiers, 
 whenever  they  went  to  the  wars,  to  give  their  wives  a  bill  of 
 divorcement,  and  consequently  a  full  license  to  marry  whom  they 
 pleased.  But  it  is  vain  to  attempt  to  excuse  this  black  and 
 crying  sin  in  David,  for  which  God  so  severely  punished  him, 
 and  for  which  he  himself  was  always  ready  to  acknowledge  the 
 divine  justice  in  so  doing.—  Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Sam. 
 xi.  27. 
 
 contrivance,  6in  causing  Uriah  to  be  sent  for  home ;  in 
 receiving  him  with  great  tokens  of  his  favour,  and  en- 
 tertaining him  with  good  cheer,  that  he  might  be  the 
 more  desirous  to  enjoy  the  company  of  his  wife,  and  so 
 have  the  child,  which  was  got  in  adultery,  reputed  his 
 own.  4th,  They  observe,  7  from  Uriah's  answer,  that 
 had  not  David's  heart  been  seared,  he  could  not  but 
 have  felt  a  strong  remorse,  upon  thinking  how  he  had 
 abused  so  brave  a  man,  and  how  he  indulged  himself  in 
 sinful  pleasures,  while  this  man,  and  the  rest  of  his  army, 
 gloriously  endured  all  maimer  of  hardships,  for  the  ser- 
 vice of  their  country.  5th,  They  observe,  8  from  his 
 design  upon  Uriah's  life,  when  he  could  not  otherwise 
 conceal  his  lewdness,  how  naturally  one  sin  paves  the 
 way  to  another,  and  how,  in  a  small  compass  of  time, 
 the  fascination  of  sensual  appetites  is  enough  to  change 
 the  very  nature  of  mankind  ;  since  even  he,  who  formerly 
 spared  Saul,  unjustly  seeking  his  life,  is  now  put  upon 
 contriving  the  death  of  a  very  faithful  servant,  in  a  very 
 base  and  unworthy  manner.  6th,  They  observe  it,  as  a 
 farther  aggravation  of  his  crime  of  murder,  that  he  not 
 only  exposed  an  innocent  and  faithful  servant  to  be 
 killed,  but  that,  together  with  him,  9  several  more  brave 
 men,  set  in  the  front  of  the  battle,  where  the  service  was 
 hottest,  must  necessarily  have  fallen  in  the  attack ;  so 
 blind  was  he  to  the  public  good,  and  so  prodigal  of  his 
 subjects'  lives,  if  he  might  but  cover  his  guilt,  and  gratify 
 his  lust.  7th,  They  observe  10from  his  answer  to  the 
 messengers  sent  by  Joab  to  acquaint  him  with  Uriah's 
 death,  namely,  '  the  sword  devoureth  one  as  well  as 
 another,'  the  vile  hypocrisy  and  obdurateness  of  his 
 heart,  imputing  that  to  the  chance  of  war,  or  rather  to 
 the  direction  of  divine  providence,  which  his  conscience 
 could  not  but  tell  him  was  of  his  own  contrivance.  8th, 
 and  lastly,  they  observe,  "  from  his  marriage  with  Bath- 
 sheba, even  before  her  husband  was  cold  in  his  grave, 
 how  the  eagerness  of  his  indulged  appetite  had  now  ex- 
 tinguished, what  in  some  sinners  is  last  of  all  parted 
 with,  and  for  which  he  himself  had  lately  imbrued  his 
 hands  in  blood,  all  sense  of  shame,  and  regard  to  repu- 
 tation or  decency. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  aggravations  observable  in 
 David's  crime,  which  besides  his  lust  and  cruelty,  is 
 loaded  with  too  just  an  imputation  of  perfidy,  of  ingra- 
 titude, of  hypocrisy,  of  deliberation,  of  obstinacy,  and 
 of  shamelessness  in  sin.  And  for  these  purposes  were 
 they  recorded  in  Scripture,  that  they  might  teach  us  the 
 frailty  of  human  nature,  and  how  liable  the  best  of  men 
 are,  in  some  instances  of  their  lives,  to  be  overtaken 
 with  very  gross  faults :  that  they  might  show  us  the 
 natural  gradation  of  one  sin  to  another,  and  that,  when 
 once  we  have  suffered  our  appetites  to  break  loose  from 
 the  restraints  of  duty,  in  a  short  time  it  will  not  be  in  our 
 power  to  set  bounds  to  them,  however  much  we  may  be 
 inclined  to  do  so :  that  they  might  caution  us  against 
 sloth  and  idleness,  against  indulging  any  inordinate 
 passion,  or  gazing  upon  any  objects  that  may  endan- 
 ger our  innocence :  that  they  might  remind  us  all  how 
 much  we  stand  in  need  continually  of  the  divine  as- 
 sistance, and  therefore  how  much  we  are  concerned  to 
 pray  with  all  prayer  and  supplication,  and  to  watch,  as 
 
 6  2  Sam.  xi.  6,  &e.         '  2  Sam.  xi.  1 1.         8  2  Sam.  xi.  15. 
 3  2  Sam.  xi.  15.  10  2  Sam.  xi.  25  "  2  Sam.  xi.  27. 
 
Sect.  IV.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2   SAM.  i-xix. 
 
 493 
 
 well  as  pray,  that  we  fall  into  no  temptation.  And, 
 lastly,  that  they  might  inculcate  that  excellent  precept 
 which  the  apostle  has  laid  down  in  these  words  :  ! '  Breth- 
 ren, if  any  man  be  overtaken  in  a  fault,  ye  that  are 
 spiritual,  restore  such  an  one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness, 
 considering  thyself,  lest  thou  also  be  tempted.' 
 
 One  pernicious  consequence  of  David's  transgression 
 very  likely  was,  that  it  made  him  timorous  in  inflicting 
 punishments  upon  others  ;  but  the  reason  which  Josephus 
 assigns  for  his  not  chastising  Amnon  for  his  incestuous 
 rape,  namely, '  because  he  was  his  eldest  son,  and  he 
 loved  him,  and  would  not  displease  him,'  is  a  groundless 
 calumny,  and  mere  fiction  ;  for,  3  since  the  sacred  his- 
 tory has  thought  fit  to  be  silent  in  this  matter,  no  one 
 can  tell  what  his  father  either  said  or  did  to  him :  the 
 true  reason,  therefore,  as  we  suppose,  why  his  father  did 
 not  proceed  with  severity  against  him,  was,  because  the 
 case,  as  it  then  stood,  was  intricate  and  perplexed,  and 
 such  as  the  law  had  made  no  provision  for.  The  law  con- 
 cerning rapes  is  worded  thus  : — 3  "  If  a  damsel,  that  is 
 a  virgin  be  betrothed  unto  a  husband,  and  a  man  find  her 
 in  the  city,  and  lie  with  her  ;  then  ye  shall  bring  them  both 
 out  of  the  gate  of  the  city,  and  ye  shall  stone  them  with 
 stones  that  they  die  :  the  damsel,  because  she  cried  not, 
 being  in  the  city  ;  and  the  man,  because  he  humbled  his 
 neighbour's  wife.'  And  again,  '  If  a  man  find  a  dam- 
 sel that  is  a  virgin,  which  is  not  betrothed,  and  lay  hold 
 on  her,  and  lie  with  her,  and  they  be  found,  then  the  man 
 that  lay  with  her,  shall  give  unto  the  damsel's  father  fifty 
 shekels  of  silver,  and  she  shall  be  his  wife,  because  he 
 hath  humbled  her  ;  he  may  not  put  her  away  all  his  days.' 
 These  are  the  two  principal  laws  concerning  this  matter, 
 but  neither  come  up  to  the  case  now  before  us.  For  had 
 David  punished  Amnon's  crime  with  death,  as  the  former 
 law  requires,  Tamar  in  like  manner  must  have  suffered 
 too,  even  though  she  was  innocent,  because  she  cried  not 
 out ;  a  and  though  she  was  not  a  betrothed  damsel,  as 
 the  case  is  put  in  the  latter  law,  yet  David  could  not 
 compel  Amtion  to  marry  her,  because  such  a  marriage 
 would  have  been  incestuous  ;  and  therefore  we  may  sup- 
 pose, that  though  David  might  reprimand  his  son  very 
 severely,  for  having  wrought  folly  in  Israel ;  yet  he 
 could  not  bring  him  before  a  public  judicature,  because 
 the  law  did  not  properly  extend  to  his  case,  or  if  he  had 
 made  it  extend,  the  innocent  must  have  suffered  with  the 
 guilty  ;  and  *  a  rule  of  equity,  I  think  it  is,  rather  to  let 
 the  guilty  escape,  than  that  the  innocent  and  injured 
 should  be  destroyed. 
 
 The  sacred  historian  has  taken  care  to  clear  David 
 from  any  base  connivance  at  Absalom's  wickedness  in 
 murdering  his  brother  Amnon,  by  telling  us,  that  as  soon 
 as  he  had  done  it,  5  '  he  fled,  and  went  to  Talmai,'  his 
 grandfather,  by  his  mother's  side,  who  was  then  king  of 
 Geshur.  Geshur  was  a  city  in  Syria,  which  lay  on  the 
 other  side  of  Jordan  ;  and  Absalom,  who  meditated  the 
 murder  of  his  brother,  and  could  not  but  foresee  that  it 
 would  be  an  act  of  high  displeasure  to  his  father,  invited 
 the  princes  of  the  blood  to  his  country  seat,  which  was  6 
 near  the  city  Ephraim,  not  far  from  the  river  Jordan, 
 
 1  Gal.  vi.  1.       •  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  2  Sam.  xiii.  21. 
 *  Dent.  xxii.  23,  &c.        •  History  of  the  Lite  of  King  David. 
 J2  Sam.  xiii.  37.         6  2  Sam.  xiii.  23.    See  John  xi.  54. 
 a  It  is  not  said  that  she  cried  not,  the  probability  is,  that  she 
 did,  though  she  was  not  heard. — Bishop  Glcirj. — Ed. 
 
 that  he  might  have  a  better  opportunity,  not  only  for 
 putting  in  execution  his  wicked  design,  but  of  making 
 his  escape  likewise ;  so  that  David,  had  he  been  ever 
 so  much  minded,  could  not  possibly  have  apprehended 
 him,  before  he  had  got  to  a  safe  retreat :  and  where,  it 
 is  easy  to  imagine,  he  woidd  tell  his  tale  so  well,  as  to 
 gain  his  grandfather's  protection,  if  not  approbation  of 
 the  fact,  which,  with  a  small  share  of  eloquence,  might 
 be  so  set  off,  as  to  appear  a  necessary  vindication  of  the 
 honour  of  their  family,  which  had  been  so  grossly  violated. 
 
 The  law  of  God  indeed  is  very  express  : — 7  '  Whoso- 
 ever sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be 
 shed ;  8  neither  shall  he  take  any  satisfaction  for  the 
 life  of  a  murderer,  who  is  guilty  of  death,  but  he  shall 
 surely  be  put  to  death.'  Whereby  it  appears,  that  the 
 supreme  magistrate  was  obliged  to  execute  justice  upon 
 all  wilful  murderers,  without  any  reservation ;  nor  had 
 David  any  power  to  dispense  with  God's  laws,  or  to 
 spare  those  whom  he  had  commanded  him  to  destroy. 
 But  then  it  must  be  considered,  that  the  affront  which 
 Amnon  put  upon  Absalom,  was  very  great  and  heinous  ; 
 that  Absalom,  at  this  time,  was  out  of  the  reach  of  Da- 
 vid's justice,  and  so  would  have  continued,  had  he  not 
 obtained  a  promise  of  impunity  ;  that,  by  living  an  exile 
 in  a  heathenish  country,  David  had  reason  to  appre- 
 hend, that  his  son  was  in  danger  of  being  infected  with 
 their  wicked  and  idolatrous  practices,  and  was  therefore 
 the  rather  inclined  to  recall  him  ;  and  that  the  clamours 
 and  importunities  of  the  people,  which  Joab  procured 
 this  woman  of  Tekoah  to  represent  to  the  king  in  a  very 
 free  and  artful  manner,  did  almost  compel  him  to  do  it : 
 for,  what  he  said  in  the  case  of  Joab's  murder  of  Abner, 
 namely,  that  he  could  not  revenge  it,  because  9  '  the  sons 
 of  Zeruiah,  were  too  hard  for  him  ;'  the  like,  very  pro- 
 bably, might  have  been  said  in  this  case,  where  the 
 people's  hearts  were  so  strongly,  and  so  universally,  set 
 upon  Absalom ;  and  that  the  rather,  because  his  long 
 banishment  moved  their  pity,  and  his  absence  made  them 
 more  impatient  for  his  return.  The  eyes  of  all,  in  short, 
 were  upon  him,  as  the  next  heir,  as  a  wise  and  gallant, 
 and  amiable  prince,  unhappy  only  in  this  instance  of 
 killing  Amnon,  for  which  he  had  a  sufficient  provoca- 
 tion ;  and  therefore,  to  satisfy  the  cries  of  the  people, 
 as  well  as  to  provide  for  the  security  of  his  kingdom, 
 which  seemed  to  depend  on  the  establishment  of  the  suc- 
 cession in  Absalom,  David  was  obliged  to  forgive  him, 
 and  recall  him.  And  when  he  was  recalled,  and  rein- 
 stated in  the  king's  favour,  it  is  no  wonder  that  a  young- 
 prince,  of  his  gay  temper,  should  multiply  his  attendants, 
 and  set  up  a  rich  equipage,  to  attract  the  eyes  and 
 admiration  of  mankind  ;  or  that  hiiather,  whose  riches 
 so  well  enabled  him  to  bear  the  expose  of  this  magnifi- 
 cence, and  whose  heart  rejoiced,  perhaps,  to  see  his  son 
 the  favourite  of  the  people,  did  not  restrain  him  in  it ; 
 because  a  man  of  an  open  spirit  himself  loves  to  see  his 
 children  make  a  figure  in  life,  which,  in  all  eastern 
 countries,  was  a  thing  customary,  and  might  here  more 
 especially  be  expected  in  the  eldest  and  heir  presump- 
 tive to  the  crown. 
 
 10  Some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  tell  us,  that  how  indul- 
 gent soever  David  might  be  to  his  son  Absalom,  he  never 
 
 G.  "  Num.  xxxv.  31. 
 
 10  Poole's  Annotations  on  2  Sam 
 
 9  2  Sam. 
 xv.  7. 
 
 iii.  39. 
 
494 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  .— xix. 
 
 intended  him  for  his  successor  in  the  kingdom  ;  that  he 
 had  all  along  made  a  promise  to  Bathsheba,  his  favourite 
 queen,  which  promise,  though  '  recorded  later  in  the 
 history,  might  at  first  come  to  Absalom's  ear,  that  her 
 son  Solomon  should  succeed  in  the  regal  dignity ;  and 
 that  Absalom,  both  from  a  consciousness  of  his  own 
 demerits,  and  of  the  superiority  of  wisdom  and  piety  that 
 appeared  in  Solomon,  perceiving  that  his  father  intended 
 to  postpone  him,  and  instate  the  other,  entered  into  this 
 rebellion,  in  order  to  assert  his  birthright  to  the  crown. 
 But  the  fault  in  David  was  not  any  exclusion  of  right, 
 but  too  blind  an  indulgence  to  his  son,  even  while  he 
 was  in  arms  against  him,  ready  to  kill,  and  resolved  to 
 depose  him.  '  Spare  ye  the  young  man,'  says  he,  and 
 this  he  might  desire,  partly  from  a  consciousness  of  his 
 own  sin  in  the  case  of  Uriah,  which  was  the  meritorious 
 and  procuring  cause  of  the  rebellion,  in  which  his  son 
 was  unhappily  engaged ;  partly  from  a  consideration  of 
 his  youth,  which  is  commonly  foolish  and  giddy,  and 
 subject  to  evil  counsels,  and  therefore  deserves  pity  ; 
 and  partly  from  a  sense  of  piety  in  himself,  as  being 
 unwilling  that  he  should  be  cut  off  in  a  sinful  rebellion, 
 without  any  space  or  means  of  repentance. 
 
 These  might  be  some  of  the  reasons  that  made  David 
 give  his  army  so  strict  a  charge  not  to  kill  his  son,  in 
 case  they  should  take  him.  But  Joab  had  quite  different 
 sentiments  of  the  matter.  He  perceived,  that  there 
 could  be  no  safety  to  the  king,  nor  peace  to  the  kingdom, 
 no  security  to  himself,  or  other  loyal  subjects,  as  long 
 as  Absalom  lived ;  that,  notwithstanding  this  unnatural 
 rebellion,  the  king  was  still  inclinable  to  forgive  him, 
 and  that  there  would  always  be  some  unquiet  people, 
 that  would  be  moving  fresh  disturbances,  in  order  to  set 
 him  on  the  throne.  Looking  upon  this  charge,  there- 
 fore, as  an  order  more  proper  for  a  parent  than  a  prince, 
 he  adventured  to  disobey  it.  For  he  thought  with  him- 
 self, 2  that  the  king  ought  not  to  be  observed  in  an  affair, 
 wherein  he  showed  more  regard  to  his  private  passion, 
 than  to  the  public  good ;  that  fathers  should  always 
 sacrifice  their  paternal  tenderness  to  the  interest  of  the 
 government ;  and  that  as  Absalom  had  forfeited  his  life 
 to  the  laws  upon  several  accounts,  it  was  but  justice 
 now  to  take  this  opportunity  of  despatching  him,  as  an 
 enemy  to  his  king  and  country :  but  whether,  in  this 
 act  of  disobedience  to  the  royal  command,  Joab  is  per- 
 fectly to  be  vindicated,  we  shall  not  pretend  to  deter- 
 mine. It  is  certain  that  he  was  a  person  of  a  bold 
 temper,  high  passions,  and  fiery  resentments  ;  that  valued 
 himself  upon  the  services  he  had  done  the  king,  and 
 seemed  not  to  be  much  afraid  of  his  authority. 
 
 The  complaint  which  David  makes  to  some  of  his 
 courtiers,  upon  this*  general's  murdering  the  famous 
 Abner,  declares  the  true  reason  why  he  could  not,  at 
 that  time,  put  the  laws  in  execution  against  him  : 
 s '  Know  ye  not,'  says  he,  '  that  there  is  a  prince,  and  a 
 great  man  fallen  this  day  in  Israel  ?  And  I  am  this  day 
 weak,  though  anointed  king  ;  and  these  men,  the  sons  of 
 Zeruiah,  be  too  hard  for  me.  The  Lord  shall  reward 
 the  doer  of  evil  according  to  his  wickedness.'  Joab 
 was  David's  sister's  son,  or  nephew,  4who  had  stuck 
 close  to  him  in  all  his  adversity,  an  excellent  soldier 
 
 '  1  Kings  i.  30.     *  Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Sam.  xviii.  14. 
 *  2  Sam.  iii.  38.     •  Patrick's  Commentary  on  2  Sam.  iii.  39. 
 
 himself,  and  a  man  of  great  power  and  authority  among 
 the  army ;  so  that  had  David  immediately  called  him  to 
 justice  for  this  vile  act  against  Abner,  such  was  his  in- 
 terest among  the  soldiery,  that  he  soon  would  have 
 caused  a  mutiny  or  revolt,  and  found  a  means  to  shock 
 or  unhinge  the  government  that  was  not  as  yet  suffi- 
 ciently established.  It  was  a  point  of  prudence  there- 
 fore in  David,  to  delay  the  punishment  of  so  powerful 
 and  so  perilous  a  man,  until  a  more  convenient  season, 
 and  only,  for  the  present,  to  express  his  detestation  of 
 the  deed,  by  commending  the  deceased,  condemning 
 the  murder,  and  commanding  the  murderer  by  way  of 
 penance,  to  attend  the  funeral  in  sackcloth,  and  other 
 signs  of  mourning. 
 
 So  far  is  David  from  winking  at  Abner's  murder,  that 
 we  find  him  burying  him  with  great  solemnity,  and  mak- 
 ing mournful  lamentation  over  his  grave ;  praising  his 
 valour,  and  other  great  qualities,  publicly,  and  cursing 
 the  author  of  his  untimely  death.  * '  I ,  and  my  kingdom,' 
 says  he,  '  are  guiltless  before  the  Lord  for  ever  from 
 the  blood  of  Abner  the  son  of  Ner.  Let  it  rest  on  the 
 head  of  Joab,  and  on  all  his  father's  house,  and  let 
 there  not  fail  from  the  house  of  Joab  one  that  hath  an 
 issue,  or  that  is  a  leper,  or  that  leaneth  on  a  staff]  or 
 that  falleth  on  the  sword,  or  that  lacketh  bread.' 
 
 But  what  apology  shall  we  make  for  his  treating  the 
 Ammonites  so  inhumanly,  and  putting  them  to  such  ex- 
 quisite torments,  only  for  a  small  indignity,  which  a 
 young  king,  at  the  instigation  of  some  evil  counsellors, 
 put  upon  his  ambassadors,  since  there  seems  to  be  no 
 proportion  between  the  affront  and  the  revenge,  between 
 the  one's  having  their  beards  and  clothes  cut  a  little 
 shorter,  and  the  other's  being  put  under  saws  and  har- 
 rows, or  thrown  into  hot  burning  furnaces  ?  Had  David 
 indeed  been  the  inventor  of  such  frightful  punishments, 
 we  might  have  justly  reckoned  him  a  man  of  the  same 
 cruel  and  brutal  spirit,  as  was  Caligula,  who,  in  after 
 ages,  as  6  Suetonius  tells  us,  was  wont  to  take  a  great 
 delight  in  inflicting  them.  But  the  truth  is,  that  these 
 were  the  punishments  which  the  Ammonites  inflicted 
 upon  the  Jews,  whenever  they  took  them  prisoners  ;  and 
 therefore  David,  when  he  conquered  their  country,  and 
 reduced  their  capital  city,  used  them  with  the  like 
 cruelty :  not  every  one  of  them  indiscriminately,  but 
 such  only  as  appeared  in  arms  against  him,  and  had 
 either  advised,  or  approved  the  advice  of  putting  such  a 
 disgrace  upon  his  messengers. 
 
 The  Ammonites,  it  is  certain,  were  early  initiated 
 into  all  the  cruelties  of  the  people  of  Canaan.  When 
 they  invested  Jabesh-Gilead,  and  the  besieged  made  an 
 offer  to  surrender,  the  easiest  condition  that  they  would 
 grant  them,  was,  that  they  might 7 '  thrust  out  all  their 
 right  eyes,  and  lay  it  for  a  reproach  upon  Israel  for 
 ever ;'  which  one  instance,  as  I  take  it,  is  in  the  room 
 of  ten  thousand  proofs,  to  demonstrate,  that  these  Am- 
 monites were  monsters  of  barbarity ;  and  that  therefore 
 king  David  was  no  more  culpable  for  retaliating  upon 
 them  the  same  cruelties  that  they  used  to  inflict  on  others, 
 than  the  people  of  Agrigentum  were,  for  burning  Pha- 
 laris  in  his  own  bull,  or  Theseus  the  hero,  for  stretching 
 Procrustes  beyond  the  dimensions  of  his  own  bed.  For 
 even  the  heathen  casuists  have  determined,  that  no  law 
 
 2  Sam.  iii.  28,  29. 
 
 Chap.  27 
 
 '  1  Sam.  xi.  2. 
 
SECT.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 495 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 can  be  more  just  and  equitable,  than  that  which  decreed 
 artists  of  cruelty  to  perish  by  their  own  arts. 
 
 The  particular  punishment  of  passing  through  the 
 brickkilns,  an  ingenious  'author  seems  fairly  to  account 
 for,  by  making  this  conjecture.  "  It  is  very  well  known," 
 says  he,  "  that  the  Jews  were  slaves  in  Egypt,  and  parti- 
 cularly employed  in  brickmaking.  Now  it  is  natural 
 for  all  people  at  enmity,  to  reproach  one  another  with 
 the  meanness  and  baseness  of  their  original.  As  there- 
 fore the  Ammonites  were  a  cruel  and  insolent  enemy, 
 and  nothing  could  be  more  natural  for  men  of  their 
 temper,  when  they  had  got  any  Jews  in  their  power, 
 than  to  cry  out,  send  the  slaves  to  the  brickkilns,  and 
 so  torture  them  to  death ;  so  nothing  could  be  more 
 natural  than  for  the  Jews,  when  they  got  an  advantage 
 over  them,  to  return  them  the  same  treatment."  How- 
 ever this  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  siege  of  Rabbah  began 
 before  David  had  any  criminal  commerce  with  Bath- 
 sheba,  and  if  the  town  was  not  taken  till  after  Solomon's 
 birth,  as  the  sequel  of  his  history  seems  to  imply,  the  siege 
 must  have  lasted  for  about  two  years  ;  in  which  time, 
 upon  the  supposition  that  David  continued  in  an  obdu- 
 rate state  of  sin  and  impenitence,  a  and  was  therefore 
 deprived  of  that  mild  and  merciful  spirit  for  which  he 
 had  formerly  been  so  remarkable  ;  there  is  no  wonder, 
 if,  being  now  become  cruel  and  hardhearted,  as  well  as 
 exasperated  with  the  length  of  the  siege,  he  treated  the 
 Ammonites  in  the  same  outrageous  manner  that  they 
 were  accustomed  to  treat  his  subjects,  not  only  to  retal- 
 iate the  thing  upon  them,  but  to  deter  all  future  ages 
 likewise  from  violating  the  right  of  nations,  by  treating 
 the  persons  of  public  ambassadors  with  contempt. J 
 
 That  the  rights  of  ambassadors  are  guarded  by  all  laws, 
 both  divine  and  human,  and  that  therefore  a  violation  of 
 these  rights  is  not  only  unjust,  but  impious,  is  the  general 
 sentiment  of  all  the  most  able  2  writers  upon  the  laws 
 and  constitutions  of  civil  government.  So  tender  were 
 the  Romans  in  this  particular,  3  that  they  appointed 
 twenty  feciales,  as  they  called  those  officers,  to  inspect 
 
 1  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David. 
 
 2  See  Grotius,  Seklen,  Puffendorti",  &c. 
 
 3  Grotius  on  the  Law  of  War,  b.  2.  c.  18. 
 
 a  This  supposition  cannot  be  admitted.  Nathan  had  made 
 David  sensible  of  his  sin,  and  truly  penitent  even  before  Bath- 
 sJieba  bare  Solomon's  elder  brother. — Bishop  Gleig. — Ed. 
 
 b  This  vindication  of  David  for  his  conduct  towards  the  Am- 
 monites, had  his  treatment  of  them  been  such  as  represented  in 
 the  ordinary  translation  followed  by  our  author,  would  be  by  no 
 means  satisfactory.  Fortunately  the  heavy  charge  urged  against 
 David  from  this  part  of  sacred  history,  needs  no  such  vindication. 
 Dr  A.  Clarke,  on  2  Sam.  xii.  31,  says:—"  I  believe  this  inter- 
 pretation was  chiefly  taken  from  the  parallel  place,  1  Chr.  xx.  3. 
 where  it  is  said,  he  cut  them  with  saws  and  with  axes,  &c. 
 Instead  of  W)  vaiyasar,  he  sawed,  we  have  here  (in  Samuel 
 OW  vaiyascm,  he  put  them;  and  these  two  words  differ  from  each 
 other  only  in  a  part  of  a  single  letter  1  resh,  for  D  mem.  And  it 
 is  worthy  of  remark  that  in  1  Chr.  xx.  3,  six  or  seven  MSS. 
 collated  by  Dr  Kennicott,  have  Dt"0  vaiyasem,  he  put  them. 
 Nor  is  there  found  any  various  reading  in  all  the  MSS.  yet 
 collated  for  the  text  in  this  chapter,  that  favours  the  common 
 reading  in  Chronicles.  The  meaning  therefore  is,  he  made  the 
 people  slaves,  and  employed  them  in  sawing,  making  iron  harrows, 
 or  mining,  (for  the  word  means  both)  and  in  hewing  of  wood, 
 and  making  of  brick.  Sawing  asunder,  hacking,  chopping,  and 
 hewing  human  beings,  have  any  place  in  this  text,  any  more  than 
 they  had  in  David's  conduct  towards  the  Ammonites.  See  also 
 Boothroyd  on  the  passage,  and  the  supplement  on  the  objections  to 
 the  credibility  of  the  Old  Testament,  p.  393  of  this  edition Ed. 
 
 their  good  usage,  and  preserve  their  immunities  ;  to  make 
 them  immediate  reparation,  when  any  injury  was  done 
 them  ;  and,  in  case  of  a  personal  affront  or  indignity,  to 
 deliver  up  the  offender,  even  though  he  were  a  noble  or 
 a  patrician  by  birth,  into  the  hands  of  the  nation  from 
 whence  the  ambassador  came,  to  be  treated  by  them  as 
 they  thought  fit.  And  therefore,  we  need  less  wonder, 
 that  king  David,  who,  in  all  his  actions,  was  a  nice 
 observer  of  every  punctilio  in  public  honour,  should  re- 
 sent in  so  high  a  manner  an  indignity,  the  greatest  that 
 could  be  offered,  put  upon  his  ministers,  and  from  them 
 reflecting  upon  his  own  majesty,  merely  for  sending  a 
 kind  compliment  of  condolence  to  a  foolish  prince,  as 
 he  proved,  upon  the  death  of  a  very  worthy  father. 
 
 A  man  so  zealous  for  his  own  honour,  as  well  as  for 
 the  rights  of  nations,  in  his  public  capacity,  can  hardly 
 be  presumed  to  be  an  abettor  of  perfidy  in  his  more  pri- 
 vate. We  must  therefore  suppose,  that,  notwithstanding 
 his  war  with  Ishbosheth,  wherein  there  might  happen 
 some  skirmishes,  he  still  kept  his  promise  with  his  father 
 Saul,  not  to  destroy  any  of  his  family ;  and  therefore  in 
 the  whole  compass  of  the  war  (in  which,  though  it  lasted 
 seven  years,  we  noAvhere  read  of  one  battle  fought)  he  acted 
 in  the  defensive,  not  offensive,  part,  and  kept  an  army 
 by  him,  not  to  destroy  Saul's  posterity,  but  merely  to 
 maintain  himself  in  the  possession  of  that  regal  dignity 
 wherewith  Samuel,  by  God's  order  and  appointment,  had 
 invested  him. 
 
 Ishbosheth  knew  very  well,  that  Samuel  had  anointed 
 David,  and  that  God  had  appointed  him  to  be  his  father's 
 successor  in  the  whole  kingdom  of  Israel.  And  there- 
 fore his  opposing  him  in  a  hostile  manner,  was  provoca- 
 tion enough,  one  would  think,  had  not  David  remem- 
 bered *  his  oath  made  to  Saul,  and  thereupon  overlooked 
 this  ill  treatment  of  his  son,  and  pronounced  him  a 
 5  '  righteous  person.'  The  removal  of  an  adversary,  and 
 dangerous  competitor  for  a  crown,  might  be  thought  a 
 meritorious  piece  of  service  by  some  ambitious  princes  ; 
 but  David  was  of  another  sentiment.  His  soul  and  his 
 notions  were  the  same  as  what  inspired  the  great  Alex- 
 ander, when  he  took  vengeance  on  Bassus  for  having 
 killed  his  enemy  Darius ;  6  for  he  did  not  consider 
 Darius  so  much  in  the  capacity  of  an  enemy,  as  Bassus  in 
 that  of  a  friend  to  the  person  whom  he  had  basely  mur- 
 dered. And  it  is  not  improbable,  that  his  reflection 
 upon  the  sad  fate  of  Saul's  unhappy  family,  and  the 
 solemn  promise  he  had  given  for  their  preservation,  as 
 well  as  the  design  7  of  clearing  himself  from  the  least 
 suspicion  of  having  any  hand  in  this  barbarous  regicide, 
 prevailed  with  David  to  inflict  upon  the  authors  of  it, 
 the  exemplary  punishment  of  hanging  them  upon  gibbets, 
 to  be  a  spectacle  of  abhorrence  ;  ofeputting  off  their  right 
 hands,  8  wherewith  they  might  have  committed  this  exe- 
 crable deed,  and  of  cutting  off  their  feet,  wherewith  they 
 had  made  their  escape  from  justice. 
 
 Abner  indeed  acted  very  basely,  very  treacherously,  in 
 deserting  Ishbosheth,  the  king  whom  he  had  set  up,  upon 
 a  very  slight  provocation  :  but  David  had  no  concern  in 
 all  this.  The  kingdom  belonged  to  him  by  divine  dona- 
 tion; Abner  knew  this  before  he  proclaimed  Ishbosheth; 
 
 *  1  Sam.  xxiv.  21.  2  Sam.  iv.  11. 
 
 «  For  he  considered  that  Darius  was  not  so  much  the  friend  a9 
 the  foe  of  that  man  by  whom  he  was  slain. — Justin,  b.  12.  c.  6. 
 7  Le  Clerc's  Commentary.  8  Patrick's  Commentary 
 
496 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  ML  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i-xix. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 and  therefore  all  the  mischiefs  of  the  civil  war  are  charge- 
 able upon  him  :  nor  can  David  be  blamed  for  receiving 
 his  own  right,  even  though  it  was  tendered  to  him  by  the 
 hand  of  a  bad  man.  The  truth  is,  David  did  not  delude 
 Abner  from  his  master,  but  Abner  made  the  first  overture 
 of  his  service  to  him  ;  and  as  this  was  no  unfavourable 
 opportunity  of  uniting  the  two  contending  kingdoms,^ 
 which  providence  seemed  to  have  thrown  in  his  way, 
 David  had  been  perfidious,  not  only  to  his  own  inter- 
 est, but  to  the  establishment  of  the  general  peace  of 
 the  nation,  had  he  not  fallen  in  with  it.  *  He,  no 
 doubt,  was  privy  to  the  cause  of  Abner 's  disgust : 
 but,  without  approving  either  of  his  crime  or  his  treason, 
 he  might  lawfully  make  use  of  the  traitor;  nay,  and  con- 
 fer on  him  some  tokens  of  his  favour  too,  in  considera- 
 tion of  the  benefits  he  had  received  from  him,  and  of 
 some  commendable  qualities,  either  natural  or  political, 
 that  he  had  observed  in  him.  The  instrument  is  not  to 
 be  regarded  in  all  actions,  and  even  a  bad  man,  when 
 he  does  good  services,  may  merit  a  reward,  and  be 
 received  with  some  approbation. 
 
 No  man  indeed  should  engage  another  in  a  base  or 
 wicked  action;  2  because,  whether  he  commits  the  thing 
 himself,  or  employs  another  to  do  it,  the  crime  is  the 
 same  ;  but  it  is  not  so,  says  3  Grotius,  if  a  person  freely 
 offers  himself,  without  any  solicitation  or  persuasion  to 
 it.  In  this  case,  it  is  not  unlawful  to  use  him  as  an  instru- 
 ment, in  order  to  execute  what  is  confessedly  lawful  for 
 us  to  do :  and,  as  it  is  not  contrary  to  the  law  of  arms 
 to  receive  a  deserter,  who  quits  the  enemy's  party  and 
 embraces  ours,  so  we  cannot  conceive  how  David  could 
 become  culpable  in  taking  the  advantage  of  Abner 's 
 quarrel  with  Ishbosheth,  when,  without  any  application 
 of  his,  he  voluntarily  sent  to  him,  and  offered  him  his 
 service,  and  when  the  good  providence  of  God  seems  to 
 have  employed  the  passion  and  angry  resentment  of  that 
 haughty  general,  in  order  to  bring  about  his  wise  designs, 
 and  by  the  union  of  the  two  kingdoms,  prevent  the  effu- 
 sion of  much  blood. 
 
 But  what  shall  we  say  in  excuse  for  his  perfidy,  when 
 we  find  him  putting  his  friend  Hushai  upon  acting  such 
 a  part  as  but  badly  became  a  man  of  honour ;  upon 
 going,  and  offering  his  service  to  his  son  Absalom,  on 
 purpose  to  betray  him,  or  give  him  bad  counsel?  The 
 words  of  David  are  these  : — * '  If  thou  return  to  the  city, 
 and  say  unto  Absalom,  I  will  be  thy  servant,  O  king ; 
 as  I  have  been  thy  father's  servant  hitherto,  so  will  I 
 now  also  be  thy  servant ;  then  ma)  est  thou  for  me  defeat 
 ihf  counsels  of  Ahithophel.'  But  David,  by  these  words, 
 say  some  interpreters,  did  not  advise  Hushai  to  betray 
 Absalom,  or,  for  his  sake,  to  violate  the  laws  of  friend- 
 ship, but  purely  to  go  and  join  himself  to  Absalom, 
 who,  by  this  time,  had  assumed  the  title  of  king,  and 
 could  not  properly  be  addressed  without  calling  him 
 so,  in  order  to  destroy  the  counsels  of  Ahithophel,  just 
 as  a  general  sends  his  spies  into  the  enemy's  camp,  to 
 know  what  passes  there  ;  or  as  a  king  keeps,  in  foreign 
 courts,  his  envoys,  to  gain  intelligence  of  the  designs 
 
 i  Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Sam.  iii.  12. 
 
 »  It  signifies  nothing  whether  you  yourself  commit  crime,  or 
 engage  another  person  to  do  it  on  your  account.— August,  in 
 innribiis  Manichee. 
 
 '  On  the  Law  of  War,  I..  S.chap.  1.  By  the  right  of  war  we 
 shelter  a  deserter.  *  2  Sam.  xv    34 
 
 that  may  be  formed  against  him,  and  to  defeat  the 
 resolutions  that  may  be  taken  to  his  prejudice.  But 
 whether  these  comparisons  may  come  up  to  the  case 
 before  us  or  no,  it  was  certain,  at  this  juncture,  Absa- 
 lom's business  was  to  be  upon  his  guard.  The  unjust 
 war  which  he  had  declared  against  his  father,  gave  his 
 father  a  right  to  treat  him  as  an  open  enemy,  and  to 
 employ  either  force  or  artifice  against  him  ;  nor  can  this 
 conduct  of  his  be  blamed,  unless  we  should  say,  that 
 when  kings  are  engaged  in  war,  they  are  forbidden  to 
 disguise  their  true  designs,  even  though  it  be  a  thing 
 notorious,  that  upon  this  disguise  the  practice  of  strata- 
 gems in  war,  which  were  never  yet  accounted  unlawful, 
 is  entirely  founded. 
 
 The  truth  is,  5  Absalom,  as  a  traitor,  a  murderer,  a 
 rebel,  and,  as  far  as  in  him  lay,  a  parricide,  had  for- 
 feited all  the  rights  of  society,  but  more  especially  as  a 
 rebel :  for  a  rebel,  who  sets  himself  to  overturn  the 
 established  government,  order,  and  peace  of  any  commu- 
 nity, does,  by  that  hostile  attempt,  actually  divest 
 himself  of  all  social  rights  in  that  community.  And 
 consequently  David  could  be  no  more  guilty  of  perfidy, 
 in  forming  a  design  to  supplant  Absalom,  nor  Hushai 
 guilty  of  villany  in  undertaking  to  put  it  in  execution, 
 than  that  man  can  be  said  to  be  guilty  of  sin,  who 
 deceives  a  madman,  and  turns  him  away  from  murdering 
 his  best  friends. 
 
 The  short  of  the  matter  is,  Hushai's  instructions  were 
 to  negotiate  David's  interest  among  the  rebels  as  well 
 as  he  could.  This  he  could  not  do  without  seeming  to 
 act  in  a  contrary  character ;  and  in  order  to  effect  this, 
 there  was  a  necessity  for  his  concealing  himself;  and 
 conceal  himself  he  could  not,  without  some  degree  of 
 dissimulation  ;  and  therefore  the  end  which  he  proposed 
 in  what  he  did,  namely,  the  prevention  of  that  long  train 
 of  mischiefs  which  always  attends  a  civil  war,  was  suffi- 
 cient to  justify  the  means  which  he  took  to  accomplish 
 it.  For,  though  it  is  to  be  wished  with  B  Cicero,  that 
 all  lying  and  dissimulation  were  utterly  banished  from 
 human  life  ;  yet,  as  others  have  maintained,  that  a  bene- 
 ficial falsehood  is  better  than  a  destructive  truth,  a  case 
 may  be  so  circumstantiated,  as  to  make  dissimulation, 
 which  as  7  Lord  Bacon  says,  "  is  nothing  else  but  a 
 necessary  dependant  upon  silence,  highly  necessary; 
 and  a  lie,  which  otherwise  would  be  blamable  in  a 
 slave,  will  deserve  commendation  (says  s  Quintilian) 
 when  a  wise  man  makes  use  of  it,  to  save  his  country 
 by  deceiving  his  enemy."  Now,  as  Hushai's  wholetfle- 
 sign  was  to  deceive  an  open  and  declared  enemy,  who 
 can  doubt,  but  that  he  was  at  full  liberty,  by  his  address 
 and  subtilty,  to  disconcert  the  measures  of  those,  whom 
 all  agree,  that  had  he  been  so  minded,  he  had  license 
 to  attack  with  open  violence  ?  9  To  overcome  an  enemy 
 indeed  by  valour,  rather  than  art,  sounds  more  gallant, 
 and  by  some  has  been  thought  a  more  a  reputable  way 
 
 5  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David,  vol  3. 
 6  Offic.  b.  3.  c.  15.  '  Serm.  Fide),  b.  6. 
 
 8  Quintal.  Instit.  Orat.  b.  12.  c.  1. 
 9  Puflendorfl's   Law   of  Nature,    b.   4.  c.  1 ;  and  Grotius's 
 Rights  of  Peace,  b.  3.  c.  1. 
 
 a  Thus  when  Perseus,  the  Macedonian  king,  was  deceived 
 by  the  hopes  of  peace,  the  old  senators  disallowed  the  act,  as  in- 
 consistent with  Roman  bravery;  saying  that  their  ancestors 
 prosecuted  their  wars  by  valour,  not  craft,  not  like  the  subtle 
 Carthaginians,  or   cunning   Grecians,    among  whom  it  was  a 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 497 
 
 A.  M.  2'JiO.  A.  C.  1055  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 of  conquest,  but  since  the  laws  of  nature  and  arms  have 
 made  no  difference,  and  those  of  humanity  and  mercy 
 seem  to  incline  to  that  side  wherein  there  is  likely  to  be 
 the  least  blood  shed,  Hushai  may  be  said  to  have  acted 
 the  worthy  patriot,  as  well  as  the  faithful  subject,  in 
 breaking-  the  force  of  an  unnatural  rebellion,  and  in 
 putting  it  into  his  royal  master's  mouth  to  say,  ' '  the 
 Lord  is  known  to  execute  judgment ;  the  ungodly  are 
 trapped  in  the  work  of  their  own  hands.  They  are  sunk 
 down  in  the  pit  that  they  made  ;  in  the  same  net,  which 
 they  hid  privily,  are  their  own  feet  taken.' 
 
 Thus,  though  we  are  not  obliged  to  vindicate  David 
 in  every  passage  of  his  life,  and  think  some  of  the  crying 
 sins  he  was  guilty  of  utterly  inexcusable  ;  yet  if  we  ex- 
 cept these,  we  cannot  but  think,  that  although  he  was  a 
 very  tender  and  indulgent  parent,  yet  he  was  no  en- 
 courager  of  vice  in  his  own  family,  or  a  tame  conniver 
 at  it  in  others,  had  he  not  been  restrained  by  reasons  of 
 state,  sometimes,  from  punishing  it ;  that  he  was  true  to 
 his  promises,  just  in  his  distributions,  and  prudent, 
 though  not  crafty,  in  his  military  transactions ;  "  of  a 
 singular  presence  of  mind,  (as  2  Josephus  speaks  of 
 him,)  to  make  the  best  of  what  was  before  him ;  and  of 
 as  sharp  a  foresight  for  improving  all  advantages,  and 
 obviating  all  difficulties,  that  were  like  to  happen  ;" 
 tender  to  all  persons  in  distress,  kind  to  his  friends, 
 forgiving  to  his  enemies  ;  and  when  at  any  time  he  was 
 forced  to  use  severity,  it  was  only  in  retaliation  of  what 
 other  people  had  done  to  him. 
 
 Happy  were  it  for  us,  if  we  could  account  for  the 
 operations  of  God  with  the  same  facility  that  we  can  for 
 the  actions  of  his  saints  ;  but  his  counsels  are  a  great 
 deep,  and  his  judgments,  just  though  they  be,  are  some- 
 times obscure,  and  past  finding  out.  For  what  shall  we 
 say  to  the  fate  of  Uzzah  ?  Or  what  tolerable  cause  can 
 we  assign  for  his  sudden  and  untimely  end.  It  was  now 
 near  seventy  years  since  the  Israelites  had  carried  the 
 ark  from  place  to  place,  and  so  long  a  disuse  had  made 
 them  forget  the  manner  of  doing  it.  In  conformity  to 
 what  they  had  heard  of  the  Philistines,  they  put  it  into 
 a  new  cart  or  wagon ;  but  this  was  against  the  express 
 direction  of  the  law,  s  which  ordered  it  to  be  borne  upon 
 men's  shoulders.  It  is  commonly  supposed,  that  Uzzah 
 was  a  Levite,  though  there  is  no  proof  of  it  from  Scrip- 
 ture ;  but  supposing  he  was,  he  had  no  right  to  attend 
 upon  the  ark  ;  that  province,  by  the  same  law,  4  was  re- 
 strained to  those  Levites  only  who  were  of  the  house  of 
 Kohath  :  nay,  put  the  case  he  had  been  a  Kohathite  by 
 birth,  yet  lie  had  violated  another  command  which  pro- 
 hibited even  these  Levites,  though  they  carried  it  by 
 staves  upon  their  shoulders,  5  upon  pain  of  death,  to 
 touch  it  with  their  hands  :  so  that  here  was  a  threefold 
 transgression  of  the  divine  will  in  this  method  of  pro- 
 ceeding. The  ark,  as  some  say,  by  Uzzah's  direction, 
 uas  placed  in  a  cart;  Uzzah,  without  any  proper  desig- 
 nation, adventures  to  attend  it;  when  he  thought  it  in 
 danger  of  falling,  officiously  he  put  forth  his  hand,  and 
 laid  hold  on  it,  all  violations  of  the  divine  commands, 
 
 i  Vs.  ix.  15,  16.  2  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  12. 
 
 3  Num.  vii.  9.  4  Num.  vii.  9.         *  Num.  iv.  15. 
 
 greater  glory  to  overcome  their  enemies  by  treachery,  than  true 
 valour. — I'ivy,  b.  42.  c.  47.  And  it  was  a  known  principle  of 
 Alexander's,  that  he  scorned  to  steal  a  victory. —  Plutarch  de 
 ■  icvatidro,  and  Q.  Citrtivs,  b.  4.  c.  13; 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 and  this,  as  is  supposed,  not  so  much  out  of  reverence 
 to  the  sacred  symbol  of  God's  presence,  as  out  of  diffi- 
 dence of  his  providence,  as  unable  to  preserve  it  from 
 overturning. 
 
 The  truth  is,  this  ark  had  so  long  continued  in  ob- 
 scurity, that  the  people,  in  a  manner,  had  lost  all  sense 
 of  a  divine  power  residing  in  it,  and  therefore  approach- 
 ed it  with  irreverence.  This  is  implied  in  David's  ex- 
 hortation to  Zadok  and  Abiathar,  after  this  misfortune 
 upon  Uzzah.  G '  Ye  are  the  chief  of  the  fathers  of  the 
 Levites ;  sanctify  yourselves  therefore,  both  ye,  and 
 your  brethren,  that  you  may  bring  up  the  ark  of  the 
 Lord  God  of  Israel,  unto  the  place  that  I  have  pre- 
 pared for  it ;  for  because  ye  did  it  not  at  the  first,  the 
 Lord  our  God  made  a  breach  upon  us,  for  that  we 
 sought  him  not  after  the  due  order.'  What  wonder,  then, 
 if  God  being  minded  to  testify  his  immediate  presence 
 with  the  ark,  to  retrieve  the  ancient  honour  of  that 
 sacred  vessel,  and  to  curb  all  licentious  profanations 
 of  it  for  the  future,  should  single  out  one  that  was  the 
 most  culpable  of  many,  one,  who  in  three  instances 
 was  then  violating  his  commands,  to  be  a  monument  of 
 his  displeasure  against  either  a  wilful  ignorance  or  a 
 rude  contempt  of  his  precepts,  be  they  ever  so  seem- 
 ingly small ;  that  by  such  an  example  of  terror,  he 
 might  inspire  both  priests  and  people  with  a  sacred 
 dread  of  his  majesty,  and  a  profound  veneration  for  his 
 mysteries  ? 
 
 God  indeed  is  left  to  his  own  pleasure,  what  signs  he 
 shall  think  fit  to  give  to  his  people,  upon  any  occasion, 
 for  their  good ;  but  the  more  arbitrary  and  uncommon 
 any  sign  is,  the  more  it  seems  to  have  proceeded  from 
 God.  Though  therefore  the  sound  of  people's  going 
 upon  the  tops  of  trees,  be  a  thing  not  so  congruous  to 
 our  conceptions,  yet  it  will  not  therefore  follow,  that  it 
 was  not  the  real  sign  which  God  gave  David,  because 
 the  stranger  the  phenomenon  was,  the  greater  assurance 
 it  conveyed  of  the  divine  interposition  in  his  favour. 
 Nor  can  the  practicableness  of  the  thing  be  disputed, 
 since  it  was  confessedly  an  host  of  angels  (who  could 
 move  on  the  tops  of  trees,  as  well  as  plain  ground)  that 
 made  this  noise  of  an  army's  marching. 
 
 There  is  no  reason,  however,  to  acquiesce  in  this  con- 
 struction only.  7  The  word  beroclie,  which  we  render 
 tops,  in  several  places  in  Scripture,  signifies  the  begin- 
 ning of  things  likewise  ;  and  in  this  acceptation,  the  sense 
 of  the  sign  which  God  gave  David  will  be  tin's, — "  When 
 thou  hearest  a  sound,  as  it  were  of  many  men  marching 
 at  the  entrance  of  the  place  where  the  mulberry  trees  are 
 planted,  then  do  thou  make  ready  to  fall  upon  thine 
 enemy  ;  for  this  noise,  which  is  occasioned  by  the  minis- 
 try of  my  angels,  goes  before  thee,  botli  to  conduct  thee 
 in  thy  way,  and  to  inject  terror  into  thine  adversaries." 
 
 But  how  plausible  soever  this  interpretation  may  seem, 
 there  is  some  reason  to  suspect,  that  the  other  word 
 bochim,  which  our  translation  calls  mulberry  treex,  is  in 
 reality  the  proper  name  of  a  place.  "  The  prophet 
 Isaiah  has  a  plain  allusion  to  this  piece  of  history,  and 
 seems  to  confirm  what  we  here  suggest.  '  The  Lord,' 
 says  lie,  '  shall  rise  up  as  in  mount  Perazim  ;  he  shall  be 
 wroth  as  in  the  valley  of  Gibeon  ;'  that  is,  he  shall  dc- 
 
 6  I  Chron.  xv.  1"?,  13.     :  Patrick's  Commentary,  in  locum. 
 8  Is.  xxvui.  21. 
 
 3  R 
 
498 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2049.  A 
 
 stroy  his  enemies,  as  he  did  the  Philistines  at  Baal-Pera- 
 zim  under  David,  and  the  Canaanites  at  Gibeon,  under 
 Joshua  :  what  hinders  then,  but  that  Beroche  Bochim  may 
 signify  the  mountains  of  Bochim  ?  And  so  the  sense  of 
 the  words  will  be, — "  When  thou  hearest  a  noise,  as  of 
 many  people  marching  upon  the  hills,  or  high  places  of 
 Bochim,  then  thou  hast  nothing  to  do,  but  to  fall  imme- 
 diately upon  the  enemy."  Either  of  these  interpretations 
 clears  the  text  from  any  seeming  absurdity  ;  and  I  shall 
 only  observe  farther,  that  from  the  passage  of  the  above 
 cited  prophet,  as  well  as  some  expressions  in  the  18th 
 psalm,  such  as,  1 '  He  sent  out  his  arrows,  and  scattered 
 them ;  he  cast  forth  lightnings,  and  destroyed  them,'  it 
 seems  very  likely  that  a  mighty  storm  of  thunder  and 
 lightning,  of  hailstones,  and  coals  of  fire,  as  the  psal- 
 mist calls  it,  was  assistant  to  David  in  the  acquisition  of 
 this  victory. 
 
 In  the  account  of  David's  conquest  of  the  Ammonites, 
 the  weight  of  their  king's  crown  seems  not  a  little  mon- 
 strous. The  weight  of  a  talent,  which,  upon  the  lowest 
 computation,  amounts  to  no  less  than  123  pounds,  is 
 allowed  to  be  too  much  for  one  neck  to  sustain  ;  but  then 
 we  should  consider,  that  besides  the  crown  that  was 
 usually  worn  it  was  customary,  in  some  nations,  for  kings 
 to  have  a  vast  large  ones,  even  to  a  size  equal  to  this, 
 either  hung,  or  supported  over  the  throne,  where,  at  their 
 coronation,  or  upon  other  solemn  occasions,  they  were 
 wont  to  sit. 
 
 The  Jewish  doctors  indeed  have  a  very  odd  conceit, 
 namely,  that  David,  when  he  took  this  crown  from 
 the  king  of  Amnion,  hung  it  up  on  high  by  a  certain 
 loadstone  that  he  had,  as  if  the  power  of  the  magnet  were 
 to  attract  gold  as  well  as  iron.  But  let  that  be  as  it  will, 
 it  is  but  to  suppose,  that  the  crown  here  under  debate, 
 was  of  this  larger  kind,  and  that,  by  some  means  or 
 other,  it  was  supported  over  the  king's  head  while  he 
 was  sitting  on  his  throne,  and  then  there  will  be  an  ap- 
 parent reason  for  taking  the  crown  from  off,  or,  as  the 
 Hebrew  words  will  bear  it,  '  from  over  the  king's  head, 
 and  placing  it,  in  like  manner,  over  David's  head,  even 
 to  indicate  the  translation  of  his  kingdom  to  David. 
 
 2  It  is  a  common  thing,  however,  in  Hebrew,  as  well  as 
 other  learned  languages,  to  have  the  same  word  signify 
 both  the  weight  and  value  of  any  thing.  And  that  the 
 price  or  worth  of  the  crown  is  here  the  meaning  of  the 
 phrase  we  have  the  more  reason  to  think,  because  men- 
 tion is  made  of  an  addition  of  precious  stones,  which  are 
 never  estimated  by  the  weight  of  gold.     3  Josephus  tells 
 
 C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM. 
 
 1  Ps.  xviii.  1  J. 
 
 *  Poole's  Annotations,  and  Patrick's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 3  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  7. 
 
 o  Tlie  ancients  make  mention  of  several  such  large  crowns  as 
 tins.,  which  were  made  for  sight  more  than  any  thing  else.  Juve- 
 nal,  exposing  the  pride  and  vanity  of  some  of  the  chief  magistrates 
 ;it  Rome,  describes  the  pomp  and  splendour  of  their  appearance  in 
 these  words:  "What  if  he  had  seen  the  prator  stand  erect  in 
 his  lofty  chariot,  and  towering  above  the  surrounding  dust  of  the 
 circus,  magnificently  dressed  in  an  imperial  coat,  wearing  pend- 
 ant from  his  shoulders  the  purple  epaulettes  of  his  diedal- wrought 
 gown,  and  on  his  head  a  golden  crown  so  vast,  that  scarce  can  a 
 human  neck  support  it."  (Sat.  10.)  Atheneus  (l>.  5.  c.  8.)  de- 
 scribes a  crown  made  of  gold,  that  was  four  and  twenty  feet  in 
 circumference,  and  mentions  others,  that  were  two,  some  four, 
 and  some  five  feet  deep;  as  Pliny  (b.  33.  <•.  .'!.)  in  like  mariner, 
 takes  notice  of  some  that  were  of  no  less  than  eight  pounds' 
 weight. — Calmet's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 
 us  of  one  stone  of  great  value  in  the  middle  of  the 
 crown,  which  he  calls  a  sardonyx  ;  and  as  we  may  sup- 
 pose that  there  were  other  jewels  of  several  kinds  placed 
 at  their  proper  distances,  these,  in  proportion  as  they 
 heightened  the  value,  must  lessen  the  weight  of  the  crown, 
 and  verify  what  the  same  historian  tells  us  of  it,  namely, 
 "  that  David  wore  it  constantly  on  his  head  afterwards, 
 for  an  ornament." 
 
 There  is  another  difficulty  still  behind,  which  relates 
 to  the  weight  of  Absalom's  hair,  that  in  the  words  of  the 
 text  is  thus  expressed  : — 4  '  And  when  he  polled  his 
 head,  for  it  was  at  every  year's  end  that  he  polled  it ;  and 
 because  the  hair  was  heavy  on  him,  therefore  he  polled 
 it,  he  weighed  the  hair  of  his  head  at  two  hundred  shekels 
 after  the  king's  weight.'  In  the  explication  of  which 
 words,  the  sentiments  of  the  learned  have  been  so  many 
 and  various,  that,  we  shall  content  ourselves  with  com- 
 menting upon  some  of  the  chief  of  them. 
 
 Those  who  are  of  opinion  that  the  words  related  only 
 to  the  cuttings  of  Absalom's  hair,  make  the  two  hundred 
 shekels  the  price,  and  not  the  weight  of  them  :  and  to 
 this  purpose  they  suppose,  that  though  Absalom  himself 
 might  not  sell  his  hair,  yet  some  persons  about  him 
 might  do  it,  in  complaisance  to  the  ladies  of  Jerusalem, 
 who  might  not  think  themselves  in  the  fashion,  unless 
 they  wore  a  favourite  lock  of  the  prince's.  But  besides 
 the  absurdity  of  the  king's  son  suffering  any  of  his  do- 
 mestics to  sell  his  hair,  the  very  words  of  the  text  are  a 
 confutation  of  this  notion,  where  they  tell  us,  that '  he 
 weighed  the  hair  of  his  head  ;'  whereas,  had  it  been  sold, 
 the  buyer  must  have  weighed  the  money,  even  5  as  Abra- 
 ham did  when  he  purchased  the  field  of  Ephron. 
 
 Others  again  pretend,  that  there  is  a  manifest  mistake 
 crept  into  the  text,  which  has  been  occasioned  by  an 
 ignorant  transcriber's  inserting  one  numerical  letter  for 
 another,  the  resell  instead  of  the  daleth,  that  is,  two 
 hundred  instead  of  four :  but,  besides  the  uncertainty, 
 whether  the  former  Hebrews  made  use  of  their  letters 
 instead  of  figures,  whereof  there  is  not  the  least  sign  or 
 token  in  any  ancient  copies,  wherein,  I  pray,  would  the 
 great  wonder  be,  if  what  was  cut  off  from  Absalom's 
 head,  to  thin  and  shorten  his  hair,  when  it  grew  too 
 weighty  and  troublesome  to  him,  amounted  to  no  more 
 than  four  shekels,  which  is  much  about  two  ounces  ?  And 
 yet  the  whole  design  of  this  narration  seems  to  portend 
 something  more  than  usual,  in  this  prodigious  increase 
 of  Absalom's  hair. 
 
 The  text,  however,  does  not  speak  of  the  cuttings  of 
 the  hair,  but  of  the  head  of  hair  itself,  when  it  talks  of 
 the  weight  of  two  hundred  shekels  ;  and  therefore  those 
 who  take  it  in  this  larger  sense,  are  not  forgetful  to  re- 
 mind us,  that  in  those  days,  hair  was  accounted  a  very 
 great  ornament,  and  the  longer  it  was,  the  more  it  was 
 esteemed ;  that  Absalom,  to  be  sure,  would  not  fail  to 
 nourish  his  with  the  utmost  care,  and  to  let  it  grow  long 
 enough,  because  it  contributed  so  much  to  the  graceful- 
 ness of  his  person  ;  that  in  after  ages,  as  perhaps  they 
 did  then,  men  were  wont  to  use  much  art  with  their  hair, 
 and  dress  it  every  day  with  fragrant  ointments,  in  order 
 to  make  it  grow  thick  and  strong  ;  that  the  noble  guards 
 which  attended  Solomon,  as  Josephus  6  informs  us,  had 
 
 4  2  Sam.  xiv.  26.  s  Gen.  xxiii.   IG. 
 
 "  Jewish   Antiquities,  b.  8.  C.  12. 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 499 
 
 A.  M.  2940.  A.  C.  1 0r,5 ;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 their  long  hair  flowing  about  their  shoulders,  which  they 
 powdered  with  small  particles  of  gold,  to  make  it 
 sparkle,  and  glisten  against  the  sun  ;  and  that  therefore  it 
 is  not  improbable,  that  Absalom,  who  himself  was  a  gay 
 young  man,  and  wanted  none  of  these  helps  or  improve- 
 ments, might,  in  process  of  time,  bring  his  hair  up  to  the 
 weight  that  the  Scripture  records,  which,  according  to  the 
 gold  shekel,  that  was  but  half  as  much  as  the  silver,  came 
 to  no  more,  as  the  learned  Bochart  endeavours  to  prove, 
 than  three  pounds  and  two  ounces. 
 
 But  since  the  Scripture  says  nothing  of  any  such  addi- 
 tions, as  ointments,  or  gold  dust,  to  enhance  the  weight 
 of  the  hair  ;  others,  who  think  this  too  much  for  a  man 
 that  polled  his  hair  once  every  year,  if  not  oftener,  have 
 observed,  from  the  words  which  we  render  at  '  every 
 year's  end,'  that  in  the  original  they  imply  no  particular 
 designation  of  time  ;  and  thence  infer,  that  Absalom  did 
 not  weigh  his  hair  so  often  as  once  every  year,  but  at 
 this  particular  time  only,  when  he  returned  to  Jerusalem. 
 "  He  in  his  exile,"  say  they,  "  which  lasted  about  three 
 years,  pretending  great  sorrow  for  his  sin,  seems  to  have 
 taken  upon  him  the  vow  of  a  Nazarite,  until  his  return  ; 
 one  part  of  which  was,  that  he  should  not  suffer  his  hair 
 to  be  cut  for  such  a  determinate  time  :  but  upon  his  recall 
 home,  being  now  discharged  from  his  vow,  he  ordered 
 his  hair  to  be  cut  all  clean  off,  because  it  was  grown 
 very  cumbersome  to  him ;  which  being  of  so  long  a 
 growth,  amounted  to  the  weight  that  the  sacred  history 
 relates  of  it."  But  this  notion  of  Absalom's  Nazaritism 
 has  no  foundation  in  Scripture,  l  except  that  lying  pre- 
 tence to  his  father,  when  under  the  cloak  of  religion,  he 
 was  minded  to  conceal  his  intended  rebellion ;  and 
 therefore  all  the  superstructure  built  upon  it  must  neces- 
 sarily fall. 
 
 Others,  perceiving  that  none  of  these  inventions  would 
 answer  the  purpose,  have  endeavoured  to  solve  the  diffi- 
 culty, by  attending  to  the  latter  words  in  the  text,  '  two 
 hundred  shekels,  after  the  king's  weight:'  and,  to  this 
 purpose,  2  they  lay  it  down  as  a  principle,  that,  during 
 the  reig-ns  of  the  kings  of  Judah,  there  was  no  variation 
 in  the  Hebrew  weights,  nor  were  there  any  that  were 
 called  the  king's  :  that  the  difference  between  the  king's 
 and  the  common  weight  did  not  commence,  till  after 
 some  continuance  of  the  Babylonish  captivity ;  that, 
 towards  the  end  of  this  captivity,  whoever  he  was  that 
 revised  these  books  of  Samuel,  made  mention  of  such 
 weights  as  were  not  properly  Hebrew,  but  such  as  (after 
 sixty  or  seventy  years'  captivity)  the  Jews  only  knew, 
 and  these  were  the  Babylonish  ;  and  that  therefore,  when 
 he  comes  to  mention  the  weight  of  Absalom's  hair,  and 
 tells  us,  that  it  was  two  hundred  shekels,  he  adds,  by 
 way  of  explanation,  that  it  was  after  the  king's  weight, 
 that  is,  after  the  weight  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  whose 
 shekel  was  but  the  third  part  of  a  Hebrew  shekel, 3  as  the 
 best  writers  upon  weights  and  measures  are  generally 
 agreed.  So  that,  according  to  this  hypothesis,  Absalom's 
 hair,  which  weighed  two  hundred  Babylonish  shekels, 
 came  but  in  our  weight,  to  about  thirty-three  ounces ;  a 
 quantity  which  those  who  deal  in  that  commodity  have 
 not  (infrequently  met  with  upon  several  women's  heads  ; 
 and  therefore  what  brings  this  long  contested  story,  at 
 least,  within  the  bounds  of  a  fair  probability. 
 
 2  Sam.  xv.  7,  &c.     *  Calmet's  Commentary  in  locum.     *  Ibid. 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 Thus  have  we  attempted  to  solve  most  of  the  remark- 
 able difficulties,  that  either  affect  the  character  of  David, 
 or  other  parts  of  Scripture  account,  during  this  period 
 of  its  history  ;  and  may  now  begin  to  wave  the  testimony 
 of  heathen  authors,  in  confirmation  of  what  we  may 
 think  strange  and  unaccountable  in  the  sacred  records  ; 
 because  facts  of  that  kind  will  not  so  frequently  occur  ; 
 and  the  Jewish  nation  begins  now,  in  the  reign  of  king 
 David,  to  make  so  considerable  a  figure,  as  to  have  their 
 affairs  either  mentioned  or  alluded  to,  by  the  most 
 remarkable  historians,  both  Greek  and  Latin. 
 
 CHAP 
 
 III. — Of  the  Sacred  Chronology, and  Profane 
 History  during  this  Period. 
 
 Before  we  enter  upon  the  foreign  history  of  this  period, 
 it  may  not  be  improper  to  take  notice  of  some  chrono- 
 logical difficulties,  that  are  to  be  found  in  the  Scripture 
 account  of  it.  The  spaca  of  time,  from  the  departure 
 of  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  to  the  laying  the 
 foundation  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  is  so  exactly- 
 stated,  that  it  will  admit  of  no  dispute:  '  For  *  it  came 
 to  pass,'  says  the  text,  '  in  the  four  hundred  and  four- 
 score year,  after  the  children  of  Israel  were  come  up  out 
 of  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  month  Zif,  which  is  the 
 second  month,  that  Solomon  began  to  build  the  house  of 
 the  Lord:'  but  then  the  manner  of  computing  this  num- 
 ber of  years  has  been  various. 
 
 5  The  generality  of  the  Jews  who  make  it  450  years 
 from  the  death  of  Joshua  to  the  time  of  Samuel,  "suppose 
 
 4  1  Kings  vi.  1.  s  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  5.  c.  1 
 a  The  chronology  of  the  period  here  treated  of,  namely,  from 
 the  death  of  Joshua  to  the  building  of  the  temple,  has  been  much 
 corrupted  in  the  common  Hebrew  text:  in  fact  the  various  parts 
 are  totally  irreconcilable,  as  the  eflbrts  of  our  author  to  this  end 
 in  the  foregoing  portion  of  this  chapter  clearly  shows.  The  great 
 alterations  made  in  the  chronology  at  a  late  period  by  the  Jews, 
 and  their  reasons  for  so  doing,  have  already  been  stated,  note 
 pages  65,  Co',  on  the  period  from  the  creation  to  the  deluge. 
 And  for  the  shortening  of  tin's  period  they  had  the  very  same 
 motive ;  it  was  indeed  a  part  of  the  same  scheme  for  raising  pre- 
 judices in  the  minds  of  their  countrymen  against  the  Messiah- 
 ship  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Dr  Hales,  vol.  1.  pp.  221,  222, 
 second  edition,  gives  from  one  of  the  Jewish  rabbis,  David 
 Ganz,  a  table  of  the  period  from  the  exode  to  the  building  of  the 
 temple,  in  which  they  have  contrived  to  crowd  the  various 
 events  within  the  space  of  4S0  years;  but,  he  adds,  the  Jewish 
 chronologers  were  hard  set  to  make  out  this  detail,  as  Ganz 
 honestly  confesses: — For,  1.  "  By  a  curious  invention,  they  in- 
 cluded the  first  four  servitudes  in  the  years  of  the  judges,  who 
 put  an  end  to  them,  contrary  to  the  express  declarations  of 
 Scripture,  which  represent  the  administrations  of  the  judges,  not 
 as  synchronizing  with  the  servitudes,  but  as  succeeding  them, 
 (Judges  ii.  18.)  2.  They  were  forced  to  allow  the  fifth  servitude 
 to  have  been  distinct  from  the  administration  of  Jephthah,  because 
 it  was  too  long  to  be  included  therein  :  but  they  curtailed  a  year 
 from  the  Scripture  account  of  that  servitude,  making  it,  instead 
 of  eighteen,  only  seventeen  years;  and  they  curtailed  another 
 year  from  Ibzan's  administration,  making  it  only  six,  instead  of 
 stvin  years.  3.  They  sunk  entirely  the  sixth  servitude,  to  the 
 Philistines,  of  forty  years,  because  it  was  too  long  to  be  contained 
 in  Samson's  administration ;  and,  to  crown  all,  4.  They  reduced 
 Saul's  reign  of  forty  years,  (Acts  xiii.  21.)  to  two  years  only! 
 The  dishonesty  of  the  whole  contrivance  could  be  equalled  only 
 by  its  absurdity;  furnishing  internal  evidence  that  the  period  of 
 four  hundred  and  eighty  years,  foisted  into  the  Hebrew  text  of 
 1  King'-,  is  itself  a  forgery."     We  lave  given,  at  page  .190",  Di 
 
500 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V, 
 
 A.  M.  2940.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 the  difference,  from  the  departure  out  of  Egypt,  to  the 
 first  beginning  of  the  temple,  to  be  597  years  ;  but  this 
 account  is  117  more  than  what  we  find    in  Scripture. 
 
 1  Josephus  expressly  tells  us,  that  when  Solomon  began 
 that  mighty  work,  it  was  592  years  from  the  coming  of 
 the  Israelites  out  of  Egypt ;  but  then  it  is  presumed, 
 that  he  (as  well  as  the  other  Jews)  reckons  the  years  of  the 
 oppressors  apart ;  whereas  they  ought  to  be  included  in 
 the  years  of  the  judges,  who  delivered  the  people  from 
 that  bondage  ;  for,  it  is  but  looking  into  the  Scripture 
 account,  and  we  shall  see  that,  2  before  Othniel,  Israel 
 was  oppressed  eight  years  ;  before  Ehud,  eighteen  ;  be- 
 fore Deborah,  twenty  ;  before  Gideon,  seven  ;  before 
 Jephthah,  eighteen;  and  before  Samson,  forty;  now, 
 adding  all  these  together,  we  shall  find  that  they  amounted 
 to  111  years  ;  which,  if  joined  to  the  years  of  the  judges 
 •■\ill  make  the  particular  years  of  this  period  far  exceed 
 the  general ;  but,  by  being  included  in  the  time  assigned 
 for  the  government  of  the  judges,  they  make  that  par- 
 ticular and  general  account  of  the  years  agree  very 
 rightly. 
 
 There  is  another  difference  between  this  account  in 
 the  first  book  of  Kings,  and  what  the  apostle  affirms  in 
 the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  namely,  that, 3  '  after  the  time 
 
 1  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  8.  c.  2. 
 
 2  Millar's  History  of  the  Church,  c.  1.  p.  4.        3  Acts  xiii.  20. 
 
 Hales'  table  and  computation  of  the  period  from  Joshua  to  the 
 election  of  Saul  to  the  kingdom,  which  is  there  shown  to  be  498 
 years,  and  we  now  subjoin  his  table  of  the  succeeding  period, 
 from  the  commencement  of  the  regal  state  till  the  revolt  of  the 
 Ten  Tribes,  120  years: — 
 
 Years.   B.  C. 
 
 J.    Saul  } 
 
 Samuel  Judge  §  .         ■         . 
 
 Saul  defeats  the  Ammonites 
 
 his  first  offence 
 
 Jonathan  defeats  the  Philistines     . 
 Saul" s  second  offence  I 
 David  born  ) 
 
 lulls  Goliath 
 
 marries  Michal 
 
 first  flight  to  Gath 
 
 second  flight  to  Gath 
 
 Saul's  third  offence 
 
 2.  David 
 
 takes  Jehus 
 
 Philistine  war      .... 
 
 Ark  brought  home 
 
 Nathan's  prophecy  of  the  Messiah  the 
 
 son  of  David 
 David's  first  ofi'ence     . 
 Solomon  born       .... 
 Absalom's  and  Sheba's  rebellions   . 
 David's  second  offence 
 Adonijah's  rebellion     . 
 
 3.  Solomon      ..... 
 Temple  begun     .... 
 
 finished 
 
 Tadmor  built      .... 
 Temples  on  the  mount  of  corruption 
 
 The  revolt 
 
 40? 
 38  J 
 
 40 
 
 L20 
 
 1110 
 
 1110 
 1108 
 
 1106 
 
 1100 
 
 ioso 
 
 1075 
 1074 
 1071 
 1070 
 1070 
 106,3 
 1061 
 1060 
 
 1055 
 1052 
 1050 
 1036 
 1032 
 1030 
 1030 
 1027 
 1020 
 1006 
 996 
 
 990 
 
 The  reigns  of  Saul,  David,  and  Solomon,  were  forty  years 
 each,  (Acta  xiii.  21 ;  2  Sam.  v.  1 ;  l  Kings  xi.  42.1  which  deter- 
 mines the  length  of  the  period.  Butthedatesofdetailarenotnoticed 
 in  Scripture.  They  may,  however,  be  collected  from  incidental 
 circumstances,  and  hem  the  series  of  events,  to  a  considerable 
 degree  oi  exactness,  not  differing,  perhaps,  above  a  year  more  or 
 less  from  the  truth. —  Hales'  Analysis,  v.  2.  pp.  30s,  309, 
 second  edition.-    V.v. 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  i— xLx. 
 
 that  Joshua  divided  the  land  to  them  by  lot,  God  gave 
 them  judges  for  about  the  space  of  four  hundred  and  fifty 
 years,  until  Samuel  the  prophet.'  But  now,  if  there  be 
 450  years  from  the  division  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  which 
 happened  in  the  seventh  year  of  Joshua's  government, 
 to  the  time  of  the  government,  or  even  of  the  death  of 
 Samuel,  there  must  be  many  more  than  480  years  in  the 
 whole  interval  from  the  departure  out  of  Egypt  to  the 
 building  of  the  temple. 
 
 To  solve  this  difficulty,  some  have  imagined,  that  the 
 words  fiiTci  TavTa,,  after  that,  which  are  found  in  the 
 twentieth  verse,  should  be  placed  at  the  beginning 
 of  the  seventeenth,  and  then  the  sense  will  be,  that, 
 from  God's  choosing  our  fathers,  to  the  time  of  the 
 judges,  were  450  years  ;  for,  from  Isaacs  birth,  say  they, 
 to  the  departure  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  are  405  years  ; 
 they  wandered  in  the  wilderness  40  years ;  and  the  land 
 was  divided  by  lot  seven  years  after  that ;  so  that  all 
 these  put  together,  make  452  years,  which  the  Apostle 
 expresses  by  the  round  sum  of  450.  But  this  apparently 
 is  not  the  sense  of  the  apostle,  who,  in  his  discourse  to 
 the  people,  goes  on  gradually  and  methodically  thus  : 
 '  God  chose  our  fathers  ;  he  brought  them  out  of  Egypt ; 
 he  led  them  in  the  wilderness  forty  years  ;  he  divided 
 the  land  ;  and  then  he  gave  them  judges,'  &c.  4  Others 
 therefore  have  fallen  into  a  different  way  of  computation, 
 by  making  the  years  of  the  judges  and  oppressors  dis- 
 tinct ;  for,  the  years  of  the  judges,  say  they,  until  Sa- 
 muel's time,  are  339  ;  the  years  of  the  tyrants  are  111; 
 which,  put  together,  make  exactly  450  :  and  this  kind  of 
 reckoning  the  apostle  might  mention,  though  he  did  not 
 entirely  approve  of  it ;  and  therefore  Ave  find  him  intro- 
 ducing it  with  an  ag,  that  is,  after  a  manner,  or,  as  some 
 will  Jiave  it,  who  compute  the  years  of  the  oppressors  as 
 distinct  from  the  years  of  the  judges,  though  in  reality 
 they  ought  to  be  included  in  one  another. 
 
 There  is  still  a  farther  difficulty,  which  arises  from 
 comparing  the  scripture  chronology,  with  the  genealogies 
 in  the  book  of  Ruth.  From  the  entrance  into  the  land 
 of  Canaan  to  the  building  of  the  temple,  were  440  years  : 
 now,  if  out  of  this,  we  subtract  for  David's  life,  70  years, 
 and  for  that  part  of  Solomon's  reign  which  was  before 
 the  foundation  of  the  temple,  four  years,  the  remainder  will 
 be  306  ;  and  yet  for  these  366  years,  we  have  four  gene- 
 rations only,  for  Salmon  begat  Boaz  of  Rahab ;  Boaz 
 begat  Obed  of  Ruth  ;  Obed  begat  Jesse  ;  and  Jesse  be- 
 gat David,  which  at  a  time  5  when  the  age  of  man  was 
 reduced  to  the  compass  of  seventy  or  eighty  years,  is  a 
 thing  almost  impossible.  But,  as  it  is  not  certain,  that 
 the  lives  of  all  men  were  shortened  at  the  time  when  the 
 Israelites  murmured  in  the  wilderness,  forasmuch  as  the 
 reason  for  cutting  them  off' so  soon  (even  to  prevent  their 
 entering  into  the  land  of  promise)  was  peculiar  to  that 
 generation,  and  might  not  affect  others  ;  so  the  lives  of 
 others  might  be  extended  much  longer,  until  the  days  of 
 David,  and  especially  in  that  family,  which  Cod  had 
 honoured  so  highly  as  to  appoint,  that  in  it  his  blessed 
 Son  should  be  born. 
 
 According  to  this  account,  we  may  suppose  that 
 Salmon  might  be  about  twenty  years  old  when  he  enter- 
 ed into   Canaan,  and  Rahab,  whom  he  married  to  be 
 
 CI 
 
 «  See  Grotius  and  Usher. 
 '■  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,   b.  5.  c  1 
 hurch  History,  e.  l.  period  4. 
 
 Ps.  xc.  10. 
 
 and    Millar's 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 501 
 
 A.  M.  2949.  A.  C.  1055;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  4311.  A.  C.   1070.  2  SAM.  i— xix. 
 
 about  the  same  age  ;  and  that  Rahab  might  bear  Boaz  in 
 the  sixty-second  year  of  her  age,  which  in  those  days 
 was  no  extraordinary  thing  :  and  then  it  is  but  suppos- 
 ing farther,  that  Boaz  was  102  years  old  before  he  begat 
 Obed  ;  Obed  111  before  he  begat  Jesse;  and  Jesse  of 
 the  same  age  before  he  begat  David  ;  and  the  whole 
 difficulty  is  removed :  only  it  may  be  thought  a  little 
 strange,  that  men,  above  100  years  old,  should  be  capa- 
 ble of  begetting  children,  until  it  be  considered,  that 
 Moses  and  Aaron,  and  Joshua  and  Caleb,  were  all 
 vigorous  men  at  this  age  ;  that,  long  after  this,  Jehoiada, 
 the  high  priest,  was  130  years  old  when  he  died;  and 
 that,  almost  in  our  own  remembrance,  our  countryman, 
 Thomas  Parr,  lived  to  152,  and  had  a  son  when  he  was 
 105  years  old. 
 
 This  may  suffice  for  settling  the  chronology  ;  and  now 
 to  proceed  to  the  history  of  this  period.  Our  last  con- 
 nexion of  the  sacred  and  profane  history  we  concluded 
 with  the  life  and  adventures  of  Sesostris,  a  who  reigned 
 in  Egypt,  and  made  a  very  distinguished  figure  in  several 
 parts  of  the  world,  while  the  Israelites  were  sojourning 
 in  the  wilderness  ;  but  from  the  time  that  they  entered 
 into  Canaan,  h  they  seem  to  have  had  no  intercourse 
 with  the  Egyptians,  nor  do  their  several  histories  at  all 
 interfere. 
 
 All  history,  indeed,  in  this  period  of  time,  is  so  de- 
 faced and  corrupted  with  fables,  that  it  is  a  hard  matter 
 to  discern  any  lineaments  of  truth  in  it ;  and  yet  it  may 
 not  be  amiss  to  take  notice  of  some  of  its  remarkable 
 events. 
 
 About  the  thirty-ninth  year  of  Ehud's  government  in 
 Israel,  in  the  time  of  Deucalion  son  of  Prometheus,  there 
 happened  such  a  deluge  in  Thessaly,  c  as  gave  1  the 
 poets  an  occasion  to  say  that  all  mankind  were  therein 
 destroyed,  and  that  Deucalion,  and  Pyrrha  his  wife, 
 re-peopled  the  world,  by  throwing  stones  behind  them, 
 which  were  instantly  changed  into  men  and  women. 
 
 Much  about  this  time  lived  Phaeton,  a  prince  of  the 
 Ligurians,  and  a  great  astrologer,  that  applied  himself 
 chiefly  to  the  study  of  the  course  of  the  sun  ;  and  because, 
 in  his  days,  the  country  of  Italy,  near  the  river  Po,  was 
 
 1  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  b.  1.  fab.  7. 
 
 a  See  note  on  this  subject,  p.  336. — Ed. 
 
 b  We  have  formerly  taken  notice,  (b.  3.  c.  5.  in  the  notes,)  of 
 the  series  of  the  Egyptian  kings,  written  by  Erastosthenes,  and 
 preserved  bySyneellus;  and  here  to  proceed  with  that  catalogue. 
 In  the  year  of  the  world  2523,  reigned  in  Egypt  Echesius  Caras 
 one  year.  In  the  year  2524,  began  Nitoeris,  and  reigned  six 
 years.  In  the  year  25.'10,  began  Myrtrcus,  and  reigned  twenty 
 years.  In  the  year  2552,  began  Thyosimares,  the  same  that 
 Herodotus  calls  Myris,  or  Myrios,  and  reigned  twelve  years.  In 
 tho  year  2564,  began  Thyrillus,  and  reigned  eight  years.  In 
 the  year  2572,  began  Semiphucares,  and  reigned  eighteen  years. 
 In  the  year  2590,  began  Chuter  Taurus,  and  reigned  seven 
 years.  In  the  year  2597,  began  Cheres  Philosophus,  and  reigned 
 twelve  years.  In  the  year  2609,  began  Chomo  Ephtha,  and 
 reigned  eleven  years.  In  the  year  2620,  began  Anchurius 
 Ochus,  and  reigned  sixty  years.  In  the  year  2680,  began  Pen- 
 tcathyris,  and  reigned  sixteen  years.  In  the  year  2696,  began 
 Stamcnes,  and  reigned  twenty-three  years.  In  the  year  2719, 
 b"gan  Sistosichemcs,  and  reigned  fifty-five  years.  In  the  year 
 2774,  began  Maris,  and  reigned  forty-three  years.  In  tho  year 
 2817,  began  Siphons  Hermes.  In  the  year  2826,  began  Phru- 
 ron,  or  Nihis.  In  the  year  2843,  began  Amurrhoeus,  and 
 reigned  sixty-three  years,  or  to  the  year  of  the  world  2906.— See 
 Millar's   Church  History,  c.  1.  period  4. 
 
 c  This  flood  occurred  B.  C.  1518,  or  twelve  years  before  the 
 commencement  of  Ehud's  administration. — Hales.-  En. 
 
 so  incommoded  with  extraordinary  heats,  that  the  earth 
 became  dry,  and  barren  for  several  years,  s  it  hence  be- 
 came a  renowned  fable  among  the  poets,  that  by  his 
 misguidance  of  the  horses  of  the  sun,  who  is  said  to  have 
 been  his  father,  he  set  the  earth  on  fire. 
 
 About  the  fourteenth  year  of  Tolah's  judging  Israel, 
 Ganymede,  the  son  of  Tros,  king  of  Phrygia,  being  be- 
 loved by  Jupiter,  as  the  poets  fable,  was  by  him  carried 
 up  to  heaven  in  the  shape  of  an  eagle,  and  much  against 
 Juno's  will  made  cupbearer  to  the  gods. 
 
 About  the  sixth  year  of  Jair's  government,  Perseus 
 appeared  in  the  world,  and  of  him  the  fabulous  writers 
 have  many  strange  stories ;  as,  that  he  was  begot  by 
 Jupiter  on  Danae  in  a  golden  shower  ;  that  when  he 
 came  to  be  of  age  he  conquered  the  Gorgons,  with  their 
 queen  Medusa,  whose  hair  was  interwoven  with  snakes  ; 
 that  he  subdued  the  inhabitants  of  Mount  Atlas,  and  first 
 delivered  Andromeda,  by  killing  the  sea  monster  sent 
 to  devour  her,  and  then  married  her  ;  that  afterwards  he 
 fought  against  the  kings  of  Mauritania  and  Ethiopia, 
 and,  returning  to  Greece,  overcame  his  uncle  Prcetus, 
 and  Polydectes  king  of  the  island  Seriphus.  d 
 
 Few  things  are  more  famous  in  the  songs  of  the  poets 
 than  the  expedition  of  those  valiant  Greeks  that  accom- 
 panied Jason  to  Colchos  ;  e  and  the  foundation  of  the 
 story  is  conceived  to  be  this  : — That  the  Argonauts  sailed 
 to  some  part  of  Scythia,  to  carry  off  a  share  of  the  riches 
 of  that  country,  where  the  inhabitants  gained  a  great 
 deal  of  gold  out  of  the  rivers  that  ran  from  Mount  Cau- 
 casus, by  using  sheep  skins  with  the  wool  on,  in  order  to 
 take  up  that  precious  metal,  from  whence  it  was  called 
 the  golden  fleece.  But  the  poets,  out  of  their  fruitful 
 brains,  have  made  large  additions  to  the  story,  namely, 
 that  Jason  fell  in  love  with  Hypsipyle  at  Lemnos ;  and 
 that  at  Colchos  he  married  Medea,  the  king's  daughter, 
 who,  being  a  famous  witch,  taught  him  how  to  kill  the 
 dragon  that  kept  the  rich  fleece  ;  how  to  conquer  the 
 bulls,  that  vomited  fire  ;  and  how  to  sow  the  serpent's 
 teeth,  out  of  which  there  arose  an  army  of  men  ;  with 
 many  more  fictions  of  the  like  nature. 
 
 But,  of  all  the  occurrences  in  this  period,  that  which 
 has  been  most  celebrated  by  the  poets  is  the  siege  ol 
 Troy  ;  and  the  probable  occasion  is  supposed  to  be  this  : 
 Not  long  before  this  remarkable  event  happened,  the 
 seas  were  very  much  infested  with  pirates,  who,  landing 
 on  the  shores,  seized  upon  all  the  women  and  cattle 
 they  could  meet  with  ;  and  so  carrying  them  oft',  either 
 sold  them  in  some  distant  country,  or  kept  them  for 
 their  own  use.  Hereupon  Tyndarus,  the  father  of  He- 
 lena, considering  the  beauty  of  his  daughter,  caused  all 
 her  lovers,  who  were  some  of  the  principal  men  of 
 Greece,  to  bind  themselves  by  a  solemn  oath,  that,  if  at 
 any  time  she  should  be  taken  from  her  husband,  they 
 
 2  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  b.  2.  f.  1. 
 
 d  With  respect  to  the  era  of  Phaeton  and  Ganymede  there  is 
 no  evidence  whatever;  no  good  evidence  indeed  that  such  per- 
 sonages ever  existed.  Perseus  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  most 
 ancient  of  all  the  Grecian  heroes,  and  founder  of  the  city  of  My- 
 celial, of  which  he  was  the  first  king.  According  to  most  chro- 
 nologists,  he  flourished  in  the  year  1348  B.  C.  and  was  contempo- 
 rary with  the  Hebrew  judge  Gideon.  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  however, 
 brings  him  down  to  the  year  102$  B.  C. — Bp.  Glcig. 
 
 c  The  ArgonautlC  expedition  was  made,  according  to  Hale-, 
 in  the  year  1225  B.  ('.  diuing  the  administration  of  the  judgt 
 Abdon.— Bp.  nkig. 
 
502 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.2949.  A.  C.  1055  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO 
 
 would  join  all  their  forces  together  to  recover  her.  And 
 so,  being  left  to  choose  whom  she  would  have  for  her 
 husband,  she  made  choice  of  Menelaus  king  of  Myeenae, 
 and  brother  to  Agamemnon.  Paris,  one  of  the  youngest 
 sons  of  Priamus,  king  of  Troy,  upon  the  report  of  her 
 beauty,  came  into  Greece  to  see  her,  and  was  kindly 
 entertained  by  Menelaus  ;  but  he  soon  took  an  opportu- 
 nity to  debauch  his  wife,  and  having  robbed  the  husband 
 of  a  great  deal  of  treasure,  found  means  to  make  his 
 escape  both  with  her  and  it. 
 
 Menelaus,  as  soon  as  his  wife  was  gone,  complained 
 of  the  injury  that  had  been  done  him,  to  all  the  Grecian 
 princes,  and  required  the  performance  of  their  oath  ; 
 which  they  readily  consented  to,  and  made  his  brother 
 Agamemnon  general  of  the  forces,  that  were  to  be  em- 
 ployed in  this  expedition.  The  Greeks,  however,  being 
 unwilling  to  enter  into  a  war,  if  matters  could  be  accom- 
 modated by  a  treaty,  sent  Ulysses  and  some  others,  as 
 ambassadors  to  Troy,  to  demand  Helena,  and  all  the 
 things  of  value  that  were  taken  with  her.  AVhat  answer 
 the  Trojans  made  to  this  demand,  we  are  nowhere  in- 
 formed ;  but  sure  it  is,  that  the  ambassadors  returned 
 back  so  very  much  offended  with  their  ill  treatment,  that, 
 in  a  short  time,  they  fitted  out  a  vast  armament. 
 
 But  there  was  an  unhappy  accident,  which  mightily 
 retarded  the  siege  of  the  city,  and  that  was  a  difference 
 which  fell  out  between  Agamemnon  and  Achilles.  Aga- 
 memnon, as  general,  had  the  preoption  of  what  part  of 
 the  booty  he  pleased,  and  had  then  taken  to  himself  a 
 captive  woman,  the  daughter  of  Chryses,  the  priest  of 
 Apollo,  as  Achilles,  and  the  other  commanding  officers, 
 had  made  choice  of  others ;  but,  being  obliged  to  give 
 up  the  priest's  daughter,  in  atonement  for  the  pestilence 
 that  was  fallen  upon  the  .army,  he  sent  and  took  Achil- 
 les's  captive  from  him,  which  so  exasperated  this  gallant 
 warrior,  that,  to  revenge  himself  effectually,  he  took  up 
 a  resolution,  neither  to  fight  himself,  nor  suffer  any 
 forces  under  him  to  engage ;  and  this  gave  the  enemy 
 so  great  an  advantage,  that  Hector,  at  the  head  of  his 
 forces,  broke  through  the  Grecian  trenches  one  day,  and 
 set  fire  to  the  ships. 
 
 In  the  midst  of  this  extremity,  Patroclus,  the  bosom- 
 friend  of  Achilles,  not  being  able  to  stand  neuter  any 
 longer,  begged  of  Achilles  to  let  him  have  the  use  of  his 
 armour,  and  the  command  of  his  troops,  in  order  to  re- 
 pulse the  Trojans  ;  which,  he  bravely  attempted,  but,  in 
 the  engagement  fell  by  the  hands  of  Hector,  who  took 
 from  him  the  arms  of  Achilles,  and  carried  them  oft*. 
 
 This  conjuncture  Agamemnon  made  use  of  to  be  re- 
 conciled to  Achilles ;  and  to  this  purpose,  sent  him  back 
 his  captive  maid,  with  many  very  valuable  presents,  and 
 made  an  excuse  for  his  former  behaviour  as  well  as  he 
 could.  Achilles,  in  order  to  be  revenged  for  the  loss  of 
 his  friend,  laid  aside  all  resentment,  and  joined  the 
 Greeks  in  the  next  battle,  wherein  he  vanquished  the 
 Trojans;  and,  singling  out  Hector,  never  left  pursuing 
 him,  wherever  he  went,  until  he  had  killed  him.     a  With 
 
 a  Homer  indeed  gives  us  this  account  of  the  taking  of  Troy; 
 hut  Virgil  has  informed  us,  that  it  was  done  by  a  large  wooden 
 horse,  in  which  were  enclosed  several  of  the  chief  commanders 
 of  the  Greeks ;  that  the  rest  setting  sail  to  the  island  of  Tenedos, 
 left  Siuon  to  persuade  the  Trojans,  that  this  horse  was  built  upon 
 a  religious  account,  and  was  necessary  for  them  to  take  into  the 
 city;  that,  by  his  craft  and  instigation,  they  pulled  down  [ait  of 
 
 HALES,  A.  M.  4341.  A.  C.  1070.  2  SAM.  1— xlx. 
 
 Hector  fell  the  city,  which  was  soon  reduced  to  ashes,  and 
 its  inhabitants  forced  to  undergo  a  military  execution. 
 
 But,  how  severe  soever  the  Greeks  might  be  to  their 
 conquered  enemies,  several  historians  have  observed, 
 that  in  their  return  home,  they  suffered  almost  as  much 
 misery  as  they  had  brought  upon  the  Trojans.  For  this 
 is  the  account  which  Thucydides  gives  of  them.  "  By 
 reason  of  their  long  absence,  they  found  many  altera- 
 tions when  they  returned,  so  that  some  of  them  were 
 driven  by  their  neighbours  from  their  ancient  seats ; 
 many  were  expelled  their  countries  by  faction ;  others 
 slain,  soon  after  their  arrival ;  and  others  deposed  from 
 their  kingdoms  by  such  as  had  staid  at  home."  Nestor 
 and  Pyrrhus  got  safe  home  indeed,  but  were  slain  by 
 Orestes.  Idomeneus  and  Philoctetes,  upon  their  return, 
 were  soon  driven  away  to  seek  for  new  habitations. 
 Agamemnon  was,  upon  his  first  arrival,  slain  by  his 
 wife,  and  her  adulterer  iEgisthus,  who  had  usurped  his 
 kingdom.  Menelaus,  having  long  wandered  upon  the 
 sea,  was  forced  into  Egypt,  before  he  could  return  to 
 Sparta.  Ulysses,  after  ten  years'  peregrination,  and  the 
 loss  of  his  whole  company,  came  home  in  a  poor  con- 
 dition, and  had  much  difficulty  to  recover  the  mastership 
 of  his  own  house.  Ajax,  the  son  of  Oileus,  was  drowned  ; 
 Teucer  fled  into  Cyprus  ;  and  Diomedes  to  king  Daunus. 
 Some  of  the  Locrians  were  driven  into  Africa,  others 
 into  Italy,  others  into  Sicily,  and  settled  themselves  in 
 such  numbers  in  these  parts,  that  Greek  became  the 
 current  language  of  this  island,  and  most  of  the  east 
 part  of  Italy  obtained  the  name  of  Magna  Grsecia. 
 
 Thus  the  wise  Ruler  of  the  world  was  pleased  to  make 
 one  wicked  nation  the  instrument  of  punishing  another. 
 But,  whatever  they  severally  suffered,  the  succeeding 
 generations  obtained  this  advantage  by  it,  that  the  dis- 
 persion of  the  Greeks  occasioned  a  fuller  peopling  of 
 distant  countries,  by  an  accession  of  these  new  inhabi- 
 tants :  and  the  taking  of  Troy  became,  in  some  years, 
 the  settled  epocha,  whereby  all  that  were  acquainted 
 with  the  story  of  it,  might  agree  in  their  account  of  time.  b 
 
 SECT.    V. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — From  the  death  of  Absalom  to  the  Building 
 of  the  Temple. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 As  soon  as  David  was  informed  of  his  son's  death,  all 
 
 the  wall  for  that  purpose;  and  so  the  Gret  ks,  returning  on  a 
 sudden,  and  entering  the  breach,  opened  the  horse,  and  seized 
 on  the  gates,  and  burned  the  city.  But  another  author,  who  per- 
 haps might  know  the  truth  as  well  as  Virgil,  gives  us  a  different 
 account  of  this  matter,  namely,  that  /Eneas,  Antenor,  and  Po- 
 lydamus,  having  taken  some  disgust  at  king  Priamus,  agreed 
 with  the  Grecians  to  betray  the  city  to  them,  upon  condition, 
 that  they  might  retire  with  their  men  wherever  they  thought  fit, 
 provided  they  did  not  settle  in  Phrygia.  To  this  purpose  it  was 
 concerted,  that  the  Grecians  should  set  sail  the  day  before  to  the 
 island  Tenedos,  as  if  they  were  quite  gone,  but  return  in  the 
 dark  of  the  night,  when  the  Trojans  thought  themselves  secure, 
 and  so  be  let  in  at  the  Scsean  gate,  over  which  was  a  large 
 image  of  an  horse,  which  gave  the  first  rise  and  occasion  to  all 
 this  story. 
 
 b  Troy  was  taken  in  the  year  B.  C.  1183,  and  consequently 
 just  at  the  termination  of  Samson's  administration.  See  Hales, 
 vol.  i.  p.  21b",  and  vol.  ii.  p.  257. — Ed. 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 503 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES 
 
 the  joy  of  the  victory  was  turned  into  sorrow.  The  king 
 himself  withdrew  to  a  a  private  apartment,  where  he 
 vented  his  grief  in  such  a  b  mournful  exclamation,  as 
 
 a  The  place  to  which  David  withdrew,  in  order  to  vent  his 
 grief,  was,  as  Josephus  tells  us,  (b.  7.  c.  10.)  to  the  top  of  one  of 
 the  highest  towers  in  the  city;  but  the  sacred  history  calls  it '  the 
 chamber  over  the  gate,'  (2  Sam.  xviii.  33.)  For  the  gate  was  a 
 spacious  place,  and  much  of  the  same  form  with  the  forum  among 
 the  Romans,  not  only  the  market  for  all  commodities,  but  the 
 place  where  all  great  assemblies  of  the  people  were  likewise  held. 
 There  were  several  buildings,  where  the  chief  magistrates  sat  to 
 administer  justice,  (Ruth  iv.  ],  2.)  and  where  the  other  allairs 
 of  the  state  were  transacted ;  so  that  it  is  not  improbable,  that  this 
 chamber  over  the  gate,  where  David  went  to  weep,  might  be 
 some  withdrawing  room  in  the  place  where  the  privy  counsel 
 was  wont  to  meet.  {Calmet's  Commentary.)  The  death  of  this 
 favourite  but  unprincipled  son,  was  a  grievous  blow  to  the  heart 
 of  his  royal  father — and  the  intense  anxiety  with  which  lie 
 waited  for  intelligence  of  the  fate  of  the  day's  engagement,  and 
 especially  of  Absalom,  may  be  judged  of  from  the  position  he 
 occupied  when  the  messengers  arrived.  To  understand  his  situa- 
 tion, it  is  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that  he  was  then  in 
 the  provincial  town  of  Mahanaim,  in  the  tower  that  overhung 
 the  gates  of  which  a  sentinel  was  posted,  as  usual  in  cases  of 
 emergency,  to  hail  the  approach  of  any  emissary  from  the  seat  of 
 war.  By  this  scout,  communications  of  every  thing  important 
 he  discovered  were  ever  and  anon  made  to  the  impatient  mon- 
 arch, who  sat  in  an  adjoining  chamber — one  of  those  which  served 
 as  halls  of  justice — and  which,  in  ancient  times,  were  always 
 situated  on  the  gates  of  the  city.  It  was  in  this  apartment,  the 
 nearest  in  the  city  to  the  scene  of  action,  and  commanding,  from 
 its  elevated  position,  an  extensive  view  of  the  country,  that 
 David  watched,  in  the  most  painful  suspense,  the  tidings  of  the 
 civil  contest  that  involved  the  fate  of  his  crown.  It  was  in  this 
 chamber  at  the  gate,  that,  according  to  the  practice  of  remotest 
 antiquity  on  the  most  solemn  occasions,  he  continued  to  indulge 
 his  pathetic  lamentations  over  the  death  of  his  profligate  son.  It 
 was  out  of  a  window  in  the  same  place  of  public  resort,  that  when 
 roused  by  the  remonstrances  of  Joab,  he  returned  Ins  thanks  to 
 the  army  for  their  gallant  defence  of  his  life  and  his  kingdom. 
 And  it  was  in  the  same  apartments  that  he  appeared  afterwards 
 before  the  people  of  the  city,  distributing  justice  to  all  who  came 
 with  cases  for  his  decision.  That  it  was  the  practice  of  the 
 ancient  kings  of  Israel,  as  well  as  of  other  Oriental  monarchs,  to 
 decide  cases  while  sitting  openly  at  the  gate,  appears  from  many 
 passages  of  the  sacred  history ;  and,  in  many  parts  of  the  East, 
 we  are  informed  that  the  same  practice  prevails  to  this  day.  Mr 
 Campbell  describes  an  interesting  scene  of  this  nature  at  which 
 he  happened  to  be  present.  "  While  in  Kurreechare,"  says  he, 
 "  a  city  twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  miles  up  from  the  Cape  of  Good 
 Hope,  he  was  told  that  a  cause  was  going  to  be  brought  before  the 
 king.  Being  anxious  to  witness  it,  I  was  led  in  haste  to  the 
 gate,  where  I  saw  the  king  sit  down  at  the  right  side  of  it,  with 
 his  secretary  on  his  right  hand,  and  the  prosecutor,  or  complainer, 
 on  his  left,  who  stated  his  case  across  to  the  secretary.  During 
 his  narrating  his  case,  the  king  was  looking  about,  as  if  not 
 attending  to  what  was  said,  but  I  saw  from  his  eyes  that  he  was 
 attending  to  what,  for  form's  sake,  was  addressed  to  the  secre- 
 tary. When  the  party  had  finished  what  lie  had  to  say,  the 
 secretary  repeated  the  whole  to  the  king,  as  if  he  had  been 
 entirely  ignorant  of  the  matter,  after  which  he  pronounced  his 
 judgment.  This  picturesque  description  gives  us  a  lively  idea 
 of  the  scenes  in  which  the  chiefs  and  kings  of  sacred  history  are 
 frequently  represented  as  placed  among  their  dependents  or  their 
 people ;  and  accounts  for  the  universal  joy  that  pervaded  the  whole 
 city  of  Mahanaim,  when  it  was  known  that  their  afflicted  mon- 
 arch had  resumed  his  daily  custom  of  meeting  with,  and  taking 
 an  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  people  at  the  gate  of  the  city. 
 Jamieson's  Eastern  Manners. — Ed. 
 
 b  Nothing  certainly  can  be  more  moving  and  pathetic,  than 
 the  words  which  David  utters  upon  this  sad  occasion;  but 
 whether  it  was  David's  deliberate  wish,  that  he  had  died  in 
 Absalom's  stead,  or  only  the  effect  of  his  excessive  love  and 
 grief  for  him,  is  not  so  easy  a  matter  to  determine.  St  Austin 
 seems  to  he  on  the  affirmative  side,  and  gives  this  reason  for  it: 
 —  That  Absalom  died  impenitent,  but  might  have  lived  to 
 become  a  better  man;  whereas,  if  David  had  died/  he  had  reason 
 
 ,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  103G.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 this  :  ' '  O  my  son  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son  Absalom, 
 would  God  I  had  died  for  thee  !  O  Absalom,  my  son, 
 my  son !'  And  as  for  the  army,  instead  of  returning  in 
 triumph,  they  stole  silently  into  the  city,  as  if  they  had 
 done  amiss,  and  had  lost,  instead  of  gaining,  the  battle. 
 
 This  Joab  perceiving,  and  being  sensible  that  such 
 excessive  grief,  at  this  juncture  of  affairs,  would  be  of 
 great  prejudice  to  the  king,  went  boldly  in  to  him, 
 c  and  expostulated  the  matter  with  him  in  terms  that 
 might  perhaps  be  necessary  on  that  occasion,  but  did  not 
 so  well  become  a  subject's  mouth.  However  they  had 
 this  good  effect  upon  the  king,  that  they  roused  him 
 from  his  melancholy,  and  made  him  appear  in  public,  to 
 the  great  satisfaction  of  all  his  loyal  subjects,  d  but  as 
 he  thought  himself  very  insolently  used  by  Joab,  upon 
 several  occasions,  from  that  time  he  made  it  his  resolu- 
 tion to  take  the  first  opportunity  of  e  dismissing  him  from 
 being  his  general. 
 
 Those  of  his  subjects,  who  had  appeared  in  arms 
 against  him,  being  now  made  sensible  of  the  folly  of  their 
 
 1  2  Sam.  xviii.  33. 
 to  hope  well  of  his  salvation:  but  this  supposition,  as  I  take 
 it,  is  not  so  well  founded,  since  there  is  much  more  probability 
 that  if  Absalom  had  survived  his  father,  he  would  have  grown 
 more  profligate  than  ever,  triumphed  in  his  good  success ; 
 insulted  and  persecuted  all  his  father's  friends;  and  proved  a 
 wicked  and  abominable  tyrant.  But  whether  David's  wish  was 
 deliberate  or  no,  it  is  certain,  that  his  grief  might  be  increased 
 from  this  reflection,  that  himself,  by  his  own  sin  in  the  case  of 
 Uriah,  had  been  the  unhappy  instrument  and  occasion  of  his 
 son's  death;  though  some  learned  men  have  observed,  that 
 the  oriental  people  were  accustomed  to  express  their  passions 
 with  more  vehemence  than  we,  in  these  parts  of  the  world  are 
 wont  to  do;  and  that  the  repetition  of  the  same  word,  '  My  son 
 Absalom, O  Absalom,  myson,my  son,'  isastyleproperformourn- 
 ful  lamentation.  "  To  the  stars  we  will  extol  thyDaphnis,  Daph- 
 nis  to  the  stars  we  will  praise,  for  Daphnis  also  loved  us."  (Virg. 
 Eccl,  v.)  "I  am  grieved  for  Adonis,  Adonis  the  fair  is  dead, 
 Adonis  the  beautiful  is  gone."  (Bion.  Id.  1.) — Patrick's  and 
 Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 c  Josephus  concludes  the  speech  which  he  supposes  Joab  to 
 have  made  to  David  upon  this  occasion,  in  words  to  this  effect: 
 — "  Pray,  Sir,  does  not  your  conscience,  as  well  as  your  honour 
 reprove  you  for  this  intemperate  tenderness  for  the  memory  of  so 
 implacable  an  enemy?  He  was  your  son,  it  is  true,  but  a  most 
 ungracious  one ;  and  you  cannot  be  just  to  God's  providence, 
 without  acknowledging  the  blessing  of  his  being  taken  away.  Let 
 me  entreat  you  therefore  to  show  yourself  cheerful  to  your  people, 
 and  let  them  know,  that  it  is  to  their  loyalty  and  bravery  that 
 you  are  indebted  for  the  honour  of  the  day ;  for  if  you  go  on,  as 
 you  have  begun,  your  kingdom,  and  your  army  will  most 
 infallibly  be  put  into  other  hands,  and  you  will  then  find  some- 
 thing else  to  cry  for.' — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  10. 
 
 d2  Samuel  xix.  8.  '  And  the  king  arose  and  sat  in  the  gate.' 
 The  custom  noticed  in  this  passage  appears  to  have  been  very 
 ancient,  and  is  found  in  other  writings  than  the  sacred  books. 
 Homer  thus  represents  Nestor: — 
 
 The  old  man  early  rose,  walk'd  forth,  and  sat 
 On  polish'd  stone  before  his  palace  gate. 
 
 With  unguents  smooth  tin'  lucid  marble  shone, 
 
 Where  ancient  Nelcus  sat,  a  rustic  throne  ; 
 
 Rut  he  descending  to  the  infernal  shade, 
 
 Sago  Nestor  fill'd  it,  and  the  sceptre  sway'd. 
 
 Otlyss.  i.  518.— Ed. 
 c  For  he  had  sufficient  reason  to  think  of  depressing  a  man, 
 who  was  grown  so  insufferably  insolent  and  imperious.  He  had 
 slain  Abner  most  perfidiously  in  cool  blood;  had  killed  Absalom 
 against  the  king's  express  command;  in  his  late  bold  reproof  had 
 insulted  over  his  sorrow,  and,  if  we  may  believe  Josephus, 
 threatened  to  depose  him,  and  give  his  kingdom  to  another.  To 
 such  a  state  of  arrogance  will  ministers  sometimes  arrive,  when 
 they  find  that  their  service  is  become  necessary  tc  their  prince. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary . 
 
504  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  103G.  2  SAM.  xix-1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 rebellion,  became  the  forwardest  for  his  restoration  ;  but, 
 what  grieved  him  much,  his  own  tribe,  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
 seemed  a  little  indifferent  as  to  the  matter  ;  which  made 
 him  send  to  Zadok  and  Abiathar  the  chief  priests,  not 
 only  to  remind  them  of  their  own  duty,  but  to  authorize 
 them  likewise  to  treat  with  Amasa,  who  though  he  had 
 commanded  Absalom's  army  was  still  a  man  of  great 
 authority,  in  the  tribe,  to  offer  him  his  pardon,  and  in 
 case  he  would  come  fully  into  his  interest,  to  promise 
 him  the  generalship  in  the  room  of  Joab. 
 
 Thus  all  things  conspiring  to  his  happy  restoration, 
 the  king  left  Mahanahn,  and  set  forward  on  his  journey 
 to  Jerusalem,  when  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  came 
 to  meet,  and  conduct  him  over  the  Jordan.  Old  Bar- 
 zillai,  who  had  been  very  kind  to  the  king  in  his  exile, 
 and  supplied  him  with  provisions  while  he  continued  at 
 Mahanaim,  hearing  that  he  was  upon  his  return,  came  to 
 take  his  leave  of  him  ;  and  see  him  safe  over  the  river, 
 and  when  the  king  in  gratitude  for  his  kindness  gave  him 
 an  invitation  to  go  with  him  to  Jerusalem,  the  good 
 old  man  modestly  excused  himself,  upon  the  account 
 of  his  age,  as  having  now  lost  the  relish  of  the  plea- 
 sures of  a  court,  and  desired  rather  to  retire  to  his 
 own  estate,  where  he  might  spend  the  remainder  of 
 his  days  in  quiet:  but  as  he  had  a  son,  whose  age  was 
 more  proper  to  attend  him,  if  his  majesty  would  be 
 pleased  to  confer  any  favour  on  him,  the  obligation 
 would  be  the  same  ;  a  which  David  promised  to  do, 
 and  so  with  much  mutual  blessings  and  salutations, 
 they  parted. 
 
 Among  the  many  others  who  came  to  meet  David  upon 
 this  occasion,  Shimei  the  Benjamite,  who  not  long  before 
 had  loaded  him  with  curses  and  imprecations,  came,  b 
 with  a  thousand  men  of  his  tribe  to  beg  pardon  for  his 
 fault ;  and  when  Abishai  would  have  persuaded  the  king 
 to  have  him  killed,  he  resented  the  motion  as  an  indig- 
 nity put  upon  himself:  and  being  unwilling  to  eclipse 
 the  public  joy  with  the  blood  of  any  one,  gave  him  his 
 royal  word  and  oath  that  he  should  live. 
 
 Another  remarkable  person  that  came  to  wait  upon 
 David  at  this  time,  was  the  perfidious  Ziba,  with  his  fif- 
 teen  sons  and  twenty  servants.  He  had  again  imposed 
 upon  his  master,  and,  when  he  ordered  him  to  make 
 ready  his  asa  that  he,  among  others,  might  go  and  meet 
 the  king,  slid  away  himself  to  make  his  court  first;  so 
 that  Mephibosheth,  being  lame,  was  forced  to  stay  at 
 Jerusalem,  where  he  had  all  along  c  mourned  for  the 
 
 a  What  David  did  for  Chimham  is  uncertain;  but  as  he  had 
 a  patrimony  in  Bethlehem,  which  was  the  place  of  his  nativity, 
 ir  i<  nut  improbable,  that  he  gave  a  great  part  of  it  to  Chimham, 
 and  liis  heirs  t'"r  ever;  and  that  this  was  afterwards  called  'the 
 habitation  of  Chimham'  in  the  days  of  Jeremiah,  (Jer.  xli.  17.) 
 —  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  5.  c.  4. 
 
 b  The  reason  why  Shinici  came  with  so  large  a  retinue,  was 
 to  let  David  see  tliat  he  was  a  man  of  some  considerable  rank, 
 and  capable  of  doing  him  great  service  among  the  people,  which 
 might  he  some  inducement  to  the  King  to  grant  him  his  pardon; 
 or,  very  likely,  he  was  one  of  the  captains  of  a  thousand  in  his 
 own  tribe,  and  might  cany  them  along  with  him,  to  make  the 
 stronger  intercession  for  his  pardon. —  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  are,  that  '  he  had  neither  dressed  his 
 feet,  nor  trimmed  his  heard,  nor  washed  his  clothes,  from  the  day 
 that  the  king  departed,'  (2  Sam.  xix.  24.)  These  were  some 
 of  the  instances  wherein  the  Jews  were  wont  to  express  their 
 mourning;  and  they  are  here  mentioned  by  the  historian,  as 
 evidences  of  the  falsehood  ofZiba's  information  against  his  master, 
 
 kin»'s  absence,  until  the  king  arrived  :  but  when  he  was 
 admitted  into  his  presence,  and  the  king  seemed  to  be 
 angry  with  him  for  not  having  accompanied  him  in  his 
 exile,  he  charged  this  seeming  neglect  upon  the  perfidy 
 of  his  servant,  and  d  set  his  case  in  so  fair  a  light,  that 
 the  king  revoked  the  hasty  grant  he  had  made  in  favour 
 of  Ziba,  and  put  his  estate  upon  the  same  foot  of  pos- 
 session that  it  was  before. 
 
 When  David  was  passed  the  Jordan,  he  was  willing  to 
 make  all  possible  haste  to  Jerusalem  ;  and,  as  the  tribe 
 of  Judah  was  the  first  that  came  to  conduct  him  home, 
 he,  very  probably  to  gratify  them,  marched  on  without 
 waiting  for  the  great  men  of  Israel,  who,  in  all  parts  of 
 the  kingdom,  were  making  ready  to  join  him.  This  oc- 
 casioned some  hot  disputes  between  the  princes  of  Israel 
 and  those  of  Judah  :  and,  as  the  king  was  loth  to  dis- 
 please either  party,  and  therefore  did  not  care  to  inter- 
 meddle in  the  controversy,  several  of  the  tribes  of  Israel 
 took  an  outward  umbrage  at  this,  which  occasioned  a 
 fresh  insurrection.  Sheba,  a  Benjamite,  e  and  not  un- 
 likely one  of  Saul's  family,  made  public  proclamation 
 by  the  sound  of  trumpet,  that  "  since  the  tribe  of  Judah 
 had  engrossed  David  to  themselves,  they  might  even  take 
 him ;  and,  since  all  the  other  tribes  he  had  visibly  de- 
 serted, their  wisest  way  would  be  to  stand  to  their  arms, 
 and  in  like  manner  desert  him."  Whereupon  a  great 
 many  of  the  other  tribes  followed  Sheba  ;  but  the  men  of 
 Judah  persisted  in  their  loyalty,  and  conducted  the  king 
 to  Jerusalem.  As  soon  as  he  arrived  in  the  city,  the 
 first  thing  he  did  was  to  declare  Amasa  his  general,  and 
 
 since  no  one,  who  neglected  himself  to  this  degree,  could  be  suppos- 
 ed ambitious  of  a  crown.  Not  dressing  his  feet,  may  signify,  either 
 not  cutting  his  toe  nails,  or  his  not  washing  his  feet,  which  the 
 Jews  were  accustomed  very  frequently  to  do,  because  of  the  bad 
 smell  which  was  natural  to  them,  as  well  as  the  Arabians,  and 
 some  other  nations ;  and  therefore  his  omission  of  this  could  not 
 but  make  him  offensive  to  himself.  Not  trimming  his  beard  was 
 letting  his  hair  grow  negligently,  and  without  any  order.  For 
 the  manner  of  the  Jews  was,  to  cut  the  hair  from  the  lip  upwards, 
 and  what  grew  likewise  on  the  cheek ;  but  what  was  on  the  chin, 
 and  so  backwards  to  the  ear,  that  they  suffered  to  grow;  and  not 
 washing  his  clothes  must  denote  his  putting  on  no  clean  linen, 
 but  wearing  the  same  shirt  all  the  while. — Calmcfs  and  Patrick's 
 Commentaries. 
 
 a  Josephus  brings  in  Mephibosheth  pleading  his  excuse  to  David 
 for  not  attending  him,  and  expressing  a  grateful  sense  of  his  fa- 
 vours, in  such  like  words  as  these: — "  Nor  has  he  only  disappoint- 
 ed me  in  the  exercise  of  my  duty,  but  has  been  doing  me  spiteful 
 offices  to  your  majesty  likewise:  but  you,  Sir,  are  so  just  and  so 
 great  a  lover  of  God  and  truth,  that  I  am  sure  your  generosity 
 and  wisdom  will  never  entertain  a  calumny  to  my  prejudice. 
 Our  family  has  had  the  experience  of  your  piety,  modesty,  and 
 goodness,  to  a  degree  never  to  be  forgotten,  in  passing  over  and 
 pardoning  the  innumerable  hazards  and  persecutions  that  you 
 were  exposed  to,  in  the  days,  and  by  the  contrivance  of  my 
 grandfather,  when  all  our  lives  were  forfeited,  in  your  power,  and 
 at  your  mercy.  But  then,  after  all  this  gracious  tenderness, 
 your  superadding  the  honour  of  taking  me  to  your  table,  a  person 
 so  obnoxious  in  regard  of  my  relations,  as  a  friend,  and  as  a  guest, 
 nothing  could  be  either  greater,  or  more  obliging  than  this." — 
 Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  7. 
 
 e  In  the  text,  Sheba  is  called  '  a  man  of  Belial.'  The  expres- 
 sions '  sons  of  Belial,'  'men  of  Belial,'  and  '  children  of  Belial,' 
 occur  frequently  in  Scripture,  and  seem  to  imply  wicked,  worth- 
 less men ;  those  who  refuse  to  submit  to  any  restraint ;  rebels, 
 licentious  and  disobedient  persons.  (See  Deut.  xiii.  13.  Judg 
 xix.  22.  1  Sam.  ii.  12.,  x.  27.)  The  primary  meaning  of  tie 
 word  Belial,  is  uselessness,  worthlessness,  according  to  Gesenius; 
 and  the  Septuagint  renders  the  phrase  avbgis  ■z-a.^avopoi,  lawless ' 
 men.  In  the  New  Testament,  Belial  is  applied  to  Satan,  as  the 
 patron  and  epitome  oi  licentiousness,  (2  Cor.  vi.  15.)— Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.J 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 >05 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  10-23 
 
 to  order  him  to  get  together  a  sufficient  body  of  forces, 
 as  fast  as  he  could,  to  pursue  after  Sheba.  a  Amasa, 
 however,  found  more  difficulty  in  executing  this  order 
 than  was  expected ;  which  when  David  understood,  he 
 sent  Abishai  with  his  guards,  for  he  was  resolved  not  to 
 employ  his  brother  Joab  any  more,  in  quest  of  Sheba, 
 until  Amasa,  with  the  rest  of  the  army,  could  join  him. 
 Exasperated  at  this,  Joab,  without  any  order  went  along 
 with  his  brother ;  and  when  Amasa  came  up  with  them, 
 which  was  at  Gibeon,  and  was  going  to  take  upon  him 
 the  command  of  the  whole  army,  he  advanced,  with  all 
 seeming  friendliness  to  salute  him ;  but  when  he  came 
 within  reach,  he  °  took  him  by  the  beard,  and  stabbed  him 
 to  the  heart ;  and  so,  leaving  him  to  wallow  in  his  blood, 
 proclaimed  himself  general  in  chief,  and  taking  the  army 
 with  him,  pursued  after  Sheba,  e  leaving  orders  for  the 
 forces  that  were  coming  up,  to  follow  after. 
 
 Sheba  had  gone  about  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  to  see  if 
 he  could  prevail  with  them  to  take  up  arms  against 
 David  ;  but  finding  very  few,  that,  upon  second  thoughts, 
 were  willing  to  engage  in  his  measures,  he  was  forced 
 at  last,  with  the  few  forces  he  had  got  together,  to 
 shut  himself  up  in  Abel,  a  fortified  town  in  the  tribe  of 
 Naphtali,  in  the  northern  part  of  Judea.  But  Joab  was 
 soon  at  his  heels,  and  having  besieged  the  town,  and 
 battered  the  walls,  was  making  preparations  for  an  as- 
 sault, when  a  d  woman  of  great  prudence  called  to  the 
 
 a  The  people  having  been  harassed  in  the  late  civil  war,  were 
 not  perhaps  so  forward  as  to  engage  in  another.  Some  of  them 
 might  not  like  to  serve  under  a  man  who  had  lately  headed  a  rebel- 
 lious army  against  the  king,  and  others  might  have  conceived  so 
 high  an  opinion  of  Joab,  as  not  easily  to  be  brought  to  serve  under 
 any  other  general.  Any  of  these  things  might  very  well  retard 
 Amasa's  recruits,  and  yet  he  might  he  loath  to  make  such  a  re- 
 port to  the  king,  for  fear  that  it  might  diminish  his  authority, 
 and  make  him  appear  not  so  well  qualified  for  the  office  wherein 
 he  had  placed  him, —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 Li  It  was  an  ancient  custom  among  the  Grecians,  to  take  the 
 person,  to  whom  they  had  any  address  to  make,  by  the  chin,  or 
 beard:  it  was  the  custom  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  in  their  prayers, 
 to  touch  the  chin,  says  Pliny,  (b.  11.  c.  45.)  and  even  to  this 
 day,  the  Turks,  in  their  salutations,  do  very  frequently  take  one 
 another  by  the  beard,  (See  Tkevenofs  Travels,  c.  22.)  The 
 Arabians  have  a  great  regard  to  the  beard:  the  wives  kiss  their 
 husbands,  and  the  children  their  fathers  beard,  when  they  come 
 to  salute  them;  and,  when  two  friends  meet  together,  their  cus- 
 tom is,  in  the  course  of  their  compliments,  to  interchange  kisses 
 in  this  manner,  (See  Darvicuz  on,  the  Customs  of  the  Arabs,  c. 
 7.)  as  the  like  custom  is  still  preserved  among  the  eastern  people, 
 the  Indians,  who  take  one  another  by  the  chin,  when  they  would 
 give  ;tn  hearty  salute,  and  say,  bobha,  that  is,  father,  or  bit,  bro- 
 ther, as  the  author  of  the  voyage  to  the  East  Indies  relates. — See 
 Peter  de  Vallcs's   Travels. 
 
 c  So  insolent  was  Joab  become,  upon  the  presumption  that 
 David  durst  not  punish  him,  that  as  he  ventured  upon  this 
 bloody  fact,  so  he  imagined,  that  though  the  sight  of  Amasa's 
 dead  body  might  stop  the  march  of  those  that  came  by  it,  yet 
 upon  its  being  given  out  that  he  was  again  become  their  general, 
 their  love  for  him  was  such,  that  they  would  not  scruple  to  follow 
 hi  in. — Pat  rich's  Com  military. 
 
 d  It  seems  not  unlikely,  that  this  woman  was  a  governess  in 
 this  city ;  for  though  that  office  was  most  commonly  occupied  by 
 men,  yet  there  want  not  instances  of  women,  as  in  the  case  of 
 Deborah,  (Judg.  iv.  4.)  and  queen  Athaliah,  (2  Kings  xi.)  who 
 have  been  employed  in  the  administration  of  civil  affairs.  If 
 she  was  invested  with  any  such  authority,  she  was  the  properest 
 person  to  desire  a  parley  with  the  general;  and  reason  good  she 
 had  to  desire  it,  because  she  knew  the  present  temper  and  fear 
 of  the  citizens  and  soldiers,  namely,  that  considering  the  im- 
 minent danger  they  were  in,  they  were  generally  desirous  of 
 peace,  and  restrained  from  it  only  by  Sheba's  power  and  authority. 
 — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1030.  2  SAM.  xix— !  KINGS  viii. 
 
 besiegers  from  oft"  the  walls,  and  desired  to  speak  with 
 their  general.  When  Joab  was  come  within  hearing, 
 the  woman  addressed  herself  to  him  in  a  very  handsome 
 manner,  and  told  him,  "  that  e  by  a  long  prescription  of 
 time,  it  had  always  been  a  custom,  founded  l  on  the  law 
 of  God,  whenever  the  Hebrews  came  before  any  city,  to 
 offer  peace  in  the  first  place,  even  though  the  inhabitants 
 were  of  another  nation ;  much  more  then  ought  this  to 
 have  been  done  to  a  people,  that  were  all  of  the  same 
 blood,  and  the  greatest  part  of  them  loyal  subjects  to 
 the  king."  To  which  Joab  replied,  "  that  he  had  no  ill 
 design  against  the  people  of  the  city,  only  as  they  har- 
 boured a  rebel  and  a  traitor,  whom  he  demanded  of 
 them  :"  whereupon  the  woman  persuaded  the  inhabit- 
 ants to  cut  oft'  Sheba's  head,  and  throw  it  over  the  wall, 
 which  when  they  had  done,  Joab  raised  the  siege,  and 
 withdrew  with  his  army  to  Jerusalem  ;  where  his  services, 
 upon  this  occasion,  were  thought  to  be  such  that  the 
 king  found  himself  obliged  to  restore  him  to  his  post  of 
 captain-general. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  there  happened  a  sore  famine  in 
 the  land,  and  the  long  continuance  of  it,  which  was  for 
 three  years,  made  David  suspect  that  it  did  not  proceed 
 from  any  common  cause,  but  was  inflicted  by  the  im- 
 mediate hand  of  God ;  and  when  he  consulted  the  divine 
 oracle  to  know  the  occasion  of  it,  he  was  given  to  un- 
 derstand, that  Saul's  cruelty  to  the  Gibeonites,  in  slaying 
 so  many,  contrary  to  the  treaty  then  depending  between 
 him  and  them,  was  the  cause  of  it.  Hereupon  David 
 sent  to  the  Gibeonites,  to  know  /  what  satisfaction  they 
 desired  ;  and  when  he  was  told,  that  they  expected  seven 
 of  Saul's  posterity  to  be  delivered  to  them,  he  complied 
 with  their  demand,  and  sent  two  sons  of  Rizpah,  Sauls 
 concubine,  and  s  five  of  Merab,  his  eldest  daughter,  but 
 
 1  Deut.  xx.  10. 
 
 e  In  the  beginning  of  this  woman's  speech  to  Joab,  there  is 
 something  that  seems  both  abrupt  and  obscure.  '  They  were 
 wont  to  speak  in  old  time,  saying,  They  should  surely  ask  counsel 
 at  Abel,  and  so  they  ended  the  matter,'  (2  Sam.  xx.  IS.)  according 
 to  this  translation,  the  sense  of  the  words  is,  "  This  city,  which 
 thou  art  about  to  destroy,  is  no  mean  and  contemptible  one,  but 
 so  honourable  and  considerable  for  its  wisdom,  and  the  wise 
 people  in  it,  that  when  any  difference  did  arise  among  any  of 
 the  neighbouring  places,  they  used  proverbially  to  say,  We  will 
 ask  the  opinion  and  advice  of  the  men  of  Abel  about  it,  and  we 
 will  stand  to  their  arbitration;  and  so  all  parties  were  satisfied, 
 and  disputes  ended."  So  that  her  words,  according  to  this  sense, 
 are  an  high  commendation  of  the  city  of  Abel,  for  its  being  a 
 place  time  out  of  mind,  very  eminent  for  the  wisdom  and  pru- 
 dence of  its  inhabitants.  But  there  is  another  translation  in  the 
 margin  of  our  Bibles,  which  seems  to  be  more  natural,  and  makes 
 the  woman  speak  in  this  manner.  "  When  the  people  saw  thee 
 lay  siege  to  the  city,  they  said,  Surely  lie  will  ask,  if  we  will 
 have  peace ;  for  the  law  prescribes,  that  he  should  offer  peace  to 
 strangers,  much  more  then  to  Israelitish  cities;  and  if  he  would 
 once  do  this,  we  should  soon  bring  things  to  an  amicable  agree- 
 ment; for  we  are  peaceable  people,  and  faithful  to  our  prince." 
 So  that,  according  to  this  interpretation,  the  woman  both  mo- 
 destly reproved  Joab  for  the  neglect  of  his  duty,  and  artfully 
 engaged  him  in  the  performance  of  it. — Patrick's  Commentary, 
 and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 f  This  may  seem  strange,  unless  we  suppose,  as  Josephus 
 does,  that  when  David  consulted  God,  he  told  him,  not  only  for 
 what  crime  it  was  that  he  sent  this  punishment,  but  that  he 
 should  take  such  a  revenge  for  it  as  the  Gibeonites  should  de- 
 sire :  and  there  was  this  farther  reason  for  humouring  the  Gibe- 
 onites herein,  because  they  had  been  modest  under  their  suffer- 
 ings, and  never  made  any  complaint  to  David  of  the  injuries 
 that  had  been  done  them. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 g  Michal  is  put  in  the  text  indeed,  (2  Sam.  xxi.  8.)  but  not  by 
 3s 
 
50G  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.    II  1981'.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix-1  KINGS  via. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 spared  Mcphibosheth,  the  son  of  Jonathan  for  the  love 
 which  he  had  for  his  father  when  alive.  These  seven 
 the  Gibeonites  took,  and  hung  upon  gibbets  ;  and  there 
 they  intended  them  to  hang,  a  until  God  should  send  rain 
 upon  the  earth,  for  the  want  of  this  occasioned  the  fa- 
 mine. But  Rizpah,  being  informed  of  this,  had  a  tent 
 made  of  sackcloth  pitched  near  the  place,  for  her  to  live 
 in,  that  so,  by  the  help  of  her  servants,  she  might  *  keep 
 watch  day  and  night,  to  fright  away  the  birds  and  beasts 
 from  doing  any  hurt  to  the  dead  bodies.  It  was  not 
 long,  however,  before  God  sent  plentiful  showers  of  rain, 
 so  that  Rizpah  had  the  liberty  to  take  down  the  bodies. 
 And,  when  David  was  informed  of  this  her  pious  care, 
 he  was  moved  thereby  to  take  up  the  bones  of  Saul,  and 
 Jonathan  his  son,  who,  for  five  and  thirty  years  before, 
 had  been  buried  under  a  tree  at  Jabesh-Gilead,  and 
 together  with  these  seven  sufferers  of  the  same  family, 
 gave  them  an  honourable  interment  in  the  tomb  of  Kish, 
 the  father  of  Saul,  at  Zelah,  in  the  country  of  Benjamin. 
 David,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  had  so  humbled 
 the  Philistines,  that  they  were  not  able  to  bring  any 
 great  numbers  into  the  field ;  but  still,  as  long  as  they 
 had  men  among  them  of  a  gigantic  stature,  c  and  such 
 as  were  fit  to  be  their  champions,  they  did  not  cease  to 
 disturb  the  peace  of  Israel,  insomuch  that  David,  in  the 
 latter  end  of  his  reign,  had  four  engagements  with  them. 
 In  the  first  of  which,  himself  had  like  to  have  been  slain 
 by  one  of  these  monstrous  large  men,  had  not  Abishai 
 come  timely  in  to  his  aid,  and  killed  the  Philistine  ;  upon 
 which  occasion,  it  was  unanimously  agreed  in  the  army, 
 
 mistake,  as  some  will  have  it;  for  though  Michal  was  not  the 
 wife  of  Adriel,  but  Merab ;  yet  those  children  which  Merab  had 
 by  Adriel,  Michal  brought  up;  and  the  Jews  observe,  upon  this 
 occasion,  that  whoever  brings  up  a  pupil  in  his  house,  is  in  Scrip- 
 ture said  to  have  begotten  him.  Nor  is  it  in  Scripture  only, 
 that  this  form  of  expression  takes  place,  but  in  heathen  authors 
 likewise.  For  Agamemnon  and  Menelaus  are  called  sons  of 
 Atreus,  because  Plisthenes,  who  was  their  father,  being  dead,  he 
 took  care  to  bring  them  up. — Howell's  History,  in  the  notes; 
 and  Patrick's  Connnentary. 
 
 a  It  was  a  positive  law  to  the  Israelites,  (Deut.  xxi.  22,  23.) 
 that  If  any  man  was  hanged,  he  should  be  buried  before  night; 
 but  the  Gibeonites  being  not  of  that  nation,  thought  themselves 
 not  obliged  by  that  law.  They  are  remarked  indeed  to  have  been 
 a  remnant  of  the  Amorites,  (2  Sam.  xxi.  2.)  and  among  them, 
 as  some  have  imagined,  it  was  a  barbarous  custom  in  those  days, 
 as  it  certainly  prevailed  in  after  ages,  to  hang  up  men,  in  order 
 
 to  appease  the  anger  of  the  gods  in  time  of  famine.' Patrick's 
 
 and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  It  is  an  obvious  remark  from  hence,  that  crosses  and  gibbets 
 whereon  malefactors  were  executed,  did  not  stand  high  from  the 
 ground,  since  the  dead  bodies  of  such  were  in  danger  of  being 
 torn  by  carnivorous  creatures;  and  what  we  may  farther  observe 
 if,  that  it  was  an  ancient  custom  for  the  relations  of  such  as 
 were  thus  executed,  to  watch  their  dead  bodies.  Thus  Homer 
 (Iliad,  23.)  mentions  Venus,  as  taking  care  of  Hector's  body; 
 and  the  story  of  the  Ephesian  matron  every  one  can  tell. — CaU 
 met's  Commentary. 
 
 c  This  is  not  a  solitary  instance.  Taverner  informs  us, 
 that  the  eldest  ten  of  the  emperor  of  Java,  who  reigned  in  1648, 
 had  six  fingers  on  each  hand,  and  six  toes  on  each  foot.  And 
 Maupertius,  in  his  seventeenth  letter  says,  that  he  met  with  two 
 families  near  Berlin,  where  sedigitism  was  equally  transmitted 
 on  both  sides  of  father  and  mother.  I  once  saw  a  young  girl,  in 
 the  county  of  Londonderry  in  Ireland,  who  had  six  fingers  on 
 each  hand,  and  six  toes  on  each  foot,  but  her  stature  had  nothing 
 gigantic  in  it.  The  daughters  of  Caius  Horatius,  of  patrician 
 dignity,  were  called  scdigil<e,  because  they  had  six  fingers  on 
 each  hand.  Volcatius  a  poet,  was  called  sediyilus  for  the  same 
 reason. — See  Pliny's  Natural  History,  b.  xi.  c.  43;  Dr  A. 
 Clarke.— Ed. 
 
 that  the  king  should  never  more  go  into  the  battle,  lest 
 a  d  life  so  precious  should  be  lost. 
 
 In  the  other  three  engagements,  nothing  remarkable 
 happened,  but  the  death  of  four  of  these  huge  men,  by 
 the  hands  of  some  of  David's  chief  officers ;  except  we 
 may  mention  here  another  valiant  act,  e  which  might 
 probably  be  done  at  this  time. 
 
 The  Philistines'  army  lay  in  the  valley  of  Rephaim, 
 between  David's  camp  and  Bethlehem,  where  they  had 
 likewise  a  garrison.  But  notwithstanding  this,  upon 
 David's  intimating  a  desire  to  have  some  of  the  water  of 
 Bethlehem,  three  of  his  chief  captains  broke  through  the 
 enemies'  camp,  and  having  drawn  some  water  out  of  the 
 well,  brought  it  to  David  ;  but  he,  understanding  at 
 what  price  it  had  been  purchased,  even  at  the  hazard 
 of  all  their  lives,  would  not  drink  it,  but  offered  it  to 
 the  Lord. 
 
 About  two  years  before  David's  death,  whatever  might 
 be  the  occasion  of  it,  so  it  was,  that  /  he .  was  desirous 
 to  know  the  number  of  his  people,  and  accordingly  gave 
 his  chief  officers  orders  to  go  through  the  whole  king- 
 dom, and  bring  him  an  account  of  all  the  people.  Joab 
 endeavoured  to  remonstrate  against  it,  in  a  manner  more 
 modest  than  was  customary  with  him ;  but  the  king's 
 orders  were  positive ;  and  therefore  Joab,  with  other 
 officers  to  assist  him,  beginning  on  the  east  side  of  Jor- 
 
 d  The  expression  is  very  beautiful,  and  significant  in  the  text, 
 '  Thou  shalt  no  more  go  out  with  us  to  battle,  that  thou  quench 
 not  the  light  of  Israel,'  (2  Sam.  xxi.  17.)  For  good  kings  are 
 in  Scripture  justly  called  the  light  of  the  people,  (1  Kings  xi.  36. 
 and  Ps.  exxxii.  17.)  because  the  beauty  and  glory,  the  conduct 
 and  direction,  the  comfort,  and  safety,  and  welfare  of  a  people, 
 depend  upon  them,  and  are  derived  from  them. — Poole's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 e  It  is  commonly  observed,  by  the  Jewish  commentators,  that 
 though  David  expressed  a  desire  for  some  of  the  water  of  Beth- 
 lehem, because  it  was  the  place  of  his  nativity,  and  the  water 
 not  improbably  \ery  excellent  in  its  kind,  yet  he  did  not  do  this 
 with  any  intent,  that  any  should  venture  their  lives  to  fetch  him 
 it.  In  this  action,  however,  they  have  remarked  three  wonder- 
 ful things,  namely,  That  three  men  could  break  through  the 
 whole  host  of  the  Philistines ;  and  when  they  had  so  done,  durst 
 stay  to  draw  water  out  of  the  well,  and  then  carry  it  away  with 
 an  high  hand,  through  the  same  host  to  David.  But  they  might 
 have  added  a  fourth  remark,  namely,  That  they  attempted  this 
 at  the  gate  of  Bethlehem,  where  a  garrison  of  the  Philistines 
 kept  a  strong  guard. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 f  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  And  again  the  anger  of  the 
 Lord  was  kindled  against  Israel,  and  he  moved  David  against 
 them  to  say,  Go  number  Israel  and  Judah,  (2  Sam.  xxi  v.  1.) 
 But  in  the  original  there  is  no  nominative  case  at  all.  We  find 
 it  however  supplied  in  1  Chron.  xxi.  1.  where  it  is  said,  that 
 '  Satan  stood  up  against  Israel,  and  provoked  David  to  number 
 Israel.'  But  then,  by  the  word  Satan,  there  is  no  necessity  why 
 we  should  understand  the  devil  properly  so  called,  because  any 
 evil  minister,  or  counsellor,  that  advised  David  to  number  the 
 people,  will  answer  the  signification  of  the  word  as  well.  And 
 that  there  was  some  such  counsellor,  who  prompted  David  to 
 this  action,  seems  to  be  implied  in  these  words  of  Joab.  '  Now 
 the  Lord  thy  God  add  unto  the  people,  how  many  soever  they 
 be,  an  hundred  fold,  and  that  the  eyes  of  my  lord  the  king  may 
 see  it;  but  why  doth  my  lord  the  king  delight  in  this  thing?' 
 (2  Sam.  xxiv.  3.)  Whereby  it  seems  plain,  that  the  matter  had 
 been  debated  in  the  king's  council  before,  and  that,  though  Joab 
 was  one  who  opposed  it,  David  was  more  influenced  by  the  per- 
 suasion of  some  other. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. — Dr  Boothroyd 
 translates  this  passage  as  Mows,  "  And  the  anger  of  Jehovah 
 was  again  kindled  against  Israel,  because  an  adversary  stood  up 
 against  Israel,  and  moved  David  against  them  to  say,  Go  number 
 Israel  and  Judah."  This  translation  represents  the  meaning  of 
 the  original  as  compared  with  the  parallel  place,  1  Chron.  xxi.  1. 
 and  gets  rid  of  the  difficulty  involved  in  the  received  text.— Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 507 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS.  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  103P.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 dan,  came  round  by  the  north  parts  of  Canaan,  and 
 returned  to  Jerusalem,  at  the  end  of  nine  months  and 
 twenty  days,  with  an  estimate,  that  in  Israel  there  were 
 eight  hundred  thousand  men  fit  to  bear  arms,  and  a  five 
 hundred  thousand  in  Judah ;  but  of  the  men  that  be- 
 longed to  the  tribes  of  Levi  and  Benjamin,  there  was 
 no  list  given  in. 
 
 David  had  no  sooner  received  the  account,  but  his 
 heart  misgave  him,  that  he  had  done  wrong;  and  it  was 
 not  long,  before  the  prophet  Gad  was  sent  to  bring  his  sin 
 to  remembrance,  and  to  offer  him  the  choice  of  three  pun- 
 ishments, b  famine,  pestilence, or  war,  which  he  liked  best. 
 
 Where  every  punishment  was  so  destructive,  it  was  hard 
 to  tell  which  to  prefer  ;  but  David  at  last  made  choice  of 
 the  pestilence  ;  which  accordingly  was  sent,  and,  in  c  a 
 very  short  time,  destroyed  no  less  than  seventy  thousand 
 men.  The  plague  began  in  the  extreme  parts  of  the 
 kingdom,  but  every  moment  made  advances  nearer  and 
 nearer  to  Jerusalem ;  which  when  the  king  and  inhabit- 
 ants of  the  city  heard,  they  clothed  themselves  in  sack- 
 cloth, and,  with  all  humility,  cried  unto  God  for  mercy. 
 A  little  before  the  offering  up  of  the  evening  sacrifice, 
 
 a  If  we  compare  this  account  with  what  we  meet  with  in  1 
 Chron.  xxi.  5.  we  shall  find  a  great  difference;  for  there  the 
 men  of  Israel  are  said  to  be  three  hundred  thousand  more  than 
 they  are  here,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  men  of  Judah  are  said 
 to  be  thirty  thousand  less.  But  as  for  the  former  difference  it  is 
 but  supposing,  that  in  this  account  recorded  in  Samuel,  the 
 standing  legions,  which  amounted  in  all  to  two  hundred  and 
 eighty-eight  thousand,  that  is,  twenty-four  thousand  with  their 
 officers,  upon  guard  every  month,  are  not  here  mentioned,  though 
 they  be  in  Chronicles:  and  as  to  the  latter  difference,  it  is  but 
 adding  twenty-four  thousand  legionary  soldiers  to  the  tribe  of 
 Judah,  and  the  difficulty  is  removed.  Though  some  are  apt  to 
 think,  that  in  this  case,  there  is  no  need  of  this  supposition,  be- 
 cause it  is  a  common  thing  in  Scripture  to  mention  a  round  sum, 
 cither  of  men  or  years,  though  upon  a  strict  computation,  there 
 may  be  some  wanting. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  There  is  another  difference  in  this  account,  and  what  we 
 meet  with  in  the  book  of  Chronicles.  There  the  famine  is  said 
 to  be  for  three  years  only,  but  here  it  is  said  to  be  for  seven. 
 The  Septuagint  indeed  make  it  no  more  than  three;  and  for  this 
 reason  some  have  imagined,  that  the  seven  is  an  error  crept  into 
 the  text,  especially  considering  that  three  years  of  famine  agree 
 better  with  three  days'  pestilence,  and  three  months'  flight  before 
 an  enemy.  But  there  is 'no  reason  to  suppose  any  error  in  the 
 text;  it  is  but  saying,  that  in  Chronicles,  the  author  speaks  of 
 those  years  of  famine  which  were  to  come  for  David's  sin  only, 
 but  in  Samuel,  of  those  three  years  of  famine  likewise,  which 
 were  sent  for  Saul's  sin,  (2  Sam.  xxi.)  Now,  within  one  year 
 alter  the  famine  that  was  sent  for  Saul's  sin,  was  David's  sin  in 
 numbering  the  people;  the  intermediate  year  then  was  either 
 the  sabbatical  year,  wherein  the  people  were  not  allowed  to  sow 
 nor  reap,  or  a  year  of  such  excessive  drought,  that  the  crop  came 
 to  little  or  nothing.  Upon  either  of  these  accounts  we  may 
 properly  enough  say,  that  there  were  four  years  of  famine  before, 
 and  three  more  being  now  added  to  them,  make  up  the  seven 
 that  are  here  mentioned. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  are:  'So  the  Lord  sent  a  pestilence 
 'ipon  Israel;  from  the  morning,  even  to  the  time  appointed.' 
 The  time  appointed  was  the  space  of  three  days;  and  therefore 
 some  are  of  opinion,  that  the  plague  lasted  so  long:  but  then 
 others  urge,  that  this  does  not  agree  with  what  follows,  namely, 
 that  '  God  repented  him  of  the  evil,  and  commanded  the  angel, 
 who  smote  the  people,  to  stay  his  hand.  They  therefore  conclude, 
 that  as  the  word  Moed  properly  signifies  an  assemlly,  the  "time 
 Moed"  must  he,  when  the  people  met  together  at  the  time  of  the 
 cveningsacrifice,that  is,  about  the  ninth  hour  of  the  day ;  and  con- 
 sequently, that  the  plague  continued  from  the  morning  to  this  time, 
 which  is  about  nine  hours,  or  the  eighth  part  of  three  days;  God, 
 in  his  mercy,  having  been  pleased  to  mitigate  the  rigour  of  his 
 judgment,  upon  the  sincere  repentance  of  his  people. — Patrick's 
 Commentary,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 or  before  the  time  of  evening  prayer,  there  appeared  an 
 angel  over  Jerusalem  brandishing  a  flaming  sword  in  his 
 hand,  as  if  he  were  going  to  destroy  it ;  whereupon 
 David  implored  God's  mercy  for  the  people,  what  ven- 
 geance soever  might  light  upon  him,  who  was  chiefly 
 guilty  :  but  as  he  was  expecting  some  heavy  stroke,  the 
 angel  sent  Gad  to  him,  with  orders  to  go  immediately, 
 and  build  an  altar  in  the  thrashing-floor  d  of  Araunah 
 the  Jebusite,  which  accordingly  he  did,  and  having  pur- 
 chased the  place,  and  some  oxen  for  sacrifice,  '  for  e 
 fifty  shekels  of  silver,  he  offered  burnt-offerings  and 
 peace-offerings,  whereof  the  Lord  declared  his  accept- 
 ance by  fire  from  heaven  ;  and  so  the  plague  ceased. 
 
 It  is  not  improbable,  that  God  at  this  time  revealed  to 
 David  the  exact  frame  and  fashion  of  the  temple  ;  that 
 from  the  acceptableness  of  his  sacrifices,  he  perceived 
 that  this  thrashing-floor  was  the  place  which  God  had 
 designed  for  the  situation  of  his  temple  ;  that  therefore 
 he  not  only  purchased  that,  but  the  whole  top  of  the 
 mount  of  Moriah  likewise,  at  the  price  of  2  '  six  hundred 
 shekels  of  gold,'  for  the  ground-plot  of  this  temple  ;  and 
 that  all  the  remainder  of  his  time  was  employed  in  pro- 
 viding whatever  was  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  build- 
 ing it;  in  settling  the  number  of  the  officers,  and  the 
 manner  of  the  daily  service  of  those  that  were  to  attend 
 it ;  next  to  this,  in  settling  his  civil  affairs,  and  appoint- 
 ing 3  judges,  magistrates,  and  all  inferior  officers,  whose 
 business  it  was  to  punish  offenders,  and  to  keep  all  others 
 to  their  duty,  then  in  settling  his 4  military  matters,  parti- 
 cularly the  twelve  captains,  for  every  month,  with  their 
 legions,  to  attend  on  the  king  in  their  turns  ;  then  s  the 
 princes  of  the  twelve  tribes,  and  afterwards  6  several  other 
 officers. 
 
 But  while  he  was  contriving  these  things  in  the  best 
 manner,  he  seems  to  have  been  taken,  either  with  a  dead 
 palsy,  or  some  other  distemper,  which  chilled  his  blood, 
 so  that  he  could  not  be  warm  in  his  bed.  His  physicians 
 therefore  advised,  that  to  supply  him  with  /  a  natural 
 
 1  2  Sam.  xxiv.  24.  2  1  Chron.  xxi.  25.  3  Ibid.  xxvi.  29  to  the  end. 
 •  Ibid,  xxvii.  1—15.  5  Ibid.  B  Ibid.  xxix.  1—20. 
 
 d  2  Sam.  xxiv.  18.  A  thrashing-floor  among  the  ancient 
 Jews,  was  only,  as  it  is  to  this  day  in  the  east,  a  round  level  plot 
 of  ground  in  the  open  air,  where  the  corn  was  trodden  out  by 
 oxen.  Thus  Gideon's  floor  (Judges  vi.  37.)  appears  to  have 
 been  in  the  open  air;  as  was  likewise  this  of  Araunah  the  Jebu- 
 site ;  else  it  would  not  have  been  a  proper  place  for  erecting  an 
 altar  and  offering  sacrifice.  In  Hosea  xiii.  3.  we  read  ot  the 
 chaff  which  is  driven  by  the  whirlwind  from  the  floor. — Shaw's 
 Travels,  p.  139,  second  edition. — Ed. 
 
 e  There  is  again  another  difference  in  the  account  which  we 
 have  in  the  Chronicles,  and  this  in  Samuel.  In  the  Chronicles 
 it  is  said,  that  David  bought  the  thrashing-floor,  &c,  for  six 
 hundred  shekels  of  gold;  but  in  Samuel  it  is  said,  for  fifty  shekels 
 of  silver.  Now  a  shekel  of  gold  being  of  twelve  times  more 
 value  than  a  shekel  of  silver,  it  makes  the  disparity  very  large ; 
 and  therefore,  to  account  for  this,  it  is  generally  supposed,  that 
 in  the  whole  David  made  two  purchases:  first  he  bought  the 
 thrashing-floor  and  oxen,  for  which  he  gave  fifty  shekels  of 
 silver;  but  that  afterwards  all  the  ground  about  it,  out  of  which 
 the  courts  of  the  temple  were  made,  cost  him  six  hundred 
 shekels  of  gold. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 f  It  is  the  observation  of  Galen,  in  his  fifth  book  "  Of  the 
 power  of  simple  medicines,"  that  nothing  so  effectually  procures 
 heat  and  health  as  the  application  of  any  thing  young  to  the 
 stomach  :  the  advice  of  David's  physicians  therefore  was  not 
 amiss;  but  it  had  been  sinful  advice,  and  such  as  he  could  not 
 lnve  followed,  had  not  this  young  woman,  whom  he  took  to  bed 
 to  him,  been  his  concuhinary  wife.  In  those  days  such  wives 
 were  allowable ;  and  that  she  served  him  in  this  capacity,  is  very 
 
508  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  103(3.  2  SAM.  xix-1  KINGS,  iii. 
 
 heat,  a  virgin  should  lie  in  the  same  bed  with  him  ;  for 
 which  purpose  Abishag  of  Shuneni,  in  the  tribe  of  Issa- 
 char,  was  brought  to  him,  and  made  concubinary  wife, 
 though  he  had  never  any  carnal  knowledge  of  her. 
 
 Adoni.jah,  who,  next  after  Absalom,  was  David's  eldest 
 son,  takingthe  advantage  of  his  father's  age  and  infirmity, 
 began  to  entertain  thoughts  of  making  himself  king,  pre- 
 suming that  his  father  either  could  not,  or  would  not 
 obstruct  him.  He  was  indeed  a  prince  of  exquisite 
 beauty,  admired  by  all,  and  so  indulged  by  his  father, 
 that  he  a  never  contradicted  him  in  any  thing ;  but  as  he 
 had  a  great  deal  of  Absalom  in  his  complexion,  he  failed 
 not  to  imitate  him  in  his  equipage,  attendants,  and  splen- 
 did manner  of  life. 
 
 By  some  means,  however,  he  had  gained  Joab  the 
 general  of  the  forces,  and  Abiathnr  the  high  priest,  over 
 
 she  had  said  ;  so  that  David  immediately  declared  Solo- 
 mon his  successor,  and  thereupon  commanded  Zadok  the 
 priest,  Nathan  the  prophet,  and  Benaiah  the  captain  of 
 his  guards,  with  the  other  officers  and  ministers  of  state, 
 to  mount  him  don  the  mule  that  he  himself  used  to  ride, 
 and  having  in  this  manner  «  conducted  him  to  Gihon,  there 
 to  let  Zadok  and  Nathan  anoint  him,  and  then,  by  sound 
 of  trumpet,  to  proclaim  him  king  of  Israel.  All  this  was 
 accordingly  done,  and  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  by  their 
 loud  shouts  and  acclamations  of  joy,  gave  testimony  of 
 their  approbation  of  David's  choice. 
 
 But  how  thunderstruck  was  Adonijah  and  his  compa- 
 ny, when,  being  just  upon  the  point  of  proclaiming  him 
 king,  they  heard  the  sound  of  the  trumpet,  and  the  shouts 
 of  the  people  attending  Solomon  !  As  soon  as  they 
 were  informed  of  the  occasion,  each  man  thought  proper 
 
 to  his  party;  and  by  their  advice  it  was,  that  he  invited  |  to  shift  for  himself;  but,  as  for  Adonijah,  he  /fled  to  the 
 all  the  king's  sons,  except  Solomon,  and  all  the  great  j  altar  for  sanctuary,  till,  having  obtained  of  Solomon  a 
 
 men   of   Judah,  except  Nathan  the   prophet,   Benaiah 
 captain  of  the  guards,  and  the  officers  of  the  army,  (who, 
 
 promise  of  life,  upon  condition  that   he  would  never 
 attempt  any  thing  for  the  future  against  his  government, 
 
 with  Zadok  the  other  high  priest,  were  not  for  him,)  to  a  j  he  was  conducted  into  the  king's  presence,  where  he 
 sumptuous  entertainment  at  En-rogel,  where  the  purpose 
 of  the  meeting  was,  as  soon  as  the  company  had  well 
 feasted,  to  proclaim  him  king  in  the  room  of  his  father. 
 Nathan,  who  knew  b  God's  designation,  David's  choice, 
 and  the  people's  interest  in  the  matter,  having  got  intelli- 
 gence of  this,  went  and  acquainted  Bathsheba  with  it, 
 and  advised  her  by  all  means  to  go  and  press  the  king  c 
 to  declare  Solomon  his  successor,  since  things  were  now 
 come  to  that  extremity,  that  without  her  doing  this,  all 
 their  lives  must  certainly  be  in  danger.  Bathsheba  pur- 
 sued her  instructions;  went  to  the  king,  and,  having 
 acquainted  him  with  Adonijah's  conspiracy,  desired  him 
 to  name  her  son  his  successor,  according  to  the  oath  that 
 he  had  formerly  made  to  her.  While  she  was  thus  talk- 
 ing with  the  king,  Nathan  came  in,  and  confirmed  what 
 
 manifest  from  the  account  we  have  of  her  in  Scripture,  for 
 whereas  it  is  said,  that  '  the  king  knew  her  not,'  this  certainly 
 implies,  that  he  might  have  had  carnal  knowledge  of  her  without 
 sin  or  scandal;  whereas  it  is  said,  that  'she  lay  in  his  bosom,' 
 this  phrase  everywhere  in  Scripture  denotes  what  was  the  sole 
 privilege  of  a  wife,  concubine,  (Gen.  xvi.  5.  Dent.  xiii.  C.)  Nor 
 can  we  imagine  why  Adonijah's  desiring  her  in  marriage  had 
 been  so  heinous  a  crime  in  Solomon's  account,  had  she  not  been 
 the  king's  wife,  anil  he,  by  this  means,  had  designed  to  revive 
 his  pretensions  to  the  crown Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  It  is  remarked  of  David,  that  one  of  his  great  faults,  and 
 what  had  led  him  into  many  premunires,  was  his  extraordinary 
 indulgence  to  his  children,  of  whom  he  was  so  fond,  that  he 
 seems  to  have  overlooked  their  errors,  and  not  reproved  them, 
 though  he  was  bound  to  do  it,  by  a  plain  law,  (Lev.  xix.  17.) 
 and  could  not  but  know,  that  the  high  priest  Eli  was  severely 
 punished  for  this  neglect. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  In  2  Sam.vii.  12.  God  had  promised  David  by  Nathan,  that 
 OS  «<>iild  set  upon  his  throne  a  son  that  should  proceed  from  him, 
 which  plainly  signified,  that  none  of  his  sons  already  burn  were 
 to  In'  the  person;  and  in  1  Chron.  xxii.  9,  &c,  he  declared  by 
 the  same  prophet,  that  after  his  father,  Solomon  should  reign, 
 and  build  him  an  house.  This  Adonijah  could  not  but  know; 
 and  therefore  his  setting  himself  against  the  decree  of  heaven 
 made  his  sin  the  greater. —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  This  power  of  naming  a  successor  was  here  assumed  by 
 David,  and  tor  some  time  afterwards,  as  it  appears  by  the  story 
 of  his  grandson  Rehoboam,  was  continued  in  the  Jewish  state. 
 It  was  a  privilege  that,  in  after  ages,  was  granted  to  several  good 
 princes;  but  among  the  Israelites  it  did  not  prevail  long,  because 
 the  constitution  of  other  nations,  to  which  the  Israelites  affected 
 to  conform  themselves,  \\as  different. — Poole's  Annotations,  and 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  All  the  rest  of  David's  sons  were  wont  to  ride  upon  mules, 
 when  they  went  abroad,  (2  Sam.  xiii.  29,)  but  David  had  a  mule 
 peculiar  to  himself,  and  the  mounting  Solomon  upon  it  was  a 
 sufficient  declaration  in  his  favour.  For,  as  it  was  capital,  ac- 
 cording to  Maimonides,  to  ride  upon  the  king's  mule,  or  sit  on 
 his  throne,  or  handle  his  sceptre  without  his  order;  so,  on  the 
 contrary,  to  have  the  honour  to  ride  upon  the  king's  horse,  by 
 his  appointment,  was  accounted  the  highest  dignity  among  the 
 Persians,  as  appears  by  the  story  of  Mordecai,  in  the  book  of 
 Esther. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Some  commentators  are  of  opinion,  that  Gihon  was  the  same 
 with  the  fountain  of  Siloam ;  but  this  is  a  gross  mistake,  since 
 Gihon  was  manifestly  to  the  west,  and  Siloam  to  the  east  of  Jeru- 
 salem. There  is  little  or  no  certainty  likewise  in  the  notions  of 
 some  rabbins,  who  pretend  that,  in  ancient  times,  kings  were 
 always  anointed  by  the  side  of  a  fountain,  by  way  of  good  omen, 
 or  that  the  perpetual  running  of  the  stream  might  be  an  emblem 
 of  the  perpetuity  of  the  king's  reign.  In  the  history  of  Saul, 
 who  was  their  first  king,  and  of  David,  who  was  three  times 
 anointed,  we  find  no  mention  made  of  any  spring  or  fountain. 
 As  these  fountains,  however,  were  places  of  great  concourse,  for 
 there  were  not  many  in  Jerusalem,  the  chief  reason,  we  may 
 imagine,  why  David  ordered  Solomon  to  be  anointed  at  one  of 
 these,  was,  that  the  thing  might  be  done  as  publicly,  and  in  the 
 presence  of  as  many  spectators  as  possible. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 f  There  is  no  precept  in  the  law  to  make  the  altar  a  privileged 
 place:  but,  in  conformity  to  the  customs  of  other  nations,  the 
 Jews  seem  to  have  done  it.  Other  nations  had  certainly  this 
 custom,  as  appears  from  that  passage  in  Virgil,  "  In  such  words 
 lie  prayed,  grasping  the  altars."  (Eneid  6.)  And  it  seems  not 
 unlikely,  that  as  the  people,  when  they  came  into  the  land  of 
 Canaan,  had  cities  appointed  by  Gad,  whereunto  the  manslayer 
 might  tly;  so  while  they  continued  in  the  wilderness,  the  camp 
 dt  the  Levites  might  serve  for  the  same  purpose.  Nay,  from  the 
 words  in  Exodus  xxi.  14,  where  God  orders  the  wilful  murderer 
 '  to  be  taken  from  his  altar,  that  he  may  die,'  it  seems  unques- 
 tionably true,  that,  even  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  the  altar  continued 
 a  sanctuary  for  those  who  fled  unto  it:  but  then  the  question  is, 
 to  what  altar  Adonijah  tied  ?  Whether  to  the  brazen  one  which 
 Moses  made,  and  which  was  now  at  Gibeon,  or  that  which  his 
 father  had  lately  erected  in  the  thrashing-floor  of  Araunah  ?  It 
 is  expressly  said,  (I  Kings  i.  50,)  that  'he  caught  hold  of  the 
 horns  of  the  altar;'  but  we  can  hardly  suppose,  say  some,  that  the 
 altar  in  the  thrashing-floor,  which  was  run  up  in  such  haste  with 
 stones  and  turf,  was  made  in  that  figure.  But  what  should  hin- 
 der us  from  supposing,  that  as  David  had  built  a  place  for  the 
 reception  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant  on  mount  Sion,  he  had  like- 
 « isr  built  there  an  altar  for  the  oblation  of  the  daily  sacrifices,  in 
 the  exact  form  of  the  original  one  that  was  then  at  Gibeon,  and 
 that  it  was  to  this  altar,  and  neither  of  the  others,  that  Adonijah 
 betook  himself  for  refuge. — Le  Clerc's,  Patrick's,  and  Calmet's 
 i  'omntentaries. 
 
Sect.  V.J 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c 
 
 509 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix 
 
 made  his  obeisance  to  Solomon,  in  token  of  thankfulness 
 for  his  preservation,  and  in  acknowledgment  of  his  su- 
 periority. 
 
 This  inauguration  of  Solomon,  however,  was  a  little 
 too  hasty  and  private  ;  and  therefore  David,  intending  a 
 more  public  coronation,  ordered  all  the  princes  of  Israel 
 and  Judah,  and  all  the  officers  of  his  court  and  army  to 
 attend  him  :  when,  having  recovered  a  little  from  his  late 
 indisposition,  he  stood  up,  and  a  in  a  solemn  oration, 
 put  them  in  mind  of  God's  goodness  to  him,  and  of  his 
 designation  of  Solomon  to  succeed  in  his  throne,  and  to 
 build  him  a  temple.  And  therefore  since  he  had  reserved 
 that  honour  for  his  son,  he  earnestly  recommended  to 
 him  a  strict  fidelity  and  piety  towards  God,  and  a  zealous 
 discharge  of  this  important  trust.  To  this  purpose  he 
 gave  him  the  plan  which  he  had  made  for  the  execution  of 
 this  undertaking,  and  an  account  of  the  treasures  which 
 he  had  provided  for  the  perfecting  of  this  great  work. 
 He  gave  him  also  a  list  of  the  priests  and  Levites,  and 
 the  courses  in  which  they  were  to  wait  in  the  temple  :  he 
 gave  him  likewise  the  schemes,  and  regulations  of  the 
 officers  of  his  court,  of  the  civil  officers,  of  the  treasures, 
 and  of  the  superintendents  of  the  revenues,  belonging  to 
 the  crown  ;  and,  having  made  a  large  oblation  of  money 
 out  of  his  own  private  estate  for  the  building  of  the 
 temple,  by  his  example  and  persuasion,  he  prevailed 
 with  the  princes  and  the  people  to  contribute  according 
 to  their  abilities,  to  so  good  and  pious  a  work.  And 
 when  he  found  himself  successful  herein,  for  what  they 
 gave  upon  this  occasion  amounted  to  an  immense  sum, 
 he  concluded  all  with  a  solemn  thanksgiving  to  God, 
 and  a  prayer,  that  he  would  enable  Solomon  to  perfect 
 what  he  had  thus  designed  and  recommended. 
 
 a  The  speech  which  Josephus  puts  in  David's  mouth  upon  this 
 occasion,  is  to  this  purpose  :■ — "  I  am  now  to  inform  you,  my 
 countrymen  and  brethren,  that  I  have  had  it  a  long  time  in  my 
 thoughts  to  erect  a  temple  to  the  Lord,  and  have  treasured  up  a 
 mighty  mass  of  gold  and  silver  toward  the  charge  of  the  under- 
 taking; hut  it  has  pleased  God,  in  his  providence,  by  the  mouth 
 of  his  prophet  Nathan,  to  put  a  stop  to  my  design,  upon  this  con- 
 sideration, that  he  would  not  have  the  foundation  of  his  holy 
 house  laid  by  hands  that  have  been  dipped  in  blood,  which  mine 
 inevitably  have  been,  though  in  the  blood  of  your  enemies,  in  the 
 wars  I  have  been  forced  to  engage  in,  for  the  necessary  defence 
 ol  your  liberties:  but,  at  the  same  time  that  he  forbade  me  to  do 
 this,  the  prophet  informed  me,  that  God  had  transmitted  the  care 
 ot  the  whole  work  to  my  son  and  successor.  Our  father  Jacob, 
 as  you  all  well  know,  had  twelve  sons,  and  yet  Judah  was  chosen 
 by  common  consent  to  be  ruler  of  all  the  rest.  You  know  like- 
 wise, that  I  myself,  though  there  were  then  six  brothers  of  us,  was 
 advanced  by  God  to  the  government,  and  that  none  of  the  rest 
 thought  themselves  injured:  wherefore  I  must  now,  in  like  man- 
 ner, require  it  of  you,  and  of  all  your  sons,  that  you  submit 
 cheerfully  and  dutifully  to  my  son  Solomon,  and  that  ye  do  it 
 without  any  grumbling  or  civil  dissension,  because  it  is  from 
 God  s  immediate  command  and  commission  that  he  derives  his 
 authority.  Put  the  case  now,  that  God  should  have  set  a  stranger 
 over  you,  how  great  a  folly  and  madness  would  it  have  been  for 
 you  to  murmur  at  it  ?  But  how  thankful  ought  you  to  be,  for 
 the  choice  of  so  near  a  relation,  when  you  yourselves  are  partak- 
 ers of  the  honour  that  is  done  to  your  brother.  There  is  nothing 
 I  so  much  long  for,  as  to  see  God's  gracious  promises  take  a 
 speedy  effect,  and  the  whole  people  put  into  a  lasting  possession 
 ol  the  blessings  they  are  to  enjoy  under  the  reign  of  Solomon. 
 And  all  this,  my  dear  son,  (says  he,  turning  to  Solomon,)  will  be 
 made  good,  and  every  thing  succeed  to  your  wish,  so  long  as  you 
 govern  according  to  piety  and  justice,  with  a  respect  to  your 
 duty  both  towards  God  and  man,  upholding  a  reverence  to  the 
 laws,  and  treading  in  the  steps  of  your  forefathers:  but  whenever 
 you  pass  these  bounds,  there  is  notliing  but  ruin  anil  misery  t<> 
 be  expected.—  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  11. 
 
 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 The  next  day  there  was  a  very  great  and  solemn  sac- 
 rifice, and  much  rejoicing  among  the  people.  David, 
 upon  this  occasion,  had  Solomon  anointed  a  second 
 time,  in  a  more  public  manner ;  ordered  that  Zadok 
 should  be  the  high  priest  in  the  room  of  Abiathar,  who 
 had  publicly  espoused  the  interest  of  Adonijah,  and,  to 
 put  an  end  to  all  disputes  after  his  decease,  had  him  for 
 the  future  seated  on  a  royal  throne,  and  made  sole  re- 
 gent of  the  kingdom  during  his  lifetime. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  David,  perceiving  his  end  ap- 
 proaching, called  for  Solomon,  4  and  gave  him  his  last 
 exhortation,  which  was,  to  be  constant  in  his  duty  to 
 God,  *  'to  walk  in  his  ways,  and  c  keep  his  statutes,  and 
 his  commandments,  his  judgments,  and  his  testimonies, 
 that  he  might  prosper  in  all  that  he  did  ;'  and  then  de- 
 scending to  some  particular  affairs  relating  to  the  state, 
 he  charged  him  to  do  justice  to  Joab,  for  the  many  mur- 
 ders he  had  been  guilty  of;  to  show  kindness  to  the 
 sons  of  Barzillai,  for  the  support  their  father  had  given 
 him  in  his  distress  ;  and  though  he  himself  had  not  put 
 Shimei  to  death  for  his  past  offences,  yet  whenever  he 
 should  prove  guilty  again,  not  to  spare  him/'       Having 
 
 1  1  Kings  ii.  3 — 11. 
 
 b  Josephus  introduces  David  as  taking  his  last  leave  of  his  son 
 Solomon  in  these  words:  "And  now,  son,  I  am  going  to  my 
 fathers,  and  you,  that  I  leave  behind  me,  are  in  due  time  to 
 follow,  which  is  no  more  than  paying  a  common  debt  to  nature. 
 There  is  no  returning  from  the  grave,  and,  when  we  are  once 
 gone,  we  have  done  with  this  world  for  ever.  Wherefore,  while 
 I  am  yet  among  the  living,  and  before  it  be  too  late,  pray  let  me 
 remind  you  of  the  same  things  once  more.  Govern  your  subjects 
 according  to  justice.  Worship  that  God  from  whom  you  have 
 received  your  dignity  as  well  as  your  being,  as  you  are  bound  to 
 do.  Observe  his  precepts,  and  keep  his  laws,  as  they  have  been 
 handed  down  to  you  from  Moses,  and  have  a  care  that  you  never 
 forsake  them,  either  for  fear,  flattery,  or  any  passion  or  interest 
 whatsoever;  for  otherwise  you  can  never  hope  for  the  blessings 
 of  God's  favour  and  providence.  But  if  you  behave  yourself  with 
 reverence  and  submission  towards  God,  as  you  ought  to  do,  and  as 
 I  wish  you  may  do,  your  kingdom  will  be  established  to  yourself, 
 and  the  succession  of  it  continued  to  your  family  from  generation 
 to  generation. — Jetnisk  Antiquities,  b.  7.  c.  12. 
 
 c  Under  these  four  words  are  comprehended  all  the  laws  of 
 Moses.  Statutes  were  such  constitutions  as  had  their  foundation, 
 not  in  reason,  but  in  the  will  and  pleasure  of  God ;  such  was  the 
 prohibition  of  sowing  seeds  of  different  kinds  together,  &c.  Com- 
 mandments were  moral  duties,  that  were  founded  in  the  nature 
 of  things,  and  carried  their  reason  along  with  them :  as,  not  to 
 steal,  not  to  murder,  &c.  Judgments  were  the  laws  belonging 
 to  civil  government,  and  the  dealings  of  one  man  with  another; 
 such  are  all  those  laws  that  are  recorded  in  the  21st  and  following 
 chapters  of  Exodus;  and  testimonies  were  such  laws  as  preservi  d 
 the  remembrance  of  some  great  events,  and  testified  to  men  the 
 loving-kindness  of  the  Lord ;  such  as  the  sabbath,  the  passovi  r, 
 and  the  rest  of  the  feasts. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  1  Kings  ii.  9.  David  is  here  represented  in  our  English 
 version,  as  finishing  his  life  with  giving  a  command  to  Solomon 
 to  kill  Shimei.  The  behaviour  thus  imputed  to  the  king  and 
 prophet,  should  be  examined  very  carefully,  as  to  the  ground  it. 
 stands  upon.  When  the  passage  is  duly  considered,  it  will  ap- 
 pear highly  probable  that  an  injury  has  been  done  to  this  illus- 
 trious character.  It  is  not  uncommon  in  the  Hebrew  language 
 to  omit  the  negative  in  a  second  part  of  a  sentence,  and  to  con- 
 sider it  as  repeated,  when  it  has  been  once  expressed,  and  is  fol- 
 lowed by  the  connecting  particle.  The  necessity  of  so  very  con- 
 siderable an  alteration,  as  inserting  the  particle  not,  may  be  here 
 confirmed  by  some  other  instances.  Thus  Ps.  1.  5.  ix.  18. 
 xxxviii.  1.  If  then  there  are  in  fact  many  such  instances,  the 
 question  is,  whether  the  negative,  here  expressed  in  the  former 
 part  of  David's  command,  may  not  be  understood  as  to  be  re- 
 peated in  the  latter  part;  and  if  this  may  be,  a  strong  reason 
 will  be  added  why  it  should  be  so  interpreted.  The  passage 
 will  run  thus:   '  Behold,  thou  hast  with  thee  Shimei,  who  cursed 
 
510 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 thus  ended  his  exhortation  to  his  son,  in  a  short  time  after 
 he  died,  in  the  seventy-first  year  of  his  age,  after  he  had 
 reigned  forty  years  in  all,  a  seven  in  Hebron,  and  three 
 and  thirty  in  Jerusalem ;  and  *  was  buried  in  that  part 
 of  the  city  which  himself  had  taken  from  the  Jebusites, 
 and  called  after  his  own  name. 
 
 me,  but  I  swore  to  him  by  the  Lord,  saying,  I  will  not  put  thee 
 to  death  by  the  sword.  Now  therefore  hold  him  not  guiltless, 
 for  thou  art  a  wise  man,  and  knowest  what  thou  oughtest  to  do 
 unto  him,  but  bring  not  down  his  hoary  head  to  the  grave  with 
 blood.'  Now,  if  the  language  itself  will  admit  this  construction, 
 the  sense  thus  given  to  the  sentence  derives  a  very  strong  sup- 
 port from  the  context.  For,  how  did  Solomon  understand  this 
 charge  ?  Did  he  kill  Shimei  in  consequence  of  it  ?  Certainly 
 he  did  not.  For,  after  lie  had  commanded  Joab  to  be  slain,  in 
 obedience  to  his  father,  he  sends  for  Shimei,  and  knowing  that 
 Shimei  ought  to  be  well  watched,  confines  him  to  a  particular 
 spot  in  Jerusalem  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  1  Kings  ii.  36 — 
 42. — Kennicott's  Remarks,  p.  131. — Ed. 
 
 a  In  2  Sam.  v.  5.  it  is  said,  that  he  reigned  seven  years  and 
 six  months  in  Hebron,  which,  together  with  the  three  and  thirty 
 in  Jerusalem,  will  make  his  reign  to  be  in  all  forty  years  and  a 
 half.  To  solve  this  difficulty,  as  some  of  the  Jews  esteem  it, 
 they  have  devised  a  conceit,  that,  to  punish  David  for  his  adul- 
 tery with  Bathsheba,  God  sent  upon  him  a  leprosy  which  con- 
 tinued for  six  months,  in  all  which  time  he  was  looked  upon  as 
 dead,  and  not  accounted  to  reign.  But  they  never  considered, 
 that  these  months  were  part  of  his  reign  in  Hebron,  before  he 
 committed  that  adultery  in  Jerusalem.  The  true  account  of  the 
 matter  therefore  is,  that  it  is  very  usual  in  Scripture  computa- 
 tion, to  omit  smaller  sums,  and  only  reckon  by  a  round  number; 
 for  which  reason  these  six  months,  which  were  but  part  of  a 
 year,  are  not  taken  notice  of  in  the  account  both  of  Kings,  1 
 Kings  ii.  11.  and  Chronicles,  1  Chron.  xxix.  26,  27. — Patrick's 
 Commentary;  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 6  After  this  account  which  Josephus  gives  us  of  David's  seve- 
 ral speeches  before  his  death,  he  informs  us,  "  That  he  was  buried 
 at  Jerusalem  with  a  solemnity  of  royal  pomp  and  magnificence, 
 that  was  glorious  to  the  highest  degree,  and  that,  over  and  above 
 the  splendour  of  the  ceremony,  his  son  Solomon  deposited  in  his 
 monument  an  inestimable  treasure,  from  which,  when  Antiochus, 
 surnamed  the  Pious,  besieged  Jerusalem,  Hircanus,  the  high 
 priest,  took  the  sum  of  three  thousand  talents,  and  therewith 
 bribed  them  to  raise  the  siege ;  and,  that,  many  years  after  this, 
 Herod,  surnamed  the  Great,  took  another  immense  sum  from 
 thence,  which  enabled  him  to  rebuild  the  temple."  Among 
 several  nations  indeed  it  was  customary  to  bury,  along  with 
 princes  and  other  great  men,  various  things  of  value,  that  they 
 took  delight  in  while  they  lived.  The  Egyptians  were  used  to 
 this;  and  about  their  mummies  are  frequently  found  very  pre- 
 cious ornaments.  When  Alexander  the  Great  had  Cyrus's  tomb 
 opened,  there  was  found  therein  a  bed  of  gold,  a  very  rich  table 
 drinking  cups,  and  many  fine  vestments;  but  notwithstanding 
 all  this,  several  learned  men  look  upon  this  whole  account  of 
 Josephus  as  a  mere  fable.  For  to  what  purpose,  say  they,  did 
 Solomon  bury  all  this  treasure  under  ground,  when  he  had  so 
 much  occasion  for  it,  when  he  was  forced  to  borrow  money  of  the 
 king  of  Tyre,  and  burden  his  people  with  so  many  heavy  taxes 
 to  supply  his  excessive  expenses  ?  How  came  it,  that  the  other 
 ItingB  i,|  Judah,  who  were  frequently  put  to  the  necessity  of  strip- 
 ping the  temple  of  its  precious  furniture  to  satisfy  their  greedy 
 enemies,  never  once  adventured  to  lay  hold  on  this  treasure? 
 How  came  it  to  escape  the  hands  of  the  Chaldeans,  and  other 
 nations,  that  so  often  had  the  plundering  of  Jerusalem  ?  Or  why 
 should  Hircanus  violate  this  deposit,  which  his  predecessors 
 esteemed  more  sacred  than  the  holy  vessels  of  the  Lord  ?  These 
 are  questions  that  cannot  easily  be  resolved;  and  what  is  a  far- 
 ther confutation  of  this  story,  in  that  very  book,  from  whence 
 Josephus  is  BUpposed  to  have  taken  it,  it  is  never  once  said,  that 
 Hircanus  broke  open  David's  tomb.  The  words  of  that  spurious 
 author  are  that  "  Hircanus,  while  he  was  besieged  by  Antiochus, 
 opened  a  treasure  chamber  which  belonged  to  some  of  David's 
 descendants,  and  that,  after  he  had  taken  a  large  sum  of  money 
 out  of  it,  he  still  left  a  great  deal  in  it,  and  sealed  it  up  agaiu." 
 But  this  is  a  quite  different  thing,  and  has  no  manner  of  relation 
 to  the  sepulchre  of  David.     As  to  the  real  sepulchre  of  David, 
 
 When  David  was  dead,  Solomon  succeeded  to  the 
 throne  ;  and  to  secure  his  possession,  took  an  occasion, 
 in  a  short  time,  to  rid  himself  of  his  adversaries.  Ado- 
 nijah,  in  his  father's  lifetime,  had  made  bold  pretensions, 
 but  was  defeated,  and  pardoned  by  Solomon  upon  con- 
 dition that  he  would  become  a  good  subject,  and  give 
 him  no  farther  molestation  ;  but,  by  the  persuasion  of  Joab 
 and  Abiathar,  he  was  now  put  upon  another  bold  project, 
 which  was  to  desire  Abishag,  the  late  king's  concubine  in 
 his  old  age,  in  marriage,  hoping  thereby  to  strengthen 
 his  interest,  and  to  be  able  to  play  an  after  game  for  the 
 crown.  To  this  purpose  he  prevailed  with  Bathsheba, 
 the  queen-mother,  to  speak  to  the  king :  but  the  king 
 was  so  far  from  granting  his  request,  that  he  was  shocked 
 at  the  boldness  of  it,  and  suspecting  some  treasonable 
 design  at  the  bottom,  sent  immediately  and  had  him  put 
 to  death.  In  the  next  place  he  banished  Abiathar  ;  and, 
 having  inhibited  him  from  the  exercises  of  his  priestly 
 office,  confined  him  to  his  country  house,  and  put  Zadok 
 in  his  place  ;  and  when  he  heard  that  Joab  was  fled  into 
 the  tabernacle  for  sanctuary,  upon  his  refusing  to  come 
 out  at  his  command,  c  he  ordered  Benaiah,  whom   he 
 
 it  is  certain,  that  it  was  always  held  in  great  veneration  among 
 the  Jews.  It  was  in  being  in  St  Peter's  time,  for  so  he  tells 
 the  people,  (Acts  ii.  29.)  Dio  (in  Adriani  vita)  informs  us, 
 that  part  of  it  was  fallen  down  in  the  emperor  Adrian's  reign. 
 St  Jerome  relates,  that  he  himself  used  frequently  to  go  and  pray 
 at  it;  and  modern  travellers,  as  we  took  notice  before,  describe 
 some  magnificent  monuments  hewed  in  a  rock,  not  far  from 
 Jerusalem,  which  are  doubtless  veiy  ancient;  but  they  themselves 
 do  not  agree  that  they  were  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings  of  Judah. 
 It  is  somewhat  unaccountable,  however,  that  the  place  of  this 
 prince's  sepulchre,  which  both  the  Chaldeans  and  the  Romans, 
 when  they  took  Jerusalem,  thought  proper  to  spare,  should  now 
 be  so  entirely  lost  that  we  cannot  find  the  least  remains  of  it. 
 But  though  providence  has  so  ordered  it,  that  the  place  of  David's 
 sepulchre  should  not  at  present  be  known,  yet  there  does  not 
 want  an  eternal  monument  of  his  most  excellent  genius.  The 
 hook  of  Psalms,  which  for  the  most  part  was  composed  by  him, 
 does  publish  the  glory  of  its  author,  more  than  the  most  pompous 
 elogies ;  and  the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  (chap,  xlvii.  2,  &c.)  has 
 consecrated  this  epitaph  to  his  memory,  which  is  more  durable 
 than  either  marble  or  brass: — '  As  the  fat  is  taken  away  from  the 
 peace-offering,  so  was  David  chosen  out  of  the  people  of  Israel. 
 He  played  with  lions  as  with  kids,  and  with  bears  as  with  lambs ; 
 he  slew  a  giant  when  he  was  young,  and  took  away  reproach 
 from  the  people ;  for  he  called  upon  the  most  high  Lord,  and 
 he  gave  strength  to  his  right  hand  to  slay  this  mighty  warrior, 
 and  to  set  up  the  horn  of  his  people.  So  the  people  honoured  him 
 with  ten  thousands,  and  praised  him  in  blessings  of  the  Lord, 
 for  he  destroyed  the  enemies  on  every  side,  and  brought  to  nought 
 the  Philistines,  his  adversaries: — In  all  his  works  he  praised 
 the  Holy  One  most  high,  and  blessed  the  Lord  with  words  of 
 glory: — He  set  singers  also  before  the  altar,  that  by  their  voices 
 they  might,  make  sweet  melody,  and  daily  sing  praises  in  their 
 songs.  He  beautified  their  feasts,  and  set  their  solemn  times  in 
 perfect  order: — The  Lord  took  away  his  sins,  and  exalted  his 
 horn  for  ever;  he  gave  him  a  covenant  of  kings,  and  a  throne  of 
 glory  in  Israel.' — Calmct's  Commentary,  and  his  Dictionary 
 under  the  word  David, 
 
 c  It  was  formerly  very  customary  among  princes,  to  employ 
 their  officers,  or  greatest  confidants,  in  such  like  executions. 
 Among  the  Uomans,  the  soldiers  were  always  the  persons  who 
 carried  to  prison,  to  torture,  or  to  execution,  such  as  were  found 
 guilty  of  any  ofl'ence;  and  this  Tertullian  makes  an  argument  to 
 dissuade  Christians  from  engaging  in  the  wars,  lest  thereby  they 
 should  be  obliged  to  imprison,  punish,  or  execute  malefactors.  In 
 Dan.  ii.  21.  we  read  that  Nebuchadnezzar  'sent  Arioch,  who 
 was  chief  commander  of  his  troops,  to  destroy  the  wise  men  of 
 Babylon,'  because  they  could  not  interpret  his  dream;  and  there- 
 fore we  need  less  wonder,  that  we  find  Solomon  employing  Be- 
 naiah, the  captain  of  his  guard,  on  the  like  office.     But  whether 
 
Sect.  V.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &o. 
 
 A.  M.  v&8l.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  103G.  2  SAM.  xix-1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 511 
 
 afterwards  made  general  in  his  room,  to  go  in,  and  kill 
 him  there.  But  when  Shimei,  who  deserved  the  like  fate 
 for  his  gross  abuse  of  the  late  king,  was  brought  before 
 him,  he  only  a  confined  him  to  Jerusalem  as  a  prisoner 
 at  large,  but  with  a  strict  injunction  not  to  move  out  of 
 the  place,  upon  pain  of  death.  Upon  this  condition  he 
 thankfully  accepted  of  his  life,  and,  for  some  time,  kept 
 within  the  bounds  of  his  confinement ;  but  having  some 
 slaves,  who  had  run  away,  and  had  entered  themselves 
 into  *  the  service  of  Achish,  king  of  Gath,  he  imprudently 
 went  to  reclaim  them,  and,  upon  his  return,  by  Solomon's 
 order  was  put  to  death. 
 
 Having  thus  secured  his  kingdom  at  home,  by  con- 
 fining, or  cutting  off  the  heads  of  the  faction  that  was 
 against  him,  Solomon  bethought  himself  of  strengthening 
 his  interest  abroad  by  foreign  alliances  ;  and  to  this 
 purpose,  married  the  daughter  of  c  Pharaoh  king  of 
 Egypt,  and  appointed  her  at  first  an  apartment  in  his 
 own  palace  ;  but  after  he  had  finished  the  temple,  built 
 her  a  very  stately  palace  adjoining  to  his  own,  which 
 she  badly  deserved  ;  for,  in  process  of  time,  this  woman, 
 
 lie  did  not  first  drag  Joab  from  the  altar  before  he  slew  him,  for 
 fear  of  polluting  the  holy  place  with  blood,  or  whether  Solomon 
 did  not  rather  think  fit  to  have  him  killed  even  at  the  altar,  and 
 let  all  men  see,  that  no  place,  though  ever  so  sacred,  should 
 secure  any  man  from  the  hand  of  justice,  commentators  have  not 
 agreed. — Calmet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 a  Shimei,  as  we  read,  was  a  very  powerful  man.  When  he 
 came  to  meet  king  David,  and  to  beg  pardon  for  his  offence,  he 
 had  a  thousand  of  his  own  tribe  to  accompany  him,  (2  Sam.  xix. 
 17.)  and  therefore  Solomon  might  think  proper  to  confine  him  to 
 the  city  of  Jerusalem,  that  being  removed  from  the  place  where 
 his  family  and  interest  lay,  to  one  where  he  was  but  a  stranger, 
 and  sufficiently  odious  for  his  former  ill  treatment  of  the  late 
 king,  he  might  be  incapable  of  raising  any  tumults  or  seditions ; 
 and  that,  being  in  this  public  theatre,  all  his  words  and  actions 
 might  be  narrowly  observed,  which,  considering  his  busy  and 
 wicked  temper,  might  give  Solomon  a  fair  advantage  against  him; 
 and  as  the  manner  of  some  is,  the  very  prohibition  itself  might 
 probably  inflame  his  desire  to  transgress  it.' — Poole's  Annot. 
 
 b  Achish  had  been  so  great  a  friend  to  David,  that,  though 
 David  had  conquered  the  Philistines,  he  suffered  him  still  to  re- 
 tain the  title  of  a  king,  and  only  to  be  tributary  to  him ;  so  that 
 there  was  a  friendly  correspondence  between  this  city  and  Jerusa- 
 lem, insomuch  that  Shimei  might  easily  hear,  by  somebody  or 
 other  that  had  been  at  Gath,  that  his  servants  were  there.  These 
 servants,  in  all  probability,  were  such  as  he  had  purchased  with 
 a  considerable  sum  of  money,  and  their  running  away  was  not 
 only  a  loss  but  a  great  affront  likewise  to  their  master;  and  there- 
 fore partly  out  of  rage,  and  partly  through  covetousness,  he  under- 
 took this  dangerous  journey,  presuming  that  a  thing  which  might 
 be  done  secretly  and  speedily,  would  never  come  to  Solomon's 
 ears;  that  in  the  space  of  three  years'  time,  Solomon  might  have 
 forgot  his  injunction;  or  that  if  he  remembered  it  he  would  not 
 be  so  rigid  as  to  put  it  in  execution;  especially  since  he  went  out 
 of  Jerusalem,  not  through  wantonness,  or  any  contempt  of  autho- 
 rity, but  merely  to  recover  what  he  had  lost,  which,  he  might 
 think,  wasa  thing  excusable. — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 c  It  may  seem  somewhat  strange,  that  in  all  the  history  of  the 
 Jews,  from  the  time  of  Moses  to  this  of  Solomon,  no  mention 
 should  be  made  of  the  kings  of  Egypt,  as  if  they  had  no  concern  in 
 the  affairs  of  Canaan,  but  were  wholly  diverted  some  other  way: 
 but  for  this,  their  own  historians  account,  when  they  tell  us,  that, 
 during  this  space  of  time,  the  Egyptian  kings  did  nothing  worth 
 recording.  {Biodor.  Biblioth.  b.  1.  p.  29.)  All  these  kings  of 
 ^'gypt  were  called  Pharaohs  ;  but  Pharaoh  was  not  a  proper  name, 
 but  a  title  of  dignity  only,  which  imported  the  same  as  sultan  or 
 emperor.  They  had,  besides  this,  other  names;  and  Clemens 
 Alexandrinus,  in  a  passage  taken  from  Alexander  Polyhistor,  tells 
 us,  that  the  proper  name  of  this  Egyptian  king,  whose  daughter 
 Solomon  married,  was  Vaphres. — Le  Clerc's  and  Calmet's  Cum- 
 meutariis. 
 
 among  others,  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  perversion 
 of  Solomon. 
 
 He  began  his  reign  however  with  a  good  sense  of  reli- 
 gion upon  his  mind  ;  for  which  end,  taking  the  chief  of 
 the  officers  and  nobility  along  with  him,  he  went  to 
 Gibeon,  where  the  original  tabernacle  and  altar,  that 
 were  made  in  the  wilderness,  were  kept,  and  there  offered 
 a  thousand  sacrifices,  in  acknowledgment  of  God's  kind- 
 ness to  him,  in  placing  him  upon  his  father's  throne.  In 
 the  night  following,  when  God  appeared  to  him  in  a 
 vision,  and  promised  to  grant  whatever  he  should  ask, 
 he  begged  him  to  give  him  d  a  wise  and  understanding 
 heart,  and  e  considering  his  youth  and  inexperience,  such 
 qualities  as  were  necessary  for  the  due  government  of 
 the  people  committed  to  his  charge ;  which  petition 
 God  was  so  well  pleased  with,  that,  over  and  above 
 the  wisdom  which  he  asked,  he  promised  to  give  him 
 such  affluence  of  riches  and  honour,  as  no  king  in  his 
 days  should  be  able  to  equalize.  When  Solomon  awaked 
 out  of  sleep,  he  perceived  that  this  was  a  dream  sent 
 from  God  ;  and  therefore  returning  to  Jerusalem,  he  pre- 
 sented himself  before  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  which  was 
 placed  in  a  tabernacle,  that  David  had  made  for  it,  and 
 there  he  offered  sacrifices  in  abundance. 
 
 Solomon,  as  we  said,  had  obtained  of  God  a  promise 
 of  the  gift  of  wisdom  ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  had 
 an  opportunity  of  showing  it,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of 
 all  his  subjects.   /  Two  women,  who  both  lived  together 
 
 d  Hereupon  some  Jewish  annotators  have  observed  that  though 
 Solomon,  in  his  great  modesty,  might  request  of  God  no  more 
 than  the  gift  of  government,  or,  as  he  expresses  it,  '  an  under- 
 standing heart  to  judge  the  people,  and  to  discern  between  good 
 and  evil,'  (1  Kings iii.  9.)  yet  God,  out  of  his  abundant  grace,  gave 
 him  a  general  knowledge  of  all  other  things,  as  the  following  history 
 informs  us;  and  that,  whereas  other  men  gather  their  knowledge 
 from  study  and  observation,  Solomon  had  his  by  an  immediate 
 inspiration  from  God ;  insomuch  that  •  he,  who  went  to  bed  as 
 ignorant  as  other  men,  awaked  in  the  morning  like  an  angel  of 
 God.'  But  though  his  knowledge  of  things  was,  in  a  great  mea- 
 sure infused,  yet  he  did  not  therefore  neglect  his  study.  '  He 
 gave  his  heart  to  seek,  and  search  out  by  wisdom,  concerning  all 
 things  under  the  sun ;'  in  which  search,  as  he  himself  testifies, 
 (Eccles.  i.  13.)  he  took  no  small  pains:  so  that  his  gifts  extra- 
 ordinary did  not  supersede  the  use  of  other  means  in  the 
 acquisition  of  knowledge ;  but  by  application  and  experience  he 
 perfected  what  he  had  so  advantageously  received  from  the  hands 
 of  God. — Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  The  words  of  Solomon  himself  are,  '  I  am  but  a  little  child ; 
 I  know  not  how  to  go  out,  or  how  to  come  in,  (1  Kings  iii.  7.) 
 From  whence  some  have  inferred,  that  he  was  not  above  twelve 
 years  old  when  he  spake  them,  but  this  must  be  a  gross  mis- 
 computation.  His  father,  when  he  left  the  kingdom  to  him,  calls 
 him  'a  wise  man,'  (livings  ii.  6,9.)  The  foregoing  story 
 shows,  that  he  had  already  sat  some  time  on  the  throne ;  and 
 therefore  he  calls  himself  a  child,  not  in  respect  of  his  years,  for 
 most  agree  that  he  was  twenty  when  he  began  to  reign,  but  his 
 skill  in  governing  the  people,  and  managing  the  affairs  of  state. 
 This  was  a  modest  expression  in  Solomon ;  but  it  is  an  observa- 
 tion of  Aristotle,  in  his  book  of  politics,  that  young  men  are 
 unfit  for  government,  because  their  consultive  power  is  imper- 
 fect; which  though  it  may  not  be  a  general  rule,  was  delivered 
 by  Solomon  himself,  in  his  more  mature  years,  for  a  maxim :  for 
 '  Wo  to  the  land,'  says  he,  (Eccles.  x.  16.)  '  whose  king  is  a 
 child. ' Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 /"These  two  women  are  said  in  the  text  to  bo  harlots;  but  the 
 Hebrew  word,  as  we  took  notice  in  the  case  of  Rahab,  may 
 equally  signify  a  hostess,  or  one  who  kept  a  house  of  public 
 entertainment ;  and  that  it  is  so  to  be  taken  here,  we  have  these 
 reasons  to  presume: — That  as  all  public  prostitution  was  severely 
 forbidden  by  the  law,  Deut.  xxiii.  17.  women  of  this  infamou* 
 character  durst  not  have  presented  themselves  l»foie  so  just  and 
 
512 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  C.  103G.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 A.  M.  2931    A.  C.  1023;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  43 
 
 iii  one  house,  were  brought  to  bed  about  the  same  time,  j  places  his  dominions  extended  beyond  the  Euphrates, 
 and  one  had  overlaid  her  child.   She  who  found  the  dead 
 
 child  by  her,  accused  the  other  of  having  stolen  away 
 her  living  child,  and  left  her  dead  one  in  its  place  :  the 
 other  pertinaciously  denied  the  thing ;  so  that  the  ques- 
 tion was,  '  To  whom  did  this  living  child  belong?'  And 
 to  determine  this,  Solomon  commanded  some  that  stood 
 by,  to  take  and  a  cut  the  child  in  two,  and  to  give  to 
 ea  ch  woman  a  half  ;  whereupon  the  real  mother  begs  that 
 the  child  may  be  saved,  even  though  it  be  given  to  her 
 ad  versary  ;  but  the  pretended  one  is  clearly  for  dividing 
 it  ;  which  gave  Solomon  a  full  conviction,  that  she  who 
 expressed  a  tenderness  and  compassion  for  the  child, 
 was  its  true  mother,  and  accordingly  ordered  it  to  be 
 given  her. 
 
 The  wisdom  of  the  king  soon  shed  a  happy  influence 
 over  all  his  dominions,  and  every  subject  was,  in  some 
 degree  or  other,  made  partaker  of  it.  All  Judah  and 
 Israel  lived  in  the  greatest  security;  and  all  the  neigh- 
 bouring nations  either  paid  him  tribute,  or  were  his 
 friends  and  allies.  He  ruled  over  all  the  countries  and 
 kingdoms  *  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Nile,  and  in  many 
 
 so  wise  a  king;  that  women  of  this  lewd  behaviour  seldom  do 
 become  mothers  of  children,  and  when  they  chance  to  have  any, 
 are  not  so  solicitous  tor  their  preservation,  but  rather  rejoice  when 
 they  have  got  rid  of  them.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  then, 
 that  these  women  were  common  harlots ;  and  yet  it  is  generally 
 thought  that  they  were  both  unmarried  persons  and  guilty  of  for- 
 nication, because  no  mention  is  made  of  their  husbands,  whose 
 office  it  was,  if  they  had  any,  to  contest  the  matter  for  their 
 wives. — Poole's  Annotations,'  and  Cahnet's  Commentary. 
 
 a  Solomon  knew  at  once  that  the  only  sign  that  would  discover 
 the  true  mother,  would  be  her  aiieetion,  and  compassion,  and  ten- 
 deraess  for  her  child;  and  therefore,  in  order  to  distinguish  between 
 tiie  two,  his  business  was  to  make  trial  of  this;  and  if  we  suppose, 
 tiiat  when  he  commanded  the  child  to  be  divided,  he  spake  with 
 a  sedate  countenance,  and  seeming  earnestness,  as  the  true 
 mother's  petition  to  the  king  makes  it  apparent  that  he  did,  then 
 we  may  suppose  farther,  not  only  the  two  women,  but  all  the 
 people  present  with  horror  and  admiration,  expecting  the  execu- 
 tion, of  the  thing;  which,  when  it  ended  in  so  just  a  decision, 
 quite  contrary  to  what  they  looked  for,  raised  joy  in  every 
 breast,  and  gave  a  more  advantageous  commendation  to  the  judge: 
 and  yet  Abarbinel,  the  Jewish  commentator,  thinks,  that  all  this 
 was  no  great  proof  of  Solomon's  extraordinary  wisdom,  nor  could 
 it  beget  that  fear  or  reverence  which  the  text  says  (1  Kings  iii. 
 2S.)  it  procured  to  his  person.  His  opinion  therefore  is,  that 
 Solomon  made  a  discovery  of  the  truth  antecedent  to  this  experi- 
 ment; that  by  observing  the  countenance,  the  manner  of  speech, 
 and  all  the  motions  of  the  women,  he  discerned  the  secret  of  their 
 heart,  and  penetrated  to  the  bottom  of  the  business;  and  that  his 
 commanding  the  child  to  be  divided  afterwards,  was  only  to 
 notify  to  the  company,  what  he  before  had  discovered.  How- 
 ever this  be,  it  may  not  be  improper,  upon  this  occasion,  to  men- 
 tion an  instance  or  two  out  of  profane  history,  of  a  singular 
 address,  though  much  inferior  to  this,  in  discovering  such 
 secrets  as  seemed  to  be  past  finding  out.  To  this  purpose, 
 Suetonius,  in  his  life  of  Claudian,  chap.  15.,  tells  us,  how  that 
 <  mperor  discovered  a  woman  to  be  the  mother  of  a  young  man, 
 whom  she  would  not  own  for  her  son,  by  commanding  her  to  be 
 married  to  him;  fur  the  horror  of  committing  incest  obliged  her 
 to  declare  the  truth;  and  in  like  manner,  Diodorus  Siculus 
 relates,  how  Ariopharnes,  kingof  the  Thracians,  being  appointed 
 to  arbitrate  between  three  men,  who  all  pretended  to  be  sons  of 
 the  king  oi  the  Cimmerians,  and  claimed  the  succession,  found 
 out  the  true  son  and  heir,  by  ordering  them  to  shoot  each  man 
 his  arrow  into  the  dead  king's  body ;  which  one  of  them  refusing 
 to  do,  was  deemed  the  true  claimant.— Poole's  Annotations: 
 Patrick  s  and  Cahnet's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  And  Solomon  reigned  over  all 
 kingdoms,  from  the  river  unto  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  and 
 unto  the  border  of  Egypt,'  (I  Kings  iv.  21.)  for  the  bounds  of 
 his  kingdom  were  to  the  east,  the  Euphrates,  which  is  here, 
 
 He  had  a  great  number  of  horses  and  chariots  of  war. 
 Instances  of  his  wisdom  were  as  numerous  as  the  sands 
 of  the  sea,  and  in  learning  and  knowledge  he  c  surpassed 
 all  the  orientals,  and  the  Egyptians.  In  a  word,  he  was 
 the  wisest  of  mankind,  and  his  reputation  was  spread 
 through  all  nations.  He  composed,  or  collected,  d  three 
 thousand  proverbs,  and  a  e  thousand  and  five  poems. 
 
 and  in  other  places  of  Scripture,  called  the  river,  without  any 
 addition:  to  the  west,  the  country  of  the  Philistines,  which  bor- 
 dered upon  the  Mediterranean  sea;  and  to  the  south,  Egypt. 
 So  that  Solomon  had  tributary  to  him  the  kingdoms  of  Syria, 
 Damascus,  Moah,  and  Amnion,  which  lay  between  Euphrates 
 and  the  Mediterranean ;  as  indeed,  without  such  a  number  of 
 tributary  kingdoms,  we  cannot  conceive  how  the  country  of  Is- 
 rael could  have  furnished  such  a  constant  supply  of  provisions 
 and  other  things  necessary  for  the  support  of  this  prince's  gran- 
 deur.— Patrick's  and  Cahnet's  Commentaries. 
 
 c  There  were  three  nations  in  the  east  of  Canaan,  that  were 
 very  famous  for  their  wisdom  and  erudition;  the  Chaldeans,  be- 
 yond the  Euphrates;  the  Persians,  beyond  the  Tigris;  and  the 
 Arabians  on  the  nearer  side  of  the  Euphrates ;  a  little  towards 
 the  south.  But  whether  the  PerMans  and  Chaldeans  were  re- 
 markable for  their  learning  in  Solomon's  day,  is  much  doubted 
 among  commentators.  The  book  of  Job  sufficiently  shows,  that 
 the  Arabians,  for  of  that  nation  was  Job  and  his  friends,  were 
 famous  for  their  learning  in  ancient  times ;  and,  as  to  the  Chal- 
 deans and  other  oriental  people,  since  the  sons  of  Noah  took  up 
 their  habitation  about  Babylon,  and  the  neighbouring  countries, 
 it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  where  mankind,  first  began  to 
 settle  themselves  into  regular  societies,  there  arts  and  sciences 
 first  began  to  appear.  The  Egyptians  however  pretend  to  a 
 precedency  in  this,  and  several  other  accomplishments.  They 
 say,  that  the  Chaldeans  received  the  principles  of  philosophy  at 
 first  from  a  colony  that  came  from  Egypt,  as  Diodorus  indeed 
 makes  mention  of  such  a  colony,  conducted  by  Belus.  But  the 
 Chaldeans,  on  the  other  hand,  maintain,  that  from  them  it  was, 
 that  the  Egyptians  received  their  first  instructions,  and  accord- 
 ing to  some,  that  Abraham  was  the  person  who  first  communi- 
 cated to  the  Chaldeans  the  knowledge  of  astronomy,  and  other 
 sciences.  However  this  be,  Solomon  received  from  God  a  per- 
 fect knowledge  of  all  that  useful  and  solid  learning,  for  which 
 the  eastern  people,  and  the  Egyptians,  were  justly  famed ;  for,  as 
 it  follows,  he  was  a  great  moral  philosopher,  a  great  natural 
 philosopher,  and  an  excellent  poet. — Patrick's  and  Cahnet's 
 Com  menta  ries. 
 
 d  Josephus,  who  loved  to  magnify  every  thing  that  concerned 
 Solomon,  instead  of  three  thousand  proverbs,  tells  us,  that  Solo- 
 mon composed  three  thousand  books  of  proverbs.  The  greater 
 certainly  is  our  loss,  if  the  thing  were  credible,  because  all  the 
 proverbs  of  Solomon,  that  we  have  now,  are  comprised  in  the 
 book  that  goes  under  that  name,  and  in  his  Ecclesiastes ;  and  yet 
 some  learned  critics  are  of  opinion,  that  the  nine  first  chapters  of 
 the  book  of  Proverbs  were  not  of  Solomon's  composure,  and  that 
 the  number  of  proverbs  which  properly  belong  to  him,  is  no  more 
 than  six  hundred  and  fifty. — Grotius's  Annotations;  and  Cahnet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 c  These,  one  would  think,  were  poems  enough  for  a  person 
 that  had  so  much  other  business  as  king  Solomon  had ;  but  Jose- 
 phus, who  is  never  content,  makes  him  the  author  of  so  many 
 volumes  of  poetical  compositions ;  and  the  Septuagint  indeed,  as 
 well  as  other  interpreters,  make  the  number  of  them  to  be  no 
 less  than  five  thousand  songs  or  odes.  But  of  all  this  number, 
 we  have  none  remaining  but  the  Song  of  Songs,  as  it  is  called, 
 except  the  hundred  and  twenty-sixth  psalm,  which  in  its  Hebrew 
 title,  is  ascribed  to  Solomon,  may  be  supposed  to  be  one  of  these. 
 The  Psalter  of  Solomon,  which  contains  eighteen  psalms,  a  work 
 that  was  found  in  Greek  in  the  library  of  Augsburg,  and  has  been 
 translated  into  Latin  by  John  Lewis  de  la  Cerda,  is  supposed  by 
 the  learned  to  be  none  of  Solomon's,  but  of  some  Hellenistical 
 Jew,  much  conversant  in  reading  the  sacred  authors,  and  who 
 had  composed  them  in  imitation  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  whose 
 style  he  closely  pursued,  and  had  inserted  several  passages  of  the 
 prophets,  especially  of  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel,  which  he  accommo- 
 dated well  enough  to  his  purpose.  However  this  be,  these 
 eighteen   psalms  were  not  unknown  to  the  ancients;  for  they 
 
Srct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAFLITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 513 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAL 
 
 He  knew  the  virtue  of  all  plants  and  trees,  from  the 
 highest  to  the  lowest ;  and  in  his  books  treated  of  the 
 nature  of  a  all  kinds  of  beasts,  and  birds,  and  reptiles, 
 and  fishes ;  insomuch,  that  °  there  was  a  concourse  of 
 strangers  from  all  countries  to  hear  his  wisdom,  and  am- 
 bassadors from  the  most  remote  princes  that  had  heard 
 of  his  fame. 
 
 As  soon  as  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  understood  that  So- 
 lomon was  c  made  king  of  Israel,  rf  he  sent  ambassadors 
 
 were  formerly  in  the  famous  Alexandrian  manuscript,  which  is 
 with  us,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  index  which  is  still  to  be  found 
 at  the  end  of  the  New  Testament,  though  the  psalms  themselves 
 have  either  been  torn  out  of  the  book,  or  lost  by  some  accident. 
 he  Clerc's  and  C'a/met's  Commentary,  and  his  Dictionary,  under 
 the  word  Solomon. 
 
 a  The  several  hooks  which  treated  of  the  nature  and  virtue  of 
 animals,  as  well  as  plants,  are  supposed  to  have  been  lost  in  the 
 Babylonish  captivity;  but  Eusebius,  as  he  is  quoted  by  Anasta- 
 sius,  informs  us,  that  king  Hezekiah,  seeing  the  abuse  which  his 
 subjects  made  of  Solomon's  works,  by  placing  too  much  confi- 
 dence in  the  remedies  which  he  prescribed,  and  the  natural 
 secrets  which  he  discovered,  thought  proper  to  suppress  them  all. 
 Notwithstanding  this,  since  his  time,  many  bocks,  concerning 
 the  secrets  of  magic,  medicine,  and  enchantments,  have  appeared 
 under  the  name  of  this  prince ;  and  several  pieces  have  been 
 quoted,  such  as  '  The  instructions  of  Solomon  to  his  son  Reho- 
 boam ;  The  testament  of  Solomon ;  The  books  of  the  throne  of 
 Solomon;  The  books  of  magic,  composed  by  the  demons,  under 
 the  name  of  Solomon ;  The  Clavicula,  or  key  of  Solomon ;  The 
 ring  of  Solomon ;  The  contradiction  of  Solomon,'  &c,  which  were 
 most  of  them  very  wicked  and  pernicious  tracts,  to  which  the 
 authors  prefixed  tins  great  name,  to  give  them  more  credit  and 
 sanction.  It  is  somewhat  strange,  however,  that  Josephus  should 
 inform  us,  that  Solomon  composed  books  of  enchantments,  and 
 several  manners  of  exorcisms,  or  of  driving  away  devils,  so  that 
 they  could  return  no  more ;  and  that  he  should  further  assure  us, 
 that  himself  had  seen  experiments  of  it  by  one  Eleazar,  a  Jew, 
 who,  in  the  presence  of  Vespasian,  his  sons,  and  the  officers  of 
 his  army,  cured  several  that  were  possessed. — Jewish  Antiq.  b. 
 8.  c.  2.  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Solomon. 
 
 b  It  is  a  conceit  of  one  of  the  Jewish  interpreters,  that  all  the 
 kings  of  the  neighbouring  countries  went  to  hear  the  wisdom  of 
 Solomon,  and  that,  upon  their  return,  their  subjects  came  to 
 them  to  hear  what  he  had  said ;  but  as  we  hear  of  none  but  the 
 queen  of  Sheba  who  came  to  visit  Solomon,  we  cannot  but  think, 
 that  if  any  other  crowned  heads  resorted  to  him,  the  history 
 would  have  recorded  them  as  well  as  her.  The  words  denote  no 
 more,  than  that  the  kings  of  all  the  neighbouring  nations  sent 
 their  ambassadors,  and  people  of  every  land,  that  had  heard  of 
 Solomon's  fame,  came  to  see  him;  for  "no  spectacle"  says  an 
 ingenious  author,  "  is  more  lovely  and  grateful,  than  a  wise  and 
 good  king;  all  men  flock  to  see  him,  and  to  partake  of  his  pious 
 and  prudent  mind.  They  that  see  him  are  loath  to  leave  him, 
 and  they  that  hear  of  him  are  as  desirous  to  see  him  as  children 
 are  to  find  their  unknown  father." — Dion  Prusceus  Oral,  de 
 Regno, 
 
 c  The  fourth  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  Kings  is  chiefly  taken 
 lip  in  recording  the  prime  ministers  and  officers  of  Solomon's 
 court,  the  compass  and  extent  of  ius  kingdom,  the  happiness  and 
 security  of  his  subjects,  the  pomp  and  magnificence  of  his  living, 
 and  the  excellence  of  his  own  wisdom  and  erudition. 
 
 d  This  Hiram  was  doubtless  the  son  of  that  other  Iliram,  who 
 sent  David  timber  and  artificers  wherewith  to  build  his  palace: 
 for  if,  according  to  Josephus,  the  temple  was  built  in  the  twelfth 
 year  of  Hiram's  reign,  and  the  fourth  of  Solomon's,  this  Hiram 
 could  not  be  the  same  with  him  who  sent  David  men  and  mate- 
 rials; because  that  Hiram  was  upou  the  throne  when  David  took 
 Jerusalem,  which  happened  to  be  three  and  thirty  years,  before 
 Solomon  began  his  reign.  There  are  two  letters  which  passed 
 between  this  Hiram  and  king  Solomon,  recorded  by  Josephus, 
 and  for  the  anthenticness  of  which  he  appeals  both  to  the  Jewish 
 and  Tyrian  records,  that  are  to  this  effect: 
 
 "  King  Solomon  to  King  Hiram,  greeting. 
 "  Be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  King,  that  my  father  David  had 
 it  a  long  time  in  his  mind  and  purpose,  to  erect  a  temple  to  the 
 
 KS,  A.M.  4375.  A.  C.  103G.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 to  him  to  condole  his  father's  death,  and  congratulate 
 him  upon  his  accession  to  the  throne  ;  and,  in  a  short 
 time  after,  Solomon,  in  return  sent  an  embassy  to  him, 
 desiring  him  to  supply  him  with  wood  and  workmen,  and 
 to  lend  him  his  assistance  in  building  the  temple  of  the 
 Lord.  Hiram  very  readily  complied  with  his  desire, 
 and  sent  him  word,  that  he  would  order  cedar  trees,  and 
 fir  trees  to  be  cut  down  upon  mount  Libanus ;  that  his 
 people  should  put  them  on  floats,  and  bring  them  by 
 sea  to  the  harbour  of  Joppa;  and  that  from  thence  So- 
 lomon (who  contracted  to  give  Hiram  such  a  quantity  of 
 wheat,  and  wine,  and  oil,  &c,  every  year,  for  the  main- 
 tenance of  his  household  and  workmen)  might  send  and 
 fetch  them  to  Jerusalem. 
 
 All  things  being  thus  agreed  on,  the  preparations  for 
 the  building  of  the  temple  went  on  apace.  Seventy 
 thousand  proselytes,  who  were  the  remains  of  the  ancient 
 Canaanites,  Solomon  employed  in  carrying  burdens  upon 
 their  shoulders  ;  fourscore  thousand  in  cutting  stone  out 
 of  the  quarries  ;  and  three  thousand  six  hundred  in  over- 
 seeing the  work.  Of  his  own  subjects,  he  sent  thirty 
 thousand  to  work  with  the  king  of  Tyre's  men  in  the 
 quarries  of  Libanus  :  and,  to  finish  the  inner  part  of  the 
 temple,  as  well  as  frame  some  of  its  choicest  vessels, 
 Hiram  e  sent  him  a  most  skilful  artist  of  his  own  name, 
 
 Lord ;  but  being  perpetually  in  war  in  his  days,  and  under  a  ne- 
 cessity of  clearing  his  hands  of  his  enemies,  and  making  them 
 all  his  tributaries,  before  he  could  attend  this  great  and  holy 
 work,  he  hath  left  it  to  me,  in  a  time  of  peace,  both  to  begin  and 
 finish  it,  according  to  the  direction,  as  well  as  prediction,  of  the 
 Almighty.  Blessed  be  his  great  name  for  the  present  tranquil- 
 lity of  my  dominions  !  And,  by  his  gracious  assistance,  I  shall 
 now  dedicate  the  best  improvements  of  this  liberty  and  leisure  to 
 his  honour  and  worship.  Wherefore  I  make  it  my  request,  that 
 you  will  let  some  of  your  people  go  along  with  some  servants  of 
 mine  to  mount  Libanus,  to  assist  them  in  cutting  down  materials 
 towards  this  building;  for  the  Siclonians  understand  it  much  bet- 
 ter than  we  do ;  and  as  for  the  workmen's  reward  or  wages,  what- 
 ever you  think  reasonable  shall  be  punctually  paid  them." 
 "  King  Hiram  to  King  Solomon. 
 
 "  Nothing  could  have  been  more  welcome  to  me,  than  to  un- 
 derstand, that  the  government  of  your  blessed  father  is  by  God's 
 providence,  devolved  into  the  hands  of  so  excellent,  so  wise,  and 
 so  virtuous  a  successor.  His  holy  name  be  praised  for  it!  That 
 which  you  write  for  shall  be  done  with  all  care  and  good  will:  for 
 I  will  give  orders  to  cut  down  and  export  such  quantities  of  the 
 fairest  cedars,  and  cypress  trees  as  you  shall  have  occasion  for. 
 My  people  shall  bring  them  to  the  sea  side  for  you,  and  from 
 thence  ship  them  away  to  what  port  you  please,  when  they  may 
 lie  ready  for  your  own  men  to  transport  them  to  Jerusalem.  It 
 would  be  a  great  obligation,  after  all  this,  to  allow  us  such  a  pro- 
 vision of  corn  in  exchange,  as  may  stand  with  your  convenience  ; 
 for  that  is  the  commodity  that  we  islanders  want  most."  (Jewish 
 Antiquities,  b.  8.  c.  2.  But  notwithstanding  all  his  appeal  to 
 the  Tyrian  records,  some  have  suspected  Josephus,  as  to  the 
 genuineness  of  these  two  letters,  especially  where  they  find  him 
 bringing  in  Hiram,  speaking  of  Tyre,  as  if  it  had  been  an  island  ; 
 whereas  it  is  plain  that  the  old  Tyre,  which  was  then  standing, 
 and  must  be  the  place  here  spoken  of,  was  situate  on  the  conti- 
 nent.— he  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Informer  times,  among  the  Hebrews,  there  had  been  very 
 excellent  workmen,  who  knew  how  to  cut  and  engrave  precious 
 stones,  to  cast  and  work  among  metals,  &c. ;  but  this  was  before 
 they  came  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  in  the  time  of  Moses,  when 
 Bezaleel  and  Aholiab  were  excellent  in  many  different  arts, 
 which  were  necessary  for  the  work  of  the  temple:  but,  as  tie 
 Scripture  acquaints  us,  that  they  had  their  skill  by  inspiration 
 from  God,  it  does  not  appear  that  they  had  any  successors:  and, 
 after  the  people  had  got  possession  of  Canaan,  they  neglected  all 
 manufactures,  and  applied  themselves  wholly  to  agriculture  and 
 feeding  of  cattle;  so  that,  in  the  time  of  Solomon,  there  was  no 
 3t 
 
514 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023 ;  OK,   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  103C.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii 
 
 whose  mother  was  of  the  tribe  of  Dan,  but  his  father  a 
 Tynan  ;  and,  what  was  prodigious,  his  abilities  extend- 
 ed to  all  kind  of  works,  whether  in  gold,  silver,  brass, 
 or  iron,  whether  in  linen,  tapestry,  or  embroidery;  and 
 by  his  direction  all  the  curious  furniture  of  the  temple 
 was  both  designed  and  finished. 
 
 And  now  all  things  being  in  readiness,  the  foundation 
 of  the  temple  was  laid  in  the  a  fourth  year  of  king  Solo- 
 mon's reign,  in  the  year  of  the  creation  2992,  480  years 
 after  the  Israelites'  escape  from  the  Egyptian  bondage  ; 
 and,  in  the  *  space  of  seven  years  and  a  half  was  com- 
 pleted with  such  dexterity,  that  neither  c  hammer,  nor  axe, 
 nor  any  tool  of  iron  was  heard  in  it,  all  the  while  that  it 
 
 professed  artists  that  could  undertake  the  work  of  the  temple;  but 
 in  Tyre  and  Sidon  there  were  many,  for  both  in  his  Iliad  and  his 
 Odyssey,  Homer  gives  the  people  of  these  two  places  this  charac- 
 ter, whom,  upon  every  turn,  he  calls  lloXulaiSuksvs,  excellent 
 artists  in  several  kinds  of  works. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  If  it  be  asked,  why  Solomon  did  not  begin  the  building  of  the 
 temple  sooner,  and  even  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  since  his 
 father  had  left  him  a  plan,  and  all  things  necessary  for  the  under- 
 taking ?  Abarbinel's  answer  is  this, — That  Solomon  would  not 
 make  use  of  what  his  father  had  prepared,  but  was  resolved  to 
 build  this  temple  all  at  his  proper  cost  and  charge.  He  there- 
 fore put  into  the  treasure  of  the  Lord's  house  all  that  David  had 
 ili dilated  to  the  work;  and,  to  gather  together  as  much  gold  and 
 silver  as  was  necessary  to  defray  so  vast  an  expense,  four  years 
 can  be  counted  no  unreasonable  time.  Nay,  even  suppose  that 
 he  had  made  use  of  the  treasure  which  his  father  had  amassed, 
 yet,  if  the  materials  that  his  father  had  provided  lay  at  a  consi- 
 derable distance,  and  were  left  rude  and  unfashioned,  it  would 
 cost  all  this  time  to  form  them  into  the  exact  symmetry,  wherein 
 the  Scripture  represents  them  before  they  were  brought  together, 
 especially  considering,  that  the  very  stones  which  made  the 
 foundation,  were  very  probably  vast  blocks  of  marble,  or  porphyry. 
 {I  Kings  v.  17;)  and  all  polished  in  the  most  exquisite  manner. 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  temple  itself  was  indeed  but  a  small  edifice,  but  the 
 many  courts  and  offices  that  were  about  it,  made  the  whole  a  vast 
 pile,  and  the  exquisiteness  of  the  art,  and  the  fewness  of  the  ar- 
 tists that  could  be  employed  about  it,  made  a  longer  time  requi- 
 site. It  must  be  owned,  however,  that,  considering  all  things, 
 Solomon  made  an  extraordinary  despatch  :  for,  if  the  building  of 
 Diana's  temple  at  Ephesus  employed  all  Asia  for  the  space  of  200 
 years,  and  no  less  than  360,000  men,  for  twenty  years  together, 
 were  taken  up  in  erecting  one  pyramid,  as  Pliny,  (b.  36.  c.  12.) 
 affirms,  no  reasonable  man  can  wonder,  that  this  temple  was 
 seven  years  and  a  half  in  building. — Poole's  Annotations,  and 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  Jewish  doctors  have  entertained  a  very  odd  conceit, 
 upon  the  occasion  of  this  passage  in  the  sacred  history,  wherein 
 the  temple  is  said  to  have  been  built  without  noise.  They  tell 
 us,  that  the  Drcmon  Asmodeus  drove  Solomon  once  from  his 
 throne,  and  reigned  in  his  place,  while  that  prince  was  forced  to 
 travel  over  the  several  kingdoms  and  provinces  of  the  world  ;  but 
 1hat  at  his  return  to  Jerusalem,  he  defeated  Asmodeus,  and  hav- 
 fag  chained  him  so  that  he  could  do  no  hurt,  he  compelled  him 
 to  teach  him  the  art  of  cutting  stones  for  the  temple,  without 
 making  any  noise,  which  was  done,  as  they  say,  not  with  any 
 tool  or  instrument,  but  by  the  help  of  a  worm,  called  samir, 
 which  cuts  and  polishes  stone  with  a  marvellous  facility.  But 
 the  foundation  of  all  this  fiction,  (as  Bochart.  Hieroz.  p.  2.  b.  6. 
 c.  11.)  has  observed,  is  laid  in  somebody's  mistaking  the  sense  of 
 Che  «>>h1  samir,  which  signifies  a  very  hard  stone,  called  smiris, 
 that  is  n!  use  In  cut  and  polish  other  stones,  and  which  Solomon's 
 workmen  might  possibly  have  recourse  to  upon  this  occasion.  But 
 the  true  reason  why  no  noise  was  heard  in  the  building  of  the  temple 
 was,  that  the  stones,  and  other  materials,  were  hewn  and  squared, 
 and  fitted  at  a  distance;  so  that  when  they  were  brought  to  the 
 place  where  the  temple  was  to  stand,  there  was  nothing  to  do 
 hut.  to  join  them  together.  And  this  might  be  done,  not  only 
 for  the  ease  and  convenience  of  the  carriage,  but  for  the  magni- 
 ficence of  the  work,  and  the  commendation  of  the  workmen's 
 skill  and  ingenuity. — Poole's  Annotations;  and  Calmet's  Dic- 
 tionary, under  the  word  Solomon. 
 
 Such   admirable  care  and  contrivance 
 preparing  and    adjusting   the  materials, 
 
 was  buildin 
 was  used,  i 
 before  they  were  brought  together. 
 
 CHAP.  II. 
 
 -Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 
 Answered. 
 
 There  is  hardly  any  one  passage  in  Scripture  more 
 difficult  to  give  a  satisfactory  account  of,  than  this  rela- 
 tion of  Saul's  cruelty  to  the  Gibeonites  ;  because  we  have 
 little  or  no  intimation,  either  when,  or  where,  or  why 
 their  slaughter  was  committed. 
 
 The  Gibeonites  were  not  of  the  children  of  Israel,  but 
 the  remains  of  the  Amorites,  who,  upon  Joshua's  taking 
 possession  of  the  promised  land,  imposed  upon  him  and 
 his  counsellors,  and  cunningly  drew  the  Israelites  into  a 
 league  with  them,  which  was  instantly  confirmed  by  an 
 oath  ;  and  because  it  was  so  confirmed,  for  above  three 
 hundred  years,  was  reputed  inviolable.  But  though  the 
 Gibeonites,  by  their  craft  and  fallacy,  saved  their  lives, 
 yet  it  was  upon  this  condition,  that  they  shoidd * '  become 
 hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  for  the  service  of 
 the  tabernacle.'  Now  while  the  tabernacle  was  at  Nob, 
 which  was  a  city  of  the  priests,  and  where  some  of  the 
 Gibeonites,  their  attendants,  may  be  supposed  to  reside, 
 the  sacred  history  informs  us,  that  Saul  2  in  revenge  to 
 the  priests,  whom  he  took  to  be  favourers  of  David's 
 cause,  destroyed  the  city,  and  massacred  all  the  inhabi- 
 tants thereof ;  so  that  several  of  the  Gibeonites  must  have 
 been  slain  upon  this  occasion,  and  for  shedding  of  their 
 blood  this  famine  was  sent.  This  is  the  account  which 
 some  learned  men  give  us  of  the  matter :  but  they  never 
 considered,  3  that  as  Saul's  sin  in  murdering  the  priests 
 was  greater  than  in  slaying  the  Gibeonites,  God  should 
 have  inflicted  this  severe  punishment  upon  the  land  for 
 the  greater  sin,  rather  than  the  less.  It  has  been  said 
 indeed,  that  for  the  slaughter  of  the  priests,  God  had 
 avenged  himself  on  Saul  before,  by  suffering  him  and  his 
 sons  to  be  slain  in  battle  by  the  Philistines,  but  that  the 
 slaughter  of  the  Gibeonites  was  not  as  yet  expiated  ; 
 yet  it  will  be  difficult  to  conceive,  why  there  should  be 
 two  different  and  distinct  punishments  for  one  and  the 
 same  sin,  committed  at  the  self-same  time. 
 
 When,  or  by  whom,  or  on  what  occasion,  the  taberna- 
 cle and  altar  of  burnt-offerings,  which  were  made  by 
 Moses  in  the  wilderness,  were  removed  from  Nob  to 
 Gibeon  we  cannot  tell,  because  the  Scripture  is  silent: 
 but  it  is  the  conjecture  of  4  some  learned  men,  that  it  was 
 not  long  after  the  murder  of  the  priests  at  Nob  ;  and  that 
 Saul,  very  probably,  to  regain  the  favour  of  the  people, 
 which  he  found  he  had  lost  by  being  so  barbarous  to 
 men  of  their  sacred  character,  quarrelled  with  the  Gib- 
 eonites, and  banished  them  out  of  their  city,  in  order  to 
 make  room  for  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord. 
 
 The  Scripture  indeed  acquaints  us,  that 5  '  he  sought 
 to  slay  the  Gibeonites  in  his  zeal  to  the  children  of 
 Israel  and  Judah  ;'  where  the  expression  seems  to  denote 
 
 1  Josh.  ix.  23.  2  1  Sam.  xxii.  17. 
 
 3  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  2  Sam.  xxi.  1, 
 
 4  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Sam.  xxii.  IS). 
 
 *  2  Sara.  xxi.  2. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 515 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  103G.  2  SAM.  xix— 1    KINGS  viii. 
 
 1  that  the  children  of  Israel  envied  these  miserable 
 people,  insomuch  that  Saul  thought  he  could  not  do  a 
 more  popular  act,  than  to  cut  them  oft! 
 
 But  by  the  children  of  Israel,  2  some  rather  under- 
 stand the  tribe  of  Benjamin  in  particular,  namely,  that 
 very  tribe  from  whence  king  Saul  descended :  and 
 thence  they  infer,  that  his  zeal  or  earnest  desire  to  pro- 
 mote his  own  tribe  to  riches  and  grandeur,  made  him 
 seek  occasion  to  fall  foul  upon  the  Gibeonites,  in 
 order  that  the  three  cities  which  they  possessed  in  the 
 territories  of  Benjamin  might  fall  into  his  hands, 
 and  so  be  divided  among  his  own  family.  That  he 
 either  had,  or  intended  to  advance  and  enrich  his  own 
 tribe,  is  manifest  from  these  words  of  his  :  3 '  Hear  now, 
 ye  Benjamites,  will  the  son  of  Jesse  give  every  one  of 
 you  fields  and  vineyards,  and  make  you  all  captains  of 
 thousands,  and  captains  of  hundreds  ?'  that  is,  will  he 
 do  for  you,  as  I  have,  and  mean  to  do  ?  Now,  if  we 
 look  into  the  actions  of  Saul,  we  do  not  find,  that  he 
 made  any  purchase  of  the  possessions  of  another  tribe, 
 or  that  he  took  from  his  enemies  any  considerable  terri- 
 tories, in  order  to  accommodate  his  Benjamites  ;  and 
 are  therefore  left  to  suppose,  that  the  fields  and  vine- 
 yards wherewith  he  enriched  them,  he  unjustly  acquired 
 by  destroying  and  dispossessing  the  Gibeonites.  It  is 
 but  supposing,  then,  that  some  of  the  chief  of  these  Gib- 
 eonites had,  in  some  instance  or  other,  offended  Saul, 
 for  which  he  was  minded  to  destroy  the  whole  race  ;  or, 
 that  he  had  cast  a  greedy  eye  upon  their  lands  and  pos- 
 sessions, which,  incase  of  their  excision,  would  be  for- 
 feited to  the  crown,  and  so  might  be  given  to  his  own 
 family  ;  and  then  he  had  allegations  plausible  enough 
 against  them,  pretending,  "  That  it  was  not  fur  the 
 honour  or  interest  of  God's  people,  to  nourish  any  of 
 that  viperous  brood  in  their  bosoms  ;  and  that  however 
 Joshua  and  the  princes,  who  then  bore  sway,  had  by 
 their  fraud  been  drawn  into  an  oath  to  preserve  them, 
 yet,  in  truth,  that  oath  was  contrary  to  God's  com- 
 mand, which  required  them  *  '  to  smite  them,  and  utterly 
 destroy  them  ;'  and  therefore,  ought  not,  as  he  thought, 
 to  be  observed." 
 
 Thus  Saul  might  set  up  for  a  restorer  of  the  divine 
 laws  to  their  ancient  rigour,  and  strictness  of  execution, 
 and  a  supplier  of  the  default  of  Joshua,  and  the  princes 
 of  Israel,  in  sparing  the  Gibeonites,  even  though  they 
 were  comprised  in  the  general  ordinance  of  extirpation  ; 
 and,  under  this  character,  he  might  easily  draw  in  his 
 own  subjects  to  abet  and  assist  his  cruelty  against  a  poor 
 people,  for  whom  they  had  never  any  good  liking. 
 After  the  king's  fashion  is  the  known  maxim  ;  and  there- 
 fore we  may  easily  suppose,  that  a  wicked  and  hard- 
 hearted people,  who  had  assisted  Saul  in  the  persecu- 
 tion of  David ;  had  adhered  to  his  son  Absalom  in  his 
 rebellion  against  his  own  father  ;  and  who  at  the  beck 
 of  so  many  impious  princes,  left  the  true  worship  of  God, 
 and  fell  into  idolatry  ;  would  not  be  backward  to  assist 
 Saul  in  putting  in  execution  any  of  his  contrivances 
 against  the  poor  Gibeonites.  And  if  so,  we  cannot  but 
 admire  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  God,  in  making  the 
 punishment  national,  when  the  whole  nation,  for  aught 
 
 1  Le  Clerc  in  locum. 
 *  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David,  vol.  3. 
 1  Saui.  xxii.  7.  *  Dent.  \ii.  2. 
 
 we  know,  was  confederate  with  Said  in  murdering  the 
 Gibeonites,  or  guilty  at  least  in  not  hindering  it ;  when 
 the  next  generation  was  involved  in  the  guilt,  by  not 
 repairing  the  injury  as  much  as  possible,  or  not  expres- 
 sing the  horror  and  detestation  of  it  by  some  public  act ; 
 when  an  act  of  discipline  might,  at  this  time,  be  neces- 
 sary, to  preserve  the  remaining  Gibeonites  from  insults, 
 to  beget  in  the  Israelites  a  proper  respect  for  them,  to 
 prevent  the  like  murders  for  the  future,  and  the  like 
 breaches  of  national  compacts. 
 
 Nay,  supposing  the  people,  who  lived  in  that  time 
 when  the  famine  prevailed,  to  be  never  so  innocent  of 
 the  blood  of  the  Gibeonites ;  yet  it  cannot  be  denied, 
 but  that  God,  Avho  is  the  author  and  giver  of  life,  has  an 
 absolute  right  over  the  lives  of  all,  and  can  recall  that 
 gift  whenever  he  pleases.  And  therefore,  if,  in  the 
 case  before  us,  he  made  a  demand,  as  certainly  he  had  a 
 right  to  do  it,  of  so  many  lives  at  such  a  time,  and  in 
 such  a  manner,  as  might  best  answer  the  ends  of  discip- 
 line ;  then,  that  which  was  just  in  other  views,  and  with- 
 out any  such  special  reason,  could  not  become  unjust, 
 by  having  that  additional  reason  to  recommend  it.  In 
 a  word,  if  the  thing  was  righteous,  considered  merely 
 as  an  act  of  dominion  in  God,  it  could  not  but  be  both 
 righteous  and  kind,  by  being  made,  at  the  same  time, 
 an  act  of  discipline  for  the  punishment  of  sin  and 
 perfidy,  .and  the  promotion  of  justice  and  godliness 
 among  men. 
 
 We  must  all  allow,  that  God,  as  he  is  a  most  just  and 
 righteous  being,  can  never  require,  that  the  innocent 
 should  die  for  the  guilty ;  and  therefore  we  have  reason 
 to  believe,  that,  when  Saul  for  reasons  above  mentioned, 
 was  so  outrageous  against  the  Gibeonites,  his  sons  and 
 grandsons,  might  be  instruments  of  his  cruelty,  and  very 
 probably  bear  some  part  in  the  military  execution.  For 
 it  frequently  so  happens,  that  whatever  a  king  commands, 
 be  it  never  so  abominable,  is  generally  approved  and 
 executed  by  his  family;  and  therefore,  Svhen  we  arc 
 told  from  the  mouth  of  God,  that  the  plague,  sent  upon 
 the  people,  was  '  for  Saul  and  his  bloody  house,  because 
 he  a  slew  the  Gibeonites,'  it  seems  to  be  evident,  that  it 
 was  for  their  guilt  as  well  as  his  ;  nor  can  we  imagine, 
 that  this  guilt  of  theirs  could  be  any  thing  less  than  that 
 of  being  the  executioners  in  this  slaughter.  It  is  plain, 
 that  they  were  his  captains  of  thousands  and  captains  of 
 hundreds  ;  and  it  is  as  plain,  that  as  such,  they  must  be 
 the  instruments  of  his  cruelty  ;  for  if  they  were  not,  why- 
 are  they  called  bloody?  They  refused  indeed  7to 
 slaughter  the  priests  at  his  command ;  but  there  is  no 
 reason  to  believe,  that  they  were  so  scrupulous  in  regard 
 to  the  Gibeonites ;  and  if  they  were  not,  Is  there  less 
 equity  in  God's  destroying  their  sons  for  the  sins  of 
 their  fathers  which  they  adopted  and  shared  in,  than 
 there  was  in  his  destroying  Jehoram,  the  son  of  Ahab, 
 for  that  vineyard  which  the  father  had  cruelly  and  un- 
 justly acquired,  and  the  son  as  unjustly  detained? 
 
 Without  calling  then  to  our  assistance  God's  groat 
 prerogative,  s '  of  visiting  the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the 
 children   unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation,'  we  may 
 
 !'  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  2. 
 6  The  History  01  the  Life  of  King  David,  veil.  ?>. 
 7  1  Sam.  xxii.  1?.  8  Exod.  xx.  ;"». 
 
 a  The  words  which  we  vender  he  slew,  might  as  properly  lie 
 rendered  they  slew. 
 
516 
 
 THF  HISTORY  O"  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1  3G.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 fairly  saj ,  that  if  these  descendants  of  Saul  did  either 
 concur  in  this  murder  of  the  Gibeonites,  when  doing,  or 
 avow  and  defend  it  when  done,  they  became  culpable 
 upon  their  own,  as  well  as  their  ancestors'  account,  and 
 thereupon  justly  deserved  to  be  delivered  up  to  the  re- 
 sentment of  a  people  that  had  suffered  so  much  by  their 
 inhumanity. 
 
 Upon  this  supposition  then,  for  it  is  by  supposition 
 that  we  must  go  in  this  obscure  part  of  history,  that  both 
 the  people  and  the  princes  of  the  blood  were  accessory 
 or  instrumental  to  Saul's  cruelty,  the  reason  why  God 
 delayed  their  punishment  so  long  is  obvious ;  even  be- 
 cause his  infinite  goodness  waited  for  their  repentance, 
 which  goodness  we  badly  requite,  if  we  pervert  it  as  an 
 argument  against  his  providence.  For  may  not  God  be 
 gracious  and  merciful  as  long  as  he  pleases?  Or  have 
 we  any  right  to  set  bounds  to  his  patience  and  long- 
 suffering  ?  It  is  but  supposing  then,  that  while  God 
 continued  in  this  state  of  expectance,  upon  some  special 
 occasion  or  other,  to  us  unknown,  both  the  people  of 
 Israel  and  Saul's  posterity  might  discover,  that  they 
 were  so  far  from  repenting,  that  they  gloried  in  the  mur- 
 der of  the  Gibeonites,  and  this  would  determine  God, 
 who  had  hitherto  waited  for  their  penitence  in  vain,  to 
 pour  out  his  indignation,  upon  them,  and  exact  a  severe 
 punishment  both  for  their  cruelty  and  obstinacy. 
 
 Whether  the  Gibeonites  did  right  or  wrong  in  exact- 
 ing so  severe  a  retaliation,  as  that  of  hanging  up  seven 
 of  Saul's  progeny,  for  the  injury  that  he  and  his  family 
 had  done  them,  the  sacred  history  is  no  ways  concerned. 
 It  relates  the  transaction  just  as  it  happened;  but  to 
 show  us  from  whence  this  barbarous  custom  of  hanging 
 up  men  to  appease  the  anger  of  the  gods  did  proceed, 
 it  prefaces  the  account  of  the  matter  with  this  observa- 
 tion : — ' '  These  Gibeonites  were  not  of  the  children  of 
 Israel,'  for  among  them  they  learned  no  such  practice. 
 1  but  a  remnant  of  the  Amorites,'  who  were  addicted  to 
 this  horrid  superstition,  of  which  the  Gibeonites,  not- 
 withstanding their  abode  among  people  of  better  senti- 
 ments, still  retained  some  tincture,  and  propounded  it 
 to  David,  as  an  expedient  to  make  the  earth  become 
 fruitful  again  :  2  '  Let  seven  of  Saul's  sons  be  given  unto 
 us,  and  we  will  hang  them  up  unto  the  Lord.' 
 
 The  Scripture,  you  see,  speaks  in  the  dialect  of  these 
 people  ;  but  from  thence  we  make  a  wrong  conclusion, 
 if  we  think  that  God  can  be  delighted  with  human  sacri- 
 fices, which  so  frequently,  and  so  vehemently,  we  find 
 him,  declaiming  against,  and  professing  his  utter  detes- 
 tation of.  He  desires  the  death  or  punishment  of  no 
 man,  except  it  be  in  pursuance  of  the  ends  of  his  wise 
 providence,  or  when  the  criminal,  by  his  bad  conduct,  has 
 forfeited  his  life  to  the  government  he  lives  under  ;  nor 
 would  he  have  required  the  execution  of  any  of  Saul's 
 posterity,  had  it  not  been  to  procure  the  poor  distressed 
 Gibeonites,  who  were  true  drudges  to  their  Hebrew  mas- 
 ters, a  kinder  treatment,  and  better  quarter  for  the  future  : 
 and  had  it  not  been  to  testify  his  abhorrence  of  all 
 oppression  and  violence  ;  to  show  that  the  cries  of  the 
 meanest  slave,  as  well  as  of  the  mightiest  monarch,  enter 
 the  ears  of  the  Most  High  ;  that  with  him  there  is  no  re- 
 spect of  persons,  but  the  rich  and  the  poor  to  him  are 
 
 both  alike  :  3  had  it  not  been  to  repair  the  injury  done 
 to  his  most  holy  name,  in  the  violation  of  the  compact 
 which  both  Joshua  and  the  princes  of  Israel  made  with 
 this  people,  and  confirmed  with  the  solemnity  of  an 
 oath  ;  had  it  not  been  by  this  exemplary  punishment,  to 
 give  mankind  a  lesson  of  instruction  concerning  the 
 sacredness  of  oaths  and  treaties,  and  how  religiously 
 they  ought  to  be  observed,  even  towards  those  that  are 
 in  the  lowest  state  and  circumstances  of  life. 
 
 Under  these  considerations  only  could  the  death  of 
 Saul's  sons  be  acceptable  to  God  ;  and  how  far  David, 
 in  like  manner,  came  to  be  concerned  in  it,  we  shall  now 
 proceed  to  consider. 
 
 Both  the  Septuagint  and  vulgar  Latin  translation  make 
 the  demand  of  the  Gibeonites,  when  David  sent  to  offer 
 them  satisfaction,  run  in  this  strain  : — *  '  The  man  who 
 consumed  us,  and  oppressed  us  unjustly,  we  ought 
 utterly  to  destroy,  so  as  not  to  leave  one  of  his  race 
 remaining  in  the  coasts  of  Israel;'  and,  in  this  demand, 
 we  may  presume  that  they  persisted,  until  David,  partly 
 by  his  authority,  and  partly  by  kind  entreaties,  prevailed 
 with  them  to  be  content  with  seven  only.  Here  then  was 
 a  fair  opportunity  for  David,  had  he  been  so  minded,  to 
 have  cut  off  the  whole  race  of  Saul,  as  it  were  at  one 
 blow,  and  to  have  avoided  all  the  odiiun  of  the  action, 
 by  but  barely  saying, "  That  the  Gibeonites  demanded  all, 
 and  his  instructions  from  God  were,  to  grant  whatever 
 they  demanded,"  But  instead  of  that,  we  find  him,  be- 
 fore this  happened,  making  inquiry  for  such  5  '  as  were 
 left  of  Saul's  family,  that  he  might  show  kindness  to 
 them  for  Jonathan's  sake  ;'  interposing  his  good  offices 
 here  with  the  Gibeonites,  to  have  them  abate  the  keen- 
 ness of  their  resentment,  and  make  the  slaughter  of  Saul's 
 devoted  house  as  moderate  as  possible  ;  and,  after  that 
 slaughter  was  over,  6  giving  them  a  public  and  solemn 
 interment,  with  the  bones  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  his  son, 
 in  the  sepulchre  of  their  ancestors,  and  himself  attending 
 them  in  person  to  the  grave. 
 
 The  death  of  Saul's  posterity,  procured  by  the  Gibe- 
 onites, had  it  not  proceeded  from  God's  positive  com- 
 mand, but  been  only  a  plausible  pretence  for  David  to 
 get  rid  of  his  rivals  in  empire,  7  we  cannot  imagine  why 
 he  should  slay  no  more  than  seven  of  these  descendants, 
 why  he  should  cut  off  only  collateral  branches,  and  spare 
 all  those  who  were  in  a  direct  line  of  succession  to  the 
 throne  ;  why  he  spared  Ishbosheth,  his  competitor  for  the 
 kingdom,  whom,  by  Abner'smeans,  he  might  have  des- 
 patched, and  according  to  their  desert  punished  the  two 
 traitors,  who  had  officiously  murdered  him;  and  why  he 
 spared  Mephibosheth  the  son  of  Jonathan,  and  Micah 
 his  son,  and  Micah 's  four  sons,  whom  in  all  probability 
 he  lived  to  see,  and  in  them8  a  long  generation,  all  de- 
 scended from  Saul's  family,  and  all  related  to  die  crown. 
 Had  this  affair  of  the  Gibeonites  happened  indeed 
 about  the  beginning  of  David's  reign  over  all  Israel,  soon 
 after  the  death  of  Ishbosheth,  and  when  he  had  reason 
 to  apprehend,  that  some  other  rival  might,  perchance 
 spring  up  in  his  stead,  there  might  then  be  some  umbrage 
 to  think,  that  the  branches  of  Saul's  family  were  to  be 
 
 1  2  Sam. 
 
 ;?  Sam.  \\:.  <i. 
 
 Calmct's  Commentary  in  locum.  *  2  Sam.  x.\i. 
 
 '  2  Sam.  ix.  1.  «  2  Sam.  x.\i    1  2,  13. 
 
 '  The  History  of  the  Life  of  King  David,  vol.  i-S. 
 
 8  Ste  1  Chron.  viii.  :j3,  &c. 
 
Skct.  V.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  i023  ;   V%,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI-ES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 517 
 
 cut  off  for  reasons  of  state,  and  to  make  his  possession 
 of  the  crown  more  safe  :  but,  since  these  things  came  to 
 pass  very  near  the  conclusion  of  his  reign,  when,  as  he 
 himself  acknowledges  '  in  the  very  next  chapter,  God 
 had  not  only  '  covered  him  with  the  shield  of  his  salva- 
 tion, and  so  enlarged  his  steps  under  him,  that  his  feet 
 could  not  slip,  but  given  him  likewise  the  necks  of  his  ene- 
 mies, and  made  him  the  head  over  many  strange  nations  ,*' 
 he  could  have  no  just  conception  of  danger  from  any 
 quarter,  and  consequently  no  necessity  to  establish  his 
 throne  by  blood. 
 
 It  could  not  be  then  for  any  private  end,  that  David 
 delivered  these  children  of  Saul  into  the  hands  of  the 
 Gibeonites,  but  purely  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  God, 
 who  had  both  directed,  and  warranted  him  to  do  so.  For 
 we  cannot  but  suppose,  as  Josephus  does,  that,  when 
 David  consulted  the  oracle  concerning  the  famine,  God 
 informed  him,  not  only  for  what  crime  it  was  inflicted, 
 but  by  what  means  likewise  it  was  to  be  removed  :  and 
 therefore  being  let  into  all  this,  he  was  not  at  liberty  to 
 do  what  he  pleased,  but  compelled  rather  to  give  up  the 
 children  as  so  many  victims,  notwithstanding  his  pro- 
 mise and  oath  to  their  father ;  because  a  superior  power 
 interposed,  and  in  so  doing,  cancelled  the  prior  obli- 
 gation. 
 
 His  making  a  grant  of  Mephibosheth's  estate  to  a  vile 
 miscreant  of  a  servant,  without  giving  his  master  a  fair 
 hearing,  is  another  exception  that  is  commonly  made  to 
 the  justice  of  king  David's  proceedings  in  this  period  of 
 time.  But  how  could  David  have  leisure  to  send  for 
 Mephibosheth  from  mount  Olivet  to  Jerusalem,  and  in- 
 quire into  the  merits  of  the  cause  depending  between  him 
 and  his  servant,  when  he  was  in  so  great  a  hurry,  and 
 under  flight  from  the  arms  of  his  rebel  son  ?  Or  how 
 could  he  suppose  that  Ziba  could  have  dared  to  have 
 told  him  so  notorious  a  lie,  when  it  might  in  a  short  time 
 be  disproved  ?  Every  circumstance,  in  short,  on  Ziba's 
 side  looked  well ;  but  none  on  the  master's.  To  him 
 David  had  been  extremely  kind  in  restoring  him  to  the 
 forfeited  estate  of  his  grandfather  Saul,  and  in  allowing 
 him  2  to  eat  at  his  own  table,  as  one  of  the  king's  sons  ; 
 and  now  at  the  general  rendezvous  of  his  friends,  David 
 might  well  have  expected,  that  the  person  to  whom  he 
 had  extended  so  many  favours,  should  not  have  been  so 
 negligent  of  his  duty,  as  to  absent  himself,  unless  it  had 
 been  upon  some  extraordinary  business  ;  and  therefore, 
 when  Ziba  acquaints  him  with  the  occasion  of  his  absence, 
 though  it  was  a  mere  fiction,  yet  with  David  it  might 
 liiul  a  readier  credence,  because  at  this  time  he  had  rea- 
 son to  mistrust  every  body,  and  seeing  his  own  family 
 disconcerted  and  broken,  might  think  the  crown  liable 
 to  fall  to  any  new  claimant,  that  could  pretend  to  the 
 same  right  of  succession  that  Mephibosheth  might. 
 
 On  the  contrary,  every  thing  appeared  bright  and 
 plausible  on  Ziba's  side.  He,  though  but  a  servant,  came 
 to  join  the  king,  and,  instead  of  adhering  to  his  master's 
 pretended  schemes  of  advancement ,  had  expressed  his  duty 
 to  his  rightful  sovereign,  in  bringing  him  a  considerable 
 present,  enough  to  engage  his  good  opinion.  The  story 
 that  he  told  of  his  master  likewise,  though  utterly  false, 
 was  cunningly  contrived,  and  fitly  accommodated  to  the 
 nature  of  the  times  ;  so  that,  in  this  situation  of  affairs, 
 
 1  2  Sam.  xxii.  36,  &c.         '  2  Sam.  ix.  1 1. 
 
 as  wise  a  man  as  David  might  have  been  induced  to  be- 
 lieve the  whole  to  be  true,  and  upon  the  presumption  of 
 its  being  so,  might  have  proceeded  to  pass  a  judgment 
 of  forfeiture  (as  in  most  eastern  countries  every  crime 
 against  the  state  was  always  attended  with  such  a  for- 
 feiture) upon  Mephibosheth's  estate,  and  to  consign  the 
 possession  of  it  to  another. 
 
 All  therefore  that  David  can  be  blamed  for  in  this 
 whole  transaction,  is  an  error  in  judgment,  even  when 
 he  was  imposed  upon  by  the  plausible  tale  of  a  syco- 
 phant, and  had  no  opportunity  of  coming  at  the  truth  ; 
 but  upon  his  return  to  Jerusalem,  when  Mephibo.-heth 
 appears  before  him,  and  pleads  his  own  cause,  we  find 
 this  the  decision  of  it.  3 '  Why  speakest  thou  any  more 
 of  thy  matters  ?  I  have  said,  Thou  and  Ziba  divide  the 
 land:'  which  words  must  not  be  understood,  as  if  lie 
 appointed,  at  that  time,  an  equal  division  of  the  estate 
 between  Mephibosheth  and  his  servant,  for  where  should 
 the  justice  of  such  a  sentence  be  ;  but  rather  that  he  re- 
 voked the  order  he  had  given  to  Ziba,  upon  the  supposed 
 forfeiture  of  his  master,  and  put  things  now  upon  the  same 
 establishment  they  Avere  at  first.  4 '  I  have  said,'  that  is, 
 '  my  first  grant  shall  stand,  when  I  decreed  that  Mephi- 
 bosheth should  be  lord  of  the  whole  estate,  and  Ziba 
 his  steward  to  manage  it  for  him.' 
 
 The  words  of  the  grant  are  these  :  5 '  Then  the  king 
 called  Ziba,  Saul's  servant,  and  said  unto  him,  I  have 
 given  unto  thy  master's  son  all  that  pertained  to  Saul, 
 and  to  all  his  house.  Thou  therefore,  and  thy  sons,  and 
 thy  servants,  shall  till  the  land  for  him,  and  thou  shalt 
 bring  in  the  fruits,  that  thy  master's  son,  may  have  food 
 to  eat,'  that  is,  may  be  enabled  to  maintain  himself  and 
 family  in  plenty;  '  but  Mephibosheth,  thy  master's  son, 
 shall  eat  bread  always  at  my  table.'  From  whence  it 
 seems  manifest,  that  this  Ziba  had  been  an  old  steward 
 in  Saul's  family,  and  had  managed  his  private  estate, 
 which  lay  at  Gibeah  of  Benjamin.  6  This  estate,  upon 
 one  account  or  other,  had  come  into  David's  possession, 
 either  in  right  of  his  wife,  upon  the  death  of  Saul's  son, 
 or  by  forfeiture  to  the  crown,  upon  Ishbosheth's  rebel- 
 lion ;  but  he,  being  willing  now  to  do  a  generous  act  to 
 Saul's  family,  in  memory  of  his  friendship  to  Jonathan, 
 passed  a  free  grant  or  dedition  of  it  to  his  son,  and  that 
 he  might  make  a  provision  for  all  his  dependants  at 
 once,  put  Ziba  into  the  same  place  he  had  enjoyed  be- 
 fore, constituting  him  a  steward  of  the  royal  manor  of 
 Glibeah,  even  as  he  had  been  in  the  life  of  Saul.  So 
 that  David's  sentence  or  determination,  7 '  thou  and  Ziba 
 divide  the  land,'  refers  us  to  this  original  grant,  and 
 consequently  implies  no  more,  than  that  all  things  should 
 be  in  the  same  situation  they  were  in  before,  namely, 
 that  Ziba,  and  his  sons,  should  manage  the  estate,  and 
 support  themselves  out  of  it,  as  usual,  and  that  the  re- 
 mainder of  the  profits  which  accrued  from  thence,  they 
 should  bring  to  Mephibosheth,  for  him  to  dispose  of  as 
 
 3  2  Sam.  xix.  29.  *  Selden  de  ftaccessionibus,  25. 
 
 5  2  Sam.  ix.  10,  11.  6  Poole's  Annotations  in  locum. 
 
 7  2  Sam.  xix.  29,  30. 
 
 a  The  ancient  way  of  tenancy,  nor  is  it  yet  quite  disused,  was 
 that  of  occupying  the  land,  and  giving  the  proprietor  a  certain  an- 
 nual proportion  of  the  fruits  of  it.  When  the  tenant  paid  one 
 half  of  the  annual  produce,  he  was  called  'colonus  partiarius;' 
 and  such,  in  the  judgment  of  the  best  critics,  was  Ziba  to  Mephi- 
 bosheth, as  he  had  been  before  to  Saul. —  The  Histvry  of  the 
 Life  if  Kitirj  David,  vol.  '6, 
 
518 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2081.  A.  C.  1023;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 "  Thou  remeniberest  likewise  what  Joab  did  unto  me  ; 
 with  what  insolence  he  treated  me  in  the  time  of  the  war 
 against  Absalom ;  how,  contrary  to  my  orders,  he  slew 
 him,  and  afterwards  talked  to  me  in  a  menacing  and 
 
 he  pleased  ;  and  to  this  sense  of  the  words  the  following 
 reply  seems  to  be  accommodated,  '  yea  let  him  have  all,' 
 namely,  to  his  own  use  and  property,  '  since  my  lord 
 the  king  is  come  again  in  peace.' 
 
 That  which  leads  many  into  a  misconception  of  David, 
 as  if  he  left  the  world  in  a  vindictive  and  unforgiving 
 temper,  because  we  find  him  giving  his  son  some  in- 
 structions concerning  two  persons  who  had  grossly  mis- 
 behaved towards  him,  has  been  nothing  else  but  the  want 
 of  distinguishing  between  the  same  person,  when  acting 
 or  advising  in  a  public,  and  when  in  a  private  capacity. 
 Shimei  curses  David  in  the  time  of  his  troubles,  and 
 yet  David  forgives  him,  and  promises  he  shall  not  die. 
 Joab  does  many  valorous  and  brave  acts  for  the  honour 
 of  his  king,  and  the  enlargement  of  his  dominions ;  but 
 then  he  sullies  all  with  his  insolent  behaviour,  and  bar- 
 barous murders.  They  both  had  committed  crimes 
 enough  to  forfeit  their  lives  ;  David,  however,  for  reasons 
 of  state,  thought  it  not  advisable  to  seize  either  of  them 
 for  the  present,  but  directed  his  son,  if  ever  they  should 
 give  him  a  sufficient  provocation  not  to  spare  them. 
 "  Thou  hast  Shimei  with  thee,  J  and  some  share  perhaps 
 he  may  have  in  thy  favour  ;  but  trust  him  not,  he  is  no 
 friend  to  kings,  or  kingly  power.  Remember  what  he 
 did  to  me  in  my  distress  ;  how  bitterly,  how  virulently. 
 he  cursed  me  to  my  face  :  and  I  make  no  doubt,  but 
 that  he  would  be  the  same  to  thee  in  the  like  circum- 
 stances. I  forgave  him  in  my  exile,  because  I  looked 
 upon  him  as  an  instrument  in  God's  hands  to  humble  me 
 for  my  great  offence.  I  forgave  him  in  my  return  home, 
 because  he  came  to  me  when  my  heart  was  open,  and 
 unwilling  to  damp  the  joy  of  my  restoration  with  the 
 effusion  of  any  blood.  I  promised  him  his  life  ;  and  let 
 not  that  promise  be  violated  in  my  days :  but  what  I 
 did  is  no  rule  or  obligation  to  thee.  Let  him  not  die 
 however  for  his  offence  against  me,  but  rather  watch  his 
 conduct,  and  if  he  should  chance  to  give  thee  a  fresh 
 occasion,  be  sure  to  lay  hold  of  it,  because  it  is  not  in 
 his  nature  to  be  a  good  subject."  ° 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary  on  2  Kings  ii.  S. 
 a  The  way  in  which  this  passage  here  commented  upon, 
 should  he  understood  and  translated,  has  already  heen  noticed,  p. 
 393,  hut  lor  the  satisfaction  of  the  curious  and  inquiring  reader 
 we  here  subjoin  Dr  Kennicott's  criticism  on  the  text.  He  says 
 "  David  is  here  represented  in  our  English  version  as  finishing 
 his  life,  with  giving  a  command  to  Solomon  to  kill  Shimei,  and 
 to  kill  him  on  account  of  that  very  crime  for  which,  as  David 
 here  says,  he  had  sworn  to  him  by  the  Lord  he  would  not  put 
 him  to  death.  The  behaviour  thus  imputed  to  the  king  and 
 prophet,  and  which  would  be  justly  censurable,  if  true,  should  be 
 examined  very  carefully  as  to  the  ground  it  stands  upon ;  and 
 when  the  passage  is  duly  considered,  I  presume  it  will  appear 
 highly  probable,  that  an  injury  has  been  here  done  to  this  illustrious 
 character.  The  point  to  which  I  now  beg  the  reader's  attention 
 is  this:  that  it  is  not  uncommon  in  the  Hebrew  language  to 
 omit  the  negative  in  a  second  part  of  the  sentence,  and  to  con- 
 sider it  as  repeated  when  it  has  been  once  expressed :  and  is  fol- 
 lowed by  the  connecting  particle.  And  thus  on  (Is.  xiii.  22,)  the 
 late  learned  aunotator  says,  '  the  negative  is  repeated  or  referred 
 to  by  the  conjunction  van,  as  in  many  other  places.'  So  also 
 (Is.  xxiii.  4.)  The  necessity  of  so  very  considerable  an  altera- 
 tion as  inserting  the  particle  not,  may  be  here  confirmed  by 
 some  other  instances.  (Ps.  i.  5.)  '  The  ungodly  shall  not  stand  in 
 judgment  nor  (the  Hebrew  is  and,  signifying  andrwt)  siuners  in 
 the  congregation  of  the  righteous.'  (Ps.  ix.  18.)  '  The  needy 
 shall  not  always  be  forgotten:  (and  then  the  negative  understood 
 Its  repeated  by  the  conjunction  now  dropped,)  the  expectation  of 
 the  poor  shall  not  perish  forever.'  (Ps.  xxxviii.  1.)     'O  Lord. 
 
 imperious  manner. 
 
 Thou  rememberest  what  he   did  to 
 
 Amasa,  whom  I  intended  to  have  put  in  his  place,  and 
 made  the  general  of  all  my  forces;  and  what  to  Abner,  who 
 was  then  endeavouring  to  gain  over  to  my  party  all  that 
 adhered  to  the  house  of  Saul.  The  injury  done  to  these 
 two  brave  men  redounds  upon  me,  since  they  were  both 
 under  my  protection,  and  both  murdered,  basely  murder- 
 ed, because  I  had  an  esteem  for  them  ;  and  till  justice  be 
 done  to  their  murderer,  which  I,  in  my  lifetime,  had  not 
 power  to  do,  2 '  their  innocent  blood  will  not  depart 
 from  my  house.'  Do  thou  therefore  take  care  to  assoil 
 it ;  and  whenever  he  commits  any  transgression  against 
 thee,  let  the  blood  of  these  two  valuable  men  be  charged 
 to  his  account,  and  let  him,  as  he  has  long  deserved, 
 be  put  to  death. 
 
 This  is  the  sense  of  David's  words  to  his  son  concern- 
 ing these  two  men ;  and  it  is  easy  to  observe,  that  in 
 these  dying  instructions  of  his,  3he  is  not  to  be  consi- 
 dered as  a  private  man,  acting  upon  principles  of  resent- 
 ment, but  as  a  king  and  governor,  giving  advice  to  his 
 son  and  successor  in  affairs  of  state.  It  was  for  the 
 public  good,  that  such  offenders,  as  Shimei  and  Joab, 
 should  suffer  at  a  proper  time,  and  as  prudence  should 
 direct :  and  therefore,  since  his  promise  and  oath  to  one 
 of  them,  and  the  formidable  power  and  interest  which  the 
 other  had  usurped,  restrained  him,  in  his  lifetime,  from 
 punishing  them  as  they  deserved  ;  and  since  it  would 
 have  been  an  unjust  thing  in  itself,  and  a  derogation  to 
 the  glory  of  his  reign,  to  suffer  such  public  and  crying- 
 sins  to  go  unpunished,  he  recommended  the  considera- 
 tion of  these  things  to  his  son,  and,  4  like  a  wise  magis- 
 trate, laid  a  scheme  for  the  punishment  of  wickedness, 
 without  regard  to  any  private  revenge. 
 
 David,  as  we  said,  durst  not  call  Joab  to  an  account, 
 
 3  1  Kings  ii.  31.  3  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  2.  p.  106. 
 Calmet's  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries  on  1  Kings  ii. 
 rebuke  me  not  in  thy  wrath,  neither  (and,  for  and  not)  chasten 
 me  in  thy  hot  displeasure.'  (Ps.  Ixxv.  5.)  '  Lift  not  up  your 
 horn  on  high:  (and  then  the  negative,  understood  as  repeated  by 
 the  conjunction,  now  dropped,)  speak  not  with  a  stiff  neck.'  (Prov. 
 xxix.  12.)  Our  version  is  this:  '  Doth  not  he  that  pondereth  the 
 heart  consider  it?  and  he  that  keepeth  the  soul,  doth  not  he  know 
 it?  and  shall  not  he  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  works?' 
 And  (Prov.  xxx.  3.)  '  I  neither  learned  wisdom,  nor  {and,  for 
 and  not)  have  the  knowledge  of  the  holy.'  If  then  there  are  in 
 fact  many  such  instances,  the  question  is,  whether  the  negative 
 here,  expressed  in  the  former  part  of  David's  command,  may  not 
 be  understood  as  to  be  repeated  in  the  latter  part;  and  if  this 
 may  be,  a  strong  reason  will  be  added  why  it  should  be  so  inter- 
 preted. The  passage  will  run  thus:  '  Behold  thou  hast  with  thee 
 Shimei,  who  cursed  me:  but  I  swore  to  him  by  the  Lord,  saying, 
 I  will  not  put  thee  to  death  by  the  sword.  Now,  therefore,  hold 
 him  not  guiltless:  for  thou  art  a  wise  man,  and  knowest  what  thou 
 oughtest  to  do  unto  him,  but  bring  not  down  his  hoary  head  to  the 
 grave  with  blood.'  Now  if  the  language  itself  will  admit  of  this 
 construction,  the  sense  thus  given  to  the  sentence  derives  a  very 
 strong  support  from  the  context.  For  how  did  Solomon  under- 
 stand this  charge  ?  Did  he  kill  Shimei  in  consequence  of  it  ? 
 Certainly  he  did  not;  for  after  he  had  immediately  commanded 
 Joab  to  he  slain,  in  obedience  to  his  father,  he  sends  for  Shimei, 
 and  knowing  that  Shimei  ought  to  be  well  watched,  confines  him 
 to  a  particular  spot  in  Jerusalem  for  the  remainder  of  his  life: 
 I  Kings  ii.  So' — 42:  see  also  Job  xxiii.  17;  xxx.  20;  xxxi.  20" 
 This  is  the  best  mode  of  interpreting  this  text. — El>. 
 
Skct.  V.]  FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1030.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 519 
 
 because  his  power  and  interest  was  so  great  in  the  army 
 (and  it  was  the  army  that  David  in  a  great  measure  de- 
 pended on)  that  it  might  have  occasioned  an  alteration 
 in  the  government,  had  he  pretended  to  do  it:  but  when 
 Solomon  came  to  the  throne,  Joab  was  not  that  mighty 
 man  he  had  formerly  been.  He  was  at  least  of  an  equal 
 age  with  David ;  had  commanded  the  armies  of  Israel 
 for  twenty  years,  and  upwards  ;  and  as  he  was  only  for- 
 midable at  the  head  of  his  troops,  and  in  the  times  of 
 war  and  public  disorder  ;  so  l  the  profound  peace  which 
 had  subsisted  for  some  time,  both  before  and  after  the 
 beginning  of  Solomon's  reign,  had  impaired  his  power, 
 and  made  him  in  a  manner  useless.  Upon  this  account, 
 Solomon  had  not  the  like  reason  to  fear  him  that  his 
 father  had  ;  nor  did  he  lie  under  the  like  obligations  to 
 spare  him.  He  had  done  David  great  services  indeed, 
 and  a  sufficient  recompense  it  was,  that  lie  had  been  in- 
 dulged for  so  many  years,  with  an  impunity  for  his  crimes; 
 but  whatever  the  father  might  be,  the  son  was  under  no 
 ties  or  obligations,  especially  when  he  found  him  con- 
 spiring to  take  away  his  kingdom,  and  translate  it  to 
 another. 
 
 Wherein  the  formality  of  David's  sin  in  numbering  the 
 people,  which,  at  first  view,  seems  not  to  be  so  very  hei- 
 nous, did  consist,  it  is  not  so  well  agreed  among  inter- 
 preters. t  '  When  thou  takest  the  number  of  the  children 
 of  Israel,'  says  God  to  Moses,  '  after  their  number,  then 
 shall  they  give  every  man  a  ransom  for  his  soul  unto  the 
 Lord,  that  there  be  no  plague  among  them,  when  thou 
 numberest  them  :'  upon  which  passage  Josephus,  and 
 some  others,  have  founded  this  conjecture  : — That  David 
 had  quite  forgot  to  demand  of  every  man  that  was  mus- 
 tered, an  half  shekel,  which  was  appointed  by  the  law, 
 and  is  here  called  '  a  ransom  for  his  soul  ;'  and  there- 
 fore God  sent  among  the  people  a  pestilence  ;  because, 
 amidst  the  great  plenty  and  abundance  which  they  now 
 enjoyed,  it  was  a  very  impious  and  provoking  thing  not 
 to  pay  him  his  dues.  3  But  where  do  we  find,  that  upon 
 every  numbering  of  the  people,  a  half  shekel  was  ordered 
 to  be  paid  ?  It  was  in  this  case  only,  when  the  people 
 were  to  contribute  towards  the  building  of  the  taberna- 
 cle, and  God  threatens  those  who  should  refuse  to  do  it ; 
 but  this  has  no  manner  of  relation  to  what  David  did, 
 who  nowhere  stands  charged  with  such  an  omission,  4 
 any  more  than  with  a  design  of  raising  a  capitation  tax, 
 as  others  conceive,  upon  every  poll  through  the  king- 
 dom. 
 
 Others  are  of  opinion,  that  this  numbering  of  the  peo- 
 ple was  a  thing  contrary  to  the  fundamental  promise 
 which  God  made  Abraham,  namely,  that  his  seed  should 
 so  increase,  as  even  to  exceed  the  stars  in  multitude  ; 
 and  therefore  since  God  had  promised  to  increase  them 
 beyond  number,  it  savoured  of  infidelity  and  distrust  in 
 God,  for  any  one  to  go  about  to  number  them  :  but  quite 
 contrary  to  this,  the  Scripture  in  another  place  tells  us, 
 that  David,  out  of  a  religious  regard  to  the  promise  of 
 God,  never  intended  to  take  an  exact  number  of  all,  but 
 of  such  only  as  were  fit  to  bear  arms ;  for  so  the  words 
 .are  5  '  He  took  not  the  number  of  them,  from  twenty 
 years  old  and  under,  because  the  Lord  hath  said,  he 
 would  increase  Israel  like  to  the  stars  of  the  heavens.' 
 
 1  Calmet's  Commentary.  2  Exod.  xxx.  12. 
 
 8  Calmet's  Commentary  in  locum.  *  Patrick  in  locum. 
 
 5  1  Chron.  xxxii.  23,  24. 
 
 The  most  common  therefore,  and  indeed  the  only 
 probable  opinion  is,  that  this  act  of  David's  proceeded 
 b  from  pride  and  ambition,  and  a  foolish  curiosity  to 
 know  the  number  of  his  subjects,  the  strength  of  his 
 forces,  and  the  extent  of  his  empire  :  as  if  all  these  had 
 greatly  contributed  to  his  glory  and  renown ;  as  if  they 
 had  been  of  his  own  acquiring,  and  more  proper  to  place 
 his  confidence  in,  than  the  power  and  assistance  of  him 
 whose  protection  he  had  so  long  experienced ;  whom, 
 upon  other  occasions,  he  was  wont  to  call  '  his  rock,  his 
 shield,  and  castle  of  defence  ;'  and  who  was  able  at  all 
 times,  to  save  with  a  handful  of  men,  as  well  as  a  mul- 
 titude. 
 
 Pride  then,  and  an  arrogant  conceit  of  himself,  which 
 is  always  attended  with  a  forgetfulness  of  God,  was  at 
 the  bottom  of  David's  numbering  the  people ;  and  in- 
 deed so  visible  to  others,  as  well  as  to  the  all-seeing  eye 
 of  God,  that  we  find  Joab,  who  was  then  of  his  privy 
 council,  thus  remonstrating  against  it :  7  '  Now  the  Lord 
 thy  God  add  unto  thy  people,  how  many  soever  they  be, 
 an  hundred-fold,  and  that  the  eyes  of  my  lord  the  king 
 may  see  it ;  but  why  doth  my  lord  the  king  delight  in 
 Uiis  thing  ?' 
 
 It  is  a  judicious  observation  of  the  apostle,  8  (  Let  no 
 man  say  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God  ;  for 
 God  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil, neither  tempteth  he  any 
 man :  but  every  man  is  tempted,  when  he  is  drawn  away  with 
 his  own  lust,  and  enticed  ;'  and  therefore  it  may  justly  be 
 reckoned  a  peculiar  elegance  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  that 
 it  frequently  leaves  out  the  nominative  noun  to  a  verb 
 active,  which,  when  it  happens,  the  accusative  following 
 supplies  the  place  of  the  nominative  that  is  wanting. 
 This  shows  that  our  translators  have  made  a  gross  mis- 
 take in  rendering  the  passage,  '  the  Lord  moved  David 
 to  number  Israel  and  Judah,'  because  in  the  original 
 there  is  no  such  thing  as  '  the  Lord ;'  for  the  nominative 
 is  omitted,  as  I  said,  and  the  accusative  supplying  its 
 place  makes  the  sense  simply  '  David  was  moved,  (by 
 what  is  not  named,  but  by  his  pride  and  vanity,  we  may 
 say,  as  well  as  9  the  instigations  of  the  devil)  to  number 
 the  people.'  So  that  there  is  no  contradiction  in  the 
 Scripture  account  of  this  transaction,  no  appearance  of 
 a  confederacy  between  God  and  Satan ;  nor  was  God 
 any  further  concerned  in  it,  than  as  his  providence, 
 for  wise  ends,  thought  proper  to  permit  it. 
 
 "  But  if  David  only  was  culpable  in  this  affair,  why 
 did  not  God  immediately  punish  him  for  it,  instead  of 
 falling  upon  the  people,  who  were  confessedly  inno- 
 cent?" 
 
 The  generality  perhaps  were  innocent  as  to  the  affair 
 of  numbering  the  people  :  that  might  be  chiefly  David's 
 sin  ;  but  in  other  respects  they  were  not.  They  had  many 
 great  and  grievous  sins,  which  justly  deserved  punish- 
 ment, and  for  which  probably  they  would  have  been 
 punished  before,  had  it  not  been  for  God's  tenderness  to 
 David,  who  must  have  been  a  sufferer  in  the  common 
 calamity  ;  but  now,  when  both  king  and  people  had  de- 
 served correction,  God  was  pleased  to  let  loose  his  anger 
 upon  both.  David,  indeed,  was  not  smitten  in  person, 
 but  a  king  is  never  more  sensibly  punished  than  when 
 the  judgment  of  God  falls  upon  his  people  and  dimin- 
 
 6  Calmet's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 2  Sam.  xxiv.  3.         8  Jas.  i.  13,  14.         9  1  Chron.  xxi.  1. 
 
520  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.   M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix-1  KINGS  rfji. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 ishes  their  number,  and  their  strength,  for  the  body  poli- 
 tic is  not  unlike  the  body  natural ;  no  sooner  does  the 
 head  suffer,  but  all  the  members  Buffer  with  it;  nor  can 
 the  least  part  of  the  body  be  in  pain,  but  the  head  is 
 immediately  affected  :  and  therefore  we  need  not  doubt 
 but  that  David,  when  he  saw  l  '  the  angel  stretching  out 
 his  hand  upon  Jerusalem  to  destroy  it,'  and  thereupon 
 broke  out  into  this  exclamation,  '  Let  thy  hand,  I  pray 
 thee,  be  against  me,  and  against  my  father's  house,'  had 
 his  heart  as  full  of  grief  and  anxiety  as  any  one  that  lay 
 languishing  in  the  plague. 
 
 Thus,  in  all  the  afflictions  of  his  people,  David  was 
 afflicted  :  and  if  this  sore  judgment  befell  the  nation  a 
 little  while  before  Absalom's  rebellion,  as  some  have  sus- 
 pected a  mislocation  in  this  part  of  the  history,  this  may 
 suggest  a  reason  why  God  might  think  fit  to  preserve 
 David,  and  not  cut  him  off,  as  he  deserved,  for  his  sin  ; 
 2  that  the  dissension  which  might  have  arisen  among  his 
 sons,  about  the  right  of  succession,  in  case  of  his  death, 
 and  the  foreign  and  domestic  wars  that  would  thereupon 
 have  ensued,  and  a  proved  more  fatal  to  the  Israelites, 
 than  this  destroying  pestilence,  might,  by  David's  life, 
 and  interposition,  be  prevented.  And  from  the  sense  of 
 this,  very  probably,  it  is,  that  we  find  him  commemorating 
 his  deliverance  from  this  public  calamity,  in  such  exalted 
 strains,  as  make  it  disputable,  whether  their  piety  or 
 poetry  are  more  remarkable.  3  '  He  that  dwelleth  in  the 
 secret  places  of  the  Most  High,  shall  abide  under  the 
 shadow  of  the  Almighty.  He  shall  deliver  thee  from  the 
 snare  of  the  fowler,  and  from  the  noisome  pestilence. 
 Thou  shalt  not  be  afraid  for  the  terror  by  night,  nor  for 
 the  arrow  that  rlieth  by  day,  nor  for  the  pestilence  that 
 walketh  in  darkness,  or  for  the  destruction  that  wasteth  at 
 noonday.  A  thousand  shall  fall  at  thy  side,  and  ten  thou- 
 sand at  thy  right  hand,  but  it  shall  not  come  nigh 
 thee.' 
 
 It  must  be  owned  indeed,  that  there  is  a  very  large 
 difference,  in  the  Scripture  accounts  of  the  number  of 
 men,  fit  to  bear  arms,  that  were  found  in  David's 
 dominions  :  4  In  Samuel  it  is  said,  that  they  were  in  Is- 
 rael eight  hundred  thousand,  and  in  Judah  five  hundred 
 thousand ;  but  in  5  Chronicles,  they  of  Israel  were  a 
 thousand  thousand,  and  a  hundred-thousand,  and  they  of 
 .ludah  four  hundred  threescore  and  ten  thousand  :  and 
 various  have  been  the  attempts  to  adjust  and  settle  this 
 disagreement.  Some  suppose,  that,  as  Joab  undertook 
 this  office  with  no  small  reluctancy,  and  David,  very 
 probably,  might  repent  of  the  thing,  before  it  was  fully 
 executed,  though  the  commissioners  might  make  an  exact 
 review,  6  yet  they  thought  proper  to  lay  before  the  kino- 
 no  more  than  what  the  sum  in  Samuel  amounts  to  ;  but 
 that  the  author  of  the  book  of  Chronicles  might,  from 
 some  of  these  commissioners,  receive  the  complete  sum, 
 which  occasioned  the  difference. 
 
 7  Others  imagine,  that  this  difference  arises  from  the 
 
 1  2  Sam.  xxiv.  16,  17. 
 1  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  in  locum.  s  Ps.  xci.  1,  &c. 
 
 1  2  Sam.  xxiy.  9.  *  1  Chron.  xxi.  5.  6  1  Chron.  xxvii.  24. 
 '  See  Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Sam.  xxiv.  !). 
 a  The  character  which  Livy  gives  us  of  such  factions  and  dis- 
 sensions, is  conceived  in  these  words:— "  They  ended,  and 
 brought  to  many  people  more  destruction  than  foreign  wars, 
 famines,  or  pestilences,  or  any  other  calamity  inflicted  by  the 
 wrath  of  an  angry  Deity,"  b.  4. 
 
 legionary  soldiers,  as  they  are  called,  or  those  companies 
 of  militia  which  attended  the  king's  person  by  turns, 
 and  might  make  the  number  either  greater  or  less, 
 according  as  they  were  numbered  or  not  numbered  in 
 the  account :  but  this  solution  is  purely  arbitrary,  and 
 such  as  has  no  foundation  in  Scripture.  It  supposes 
 withal,  that  the  real  number  was  what  is  recorded  in 
 Chronicles,  which,  taking  in  the  several  articles  that  are 
 said  to  be  omitted,  surpasses  all  faith. 
 
 Since  there  is  then  no  possibility  of  reconciling  these 
 different  computations,  the  question  is,  which  of  the  two 
 we  are  to  receive  ?  And  this,  without  all  controversy, 
 must  be  that  in  Samuel,  not  only  because  the  Arabic 
 translators  in  their  version  of  the  Chronicles,  have 
 inserted  it,  but  because  there  is  nothing  excessive,  or 
 extravagant,  in  the  supposition,  that,  in  a  fertile  and 
 well  cultivated  country  of  sixty  leagues  in  length,  and 
 thirty  in  breadth,  a  multitude  of  people,  to  the  number 
 of  six  or  seven  millions,  which  taking  in  the  other  arti- 
 cles, will  be  the  sum  total,  might  very  comfortably  be 
 maintained.  8  Rather,  then,  than  have  recourse  to  such 
 solutions  as  do  but  more  embarrass  the  matter,  we  may 
 adventure  to  say,  without  any  diminution  to  the  Scrip- 
 ture's authority,  that  the  excessive  number  in  the  Chroni- 
 cles was  a  mistake  of  the  person,  who,  after  the  capti- 
 vity, transcribed  this  part  of  the  sacred  writ ;  "  For 
 I  do  hesitate  to  say,"  says  Sulpicius,  9  in  his  sacred 
 history,  "  that  truth  had  been  corrupted  rather  by  the 
 carelessness  of  transcribers  during  a  course  of  so  many 
 ages,  than  that  the  prophet  erred." 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged,  that  in  most  nations  where 
 the  regal  power  was  at  this  time  established,  the  right  of 
 succession  was  generally  hereditary,  and  the  eldest  son 
 seldom,  except  in  cases  of  incapacity,  postponed.  This 
 is  what  Adonijah,  urges  to  Bathsheba  ;  1U  '  thou  knowest 
 that  the  kingdom  was  mine  by  right  of  primogeniture, 
 and  that  all  Israel  set  their  faces  on  me,  that  I  should 
 reign:'  but  then,  there  was  this  peculiar  to  the  Jewish 
 constitution,  that  as  Cod  had  been  their  only  king  from 
 the  time  that  they  first  became  a  nation,  so  when  they 
 thought  fit  to  have  that  form  of  government  altered,  he 
 still  reserved  to  himself  the  right  of  nominating  the 
 successor,  when  the  throne  became  vacant :  u  '  w  hen  thou 
 art  come  into  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth 
 thee,  and  shalt  say,  1  will  set  a  king  over  me,  like  all 
 the  nations  that  are  about  me,  thou  shalt  by  all  means 
 make  him  king  over  thee  whom  the  Lord  thy  God  shall 
 choose.'  So  that  when  God  had  declared  his  pleasure 
 concerning  the  person  that  was  to  succeed  him,  as  he 
 did  by  the  prophet  Nathan,  David  was  not  at  liberty  to 
 make  choice  of  any  other. 
 
 We  do  not  dispute  at  all,  but  that  Bathsheba,  who  was 
 his  favourite  wife,  had  a  great  ascendency  over  her  hus- 
 band ;  but  Solomon's  title  was  not  founded  upon  her 
 interest  and  management  with  the  king,  but  upon  the 
 ordination  and  appointment  of  God.  12 '  Of  all  my  sons, 
 says  David,  ('  for  the  Lord  hath  given  me  many  sons,)  he 
 hath  chosen  Solomon  my  son  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of 
 the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  over  Israel ;'  and  therefore 
 Adonijah  himself  acknowledges,  13  '  that  it  was  of  the 
 
 Le  Clerc's  Commentary  in  locum.  9  Book  1. 
 
 10  J  Kings  ii.  15.  "  Deut.  xvii.  14,  15. 
 
 12  1  Chron.  xxviii.  5.  ,3 1  Kings  ii.  15. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 521 
 
 A.  M.  "298 1 .  A.  C.  1023;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALE 
 
 Lord,  that  the  kingdom  was  turned  about  and  became 
 his  brother's.' 
 
 Nathan  indeed  put  Bathsheba  upon  another  argument, 
 namely,  the  sacredness  of  the  king's  oath,  in  order  to  pre- 
 vail with  him  in  behalf  of  her  son  :  '  Didst  not  thou 
 swear  unto  thy  handmaid,  saying,  Surely  Solomon  thy 
 son  shall  reign  after  me,  and  he  shall  sit  upon  my 
 throne  ?'  But  at  what  time  this  promise  was  made,  is  a 
 matter  of  some  dispute.  The  generality  of  interpreters 
 are  of  opinion,  that  after  the  death  of  the  first  child  which 
 David  had  by  Bathsheba,  he  comforted  her  for  her  loss, 
 and  gave  her  assurance,  that,  if  God  should  give  him 
 another  son  by  her,  he  would  not  fail  to  make  him  his 
 successor.  But  it  is  much  more  probable,  that  David  did 
 not  make  any  declaration  of  a  promise  to  Bathsheba, 
 until  God  had  revealed  it  to  him,  2  that  he  should  have 
 a  son,  distinct  from  what  he  had  already,  who  should 
 succeed  him  in  the  kingdom,  and  have  the  honour  of 
 building-  him  a  temple  ;  and  no  sooner  was  Solomon 
 born,  but  David  was  convinced  that  this  was  the  child  to 
 whom  the  promise  belonged,  by  Nathan's  being  sent  to 
 give  him  a  name,  denoting  his  being  3  '  beloved  of  the 
 Lord  :'  and  it  was  at  this  time,  most  probably,  that  David 
 gave  his  mother  a  promise,  confirmed  upon  oath,  that, 
 since  God  had  so  manifestly  declared  in  favour  of  the 
 child,  he,  for  his  part,  would  do  his  utmost  to  facilitate 
 his  succession.  But,  upon  the  whole,  he  did  not  choose 
 for  himself,  *  neither  was  his  declaration  to  Bathsheba 
 previous  to  Nathan's  information,  but  rather  the  effect 
 and  consequence  of  it. 
 
 But  even  suppose  there  had  been  no  divine  interposi- 
 tion in  favour  of  Solomon,  why  might  not  David,  who 
 had  done  such  signal  service  in  his  reign,  nominate  his 
 successor  ?  s  Several  great  princes  in  most  nations  have 
 claimed  this  privilege.  Among  the  Romans,  Aurelius 
 named  Nerva,  and  Nerva  chose  Trajan,  and  so  did 
 Augustus  appoint  his  successor.  And  that  this  was  a 
 prerogative  belonging  to  the  crown  of  Israel,  and  what 
 continued  with  it  for  some  time  after  David,  is  evident 
 from  the  story  of  his  grandson  Rehoboam, b  who  though 
 a  prince  of  no  great  merit,  took  upon  him  the  authority 
 of  nominating  his  successor,  and  to  the  prejudice  of  his 
 eldest  son,  made  one  of  his  youngest  king. 
 
 Far  are  we  from  vindicating  Solomon  in  all  his  actions, 
 any  more  than  David  in  the  matter  of  Uriah.  His  se- 
 verity to  his  brother  for  a  seemingly  small  offence  looked 
 like  revenge,  and  as  if  he  had  taken  the  first  opportunity 
 to  cut  him  oft",  for  his  former  attempt  upon  the  kingdom  ; 
 and  yet  we  cannot  but  imagine,  7  from  Solomon's  words 
 to  his  mother,  '  Why  dost  thou  ask  Abishag  for  Adoni- 
 jah  ?  Ask  for  him  the  kingdom  also,  for  he  is  mine  elder 
 brother,'  that  there  was  some  farther  conspiracy  against 
 him,  though  not  mentioned  in  holy  writ,  whereof  he  had 
 got  intelligence,  and  wherein  Joab  and  Abiathar  were 
 engaged  ;  and  that  he  looked  upon  this  asking  Abishag  in 
 marriage  as  the  prelude  to  it,  and  the  first  overt  act,  as  it 
 were,  of  their  treason.  It  is  certain  that  they  thought 
 to  impose  upon  the  king,  as  they  had  done  upon  his 
 
 1  1  Kings  i.  IS.  2  Sam.  xii.  24. 
 
 8  1  Chron.  xxii.   9,  10. 
 
 *  The  name  was  Jedidiah,  2  Sam.  xii.  25. 
 
 4  Calmet's  Commentary  in  lornm. 
 
 s  Patrick's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  i.  20.     6  2  Chron.  xi.  21,  22. 
 
 1  1  Kings  ii.  22. 
 
 S.  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix— I  KINGS  viii. 
 
 mother,  and  carry  their  point  without  ever  discovering 
 
 the  malevolent  intent  of  it. 
 
 The  wives  of  the  late  king,  according  to  the  customs 
 of  the  east,  belonged  to  his  successor,  and  were  never 
 married  to  any  under  a  crowned  head.  8  Abishag  was 
 doubtless  a  beautiful  woman,  and,  by  her  near  relation 
 to  David  might  have  a  powerful  interest  at  court; 
 Adonijah  might  therefore  hope,  by  this  marriage,  to 
 strengthen  his  pretensions  to  the  crown,  or,  at  least, 
 to  lay  the  foundation  for  some  future  attempt,  upon 
 a  proper  opportunity,  either  if  Solomon  should  die, 
 and  leave  a  young  son,  not  able  to  contest  the  point 
 with  him,  or  if  at  any  time  he  should  happen  to  fall 
 under  the  people's  displeasure,  as  his  father  had  done 
 before  him. 
 
 This  might  be  Adonijah's  design,  and  Solomon  ac- 
 cordingly might  have  information  of  it :  but  supposing 
 that  his  brother's  design  was  entirely  innocent,  yet  since 
 his  request,  according  to  the  customs  then  prevailing, 
 was  confessedly  bold  and  presumptuous,  and  had  in  it 
 all  the  appearance  of  treason, 9  it  was  none  of  Solomon's 
 business  to  make  any  farther  inquiry  about  it,  or  to  in- 
 terpret the  thing  in  his  brother's  favour.  It  was  sufficient 
 for  him  that  the  action  was  in  itself  criminal,  and  of 
 dangerous  consequence  to  the  state ;  for  it  is  by  their 
 actions,  and  notintentions,  that  all  offenders  must  be  tried. 
 
 Adonijah  indeed,  had  he  lived  under  our  constitution, 
 would  have  had  a  fair  hearing  before  conviction  ;  but  we 
 ought  to  remember,  that,  in  the  kingdoms  of  the  east, 
 the  government  was  absolute,  and  the  power  of  life  or 
 death  entirely  in  the  prince  ;  so  that  Solomon,  without 
 the  formality  of  any  process,  could  pronounce  his  bro- 
 ther dead  :  and,  because  he  conceived,  that,  in  cases  of 
 this  nature,  delays  were  dangerous,  might  send  imme- 
 diately, and  have  him  despatched  ;  though  we  cannot  but 
 say,  that  it  had  been  more  to  his  commendation,  had  he 
 showed  more  clemency,  and  spared  his  life. 
 
 And  in  like  manner,  had  he  not  married  his  Egyptian 
 queen,  there  might  be  less  objection  to  his  character  ;  for, 
 whatever  augmentation  of  power  he  might  promise  him- 
 self from  that  alliance,  10  he  certainly  ran  the  hazard  of 
 having  his  religion  corrupted  by  this  unlawful  mixture. 
 Others,  however,  have  observed  that  as  the  sacred  Scrip- 
 tures commend  the  beginning  of  Solomon's  reign,  in  all 
 other  respects,  except  the  ll  '  people's  sacrificing  in  high 
 places,'  which  might  be  the  rather  tolerated,  '  because 
 there  was  no  house  built  unto  the  name  of  the  Lord  in 
 those  days  ;'  and  as  they  give  him  this  character, I2  that 
 '  he  loved  the  Lord,  and  walked  in  all  the  statutes  of 
 David  his  father,'  he  would  never  have  done  an  act  so 
 directly  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God,  as  marrying  an 
 idolatrous  princess,  had  she  not  been  first  proselyted  to 
 the  Jewish  faith.  The  Scripture  indeed  takes  notice 
 of  the  gods  of  the  Moabites,  Ammonites,  and  Sidonians, 
 for  whom  Solomon,  in  compliance  to  his  strange  wives, 
 built  places  of  worship  :  but  as  there  is  no  mention  made 
 of  any  gods  of  the  Egyptians,  it  seems  very  likely  that 
 this  princess,  when  she  was  espoused  to  Solomon,  quitted 
 the  religion  of  her  ancestors,  to  which  these  words  in 
 the   psalm,  supposed  to  have  been  written    upon   this 
 
 8  Poole's  Annotations  on  J  Kmgs  ii.  22. 
 9  Calmet's  Commentary  in  locum.  I0  See  1  Kings  xi. 
 
 11  1    Kings  iii.  2.         u  1  Kings  iii.  3. 
 3  u 
 
522  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  113G.  2  SAM.  xix-1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 occasion,  '  '  Hearken,  O  my  daughter,  forget  thine  own 
 people,  .and  thy  father's  house,  so  shall  the  king  have 
 pleasure  in  thy  beauty,  for  he  is  the  Lord,'  are  thought 
 by  some  to  be  no  distant  allusion.  However  this  be,  it 
 is  certain,  that  we  find  Solomon  nowhere  reproved  in 
 Scripture  for  this  match  ;  2  nor  can  we  think,  that  his 
 book  of  Canticles,  which  is  supposed  to  be  his  epithala- 
 niium,  would  have  found  a  place  in  the  sacred  canon, 
 had  the  spouse,  whom  it  all  along  celebrates,  been  at 
 that  time  an  idolatress  ;  though  there  is  reason  to  believe 
 that  she  afterwards  relapsed  into  her  ancient  religion, 
 and  contributed,  as  much  as  any,  to  the  king's  seduction, 
 and  the  many  great  disorders  that  were  in  the  latter  part 
 of  his  reign. 
 
 How  far  the  high  priest,  Abiathar,  was  concerned  in 
 the  plot  against  Solomon,  the  sacred  history  does  not 
 particularly  inform  us  ;  but  such  was  the  reverence  paid 
 to  the  sacerdotal  character,  that  Solomon  would  have 
 hardly  dared  to  have  deposed  such  an  one  from  his 
 ofiice,  had  not  the  constitution  of  the  nation  authorized 
 him  so  to  do.  The  kings  in  the  east,  indeed,  soon  found 
 out  ways  to  make  themselves  absolute ;  but  it  looks  as 
 if,  at  the  first  establishment,  the  king  was  at  the  head  of 
 the  Hebrew  republic,  and  the  high  priest  his  subject, 
 and  in  all  civil  affairs  submitted  to  his  correction  ;  3  in- 
 somuch, that  when  any  one  abused  the  power  of  his 
 ofiice  to  the  prejudice  of  the  commonweal,  or  endan- 
 gering the  king's  person,  the  king  might  justly  deprive 
 him  of  his  honours  and  titles,  of  his  temporalities  and 
 emoluments,  and  even  of  life  itself.  And  therefore, 
 when  Abiathar,  by  his  conspiracy,  had  merited  all  this, 
 whatever  was  dependent  on  the  crown,  as  all  the  re- 
 venues of  this  place,  as  well  as  the  liberty  of  officiating 
 in  it,  were  dependent,  Solomon  might  lawfully  take  from 
 him  ;  but  the  sacerdotal  character,  which  he  received 
 from  God,  and  to  which  he  was  anointed,  this  he  could 
 not  alienate :  and  therefore  we  may  observe,  that  after 
 his  deprivation,  and  even  when  Zadok  was  in  possession 
 of  his  place,  he  is  nevertheless  still  mentioned  4  under 
 the  style  and  title  of  the  priest. 
 
 The  truth  is,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  difference  between 
 depriving  a  man  of  the  dignity,  and  of  the  exercise  of 
 his  function  in  such  a  determinate  place ;  and  between 
 taking  from  him  an  authority  that  was  given  him  by  God, 
 and  the  profits  and  emoluments  arising  from  it,  which 
 were  originally  the  gift  of  the  crown.  The  former  of 
 these  Solomon  could  not  do,  and  the  latter  it  is  prob- 
 able he  was  the  rather  incited  to  do,  out  of  regard 
 to  the  prophecy  of  Samuel,  wherein  he  foretold  Eli, 
 from  whom  Abiathar  was  descended,  that  he  would 
 translate  the  priesthood  from  his  to  another  family, 
 as  he  did  in  the  person  of  Zadok,  who  was  of  the  house 
 of  Eleazar,  even  as  Eli  was  of  that  of  Ithamar ;  so  that, 
 by  this  means,  the  priesthood  reverted  to  its  ancient 
 channel. 
 
 In  the  account  which  we  have  of  Solomon's  sumptuous 
 manner  of  living,  5  we  read  in  the  book  of  Kings,  that 
 he  had  '  forty  thousand  stalls  of  horses  for  his  chariots  ;' 
 b  but  in  that  of  Chronicles  it  is  said,  that  he  had  no  more 
 than  four ;  and   yet  in  this  some  will  acknowledge  no 
 
 1  Ps.  xlv.  10,  II.     2  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  iii.  1. 
 *  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  ii.  27.     4  1  Kings  iv.  4. 
 5  1  Kings  iv.  26.  r>  2  Cliron.  ix.  25. 
 
 disagreement  at  all.  The  author  of  Samuel,  say  they, 
 speaks  of  the  horses  ;  the  author  of  the  Chronicles  of  the 
 stalls  or  stables,  which,  supposing  every  one  to  contain 
 ten  horses,  answer  the  number  exactly.  It  is  observ- 
 able, however,  that  the  history  makes  mention  7  of  chariot 
 cities,  that  is,  cities,  wherein  Solomon  kept  chariots 
 and  horsemen  in  several  parts  of  his  kingdom,  for  the 
 security  of  his  government,  and  the  suppression  of  any 
 disorder  that  might  happen  to  arise  ;  and  therefore  other? 
 have  thought,  that  in  the  Chronicles  the  author  speak„ 
 of  those  stalls  which  Solomon  had  at  Jerusalem  for  his 
 constant  lifeguard,  and  were  no  more  than  four  thous- 
 and ;  but  in  Kings,  of  all  those  stalls  which  were  dis- 
 persed up  and  down  in  the  several  parts  of  his  kingdom, 
 which  might  be  forty  thousand :  because,  upon  the 
 account  of  the  conquests,  which  his  father  had  made  on 
 the  east  side  of  Jordan,  it  was  necessary  for  Solomon 
 to  have  a  stronger  armament  of  this  kind  than  other 
 kings  before  him  had,  in  order  to  keep  the  people,  that 
 would  otherwise  be  apt  to  rebel,  in  due  subjection. 
 
 But  without  any  prejudice  to  the  authority  of  the 
 Scriptures,  why  may  we  not  own,  that  an  error  has  pos- 
 sibly crept  into  the  text  through  the  negligence  of  some 
 transcriber,  who  has  inserted  arbaliim,  that  is,  forty,  in- 
 stead of  arbali,  four,  and  so  made  this  large  disparity 
 in  the  number?  Four  thousand  stalls,  supposing  each 
 stall  for  a  single  horse,  are  moderate  enough ;  but  forty 
 thousand  is  incredible  :  and  therefore,  to  proportion  the 
 horses  to  the  chariots,  s  which  were  a  thousand  and  four 
 hundred,  we  may  suppose,  9  with  the  learned  author, 
 from  whom  we  have  borrowed  this  conjecture,  that  of 
 these  chariots  some  were  drawn  with  two,  some  with 
 three,  and  some  with  four  horses.  Now  if  the  chariots 
 were  drawn  with  a  pair  only,  the  number  of  Solomon's 
 chariot  horses  must  be  two  thousand  eight  hundred ;  if 
 by  two  pair,  then  it  must  be  five  thousand  six  hundred; 
 but  the  medium  between  these  two  numbers  is  very  near 
 four  thousand ;  and  therefore  it  seems  most  likely,  that 
 the  horses  which  the  king  kept  for  this  use  only,  might 
 be  much  about  this  number.  Too  many  for  the  law  to 
 tolerate  ;  K  but  the  king  perhaps  might  have  as  little 
 regard  to  this  clause  in  the  law,  as  he  had  to  the  follow- 
 ing one,  which  forbade  him  u  '  to  multiply  wives  and 
 concubines  to  himself,  or  greatly  to  multiply  silver  or 
 gold.' 
 
 The  only  remaining  difficulty,  except  the  divine  vision 
 vouchsafed  Solomon,  which  has  not  been  mentioned,  is 
 the  great  quantity  of  sacrifices  which  he  is  said  to  have 
 offered  on  one  altar  only  ;  but  without  recurring  to  any 
 miracle  for  this,  or  without  supposing  that  this  fire, 
 which  originally  came  from  heaven,  was  more  strong  and 
 intense  than  any  common  fire ;  and  therefore,  after  the 
 return  from  the  captivity  the  altar,  as  some  observe,  was 
 made  larger,  because  there  wanted  this  celestial  ilame  : 
 without  any  forced  solution  like  this,  we  have  no  reason 
 to  think,  that  all  these  sacrifices  were  offered  in  one  day. 
 The  king,  we  may  imagine,  upon  one  of  the  great  fes- 
 tivals, went  in  procession  with  his  nobles,  to  pay  his 
 devotion  at  Gibeon,  where  the  tabernacle  was,  and  the 
 brazen  altar  which  Moses  had  made.     Each  of  the  great 
 
 '  2  Chron.  ix.  25.  8  1  Kings  x.  26. 
 
 9  See  Bochart  Hieros.  P.  I.  b.  2.  c.  9.      "  Deut.  xvii.  16. 
 
 11  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  iv.  26. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 523 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix—  1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 festivals  lasted  for  seven  days  ;  but  Solomon  might  stay 
 much  longer  at  Gibeon,  until,  by  the  daily  oblations,  a 
 thousand  burnt-offerings  were  consumed  ;  and  at  the  con- 
 clusion of  this  course  of  devotion,  he  might  offer  up  his 
 ardent  prayer  to  God,  for  wisdom,  and  God,  for  the  con- 
 firmation of  his  faith,  might  appear  to  him  in  a  dream 
 by  night,  and  have  that  converse  with  him  which  the 
 Scripture  takes  notice  of. 
 
 1  Sleep  indeed  is  like  a  state  of  death  to  the  soul, 
 wherein  the  senses  are  locked  up,  and  the  understanding 
 and  will  deprived  of  the  free  exercise  of  their  functions  j 
 and  yet  this  is  no  impediment  to  God  in  communicating 
 himself  to  mankind :  for  2  '  God  speaketh  once,  yea 
 twice,'  says  the  author  of  the  book  of  Job,  '  in  a  dream, 
 in  a  vision  of  the  night,  when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon 
 men,  in  slumberings  upon  the  bed,  then  he  openeth  the 
 ears  of  men,  and  sealeth  their  instruction  :'  for  God,  no 
 doubt,  has  power,  not  only  to  awaken  our  intellectual 
 faculties,  but  to  advance  them  above  their  ordinary  mea- 
 sure of  perception,  even  while  the  body  is  asleep. 
 
 3  A  very  eminent  father  of  the  Greek  church,  speak- 
 ing of  the  different  kinds  of  dreams,  has  justly  observed 
 that  the  organs  of  our  body,  and  our  brain,  are  not  un- 
 like the  strings  of  a  musical  instrument.  While  the 
 strings  are  screwed  up  to  a  proper  pitch,  they  give  a 
 harmonious  sound,  if  touched  by  a  skilful  hand  ;  but  as 
 soon  as  they  are  relaxed,  they  give  none  at  all.  In  like 
 manner,  while  we  are  awake,  says  he,  our  senses,  touched 
 and  directed  by  our  understanding,  make  an  agreeable 
 concert ;  but  when  once  we  are  asleep,  the  instrument 
 has  done  sounding,  unless  it  be,  that  the  remembrance  of 
 what  passed  when  we  are  awake,  comes  and  presents 
 itself  to  the  mind,  and  so  forms  a  dream,  just  as  the 
 strings  of  an  instrument  will  for  some  time  continue  their 
 sound,  even  after  the  hand  of  the  artist  has  left  them.  It 
 is  no  hard  matter  to  apply  this  to  Solomon's  dream.  He 
 had  prayed  the  day  before  with  great  fervency,  and 
 desired  of  God  the  gift  of  wisdom.  In  the  night-time 
 God  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  and  bid  him  ask  what- 
 ever he  would.  Solomon,  having  his  mind  still  full  of 
 the  desire  of  wisdom,  asked  it,  and  obtained  it:  so  that 
 the  prayer  or  desire  which  he  uttered  in  his  dream,  was 
 but  the  consequence  of  the  option  he  had  made  the  day 
 before,  when  he  was  awake. 
 
 In  a  word,  though  we  should  allow  that  the  soul  of 
 man,  when  the  body  is  asleep,  is  in  a  state  of  rest  and 
 inactivity  ;  yet  we  cannot  but  think,  that  God  can 
 approach  it  in  many  different  ways  ;  can  move  and 
 actuate  it  just  as  he  pleases  ;  and  when  he  is  minded  to 
 make  a  discovery  of  any  thing,  can  set  such  a  lively  re- 
 presentation of  it  before  the  eyes  of  the  man's  under- 
 standing, as  shall  make  him  not  doubt  of  the  reality  of 
 the  vision. 
 
 Solomon  indeed,  at  the  consecration  of  the  temple, 
 o  wns,  that 4<  the  heaven  of  heavens  could  not  contain  God, 
 and  much  less  then  the  house  that  he  had  built  him  :'but  it 
 will  not  therefore  follow,  that  there  is  no  necessity  for 
 places  appropriated  to  divine  worship,  nor  any  occasion 
 for  making  them  so  niagnilicent  and  sumptuous.  That  God, 
 who  is  the  author  and  giver  of  our  being,  and  to  whom 
 we   are   indebted,  for   every  thing  we  have,  and  every 
 
 1  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  iii. 
 3  Gregory  de  Onificio  Hominis,  c.  13. 
 
 2  Job  xxxiii.  1  I. 
 4  1  Kings  viii.  2 
 
 thing  we  hope  for,  should  be  constantly  attended  with 
 the  homage  and  adoration,  with  the  praises  and  acknow- 
 ledgments of  his  creatures,  his  own  dependant  creatures 
 is  a  position  that  will  admit  of  no  controversy  ;  and  that 
 there  should  be  some  places  appointed  for  this  purpose, 
 that  all  the  offices  of  religion  may  be  performed  with 
 more  decency,  and  more  solemnity,  is  another  position, 
 that  seems  to  arise  from  the  nature  of  the  thins".  These 
 buildings  we  style,  the  '  houses  of  God  ;'  but  it  is  not  to 
 defend  him,  as  Arnobius  5  speaks,  from  heat  or  cold 
 from  wind  or  rain,  or  tempests,  that  we  raise  such  struc- 
 tures, but  to  put  ourselves  in  a  capacity  of  paying  our 
 duty  to  him,  and  of  nourishing  in  our  hearts  such  senti- 
 ments of  respect  and  reverence,  of  love  and  gratitude 
 as  are  due  from  creatures  to  their  great  Creator. 
 
 In  these  places,  God  is  said  to  be  more  immediately 
 present  to  hear  our  supplications,  receive  our  praises, 
 and  relieve  our  wants ;  and  therefore,  to  make  his  habi- 
 tation commodious,  David  exhorts  his  subjects  to  a 
 liberal  contribution,  and  '  because  I  have  a  joy,'  says 
 he,  '  in  the  house  of  my  God,  I  have  of  mine  own  gold 
 and  silver,  given  three  thousand  talents  of  gold,  even 
 the  gold  of  Ophir,  and  seven  thousand  talents  of  fine 
 silver.'  "  He  indeed  makes  mention,"  as  the  learned 
 6  Hooker,  with  whose  words  I  conclude  this  argument, 
 has  observed,  "  of  the  natural  conveniency  that  such 
 kind  of  bounteous  expenses  have,  since  thereby  we  not 
 only  testify  our  cheerful  affection  to  God,  which  thinks 
 nothing  too  dear  to  be  bestowed  about  the  furniture  of 
 his  service,  but  give  testimony  to  the  world  likewise  of 
 his  almightiness,  whom  we  outwardly  honour  with  the 
 chiefest  of  outward  things,  as  being,  of  all  things,  him- 
 self incomparably  the  greatest.  To  set  forth  the  majesty 
 of  kings,  his  vicegerents  here  below,  the  most  gorgeous 
 and  rare  treasures  that  the  world  can  afford  are  procured  ; 
 and  can  we  suppose,  that  God  will  be  pleased  to  accept 
 what  the  meanest  of  these  would  disdain  ?  In  a  word, 
 though  the  true  worship  of  God,"  says  he,  "  be  to  God 
 in  itself  acceptable,  who  respects  not  so  much  in  what 
 place,  as  with  what  affection  he  is  served ;  yet  manifest 
 it  is,  that  the  very  majesty  and  holiness  of  the  place 
 where  God  is  worshipped,  hath,  in  regard  of  us,  great 
 virtue,  force,  and  efficacy,  as  it  is  a  sensible  help  to  stir 
 up  devotion,  and,  in  that  respect,  bettereth,  no  doubt, 
 our  holiest  and  best  actions  of  that  kind." 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  t/ie  ancient  Jerusalem,  and  its 
 Temple. 
 
 It  is  an  opinion  vulgarly  received,  and  not  without  much 
 probability,  that  Jerusalem  is  the  same  city  which  7  else- 
 where is  called  Salem,  and  whereof  Melchizedek  is  said 
 to  have  been  king.  Not  that  Salem,  or  the  city  of  Mel- 
 chizedek, was  of  equal  extent  with  Jerusalem  in  after 
 times  ;  but  Jerusalem  was  no  other  than  the  city  of 
 Salem,  enlarged  and  beautified  by  the  kings  of  .all  Israel 
 at  first  —  David  and  Solomon,  and  after  that,  by  the 
 succeeding  kings  of  Judah,  when  the  monarchy  came  to 
 be  divided  into  two  distinct  kingdoms. 
 
 5  Contra  Gent.,  b.  6.      c  Eccles.  Po'ity,  b.  5.      7  Gen.  xiv.  IS. 
 
524 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  103G.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 The  word  Salem,  in  the  Hebrew  language,  l  signifies 
 peace :  and  as  the  city  of  Melchizedek,  called  Salem, 
 is  probably  thought  to  be  the  same  with  Jerusalem ;  so 
 it  is  certain,  that  Jerusalem  was  2  otherwise  called  Jebus, 
 and  therefore,  as  it  preserves  the  name  of  Salem  in  the 
 latter,  so  it  is  thought  to  preserve  the  name  of  Jebus  in 
 the  former  part  of  it,  and  to  be  nothing  else  but  a  com- 
 pound of  Jebus  and  Salem,  which,  for  the  better  sound's 
 sake,  by  the  change  of  one  letter,  and  the  omission  of 
 another,  is  softened  into  Jerusalem. 
 
 Whether  this  city  stood  in  the  centre  of  the  world  or 
 no,  we  shall  not  pretend  to  determine,  though  some  a 
 very  zealously  contend  for  it ;  since  it  is  a  matter  of 
 more  material  disquisition,  in  what  tribe  it  may  be  sup- 
 posed to  have  been  situated.  In  the  conquest  of  the 
 land  of  Canaan,  and  at  the  famous  battle  of  Gibeon, 
 3  Joshua  put  to  death  the  king  of  Jerusalem,  and,  very 
 probably,  took  the  city,  though,  by  some  means  or  other 
 not  mentioned  in  Scripture,  the  Jebusites  afterwards  got 
 possession,  and  continued  their  possession  even  till  the 
 days  of  David.  In  the  division  of  the  land,  it  was  ap- 
 parently one  of  those  cities  which  4  were  given  to  the 
 tribe  of  Benjamin ;  and  yet  when  we  read,  that  at 
 one  time  5 '  the  children  of  Judah  could  not  drive  out 
 the  Jebusites,'  and,  at  another,  6 '  that  the  children  of 
 Judah  took  and  burnt  Jerusalem,'  one  would  be  tempted 
 to  think,  that  it  lay  within  the  limits  of  that  tribe.  But 
 then  this  difference  may  be  easily  reconciled,  if  we  will 
 but  consider,  that  as  this  city  was  built  on  the  fron- 
 tiers of  both  tribes,  it  is  sometimes  made  a  part  of  the 
 one,  and  sometimes  of  the  other  ;  that,  by  Joshua's  divi- 
 sion of  the  country,  Benjamin  had  most  right  to  it,  but, 
 by  the  right  of  conquest,  Judah  ;  however,  when  it  came 
 to  be  made  the  metropolis  of  the  whole  nation,  it  was 
 thought  to  belong  to  the  Israelites  in  common,  and 
 therefore  was  claimed  by  neither. 
 
 The  city  of  Jerusalem  was  built  upon  two  hills,  and 
 encompassed  all  round  with  mountains.  It  was  situated 
 in  a  barren  and  stony  soil ;  but  the  places  adjacent  were 
 well  watered,  having  the  fountains  of  Gihon  and  Siloam, 
 and  the  brook  Kidron  at  the  foot  of  its  walls.  Jebus, 
 or  the  ancient  city  which  David  took,  was  seated  on  a 
 hill  towards  the  south  ;  and,  on  the  opposite  quarter, 
 towards  the  north,  was  Mount  Zion,  where  David  built  a 
 new  b  city,  and  called  it  after  his  own  name,  and  where 
 
 1  Heb.  vii.  2.       2  Compart:  Josh.  xv.  8.  with  1  Chron.  xi   4. 
 3  Josh.  x.  23—40.  and  xii.  10.  *  Josh,  xviii.  28. 
 
 5  Josh.  xv.  63.  6  Judg.  i.  8. 
 
 a  To  this  purpose  they  observe,  that  the  sacred  writers  are  veiy 
 well  acquainted  with  this,  as  appears  by  that  passage  of  Ezekiel, 
 "'•  v-  5;  'Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  this  is  Jerusalem:  I  have 
 set  it  in  the  midst  of  the  nations  and  countries  round  about  her.' 
 P«  what  purpose  he  did  this,  the  Psalmist  has  not  been  wanting 
 to  inform  us:  '  Out  of  Zion,'  says  he,  '  the  perfection  of  beauty5 
 God  hath  shined,'  (Ps.  ].  2.)  Here  the  Almighty  kept  his 
 "•nit,  and  from  hence  he  sent  out  his  ambassadors,  the  prophets, 
 to  publish  his  decrees  to  the  whole  world  around  him,  with  more 
 ea.se,  and  speedier  conveyance,  than  could  possibly  be  done  from 
 any  other  region  of  the  habitable  world.  From  hence,  as  from 
 B  central  point,  the  light  of  the  law  at  first,  and  the  gospel  after- 
 wards shone  out  to  the  surrounding  nations;  and  therefore  we 
 find  Jerusalem  emphatically  called  '  the  city  of  our  God,  the 
 mountain  of  his  holiness,  beautiful  for  situation,  and  the  joy  of 
 the  whole  earth,'  (Ps.  xlviii.  1,  2.)— The  History  of  the  Life  of 
 hint/  David,  vol.  2.  J     J 
 
 h  This  city  was  of  a  circular  form,  situated  on  a  much  higher 
 Mil,  and  surrounded  with  a  broad  deep  trench,  hewn  whether  by 
 
 stood  his  royal  palace  likewise,  c  and  the  tea>ple  of  the 
 Lord;  for  the  temple  was  built  upon  Mount  Moriah, 
 which  was  one  of  the  hills  belonging  to  Mount  Zion.  d 
 
 Between  these  two  mountains  lay  the  valley  of  Millu, 
 which  formerly  separated  ancient  Jebus  from  the  city  of 
 David,  but  was  afterwards  filled  up  by  David  and  Solo- 
 mon, to  make  a  communication  between  the  two  cities. 
 But,  besides  this  valley  of  Millo,  we  read  in  Scripture 
 
 art  or  nature,  out  of  a  natural  rock.  This  trench  was  defended 
 by  a  wall  of  great  strength,  erected  upon  its  inner  edge,  and  this 
 wall  was,  in  like  manner,  defended  and  beautified  with  strong 
 and  square  towers,  at  regular  distances ;  which  towers  are  said 
 to  have  been  built  of  white  marble,  the  lowest  60,  and  the  highest 
 120  cubits  high,  but  all  exactly  of  one  level  on  the  top,  although 
 in  themselves  of  very  different  heights,  according  to  the  declivity 
 of  the  ground  on  which  they  stood. — The  History  of  the  Life  of 
 King  David,  vol.  2. 
 
 c  The  tower  which  went  under  the  name  of  David,  was  situated 
 upon  the  utmost  angle  of  Mount  Zion,  and  the  beauty  and  fine 
 proportion  of  this  fabric,  as  well  as  the  use  that  was  made  of  it, 
 may  be  fairly  inferred  from  that  famous  comparison  of  Solomon's: 
 '  Thy  neck  is  like  the  tower  of  David,  built  for  an  armoury, 
 whereon  there  hang  a  thousand  bucklers,  all  shields  of  mighty 
 men,'  (Cant.  iv.  4.)  'The  tower  of  furnaces,'  which  probably 
 had  its  name  from  the  many  fires  that  were  lighted  up  in  it  at 
 once,  answered  all  the  ends  of  a  Pharos,  or  watch  tower,  both  to 
 land  and  sea.  By  the  advantage  of  its  situation,  it  could  not  fail 
 of  being  an  excellent  light-house  both  to  the  Mediterranean  and 
 Red  sea,  and  was  probably  so  contrived,  as  to  illuminate  a  great 
 part  of  the  city  likewise,  and  in  that  respect,  was  not  only  a 
 glorious  ornament,  but  of  excellent  use.  The  '  house  of  the 
 mighty'  was  a  palace  erected  by  David,  in  honour  of  his  wor- 
 thies, or  chieftains  in  war,  in  which  they  had  apartments,  ac- 
 cording to  their  reputation  and  merit  in  arms,  were  always  ready 
 at  hand,  for  counsel  or  aid,  as  the  king's  affairs  required,  and  at 
 leisure  hours,  by  superintending  and  instructing  the  youth  in 
 their  military  exercises,  answered  all  the  purposes  of  a  royal 
 academy  for  the  science  of  war.  —  The  History  of  the  Life  of 
 King  David,  vol.  2. 
 
 d  Dr  Clarke  and  Mr  Buckingham,  who  have  investigated 
 more  closely  than  other  travellers  the  topography  of  Jerusalem, 
 suppose  a  hill  on  the  south  of  that  generally  considered  as  Mount 
 Zion,  and  from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  valley  taken  for  that 
 of  Hinnom,  to  be  the  true  Zion.  This  hill  is  the  one  usually 
 described  as  the  mountain  of  Corruption,  or  of  Offence,  so  called 
 from  Solomon's  idolatry ;  and  the  valley  which  separates  it  from 
 the  supposed  Zion,  as  that  of  Hinnom,  or  Gehinnom.  But  as 
 Josephus  describes  but  one  valley  after  the  filling  up  of  that  be- 
 tween Acra  and  Moriah  by  the  Asmoneans,  namely,  that  of  the 
 Cheesemongers,  or  Tyroposon,  which  united  at  the  fountain  of 
 Siloam  with  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat;  and  as  this  supposed 
 valley  of  Gehinnom  is  the  only  one  which  answers  to  that  de- 
 scription ;  and  further,  as  this  hill  alone  has  the  distinct  outline, 
 and  superior  elevation,  which  we  are  universally  given  to  under- 
 stand the  citadel  of  Zion  possessed ;  it  has  certainly  \ery  strong 
 claims  to  be  considered  as  such.  Every  representation  of  Zion 
 in  Scripture  implies  a  hill  distinct  from,  and  loftier  than  the 
 ground  on  which  the  lower  city  stood.  It  was  the  hill  or  citadel 
 of  Jebus,  the  "castle"  or  "stronghold  of  Zion,"  which,  from 
 its  insulated  and  impregnable  nature,  the  Israelites  were  unable 
 to  take  for  400  years  after  they  had  gained  possession  of  the 
 lower  city  (2  Sam.  v.  1  Chron.  xi.)  it  was  the  crowning  emi- 
 nence of  the  ridge  on  which  the  city  stood ;  and  from  which  the 
 whole  was  denominated  after  its  name.  (Ps.  exxxii.  13,  14.) 
 But  no  marked  division  or  superiority  of  height  which  can  ex- 
 plain such  a  pre-eminence  of  character,  and  such  an  uncommon 
 power  of  defence,  as  are  here  represented,  distinguishes  the  hiil 
 commonly  received  as  that  of  Zion.  It  is  further  to  be  remarked, 
 that  Josephus  describes  the  city  as  seated  on  two  principal  liiils 
 only,  with  one  principal  intervening  valley,  namely,  that  of  the 
 Cheesemongers,  or  Tyropceon,  joining  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat 
 at  the  fountain  of  Siloam,  as  already  stated.  He  also  expressly 
 mentions  the  upper  city  as  situated  on  the  one,  and  the  low  er 
 city  on  the  other,  relative  terms  certainly,  but  of  little  meaning 
 when  applied  to  the  slight  inclination  of  the  uncleft  ground  on 
 which  the  modem  city,  with  its  allotted  part  of  Zion.  stands.— Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 525 
 
 A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  If.  437").  A.  C. 1030.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 of  l  the  Iiouse  of  Millo,  which  is  said  to  be  2  in  the  city 
 of  David,  and  therefore  was  built  either  upon  Mount 
 Zion,  or  some  adjacent  place.  Let  us  then  inquire  a 
 little  what  this  house  of  Millo  might  possibly  be. 
 
 Millo,  considered  in  its  etymology,  is  thought  to  be 
 deduced  from  a  root  which  signifies  to  be  full,  and  is 
 therefore,  in  the  sacred  history,  supposed  to  denote  a 
 large  capacious  place,  designed  for  public  meetings,  or, 
 in  short,  a  senate-house.  That  this  was  some  public 
 edifice,  I  think  may  be  inferred  from  the  notice  that  is 
 taken  of  it  among  some  other  of  Solomon's  public  build- 
 ings, where  the  reason  of  the  tax,  which  he  levied  upon  his 
 subjects,  is  said  to  be  this,  3 '  That  he  might  build  the 
 house  of  the  Lord,  and  his  own  house,  and  Millo,  and 
 the  walls  of  Jerusalem,'  &<:.,  for,  since  we  find  it  joined 
 with  the  '  house  of  the  Lord,  and  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,' 
 we  cannot  but  suppose,  that  it  was  a  building  of  the  same 
 public  nature  ;  and  we  since  find  farther,  that  4  '  the  ser- 
 vants of  king-  Joash  arose,  and  made  a  conspiracy,  and 
 slew  him  in  the  house  of  Millo,  very  probably  when  he 
 was  come  thither  to  debate,  and  consult  with  his  princes, 
 and  other  chief  men,  the  thing  seems  to  be  incontestable, 
 that  this  house  of  Millo  was  erected  for  a  public  senate- 
 house,  though  there  is  some  reason  to  imagine  that  it 
 was  employed  likewise  for  other  purposes. 
 
 In  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  when  Sennacherib  came 
 against  Jerusalem  with  a  purpose  to  besiege  it,  the  king- 
 took  counsel  with  his  princes,  and  among  other  things, 
 that  were  thought  proper  for  his  defence,  it  is  said, 
 5 '  that  he  built  up  all  the  wall  that  was  fallen,  and  re- 
 paired Millo,  and  made  darts  and  shields  in  abundance.' 
 From  whence  we  may  infer,  that  this  Millo  was  a  place 
 of  great  consequence  to  the  strength  of  Jerusalem,  and 
 was  very  probably  made  to  serve  two  purposes,  that  is, 
 to  be  both  a  parliament-house  and  an  arsenal. 
 
 The  palace  which  David  built  for  himself,  to  which 
 was  adjoined  that  which  his  son  built  for  the  king  of 
 Egypt's  daughter,  must  needs  have  been  a  very  magnifi- 
 cent structure,  since  he  had  both  his  6  workmen  and 
 materials  sent  him  a  from  Tyre,  which,  at  that  time,  sur- 
 passed all  other  nations  in  the  art  of  building  :  but  of 
 this  we  can  give  no  other  account,  than  that  it  stood 
 westward  from  the  temple,  and  consisted  of  a  large 
 square  court,  defended  by  flankers,  from  one  of  which 
 was  the  descent  by  stairs  into  the  gardens,  which,  in 
 all  probability,  were  watered  by  the  fountain  of  Siloam. 
 
 This  fountain  of  Siloam,  rises  just  under  the  walls  of 
 Jerusalem,  on  the  east  side  thereof,  between  the  city  and 
 the  brook  Kidron  ;  and  in  all  probability,  was  the  same 
 with  the  fountain  Enrogel,  or  the  Fuller's  fountain, 
 whereof  we  find  mention  7  in  Joshua,  and  in  the  books 
 of  Samuel  and  the  Kings.  Some  travellers  will  have  it 
 that  the  water  of  this  fountain  is  brackish,  and  has  not  a 
 good  taste;  but  the  prophet  Isaiah,  when  he  utters  the 
 complaint  of  God  against  the  Jews,  s  '  forasmuch  as  this 
 people  refuseth  the  waters  of  Shiloah,  which  go  softly,' 
 
 '  2  Kings  xii.  20.      *  2  Chron.  xxxii.  5.       *  1  Kings  ix.  15. 
 
 '  2  Kin^s  xii.  20.       5  2  Chron.  xxxii.  S.       "  I  Chron.  xiv.  1. 
 
 '  Josh.  xv.  7 ;  2  Sam.  xvii ;  and  J  Kings  i.  9.        8  Is.  viii.  6. 
 
 a  This  must  be  understood  of  the  Old  Tyre,  which  was  situate 
 upon  the  continent,  and  where  the  temple  of  Hercules  stood,  of 
 whose  antiquity  Herodotus  talks  so  much;  and  not  of  the  New 
 Tyre,  which  stood  upon  a  neighbouring  island,  but  wis  not  built 
 until  the  days  or  Solomon. — Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the 
 word. 
 
 &c,  seems  to  denote  the  contrary.  However  this  be, 
 St  Jerome  himself  affirms,  that  the  waters  of  this  foun- 
 tain made  the  valley  through  which  they  ran,  as  watering 
 the  gardens  and  plantations  that  Avere  there,  very  plea- 
 sant and  delightful. 
 
 The  fountain  of  Gihon,  which  springs  very  probably 
 from  an  adjacent  hill  of  the  same  name,  was  on  the  west 
 side  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  as  king  Hezekiah  9  ordered 
 the  upper  channel  of  this  fountain  to  be  conveyed  into 
 Jerusalem,  that  when  the  city  was  besieged,  the  enemy 
 might  not  have  the  benefit  of  its  waters  ;  so  we  need  not 
 doubt,  but  10  that  the  other  spring  of  Siloam  was,  in  like 
 manner,  conveyed  into  the  city,  and  that,  for  the  conve- 
 nience of  its  inhabitants,  they  were  both,  in  several  places, 
 distributed  u  into  pools ;  though  some  make  that  of  Si- 
 loam to  be  Avithout  the  Avails. 
 
 The  brook  Kidron  runs  in  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat  on 
 the  east  of  Jerusalem,  betAveen  the  city  and  the  Mount 
 of  Olives.  It  has  usually  no  great  quantity  of  Avater  in 
 it,  and  is  frequently  quite  dry  ;  but,  upon  any  sudden 
 rains,  it  swells  exceedingly,  and  runs  with  great  impe- 
 tuosity. It  Avas  indeed  of  singular  service  to  the  ancient 
 city,  as  it  received  its  common  sewers,  and,  upon  every 
 such  violent  flood,  emptied  them  into  the  Dead  Sea. 
 
 The  mount  of  Olives,  which  doubtless  had  its  name 
 from  the  great  quantity  of  olive  trees  that  grew  there,  Avas 
 situated  to  the  east  of  Jerusalem,  and  parted  from  the  city 
 only  by  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  the  brook  Kidron  ; 
 for  which  reason  it  is  said  to  be  a  Sabbath-day's  journey, 
 that  is,  about  a  mile  from  it.  It  Avas  on  this  mountain 
 that  Solomon  built  temples  to  the  gods  of  the  Ammonites 
 and  of  the  Moabites,  in  complaisance  to  his  Avives,  A\ho 
 Avere  natives  of  these  nations  ;  and  for  this  reason  it  is 
 likeAvise  called  in  Scripture,  12  '  the  mount  of  corruption,' 
 because  such  as  folloAV  vain  idols  are  frequently  said  in 
 Scripture  to  corrupt  themselves.  13  Some  indeed  have 
 imagined,  that  this  mount  of  corruption  Avas  a  distinct 
 place,  but  the  matter  of  fact  is,  that  Mount  Olivet  had  three 
 summits,  or  was  made  up  of  three  several  mountains, 
 ranged  one  after  another,  from  north  to  south.  The  mid- 
 dle summit  Avas  that  from  which  our  Lord  ascended  ; 
 toward  the  south  Avas  that  whereon  Solomon  M  set  up  his 
 abominations ;  and  towards  the  north  Avas  the  highest  of 
 all,  15  Avhich  Avas  commonly  called  Galilee. 
 
 Mount  Calvary,  which,  in  all  appearance,  had  its 
 name  b  from  the  similitude  it  bore  to  the  figure  of  a  skull, 
 or  a  man's  head,  was  to  the  Avest  of  the  ancient  Jerusa- 
 
 9  2  Chron.  xxxii.  30.  I0  Lamy's  Introduction,  b.  1.  c.  3. 
 
 11  John  ix.  7.  u  2  Kings  xxiii.  13. 
 
 13  Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament.  ll  2  Kings  xxiii.  13. 
 15  See  Reland's  Palaest. 
 b  Some  formerly  have  been  of  opinion,  that  this  mount  was 
 called  Calvary,  because  the  head  of  the  first  man  in  the  woi  Id 
 was  buried  there,  and  that  our  Saviour  was  crucified  in  the  same 
 place;  and  that  his  blood  running  down  upon  the  body  of  litis 
 person,  might  restore  him  to  life,  and  procure  him  the  fav<  ur  of 
 a  resurrection.  To  support  this  tradition,  they  tell  us  that  Noah, 
 having  preserved  Adam's  body  in  the  ark,  distributed  the  several 
 parts  of  it  to  his  children,  and,  as  a  particular  favour,  gave  the 
 skull  or  head  to  Shem,  who  was  to  be  the  parent  of  that  holy 
 stock,  from  whom  the  Messias  was  to  come;  and  that  Shem, 
 with  a  spirit  of  foresight,  buried  the  skull  in  Calvary,  where  he 
 knew  the  Messias  would  be  crucified.  But  neither  the  ancient 
 fathers  nor  any  modern  authors  that  mention  this  tradition,  were 
 ever  persuaded  of  its  truth  ;  and,  without  any  disrespect  to  them, 
 we  may  look  upon  all  this  as  mere  fiction. — Calmet's  Diction*  ty 
 under  the  word  Calvary. 
 
526  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  2981.   A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  4375.   A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix—  1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 lem,  just  without  the  gates  :  and,  as  our  Saviour  suffered 
 there,  we  may  presume  it  was  the  common  place  where 
 criminals  of  all  kinds  were  generally  executed.  a 
 
 The  valley  of  Hinnom,  or  the  sons  of  Hinnom,  lay  to 
 the  south  of  the  city,  and  was  remarkable  for  the  cruel 
 and  barbarous  worship  of  Moloch,  where  parents  made 
 their  children  pass  through  the  lire,  or  be  burned  in  the 
 lire,  by  way  of  sacrifice  to  that  idol ;  and  where  it  was 
 usual  to  have  musical  instruments,  from  whence  it  obtained 
 likewise  the  name  of  Tophet,  the  Hebrew  word  Toph,  sig- 
 nifying the  same  as  Tympanum  in  Latin,  and  Timbrel  in 
 English,  to  drown  the  lamentable  shrieks  of  the  children 
 thus  sacrificed.  In  this  place  there  were  afterwards 
 kept  a  perpetual  fire,  to  consume  the  dead  carcasses  and 
 excrements,  which  were  brought  from  Jerusalem ;  and 
 therefore  our  Saviour  alluding  to  this,  calls  hell  by  the 
 name  of  Ge-henna,  or  the  valley  of  Hinnom. 
 
 The  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  which  is  likewise  called  the 
 valley  of  Kidron,  because  of  the  above  mentioned  brook 
 which  runs  through  it,  lies  on  the  east  of  Jerusalem,  be- 
 tween the  city  and  the  mount  of  Olives.  Our  Saviour, 
 indeed,  ascended  from  this  mount ;  but  the  notion  is  very 
 
 a  Mr  Buckingham,  who  is  satisfied  of  the  identity  of  the  pre- 
 sent hill  shown  as  Calvary,  imagines  that  it  was  at  the  time  of  the 
 crucifixion,  as  it  is  now,  within  the  city.  Of  the  arguments  by 
 which  this  opinion  is  supported,  the  following  is  an  abstract: — 
 The  objections  commonly  urged  against  the  position  of  Calvary 
 within  the  walls  are — that  the  term  Golgotha,  which  is  inter- 
 preted '  the  place  of  a  skull,'  implies  a  place  of  public  interment; 
 that  it  was  contrary  to  the  custom  of  the  east  to  bury  in  cities ;  and 
 that  it  would  be  considered  as  defiling  by  the  Jews  to  have  a  place 
 of  execution  in  the  heart  of  the  town.  To  the  first  of  these  objec- 
 tions it  is  answered,  on  the  part  of  Mr  Buckingham,  that  the 
 word  Golgotha  thus  translated  a  place  of  skulls,  implies  merely 
 a  skull;  and  is  so  used  by  St  Luke,  who,  without  mention- 
 ing Golgotha,  writes,  '  And  when  they  were  come  to  a  place 
 called  skull,'  &c. ;  that  the  name  applies  rather  to  a  tradition  that 
 the  skull  of  Adam  was  found  in  this  spot;  or,  which  is  more  pro- 
 bable, that  it  was  derived  from  the  figure  of  the  eminence  itself, 
 which  was  a  mound  of  small  elevation,  consisting  of  a  round  nodule 
 of  rock,  which,  from  a  resemblance  which  it  bore  to  the  shape  of 
 a  skull,  obtained  that  name  for  it.  To  the  second  objection  it 
 is  replied,  that  whatever  the  general  custom  of  the  east  may  be, 
 it  was  the  common  practice  of  the  Jews  to  bury  in  their  own 
 gardens,  whether  within  or  without  the  town.  The  third  objec- 
 tion is  endeavoured  to  be  removed,  by  showing,  that  Calvary  was 
 not,  as  is  generally  supposed,  a  place  of  public  execution ;  but 
 was  merely  seized  on  by  the  enraged  and  impatient  multitude,  as  a 
 convenient  spot  for  carrying  their  mad  purpose  into  speedy  effect. 
 This  opinion  is  considered  to  be  corroborated,  by  the  singular 
 fact,  that  it  is  nowhere  said  that  Christ  was  led  out  of  the  city  to 
 be  crucified ;  and  by  the  no  less  extraordinary  circumstance  of 
 Joseph  of  Arimathea  having,  on  this  same  spot,  a  garden  and  a 
 tomb,  which  he  would  not  be  likely  to  have  had  in  a  place  defiled  by 
 public  executions.  Wherever  Calvary  was,  it  does  not  seem  pro- 
 bable that  it  was  a  place  of  common  execution  for  malefactors.  It  is 
 quite  inconceivable  that  a  wealthy  Jew  like  Joseph  of  Arimathea 
 should  make  choice  of  a  place  of  public  execution,  where  these 
 horrid  exhibitions  must  have  been  frequent,  as  the  scene  of  his 
 recreation  while  alive,  and  of  his  interment  after  death.  The 
 choice  of  this  spot  may  rather  be  considered  as  accidental — 
 as  the  first  convenient  one  which  offered  itself  to  the  impatient 
 Jews,  on  which  to  immolate  'heir  victim,  and  to  which  he  was 
 hurried  lest  he  should  again  uscape  them.  This  spot  or  mount  is 
 a  rock,  the  summit  of  which  is  ascended  to  by  a  steep  flight  of 
 eighteen  or  twenty  steps  from  the  common  level  of  the  church, 
 which  is  equal  with  that  of  the  street  without;  and  besides  this, 
 there  is  a  descent  of  thirty  steps  from  the  level  of  the  church  to 
 the  chapel  of  Helena;  and  eleven  more  to  the  place  where  it  is 
 said  the  cross  was  found ;  making  in  all  sixty-one  steps,  or,  if 
 the  last  eleven  be  considered  as  subterraneous,  fifty ;  equal  to  at 
 least  thirty- five  feet  of  perpendicular  height — sufficient  to  give 
 this  little  eminence  the  character  of  a  mound  or  mount. — Ed. 
 
 extravagant,  that  when  he  returns  again  he  will  judge  the 
 world  in  this  valley,  merely  because  the  prophet  Joel 
 hath  said,  1  '  I  will  gather  all  nations,  and  will  brirg 
 them  into  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  will  plead  with 
 them  for  my  people  ;'  for  what  is  there  called  the  valley 
 of  Jehoshaphat,  is  not  a  proper,  but  an  appellative  name, 
 and  denotes  no  more  than  the  judgment  of  God. 
 
 There  is  another  valley  that  the  Scripture  makes  early 
 mention  of,  and  that  is  2  '  the  valley  of  Shaveh,'  which 
 is  likewise  called  the  king's  dale,  where  Melchizedek 
 met  Abraham  in  his  return  from  the  slaughter  of  Chedor- 
 laomer.  According  to  Josephus,  it  was,  in  his  time,  but 
 about  two  furlongs  distant  from  Jerusalem,  and  for  this 
 reason,  perhaps,  it  has  been  thought  by  some,  to  be  no 
 other  than  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat ;  though  others 
 make  it  different,  yet  so,  as  to  come  up  near  to  the  said 
 valley,  and  to  lie  on  the  south-east  part  of  the  city,  not 
 far  from  the  king's  gardens.  3  AVhy  it  obtained  the 
 name  of  the  king's  dale,  whether  it  was  from  its  near 
 situation  to  the  king's  palace  and  gardens,  or  from  its 
 being  the  place  where  the  kings  were  wont  to  exercise 
 themselves,  or  at  least  to  entertain  themselves,  with  seeing 
 others  perform  their  exercises  of  running,  riding,  and  (he 
 like,  is  not  agreed,  and  very  likely  will  never  be  deter- 
 mined. 
 
 There  were  several  gates,  belonging  to  the  ancient 
 Jerusalem,  *  that  are  mentioned  in  Scripture  ;  but  it  is 
 
 1  Joel  iii.  2.  2  Gen.  xiv.  17,  18. 
 
 '  Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 b  The  present  style  of  building  in  Jerusalem  will,  perhaps,  in  the 
 unchanging  character  of  eastern  customs,  best  enable  us  to 
 understand  its  ancient  structure.  The  streets  of  almost  every 
 eastern  city  are  narrow,  for  the  purpose  of  excluding  the  sun 
 and  wind  between  the  deep  and  almost  blank  walls  of  the  houses, 
 having  small  and  but  few  windows  towards  the  street;  their 
 fronts,  properly  speaking,  being  towards  the  central  quadrangle. 
 The  entrance  into  the  principal  houses  is  by  a  porch,  having 
 benches  on  each  side,  where  visits  are  received  and  business  is 
 despatched ;  few  guests  being  permitted  to  penetrate  further  into 
 the  mansion.  This  porch  communicates  with  the  court  in  the 
 centre:  which,  with  persons  of  rank  or  wealth,  is  paved  with 
 marble,  and  laid  out  with  fruit-trees  and  fountains.  This  court 
 is  surrounded  with  a  cloister;  over  which  is  a  gallery,  having  a 
 balustrade  or  latticed  work  on  the  side  towards  the  court,  and  on 
 the  opposite  one  the  entrances  to  the  chambers.  Whoever  has 
 travelled  in  Spain  or  Portugal,  where,  by  their  Moorish  posses- 
 sors, many  eastern  customs  were  introduced,  may  have  seen 
 houses  of  this  construction  :  the  convents  almost  universally 
 answer  to  it  exactly.  The  open  space  in  the  quadrangle  is  the 
 place  where  company  is  received  on  festive  occasions;  and  is  the 
 same  as  the  to  p.to-ov,  the  "  midst"  or  the  middle  of  the  house 
 into  which  the  paralytic  was  let  down,  when  our  Saviour  was 
 preaching  to  a  numerous  assembly.  (Luke  v.  18,  19.)  The 
 stairs  are  placed  either  in  the  porch  itself,  or  at  the  entrance  into 
 the  court;  from  whence  they  are  continued  up  one  corner  of  the 
 gallery  to  the  top  of  the  house,  which  is  made  flat  to  walk  on, 
 and  surrounded  by  a  parapet  or  balustrade.  Thus  a  person  may 
 ascend  from  the  porch  to  the  top  of  the  house  without  having  any 
 communication  with  its  interior:  and  to  this  arrangement  our 
 Lord  alludes,  in  his  directions  to  his  disciples  respecting  the 
 troubles  which  were  approaching,  and  their  flight  from  Jerusalem. 
 '  Let  him  who  is  on  the  house-top  not  come  down  to  take  any 
 thing  out  of  his  house.'  (Matt.  xxiv.  17.)  Of  the  present  state 
 and  appearance  of  Jerusalem,  M.  Chateaubriand  gives  the 
 following  account:  "  When  seen  from  the  mount  of  Olives,  on 
 the  other  side  of  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  Jerusalem  presents 
 an  inclined  plane  descending  from  west  to  east.  An  embattled 
 wall,  fortified  with  towers  and  a  Gothic  castle,  encompasses  the 
 city  all  round  ;  excluding,  however,  part  of  mount  Zion,  which  it 
 formerly  enclosed.  In  the  western  quarter,  and  in  the  centre  of 
 the  city  towards  Calvary,  the  houses  stand  very  close;  but  in  the 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 527 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.   103G.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 no  easy  matter  to  discover  where  their  particular  situa- 
 tion was.  There  is  reason  to  believe  likewise,  that  their 
 names  have  been  varied,  or  that  one  and  the  same  gate 
 has  gone  under  different  appellations  ;  and  as  there  were 
 several  circuits  of  walls  in  the  city,  which  had  their 
 respective  gates,  it  is  more  than  probable,  that  some  of 
 
 eastern  part,  along  the  brook  Cedron,  you  perceive  vacant  spaces; 
 among  the  rest,  that  which  surrounds  the  mosque  erected  on  the 
 ruins  of  the  temple,  and  the  nearly  deserted  spot  where  once 
 stood  the  castle  of  Antonia  and  the  second  palace  of  Herod.  The 
 nouses  of  Jerusalem  are  heavy  square  masses,  very  low,  without 
 chimneys  or  windows:  they  have  flat  terraces  or  domes  on  the 
 top;    and   look   like   prisons    or   sepulchres.     The  whole  would 
 appear  to  the  eye  one  uninterrupted  level,  did  not  the  steeples  of 
 the  churches,  the  minarets  of  the  mosques,  the  summits  of  a  few 
 cypresses,  and  the  clumps  of  nopals,  break  the  uniformity  of  the 
 plane.     On  beholding  these  stone  buildings   encompassed  by  a 
 stony  country,  you  are  ready  to  inquire  if  they  are  not  the  con- 
 tused monuments  of  a  cemetery  in  the  midst  of  a  desert.    Enter 
 the  city,  but  nothing  will  you  there  find  to  make  amends  for  the 
 dulness  of  its  exterior.     You  lose  yourself  among  narrow,  un- 
 paved  streets,  here  going  up  hill,  there  down,  from  the  inequality 
 of  the  ground  ;  and  you  walk  among  clouds  of  dust  or  loose  stones. 
 Canvass  stretched  from  house  to  house,  increases  the  gloom  of  the 
 labyrinth;  bazaars  roofed  over,  and  fraught  with  infection,  com- 
 pletely exclude  the  light  from  the  desolate  city.     A  few  paltry 
 shops  expose  nothing  but  wretchedness  to  view ;  and  even  these 
 are  frequently  shut,  from  apprehension  of  the  passage  of  a  cadi. 
 Not  a  creature  is  to  be  seen  in  the  streets,  not  a  creature  at  the 
 gates,  except  now  and  then  a  peasant  gliding  through  the  gloom, 
 concealing  under  his  garments  the  fruits  of  his  labour,  lest  he 
 should  be  robbed  of  his  hard  earnings  by  the  rapacious  soldier. 
 Aside,  in  a  corner,  the  Arab  butcher  is  slaughtering  some  animal, 
 suspended  by  the  legs  from  a  wall  in  ruins:  from  his  haggard  and 
 ferocious  look,  and  his  bloody  hands,  you  would  rather  suppose 
 that  he  had  been  cutting  the  throat  of  a  fellow  creature  than 
 killing  a  lamb.     The  only  noise  heard  from  time  to  time,  in  this 
 deicide  city,  is  the  galloping  of  the  steed  of  the  desert:  it  is  the 
 Janissary  who  brings  the  head  of  the  Bedouin,  or  returns  from 
 plundering  the  unhappy  Fellah."     The  following  is  Mr  Buck- 
 ingham's description  of  Jerusalem,  as  seen  from  the  Mount  of 
 Olives: — "  Reposing  beneath  the  shade  of  an  olive-tree,  upon 
 the  brow  of  this  hill,  we  enjoyed  from  hence  a  fine  prospect  of 
 Jerusalem  on  the  opposite  one.     This  city  occupies  an  irregular 
 square   of  about  two  miles  and  a  half  in  circumference.      Its 
 shortest  apparent  side  is  that  which  faces  the  east;  and  in  this  is 
 the  supposed  gate  of  the  ancient  temple,  now  closed  up,  and  the 
 small  projecting  stone  on  which  Mohammed  is  to  sit  when  the 
 world  is  to  be  assembled  to  judgment  in  the  vale  below.     The 
 southern  side  is  exceedingly  irregular,  taking  quite  a  zigzag  di- 
 rection ;  the  south-west  extreme  being  terminated  by  a  mosque, 
 built  over  the  supposed  sepulchre  of  David,  on  the  summit  of 
 Mount  Zion.     The  form  and  exact  direction  of  the  western  and 
 northern  walls  are  not  distinctly  seen  from  hence ;  but  every  part 
 of  this  appears  to  be  a  modern  work,  and  executed  at  the  same 
 time.      The  walls  are  flanked  at  irregular  distances  by  square 
 towers,  and  have  battlements  running  all  around  on  their  sum- 
 mits, with  loop-holes  for  arrows  or  musquetry  close  to  the  top. 
 The  walls  appear  to  be  about  50  feet  in  height,  but  arc  not  sur- 
 rounded by  a  ditch.      The  northern  wall  runs  over  slightly  de- 
 clining ground;  the  eastern  wall  runs  straight  along  the  brow  of 
 Mount  Moriah,  with  the  deep  valley  of  Jehoshaphat  below ;  the 
 southern  wall  crosses  over  the  summit  of  the  hill  assumed  as 
 Mount  Zion,  with  the  vale  of  Ilinnom  at  its  feet;  and  the  western 
 wall  runs  along  on  more  level  ground,  near  the  summit  of  the 
 high  and  stony  mountains  over  which  we  had  at  first  approached 
 the  town.     As  the  city  is  thus  seated  on  the  brow  of  one  large 
 hill,  divided  by  name  into  several  smaller  hills,  and  the  whole  of 
 these  slope  gently  down  towards  the  east,  this  view  from  the 
 Mount  of  Olives,  a  position  of  greater  height  than  that  on  which 
 t!  c  highest  part  of  the  city  stands,  commands  nearly  the  whole 
 ot  it  at  once.     On  the  north,  it  is  bounded  by  a  level  and  appa- 
 rently fertile  space,  now  covered  with  olive-trees,  particularly 
 near  the  north-east  angle.     On  the  south,  the  steep  side  of  Mount 
 Zion,  and  the  valley  of  Hinnom,both  show  patches  of  cultivation 
 and  little  garden  enclosures.     On  the  west,  the  sterile  summits 
 ct  the  hills  there  barely  lift  their  outlines  above  the  dwellings. 
 
 these  gates  did  not  lead  out  of  the  city  into  the  country. 
 The  gate  of  the  valley,  which  doubtless  had  its  name 
 from  leading  into  some  valley,  and  a  as  travellers  will 
 have  it,  to  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  was  situate  on  the 
 east  side  of  the  city. 
 
 The  dung  gate,  which  seems  to  have  taken  its  name 
 
 And  on  the  east,  the  deep  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  now  at  our  feet 
 has  some  partial  spots  relieved  by  trees,  though  as  forbidding  in 
 its  general  aspect,  as  the  vale  of  death  could  ever  be  desired  to 
 be,  by  those  who  have  chosen  it  for  the  place  of  their  interment. 
 Within  the  walls  of  the  city  are  seen,  to  the  north,  crowded 
 dwellings,  remarkable  in  no  respect,  except  being  terraced  by 
 flat  roofs,  and  generally  built  of  stone.  On  the  south,  are  some 
 gardens  and  vineyards,  with  the  long  red  mosque  of  Al  Sakhara, 
 having  two  tiers  of  windows,  a  sloping  roof,  and  a  dark  dome  at 
 one  end,  and  the  mosque  of  Zion,  on  the  sepulchre  of  David,  in 
 the  same  quarter.  On  the  west,  is  seen  the  high  square  castle 
 and  palace  of  the  same  monarch,  near  the  Bethlehem-gate.  In 
 the  centre,  rise  the  two  cupolas  of  unequal  form  and  size,  the 
 one  blue  and  the  other  while,  covering  the  church  of  the  holy 
 sepulchre.  Around,  in  different  directions,  are  seen  the  mina- 
 rets of  eight  or  ten  mosques,  and  an  assemblage  of  about  2000 
 dwellings.  And  on  the  east,  is  seated  the  great  mosque  of  Al 
 Harem,  or,  as  called  by  Christians,  the  mosque  of  Solomon,  from 
 being  supposed,  with  that  of  Al  Sakhara  near  it,  to  occupy  the 
 site  of  the  ancient  temple,  of  that  splendid  and  luxurious  king." 
 The  same  author  describes  Jerusalem,  as  seated  on  unequal 
 ground,  on  a  range  of  high  hills,  which  he  computes  at  1500  feet 
 above  the  sea;  some  of  the  eminences  being  higher  than  those  on 
 which  the  city  itself  stands.  The  whole  country  around  is  re- 
 presented as  a  rocky  and  barren  space,  which  almost  defies  the 
 efforts  of  human  labour  to  fertilize  by  any  common  process.  The 
 fixed  inhabitants  he  estimates  at  about  8000 ;  but  the  continual 
 arrival  and  departure  of  strangers  make  the  total  number  of  those 
 present  in  the  city  from  10  to  15,000  generally,  according  to 
 the  season  of  the  year.  These  are  made  up  of  a  mixed  multitude 
 of  Turkish  and  Arabian  Mohammedans,  who  are  the  most 
 numerous,  Greeks,  Latins,  Armenians,  Copts,  Abyssinians, 
 Syrians,  Nestorians,  Maronites,  Chaldscans,  and  Jews ;  amongst 
 whom,  the  poor  Jews,  in  this  their  own  city,  are  the  most  de- 
 graded, and  "  are  more  remarkable  from  the  striking  peculiari- 
 ties of  their  features  and  dress,  than  from  their  numbers  as  con- 
 trasted with  the  other  bodies." 
 
 Mr  Jolifle,  however,  who  visited  Jerusalem  in  1817,  states, 
 that  the  highest  estimate  makes  the  total  number  of  inhabitants 
 amount  to  25,000:  of  which  there  are  supposed  to  be — 
 
 Mohammedans 13,000 
 
 Jews  .         .         .         from  3  to     .  4,000 
 
 Greeks  2,000 
 
 Roman  Catholics  ....  800 
 
 Armenians       ......  400 
 
 Copts 50 
 
 Dr  Richardson,  who  was  at  Jerusalem  in  1818,  estimates  the 
 population  at  20,000;  whom  he  distributes  into: — 
 
 Mussulmans 5;000 
 
 Christians 5,000 
 
 Jews 10,000 
 
 Which,  probably,  judging  from  other  estimates,  increases  the 
 number  of  the  Jews  in  the  same  proportion  as  it  diminishes  that 
 of  the  Mohammedans. 
 
 There  is  very  little  trade  in  Jerusalem,  and  few  manufactures ; 
 the  only  one  that  at  all  flourishes,  is  that  of  crucifixes,  chaplets, 
 and  relics;  of  which,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  whole  cargoes 
 are  shipped  off  from  Jaffa  for  Italy,  Portugal,  and  Spain. — Ed. 
 
 a  Our  countryman,  Mr  Sandys,  is  of  opinion,  that  the  gate 
 of  the  valley  was  formerly  the  same  with  what  is  now  called  St 
 Stephen's  gate,  not  far  from  the  golden  gate,  or  great  sate,  which 
 leads  into  that  which  was  formerly  the  court  of  the  temple.  He 
 likewise  supposes,  that  this  gate  of  St  Stephen's  was  formerly 
 called  the  sheep  gate;  but  into  this  opinion  perhaps  he  might  be 
 led  by  the  nearness  of  St  Stephen's  gate  to  the  pool  of  Bethesda, 
 there  the  sacrifices  were  washed  before  they  were  brought  to 
 the  priest  to  be  offered ;  and  therefore,  since  the  valley  gate,  and 
 the  sheep  gate,  are  distinctly  mentioned  by  Nehemiah,  we  cannot 
 but  think,  that  they  must  have  been  diflerent  gates.—  ff'elU' 
 Geography  nf  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
528 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Boo*  V. 
 
 A.  M.  '>9S1.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI 
 
 from  the  dung  and  filth  of  the  beasts  that  were  sacrificed 
 at  the  temple,  being  carried  out  of  it,  was  probably  the 
 same  with  what  is  now  so  called,  and  stands  on  the  east 
 side  of  the  city  likewise. 
 
 The  water  gate,  which  took  its  name  from  its  use, 
 because  through  it  was  the  water  brought  to  serve  the 
 city  and  the  temple,  was  '  on  the  same  side ;  and  so  was 
 
 The  gate  of  the  fountain,  so  called  from  its  nearness 
 to  the  fountain  of  Siloam,  only  inclining  a  little  towards 
 the  south. 
 
 The  gate  of  Ephraim,  which  opened  to  the  main  road, 
 leading  to  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  and  from  it  derived  its 
 name,  stood  on  the  north  side  of  the  city,  because  on 
 that  side  was  that  tribe  seated  ;  •  though  others  had  rather 
 place  it  on  the  west. 
 
 The  horse  gate,  sheep  gate,  and  fish  gate,  are  sup- 
 posed by  some  to  have  had  their  denominations  from  the 
 several  markets  of  these  creatures,  that  were  kept  there. 
 The  horse  and  sheep  gates  were  both  on  the  east  side, 
 not  far  from  the  palace  and  the  temple ;  and  the  fish 
 gate  was  on  the  north,  though  some,  who  think  it  had  its 
 name  from  the  fish  that  were  brought  from  the  Mediter- 
 ranean sea,  had  rather  place  it  on  the  west  side. 
 
 Lastly,  the  high  gate,  or  the  gate  of  Benjamin,  so 
 called  from  its  situation  towards  the  land  or  tribe  of 
 Benjamin,  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  the  prin- 
 cipal gate  of  the  royal  palace  ;  but  from  what  we  read 
 3  concerning  Jeremiah's  being  grossly  abused  near  this 
 gate,  it  appears  to  have  been  situated  by  the  house  of 
 the  Lord. 
 
 Thus  we  have  passed  through  most  of  the  gates  of  this 
 ancient  city ;  and  on  the  north  side  of  it,  without  the 
 walls  now,  but  then  probably  within  them,  we  meet  with 
 some  subterraneous  chambers,  that  are  wonderfully  mag- 
 nificent, and  at  present  called  the  sepulchres  of  the 
 kings,  *  of  which  some  late  travellers  give  us  a  descrip- 
 tion to  this  effect.  "  A\  hen  you  come  to  the  place,  you 
 pass  through  an  entry  hewed  out  of  a  rock,  which  admits 
 you  into  an  open  court  about  twenty-six  feet  square,  all 
 cut  out  of  the  rock,  which  is  of  solid  marble,  and  serves 
 instead  of  walls.  On  the  left  hand  of  this  court  is  a 
 portico  nine  paces  long,  and  four  broad,  with  a  kind  of 
 architrave  running  round  its  front,  cut  out  of  the  same 
 rock,  as  are  likewise  the  pillars  that  support  it.  At  the 
 end  of  this  portico  there  is  a  passage  into  the  sepulchres 
 which  when  you  have  crept  through  it  with  some  diffi- 
 culty, lets  you  into  a  large  chamber  of  above  four  and 
 twenty  feet  square.  Its  sides  and  ceiling  are  so  exactly 
 square,  and  its  angles  so  just,  that  no  architect,  with 
 levels  and  plummets,  could  build  a  room  more  regular. 
 From  this  room  you  pass  into  six  more,  one  within  ano- 
 ther, and  all  of  the  same  fabric  with  the  first,  except  that 
 the  two  innermost  are  deeper  than  the  rest,  and  have  a 
 descent  of  about  six  or  seven  steps  into  them.  In  every 
 one  of  these  rooms,  except  the  first,  were  coffins  of  stone, 
 placed  in  niches,  along  the  sides  of  the  room,  and 
 amount  in  all  to  about  fifty." 
 
 This  perhaps  is  the  oidy  real  work  that  now  remains 
 of  the  old  Jerusalem ;  and  what  makes  it  justly  looked 
 
 ES,  A.  M.  437">.  A.  C.  103G.  2  SAM.  xix-1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 upon  as  a  wonder,  is,  that  the  ceiling,  the  doors,  as  well 
 as  all  the  rest,  their  hinges,  their  posts,  their  frames, 
 &c,  are  all  cut  out  of  the  same  continued  rock.  It  may 
 therefore  be  worth  our  inquiring  a  little  in  what  manner 
 these  structures  were  employed,  and  who  possibly  might 
 be  the  persons  that  were  reposited  in  them. 
 
 That  these  subterraneous  structures  were  not  the  se- 
 pulchres of  the  kings  of  Judah,  the  generality  of  those 
 that  have  inspected  them  are  agreed,  because  the  Scrip- 
 ture tells  us,  that  David  and  Solomon,  and  most  of  their 
 successors  were  b  buried  in  the  city  of  David ;  and  yet 
 these  grots  lie  without  the  gate  of  Damascus,  as  it  is  now 
 called,  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the  city  of  David : 
 but  how  far  this  city  of  David  did  formerly  extend,  or 
 where  we  shall  find  any  other  signs  of  a  the  places, 
 where  David  and  the  other  kings  his  successors  were 
 buried,  we  have  no  hints  given  us.  The  Rev.  Mr  Maun- 
 drell,  from  this  passage  in  Scripture,  6  '  And  Hezekiah 
 slept  with  his  fathers,  and  they  buried  him  in  the  chiefest 
 of  the  sepulchres  of  the  sons  of  David,'  is  of  opinion, 
 that  this  was  the  place  where  Hezekiah,  and  the  sons 
 immediately  born  to  David,  that  were  not  reposited  in 
 the  royal  sepulchres,  were  buried  :  but  it  is  much  more 
 probable,  and  what  both  the  Syriac  and  Arabic  versions 
 seem  to  confirm,  that  by  the  sons  of  David  here,  we  are 
 not  to  understand  his  immediate  sons,  properly  so  called, 
 but  the  kings  rather  that  succeeded  him.  This  is  a  form  of 
 speech  frequently  made  use  of  by  the  sacred  writers  :  and 
 therefore  the  sense  of  '  Hezekiah's  being  buried  in  the  se- 
 pulchres of  the  sons  of  David,'  must  be,  that  he  was  buried 
 in  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings  descended  from  David. 
 
 The  more  probable  opinion,  therefore,  is  that  of  Le 
 Bruyn,  who  supposes,  that  these  grots  were  the  sepul- 
 chres of  Manasseh,  his  son  Anion,  and  his  grandson 
 Josiah,  kings  of  Judah.  Of  Manasseh  the  Scripture 
 tells  us  expressly,  that ; '  he  was  buried  in  the  garden  of 
 his  own  house,  in  the  garden  of  Uzza  ;'  and  of  Anion  it 
 is  said,  that  '  he  was  buried  in  the  garden  of  Uzza  ;' 
 which  garden  Manasseh  might  very  probably  purchase, 
 and  being  taken  with  the  pleasantness  of  it,  might  there 
 build  him  a  house,  which  is  here  called  '  his  own  house/ 
 in  contradistinction  to  the  royal  palace,  which  was  built, 
 and  inhabited  by  his  ancestors,  on  Mount  Zion.  Of  Jo- 
 siah indeed  the  sacred  history  does  not  say  expressly, 
 that  he  was  buried  here  ;  all  that  it  tells  us  is,  that  he  " 
 was  '  buried  in  the  sepulchres  of  his  fathers  ;'  but  whether 
 
 1  Neh.  iii.  26. 
 Explication  du  nouveau  plan  cle  l'ancienne  Jerusalem,  par 
 M.  Calmet.  »  jer.  xx.  2. 
 
 4  See  Thevenot's  Voyages,  part  1.  b.  2.  c.  4.  and  Mauiidrell's 
 Journey  from  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem. 
 
 5  1  Kings  ii.  10.  and  xi.  43.  6  2  Chron.  xxxii.  33. 
 
 7  2  Kings  xxi.  IS,  2G.  8  2  Chron.  xxxv.  24. 
 
 a  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  who  wrote  about  the  year  1173,  re- 
 lates, that  not  above  fifteen  years  before,  a  wall  belonging  to 
 mount  Sion,  fell  down,  and  the  priests  set  twenty  men  to  work 
 upon  it.  Two  of  these  workmen  being  one  day  left  alone,  took 
 up  a  stone,  which  opened  a  passage  into  a  subterraneous  place, 
 into  which  they  entered.  There  they  found  a  palace,  supported 
 by  marble  pillars,  and  crusted  over  with  gold  and  silver.  At  the 
 entrance  was  a  table,  and  upon  this  table  a  golden  crown  and 
 sceptre.  This,  say  the  Jews,  was  David's  monument,  and  op- 
 posite to  it  was  Solomon's,  adorned  in  the  like  manner.  As 
 they  were  attempting  to  penetrate  farther,  they  were  overset  by 
 a  whirlwind,  and  remained  senseless  till  the  evening,  when  they 
 heard  a  voice,  bidding  them  arise,  and  begone.  Benjamin  as- 
 sures us,  that  he  had  this  story  from  the  mouth  of  one  Abraham, 
 a  Pharisee,  who,  as  he  said,  had  been  consulted  about  this  event 
 by  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  and  declared  that  this  was  David's 
 monument.  But  the  whole  of  this  account  has  so  much  the  air 
 of  a  fable,  that  it  is  needless  to  coufute  it. — Calmet' s  Dictionary 
 under  the  word  David. 
 
Skct.  v.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 529 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix 
 
 in  the  city  of  David,  or  in  the  garden  of  Uzza,  it  makes 
 no  mention  :  and  therefore,  since  both  his  father  and 
 grandfather  were  buried  in  this  garden,  there  is  reason 
 to  think,  that  Josiah  was  here  buried  likewise ;  espe- 
 cially considering,  that  in  one  of  these  subterraneous 
 rooms,  as  Le  Bruyn  tells  us,  which  seemed  to  be  more 
 lofty  than  the  rest,  there  were  three  coffins  curiously 
 adorned  with  carved  works,  which  he  took  to  be  the  cof- 
 fins of  these  three  kings. 
 
 But  of  all  the  buildings  that  ancient  Jerusalem  had  to 
 boast  of,  the  temple  which  David  designed,  and  Solo- 
 mon perfected,  was  the  most  magnificent.  We  are  not, 
 however,  to  imagine,  that  this  temple  was  built  like  one 
 of  our  churches  ;  for  it  did  not  consist  of  one  single  edi- 
 fice, but  a  of  several  courts  and  buildings,  which  took 
 up  a  great  deal  of  ground.  The  place  whereon  it  was 
 erected,  was  on  the  top  of  Mount  Moriah,and  the  build- 
 ing altogether  made  an  exact  square  of  800  cubits,  or 
 1  KjO  feet  long  on  each  side,  exactly  fronting  the  east, 
 west,  north,  and  south. 
 
 1  To  make  this  building  more  firm  and  secure,  it  was 
 found  necessary  to  begin  the  foundation  at  the  bottom  of 
 the  mount ;  so  that  the  sides  were  333  cubits,  or  about 
 608  feet  high  before  they  were  raised  to  the  level  of  the 
 temple,  and  this  afforded  a  most  noble  prospect  towards 
 the  chief  part  of  the  city  which  lay  westward.  It  is  im- 
 possible to  compute  the  labour  of  laying  this  foundation, 
 because  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  much  of  the  moun- 
 tain must  in  some  places  be  removed,  and  others  filled 
 up,  to  bring  it  to  an  exact  square  for  so  great  a  height : 
 but  when  we  consider  that  there  were  180,000  workmen 
 for  seven  years  and  a  half  constantly  employed,  we  can- 
 not but  admire  what  business  could  be  found  for  so  many 
 hands  to  do ;  and  yet,  when  we  reflect  on  the  vastness 
 of  this  fabric,  it  would  make  one  no  less  wonder,  how 
 in  so  short  a  time  it  could  possibly  be  completed.  "  For 
 the  foundation,"  as  Josephus  tells  us,  "  was  laid  prodi- 
 giously deep,  and  the  stones  were  not  only  of  the  largest 
 size,  but  hard  and  firm  enough  to  endure  all  weathers, 
 and  be  proof  against  the  worm.  Besides  this,  they  were 
 so  mortised  into  one  another,  and  so  wedged  into  the 
 rock,  that  the  strength  and  curiosity  of  the  basis  was  not 
 less  admirable  than  the  intended  superstructure,  and  the 
 one  was  every  way  answerable  to  the  other." 
 
 The  ground  plot  upon  which  the  temple  was  built  was 
 a  square  of  GOO  cubits  every  way.  It  was  encompassed 
 with  a  wall  of  six  cubits  high,  and  the  same  in  breadth, 
 and  contained  several  buildings  for  different  uses,  sur- 
 rounded with  cloisters,  supported  by  marble  pillars. 
 Within  this  space  was  the  court  of  the  Gentiles,  fifty  cu- 
 bits wide,  and  adorned,  in  like  manner,  with  cloisters 
 and  pillars.  To  separate  this  court  from  the  court  of 
 the  Israelites,  there  was  a  wall  of  500  cubits  square.  The 
 
 1  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  4.  c.  5. 
 a  These  several  parts  of  the  temple  the  Greeks  are  very  care- 
 ful to  distinguish  by  different  names.  What  was  properly  the 
 temple,  they  called  o  met;  and  the  courts  and  other  parts  of 
 the  temple,  to  aoiv.  Thus  when  Zacharias  is  said  to  have  gone 
 into  the  temple  to  burn  incense,  (Luke  i.  9.)  which  was  done  in 
 the  sanctum,  the  word  is  Mais ;  but  when  it  is  said  that  Anna  the 
 prophetess  departed  not  from  the  temple,  (Luke  ii.  37.)  that  is, 
 lived  in  that  part  of  the  court  of  the  Israelites  which  was  appro- 
 priated to  religious  women,  the  Greek  word  is  hoot.  And  this 
 observation  holds  good  all  through  the  New  Testament. — Lamy, 
 De  Tabern.  b.  5.  c.  5. 
 
 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 court  of  the  Israelites  was  100  cubits.  It  was  paved 
 with  marble  of  different  colours,  and  had  four  gates,  to 
 every  quarter  one,  and  each  rising  with  an  ascent  of  seven 
 steps.  To  separate  this  court  from  the  court  of  the 
 priests,  there  was  a  wall  of  200  cubits  square  ;  and  the 
 priests'  court  was  100  cubits,  encompassed  with  cloisters 
 and  apartments  where  the  priests,  that  attended  the  ser- 
 vice of  the  temple,  were  used  to  live.  This  court  had  but 
 three  gates,  to  the  east,  to  the  north,  and  to  the  south, 
 and  were  approached  by  an  ascent  of  eight  steps.  These 
 courts  Avere  all  open,  and  without  any  covering,  but  in 
 case  of  rain,  or  other  bad  weather,  the  people  could  re- 
 tire under  the  cloisters,  that  were  supported  with  rows  of 
 pillars,  and  went  round  every  court.  In  the  Israelites' 
 court,  over  against  the  gate  of  the  priests'  court,  was 
 erected  a  throne  for  the  king,  which  was  a  magnificent 
 alcove,  where  he  seated  himself  when  he  came  to  the 
 temple.  In  the  priests'  court  was  the  altar  of  burnt-of- 
 ferings, a  great  deal  larger  than  that  of  the  tabernacle, 
 having  ten  brazen  lavers,  whereas  the  tabernacle  had  but 
 one,  and  a  sea  of  brass,  which  the  tabernacle  had  not, 
 supported  by  twelve  oxen. 
 
 On  the  west  side  of  the  altar  of  burnt-offerings,  there 
 was  an  ascent  of  twelve  steps,  to  what  we  may  properly 
 call  the  temple ;  and  this  consisted  of  three  parts,  the 
 porch,  the  sanctuary,  and  the  holy  of  holies.  The  porch 
 was  about  twelve  cubits  long,  and  twenty  broad,  at  the 
 entrance  of  which  stood  the  two  famous  pillars,  Jachin 
 and  Boaz,  whose  names  import,  that '  God  alone  was  the 
 support  of  the  temple  ;'  and  its  gate  was  fourteen  cubits 
 wide,  the  sanctuary  or  nave  of  the  temple,  was  forty  cu- 
 bits long,  and  twenty  broad,  wherein  were  the  altar  of 
 incense,  and  the  table  of  shewbread ;  but  because  the 
 temple  was  larger  and  wanted  more  light  than  the  taber- 
 nacle, instead  of  one,  it  had  ten  golden  candlesticks. 
 The  holy  of  holies  was  a  square  of  twenty  cubits,  wherein 
 was  placed  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  containing  the  two 
 tables  of  stone,  wherein  God  had  engraven  his  ten  com- 
 mandments ;  but  instead  of  two  cherubim,  as  were  in  the 
 tabernacle,  in  the  temple  there  were  four. 
 
 Round  about  the  temple,  and  against  the  walls  thereof, 
 as  Josephus  tells  us,  were  built  thirty  cells,  or  little 
 houses,  which  served  in  the  way  of  so  many  buttresses, 
 and  were,  at  the  same  time,  no  small  ornament  to  it ;  for 
 there  were  stories  of  these  cells,  one  above  another, 
 whereof  the  second  was  narrower  than  the  first,  and  the 
 third  than  the  second,  so  that  their  roofs  and  balustrades 
 being  within  each  other,  made  three  different  terraces,  as 
 it  were,  *  upon  which  one  might  walk  round  the  temple. 
 
 b  The  temple  itself,  strictly  so  called,  had  two  stories,  the  up- 
 per of  which  was  raised  quite  above  these  little  houses  and  their 
 roofs ;  for  their  roofs  reached  no  higher  than  the  top  of  the  first 
 story.  The  second  story,  which  had  no  building  adjoining  to  its 
 side,  made  a  large  room  over  the  sanctuary  and  the  holy  of  holies, 
 of  equal  dimensions  with  them  ;  and  it  is  no  improbable  opinion 
 that  this  was  the  upper  chamber,  in  which  the  Holy  Ghost  « as 
 pleased  to  descend  upon  the  apostles  in  a  visible  manner.  This 
 upper  loom  was  appropriated  to  the  pious  laity  as  a  place  for  them 
 to  come  and  pay  their  devotions  in;  and  therefore  it  seems  very 
 likely  that  the  apostles  were  here  with  other  devout  persons, 
 while  the  temple  was  full  of  Jews  of  all  nations,  who  were  come 
 to  celebrate  the  feast  of  the  Pentecost,  and  that  thereupon  they 
 below,  hearing  the  noise,  which  was  occasioned,  by  the  shaking 
 of  the  place,  ran  up  to  see  the  cause  of  it,  and,  to  their  great 
 surprise,  found  the  apostles  distinguished  from  the  other  Jews 
 about  them,  both  by  the  cloven  tongues  which  sat  upon  each  of 
 
530 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI.E 
 
 Within,  these  little  houses  were  ceiled  with  cedar,  their 
 walls  were  wainscoted  with  the  same,  and  embellished 
 with  carving  and  fretwork,  overlaid  with  gold,  which, 
 with  their  dazzling  splendour  made  every  thing  about 
 them  look  glorious. 
 
 Upon  the  whole  then,  we  may  observe,  1  that  the  glory 
 of  this  temple  did  not  consist  in  the  bulk  or  largeness  of 
 it,  for  in  itself  it  was  but  a  small  pile  of  building,  no 
 more  than  an  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  length,  and  an 
 hundred  and  five  in  breadth,  taking  the  whole  of  it  to- 
 gether from  out  to  out,  and  is  exceeded  by  many  of  our 
 parish  churches,  but  its  chief  grandeur  and  excellency 
 lay  in  its  out  buildings  and  ornaments,  in  its  workman- 
 ship, which  was  everywhere  very  curious,  and  its  over- 
 layings,  which  were  vast  and  prodigious  ;  for  the  over- 
 laying of  the  holy  of  holies,  only,  which  was  a  room 
 but  thirty  feet  square,  and  twenty  high,  amounted  to  six 
 hundred  talents  of  gold,  which  comes  to  four  millions 
 three  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  our  ster- 
 ling money. 
 
 To  conclude  this  chapter  then,  2in  the  words  of 
 the  Jewish  historian,  "  The  whole  frame,  in  fine,"  says 
 he,  "  was  raised  upon  stones,  polished  to  the  highest 
 degree  of  perfection,  and  so  artificially  put  together, 
 that  there  was  no  joint  to  be  discerned,  no  sign  of  any 
 working  tools  being  upon  them,  but  the  whole  looked 
 liker  the  work  of  providence  and  nature,  than  the  pro- 
 duct of  art  and  human  invention.  And  as  for  the  in- 
 side, whatever  carving,  gilding,  embroidery,  rich  silks, 
 and  fine  linen  could  do,  of  these  there  was  the  greatest 
 profusion.  The  very  floor  of  the  temple  Avas  overlaid 
 with  beaten  gold,  the  doors  were  large,  and  proportioned 
 to  the  height  of  the  walls,  twenty  cubits  broad,  and  still 
 gold  upon  gold."  In  a  word,  it  was  gold  all  over,  and  a 
 nothing  was  wanting,  either  within  or  w  ithout,  that  might 
 contribute  to  the  glory  and  magnificence  of  the  work. 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— Ob  the  Temple. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY  THE  EDITOR. 
 
 Diana's  temple  at  Ephesus  was  one  of  the  seven  won- 
 ders of  the  world.  It  is  said  that  almost  all  Asia  was 
 employed  in  the  building  of  it  for  about  two  hundred 
 years ;  but  it  was  certainly  more   extensive   than   the 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Con.  part  1.  b.  3.         2  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  8.  c.  2. 
 
 them,  and  by  the  several  different  languages  that  they  spake. 
 
 Lamy's  Introduction,  b.  1.  c.  4. 
 
 a  It  is  Dot  to  l>e  doubted,  but  that  Solomon  made  all  the  uten- 
 sils and  ornaments  of  the  temple  proportionable,  both  in  number 
 and  richness,  to  that  of  the  edifice ;  and  yet  Josephus  seems  to 
 have  carried  his  account  beyond  all  credibility,  when  he  tells  us 
 that  there  were  10,000  tables  besides  those  of  the  shewbread ; 
 10,000  candlesticks  besides  those  in  the  holy  place;  80,000 
 cups  for  drink-offerings;  100,000  basins  of  gold,  and  double  that 
 cumber  of  silver:  when  he  tells  us  that  Solomon  caused  to  be 
 made  1000  ornaments  for  the  sole  use  of  the  high  priest,  10,000 
 linen  robes  and  girdles  for  that  of  the  common  priests,  and 
 200,000  more  for  the  Levites  and  musicians:  when  he  tells  of 
 200,000  trumpets  made  according  to  Solomon's  direction,  with 
 200,000  more,  made  in  the  fashion  that  Moses  had  appointed, 
 and  400,000  musical  instruments  of  a  mixed  metal,  between 
 gold  and  silver,  called  by  the  ancients  electrum — concerning 
 all  which  we  can  only  say,  that  the  text  is  either  silent  or  con- 
 tradicts this  prodigious  account. — Universal  History,  b.  I.e.  7. 
 
 S,  A.  M.  !37!i-  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 temple  at  Jerusalem,  for  it  may  be  justly  questioned, 
 notwithstanding  the  profusion  of  gold,  silver,  precious 
 stones  &c,  employed  in  the  temple  of  Solomon,  whe- 
 ther it  cost  any  thing  like  the  money  expended  on  the 
 temple  of  Diana. 
 
 Pliny  informs  us,  that '  in  order  to  build  one  of  the 
 pyramids  in  Egypt,  no  less  than  three  hundred  and  sixty 
 thousand  men  were  employed  for  the  space  of  twenty 
 years.  But  neither  was  the  temple  any  such  work  as 
 this.  We  may  also  observe  that  the  temple  was  never 
 intended  to  hold  a  vast  concourse  of  people;  it  was  only 
 for  the  service  of  the  Lord,  and  the  priests  were  those 
 alone  who  were  employed  in  it.  The  courts,  chambers, 
 and  other  apartments,  were  far  more  extensive  than  the 
 temple  itself ;  it  was  never  designed  to  be  a  place  to 
 worship  at.  There  God  was  known  to  have  a  peculiar 
 residence,  and  before  him  the  tribes  came,  and  the 
 priests  were  a  sort  of  mediators  between  him  and  the 
 people.  In  short,  the  temple  was  to  the  Jews  in  the 
 promised  land  what  the  tabernacle  was  to  the  Hebrews 
 in  the  wilderness ;  the  place  where  God's  honour  dwelt, 
 and  whither  the  people  flocked  to  pay  their  adoration. 
 
 "  Solomon  laid  the  foundation  of  the  temple,  A.  M. 
 2992,  B.  C.  1008,  before  the  vulgar  era  1012;  and  it 
 was  finished  A  M.  3000,  and  dedicated  in  3001,  B.  C. 
 999,  before  the  vulgar  era  1003  ;  h  Kings  viii.  2  Chron. 
 v.  vii.  viii.  The  place  that  was  pitched  on  for  erecting 
 this  magnificent  structure  was  on  the  side  of  Mount  Zion 
 called  Moriah.  Its  entrance  or  frontispiece  stood  to- 
 wards the  east,  and  the  most  holy  or  most  retired  part 
 was  towards  the  west.  The  author  of  the  first  book  of 
 Kings,  and  of  the  second  of  Chronicles,  has  chiefly 
 made  it  his  business  to  describe  the  temple  properly  so 
 called,  that  is  the  sanctuary,  the  sanctum,  and  the  apart- 
 ments belonging  to  them,  as  also  the  vessels,  the  im- 
 plements, and  the  ornaments  of  the  temple,  without 
 giving  any  description  scarcely  of  the  courts  and  open 
 areas,  which  however  made  a  principal  part  of  the  gran- 
 deur of  this  august  edifice. 
 
 "  But  Ezekiel  has  supplied  this  defect  by  the  exact 
 plan  he  has  delineated  of  these  necessary  parts.  In- 
 deed it  must  be  owned  that  the  temple  as  described  by 
 Ezekiel  was  never  restored  after  the  captivity  of  Ba- 
 bylon, according  to  the  model  and  the  mensuration  that 
 this  prophet  has  given  of  it.  But  as  the  measure  he  sets 
 down  for  the  sanctum  and  the  sanctuary  are,  within  a 
 small  matter,  the  same  as  those  of  the  temple  of  Solo- 
 mon ;  and  as  this  prophet,  who  was  himself  a  priest,  had 
 seen  the  first  temple  ;  it  is  to  be  supposed  that  the  de- 
 scription he  gives  us  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  is  the 
 same  as  that  of  the  temple  of  Solomon. 
 
 "  The  ground -plot  upon  which  the  temple  was  built  was 
 a  square  of  six  hundred  cubits,  or  twenty-five  thousand 
 royal  feet ;  (Ezek.  xlv.)  This  space  was  encompassed 
 with  a  wall  of  the  height  of  six  cubits,  and  of  the  same 
 breadth.  Beyond  this  wall  was  the  court  of  the  Gentiles, 
 being  fifty  cubits  wide.  After  this  was  seen  a  great  wall, 
 which  encompassed  the  whole  court  of  the  children  of 
 Israel.     This  wall  was  a  square  of  five  hundred  cubits. 
 
 logy. 
 4384 
 
 3  Hist.  Nat.  b.  xxxvi.  c.  12. 
 
 b  These  dates  are  according  to  the  commonly  received  chrono- 
 According  to  Dr  Hales,  the  temple  was  begun  A.  M, 
 )r  B.  C.  1027,  and  finished  B.  C.  1020. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  ISRAELITES'  ENTERING  CANAAN,  &c. 
 
 531 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 The  court  of  Israel  was  an  hundred  cubits  square,  and 
 was  encompassed  all  round  with  magnificent  galleries 
 supported  by  two  or  three  rows  of  pillars.  It  had  four 
 gates  of  entrance,  one  to  the  east,  another  to  the  west, 
 a  third  to  the  north,  and  the  fourth  to  the  south.  They 
 were  all  of  the  same  form  and  largeness,  and  each  had 
 an  ascent  of  seven  steps.  The  court  was  paved  with 
 marble  of  divers  colours,  and  had  no  covering ;  but  the 
 people,  in  case  of  need,  could  retire  under  the  galleries 
 that  were  all  round  about.  These  apartments  were  to 
 lodge  the  priests  in,  and  to  lay  up  such  things  as  were 
 necessary  for  the  use  of  the  temple.  There  were  but 
 three  ways  to  come  in,  to  the  east,  to  the  north,  and  to 
 the  south,  and  they  went  to  it  by  an  ascent  of  eight 
 steps.  Before,  and  over  against  the  gate  of  the  court 
 of  the  priests,  in  the  court  of  Israel,  was  erected  a 
 throne  for  the  king,  being  a  magnificent  alcove,  where 
 the  king  seated  himself  when  he  came  into  the  temple. 
 Within  the  court  of  the  priests,  and  over  against  the 
 same  eastern  gate,  was  the  altar  of  burnt-ofterings,  of 
 twelve  cubits  square,  according  to  Ezek.  xliii.  16,  or  of 
 ten  cubits  high  and  twenty  broad,  according  to  2  Chron. 
 iv.  1.     They  went  up  to  it  by  stairs  on  the  eastern  side. 
 
 "  Beyond  this,  and  to  the  west  of  the  altar  of  burnt- 
 offerings,  was  the  temple  properly  so  called,  that  is  to 
 say,  the  sanctuary,  the  sanctum,  .and  the  porch  of 
 entrance.  The  porch  was  twenty  cubits  wide,  and  six 
 cubits  deep.  Its  gate  was  fourteen  cubits  wide.  The 
 sanctum  was  forty  cubits  wide,  and  twenty  deep.  There 
 stood  the  golden  candlestick,  the  table  of  shewbread, 
 and  the  golden  altar,  upon  which  the  incense  was  offered. 
 The  sanctuary  was  a  square  of  twenty  cubits.  There 
 was  nothing  in  the  sanctuary  but  the  ark  of  the  covenant, 
 which  included  the  tables  of  the  law.  The  high  priest 
 entered  here  but  once  a  year,  and  none  but  himself  was 
 allowed  to  enter.  Solomon  had  embellished  the  inside 
 of  this  holy  place  with  palm  trees  in  relief,  and  cherubim 
 of  wood  covered  with  plates  of  gold,  and  in  general  the 
 whole  sanctuary  was  adorned,  and  as  it  were,  overlaid 
 with  plates  of  gold. 
 
 "  Round  the  sanctum  and  sanctuary  were  three  stories 
 of  chambers,  to  the  number  of  thirty -three.  Ezekiel 
 makes  them  but  four  cubits  wide  ;  but  the  first  Book 
 of  Kings,  vi.  6,  allows  five  cubits  to  the  first  story,  six 
 to  the  second,  and  seven  to  the  third. 
 
 "  Since  the  consecration  or  dedication  of  the  temple 
 by  Solomon  A.  M.  3001,  this  edifice  has  suffered  many 
 revolutions,  which  it  is  proper  to  take  notice  of  here. 
 
 "  Shishak,  king  of  Egypt,  having  declared  war  with 
 Rehoboam,  king  of  Judah,  took  Jerusalem,  in  A.  M. 
 3033,  B.  C.  907 ,  before  the  vulgar  era  971,  and  carried 
 away  the  treasures  of  the  temple ;  1  Kings  xiv.  2 
 Cliron.  xii. 
 
 "  In  3146,  Jehoash,  king  of  Judah,  got  silver  together 
 to  go  upon  the  repairs  of  the  temple  ;  they  began  to 
 work  upon  it  in  earnest,  in  3148,  B.  C.  852,  before  the 
 vulgar  era  856  ;  2  Kings  xii.  4,  5,  and  2  Chron.  xxiv.  7, 
 8,  9,  &c. 
 
 "  Aliaz,  king  of  Judah,  having  called  to  his  assistance 
 Tilgath-Pilneser,  king  of  Assyria,  against  the  kings  of 
 Israel  and  Damascus,  who  were  at  war  with  him,  robbed 
 the  temple  of  the  Lord  of  its  riches,  to  give  away  to  this 
 strange  king;  2  Cliron.  xxviii.  21,  22,  &c.  A.  M.  3264, 
 B.  C.  736,  before  the  vulgar  era  740  ;  ami  not  contented 
 
 with  this,  he  profaned  this  holy  place  by  setting  up  there 
 an  altar  like  one  he  had  seen  at  Damascus,  and  taking 
 away  the  brazen  altar  that  Solomon  had  made  :  2  Kings 
 xvi.  10,  11,  12,  &c.  He  also  took  away  the  brazen  sea 
 from  off  the  brazen  oxen  that  supported  it,  and  the 
 brazen  basins  from  their  pedestals,  and  the  king's  throne 
 or  oratory,  which  was  of  brass.  These  he  took  away 
 to  prevent  their  being  carried  away  by  the  king  of 
 Assyria.  Nor  did  he  stop  here,  but  carried  his  wicked- 
 ness so  far  as  to  sacrifice  to  strange  gods,  and  to  erect 
 profane  altars  in  all  the  corners  of  the  streets  of  Jeru- 
 salem ;  2  Chron.  xxviii.  24,  25.  He  pillaged  the  temple 
 of  the  Lord,  broke  the  sacred  vessels,  and,  lastly,  shut 
 up  the  house  of  God.  This  happened  A.  M.  3264,  B.  C. 
 736,  before  the  vulgar  era  740,  to  his  death,  which 
 happened  in  3278,  B.  C.  722,  before  the  vulgar  era  726. 
 
 "  Hezekiah,  the  son  and  successor  of  Ahaz,  opened 
 again  and  repaired  the  gates  of  the  temple  which  his 
 father  had  shut  up  and  robbed  of  their  ornaments ; 
 2  Chron.  xxix.  3,  4,  &c.  A.  M.  3278,  B.  C.  722,  before 
 the  vulgar  era  726.  He  restored  the  worship  of  the 
 Lord  and  the  sacrifices,  and  made  new  sacred  vessels 
 in  the  place  of  those  that  Ahaz  had  destroyed.  But  in 
 the  fourteenth  year  of  his  reign,  (2  Kings  xviii.  15,  16,) 
 A.  M.  3291,  B.  C.  709,  before  the  vulgar  era  713, 
 Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria,  coming  with  an  army  into 
 the  land  of  Judah,  Hezekiah  was  forced  to  take  all  the 
 riches  of  the  temple,  and  even  the  plates  of  gold  that  he 
 himself  had  put  upon  the  gates  of  the  temple,  and  give 
 them  to  the  king  of  Assyria.  But  when  Sennacherib  was 
 gone  back  into  his  own  country,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
 Hezekiah  restored  all  these  things  to  their  first  condition. 
 
 "  Manasseh,  son  and  successor  of  Hezekiah,  profaned 
 the  temple  of  the  Lord,  by  setting  up  altars  to  all  the 
 host  of  heaven,  even  in  the  courts  of  the  house  of  the 
 Lord  ;  2  Kings  xxi.  4,  5,  6,  7  ;  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  5,  6,7  ; 
 
 A.  M.  3306,  and  the  following  years.  He  set  up  idols 
 there,  and  worshipped  them.  God  delivered  him  into 
 the  hands  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  who  loaded  him  with 
 chains,  and  carried  him  away  beyond  the  Euphrates ; 
 2  Chron.  xxxiii.  11,  12,  &c. ;  A.  M.  3328,  B.  C.  672, 
 before  the  vulgar  era,  676.  There  he  acknowledged  and 
 repented  of  his  sins  ;  and  being  sent  back  to  his  own 
 dominions,  he  redressed  the  profanations  he  had  made 
 of  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  by  taking  away  the  idols, 
 destroying  the  profane  altars,  and  restoring  the  altar  of 
 burnt-offering,  upon  Avhich  he  offered  his  sacrifices. 
 
 "  Josiah,  king  of  Judah,  laboured  with  all  his  might  in 
 repairing  the  edifices  of  the  temple,  2  Kings  xxii.  4,  5, 
 6,  &c.,2  Chron.  xxxiv.  8—10  ;  A.  M.  3380,  B.  C.  620, 
 before  the  vulgar  era  624,  which  had  been  either  ne- 
 glected or  demolished  by  the  kings  of  Judah,  his 
 predecessors.  He  also  commanded  the  priests  and 
 Levites  to  replace  the  ark  of  the  Lord  in  the  sanc- 
 tuary, in  its  appointed  place  ;  and  ordered  that  it  should 
 not  any  more  be  removed  from  place  to  place,  as  it  had 
 been  during  the  reign  of  the  wicked  kings,  his  pre- 
 decessors, 2  Chron.  xxxv.  3. 
 
 "  Nebuchadnezzar  took  away  a  part  of  the  sacred  ves- 
 sels of  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  and  placed  them  in  the 
 temple  of  his  god,  at  Babylon,  under  the  reign  of  Jehoi- 
 akim,  king  of  Judah  ;  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  6,7  ;  A.  M.  3398, 
 
 B.  C.  602,  before  the  vulgar  era  606.  He  also  carried 
 away  others,  under  the  reign  of  Jehoiachin,  2  Chron. 
 
532 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V. 
 
 A.  M.  2981.  A.  C.  1023;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4375.  A.  C.  1036.  2  SAM.  xix— 1  KINGS  viii. 
 
 xxxvi.  10;  A.  M.  3405,  B.  C.  595,  before  the  vulgar  era 
 599.  Lastly,  he  took  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  entirely 
 destroyed  the  temple,  in  the  eleventh  year  of  Zedekiah, 
 A.  M.  3416,  B.  C.  584,  before  the  vulgar  era  588  ;  2 
 Kings  xxv.  1,  2,  3,  &c,  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  IS,  19. 
 
 "  The  temple  continued  buried  in  its  ruins  for  the 
 space  of  fifty-two  years,  till  the  first  year  of  Cyrus  at 
 Babylon,  A.  M.  3468,  B.  C.  532,  before  the  vulgar  era 
 536.  Then  Cyrus  gave  permission  to  the  Jews  to  re- 
 turn to  Jerusalem,  and  there  to  rebuild  the  temple  of  the 
 Lord,  Ezra  i.  1,2,  3,  &c.  The  following  year  they  laid 
 the  foundation  of  the  second  temple  ;  but  they  had  hardly 
 been  at  work  upon  it  one  year,  when  either  Cyrus  or  his 
 officers,  being  gained  over  by  the  enemies  of  the  Jews, 
 forbade  them  to  go  on  with  their  work ;  Ezra  iv.  5 ; 
 A.  M.  3470,  B.  C.  530,  before  the  vulgar  era  534.  After 
 the  death  of  Cyrus  and  Cambyses,  they  were  again  for- 
 bidden by  the  Magian,  who  reigned  after  Cambyses,  and 
 whom  the  Scripture  calls  by  the  name  of  Artaxerxes  ; 
 Ezra  iv.  7,  17,  18,  &c. ;  A.  M.  3483,  B.  C.  517,  before 
 the  vulgar  era  521.  Lastly,  these  prohibitions  being 
 superseded  under  the  reign  of  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes, 
 Ezra  vi.  1,  14;  Hag.  i.  1,  &c. ;  A.  M.  3485,  B.  C.  515, 
 before  the  vulgar  era  519  ;  the  temple  was  finished  and 
 dedicated  four  years  after,  A.  M.  3489,  B.  C.  511,  be- 
 fore the  vulgar  era  515,  twenty  years  after  the  return 
 from  the  captivity. 
 
 "  This  temple  was  profaned  by  order  of  Antiochus 
 Epiphanes,  A.  M.  3837.  The  ordinary  sacrifices  were 
 discontinued  therein,  and  the  idol  of  Jupiter  Olympus 
 was  set  up  upon  the  altar.  It  continued  in  this  condi- 
 tion for  three  years  ;  then  Judas  Maccabasus  purified  it, 
 and  restored  the  sacrifice  and  worship  of  the  Lord ; 
 1  Mac.  iv.  36  ;  A.  M.  3840,  B.  C.  160,  before  the  vulgar 
 era  164. 
 
 <;  Herod  the  Great  undertook  to  rebuild  the  whole 
 temple  of  Jerusalem  anew,  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his 
 reign,  A.  M.  3986.1  He  began  to  lay  the  foundation  of 
 it  A.  M.  3987,  forty-six  years  before  the  first  passover 
 of  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  Jews  observe  to  him,  by  saying, 
 *  '  Forty  and  six  years  was  this  temple  in  building,  and 
 wilt  thou  rear  it  up  in  three  days  ?'  This  is  not  saying 
 that  Herod  had  employed  six  and  forty  years  in  building 
 it ;  for  Josephus  assures  us,  that  he  finished  it  in  nine 
 years  and  a  half.  3  But  after  the  time  of  this  prince, 
 they  all  continued  to  make  some  new  addition  to  it ;  and 
 the  same  Josephus  tells  us  that  they  went  on  working 
 upon  it  even  to  the  beginning  of  the  Jewish  war.  4 
 
 "  This  temple,  built  by  Herod,  did  not  subsist  more 
 than  twenty-seven  years,  being  destroyed  A.  M.  4073 
 A.  D.  73,  of  the  vulgar  era  69.  It  was  begun  by  Herod 
 in  3987,  finished  in  3996,  burned  and  destroyed  by  the 
 Romans  in  4073. 
 
 "  This  temple  of  Herod's  was  very  different  from  that 
 
 of  Solomon,  and  from  that  which  was  rebuilt  by  Zerub- 
 babel  after  the  captivity.  This  is  the  description  that 
 Josephus  has  left  us  of  it,  who  himself  had  seen  it  :— 
 
 "  The  temple,  properly  so  called,  was  built  sixty  cubits 
 high,  and  as  many  broad ;  but  there  were  two  sides  of 
 front,  like  two  arms  or  shoulderings,  which  advanced 
 twenty  cubits  on  each  side,  which  gave  in  the  whole  front 
 an  hundred  cubits,  as  well  as  in  height.  The  stones 
 made  use  of  in  this  building  were  white  and  hard,  twenty- 
 five  cubits  long,  eight  in  height,  and  twelve  in  width.  b 
 
 "  The  front  of  this  magnificent  building  resembled  that 
 of  a  royal  palace.  The  two  extremes  of  each  face  were 
 lower  than  the  middle,  which  middle  was  so  exalted  that 
 those  who  were  over  against  the  temple,  or  that  ap- 
 proached towards  it  at  a  distance,  might  see  it  though 
 they  were  many  furlongs  from  it.  The  gates  were  almost 
 of  the  same  height  as  the  temple  ;  and  on  the  top  of  the 
 gates  were  veils  or  tapestry  of  several  colours,  embel- 
 lished with  purple  flowers.  On  the  two  sides  of  the  doors 
 were  two  pillars,  the  cornices  of  which  were  adorned 
 with  the  branches  of  a  golden  vine,  which  hung  down 
 with  their  grapes  and  clusters,  and  were  so  well  imitated, 
 that  art  did  not  at  all  yield  to  nature.  Herod  made  very 
 large  and  very  high  galleries  about  the  temple,  which 
 were  suitable  to  the  magnificence  of  the  rest  of  the  build- 
 ing, and  exceeded  in  beauty  and  sumptuousness  all  of 
 the  kind  that  had  been  seen  before. 
 
 "  The  temple  was  built  upon  a  very  irregular  moun- 
 tain, and  at  first  there  was  hardly  place  enough  on  the 
 top  of  it  for  the  site  of  the  temple  and  altar.  The  rest 
 of  it  was  steep  and  sloping.  6  But  when  king  Solomon 
 built  it  he  raised  a  Avail  towards  the  east,  to  support  the 
 earth  on  that  side  ;  and  after  this  side  was  filled  up,  he 
 then  built  one  of  the  porticos  or  galleries.  At  that  time 
 this  face  only  was  cased  with  stone,  but  in  succeeding 
 times,  the  people  endeavouring  to  enlarge  this  space,  and 
 tho  top  of  the  mountain  being  much  extended,  they  broke 
 down  the  wall  which  was  on  the  north  side,  and  enclosed 
 another  space,  as  large  as  that  which  the  whole  circum- 
 ference of  the  temple  contained  at  first.  So  that,  at  last, 
 against  all  hope  and  expectation,  this  work  was  carried 
 so  far  that  the  whole  mountain  was  surrounded  by  a 
 treble  wall.  But  for  the  completing  of  this  great  work, 
 whole  ages  were  no  more  than  sufficient ;  and  all  the 
 sacred  treasures  were  applied  to  this  use,  that  the  devo- 
 tion of  the  people  had  brought  to  the  temple  from  all 
 the  provinces  of  the  world.  In  some  places  these  walls 
 were  above  300  cubits  high,  and  the  stones  used  in  these 
 walls  were  some  forty  cubits  long.  They  were  fastened 
 together  by  iron  cramps  and  lead,  to  be  able  to  resist  the 
 injuries  of  time.  The  platform  on  which  the  temple  was 
 built  was  a  furlong  square,  or  120  paces."  Thus  far  Cal- 
 met  and  Josephus.7 
 
 1  Joseph,  Antiq.  b.  xv.  r.  14. 
 '  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xv.  c.  14. 
 
 *  John  ii.  20. 
 Joseph.  A  lit iq.  b.  xx.  r.  8. 
 
 5  Joseph,  de  Bell.  b.  vi.  p.  917. 
 Joseph,  de  Bell.  b.  vi.  p.  915;  Antiq.  b   xv.  c.  14. 
 
 7  Clarke's  Commentary. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE 
 
 BOOK   VI. 
 
 CONTAINING  AN  ACCOUNT  OK  THINGS,  FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  SOLOMONS  TEMPLE,  TO  THE  BABYLONISH 
 CAPTIVITY,  IN  ALL  ABOUT  400  YEARS,— ACCORDING  TO  DR  HALES,  422  YEARS  FROM  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE 
 TEMPLE,  AND  OF  COURSE  414  YEARS  AND  SIX  MONTHS  FROM  ITS  BEING  FINISHED. 
 
 PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The  division  of  the  history  of  God's  chosen  people,  on 
 which  we  are  now  entering,  extends  nearly  from  the 
 close  of  David's  reign  to  the  Babylonish  captivity,  a 
 period  of  about  four  hundred  and  twenty -seven  years. 
 The  sacred  books  in  which  this  history  is  contained,  are 
 usually  called  "  the  first  and  second  books  of  the 
 Kings ;"  and  in  some  versions,  "  the  third  and  fourth 
 books  of  the  Kings."  It  is  evident,  as  Mr  Scott  remarks, 
 that  they  contain  an  abstract  of  the  history,  compiled 
 from  much  more  copious  records,  which  seem  to  have 
 been  collected  and  preserved  by  contemporary  prophets,1 
 and  indeed,  a  considerable  part  of  the  transactions  of 
 their  own  times,  is  recorded  in  connexion  with  the  pro- 
 phecies of  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel.  It  is,  how- 
 ever, uncertain  by  whom  this  compilation  was  made  :  but 
 if  Ezra,  as  it  is  generally  and  probably  supposed,  com- 
 piled the  books  of  Chronicles  ;  it  is  not  likely  that  he 
 compiled  these  also  ;  as  they  form  a  distinct  history  of 
 the  same  times.  If,  therefore,  they  were  arranged  in 
 the  present  manner,  principally  by  one  sacred  writer, 
 they  who  ascribe  them  to  Jeremiah,  seem  to  have  adopted 
 the  more  probable  opinion.  Indeed,  the  second  book 
 of  the  Kings  and  his  prophecy  end  with  the  narrative  of 
 the  same  events  ;  though  perhaps  both  were  added  after 
 his  death  by  another  hand ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
 some  other  trivial  alterations  were  made  in  the  days  of 
 Ezra,  to  render  the  narrative  more  perspicuous  to  the 
 Jews  after  the  captivity. 
 
 They  have,  however,  been  constantly  received,  both 
 by  Jews  and  Christians,  as  a  part  of  the  Sacred  Canon, 
 the  holy  Scriptures  ;  and  the  events  recorded  are  fre- 
 quently referred  to  in  the  New  Testament.8  They  con- 
 tain many  prophecies;  especially  that  of  Josiah,  who 
 was  foretold  by  name,  three  hundred  years  before  his 
 birth.     After  the  death  of  David,  the  sacred  historian 
 
 '  1  Kinirs  xi.  41.  xiv.  29.  xv.  31.  xxii.  39,  45.  2  Chron.  ix. 
 29.  xii.  15.  xiii.  22.  xx.  34. 
 
 1  Mat.  i.  7—12.  vi.  29.  xii.  42.  Luke  iv.  25—27.  Acts  ii. 
 20.  vii.  47—50.  James  v.  17,  18. 
 
 records  the  principal  transactions  of  Solomon's  long 
 and  peaceful  reign  ;  which,  however,  was  covered  with 
 a  dark  cloud  toward  the  close ;  and  under  his  succes- 
 sor, the  nation  Avas  divided  into  two  distinct  kingdoms 
 of  Judah  and  Israel.  The  descendants  of  Solomon 
 reigned  over  that  of  Judah  till  the  captivity,  for  about 
 three  hundred  and  eighty-seven  years  :  so  that  from  the 
 accession  of  David,  during  a  course  of  four  hundred  and 
 sixty-seven  years,  the  throne  was  tilled  by  his  descend- 
 ants, in  lineal  descent,  except  as  the  sons  of  Josiah 
 succeeded  one  another.  During  this  long  term  of  years 
 there  was  not  a  single  revolution,  or  civil  war ;  and  but 
 one  short  interruption,  by  Athaliah's  usurpation.  Per- 
 haps it  would  be  difficult  to  find,  in  universal  history, 
 any  thing  equal  to  this  permanent  internal  order  and 
 tranquillity.  Above  half  the  kings  of  Judah  supported 
 true  religion,  and  many  of  them  were  eminently  pious 
 men  ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  their  reigns  were  much 
 longer  than  those  of  the  wicked  princes.3 
 
 The  kingdom  of  Israel  continued  about  two  hundred 
 and  fifty-four  years,  till  the  Assyrian  captivity.  The 
 nineteen  kings,  of  seven  families,  who,  during  this  period, 
 reigned  in  succession,  were  all  idolaters,  and  most  of 
 them  monsters  of  iniquity  :  yet  the  Lord  by  his  prophets, 
 especially  by  Elijah  and  Elisha,  preserved  a  consider- 
 able degree  of  true  religion  in  the  land,  till  the  measure 
 of  their  national  wickedness  was  full ;  and  then  they 
 were  finally  dispersed  among  the  Gentiles,  except  as  a 
 remnant  of  them  was  incorporated  among  the  Jews. 
 
 Connected  with  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  Solomon's 
 reign,  and  the  fame  of  his  wisdom,  a  full  account  is 
 given  of  the  temple  having  been  built  by  him.  God  had 
 commanded  Israel  to  offer  all  their  sacrifices  at  one 
 place ;  Shiloh  had  for  some  time  been  that  place  ;  and 
 the  ark  had  been  removed  to  Zion,  by  David,  in  order 
 that  a  temple  might  there  be  built,  which  Solomon  his 
 son  accomplished.  Now  a  large  portion  of  the  subse- 
 quent parts  of  the  Old  Testament  relate  to  this  temple ; 
 to  the  sins  of  the  people  in  sacrificing  elsewhere ;  to 
 
 3  1  Kings  ,\i.  12.  xv.  10.  xxii.  42.  2  Kings  xv.  2,  33.  xviii. 
 2.  xxii.  1." 
 
534 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 their  profanation  of  the  temple ;  to  the  judgments  of 
 God  upon  them  for  their  crimes;  especially  to  the 
 destruction  of  the  temple  by  the  Chaldeans ;  and  to  the 
 rebuilding  of  it  by  Zerubbabel.  These  things  so  run 
 through  all  the  subsequent  history  and  prophecies,  that 
 if  Solomon  did  not  build  the  temple  by  the  express  com- 
 mand of  God,  it  must  follow,  that  God  punished  the 
 nation  with  tremendous  judgments  for  violating  merely 
 human  appointments.  When  the  Samaritans  preferred 
 Mount  Gerizim,  our  Lord  told  the  woman  of  Samaria, 
 that  they  "  knew  not  what  they  worshipped,  for  salvation 
 was  of  the  Jews  :"  and  this  declaration,  with  his  own 
 constant  attendance  at  the  ordinances  there  administered, 
 sufficiently  attest  the  divine  inspiration  of  those  re- 
 cords, in  which  alone  it  is  expressly  declared  that 
 Solomon  built  the  temple  by  the  direction  and  appoint- 
 ment of  God. 
 
 The  temple  was  a  type  of  Christ, — of  his  church, — and 
 of  heaven.  The  tabernacle  seemed  rather  to  represent 
 the  church  in  its  moveable,  changeable  state,  in  this 
 world :  but  the  temple,  fixed  to  one  place,  appears  to 
 have  been  intended  to  represent  the  church  in  heaven. — 
 This  was  the  house  in  which  Christ  dwelt,  till  he  assumed 
 human  nature.  Here  was  the  place  that  God  chose, 
 where  his  people  offered  up  their  sacrifices,  till  he  came, 
 who  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself  finished  transgression, 
 made  an  end  of  sin  offering,  made  reconciliation  for 
 iniquity,  and  brought  in  everlasting  righteousness. 
 Here  the  messenger  of  the  covenant  often  delivered  his 
 heavenly  doctrine  ;  and  here  his  church  was  gathered  by 
 the  pouring  out  of  his  Spirit  after  his  ascension  :  the 
 sound  of  the  gospel  went  forth  from  hence  over  the 
 world. 
 
 It  may  also  be  observed,  that  the  Jewish  church  was, 
 in  the  reign  of  Solomon,  in  a  state  of  great  external 
 prosperity.  Israel  was  exceedingly  multiplied,  so  that 
 they  seemed  to  have  become  like  the  sand  on  the  sea 
 shore.  They  were  now  in  the  peaceful  possession  of 
 the  promised  land,  and  of  all  the  abundance,  which, 
 through  the  divine  blessing,  it  yielded  to  them.  Their 
 king  was  a  typical  representation  of  Christ,  glorious  in 
 his  apparel,  exalted,  triumphing,  and  reigning,  in  his 
 kingdom  of  peace.  The  happy  state  of  the  Jewish 
 church  at  that  time,  shadowed  forth  the  condition  of  the 
 church  in  the  latter  day,  when  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword 
 against  nation,  nor  learn  war  any  more  ; — at  that  blissful 
 period,  when  they  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  God's 
 holy  mountain,  because  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the 
 knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 
 There  were  considerable  additions  made  to  the  canon 
 of  Scripture  by  Solomon,  who  wrote  the  books  of 
 Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes,  probably  near  the  close  of 
 his  reign.  The  Song  of  Songs,  which  was  also  written 
 by  him,  has  always  been  considered  as  representing  the 
 high  and  glorious  relation  which  subsists  between  Christ 
 and  his  redeemed  church. 
 
 The  reader  should  remark  the  care  which  God  exer- 
 cised in  the  course  of  this  period,  in  upholding  the  true 
 religion.  When  the  ten  tribes  had  generally  forsaken 
 the  worship  of  God,  he  preserved  the  true  religion  in 
 the  kingdom  of  Judah  ;  and  when  that  people  corrupted 
 themselves,  as  they  often  did,  God  still  kept  the  lamp 
 of  heavenly  truth  burning,  and  was  often  pleased,  when 
 tilings  seemed  to  come  to  an  extremity,  to  grant  blessed 
 
 4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 revivals  of  religion,  by  remarkable  outpourings  of  his 
 Holy  Spirit,  particularly  in  Hezekiah  and  Josiah's  time. 
 The  preservation  of  the  book  of  law  in  the  time  of  the 
 great  apostasy,  during  a  considerable  part  of  the  long 
 reign  of  Manasseh,  which  lasted  fifty-five  yerrs,  and 
 also  in  the  reign  of  Amon  his  son,  is  a  remarkable 
 instance  of  the  care  which  God  exercised  over  the  in- 
 terests of  true  religion. 
 
 The  intelligent  reader  will  also  observe,  that  amid 
 the  apostasies  and  calamities  by  which  this  period  was 
 characterized,  the  tribe  of  Judah,  from  which  the  Re- 
 deemer was  to  come,  was  preserved  from  ruin  by  the 
 special  interposition  of  God.  As  instances  of  deliver- 
 ance by  the  arm  of  God,  we  need  only  mention  their 
 preservation  when  Shishak  king  of  Egypt  came  against 
 Judah  with  a  great  force  ;  when  Jeroboam  brought  an 
 army  of  eight  hundred  thousand  men  against  the  mem- 
 bers of  this  tribe ;  and  when,  again,  in  Asa's  time, 
 Zerah  the  Ethiopian  came  against  him  with  a  yet  larger 
 army  of  a  thousand  thousand  and  three  hundred  chariots- 
 1 '  And  Asa  cried  unto  the  Lord  his  God,  and  said,  Lord, 
 it  is  nothing  with  thee  to  help,  whether  with  many,  or 
 with  them  that  have  no  power.'  His  prayer  was  heard  ; 
 and  God  himself  gave  him  the  victory  over  this  mighty 
 host.  When  the  children  of  Moab,  and  the  children  of 
 Amon,  and  the  inhabitants  of  mount  Seir,  combined  to- 
 gether against  Judah  with  a  mighty  army,  a  force  greatly 
 superior  to  any  that  Jehoshaphat  could  raise,  God  as- 
 sured Jehoshaphat  and  his  people  by  one  of  the  prophets, 
 that  they  need  not  be  afraid,  for  that  he  himself,  without 
 their  instrumentality,  would  destroy  their  armies.  But 
 it  is  unnecessary  to  allude  to  more  examples  of  this 
 kind.  It  was  the  purpose  of  God,  a  purpose  often  re- 
 ferred to  by  the  prophets,  that  the  Messiah  should  spring 
 from  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  the  family  of  David,  and 
 that  therefore  this  tribe  and  family  should  be  preserved 
 till  that  illustrious  descendant  appeared,  to  whom  should 
 be  given  the  throne  of  his  father  David,  and  of  whose 
 kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end. 
 
 Nor  should  we  fail  to  notice  the  goodness  of  God  to 
 his  church  and  people,  in  raising  up  eminent  prophets, 
 who  committed  their  prophecies  to  writing,  for  the  in- 
 struction and  edification  of  the  church  in  all  ages.  From 
 the  time  of  Samuel  there  had  been  a  constant  succession 
 of  prophets  in  Israel,  who  had  added  to  the  canon  of 
 Scripture  by  their  historical  writings.  But  now  in  the 
 days  of  Uzziah,  God  raised  up  great  prophets,  who  added 
 to  the  canon  not  only  by  their  historical  compositions, 
 but  by  books  of  their  prophecies.  Of  these,  we  need 
 only  mention  Isaiah,  Amos,  Jonah,  Micah,  and  Nahum. 
 They  were  divinely  qualified  to  exercise  the  prophetical 
 office  for  the  purpose  of  bearing  testimony  to  the  great 
 Redeemer  :  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  and  the  spirit  of 
 prophecy  are  the  same.  2  Accordingly,  we  find,  that 
 the  main  things  insisted  on  by  the  prophets  are  Christ, 
 his  redemption,  the  establishment  of  his  kingdom  among 
 men,  and  the  glories  of  the  latter  day.  In  what  exalted 
 strains  do  they  allude  to  these  heavenly  themes.  How 
 plainly  and  fully  does  Isaiah,  the  evangelical  prophet, 
 describe  the  manner  and  circumstances,  the  nature  and 
 end,  of  the  sufferings  and  sacrifice  of  Christ ! 3  In  what 
 chapter  of  the  New  Testament  are  these  more  fully  set  forth 
 
 2  Chron.  xiv.  9—11. 
 
 *  Rev.  xix.  10. 
 
 8  Is.  lili. 
 
Skct.  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 535 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H.VLKS.  A.  If.  43UI.  A.  C.  1020.  I  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 This,  then,  forms  an  important  era  in  the  history  of 
 the  discovery  of  human  redemption.  The  way  of  salva- 
 tion for  fallen  man  was  more  clear  than  at  any  former 
 period  by  the  great  increase  of  gospel  light  communi- 
 cated by  inspired  prophets :  '  Of  which  salvation  the 
 prophets  inquired  and  searched  diligently,  who  pro- 
 phesied of  the  grace  that  should  come  unto  you:  search- 
 ing what,  or  what  manner  of  time  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
 which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it  testified  before- 
 hand the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that  should 
 follow.  Unto  whom  it  was  revealed,  that  not  unto 
 themselves,  but  unto  us  they  did  minister  the  things  which 
 are  now  reported  unto  you  by  them  that  have  preached 
 the  gospel  unto  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down 
 from  heaven.'  * 
 
 SECT.    I. 
 
 CHAP.   I. — From  the  finishing  of  the  temple,  to  the 
 reign  of  Jehoshaphat. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 When  Solomon  had  finished  the  temple,  which  was  in 
 the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign,  and  in  the  eighth  month 
 of  that  year, a  even  when  all  the  solemn  feasts  were  over, 
 he  thought  it  advisable  to  defer  the  dedication  of  it 
 until  the  next  year,  which  was  a  year  of  jubilee,  and 
 determined  to  have  it  done  some  days  before  the  *  feast 
 of  tabernacles.  To  this  purpose,  he  sent  all  the  elders 
 of  Israel,  the  princes  of  the  tribes,  and  the  heads  of  the 
 families,  notice  to  repair  to  Jerusalem  at  the  time  ap- 
 pointed ;  when  accordingly,  all  being  met  together,  the 
 priests  and  Levites  carried  into  the  temple,  first,  all  the 
 presents  that  David  had  made  to  it :  then  set  up,  in  their 
 several  places,  the  vessels  and  ornaments  appointed  for 
 the  service  of  the  altar,  and  the  sanctuary ;  and  lastly, 
 
 1  I  Peter  i.  10—13. 
 
 a  Solomon  deferred  the  dedication  of  the  temple  to  the  follow- 
 ing year  after  it  was  finished,  because  that  year,  according  to 
 Archbishop  Usher,  was  a  jubilee.  "  This,"  he  observes,  "  was 
 the  ninth  jubilee,  opening  the  fourth  millenary  of  the  world,  or 
 A.  M.  3001,  wherein  Solomon,  with  great  magnificence,  cele- 
 brated the  dedication  of  the  temple  seven  days,  and  the  least  of 
 tabernacles  other  seven  days;  the  celebration  of  the  eighth  day 
 of  tabernacles  being  finished,  upon  the  twenty-third  day  of  the 
 seventh  month,  the  people  were  dismissed,  every  man  to  his 
 home.  The  eighth  day  of  the  seventh  month,  namely,  the 
 thirtieth  of  our  October,  being  Friday,  was  the  first  of  the  seven 
 days  of  dedication ;  on  the  tenth  day,  Saturday  November  1,  was 
 the  feast  of  expiation  or  atonement  held;  whereon,  according  to 
 the  Levitical  laws,  the  jubilee  was  proclaimed  by  sound  of  trum- 
 pet. The  fifteenth  day,  Friday  November  6,  was  the  commence- 
 ment of  the  feast  of  tabernacles ;  the  twenty-second,  Novem- 
 ber 13,  being  also  Friday,  was  the  termination  of  the  feast  of 
 tabernacles,  which  was  always  very  solemnly  kept,  (2  Chron. 
 vii.  9;  Lev.  xxiii.  36;  John  vii.  37;)  and  the  day  following, 
 November  14,  being  our  Saturday,  when  the  Sabbath  was  ended, 
 the  people  returned  home. —  Usher's  Annals. — Ed. 
 
 b  This  feast  was  appointed  in  commemoration  of  the  children 
 of  Israel's  dwelling  in  booths,  whilst  they  were  in  the  wilderness, 
 and  of  the  tabernacle,  which  at  that  time  was  built,  where  God 
 promised  to  meet  them,  to  dwell  among  them,  and  to  sanctify 
 the  place  with  his  glory ;  and  might  therefore  be  well  reckoned 
 a  very  proper  season  for  the  dedication  of  the  temple,  which  was 
 to  succeed  in  the  tabernacle's  place. — Bedford's  Scripture  Chro- 
 nology, b.  6.  c.  2. 
 
 brought  the  c  ark  of  the  covenant,  together  with  the 
 d  tabernacle  of  the  congregation,  into  its  new  habitation 
 with  great  solemnity  ;  the  king  and  elders  of  the  people 
 walking  before,  while  others  of  the  priests  offered  an  e 
 infinite  number  of  sacrifices,  in  all  the  places  through 
 which  the  ark  passed. 
 
 c  The  sacred  history  tells  us,  that  '  in  this  ark  there  was  no- 
 thing save  the  two  tables  of  stone,  which  Moses  put  there  at 
 Horeb,'  (1  Kings  viii.  9.)  and  yet  the  author  to  the  Hebrews 
 affirms,  '  that  in  this  ark  was  the  golden  pot  that  had  manna,  and 
 Aaron's  rod  that  budded,  as  well  as  the  tables  of  the  covenant,' 
 (Heb.  ix.  4.)  Now,  to  reconcile  this,  some  imagine,  that  before 
 the  ark  had  any  fixed  and  settled  place,  which  is  the  time  the 
 apostle  refers  to,  all  these  things  were  included  in  it,  though  it 
 was  chiefly  intended  for  nothing  but  the  tables  of  the  covenant; 
 but  that,  when  it  was  placed  in  the  temple,  nothing  was  left  in 
 it  but  these  two  tables ;  all  the  other  things  were  deposited  in  the 
 treasury  of  the  temple,  where  the  book  of  the  law  (as  we  read  in 
 2  Chron.  xxxiv.  14.)  was  found  in  the  days  of  king  Josias. 
 Others  however  pretend,  that  in  the  time  of  the  apostle,  that  is, 
 towards  the  end  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth,  Aaron's  rod,  and 
 the  pot  of  manna  were  really  kept  in  the  ark,  though,  in  the  days 
 of  Solomon,  they  were  not.  But  tins  answer  would  be  more 
 solid  and  satisfactory,  if  he  knew  for  certain,  that,  in  the  time  of 
 the  apostle,  the  ark  of  the  covenant  was  really  in  the  sanctuary 
 of  the  temple  which  Herod  built;  whereas  Josephus  (On  the 
 Jewish  War,  b.  C.  c.  6.)  tells  us  expressly,  that,  when  the  Ro- 
 mans destroyed  the  temple,  there  was  nothing  found  in  the  holy 
 of  holies. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  But  the  question  is,  what  tabernacle,  whether  that  which 
 Moses  made,  and  was  then  at  Gibeon,  (2  Chron.  i.  3.)  or  that 
 which  was  made  by  David,  and  was  then  at  Jerusalem?  To  end 
 this  dispute,  some  have  imagined,  that  both  these  tabernacles 
 were  at  this  time  carried  into  the  temple,  and  laid  up  there, 
 that  all  danger  of  superstition  and  idolatry  might  thereby  be 
 avoided,  and  that  no  worship  might  be  performed  anywhere, 
 but  only  at  the  house  which  was  dedicated  to  God's  service. 
 But  it  is  observed  by  others,  that  the  convenience  which  David 
 made  for  the  reception  of  the  ark,  was  never  called  the  '  taberna- 
 cle of  the  covenant ;'  it  was  no  more  than  a  plain  tent,  set  up  in 
 some  large  room  of  the  royal  palace,  until  a  more  proper  recepta- 
 cle could  be  provided  for  it;  but  the  tabernacle  that  was  at  Gibeon 
 was  the  same  that  sojourned  so  long  in  the  wilderness.  The  tent 
 was  the  same,  the  curtains  the  same,  and  the  altar  the  same  that 
 was  made  by  Moses;  or,  at  least,  if  there  was  any  alteration  in 
 it,  as  things  of  this  nature  could  hardly  subsist  so  very  long  with- 
 out some  repair,  the  reparation  was  always  made  according  to  the 
 original  model,  and  with  as  little  deviation  as  possible.  It  is  not 
 to  be  doubted,  then,  but  that  the  Mosaic  tabernacle  is  the  taber- 
 nacle here  intended,  which  for  the  prevention  of  schism,  and  to 
 make  the  temple  the  centre  of  devotion,  was  now  taken  down,  and 
 reposited  in  the  treasury,  or  storehouse,  where  it  continued  un- 
 til the  time  that  Jerusalem  was  taken  by  the  Chaldeans,  when 
 Jeremiah,  as  Josephus  informs  us,  [Jewish  Antiq.  b.  8.  c.  2.) 
 was  admonished  by  God,  to  take  it  and  the  ark,  and  the  altar  of 
 incense,  and  hide  them  in  some  secret  place,  from  whence  it  is 
 doubted,  whether  they  have  ever  yet  been  removed,  for  fear  of 
 profanation.— Patrick's  and   Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  The  number  of  sacrifices  which,  upon  this  occasion,  are  said 
 to  be  offered,  was  '  two  and  twenty  thousand  oxen,  and  an  hundred 
 and  twenty  thousand  sheep,'  (1  Kings  viii.  03.)  But  we  must  not 
 suppose,  that  these  were  offered  all  on  one  day,  much  less  on  one 
 altar.  The  continuance  of  this  meeting  was  for  fourteen  days, 
 seven  in  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  and  seven  in  that  of  the  dedica- 
 tion ;  and  because  the  brazen  altar,  before  the  door  of  the  temple, 
 was  not  sufficient  to  receive  all  these  sacrifices,  Solomon,  by  a 
 special  license  from  God,  ordered  other  altars  to  be  erected  in  the 
 court  of  the  priests,  and  perhaps  in  other  places,  which  were  to 
 serve  only  during  this  present  solemnity,  when  such  a  vast  num- 
 ber of  sacrifices  were  to  be  oflered :  for  at  other  times  no  other 
 altar  was  allowed  but  this  brazen  one,  which  Moses  had  made. 
 It  is  no  bad  observation,  however,  of  Josephus,  (b.  8.  c.  2.)  that, 
 during  the  oblation  of  so  many  sacrifices,  the  Levites  took  care 
 to  '  perfume  the  air  with  the  fragrancy  of  incense,  and  sweet 
 odours,  to  such  a  degree,  that  the  people  were  sensible  of  it  at  a 
 distance;'  otherwise  the  burning  of  so  many  beasts  at  one  time, 
 must  have  occasioned  an  offensive  smell. — Patrick's  Comment. 
 
536 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001 
 
 A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF2CHKON. 
 
 When  the  ark  was  placed  in  the  sanctuary,  and  the 
 priests  and  Levites,  in  their  turns,  were  celebrating-  the 
 praises  of  God,  the  temple  was  filled  with  a  a  miraculous 
 cloud,  insomuch  that  the  priests  could  not  continue  to 
 officiate.  This  Solomon  observing',  took  occasion  from 
 thence  to  infer,  that  the  Lord  had  taken  possession  of 
 the  place  ;  and  having  for  some  time  fallen  prostrate  * 
 with  his  face  to  the  ground,  he  raised  himself  up,  and 
 turning-  towards  the  sanctuary,  c  addressed  his  prayer  to 
 God,  and  '  beseeched  him  graciously  to  accept  of  the 
 house  which  he  had  built  for  his  sake,  to  bless  and  sanc- 
 tify it ;  and  to  hear  the  prayers  of  all,  whether  Jews  or 
 Gentiles,  who,  upon  any  occasion,  either  of  public  or 
 private  calamity,  might  direct  their  supplications  to  him 
 d  from  that  holy  place.     He  beseeched  him  likewise  to 
 
 fulfil  the  promise  which  he  had  been  pleased  to  make  to 
 his  father  David,  in  favour  of  his  family,  and  the  kings 
 his  successors  ;'  and  having  thus  finished  his  prayer,  he 
 turned  to  the  people,  and  after  he  had  blessed  them,  gave 
 them  a  strict  charge  to  be  sincere  in  their  duty  towards 
 God,  to  walk  in  his  statutes,  and  observe  his  laws. 
 
 While  Solomon  was  thus  addressing  his  prayers  to 
 God,  and  his  exhortations  to  the  people,  a  victim  was 
 laid  upon  the  altar,  and  God,  to  testify  his  acceptance 
 of  what  was  doing,  sent  immediately  a  fire  from  heaven, 
 which  consumed  it,  and  all  the  other  sacrifices  that  were 
 about  it ;  which,  when  the  people,  who  were  witnesses  of 
 the  miracle,  perceived,  they  fell  upon  their  faces,  and 
 worshipped  the  God  of  Israel :  and  it  was,  very  probably, 
 on  the  e  night  following,  that  he  appeared  to  Solomon 
 again  in  a  dream,  and  /signified  to  him,  'that  he  had 
 
 a  When  Moses  had  finished  the  tabernacle  according  to  the 
 pattern  which  God  had  showed  him,  and  set  it  all  up,  it  is  said, 
 that '  a  cloud  covered  the  tent  of  the  congregation,  and  the  glory  of 
 the  Lord  filled  the  tabernacle,  so  that  Moses  was  not  able  to  enter 
 into  the  tent  of  the  congregation,  because  the  cloud  abode  thereon, 
 and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the  tabernacle,'  (Exod.  xl.  34, 
 35.)  And  therefore,  when  the  temple  was  finished,  and  the  ark 
 brought  into  the  sanctuary,  God  gave  the  like  indication  of  his 
 presence,  and  residence  there.  Hereby  he  testified  his  accep- 
 tance of  the  building,  and  furnishing  the  temple,  as  a  service  done 
 to  his  name ;  and  hereby  he  declared,  that  as  the  glory  of  the 
 ark,  that  sacred  symbol  of  his  presence,  had  been  long  eclipsed 
 by  its  frequent  removes,  and  mean  habitations;  so  now  his  plea- 
 sure was,  that  it  should  be  looked  upon  with  the  same  esteem 
 and  veneration  as  when  Moses  conducted  it  into  the  tabernacle. 
 For  this  cloud,  we  must  know,  was  not  a  heavy,  thick,  opaque 
 body,  such  as  is  engendered  in  the  air,  and  arises  from  vapours 
 and  exhalations,  but  a  cloud  that  was  dark  and  luminous  at  the 
 same  time,  whose  darkness  was  awful  and  majestic,  and  whose 
 internal  part  was  blight  and  refulgent,  darting  its  rays  upon  occa- 
 sion, and  exhibiting  its  light  through  its  obscurity;  so  that, 
 according  to  its  different  phasis,  or  position,  it  became  to  the 
 Israelites  a  pillar  of  a  cloud  by  day,  to  screen  them  from  the  heat, 
 and  at  night  a  pillar  of  fire  to  give  them  light,  (Exod.  xiii.  21.) 
 Whatever  it  was  that  constituted  this  strange  appearance,  it  is 
 certain  this  mixture  of  light  and  darkness  was  looked  upon  as  a 
 symbol  of  the  divine  presence  ;  for  so  the  Scripture  has  informed 
 us,  that  he  who  dwelleth  in  light  that  is  inaccessible,  '  made 
 darkness  his  secret  place,  his  pavilion  round  about  him,  with 
 
 dark  water,  and  thick  clouds  to  cover  him,  (Ps.  xviii.  11.) 
 
 Caimvt's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Although  it  is  not  improbable  that  Solomon  may  have  pros- 
 trated himself  on  the  appearance  of  the  cloud  of  glory  that  filled 
 the  temple,  the  text  makes  no  mention  of  his  having  done  so,  but 
 immediately  after  this  divine  manifestation,  we  are  told  that  he 
 spake  and  blessed  the  people.  It  may  seem  unnecessary  to  take 
 notice  of  so  trifling  a  matter,  but  to  mix  up  with  the  sacred  nar- 
 rative assertions  which  are  founded  on  mere  conjecture  we  con- 
 sider neither  safe  nor  warrantable. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  prayer  which  Josephus  puts  into  Solomon's  mouth  upon 
 this  occasion,  is  to  this  effect: — "  O  Lord,  thou  that  inha- 
 bitcst  eternity,  and  hast  raised  out  of  nothing  the  mighty  fabric 
 of  this  universe,  the  heavens,  the  air,  the  earth,  aiul  the  sea- 
 thou  that  fillest  the  whole,  and  every  thing  that  is  in  it,  and  art 
 thyself  unbounded,  and  incomprehensible ;  look  down  graciously 
 U|  on  thy  servants,  that  have  presumed  to  erect  a  temple  here  to 
 the  honour  of  thy  great  name.  Lord,  hear  our  prayers,  aud  re- 
 ceive our  sacrifices.  Thou  art  everywhere,  vouchsafe  also  to  be 
 With  us.  Thou  that  seest  and  hearest  all  things,  look  down  from 
 thy  throne  in  heaven,  and  give  ear  to  our  supplications  in  this 
 place.  Thou  that  never  failest  to  assist  those  that  call  upon  thee 
 day  and  night,  and  love  and  serve  thee  as  they  ought  to  do,  have 
 mercy  upon  us."  There  is  another  prayer,  in  the  same  historian, 
 addressed  to  God  on  the  same  occasion,  wherein  Solomon  blesses' 
 him  for  the  exaltation  of  his  family,  and  implores  the  continuance 
 of  his  goodness  and  peculiar  presence  in  the  temple,  well  worth 
 the  reader's  perusal,  though  too  long  to  be  inserted  here. 
 
 d  It  is  the  same  thing,  no  doubt,  to  God,  wherever  we  pray, 
 so  long  as  we  pray  with  a  pious  mind   and   a  devout   heart,  and 
 
 make  the  subject  of  our  prayers  such  good  things  as  he  has  per- 
 mitted us  to  ask ;  but  it  was  not  consistent  with  the  preservation 
 of  the  Jewish  state  and  religion  that  he  should  be  publicly  wor- 
 shipped in  every  place.  For  since  the  Jews  were  on  every  side 
 surrounded  with  idolaters,  led  away  with  divers  superstitions,  but 
 ignorant  all  of  the  true  God,  it  was  highly  necessary,  that  in  all 
 divine  matters,  there  should  be  a  strict  union  between  them  all 
 both  in  heart  and  voice,  and  consequently,  that  they  should  all 
 meet  together  in  one  place  to  worship  God,  lest  they  should  run 
 into  parties,  and  fall  into  idolatry,  as  it  happened  when  the  king- 
 dom became  divided  into  two.  And  therefore,  though  Solomon, 
 knew  very  well  that  in  every  place,  God  was  ready  to  hear  the 
 prayers  of  every  devout  supplicant,  yet,  for  the  preservation  of 
 peace  and  unity,  he  was  minded  to  give  the  people  a  notion,  that 
 God  would  be  found  more  exorable  to  the  prayers  which  were  of- 
 fered in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  and  thereby  excite  them  to  a 
 frequentation  of  that,  rather  than  any  other  place. — Le  Clerc's 
 Commentary  in  locum. 
 
 e  It  is  thus  that  we  have  placed  the  time  of  God's  second 
 appearance  to  Solomon;  but  some  are  of  opinion,  that  it  did  not 
 happen  till  two  and  twenty  years  after  God's  first  appearance, 
 and  after  that  Solomon  had  accomplished  all  his  buildings ;  to 
 which  the  connexion  of  the  discourse  seems  to  give  some  count- 
 enance ;  '  and  it  came  to  pass,  when  Solomon  had  finished  the 
 building  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  the  king's  house,  and  all 
 that  he  was  pleased  to  do,  that  the  Lord  appeared  to  him  a 
 second  time,'  (1  Kings  ix.  1,  2.)  It  seems  a  little  strange, 
 however,  that  God  should  delay  answering  this  prince's  prayer 
 for  thirteen  years  together,  and  then,  when  he  appeared  to  him, 
 tell  him,  '  I  have  heard  thy  prayer,  and  the  supplication  that 
 thou  hast  made  before  me,  and  I  have  hallowed  this  house  which 
 thou  hast  built.'  Ver.  3.  And  therefore  to  solve  this  difficulty, 
 it  is  reasonable  to  think,  that  the  division  of  this  9th  chapter  is 
 wrong;  that  the  first  verse  of  it  should  be  annexed  to  the  con- 
 clusion of  the  preceding  chapter,  and  so  terminate  the  account 
 of  what  Solomon  had  done;  and  that  the  next  chapter  should 
 begin  with  the  second  verse,  where  the  historian  enters  upon 
 a  fresh  subject,  namely,  the  answer  that  God  returned  to  Solo- 
 mon's prayer,  which  he  continues  to  the  tenth  verse,  and  pre- 
 sents us  with  it  all  at  once,  that  he  might  not  break  the  thread 
 of  his  narration. — Calmefs  Commentary  on  1  Kings  ix.  2. 
 
 f  Josephus  has  made  a  very  handsome  comment  upon  the 
 answer  which  God  made  Solomon  in  his  dream.  The  voice  told 
 him  farther,  says  he,  '  that  in  case  of  such  an  apostasy,  as  he  had 
 before  mentioned,  his  new-erected  fabric  should,  by  divine  pei- 
 mission,come  to  be  sacked,  and  burned  by  the  hands  of  barbarians, 
 and  Jerusalem  itself  laid  in  rubbish  and  ashes  by  a  merciless 
 enemy ;  insomuch  that  people  should  stand  amazed  at  the  very 
 report  of  so  incredible  a  misery  and  distress,  and  be  wondering 
 one  to  another,  how  it  could  come  to  pass,  that  a  nation  which 
 was  but  yesterday  the  envy  of  mankind  for  riches,  external  glory, 
 and  renown,  should  now,  all  on  a  sudden,  be  sunk  and  lost  to 
 the  last  degree  of  wretchedness  and  contempt,  and  reduced  to 
 this  despicable  state  too  by  the  same  hand  that  raised  them.  To 
 which  questions  their  own  guilty  consciences  shall  make  this 
 answer:  "We  have  forsaken  our  God ;  we  have  abandoned  the 
 religion  of  our  forefathers,  and  of  our  country,  and  all  this  is 
 justly  befallen  us  for  our  sins." — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  8.  c.  2. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 £37 
 
 A.  M.30J1.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1   KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 heard  his  prayer  ;  did  accept  of  the  temple  which  he  had 
 built  for  him ;  and  would  not  fail  to  listen  to  the  petitions 
 that  proceeded  from  thence ;  that  if  he  persevered  in 
 his  obedience  to  him,  as  his  father  David  had  done,  he 
 would  establish  his  throne,  and  perpetuate  a  race  of 
 successors  in  his  family  ;  but  that,  if  either  he,  or  his 
 children  prevaricated  in  this  matter,  he  would  cut  them 
 oft",  overturn  his  kingdom,  and  destroy  the  temple.' 
 
 The  feast  of  the  dedication,  in  conjunction  with  that 
 of  tabernacles,  lasted  for  fourteen  days ;  and  when  all 
 things  were  thus  performed  with  the  greatest  order  and 
 solemnity,  on  the  morrow  the  king  dismissed  the  people, 
 a  who  returned  to  their  respective  homes  with  glad  and 
 joyful  hearts. 
 
 Solomon,  it  must  be  observed,  had  a  singular  taste 
 for  building ;  therefore,  after  he  had  finished  and  con- 
 secrated the  temple,  he  undertook  a  palace  for  himself,* 
 which  had  all  the  magnificence  that  can  be  imagined, 
 another  for  his  Egyptian  queen,  and  a  third,  that  was 
 called  c  '  the  house  of  the  forest  of  Lebanon,'  where  he 
 
 a  In  I  Kings  viii.  66,  we  are  told  that  '  ou  the  eighth  day  he 
 seat  the  people  away;'  that  is,  the  day  after  the  latter  feast  of  ta- 
 bernacles, which  lasted  seven  days.  It  is  said,  (2  Chron.  vii. 
 10,)  that,  '  on  the  three  and  twentieth  day  he  sent  the  people 
 away,'  which  Houbigant  thinks  cannot  be  reconciled.  He  is  of 
 opinion,  that  something  has  been  omitted  here  which  should  have 
 been  supplied  from  the  parallel  place ;  but  it  is  probable  that  these 
 fourteen  days  of  rejoicing  were  not  kept  without  intermission,  par- 
 ticularly as  the  day  of  expiation,  or  atonement,  was  celebrated  on 
 the  tenth  of  1'isri,  or  Ethanim.  (See  Lev.  xxiii.  27;  and 
 Calendar  of  the  Jews,  in  Prolegom.  p.  66.)  By  admitting 
 therefore  a  sufficient  interval  of  time  to  complete  the  number  of 
 days,  these  two  texts  may  be  satisfactorily  reconciled. — Hewlett's 
 Commentates. — Ed. 
 
 b  The  description  of  this  palace,  which  we  may  gather  from 
 Josephus,  Lamy,  and  others,  that  have  treated  of  Solomon's 
 buildings,  is  in  this  manner  related: — 'Upon  several  rows  of 
 pillars,  there  was  erected  a  spacious  pile  of  building,  in  the 
 nature  of  a  common  hall,  for  the  hearing  of  causes.  It  was  an 
 hundred  cubits  in  length,  fifty  in  breadth,  and  in  depth  thirty, 
 supported  by  fifteen  square  columns,  covered  with  Corinthian 
 work  iu  cedar,  and  fortified  with  double  doors,  curiously  wrought, 
 that  served  both  for  the  security  and  ornament  of  the  place.  In 
 the  middle  of  this  hall  was  another  edifice  of  thirty  cubits  square, 
 and  underset  with  strong  pillars,  wherein  was  placed  a  throne  of 
 state,  on  which  the  king  himself  used  to  sit  personally  in  judg- 
 ment. On  the  right  hand  of  this  court  of  justice  stood  the  king's 
 own  palace,  and,  on  the  left,  that  which  he  built  for  Pharaoh's 
 daughter,  both  fitted  up  with  cedar,  and  built  with  huge  stones 
 oi'  toll  cubits  square,  which  were  partly  plain,  and  partly  overlaid 
 with  the  most  precious  marble. — The  rooms  were  hung  with 
 rich  hangings,  and  beautified  with  images,  and  sculptures  of  all 
 kinds,  so  exquisitely  finished,  that  they  seemed  to  be  alive,  and 
 in  motion.  It  would  be  an  endless  work,  says  Josephus,  to  give 
 a  particular  survey  of  this  mighty  mass  of  building:  so  many 
 courts  and  other  contrivances,  such  a  variety  of  chambers  and 
 offices,  great  and  little,  long  and  large  galleries,  vast  rooms  of 
 state,  and  others  for  feasting  and  entertainment,  set  out  as  richly 
 as  could  be,  with  costly  furniture,  and  gildings;  besides,  that  all 
 the  services  for  the  king's  table  were  of  pure  gold.  In  a  word, 
 the  whole  house  was  in  a  manner  made  up  from  top  to  bottom, 
 of  white  marble,  cedar,  gold,  and  silver,  with  precious  stones, 
 here  and  there  iutermingled  upon  the  walls  and  ceilings,  after 
 the  manner  of  the  adorning  of  the  temple.' — Jewish  Antiu.  b.  8. 
 c.  2. 
 
 o  Some  commentators  are  of  opinion,  that  this  house  was  the 
 same  with  the  palace  which  Solomon  built  in  Jerusalem,  and  that 
 it  had  its  name  from  the  tall  pillars  that  supported  it,  which 
 looked  like  the  cedars  in  the  forest  of  Lebanon ;  but  the  contrary 
 is  manifest,  because  the  holy  Scripture  speaks  of  it  as  a  distinct 
 building,  though  perhaps  it  might  not  be  far  distant  from  the 
 other  on  some  cool  shady  mountain,  which  made  it  resemble 
 Mount  Lebanon.     For  it  is  an  idle  fancy  to  think,  that  this  house 
 
 chiefly  chose  to  reside.  These  were  the  works  of  thirteen 
 years :  and  as  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  was  very  kind  in 
 supplying  him  with  men,  money,  and  materials,  to  carry 
 on  these,  and  many  more  stately  structures,  Solomon, 
 to  express  his  gratitude,  or  to  clear  oft'  the  debt  which 
 he  had  contracted  with  him,  d  offered  him  twenty  cities 
 in  the  land  of  Galilee,  adjoining  to  his  own  country. 
 But  as  these  places  e  did  not  suit  his  convenience,  he  re- 
 fused to  accept  of  them  ;  and  therefore  Solomon,  having 
 made  him,  no  doubt,  some  other  recompense  more  to 
 
 was  really  built  on  Lebanon,  since  we  read  of  Solomon's  having 
 his  throne,  (1  Kings  vii.  7.)  and  the  golden  shields,  that  he  made, 
 placed  in  it,  (1  Kings  x.  17.)  which  he  scarce  would  have  removed 
 to  the  very  extremity  of  his  kingdom:  and  therefore  we  may 
 conclude,  as  indeed  it  appears  from  1  Kings  vii.  2.,  that  this 
 house  was  near  Jerusalem,  and  called  by  the  name  of  the  •  Forest 
 of  Lebanon,' just  as  many  pleasant  and  delightful  places  in  that 
 country  were  called  Carmel,  because  it  was  in  a  lofty  place  like 
 Lebanon,  and  the  trees  which  grew  upon  it  made  it  very  shady 
 and  cool,  and  consequently  proper  for  Solomon  to  dwell  there  in 
 summer,  as  he  did  in  his  palace  in  Jerusalem  in  winter. — 
 Patrick  and  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  vii.  2. 
 
 d  It  is  an  express  injunction  which  God  gives  the  Israelites, 
 that  the  land  wherein  the  people  had  a  right  by  divine  lot,  and 
 himself  a  right,  as  being  the  sole  proprietor  thereof,  was  not  to 
 be  sold  or  alienated  for  ever,  (Lev.  xxv.  23.)  How  thin  could 
 Solomon,  without  violatiug  this  law,  pretend  to  give  Hiram 
 twenty  cities  in  the  land  of  Galilee?  Now  to  this  some  have 
 replied,  that  Solomou  did  not  give  Hiram  a  property  and  perpe- 
 tual right  to  those  cities,  but  only  assigned  him  the  possession  of 
 them  for  a  time,  until  the  debt  which  he  had  contracted  for  the 
 several  supplies  he  had  from  him,  while  he  was  building  the 
 temple,  was  satisfied.  Others  think  that  upon  supposition  that 
 these  cities  were  inhabited  by  Israelites,  Solomon  did  not  give 
 Hiram,  as  indeed  he  could  not,  their  particular  possessions,  but 
 only  his  own  royalties  over  them,  which  he  might  justly  do,  and 
 all  the  profits  he  received  from  them,  which,  according  to  the 
 taxes  then  imposed,  (1  Kings  xii.  4.)  were  not  inconsiderable. 
 But  there  is  no  reason  for  these  far  fetched  solutions,  when  the 
 Scripture  expressly  tells  us,  that  these  cities  were  not  in  the 
 territories  of  Israel,  nor  inhabited  at  that  time  by  the  Israelites, 
 (2  Chron.  viii.  2.)  There  were  indeed  some  of  them  conquered 
 by  the  king  of  Egypt,  who  gave  them  to  Solomon  as  a  portion 
 with  his  daughter,  and  others  by  Solomon  himself,  who,  as 
 Selden  observes,  (On  the  Law  of  Nature  and  Nations,  b.  6.  c. 
 16,)  had  "  a  right  to  dispose  of  those  lands  which  he  had  con- 
 quered in  voluntary  war,  without  the  consent  of  the  senate." 
 And  this  may  be  one  reason  why  he  gave  these,  rather  than 
 other  cities,  because  these  were  certainly  in  his  own  power  to 
 give,  when  others  perhaps  were  not.  A  learned  author  upon 
 this  subject,  has  given  a  quite  different  turn  to  the  sense  of  the 
 passage.  For  his  opinion  is,  that  Hiram  did  not  return  these 
 cities,  because  he  thought  them  not  good  enough,  but  because 
 he  was  unwilling  to  receive  so  large  a  remuneration  for  the  few 
 good  offices  he  had  done  Solomon,  and  was  minded  rather  that 
 his  favouis  of  this  kind  should  be  all  gratuitous.  He  therefore 
 makes  the  word  Caiul,  which  is  the  name  that  Hiram  gives  to 
 the  country  where  these  cities  stood,  a  title  of  respect,  and  not 
 of  contempt;  for  he  derives  it  from  the  Hebrew  Chebes,  which 
 signifies  a  bond  or  chain,  intimating  that  these  two  neighbouring 
 kings  had  mutually  bound  themselves  in  a  bond  of  friendship, 
 Solomon  by  giving,  and  Hiram  by  returning  the  cities  now 
 under  consideration.  This  is  very  pretty:  but  it  is  cany ing  the 
 point  of  generosity  in  the  king  ot  Tyre  a  little  too  high,  in  n  y 
 opinion,  considering  his  acceptance  of,  if  not  express  stipulation 
 for,  such  a  quantity  of  corn  and  oil,  in  lieu  of  the  timber  whicl. 
 he  sent  Solomon,  (1  Kings  v.  10,  11.) — Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's 
 Commentaries;  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  The  reason  is,  because  the  Tyrians  being  very  commodi- 
 ously  situated  for  that  purpose,  were  in  a  manner,  wholly  ad- 
 dicted to  merchandise:  aud  therefore  would  not  remove  from  the 
 sea  coasts,  to  live  in  a  soil  which  was  fat  and  deep,  and  conse- 
 quently required  a  great  deal  of  labour  to  cultivate  it,  which  «as 
 a  business  that  they  were  very  little  accustomed  to. — Bedford  i 
 Scripture  Ci.ronology,  b.  6.  c.  2. 
 
 3  Y 
 
533 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAMS.  A.  M    1801.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 his  satisfaction,  took  and  repaired  these  cities;  and 
 having  built  store  cities  likewise  in  the  country,  he  sent 
 colonies  of  his  own  subjects  to  inhabit  them,  that,  they 
 might  be  a  curb  and  restraint  on  the  Syrians  oi  Zobah, 
 who  had  formerly  been  conquered  by  David,  and,  upon 
 their  revolt,  but  lately  reduced  by  Solomon. 
 
 To  conclude  the  account  of  Solomon's  public  build- 
 ings. He  built  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  and  a  senate- 
 house  in  the  same  city,  called  Millo.  He  repaired  and 
 fortified  Hazor,  Megiddo,thetwo  Beth-Horons,  Baalah, 
 «  Tadmor  in  the  wilderness  of  Syria,  and  Gezer,  which 
 
 a  Tadmor,  which,  by  the  Greeks,  is  called  Palmyra,  is  situated 
 in  the  wilderness  of  Syria,  upon  the  borders  of  Arabia  Deserta, 
 inclining  towards  the  Euphrates.  Josephus  places  it  two  days' 
 journey  from  the  Upper  Syria,  one  day's  journey  from  the  Euph- 
 rates, and  six  days'  journey  from  Babylon.  And  the  reason  he 
 gives  why  Solomon  was  inclined  to  build  a  city  in  this  place, 
 was,  because  in  all  the  country  round  about,  there  was  no  such 
 thing  as  a  well  or  fountain,  but  in  this  spot  only,  to  be  found.  If 
 we  may  guess  by  the  ruins,  which  later  travellers  give  us  the 
 description  of,  this  city  was  certainly  one  of  the  finest  and  most 
 magnificent  in  the  east,  and  it  is  somewhat  surprising,  that  his- 
 tory should  give  us  no  account,  either  when  or  by  whom  it  was 
 reduced  to  the  sad  condition  in  which  it  lies  at  this  day.  But 
 the  true  reason  for  his  building  this  town  in  so  desolate  a  place, 
 was  the  commodiousness  of  its  situation,  to  cut  off  all  commerce 
 between  the  Syrians  and  Mesopotamians,  and  to  prevent  their 
 caballing  and  conspiring  together  against  him,  as  they  had  done 
 against  his  father  David. — Le  Clercs  Commentary.  [It  is  proba- 
 ble that  Tadmor  was  originally  a  watering  station  between  Syria 
 and  Mesopotamia,  with  perhaps  some  indifferent  accommoda- 
 tion suited  to  the  mode  of  travelling  in  those  times.  The  mere 
 circumstance  of  wholesome  water  being  found  on  any  spot  in  such 
 a  country,  was  sufficient  to  give  it  importance.  It  lay  in  the 
 direct  line  of  communication  for  the  Indian  trade,  by  way  of  the 
 Euphrates  and  Persian  Gulf,  and  must  have  been  an  important 
 station,  not  only  for  rest  and  refreshment,  but  as  a  point  of  ex- 
 change with  the  Armenian  merchants,  who  would  meet  the 
 Indian  convoy  here  with  their  own  merchandise,  as  the  nearest 
 point  to  them,  as  they  thus  carry  on  a  direct  traffic,  independent 
 of  the  great  merchants  of  Tyre  and  Sidon.  It  is  no  wonder  there- 
 fore, that  the  efforts  of  Solomon  should  be  directed  to  obtain  pos- 
 session of  a  place  from  whence  so  great  a  profit  might  be  drawn, 
 either  by  a  tax  on  the  articles  of  trade,  or  by  turning  a  portion  of 
 it,  which  would  otherwise  have  gone  to  the  ports  of  Phoenicia, 
 into  those  of  his  own  dominions.  To  strengthen  this  design  he 
 built  Tadmor;  that  is,  he  converted  it  from  a  mere  caravansera 
 to  a  proud  city;  furnished  it  with  every  necessary  and  conveni- 
 ence as  a  place  of  trade;  and  made  it  one  of  the  greatest 
 of  the  many  emporia  of  eastern  commerce:  advantages  which 
 it  enjoyed,  and  under  which  it  continued  to  flourish,  for  more 
 than  a  thousand  years,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  mention 
 made  of  its  strength  and  prosperity  at  the  time  of  the  Parthian 
 wars.] — Hansford's  Scripture  Gazetteer. — Ed.  The  original 
 name  was  preserved  till  the  time  of  Alexander,  who  extended  his 
 conquests  to  this  city,  which  then  exchanged  Tadmor  for  the 
 title  of  Palmyra.  It  submitted  to  the  Romans  about  the  year 
 130,  and  continued  in  alliance  with  them  during  a  period  of  150 
 years.  When  the  Saracens  triumphed  in  the  east,  they  acquired 
 possession  of  this  city,  and  restored  its  ancient  name  of  Tadmor. 
 Of  the  time  of  its  ruin  there  is  no  authentic  record ;  but  it  is 
 thought,  with  some  probability,  that  its  destruction  occurred  dur- 
 ing the  period  in  which  it  was  occupied  by  the  Saracens.  Of  its 
 present  appearance  Messrs  Wood  and  Dawkins,  who  visited  it  in 
 1751,  thus  speak: — "  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  imagine  any  thing 
 more  striking  than  this  view.  So  great  a  number  of  Corinthian 
 pillars,  mixed  with  so  little  wall  or  solid  building,  afforded  a  most 
 romantic  variety  of  prospect."  Captain  Mangles,  who  travelled 
 more  recently,  observes,  "  On  opening  upon  the  ruins  of  Palmyra, 
 as  seen  from  the  valley  of  the  tombs,  we  were  much  struck  with 
 the  picturesque  effect  of  the  whole,  presenting  the  most  imposing 
 sight  of  the  kind  we  had  ever  seen."  But  on  a  minuter  inspec- 
 tion, the  ruins  of  this  once  mighty  city  do  not  appear  so  interest- 
 ing as  at  a  distance.  Volney  observes,  "In  the  space  covered 
 by  these  ruins,  we  sometimes  find  a  palace  of  which  nothing  re- 
 mains  but   the   court   and   walls;  sometimes  a  temple,   whose 
 
 the  king  of  Egypt  took  from  the  Canaanites,  and  gave 
 it  in  dower  with  his  daughter.  He  fortified  all  the 
 cities  which  he  made  his  magazines  for  corn,  wine,  and 
 oil,  and  those  where  his  chariots  and  horses  were  kept. 
 He  subdued  all  the  Hittites,  and  Hivites,  and  Amorites, 
 and  Perizzites,  that  anywhere  remained  in  the  land  of 
 Israel,  and  laid  on  them  all  the  drudgery,  and  servile 
 labour.  But  *  as  for  his  own  subjects,  he  appointed 
 them  either  to  be  surveyors  of  his  works,  or  guards  to 
 his  person,  or  commanders  in  the  army,  or  traders  and 
 merchants,  that  so  he  might  make  his  nation  as  famous, 
 and  as  rich  and  flourishing,  as  it  was  possible  to  be 
 effected  by  human  policy. 
 
 But  it  was  not  only  a  multitude  of  hands,  but  a  large 
 supply  of  wealth  likewise,  that  was  necessary  to  carry 
 on  so  many  expensive  buildings  ;  and  therefore  Solomon 
 took  care  to  cultivate  the  trade  to  Ophir,  which  his  fa- 
 ther had  begun  from  Elam  and  c  Ezion-Geber,  two  ports 
 in  the  Red  sea,  whether  himself  went  in  person  to  in- 
 spect the  building  of  the  ships,  and  to  provide  them  with 
 able  and  experienced  seamen,  which  his  good  friend  and 
 ally  Hiram  was  never  backward  to  furnish  him  with.  So 
 that  by  this  means  his  subjects,  who  soon  attained  to  the 
 art  of  navigation,  were  enabled  to  make  several  ad- 
 vantageous   voyages ;    and   particularly   in   one   fleet, 
 
 peristile  is  half  thrown  down ;  and  now  a  portico,  a  gallery,  a 
 triumphal  arch.  If  from  this  striking  scene  we  cast  our  eyes 
 upon  the  ground,  another  almost  as  varied  presents  itself.  On 
 which  side  soever  we  look,  the  earth  is  strewed  with  vast  stones 
 half  buried,  with  broken  entablatures,  mutilated  friezes,  disfigur- 
 ed reliefs,  effaced  sculptures,  violated  tombs,  and  altars  defiled  by 
 the  dust."  It  is  situated  under  a  ridge  of  barren  hills  to  the 
 west,  and  its  other  sides  are  open  to  the  desert.  The  city  was  ori- 
 ginally about  ten  miles  in  circumference ;  but  such  have  been  the 
 destructions  effected  by  time,  that  the  boundaries  are  with  diffi- 
 culty traced  and  determined.  In  the  Modern  Traveller,  there 
 is  a  very  excellent  description  of  the  present  aspect  of  this  ruined 
 city,  by  Mr  Josiah  Conder. — Calmet's  Dictionary  in  locum. 
 
 b  History  indeed  takes  notice  of  the  same  temper  in  Sesostiis, 
 king  of  Egypt,  who,  upon  his  return  home  from  his  several  ex- 
 peditions, took  it  into  his  head  to  build  temples  in  all  the  cities  of 
 Egypt,  but  would  sutler  no  Egyptian  to  do  any  servile  work 
 therein.  All  the  work  of  this  nature  was  performed  by  the  cap- 
 tives that  he  brought  with  him  from  the  wars ;  and  therefore,  to 
 perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  his  kindness  to  his  subjects,  as 
 well  as  remove  some  possible  odium  from  himself,  upon  every 
 temple  he  ordered  this  inscription  to  be  set  up,  "  No  native  was 
 ever  a  labourer  here." — Diodorus  Bibliot.  b.  1. 
 
 c  Josephus  will  needs  have  it,  that  Ezion-Geber  is  the  same 
 with  Berenice,  which  lies  indeed  upon  the  Red  sea,  but  then  it 
 is  upou  the  western  or  African  shore  thereof;  whereas  the  Scrip- 
 ture is  positive,  that  it  was  a  port  of  Idumsea,  or  Arabia  Deserta, 
 situate  upon  the  gulf  of  Elam,  which  is  on  the  opposite  shore. 
 Elam,  or  Eloth,  or  Elath,  for  it  was  called  by  all  these  names, 
 was  situate  upon  the  same,  and  might  possibly  have  its  name 
 from  thence.  When  David  conquered  Edom,  or  Idumsea,  he 
 made  himself  master  of  this  port,  (2  Sam.  viii.  14.)  His  son, 
 we  see,  built  ships  here,  and  sent  them  from  hence  to  Ophir  for 
 gold,  (2  Chron.  viii.  17,  18.)  It  continued  in  the  possession  of 
 the  Israelites  about  an  hundred  and  fifty  years,  till,  in  the  time 
 of  Joram,  the  Edomites  recovered  it,  (2  Kings  viii.  20.)  but  it 
 was  again  taken  from  them  by  Azariah,  and  by  him  left  to  his 
 son,  (2  Kings  xiv.  22.)  His  grandson  Ahaz  however  lost  it 
 again  to  the  king  of  Syria,  (2  Kings  xvi.  6.)  and  the  Syrians  had 
 it  in  their  hands  a  long  while,  till,  after  many  changes  under  the 
 Ptolemies,  and  the  Seleucida;,  it  came  at  length  into  the  posses- 
 sion of  the  Romans.  It  was  formerly  a  small  town,  with  fruitful 
 fields  about  it,  but  now  there  is  nothing  left  but  a  tower,  which 
 serves  as  an  habitation  for  the  governor,  who  is  subject  to  the 
 governor  of  Grand  Cairo,  and  no  signs  of  fruitfulness  to  be  seen 
 in  any  parts  adjoining  to  it. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  CaU 
 mefs  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Elam. 
 
Sect.  I. 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 539 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M. 
 
 °  brought  him  home  no  less  than  b  four  hundred  and 
 twenty  talents  of  gold,  with  many  other  commodities, 
 and  curiosities  of  great  value.  c  In  short,  Solomon  was 
 one  of  the  richest,  and  most  magnificent  princes,  that 
 was  then  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  In  his  time,  silver 
 was  no  more  regarded  than  stones  in  the  street:  his 
 annual  revenues  were  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  talents 
 of  gold,  besides  the  tributes  he  received  from  the  kings 
 and  nations  that  were  in  subjection  to  him  ;  the  subsidies 
 which  his  subjects  the  Israelites  paid  ;  and  the  sums  aris- 
 ing from  the  merchants  for  his  customs.  The  bucklers 
 of  his  guards  were  of  gold  ;  the  d  ivory  throne,  whereon 
 he  sat,  was  overlaid  with  it ;  and  all  the  utensils  of  his 
 
 a  As  groat  a  king  as  Solomon  was,  we  find  he  turned  mer- 
 chant, and  yet  the  imperial  laws  forbid  noblemen  to  exercise 
 trade  and  commerce,  as  a  thing  below  them  ;  and  much  less  then 
 (as  Bodinus  de  Republica,  b.  6.  c.  2.)  does  it  become  a  king.  But 
 we  must  not  measure  antiquity  by  our  own  times:  what  might 
 be  then  commendable  may  now  have  a  different  appearance.  But 
 the  same  author  is  very  right  in  one  concession  that  he  makes, 
 namely,  that  though  he  would  not  have  kings  now  to  be  merchants 
 yet,  if  he  might  have  his  choice,  "I  had  rather  a  prince  should 
 be  a  merchant,"  says  he,  "  than  a  tyrant,  and  that  noblemen 
 should  rather  trade  than  oppress,  and  make  a  prey  of  their  tenants. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  In  2  Chron.  viii.  18,  the  number  of  talents  brought  home  to 
 Solomon,  are  said  to  be  four  hundred  and  fifty:  but  this  is  a  mat- 
 ter that  is  easily  resolved,  if  we  will  but  suppose,  that  the 
 charges  of  the  voyage  to  and  fro  cost  thirty  talents;  or  that 
 Solomon  gave  Hiram's  servants,  for  conducting  his  fleet,  thirty 
 talents ;  or  that  in  refining  the  whole  mass  of  gold,  the  waste  might 
 be  thirty  talents ;  so  that,  though  Solomon's  fleet  brought  him 
 home  four  hundred  and  fifty  talents,  yet  by  one  or  more  of  these 
 deductions,  there  came  clear  to  his  coffers  no  more  than  four 
 hundred  and  twenty. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  1  Kings  x.  22.  Ellis,  in  Cook's  last  voyage,  speaking  of  the 
 people  of  Otaheite,  says,  "  They  expressed  great  surprise  at  the 
 Spaniards,  who  had  lately  made  them  a  visit,  because  they  had 
 not  red  feathers  as  well  as  the  English,  which'they  had  brought 
 with  them  in  great  plenty  from  the  Friendly  Isles,  for  they  are 
 with  these  people  the  summum  bonum  and  extent  of  all  their 
 wishes."  (Vol.  i.  p.  129.)  As  these  islands  border  so  closely 
 upon  Asia,  and  have  among  their  manners  and  customs  many 
 which  bear  a  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Asiatics,  may  not  these 
 people's  high  esteem  for  red  feathers  throw  some  light  upon  this 
 passage,  where  we  find  peacocks  ranked  amongst  the  valuable 
 commodities  imported  by  Solomon. — Ed. 
 
 d  We  never  read  of  ivory  till  about  Solomon's  days,  who  per- 
 haps brought  elephants  out  of  India,  or  at  least  took  care  to  have 
 a  great  deal  of  ivory  imported  from  thence ;  for,  in  after  ages,  we 
 read  of  ivory  beds,  and  ivory  palaces,  &c.  Cabinets  and  ward- 
 robes were  ornamented  with  ivory,  by  what  is  called  marquety ; 
 (Ps.  xlv.  8,)  these  were  named  'houses  of  ivory;'  probably  be- 
 cause made  in  the  form  of  a  house  or  palace;  as  the  silver  naoi 
 of  Diana,  mentioned  Acts  xix.  24,  were  in  the  form  of  her  tem- 
 ple at  Epliesus;  and  as  we  have  now  ivory  models  of  the 
 Chinese  pagodas  or  temples.  At  this  time,  however,  ivory  was 
 every  whit  as  precious  as  gold,  and  therefore  we  must  not 
 suppose,  that  this  throne  of  Solomon's  was  entirely  overlaid  with 
 gold,  for  then  it  might  as  well  be  made  of  wood,  but  only 
 in  particular  places,  that  so  the  mixture  of  gold  and  ivory, 
 which  gave  a  lustre  to  each  other,  might  make  the  throne  look 
 more  beautiful.  The  like  to  this,  the  text  says,  '  there  was  not 
 made  in  any  kingdom,'  (1  Kings  x.  20.)  and  perhaps  it  was  so 
 in  those  days ;  but,  in  after  ages,  we  read,  that  the  throne  of  the 
 Parthian  kings  was  of  gold,  encompassed  with  four  golden  pillars, 
 beset  with  precious  stones ;  and  that  the  Persian  kings  sat  in 
 judgment  under  a  golden  vine,  and  other  trees  of  gold,  the 
 bunches  of  whose  grapes  were  made  of  several  sorts  of  precious 
 stones. — Patrick's  Commentary.  To  this  article  may  be  xery 
 properly  annexed  the  following  account  of  the  famous  peacock 
 throne  of  the  great  Mogul: — "The  great  Mogul  has  seven 
 thrones,  some  set  all  over  witii  diamonds;  others  w'tli  rubies, 
 emeralds,  and  pearls.      But  the  largest   throne   is   erected    in 
 
 4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 palaces,  and  vessels  of  his  table,  which  *  for  magnifi- 
 cence, and  sumptuousness  of  provision,  exceeded  all 
 that  was  ever  known  before,  were  of  the  same  metal. 
 Presents  of  gold,  of  rich  stuff's,  of  spices,  of  arms,  of 
 horses,  and  mules,  were  sent  to  him  from  every  quarter ; 
 and  to  see  the  face,  and  hear  the  wisdom  of  the  renowned 
 Solomon,  was  the  prevailing  ambition  of  the  great  men 
 of  that  age. 
 
 Captivated  with  this  desire  the  queen  of  Sheba  came 
 to  Jerusalem,  attended  with  a  great  retinue,  and  brought 
 with  her  rich  presents  of  gold,  spices,  and  precious 
 stones.  Her  purpose  was,  to  try  if  Solomon's  wisdom 
 was  answerable  to  the  high   commendations   she   had 
 
 the  hall  of  the  first  court  of  the  palace;  it  is  in  form  like 
 one  of  our  field  beds,  six  feet  long  and  four  broad.  I  counted 
 about  a  hundred  and  eight  pale  rubies  in  collets  about  that  throne, 
 the  least  whereof  weighed  a  hundred  carats;  but  there  are  some 
 that  weigh  two  hundred.  Emeralds  I  counted  about  a  hundred 
 and  forty,  that  weighed  some  threescore,  some  thirty  carats. 
 The  under  part  of  the  canopy  is  entirely  embroidered  with  pearls 
 and  diamonds,  with  a  fringe  of  pearls  round  the  edge.  Upon  the 
 top  of  the  canopy,  which  is  made  like  an  arch  with  four  panes, 
 stands  a  peacock,  with  his  tail  spread,  consisting  entirely  of 
 sapphires  and  other  proper  coloured  stones ;  the  body  is  of  beaten 
 gold,  enchased  with  numerous  jewels;  and  a  great  ruby  adorns 
 his  breast,  to  which  hangs  a  pearl  that  weighs  fifty  carats.  On 
 each  side  of  the  peacock  stands  two  nosegays,  as  high  as  the  bird, 
 consisting  of  various  sorts  of  flowers,  all  of  beaten  gold  enamelled. 
 When  the  king  seats  himself  upon  the  throne,  there  is  a  trans- 
 parent jewel,  with  a  diamond  appendant,  of  eighty  or  ninety 
 carats  weight,  encompassed  with  rubies  and  emeralds,  so  sus- 
 pended that  it  is  always  in  his  eye.  The  twelve  pillars  also  that  up- 
 hold the  canopy  are  set  round  with  rows  of  fair  pearls,  and  of  an  ex- 
 cellent water,  that  weigh  from  six  to  ten  carats  apiece.  At  the 
 distance  of  four  feet,  upon  each  side  of  the  throne,  are  placed  two 
 umbrellas,  the  handles  of  which  are  about  eight  feet  high,  covered 
 with  diamonds,  the  umbrellas  themselves  being  of  crimson  vel- 
 vet, embroidered  and  fringed  with  pearl.  This  is  the  famous 
 throne  which  Timur  began  aiid  Shah  Johan  finished,  and  is 
 really  reported  to  have  cost  a  hundred  and  sixty  millions  and  five 
 hundred  thousand  livres  of  our  money."  (Tavernier's  Indian 
 Travels,  vol.  iii.  p.  331.  edit.  1713.)  Mr  Morier,  describing  his 
 interview  with  the  king  of  Persia,  says: — "  He  was  seated  on  a 
 species  of  throne,  called  the  takht-e-taoos,  or  the  throne  of  the 
 peacock,  which  is  raised  three  feet  from  the  ground,  and  appears 
 an  oblong  square  of  eight  feet  broad  and  twelve  long.  We  could 
 see  the  bust  only  of  his  majesty,  as  the  rest  of  his  body  was 
 hidden  by  an  elevated  railing,  the  upper  work  of  the  throne,  at 
 the  corners  of  which  were  placed  several  ornaments  of  vases  and 
 toys.  The  back  is  much  raised ;  on  each  side  are  two  square 
 pillars,  on  which  are  perched  birds,  probably  intended  for  pea- 
 cocks, studded  with  precious  stones  of  every  description,  and 
 holding  each  a  ruby  in  their  beaks.  The  highest  part  of  the 
 throne  is  composed  of  an  oval  ornament  of  jewellery ;  from  which 
 emanate  a  great  number  of  diamond  rays.  Unfortunately  we 
 were  so  far  distant  from  the  throne,  and  so  little  favoured  by  the 
 light,  that  we  could  not  discover  much  of  its  general  materials. 
 We  were  told,  however,  that  it  is  covered  with  gold  plates, 
 enriched  by  that  fine  enamel  work  so  common  in  the  ornamental 
 furniture  of  Persia.  It  is  said  to  have  cost  one  hundred  thousand 
 tomauns. — Travels  through  Persia,  p.  19.  See  also  Forbes' s 
 Oriental  Memoirs,  vol.  iii.  p.  84. — Ed. 
 
 e  The  provisions  of  Solomon's  table,  for  one  day,  vrere  thirty 
 measures,  which,  according  to  the  I  fibre  w  word  cor,  as  Goodwin 
 has  computed  it,  are  six  gallons,  above  an  hundred  and  sixty- 
 eight  bushels  of  fine  flour,  and  sixty  of  meal,  or  coarser  flour  for 
 inferior  servants,  ten  stall-fed  oxen,  twenty  oxen  out  of  the  pas- 
 tures, and  an  hundred  sheep,  besides  harts,  and  roebucks,  and 
 fallow  deer,  and  fatted  fowl,"  or,  as  Bochart  translates  the  word, 
 "the  choicest  of  all  fatted  things."  (]  Kings  iv.  22,  23.)  and 
 this,  according  to  the  calculation  which  some  have  made  from  the 
 quantity  of  bread  that  was  every  day  consumed,  must  make  Solo- 
 mon's family  consist,  at  least,  of  forty  or  fifty  thousand  souls. — 
 Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
540 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.   M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 heard  of  it ;  and  therefore  in  discourse  she  proposed  to 
 him  several  enigmatical  questions.  But  when  she  heard 
 his  clear  and  satisfactory  solutions,  she  was  not  a  little 
 amazed  at  the  profoundness  of  his  judgment ;  and  when 
 she  had  seen  the  beauty,  and  worship  of  the  temple,  the 
 magnificence  of  his  court,  and  the  sumptuousness  of  " 
 his  table  and  attendants,  she  was  quite  astonished,  and 
 frankly  owned  to  him,  that  what  herself  had  seen  did  far 
 surpass  any  of  the  most  extravagant  reports  she  had  ever 
 yet  heard  of  him  :  and  so,  having  made  him  very  *  great 
 and  noble  presents,  and  received  others  from  him,  that 
 were  not  inconsiderable,  she  took  her  leave,  and  return- 
 ed to  her  own  country,  highly  pleased  and  satisfied  with 
 her  visit.0 
 
 Hitherto  we  have  seen  nothing  in  Solomon  but  what 
 was  truly  great  and  wonderful ;  but  the  latter  actions  of 
 his  life  so  sadly  tarnish  and  disgrace  his  character.  For 
 he  gave  himself  up  to  the  love  of  strange  women,  such 
 as  were  descended  from  idolatrous  nations,  and,  besides 
 Pharaoh's  daughter  d  mentioned  before,  married  wives 
 from  among  the  Moabites,  the  Ammonites,  the  Hittites, 
 the  Idumeans,  and  the  Sidonians.  e    Nay,  so  unbounded 
 
 a  Our  excellent  commentator,  Bishop  Patrick,  tells  us,  that  a 
 very  great  man  of  our  own,  but  is  silent  as  to  his  name,  has 
 observed,  that  such  things,  as  the  difference  of  apparel,  the  order 
 of  sitting  at  table,  and  the  attendance  of  Solomon's  servants  and 
 ministers,  were  justly  admired  by  the  queen  of  Sheba,  as  an  in- 
 dication of  his  wisdom ;  "  for  they  are  the  outworks,"  as  he  calls 
 them,  "  which  preserves  majesty  itself  from  approaches  and  sur- 
 prisals;  and  whatsoever  prince  departs  from  these  forms  and 
 trappings,  and  ornaments  of  his  dignity,  and  pre-eminence,  will 
 hardly  be  able  at  some  time,  to  preserve  the  body  itself  of  ma- 
 jesty from  intrusion,  invasion,  and  violation." 
 
 b  After  a  very  complimentary  speech,  in  which  Josephus 
 makes  this  queen  address  king  Solomon,  among  other  valuable 
 presents,  recorded  in  Scripture,  "  they  speak  also,"  says  he,  "  of 
 a  root  of  balsam,  which  she  brought  with  her,  which,  according 
 to  a  tradition  we  have,  was  the  first  plant  of  the  kind  that  ever 
 came  into  Judea,  where  it  hath  propagated  so  wonderfully  ever 
 since." — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  S.  c.  2. 
 
 c  1  Kings  x.  21.  The  magnificence  of  Solomon,  particularly 
 With  respect  to  his  drinking  vessels,  has  not  been  exceeded  by 
 modern  Eastern  princes.  The  gold  plate  of  the  kings  of  Persia 
 has  been  much  celebrated,  and  is  taken  notice  of  by  Chardin 
 He  observes,  that  the  plate  of  the  king  of  Persia  is  of  gold,  and 
 that  very  fine,  exceeding  the  standard  of  ducats,  and  equal  to 
 those  of  Venice,  which  are  of  the  purest  gold.  Shah  Abas  caused 
 seven  thousand  two  hundred  marks  of  gold  to  be  melted  for  this 
 purpose.  Now  the  two  hundred  targets  of  gold  which  Solomon 
 made,  weighed  but  little  less  than  the  drinking  vessels  which 
 Shah  Abas  made.  (I  Kings  x.  16.)  We  may  therefore  believe 
 that  his  royal  drinking  vessels  were  of  equal,  if  not  greater 
 weight. — Harmer,  vol.  i.  p.  384. Ed. 
 
 d  Pharaoh's  daughter  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  a  pro- 
 selyte to  the  Jewish  religion,  and  therefore  Solomon,  in  marrying 
 her,  incurred  no  fault;  but,  in  marrying  so  many  women  besides 
 aud  these  of  a  different  religion,  he  committed  two  sins  against 
 the  law;  one  in  multiplying  wives,  and  another,  in  marrying 
 those  of  strange  nations,  who  still  retained  their  idolatry:  and 
 therefore  the  wise  son  of  Sirach,  amidst  all  the  encomiums  that 
 he  heaps  upon  Solomon,  could  not  forget  this  heinous  iniquity, 
 and  terrible  flaw  in  his  character.  'Thou  didst  bow  thy  loins 
 to  «omen,  and  by  thy  body,  thou  wast  brought  into  subjection. 
 lh"U  didst  stain  thine  honour,  and  pollute  thv  seed,  so  tliat  thou 
 hroughtest  wrath  upon  thy  children,  and  wast  grieved  for  thy 
 folly.  (Ecclns.  xlvii.  19,  20.)— Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  1  Kings  xi.  3.  It  appears  to  have  been  the  manner  of 
 eastern  princes  to  have  a  great  number  of  wives,  merely  for  pomp 
 and  state.  Father  La  Compte  tells  us  in  his  History  of  China, 
 (oart  1.  p.  62.)  that  there  the  emperor  hath  a  great  number  of 
 wives,  chosen  out  of  the  prime  beauties  of  the  country.  It  is 
 tlsosaid,  that  the  great  Mogul  has  as  many  wives  as  make  up  a 
 thousand.      Hahesci    {Present  State    of  ike  Ottoman   Empire 
 
 4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  vlii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 was  his  lust,  that  he  had  700  wives,  and  300  concubines, 
 who  conspired  not  a  little  to  pervert  his  heart,  and 
 seduce  him,  in  his  old  age,  to  the  worship  of  their  seve- 
 ral idols. 
 
 Provoked  at  this  his  sad  apostasy,  God  sent  a  prophet 
 to  upbraid  him  with  his  ingratitude,  and  to  pronounce 
 this  heavy  judgment  upon  him : — "  That  as  he  had  re- 
 volted from  his  worship,  so  the  major  part  of  his  kingdom 
 should  revolt  from  him,  and  put  themselves  under  the 
 government  of  one  of  his  servants,  though  not  in  his  days, 
 yet  in  those  of  his  immediate  successor  :"  and,  to  make 
 him  sensible,  that  this  judgment  began  already  to  operate, 
 he  raised  up  several  enemies  to  the  disturbance  of  his 
 peace,  which,  as  long  as  he  continued  in  God's  service, 
 he  enjoyed  without  interruption. 
 
 /  The  first  of  these  was  Hadad  of  the  blood-royal  of 
 Edom,  who  having  fled  from  Joab,  when  he  ravaged  the 
 country,  and  put  the  male  children  to  death,  escaped  to 
 Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt,  where  he  married  his  sister 
 Tephneh  ;  but,  upon  David's  death,  returned  to  his  coun- 
 try, and  recovered  the  kingdom,  s  The  second  was  Re- 
 zon, who  flying  from  his  master  Hadadezer  king  of 
 Zobah,  gathered  together  a  great  number  of  men,  over 
 whom  he  made  himself  captain,  and  with  their  assistance, 
 seizing  on  Damascus,  he  there  reigned  as  king  of  Syria, 
 and  confederated  with  Hadad  to  distress  Solomon  in 
 the  declining  part  of  his  reign.     But  h  the  most  dan- 
 
 p.  166,)  says  that  the  number  of  women  in  the  harem  of  the 
 grand  seignior  depends  on  the  taste  of  the  reigning  monarch. 
 Sultan  Selim  had  nearly  2000 ;  Sultan  Mahomet  had  but  300  ; 
 Achmet  the  fourth  has  pretty  near  1600.  See  also  Knolles's 
 History  of  the  Turks,  p.  1368,  Hanway's  History  of  the  Revo- 
 lutions of  Persia,  part  7.  c.  31.  p.  208. — Ed. 
 
 /Hadad  was  a  young  prince  of  the  royal  family  of  Idumrea, 
 who  fled  into  Egypt  when  David  conquered  that  country:  for 
 David,  having  obtained  a  signal  victory  under  the  conduct  of 
 Abishai,  who,  at  that  time,  commanded  in  chief,  sent  Joab 
 afterwards  with  an  order  to  kill  all  the  males  that  should  be 
 found  in  the  land.  But  Hadad  had  escaped  into  Egypt,  where, 
 finding  favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  king,  he  married  his  wife's 
 sister,  and  there  settled.  But,  after  the  death  of  David,  he  re- 
 turned into  Idumaea,  and  gave  Solomon  no  small  molestation. 
 For,  entering  into  a  league  with  Rezon,  a  fugitive  from  his 
 master  Hadadezer  king  of  Zobah,  but  who  had  now  made  himself 
 king  of  some  part  of  Syria,  he,  by  his  assistance,  made  so  many 
 inroads  upon  the  land  of  Israel,  that  all  things  were  in  the 
 utmost  confusion,  even  before  Solomon  died ;  Calmefs  Com- 
 mentary,— and  Josephus's  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  8.  c.  2. 
 
 ff  When  David  made  war  against  Hadadezer,  Rezon,  one  of 
 his  generals,  escaped  from  the  field  of  battle,  with  the  troops 
 under  his  command  ;  and  having  lived  for  a  little  while  by  plun- 
 der and  robbery,  at  length  seized  on  Damascus,  and  reigned 
 there.  But  his  reign  was  not  long.  For  David  took  Damascus, 
 as  well  as  the  other  parts  of  Syria,  and  left  it  in  subjection  to  his 
 son  Solomon,  till  God  was  pleased  to  suffer  this  Rezon  to  recover 
 Damascus,  and  there  re-establish  himself,  to  the  great  disturbance 
 of  the  latter  part  of  Solomon's  reign. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 h  As  Solomon  was  engaged  in  several  great  buildings,  he  took 
 care  to  set  proper  persons  over  the  works,  among  whom  Jero- 
 boam was  one,  and  the  workmen  under  his  command  seem  to  be 
 chiefly  of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim.  How  he  acquitted  himself  in 
 this  capacity,  we  are  not  told  ;  but  the  pretence  of  his  being  angry 
 with  Solomon,  and  fomenting  jealousies  among  the  people,  was 
 the  building  of  Miilo.  Millo  was  a  deep  valley,  between  the  old 
 Jerusalem  and  the  city  of  David,  part  of  which  David  filled  up, 
 and  thereupon  made  both  a  fortress,  and  a  place  for  the  people  to 
 assemble.  Another  part  of  it  Solomon  filled  up,  to  build  a  palace 
 for  his  queen,  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh.  The  prodigious  expense 
 which  this  work  cost,  gave  Jeroboam  an  opportunity  to  infuse 
 a  spirit  of  sedition  into  his  brethren  of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim;  to 
 complain  heavily  of  hard  labour  they  were  forced  to  submit  to, 
 and  the  taxes  they  were  obliged  to  pay;  and  to  represent  tha 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 541 
 
 A.  M.  3001.   A.  C.  1093;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 gerous  enemy  of  all  was  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  a 
 bold  and  enterprising  man,  whom  Solomon  had  made 
 overseer  of  his  buildings,  and  who,  for  his  great  abilities, 
 was  the  chief  ruler  in  the  house  of  Joseph,  that  is  in  the 
 tribes  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh.  a  The  prophet  Ahijah, 
 as  he  was  walking  in  the  fields,  happened  to  meet  him  ; 
 and,  having  acquainted  him  from  God,  that  he  had  ap- 
 pointed him  to  be  Solomon's  successor  in  ten  tribes  out 
 of  twelve,  and  that,  if  he  Mould  adhere  to  his  service, 
 the  government  should  be  established  in  his  family : 
 as  he  was  but  ill  affected  to  Solomon  before,  and  now 
 encouraged  by  the  prophet's  promises,  he  began  to  stir 
 and  solicit  the  people  to  a  revolt.  b  The  king  having 
 intelligence  of  this,  was  thinking  to  take  him  into  custody; 
 but  he  made  his  escape,  and  fled  c  unto  Shishak  king 
 of  Egypt,  where  he  continued  for  the  small  remainder 
 of  Solomon's  life,  d  who  having  reigned  forty  years,  died 
 
 whole  thing  as  a  work  of  vanity,  merely  to  gratify  a  proud  foreign 
 woman,  and  a  silly  doating  king:  and,  by  these  insinuations,  he 
 wrought  in  the  people  a  disaffection  to  Solomon,  and  his  govern- 
 ment; Patrick's  Commentary;  and  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under 
 the  word  Millo. 
 
 a  Ahijah  was  a  native  of  Shiloh,  and  one  of  those  who  wrote 
 the  annals  of  king  Solomon's  reign,  (2  Chron.  ix.  29).  He  is 
 thought  to  have  been  the  person  who  spake  twice  to  Solomon 
 from  God  ;  once,  while  he  was  building  the  temple,  at  which 
 time  he  promised  him  his  protection,  (1  Kings  vi.  12.)  and  at  an- 
 other time,  when  he  had  fallen  into  all  his  irregularities,  and 
 God  expressed  his  indignation  against  him  in  bitter  threats  and 
 reproaches,  (1  Kings  xii.  6.)  His  prediction  to  Solomon,  that  he 
 would  one  day  be  perverted  by  women;  and  that  to  Jeroboam, 
 that  heifers  (meaning  the  two  golden  calves  which  he  set  up) 
 would  alienate  him  from  the  service  of  God,  are  botli  taken 
 notice  of  by  Epiphanius,  in  his  Life  and  Death  of  the  prophet. — 
 Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Abijah. 
 
 b  How  Solomon  came  to  know  what  was  thus  transacted  be- 
 tween Ahijah  and  Jeroboam  alone,  is  a  question  of  no  great  diffi- 
 culty: for  perhaps  the  prophet  made  no  scruple  to  report  what 
 he  had  delivered  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ;  perhaps  Jeroboam 
 himself,  being  puffed  up  with  this  assurance,  could  not  contain, 
 but  told  it  to  some  of  his  confidants,  who  spread  it  abroad ;  or 
 perhaps  his  servants,  though  they  heard  not  the  words  that  the 
 prophet  spake,  yet,  seeing  him  rend  the  garment  into  twelve 
 parts,  and  give  ten  to  him,  might  speak  of  this  strange  and  un- 
 accountable action,  which  Solomon,  as  soon  as  he  came  to  hear 
 of  it,  might  easily  understand,  because  the  same  prophet,  very 
 likely  had  told  him  but  just  before,  that  the  kingdom  should  be 
 rent  from  him,  and  given  to  his  servant  (I  Kings  xiv.  8). — 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  All  the  kings  of  Egypt,  from  the  time  of  Abraham,  are  in 
 the  sacred  history,  called  by  the  name  of  Pharaoh,  unless  Ra- 
 meses,  that  is  mentioned  in  Gen.  xlvii.  11,  be  the  name  of  a  king, 
 not  a  country;  so  that  this  is  the  first  we  meet  with,  called  by 
 his  proper  name  from  the  rest  of  the  Pharaohs.  Who  this 
 Egyptian  prince  was,  the  learned  are  not  agreed.  The  opinion 
 is  pretty  general,  that  it  was  the  famous  Sesostiis,  mentioned  in 
 Herodotus,  and  of  whom  we  have  spoken  before  ;  but  his  life  could 
 hardly  be  extended  to  this  period.  Our  great  Usher  sets  him  a 
 vast  way  backward,  even  to  the  time  of  the  Israelites'  peregrina- 
 tion, and  some  chronologers  carry  it  farther:  but,  be  that  as  it 
 will,  it  is  very  probable,  that  the  prince  had  taken  some  offence 
 at  Solomon,  otherwise  he  would  hardly  have  harboured  such  se- 
 ditious refugees  as  Jeroboam  was. — Patrick's  and  Le  Clerc's 
 Commentaries . 
 
 d  Josephus  indeed  tells  us,  {Antiq.  b.  8.  c.  3.)  that  Solomon  lived 
 to  a  great  age,  that  he  reigned  eighty  years,  and  died  at  ninety- 
 four;  but  this  is  a  manifest  error  in  that  historian,  which  our  say- 
 ing, that  the  Scriptures  give  us  only  an  account  of  Solomon 
 while  he  continued  in  a  state  of  piety,  but  that  Josephus's  com- 
 putation takes  in  the  whole  of  his  life,  is  a  poor  and  forced  way  of 
 reconciling.  The  authority  of  Josephus  must  never  be  put  in 
 balance  with  that  of  the  holy  Scriptures,  from  whence  may  be 
 learned  that  Solomon  lived  to  the  age  of  fifty-eight,  or  there- 
 about ; because  we  may  very  well  presume,  that  his  immoderate 
 
 about  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age  ;  was  buried  in  the 
 city  of  David  ;  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  e  Reho- 
 boam. 
 
 Rehoboam,  as  soon  as  his  father  was  dead,  went  to 
 /  Shechem,  where  all  the  chief  of  the  people  were  met 
 together  to  proclaim  him  king ;  but  as  the  nation  had 
 been  burdened  with  some  heavy  taxes  during  his  father's 
 reign,  before  they  would  agree  to  recognise  him,  they  B 
 desired  a  redress  of  their  grievances,  and  in  hopes  of 
 awing  him  into  a  compliance,  sent  for  Jeroboam  out  of 
 Egypt  to  appear  at  the  head  of  the  assembly. 
 
 pursuit  of  sensual  pleasures  both  shortened  his  life,  and  left  an 
 eternal  stain  upon  his  memory:  otherwise  the  character,  which 
 the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  gives  of  this  prince,  is  very  beautiful : 
 — '  Solomon  reigned  in  a  peaceable  time,  and  was  honoured;  for 
 God  made  all  quiet  round  about  him,  that  he  might  build  an 
 house  in  his  name,  and  prepare  his  sanctuary  for  ever.  How  w  ise 
 wast  thou  in  thy  youth,  and  as  a  flood  filled  with  understanding! 
 Thy  soul  covered  the  whole  earth,  and  thou  filledst  it  with  dark 
 parables.  Thy  name  went  far  into  the  islands,  and  for  thy  peace 
 thou  wast  beloved.  The  countries  marvelled  at  thee  for  thy 
 songs,  and  proverbs,  and  parables,  and  interpretations.  By  the 
 name  of  the  Lord,  which  is  called  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  thou 
 didst  gather  gold  as  tin,  and  didst  multiply  silver  as  lead ;  but 
 thou  didst  bow  thy  loins  unto  women,'  &c. — Ecclus.  xlvii.  13,  &c. 
 e  Notwithstanding  the  vast  multitude  of  wives  that  Solomon 
 had,  the  Scriptures  make  mention  of  no  more  than  three  chil- 
 dren, this  son,  and  two  daughters,  that  are  spoken  of  1  Kings 
 vi.  11,  15.  and,  what  is  strange,  in  the  beginning  of  his  story, 
 it  takes  no  notice  as  usually  it  does,  of  his  mother's  nation,  or 
 family,  though  in  the  conclusion  of  it,  (I  Kings  xiv.  21 — 31,)  it 
 twice  reminds  us,  that  she  was  an  Ammonitess  by  birth,  and  that 
 her  name  was  Naamah.  Rehoboam  was  born  in  the  first  year 
 of  his  father's  reign,  and  was  therefore  much  about  forty-one  when 
 lie  entered  upon  the  government ;  but  he  was  an  unskilful  and 
 imprudent  man,  and  therefore  made  a  very  false  step  at  his  first 
 accession  to  the  throne.  The  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  gives  us 
 no  advantageous  character  of  him,  when  he  terms  him  '  A  man 
 void  of  understanding,  who  turned  the  people  away  with  his 
 counsel,'  (ch.  xlvii.  23.)  Nay,  his  own  son  makes  but  a  faint 
 apology  for  him,  when  he  tells  the  people,  that  he  was  '  young ' 
 (young  in  understanding,)  '  and  tender  hearted,  and  could  not 
 withstand  his  enemies,'  (2  Chron.  xiii.  7.)  and  therefore  some 
 have  imagined,  that  his  father  Solomon  had  him  in  his  thoughts, 
 when  he  said,  in  his  Preacher,  '  I  hated  all  my  labour,  which  I 
 had  taken  under  the  sun,  because  I  was  to  leave  it  to  a  man  that 
 should  come  after  me ;  and  who  knoweth  whether  he  shall  be  a 
 wise  man,  or  a  fool ;  yet  shall  he  have  rule  over  all  my  labour, 
 wherein  I  have  laboured:  this  also  is  vanity;'  ch.  ii.  18,  19. — 
 Calmet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 /  This  city  stood  not  only  in  the  centre  of  the  kingdom  of  Is- 
 rael, but  in  the  middle  of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  wherein  there 
 was  the  greatest  number  of  malcontents.  It  was  therefore  very 
 probably  by  the  management  of  Jeroboam,  or  some  of  his  friends, 
 who  durst  not  perhaps  venture  themselves  at  Jerusalem,  that  this 
 city  was  made  choice  of  for  the  place  of  a  general  convention, 
 because  they  might  more  securely  propose  their  grievances, 
 which  they  were  resolved  to  do,  and  use  a  greater  freedom  of 
 speech  than  they  could  at  Jerusalem,  where  the  family  of  David 
 was  more  powerful,  more  numerous,  and  better  supported. — 
 Calmet's  Commentary;  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 g  What  the  particular  grievances  were  that  these  people  desired 
 to  have  redressed,  we  may  gather  from  1  Kings  iv.  7,  &c, 
 namely,  the  tribute  Solomon  exacted  for  his  buildings,  the  ex- 
 penses of  his  family,  and  the  maintenance  of  his  chariots  and 
 horses,  which  being  for  the  honour  of  the  nation,  ought  to  have 
 been  borne  more  contentedly  by  a  people  enjoying  such  a  lar^e 
 share  of  peace  and  plenty,  and  from  a  prince  who  had  brought  in 
 such  vast  riches  to  his  subjects,  as  made  silver  to  be  of  no  value 
 at  all  in  his  days,  (ch.  x.  21,)  but  people  are  more  sensible  of  their 
 pressures  than  of  their  enjoyments,  and  feel  the  least  burdens 
 when  they  are  most  at  ease.  It  is  observable,  however,  that 
 among  all  their  complaints,  they  take  no  notice  of  Solomon's  idol- 
 atry, or  the  strange  worship  which  he  had  introduced,  though 
 this,  one  would  think,  should  have  been  reckoned  among  the 
 greatest  of  their  grievances. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
542 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 The  people  accordingly  presented  their  address  ;  but 
 instead  of  a  gracious  answer,  which  his  father's  old 
 counsellors  by  all  means  advised,  as  the  only  way  to 
 engage  them  to  his  interest  for  ever,  some  a  young  po- 
 liticians, that  had  been  *  brought  up  with  him,  were  of  a 
 contrary  opinion,  namely,  that  such  concessions  would 
 look  like  fear  and  pusillanimity  ;  that  hard  words  would 
 frighten  them  into  obedience ;  and  that,  instead  of  re- 
 dressing, his  business  was  to  tell  them,  that  he  intended 
 to  increase  their  grievances.  This  counsel  Rehoboam 
 had  the  imprudence  to  follow ;  which  so  disgusted  the 
 people,  that  they  threw  off  all  allegiance,  and  declared 
 for  another  king.  When  Rehoboam  came  to  understand 
 this,  he  c  sent  Adoram  his  collector,  to  appease  them, 
 and  probably  to  assure  them  that  their  taxes  should  be 
 abated ;  but  this  pacification  came  too  late.  Their 
 passions  were  so  exasperated,  that  they  fell  upon  the 
 collector,  and  stoned  him  to  death,  without  so  much  as 
 once  hearing  what  he  had  to  say.  Rehoboam  seeing 
 this,  thought  it  high  time  to  consult  his  own  safety,  by 
 d  hastening  to  his  chariot,  and  fleeing  to   Jerusalem ; 
 
 a  They  were  not  so  young,  but  they  might  have  known  bet- 
 ter; for  as  Rehoboam  was  one  and  forty  years  old  when  he  enter- 
 ed upon  his  kingdom,  so  these  gentlemen  having  been  brought 
 up  with  him,  must  have  been  much  about  the  same  age ;  but 
 they  were  raw  and  unexperienced,  and  unacquainted  with  the 
 humours  of  the  people ;  and  therefore  they  gave  the  king  such 
 unseasonable  advice. — Patrick's  Commentary.  [Houbigaut, 
 however,  thinks  he  was  but  sixteen  years  old  when  he  began  to 
 reign;  and  brings  many  forcible  arguments  to  prove  that  the  num- 
 ber, forty-one,  must  be  a  mistake.  Capellus  was  the  first  who  no- 
 tified the  number  forty-one  as  an  error.  Boothroyd  follows  Hou- 
 bigant  in  adopting  the  reading  of  the  Greek  appendix  to  1  Kings 
 xii.,  and  observes,  Rehoboam  is  said  to  have  been  young  on  his 
 accession ;  if  he  had  been  forty-one,  Solomon  must  have  been 
 married  before  his  father's  death,  and  married  to  an  Ammon- 
 itess  before  he  took  Pharaoh's  daughter,  which  is  contrary  to  the 
 narrative.  Compare  2  Chron.  x.  8.  and  xiii.  7.  Dr  A.  Clarke 
 also  coincides  in  this  reading.  And  we  may  add,  if  Solomon  is 
 allowed  to  refer  to  his  own  son  in  Eccles.  ii.  18,  19,  '  Yea  I  hated 
 all  my  labour  which  I  had  taken  under  the  sun;  because  I  should 
 leave  it  unto  the  man  that  shall  be  after  me.  And  who  knoweth 
 whether  he  shall  be  a  wise  man  or  a  fool  ?  yet  he  shall  have  rule 
 over  all  my  labour  wherein  I  have  laboured.'  Then  the  conclu- 
 sion is,  that  Rehoboam  was  still  a  youth,  and  had  nut  arrived  at 
 that  age  when  it  could  be  known  whether  lie  would  prove  a  wise 
 man  or  a  fool,  and  this  work  is  generally  admitted  to  have  been 
 penned  only  a  short  time  before  Solomon's  death.] — Ed. 
 
 b  It  was  a  common  custom  among  the  kings  of  the  east,  to 
 have  their  sons  educated  among  other  young  lords  that  were  of 
 the  same  age,  which,  as  it  created  a  generous  spirit  of  emulation, 
 and  both  endeared  the  prince  to  the  nobles  and  the  nobles  to  the 
 prince,  could  not  but  tend  greatly  to  the  benefit  of  the  public. 
 Sesostris,  the  most  famous  prince  that  ever  Egypt  produced,  is 
 said  to  have  been  educated  in  this  way.  And  by  the  gallant  youths 
 that  were  his  cotemporaries  and  fellow  pupils,  it  was,  that  he 
 afterwards  did  so  many  surprising  actions.  The  same  custom 
 was  in  use  among  the  Persians,  as  we  may  learn  from  the  life 
 of  Cyrus;  and  of  Alexander  the  Great  we  are  told,  that  his 
 father  Philip  had  him  trained  up  in  his  youth,  among  those  young 
 noblemen  who  became  his  great  captains  in  the  conquest  of  all 
 Asia.  So  that  Solomon's  method  and  design,  in  the  education 
 of  his  son,  was  wise  and  well  concerted,  though  it  failed  of 
 success. — Calinet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  It  was  certainly  a  piece  of  great  imprudence  to  send  any 
 one  to  treat  with  them,  when  they  were  so  highly  exasperated; 
 but  to  send  him  that  was  an  obnoxious  man,  as  having  the  prin- 
 cipal care  of  the  very  tributes  they  complained  of,  was  downright 
 infatuation;  because  nothing  is  so  natural,  as  to  hate  those  that 
 are  the  instruments  of  our  oppression,  or  any  ways  employed  in 
 it. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  This  is  the  first  time  that  we  read  of  a  king's  riding  in  a 
 chariot.     Saul,  David,  and  Solomon,  rode  in  none;  but  after  the 
 
 4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 by  which  means  he  secured  the  two  tribes  of  Judah  and 
 Benjamin  ;  but  all  the  rest  of  the  Israelites  made  choice 
 of  Jeroboam.  And  thus  was  this  great  and  goodly 
 kingdom,  almost  in  its  infancy,  split  into  two  parts ; 
 and,  for  ever  afterwards,  went  under  different  denomina- 
 tions, the  kingdom  of  Judah,  and  the  kingdom  of  Israel, 
 though  the  latter  included  the  whole  before. 
 
 As  soon  as  Rehoboam  was  got  safe  to  Jerusalem,  he 
 began  to  meditate  revenge  for  the  affront  put  upon  him- 
 self in  the  person  of  Adoram  his  collector;  and  there- 
 fore, to  reduce  the  rebel  tribes  by  force  of  arms,  he  put 
 himself  at  the  head  of  an  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
 chosen  troops  of  the  two  tribes,  which  continued  faithful 
 to  him.  But  while  they  were  on  their  march,  the  e  pro- 
 phet Shemaiah,  by  the  direction  of  God,  advised  them  to 
 desist  and  return  every  one  to  his  own  home  ;  because  by 
 the  divine  will  and  pleasure  it  was,  that  this  division  of  the 
 kingdom  came  to  pass.  Hereupon  all  the  army,  with 
 Rehoboam's  consent,  was  disbanded  ;  and  he,  to  secure 
 the  dominions  that  were  left  him,  repaired  and  fortified 
 fifteen  frontier  towns  ;  built  several  strongholds  in  the 
 heart  of  his  country  ;  furnished  them  with  good  garrisons 
 and  provisions  ;  and  erected  magazines  in  several  cities, 
 out  of  which  the  soldiers  might,  on  all  occasions,  be 
 supplied  with  arms. 
 
 Jeroboam,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  idle,  but 
 enlarged  and  beautified  Shechem,  and  made  it  a  royal 
 city.  After  he  had  resided  there  for  some  time,  he  went 
 to  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and  repaired  Penuel,  which 
 was  anciently  a  fortified  place,  and  there  resided  like- 
 wise, in  hopes  of  gaining  the  affections  of  the  two  tribes 
 and  a  half.  Amidst  all  these  endeavours  to  settle  him- 
 self firm  on  the  throne,  there  was  one  thing  he  thought  he 
 had  reason  to  apprehend,  namely,  that  his  subjects  might 
 return  to  their  allegiance  to  the  house  of  David,  in  case 
 they  were  permitted  to  go  up,  thrice  every  year,  as  the 
 law  directed,  to  worship  at  Jerusalem ;  he  therefore 
 made  a  bold  alteration  in  religion,  and  set  up  two  golden 
 calves,  with  altars  belonging  to  them,  the  one  in  Bethel 
 which  was  the  most  southern,  and  the  other  in  Dan, 
 which  was  the  most  northern  part  of  the  country,  the 
 better  to  suit  the  conveniency  of  all  their  votaries.  The 
 regular  priests,  however,  would  not  comply  with  him  in 
 these  idolatries,  and  therefore  he  inhibited  them  the 
 exercise  of  their  own  religion,  banished  them  his  king- 
 dom, seized  on  their  possessions,  and  appointed /any, 
 
 division  of  the  kingdom,  mention  is  frequently  made  of  the  use 
 of  them,  both  by  the  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel. — Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  This  prophet  was  very  well  known  in  the  reign  of  Reho- 
 boam :  he  is  supposed  to  have  wrote  the  annals  of  that  prince ; 
 and  of  what  authority  he  was  in  Judah,  we  may  gather  from  this 
 passage,  where  he  is  said  to  have  prevailed  with  the  king,  and 
 an  bundled  and  fourscore  thousand  men,  to  lay  down  their  arms, 
 and  return  home,  merely  by  declaring,  that  the  division  which 
 
 had  happened   was  by   the  order  and   appointment  of  God. 
 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 /The  Hebrew  words  Mikctzoth  Haam,  do  properly  signify 
 out  of  oil  the  people,  and  not  the  lowest  of  the  people.  This  ex- 
 position Bochart  has  justified  by  a  great  many  examples  of  the 
 uses  of  these  words  in  other  places:  so  that  their  meaning  must 
 be,  not  that  Jeroboam  employed  the  refuse  of  the  people  only, 
 but  that  he  employed  any,  though  they  were  not  of  the  tribe  of 
 Levi,  though  they  had  no  previous  qualifications  to  recommend 
 them  to  officiate  as  priests  about  his  idols.  To  employ  the  mean- 
 est of  the  people  only  in  this  office,  had  been  bad  policy,  and 
 exposing  his  new  institution  to  contempt;  but  to  admit  any  that 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 543 
 
 A.  M.300I.  A.  C.  10:3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 who  was  so  minded,  to  officiate  about  these  new  erected 
 idols  :  by  which  means  a  great  accession  of  strength 
 accrued  to  Rehoboam's  party  ;  for  the  priests  that  were 
 banished  resorted  all  to  Jerusalem,  and  as  many  of  the 
 other  tribes  as  had  any  regard  to  the  true  worship  of 
 God,  followed  them. 
 
 To  give  the  better  countenance  to  his  new-invented 
 religion,  Jeroboam  himself  was  accustomed  sometimes 
 to  officiate ;  and  therefore,  on  a  a  solemn  feast,  which 
 he  had  appointed  at  Bethel,  as  he  stood  by  the  altar  for 
 that  purpose,  a  certain  *  prophet,  who  came  from  Judah, 
 foretold  him,  that  that  very  altar  which  he  had  erected, 
 should  one  day  be  polluted,  and  destroyed  by  a  child, 
 born  of  the  house  of  David,  c  whose  name,  in  future 
 
 offered  themselves  of  what  rank  or  quality  soever;  to  lay  open 
 the  priesthood,  and  destroy  the  needless  distinction  of  men  and 
 things,  as  the  modern  phrase  is,  this  had  in  it  the  air  of  free- 
 thinking,  and  must  therefore  be  a  very  grateful  thing,  and 
 ingratiate  himself,  no  doubt  with  the  people. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 a  As  the  Jews  had  their  feast  of  tabernacles  on  the  fifteenth 
 day  of  the  seventh  month,  so  Jeroboam  had  a  feast  on  the  fifteenth 
 day  of  the  eighth  month,  which  he  instituted  of  his  own  accord. 
 Some  suppose  indeed,  that  as  this  feast  was  appointed  by  God  to 
 lie  observed  after  the  gathering  in  of  the  fruits,  which  might  be 
 sooner  ripe  in  Jerusalem  than  in  the  northern  parts  of  the  coun- 
 try, so  Jeroboam  might  pretend,  that  the  eighth  would  be  a  better 
 time  for  it  than  the  seventh,  because  then  he  might  have  this 
 farther  design  in  the  alteration  of  this  month,  namely,  that  the 
 people  of  Judah,  when  their  own  feast  was  over  a  month  before 
 at  Jerusalem,  might  have  an  opportunity  to  come  to  his,  if  their 
 curiosity  led  them.  But  the  plain  case  is,  that  he  did  every 
 thing  he  could  in  opposition  to  the  established  religion,  and  his 
 chief  intention  was  to  alienate  the  people  from  Jerusalem. — 
 Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  6.  c.  2. 
 
 b  Who  this  prophet  was,  commentators  are  not  agreed.  The 
 Jews  would  generally  have  it  to  have  been  Iddo;  but  unless  we 
 may  suppose  that  what  is  here  related  fell  out  in  the  latter  end 
 of  Jeroboam's  reign,  Iddo  could  not  be  the  person;  because  Iddo 
 was  alive  in  the  days  of  Ahijah,  son  of  Rehoboam,  whereas  the 
 prophet  here  spoken  of,  died,  in  a  manner,  as  soon  as  he  had 
 delivered  his  prophecy.  Others  therefore  have  thought,  that  this 
 prophet  who  came  to  rebuke  Jeroboam  was  Ahijah,  the  same  who 
 had  foretold  him  of  his  exaltation  to  the  crown  of  Israel:  but 
 besides  that  Ahijah  was  alive  after  the  time  that  this  prophet 
 was  slain,  Ahijah  was  certainly  a  native  of  Shiloh,  and  lived  in 
 Shiloh,  which  is  in  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  and  part  of  Jeroboam's 
 dominions ;  whereas  it  is  expressly  said  of  this  prophet,  that  he 
 came  from  Judah:  so  that  there  is  no  foundation,  so  much  as 
 for  a  conjecture,  what  the  name  of  this  man  of  God  was. — 
 1'atrii  It's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 c  This  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  prophecies  that  we  have 
 in  sacred  writ.  It  foretells  an  action  that  exactly  came  to  pass 
 above  three  hundred  and  forty  years  afterwards.  It  describes 
 the  circumstances  of  the  action,  and  specifies  the  very  name  of 
 the  person  that  was  to  do  it;  and  therefore  every  Jew,  who  lived 
 in  the  time  of  its  accomplishment,  must  have  been  convinced  of 
 the  divine  authority  of  a  religion  founded  upon  such  prophecies 
 as  this;  since  none  but  God  could  foresee,  and  consequently  none 
 but  God  could  foretell  events  at  such  a  distance. — Le  Clerc's  and 
 Calmet's  Commentaries.  The  Jews  on  whose  behalf  this  pro- 
 phecy was  delivered,  would  guard  it  most  sacredly;  and  it  was 
 the  interest  of  the  Israelites,  against  whom  it  was  levelled,  to 
 impugn  its  authenticity,  and  expose  its  falsehood,  had  this  been 
 possible.  This  prediction  not  only  showed  the  knowledge,  but 
 also  the  power  of  God.  He  gave,  as  it  were,  this  warning  to 
 idolatry,  that  it  might  be  on  its  guard  and  defend  itself  against 
 this  Josiah,  whenever  a  person  of  that  name  should  be  found  sit- 
 ting on  the  throne  of  David ;  and  no  doubt  it  was  on  the  alert, 
 and  took  all  prudent  measures  for  its  own  defence:  but  all  in 
 vain,  for  Josiah  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  reign,  literally  ac- 
 complished this  prophecy,  as  we  may  read,  2  Kings  xxiii.  15 — 20. 
 And  from  this  latter  place  we  find  that  the  prophecy  had  three 
 permanent  testimonials  of  its  truth.     1.  The  house  of  Israel;  2. 
 
 ages,  should  be  Josias  ;  and  for  the  proof  of  the  truth 
 of  his  prediction,  he  added,  that  immediately  it  should 
 be  split.  Incensed  at  this  freedom  of  speech,  Jeroboam 
 stretched  out  his  hand,  and  called  to  those  that  stood  by, 
 to  seize  the  prophet ;  but  as  he  stretched  it  out,  his  arm 
 grew  so  stiff',  that  he  could  not  pull  it  back  again,  and 
 the  altar,  being  split  asunder,  let  the  fire,  and  the  ashe3 
 that  were  thereon,  fall  to  the  ground. 
 
 Jeroboam  by  this  means  was  sensibly  convinced  of 
 his  impiety,  and  entreated  the  prophet  to  intercede  with 
 God  for  the  restoration  of  his  hand.  The  prophet  in 
 this  particular  complied  wilh  his  request ;  but  when  the 
 king  desired  his  company  to  dine  with  him,  on  purpose 
 to  make  him  a  recompense  for  his  miraculous  cure,  he 
 declined  the  invitation,  upon  account  of  a  positive 
 divine  injunction,  that  he  should  make  no  stay  in  the 
 place,  not  so  much  as  to  eat  or  drink  in  it,  or  d  return 
 by  the  same  way. 
 
 In  the  town  of  Bethel  there  lived  an  old  prophet,  who, 
 when  his  sons  came  and  told  him  what  the  man  of  God 
 from  Judah  had  done,  e  what  had  passed  between  him 
 and  the  king,  and  what  way  he  had  taken  in  his  return 
 home,  went  in  pursuit  of  him ;  and  under  the  pretence  of 
 a  fresh  revelation  which  he  had  had,  countermanding 
 the  injunction  which  the  other  thought  himself  under,  in- 
 vited him  to  his  house./     After  some  small  demur  the 
 
 The  house  of  Judah;  and,  3.  The  tomb  of  the  prophet  who  deli- 
 vered this  prophecy,  who  being  slain  by  a  lion,  was  brought  back, 
 and  buried  at  Bethel.  The  superscription  on  whose  tomb  re- 
 mained till  the  day  on  which  Josiah  destroyed  that  altar,  and 
 burned  dead  men's  bones  upon  it. — Br  A.  Clarke. — Ed. 
 
 d  Why  this  prophet  was  forbid  to  eat  or  drink  with  the  people 
 of  Bethel,  the  reason  is  obvious,  because  he  was  to  have  no 
 familiarity  with  idolaters;  but  why  he  should  not  'return  by  the 
 same  way  that  he  went,'  is  not  so  very  evident.  There  is  a 
 passage  in  Isaiah  concerning  Sennacherib,  which  helps,  as  some 
 think,  to  elucidate  this  matter,  where  God  tells  him,  that  '  he 
 would  turn  him  back  by  the  same  way  that  he  came.'  (Isaiah 
 xxxvii.  29,  34.)  that  is,  he  should  return  home  without  doing 
 any  thing:  all  his  threats,  and  all  his  great  projects  should  have 
 no  effect  against  Jerusalem.  And  in  like  manner,  when  God 
 commanded  the  prophet  not  to  return  by  the  same  way,  it  was  as 
 much  as  if  he  had  said,  '  See  that  thou  be  constant,  and  steadfast 
 in  executing  the  charge  committed  to  thee  ;  let  nothing  hinder  or 
 divert  thee,  but  take  abundant  care,  that  thou  do  thy  business 
 effectually.'  But  this  construction  is  a  little  too  much  strained; 
 nor  can  I  see,  why  we  may  not  say,  that  God  enjoined  his  pro- 
 phet not  to  return  by  the  same  way,  lest  Jeroboam,  or  any  other 
 of  the  inhabitants  of  Bethel,  either  to  satisfy  their  curiosity  upon 
 an  occasion  so  uncommon,  or  to  do  him  some  mischief  for  his 
 severe  denunciations  against  their  altar  and  way  of  worship, 
 might  send  men  after  him  to  bring  him  back. — Calmet's  and  Le 
 Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  By  this  it  appears,  that  these  sons  of  the  old  prophet  were 
 present  when  Jeroboam  stood  at  the  altar,  and  therefore  joined 
 in  that  idolatrous  worship,  though  their  father  did  not,  and  yet 
 was  too  timorous  to  reprove  it. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 f  In  1  Kings  xiii.  20,  it  is  said  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  came 
 unto  the  prophet  that  brought  him  back.  "  A  great  clamour," 
 says  Dr  Keunicott,  "  has  been  raised  against  this  part  of  the 
 history,  on  account  of  God's  denouncing  sentence  on  the  true 
 prophet,  by  the  mouth  of  the  false  prophet:  but  if  we  examine 
 with  attention  the  original  words  here,  they  will  be  found  to  sig- 
 nify either,  he  who  brought  him  back;  or,  whom  he  had  brought 
 back;  for  the  very  same  words,  tyvn  -\t'H  asher  heshibo,  occur 
 again  in  verse  23,  where  they  are  translated,  whom  he  had 
 brought  back;  and  where  they  cannot  be  translated  otherwise. 
 This  being  the  case,  we  are  at  liberty  to  consider  the  word  of  the 
 Lord  as  delivered  to  the  true  prophet  thus  brought  back ;  and 
 then  the  sentence  is  pronounced  by  God  himself,  calling  to  him 
 out  of  heaven,  as  iu  Gen.  xxii.  1 1 .     And  that  this  doom  was  thus 
 
344 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  I. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  431)1.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINOS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  C11RON. 
 
 youno-  prophet  believed  him,  went  with  him,  sat  flown  to 
 meat,  and  refreshed  himself;  but  in  his  return,  he  paid 
 dear  for  his  disobedience ;  "  for  b  a  lion  met  him  and 
 slew  him,  but  when  it  had  so  done,  it  neither  tore  his 
 body,  nor  meddled  with  his  ass  ;  which,  when  the  old 
 prophet  understood,  he  took,  and  buried  him  in  his  own 
 sepulchre,  and  gave  his  children  in  charge,  that  when- 
 ever he  died,  they  should  lay  him  in  a  place  contiguous  to 
 this  prophet ;  because  he  was  confident,  that  whatever 
 he  foretold  concerning  the  altar  of  Bethel,  and  c  that 
 form  of  idolatry,  which  Jeroboam  had  set  up,  would  most 
 certainly  come  to  pass. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  Abijah,  the  son  of  Jeroboam,  a 
 young  d  prince  of  promising  hopes,  fell  sick  :  whereupon 
 Jeroboam  prevailed  e  with  his  queen  to  disguise  herself 
 
 pronounced  by  God,  and  not  by  the  false  prophet,  we  are 
 assured  in  verse  26.  '  The  Lord  hath  delivered  him  unto  the 
 lion,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  which  he  spake  unto  him.' 
 Josephus  expressly  asserts  that  the  sentence  was  declared  by 
 God  to  the  true  prophet.     The  Arabic  asserts  the  same. — Ed. 
 
 a  1  Kings  xiii.  26.  Disobedience  in  special  cases  has  com- 
 monly been  punished  by  those  in  authority.  The  Athenians 
 put  their  ambassadors  to  death,  whom  they  had  sent  into  Arca- 
 dia, though  they  had  faithfully  performed  their  business,  because 
 they  came  another  way  than  that  which  had  been  prescribed  to 
 them. — /Elian.  Far.  Hist.  b.  vi.  c.  5. — Ed. 
 
 b  Not  far  from  Bethel  there  was  a  wood,  out  of  which  the  two 
 she-bears  came  that  destroyed  two  and  forty  children,  for  mock- 
 ing the  prophet  Elisha,  (2  Kings  ii.  24.)  And  it  is  not  unlikely 
 that  out  of  the  same  wood  came  the  lion  which  slew  this  prophet. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  There  is  something  particular  in  the  expressions  of  the  text: 
 '  The  saying,  which  he  cried  by  the  word  of  God  against  the  altar 
 of  the  Lord,  against  the  altar  of  Bethel,  and  against  all  the  houses 
 of  the  high  places,  which  are  in  the  cities  of  Samaria,  shall  surely 
 come  to  pass,'  (I  Kings  xiii.  32.)  But  how  can  they  be  called 
 the  cities  of  Samaria,  when  Samaria  itself  was  not  now  built,  nor 
 had  the  separate  kingdom  of  Jeroboam  as  yet  obtained  that  name  ? 
 But  this  only  shows  that  the  author  or  compiler  of  these  books  of 
 King=,  whether  it  was  Ezra  or  Jeremiah,  lived  long  after  the 
 time  of  Jeroboam,  and  writes  of  things  and  places  as  they  were  in 
 his  own  days.  He  knew  full  well,  that  Samaria  was  built  by 
 Omii,  fifty  years  after  Jeroboam,  since  himself  had  given  the 
 account  of  its  foundation;  but  he  was  minded  to  speak  in  the 
 phrase  then  current,  and  to  make  himself  intelligible  to  those  that 
 read  him ;  and  for  this  reason  no  doubt  it  is,  that  in  2  Kings 
 xxiii.  18,  the  false  prophet  of  Bethel  is  said  to  have  come  from 
 
 Samaria,  though  at  that  time  there  was  no  city  of  that  name. 
 
 Calmet's  Commentary . 
 
 d  In  1  Kings  xiv.  13,  it  is  said,  that  '  in  him  there  was  found 
 some  good  thing  towards  the  Lord  God  of  Israel;'  from  whence 
 the  Jewish  doctors  have  devised  the  story,  that  he  broke  down 
 an  hedge  (it  had  better  been  a  wall,  I  should  think)  which  his 
 father  had  made,  to  keep  people  from  going  up  to  Jerusalem  at 
 the  three  great  feasts.  But  however  this  be,  we  may  be  permitted 
 fairly  to  infer  thus  much  from  the  words: — That  he  was  the  only 
 person  in  the  family  who  expressed  a  dislike  of  the  worshipping 
 of  calves,  an  inclination  and  intention  to  abolish  it,  whenever  he 
 should  come  into  power,  and  to  permit,  if  not  oblige  his  subjects 
 to  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  to  worship  according  as  the  law  prescrib- 
 ed.— Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Jeroboam  might  be  for  having  his  wife  go  to  consult  the  pro- 
 phet at  Shiloh,  because  this  was  a  secret  not  to  be  intrusted  with 
 any  body  else ;  a  secret  which  had  it  been  divulged,  might  have 
 endangered  his  whole  government:  because,  if  once  his  subjects 
 came  to  understand,  that  he  himself  had  no  confidence  in  the 
 calves  which  he  had  set  up,  but  in  any  matter  of  importance  had 
 recourse  to  the  true  worshippers  of  God,  it  is  not  to  be  imagined 
 what  an  inducement  this  would  have  been  for  them  to  forsake 
 these  senseless  idols,  and  to  return  to  the  worship  of  the  God  of 
 Israel,  whom  they  imprudently  had  forsaken.  The  queen  then 
 was  the  only  person  he  could  have  confidence  in.  As  a  mother, 
 lie  knew,  that  she  would  be  diligent  in  her  inquiry;  and,  as  a 
 wife,  faithful  in  her  report;  but  there  were  sundry  reasons  why 
 
 in  the  dress  of  an  ordinary  woman  ;  to  go  to  the  prophet 
 Abijah,  who  was  then  at  Shiloh  ;  and  to  inquire  con- 
 cerning the  fate  of  the  child.  The  prophet,  at  that 
 time  was  blind  ;  and  therefore  they  thought  that  they 
 might  very  easily  impose  upon  him  :  but  before  the  queen 
 came,  God  had  discovered  the  whole  matter  to  him  ;  and 
 therefore  as  soon  as  she  entered  the  door,  he  called  her  by 
 her  name,  and  then  delivered  the  message  which  God  had 
 directed  him  to  do.  /     Therein  he   upbraided  Jeroboam 
 
 he  might  desire  her  to  disguise  herself.  For  though  Shiloh,  lay 
 within  the  confines  of  Ephraim,  yet  there  is  sufficient  ground  to 
 think,  that  it  was  subject  to  the  house  of  David,  and  belonged  to 
 the  kingdom  of  Judah.  It  was  certainly  nearer  Jerusalem  than 
 Shechem,  which  Rehoboam  had  lately  fortified,  and  made  his 
 place  of  residence:  and  therefore  Jeroboam  thought  it  not  safe  to 
 venture  his  queen,  in  a  place  that  was  under  his  rival's  govern- 
 ment, without  her  putting  on  some  disguise.  He  knew  too,  that 
 the  prophet  Ahijah  was  greatly  offended  at  him,  for  the  gross 
 idolatry  he  had  introduced ;  and  therefore  he  thought,  as  justly 
 he  might,  that,  if  the  prophet  perceived  her  to  be  his  wife,  he 
 would  either  tell  her  nothing,  or  make  things  much  worse  than 
 they  were.  The  only  way,  therefore,  to  come  at  the  truth,  was 
 (as  he  thought)  to  do  what  he  did:  but  herein  appears  his  infatua- 
 tion, that  he  should  not  think  the  person,  whom  he  held  capable 
 of  resolving  him  in  the  fate  of  his  son,  able  to  see  through  this 
 guile  and  disguise. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Poole's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 f  \t  is  mentioned  in  the  text,  that  Jeroboam's  wife  carried 
 with  her  a  present  to  the  prophet,  and  we  learn  from  several  pas- 
 sages of  Scripture,  that  it  was  customary  or.  consulting  a  prophet, 
 to  present  him  with  a  gift  generally  consisting  of  some  kind  of 
 provisions,  which  the  condition  of  that  class  of  persons  might 
 render  more  acceptable  than  any  money  or  other  kind  of  present. 
 What  the  wife  of  Jeroboam  carried  was  certainly  unsuitable  to 
 the  dignity  and  resources  of  a  queen,  and  had  she  gone  openly  in 
 that  character,  her  present  would  in  all  probability  have  been 
 rejected.  Instances  of  presents  not  being  accepted,  when 
 they  are  considered  inferior  to  what  the  rank  and  ability  of 
 the  offerer  could  have  produced,  are  mentioned  by  many  tra- 
 vellers. An  ambassador  at  the  court  of  Persia,  once  abruptly 
 took  leave,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  been  insulted  by  the  trifling 
 presents  the  Schah  had  given  him ;  in  consequence  of  which  the 
 royal  presents  were  ordered  to  be  set  down  in  a  catalogue,  along- 
 side of  those  of  the  ambassador;  each  article  was  rated  at  an  ex- 
 travagant value,  and  the  whole  was  made  to  be  worth  double  the 
 money  of  the  ambassador ;  but  he,  conscious  of  the  imposition, 
 refused  to  accept  it,  as  unworthy  of  the  rank  of  a  king.  Lander, 
 too,  mentions  an  African  from  whom  he  had  expected  to  obtain  im- 
 portant service  to  the  cause  of  his  mission,  but  was  unexpectedly 
 and  grievously  disappointed,  to  find  that  the  sable  monarch  gave 
 him  a  very  cold  reception.  The  reason  was,  that  the  king  had 
 been  persuaded  by  some  of  his  attendants,  that  the  present  of 
 Lander  was  far  inferior  to  what  Captain  Clapperton  had  made 
 him  a  few  years  before,  and,  therefore,  sending  notice  to  the  tra- 
 veller that  he  considered  his  gift  below  the  character  of  one  who 
 was  in  the  service  of  the  king  of  Britain,  refused  to  see  him. 
 Had  the  wife  of  Jeroboam  then  gone  to  the  prophet  with  the  pre- 
 sent she  had  selected,  there  is  every  reason  to  conclude,  that  its 
 trifling  nature  would  have  led  to  its  rejection;  but  it  must  be 
 remembered  that  she  went  to  Ahijah  personating  a  country  wo- 
 man, and  that  nothing  could  be  more  suitable  to  such  a  character 
 than  the  articles  of  which  her  present  consisted.  Few  and  sim- 
 ple as  they  appear  to  be,  they  were  very  nearly  the  same  as  those 
 which  D'Arvieux  received  from  the  mother  and  sister  of  an  Arab 
 Emir,  whom  he  visited,  and  from  whom  he  received,  early  in 
 the  morning  after  his  arrival  in  their  camp,  a  present  of  pastry, 
 honey,  fresh  butter,  with  a  basin  of  sweet  meats  of  Damascus. 
 Whatever  the  origin  of  the  custom  which  authorized  that  the 
 presents  made  to  prophets  should  consist  always  of  provision*  for 
 their  table,  it  is  evident,  from  the  experience  of  D'Arvieux,  Ihat 
 the  present  made  to  Ahijah  by  the  wife  of  Jeroboam,  was  quite 
 in  unison  with  the  character  she  had  assumed,  and,  although 
 presents  have  frequently  been  refused  in  the  east,  on  account  of 
 their  value  being  disproportionate  to  the  ability  of  the  donor,  no 
 objection  could  have  been  found  on  this  account  to  the  present  of 
 Jeroboam's  queen,  had  not  her  real  condition  been  supei  naturally 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 545 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HAI-ES,  A.  M 
 
 with  ingratitude  to  God,  who  had  made  him  king;  charg- 
 ed him  with  impiety  and  apostasy,  in  setting  up  images 
 for  the  objects  of  religious  worship  ;  foretold  the  expir- 
 ation of  his  race,  a  and  the  death  of  the  child  then  sick  ; 
 threatened  sore  judgments  to  the  people  of  Israel,  for 
 their  conforming  to  the  idolatry  which  had  begun,  and, 
 with  this  doleful  message,  he  sent  her  away,  who  as  soon 
 as  she  entered  the  palace  door,  according  to  the  pro- 
 phet's prediction,  found  the  child  dying.  But  all  these 
 judgments  and  miraculous  events  wrought  no  reformation 
 in  wicked  Jeroboam. 
 
 Nor  was  his  rival  Ilehoboam  king  of  Judah,  much  bet- 
 ter. He,  for  three  years  indeed,  kept  up  the  true  wor- 
 ship of  God  at  Jerusalem,  but  it  was  more  out  of  a 
 principle  of  state  policy  than  of  true  religion.  For, 
 when  the  time  of  Jeroboam's  subjects  coming  over  to 
 him  upon  that  account  was  at  an  end,  he  threw  off  the 
 mask,  and  discovered  his  inclination  to  idolatry.  And 
 as  his  example  was  followed  by  his  subjects,  they  soon 
 exceeded  all  that  went  before  them.  For  they  not  only 
 set  up  images  and  gTOves  upon  every  hill,  and  under 
 every  green  tree,  but  to  add  to  their  gross  impiety,  in- 
 troduced the  detestable  *  sin  of  Sodom,  and  all  the  other 
 wickednesses  that  the  ancient  Canaanites  were  expel- 
 led for. 
 
 Under  these  provocations  it  was  not  long  before  God 
 sent  against  them  Shishak,  king  of  Egypt,  who,  in  the 
 fifth  year  of  Rehoboain,  c  invaded  his  dominions  with  a 
 
 revealed  to  the  mind  of  the  prophet. — Jamieson's  Eastern  Man- 
 ners.— Ed. 
 
 a  1  Kings  xiv.  10.  Sometimes,  when  a  successful  prince  has 
 endeavoured  to  extirpate  the  preceding  royal  family,  some  of 
 them  have  escaped  the  slaughter,  and  secured  themselves  in  a 
 fortress,  or  place  of  secrecy,  while  others  have  sought  an  asylum 
 in  foreign  countries,  from  whence  they  have  occasioned  great 
 anxiety  to  the  usurper.  The  word,  shut  up,  strictly  speaking, 
 refers  to  the  first  of  these  cases;  as  in  the  preservation  of  Joash 
 fmm  Athaliah,  in  a  private  apartment  of  the  temple,  (2  Kings 
 xi.)  Such  appears  also  to  have  been  the  case  in  more  modern 
 times.  "  Though  more  than  thirty  years  had  elapsed  since  the 
 death  of  Sultan  Achmet,  father  of  the  new  emperor,  he  had  not 
 in  that  interval,  acquired  any  great  information  or  improvement. 
 Shut  up,  during  this  long  interval,  in  the  apartments  assigned  him, 
 with  some  eunuchs  to  wait  on  him,  and  women  to  amuse  him,  the 
 equality  of  his  age  with  that  of  the  princes  who  had  a  right  to  pre- 
 cede, allowed  him  but  little  hope  of  reigning  in  his  turn;  and  he 
 had  besides,  well  grounded  reasons  for  a  more  serious  uneasiness." 
 (Baron  Du  Tott,  vol.  i.  p.  115.)  But  when  David  was  in  dan- 
 ger, he  kept  himself  close,  (1  Chron.  xii.  1.)  inZiklag,  but  not  so 
 as  to  prevent  him  from  making  frequent  excursions.  In  later 
 times,  in  the  east,  persons  of  royal  descent  have  been  left,  when 
 the  i-estof  a  family  have  been  cut  oil',  if  no  danger  was  appre- 
 hended from  them,  on  account  of  some  mental  or  bodily  disquali- 
 fication. Blindness  saved  the  life  of  Mohammed  Khodabendeh, 
 a  Persian  prince  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  his  brother  Ismael 
 put  all  the  rest  of  his  brethren  to  death.  (D'Nerbelot,  p.  613.) 
 This  explanation  will  enable  us  more  clearly  to  understand  2  Kings 
 xiv.  2C;  Deut.  xxxii.  36" Harmer,  vol.  iv.  p.  211. — Ed. 
 
 b  There  are  several  passages  in  Scripture,  such  as  1  Kings 
 xv.  12.  2  Kings  xxii.  7.  Rom.  i.  2G,  27,  &c,  from  whence  it 
 appears  that  this  kind  of  wickedness  did  frequently  attend  idola- 
 try. Among  the  heathen,  the  most  filthy  tilings  were  commit- 
 ted in  their  groves,  those  places  of  darkness  and  obscurity,  by  the 
 worshippers  of  Venus,  Bacchus,  and  Priapus;  and  when  the  Is- 
 raelites fell  into  the  same  religion,  they  must,  of  course,  have 
 fallen  into  the  same  practices;  because,  whatever  they  did  of 
 this  kind  was  done  in  devotion,  and  honour  to  their  gods,  who, 
 as  they  imagined,  were  highly  delighted  with  such  obscenities. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  It  may  seem  something  strange,  that  Shishak,  who  was  so 
 neariy  allied  to  Rehoboam,  should   come  up  against  him,  and 
 
 .  4391.  A.  C.  1020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 very  numerous  army  ;  and,  having  ravaged  the  country , 
 taken  most  of  the  fortified  places,  and  entered  Jeru- 
 salem without  opposition,  plundered  the  temple  and 
 palace  of  their  rich  furniture  and  moveables,  he  took 
 away  all  the  money  that  was  found  in  the  king's  treasure, 
 and  the  treasure  of  the  sanctuary,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
 carried  off  the  golden  shields  which  Solomon  had  made  ; 
 in  the  room  of  which,  Rehoboam,  by  this  depredation, 
 was  reduced  so  low,  that  he  d  was  forced  to  make  brazen 
 ones,  for  the  use  and  ornament  of  his  guards. 
 
 AVe  have  little  or  nothing  more  recorded  of  Rehoboam, 
 but  that  he  reigned  twelve  years  after  this  conquest  and 
 devastation  by  Shishak ;  that  he  had  eighteen  wives, 
 and  threescore  concubines,  and  by  them  eight  and  twenty 
 sons,  and  threescore  daughters ;  that  most  of  these  sons 
 who  were  grown  to  maturity  in  his  lifetime,  he  made 
 governors  in  the  chief  of  the  fenced  cities  in  his  king- 
 dom; that  he  appointed  Abijah,  who  was  the  eldest  by 
 his  favourite  wife  e  Maachah,  to  succeed  him  in  his 
 throne,  and,  /  after  a  continued  war  with  his  rival  Jero- 
 boam, died  in  the  fifty -eighth  year  of  his  age,  and  in  the 
 
 take  his  royal  city:  but  Rehoboam,  we  must  remember,  was  not 
 the  son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  and  therefore  no  relation  to  Shishak. 
 But,  even  had  he  been  never  so  nearly  related,  as  kingdoms,  we 
 know,  never  marry,  so  it  is  likely  that  Jeroboam,  who  had  lived 
 long  in  Egypt,  stirred  him  up  to  invade  his  rival,  that  thereby 
 he  might  establish  himself  in  this  new  kingdom:  and  for  this 
 reason  it  was,  that,  when  the  armies  of  Egypt  had  taken  the 
 fenced  cities  of  Judah,  they  returned,  without  giving  Jeroboam 
 or  his  dominions  any  the  least  disturbance. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 d  This  shows  to  what  low  condition  the  kingdom  of  Judah 
 was  reduced.  These  shields  were  a  matter  of  state  and  gran- 
 deur ;  and  therefore  it  concerned  them,  if  they  were  able,  to  have 
 them  of  the  same  value  that  they  were  before.  And,  as  they 
 were  carried  before  the  king  to  the  house  of  the  Lord,  it  seemed 
 likewise  to  be  a  matter  of  religion,  that  their  value  should  not  be 
 diminished.  Now  in  making  these  three  hundred  shields  we  are 
 told,  that  three  pounds  of  gold  went  to  one  shield,  (1  Kings  x. 
 17.)  This,  at  four  pounds  per  ounce,  or  forty-eight  pounds  ster- 
 ling to  the  pound,  amounts  to  no  more  than  ±432,000,  and  there- 
 fore it  was  a  miserable  case,  that  they  were  reduced  from  so  much 
 wealth  to  so  much  poverty,  that  neither  reasons  of  state,  nor  re- 
 ligion, could  raise  so  small  a  sum  on  so  great  an  occasion. — 
 Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  6.  c.  2. 
 
 e  1  Kings  xv.  2.  It  has  been  conjectured  by  Mr  Taylor,  that 
 the  phrase  "  and  his  mother's  name  was,"  &c,  when  expressed 
 on  a  king's  accession  to  the  throne,  at  the  beginning  of  his  history, 
 does  not  always  refer  to  his  natural  mother,  but  that  it  is  a  title 
 of  honour  and  dignity,  enjoyed  by  one  of  the  royal  family,  de- 
 noting her  to  be  the  first  in  rank.  This  idea  appeal's  well  founded 
 from  the  following  extracts.  "  The  oloo  kani  is  not  governess 
 of  the  Crimea.  This  title,  the  literal  translation  of  which  is, 
 great  queen,  simply  denotes  a  dignity  in  the  harem,  which  the 
 khan  usually  confers  on  one  of  his  sisters ;  or  if  he  has  none,  on 
 one  of  his  daughters,  or  relations.  To  this  dignity  are  attached 
 the  revenues  arising  from  several  villages,  and  other  rights." 
 {Baron  Du  Tott,  vol.  ii.  p.  04.)  "On  this  occasion  the  king 
 crowned  his  mother  Malacotawit,  conferring  upon  her  the  dignity 
 and  title  of  iteghe,  that  is,  as  king's  mother,  regent  and  gover- 
 ness of  the  king  when  under  age." — Bruce's  Travels,  vol.  ii.  p. 
 58 1.  Fragments  to  Calmet. — Ed. 
 
 f  But  how  does  this  agree  with  what  we  read  in  1  Kings  xii. 
 23,  &c,  namely,  that  God  commanded  Ilehoboam,  and  his 
 people,  not  to  fight  against  the  Israelites,  and  they  obeyed?  Very 
 well,  if  we  will  but  observe,  that  though  the  Jews  were  com- 
 manded not  to  make  war  upon  the  Israelites,  yet  they  were  not 
 commanded  not  to  defend  themselves,  in  case  the  Israelites 
 should  make  war  upon  them ;  and,  considering  that  they  were 
 now  become  two  rival  nations,  they  might,  upon  the  borders,  be 
 continually  endeavouring  to  gain  ground  upon  each  other,  and  so 
 run  into  frequent  acts  of  hostility,  without  ever  once  engaging  in 
 a  pitched  battle. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 3  a 
 
546 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.   A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 seventeenth  year  of  his  reign,  and  was  buried  in  the 
 city  of  David. 
 
 a  Abijah,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  the  kingdom  of 
 Judah,  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  Jeroboam  king  of  Is- 
 rael, was  a  prince  of  an  active  and  martial  spirit ;  and 
 therefore  resolving  to  put  an  end  to  the  long  dispute 
 between  the  two  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel,  he  raised 
 an  army  of  four  hundred  thousand  men,  while  Jeroboam, 
 whose  territories  were  of  larger  extent,  had  got  toge- 
 ther one  of  eight  hundred  thousand.  This  notwithstand- 
 ing, Abijah  determined  to  give  him  battle ;  but,  before 
 they  came  to  the  onset,  he  thought  it  not  improper  to 
 get  upon  an  eminence,  and  b  to  expostulate  with  the 
 lsraelitish  army  the  injustice  of  their  cause  in  revolting 
 from  his  father  Rehoboam ;  the  right  he  claimed  on  his 
 side,  since  God  had  given  the  whole  kingdom  to  David, 
 and  his  sons  for  ever ;  and  the  reasonable  expectance  he 
 had  of  the  divine  assistance  in  what  he  was  going  about, 
 since  the  religion  of  Jeroboam  was  false  and  idolatrous, 
 whereas  he,  and  the  men  of  Judah,  had  the  pure  worship 
 of  the  living  God,  his  temple,  and  his  ordinances,  among 
 them. 
 
 Jeroboam  was  no  wise  solicitous  to  answer  him  in 
 those  points  ;  but  while  he  continued  speaking,  ordered 
 a  detachment  to  inarch  round,  and  intercept  his  retreat : 
 which  when  the  men  of  Judah  perceived,  they  addressed 
 themselves  to  God  in  prayer  for  success,  and,  while  the 
 priests  blew  the  trumpets,  the  soldiers  gave  a  great 
 shout,  and  charged  the  Israelites  so  vigorously,  that 
 they  soon  gave  way,  and  as  the  enemy  gave  no  quarter 
 lost,  in  the  whole  action,  no  less  than  five  hundred  thou- 
 sand men,  the  greatest  slaughter  that  ever  was  heard  of.  c 
 
 a  Dr  Kennicott  observes  that  the  name  of  this  king  of  Judah 
 is  expressed  three  ways;  in  1  Kings  xiv.  and  four  other 
 places  it  is  Abijam  or  Abiua;  in  two  others  it  is  Abihu;  but  in 
 eleven  other  places  it  is  Abiah,  as  it  is  expressed  by  St  Matthew  (i. 
 7.)  'P«/3oa^  S=  tytyytifft  tov  A/3<« ;  and  this  is  the  reading  of  thirteen 
 of  Kennicott's  and  De  Rossi's  MSS.,  and  of  thirteen  respectable 
 editions  of  the  Hebrew  bible.  The  Syriac  is  the  same.  The 
 Septuagint  in  the  London  Polyglot  has  AjS;ou,  Abihu,  but  in 
 the  Complutensian  and  Antwerp  Polyglot  it  is  A&iu,  Abiah. 
 Though  the  common  printed  Vulgate  has  Abiarn,  yet  the  Editio 
 Princeps  of  the  Vulgate,  some  MSS.,  and  the  text  in  the  Com- 
 plutensian and  Antwerp  Polyglot,  have  Abia;  which  without 
 doubt  is  the  reading  that  should  in  all  cases  be  followed. Ed. 
 
 b  None  of  the  great  captains  and  commanders,  whose  speeches 
 are  recorded  in  heathen  authors,  ever  expressed  themselves  more 
 movingly  than  this  king  of  Judah  did.  But  some  have  found 
 fault  with  him  for  speaking  not  so  honourably  of  his  father's 
 military  skill  and  courage,  which  he  might  as  well  have  omitted 
 because,  allowing  it  to  be  true,  he  seems  to  have  served  no  pur- 
 ose  in  mentioning  it.  But  this  notwithstanding,  the  speech  is 
 very  lively,  ami  excellently  well  calculated  to  cause  a  revolt  in 
 Jeroboam's  army. — Patrick's  Commentary.  See  the  speech  at 
 large  in  2  Chron.  xiii.  4,  &c. 
 
 c  The  numbers  here  given  from  2  Chron.  xiii.  3,  17,  seem 
 almost  incredible.  It  is  very  possible  that  there  is  a  cipher  too 
 much  in  all  these  numbers,  and  that  they  should  stand  thus: 
 i's  army,  40,000;  Jeroboam's  80,000;  slain  50,000. 
 Calmet,  who  defends  the  common  reading,  allows  that  the  Venice 
 edition  of  the  Vulgate,  in  1478;  another  in  1489;  that  of  Nu- 
 remberg in  1521;  that  of  Basil,  by  Froben,  in  1538;  that  of 
 Robert  Stevens,  in  1546;  and  many  others,  have  the  smaller 
 numbers.  Dr  Kennicott  says:  "  On  a  particular  collation  of  the 
 Vulgate  version,  it  appears  that  the  number  of  chosen  men  here 
 slain,  which  Pope  Clement's  edition  in  1592,  determined  to  be 
 500,000,  the  edition  of  Pope  Sixtus,  printed  two  years  befoVe, 
 determined  to  be  only  50,000:  and  the  two  preceding  numbers 
 in  the  edition  of  Sixtus,  are  40,000,  and  80,000.  As  to  dif- 
 lercnt  printed  editions,  out  of  fifty-two  from  the  year  14C2  to 
 
 This  victory  Abijah  took  care  to  improve  by  pursuing 
 Jeroboam,  and  taking  from  him  so  many  strong  cities, 
 among  which  Bethel,  where  one  of  the  golden  calves 
 had  lately  been  set  up,  was  one,  that  he  Avas  never 
 thenceforward  able  to  make  head  against  his  adversary, 
 who  by  this,  and  some  other  successful  achievements, 
 grew  great  and  powerful.  But  his  reign  was  but  short : 
 he  reigned  not  quite  three  years,  before  he  died,  and 
 was  buried  in  the  city  of  David ;  and  the  reason  that 
 some  have  assigned  for  GodTs  thus  shortening  of  his 
 days,  was  his  not  destroying  of  idolatry,  when,  by 
 taking  of  Bethel,  he  had  it  in  his  power.  For,  however 
 he  might  plead  his  possession  of  the  temple  and  priest- 
 hood, to  make  his  argument  good  against  Jeroboam  ; 
 yet  the  character  which  the  sacred  historian  gives  him, 
 is  1 '  that  he  walked  in  all  the  sins  of  his  father ;  nor  was 
 his  heart  perfect  with  the  Lord  his  God,  as  the  heart  of 
 his  great  grandfather  David.' 
 
 Asa,  however,  who  in  the  twentieth  year  of  Jeroboam 
 king  of  Israel,  succeeded  his  father  in  the  throne  of  Judah, 
 
 1  1  Kings  xv.  3. 
 1592,  thirty-one  contain  the  less  number.  And  out  of  fifty-one 
 MSS.,  twenty-three  in  the  Bodleian  library,  four  in  that  of 
 Dean  Aldrich,  and  two  in  that  of  Exeter  College,  contain  the 
 less  number,  or  else  are  corrupted  irregularly,  varying  only  in 
 one  or  two  numbers." 
 
 This  examination  was  made  by  Dr  Kennicott  before  he  had 
 
 finished  his  collation  of  Hebrew  MSS.,  and  before  De  Rossi  had 
 
 published    his    Varim  Lectiones    Veteris   Testamenti;  but  from 
 
 these  works  we  find  little  help,  as  far  as  the  Hebrew  MSS.  are 
 
 concerned.       One  Hebrew  MS.  instead  of  F|S.v  mtttj  jdin,  arba 
 
 meotheleph,  400,000,  reads  siSn  -\zy  join,  arba  esereleph,  14,000. 
 
 In  all  printed  copies  of  the  Hebrew,  the  numbers  are  as  in  the 
 
 common  text,  400,000,  800,000,  and  500,000.     The  versions 
 
 are  as  follows: — The  Targum  or  Chaldee,  the  same  in  eaeh  place 
 
 as  in  the   Hebrew.     The  Syriac  in   verse  third  has  400,000 
 
 young  men  for  the  army  of  Abijah,  and  800,000  stout  youths  for 
 
 that  of  Jeroboam.     For  the  slain  Israelites,  in  verse  17th  it  has 
 
 500,000,  falsely  translated  in  the  Latin   text   quinque   milia, 
 
 5000,  both  in   the  Paris  and  Loudon   polyglots:  another  proof 
 
 among  many  that  little  dependance  is  to  be  placed  on  the  Latin 
 
 translation  of  this  version  in  either  of  the  above  polyglots.     The 
 
 Arabic  is  the  same  in  all  these  cases  with  the  Syriac,  from  which 
 
 it  has  been  translated.     The  Septuagint,  both  as  it  is  published 
 
 in  all  the  polyglots,  and  as  far  as  I  have  seen  in  MSS.,  is  the  same 
 
 with  the   Hebrew  text.     So  also  is  Josephus.     The  Vulgate  or 
 
 Latin  version  is  that  alone  that  exhibits  any  important  variations; 
 
 we  have  had  considerable  proof  of  this  in  the  above  mentioned 
 
 collations  of  Calmet  and  Kennicott.     I  shall  beg  liberty  to  add 
 
 others  from  my  own  collection.     In  the  Editio  Princeps  cf  the 
 
 Latin  bible,  though  without  date  or  place,  yet  evidently  printed 
 
 long  before  that  of  Fust,  in  1462,  the  places  stand  thus:  ver.  3. 
 
 'With  him  Abia  entered  into  battle;  and  he  had  of  the  most 
 
 warlike  and  choice  men  40,000 ;  and  Jeroboam  raised  an  army 
 
 against  him  of  80,000  men.'     And  in  ver.  17:   'and  there  fell 
 
 down  wounded  50,000  stout  men  of  Israel.'     In  the    Glossa 
 
 Ordinaria,  by  Stiabo  Fuldensis,  we  have  40,000  and  80,000 
 
 in  the  two  first  instances,  and  500,000  in  the  last. — Bib.  Sacr. 
 
 vol.  ii.  Antv.  1634.     In  six  ancient  MSS.  of  my  own,  marked 
 
 A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  the  text  stands  thus.     In  A  we  have  40,000 
 
 for  the  army  of  Abijah,  and  SO, 000  for  that  of  Jeroboam,  and 
 
 50,000  for  the  slain  of  the  latter.     B,  40,000,  80,000,  50,000. 
 
 The  numbers  being  here  expressed  in  words  at  full  length,  there 
 
 can  be  no  suspicion  of  mistake.     C,  400,000,  800,000,  500,000. 
 
 This  is  the  same  as  the  Hebrew  text  very  distinctly  expressed. 
 
 D,  This  in  the  first  two  numbers  is  the  same  as  the  others  above ; 
 
 but  the  last  is  confused,  and  appears  to  stand  for  55,000.     E, 
 
 40,000,   80,000,   50,000.      F,    400,000,   S00,000,    500,000. 
 
 This  also  is  the  same  as  the  Hebrew.     The  reader  has  now  the 
 
 whole  evidence  which  I  have  been  able  to  collect,  before  him, 
 
 and  may  choose;  the  smaller  numbers  appear  to  be  the  most 
 
 correct.     Corruptions  in  the  numbers  in  these  historical  books 
 
 we  have  often  had  cause  to  suspect  and  complain  of. — Dr  A. 
 
 Clarke,  2  Chron. xiii.  3 17.— Ed. 
 
Sbct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 547 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 was  a  prince  of  a  different  temper.  As  he  enjoyed  the 
 felicity  of  a  settled  peace  for  the  ten  first  years  of  his 
 reign,  he  wisely  made  use  of  it  in  reforming  many  abuses 
 that  had  been  tolerated  in  former  reigns.  He  expelled 
 the  Sodomites,  broke  down  the  idols,  and  demolished 
 their  altars  in  all  the  cities  of  Judah ;  a  but  he  had  not 
 yet  power  and  authority  enough  to  destroy  the  high 
 places.  The  vessels  of  silver  and  gold  which  *  both  he 
 and  his  father  had  consecrated  to  the  service  of  the 
 temple,  he  presented  to  the  priests  ;  and  by  all  the 
 enforcements  of  regal  authority,  compelled  his  subjects 
 to  be  religious. 
 
 This  time  of  peace  he  likewise  made  use  of,  to  fortify 
 several  cities  on  the  frontier  parts  of  his  kingdom,  and 
 to  train  up  his  subjects  in  the  art  of  war  ;  insomuch  that, 
 in  a  short  time,  he  had  an  army  of  three  hundred  thou- 
 sand men  of  Judah  armed  with  shields  and  pikes,  and 
 two  hundred  and  fourscore  thousand  men  of  Benjamin, 
 armed  with  shields  and  arrows,  all  persons  of  courage, 
 and  resolved  to  defend  their  country. 
 
 In  this  situation  of  affairs,  Zerah,the  c  king  of  Arabia 
 
 a  This  seems  to  be  contradicted  by  a  passage  in  2  ChroD.  xiv. 
 3,  where  we  are  told,  '  that  Asa  took  away  the  altars  of  the 
 strange  gods,  and  the  high  places:'  but,  for  the  right  understand- 
 ing and  reconciling  of  this,  we  may  observe,  that  there  were  two 
 kinds  of  high  places,  the  one  tolerated  for  religious  purposes,  the 
 other  abominable  from  their  first  institution;  the  one  frequented 
 by  devout  worshippers,  the  other  made  the  receptacle  of  the 
 wicked  and  idolatrous  only.  Now  these  were  the  altars  and 
 high  places  which  Asa  took  away,  even  where  the  people  sacri- 
 ficed to  strange  gods ;  but  those  where  God  alone  was  worship- 
 ped had  obtained  so  long,  and  were  looked  upon  with  so  sacred 
 a  veneration,  that,  for  fear  of  giving  a  general  offence,  though 
 he  knew  they  were  contrary  to  a  divine  injunction,  he  durst  not 
 adventure  to  abolish  them.  The  truth  is,  these  high  places  were 
 famous  either  for  the  apparition  of  angels,  or  some  other  mira- 
 culous event;  had  either  been  places  of  abode  for  the  ark  of  the 
 Lord,  or  such  as  some  prophet  or  patriarch  of  old  had  been 
 accustomed  to  pray  and  sacrifice  in ;  and  therefore  they  were 
 looked  upon  as  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God ;  nor  was  there 
 strength  enough  in  the  government  to  overcome  this  inveterate 
 prejudice,  till  Hezekiah  arose,  who,  to  prevent  the  calamities 
 that  were  coming  upon  the  nation,  had  the  courage  to  effect  a 
 thorough  reformation. — Patrick  on  ]  Kings  xv.  14  ;  and  Caiviet 
 ou  chap.  xiv.  23. 
 
 b  According  to  the  piety  of  ancient  times,  his  father  had 
 tlevoted  some  part  of  the  spoils  he  had  taken  in  the  war  against 
 Jeroboam  to  the  service  of  the  temple,  but  had  not  time  to  make 
 good  his  vow,  or,  upon  some  account  or  other,  had  neglected  it, 
 su  that  his  son  took  care  to  supply  that  defect.  And  forasmuch 
 as  himself  had  taken  large  booty  in  his  war  with  the  Arabians, 
 of  this  he  likewise  bestowed  a  considerable  part  upon  holy  uses. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary . 
 
 c  The  Scripture  lakes  no  notice  of  what  was  the  cause  of  this 
 war  between  Zerah  and  Asa,  nor  are  interpreters  well  agreed 
 what  the  country  was  from  whence  this  enemy  came.  The 
 country,  in  the  original,  is  called  Cush,  though  we  translate  it 
 Ethiopia.  Now,  there  are  three  countries,  different  from  one 
 another,  all  called  by  the  name  of  Cush;  1.  the  land  of  Cush 
 upon  the  river  Gihon;  2.  Cush  upon  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
 Red  Sea;  and,  3.  Cush,  situated  above  Thebais,  and  in  the 
 Upper  Egypt  It  is  very  probable,  then,  that  the  country  here 
 spoken  of  must  not  be  Ethiopia,  properly  so  called,  because  we 
 ••an  hardly  imagine,  how  an  army  of  a  million  of  men  should  be 
 permitted  to  march  through  Egypt,  as  they  must  have  done  to 
 invade  Judea,  without  some  opposition:  and  therefore  the  coun- 
 try must  be  the  laud  of  Cush,  which  lay  in  Arabia  Petnca,  upon 
 the  east  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  and,  at  the  extremity  to  the  point 
 oi  that  sea,  inclining  towards  Egypt  and  Judea.  And  whereas 
 some  have  made  a  doubt,  how  so  small  a  country  could  have 
 produced  so  large  an  army,  it  is  no  hard  matter  to  suppose,  that 
 a  great  part  of  the  army  might  perhaps  have  been  mercenaries. — 
 Catmct's  Commentary  on 2  Chron.  xiv.  9;  and  Dictionary,  under 
 
 invaded  Judea  with  an  almost  innumerable  army,  but 
 was  vanquished  by  Asa  with  a  much  inferior  force. 
 For,  as  soon  as  the  battle  began,  God  struck  the  Ara- 
 bians with  such  a  panic  fear,  that  they  began  to  flee ; 
 and  Asa  and  his  army  pursued  them,  took  the  spoil  of 
 their  camp,  carried  away  their  cattle,  smote  the  cities 
 that  were  in  league  with  them,  and  so  returned  in  triumph 
 to  Jerusalem. 
 
 After  so  signal  a  victory,  Asa  continued  in  peace  for 
 the  space  of  five  years  more ;  in  which  time  he  thought 
 himself  obliged,  both  in  gratitude  to  God,  and  in  com- 
 pliance to  the  encouragement  l  which  his  prophet  Aza- 
 riah  had  given  him,  to  set  himself  about  a  thorough 
 reformation  in  religion.  To  this  purpose  he  executed 
 all  that  could  be  convicted  of  sodomy  :  he  destroyed  all 
 the  idols  that  were  to  be  found,  not  only  in  Judah  and 
 Benjamin,  but  in  any  of  the  conquered  countries  like- 
 wise: he  repaired  the  altar  of  burnt-offerings,  and  sum- 
 moned, not  only  the  natives,  but  strangers  likewise,  to 
 the  worship  of  the  true  God.  On  a  solemn  festival, 
 which  he  had  appointed,  he  ordered  seven  hundred  oxen, 
 and  seven  thousand  sheep,  part  of  the  spoil  which  he  had 
 taken  from  the  Arabians,  to  be  sacrificed ;  and,  at  the 
 same  time,  engaged  in  a  covenant  with  his  subjects, 
 which  was  confirmed  by  oath,  that  whoever  should  for- 
 sake the  true  worship  of  God  should  have  2  the  sentence 
 of  the  law  executed  upon  him,  and  be  infallibly  put  to 
 death. 
 
 His  own  mother  had  been  a  patroness  of  idolatry  ;  and 
 therefore,  to  show  his  impartiality,  he  removed  her  from 
 court,  and  forbade  her  coming  near  the  queen,  for  fear 
 of  infecting  her  ;  and  understanding  that  she  had  set  up 
 an  idol  in  a  grove  consecrated  to  an  obscene  deity,  d  he 
 
 1  2  Chron.  xv.  throughout.  *  Deut.  xvii.  2,  &c. 
 
 the  word  Cush;  and  ) Yells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament, 
 vol.  i.  c.  4.  [Dr  Hales,  however,  is  of  opinion  that  Zerah  was 
 king  of  the  African  Ethiopia,  now  long  known  by  the  name  of 
 Abyssinia,  and  that  his  immense  army,  amounting  to  a  million  of 
 men,  and  three  hundred  chariots,  but  which  Josephus  reduces, 
 more  probably,  to  90,000  infantry,  and  100,000  cavalry,  {Ant. 
 viii.  12.)  consisted  of  Abyssinians  and  Lybians,  called  in  Scripture 
 Lubim. — Analysis,  vol.  ii.  p.  380,  second  edition.] — Ed. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text,  both  in  1  Kings  xv.  13,  and  2 
 Chron.  xv.  16,  according  to  our  translation,  are  to  this  effect. — 
 That  '  Asa  removed  his  mother  Maachah  from  being  queen, 
 because  she  had  made  an  idol  in  a  grove,  both  of  which  he  cut 
 down  and  burnt.'  The  word  which  we  render  idol  is  in  the 
 original  Mipheletseth;  but  then  the  whole  difficulty  turns  upon 
 this, — what  the  proper  signification  of  this  word  is.  The  Vulgate 
 translation  has  cleared  this  matter  pretty  well,  by  rendering  the 
 passage,  that  this  queen-mother  'was  the  high  priestess  in  the 
 sacrifices  of  Priapus;'  and  when  the  Septuagint,  according  to  the 
 Vatican  copy,  informs  us,  that  she  held  an  assembly  in  this 
 grove,  and  that  her  son  Asa  cut  down  all  the  close  arbours  or 
 places  of  retreat,  as  the  word  2iJ»*3sf,  which  we  render  assembly, 
 may  have  a  more  carnal  meaning,  and  the  other  KaraSuov;,  pro- 
 perly signifies  hiding  places,  or  places  of  retirement  for  wicked 
 and  obscene  purposes :  we  may  from  hence  infer,  that  both  the 
 Latin  and  Greek  translators  took  the  Mipheletseth  of  Maachah 
 to  be  some  lewd  and  lascivious  deity,  which  loved  to  be  worship- 
 ped in  filthy  and  abominable  actions;  and  that  this  could  be  no 
 other  than  the  Roman  Priapus,  whose  worshippers  were  chiefly 
 women,  seems  to  be  implied  in  the  veiy  etymology  of  the  word, 
 which  properly  signifies  terriiulamentum,  or,  a  device  to  frighten 
 other  things  away}  tor  this  was  exactly  the  office  of  Priapus  in 
 all  gardens.  "  Let  Priapus  be  placed  as  a  guardian  in  the  fruitful 
 gardens,  that  with  his  keen  pruiiinghook  he  may  frighten  the 
 birds."  {Til «/.  Eleg.  1 .)  But  then  the  question  is,  who  the  patriarch 
 was,  for  most  idols  were  made  for  some  patriarch  or  other,  that 
 the  Roman  Priapus  is  thought  to  represent?  And  the  Learned 
 
518 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  Iff.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  ML 
 
 burned  the  idol,  and  the  grove  both,  and  threw  their  ashes 
 into  the  brook  Kidron,  '  as  Moses  did  before  by  the 
 molten  calf. 
 
 The  fame  of  this  reformation,  and  the  blessings  where- 
 widi  God  had  hitherto  distinguished  Asa's  reign,  made 
 the  subjects  of  Baasha,  who  was  now  king  of  Israel, 
 come  over  in  great  numbers  to  Jerusalem ;  which  Baasha 
 perceiving,  was  resolved,  if  possible,  to  put  a  stop  to 
 it;  and  therefore  he  fortified  Raamah,  a  town  in  the 
 tribe  of  Benjamin  so  conveniently  situated,  that,  by 
 keeping  a  good  garrison  there,  he  might  hinder  all 
 passing  to  and  fro  without  leave,  and  so  cut  oft* all  com- 
 munication between  his  people  and  the  people  of  Judah. 
 
 Asa  hearing  of  this,  and  knowing  the  intent  and  pur- 
 pose of  the  stratagem,  was  resolved  to  give  him  a  diver- 
 sion, if  he  possibly  could,  on  the  other  side.  To  this 
 end  he  took  all  the  a  silver  and  gold  that  was  in  the 
 
 1  Exod.  xxxii.  20. 
 author,  from  whom  I  have  compiled  this  note,  is  of  opinion, 
 that  it  might  properly  enough  denote  Lot,  who  lay  with  his  two 
 daughters  when  he  was  drunk,  and  of  the  former  begat  Moab, 
 the  primogenitor  of  that  nation,  who  were  the  greatest  worship- 
 pers of  this  obscene  deity;  though,  for  several  reasons  that  he 
 there  enumerates,  upon  presumption  that  Priapus  was  the  same 
 witli  Baal-Peor,  which  signifies  a  naked  or  uncovered  god,  he  is 
 more  inclinable  to  think  it  was  Noah,  of  whom  it  was  said,  that 
 '  he  was  an  husbandman,  and  planted  a  vineyard,  and  that  he 
 drank  of  the  wine,  and  was  drunken,  and  uncovered  within  his 
 tent,'  (Gen.  ix.  20,  21. ;  Jurieu's  History  of  Doctrines  and  Wor- 
 ship, part  4.  c.  2.  and  3.)  Most  of  the  ancients  are  of  opinion,  that 
 Astoreth,  which  all  allow  to  be  the  same  with  Astarte,  was  the 
 Greek  Kfe{i;,  and  the  Roman  Venus.  Tully,  in  his  third  book 
 On  the  Nature  of  the  Gods,  tells  us  expressly,  that  Astarte, 
 among  the  Tyrians,  was  the  fourth  Venus,  who  was  married  to 
 Adonis,  and  upon  his,  and  some  other  authorities,  many  moderns 
 have  gone  into  the  same  sentiment ;  but,  as  it  is  certain,  that  the 
 Tyrians  had  their  theology  from  the  Phoenicians,  the  testimony 
 of  St  Austin  cannot  but  have  some  weight  in  this  case,  since  he 
 affirms,  with  the  greatest  assurance,  that  Juno  without  all  doubt, 
 was,  by  the  Carthaginians,  called  Astarte ;  (Quast.  26,  indices.) 
 That  Juno  was  the  great  deity  and  patroness  of  Carthage,  is  the 
 received  opinion  of  the  Gentile  world.  "  Which  Juno  is  said  to 
 have  preferred  to  all  other  regions  of  the  earth,  with  the  excep- 
 tion of  Samos."  (Virg.JEn.  l.)And  therefore,  since  we  find 
 Baal,  who  is  the  same  with  Jupiter,  so  frequently  in  Scripture 
 joined  with  Ashtaroth,  which  is  the  same  with  Astarte,  we  can 
 hardly  refrain  thinking,  that  she  must  be  the  Roman  Juno;  and 
 they,  consequently,  husband  and  wife ;  how  extravagant  soever, 
 therefore,  the  frolic  of  Heliogabalus,  mentioned  by  Herodotus, 
 was,  in  sending  for  the  goddess  of  the  Carthaginians  to  be  mar- 
 ried to  his  god,  who  was  the  Jupiter  of  the  Phoenicians;  yet,  from 
 this  piece  of  history,  we  may  inform  ourselves,  that  the  goddess  of 
 the  Carthaginians  was  no  other  than  Juno,  the  supposed  wife  of 
 Baal,  or  Jupiter;  and  therefore  we  find  her,  by  the  Phoenician 
 historian  Sanchoniatho  called  Baaltis,  which  is  a  feminine  sub- 
 stantive, formed  from  the  word  Baal,  and  by  the  sacred  writers, 
 'the  queen  of  heaven,'  (Jer.  vii.  18.  and  xliv.  18.)  We  have 
 sufficient  grounds  therefore  to  suppose,  that  this  Astarte  was 
 Juno;  but  then  what  particular  woman  this  Juno  was,  before  she 
 came  to  be  deified,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  know:  only  the  conjecture 
 of  the  learned  author,  from  whom  I  have  extracted  this  note, 
 seems  to  be  preferable  to  any  other  I  have  yet  me  with,  viz. 
 that  as  both  Baal  and  Jupiter  are  generally  allowed  to  be  the 
 patriarch  I  lam,  so  this  Juno  or  Astarte,  in  all  probability,  was 
 one  of  his  wives,  from  whom  the  Canaanites  and  Phoenicians 
 were  descended.  But  in  this  we  have  the  less  certainty,  because 
 the  sacred  history  says  nothing  of  the  adventures  of  the  postdilu- 
 vian matrons,  whereby  we  might  be  enabled  to  form  a  compari- 
 son between  them  and  these  fabulous  goddesses. — Jurieu,  ibid, 
 p.  4.  c.  5. 
 
 a  In  cases  of  extreme  danger,  it  was  always  held  lawful  to 
 employ  sacred  things  in  the  defence  of  one's  country:  but  there 
 was  no  such  necessity  in  this  case.  God  had  appeared  wonder- 
 fully in   Asa's  defence,  against  an  enemy  much  more  powerful 
 
 4421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 temple,  as  well  as  what  was  found  in  his  own  exchequer, 
 and  sent  it  as  a  present  to  Benhadad  king  of  Syria,  re- 
 questing his  assistance  against  Baasha.  The  largeness 
 of  the  present  soon  had  its  effect :  for  Benhadad  imme- 
 diately attacked  several  cities  in  Israel  with  such  success, 
 that  Baasha  was  forced  to  abandon  his  new  designs  of 
 fortifying  his  frontiers  towards  Judah,  in  order  to 
 defend  the  other  parts  of  his  kingdom  that  were  thus 
 furiously  invaded ;  which  gave  Asa  an  opportunity  to 
 demolish  the  works  that  were  begun  at  Ramah,  and  with 
 the  materials  that  Baasha  had  prepared  to  build  him  two 
 cities  in  his  own  dominions,  Gebah  and  Mizpah. 
 
 This  applying  however  to  Benhadad  for  assistance 
 was,  in  Asa,  a  thing  inexcusable.  It  implied  a  distrust 
 of  God's  power  or  goodness  to  help  him,  of  which  he 
 had  so  lately  so  large  an  experience  ;  and  therefore  the 
 prophet  Hanani  was  sent  to  reprove  him  for  it :  but  in- 
 stead of  receiving  his  reproofs  with  temper  and  thankful- 
 ness, he  was  so  exasperated  with  them,  that  he  put  the 
 prophet  in  chains,  and  gave  orders,  at  the  same  time, 
 for  the  execution  *  of  several  of  his  subjects. 
 
 The  truth  is,  towards  the  close  of  his  reign,  he  grew 
 very  peevish  and  passionate,  and  uneasy  with  those  that 
 were  about  him;  which,  charity  would  be  apt  to  think, 
 proceeded  from  his  distemper,  a  severe  gout,  in  all  pro- 
 bability, whose  humour  rising  upwards,  killed  him  in  the 
 one  and  fortieth  year  of  his  reign.  He  was  succeeded 
 by  his  son  Jehoshaphat :  but  instead  of  being  interred,  as 
 the  manner  of  the  Jews  was,  c  he  ordered  his  body  to  be 
 
 than  Baasha  was.  Nay,  he  had  promised  him  his  protection  at 
 all  times,  and  success  in  all  his  undertakings,  if  he  would  but 
 adhere  to  his  service ;  and  yet,  forgetting  all  this,  he  strips  the 
 temple  of  its  treasure,  and  bribes  a  heathen  prince  to  come  to  his 
 assistance,  and  break  his  league  with  another  to  whom  he  stood 
 engaged:  so  that  here  were  three  offences  in  this  one  act  of 
 Asa's.  For,  1st,  he  alienated  things  consecrated  to  God  with- 
 out necessity.  2dJy,  he  did  this  out  of  a  carnal  fear  and  distrust 
 of  that  God  whose  power  and  goodness  he  had  lately  experienced. 
 And,  Sdly,  he  did  it  with  an  intent  even  to  hire  Benhadad  to  a 
 breach  of  his  league  and  covenant  with  Baasha. — Poole's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 b  It  is  not  said  that  he  gave  orders  for  the  execution  of  his 
 subjects,  but  that  he  oppressed  them,  or  became  a  tyrant. — 
 Bp.  Gleig. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  are  these,* — '  They  laid  him  on  the  bed, 
 which  was  filled  with  sweet  odours,  and  divers  kinds  of  spices, 
 prepared  by  the  apothecaries' art;  and  they  made  a  great  burning 
 for  him,'  (2  Chron.  xvi.  14.)  But  then  the  question  is,  whether 
 the  body  itself  was  burned,  or  only  some  spices  and  odoriferous 
 drugs,  to  prevent  any  bad  smell  that  might  attend  the  corpse. 
 The  Greeks  and  Romans  indeed,  when  they  burned  any  dead 
 bodies,  threw  frankincense,  myrrh,  cassia,  and  other  fragrant 
 things  into  the  fire,  and  this  in  such  abundance,  that  Pliny 
 (Nat.  Hist.  c.  IS.)  represents  it  as  a  piece  of  profaneness,  to  be- 
 stow such  heaps  of  frankincense  upon  a  dead  body,  when  they 
 offered  it  so  sparingly  to  their  gods.  The  Jews,  however,  say 
 the  maintainers  of  this  side  of  the  question,  were  accustomed  to 
 inter,  and  not  to  burn  their  dead,  though  they  might  possibly 
 learn  from  the  Egyptians  the  usage  of  burning  many  spices  at 
 their  funerals,  as  we  find  they  did  at  the  funeral  of  Zedekiah 
 king  of  Judah,  (Jer.  xxxiv.  5.)  but  notwithstanding  this,  some 
 very  able  commentators  are  of  opinion,  that  all  these  spices  and 
 perfumes  were  burned  along  with  Asa's  body;  and  they  remark, 
 that  among  his  other  offences,  the  sacred  history  takes  notice  of 
 this  vanity  of  his,  in  ordering  his  body  to  be  disposed  of  accord- 
 ing to  the  manner  of  the  Gentiles,  and  not  of  his  own  people. 
 Though  therefore  they  suppose  that  Asa  was  the  first  who  in- 
 troduced this  custom ;  yet,  in  after  ages,  it  became  very  frequent, 
 and  was  thought  the  more  honourable  ceremony  of  the  two,  (2 
 Chron.  xxi.  19,  Ibid.  xvi.  14.  Amos  vi.  10.) — Patrick's  and 
 Calmct's  Commentaries  on  2  Chron.  xvi.  14. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 549 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.990.  1  KltfGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 burned  a  with  great  quantities  of  perfumes  and  spices, 
 and  his  bones  and  ashes  to  be  collected,  and  buried  in  a 
 sepulchre  which  he  had  provided  for  himself  in  the  city 
 of  David. 
 
 During-  the  long  continuance  of  Asa's  reign,  sundry 
 successions  and  revolutions  happened  in  the  kingdom  of 
 Israel,  whereof  the  sacred  history  has  given  us  but  a 
 short  account.  In  the  first  or  second  year  of  Asa,  died 
 Jeroboam,  of  some  acute  disease,  which  the  Scripture 
 does  not  specify.  His  reign  was  famous,  or  infamous 
 rather,  for  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  the  public  institu- 
 tion, of  idolatry,  and  the  terrible  defeat  which  Abijah 
 gave  him,  and  which  he  himself  seems  not  long  to  have 
 survived.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Nadab,  a  per- 
 son who  took  care  to  imitate  his  father  in  all  his  wicked- 
 ness ;  but  his  reign  was  not  long.  In  less  than  two 
 years  he  was  treacherously  killed  by  Baasha,  his  captain 
 general,  who  usurped  his  crown,  and  to  maintain  himself 
 in  that  usurpation,  put  every  one  that  was  related  to  his 
 predecessor  to  death  ;  Avhich  was  certainly  a  very  wicked 
 and  barbarous  act,  though  it  proved  the  accomplishment 
 of  the  prophecy  b  which  Ahijah  had  denounced  against 
 Jeroboams  house. 
 
 c  In  the  six  and  twentieth  year  of  king  Asa,  Baasha 
 
 a  There  is  however  no  evidence  from  the  text  that  Asa's  body 
 was  burned.  The  aromatics  and  duly  prepared  ointments  with 
 which  it  was  surrounded  were  most  probably  placed  along  with 
 it  in  the  sepulchre.  The  burning  then  must  have  been  of  other 
 aromatic  woods,  most  likely  at  the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre,  or 
 some  little  distance  from  it.  This  was  evidently  a  ceremony  of 
 respect,  and  designed  to  do  honour  to  the  dead. — Boothroyd  on 
 2  Chron.  xvi.  14. — Ed. 
 
 b  1  Kings  xiv.  10,  11.  The  prophecy  runs  thus: — 'There- 
 fore behold,  I  will  bring  evil  upon  the  house  of  Jeroboam,  and 
 will  cut  oft"  from  Jeroboam  him  that  pisseth  against  the  wall,  and 
 him  that  is  shut  up  and  left  in  Israel,  and  will  take  away  the 
 remnant  of  the  house  of  Jeroboam,  as  a  man  taketh  away  dung 
 till  it  be  all  gone.  Him  that  dieth  of  Jeroboam  in  the  city,  shall 
 the  do^s  eat;  and  him  that  dieth  in  the  field  shall  the  fowls  of 
 the  air  eat ;  for  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it.'  The  only  difficulty 
 here  is,  how  Baasha's  exaltation  to  the  kingdom  of  Israel  can  be 
 ascribed  to  God,  (as  it  is  1  Kings  xvi.  2.)  '  Forasmuch  as  I  have 
 exalted  thee  out  of  the  dust,  and  made  thee  prince  over  my  people 
 Israel,'  when  it  is  manifest  that  he  got  it  by  his  own  treachery  and 
 cruelty.'  But  to  this  it  may  be  replied,  that  though  the  manner  of 
 iuvadingthe  kingdom  was  from  himself,  and  his  own  wicked  heart ; 
 yet  the  translation  of  the  kingdom  from  Nadab  to  Baasha,  simply 
 considered,  was  from  God,  who  by  his  decree  and  providence, 
 ordered  it,  and  disposed  of  all  occasions,  and  of  the  hearts  of  all 
 the  soldiers  and  the  people  so,  that  Baasha  should  have  oppor- 
 tunity of  executing  his  judgments  upon  Nadab,  and  such  success 
 thereupon  as  should  procure  him  a  present  and  quiet  possession 
 of  the  kingdom.  So  that  his  accession  to  the  kingdom  was  from 
 the  divine  decree,  but  the  form  and  manner  of  his  accession  was 
 from  himself,  from  his  own  ambition  and  covetousness ;  and  as  it 
 was  wicked  and  cruel,  is  therefore  charged  upon  him  as  a  wilful 
 murder,  ver.  7. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  And  yet  Baasha's  expedition  against  Asa,  in  order  to  build 
 Rama,  is  said  to  be  in  the  six  and  thirtieth  year  of  the  reign  of 
 Asa,  (2  Chron.  xvi.  1.)  Now  to  reconcile  this,  some  would  have 
 that  six  and  thirtieth  year  to  relate,  not  to  Asa's  reign,  but  to 
 the  date  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  from  the  division  of  the  king- 
 dom of  Israel,  at  Rchoboam  coming  to  the  crown,  and  to  be  in 
 fact  no  more  than  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Asa.  But 
 that  cannot  be,  since  this  expedition  of  Baasha  was  some  time 
 after  Asa  had  defeated  the  king  of  Ethiopia,  or  Arabia,  and  yet 
 this  defeat  happened  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  king  Asa's  reign: 
 so  that  that  six  and  thirtieth  year  of  Baasha's  going  up  to  build 
 llamah,  can,  by  no  good  computation,  be  the  fourteenth  year  of 
 king  Asa's  reign.  And  therefore,  without  any  more  to  do,  we 
 may,  with  Josephus,  and  others,  adventure  to  say,  that  the  oc- 
 
 died  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Elah,  a  vicious  and 
 debauched  prince,  that,  in  the  second  year  of  his  reign, 
 as  he  was  carousing  in  his  steward's  house,  was  assassi- 
 nated by  Zimri,  a  considerable  officer  of  horse,  who,  to 
 secure  the  kingdom  to  himself,  a  cut  oft'  all  Baasha's 
 friends  and  relations  :  but  he  had  not  taken  care,  as 
 Baasha  did,  to  gain  the  army  which  was  then  besieging 
 e  Gibbethon,  over  to  his  interest,  so  that  when  they  heard 
 of  the  news  of  the  king's  death,  they  declared  for  Omri 
 their  general.  He  immediately  raised  the  siege,  and 
 marching  to  Tirzah,  the  then  royal  city,  soon  made  him- 
 self master  of  it ;  so  that  Zimri  seeing  all  lost,  and  de- 
 spairing of  any  quarter  from  the  enemy,  retired  to  the 
 palace,  /  which  he  set  on  fire,  and,  after  a  reign  of  seven 
 days  only,  was  consumed  in  it. 
 
 Omri,  however,  found  it  not  so  easy  a  matter  to  get 
 the  throne,  as  he  expected.  Half  the  Israelites  declared 
 for  Tibni,  the  son  of  Ginah,  which  occasioned  a  civil 
 war  for  four  years,  till  having  vanquished  and  slain  his 
 rival  Tibni,  he  came  to  reign  without  a  competitor. 
 But  his  reign  must  be  acknowledged  to  have  been  very 
 wicked,  when  we  find  it  recorded  of  him,  that  he  not  only 
 walked  in  the  way  of  Jeroboam,  1  *  but  did  worse  than 
 all  before  him.'  He  very  probably  began  to  introduce 
 other  and  more  abominable  idolatries  than  were  then  in 
 use,  which  are  therefore  called  2  '  the  works  of  the  house 
 of  Ahab.'  He  compelled  the  people  to  worship  the 
 golden  calves ;  and  by  severe  laws,  which  are  called  3 
 '  the  statutes  of  Omri,'  restrained  them  from  going  up 
 to  Jerusalem  :  and  because  the  royal  palace  at  Tirzah 
 was  destroyed,  he  bought  of  one  Shemer  a  piece  of  rising 
 ground,  whereon  he  built  a  palace  for  his  own  habita- 
 tion, which,  in  a  short  time  increasing  to  a  city,  was,  from 
 its  first  owner,  called  in  Hebrew  Shomerom,  but,  accord- 
 ing to  the  Greek  and  our  translation,  s  Samaria,  and 
 was  ever  after  made  a  place  of  the  king's  residence,  and 
 the  metropolis  of  the  Israelitish  kingdom. 
 
 1  1  Kings  xvi.  25.         2  Micah  vi.  16.  3  Micah  vi.  16. 
 
 casion  of  this  difference  proceeds  from  the  mistake  of  some  tran- 
 scriber.— Howell's  History  in  the  notes. 
 
 d  One  part  of  the  threat  which  the  prophet  Jehu  denounces 
 against  Baasha  is,  as  we  see,  that  God  would,  '  make  his  house 
 like  the  house  of  Jeroboam,'  (1  Kings  xvi.  3.)  and  that  exactly 
 came  to  pass.  For  as  Nadab,  the  son  of  Jeroboam,  reigned  but 
 two  years,  so  Elah,  the  son  of  Baasha,  reigned  no  more:  and  as 
 Nadab  was  killed  by  the  sword,  so  was  Elah:  so  wonderful  a 
 similitude  was  there  between  Jeroboam  and  Baasha,  in  their 
 lives  and  in  their  deaths,  and  in  their  sons  and  in  their  families. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  This  was  a  city  in  the  tribe  of  Dan,  and  given  to  the  Levites 
 for  their  habitation,  (Josh.xix.  44,  and  xxi.  23.)  but  they  seem  to 
 have  quitted  it,  as  they  did  the  rest  of  the  cities,  when  Jeroboam 
 would  not  sufier  them  to  exercise  their  office,  and  the  Philistines, 
 it  is  likely,  then  seized  upon  it,  as  being  adjoining  to  their  coun- 
 try. It  seems,  however,  to  have  been  a  place  of  no  inconsider- 
 able strength,  since  we  find,  that  it  maintained  a  siege  for  three 
 kings'  reigns  successively,  though  with  some  interruption,  1  Kings 
 xvi.  15,  16. 
 
 /  Some  interpreters  would  rather  have  it,  that  Omri  set  the 
 royal  palace  on  fire,  in  order  to  burn  Zimri  in  it,  who  had  retired 
 thither.  The  Hebrew  words  indeed  will  bear  that  construction; 
 but  the  other  sense  seems  more  likely.  Nor  has  profane  history 
 forgot  to  preserve  the  memory  of  some  princes,  who  have  chosen 
 to  die  in  this  manner,  rather  than  fall  by  the  sword,  whereof 
 Sardanapalus  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  most  notorious 
 examples. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 y  It  is  somewhat  wonderful,  that  when  Omri  bought  this  place 
 of  Shemer,  whereon  he  intended  to  build  a  city,  he  did  not  call 
 it  l>y  his  own  name,  unless  we  may  suppose,  that,  when  Shemer 
 
550 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 In  the  eight  and  thirtieth  year  of  king  Asa,  Ahab 
 succeeded  his  father  Omri,  and  in  wickedness  excelled 
 all  his  predecessors.  But  of  him  we  shall  treat  at  large 
 in  our  next  chapter,  and  choose  to  conclude  here  with 
 this  observation, — That  though,  while  Asa  reigned  in 
 Judah,  Israel  was  in  the  hands  of  seven  or  eight  several 
 princes,  namely,  Jeroboam,  Nadab,  Baasha,  Elah, 
 Zimri,  Tibni,  Omri,  and  Ahab ;  yet  such  was  their  hard- 
 ness in  sin  and  idolatry,  that  in  all  these  changes,  they 
 never  once  thought  of  returning  to  the  house  of  David, 
 or  the  worship  of  the  true  God  at  Jerusalem. 
 
 CHAP.  II, 
 
 -Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 The  Jewish  doctors  have  a  tradition,  that  after  Reho- 
 boani,  the  son  of  Solomon,  had  left  Shechem  in  haste, 
 anil  made  the  best  of  his  way  to  Jerusalem,  Jeroboam 
 called  a  council,  consisting  partly  of  pious,  and  partly 
 of  wicked  men;  that,  in  this  council,  he  proposed 
 whether  they  would  agree  and  subscribe  to  all  that  he 
 should  appoint ;  that  to  this  they  declared  their  assent, 
 and  he  thereupon  constituted  himself  king ;  that  when 
 he  proposed  farther,  whether,  if  he  should  establish 
 idolatry,  they  would  agree  and  consent  to  it,  the  pious 
 party  were  shocked,  and  began  to  express  their  indigna- 
 tion ;  but  that  their  wicked  neighbours  in  the  council, 
 pacified  them  by  whispering  in  their  ears,  "  that  Jeroboam 
 had  no  intention  to  set  up  idolatry,  but  only  mentioned 
 it  in  a  comparative  sense,  and  with  a  design  to  try  the 
 extent  of  their  obedience."  So  that  by  this  fraud,  the 
 pious  people  in  the  council  were  drawn  in,  and  even 
 Ahijah  himself  prevailed  on  to  subscribe  implicitly,  to 
 whatever  Jeroboam  should  think  fit  to  enact ;  by  which 
 means  he  took  an  occasion,  as  the  iniquity  of  the  times 
 favoured  him  not  a  little,  to  establish  idolatry  by  a 
 law. 
 
 Solomon,  we  all  agree,  was  a  man  of  great  fame  for 
 his  knowledge,  and  yet  in  the  very  maturity  of  his  age, 
 he  discovered  a  strong  inclination  to  idolatry,  which 
 could  not  but  make  a  bad  impression  upon  the  minds  of 
 his  subjects,  when  they  saw  the  preference  that  was  given 
 to  it  by  so  wise  a  prince.  His  son  Rehoboam  was  the 
 issue  of  a  woman  that  sprung  from  an  infamous  nation, 
 an  Ammonitess  by  birth,  who,  as  far  as  it  appears,  was 
 never  a  proselyte  ;  and,  having  a  great  hand  in  her  son's 
 education,  might  give  him  a  deep  tincture  of  her  own 
 
 sold  it,  he  let  lum  have  the  greater  bargain  of  it,  upon  condition 
 that  it  should  be  continued  in  its  first  owner's  name.  However 
 tins  be,  it  is  certain,  that  as  Samaria  was  situated  in  the  midst 
 of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim  on  a  fruitful  and  pleasant  hill,  it  soon 
 became  the  regal  and  capital  city  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel;  nor 
 did  its  king  omit  any  thing  to  make  it  as  strong,  as  fine,  and  as 
 )  ich  as  possible.  What  fate  it  underwent  by  Benhadad  king  of 
 Syria;  by  Salmanassar  king  of  Assyria;  and  by  one  of  the 
 Macrabean  family;  by  Herod  the  Great,  who  rebuilt  and  beauti- 
 fied it;  by  Augustus  Cicsar,  and  by  the  Emperor  Adrian,  under 
 whom  it  finally  fell ;  we  shall  see,  in  a  great  measure,  in  the 
 course  of  this  history.  It  is  conjectured  by  Bochart,  who  traced 
 the  ruins  of  it,  to  have  been  once  larger  than  Jerusalem ;  but 
 now  it  consists  of  nothing  but  a  few  cottages  and  convents, 
 inhabited  by  some  Greek  monks. —  Wells*  Geography  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 sentiments  :  for,  in  his  reign,  we  read,  that 1  '  the  people 
 built  them  high  places,  on  every  green  hill,  and  under 
 every  green  tree,  and  did  according  to  all  the  abomina 
 tions  of  the  nations  which  the  Lord  cast  out  before  the 
 children  of  Israel ;'  which  they  durst  not  have  done,  had 
 the  king  discountenanced  them  by  his  own  example. 
 
 After  a  succession  of  such  idolatrous  princes,  in  the 
 reign  of  king  Josiah,  2  '  the  book  of  the  law  was  found 
 in  the  house  of  the  Lord,'  at  which  Hilkiah,  the  high 
 priest,  seemed  to  express  an  uncommon  joy  and  wonder  : 
 and  though  this  might  possibly  be  the  authentic  copy, 
 3  which,  by  God's  command,  was  laid  up  in  the  sanctuary, 
 yet  how  much  the  reading  of  it  in  any  copy  was  at  any 
 time  disused,  we  may  gather,  from  what  the  historian 
 tells  us  of  the  king,  namely,  that  *  '  when  he  had  read 
 the  words  of  the  book  of  the  law,  he  rent  his  clothes  ;' 
 and  by  a  parity  of  reason  we  may  infer,  that  what 
 through  the  bad  example  of  their  kings,  who  gave  life 
 and  encouragement  to  idolatrous  practices,  and  what 
 through  the  negligence  of  the  people,  in  not  perusing 
 the  books  wherein  the  transactions  of  former  times  were 
 recorded,  the  generation  we  are  now  speaking  of  might 
 have  forgot  the  history  of  Aaron's  molten  calf,  and  the 
 punishment  pursuant  thereupon,  and  might  therefore  be 
 induced  to  worship  another  without  any  dread  or  appre- 
 hension of  danger. 
 
 How  the  figure  of  a  calf,  or  any  other  animal,  can  be 
 a  symbol  of  a  deity,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive.  But  a 
 certain  learned  5  author,  who  seems  a  little  singular  in 
 his  opinion,  will  needs  have  it  that  the  golden  calves 
 winch  Jeroboam  made,  were  an  imitation  of  the  cheru- 
 bim, in  his  account  these  were  winged  oxen,  Moses  had 
 placed  upon  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  whereon  the  glory 
 of  the  Lord  sat  enthroned.  These  cherubim  in  the 
 tabernacle  of  Piloses,  and  afterwards  in  Solomon's 
 temple,  were  placed  in  the  sanctuary,  and  secreted  from 
 vulgar  sight :  but  Jeroboam,  to  make  his  religion  more 
 condescensive,  placed  his  calves  in  open  view,  so  that 
 every  one  who  looked  on  them  might,  through  them, 
 worship  the  God  of  Israel,  without  repairing  to  the 
 temple  of  Jerusalem. 
 
 This  notion,  if  it  were  true,  would  make  the  transition 
 easy  from  the  worship  at  Jerusalem  to  the  worship  at 
 Dan  or  Bethel ;  but  we  can  hardly  imagine,  that  Jero- 
 boam had  either  so  harmless  or  so  conformable  a  design 
 in  setting  up  these  golden  images.  Whatever  his  design 
 was,  it  is  certain  that  the  Scripture,  all  along,  represents 
 him  as  of  all  others,  the  principal  person  that 6  '  made 
 Israel  to  sin  ;  that 7  drew  Israel  from  serving  the  Lord, 
 and  made  them  sin  a  great  sin.'  And  therefore  we  may 
 observe,  that  whenever  it  describes  a  bad  prince,  one 
 part  of  his  character  is,  that  he  imitated  the  son  of 
 8  '  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat,  who,'  as  the  prophet  up- 
 braids his  wife,  '  went  and  made  him  other  gods,  and 
 molten  images  to  provoke  me  to  anger,  and  to  cast  me 
 behind  his  back,'  saitli  the  Lord. 
 
 The  truth  is,  Jeroboam  had  lived  a  considerable  time 
 in  the  land  of  Egypt,  had  contracted  an  acquaintance 
 with  the  king  thereof,  and  formed  an  interest  among  the 
 people  ;  and  therefore  finding  himself  under  a  necessity 
 
 1  1  Kings  jut.  23,  24. 
 8  Deut.  xxxi.  26. 
 Monsseus,  in  Aarone  purgato,  b.  1. 
 '  2  Kings  xvii.  21. 
 
 2  2  Kings  xxii.  8. 
 *  2  Kings  xxii.  11. 
 c.  8.        b  I  Kings  xiv.  16 
 "  1  Kings  iv.  9. 
 
Shct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 551 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 of  making  an  alteration  in  the  established  religion  of 
 his  country,  he  thought  it  the  wisest  method  to  do  it  upon 
 the  Egyptian  model,  that  thereby  he  might  endear  him- 
 self to  that  nation ;  and  in  case  he  met  with  opposition 
 from  his  rival  Rehoboam,  might  hope  for  assistance  from 
 that  quarter.  For  as  the  Egyptians  had  two  oxen  which 
 they  worshipped,  one  called  Apis,  at  Memphis,  the  me- 
 tropolis of  the  Upper  Egypt ;  and  another  called  Mnevis, 
 at  Hierapolis,  a  principal  city  of  the  Lower  ;  so  he  made 
 two  calves  of  gold,  and  placed  one  of  them  in  Bethel 
 which  was  in  the  south,  and  the  other  in  Dan,  which  was 
 in  the  north  part  of  the  country  of  Israel. 
 
 There  were  these  farther  reasons  likewise  that  might 
 determine  him  in  the  choice  of  these  two  places.  Dan 
 was  a  town  famous  l  for  the  Teraphim  of  Micah,  unto 
 which  there  had  been  a  great  resort  for  many  ages ;  and 
 Bethel  was,  in  every  one's  opinion,  a  holy  place,  that 
 which  Jacob  had  consecrated  after  he  had  been  vouch- 
 safed the  vision  of  the  ladder,  and  where  God  had  so 
 frequently  appeared  to  him,  that  he  thought  he  had  rea- 
 son to  call  it  2  '  the  gate  of  heaven.' 
 
 Jeroboam,  no  question,  was  not  insensible  of  the 
 advantage  his  rival  enjoyed,  in  having  the  temple  in  his 
 possession  ;  and  might  many  times  wish  that  he  had  been 
 able  to  have  built  one  that  might  have  stood  in  competi- 
 tion with  it ;  but  tin's  was  impossible.  Seven  years  and 
 a  half  had  Solomon  been  in  completing  the  temple  at 
 Jerusalem,  notwithstanding  the  multitude  of  hands  that 
 he  employed,  and  the  vast  preparations  of  money  and 
 materials  that  his  father  had  left  him.  To  build  one  less 
 magnificent,  had  been  inglorious  to  Jeroboam ;  and  to 
 build  one  any  ways  adequate,  was  more  than  he  could 
 hope  to  see  finished  in  his  days.  The  people  were 
 grown  weary  of  such  public  expensive  works.  The  tax 
 had  been  heavy  and  burdensome  to  them.  3  '  Thy  father 
 made  our  yoke  grievous,'  was  the  complaint  they 
 brought  against  Rehoboam.  a  Upon  this  the  whole 
 revolt  was  founded.  And  therefore,  in  the  present  state 
 of  Jeroboams  affairs,  a  new  temple  was,  of  all  projects, 
 the  most  unpopular,  and  the  likeliest  to  create  a  total 
 defection  ;  since  it  was  running  directly  into  his  rival's 
 error,  and,  in  effect,  declaring,  that 4  his  little  finger 
 should  be  found  heavier  than  Solomon's  loins  had  ever 
 been. 
 
 In  the  mean  time  his  subjects  deserted  apace  ;  and,  for 
 want  of  a  place  of  religious  worship  to  resort  to,  were 
 returning  to  Jerusalem,  and  to  their  allegiance  to  the 
 house  of  David  at  once.  Something  therefore  was 
 necessary  to  be  done,  in  order  to  remedy  this  growing 
 evil ;  and,  because  Jeroboam  readily  foresaw,  that,  to 
 support  himself  in  his  usurpation,  he  might  possibly  want 
 the  assistance  of  the  Egyptians,  the  best  policy  that  at 
 present  occurred  to  his  thoughts,  was,  to  do  a  courtesy 
 to  them,  in  setting  up  a  form  of  worship  much  like  theirs, 
 and,  at  the  same  time,  to  gratify  his  own  subjects  in  the 
 choice  of  such  places  of  worship  as  had  been  famous  in 
 
 Judg.  xvii.   *  Gen.  xxviii.  17.  3  1  Kings  xii.  4.  4  Ibid.  ver.  10. 
 
 «  In  1  Kings  xii.  11,  Rehoboam  tells  the  people  that  his  father 
 had  chastised  them  with  whips,  but  lie  would  chastise  them  with 
 scorpions,  Iu  order  to  understand  what  is  meant  by  scorpions 
 here,  we  must  observe  that  the  Jews  sometimes,  in  inflicting  the 
 punishment  of  whipping  for  notorious  offences,  tied  sharp  bones, 
 pieces  of  lead,  or  thorns  to  the  end  of  the  thongs,  which  from  the 
 pain  and  torture  they  occasioned  were  termed  scorpions. — Bur- 
 tkr's  OrieiUoJ.  Literature. — Ed. 
 
 4121.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 the  days  of  old,  and  whose  reputed  sacredness,  b  as  well 
 
 as  proximity,  might  commute  for  the  want  of  a  temple. 
 
 Gezer,  we  own,  lay  at  a  considerable  distance  from 
 Egypt>  which,  since  the  time  of  Sesostris,  had  seldom 
 extended  its  conquests  into  foreign  lands  ;  and  therefore, 
 to  account  for  its  conduct  here,  we  must  observe,  that 
 Gezer  was  so  ancient  a  town  in  Canaan,  that  when 
 Joshua  i  conquered  it,  it  had  a  king  of  no  small  note  ;  that 
 in  the  division  of  the  land,  6  it  fell  to  the  tribe  of  Eph- 
 rahn,  was  bordering  upon  the  northern  part  of  the 
 country  of  the  Philistines,  and  not  far  from  the  Mediter- 
 ranean sea  ;  that  it  was  one  of  the  eight  and  forty  cities 
 which,  together  with  their  suburbs,  were  given  to  the 
 Levites  ;  an  inland  town,  but  at  no  great  distance  from 
 the  sea-port  of  Joppa ;  that  when  the  Ephraimites  took 
 possession  of  it,  7  they  suffered  the  Canaanites  to  coha- 
 bit with  them,  who  gave  them  no  small  disturbance,  and 
 towards  the  latter  end  of  David's  reign,  expelled  them 
 thence  ;  that  when  Solomon  came  to  the  throne,  he 
 applied  himself  chiefly  to  the  building  of  the  temple,  nor 
 thought  it  worth  while  to  disturb  the  peace  of  his  reign 
 for  the  recovery  of  a  few  revolted  cities  ;  that  when  a 
 match  was  proposed  between  Solomon  and  Pharaoh's 
 daughter,  Pharaoh  thought  he  could  not  do  a  more 
 acceptable  service,  or  show  the  benefit  of  his  alliance 
 better,  than  in  taking  Gezer,  and  some  adjacent  places  ; 
 that,  for  this  purpose,  he  set  out  with  a  large  fleet  of 
 ships,  landed  at  Joppa,  besieged  Gezer,  and  because  it 
 made  an  obstinate  defence,  8  burneditto  the  ground,  and 
 slew  all  the  Canaanites  that  were  in  it,  but  that  not  long 
 after  he  began  to  rebuild  it ;  and  when  his  daughter  was 
 espoused  to  Solomon,  gave  him  this,  and  some  other 
 places  he  had  taken  along  with  it,  as  part  of  her  portion  ; 
 for  it  is  a  mistaken  notion,  that  princes'  daughters  had 
 no  portion  in  those  days. 
 
 Among  the  Jews,  indeed,  the  custom  was  for  the  men 
 to  give  the  dower,  or  to  make  some  present  to  the  pa- 
 rents, for  the  favour  of  having  their  daughter  in  marriage. 
 But  this  custom  prevailed  only  among  the  inferior  sort : 
 ladies  of  the  first  distinction  were,  in  all  nations,  wont 
 to  bring  their  husbands  fortunes  proportionate  to  their 
 quality  :  for  Saul,  we  read,  declared  that  the  man  who 
 should  slay  Goliah,  should  not  only  have  his  daughter 
 in  marriage,  but  together  with  her,  plenty  of  riches  and 
 other  valuable  emoluments.  Antiochus  the  great  pro- 
 mised to  settle  upon  his,  the  kingdoms  of  Judea  and 
 Samaria,  as  a  dower  to  Ptolemy  king  of  Egypt ;  and  to 
 name  no  more,  Agamemnon,  in  times  of  an  elder  date, 
 though  not  so  great  affluence,  offered  no  less  than 9 
 seven  good  towns  with  his,  without  any  reserved  rent, 
 
 5  Josh.  x.  33.  6  Ibid.  xvi.  5.  '  Ibid.  xxi.  20,  21.  8  1  Kings  ix.  10". 
 9  Iliad  9.  line  111. 
 b  The  speech  which  Josephus  makes  for  Jeroboam,  upon  this 
 occasion,  is  to  this  purpose: — "  I  need  not  tell  you,  my  country- 
 men, that  God  is  everywhere,  and  not  confined  to  any  certain 
 place,  but  wherever  we  are,  he  hears  our  prayers  and  accepts 
 our  worship,  in  one  place  as  well  as  another;  and  therefore  I  am 
 not  at  all  for  your  going  up  to  Jerusalem  at  this  time,  to  a  peo- 
 ple that  hate  you.  It  is  a  long  tedious  journey,  and  all  this 
 only  for  the  sake  of  religion.  He  who  built  that  temple  was  but 
 a  man,  as  every  one  here  is,  and  the  golden  calves  that  I  have 
 provided  for  you,  the  one  in  Bethel,  and  the  other  in  Dan,  are 
 consecrated,  as  well  as  the  temple,  and  brought  so  much  nearer 
 to  you,  on  purpose  for  the  convenience  of  your  worship,  where 
 you  may  pay  your  duty  to  God,  in  such  a  manner  as  best  phases 
 you,"  ike. — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  8.  c.  3 
 
552 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.  900.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 or  other  deduction  from  her  husband.  So  that  Pharaoh 
 did  no  more  than  conform  to  the  practice  of  other  great 
 princes,  in  endowing  his  daughter  with  the  places  he  had 
 taken  from  the  Philistines,  in  all  probability,  for  that 
 very  purpose.® 
 
 How  he  came  to  swerve  so  soon  from  this  alliance, 
 as  to  give  protection  and  countenance  to  his  son-in-law's 
 avowed  enemies,  need  be  no  wonder  at  all  to  him  who 
 considers  by  what  various  springs  kingdoms  are  govern- 
 ed ;  how  tlie  interest  of  nations  shifts  about,  according 
 to  the  different  situation  of  their  affairs,  and  of  how 
 little  weight  and  validity  all  leagues  and  treaties  are, 
 when  once  national  interest  comes  to  be  thrown  nito  the 
 counterbalance. 
 
 But  this  is  not  all.  The  Pharaoh  who  received  Je- 
 roboam in  his  exile,  in  all  probability,  was  not  the  king 
 whose  daughter  Solomon  had  married,  but  a  prince  of 
 another  line,  and  of  different  views.  The  woman  whom 
 Solomon  married,  was  one  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Diospo- 
 lites,  whose  ancestors  had  lived  at  Thebes  ;  but  in  the  year 
 that  Solomon  finished  the  temple,  *  there  happened  a 
 revolution  in  Egypt,  wherein  this  dynasty,  or  race  of 
 kings,  lost  the  throne,  and  was  succeeded  by  that  of  the 
 
 1  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  6.  c.  2. 
 a  It  does  not,  from  all  this,  follow,  that  ladies  of  the  first  dis- 
 tinction were,  in  that  age  and  in  all  nations,  wont  to  bring  their 
 husbands  fortunes  in  proportion  to  their  quality,  or  that  such  was 
 the  general  practice  even  of  great  princes.  Saul's  declaration 
 shows  that  he  meant  to  give  his  daughter,  in  reward  for  the  most 
 important  service,  which  could  be  rendered  to  the  state;  but  he 
 kept  not  his  promise.  Afterwards  he  gave  a  younger  daughter 
 to  David,  but  it  was  for  a  price,  even  for  the  slaughter  of  200 
 of  his  enemies.  It  was  of  the  utmost  importance  to  Antiochus 
 and  Agamemnon  to  conciliate,  at  any  price,  Ptolemy  and 
 Achilles;  and  therefore  they  offered  great  dowers  with  their 
 daughters  to  purchase  the  friendship  of  these  formidable  enemies; 
 but  this  was  not  the  case  with  respect  to  Pharaoh  and  Solomon. 
 Pharaoh's  giving  up  Gezer,  therefore,  to  Solomon,  as  a  dower  with 
 his  daughter,  is  a  proof  that  David  and  Solomon  were  two  of  the 
 greatest  monarchs  of  their  age ;  that  he  thought  himself  honoured 
 by  the  alliance;  and  that  the  sacred  historical  account  of  Solo- 
 jm'ii's  glory  is  not  exaggerated.  Among  the  Jews,  and  gen- 
 erally throughout  the  east,  marriage  was  considered  as  a 
 sort  of  purchase,  which  the  man  made  of  the  woman  he  desired 
 to  marry ;  and  therefore  in  contracting  marriages,  as  the  wife 
 brought  a  portion  to  the  husband,  so  the  husband  was  obliged  to 
 giye  her  or  her  parents  money  or  presents  in  lieu  of  this  portion. 
 This  was  the  case  between  Hamor,  the  father  of  Shechemaud  the 
 Bons  of  Jacob,  with  relation  to  Dinah,  (Gen.  xxxiv.  12.)  and 
 Jacob  having  no  money  offered  his  uncle  Laban  seven  years' 
 sen  ice,  which  must  have  been  equivalent  to  a  large  sum,  (Gen. 
 x\ix.  18,)  Saul  did  not  give  his  daughter  Michal  to  David, 
 till  after  he  had  received  an  hundred  foreskins  of  the  Philistines 
 (1  Sam.  xviii.  25.)  Hosea  bought  his  wife  at  the  price  of  fifteen 
 pieces  of  silver,  and  a  measure  and  a  half  of  bailey,  (Hos.  iii.  2.) 
 The  same  custom  also  obtained  among  the  Greeks  and  other 
 ancient  nations,  (Potter's  Antiq.  vol.  2.  p.  279.)  and  it  is  to  this 
 day  the  practice  in  several  eastern  countries,  particularly  among 
 the  Druses,  Turks,  and  Christians,  who  inhabit  the  country  of 
 Hauran,  and  also  among  the  modern  Scenite  Arabs,  or  those 
 who  dwell  in  tents.  (See  Burkhardt's  Travels  in  Syria,  De  La 
 Jiuque  Voyage  dans  la  Palestine ,  and  Burder 's  Oriental  Customs.) 
 Young  girls,  Mr  Buckingham  informs  us,  are  given  in  marriage 
 for  certain  sums  of  money,  varying  from  500  to  a  1000  piastres, 
 among  the  better  order  of  inhabitants,  according  to  their  connex- 
 ions or  beauty;  though  among  the  labouring  classes  it  descends 
 as  low  as  100  or  even  50.  This  sum  being  paid  by  the  bride- 
 groom to  the  bride's  father  adds  to  his  wealth,  and  makes  girls, 
 particularly  when  handsome  as  profitable  to  their  parents,  as  boys 
 are  by  the  wages  they  earn  by  their  labour. — Buckingham's 
 Travels  among  the  Arab  Tribes. — Bp.  Gleig,  Home's  Introduc- 
 tion.— Ed. 
 
 Taanites,  of  whom  Semendis,  the  father  of  Shishak,  was 
 the  first  king.  *  These  kept  their  court  at  Zoan,  an 
 ancient  town  not  far  from  the  borders  of  Canaan,  and 
 therefore  very  convenient  for  the  reception  of  any  re- 
 fugees that  should  come  from  thence.  For  as  it  was  the 
 interest  of  the  former  kings  of  Egypt  to  keep  up  a  good 
 understanding  with  the  house  of  David ;  so  now  it  be- 
 came equally  the  interest  of  the  present  race  to  make 
 use  of  all  instruments  to  embarrass  them,  lest,  by  joining 
 with  the  deposed  family,  that  might,  at  any  time,  occa- 
 sion another  revolution  in  Egypt-  And  this,  by  the  by, 
 suggests  the  reason  whereof  the  Scripture  is  silent,  Avhy 
 Shishak  invaded  the  kingdom  of  Judah  with  a  vast  army, 
 but  never  pretended  to  annoy  Israel  ;  namely,  because 
 he  thought  it  advisable  to  disable  Rehoboam  from  as- 
 sisting the  deposed  family  in  Egypt,  but  to  encourage 
 Jeroboam,  who  being  an  usurper  himself,  was  question- 
 less a  friend  and  ally  to  those  princes  that  were  in  the 
 like  circumstances. 
 
 AVho  the  queen  of  Sheba  was,  and  in  what  climate  the 
 country  from  whence  she  came  to  visit  Solomon  lay,  are 
 points  wherein  the  learned  are  not  so  well  agreed  :  but 
 whether  her  name  was  Nicaule,  Candace,  Marqueda,  or 
 Balkis,  for  different  authors  give  her  these  several  names, 
 it  matters  not  much,  if  Ave  can  but  find  out  what  this 
 Sheba  was,  whereof  she  is  said  to  have  been  queen. 
 
 Josephus,  and,  from  his  authority,  many  more  are  of 
 opinion,  that  Sheba  was  the  ancient  name  of  Meroe,  an 
 island,  or  rather  peninsula  in  Egypt,  before  Cambyses, 
 in  compliment  to  his  sister,  (other  historians  call  her  his 
 mother,)  gave  it  her  name.  He  tells  us  likewise,  that  she 
 was  queen  both  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  ;  c  and  the  Ethio- 
 
 b  I  know  not  on  what  authority  this  is  said,  but  it  seems  to  be 
 a  mistake.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  it  was  Shishak,  who 
 afterwards  invaded  Judah,  that  gave  shelter  to  Jeroboam  when 
 obliged  to  flee  from  the  vengeance  of  Solomon;  but  if  Shishak 
 was  the  Chephrenes  of  Herodotus,  which  is  by  much  the  most 
 probable  opinion,  neither  he  nor  his  immediate  predecessor  was 
 either  the  first  or  the  last  of  any  dynasty  of  Egyptian  kings. 
 Solomon  had  indeed  married  either  his  sister,  or,  which  is  more 
 probable,  his  aunt;  but,  as  Bishop  Patrick  judiciously  observes, 
 "kingdoms  never  marry;"  and  therefore  there  was  nothing  un- 
 natural or  uncommon  in  his  conduct  on  this  occasion. — Bp.  Gleig. 
 See  also  Hales'  Analysis  v.  4.  p.  446,  second  edition. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  Ethiopians,  who  held  that  this  queen  of  Sheba  was  of 
 their  country,  tell  us,  that  she  returned  big  with  child  of  a  boy 
 which  she  had  by  Solomon ;  that  when  this  child  was  of  age  to 
 learn,  she  sent  him  to  Solomon,  who  brought  him  up  as  his  own 
 son;  that  in  his  education,  he  took  care  to  provide  the  ablest 
 masters  for  him,  and  then  sent  him  back  to  his  mother,  whom 
 he  succeeded  in  the  kingdom;  that  the  kings  of  Ethiopia  were 
 descended  from  Solomon  by  this  young  prince,  whom  they  call 
 Meilic,  or  Menilehec ;  and  that  of  his  family  there  were  four  and 
 twenty  emperors,  down  to  Basilides,  who  reigned  about  the 
 middle  of  the  seventeenth  age.  (See  Ludolph's  History  of 
 Ethiopia.)  [Mr  Bruce  confirms  this  report  of  Ludolph's,  bringing 
 sufficient  proofs  that  the  Abyssinians  believe  their  present 
 royal  family  to  be  lineal  descendants  of  Solomon  and  the  queen 
 of  Sheba.  The  tradition  of  the  country  certainly  accounts 
 better  than  any  other  hypothesis  that  could  be  easily  framed,  for 
 that  mixture  of  Judaism  with  Christianity  which  characterizes 
 the  religion  of  Abyssinia;  and  our  author  justly  observes,  that 
 the  trade  carried  on  by  the  Israelites  with  the  Cushites  and 
 shepherds  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  would  naturally  "  create  a  de- 
 sire in  the  queen  of  Azab,  the  sovereign  of  that  country,  to  go 
 herself,  and  see  the  application  of  the  immense  treasures  that 
 had  been  exported  from  her  country  for  a  series  of  years,  and  the 
 prince  who  so  magnificently  employed  them."  The  Abyssinians, 
 he  says,  "  call  this  queen  Maqueda;"  but  the  Arabians,  who 
 contest  with  them  the    honour  of  having  had  this  woman  for 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMrLE,  &c 
 
 553 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.  090.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 pians  indeed  have  a  tradition,  that  upon  her  return,  she 
 had  a  son  by  Solomon,  whose  posterity  reigned  there 
 many  years,  and,  to  this  very  day,  they  have  preserved 
 a  continual  list  of  their  names  and  successors. 
 
 There  are  these  exceptions  however  to  be  made  to 
 the  opinion  of  the  Jewish  historian,  namely,  that  whereas 
 lie  cites  Herodotus,  as  speaking-  of  his  queen  Nicaule, 
 Herodotus  makes  mention  of  none  but  only  Niconis, 
 queen  of  Egypt ;  nor  does  he  say  one  syllable  of  her 
 pretended  journey  to  Jerusalem.  Whereas  he  says  of 
 this  Nicaule,  that  she  was  queen  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia 
 both  ;  the  sacred  history  is  plain,  that  in  the  time  of 
 Solomon  there  reigned  in  Egypt  that  Pharaoh,  whose 
 daughter  he  married,  and  in  his  son  Rehoboam's  time, 
 Shishak.  Whereas  he  tells  us,  that  the  ancient  name  of 
 Meroe,  before  the  time  of  Cambyses,  was  Sheba ;  for 
 this  he  seems  to  want  authority,  since  1  Diodorus,  and 
 other  historians,  represent  this  city  as  built  new  from 
 the  ground,  and  not  repaired  by  Cambyses. 
 
 The  more  probable  opinion  therefore  is,  that  this  queen 
 of  Sheba  came  from  a  country  so  named,  which  lay  not  in 
 Ethiopia  nor  Africa,  but  in  the  southern  part  of  Arabia 
 Felix  ;  because  it  is  generally  allowed,  that  the  Sabasans 
 lived  in  Arabia,  and  that  their  country  was  usually  called 
 by  the  Orientalists  the  kingdom  of  the  south ,  in  allusion  to 
 which,  our  Saviour  styles  this  princess  2  '  the  queen  of 
 the  south ;'  because  their  country  borders  upon  the 
 southern  ocean,  beyond  which  the  ancients  knew  no 
 farther  land ;  and  therefore  our  Saviour,  according  to 
 the  common  mode  of  speaking,  says  of  this  princess, 
 that  '  she  came  from  the  utmost  parts  of  the  earth ;' 
 because,  in  this  country,  a  women  were  known  to  govern 
 as  well  as  men  ;  because  the  common  produce  of  it  was 
 gold,  silver,  spices,  and  precious  stones,  the  very  pre- 
 sents which  this  princess  made  Solomon ;  and,  if  any 
 popular  traditions  may  be  credited,  3  because  the  Ara- 
 bians talk  of  their  queen  Balkis,  who  went  to  visit 
 Solomon,  and  show  travellers  the  place  of  her  nativity 
 to  this  very  day. 
 
 Now  if  this  princess  came  from  Arabia,  there  is  reason 
 to  believe,  that  she  was  originally  descended  from 
 Abraham,  by  his  wife  Keturah,  one  of  whose  sons  *  begat 
 Sheba,  who  was  the  lirst  planter  of  this  country;  and 
 consequently  that  she  might  have  some  knowledge  of 
 revealed  religion,  by  tradition  at  least,  from  her  pious 
 ancestors.  To  this  purpose  the  Scripture  seems  to  in- 
 timate, that  the  design  of  her  visit  to  Solomon  was,  not 
 so  much  to  gratify  her  curiosity,  as  to  inform  her  under- 
 standing in  matters  relating  to  piety,  and  divine  worship. 
 It  was  Solomon's  fame,  5  '  concerning  the  name  of  the 
 
 1  B.  i.  et  Luc.  Annuel,  de  Cambyse.  2  Mat.  xii.  42. 
 
 *  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  x.  1.  and  his  Dictionary, 
 under  the  word  Sheba.  4  Gen.  xxv.  1,3.  s  1  Kings  x.  1. 
 their  sovereign,  till  us,  that  her  name  was  TCalkis,  the  daughter 
 oi  lladhad,  son  of  Scharhabil,  the  twentieth  king  of  Jemen,  or 
 Arabia  Felix,  and  that  she  reigned  in  the  city  of  Mareb,  the 
 capital  of  the  province  of  Sheba.  Their  histories  are  full  of 
 fabulous  stones  concerning  lier  journey  to  Solomon's  court,  and 
 her  marriage  with  him,  but  more  particularly  concerning  the 
 bird  hudhud,  in  English  a  lapwing,  which  Solomon  made  use  of 
 to  send  into  Arabia  upon  occasion,  and  to  bring  him  despatches 
 from  thence. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Nicaule. 
 
 «  It  is  generally  supposed,  that  these  words  of  Claudian  relate 
 to  these  people:  "this  sex  rules  over  the  Medesand  theetieminate 
 Sabaeans,  and  a  great  part  of  Barbary  is  subject  to  the  arms  of 
 queens." 
 
 Lord,1  that  is,  concerning  his  knowledge  of  the  Supreme 
 Being,  and  the  proper  manner  of  worshipping  him,  that 
 excited  her  to  take  so  long  a  journey ;  and  therefore, 
 our  Saviour  says,  that  as  she  came  so  far  to  hear  his 
 wisdom  (his  wisdom  concerning  what?  Concerning  the 
 nature  and  worship  of  Almighty  God,)  she  would,  at  the 
 day  of  judgment,  '  rise  up  against  that  generation' which 
 refused  to  listen  to  hiin. 
 
 Now,  if  this  was  the  end  of  this  queen's  visit  to  Solo- 
 mon, who  can  say,  but  that  she  left  her  country  to  good 
 purpose,  since  it  was  to  '  find  6  wisdom,  and  to  get  un- 
 derstanding, the  merchandise  of  which  is  better  than  the 
 merchandise  of  silver,  and  the  gains  thereof  than  fine 
 gold  ;  7  the  price  which  is  above  rubies,  8  and  all  that 
 can  be  desired  is  not  to  be  compared  to  it  ?'  But  even 
 upon  the  supposition,  that  her  errand  was  to  acquire 
 knowledge  of  an  inferior  kind,  or  even  to  make  trial  of 
 Solomon's  sagacity,  by  proposing  some  enigmatical 
 questions  to  him ;  yet,  who  knows  not,  that  it  was  the 
 practice  in  those  days  for  persons  of  the  first  rank  and 
 figure  in  life  to  exercise  their  wits  in  this  manner  ? 
 
 9  Josephus,  from  some  writers  of  the  Phoenician  his- 
 tory tells  us,  that  Solomon  used  frequently  to  send  to 
 his  friend  Hiram  problems  and  riddles,  upon  the  for- 
 feiture of  a  great  sum  of  money,  if  he  could  not  expound 
 them ;  and  that  one  Abdemonus,  a  Tyrian,  not  only 
 unriddled  Solomon's  difficulties  but  sent  back  some  new 
 propositions  of  his  own,  which,  if  Solomon  could  not 
 resolve,  he  was  to  incur  the  like  forfeiture.  Now  the 
 Scripture  remarks  of  Solomon,  that  10  '  his  wisdom 
 excelled  the  wisdom  of  the  east  country,'  and  by  the 
 east  country  some  do  understand  the  seat  of  the  ancient 
 Arabians,  who  in  the  days  of  Pythagoras,  were  so 
 renowned  for  their  wisdom,  that  "  that  philosopher 
 thought  it  worth  his  while  to  go  and  reside  among  them 
 for  some  time.  They  were  great  masters  of  wit  and 
 ingenuity ;  and  valued  themselves  upon  their  sagacious- 
 ness  and  dexterity,  both  in  propounding  and  solving 
 problems  ;  and  therefore  no  wonder  that  this  queen  of 
 Sheba,  who,  as  Josephus  informs  us,  was  a  woman  of 
 exquisite  understanding  herself,  should  fall  in  with  the 
 humour  of  the  times,  and  carry  with  her  some  problems 
 of  her  Arabian  sages,  on  purpose  to  make  a  trial  of 
 Solomon's  parts  :  nor  can  we  imagine,  but  that,  in  com- 
 plaisance to  so  royal  a  visiter,  as  well  as  regard  to  his 
 own  reputation,  Solomon  would  take  care  to  answer  her 
 questions,  and,  as  the  Scripture  expresses  it,  satisfy 
 12  '  all  her  desire  whatsoever  she  asked.' 
 
 Without  knowing  the  custom  of  the  princes  of  the 
 east,  their  pomp,  andsumptuousness  of  living,  one  might 
 be  tempted  to  wonder,  what  possible  use  Solomon  might 
 make  of  this  milliad  of  wives  and  concubines  that  he  had  : 
 but  as  he  was  between  forty  and  fifty  years  old  before 
 he  ran  into  this  excess,  we  cannot  but  think,  that  he  kept 
 this  multitude  of  women  more  for  state  than  any  other 
 service.  13  Darius  Codomannus  was  wont  to  carry  along 
 with  him  in  his  camp,  no  less  than  three  hundred  and 
 fifty  concubines  in  time  of  war  ;  nor  was  his  queen  at  all 
 offended  at  it,  because  these  women  used  to  reverence 
 
 6  Pro.  iii.  13.  »  Job  xxviii.  IS.  8  Pro.  viii.  11. 
 
 >  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  S.  c.  2.  10  1  Kings  iv.  30. 
 
 11  Porphyr.  apud  Cyril,  b    10.  contra  Julian. 
 
 12  1  Kings  x.  13.  ,3  Athen.  b.  13.  c.  1. 
 
 4a 
 
551 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 ami  adore  her  as  if  she  had  been  a  goddess.  F.  Le 
 Compte,  in  his  history  of  China,  tells  us,  that  the  em- 
 peror there  has  a  vast  number  of  wives  chosen  out  of  the 
 prime  beauties  of  the  country,  many  of  which  he  never 
 so  much  as  saw  in  his  whole  life  ;  and  therefore,  it  is 
 not  improbable,  that  Solomon,  as  he  found  his  riches 
 increase,  might  enlarge  his  expenses,  and  endeavour  to 
 surpass  all  the  princes  of  his  time  in  this,  as  well  as  all 
 other  kinds  of  pomp  and  magnificence. 
 
 A  man  of  Solomon's  great  wisdom,  one  would  think, 
 should  have  converted  those  women  that  were  about  him 
 to  the  true  religion  rather  than  have  suffered  himself  to 
 be  perverted  by  them  to  a  false  one.  The  Scripture 
 tells  us,  indeed,  that J  '  he  went  after  Ashtaroth  the  god- 
 dess of  the  Zidonians  and  a  Milcom  the  abomination  of 
 the  Ammonites,  and  b  Chemosh  the  abomination  of 
 Moab ;'  but  surely  he  could  never  be  so  far  infatuated, 
 as  to  prefer  those  idols  before  the  God  of  Israel.  These 
 women,  no  doubt,  as  they  had  got  an  ascendant  over 
 him,  2  might  abate  his  zeal  against  idolatry,  and  prevail 
 with  him  for  a  public  toleration  of  their  religion  :  they 
 might  obtain  money  of  him  for  the  making  of  their  idols, 
 the  support  of  their  priests,  and  expense  of  their  sacri- 
 fices; nay,  and  perhaps  might  sometimes  persuade  him, 
 in  compliance,  to  go  with  them  to  their  worship,  or  to 
 partake  of  their  lewd  and  riotous  feasts ;  but  that  they 
 should  ever  be  able  to  alter  his  notions  concerning  the 
 true  God,  or  prevail  with  him  to  believe,  that  the  images 
 they  worshipped  were  informed  with  any  kind  of  divini- 
 ty, is  a  thing  incredible. 
 
 In  the  course  of  this  prevarication,  however,  he  con- 
 tinued so  long,  that  it  is  now  become  a  famous  question, 
 Whether  he  be  in  a  state  of  salvation  or  no  ?  Those 
 that  maintain  the  negative,  are  apt  to  suggest,  that 
 though  the  Scripture  gives  us  a  particular  account  of  his 
 fall,  yet  it  takes  no  notice  of  his  recovery  ;  that  without 
 the  grace  of  God  he  could  not  repent,  and  yet  his  actions 
 were  such  as  justly  deserved  a  forfeiture  of  that  grace  ; 
 that  had  he  repented,  he  would  have  pulled  down  the 
 idolatrous  temples  which  he  had  erected,  whereas  we  find 
 them  standing  many  years  after  him  ;  and  therefore  they 
 conclude,  that  as  he  did  not 3 '  sorrow  after  a  godly  sort,' 
 for  his  impieties,  because  in  his  whole  behaviour  to  the 
 very  last,  they  can  discern  no  carefulness  wrought  in  him, 
 
 1  1  Kings  xi.  5,  7.       2  Poole's  Annotations.        32Cor.  vii.  11. 
 
 a  This  god  is  the  same  with  Moloch,  which,  both  in  Hebrew 
 and  /Ethiopic,  signifies,  a  king;  but  then  there  are  various  sen- 
 timents concerning  the  relation  which  this  God  had  to  the  other 
 pagan  deities.  Some  believe,  that  Moloch  was  Saturn,  others 
 Mercury,  others  Venus,  and  others  again  Mars  or  Mithra.  But 
 F.  Calmer.,  in  his  dissertation  before  his  commentary  upon 
 Leviticus,  has  made  it  more  than  probable,  that  this  god  was  the 
 sun,  who  is  called  'the  king  of  heaven,'  as  the  moon  may  be  said 
 to  be  the  queen  thereof,  for  its  make  and  manner  of  worship. — See 
 vol.  ii.  p.  flit),  in  the  notes. 
 
 b  Chemosh,  or  Chamos,  comes  from  a  root,  which,  in  Arabic, 
 Biguifi.es  to  make  haste;  and  from  hence  some  have  imagined, 
 that  he  is  the  same  with  the  sun,  whose  motion  is  supposed  to 
 be  so  hasty  and  rapid;  though  some,  from  the  Hebrew  root, 
 which  signifies, contrectatus,  or  handled,  will  have  him  the  same 
 with  the  Roman  Priapus,  who  is  called  'Pater  contrectationum 
 nocturnarum ;'  while  others  from  the  near  resemblance  of  the 
 Hebrew  Chamos  with  the  word  Comos,  have  rather  thought  it 
 to  be  Bacchus,  the  god  of  drunkenness:  but  in  either  acceptation 
 it  may  he  supposed  to  represent  either  Noah  or  Lot. — Jtirieu's 
 history  of  Doctrhies  and  fl'orship,  part  4. 
 
 no  clearing  of  himself,  no  indignation,  no  fear,  no  vehe- 
 ment desire,  no  zeal,  no  revenge,  which  the  apostle  ha3 
 made  the  proper  characteristics  of  a  true  repentance. 
 The  promise,  however,  which  God  makes  to  David  con- 
 cerning his  son  Solomon,  may  incline  us  to  think  favour- 
 ably of  his  salvation  :  4 '  I  will  be  his  father,  and  he  shall 
 be  my  son.  If  he  commit  iniquity,  I  will  chasten  him 
 with  the  rod  of  men,  and  with  the  stripes  of  the  children 
 of  men,  but  my  mercy  shall  not  depart  away  from  him.' 
 And  therefore  we  may  presume,  that  towards  the  conclu- 
 sion of  his  life  he  grew  sensible  of  his  transgressions,  5 
 though  the  sacred  writer  takes  no  notice  of  it,  on  purpose 
 to  leave  a  blot  on  his  memory,  and  a  frightful  example  of 
 human  weakness  to  all  posterity  ;  that  the  temples  which 
 he  had  built  to  heathen  idols,  he  pulled  down  and  demo- 
 lished,Bthough  they  were  afterwards  raised  again  upon  the 
 same  places,  by  other  impious  princes  ;  and  that,  after 
 his  fall,  he  wrote  his  book  of  Ecclesiastes  as  a  monu- 
 ment of  his  repentance,  and  acknowledgment  of  his 
 own  apostasy,  and  a  warning  and  admonition  to  all 
 others,  that,  however  they  may  think  of  7  '  doing  what- 
 ever their  eyes  desired,  of  keeping  nothing  from  them, 
 and  of  withholding  their  hearts  from  no  joy  ;'  yet  in  the 
 event,  they  would  find,  what  his  experience  had  taught 
 him  so  late,  that  all '  was  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit ;' 
 that  there  was  no  profit  in  any  kind  of  wickedness  under 
 the  sun,  but  8  '  that  to  fear  God,  and  keep  his  command- 
 ments, was  the  whole  duty  of  man.' 
 
 It  is  making  a  wrong  judgment  of  things,  to  think, 
 that  the  customs  of  ancient  times,  and  of  different  coun- 
 tries, should  agree  with  those  of  our  own  age  and  climate. 
 We,  indeed,  when  we  have  any  thing  to  declare  or 
 relate,  do  it,  for  the  most  part,  in  express  words  :  but  the 
 people  of  the  east,  especially  those  who  took  upon  them 
 the  character  of  prophets,  were  fond  of  discovering  their 
 minds  in  c  signs  and  emblematical  actions  ;  because  they 
 
 4  2  Sam.  vii.  14,  15.  5  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 6  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Salvation  of  King  Solomon. 
 7  Eccles.  ii.  10,  11.         8  Ibid.  xii.  13. 
 
 c  This  is  the  first  symbolical  action  that  we  meet  with  in  any 
 prophet;  but,  in  after  ages,  instances  of  this  kind  became  more 
 frequent.  Thus  Jeremiah  '  made  himself  bonds  and  yokes,  and 
 put  them  upon  his  neck,'  (Jer.  xxvii.  2.)  to  signify  the  near 
 approaching  captivity  of  Jerusalem.  Isaiah,  to  denote  the  capti- 
 vity of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  walked  naked,  that  is,  without  his 
 upper  garments  on,  '  and  barefoot  for  three  years,  in  the  streets,' 
 (Is.  xx.  2,  3.)  Ezekiel,  to  make  the  people  sensible  that  they 
 were  to  be  carried  away  into  a  strange  land,  was  ordered  to 
 make  a  breach  in  the  wall  of  his  house,  and  through  that,  to  re- 
 move his  household  goods,  '  in  the  daytime,  and  in  their  sight,' 
 (Ezek.  xii.  3,  4.)  The  false  prophet  Zedekiah  made  himself  a 
 pair  of  iron  horns,  and  said  to  Ahab,  '  With  these  shalt  thou  push 
 the  Syrians,'  (1  Kings  xxii.  11.)  And  the  like  practice  con- 
 tinued under  the  New  Testament  likewise ;  for  Agabus  having 
 bound  his  hands  and  feet  with  St  Paul's  girdle,  told  the  com- 
 pany, that,  '  so  should  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem  bind  the  man  untc 
 whom  it  belonged,'  (Acts  xxi.  11.)  Samuel  having  exhorted 
 the  people  to  return  to  the  Lord  with  all  their  hearts,  and  to  put 
 away  the  strange  gods  from  among  them,  said,  '  Gather  all  Israel 
 to  Mizpah,  and  I  will  pray  for  you  unto  the  Lord.  And  they 
 gathered  together  to  Mizpah,  and  drew  water,  and  poured  it  out 
 before  the  Lord,  and  fasted  on  that  day,  and  said  there,  We  have 
 sinned  against  the  Lord.'  (1  Sam.  vii.  5,  6.)  The  sacred  histo- 
 rian does  not  explain  in  words  the  meaning  of  this  drawing  of 
 water  and  pouring  it  out,  nor  was  there  any  occasion  for  his 
 doing  so;  the  action  of  itself  expressing  with  sufficient  clearness 
 that  a  deluge  of  tears  was  due  for  their  offences.  But  it  is  not  in 
 Israel  alone  that  information  was  given  by  action,  or  that  when 
 words  were  employed,  action  was  added,  to  fix  their  meaning, 
 
Skct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 555 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  vui.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 looked  upon  such  representations  more  lively  and  affect- 
 ing than  any  that  proceeded  from  the  mouth  only 
 could  be. 
 
 When  the  prophet  was  sent  to  anoint  Jehu  to  be  king 
 of  Israel,  the  question  which  the  rest  of  the  captains  put 
 to  him,  *  '  Wherefore  came  this  mad  fellow  to  thee?' 
 sufficiently  indicates  their  scorn  and  contempt  of  him  : 
 and,  in  like  manner,  Ahijah  might  have  addressed  him- 
 self to  a  man  of  Jeroboam's  haughty  spirit  to  small  pur- 
 pose, had  he  not,  by  some  previous  action,  drawn  his 
 observation,  and  made  him  attentive  to  the  message 
 he  was  going  to  deliver.  Now,  if  any  such  sym- 
 bolical act  was  necessary  at  this  time,  the  tearing  of 
 his  garment  was  more  proper  than  any,  because,  in  the 
 case  of  Saul,  Samuel  had  applied  it  to  denote  the  alien- 
 ation of  his  kingdom  :  ~  '  The  Lord  hath  rent  the  king- 
 dom of  Israel  from  thee  this  day,  and  hath  given  it  to  a 
 neighbour  of  thine,  that  is  better  than  thou  :'and  if  rend- 
 ing the  garment  was  no  insignificant  symbol  upon  this 
 occasion,  the  newer  the  garment  was,  the  more  it  would 
 declare,  that  what  the  prophet  did  was  by  a  divine  com- 
 mand, and  upon  mature  deliberation. 
 
 This  may,  in  some  measure,  suffice  to  rescue  Ahijah 
 from  the  imputation  of  madness,  in  tearing  his  garment 
 to  pieces.  And  to  come  now,  in  the  last  place,  to  the 
 case  of  the  other  prophet  who  came  from  Judah  to  de- 
 nounce judgments  against  the  altar  of  Bethel,  and  was 
 slain  in  his  return,  for  disobeying  the  divine  injunction, 
 this  we  may  think  was  a  small  offence,  that  hardly 
 deserved  so  severe  a  fate ;  but  then  we  should  do  well 
 to  consider,  that  3  whenever  God,  in  an  extraordinary 
 maimer  discovers  his  will  to  a  prophet,  he  always  makes 
 
 1  2  Kings  ix.  11.  *  1  Sam.  xv.  28.  3  Stillingfleet's  Orig.  Sacra, 
 and  to  impress  it  on  the  memory.     Herodotus  informs  us  (b.  iii. 
 c.  46.)   that  the  Samians,  in  their  distress,  having  arrived  at 
 Sparta,  and  obtained  an  audience  of  the  magistrates,  made  a  long 
 speech  in  the  language  of  suppliants;  to  which  they  received  for 
 answer,  that  "  the  beginning  of  their  discourse  was  already  for- 
 gotten, and  the  conclusion  of  it  not  understood."     At  a  second 
 interview  the  Samian  orators  simply  produced  an  empty  leathern 
 bag,  saying,  that  it  contained  no  bread ;  to  which  the  Spartans 
 replied,  that  they  observed  the  bag  and  determined  to  assist  them. 
 Again,   we   are   told  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  as  quoted   by 
 Bishop  Warburton,  that  "  Identhura,  a  king  of  the  Scythians,  as 
 Pherecydes  Syrus  relates  the  story,  when  ready  to  oppose  Darius, 
 who  had  passed  the  Ister,  sent  to  the  Persian  a  symbol  instead 
 of  letters,  namely,  a  mouse,  a  frog,  a  bird,  a  dart,  and  a  plough," 
 or,  as  it  is  otherwise  reported,  five  darts,  without  the  plough. 
 This  symbol  was  understood   by   Gobiyas,  one  of  the  Persian 
 chiefs,  to  signify  that  the  army  of  Darius   should  never  recross 
 the  Ister,  unless  like  birds  they  could  fly  into  the  air,  like  mice 
 burrow  in  the  earth,  or  like  frogs  take  refuge  in  marshes.     (See 
 Herodotus,  b.  iv.  c.  13.)     As  the  symbol  is  mentioned  by  Cle- 
 mens, I  should  think  its  meaning  was,  that  the  Scythians  would 
 dispute  every  inch  of  ground,  and  at  last  leave  the  country  a 
 barren  desert  to  the  Persians,  rather  than  submit  to  their  yoke. 
 But  whatever  be  the  precise  meaning  of  this  particular  symbol, 
 it  is  obvious,  that  in  those  ages  all  important  messages  were  at 
 least   accompanied    by  significant   actions.     They  still   are   so 
 among  all  savage  nations ;  and  Bishop  Warburton  has  clearly 
 traced  the  practice  from  its  origin  in  necessity.     Where  lan- 
 guages are  rude  and  confined,  speakers  arc  obliged  to  call  in  the 
 aid  of  significant  actions  to  make  themselves  understood;  and  as 
 every  impression  made  through  the  eye  takes  a  faster  hold  of  the 
 mind   than  impressions  made  through  the  medium  of  the  other 
 senses,  orators  have  in  all  ages,  aud  in  every  country,  given 
 force  to  their  speeches,  by  what  was  originally  necessary  to  make 
 scanty  and  equivocal  languages  understood. — See  Divine  Lega- 
 tion, b.  iv.  sect.  4;  and  b.  vi.  sect.  5.  with  the  note  G.  at  the 
 end  of  that  book. — Bishop  Gkig. — Ed. 
 
 such  a  sensible  impression  upon  his  mind,  that  he  can- 
 not but  perceive  himself  actuated  by  a  divine  spirit ;  and, 
 consequently,  cannot  but  be  assured  of  the  evidence  of 
 his  own  revelation.  This  evidence  the  prophet  that  was 
 sent  to  Bethel  had  ;  for  as  he  was  able,  by  the  power  that 
 was  given  him,  to  work  miracles,  he  could  not  but  be  sen- 
 sible of  his  divine  mission,  and  that  the  particular  injunc- 
 tion, of '  his  not  eating  or  drinking  in  the  town  of  Bethel,' 
 was  as  much  the  will  of  God  as  any  other  part  of  his 
 commission. 
 
 Now,  the  design  of  God,  in  this  prohibition,  Mas,  to 
 express  his  abhorrence  of  that  idolatrous  place  ;  and 
 therefore  the  other  pretended  revelation  of  the  b  old  pro- 
 phet who  lived  therein,  was  justly  to  be  suspected,  not 
 only  because  it  was  repugnant  to  God's  main  design,  but 
 because  it  came  from  a  person  who  had  given  no  great 
 testimony  of  his  sincerity  in  choosing  to  live  in  a  place 
 notoriously  infected  with  idolatry,  and  yet  making  no 
 public  remonstrances  against  it.  The  consideration  of 
 this  one  circumstance  should  have  made  the  young  pro- 
 phet diffident  of  what  the  other  told  him,  at  least  till  he 
 had  shown  him  some  divine  testimony  to  convince  him  ; 
 for  it  argued  a  great  deal  of  levity,  if  not  infidelity  of 
 his  own  revelation,  to  listen  to  that  of  another  man,  in 
 contradiction  to  what  he  had  abundant  reason  to  believe 
 was  true. 
 
 The  short  of  the  matter  is  : — The  prophet  from  Judah 
 had  sufficient  evidence  of  the  truth  of  his  own  revelation  ; 
 had  sufficient  cause  to  suspect  some  corrupt  ends  in  the 
 prophet  that  came  to  recall  him ;  and  had  sufficient  rea- 
 son to  expect  an  interposition  of  the  same  power  that 
 gave  him  the  injunction  to  repeal  it.  And  therefore  his 
 crime  was  an  easy  credulity,  or  complying  with  an  offer 
 merely  to  gratify  a  petulant  appetite,  that  he  knew  was 
 repugnant  to  a  divine  command  ;  and  the  lesson  we  are 
 to  learn  from  God's  severity  in  this  instance  is  :•— Not  to 
 sutler  our  faith  to  be  perverted  by  any  suggestions  that 
 are  made  against  a  revelation  that  is  of  uncontested 
 divine  authority,  but  *  '  if  an  angel  from  heaven,'  as  the 
 Apostle  puts  the  case,  should  preach  any  other  gospel, 
 
 4  Gal.  i.  8,  9. 
 b  The  learned  are  divided  in  their  sentiments  concerning  this 
 prophet  at  Bethel.  Some  will  needs  have  him  to  have  been  a 
 false  prophet,  highly  in  esteem  with  king  Jeroboam,  because  he 
 prophesied  to  him  soft  things,  and  such  as  would  humour  him  in 
 his  wickedness.  To  this  purpose  they  tell  us,  that  going  to  visit 
 the  king  one  day,  and  finding  him  in  a  deep  concern  upon 
 account  of  the  menaces  and  reproaches  which  the  man  of  God 
 from  Judah  had  denounced  against  him,  he  undertook  to  per- 
 suade him,  that  that  prophet  was  an  impostor,  and  to  elude  the 
 force  of  the  miracle  he  had  wrought,  by  telling  him,  that  there 
 was  nothing  extraordinary  in  his  altar's  falling  down,  considering 
 that  it  was  new  built,  not  thoroughly  settled,  loaded  with  sacri- 
 fices, and  heated  with  fire.  And  as  for  the  matter  of  his  arm, 
 that  was  occasioned  oidy  by  his  having  overwrought  himself  in 
 pulling  the  sacrifices  along,  and  lifting  them  up  upon  the  altar, 
 which  might  make  his  hand  numb  for  a  while,  but,  upon  a  little 
 rest  it  came  to  itself  ag;iin;  and  so,  with  plausible  distinctions, 
 and  loose  insinuations,  he  shuffled  oil'  the  miracle,  and  made  the 
 kin<*  more  obdurate  in  wickedness  than  ever.  Others  think 
 more  favourably  of  the  old  prophet,  namely,  that  he  was  a  true 
 prophet  of  God,  though  some  say  a  wicked  one,  not  unlike  the 
 famous  Balaam,  who  sacrificed  every  thing  to  his  profit.  Whilst 
 cithers  say,  he  was  a  weak  one,  who  thought  he  might  innocently 
 employ  an  officious  lie  to  bring  the  prophet  of  Judah  back,  who 
 was  under  a  prohibition  indeed,  but  such  a  one,  as  in  his  opinion, 
 related  only  to  the  house  of  Jeroboam,  and  such  others  as  were  ol 
 an  idolatrous  religion. — Josephus's  Jeuish  Antiquities,  b.  £.  c.  M. 
 
556 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 TBook  VI. 
 
 A.  M.3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  vUi.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 than  what  we  have  received,  to  detest  and  denounce  him 
 accursed.' 
 
 Here,  however,  we  may  take  occasion  to  admire  the 
 unsearchable  secrets  of  the  divine  justice.  Jeroboam 
 revolts  from  his  lawful  sovereign,  forsakes  the  worship 
 of  the  true  God,  engages  the  people  in  gross  idolatry, 
 and  is  himself  hardened  with  the  menaces  and  miracles 
 of  the  prophet  that  was  sent  to  him.  A  false  prophet 
 deceives  an  innocent  man  with  a  lie,  and  draws  him  into 
 an  act  of  disobedience,  contrary  to  his  inclination  ;  and 
 yet  this  wicked  Jeroboam,  and  this  seducing  prophet,  go 
 unpunished,  while  the  other,  who  might  mean  no  ill  per- 
 haps in  turning  back,  is  slain  by  a  lion,  and  his  body 
 deprived  of  the  sepulchre  of  his  fathers.  We  must 
 acknowledge  indeed,  that  the  depths  of  the  judgments 
 of  God  are  an  abyss  that  our  understandings  cannot 
 fathom.  But  nothing  certainly  can  be  a  more  sensible 
 proof  of  the  truth  of  another  life,  and  of  the  eternal  re- 
 compenses or  punishments  that  attend  it,  than  to  see  the 
 righteous  so  rigorously  treated  here  for  very  slight 
 offences  ;  Moses  excluded  the  land  of  promise  1  for  a 
 diffident  thought ; 2  Lot's  wife  changed  into  a  statue  of  salt 
 for  her  looking  back ;  and  3  David,  for  a  vain  curiosity, 
 punished  with  the  death  of  no  less  than  seventy  thousand 
 of  his  subjects.  And  if  God  be  thus  severe  to  his  own 
 servants  ; 4  '  if  judgment  thus  begins  at  the  house  of  God, 
 where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear  ?'  As 
 sentence  against  every  evil  man,  therefore,  is  not  speedily 
 executed,  this  is  our  proof,  this  is  our  assurance,  that 
 5 '  God  will  bring  every  work  into  judgment,  with  every 
 secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good,  or  whether  it  be  evil.' 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  Solomon's  Riches,  and  his  Trade  to 
 Ophir. 
 
 He  who  only  looks  into  the  map,  and  there  observes,  in 
 how  small  a  compass  the  land  of  Canaan  is  comprised, 
 may  be  apt  to  think  that  the  kings  of  that  country  were 
 petty  princes,  ruling  over  an  indigent  obscure  people, 
 unable  to  bear  any  great  expense,  and  incapable  of 
 making  any  considerable  figure,  except  now  and  then, 
 at  the  head  of  their  armies.  But  he  will  soon  perceive 
 his  mistake,  when  lie  comes  to  reflect  on  the  immense 
 riches  which  David  left  his  son  Solomon ;  on  the  vast 
 expense  of  Solomon's  magnificent  living  ;  and  on  the 
 several  branches  of  his  revenue,  which  enabled  him  to 
 sustain  that  expense. 
 
 The  Scripture  informs  us,  that  out  of  the  revenues  of 
 the  crown,  David  left  Solomon,  merely  for  the  purpose 
 of  building  the  temple,  6  '  a  hundred  thousand  talents  of 
 gold,  and  a  thousand  thousand  talents  of  silver  ;'  out  of 
 his  privy  purse, '  '  three  thousand  talents  of  gold,  and 
 seven  thousand  talents  of  silver  ;'  and  out  of  the  benevo- 
 lence of  the  princes,  8  '  five  thousand  talents,  and  ten 
 thousand  drams  of  gold,  and  ten  thousand  talents  of 
 silver.'  Now,  since  it  is  generally  agreed,  that  a  talent 
 of  silver  was  equivalent  to  three  hundred  and  forty-two 
 pounds,  three  shillings,  and  ninepence  ;  and  a  talent  of 
 
 1  Nil  n.  \x.  1 1,  12.  8  Gen.  xix.  26.         3  2  Sam.  xxiv.  15. 
 
 •  I  Pet.  iv.  17,  18.      5  Eccles.  xii.  II.         |;  l  Chron.  xxii.  11. 
 
 7  1  Chron,  x-»ix.  1.        '  Ibid,  xxix.  7. 
 
 gold  amounted  to  no  less  than  five  thousand  four  hundred 
 and  twenty-five  pounds  sterling,  what  an  immense  sum 
 must  all  these  talents  of  gold  and  silver  amount  to? 
 Some  of  the  best  authors  of  weights  and  measures  have 
 computed,  that  if  all  the  walls,  pavements,  lining,  and 
 covering  of  the  temple  had  been  made  of  massy  gold,  even 
 with  the  wages  of  the  workmen  and  vessels  belonging  to 
 it,  they  would  not  have  come  up  to  the  value  here  speci- 
 fied;  and  therefore,  upon  this  supposition,  they  have 
 advanced  a  notion,  that  the  Hebrews  had  two  kinds  of 
 talents  ;  a  larger,  which  was  called  '  the  talent  of  the 
 sanctuary,'  and  a  smaller,  which  was  the  common  talent, 
 and  one  half  less  than  the  other,  by  which  all  such  exor- 
 bitant sums,  as  they  say,  ought  to  be  reckoned.  But 
 what  grounds  they  have  for  this  distinction  we  cannot 
 perceive,  9  since  it  nowhere  appears,  either  in  the  Scrip- 
 tures, or  in  any  other  history,  that  the  Jews,  especially 
 before  the  captivity  of  Babylon,  had  any  more  talents 
 than  one  ;  and  that  their  talent,  whether  of  silver  or  gold, 
 arose  to  a  sum  tantamount  to  what  we  have  stated  it  at, 
 there  are  several  instances  in  the  Old  Testament,  that 
 may  convince  us. 
 
 To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that  when  Amaziah, 
 king  of  Judah,  hired  a  hundred  thousand  men  out  of 
 Israel,  to  fight  against  the  Edomites,  he  gave  no  more 
 than  I0  an  hundred  talents  of  silver  for  them,  which  would 
 have  been  but  a  very  trifling  price  indeed,  had  the  talent 
 here  been  of  less  value  than  three  thousand  shekels : 
 that  when  Omri,  king  of  Israel,  bought  the  mountain 
 whereon  was  built  the  city  of  Samaria,  he  paid  for  it  no 
 more  than  "  two  talents  of  silver  ;  and  yet  these  two 
 talents  were  ten  thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty  pounds, 
 a  proper  sum  for  such  a  purchase  ;  that  when  Sennacherib 
 king  of  Assyria  had  obliged  Hezekiah  to  pay  him  l2  three 
 hundred  talents  of  silver,  and  thirty  talents  of  gold,  that 
 good  king  exhausted,  not  only  his  own  treasure,  and  the 
 treasure  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  but  was  forced  like- 
 wise to  cut  the  gold  oft'  from  the  doors  and  pillars  of  the 
 temple :  and  to  name  no  more,  that  when  Pharaoh 
 Necho  13  '  put  the  land  to  a  tribute  of  an  hundred  talents 
 of  silver,  and  a  talent  of  gold,'  Jehoiakim  was  necessitat- 
 ed to  levy  a  tax  extraordinary  upon  his  subjects,  that 
 every  one  might  contribute  according  to  his  power  :  but 
 neither  of  these  remarks,  namely,  that  these  two  kings 
 were  thus  straitened  about  the  payment,  would  the  sacred 
 historian  have  made,  had  the  talent  in  his  days,  been  of 
 considerably  less  value  14  than  Moses  is  known  to  rate  it 
 at.  So  that,  upon  the  whole,  we  may  conclude,  that  the 
 Hebrew  talent  continued  always  the  same,  and  amounted 
 to  a  much  greater  sum,  than  those  who  are  for  debasing 
 its  value  are  willing  to  allow. 
 
 '  But,  if  the  talent  must  be  reckoned  at  so  high  a  rate, 
 how  can  we  imagine,  that  David,  who  had  no  estate 
 from  his  family,  and  whose  dominions  were  far  from 
 being  extensive,  could  ever  be  able  to  amass  such  an 
 immense  quantity  of  wealth?'  Now,  in  answer  to  this, 
 we  should  do  well  to  consider,  that,  even  before  the 
 death  of  Saul,  David  was  at  the  head  of  some  brave 
 troops,  with  whom  he  used  to  make  inroads  into  the 
 enemies'    country,    and   frequently   bring    from   thence 
 
 DCalmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Riches  that  David  loft  to  Solomon. 
 
 10  2  Chron.  xxv.  6.      >'   I  Kings  xvi.  24.      Ia  2  Kings  xviii.  15. 
 
 13  2  Kings  xxiii.  33,  "  Exoil.  xxxviii.  25,  26.     . 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 557 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H.ILES,  A.  M. 
 
 large  booty;  that,  after  Saul's  death,  he  reigned  forty 
 years  in  all,  and,  in  that  space,  made  it  his  business  to 
 heap  up  riches,  especially  when  he  came  to  understand, 
 that  God  had  appointed  his  son  and  successor  to  build  him 
 a  temple  ;  that,  in  the  time  of  his  reign,  he  had  wars  with 
 the  Syrians,  the  Philistines,  the  Ammonites,  the  Moab- 
 ites,  and  several  other  nations,  from  whom  he  returned 
 always  victorious,  and  always  laden  with  their  treasures, 
 and  a  rich  spoils  ;  that,  by  this  means,  he  enlarged  his 
 dominions,  as  far  as  *  the  promise  made  to  Abraham 
 extends,  even  from  the  river  Euphrates  to  the  Mediter- 
 ranean sea,  on  the  one  side,  and  to  the  Nile  on  the 
 other ;  that  the  countries  which  he  subdued,  and  made 
 tributary  to  him,  such  as  Arabia,  Phoenicia,  Mesopota- 
 mia, Idumasa,  &c.  were  exceedingly  rich,  and  productive 
 of  several  mines  of  gold  and  other  metals  ;  and  that  the 
 tributes  which  were  wont  to  be  exacted  upon  such  occa- 
 sions, were  either  annual  imposts,  or  vast  sums  of  money 
 at  once  :  if  we  may  consider,  I  say,  the  spoils  which  he 
 took  from  conquered  nations,  and  the  tribute  which  he 
 raised  from  such  as  submitted  to  his  empire,  we  shall 
 have  no  cause  to  wonder  at  his  leaving  such  immense 
 treasures  to  his  son. 
 
 But,  besides  these  revenues  from  abroad,  he  had  a 
 large  income  from  the  taxes  which  his  own  subjects 
 annually  paid  him,  and  the  improvements  he  made  of 
 his  own  estates ;  which  in  those  days  were  accounted, 
 not  only  lawful  and  allowable,  but  even  honourable  and 
 commendable  in  princes,  as  well  as  others.  The  sacred 
 history  has  preserved  2  the  names  of  the  officers  Avhom 
 he  employed  in  this  capacity ;  and,  from  the  different 
 provinces  wherein  they  acted,  we  may,  in  some  measure, 
 form  a  judgment  of  the  largeness  of  this  branch  of  his 
 income.  He  had  officers  set  over  the  labourers,  who 
 were  to  till  his  gTounds  ;  officers  to  take  care  of  the 
 dressing  of  his  vines,  olive,  and  fig-trees ;  officers  to 
 inspect  the  gathering  of  his  fruits,  and  the  managery  of 
 wine  and  oil  cellars ;  officers  to  look  to  the  feeding  of 
 his  camels  and  asses,  his  herds  of  cattle,  and  flocks  of 
 sheep  ;  and  officers  Avho  were  to  attend  to  the  selling 
 and  exportation  of  all  these.  For  David,  we  must 
 know,  had  the  command  of  the  Mediterranean  sea,  and 
 had  established  a  commerce  with  the  Phoenicians,  Egyp- 
 tians, Syrians,  Philistines,  and  other  nations,  who  took 
 ofi'his  camels,  asses,  oxen,  sheep,  wine,  corn, oil,  fruits, 
 ;,nd  other  commodities,  in  large  quantities,  and  at  very 
 advantageous  prices  :  all  which,  being  put  together, 
 will  make  the  amount  of  what  David  left  his  son  no  less 
 than  what  the  -.acred  writer  has  recorded. 
 
 3  And  indeed,  considering  the  vast  expenses  Solomon 
 
 1  Gen.  xv.  7.  2  1  Chron.  xxvii.  2G,  &c. 
 
 *  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Riches  that  David  left  to  Solomon. 
 a  Besides  the  personal  ornaments  worn  by  those  who  went  to 
 battle  in  the  eastern  nations,  it  was  customary  to  adorn  their 
 weapons  and  utensils  of  war  with  the  richest  metals.  We  learn 
 from  the  history  of  David,  that  the  Syrians,  whom  he  subdued 
 and  slew  in  vast  multitudes,  wore  shields  of  gold ;  and  therefore 
 we  need  imt  doubt,  but  that  their  quivers,  the  handles  of  their 
 swords,  &e.,  were  of  the  same  metal.  He  was  victorious  in 
 about  twenty  battles  over  the  richest  enemies  in  the  world;  and 
 therefore  their  personal  spoils,  rich  arms,  military  chests,  and 
 gods  of  gold  and  silver,  always  carried  to  battle  with  them, 
 could  not  but  amount  to  an  immense  sum;  and,  in  all  probabili- 
 t  ,  the  spnils  of  their  cities  and  countries  to  a  much  greater. — 
 T.c  Ilisttry  of  the  Life  if  King  David. 
 
 •1421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 was  at  in  his  chariots,  in  his  horses,  in  his  camels,  in  his 
 armies,  in  his  shipping,  in  his  buildings,  in  his  furniture, 
 in  his  servants,  for  his  table,  and  for  his  women,  which 
 came  at  length  to  no  less  than  a  thousand,  and  all  to  be 
 maintained  in  the  port  of  queens,  we  can  hardly  think, 
 that  a  small  revenue  would  ever  have  been  sufficient  to 
 answer  all  these  demands. 
 
 The  Scripture  indeed  informs  us,  that  Solomon's 
 annual  income  was  *  '  six  hundred,  threescore  and  six 
 talents  of  gold,  besides  what  he  had  of  the  merchant- 
 men, and  of  the  traffic  of  spice-merchants,  and  of  all 
 the  kings  of  Arabia,  and  of  all  the  governors  of  the 
 country:'  but  these  six  hundred  threescore  and  six 
 talents  of  gold  5  are  thought,  by  most  interpreters,  to  be 
 no  more  than  what  arose  from  the  tribute  which  he 
 imposed  upon  conquered  nations  ;  over  and  above  which 
 he  had  a  yearly  tax  paid  by  his  own  subjects ;  duties 
 upon  the  import  or  export  of  all  merchandise  ;  mines  of 
 gold  and  silver,  and  other  metals  ;  the  voluntary  presents 
 of  other  princes  ;  and  a  trade  to  Ophir  and  Tarshish, 
 which  brought  him  in  riches  inestimable. 
 
 These  were  two  branches  of  profit  which  his  father 
 had  not,  at  least  not  in  the  same  extent.  Of  the  former 
 it  is  said,  that  6  '  every  man  that  came  to  hear  Solomon's 
 wisdom,  brought  his  present,  vessels  of  silver,  and  vessels 
 of  gold,  and  garments,  and  armour,  and  spices,  and 
 horses,  and  mules,'  and  continued  to  do  the  same  every 
 year ;  and  of  the  latter  that  he  sent  7  vessels  to  Ophir, 
 which,  in  one  voyage,  '  brought  him  four  hundred  and 
 fifty  talents  of  gold,  together  with  almug-trees,  and 
 precious  stones ;'  and  to  Tarshish  likewise,  '  which 
 brought  gold,  and  silver,  and  ivory,  and  apes,  and 
 peacocks  ;'  and  as,  by  this  means,  he  came  to  surpass 
 all  the  kings  of  the  earth  for  riches,  it  may  be  worth 
 our  while  to  inquire  a  little  where  the  places,  which  pro- 
 duced such  plenty  of  wealth,  were  in  ancient  times 
 situated,  and  both  how,  and  by  whom,  a  trade  so  very 
 advantageous  might  probably  be  carried  on. 
 
 Amidst  the  vast  variety  of  opinions  concerning  the 
 situation  of  these  two  famous  places,  Ophir  and  Tar- 
 shish, 8  the  learned  Grotius  has  suggested  a  good  ex- 
 pedient, one  would  think,  how  to  find  them  out ;  namely, 
 by  considering  what  commodities  were  brought  from 
 thence,  and  then  inquiring  of  merchants,  who  have  been 
 in  the  remoter  parts  of  the  world,  where  not  only  gold 
 and  precious  stones,  but  ivory  likewise,  and  alinug- 
 trees,  and  whatever  else  we  read  of,  was  brought  from 
 thence,  and  is  now  to  be  found.  But  this  expedient  will 
 not  do ;  not  only  because  the  seats  of  traffic  are  fre- 
 quently changing,  and  any  country  may,  in  time,  be  ex- 
 hausted of  the  commodities  it  once  abounded  with  ;  but 
 because  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  tell  by  the  imperfect  de- 
 scription we  have  of  them,  of  what  distinct  species  some 
 of  these  commodities  were.  9  The  almug-tree,  for  in- 
 stance has  been  a  puzzle  to  most  interpreters  ;  nor  are 
 they  yet  agreed,  whether  it  was  the  coral,  ebony,  Brazil, 
 pine,  or  citron  wood ;  nay,  some  will  have  it  to  have 
 been  no  particular  tree  at  all,  but  only  a  general  name 
 for  any  wood  whatever,  that  was  excellent  in  its  kind  : 
 
 4  1  Kings  x.  11,  15. 
 'Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Riches  that  David  left  to  Solomon. 
 8  1  Kings  x.  24.  '  2  Chron.  ix.  10,  21,  22. 
 
 9  Patrick's  Commentary  on  1  Kings. 
 
 Imet  aud  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
55S 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  II.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 and  how  then  can  those  commodities,  that  are  of  so  in- 
 definite a  signification,  be  any  characteristic  to  the  situa- 
 tion of  any  country  ? 
 
 Nor  is  there  much  more  certainty  to  be  gathered  from 
 the  names  of  the  places  Ave  are  in  quest  of;  for,  though 
 it  be  allowed,  that  Ophir  was  the  country  which  at  first 
 was  peopled  by  Ophir,  one  of  Joktan's  sons,  who  are 
 said  '  to  have  inhabited  the  country  from  Mesha  to 
 Sephar,  a  mountain  in  the  east ;  yet,  where  Mesha  and 
 Sephar  are  to  be  placed,  we  know  no  more  than  we  do 
 where  Ophir  lies.  And,  in  like  manner,  though  Tar- 
 shish  may  be  supposed  by  some,  to  be  a  town  or  country, 
 not  far  distant  from  Ophir,  yet  others  will  have  it  to  be 
 no  proper  name  at  all,  but  by  ships  of  Tarshish,  or  from 
 Tarshish,  understand  no  more  than  vessels  able  to  bear 
 a  long  voyage,  that  is,  large  merchant  ships,  in  opposi- 
 tion to  small  craft,  intended  for  home  trade  in  navigable 
 rivers.  So  incompetent  are  the  marks  whereby  Ave  may 
 descry  the  true  situation  of  these  unknoAvn  places !  And 
 therefore  Ave  can  expect  no  other,  but  that  the  conjec- 
 tures of  learned  men  about  them  should  be  Avidely  distant. 
 In  relation  to  the  land  of  Ophir,  Avhich  is  more  parti- 
 cularly under  our  inquiry,  Josephus  and  from  him  many 
 others,  places  it  in  the  Indies,  in  a  country  Avhich  he  calls 
 the  golden  coast,  not  unlikely  the  Chersonesus  Aurea, 
 knoAvn  now  by  the  name  of  Malacca,  and  is  a  peninsula 
 opposite  to  Sumatra.  The  learned  Bochart  contends 
 hard  for  the  isle  Taprobane,  so  famous  among  the 
 ancients,  which  is  now  called  Ceylon,  and  lies  in  the 
 kingdom  of  Malabar,  because  this  place  (as  he  tells  us) 
 abounds  with  gold,  ivory,  and  precious  stones.  Arius 
 Montanus  will  needs  remove  it  into  Armenia ;  and  Avhen 
 Christopher  Columbus  at  first  discovered  the  island  His- 
 paniola  in  1492,  he  used  to  make  his  boast,  that  he  had 
 found  the  Ophir  of  Solomon,  because  he  perceived  deep 
 caverns  in  the  earth,  from  whence  he  supposed  that 
 prince  might  have  dug  his  gold.  F.  Calmet  is  no  less 
 singular  in  his  opinion.  He  places  Ophir  somewhere 
 in  Armenia,  not  far  from  the  sources  of  the  Tigris  and 
 Euphrates ;  ~  and,  to  obviate  the  objection  of  the  country's 
 not  bordering  on  the  sea,  and  not  being  at  distance 
 enough  for  a  three  years'  voyage,  he  supposes,  that  So- 
 lomon's fleet  made  a  trading  voyage  of  it ;  that  in  no 
 one  place  it  met  with  all  the  commodities  it  brought 
 home  ;  but,  on  the  coast  of  Ethiopia,  took  in  apes, 
 ebony,  and  parrots  ;  in  Arabia,  ivory  and  spices,  and  at 
 Ophir,  or  the  place  of  traffic  Avhere  the  people  of  Ophir 
 resorted,  gold  :  and  though  this  Ophir  might  be  no  mari- 
 time country,  yet  this  hinders  not,  says  he,  A\hy  the  gold 
 which  it  produced  might  not  be  brought  by  land  carriage 
 to  some  part  of  the  Tigris  or  Euphrates,  which,  at  that 
 time,  were  a  great  Avay  navigable.  Grotius,  as  Avell  as 
 Calmet,  is  of  opinion,  that  Solomon  did  not  send  his 
 fleet  to  any  part,  either  of  the  East  or  West  Indies,  but 
 only  to  a  part  of  Arabia,  by  Arian  called  Aphar,  by 
 Pliny,  Saphar,  and  by  Ptolemy,  Sapphera,  situate  on 
 the  main  ocean  ;  and  that  the  Indians  brought  down  their 
 merchandises  thither,  to  be  bought  by  Solomon's  factors, 
 and  shipped  on  board  his  fleet.  And  to  name  no  more, 
 Huetius,  in  his  dissertation  upon  the  subject,  endeav- 
 ours to  persuade  us,  that  Ophir  lay  upon  the  east  coast 
 
 1  Gen.  x.  .SO.  2  Dissertation  on  the  country  of  Ophir. 
 
 ■'  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Ophir. 
 
 4421.  A.  C.  990.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 of  Africa,  and  more  particularly,  A\as  that  small  country 
 Avhich  is  called  Sophala  ;  that  Solomon's  fleet  Avent  out 
 of  the  Red  sea,  and  from  the  harbour  of  Ezion-Geber, 
 entered  into  the  Mediterranean,  by  a  canal  of  commu- 
 nication Avhich  joined  the  tAvo  seas  ;  and  that,  having 
 doubled  the  Cape  of  Guadarfay,  and  coasted  along  the 
 African  shore,  it  came  at  length  to  Sophala,  and  there 
 met  Avith  plenty  of  all  the  merchandises  and  curiosities 
 that  the  sacred  history  specifies. 
 
 Which  of  these  conjectures,  for  conjectures  they  are 
 all,  make  the  nearest  approaches  to  truth,  it  is  hard  to 
 determine  ;  only  Ave  may  adventure  to  say,  4that,  if  any 
 part  of  Arabia  did  furnish  the  world,  in  those  days,  Avith 
 the  best  gold,  and  in  the  greatest  quantity,  as  some  good 
 authors  seem  to  say,  they  who  Avould  have  the  Ophir 
 of  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  be  there  situated,  seem  of  all 
 others,  to  have  the  best  foundation  for  their  conjecture  ; 
 especially  considering  that  the  use  of  the  compass  not 
 being  then  knoAvn,  the  Avay  of  navigation  Avas,  in  those 
 days,  by  coasting,  Avhich  Avould  carry  a  ship  into  Africa 
 much  better  than  either  into  the  East  or  West  Indies. 
 
 Before  the  reign  of  king  David,  to  inquire  a  little  into 
 this  history  of  the  Ophir  trade  among  the  Hebrews,  the 
 HebreAvs  did  not  much  apply  themselves  to  maritime 
 affairs.  From  the  time  of  Joshua  they  had  been  almost 
 perpetually  engaged  in  Avars,  and  had  therefore  had  no 
 leisure  or  opportunity  to  think  of  navigation.  The  Ty- 
 rians  and  Phoenicians  Avere  then  in  possession  of  all  the 
 commerce  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  and  on  the  main  ocean 
 the  HebreAvs  had  not  the  least  footing  until  David  made 
 a  conquest  of  Idumea,  and  thereby  became  master  of 
 two  sea  port  towns  on  the  Red  sea,  Elah  and  Ezion- 
 Geber  ;  and  seeing  the  advantage  that  might  be  made  of 
 the  situation  of  these  tAvo  places,  Avisely  took  the  benefit 
 of  it,  and  there  began  this  traffic. 
 
 After  the  death  of  his  father,  Solomon  continued  the 
 trade  to  Ophir  from  these  two  ports,  Avhither  himself 
 Avent  in  person ;  and  having  ordered  more  ships  to  be 
 built,  and  the  harbours  to  be  repaired  and  fortified,  he  set- 
 tled every  thing  else  that  might  tend  to  the  effectual  carry- 
 ing on  of  this  traffic,  not  only  to  Ophir,  but  to  all  other 
 parts  to  which  the  sea  Avhereon  those  ports  lay  opened 
 him  a  passage.  But  his  chief  care  Avas  to  plant  in  those 
 two  towns  such  inhabitants  as  Avere  best  qualified  to 
 carry  on  his  design  ;  for  Avhich  reason  he  brought  thither, 
 from  the  sea  coasts  of  Palestine,  as  many  sailors  as  he 
 could  get,  but  especially  of  the  Tyrians,  with  whom  his 
 good  friend  and  ally,  king  Hiram,  supplied  him  in 
 great  numbers  :  so  that  in  a  short  time  he  drew  to  these 
 tAvo  ports,  and  from  thence  to  Jerusalem,  all  the  trade 
 of  Africa,  Arabia,  Persia,  and  India,  which  Avas  the 
 chief  fountain  of  the  immense  riches  for  Avhich  his  reign 
 Avas  so  renoAvned. 
 
 After  the  division  of  the  kingdom,  the  kings  of  Judah, 
 Avho  kept  possession  of  these  ports  in  Idumea,  still 
 carried  on  the  trade,  especially  from  Ezion-Geber,  which 
 they  chiefly  made  use  of  until  the  time  of  Jehoshaphat ; 
 who  having  prepared  a  fleet  to  go  to  Ophir,  in  conjunc- 
 tion with  Ahaziah  king  of  Israel,  had  the  misfortune  to 
 have  them  destroyed  and  dashed  to  pieces  against  a 
 ridge  of  rocks  which  lay  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbour, 
 before  they  could  get  to  sea,  which  gave  him  such  a 
 
 4  Prideaux's  Connexion,  part  1.  h.  1. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 559 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 distaste  against  the  place,  that,  from  thenceforward, 
 the  station  of  his  ships  was  at  Elah,  for  from  thence  we 
 read  of  his  sending  out  a  fleet  next  year  for  Ophir. 
 
 1  When  Jehoram  succeeded  his  father  Jehoshaph.it, 
 God,  for  the  punishment  of  his  exceeding  great  wicked- 
 ness, suffered  the  Idumeans  to  revolt  from  him;  who, 
 having  expelled  his  viceroy,  chose  them  a  king  of  their 
 own,  and,  under  his  conduct,  regaining  their  ancient 
 liberty,  they  soon  recovered  the  two  ports  of  Elah  and 
 Ezion-Geber  :  but  even  while  they  had  them,  there  was 
 an  interruption  in  the  Ophir  trade,  until  Uzziah  king  of 
 Judah  having  retaken  Elah,  in  the  beginning  of  his 
 reign,  fortified  it  anew,  peopled  it  with  his  own  subjects, 
 and  restored  the  old  traffic  to  Ophir,  which  continued  all 
 along  until  the  wicked  reign  of  Ahaz. 
 
 In  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  Rezin  king  of  Damascus,  being 
 assisted  by  Pekah  king  of  Israel,  took  Elah  by  surprise  ; 
 and  having  driven  out  the  Jews  that  were  settled  there, 
 put  Syrians  in  their  place,  and  was  thinking  of  carrying 
 on  this  trade,  which  the  kings  of  Judah  had  been  so 
 enriched  by,  to  his  own  advantage  ;  when,  the  very  next 
 year,  Tiglath-Pileser,  king  of  Assyria,  having  by  the 
 procurement  of  Ahaz,  invaded  Damascus,  and  conquer- 
 ed Rezin,  took  possession  of  Elah,  and  reserved  the 
 property  of  trade  to  himself  :  so  that  the  Jews,  from 
 thenceforward,  had  never  any  portion  in  it,  which  proved 
 a  great  diminution  to  their  wealth. 
 
 How  the  Assyrians  managed  this  traffic,  while  it  con- 
 tinued in  their  hands,  or  where  they  fixed  their  principal 
 mart  for  it,  we  are  nowhere  told.  In  process  of  time, 
 we  find  it  Avholly  engrossed  by  the  Tyrians,  who,  from 
 the  same  port  of  Elah,  by  way  of  a  2  town  on  the  con- 
 fines of  Egypt  and  Palestine,  made  it  all  centre  in  Tyre, 
 and  from  thence  furnished  all  the  western  part  of  the 
 world  with  the  wares  of  Persia,  India,  Africa,  and 
 Arabia,  to  the  great  enriching  of  themselves,  as  long  as 
 the  Persian  empire  subsisted,  under  the  favour  and  pro- 
 tection of  whose  kings  they  enjoyed  the  full  possession 
 of  this  trade.  3  But  when  the  Ptolemies  prevailed  in 
 Egypt,  by  building  several  ports  on  the  Egyptian  or 
 western  side  of  the  Red  Sea,  for  Elah  and  Ezion-Geber 
 lay  on  the  eastern,  and,  by  sending  from  thence  fleets  to 
 all  those  countries  where  the  Tyrians  traded  from  Elah, 
 they  soon  drew  all  this  trade  into  their  kingdom,  and 
 there  fixed  the  chief  mart  of  it  at  Alexandria,  where  it 
 continued  for  a  great  many  ages,  until  a  way  was  found 
 out,  *  about  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago,  of  sailing  to 
 those  parts  by  the  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  ;  after 
 which,  the  Portuguese,  for  some  time,  managed  this  trade ; 
 but  now  the  greatest  share  of  it  is  fallen  into  the  hands 
 of  the  English  and  Dutch. 
 
 SECT.    II. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — From  the  Reign  of  Je/ios/iaphal  to  the 
 Siege  of  Samaria. 
 
 THK  HISTORY. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Asa,  °  Jehoshaphat  his  son,  when 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Connexion,  part  I.  b.  1. 
 2  The  town's  name  was  Rhinoeolura,  Strabo,  b.  16. 
 *  Prideaux'a  Connexion,  ibid.  *  Anna  Dam.  1  107. 
 
 a  1  Kings  xvii.  1.    "  We   are  deceived  by  not  seeing  titles 
 
 4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 five  and  thirty  years  of  age,  succeeded  him  in  the  king- 
 dom of  Judah,  and,  in  all  acts  of  piety,  as  well  as  the 
 reformation  of  religion,  imitated,  if  not  excelled,  b  the 
 former  part  of  his  father's  reign.  At  his  first  accession 
 to  the  throne,  he  expressed  his  zeal  for  God's  service,  in 
 the  extirpation  of  those  Sodomites,  and  the  destruction 
 of  those  idolatrous  c  high  places  and  groves  which 
 remained  in  his  father's  reign  ;  and  perceiving  that  the 
 people  were  grossly  ignorant  of  the  law,  after  he  had 
 fortified  his  frontier  towns,  and  put  his  kingdom  in  a 
 good  posture  of  defence,  he  sent  itinerant  priests  and 
 Levites  through  all  his  dominions,  with  letters  to  the 
 princes,  and  heads  of  each  family,  to  receive  them 
 kindly,  and  to  encourage  them  in  expounding  the  law, 
 and  instructing  his  subjects  in  the  knowledge  of  their 
 duty. 
 
 By  these  means,  he  soon  gained  the  hearts  of  his 
 people,  who,  to  support  the  dignity  of  his  government/ 
 
 among  the  Israelites,  like  those  of  our  nobility.  Every  one  was 
 called  plainly  by  his  own  name:  but  their  names  signified  great 
 tilings,  as  those  of  the  patriarchs.  The  name  of  God  was  part  of 
 most ;  which  was  in  a  manner  a  short  prayer.  Elijah  and  Joel 
 are  made  tip  of  two  of  God's  names,  joined  in  a  different  way. 
 Jehoshaphat  and  Shephatiah  signify  the  judgment  of  God: 
 Jehozedek  and  Zedekiah,  his  justice:  Johanan,  his  mercy, 
 Nathanael,  Elnathan,  Jonathan  and  Nathaniah,  all  four,  signify, 
 God  given,  or  the  gift  of  God.  Sometimes  the  name  of  God  was 
 understood,  as  in  Nathan,  David,  Obed,  &c,  as  is  plain  by 
 Eliezer,  God  my  helper:  Uzziel,  God  my  strength;  and  Obadiah, 
 the  Lord's  servant.  The  Greek  names  also  are  of  the  same 
 import;  many  are  composed  of  the  names  of  their  gods;  as 
 Diodorus,  Diogenes,  Hermodorus,  Hiephestion,  Athenais,  and 
 Artemisia." — Fleury's  History  of  the  Israelites,  p.  20. — Ed. 
 
 b  In  2  Chron.  xvii.  3.  mention  is  made  of  the  first  ways  of  his 
 father  David;  but  it  may  \ery  well  be  questioned,  whether  the 
 word  David  be  not  slipped  in  here  by  the  fault  of  some  tran- 
 scriber, in  the  place  of  Asa,  because  in  1  Kings  xxii.  43,  as 
 likewise  in  2  Chron.  xx.  32,  Asa  is  named,  and  not  David. 
 Now  it  is  very  well  known,  that  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
 Asa  was  very  religious,  but  fell  from  his  piety  towards  the  con- 
 clusion of  it;  and  therefore  the  sacred  historian,  by  observing 
 that  Jehoshaphat  followed  his  father  in  what  he  was  in  his  first 
 days,  and  not  in  his  old  age,  might  intend  a  just  reflection  upon 
 Asa  for  his  growing  more  negligent  aud  remiss  in  the  service  of 
 God,  towards  the  decline  of  his  life. — Patrick's  Commentary; 
 and  Howell's  History  in  the  notes.  [The  word  David  is  wanting 
 in  the  Septuagint  and  six  MSS.  Boothroyd  omits  it,  and  con- 
 siders it  most  probable  that  Asa  is  the  true  reading. — En. 
 
 e  It  is  said  of  his  father  Asa  likewise,  that  he  removed  the 
 high  places,  together  with  the  idols  and  the  groves,  which  his 
 father  and  mother  had  made,  1  Kings  xv.  12,  &c. ;  but  then  we 
 are  to  observe,  as  we  have  noted  before,  that  there  were  high 
 places  and  groves  of  two  sorts ;  some  for  the  worship  of  the  true 
 God,  which  continued  in  Judah  even  under  religious  princes; 
 and  others  for  the  worship  of  idols,  which  good  kings  took  away, 
 even  though  they  left  the  other  standing.  The  high  places  and 
 groves  of  this  latter  kind,  were  those  which  Asa  destroyed;  but 
 because  towards  the  conclusion  of  his  reign,  when  he  grew  more 
 infirm  in  body,  and  more  remiss  in  God's  cause,  some  of  his 
 subjects,  out  of  their  vile  attachment  to  idols,  had  made  new 
 ones,  Jehoshaphat,  upon  his  accession  to  the  throne,  had  occa- 
 sion enough  to  begin  a  reformation  in  this  particular  as  well  as 
 many  others. — Patrick's  Commentary  on  I  Kings  xviii.  30; 
 and  Poole's  Annotations  on  2  Chron.  xvii.  <>. 
 
 d  It  was  customary  for  subjects  to  make  their  oblations  to 
 their  princes,  especially  at  the  commencement  of  their  reigns. 
 It  is  said  of  some  disaffected  people,  that  they  brought  Saul  no 
 presents,  even  though  he  had  been  recognised  as  king,  (1  Sam. 
 x.  27.)  But  by  the  presents  here  spoken  of,  we  may  not  impro- 
 perly understand  the  tribute  and  customs  which  his  subjects  were 
 obliged  to  pay  him;  only  it  was  thought  proper  to  call  them  pre- 
 sents, or  voluntary  gifts,  as  a  name  of  a  less  odious  sound  and 
 import,  than  that  of  tributes. — Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Chrou. 
 xviii.  5. 
 
560 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 brought  him  presents  from  every  quarter,  a  and  struck 
 such  a  terror  into  his  enemies,  that  instead  of  invading' 
 his  dominions,  the  Philistines  came  voluntarily,  and  paid 
 him  a  tribute,  which  had  been  suspended  for  some  years, 
 and  the  Arabians,  whose  riches  consisted  in  cattle,  sent 
 him  always  seven  thousand  seven  hundred  rams,  and  an 
 equal  number  of  he  goats,  as  an  annual  acknowledg- 
 ment of  their  homage.  For  Jehoshaphat  took  care  to 
 make  himself  strong  in  arms,  as  well  as  wealth,  having 
 an  army  of  above  eleven  hundred  thousand  men,  s  be- 
 sides those  that  were  in  garrisons,  and  such  fortified 
 places  as  he  had  well  furnished  with  plenty  of  all  mili- 
 tary stores. 
 
 In  short,  Jehoshaphat  was  rich  and  happy,  great  and 
 honourable,  beloved  by  his  subjects,  and  revered  by  his 
 enemies ;  only  there  was  this  great  blemish  in  his  reign, 
 that  he  c  married  his  son  Jehoram  to  Athaliah,  daughter 
 to  Ahab,  king  of  Israel,  which  both  displeased  God, 
 and  involved  him  and  his  family  in  sundry  troubles :  but 
 of  these  hereafter. 
 
 This  Ahab,  as  we  said,  was  one  of  the  wickedest  princes, 
 and  the  most  abominable  idolaters,  that  ever  sat  on  the 
 throne  of  Israel :  for  he  not  only  continued  the  worship 
 of  the  calves  which  Jeroboam  had  set  up,  but  having 
 married  Jezebel,  the  daughter  of  d  Eth-baal,  king  of 
 Tyre,  to  pleasure  this  woman  he  introduced  the  idolatry 
 paid  to  the  e  god  Baal,  built  him  a  temple  in  Samaria, 
 
 a  His  enemies  could  not  but  be  sensible,  that  it  was  in  vain  to 
 assault  him,  while  he  continued  firm  in  his  religion;  for  they 
 must  have  observed,  that  the  prosperity  of  all  the  kings  of  Judah 
 depended  on  that,  and  that  they  never'fell  into  the  hands  of  their 
 enemies,  but  when  they  had  first  fallen  from  God. — Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 b  This  is  such  a  prodigious  number  that  no  judicious  critic 
 will  attempt  to  defend  it,  and  besides  if  Jehoshaphat  was  possessed 
 ■  >!  so  -reat  a  force,  it  is  not  easy  to  account  for  the  alarm  which 
 he  felt  when  told  that  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites  were 
 coming  against  him.  Also  in  his  prayer,  uttered  on  that  occasion, 
 he  says,  '  We  have  no  might  against  this  great  company  that 
 cometh  against  us,  neither  know  we  what  to  do.' — See  Kennicott's 
 Dissertation. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  only  shadow  of  excuse  that  can  be  alleged  in  behalf  of 
 Jehoshaphat's  marrying  his  son  in  this  manner,  might  be  a  fond 
 conceit,  that  in  case  Ahab  should  die  without  issue  male,  he 
 might  have  a  chance  to  reunite  the  two  kingdoms  of  Israel  and 
 Judah  ;  but  in  this  piece  of  worldly  policy  he  found  himself  sadly 
 disappointed. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Eth-baal,  or  Ithobalus,  as  he  is  called  by  profane  writers 
 does  equally  signify  the  strength  of  Baal.  In  the  catalogue  of  the 
 of  Tyre,  he  is  said  to  be  the  eighth;  and  as  both  Tyre  and 
 Sidon  w,ic,  from  the  beginning,  subject  to  the  same  king,  it  is 
 not  improbable,  that  their  kings  resided  sometimes  at  the'  one, 
 -nil  sometimes  at  the  other  city,  and  were  therefore  called  the 
 kings  of  Tyre  or  Sidon  promiscuously.  As  the  character  of  kin<* 
 and  priest  were  frequently  united  in  the  same  person,  so  is  he 
 ed  to  have  been  the  high  priest  of  Astarte  or  Ashtaroth, 
 the  goddess  of  the  Sidonians;  and  for  this  reason  perhaps  his 
 daughter  was  so  violently  attached  to  that  kind  of  idolatry,  that 
 when  she  came  into  power,  she  was  for  utterly  extirpating  all  the 
 oriests  and  prophets  of  the  Lord.  The  truth' is,  this  queen  was 
 B  monster  in  her  kind;  and  therefore  the  name  of  Jezebel  has 
 I  assed  into  a  proverb,  to  denote  any  cruel,  impious,  and  impe- 
 rious woman. — Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  xvi.  31. 
 
 e  Baal,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  signifies  Lord,  and  as  Selden 
 «  bserves,  was  anciently  the  name  of  the  true  God,  until  the  world 
 grew  wicked,  and  came  to  apply  it  to  the  sun;  in  after  ages,  to 
 other  stars;  and  in  process  of  time,  to  any  of  their  kings  whose 
 memory  was  dear  to  them.  The  same  author  observes,  that  the 
 Phoenician  Belus,  or  Baal,  was  the  same  with  the  European 
 Jupiter,  and  as  Sidon  was  situate  on  the  sea  side,  their  Baal 
 was  called  by  the  Gre<  ks  the  Jupiter  of  the  sea.     But  more  of 
 
 erected  an  altar,  and  /made  a  grove,  where  all  kinds 
 of  impurities  were  committed,  the  more  effectually  to 
 proselyte  the  vicious  and  debauched  to  a  religion  so 
 agreeable  to  their  lusts  ;  and  as  an  instance  of  the  daring 
 impiety  of  this  age,  one  Hiel,  who  lived  at  Bethel,  the 
 famous  seat  of  all  idolatry,  S  adventured  to  rebuild 
 Jericho,  in  defiance  of  the  curse  which  Joshua  had  pro- 
 nounced above  four  hundred  and  fifty  years  before, 
 against  any  man  that  should  attempt  it.  But  the  pre- 
 sumptuous wretch  found  to  his  cost,  that  Joshua's  pre- 
 diction was  verified  in  him,  when  he  saw  his  eldest  son 
 die,  as  soon  as  he  had  begun  the  work,  the  rest  of  his 
 children  drop  oft',  as  he  continued  it,  and  his  youngest 
 son  taken  away  at  last,  when  he  had  completed  it. 
 
 In  the  midst  of  this  bold  impiety,  Israel  however  had 
 the  happiness  to  be  blessed  with  an  eminent  prophet, 
 Elijah,  the  h  Tishbite,  an  inhabitant  of  Gilead,  on  the 
 other  side  of  Jordan  ;  who  being  grieved  to  see  such  a 
 general  apostasy  from  the   true   religion,  l  prayed  ear- 
 
 this  you  may  see  in  the  writings  of  that  great  man. — Selden  on 
 the  gods  of  Syria. 
 
 f  The  Jewish  law  was  so  far  from  permitting  men  to  plant 
 any  such  groves,  that  it  enjoins  all  its  professors  to  destroy  them : 
 '  Ye  shall  destroy  their  altars,  and  break  down  their  images,  and 
 cut  down  their  groves,  and  burn  their  graven  images  with  fire,' 
 (Dent.  vii.  5 ;)  and  therefore,  though  Josephus  imputes  the  erec- 
 tion of  these  to  the  impiety  of  his  wife  Jezebel,  who  (as  he  tells 
 us,  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  viii.  c.  7.)  "  was  a  woman  of  a  bold,  enter- 
 prising humour,  and  of  so  impetuous  and  ungovernable  a  spirit, 
 that  she  had  the  confidence  to  build  a  temple  to  Baal,  the  god  of 
 the  Tyrians,  to  plant  groves,  for  superstition,  of  all  sorts  of  trees, 
 and  to  appoint  her  priests  and  false  prophets  expressly  for  that 
 idolatrous  service;"  yet  her  husband  was  nevertheless  culpable 
 for  giving  her  that  indulgence. 
 
 g  Jericho  was  one  of  the  first  places  that  Joshua  took  in  the 
 land  of  Canaan ;  and  when  he  took  it,  he  laid  it  under  a  Cherern, 
 that  it  should  never  be  rebuilt:  but  it  is  presumable,  that  as  the 
 sacred  history  was  then  very  little  read,  Hiel  might  either  be 
 ignorant  of  this  interdict,  or  being  a  professed  idolater  himself, 
 might  probably,  at  the  instigation  of  Jezebel,  or  to  gain  the 
 favour  of  the  court,  do  it  in  defiance  of  God,  and  to  let  the  world 
 see,  that  whatever  was  denounced  in  his  name  was  of  no  signifi- 
 cance at  all,  and  for  this  reason  met  with  his  condign  punish- 
 ment.— Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 h  Thesbe  was  a  town  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  in  the  tribe 
 of  Gad,  and  in  the  land  of  Gilead,  where  this  prophet  was  born, 
 or  at  least  inhabited  for  some  time.  Since  the  Scripture  makes 
 no  mention,  either  of  the  quality  of  his  parents,  the  manner  of 
 his  education,  or  his  call  to  the  prophetic  office,  some  Jewish 
 doctors  have  been  of  opinion,  that  he  was  an  angel  sent  from 
 heaven,  in  the  midst  of  the  general  corruption  of  the  world,  to 
 preserve  the  true  worship  of  God.  Others  pretend,  that  he  was 
 a  priest  descended  from  the  tribe  of  Aaron ;  that  his  father's  name 
 was  Sabaca,  and  his  birth  altogether  miraculous:  whilst  others 
 again  will  needs  have  it,  that  he  was  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Aaron, 
 who  after  having  lived  a  long  while  concealed,  appeared  again 
 in  the  world  under  the  name  of  Elijah.  But  where  the  Scrip- 
 ture is  silent,  all  particulars  of  this  kind  are  of  small  authority. 
 This,  however,  may  be  said  with  safety  of  him,  that  he  was  one 
 of  the  chief,  if  not  the  prince  of  the  prophets  of  his  age;  a  man 
 of  a  great  and  elevated  sold,  of  a  generous  and  undaunted  spirit, 
 a  zealous  defender  of  the  laws  of  God,  and  a  just  avenger  of  the 
 violation  of  his  honour. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 i  St  James's  words  are  these: — '  Elias  was  a  man  subject  to 
 the  like  passions  as  we  are;  and  he  prayed  earnestly  that  it  might 
 not  rain,  and  it  rained  not  on  the  earth  for  the  space  of  three 
 years  and  six  months.'  Our  blessed  Saviour  makes  mention  of 
 the  like  compass  of  time,  (Luke  iv.  25,)  and  yet  neither  of  these 
 are  contradictory  to  what  the  sacred  history  tells  us,  namely, 
 '  That  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  Elijah  in  the  third  year,' 
 (1  Kings  xviii.  1.)  For  we  must  remember,  that  as  Egypt  had 
 no  lain,  but  was  watered  by  the  river  Nile  ;  so  the  land  of  Canaau 
 had  generally  none,  except  twice  a  year,  which  they  called  '  the 
 
Skct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &< 
 
 561 
 
 A.  M.  2.300.  A.  C.  1003;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4482.  A.  C.  929.  I  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 nestly  to  God,  that  he  would  lay  bare  his  arm,  and  sho»v 
 some  visible  token  of  his  displeasure  against  so  wicked  a 
 people  :  and  accordingly,  in  a  short  time,  he  was  sent  to 
 Ahab  to  let  him  know,  that  God  intended  to  bring  a  sore 
 famine,  occasioned  by  want  of  rain, a  upon  the  land,  which 
 should  last  for  above  three  whole  years. 
 
 When  the  drought  had  continued  some  time,  and  the 
 divine  threat  began  to  operate,  Elijah  retired  to  the 
 *  brook  Cherith,  where  he  concealed  himself  for  the  space 
 of  a  whole  year,  and  was  miraculously  fed  by  the  ravens, 
 which  brought  him  bread  and  flesh  twice  every  day,  and 
 for  his  drink  he  had  the  water  of  the  brook  ;  but  when 
 the  water  of  the  brook  began  to  fail,  God  directed  him 
 to  go  to  c  Zarephtha,  a  town  belonging  to  the  territories 
 of  Sidon,  where  he  had  appointed  a  widow  woman  to 
 entertain  him. 
 
 early  and  latter  rain.'  The  former  of  these  was  in  the  month 
 Nisan,  which  answers  to  our  March;  and  the  other  in  the  month 
 Marchesvan,  which  answers  to  our  Octoher.  Now,  at  the  begin- 
 ning of  the  drought,  Ahab  might  veiy  probably  impute  the  want 
 of  rain  to  natural  causes ;  but  when,  after  six  months,  neither 
 the  former  nor  the  latter  rain  fell  in  their  season,  he  then  began 
 to  be  enraged  at  Elijah,  as  the  cause  of  the  national  judgment, 
 and  forced  him,  at  God's  command,  to  save  his  life  by  flight: 
 and  from  that  time  the  three  years  in  the  historian  are  to  be  com- 
 puted, though  from  the  first  notice  which  Elijah  gave  Ahab  of 
 this  approaching  calamity,  to  the  expiration  of  it,  were  certainly 
 three  years  and  a  half.  This  calamity  is  said  to  have  been  pro- 
 cured by  Elijah's  prayers:  but  we  must  not  therefore  imagine, 
 that  his  prayers  were  spiteful  and  malicious,  but  necessary  rather, 
 and  charitable  to  the  offenders;  that  by  the  sharp  and  long  afflic- 
 tion which  they  produced,  God's  honour,  and  the  truth  of  his 
 word  and  threatenings,  which  was  now  universally  contemned, 
 might  be  vindicated;  and  that  the  Israelites,  whose  present  im- 
 punity hardened  them  in  their  idolatry,  might  hereby  be  awak- 
 ened to  see  their  wickedness,  their  dependence  upon  God,  and 
 the  necessity  of  their  returning  to  his  religion  and  worship. — 
 Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology ,  b.  6.  c.  2 ;  and  Poole's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 a  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  according  to  Menander,  there 
 occurred  in  the  reign  of  Eth-baal,  king  of  Tyre  an  extremely 
 severe  drought,  which  lasted  from  the  month  Hyperberetreus  till 
 the  same  month  in  the  following  year.  After  prayers  were  put 
 up  for  averting  the  judgment  with  which  the  laud  was  threaten- 
 ed, there  ensued  mighty  claps  of  thunder,  and,  we  may  presume, 
 a  copious  rain.  As  Eth-baal  was  contemporary  with  Ahab,  the 
 reader  cannot  fail  to  identify  the  drought  now  mentioned,  with 
 that  which  gave  celebrity  to  the  ministerial  functions  of  the  pro- 
 phet Elijah. — Russell's  Connexion,  b.  2.  c.  2. — Ed. 
 
 b  The  brook  Cherith,  and  the  valley  through  which  it  runs,  are 
 both  very  near  the  river  Jordan  ;  but  whether  on  the  east  or  west 
 side  of  the  river,  it  is  not  so  well  agreed.  Eusebius,  or  at  least  St 
 Jerome,  places  it  beyond  Jordan,  and  so  on  the  east  side  of  it, 
 but  others  generally  agree  in  placing  it  on  the  west  side,  because 
 God,  in  sending  away  Elijah,  says  to  him,  •  Get  thee  hence,  and 
 turn  thee  eastward,  and  hide  thyself  by  the  brook  Cherith,  that  is 
 before  Jordan,' (1  Kings  xvii.  3,)  where  the  expression  'turn 
 thee  eastward,'  seems  to  imply,  that  Elijah  was  on  the  west  side 
 of  Jordan,  for  had  he  been  on  the  east  side,  then  to  have  gone  to 
 the  brook,  which  ran  on  that  side  Jordan,  would  have  been  to 
 have  turned  westward. — IFells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment, vol.  iii. 
 
 c  Zarephtha,  or  as  it  is  called  in  the  New  Testament,  Sarepta, 
 was  a  town  which  lay  between  Tyre  and  Sidon,  but  somewhat 
 nearer  to  the  latter.  Mr  Maundrell,  in  his  journey  from  Aleppo 
 to  Jerusalem,  observes,  that  it  is  the  same  with  what  is  now 
 called  Sarphan,  distant  about  three  hours'  travel  from  Sidon,  in 
 the  way  to  Tyre.  Whatever  it  was  formerly,  the  same  author 
 tells  us,  that  at  present  it  consists  of  no  more  than  a  few  houses, 
 on  the  tops  of  the  mountains,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  sea ; 
 though  there  is  reason  to  believe,  that  the  principal  part  of  the 
 city  stood  below,  in  a  space  between  the  hills  and  the  sea,  be- 
 cause there  arc  still  ruins  there  to  be  seen  of  a  very  considerable 
 extent. — IFells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  part  1 .  c.  5.  s.  2. 
 
 The  famine  had  spread  itself  over  the  country  of  Sidon, 
 as  well  as  the  land  of  Israel ;  and  therefore,  when  the 
 prophet  drew  near  the  town,  he  met  the  widow  to  whom 
 he  was  directed ;  and  when  he  requested  of  her  to  give 
 him  a  little  water,  and  withal  a  morsel  of  bread  she 
 solemnly  protested  to  him,  that  she  had  but  an  handful 
 of  meal  in  a  barrel,  d  and  a  little  oil  in  a  cruise,  and  was 
 come  out  to  pick  up  some  sticks,  wherewith  to  bake  a 
 cake  e  for  her  and  her  son,  which  was  to  be  the  last  meal 
 they  were  ever  like  to  eat.  But  the  prophet,  encouraging 
 her  to  do  as  he  bid  her,  gave  her  assurance,  that  her 
 meal  and  her  oil  should  not  fail  as  long  as  the  famine 
 lasted  ;  which  accordingly  proved  true  :  for  of  that  little 
 store,  she,  and  her  son,  and  the  prophet,  lived  for  the 
 space  of  two  years;  and  when,  in  this  space,  her  sen 
 fell  sick  and  died,  Elijah  by  his  prayers  restored  him  to 
 life  again,  which /gave  the  mother  full  conviction,  that 
 he  was  a  person  extraordinary  sent  from  God. 
 
 After  he  had  lived  in  this  obscurity  for  above  two 
 years,  God  commanded  him  to  return  to  the  land  of  Is- 
 rael, and  to  present  himself  before  Ahab,  because  in  a 
 short  time,  he  intended  to  send  rain  upon  the  earth.  At 
 this  time  the  famine  was  so  extreme  about  Samaria,  that 
 the  king  commanded  8  Obadiah,  one  of  the  officers  of 
 his  household,  and  some  others  with  him,  to  go  all  over 
 the  country  in  quest  of  some  forage  for  the  subsistence 
 of  his  cattle  ;  and  to  see  that  his  orders  were  fully  ex- 
 
 d  1  Kings  xvii.  12.  As  coin  is  subject  to  be  eaten  by  worms, 
 the  easterns  keep  what  they  are  spending  in  long  vessels  of  clay, 
 (Sandys'  Travels,  p.  117.)  So  it  appears  the  woman  of  Zarephtha 
 did.  The  word  translated  barrel,  properly  signifies  ajar;  arid 
 is  the  same  with  that  used  for  the  vessels  in  which  Gideon's  sol- 
 diers concealed  their  torches,  and  which  they  brake  when  they 
 blew  with  their  trumpets. — Harmcr,  vol.  i.  p.  277. — Ed. 
 
 e  Some  of  the  Hebrew  doctors,  and  herein  they  are  followed 
 by  some  Christians,  are  of  opinion,  that  this  widow's  son  was  the 
 prophet  Jonas ;  that  after  his  restoration,  his  mother  gave  him  to 
 Elijah ;  that  ever  after  he  attended  on  the  prophet  as  long  as  he 
 lived;  and  on  a  certain  occasion  was  despatched  by  him  to 
 Nineveh,  as  exery  one  knows.  But  besides  that  these  traditions 
 are  destitute  of  any  real  proof,  Jonah  was  an  Hebrew,  as  he 
 himself  declares,  (i.  9.)  and  a  native  of  Gath-hepher,  as  we  read 
 (2  Kings  xiv.  25.)  whereas  the  widow's  son  was  a  native  of  Za- 
 rephtha, a  town  belonging  to  the  kingdom  of  Sidon,  and  by  birth 
 a  stranger  to  the  race  of  Israel. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 f  The  woman  had  sufficient  reason  to  believe,  that  Elijah  was 
 a  prophet,  or  person  sent  from  God,  when  she  saw  the  miraculous 
 increase  of  the  meal  and  oil ;  but  upon  his  not  curing  her  son 
 when  he  lay  sick,  but  rather  suffering  him  to  die,  her  faith  began 
 to  droop;  whereas,  upon  seeing  liim  revive,  her  faith  revived 
 with  him ;  and  through  the  joy  of  having  him  restored  to  her 
 again,  she  accounted  this  latter  miracle  much  greater  than  the 
 former. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 g  There  are  some  Jewish  doctors  who  think  that  this  Obadiah 
 was  the  same  with  him  whose  writings  we  have  among  the  twelve 
 minor  prophets.  They  pretend  that  he  was  married  to  that 
 woman  of  Shunem,  where  Elisha  used  to  lodge;  that  he  was  a 
 disciple  of  the  prophet  Elijah,  and  the  last  of  the  three  captains 
 whom  king  Ahaziah  sent  to  apprehend  him;  and  that  for  this 
 reason  he  had  compassion  on  him,  though  he  destroyed  the  others 
 that  came  before  him,  with  (ire  from  heaven,  (2  Kings  i.  9,  &c.) 
 but  all  these  things  are  pure  apocrypha.  Obadiah  himself,  in  his 
 discourse  with  Elijah,  sufficiently  tells  us  who  lie  was,  namely,  a 
 person  truly  religious,  who  worshipped  God  alone,  had  a  singular 
 allection  for  his  servants;  enough,  one  would  think,  to  have  made 
 Ahab  discard,  if  not  persecute  him,  had  he  not  found  him  so 
 highly  useful  in  the  management  of  his  domestic  affairs,  as  to 
 connive  at  his  not  worshipping  Baal,  or  the  calves:  especially  as 
 we  read  nothing  of  his  going  up  to  Jerusalem,  which  was  a  de- 
 fect that  God  perhaps  might  think  proper  to  dispense  with.-  -Cat- 
 met  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 4    B 
 
5G2 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M 
 edited,  himself  went  along-  with  some  of  them.'*  Obadiah. 
 of  all  the  king's  domestics,  was  the  most  religious.  He 
 in  the  time  of  Jezebel's  b  persecuting  the  prophets  of  the 
 Lord,  concealed  an  hundred  of  them,  by  fifty  in  a  cave, 
 and  there  sustained  them  with  necessaries.  When  Elijah 
 met  him,  Obadiah  saluted  him  with  great  respect ;  but 
 when  the  prophet  required  him  to  go  and  acquaint  the 
 king  that  he  was  there,  and  desired  to  speak  with  him, 
 Obadiah  at  first  excused  himself,  upon  apprehension  that 
 Elijah  might  vanish,  and  leave  him  the  object  of  the  king's 
 indignation,  who  had  taken  such  vast  pains  to  find  him 
 out ;  but  when  the  other  assured  him  that  he  would  not 
 stir,  he  went  and  brought  the  king  to  him.  The  king,  at 
 the  first  interview,  began  to  upbraid  him  with  being  the 
 cause  of  the  calamity  that  the  nation  suffered  ;  but  Elijah 
 boldly  returned  the  charge,  and  having  taxed  him  with 
 the  worship  of  false  gods,  which  was  the  source  of  all 
 their  wo,  he  undertook  to  prove  that  they  were  no  more 
 than  false  gods,  if  so  be  the  king  would  be  pleased  to 
 summon  all  the  people  to  meet  upon  mount  Carmel,  and 
 to  bring  thither  the  450  priests  of  Baal,  together  with 
 the  400  priests  of  Astarte,  who  were  supported  at 
 Jezebel's  table. 
 
 Elijah  had  told  Ahab,  that  '  '  there  should  be  neither 
 dew  nor  rain  upon  the  earth,  but  according-  to  his  word  ;' 
 and  therefore  the  king  being  persuaded,  perhaps,  that 
 the  national  remedy  was  in  his  hands,  neglected  not  to 
 issue  out  writs  for  the  convention  of  the  people,  and 
 
 1  I  Kings  xvii.  I. 
 a  Of  the  dreadful  extremities  to  which  the  inhabitants  were 
 reduced,  for  want  of  provender  for  their  beasts  of  burden,  an  idea 
 may  be  formed  by  the  extraordinary  circumstance  of  the  haughty 
 Ahab  proposing  to  his  prime  minister  Obadiah,  to  go  in  person, 
 and  by  different  routes,  in  search  of  grass  for  the  horses  and 
 mules,  both  of  which  were  held  in  the  highest  estimation.  The 
 places  where  Obadiah  was  recommended  by  his  royal  master  to 
 look  for  provender  was  in  the  vicinity  of  springs  and  running 
 waters— a  recommendation  founded  on  a  correct  knowledge  of 
 the  state  of  the  parched  and  barren  regions  of  the  east,  where  the 
 few  spots  of  verdure  that  occur  are  found  so  generally  to  afford 
 water,  that  the  presence  of  the  one  is  almost  always  a  sure  indi- 
 cation of  the  nearness  of  the  other;  and  the  circumstance  of  two 
 personages  of  such  elevated  rank  setting  out  from  the  palace  in 
 search  of  such  places,  is  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  that  could  be 
 given  of  the  simplicity  of  ancient  manners,  when  the  greatest 
 princes  were  in  the  habit  of  stooping  to  perform  the  meanest  and 
 commonest  offices.  Among  the  tribes  of  Asia  and  Africa,  the 
 same  habits  are  to  this  day  observed  by  the  most  powerful  chiefs 
 who  are  so  far  from  deeming  it  derogatory  to  their  royal  dignity 
 tii  engage  in  an  expedition  to  obtain  either  grass  or  water,  that 
 no  employment  could  be  considered  more  suitable  to  their  char- 
 acter, or  more  likely  to  secure  for  them  the  good-will  and  esteem 
 if  their  subjects. — Jamieson's  Eastern  Manners.  —  Ed. 
 
 h  Elijah,  in  his  appeal  to  the  people,  tells  them,  '  I,  even  T. 
 only  remain  a  prophet  of  the  Lord,'  (1  Kings  xviii.  22.)  and 
 therefore  we  can  hardly  imagine,  that  all  these  hundred,  whom 
 <  rbadiah  preserved,  were  men  actually  inspired  and  invested  with 
 a  prophetic  character,  but  only  such  as  were  the  disciples  of  the 
 prophets,  and  candidates  for  that  office.  For  it  is  not  unlikely, 
 that  even  to  Jezebel's  time,  there  were  remaining  in  Israel  schools 
 of  the  prophets,  which  ^he  endeavoured  to  destroy,  as  well  as 
 those  that  were  bred  up  in  them,  that  there  might  be  none  left 
 to  instruct  the  people  in  the  true  religion.  These  she  certainly 
 looked  upon  as  enemies  to  her  idolatry,  and  might  possibly  per- 
 suade her  husband,  that  they  were  disaffected  to  his  government 
 and  favourers  of  the  kings  of  Judah,  because  they  worshipped  the 
 same  God,  and  thought  that  the  proper  place  of  his  worship  was 
 Jerusalem:  and  therefore  the  greater  was  the  piety  and  courage 
 of  Obadiah,  in  rescuing  so  many  victims  from  the  hands  of  this 
 furious  and  enraged  woman. — Patrick's  and  Le  C/crc's  Conir- 
 wuntarier. 
 
 4482.  A.  C.  020.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 ordered  the  priests  to  attend.  When  they  were  all  met 
 together,  Elijah,  having  first  upbraided  them  with  their 
 vile  prevarication,  in  mixing  the  worship  of  God  and  the 
 worship  of  Baal  together,  made  them  a  fair  proposal,  to 
 this  erlect.  "  Since  there  can  be  no  more  than  one 
 infinite,  supreme,  almighty,  and  independent  being,  let 
 us,  at  this  time,  make  the  experiment  who  this  being  is. 
 You,  who  are  the  worshippers  of  Baal,  have  all  the 
 advantages  on  your  side,  the  favour  and  protection  of 
 the  court,  450  priests  of  one  kind,  and  400  priests  of 
 another  ;  whereas  I,  who  am  the  manager  of  God's  cause, 
 am  but  one  poor  banished  man ;  and  yet  let  two  oxen  be 
 brought  before  us.  Let  the  priests  of  Baal  choose  their 
 ox,  dress  it,  cut  it  in  pieces,  lay  it  on  the  altar ;  but  let 
 there  be  no  fire  thereon ;  and  I,  in  like  manner,  will  do 
 so  to  my  ox.  Let  them  pray  unto  their  gods,  and  I 
 likewise  will  call  on  the  name  of  Jehovah ;  and  then  let 
 the  God,  who,  by  consuming  the  sacrifice  c  with  a  sudden 
 Hash  of  fire,  shall  make  it  appear,  that  he  hath  heard  the 
 prayers,  be  owned  by  this  whole  assembly  to  be  this  one, 
 this  true,  supreme,  independent  Being." 
 
 This  was  a  proposal  that  none  could  gainsay ;  and 
 therefore  the  priests  of  Baal  prepared  their  altar,  sacri- 
 ficed their  bullock,  placed  it  on  the  altar,  and  began  to 
 call  upon  their  god  :  but  Baal  continuing  deaf  to  their 
 invocations,  they  betook  themselves  to  odd  gesticula- 
 tions :  they  sometimes  jumped  over  the  altar,  d  some- 
 
 c  This  is  not  the  first  time,  wherein  God  had  declared  his 
 approbation  of  his  worshippers,  by  sending  down  fire  to  consume 
 the  sacrifices,  (Lev.  ix.  24.  and  Judg.  vi.  21.)  and  though  perhaps 
 it  may  be  possible  for  evil  spirits,  who  may  have  great  knowledge 
 how  to  manage  meteors  and  exhalations  to  their  purposes,  to 
 make  fire  descend  from  the  clouds ;  yet,  since  they  can  do 
 nothing  without  a  divine  permission,  it  is  absurd  to  think,  that, 
 in  a  matter  of  competition  between  him  and  false  gods,  he  should 
 give  evil  spirits  any  license  to  rival  him  in  his  miracles. — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 d  1  Kings  xviii.  26".  '  They  leaped  upon  the  altar  which  was 
 made.'  Baal,  whose  idolatrous  worship  is  here  referred  to,  was 
 the  same  as  Apollo,  or  the  Sun.  Callimachus  has  given  us  a 
 remarkable  instance  of  the  universal  veneration  which  was  paid 
 by  the  ancient  pagans,  at  his  altar  in  the  temple  of  Delos. 
 Amongst  other  ceremonies  in  the  worship  of  this  idol,  it  was 
 customary  to  run  round  his  altar,  to  strike  it  with  a  whip,  and 
 with  their  hands  or  arms  bound  behind  them,  to  bite  the  olive. 
 For  of  Delos,  the  poet  says: — 
 
 Thee,  ever-honour'd  isle,  what  vessel  dares 
 Sail  by  regardless?  'twere  in  vain  to  plead 
 Strong  driving-  gales,  or,  stronger  still  than  they, 
 Swift-wing'd  necessity:  their  swelling  sails 
 Here  mariners  must  furl :  nor  hence  depart, 
 Till  round  thy  altar,  struck  with  many  a  blow, 
 The  maze  they  tread,  and  backward  bent  their  arm1;. 
 The  sacred  olive  bite. 
 
 Hymn  to  Delos,  v.  433. 
 
 The  former  part  of  this  ceremony  plainly  alludes  to  singing  and 
 dancing  round  the  altar.  The  latter  part  seems  to  accord  with 
 what  is  said  of  Baal,  (1  Kings  xviii.  26" — 28.)  where  we  read  of 
 the  priests  of  Baal  who  leaped  upon  the  altar  they  had  made, 
 which  the  Septuagint  renders  ran  round;  'and  they  cried  aloud, 
 and  cut  themselves,  after  their  manner,  with  knives  and  lancets, 
 till  the  blood  gushed  out  upon  them.'  Their  running  round  the 
 altar  signified  the  annual  rotation  of  the  earth  round  the  sun. 
 Striking  with  a  whip  the  altar,  cutting  themselves  with  knives 
 and  lancets,  crying  aloud  to  their  deity,  were  symbolical  actions, 
 denoting  their  desire  that  he  would  show  forth  his  power  upon 
 all  nature  in  general,  and  that  sacrifice  in  particular  then  before 
 him.  Having  thus  surrounded  the  altar  of  Apollo,  and  by  these 
 actions  declared  their  belief  in  his  universal  power,  they  used  to 
 bend  their  own  arms  behind  them,  and  so  take  the  sacred  olive 
 into  their  mouths:  thereby  declaring,  that  not  their  own  arm  or 
 power  which  was  bound,  but  from  his  whose  altar  they  surround- 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 563 
 
 A.  M.  3U01.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 times  danced  round  it,  and,  according  as  their  custom 
 uas,  began  °  to  cut  themselves  with  knives  and  lancets, 
 but  all  to  no  purpose  :  whereupon  the  true  prophet  *  fell 
 a  bantering  and  ridiculing  them,  as  justly  he  might;  but 
 their  senseless  idol  knew  nothing  of  the  matter.0 
 
 oil,  and  from  him  they  expected  to  obtain  that  peace,  whereof 
 the  olive  was  always  a  symbol.  (Gen.  viii.  11.)  There  are  some 
 evident  allusions  to  these  abominable  idolatrous  practices  in  the 
 Old  Testament;  and  for  which  the  Jews  are  severely  reprimand- 
 ed by  the  prophets,  for  following  such  absurd  and  wicked  cere- 
 monies. '  Thus  sailh  the  Lord  concerning  the  prophets  that 
 make  my  people  err,  that  bite  with  their  teeth,  and  cry,  Peace,' 
 (Micah  iii.  5.:)  and  respecting  Ashdod,  the  prophet  says,  'I 
 will  take  away  his  blood  out  of  his  mouth,  and  his  abominations 
 from  between  his  teeth.'  (Zech.  ix.  7.)  "Theseus,  on  his  return 
 from  Crete,  put  in  at  Delos,  and  having  sacrificed  to  Apollo, 
 and  dedicated  a  statue  of  Venus,  which  he  received  from 
 Ariadne,  joined  with  the  young  men  in  a  dance,  which  the 
 Pelians  are  said  to  practise  at  this  day.  It  consists  in  an  imi- 
 tation of  the  mazes  and  outlets  of  the  labyrinth;  and,  with  various 
 involutions  and  evolutions,  is  performed  in  regular  time.  This 
 kind  of  dance,  as  Dictearchus  informs  us,  is  called  by  the 
 Deliaus  the  Crane;  he  danced  it  round  the  altar  Keraton,  which 
 was  built  entirely  of  the  left  side  horns  of  beasts."  {Plutarch  vita 
 Theseus.)  This  was  a  circular  dance,  and  probably  called  the 
 crane,  because  cranes  commonly  fly  in  the  figure  of  a  circle. 
 This  dance,  after  a  lapse  of  3000  years,  still  exists  in  Greece, 
 under  the  name  of  the  Caudiot.  See  au  account  of  it  in  M. 
 Guy's  Hist.  Lit.  de  la  Grece,  Lett.  13,  aud  a  plate  in  Leroy 
 Baines  des  plus  beaux  monumens  de  la  Grece. — Ed. 
 
 a  A  strange  method,  one  would  think,  to  obtain  the  favour  of 
 their  gods!  and  yet,  if  we  look  into  antiquity  we  shall  find,  that 
 nothing  was  more  common  in  the  religious  rites  of  several 
 nations  than  this  barbarous  custom.  To  this  purpose  we  may 
 observe,  that  as  Plutarch,  on  Superstition,  tells  us,  the  priests  of 
 Belona,  when  they  sacrificed  to  that  goddess,  were  wont  to 
 besmear  the  victim  with  their  own  blood ;  that  the  Persian 
 Magi,  according  to  Herodotus  (b.  7.  c.  191.),  used  to  appease 
 tempests,  and  allay  the  winds,  by  making  incisions  in  their 
 flesh ;  that  they  who  carried  about  the  Syrian  goddess,  as 
 Apuleius  (b.  8.),  relates,  among  other  mad  pranks,  were,  every 
 now  and  then,  cutting  and  slashing  themselves  with  knives,  till 
 the  blood  gushed  out;  and  that  even  to  this  day,  some  modern 
 travellers  tell  us,  that  in  Turkey,  Persia,  and  several  parts  of 
 the  Indies,  there  are  a  kind  of  fanatics,  who  think  they  do  a  very 
 meritorious  thing,  aud  what  is  highly  acceptable  to  the  deity,  in 
 cutting  and  mangling  their  own  flesh.  "  But  the  gods  ought 
 not  to  be  worshipped  at  all,"  says  Seneca,  as  he  is  quoted  by  St 
 Austin  de  Civ.  Dei  (b.  G.  c.  10.),  "  if  they  delight  in  such.  The 
 fury  of  a  restless  and  excited  mind  to  gain  the  favour  of  the  gods 
 is  so  great,  that  not  even  the  most  hideous  tyrants  can  exercise 
 their  cruelty  so  savagely,"  &c.  Calmet's  and  Le  Clerc's  Com- 
 militaries. 
 
 b  The  words  of  the  prophet  are  very  cutting  and  sarcastical. 
 "  Cry  aloud,  for  he  is  a  god  "  no  doubt,  though  he  may  be  deaf, 
 or  a  great  way  off,  so  that  he  cannot  hear  unless  you  cry  aloud; 
 or  "either  he  is  talking,"  about  business,  or  "pursuing  his 
 pleasures ;"  or  perhaps  "  he  is  in  a  journey,  and  not  at  home ;"  or 
 "  perad  venture  he  sleepeth,  and  must  be  awakened."  The  two 
 last  notions  of  "  being  asleep,  and  not  at  home,"  how  absurd 
 soever  they  may  lie  when  applied  to  the  deity,  were  certainly 
 such  &^  several  idolaters  conceived  of  their  gods,  as  appears  from 
 these  passages  in  Homer.  In  the  former  of  these,  Thetis,  says 
 he,  cannot  meet  with  Jupiter,  because  he  was  gone  abroad,  and 
 would  not  return  in  less  than  twelve  days.  "  For  Jupiter  yes- 
 terday went  away  to  a  feast  among  the  ./Ethiopians,  aud  all  the 
 other  gods  are  along  with  him,  but  on  the  twelfth  day  he  will  re- 
 turn again  to  Olympus."  And  in  the  conclusion  of  that  hook,  he 
 shows  in  wnat  manner  the  gods  went  to  sleep: — "  But  Jupiter, 
 the  Olympian  prince  of  lightning,  went  up  to  his  couch,  where 
 it  was  bis  wont  to  repose  when  gentle  sleep  hung  heavily  on  his 
 eyelids,"  &c. 
 
 c  Elijah's  taunts  were  not  the  groundless  cflusions  of  satire  and 
 ridicule,  but  were  founded  on  the  absurd  and  grovelling  notions 
 entertained  of  the  objects  of  their  worship  by  the  heathen;  who, 
 both  in  ancient  and  modern  times,  ascribed  to  their  gods  all  the 
 attributes  of  humanity;  aud  considered  that  their  favour  was  to 
 
 4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 This  farce  of  devotion  they  continued  till  the  day 
 was  above  half  spent ;  when  Elijah,  desiring  the  people 
 to  draw  near,  and  take  twelve  stones,  according  to  the 
 number  of  the  tribes,  d  repaired  the  altar  of  the  Lord, 
 which  had  been  broken  down,  and  then  laying  his  bullock 
 on  the  wood,  e  poured  a  great  quantity  of  water  three 
 times  on  the  sacrifice,  on  the  wood,  and  on  the  altar  ;  so 
 that  the  water  filled  the  trench,  which  was  dug  round  the 
 altar  to  receive  it.     It  was  now  much  about  the  time  of 
 
 be  procured,  aud  their  presence  and  attention  obtained,  by  means 
 similar  to  those  practised  in  securing  the  ear  and  the  good-will  of 
 men.  The  heathen  deities  had  all  of  them  certain  employments 
 assigned  them,— one  had  the  management  of  the  winds,  another 
 of  the  water,  the  cares  of  which  were  supposed  necessarily  to 
 occupy  and  distract  their  minds  at  particular  periods ;  and  some 
 were  also  engaged  in  long  and  distant  expeditions,  from  which 
 they  had  to  return  before  they  could  answer  the  supplications  of 
 their  votaries. — Even  in  the  present  day,  the  same  notions  pre- 
 vail among  the  heathen,  of  the  limited  powers  of  the  deities. 
 Thus  Siva,  the  principal  god  of  the  Hindoos,  once  fell  into  a 
 profound  reverie,  which  was  supposed  to  be  the  cause  of  great 
 public  calamities  and  portentous  occurrences  that  befell  the  land. 
 On  a  particular  season  of  the  year,  he  is  constantly  occupied 
 with  the  pleasures  of  the  chase,  to  gratify  him  with  which,  his 
 statue,  together  with  that  of  his  favourite  wife,  is  taken  from  his 
 temple,  placed  on  a  car,  and  carried  out  to  the  open  fields. 
 Sometimes  he  suddenly  departs  on  long  journeys,  and  sometimes 
 he  falls  asleep,  which  he  did  on  one  occasion  particularly,  when 
 he  had  assumed  the  form  of  a  porter,  and,  wearied  with  his  task, 
 resigned  himself  under  a  tree  to  the  influence 
 
 "  Of  nature's  soft  restorer,  balmy  sleep." 
 — From  these  circumstances,  it  appears  that  the  sarcastic  observa- 
 tions of  the  prophet  were  thrown  out  in  ridicule  of  the  prevailing 
 ideas  of  the  priests  and  devotees  of  Baal ;  and  they  were  rendered 
 the  more  cutting,  by  his  recommending  them  'to  cry  aloud;' 
 the  very  last  attempt  to  gain  the  ear  of  their  deity  they  would 
 have  dreamt  of  making,  as  it  is  considered  the  greatest  impro- 
 priety to  disturb  any  one  in  a  temple  or  sacred  place,  when  he  is 
 meditating,  or  to  trouble  him  when  engaged  in  the  pleasures  of 
 the  chase — in  prosecuting  a  journey,  or  the  enjoyment  of  repose. 
 The  proposal  was  made  by  Elijah,  as  if,  in  the  extremity  of  their 
 distress,  they  should  break  through  the  ordinary  rules  of  respect 
 for  their  God,  more  particularly  as  the  occasion  so  greatly  con- 
 cerned his  honour;  and,  as  if  he  wished  to  afford  the  spectators 
 the  strongest  proofs,  according  to  the  popular  notions,  of  the 
 impotence  and  insignificance  of  the  idol,  to  whom  they  had  been 
 taught  to  prostrate  themselves  with  blind  homage. — Jamieson's 
 Eastern  Manners. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  altar,  which  the  sacred  author  here  calls  '  the  altar  of  the 
 Lord,'  was  certainly  one  of  those  which  were  built  in  the  time  of 
 the  judges,  and  first  kings  of  Israel;  when,  for  want  of  a  fixed 
 place  of  worship,  such  structures  were  permitted.  Botli  Taci- 
 tus (b.  2.  c.  74,)  and  Suetonius,  speak  of  the  God  of  Carme], 
 whom  Vespasian  went  to  consult  when  he  was  at  Judea.  His 
 priest  Basilides  promised  him  all  manner  of  prosperity  aud  suc- 
 cess in  his  undertakings;  but,  as  the  two  historians  tell  u^,  there 
 was  neither  temple  nor  statue  upon  the  mountain,  but  one  altar 
 only,  plain  but  very  venerable  for  its  antiquity.  Some  are  of 
 opinion,  that  this  Basilides  was  a  Jew,  and  priest  of  the  Most 
 High  God;  but  it  seems  more  reasonable  that  he  was  a  pagan 
 priest,  and  probably  the  same  who  met  Vespasian  in  the  temple 
 of  Serapis  in  Egypt.  However  this  be,  the  altar  of  Carmel 
 seems  to  have  had  its  origin  from  this  altar  of  the  true  God, 
 which  the  ancient  Hebrews  first  erected,  and  Elijah  afterwards 
 repaired  ;  which  even  the  heathens  held  in  such  veneration,  that 
 when  they  came  to  be  masters  of  the  country,  they  would  not 
 place  so  much  as  an  image  by  it. —  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  This  the  prophet  did  to  make  the  miracle  more  conspicuous 
 and  convincing,  to  show,  that  there  was  no  fallacy  in  it,  no  fire 
 concealed  in  or  about  the  altar,  but  that  the  lightning,  which 
 was  to  consume  the  sacrifice,  came  from  heaven,  and  came  at  his 
 invocation;  for  so  Josephus  tells  us,  that  Elijah  invited  the  peo- 
 ple to  draw  near,  even  that  they  might  search,  and  spy  every- 
 where if  they  could  find  any  fire  that  was  conveyed  under  the 
 altar. — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  8.  c.  7 ;  Calmet's  aud  Le  Clerc's 
 Commentaries. 
 
564 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.    M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 offering-  the  evening  sacrifice,  when,  having  prepared  all 
 things,  he  approached  the  altar,  and  prayed  in  this  man- 
 ner :  '  Lord  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  show 
 this  day,  that  thou  art  the  God  of  Israel,  that  I  am  thy 
 servant,  and  that  it  is  by  thy  commandment  that  I  have 
 done  this  thing.  °  Hear  me,  O  Lord,  hear  me,  that  these 
 people  may  understand,  that  thou  art  the  Lord  God, 
 and  that  their  hearts  may  be  converted  from  their  idol 
 unto  thee.'  And  no  sooner  had  he  ended  this  short 
 prayer,  but  a  fire  fell  from  heaven,  *  and  consumed  not 
 only  the  biirnt-oftering,  but  the  wood  and  stones,  nay, 
 the  very  dust  of  the  place,  and  the  water  that  was  in  the 
 trench  ;  insomuch,  that,  when  the  people  saw  the  miracle, 
 they  fell  on  their  faces,  and  in  admiration  and  acknow- 
 ledgment of  it,  owned  that  the  God  of  Elijah  was  the 
 true  God  :  c  whereupon  he  ordered  them  to  seize  on  the 
 priests  of  Baal  as  a  pack  of  cheats  and  impostors,  to 
 carry  them  down  from  the  mountain,  and  to  slay  them  all 
 at  the  brook  Kishon. 
 
 Afterthis  justexecution  was  finished, the  prophet  return- 
 ed to  the  top  of  the  mountain,  from  whence  he  might  view 
 the  Mediterranean  sea  ;  where,  having  prayed  for  rain,  d 
 
 a  He  was  the  more  earnest  and  fervent  in  his  prayer,  as  Abar- 
 binel  thinks,  because  he  had  undertaken  to  make  the  experiment 
 of  God's  power  on  his  own  accord,  and  without  any  particular 
 command  from  him,  nothing  doubting,  but  that  he  would  appear 
 to  vindicate  his  own  honour,  even  though  he  offered  sacrifice  on 
 a  high  place,  which  was  not  agreeable  to  the  law. — Patrick's 
 Commentary.  There  is  no  ground  whatever,  for  supposing  that 
 Elijah  in  this  affair  acted  on  his  own  responsibility ;  on  the  con- 
 trary, he  expressly  declares  in  his  prayer,  that  he  had  acted  ac- 
 cording to  the  commandment  of  God. — Ed. 
 
 b  1  Kings  xviii.  38.  Bishop  Patrick  apprehends  that  God 
 testified  his  approbation  of  Abel's  sacrifice  by  a  stream  of  fight, 
 or  a  flame  from  the  shekinah,  which  burned  it  up.  In  this  opinion 
 many  aucient  writers  concur;  remarking  that  footsteps  of  it  may 
 be  met  with  in  many  other  cases.  (See  Gen.  xv.  17.  Lev.  ix. 
 24.  Judg.  vi.  21.  1  Chron.  xxi.  26.  2  Chron.  vii.  13.  Ps.  xx. 
 3,  marginal  reading.)  Some  relics  of  it  are  to  be  found  among 
 the  heathen:  for  when  the  Greeks  went  on  shipboard  to  the 
 Trojan  war,  Homer  represents  Jupiter  promising  them  good  suc- 
 cess in  this  manner.  {Iliad,  ii.  354.)  And  thunder  sometimes 
 accompanying  lightning,  Virgil  makes  him  establish  covenants 
 in  that  manner.  After  yEneas  had  called  the  sun  to  witness, 
 Latinus  lilts  up  his  eyes  and  right  hand  to  heaven,  saying,  "  Let 
 the  (heavenly)  father  hear  what  I  say,  who  established  covenants 
 with  thunder."  {JEneid,  xii.  200.)  From  some  early  instances 
 of  this  kind  the  heathen  seem  to  have  derived  their  notions 
 that  when  a  sacrifice  took  fire  spontaneously,  it  was  a  happy 
 omen.  Pausanias  says,  that  when  Seleucus,  who  accompanied 
 Alexander  in  his  expedition  from  Macedonia,  was  sacrificing  at 
 lVlla  to  Jupiter,  the  wood  advanced  of  its  own  accord  towards  the 
 image,  anil  was  kindled  without  fire.  See  also  Lev.  ix.  24. 
 1  Chron.  xxi.  26.  2  Chron.  vii.  1. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  process  of  this  consumption  is  very  remarkable,  and  all 
 calculated  to  remove  the  possibility  of  a  suspicion  that  there  was 
 any  concealed  fire.  1.  The  fire  came  down  from  heaven.  2. 
 The  pieces  of  the  sacrifices  were  first  consumed.  3.  The  wood 
 next,  to  show  that  it  was  not  even  by  means  of  the  wood  that  the 
 flesh  was  burned.  4.  The  twelve  stones  were  also  consumed,  to 
 show  that  it  was  no  common  fire,  but  one  whose  agency  nothing 
 could  resist.  5.  The  dust,  the  earth  of  which  the  altar  was  con- 
 structed, was  burned  up.  6.  The  water  that  was  in  the  trench,  was 
 by  the  action  of  this  fire  entirely  evaporated.  7.  The  action  of  this 
 fire  was  in  every  case  downward,  contrary  to  the  nature  of  all 
 earthly  and  material  fire.  Nothing  can  be  more  simple  and  artless 
 than  this  description,  yet  bow  amazingly  full  and  satisfactory  is 
 the  whole  account. — Br  A.  Clarke. — En. 
 
 d  1  Kings  xviii.  42.  '  And  Elijah  went  up  to  the  top  of  Car- 
 mel,  and  he  cast  himself  down  upon  the  earth,  and  put  his  lace 
 between  his  knees.'  The  devout  posture  of  some  people  of  the 
 Levant  greatly  resembles  that  of  Elijah.  Just  before  the  descent 
 oi  the  rain,  he  cast  himself  down  upon  the  earth,  and  put  his  face 
 
 he  sent  his  servant  seven  times  to  see  if  he  could  perceive 
 any  appearance  of  it :  and  he  at  last  brought  him  back 
 word,  that  he  saw  a  small  cloud  rising  out  of  the  sea,  e 
 no  bigger,  to  look  at,  than  a  man's  hand  ;  whereupon  he 
 commanded  him  immediately  to  go  to  Ahab,  and  to  ad- 
 vise him  to  hasten  to  his  chariot,  and  make  the  best  of  his 
 way  home,  lest  the  rain  should  stop  him.  The  king  took 
 his  advice,  and  the  prophet,  having  /  girded  up  his  vest 
 about  him,  ran  all  the  way  before  him  to  Jezreel. 
 
 As  soon  as  queen  Jezebel  understood  what  Elijah  had 
 done,  and  more  especially,  how  he  had  caused  all  the 
 prophets  of  Baal  to  be  slain,  she  vowed  revenge,  and  B 
 sent  him  word,  that  his  life  the  next  day  should  certainly 
 pay  for  theirs  :  whereupon,  not  thinking  himself  safe  in 
 Ahab's  dominions,  he  withdrew  to  a  town  in  the  southern 
 parts  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  called  Beersheba,  where  he  dis- 
 missed his  servant,  and,  pursuing  his  journey  farther  into 
 Arabia  Petnea,  walked  all  day  :  but  in  the  evening,  be- 
 ing extremely  fatigued,  he  laid  himself  down  under  a 
 juniper  tree,  sick  with  the  world,  and  desirous  to  leave 
 it.     He  had  not,  however,  slept  long,  before  an  angel, 
 
 between  his  knees.  Chardin  relates  that  the  dervises,  especially 
 those  of  the  Indies,  put  themselves  into  this  posture,  in  order  to 
 meditate,  and  also  to  repose  themselves.  They  tie  their  knees 
 against  their  belly  with  their  girdles,  and  lay  their  heads  on  the 
 top  of  them,  and  this,  according  to  them,  is  the  best  posture  for 
 recollection. — Harmer,  vol.  ii.  p.  506. — Ed. 
 
 e  When  Elijah's  servant  reported  to  his  master,  that  he  saw  a 
 little  cloud  arising  out  of  the  sea  like  a  man's  hand,  he  command- 
 ed him  to  go  up  and  say  to  Ahab,  '  Prepare  thy  chariot,  and  get 
 thee  down,  that  the  rain  stop  thee  not.'  This  circumstance  was 
 justly  considered  as  the  sure  indication  of  an  approaching  shower, 
 '  for  it  came  to  pass  in  the  mean  while,  that  the  heaven  was 
 black  with  clouds  and  wind,  and  there  was  a  great  rain.'  Mr 
 Bruce  {Travels,  vol.  iii.  p.  669)  has  an  observation  which  greatly 
 corroborates  this  relation.  He  says,  "  there  are  three  remarkable 
 appearances  attending  the  inundation  of  the  Nile:  eveiy  morning 
 in  Abyssinia  is  clear,  and  the  sun  shines ;  about  nine,  a  small 
 cloud  not  above  four  feet  broad,  appears  in  the  east,  whirling  vio- 
 lently round,  as  if  upon  an  axis ;  but  arrived  near  the  zenith,  it  first 
 abates  its  motion,  then  loses  its  form,  and  extends  itself  greatly, 
 and  seems  to  call  up  vapours  from  all  opposite  quarters.  These 
 clouds  having  attained  nearly  the  same  height,  rush  against  each 
 other  with  great  violence,  and  put  me  always  in  mind  of  Elijah's 
 foretelling  rain  on  Mount  Carmel.  The  air,  impelled  before  the 
 heaviest  mass,  or  swiftest  mover,  makes  an  impression  of  its  own 
 form,  in  the  collection  of  clouds  opposite,  and  the  moment  it  has 
 taken  possession  of  the  space  made  to  receive  it,  the  most  violent 
 thunder  possible  to  be  conceived  instantly  follows,  with  rain ;  and 
 after  some  hours  the  sky  again  clears." — Ed. 
 
 f  In  this  country,  loose  and  long  garments  were  in  use ;  and 
 therefore,  when  the  people  were  minded  to  run,  or  make  any 
 great  expedition,  their  custom  was  to  gird  them  round  their  waist: 
 but  why  the  prophet  condescended  to  become,  as  it  were,  the 
 king's  running  footman  upon  this  occasion,  was  to  show  the  world, 
 that  his  extraordinary  power,  in  working  miracles,  and  the  con- 
 quest he  had  thereby  gained  over  his  enemies,  had  not  made  him 
 proud,  and  to  satisfy  the  king  of  his  readiness  to  do  him  afl  the 
 honour  imaginable;  that  he  was  far  from  being  his  enemy,  and 
 only  desired  he  would  become  the  true  worshipper  of  God,  who 
 was,  as  he  could  not  but  see,  the  Lord  God  of  Israel.—  Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 g  This  certainly  was  the  effect  of  her  blind  rage,  and  not  of 
 any  prudence  in  her:  for  prudence  would  have  advised  her  to 
 conceal  her  resentment  until  she  had  been  ready  to  put  her  de- 
 signs in  execution;  whereas  this  sending  him  word,  was  giving 
 him  notice  of  his  danger,  and  admonishing  him  to  avoid  it.  But, 
 since  he  had  the  confidence  to  come  where  she  was,  she  might 
 think  perhaps,  that  he  was  as  courageous  as  she  was  furious ;  that 
 upon  this  notice  he  would  scorn  to  fly;  and  she  too,  in  her  pride, 
 might  scorn  to  kill  him  secretly  or  surreptitiously,  resolving  to 
 make  him  a  public  sacrifice. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Poole's 
 Annotations. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 565 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4482.  A.  C.  929.  1   KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 who  had  brought  him  meat  and  drink,  awoke  him,  and 
 bade  him  eat  heartily,  because  he  had  a  long- journey  to 
 take.  The  prophet  did  as  he  was  ordered,  and  in  the 
 strength  of  that  repast,  walked  a  40  days  and  40  nights, 
 until  he  came  to  Mount  Horeb,  the  place  where  God  at 
 first  delivered  the  law  to  Moses.  Here  he  betook  him- 
 self to  a  cave,  intending"  very  probably  to  spend  the 
 remainder  of  his  days  in  retirement ;  but  he  had  not 
 been  long-  in  the  place,  before  he  had  a  vision,  wherein 
 God  having-  first,  by  several  *  emblems,  made  him  sen- 
 sible of  his  almighty  power  and  presence,  c  gave  him  to 
 
 a  From  Beersheba  to  Mount  Horeb  is,  at  the  most,  not  above 
 150  miles,  and  the  prophet,  it  seems,  had  advanced  one  day's  jour- 
 ney into  the  wilderness;  so  that  he  had  hot  now  more  to  finish 
 than  any  active  man  might  have  done  in  four  or  five  days  at 
 most:  how  came  the  prophet  then  to  make  forty  of  it  ?  To  this 
 some  reply,  that  he,  as  the  Israelites  of  old,  was  kept  wander- 
 ing up  and  down  this  pathless  wilderness  forty  days,  as  they  were 
 forty  years,  till,  at  length,  he  hit  upon  this  sacred  mountain. 
 Others  suppose  that  he  went  about  by  private  ways,  and  perhaps 
 sometimes  rested,  and  lay  hid,  in  order  to  prevent  discovery. 
 lint,  when  he  was  got  into  the  wilderness,  one  would  think  lie 
 might  have  been  safe,  and  proceeded  straightway,  if  he  knew  the 
 straight  way  to  the  place  intended.  1  was  thinking,  therefore, 
 that  there  would  be  no  solecism,  if  we  should  say,  that  the  time 
 of  going  to,  staying  at,  and  coming  from,  the  mount  of  Horeb, 
 is  to  be  included  in  these  forty  days,  though,  in  a  short  narration, 
 words  may  be  so  expressed,  as  if  the  journey  only  had  taken  up 
 all  that  time. — Patrick's,  Calmet's,  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries, 
 b  Elijah  being  now  come  to  the  same  place,  where  God  had 
 delivered  the  law  to  his  servant  Moses,  God  was  minded  to  com- 
 municate the  like  favour  to  his  servant  the  prophet,  namely,  to 
 unveil  his  majesty  to  him,  and  give  him  some  signal  of  his  im- 
 mediate presence:  but  there  is  something  very  remarkable  in  the 
 words  of  the  text.  '  And  behold  the  Lord  passed  by,  and  a  strong 
 wind  rent  the  mountains,  and  brake  in  pieces  the  rocks,  but  the 
 Lord  was  not  in  the  wind ;  and  after  the  wind,  an  earthquake, 
 but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  earthquake ;  and  after  the  earth- 
 quake, a  fire,  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  fire ;  and  after  the 
 fire,  a  still  small  voice,'  (I  Kings  xix.  11,  &c.)  And  various 
 are  the  speculations  which  this  appearance  of  the  divine  majesty 
 hath  suggested  to  interpreters.  The  generality  of  them  have 
 looked  upon  this  as  a  figure  of  the  gospel  dispensation,  which 
 came,  not  in  such  a  terrible  manner  as  the  law  did,  with  storms, 
 thunders,  lightnings,  and  earthquakes  (Exod.  xix.  16.),  but  with 
 great  Utnity  and  sweetness,  wherein  God  speaks  to  us  by  his  Son, 
 who  makes  use  of  no  other  but  gentle  arguments  and  soft  persua- 
 sions. But,  if  we  take  this  to  be  a  symbolical  admonition  to 
 Elijah,  according  to  the  circumstances  he  was  then  in,  we  may 
 reasonably  suppose,  that  herein  Gud  intended  to  show  him,  that, 
 though  lie  had  all  the  elements  ready  armed  at  his  command  to 
 destroy  idolaters,  if  he  pleased  to  make  use  of  them,  yet  he  had 
 rather  attain  his  end  by  patience,  and  tenderness,  and  long-suf- 
 fering, signified  by  that  small  still  voice,  wherein  the  Deity  ex- 
 hibited himself,  and  consequently,  that  the  prophet  should  hereby 
 be  incited  to  imitate  him,  bridling  that  passionate  zeal  to  which 
 his  natural  complexion  did  but  too  much  incline  him. — Le  Clerc's, 
 Calmet's,  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 c  '  And  Elijah  wrapped  his  face  in  his  mantle  and  went  out,' 
 (I  Kings  xix.  13.)  The  Jews  accounted  ita  token  of  reverence  to 
 Have  their  feet  bare  in  public  worship,  and  to  have  their  heads 
 covered.     This  was  accordingly  the  practice,  not  of  the  priests 
 only,  but  of  the  people  also;  and  the  latter  practice  remains  so  to 
 this  day.     Thus,  on  the  divine  appearance  to  Moses  in  the  bush, 
 it  is  said,  'he  hid  his  face,  for  he  was  afraid  to  look  upon   God  ' 
 (Exod.  iii.  6.);  and  on  the   extraordinary   manifestation    of  the 
 divine   presence  to  Elijah,  '  he  wrapped  his  face   in   his  mantle.' 
 <bi    the   same   account  perhaps  the  angels   were  represented   in 
 vision  to  Isaiah  as  covering  their  faces  with  their  wings  iu  the 
 presence  of  Jehovah  (Is.  vi.  2.).    The  ancient  Romans  performed 
 their  sacred  rites  with  a  covering  on  their  heads.     Thus  Virgil: 
 Our  way  we  bend 
 To  Pallas,  Bad  the  sacred  lull  ascend: 
 There  prostrate  to  tin'  fierce  virago  pray, 
 Whose  temple  was  Hie  landmark  of  our  way, — 
 Each  with  a  Phrygian  mantle  veil'd  liis  head. 
 
 understand,  that  the  number  of  his  true  worshippers  was 
 gTeater  than  he  imagined,  d  and  that  he  would  not  fail 
 to  take  vengeance  on  the  house  of  Ahab  for  their  abomin- 
 able idolatry.  To  this  purpose  he  ordered  him  to  re- 
 turn into  his  own  country  by  the  way  of  Damascus, 
 where  he  was  to  anoint  Hazael  king  of  Syria,  Jehu 
 king  of  Israel,  and  to  appoint  Elisha  his  successor  in 
 the  prophetic  office  ;  intimating  hereby,  that  these  men  e 
 would  be  proper  instruments,  in  his  almighty  hand, 
 whereby  to  punish  the  idolatry  of  Israel,  and  to  assert 
 the  righteousness  of  his  own  cause. 
 
 This  was  a  matter  of  some  comfortable  expectation  (o 
 Elijah  :  and  therefore  leaving  Horeb,  in  his  return  by 
 the  way  of  Damascus,  /  he  found  Elisha  at  plough,  and 
 as  he  passed  by,  S  cast  his  mantle  upon  him ;  which  the 
 
 The  Greeks,  on  the  contrary,  performed  their  sacred  rites 
 bareheaded.  St  Paul,  therefore,  writing  to  the  Corinthians,  who 
 were  Greeks,  says,  '  every  man  praying  or  prophesying  with  his 
 head  covered  dishonoured!  his  head.'  (1  Cor.  xi.  4.) — Ed. 
 
 d  '  Yet  I  have  left  me  seven  thousand  in  Israel,  all  the  knees 
 which  have  not  bowed  unto  Baal,  and  every  mouth  which  hath 
 not  kissed  him.'  (1  Kings  xix.  18.)  Bowing  the  knee  was  an  act 
 of  worship,  and  so  was  kissing  the  idol.  This  was  dotie  two 
 ways,  either  by  applying  their  mouth  immediately  to  the  image, 
 or  kissing  the  hand  before  the  image,  and  then  stretching  it  out, 
 and,  as  it  were,  throwing  the  kiss  to  it. — Ed. 
 
 e  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that 
 him  that  escapeth  the  sword  of  Hazael,  shall  Jehu  slay;  and  him 
 that  escapeth  from  the  sword  of  Jehu  shall  Elisha  slay  '  (1  Kings 
 xix.  17.)  Where  it  is  easy  to  observe,  that  these  things  are  not 
 mentioned  according  to  the  order  of  time  wherein  they  fell  out, 
 for  Elisha  was  a  prophet  before  Hazael  was  king,  and  Hazael  was 
 king  before  Jehu,  but  they  are  spoken  of  according  to  the  decree 
 of  God,  who,  as  Abarbinel  observes,  appointed  every  one  to  exe- 
 cute that  which  was  proper  for  him  to  do:  "Thus  he  intended," 
 continues  that  learned  commentator,  "  that  Hazael  should  destroy 
 the  idolaters  of  Israel  in  battle,  and  therefore  he  mentions  that 
 first,  because  it  is  a  general  calamity  ;  but  as  Jezebel,  the  children 
 of  Ahab,  and  the  priests  of  Baa],  went  not  to  fight,  and  conse- 
 quently could  not  fall  in  battle,  he  ordained  Jehu  to  cut  off  them, 
 and  all  the  worshippers  of  Baal,  in  the  manner  that  we  find  he 
 did:  but  as  he  did  not  know  the  disposition  of  little  children,  he 
 left  them  to  be  punished  by  Elisha,  who  by  the  spirit  of  pro- 
 phecy, foresaw  that  they  would  become  idolaters."  But  in  this 
 there  seems  to  be  more  subtilty  than  needs,  since  the  plain  sense 
 of  the  words  is  no  more  than  this: — "  That  God,  in  his  provi- 
 dence, had  appointed  three  persons  to  punish  the  Israelites  ac- 
 cording to  their  deserts;  and  that  one  or  other  of  these  should 
 infallibly  execute  his  judgments  upon  them."  The  only  diili- 
 culty  is,  how  the  prophet  Elisha  can  be  said  to  slay,  when,  by 
 profession,  he  was  a  pacific  man,  and  never  engaged  in  war?  But 
 when  we  consider  the  two  and  forty  children  which  he  destroyed, 
 besides  others,  whom,  upon  the  like  occasion,  he  might  destroy; 
 the  sore  famine,  which,  by  God's  appointment,  he  sent  upon  the 
 Israelites,  (2  Kings  vi.  25.)  and  the  many  cutting  prophecies 
 and  comminations  called  in  Scripture  '  the  sword  of  the  mouth,' 
 (Is.  xlix.  2.  and  Rev.  i.  hi.)  which  he  denounced  against  them, 
 and  which  were  fulfilled,  we  shall  find  reason  enough  to  justify 
 the  expression. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 /So  far  was  this  from  being  any  argument  of  bis  poverty,  that 
 it  was  in  reality  a  token  of  his  wealth  and  great  riches:  for  he 
 who  could  keep  twelve  joke  of  Oxen  at  plough,  was  in  this  respect 
 no  inconsiderable  man,  and  yet  according  to  the  manner  of  these 
 early  times,  he  looked  after  his  own  business  himself;  for  nothing 
 was  of  greater  esteem,  not  only  among  the  Hebrews,  but  among 
 the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  likewise,  than  agriculture,  and 
 such  persons  as  were  of  the  best  quality  were  called  odiTovoysi, 
 men  who  did  their  work  themselves,  and  left  not  the  care  of  it 
 to  others.  Elisha  therefore  was  taken  from  the  plough  to  be  a 
 prophet,  in  like  manner  as  among  the  Romans  afterwards,  some 
 were  taken  from  thence  to  be  consuls  and  dictators. — Patrick  s 
 Commentary, 
 
 ,/  The  mantle  was  the  proper  habit  of  prophets  (2  Kings  i.  S.), 
 anil    then  lore   Elijah's  casting  it  upon  him   «as  the   ceremony 
 
566 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   VI. 
 
 A.  M.  300).  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4482.  A.  C.  920.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 other  understanding  to  be  a  call  to  the  prophetic  min- 
 istry, "  as  soon  as  he  had  settled  his  private  concerns, 
 
 here  used  for  his  inauguration:  though,  as  it  was  customary  for 
 servants  to  cany  their  masters'  garments  alter  them,  others  un- 
 derstand it  only  as  a  token  that  Elisha  was  to  be  his  servant,  to 
 attend  upon  him,  and  succeed  in  his  office.  However  this  be, 
 it  is  probable,  that  when  he  cast  his  mantle  upon  him,  he  said 
 something  to  Elisha,  whereby  he  acquainted  him  with  his  de- 
 sign, though  the  particular  words,  in  so  short  an  history,  are  not 
 expressed. — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 a  1  Kings  xix.  21.  Elijah  is  commanded  (ver.  16.)  to  anoint 
 Elisha  prophet  in  his  room.  1.  Though  it  is  generally  believed  that 
 kings,  priests,  and  prophets,  were  inaugurated  into  their  respec- 
 tive offices  by  the  rite  of  unction,  and  this  I  have  elsewhere 
 supported ;  yet  this  is  the  only  instance  on  record  where  a  pro- 
 phet is  commanded  to  be  anointed;  and  even  this  case  is  pro- 
 blematical, for  it  does  not  appear  that  Elijah  did  anoint  Elisha. 
 Nothing  is  mentioned  in  his  call  to  the  prophetic  office,  but  the 
 casting  the  mantle  of  Elijah  upon  him ;  wherefore  it  is  probable 
 that  the  word  anoint,  here  signifies  no  more  than  the  call  to  the 
 office,  accompanied  by  the  simple  rite  of  having  the  prophet's 
 mantle  thrown  over  his  shoulders.  2.  A  call  to  the  ministerial 
 office,  though  it  completely  sever  from  all  secular  occupations, 
 yet  never  supersedes  the  duties  of  filial  affection.  Though  Elisha 
 must  leave  his  oxen,  and  become  a  prophet  to  Israel;  yet  he  may 
 fust  go  home,  eat  and  drink  with  his  parents  and  relatives,  and 
 bid  them  an  affectionate  farewell.  3.  We  do  not  find  any  at- 
 tempt on  the  part  of  his  parents  to  hinder  him  from  obeying  the 
 divine  call:  they  had  too  much  respect  for  the  authority  of  God, 
 and  they  left  their  son  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience.  Woe 
 to  those  parents  who  strive,  for  filthy  lucre's  sake,  to  prevent 
 their  son  from  embracing  a  call  to  preach  Jesus  to  their  perishing 
 countrymen,  or  to  the  heathen,  because  they  see  that  the  life  of 
 a  true  evangelist  is  a  life  of  comparative  poverty,  and  they  had 
 rather  he  should  gain  money  than  save  souls.  4.  The  cloak,  we 
 have  already  observed,  was  the  prophet's  peculiar  habit;  it  was 
 probably  in  imitation  of  this  that  the  Greek  philosophers  wore  a 
 sort  of  mantle,  that  distinguished  them  from  the  common  people ; 
 and  by  which  they  were  at  once  as  easily  known  as  certain  aca- 
 demical characters  are  by  their  gowns  and  square  caps.  The 
 pallium  was  as  common  among  the  Greeks  as  the  toga  was  among 
 the  Romans.  Each  of  these  was  so  peculiar  to  those  nations, 
 that  Palliatus  is  used  to  signify  a  Greek,  as  Togatus  is  to  signify 
 a  Roman.  5.  Was  it  from  this  act  of  Elijah,  conveying  the  pro- 
 phetic office  and  its  authority  to  Elisha  by  throwing  his  mantle 
 upon  him,  that  the  popes  of  Rome  borrowed  the  ceremony  of  col- 
 lating an  archbishop  to  the  spiritualities  and  temporalities  of  his 
 see,  and  investing  him  with  plenary  sacerdotal  authority,  by  send- 
 ing him  what  is  well  known  in  ecclesiastical  history  by  the  name 
 of  pallium,  pall,  or  cloak  ?  1  think  this  is  likely,  for  as  we  learn 
 from  Zech.  xiii.  4,  and  2  Kings  i.  8,  that  this  mantle  was  a 
 rough  or  hairy  garment,  so  we  learn  from  Durandus  that  the 
 pallium  or  pall  was  made  of  white  wool,  after  the  following 
 manner: — The  nuns  of  St  Agnes,  annually  on  the  festival  of 
 their  patroness,  offer  two  white  lambs  on  the  altar  of  their  church 
 'luring  the  time  they  sing  Agnus  Dei,  in  a  solemn  mass;  which 
 lambs  are  afterwards  taken  by  two  of  the  canons  of  the  Lateral i 
 church,  and  by  them  given  to  the  pope's  subdeacons,  who  send 
 them  to  pasture  till  shearing  time;  and  then  they  are  shorn,  and 
 the  pall  is  made  of  their  wool,  mixed  with  other  white  wool.  The 
 pall  is  then  carried  to  the  Lateran  church,  and  there  placed  on 
 the  high  altar  by  the  deacons,  on  the  bodies  of  St  Peter  and  St 
 Paul ;  and,  after  an  usual  watching  or  vigil,  it  is  carried  away  in 
 the  night,  and  delivered  to  the  subdeacons,  who  lay  it  up  safely. 
 Now,  because  it  was  taken  from  the  body  of  St  Peter,  it  signifies 
 the  plenitude  of  ecclesiastical  power;  and,  therefore,  the  popes 
 assume  it  as  their  prerogative,  being  the  professed  successors  of 
 this  apostle,    to   invest  other  prelates  with  it.     It  was  at  first 
 
 ' ""',l  t0  Rome,  but  afterwards  it  was  sent  to  popish  prelates 
 
 in  different  pan-  of  the  world.  (i.  It  seems,  from  the  place  in 
 Zechariah  quoted  above,  that  this  rough  cloak  or  garment  became 
 the  covering  of  hypocrites  and  deceivers;  and  that  persons  as- 
 sumed the  prophetic  call;  and  God  threatens  to  unmask  them. 
 V  e  know  that  this  became  general  in  the  popish  church  in  the 
 beginning  of  the  1 6th  century;  and  God  snipped  those  false 
 prophets  of  their  false  and  wicked  pretensions,  and  exposed  them 
 to  the  people — See  JJr  Clark's  Commentary. — Ed. 
 
 went  with  Elijah,  and  was  his  servant  as  long  as  he 
 lived  ;  so  that  Elijah  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  go  to 
 Damascus,  upon  the  account  of  Hazael,  nor  to  speak 
 with  Jehu  in  Israel ;  but  left  these  affairs  to  be  trans- 
 acted by  Elisha,  whenever  a  fit  opportunity  should  offer. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  but  upon  what  provocation  it  is 
 not  said,  Benhadad  raised  a  vast  army  against  Ahab 
 king  of  Israel,  and  marched  directly  into  his  country, 
 with  a  design  to  invest  Samaria,  his  capital  city.  But 
 before  he  did  that,  he  sent  him  an  haughty  message,  de- 
 manding all  that  belonged  to  him,  in  satisfaction  for 
 some  presumed  affront.  Ahab  was  in  no  condition  to 
 oppose  him,  and  therefore  he  tamely  submitted  himself 
 to  his  mercy  :  but  this  tameness  only  inflamed  Benhadad's 
 insolence,  so  that,  in  his  next  message,  he  demanded  all 
 things  to  be  immediately  put  into  his  hand  ;  which,  when 
 the  king  of  Israel  understood,  he  called  a  general  coun- 
 cil of  the  kingdom  to  advise  what  to  do.  They  unani- 
 mously agreed  to  stand  by  their  king  to  the  last  extremity  ; 
 which,  when  Benhadad's  ambassadors  told  him,  he  fell 
 into  a  great  rage,  and  immediately  ordered  his  army  to 
 invest  Samaria  ;  but  while  he  lay  before  the  town,  h  God, 
 who  was  justly  provoked  at  this  proud  Syrian,  sent  c  a 
 prophet  to  Ahab,  not  only  to  assure  him  of  victory,  but 
 to  instruct  him  likewise  d  in  what  method  he  was  to  at- 
 tain it ;  which  succeeded  so  well  that  Benhadad  himself 
 had  much  to  do  to  escape  with  his  life. 
 
 The  same  prophet,  however,  gave  the  king  of  Israel 
 great  caution  to  recruit  his  army,  and  be  upon  his  guard, 
 against  the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  because  then  the 
 
 b  1  Kings  xx.  12.  '  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Benhadad 
 heard  this  message,  as  he  was  drinking,  he  and  the  kings,  in  the 
 pavilions.'  &c.  The  pavilions  here  spoken  of  were  nothing  more 
 than  mere  booths  or  common  tents,  notwithstanding  Benhadad  and 
 the  kings  were  drinking  in  them.  That  great  and  even  royal 
 persons  occasionally  refreshed  or  indulged  themselves  in  this 
 manner,  is  clear  from  the  following  paragraph  in  Dr  Chandler's 
 Travels  in  the  Lesser  Asia,  (p.  149.)  "  While  we  were  em- 
 ployed on  the  theatre  of  Miletus,  the  aga  of  Suki,  son-in-law  by 
 marriage  to  Elez  Oglu,  crossed  the  plain  towards  us,  attended  by 
 a  considerable  train  of  domestics  and  officers,  their  vests  and  tur- 
 bans of  various  and  lively  colours,  mounted  on  long  tailed  horses, 
 with  showy  trappings,  and  glittering  furniture.  He  returned, 
 after  hawking,  to  Miletus,  and  we  went  to  visit  him,  with  a 
 present  of  coffee  and  sugar;  but  were  told  that  two  favourite  birds 
 had  flown  away,  and  that  he  was  vexed  and  tired.  A  couch  was 
 prepared  for  him  beneath  a  shed  made  against  a  cottage,  and 
 covered  with  green  boughs  to  keep  oil'  the  sun.  He  entered  as 
 we  were  standing  by,  and  fell  down  on  it  to  sleep,  without  tak- 
 ing any  notice  of  us." — Harmer,  vol.  iii.  p.  50. — Ed. 
 
 c  Who  the  prophet  was,  who  upon  this,  and  another  message 
 afterwards,  was  sent  to  Ahab,  the  Scripture  nowhere  informs  us. 
 It  is  somewhat  odd,  that  during  this  whole  war  with  Benhadad, 
 neither  Elijah  nor  Elisha,  the  two  principal  prophets  of  Israel 
 should  appear,  though  other  prophets,  whereof  there  seems  to  be 
 a  considerable  number,  make  no  scruple  of  executing  their  office; 
 whether  it  was,  that  this  war  commenced  before  Jezebel's  perse- 
 cution of  the  prophets,  or  that  this  impious  queen  abated  her  per- 
 secution, and  let  them  have  some  respite,  when  she  had  exter- 
 minated Elijah  as  she  thought. — Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  instruments  in  attaining  this  victory  were  to  be  'the 
 young  men  of  the  princes  of  the  provinces/ with  Ahab  at  the 
 head  of  them,  (1  Kings  xx.  14.)  The  Hebrew  word  has  some 
 ambiguity  in  it,  and  may  signify,  either  the  *  sons,'  or  the  '  ser- 
 vants '  of  the  '  princes  of'  the  provinces,'  either  young  noblemen 
 themselves,  or  their  father's  pages,  who  were  equally  brought  up 
 delicately,  and  quite  unaccustomed  to  war.  It  was  by  these  young 
 men,  and  not  by  old  experienced  officers  that  this  battle  was  to 
 be  won:  that  thereby  it  might  appear,  that  the  victory  was 
 wholly  owing  to  God's  gracious  and  powerful  providence,  and  not 
 to  the  valour,  or  fitness  of  the  instruments. — Poole's  Annot. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 587 
 
 \.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  4482.  A.  C.  929, 
 Syrians  designed  him  another  visit ;  which  accordingly 
 came  to  pass.  For  some  of  his  generals  having  per- 
 suaded the  king  of  Syria,  that  the  gods  of  the  Israelites 
 a  '  were  gods  of  the  hills,'  and,  therefore,  to  fight  them 
 with  advantage,  was  to  fight  them  in  a  champaign  coun- 
 try, he  raised  another  army  of  equal  force  with  that 
 he  had  lost  the  year  before,  and  came  and  sat  down 
 before  Apheck,  a  city  in  the  tribe  of  Asher.  Ahab,  how- 
 ever, was  prepared  to  receive  him,  and  though  with  a 
 force  far  inferior  to  the  Syrians,  marched  out  to  meet 
 them,  gave  them  battle,  put  them  to  the  rout,  and  slew 
 upon  the  spot  100,000  of  them. 
 
 The  vanquished  h  betook  themselves  to  Apheck,  but 
 were  far  from  folding  any  security  there  ;  for  the  provi- 
 dence of  God  pursued  them,  and  by  the  fall  of  the  walls 
 of  that  city,  destroyed  27,000  more  of  them:  so  that, 
 terrified  with  this  judgment,  Benhadad  went  to  hide  him- 
 self in  some  place  where  he  thought  he  could  not  be 
 easily  found ;  but  was,  at  length,  prevailed  on  by  his 
 chief  officers  to  send  ambassadors  to  Ahab,  in  the  hum- 
 blest manner,  clothed  c  in  sackcloth,  and    with   ropes 
 
 a  That  there  were  many  gods,  who  had  each  their  particular 
 charge  and  jurisdiction ;  that  some  presided  over  whole  countries, 
 whilst  others  had  but  particular  places  under  their  tuition  and  go- 
 vernment; and  were  some  of  them  gods  of  the  woods,  others  of 
 the  rivers,  and  others  of  the  mountains,  was  plainly  the  doctrine 
 of  all  heathen  nations.  Pan  was  reckoned  the  god  of  the  moun- 
 tains, for  which  reason  he  was  styled,  'O^'.iSarti;,  mountain 
 reamer;  and  in  like  manner  the  Syrians  might  have  a  conceit 
 that  the  God  of  Israel  was  a  God  of  the  mountains,  because 
 Canaan,  they  saw,  was  a  mountainous  land;  the  Israelites,  they 
 perceived,  delighted  to  sacrifice  on  high  places;  their  law,  they 
 might  have  heard,  was  given  on  the  top  of  a  mountain;  their 
 temple  stood  upon  a  famous  eminence,  as  did  Samaria,  where 
 they  had  so  lately  received  a  signal  defeat.  For  their  far- 
 ther notion  was,  that  the  gods  of  the  mountains  had  a  power  to 
 inject  a  panic  fear  into  an  army,  whenever  they  pleased.  Nay, 
 that  they  did  not  only  assist  with  their  influence,  but  actually 
 Riigage  themselves  in  battle,  in  behalf  of  their  favourites,  is  a  sen- 
 timent as  old  as  Homer,  and  what  Virgil  has  not  forgot  to  imi- 
 tate. "  Monsters  of  all  sorts  of  gods,  along  with  the  dog-headed 
 Anubis,  hurl  hostile  weapons  against  Neptune,  Venus,  and  Miner- 
 va: in  the  midst  of  the  contest  rages  the  god  of  war,  clothed  in 
 Steel:  around  them  flutter  in  the  air,  the  black  fates  of  death: 
 Discord  herself  is  seen  in  a  rent  garment,  leaping  in  joy  amid 
 the  carnage :  and  Belloua  is  following  her,  armed  with  a  bloody 
 whip."  (Eneid.  8.)  It  was  a  prevalent  notion  among  the  hea- 
 thens, not  only  that  all  deities  were  local,  but  that  they  had  no 
 power,  anywhere  but  in  that  country,  or  place,  over  which  they 
 presided.  It  is  very  likely  that  the  small  Israelitish  army 
 availed  themselves  of  the  heights  and  uneven  ground  to  fight  with 
 greater  advantage  against  the  Syrian  cavalry. — Home's  Intro- 
 duction, and  Dr  Clarke. — En. 
 
 b  Apheck,  or  Aphaca,  as  it  is  called  by  profane  authors,  was 
 situated  in  Libanus,  upon  the  river  Adonis,  between  Heliopolis 
 ind  Biblos:  and  in  all  probability  is  the  same  that  Paul  Lucas, 
 in  his  Voyage  du  Levant,  (vol.  i.  c.  20,)  speaks  of,  as  swallowed 
 up  in  a  lake  of  Mount  Libanus,  about  nine  miles  in  circumfer- 
 ence, wherein  there  are  several  houses  all  euti  re,  to  be  seen  under 
 water.  The  soil  about  this  place,  as  the  ancients  tell  us,  was 
 very  bituminous,  which  seems  to  confirm  their  opinion,  who 
 think  that  subterraneous  fires  consumed  the  solid  substance  of  the 
 earth,  whereon  the  city  stood,  so  that  it  subsided  and  sunk  at 
 once,  and  a  lake  was  soon  formed  in  its  place.— Cabinet' s  Com- 
 mentary and  Dictionary  under  the  word  Apheck. 
 
 c  This  was  the  posture  in  those  times,  wherein  supplicants 
 presented  themselves  when  they  petitioned  for  mercy.  The 
 sackcloth  upon  their  loins  was  a  token  of  their  sorrow  for  « hat 
 they  had  done;  and  the  halters  about  their  necks,  a  token  of  their 
 subjection  to  whatever  punishment  Ahab  should  think  fit  to  in- 
 flict upon  them:  for  which  reason  Bessus,  according  to  Curtius, 
 (l>.  7.)  was  brought  to  Alexander  with  a  chain  about  his  neck. — 
 Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  ENDOF2CHKON. 
 about  their  necks,  to  make  their  submission  upon  what 
 conditions  he  pleased.  <*  The  conditions  that  Ahab  in- 
 sisted on,  were  only,  that  the  Syrians  should  restore  all 
 the  country  which  they  had  taken  from  Baasha,  king  of 
 Israel,  and  grant  e  him  some  privileges  in  Damascus 
 their  capital,  as  a  token  of  their  homage  and  subjection  ; 
 which  the  other  very  readily  consented  to,  and  so  a 
 league  was  concluded  between  them:  but  a  league  so 
 offensive  to  God,  that  he  sent  a  prophet  immediately  to 
 reprove  Ahab  for  it ;  and  to  let  him  know,  "  That  had 
 he  destroyed  Benhadad,  as  God  had  put  it  in  his  power 
 his  dominions  should  have  been  annexed  to  the"  kingdom 
 of  Israel;  but  that  since /he  had  acted  otherwise,  his 
 life  should  pay  for  the  life  of  Benhadad  :  for  he  should 
 be  slain  in  battle  with  the  Syrians,  who  instead  of  being 
 held  in  subjection  to  the  Israelites,  should,  in  a  few 
 years,  as  they  were  in  the  reign  of  Hazael,  become  their 
 masters,  take  their  towns  from  them,  and  make  ravages 
 in  their  country."  But  instead  of  humbling  himself  at 
 the  denunciation  of  this  heavy  sentence,  or  expressing 
 any  sorrow  for  his  fault,  Ahab  became  but  more  sullen 
 and  obstinate,  and  in  a  short  time,  ^  added  this  farther 
 offence  to  his  other  great  crimes. 
 
 Not  far  from  the  royal  palace  of  Jezreel,  in  a  place 
 convenient  for  a  kitchen-garden,  there  was  one  Naboth, 
 
 d  1  Kings  xx.  32.  Approaching  persons  with  a  sword  hang- 
 ing to  the  neck,  is,  in  the  east,  a  very  humble  and  submissive 
 act.  Thevenot  has  mentioned  this  circumstance  (part  i.  p.  289,) 
 in  the  account  he  has  given  of  the  taking  of  Bagdad,  by  the 
 Turks,  in  1(338.  When  the  besieged  entreated  quarter,  the  prin- 
 cipal officer  went  to  the  grand  vizier,  with  a  scarf  about  his 
 neck,  and  his  sword  wreathed  in  it,  and  begged  mercy.  The  ropes 
 mentioned  in  this  passage  were  probably  what  they  suspended 
 their  swords  with. — Harmer,  vol.  ii.  p.  258. — Ed. 
 
 e  The  privilege  which  Benhadad  gave  to  Ahab  is  thus  expres- 
 sed: 'Thou  shalt  make  streets  for  thee  in  Damascus,  as  my 
 father  made  in  Samaria;'  but  then  the  learned  are  not  agreed 
 what  we  are  to  understand  by  '  streets.'  Some  suppose,  that 
 they  were  courts  of  judicature  where  Ahab  was  to  maintain  a 
 jurisdiction  over  Benhadad's  subjects.  Others  think  that  they 
 were  public  market  places,  where  commodities  were  sold,  and 
 the  toll  of  them  paid  to  Ahab;  but  the  most  general  opinion  is, 
 that  they  were  citadels  or  fortifications,  to  be  a  bridal  of  restraint 
 upon  this  chief  city  of  the  Syrians,  that  they  might  make  no  new 
 eruptions  into  the  land  of  Israel.  A  great  privilege  this  !  But 
 what  Benhadad,  when  he  found  himself  set  at  liberty,  refused  to 
 comply  with. — Patrick's  and    Calnufs  Commentaries. 
 
 f  If  it  should  be  asked,  wherein  lay  Ahab's  great  offence,  for 
 which  God  threatens  to  punish  him  so  severely  ?  The  ans\u  i 
 is, — that  it  consisted  in  suffering  so  horrid  a  blasphemer  as  Ben- 
 hadad was,  to  go  unpunished,  which  was  contrary  to  an  express 
 law,  (Lev.  xxiv.  1C.)  If  it  should  be  urged,  that  this  was  no 
 thing  to  Benhadad,  since  the  law  concerned  the  Israelites  only, 
 the  reply  is,  that  this  law  extended  not  to  those  only  that  were 
 born  in  the  land,  but  as  it  is  there  expressed  to  strangers  likewise 
 that  were  among  them,  and  in  their  power,  as  Benhadad  cer- 
 tainly was.  God  had  delivered  him  into  Ahab's  hands  for  his 
 blasphemy,  as  he  had  promised,  (1  Kings  xx.  28.)  and  therefore 
 this  act  of  providence,  compared  with  the  law,  did  plainly  inti- 
 mate, that  he  was  appointed  by  God  for  destruction:  but  so  fat 
 was  Ahab  from  punishing  him  as  he  deserved,  that  he  treats  him 
 like  a  friend  and  a  brother,  dismisses  him  upon  easy  term-;,  and 
 takes  his  bare  word  for  the  performance,  without  the  least  care 
 for  the  reparation  of  G oil's  honour. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 g  The  account  of  Ahab's  coveting  Nabuth's  vineyard,  as  Abar- 
 biuel  observes,  is  immediately  set  after  his  treatment  of  Benhadad, 
 to  show  his  extreme  great  wickedness  in  sparing  him,  as  Saul 
 did  Agag  king  of  the  Anialekites,  and  killing  Naboth,  that  he 
 might  get  possession  of  his  vineyard.  For  this  was  an  high  ag- 
 gravation of  his  crime,  that  he  basely  murdered  a  just  Israelite, 
 and  let  an  impious  em  my  escape. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
563 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 a  citizen  thereof,  who  had  .a  vineyard,  which  Ahab  was 
 very  desirous  of  obtaining  a  and  therefore  *  offered  the 
 owner  of  it  an  equivalent,  either  in  land  or  money ;  but 
 the  owner,  upon  the  account  of  its  being  his  paternal 
 inheritance,  refusing  to  part  with  it,  gave  Ahab  such 
 uneasiness,  that  he  took  his  bed  for  mere  discontent, 
 and  was  so  sullen  and  uneasy,  that  he  would  not  eat  his 
 meat.  But  when  his  wife  Jezebel  came  to  understand 
 the  cause,  she  first  upbraided  him  with  his  pusillanimity, 
 or  not  knowing  how  to  exert  the  authority  of  a  king,  and 
 then  to  cheer  him  up,  bid  him  drive  away  all  melancholy, 
 for  that  she  had  found  out  an  expedient  how  to  put  him 
 in  the  possession  of  Naboth's  vineyard.  To  this  pur- 
 pose she  wrote  letters  from  Samaria  in  Ahab's  name, 
 and  sealed   with  his  signet,  c  to  the  principal  men  of 
 
 a  1  Kings  xxi.  2.  '  Give  me  thy  vineyard.'  The  request  of 
 Ahab  seems  at  first  view  fair  and  honourable.  Naboth's  vineyard 
 was  nigh  to  the  palace  of  Ahab,  and  he  wished  to  add  it  to  his 
 own  for  a  kitchen  garden,  or  perhaps  a  grass  plot,  gan  yarak ;  and 
 he  oners  to  give  him  either  a  better  vineyard  for  it,  or  to  give 
 him  its  worth  in  money.  Naboth  rejects  the  proposal  with 
 horror:  'The  Lord  forbid  it  me,  that  I  should  give  the  inheri- 
 tance of  my  fathers  to  thee.'  No  man  could  finally  alienate  any 
 part  of  the  parental  inheritance;  it  might  be  sold  or  mortgaged 
 till  the  jubilee,  but  at  that  time  it  must  revert  to  its  original 
 owner,  if  not  redeemed  before ;  for  this  God  had  particularly  en- 
 joined, (Lev.  xxv.  14 — 17,  25 — 28.)  therefore  Naboth  properly 
 said,  ver.  3,  '  The  Lord  forbid  it  me,  to  give  the  inheritance  of 
 my  fathers.'  Ahab  most  evidently  wished  him  to  alienate  it 
 finally,  and  this  is  what  God's  law  had  expressly  forbidden  ;  there- 
 fore he  could  not,  consistently  with  his  duty  to  God,  indulge 
 Ahab;  and  it  was  high  iniquity  in  Ahab  to  tempt  him  to  do  it; 
 and  to  covet  it  showed  the  depravity  of  Ahab's  soul. — Ed. 
 
 b  By  this  it  appears,  that  though  the  kings  of  Israel  did  rule 
 their  subjects  in  a  very  arbitrary  and  despotic  manner,  yet  they 
 did  not  as  yet  take  the  liberty  to  seize  on  their  lands  and  here- 
 ditaments; and  therefore  what  Samuel  prophesies  of  the  kings  of 
 Israel,  that  '  they  would  take  their  fields,  their  vineyards,  and 
 their  olive-yards,'  (1  Sam.  viii.  14,)  does  not  extend  to  any  true 
 and  lawful,  but  a  presumed  and  usurped  right  only  in  their 
 kings. — Calmet's  Commentary . 
 
 c  1  Kings  xxi.  8.  '  Seal.'  Seals  are  of  very  ancient  invention. 
 Thus  Judah  left  his  seal  with  Tamar  as  a  pledge.  The  ancient 
 Hebrews  wore  their  seals  or  signets  in  rings  on  their  fingers,  or 
 in  bracelets  on  their  arms.  Sealing  rings,  called  annuli,  signa- 
 torii,  sigillares,  and  chirographi,  are  said  by  profane  authors  to 
 have  been  invented  by  the  Lacedsemonians,  who,  not  content  to 
 shut  their  chests,  armouries,  &c,  with  keys,  added  a  seal  also. 
 Letters  and  contracts  were  sealed  thus :  first  they  were  tied  up 
 with  thread  or  a  string,  then  the  wax  was  applied  to  the  knot 
 and  the  seal  impressed  upon  it.  Rings  seem  to  have  been  used 
 as  seals  in  almost  every  country.  Pliny,  however,  observes  that 
 seals  were  scarcely  used  at  the  time  of  the  Trojan  war  ■  the 
 method  of  shutting  up  letters  was  by  curious  knots,  which  inven- 
 tion was  particularly  honoured,  as  in  the  instance  of  the  Gordian 
 knot.  We  are  also  informed  by  Pliny,  that  in  his  time  no  seals 
 were  used  but  in  the  Roman  empire:  but  at  Rome  testaments 
 were  null  without  the  testator's  seal  and  the  seals  of  seven  wit- 
 nesses.— (Digest,  b.xxxvii.  tit.  de  Bonorum  Possessione.  Tf'ilson's 
 Archaol.  Diet.  art.  Seal.)  The  very  ancient  custom  of  sealing 
 dispatches  with  a  seal  or  signet,  set  in  a  ring,  is  still  retained  in 
 the  east.  Pococke  says,  (Travels,  vol.  i.  p.  186,  note,)  "  in 
 Egypt  they  make  the  impression  of  their  name  with  their  seal, 
 generally  of  cornelian,  which  they  wear  on  their  finger,  and 
 which  is  blacked  when  they  have  occasion  to  seal  with  it."  Han- 
 way  remarks  (Travels,  i.  317.)  that  "  the  Persian  ink  serves  not 
 only  for  writing,  but  for  subscribing  with  their  seal;  indeed 
 many  of  the  Persians  in  high  office  could  not  write.  In  their  rings 
 they  wear  agates,  which  serve  for  a  seal,  on  which  is  frequently 
 engraved  their  name,  and  some  verse  from  the  Koran."  Shaw 
 (Travels,  p.  247.)  says,  "  as  few  or  none  either  of  the  Arab 
 shekhs,  or  of  Turkish  and  eastern  kings,  princes,  or  bashaws 
 know  to  write  their  own  names,  all  their  letters  and  decrees  are 
 stamped  witli  their  proper  rings  seals,  or  signets,  (I  Kings  xxi. 
 
 4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 Jezreel,  ordering  them  <*  to  proclaim  a  fast,  to  bring 
 e  Naboth  before  the  judges,  and  to  suborn  two  false 
 witnesses,  who  should  depose  against  him,  that  he  had 
 f  blasphemed  God  and  the  king,  that  so  he  might  be 
 carried  out  of  the  city,  and  stoned.  S  All  this  was  done 
 according  to  this  wicked  woman's  desire  ;  and,  as  soon 
 as  Ahab  understood  that  Naboth  was  dead,  he  went  to 
 Jezreel,  and  took  possession  of  his  vineyard :  but  upon 
 his  return  to  Samaria,  the  prophet  Elijah,  by  God's  di- 
 rection, met  him,  and  having  upbraided  him  with  this  his 
 last  rlagitiousness,  in  slaying  the  innocent,  and  seizing 
 on  his  inheritance,  he  denounced  this  heavy  sentence 
 against  him,  '  That  in  the  same  manner  that  dogs  had 
 licked  Naboth's  blood,  they  should  lick  his ;'  that  all  his 
 posterity  should  die  by  the  sword,  and  be  exposed  with- 
 out the  honour  of  a  decent  funeral ;  and  that,  as  to  his 
 wife  Jezebel,  she  should  be  devoured  by  '  dogs  h  near  the 
 
 8.  Esth.  iii.  12.  Dan.  vi.  17  or  18,  &c.)  which  are  usually  of 
 silver  or  cornelian,  with  their  respective  names  engraved  upon 
 them  on  one  side,  and  the  name  of  their  kingdom  or  principality, 
 or  else  some  sentence  of  the  Koran,  on  the  other."  Eastern 
 signets  have  cypress  and  letters  on  them. — Clarke's  Travels, 
 vol.  i.  p.  320. — Ed. 
 
 d  It  was  always  a  customary  thing,  upon  the  approach  of  any 
 great  calamity,  or  the  apprehension  of  any  national  judgment,  to 
 proclaim  a  fast;  and  Jezebel  ordered  such  a  fast  to  be  observed 
 in  Jezreel,  the  better  to  conceal  her  design  against  Naboth.  For, 
 by  this  means,  she  intimated  to  the  Jezreelites,  that  they  had 
 some  accursed  thing  among  them,  which  was  ready  to  draw  down 
 the  vengeance  of  God  upon  their  city;  and  that  therefore  it  was 
 their  business  to  inquire  into  all  those  sins  which  provoked  God 
 to  anger  against  them,  and  to  purge  them  out  effectually.  As 
 therefore  these  days  of  fasting  ware  employed  in  punishing  offen- 
 ders, doing  justice,  and  imploring  God's  pardon,  they  gave  the 
 elders  of  the  city  an  occasion  to  convene  an  assembly,  and  the 
 false  witnesses  a  fair  opportunity  to  accuse  Naboth  before  them. 
 — Le  Clerc's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  Josephus  is  of  opinion,  that,  as  Naboth  was  of  an  illustrious 
 house,  he  was  ordered  to  be  set  in  an  honourable  place  among 
 the  elders  and  chief  rulers  of  the  city ;  that  so  it  might  be  thought, 
 that  they  did  not  condemn  him  out  of  hatred  or  ill  will,  but 
 merely  as  they  were  constrained  to  it  by  the  evidence  that  was 
 given  against  him.  But  others  will  have  it,  that  the  reason  why 
 he  was  set  in  an  eminent  place  was  only,  because  persons  accused 
 and  arraigned  were  wont  to  stand  conspicuous  before  their  judges, 
 that  all  the  people  might  see  them,  and  hear  both  the  accusatious 
 against  them,  and  their  defence. — Patricks  Commentary. 
 
 f  By  the  law  of  Moses  it  was  death  to  blaspheme  God,  (Lev. 
 xxiv.  16.)  and  by  custom  it  was  death  to  revile  the  king,  (Ex. 
 xxii.  28.)  Now,  in  order  to  make  safe  work,  the  evidences  as 
 they  were  instructed  accused  Naboth  of  both  these  crimes,  that 
 the  people  might  be  the  better  satisfied  to  see  him  stoned.  There 
 is  this  difference,  however,  to  be  observed  between  these  two 
 crimes,  that  if  a  man  had  only  blasphemed  God,  he  was  to  be 
 tried  by  the  great  court  at  Jerusalem,  as  the  Hebrew  doctors 
 tell  us,  and  his  goods  came  to  his  heirs ;  whereas,  when  a  man 
 was  executed  for  treason  against  the  king,  his  estate  went  to  the 
 exchequer,  and  was  forfeited  to  him  against  whom  the  offence 
 was  committed;  and  for  this  reason  it  was,  that  they  accused 
 Naboth  of  this  crime  likewise,  that  his  estate  might  be  confis- 
 cated, and  Ahab,  by  that  means,  get  possession  of  his  vineyard. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 g  Princes  never  want  instruments  to  execute  their  pleasure ; 
 and  yet  it  is  strange  that  among  all  these  judges  and  great  men, 
 there  should  be  none  that  abhorred  such  a  villany.  It  must  be 
 considered,  however,  that  for  a  long  while  they  had  cast  off  all 
 tear  and  sense  of  God,  and  prostituted  their  consciences  to  please 
 their  king:  nor  durst  they  disobey  Jezebel's  commands,  who  had 
 the  full  power  and  government  of  the  king,  as  they  well  knew, 
 and  could  easily  have  taken  away  their  lives,  had  they  refused  to 
 condemn  Naboth. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 h  1  Kings  xxi.  23.  Mr  Bruce,  when  at  Gondar,  was  witness 
 to  a  scene  in  a  great  measure  similar  to  the  devouring  of  Jezebel 
 by  dogs.     He  says,  "  the  bodies  of  those  killed  by  the  sword, 
 
Sect.  1I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 569 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  IL1LES,  A.  M. 
 
 wall  of  Jezreel,'  that  is,  a  where  Naboth  was  judged, 
 and  unjustly  condemned. 
 
 Uneasy  at  the  sight  of  the  prophet,  and  much  more 
 terrified  at  his  denunciations,  Ahab  rent  his  clothes, put  on 
 sackcloth,  and  gave  other  indications  of  his  sorrow  and 
 humiliation  ;  *  but  as  his  repentance  was  neither  sincere 
 mirpersevering, c  God,  who  might  otherwise  have  revoked 
 the  whole  sentence,  inflicted  part  of  it  upon  his  person  ; 
 but  the  utter  extirpation  of  his  family  did  not  happen, 
 till  the  reign  of  his  son  Jehoram,  as  we  shall  see  in  its 
 proper  place. 
 
 Jehoshaphat,  king  of  Judah,  as  Ave  said  before,  had 
 imprudently  married  his  son  and  heir  to  this  wicked 
 Ahab's  daughter  ;  and  as  this  alliance  occasioned  an  in 
 terview  between  the  two  kings,  Jehoshaphat  went  one 
 day  to  Samaria,  to  visit  Ahab,  who  entertained  him  and 
 his  attendants  very  splendidly  ;  but  taking  the  advan- 
 tage of  this  opportunity,  invited  him  to  go  along  with 
 him  to  the  siege  of  Ramoth  Gilead,  a  town  in  the  tribe 
 of  Gad,  which  the  king  of  Syria  unjustly  detained  from 
 him.  Jehoshaphat  agreed  to  attend  him  ;  but  being 
 loth  to  do  any  thing  of  this  kind  without  a  divine  appro- 
 bation, he  desired  of  Ahab  to  inquire  of  the  prophets 
 concerning  the  event  of  this  expedition.  To  this  pur- 
 pose Ahab  summoned  together  400  priests  of  the  goddess 
 
 were  hewn  to  pieces  and  scattered  about  the  streets,  being  denied 
 burial.  I  was  miserable,  and  almost  driven  to  despair,  at  seeing 
 my  hunting  dogs  twice  let  loose  by  the  carelessness  of  my  ser- 
 vants, bringing  into  the  court-yard  the  heads  and  arms  of 
 slaughtered  men,  and  which  I  could  no  way  prevent,  but  by  the 
 destruction  of  the  dogs  themselves."  He  also  adds,  that  upon 
 being  asked  by  the  king  the  reason  of  his  dejected  and  sickly 
 appearance,  among  other  reasons  he  informed  him,  "  it  was 
 occasioned  by  the  execution  of  three  men,  which  he  had  lately 
 seen;  because  the  hyrenas,  allured  into  the  streets  by  the  quan- 
 tity of  carrion,  would  not  let  him  pass  by  night  in  safety  from  the 
 palace,  and  because  the  dogs  fled  into  his  house,  to  eat  pieces  of 
 human  carcasses  at  their  leisure."  (Travels,  vol.  iv.  p.  SI.)  This 
 account  illustrates  also  the  readiness  of  the  dogs  to  lick  the  blood 
 of  Ahab  (1  Kings  xxii.  38.),  in  perfect  conformity  to  which  is 
 the  expression  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  (xv.  3.)  '  I  will  appoint 
 over  them  the  sword  to  slay,  and  the  dogs  to  tear.' — Ed. 
 
 a  There  is  a  great  dispute  among  the  learned,  as  to  the  ac- 
 complishment of  this  prophecy.  At  first  it  was  no  doubt 
 intended  to  he  literally  fulfilled;  but  upon  Ahab's  repentance,  as 
 we  find  below,  the  punishment  was  transferred  from  him  to  his 
 son  Jehoram,  in  whom  it  was  actually  accomplished ;  for  his  '  dead 
 body  was  cast  into  the  portion  of  the  field  of  Naboth  the  Jezreel- 
 ite,  for  the  dogs  to  devour,'  (2  Kings  ix.  25.)  Since  Ahab's 
 blood  therefore  was  licked  by  dogs,  not  at  Jezreel,  but  at  Sama- 
 ria, it  seems  necessary,  that  we  should  understand  the  Hebrew 
 word  which  our  translation  renders  '  in  the  place  where,'  not  as 
 denoting  the  place,  but  the  manner  in  which  the  thing  was  done ; 
 and  so  the  sense  of  the  passage  will  he, — That  as  dogs  licked,  or 
 in  like  manner  as  dogs  licked  Naboth's  blood ;  even  so  shall  they 
 lick  thine;  observe  what  I  say,  even  thine. — Poole's  Annot. 
 
 b  1  Kings  xxi.  27.  Going  softly  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the 
 many  expressions  of  mourning  commonly  used  among  the  east- 
 ern nations.  That  it  was  in  use  among  the  Jews  appears  from 
 the  case  of  Ahah;  and  by  mistake  it  has  been  confounded  with 
 walking  barefoot.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  very  slow,  solemn 
 manner  of  walking,  well  adapted  to  the  state  of  mourners  labour- 
 ing under  great  sorrow  and  dejection  of  mind. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  scope  of  the  passage,  (I  Kings  xxi.  27—  29.)  leads  us  to 
 believe,  that  Ahab's  repentance  was  sincere,  though  it  produced 
 no  lasting  improvement  in  his  character;  besides,  if  his  repen- 
 tance had  been  merely  a  false  pretence,  it  cannot  he  supposed 
 that  God  would  have  signified  his  approbation  of  it  by  a  remis- 
 sion of  the  threatened  punishment.  The  circumstance  deserves 
 our  particular  notice,  and  furnishes  a  signal  instance  of  God's 
 readiness  to  meet  the  returning  penitent,  even  while  he  is  yet  a 
 great  way  on"'. — En. 
 
 4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 Astarte,  d  who  unanimously  agreed,  that  the  expedition 
 would  prove  successful ;  but  as  Jehoshaphat's  purpose 
 was,  not  to  inquire  of  these,  but  of  some  true  prophet  of 
 the  Lord,  with  much  difficulty  he  obtained  of  Ahab  to 
 have  Micaiah  produced,  who,  charging  e  Ahab's  pro- 
 phets with  falsehood,  foretold,  that  the  enterprise  would 
 prove  fatal  to  all  Israel,  and  to  Ahab  in  particular ;  and 
 therefore  he  advised  both  kings  to  desist. 
 
 Ahab,  however,  instead  of  listening  to  Micaiah,  or- 
 dered him  into  custody,  until  he  should  return  in  peace  ; 
 and  taking  Jehoshaphat  with  him,  marched  with  all  his 
 forces  to  the  siege  :  but,  when  he  came  within  sight  of 
 the  enemy's  army,  his  courage  began  to  cool,  and  think- 
 ing to  evade  the  force  of  Micaiah's  prophecy  by  a  stra- 
 tagem of  his  own,  he  put  himself  in  the  garb  of  a  common 
 officer,  and  advised  Jehoshaphat  to  right  in  his  royal 
 robes.  The  king  of  Syria  had  given  particular  command 
 to  his  generals  /  to  single  out  Ahab,  and,  if  possible  to 
 kill  him,  as  the  chief  author  of  the  war.  At  first  they 
 mistook  Jehoshaphat  for  the  king  of  Israel,  and  there- 
 fore fell  upon  him  with  great  impetuosity  ;  but  perceiving 
 at  length,  that  he  was  not  the  person  they  wanted,  they 
 desisted  from  the  pursuit  of  him,  and,  in  quest  of  Ahab, 
 bended  their  course  another  way. 
 
 Ahab,  however,  did  not  gain  much  by  his  politic  pro- 
 
 d  In  the  text,  they  are  simply  called  prophets;  but  it  is  not 
 impossible  that  they  were  priests  of  the  goddess  Astarte,  main- 
 tained by  the  wicked  Jezebel. — Ed. 
 
 e  Micaiah's  answer  to  Ahab,  inquiring  of  him  the  success  of 
 his  intended  exhibition,  is,  '  Go,  and  prosper ;  for  the  Lord  shall 
 deliver  the  city  into  the  hands  of  the  king,'  (1  Kings  xxii.  15.) 
 which  does  not  at  all  contradict  the  other  prophets,  had  it  been 
 spoken  in  earnest;  but  we  have  good  reason  to  believe,  that  the 
 words  were  spoken  ironically,  and  in  mockery  to  the  promises 
 which  the  other  prophets  made  Ahab.  Accordingly,  we  may 
 observe  by  Ahab's  reply,  that  he  suspected  Micaiah's  sincerity, 
 and,  either  by  his  gesture  or  manner  of  speaking,  gathered,  that 
 his  meaning  was  to  traduce  these  false  prophets  for  their  answers. 
 So  that  Micaiah's  answer  is  in  effect,  as  if  he  had  said, — '  Since 
 thou  dost  not  seek  to  know  the  truth,  but  only  to  please  thyself, 
 go  to  the  battle,  as  all  thy  prophets  advise  thee  ;  expect  the  success 
 which  they  promise  thee,  and  try  the  truth  of  their  predictions,  by 
 thy  dear  bought  experience. — Poole's  Annotations.  [The  words 
 of  Micaiah  evidently  contain  a  strong  irony;  as  if  he  had  said, 
 "All  your  prophets  have  predicted  success;  you  wish  me  to 
 speak  as  they  speak:  '  Go  and  prosper;  for  the  Lord  will  deliver 
 it  into  the  hand  of  the  king.'  "  These  were  the  precise  words 
 of  the  false  prophets,  (v.  G  and  12,)  and  were  spoken  by  Micaiah 
 in  such  a  tone  and  manner  as  at  once  showed  to  Ahab  that  he  did 
 not  believe  them;  hence  the  king  adjures  him  (v.  10.)  that  he 
 would  speak  to  him  nothing  but  truth ;  ar.d  on  this  the  prophet 
 immediately  relates  to  him  the  prophetic  vision  which  pointed 
 out  the  disasters  which  ensued.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  this 
 prophecy  of  the  king's  prophets  is  couched  in  the  same  ambiguous 
 terms  by  which  the  false  prophets  in  the  heathen  world  endea- 
 voured to  maintain  their  credit,  while  they  deluded  their  votaries. 
 The  reader  will  observe  that  the  word  it  is  not  in  the  original. 
 '  The  Lord  will  deliver  it  into  the  hand  of  the  king;'  and  the 
 words  are  so  artfully  constructed,  that  they  may  he  interpreted 
 for  or  against;  so  that,  be  the  event  whatever  it  might,  the  jug- 
 gling prophet  could  save  his  credit,  by  saying  he  meant  what  had 
 happened.  Thus  then  the  prophecy  might  have  been  understood: 
 'The  Lord  will  deliver  (Ramoth  Gilead)  into  the  king's  (Ahab's) 
 hand;'  or  'The  herd  will  deliver  (Israel)  into  the  king's  hand;' 
 that  is,  into  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Syria.  And  Micaiah  re|  i  ats 
 these  words  of  uncertainty,  in  order  to  ridicule  them  and  t  xpose 
 their  fallacy. — En. 
 
 /This  Benbadad  might  order,  either  in  policy,  as  supposing 
 this  to  be  the  best  and  readiest  way  to  put  an  end  to  this  war; 
 or  with  a  design  to  take  him  prisoner,  that  thereby  be  might 
 wipe  out  the  stain  of  his  own  captivity,  and  recover  the  honour 
 ami  advantages  which  he  then  lost. —  Poole's  Annotations. 
 4  c 
 
570 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 ject,  as  he  thought  it ;  for  he  was  mortally  wounded  by 
 a  random  arrow  :  and  though  he  was  held  up  in  his  cha- 
 riot for  some  time,  with  his  face  towards  the  enemy,  to 
 encourage  his  soldiers,  yet  about  sunset  he  died,  and  a 
 retreat  was  sounded.  His  dead  body  was  carried  to 
 Samaria,  and  there  buried,  and  his  son  Ahaziah  succeed- 
 ed him  in  the  kingdom.  But  as  the  chariot  wherein  he 
 was  carried,  was  all  stained  with  the  flux  of  blood  from 
 his  wound,  while  it  was  washed  in  a  pool  near  the  city, 
 the  dogs  came  and  licked  it,  that  the  prophecy  of  Elijah 
 might  not  go  altogether  unfulfilled. 
 
 As  for  Jehoshaphat,  though  he  escaped  from  the  battle, 
 and  returned  in  peace  to  Jerusalem,  yet  God  sent  the 
 prophet  Jehu  to  reprove  him  for  his  having  assisted 
 Ahab,  who  was  a  God's  avowed  enemy  :  but  this  fault  he 
 endeavoured  to  repair  by  the  good  order  which  he  estab- 
 lished in  his  dominions,  both  as  to  civil  and  religious 
 affairs  ;  by  appointing  honest  and  able  judges,  *  and 
 giving  them  proper  charges  ;  by  regulating  the  discipline 
 and  order  of  the  priests  and  L/svites,  and  by  enjoining 
 them  to  perform  punctually  their  respective  duties  in  the 
 service  of  God.  Nor  was  it  long  before  he  experiment- 
 ally found  the  favour  of  God  extended  to  him  in  a  most 
 miraculous  manner,  for  this  his  reformation.  For  when 
 the  Moabites  and  Ammonites,  with  their  auxiliaries, 
 made  a  formidable  invasion  upon  his  kingdom,  and  he 
 thereupon  had  appointed  a  public  fast,  and  applied  him- 
 self to  God  for  help  c  by  humiliation  and  prayer,  he  had 
 
 a  Even  common  reason  taught  the  heathens  not  to  make  any 
 friendship  with  such  as  were  enemies  to  the  gods ;  and  therefore 
 CaLlimachus,  in  his  hymn  to  Ceres,  tells  her,  "  O  mother  Ceres, 
 may  that  man  never  be  in  friendship  with  me,  who  is  in  enmity 
 with  thee ;  nor  let  him  dwell  under  the  same  roof;  for  those  who 
 are  thy  toes,  assuredly  are  no  friends  of  mine."  Whereupon  the 
 illustrious  Spanheim  has  observed  many  similar  sayings  among 
 the  heathens,  and  how  the  ancient  Greeks  abhorred  to  lodge  in 
 the  same  house,  or  to  eat  at  the  same  table,  with  a  murderer,  or 
 any  grievous  criminal,  for  the  same  reason,  perhaps,  that  Horace 
 has  thus  expressed  upon  the  like  occasion:— "The  man  who  hath 
 revealed  the  secret  mysteries  of  Ceres,  must  ever  be  debarred  from 
 sitting  under  the  same  roof,  or  sailing  in  the  same  boat  with  me ; 
 for  frequently  the  incensed  deity  of  Olympus,  in  inflicting  due 
 
 punishment,  hath  joined  the  innocent  with  the  guilty. Justice, 
 
 though  she  may  follow  with  a  limping  foot,  hath  rarely  failed  to 
 grasp  the  evading  criminal." 
 
 b  The  charge  or  solemn  admonition  which  Jehoshaphat  gave  the 
 
 judges,  whom  he  appointed  in  each  city,  runs  in  these  words: 
 
 '  Take  heed  what  ye  do,  for  ye  judge  not  for  man,  but  for  the  Lord, 
 who  is  with  you  in  the  judgment:  wherefore  now  let  the  fear  of 
 the  Lord  be  upon  you:  take  heed  and  do  it;  fur  there  is  no  ini- 
 quity with  the  Lord  our  God,  no  respect  of  persons,  no  taking  of 
 gifts,'  (2  Chron.  xix.  6,  7.)  It  is  a  remarkable  saying  of  Cicero, 
 that  judges,  being  sworn  to  do  justice,  should  remember^ 
 when  they  come  to  pass  sentence,  "  that  they  have  God  as  a 
 witness,  that  is,  as  I  suppose,  that  they  have  their  own  mind, 
 than  which  God  hath  given  to  man  nothing  more  divine."  (De 
 Offir.b.  Hi.  c.  13.)  Where  he  has  left  us  this  excellent  instruc- 
 tion likewise,  that  "  a  man  must  lay  aside  the  person  of  a  friend 
 when  he  puts  on  the  person  of  a  judge."  In  like  manner,  there 
 are  several  passages  in  Hesiod,  admonishing  those  who  have  the 
 administration  of  justice,  to  retain  in  their  minds  the  considera- 
 tion of  their  gods'  inspection:  but  one  of  these  will  answer  to  our 
 purpose. — "  Ye  kings,  and  ye  that  on  earth  administer  justice  to 
 man,  be  faithful!  for,  amidst  the  countless  mortal  tribes,  immor- 
 tal beings  dwell,  and  watch  those  who,  wreckless  of  the  wrath  of 
 heaven,  grind  the  poor,  inflicting  undue  punishment ;  yea,  to  the 
 all-rearing  earth,  Jove  has  commissioned  three  myriads  of  un- 
 dying ones  as  guardians  of  the  death-doomed,  by  night  and  by 
 day  hoveling  on  the  air,  and  crowding  the  earthward  tracts  of 
 
 heaven,  they  chain  the  arms  and  curb  the  fiery  wills  of  tyrants 
 
 Works  and  Days,  1.  246. 
 
 c  This  prayer  of  Jehoshaphat's  is  deservedly  accounted  one  of 
 
 a  most  gracious  answer  vouchsafed  him,  namely,  that, 
 on  the  next  day,  he  should  obtain  a  complete  victory, 
 without  once  striking  a  stroke  ;  which  accordingly  came 
 to  pass.  For  when  Jehoshaphat  drew  up  his  army,  near 
 the  place  where  the  enemy  lay,  he  found  nothing  there 
 but  dead  bodies  ;  God  having  been  pleased,  before  his 
 approach,  so  to  confound  their  understanding,  that  being 
 a  mixed  multitude  of  divers  nations,  they,  d  some  way  or 
 
 the  most  excellent  that  we  meet  with  in  sacred  history.  He 
 begins  it  with  an  acknowledgment  of  God's  supreme  and  irresis- 
 tible power,  which  extends  itself  everywhere,  over  all  creatures 
 in  heaven  and  earth,  which  are  every  one  subject  to  his  authori- 
 ty:— '  O  Lord  God  of  our  fathers,  art  thou  not  God  jn  heaven? 
 and  rulest  not  thou  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  heathen?  and  in 
 thine  hand  is  there  not  power  and  might,  so  that  none  is  able  to 
 withstand  thee?'  Then  he  remembers  the  peculiar  relation 
 which  the  people  of  Israel  have  to  him ;  the  promise  he  made  to 
 Abraham,  as  a  reward  of  his  fidelity ;  and  the  deed  of  gift  which 
 he  conveyed  to  him  and  his  posterity,  of  this  country  for  ever : 
 '  Art  thou  not  our  God,  who  didst  drive  out  the  inhabitants  of 
 the  land  before  thy  people  Israel,  and  gavest  it  to  the  seed  of 
 Abraham,  thy  friend  for  ever?'  Then  he  reminds  him  of  the 
 long  possession  they  had  had  of  the  country,  and  of  the  temple 
 which  Solomon  had  built  for  his  worship,  to  whom,  at  the  con- 
 secration, (and  therefore  he  refers  to  Solomon's  words  at  the  con- 
 secration, 1  Kings  viii.)  he  promised  a  gracious  reward  to  all 
 the  prayers  that  should  be  offered  there  :  '  and  they  dwelt  therein, 
 and  have  built  thee  a  sanctuary  therein  for  thy  name,  saying,  if 
 when  evil  cometh  upon  us,  as  the  sword,  judgment,  or  pestilence, 
 or  famine,  we  stand  before  thee  in  this  house,  and  in  thy  presence, 
 for  thy  name  is  in  this  house,  and  cry  unto  thee  in  our  affliction, 
 then  thou  wilt  hear  and  help.'  In  the  next  place,  he  represents 
 the  foul  ingratitude  of  their  enemies,  in  invading  a  country  to 
 which  they  had  no  manner  of  title,  even  though  the  Israelites 
 did  them  not  the  least  harm  when  they  came  to  take  possession 
 of  it,  but  took  the  pains  to  march  a  long  way  about  to  get  to  it, 
 rather  than  give  any  molestation ;  and  in  aggravation  of  their 
 wickedness  in  this  respect,  he  suggests,  that  by  this  invasion 
 they  made  an  attempt,  not  only  upon  the  rights  of  the  Israelites, 
 but  of  God  himself,  who  was  the  great  Lord  and  proprietor  from 
 whom  they  held  the  land :  '  And  now  behold  the  children  of 
 Ammon,  and  Moab,  and  Mount  Seir,  whom  thou  wouldst  not 
 let  Israel  invade,  when  they  came  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  but 
 they  turned  from  them,  and  destroyed  them  not;  behold,  I  say, 
 how  they  reward  us,  to  come  to  cast  us  out  of  the  possession 
 which  thou  gavest  us  to  inherit.'  Then  he  appeals  to  the  justice 
 of  God,  the  righteous  judge,  who  helps  those  that  suffer  wrong, 
 especially  when  they  have  no  other  helper:  for  this  is  the  last 
 argument  he  makes  use  of  to  conciliate  the  divine  assistance, 
 even  the  weak  condition  wherein  he  and  his  people  were,  which 
 made  them  the  objects  of  the  divine  pity,  especially  since  they 
 placed  their  hope  and  confidence  in  him  alone:  '  O  Lord,  our 
 God,  wilt  thou  not  judge  them?  For  we  have  no  might  against 
 this  great  company,  that  cometh  against  us,  neither  know  we 
 what  to  do,  but  our  eyes  are  upon  thee.'  (2  Chron.  xx.  12.)  &c. 
 with  Patrick's  Commentary  on  the  words. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  the  Lord  set  ambushments 
 against  the  children  of  Ammon,  Moab,  and  Mount  Seir,  which 
 were  come  against  Judah,  and  they  were  smitten,'  (2  Chron. 
 xx.  22.)  And  there  are  two  ways  wherein  this  slaughter  may  be 
 supposed  to  have  happened:  either,  1st,  by  the  ministry  of  God's 
 angels,  who  might  appear  in  the  shape  of  men,  and,  putting  on 
 the  appearance  of  Moabites  or  Ammonites,  might  smite  some 
 part  of  the  army  privately,  and  they  supposing  this  to  be  done 
 by  their  neighbours,  might  turn  about  and  fall  upon  them  like 
 enemies,  and  so  break  forth  into  mutual  slaughters:  or,  2nd,  by 
 some  jealousies  and  animosities  among  themselves,  which  by 
 degrees  break  forth,  first  into  secret  ambushments,  which  one 
 party  laid  for  another,  and  then  into  open  hostilities  and  outrages 
 to  their  total  destruction.  So  easy  a  thing  it  is  for  God  to  defeat 
 his  enemies,  who  can,  when  he  pleases,  infatuate  their  designs, 
 or  arm  their  own  passions  and  mistakes  against  them.— Poole's 
 Annotations  on  2  Chron.  xx.  22. — Boothroyd  renders  the  pas- 
 sage thus:  "  And  when  they  began  to  sing  and  praise,  Jehovah 
 turned  the  ambush-men  of  Mount  Seir,  who  should  have  come 
 against  Judah,  against  the  Ammonites  and  Moabites,  and  they 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 571 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 other,  by  mistake,  fell  a  slaying  and  destroying  one 
 another ;  so  that  Jehoshaphat  and  his  people  had  no- 
 thing else  to  do  but  to  carry  off'  the  arms  and  spoils 
 of  the  dead,  wherein  they  employed  themselves  for  three 
 whole  days,  and,  on  the  fourth,  meeting  in  a  valley, 
 which  from  this  event,  was  called  afterwards  '  the  valley 
 of  blessing,'  they  gave  solemn  thanks  to  God  for  this 
 deliverance  ;  and,  not  long  after,  Jehoshaphat,  with  his 
 victorious  troops,  entering  Jerusalem  in  triumph,  was 
 received  with  the  joyful  acclamations  of  his  people,  and 
 struck  such  terror  into  all  the  neighbouring  nations,  that, 
 for  the  remainder  of  his  reign,  he  met  with  no  molesta- 
 tion. 
 
 One  loss  however  he  had  towards  the  conclusion  of 
 his  reign,  a  in  joining  with  Ahaziah  king  of  Israel,  to 
 
 were  smitten.  Then  the  Ammonites  and  Moabites  attacked  the 
 inhabitants  of  Mount  Seir,  so  as  utterly  to  slay  and  destroy  them  ; 
 and  when  they  had  destroyed  the  inhabitants  of  Mount  Seir,  they 
 rushed  on  to  destroy  one  another:"  he  adds  in  a  note,  I  conceive 
 that  the  Edomites,  who  had  been  placed  as  an  ambush  against 
 the  Judahites,  either  by  mistake  or  designedly,  attacked  the 
 Ammonites  and  Moabites,  and  that  these  uniting,  repelled  the 
 attack,  and  in  a  great  measure  destroyed  the  Edomites;  then 
 quarrelling  among  themselves,  mutually  destroyed  one  another. 
 —Ed. 
 
 a  This  certainly  was  a  great  weakness  in  him,  to  make  friend- 
 ship with  the  son,  when  he  had  been  so  sharply  reproved  for 
 joining  with  his  father  Ahab,  especially  since  the  son  was  as 
 great  an  idolater  as  the  father,  but  unto  this  he  was  betrayed  by 
 the  affinity  that  was  between  them ;  and  though  he  did  not  join 
 with  him  in  war,  but  only  in  trade,  yet  God  was  nevertheless 
 displeased  with  him;  which  shows  how  dangerous  a  thing  it  is  to 
 have  too  near  a  familiarity  or  commerce  with  idolaters,  or  any 
 other  very  wicked  men. — Patrick's  Commentary. — [It  appears 
 from  2  Chron.  xx.  36,  that  Jehoshaphat  joined  in  making  and 
 sending  ships  to  Tarshish,  and  it  is  possible  that  what  is  stated 
 in  I  Kings  xxii.  49,  is  spoken  of  a  second  expedition,  in  which 
 Jehoshaphat  would  not  join  Ahaziah.  But  instead  of  row  nSi,  veto 
 abah,  '  he  would  not,'  perhaps  we  should  read  m«  1S1  vclo  abah, 
 '  lie  consented  to  him ;'  two  words  pronounced  exactly  in  the 
 same  way,  and  differing  but  in  one  letter,  namely,  an  k  aleph, 
 for  a  1  vau.  This  reading,  however,  is  not  supported  by  any 
 MS.  or  version ;  but  the  emendation  seems  just;  for  there  are 
 several  places  in  these  historical  books  in  which  there  are  mis- 
 takes of  transcribers,  which  nothing  but  violent  criticism  can 
 restore,  and  to  this  it  is  dangerous  to  resort,  but  in  cases  of  the 
 last  necessity.  Critics  have  recommended  the  4Sth  and  49th 
 verses  to  be  read  thus:  'Jehoshaphat  had  built  ships  of  burden 
 at  Ezion-Geber,  to  go  to  Ophir  for  gold.'  49.  '  And  Ahaziah 
 the  son  of  Ahab,  had  said  to  Jehoshaphat,  Let  my  servants,  I 
 pray  thee,  go  with  thy  servants  in  the  ships;  to  which  Jehosha- 
 phat consented.  But  the  ships  went  not  thither;  for  the  ships 
 were  broken  at  Ezion-Geber.'  This  is  Houbigant's  translation, 
 who  contends  that  "  the  words  of  the  48th  verse,  '  but  they  went 
 not,'  should  be  placed  at  the  end  of  the  49th  verse,  for  who  can 
 believe  that  the  sacred  writer  should  first  relate  that  '  the  ships 
 were  broken,'  and  then  that  Ahaziah  requested  of  Jehoshaphat 
 that  his  servants  might  embark  with  the  servants  of  Jehoshaphat." 
 This  bold  critic,  who  understood  the  Hebrew  language  better  than 
 any  man  in  Europe,  has,  by  happy  conjectures,  since  verified  by 
 the  testimony  of  MSS.,  removed  the  blots  of  many  careless  tran- 
 scribers from  the  sacred  volume. — Dr  A.  Clarke.~\ — En. 
 [lioothroyd  also  follows  Houbigant  in  his  translation,  and,  with 
 Geddes,  arranges  1  Kings  >»xii.  43 — 50,  as  follows:  43.  '  And 
 he  walked  in  all  the  ways  of  Asa,  his  father:  he  turned  not  aside 
 from  it,  doing  what  was  right  in  the  eyes  of  Jehovah.'  46.  '  For 
 the  remnant  of  the  Sodomites,  who  were  left  in  the  days  of  his 
 father  Asa,  he  removed  from  the  land;  only  the  high  places 
 were  not  entirely  removed ;  still  the  people  sacrificed,  and  burned 
 incense  on  the  high  places.'  44.  '  And  Jehoshaphat  made  peace 
 with  the  king  of  Israel.'  47.  '  And  as  there  was  then  no  king 
 in  Edom,  but  a  deputy  for  the  king  of  Judah.'  48.  •  Jehoshaphat 
 built  ships  of  Tarshish  at  Ezion-Geber,  to  go  to  Ophir,  for  gold.' 
 49.  'Then  said  Ahaziah  the  son  of  Abhab,  to  Jehoshaphat, 
 kt  my  servauts  go  witli  thy  servants  in  the  ships :  to  which 
 
 4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 equip  out  a  fleet  in  the  port  of  Ezion-Geber,  in  order  to 
 go  to  Tarshish  ;  for  the  whole  fleet  was  dashed  in  pieces 
 upon  a  ridge  of  rocks  that  lay  in  the  mouth  of  the  har- 
 bour, before  they  ever  got  to  sea.  But,  as  Jehoshaphat 
 was  afterwards  convinced,  that  this  was  a  judgment  of 
 God  upon  him  for  entering  into  partnership  with  an  im- 
 pious prince,  as  Ahaziah  certainly  was,  the  next  fleet  he 
 set  out  was  from  his  other  port  of  Elah,  wherein  he  suffer- 
 ed Ahaziah  to  have  no  concern  ;  and  therefore  came  off 
 with  better  success.  The  truth  is,  Jehoshaphat  was  a  re- 
 ligious and  good  prince,  a  zealous  and  great  reformer, 
 and  yet  the  people  still  retained  a  kindness  to  the  high 
 places.  *  He  lived  sixty,  and  reigned  twenty-five  years  ; 
 was  buried  in  the  city  of  David,  and  succeeded  by  his 
 son  Jehoram. 
 
 His  father  Jehoshaphat  had  six  other  sons  ;  but  to  give 
 no  umbrage  for  suspicion,  he  had  in  his  life  time  remov- 
 ed them  from  all  public  business,  made  them  governors 
 of  fenced  cities,  and  give  them  separate  fortunes  of  their 
 own.  But  notwithstanding  all  this  precaution  whene'er 
 Jehoram  was  settled  on  the  throne,  he  murdered  all  his 
 brothers,  and  several  chief  men  in  Israel,  who,  as  he 
 suspected,  either  adhered  to  their  party,  or  were  likely 
 to  revenge  their  deaths. 
 
 During  these  cruel  proceedings  in  the  very  beginning 
 of  his  reign,  he  had  a  c  letter  sent  him  from   Elijah, 
 
 Jehoshaphat  consented.  But  they  went  not ;  for  the  ships  were 
 wrecked  at  Ezion-Geber.'  45.  '  Now  the  rest  of  the  acts  of 
 Jehoshaphat,  and  the  might  which  lie  exercised,  and  how  he 
 warred,  are  written  in  the  Chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Judah.' 
 50.  '  And  Jehoshaphat  slept  with  his  fathers ;  and  was  buried 
 with  his  fathers  in  the  city  of  David  ;  and  Jehoram  his  son  reign- 
 ed in  his  stead.'] — Ed. 
 
 b  1  Kings  xxii.  43.  Many  of  old  worshipped  upon  hills,  and 
 on  the  tops  of  high  mountains;  imagining  that  they  thereby  ob- 
 tained a  nearer  communication  with  heaven.  Strabo  says,  that 
 the  Persians  always  performed  their  worship  upon  hills.  Some 
 nations,  instead  of  an  image,  worshipped  the  hill  as  the  deity.  In 
 Japan,  most  of  their  temples  are  at  this  day  upon  eminences, 
 and  often  upon  the  ascent  of  high  mountains,  commanding  fine 
 views,  with  groves  and  rivulets  of  clear  water;  for  they  say,  that 
 the  gods  are  extremely  delighted  with  such  high  and  pleasant 
 spots,  (Kcempfer's  Japan,  vol.  ii.  b.  5.)  This  practice,  in  early 
 times,  was  almost  universal;  and  every  mountain  was  esteemed 
 holy.  The  people  who  prosecuted  this  method  of  worship,  en- 
 joyed a  soothing  infatuation,  which  flattered  the  gloom  of  super- 
 stition. The  eminences  to  which  they  retired  were  lonely  and 
 silent;  and  seemed  to  be  happily  circumstanced  for  contemplation 
 and  prayer.  They  who  frequented  them  were  raised  above  the 
 lower  world,  and  fancied  that  they  were  brought  into  the  vicinity 
 of  the  powers  of  the  air,  and  of  the  deity  who  resided  in  the 
 higher  regions.  But  the  chief  excellence  for  which  they  were 
 frequented  was,  that  they  were  looked  upon  as  the  peculiar  places 
 where  God  delivered  his  oracles. — HotcclVs  Mythological  Diet. 
 p.  225.— Ed. 
 
 c  Now  since  it  is  plain,  from  2  Kings  ii.  11,  &c,  that  Elijah 
 was  taken  up  into  heaven,  in  the  time  of  Jehoshaphat,  the  ques- 
 tion is,  how  could  Elijah  send  his  son  a  letter  ?  For  resolution 
 to  this,  Josephus  and  others  imagine,  that  this  writing  was  in- 
 dited in  heaven  where  Elijah  now  is,  and  sent  to  Jehoram  by 
 the  ministry  of  angels.  But  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  so 
 singular  a  miracle  was  wrought  in  favour  of  an  idolatrous  prince, 
 '  who  had  Moses  and  the  prophets,'  which,  in  our  Saviour's  opi- 
 nion, were  sufficient  to  instruct  him  in  all  points  necessary  to 
 salvation,  and  needed  not  any  additional  writing  to  he  sent  him 
 from  the  other  world.  Others  therefore  are  of  opinion,  that  this 
 letter  was  written  before  Elijah's  ascension  into  heaven ;  that, 
 foreseeing,  by  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  the  great  wickedness  Jeho- 
 ram would  fall  into,  he  dictated  the  contents  hereof  to  one  of  the 
 prophets,  charging  them  to  put  them  down  in  writing,  to  send 
 them  in  a  letter  to  Jehoram,  when  he  grew  as  impious  as  he  is 
 here  related,  and  to  let  him  know  withal,  that  Elijah  commanded 
 
572 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4482.  A.  C.  0'29.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHKON. 
 wherein  he  upbraided  him  with  the  murder  of  his  brothers, 
 
 ami  his  departure  from  the  religion  of  his  ancestors  ;  and 
 wherein  a  he  threatened  him  with  a  sore  disease  in  his 
 bowels,  and  his  wives,  his  children,  and  his  people,  with 
 judgments  of  several  kinds,  which  God  would  send  upon 
 them.  Nor  was  it  long  before  these  threats  began  to 
 operate.  The  Edomites,  who  had  all  along  been  sub- 
 ject to  the  house  of  David,  rebelled ;  and  ha  vino-  ex- 
 pelled his  deputy,  made  themselves  a  king  of  their  own 
 and  were  never  again  subject  to  the  Jewish  yoke.  Lib- 
 nah,  a  city  in  his  own  dominions,  shook  oft" its  allegiance, 
 and  refused  to  acknowledge  him  any  longer  for  its  sov- 
 ereign. The  Philistines  and  Arabians  made  inroads 
 upon  his  territories,  ravaged  the  country,  plundered  his 
 palaces,  and  carried  away  his  very  wives  and  children  ; 
 so  that  they  left  none  except  Jehoahaz  the  youngest  • 
 and,  to  complete  his  misery,  after  God  had  afflicted  him 
 with  a  cruel  dysentery,  which  for  two  years  grievously 
 tormented  him,  and  brought  him  at  last  to  his  grave,  he 
 died,  without  being  so  much  as  lamented  by  his  subjects  ; 
 and  after  a  life  of  forty,  and  a  reign  of  eight  years, 
 being  buried  indeed  in  the  city  of  David,  but  not  in  any 
 of  the  royal  sepulchres,  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Je- 
 hoahaz.    But  to  return  to  the  history  of  king  Ahaziah. 
 
 Ahaziah,  as  we  said,  succeeded  his  father  Ahab  in  the 
 kingdom  of  Israel,  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  Jehosha- 
 phat's  reign,  and  was  not  a  whit  behind  him  in  all  man- 
 ner of  wickedness.  But  as  his  reign  was  but  short,  in  the 
 whole  not  above  the  space  of  two  years,  so  was  it 
 inglorious  and  full  of  trouble.  For  in  the  first  year  of 
 his  reign,  the  Moabites,  who  had  always  been  obedient 
 to  the  kings  of  Israel  from  the  first  separation  of  the  two 
 kingdoms,  took  now  an  opportunity  to  revolt ;  nor  had 
 he  power  to  reduce  them  to  their  subjection  ;  for  in  the 
 second  year  of  his  reign,  he  received  such  a  hurt  by  a 
 fall  from  *  the  terrace  of  his  house,  as  reduced  him  to  a 
 
 this  writing  to  be  delivered  to  him;  upon  presumption  that  it 
 would  affect  him  the  more,  as  it  came  from  a  person  that  was 
 translated  into  heaven.  But  this  notion  has  no  better  foundation 
 than  the  other,  for  the  prophets  were  sent  to  those  who  lived  in 
 their  own  age,  to  declare  unto  them  the  will  of  God,  not  to  write 
 letters,  fit  to  be  delivered  only  when  they  had  departed  out  of  this 
 life.  God  never  left  himself  without  a  witness ;  and  at  this  time 
 more  especially,  there  were  prophets  in  abundance  ;  and  therefore 
 others  have  supposed,  that  there  has  been  a  mistake  in  the  tran- 
 scriber; and  the  name  of  Elijah  put  for  that  Elisha;  or  that  Elijah 
 "by  whom  this  letter  was  sent,  was  not  the  prophet  who  was  taken 
 up  to  heaven,  but  another  of  that  name,  who  lived  in  the  subse- 
 quent age,  and  was  contemporary  with  Jehoram.  Which  of 
 these  conjectures,  for  conjectures  they  are  all,  seems  most  feasible 
 we  are  at  liberty  to  choose,  since  any  of  them  is  sufficient  to  solve 
 the  above-mentioned  difficulty.— Le  Clerc  and  Patrick's  Com- 
 meatary.  [Boothroyd,  in  his  translation,  (2  Chron.  xxi.  12.) 
 instead  of  Elijah  reads  Elisha;  and  adds,  this  correction  seenis 
 absolutely  necessary,  though  not  confirmed,  perhaps,  by  any  one 
 MS.  or  ancient  version.  From  comparing  parallel  passages,  it 
 is  clear  that  errors  in  names  are  most  frequent.] — Ed. 
 
 a  There  was  no  calamity  that  could  be  thought  of,  as  several 
 have  observed,  which  did  not  befall  this  wicked  prince.  His  king- 
 dom was  destroyed  and  depopulated  by  the  fiercest  nations ;  his 
 treasures  ransacked ;  his  wives  carried  into  captivity;  his  chil- 
 dren Blain;  himself  afflicted  with  a  sore  disease  for  two  years; 
 and,  when  he  was  dead,  denied  the  honour  of  a  royal  sepulchre, 
 such  as  his  father  had.  All  which  calamities  were  threatened  in 
 tins  wnting  sent  him  in  the  name  of  Elijah,  that  he  might  not 
 think  that  they  came  by  chance,  but  by  the  special  direction  of 
 Almighty  God,  as  a  punishment  for  his  impiety.— Patrick's 
 Commentary  on  2  Chron.  xxi.  14. 
 
 6  In  the  eastern  countries  the  roofs  of  the  houses  were  flat,  and 
 
 very  bad  state  of  health.  In  this  condition,  he  sent  to  a 
 Baal-zebub,  the  god  of  Ekron,  to  know  if  he  should 
 
 surrounded  with  a  battlement,  to  prevent  falling  from  them,  be- 
 cause it  was  a  customary  thing  for  people  to  walk  upon  them  in 
 order  to  take  the  air.  Now,  in  this  battlement,  we  may  suppose 
 that  there  were  some  wooden  lattices  for  people  to  look  through, 
 of  equal  height  with  the  parapet  wall,  and  that  Ahaziah  negli- 
 gently leaning  on  it,  as  it  was  rotten  and  infirm,  it  broke  down, 
 and  let  him  fall  into  the  court  or  garden  belonging  to  his  house. 
 Or  there  is  another  way  whereby  he  might  fall.  In  these  flat 
 roofs,  there  was  generally  an  opening  which  served  instead  of  a 
 skylight  to  the  house  below;  and  this  opening  might  be  done 
 over  with  lattice-work,  which  the  king,  as  he  was  carelessly 
 walking,  might  chance  to  step  upon,  and  slip  through.  Nor  is 
 there  any  absurdity  in  supposing  such  lattice-work  .in  a  king's 
 palace,  when  the  world  was  not  arrived  to  that  height  of  art  and 
 curiosity  which  we  find  it  in  now. — Poole's  Annotations,  and 
 CalmeVs  Dissertation  on  the  Buildings  of  the  Ancient  Hebrews. 
 
 c  The  word  signifies,  the  god  of  flies;  but  how  this  idol  came  to 
 obtain  that  name,  it  is  not  so  easy  a  matter  to  discover.  Several 
 are  of  opinion,  that  this  god  was  called  Baal-semin,  the  lord  of 
 heaven,  but  that  the  Jews,  by  way  of  contempt,  gave  it  the  name 
 of  Baal-zebub,  or  the  lord  of  a  fly,  a  god  that  was  nothing  worth, 
 or,  as  others  say,  whose  temple  was  filled  with  flies :  whereas  the 
 temple  of  Jerusalem,  notwithstanding  all  the  sacrifices  that  were 
 daily  offered,  never  once  had  a  fly  in  it,  as  their  doctors  relate. 
 The  sacred  writings,  indeed,  when  they  speak  of  the  gods  of  the 
 heathens,  very  frequently  call  them,  in  general,  idols,  vanity, 
 abominations,  &c,  but  they  never  change  their  proper  names  into 
 such  as  are  of  an  opprobrious  import:  neither  can  we  think  it 
 likely,  that  the  king  of  Israel  would  have  called  the  god  of  Ekron, 
 for  whom  he  had  so  high  a  veneration  as  to  consult  him  in  his 
 sickness,  by  any  appellation  of  contempt.  Whoever  considers 
 what  troublesome  and  destructive  creatures,  especially  in  some 
 hot  countries,  flies  are  known  to  be;  in  what  vast  swarms  they 
 sometimes  settle,  and  not  only  devour  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
 but  in  many  places  occasion  a  noisome  pestilence ;  may  reason- 
 ably suppose,  that  the  heathens  had  a  proper  deity  to  whom  they 
 paid  their  addresses,  either  for  the  prevention  or  removal  of  this 
 sore  plague.  [In  particular,  the  fly,  called  Zebub,  and  in  modern 
 Arabic,  Zimb,  is  an  insect  so  very  destructive  as  to  render  it  far 
 from  surprising  that  the  ancient  polytheists,  who  had  gods  pre- 
 siding over  every  department  of  nature,  should  worship,  as  a  very 
 powerful  deity,  Baalzcbub,  or  the  lord  of  flies.  The  Zebub,  or 
 Zimb  is  never  seen,  says  Mr  Bruce,  but  where  the  earth  is  fat 
 and  loamy;  and  though  very  little  larger  than  a  bee,  "  whenever 
 it  makes  its  appearance  in  swarms,  as  it  always  does,  and  even 
 as  soon  as  its  buzzing  is  heard,  all  the  cattle  forsake  their  food, 
 and  run  wildly  about,  till  they  die,  worn  out  with  fatigue,  flight, 
 and  hunger."  Even  the  elephant  flies  before  it,  or  rolls  himself 
 in  the  mire  to  protect  his  skin  from  its  attack.  "  The  very 
 sound  of  the  Zimb,  before  it  is  seen,  occasions,"  says  the  same 
 author,  "more  trepidation  both  in  the  human  and  brute  creation, 
 than  would  whole  herds  of  these  monstrous  animals  collected 
 together,  though  their  number  was  in  a  tenfold  proportion  greater 
 than  it  really  is;"  and  the  only  remedy  that  remains  for  the 
 shepherd  on  the  appearance  of  this  destructive  insect,  is  to  hasten 
 with  his  cattle  as  quickly  as  he  can,  to  the  nearest  sandy  desert, 
 whither  the  Zimb  never  pursues  them'.  If  we  may  believe 
 Sandys,  these  flies  abound  in  the  country  that  was  anciently 
 called  Ekron.] — Bp.  Gleig.  And  accordingly  we  are  told  by 
 Pliny  (b.  29.  c.  6.),  that  when  there  was  a  plague  in  Africa, 
 occasioned  by  vast  quantities  of  flies,  after  that  the  people  had 
 sacrificed  to  the  god  Achore,  (he  should  have  said  the  god  of 
 Ekron,  for  there  is  a  plain  affinity  between  their  names,)  the  flies 
 all  died,  and  the  distemper  was  extinguished.  Now,  it  was  a 
 known  maxim  of  the  heathen  theology,  that  as  all  plagues  were 
 inflicted  by  some  evil  demon  or  other,  so  all  evil  demons  were 
 under  the  restraint  of  some  superior  one,  who  is  their  prince  and 
 ruler.  As  therefore  Pluto  was  known  to  be  the  god  of  hell,  and 
 to  have  all  the  mischievous  band  of  spirits  under  his  control,  to 
 him  the  heathens  used  to  pray,  and  offer  sacrifices,  that  he  might 
 not  suffer  any  of  his  inferior  agents  to  inflict  this  heavy  judgment 
 upon  them.  They  worshipped  him,  I  say,  not  to  engage  him  to 
 do  them  any  good,  but  to  prevail  with  him  to  do  them  no  harm; 
 and  accordingly  we  may  observe  that  every  thing  in  their  service 
 was  dark  and  gloomy.  Their  offerings  were  in  the  night:  "  then 
 to  the  Stygian  king  he  performs  nocturnal  sacrifices."  (Virg.  /En. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 573 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 recover ;  but,  by  God's  appointment,  the  prophet  Elijah 
 was  sent  to  meet  his  messengers,  and  to  turn  them 
 back  with  this  answer,  '  that  the  king  should  certainly 
 die.'"  The  messengers  coming  back  much  sooner  than 
 was  expected/'  acquainted  the  king  with  the  reason  of  it; 
 and  he,  c  by  their  description,  understanding  that  it  was 
 Elijah  who  sent  him  the  message,  immediately  despatched 
 a  captain  with  fifty  soldiers  to  apprehend  him  ;  but  upon 
 their  approach,  the  prophet  commanded  lire  to  come 
 down  from  heaven  and  destroy  them.  The  like  he  did 
 to  another  captain  and  his  company;  but  when  the  third 
 came,  in  a  mure  submissive  manner,  and  begged  his  life, 
 and  the  lives  of  his  soldiers,  <l  Elijah  went  with  him  to 
 the  king,  and  told  him  from  his  own  mouth  what  he  had 
 before  told  the  messengers ;  which  accordingly  came  to 
 pass,  for  he  died  a  short  time  after,  and  having  no  son 
 of  his  own,  was,  e  in  the  second  year  of  Jehoram,  son 
 
 (i.)  Their  victims  were  black:  "  The  chaste  Sybil  shall  invoke 
 thee  with  the  blood  of  many  a  swart  victim."  (Virg.  JEn.  G.) 
 And  the  blood  let  out  into  a  deep  ditch:  "  he  sinks  the  knife  in 
 the  throat  of  the  black  victim,  and  sprinkles  the  wide  ditches 
 with  blood."  (Ovid.  Met.  b.  7.)  Such  good  reason  have  we  to 
 think,  that  the  Baal-zebub,  in  Scripture,  called  the  '  prince  of 
 the  devils,'  was  the  very  same  with  the  Pluto  whom  the  heathens 
 made  the  god  of  hell,  and  worshipped  in  this  manner. — Patrick's 
 and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries;  Jurieu's  History  of  Doctrines 
 mid  If'orship,  part  4.  c.  3,  &C;  Bruce' s  Travels,  and  Harmer's 
 Observations. 
 
 a  Ekron  was  a  city  and  government  of  the  Philistines,  which 
 fell  by  lot  to  the  tribe  of  Judah,  in  the  first  division  made  by 
 Joshua,  (Josh.  xv.  45.)  but  was  afterwards  given  up  to  the  tribe 
 of  Dan,  (Josh.  xix.  43.)  though  it  does  not  appear  from  history  that 
 the  Jews  ever  had  a  peaceable  possession  of  it.  It  was  situated 
 near  the  Mediterranean  sea,  between  Ashdod  and  Jamnia,  in  a 
 moist  and  hot  soil,  and  was  therefore  very  much  infested  with 
 flies. —  Caltiiet's  Dictionary  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  It  may  seem  somewhat  strange,  that  Ahaziah's  messengers 
 should  stop  their  journey  to  Ekron,  at  Elijah's  command  ;  but  he 
 was  a  man  of  such  a  venerable  presence,  and  spake  to  them  with 
 such  authority  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  that  they  were  overawed 
 thereby  to  obey  him  rather  than  the  king. — Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary.^ 
 
 c  The  description  which  the  messengers  give  of  Elijah,  is, 
 '  that  he  was  an  hairy  man,  and  girt  with  a  girdle  of  leather 
 about  his  loins,'  (2  Kings  i.  S.)  where  his  being  an  hairy  man, 
 may  either  denote  his  wearing  long  hair  on  his  head,  and  his 
 beard,  as  the  ancient  Greek  philosophers  were  wont  to  do,  and 
 as  Lucan  describes  Cato,  "over  his  stern  front,  lie  allowed  his 
 hoarv  hair  to  hang,  and  on  his  chin,  a  gloomy  beard  to  grow." 
 Or  it  may  denote  his  habit,  which  was  made  of  skins,  rough, 
 and  with  their  hair  on;  as  the  ancient  heroes  were  clothed  in  the 
 skins  of  lions,  tigers,  and  bears;  as  the  Evangelist  represents  the 
 Baptist  in  '  a  raiment  of  camel's  hair,'  (Mat.  iii.  4.)  as  the  apostle 
 describes  the  prophets,  'wandering  about  in  sheep  skins  and 
 goat  skins,'  (Ilth.  xi.  37.)  and  as  Statins  dresses  up  oldTiresias, 
 "  he  assumes  the  heavy  looks  and  voice  and  well-known  skins  of 
 that,  aged  seer  Tiresias." — Theb.  b.  2. 
 
 d  This  is  a  gr<  at  instance  of  the  prophet's  faith  and  obedience  to 
 God  in  whom  he  trusted,  that  he  would  deliver  him  from  the 
 wrath  of  the  king,  and  the  malice  of  Jezebel.  He  hail  ordered, 
 not  long  before,  all  the  prophets  of  Baal  to  be  slain;  had  sent  a 
 Ncry  unwelcome  message  to  the  king;  and  now  made  a  very 
 terrible  execution  upon  two  of  his  captains  and  their  companies; 
 so  that  lie  had  all  the  reason  in  the  world  to  apprehend  the 
 utmost  expressions  of  the  king's  displeasure:  and  yet,  when  God 
 commands  him,  he  makes  no  manner  of  hesitation,  but  goes  boldly 
 to  him,  and  confirms,  with  his  own  mouth,  the  ungrateful  truth 
 which  he  had  declared  to  his  messengers. — Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 <•  Flow  could  Jehoram,  the  brother  of  Ahaziah,  begin  his  reign 
 in  Israel  in  the  second  year  of  Jehoram,  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat, 
 when  we  read  soon  after,  that  he  began  to  reign  over  Israel  in 
 the  eighteenth  year  of  Jehosliaphat  king  of  Judah,  (2  Kings  iii. 
 I.)  and  iu  another  place,  that  Jehoram,  the  son  of  Jeho  I 
 
 4482.  A.  C.  929.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 of  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Judah,  succeeded  by  his  brother 
 Jehoram. 
 
 About  the  beginning  of  the  /  reign  of  Jehoram  king 
 of  Judah,  Elijah  the  prophet  was  translated  into  heaven. 
 God,  very  likely,  had  given  him  some  intimation  of  the 
 time  when  this  miraculous  event  should  happen ;  and 
 therefore,  before  his  departure,  he  visited  the  sons  of  the 
 prophets  that  were  at  Bethel  and  Jericho,  and  took  his 
 leave  of  them  with  such  solemnity,  that  they  be«an  to 
 suspect  that  this  was  the  last  visit  he  intended  to  make 
 them  ;  and  accordingly  S  apprised  Elisha  of  it,  who 
 thereupon  determined  not  to  leave  his  master,  as  long  as 
 he  continued  upon  earth. 
 
 With  this  resolution,  he  set  forward  with  Elijah,  who 
 was  now  shaping  his  course  towards  his  native  country  of 
 Gilead,  from  whence  he  was  to  be  translated  ;  and  as 
 they  were  to  pass  over  the  Jordan,  Elijah  *  with  his  man- 
 tle struck  the  waters,  which  instantly  divided  into  two 
 parts,  so  that  they  went  over  on  dry  ground. 
 
 When  they  had  passed  the  river  in  the  sight  of  fifty  of 
 the  l  sons  of  the  prophets,  and  as  they  drew  near  to  the 
 
 began  to  reign  over  Judah,  in  the  fifth  year  of  Jehoram  king  of 
 Israel?  (2  Kings  viii.  lb".)  Now,  it  is  but  supposing  that  Jeho- 
 shaphat declared  his  son  Jehoram  king,  while  himself  was  alive, 
 and  reigned  in  conjunction  with  him  for  the  space  of  seven 
 years,  and  all  the  difficulty  is  removed :  for  then  Jehoram,  the 
 son  of  Ahab,  might  begin  his  reign  in  the  second  year  of  Jehoram 
 son  of  Jehoshaphat,  namely,  in  the  second  year  that  he  reigned 
 with  his  father  who  was  then  alive;  and  Jehoram,  son  of  Jeho- 
 shaphat, may  be  said  to  have  begun  his  reign  in  the  fifth  of  Jeho- 
 ram the  son  of  Ahab,  meaning  the  time  when,  after  his  father's 
 death,  he  began  to  reign  alone.  That  the  kings  of  Judah  and 
 Israel,  as  well  as  other  oriental  princes,  were  accustomed  to 
 appoint  their  successors,  and  even  during  their  lifetime,  to  give 
 them  some  share  in  the  administration,  is  plain  from  several 
 instances  :  and  that  Jehoshaphat  found  it  expedient  to  settle  his 
 son  in  the  kingdom  with  himself,  seems  to  be  intimated  in  2 
 Chron.  xxi.  3,  where  it  is  said,  that  'he  gave  the  kingdom  to 
 Jehoram,  because  he  was  his  first-born,  and  gave  gifts  to  the  rest 
 of  his  sons,  who,  being  many,  might  perhaps  be  forming  parties, 
 and  be  entering  into  cabals  about  the  succession  to  the  kingdom; 
 and  therefore  to  put  an  end  to  all  such  contests,  Jehoshaphat 
 declared  Jehoram  king,  while  himself  was  on  the  throne,  because 
 he  was  his  first-born. — Calmefs  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 f  To  prevent  confusion,  the  reader  is  desired  to  take  notice, 
 that  in  the  course  of  this  history  there  is  mention  made  of  two 
 Jehorams,  who  reigned  much  about  the  same  time;  one,  the 
 second  son  of  Ahab,  who  succeeded  his  brother  Ahaziah,  and 
 was  king  of  Israel ;  and  the  other,  who  was  son  and  heir  to 
 Jehoshaphat,  and  reigned  in  Judah;  both  very  wicked  princes; 
 and  therefore  the  greater  care  should  be  taken,  that  their  actions 
 be  not  blended  together. 
 
 g  The  expression  in  the  text  is,  '  Knowest  thou  that  the  Lord 
 will  takeaway  thy  master  from  thy  head  to-day  ?'  (2  Kings  ii,  3.) 
 where  the  sons  of  the  prophets  allude  to  their  manner  of  sitting 
 in  their  schools.  For  the  scholars  used  to  sit  below  their  master's 
 feet,  and  the  masters  above  over  their  heads,  when  they  taught 
 them:  and  therefore  the-  sense  of  the  words  is,  that  '  God  would 
 deprive  Elisha  of  his  master  Elijah's  instructions,'  namely,  by  a 
 sudden  death.  For  it  does  not  appear  that  they  had  any  notion 
 of  his  translation;  so  far  from  this,  that  they  desired  leave  to  send 
 out  some  to  seek  for  him,  '  if  pcradventure  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
 had  taken  him  up,  and  cast  him  upon  some  mountain,  or  into 
 some  valley,'  (2  Kings  ii.   I''-'  —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 h  In  these  two  books  of  King-,  there  i>  mention  made  five 
 times  of  this  mantle;  and  in  every  place  it  is  called  -Adareth,  which 
 denotes  '  a  royal  as  well  as  a  prophetical  robe.'  The  Septuagint 
 always  translates  it  by  the  word  faXur7,,  which  properly  signifies 
 the  prophetic  mantle,  made  of  lamb-skins,  being  a  kind  of  upper 
 garment  thrown  over  the  shoulders,  and,  as  some  think,  reaching 
 down  to  the  heels;  though  Others  take  it  for  IIO  men-  than  a  lea- 
 thern jacket  to  keep  out  rain.  '•  Lei  the  leathern  mantle  never 
 be  awanting,  in  case  of  sudden  rains,"  [Mart.  b.  14.) 
 
 i  By  '  lac  sons  of  the  prophets,'  we  are  to  understand  'the 
 
574 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  C.  1C03;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 A.  M.  3001 
 
 place  of  Elijah's  ascension,  Elisha  requested  of  him  that 
 the  same  gift  of  prophecy  which  God  had  been  pleased 
 to  bestow  on  him,  might  be  a  communicated  to  him,  in 
 a  larger  measure  than  to  the  other  prophets  ;  which  the 
 other  did  not  positively  promise,  but  told  him,  however, 
 that  if  he  happened  to  see  him  when  he  came  to  be 
 translated,  this  would  be  a  good  sign,  that  God  would 
 not  refuse  him  his  request :  and  while  they  were  thus 
 going  on,  and  talking,  there  appeared,  as  it  were,  a 
 bright  chariot,  and  horses,  running  towards  them  on  the 
 ground,  and,  coming  between  them,  parted  them.  *  For 
 Elijah  mounted  the  chariot,  and  in  a  great  gust  of  wind, 
 directed  by  angels,  was  transported  into  heaven  ;  while 
 Elisha,  who  was  left  behind,  c  cried  to  him  as  he  saw 
 
 scholars  of  the  prophets/  such  as  they  educated  and  trained  up 
 in  religion  and  virtue,  upon  whom  God  by  degrees  bestowed  the 
 spirit  of  prophecy,  and  whom  the  superior  prophets  employed  in 
 the  same  capacity,  as  the  apostles  did  the  evangelists,  namely,  to 
 publish  their  prophecies  and  instructions  to  the  people,  in  the 
 places  where  they  themselves  could  not  go.  Nor  is  it  any  small 
 testimony  of  Gods'  love  to  an  apostate  people,  that  in  these  cor- 
 rupt times,  and  in  that  very  place  where  the  golden  calves  were 
 worshipped,  he  still  continued  the  schools  of  the  prophets,  in  order 
 to  recover  them  from  idolatry.  Nay,  what  is  very  remarkable, 
 there  were  prophets  of  greater  excellency  for  their  miracles,  in 
 Israel,  than  were  in  Judah,  because  they  needed  them  more,  both 
 to  turn  their  hard  hearts  from  the  worship  of  idols,  and  to  preserve 
 the  pious  persons  that  remained  among  them  from  deserting  their 
 religion. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  Let,  I  pray  thee,  a  double  por- 
 tion of  thy  Spirit  be  upon  me;'  where  some  learned  men  are  of 
 opinion,  that  this  request  in  Elisha  would  be  arrogant,  if  the 
 words  were  to  be  taken  in  their  most  obvious  sense;  and  there- 
 fore they  refer  them  to  Elisha's  school-fellows,  whom  he  desires 
 to  surpass  in  all  prophetic  gifts,  as  much  as  the  first-born  did  ex- 
 cel the  other  children  in  his  portion  of  the  inheritance.  But  see- 
 ing Elijah  had  no  other  successor  upon  whom  he  was  to  bestow 
 any  prophetic  gifts,  but  Elisha,  we  cannot  see  why  Elisha  may 
 not  be  said  to  have  a  double  portion  of  the  prophetic  spirit,  since 
 it  is  evident  he  did  many  more  miracles  than  Elijah  did,  and 
 even  after  his  death,  exerted  a  divine  power  in  raising  the  dead 
 man,  (2  Kings  xiii.  21.)  Had  he  desired  this  double  portion 
 indeed  out  of  a  principle  of  vainglory,  there  might  then  be 
 something  said  against  his  request;  but  since  he  did  it  with  a 
 pure  intent  to  become  thereby  more  serviceable  in  his  genera- 
 tion, we  cannot  perceive  why  he  was  to  blame  in  requesting 
 what  our  blessed  Saviour  granted  to  his  apostles,  namely,  the 
 power  of  working  greater  miracles  than  he  himself  did. — Le 
 Clerc's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  What  this  chariot  was,  and  to  what  place  it  conveyed  Elijah, 
 we  shall  have  occasion  to  observe  in  the  following  chapter;  at 
 present  we  shall  only  take  notice  of  some  things  relating  to  this 
 prophet's  character.  The  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  (xlviii.  1,  &c.) 
 has  dedicated  this  encomium  to  his  memory,  "  Then  stood  up 
 Elias  the  prophet  as  fire,  and  his  word  burnt  like  a  lamp.  He 
 brought  a  sore  famine  among  them,  and  by  his  zeal  he  diminished 
 their  number.  By  the  word  of  the  Lord  he  shut  up  the  heaven, 
 and  also  three  times  brought  down  fire.  O  Elias,  how  wast  thou 
 honoured  by  thy  wondrous  deeds  ?  And  who  may  glory  like 
 unto  thee  ?  Who  didst  raise  a  dead  man  from  death,  and  his 
 son  from  the  place  of  the  dead,  by  the  word  of  the  Most  High; 
 who  broughtest  kings  to  destruction,  and  honourable  men  to  their 
 bed: — Who  wast  taken  up  in  a  whirlwind  of  fire,  and  in  a  chariot 
 of  fiery  horses ;  who  was  ordained  for  reproofs  in  their  times,  to 
 pacify  the  wrath  of  the  Lord's  judgment  before  it  brake  forth  into 
 fury ;  to  turn  the  heart  of  the  father  to  the  son,  and  to  restore  the 
 tribes  of  Jacob."  In  which  last  sentence  our  author  alludes  to 
 that  passage  in  Malachi,  (iv.  5,  6.)  '  Behold  I  will  send  you 
 Elijah  the  prophet,  before  the  coming  of  the  great  and  dreadful 
 day  of  the  Lord  ;  and  he  shall  turn  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the 
 children,  and  the  hearts  of  the  children  to  their  fathers,  lest  I 
 come  and  smite  the  earth  with  a  curse.' 
 
 c  The  words  of  Elisha  upon  this  occasion  are,  '  My  father,  my 
 father,'  so  they  called  their  masters  and  instructors,  '  the  chariots 
 of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof.'     The  expression  alludes  to 
 
 him  mount,  and  expressed  his  sorrow  when  he  was  gone  : 
 but  taking  up  the  mantle  which  had  dropped  from  him, 
 in  his  ascent,  with  it  he  divided  the  waters,  as  Elijah 
 had  done,  and  repassed  the  Jordan. 
 
 Hereby  the  prophets  of  Jericho,  and  the  places  adja- 
 cent, were  convinced  that  the  spirit  of  Elijah  rested 
 upon  Elisha.  And  accordingly,  when  they  met  him, 
 they  recognised  him  for  his  successor,  and  paid  him  the 
 same  respect.  Believing,  however,  that  the  Spirit  of 
 God  might  possibly  have  d  transported  Elijah  into  some 
 distant  or  desert  place,  they  desired  leave  to  send  out 
 fifty  men  in  search  of  him.  Elisha  assured  them  that  it 
 would  be  needless  :  however,  to  give  them  all  the  con- 
 viction they  desired,  he  suffered  them  to  do  what  they 
 pleased  ;  so  that  the  men  went  and  returned  again  after 
 three  days'  search  to  no  purpose. 
 
 From  this  place  Elisha  proceeded  to  Jericho,  where, 
 at  the  request  of  the  inhabitants,  he  cured  the  e  brack- 
 ishness    of  their    water,   and   the    barrenness    of  their 
 
 the  form  of  the  chariot  and  horses  that  he  had  just  then  beheld, 
 and  seems  to  imply,  "  that  Elijah,  by  his  example,  and  counsel, 
 and  prayers,  and  power  with  God,  did  more  for  the  defence  and 
 preservation  of  Israel,  than  all  their  chariots  and  horses,  and 
 other  warlike  provisions ;"  unless  we  may  suppose  that  this  was 
 an  abrupt  speech  which  Elisha,  in  the  consternation  he  was  in, 
 left  unfinished,  and  so  the  sacred  history  has  recorded  it. — Poole's 
 Annotations  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  '  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord,'  whereby  we  may  understand  either 
 the  power  of  God,  or  some  one  of  his  angels,  frequently  used  to 
 cany  the  prophets  through  the  air,  and  with  vast  celerity  remove 
 them  to  distant  places;  and  therefore  Obadiah  speaks  of  it  as  a 
 common  thing:  '  and  it  shall  come  to  ptss,  as  soon  as  I  am  gone 
 from  thee,  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  will  cany  thee  where  I  know 
 not,  so  that  when  the  king  cannot  find  thee  he  will  slay  me,'  (1 
 Kings  xviii.  12).  And  accordingly  in  the  New  Testament,  we 
 are  told  of  Philip,  that  '  when  they  were  come  out  of  the  water, 
 the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  caught  him  away,  that  the  eunuch  saw  him 
 no  more,  and  Philip  was  found  at  Azotus,'  (Acts  viii.  39,  40.) — 
 Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  manner  in  which  the  prophet  Elisha  sweetened  the 
 fountain,  and  made  the  soil  fruitful,  was  by  casting  salt  into  the 
 water,  to  make  the  miracle  more  conspicuous ;  for  salt  is  a  thing, 
 that  of  all  others,  makes  water  less  potable,  and  the  ground  more 
 barren.  Josephus,  however,  willing  to  improve  upon  this  history, 
 adds,  as  his  usual  manner  is,  several  circumstances  of  his  own. 
 For  he  tells  us,  "That  this  fountain  did  not  only  corrupt  the 
 fruits  of  the  earth,  whether  grain  or  plants,  but  likewise  caused 
 abortions  in  women,  and  tainted,  with  a  blasted  infection,  what- 
 ever it  touched,  that  was  capable  of  such  impression ;  that  Elisha, 
 having  been  treated  with  great  hospitality  and  respect  by  the 
 people  of  Jericho,  bethought  himself  of  such  an  acknowledgment, 
 as  they  themselves,  their  country,  and  their  posterity,  to  the  end 
 of  the  world,  might  be  the  better  for;  that  hereupon  he  went 
 out  to  the  fountain,  and  causing  a  pitcher  of  salt  to  be  let  down 
 to  the  bottom  of  it,  he  advanced  his  right  hand  towards  heaven, 
 and,  presenting  his  oblations  at  the  side  of  it,  besought  God,  in 
 his  goodness,  to  correct  the  water,  and  to  sweeten  the  veins 
 through  which  it  passed ;  to  soften  the  air,  and  to  make  it  more 
 temperate  and  fructifying;  to  bestow  children  as  well  as  fruits, 
 upon  the  inhabitants  in  abundance;  and  never  to  withdraw  these 
 blessings,  so  long  as  they  continued  in  their  duty ;  and  that  upon 
 offering  up  this  prayer,  with  all  due  ceremony,  and  according  to 
 form,  the  ill  quality  of  the  fountain  was  changed,  and,  instead  of 
 sterility,  became  now  an  efficacious  means  of  plenty  and  increase." 
 The  author,  we  may  observe,  to  gratify  the  pagans,  represents 
 Elisha  in  the  form  of  a  magician,  who,  by  invocations,  oblations, 
 and  other  mysterious  operations,  changed  the  bad  quality  of  the 
 waters,  and  thereby  made  the  valley  of  Jericho  fruitful ;  whereas 
 this  was  done  in  a  manner  altogether  supernatural  and  miracu- 
 lous. Nay,  to  this  very  day,  there  is  a  fountain  on  the  west  of 
 Jericho,  which  rises  about  three  quarters  of  a  league  above  the 
 town,  in  the  way  to  Jerusalem,  which,  yielding  a  great  deal  of 
 water,  and  that  very  good  in  its  kind,  runs  along  aud  fructifies 
 the  plain. — The  Wars  of  the  Jews,  b.  5.  c.  4. 
 
Skct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OP  THE  TEMPLE,  &o. 
 
 575 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1013;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  flOl.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 soil.™  Thence  he  continued  his  course  to  Bethel,  where, 
 upon  the  children's  mocking  and  ridiculing  him,  h  two 
 she-bears  rushing  out  of  the  neighbouring  forest,  fell  upon 
 them,  and  devoured  two  and  forty  of  them.  From 
 Bethel  he  went  to  Mount  Carmel,  where  probably  there 
 was  another  school  of  the  prophets  ;  and  from  thence  he 
 proceeded  to  Samaria,  where  he  had  soon  opportunities 
 enough  of  exerting  his  prophetic  office. 
 
 It  was  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat  king  of 
 Judah,  that  tins  Jehoram  king  of   Israel,  c  began  to 
 
 a  2  Kings  ii.  19.  '  And  the  ground  bar/eu;'  marg.  'causing 
 to  miscarry.'  If  the  latter  reading  is  allowed  to  be  more  just 
 than  the  former,  we  must  entertain  a  different  idea  of  the  situa- 
 tion of  Jericho  than  the  textual  translation  suggests.  There  are 
 actually  at  this  time  cities  where  animal  life  of  certain  kinds 
 pines,  and  decays,  and  dies ;  and  where  that  posterity  which  should 
 replace  such  loss,  is  either  not  conceived;  or,  if  conceived,  is 
 not  brought  to  the  birth;  or,  if  brought  to  the  birth,  is  fatal  in 
 delivery  to  both  mother  and  offspring.  An  instance  of  this  kind 
 occurs  in  Don  Ulloa's  Voyage  to  South  America,  vol.  i.  p.  93. 
 He  says  of  the  climate  of  Porto  Bello,  that  "it  destroys  the 
 vigour  of  nature,  and  often  untimely  cuts  the  thread  of  life." 
 And  of  Sennaar,  Mr  Bruce  ( Trav.  vol.  iv.  p.  469.)  says,  that 
 "  no  horse,  mule,  ass,  or  any  beast  of  burthen,  will  breed,  or 
 even  live  at  Sennaar,  or  many  miles  about  it.  Poultry  does  not 
 live  there ;  neither  dog  nor  cat,  sheep  nor  bullock,  can  be  pre- 
 served a  season  there.  They  must  go  all,  every  year,  to  the 
 sands.  Though  every  possible  care  be  taken  of  them,  they  die 
 in  every  place  where  the  fat  earth  is  about  the  town,  during  the 
 first  season  of  the  rains."  He  farther  mentions,  that  the  situa- 
 tion is  equally  unfavourable  to  most  trees. — Ed. 
 
 b  They  had  probably  been  robbed  of  their  whelps,  which  made 
 them  more  fierce  and  outrageous. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  'Jehoram  king  of  Israel  began  to  reign.'  There  were  two 
 Jehorams  who  were  contemporary:  the  first,  the  son  of  Ahab, 
 brother  to  Ahaziah,  and  his  successor  in  the  kingdom  of  Israel; 
 the  second,  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Judah,  who  succeeded 
 liis  father  in  Judah.  But  there  is  a  difficulty  here:  how  is  it 
 that  Jehoram,  the  brother  of  Ahaziah,  began  to  reign  in  the 
 second  year  of  Jehoram  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  as  it  is  stated,  2 
 Kings  i.  17,  seeing  that,  according  to  chap.  iii.  1,  he  began  his 
 reign  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Jehoshaphat;  and 
 according  to  chap.  viii.  16,  '  Jehoram,  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  began 
 to  reign  in  the  fifth  year  of  Jehoram  king  of  Israel.'  Calmet  and 
 others  answer  thus:  "  Jehoram  king  of  Israel  began  to  reign  in 
 the  eighteenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Judah,  which  was  the 
 second  year  after  this  Jehoshaphat  had  given  the  vice-royalty  to 
 his  son  Jehoram ;  and  afterwards  Jehoshaphat  communicated 
 the  royalty  to  Jehoram  his  successor,  two  years  before  his  death, 
 and  the  fifth  year  of  Jehoram  king  of  Israel."  Dr  Lightfoot  takes 
 another  method: — "Observe,"  says  he,  "these  texts,  1  Kings 
 xxii.  51,  '  Ahaziah  the  son  of  Ahab  began  to  reign  over  Israel  in 
 Samaria,  the  seventeenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Judah,  and 
 reigned  two  years;'  and  2  Kings  i.  17:  'And  Ahaziah  died, 
 according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  which  Elijah  had  spoken,  and 
 Jehoram  reigned  in  his  stead,  in  the  second  year  of  Jehoram  son 
 of  Jehoshaphat,  king  of  Judah ;'  and  2  Kings  iii.  1 :  '  Now 
 Jehoram  the  son  of  Ahab  began  to  reign  over  Israel  in  Samaria 
 the  eighteenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Judah.'  By  these 
 Scriptures  it  is  most  plain,  that  both  Jehoram,  the  son  of  Jeho- 
 shaphat, and  Ahaziah,  the  son  of  Ahab,  began  to  reign  in  the 
 seventeenth  year  of  Jehoshaphat :  for  who  sees  not  in  these  texts 
 that  Jehoshaphat's  eighteenth,  when  Jehoram  the  son  of  Ahab 
 began  to  reign,  is  called  the  second  year  of  Jehoram  the  son  of 
 Jehoshaphat?  Now  Jehoshaphat's  reign  was  not  yet  expired  by 
 eight  or  nine  years,  for  this  was  in  his  seventeenth  year,  and  he 
 reigned  twenty-five  years;  (I  Kings  xxii.  42.)  nor  was  Ahab's 
 reign  yet  expired  by  two  or  three  years,  for  this  was  in  his 
 twentieth  year,  and  he  reigned  twenty-two  years,  (1  Kings  xvi. 
 29.)  But  the  reason  why  both  their  sons  came  thus  into  their 
 thrones  in  their  lifetime,  and  both  in  the  same  year,  was,  because 
 their  fathers,  Jehoshaphat  and  Ahab,  were  both  engaged  in  the 
 war  against  the  Syrians,  about  Ramoth-Gilead ;  and  while  they 
 were  providing  for  it,  and  carrying  it  on,  they  made  their  sons 
 vice-royals,  and  set  them  to  reign  in  their  stead,  while  they  were 
 absent,  or  employed  upon  that  expedition."     This  is  veiy  pro- 
 
 reign  ;  and  though  he  did  not  make  any  great  reforma- 
 tion in  his  kingdom,  yet  he  was  not  altogether  so  wicked 
 as  his  father  and  brother  :  for  he  d  removed  the  idols  of 
 Baal,  very  likely  to  procure  Jehoshaphat's  friendship, 
 though  the  golden  calves  which  were  the  state-engine  to 
 keep  up  the  division  between  Israel  and  Judah,  he  could 
 not  prevail  with  himself  to  depose.  In  this  state,  how- 
 ever, he  e  had  Jehoshaphat  for  an  ally,  when  he  engaged 
 in  a  war,  which  was  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  with 
 Mesha  king  of  Moab,  for  refusing  to  pay  the  tribute  /  of 
 an  hundred  thousand  lambs,  and  an  hundred  thousand 
 rams  with  the  wool,  which,  until  the  reign  of  his 
 brother  Ahaziah,  had  been  all  along  from  the  time  of 
 David  paid  to  the  crown  of  Israel ;  and  as  the  king  of 
 Israel  was  then  no  more  than  deputy  to  Jehoshaphat,  he 
 engaged  him  likewise  in  the  quarrel.  These  three  kings, 
 in  order  to  surprise  the  enemy,  and  invade  him  on  the 
 weakest  side,  took  a  compass  of  seven  days'  march  in  the 
 wilderness  of  Edom,  and  had  like  to  have  been  all  lost 
 for  want  of  water,  had  not  the  prophet  Elisha,  who  was 
 then  in  the  camp,  l  put  them  in  a  method  how  to  procure 
 some  ;  s  and  not  only  so,  but  at  the  same  time  promised 
 
 1  2  Kings  iii.  16. 
 bahle,  and  seems  well  supported  by  the  above  texts,  and  would 
 solve  all  the  difficulties  with  which  many  have  been  puzzled, 
 and  not  a  few  stumbled.    Here  we  have  sufficient  evidence  for  the 
 vice-royalty  here  mentioned. — Dr  A.  Clarke. — Ed. 
 
 d  It  is  a  little  strange,  that  his  mother  Jezebel,  who  brought 
 this  worship  with  her  from  the  Sidonians,  should  suffer  him  to 
 remove  the  images  of  her  favourite  god ;  but  she  perhaps  might 
 be  a  little  daunted  with  the  many  disasters  that  had  befallen  her 
 family,  and  was  content  with  the  privilege  of  having  her  idolatrous 
 worship  in  private ;  nor  is  it  unlikely,  that  Jehoshaphat  might 
 refuse  to  assist  him  in  his  wars  against  the  king  of  Moab,  unless  he 
 would  consent  to  renounce  his  idolatry. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  answer  which  he  gives  Jehoram  is  the  very  same  that 
 he  returned  to  his  father  Ahab,  in  his  war  against  the  Syrians: 
 '  I  am  as  thou  art ;  my  people,  as  thy  people ;  and  my  horses,  as 
 thy  horses,'  (1  Kings  xxii.  4.  and  2  Kings  iii.  7.)  And  consid- 
 ering the  ill  success  he  had,  one  would  wonder  why  he  should  be 
 so  forward  to  join  with  his  son;  hut,  as  Jehoram  had  reformed 
 some  things,  he  might  have  a  better  opinion  of  him,  and,  by 
 showing  him  kindness,  hope  perhaps  to  prevail  with  him  to  pro- 
 ceed farther:  and,  as  the  Moabites  had  of  late  invaded  his  coun- 
 try, (2  Chron.  xx.  1.)  he  might  embrace  this  opportunity  to 
 chastise  them  for  it.  But,  without  these  considerations,  the  war 
 was  right  and  justifiable ;  and  fit  it  was  that  rebels  and  revolters 
 should  be  chastised,  lest  the  example  should  pass  into  his  own 
 dominions,  and  encourage  the  Edomites  to  revolt  from  him,  as 
 we  find  they  afterwards  did  from  his  son. — Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 ./"This  was  a  prodigious  number  indeed;  but  then  we  are  to 
 consider,  that  these  countries  abounded  with  sheep,  insomuch 
 that  Solomon  offered  120,000  at  the  dedication  of  the  temple, 
 (2  Chron.  vii.  5.)  and  the  Reubenites  drove  from  the  Hagaritcs 
 250,000,  (1  Chron.  v.  21.)  For,  as  Bochart  observes,  their  sheep 
 frequently  brought  forth  two  at  a  time,  and  sometimes  twice  a 
 year.  The  same  learned  man  remarks,  that  in  ancient  times, 
 when  people's  riches  consisted  in  cattle,  this  was  the  only  way 
 of  paying  tribute ;  for,  as  he  quotes  the  passage  out  of  Pliny, 
 "  money,  (pecunia,)  was  even  named  so  from  the  word  peats,  or 
 cattle:  and  still  yet  in  the  Censor's  tables  all  things  are  called 
 pascua,  (pastures,)  from  which  the  people  received  revenue, 
 because  this  had  long  been  their  only  income."  (Xat.  Hist.  b.  18. 
 c.  3)  It  is  observed  by  others  likewise,  that  this  great  number 
 of  cattle  was  not  a  tribute  which  the  Moabites  were  obliged  to 
 pay  to  the  Israelites  every  year,  but  on  some  special  occasion 
 only ;  upon  the  accession  of  every  new  king,  for  instance,  when 
 they  were  obliged  to  express  their  homage  in  this  manner,  or  to 
 make  satisfaction  for  some  damages,  that  the  Israelites  should  at 
 any  time  sutler  from  their  invasious  or  revolts. — Patrick's  and 
 Le  Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 g  The  prophet  did  not  instruct  the  kings  how  to  procure  a  sup- 
 
576 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.   A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 them  a  complete  victory  over  the  Moabites.  The  next 
 morning-,  the  confederate  army  had  water  enough  ;  "  and 
 the  Moabites,  who  were  now  marching  to  oppose  them, 
 perceiving  water  where  they  knew  there  used  to  be  none, 
 and,  by  the  reflection  of  the  sun,  that  it  looked  like  blood, 
 supposed  that  the  three  kings  had  quarrelled,  and  their 
 armies  engaged,  and  slain  one  another  ;  so  that  they 
 concluded  they  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  fall  upon  the 
 spoil.  But  when  they  came  to  the  camp,  the  Israelites 
 gave  them  a  reception  that  they  little  expected  ;  for  they 
 not  only  killed  great  numbers  of  them  upon  the  spot,  but 
 pursued  them  into  their  country,  destroyed  their  forti- 
 fied places,  choked  up  their  springs,  cut  down  their 
 timber,  b  and  made  ravage  and  devastation  wherever  they 
 came ;  insomuch  that  the  king  Avas  forced  to  betake 
 himself  to  his  capital  city,  Kirhareseth,  where  the  con- 
 federate army  besieged  him,  and  soon  reduced  him  to 
 such  extremity,  that  after  he  had  made  a  successful  sally 
 with  700  men,  in  hopes  of  forcing  the  king  of  Edom's 
 quarters,  and  found  himself  repidsed,  he  took  his  eldest 
 
 ply  of  water  by  any  knowledge  of  his  own,  as  our  author's  words 
 would  seem  to  imply,  he  merely  announced  to  them  what  God 
 had  revealed  to  him,  namely,  that  they  should  dig  a  number  of 
 ditches,  and  that  these  should  be  miraculously  filled  with  water. 
 "  The  mind  of  the  holy  man  being  discomposed,  as  it  seems,  by 
 the  presence  of  the  idolatrous  Edomite,  he  called  for  music,  in 
 order,  probably,  that  its  soothing  influence  might  prepare  him  to 
 give  a  response  with  calmness  and  self-possession,  and  then  he 
 predicted  the  manner  and  issue  of  the  battle  in  terms  as  plain  as 
 if  it  had  been  a  description  after  the  event.  The  manner  in 
 which  the  enemy  were  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  confederate 
 kings,  was  altogether  miraculous,  for,  though  it  was  through  the 
 intervention  of  water,  there  was  not  the  whirlwind,  which  in  the 
 east  is  the  usual  prognostic  of  rain;  and  it  was  to  that  usual  at- 
 mospheric appearance,  previous  to  a  shower,  that  the  prophet 
 alluded,  when  he  said,  '  Ve  shall  not  see  wind,  neither  shall  ye 
 see  rain,  yet  the  valley  shall  be  filled  with  water,  that  ye  may 
 drink,  both  you  and  your  cattle.'  The  event  fell  out  precisely 
 as  the  prophet  had  foretold ;  the  whole  country  was  filled  with 
 Mater,  and  what  proved  a  most  seasonable  relief  to  the  confederate 
 armies,  was  the  cause  of  the  enemy's  destruction,  for  in  conse- 
 quence of  the  reflection  of  the  sun's  rays  on  the  water,  which,  at 
 its  rising  and  falling,  often  gives  water  a  red  appearance,  they 
 were  deceived  into  the  belief  that  it  was  blood;  and  that  such  a 
 profusion  of  it  could  have  been  occasioned  only  by  some  sudden 
 and  deadly  strife  between  the  allies.  Under  this  delusion,  they 
 ran  carelessly  to  the  camp  of  the  opposite  party,  by  whom  they 
 were  surprised,  put  to  flight,  and  killed  in  great  numbers,  their 
 country  invaded  and  laid  waste. — Javriesoris  Eastern  Manners, 
 pp.  310',  317. — Ed. 
 
 a  2  Kings  iii.  17.  '  Ye  shall  not  see  wind,  neither  shall  ye  see 
 rain;  yet  the  valley  shall  be  filled  with  water.'  Rain  is  often  in 
 the  east  preceded  by  a  squall  of  wind.  The  editor  of  the  Ruins  of 
 Palmyra  tells  us,  that  they  seldom  have  rain  except  at  the  equi- 
 noxes, and  that  nothing  could  be  more  serene  than  the  sky  all  the 
 time  he  was  there,  except  one  afternoon,  when  there  was  a  small 
 shower,  preceded  by  a  whirlwind,  which  took  up  such  quantities 
 of  sand  from  the  desert,  as  quite  darkened  the  sky  (p.  37).  Thus 
 Elisha  told  the  king  of  Israel,  'ye  shall  not  see  wind  nor  rain, 
 yet  that  valley  shall  be  filled  with  water.'  The  circumstance  of  the 
 wind  taking  up  such  a  quantity  of  sand  as  to  darken  the  sky,  may 
 serve  to  explain  ]  Kings  xviii.  45:  'The  heaven  was  black 
 with  clouds  and  wind.'  The  wind  prognosticating  rain  is  also 
 referred  Co  Prov.  xxv.  14:  '  Whoso  boasteth  himself  of  a  false 
 gift,'  pretending  to  give  something  valuable  and  disappointing  the 
 expectation,  'is  like  clouds  and  wind  without  rain.' — Harmcr, 
 vol.  1.  p.  51— En. 
 
 b  2  Kings  iii.  25.  '  Felled  all  the  good  trees.'  In  times  of  war 
 it  was  formerly  very  common  for  one  party  to  injure  the  other, 
 by  destroying  their  valuable  trees.  Thus  the  Moabites  were 
 punished,  and  thus  the  Arabs  of  the  holy  land  still  make  war  upon 
 each  other,  burning  the  com,  cutting  down  the  olive  trees,  &c. 
 — Hasselquist's  Travels,  p.  143. — Ed. 
 
 M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 son,  c  and  in  mere  desperation,  sacrificed  him  upon  the 
 wall  of  the  city,  in  the  sight  of  the  Israelitish  army,  who 
 being  struck  with  horror  at  so  barbarous  an  action,  raised 
 the  siege,  and  retired  to  their  own  country.  d 
 
 Upon  raising  this  siege,  the  prophet  Elisha  left  the 
 three  kings,  and  returned  to  Samaria  ;  whereupon  the 
 sacred  historian  gives  a  long  detail  of  the  several  mira- 
 cles which  lie  wrought,  namely,  l  that  he  increased  a 
 poor  widow's  oil,  to  such  a  quantity,  as  enabled  her  to 
 pay  her  husband's  debts,  and  preserve  her  two  sons  from 
 bondage.  2  That,  to  reward  the  wealthy  Shunamite  for 
 his  kindness  and  hospitality  to  him,  e  he  prevailed  in  his 
 prayers  with  God,  that  his  wife  might  have  a  child,  and 
 afterwards,  when  the  child  died,  3  restored  him  to  life 
 again.  That  while  he  was  at  Gilgal,  he  cured  the  noxi- 
 ous quality  of  the  prophets'/ colloquintida  pottage,  by 
 
 1  2  Kings  iv.  1,  &c.  *  2  Kings  iv.  8,  &c. 
 
 3  2  Kings  iv.  34. 
 
 c  Not  only  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  several  heathen  writers 
 likewise  do  assure  us  of  this,  that  in  cases  of  great  extremity,  it 
 was  customary  among  people  to  sacrifice  to  their  gods  whatever 
 was  most  dear  to  them.  Ctesar,  in  his  war  with  the  Gauls,  tells 
 us,  that  when  they  were  afflicted  with  grievous  diseases,  or 
 in  time  of  war,  or  great  danger,  they  either  offered  men  for 
 sacrifices,  or  vowed  that  they  would  offer  them ;  because  they 
 imagined,  that  their  gods  could  never  be  appeased,  unless  one 
 man's  life  was  given  for  another's.  No  less  a  man  than  Grotius 
 is  of  opinion,  that  this  Moabitish  king,  in  imitation  of  Abraham, 
 sacrificed  his  son  to  the  God  of  Israel,  hoping  thereby  to  appease 
 his  wrath,  and  to  move  the  compassion  of  the  kings  that  were 
 besieging  him:  but  the  most  general  opinion  is,  that  he  offered 
 this  costly  sacrifice  to  some  false  deity,  and  very  likely  to  Che- 
 mosh,  which  was  his  national  god,  and  generally  thought  to  be 
 the  sun. — Calmefs  and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  Instead  of  the  words,  '  there  was  great  indignation  against 
 Israel,'  as  in  our  version,  2  Kings  iii.  27,  Boothroyd  has,  '  there 
 was  great  indignation  amongst  the  Israelites,'  which  seems  to  be 
 the  true  reading. — Ed. 
 
 e  This  kindness  consisted  in  entertaining  him ;  to  the  better 
 accomplishment  of  which,  they  built  for  him  a  little  chamber  on 
 the  wall,  that  he  might  turn  in  thither,  as  related,  2  Kings  viii. 
 10.  The  following  may  illustrate  the  nature  of  this  chamber: 
 "To  most  of  these  houses  there  is  a  smaller  one  annexed,  which 
 sometimes  rises  one  story  higher  than  the  house;  at  other  times 
 it  consists  of  one  or  two  rooms  only,  and  a  terrace,  whilst  others 
 that  are  built,  as  they  frequently  are,  over  the  porch  or  gatew  ay, 
 have,  if  we  except  the  ground  floor,  which  they  have  not,  all  the 
 conveniences  that  belong  to  the  house,  properly  so  called.  There  is 
 a  door  of  communication  from  them  into  the  gallery  of  the  house, 
 kept  open  or  shut  at  the  discretion  of  the  master  of  the  family, 
 besides  another  door,  which  opens  immediately  from  a  private 
 staircase,  down  into  the  porch  or  street,  without  giving  the  least 
 disturbance  to  the  house.  These  back  houses  are  known  by  the 
 name  of  alee  or  oleah,  for  the  house  properly  so  called,  is  dar  or 
 beet,  and  in  them  strangers  are  usually  lodged  and  entertained. 
 The  oleah  of  holy  Scripture,  being  literally  the  same  appellation, 
 is  accordingly  so  rendered  in  the  Arabic  version.  We  may  sup- 
 pose it  then  to  have  been  a  structure  of  the  like  contrivance. 
 The  little  chamber,  consequently,  that  was  built  by  the  Shuna- 
 mite for  Elisha,  whither,  the  text  instructs  us,  he  retired  at  his 
 pleasure,  without  breaking  in  upon  the  private  affairs  of  the 
 family,  or  being  in  his  turn  interrupted  by  them  in  his  devotions; 
 the  summer  chamber  of  Eglon,  which,  in  the  same  manner  with 
 these,  seems  to  have  had  privy  stairs  belonging  to  it,  through 
 which  Ehud  escaped,  after  he  had  revenged  Israel  upon  the  king 
 of  Moab;  the  chamber  over  the  gate,  whither,  for  the  greater 
 privacy,  king  David  withdrew  himself  to  weep  for  Absalom ;  and 
 that  upon  whose  terrace,  Ahaz,  for  the  same  reason,  erected  his 
 altars;  seem  to  have  been  structures  of  the  like  nature  and  con- 
 trivance with  these  olees." — Shaw's  Travels,  p.  2S0. — Ed. 
 
 f  It  is  a  plant  so  very  bitter,  that  some  have  called  it  the  gall 
 of  the  whole  earth.  It  purges  excessively,  and  is  a  sort  of  poison, 
 if  not  qualified,  and  taken  in  a  moderate  quantity. — Calmefs  and 
 Patrick's  Commentaries.     It  is  customary  to  use  herbs  gathered 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 577 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 the  injection  of  a  little  meal.  '  That  there  he  multi- 
 plied twenty  barley  loaves,  and  satisfied  above  100  per- 
 sons with  them  ;  and  a  that  there  he  made  an  axe,  which 
 was  fallen  into  the  river,  merely  by  throwing-  in  a  stick, 
 rise  up,  and  swim  upon  the  surface  of  it :  but  the  miracle 
 which  the  sacred  history  more  particularly  insists  on,  is 
 the  cure  of  Naaman's  leprosy. 
 
 Naaman  was  general  of  the  king-  of  Syria's  troops,  a 
 man  famous  for  exploits  in  war,  and  in  great  esteem 
 with  his  master ;  but  he  was  a  leper.  At  this  time  there 
 seems  to  have  been  no  good  understanding  between 
 the  two  crowns  ;  and  yet  the  king  of  Syria,  to  recover  so 
 valuable  a  servant  from  his  illness,  wrote  to  the  king  of 
 Israel,  but  in  such  terms  as  gave  him  some  uneasy  ap- 
 prehensions. a  When  Elisha  understood  this,  he  ordered 
 that  Naaman  might  be  sent  to  him  ;  and  when  he  came 
 with  all  his  attendants  and  stately  equipage,  instead  of 
 receiving  in  form,  *  he  sent  his  servant  out  to  him,  and 
 bade  him  go  c  dip  himself  seven  times  in  the  river  Jor- 
 dan, and  he  would  be  cured.  The  proud  Syrian,  not 
 understanding  this  treatment,  and  expecting  very  likely 
 that  the  prophet,  by  some  personal  act,  would  have 
 performed  the  cure,  thought  himself  slighted,  and  was 
 for  returning  home :  but  being  advised  by  those  that 
 were  about  him,  that  since  the  prescription  was  so  easy, 
 to  make  the  experiment  at  least  would  not  be  much,  he 
 went  to  the  river,  and  after  having  bathed  seven  times 
 therein,  found  himself  perfectly  cured. 
 
 Rejoiced  at  his  unexpected  recovery,  Naaman  returned 
 to  Elisha,  acknowledging,  that  there  was  no  other  God, 
 but  the  God  of  Israel ;  protesting,  that  from  thence  for- 
 ward he  would  sacrifice  to  none  but  him  ;  desiring,  for 
 that  purpose,  two  mules'  loads  d  of  the  earth  of  the  coun- 
 
 •1507.  A.  C.  901.  \  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 try,  wherewith  to  build  him  an  altar  ;  deprecating  any 
 orlence  that  might  arise  from  his  waiting  on  the  king,  e 
 his  master,  when  he  went  to  worship  in  the  temple  of 
 /  Rimmon ;  and,  in  the  conclusion,  importuning  the 
 prophet  to  accept  of  a  present,  for  the  great  cure  that  he 
 had  wrought  upon  him,  which  the  other  most  S  positively 
 refused. 
 
 But  there  was  not  the  like  disinterestedness  in  his 
 servant  Gehazi.  He,  thinking  it  unreasonable,  that  so 
 potent  and  wealthy  a  person  should  go  off  without  pay- 
 ing for  so  signal  a  benefit,  resolved  to  get  something  for 
 himself;  and  therefore,  unknown  to  any  body,  as  he 
 thought,  he  followed  after  Naaman,  and  having  soon 
 overtaken  him,  forged  a  lie,  that  his  master  desired  of 
 the  general  to  send  him  a  talent  of  silver,  and  two 
 changes  of  garments,  for  two  sons  of  the  prophets,  who, 
 since  his  departure,  were  come  to  visit  him.  The 
 general  was  glad  of  this  opportunity  to  oblige  his  mas- 
 ter ;  and  therefore  pressed  him  to  take  two  talents  of 
 silver  with  the  garments,  and  sent  two  of  his  servants  to 
 carry  them  for  him ;  from  whom  he  received  them  before 
 he  came  to  his  master's  house,  and  deposited  them,  as  he 
 thought,  in  a  safe  place :  but  no  sooner  did  he  return  into 
 his  master's  presence,  than  he  began  to  tax  him  with 
 what  he  had  been  doing,  which  when  Gehazi  denied,  he 
 h  denounced    his    sentence,    namely,   that   the   leprosy 
 
 '  2  Kings  iv.  41. 
 
 2  2  Kings  vi.  5,  6. 
 
 from  the  fields,  as  well  as  those  produced  in  the  garden.  Russell 
 states,  that  at  Aleppo,  besides  the  herbs  and  vegetables  produced 
 by  regularly  cultivated  gardens,  the  fields  afford  bugloss,  mallow, 
 and  asparagus,  which  they  use  as  pot  herbs,  with  some  others, 
 which  are  used  in  salads. — Harmer,  vol.  i,  p.  532. — Ed. 
 
 a  2  Kings  v.  C.  'I  have  sent  Naaman  my  servant  unto  thee, 
 that  thou  mayest  recover  him  of  his  leprosy.'  Schultens,  in  his 
 MS.  Orig.  Heb.,  observes,  that  "  the  right  understanding  of  this 
 passage  depends  on  the  custom  of  expelling  lepers,  and  other  in- 
 fectious persons,  from  camps  or  cities,  and  reproachfully  driving 
 them  into  solitary  places;  and  that  when  these  persons  were 
 cleansed  and  re-admitted  into  cities  or  camps,  they  were  said  to 
 be  'recolleeti,'  gathered  again  from  their  leprosy,  and  again  receiv- 
 ed into  that  society  from  which  they  had  been  cut  oil'. — Ed. 
 
 b  Elisha's  not  appealing  to  receive  the  Syrian  general  is  as- 
 cribed by  some  to  the  retired  course  of  life  which  the  prophets 
 led;  but  then  why  did  he  see  him,  and  enter  into  conversation 
 with  him,  when  he  returned  from  his  cure  ?  I  should  rather 
 think,  that  it  was  not  misbecoming  the  prophet,  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, to  take  some  state  upon  him,  and  to  support  the  character 
 and  dignity  of  a  prophet  of  the  Most  High  God ;  especially  since 
 this  might  be  a  means  to  raise  the  honour  of  his  religion  and 
 ministry,  and  to  give  Naaman  a  right er  idea  of  his  miraculous 
 cure,  when  he  found  that  it  was  neither  by  the  prayer  nor  presence 
 ot  the  prophet,  but  by  the  divine  power  and  goodness  that  it  was 
 effected. — Poole's  Annotations  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  In  conformity  to  the  law,  which  requires  that  lepers,  in  order 
 to  their  clcansii.g,  should  be  sprinkled  seven  times,  (Lev.  xiv.  7, 
 &c.)  the  prophet  ordered  Naaman  to  dip  himself  as  often ;  but  Jor- 
 dan, as  the  Syrian  argued,  had  no  more  virtue  in  it  than  other 
 rivers;  nor  could  cold  water,  of  any  kind,  be  a  proper  means  for 
 curing  this  distemper,  whose  root  is  a  white  waterish  humour, 
 that  would  increase  rather  than  be  diminished  by  any  such  ap- 
 plication. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Ho  desired  the  earth  of  the  land,  because  he  thought  it  inoic 
 
 holy  and  acceptable  to  God,  and  proper  for  his  service ;  or  be- 
 cause he  would,  by  this  token,  declare  his  conjunction  with  the 
 people  of  Israel  in  the  true  worship,  and  constantly  put  himself 
 in  mind  of  his  great  obligation  to  that  God,  from  whose  land 
 this  earth  was  taken.  He  might  have  had  indeed  enough  of  this 
 earth  without  asking  any  one  for  it ;  but  he  desired  the  prophet 
 to  give  it  him,  as  believing,  perhaps,  that  he  who  put  such  virtue 
 into  the  waters  of  Israel,  could  put  as  much  in  the  earth  thereof, 
 and  make  it  as  useful  and  beneficial  to  him  in  another  way. 
 These  thoughts  indeed  were  groundless  and  extravagant,  but  yet 
 were  excusable  in  an  heathen  and  novice,  that  was  not  as  yet 
 sufficiently  instructed  in  the  true  religion. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  2  Kings  v.  18.  'And  he  leaneth  upon  my  hand.'  Tin's 
 might  be  done  out  of  state,  or  on  account  of  weakness.  In  the 
 additions  to  the  book  of  Esther,  (xv.  4.)  mention  is  made  of  two 
 young  women  that  waited  on  that  queen,  upon  one  of  whom  she 
 leaned,  and  the  other  held  up  her  train.  It  was  not  oidy  the 
 custom  amongst  the  Persians  and  Syrians,  but  the  Israelites  also. 
 (2  Kings  vii.  2,  17). —  Patrick  in  locum. — Ed. 
 
 /It  is  thought  by  the  generality  of  interpreters,  that  as  the 
 Syrians  were  great  worshippers  of  the  sun,  this  god  is  the  same ; 
 and  that  the  name  Rimmon,  or  high,  is  given  him  by  reason  of 
 his  elevation.  Grotius  takes  it  for  Saturn,  because  that  planet  is 
 the  highest  of  all;  and  Selden  will  have  it  to  be  the  same  with 
 Elion,  or  the  most  high  god  of  the  Phoenicians.  It  is  certain 
 that  the  word  Rimmon  is  the  name  that  the  Syrians  gave  pome- 
 granates; and  therefore,  as  their  country  was  full  of  pomegran- 
 ate trees;  whose  fruit  is  not  only  of  a  delicious  taste,  but  of  great 
 use  likewise  on  account  of  the  excellent  liquor  which  it  produces, 
 they  gave  perhaps  the  name  of  pomegranate  to  their  god,  in  the 
 same  manner  that  the  Greeks  and  Latins  gave  that  of  Ceres  to 
 the  goddess  of  corn.— Lumy's  Introduction,  b.  3.  c.  I.;  and 
 Juricus  History  of  Doctrines  and  Worship,  part  1.  c.  10. 
 
 g  Elisha  did  not  think  it  a  thing  simply  unlawful  to  receive 
 gifts  or  presents:  for  we  fiud  him  receiving  them  upon  anothei 
 occasion;  (2  Kings  iv.  41.)  but  he  did  not  hold  it  expedient,  in 
 his  present  circumstances,  to  do  it,  because  he  thought  it  would 
 make  for  the  honour  of  the  true  God  and  religion,  to  let  the 
 Syrians  see  the  generous  piety,  charity,  and  kindness  of  his 
 ministers  and  servants,  and  how  much  they  despised  all  that 
 worldly  wealth  and  glory,  which  the  priests  or  prophets  of  the 
 Gentiles  so  greedily  sought  after;  that  thereby  Naaman  might 
 be  confirmed  in  the  religion  he  had  embraced,  and  others,  in  like 
 manner,  incited  to  a  love  and  liking  of  it. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 h  And  justly  did  he  deserve  it,  since  his  crime  had  in  it  all 
 these  aggravations;  a  greuly  covetousness  which  is  idolatry;  a 
 4  u 
 
578 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CITRON, 
 whereof  he  had  cured  Naanian  should  adhere  to  him  and  .  binical   doctors,  that,  as  Naaman  was   no  Jew,  but  a 
 
 his  family  for  ever  ;  which  accordingly,  that  very  moment, 
 came  to  pass. 
 
 CHAP.  II.— Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 Thk  most  material  part  of  the  discourse  which  passed 
 between  Naaman  and  Elisha,  is  delivered  in  these  words: 
 1  '  Thy  servant,'  says  Naaman,  '  will  henceforth  offer 
 neither  burnt-offerings  nor  sacrifice  unto  other  gods,  but 
 unto  the  Lord  :  in  this  thing  the  Lord  pardon  thy  ser- 
 vant, that,  when  my  master  goeth  into   the  house   of 
 
 foreigner  and  a  proselyte  only,  4  he  was  not  obliged  to 
 abstain  from  all  external  worship  of  idols,  as  the  Jews 
 confessedly  were,  so  long  as  he  continued  in  another 
 country  ;  yet  it  is  generally  agreed,  that  we  are  bound 
 to  show  the  same  respect  to  our  superiors,  and  those  that 
 are  set  in  authority  over  us,  so  long  as  Ave  do  not  injure 
 our  consciences  thereby,  in  one  place  as  in  another  ;  and 
 5  that  therefore  Naaman  might  very  innocently  retain  his 
 dignity,  and  high  office  at  court,  even  as  Joseph  did  in 
 Egypt,  and  Daniel  in  Babylon  ;  might  accompany  his 
 master  into  Rimmon 's  temple,  nay,  and  bow  together  with 
 him,  in  compliance  to  his  infirmity  or  convenience,  who 
 could  not  so  well  bow,  if  the  other  stood  upright,  so  long 
 as  this  was  a  service  done  to  the  man,  as  Tertullian  6 
 reasons  upon  the  like  occasion,  and  not  to  the  idol ;  so 
 
 Rimmon,  and  he  leaneth  on  my  hand,  and  I  bow  myself 
 
 in  the  house  of  Rimmon,  the  Lord  pardon  thy  servant  in    long  as  this  was  an  act  purely  external,  without  any  of 
 
 this   thing-:  and  Elisha   said  unto  him,  go  in  peace.' ;  those  inward  sentiments  of  respect  which  constitute  the 
 
 '  Go  in  peace,'  was  a  common  form  of  valediction  among 
 the  Jews,  wherewith  Elisha  might  dismiss  Naaman  with- 
 out any  further  answer  to  his  request,  or  resolution  to 
 his  doubt.  For  the  prophet,  we  must  suppose,  in  this 
 whole  transaction,  was  under  the  immediate  influence 
 and  direction  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  and  therefore,  if  the 
 Spirit  of  God  thought  proper  to  withhold  any  farther 
 instruction  from  the  Syrian  general,  it  was  not  in  the 
 prophet's  power  though  he  had  '  given  him  his  house  full 
 of  silver  and  gold,'  2  as  Baalam  put  the  case,  '  to  go 
 beyond  the  word  of  the  Lord  to  do  more  or  less.'  Con- 
 sidering then, 3  that  Naaman  was  now  in  the  infancy  of 
 his  conversion,  and  as  yet  not  able  to  receive  the  higher 
 precepts  of  perfection  ;  that  himself  was  conscious  of  his 
 own  offence,  and  wanted  not  therefore  so  much  to  be  in- 
 structed, as  encouraged  and  strengthened  in  the  Lord  : 
 and  that  the  matters  wherein  he  seemed  to  doubt  were  not 
 of  such  mighty  importance  as  to  concern  the  essence 
 and  foundation  of  religion ;  considering  these  things,  I 
 say,  we  may  soon  perceive  the  reason  why  Elisha 
 accepted  of  his  renunciation  of  a  false  and  profession  of 
 a  true  religion,  his  declared  aversion  to  the  worship  of 
 idols,  and  fixed  resolution  to  serve  the  Lord  only,  as  a 
 sufficient  advance  in  his  present  circumstances. 
 
 Israelites,  indeed,  and  such  as  were  descended  from 
 the  stock  of  Jacob,  were  obliged  to  the  observation  of 
 the  whole  Mosaic  law  ;  but  strangers  and  aliens,  when 
 they  came  to  be  admitted  proselytes  of  the  gate,  were 
 confined  only  to  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  and  the 
 practice  of  such  duties  as  were  moral  and  social :  and 
 therefore,  when  Naaman  professed  himself  a  worshipper 
 of  the  most  high  God  only,  and  declared  withal,  that  his 
 attending  his  master  into  the  temple  of  Rimmon  was 
 not  with  any  religious  purpose,  but  purely  in  perform- 
 ance of  the  duty  of  his  office,  the  prophet  had  good 
 reason  to  bid  him  go  in  peace,  or,  as  the  words  may 
 impnrt,  to  give  himself  no  uneasiness  about  the  matter. 
 
 For,  though  we  pretend  not  to  say  with  some  rab- 
 
 1  2  Kings  v.  17,  18.  2  Num.  xxii.  IS. 
 3  Poole's  Annotations  on  2  Kings  v.  1 9. 
 profanation  of  God's  name  ;  a  downright  theft,  in  keeping  that  to 
 himself  which  was  given  for  others;  deliberate  and  impudent 
 lying;  a  desperate  contempt  of  God's  omniscience,  justice,  and 
 holiness;  an  horrible  reproach  cast  upon  the  prophet  and  his 
 religion;  and  a  pernicious  scandal  given  to  Naaman,  and  every 
 other  Syrian  that  should  chance  to  hear  of  it Poole's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 essence  of  adoration. 
 
 "  This,  I  own,  is  the  common  solution  ;  but  it  does 
 not  entirely  please  me.  It  justifies  an  action  which 
 Naaman  himself  was  not  well  satisfied  in.  It  leaves 
 upon  the  prophet  an  imputation  of  too  much  lenity  and 
 indulgence,  and,  upon  the  general,  that  of  too  much  hypo- 
 crisy and  dissimulation.  Had  Naaman 's  example,  in  this 
 sense,  been  made  a  precedent,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
 Abednego,  in  the  court  of  Nebuchadnezzar ,and  oldElea- 
 zar,  amidst  Antiochus's  officers,  might  have  escaped 
 persecution.  7  They,  at  the  sound  of  the  instruments, 
 might  have  fallen  down  before  the  image,  not  out  of 
 any  principle  of  adoration,  but  in  pure  obedience 
 to  the  king's  orders  ;  and  8  Eleazar  might  have  evaded 
 the  eating-  of  swine's  flesh,  if  he  would  have  but  let  it 
 been  reported  that  he  did  eat  it ;  but  we  find  no  such 
 prevarication  in  either  of  these,  and  therefore  we  can 
 hardly  think,  that  this  is  the  right  solution." 
 
 9  Now  since  repentance  has  regard  to  what  is  past,  and 
 to  ask  pardon  for  an  offence  already  committed  is  much 
 more  natural  than  to  ask  pardon  for  what  we  purpose 
 for  the  future  to  commit,  which,  in  matters  of  morality,  is 
 a  kind  of  contradiction,  it  seems  not  improbable,  that 
 the  words  should  be  rendered,  as  the  original  will  fairly 
 bear  it,  in  the  preter  tense  :  '  Lord,  pardon  thy  servant, 
 that  when  my  master  went  into  the  house  of  Rimmon,  to 
 worship,  and  he  leaned  on  my  hand,  and  I  bowed  myself 
 there,  the  Lord  pardon  thy  servant  in  this  thing.'  For, 
 how  great  would  the  incongruity  be,  if  Naaman,  who  had 
 just  before  declared  his  renunciation  of  idolatry,  should 
 now  confess  his  readiness  to  relapse  into  the  same  crime, 
 and  desire  God's  pardon  for  it  beforehand  ?  AVhereas, 
 to  ask  pardon  for  what  he  had  done  amiss,  and  to  desire 
 the  prophet's  intercession  with  God  in  that  behalf,  argued 
 a  mind  truly  sensible  of  his  former  transgression,  and 
 very  much  resolved  to  avoid  it  for  the  future  :  and  ac- 
 cordingly,10 it  is  supposed,  that,  upon  his  return  home, 
 he  refused  to  worship  Rimmon  any  more,  and  was  there- 
 upon dismissed  from  being  general  of  the  king's  forces.  a 
 
 4  Grotius,  in  locum ;  and  Selden,  de  Jure  Nat.  et  Gent.  b.  2.  c.  1 1. 
 
 5  Calmet's  Dissert,  sur  la  Priere  que  Naaman,  &c. 
 
 6  See  De  Idololat.  b.  16,  17.  7  Dan.  iii.  12. 
 
 8  2  Maccab.  vi.  21,  &c.  9  Calmet's  Dissertations. 
 
 10  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  6.  c.  2. 
 a  Dr  Boothroyd  adopts  the  received  version  of  this  passage, 
 and  gives  the  following  reasons:   Dr  Lightfoot  and  others  would 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 579 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 Bethel,  we  all  know,  was  one  of  the  cities  where  Jero- 
 boam had  set  up  a  golden  calf,  a  place  strangely  addicted 
 to  idolatry,  and  whose  inhabitants  had  no  small  aversion 
 to  Elisha,  as  being  the  servant  and  successor  of  one  who 
 had  been  a  professed  enemy  to  their  wicked  worship, 
 and  himself  no  less  an  opposer  of  it.  It  is  reasonable 
 to  suppose,  therefore,  that  the  children,  if  they  were  chil- 
 dren, for  the  word  naarim  may  signify  grown  youtJi.s 
 as  well,  who  mocked  Elisha,  were  excited  and  encour- 
 aged thereunto  by  their  parents  ;  and,  therefore,  the 
 judgment  was  just  in  God's  punishing  the  wickedness  of 
 these  parents  by  the  death  of  their  children,  who,  though 
 they  suffered  in  this  life,  had  the  happiness  to  be  rescued 
 from  the  dangers  of  an  idolatrous  education,  which 
 might  have  been  of  fatal  tendency  both  to  their  present 
 and  future  state. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  the 
 insolence  of  these  mockers,  whether  we  suppose  them 
 children  or  youths,  was  very  provoking, 2  forasmuch  as 
 they  ridiculed  not  only  a  man  whose  very  age  command- 
 ed reverence,  but  a  prophet  likewise,  whose  character, 
 in  all  ages,  was  accounted  sacred,  nay,  and  even  God 
 himself,  whose  honour  was  struck  at  in  the  reproaches 
 cast  upon  his  servant ;  and  that  too  in  one  of  his  most 
 glorious  and  wonderful  works,  his  assumption  of  Elijah 
 into  heaven.  For,  '  Go  up  thou  bald-head,  go  up  thou 
 bald-head,'  a  besides  the  bitterness  of  the  contempt  ex- 
 
 1  Poole's  Aruiot.  in  locum. 
 
 8  Poole's  Annot.   in  locum. 
 
 render  it  in  the  past  tense,  and  make  this  a  confession  of  his  idol- 
 atry, and  a  prayer  that  he  might  receive  forgiveness.  In  answer, 
 he  it  remarked,  first,  That  all  the  ancient  versions  render  as  our 
 common  version.  Secondly,  This  version  is  most  agreeable  to 
 the  text,  the  words  naturally  suggesting  it;  and,  thirdly,  Naa- 
 man  proposes  a  case,  which  must  happen  in  the  discharge  of  his 
 duty.  It  appears  to  have  been  his  duty,  as  chief  commander,  to 
 attend  the  king  when  he  went  to  worship ;  and  when  he  did  this, 
 he  asks,  '  Will  Jehovah  pardon  him  ?'  Is  such  an  act  to  be  re- 
 garded as  sinfid,  and  inconsistent  with  the  worship  which  Jeho- 
 vah requires  ?  If  the  act  be  considered  in  a  civil  light,  he  might 
 bend  in  respect  to  the  king  without  regarding  the  idol.  To  which 
 it  maybe  added,  that  the  valediction  of  the  prophet,  '  go  in  peace,' 
 may  imply,  '  trouble  not  thyself  with  scruples  of  this  kind ;'  and 
 in  this  concession  there  is  nothing  unreasonable,  when  we  con- 
 sider that  Naaman  did  not  enjoy  the  light  of  revelation,  and  was 
 not  amenable  to  the  Mosaic  law ;  but  it  by  no  means  follows  that 
 such  compliances  are  justifiable  in  those  who  live  in  an  age  or 
 country,  blessed  with  the  knowledge  of  the  revealed  will  of  God. 
 — Holden's  Christian  Expositor.— Ed. 
 
 a  Whether  Elisha  was  bald  or  not,  does  not  appear  from  the 
 sacred  story,  nor  does  it  afiect  the  object  of  these  young  scoffers, 
 in  applying  that  epithet  to  the  holy  man;  for  in  the  east,  to  call  a 
 person  bald-headed,  is  to  treat,  him  with  the  utmost  degree  of 
 contempt.  "  I  was  not  a  little  astonished,"  says  Mr  Roberts, 
 "  when  I  heard  for  the  first  time,  a  man  called  a  bald-head,  who 
 had  a  large  quantity  of  hair  on  his  head ;  and  I  found  upon  in- 
 quiry, that  it  was  a  term  of  ignominy  and  reproach.  A  stupid 
 fellow  is  called  a  bald-headed  dunce,  and  of  those  who  are  weak, 
 it  is  usual  to  say  they  are  bald-heads.  Call  a  man  a  bald-head, 
 which  is  often  done  although  his  hair  be  most  luxuriant,  and  im- 
 mediately sticks  or  stones  will  be  your  portion."  Hence  it  ap- 
 pears, that  the  expression,  applied  to  Elisha,  contained  the  grossest 
 insult.  Ascend,  thou  empty  skull  to  heaven,  as  it  is  pretended 
 thy  master  did  !  This  was  blasphemy  against  God;  and  their 
 punishment,  for  they  were  Bethelite  idolaters,  was  only  propor- 
 tioned to  their  guilt.  Elisha  cursed  them,  that  is,  pronounced  a 
 a  curse  upon  them,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The  spirit  of  their 
 offence  lies  in  their  ridiculing  a  miracle  of  the  Lord:  the  offence 
 was  against  him,  and  he  punished  it.  It  was  no  petulant  humour 
 of  the  prophet  that  caused  him  to  pronounce  this  curse;  it  was 
 Cod  alone:  had  it  proceeded  from  a  wrong  disposition  of  the 
 prophet,  no  miracle  would  have  been  wrought  in  order  to  gratify 
 
 pressed  in  the  repetition  of  the  words,  shows  that  they 
 made  a  mere  jest  of  any  such  translation  ;  and  therefore 
 in  mere  banter,  bid  Elisha  go  up,  whither,  as  he  pre- 
 tended, his  friend  and  master  was  gone  before. 
 
 These  provocations,  one  would  think,  were  enough  to 
 draw  an  imprecation  from  the  prophet ;  but  this  impre- 
 cation did  not  proceed  from  any  passion,  or  private 
 resentment  of  his  own,  but  merely  from  the  command 
 and  commission  of  his  God ;  who,  for  the  terror  and 
 caution  of  other  profane  persons  and  idolaters,  as  well 
 as  for  the  maintenance  of  the  honour  and  authority  of  his 
 prophets,  confirmed  the  word  which  had  gone  out  of  his 
 servant's  mouth. 
 
 The  like  is  to  be  said  of  the  destruction  which  Elijah 
 called  down  from  heaven,  upon  the  two  captains,  and 
 their  companies,  who  came  to  apprehend  him  ;  that  he 
 did  this,  not  out  of  any  hasty  passion  or  revenge,  but 
 purely  in  obedience  to  the  Holy  Spirit  wherewith  he 
 was  animated,  and  in  zeal  for  the  honour  and  glory  of 
 God,  which,  in  the  person  of  his  prophet,  were  grossly 
 abused. 
 
 The  officers  that  were  sent  to  him,  call  him  indeed  a 
 man  of  God  ;  but,  by  the  answer  which  the  prophet  re- 
 turned, we  may  learn,  that  they  called  him  so  only  by 
 way  of  contempt  and  derision.  3  As  they  could  not  be 
 ignorant,  however,  that  Ahaziah  was  highly  offended  at 
 Elijah,  and  had  sent  them  for  no  other  purpose,  but  to 
 bring  him  to  punishment  4  for  having  denounced  his 
 death ;  if  they  thought  proper  to  obey  the  king  in  such 
 unrighteous  proceedings,  rather  than  the  laws  of  nature 
 and  religion,  which  forbid  us  to  be  instruments  in  cruelty 
 and  wrong,  they  deserved  the  fate  they  met  with  :  and 
 our  blessed  Saviour  does  not  blame  Elijah's  conduct  in 
 this  respect,  but  his  disciples  only,  for  their  perverse 
 imitation  of  it,  from  a  spirit  of  resentment  and  revenge, 
 
 3  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries  in  locum. 
 
 1  2  Kings  i.  4. 
 
 it.  "  But  was  it  not  a  cruel  thing  to  destroy  forty-two  little 
 children,  who  in  mere  childishness,  had  simply  called  the  pro- 
 phet bare  skull,  or  bald-head  ?"  I  answer,  Elisha  did  not  destroy 
 them:  he  had  no  power  by  which  he  could  bring  two  she-bears 
 out  of  the  wood  to  destroy  them.  It  was  evidently  either  acci- 
 dental, or  a  divine  judgment,  and  if  a  judgment,  God  must  be 
 the  sole  author  of  it.  Elisha's  curse  must  be  only  declaratory  of 
 what  God  was  about  to  do.  "  But  then,  as  they  were  little 
 children,  they  could  scarcely  be  accountable  for  their  conduct; 
 and  consequently  it  was  cruelty  to  destroy  them."  If  it  was  a 
 judgment  of  God,  it  could  be  neither  cruel  nor  unjust;  and  I 
 contend  that  the  prophet  had  no  power  by  which  he  could  bring 
 these  she-bears  to  fall  upon  them.  But  were  they  little  children? 
 for  here  the  strength  of  the  objection  lies.  Now,  I  suppose  the 
 objection  means  children  from  four  to  seven  or  eight  years  old ; 
 for  so  we  use  the  word:  but  the  original  coup  tfifinearim  katun- 
 nim,  may  mean  young  men,  for  fup  katon  signifies  to  be  young, 
 in  opposition  to  old,  and  is  so  translated  in  various  places  in  our 
 Bible ;  and  nyj  naar,  signifies  not  only  a  child,  but  a  young  man, 
 or  servant,  or  even  a  soldier,  or  one  fit  to  go  out  to  battle;  and 
 is  so  translated  in  a  multitude  of  places  in  our  common  English 
 version.  I  shall  mention  but  a  few,  because  they  are  sufficiently 
 decisive.  Isaac  was  called  naar  when  twenty-eight  years  old, 
 (Gen.  xxi.  5,  12 ;)  and  Joseph  was  so  called  when  he  was  thirty- 
 nine,  (Gen.  xli.  13.)  Add  to  these  1  Kings  xx.  14,  '  And 
 Ahab  said,  By  whom  shall  the  Assyrians  be  delivered  into  my 
 hand  ?  And  he  said,  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  By  the  young  men 
 (benaarey)  of  the  princes  of  the  provinces.'  That  these  were 
 soldiers,  probably  militia,  or  a  selection  from  the  militia,  which 
 served  as  a  body  guard  to  Ahab,  the  event  sufficiently  declare':; 
 and  the  persons  that  mocked  Elisha  were  perfectly  accountable 
 fur  theii  conduct. — Jawieson's  Eastern  Manners  and  Dr  A. 
 Clarke  on   2  Kings  ii.  23. — Ed. 
 
580 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 and  under  a  trivial  provocation,  in  comparison  of  what 
 was  o/tered  to  the  prophet.  The  truth  is,  God,  in  this 
 instance  of  severity,  hath  taught  us,  that  he  will  have  his 
 prophets  reverenced,  a  1  because  they  are  allied  to  him, 
 and  every  affront  put  upon  them  he  resents  as  an  indig- 
 nity to  himself ;  and  therefore  the  sad  end  of  the  two 
 captains,  and  their  companies,  who  came  to  apprehend 
 the  prophet  of  the  Lord,  was  designed  monumentally  to 
 deter  future  ages  from  the  like  provocations  ;  and  to  re- 
 mind us  of  the  precept  which  God  himself  hath  given  us, 
 2 '  touch  not  mine  anointed,  and  do  my  prophets  no  harm.' 
 
 3  'O  Elijah  !'  says  the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus,  'how 
 wast  thou  honoured  in  thy  wondrous  deeds,  and  who 
 may  glory  like  unto  thee  ?'  Like  thee,  *  who  wast  vouch- 
 safed the  sight  of  God's  glorious  and  majestic  presence  ; 
 5  who  hadst  angels  sent  to  comfort  and  refresh  thee, 
 when  thou  wast  weary ;  B  who  hadst  fire  sent  thee  from 
 heaven,  to  avenge  thee  of  thine  enemies,  when  they  came 
 to  insult  thee  ;  7  who  hadst  thy  body  in  a  bright  chariot 
 translated  into  heaven,  without  undergoing-  the  fate  of 
 mortals ;  and,  (what  was  not  the  least  of  thy  preroga- 
 tives) who  hadst, s  whilst  thou  lived,  the  power  of  locking 
 or  unlocking  the  storehouses  of  heaven  at  thy  pleasure, 
 and  by  thy  prayers.'  It  was  doubtless  to  magnify  his 
 office,  which  now  began  to  be  depreciated  not  a  little, 
 that  God  hath  authorized  his  prophet  to  accost  Ahab  with 
 such  marvellous  assurance,  as  if  the  dispensation  of  the 
 rain  and  dew  of  heaven,  for  such  a  determinate  time, 
 had  been  entirely  at  his  disposal :  but  we  mistake  the 
 matter  widely,  if  we  suppose,  that  the  prophet  had  any 
 part,  farther  than  he  was  God's  minister  and  messenger 
 to  declare  the  thing,  in  bringing  this  famine  upon  the 
 land.  All  judgments  of  this  kind  are  the  immediate 
 work  of  God  :  and,  '  as  9  he  does  not  afflict  willingly, 
 nor  grieve  the  children  of  men  ;'  so,  if  we  will  but  turn 
 to  10  the  preceding  chapter,  we  shall  find  an  account  of 
 such  open  and  avowed  idolatry,  and  such  bold  contempt 
 of  the  divine  authority,  both  in  the  prince  and  people, 
 as  will  sufficiently  justify  the  severity  of  God  in  bring- 
 ing this  national  judgment  upon  them.  For  well  may 
 the  people  be  supposed  to  be  generally  depraved,  when 
 we  find  it  recorded  of  their  prince,  that ll  '  he  did  more 
 to  provoke  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  to  anger  than  all 
 the  kings  of  Israel  that  were  before  him.' 
 
 AVe  own  indeed,  that  Elijah  did  not,  in  every  thing 
 
 .  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 act  a  consistent  part ;  he,  who  but  lately  was  so  bold 
 and  intrepid,  as  to  present  himself  before  Ahab,  who 
 had  been  long  in  quest  of  him,  in  order  to  make  him 
 sutler  12  as  the  disturber  of  the  public  peace,  is  now 
 frightened  at  the  menaces  of  a  silly  woman  ;  and  there- 
 upon quits  his  country,  and  flies  for  his  life,  notwith- 
 standing the  late  signal  interposition  of  providence  in 
 his  favour.  But  what  shall  we  say  to  this  ?  13  '  Elias  was 
 a  man  subject  to  the  like  passions  as  we  are  ;'  *  and  it  was 
 probable,  in  respect  to  this  his  infirmity,  that  the  apostle 
 made  this  reflection  upon  him.  J4  He  knew  Jezebel,  and 
 that  she  had  all  the  faults  incident  to  her  sex  in  a  super- 
 lative degTee  ;  that  she  was  fierce,  cruel,  vindictive,  and 
 implacable ;  that,  in  slaying  the  priests  of  Baal,  he 
 had  incurred  her  displeasure,  and  that  to  revenge  her- 
 self, she  had  all  the  power  of  the  kingdom  under  her 
 command.  These  notions  ran  in  his  head,  and  made 
 such  an  impression  upon  his  spirits,  as  deprived  him  of 
 that  resolution  and  manly  courage  for  which  he  was 
 heretofore  so  remarkable  ;  nor  was  there  wanting  a  wise 
 design  of  providence  in  suffering  this  timidity  to  fall 
 upon  his  servant. 
 
 St  Paul  tells  us  of  himself,  that  )5  '  lest  he  should  be 
 exalted  above  measure,  through  the  abundance  of  revela- 
 tions, there  was  given  unto  him  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  the 
 messenger  of  Satan,  to  buffet  him,'  as  he  repeats  it 
 again,  '  lest  he  should  be  exalted  above  measure.'  And 
 in  like  manner,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  that  I6  God, 
 upon  this  occasion,  might  withdraw  that  spirit  of  intre- 
 pidity, wherewith  at  other  times,  he  fortified  Elijah's 
 mind,  on  purpose  to  show  him  his  natural  imbecility,  and 
 the  necessity  he  had  at  all  times  of  the  divine  assistance  ; 
 and  on  purpose  to  suppress  all  the  little  sentiments  of 
 
 1  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  2,  page  124.  2 1  Chron.  xvi.  22. 
 
 :l  Ecclus.  xlviii.  4.  4  1  Kings  xix.  s  Ibid.  xix.  5 
 
 '•2  Kings  i.  10,  &c.  7  Ibid.  ii.  11.  B  Ibid.  xvii.  1. 
 
 ■  Lament,  iii.  33.  lu  Ibid.  ii.  "1  Kings  xvi.  33 
 
 a  God  did  not  destroy  the  two  captains  and  their  companies 
 by  fire  from  heaven  for  any  personal  offence  against  the  man 
 Elijah,  as  our  author  represents,  but  to  protect  his  prophet  from 
 the  fury  of  Ahaziah,  and  to  exhibit  to  that  prince  and  his  subjects 
 an  awful  token  of  his  indignation  against  their  wicked  and  idola- 
 trous practices.  As  God  is  just  and  good,  he  would  not  have 
 destroyed  these  men,  had  there  not  been  a  sufficient  cause  to 
 justify  the  act.  It  was  not  to  please  Elijah,  or  to  gratify  any 
 vindictive  humour  in  him,  that  God  thus  acted;  but  to  show  his 
 own  power  and  justice.  No  entreaty  of  Elijah  could  have  in- 
 duced God  to  have  performed  an  act  that  was  wrong  in  itself. 
 Elijah  per  onally  had  no  concern  in  the  business;  God  led  him 
 simply  to  announce  on  these  occasions  what  he  himself  had  deter- 
 mined to  do.  '  If  I  be  a  man  of  God,'  that  is,  '  as  surely  as  I 
 am  a  man  of  God,  lire  shall  come  down  from  heaven,  and  shall 
 consume  thee  and  thy  fifty.'  This  is  the  literal  meaning  of  the 
 original;  and  by  it  we  see  that  Elijah's  words  uere  only  declara- 
 tive, and  not  imprecatory. — Ed. 
 
 12  1  Kings  xviii.  17.  13  James  v.  17. 
 
 14  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  xix.  3.  15  2  Cor.  xii.7. 
 1(i  Calmet's  Commentary  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 b  '  Subject  to  the  like  passions  as  we  are.'  The  passage  here 
 quoted  from  James  v.  17.  is  altogether  misapplied.  The 
 apostle's  design  in  making  an  allusion  to  the  prophet  Elijah, 
 evidently  was  to  confirm  the  truth  of  the  maxim  -which  he  had 
 stated,  (v.  16.)  that  '  the  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous 
 man  availeth  much,'  and  thereby  to  furnish  encouragement  to 
 believers  to  continue  instant  and  persevering  in  prayer  in  behalf 
 of  others  as  well  as  themselves.  By  saying  that  '  Elias  was  a 
 man  subject  to  like  passions  as  we  are,'  the  apostle  intended  no 
 reflection  upon  the  character  of  that  prophet;  for  the  original 
 word  rendered  by  the  phrase  '  subject  to  like  passions,'  signifies 
 the  being  liable  to  all  those  accidents  which  attach  to  mortality, 
 namely,  to  those  feelings,  wants,  and  weaknesses,  to  disease  and 
 death,  to  which  flesh  is  heir.  The  same  word  occurs  in  Acts 
 xiv.  15,  where  it  is  used  in  the  same  sense.  Hence  the 
 apostle's  argument  is,  that  since  Elias,  who  was  only  a  mortal 
 like  themselves,  furnished  such  a  signal  instance  of  success  in 
 prayer,  they  also  by  engaging  in  that  exercise  with  like  faith 
 and  fervour,  might  expect  the  divine  interposition  whenever  that 
 should  be  necessary.  But  why  does  the  author  represent  Elijah 
 as  betraying  a  want  of  trust  in  God's  protection,  because  he  fled 
 from  Jezebel  when  she  threatened  his  life?  Did  not  the  apostles 
 act  in  a  similar  way,  and  did  not  our  Lord  himself  frequently  use 
 precautions  in  order  to  escape  the  rage  of  his  enemies?  The 
 truth  is,  we  have  no  warrant  in  Scripture  for  expecting  that 
 degree  of  divine  protection  which  shall  supersede  all  prudence 
 and  exertion  on  our  part,  with  a  view  to  our  safety  and  self-pre- 
 servation, provided  this  does  not  interfere  with  known  or  com- 
 manded duty.  Now  we  do  not  find  that  Elijah  received  any 
 divine  command  to  remain  in  Jezreel,  or  any  assurance  of  divine 
 protection  from  the  threats  of  Jezebel,  and  he  knew  that  he  was 
 unable  to  protect  himself  if  he  remained.  He  took  the  most 
 prudent  course,  which  was  to  give  place  to  the  present  storm, 
 J  and  retire  to  a  place  of  safety. — Ed, 
 
II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 531 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 pride  and  arrogance  that  might  possibly  arise  in  his 
 breast,  upon  the  contemplation  of  the  gifts  and  graces 
 which  he  had  bestowed  on  him,  and  the  many  great 
 miracles  that  were  wrought  by  his  hands  ;  and  that,  there- 
 upon, if  he  did  glory,  he  might  glory  in  the  Lord,  and 
 not  dare  to  t(ake  any  part  of  his  honour  to  himself. 
 
 1  The  Jews  have  made  a  comparison  between  Elijah 
 and  Moses  in  several  particulars,  and  given  Moses  the 
 preference,  especially  in  the  matter  of  his  ■  forty  days 
 fast  :'  for  Elijah,  they  suppose,  did  every  day  eat  and 
 drink,  when  he  happened  to  rind  any  sustenance  in  the 
 wilderness  ;  whereas  Moses  had  nothing  to  support  him, 
 but  only  the  miraculous  power  of  God.  The  text,  how- 
 ever, is  far  from  intimating  that  Elijah  ate  any  thing, 
 but  what  the  angel  at  first  brought  him;  for  a  'he  went 
 in  the  strength  of  that  meat,  forty  days  and  forty  nights, 
 unto  Horeb,  the  mount  of  God  ;'  whereas  had  he  taken 
 any  nourishment  by  the  way,  it  had  not  been  by  the 
 strength  of  that  food  that  he  performed  his  journey. 
 
 What  that  food  was,  the  Scripture  has  taken  care  to 
 inform  us,  namely,  that  it  was  '  simple  bread  and  water,' 
 to  make  the  miracle  more  remarkable,  but  such  as  was 
 of  far  greater  and  more  durable  virtue  than  ordinary ; 
 and  such  as  gave  a  life  and  vigour  far  surpassing  the 
 elleets  of  any  other  nourishment.  Whether  angels,  in 
 the  celestial  state,  are  purely  spiritual,  or  clothed  with 
 some  material  form,  but  much  more  subtle  and  refined 
 than  any  we  know  of  here  below,  is  a  question  much 
 agitated  among  the  schools  :  but  if,  for  the  present,  we 
 should  allow  the  affirmative,  'the  food  of  angels,'  and 
 what  may  be  called  the  sustenance  of  their  glorious  but 
 infinite  beings,  need  not  be  accounted  altogether  an 
 allegory.  It  is  certain,  that  upon  :i  their  appearance  in 
 human  shape,  they  did  frequently  eat  the  common  food 
 of  men  ;  that  our  blessed  Saviour,  alter  the  assumption 
 of  his  glorious  body,  *  '  ate  part  of  a  broiled  fish  and 
 of  an  honey  comb ;'  nor  may  we  forget,  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, his  words  at  the  paschal  supper,  5  '  1  will  not 
 henceforth  drink  of  this  fruit  of  the  vine,  until  that  day 
 I  drink  it  new  with  you,  in  my  father's  kingdom :'  all 
 which  will  be  enough  to  countenance  the  opinion  that 
 tin*  food  which  was  brought  to  Elijah  at  this  time,  was 
 of  celestial  growth  and  virtue,  whereby  creatures  of  a 
 superior  excellency  may  possibly,  at  certain  periods, 
 have  their  natures  renewed,  as  the  tree  of  life,  in  the 
 State  of  paradise,  is  supposed  to  have  been  intended  for 
 that  purpose,  and  to  live  on  to  eternal  ages.  No  won- 
 der, then,  that  food  of  such  a  rare  quality,  as  to  deserve 
 the  delegation  of  an  angel  from  heaven  to  bring  it, 
 should  have  all  the  virtue  and  all  the  efficacy  that  we 
 read  of. 
 
 But,  waving  this  speculation,  we  may  suppose  the  re- 
 past to  have  been  nothing  more  than  common  bread  and 
 water ;  yet  who  can  doubt,  but  that  God,  either  by  re- 
 tarding the  faculties  of  concoction  and  perspiration,  or 
 by  preserving  the  spirit  and  juices  from  dissipation, 
 might  make  its  strength  and  nourishment  subsist  for  the 
 time  specified  ?  It  is  but  God's  speaking  the  word  in 
 this  case,  and  the  thing  is  done.  The  least  beck  of  his 
 will  can  make  the  same  meal  that  usually  serves  us  for 
 four   and    twenty  hours,  support   us   for   forty  days,  and 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  xix.  8.  ■  [bid. 
 
 Gen.  xviii.  S.  '  Luke  x\i\.   !-.'.  i  Mat.  xxvi.  2L). 
 
 4507.  A.  C.  904.  1   KINGS  via.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 much  longer  if  he  pleases.  That  meat  of  any  kind  should 
 sustain  us  for  four  and  twenty  hours,  if  rightly  consider- 
 ed, is  a  miracle  ;  and  that  the  like  proportion  should  do 
 it  for  the  space  of  forty  days  is  still  but  a  miracle,  and 
 with  the  same  facility  that  God  does  the  one,  he  can  do 
 the  other  :  a  so  true  is  that  observation  which  our  blessed 
 Saviour  borrows  from  Moses,  u  '  Man  doth  not  live  by 
 bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of 
 the  mouth  of  God.' 
 
 And  indeed  no  person  ever  had  so  large  experience 
 of  the  truth  of  this  observation,  as  had  the  prophet  now 
 before  us,  who  was  so  long  sustained,  not  only  by  the 
 wonderful  increase  of  the  widow's  oil  and  meal,  but  by 
 the  daily  ministry  likewise,  and  attendance  of  ravens. 
 For  whatever  some  may  dream  of  merchants  or  Arabians, 
 who  might  take  pity  of  Elijah  in  his  retirement,  and  send 
 him  provisions  every  day  ;  besides  that  the  original 
 word,  as  7  Rochart  has  sulficiently  evinced,  never  signi- 
 fies merchants,  and  that  there  were  no  Arabians  inhabiting 
 the  coasts  where  Elijah  lay  concealed,  it  can  hardly  be 
 imagined,  but  that  the  place  of  his  retreat  would  have 
 soon  been  discovered  to  Ahab,  had  either  merchants,  or 
 other  inhabitant  of  the  country,  been  at  any  time  ac- 
 quainted with  it. 
 
 What  industry  that  wicked  king  used  to  find  out  the 
 prophet,  wherever  he  absconded,  we  may  learn  from 
 the  information  of  good  Obadiah,  namely,  that  he  had 
 ransacked  every  nation  where  he  could  reasonably 
 think  that  he  was  concealed,  and  when  he  found  him 
 not,  he  took  an  oath  of  the  people,  that  he  was  not 
 among  them.  For  8  though  Ahab  could  not  compel  other 
 nations  to  take  an  oath  to  that  purpose,  yet,  considering 
 the  great  interest  he  had  among  the  neighbouring  princes, 
 he  might  easily  prevail  with  the  great  men  of  each  king- 
 dom to  give  him  that  satisfaction.  If  we  look  into  his 
 alliances,  we  shall  find,  that  the  king  of  Tyre  was  his 
 father-in-law,  and  the  king  of  Moab  tributary  to  him  ; 
 that  Jehoshaphat  was  his  friend  and  relation,  and  that 
 the  king  of  Edom  was  dependant  on  Jehoshaphat ;  that, 
 0  as  the  kings  of  Arabia  and  Syria  corresponded  with  So- 
 lomon, so,  very  likely,  they  were  confederate  with  Ahab  ; 
 that  one  of  their  articles  might  be  to  deliver  up  to  each 
 other  all  their  fugitive  or  banished  subjects  upon 
 demand  ■  and  that  tin's  was  the  foundation  of  his  desire 
 and  expectance  of  this  oath  :  and  yet,  notwithstanding 
 all  this  strict  and  diligent  inquiry,  Elijah  might  live  con- 
 cealed in  the  widow  of  Zareptha's  house,  because  he  had 
 laid  sufficient  obligations  upon  her,  both  in  preserving 
 her  from  the  danger  of  the  famine,  and  in  restoring  her 
 
 b  Dent.  viii.  3.  and  Mat.  iv.  4.  7  Iliero.  part  2.  b.8.  C  13. 
 *  Poole's  Annotations  on  1  Kings  xviii.  10. 
 ,J  1  Kings  x.  15,  29. 
 a  The  author's  remarks  on  this  subject  are  very  little  to  the 
 purpose,  and  show  an  endeavour  to  be  wise  above  what  is  written. 
 To  all  inquiries  respecting  the  manner  in  which  Elijah  was  sup- 
 ported without  food,  for  forty  days,  the  only  legitimate  answer 
 that  can  be  given  is,  that  this  was  effected  by  miraculous  agency; 
 and  that  God  can  support  without  food,  for  any  length  of  time, 
 surely  no  one  will  deny.  The  author's  assertion,  that  the  man- 
 ner in  which  food  of  any  kind  should  sustain  us  for  twenty-four 
 hours,  if  rightly  considered,  is  a  miracle,  is  improper.  It  is  in- 
 deed true,  that  God  can  as  easily  support  without  food  for  forty 
 days,  as  for  twenty-four  hours;  but  to  say  that  the  one  case,  as 
 (veil  ;h  the  oilur,  is  miraculous,  is  to  destroy  the  distinction 
 between  a  miracle,  and  what  takes  place  in  accordance  with  t.'ie 
 established  laus  of  nature. —  En. 
 
582 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 dead  son  to  life  again,  to  use  all  possible  care  to  con- 
 ceal him.     But  to  return  to  Elijah's  ravens. 
 
 Though  we  should  allow  that  they  are  creatures  vora- 
 cious, and  unnatural  to  their  young  ones,  yet  the  more 
 unfit  instruments  they  seemed  to  be,  the  more  they  mag- 
 nified the  almighty  power  of  Him  who  controlled  their 
 natural  appetites,  while  he  employed  them  :  !  and  if  there 
 was  a  moral  instruction  in  it,  as  St  Chrysostom  fancies, 
 the  more  they  might  mollify  the  prophet's  heart  toward 
 the  deluded  Israelites,  by  seeing  those  very  creatures 
 that  were  cruel  to  their  young  kind  to  him.  Though 
 we  should  allow,  that  they  were  creatures  legally  un- 
 clean, yet,  as  it  was  for  the  meat,  and  not  for  the  touch, 
 that  they  were  accounted  so,  this  we  must  grant  was  a 
 case  extraordinary,  wherein  the  ceremonial  law  was  over- 
 ruled by  necessity,  and  by  the  lawgiver's  dispensation. 
 There  is  this  to  be  said,  however,  in  defence  of  God's 
 choice  of  ravens  for  this  purpose,  namely,  that  as  they  are 
 solitary  birds,  and  delight  to  live  about  brooks  of  water, 
 so  are  they  accustomed  to  seek  out  for  provisions,  and 
 to  carry  them  to  the  places  of  their  abode  ;  upon  which 
 account  they  were  no  improper  creatures  for  God  to  em- 
 ploy upon  this  service  ;  a  especially,  if  what  St  Jerome 
 tells  us  may  be  credited,  namely,  that  one  of  these  birds 
 brought  Paul,  the  first  hermit,  half  a  loaf  every  day,  and, 
 when  St  Anthony  came  to  visit  him,  it  brought  him  a 
 whole  one,  to  answer  the  wants  of  these  two  soldiers  of 
 Jesus  Christ,  as  b  he  words  it ;  but  whence  it  had  this,  as 
 well  as  whence  Elijah's  ravens  had  their  supply,  we  pre- 
 tend not  to  tell ;  and  had  rather  acknowledge  our  igno- 
 rance in  such  like  speculations,  than  take  up  with 
 uncertain,  and  sometimes  absurd  conjectures.  c 
 
 i  Patrick's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  xvii.  6. 
 
 a  It  has  been  attempted  to  get  rid  of  this  miracle,  by  asserting 
 that  the  prophet  was  not  fed  by  ravens,  but  by  the  Orbini,  or 
 inhabitants  of  Orbo,  a  small  town  in  the  vicinity  of  Bethshan. 
 ,  But  the  following  arguments  will  show  that  the  received  interpre- 
 tation is  correct: — It  is  expressly  said  that  Elisha  'drank  of  the 
 brook' Cherith,  (1  Kings  xvii.  6.)  Had  strangers  brought  him 
 food,  they  might  as  well  have  furnished  him  with  water;  and  thus 
 it  would  not  have  been  necessary  for  him  to  have  removed  when 
 the  brook  was  dried  up.  Again,  Ahab,  who  had  sent  messen- 
 gers in  pursuit  of  the  prophet  among  the  neighbouring  kingdoms 
 and  nations,  took  an  oath  of  them  that  they  were  ignorant  of  the 
 place  of  liis  concealment,  (1  Kings  xviii.  10) ;  and  some  one  out  of 
 a  tribe,  we  may  suppose  it  probable,  would  have  delivered  him  up, 
 seeing  they  could  gain  nothing  by  his  concealment,  and  had  every 
 thing  to  fear  from  detection.  If  we  come  to  verbal  criticism,  we 
 find  that  the  word  is  precisely  the  same  with  that  which  is  most 
 properly  rendered  '  raven'  in  Gen.  viii.  7,  when  Noah  sends  a  bird 
 out  of  the  ark.  The  Almighty,  doubtless,  could  have  caused  food 
 to  have  been  conveyed  to  Elijah  in  any  other  way,  but  he  chose 
 to  send  it  by  these  rapacious  birds,  for  the  greater  illustration  of 
 his  absolute  command  over  all  creatures,  and  also  to  give  us 
 full  evidence  that  he  is  able  to  succour  and  preserve,  by  the  most 
 improbable  means,  all  those  who  put  their  trust  in  him.  We 
 need  go  no  further  to  inquire  whence  the  ravens  had  this  food: 
 it  is  enough  if  we  believe  they  brought  it  to  Elijah,  for  then 
 we  must  allow  that  they  acted  by  divine  direction,  and  that  the 
 food  was  ol  God's  providing. — Home's  Introduction,  7th  edi- 
 tion.— Ed. 
 
 6  At  thy  arrival,  Christ  doubled  the  provisions  of  his  soldiers. 
 —Jerome's  Life  of  Paul  the  Hermit. 
 
 c  It  was  very  foolish,  if  it  proceeded  from  no  worse  motive,  to 
 put  the  ridiculous  legend  of  Anthony  on  the  same  footing  with 
 the  history  of  Elijah.  Anthony  was  the  founder  of  monachism, 
 which,  far  from  being  essential  to  the  Christian  religion,  has  been 
 the  source  of  some  of  its  greatest  corruptions ;  and  the  tales  which 
 are  told  of  his  miracles,  and  many  conflicts  with  demons,  are  now 
 abandoned  as  absurd  fictions  by  every  man  of  learning,  as  well  in 
 
 There  are  two  exceptions  more,  which  are  generally 
 made  to  Elijah's  conduct,  namely,  his  omission  in  not 
 anointing  Hazael  to  be  king  of  Syria,  and  Jehu,  king  of 
 Israel ;  and  his  cruelty  in  destroying  the  priests  of  Baal 
 without  a  proper  authority.  Now,  in  answer  to  the  former 
 of  these,  it  should  be  observed,  that  the  words,  '  Go  and 
 anoint,'  may  not  be  a  positive  command,  but  only  a 
 discretionary  permission  so  to  do.  The  prophet  had 
 been  sorely  complaining  to  God  of  the  wickedness  and 
 idolatry  of  the  Israelites,  and  of  the  bloody  persecutions 
 of  their  rulers  :  2  '  I  have  been  very  zealous  for  the 
 Lord  God  of  hosts,'  says  he,  '  for  the  children  of  Israel 
 have  forsaken  thy  covenant,  and  thrown  down  thine  altars, 
 and  slain  thy  prophets  with  the  sword,  and  I,  even  I 
 only,  am  left,  and  they  seek  my  life  to  take  it  away :' 
 A\  hereupon  God,  after  having  shown  him, 3  by  some 
 symbolical  representation,  how  able  he  was  to  avenge 
 him  of  his  adversaries,  bids  him  go  and  anoint  such 
 and  such  persons  to  be  kings ;  as  if  he  had  said,  * 
 "Thou  desiredst  of  me,  that  I  should  destroy  the  idol- 
 aters of  Israel,  and  such  as  have  a  design  upon  thy  life  ; 
 but,  in  order  to  that,  thou  hast  nothing  to  do  but  to  go 
 and  appoint  two  other  persons  to  be  kings  over  Israel 
 and  Syria,  and  they  will  avenge  both  thy  quarrel  and 
 mine.'' 
 
 5  But  allowing  the  words  to  be  a  positive  command, 
 we  may  suppose  that  when  Elijah,  by  his  prophetic  spirit, 
 
 2  1  Kings  xix.  10.  3  1  Kings  xix.  11 — 13. 
 
 4  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  xix.  15.  5  Ibid, 
 
 the  church  of  Rome  as  in  the  Protestant  churches.   The  miracles 
 of  Elijah  were  intimately  connected  with  the  theocracy  of  Israel, 
 which  was  instituted  for  preserving  in  the  world  the  knowledge 
 of  the  divine  unity.     That  theocracy  was  then  administered  by 
 the  idolater  Ahab,  as  it  had  been  by  a  series  of  idolaters  before 
 him ;  and  the  purpose  of  its  institution  would  have  been  com- 
 pletely defeated,  had  it  not  been   maintained  by  a  succession  of 
 prophets  armed  with  power  to  thwart  in  some  degree  the  mea- 
 sures of  those  idolatrous  princes.    As  Ahab  was  the  most  hardened 
 idolater  that  had  ever  swayed  the  sceptre  of  Israel,  so  was  Elijah 
 the  greatest  prophet  that  had  ever  been  raised  up  to  maintain 
 the  unity  of  God,  and  to  restore  the  authority  of  the  law  of  Moses. 
 His  life  was  therefore  miraculously  preserved  as  essential  to  the 
 theocratic  government  of  Israel,  which  was  itself  necessary  to  the 
 preservation  of  true  religion.     In  his  case,  if  in  any,  there  was 
 surely  a  "  plot  worthy  of  being  unraveled;"  whilst  the  pretended 
 miracles  of  Anthony  were  wrought  in  support  of  the  first  corrup- 
 tions of  Christianity  !  That  ravens  were  animals  fit  to  be  employed 
 for  the  preservation  of  the  prophet  is  very  obvious ;  for  they  are 
 carnivorous  birds,  and  in  a  country  like  Israel,  where  altars  were 
 hourly  smoking,  and  oxen  and  sheep  killed,  under  every  green 
 tree,  they  could  be  at  no  loss  to  find  either  the  bread  or  the  flesh 
 which  they  were  instinctively  prompted  to  cany  twice  every  day 
 for  his  subsistence.      "  It  is  a  fact,"  says  Mr  King,  (Morsels  of 
 Criticism,  vol.   1.  p.  292,  8vo  edition,)  "now  well  known,  that 
 eagles,  and  ravens,  and  all  birds  of  prey,   do,  at  the  time  they 
 have  young  ones,  and  even  sometimes  on  other  occasions,  plun- 
 der the  country  all  around  them,  in  order  to  carry  flesh  and  food  of 
 various  kinds  to  their  nests,  and  to  feed  their  offspring.  And  with 
 this  fact  the  inhabitants  near  the  Cevennes  are  so  well  acquaint- 
 ed, that  the  shepherds  there,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  nests  of 
 those  wild  birds,  contrive  to  serve  themselves  with  meat  for  their 
 own  tables,  at  this  very  day,  by  means  of  these  birds;  climbing 
 up  to  their  nests,  when  the  old   ones   fly  from  them   in  quest  of 
 more  prey,  and  taking  away  from  the  young  what  the   old  had 
 leit  there."     There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  old  prophet  had 
 occasion  to  climb  for  his  food,  as  his  purveyors  were  under  the 
 immediate  control  of  that  Providence  which  miraculously  watched 
 over  him ;  but  as  he  was  not  interdicted  the  use  of  fire  in  his 
 banishment,  lie  might  easily  make  a  fire  of  dry  sticks  to  roast  the 
 meat,  if  it  was  brought  to  him  raw,  which  is  surely  the  most 
 probable  supposition. —  Bishop  Glcig. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 5S3 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  004.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 perceived  what  a  grievous  destruction  the  exaltation  of 
 these  two  persons  to  the  thrones  of  Israel  and  Syria, 
 would  bring-  upon  his  native  country,  he  petitioned  God 
 to  delay  the  execution  of  this  his  order  ;  a  at  least  for  some 
 time,  and  obtained  his  request.  This  indeed  is  a  circum- 
 stance that  we  do  not  meet  with  in  Scripture  ;  but  in 
 so  short  a  history  as  this  of  the  Hebrews  is,  we  may 
 well  be  allowed  to  supply  some  things  that  seem  to  be 
 omitted,  when  this  may  be  done  without  offering  any 
 violence  to  the  words  of  the  text,  and  especially  when 
 there  is  an  analogy,  in  other  parts  of  the  history  to  bear 
 us  out. 
 
 Now,  in  relation  to  one  of  these,  namely,  Hazael,  who 
 was  afterwards  king  of  Syria,  it  is  said  that,  when  he 
 came  to  inquire  of  Elisha  concerning  his  mother  Benha- 
 dad's  sickness,  the  prophet  1  '  settled  his  countenance 
 upon  him  stedfastly,  and  wept;  whereupon  Hazael  said, 
 Why  weepeth  my  Lord  ?  And  he  answered,  Because 
 I  know  the  evil  that  thou  wilt  do  unto  the  children 
 of  Israel.  Their  strongholds  wilt  thou  set  on  lire,  and 
 their  young  men  wilt  thou  slay  with  the  sword,  and  wilt 
 dash  their  children,  and  rip  up  their  women  with  child :' 
 Ami  from  tills  passage,  we  have  some  grounds  to  think 
 that  Elijah,  upon  the  like  prospect  of  his  nation's  cala- 
 mities, might  desire  of  God,  if  not  a  revocation  of  his 
 command,  at  least  a  delay  in  the  execution  of  it ;  and 
 that  this  was  the  reason  why  neither  of  these  kings  were 
 anointed  by  him. 
 
 What  notions  the  worshippers  of  Baal  might  have  of 
 the  power  of  their  god,  we  cannot  tell ;  but  as  sending 
 down  tire  from  heaven  2  was  not  above  the  reach  of  evil 
 spirits,  and  some  lying  traditions  might  perhaps  have 
 descended  to  them  concerning  the  exploits  of  their  Baal 
 in  particular  ,a  who,  as  he  was  thought  to  be  the  sun,  and 
 to  exceed  all  heavenly  bodies  in  heat,  might,  upon  this 
 grand  occasion,  as  they  thought,  exert  his  power  and 
 burn  up  their  sacrifice,  they  held  it  the  wisest  way  to 
 accept  of  the  prophet's  challenge.  The  prophet's  chal- 
 lenge indeed  was  upon  such  fair  terms,  that,  whatever 
 notions  they  might  have  of  their  god,  they  must  have 
 forfeited  all  their  credit  with  the  people,  had  they  pre- 
 tended to  decline  it :  and  therefore,  rather  than  do  this, 
 they  chose  to  venture  all  upon  the  hazard  of  an  after- 
 game, hoping  that  either  they  might  have  an  opportunity 
 of  conveying  fire  among  the  wood  clandestinely,  or  that 
 Elijah  would  fail  in  his  attempt  as  well  as  they,  and  so 
 both  stand  upon  equal  g-round  ;  or  that,  if  he  succeeded, 
 the  thing  might  not  be  done  so  cleverly,  but  that  there 
 
 1  2  Kings  viii.  11,  12.  *  Job  i.  16. 
 
 3  Patrick's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  xviii.  26. 
 
 «  The  Scriptures  are  silent  as  to  tlie  precise  time  and  manner 
 in  which  the  divine  commission  given  to  Elijah  was  executed  ;  but 
 it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  this  commission  was  not  executed 
 at  the  time  appointed.  As  the  prophet  was  ordered  to  go  on  the 
 way  to  the  wilderness  of  Damascus,  it  is  not  improbable  that  he 
 went  directly  towards  Syria,  and  meeting  with  Hazael,  anointed 
 him.  The  word  anoint,  however,  may  be  understood  in  a  figur- 
 ative sense,  denoting  a  particular  appointment,  designation,  or 
 call  to  an  oflice.  In  this  sense  the  word  is  used  in  other  passages 
 of  Scripture,  (Ps.  cv.  15;  Is.  xlv.  1.)  and  of  the  three  indivi- 
 duals, Elisha,  Hazael,  and  .leliu,  whom  Elijah  was  commanded 
 to  anoint,  we  read  that  the  latter  only  was  actually  anointed,  and 
 that  by  Elisha.  The  command,  then,  given  to  Elijah,  in  so  far 
 as  it  regarded  Hazael  and  Jehu,  might  have  been  executed  by  a 
 prophetic  declaration  on  the  part  of  the  prophet,  that  God  intended 
 to  raise  them  to  the  kingly  office. — En. 
 
 might  be  room  for  some  cavils  and  exceptions  to  be 
 raised  against  it. 
 
 Upon  these  presumptions  they  might  enter  the  lists  ; 
 and,  when  they  were  so  shamefully  defeated,  the  pro- 
 phet, 4  as  an  extraordinary  minister  of  God's  vengeance 
 upon  sinners,  especially  when  the  magistrate  so  grossly 
 neglected  his  duty,  had  sufficient  authority  to  execute  * 
 the  sentence  of  death  passed  upon  them  by  the  Lord  of 
 life  and  death,  as  perverters  of  the  law,  and  teachers  of 
 idolatry  ;  as  authors  of  cruelty,  and  inciters  of  Jezebel 6 
 to  murder  the  prophets  of  the  Lord  ;  and  as  cheats  and 
 impostors,  to  whose  execution  the  people  concurred, 
 their  princes  gave  their  consent,  and  their  king,  as  as- 
 tonished at  the  late  stupendous  miracle,  could  make  no 
 opposition. 
 
 AYhether  Ahab's  repentance,  upon  the  commination  of 
 God's  judgments,  was  sincere  or  superficial  only,  has 
 been  a  matter  of  some  debate  among  divines.  It  is  cer- 
 tain that,  in  consideration  of  it,  God  revoked,  at  least  in 
 part,  the  sentence  which  he  had  denounced  against  him, 
 and  transferred  it  upon  his  posterity.  And  7  yet  we  do 
 not  find  him  producing  any  '  fruits  meet  for  repentance  ;' 
 either  renouncing  his  superstitions,  or  destroying  his 
 idols,  or  restoring  Naboth's  vineyard,  or  re-establishing 
 the  true  worship  of  God.  Struck  with  the  prophet's  me- 
 naces, and  dreading  the  effects  of  his  predictions,  he  put 
 on  the  garb  of  a  penitent ;  he  wept,  he  sighed,  he  fasted 
 and  bemoaned  himself;  but  how  came  God,  who  inspects 
 the  hearts,  and  cannot  be  taken  with  external  show,  to 
 have  any  respect  to  this  ?  Such  esteem  has  he,  accord- 
 ing to  some,  for  true  repentance  and  reformation,  that 
 he  is  willing  to  reward  the  very  appearance  of  it.  But 
 this  is  an  answer  that  comports  not  so  well  with  the  puri- 
 ty and  holiness  of  God ;  and  therefore  we  should  rather 
 choose  to  say,  that  Ahab's  repentance  at  this  time  was 
 true,  though  imperfect ;  and  his  sorrow  sincere,  though 
 of  no  long  continuance  ;  and  that,  had  he  persisted  in 
 the  good  resolutions  he  had  then  taken  up,  God  would 
 have  remitted  him,  not  only  the  temporal,  but  the  eter- 
 nal punishment  likewise,  that  was  due  to  his  sin.  In  the 
 mean  time,  this  instance  of  the  divine  lenity  is  left  upon 
 record  to  encourage  the  first  essays  of  our  repentance,  and 
 to  give  us  assurance  of  this, — That  our  good  and  gra- 
 cious God,  8  '  who  keepeth  mercy  for  thousands,  and 
 forgiveth  iniquity,  transgression,  and  sin,  9  will  not  break 
 the  bruised  reed,  nor  quench  the  smoking  flax,  but  bring- 
 forth  judgment  unto  truth.' 
 
 But  the  same  God  who  professes  himself  the  forgiver 
 of  transgression  and  sin,  declares,  withal, that 10  '  he  will 
 not  clear  the  guilty,  but  visit  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 
 upon  the  children.'  In  the  case  of  Hiel,  that  impious 
 rebuilder  of  Jericho,  God  was  obliged,  in  order  to  fulfil 
 the  prophecy,  to  transfer  the  punishment  due  to  the 
 father  upon  his  sons,  because  the  form  of  Joshua's  male- 
 diction is,  "  '  Cursed  be  the  man  before  the  Lord,  that 
 raiseth  up,  and  buildeth  this  city  Jericho  :  he  shall  Jay 
 the  foundation  thereof  in  his  first-born,  and  in  his  young- 
 est son  shall  he  set  up  the  gates  of  it :'  and  as  this  male- 
 diction was  kept  upon  record,  and  a  thing  well  known, 
 the  people  would  have  had  but.  a  slender  conception  of 
 
 4  Poole's  Annotations  on  1  Kings  xviii.  4(t. 
 
 5  Dent.  xiii.  (>.  9— xvii.  2,  7.  6  1   Kings  xviii.  4. 
 
 '  Calmet's  Commentary.  B  Exod.  xx\i\.   7. 
 
 3  Is.  xlii.  :i.  ">  Exod.  xxxiv.  7.  "  Josh,  vi.  26. 
 
584 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book   VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 God's  justice,  or  rather  the  judgment  would  have  passed 
 without  observation,  had  Hiel  alone,  whose  death  might 
 have  been  imputed  to  his  old  age,  been  cut  oft'  in  the 
 course  of  his  building  this  city.  But  now  by  taking  his 
 children,  one  after  another,  as  the  building  advanced, 
 the  hand  of  God  was  visible,  the  denunciation  of  his  ser- 
 vant verified,  and  a  proper  caution  given  to  the  whole 
 nation,  not  to  despise  his  patience  and  long-suffering, 
 because  they  could  not  but  see,  that,  upon  their  persisting 
 impenitence,  all  his  threats  and  comminations  would, 
 sooner  or  later,  most  certainly  come  to  pass.  a 
 
 Hiel  himself,  indeed,  is  not  concerned  in  the  prophecy  ; 
 and  therefore  no  mention  is  made  in  Scripture  of  what 
 fate  befell  him.  But,  from  the  impartiality  of  God's  jus- 
 tice, we  have  reason  to  suppose,  '  '  that,  after  he  had 
 lived  to  be  an  eye-witness  of  his  children's  untimely 
 death,  himself  was  cut  off  by  some  sore  judgment  ;  or 
 that  if  he  escaped,  his  present  impunity  was  his  greatest 
 misery,  forasmuch  as  it  continued  his  torment  in  the 
 sad  and  lasting  remembrance  of  his  sons  that  were  lost 
 through  his  folly  ;  or  else  was  a  means  to  harden  his 
 heart  for  the  infliction  of  such  greater  punishments  as 
 God  had  reserved  for  him. 
 
 1  Poole's  Annotations. 
 a  This  prediction  was  delivered  upwards  of  500  years  before 
 the  event;  and  though  it  was  most  circumstantially  fulfilled, yet 
 we  know  not  the  precise  meaning  of  some  of  the  terms  used  in 
 the  original  execration,  and  in  this  place  where  its  fulfilment  is 
 mentioned.  There  are  three  opinions  on  the  words,  '  lay  the 
 foundation  in  his  fust  born,  and  set  up  the  gates  in  his  youngest 
 son.'  1.  It  is  thought  that  when  he  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
 city,  his  eldest  son,  the  hope  of  his  family,  died  by  the  hand  and 
 judgment  of  God,  and  that  all  his  children  died  in  succession;  so 
 that  when  the  doors  were  ready  to  be  hung,  his  youngest  and  last 
 child  died,  and  thus,  instead  of  securing  himself  a  name,  his 
 whole  family  became  extinct.  2.  These  expressions  signify  only 
 great  delay  in  the  building;  that  he  who  should  undertake  it, 
 should  spend  nearly  his  whole  life  in  it;  all  the  time  in  which  he 
 was  capable  of  procreating  children  ;  in  a  word,  that  if  a  man  laid 
 the  foundation  when  his  first-born  came  into  the  world,  his  youngest 
 and  last  son  should  be  born  before  the  walls  should  be  in  readiness 
 to  admit  the  gates  to  be  set  up  in  them;  and  that  the  expression 
 is  of  the  proverbial  kind,  intimating  greatly  protracted  labour, 
 occasioned  by  multitudinous  hindrances  and  delays.  3.  That  he 
 who  rebuilt  this  city,  should,  in  laying  the  foundation  slay  or 
 sacrifice  his  first-born,  in  order  to  consecrate  it,  and  secure  the 
 assistance  of  the  objects  of  his  idolatrous  worship;  and  should 
 slay  his  youngest  at  the  completion  of  the  work,  as  a  gratitude- 
 offering  for  the  assistance  received.  This  latter  opinion  seems 
 to  be  countenanced  by  the  Chaldee,  which  represents  Hiel  as  slay- 
 ing his  first-bom  Abiram,  and  his  youngest  son  Segub.  But 
 who  was  Hiel  the  Bethelite  ?  The  Chaldee  calls  him  Hiel  of 
 Bethmome,  or  the  Bethmomite;  the  Vulgate  Hiel  of  Bethel- 
 the  Septuagint,  Hiel  the  Baithelite;  the  Syriac  represents  Ahab 
 as  the  builder:  '  Also  in  his  days  did  Ahab  build  Jericho,  the 
 place  of  execration ;' the  Arabic,  'Also  in  his  days  did  Hiel 
 build  the  house  of  idols,'  to  wit,  Jericho.  The  MSS.  give  us 
 no  help.  None  of  these  versions,  the  Chaldee  excepted,  inti- 
 mates that  the  children  were  either  slain  or  died ;  which  cir- 
 cumstance seems  to  strengthen  the  opinion,  that  the  passage  is 
 to  be  understood  of  delays  and  hindrances.  Add  to  this,  why 
 should  the  innocent  children  of  Hiel  sutler  for  their  father's  pre- 
 sumption ?  And  is  it  likely  that  if  Hiel  lost  his  first-born  when 
 lie  laid  the  foundation,  he  would  have  proceeded  under  this 
 evidence  of  the  divine  displeasure,  and  at  the  risk  of  losing  his 
 whole  family  ?  Which  of  these  opinions  is  the  right  one,  or 
 whether  any  of  them  be  correct,  h  more  than  I  can  pretend  to 
 state.  A  curse  seems  to  rest  still  upon  Jericho:  it  is  not  yet  blotted 
 out  of  the  map  of  Palestine,  but  it  is  reduced  to  a  miserable  vil- 
 lage, consisting  of  about  thirty  wretched  cottages,  and  the 
 governor's  dilapidated  castle ;  nor  is  there  any  ruin  there  to  indi- 
 cate its  former  splendour. — Dr.  A.  Clarke  on  1  Kings  xvi.  34 
 — Ed. 
 
 4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHROM. 
 
 It  is  certainly  an  argument  either  of  gross  ignorance* 
 or  of  a  very  corrupt  and  depraved  mind,  to  make  the 
 condescensions  of  Scripture  matter  of  exception  against 
 it,  and  to  find  fault  with  the  sacred  penman,  because 
 he  endeavours,  by  apt  allusions  and  representations,  to 
 bring  down  spiritual  and  divine  things  to  the  measure 
 of  our  mean  and  shallow  capacities. 
 
 2  The  Jews  conceived  of  God  in  heaven  as  of  a  king- 
 seated  on  his  throne ;  and  that  good  and  bad  angels, 
 the  one  standing  on  his  right  hand,  and  the  other  on  his 
 left,  were  the  appointed  executioners  of  his  orders, 
 either  to  reward  or  punish  his  subjects.  And  as  princes 
 upon  earth  do  generally  nothing  of  moment  without 
 advising  with  their  council  and  chief  officers,  so  the 
 prophet  represents  Almighty  God,  as  deliberating  with 
 his  heavenly  courtiers  what  course  he  had  best  to  take, 
 in  order  to  bring  Ahab  to  destruction.  Amidst  this  con- 
 sultation, some  suggest  one  expedient,  and  some  another ; 
 but  none  takes  with  God  until  a  lying  spirit  steps  out 
 and  oilers  his  service,  which  God,  after  some  examina- 
 tion into  his  abilities,  accepts. 
 
 But  now  no  man,  I  think,  can  have  such  a  crude  con- 
 ception of  the  divine  providence,  as  to  think  that  this 
 is  the  method  of  God's  governing  the  world ;  that  he, 
 who  is  the  fountain  of  all  power  and  wisdom,  needs  to 
 advise  with  any  of  his  creatures,  or  can  be  at  a  loss  for 
 any  expedient  to  accomplish  his  ends  ;  or  that  he,  who 
 is  both  truth  and  holiness  itself,  should  ever  send  a 
 lying  spirit  among  his  prophets,  which  would  be  to  con- 
 found all  inspiration,  and  to  make  the  imputation  of 
 error  redound  upon  himself. 
 
 3  Upon  the  whole,  then,  we  cannot  but  infer  that  the 
 speech  of  Micaiah  was  no  more  than  a  parabolical  re- 
 presentation of  a  certain  event,  which  not  long  after 
 came  to  pass ;  that  several  of  the  circumstances  which 
 are  thrown  into  it  are,  in  a  great  measure,  ornamental, 
 and  designed  only  to  illustrate  the  narration  ;  and  that 
 therefore  they  are  not  to  be  taken  in  a  literal  sense,  but 
 in  such  a  manner  as  other  parables  are,  where  the  end 
 and  design  of  the  speaker  is  chiefly  to  be  considered ; 
 which  in  Micaiah's  case,  was  to  show  the  reason  why  so 
 many  of  the  prophets  declared  what  was  false  upon  this 
 occasion ;  even  because  they  were  moved,  not  by  the 
 Spirit  of  truth,  but  that  of  adulation. 
 
 The  prophets  indeed,  both  in  their  parabolical  speeches 
 and  symbolical  actions,  are  to  be  considered  as  persons 
 of  a  singular  character.  For  as  we  find  4  one  of  them 
 tearing  his  own  garment  to  pieces,  to  signify  to  Jero- 
 boam the  alienation  of  the  major  part  of  the  kingdom 
 from  the  house  of  Solomon  :  so  here  we  have  another  de- 
 siring his  companion,  for  so  what  we  render  '  neighbour ' 
 signifies,  to  give  him  a  wound,  5  that  thereby  he  might 
 have  the  better  opportunity  of  reproving  Ahab  for  his 
 ill  timed  clemency  to  Benhadad. 
 
 The  princes  of  the  east  were  difficult  of  access ;  and 
 in  the  court  of  Ahab,  in  particular,  the  character  of  a 
 prophet  was  held  in  so  great  detestation,  that  some 
 expedient  was  to  be  found  out,  to  gain  him  admittance 
 to  the  king's  presence,  and  an  opportunity  to  speak  to 
 him  in  the  maimer  he  designed.  After  so  gTeat  a  victory 
 as  Ahab  had  lately  won  by  the  valour  of  his  men,  it  may 
 be  presumed,  that  the  name  of  a  soldier  was  become  in 
 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 4  i  Kings  xi.  SO,  31. 
 
 Le  Clerc's   Commentary. 
 5  Ibid.  xx.  35. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 585 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 high  esteem  ;  and  therefore  to  personate  a  soldier,  and  a 
 wounded  soldier  likewise,  who  might  more  engage  the 
 king's  pity  and  attention,  the  prophet  entreats  his  fellow- 
 collegiate,  having  first  told  him  his  intent  to  give  him 
 a  slight  cut  with  a  sword,  or  some  other  instrument,  that 
 thereby  he  might  be  enabled  to  act  his  part  better. 
 
 To  desire  to  have  his  own  flesh  slashed  and  cut,  was, 
 in  appearance,  a  request  so  frantic,  that  justly  might  his 
 brother  prophet  have  denied  him  that  courtesy,  had  he 
 not  been  satisfied  that  the  request  came  from  God  :  but 
 herein  lay  the  great  fault  of  the  recusant ;  though  he 
 knew  the  authority  of  God's  commands,  and  that  this 
 was  the  very  thing  which  he  enjoined,  yet,  out  of  an 
 indiscreet  pity  and  compassion  to  his  brother,  he  refused 
 to  comply.  '  Had  he  been  a  stranger  indeed  to  the 
 several  methods  of  divine  prophecy,  he  might  have 
 excused  himself  with  a  better  grace ;  but  as  he  was 
 equally  a  prophet  bred  up  in  the  same  school  with  the 
 other,  had  been  informed  by  the  other  of  his  whole 
 design,  and  well  understood  the  weight  of  these  words, 
 2  '  I  command  thee  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,'  he  was 
 utterly  inexcusable ;  because  disobedience  to  a  divine 
 command,  and  especially  when  delivered  by  a  prophet, 
 was, 3  by  the  construction  of  the  law,  held  capital. 
 
 Now  there  were  two  ways,  according  to  the  Jewish 
 doctors,  wherein  the  prophets  of  old  were  punished  for 
 their  offences  in  their  office.  Those  *  who  prophesied 
 in  the  name  of  idols,  or  prophesied  falsehoods  in  God's 
 name,  were  put  to  death  by  the  judges ;  but  those  who 
 either  concealed  or  rejected  a  true  prophecy,  were  to 
 die  by  the  hand  of  God.  And  in  the  case  now  before  us, 
 the  divine  justice  might  be  more  disposed  to  mark  what 
 was  done  amiss,  for  this  reason,  among  others  to  us 
 unknown,  that,  by  the  severity  of  this  punishment  of  a  pro- 
 phet's disobedience,  proceeding  from  pity  to  his  brother 
 prophet,  he  might  teach  Ahab  the  greatness  of  his  sin,  in 
 sparing  him,  through  a  foolish  generosity  or  compassion, 
 whom,  by  the  laws  of  religion,  and  justice,  and  prudence, 
 and  self  preservation,  he  should  have  cut  oft';  and  con- 
 sequently what  punishment  he  might  reasonably  expect 
 for  his  disobedience. 
 
 In  the  account  which  the  Scripture  gives  us  of  Jeho- 
 shaphat's  reformation,  it  is  said,  that  he  not  only  5  •  took 
 away  the  high  places  and  groves,  but  sent  to  his  princes 
 to  teach  the  cities  of  Judah,and  with  them  sent  Levites, 
 who  had  the  book  of  the  law  with  them,  and  went  through 
 all  the  cities  of  Judah  teaching  the  people.'  But  what 
 the  proper  business  of  these  princes,  in  their  circuit 
 round  the  kingdom  was,  is  a  matter  of  some  dispute 
 among  the  learned.  Grotius  6  is  of  opinion,  that  their 
 commission  extended  to  the  instruction  of  the  people, 
 which,  in  cases  extraordinary,  is  every  one's  business, 
 and  could  never  be  done  with  more  probability  of  suc- 
 cess, than  by  persons  who  were  of  the  king's  council,  and 
 invested  with  his  authority.  There  is  reason  to  think, 
 however,  that  they  did  not  act  in  the  very  same  capa- 
 city with  the  priests  and  Levites  that  attended  them;  but 
 that,  7  as  judges  and  justices  of  peace  among  us,  teach 
 and  instruct  the  people  in  the  laws  of  the  land,  when 
 they  deliver  their  charges  from  the  bench ;  so  these 
 great  men,  hi  the  king's  name,  did  only  admonish  and 
 
 1  Poole's  Annotations.  2  ]  Kings  xx.  35. 
 
 5  Dent,  xviii.  19.  *  Ueut.  xviii.  20.         5  2  Chron.  xvii.  fi. 
 
 6  In  locum.  7  Poole's  Annotations  on  ver.  7. 
 
 4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 require  the  people  to  observe  the  laws  of  God,  which 
 were  the  municipal  laws  of  the  land,  and  left  the  par- 
 ticular explication  and  enforcement  of  them  to  those  o  f 
 the  sacred  order,  who  went  along  with  them ;  supporting 
 them,  in  the  mean  time,  in  the  execution  of  their  office, 
 and  obliging  the  people  to  receive  them  with  respect,  to 
 hear  them  with  attention,  and  to  practise  what  the\ 
 taught  them. 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  obvious  from  the  sense  of  the 
 words,  that,  in  those  days  there  was  a  great  8  '  famine  in 
 the  land,'  as  the  prophet  expresses  it,  '  not  a  famine  of 
 bread,  or  a  thirst  of  water,  but  of  hearing  the  words  of 
 the  Lord.'  There  were  then  no  such  public  synagogues 
 and  public  teachers  as  were  afterwards  instituted  in  the 
 kingdom,  for  the  instruction  of  the  people  in  the  sense 
 of  the  law ;  for  then  there  would  have  been  no  occasion 
 for  these  commissioners  and  Levites  to  have  gone  about 
 throughout  all  the  cities  of  Judah  ;  and  into  such  a 
 wretched  state  of  ignorance  was  the  generality  of  the 
 people  fallen,  that  there  was  scarce  one  copy  of  the  law 
 to  be  found  in  the  hands  of  any  private  person  in  the 
 whole  country  ;  for  which  reason  it  was  thought  advis- 
 able, and  necessary  indeed,  to  carry  one  with  them. 
 
 The  truth  is,  the  synagogues,  whereof  we  read  so 
 much  in  the  Acts  of  our  Saviour  and  his  apostles,  as 
 places  appointed  for  the  public  instruction  of  the  people, 
 were  not  of  so  early  an  institution,  as  the  times  we  are 
 uow  speaking  of.  9  They  did  not  obtain  universally  till 
 after  the  time  of  the  Maccabees  ;  and  it  is  to  no  later 
 date  than  this  that  the  words  of  St  James  allude, l0 '  Moses 
 of  old  time  hath  in  every  city  them  that  preach  him,  be- 
 ing read  in  the  synagogues  every  sabbath-day.'  Upon 
 the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  infer  that  if  proper 
 places  for  religious  instruction  were  not  as  yet  institut- 
 ed ;  if  the  Levites  and  others,  whose  stated  business  it 
 was  to  instruct  the  people,  were  become  grossly  negli- 
 gent in  their  duty  ;  and  the  people  withal  were  grown 
 so  obstinate  in  their  ignorance,  as  to  want  a  proper 
 authority  to  compel  them  to  listen  to  their  instructors  ; 
 then  was  this  commission  which  Jehoshaphat  gave  to 
 persons  duly  qualified  to  execute  it,  far  from  being- 
 needless  or  supererogant,  but  such  only  as  became  a 
 pious  prince,  whose  chief  ambition  ivas,  that " '  the  earth 
 should  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as  the 
 waters  cover  the  sea.' 
 
 For  this  reason,  no  doubt  it  is,  that  the  sacred  historian 
 has  remarked,  as  a  reward  of  this  prince's  piety,  that12  'he 
 had  not  only  riches  and  honours  in  abundance,'  but  a  more 
 numerous  people,  and  a  larger  military  force,  in  propor- 
 tion to  his  territories,  than  any  of  his  most  powerful  prede- 
 cessors. The  whole  amount  of  the  particulars  indeed  is 
 so  very  great, I3  that  some  have  suspected  a  mistake  in 
 the  transcribers;  but  when  it  is  considered  that  the 
 dominions  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  under  Jehoshaphat 
 were  not  confined  to  the  narrow  limits  of  Judah  and 
 Benjamin  only,  but  "reached  into  the  tribes  of  Dan, 
 Ephraim,  and  Simeon ;  into  Arabia,  and  the  country  of 
 the  Philistines  ;  in  a  word,  from  Beersheba  to  the  moun- 
 tains of  Ephraim  one  way,  and  from  Jordan  to  the 
 Mediterranean  sea  the  other ;  when  it  is  considered 
 that  this  kingdom  received  a  vast  accession,  when  Jero- 
 
 8  Amos  viii.  11.     "  Calmet's  Diet,  under  the  word  Synagogue. 
 
 10  Acts  xv.  21.      "  Is.  xi.  9.     122  Chron.  xviii.   1. 
 
 i<  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  ibid.  xvii.  14.     '«  Calmet's  ibid, 
 
 4  E 
 
586  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 boam  thrust  out  the  priests  and  Levites  from  officiating 
 in  the  service  of  the  Lord,  and  multitudes  of  other 
 piously  disposed  persons  followed  them  from  all  parts 
 of  Israel,  when  they  found  that  they  might  be  encour- 
 aged in  worshipping  God  at  Jerusalem  ;  when  it  is  con- 
 sidered, that  this  country  was  exceedingly  well  cultivat- 
 ed, flourishing  in  commerce,  abounding  with  foreigners, 
 and  what  a  vast  increase  of  inhabitants  in  any  nation 
 may  be  produced  in  the  space  of  an  hundred  years, 
 which  was  the  very  period  from  David ;  and  when  it  is 
 considered  farther,  that  soldiers  in  these  days  were  not 
 kept,  like  our  standing  armies,  in  constant  pay  and  duty, 
 but  only  had  their  names  set  down  in  the  king's  muster- 
 rolls,  in  order  to  be  summoned  to  arms  whenever  there 
 was  occasion,  and  so  returned  to  their  families,  and  fol- 
 lowed their  usual  occupations  :  when  all  this  is  con- 
 sidered, and  put  together,  I  say,  we  shall  not  find  the 
 number  of  twelve  hundred  thousand  fighting  men,  even 
 though  they  may  include  six  millions  of  persons  of  all 
 ages  and  conditions,  to  be  so  very  extravagant ;  especi- 
 ally, when  it  is  remembered,  that  the  city  of  Thebes 
 alone,  as  it  is  reported  by  '  Tacitus,  furnished  no  less 
 than  seven  hundred  thousand  soldiers  ;  that,  in  ancient 
 Rome,  there  were  once  between  three  and  four  millions 
 of  souls  ;  and  that,  in  Grand  Cairo,  as  some  travellers 
 report,  there  is  now  almost  twice  that  number." 
 
 We  have  but  one  seeming  paradox  more  to  account 
 for,  and  that  is  the  fall  2  of  the  walls  of  Aphek  upon  no 
 less  than  seven  and  twenty  thousand  men.  But,  in 
 answer  to  this, 3  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  this  wall,  or 
 castle,  or  fort,  as  it  may  be  rendered,  fell  upon  every 
 individual  one,  much  less  that  it  killed  every  man  it 
 fell  on  :  it  is  sufficient  to  justify  the  expression,  that  it 
 fell  upon  the  main  body  of  these  seven  and  twenty  thou- 
 sand, and  that  it  killed  some,  and  maimed  others,  for 
 the  Scripture  does  not  say  that  it  killed  all,  as  is  usual 
 in  such  cases.  Let  us  suppose,  then,  that  these  Syrians, 
 after  their  defeat  on  the  plains  of  Aphek,  betook 
 themselves  to  this  fenced  city,  and,  despairing  of  any 
 quarter,  mounted  the  walls,  or  retired  into  some  castle, 
 with  a  resolution  to  defend  themselves  to  the  last ;  and 
 that  the  Israelitish  army  coming  upon  them,  plied  the 
 walls  or  the  castle  on  every  side  so  warmly  with  their 
 batteries,  that  down  they  came  at  once,  and  killing  some, 
 wounding  others,  and  making  the  rest  disperse  for  fear, 
 did  all  the  execution  that  the  text  nitends.i 
 
 Thus  we  may  account  for  this  event  in  a  natural  way ; 
 but  it  is  more  reasonable  to  think,  that  God,  upon  this 
 occasion,  wrought  a  miracle  ;  and,  either  by  some  sudden 
 earthquake,  or  violent  storm  of  wind,  overturned  these 
 walls,  or  this  fortress  upon  the  Syrians.  And,  indeed, 
 if  any  time  was  proper  for  his  almighty  arm  to  interpose, 
 4  it  was  at  such  a  time  as  this,  when  these  blasphemous 
 people  had  denied  his  sovereign  power  and  authority  in 
 the  government  of  the  world,  and  thereby  in  some  mea- 
 sure obliged  him,  in  vindication  of  his  own  honour,  to 
 give  them  a  full  demonstration  of  it,  and  to  show  that  he 
 was  the  5  God  of  the  plains,  as  well  as  of  the  mountains  ; 
 that  he  could  as  effectually  destroy  them  in  strongholds, 
 as  in  the  open  field,  and  make  the  very  walls  wherein 
 they  trusted  for  defence,  the  instruments  of  their  ruin. 
 
 1  Annals,  b.  2.  2  1  Kings  xx.  30. 
 
 9  Poole's  Annotations  in  locum. 
 
 a  Though  many  travellers  have  reported  this  city  to  he  of  an 
 enormous  magnitude,  the  real  circumference  of  it,  however,  is 
 not  more  thau  S  miles,  and  the  number  of  inhabitants  not  more 
 than  300,000  or  400,000 Ed. 
 
 b  Serious  doubts  are  entertained  concerning  the  legitimacy 
 of  our  translation  of  the  passage  in  question.  If,  instead  of 
 mm  chomah,&waU,  we  read  nan  confusion  or  disorder,  then  the 
 destruction  of  the  27,000  men  may  appear  to  have  been  occasioned 
 by  the  disorganised  state  into  which  they  fell ;  of  which  their 
 enemies  taking  advantage,  they  might  destroy  the  whole  with  ease. 
 But  .-ran  ckomah,  a  wall,  becomes,  as  Dr  Kennicott  has  ob- 
 served, a  very  different  word  when  written  without  the  1  van, 
 i*  which  signifies  heat;  sometimes  the  sun,  vehement  heat, 
 or  the  heat  of  the  noon-day  sun;  and  also  the  name  of  a 
 wind,  from  its  sutibcating,  parching  quality.  The  same  noun, 
 from  av<  yacham,  Dr  Castel  explains  by  excundescentia, 
 furer,  venerium;  burning,  rage,  poison.  These  renderings,  says 
 Dr  Kennicott,  all  concur  to  establish  the  sense  of  a  burning  wind, 
 eminently  blasting  and  destructive.    I  shall  give  a  few  instances 
 
 CHAP.  III.- 
 
 ■Of  the  translation  of  Enoch  and 
 Eli jali. 
 
 Of  all  the  events  recorded  in  Scripture,  we  meet  with 
 none  that  requires  our  attention  more  than  the  translation 
 of  the  patriarch  Enoch,  in  the  times  before  the  flood, 
 and  the  assumption  of  the  prophet  Elijah,  under  the  dis- 
 pensation of  the  law :  for,  whether  Moses,  the  great 
 minister  of  that  dispensation,  was  in  like  manner  ex- 
 empted from  the  common  fate  of  mortals,  is  a  matter 
 wherein  commentators  are  not  so  well  agreed.  The  ac- 
 count of  Elijah's  translation  is  so  express  and  circuin- 
 
 *  Poole's  Annotations  in  locum.  i  1  Kings  xx.  23. 
 from  the  Scripture: — We  read  in  Job  xxvii.  21 :  '  The  east  wind 
 carrieth  him  away ;'  where  the  word  d'HS  Jtadim  is  xautruv,  burn- 
 ing, in  the  Septuagint;  and  in  the  Vulgate,  icntus  urens,  a  burn- 
 ing wind.  In  Ezek.  xix.  12,  '  She  was  plucked  up  nam,  she  was 
 cast  down  to  the  ground,  and  the  east  wind  dried  up  her  fruit; 
 her  strong  rods  were  withered,  and  the  fire  consumed  them.' 
 Hosea  (xiii.  15.)  mentions  the  desolation  brought  by  'an  east 
 wind,  the  wind  of  the  Lord.'  What  in  Amos  iv.  9.  is,  '  I  have 
 smitten  you  with  blasting,'  in  the  Vulgate  is,  in  vento  vehemente, 
 '  with  a  vehement  wind ;'  and  in  the  Syn'ac,  wi/h  a  hot  ivind. 
 Let  us  apply  these  to  the  history:  when  Benhadad,  king  of 
 Syria,  was  besieging  Samaria  the  second  time,  the  Israelites 
 slew  of  the  Syrians  100,000  footmen  in  one  day;  and  it  follows, 
 that  when  the  rest  of  the  army  fled  to  Aphek,  27,000  of  the  meu 
 that  were  left  were  suddenly  destroyed  by  rrann  kachomah,  or 
 nann  hachamah,  a  burning  wind.  That  such  is  the  true  interpre- 
 tation, will  appear  more  clearly  if  we  compare  the  destruction  of 
 Benhadad's  army  with  that  of  Sennacherib,  whose  sentence  is 
 that  God  would  send  upon  him  a  blast,  rm  ruach,  a  wind; 
 doubtless  such  a  wind  as  would  be  suddenly  destructive.  The 
 event  is  said  to  be  that  in  the  night  185,000  Assyrians  were 
 smitten  by  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  2  Kings  xix.  7,  35.  The 
 connexion  of  this  sentence  with  the  execution  of  it  is  given  by 
 the  Psalmist,  who  says.  (civ.  4.)  '  God  maketh  his  angels  mm 
 ruchoth,  winds;'  or,  '  maketh  the  winds  his  angels,'  i.  e.,  messen- 
 gers for  the  performance  of  his  will.  In  a  note  on  Ps.  xi.  6. 
 Professor  Michaelis  has  these  words:  Vcntus  Zilgaphoth,pestilens 
 citrus  est,  orivntalibus  notissimus,  qui  obvia  guavis  nccat;  "  The 
 wind  Zilgaphoth  is  a  pestilent  east  wind,  well  known  to  the 
 Asiatics,  which  suddenly  kills  those  who  are  exposed  to  it." 
 Thevenot  mentions  such  a  wind  in  105S,  that  in  one  night  suf- 
 focated 20,000  men.  And  the  Samiel  he  mentions  as  having, 
 in  1GG5,  suflbcated  4,000  persons.  "  Upon  the  whole,  1  con- 
 clude," says  the  Doctor,  "that  as  Thevenot  has  mentioned  two 
 great  multitudes  destroyed  by  this  burning  wind,  so  has  holy 
 Scripture  recorded  the  destruction  of  two  much  greater  multi- 
 tudes by  a  similar  cause;  and  therefore  we  should  translate  the 
 words  thus:  '  But  the  rest  fled  to  Aphek,  into  the  city;  and  the 
 burning  ivind  fell  upon  the  27,000  of  the  men  that  were  left.' — 
 Dr  A.  Clarke  on  1  Kings  xx.  30. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 587 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viu.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 stantiated,  that  no  question  can  be  made  of  its  reality  ; 
 but  the  ambiguity  of  the  words  wherein  the  sacred  his- 
 torian has  related  the  assumption  of  Enoch,  has  induced 
 several  to  think,  that  though  this  antediluvian  patriarch 
 was  highly  in  favour  with  God,  and  for  that  reason  re- 
 moved from  the  contagious  wickedness  which  was  then 
 overspreading  the  earth  ;  yet  that  this  removal  was  ef- 
 fected, not  by  any  miraculous  operation  of  God,  but 
 merely  by  his  undergoing  a  natural  death. 
 
 The  words  wherein  Moses  has  recorded  this  transac- 
 tion are  very  few,  and  these  of  uncertain  signification  : 
 1  Enoch  walked  with  God,  and  he  was  not,  for  God  took 
 hiin.'  Now  it  is  plain,  from  several  passages  in  Scripture, 
 not  only  that  the  word  which  we  render  '  God  took  him,' 
 is  set  to  signify  our  common  death,  as  in  the  case  of 
 Elijah  himself,  when,  under  the  juniper-tree,  he  prays 
 that  God  would2  '  take  away  his  life,'  because  he  was  not 
 better  than  his  fathers  ;  and  in  that  of  holy  Job,  when 
 lie  tells  us,  that  he  did  not  know  how  soon  3  his  Maker 
 might  take  him  away  ;  but  that  the  other  expression,  '  he 
 was  not,'  is  frequently  used  in  the  same  sense,  as  is  evident 
 from  the  lamentation  which  both  Jacob  and  his  son  Reu- 
 ben made  for  the  supposed  loss  of  Joseph  : «  '  Joseph  is 
 not,'  and  Simeon  is  not,  says  the  old  man  :  and  5  '  the 
 child  is  not ;  and  I,  whither  shall  I  go  ?'  says  the  son. 
 So  that  no  argument  can  be  drawn  from  the  terms  in  the 
 text  to  countenance  a  miraculous  assumption,  more  than 
 a  natural  death,  in  the  prophet  Enoch.  But  this  is  not  all. 
 
 The  author  of  the  book,  entitled  The  Wisdom  of  Solo- 
 mon, is  supposed  to  carry  the  matter  farther,  and  to  de- 
 clare positively  for  the  death  of  this  patriarch,  when  he 
 tells  us,  ° '  that  he  pleased  God,  and  was  beloved  of  him, 
 so  that,  living  among  sinners,  he  was  translated  ;  yea, 
 speedily  was  he  taken  away,  lest  wickedness  should 
 alter  his  understanding,  and  deceit  beguile  his  soul. 
 Being  made  perfect  in  a  short  time,  he  fulfilled  a  long 
 time  ;  for  his  soul  pleased  the  Lord,  therefore  hasted  he 
 to  take  him  away. from  among  the  wicked.'  Where  every 
 line  in  the  description,  as  some  imagine,  suits  exactly 
 with  Enoch,  and  yet  the  author  all  along  supposes,  that 
 the  person  he  is  here  speaking  of  died  in  the  same  man- 
 ner as  other  men  do. 
 
 7  We  acknowledge  indeed,  that  the  author  of  the  book 
 of  Wisdom,  speaking  of  the  hasty  .and  premature  death 
 of  the  righteous,  might  properly  enough  allude  to  what 
 Moses  relates  concerning  the  translation  of  Enoch,  who, 
 in  comparison  of  his  contemporary  patriarchs,  lived  but 
 a  short  time  ;  but  we  have  no  reason  at  all  to  suppose, 
 that  he  is  here  directly  treating  of  the  death  of  Enoch  ; 
 on  the  contrary,  that  he  is  here  discoursing  of  the  right- 
 eous in  general,  and  vindicating  the  wisdom  and  good- 
 ness of  providence,  in  taking  them  sometimes  sooner 
 than  ordinary  out  of  this  wicked  world,  is  evident  from 
 the  inference  wherewith  he  concludes  his  discourse  : 
 "'thus  the  righteous  that  is  dead,  shall  condemn  the 
 ungodly  that  is  living,  and  youth,  that  is  soon  perfected, 
 the  old  age  of  the  unrighteous :  for  they  shall  see  the 
 age  of  the  wise,  and  shall  not  understand  what  God  in 
 his  council  had  decreed  of  him,  and  to  what  end  the 
 Lord  hath  set  him  in  safety. 
 
 1  Gen.  v.  24.       !  1  Kings  xix.  4.       '  Job  xxxii.  22. 
 
 Gen.  xlii.  3G.     5  Gen.  xxxvii.  30.      •  Wisdom  iv.  10,  &c. 
 
 Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Patriarch  Enoch. 
 
 •  Wisdom  iv.  16,  17. 
 
 We  acknowledge  again,  that,  according  to  the  light 
 which  the  gospel  has  introduced,  for  a  good  man  to  die 
 at  any  time  9  is  gain,  and  to  be  removed  from  the  miseries 
 of  this  life  is  much  better  than  the  longest  continuance 
 in  it. lu  But  still  it  must  be  confessed,  that,  in  the  first 
 ages  of  the  world,  and  under  a  less  perfect  dispensation, 
 length  of  days  was  generally  accounted  the  recompense 
 of  virtue  ;  and,  therefore,  if  there  were  nothing  extraor 
 dinar y  in  the  manner  of  Enochs  departure,  the  othei 
 patriarchs,  who  so  far  exceeded  him  in  years,  seem  to 
 have  been  more  immediately  under  the  divine  favour 
 than  he,  who,  though  more  remarkable  than  any  for  his 
 piety  and  goodness,  fell  under  the  lot  and  commenda- 
 tion of  the  wicked,  as  being  not  permitted  "  to  live  out 
 half  his  days. 
 
 We  acknowledge,  once  more,  that  the  words  of 
 Moses  do  not  necessarily  imply  any  miraculous  assump- 
 tion of  a  living  man  into  heaven,  or  any  other  place  un- 
 known, and  unaccessible  to  mortals  ;  but  still,  if  we  will 
 but  compare  what  he  says  of  Enoch  with  what  he  relates 
 of  the  other  patriarchs,  we  shall  soon  perceive,  that  his 
 purpose  was  to  distinguish  between  their  manner  of 
 leaving  the  world  and  his.  For  whereas  it  is  said  of  all 
 the  preceding  patriarchs,  that  they  lived  to  such  and 
 such  a  number  of  years,  and  12 '  begat  sons  and  daughters, 
 and  so  died ;'  of  Enoch  it  is  said,  that  ,3  '  he  lived  sixty 
 and  five  years,'  and  begat  Methuselah ;  that  after  he 
 begat  Methuselah,  '  he  lived  three  hundred  years,  and 
 begat  sons  and  daughters  ;'  but  then,  instead  of  '  he 
 died,'  the  author's  words  are,  '  he  walked  with  God,  and 
 was  not,  for  God  took  him  :'  where  he  first  takes  notice 
 of  his  good  and  pious  life,  which  made  him  so  accept- 
 able to  God,  and  then  of  his  translation,  '  God  took  him  :' 
 but  lest  there  should  be  any  ambiguity  in  that  expression, 
 he  adds,  and  '  he  was  not,'  or  appeared  no  more  in  the 
 world ;  whereby  he  intimates  that  he  still  lives,  and 
 subsists  in  some  other  place. 
 
 The  truth  is,  these  expressions  in  the  text,  when  right- 
 ly understood,  do  confirm,  rather  than  invalidate,  the 
 doctrine  of  Enoch's  translation  :  but,  to  put  the  matter 
 beyond  all  dispute,  we  have  the  authority  of  an  apostle, 
 enumerating  the  actions  of  the  worthies  of  old,  and  tel- 
 ling us  of  this  patriarch  in  particular,  that  I4  '  by  faith  he 
 was  translated,  that  he  should  not  see  death,  and  was 
 not  found,  because  God  had  translated  him  :  for,  before 
 his  translation,  he  had  this  testimony,  that  he  pleased 
 God:'  where  the  author  to  the  Hebrews  takes  care,  by 
 repeating  the  word  three  times,  to  prevent  our  mistaking 
 his  meaning ;  and  by  telling  us,  that  the  patriarch  was 
 not  found,  he  plainly  alludes  to  what  the  sons  of  the 
 prophets  did,  when  Elijah  was  taken  away,  that  is,  sent 
 15  fifty  men  in  quest  of  him,  but  found  him  not ;  and  con- 
 sequently not  obscurely  intimates,  that  this  transport  of 
 the  patriarch  was  of  the  same  nature  with  what  happened 
 to  the  prophet  so  many  years  after  ;  that  they  were  both 
 the  effect  of  the  divine  favour  to  them,  both  the  reward 
 of  their  services  upon  earth,  and  both  a  remove  to  some 
 certain  place  that  is  beyond  the  reacli  of  the  knowledge 
 of  man. 
 
 In  what  part  of  the  world  this  place  is,  we  should  not 
 
 9  Phil.  i.  21,  22.  in  Saurin's  Diss,  on  the  Translation  of  Enoch. 
 
 11  Psalm  lv.  23.  12  Gen.  v.  5,  &c.     13  Gen.  v.  21,  &c. 
 
 u  I  Id),  xi.  5.  15  2  Kings  ii.  16. 
 
588 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.   M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 be  too  inquisitive,  much  less  too  positive,  because  we 
 have  no  foundation  but  conjectures  to  go  upon.  '  St 
 Austin,  who  seems  to  be  more  reserved  in  other  abstruse 
 questions,  is  very  peremptory  in  this, — That  Enoch  and 
 Elijah  were  translated  into  that  a  terrestrial  paradise 
 where  Adam  and  Eve  lived,  in  their  state  of  innocence  ; 
 that  there  they  are  nourished  by  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
 life,  which  gives  them  a  power  of  subsisting  for  ever, 
 without  submitting  to  the  necessity  of  death  ;  that  there 
 they  enjoy  all  the  blessings  and  privileges  that  our  first 
 parents  had  before  their  transgression ;  and,  among 
 other  things,  an  exemption  from  sinning,  by  the  super- 
 natural grace  of  God.  But  then  the  question  is,  where 
 we  are  to  place  this  terrestrial  paradise,  since  there  is 
 scarce  one  region  in  the  world  that  one  author  or  other 
 has  not  made  choice  of  for  its  situation ;  and  since,  by 
 the  violent  concussions  which  happened  at  Noah's  flood, 
 the  face  of  nature  had  been  so  changed,  that  those  very 
 places,  which,  according  to  their  description  in  Scripture, 
 seem  once  to  bid  fairest  for  it,  are  now  debased  to  such 
 a  degree,  as  little  to  deserve  the  appellation  of  the 
 gardens  of  pleasure,  much  less  the  abodes  of  the  blessed. 
 
 2  The  word  Schamajim,  which  we  render  heaven,  is 
 supposed  by  several,  both  Jewish  and  Christian  doctors, 
 to  be  the  upper  part  of  the  air,  where  the  spirits  of  just 
 men  departed,  together  with  these  two  translated  persons, 
 live  in  a  state  of  sincere,  but  imperfect  bliss,  until  the 
 general  resurrection.  But  this,  in  our  opinion,  is  plac- 
 ing the  seats  of  the  blessed  too  near  the  confines  3  of 
 '  the  prince  of  the  power  of  that  element,'  and  in  danger 
 of  being  disturbed  by  some  incursions  from  his  quarters  : 
 and  therefore,  if  we  might  be  indulged  a  farther  conjec- 
 ture, 4  we  should  rather  choose  to  place  them  beyond 
 the  circumference  of  the  solar  system,  where  there  are 
 immense  spaces,  neither  obstructed  by  the  motion  of  any 
 planets,  nor  obnoxious  to  the  changes  of  their  atmo- 
 spheres, because  nothing  is  there  but  pure  ether.  But 
 how  our  corporeal  part  shall  be  enabled  to  live  there, 
 and  to  live  to  all  eternity,  we  shall  then  come  to  under- 
 stand, when  by  experience  we  shall  know  what  that 
 change  is,  which  the  body  undergoes,  when  it  puts  on 
 immortality.  In  the  mean  time,  as  God  is  omnipotent, 
 nothing  can  hinder  him  from  making  what  changes  he 
 pleases  in  our  bodies,  and  from  preserving  them  eternally 
 in  that  state. 
 
 This  we  may  call  the  celestial  paradise,  *  into  which 
 
 1  Contra  Julian,  b.  6.  c.  30. 
 
 2  Le  Gere's  Commentary  on  2  Kings  ii.  11. 
 
 3  Ephes.  ii.  2.  "  Le  Clerc,  ibid. 
 
 a  Whether  the  Mahometans  embrace  the  same  opinion,  it  is 
 a  little  uncertain ;  but  they  have  a  tradition  among  them,  of  one 
 Kheder  or  Khizin,  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  find  the  fountain 
 of  life,  whereof  he  drank  plentifully,  and  so  became  immortal. 
 This  Kheder,  whose  name  signifies  verdant  or  ever-flourishing, 
 according  to  them,  is  the  same  with  Elijah,  who  lives  in  a  place 
 of  retirement,  in  a  delicious  garden  where  the  fountain  of  life 
 runs,  and  the  tree  of  life,  which  preserves  his  immortality, 
 grows. — Calmcfs  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Elijah. 
 
 b  This  is  incorrect.  The  paradise  into  which  the  soul  of  the 
 penitent  thief  was  promised  admittance,  was  nothing  else  than 
 hades,  or  the  abode  of  the  spirits  of  the  just  until  the  general 
 resurrection,  as  Dr  Campbell  has  most  satisfactorily  shown 
 in  his  sixth  Dissertation,  prefixed  to  his  translation  of  the 
 Gospels.  Although,  therefore,  we  cannot  determine  the  place 
 of  residence  assigned  to  Enoch  and  Elijah,  we  can  scarcely 
 suppose  that  they,  with  their  glorified  bodies,  inhabit  the  regions 
 
 our  blessed  Saviour  promised  the  penitent  thief  upon  the 
 cross  a  joyful  admittance ;  and  having  taken  him  with 
 him,  and  reposited  his  soul  in  this  mansion  of  rest  and 
 happiness,  proceeded  in  his  ascent  beyond  the  orbits  of 
 the  most  distant  stars,  and  made  his  entrance  into  the 
 highest  heavens,  which  are  the  residence  of  God  himself; 
 and  into  which,  as  others  imagine,  this  patriarch  and 
 prophet  were,  upon  their  translation,  carried. 
 
 5  '  I  knew  a  man  in  Christ  above  fourteen  years  ago,' 
 says  St  Paul,  speaking  of  himself,  though  his  modesty 
 made  him  conceal  it, '  (whether  in  the  body,  I  cannot  tell, 
 or  whether  out  of  the  body,  I  cannot  tell,  God  knoweth) 
 such  an  one  caught  up  to  the  third  heaven  ;  and  I  knew 
 such  a  man  (whether  in  the  body,  or  out  of  the  body, 
 God  knoweth)  how  that  he  was  caught  up  into  paradise, 
 and  heard  things  unspeakable,  which  it  is  not  possible 
 for  man  to  utter  :'  and  if  St  Paul  '  was  caught  up  into 
 the  third  heaven,'  even  while  he  continued  in  this  mortal 
 state,  why  may  we  not  suppose  that  Enoch  and  Elijah 
 were  at  once  translated  into  the  same  place  ?  The  pro- 
 bable design  of  God's  vouchsafing  the  apostle  this  vision 
 
 5  2  Cor.  xii.  2,  &c. 
 of  disembodied  spirits.  The  passage  which  our  author  here 
 quotes  from  2  Cor.  xii.,  seems  indeed  to  favour  the  opinion, 
 that  what  is  called  '  paradise '  by  our  Lord,  (Luke  xxiii.  43.) 
 is  the  same  as  heaven  itself;  but  that  this  is  not  the  case,  the 
 following  remarks  by  Dr  Campbell,  will,  we  think,  place  be- 
 yond a  doubt:  "The  Jews  make  mention  of  three  heavens. 
 The  first  is  properly  the  atmosphere  where  the  birds  fly,  and 
 the  clouds  are  suspended.  The  second  is  above  the  first,  and  is 
 what  we  call  the  visible  firmament,  wherein  the  sun,  moon, 
 and  stars  appear.  The  third,  to  us  invisible,  is  conceived  to 
 be  above  the  second,  and  therefore  sometimes  styled  the  heaven 
 of  heavens.  This  they  considered  as  the  place  of  the  throne  of 
 God,  and  the  habitation  of  the  holy  angels.  Now  it  is  evident 
 that,  if  in  the  second  and  fourth  verses  he  speak  of  one  vision  or 
 revelation  only,  paradise  and  heaven  are  the  same ;  not  so,  if  in 
 these  he  speak  of  two  different  revelations.  My  opinion  is,  that 
 there  are  two,  and  I  shall  assign  my  reasons.  First,  he  speaks 
 of  them  as  more  than  one,  and  that  not  only  in  introducing  them, 
 '  I  will  come  to  visions  and  revelations  ;•'  for  sometimes  it  must 
 be  owned,  the  plural  is  used  in  expressing  a  subject  indefinitely: 
 but  afterwards,  in  referring  to  what  he  had  related,  he  says,  (2 
 Cor.  xii.  7.)  '  lest  I  should  be  exalted  above  measure,  through 
 the  abundance  of  the  revelations,'  rav  ccxokccXv^/iuv.  Secondly, 
 they  are  related  precisely  as  two  distinct  events,  and  coupled 
 together  as  the  connexive  particle.  Thirdly,  there  is  a  repetition 
 of  his  doubts,  (2  Cor.  xiii.  2,  3.)  in  regard  to  the  reality  of  this 
 translation,  which,  if  the  whole  relate  to  a  single  event,  was  not 
 only  superfluous,  but  improper.  This  repetition,  however,  was 
 necessary,  if  what  is  related  in  the  third  and  fourth  verses,  be  a 
 different  fact  from  what  is  told  in  the  second,  and  if  he  was 
 equally  uncertain,  whether  it  passed  in  vision  or  in  reality. 
 Fourthly,  if  all  the  three  verses  regard  only  one  revelation,  there 
 is,  in  the  manner  of  relating  it,  a  tautology  unexampled  in  the 
 apostle's  writings.  I  might  urge,  as  a  fifth  reason,  the  opinion 
 of  all  christian  antiquity,  Oiigen  alone  excepted.  And  this,  in 
 a  question  of  philology,  is  not  without  its  weight.  I  shall  only 
 add,  that  though  in  both  verses,  the  words  in  the  English  Bible 
 are  'caught  up,'  there  is  nothing  in  the  original  answering 
 to  the  particle  'up.'  The  apostle  has  very  properly  employed 
 here  the  word  k^ra^u,  expressive  more  of  the  suddenness  of 
 the  event,  and  of  his  own  passiveness,  than  of  the  direction  of 
 the  motion.  The  only  other  place  in  which  -xaytbusos  occurs  is 
 in  the  Apocalypse.  (Rev.  ii.  7.)  'To  him  that  overcometh  will 
 I  give  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,  which  is  in  the  midst '  too  <xaga.- 
 luaoo  'of  the  paradise  of  God.'  Here  our  Lord,  no  doubt,  speaks 
 of  heaven,  but,  as  he  plainly  alludes  to  the  state  of  matters  in  the 
 garden  of  Eden,  where  our  first  parents  ware  placed,  and  where 
 the  tree  of  life  grew,  it  can  only  be  understood  as  a  figurative 
 expression  of  the  promise  of  eternal  life,  forfeited  by  Adam,  but 
 recovered  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." — Campbell  on  the  Gospels. 
 —Ed. 
 
Sect.  n.]  FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.9C4.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF 2  CHRON. 
 
 589 
 
 A. M.  3001 
 of  heaven,  was  to  show  him  what  his  final  reward  would 
 be,  and  consequently,  for  the  crown  of  joy  that  was  set 
 before  him,  to  make  him  '  '  glory  in  the  cross  of  Christ,' 
 2 'in  tribulation,  in  distress,  in  persecution:'  and  how 
 reasonable  it  is  to  believe,  that  these  two  worthies,  who 
 in  their  several  generations  had  3  '  fought  the  good  light, 
 and  finished  their  course,  and  kept  the  faith,'  should, 
 upon  the  peculiar  favour  of  their  assumption  into  heaven, 
 be  admitted  to  a  nearer  participation  of  the  beatific 
 vision,  as  an  ample  reward  for  the  fatigues  of  their  war- 
 fare ? 
 
 At  our  Saviour's  transfiguration  upon  the  mount,  we 
 find  one  of  these  sent  to  him,  as  we  may  presume,  upon 
 some  important  message,  appearing  in  a  bright  and 
 glorious  form,  and,  as  if  he  were  admitted  to  the  coun- 
 sels of  heaven,  4  '  talking  with  him  of  his  decease,  which 
 he  was  to  accomplish  at  Jerusalem:'  and  therefore  we 
 can  hardly  think  that  his  abode  could  be  at  any  wide 
 distance  from  the  throne  of  God's  presence,  who,  in  con- 
 junction with  his  faithful  servant  and  lawgiver,  Moses, 
 was  deputed  to  go  an  embassy  to  his  b  '  beloved  son.' 
 But  in  this  point,  we  ought  to  repress  our  curiosity,  and 
 in  the  sense  of  6  Theodoret,  content  ourselves  with  what 
 God  has  been  pleased  to  reveal  in  Scripture,  without 
 inquiring  too  curiously  into  what  he  hath  thought  fit  to 
 conceal. 
 
 In  what  manner  Enoch  was  translated  into  heaven  we 
 have  not  the  least  intimation,  nor  is  the  account  of 
 Elijah's  ascension  to  be  taken  in  a  literal  sense  ;  since 
 a  tiery  chariot  and  horses  would  not  have  been  a  vehicle 
 so  proper  for  a  nature  as  yet  not  impregnated  with  im- 
 mortality. The  notion  of  those  who,  upon  this  occasion, 
 make  angels  assume  the  form  of  the  chariot  and  horses, 
 is  not  so  incongruous,  because  we  need  not  doubt 
 but  that  by  the  divine  permission  they  can  transform 
 themselves  into  any  shape.  They  are  supposed  to  have 
 frequently  appeared  in  the  figure  of  flying  oxen,  for 
 which  reason  they  have  obtained  the  name  of  cherub,  or 
 cherubim ;  and  with  the  same  facility  they  might  at 
 this  time  have  put  on  the  appearance  of  horses  :  but  in 
 points  not  so  clearly  expressed,  we  are  to  resolve  God's 
 method  of  acting  by  those  that  are  analogous,  and  yet 
 more  plain. 
 
 Now  the  only  ascension  that  we  read  of  besides  these, 
 is  that  of  our  blessed  Saviour ;  and  the  manner  in  which 
 he  is  said  to  have  been  carried  up,  was  by  the  subvention 
 of  a  cloud,  which  raised  him  from  the  ground,  and, 
 the  mounting  with  hjm  gradually, 7  carried  him  out  of  the 
 apostles'  sight:'  and  in  like  manner,  we  may  suppose, 
 that  the  translation  of  these  two  was  performed,  namely, 
 that  a  bright  and  radiant  cloud,  which,  as  it  ascended, 
 might  appear  like  a  chariot  and  horses,  raised  them  from 
 the  earth,  and  leaving  tins  little  globe  behind,  wafted 
 them  into  the  seats  of  the  blessed.  Only  we  must  ob- 
 serve, that  Christ's  body  was  at  this  time  invested  with 
 the  powers  of  spirituality,  and  therefore  capable  of 
 ascending  without  any  vehicle  ;  whereas  theirs  was  re- 
 tarded with  a  load  of  matter.0    And  therefore  it  is  rea- 
 
 sonable to  think,  that  by  the  ministry  of  angels,  or  rather 
 by  the  power  of  God,  the  cloud  which  carried  them  up, 
 was  condensed  to  a  more  than  common  consistency,  and 
 that  the  whirlwind  which  might  be  raised  for  this  purpose, 
 helped  to  accelerate  its  motion,  and  expedite  their 
 ascent. 
 
 But  since  8  '  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  king- 
 dom of  God,  neither  doth  corruption  inherit  incorrup- 
 tion  ;'  the  question  is,  how  these  persons  were  all  on  a 
 sudden,  9  '  made  meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance 
 of  the  saints  in  light  ?'  '  Behold  I  show  you  a  mystery,' 
 says  St  Paul,  speaking  of  those  who  shall  be  alive  at 
 our  Saviour's  second  advent,  '  we  shall  not  all  sleep, 
 but  we  shall  all  be  changed,  in  a  moment,  in  the  twink- 
 ling of  an  eye,  at  the  last  trump  ;'  and  therefore  the  same 
 almighty  power,  which,  at  the  sounding  of  the  last  trump, 
 will  make  our  corruptible  natures  '  put  on  incorruption, 
 and  our  mortal  put  on  immortality,'  did,  no  doubt,  in 
 their  passage,  change  their  terrestrial  into  celestial 
 bodies,  and  thereby  convey  into  them  such  faculties  as 
 were  requisite  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  place  whereunto 
 it  was  conducting  them. 
 
 What  particular  services  Enoch  had  done  God,  for 
 which  he  vouchsafed  him  this  favour  extraordinary,  and 
 an  exemption  from  mortality,  the  Scripture  has  nowhere 
 specified.6  It  tells  us  only,  that  '  he  walked  with  God ;' 
 but  then,  considering,  that  if  not  then,  at  least  in  a  short 
 time,  I0  '  all  flesh  hath  corrupted  their  ways,  and  that 
 when  God  saw  the  wickedness  of  the  earth,  it  repented 
 him  that  he  had  made  man  ;'  we  may  suppose,  that  this 
 good  and  pious  patriarch  took  care  not  only  of  his  con- 
 duct, but  set  himself  in  opposition  likewise  to  the  vio- 
 lence, and  other  kinds  of  iniquity,  which  began  then  to 
 prevail  in  most  places  ;  and  that,  in  short,  he  was,  as  the 
 tradition  goes,  a  preacher  of  righteousness,  in  which 
 office  Noah  is  said  to  have  succeeded  him.  For  that  he 
 was  a  preacher  of  righteousness  is  manifest  from  that 
 commination  of  his,  which  St  Jude,  from  some  ancient 
 record  or  other,  brings  him  in  making  to  the  antediluvian 
 world  :  "  '  Behold  the  Lord  cometh  with  ten  thousand  of 
 his  saints  to  execute  judgment  upon  all,  and  to  convince 
 all  that  are  ungodly  among  them,  of  all  their  ungodly 
 deeds  which  they  have  committed,  and  of  all  the  hard 
 speeches  which  ungodly  sinners  have  spoken  against 
 him.' 
 
 3  2  Tim.  iv.  7. 
 Quest.  45.  in  Gen. 
 
 1  Gal.  vi.  14.  2  Rom.  viii.  35. 
 
 '  Luke  ix.  31.  5  Luke  ix.  35. 
 
 7  Acts  i.  9. 
 "  Whence   did  the  author  leant  tin's?     Is  it  not  reasonable  to 
 suppose  that  the  same  power  that  removed  Enoch  and  Elijah  1  — En 
 
 8  1  Cor.  xv.  50. 
 
 Gen.  vi.  II,  6 
 
 9  Col.  i.  12. 
 11  Jud.  14,  15. 
 from  an  earthly  to  a  heavenly  state,  could  change  their  gross 
 natural  bodies  into  pure  and  spiritual  bodies,  like  those  which 
 the  apostle  tells  us  the  saints  shall  possess  when  they  shall  be 
 caught  up  in  the  clouds  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air?  That 
 Enoch  and  Elijah  underwent  such  a  change,  the  author  him- 
 self, with  a  strange  inconsistency,  admits  in  the  next  paragraph. 
 —Ed. 
 
 b  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  either  Enoch  or  Elijah  received 
 such  a  glorious  distinction  on  account  of  any  services  which 
 they  had  rendered  in  the  cause  of  God  and  religion;  for,  strictly 
 speaking,  no  mere  man  was  capable  of  rendering  such  ser- 
 vices to  God  as  should  entitle  him  to  an  exemption  from  the 
 curse  brought  upon  all  mankind  by  the  fall ;  and  however  emi- 
 nent these  prophets  were  for  their  piety  and  zeal  in  the  cause 
 of  God,  they  were  still  obnoxious  to  the  consequences  of  Adam's 
 transgression,  and  if  they  were  exempted  from  the  common 
 doom,  anil  admitted  into  the  heavenly  state,  it  could  only  have 
 been  through  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  from  the 
 foundation  of  the  world.     See  remarks  at  the  end  of  tliis  chapter. 
 
590 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.   M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 And  in  like  manner,  it  is  very  evident,  that  Elijah  was 
 a  zealous  advocate  for  God,  and  a  strenuous  opposer  of 
 idolatry,  an  implacable  enemy  to  Baal's  priests,  an  un- 
 daunted reprover  of  the  wickedness  of  princes  ;  and  a 
 severe  inflicter  of  the  divine  vengeance  upon  all  the 
 children  of  disobedience  :  and  therefore,  we  may  pre- 
 sume, that  God  designed  his  exaltation,  not  only  as  a 
 recompense  for  his  past  services,  which  were  great,  but 
 as  an  encouragement,  likewise,  to  other  remaining  pro- 
 phets, to  be  strong  in  the  Lord ;  to  bear  witness  boldly 
 against  the  corruption  of  the  age  wherein  they  lived ; 
 and  in  the  execution  of  their  office  to  fear  the  face  of  no 
 man. 
 
 The  corruption  of  the  age  indeed,  both  in  the  times  of 
 Enoch  and  Elijah,  was  become  so  great  and  general, 
 that  the  belief  of  a  future  state,  we  may  well  suppose, 
 was  in  a  manner  quite  extinct  among  them ;  and  there- 
 fore God  might  think  it  expedient,  at  these  two  periods 
 of  time,  to  give  the  world  a  sensible  proof  of  it,  if  not 
 to  convince  the  unbelieving  part,  at  least  to  excite  in  the 
 hearts  of  the  faithful,  under  all  their  afflictions  and  per- 
 secutions for  righteousness'  sake,  refreshing  hopes  and 
 expectations  of  a  recompense  to  be  made  them  in  due 
 time.  Nor  can  we  think,  but  that  in  these  instances 
 God  might  have  a  prospect  to  a  greater  event,  and  by 
 the  assumption  of  his  two  faithful  servants,  intend  to 
 typify  the  ascension  of  his  Son,  who  was  to  destroy 
 death,  and  open  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  believ- 
 ers ;  that  thereby  he  might  make  the  testimony  of  his 
 apostles  concerning  this  fact  a  thing  more  credible  ;  and 
 give  all  good  Christians  a  more  solid  comfort  and  con- 
 solation in  those  words  of  St  Paul,  ' '  Who  shall  lay  any 
 thing  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect  ?  It  is  God  that 
 justifieth.  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ 
 that  died  ;  yea,  rather  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at 
 the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession  for 
 us.' 
 
 The  testimony  of  the  angels  concerning  our  blessed 
 Saviour  is, — 2  'This  same  Jesus,  who  is  taken  up  from 
 you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have 
 seen  him  go  into  heaven :'  but,  before  this  his  second 
 coming,  it  is  an  opinion  that  has  prevailed  much  among 
 the  ancient  fathers,  3  that  God  in  his  gTeat  mercy  will 
 send  Enoch  and  Elijah  to  oppose  the  proceedings  of 
 Antichrist,  to  refute  his  doctrines,  and  to  foitify  the 
 righteous  against  his  threats  and  cruelties ;  but  that,  by 
 the  management  of  this  their  adversary,  they  shall  be 
 put  to  death,  though  in  a  short  time  raised  again  to  ever- 
 lasting life  and  glory.  The  whole  of  this  notion  is 
 founded  upon  a  very  abstruse  passage  in  St  John's 
 Revelation,  concerning  the  two  witnesses,  which  are 
 variously  interpreted.  For,  besides  Enoch  and  Elijah, 
 as  we  said  before,  some  apply  them  to  the  law  and  the 
 prophets,  others  to  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and 
 others  again,  especially  those  who  favour  the  millenary 
 scheme,  to  our  Saviour  Christ,  and  his  forerunner  John 
 the  Baptist.  But  as  every  one  is  left  to  his  liberty  to 
 choose  what  part  he  pleases  in  such  problems  as  these, 
 we  shall,  without  pretending  to  determine  any  thing  our- 
 selves, leave  the  passage,  which,  in  a  gTeat  measure  we 
 account  inexplicable,  to  the  examination  of  the  more 
 
 1  Rom.  viii.  33,  31.  2  Acts  i.    11. 
 
 8  Calmct's  Dissertation  on  the  Patriarch  Enoch,  &c. 
 
 4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 learned  and  sagacious. — a  '  I  will  give  power  unto  my 
 two  witnesses,  and  they  shall  prophesy  a  thousand  two 
 hundred  and  threescore  days,  clothed  in  sackcloth. 
 These  are  the  two  olive-trees,  and  the  two  candlesticks, 
 standing  before  the  God  of  the  earth  ;  and  if  a  man  will 
 hurt  them,  fire  proceedeth  out  of  their  mouth,  and  de- 
 voureth  their  enemies. — They  have  power  to  shut  heaven, 
 that  it  rain  not,  in  the  days  of  their  prophecy,  and  have 
 power  over  waters,  to  turn  them  to  blood,  and  to  smite 
 the  earth  with  all  plagues  as  often  as  they  will.  And 
 when  they  shall  have  finished  their  testimony,  the  beast, 
 that  ascendeth  out  of  the  bottomless  pit,  shall  make  war 
 against  them,  and  overcome  them,  and  kill  them,  and 
 their  dead  bodies  shall  lie  in  the  street  of  the  great  city, 
 which  is  spiritually  called  Sodom  and  Egypt,  where  also 
 our  Lord  was  crucified. — Their  bodies  shall  lie  three 
 days  and  an  half  without  being  buried,  and  the  people 
 shall  rejoice  and  make  merry,  because  of  their  death  ; 
 but  after  three  days  and  an  half,  the  spirit  of  life  from 
 God  shall  enter  into  them,  and  they  shall  stand  on  their 
 feet,  and  gTeat  fear  shall  fall  upon  them  that  see  them.'6 
 
 a  Rev.  xi.  3,  &c.  The  learned  Calmet,  from  whom  in  a  great 
 measure  I  have  extracted  this  dissertation,  concludes  his  discourse 
 in  such  words  as  these. — 1.  That  though  we  cannot  infer  from 
 the  strict  words  of  Moses,  that  Enoch  was  translated  alive  into 
 another  world,  and  is  still  living;  yet  nevertheless  ought  the 
 authorities  of  St  Paul,  and  the  tradition  of  the  church,  to  prevail, 
 with  us,  to  esteem,  this  opinion  as  a  matter  of  faith. — 2.  Al- 
 though the  fathers  and  interpreters  seem  to  differ  about  the  place 
 into  which  Enoch  was  translated,  yet  if  we  examine  carefully 
 their  different  opinions,  the  greatest  part  of  them  may  be  reduc- 
 ed to  a  declaration  of  his  being  in  paradise,  which  some  place  on 
 the  earth,  and  others  in  heaven.  And,  3.  That  whatever  liberty 
 the  church  may  allow  interpreters,  of  putting  a  sense  on  the  passage 
 quoted  out  of  the  Revelation,  which  speaks  of  the  coming  of  two 
 witnesses  that  are  to  appear  in  the  latter  ages,  it  must  be  agreed, 
 that  the  opinion  which  explains  it  of  the  return  of  Enoch  and 
 Elijah  upon  the  earth,  is  much  preferable  to  any  other,  on  ac- 
 count of  its  antiquity,  its  intrinsic  justness,  and  the  number  of 
 authors  who  maintain  it. — [Calmet  might,  veiy  consistently  with 
 his  creed,  pay  great  deference  to  tradition,  and  the  authority  of 
 the  Romish  church;  but  Protestants  renounce  both  the  one  and 
 the  other,  and  appeal  to  no  human  tribunal,  in  the  interpretation 
 of  Scripture,  but  that  of  reason.] — Ed. 
 
 b  A  considerable  portion  of  what  is  advanced  in  the  preceding 
 section,  might  well  have  been  spared.  All  inquiries  as  to 
 the  particular  place  or  state  assigned  to  Enoch  and  Elijah,  or  as 
 to  the  exact  nature  and  locality  of  the  mansions  prepared  for  the 
 just,  are  to  be  regarded  as  vain  and  fruitless  speculations,  which 
 may  lead  into  error,  but  cannot  tend  to  edification  or  instruction. 
 These  are  amongst  the  secret  things  which  belong  to  the  Lord : 
 and  therefore  it  argues  presumption  on  our  part  to  search  into 
 them  with  prying  and  curious  eyes.  What  it  concerns  us  chiefly 
 to  know,  is  the  design  which  the  Almighty  had  in  translating 
 Enoch  and  Elijah  into  heaven,  without  tasting  death,  and  if  we 
 carefully  attend  to  the  times  in  which  each  lived,  the  circum- 
 stances in  which  each  was  placed,  and  the  method  which  God 
 was  pleased  to  adopt,  in  revealing  his  plans  of  mercy  to  our  fal- 
 len race,  we  may  warrantably  draw  the  following  conclusions. 
 1.  That  God  intended  to  put  a  distinguishing  mark  of  his  honour 
 upon  Enoch  and  Elijah,  in  consideration  of  their  faithful  adher- 
 ence to  the  truth,  and  their  zeal  in  defending  it  in  the  midst  of 
 universal  degeneracy  and  corruption.  2.  That  the  high  honour 
 thus  conferred  upon  these  two  faithful  servants  of  God,  was  in- 
 tended as  a  public  attestation  of  a  future  state  of  retributions  for 
 the  encouragement  of  God's  people  in  times  of  trial  and  affliction. 
 The  account  given  of  Enoch's  translation  is  brief,  and  couched 
 in  obscure  terms,  while  the  history  of  the  translation  of  Elijah  is 
 much  more  particular  and  minute ;  and  this  is  perfectly  consistent 
 with  the  gradual  development  of  the  Almighty's  designs,  which 
 we  clearly  recognise  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  particularly  in 
 the  prophecies.  3.  The  assumption  of  Enoch  and  Elijah,  was 
 also  designed  as  a  prefiguration  of  the  ascension  of  Christ.     On 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c 
 
 591 
 
 A.  M.3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDINC  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINfiS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 SECT.    III. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — From  the  Siege  of  Sa?naria  by  Benhadad, 
 to  the  Death  of  Uzziah  King  of  Judah. 
 
 THK  HISTORY. 
 
 Notwithstanding  the  great  service  which  the  prophet 
 Elisha  had  done  Benhadad  king  of  Syria,  in  curing  Naa- 
 man,  the  general  of  his  forces,  of  a  confirmed  leprosy, 
 he  still  continued  his  enmity  against  Israel.  Having 
 raised  an  army  with  a  purpose  to  besiege  Samaria,  he 
 opened  the  campaign  with  stratagems  of  war ;  and,  in 
 hopes  of  surprising  Jehoram's  troops,  laid  here  and  there 
 some  ambuscades,  which  Elisha,  by  his  spirit  of  prophe- 
 cy found  out,  and  all  along  gave  the  king  of  Israel  a 
 timely  intelligence  of  them.  Benhadad  at  first  suspect- 
 ed that  his  councils  were  betrayed ;  but  when  he  was  in- 
 formed by  a  one  of  his  officers  that  Elisha,  who  was  then 
 at  Dothan,  a  small  city  in  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  and 
 not  far  from  Samaria,  must  certainly  have  been  at  the 
 bottom  of  all  this,  he  sent  a  strong  detachment  to  seize 
 him,  and  invested  the  city  that  night. 
 
 On  the  morrow,  when  Elisha's  servant  saw  the  enemy 
 surrounding  the  town,  and  knew  of  no  forces  to  oppose 
 them,  *  he  expressed  his  fear  and  concern  to  his  master  ; 
 
 this  point  we  can  hardly  entertain  a  doubt,  if  we  attend  to  the 
 nature  and  design  of  the  types  and  figures  of  the  Old  Testament. 
 "  It  has  been  pertinently  remarked,  that  in  each  of  the  three 
 great  periods  of  the  church,  it  has  pleased  God,  with  a  view  to 
 support  the  faith  of  his  people,  to  give  them  a  lively  figure  of  the 
 resurrection,  as  in  the  cases  of  Enoch  before  the  flood,  and  under 
 what  is  called  the  patriarchal  dispensation,  Elijah  under  the  Mo- 
 saic dispensation,  and  the  great  Captain  of  salvation  himself,  under 
 the  gospel,  for  whom  the  everlasting  doors  were  opened.  And 
 in  conducting  those  events,  the  Most  High  has  gradually  disclosed 
 life  and  immortality,  from  the  dawn  of  morning  light,  to  the  full 
 glory  of  meridian  splendour.  It  must  have  been  an  encouraging 
 sight  to  the  antediluvian  saints  to  see  a  guilty  son  of  Adam  with- 
 drawn from  among  them,  and  lodged  not  in  a  tomb,  but  in  the 
 bosom  of  God.  It  was  a  still  more  striking  illustration  of  im- 
 mortality, to  behold  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  divine  messen- 
 gers, in  flaming  fire,  conducting  a  prophet  into  the  mansions  of 
 glory.  But  the  grandest  display  of  this  doctrine,  is  presented 
 before  our  eyes,  in  the  case  of  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our  faith, 
 who  when  lie  burst  the  bars  of  the  grave,  and  ascended  up  on  high, 
 '  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light,'  opened  the  gates  of 
 righteousness,  that  the  nations  of  those  who  are  saved,  may  enter 
 in.  Enoch,  Elijah,  and  Christ,  in  one  view,  may  be  compared 
 with  each  other;  but,  in  all  things,  to  the  latter  belongs  the  pre- 
 eminence. Enoch  and  Elijah  ascended  as  solitary  individuals, 
 and  their  ascension,  except  as  an  example,  benefited  only  them- 
 selves. Christ  ascended  as  the  first-fruits  of  them  that  sleep, 
 and  now  that  he  is  lifted  up,  he  is  drawing  together  his  elect  unto 
 him,  whom  at  least  he  will  present  before  the  presence  of  the 
 Divine  glory,  with  exceeding  joy." — Jones. — Ed. 
 
 a  It  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that  Naaman,  upon  his  return 
 from  Samaria,  spread  the  fame  of  Elisha  so  much  in  the  court  of 
 Syria,  that  some  of  the  great  men  there  might  have  the  curiosity 
 to  make  a  farther  inquiry  concerning  him;  and,  being  informed 
 by  several  of  his  miraculous  works,  they  might  hence  conclude, 
 that  he  could  tell  the  greatest  secrets,  as  well  as  perform  such 
 vranden  as  were  related  of  him;  and  that,  therefore,  in  all  pro- 
 bability, he  was  the  person  who  gave  the  king  of  Israel  intelli- 
 gence of  all  the  schemes  that  had  been  contrived  to  entrap  him. 
 —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  This  young  man,  it  is  supposable,  had  been  but  a  little  while 
 ivith  his  master,  no  longer  than  since  Gehazi's  dismission,  and 
 therefore  perhaps  had  not  yet  seen  any  great  experiments  of  his 
 power  to  work  miracles ;  or,  if  he  had,  the  great  and  eminent 
 
 but,  upon  his  master's  prayer,  «  his  eyes  were  opened, 
 and  he  beheld  a  multitude  of  horses  and  fiery  chariots 
 standing  in  array,  and  prepared  to  protect  them  ;  while, 
 as  his  master  continued  his  prayer,  the  men  that  belea- 
 gured  the  town  were  struck  with  blindness ;  so  that  by 
 the  prophet's  persuading  them  that  they  were  out  of 
 their  way,  and  had  mistaken  the  place  they  were  bound 
 to,  they  were  led,  in  this  bewildered  condition,  into  the 
 very  midst  of  Samaria,  where,  at  the  prophet's  request, 
 God  opened  their  eyes  again  to  show  them  the  danger 
 they  were  in. 
 
 Jehoram,  finding  so  great  a  number  of  the  enemy 
 lying  at  his  mercy,  would  have  gladly  put  them  to  the 
 sword  ;  but  Elisha  by  all  means  dissuaded  him  from  it ; 
 alleging,  that  as  he  would  scarce  be  so  cruel  as  to  kill  in 
 cold  blood,  even  prisoners  that  were  taken  in  war, much 
 less  should  he  touch  those  who  were  brought  into  his 
 hands  by  the  providence  of  God  ;  and  therefore  he  rather 
 advised  him  d  to  treat  them,  with  all  manner  of  civility, 
 and  let  them  go  ;  which  accordingly  the  king  did. 
 
 But,  e  how  signal  soever  this  piece  of  service  and 
 
 danger  he  thought  his  master  in,  (for,  in  all  probability,  he  had 
 learned  from  the  people  of  the  town,  that  this  vast  body  of  men 
 were  come  to  apprehend  him  only,)  might  well  be  allowed  to 
 raise  his  fear,  and  shake  his  faith. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  It  must  be  allowed  that  angels,  whether  they  be  purely  spi- 
 ritual, or,  as  others  think,  clothed  with  some  material  form,  cannot 
 be  seen  by  mortal  eyes;  and  therefore  as  Elisha  himself,  without 
 a  peculiar  vouchsafement  of  God,  could  not  discern  the  heavenly 
 host,  which,  at  this  time,  encamped  about  him ;  so  he  requests 
 of  God,  that,  for  the  removal  of  his  fears,  and  the  confirmation 
 of  his  faith,  his  servant  might  be  indulged  the  same  privilege; 
 nor  does  it  seem  improbable,  that  from  such  historical  facts  as 
 these,  which  have  descended  by  tradition,  that  notion  among  the 
 Greeks,  of  a  certain  mist  which  intercepts  the  sight  of  their  gods 
 from  the  ken  of  human  eyes,  might  at  first  borrow  its  original. 
 To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  Jiat  Homer  makes  Minerva  be- 
 speak Diomedes  fighting  against  the  Trojans,  who  were  assisted 
 by  some  other  gods:  "The  vapour  which  heretofore  lay  over 
 thine  eyes,  I  of  a  truth  abstracted,  that  you  might  certainly  know 
 the  immortal  from  the  mortal  being."  Which  Virgil  has  imi- 
 tated, in  making  Venus  speaks  thus:  "Look:  for  I  will  take 
 away  all  that  cloud  which,  at  present  overspreading  thy  vision, 
 weakens  it  powers,  and  renders  indistinct  the  circumjacent  ob- 
 jects." (Eneid.  2) — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Though,  according  to  the  rigour  of  the  laws  of  arms,  a  con- 
 queror is  at  liberty  to  put  whatever  enemies  fall  into  his  hands, 
 if  he  pleases,  to  the  sword ;  yet  the  laws  of  humanity  and  com- 
 passion, of  honour  and  good  nature,  should  always  restrain  us  from 
 treating  with  the  utmost  severity  such  as  surrender  themselves, 
 and  implore  our  mercy ;  for  so  says  the  tragedian,  "  What  the  law 
 doth  not  forbid,  modesty  itself  repudiates."  {Senec.  7'road.)  So 
 the  philosopher,  "  The  nature  of  honour  and  equity  commands 
 us  to  spare  even  captives."  (Senec.  de  Clement,  b.  1.  c.  IS.)  And 
 so  the  divine,  "  Necessity,  not  will,  destroys  the  opposing  ene- 
 my; as  violence  is  due  to  him  that  fightetli  and  opposeth,  so 
 mercy  must  be  rendered  to  the  vanquished  captive."  (Aug.  ad 
 Bordfac.  epis.  1.)  But,  besides  the  humanity  and  charity  of  the 
 thing,  there  was  this  prudence  and  policy,  in  the  kind  treatment 
 of  the  Syrians,  that,  by  this  means,  their  hearts  might  be  mollified 
 towards  the  Israelites,  that,  upon  their  return,  they  might  be- 
 come as  it  were,  so  many  preachers  of  the  power  and  greatness 
 of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  not  only  be  afraid  themselves,  but  dis- 
 suade others  likewise  from  opposing  a  people  that  had  so  invinci- 
 ble a  protector. — Calmet's  Commentary  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Several  heathens  have  observed,  that  "  injuries  are  more 
 gloriously  overcome  by  benefits,  than  requited  by  pertinacious 
 and  mutual  hatred  ;"  but  the  sense  of  benefits  in  bad  natures  does 
 not  last  long:  for  no  sooner  do  we  read  of  the  kind  treatment 
 which  the  Syrians  received,  (2  Kings  vi.  2.3.)  but  it  immediately 
 follows,  that  the  king  of  Syria  '  gathered  all  his  host,  and  went 
 up  and  besieged  Samaria ;'  which  does  not  so  well  agree  with 
 what  is  said  in  the  preceding  yen  e,  namely,  that  '  the  bands  of  the 
 
592 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 M.  3001.  A.  C.  N03;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 generosity  to  Benhadad  was,  it  did  not  prevail  with  him 
 to  relinquish  the  old  grudge  and  malice  which  he  had 
 conceived  against  Israel :  for,  not  long  after,  he  laid 
 close  siege  to  Samaria,  and  reduced  the  city  to  such  dis- 
 tress, that  an  ass's  head  was  sold  «  for  fourscore  pieces 
 t>f  silver,  and  *  three  quarters  of  a  pint  of  pulse  for 
 five.  Nay,  to  that  extremity  was  the  famine  come,  that 
 even  mothers  were  constrained  to  eat  their  own  children  ; 
 
 Syrians  came  no  more  into  the  land  of  Israel.'  But  now,  as  we 
 can  hardly  think,  that  any  author  whatever  would  contradict  him- 
 self in  the  same  breath,  so  we  must  suppose,  either  that  the 
 Syrians  quite  retreated  for  this  time,  and  laid  aside  all  thoughts 
 of  war,  though  afterwards  they  altered  their  minds,  and  broke  out 
 again  into  hostilities;  or,  what  seems  more  plain,  that  their  bands 
 made  no  more  incursions  and  inroads,  but  that  they  were  resolved 
 to  fall  upon  the  Israelites  at  once,  with  a  regular  and  formed 
 army,  and  to  besiege  Samaria.  For  in  this  sense  Josephus  takes 
 it,  when  he  tells  us,  that,  after  this  time,  "  Adad,"  for  so  he  calls 
 Benhadad,  "  never  entered  into  any  underhand  practice  against 
 the  king  of  Israel,  but  resolved  to  make  open  war  upon  him,  in 
 confidence  of  his  greater  strength  and  numbers. — Jewish  Anti- 
 quities, b.  9.  c.  2. 
 
 a  If  we  reckon  these  pieces  of  silver,  or  shekels,  at  fifteen- 
 pence  apiece,  they  come  to  five  pound  sterling ;  a  vast  price  for 
 that  which  had  on  it  so  little  meat,  and  that  unclean  according  to 
 the  law,  (Liv.  xi.  26.)  In  times  of  famine,  however,  and  ex- 
 treme necessity,  the  Jews  themselves  were  absolved  from  the 
 observation  of  the  law ;  nor  do  there  want  instances  in  history 
 where  other  people,  upon  the  same  occasion,  have  been  reduced 
 to  the  like  distress,  if  what  Plutarch,  in  the  life  of  Artaxerxes, 
 tells  us,  be  true,  namely,  that  in  that  prince's  war  with  the  Ca- 
 ducii,  an  ass's  head  could  scarce  have  been  purchased  at  the  price 
 of  sixty  drachms,  that  is,  two  pounds  and  five  shillings  of  our 
 money.- — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Prideaux's  Connection,  in 
 the  preface. 
 
 6  What  we  in  this  place  c&Upulse,  our  translation  has  rendered 
 dove's  dung;  but  interpreters  have  been  at  a  great  loss  to  devise, 
 upon  what  account  the  inhabitants  of  Samaria  should  be  obliged 
 to  buy  so  small  a  quantity  of  it  (for  a  cab  was  the  least  measure 
 •the  Jews  had  for  dry  things)  at  so  dear  a  rate.  For  food,  for 
 salt,  for  firing,  for  dunging  their  lands  within  the  walls,  several 
 interpreters  have  severally  applied  it;  but,  upon  a  small  examin- 
 ation, it  will  appear,  that  none  of  these  uses  could  suit  with  the 
 circumstances  of  a  city  so  closely  besieged  as  Samaria  was. 
 The  Talmudists  suppose,  that  they  have  found  out  the  true 
 solution,  by  translating  the  term  in  the  original  by  crop  of  doves; 
 for  they  affirm,  that  several  people  in  Samaria  kept  many  doves 
 to  bring  them  provisions  from  the  country,  which  were  wont  to 
 disgorge  what  they  picked  up,  so  that  their  owners  might  sell  it 
 at  a  dear  rate :  but  who  can  imagine  that  so  great  a  number  of 
 doves,  as  were  necessary  for  this  purpose,  should  be  suffered  to 
 live  in  a  city  so  pinched  with  famine;  that  doves  should  be  so 
 docile,  and  well  trained  up,  as  to  bring  to  their  masters  whatever 
 they  had  ranged  for;  or,  that  in  a  country,  in  a  manner  covered 
 with  the  enemy,  who  had  altogether  foraged  and  laid  it  waste, 
 there  should  be  found  any  nourishment  at  all?  The  learned 
 Bochart,  therefore,  has  not  only  solidly  confuted  these  wild 
 opinions,  but  has  likewise  farther  observed  that  the  Arabians 
 gave  the  name  of  dove's  dung,  or  sparrow's  dung,  to  two 
 several  things ;  1st,  to  a  kind  of  moss  that  grows  on  trees,  or 
 stony  ground;  and,  2dly,  to  a  sort  of  pease  or  pulse,  which  was 
 very  common  in  Judea,  as  may  be  seen  in  2  Sam.  xvii.  28,  and 
 therefore  he  concludes,  that  the  word  Chersonim  may  very  well  de- 
 note vetches  or  pulse:  and,  for  the  confirmation  of  this,  some  travel- 
 lers have  told  us,  that,  at  Grand  Cairo  and  Damascus,  there  are 
 magazines  where  they  constantly  fry  this  kind  of  grain,  which 
 those  who  go  on  pilgrimage  buy  and  take  with  them  as  part 
 of  the  provision  for  their  journey;  Hieroz,  part  2.  b.  1. 
 c.  7.  and  an  Essay  towards  a  New  Translation. — [Harmer,  in 
 his  Observations,  attempts  to  show  that  the  dove's  dung 
 mentioned  2  Kings  vi.  25,  was  employed  during  the  siege,  for 
 the  purpose  of  more  speedily  raising  a  supply  of  esculent  vege- 
 tables, such  as  melons  and  cucumbers ;  and  it  is  well  known  that 
 dove's  dung  is  reckoned  of  great  value  in  the  east  on  account 
 of  its  great  power  in  stimulating  the  rapid  growth  of  such  vege- 
 tables.    Most  modem  critics,  however,  are  of  opinion,  that  by 
 
 which  when  the  king  understood,  from  the  information 
 of  one  who  had  been  constrained  to  do  it,  he  rent  his 
 clothes,  and,  in  a  fit  of  rage  vowed  to  be  revenged  of 
 Elisha,  whom  he  took  to  be  the  cause  of  all  this  calam- 
 ity ;  and  to  this  purpose  sent  an  officer  to  take  off  his 
 head,  whilst  himself  followed  after  to  see  the  execution 
 done. 
 
 Elisha,  by  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  had  notice  of  this 
 wicked  design  against  his  life  ;  and  having  acquainted  d 
 the  company  with  it,  desired  them  to  secure  the  doors,  « 
 
 dove's  dung,  is  meant  a  kind  of  pease,  which  agrees  with  the 
 opinion  expressed  in  the  author's  note.  Dr  Boothroyd  translates 
 vetches,  and  certainly  this  rendering  marks  more  strongly  the 
 severity  of  the  famine  than  the  received  one,  for  it  cannot  be 
 supposed  that  dove's  dung,  in  the  literal  acceptation,  was  used 
 for  food.  Dr  A.  Clarke  agrees  in  supposing  that  a  sort  of  pease 
 are  meant,  which  to  this  day  the  Arabs  call  by  this  name.  Dr 
 Shaw  says,  "  The  garvanqos,  cicer,  or  chick  pea,  has  been  taken 
 for  the  pigeon's  dung,  mentioned  in  the  siege  of  Samaria;  and  as 
 the  cicer  is  pointed  at  one  end,  and  acquires  an  ash  colour*  in 
 parching,  the  first  of  which  circumstances  answers  to  the  figure, 
 the  second  to  the  usual  colour  of  dove's  dung,  the  supposition  is 
 by  no  means  to  be  disregarded.] — Ed. 
 
 c  The  story,  as  it  is  represented  in  Scripture,  is  very  affecting. 
 '  And  as  the  king  of  Israel  was  passing  by  upon  the  wall,  there 
 cried  a  woman  unto  him,  saying,  Help,  my  lord,  O  king!  And 
 he  said,  If  the  Lord  do  not  help  thee,  whence  shall  I  help  thee? 
 out  of  the  barn-floor,  or  out  of  the  wine-press?  And  the  king 
 said  unto  her,  What  aileth  thee?  And  she  answered,  This  wo- 
 man said  unto  me,  Give  thy  son,  that  we  may  eat  him  to-day, 
 and  we  will  eat  my  son  to-morrow ;  so  we  boiled  my  son,  and 
 did  eat  him;  and  I  said  unto  her  the  next  day,  Give  thy  son  that 
 we  may  eat  him,  and  she  hath  hid  her  son ;'  2  Kings  vi.  26, 
 &c.  A  shocking  story  this!  and  a  terrible  effect  of  the  divine 
 vengeance,  which  Moses  had  long  before  told  the  Israelites 
 would  fall  upon  them,  Deut.  xxviii.  53,  if  they  rebelled  against 
 God ;  which,  at  two  other  times  besides  this,  namely,  at  the  siege  of 
 Jerusalem  under  Nebuchadnezzar,  Ezek.  v.  10,  and  at  that  under 
 Titus  the  Roman  general,  came  likewise  to  pass;  for  therein 
 Josephus  gives  us  a  very  dolorous  account  of  a  lady  of  distinc- 
 tion, who,  out  of  extremity  of  hunger,  was  forced  to  eat  the  very 
 child  that  sucked  at  her  breast. —  The  IVars  of  the  Jews,  b.  7.  c.  8. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  And  Elisha  sat  in  his  house,  and 
 the  elders  sat  with  him,'  2  Kings  vi.  32,  where,  by  'his  house,' 
 some  interpreters  understand  the  school  where  the  sons  of  the 
 prophets  met  to  be  instructed ;  and,  by  the  elders,  his  chief 
 scholars,  who  under  his  instruction  applied  themselves  to  the 
 study  of  divine  things.  But  as  we  frequently  read  in  Ezekiel,  of 
 the  elders  of  Israel,  sitting  before  the  prophet  to  hear  him,  chap, 
 viii.  1,  and  xiv.  1,  we  cannot  see  why  the  elders,  in  this  place 
 likewise,  may  not  denote  some  good  and  godly  men,  who  bore 
 office  either  in  the  court,  camp,  or  city,  as  it  seems  probable  by 
 the  prophet's  desiring  their  help  and  protection.  For,  though 
 Jehoram  himself  was  a  wicked  man,  and  most  of  Ids  officers 
 might  be  forward  enough  to  imitate  him,  yet  we  are  not  to  doubt, 
 but  that  there  were  some  of  them,  whom  Elisha's  holy  life  and 
 glorious  miracles,  together  with  the  sundry  benefits  which  the 
 public  reaped  from  his  ministry,  had  won  over  to  God,  and  to  the 
 true  religion ;  and  these  were  here  sitting  with  him,  either  to 
 receive  comfort  and  counsel  from  him  in  this  distressed  time,  or 
 to  solicit  him  to  use  his  power  with  God  for  their  relief;  which 
 accordingly  he  did,  and  in  compliance  to  their  request,  not  out 
 of  any  fear  of  the  king's  threats,  (from  which  he  was  well  as- 
 sured that  God  would  not  fail  to  deliver  him,)  he  pronounced 
 the  joyful  news,  which  follows  in  the  beginning  of  the  next 
 chapter.. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Executions  in  the  east  are  often  very  prompt  and  arbitrary. 
 In  many  cases  the  suspicion  is  no  sooner  entertained,  or  the 
 cause  of  offence  given,  than  the  fatal  order  is  issued  ;  the  messen- 
 ger of  death  hurries  to  the  unsuspecting  victim,  shows  his  war- 
 rant, and  executes  his  orders  that  instant  in  silence  and  solitude. 
 Instances  of  this  kind  are  continually  occurring  in  the  Turkish 
 and  Persian  histories.  "  When  the  enemies  of  a  great  man,  among 
 the  Turks,  have  gained  influence  enough  over  the  prince  to  pro- 
 cure a  warrant  for  his  death,  a  capidgi  (the  name  of  the  officer 
 who  executes  these  orders),  is  sent  to  him,  who  shows  him  the 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c' 
 
 593 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4507.  A.  C.  OOi.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 that  the  officer  might  not  be  admitted  until  the  king 
 came.  When  the  king  was  come,  and  the  prophet  was 
 exhorting  him  to  have  a  little  patience,  and  God  would 
 remove  this  affliction  in  time,  in  a  raving  fit  of  despair, 
 he  replied,  '  That  he  would  wait  God's  leisure  no  longer, 
 but  go  and  worship  his  father's  idols,  it  they,  peradven- 
 ture,  could  deliver  him  in  this  necessity.'  W  hereupon 
 the  prophet  assured  him,  that,  if  he  would  stay  but  four 
 and  twenty  hours  more,  he  should  see  such  an  alteration 
 in  Samaria,  that  a  a  measure  of  Hour  should  be  sold  for 
 a  shekel,  and  two  measures  of  barley  for  the  same 
 price.  This  a  certain  lord,  a  great  favourite  of  the 
 king's,  standing  by  and  hearing,  affirmed  to  be  a 
 thing  impossible,  unless  Hod  should  rain  corn  from  the 
 clouds ;  to  whom  the  prophet  only  made  this  short 
 answer,  that  '  himself  should  see  the  plenty,  but  not 
 be  permitted  to  taste  of  it ;'  which  accordingly  came  to 
 pass. 
 
 The  people  of  Samaria,  though  addicted  to  idolatry, 
 did  nevertheless  observe  the  ceremonial  part  of  the  law, 
 and,  pursuant  to  this,  had  b  shut  four  lepers  out  of  the 
 
 order  he  has  received  to  carry  back  his  head ;  the  other  takes  the 
 warrant  of  the  grand  seignior,  kisses  it,  puts  it  on  his  head  in 
 token  of  respect,  and  then  having  performed  his  ablutions,  and 
 said  his  prayers,  freely  resigns  his  life.  The  capidgi  having 
 strangled  him,  cuts  off  his  head,  and  brings  it  to  Constantinople. 
 The  grand  seignior's  order  is  implicitly  obeyed;  the  servants  of 
 the  victim  never  attempt  to  hinder  the  executioner,  although  the 
 capidgi  came  very  often  with  few  or  no  attendants."  It  appears 
 in  the  writings  of  Chardin,  that  the  nobility  and  grandees  of 
 Persia  are  put  to  death  in  a  manner  equally  silent,  hasty,  and 
 unobstructed.  Such  executions  were  not  uncommon  among  the 
 Jews  under  the  government  of  their  kings.  Solomon  sent  Be- 
 niah  as  his  capidgi,  or  executioner,  to  put  Adonijah,  a  prince  of 
 his  own  family,  to  death;  and  Joab,  the  commander-in-chief 
 of  the  forces  in  the  reign  of  his  father.  A  capidgi  likewise 
 beheaded  John  the  Baptist  in  the  prison,  and  carried  his  head  to 
 the  court  of  Herod.  To  such  silent  and  hasty  executions,  the 
 royal  preacher  seems  to  refer  in  that  proverb ;  '  the  wrath  of  a 
 king  is  as  messengers  of  death;  but  a  wise  man  will  pacify  it:' 
 his  displeasure  exposes  the  unhappy  offender  to  immediate 
 death,  and  may  fill  the  unsuspecting  bosom  with  terror  and 
 dismay,  like  the  appearance  of  a  capidgi :  but  by  wise  and 
 prudent  conduct,  a  man  may  sometimes  escape  the  danger. 
 From  the  dreadful  promptitude  with  which  Beniah  executed  the 
 commands  of  Solomon  on  Adonijah  and  Joab,  it  may  be  con- 
 cluded that  the  executioner  of  the  court  was  as  little  ceremonious, 
 and  the  ancient  Jews  nearly  as  passive  as  the  Turks  or  Persians. 
 The  prophet  Elisha  is  the  only  person  in  the  inspired  record, 
 who  ventured  to  resist  the  bloody  mandate  of  the  sovereign;  the 
 incident  is  recorded  in  these  terms:  '  But  Elisha  sat  in  his 
 house,  and  the  elders  sat  with  him;  lie  said  to  the  elders,  See  how 
 this  son  of  a  murderer  has  sent  to  take  away  mine  head?  Look 
 when  the  messenger  cometh;  shut  the  door,  and  hold  him  fast  at 
 tin-  door.  Is  not  the  sound  of  his  master's  feet  behind  him?' 
 lint  if  such  mandates  had  not  been  too  common  among  the  Jews, 
 and  in  general  submitted  to  without  resistance,  Jchoram  had 
 scarcely  ventured  to  dispatch  a  single  messenger  to  take  away  the 
 life  ol  so  eminent  a  person  as  Elisha. — Paxtoris  Illustrations. 
 —Ed. 
 
 a  The  word  Scah,  which  we  render  a  measure,  was  equal  to 
 six  cabs,  and  contained,  as  some  think,  six  quarts,  as  others 
 a  peck,  and  as  others  a  peck  and  two  quarts,  of  our  measure. 
 The  shekel  was  much  about  our  three  shillings;  and  to  have  a 
 peck  of  fine  flour  for  three  shillings  at  other  times  would  not 
 have  been  so  cheap;  hut,  considering  the  present  situation  of 
 things,  it  was  wonderfully  so. — Le  C/erc's  Commentary  and 
 Poole't  Annotations. — \  According  to  the  best  authorities,  the 
 measure  or  seah  was  equal  to  one  peck  one  pint,  and  the  value 
 oi   tin'  shekel,  two  shillings,  3d!  sterling.] — En. 
 
 />  '1  he  Jews  are  of  opinion,  that  these  four  lepers  were  Gc- 
 h«zi  and  three  of  his  sons.  Persons  that  were  leprous  indeed, 
 were  not   permitted  to  converse  with  other  men,  and,   by  the 
 
 city ;  who  lay  under  the  walls,  until  they  were  ready  to 
 starve.  In  this  condition  these  poor  creatures,  consult- 
 ing what  measures  they  should  best  take,  resolved  at  last 
 to  try  the  generosity  of  the  enemy,  because,  at  the  worst, 
 they  could  but  die ;  and  accordingly,  before  the  break 
 of  day,  went  to  the  camp.  When  they  came  thither,  to 
 their  great  surprise,  they  found  no  living  creature,  but 
 only  horses  and  asses. c  The  tents  were  standing  and  well 
 provided  with  riches,  and  all  manner  of  necessaries,  but 
 the  men  were  gone  :  for  having  been  affrighted  witli  a 
 noise  in  the  air,  as  of  an  army  in  full  march,  and  ready 
 to  fall  upon  them,  they  supposed  that  the  king  of  Israel 
 had  called  to  his  assistance  some  foreign  powers,  the 
 d  Hittites  or  Egyptians,  and  thereupon  leaving  the  camp, 
 without  ever  striking  their  tents,  betook  themselves  to 
 their  heels  as  fast  as  they  could. 
 
 The  poor  lepers  having  first  satisfied  their  hunger, 
 and  secured  some  riches  to  themselves,  began  to  reflect, 
 that  while  they  were  thus  regaling  themselves,  and  plun- 
 dering the  camp,  their  countrymen  were  in  danger  of 
 starving  in  the  town ;  and  therefore,  with  all  possible 
 haste,  returning  to  the  gate,  they  gave  the  porter  notice 
 of  the  enemy's  flight,  who  went  immediately  and  sent 
 an  account  of  it  to  the  king.  The  king,  imagining  at 
 first  that  this  had  been  a  stratagem  c  of  the  Syrians  to 
 
 law  of  Moses,  while  the  Israelites  lived  in  tents,  they  were  to 
 be  turned  out  of  the  camp,  (Num.  v.  2,  3.)  But,  after  that 
 they  came  to  inhabit  cities,  it  may  be  questioned  whether  they 
 treated  them  with  that  rigour;  since,  in  2  Kings  viii.  4,  we 
 find  Gehazi  holding  discourse  with  the  king,  (which  makes 
 against  his  being  one  of  the  four  excluded  lepers,)  and  giving 
 him  a  detail  of  all  Elisha's  miracles;  but  this  he  might  do  by 
 talking  to  him  at  a  proper  distance.  Lepers  indeed  were  care- 
 fully avoided,  because  their  distemper,  in  these  hot  countries, 
 was  thought  contagious ;  but,  in  the  case  before  us,  these  four 
 seem  to  be  excluded,  not  so  much  upon  the  account  of  their 
 distemper,  as  because  they  were  useless  hands.  They  could 
 neither  fight,  nor  work  in  communion  with  others:  they  were  only 
 persons  born  to  consume  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  were  there- 
 fore no  proper  persons  in  a  siege. —  Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Com- 
 mentaries. 
 
 c  2  Kings  vii.  10.  '  Horses  tied  and  asses  tied.'  From  the 
 circumstances  recorded  concerning  the  flight  of  the  Syrians,  it 
 appears  to  have  been  remarkably  precipitate.  That  they  were 
 not  altogether  unprepared  for  a  hasty  departure,  may  be  inferred 
 from  comparing  this  passage  with  the  following  extract  from 
 Memoirs  relative  to  Egypt,  p.  300.  "  As  soon  as  the  Arabs  are 
 apprehensive  of  an  attack,  they  separate  into  several  small  camps, 
 at  a  great  distance  from  each  other,  and  tie  their  camels  to  the 
 tents,  so  as  to  be  able  to  move  off  at  a  moment's  notice."  Such 
 a  precaution  is  not  probably  peculiar  to  the  modern  Arabs,  but. 
 might  be  adopted  by  the  Syrian  army.  If  this  was  the  case,  it 
 shows  with  what  great  fear  God  filled  their  minds,  that  though 
 prepared  as  usual  for  a  quick  march,  they  were  not  able  to  avail 
 themselves  of  the  advantage,  but  were  constrained  to  leave  every 
 thing  behind  them  as  a  prey  to  their  enemies.— Ed. 
 
 d  The  Hittites  in  particular  lived  in  Arabia  Petraa,  to  the 
 south  of  Palestine,  and,  in  Solomon's  time,  who  had  some  wives 
 likewise  out  of  their  country,  held  a  great  commerce  with  him 
 for  horses,  (1  Kings  x.  '20.  and  xi.  1.)  But  under  the  name  of 
 Hittites  as  elsewhere  under  the  name  of  Amorites,  the  sacred 
 penman  seems  to  comprehend  all,  or  any  of  the  people  of  Canaan. 
 For  thou'di  the  greatest  number  of  that  people  were  destroyed. 
 yet  some  of  them  were  spared,  and  many  of  them,  upon  Joshua's 
 comin"  (led  away,  some  to  remote  parts,  as  that  famous  and 
 ancient  pillar  in  the  coasts  of  Afric  testifies,  and  others  to  the 
 countries  bordering  upon  Canaan  ;  where,  by  reason  of  the  scarcity 
 of  inhabitants  in  those  days,  finding  room  enough,  they  seated 
 themselves,  and  in  process  of  time,  growing  numerous  and  power- 
 ful, appointed,  according  to  their  ancient  manner  of  government, 
 kin^s  to  rule  over  them. —  Poole's  Annotations 
 
 e  8  Kings  vii.  \i.   In  the  History  of  the  Revolt  of  Ali  Bey, 
 4  k 
 
594 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 draw  his  people  out  of  the  town,  an<l  so  fall  upon  them, 
 sent  out  some  parties  to  reconnoitre  such  places  as 
 might  be  most  suspected  for  ambuscades  ;  but  when  they 
 returned,  they  informed  him,  that  they  could  get  no  sight 
 of  the  enemy,  only  they  found  the  road  strewed  with 
 arms,  and  garments,  and  several  bundles  of  things,  which 
 they  had  dropped,  as  they  supposed,  to  ease  themselves 
 in  their  flight.  Upon  hearing  of  this  news,  the  people 
 rushed  out  of  the  city  in  great  numbers,  and  bring  in 
 provision  in  such  quantities,  that  corn  was  sold  at  the 
 price  which  Elisha  mentioned,  and  at  the  time  which  he 
 foretold:  and  as  the  incredulous  nobleman,  who  had 
 despised  the  prophet's  prediction,  was  appointed  by  the 
 king  to  guard  the  gate  which  led  from  the  city  to  the 
 camp,  the  better  to  prevent  disorders,  the  crowd  pressed 
 so  vehemently  upon  him,  that  they  trampled  him  under 
 foot,  and  killed  him,  before  he  had  an  opportunity  to 
 taste  any  part  of  that  great  store  which  he  saw  was 
 brought  to  the  market. 
 
 After  this  miraculous  raising  of  the  siege  of  Samaria, 
 Benhadad  was  deterred  from  making  any  farther  attempts 
 upon  Israel :  nor  do  we  hear  any  more  of  him  in  the 
 sacred  history,  until  Elisha  went  to  Damascus,  the  capital 
 of  Syria,  to  execute  the  order  of  declaring  Hazael  king, 
 which  was  originally  given  to  Elijah  his  predecessor. 
 The  king  hearing  of  his  arrival,  and  being  no  stranger  to 
 his  abilities,  sent  this  same  Hazael,  who  was  then  become 
 one  of  his  prime  ministers,  to  wait  upon  him  with  a  very 
 noble  present,  and  to  inquire  of  him  whether  he  should 
 "  recover  of  the  sickness  which  he  then  laboured  under. 
 The  prophet  told  Hazael,  that  his  master  might  recover, 
 because  his  distemper  was  not  of  itself  mortal,  but  that 
 he  was  very  well  assured  that  he  would  not :  and  then, 
 
 (p.  99.)  we  have  an  account  of  a  transaction  very  similar  to  the  stra- 
 tagem supposed  to  have  lieen  practised  by  the  Syrians.  The  pasha 
 of  Sham  (Damascus)  having  marched  near  to  the  sea  of  Tiherias, 
 found  sheik  Daher  encamped  there;  but  the  sheik  deferring  the 
 engagement  till  the  next  morning,  during  the  night  divided  his 
 army  into  three  parts,  and  left  the  camp,  with  great  fires,  all 
 sorts  of  provisions,  and  a  large  quantity  of  spirituous  liquors, 
 giving  strict  orders  not  to  hinder  the  enemy  from  taking  posses- 
 sion of  the  camp,  but  to  come  down  and  attack  them  just  before 
 dawn  of  day.  "  In  the  middle  of  the  night,  the  pasha  of  Sham 
 thought  to  surprise  sheik  Daher,  and  marched  in  silence  to  the 
 camp,  which,  to  his  great  astonishment,  he  found  entirely  aban- 
 doned, and  thought  the  sheik  had  fled  with  so  much  precipitation, 
 that  he  could  not  carry  on"  the  baggage  and  stores.  The  pasha 
 thought  proper  to  stop  in  the  camp  to  refresh  his  soldiers.  They 
 soon  fell  to  plunder,  and  drank  so  freely  of  the  liquors,  that,  over- 
 come with  the  fatigue  of  the  day's  march,  and  the  fumes  of  the 
 spirits,  they  were  not  long  ere  they  were  in  a  sound  sleep.  At 
 that  time  sheik  Sleby  and  sheik  Crime,  who  were  watching  the 
 enemy,  came  silently  to  the  camp;  and  sheik  Daher,  having 
 repassed  the  sea  of  Tiberias,  meeting  them,  they  all  rushed  into 
 the  camp,  and  fell  on  the  confused  and  sleeping  enemy,  eight 
 thousand  of  whom  they  slew  on  the  spot;  and  the  pasha,  with  the 
 remainder  of  his  troops,  fled  with  much  difficulty  to  Sham,  leav- 
 ing all  their  baggage  behind." — Harmer,  vol.  iv.  p.  244. — Ed. 
 
 a  What  Benhadad's  distemper  was,  we  are  nowhere  told  in 
 Scripture;  but  it  is  very  evident,  that  it  was  not  of  so  desperate 
 a  nature,  but  that  he  might  have  recovered  of  it,  had  he  not  had 
 foul  play  for  ins  life.  According  to  the  account  of  Josephus,  it 
 was  no  morn  than  a  fit  of  melancholy:  for  "when  he  came  to 
 understand,"  as  he  tells  us,  "  that  all  these  alarms  of  chariots 
 and  horsemen,  that  had  given  such  an  irreparable  rout  to  him 
 and  his  army,  were,  in  truth,  only  judicial  impressions  of  affright 
 and  terror,  without  any  foundation,  he  looked  upon  it  as  a  declara- 
 tion from  heaven  against  him  ;  and  this  anxiety  of  thought  made 
 him  as  sick  in  the  body  too  as  he  was  in  his  mind." — Jewish 
 sfntiq.  b.  5.  c.  2. 
 
 -1507.  A.  C.  904.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHliON. 
 
 looking  steadfastly  upon  him,  he  broke  out  into  tears, 
 upon  the  prospect,  as  he  told  him,  of  the  b  many  barbar- 
 ous calamities  which  he  would  bring  upon  Israel,  when 
 once  he  was  advanced  to  power,  as  that  he  would  be, 
 because  he  was  assured  by  divine  revelation  that  he  Mas 
 to  be  king  of  Syria.  At  these  words,  Hazael's  ambition 
 took  wing ;  and  therefore  returning  to  his  master,  he 
 concealed  the  prophet's  answer,  and  gave  him  good 
 hopes  of  his  recovery,  but  the  next  day  took  care  to 
 prevent  it,  by  c  stifling  his  breath  with  a  thick  cloth 
 dipped  in  water  :  and  as  Benhadad  had  no  son  of  his 
 own,  and  Hazael  was  a  man  of  great  esteem,  especially 
 among  the  soldiery,  he  was,  without  much  difficulty, 
 declared  his  successor.  i 
 
 The  next  thing  which  Elisha  did  was  to  have  Jehu 
 anointed  king  of  Israel,  pursuant  to  the  order  that  was 
 given  to  his  master  Elijah,  and  to  the  divine  decree  of 
 punishing  the  house  of  Ahab  for  their  manifold  impieties. 
 Ramoth-Gilead  was  a  place  of  long  dispute  between  the 
 two  crowns  of  Israel  and  Syria.  Jehoram,  king  of 
 Israel,  had  lately  had  an  engagement  with  Hazael,  king 
 of  Syria,  not  far  from  it,  wherein  he  had  received  some 
 very  dangerous  wounds,  and  was  gone  down  to  Jezreel, 
 to  be  cured  of  them.     His  army,  however,  d  continued 
 
 b  The  particulars  are  thus  enumerated: — '  I  know  the  evil 
 that  thou  wilt  do  to  the  children  of  Israel;  their  strongholds 
 wilt  thou  set  on  fire ;  their  young  men  wilt  thou  slay  with  the 
 sword ;  and  wilt  dash  their  children,  and  rip  up  their  women  with 
 child,'  (2  Kings  viii.  12.)  That  dashing  young  children  against 
 the  stones  was  one  piece  of  barbarous  cruelty,  which  the  people 
 of  the  east  were  apt  to  run  into,  in  the  prosecution  of  their  wars, 
 is  plainly  intimated  in  that  passage  of  the  Psalmist's,  alluding  to 
 the  calamities  which  preceded  the  Babylonish  captivity:  'O 
 daughter  of  Babylon,  wasted  with  misery!  Yea,  happy  shall  he 
 be  that  rewardeth  thee,  as  thou  hast  served  us.  Blessed  shall  he 
 be,  that  taketh  thy  children,  and  throweth  them  against  the 
 stones,'  (Ps.  exxxvii.  S,  9.)  Nor  was  this  inhuman  practice 
 quite  out  of  use  among  nations  that  pretended  to  more  politeness: 
 for,  according  to  the  remains  of  ancient  fame,  the  Greeks,  when 
 they  became  masters  of  Troy,  were  so  cruel  as  to  throw 
 Astyanax,  Hector's  son,  a  child  in  his  mother's  arms,  as  Homer 
 represents  him,  headlong  from  one  of  the  towers  of  the  city. 
 The  ripping  up  women  with  child  is  the  highest  degree  of 
 brutal  cruelty;  and  a  cruelty  for  which  there  is  no  occasion, 
 because,  kill  but  the  mother,  and  the  child  dies  of  course;  and 
 yet  it  has  been  often  known,  that  in  the  heat  of  execution,  this 
 barbarity  has  been  committed.  Nay,  there  is  reason  to  believe 
 that  Hazael,  in  his  war  with  the  Gileadites,  (2  Kings  x.  32,  33.) 
 verified  this  part  of  the  prophet's  prediction  concerning  him;  for 
 what  Amos,  complaining  of  his  cruelty  to  these  people,  calls 
 threshing  Gilead  '  with  threshing  instruments  of  iron,'  both  the 
 Septuagint  and  Arabic  versions  read,  '  he  sawed  the  big-bellied 
 women  of  Gilead  with  iron  saws.' — Le  Clerc's  and  Calmet's  Com- 
 mentaries. 
 
 c  This  he  did,  that  no  signs  of  violence  might  appear  upon 
 him ;  for  had  the  people,  in  the  least,  suspected  his  being  mur- 
 dered, Hazael  would  not  so  easily  have  acceded  to  the  throne ; 
 because,  according  to  the  account  of  Josephus,  Benhadad  was  a 
 man  of  such  reputation  among  the  people  of  Syria  and  Damascus, 
 that  as  his  memory  was  celebrated  among  them  with  divine 
 honours,  his  death,  no  doubt,  had  it  been  known  to  have  been 
 violent,  would  have  been  fully  revenged  upon  the  murderer. — 
 Jeii-ish  Ant.  b.  9.  c.  2.  We  may  observe,  however,  that  history 
 makes  mention  of  some  other  princes  who  have  died  in  the  same 
 manner  that  Benhadad  did ;  that  the  emperor  Tiberius,  accord- 
 ing to  Suetonius,  was,  in  his  last  sickness,  choked  in  his  bed 
 by  a  pillow  crammed  into  his  mouth,  or,  as  Tacitus  has  it,  was 
 smothered  to  death  under  a  vast  load  of  bedclothes;  and  that 
 king  Demetrius,  the  son  of  Philip,  as  well  as  the  emperor 
 Frederick  II.,  was  hurried  out  of  the  world  the  sume  way. — 
 Calmets  Commentary. 
 
 d  It  is  supposed  by  some  interpreters,  that  the  city  of  Ramoth- 
 Gilead  was  taken  by  Jehoram,  before  he  departed  from  it  to  be 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 595 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 the  siege  under  the  command  of  Jehu,  who  in  the  king's 
 absence,  acted  as  captain-general.  This,  Elisha  thought, 
 was  no  improper  opportunity  to  execute  the  orders  which 
 were  left  upon  him  to  do ;  and  therefore  a  calling  one 
 of  his  minor  prophets,  he  bid  him  go  to  Ramoth-Gilead, 
 and  *  there  anoint  c  Jehu,  the  grandson  of  Nimshi,  as 
 king  of  Israel,  with  the  utmost  secrecy,  and  then  to 
 come  away  with  the  utmost  expedition.  M'hen  the  pro- 
 phet came  thither,  he  found  the  officers  in  a  council  of 
 war,  and  Jehu,  at  the  head  of  them.  Desiring  therefore 
 to  speak  with  him  in  private,  he  did  what  his  instructions 
 were,  and  reminding  the  general  of  the  prophecies  of 
 Elijah,  concerning  the  utter  extinction  of  the  house  of 
 Ahab,  he  enjoined  him,  now  that  he  was  invested  with 
 power,  to  put  them  in  execution. 
 
 The  officers  that  were  with  Jehu,  had  but  a  contempti- 
 
 ,'iired  of  his  wounds.  This  they  gather  from  the  mention  made 
 of  the  '  inner  chamber,'  (2  Kings  ix.  2.)  '  the  top  of  the  stairs,' 
 (ver.  13.)  and  from  that  caution  which  Jehu  thinks  advisable, 
 '  Let  none  go  forth,  or  escape  out  of  the  city,'  (ver.  15.)  But 
 these  arguments  will  not  do.  What  we  render  '  out  of  the  city,' 
 does  signify  every  whit  as  properly,  '  from  before  the  city,'  that 
 is,  out  of  the  camp  or  army  that  is  besieging  the  city.  But 
 even,  if  this  be  not  so,  the  Israelites  might,  at  this  time,  have 
 the  suburbs,  or  out-buildings  belonging  to  the  city,  in  their  pos- 
 session, where  the  general  might  have  his  headquarters,  End 
 from  whence  he  might  give  orders  to  the  piquet-guard,  as  we 
 call  it,  that  none  should  be  permitted  to  move.  For  had  the 
 town  been  already  in  their  hands,  we  cannot  see  why  Jehoratn 
 should  have  kept  all  Israel  there,  (ver.  14.)  that  is,  all  the  mili- 
 tary force  of  Israel,  when  a  strong  garrison  would  have  been 
 sufficient. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  The  Jewish  doctors  are  of  opinion,  that  the  prophet  whom 
 Klisha  sent  upon  this  message,  was  Jonah ;  but,  upon  this  suppo- 
 sition, he  must  at  this  time  have  been  a  very  young  man,  be- 
 cause Jeroboam  II.,  in  whose  reign  Jonah  prophesied,  did  not 
 ascend  the  throne  till  about  fifty  years  after  this  unction  of  Jehu 
 kins;  of  Israel.  However  this  be,  it  is  reasonable  to  think  that 
 Elisha  himself  did  not  go  to  perform  this  office,  either  because 
 he  was  now  grown  old,  and  unfit  for  such  a  journey,  or  because 
 he  was  a  person  too  well  known,  and  not  so  proper  to  be  employ- 
 ed in  an  aflin'r  that  required  secrecy. — Patrick's  and  Calmct's 
 Commentaries. 
 
 b  The  Jews  are  of  opinion,  tiiat  none  of  the  kings  of  Israel 
 were  anointed  but  those  that  were  of  the  house  of  David,  and 
 these  oidy  when  there  was  a  question  about  their  succession ;  as 
 Solomon,  they  say,  needed  not  to  have  been  anointed,  had  it  not 
 been  tor  the  faction  of  Adonijah.  But  in  the  case  of  Jehu,  in 
 whom  the  succession  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel  was  to  be  translat- 
 ed out  of  the  right  line  of  the  family  of  Ahab,  into  another  family 
 which  had  no  right  to  the  kingdom,  but  merely  the  appointment 
 of  God,  there  was  a  necessity  for  his  unction,  in  order  both  to 
 convey  to  him  a  title,  and  to  invest  him  in  the  actual  possession 
 of  the  kingdom:  for  if  that,  which  some  imagine  from  I  Kings 
 xix.  16.,  be  true,  namely,  that  the  prophet  Elijah  did,  before 
 this  time,  anoint  Jehu,  that  unction  did  only  confer  on  him  a 
 remote  right  to  the  kingdom,  in  the  same  manner  as  Samuel's 
 unction  did  to  David.  (1  Sam.  xvi.  13.) — Patrick's  Commentary 
 and  Pnole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  For  barbarity  and  hypocrisy  Jehu  has  few  parallels;  and  the 
 cowardliness  and  baseness  of  the  nobles  of  Samaria,  have  seldom 
 been  equalled.  Ahab's  bloody  house  must  be  cut  off;  but  did 
 God  ever  design  that  it  should  be  done  by  these  means?  The 
 men  were,  no  doubt,  profligate  and  wicked,  and  God  permitted 
 their  iniquity  to  manifest  itself  in  this  way ;  and  thus  the  purpose 
 el  God,  that  Ahab's  house  should  no  more  reign,  was  completely 
 accomplished:  (see  1  Kings  xxi.  19,  21,  29.)  And  by  this  con- 
 duct Jehu  is  said  to  have  executed  what  was  right  in  God's 
 eyes.  (ver.  30.)  The  cutting  off  of  Ahab's  family  was  decreed 
 by  the  divine  justice;  the  means  by  which  it  was  done,  or  at 
 least  the  manner  of  doing,  were  not  entirely  of  his  appointing: 
 yet  the  commission  given  him  by  the  young  prophet,  (c.  ix.  7.) 
 was  very  extensive.  Vet  still  many  things  seem  to  be  attributed 
 to  God,  as  the  agent,  which  he  does  not  execute,  but  only  per- 
 mits to  be  done. —  Ed, 
 
 4516.  A.  C.  895.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  Oi?  2  CHRON. 
 
 ble  opinion  of  the  prophet;  for  persons  of  this  charac- 
 ter they  looked  upon  as  a  d  kind  of  madmen  ;  and  yet 
 when  they  understood  that  he  had  anointed  Jehu  to  be 
 king,  they  proclaimed  hiiu  with  a  general  consent,  and, 
 with  a  good  body  of  forces,  marched  directly  to  Jezreel, 
 where  Jehoram  was  not  yet  recovered  of  his  wounds, 
 and  whither  Ahaziah,  king  of  Judah,  was  at  that  time 
 come  to  visit  him.  Jehu's  intent,  was  to  get  to  Jezreel, 
 before  the  king  could  have  any  intelligence  of  what  had 
 passed  at  Ramoth-Gilead,  and  there  to  surprise  and 
 seize  him ;  but  a  e  centinel  from  the  watch  tower,  per- 
 ceiving a  body  of  men  coming,  and,  by  their,  hasty 
 march,  concluding  that  it  was  Jehu  who  commanded 
 them,  apprised  the  two  kings  of  it;  whereupon  they 
 got  ready  their  chariots  in  all  haste,  and,  as  the  provi- 
 dence of  God  would  have  it,  met  him  not  far  from  the 
 vineyard  of  Naboth,  the  Jezreelite,  and  perhaps  '  in  the 
 place  where  Naboth  was  stoned. 
 
 Upon  their  first  meeting,  a  few  words  convinced  Jeho- 
 ram, that  Jehu  had  conspired  against  him,  and  was  come 
 in  an  hostile  manner,  to  avenge  /  the  idolatry  and  wick- 
 edness of  his  mother  Jezebel,  whereupon  he  turned  his 
 chariot  and  fled  ;  but  Jehu  soon  overtook  him  with  a 
 swift  arrow,  which  pierced  his  heart ;  and  when  he  per- 
 
 1  1  Kings  xxi.  19. 
 
 d  The  officers  who  were  in  company  with  Jehu,  might  easily 
 perceive  by  the  habit,  and  air,  and  manner  of  speech  of  the  per- 
 son who  accosted  Jehu  so  boldly,  and  when  he  had  done  his  busi- 
 ness, vanished  so  suddenly,  that  he  was  a  prophet ;  but  then  there 
 might  be  several  reasons  which  might  induce  men  of  their  pro- 
 fession to  have  a  contemptible  opinion  of  men  of  that  order.  The 
 rigid  and  obscure  course  of  life  which  the  prophets  led,  their 
 neglect  of  themselves,  and  of  the  things  of  this  world,  might 
 pass  with  them  for  a  kind  of  infatuation ;  and  the  holy  exercises 
 to  which  they  devoted  themselves,  for  no  more  than  a  religious 
 frenzy.  Besides  this,  the  false  prophets,  which  they  had  seen  in 
 the  court  of  Ahab,  had  given  just  offence;  and  by  their  affected 
 gestures  and  studied  contortions,  whereby  they  thought  to  recom- 
 mend their  crude  enthusiasms,  made  themselves  justly  ridiculous, 
 and  contemptible.  And  therefore  it  is  uo  wonder  that  these 
 officers,  at  first  sight,  should  censure  a  true,  as  they  thought  they 
 had  reason  to  judge  of  the  false  prophets  with  whom  they  had 
 been  acquainted;  especially  when  we  find  some  leading  men  in 
 the  tribe  of  Judah  treating  the  prophets  of  the  Lord,  as  in  the 
 case  of  Ezekiel  xxiii.  30,  31,  and  of  Jeremiah  xxix.  2b",  as 
 fools  and  madmen;  and  some  great  names  in  the  heathen  world, 
 looking  upon  all  pretenders  to  inspiration  in  no  better  light; 
 according  to  that  noted  passage  in  Cicero:  "  what  authority  does 
 that  'furor'  possess  which  ye  call  divine,  so  that  a  madman  can 
 discern  what  a  wise  man  cannot ;  and  he  who  has  lost  his  human 
 senses,  is  thought  to  possess  superhuman." — Be  Divinat.  b.  2. 
 
 e  In  time  of  peace,  as  well  as  war,  it  was  customary  to  have 
 watchmen  set  on  high  and  eminent  places  wherever  the  king 
 was,  to  prevent  his  being  surprised.  Thus  David,  at  Jerusalem, 
 was  informed  by  the  watchman,  that  his  sons  were  escaped  from 
 the  slaughter  of  Absalom,  when  he  thought  them  all  lost,  (2  Sam. 
 xiii.  34.)  and  therefore  Jehoram,  who  had  an  army  lying  before 
 Ramoth-Gilead,  had  good  reason  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon 
 every  motion  that  came,  especially  from  tliat  quarter. — Patrick's 
 and  Calmct's  Commentaries. 
 
 f  The  answer  which  Jehu  returns  to  Jehoram  is, — '  What 
 peace,  so  long  as  the  whoredoms  of  thy  mother  Jezebel,  and  her 
 witchcrafts  are  so  many?'  (2  Kings  ix.  22.)  that  is,  whilst  her 
 idolatries  wherewith  she  bewitches  the  people,  are  still  continued 
 and  multiplied.  And  he  upbraids  Jehoram  with  his  mother's 
 sins  and  not  with  his  own,  because  hers  were  more  notorious 
 and  infamous,  and  what  by  his  contrivance,  he  had  made  his  own  ; 
 because  they  were  the  principal  reasons  why  God  did  inflict,  and 
 he  was  come  to  execute  these  judgments;  and  because  he  could 
 find  no  odious  accusations  against  him,  except  about  the  golden 
 calves,  which  he  purposely  declined  mentioning,  because  he  him- 
 self intended  to  keep  them  up. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
596 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  451C.  A.  C.  895.1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THK  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 ceived  him  sinking  in  his  chariot,  he  bid  an  officer  that 
 was  by  throw  him  into  Naboth's  field,  which  was  near  at 
 hand,  a  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  might  be  fulfilled. 
 
 As  for  Ahaziah,  he  attempted  to  make  his  escape,  but 
 was  pursued  by  a  party  of  Jehu's  men,  who  came  up  with 
 him  at  Gur,  and,  as  he  was  sitting  in  his  chariot,  gave  him 
 a  mortal  wound  ;  so  that  as  soon  as  he  reached  Megiddo 
 he  died.  He  was  thence  removed  to  Jerusalem,  where 
 he  was  buried  in  the  royal  sepulchre  of  his  ancestors, 
 and,  after  a  reign  of  less  than  two  years,  was  succeeded 
 by  his  mother  Athaliah,  who  usurped  the  throne. 
 
 Jehu,  in  the  mean  time,  made  the  best  of  his  way  to 
 Jezreel,  where  Jezebel,  resolving  to  keep  up  her  gran- 
 deur to  the  last,  b  painted  and  dressed  herself  in  her 
 royal  robes,  and  looking  out  of  her  window,  upbraided 
 him  with  his  treachery  as  he  passed  by,  and  reminded 
 him  of  the  unhappy  fate  of  Zimri,  who  slew  his  king  and 
 master  Elan  :  but,  without  making  her  any  answer,  he 
 called  to  somebody  to  throw  her  out  of  the  window, 
 which     c  her  own   eunuchs  did ;   so  that,   by   the  fall, 
 
 her  d  blood  stained  the  walls  of  the  palace,  and,  when 
 she  was  upon  the  pavement,  the  horses  trampled  her 
 under  foot,  and  the  dogs  devoured  her  body;  e  insomuch, 
 
 a  The  words  which  Jehu  seems  to  quote  are  these, — '  Surely 
 I  have  seen  yesterday  the  blood  of  Naboth  and  the  blood  of  his 
 sons,  saith  the  Lord,  and  I  will  requite  him  in  this  place,  (2 
 Kings  ix.  26.)  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  in  all  the  his- 
 tory of  Naboth,  which  is  recorded  in  1  Kings  xxi.,  we  find  no 
 mention  made  of  the  death  of  his  sons;  but  it  is  no  unusual  thing 
 for  the  Scripture  to  supply  in  one  place,  that  which  has  been 
 omitted  in  another.  It  is  not  improbable,  therefore,  that  as  Na- 
 both was  accused  of  high  treason,  all  his  family  was  involved  in 
 his  ruin,  and  all  his  estate  confiscated  to  the  king's  exchequer: 
 and  what  seems  to  confirm  this  opinion,  is — That  we  find  Elijah 
 never  once  putting  the  king  in  mind  to  restore  the  vineyard  to 
 Naboth's  children,  nor  the  king,  in  the  time  of  his  repentance, 
 ever  once  thinking  to  do  it,  because,  in  all  human  appearance, 
 there  were  no  heirs  left.  Notwithstanding  this,  Grotius,  and 
 other  learned  men,  have  observed,  that  these  words  may  signify 
 no  more  than  the  extreme  poverty  to  which  Naboth's  family  was 
 reduced  by  the  death  of  their  father,  and  the  confiscation  of  his 
 goods:  for,  among  the  Hebrews,  say  they,  all  punishments  and 
 miseries  are  called  '  blood,'  (Lev.  xvii.  4.)  and  to  take  away  their 
 estate,  upon  which  they  would  have  lived,  was,  in  effect,  to  take 
 away  their  blood,  in  which  is  the  life  of  every  creature.  But 
 this  is  a  little  forced:  and  therefore,  we  should  rather  think,  that 
 Jehu  is  here  aggravating  Ahab's  crime,  and  reckoning  the  sons  as 
 slain  with  the  father,  because  by  their  being  deprived  of  him,  and 
 of  his  estate,  they  were,  in  a  manner,  in  as  bad  a  condition  as  though 
 they  were  dead. — Le  Clerc's,  Patrick's,  and  Calmet's  Commen- 
 taries. [This  last  opinion  is  not  more  satisfactory  than  the  pre- 
 ceding. As  the  object  both  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel  was  to  obtain 
 entire  and  perpetual  possession  of  Naboth's  vineyard,  it  is  very 
 orobable  that  the  whole  of  Naboth's  family  were  cut  off'  with 
 nimself,  in  order  that  none  of  his  posterity  might  afterwards  re- 
 claim the  property.] — Ed. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  original  import,  '  She  put  her  eyes  in 
 paint,'  that  is,  she  used  stibium  or  antimony  pulverized,  to  make 
 her  eyes  and  eyebrows  look  black  and  large,  which,  in  several 
 countries-,  was  accounted  a  great  beauty.  The  use  of  paint  has 
 oeen  of  ancient  date,  and  the  art  of  blacking  the  hair,  and  beau- 
 tifying the  face  may  be  indulged  to  the  vanity  of  the  female  sex ; 
 but  it  raises  one's  indignation  to  read  of  a  Sardanapalus  paintin« 
 his  eyes  and  eyebrows ;  of  the  ancient  Greeks  running  into  the 
 same  custom ;  and  much  more  of  the  ancient  Romans :  but  there 
 were  fops  in  all  nations  then  as  well  as  now.  "  He  by  using 
 wet  soot  enlarged  his  eyebrow  j  pricking  it  with  an  obliquely 
 pointed  needle,  and  stains  his  trembling  eyelids.— Juv.  Sat.  2. 
 
 c  According  to  the  custom  of  the  eastern  nations,  the  business 
 of  this  sort  of  people  was  to  attend  upon  queens  in  their  cham- 
 bers, who  by  their  great  fidelity  and  obsequiousness,  gained  gene- 
 rally the  esteem,  and  were  admitted  to  the  confidence  of  those 
 they  served,  and  from  thence  into  places  very  often  of  great  trust 
 and  profit.  It  is  remarked,  however,  of  Jezebel's  eunuchs,  that 
 they  were  far  from  being  faithful  to  her,  to  let  us  see  how  sud- 
 denly courtiers  are  wont  to  change  with  the  fortune  of  their  mas- 
 ters.— Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  look  upon  this  as  a  punishment, 
 according  to  the  lex  talionis;  for  as  she  had  done,  so  she  suffered. 
 She  had  caused  Naboth  to  be  stoned,  and  now  she  is  condemned 
 to  be  stoned  herself.  For  there  were  two  ways  of  stoning,  either 
 by  throwing  stones  at  malefactors  till  they  had  knocked  them 
 down  and  killed  them ;  or  by  throwing  them  down  upon  the  stones 
 from  an  high  place,  and  so  dashing  them  to  pieces. — Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  It  is  scarcely  possible  for  an  European  to  form  an  idea  of  the 
 intolerable  nuisance  occasioned  in  the  villages  and  cities  of  the 
 east,  by  the  multitude  of  dogs  that  infest  the  streets.  The  natives, 
 accustomed  from  their  earliest  years  to  the  annoyance,  come  to 
 be  regardless  of  it;  but  to  a  stranger  these  creatures  are  the 
 greatest  plague  to  which  he  is  subjected ;  for,  as  they  are  never 
 allowed  to  enter  a  house,  and  do  not  constitute  the  property  of 
 any  particular  owner,  they  display  none  of  those  habits  of  which 
 the  domesticated  species  among  us,  are  found  susceptible,  and  are 
 destitute  of  all  those  social  qualities  which  often  render  the  dog  the 
 trusty  and  attached  friend  of  man, — the  lively  companion, — the 
 faithful  guardian,  and  the  favourite  on  every  hearth.  Instead  of 
 the  gentle,  attractive,  and  almost  rational  creature  he  appears  to 
 be  among  us,  the  race  seems  wholly  to  degenerate  in  the  warm 
 regions  of  the  east,  and  to  approximate  to  the  character  of 
 beasts  of  prey,  as  in  disposition  they  are  ferocious,  cunning,  blood- 
 thirsty, and  possessed  of  the  most  insatiable  voracity ;  and  even 
 in  their  very  form,  there  is  something  repulsive;  their  sharp  and 
 savage  features;  their  wolf-like  eyes;  their  long  hanging  ears; 
 their  straight  and  pointed  tails ;  their  lank  and  emaciated  forms, 
 almost  entirely  without  a  belly,  give  them  an  appearance  of 
 wretchedness  and  degradation,  that  stands  in  sad  contrast  with 
 the  general  condition  and  qualities  of  the  breed  in  Europe. 
 They  are  almost  wholly  outcasts  from  human  habitations;  and, 
 consequently,  in  Asiatic  countries,  the  beautiful  traits  of  canine 
 fidelity  and  attachment,  are  altogether  unknown.  There  the 
 hand  of  man  is  seldom  extended  to  offer  the  stroke  or  the  morsel 
 of  kindness ;  and  the  creature  that  receives  or  snatches  it  from 
 the  unwilling  hand,  would,  in  a  few  hours  after,  if  an  opportunity 
 offered,  mangle  and  devour  the  corpse  of  his  benefactor  without 
 the  smallest  repugnance.  These  hideous  creatures,  dreaded  by  the 
 people  for  their  ferocity,  or  avoided  by  them  as  useless  and  unclean, 
 are  obliged  to  prowl  about  everywhere  in  search  of  a  precarious 
 subsistence ;  and,  as  they  have  never  been  subjected  to  any  dis- 
 cipline, and  run  generally  in  bands,  their  natural  ferocity,  inflam- 
 ed by  hunger,  and  the  consciousness  of  strength,  makes  them  the 
 most  troublesome  and  dangerous  visitors  to  the  stranger  w  ho  un- 
 expectedly finds  himself  in  their  neighbourhood,  as  they  will  not 
 scruple  to  seize  whatever  he  may  have  about  him,  and  even  in 
 the  event  of  his  falling,  and  being  otherwise  defenceless,  to  at- 
 tack and  devour  him.  It  is  chiefly,  however,  at  night,  that  these 
 prowlers  are  the  most  formidable  ;  for  even  those  which  lie  during 
 the  heat  of  the  day,  lazy,  inactive,  and  scarcely  raising  their 
 head  to  growl  at  the  passenger  who  may  have  chanced  to  trample 
 on  them,  run  about,  whenever  the  shades  begin  to  fall,  and  the 
 inhabitants  to  disappear  from  the  streets,  and  are  so  intolerable  by 
 their  perpetual  din,  and  their  sudden  and  furious  attacks,  that  it 
 is  an  attempt  never  made  without  the  greatest  risk,  to  walk 
 abroad  at  night,  and  without  sufficient  protection.  This  circum- 
 stance, which  is  frequently  noticed  by  travellers  in  the  east,  may 
 be  illustrated  by  an  incident  described  in  a  \ery  lively  manner  by 
 the  French  traveller  Denon.  It  occurred  on  the  day  of  his  entry 
 into  Alexandria,  when  that  city  was  stormed  by  the  French  in 
 the  late  war,  and  having  omitted  to  take  with  him  some  neces- 
 sary articles  of  clothing,  he  luid  gone  for  that  purpose  to  his  ships, 
 and  was  returning  considerably  later  than  he  had  anticipated  to 
 the  city,  which  he  found  totally  deserted  ;  the  stillness  of  midnight 
 prevailing,  and  not  a  glimmer  of  light,  but  what  was  afforded  by 
 the  stars  and  char  atmosphere  of  the  climate.  He  had  not  proceed- 
 ed far,  when  he  was  met  by  a  troop  of  furious  dogs,  who  attacked 
 him  from  the  streets,  the  doors,  and  the  low  roofs  of  the  houses, 
 with  so  much  ferocity,  as  almost  to  deprive  him  of  the  power  of 
 self-defence.  No  sooner  had  he  passed  the  territory  of  these,  than  he 
 was  received  by  a  fresh  band  of  assailants,  till  at  length,  molested 
 and  wearied  almost  to  death,  he  thought  of  taking  a  circuitous 
 route  along  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  by  which,  after  climbing  over 
 the  walls,  and  wading  a  considerable  depth  into  the  river,  he  came. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 597 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  45IG.  A.  C.  895.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  'i  CHUON 
 
 that  when  Jehu,  in  consideration  of  her  quality,  ordered 
 some  of  his  servants  to  go  and  bury  her,  they  found  no- 
 thing-of  her  remaining  but  her  skull,  feet,  and  palms  of  her 
 
 after  the  greatest  fatigue,  about  midnight,  to  one  of  the  French 
 sentinels,  convinced  that  clogs  are  one  of  the  greatest  pests  of  an 
 oriental  city.  Chateaubriand,  speaking  of  Galata,  near  Constan- 
 tinople, says,  that;  "  the  almost  total  want  of  women,  the  want 
 of  wheel-carriages,  and  the  multitude  of  dogs  without  masters, 
 were  the  three  distinguishing  features  of  the  city ;"  and  Le  Bruyn, 
 {escribing  another  eastern  city,  says,  "  great  numbers  of  dog's  crowd 
 the  streets ;  they  do  not  belong  to  any  one,  but  either  get  their 
 food  as  they  can,  or  are  supported  by  the  charitable,  who  give 
 money  to  bakers  and  butchers  to  feed  them,  and  even  leave  le- 
 gacies for  that  purpose."  In  ancient  times,  they  seem  to  have 
 been  no  less  a  nuisance  than  they  are  to  the  modern  cities  of 
 the  east :  for  we  find  the  sacred  writers  making  several  allusions 
 to  the  particulars  now  mentioned  regarding  the  character  and 
 condition  of  dogs  in  terms  so  graphic,  and  so  like  what  an  ob- 
 server of  the  present  day  might  use,  as  to  convey  the  impression 
 that  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Palestine  witnessed  the  same  spec- 
 tacles, and  were  subjected  to  the  same  molestations,  as  are  found 
 still  to  exist  in  all  the  towns  and  villages  throughout  the  east. 
 Thus,  the  Psalmist,  (Ps.  lix.  14,  15.)  '  At  evening  they  return 
 and  make  a  noise  like  a  dog,  and  go  round  about  the  city;  they 
 wander  up  and  down  for  meat,  and  grudge  if  they  be  not  satisfied.' 
 In  the  22d  psalm,  in  which  he  gives  a  prophetical  description 
 of  the  sullerings  of  Messiah,  he  uses  these  expressions:  'Dogs 
 liave  compassed  me ;  the  assembly  of  the  wicked  have  enclosed 
 me;'  aptly  representing,  under  the  image  of  a  band  of  ferocious 
 dogs  attacking  a  defenceless  passenger,  the  proceedings  of  the  in- 
 solent and  infuriated  multitude,  who  insisted  for  the  crucifixion 
 of  Jesus.  To  the  same  features  in  the  character  of  eastern  dogs, 
 allusion  is  made  in  the  following  passage  from  Isaiah: — 'The 
 watchmen  of  Israel  are  blind;  they  are  ignorant;  they  are  all 
 dumb  dogs,  they  cannot  bark,  sleeping,  lying  down,  loving  to 
 slumber:  yea  they  are  greedy  dogs,  which  can  never  have 
 enough.'  Under  this  figurative  language  the  prophet  described 
 the  indolence,  unfitness,  and  rapacity  of  the  prophets  and  teachers 
 of  his  corrupt  age ;  the  application  of  his  bold  metaphors  may 
 easily  be  made  by  help  of  the  statements  already  given,  of  the  dis- 
 position and  habits  of  the  dog  in  eastern  countries;  but  he 
 lias  included  one  additional  circumstance  that  remains  to  be 
 noticed  to  complete  the  description  of  the  oriental  breed.  He 
 calls  them  '  dumb  dogs ;  they  cannot  bark ;'  and  this  too  is 
 in  exact  accordance  with  what  is  found  to  be  the  case  still; 
 for  travellers  who  have  attended  to  this  point,  inform  us, 
 that  the  canine  species  degenerate  so  much  in  hot  countries, 
 that  in  a  short  time  they  lose  their  voice  and  cannot  bark,  so 
 that  they  either  make  a  hideous  melancholy  howl,  or,  as  in  some 
 places,  become  altogether  dumb.  These  animals,  driven  by 
 hunger,  greedily  devour  every  thing  that  comes  in  their  way; 
 they  glut  themselves  with  the  most  putrid  and  loathsome  sub- 
 stances that  are  thrown  about  the  cities,  and  of  nothing  are  they 
 so  fond  as  of  human  flesh;  a  repast,  with  which  the  barbarity  of 
 (he  despotic  countries  of  Asia  too  frequently  supplies  them,  as  the 
 bodies  of  criminals  slain  there  for  murder,  treason,  and  violence, 
 are  seldom  buried,  and  lie  exposed  till  the  mangled  fragments  are 
 carried  oil  by  the  dogs.  Many  travellers  in  the  east  mention 
 their  having  met  with  such  disgusting  spectacles,  and  Bruce,  in 
 particular,  describes  the  streets  of  Goudar,  the  capital  of  Abys- 
 sinia, as  strewed  with  pieces  of  carcasses,  '  and  the  very  courts  of 
 the  governors  polluted  by  such  remains:  while  Sir  Thomas  Roe 
 presents  scenes  of  a  still  more  revolting  nature  in  Constantino- 
 ple. With  these  circumstances  in  our  knowledge,  we  cannot 
 be  surprised  at  those  parts  of  the  sacred  history  which  describe 
 the  readiness  of  the  do^s  to  lick  up  the  blood  of  the  much  injured 
 Nabotb;  or  at  the  wretched  fate  of  the  royal  accomplices  in  (his 
 murder;  with  one  of  whom,  the  atrocious  Jezebel,  the  dogs  had 
 been  BO  busy,  that  when  the  messenger  came  to  bury  her  corpse, 
 '  they  found  no  inure  of  her  than  the  skull,  and  the  feet,  and  the 
 palms  of  her  hands.'  And  we  are  enabled  tojudgealsoof  the  severi- 
 ty of  the  divine  judgment  upon  the  guilty  and  impenitent  nations 
 of  old,  when  the  Almighty  threatened  to  visit  them,  among  other 
 terrible  scourges,  with  multitudes  of  furious  and  ravenous  dogs : 
 '  I  will  appoint  over  them  four  kinds,  saith  the  Lord;  the  sword  to 
 slay,  and  the  dogs  to  tear,  and  the  fowls  of  heaven,  and  the  beasts 
 ol  the  earth  to  devour  and  destroy.'  (Jer.  xv.  3.)  The  unsocial 
 1  See  note  pp  5G8.  &G9. 
 
 hands  :  a  so  punctually  was  the  prophet's  prediction  ful- 
 filled concerning  this  wicked  and  idolatrous  woman  ! 
 
 Having  thus  settled  himself  in  a  quiet  possession  of 
 Jezreel,  Jehu  sent  a  letter  to  the  nobles,  and  other  great 
 men,  *  who  were  at  Samaria,  and  had  the  care  of  the 
 princes  of  the  blood,  to  choose  out  whom  they  thought 
 the  fittest  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  Israel  :  but  they 
 being  well  aware  with  what  intent  he  did  this,  and  not 
 unacquainted  with  the  fate  of  the  two  kings,  he  had 
 already  dispatched,  returned  him  a  very  submissive 
 answer,  wherein  they  declared  themselves  entirely  at 
 his  devotion.  This  declaration  he  took  the  advantage 
 of  ;  so  that,  in  his  next  message,  he  commanded  them  c 
 
 and  disgusting  propensities  which  the  dog  exhibits,  together  with 
 the  general  state  in  which  he  lives  as  a  wandering  outcast,  have 
 made  him  be  regarded,  in  all  ages,  by  the  people  of  the  east,  with 
 the  greatest  aversion  and  contempt;  and  hence  one  of  the 
 strongest  terms  which  they  can  ever  employ  towards  one  whom 
 they  hold  in  little  or  no  estimation,  is,  to  call  him  a  dog.  Vari- 
 ous examples  of  this  occur  in  the  course  of  the  sacred  history. 
 '  Am  I  dog,'  said  the  Philistine  champion  to  David,  '  Am  I  a 
 dog,  that  thou  comest  to  me  with  staves  ?'  alluding  to  the  defences 
 with  which  people  are  obliged  to  furnish  themselves  against  the 
 attacks  of  these  furious  animals.  'After  whom,'  said  David, 
 wishing  to  express  his  own  insignificance  as  an  enemy  of  Saul, 
 '  after  whom  is  the  king  of  Israel  come  out  ?  After  whom  dost 
 thou  pursue  ?  after  a  dead  dog  ?'  Mephibosheth,  by  way  of  ex- 
 pressing his  own  humility,  and  thereby  magnifying  the  liberality 
 of  king  David  towards  him,  said  '  What  is  thy  servant  that  thou 
 shouldest  look  upon  such  a  dead  dog  as  I  am  ?'  Aimer,  when 
 accused  of  an  odious  crime,  by  his  master  Ishbosheth,  made  this 
 indignautreply :  '  Am  I  a  dog's  head,  that  thou  chargest  me  to-day 
 with  a  fault  concerning  this  woman ;'  that  is,  am  I  the  head,  the 
 foremost  and  most  headstrong  of  a  band  of  grovelling  dogs,  that 
 thou  treatest  me  so  ?'  Hazael,  too,  when  informed  by  the  sor- 
 rowing prophet  of  the  dreadful  cruelties  he  would  perpetrate  on 
 the  land  of  Israel,  when  he  ascended  the  throne  of  Syria,  the 
 haughty  soldier  indignantly  repelled  them  as  an  imputation  on 
 his  honour.  '  But,  what,  is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that  he  should  do 
 this  great  thing  ?' — Jamieson's  Eastern  Manners. — Ed. 
 
 a  Jezebel  was  the  daughter  of  Ethbaal,  king  of  Tyre ;  the  wife  of 
 Ahab,  and  mother  of  Jehoram,  kings  of  Israel;  the  mother-in- 
 law  of  Jehoram  king  of  Judah ;  and  the  aunt  of  Ahaziah,  who 
 was  likewise  king  of  Judah. — Calmel's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  original,  which  our  translation  has  follow- 
 ed, are,  '  Jehu  wrote  letters,  and  sent  to  Samaria,  unto  the  rulers 
 of  Jezreel,  to  the  elders,  and  to  them  that  brought  up  Ahab's 
 children,  (2  Kings  x.  1.)  But  then,  the  question  is — How  the 
 rulers  of  Jezreel  came  to  be  at  Samaria  ?  Some  have  ima- 
 gined indeed  a  mistake  in  the  transcriber,  and  that,  instead  of 
 Jezreel,  the  word  should  be  Israel,  which  is  no  great  variation : 
 but  why  may  we  not  suppose,  that,  upon  hearing  how  Jehu  had 
 slain  Jehoram,  the  great  men  of  his  court  might  take  the  chil- 
 dren, and,  for  fear  that  they  should  fall  into  his  hands,  flee  with 
 them  to  Samaria,  as  the  capital  and  strongest  place  in  the  king- 
 dom, where  they  might  think  of  defending  themselves  against  his 
 usurpation,  and,  as  his  letters  seem  to  import,  of  filling,  with  one  of 
 Ahab's  family,  the  vacant  throne.  It  was  customary  for  princes 
 of  the  blood,  in  those  days,  to  be  brought  up  in  the  families  of  the 
 prime  nobility  of  the  nation;  and  therefore,  whatever  persons  of 
 this  quality  had  these  princes  under  their  care,  and  saw  the  revolu- 
 tion that  was  likely  to  happen,  they  might  think  it  the  most  advis- 
 able way  to  hasten  "ith  them  to  Samaria,  as  a  place  of  the  most 
 security:  or,  fur  thievery  reason,  Jehoram,  when  he  went  against 
 Ramoth  Gilead,  mighl  have  sent  them  thither,  that  they  might 
 he  under  euver  from  any  ill  accident  that  might  possibly  happen 
 in  his  war  with  the  king  of  Syria. — Patrick's  Commentary  and 
 Poole's  Annotations.  [Instead  of  the  words  of  the  text  (2  Kings 
 x.  i.),  as  given  in  this  note,  Boothroyd  translates,  '  Jehu  wrote 
 letters,  and  sent  to  Samaria,  unto  the  elders  of  the  city,'  which 
 the  whole  context  slmus  to  In-  the  true  leading.] — En. 
 
 e  Besides  the  accomplishment  of  the  divine  decree,  Jehu  had 
 this  farther  design  in  requesting  this  cruel  service  of  the  rulers 
 and  elders,  anil  gnat  men  of  the  nation,  namely,  that  thereby 
 he  might  engage  them  in   the   same  crime  and  conspiracy  with 
 
598 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 to  send  him  the  heads  of  all  the  princes,  who  a  were  no 
 less  than  seventy  ;  b  and  on  this  likewise  being  punctually 
 obeyed,  without  any  farther  delay,  he  proceeded  to  ex- 
 tirpate every  one  that  remained  of  Ahab's  family,  the 
 great  men  of  his  court,  and  all  his  friends.  For,  in  his 
 way  to  Samaria,  meeting  with  some  nephews  and  other 
 relations  of  Ahaziah,  who,  c  knowing  nothing  of  these 
 transactions,  were  going  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  court  at 
 
 himself.  For,  by  prevailing  with  them  to  murder  Ahab's  kins- 
 men in  this  manner,  he  tied  them  to  his  interest  so  closely,  that 
 if  any  of  the  inferior  people  had  been  minded  to  oppose  his  de- 
 signs, they  were,  by  this  means,  deprived  of  any  man  of  figure 
 and  distinction  to  head  them ;  and  not  only  so,  but,  by  this  ex- 
 pedient, Jehu  thought  likewise  that  he  might,  in  a  great  measure 
 justify,  at  least  lessen  the  odium  of  his  own  cruel  and  perfidious 
 conduct ;  for  this  is  the  sense  of  his  appeal  to  the  people,  '  Ye  be 
 righteous;  behold  I  have  conspired  against  my  master,  and  slew 
 him;  but  who  slew  all  these?'  (2  Kings  x.  9).  As  if  he  had 
 said,  "  I  own,  indeed,  that  I  was  a  great  instrument  in  taking  off 
 the  late  king;  but  am  I  more  culpable  than  are  the  friends,  the 
 counsellors,  the  officers  of  Ahab?  I  pretend  not  to  conceal  my 
 fault;  but  the  approbation  which  the  principal  men  of  the  nation 
 have  given  it,  in  taking  up  arms  against  the  house  of  Ahab,  and 
 the  wonderful  success  that  has  attended  this  enterprise  of  mine, 
 are  not  these  a  certain  proof  that  God  has  raised  me  up  to  execute 
 his  decree  in  this  respect?  And  ought  you  not  to  acknowledge, 
 in  this  case,  the  interposition  of  his  hand?" — Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 a  The  sacred  historian  takes  care  to  repeat  the  number  of 
 these  princes  of  the  blood  in  two  separate  places,  (2  Kings  x.  1. 
 and  6.)  on  purpose  to  show  the  vile  spirit  of  these  great  men,' 
 who  could  destroy  so  many  royal  persons,  to  whom  they  were 
 governors,  and  to  whom  they  owed  a  just  protection  and  defence ; 
 and  therefore  it  was  no  more  than  they  deserved,  if,  when  Jehu 
 '  slew  all  that  remained  of  the  house  of  Ahab,  and  all  his  great 
 men,  till  he  left  none,'  he  included  in  that  number,  as  some  im- 
 agine, these  base  perfidious  time-servers. — Patrick's  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 b  It  appears  from  the  text  that  Jehu  caused  the  heads  of 
 the  king's  sons  to  be  piled  up  in  two  heaps  at  the  gates  of 
 the  palace.  "Such  barbarities,  shocking  as  they  are,  are 
 iar  horn  being  uncommon  in  the  east,  and  so  gratifying  a  spec- 
 tacle does  a  number  of  enemies'  heads  seem  to  arlbrd  to  the 
 savage  princes  of  that  quarter  of  the  world,  that  there  is  scarcely 
 any  one  country  there,  even  the  most  advanced  in  civiliza- 
 tion where  instances  may  not  be  found,  of  sovereigns  and 
 chiefs  adorning  the  walls  and  avenues  of  their  palaces  with 
 those  bloody  trophies.  On  passing  one  of  the  gates  of  the  sera- 
 glio in  Constantinople,  which  stood  open,  Carne  saw  lyin°-  a 
 number  of  heads  of  the  wretched  Greeks,  which  the  boys  were 
 tumbling  about  like  footballs.  A  traveller,  who  was  invited 
 to  the  court  of  the  dey  of  Algiers,  says  the  first  object  that 
 struck  his  eyes,  were  six  bleeding  heads,  ranged  alon°-  the  en- 
 trance to  the  palace ;  and  Sir  John  Malcolm  informs  us,  that  at 
 the  storming  of  Ispahan,  where  the  slaughter  was  beyond  all 
 description,  Timour  ordered  70,000  heads  to  be  piled  up  as  a 
 monument  of  his  conquest.  So  fond  are  eastern  conquerors  of 
 these  sanguinary  trophies,  that  prisoners  have  been  known  to  be 
 put  to  death  in  cold  blood,  in  order  that  a  greater  number  of 
 b.-ads  might  be  dispatched  from  the  seat  of  war  to  the  victorious 
 monarch,  and  so  callous  are  the  persons  charged  with  the  ar- 
 rangement  of  them,  that  they  often  selected  a  head  of  peculiar 
 appearance  and  long  beard,  to  grace  the  summit  of  the  pyramid 
 Brutal  and  savage,  then,  as  it  was,  the  conduct  of  Jehu  has  its 
 parallel  in  the  habits  of  so  many  other  eastern  princes,  that  it  must 
 be  imputed,  less  to  the  barbarous  temper  and  ferocity  of  the  man, 
 than  the  delight  in  blood  and  cruelty  common  to  all  uncivilized 
 people.'  —Janueson's  Eastern  Manners. Ed. 
 
 <•  Jehu  must  certainly  have  made  wonderful  expedition  and 
 secrecy  in  what  he  did,  to  have  prevented  the  report,  which 
 generally  spreads  very  fast,  of  what  had  passed  at  Jezreel  Two 
 kings  and  a  queen  killed,  the  whole  family  of  Ahab  extinct,  and 
 a  general  change  and  revolution  in  the  state;  and  yet  not  a  word 
 of  tins  known  at  Jerusalem,  which  was  not  quite  fourscore  miles 
 u.stant  from  Jezreel,  even  though  Ahaziah  the  king  of  Judah, 
 ms  ono  of  the  princes  that  were  slain._C«teV  Commentary. 
 
 4516.  A.  C.  895.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  1  CHRON. 
 
 Samaria,  he  ordered  these  likewise,  which  in  all  amount- 
 ed to  the  number  of  forty-two,  to  be  slain  ;  and  so,  to 
 give  a  better  face  to  what  he  did,  taking  d  Jonadab  the 
 son  of  Rechab,  a  man  of  great  strictness  and  sobriety  of 
 life,  into  the  chariot  with  him,  e  lie  proceeded  on  his 
 journey  to  Samaria. 
 
 d  Several  learned  men  are  of  opinion,  that  this  Jonadab  was 
 not  the  person  who  gave  the  precepts  mentioned  in  Jeremiah, 
 (ch.  xxxv.)  to  his  children,  but  another  of  that  name,  who  lived 
 in  the  days  of  Jeremiah ;  for  it  is  not  likely,  they  think,  that  a 
 man  addicted  to  such  a  quiet  and  retired  life  as  he  instituted, 
 would  have  come  to  meet  Jehu ;  and  therefore  they  rather  im- 
 agine, that  it  was  some  military  person  of  great  note  and  esteem 
 among  the  populace,  whose  interest  might  do  Jehu  great  service, 
 and  whose  advice  in  many  things  he  afterwards  followed.  But 
 why  might  not  Jonadab,  how  well  soever  he  might  love  retire- 
 ment, come,  upon  this  occasion,  to  congratulate  Jehu's  zeal 
 against  idolatry,  and  to  advise  and  encourage  him  to  proceed  in 
 fulfilling  the  will  of  God  revealed  to  him?  And  the  reason  is 
 obvious  why  Jehu  might  be  glad  of  the  countenance  and  company 
 of  such  a  man,  whose  known  piety  would  gain  him  more  rever- 
 ence and  respect,  than  the  attendance  of  any  great  captain  could 
 procure  him.  But,  though  Jonadab  the  son  of  Rechab  is  allowed 
 to  be  a  good  man,  yet  it  does  not  therefore  follow,  that  he  reviv- 
 ed the  ancient  rules  of  the  Rechabites,  as  some  are  apt  to  think, 
 upon  a  religious  account,  but  purely  as  a  matter  of  policy.  The 
 story  is  this:  the  Rechabites  were  of  the  race  of  Hobab,  or  Jethro 
 the  Kenite,  priest  of  Midian,  and  father-in-law  to  Moses,  (1 
 Chron.  ii.  55.)  so  that  the  Kenites  were  Midianites,  and  the 
 Midianites  were  dwellers  in  tents  from  the  b^ginning;  for  in 
 this  manner  Abraham  lived  while  he  sojourned  in  the  land  of 
 Canaan;  and,  in  imitation  of  him,  the  Midianites,  who  were  of 
 his  posterity,  might  do  the  same.  Now,  when  the  children  of 
 Hobab,  who  were  all  Kenites,  were  invited  by  Moses  to  go  along 
 with  the  people  of  God  into  Canaan,  they  might  retain  this  pas- 
 toral manner  of  life,  not  only  as  a  badge  of  the  nation  from 
 whence  they  were  descended,  but  as  a  means  likewise  to  make 
 their  habitation  more  quiet  and  secure,  in  a  land  where  they  were 
 strangers,  both  from  the  envy  of  the  Jews  at  home,  and  the 
 danger  of  enemies  abroad.  For,  having  neither  houses  nor  lands, 
 but  tents  and  cattle  only,  which  they  could  move  upon  occasion 
 from  place  to  place,  they  could  not  be  so  subject  to  hostile  inva- 
 sions. But  as,  in  length  of  time,  these  Kenites  were  tempted, 
 by  the  more  pleasant  living  of  the  Israelites,  to  think  of  changing 
 this  custom  of  their  ancestors,  this  Jonadab  the  son  of  Rechab,  a 
 famous  Kenite,  and  of  much  esteem  and  authority  among  them, 
 took  occasion  to  renew  it  again,  and  to  bind  his  posterity  to 
 observe  it;  for  which  end  he  forbade  the  drinking  of  wine,  lest 
 the  desire  of  so  delicious  a  liquor  might  tempt  them  to  plant 
 vineyards,  and  build  houses,  as  the  Jews  did.  What  authority 
 he  had  to  enforce  these  arbitrary  injunctions,  we  cannot  learn. 
 It  is  plain,  that  he  laid  his  posterity  under  no  curse  in  case  of 
 disobedience;  on  the  contrary,  we  find,  that  the  prophet  Jere- 
 miah, (ch.  xxxv.  2,  &c.)  was  directed  by  God  to  bring  them  to  an 
 apartment  in  the  temple,  to  set  wine  before  them,  and  invite 
 them  to  drink ;  which  would  have  been  an  unworthy  action,  if 
 they  had  been  under  an  indispensable,  obligation  of  abstaining  from 
 it;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Rechabites  refused  it,  not  because 
 their  father  laid  them  under  any  curse  if  they  disobeyed  him, 
 but  because  he  promised,  that  '  they  should  live  many  days  in 
 the  land  wherein  they  were  strangers,'  if  they  obeyed  his  voice 
 (Jer.  xxxv.  7.) ;  which  promise,  being  also  made  to  those  who 
 '  honoured  their  parents,'  (Exod.  xx.  12.)  might  the  more  incline 
 them  to  that  strict  obedience,  for  which  they  are  so  highly  com- 
 mended by  God  in  the  place  above  cited.  Upon  the  whole, 
 therefore,  it  appears,  that  Jonadab  only  renewed  what  his  ances- 
 tors had  observed  long  before  he  was  born ;  and  that  his  authori- 
 ty prevailed  among  his  brethren  to  continue  this  abstinence 
 for  two  hundred  years  after  he  was  dead,  not  as  a  matter  of  reli- 
 gion, but  as  a  mere  civil  custom. — Patrick's  Commentary  and 
 Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  6.  c.  2. 
 
 e  2  Kings  x.  15.  'And  he  gave  him  his  hand.'  In  token  of 
 acknowledging  a  newly  elected  prince,  it  was  not  uncommon,  or 
 inconsistent  with  the  reverence  due  to  his  character,  to  take  him 
 by  the  hand.  D'Herbelot,  (p.  204.)  in  explaining  an  eastern 
 term,  which  he  tells  us  signifies  the  election,  or  inauguration  of 
 a  khalif,  he  informs  us,  that  this  ceremony  consisted  in  stietch- 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 599 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4516.  A.  C.  895.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON 
 
 As  soon  as  he  was  come  to  Samaria,  he  first  destroyed 
 all  that  were  left  of  the  house  of  Ahab  in  that  city,  and 
 then,  pretending-  that  he  designed  to  offer  an  uncommon 
 sacrifice  unto  Baal,  he  issued  out  a  proclamation,  com- 
 manding all  his  priests,  prophets,  and  worshippers, 
 upon  pain  of  death,  to  be  present  at  this  great  solemni- 
 ty. They  all  came,  and  when  they,  and  they  only,  for 
 (•are  was  taken,  that  none  of  the  servants  of  the  Lord 
 should  be  among  them,  were  met  together  in  Baal's 
 temple,  and  the  a  priests  in  their  proper  vestments,  he 
 commanded  his  guards  to  go  in,  and  fall  upon  them, 
 and  kill  them  all.  After  this,  they  ran  to  the  temple  of 
 Baal,  broke  down  his  image,  and  the  *  other  images  of 
 the  like  nature,  and  burned  them  publicly.  They  demo- 
 lished the  temple  quite,  laid  it  flat  with  the  ground ;  and, 
 that  the  place  whereon  it  stood  might  in  all  future  ages 
 be  looked  upon  as  despicable,  they  made  it  a  c  common 
 jakes. 
 
 Thus  entirely  did  Jehu  destroy  the  family  of  Ahab,  and 
 (lie  worship  of  Baal  in  the  kingdom  of  Israel ;  for  which 
 lie  was  so  far  approved  and  rewarded  by  God,  that  he 
 entailed  the  crown  upon  his  family  to  the  fourth  genera- 
 tion :  but  policy  prevailed  against  religion,  and  per- 
 suaded him  to  continue  the  old  idolatry,  even  when  he 
 had  destroyed  the  new.  The  calves  which  Jeroboam 
 had  set  up,  he  would  not  part  with  :  and  therefore  God, 
 to  make  him  sensible  of  his  displeasure,  stirred  up 
 Hazael  king  of  Syria  to  invade  his  country  ;  who,  having 
 taken  several  of  his  frontier  towns,  did  thereby  open  a 
 
 ing  forth  a  person's  hand,  and  taking  that  of  him  that  they 
 acknowledged  for  khalif.  This  was  a  sort  of  performing  homage, 
 and  swearing  fealty  to  him. — Harmer,  vol.  iii.  p.  330.  This 
 was  also  sometimes  done  as  a  token  of  friendship  and  fidelity. 
 (Gal.  ii.  9).  With  this  view  it  was  also  practised  by  the 
 Romans,  as  appears  from  Virgil:  "  My  father  Anchises  frankly 
 gives  the  youth  his  right  hand,  and  fortifies  his  mind  by  that 
 kindly  pledge." — En. 
 
 a  It  was  the  custom  of  almost  all  idolaters  to  be  very  curious 
 about  the  external  pomp  of  their  ceremonies,  wherein,  indeed, 
 the  chief  part  of  their  worship  does  consist.  All  the  priests  of 
 Baal  were  clothed  in  fine  linen,  and  their  chief  priests,  no  doubt, 
 had  some  particular  ornaments  to  distinguish  them.  Baal  and 
 Astarte  were  Phoenician  deities:  and  therefore,  as  Silius  Itali- 
 CUS,  in  his  description  of  the  priests  of  Hercules,  has  given  us  an 
 account  in  what  manner  the  Phoenician  priests,  when  in  their 
 office,  were  habited,  we  have  reason  from  thence  to  suppose, 
 that  the  dress  of  the  priests  of  Baal  was  much  of  the  same  kind. 
 "  Nor  while  sacrificing  it  is  their  custom  to  wear  variegated 
 robes;  their  bodies  are  covered  with  white  linen,  and  the  head 
 is  ornamented  with  Pelusian  cloth.  It  is  the  part  of  those  wearing 
 flowing  garments  to  offer  frankincense,  and  according  to  the  usage 
 of  their  forefathers,  to  assume  the  sacrificial  robe  of  the  high 
 priests." 
 
 f>  These  idolaters,  besides  the  supreme  God  whom  they  took 
 Baal  to  be,  worshipped  several  other  lesser  gods,  whom  they  call 
 Haalim,  and  whose  images  were  placed  in  this  temple:  for  it 
 was  an  ancient  custom,  as  Servius  notes,  after  the  priest  had 
 invoked  the  particular  god  for  whom  the  sacrifice  was  intended, 
 to  address  himself  to  all  the  other  gods,  lest  any  of  them  should 
 think  themselves  neglected. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  histories  of  the  east  furnish  us  with  several  examples  of 
 princes  inflicting  this  kind  of  punishment  upon  such  as  were 
 found  guilty  of  high  treason,  or  of  contravening  the  king's  com- 
 mands. To  this  the  decree  which  Darius  made  in  favour  of 
 the  Jews  plainly  alludes:  'whosoever  shall  alter  this  word,  let 
 timber  be  pulled  down  from  his  house,  and,  being  set  up,  let  him 
 be  hanged  thereon;  and  let  his  house  be  made  a  dunghill  '  (Ezra 
 vi.  1 1.)  And,  to  the  same  purpose,  is  that  threat  of  Nebuchad- 
 m  z/ar  to  the  magicians,  &c.  '  If  ye  will  not  make  known  unto 
 me  the  dreams,  with  the  interpretation  thereof,  ye  shall  be  cut 
 in  pieces,  and  your  houses  shall  be  made  a  dunghill.'  Dan.  ii.  5. 
 
 way  to  make  great  ravages  in  several  other  places  of  his 
 kingdom,  especially  in  the  country  beyond  Jordan, 
 where  the  tribes  of  Manasseh,  Gad,  and  Reuben  suffered 
 much.  In  a  word,  we  may  say  of  Jehu,  that,  as  his 
 conduct  was  of  a  mixed  nature,  God  rewarded  his  obedi- 
 ence, but  punished  his  idolatry;  who,  after  he  had 
 reigned  eight  and  twenty  years,  died,  and  was  buried  in 
 Samaria,  and,  without  any  opposition,  was  succeeded  by 
 his  son  Jehoahaz. 
 
 Jehoahaz,  to  preserve  the  crown  of  Israel  from  uniting 
 with  that  of  Judah,  pursued  the  same  method  that  his 
 predecessors  had  done,  in  relation  to  the  political  wor- 
 ship of  the  golden  calves;  so  that,  during  his  whole 
 reign,  God  sorely  afflicted  both  him  and  his  people,  by 
 delivering  him  into  the  hands  of  Hazael,  and  his  son 
 Benhadad,  the  third  Syrian  king  of  that  name,  who 
 reduced  him  to  that  low  ebb,  that  he  had  no  more  than 
 50  horsemen,  10  chariots,  and  10,000  foot  soldiers  left. 
 At  length,  through  the  many  defeats  he  had  received, 
 and  the  grievous  oppression  under  which  he  laboured, 
 grown  weary  of  life  as  well  as  government,  after  a  very 
 troublesome  reign  of  seventeen  years,  he  died,  and  was 
 succeeded  by  his  son  Joash,  a  prince  more  fortunate, 
 and  not  altogether  so  irreligious  as  his  father.  But,  to 
 inquire  a  little  now  into  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  of 
 Judah. 
 
 When  Athaliah,  the  daughter  of  Ahab,  and  wife  to 
 Jehoram  king  of  Judah,  understood  that  Jehu  had  slain 
 her  son  Ahaziah,  being  a  very  ambitious,  bloody-minded 
 woman,  and  resolving  to  take  the  government  upon  her- 
 self, d  she  destroyed  all  the  children  that  Jehoram  had 
 by  another  wife,  and  all  their  offspring,  that  so  she  might 
 ascend  the  throne  without  any  opposition.  Jehoshaba, 
 the  sister  of  Ahaziah  by  the  father's  side,  but  not  by  the 
 mother's,  was,  at  this  time,  married  to  Jehoiada,  the 
 high  priest ;  and  while  Athaliah's  executioners  were 
 murdering  the  rest,  she  stole  away  e  Joash,  the  son  of 
 
 d  The  consideration  of  the  fate  that  attended  these  royal 
 families,  is  enough  to  make  any  one  bless  providence  for  having 
 been  born  of  a  meaner  parentage.  The  whole  offspring  of  Jero- 
 boam, Baasha,  and  Ahab,  kings  of  Israel,  was  cut  oft'  for  their 
 idolatry,  so  that  there  was  not  one  left;  and  the  kings  of  Judah, 
 having  contracted  an  affinity  with  the  house  of  Ahab,  and  being 
 by  them  seduced  into  the  same  crime,  were  so  destroyed  by  thn  e 
 successive  massacres,  that  there  was  but  one  left.  For,  fii>t, 
 Jehoram  slew  all  his  brethren ;  then  Jehu  slew  all  his  brother's 
 children ;  and  now  Athaliah  destroys  all  the  rest  that  her  execu- 
 tioners could  meet  with.  Enraged  she  was  to  see  Ahab's  family 
 cut  off;  and  therefore  she  resolved  to  do  as  much  by  the  house 
 of  David.  As  she  was  one  of  Ahab's  family,  she  had  reason  to 
 apprehend  that  Jehu,  who  had  a  commission  to  extirpate  all, 
 would  not  be  long  before  he  called  upon  her:  her  only  way  there- 
 fore, to  secure  herself  against  him,  was  to  usurp  the  throne;  but 
 this,  she  knew,  she  could  not  do  without  destroying  all  the  royal 
 progeny,  who  were  no  well-wishers  to  the  worship  of  Baal,  which 
 she  had  abetted,  and  was  resolved  to  maintain. — Poole's  Anno- 
 tations, Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Bedford's  Scripture  Chron- 
 ology, b.  (i.  c.  2. 
 
 c  Some  interpreters  are  of  opinion,  that  Joash  was  not  the 
 real  son  of  Ahaziah,  in  whom  the  race  of  Solomon,  in  a  direct 
 line,  was  extinct,  but  properly  the  son  of  Nathan,  and  only 
 railed  Ahaziah's,  because  he  succeeded  him  in  the  throne:  for  had 
 he  been  Ahaziah's  true  son,  and  Athaliah's  grandson,  why  might 
 not  she  have  declared  him  king,  and  during  his  minority  at  least, 
 taken  the  administration  into  her  own  hands?  But  therefore 
 she  exercised  her  cruelty,  as  they  say,  in  destroying  the  princes 
 related  to  Ahaziah,  because  she  was  unwilling  to  have  the  king- 
 dom go  into  another  branch  of  David's  family.  But  notwith- 
 standing these  reasons,  and  the  authority  of  those  who  produce 
 
(300 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 Ahaziah,  and  kept  him,  and  his  nurse  concealed  a  in  an 
 apartment  b  of  the  temple,  *  for  the  space  of  six  years. 
 
 In  the  seventh  year,  his  uncle  Jehoiada,  being  deter- 
 mined to  place  him  upon  the  throne  of  his  ancestors, 
 and  to  this  purpose  having  engaged  the  priests  and  Le- 
 vites,  and  the  leading  men  in  all  the  parts  of  the  king- 
 dom, in  his  interest,  in  a  public  assembly  produced  him, 
 and  made  them  take  an  oath  of  secrecy  and  fidelity  to 
 him.  Then  putting  himself  in  a  proper  posture  of  de- 
 fence,* he  distributed  the  arms  which  David  had  re- 
 posited  in  the  temple,  among  his  people,  whom  he  di- 
 vided into  three  bodies,  one  to  guard  the  person  of  the 
 king,  and  the  other  two  to  secure  the  gates  of  the  temple, 
 that  none  might  be  permitted  to  enter,  except  the  priests 
 and  Levites,  who  were  to  officiate,  upon  pain  of  death. 
 After  this  he  brought  out  the  young  prince,  set  the 
 crown  on  his  head,  e  put  the  book  of  the  law  into  his 
 
 them,  in  the  second  books  both  of  Kings  and  Chronicles,  we 
 find  this  Joash  so  frequently  called  the  son  of  Ahaziah,  the 
 the  king's  son,  &c,  without  any  manner  of  restriction,  that  we 
 cannot  be  persuaded  to  look  out  for  any  other  father  for  him. 
 
 a  Josephus  relates  this  young  kind's  escape  and  concealment 
 thus: — "  Jehoshabath,  the  sister  of  Ahaziah,  and  wife  to  Jehoiada 
 the  high  priest,  coming  into  the  palace,  found  a  male  child,  of 
 about  a  year  old,  whose  name  was  Joash,  among  the  dead  bodies 
 of  the  sons  of  Ahaziah,  whom  the  nurse,  it  seems,  had  there  laid 
 on  purpose  to  save  its  life ;  she  therefore  conveyed  it  away  to 
 her  own  lodgings,  and  thence  to  the  temple,  where  she  took  care 
 of  it,  through  the  whole  six  years  of  Athaliah's  reign,  without 
 making  any  one  privy  to  the  secret,  except  her  own  husband ;" 
 who,  upon  this  extraordinary  occasion,  might  dispense  with  the 
 law,  or  rather  custom,  which  allowed  none  but  the  priests  who 
 officiated,  to  lodge  in  the  apartments  of  the  temple. — Jewish 
 Antiq.  b.  9,  c.  7.  and  Calmet's  Commentary, 
 
 b  In  the  text,  2  Kings  xi.  2,  it  is  called  a  '  bed-chamber.'  A 
 bed-chamber  does  not,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  east,  mean  a 
 lodging  room,  but  a  repository  for  beds.  Chard  in  says,  "  In  the 
 east,  beds  are  not  raised  from  the  ground  with  posts,  a  canopy, 
 and  curtains;  people  lie  on  the  ground.  In  the  evening  they 
 spread  out  a  mattress  or  two  of  cotton,  very  light,  of  which  they 
 have  several  in  great  houses,  against  they  should  have  occasion, 
 and  a  room  on  purpose  for  them."  From  hence,  it  appears  that 
 it  was  in  a  chamber  of  beds  that  Joash  was  concealed. — Harmer, 
 vol.  ii.  p.  489. — Ed. 
 
 c  It  is  very  likely,  that  Athaliah  might  imagine  that  she  had 
 slain  all,  and  so  think  herself  secure ;  or  if  she  suspected  that  this 
 one  was  preserved,  she  might  not  think  it  advisable  to  make  any 
 strict  search,  lest  thereby  she  should  alarm  the  people  with  the 
 notion,  that  there  was  still  a  son  of  David's  family  left,  which 
 might  be  a  means  to  make  them  uneasy  under  her  government, 
 and  desirous  of  a  change  ;  besides  that  she  might  have  the  vanity 
 to  think  of  being  able,  in  a  short  time,  to  secure  the  crown  to 
 herself,  in  such  a  manner  as  that  she  should  not  need  to  fear 
 such  a  weak  competitor. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  captains  and  other  officers,  who  were  admitted  to  the 
 knowledge  of  Jehoiada's  design,  came  into  the  temple  unarmed, 
 for  fear  of  giving  suspicion;  but  as  David  had  erected  a  kind  of 
 sacred  armoury  in  one  of  the  apartments  of  the  temple,  wherein 
 the  weapons,  and  other  trophies  which  he,  and  several  other 
 generals,  had  gained  from  their  enemies,  and  as  monuments  of 
 their  victories,  had  dedicated  them  to  the  Lord,  were  deposited, 
 Jehoiada  took  care,  upon  this  occasion,  to  have  this  magazine  of 
 military  provisions  opened,  so  that  there  was  no  want  of  any  sort 
 of  arms. — Joseph  Antiq.  b.  9,  c.  7. 
 
 e  Those  who  think  that  the  word  Eduth,  which  we  translate 
 testimony,  comes  from  the  Hebrew  root  Adah,  which  signifies 
 to  clothe,  put  on,  or  adorn,  suppose  that  it  vvas  some  royal 
 ornament,  which  the  high  priest  put  upon  the  king,  as  a  mark  of 
 regal  dignity,  at  the  same  time  that  he  placed  the  crown  upon  his 
 head;  and  this  ornament  they  conceive  to  have  been  a  bracelet, 
 because  in  the  story  of  the  Amalekite,  we  read,  that  he  brought  to 
 David  the  bracelet  that  was  upon  Saul's  arm,  as  well  as  the 
 crown  that  was  upon  his  head.  But  since,  in  the  17th  chapter 
 of  Deuteronomy,  which  treats  expressly  of  the  election  and  duty 
 
 4510.  A.  C.  895.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 hand,  and  because  his  right  had  been  interrupted, 
 anointed  him,  and  with  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  pro- 
 claimed him,  which  was  seconded  with  the  joyful  shouts 
 and  acclamations  of  the  people. 
 
 Athaliah,  hearing  the  noise,  made  all  the  haste  she 
 could  to  the  temple  ;  but  when,  to  her  great  surprise,  she 
 saw  the  young  king  on  a  throne,  which  was  erected  /  in 
 an  eminent  place,  8  and  the  people  and  great  men  about 
 him  rejoicing,  she  rent  her  clothes,  and  cried  out, 
 Treason !  But  Jehoiada  soon  silenced  her  :  for  having 
 commanded  the  guards  to  seize  and  carry  her  out  of  the 
 temple,  and  to  put  all  to  the  sword  who  should  pretend 
 to  rescue  or  assist  her,  they  immediately  executed  their 
 orders  ;  and  taking  her  out  of  the  sacred  ground,  brought 
 her,  without  any  opposition,  to  the  stable-gate  belonging 
 to  the  palace,  and  there  slew  her. 
 
 Joash,  being  thus  seated  on  the  throne,  by  the  high 
 priest's  directions,  made  a  covenant  with  the  people, 
 that  they  should  restore  the  true  worship  of  God,  con- 
 tinue in  it,  and  root  out  all  idolatry  ;  and  then  he  made 
 another  between  himself  and  the  people,  viz.,  that  he 
 should  govern  according  to  law,  and  that  they  should 
 be  mindful  to  obey  him.  When  this  was  done,  the  multi- 
 tude rose,  destroyed  the  temple,  demolished  the  altar, 
 broke  down  the  images,  and  killed  Matan,  the  priest  of 
 Baal,  who  was  then  in  waiting.  After  this,  Jehoiada 
 abolished  some  corruptions,  which  former  reigns  had  in- 
 troduced, made   some    reforms    in   the    service  of  the 
 
 of  a  king,  there  is  this  injunction  given — '  That  he  should  write 
 him  a  copy  of  the  law  in  a  book,  out  of  that  which  is  before  the 
 priests,  the  Levites,'  ver.  18 — others,  with  more  probability,  have 
 thought,  that,  at  his  coronation,  a  roll,  containing  a  copy  of  the 
 law,  which  is  frequently  called  a  testimony,  as  being  a  witness  of 
 God's  will  and  men's  duty,  was  put  in  his  hands,  which  he  held 
 for  that  time,  in  the  way  of  a  sceptre  or  a  truncheon ;  though 
 others  will  have  it,  that  when  Jehoiada  crowned  Joash,  he 
 laid  the  book  of  the  law  upon  his  head,  to  which  custom  holy 
 Job  (ch.  xxxi.  35,  36.)  as  they  think,  seems  to  allude,  when  he 
 wishes,  '  O  that  mine  adversary  had  written  a  book!  Surely  I 
 would  take  it  upon  my  shoulder,  and  bind  it  as  a  crown  to  me?' 
 For  the  manner  among  the  orientals,  when  they  had  received  a 
 letter  from  any  person  they  highly  respected,  was  to  hold  it  up  to 
 their  heads,  before  they  opened  it. — Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Com- 
 mentaries, and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 f  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  And  when  she  looked,  behold 
 the  king  stood  by  a  pillar,  as  the  manner  was.'  (2  Kings  xi.  14.) 
 Now  there  were  two  famous  pillars,  which  Solomon  erected  in  the 
 porch  of  the  temple,  whereof  that  on  the  right  hand  was  called 
 Jachin,  and  that  on  the  left  Boaz,  and  were  each  of  them,  ac- 
 cording to  the  account  we  have,  eighteen  cubits  high,  (1  Kings 
 vii.  15.  21.)  Solomon's  design  in  setting  up  these  two  pillars, 
 is  generally  supposed  to  have  been,  in  order  to  represent  the  pil- 
 lar of  the  cloud,  and  the  pillar  of  fire,  which  went  before  the 
 Israelites,  and  conducted  them  in  the  wilderness.  The  pillar  on 
 the  right  hand  represented  the  pillar  of  the  cloud,  and  that  on 
 the  left  the  pillar  of  fire ;  and  near  one  of  these  pillars,  in  all 
 probability,  the  royal  throne  was  erected ;  unless  we  can  suppose, 
 that  what  is  here  called  a  pillar,  was  that  brazen  scaffold,  five 
 cubits  long,  five  broad,  and  five  high,  which  Solomon  made  at 
 first,  upon  his  dedicating  the  temple,  but  was  afterwards  continued 
 for  the  king,  upon  any  solemn  occasion,  to  appear  upon,  and 
 where  doubtless  there  was  a  throne  of  state. — Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary and  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  6.  c.  2. 
 
 g  From  various  testimonies  it  appears,  that  a  seat  erected  near 
 a  pillar  or  column,  was  particularly  honourable  and  distinguish- 
 ing. Homer  furnishes  an  instance  of  this  kind.  Speaking  of 
 Ulysses,  he  says — 
 
 The  monarch  by  a  column  high  enthron'd 
 
 His  eye  withdrew,  and  fixed  on  the  ground. 
 
 Udyss.  xxiii.  93.  Pope. 
 The  same  custom   is  also   twice  mentioned   in  Odyss.  b.  viii. 
 See  also  Kings  xxiii.  3. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 601 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1008;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4522.  A.  C.  883.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CITRON. 
 
 temple,  and  then,  with  all  the  rulers,  and  officers,  and 
 people,  conducted  the  king  to  the  royal  palace,  and  put 
 him  into  a  quiet  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah. 
 
 Seven  years  old  was  Joash  when  he  began  to  reign, 
 which  was  in  the  seventh  year  of  Jehu  king-  of  Israel ; 
 and,  while  he  was  under  his  uncle  Jehoiada's  guidance 
 and  direction,  he  governed  the  nation  very  well :  but 
 when  once  that  good  old  counsellor  died,  (who  in  the  a 
 130th  year  of  his  age  paid  the  last  debt  to  nature,  and  in 
 consideration  of  his  many  great  services  done  the  public, 
 had  the  honour  to  be  buried  in  one  of  the  royal  sepul- 
 chres,) he  fell  into  the  hands  of  such  persons  as  were  idol- 
 aters in  their  hearts,  ami  they,  taking  the  advantage  of 
 his  youth,  *  by  their  crafty  management  and  insinuations, 
 first  obtained  a  license  for  themselves  to  worship  such 
 idols  as  they  should  think  fit,  and  then  proceeded  to 
 delude  him  into  the  like  apostasy. 
 
 In  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  he  was  very  solicitous 
 about  the  house  of  God,  wherein  he  had  so  long,  and  so 
 happily  been  concealed  ;  and,  as  it  was  greatly  gone  to 
 decay,  through  the  negligence  of  former  princes,  and  the 
 depredation  of  Athaliah's  children,  he  took  no  small 
 pains  to  settle  revenues,  and  procure  contributions  for  its 
 reparation.  c  But  now,  by  his  connivance  at  least,  if  not 
 
 a  This  the  historian  takes  notice  of,  as  a  life  remarkably  long 
 in  those  days ;  and  yet  our  learned  Usher  has  observed,  that  in 
 an  age  not  far  remote  from  our  time,  several  men  outlived  this 
 period.  The  words  of  Joseph  Scaliger,  which  he  quotes,  are  to 
 this  effect, — "  Several  persons  we  could  mention,  that  have  lived 
 120,  125,  and  130  years,  whom  we  knew,  have  seen,  and  well 
 remember:  but,  in  the  year  1584,  there  was  at  Paris  a  miracle 
 of  an  old  man,  who  bore  arms  under  Louis  XI.  and  at  the  age 
 of  140  years  and  upwards,  had  the  use  of  his  limbs  and  faculties 
 entire."  But  not  a  greater  miracle  was  he,  than  our  Thomas 
 Parr,  the  sou  of  John  Purr  of  Wilmington,  in  the  county  of  Salop, 
 who  abode  with  his  father  as  long  as  he  lived,  but.  after  his  decease, 
 married  his  first  wife  at  the  age  of  eighty.  With  her  he  lived 
 for  the  space  of  two  and  thirty  years,  in  which  time,  being  con- 
 victed of  adultery  with  another  woman,  he  did  public  penance  in 
 the  church  of  Alderbury,  when  he  was  105.  In  his  122d  year, 
 he  married  his  second  wife,  who  abode  with  him  as  long  as  he 
 lived:  hut  at  length  he  was  brought  up  to  London  by  the  earl  of 
 Arundel  and  Surrey,  in  the  year  IG'35,  and  shown  to  the  king  of 
 Great  Britain,  when  he  was  some  months  more  than  152  years 
 old.  Two  years  after  this  he  died  in  Arundel  house,  and  might 
 probably  have  lived  some  years  longer  had  he  continued  in  his 
 native  air. — Chronologia  Sacra,  c.  12. 
 
 b  The  Jews  have  a  fancy,  that  the  courtiers,  who  after  the  death 
 of  Jehoiada  got  possession  of  Joash,  flattered  him  with  a  conceit, 
 that  he  himself  was  worthy  of  divine  honours,  who  had  been 
 brought  up  in  the  house  of  God,  a  favour  that  was  never  granted 
 to  a  mere  man,  and  that  the  king's  being  pleased  with  this  kind 
 of  flattery,  provoked  (Jod  to  send  upon  him  the  calamities  we 
 afterwards  read  of;  even  as  the  angel  of  God  smote  Herod,  for 
 assuming  the  glory  to  himself,  when  the  people,  in  commenda- 
 tion of  his  oration,  said,  '  That  it  was  the  voice  of  a  gud,  and  not 
 of  a  man.'  (Acts  xii.  22.)  But  this  is  mere  fancy.  If  the 
 princes  of  Judah  wanted  to  obtain  a  toleration  from  the  king  for 
 their  idol  worship,  it  would  have  been  highly  absurd  for  them  to 
 go  about  to  persuade  him  that  himself  was  a  god,  since  they  that 
 have  the  folly  to  establish  their  own  adoration  are  always  very 
 jealous  of  the  worship  of  any  other.  Their  making  obeisance 
 therefore  to  the  king,  denotes  the  humble  posture  wherein  they 
 represented  their  petition,,  that  they  might  not  be  confined  to 
 unnecessary  and  troublesome  journeys,  in  coming  to  Jerusalem  to 
 worship,  but  be  indulged  the  liberty,  which  their  forefathers  bad, 
 of  worshipping  God  in  high  places;  which,  when  they  had  once 
 obtained,  they  knew  they  might  then  worship  idols,  without  ob- 
 servation or  disturbance. — Patrick's  taxi  CaJmefs  Commentaries, 
 and  Poole's  stimulations. 
 
 c  Jehoiada,  the  high  priest,  is  supposed  to  die  in  or  near  the 
 three  and  twentieth  year  of  king  Joash's  reign,  so  that  Joash 
 might  be  about  thirty  years  old  uhon  the  princes  of  Judah  seduc- 
 
 by  his  own  example,  men  began  to  forsake  the  temple  of 
 the  Lord,  and  to  addict  themselves  to  the  worship  of 
 idols  and  groves  consecrated  to  false  gods  ;  insomuch 
 that  the  divine  vengeance  was  kindled  both  against  the 
 king  and  people  of  Judah,  whereof  they  had  notice 
 by  several  prophets  ;  but  all  to  no  purpose.  At  length 
 the  Spirit  of  God  stirred  up  Zechariah,  the  son  of  Jehoi- 
 ada, the  high  priest,  to  remonstrate  against  the  general 
 impiety  ;  which  he  did  in  such  strong  terms,  that  the 
 king  was  offended  at  his  freedom,  and  d  little  remember- 
 ing the  kindness  of  his  father  and  mother,  to  whom  he 
 was  indebted  for  his  own  life,  gave  orders  to  destroy  the 
 son  ;  so  that  a  band  of  ruffians,  appointed  for  that  pur- 
 pose, fell  upon  him,  and,  in  one  of  the  courts  of  the 
 temple,  stoned  him  to  death,  calling  upon  God  to  avenge 
 his  cause. 
 
 And  it  was  not  long  before  the  great  avenger  of  all 
 violence  and  wrong  effectually  did  it ;  for  the  very  next 
 year  the  Syrian  army  under  Hazael  passed  the  Jordan, 
 and  marching  directly  to  Jerusalem,  slew  in  their  way 
 all  the  princes  and  great  men  that  had  seduced  their 
 king  to  idolatry. 
 
 Joash  was  in  no  condition  to  make  any  resistance  ; 
 and  therefore,  to  redeem  himself  from  the  miseries  of  a 
 siege,  took  all  the  rich  vessels  which  his  ancestors  had 
 devoted  to  the  service  of  God,  and  all  the  gold  that  was 
 laid  up  in  the  treasures  of  the  temple,  besides  what  was 
 found  in  the  royal  treasury,  and  sent  it  as  a  present  to 
 Hazael  to  prevail  with  him  to  withdraw  his  troops.  Ha- 
 zael, for  the  present,  might  withdraw  them :  but,  e  the 
 next  year  theymarchedagain  into  the  territories  of  Judah  ; 
 and  though  Hazael  was  not  there  in  person,  defeated 
 the  forces  which  Joash  sent  against  them,  made  great 
 havock  in  the  country,  entered  Jerusalem,  put  some  of 
 the  princes  and  rulers  to  the  sword,  and  treated  Joash 
 himself  with  no  small  indignity  and  contempt.     But  this 
 
 ed  him  to  idolatry:  and  this  makes  it  the  more  wonderful  what 
 possibly  could  give  occasion  to  such  a  shameful  change,  in  so 
 advanced  an  age,  unless  we  can  suppose  that  the  conduct  of  the 
 priests  in  embezzling  the  money  collected  for  the  reparation  of 
 the  temple,  whereof  he  complains  to  Jehoiada,  (2  Kings  xii.  7.), 
 might  curdle  his  temper,  and  give  him  some  disgust. — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary,  and  Howell's  History  in  the  notes. 
 
 d  This  sin,  besides  the  contempt  of  God's  prophet,  and  of  the 
 sacred  place  where  he  was  murdered,  had  an  horrid  ingratitude 
 in  it,  f.ince  Zechariah  was  the  son  of  him  to  whom  the  king 
 owed  his  life  and  kingdom,  and  who  himself  assisted  his 
 father  in  his  unction,  as  some  think;  because  it  is  said  that 
 '  Jehoiada  and  his  sons  anointed  him,'  (2  Chron.  xxiii.  11.)  But 
 if  Jehoiada  was  high  priest,  tin's  sou  is  not  reckoned  among  the 
 successors  of  Aaron,  (1  Chron.  vi.)and  therefore  it  is  likely  that 
 he  was  a  younger  son  of  Jehoiada;  for,  had  he  been  the  eldest, 
 he  would  have  had  sufficient  authority,  without  the  spirit  of  pro- 
 phecy, to  have  reproved  Joash  for  his  idolatry.  Ludovicus 
 Capellus  therefore  thinks  it  probable  that  his  brother,  the  high 
 priest,  connived  at  the  king's  apostasy,  and  that  this  younger 
 brother  was  inspired  by  God  to  reprove  it;  which  boldness  Joash 
 and  his  courtiers  thought  they  might  punish  with  some  other 
 colour,  by  alleging  that  he  was  not  moved  to  it  by  the  Spirit  of 
 God,  but  by  a  rash  anil  pragmatical  temper  of  his  own,  which 
 they  incited  tin:  people  to  ehasii-e. —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  It  is  highly  probable  that,  besides  the  present  of  gold  which 
 Joash  sent  Hazael,  in  order  to  bribe  him  to  withdraw  his  army, 
 he  had  made  him  a  promise  of  an  annual  tribute;  and  that  upon 
 his  refusal  to  pay  it,  the  Syrian  army  took  the  field  the  in  xi  year, 
 and  as  the  expression  in  the  text  is,  'executed  judgment  upon 
 Joash,'  (2  Chron.  xxiv.  21.)  For,  according  to  the  author  of  the 
 Jewish  traditions  upon  the  second  book  of  Chronicles,  while 
 they  killed  his  children  before  his  eyes,  they  upbraided  him  with 
 the  cruel  and  unjust  death  of  Zechariah. — CalmeCs  Comment. 
 4  a 
 
602 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001 
 
 A.  C.  1003;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4522.  A.  C.  889.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 was  not  .all ;  for  no  sooner  was  the  Syrian  army  departed, 
 but  the  distemper,  or  rather  that  complication  of  distem- 
 pers, wherewith,  some  time  before,  (iod  had  afflicted 
 Joash,  grew  worse  and  worse ;  so  that  being  confined  to 
 his  bed,  two  of  his  own  servants,  Zabad  and  Jehozabad, 
 conspired  against  him,  and  a  slew  him ;  who,  after  a 
 reign  of  forty  years,  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Amaziah, 
 and  buried  in  the  city  of  David,  but  b  not  in  the  royal 
 sepulchres. 
 
 Aniaziah  was  five  and  twenty  years  old  when  he  be- 
 gan to  reign,  and  for  some  time  behaved  tolerably  well, 
 though  he  followed  the  example  of  his  ancestors  in  letting 
 the  high  places  stand,  and  in  suffering  the  people  to  offer 
 sacrifice  and  burn  incense  there.  c  As  soon  as  he 
 found  himself  settled  in  the  throne,  he  very  justly  took 
 revenge  of  the  two  traitors  that  had  murdered  his  father  : 
 but  d  their  children  he  did  not  touch,  because  it  was 
 contrary  to  the  law  that '  '  children  should  be  put  to 
 death  for  their  fathers.'  About  four  and  fifty  years  be- 
 fore his  accession,  the  Edomites  had  revolted,  in  the 
 reign  of  Jehoram,  from  the  kingdom  of  Judah ;  and 
 therefore,  having  a  design  to  reduce  them  to  their  former 
 subjection,  he  new-modelled  and  new-officered  his  army, 
 and  upon  a  general  muster  found  them  to  be  no  less 
 than  e  300,000  fighting  men  :  but,  thinking  these  too 
 few  for  his  intended  expedition,  he  hired  of  die  king  of 
 Israel    100,000   more,    for    whom   he  /  paid  him    100 
 
 1  Dent.  xxiv.  16. 
 
 a  These  two  murderers,  (mongrel  fellows,  whose  fathers  were 
 Jews,  hut  their  mothers  aliens,)  perhaps  were  of  his  heclchamber; 
 and,  having  constant  access  to  the  king,  might  more  easily  ac- 
 complish their  design :  however,  he  was  so  weak  and  feeble  that 
 he  could  make  no  resistance,  and  had  fallen  into  that  contempt 
 and  disesteem,  that  his  guards  minded  not  what  became  of  him. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Though  the  people  could  not  punish  wicked  kings  for  their 
 impieties  while  they  lived,  yet  they  fixed  an  odium  upon  their 
 memory  when  they  were  dead ;  whereby  they  both  preserved  the 
 sacredness  of  their  supreme  power,  (as  Grotius,  On  the  Law  of 
 ff'ar  and  Peace,  b.  i.  c.  3.  sect.  16.  speaks,)  and  kept  kings  in 
 some  measure  under  awe  for  fear  of  what  might  befall  them 
 after  their  decease. — Patrick's  Commentary . 
 
 c  It  seems  that  these  two  assassins  continued  to  be  men  of 
 weight  and  interest  at  court,  even  after  they  had  murdered  their 
 king;  for  his  son,  we  may  observe  from  2  Kings  xiv.  8.  retained 
 them  in  his  service  for  some  time,  nor  durst  he  venture  to  exe- 
 cute justice  upon  them,  until  he  was  well  settled  in  his  authori- 
 ty, and  had  divested  those  of  all  power  who  were  their  friends 
 and  abettors. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 d  In  this  he  acted  like  a  good  man,  and  contrary  to  the  wicked 
 customs  of  many  kingdoms,  where,  if  any  one  be  guilty  of  high 
 treason,  not  only  he,  but  his  children  likewise,  who  are  neither 
 conscious  nor  partakers  of  any  of  his  traitorous  practices,  are 
 equally  devoted  to  destruction,  lest  they,  forsooth,  should  form 
 any  faction  against  the  prince,  or  seek  revenge  for  their  father's 
 death. — Lc  Clcrc's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Hence  some  have  made  an  observation,  how  much  the  ini- 
 quities of  the  people  of  Judah  had  diminished  their  numbers 
 since  the  days  of  Jehoshaphat,  which  was  a  space  of  but  eighty- 
 two  years:  for  this  king  could  bring  no  more  than  300,000  men 
 into  the  field;  whereas  Jehoshaphat  brought  almost  four  times  as 
 m u ly . — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 f  If  these  be  reckoned  for  talents  of  silver,  as  they  generally 
 are,  each  talent,  at  125  pounds  weight,  and  each  pound  weight 
 at  £4  in  value,  the  whole  will  amount  to  £50,000  sterling, 
 which  will  be  but  ten  shillings  to  each  man,  officers  included. 
 Very  low  pay!  unless  we  suppose,  that  this  whole  sum  was 
 given  to  the  king  of  Israel  for  the  loan  of  so  many  men,  and 
 that  the  men  were  to  have  their  pay  besides ;  or  rather,  that 
 they  were  to  have  no  other  pay  but  the  booty  which  they 
 took  from  the  enemy;  and  that  this  was  the  true  reason  why 
 they  were  so  exasperated   at  their  dismission,  as  to  '  fall  upon 
 
 talents  ;  but,  S  by  the  direction  of  a  prophet  whom  God 
 sent  to  him  on  purpose  to  dissuade  him  from  employing 
 these  auxiliaries,  they  were,  with  much  ado,  discharged, 
 and  himself  went  in  person  against  the  Edomites  with 
 none  but  his  own  men,  the  people  of  Judah.  However, 
 being  thus  shamefully  dismissed,  as  they  thought,  they 
 were  not  a  little  exasperated  against  Aniaziah ;  and 
 therefore,  in  their  return  home,  they  plundered  all  the 
 towns  in  their  way,  killed  no  less  than  3000  men,  and 
 carried  away  a  considerable  booty,  to  make  an  amends 
 for  the  plunder  they  had  promised  themselves  in  the 
 Edomitish  war. 
 
 Aniaziah,  as  we  said,  with  none  but  his  own  forces, 
 marched  against  the  Edomites.  In  the  h  valley  of  salt 
 he  gave  them  battle,  slew  10,000  upon  the  spot,  and 
 took  10,000  prisoners.  From  thence  he  marched  to 
 Selah,  l  the  metropolis  of  Arabia  Petraea,  of  which  he 
 soon  became  master,  and  from  the  top  of  the  rock  where- 
 on the  town  stood,  3  threw  the  ten  thousand  he  had  taken 
 prisoners  headlong,  so  that  they  were  all  dashed  to 
 pieces.^ 
 
 the  cities  of  Judah,  from  Samaria  even  unto  Beth-horon,'  (2 
 Chron.  xxv.  13.)  They  went  very  probably  first  to  Samaria, 
 where  they  complained  to  their  own  king  of  the  bad  treat- 
 ment they  had  received  from  Amaziah,  and  desired  some  re- 
 paration to  be  made  them  for  the  affront  put  upon  them,  and 
 the  loss  of  the  profit  which  they  might  have  made  in  the  war; 
 but,  finding  him  not  inclinable  to  make  them  satisfaction,  they 
 immediately  fell  foul  upon  the  territories  of  Judah,  and,  from 
 Samaria,  for  that  is  the  place  of  their  setting  out,  even  to  Beth- 
 horon,  a  town  not  far  distant  from  Jerusalem,  ravaged  the  coun- 
 try, and  did  the  mischief  here  mentioned ;  which  they  might 
 more  easily  do,  because  the  war  with  Edom  had  drained  the 
 country  of  all  the  forces  that  should  have  opposed  them. — 
 Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries  on  2  Chron.  xxv.  6.  13. 
 
 g  The  Jews  will  needs  have  it,  that  this  prophet  was  Amos, 
 the  father  of  Isaiah ;  but  their  tradition  is  built  upon  a  mistake, 
 namely,  that  Amos  the  prophet  was  Isaiah's  father. 
 
 h  This  valley  lay  towards  the  land  of  Edom,  and  was  so  called, 
 either  from  the  salt  springs  which  were  therein,  or  from  the  salt 
 that  was  dug  up  there. — Patrick's  Commentary  on  2  Sam.  viii. 
 13. 
 
 »  Selah,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  signifies  a  rock,  and  so  exactly 
 answers  to  the  Greek  word  petra,  that  most  commentators,  with 
 veiy  good  reason,  have  agreed,  that  this  Selah  is  the  same  with 
 Petra,  the  metropolis  of  Arabia  Petraea,  and  from  whence,  as 
 some  imagine,  the  whole  country  took  its  name ;  though  others 
 think,  that,  as  this  city  had  its  situation  on  a  rock,  so  the  adja- 
 cent tract  was  called  Arabia  Petraea  from  its  being  overspread 
 with  such  rocks,  or  rocky  hills. — WeUs'  Geography  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  vol.  iii. 
 
 ./That  this  was  an  ancient  punishment  among  the  Romans,  we 
 may  learn  from  Livy,  Plutarch,  and  several  others ;  as  Mr  Selden 
 (de  Synedriis,  b.  1.)  observes,  that  it  was  in  use  among  other 
 nations;  but  we  do  not  find  it  commonly  practised  among  the 
 Jews.  It  is  not  in  the  catalogue  of  the  punishments  which  Moses 
 enacts;  neither  was  it  ever  inflicted  by  any  regular  judicature; 
 and  therefore  one  would  think  that  the  Edomites,  either  by  some 
 such  like  cruelty  to  the  people  of  Judah,  had  provoked  them  to 
 make  a  retaliation  in  this  manner,  or  that  they  were,  in  their  very 
 disposition,  so  apt  to  revolt,  that  there  could  be  no  keeping  them 
 in  subjection,  without  some  such  sad  exemplary  punishment  as 
 this. — Calnwt's  Dissert,  on  Punishments,  and  Le  Clerc's  Com- 
 mentary on  2  Chron.  xxv.  12. 
 
 k  2  Chron.  xxv.  12.  This  mode  of  punishment  was  practised 
 by  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  as  well  as  the  Jews.  In  Greece, 
 according  to  the  Delphian  law,  such  as  were  guilty  of  sacrilege 
 were  led  to  a  rock,  and  cast  down  headlong.  (JElian,  Far. 
 Hist.  b.  xi.  c.  5.)  The  Romans  also  inflicted  it  on  various 
 malefactors,  by  casting  them  down  from  the  Tarpeian  rock.  (Livy 
 Hist.  b.  vi.  c.  20.)  Mr  Pitts,  in  his  account  of  the  Mahometans, 
 (p.  10,)  informs  us,  that  in  Turkey,  at  a  place  called  Constantine, 
 a  town  situate  at  the  top  of  a  great  rock,  the  usual  way  of  exe- 
 cuting great  criminals  is  by  pushing  them  off  the  cliff.     This 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 603 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  T  O  HALES,  A.  M.  45G2.  A.  C.  849.  1   KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 But  his  cruelty  to  the  captives  was  not  the  worse  thing 
 he  was  guilty  of  in  this  expedition.  In  his  return,  he  a 
 brought  with  him  the  idols  of  Edom,  to  which  he  paid 
 adoration,  and  offered  incense  ;  which  thing  provoked 
 the  Lord  so,  that  he  sent  a  prophet  to  reprove  him  for 
 his  apostasy,  and  to  threaten  him  with  the  destruction 
 which  in  a  short  time  came  to  pass.  For,  being  now 
 elated  with  his  success  against  the  Moabites,  and  resent- 
 ing the  affront  which  the  Israelitish  army  had  lately  put 
 upon  him,  he  b  sent  Joash  king  of  Israel  a  challenge  to 
 meet  and  engage  him  in  a  pitched  battle. 
 
 Joash,  as  it  deserved,  c  received  the  message  with 
 contempt :  but  when  he  found  that  Amaziah  was  hereby 
 but  the  more  irritated,  and  persisted  in  his  purpose  of 
 fighting,  he  met  him,  and  gave  him  such  a  reception,  that 
 he  routed  his  army,  took  him  prisoner,  and  carried  him 
 d  to  his  own  city  of  Jerusalem ;  where  he  entered  in 
 
 is  also  mentioned  as  a  capital  punishment  by  Tacitus,  (Annals, 
 b.  ii.  c.  39.)— Ed. 
 
 a  Idolatry,  at  the  best,  can  no  ways  be  apologized  for;  but  no 
 reason  can  be  invented,  why  any  person  should  make  the  objects  of 
 his  adoration  such  gods  as  could  '  not  deliver  their  own  people  out 
 of  their  enemies'  hands,'  as  the  prophet  very  justly  reproves  Ama- 
 ziah, (2  Chron.  xxv.  15.),  unless  we  suppose  that  the  images  of 
 these  gods  were  so  very  beautiful,  that  he  perfectly  fell  in  love 
 with  them,  or  that  he  worshipped  them  for  fear  they  should  owe 
 him  a  spite,  and  do  him  some  mischief,  in  revenge  for  what  he 
 had  done  against  the  Edomites.  How  much  more  wise  were  the 
 sentiments  of  Fabricius  Maximus,  upon  the  like  occasion,  who, 
 having  conquered  Tarentum,  and  being  asked,  what  should  be 
 done  with  their  gods  ?  bid  them  leave  them  with  the  Tarentines, 
 "  for  what  madness  is  it,"  as  he  adds,  "  to  hope  for  any  safety 
 from  those  who  cannot  preserve  themselves  ?" — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 b  Josephus,  in  his  account  of  this  transaction,  tells  us  that 
 Amaziah  wrote  an  imperious  letter  to  the  king  of  Israel,  "  com- 
 manding him  and  his  people  to  pay  the  same  allegiance  to  him 
 that  they  had  formerly  paid  to  his  ancestors  David  and  Solomon ; 
 or,  in  case  of  their  refusal,  to  expect  a  decision  of  the  matter  by  the 
 sword."  Others  think  that  he  intended  no  war  by  this  message, 
 but  only  a  trial  of  military  skill  and  prowess,  or  a  civil  kind  of  in- 
 terview between  his  men  and  those  of  Israel ;  for  had  he  purposed 
 to  act  in  a  hostile  manner,  lie  would  have  assaulted  them  on  a 
 sudden,  and  not  given  them  this  warning  to  stand  upon  their 
 defence.  The  words  of  the  message  are,  '  Come  let  us  look  one 
 another  in  the  face,'  (2  Kings  xiv.  8.)  Much  of  the  same  kind 
 with  what  Abner  said  to  Joab,  '  Let  the  young  men  now  arise, 
 and  play  before  us,'  (2  Sam.  ii.  14.)  But  how  polite  soever  the 
 expressions  may  be,  in  both  cases,  they  had  in  them  the  formality 
 of  a  challenge,  as  both  the  king  and  general,  who  were  not  unac- 
 quainted with  military  language,  did  certainly  understand  them. 
 So  that  the  truth  of  the  matter  seems  to  be  this: — Amaziah 
 being  encouraged  by  his  late  victory,  determined  to  be  revenged 
 for  the  slaughter  of  his  ancestors,  by  Jehu,  (2  Kings  ix.)  and  for 
 the  late  spoil  which  the  Israelites  had  made  in  his  country ;  and 
 thereupon  resolving  to  have  satisfaction,  but  in  a  fair  and  honour- 
 able way,  he  sent  them  this  open  declaration  of  war,  but  con- 
 ceived in  as  mild  terms  as  any  thing  of  that  harsh  nature  could 
 be. — Calmet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 c  It  was  a  custom  among  the  oriental  people  to  deliver  their 
 sentiments  in  parables,  in  which  they  made  a  great  part  of  their 
 wisdom  to  consist :  and  considering  the  circumstances  of  the  per- 
 son he  addressed  to,  who  was  a  petty  prince,  flushed  with  a  little 
 good  success,  and  thereupon  impatient  to  enlarge  his  kingdom,  no 
 similitude  could  be  better  adapted  than  that  of  a  thistle,  a  low  con- 
 temptible shrub,  but  upon  its  having  drawn  blood  of  some  travel- 
 ler, growing  proud,  and  affecting  an  equality  with  the  cedar,  a  tall 
 stately  tree  that  is  the  pridt;  and  ornament  of  the  wood,  till  in 
 the  midst  of  all  its  arrogance  and  presumption,  it  is  unhappily 
 trodden  down  by  the  beasts  of  the  forests,  (2  Kings  xiv.  9.)  which 
 Joash  intimates  would  be  Amaziah's  fate,  if  he  continued  to  pro- 
 voke a  prince  of  his  superior  power  and  strength. — Lc  Clcrcs, 
 Oil/net's,  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 J  Josephus  relates  the  defeat  and  captivity  of  Amaziah  after 
 
 triumph,  plundered  the  temple  and  palace  of  all  tl  at 
 was  valuable,  laid  a  tax  upon  the  land,  carried  off  hos- 
 tages e  for  the  security  of  the  payment ;  and  that,  in  case 
 of  any  failure  in  this  respect,  the  city  might  lie  open  to 
 his  invasions,  he  broke  down  all  the  fortifications  of  the 
 wall,  from  the  gate  of  Ephraini  to  the  corner  gate,  about 
 400  cubits  in  length,  and  so  /  returned  to  Samaria. 
 
 After  this  shameful  defeat,  Amaziah  lived  above  fifteen 
 years ;  but  we  read  of  nothing  remarkable  concerning 
 him,  save  that,  persisting  still  in  his  idolatry,  he  conti- 
 nued under  God's  displeasure,  and  at  length  fell  under 
 the  contempt  of  his  subjects ;  insomuch  that  some  of  s 
 the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  formed  a  conspiracy  against 
 his  life,  which  he,  having  some  intelligence  of,  endea- 
 voured to  escape  by  flying  to  Lachish,  a  town  on  the 
 frontiers  of  the  Philistines  ;  but  all  in  vain  :  for  the  con- 
 spirators sent  after  him,  and  had  him  there  privately 
 murdered ;  which,  when  his  friends  understood,  they 
 brought  his  corpse,  without  any  state  or  formality,  to 
 Jerusalem,  where  he  was  buried  among  his  ancestors, 
 and,  after  a  reign  of  nine  and  twenty  years,  was  suc- 
 ceeded by  his  son  Azariah,  who,  in  the  book  of  Chroni- 
 cles, is  called  Uzziah.  But  to  turn  our  thoughts  now  to 
 the  kingdom  of  Israel. 
 
 In  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Jehoash,  king  of 
 Israel,  which  was  in  the  h  thirty-seventh  year  of  Joash, 
 
 this  manner: — "  No  sooner  were  his  men  advanced  within  sight 
 of  the  enemy,  but  they  were  instantly  struck  with  such  a  panic 
 terror,  and  consternation,  that  they  turned  their  backs,  without 
 striking  a  blow ;  and  flying  several  ways,  left  Amaziah  prisoner 
 in  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  who  refused  to  give  him  quarter 
 upon  any  other  terms  than  that  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem  should 
 set  open  their  gates,  and  receive  him  and  his  victorious  army  into 
 the  town ;  which,  between  the  pinch  of  necessity  and  the  love  of 
 life,  they  were  prevailed  upon  to  do:  so  that  Joash  entered  the 
 town  in  his  triumphal  chariot,  through  a  breach  of  300  cubits  of 
 the  wall,  that  he  had  caused  to  be  made,  with  his  prisoner  Ama- 
 ziah marching  before  him. — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  9.  c.  10. 
 
 e  These  hostages  were,  in  all  probability,  the  great  men's  sons 
 of  the  city,  whom  Joash  took  along  with  them,  as  a  security  that 
 the  kingdom  of  Judah  should  give  him  no  farther  molestation. 
 
 /He  never  intended  to  make  a  thorough  conquest  of  the  king- 
 dom of  Judah,  nor  did  he  leave  a  garrison  in  Jerusalem ;  but 
 contenting  himself  with  what  spoil  he  could  get,  he  made  all  con- 
 venient haste  home,  because  he  had  work  enough  at  this  time 
 upon  his  hands,  to  defend  his  territories  against  the  daily  invasions 
 of  the  Syrians. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 g  What  provoked  the  people  of  Jerusalem  more  than  any  other 
 part  of  the  nation,  against  their  king,  was,  their  seeing  their  city 
 spoiled  of  its  best  ornaments,  exposed  to  reproach,  upon  account 
 of  the  great  breach  that  was  made  in  their  wall,  and  several  of 
 their  children  carried  away  as  hostages  for  their  good  behaviour; 
 all  which  they  imputed  to  their  king's  mal-administration. 
 Whereupon  they  entered  into  a  conspiracy  against  him,  which 
 makes  some  commentators  say,  that  he  lived  in  a  state  of  exile  at 
 Lachish,  the  space  of  twelve  years,  not  daring  to  continue  long  in 
 Jerusalem  after  the  defeat  which  Joash  had  given  him.  But  our 
 learned  Usher  has  placed  this  conspiracy  in  the  last  year  of  Ama- 
 ziah's reign,  as  Jacobus  Capellus,  in  his  Sacred  and  Foreign 
 History,  supposes  that  it  was  set  on  foot  by  the  great  men  of 
 Jerusalem,  upon  the  specious  pretence  of  being  guardians  to  the 
 young  prince,  and  taking  better  care  of  him  than  his  father  was 
 likely  to  do. — Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 h  The  synarchies,  or  joint  reigns  of  father  and  son,  in  these 
 times  have  rendered  the  chronology  a  little  difficult,  as  it  is  in 
 this  case:  for  in  2  Kings  xiii.  1.  it  is  said,  that  Jehoahaz,  king 
 of  Israel  began  to  reign  in  the  twenty-third  year  of  Joash  king  of 
 Judah,  and  reigned  seventeen  years;  from  whence  it  follows, 
 that  Jehoash  began  to  reign,  not  in  the  thirty-seventh,  but  in  the 
 thirty-ninth  or  fortieth  year  of  Joash  king  of  Judah:  but  by  this 
 it  only  appears,  that  he  reigned  three  of  these  years  in  conjunc- 
 tion with  his  father. — Howell's  History  in  the  notes  and  Pairiek's 
 Commentary. 
 
604 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4IJ02.  A.  C.  80!).  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 king  of  Judah,  the  prophet  Elisha  fell  sick  of  a  disease, 
 whereof  he  died.  The  king  of  Israel,  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, came  to  visit  him ;  and  having  much  a  lamented 
 the  loss  which  all  Israel  would  have  by  his  death,  he 
 received  his  blessing,  and  dying  counsel  to  wage  war 
 against  the  Syrians  with  all  courage  and  bravery  ;  giving 
 him  assurance,  and, b  by  the  emblem  of  a  bow  and  arrows, 
 making  him  sensible  of  the  several  victories  which  God 
 had  decreed  that  he  should  obtain. 
 
 This  was  the  last  prediction  of  Elisha  that  we  read  of, 
 for  soon  after  this  he  died ;  but  it  was  not  the  last  mira- 
 cle that  we  find  he  did :  for,  some  time  after  his  inter- 
 ment, 8  company  of  Israelites,  as  they  were  going  to 
 bury  a  dead  person,  perceiving  a  band  of  Moabites  c 
 making  towards  them,  d  put  the  corpse  for  haste  into 
 
 a  His  words  are,  'My  father!  my  father!  the  chariot  of 
 Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof,'  (2  Kings  xiii.  14.)  which  are 
 the  wry  same  that  Elisha  used  concerning  his  master  Elijah, 
 when  he  was  taken  up  into  heaven,  (2  Kings  ii.  12.)  signifying 
 the  great  authority  he  had  maintained  among  them,  included  in 
 the  word  'father,'  and  the  many  glorious  victories  which  he  had 
 obtained  for  them,  by  the  efficacy  of  his  counsels  and  prayers. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary '. 
 
 b  This  was  a  symbolical  action,  whereby  the  prophet  intended 
 to  represent  the  victories,  which  he  had  promised  the  king  of  Israel 
 against  the  Syrians  more  fully  and  plainly  to  him.  His  shooting 
 the  first  arrow  eastward,  or  to  that  part  of  the  country  which  the 
 Syrians  had  taken  from  his  ancestors,  was  a  declaration  of  war 
 against  them  for  so  doing;  and  his  striking  the  other  arrows 
 against  the  ground,  was  an  indication  how  many  victories  he  was 
 to  obtain;  but  his  stopping  his  hand  too  soon,  denoted  the  imper- 
 fection of  his  conquests,  which  did  not  please  the  prophet  so  well, 
 and  for  what  reason  we  shall  see  in  the  course  of  the  objections. — 
 he  Clerc's  Commentaries.  ["It  was  an  ancient  custom  to 
 shoot  an  arrow  or  cast  a  spear  into  the  country  which  an  army 
 intended  to  invade.  Justin  says  that,  as  soon  as  Alexander  the 
 Great  had  arrived  on  the  coasts  of  Ionia,  he  threw  a  dart  into  the 
 country  of  the  Persians.  '  When  they  had  reached  the  continent, 
 Alexander  first  threw  a  javelin  as  if  upon  a  hostile  land.'  (Just. 
 1).  ii.)  The  dart,  spear,  or  arrow  thrown,  was  an  emblem  of  the 
 commencement  of  hostilities.  Virgil  (Mn.  ix.  51.)  represents 
 Turnus  as  giving  the  signal  of  attack  by  throwing  a  spear: — 
 
 •  Who  first,"  he  cried,  "  with  me  the  foe  will  dare?" 
 Then  hurled  a  dart,  the  signal  of  the  war. 
 
 Pitt. 
 Servius,  in  his  note  upon  this  place,  shows  that  it  was  a  custom 
 to  proclaim  war  in  this  way:  the  pater  patratus,  or  chief  of  the 
 feciales,  a  sort  of  heralds,  went  to  the  confines  of  the  enemy's 
 country,  and,  after  some  solemnities,  said  with  a  loud  voice  '  1 
 wage  war  with  you,  for  such  and  such  reasons:'  and  then  threw 
 in  a  spear.  It  was  then  the  business  of  the  parties  thus  defied 
 or  warned  to  take  the  subject  into  consideration;  and  if  they  did 
 not,  within  thirty  days,  come  to  some  accommodation,  the  war 
 was  begun. — Dr  A.  Clarke's  Commentary. — Ed. 
 ^  c  These  Moabites  were  not  such  a  gang  of  robbers  as  some- 
 times infest  our  roads,  but  a  regular  body  of  men,  well  appoint- 
 ed, and  under  proper  officers,  to  the  number  of  a  small  army, 
 who  made  incursions  into  the  territories  of  Judah  and  Israel, 
 generally  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  which  is  the  season  pro- 
 per lor  armies  to  take  the  field  ;  and  therefore  some  have  observed 
 that  the  month  Nisan,  which,  with  the  Jews,  is  the  first  in  their 
 year,  had  its  name  from  Nisim,  which  signifies  the  '  engines  of 
 war,'  which  were  usually  set  up  in  that  month;  in  like  manner  as 
 the  month,  which  we  call  March,  and,  in  part,  answers  to  the 
 Jewish  Nisan,  had  its  name  among  the  Romans  from  Mars, 
 their  god  of  war;  because  most  nations,  at  that  time,  began  their 
 military  expeditions.— Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  The  common  places  of  burying  among  the  Hebrews,  were  in 
 the  field-,  in  caverns  dug  into  a  ruck,  with  niches  for  the  corpses 
 to  be  placed  in,  and,  at  the  entrance  of  the  sepulchre,  then-  was 
 a  hewn  stone,  which  might  be  removed  or  replaced  without  any 
 damage  to  the  tomb.  The  Jews,  as  Josephus  informs  us,  gave 
 Elisha  a  pompous  and  honourable  interment,  answerable  to  the 
 dignity  and  merit  of  so  great  a  prophet;  but  he  does  not  tell  us 
 
 Elisha's  tomb,  which,  as  soon  as  it  had  touched  his 
 body,  e  immediately  revived,  so  that  the  man  stood  upon 
 his  feet,  and  went  home,  no  doubt,  with  the  company. 
 This  miracle,  which  was  a  divine  confirmation  of  the 
 truth  of  all  Elisha's  prophecies,  could  not  fail  of  being 
 a  powerful  means  to  encourage  Jehoash  in  his  engaging 
 in  war  with  the  Syrians.  Nor  was  his  success  less  than 
 the  prediction  ;  for,  /  in  three  pitched  battles  he  van- 
 quished Benhadad,  (his  father  Hazael  being  then  dead,) 
 recovered  all  the  cities  that  had  been  taken  from  his 
 father  Jehoahaz,  and  reunited  them  to  the  kingdom  of 
 Israel.  After  this  he  lived  quiet  from  all  enemies,  until 
 Amaziah  king  of  Judah  gave  him  the  small  disturbance 
 we  have  spoken  of :  but,  after  the  victory  which  he  gained 
 over  him,  we  hear  no  more  of  his  appearing  in  the  field, 
 and  may  therefore  conclude  that,  after  a  reign  of  six- 
 teen years,  he  died  in  peace,  and  was  succeeded  in  his 
 throne  by  his  son  Jeroboam. 
 
 In  the  fifteenth  year  of  Amaziah  king  of  Judah,  this 
 Jeroboam,  the  second  of  that  name,  began  to  reign  over 
 Israel,  and  by  S  the  encouragement  which  the  prophet 
 
 where  the  place  of  his  sepulture  was.  Hereon  some  have  imagin- 
 ed, that  he  was  carried  to  Abelmeholah,  the  place  of  his  nativity,  to 
 be  there  interred  among  his  ancestors:  others  think  that  he  was 
 at  first  buried  on  Mount  Carmel,  a  favourite  place  of  his,  and 
 afterwards  removed  to  Samaria:  others  again  say,  that  he  was 
 buried  at  Nineveh;  and,  to  this  very  day,  the  inhabitants  show 
 his  monument  at  Mosul,  which  was  built,  as  they  say,  upon  the 
 very  same  spot  where  old  Nineveh  stood.  But  the  most  prevail- 
 ing opinion,  founded  upon  a  constant  tradition,  is,  that  he  was 
 buried  somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Samaria,  because  there, 
 in  all  appearance,  he  died.  The  tomb,  however,  that  is  usually 
 shown  for  his  in  that  city,  can  be  nothing  more  than  the  reposi- 
 tory of  his  remains,  since  his  original  burying-place  was  cer- 
 tainly at  some  distance  from  it. — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  ix.  c.  9. 
 
 e  Josephus,  in  his  account  of  this  transaction,  varies  a  little 
 from  the  sacred  history  :  for  "  it  happened,  after  Elisha's  burial," 
 says  he,  "  that  a  traveller  was  killed  upon  the  way  by  some 
 thieves,  and  his  body  thrown  into  Elisha's  monument,  which, 
 upon  the  bare  touch  of  the  prophet's  corpse,  instantly  revived." 
 The  Jewish  doctors,  who  love  to  improve  upon  every  miracle, 
 tell  us  that  this  person,  whom  they  pretend  to  call  Sellum,  after 
 he  was  revived,  did  presently  die  again,  because  he  was  a  wicked 
 man,  and  did  not  deserve  to  live  long;  never  considering,  that 
 his  hasty  death  afterwards  was  the  ready  way  to  impair  the  credit 
 of  the  miracle,  and  make  it  indeed  of  no  effect.  However  this 
 may  be,  it  is  certain,  that  by  this  miracle,  as  we  find  it  related 
 in  Scripture,  God  did  the  highest  honour  to  his  prophet,  and 
 confirmed  the  truth  of  what  he  had  promised  to  the  king  of  Israel, 
 as  well  as  the  certainty  of  a  future  life ;  in  which  sense  some 
 part  of  the  character,  which  the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus,  (chap, 
 xlviii.  12,)  gives  him,  may  not  improperly  be  understood: 
 '  Elisha  was  filled  with  Elijah's  spirit;  whilst  he  was  not  moved 
 with  the  presence  of  any  prince,  neither  could  any  bring  him 
 into  subjection:  no  word  could  overcome  him;  and  after  his 
 death  his  body  prophesied:  he  did  wonders  in  his  life,  and  at  his 
 death  were  his  works  marvellous." — Jeu-ish  Antiq.  b.  ix.  c.  9.  and 
 Calmcl's  Commentary. 
 
 f  We  have  no  particulars  of  the  war  between  Jehoash  and  the 
 Syrians,  nor  can  we  tell  where  these  three  battles  were  fought; 
 but  the  success  of  them  was  so  great,  that  the  king  of  Israel  not 
 only  retook  all  the  places  that  had  been  lost  in  his  own  domin- 
 ions, but  repulsed  the  enemy  into  their  own  country,  and  there 
 obtained  a  signal  victory  over  them. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 g  The  only  mention  we  have  of  this  prophet,  whom  the  Jews 
 will  have  to  be  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Zarephtha,  whom  Elijah 
 raised  from  the  dead,  but  without  any  foundation  of  reason,  is  in 
 this  passage,  and  the  account  of  his  famous  mission  to  Nineveh. 
 What  the  prophecies  were,  whereby  he  encouraged  Jeroboam  to 
 proclaim  war  against  the  king  of  Syria,  we  have  no  where  record- 
 ed ;  but  as  we  have  not  every  thing  which  the  prophets  did  write, 
 so  several  prophets,  we  must  know,  did  not  commit  their  pre- 
 dictions to  writing,     From  this  place,  however,  we  may  observe 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 605 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4G02.  A.  C.  809.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 Jonah  gave  him,  proved  successful  in  many  military 
 achievements.  He  recovered  a  large  territory,  which 
 several  kings  had  taken  from  his  predecessors,  even  all 
 the  country  from  Libanus  on  the  north,  to  the  Lake 
 Asphaltites,  on  the  south  ;  but  especially  on  the  east  of 
 Jordan,  whereby  he  enlarged  those  conquests  which  his 
 father  Joash  had  made  :  and  whereas  Hamath  and  Da- 
 mascus had,  in  the  days  of  David  and  Solomon,  been 
 tributaries  to  the  kings  of  Judah,  but  had  now  revolted 
 from  Israel,  he  conquered  them  again,  and  a  made  them 
 pay  homage  to  him,  as  they  had  formerly  done  to  his 
 predecessors.  So  that,  after  a  long  reign  of  *  one  and 
 forty  years,  wherein  his  arms  were  all  along  successful, 
 he  c  died  in  much  honour  and  renown,  and  was  buried 
 with  his  ancestors ;  but  whether  it  was  through  wars 
 abroad,  or  through  discord  and  dissention  at  home,  he 
 left  the  government  in  such  confusion,  that  after  his 
 decease,  there  was  an  interregnum  for  the  space  of  two 
 and  twenty  years. 
 
 During  the  time  of  this  interregnum,  Jonah,  d  the  son 
 of  Amittai,  who  had  prophesied  before,  in  the  time  of 
 Jeroboam,  was  now  sent  upon  another  errand.  His  com- 
 mission was  expressly  to  Nineveh,  whither  he  was  to 
 go,  and  to  exhort  the  inhabitants  to  repentance,   be- 
 
 that  God  was  very  merciful  to  the  Israelites,  though  they  were 
 certainly  a  xury  wicked  people,  in  continuing  a  race  of  prophets 
 among  them,  even  after  Elisha  was  dead. — Patrick's  Comment. 
 
 a  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  when  Jeroboam  reconquered  these 
 two  chief  cities  of  Syria,  he  restored  them  to  the  kingdom  of 
 Judah  because  they  belonged  to  it  of  right,  and  reserved  to  him- 
 self only  a  small  tribute  to  be  paid  him  by  the  way  of  acknow- 
 ledgmeut.  This  is  what  the  original  Hebrew,  as  well  as  the 
 Ckaldee  and  Septuagint  versions  seem  to  favour:  but  the  Syriac 
 and  Arabic  translators  have  omitted  the  word  Judah,  and  may 
 therefore  be  supposed  to  think,  as  several  others  do,  that  Jeroboam 
 kept  to  himself  all  those  places  which  he  had  recovered  at  his 
 own  hazard  and  expense. — Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 b  This  was  much  longer  than  any  of  the  kings  of  Israel  had 
 reigned:  for  even  Jehu  himself,  though  his  reign  was  longer  than 
 that  of  any  who  went  before  him,  reigned  but  twenty-eight  years  ; 
 God  having  on  purpose  prolonged  this  prince's  reign,  because 
 he  «as  not  minded  to  'blot  out  the  name  of  Israel  from  under 
 heaven,'  but  to  save  them  by  his  hand.— 2  Kings  xiv.  27. 
 
 c  The  prophet  Amos,  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  this  prince, 
 was  accused  by  Amaziah  the  priest  of  Bethel,  for  prophesying 
 1  that  Jeroboam  should  die  by  the  sword  ;'  but  Amos  never  made 
 any  such  prediction.  It  was  a  false  accusation  which  this  idola- 
 trous priest  sent  against  him,  because  he  was  desirous,  to  have 
 him  removed  out  of  the  way. — Amos.  vii.  10,  &c. 
 
 (/It  is  a  very  common  opinion  among  the  Jews,  as  we  said,  that 
 Jonah  was  the  widow  of  Zarephtha's  son;  and  this  opinion  they 
 bund  upon  the  words  of  the  mother,  when  she  received  her  son 
 alive  from  the  prophet's  hand:  '  By  this  I  know,  that  the  word 
 of  the  Lord  in  thy  mouth  is  truth,'  (1  Kings  xvii.  24.)  for  there- 
 fore, say  they,  was  the  child  called  the  son  of  Amittai ;  because 
 Amittai  signifies  truth:  a  weak  reason,  God  wot  !  and  such  as  is 
 plainly  repugnant  to  the  testimony  of  Scripture.  For  this  we 
 know  for  certain,  that  Jonah  lived  in  the  reigns  of  Joash  and 
 Jeroboam  the  Second,  kings  of  Israel,  and  therefore  could  not  be 
 the  widow  of  Zarephtha's  son,  since  the  former  of  these  princes 
 did  not  begin  to  reign  till  sixty  years  after  the  translation  of  Eli- 
 jah. Others  pretend  that  he  was  son  to  the  Shunamite  woman, 
 whom  the  prophet  Elisha  raised  from  the  dead  ;  but  Shunam  and 
 Gath-hepher,  where  we  are  certain  .Jonah  was  horn,  were  two 
 quite  different  places,  the  former  in  the  tribe  of  Issachar,  the 
 other  in  that  of  Zebulun;  and  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that 
 Amittai  was  the  proper  name  of  Jonah's  father,  who  lived  in  a 
 little  canton  of  the  tribe  of  Zebulun,  called  Ilopher  or  Hopher, 
 wherein  was  the  town  ofGath,  which  is  generally  believed  to  be 
 the  same  with  Jotapata,  so  famous  for  the  siege  which  Josephus 
 t.ie  Jewish  historian,  there  maintained  against  the  Roman  army, 
 a  little  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. —  Calmct't  Ptvfaceon 
 Jonah,  and  his  Dictionary  under  the  word. 
 
 cause  the  '  cry  of  their  sins  had  reached  heaven.'  But 
 instead  of  obeying  the  divine  command,  the  sacred  history 
 informs  us  that  he  bent  his  course  another  way,  and  in- 
 tending to  retire  to  Tarsus,  a  city  in  Cilicia,  embarked 
 at  Joppa,  e  a  seaport  on  the  Mediterranean  ;  that  as 
 as  soon  as  he  had  well  got  to  sea,  an  unaccountable  storm 
 arose  which  gave  the  mariners  a  suspicion,  that  some  great 
 malefactor  was  got  on  board,  upon  whose  account  the 
 heavens  seemed  so  very  angry  ;  /  that  therefore  calling- 
 all  the  people  together,  they  made  them  cast  lots,  in  order 
 to  know  who  this  guilty  person  was  ;  that  when  the  lot 
 fell  upon  Jonah,  he  freely  owned,  that  he  was  a  Jew, 
 who  w  orshipped  the  God  of  heaven,  and  not  only  a  Jew, 
 but  a  prophet  likewise,  who  had  been  ordered  to  go  to 
 Nineveh,  but  was  now  endeavouring  to  rlee  from  the 
 divine  presence  ;  that  since  he  found  it  was  impossible 
 to  do  that,  and  every  one's  life,  upon  his  account,  was  in 
 such  imminent  danger,  he  wished  them  to  throw  him 
 overboard,  as  the  only  way  to  appease  the  storm ;  that 
 with  some  reluctancy,  S  the  seamen  did  it,  whereupon 
 there    immediately    ensued   a    calm,    which    struck   the 
 
 e  Joppa  is  a  seaport  town  in  Palestine,  upon  the  Mediterra- 
 nean, and  was  formerly  the  only  port  which  the  Jews  had  upon 
 that  coast,  whither  all  the  materials  that  were  sent  from  Tyre, 
 towards  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple,  were  brought  and 
 landed.  The  town  itself  is  very  ancient;  for  profane  authors 
 reckon  it  was  built  before  the  flood,  and  derive  the  name  of  it  from 
 Joppa,  the  daughter  of  Elolas,  and  the  wife  of  Cepheus,  who  was 
 the  founder  of  it.  Others  are  rather  inclined  to  believe,  that  it 
 was  built  by  Japhet,  and  from  him  had  the  name  of  Japho,  which 
 was  afterwards  moulded  into  Joppa,  but  is  now  generally  called 
 Jaffa,  which  comes  nearer  to  the  first  appellation.  The  town  is 
 situated  in  a  fine  plain,  between  Jismia  to  the  south,  Casarea  of 
 Palestine  to  the  north,  and  Rama  or  Ramula,  to  the  east;  but  at 
 present  is  in  a  poor  and  mean  condition;  nor  is  its  port  by  any 
 means  good,  by  reason  of  the  rocks  which  project  into  the  sea. 
 The  chief  thing  for  which  this  place  was  famous,  in  ancient  pagan 
 history,  is  the  exposition  of  Andromeda,  the  daughter  of  Cepheus 
 king  of  Egypt,  who,  for  her  mother's  pride,  was  bound  to  a  rock, 
 in  order  to  be  devoured  by  a  sea  monster,  but  was  delivered  by 
 the  valour  and  bravery  of  Perseus,  who  afterwards  married  her; 
 for  in  the  times  of  Mela  and  Pliny,  there  were  some  marks 
 remaining,  as  they  themselves  testily,  namely,  Mela,  b.  i.e.  11; 
 Pliny,  b.  v.  c.  13;  Joseph,  on  the  Jewish  U'ars,  b.  iii.  c.  15,  of 
 the  chains  wherewith  this  royal  virgin  was  bound  to  the  rock  which 
 projects  into  the  sea.  But  all  this  is  mere  fiction,  first  founded 
 upon  the  adventure  of  Jonah,  who  set  sail  from  this  port,  and 
 then  improved  with  the  accession  of  some  particular  circum- 
 stances. — Calmefs  Commentary  on  Jonah,  i.  3. 
 
 f  The  Jewish  doctors,  who  are  great  lovers  of  prodigies,  are 
 not  even  satisfied  with  what  they  meet  with  in  this  history  of 
 Jonah,  but  have  over  and  above  added,  that  as  soon  as  the  ship, 
 wherein  he  was  embarked,  was  under  sail,  it  all  on  a  sudden 
 stood  stock  still,  so  that  it  could  be  made  to  move  neither  back- 
 ward nor  forward,  notwithstanding  all  the  pains  that  the  mari- 
 ners took  in  rowing:  but  others,  with  more  probability  say, 
 that  while  all  the  rest  of  the  ships  were  quiet  and  nnmoiestl  <l, 
 the  storm  fell  upon  none  but  that  wherein  Jonah  was,  which 
 made  the  seamen  think  that  there  was  something  miraculous  in 
 it;  and  thereupon  called  upon  the  company  that  sailed  with  the  in, 
 to  come  and  cast  lots,  as  the  superstitious  custom  among  the 
 heathens  was,  whenever  they  were  in  any  great  distress:  that 
 accordingly  they  cast  lots  time  different  times,  which  still  fell 
 upon  Jonah;  and  that  they  let  him  down  several  times  with  a 
 rope,  without  plunging  him  into  the  sea,  and  as  often  as  they 
 did  it,  found  the  storm  abate,  and  whenever  they  pulled  him  up 
 again,  found  it  increase:  so  that  at  last  they  were  forced  to 
 commit  him  to  the  mercy  of  the  waves:  all  which  are  circum- 
 stances which  the  Scripture  account  neither  favours  nor  contra- 
 dicts.—  l  'chiiil's  (  iniiiiH  ntiiry. 
 
 i/  The  people  of  the  cast  have  a  tradition,  that  it  was  not  above 
 four  leagues  from  Joppa,  over  agaiust  Antipatris,  that  the  sea- 
 men threw  Jonah  overboard. 
 
606 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  4G02.  A.  C.  809.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 people  with  such  devotion,  that  they  offered  a  sacrifice  to 
 the  Lord,  and  made  their  vows ;  that  in  the  mean  while 
 God  had  prepared  a  great  fish  to  swallow  up  Jonah,  in 
 whose  belly  he  continued  for  three  days  and  three  nights, 
 and  then  upon  his  supplications  to  heaven,  was  thrown 
 out  upon  the  shore ;  that  being  thus  wonderfully  deliver- 
 ed, he  disputed  the  divine  command  no  longer,  but 
 made  the  best  of  his  way  to  Nineveh,  which,  at  that  time, 
 was  a  very  large  city,  and  having  got  into  the  heart  of 
 it,  delivered  his  message,  namely,  that  within  forty  days 
 that  city  should  be  destroyed,  with  great  boldness  and 
 intrepidity  ;  that  the  people  of  Nineveh,  believing  this 
 message  to  be  sent  from  God,  proclaimed  a  a  most  solemn 
 fast,  and  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  putting  on 
 sackcloth,  *  and  addressing  their  prayers  to  God,  showed 
 such  tokens  of  sorrow  and  repentance,  that  he  reversed 
 their  doom,  or  at  least  deferred  it  for  some  years ;  that 
 Jonah  being  sore  displeased  at  this,  as  fearing  that  it 
 might  bring  some  disgrace  upon  his  prophetic  office, 
 after  some  expostulations  with  God,  retired  out  of  the 
 city,  and  having  built  him  a  booth,  sat  under  the  cover 
 of  it,  to  see  what  the  end  would  be ;  that  while  he  was 
 here,  God  c  caused  a  gourd  to  spring  hastily  up,  which 
 
 a  The  history  tells  us,  that  '  by  a  decree  from  the  king  and 
 his  nobles,  neither  man  nor  beast,  neither  herd  nor  flock  were 
 allowed  to  taste  any  thing,  but  were  kept  up  from  feeding  and 
 drinking  water,'  (Jonah  iii.  7.)  This  was  carrying  their  absti- 
 nence to  a  greater  severity  than  what  we  find  practised  among  the 
 Jews.  For  though  in  times  of  public  calamity,  and  on  the  day 
 of  solemn  expiation,  we  find  that  they  made  their  children  fast, 
 as  we  may  gather  from  Joel  ii.  16,  yet  we  nowhere  read  of  their 
 extending  that  rigour  to  their  cattle.  Virgil  indeed,  in  one  of 
 his  eclogues,  brings  in  a  shepherd,  telling  his  companion,  that 
 for  the  death  of  Julius  Ctesar,  the  mourning  was  so  general,  that 
 even  the  sheep  and  other  creatures  were  not  driven  to  water. 
 But  then  the  question  is,  whether  this  may  not  be  looked  upon 
 as  a  poetical  exaggeration.  From  Homer,  and  some  other  an- 
 cient authors,  we  learn,  that  when  any  hero,  or  great  warrior 
 died,  the  custom  was  to  make  his  horses  fast  for  some  time,  and 
 to  cut  off  part  of  their  hair;  nor  may  we  forget  mentioning, 
 what  some  historians  tell  us,  of  the  people  inhabiting  the  Cana- 
 ries and  Peru,  namely,  that  in  times  of  great  drought,  they  shut 
 up  their  sheep  and  goats,  without  giving  them  any  thing  to  eat, 
 upon  presumption  that  their  loud  cries  and  bleating  will  reach 
 heaven,  and  prevail  with  God  to  give  them  rain. — Horn  on  the 
 Origin  of  the  American  Nudo7is,  b.  2.  c.  13. 
 
 b  The  text  tells  us  of  the  king  of  Nineveh,  that  upon  the 
 preaching  of  Jonah,  '  he  laid  his  robe  from  him,  and  covered  him 
 with  sackcloth,  and  sat  in  ashes,'  (Jonah  iii.  0,)  and,  what  is 
 pretty  strange,  some  have  thought,  that  the  king  thus  penitent 
 upon  this  occasion,  was  Sardanapalus,  a  man  famous  among 
 heathen  authors  for  his  luxury  and  riches,  and  in  whose  reign 
 the  famous  city  of  Nineveh  was  taken  by  Arbaces  and  Belesis. 
 But  others,  with  more  probability,  suppose,  that  it  was  Pul,  the 
 father  of  this  Sardanapalus,  whom  some  heathen  authors  call 
 Anabaxarus,  and  others  Anacyndaraxus.  For,  as  he  died,  ac- 
 cording to  Usher,  about  the  year  of  the  world  3237,  he  might  be 
 upon  the  throne  in  the  reign  of  Jeroboam  II.  king  of  Israel, 
 which  was  the  time  when  Jonah  was  sent  to  Nineveh. — Calmet's 
 Commentary,  and  Usher  at  A.  M.  3254. 
 
 c  The  word  Kikajon,  by  the  Septuagint,  Arabic,  and  Syriac 
 versions,  is  called  a  gourd;  but  most  of  the  ancient  Greek  trans- 
 lators, following  St  Jerome  in  this  particular,  choose  rather  to 
 render  itivy.  St  Jerome,  however,  acknowledges,  that  the  word 
 ivy  does  not  answer  the  signification  of  the  Hebrew  Kikajon, 
 though  he  thinks  it  much  better  in  this  place  than  a  gourd, 
 which,  growing  close  to  the  earth,  could  not  have  shaded  Jonah 
 from  the  heat  of  the  sun;  for  the  Kikajon,  according  to  him,  is 
 a  shrub  which  grows  in  the  sandy  places  of  Palestine,  and  in- 
 creases so  suddenly,  that  in  a  few  days  it  comes  to  a  consider- 
 able height.  It  is  supported  by  its  trunk,  without  being  upheld 
 by  any  thing  else;  and  by  the  thickness  of  its  leaves,  which  re- 
 
 by  its  spreading  leaves  so  shaded  his  booth  from  the 
 heat  of  the  sun,  that  it  pleased  him  much  ;  but  being- 
 next  morning  gnawed  by  a  worm,  it  withered  away, 
 which  so  fretted  the  impatient  man,  that  he  even  desired 
 to  die  ;  and  that  hereupon  God  took  occasion  to  expos- 
 tulate with  him,  and  show  him  the  unreasonableness  of 
 his  repining  at  the  loss  of  a  plant,  which  cost  him  no- 
 thing, which  rises  in  one  night,  and  dies  in  another,  and 
 yet  having  no  concern  or  commiseration  for  the  destruc- 
 tion of  a  populous  city,  wherein  there  were  above 
 120,000  innocent  babes,  and  consequently  the  number 
 of  all  its  inhabitants  vastly  large  ;  and  with  this  way  of 
 reasoning-,  d  we  may  suppose,  he  reconciled  his  prophet's 
 wayward  thoughts  to  this  his  merciful  methqd  of  pro- 
 ceeding.    But  to  return  to  the  affairs  of  Judah. 
 
 After  the  murder  of  Amaziah  at  Lachish,  Uzziah,  who 
 is  e  likewise  called  Azariah,  in  the  sixteenth  year  of  his 
 age,  /  which  was  in  the  seven  and  twentieth  year  of  the 
 
 semble  those  of  a  vine,  affords,  in  hot  weather,  a  very  agreeable 
 shade. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Kikajon.  ["  The 
 best  judges  say  the  ricinus  or  palma  Christi,  from  which  we  get 
 what  is  vulgarly  called  castor  oil,  is  here  meant.  It  is  a  tree  as 
 large  as  the  olive,  has  leaves  which  are  like  those  of  the  vine,  and 
 is  also  quick  of  growth.  This  in  all  probability  was  the  plant  in 
 question,  which  had  been  already  planted,  though  it  had  not 
 attained  its  proper  growth,  and  was  not  then  in  full  leaf.  Celsus, 
 in  his  Hicrobot.,  says  it  grows  to  the  height  of  an  olive  tree;  the 
 trunk  and  branches  are  hollow  like  a  kex,  and  the  leaves  some- 
 times as  broad  as  the  rim  of  a  hat.  It  must  be  of  a  soft  or  spungy 
 substance,  for  it  is  said  to  grow  surprisingly  fast.  See  Taylor 
 under  the  root  pp,  1670.  But  it  is  evident  there  was  something 
 supernatural  in  the  growth  of  this  plant,  for  it  is  stated  to  have 
 '  come  up  in  a  night;'  though  the  Chaldee  understands  the  pas- 
 sage thus:  "  It  was  here  last  night  and  is  withered  this  night." 
 In  one  night  it  might  have  blown,  and  expanded  its  leaves  con- 
 siderably, though  the  plant  had  existed  before,  but  not  in  full 
 bloom  till  the  time  that  Jonah  required  it  for  a  shelter.] — Dr  A. 
 Clarke's  Commentary. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  book  of  Jonah  ends  as  abruptly  as  it  begins:  it  begins 
 with  a  conjunctive  copulative,  '  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  came 
 upon  Jonah,'  so  it  should  be  read,  which  has  made  some  com- 
 mentators think,  that  it  was  but  an  appendix  to  some  of  his  other 
 writings;  and  it  ends  without  giving  us  any  manner  of  account, 
 either  what  became  of  the  Ninevites,  or  of  Jonah  himself,  after 
 this  expedition.  It  is  likely  indeed,  from  the  compassionate 
 expressions  which  God  makes  use  of  towards  the  Ninevites,  that 
 for  that  time  he  reversed  their  doom:  and  it  is  not  improbable 
 that  Jonah,  when  be  had  executed  his  commission,  and  been 
 satisfied  by  God  concerning  his  merciful  procedure,  returned 
 into  Judea ;  but  the  author  of  the  lives  and  deaths  of  the  pro- 
 phets, who  goes  under  the  name  of  Epiphanius,  tells  us,  that, 
 returning  from  Nineveh,  and  being  ashamed  to  see  that  his  pre- 
 diction was  not  fulfilled,  he  retired  with  his  mother  to  the  city 
 of  Tyre,  where  he  lived  in  the  plain  of  Sear,  until  he  died,  and 
 was  buried  in  the  cave  of  Cenezeus,  judge  of  Israel ;  but  who  the 
 author  means  by  Cenezeus,  unless  it  be  Caleb,  who  is  frequently 
 surnamed  the  Kenezite,  though  we  do  not  read  of  his  being  ever 
 a  judge  of  Israel,  or  rather  Othniel,  who  was  the  son  of  Kenaz, 
 and  one  that  judged  Israel,  we  cannot  tell. — Cahnet' s  Dictionary 
 under  the  word  Jonah,  and  Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 e  The  words  are  much  of  the  same  signification  ;  for  the  former 
 signifies  the  strength,  and  the  other  the  help  of  God. 
 
 f  Commentators  have  been  at  a  good  deal  of  trouble  to  recon- 
 cile a  seeming  contradiction  in  this  computation.  For  if  Ama- 
 ziah, the  father  of  Azariah,  lived  but  fifteen  years,  after  the 
 beginning  of  Jeroboam's  reign,  as  appeal's  from  2  Kings  xiv.  17, 
 then  Azariah  must  begin  his  reign,  not  in  the  twenty-seventh, 
 but,  if  he  succeeded  his  father  immediately,  in  the  sixteenth,  or 
 fifteenth  rather,  of  Jeroboam:  but  our  learned  Dr  Lightfoot  solves 
 this  at  once,  by  supposing,  that  there  was  an  interregnum, 
 wherein  the  throne  was  vacant  eleven,  or  rather  twelve  years, 
 between  the  death  of  Amaziah  and  the  inauguration  of  his  son 
 Azariah,  who  being  left  an  infant  of  four  years  old  when  his  father 
 died,  was  committed  to  the   guardianship  of  the  grandees  of  the 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 607 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 reign  of  Jeroboam  king  of  Israel,  succeeded  his  father, 
 and,  in  the  former  part  of  his  reign,  behaved  well ;  for 
 which  God  prospered  him  in  all  his  undertakings,  and 
 blessed  his  arms  with  great  success  :  for  he  worsted  the 
 Philistines  in  many  battles,  dismantled  several  of  their 
 towns,  and  built  cities  in  the  country  thereabout  to  keep 
 them  in  subjection.  His  next  expedition  was  against 
 the  Arabians  that  were  upon  the  borders  of  Egypt,  and 
 Bgainst  the  Mehunims,  who  lived  in  their  deserts,  whom 
 he  utterly  subdued  ;  and  not  long  after,  so  terrified  the 
 Ammonites,  that  they,  as  the  others  were,  became  tribu- 
 taries to  him.  He  then  repaired  the  walls  of  Jerusalem, 
 and,  at  proper  distances,  built  towers,  from  whence,  " 
 with  engines  that  threw  darts  and  stones,  he  might  be  able 
 to  annoy  an  invader  ;  and,  as  he  was  a  great  lover  of 
 husbandry,  he  employed  several  plowers  and  planters  in 
 the  plains,  vine-dressers  on  the  mountains,  and  shep- 
 herds in  the  valleys,  whereby  he  acquired  considerable 
 wealth.  But  the  chief  glory  of  his  kingdom  lay  in  his 
 army,  which  consisted  of  above  370,000  select  men  under 
 the  command  of  2,000  brave  experienced  officers,  all 
 armed  with  proper  weapons  both  offensive  and  defensive, 
 and  trained  up  in  the  most  perfect  manner  of  martial 
 discipline. 
 
 Thus  prosperous  was  Uzziah  in  every  circumstance  of 
 life,   *   while   Zechariah  lived  and  had  him  under   his 
 
 nation,  who,  during  his  minority,  took  the  administration  of 
 public  a  I  lairs  upon  themselves,  and  when  he  was  become 
 sixteen,  devolved  it  upon  him ;  so  that  when  he  came  into  the 
 full  possession  of  the  throne,  it  was  in  the  seven  and  twentieth 
 year  of  Jeroboam. — Patrick's  Commentary, 
 
 a  This  is  the  first  time  that  we  read  of  any  machine,  either 
 for  besieging  or  defending  towns;  which  is  plainly  the  reason 
 why  sieges  were  of  so  long  a  continuance  before  the  invention  of 
 these.  Homer,  who  is  the  most  ancient  Greek  writer  we  kiiow 
 of  that  treats  of  sieges,  describes  a  kind  of  entrenchment,  though 
 a  poor  one,  some  lines  of  circumvallation,  and  a  ditch  with  pali- 
 sades; but  we  hear  not  one  word  of  any  machines,  such  as  the 
 ballisUe  and  the  catapulta-,  which  were  used  forhurling  stones  and 
 throwing  darts;  and  therefore  we  need  less  wonder  that  the 
 famous  siege  of  Troy  continued  so  long.  Sardanapalus,  king  of  As- 
 syria, maintained  himself  in  Nineveh  for  seven  years,  because  the 
 besiegers,  as  Diodorus  observes,  (b.  2.)  wanted  such  engines  as 
 were  fit  for  demolishing  and  taking  of  cities,  they  being  not  then 
 invented.  Salmanezer  lay  three  years  before  Samaria,  (2  Kings 
 xvii.  5,  C.)  and,  as  some  say,  Psammeticus  (vid.  Aristcas  dc 
 LXX.inlcrp.)  twenty,  before  Azoth.  Now  of  Uzziah  it  is  said, 
 'That  lie  made  in  Jerusalem  engines,  invented  by  cunning 
 men,  to  be  on  the  towers,  and  upon  the  bulwarks',  to  shoot  arrows 
 and  great  stones'  (2  Chron.  xxvi.  15.);  so  that  it  must  needs  be 
 a  mistake,  to  attribute  the  invention  of  the  ballista,  the  scorpia, 
 or  the  onager,  whereof  Ammianus  Marcollinus  (b.  23.  c.  2.)  has 
 given  us  the  descriptions,  to  the  Greeks  or  Romans,  because  we 
 find  them  made  use  of  in  the  east,  before  ever  the  Greeks  had 
 brought  the  military  art  to  any  great  perfection.  Uzziah  was 
 certainly  the  first  inventor  of  them;  and  therefore  it  is  said  that, 
 for  these  and  other  warlike  preparations,  'his  name  was  spread 
 abroad.'  From  this  time  they  began  to  be  employed,  both  in 
 attacking  and  defending  towns ;  and  therefore  we  find  the  pro- 
 phet Ezekiel  describing  the  future  sieges  of  Jerusalem  and  Tyre, 
 where  he  makes  mention  of  battering  rams,  and  engines  of  war, 
 or,  as  it  should  be  rendered,  '  machines  of  cords,'  which  in  all 
 probability  were  what  later  ages  called  their  ballista'  and  cala- 
 pultn;. — Calmct's  Dissertation  on  the  Military  Services  of  the 
 ancient  Hebrews. 
 
 b  Sume  are  of  opinion  that  the  person  here  mentioned  was  a 
 prophet,  and  the  same  with  that  Zechariah  whose  book  of  pro- 
 phecies is  extant  in  the  bible;  but,  as  he  wrote  in  the  reign  of 
 Darius,  it  is  plain  that  he  lived  almost  three  hundred  years  after 
 this.  It  is  not  unlikely,  however,  that  he  was  the  son  of  that 
 Zechariah,  the  son  of  Jehoiada,  who,  by  the  command  of  king 
 Joash,  was  slain  in  the   temple;  that  lie   was    called   after  his 
 
 4G02.  A.  C.  809.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 direction ;  but  when  once  that  faithful  counsellor  died, 
 which  was  in  the  three  and  thirtieth  year  of  his  reign,  he 
 soon  grew  so  c  intoxicated  with  the  thoughts  of  his  power 
 and  greatness,  that  forgetting  himself  he  would  needs 
 intrude  into  the  priestly  office.  Accordingly,  having 
 taken  it  into  his  head  one  day  to  d  offer  incense,  he  went 
 into  the  sanctuary,  and  when  Ahaziah,  and  some  other  of 
 the  priests,  endeavoured  to  dissuade  him  from  it,  he  fell 
 into  a  rage,  and  received  their  remonstrances  with 
 threats.  God,  however,  took  care  to  vindicate  the 
 sacredness  of  the  sacerdotal  office  :  for  the  moment  that 
 he  took  the  censer  in  his  hand,  and  was  going  to  burn 
 incense,  he  was  e  struck  with  a  leprosy,  which  no  art  of 
 man  could  ever  after  cure  ;  so  that,  while  his  son  Jotham, 
 as  his  father's  viceroy,  took  the  public  administration 
 upon  him,  he  was  forced  to  live  in  a  separate  place  by 
 himself;  and,  after  a  reign  of  two  and  fifty  years,  died, 
 and  was  buried,  not  in  the  royal  sepulchres,  but  in  the 
 
 father's  name ;  was  preceptor  to  Uzziah ;  and,  though  not  a  pro- 
 phet, a  man  very  skilful  in  expounding  the  ancient  prophecies, 
 and  giving  instructions  out  of  them,  as  Grotius  understands  it. — 
 Patrick's  and  Calmct's  Cornvientaries. 
 
 c  How  hard  a  matter  is  it,  says  Bishop  Patrick,  hereupon  to 
 bear  great  prosperity  with  moderation,  and  humble  thankfulness! 
 
 d  What  it  was  that  tempted  the  king  to  this  extravagant 
 folly,  it  is  hard  to  imagine ;  but  the  most  likely  conjecture  is, 
 that  he  had  a  vain  ambition  to  imitate  heathen  princes,  who,  in 
 several  countries,  joined  both  the  regal  and  sacerdotal  offices  to- 
 gether. But,  however  it  may  be  in  all  other  countries,  the 
 priesthood  in  Judea  was  confined  to  the  house  of  Aaron  only,  and 
 every  one  that  pretended  to  usurp  that  office,  was,  by  the  law  of 
 the  land,  to  be  put  to  death;  '  for  thou,  and  thy  sons  with  thee,' 
 says  God  to  Aaron,  'shall  keep  your  priest's  office  for  every 
 thing  of  the  altar,  and  within  the  veil,  and  ye  shall  serve.  I 
 have  given  your  priest's  office  unto  you  as  a  service  of  gift:  and 
 the  stranger  that  cometh  nigh  shall  be  put  to  death.'  (Numbers 
 xviii.  7.) 
 
 e  The  punishment  for  such  as  would  intrude  into  divine 
 ministrations  was  capital,  we  see ;  and  therefore  God  smote 
 Uzziah  with  such  a  disease,  as  was  a  kind  of  death ;  because  it 
 separated  the  person  that  was  afflicted  with  it  from  the  commerce 
 and  society  of  men,  even  as  if  he  were  departed  this  world,  and, 
 as  the  Psalmist  expresses  it,  become  '  free  among  the  dead,' 
 (Ps.  lxxxviii.  5.)  But,  besides  the  infliction  of  this  disease, 
 Josephus  tells  us,  "that,  the  very  moment  that  Uzziah  was  going 
 to  burn  incense,  there  happened  a  terrible  earthquake,  and,  as 
 the  roof  of  the  temple  opened  with  the  shock  of  it,  there  passed  a 
 beam  of  the  sun  through  the  cleft,  which  struck  directly  upon  the 
 face  of  this  sacrilegious  prince,  whereupon  he  instantly  became  a 
 leper;  nay,  that  this  earthquake  was  so  very  violent,  that  it  tore 
 asunder  a  great  mountain,  towards  the  west  of  Jerusalem,  and 
 rolled  one  half  of  it  over  and  over  a  matter  of  four  furlongs,  till 
 at  length  it  was  stopped  by  another  mountain,  which  stood  over 
 against  it,  but  choked  up  the  highway,  and  covered  the  king's 
 gardens  all  over  with  dust."'  But  all  this  may  he  justly  suspected. 
 That  there  was  a  great  earthquake  in  the  reign  of  Uzziah,  is 
 evident  from  the  testimony  of  two  prophets,  (Amos  i.  1.  and 
 Zechariah  xiv.  8.)  but  that  it  happened  exactly  when  Uzziah 
 attempted  this  invasion  of  the  priesthood,  is  far  from  being  clear; 
 on  the  contrary,  if  we  will  abide  by  Bishop  Usher's  computation, 
 the  Jewish  historian  must  be  sadly  mistaken.  For  since  the 
 prophet  Amos  tells  us,  that  he  began  to  prophesy  two  years  be- 
 fore this  earthquake  happened,  in  the  reigns  of  I'zziah  king  of 
 Judah,  and  Jeroboam  the  second  king  of  Israel;  and  since  we 
 may  gather  from  the  sailed  history,  that  Jeroboam  died  two  years 
 before  the  birth  of  Jotham  the  son  of  Uzziah;  that  Jeroboam 
 died  in  the  six  and  twentieth  year  of  the  said  I'zziah,  and 
 Jotham  his  son  was  born  in  the  three  and  twentieth  year  thereof, 
 and  yet  was  of  age  sufficient  to  be  made  regent  of  the  kingdom, 
 when  his  lather  was  thus  struck  with  a  leprosy,  which  must  have 
 In  in  several  years  after  Jeroboam's  death,  it  must  needs  follow 
 that  this  earthquake  could  not  happen  at  the  time  which  Josephus 
 assigns,  but  must  have  been  much  later. — Jotephut't  Jewitk 
 Wars,  b.  9.  c.  11.  and  Calmct's-  Commentary  on  2  Chron.  xv.  £>. 
 
608 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Boos  VI. 
 
 A.  C.  1003:   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4fi51.  A.  C.  7S7.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 same  field,  "■  at  some  distance  from  them, because  he  was 
 a  leper,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Jotham. 
 
 During  the  reigr  of  this  Uzziah,  there  happened  some 
 events,  mentioned  in  other  parts  of  Scripture,  which  are 
 not  to  be  found  in  the  books  that  are  purely  historical. 
 Such  are  that  terrible  earthquake  whereof  Amos  '  pro- 
 phesied two  years  before  it  happened  ;  that  sore  plague 
 of  the  locusts,  whereof  Joel  2  gives  us  so  full  and  lively 
 a  description ;  and  that  extreme  drought,  mixed  with 
 fearful  flashes  of  fire,  which  fell  from  heaven,  and,  as 
 the  prophet 3  expresses  it,  '  devoured  all  the  pastures  of 
 the  wilderness,  and  burned  up  all  the  trees  of  the  field.' 
 
 But  that  which  we  are  chiefly  concerned  to  take  notice 
 of,  is  the  succession  of  prophets  in  Israel  and  Judah, 
 whom  God  raised  up  to  give  them  instructions  and  ex- 
 hortations, and  to  denounce  his  threatenings  and  judg- 
 ments against  them,  upon  their  persisting  in  their  impie- 
 ties :  and  these  he  appointed,  not  only  to  warn  them  by 
 word  of  mouth,  as  his  former  prophets  had  done,  but  to 
 commit  their  admonitions  to  writing,  that  posterity  might 
 see  the  ingratitude  of  his  people,  and  all  other  nations, 
 from  their  backslidings  and  punishments,  might  learn 
 not  to  do  so  wickedly. 
 
 The  first  of  these  prophets  was  Hosea,  the  son  of 
 Beeri,  who,  according  to  the  introduction  to  his  book, 
 prophesied  in  the  reigns  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz,  and 
 Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah,  and  in  the  days  of  Jeroboam 
 the  second  king  of  Israel ;  and  consequently  continued 
 to  be  a  prophet  at  least  seventy  years,  unless  we  may 
 suppose,  as  4  some  have  done,  that  this  is  a  spurious 
 title  of  some  ancient  transcribers,  and  that  the  true  be- 
 ginning of  his  work  is  at  the  second  verse,  '  The  begin- 
 ning of  the  word  of  the  Lord  by  Hosea.'  However  this 
 be,  we  may  observe,  that  he  speaks  positively  of  the 
 captivity  of  the  ten  tribes,  and  inveighs  strongly  against 
 their  disorders  ;  that  he  foretells,  that  the  kingdom  of 
 Judah  should  for  some  time  subsist  after  them,  but  that 
 at  length  they  too  should  be  carried  away  captive  be- 
 yond the  Euphrates ;  and  through  the  whole  lays  open 
 the  sins,  and  declares  the  judgments  of  God  against  a 
 people  hardened  and  irreclaimable. 
 
 The  next  prophet  is  Joel,  the  son  of  Pethuel.  He 
 mentions  the  same  judgment  that  Amos  does  ;  and,  under 
 the  idea  of  an  enemy's  army,  represents  those  vast 
 swarms  of  locusts,  which,  in  his  time,  fell  upon  Judea 
 and  occasioned  great  desolation.  He  calls  and  invites 
 the  people  to  repentance,  and  promises  mercy  and  for- 
 giveness to  those  that  will  listen  to  the  call.  He  speaks 
 of  the  teacher  of  righteousness,  whom  God  was  to  send 
 and  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  he  was  to  pour  out  upon 
 all  flesh  ;  and,  in  the  conclusion,  relates  what  glorious 
 things  God  would  do  for  his  church  in  the  times  of  the 
 gospel. 
 
 The  next  prophet  is  Amos ;  for  he  lived  in  the  days 
 of  Uzziah  king  of  Judah,  and  of  Jeroboam  the  second 
 king  of  Israel.     He  begins  his  prophecies  with  threaten- 
 
 1  Chap.  }.  1.      ^  *  Chap.  ii.  2,  &c.  3  Joel  i.  IS. 
 
 *  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Hosea. 
 
 a  Josephus  will  needs  have  it,  that  his  body  was  buried  in  his 
 garden,  in  a  monument  by  itself,  forgetting  very  probably,  what 
 he  told  us  before,  that  these  gardens,  at  this  time,  were  covered 
 all  over  witli  rubbish. — Josephus's  Jewish  ll'urs,  b.  9.  c.  11.  and 
 Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Chron.  xv.  5. 
 
 ings  against  the  neighbouring  nations,  that  were  enemies 
 to  Israel ;  then  reproves  the  people  of  Israel  and  Judah 
 for  their  idolatry,  effeminacy,  and  other  sins  ;  exhorts 
 them  to  repentance,  without  which  their  hypocritical  ser- 
 vices will  do  them  no  good  ;  foretells  their  captivity,  and 
 heavy  judgments  of  God ;  and,  at  last,  speaks  of  the 
 restoration  of  the  church  among  the  Jews,  and  the  happy 
 accession  of  the  Gentiles. 
 
 The  next  prophet  is  Obadiah  ;  for  he  was  contempo- 
 rary with  Hosea,  Joel,  and  Amos.  He  denounces  God's 
 judgments  against  the  Edomites  for  the  mischief  they 
 had  done  to  Judah  and  Jerusalem,  whom  he  promises 
 that  they  should  be  victorious  over  these  Edomites,  and 
 their  other  enemies  ;  and,  at  last,  foretells  their  reforma- 
 tion and  restoration,  and  that  the  kingdom  of  the 
 Messiah  should  be  set  up  by  the  '  bringing  in  of  a  great 
 salvation.' 
 
 The  book  of  Jonah  is  a  history  rather  than  a  pro- 
 phecy ;  and,  if  it  was  written  by  himself,  it  is  a  frank 
 acknowledgment  of  his  own  faults  and  failings,  and  a 
 plain  evidence,  that,  in  this  work,  he  designed  God  s 
 glory,  and  not  his  own.  For  it  contains  remarkable 
 instances  of  human  frailties  in  the  prophet,  of  God's 
 compassion  and  condescension  to  him,  and  a  noble  type 
 of  our  Saviour's  burial  and  resurrection. 
 
 The  other  prophet  that  lived  in  these  times  was  Isaiah, 
 the  son  of  Amos,  whose  prophecies  may  be  divided  into 
 three  parts.  The  first  part  includes  six  chapters  relating 
 to  the  reign  of  Jotham,  the  six  following  chapters  relate 
 to  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  and  all  the  rest  to  the  reign  of 
 Hezekiah.  The  great  design  of  what  he  does,  is  to 
 foretell  the  captivity  of  Babylon,  the  return  of  the  people 
 from  that  captivity,  and  the  flourishing  kingdom  of  the 
 Messiah  :  but  b  the  whole  book  is  highly  serviceable  to 
 the  church  of  God  in  all  ages,  for  conviction  of  sin, 
 direction  in  duty,  and  consolation  in  trouble ;  and  it5 
 author  may  justly  be  accounted  a  great  prophet,  whether 
 we  consider  the  extent  and  variety  of  his  predictions ; 
 the  sublimity  of  the  truths  which  he  reveals  ;  c  the  majesty 
 and  elegance  of  his  style  ;  the  loftiness  of  his  metaphors, 
 or  the  liveliness  of  his  descriptions. d 
 
 b  St  Jerome,  in  his  introduction  to  Isaiah's  prophecy,  tells  us, 
 that  his  writings  are,  as  it  were,  an  abridgment  of  the  holy 
 Scriptures,  and  a  collection  of  all  the  most  uncommon  knowledge 
 that  the  mind  of  man  is  capable  of.  His  words  are,  "  What 
 shall  I  say  of  physics,  ethics,  and  theology?  Whatever  belongs 
 to  the  holy  Scriptures,  whatever  the  tongue  of  man  can  utter, 
 and  the  senses  of  mortals  can  perceive,  is  contained  in  that  vol- 
 ume."— Jerome's  Preface  to  Isaiah. 
 
 c  Grotius  compares  this  prophet  with  the  great  Grecian  ora- 
 tor, Demosthenes;  for  in  him,  says  he,  we  meet  with  all  the 
 purity  of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  as  in  the  other,  there  is  all  the  de- 
 licacy of  the  Attic  taste.  Both  are  sublime  and  magnificent  in 
 their  style,  vehement  in  their  emotions,  copious  in  their  figures, 
 and  very  impetuous,  when  they  set  ofi'  things  of  an  enormous 
 nature,  or  such  as  are  grievous  or  odious.  But  there  is  one 
 thing,  wherein  the  prophet  was  superior  to  the  orator,  and  that  is 
 in  the  honour  of  his  illustrious  birth,  and  relation  to  the  royal 
 family  of  Judah;  and  therefore  what  Quintilian  says  of  Corvinus 
 Messala,  may  be  justly  applied  to  him,  namely,  that  he  speaks 
 in  an  easy  flowing  manner,  and  in  a  style  which  shows  him  to 
 be  a  man  of  quality. — Grotius  on  2  Kings  xix.  2.  and  Quintit. 
 b.  10.  c.  20. 
 
 d  Who  Isaiah  was,  is  uncertain:  the  Jewish  tradition  is  that 
 he  was  of  the  seed-royal,  and  nearly  allied  to  Amaziah;  but  there 
 is  no  proof  of  this  assertion.  Certain  it  is,  he  was  much  at  court, 
 and  his  style  and  manner  refined,  and  particularly  elegant  ami 
 lofty. — Hawcis. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 609 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  46.-)4.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 II. — Difficulties  Obviated  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 St  Paul,  speaking  of  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  and 
 the  seeming  insufficiency  of  the  means  which  God  had 
 employed  to  effect  it,  has  these  remarkable  words  :  l  *  Ye 
 see  your  calling,  brethren,  how  that  not  many  wise  men 
 after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble  are  call- 
 ed ;  but  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  tilings  of  the  world  to 
 confound  the  wise,  the  weak  things  of  the  world  to  con- 
 found the  mighty,  the  base  things  of  the  world,  and 
 things  that  are  despised,  yea,  and  things  that  are  not,  to 
 bring  to  nought  things  that  are,  that  no  flesh  should  glory 
 in  his  presence.'  And  then  proceeding  to  speak  of 
 himself;  2  '  And  I,  brethren,'  says  he,  '  when  I  came  to 
 you,  came  not  with  excellency  of  speech,  or  of  wisdom, 
 declaring  unto  you  the  testimony  of  God  ;  but  was  with 
 you  in  weakness,  and  fear,  and  in  much  trembling :  and 
 my  speech  and  my  preaching  was  not  with  enticing  words 
 of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and 
 of  power,  that  your  faith  should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom 
 of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God.' 
 
 Now,  if  God  in  the  conversion  of  the  world  to  Chris- 
 tianity, made  use  of  instruments  in  themselves  so  incom- 
 petent for  the  work,  lest  the  work  might  be  imputed  to 
 human  powers ;  by  parity  of  reason  we  may  presume, 
 that,  in  the  conversion  of  the  Ninevites,  God  might  not 
 employ  a  prophet  of  the  best  natural  temper  and  quali- 
 fications, since  Isaiah  was  then  of  age,  and  seems  to 
 have  been  better  fitted  for  such  a  mission,  that  the  glory 
 of  the  event  might  not  be  ascribed  to  any  innate  abilities 
 of  the  prophet,  but  to  the  sole  power  of  God  which 
 accompanied  him,  and  3  '  made  the  foolishness  of  his 
 preaching,'  as  the  apostle  expresses  it,  '  effectual  to  save 
 them  that  believed.' 
 
 We  must  not  imagine,  however,  that,  in  his  address  to 
 the  people  of  Nineveh,  the  prophet  had  nothing  to  say  but 
 this  one  sentence,  '  Yet  forty  days,  and  Nineveh  shall  be 
 overthrown.'  This  indeed  was  the  sum  and  substance  of 
 his  preaching,  but  we  may  well  presume  that  he  took 
 frequent  occasions  to  expatiate  upon  it ;  by  reminding 
 them  of  the  number  and  nature,  and  several  aggravations 
 of  their  offences  ;  by  acquainting  them  with  the  holi- 
 ness, justice,  and  omnipotence  of  God;  that  holiness 
 which  could  not  behold  iniquity  without  detestation  ;  that 
 justice  which,  sooner  or  later,  would  not  suffer  it  to  go 
 unpunished ;  and  that  almighty  power,  which  could,  in  a 
 moment,  lay  the  stateliest  cities  in  ashes  ;  by  exhorting 
 them  to  repentance  from  a  dread  of  his  impending  judg- 
 ments ;  and  by  instructing  them  in  the  method  of  pacify- 
 ing his  wrath,  and  affecting  a  reconciliation  with  him. 
 
 Some  of  the  ancients  are  of  opinion  that  Jonah  re- 
 ceived no  orders  from  God  to  limit  the  destruction  of 
 Nineveh  to  forty  days,  because  there  is  no  such  time 
 fixed  in  his  instructions ;  all  that  God  appoints  him  to 
 do  is,  4  '  to  go  unto  Nineveh,  that  great  city,'  as  he  calls 
 it,  '  and  to  preach  unto  it  that  preaching  which  he  should 
 bid  him :'  and  therefore  they  suppose  that  the  space  of 
 forty  days  was  an  addition  of  the  prophet's  own,  and,  for 
 that  reason,  not  exactly  fulfilled  ;  but  there  is  no  occa- 
 
 1  1  Cor.  i.  86,  &c.         2  1  Cor.  ii.  1,  &c. 
 *  Jonah  iii.  2. 
 
 1  Cor.  i.  21. 
 
 sion  for  charging  him  with  any  such  falsification,  since 
 the  comminations  of  God  are  always  conditional,  a  and 
 answer  his  gracious  purposes  much  better  when  they  are 
 averted  than  when  they  are  executed. 
 
 And  indeed,  though  in  this  case  they  were  averted  for 
 a  while,  yet,  when  the  people  relapsed  into  their  former 
 iniquities,  the  prophet's  prediction  did  not  fail  of  its 
 accomplishment.  For,  if  we  take  the  forty  days  to  de- 
 note forty  years,  a  day  for  a  year,  and  the  overthrowing 
 of  Nineveh,  not  to  signify  its  final  destruction,  but  ordy 
 the  subversion  5  of  that  ancient  empire  of  the  Assyrians, 
 which  had  governed  Asia  for  above  1300  years,  and  was 
 destroyed  under  the  effeminate  king  Sardanapalus  ;  then 
 was  the  prophecy  literally  fulfilled,  and  from  its  fulfilling 
 we  may  trace  the  time  of  Jonah's  mission. 
 
 But  though  this  prophecy  of  Jonah  was  not  fulfilled  at 
 the  end  of  forty  days,  as  he  expected,  and  at  the  end  of 
 forty  years  there  was  only  a  destruction  of  the  monarchy, 
 and  not  of  the  city  ;  yet  his  miraculous  preservation  in 
 the  whale's  belly  gave  him  such  credit,  that  it  was  always 
 believed  that  the  time  of  its  accomplishment  Avas  uncer- 
 tain. To  this  purpose  we  find  Tobit 6  giving  his  son 
 Tobias  instructions  to  depart  out  of  Nineveh,  '  because 
 those  things  which  the  prophet  Jonah  spake  should  cer- 
 tainly come  to  pass  :'  and  accordingly',  before  Tobias 
 died,  he  heard  of  the  destruction  of  Nineveh,  which  was 
 taken  by  Nebuchodonosor  and  Ahasuerus  :  7  for  these 
 two  princes  being  related  by  marriage,  entered  into  a 
 confederacy  against  the  Assyrians,  and,  joining  their 
 forces  together,  besieged  this  city,  and,  after  having  taken 
 it  and  slain  Saracus,  the  king  thereof,  they  utterly  de- 
 stroyed it,  and  from  that  time  made  Babylon  the  place  of 
 royal  residence,  and  the  sole  metropolis  of  the  Assyrian 
 monarchy.  Thus  was  the  prediction  of  Jonah,  concerning 
 the  destruction  of  Nineveh,  though  not  in  the  time  which  he 
 had  prefixed,  fulfilled  ;  nor  can  the  delay  of  it  be  looked 
 upon  as  any  breach  of  the  divine  veracity,  whatever  un- 
 easiness it  gave  the  prophet.  The  truth  of  the  matter 
 is, — Jonah  was  a  man  of  an  unhappy  temper,  peevish 
 and  passionate,  and,  in  this  case,  fearful  of  being  ac- 
 counted a  false  prophet,  of  having  his  ministry  exposed 
 to  contempt,  or  his  person  perhaps  to  violence  from  the 
 Ninevites,  because  the  event  did  not  answer  the  predic- 
 tion. And  the  proper  lesson  we  are  to  learn  from  his 
 behaviour  is, — That  the  gift  of  prophecy  does  not  alter 
 men's  natural  tempers,  nor  set  them  above  the  level  of 
 human  frailty  :  for  8  '  we  have  this  treasure,'  as  the  apos- 
 tle speaks,  '  in  earthen  vessels,  that  the  excellency  of 
 the  power  may  be  of  God,  and  not  of  us.' 
 
 That  stratagems  in  war,  and  other  artifices  to  delude 
 and  ensnare  an  enemy,  are  not  prohibited  by  the  lav.  of 
 God,  the  generality  of  casuists  are  agreed ;  and  there- 
 fore, upon  the  supposition  that  Elisha's  speech  to  Ben- 
 hadad's  men  was  framed  on  purpose  to  deceive,  he  did 
 no  more  than  make  use  of  the  common  privilege  which 
 every  nation,  engaged  in  war  one  with  another,  is  per- 
 mitted to  employ  :  but  upon  a  nearer  examination, 
 we    cannot  charge  his  words  with  a  direct   falsehood, 
 
 5  Prideaux's  Connection,  at  the  beginning. 
 s  Tobit  xiv.  S,  &o.  7  Prideaux's  Connection,  unnoClS. 
 
 B  2  Cor.  iv.  7. 
 a  This  may  he  clearly  inferred  from  numerous  instances  re- 
 eorded  in  a&cred  history,  and  is  expressly  declared  in  Jer.  xxiii. 
 7— 10.— Ed. 
 
 4h 
 
610 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  Vl. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 though  we  must  allow  that  there  is  some  ambiguity  in 
 them. 
 
 When  the  prophet  perceived  that  the  Syrian  army  had 
 encompassed  the  place  where  he  abode,  he  went  out  of 
 the  city,  and  told  them,  '  '  This  is  not  the  way,  neither 
 is  this  the  city,'  namely,  where  they  would  find  the  man 
 for  whom  they  were  sent ;  because,  at  that  time,  he  was 
 come  out  of  the  city  ;  and  therefore,  if  they  proceeded 
 in  their  march,  they  would  be  sure  to  miss  him.  But 
 '  follow  me,  and  I  will  bring-  you  to  the  man  whom  ye 
 seek  ;'  and  so  lie  did,  but  not  in  the  manner,  it  must  be 
 owned,  that  they  either  expected  or  desired.  The  whole 
 conduct  of  the  prophet,  therefore,  in  this  respect,  was  no 
 more  than  what  the  practice  of  war  always  allows, 
 namely,  a  feint  to  cover  his  real  designs,  and,  by  coun- 
 terfeit motions  and  false  alarms,  to  draw  the  enemy  into 
 such  intricacies,  that  he  might  come  upon  them,  and  sur- 
 prise them  when  they  least  of  all  thought  of  it. 
 
 The  formality  of  a  lie,  as  some  will  have  it,  does  not 
 consist  so  much  in  saying  what  is  untrue,  as  in  making 
 a  false  representation  of  things  with  a  purpose  to  do 
 hurt :  but  the  prophet's  generous  treatment  of  the  enemy, 
 when  he  had  them  at  his  mercy,  shows  that  he  had  no 
 malignity  in  his  intention,  no  design  to  make  an  advan- 
 tage of  their  deception  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  took  the 
 most  effectual  means,  both  to  cure  their  inveterate 
 hatred  against  the  Israelites,  and  to  reconcile  them  to 
 the  worship  and  service  of  the  true  God,  who  had  wrought 
 such  a  miracle  for  their  conviction,  as  well  as  the  pre- 
 servation of  his  prophet. 
 
 8  '  He  smote  them  with  blindness,  according  to  the 
 word  of  Elisha  :'  but  then  we  are  not  to  imagine  that  this 
 blindness  was  so  total  that  they  quite  lost  the  use  of  their 
 eyes,  but  only  that  it  was  such  a  dimness  and  confusion 
 in  their  sight,  as  hindered  them  from  distinguishing  one 
 object  from  another,  the  city  of  Dothan,  for  instance, 
 from  the  city  of  Samaria ;  even,  in  like  manner,  as  we 
 read  of  the  people  of  Sodom,  that  when  the  angels  3 
 '  smote  them  with  blindness,'  which  they  might  easily  do 
 by  some  small  alteration,  either  in  their  sight,  or  in  the 
 air,  '  they  wearied  themselves  to  find  out  Lot's  door.' 
 They  saw  the  house,  it  seems,  but  did  not  discern  the 
 door,  because  this  sudden  disorder  in  their  imagination 
 might  either  make  the  door  appear  to  them  like  the  solid 
 wall,  or  the  solid  wall  like  so  many  doors. 
 
 This  is  no  more  than  what  happens  to  several  men  in 
 their  liquor ;  that,  though  their  eyes  be  open,  and  can 
 perceive  the  several  objects  that  surround  them,  yet  they 
 cannot  discern  wherein  they  differ.  And  if  we  may  sup- 
 pose that  the  Syrian  army  was  under  the  like  dnptxciot,,  as 
 the  Greeks  very  happily  term  it,  we  need  no  longer  won- 
 der that  they  readily  accepted  of  a  guide,  who  offered 
 his  services,  and  bespoke  them  fair,  whom  they  might 
 indeed  take  for  some  deputy  of  the  town,  with  authority 
 to  deliver  up  the  prophet  to  them,  than  that  a  drunkard, 
 who,  after  a  long  while  having  lost  his  way,  and  found 
 himself  bewildered,  should  be  thankful  to  any  hand  that 
 would  promise  to  conduct  him  safe  home. 
 
 4  That  Hazael  was  never,  in  a  strict  sense,  anointed 
 by  Elijah,  to  be  Benhadad's  successor,  is  evident  from 
 what  appears  of  him  in  sacred  history.     For,  when  he 
 
 2  Kings  vi.  19.  s  Ibid.ver.  IS.  s  Gen.  xix.  11. 
 
 4  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  1  Kings  xix.  15.  and  Scripture 
 
 Vindicated,  part  2. 
 
 4651.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 came  to  consult  Elisha,  concerning  his  master's  illness, 
 which  was  a  considerable  time  after  the  prophet  Elijah's 
 translation,  we  find  by  the  whole  interview,  that  he  was 
 entirely  ignorant  of  his  own  designation  for  the  throne 
 of  Syria,  which  he  could  not  have  been,  had  h<<  been 
 anointed  before  this  time.  Either  therefore  we  muyttake 
 the  word  in  a  figurative  sense,  to  denote  no  more  than 
 God's  purpose  or  determination,  that. Hazael  should  suc- 
 ceed in  the  throne  of  Syria,  to  execute  the  designs  of 
 his  providence  upon  the  people  of  Israel,  even  as  Cyrus, 
 for  the  same  reason,  is  called  5 '  the  Lord's  anointed,' 
 though  he  was  never  properly  anointed  by  God ;  or,  if 
 we  take  it  in  a  literal  sense,  we  must  suppose  some  rea- 
 son why  Elijah  waved  the  execution  of  that  command, 
 even  because  he  foresaw  the  many  sore  calamities  which 
 Hazael,  when  advanced  to  the  crown  of  Syria,  would 
 bring  upon  Israel,  and  thereupon  prevailed  with  God, 
 that  he  might  be  excused  from  that  ungrateful  office,  and 
 that,  in  his  time  at  least,  a  succession  which  would  be 
 attended  with  such  direful  consequences  might  not  com- 
 mence. 
 
 It  may  possibly  be  thought,  indeed,  that  Elisha's  fore- 
 telling his  advancement  to  the  throne  might  be  a  spur 
 and  incitement  to  his  ambition  ;  but  the  means  whereby 
 he  accomplished  his  design  were  entirely  from  his  own 
 wicked  and  corrupt  mind,  which  would  not  stay  for  the 
 ordinary  methods  of  divine  providence  to  bring  it  inno- 
 cently about,  but  chose  rather  to  carve  for  himself,  and, 
 by  murdering  his  master,  to  cut  him  out  a  more  compendi- 
 ous way  of  coming  into  immediate  possession.  And  this 
 solves  the  seeming  difficulty  of  the  prophet's  sending  one 
 answer  to  Benhadad,  and  telling  Hazael  quite  another 
 story  :  for  when  Hazael  understood  that  his  master's  di- 
 sease was  not  mortal,  but  that,  if  no  violence  intervened, 
 he  might  easily  get  over  that  indisposition,  for  that  is 
 the  sense  of  °  '  he  may  certainly  recover  ;'  and,  at  the 
 same  time,  was  told  by  the  prophet,  that  he  would  not, 
 however,  recover,  because  he  foresaw  that  violence  would 
 be  used  to  take  away  his  life,  as  this  is  the  sense  of  '  he 
 shall  surely  die,'  Hazael  went  his  way,  and  not  willing 
 to  trust  Providence  with  his  master's  recovery,  took  care 
 the  next  morning  to  have  him  despatched. 
 
 There  is,  however,  another,  and,  as  some  think,  a  much 
 plainer  interpretation  of  the  prophet's  words  :  for,  since 
 this  is  a  passage  which  admits  of  a  various  lection,  the 
 adverb  lo,  as  it  is  in  the  textual  reading,  signifies  not, 
 but  in  our  translation,  which  in  this  place  follows  the 
 marginal,  it  is  rendered,  to  him  :  so  that,  if  the  He- 
 brew text  be  right,  as  some  learned  men,  upon  examina- 
 tion, have  given  it  the  preference,  the  plain  reading  of 
 the  words  will  be,  '  Go,  say,  thou  shalt  surely  not  live ; 
 for  the  Lord  hath  shewed  me  that  thou  shalt  surely  die.' 
 This  was  the  sense  of  the  prophet's  answer  to  Benhadad; 
 but  Hazael,  who  was  a  wicked  man,  went  and  told  him 
 a  quite  contrary  tiling,  on  purpose  to  lull  him  into  a  state 
 of  security,  that  thereby  he  might  have  a  fairer  opportu- 
 nity of  accomplishing  his  design  upon  him. 
 
 Thus,  whether  the  marginal  or  textual  reading  be 
 right,  and  consequently,  whether  the  prophet's  message 
 to  Benhadad  be  taken  in  an  affirmative  or  negative  sense, 
 he  cannot  justly  be  charged  with  baseness  and  ingrati- 
 tude ;  since,  whether  he  accepted  of  his  present  or  no,  it 
 
 5  Is.  xlv.  1. 
 
 6  2  Kings  viii.  10. 
 
Set.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 6U 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M, 
 is  manifest  that  he  could  not  return  him  any  false  and 
 delusive  answer  :  and  yet  the  more  probable  opinion  is, 
 that,  in  conformity  to  his  practice,  in  the  case  of  Naaman 
 the  leper,  he  did,  upon  this  occasion,  'reject  the  good 
 things  of  Damascus '  which  Benhadad  sent,  because  the 
 same  reasons  which  induced  him  to  refuse  them  from 
 the  hand  of  Naaman  were  still  in  force,  and  might 
 equally  prevail  with  him  not  to  accept  them  from  the 
 hand  of  Hazael. 
 
 Thus,  with  regard  to  Benhadad  king  of  Syria,  the 
 prophet  stands  clear  of  any  imputation  of  falsehood  or 
 ingratitude  ;  and,  in  like  manner,  if  we  consider  the 
 matter  as  it  stood,  between  him  and  Joash  king  of 
 Israel,  we  shall  find  no  unbecoming  passion  or  peevish- 
 ness in  his  conduct,  but  a  great  deal  of  zeal  and  con- 
 cern for  the  honour  both  of  his  king  and  country.  For 
 whether  king  Joash  before  this  interview  with  Elisha, 
 was  acquainted  or  not  with  the  nature  of  parabolical 
 actions,  whereby  prophets  more  especially  were  accus- 
 tomed to  represent  future  events  ;  by  the  comment  which 
 Elisha  made  upon  the  first  arrow  that  he  shot,  which  he 
 calls  l  '  the  arrow  of  deliverance  from  Syria,'  he  could 
 not  but  perceive  that  this  was  a  symbolical  action,  and 
 intended  to  prefigure  his  victories  over  that  nation  ;  and 
 therefore,  as  the  first  action  of  shooting  was  a  kind  of 
 prelude  to  the  war,  he  could  not  but  understand  farther, 
 even  though  the  prophet  had  said  nothing  to  him,  that 
 this  second  action  of  striking  the  ground  with  the  arrow, 
 was  to  portend  the  number  of  the  victories  he  was  to 
 obtain.  2  But  then,  if  we  may  suppose  with  the  gener- 
 ality of  interpreters,  that  the  prophet  had  apprised  him 
 beforehand,  that  such  was  the  symbolical  intent  of  what 
 he  now  put  upon  him ;  that  the  oftener  he  smote  upon 
 the  ground,  the  more  would  their  victories  be  which  his 
 arms  should  obtain  ;  that  this  was  the  decree  of  heaven  ; 
 and  that  thus,  in  some  measure,  his  success  in  Avar  was 
 put  in  his  own  power ;  the  king's  conduct  was  utterly 
 inexcusable,  if,  diffident  of  the  prophet's  promise,  and 
 considering  the  vast  strength  of  the  kings  of  Syria  more 
 than  the  power  of  God  that  was  engaged  on  his  side,  he 
 stopped  his  hand  after  he  had  smitten  thrice  ;  supposing 
 indeed,  that  the  prediction  would  never  have  been  ful- 
 filled, had  he  gone  on  and  smitten  upon  the  earth  oftener. 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  the  prophet  had  just  reason 
 to  be  offended  at  the  king  for  not  believing  God,  who 
 had  done  so  many  signal  miracles  in  favour  of  the 
 Israelites ;  for  not  believing  him,  who,  according  to  his 
 own  acknowledgment,  had  been  a  constant  defender  of 
 the  state,  3  '  the  chariot  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen 
 thereof,'  and  now,  in  his  dying  hours,  was  full  of  good 
 wishes  and  intentions  for  his  country ;  and,  by  this  un- 
 belief of  his,  for  eclipsing  the  glory  of  his  own  arms, 
 and  curtailing  the  number  of  his  victories  :  for  4  '  thou 
 shouldest  have  smitten  five  or  six  times,'  says  the  prophet 
 to  the  king,  '  then  shouldest  thou  have  smitten  Syria,  till 
 thou  hadst  consumed  it ;  whereas  now  thou  shalt  smite 
 Syria  but  thrice.' 
 
 '  '  Behold  I  send  unto  you  prophets,  and  wise  men, 
 and  scribes,'  says  our  blessed  Saviour,  upbraiding  the 
 Jews  with  their  bloody  persecutions  of  the  righteous, 
 
 .  4G54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 1  2  Kings  xiii.  17. 
 
 *  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  2  Kings  xiii.  19. 
 
 8  Ibid.  ver.  14.  «  Ibid.  ver.  19.  •  Mat.  xxiii.  3J,  &c\ 
 
 '  and  some  of  them  ye  shall  kill  and  crucify,  and  some 
 of  them  ye  shall  scourge  in  your  synagogues,  and  perse- 
 cute them  from  city  to  city  ;  that  upon  you  may  come 
 all  the  righteous  blood  shed  upon  the  earth,  from  the 
 blood  of  righteous  Abel,  unto  the  blood  of  Zechariah, 
 the  son  of  Barachiah,  whom  ye  slew  between  the  temple 
 and  the  altar  :'  and  hereupon  some  names  of  great  autho- 
 rity have  inferred,  that  the  Zechariah,  son  of  the  high 
 priest,  whom  Joash,  king  of  Judah,  commanded  to  be 
 slain,  was  the  same  with  the  person  whom  our  Saviour 
 here  mentions  ;  for  though  he  calls  his  father  by  a  differ- 
 ent name,  Barachiah,  and  not  Jehoiada,  yet  this  he 
 might  do,  say  they,  to  denote  the  divine  graces,  which 
 were  so  conspicuous  in  him ;  for  so  the  word  Barachiah 
 means. 
 
 It  must  be  observed,  however,  that  as  there  is  a  differ- 
 ence in  these  two  persons,  not  only  in  regard  to  their 
 father's  names,  but  to  the  place  likewise  where  they  suffer- 
 ed, the  one  6  '  between  the  temple  and  the  altar,'  that  is,  in 
 the  court  of  the  priests,  and  the  other  7 '  in  the  court  of  the 
 house  of  the  Lord,'  that  is,  in  the  court  of  the  Israelites, 
 where  he  was  mounted  on  high,  and  inveighing  against 
 their  idolatry,  there  are  some  grounds  to  believe,  that 
 the  Zechariah  in  the  gospel  is  not  the  same  with  him 
 whose  death  we  find  recorded  in  the  Chronicles  of  the 
 kings  of  Judah. 
 
 Our  blessed  Saviour,  it  must  be  owned,  not  only  fore- 
 told the  utter  excision  of  the  Jews,  but  described  like- 
 wise several  preceding  calamities  almost  in  the  very 
 manner  wherein  their  own  historian  has  related  them. 
 Now,  in  the  times  of  the  Jewish  war,  Josephus  8  makes 
 mention  of  one  Zacharias,  and  gives  us  these  ircum- 
 stances  concerning  his  murder  :  That  he  was  the  son  of 
 one  Baruch,  a  man  of  the  first  rank,  and  of  great  autho- 
 rity, virtue,  and  wealth,  a  friend  to  all  good  men,  and  a 
 constant  enemy  to  the  wicked  ;  that  his  son  Zacharias 
 was,  by  the  zealots  of  that  time,  looked  upon  as  a  man 
 so  very  popular,  that  they  could  not  think  themselves 
 safe,  without  taking  away  his  life  ;  that  to  this  purpose 
 they  brought  him  before  a  sham  court  of  their  own  erect- 
 ing, where  they  accused  him  of  a  conspiracy  to  betray 
 Jerusalem  to  the  Romans,  and  of  holding  a  criminal 
 correspondence  with  Vespasian ;  that  upon  his  trial,  his 
 innocence  appeared  so  clear,  and  the  accusations  against 
 him  so  false  and  malicious,  that  their  own  court,  contrary 
 to  their  expectation,  acquitted  him  ;  but  that,  after  he 
 was  acquitted,  two  ruffians  of  their  company  fell  upon 
 him,  and,  having  murdered  him  in  the  middle  of  the 
 temple,  threw  his  dead  body  down  the  precipice  whereon 
 it  stood. 
 
 This  is  the  person,  as  others  imagine,  that  our  Saviour 
 intends;  for  as  he  begins  with  Abel,  the  first  instance  of 
 a  person  suffering  by  violence,  it  is  but  reasonable,  they 
 think,  that  he  should  conclude  with  one  of  the  latest 
 among  the  Jews  while  their  government  subsisted  ;  and 
 therefore  they  look  upon  our  Lord's  words,  not  as  a 
 recital  of  what  had  been  done,  but  a  prediction  of  what 
 would  be  done  ;  and  a  glorious  evidence  it  is  of  his  divine 
 omniscience,  which  could  foretell  the  names  both  of  father 
 and  son,  above  forty  years  before  the  event  happened. 
 
 However  this  be,  we  must  not  accuse  the  father  of 
 
 u  Mat.  xxiii.  .35.  7  2  Chron.  xxiv  21. 
 
 "  History  of  the  Jewish  Wars,  b.  1.  c.  5 
 
612 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 that  Zacharias,  who  died  a  martyr  in  the  reign  of  Joash 
 king  of  Judah,  of  showing  a  busy  and  pragmatical  spirit, 
 in  placing  this  Joash,  when  a  child,  upon  the  throne  of  his 
 ancestors.  Jehoiada,  as  he  was  high  priest,  had  a  large 
 authority  even  in  civil  affairs  ;  1  the  dignity  of  his  station 
 set  him  at  the  head  of  a  very  powerful  body  of  men,  the 
 priests  and  Levites  ;  and  his  quality,  as  first  judge  and 
 president  of  the  great  council  of  the  nation,  gave  him  a 
 right  to  defend  oppressed  innocence,  and  made  it  his 
 duty  to  oppose  the  unjust  usurpation  of  Athaliah,  who 
 had  no  pretence  of  claim  to  the  crown,  and  was  descend- 
 ed likewise  from  a  wicked  family,  which  God  had  parti- 
 cularly devoted  to  destruction. 
 
 2  The  constitution  of  the  nation  moreover  was  such, 
 that  the  crown,  by  divine  appointment,  was  appropriat- 
 ed to  the  sons  of  David ;  and  therefore  the  hereditary 
 right  was  inherent  in  him  whom  he  had  set  up,  whose 
 aunt  he  had  married,  whose  kinsman  he  was  by  birth  as 
 well  as  marriage,  and  who  upon  these  accounts,  as  well 
 as  all  necessary  qualifications  for  so  high  a  trust,  was  the 
 properest  guardian  of  the  succession.  For  he  had  a  large 
 share  of  wisdom  and  experience,  an  ardent  love  for  the 
 public  good,  courage  and  activity  in  his  complexion, 
 and  a  solid  piety  towards  God  ruling  in  his  heart ;  and 
 yet  he  did  not  act  alone  in  this  important  affair,  but  had 
 the  consent  and  concurrence  of  the  chief  officers,  both 
 civil  and  ecclesiastic,  the  special  motion  and  assistance 
 of  God's  blessed  Spirit,  and,  as  we  may  suppose,  the 
 direction  and  encouragement  of  the  principal  prophets 
 that  were  then  alive. 
 
 His  son  indeed  was  but  badly  requited  for  all  the 
 care  which  his  father  had  taken  in  setting  the  crown  upon 
 young  Joash,  when,  in  his  reign,  and  by  his  orders,  he 
 was  stoned  to  death,  and  as  he  was  expiring,  cried  out, 
 3  '  Lord,  look  upon  it,  and  requite  it.'  But  we  must  not 
 by  these  words  imagine  that  he  died  with  a  spirit  of 
 revenge,  for  far  be  it  from  so  good  a  man,  but  that,  by 
 the  spirit  of  prophecy,  he  only  foretold,  that  it  would 
 not  be  long  before  God  would  find  out  some  means  of 
 punishing  the  king  for  his  barbarous  usage  of  him  ;  which 
 accordingly  came  to  pass  ;  for  in  the  following  verses 
 we  read,  that  4  '  at  the  end  of  the  year,  the  host  of  Syria 
 came  up  against  him,'  and  not  long  after  that,  5 '  his 
 own  servants  conspired  against  him,  and  slew  him  on  his 
 bed.' 
 
 The  spirit  of  the  gospel,  it  must  he  owned,  is  of  a 
 much  more  gentle  and  forgiving  temper  than  that  of  the 
 law,  under  which  we  meet  with  several  such  imprecations, 
 especially  in  the  Psalmist,  as  cannot,  without  violence, 
 admit  of  any  other  construction.  a   Our  blessed  Saviour, 
 
 1  Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Kings  xi.  4. 
 1  Poole's  Annotations.  3  2  Chron.  xxiv.  22. 
 
 4  Ibid.  ver.  23.  5  Ibid.  ver.  25. 
 
 a  It  must  lie  confessed  that,  at  first  sight,  these  imprecations 
 appear  cruel  and  vindictive,  irreconcilable  with  the  gentle 
 spirit  of  piety  and  religion;  and  some  unhesitatingly  acknow- 
 ledging them  to  be  indefensible  on  Christian  principles,  rest  the 
 defence  solely  on  their  accordance  with  the  character  of  the 
 Jewish  dispensation;  which,  say  they,  did  not  inculcate  that 
 cordial  forgiveness  of  injuries,  and  even  love  of  our  enemies, 
 which  form  an  essential  and  peculiar  doctrine  of  the  gospel.  In 
 tin's  representation  the  inquirer  will  not  be  disposed  to  acquiesce, 
 when  he  reflects  that  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  do  forcibly  enjoin 
 the  duties  of  forgiving  injuries,  Exod.  xii.  49;  xxiii.  4,  5;  Lev. 
 xix.  17,  18;  Dent,  xxxii.  35;  Prov.  xi.  17;  xix.  11;  xx.  22; 
 xxiv.  29;  Zech.  vii.  10;  of  doing  good  to  enemies,  Exod  xxiii. 
 4,  5;  Prov.  xxv    21;  Jer.  xxix.  7:  and  of  cultivating  mutual 
 
 4S54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 in  his  reasoning  with  the  Jews,  tells  them, 6  that  Moses 
 did  indulge  them  in  some  cases,  '  because  of  the  hardness 
 of  their  hearts  ;'  not  that  God  ever  did,  or  ever  will  hu- 
 mour any  man,  because  he  is  obstinate  and  obdurate  ; 
 
 6  Mat.  xix.  8. 
 
 kindness  and  good  will,  Exod.  xxii.  21 — 24;  Lev.  xix.  17,  IS, 
 34;  xxv.  35;  Deut.  x.  19;  Prov.  xv.  17;  xvii.  17;  xviii.  24; 
 xxvii.  10;  David,  the  sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel,  extols  and  re- 
 commends benevolence  and  mercy,  forgiveness  and  kindness,  to 
 enemies,  Ps.  xv.  5;  xxvii.  2,  et  seq. ;  xxxiv.  14;  xxxvii.  1,  8, 
 21,  26;  xxxviii.  12 — 14;  xxxix.  1;  xl.  1,  3;  xciv.  1 ;  ci.  5; 
 cix.  4,  5;  cxii.  5,  9;  cxx.  6,  7;  exxxiii.  1 — 3;  and  his  own 
 conduct  afforded  a  noble  exemplification  of  these  virtues,  as  will 
 be  apparent  by  consulting  the  following  passages:  Ps.  xxxv.  12 
 — 15;  1  Sam.  xxiv.  1,  et  seq.;  xxvi.  1,  et  seq.  2  Sam.  i.  4,  et 
 seq. ;  iv.  8 — 12;  xvi.  7—11;  xix.  21 — 23.  It  cannot  then  be 
 credited  that  one  so  distinguished  for  tenderness  and  benevolence 
 of  heart,  as  well  as  for  pre-eminent  piety,  could  utter  any  thing 
 in  direct  opposition  to  those  feelings  of  mercy  and  forgiveness 
 which  he  both  highly  recommended,  and  exhibited  in  his  own 
 practice.  Independently  of  this  we  may  rest  assured  that  no 
 unmerciful  and  revengeful  sentiment  was  ever  suggested  by  the 
 Holy  Spirit,  or  ever  found  entrance  into  a  work  of  inspiration. 
 From  these  observations  we  may  with  certainty  infer  that  the  pas- 
 sages in  question,  however  they  may  appear,  were  undoubtedly  not 
 intended  to  convey  any  bitter  and  unrelenting  malediction.  Nor  will 
 they  be  deemed  to  do  so,  provided  due  allowance  be  made  for  the 
 bold  phraseology  of  oriental  poetry,  which  must  generally  be  receiv- 
 ed with  considerable  abatement ;  and  provided  also,  they  be  under- 
 stood with  the  reservation  which  ought  to  accompany  all  our 
 wishes  and  addresses  to  the  Deity,  namely,  that  he  would  grant 
 them  only  so  far  as  may  be  consistent  with  his  will  and  provi- 
 dence. If  the  imprecative  parts  of  the  book  of  Psalms  be  taken 
 with  these  limitations,  as  in  reason  they  ought,  they  will  be  found 
 in  substance  merely  to  express  a  wish  that  the  wicked  men  spoken 
 of  might  receive  the  just  recompence  of  their  deeds,  and  that  the 
 punishment  they  deserved  might  speedily  overtake  them,  if  such 
 were  the  will  of  God.  The  impious  and  transgressors  are  those 
 alone  upon  whom  the  Psalmist  imprecates  the  Divine  vengeance; 
 and  there  is  nothing  of  vindictive  feeling  in  praying  for  that 
 which  he  believed  the  Divine  justice,  as  well  as  the  Divine  pro- 
 mise were  engaged  to  inflict;  while  at  the  same  time  his  entire 
 confidence  in  the  absolute  perfections  of  the  Supreme  Being  affords 
 ample  evidence  that  he  calls  for  this  vengeance  only  so  far  as 
 might  be  accordant  with  the  divine  attributes  of  wisdom,  good- 
 ness, and  equity.  A  strong  confirmation  of  this  reasoning  is 
 supplied  by  Ps.  xxviii.  4,  5,  where  he  prays  the  Almighty  to 
 '  give  them  according  to  their  deeds,  according  to  the  wicked- 
 ness of  their  endeavours ;  to  give  them  after  the  work  of  their 
 hands;  to  render  them  their  desert;'  and  he  immediately  sub- 
 joins as  a  reason  for  the  petition,  and  a  vindication  of  it,  '  because 
 they  regard  not  the  works  of  the  Lord,  nor  the  operation  of  his 
 hands,  he  shall  (will)  destroy  them,  and  not  build  them  up.' 
 Such  imprecative  addresses  are  in  reality  the  expression  of  an 
 earnest  desire  that  the  will  of  God  may  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is 
 in  heaven,  and  that,  if  it  seemed  good  unto  him,  he  would  assert 
 his  own  honour  as  well  by  the  punishment  of  the  iniquitous  as  by 
 the  preservation  of  the  righteous.  The  persons  to  whom  the  im- 
 precations refer,  were  inveterate  adversaries,  plotting  against  the 
 life  of  the  Psalmist,  and  maliciously  intent  upon  effecting  his 
 ruin.  To  pray  to  be  rescued  from  their  wicked  devices,  was 
 clearly  lawful ;  and,  considering  their  numbers  and  persevering 
 malignity,  his  escape  might  seem  utterly  impracticable  without 
 their  entire  overthrow  or  extirpation;  a  prayer  for  their  destruc- 
 tion, therefore,  was  equivalent  to  a  prayer  for  his  own  preserva- 
 tion and  deliverance.  Besides,  they  were  for  the  most  part  not 
 only  personal  enemies,  but  hostile  to  the  people  of  Israel,  rebels 
 to  their  heavenly  king,  and  violators  of  his  commands.  To  desire 
 the  punishment  of  such  characters  arose,  it  may  fairly  be  pre- 
 sumed, not  from  personal  vindictive  feelings,  but  from  a  regard 
 to  religion,  and  hatred  of  iniquity;  and  was  in  fact  tantamount 
 to  desiring  the  Almighty  to  vindicate  his  glory  by  inflicting  the 
 chastisements,  which  they  deserved,  and  which  he  has  denounced 
 against  the  proud  contemners  of  his  laws.  By  many  writers  the 
 passages  objected  to  are  explained  as  predictions ;  and  this  is  not 
 at  variance  with  the  Hebrew  idiom;  which  admits,  under  some 
 circumstances,  the  use  of  the  imperative  for  the  future   as  Ps. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 613 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  HI 
 
 but  the  sense  of  the  word  is,  '  that  God  therefore  con-  | 
 nived  at  some  things,  because  the  dispensation  under 
 which  they  lived  wanted  proper  efficacy  to  work  their 
 hearts  to  a  greater  softness.  We  are  not  therefore  to 
 wonder  that  we  find  some  disparity  in  the  behaviour  of  a 
 Christian  and  Jewish  martyr  ;  but  that  such  prophetical 
 declarations,  concerning  the  future  punishment  of  ene- 
 mies and  persecutors,  were  not  thought  wicked  and 
 uncharitable,  even  under  a  more  perfect  dispensation,  we 
 have  the  example  of  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  to 
 evince  ;  who,  speaking  of  Alexander  the  coppersmith, 
 who  had  greatly  opposed  him,  *  '  the  Lord  reward  him,' 
 says  he,  '  according  to  his  works  ;'  where  it  is  to  be  ob- 
 served that  the  king's  manuscript  reads  dvcioaau ,  and 
 not  drraoa'/},  that  is,  shall  or  will  reward,  and  most  of 
 the  ancient  commentators  have  remarked,  that  this  is  not 
 an  imprecation,  but  a  prediction  only,  not  unbecoming 
 an  apostle. 
 
 What  God  says  of  the  king  of  Assyria,  whom  he  calls 
 '  the  rod  of  his  anger,  and  the  staffof  his  indignation,'  is 
 not  inapplicable  to  Jehu,  after  he  was  advanced  to  the 
 throne  of  Israel :  '  1  sent  him  against  the  people  of  my 
 wrath  to  tread  them  down,  like  mire  of  the  streets,  how- 
 beit,  he  meant  not  so,  neither  did  his  heart  think  so, 
 but  it  was  in  his  heart  to  destroy,  and  cut  off  nations  not  a 
 few.'  Jehu  indeed  made  great  ostentation  of '  his  zeal  for 
 the  Lord,'  and  declared  that,  during  his  administration,3 
 
 1  Young's  Sermons.  *  2  Tim.  iv.  14 
 
 3  Whitby's  Commentary  on  the  New  Testament. 
 xxxvii.  27;  Gen.  xx.  7;  xlii.  18;  xlv.  8;  Prov.  iii.  4;  iv.  4; 
 and  the  employment  of  the  imperative  mood,  when  declaring  fu- 
 ture events,  is  not  unusual  with  the  sacred  writers,  as  in  Is.  vi. 
 10;  viii.  9,  10;  ix.  3;  xvii.  1 ;  xxix.  9;  Jer.  i.  10;  Ezek.  xliii.  3. 
 In  some  instances,  a  prayer  or  wish  for  the  punishment  of  sinners 
 may  be  nearly  equivalent  to  a  prediction,  inasmuch  as  it  is 
 founded  on  the  belief,  and  meant  to  imply,  that,  according  to 
 God's  moral  government  of  the  world,  punishment  most  certainly 
 awaits  them.  Some  of  the  imprecations  in  the  Psalms  may,  then, 
 he  understood  as  declarative  of  the  just  judgments  of  God,  which 
 would  inevitably  fall  upon  the  impious;  but  in  others,  and  per- 
 haps most  of  them,  both  the  natural  construction  of  the  sentences, 
 and  the  full  force  and  propriety  of  the  expressions,  require  them 
 to  be  taken  in  an  impreeative  sense.  To  explain  them  in  any 
 other  sense  is  doing  violence  to  the  laws  of  grammatical  interpre- 
 tation; yet  even  in  this  light,  considered  as  imprecations,  they 
 amount  to  no  more  than  a  wish  that  the  impious  may  be  dealt 
 with  according  to  the  eternal  and  unalterable  laws  of  divine  jus- 
 tice, that  they  may  openly  and  before  the  world  receive  the 
 penalties  of  crime,  provided  it  be  the  will  of  God;  which  surely 
 is  neither  an  unnatural  nor  unreasonable  wish  in  those,  who  an- 
 xiously seek  the  punishment  of  vice,  and  the  maintenance  of  true 
 religion  and  virtue.  In  the  Psalmist,  moreover,  it  is  a  wish  not 
 proceeding  from  a  desire  to  gratify  a  personal  and  vindictive 
 feeling,  but  partly  from  a  desire  of  self-preservation,  and  partly 
 from  anxiety  to  see  the  worship  and  tjlory  of  God  triumphant 
 over  all  enemies.  Imprecations,  therefore,  made  with  the  limita- 
 tions, and  originating  in  the  motives  just  mentioned,  so  far  (rata 
 being  liable  to  the  charge  of  maliciousness  and  revenge,  are  in 
 accordance  with  the  purest  spirit  of  religion,  and  with  the  exer- 
 cise of  the  most  extensive  charity.  Of  all  those  tremendous  im- 
 precations which  appear  in  our  common  English  version  of  Dent, 
 xxvii.  15 — 26,  there  is  not  one  authorized  by  the  original.  The 
 Hebrew  texts  express  no  kind  of  wish,  but  are  only  so  many  de- 
 nunciations of  the  displeasure  of  God  against  those  who  either 
 were  or  should  be  guilty  of  the  sins  therein  mentioned,  and  of  the 
 judgments  which  they  must  expect  to  be  indicted  upon  them, 
 unless  prevented  by  a  timely  and  sincere  repentance.  And 
 agreeably  to  this  view,  the  sacred  text  should  have  been  rendered 
 '  cursed  they,'  or  '  cursed  are  they,' and  not 'cursed  be  they,' 
 in  the  sense  of  Let  them  be  cursed  ;  the  word  be,  though  inserted 
 in  our  translation,  having  nothing  answerable  to  it  in  the  Hebrew. 
 —  Home's  Introduction. — En. 
 
 4654.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 '  there  should  fall  to  the  earth  nothing  of  what  he  had 
 said  concerning  the  house  of  Ahab  ;'  and  it  must  be  ac- 
 knowledged, that  for  his  performance  of  the  divine 
 commands  in  this  regard,  4  he  received  commendations 
 from  God,  and  a  settlement  of  his  family  in  the  throne 
 of  Israel  for  four  successions  ;  and  yet  we  may  say  of 
 him,  '  that  he  meant  not  so,  neither  did  his  heart  think 
 so  :'  he  was  still  a  bad  man,  though  '  he  did  well  in  exe- 
 cuting that  which  was  right  in  God's  eyes,1  as  to  the 
 abolishment  of  the  worship  of  Baal ;  s  but  his  obstinate 
 persistance  in  the  sin  of  Jeroboam  may  be  justly  all 
 against  him,  as  an  argument  of  his  false -heartedness  in 
 all  his  other  actions. 
 
 Why  he  continued  in  this  kind  of  idolatry,  the  reasons 
 were  much  the  same  with  him,  that  they  were  with  the 
 first  institutor  of  it, — lest,  by  permitting  his  subjects  to 
 go  to  the  place  appointed  for  divine  worship,  he  might 
 open  a  door  for  their  return  to  their  obedience  to  the 
 house  of  David;  and  not  only  so,  but  disoblige  likewise 
 a  great  part  of  the  nobility  of  the  nation,  who,  by  this 
 time,  had  been  long  accustomed,  and  were  warmly 
 affected  to  the  worship  of  the  golden  calves  :  herein, 
 however,  he  made  a  plain  discovery  of  his  sin  and  folly, 
 in  not  daring  to  trust  God  with  the  keeping  of  his  king- 
 dom, though  it  was  from  his  kindness  and  donation  that 
 he  had  it,  and  in  apprehending  any  danger  from  die 
 house  of  David,  or  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  which  were 
 both  now  in  so  weak  and  declining  a  condition,  that  they 
 were  much  more  likely  to  be  swallowed  up  by  him. 
 
 6  The  truth  is,  Jehu  was  a  wicked,  bold,  furious,  and 
 implacable  man ;  but  a  man  of  this  complexion,  consi- 
 dering the  work  he  was  to  be  set  about,  was  a  proper 
 instrument  to  be  employed  ;  and  so  far  is  it  from  tending 
 to  the  reproach,  that  it  is  infinitely  to  the  glory  of  God, 
 that  he  can  make  use  of  such  boisterous  and  unruly  pas- 
 sions of  mankind  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  just 
 designs,  according  to  the  observation  of  the  royal  Psal- 
 mist, 7  '  Surely  the  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  thee,  and 
 the  remainder  of  his  wrath  shalt  thou  restrain.'  This 
 he  plainly  did  in  the  case  of  Jehu  ;  for  after  he  had  set- 
 tled him  in  the  possession  of  a  kingdom,  and  still  found 
 that  he  persisted  in  his  political  idolatry,  he  brought 
 down  the  king  of  Syria  upon  him,  "  '  who  smote  the  coasts 
 of  Israel,'  and  quite  wasted  all  that  part  of  his  kingdom 
 which  lay  beyond  the  river  Jordan. 
 
 There  is  this  to  be  said,  however,  concerning  Jehu's 
 cutting  oft'  Ahaziah,  and  9  the  other  branches  of  his 
 family,  that  though  his  primary  intent  in  doing  it  was  to 
 secure  himself  in  the  possession  of  the  kingdom,  against 
 all  claims  that  might  come  from  the  house  of  Ahab;  yet 
 did  he  not  act  entirely  contrary  to  his  commission,  be- 
 cause 10  Ahaziah  was  the  son  of  Athaliah,  the  daughter  of 
 Ahab,  and  the  order  of  God  was,  "  '  that  the  whole  house 
 of  Ahab  should  perish  ;'  but  then  the  question  is,  where  it 
 was  that  Ahaziah  was  slain?  because  in  the  two  accounts 
 that  we  have  of  his  death,  there  seems  to  be  some  repug- 
 nancy. The  account  which  we  have  in  the  second  book 
 of  Kings  runs  thus: — 12  '  When  Ahaziah  saw  the  death  of 
 Jehoram  king  of  Israel,  he  iled  by  the  way  of  the  garden- 
 
 •  g  Kings  X.  10.       s  Ibid.  ver.  29.     «  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 I  IV  Ixxvi.    10.  82  Kings  x.  32. 
 
 "J  Poole's  Annotations  on  2  Kings  x.  14,     "'  2  Kings  viii.  18. 
 
 >'  2  Kings  ix.  8.  « Ibid.  ver.  87. 
 
614 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4G54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 house,  and  Jehu  followed  after  him,  and  said,  smite  him 
 also  in  his  chariot :  and  they  did  so,  at  the  going  up  to 
 Gur,  which  is  by  Ibleani,  and  he  fled  to  Megiddo,  and 
 there  died  :'  but  in  the  book  of  Chronicles  it  is  said,  that 
 1 '  when  Jehu  was  executing  judgment  upon  the  house  of 
 Aliab,  and  found  the  princes  of  Judah,  even  the  sons  of 
 the  brethren  of  Ahaziah,  that  ministered  unto  Ahaziah,  he 
 slew  them.  And  he  sought  Ahaziah,  and  they  caught  him, 
 (for  he  was  hid  in  Samaria,)  and  brought  him  to  Jehu, 
 and  when  they  had  slain  him,  they  buried  him.' 
 
 Now,  in  order  to  reconcile  the  different  accounts  of  the 
 same  event,  Ave  must  observe,  2  that  as  one  great  end  of 
 writing  the  book  of  Chronicles,  was  to  supply  such  mat- 
 ters as  had  been  omitted  in  the  book  of  Kings ;  so  this 
 account  of  the  death  of  Ahaziah,  in  the  latter,  is  very 
 short,  and  included  in  the  story  of  Jehoram,  that  the 
 reader,  at  one  and  the  same  view,  as  it  were,  might  per- 
 ceive in  what  manner  it  was  that  both  these  princes  fell ; 
 but  in  the  former  it  is  told  more  at  large  ;  and  therefore, 
 to  complete  the  history,  we  must  take  in  both  accounts, 
 and  from  thence  we  may  gather, — that  upon  seeing  Jeho- 
 ram mortally  wounded,  Ahaziah  turned  his  chariot,  and 
 made  the  best  of  his  way  to  Samaria,  in  order  to  escape 
 into  his  own  kingdom, — but  finding  the  passes  too  nar- 
 rowly guarded,  he  thought  proper  to  conceal  himself  in 
 the  town,  in  hopes  of  a  better  opportunity  ;  that  Jehu, 
 in  the  mean  time,  coming  to  Samaria  and  having  intelli- 
 gence that  Ahaziah  was  lurking  there,  ordered  that 
 diligent  search  should  be  made  for  him,  and  when  he 
 was  found,  that  he  should  be  carried  to  Gur,  the  place, 
 in  all  probability,  where  his  father  Joram  had  slain  all 
 his  brethren,  and  there  be  killed  in  his  chariot,  that  so  his 
 servants  might  immediately  carry  off  his  corpse,  and  bury 
 it.  But  as  Jehu's  order  to  the  officers  that  were  intrust- 
 ed with  the  execution,  was  only,  that  they  should  smite 
 him,  they  thought  it  enough  to  give  him  a  mortal  wound, 
 St)  that  his  servants  carried  him  from  thence  to  Megiddo, 
 the  next  town  in  the  tribe  of  Issachar,  where  he  died. 
 
 This  makes  the  circumstances  consistent :  and  though 
 we  are  no  ways  concerned,  especially  when  the  sacred 
 history  is  silent,  to  assign  any  reasons  for  such  furious 
 passions  as  are  frequently  observed  in  great  and  wicked 
 men  ;  yet  it  may  be  no  hard  matter  to  imagine  some- 
 tiling  more  probable,  than  what  3  Josephus  makes  the 
 cause  of  Jehoram's  indignation  against  Elisha,  and  his 
 vowing  to  take  off  his  head  ;  even  because  he  refused  to 
 intercede  with  God  for  the  removal  of  the  famine  that 
 had,  at  this  time,  so  sorely  wasted  the  city  of  Samaria. 
 From  the  many  miracles  which  Elisha  did,  the  king  very 
 likely  might  be  convinced,  that  the  same  spirit  which 
 once  resided  in  Elijah  was  now  descended  upon  him  • 
 and  therefore,  as  Elijah  had  power,  by  his  prayers,  either 
 to  shut  or  open  the  windows  of  heaven,  either  to  cause  or 
 remove  a  famine,  as  he  pleased,  4  he  might  possibly 
 imagine,  that  God  had  conferred  the  same  privilege  upon 
 Elisha,  and  might  therefore  be  highly  incensed  against 
 him,  because  he  would  not  make  use  of  it  in  the  preser- 
 vation of  a  city  reduced  to  the  utmost  distress.  But  we 
 can  hardly  imagine,  that  a  wicked  and  idolatrous  prince, 
 as  Jehoram  certainly  was,  would  ever  entertain  so  high 
 a  conception  of  any  of  the  Lord's  prophets  :  and  there- 
 
 •  2  Chron.  xxii.  7,  &c. 
 
 *  Jewish  Antiq.  h.  V.  c.  :i. 
 
 Poolo's  Annotations. 
 Poolu's  Annotations. 
 
 fore  we  must  endeavour  to  find  out  some  other  reason 
 for  the  violence  of  his  rage  and  indignation  against  him. 
 
 When  the  prophet  Elisha  carried  the  detachment  of 
 the  Syrian  army,  which  was  sent  to  apprehend  him  at 
 Dothan,  hoodwinked,  as  it  were,  into  the  city  of  Samaria, 
 Jehoram,  we  find,  would  have  gladly  taken  this  advan- 
 tage, and  fallen  upon  them  with  the  sword :  *  '  My 
 father,  shall  I  smite,  shall  I  smite  them  ?'  So  eager  was 
 he  to  have  them  destroyed,  as  we  may  learn  from  the 
 repetition  of  his  words !  But  by  no  means  would  the 
 prophet  permit  him ;  on  the  contrary,  he  ordered  them 
 to  be  treated  with  much  civility,  and  dismissed  in  peace. 
 A  usage  this  which  deserved  a  better  return  than  what 
 they  made  the  Israelites  the  year  following,  when  they 
 came  and  besieged  Samaria,  and  sorely  distressed  it. 
 The  king  of  Israel,  therefore,  reflecting  on  the  opportu- 
 nity which,  had  he  employed  it  as  he  desired,  would  have 
 disabled  the  army  from  making  any  fresh  invasions,  but 
 was  unhappily  lost,  by  listening  to  an  old  doated  pro- 
 phet, as  he  might  call  him,  was  grieved  beyond  measure, 
 and  hereupon  vowed  to  make  his  life  pay  for  the  lives 
 of  those,  who,  by  his  counsel,  had  escaped,  and  were 
 now  returned  to  repeat  their  hostilities.  It  may  be  sup- 
 posed likewise,  that  upon  the  return  of  the  Syrian  army, 
 the  king  of  Israel,  knowing  himself  in  no  condition  to 
 oppose  them,  might  possibly  be  for  purchasing  a  peace 
 at  any  rate  ;  which  Elisha  might  endeavour  to  dissuade 
 him  from,  by  giving  him  all  along  assurance,  that  the 
 enemy  should  at  length  be  defeated.  Finding  however 
 no  effect  in  the  prophet's  promises,  and,  on  the  contrary, 
 seeing  his  capital  closely  besieged,  and  the  people  re- 
 duced to  great  extremity  of  want,  he  began  to  repent 
 him  of  following  his  advice  ;  and  being  shocked  at  hear- 
 ing the  horrid  story,  and  that  from  the  mother's  own 
 mouth,  of  her  being  forced  to  eat  her  own  child  for 
 hunger,  he  fell  into  a  rage,  and  vowed  to  be  revenged 
 of  Elisha,  as  one  Avho,  by  his  bad  counsel,  had  occasion- 
 ed all  that  misery  :  6  '  God  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also, 
 if  the  head  of  Elisha,  the  son  of  Shaphat,  shall  stand  on 
 him  to-day ;'  never  considering  that  his  own  manifold 
 and  crying  sins,  especially  his  obstinate  adhering  to  the 
 idolatry  of  the  calves,  7  and  the  whoredoms  and  witch- 
 crafts of  his  mother  Jezebel,  were  the  true  and  proper 
 causes  of  all  his  calamities. 
 
 Jehu,  as  we  said  before,  was  a  wicked  and  ambitious 
 man,  and  it  is  much  to  be  questioned  whether  he  would 
 have  executed  the  divine  will  so  punctually,  had  it  not 
 fallen  in  with  his  own  interest  and  designs.  He  had 
 now  extirpated  the  house  of  Ahab,  and,  as  Ahab  had 
 been  the  first  introducer  of  the  idolatry  of  Baal  into  the 
 kingdom  of  Israel,  he  could  not  but  think  that  the 
 priests  and  prophets,  and  such  as  adhered  to  the  worship 
 of  that  false  God,  were  of  Jezebel's  faction,  and  might, 
 at  one  time  or  other,  take  occasion  to  revenge  her  death. 
 Something  or  other  was  therefore  necessary  to  be  done, 
 in  order  to  get  rid  of  this  dangerous  set  of  men,  and, 
 that  the  business  might  be  done  effectually,  to  get  rid  of 
 them  all  at  once.  8  He  was  a  person  of  a  known  indif- 
 ference in  matters  of  religion,  who  in  this  regard  always 
 conformed  to  the  humours  of  the  court,  and,  in  the 
 reign  of  king  Ahab,  had  been  as  strenuous  a  worshipper 
 
 3  2  Kings  vi.  21. 
 
 6  2  Kings  vi.  31. 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 7  Chap.  ix.  22. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OP  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 615 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M, 
 
 of  Baal  as  any ;  and  therefore,  how  could  the  people 
 tell,  when  they  read  his  proclamation  for  a  great  feast, 
 and  a  solemn  sacrifice  to  be  ottered  unto  Baal,  but  that, 
 in  good  earnest,  he  had  returned  to  his  former  love  to 
 the  religion  which  he  once  embraced,  and  only  deserted 
 for  a  while,  in  complacency  to  others  P  He  had  gone  on 
 a  little  oddly  indeed  at  his  entrance  upon  the  govern- 
 ment, had  murdered  their  chief  patroness,  and  made  free 
 with  some  of  their  priests  likewise ;  but  these  priests 
 perhaps  were  1  domestics  to  Jezebel,  or  too  nearly  related 
 to  Ahab's  family,  not  to  go  ott'in  the  common  slaughter. 
 Some  instances  of  this  kind  could  hardly  be  helped  in 
 the  heat  of  execution,  when  the  man  was  resolved  to 
 secure  himself,  and  remove  all  competitors :  but  now 
 that  he  has  nothing  to  fear,  why  should  we  think,  but 
 that  a  prince  who  has  no  sense  of  religion  at  all,  should 
 be  a  worshipper  of  our  god  Baal,  (that  glorious  luminary 
 which  shines  so  bright  in  the  firmament  of  heaven,)  as 
 he  is  of  the  golden  calves?" 
 
 Thus,  we  may  suppose,  the  Baalites  reasoned,  upon 
 reading  the  king's  proclamation  so  apparently  in  favour 
 of  their  idolatry ;  and  God,  in  his  judgment,  suffered 
 their  2  '  foolish  hearts  to  be  thus  darkened,  and  because 
 they  received  not  the  love  of  the  truth,  that  they  might 
 be  saved,  for  this  cause  he  sent  upon  them  a  strong  de- 
 lusion, that  they  might  believe  a  lie.'  But  whether  they 
 deluded  themselves  into  this  persuasion  or  not,  this  they 
 knew  by  experience,  that  Jehu  was  a  man  of  a  fierce  and 
 bloody  temper,  who  would  not  fail  to  put  his  threats  in 
 execution ;  and  therefore  reading  in  the  same  proclama- 
 tion, that  3  '  whosoever  shall  be  wanting,  he  shall  not 
 live,'  they  found  themselves  reduced  to  this  sad  dilemma, 
 either  to  go  or  die  ;  and  therefore  they  thought  it  the 
 wisest  way  to  run  the  hazard,  and  throw  themselves  upon 
 his  mercy,  having  this  at  least  to  plead  for  themselves, 
 that  they  were  not  disobedient  to  his  commands.  The 
 only  remaining  question  is,  if  every  one  obeyed  this  sum- 
 mons, how  could  the  temple  of  Baal  be  capable  of  receiv- 
 ing them  all? 
 
 Now  the  words  of  Jehu's  summons  are  these  :  4  '  Call 
 unto  me  all  the  prophets  of  Baal,  all  his  servants,  and 
 all  his  priests,  let  none  be  wanting ;  for  I  have  a  great 
 sacrifice  to  otter  unto  Baal.  And  Jehu  did  it  in  subtilty, 
 to  the  intent  that  he  might  destroy  the  worshippers  of 
 Baal ;'  in  which  words  we  may  observe,  5  that  two  par- 
 ticular orders  of  men  are  distinctly  mentioned,  the  pro- 
 phets and  priests  ;  and  therefore  we  may  presume,  that 
 the  servants  and  worshippers  who  are  joined  with  them, 
 were  some  of  an  inferior  kind,  such  as  Levites  in  the 
 Jewish,  or  deacons  in  the  Christian  church,  who  attended 
 upon  the  other  in  their  sacred  ministrations  ;  because  in 
 tht  twenty-second  verse,  we  find  Jehu  '  ordering  him, 
 who  was  over  the  vestry,  to  bring  forth  vestments  for  all 
 the  worshippers  of  Baal,'  which  cannot  be  meant  of  the 
 people  in  general,  because  they  wore  no  distinct  gar- 
 ments in  their  worship  either  of  God  or  Baal,  but  of 
 priests  and  ministers  only.  These  were  the  great  sup- 
 port of  the  present  idolatry  ;  and  therefore  Jehu  concluded 
 very  justly,  that,  if  he  did  but  once  destroy  them,  all  the 
 common  worshippers  would  fall  away  of  course. 
 
 2  Kings  x.  11. 
 4  Ibid. 
 
 8  2  Thes.  ii.  1 1.  3  2  Kings  x.  19. 
 
 5  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  Haal  and  Astaroth  are  commonly  joined  together;  and  as  it 
 
 4G54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 But,  even  if  we  take  the  words  '  servants  '  and  '  wor- 
 shippers '  in  their  utmost  latitude,  we  need  not  doubt  but 
 that  the  temple  of  Baal,  e  which  was  built  in  the  capital 
 city,  and  near  the  royal  palace,  and,  being  the  chief  in 
 its  kind,  was  designed  for  the  use  of  the  king  and  queen, 
 and,  particularly  perhaps  for  such  great  and  high  solem- 
 nities, was  large  and  capacious  enough  to  hold  them  all. 
 For,  besides  this  principal  building,  7  there  might  be 
 several  outward  courts,  as  there  were  in  the  temple  at 
 Jerusalem,  where  the  people  stood  while  they  worship- 
 ped, as  they  did  in  the  temple  service,  and  these,  toge- 
 ther with  the  temple  itself,  would  afford  space  sufficient 
 for  all  the  idolaters  of  that  kind,  both  ministers  and 
 people,  that  were  then  in  the  whole  kingdom.  For, 
 since  the  days  of  Aliab,  by  the  ministry  of  Elijah,  Elisha, 
 and  the  rest  of  the  prophets,  as  well  as  by  the  slaughter 
 which  Hazael,  in  his  wars  against  Israel,  had  made 
 among  many  of  them,  the  number  of  Baal's  worshippers 
 had  been  greatly  diminished.  Jehoram  himself,  as  we 
 read,  8  '  put  away  the  image  of  Baal  that  his  father  had 
 made,'  and  when  the  king  withdrew  his  presence  and 
 encouragement,  his  subjects,  without  doubt,  for  the  gen- 
 erality, followed  his  example  ;  for  it  cannot  be  supposed, 
 that  the  worship  of  such  senseless  idols  could  ever  be 
 kept  up,  especially  among  a  people  that  had  the  oracles 
 of  God  in  their  custody,  without  the  influence  of  some 
 great  authority,  or  the  consideration  of  some  wicked  and 
 worldly  ends. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  Jonah's  Mission  to  Nineveh,  and 
 abode  i?i  the  Whale's  Belly. 
 
 In  the  whole  compass  of  the  Old  Testament,  I  know  of  no 
 passage  that  has  been  made  so  popular  a  topic  of  banter 
 and  ridicule,  and  which  the  lovers  of  infidelity,  in  all 
 ages,  have  so  much  delighted  to  descant  upon,  as  the 
 story  '  of  Jonah's  continuing  three  days  and  three  nights 
 in  the  whale's  belly.'  The  story  indeed,  at  first  hearing, 
 sounds  surprisingly;  and  therefore  we  need  not  wonder 
 that  the  wit  and  sagacity  of  a  Porphyry  or  a  Julian  found 
 some  plausible  exceptions  against  it,  which  our  modern 
 retailers  and  malicious  improvers  of  their  objections 
 have  endeavoured  to  decry  as  a  wild  romance,  or  at 
 best  but  a  parabolical  representation  of  something  else. 
 "  That  a  man,  thrown  into  the  sea  with  all  his  clothes 
 on,  should,  in  the  very  nick  of  time,  meet  with  a  fish, 
 and  such  a  fish  as  was  never  heard  of  before,  large 
 enough  to  swallow  him  up  quick,  and,  without  hurting  a 
 hair  of  his  head,  to  keep  him  in  his  stomach  for  so  many 
 days  and  nights  alive  ;  that  in  this  narrow  and  gloomy 
 prison  he  should  be  able  to  breathe,  and  live,  and  be 
 nourished  ;  thence  send  up  his  prayers  to  God,  and 
 thence  promise  himself  a  deliverance  in  due  time  ;  this 
 is  an  account  of  things  so  very  absurd,  that  there  is  no 
 possibility  of  believing  it.  For  admitting  that  Jonah 
 got  safe  and  sound  down  the  whales  throat,  yet  how 
 could  he  subsist  there  without  air,  or  continue  any  time 
 without  being  parboiled?  The  stomach,  we  know, 
 would  do  its  office  ;  and,  therefore,  we  cannot  but  think, 
 that  in  a  few  hours,  much  more  in  three  days,  the  man 
 
 0  Poole's  Anntit.  '  Patrick's  Commentary  8  2  Kings  iii.  2. 
 is  believed  that  Astaroth  denotes  the  moon,  we  have  good  reason 
 to  say,  that  Baal  is  put  lor  the  sun. — Calmefs  Dictionary. 
 
616 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4G54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OK  2  CHRON. 
 
 must,  of  course,  have  been  totally  dissolved,  and  his 
 body  converted  into  the  body  of  the  fish  ;  or  if  its  diges- 
 tion was  not  so  quick,  he  must,  at  least,  when  cast  upon 
 the  shore,  have  been  sadly  sodden,  and  unfit  to  be  sent 
 upon  another  expedition. 
 
 "  What  God  can  do  we  must  not  dispute  ;  but  then 
 great  care  should  be  taken,  not  to  magnify  his  power  to 
 the  diminution  of  his  wisdom,  or  to  think,  that  he  is  so 
 lavish  of  his  miracles  as  to  save  a  rebellious  prophet, 
 that  was  disobeying  his  orders,  and  fleeing,  if  possible, 
 from  his  presence,  that  deserved  indeed  to  be  left  to  the 
 mercy  of  the  waves,  and  made  food  for  the  fishes  of  the 
 sea,  rather  than  vouchsafed  so  stupendous  a  preserva- 
 tion ;  and  all  this,  for  what  ?  Even  to  compel  him  to 
 go,  against  his  will,  to  a  wicked  city,  with  an  unwelcome 
 message ;  as  if  there  had  been  no  prophet  in  Israel,  but 
 this  sullen  and  refractory  man,  to  be  sent  upon  this 
 errand." 
 
 Nineveh,  at  the  time  when  Jonah  was  sent  thither,  was 
 the  metropolis  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  and  one  of  the 
 largest  and  most  ancient  cities  in  the  world.  According 
 to  the  best  chronologers,  it  was  built  not  long  after  the 
 flood,  and  very  soon  after  the  tower  of  Babel,  by  Niui- 
 rod ;  but  being  afterwards  greatly  enlarged  by  Ninus, 
 from  him  it  received  its  name.  It  was  situated  upon 
 the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  and,  as  Diodorus  '  has  given  us 
 the  description  of  it,  was,  in  length,  150  stadia;  in 
 breadth,  90  ;  and  in  circumference,  470  ;  which,  being 
 reduced  to  our  measure,  make  it  about  21  miles  long,  9 
 broad,  and  54  round.  How  stately  its  walls,  and  how 
 lofty  its  towers  were,  the  same  historian  has  taken  care 
 to  inform  us  ;  and  how  great  the  number  of  its  inhabi- 
 tants was,  we  may  learn  from2  'the  120,000  children, 
 who  could  not  discern  between  their  right  hands  and 
 their  left :'  for,  according  to  a  proportionate  computation, 
 there  must  have  been  in  the  whole  above  600,000  per- 
 sons.® 
 
 1  B.  2.  Bib.  s  Jonah  iv.  11. 
 
 a  Although  Nineveh  formed  the  subject  of  some  of  the  earliest  of 
 the  prophecies,  and  was  the  very  first  which  met  its  predicted  fate, 
 yet  a  heathen  historian,  in  describing  its  capture  and  destruc- 
 tion, repeatedly  refers  to  an  ancient  prediction  respecting  it. 
 Diodorus  Siculus  relates,  that  the  king  of  Assyria,  after  the  com- 
 plete discomfiture  of  his  army,  confided  in  an  old  prophecy,  that 
 Nineveh  would  not  be  taken  unless  the  river  should  become  the 
 enemy  of  the  city :  that  after  an  ineffectual  siege  of  two  years, 
 the  river,  swollen  with  long-continued  and  tempestuous  tor- 
 rents, inundated  part  of  the  city  and  threw  down  the  wall  for  the 
 space  of  twenty  furlongs;  and  that  the  king,  deeming  the  pre- 
 diction accomplished,  despaired  of  his  safety,  and  erected  an 
 immense  funeral  pile,  on  which  he  heaped  his  wealth,  and  with 
 which  himself,  his  household,  and  palace  were  consumed.  The 
 book  of  Nahum  was  avowedly  prophetic  of  the  destruction  of 
 Nineveh:  and  it  is  therefore  told  that  '  the  gates  of  the  rivers  shall 
 be  opened,  and  the  palace  shall  be  dissolved.'  '  Nineveh,  of 
 old,  like  a  pool  of  water — with  an  overrunning  flood  he  will 
 make  an  utter  end  of  the  place  thereof.'  The  historian  describes 
 the  tacts  by  which  the  other  predictions  of  the  prophet  were  as 
 literally  fulfilled.  He  relates  that  the  king  of  Assyria,  elated 
 with  his  former  victories,  and  ignorant  of  the  revolt  of  the  Bac- 
 trians,  had  abandoned  himself  to  scandalous  inaction;  had  ap- 
 pointed a  time  of  festivity,  and  supplied  his  soldiers  with  abun- 
 dance of  wine ;  and  that  the  general  of  the  enemy,  apprized,  by 
 deserters,  of  their  negligence  and  drunkenness,  attacked  the 
 Assyrian  army  while  the  whole  of  them  were  fearlessly  giving 
 way  to  indulgence,  destroyed  great  part  of  them,  and  drove  the 
 rest  into  the  city.  The  words  of  the  prophet  were  hereby  veri- 
 fied; <  While  they  be  folden  together  as  thorns,  and  while  they 
 are  drunken  as  druukards,  they  shall  be  devoured  as  stubble  fully 
 
 Now,  we  have  wrong  conceptions  of  God,  if  we  think 
 that,  because  he  made  the  children  of  Israel  his  peculiar 
 people,  he  therefore  neglected  all  the  world  besides. 
 On  the  contrary,  3  '  Though  he  showed  his  word  unto 
 
 3  Ps.  cxlvii.  19. 
 dry.'  The  prophet  promised  much  spoil  to  the  enemy:  '  Take 
 the  spoil  of  silver,  take  the  spoil  of  gold ;  for  there  is  no  end  of 
 the  store  and  glory  out  of  all  the  pleasant  furniture.'  And  the 
 historian  affirms,  that  many  talents  of  gold  and  silver,  preserved 
 from  the  fire,  were  carried  to  Ecbatana.  According  to  Nahum, 
 the  city  was  not  only  to  be  destroyed  by  an  overflowing  flood,  but 
 the  fire  also  was  to  devour  it ;  and,  as  Diodorus  relates,  partly 
 by  water,  partly  by  fire,  it  was  destroyed.  The  utter  and  per- 
 petual destruction  and  desolation  of  Nineveh  were  foretold : 
 '  The  Lord  will  make  an  utter  end  of  the  place  thereof.  Afflic- 
 tion shall  not  rise  up  the  second  time.  She  is  empty,  and  void, 
 and  waste.  The  Lord  will  stretch  out  his  hand  against  the  north, 
 and  destroy  Assyria,  and  will  make  Nineveh  a  desolation,  and 
 dry  like  a  wilderness.  How  is  she  become  a  desolation,  a  place 
 for  beasts  to  lie  down  in!'  In  the  second  century,  Lucian,  a 
 native  of  a  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  testified  that 
 Nineveh  was  utterly  perished, — that  there  was  no  vestige  of  it 
 remaining, — and  that  none  could  tell  where  once  it  was  situate. 
 This  testimony  of  Lucian,  and  the  lapse  of  many  ages  during 
 which  the  place  was  not  known  where  it  stood,  render  it  at  least 
 somewhat  doubtful  whether  the  remains  of  an  ancient  city,  oppo- 
 site to  Mosul,  which  have  been  described  as  such  by  travellers, 
 be  indeed  those  of  ancient  Nineveh.  It  is  perhaps  probable  that 
 they  are  the  remains  of  the  city  which  succeeded  Nineveh,  or  of 
 a  Persian  city  of  the  same  name,  which  was  built  on  the  banks 
 of  the  Tigris  by  the  Persians,  subsequently  to  the  year  230  of 
 the  Christian  era,  and  demolished  by  the  Saracens  in  632.  In 
 contrasting  the  then  existing  great  and  increasing  population, 
 and  the  accumulating  wealth  of  the  proud  inhabitants  of  the 
 mighty  Nineveh,  with  the  utter  ruin  that  awaited  it, — the  word 
 of  God,  (before  whom  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  are  as  grass- 
 hoppers), by  Nahum  was — '  Make  thyself  many  as  the  canker- 
 worm,  make  thyself  many  as  the  locusts.  Thou  hast  multiplied 
 thy  merchants  above  the  stars  of  heaven :  the  canker-worm 
 spoileth  and  fleeth  away.  Thy  crowned  are  as  the  locusts,  and 
 thy  captains  as  the  great  grasshoppers  which  camp  in  the  hedges 
 in  the  cold  day;  but  when  the  sun  riseth  they  flee  away;  and 
 their  place  is  not  known  where  they  are,'  or  were.  Whether 
 these  words  imply  that  even  the  site  of  Nineveh  would  in  future 
 ages  be  uncertain  or  unknown,  or  as  they  rather  seem  to  inti- 
 mate, that  every  vestige  of  the  palaces  of  its  monarchs,  of  the 
 greatness  of  its  nobles,  and  of  the  wealth  of  its  numerous  mer- 
 chants, would  wholly  disappear;  the  truth  of  the  prediction  can- 
 not be  invalidated  under  either  interpretation.  The  avowed 
 ignorance  respecting  Nineveh,  and  the  oblivion  which  passed 
 over  it,  for  many  an  age,  conjoined  with  the  meagreness  of  evi- 
 dence to  identify  it  still,  prove  that  the  place  was  long  unknown 
 where  it  stood,  and  that  even  now  it  can  scarcely  with  certainty 
 be  determined.  And,  if  the  only  spot  that  bears  its  name,  or 
 that  can  be  said  to  be  the  place  where  it  was,  be  indeed  the  site 
 of  one  of  the  most  extensive  of  cities  on  which  the  sun  ever  shone, 
 and  which  continued  for  many  centuries  to  be  the  capital  of 
 Assyria, — the  'principal  mounds,'  few  in  number,  which  show 
 neither  bricks,  stones,  nor  other  materials  of  building,  but  are 
 in  many  places  overgrown  with  grass,  and  resemble  the  mounds 
 left  by  intrenchments  and  fortifications  of  ancient  Roman  camps, 
 and  the  appearances  of  other  mounds  and  ruins,  less  marked  than 
 even  these,  extending  for  ten  miles,  and  widely  spread,  and 
 seeming  to  be  « the  wreck  of  former  buildings,'  show  that  Nineveh 
 is  left  without  one  monument  of  royalty,  without  any  token  what- 
 ever of  its  splendour  or  wealth;  that  their  place  is  not  known 
 where  they  were ;  and  that  it  is  indeed  a  desolation — 'empty, 
 void,  and  waste,'  its  very  ruins  perished,  and  less  than  the  wreck 
 of  what  it  was.  '  Such  an  utter  ruin,'  in  every  view,  has  been 
 made  of  it;  and  such  is  the  truth  of  the  divine  predictions. — 
 Keith's  Evidence  of  Prophecy. — Several  writers  are  of  opinion 
 that  the  ruins  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  to  the 
 town  of  Mosul,  point  out  the  site  of  the  ancient  Nineveh.  Mr 
 Rich,  who  was  resident  at  Bagdad,  describes  on  this  spot  an 
 enclosure  of  a  rectangular  form,  corresponding  with  the  cardinal 
 points  of  the  compass,  but  the  area  of  which  is  too  small  to  have 
 contained  a  larger  town  than  Mosul.     The  boundary  of  this  en 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 617 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 Jacob,  and  his  statutes  and  ordinances  unto  Israel,'  in  a 
 particular  manner,  yet  he  did  not  leave  himself  without 
 a  witness  in  other  nations  ;  but  whenever  they  were 
 drawing  destruction  upon  themselves,  took  care  to  ac- 
 quaint them  with  their  impending-  doom.  To  this  pur- 
 pose, Ave  may  observe,  that  not  only  Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  and 
 Daniel,  but  almost  all  the  other  prophets,  do  foretell  the 
 destruction  of  Babylon,  and  publish  the  divine  threats 
 against  Egypt,  Edom,  and  the  other  kingdoms  neighbour- 
 ing upon  Canaan ;  that  '  Jeremiah,  in  particular,  was 
 ordered  by  God  to  make  himself  bonds  and  yokes,  and 
 send  them  to  the  kings  of  the  Ammonites,  of  Tyre  and 
 Sidon,  and  other  princes,  by  the  hand  of  their  ministers, 
 who  were  then  at  the  court  of  Zedekiah  king  of  Judah, 
 with  his  admonition  to  their  masters,  that  unless  they  re- 
 pented of  their  evil  ways,  he  would  deliver  them  into  the 
 power  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  whom  he 
 calls  his  servant,  even  as  he  does  2  Cyrus,  his  anoint- 
 ed, for  being  appointed  to  execute  his  will,  some 
 hundred  years  before  he  was  born ;  and,  therefore,  we 
 need  less  wonder,  that  we  find  God  interesting  himself 
 in  the  preservation  of  the  large  and  populous  city  of 
 Nineveh,  upon  which  depended  the  whole  fate  of  the 
 Assyrian  empire,  since,  in  all  ages,  he  has  given  proofs 
 of  his  protection  and  absolute  dominion  over  other 
 nations,  as  well  as  the  Israelites,  either  in  threatening 
 their  disobedience,  in  order  to  procure  their  amendment, 
 or  if  they  despised  his  threatenings,  in  punishing  their 
 obstinacy,  as  they  deserve. 
 
 3  '  Is  he  the  God  of  the  Jews  only  ?  Is  he  not  also 
 of  the  Gentiles?  Yes,  of  the  Gentiles  also,'  says  an 
 apostle  of  great  authority  ;  and,  therefore,  we  may  pre- 
 sume, that  as  Jonah  was  the  only  prophet  in  the  Old 
 Testament  that  was  sent  expressly  to  preach  to  the  Gen- 
 tiles, God  might  design  hereby  to  give  to  his  people  a 
 premonition  of  his  intention, '  in  the  fulness  of  time,  '  to 
 raise  up  a  root  of  Jesse,'  as  the  prophet  expresses  it, 
 '  which  would  stand  for  an  ensign  of  the  people,  and  unto 
 
 1  Jer.  xxvii.  2,  &c.        8  Is.  xlv.  1.        3  Rom.  iii.  19. 
 4  Is.  xi.  10. 
 
 closure,  which  he  supposes  to  answer  to  the  palace  of  Nineveh, 
 may  be  perfectly  traced  all  around,  and  looks  like  an  embank- 
 ment of  earth  or  rubbish,  of  small  elevation ;  and  has  attached  to 
 it,  and  in  its  line,  at  several  places,  mounds  of  greater  size  and 
 solidity.  The  first  of  these  forms  the  south-west  angle;  and  on 
 it  is  built  the  village  of  Nebbi  Yunus,  where  they  show  the  tomb 
 of  the  prophet  Jonas.  The  next,  and  largest  of  all,  is  the  one 
 which  Mr  Rich  supposes  to  be  the  monument  of  Ninus,  and  is 
 situated  near  the  centre  of  the  western  face  of  the  enclosure, 
 being  joined  like  the  others  by  the  boundary  wall ;  the  natives 
 call  it  Koyunjuk  Tepe.  Its  form  is  that  of  a  truncated  pyramid, 
 with  regular  steep  sides  and  a  flat  top ;  and  is  composed  of  stones 
 and  earth,  the  latter  predominating  sufficiently  to  admit  of  the 
 summit  being  cultivated  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  village  of  Koy- 
 unjuk, which  is  built  on  it  at  the  north-east  extremity.  The 
 measurements  of  this  mound  were  178  feet  for  the  greatest  height, 
 1850  feet  the  length  of  the  summit  east  and  west,  and  1147  for 
 its  breadth  north  and  south.  Out  of  a  mound  in  the  north 
 face  of  the  boundary  was  dug,  some  time  since,  an  immense 
 block  of  stone,  on  which  were  sculptured  the  figures  of  men  and 
 animals.  So  remarkable  was  this  fragment  of  antiquity,  that 
 even  Turkish  apathy  was  roused,  and  the  pacha  and  most  of  the 
 principal  people  of  Mosul  came  out  to  see  it.  One  of  the  spec- 
 tators particularly  recollected  among  the  sculptures  of  this  stone, 
 the  figure  of  a  man  on  horseback,  with  a  long  lance  in  his  hand, 
 followed  by  a  great  many  others  on  foot.  These  ruins  seem  to 
 attest  the  former  existence  of  some  extensive  buildings  on  the 
 spot,  but  whether  belonging  to  the  ancient  Nineveh  will  admit 
 of  considerable  doubt. — Ca/nut's  Dictionary. — Ei>. 
 
 4G5K  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 which  the  Gentiles  should  seek  :  to  5  break  down  the 
 middle  wall  of  partition,  even  the  law  of  commandments, 
 contained  in  ordinances  ;'  and  to  unite  all  nations  in  one 
 communion,  *  under  6  one  great  shepherd  and  bishop 
 of  their  souls.' 
 
 But  whether  God  might  design  this  call  to  the  Nine- 
 vites,  as  a  pledge  and  assurance  of  his  future  admission 
 of  the  people  of  all  nations  into  the  privileges  of  die 
 Christian  covenant,  this  certamly  he  might  have  under  his 
 immediate  view,  namely,  to  show  the  disparity  between 
 his  people  and  aliens,  and  upon  the  comparison  of  their 
 several  behaviours,  shame  them  for  living  unreclaimed, 
 under  the  constant  preaching  of  his  prophets  for  so 
 many  years,  when  a  people,  whom  they  despised,  as 
 '  being  strangers  to  the  covenant  of  promise,'  had,  by 
 the  mighty  power  of  his  word,  been  converted  in  the 
 space  of  three  days. 
 
 Nothing  is  more  common  in  Scripture,  than  to  find 
 God  complaining  of  his  people  for  not  attending  to  the 
 messages  which  he  sent  them  ;  ' '  since  the  day  that  their 
 fathers  came  forth  out  of  Egypt,'  says  God  to  one  of  his 
 prophets,  '  even  unto  this  day,  1  have  sent  unto  them  all 
 my  servants,  the  prophets,  daily  rising  up  early,  and 
 sending  them  ;  yet  they  hearkened  not  unto  me, nor  inclin- 
 ed their  ear,  but  hardened  their  neck,  and  did  worse  than 
 their  fathers  :  therefore  shalt  thou  speak  all  these  words 
 unto  them,  but  they  will  not  hearken,  and  thou  shalt  call 
 unto  them,  but  they  will  not  answer  thee.'  And  there- 
 fore God,  very  well  foreknowing  the  success  that  his 
 prophets  would  meet  with,  might  send  him  with  commis- 
 sion to  preach  to  the  Ninevites,  not  only  in  pursuance  of 
 his  kind  purposes  to  them,  but  with  an  intent  likewise  to 
 render  his  own  people  inexcusable,  even  as  our  Saviour 
 represents  the  case  of  the  Jews  in  his  days,  who  refused 
 to  hear  him  :  8  '  The  men  of  Nineveh  shall  rise  in  judg- 
 ment with  this  generation,  and  shall  condemn  it,  because 
 they  repented  at  the  preaching  of  Jonah ;  and  behold  a 
 greater  than  Jonah  is  here.' 
 
 And  indeed  some  have  imagined,  that  one  gTeat  cause 
 of  Jonah's  declining  the  order  at  first,  and  of  his  going 
 at  last  with  so  much  reluctance  to  Nineveh,  might  be 
 some  suspicion,  that  in  case  these  Gentiles  should  listen 
 to  his  preaching,  it  might  be  not  only  a  lasting  reproach 
 but  a  means  of  reprobation  likewise  to  his  countrymen, 
 who,  under  the  constant  ministration  of  so  many  pro- 
 phets, were  only  become  more  obdurate  in  sin  ;  and 
 therefore,  jealous  of  the  honour  of  his  nation,  and  too 
 solicitous  for  their  preservation,  he  could  not  prevail 
 with  himself  to  accept  of  a  commission  that  seemed  to 
 interfere  with  this,  lest  a  ready  compliance  with  the 
 divine  command  at  Nineveh  should  prove  the  disparage- 
 ment at  least,  if  not  the  utter  rejection  of  '  '  his  brethren, 
 his  kinsmen  after  the  flesh.' 
 
 The  prophet  himself,  however,  has  suggested  another 
 reason  for  his  unwillingness  to  go  to  Nineveh,  and  that 
 is,  the  superabundant  mercy  of  God,  which,  he  foresaw, 
 would  be  moved  to  pity  at  the  prayers  and  tears  of  Uie 
 people  ;  and  therefore  he  remonstrates  thus  :  10  '  I  pray 
 thee,  O  Lord,  was  not  this  my  saying,  when  1  was  yet 
 in  my  country  ?  Therefore  1  Hed  before  into  Tarshish  : 
 for  I  knew  that  thou  are  a  gracious  God,  and  merciful, 
 
 5  Eph. 
 
 ii. 
 
 41. 
 
 6  1  Pet. 
 
 ii. 
 
 25. 
 
 7 
 
 Jer. 
 
 \  ii 
 
 25, 
 
 &c 
 
 B  Mat. 
 
 \i 
 
 .  41. 
 
 9  Rom. 
 •1 
 
 1 
 
 3. 
 
 10 
 
 Jon. 
 
 iv. 
 
 2, 
 
618 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  4G54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF2CHKON. 
 
 6lo\v  to  anger,  of  great  kindness,  and  repentest  thee  of 
 the  evil.'  But  how  plausible  soever  this  excuse  may  be, 
 yet  upon  the  face  of  the  whole  affair,  it  appears  that  the 
 prophet  considered  himself  a  little  too  much  ;  and  there- 
 fore we  may  conclude,  that  the  true  reason  for  his  declin- 
 ing this  errand,  was  the  hazard  and  difficulty  of  the 
 undertaking,  and  the  great  uncertainty  of  its  success  : 
 the  very  same  thought  that  deterred  Moses  from  apply- 
 ing to  Pharaoh  to  grant  the  Israelites  their  liberty,  and 
 Gideon  from  taking  up  arms  to  rescue  his  country  from 
 the  slavery  of  the  Midianites  :  for  as  each  of  these  made 
 their  several  excuses  ;  '  I  am  of  uncircumcised  lips,' says 
 one,  '  and  how  shall  Pharaoh  hearken  unto  me  ?'  and, '  I 
 am  the  least  in  my  father's  house,'  says  the  other,  '  and 
 how  then  shall  I  save  Israel  ?'  So  might  Jonah  say  within 
 himself,  '  I  am  less  than  the  least  of  the  prophets,'  and 
 how  then  can  I  expect  that  the  people  of  so  great  and  opu- 
 lent a  city  will  give  any  attention  to  my  preaching  ;  that 
 they  will  not  rather  take  the  alarm,  and  fall  upon  me, 
 and  slay  me,  when  I  come  to  tell  them  that  their  ruin 
 and  destruction  is  so  near  approaching  ?  I  will  get  quit 
 of  this  dangerous  affair,  therefore,  as  well  as  I  can  ;  and 
 because  I  conceive  that  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  which 
 upon  this  account  makes  me  so  uneasy,  will  not  pursue 
 me,  after  I  am  gone  out  of  the  holy  land,  I  will  make  the 
 best  of  my  way  into  Cilicia;  for  when  I  have  got  at 
 some  distance  from  Judea,  God  perhaps  may  think  no 
 more  of  sending  me,  but  may  find  him  out  some  other 
 prophet,  that  is  better  qualified  for  this  purpose.'  But ' 
 '  whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit  ?'  as  one  better  in- 
 structed than  Jonah  seems  to  be  in  this  article  of  his 
 omnipresence,  addresses  himself  to  God,  'or  whither 
 shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  ?  If  I  ascend  up  into 
 heaven,  thou  art  tliere  ;  if  I  go  down  into  hell,  thou  art 
 there  also  ;  if  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell 
 in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  even  there  also  shall  thy 
 hand  lead  me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me  ;'  which 
 no  man  ever  so  experimentally  found  to  be  true  as  did 
 this  prophet,  while  he  sojourned  in  the  deep,  and  took 
 up  his  habitation  in  the  whale's  belly. 
 
 2  Some  learned  men  indeed  are  of  opinion,  that  the 
 fish  which  swallowed  up  Jonah  was  not  a  whale,  because 
 the  largest  of  these,  as  they  tell  us,  have  but  in  proportion 
 very  narrow  gullets,  such  as  are  not  capable  of  receiv- 
 ing a  man  entirely  into  their  stomachs  :  and  therefore  they 
 imagine  that  it  was  what  they  call  the  lamia,  or  seadog, 
 which,  though  less  in  bulk  than  a  whale,  has  a  gullet  so 
 vastly  large,  that  frequently  in  its  stomach  have  been 
 found  men,  all  whole  and  entire,  3  and  sometimes  clad 
 in  armour. 
 
 It  must  be  acknowledged,  that  the  Hebrew  dag-gadol, 
 which  the  text  in  Jonah  makes  use  of,  signifies  no  more 
 than  any  great  fish  ;  but  then  it  makes  something  for  the 
 common  opinion,  that  the  whale  is  the  largest  species 
 wo  know  of  that  swims  in  the  sea.  The  ancients  indeed 
 seem  to  have  enlarged  too  much  in  their  account  of  this 
 animal.  "Pliny  talks  of  some  that  were  600  feet  long,  and 
 
 1  Ps.  cxxxix.  7. 
 *Bochart's  Sacred  Zoology,  part  2.  b.  5.  c.  12;    Bartholin, 
 (in  Diseases  in  Old  Testament,  art.  14. 
 
 3  Tin's   a  French  author,  named  Rondelet,  reports  of  one  of 
 these  seadogs,  which  was  taken  near  Nice,  or  Marseilles.  —Cat- 
 tact's  Dissertation  on  the  fish  which  swallowed  Jonah 
 4  3i.  :iS.  c.  1. 
 
 above  half  as  much  broad.  Solinus 5  makes  others  no  less 
 than  800  feet ;  and  Dionysius  6  seems  to  affirm  of  others, 
 that  they  had  a  throat  wide  enough  to  swallow  up  a  ship 
 with  all  its  rigging.  But  though  these  may  pass  for  ex- 
 travagant exaggerations,  7  an  author  who  has  written  ex- 
 pressly upon  this  subject  gives  us  this  account : — "  That 
 in  the  northern  seas,  there  are  whales  of  such  a  prodigious 
 bigness,  that  when  their  flesh  is  taken  off,  and  nothing 
 left  but  their  skeletons,  they  look  like  large  vessels,  or 
 rather  like  spacious  houses,  with  several  chambers  and 
 windows  in  them,  wherein  a  whole  family  might  find  room 
 to  live."  Their  mouth,  every  one  allows,  is  capable  of 
 containing  several  men  at  once.  We  are  told  B  of  one 
 cast  on  the  coast  of  Tuscany,  in  the  year  1624,  whose 
 jaws  were  so  wide,  that  a  man  on  horseback  might  have 
 ridden  into  them  with  ease  :  and  we  have  not  much  reason 
 to  doubt,  but  that  their  throat  and  belly  are  answerable  9 
 to  so  spacious  an  opening. 
 
 It  cannot  be  thought,  indeed,  but  the  cpsophagus  in 
 creatures  that  are  dead,  must  be  contracted  to  a  great 
 degree,  in  comparison  to  what  it  is  when  they  are  alive, 
 and  especially  when  they  are  eating  ;  in  which  case  it  is 
 capable  of  so  great  dilatation,  as  is  evident  from  a  pikes 
 sometimes  swallowing  another  fish  almost  of  his  own 
 magnitude,  that  we  need  not  much  fear,  but  that  the  fish, 
 which  God  had  provided  for  that  purpose,  was  able  to 
 gulp  Jonah  down  at  once,  without  ever  hurting  him. 
 For  the  whale,  as  we  are  told  has  neither  teeth  nor  tushes, 
 whereas  the  seadog  has  four  or  five  rows  of  teeth  in  each 
 jaw,  and  is  therefore  the  much  properer  of  the  two  to 
 receive  into  its  stomach  any  thing  alive  without  the  dan- 
 ger of  contusion. 
 
 Thus  we  have  conveyed  Jonah  safe  and  sound  into  the 
 whale's  belly  ;  let  us,  in  the  next  place,  see  how  he  is  to 
 live  there  for  the  space  of  three  days.  The  Scripture 
 indeed  speaks  precisely  of  I0  '  three  days  and  three 
 nights ;'  but  as  Jonah  was  a  type  of  our  Saviour,  and 
 his  abode  in  the  belly  of  the  whale,  a  prefiguration  of 
 our  Lord's  continuance  n  '  in  the  heart  of  the  earth,'  there 
 is  some  reason  to  think,  that  the  type  and  the  antitype, 
 in  this  respect,  were  both  alike  ;  and  that  as  our  Lord 
 was  but  one  whole  day,  and  part  of  two  more,  in  the 
 grave,  so  Jonah  might  continue  no  longer  in  the  deep, 
 and  yet  according  to  the  Hebrew  way  of  computation, 
 both  might  be  truly  said  to  have  been  '  three  days  and 
 three  nights,'  in  their  respective  confinements.  But  not 
 to  insist  on  this  abbreviation  of  time,  what  some  natural- 
 ists tell  us  of  the  food  of  the  whale,  namely,  that  it  does 
 not  live  on  flesh,  but  on  weeds,  on  the  froth  of  the  sea, 
 on  insects,  and  such  small  fish  as  are  easy  of  digestion  ; 
 and  that,  consequently,  as  having  a  colder  stomach,  it 
 was  a  fitter  receptacle  for  the  prophet,  than  any  other 
 fish  that  was  carnivorous ;  this  might  be  of  some  consi- 
 deration perhaps,  were  we  not  disposed  to  call  in  the 
 miraculous  power  of  God,  which  alone  could  preserve 
 him  in  these  circumstances.  But  then,  we  cannot  but 
 allow,  that  as  he  suspended  the  violence  of  the  fire  from 
 
 5   C.  52.  6   Periegetes,  ver.  603. 
 
 7  Olaus  Magnus  on  Wonderful  Fishes,  b.  21.  c.  15,  16. 
 9  John  Cabri  of  the  academy  of  Florence,   makes  mention  of 
 this  whale. 
 
 9  Its  mouih  was  so  large  in  extent,  that  it  resembled  the  open- 
 ing of  a  cave. 
 
 10  Jon.  i.  17.  »  Mat.  xii.  4u. 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c 
 
 619 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4654.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 hurting  the  three  young  men  that  were  cast  into  the  fur- 
 nace •  that  as  he  made  St  Peter's  body  either  so  light 
 as  to  walk  upon  the  waters,  or  the  waters  so  solid  as  to 
 support  it ;  so  with  the  same  facility,  he  might  control 
 the  acid  humours  in  any  creature's  stomach,  and  make  it, 
 for  such  a  determinate  time,  lose  its  faculty  of  digestion  : 
 for  in  all  this  there  is  nothing  that  surpasses  the  power  of 
 the  great  Author  of  nature,  who  gives  or  suspends  the 
 activity  of  all  bodies,  who  stops  or  controls,  who  changes 
 or  modifies,  as  he  thinks  fit,  all  the  motions  which  he 
 communicates  to  matter,  of  what  kind  soever  it  be.  And, 
 in  like  manner,  though  it  be  impossible,  according 
 to  the  ordinary  laws  of  nature,  for  a  man  to  breathe 
 in  the  stomach  of  a  fish,  or  at  least  to  draw  in  such  a 
 quantity  of  air  as  is  requisite  to  give  a  due  circulation  to 
 his  blood  ;  yet  since  it  is  neither  contrary  to  the  nature 
 nor  superior  to  the  power  of  God,  by  one  means  or  other 
 to  effect  the  thing,  if  it  be  but  agreeable  to  his  will,  we 
 cannot  see  any  reason  why  it  may  not  be  done. 
 
 Bats  and  swallows,  and  other  birds,  which  in  the  cold 
 season  of  the  year,  creep  into  elitfs  of  rocks,  and  hollow 
 trees,  l  creatures  that  live  under  ground,  and  several 
 others  that  abide  at  the  bottom  of  deep  water,  subsist  in 
 a  manner  without  breathing.  They  live,  as  it  were  in  a 
 deliquium  of  life,  and  the  blood  in  their  veins  seems  to 
 move  very  slowly,  if  at  all ;  and  yet  we  find  them  revive 
 again,  upon  the  approach  of  the  genial  heat  of  the  sun, 
 to  give  their  blood  and  juices  a  brisker  fermentation; 
 and  why  might  not  God  then,  during  these  three  days 
 and  nights,  put  Jonah  into  the  very  same  state  of  repose 
 and  tranquillity,  that  either  the  element  they  live  in,  or 
 the  colder  season  of  the  year,  do  naturally  bring  upon 
 these  animals,  by  correcting  the  fluidity,  and  retarding  the 
 circulation  of  his  blood,  so  as  to  make  frequent  respira- 
 tion not  so  necessary  ? 
 
 The  ancient  physicians  were  of  opinion,  that  while 
 the  child  continued  in  its  mother's  womb,  it  lived  with- 
 out breathing,  so  that  there  was  no  employment  for  the 
 lungs,  until  it  came  into  the  open  air  ;  but  later  anato- 
 mists will  persuade  us,  that,  without  some  circulation  of 
 blood  in  the  body,  no  animal  can  live ;  and  therefore 
 they  pretend  to  have  found  out  in  the  foptus  a  consider- 
 able artery,  which  conveys  the  blood  from  the  vena  cava, 
 without  its  passing  into  the  right  ventricle  of  the  heart, 
 into  the  lungs  ;  from  whence  by  another  smaller  artery, 
 which  they  call  the  dotal,  it  is  carried  into  the  aorta, 
 and  so  continues  in  a  perpetual  circulation,  without  en- 
 tering the  lobes  of  the  lungs,  which  are  not  replete  with 
 blood,  nor  begin  to  move,  until  the  child  is  born  and 
 sucks  in  the  fresli  air.  For  then,  say  they,  the  blood 
 being  forced  by  the  motion  of  the  heart  into  the  artery, 
 whose  orifice  lies  in  its  right  ventricle,  goes  directly  into 
 the  lungs,  and  is  thence  brought  back  by  the  pulmonary 
 vein,  so  that  the  other  vessels  which  help  the  circulation 
 of  blood  in  the  foetus,  being  now  become  useless,  do  by 
 degrees  stop  and  are  dried  up.  But  it  may  not  always 
 happen  so  :  in  some  particular  persons  nature  sometimes 
 preserves  them  open  :  and  this  is  the  reason  which  some 
 give  us  why  the  divers,  as  they  are  called,  who  accus- 
 tom themselves  to  go  under  deep  water  to  discover  and 
 bring  up  the  riches  of  the  deep,  can  abide  so  long  in  that 
 element  without  breathing. a 
 
 1  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Fish,  &c. 
 *  On  this  subject  see  the  following  supplement  by  the  Editor. 
 
 We  pretend  not  however  to  advance,  that  Jonah  was 
 one  of  this  sort  of  men  ;  but  still  we  may  affirm,  that  it 
 was  in  God's  power,  during  his  continuance  in  the  fish's 
 belly,  to  put  him  in  such  a  state  of  acquiescence,  and 
 his  blood  into  such  a  form  of  circulation,  as  would  require 
 no  more  respiration  than  the  foetus  has  in  the  womb. 
 In  this  there  is  nothing  impossible,  nothing  incompatible 
 with  the  laws  of  nature  ;  though  it  must  be  acknowledged 
 that  strictly  speaking  the  thing  is  above  the  ordinary 
 and  known  laws  of  nature,  and  therefore  miraculous  : 
 but  then  if  we  believe  not  this  miracle,  why  should  we 
 believe  any  other,  or  why  should  it  be  thought  a  more 
 incredible  thing,  that  Jonah  should  live  three  days  in 
 the  belly  of  a  large  fish,  than  that  Lazarus  3  should  be 
 recalled  to  life  again,  after  he  had  been  four  days  buried 
 in  the  grave  ;  that  the  prophet  should  return  from  this 
 sea-monster's  stomach,  safe  and  sound,  than  that  the 
 4  three  Jews  in  Babylon  should  escape  from  the  flaming 
 furnace,  without  having  so  much  "  as  the  smell  of  the 
 fire  pass  upon  them  ?" 
 
 "  But  other  miracles,  it  may  be  said,  were  done  for 
 some  wise  ends  of  providence,  and  when  there  appeared 
 an  urgent  occasion  for  God's  exerting  his  almighty 
 power ;  whereas,  in  the  case  before  us,  there  seems  to 
 be  none  at  all." 
 
 That  prophets,  however,  invested  with  great  power, 
 and  sometimes  intrusted  with  high  commissions  from 
 God,  were  5  'men  subject  to  like  passions'  and  infir- 
 mities as  we  are,  is  evident,  not  only  from  the  testimony 
 of  the  apostle,  but  from  the  accounts  of  their  own  beha- 
 viour likewise.  The  prophet  that  was  sent  to  Bethel, 
 to  denounce  God's  judgment  against  the  idolatrous  altar, 
 was  a  sad  example  of  human  frailty,  in  giving  credit  to 
 the  persuasions  of  another,  even  when  they  contradicted 
 a  divine  command.  Jonah,  when  he  was  directed  to  go 
 to  Nineveh,  discovered  the  like  if  not  greater  tokens  of 
 human  infirmity,  when,  instead  of  pursuing  that  journey, 
 he  bent  his  course  another  way,  not  without  some  vain 
 hopes  of  evading,  by  that  means,  the  divine  presence  : 
 and  therefore  as  God  sent  a  lion  to  slay  the  prophet  of 
 Judah,  for  his  too  much  credulity  ;  so  some  have  ima- 
 gined, that  he  not  only  pursued  this  prophet  of  Israel 
 with  a  dreadful  storm,  but  even  had  him  thrown  over- 
 board, and  swallowed  up  by  this  sea-monster,  in  punish- 
 ment for  his  perverseness  and  prevarication.  God  indeed, 
 by  his  «  vnrruling  power,  made  the  belly  of  this  monster 
 a  place  of  security  to  him  ;  but  what  notions  the  prophet 
 himself  had  of  this  strange  habitation, 6 '  where  the  floods 
 compassed  him  about,  and  the  billows  and  waves  passed 
 over  him,'  Ave  may  learn  from  his  meditations  in  the  deep, 
 r '  when  he  cried,  by  reason  of  his  affliction,  to  the  Lord, 
 and  he  heard  him ;'  so  that,  upon  the  presumption  that 
 God  intended  not  to  destroy  him,  the  primary  reason,  we 
 may  imagine,  for  his  appointing  this  fish  to  swallow  him 
 up,  was  to  stop  this  fugitive  prophet,  as  he  was  endea- 
 vouring to  make  his  escape  :  but  then,  '  in  the  midst  of 
 judgment,  thinking  upon  mercy,'  after  a  confinement  of 
 three  nights  and  three  days  in  the  deep,  whereby  he  both 
 taught  him  better  obedience  for  the  future,  and  rectified 
 his  notions  concerning  the  divine  omnipresence,  he 
 ordered  his  jailor,  if  we  may  so  speak,  to  give  him  his 
 liberty,  and  deliver  him  safe  on  shore. 
 
 "  John  xi.  17,  39,  44. 
 0  Jon.  ii.  3. 
 
 «  Dan.  iii.  27.         5  Ja.  v.  17. 
 1  Ibid.  vcr.  2. 
 
620 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4C54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 The  oriental  traditions  do  vastly  differ  as  to  the  place 
 where  Jonah  was  cast  upon  the  land.  '  Josephus  must 
 needs  be  under  a  gross  mistake,  when,  to  throw  him  upon 
 some  coast  of  the  Euxine  sea,  he  makes  the  whale,  which 
 could  hardly  be  any  quick  mover,  run  800  leagues,  at 
 least,  in  three  days  and  nights ;  neither  are  others, 
 who  from  the  upper  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  carry  him 
 into  the  ocean,  and  thence  into  the  Red  Sea,  or  the 
 Persian  Gulf,  in  the  like  space  of  time,  any  happier  in 
 their  conjectures.  The  ship,  we  know,  was  bound  for 
 Tarsus  2  a  a  gTeat  trading  town  in  Cilicia,  a  province  in 
 Asia  Minor,  at  the  east  end  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  ; 
 and  therefore  the  most  probable  opinion  is,  that  some- 
 where on  this  coast,  the  fish  disembogued  itself  of  Jonah  ; 
 and  if  so,  the  mariners,  who  by  the  time  that  he  was  set 
 on  shore,  had  arrived  at  their  port,  when  they  heard  the 
 strange  account  of  his  deliverance,  must  have  become 
 converts  to  the  worship  of  that  God  only,  who,  in  this  in- 
 stance, had  shown  himself  able,  3  'to  do  whatever  he 
 pleased  in  heaven,  and  in  the  earth,  in  the  sea,  and  in 
 all  the  deep  places.' 
 
 In  the  storm  which  St  Paul,  in  his  voyage  from  Crete 
 to  Rome,  underwent,  an  angel  stood  by  him  one  night, 
 and  said  unto  him,  *  '  Lo,  God  hath  given  thee  all  them 
 that  sail  with  thee  :'  and  if,  by  the  expression,  we  may 
 understand  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  as  well  as  their 
 bodies,  a  sufficient  reason  it  was,  for  God's  permitting 
 this  distress  to  fall  upon  them,  since  eventually  it  proved 
 the  occasion  of  their  conversion.  And,  in  like  manner, 
 if  the  sudden  ceasing  of  the  storm  upon  '  Jonah's  being- 
 cast  forth  into  the  sea,'  s  made  so  strong  an  impression 
 upon  the  mariners  that  sailed  with  him,  how  can  we 
 think,  but  that  His  miraculous  escape  out  of  that  merciless 
 element,  especially  when  he  came  to  recount  the  partic- 
 ulars of  it,  would  make  them  all  proselytes  to  his  reli- 
 gion ?  And  if  we  may  suppose  further,  that  some  of  the 
 ship's  crew  accompanied  him  to  Nineveh,  as  knowing 
 the  purpose  of  his  errand  thither,  to  testify  to  the  people 
 that  he  was  the  same  man  who  was  in  this  manner  de- 
 livered from  the  jaws  of  the  deep,  or  that  the  Ninevites 
 came  by  their  intelligence  of  this  miracle  by  some  other 
 means,  we  have  here  a  good  reason  why  they  attended 
 to  his  message,  and  repented  at  his  preaching  •  and 
 consequently  why  God  wrought  this  wonderful  work  upon 
 him,  in  order  to  give  his  predictions  more  weight  and 
 authority. 
 
 Nay,  farther,  we  may  suppose,  that  when  the  people  of 
 Nineveh  heard  Jonah  preaching  about  their  streets,  and 
 threatening  their  city  with  so  sudden  a  destruction,  their 
 curiosity  would  naturally  lead  them  to  inquire  Avho  that 
 person  was,  and  by  whose  authority  it  was  that  he  took 
 so  much  upon  him?  and  being  informed  that  he  was  of 
 a  nation, 6  '  which  had  God  more  nigh  unto  them  in   all 
 
 1  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  ix.  c.  11. 
 2  Wells'  Geography  of  the  New  Testament,  part  2. 
 3  Ps.  cxxxv.  6.  4  Acts  xxvii.  24.  5  Jonah  i.  16. 
 
 6  Deut.  iv.  7,  8. 
 a  Commentators  are  not  agreed  as  to  whether  this  was  the 
 same  with  Tartessus  in  Spain,  the  most  celebrated  emporium  in 
 the  west  to  which  the  Hebrews  traded,  or  Tarsus,  the  metropolis 
 of  Cicilia,  celebrated  as  the  birth-place  of  St  Paul:  a  consider- 
 able number  of  eminent  names  might  be  adduced  in  support  of 
 both  opinions.  That  it  was  the  one  or  other  of  these  places  seems 
 almost  certain ;  but  it  is  not  of  great  importan  that  we  should 
 be  assured  which  it  was. — Ed 
 
 things  that  they  called  upon  him  for,  and  had  statutes 
 and  judgments  more  righteous'  than  any  other  people 
 upon  earth  :  a  nation  7  '  to  whom,'  as  the  apostle  expres- 
 ses it,  '  appertained  the  adoption,  and  the  glory,  and 
 the  covenants,  and  the  giving  of  the  law,  and  the  service 
 of  God,  and  the  promises  :'  a  nation  8  '  which  the  Lord 
 had  taken  from  the  midst  of  another  nation,'  had  brought 
 out  of  Egypt,  and  settled  in  Canaan,  '  by  temptations, 
 by  signs,  and  by  wonders,  and  by  war,  and  by  a  mighty 
 hand,  and  by  a  stretched  out  arm,  and  by  great  ter- 
 rors ;'  and  that  he,  in  particular,  was  a  prophet  of  this 
 great  God,  who  '  had  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth, 
 the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,'  and  who,  for  his  diso- 
 bedience in  refusing  to  come  upon  this  errand,  had  con- 
 fined him  in  the  deep  for  three  days  and  nights,  but  now, 
 upon  his  humiliation,  had  set  him  free  from  his  ghastly 
 prison,  and  given  him  courage  to  speak  with  so  much 
 boldness ;  the  people,  I  say,  who  were  informed  of  all 
 this,  could  not  well  fail  of  giving  God  the  glory  due 
 unto  his  name,  for  sending  a  prophet  of  his  favourite 
 nation,  and  one  of  so  distinguished  a  character,  to  give 
 them  notice  of  their  impending  doom. 
 
 9  '  I  wrought  for  my  name's  sake,'  says  God,  remem- 
 bering the  wondrous  things  which  he  had  done  for  the 
 children  of  Israel,  '  I  wrought  for  my  name's  sake,  that 
 it  should  not  be  polluted  among  the  heathen,  among 
 whom  they  were,  in  whose  sight  I  made  myself  known 
 unto  them,  in  bringing  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt :' 
 and  therefore  we  may  well  admit,  as  another  motive 
 to  his  working  this  miracle,  the  desire  he  had  to  raise 
 the  fame  of  a  nation  he  had  taken  so  immediately  under 
 his  care,  as  well  as  to  have  the  glory  of  his  own  name 
 magnified  among  the  Gentiles.  To  which  we  may  add 
 that  most  weighty  reason  of  all,  which  our  blessed  Saviour 
 suggests  :  lu  '  An  evil  and  adulterous  generation  seeketh 
 after  a  sign,  and  there  shall  no  sign  be  given  it,  but  the 
 sign  of  the  prophet  Jonas  :  for  as  Jonas  was  three  days 
 and  three  nights  in  the  whale's  belly,  so  shall  the  Son  of 
 man  be  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the 
 earth.'  So  that  the  great  design  of  God's  exhibiting,  at 
 this  time,  this  miracle  in  the  person  of  Jonah,  was  to 
 confirm,  in  future  ages,  the  great  and  fundamental  article 
 of  our  faith,  upon  which  the  whole  superstructure  of  the 
 Christian  religion  depends,  '  the  resurrection  of  our  Sa- 
 viour Christ ;'  and  that  whenever  the  reality  of  that  fact, 
 as  it  is  related  in  the  New  Testament,  came  to  be  called  in 
 question,  we  might  be  furnished  with  a  parallel  instance 
 of  the  mighty  power  of  God  recorded  in  the  Old. 
 
 Nor  is  it  only  in  the  sacred  records  that  we  meet  with 
 this  history  of  Jonah,  but  in  the  fables,  related  by  sev- 
 eral heathen  authors,  both  in  verse  and  prose,  we  find 
 evident  footsteps  and  memorials  of  it.  Hercules  was 
 the  great  champion  of  the  Grecians,  and  his  fame  they 
 were  wont  to  adorn  with  all  the  remarkable  exploits  that 
 they  could  in  any  nation  hear  of.  It  is  not  improbable 
 therefore,  "  that  the  adventure  of  his  jumping  down  the 
 throat  of  the  seadog,  which  Neptune  had  sent  to  devour 
 him,  and  there  concealing  himself  for  three  days,  without 
 any  manner  of  hurt,  save  the  loss  of  a  few  hairs,  which 
 came  off  by  the  heat  of  the  creature's  stomach,  was 
 founded  upon  some  blind  tradition  which  these  people 
 
 7  Rom.  ix.  4.  8  Deut.  iv.  34.  9  Ezek.  xx.  9,  14. 
 
 10  Mat.  xii.  39,  40.         "  Lycophron,  see  Grotius  and  Bochart 
 
Sbct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 621 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4054.  A.  C.   757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 might  have  of  what  happened  to  Jonah.  Nor  can  the 
 known  story  of  Arion,  thrown  overboard  by  the  seamen, 
 but  taken  up  by  a  dolphin,  and  carried  safe  to  Corinth, 
 be  justly  referred  to  any  other  original ;  since,  '  besides 
 pome  resemblance  in  their  names,  and  no  great  disparity 
 in  the  times  wherein  they  lived,  which  are  both  circum- 
 stances that  make  for  this  hypothesis,  the  supposed  dif- 
 ference in  their  respective  callings  can  be  no  manner  of 
 objection  to  it,  2  because  the  same  word  in  the  Hebrew 
 tongue  signifies  both  a  prophet  and  a  musician.  And 
 therefore  it  is  remarkable,  that  as  Arion  played  the  tune 
 wherewith  he  charmed  and  allured  the  fish  to  save  him, 
 before  he  jumped  overboard  ;  so  Jonah,  when  he  found 
 himself  safely  landed,  uttered,  what  is  called  3  a  prayer 
 indeed,  but  is,  in  reality,  a  lofty  hymn  in  commemora- 
 tion of  his  gTeat  deliverance,  as  appears  by  this  speci- 
 men :  4  '  The  waters  compassed  me  about,  even  to  the 
 soul  ;  the  depth  closed  me  round  about,  and  weeds  were 
 wrapped  about  my  head.  I  went  down  to  the  bottoms 
 of  the  mountains  ;  the  earth,  with  her  bars,  was  about 
 me  for  ever  ;  yet  hast  thou  brought  up  my  life  from  the 
 pit,  O  Lord  my  God.' 
 
 CHAP.  IV. — On  Jonalis  Mission  to  Nineveh,  and 
 abode  in  the  Whale's  belly. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY   THE  EDITOR. 
 
 The  author  of  the  Fragments  appended  to  Calmet's  Dic- 
 tionary, explains  this, -not  of  a  living  animal,  but  of  a 
 floating  preserver,  by  which  Jonah  was  saved  from 
 drowning.  He  remarks  that  the  word  which  is  used  in 
 the  original,  '  Dag,'  signifies  primarily  a  fish;  yet,  that 
 it  also  signifies  a  fish  boat,  and  figuratively  a  preserver, 
 so  that  the  passage  will  admit  of  being  rendered  thus  : 
 1  the  Lord  prepared  a  large  preserver  to  receive  Jonah, 
 and  Jonah  was  in  the  inner  part,'  the  belly  or  hold,  '  three 
 days  and  nights,  and  then  was  cast  up  on  the  shore.' 
 
 Hut  this  fanciful  interpretation  cannot  be  adopted, 
 because  it  contradicts  the  express  declaration  of  our 
 Lord.5  There  are  four  objections  urged  to  the  account 
 which  is  given  us  of  this  miracle  :  first,  that  the  gullet 
 of  a  whale  is  too  small  to  admit  the  body  of  a  man. 
 Secondly,  that  though  admitted  entire  into  the  stomach 
 of  this  fish,  he  could  not  live  there.  Thirdly,  that  there 
 are  no  whales  in  the  Mediterranean  sea.  And  fourthly, 
 that  the  whole  story  is  rendered  improbable  by  the  re- 
 presentation given  of  the  character  and  religious  princi- 
 ples of  Jonah. 
 
 The  first  objection  is  refuted  by  observations  which 
 have  been  made  on  the  natural  history  of  the  whale. 
 Captain  Scorcsby  states,  that  when  the  mouth  of  the  great 
 common  whale  is  open,  it  presents  a  cavity  as  large  as 
 a  room,  and  capable  of  containing  a  merchant  ship's 
 jolly  boat  full  of  men,  being  six  or  eight  feet  wide,  ten 
 or  twelve  feet  high,  and  fifteen  or  sixteen  feet  long.  6 
 The  objection  of  infidel  writers,  therefore,  in  regard  to 
 this  point,  is  vain  and  unfounded. 
 
 lint  it  is   further  alleged,  that  though   the  body  of  a 
 
 1  IIiR't.  Dumonst.  Evang.  Propos.  4.  tie  Prophets  Jonah. 
 2  Ilui'tius,  ibid.  3  Jon.  ii.  2.  *  Ibid.  ver.  5,  C. 
 
 4  Mat.  xii.  40.  6  Vol.  i.  i>.  455. 
 
 man  might  be  admitted  entire  into  the  stomach  of  this 
 fish,  he  could  not  live  there.  But  Dr  Mosely  has  ascer- 
 tained by  the  most  decisive  experiments,  that  digestion  in 
 fishes  is  not  produced  either  by  trituration  or  by  the  heat  of 
 the  stomach.  "  I  generally  found,"  says  he,  "  after  cut- 
 ting up  the  stomachs  of  many  cod-fish  just  as  they  came 
 alive  out  of  the  water, — small  oysters,  muscles,  cookies, 
 and  crabs,  as  well  as  small  fishes  of  their  own  and  other 
 species.  The  coldness  of  the  stomach  of  these  fishes,  is 
 far  greater  than  the  temperature  of  the  water  out  of  which 
 they  are  taken,  or  of  any  other  part  of  the  fish,  or  of 
 any  other  substance  of  animated  nature  I  ever  felt.  On 
 wrapping  one  of  them  round  my  hand,  immediately  on 
 being  taken  out  of  the  fish,  it  caused  so  much  aching  and 
 numbness  that  I  could  not  endure  it  long."  "  Animals 
 or  parts  of  animals,  possessed  of  the  living  principle, 
 when  taken  into  the  stomach,  are  not,"  says  Mr  John 
 Hunter,  7  "  in  the  least  affected  by  the  powers  of  that 
 viscus,  so  long  as  the  animal  principle  remains.  Thence 
 it  is  that  we  find  animals  of  various  kinds  living  in  the 
 stomach,  or  even  hatched  and  bred  there ;  but  the  mo- 
 ment that  any  of  these  lose  the  living  principle,  they 
 become  subject  to  the  digestive  power  of  the  stomach. 
 If  it  were  possible  for  a  man's  hand,  for  example,  to  be 
 introduced  into  the  stomach  of  a  living  animal,  and  kept 
 there  for  some  considerable  time,  it  would  be  found  that 
 the  dissolvent  powers  of  the  stomach  could  have  no  effect 
 upon  it ;  but  if  the  same  hand  were  separated  from  the 
 body,  and  introduced  into  the  same  stomach,  we  should 
 then  find,  that  the  stomach  would  immediately  act  upon 
 it.  Indeed,  if  this  were  not  the  case,  we  should  find 
 that  the  stomach  itself  ought  to  have  been  made  of  indi- 
 gestible materials  ;  for,  if  the  living  principle  were  not 
 capable  of  preserving  animal  substances  from  undergo- 
 ing that  process,  the  stomach  itself  would  be  digested. 
 But  we  find,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  stomach,  which  at 
 one  instant,  that  is,  while  possessed  of  the  living  princi- 
 ple, was  capable  of  resisting  the  digestive  power  which 
 it  contained,  the  next  moment,  namely,  when  deprived 
 of  the  living  principle,  is  itself  capable  of  being  digested, 
 either  by  the  digestive  powers  of  other  stomachs,  or  by 
 the  remains  of  that  power  which  it  had  of  digesting  other 
 things." 
 
 Still,  however,  it  is  stated,  by  way  of  objection,  that 
 there  are  no  whales  in  the  Mediterranean  sea.  With 
 the  view  of  obviating  this  objection,  some  writers  have 
 supposed  that  the  shark  may  have  been  the  fish  which  is 
 here  intended.  But  in  truth,  the  objection  which  this 
 hypothesis  is  designed  to  meet,  is  frivolous  :  for  on  any 
 supposition  the  preservation  of  Jonah  was  owing  to  a 
 miraculous  interposition  of  providence.  It  is  expressly 
 asserted,  *  <  that  Cod  had  prepared  a  great  fish  :'  and 
 who  will  say,  that  God  could  not  by  an  impulse  commu- 
 nicated bring  the  whale  to  the  side  of  the  ship,  and  pre- 
 pare it  for  the  purpose  which  it  was  intended  to  answer  ? 
 But  the  fourth  objection  to  the  whole  of  this  narration 
 is  that  the  story  is  rendered  improbable  by  the  repre- 
 sentation given  of  the  character  and  religious  principles 
 of  Jonah.  Can  we  imagine  that  a  man  would  have  been 
 selected,  to  deliver  a  message  from  God  to  the  greiit 
 city  of  Nineveh,  who  was  himself  so  ignorant  as  to  sup- 
 pose that  he  could  flee  from  the  presence  of  the  Creator 
 
 l'liil.  Trans,  vol.  lxii.  p.  449. 
 
 Jon.  i.  17. 
 
622 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4G54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 and  Governor  of  the  universe,  and  whose  dispositions 
 were  so  perverse  as  to  make  him  unwilling  to  execute  a 
 commission  the  most  honourable  that  could  be  intrusted 
 to  man  ? 
 
 A  candid  consideration  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
 case  will  show  that  there  is  no  force  whatever  even  in 
 this  objection. — Of  Jonah  little  more  is  known  than  that 
 he  was  of  Gath-hepher,  a  town  in  the  tribe  of  Zebulon, 
 and  connected  with  the  kingdom  of  Israel.  He  was  not 
 ignorant,  as  has  been  imagined,  that  Jehovah  is  the  God 
 of  the  whole  earth,  whose  dominion  is  universal,  and 
 from  whose  presence  no  swiftness  can  flee.  But  by 
 fleeing  unto  Tarshish  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  he 
 meant  a  withdrawment  from  that  prophetical  ministry  in 
 the  immediate  and  more  special  presence  of  God,  as  it 
 were,  which  he  had  been  called  to  discharge.  Some 
 think,  that  he  declined  going  to  Nineveh  to  denounce 
 the  judgments  of  God  against  it,  because  he  was  jealous 
 for  the  honour  of  Israel,  and  was  not  willing  that  the 
 Gentiles  should  partake  of  the  benefits  of  prophecy  ;  and 
 he  afterwards  intimates  l  that  he  apprehended  that  God 
 would  mercifully  spare  Nineveh,  and  that  he  should  be 
 despised  and  punished  as  a  false  prophet.  But  when  we 
 consider  the  perils  and  hardships  to  which  this  journey 
 and  message  were  likely  to  expose  him  ;  when  we  ima- 
 gine to  ourselves  the  probable  reception  of  a  despised 
 prophet  of  Israel  in  this  proud  idolatrous  city,  come 
 avowedly  to  predict  its  speedy  destruction  ;  and  that 
 this  might  draw  on  him  the  resentment  both  of  the  rulers 
 and  the  multitude,  we  shall  not  wonder  that  he  was  ex- 
 tremely reluctant  to  undertake  the  service.  How  often 
 does  it  happen,  that  the  servant  of  the  Lord  wishes  for 
 a  removal  from  his  post  merely  to  escape  the  opposition 
 with  which  he  may  be  assailed, — not  remembering  that, 
 however  painful  may  be  his  circumstances,  he  is  safe 
 while  in  the  path  of  duty,  and  that  in  fleeing  from  that 
 path  still  greater  trials  await  him ! 
 
 Strong  faith  and  a  habit  of  unreserved  obedience  were 
 necessary  to  overcome  the  reluctance  that  Jonah  must 
 have  felt.  He  seems  to  have  supposed  that  the  spirit  of 
 prophecy  would  not  rest  on  him,  if  he  left  the  land  of 
 Israel  to  go  some  other  way  than  to  Nineveh  :  he  desired 
 to  be  freed  from  those  impulses  with  which  he  had  not 
 courage  and  faith  to  comply,  and  he  therefore  proposed 
 '  to  flee  unto  Tarshish  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord.' 
 Accordingly,  he  went  to  Joppa,  a  seaport  town,  about 
 forty  miles  from  Gath-hepher,  where  he  is  supposed  to 
 have  dwelt.  There  he  met  with  a  vessel  about  to  sail 
 to  Tarshish,  and,  paying  the  fare,  went  aboard,  not 
 expecting  to  be  pursued  by  more  imminent  danger,  than 
 any  of  those  from  which  he  fled.  A  tempest  was  com- 
 missioned to  arrest  the  ship.  The  affrighted  mariners 
 having  some  sense  of  a  superior  power,  but  no  right 
 knowledge  of  the  true  God  ;  and  being  of  different 
 countries,  cried,  every  one  to  the  idol  that  he  had  been 
 used  to  worship,  for  deliverance  from  death.  The  ex- 
 traordinary nature  of  this  tempest,  and  the  general 
 notions  of  a  superior  power,  and  of  right  and  wrong, 
 which  these  men  entertained,  induced  them  to  conclude, 
 that  some  atrocious  criminal  sailed  witli  them,  for  whose 
 cause  this  evil  had  befallen  them.  They  agreed  to 
 decide,  by  casting  lots,  who  was  the  criminal.     This  was 
 
 1  Chap.  iv.  1,  2. 
 
 an  appeal  to  the  heart-searching  God,  and  to  his  provi- 
 dence ;  and  he  was  pleased  to  determine  the  matter  for 
 them,  by  causing  the  lot  to  fall  upon  Jonah.  When  he 
 was  thus  singled  out  as  the  culprit,  whom  divine  ven- 
 geance pursued,  the  mariners  calmly  entreated  him  to 
 inform  them,  whether  he  was  not  conscious  of  some  great 
 crime,  for  which  this  calamity  was  come  upon  them. 
 
 AVitiiout  reserve  Jonah  told  them  of  his  people  and 
 religion,  as  a  worshipper  of  Jehovah  the  God  of  heaven, 
 the  Creator  both  of  the  sea  and  the  dry  land  ;  and  at  the 
 same  time  ingenuously  confessed  his  sin.  This  exceed- 
 ingly alarmed  them  ;  and  perceiving  that  the  tempest 
 continued  to  increase,  and  not  knowing  how  to  act,  in- 
 quired of  Jonah  himself  as  the  prophet  of  Jehovah, 
 what  they  ought  to  do  in  this  emergency.  He,  convinc- 
 ed of  his  sin  and  folly,  and  perhaps  receiving  some  inti- 
 mation of  the  divine  will,  counselled  them  to  cast  him 
 into  the  sea,  and  then  the  tempest  would  cease,  for  he 
 knew  that  it  was  raised  on  his  account.  When  they 
 found  that  their  endeavours  to  preserve  his  life  and  their 
 own  were  in  vain  ;  and  after  they  had  prayed  to  Jehovah 
 not  to  impute  to  them  the  guilt  of  murder  when  in  self- 
 preservation  they  sacrificed  his  servant,  they  cast  him 
 overboard.  The  storm  having  ceased  immediately,  they 
 were  so  impressed  with  what  they  had  seen  and  heard, 
 that  they  feared  the  mighty  power  of  God,  and  wor- 
 shipped his  name.  "  Disclaiming  all  their  idol  gods," 
 says  Bishop  Hall,  "  they  offered  a  sacrifice  to  the  only 
 true  God,  and  made  vows  to  him,  to  worship  him  at  Jeru- 
 salem." 
 
 SECT.    IV 
 
 CHAP.  I.— From  the  Death  of  Uzziah,  to  the  Death 
 of  Josiah  king  of  Judah. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 The  interregnum,  a  or  vacancy  in  the  throne  of  Israel, 
 which  lasted  for  two  and  twenty  years  and  upwards, 
 occasioned  so  general  a  confusion,  that  the  people  at 
 length  came  to  a  resolution  to  place  Zechariah,  the  son 
 of  Jeroboam,  and  the  fourth  *  and  last  of  Jehu's  line, 
 
 a  This  interregnum  some  chronologers  make  longer,  and  some 
 shorter,  according  as  they  suppose  that  Zechariah  reigned  more 
 or  less  in  conjunction  with  his  father:  but  that  there  was  mani- 
 festly a  vacancy  in  the  throne  of  Israel  for  the  time  assigned,  is 
 evident  from  hence:  that  Jeroboam  II.,  who  began  to  reign  in 
 the  fifteenth  year  of  Amaziah  king  of  Judah,  died  in  the  fifteenth 
 year  of  Uzziah;  and  that  his  son  Zechariah  began  not  to  reign 
 till  the  eight  and  thirtieth  year  of  the  said  Uzziah:  so  that  there 
 was  plainly  all  this  interregnum;  but  whence  it  was  occasioned, 
 whether  by  foreign  wars,  or  rather  by  domestic  confusions,  as 
 appears  by  the  unfortunate  end  of  the  successors,  we  are  nowhere 
 told. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  God  had  promised  Jehu,  that,  for  executing  his  will  upon 
 the  house  of  Ahab,  he  would  continue  the  crown  of  Israel  in  his 
 family  for  four  generations ;  and  accordingly  Jehoahaz,  Joash, 
 Jehoram,  and  Zechariah  succeeded  him:  but  because  he  did 
 it  not  so  much  in  obedience  to  the  divine  command,  as  to 
 satisfy  his  private  and  ambitious  views,  and  in  a  method  of 
 cruelty  quite  abhorrent  to  the  divine  nature,  God  cut  his  family 
 short,  as  soon  as  he  had  fulfilled  his  promise  to  him,  and  thereby 
 accomplished  the  prophecy  of  Hosea:  'I  will  avenge  the  blood 
 of  Jezreel  upou  the  house  of  Jehu,  aid  will  cause  to  cease  the 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 623 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4G54.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 upon  the  throne.  This  happened  in  the  eight  and 
 thirtieth  year  of  Uzziah  king  of  Judah  ;  but  as  he  proved 
 a  wicked  prince,  and  followed  the  steps  of  his  ancestors, 
 he  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy  the  government ;  for  at 
 the  end  of  six  months  he  was  murdered  by  Shallum,  who 
 usurped  the  throne,  but  enjoyed  it  no  longer  than  one 
 month.  For  Menahem,  general  of  the  king's  forces, 
 which  were  then  besieging  Tirzah,  hearing  of  what 
 Shallum  had  done,  immediately  raised  the  siege,  and 
 marching  directly  to  Samaria,  defeated  and  slew  Shal- 
 lum;  and  by  the  power  and  authority  of  the  army, 
 placed  himself  upon  tlfe  throne.  Not  long  after  this, 
 he  returned  with  his  army  to  Tirzah  ;  a  but  the  inhabi- 
 tants refusing  to  open  the  gates,  he  took  the  place  by 
 storm,  and  so  having  spoiled  it,  and  laid  all  the  coun- 
 try waste  as  far  as  Tiphzah,  he  came  and  sat  down 
 before  it :  but  when  the  people  of  Tiphzah,  in  like  man- 
 ner, refused  to  open  their  gates,  and  submit  to  him,  with- 
 out distinction  of  age  or  sex,  he  put  them  all  to  the  sword, 
 and,  in  short,  was  so  barbarously  cruel,  as  to  b  rip  up 
 the  very  women  that  were  with  child. 
 
 Pid,  c  king  of  Assyria,  taking  the  advantage  of  these 
 
 kingdom  of  the  house  of  Israel  (chap.  i.  4.),  and  perhaps  it  was 
 in  remembrance  of  this  prophecy,  as  well  as  of  the  promise  which 
 confined  the  kingdom  in  Jehu's  family  to  four  generations  only 
 (2  Kings  xv.  10.),  that  Shallum  was  encouraged  to  attempt  the 
 life  of  Zechariah. — Patrick's  Commentary  and  Poole's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 a  This  is  a  place  we  find  frequent  mention  of  in  the  sacred  re- 
 cords, because  it  was  a  long  time  the  regal  city  of  the  kingdom  of 
 Israel,  after  that  the  ten  tribes  had  revolted  from  the  house  of 
 David.  Jeroboam,  who  was  the  first  king  of  Israel,  though  he 
 dwelt  for  some  time  in  Shechem,  in  his  latter  days  at  least, 
 resided  here,  as  did  all  the  other  kings  of  Israel,  until  Omri,  hav- 
 ing reigned  six  years  in  Tirzah,  built  Samaria,  and  removed  the 
 royal  seat  thither,  where  it  continued  until  a  final  period  was  put 
 to  that  kingdom.  Now  the  reason  which  induced  the  first  kings 
 of  Israel  to  make  Tirzah  the  place  of  residence,  may  he  gathered 
 from  that  expression  in  Canticles,  '  Thou  art  beautiful,  O  my 
 Jove,  as  Tirzah,'  (vi.  4.)  which  certainly  implies  that  Tirzah  was 
 a  beautiful  and  pleasant  city  to  dwell  in.  But  how  famous  and 
 beautiful  a  place  soever  this  city  was,  we  have  no  certain  account 
 of  its  situation ;  only  it  is  supposed  by  most,  that  as  Jeroboam  was 
 of  the  trihe  of  Ephraim,  he  would  naturally  be  inclined  to  make 
 choice  of  a  place  within  the  compass  of  his  tribe  for  his  royal  city: 
 and  this  opinion  is  thought  to  receive  confirmation  from  the  word 
 Ephraim's  being  frequently  used  to  denote  the  whole  kingdom  of 
 Israel,  even  because  its  capital  city  was  situated  in  that  tribe. 
 However  this  be,  it  is  pretty  plain,  from  the  circumstances  of  the 
 story,  that  the  Tiphzah  where  Menahem  exercised  so  much 
 cruelty,  was  not  the  town  of  that  name  which  lay  upon  the 
 Euphrates,  mentioned  in  1  Kings  iv.  21,  as  one  of  the  boundaries 
 of  Solomon's  dominion,  but  some  place  not  far  from  Tirzah,  and 
 consequently,  very  probably  in  the  tribe  of  Ephraim. —  Wells' 
 Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 b  Josephus  does  not  indeed  make  mention  of  this  particular 
 instance  of  his  unrelenting  cruelty;  but  this  lie  tells  us,  that, 
 "  when  he  had  taken  the  town,  he  put  all  to  the  sword,  without 
 sparing  a  man,  woman,  or  child  ;  and  that  he  exercised  such  mi  r- 
 ciless  rigour  and  inhumanity  towards  his  own  countrymen,  as 
 would  have  been  unpardonable  even  to  the  worst  of  barbarians:" 
 but  by  these  methods  he  thought,  no  doubt,  to  terrify  the  whole 
 kingdom,  so  that  none  might  dare  to  withstand  him. — Jewish 
 -lutni.  b.  9.  o.  11.  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 O  This  is  the  first  time  that  we  find  any  mention  made  of  the 
 kingdom  of  Assyria,  since  the  days  of  Nimrod,  who  erected  a 
 small  principality  there  (Gen.  *•  11.),  and  Pel,  or  Phul,  is  the 
 first  monarch  of  that  nation  who  invaded  I  in  •',  and  began  their 
 transportations  out  of  their  country.  Some  are  of  opinion  that  he 
 was  the  same  with  Belesis,  the  governor  of  Babylon,  who,  toge- 
 ther with  Arbaces  the  Medc,  slew  Sardanapalus,  the  last  of  the 
 Assyrian  monarchs,  and  translated  the  empire  to  the  Chaldean-'. 
 Our  excellent  Patrick  seems  to  be  confident  in  this.    But  accord.. 
 
 distractions,  marched  with  an  army,  and  invaded  the 
 kingdom  of  Israel  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  which  lay 
 nearest  to  Babylon  :  but  Menahem,  by  a  present  of  3000 
 talents  of  silver,  which  he  raised  out  of  the  wealthiest  of 
 his  subjects,  prevailed  with  him,  not  only  to  withdraw  his 
 forces,  but  to  recognise  his  title  likewise  to  the  crown  of 
 Israel,  before  he  left  the  kingdom  ;  which  was  one  great 
 reason,  that  he  held  the  quiet  possession  of  it  for  the 
 space  of  ten  years,  and  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  Uzziah 
 king  of  Judah,  died,  .and  d  was  succeeded  in  it  by  his 
 son  Pekahiah. 
 
 Pekahiah,  however,  did  not  reign  above  two  years, 
 before  he  was  murdered  in  his  royal  palace  by  Pekah, 
 the  general  of  his  army,  who,  in  the  last  year  of  Uzziah 
 usurped  the  crown,  and  wore  it  for  twenty  years,  but  not 
 without  much  disquiet  and  perplexity.  For  after  that 
 Tiglath-Pileser,  e  king  of  Assyria,  had  several  times 
 invaded  his  kingdom,  taken  his  cities,  ravaged  the  coun- 
 try, and  carried  away  great  numbers  of  his  subjects  cap- 
 tive, Hoshea  /the  son  of  Elah  murdered  him,  as  he  had 
 
 ing  to  our  learned  Prideaux,  Belesis  was  one  generation  later: 
 and  therefore  it  is  supposed  that  this  Pul  was  the  father  of  Sar- 
 danapalus,  who  was  called  Sardon  with  the  annexation  of  his 
 father's  name  Pul,  in  the  same  manner  as  Merodach  king  of 
 Babylon  was  called  Merodach-baladan,  because  he  was  the  son  of 
 Baladan.  This  Pul,  therefore,  was  the  same  king  of  Assyria 
 who,  when  Jonah  preached  against  Nineveh,  gave  great  tokens  of 
 his  humiliation  and  repentance.  [Dr  Hales  thinks  he  was  son 
 of  that  king  ] — Ed.  The  only  difficulty  is,  that  he  seems  to 
 have  marched  his  army  from  Babylon,  and  not  from  Nineveh, 
 and  yet  his  son  and  successor,  we  find,  lived  at  Nineveh ;  but 
 then  it  is  suggested  that,  as  the  kings  of  Assyria  resided  some- 
 times at  Babylon,  and  sometimes  at  Nineveh,  it  is  not  impro- 
 bable Pul,  to  avoid  the  judgments  which  Jonah  threatened 
 against  the  latter,  might  remove  to  Babylon,  where  he  resided 
 the  remaining  part  of  his  reign;  and  this  made  it  so  convenient 
 for  him  to  attack  the  Israelites  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan. — 
 Pridcaux's  Connection,  anno  747,  and  Bedford's  Scripture  Chro- 
 nology, b.  6. 
 
 d  This  shows  that  Menahem  was  a  man  of  great  weight  and 
 consideration;  since,  notwithstanding  all  his  violence  and  cruelty, 
 he  left  the  kingdom  in  his  own  family,  which  his  two  predeces- 
 sors could  not  do.  It  is  manifest,  however,  that  there  was  a 
 small  interregnum  of  about  a  year's  continuance,  between  his  death 
 and  his  son's  accession:  for  his  son  did  not  begin  to  reign  till  the 
 fiftieth  year  of  Uzziah,  and  yet  he  must  have  been  dead  the  year 
 before,  because  it  is  said  of  him,  (2  Kings  xv.)  that  he  began  to 
 reign  in  the  thirty-ninth  year  of  Uzziah,  and  reigned  but  ten 
 years.  There  was  therefore  apparently  an  interregnum ;  but 
 what  the  occasion  of  it  was,  it  is  not  so  well  known  ;  though  there 
 is  room  to  suppose,  that  it  proceeded  from  the  interest  of  his  suc- 
 cessor, who  might  raise  a  party  to  keep  him  out  of  the  throne,  as 
 he  did  afterwards  to  deprive  him  both  of  that  and  life.  For, 
 according  to  Josephus,  "  he  was  cut  to  pieces,  with  several  of  his 
 friends  about  him,  at  a  public  feast,  by  the  treasonable  practices  of 
 Pekah,  one  of  his  principal  officers,  who,  seizing  upon  the  go- 
 vernment, reigned  about  twenty  years,  and  left  it  at  last  a  diffi- 
 cult question  to  determine,  'Whether  he  was  more  remarkable 
 for  his  impiety  towards  God,  or  for  his  injustice  towards  men  ?'  " 
 — Josephus' s  Antiquities,  b.  9.  c.  11.,  and  Bedford's  Scripture 
 Chronology,  b.  6. 
 
 e  He  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  the  son  and  successor 
 of  Sardanapalus,  who  restored  the  kingdom  of  Assyria,  and  pos- 
 sessed it,  after  it  had  been  dismembered  by  Belesis  and  Arbaces; 
 but  our  learned  Prideaux  (who  begins  his  excellent  Connection  of 
 the  History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  at  this  period)  makes 
 him  to  be  th  i  same  with  Arbaces,  by  Elion  called  Thilgamus, 
 and  by  Castor,  Ninus  Junior;  who,  together  with  Belesis,  headed 
 the  conspiracy  against  Sardanapalus,  and  fixed  his  royal  seat  at 
 Nineveh,  the  ancient  residence  of  the  Assyrian  kings,  as  Belesis, 
 who  in  Scripture  is  likewise  called  Baladan,  (Is.  xxxix.  1.)  did 
 his  at  Babylon,  and  there  governed  his  new  erected  mpire  for 
 nineteen  years. — Prideanx's  Connection,  anno  747. 
 
 /After  he  had  murdered  his  predecessor  Pekah,  the  eiiiers  of 
 
624 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4654.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 done  his  predecessor,  and  after  an  interregnum  of  nine 
 years,  a  thrust  himself  into  the  throne  ;  but  it  was  not 
 long  before  he  found  that  his  usurpation  was  attended 
 with  many  incumbrances. 
 
 Salmaneser,  who,  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  Ahaz, 
 king  of  Judah,  succeeded  his  father  Tiglath-Pileser,  in 
 the  kingdom  of  Assyria,  invaded  his  country,  and  having 
 subdued  Samaria,  made  him  promise  to  become  his 
 vassal,  and  to  pay  him  an  annual  tribute.  For  some 
 time  Hoshea  sent  his  presents,  and  his  tribute  money, 
 very  punctually  ;  but  having  entered  into  a  confederacy 
 with  So  *  king  of  Egypt,  by  his  assistance  he  hoped  to 
 be  able  to  shake  off"  the  Assyrian  yoke ;  and  therefore 
 withdrew  his  subjection,  and  would  pay  no  more  tribute  ; 
 whereupon  Salmaneser  c  marched  with  an  army  against 
 him,  and  having  subdued  all  the  country  round,  and 
 amassed  a  d  great  quantity  of  rich  prey,  he  came,  and 
 sat  down  before  Samaria.  The  town  held  out  for  three 
 years  ;  but  being  at  length  compelled  to  surrender,  Sal- 
 maneser quite  demolished  it.  He  took  Hoshea,  and 
 put  him  in  chains,  and  shut  him  up  in  prison  all  his  days  ; 
 and  having  e  carried  the  people  into  captivity,  and  placed 
 them  in  the  north  parts  of  Assyria,  and  in  the  cities  of 
 the  Medes,  he  sent  several  colonies  of  his  own  subjects 
 from  Babylon,  and  other  provinces,  to  replenish  the 
 land  :  but  being  too  few  for  this  purpose,  and  withal  a 
 very  wicked  and  idolatrous  people,  the  divine  providence 
 
 the  land  seem  to  have  taken  the  government  into  their  own 
 hands ;  for  he  had  not  the  possession  of  the  kingdom  till  the  latter 
 end  erf  the  twelfth  year  of  Ahaz,  that  is,  about  nine  years  after  he 
 had  committed  the  fact.  He  came  to  the  crown,  it  must  be 
 owned,  in  a  very  wicked  manner,  and  yet  his  character  in  Scrip- 
 ture is  not  so  vile  as  many  of  his  predecessors,  (2  Kings  xvii.  2.) 
 For  whereas  the  kings  of  Israel  had  hitherto  maintained  guards 
 upon  the  frontiers,  to  hinder  their  subjects  from  going  to  Jeru- 
 salem to  worship,  Hoshea  took  away  these  guards,  and  gave  free 
 liberty  to  all  to  go  and  pay  their  adorations  where  the  law  had 
 directed.  And  therefore,  when  Hezekiah  invited  all  Israel  to 
 come  to  his  passover,  this  prince  permitted  all  that  would  to  go: 
 and  «hcn,  upon  their  return  from  that  festival,  they  destroyed 
 all  the  monuments  of  idolatry  that  were  found  in  the  kingdom  of 
 Samaria,  instead  of  forbidding  them,  in  all  probability  he  gave  his 
 consent  to  it;  because  without  some  tacit  encouragement  at  least, 
 they  durst  not  have  ventured  to  do  it. — Prideaux's  Connection, 
 anno  729. 
 
 a  Ten  years,  according  to  Hales. — Ed. 
 
 b  This  So,  with  whom  Hoshea  entered  into  confederacy,  is,  in 
 profane  authors,  called  Sabacon,  that  famous  Ethiopian,  mention- 
 ed by  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  Siculus,  who,  in  the  beginning  of 
 Hezekiah's  reign,  invaded  Egypt,  and  having  taken  Bocehai  is,  the 
 king  thereof,  prisoner,  had  him,  in  great  cruelty,  burnt  alive,  and 
 then  seized  on  his  kingdom. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  T2G. 
 
 c  Salmaneser,  who  in  Tobit  i.  2,  is  called  Enemessar,  and  in 
 Hosea  x.  14,  Shalman,  was  the  son  and  successor  of  Arbaces,  or 
 Tiglath-Pileser,  and  according  to  Josephus,  who  has  quoted  a 
 passage  from  Menander,  there  is  mention  made  of  him,  and  of 
 his  conquest  of  the  land  of  Israel,  in  the  history  of  the  Tynans. 
 — Jewish  AnUq.  b.  9.  c.  14. 
 
 d  In  this  expedition,  among  other  rich  things  which  he  took 
 and  carried  away,  was  the  golden  calf  which  Jeroboam  had  set 
 up  at  Bethel,  which,  ever  since  his  time,  had  been  worshipped 
 by  the  ten  trilics  that  had  revolted  with  him  from  the  house  of 
 David,  as  the  other  golden  calf,  which  he,  at  the  same  time  set 
 up  at  Dan,  had  been  taken  thence,  about  ten  years  before,  by 
 his  father  Tiglath-Pileser,  when  he  invaded  Galilee,  the  province 
 wherein  that  city  stood.  —  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  729. 
 
 e  The  policy  of  any  prince,  in  transplanting  a  conquered 
 people  into  another  country,  is  to  prevent  their  combining  to- 
 gether, which  they  cannot  so  well  do  in  a  strange  land,  and  among 
 a  mixed  multitude  of  different  languages,  in  order  to  shake  off 
 their  uneasy  yoke,  and  recover  their  liberty. — Le  Clero's  Com- 
 mentary, 
 
 permitted  lions,  /and  other  wild  beasts,  to  multiply 
 upon  them  to  such  a  degree,  that  they  were  forced  to 
 make  a  representation  thereof  at  the  Assyrian  court, 
 namely,  "  that  being  ignorant  of  the  manner  wherein 
 they  were  to  worship  the  god  of  the  country,  they  sup- 
 posed that  this  affliction  was  sent  upon  them  ;  and  there- 
 fore they  humbly  prayed,  that  some  priest  of  the  Jewish 
 nation  might  be  sent  to  instruct  them  in  that  particular."^ 
 This  accordingly  was  done :  but  as  these  colonies  con- 
 sisted of  a  mixture  of  different  nations  and  provinces, 
 they  joined  the  worship  of  the  true  God  with  that  of 
 the  several  idols  of  the  countries  from  whence  they 
 came ;  so  that  one  might  have  seen  the  people  who  came 
 from  Babylon  worshipping  Succoth-Benoth ;  ''  the  in- 
 habitants of   Cuthath,  »  praying  to  Nergal ;  *  those  of 
 
 f  Josephus,  in  this  part  of  the  history,  takes  the  liberty  to 
 alter  the  sense  of  the  sacred  text:  for  instead  of  the  increase  of 
 lions,  which  destroyed  the  people,  he  tells  us,  "  that  they  were 
 visited  with  a  dreadful  plague,  so  that  the  place  was  in  a  man- 
 ner quite  depopulated  by  it."  But  allowing  it  to  be  lions,  why 
 should  these  new  inhabitants  be  afflicted  with  these  creatures 
 '  for  not  fearing  the  Lord,'  (2  Kings  xvii.  25.)  when  the  Israel- 
 ites, who  feared  the  Lord  as  little  as  they,  were  never  infested 
 with  any  such  thing?  The  Israelites  were  addicted  to  idolatry; 
 but  then  they  did  not  deny  the  divine  power  and  providence, 
 only  they  imagined,  that  their  idols  were  the  intermediate  causes 
 whereby  the  blessedness  of  the  supreme  God  might  be  conveyed 
 to  them ;  whereas  these  new  comers  believed  the  idols  that  they 
 worshipped  to  be  true  gods,  and  had  no  conceptions  higher.  They 
 had  no  notion  of  one  eternal,  almighty,  and  independent  being. 
 The  God  of  Israel  they  took  to  be  such  an  one  as  their  own,  a 
 topical  god,  whose  power  and  care  extended  no  farther  than  to 
 one  particular  nation  or  people ;  and  therefore,  to  rectify  their 
 sentiments  in  this  particular,  he  took  this  method  to  let  them 
 know,  that  '  all  the  beasts  of  the  forest  were  his,'  and  that  when- 
 ever he  is  incensed  with  a  people,  he  wants  not  instruments  to 
 execute  Ids  wrath ;  the  air,  the  earth,  the  elements,  and  creatures 
 of  any  kind,  can  avenge  him,  and  punish  them. — Jewish  Antiq. 
 
 b.  9.  c.  14.  and  Calmets  Commentary. 
 
 g  Imperfect  as  this  teaching  was,  it  in  the  end  overthrew  the 
 idolatry  of  these  people,  so  that  soon  after  the  Babylonish  capti- 
 vity they  were  found  to  be  as  free  from  idolatry  as  the  Jews  them- 
 selves, and  continue  so  to  the  present  day.  But  they  are  now 
 nearly  annihilated:  the  small  remains  of  them  is  found  at  Nap- 
 louse  and  Jaffa;  they  are  about  thirty  families;  and  men,  women, 
 and  children,  amount  to  about  two  hundred  persons ;  they  have 
 a  synagogue,  which  they  regularly  attend  every  sabbath ;  and 
 they  go  thither  clothed  in  white  robes. — Br  A.  Clarke. — Ed. 
 
 h  Among  the  great  variety  of  conjectures,  it  is  difficult  to  tell 
 what  we  are  properly  to  understand  by  these  abstruse  words. 
 The  Jewish  doctors  will  have  them  to  signify  '  an  hen  and 
 chickens ;'  but  for  what  reason  it  is  hardly  conceivable.  Others 
 rather  think  them  that  celestial  constellation  called  pleiades, 
 winch  the  Babylonians,  who  were  greatly  addicted  to  astronomy, 
 might  possibly  worship.  Some  think  them  the  name  of  a  city 
 which  the  Babylonians  built  in  Samaria;  and  others  a  par- 
 ticular deity  whom  they  adored:  but  since  the  words  plainly 
 import  the  'tabernacle  of  daughters,'  or  'young  maidens,"  they 
 may  be  most  properly  referred  to  those  infamous  places  where  all 
 the  young  women  were  obliged,  once  in  their  lives,  to  prostitute 
 themselves  to  any  that  asked  the  favour,  in  honour  of  the  goddess 
 Mylitta,  who,  in  other  nations,  is  called  Venus.  Herodotus,  in 
 Clio,  b.  1,  gives  us  an  account  of  this  abominable  custom  at 
 large,  and  it  is  not  improbable,  that  these  Babylonians  might 
 bring  it  along  with  them  into  the  country  of  Samaria. — Calmefs 
 Dictionary,  under  the  word ;  Scldcn  on  the  Syrian  gods,  Essay  2. 
 
 c.  7.    Vossius  on  Idolatrg,  b.  2.  c.  2.  and  Jwrieu's  History  of 
 Doctrines,  &c.  part  4.  c.  8. 
 
 i  A  province  of  Assyria,  which,  as  some  say,  lies  upon  the 
 Araxes;  but  others  rather  think  it  to  be  the  same  with  Cush, 
 which  is  said  by  Moses  to  be  encompassed  by  the  river  Gihon, 
 and  must  therefore  be  the  same  with  the  country  which  the 
 Greeks  call  Susiana,  and  which,  to  this  xery  day,  is  called  by  the 
 inhabitants  Chusestan.—  Wells'  Geoff,  of  the  Old  Test.  vol.  3. 
 
 k  The  Rabbins,  who  are  followed  therein  by  some  other  inter- 
 
Sfxt.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &< 
 
 C25 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 Haniath,  a  setting  up  Ashhnah  ;  *  the  Avites,  c  adoring 
 Nibhaz  d  and  Tartak ;  and  those  of  Sepharvaim,  e  pros- 
 trate before  Adranialech  /  and  Anamalech  ;  and  all  this, 
 
 preters,  think  that  this  deity  is  worshipped  under  the  shape  of  a 
 woodcock;  but,  as  the  word  ner  signifies  a  lamp,  others,  with 
 better  reason,  have  imagined  that  the  Cutliites,  who  were  after- 
 wards called  Persians,  adored  fire,  and,  in  honour  of  the  sun,  in 
 the  same  manner  as  the  Persians  did,  kept  a  perpetual  lire  burn- 
 ing upon  their  altars. — Catmel's  Dictionary  under  the  word,  and 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  There  are  several  cities  and  countries  which  go  under  this 
 name ;  hut  what  we  take  here  to  be  meant,  is  that  province  of 
 Syria  that  lies  upon  the  Orontes,  wherein  there  was  a  city  of  the 
 saint'  name,  which  when  Salmaneser  had  taken  he  removed  the 
 Inhabitants  from  thence  into  Samaria,  at  distance  enough,  as  he 
 thought,  to  prevent  their  raising  any  fresh  commotion. — Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 b  Some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  say,  that  this  Syrian  god  was 
 worshipped  under  the  shape  of  an  ape;  others  of  a  lamb;  others 
 of  a  goat;  others  of  a  satyr;  and  others  in  the  figure  wherein 
 tin-  |iiicts  represent  the  god  Pan.  They  who  made  an  ape  of  this 
 idol  god,  seem  to  have  some  regard  to  the  sound  of  the  word 
 Sima,  which  has  an  analogy  to  the  Greek  word  simia ;  but  the 
 Hebrews,  it  is  very  well  known,  have  another  word  to  denote 
 an  ape,  which  together  with  the  goat,  was  properly  an  Egyptian 
 deity.  The  Syrians,  however,  adored  the  sun,  under  the  appel- 
 lation of  Elah-Gabalah,  from  whence  the  emperor  Heliogabalus, 
 who  instituted  that  worship  with  so  much  magnificence  in  Rome, 
 took  his  name ;  and  therefore,  as  Asuman  or  Suman,  in  the  Per- 
 sian language,  signifies  heaven,  the  Syrians  might  from  thence 
 derive  the  name  of  their  god,  who  was  represented  by  a  large 
 stone  pillar,  terminating  in  a  conic  or  pyramidal  figure,  whereby 
 they  denoted  fire. — Patrick's  Commentary  and  Dictionary  under 
 the  word,  and  Tennison  of  Idolatry. 
 
 c  In  Deut.  ii.  23,  we  read  of  the  Avims;  but  then,  in  the 
 same  text  we  are  told,  that  the  Caphtorim,  which  is  generally 
 understood  of  the  Philistines,  '  destroyed  them,  and  lived  iu  their 
 stead,  long  before  these  times;'  nor  does  it  appear,  that  the  king 
 of  Assyria  ever  had  under  his  subjection  the  places  where  these 
 people  are  said  to  have  lived.  The  most  probable  opinion  seems, 
 therefore,  to  be  that  which  the  learned  Grotius  has  suggested,  by 
 observing  that  there  are  a  people  in  Bactriana,  mentioned  by 
 Ptolemy  under  the  name  of  Avadice,  who  might  possibly  be  those 
 whom  Salmaneser  at  this  time  transported  into  Palestine. — /Fells' 
 Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3. 
 
 d  What  these  idols  were,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  tell.  Our 
 learned  Selden,  though  he  thinks  they  were  the  same  idol  under 
 different  appellations,  acknowledges  himself  unable  to  give  any 
 account  of  them ;  for  he  quite  overlooks  the  fancy  of  the  Rabbin- 
 ical writers,  who  dress  up  the  former  in  the  shape  of  a  dog,  and 
 the  latter  in  that  of  an  ass. — Patrick's  Commentary.  Jurieu, 
 in  his  history  of  Doctrines,  &c.  part  4.  c.  JO,  has  observed,  that 
 as  the  word  Nibhas  or  Nilichas,  both  in  the  Hebrew  and  Chaldee, 
 with  a  small  variation,  denotes  quick,  swift,  rapid,  &c.  and  Tar- 
 tak in  the  same  language  signifies  a  chariot,  these  two  idols 
 may  both  together  denominate  the  sun  mounted  en  his  car,  as 
 the  fictions  of  the  poets,  and  the  notions  of  the  heathen  theo- 
 logists  were  wont  to  represent  that  bright  luminary. 
 
 e  Ptolemy  makes  mention  of  a  city  called  Zipphara,  on  the 
 banks  of  the  river  Euphrates,  which  the  generality  of  interpreters 
 take  to  be  this:  but  as  the  sacred  history  tells  us  that  the 
 Israelites  were  translated  into  the  cities  of  the  Medes,  and  these 
 Medes,  in  all  likelihood,  were  brought  to  supply  their  places; 
 between  Colchis  and  Media  there  are  a  people,  whom  Herodotus 
 calls  the  Saspires,  which  may  be  the  same  with  these  that  the 
 text  calls  the  '  Sepharvaites.' — Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 f  The  former  of  these,  according  to  the  Jewish  doctors,  was 
 represented  in  the  form  of  a  mule,  some  say  a  peacock;  and  the 
 latter  in  the  form  of  a  horse,  some  say  a  pheasant:  but  the  defini- 
 tion of  the  words,  as  well  as  the  sacrifices  that  were  made  to 
 them,  quite  destroys  these  idle  fancies.  Moloch,  Milcom,  and 
 Moloch,  in  the  languages  of  different  nations,  do  all  signify  a  king, 
 and  are  put  for  the  sun,  which  is  called  the  king,  as  the  moon  is 
 the  queen  of  heaven:  and  therefore  the  addition  of  Addir  to  the 
 one,  which  denotes  powerful;  and  of  Anna  to  the  other,  which 
 signifies  to  answer,  means  no  more  than  the  mighty,  or  the 
 oracular  Moloch;  as  the  children  which  were  offered  to  him  in 
 sacrifice  show,  that  he  was  the  same  with  the   Moloch  of  the 
 
 4654  A.  C.757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 going  on  with  the  service  of  the  God  of  Israel,  made 
 a  strange  and  unaccountable  medley  of  religion. 
 
 This  was  the  end  of  the  Israelitish  kingdom,  S  after 
 it  had  subsisted  above  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  years, 
 and  the  beginning  of  that  mongrel  people  which  went 
 afterwards  under  the  name  of  Samaritan.  Among  the 
 captive  Israelites  that  were  carried  away  by  Salmaneser, 
 h  we  have  an  acconnt  of  Tobit,  of  the  tribe  of  Naphtali, 
 
 Ammonites,  or  the  Saturn  of  the  Phoenicians. — Calmet's  and 
 Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 g  In  the  kingdom  of  Israel  there  was  from  the  first  the  great- 
 est disregard  of  the  divine  laws;  it  was  consequently  destroyed 
 one  hundred  and  thirty-four  years  earlier  than  that  of  Judah. 
 Jeroboam  trusted  little  to  the  divine  promise  made  him  by  the 
 prophet;  but  fearing  that  if  the  people  went  to  Jerusalem  to  at- 
 tend the  feasts,  they  would  return  to  their  alliance  to  the  house  of 
 David,  he  set  up  two  golden  or  gilded  calves,  as  images  of  Je- 
 hovah: an  imitation  of  the  Apis  and  Mnevis  of  the  Egyptians, 
 among  whom  he  had  long  dwelt  in  exile.  One  of  these  was 
 placed  at  Bethel,  not  far  from  Shechem,  for  the  southern  tribes, 
 and  the  other  at  Dan,  for  the  tribes  of  the  north.  Temples 
 were  built,  and  altars  erected,  for  these  images;  priests  were 
 appointed  from  all  the  tribes  without  distinction,  and  the  priestly 
 functions  performed  even  by  the  monarch  himself.  He  appoint- 
 ed the  festivals  a  month  later  than  they  had  hitherto  been,  and 
 commanded  that  they  should  be  celebrated  before  these  images 
 of  Mnevis  and  Apis,  which  the  people  took  for  gods,  and  wor- 
 shipped as  such ;  although  this  kind  of  idolatry  had  already  been 
 very  severely  punished  at  mount  Horeb.  (1  Kings  xii.  25 — 33. 
 Exod.  xxxii.)  These  arbitrary  changes  became  after  this  so  in- 
 terwoven with  the  constitution,  that  even  the  more  pious  succes- 
 sors of  Jeroboam  did  not  venture  to  abolish  them,  and  re-establish 
 the  authority  of  the  fundamental  law.  These  rebellious  backslid- 
 ings  from  God,  though  so  impressively  inculcated  on  the  whole 
 people  at  the  first  introduction  of  monarchy,  and  afterwards  on 
 Jeroboam  himself,  (1  Sam.  xi.  14.  xii.  1  Kings  xi.  38.)  did  not 
 prevent  Jehovah  from  governing  the  kingdom  of  Israel  accord- 
 ing to  his  law.  We  see  how  he  exterminated,  one  after  another, 
 those  royal  families,  who  not  only  retained  the  arbitrary  institu- 
 tions of  Jeroboam,  tolerated  and  patronized  idolatry  with  its  con- 
 comitant vices,  but  even  introduced  and  protected  it  by  their 
 royal  authority.  The  extermination  of  the  reigning  family  he 
 announced  beforehand  by  a  prophet,  and  appointed  his  successor. 
 We  see  that  the  higher  their  corruptions  rose,  so  much  the  more 
 decisive  and  striking  were  the  declarations  and  signs  made  to 
 show  the  Israelites,  that  the  Lord  of  the  universe  was  their  Lord 
 and  King,  and  that  all  idols  were  as  nothing  when  opposed  to  him. 
 Even  Naaman  the  Syrian  acknowledged,  and  the  Syrians  gener- 
 ally found,  to  their  sorrow,  that  the  God  of  the  Hebrews  was  not 
 a  mere  national  god,  but  that  his  power  extended  over  all  nations. 
 History  represents  a  contest,  as  Hess  expresses  it,  between  Ji  ho- 
 vah,  who  ought  to  be  acknowledged  as  God,  and  the  idolatrous 
 Israelites ;  and  everything  is  ordered  to  preserve  the  authority  of 
 Jehovah  in  their  minds.  At  last,  after  all  milder  punishments 
 had  proved  fruitless,  these  rebellions  were  followed  by  the  de- 
 struction of  the  kingdom,  and  the  captivity  of  the  people,  which 
 had  been  predicted  by  Moses,  and  afterwards  by  Ahijah,  Hosea, 
 Amos,  and  other  prophets.  (Deut.  xxviii.  36.  1  Kings  xiv.  15. 
 Hosea  ix.  Amos  v.)  We  also  find  that  divine  providence  was 
 favourable  or  adverse  to  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  according  as  the 
 people  obeyed  or  transgressed  the  law;  only  here  the  royal  family 
 remained  unchanged,  in  accordance  with  the  promise  given  to 
 David.  We  here  meet  indeed  with  many  idolatrous  and  rebel- 
 lious kings,  but  they  are  always  succeeded  by  those  of  purer  mind, 
 who  put  a  stop  to  idolatry,  re-established  theocracy  in  the  hearts 
 of  their  subjects,  and  by  the  aid  of  prophets,  priests,  and  Levites, 
 and  the  services  of  the  temple,  restored  the  knowledge  and  wor- 
 ship of  God.  Judah,  therefore,  though  much  smaller  than  Israc  I, 
 continued  her  national  existence  one  hundred  and  thirty-four 
 years  longer;  but  at  last,  as  no  durable  reformation  was  produc- 
 ed, she  experienced  the  same  fate  as  her  sister  kingdom,  in  ful- 
 filment of  the  predictions  of  Moses,  and  several  other  prophets. 
 (Deut.  xxviii.  36.) — John's  Hebrew  Commonwealth. — Ed. 
 
 h  This  account  we  have  here  inserted  in  the  sacred  history, 
 not  that  we  look  upon  the  book  of  Tobit  as  canonical,  for  that  the 
 Jews  and  ancient  Christians  never  held  it  to  be,  though  the 
 4  K 
 
623 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3301.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  1664.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  vi'ii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 who  married  one  Anna,  a  woman  of  the  same  tribe, '  and 
 by  her  had  but  one  son,  whose  name  was  Tobias  :  that, 
 during  his  captivity,  lie  was  advanced  to  be  purveyor  to 
 king  Salmaneser  ;  and,  in  that  capacity,  had  liberty  to 
 go  where  he  pleased ;  which  gave  him  an  opportunity  of 
 visiting  his  brethren,  and  doing  them  all  good  offices,  of 
 supplying  their  wants,  and  lending  them  money  upon 
 any  occasion,  as  he  did  to  one  Gabriel,  a  kinsman  of 
 his,  who  lived  at  Rages  in  Media,  to  the  sum  of  ten  ta- 
 lents, for  which  he  took  his  note  :  that,  by  a  revolution 
 
 » Tobit  i. 
 
 church  of  Rome,  by  a  decree  of  the  council  of  Trent,  thought  fit 
 to  receive  it  as  such,  but  purely  because  it  has  been  allowed  by 
 the  generality  of  the  christian  fathers,  to  be  a  true  history  of  this 
 particular  family,  a  good  exemplar  of  chanty  and  beneficence, 
 and  au  excellent  pattern  of  paternal  care  and  filial  obedience. 
 The  book  itself  is  supposed  to  have  been  wrote,  the  former  part 
 of  it  by  Tobit,  and  the  latter  by  his  son;  at  least  it  is  thought 
 that  they  left  behind  them  memoirs  of  their  family,  and  such 
 materials  as  a  later  author,  who  lived,  very  likely,  in  or  after 
 the  captivity,  because  the  words  Raphael,  Gabriel,  and  Michael 
 are  allowed  to  be  Babylonish,  might  compile  and  digest  into 
 proper  order.  It  is  not  doubted  but  that  the  original  of  this  book 
 was  either  in  Hebrew  or  Chaldee.  St  Jerome  having  met  with 
 a  Chaldee  copy  of  it,  did  not  question  hut  that  he  had  got  the 
 original,  and  accordingly  employed  a  man  that  was  perfectly  well 
 skilled  in  that  language  to  render  it  into  Hebrew,  whilst  himself 
 translated  it  into  Latin ;  and  this  is  the  version  that  the  church 
 of  Rome  chiefly  esteems.  Before  this  version  there  was  another, 
 which  is  reckoned  the  most  ancient,  done  into  Greek ;  but  who  the 
 author  of  it  was,  or  from  what  language  he  translated  it,  we  have 
 but  small  foundation  for  conjecture  ;  though  some  have  been  apt  to 
 think  that  it  came  from  the  same  fountain  from  whence  St  Jerome 
 had  his,  but  that  the  translator  had  taken  such  freedoms  with  the 
 text,  as  obliged  him  to  retranslate  it.  The  Latin  translation, 
 which  was  in  use  before  St  Jerome's  appeared,  seems  to  have 
 been  taken  from  the  Greek,  though  in  many  places  it  varies  from 
 it,  by  abridging  sometimes,  and  sometimes  amplifying  the  nar- 
 ration. The  Hebrew  copies,  published  by  Fagius  and  Munster, 
 are  nothing  but  translations  (and  those  very  modern  ones,  from 
 the  Greek  or  Latin  versions,  though,  in  many  places  of  the  book, 
 they  take  the  freedom  to  vary  from  them.  That  of  Munster  is 
 supposed  to  have  been  done  by  himself,  and  that  of  Fagius  by  the 
 Jews  of  Constantinople  in  the  year  1517,  and  has  so  near  a  con- 
 formity to  the  Greek,  that  no  manner  of  doubt  is  to  be  made  of 
 its  Im  inc.  descended  from  thence.  These  are  the  several  versions 
 that  we  have  of  this  book  of  Tobit,  which,  as  it  was  not  received 
 into  the  canon  of  the  Jews,  was  not  therefore  admitted  into  that  of 
 the  ancient  Christian  authors,  who  confined  themselves  to  those 
 books  which  the  Jews  acknowledged  to  be  canonical.  It  is  cer- 
 tain that  neither  Josephus  nor  Philo,  nor  any  of  the  ancient  Jew- 
 ish writers,  make  any  mention  of  that  copy  which  St  Jerome  took 
 so  much  pains  about,  nor  do  they  register  it  among  their  sacred 
 books.  Fagius  pretends  that  this  book  of  Tobit  does  not  contain 
 a  true  history,  but  a  pious  fiction  only,  wherein,  under  borrowed 
 names,  the  characters  of  a  father  and  a  son  truly  pious  are  set 
 forth;  and  our  learned  Pririeaux  seems  to  go  farther  when  he 
 tells  us,  "That  there  are  some  matters  in  it,  which  are  not  so 
 reconcilable  to  a  rational  credibility,  which  look  indeed  more 
 like  the  fictions  of  Homer  than  the  writings  of  a  sacred  historian, 
 and  gives  such  an  objection  against  the  book  as  does  not  lie 
 against  any  other."  But,  notwithstanding  these  allegations,  we 
 may  be  as^un  d  that  the  Jews  had  all  along  a  great  regard  for 
 this  bonk.  Origen,  in  his  epistle  to  Africanus,  tells  us  that  the 
 ancient  Christians  read  it,  though  they  placed  it  among  their 
 apocryphal  writings.  St  Jerome  acknowledges  that,  though  they 
 diil  Mot  receive  it  into  their  canon,  yet  they  admitted  it  among 
 their  hagiographa.  Grotius  owns  that  they  read  this  book,  and 
 looked  upon  it  as  a  tine  history;  and  our  own  Prideaux  confesses 
 that  "  it  is  of  great  use  to  represent  to  us  the  duties  of  charity 
 and  patience,  in  the  example  of  Tobit's  ready  helping  his  breth- 
 ren in  their  distress,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power;  and  his  bearing 
 with  a  pious  submission,  the  calamities  of  his  captivity,  poverty 
 and  blindness,  as  long  as  they  were  inflicted  on  him." — Calmet's 
 Preface  on  the  Life  of  Tubit,  and  Prideaux's  Connect.,  anno  612. 
 
 of  fortune,  himself  being  reduced  to  a  low  condition, 
 deprived  of  his  eyesight,  and  now  advanced  in  years, 
 he  ordered  his  son  to  go  to  Rages,  to  fetch  the  money 
 he  had  left  in  his  kinsman's  hand  ;  and  because  it  was 
 proper  to  have  a  companion  in  so  long  a  journey,  he 
 hired  a  young  man,  as  he  thought,  to  be  his  guide,  but 
 who  afterwards  proved  to  be  the  angel  Raphael :  that 
 coming  to  their  inn  one  night  upon  the  banks  of  the  Ti- 
 gris, Tobias  went  into  the  river  to  wash  his  feet,  when 
 a  large  fish  made  at  him,  as  though  it  would  devour  him ; 
 but  the  angel  encouraged  him  to  lay  hold  on  it,  and  draw 
 it  to  the  shore,  and  then  bade  him  open  it,  and  take  out 
 the  heart,  the  gall,  and  the  liver  ;  for  that  the  heart  and 
 liver  when  burned,  would  drive  away  evil  spirits,  and  the 
 gall  was  an  excellent  remedy  for  all  impediments  in  the 
 sight ;  that  when  they  came  to  Ecbatana,  they  went  to 
 one  Raguel,  a  near  relation  of  Tobit's,  who  had  an  only 
 daughter,  named  Sara,  but  her  misfortune  was  to  be 
 haunted  by  a  demon,  who  had  slain  her  seven  husbands 
 successively,  the  very  first  night  they  went  to  bed  to  her  : 
 that  notwithstanding  this,  by  the  persuasion  of  the  angel, 
 Tobias  was  induced  to  marry  her,  and  by  following  his 
 advice  how  he  and  his  wife  were  to  conduct  themselves 
 after  marriage,  and  in  what  manner  they  were  to  fumi- 
 gate the  room  by  burning  the  liver  of  the  fish,  come  off 
 safe,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  whole  family  :  that  having 
 received  the  money  at  Rages,  he  returned  with  his  wife 
 to  his  parents  at  Nineveh  ;  and  upon  his  return  cured  his 
 father  of  his  blindness,  by  rubbing  his  eyes  with  the  fish's 
 gall,  which  brought  away  a  kind  of  white  film  that  ob- 
 structed his  sight :  that  after  this  recovery  of  his  sight, 
 Tobit  lived  about  forty  years  ;  but  having  all  along- 
 charged  his  son,  as  soon  as  he  and  his  wife  were  dead, 
 to  leave  Nineveh,  because  the  wickedness  of  the  people, 
 he  was  sure,  would  bring  Upon  it  the  judgment  which 
 Jonah  had  denounced,  Tobias,  as  soon  as  he  had  done 
 his  last  duty  to  his  parents,  left  the  place,  and  with  his 
 wife  and  family,  returned  to  Ecbatana,  where  he  found 
 his  father  and  mother-in-law  healthy,  though  now  grown 
 old.  Upon  their  death  he  succeeded  to  their  estate  ;  and 
 after  he  had  lived  to  the  age  of  fourscore  and  nineteen, 
 died  in  peace,  and  was  buried  by  his  children.  But  it  is 
 time  now  to  look  back  upon  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom 
 of  Judah. 
 
 Jotham,  the  son  of  Uzziah  king  of  Judah,  was  five  and 
 twenty  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign ;  a  though,  as 
 
 a  Jotham  is  said  (2  Kings  xv.  S3.)  to  have  reigned  sixteen 
 years,  yet  in  the  preceding  verse  (30.)  mention  is  made  of  his 
 twentieth  year.  This  repugnance  is  reconcilable  in  the  following 
 manner:  Jotham  reigned  alone  sixteen  years  only,  but  with  his 
 father  Uzziah,  who,  being  a  leper,  was  therefore  unfit  for  the  whole 
 government  four  years  before,  which  makes  twenty  in  whole.  In 
 like  manner  we  read  (2  Kiags  xiii.  1.)  that  'in  the  three  and 
 twentieth  year  of  Joash,  the  son  of  Ahaziah  king  of  Judah,  Je- 
 hoahaz  the  son  of  Jehu,  began  to  reign  over  Israel  in  Samaria,' 
 and  reigned  seventeen  years:  but  in  verse  10.  of  the  same  chap- 
 ter, it  is  related  that  '  in  the  thirty- seventh  year  of  the  same 
 Joash,  began  Jehoash,  the  son  of  Jehoahaz,  to  reign  over  Israel 
 in  Samaria.'  Now,  if  to  the  three  and  twenty  years  of  Joash, 
 mentioned  in  the  first  passage,  we  add  the  seventeen  years  of 
 Jehoahaz,  we  come  down  to  the  thirty-ninth  or  fortieth  year  of 
 Joash;  when  on  the  death  of  Jehoahaz,  the  reign  of  Jehoash  may 
 be  supposed  to  have  begun.  Yet  it  is  easy  to  assign  the  reason 
 why  the  commencement  of  this  reign  is  fixed  two  or  three  years 
 earlier,  in  the  thirty-seventh  year  of  Joash,  when  his  father  must 
 have  been  alive,  by  supposing  that  his  father  had  admitted  him , 
 as  an  associate  in  the  government,  two  or  three  years  before  his 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 627 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 viceroy  to  his  father,  he  had  the  whole  administration  in 
 his  hands  for  some  yeaFS  before.  He  '  was  a  prince  a 
 famous  for  all  excellent  qualities  and  virtues  ;  a  man 
 exemplary  for  his  reverence  to  God,  his  justice  to  men, 
 and  his  care  for  the  commonwealth.  He  made  it  his 
 business  to  set  and  keep  things  in  order  ;  to  rectify 
 whatever  he  found  amiss  ;  and  in  matters  of  religion 
 would  have  made  a  thorough  reformation,  but  that  his 
 people  were  extremely  wicked,  and  obstructed  his  de- 
 signs. He  took  care,  notwithstanding,  to  repair  the 
 temple  ;  to  rebuild  the  high  gate  which  led  from  his  pa- 
 lace ;  and,  to  secure  himself  against  hostile  invasions, 
 raised  several  structures,  both  in  the  mountains  and 
 forests,  for  the  service  and  strength  of  the  kingdom. 
 
 The  Moabites,  however,  though  they  had  been  formerly 
 conquered  by  David,  and  made  tributary  to  the  crown  of 
 Judah,  were  now  become  so  powerful,  that  they  invaded 
 Jotham  ;  but  he,  with  a  good  body  of  men,  soon  drove 
 them  out  of  his  country,  and  imposed  on  them  a  tribute 
 of  100  talents  of  silver,  10,000  measures  of  wheat,  and 
 as  many  of  barley,  to  be  paid  him  yearly.  For  three 
 years  they  continued  to  pay  it ;  but  when  Rezin  king  of 
 Syria,  and  Pekah  king  of  Israel,  entered  into  a  confe- 
 deracy against  Judah,  they  took  this  opportunity  of 
 revolting  ;  and  Jotham  indeed  hail  his  hands  too  full  ever 
 to  attempt  to  reduce  them.  He,  however,  died  in  peace, 
 before  the  preparations  for  war  that  were  making  against 
 him  took  effect :  and  being  buried  in  the  royal  sepulchre 
 of  his  ancestors,  left  his  son  Ahaz,  who  was  then  about 
 twenty  years  of  age,  but  much  degenerated  from  his  fa- 
 ther's piety,  under  a  fearful  apprehension  of  the  ap- 
 proaching war. 
 
 The  design  of  the  two  confederate  kings,  upon  the  tak- 
 ing of  Jerusalem,  was  to  have  extirpated  the  whole  house 
 of  David,  and  set  up  a  new  king  over  Judah,  the  son  of 
 Tabeal ;  b  but  as  God's  design  was  only  to  punish  Ahaz, 
 and  not  to  cut  oft' the  whole  family  of  David  his  servant, 
 
 1  Josephus's  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  ix.  c.  11. 
 
 death.  This  solution  is  the  more  probable,  as  we  find  from  the 
 case  of  Jehoshaphat  and  his  son  (2  Kings  viii.  16.),  that  in  those 
 days  such  a  practice  was  not  uncommon. — Dick  on  the  Inspira- 
 tion of  the  Scriptures,  p.  299.  The  application  of  the  rule  above 
 stated  will  also  remove  the  apparent  contradiction  between  2  Kings 
 xx i v.  8,  and  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  9,  Jehoiaehim  being  eight  years 
 old  when  he  was  associated  with  his  father,  and  eighteen  years  old 
 when  he  began  to  reign  alone.  The  application  of  this  rule  will 
 reconcile  many  other  seeming  contradictions  in  the  books  of 
 Kings  and  Chronicles. — Home's  Introduction. — Ed. 
 
 a  Solomon  Jarchi  here  observes,  that  all  the  kings  of  Judah  had 
 some  crime  or  other  laid  to  their  charge,  except  this  Jotham: 
 that  David  himself  sinned  grievously  in  the  matter  of  Uriah; 
 that  Solomon  by  his  wives  was  drawn  into  idolatry ;  that  Reho- 
 boam  forsook  the  law  of  the  Lord,  and  Ahijah  walked  in  his  steps: 
 that  Asa  sent  the  treasures  of  the  temple  to  the  king  of  Syria,  and 
 put  the  prophet  in  the  stocks:  that  Jehoshaphat  entered  into 
 society  witli  the  idolatrous;  and  so  he  goes  on  with  all  the  rest: 
 but  in  Jotham,  says  he,  there  is  no  fault  found,  which,  in  an  age 
 of  general  corruption,  is  pretty  wonderful,  unless  we  may  sup- 
 pose, '  that  the  people's  sacrificing  and  burning  incense  still  on 
 high  places,  (2  Kings  xv.  35.)  which  he  by  his  authority  might 
 have  removed,  be  imputable  to  him  as  a  fault. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 I'  Who  this  person  was,  it  is  nowhere  said  in  Scripture;  but 
 he  seems  to  have  been  some  potent  and  factious  Jew,  who  having 
 revolted  from  his  master  the  king  of  Judah,  excited  and  stirred 
 up  this  war  against  him,  out  of  an  ambitious  aim  of  plucking  him 
 down  from  his  throne,  and  reigning  in  his  stead. — Pridcuax's 
 Connection,  anno  747. 
 
 4654.  A.  C.  757.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 he  sent  the  prophet  Isaiah  to  encourage  him  in  the  de- 
 fence of  the  city,  and,  to  assure  him  that  they  should  not 
 succeed  in  their  attempt,  he  gave  him  two  signs,  the  one 
 to  be  accomplished  speedily,  and  the  other  at  some  dis- 
 tance of  time.  The  former  was,  s  that  the  son  which  the 
 prophet  then  had  by  his  wife,  should  not  be  of  age  to 
 discern  between  good  and  evil,  before  both  these  kings 
 should  be  cut  oft"  from  the  land.  The  other  was,  that  a 
 virgin  3  should  conceive  and  bear  a  son,  c  who  should  be 
 called  Emanuel,  so  that  he  might  rest  himself  satisfied 
 because  the  destruction  of  the  house  of  David  could  in 
 no  case  happen  until  the  Messiah  should  be  born,  in  this 
 miraculous  manner,  of  a  virgin  descended  from  that 
 family:  and  accordingly  the  two  kings,  finding  themselves 
 not  able  to  carry  the  town  so  soon  as  they  expected, 
 raised  the  siege  and  returned  home. 
 
 This  deliverance,  however,  made  no  other  impression 
 upon  Ahaz,  than  that,  instead  of  being  reformed,  he  grew 
 more  wicked  and  obdurate  in  his  sins.  For  he  not  only 
 set  up  the  worship  of  the  golden  calves,  for  which  he  had 
 not  the  same  politic  reason  that  the  kings  of  Israel  had, 
 but  made  molten  images  likewise  for  all  the  inferior  gods 
 of  the  heathens.  To  these  he  sacrificed  d  and  burned  in- 
 cense in  the  high  places,  and  on  the  hills,  and  under 
 every  green  tree.  Nay,  and  to  add  to  all  his  other  im- 
 pieties, made  his  sons  '  pass  through  the  fire  to  Moloch,'  e 
 in  the  valley  of  the  sons  of  Hinnom  ;  /  for  which  provo- 
 
 *  Is.  viii.  4.  3  Ibid.  vii.  14. 
 
 c  In  the  primary  but  lower  sense  of  this  prophecy,  the  sign 
 was  given  to  assure  Ahaz  that  the  land  of  Judea  would  be  speedi- 
 ly delivered  from  the  kings  of  Samaria  and  Damascus,  by  whom 
 it  was  invaded.  But  the  introduction  of  the  prophecy  the  sin- 
 gular stress  laid  upon  it,  and  the  exact  sense  of  the  terms  in 
 which  it  is  expressed,  made  it  in  a  high  degree  probable  that  it 
 had  another  and  more  important  purpose ;  and  the  event  has 
 clearly  proved  that  the  sign  given,  had  secondarily  and  mystically 
 a  respect  to  the  miraculous  birth  of  Christ,  and  to  a  deliverance 
 much  more  momentous  than  that  of  Ahaz  from  his  then  present 
 distressful  situation. — Home's  Introduction. — Ed. 
 
 d  2  Chron.  xxviii.  23.  '  For  he  sacrificed  unto  the  gods  of 
 Damascus,  which  smote  him.'  However  stupid  it  was  to  ima- 
 gine that  they  had  any  power  over  him,  who  could  not  defend 
 themselves  from  Tiglath-Pileser,  yet,  being  of  opinion  that  they 
 were  gods,  he  endeavoured  by  sacrifices  to  appease  them,  that 
 they  might  do  him  no  farther  hurt.  Thus  the  ancient  Romans, 
 by  sacrifices,  intreated  the  gods  of  their  enemies  to  come  over  to 
 them,  and  to  be  their  friends. — See  Jackson's  Original  of  Un- 
 belief, c.  17.— Ed. 
 
 e  Interpreters  are  agreed  that  '  this  passing  through  the  fire' 
 was  performed  either  by  causing  the  child  to  pass  between  two 
 fires  made  near  one  another,  by  way  of  its  consecration  to  the 
 service  of  Moloch,  or  by  putting  it  in  the  body  of  the  idol  made 
 of  brass,  and  heated  extremely  hot,  so  that  it  was  immediately 
 burned  to  death.  But  then,  to  abate  the  honor  of  the  crime,  some 
 are  of  opinion  that  Ahaz  made  his  sons  pass  through  the  fire  in 
 the  former  sense  only,  and  that  because  we  find  Hezekiah  sur- 
 vive and  succeed  him  in  the  throne,  and  another  of  his  sons, 
 namely,  Maaseiah,  slain  by  Zichri,  at  his  taking  of  Jerusalem; 
 but  this  does  not  hinder  Ahaz  from  having  other  sons,  not  mention- 
 ed in  the  history,  whom  he  might  make  sacrifices  to  Moloch.  The 
 Scripture  says  expressly,  that  '  lie  made  his  sons  to  pass  through 
 the  fire  according  to  the  abominations  of  the  heathen,  whom  the 
 Lord  cast  out  before  the  children  of  Israel,'  (2  Kings  xvi.  3.) 
 Now  it  is  incontestably  true  that  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the 
 land  of  Israel  did  frequently  imitate  the  heathens  in  these  barba- 
 rities: '  They  offered  their  sons  and  their  daughters  unto  devils, 
 and  defiled  the  land  with  innocent  blood,  which  they  offered  unto 
 the  idols  of  Canaan,'  (Ps.  cvi.  36.  See  Ezek.  xvi.  20,  21,  and 
 xxiii.  37 — 39.)  And  therefore  it  is  reasonable  to  think  that  he 
 did  the  same,  and  that  this  is  recorded  against  liim  as  an  aggrava- 
 tion of  his  other  crimes. — Patrick's  and   Calmet's  Commentaries, 
 
 f  Ilinuom,  in  all  probability,  was  some   erniueut  person  hi 
 
623 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3001.  A.  C.  1003;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  WALKS.  A.  M 
 cations  the  Lord  brought  upon  him  the  same  confederate 
 army  the  year  following.  This,  dividing  itself  into  three 
 bodies,  the  first  under  Kezin  king  of  Syria,  the  second 
 under  Pekah  king  of  Israel,  and  the  third  under  Zichri, 
 a  mighty  man  of  Ephraim,  invaded  his  kingdom  in  three 
 different  parts  at  the  same  time. 
 
 Rezin  took  Elah,  a  out  of  which  he  drove  the  Jews, 
 and  settled  the  Edomites  in  it ;  and  having  loaded  his 
 army  with  spoils,  and  taken  a  vast  number  of  captives. 
 returned  to  Damascus.  Pekah,  with  his  army,  marched 
 directly  against  Ahaz,  and  gave  him  a  terrible  overthrow, 
 wherein  he  destroyed  no  less  than  120,000  of  his  men  : 
 and  Zichri,  taking  advantage  of  this  victory,  marched  to 
 Jerusalem  ;  and  having  taken  the  royal  city,  slew  Maa- 
 seiah  the  king's  son,  and  all  the  great  men  of  the  king- 
 dom whom  he  found  there.  After  this,  both  these  armies 
 of  Israel,  in  their  return,  carried  with  them  vast  spoils, 
 and  above  200,000  captives,  whom  they  intended  to  have 
 sold  for  slaves  :  but  as  they  approached  Samaria,  the 
 prophet  Oded,  with  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  city, 
 came  out  to  meet  them,  and,  after  proper  remonstrances 
 of  their  cruelty  to  their  brethren,  prevailed  with  them  not 
 only  to  release  the  prisoners,  but  to  let  them  likewise  be 
 clothed  and  relieved  out  of  the  spoils  they  had  taken, 
 and  so  sent  back  to  their  own  houses. 
 
 The  kingdom  of  Judah  was  no  sooner  delivered  from 
 these  enemies,  but  it  was  invaded  by  others,  who  treated 
 it  with  the  same  cruelty ;  for  the  Edomites  to  the  south, 
 and  the  Philistines  to  the  west,  seized  on  those  parts 
 which  lay  contiguous  to  them,  and,  by  ravages  and  in- 
 roads, did  all  the  mischief  they  could  to  the  rest. 
 
 Being  reduced  to  this  low  condition,  and  seeing  no 
 oilier  remedy  left  to  his  affairs,  Ahaz  sent  an  embassy 
 to  Tiglath-Pileser  king  of  Assyria,  with  a  large  present 
 of  all  the  ijold  and  silver  that  he  could  find  in  the  trea- 
 
 ancient  times,  towhom  this  valley  belonged,  and  to  whose  posterity 
 it  descended,  and  is  therefore  sometimes  called  the  '  valley  of  the 
 children  of  Hinnom.'  It  was  a  famous  plot  of  ground  on  the  east 
 side  of  Jerusalem,  and  so  delightfully  shaded,  that  it  invited  the 
 people  to  make  it  a  place  of  idolatrous  worship,  whereby  it  became 
 infamous,  and  was  at  last  turned  into  a  public  dunghill,  or  recep- 
 tacle, where  all  the  tilth  and  excrements  of  the  city  were  brought 
 and  burned ;  for  which  purpose  there  was  a  perpetual  fire  kept, 
 which  made  it  a  kiDd  of  image  or  representation  of  hell. — Pa- 
 trick's Commentary  on  Josh.  xv.  8.  The  place  now  shown  as 
 the  valley  of  Hinnom  is  a  deep  ravine,  closed  on  the  right  by  the 
 steep  declivity  of  mount  Zion,  and  on  the  left  by  a  line  of  din's, 
 more  or  less  elevated.  From  some  points  in  these  cliffs  tradition 
 relates  that  the  apostate  betrayer  of  our  Lord  sought  his  desperate 
 end:  and  the  position  of  the  trees,  which  in  various  parts  over- 
 hang the  brow  of  the  cliff,  accord  with  the  manner  of  his  death. 
 — Jowett's  Christian  Researches . — En. 
 
 a  Blah,  or  Klam,  as  we  took  notice  before,  was  a  famous  port 
 on  the  Red  Sea,  which  David  in  his  conquest  of  the  kingdom  of 
 Edom  took,  arid  there  established  a  great  trade  to  divers  paits  of 
 the  world.  In  the  reign  of  Jehoram,  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  the 
 Edomites  recovered  their  liberty,  and  became  sole  masters  of 
 this  city,  until  the  time  that  Uzziah  recovered  it  to  the  dominion 
 of  Judah,  (2  Kings  xiv.  22.)  hut,  in  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  the  Sy- 
 rians retook  it,  and  restored  it  to  the  Edomites:  and  why  they 
 chose  to  do  this,  rather  than  keep  so  advantageous  a  place  in  their 
 own  possession,  wo  may  learn  from  what  we  read  of  the  Edom- 
 ites, (2  Chron.  xxviii.  17.)  namely,  that  they  invaded  Judah,  as 
 auxiliaries  to  the  king  of  Syria,  much  about  the  time  that  he  was 
 engaged  in  war  with  that  kingdom;  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder 
 that  lie  should  give  up  a  place  which  lay  at  too  great  a  distance  for 
 him  to  keep,  to  the  Edomites,  whose  originally  it  was,  and  who 
 made  perhaps  the  restitution  of  it  one  article  of  their  confederacy 
 with  him. — Patrick's  and  Le  C/erc's  Commentaries. 
 
 4070.  A.  C.  741.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 sury  of  the  temple,  and  as  large  promises  to  become 
 his  vassal  and  tributary  for  ever,  if  he  would  but  send 
 forces  to  his  assistance  against  his  enemies. 
 
 The  king  of  Assyria  readily  laid  hold  on  this  invita- 
 tion ;  and,  marching  with  a  great  army  against  Rezin 
 king  of  Syria,  he  slew  him  in  battle,  besieged  and  took 
 his  capital  of  Damascus  ;  and,  having  reduced  the  whole 
 country  under  his  dominion,  transplanted  the  people  to 
 Kir,  a  place  in  the  Upper  Media,  and  so  put  an  end  to 
 the  kingdom  of  Syria  in  Damascus,  °  after  it  had  con- 
 tinued for  nine  or  ten  generations. 
 
 After  this  he  marched  against  Pekah,  seized  all  that 
 belonged  to  Israel  beyond  Jordan ;  and,  having  plun- 
 dered the  land  of  Galilee,  proceeded  towards  Jerusalem 
 with  an  intent  to  squeeze  more  money  out  of  Ahaz, 
 which  when  he  had  done,  by  making  him  cut  the  vessels 
 of  the  temple  to  pieces,  and  melt  them  down  to  satisfy 
 his  avarice,  he  marched  back  to  Damascus,  and  there 
 wintered,  c  without  doing  him  any  further  service.  These 
 indignities,  which  another  man   might   have   resented, 
 
 b  In  the  time  of  Abraham,  Damascus  was  in  being;  and  some 
 of  the  ancients  inform  us  that  this  patriarch  reigned  there  im- 
 mediately after  Damascus,  its  founder.  This  much  is  certain, 
 that  one  whom  he  had  made  free,  and  appointed  steward  in  his 
 house,  was  of  Damascus,  (Gen.  xv.  2.)  at  the  time  that  he  pur- 
 sued Chedorlaomer,  and  the  five  confederated  kings,  as  far  as 
 Hobah,  which  lies  northward  of  Damascus,  (Gen.  xiv.  15.)  The 
 Scripture  says  nothing  more  of  this  city  until  the  time  of  David, 
 when  Hadad,  who,  according  to  Josephus,  {Jewish  Antiq.  b.  vii. 
 c.  6.)  was  the  first  who  took  upon  him  the  title  of  king  of  Da- 
 mascus, sending  troops  to  the  assistance  of  Hadadezer  king  of 
 Zabah,  was  himself  defeated  by  David,  and  his  countiy  subdued. 
 Towards  the  end  of  Solomon's  reign,  Rezin  recovered  the  king- 
 dom of  Damascus,  and  shook  off  the  Jewish  yoke,  (1  Kings  xi. 
 23,  &c.)  Some  time  after  this,  Asa  king  of  Judah,  implored 
 the  help  of  Benhadad  king  of  Damascus,  against  Baasha  king  of 
 Israel,  (1  Kings  xv.  18.)  And  from  his  time  the  kings  of  Da- 
 mascus were  generally  called  Benhadad,  till,  in  this  last  contro- 
 versy with  them,  Ahaz  called  in  the  assistance  of  the  king  of  As- 
 syria, who  killed  their  king,  and  carried  his  subjects  into  captivity, 
 according  to  the  predictions  of  Isaiah  vii.  9,  and  Amos  vii. — Cal- 
 mefs  Diet,  under  the  word.  [The  present  city  of  Damascus  is 
 of  a  long  straight  figure,  extending  about  two  miles,  and  lying 
 nearly  in  the  direction  of  north-east  and  south-west.  It  is  sur- 
 rounded with  gardens,  stretching  no  less,  according  to  common 
 estimation,  than  thirty  miles  around ;  which  gives  it  the  appear- 
 ance of  a  city  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  wood.  The  gardens  are 
 thickly  planted  with  fruit  trees  of  all  kinds,  that  are  kept  fresh 
 and  verdant  by  the  waters  of  the  Bar.ady.  Numerous  turrets 
 and  gilded  steeples,  glittering  in  the  blazing  sunbeam  among  the 
 green  boughs,  diversify  and  heighten  the  beauty  of  the  prospect. 
 On  the  north  side  of  this  vast  wood,  is  a  place  called  Solkas, 
 crowded  with  beautiful  summer-houses  and  gardens.  This  de- 
 lightful scene,  and  even  the  city  itself,  may  be  considered  as  the 
 creation  of  the  Banady,  which  supplies  both  the  gardens  and  the 
 city,  diffusing  beauty  and  fertility  wherever  it  flows.] — Paxton's 
 Illustrations. — Ed. 
 
 c  In  2  Chron.  xxviii.  20  we  read,  '  that  Tiglath-Pileser  came 
 unto  Ahaz,  and  distressed,  hut  strengthened  him  not.'  And  yet. 
 in  2  Kings  xvi.  9,  it  is  said,  that  '  he  did  help  him ;'  and  how 
 then  can  he  be  said  to  have  distressed  him?  Veiy  well;  for  as 
 he  came  to  his  assistance  against  the  king  of  Syria,  so  he  took 
 Damascus,  carried  the  people  captive,  and  delivered  Ahaz  from 
 the  power  of  the  Syrians;  but  this  did  Ahaz  little  good,  for  he 
 helped  him  not  to  recover  the  cities  which  the  Philistines  had 
 taken  from  him.  He  lent  him  no  forces,  nor  enabled  him  to 
 recruit  his  own;  on  the  contrary,  he  rather  weakened  him  by 
 exhausting  his  treasures,  and  destroying  Samaria,  which  opened 
 a  way  for  the  invasion  of  his  country  with  more  facility,  as  it 
 happened  in  the  next  reign.  For  it  is  no  uncommon  thing,  even 
 in  later  ages,  to  hear  of  kingdoms  that  have  called  in  the  help  of 
 some  foreign  prince  against  their  enemies,  overrun  and  con- 
 quered by  those  who  came  to  their  assistance. — Patruk's  Coin* 
 mentary. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 629 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 Ahaz,  in  his  circumstances,  thought  proper  to  overlook  ; 
 and  not  only  so,  but  when  he  heard  that  Tiglath-Pileser 
 was  returned  to  Damascus,  he  went  thither  to  pay  him 
 homage  and  obeisance,  as  his  vassal  and  tributary.  While 
 he  continued  at  Damascus,  he  happened  to  see  an  idola- 
 trous altar,  of  so  curious  a  make  and  figure  in  his  opinion, 
 that  he  ordered  a  model  of  it  to  be  taken,  and  sent  to 
 Urijah,  the  high  priest  at  Jerusalem,  a  with  injunctions 
 to  have  another  made  as  like  it  as  possible  ;  and  when 
 he  returned,  he  removed  the  altar  of  the  Lord  out  of  its 
 place  in  the  temple,  and  ordered  this  new  one  to  be  set 
 up  in  its  stead,  and  that  sacrifices  for  the  future  should 
 be  offered  on  it  alone. 
 
 The  truth  is,  the  more  his  misfortunes  came  upon  him, 
 the  greater  his  contempt  of  Almighty  God  grew :  inso- 
 much that,  having  defaced  *  several  of  the  most  stately 
 vessels  of  the  temple,  he  caused  it  at  last  to  be  wholly 
 shut  up  ;  and,  suppressing  all  divine  worship  throughout 
 tlit'  kingdom,  in  the  room  thereof  he  set  up  the  worship 
 of  the  gods  of  the  Syrians,0  and  of  other  nations, alleg- 
 
 a  It  must  not  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  the  high  priest  carried 
 his  complaisance  much  too  far,  in  obeying  the  king's  injunction, 
 which  he  ought,  with  all  his  power  and  interest,  to  have  opposed. 
 God  prescribed  to  Moses  in  what  form,  and  with  what  materials, 
 he  was  to  make  the  altar,  (Exod.  xxvii.  ],  &c.)  The  altar 
 which  Solomon  made,  was  indeed  four  times  as  large,  (2  Chron. 
 iv.  1.)  but  then  God  had  given  such  solemn  testimony  of  his 
 approbation  of  it,  that  there  was  no  touching  it  without  impiety; 
 for  the  high  priest  could  not  but  know  that  this  innovation  of 
 the  king's  did  not  proceed  from  any  principle  of  religion,  but 
 from  a  design  to  degrade  the  altar  of  the  Lord,  as  well  as  the 
 other  sacred  vessels  of  the  temple.  But  what  shall  we  say  for 
 this?  There  will,  in  all  ages,  be  some  men  found,  who  will  be 
 ready  to  execute  the  most  impious  commands  that  can  possibly 
 come  from  the  throne.— Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text,  according  to  our  translation,  are, 
 '  Ahaz  cut  off  the  borders  of  the  bases,  and  removed  the  laver 
 from  off  them,  and  took  down  the  sea  from  off  the  brazen  oxen 
 that  were  under  it,  and  put  it  upon  a  pavement  of  stones,  and 
 the  covert  for  the  sabbath,  that  they  had  built  in  the  house,  and 
 the  king's  entry  without,  turned  he  irom  the  house  of  the  Lord, 
 for  the  king  of  Assyria.'  (2  Kings  xvi.  17,  18.)  His  removing 
 the  bases,  the  laver,  and  the  brazen  sea,  was  palpably  with  a  de- 
 sign to  deface  the  service  of  God  in  the  temple,  and  thence  to 
 bring  it  to  public  contempt;  but  then  commentators  are  much  at 
 a  loss  to  know  what  we  are  to  understand  by  '  the  covert  for 
 the  sabbath  within,  and  the  king's  entry  without  the  temple.' 
 Now  the  prophet  Ezekiel  tells  us  expressly,  '  that  the  gate  of  the 
 inner  court  which  looked  towards  the  east,  was  opened  only  on 
 the  sabbath,  and  on  the  day  of  the  new  moon ;'  and  that  in  these 
 da}  S  the  king  was  to  enter  into  the  temple  at  this  gate,  and 
 continue  at  the  entrance  of  the  priests'  court,  where  was  the 
 brazen  scaffold  which  Solomon  erected,  (2  Chron.  vi.  13.)  a 
 place  for  the  king  to  pay  his  devotions  on,  until  his  sacrifices 
 were  offered ;  and  if  so,  the  musack,  which  we  translate  cover, 
 might  be  a  kind  of  canopy,  or  other  covered  place,  under  which 
 tlic  king  sat  when  he  came  to  the  service  of  the  temple  on  the 
 Babbath,  or  other  great  solemnities,  which  was  therefore  called 
 the  covert  of  the  sabbath ;  and  the  reason  why  the  king  ordered 
 this  to  be  taken  away  was  because  he  intended  to  trouble  him- 
 self no  more  with  coming  to  the  temple,  and  by  this  action  to 
 express  his  hatred  likewise,  and  contempt  of  the  sabbath. — 
 ( 'almet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries,  and  Spencer  on  the  Laws 
 of  the  Hebrews,  b.  i.  c.  1. 
 
 c  This  was  a  monstrous  stupidity,  to  think  that  these  gods 
 had  any  power  over  him,  who  could  not  defend  themselves  from 
 the  arms  of  Tiglath-Pileser!  Thinking,  however,  that  they  had 
 distressed  him,  he  sacrificed  to  them,  in  order  to  appease  their 
 wrath,  that  they  might  do  him  no  farther  hurt;  in  the  same 
 manner  as  the  ancient  Romans  were  wont  to  bribe  the  gods  of 
 their  enemies  with  larger  sacrifices  than  ordinary,  in  hopes  of 
 bringing  them  over  to  their  party,  and  making  them  their 
 friends. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 4670.  A.  C.  741.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 ing  that  they  had  helped  their  respective  people ;  whereas 
 his  God,  forsooth,  had  forsaken  him,  and  therefore  de- 
 served no  farther  homage.  But  in  the  height  of  all  his 
 impiety  and  profaneness,  he  was  cut  off*  by  a  sudden 
 stroke,  in  the  very  prime  of  his  age,  after  he  had  lived 
 six  and  thirty,  and  reigned  sixteen  years ;  and,  being 
 buried  in  the  city  of  David,  though  not  in  the  royal 
 sepulchres,  d  for  that  honour  he  was  denied  because  of 
 his  iniquities,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Hezekiah, 
 who  was  a  worthy  and  religious  prince. 
 
 «  In  the  five  and  twentieth  year  of  his  age  Hezekiah 
 
 d  2  Chron.  xxviii.  27.  The  Israelites  were  accustomed  to 
 honour  in  a  peculiar  manner  the  memory  of  those  kings  who  had 
 reigned  over  them  uprightly.  On  the  contrary,  some  marks  of 
 posthumous  disgrace  followed  those  monarchs  who  left  the  world 
 under  the  disapprobation  of  their  people.  The  proper  place  of 
 interment  was  in  Jerusalem.  There,  in  some  appointed  re- 
 ceptacle, the  remains  of  their  princes  were  deposited:  and,  from 
 the  circumstance  of  this  being  the  cemetery  for  successive  rulers, 
 it  was  said,  when  one  died  and  was  so  buried,  that  he  was  gathered 
 to  his  fathers.  Several  instances  occur  in  the  history  of  the  kings 
 of  Israel,  wherein,  on  certain  accounts,  they  were  not  thus  in- 
 terred with  their  predecessors,  but  in  some  other  place  in  Jeru- 
 salem. So  it  was  with  Ahaz,  who,  though  brought  into  the 
 city,  was  not  buried  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings  of  Israel.  In 
 some  other  cases,  perhaps  to  mark  out  a  greater  degree  of  cen- 
 sure, they  were  taken  to  a  small  distance  from  Jerusalem.  It 
 is  said  that  '  Uzziah  was  buried  with  his  fathers  in  the  field  of 
 the  burial  which  belonged  to  the  kings;  for  they  said,  he  is  a 
 leper.'  (2  Chron.  xxvi.  23.)  It  was  doubtless  with  a  design  to 
 make  a  suitable  impression  on  the  minds  of  their  kings  while 
 living,  that  such  distinctions  were  made  after  their  decease. 
 They  might  thus  restrain  them  from  evil  or  excite  them  to  good, 
 according  as  they  were  fearful  of  being  execrated,  or  desirous  of 
 being  honoured,  when  they  were  dead.  The  Egyptians  had  a 
 custom  in  some  measure  similar  to  this:  it  was,  however,  general 
 as  to  all  persons,  though  it  received  very  particular  attention,  as 
 far  as  it  concerned  their  kings.  It  is  thus  described  in  Frank- 
 lin's History  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Egypt,  (vol.  i.  p.  374.) 
 "  As  soon  as  a  man  was  dead,  he  was  brought  to  his  trial.  The 
 public  accuser  was  heard.  If  he  proved  the  deceased  had  led  a 
 bad  life,  his  memory  was  condemned,  and  he  was  deprived  of 
 the  honours  of  sepulture.  Thus,  that  sage  people  were  affected 
 with  laws  which  extended  even  beyond  the  grave,  and  every 
 one,  struck  with  the  disgrace  inflicted  on  the  dead  person,  was 
 afraid  to  reflect  dishonour  on  his  own  memory,  and  that  of  his 
 family.  But  what  was  singular,  the  sovereign  himself  was  not 
 exempt  from  this  public  inquest  upon  his  death.  The  public 
 peace  was  interested  in  the  lives  of  their  sovereigns  in  their  ad- 
 ministration, and  as  death  terminated  all  their  actions,  it  was 
 then  deemed  for  the  public  welfare  that  they  should  suffer  an 
 impartial  scrutiny  by  a  public  trial,  as  well  as  the  most  common 
 subject.  Even  some  of  them  were  not  ranked  among  the  hon- 
 oured dead;  and  consequently  were  deprived  of  public  burial. 
 The  Israelites  would  not  surfer  the  bodies  of  some  of  their  flagi- 
 tious princes  to  be  carried  into  the  sepulchres  appropriated  to 
 their  virtuous  sovereigns.  The  custom  was  singular:  the  effect 
 must  have  been  powerful  and  influential.  The  most  haughty 
 despot  saw,  by  the  solemn  investigation  of  human  conduct,  that 
 at  death  he  also  would  be  doomed  to  infamy  and  execution.' 
 What  degree  of  conformity  there  was  between  the  practice  of 
 the  Israelites  and  the  Egyptians,  and  with  whom  the  custom  first 
 originated,  may  be  difficult  to  ascertain  and  decide,  but  the  con- 
 duct of  the  latter  appears  to  he  founded  on  the  same  principle  as 
 that  of  the  former,  and  as  it  is  more  circumstantially  detailed, 
 affords  us  an  agreeable  explanation  of  a  rite  but  slightly  men- 
 tioned in  the  Scriptures. — Ed. 
 
 e  Of  Ahaz  it  is  recorded  that  he  was  but  '  twenty  years  old 
 when  fie  began  to  reign,'  and  that  he  reigned  sixteen  before  he 
 died;  so  that  in  the  whole  lie  lived  six  and  thirty  years,  (2  Kings 
 xvi.  2.)  Now  his  son  Hezekiah  is  said  to  have  been  '  five  and 
 twenty  years  old  when  lie  began  to  reign,'  (2  Kings  xviii.  2.)  and 
 consequently  his  father  must  have  begot  him  when  he  was  eleven 
 years  old,  which  seems  a  little  incredible:  and,  to  solve  this 
 difficulty,  commentators  have  taken  severaf  ways.  Some  have 
 imagined  that  Hezekiah  was  not  the  real,  but  adopted  son  only 
 
630 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  321G.  A.  C.  758  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 began  to  reign ;  and,  after  he  had  got  the  full  posses- 
 sion of  the  kingdom,  (for,  during  his  father's  illness,  he 
 acted  only  as  viceroy  under  him,)  he  began  in  good 
 earnest  to  a  set  about  a  thorough  reformation  of  religion. 
 To  this  purpose  he  caused  the  doors  of  the  temple,  which 
 his  father  had  ordered  to  be  shut  up,  to  be  opened ;  his 
 father's  new  altar  to  be  removed  ;  the  altar  of  the  Lord  to 
 
 of  Aha;,  and  might  therefore  succeed  his  foster-father  at  this  or 
 any  other  age ;  but  this  hypothesis,  as  Bochart  observes,  spoils 
 the  descent  of  our  Saviour  from  David.  Others  suppose  that 
 there  was  an  interregnum  for  some  years,  occasioned  by  a  sedi- 
 tion that  happened  in  Jerusalem:  but  there  is  no  foundation  for 
 this  hypothesis  in  history ;  on  the  contrary  it  is  much  more  like- 
 ly that,  as  Hezekiah  was  a  man  grown,  and  greatly  beloved  by 
 the  people,  he  should  immediately  succeed  upon  his  father's  de- 
 mise. Others  imagine  that,  in  detestation  of  Ahaz's  wickedness, 
 his  reign  is  omitted  in  this  account,  and  that  therefore  the  pas- 
 sage should  be  thus  rendered :  •  Ahaz  was  twenty  years  old  when 
 his  father  began  to  reign.'  But  this  is  reversing  the  order  of 
 words  in  the  text,  and  turning  them  into  a  sense  that  is  far  from 
 being  natural.  Others,  not  satisfied  with  any  of  these  solutions, 
 will  needs  have  it  that  there  is  an  error  crept  into  the  text  itself 
 by  the  negligence  of  some  transcriber,  who,  instead  of  twenty, 
 made  Hezekiah  five  and  twenty  years  old  when  his  reign  com- 
 menced, merely  by  mistaking  the  numerical  letters:  but  it  is 
 not  so  well,  even  in  numerical  matters,  which  are  most  liable  to 
 variation,  to  find  any  fault  witli  the  text  except  where  there  is  no 
 other  tolerable  solution,  which  is  not  the  case  here.  In  these 
 days,  and  long  before,  it  was  no  unusual  thing,  upon  several  con- 
 siderations, for  kings  to  take  the  son  who  was  to  succeed  them 
 into  partnership  with  them  before  they  died.  Now  Ahaz,  by 
 his  mismanagement,  had  brought  himself  into  so  many  intangle- 
 ments  (2  Chron.  xxviii.  1G,  &c.  and  xxix.  7,  &c.)  as  to  want  an 
 assistant  in  the  government,  and  accordingly,  it  appears  that  he 
 admitted  his  son  in  that  capacity.  For,  whereas  it  is  said  of 
 Hezekiah  that  he  began  to  reign  in  the  third  year  of  Hoshea  son 
 of  Elah,  (2  Kings  xviii.  1.)  and  of  Hoshea  that  he  began  to 
 reign  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  Ahaz,  (2  Kings  xvii.  ].)  it  is 
 evident  that  Hezekiah  began  to  reign  in  the  fourteenth  year  of 
 Ahaz  his  father,  and  so  reigned  two  or  three  years  before  his 
 father's  death.  So  that  at  the  first  date  of  his  reign,  which  was 
 in  conjunction  with  his  father,  he  might  be  but  two  or  three  and 
 twenty,  and  his  father,  consequently,  when  he  begot  him,  two  or 
 three  years  older  than  the  common  computation.  But  there  is 
 another  way  of  solving  this  difficulty.  It  is  a  common  thing, 
 both  in  sacred  and  profane  authors,  in  the  computation  of  time, 
 to  take  no  notice  whether  the  year  they  mention  be  perfect  or 
 imperfect,  whether  finished  or  but  newly  begun.  Upon  this 
 account  Ahaz  might  be  near  one  and  twenty  years  old  when  he 
 began  to  reign,  and  near  seventeen  years  older  when  he  died: 
 and,  on  the  other  hand,  Hezekiah  when  he  began  to  reign,  might 
 be  but  just  entering  into  his  five  and  twentieth  year,  and  by 
 this  means  Ahaz  might  be  near  fourteen  years  old  when  he  begat 
 Hezekiah,  which  is  no  extraordinary  thing  at  all.  Nay,  even 
 upon  the  lowest  supposition,  that  he  was  but  eleven  or  twelve 
 years  old,  yet  instances  are  innumerable,  such  as  Bochart  and 
 others  have  given,  of  persons  that  have  procreated  children  at 
 that  age:  for  it  is  not  so  much  the  number  of  years,  as  the  nature 
 of  the  climate,  the  constitution  of  the  body,  the  stature  of  the 
 person,  the  quality  of  the  diet,  &c,  that  ought  to  he  considered 
 '"a  this  affair. — Bochart 's  Phalcg.  p.  920;  Millars  History  of 
 the  Church,  p.  201  ;  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  Patrick's 
 and  Calnwt's  Commentaries.  [According  to  Dr  Boothroyd, 
 Ahaz  was  twenty-five  years  of  age  when  he  began  to  reign, 
 and  if  this  emendation  be  correct,  the  difficulty  in  question 
 vanishes;  for  Ahaz  would  then  have  been  only  sixteen  years 
 of  age  when  he  begat  Hezekiah.— See  Boothroyd  on  2  Kings 
 xvi.  2. — Ed. 
 
 a  A  great  demonstration  this  of  his  sincere  piety  and  zeal  towards 
 God,  that  he  began  so  soon  to  reform  the  corruption  of  religion, 
 and  did  not  stay  till  he  had  established  himself  in  his  throne! 
 He  might  think,  however,  that  the  surest  way  to  estahlish  him- 
 self in  the  throne,  was  to  establish  the  true  worship  of  God ; 
 though  he  could  not  but  foresee  that  he  ran  a  great  hazard  in 
 attempting  the  abolition  of  idolatry,  which  had  been  confirmed 
 by  some  years'  prescription. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 4070.  A.  C.  741.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 be  restored  to  its  place  again  ;  and  whatever  other  pollu- 
 tions it  had  contracted  during  his  father's  administration, 
 he  ordered  them  all  to  be  purged  and  done  away. 
 Then  calling  the  priests  and  Levites  together,  he  requir- 
 ed them  to  sanctify  themselves  according  to  the  direc- 
 tions of  the  law ;  and,  after  that,  the  former  he  appoint- 
 ed to  offer  sacrifices,  b  in  order  to  atone  for  the  king's, 
 their  own,  and  the  people's  sins  ;  and  the  latter,  c  with 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are, — '  For  a  sin-offering  for  the  king- 
 dom,' that  is,  for  the  king's  sins  and  those  of  his  predecessors; 
 '  for  the  sanctuary,'  for  the  priests'  sins,  and  the  profanations  of 
 the  temple;  '  and  for  Judah,'  that  is,  for  all  the  people  who  had 
 followed  the  bad  examples  of  their  impious  kings.  Now,  the 
 offering  which  the  law  prescribed  for  the  transgression  of  the 
 people,  was  a  young  bullock ;  and  for  the  offences  of  the  prince, 
 was  a  goat,  (Lev.  iv.  23,  &c.)  but  good  Hezekiah,  we  find,  was 
 willing  to  do  more  than  the  law  commanded.  He  was  sensible 
 that  both  prince  and  people  had  been  guilty,  not  only  of  sins 
 of  ignorance,  for  which  these  sacrifices  were  instituted,  but 
 of  wilful  and  presumptuous  crimes  of  gross  idolatry,  a  profanation 
 of  the  temple,  and  an  utter  extinction  of  the  worship  of  God  ;  and 
 therefore  he  appointed  seven  bullocks  for  a  burnt-offering,  and 
 as  many  goats  for  a  sin-offering,  upon  presumption  that  these 
 numerous  sacrifices  were,  if  not  necessary,  at  least  highly  fit  and 
 becoming,  upon  the  account  of  the  great  and  long  neglect  of 
 divine  service,  and  the  multitude  and  long  continuance  of  their 
 other  offences  against  God,  for  which  they  were  now  to  beg  for- 
 giveness.— Calmei's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 c  Moses,  in  the  service  of  the  tabernacle,  did  not  appoint  the 
 use  of  many  musical  instruments ;  only  he  caused  some  trumpets 
 to  be  made,  which,  upon  solemn  occasions,  were  to  be  sounded 
 at  the  time  when  the  burnt-offering  and  peace-offering  were  upon 
 the  altar,  (Num.  x.  10.)  But  David,  by  the  advice  of  the  pro- 
 phets Gad  and  Nathan,  introduced  several  kinds  of  music  into 
 the  service  of  the  temple,  as  a  thing  highly  conducive  to  inspire 
 people  with  respect,  with  joy,  and  with  affection  for  the  solemni- 
 ties and  assemblies  of  religion,  (1  Chron.  xxiii.  5,  and  xxv.  1.) 
 and  it  is  farther  observable,  that  the  institution  of  music,  in  re- 
 ligious assemblies,  is  not  a  matter  of  human  invention,  but  what 
 was  ordained  by  God,  and  has  the  sanction  and  authority  of  his 
 prophets  to  confirm  it;  'for  so  was  the  commandment  of  the 
 Lord  by  his  prophet?,'  (2  Chron.  xxix.  25.)  [The  musical  in- 
 struments of  the  Hebrews  are,  perhaps,  what  has  been  hitherto 
 least  understood  of  anything  in  Scripture.  Calmet  considers  them 
 under  three  classes;  1st,  stringed  instruments;  2nd,  hand  in- 
 struments, or  divers  kinds  of  flutes;  3d,  different  kinds  of  drums. 
 (1)  Of  stringed  instruments,  are  the  nabel,  and  the  psaltery,  or 
 psanncterin.  (Dan  .iii.  5.)  These  three  names  apparently  sig- 
 nify nearly,  or  altogether,  the  same  thing.  They  considerably 
 resembled  the  harp ;  the  ancient  cytheera  or  the  ashur,  or  the  ten- 
 stringed  instrument;  both  were  nearly  of  the  figure  A:  but  the 
 nablum  or  psaltery,  was  hollow  toward  the  top,  and  played  on 
 toward  the  bottom,  whereas  the  cytkecra  or  ten-stringed  instrument 
 was  played  on  the  upper  part,  and  was  hollow  below ;  both  were 
 touched  by  a  small  bow  or  fret,  or  by  the  fingers.  The  kinnor,  or 
 ancient  lyre,  had  sometimes  six,  sometimes  nine  strings,  strung 
 from  top  to  bottom,  and  sounded  by  means  of  a  hollow  belly,  ove. 
 which  they  passed ;  they  were  touched  by  a  small  bow,  or  fret,  or  by 
 the  finger.  The  ancient  symphony  was  nearly  the  same  as  our  viol 
 The  sambuc  was  a  stringed  instrument,  which  was  nearly  the 
 same,  it  is  thought,  as  the  modern  psaltery.  (2.)  We  discover 
 in  Scripture  various  sorts  of  trumpets  and  flutes,  of  which  it  is 
 difficult  to  ascertain  the  forms.  The  most  remarkable  of  this 
 kind  is  the  ancient  organ,  in  Hebrew  hiiggab,  the  ancient  pipe  of 
 Pan,  now  common  among  us.  (3.)  Drums  were  of  many  kinds ; 
 the  Hebrew  titpt,  whence  comes  tympanum,  is  taken  for  all  kinds 
 of  drums  or  timbrels.  The  zabxelim.  is  commonly  translated  by 
 the  LXX  and  the  Vulgate,  cymbala;  instruments  of  brass  of  a 
 very  clattering  sound,  made  in  the  form  of  a  cap  or  hat,  and 
 struck  one  against  the  other,  while  held  one  in  each  hand.  Later 
 interpreters  by  zabzelim,  understand  the  sistrum;  an  instrument 
 anciently  very  common  in  Egypt.  It  was  nearly  of  an  ovai 
 figure,  and  crossed  by  brass  wires,  which  jingled  upon  being 
 shaken,  while  their  ends  were  secured  from  falling  out  of  the 
 frame,  by  their  heads  being  larger  than  the  orifice  which  contain- 
 ed the  wire.     The  Hebrews  mention  an  instrument  called  ska- 
 
Sect.  IV.  1 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 631 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758,  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 musical  instruments,  to  sing  praises  to  God  in  the  words 
 of  David,  a  and  of  Asaph  the  seer. 
 
 Having  thus  restored  the  service  of  the  temple,  he 
 proposed  with  himself  to  revive  the  passover,  which,  by 
 reason  of  the  division  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  frequent 
 commotions  that  had  happened  thereupon,  had  not  been 
 regularly  observed  for  along  while.  To  this  purpose,  he 
 advised  with  the  princes,  and  chief  men  of  the  kingdom  ; 
 and  because  it  was  thought,  that  neither  the  temple,  the 
 priests,  nor  the  people,  could  be  sulticiently  sanctified, 
 against  the  usual  time  of  observing  it,  which  was  in  the 
 first  month  of  the  year,  it  was  resolved,  that  *  it  should 
 be  celebrated  in  the  second :  and  accordingly  a  procla- 
 mation was  issued  out,  requiring  not  only  the  people  of 
 Judah,  c  but  all  other  Israelites  of  whatever  tribe  they 
 were,  to  come  to  this  solemnity. 
 
 It  could  hardly  be  expected  but  that,  after  so  long 
 a  disuse  of  this  holy  festival,  an  attempt  to  revive  it 
 should  meet  with  some  scorn  and  opposition ;  and  therefore 
 we  need  not  wonder  that  many  of  the  tribes  of  Ephraim, 
 
 li'shim,  which  the  LXX  translate  cymoala;  but  Jerome  sislra. 
 It  is  found  only  in  1  Sam.  xviii.  6.  The  term  shaleshim  suggests 
 that  it  was  of  three  sides,  (triangular)  and  it  might  be  that  an- 
 cient triangular  instrument,  which  carried  on  each  side  several 
 rings,  that  were  jingled  by  a  stick,  and  gave  a  sharp  rattling 
 sound.  The  original  also  mentions  mezzilothaim,  which  were  of 
 brass,  and  of  a  sharp  sound.  This  word  is  usually  translated 
 cymbala  ;  some  however  render  it  tintinnabu/a,  little  bells,  which 
 is  countenanced  by  Zechariah  xiv.  20,  which  says,  the  time  shall 
 come  when  on  the  bracelets  of  the  horses  shall  be  written  '  Holi- 
 ness to  the  Lord!'  We  know  that  bells  were  anciently  worn  by 
 horses  trained  for  war  to  accustom  them  to  noise. — Calmet 
 abridged. — Ed. 
 
 a  David  was  both  a  great  poet  and  master  of  music,  and  might 
 therefore  modulate  and  compose  his  own  hymns ;  but  whether  tiie 
 music  of  them  might  not  be  altered  and  improved  in  after  ages, 
 because  the  words  only  are  here  taken  notice  of,  is  a  matter  of 
 some  uncertainty.  The  Asaph  here  mentioned  was  the  person 
 who  lived  in  David's  days,  so  famous  for  his  skill  in  music,  and 
 the  several  devout  pieces,  which  he  composed,  are  those  which 
 we  meet  with  in  the  collection  of  the  Psalms;  but  others  will 
 needs  have  it,  but  for  what  reason  I  cannot  tell,  that  the  author 
 of  the  Psalms  ascribed  to  Asaph,  was  another  person  who  lived 
 in  after  times,  though  perhaps  of  the  same  family,  as  well  as  name, 
 with  this  famous  Asaph  who  lived  in  David's. — Patriek's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 b  The  direction  which  the  law  gives,  is, — That  the  passover 
 should  be  '  celebrated  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  fust  month, 
 which  the  Jews  call  Nisan;  but  because  it  was  found  impossible 
 to  get  all  things  in  readiness  against  that  time,  it  was  judged  more 
 advisable  to  adjourn  it  to  the  fourteenth  of  the  next  month, 
 which  the  Jews  call  Jair,  rather  than  stay  to  the  next  year;  and 
 for  this  they  had  some  encouragement;  because  the  law  allows, 
 that,  '  in  case  any  man  shall  be  unclean,  by  reason  of  a  dead 
 body,  or  be  on  a  journey  afar  off,  he  may  eat  the  passover  on 
 the  fourteenth  day  of  the  second  month,'  (Num.  ix.  10,  11.)  and 
 what  was  an  indulgence  to  particular  persons,  they  thought  might 
 well  be  allowed  to  the  whole  congregation  of  Israel. — Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 c  Hezekiah,  it  is  certain,  had  no  right  to  invite  Hoshea's  sub- 
 jects to  repair  to  Jerusalem  to  the  celebration  of  his  passover; 
 yet  lor  the  doing  of  this,  we  may  well  presume,  that  he  had  en- 
 couragement from  Hoshea  himself,  who,  as  to  the  matter  of  reli- 
 gion, as  we  said  before,  has  a  better  character  in  Scripture  than 
 any  of  his  predecessors  from  the  division  of  the  two  kingdoms. 
 Hut  the  truth  of  the  matter  was,  that  both  the  golden  calves, 
 which  had  made  this  political  separation,  were  now  taken  away, 
 that  of  Dan  by  Tiglath-Pileser,  and  the  other  of  Bethel,  by 
 his  son  Salmaneser;  and  therefore  the  apostate  Jews,  being  thus 
 deprived  of  their  idols,  began  to  return  to  the  Lord,  and  to  go  up 
 to  Jerusalem  to  worship,  for  some  time  before  Hezekiah  made 
 them  this  invitation  to  his  passover. — Prideaux's  Connection, 
 anno  729. 
 
 .  4680.  A.  C.725.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 Manasseh,  and  Zebulun,  should  laugh  at  Hezekiah'a 
 messengers,  when  they  invited  them  to  this  feast.  Great 
 multitudes,  however,  even  from  those  parts,  caine  to 
 Jerusalem  upon  this  occasion  ;  and  the  concourse  indeed 
 was  so  numerous,  that  this  might  be  justly  reckoned  one 
 of  the  greatest  passovers  that  had  been  solemnized  from 
 the  days  of  king  Solomon.  The  time  which  the  law  di- 
 rects for  the  continuance  of  this  feast,  is  seven  days  ;  but 
 forasmuch  as  it  had  been  long  neglected,  they  now  dou- 
 bled the  time,  and  kept  it  for  fourteen,  with  great  joy 
 and  gladness  of  heart :  and  as  soon  as  the  solemnity  was 
 ended,  those  that  belonged  to  the  tribes  of  Judah  and 
 Benjamin,  rf  went  and  brake  the  images  in  pieces,  cut 
 down  the  groves,  threw  down  the  high  places,  and  altars 
 belonging  to  strange  gods,  and  absolutely  destroyed  all 
 the  monuments  of  idolatry  which  were  any  where  to  be 
 found,  either  in  Jerusalem,  Judea,  or  any  of  the  coasts 
 belonging  to  them  ;  as  those  of  the  other  tribes,  in  their 
 return  home,  did  the  same  in  all  the  rest  of  Israel  ;  so 
 that  idolatry  was  quite  abolished,  and  the  true  worship 
 of  God  again  universally  restored. 
 
 Nay  there  was  one  thing,  namely,  the  brazen  serpent, 
 e  which  might  have  been  of  innocent  use,  and  served  in 
 
 d  This,  as  the  text  tells  us,  was  done  not  only  in  the  tribes  of 
 Judah  and  Benjamin,  but  in  those  of  Ephraim  also  and  Manasseh, 
 (2  Chron.  xxxi.  1.)  which  though  they  were  part  of  Hoshea's 
 dominion,  yet  Hezekiah  might  direct  this  abolition  of  idolatry 
 in  them,  in  virtue  of  a  law  which  bound  Israel,  as  well  as  Judah, 
 and  required  the  extirpation  of  these  things  in  the  whole  land  of 
 Canaan ;  by  the  special  impulse  and  direction  of  God's  Spirit, 
 which  puts  men  upon  heroic  actions,  though  not  to  be  drawn  into 
 imitation;  or  out  of  a  firm  persuasion  that  his  neighbour  Hoshea, 
 who  had  permitted  his  subjects  to  repair  to  the  passover,  would 
 approve  and  consent  to  what  he  did  in  this  respect. — Poole's  An- 
 notations. 
 
 e  The  reason  which  the  Scripture  assigns  for  Hezekiah's  de- 
 stroying this  brazen  serpent  is, — '  because  unto  this  day  the  chil- 
 dren of  Israel  had  burnt  incense  to  it,'  (2  Kings  xviii.  4.)  We  are 
 not  however  to  suppose,  that,  all  along  from  the  days  of  Moses, 
 this  brazen  serpent  was  made  an  object  of  religious  worship:  this 
 is  what  neither  David  nor  Solomon,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
 would  have  allowed  of;  nor  can  we  think,  but  that  either  Asa  or 
 Jehoshaphat,  when  they  rooted  out  idolatry,  would  have  made  an 
 end  of  this,  had  they  perceived  that  the  people,  at  that  time, 
 either  paid  worship  or  burnt  incense  to  it.  The  commencement 
 of  this  superstition  therefore  must  be  of  a  later  date,  and  since 
 the  time  that  Ahab's  family,  by  being  allied  to  the  crown  of 
 Judah  by  marriage,  introduced  all  kinds  of  idolatry.  Now,  one 
 false  inducement  to  the  worship  of  this  image  might  be  a  mistake 
 of  the  words  of  Moses.  For  whereas  it  is  said,  '  that  whosoever 
 looketh  upon  it  shall  live,' (Num.  xxi.  1.)  some  might  thence 
 fancy,  that,  by  its  mediation,  they  might  obtain  a  blessing,  and  so 
 make  it  the  object  of  their  superstition  at  first.  However,  we 
 may  imagine  that  their  burning  incense,  or  any  other  perfumes 
 before  it,  was  designed  only  in  honour  to  the  true  God,  by  whose 
 direction  Moses  made  it;  but  then,  in  process  of  their  supersti- 
 tion, they  either  worshipped  the  God  of  Israel  tinder  that  image, 
 or  what  is  worse,  substituted  a  heathen  God  in  his  room,  and 
 worshipped  the  brazen  serpent  as  his  image;  which  they  might 
 more  easily  be  induced  to  do,  because  the  practice  of  some  neigh- 
 bouring nations  was  to  worship  their  gods  under  the  form  of  a 
 serpent.  Upon  this  account  Hezekiah  wisely  chose  rather  to  lose 
 this  memorial  of  God's  wonderful  mercy  to  his  people  in  the  wil- 
 derness, than  to  suffer. it  any  longer  to  be  abused  to  idolatry,  and 
 therefore  'he  brake  it  in  pieces,'  that  is,  as  the  Talmudists  ex- 
 plain it,  he  ground  it  to  powder,  and  then  scattered  it  in  the 
 air,  that  there  might  not  be  the  least  remains  of  it.  And  yet, 
 notwithstanding  all  the  care  which  he  took  to  destroy  it,  Sigonius 
 in  his  history  of  Italy,  tells  us,  that  in  the  church  of  St  Ambrose, 
 in  Milan,  they  show  a  brazen  serpent  entire,  which  they  pretend 
 to  be  the  veiy  same  which  Moses  erected  in  the  wilderness; 
 though  it  must  be  owued,  that  among  their  learned  men,  there 
 
632 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3216.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 the  same  manner  as  did  the  pot  of  manna,  and  Aaron's 
 rod,  for  a  monument  of  God's  miraculous  mercy  to  the 
 Israelites  in  their  passage  through  the  wilderness ;  but, 
 because  the  preceding  times  of  iniquity  had  made  it  an 
 object  of  idolatrous  worship,  Hezekiah  thought  proper 
 to  destroy  it,  in  order  to  take  away  all  occasion  of  the 
 like  abuse  for  the  future.  Having  thus  removed  all  the 
 objects  of  idolatry,  he  took  care  in  the  next  place  to  re- 
 store the  temple  worship  to  its  ancient  splendour  and 
 purity.  To  this  purpose  he  put  the  priests  and  Levites 
 in  their  courses,  and  appointed  every  one  his  proper 
 ministration.  The  tithes  and  first  fruits,  which  idolatrous 
 princes  had  detained,  on  purpose  to  bring  the  priesthood 
 into  poverty,  and  thence  into  contempt,  he  returned  to 
 the  church  :  and  «■  out  of  his  own  privy  purse,  as  we  say, 
 ordered  the  expenses  of  the  daily  oblations,  as  well  as  of 
 the  larger  offerings  on  the  great  festivals  of  the  year  to 
 be  defrayed. 
 
 Upon  these,  and  several  other  accounts,  Hezekiah 
 deserved  the  title  of  one  of  the  best  of  kings  °  that  ever 
 reigned  in  Judah ;  nor  was  God  in  the  least  wanting  to 
 reward  his  piety  in  a  most  signal  manner.  For,  while 
 Salmaneser  was  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Samaria,  he 
 warred  against  the  Philistines,  and  not  only  regained  all 
 the  cities  of  Judah,  which  they  had  seized  during  the 
 time  that  Pekah  and  Rezin  jointly  distressed  the  land, 
 but  also  dispossessed  them  of  almost  all  their  own  terri- 
 tories, except  Gaza  and  Gath. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  siege  of  Samaria  was  over,  Salmane- 
 ser  sent  to  Hezekiah  to  demand  the  tribute  which  his 
 father  Ahaz  had  agreed  to  pay  to  the  kings  of  Assyria  ; 
 but  Hezekiah  refused  to  pay  it ;  which  would  doubtless 
 have  brought  the  Assyrian  upon  him,  with  all  his  power, 
 had  he  not  been  diverted  by  the  war  c  he  entered  into 
 against  Tyre,  and  died  before  he  had  put  an  end  to  it. 
 
 4G8G.  A.  C.  725.  \  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON 
 
 He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Sennacherib,  who,  as 
 soon  as  he  was  settled  on  the  throne,  renewed  the  de- 
 mand for  the  tribute,  and  upon  Hezekiah 's  refusing  to 
 comply,  marched  a  great  army  into  Judea.  in  order  to 
 fall  upon  him. 
 
 d  Not  long  before  this,  Hezekiah  was  taken  with  a  sore 
 illness,  and  had  a  message  from  God,  by  the  prophet 
 Isaiah,  to  settle  his  affairs  and  prepare  for  death  ;  but, 
 upon  his  great  concern,  and  hearty  prayer  to  God,  he 
 obtained  another  message  from  him  by  the  same  prophet, 
 promising  him  a  reprieve  for  fifteen  years  longer,  and  a 
 deliverance  from  the  Assyrians,  who  were  then  coming 
 against  him.  Both  these  were  events  beyond  his  expec- 
 tation ;  and  therefore,  to  give  him  a  full  assurance  of 
 faith,  God,  at  his  request,  made  the  sun  go  backward 
 ten  degrees  upon  the  sun-dial  that  Ahaz  had  erected  ; 
 and  when,  by  the  prophet's  directions,  a  plaster  of  figs 
 was  applied  to  his  ulcer,  he  recovered  in  the  space  of 
 three  days,  and  went  up  to  the  temple  to  return  God 
 thanks  for  so  wonderful  a  deliverance. 
 
 Upon  Hezekiah 's  recovery,  Merodach-Baladan  king 
 of  Babylon  sent  ambassadors  e  to  congratulate  him,  and 
 at  the  same  time  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with  him  against 
 Sennacherib,  whose  growing  power  the  Babylonians,  as 
 well  as  the  Jews,  had  reason  to  fear  :  and  Hezekiah  was 
 so  taken  with  the  honour  done  him  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, that,  out  of  the  vanity  and  pride  of  his  heart,  he 
 showed   the  ambassadors  all  the  wealth  /and  strength 
 
 are  some  who  acknowledge  the  cheat,  and  disclaim  it. — Le  Clercs 
 Commentary  and  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  726. 
 
 a  After  that  David  had  brought  the  ark  of  the  Lord  into  the 
 tent  which  he  had  pitched  for  it,  near  his  own  palace,  the  Scrip- 
 ture seems  to  intimate,  (1  Chron.  xvi.  1.)  that  he  divided  the 
 priests  and  Levites  into  two  bodies;  one  of  which  he  left  at  Gi- 
 beah,  to  attend  in  the  tabernacle  which  Mnses  made;  and  the 
 other  lie  took  with  him  to  Jerusalem.  And  from  this  time,  it  is 
 highly  probable,  that  out  of  his  own  estate  he  supplied  whatever 
 was  necessary  lor  the  sacred  ministry  of  this  his  domestic  taber- 
 nacle on  Mount  Sion.  When  Solomon  had  built  the  temple,  he 
 obliged  himself  to  defray  all  the  expenses,  both  ordinary  and  ex- 
 traordinary, of  the  altar,  (2  Chron.  viii.  13.)  And,  in  like  man- 
 ner, upon  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  at  the  return  from  the 
 captivity,  Ezekiel  assigns  a  proper  revenue  to  the  king,  to  answer 
 the  expense  of  all  sacrifices,  both  stated  and  occasional,  (chap, 
 xlvi.)  so  that  Hezekiah  in  this  did  properly  no  more  than  what 
 was  incumbent  on  him;  though  several  of  his  idolatrous  prede- 
 cessors had  doubtless  withdrawn  the  fund  appropriated  to  that 
 purpose,  which  made  it  so  commendable  in  him  to  restore  it  to 
 its  proper  channel.  —  Ca/met's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  The  woids  in  the  text  are, — '  So  that,  after  him,  was  none 
 like  hiro  amongst  all  the  kings  of  Judah,  nor  any  that  were  before 
 him,  (2  Kings  xviii.  5.)  Now  it  is  plain  that  the  same  com- 
 mendation is  given  of  Josiah,  namely,  that  '  like  unto  him  was 
 there  no  king  before  him,  which  turned  to  the  Lord,  with  all  his 
 heart,  &c,  neither  after  him  arose  there  any  like  him,'  (2  Kings 
 xxiii.  25.)  So  that  this  character  of  Hezekiah  must  relate  to 
 some  particular  virtue  wherein  he  stood  distinguished  from  the 
 rest  of  the  kings  of  Judah,  and  that  was,  'his  trusting  in  the 
 Lord  God  of  Israel,'  as  it  is  in  the  beginning  of  the  verse,  and 
 not  in  the  help  of  any  foreign  forces,  as  all  the  other  kings,  even 
 the  most  renowned  for  their  piety,  in  some  measure,  are  known 
 to  have  done. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  king  of  Tyre  finding  the  Philistines  brought  low  by  the 
 
 war  which  Hezekiah  had  lately  made  upon  them,  laid  hold  on  the 
 opportunity  to  reduce  Gath,  which  had  some  time  before  revolted 
 from  under  his  obedience.  Hereupon  the  people  of  Gath, 
 applying  themselves  to  Salmaneser,  engaged  him  in  their  cause 
 against  the  Tyrians.  He  soon  took  several  of  their  cities,  and 
 at  length  closely  besieged  their  capital:  but  before  he  could  carry 
 the  place,  which  held  out  for  five  years,  he  died,  and  by  that 
 means  gave  some  respite  to  Hezekiah. — Pridca,u.v'  s  Connection, 
 anno  720. 
 
 d  In  the  course  of  the  sacred  history,  this  sickness  of  Hezekiah's 
 is  placed  immediately  after  the  defeat  and  death  of  Sennacherib ; 
 whereas  it  plainly  happened  before  that  time,  because  in  the  mes- 
 sage which  God  sent  him  upon  his  bed  of  sickness  by  the  prophet 
 Isaiah,  he  promises  to  '  deliver  Jerusalem  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
 king  of  Assyria,'  (2  Kings  xx.  6.)  The  truth  of  the  matter  is — 
 Hezekiah  reigned  in  all  nine  and  twenty  years,  (2  Kings  xviii. 
 2.)  He  had  already  reigned  fourteen  years,  when  Sennacherib 
 invaded  him  (2  Kings  xviii.  13.),  and  after  his  sickness  he  con- 
 tinued to  reign  fifteen  years  (2  Kings  xx.  C),  so  that  his  sickness 
 must  have  happened  in  the  very  same  year  that  the  king  of  As- 
 syria invadtd  his  kingdom;  but  the  sacred  penman  deferred  the 
 account  he  was  to  give  of  that,  until  he  had  finished  the  history 
 of  Sennacherib,  which  he  was  willing  to  give  the  reader  at  one 
 
 view;  and  this  is  the  true  reason  of  the  mislocation Calmet's 
 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  The  conquests  which  the  Assyrians  were  everywhere  making 
 could  not  fail  of  giving  umbrage  to  the  neighbouring  powers  to 
 confederate  against  them ;  and  therefore  we  may  well  suppose 
 that,  besides  the  business  of  congratulating  Hezekiah's  recovery, 
 the  purpose  of  this  embassy  was  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with 
 him  against  Sennacherib,  whose  growing  power  the  Babylonians 
 had  reason  to  fear,  as  well  as  the  Jews;  and,  as  the  author  of  the 
 Chronicles  expresses  it,  '  to  inquire  into  the  wonder  that  was 
 done  in  the  land,'  (2  Chron.  xxxii.  31.)  that  is,  to  inquire  about 
 the  miracle  of  the  sun's  retrogradation,  which  could  not  fail  ol 
 being  a  matter  of  great  curiosity  to  the  Chaldeans,  who,  above  all 
 other  nations,  were  at  that  time  given  to  the  study  of  astronomy. 
 Calmet's  Commentary  and  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  713. 
 
 /The  things  which  Hezekiah  showed  to  the  Babylonian  am- 
 bassadors, were  the  riches  of  his  house,  his  treasures,  his  armoury, 
 and  all  his  stores  and  strength  for  war;  and  the  reason  for  his 
 doing  this,  was  doubtless,  to  make  the  Babylonians  put  the  great- 
 er value  upon  his  friendship:  but  herein  he  offended  God,  that 
 he  not  only  laid  a  bait  before  these  foreigners,  to  encourage  them 
 
Sbct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 633 
 
 A.  M.324G.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 of  his  kingdom,  for  which  the  prophet  Isaiah  was  sent  to 
 reprove  him,  and  to  let  him  know  that  a  day  would 
 come  when  all  the  stores  he  made  such  ostentation  of 
 should  be  carried  into  Babylon  ;  which  admonition  a  he 
 received  in  a  very  decent  and  humble  manner. 
 
 Sennacherib,  in  the  mean  time,  advanced  with  a  mighty 
 army  against  the  fenced  cities  of  Judah  ;  and,  having 
 taken  several  of  them,  he  came  at  length  and  sat  down 
 before  Lachish,  and  threatened,  after  he  had  taken  that, 
 to  besiege  even  Jerusalem  itself.  Hereupon  Hezekiah, 
 taking  advice  of  his  princes  and  chief  counsellors,  made 
 all  manner  of  preparations  for  a  vigorous  defence.  He 
 repaired  the  walls,  and  fortified  them  with  towers.  He 
 provided  darts  and  shields  in  great  abundance,  and  all 
 other  arms  and  artillery  that  might  be  useful,  either  to  de- 
 fend the  place  or  annoy  the  enemy.  He  had  the  people 
 inrolled  that  were  lit  for  war,  and  placed  over  them  good 
 officers,  both  to  instruct  them  in  all  military  exercise, 
 and  to  head  and  conduct  them  when  they  were  to  make 
 their  sallies.     He  stopped  up  the  fountains  *  for  a  good 
 
 to  invade  his  country,  but  seemed  to  place  more  confidence  in 
 this  new  alliance  with  them,  than  in  the  power  of  the  Almighty, 
 whose  favour  and  protection  he  had  so  long  experienced.  The 
 author  of  the  Chronicles  tells  us,  that,  'in  the  business  of  the 
 ambassadors  of  the  princes  of  Babylon,  who  sent  unto  him  to 
 inquire  of  the  wonder  that  was  done  in  the  land,  God  left  him,  to 
 try  him,  that  he  might  know  all  that  was  in  his  heart,'  (2  Chron. 
 xxxii.  31.)  And,  from  hence  some  have  inferred,  that  Heze- 
 kiah's  great  offence  lay,  not  so  mucli  in  the  ostentation  of  his 
 military  stores  and  treasures,  as  in  his  not  giving  sufficient  glory 
 to  God  for  so  signal  a  miracle,  and  his  recovery  ensuing  there- 
 upon, and  in  his  not  representing  this  matter  to  these  idolatrous 
 ambassadors,  in  such  powerful  and  convincing  terms  as  might 
 have  drawn  them  over  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  which 
 was  the  proper  improvement  he  should  have  made  of  this  divine 
 vouchsafement  to  him. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary.  [However 
 we  may  endeavour  to  excuse  Hezekiah,  it  is  certain  that  he 
 made  an  exhibition  of  his  riches  and  power  in  a  spirit  of  great 
 vanity;  and  that  this  did  displease  the  Lord.  It  was  also  ruin- 
 ous to  Judea;  when  those  foreigners  had  seen  such  a  profusion  of 
 wealth,  such  princely  establishments,  and  such  a  fruitful  land,  it 
 was  natural  for  them  to  conceive  the  wish  that  they  had  such 
 treasures,  and  from  that  to  covet  the  very  treasures  they  saw. 
 They  made  their  report  to  their  king  and  countrymen,  and  the 
 desire  to  possess  the  Jewish  wealth  became  general ;  and  in  con- 
 sequence of  this  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem 
 was  projected.] — Dr  A.  Clarke. — Ed. 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are :  '  Then  said  Hezekiah  unto 
 Isaiah,  good  is  the  word  of  the  Lord,  which  thou  hast  spoken. 
 And  he  said,  is  it  not  good  if  peace  and  truth  be  in  my  days? 
 (2  Kings  xx.  19.)  The  prophet  hath  told  him,  that  the  very 
 people  whom  he  had  been  so  highly  complimenting  would  cany 
 his  posterity  into  captivity;  and  to  return  him  such  an  answer 
 as  this,  shows  not  all  the  concern  which  a  good  prince  ought  to 
 have  for  his  people  and  posterity.  It  shows,  indeed,  as  if  he 
 cared  not  what  became  of  them,  so  long  as  he  was  permitted  to 
 live  easy  and  happy.  The  words  in  the  original  are  to  this  effect, 
 'that  which  thou  hast  told  me  from  God,  is  good:'  I  willingly 
 submit  to  it :  '  but  shall  peace  and  truth,'  that  is,  solid  and  last- 
 ing peace,  'continue  for  my  time?'  "  May  I  flatter  myself  with 
 so  much  happiness?  And  will  God  be  so  gracious  as  not  to 
 revoke  the  grant  which  he  hath  made  me  of  a  longer  continuance 
 here?  He  is  just,  no  doubt,  in  every  thing  he  sends  upon  us; 
 but  do  these  threats  relate  to  me  or  my  posterity  only?  Well 
 wero  it  for  me,  if  he  would  suspend  the  execution  of  his  wrath 
 for  the  little  time  that  I  have  to  live."  This  is  the  natural  sense 
 of  Hezekiah's  answer;  and  accordingly  Josephus  makes  him 
 say,  "  That  though  I  am  much  afllicted  at  the  thoughts  of  the 
 misery  that  will  befall  my  family,  yet,  since  it  is  God's  pleasure 
 that  it  should  be  so,  I  have  no  more  to  beg  of  Heaven,  than  that 
 I  may  enjoy  the  small  remainder  of  my  miserable  life  in  peace. — 
 Jewish  Antiq.  b.  x.  c.  3.  and  Calmtt's  Commentary. 
 
 i>  It  is  an  old  stratagem  in  war,  to  distress  an  enemy  by  the 
 
 4G8G.  A.  C.  725.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 compass  round,  and  the  brook  c  that  passed  by  the  wal.'fl 
 of  the  city,  in  order  to  distress  the  enemy  for  want  of 
 water  :  and,  to  strengthen  himself  the  more  against  them, 
 he  entered  into  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive  with 
 the  king  of  Egypt.  But  this  alliance  the  prophet  Isaiah 
 highly  blamed,  as  it  implied  a  diffidence  of  the  Almighty's 
 power  to  help  him,  and  would  redound  to  his  own  shame, 
 and  reproach,  and  confusion  at  last ;  which  accordingly 
 came  to  pass.  For,  while  Sennacherib  was  besieging 
 Lachish,  Hezekiah,  observing  that  this  new  ally  of  his 
 made  no  haste  to  come  to  his  assistance,  and  being  sad- 
 ly sensible  that  of  himself  he  was  not  sufficient  to  resist 
 so  powerful  an  adversary  as  the  king  of  Assyria,  sent 
 ambassadors  to  him,  desiring  him  to  retire  out  of  his 
 dominions,  and  promising  to  submit  to  such  conditions 
 as  he  should  be  pleased  to  impose  upon  him. 
 
 The  demand  which  Sennacherib  made,  was  the  pay- 
 ment of  three  hundred  talents  d  of  silver,  and  thirty 
 talents  of  gold ;  which  Hezekiah  was  not  able  to  raise, 
 without  exhausting  all  his  treasures,  and  stripping  the 
 very  doors  of  the  temple  of  the  gold  plates  wherewith 
 they  were  overlaid.  This  diverted  the  king  of  Assyria 
 for  some  time  ;  so  that,  leaving  Judea,  he  turned  h'ss 
 arms  against  Egypt ;  e  but  after  a  series  of  different  suc- 
 
 want  of  water;  but  this  is  what  the  besiegers  do  generally  prac- 
 tise against  the  besieged.  In  this  manner  it  was  Holofernes 
 intended  to  distress  Betliulia,  (Judith  vii.);  and  of  Semiramis, 
 Cyrus,  and  Alexander,  it  is  reported,  that  they  all  took  Babylon 
 by  diverting  the  current  of  the  Euphrates.  But  Hezekiah  here 
 takes  another  method ;  he  is  for  preventing  the  Assyrians  from 
 carrying  on  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  by  intercepting  the  water, 
 that  is,  by  filling  up  the  fountain-heads  with  earth,  that  the 
 enemy  might  not  perceive  where  any  water  was;  and  so  carry- 
 ing their  streams  through  pipes  and  subterraneous  channels  into 
 the  city,  there  to  be  received  in  basins  and  large  pools  for  the 
 benefit  of  the  besieged:  and  this  he  might  do  with  more  facility 
 to  himself,  and  prejudice  to  the  enemy,  because  (except  the 
 springs  and  brooks  that  were  just  contiguous  to  the  city)  the 
 whole  country,  (according  to  Strabo,  b.  xvi.)  for  the  space  of 
 sixty  furlongs  round  about,  was  all  barren  and  waterless. — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 c  This  must  be  the  brook  Kidron,  which  ran  in  a  valley  of 
 that  name,  between  the  city  and  the  mount  of  Olives,  when  it 
 had  any  water  in  it;  for,  except  in  the  case  of  great  rains,  or 
 the  snow's  dissolving  from  the  mountains,  it  was  generally  dry. 
 However,  if  it  had  any  fountain-head,  by  stopping  up  that,  and 
 diverting  its  current  by  conveyances  under  ground,  Hezekiah 
 might,  in  like  manner,  make  it  of  no  use  to  the  besiegers. — 
 Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  The  Hebrew  talent,  according  to  Scripture,  (Exod.  xxv. 
 39.)  contains  three  hundred  shekels,  and  every  shekel  answering 
 to  the  value  of  three  shillings,  these  three  hundred  talents  of  sil- 
 ver must  contain,  of  our  money,  thirteen  thousand  five  hundred 
 pounds;  and  the  thirty  talents  of  gold,  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
 four  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty ;  so  that  the  whole  sum  here 
 paid  by  Hezekiah  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven 
 thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  our  money. — Pri- 
 deaux's  Connection,  anno  713. 
 
 e  What  might  possibly  be  the  occasion  of  a  war  between  two 
 kingdoms  so  widely  distant  as  Assyria  and  Egypt  were,  it  is 
 difficult  to  know.  We  have  nowhere  any  information  from  his- 
 tory, and  are  left  therefore  to  conjecture — that,  after  Salmaneser 
 had  taken  away  the  ten  tribes,  and  sent  colonies  in  their  room, 
 the  tribe  of  Simeon,  which  lay  nearest  to  Egypt,  becoming  part 
 of  his  dominions,  as  well  as  the  rest,  the  Egyptians  might  take 
 the  advantage  of  the  Assyrians'  great  distance,  and  make  some 
 encroachments  upon  it.  That  Sennacherib,  when  he  was  come 
 as  far  as  Judea,  might  take  that  opportunity  to  proceed  with  his 
 arms  into  Ejiypt,  in  order  to  be  revenged  on  Sevechus,  the  son  of 
 Sabacon  or  So,  whom  Herodotus  calls  Setlion,  who  was  at  this 
 time  lung  of  Egypt,  and  the  chief  pontiff  likewise  of  the  god 
 Vulcan.  And  as  he  was  a  weak  prince,  the  king  of  Assyria 
 gained  many  advantages  over  him;  but,  sitting  down  at  length 
 4l 
 
634 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  32-IG.  A.  C.  758;  OR, 
 
 ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A    M.  4680.  A.  C.  725.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CH  RON. 
 
 cesses,  he  returned  again,  and  invested  Lachish,  and 
 thence,  contrary  to  all  faith,  and  the  agreement  subsist- 
 ing between  him  and  the  kings  of  Judah,  sent  three  of  his 
 principal  officers,  with  a  good  detachment  of  forces  to 
 demand  the  surrender  of  Jerusalem. 
 
 a  Rabshakeh,  for  that  was  the  name  of  the  person  who 
 
 before  Pelusium,  when  he  had  brought  his  platform?,  as  Josephus 
 tells  us,  within  a  little  of  the  top  of  the  walls,  and  was  upon  the 
 vary  point  of  giving  the  assault,  news  was  brought  him,  that  Tir- 
 hakah  king  of  Ethiopia  was  upon  his  inarch,  with  a  great  rein- 
 forcement to  assi<t  the  Egyptians;  whereupon  he   immediately 
 raised  the  siege,  and  drew  oli.his  army,  which  gave  occasion  to 
 the  fabulous  account  in   Herodotus,   namely,   '  That  upon  the 
 king's  prayer  to  his  god  Vulcan,  there  came  in  one  night  such 
 troops  of  rats,  into  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians,  that  they  gnawed 
 all  their  bowstrings  to  pieces,  and  so,  in  effect,  disarmed  the 
 whole  camp  of  the  besiegers,  and  made  them  draw  on"  from  the 
 town  with  BO  much  precipitation." — Le  Merc's  Commentary  on 
 2   Kings  xxiii.  29,   and  Jewish  Antiquities,   b.  x.  c.   1.     The 
 overthrow  of  Sennacherib,  whese  expedition  was  designed  parti- 
 cularly against  Egypt,  is  described  by  Herodotus,  (ii.  141,)  but 
 evidently  corrupted  by  the  Egyptian  priests  from  whom  Herodo- 
 tus  received  the  narration.    His  words  are:  "  After  this  a  priest  of 
 Vulcan,  by  name  Setho,  ascended  the  throne.     He  very  impru- 
 dently  treated   the  soldiers  with  great  severity,  as  though  he 
 should  never  stand  in  need  of  their  services.    He  insulted  them 
 in  many  ways,  and  took  from  them  the  lands  which  had  been 
 granted  to  them  by  former  kings,  at   the  rate  of  twelve  arura; 
 (iao^as)  to  a  man.     (Compare  Is.  xix.  1 — 4.)     But  afterwards 
 when  Sennacherib  king  of  the  Arabs  and  Assyrians  was  advanc- 
 ing against  Egypt  with  a  great  army,  the  Egyptian  soldiers  re- 
 fused to  lend  their  aid  against  him.    The  priest  was  now  in  great 
 perplexity;  and,  going  into  the  temple,  complained  to  his  idol, 
 with  tears,  of  the  "peril  he  was  in.    In  the  midst  of  his  complaints 
 he  was  overtaken  by  sleep,  and  there  appeared  to  him  in  a  vision, 
 the  god  standing  by  him,  and  bidding  him  to  be  of  good  courage, 
 fir  no  misfortune  should  befall  him  in  encountering  the  Arabian 
 army ;  lor  he  himself  would  send  him  helpers.     Confiding  in'  this 
 dream,  he  took  such  Egyptians  as  were  willing  to  follow  him,  and 
 encamped  at  Pelusium:  for  through  this  place  the  invaders  must 
 necessarily  make  their  attack.     None  of  the  soldiers  followed  him, 
 but  only  the  merchants,  artificers,  and  populace.  When  they  had 
 arrived  there,  field   mice  in  great  numbers  spread  themselves 
 about  among  their  enemies,  and  gnawed  in  pieces  the  quivers 
 Ud  hows,  and   thongs  of  the  shields,  so  that  on  the  following 
 morning  they  were  obliged  to  flee,  destitute  of  arms,  and   many 
 fell.     Even  to  this  day  there  stands  in  the  temple  of  Vulcan  a 
 stone  statue  of  this  king,  having  a  mouse  in  his  hand,  and  speak- 
 ing by  an  inscription  to  the  following  effect,  '  Let  him  who  looks 
 on  me  reverence  the  gods.'  "     From  this  narrative,  though  con- 
 siderably distorted,  it  is  plain  that  the  Egyptians  attributed  their 
 deliverance  from  Sennacherib  to  a  deity,  and  to  that  deity  whom 
 the  Greeks  caH"Hipai<rr«,-,  Vulcan.     Among  the  Egyptians  he  is 
 named  Phtha  or  Kneph ;  and  because  lie  is  said  to  have  made  the 
 world,  he  is  also  called  Ar,fuov^y'os,  the  artificer.   Now,  as  the  God 
 of  the  Hebrews  was  the  Creator  of  the  world,  the  Egyptians  might 
 easily  confound  him  with  their  Phtha,  and  attribute  this  deliver- 
 ance to  the  latter.     The  circumstance  of  Setho's  going  into  the 
 temple  and  complaining  of  his  danger  to  Phtha,  is  manifestly  bor- 
 rowed from  what  is  related  of  Hezekiah,   (Is.  xxxvii.  14,  15.) 
 Bnsebius  makes  Setho  the  first  king  of  the  nineteenth  Diospolitic 
 dynasty,  and  assigns  to  his  reign  lilty-five  years.     But  if  Tirha- 
 kah,  whom  Manetho  places  as  the  third  of  the  twenty-fifth  Ethio- 
 pic  dynasty,  with  a  reign  of  twenty  years,  was  master  of  Egypt, 
 then  Setho  could  be  only  a  tributary  king  and  a  vassal  of  this  uni- 
 \,  real  conqueror,  or,  at  most  could  onlyreign  over  the  Delta  and 
 Upper  Egypt. — Jahn's   Hebrew  Cummomrealth. — Er. 
 
 a  Tartan,  Rabsaris,  and  Rabshakeh,  are  not  the  proper  names 
 of  these  men,  but  rather  denote  their  employments  and  offices. 
 Tartan  signifies  the  president  of  the  customs,  Jtabsaris,  the 
 chief  eunuch,  and  Rabthakeh,  the  principal  cup-bearer;  and  be- 
 cause he  spake  I  It  brew  %  ith  some  fluency,  the  rabbins  are  gene- 
 rally of  opinion,  that  lie  was  either  an  apostate  Jew,  or  one  oi  the 
 captivity  of  Israel.  It  is  certain  that  he  was  a  very  eloquent 
 mar.,  and  his  speech  very  well  calculated  to  raise  sedition,  or 
 defection    among  the   besil  ged ;  but  that  a  person  of  his   edu- 
 
 delivered  the  demand  from  the  king  of  Assyria,  spake 
 in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  and  in  a  very  insolent  and  impe- 
 rious manner,  to  the  three  ministers  of  state  whom  He 
 zekiah  sent  to  parley  with  him,  telling  them,  "  That  it 
 was  in  vain  for  them  to  trust  in  their  God  for  help,  be- 
 cause his  master's  arms  had  been  all  along  so  victorious, 
 that  the  gods  of  other  nations  could  not  resist  their  course, 
 and  much  more  vain  would  it  be,  to  depend  on  the  king  of 
 Egypt  for  assistance,  who  was  hardly  able  to  support  his 
 own  dominions,  and  would  certainly  *  fail  them  when 
 they  looked  for  his  aid.  Their  wisest  way,  therefore, 
 would  be  to  surrender  the  town  to  his  master,  the  great 
 king  of  Assyria,  at  discretion  ;  for  if  they  pretended  to 
 stand  a  siege,  (and  this  he  spake  with  a  louder  voice 
 than  ordinary,  in  the  audience  of  the  people  that  were 
 upon  the  wall,  and  in  hopes  of  creating  a  revolt 
 among  them,)  his  master  would  distress  them  to  such  a 
 degree,  that  they  should  be  compelled  to  eat  their  own 
 '  excrements,  and  drink  their  own  piss.'  " 
 
 When  Hezekiah  heard  the  blasphemous  message, 
 which  Rabshakeh  had  delivered  to  his  ministers,  he  rent 
 his  clothes,  put  on  sackcloth,  went  to  the  temple  to 
 address  himself  to  God,  and  sent  an  account  thereof 
 to  his  prophet  Isaiah.  But  Isaiah's  answer  was,  not  to 
 fear  the  menaces  of  the  proud  Assyrian  ;  for  that  God 
 would  soon  find  out  a  method  to  make  him  depart  his 
 country  ;  c  which  accordingly  came  to  pass.     For  news 
 
 cation  should  be  versed  in  the  Phoenician,  which  is  in  a  manner 
 the  same  with  the  Hebrew  language,  is  no  wonder  at  all.  More- 
 over, had  he  been  a  Jew,  though  an  apostate,  he  should  have 
 known  better,  one  would  think,  than  to  have  upbraided  Hezekiah, 
 with  acting  according  to  the  law  under  which  he  lived,  in  de- 
 stroying the  grovesand  altars  of  idols,  and  in  requiring  his  sub- 
 jects to  worship  God  in  Jerusalem  only,  (2  Kings  xviii.  22.) — 
 Lc  Clerc^s  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  Now  behold  thou  trustest  upon 
 the  stall' of  this  bruised  reed,  even  upon  Egypt,  (2  Kings  xviii. 
 21.)  The  comparison  is  excellent,  to  denote  an  ally  that  is  not 
 only  weak  and  unable  to  help,  but  dangerous  likewise  to  those 
 that  rely  upon  him  for  succour ;  and  his  representing  the  power 
 of  Egypt  to  be  as  brittle  as  the  canes  or  reeds  that  grow  on  the 
 banks  of  the  Nile,  for  it  is  to  this,  no  doubt,  that  the  Assyrian 
 orator  alludes,  is  a  great  beauty  in  the  similitude.  This,  how- 
 ever, must  be  allowed,  that  what  he  here  speaks  in  contempt  of  the 
 Egyptian  strength,  has  more  of  ostentation  in  it  than  truth;  be- 
 cause the  Assyrian  army,  having  lately  made  an  attempt  to  sub- 
 due that  kingdom,  was  now  returned  into  Judea  with  disgrace. 
 Patrick's,  Lc  Clare's,  and  Calinet's  Commentaries. 
 
 c  2  Kings  xix.  7.  '  Behold  I  will  send  a  blast  upon  him.'  The 
 destruction  of  Sennacherib  and  his  army  appeals  to  have  been 
 effected  by  that  pestilential  wind  called  the  simoom.  Mr  Bruce 
 thus  speaks  of  it: — "  We  had  no  sooner  got  into  the  plains  than 
 we  felt  great  symptoms  of  the  simoom ;  and  about  a  quarter  be- 
 fore twelve,  our  prisoner  first,  and  then  Idris  called  out,  '  The 
 simoom  !  the  simoom  !'  My  curiosity  would  not  sutler  me  to 
 fall  down  without  looking  behind  me;  about  due  south,  a  little  to 
 the  east,  I  saw  the  coloured  haze  as  before.  It  seemed  now  to 
 be  rather  less  compressed,  and  to  have  with  it  a  shade  of  blue: 
 the  edges  of  it  were  not  defined  as  those  of  the  former,  hut  like  a 
 very  thin  smoke,  with  about  a  yard  in  the  middle  tinged  with 
 those  colours.  We  all  fell  upon  our  faces,  and  the  simoom  passed 
 with  a  gentle  shullling  wind.  It  continued  to  blow  in  this  man- 
 ner till  near  three  o'clock,  so  that  we  were  all  taken  ill  that  night, 
 and  scarcely  strength  was  left  us  to  load  the  camels  and  arrange 
 the  baggage."  [Travels,  vol.  i v.  p.  581.)  in  another  place  Mr 
 Bruce  describes  it  as  producing  a  desperate  kind  of  indifference 
 about  life;  that  it  brought  upon  him  a  degree  of  cowardice  and 
 languor,  which  he  struggled  with  in  vain  ;  and  that  it  completely 
 exhausted  his  strength.  From  the  accounts  of  various  travellers, 
 it  appears  to  have  been  almost  instantaneously  fatal  and  petrify- 
 ing.    It  was  consequently  a  fit  Lgent  to  be  employed  in  desolat* 
 
Srct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 635 
 
 M.3246.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  4686.  A.  C.  725.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 being  brought  him  that  Tirhakah  king  of  Ethiopia,  or  of 
 the  Cuthites  rather  in  Arabia,  had  invaded  some  part  of 
 his  dominions,  he  immediately  raised  the  siege  of  Lib- 
 nah,  a  where  he  then  was,  and  marched  against  the  ene- 
 my :  however,  before  lie  raised  the  siege,  he  sent  a 
 second  summons  to  Hezekiah,  as  insolent  and  blasphe- 
 mous as  the  former.  This  was  delivered  in  a  letter  ; 
 and  Hezekiah  had  no  sooner  read  it,  but  he  went  into 
 the  temple,  spread  it  before  the  Lord,  and  implored  of 
 him  a  deliverance  from  this  outrageous  enemy  ;  which 
 Isaiah  assured  him  he  should  have,  because  that  the  Lord 
 had  taken  the  city  of  Jerusalem  under  his  protection,  and 
 would  not  therefore  sutler  the  king  of  Assyria,  b  not- 
 withstanding all  his  vain  boastings,  to  come  near  it. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  king  of  Assyria  having  engaged 
 the  Ethiopian  army,  and  given  them  a  great  overthrow, 
 was  in  full  march  to  Jerusalem,  flushed  with  this  fresh 
 victory,  and  resolved  to  destroy  the  place,  and  every 
 soul  in  it ;  when  the  very  night  after  that  the  prophet 
 had  given  the  king  of  Judah  this  assurance,  an  angel  c 
 
 ing  the  army  of  Sennacherib.  It  sometimes  happens,  that  dur- 
 ing an  excessive  heat,  there  comes  a  breath  of  air  still  more 
 burning,  and  that  both  men  and  beasts  being  already  overpowered 
 and  faint,  this  small  increase  of  heat  entirely  deprives  them  of 
 respiration. — Niebuhr's  Description  of  Arabia,  p.  81. — Ed. 
 
 a  Libnah  was  not  far  from  Lachish,  both  situated  on  the  moun- 
 tains of  Judea;  and  it  is  probable  that  Sennacherib,  not  finding 
 himself  able  to  carry  the  latter,  had  removed  the  siege  to  Libnah, 
 which  was  a  place  not  so  well  fortified  in  his  opinion,  and  yet  so 
 situated,  that  by  keeping  a  good  guard  in  the  chops  of  the  moun- 
 tains, he  might  carry  on  the  siege,  without  any  fear  of  Tirhakah's 
 coming  upon  him. — Lc  Clerc's   Commentary. 
 
 b  The  prophet,  in  his  answer  to  Hezekiah,  has  given  us  an  ad- 
 mirable description  of  the  ridiculous  vanity  and  ostentation  of  a 
 king  puffed  up  with  great  success:  '  By  thy  messengers  thou  hast 
 reproached  the  Lord,  and  hast  said,  With  the  multitude  of  my 
 chariots  I  am  come  up  to  the  height  of  the  mountains,  and  the 
 sides  of  Lebanon ;  and  I  will  enter  into  the  lodgings  of  his  borders, 
 and  enter  into  the  forest  of  his  Carmel.  I  have  digged,  and 
 drunk  strange  waters,  and  with  the  soles  of  my  feet  have  1  dried 
 up  all  the  rivers  of  besieged  places,'  (2  Kings  xix.  23,  &c>  as  if 
 he  had  said,  "  What  can  resist  the  force  of  my  victorious  arms? 
 Or  where  is  the  place  that  is  inaccessible  to  the  strength  and  ac- 
 tivity of  these  troops  ?  I  have  scaled  the  top  of  the  highest 
 mountains,  with  my  heavy  chariots  of  war.  I  have  ascended 
 even  Lebanon  itself,  and  through  the  most  difficult  passages  have 
 opened  and  plained  myself  a  way.  Who  then  shall  hinder  me 
 from  taking  up  my  quarters  in  what  part  of  Judea  I  please,  from 
 either  climbing  up  to  the  top  of  Carmel,  or  from  coming  down 
 into  the  fruitful  vales,  by  making  an  entire  conquest  of  the  coun- 
 try ?  At  my  call  fountains,  even  in  the  driest  places,  arise ;  at 
 my  beck  the  hills  subside,  the  rocks  divide,  and  make  me  away; 
 and  at  my  approach,  the  deepest  rivers  and  ditches  run  diy;  so 
 that  resistance  is  unavailable,  and  victory  must  attend  my  stan- 
 dard wherever  I  go,  or  whatever  enterprise  I  take  in  hand." 
 
 c  The  ancient  Jews,  as  well  as  the  Persians  and  Arabians, 
 were  of  opinion,  that  there  is  an  angel  of  death,  or  an  exterminat- 
 ing angel,  to  whom  God  has  given  the  commission  to  take  away  the 
 lives,  either  of  single  persons,  or  of  multitudes  of  people  at  once, 
 wherein  the  Almighty  gives  the  order,  but  leaves  the  method  of 
 doing  it  to  the  discretion  of  the  angel ;  so  that  in  which  way  soever 
 the  infliction  is  made,  it  is  always  said  to  be  done  by  the  angel  of 
 God.  The  modern  Jews  are  much  of  the  same  opinion:  for  they 
 maintain  that  this  angel  of  death  stands  at  c\nry  dying  man's  bed's 
 head,  with  a  naked  sword  in  his  hand,  at  the  extremity  of  which 
 there  hang  three  drops  of  gall,  and  that  the  sick  person,  seeing  this 
 angel,  in  a  great  fright  opens  his  mouth,  whereupon  he  immedi- 
 ately drops  into  it  these  three  fatal  drops ;  the  first  of  which  occa- 
 sions his  death ;  the  second  makes  him  pale  and  livid  ;  and  the  third 
 reduces  him  to  the  dust  in  the  grave,  with  some  other  notions  of 
 the  like  nature.  Now  since  the  Scripture  has  nowhere  said  ex- 
 pressly, in  what  manner  this  Assyrian  army  was  destroyed,  some 
 have  thought  that  it  was  by  a  plague;  others  by  thunder  and 
 
 of  the  Lord  came  down  into  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians, 
 and  smote  no  less  than  a  hundred  fourscore  and  live 
 thousand  men  :  d  so  that,  terrified  with  this  slaughter, 
 Sennacherib  made  haste  into  his  own  country,  and  took 
 up  his  residence  at  Nineveh ;  where  he  had  not  been 
 long,  before  e  his  two  eldest  sons,  Adrammelech  and 
 Sharezer  conspired  against  him,  and,  as  he  was  worship- 
 lightning;  others  by  fire  from  heaven;  others  by  a  scorching 
 wind  ;  and  others  by  their  falling  foul  of  one  another  in  the  obscu- 
 rity of  the  night;  but  which  way  soever  it  was  effected,  accord- 
 ing to  the  Hebrew  idiom,  there  is  no  impropriety  in  saying,  that 
 it  was  done  by  a  destroying  angel,  which  is  a  comprehensive 
 phrase,  that  reconciles  all  the  Scripture  passages  wherein  this 
 terrible  defeat  is  mentioned,  and  all  the  sentiments  of  commen- 
 tators concerning  it. — Calmefs  Dissert,  on  the  Defeat  of  the 
 Army  of  Sennacherib. 
 
 d  The  reign  of  the  good  king  Hezekiah  was  signalized  by  the 
 extraordinary  and  memorable  deliverance,  which  the  Lord  grant- 
 ed to  him  and  his  people  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Assyrians  under 
 Sennacherib.     The  destruction  of  the  vast  multitude  whom  that 
 invader  commanded,  and  who  became  all  dead  corpses  in  a  single 
 night,  is  in  one  passage  attributed  to  an  angel  of  the  Lord;  but, 
 in  another  part  of  the  same  history,  and  also  by  Isaiah,  it  is  said 
 to  have  been  occasioned  by  a  blast,  which  is  generally,  and  on 
 good  grounds,  supposed  to  mean  the  simoom,  or  hot  pestilential 
 wind  which  is  so  prevalent  in  the  sultry  regions  of  the  east.       It 
 is  a  south  wind,    which,   blowing  over   an    immense    tract  of 
 heated  ground  or  sand,  becomes  itself  so  hot  and  stifling,  as  to 
 occasion  the  greatest  danger,  and  even  immediate  death  to  the 
 traveller.     Its  approach  is  indicated  by  a  haze  in  the  atmosphere, 
 in  colours  like  the  purple  part  of  the  rainbow,  and  passes  along 
 with  silent  and  incredible  velocity.     The  moment  it  is  perceived 
 by  the  natives  and  the  camels,  who  are  well  acquainted  with  its 
 fatal  power,  they  instantly   fall  to  the  ground,  and   bury  their 
 mouth  and   nostrils   in    the   sand.     Delia  Valle    mentions    the 
 melancholy  fate  of  two  gentlemen,  who  were  travelling  with  him, 
 and  who  having  gone,  during  the  middle  of  the  day,  into  a  khan 
 to  rest,  fell  asleep  at  the  open  window,  and  were  found  dead, 
 and  their  bodies  very  black  and  disfigured,  in  consequence  of  a 
 blast  of  the  simoom  having  passed  over  them  while  they  lay,  un- 
 conscious of  their  danger,  in  that  exposed  situation.     Another 
 traveller  mentions,  that  the  water  in  their  skins  was  dried  up  in 
 a  moment,  and  that  his  companion,  who  had  been  bathing  in  the 
 Tigris,  having  on  a  pair  of  Turkish  drawers,  showed  them,  on 
 his  return,  perfectly  dried  in  an  instant  by  this  hot  wind,  having 
 come  across  the  river.     The  most  circumstantial,  however,  as 
 well  as  the  most  recent  account  of  a  dreadful  destruction,  occa- 
 sioned by  this  hot  wind  in  the  year  1S13,  is  given  in  the  news- 
 papers of  that  day.     The  caravan  from  Mecca  to  Aleppo  con- 
 sisted of  2000  souls,  merchants  and  travellers,  pilgrims  returning 
 from  performing  their  devotions  at  Mecca,  and  a  numerous  train 
 of  attendants,  the  whole  escorted  by  400  military.     The  march 
 was  in  three  columns.     On  the  15th  of  August,  they  entered 
 the  great  Arabian  desert,  in  which  they  travelled  seven  days, 
 and  were  nearly  approaching  its  boundary.     A  few  hours  more 
 would  have  placed  them  beyond  the  reach  of  danger,  when,  on 
 the  morning  of  the  23d,  just  as  they  had  struck  their  tents,  and 
 begun    their   march,    a   wind    rose  and  blew  with  tremendous 
 rapidity.     They  pushed  on  as  fast,  as  their  beasts  of  burden  could 
 carry  them,   to  escape  the   threatened  danger,  when  the  fatal 
 simoom  set  in   suddenly,   the    sky  was  overcast,  dense  clouds 
 appeared,  whose  extremity  darkened  the  horizon,  and  shot  with 
 the  rapidity  of  lightning  across  the  desert.     They  approached  the 
 columns  of  the  caravan.     Both  men  and  beasts,  overcome  by  a 
 sense  of  common  danger,  uttered  piercing  cries,  and  the  next 
 moment  fell  beneath  its  pestilential  influence.     Of  2000  souls 
 composing  the  caravan,  not  more  than  twenty  escaped  the  cala- 
 mity, and  these  owed  their  preservation  to  the  swiftness  of  their 
 dromedaries.     Such,  in   all   probability,  was  the   terrible  agent 
 which   heaven  employed   for   the  destruction  of  the   prodigious 
 army  led  on  by  the  king  of  Assyria. — Jamieson's  Eastern  Man- 
 ners.— Ed. 
 
 e  When  Sennacherib  was  got  home,  after  the  loss  of  so  great 
 an  army,  he  demanded  of  some  about  him,  what  the  reason  might 
 be,  that  the  irresistible  God  of  heaven  sq  favoured  the  Jewish 
 nation?  To  which  he  was  answered,  that  Abraham,  from  whom 
 they  were  descended,  by  sacrificing  his  only  son  to  kim,  had 
 
633 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.3246.  A.  C.  758  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  <772.  A.  C.  63D.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 ping  at  the  temple  of  Nisroch,  a  his  god,  fell  upon  him, 
 and  slew  him  ;  and  afterwards  making  their  escape  into 
 Armenia,  gave  room  for  Esarhaddon,  their  younger 
 brother,  to  succeed  in  the  throne. 
 
 After  this  signal  defeat  of  the  Assyrian  army,  Hezekiah 
 lived  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  peace  and  tranquillity, 
 being  both  honoured  and  revered  by  all  neighbouring 
 nations,  who  by  this,  and  several  more  instances,  perceiv- 
 ed that  he  was  under  the  immediate  protection  of  God, 
 and  were  therefore  afraid  to  give  him  any  molestation.  So 
 tiiat,  being  at  rest  from  wars,  he  applied  his  thoughts  to 
 the  good  government  of  his  people,  and  the  improve- 
 ment of  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  by  erecting  magazines, 
 and  filling  them  with  arms,  and  by  making  a  new  aque- 
 duct, which  was  of  great  convenience  to  the  inhabitants 
 for  the  supplying  them  with  water.  At  length,  after  a 
 course  of  great  and  worthy  actions,  he  died  in  the 
 twenty-ninth  year  of  his  reign,  and  was  buried,  with 
 great  solemnity,  *  in  the  most  honourable  place  of  the 
 sepulchres  of  the  sons  of  David.  Happy  in  every  thing 
 else,  except  in  being  succeeded  by  a  son,  whose  name 
 was  3Ianasseh,  and  who,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign 
 more  especially,  proved  the  very  worst  of  all  his  race. 
 
 Manasseh  was  but  a  minor  of  twelve  years  old  when 
 he  succeeded  to  the  crown  ;  and  as  he  had  the  mis- 
 fortune to  fall  into  the  hands  of  such  guardians  and  chief 
 ministers,  as  were  ill  affected  to  his  father's  reformation, 
 they  took  all  the  care  imaginable  to  breed  him  up  in  the 
 strongest  aversion  to  it,  and  to  corrupt  his  mind  with  the 
 worst  of  principles,  both  as  to  religion  and  government. 
 For  he  not  only  worshipped  idols,  restored  high  places, 
 and  erected  altars  unto  Baal,  but  in  the  room  of  the  ark 
 of  the  covenant  set  up  an  idol,  even  in  the  sanctuary 
 itself,  made  his  children  pass  through  the  fire  to  Mo- 
 loch, practised  witchcrafts  and  enchantments,  and  con- 
 sulted soothsayers,  and  such  persons  as  dealt  with 
 familiar  spirits. 
 
 Nor  was  he  content  to  practise  these  abominations 
 himself,  but  being  naturally  of  a  cruel  temper,  he  raised 
 bi'ter  persecutions  against  those  who  would  not  conform. 
 
 purchased  his  protection  to  his  progeny;  whereupon  the  kino- 
 replied,  '  If  that  will  win  him,  I  win  spare  him  two  of  mine  to 
 gain  him  to  my  side:'  which  when  his  two  sons,  Sharezer  and 
 Adrammelech  heard,  they  resolved  to  prevent  their  own  death  by 
 ucrificing  him.  But  for  all  this  fiction,  there  is  no  other  founda- 
 tion hut  that  scarce  any  thing  else  can  be  thought  of,  that 
 can  afford  any  excuse  for  so  wicked  a  parricide. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  709. 
 
 a  Some  take  this  god  to  he  the  figure  of  Noah's  ark;  others  of 
 a  dove,  which  was  worshipped  among  the  Assyrians;  and  others 
 eagle.  The  Hebrew  of  Tobit,  published  by  Monster,  calls 
 it  Dagon;  but  Selden  acknowledges,  that  in  all  his  reading  he 
 never  met  with  any  thing  that  could  help  him  to  explain  it. 
 Jurieu,  however,  seems  to  be  more  lucky  in  his  inquiries;  for, 
 by  several  arguments,  he  has  made  it  appear,  that  this  idol  was 
 Jupiter  Belus,  the  founder  of  the  Babylonish  empire,  who  was 
 worshipped  under  the  Conn  of  an  eagle ;  and  therefore,  he  observes 
 farther,  thai  as  this  Belus  in  profane  history  was  the  same  with 
 theNimrod  of  Moses,  between  Nimrod  and  Nisroch  the  dissi. 
 mOitude  Is  no)  gnat,  nor  is  it  improbable  that  to  perpetuate  his 
 honour,  his  votaries  might  change  the  name  of  Nimrod,  which 
 signifies  a  rebel,  into  that  of  Nisroch.  which  denotes  a  young 
 eatfe.— Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Jurieu  s  History  of  Doc- 
 trines, BfC.  part  4.  c.  11. 
 
 i  In  the  innermost  and  chiefest  of  the  rooms  of  the  royal 
 sepulchres  of  the  bouse  of  David,  was  the  body  of  Hezekiah  placed 
 in  a  niche,  which  in  the  upper  end  of  the  room  was  very  likely  ai 
 that  time  cut  on  purpose  for  it.  to  do  him  the  greater  honour.— 
 Prideaum't  Connection,  anno  69Q. 
 
 The  prophets  c  who  were  sent  to  reprove  him,  he  treated 
 with  the  utmost  contempt  and  outrage,  and  filled,  in 
 short,  all  the  land  with  innocent  blood,  which  he  shed  in 
 carrying  on  his  detestable  purposes  :  but  it  was  not  long 
 before  the  divine  vengeance  overtook  him. 
 
 Esarhaddon  being  settled  in  the  kingdom  of  Babylon, 
 began  to  set  his  thoughts  on  the  recovery  of  what  his 
 father  Sennacherib  had  lost  in  Syria  and  Palestine ;  and 
 having  raised  a  great  army,  marched  into  the  territories 
 of  the  ten  tribes,  from  whence  he  carried  away  a  great 
 multitude  of  Israelites,  who  were  remains  of  the  former 
 captivity,  and  so  sending  some  of  his  generals  with  a 
 part  of  his  army  to  Judea  to  reduce  that  country  likewise, 
 they  vanquished  Manasseh  in  battle,  and  haying  taken 
 hitn  hid  in  a  thicket  of  briers  and  brambles,  brought  him 
 prisoner  to  Esarhaddon,  rf  who  put  him  in  irons,  and  car- 
 ried him  prisoner  to  Babylon. 
 
 e  His  prison  and  chains  brought  him  to  himself,  and 
 made  him  so  sensible  of  his  heinous  provocations  against 
 God,  that  with  deep  sorrow  and  humiliation,  /  he  implor- 
 ed the  divine  pity  and  forgiveness,  and  thereupon  pre- 
 vailed with  God,  to  mollify  the  king  of  Babylon's  heart, 
 who  restored  him  to  his  liberty,  and  reinstated  him  in  his 
 kingdom. 
 
 Upon  his  return  to  Jerusalem,  he  redressed,  as  much 
 as  he  could,  the  mischiefs  which  his  former  impiety  had 
 
 c  The  prophets  who  were  supposed  to  have  been  living  in  this 
 king's  reign,  were  Hoshea,  Joel,  Nahum,  Habakkuk,  some  say 
 Obadiah;  and  who  was  the  greatest  prophet  of  them  all,  Isaiah. 
 In  the  late  reign  he  was  in  great  esteem  at  court,  and  being  him- 
 self of  the  blood  royal,  and  as  some  say,  the  king's  father-in-law, 
 he  thought  it  more  incumbent  upon  him  to  endeavour  to  reclaim 
 him  from  his  degenerate  wicked  courses.  But  this  so  exasperat- 
 ed him  against  Isaiah,  that,  instead  of  hearkening  to  his  remon- 
 strances, he  caused  him  to  be  apprehended,  and  to  make  his 
 torture  both  more  lingering,  and  more  exepjisite,  had  him  sawa 
 asuuder  with  a  wooden  saw,  to  which  the  author  of  the  epistle  to 
 the  Hebrews,  c.  xi.  37.;  may  be  thought  to  allude. —  Calmet's 
 Commentary,  and  Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 d  From  Isaiah  xx.  1,  we  may  learn,  that  Esarhaddon,  whom 
 the  sacred  writer  in  that  place  calls  Saigon,  king  of  Assyria,  sent 
 Tartan,  his  general  into  Palestine ;  and  it  was  he,  veiy  probably, 
 who  took  Manasseh  and  carried  him  prisoner  to  Babylon.  Esar- 
 haddon was  some  time  before,  no  more  than  king  of  Assyria,  but 
 upon  his  accession  to  the  throne,  he  made  himself  master  of  Ba- 
 bylon and  Chaldea,  and  so  united  the  two  empires  together. — 
 Calmet's  Commentary  and  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  677. 
 
 e  The  Jewish  doctors  have  a  tradition,  that  while  Manasseh 
 was  at  Babylon,  by  the  direction  of  his  conqueror,  he  was  put  in 
 a  large  brazen  vessel  full  of  holes,  and  set  near  to  a  great  fire ; 
 that  in  this  extremity,  he  had  recourse  to  all  his  false  deities,  to 
 whom  he  had  offered  so  many  sacrifices,  but  received  no  relief 
 from  them ;  that  remembering  what  he  had  heard  his  good  father 
 Hezekiah  say,  namely,  when  thou  art  in  tribulation,  if  thou  turn 
 to  the  Lord  thy  God,  he  will  not  forsake  thee,  neither  destroy 
 thee,'  (Deut.  iv.  30,  31.)  he  was  thereupon  immediately  deli- 
 vered, and  in  a  moment  translated  to  his  kingdom  ;  hut  this  is  no 
 less  a  fiction,  than  that  miraculous  flame  which  the  author  of  the 
 imperfect  comment  upon  St  Matthew  speaks  of,  that  encompas- 
 sed him  on  a  sudden,  as  he  was  praying  to  God,  and  having 
 melted  his  chains  asunder,  set  him  at  liberty.  See  Tradit.  Heir. 
 in  Paratip.  ct  Targum,,  in  2  Chron.  xxiii..ll.  In  all  probability 
 it  was  Saos  Duchin,  the  successor  of  Esarhaddon,  who,  some 
 years  after  his  captivity,  released  Manasseh  out  of  prison. 
 r  f  We  have  a  prayer,  which  it  is  pretended  he  made  in  prison. 
 I  he  church  does  not  receive  it  as  canonical,  but  it  has  a  place 
 among  the  apocryphal  pieces,  and  in  our  collections,  stands  he- 
 fore  the  books  of  the  Maccabees.  The  Greek  church,  however, 
 has  received  it  into  their  Euchologium,  or  book  of  prayers,  and 
 they  use  it  sometimes  as  a  kind  of  devout  form,  and  what  con- 
 tains nothing  in  it  deserving  censure.—  Calmet's  Dictionary  un- 
 der the  word  Manasseh. 
 
Sect.  IV.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 637 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758  ;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  4772.  A.  C.  693.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 done.  He  abolished  the  idolatrous  profanations  of  the 
 temple  ;  restored,  in  all  things,  the  reformation  which  his 
 father  had  made,  and  obliged  all  his  subjects  to  worship 
 and  serve  the  Lord  only  ;  so  that,  after  this,  God  blessed 
 him  with  a  long-  and  prosperous  reign,  longer  indeed 
 than  any  of  the  kings  of  Judah,  either  before  or  after 
 him,  had  reigned.  He  possessed  the  throne  full  five  and 
 fifty  years  :  and  yet,  notwithstanding  his  signal  repen- 
 tance, because  his  former  wickedness  was  so  great,  he 
 was  not  allowed  the  honour  of  being  buried  in  any  of  the 
 royal  sepulchres,  but  was  laid  in  a  grave  made  in  the 
 garden  belonging  to  his  own  house,  called  the  garden  of 
 Uzzah,  °  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Anion. 
 
 This  prince,  imitating  the  first  part  of  his  father's  reign, 
 and  not  the  repentance  of  his  latter,  gave  himself  up  to 
 all  manner  of  wickedness  and  impiety;  so  that  God 
 shortened  his  government,  by  permitting  some  of  his 
 own  domestics,  *  after  a  reign  of  two  years,  to  conspire 
 against  him,  and  slay  him  :  but  as  wicked  as  he  was,  the 
 people  of  the  land  took  care  to  revenge  his  murder,  by 
 putting  all  to  death  who  had  any  hand  in  it,  though  they 
 would  not,  at  his  burial,  honour  him,  any  more  than  his 
 father,  with  a  place  among  the  sepulchres  of  the  sons  of 
 David. 
 
 His  son  Josiah,  who  was  then  a  child  no  more  than 
 eight  years  old,  succeeded  in  the  throne  ;  but,  having  the 
 happiness  to  fall  under  the  conduct  of  better  guardians 
 in  his  minority,  than  did  Manasseh  his  grandfather,  he 
 proved,  when  grown  up,  a  prince  of  very  extraordinary 
 worth,  equal,  if  not  superior,  in  piety,  virtue,  and  good- 
 ness, to  the  best  of  his  predecessors.  In  the  sixteenth 
 year  of  his  age,  he  took  upon  him  the  administration  of 
 the  kingdom  ;  and  beginning  with  the  reformation  of  reli- 
 gion, endeavoured  to  pvirge  it  from  all  those  corruptions, 
 which  had  been  introduced  in  the  preceding  reigns.  To 
 this  purpose,  he  took  a  progress  through  the  whole 
 kingdom,  and  wherever  he  came,  brake  down  the  altars, 
 cut  down    the  groves,  c  and   brake    in    pieces   all   the 
 
 a  This  garden,  as  some  think,  was  made  in  that  \ery  spot  of 
 ground  where  Uzzah  was  struck  dead,  for  '  touching  the  ark  of 
 the  Lord,'  (2  Sam.  vi.  7.)  but  others  imagine,  that  this  was  the 
 place  when  Uzziah,  who  died  a  leper,  was  buried,  (2  Chron. 
 xxvi.  23.)  and  that  Manasseh  chose  to  be  buried  here,  as  on- 
 worthy,  because  of  his  manifold  sins,  whereof  he  nevertheless 
 repented,  to  be  laid  in  any  of  the  royal  sepulchres  of  the  kings  of 
 Judah. — Pat/rick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  This,  as  some  Jewish  authors  observe,  is  the  usual  number 
 of  years  to  which  the  sons  of  those  kings  did  arrive,  who,  by  their 
 abominations,  provoked  God  to  anger;  as  they  instance  in  the  son 
 of  Jeroboam,  (1  Kings  xv.  25.)  the  son  of  Baasha,  (chap.  xvi.  8.) 
 the  son  of  Ahab,  (chap.  xxii.  51.) — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  In  2  Kings  xxi.  3  and  7,  it  is  said,  that  '  Manasseh  made  a 
 grove,  and  he  set  a  graven  image  of  the  grove,'  &c,  vaiyasem  ctk 
 petel  haasherah,  asher  asah:  '  And  he  put  the  graven  image  of 
 Asherah,  which  he  had  made,'  into  the  house.  Asherah,  which 
 we  translate  grove,  is  undoubtedly  the  name  of  an  idol ;  and  pro- 
 bably of  one  which  was  carved  out  of  wood.  R.  S.  Jarchi,  on 
 Gen.  xii.  3,  says,  <  that  Asherah  means  a.  tree,  which  was  worship- 
 ped by  the  Gentiles;'  like  as  the  oak  was  worshipped  by  the  an- 
 cient Druids  in  Britain.  Castel  in  Lex.  Hept.  sub  voce  rcti, 
 defines  Asherah  thus:  '  a  wooden  image  dedicated  to  Astarte  or 
 Venus.  The  LXX.  render  the  words  by  aXro; ;  and  Flaminius 
 Nobilis,  on  2  Kings  xxiii.  4,  says,  "Again  Theoderet  observes, 
 aXffo;  is  Astarte  and  Venus:  and  by  other  interpreters  called 
 Ashtaroth."  The  Targum  of  Ben  Uzziel,  on  Deut.  vii.  5, 
 '  Their  groves  shall  ye  cut  down,' translates  the  place  thus: — 
 veiianey  sigedeghon  tckatsetsim,  '  and  the  oaks  of  their  adoration 
 shall  ye  cut  down.'  From  the  above  it  is  pretty  evident  thut 
 idols,  not  groves,  arc  generally  intended  where  usherah  and  its 
 
 carved  and  molten  images  that  were  dedicated  to  idol- 
 atry. The  graves  of  idolatrous  priests  he  dug  up,  and 
 burned  their  bones  upon  some  of  these  altars,  thereby 
 to  defile  and  pollute  them  for  ever  ;  and  d  whatever 
 priests  of  the  Levitical  order  had  at  any  time  sacri- 
 ficed on  the  high  places,  though  it  were  to  the  true 
 God,  these  he  took  care  to  depose  from  their  sacer- 
 dotal office.  e  The  houses  of  the  Sodomites  he  broke 
 down:  Tophet,  /  which  was  in  the  valley  of  Hinnom, 
 he  defiled.      The  horses  s  dedicated  to  the  sun  he  re- 
 
 derivatives  are  used.  Here  follow  proofs.  In  chap,  xxiii.  6,  it 
 is  said,  that  '  Josiah  brought  out  the  groves  from  the  house  of  the 
 Lord.'  This  translation  seems  very  absurd  ;  for  what  grove  could 
 there  be  in  the  temple  ?  there  was  none  planted  there,  nor  was 
 there  room  for  any.  The  plain  meaning  of  vaiyotse  cth  haashe- 
 rah nibbeyth  Yehovah  is,  ■  And  he  brought  out  the  (goddess) 
 Asherah  from  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  burnt  it,'  That  this  is 
 the  true  meaning  of  the  place  appears  further  from  verse  7,  where 
 it  is  said,  '  he  broke  down  the  houses  of  the  Sodomites,'  {hakkc- 
 deshim,  of  the  whoremongers,)  '  where  the  women  wove  hang- 
 ings for  the  grove,'  ibottim  laashcrah,  houses  or  shrines  for 
 Asherah.)  Similar  perhaps  to  those  which  the  silversmiths  made 
 for  Diana,  (Acts  xix.  24.)  It  is  rather  absurd  to  suppose  that 
 the  women  were  employed  in  making  curtains  to  encompass  a 
 grove.  The  Syriac  and  Arabic  versions  countenance  the  inter- 
 pretation I  have  given  above.  In  verse  6,  the  former  says,  '  he 
 cast  out  the  idol,  dechlotho,  from  the  house  of  the  Lord,'  and  in 
 verse  7,  'he  threw  down  the  houses,  dazione,  of  the  prostitutes; 
 and  the  women  who  wove  garments,  ledechlotho,  for  the  idols 
 which  were  there.  The  Arabic  is  exactly  the  same.  From  the 
 whole  it  is  evident  that  Asherah  was  no  other  than  Venus ;  the 
 nature  of  whose  worship  is  plain  enough  from  the  mention  of 
 whoremongers  and  prostitutes.  I  deny  not  that  there  were  groves 
 consecrated  to  idolatrous  worship  among  the  Gentiles,  but  I  am 
 sure  that  such  are  not  intended  in  the  above  cited  passages,  and 
 the  text  in  most  places  reads  better  when  understood  in  this 
 way. — Dr  A.  Clarke,  2  Kings  xxi.  end  of  chap. — Ed. 
 
 d  Several  of  these  priests,  seeing  the  worship  of  the  temple 
 abandoned,  and,  after  that  the  tenths,  and  offerings,  and  sacrifices 
 were  taken  away,  having  nothing  to  subsist  themselves,  had  the 
 weakness  to  repair  to  the  high  places,  and  there  offer  unto  God 
 such  oblations  and  sacrifices  as  the  people  brought  them ;  for  it 
 does  not  appear  that  any  of  them  entered  into  the  service  of 
 false  gods;  but  because  this  was  giving  countenance  by  their  pre- 
 sence and  ministry  to  a  worship  that  was  forbidden,  (Deut.  xii. 
 11.)  he  would  not  receive  them  any  more  into  the  service  of  the 
 temple,  though  he  suffered  them  to  be  maintained  by  it.  He  puts 
 them,  in  short,  into  the  conditions  of  those  priests  that  had  any 
 blemish,  who  might  '  not  offer  the  bread  of  their  God,'  and  yet 
 might  '  eat  the  bread  of  their  God,  both  of  the  holy  and  most 
 holy,' Lev.  xxi.  21,  22. — Calmet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  This  was  the  name  which  is  sometimes  given  to  the  most 
 infamous  of  all  prostitutes,  who  expose  their  bodies  to  be  abused 
 contrary  to  nature,  in  honour  of  those  filthy  deities  whom  they 
 worshipped.  Their  houses  were  near  the  temple,  and  therefore 
 these  were  persons  consecrated  to  impurity;  and  that  they  might 
 commit  their  abominations  with  a  greater  licentiousness,  they  had 
 women  appointed  to  make  them  tents,  wherein  they  were  wont 
 to  retire  upon  these  detestable  occasions. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 /It  is  the  general  opinion  of  the  Jews,  that  the  word  tophet 
 comes  from  toph,  which,  in  their  language,  signifies  a  dram  ; 
 because  drums,  in  this  place,  were  used  to  be  beat,  in  order  to 
 deaden  the  cries  of  those  children  which  were  burned  alive  to  the 
 idol  Moloch;  but  there  is  one  objection  to  this  etymology,  name- 
 ly, that  it  does  not  appear  that  the  larger  kind  of  drums,  such  as 
 are  in  use  now,  were  at  all  known  to  the  ancients.  There  was 
 a  lesser  sort,  indeed,  or  what  we  call  a  tabor,  wherewith  they 
 made  music  in  their  dancing ;  but  these  were  not  loud  enough 
 for  the  present  purpose,  and  the  larger  kind  we  owe  to  the  Ara- 
 bians, who  first  brought  them  into  Spain,  from  whence  they  were 
 dispersed  all  Europe  over. — Le  Gere's  Commentary. 
 
 g  It  is  certain  that  all  the  people  of  the  east  worshipped  the 
 sun,  and  consecrated  horses  to  it,  because  they  were  nimble  and 
 swift  in  their  course,  even  as  they  supposed  it  to  be:  "The  Per- 
 sian appeases  the  ray-encircled  Apollo  with  a  horse,  lest  a  slow- 
 footed  victim  should  be  given  to  the  fleet  God."  {Ovid.  Fasl.h. 
 
638 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 moved  ;  burned  its  chariots  with  fire  ;  and  being  not  satis- 
 lied  with  destroying  all  the  monuments  of  idolatry  in 
 his  own  dominions,  he  visited  in  person  the  cities  of 
 Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  land 
 which  had  formerly  been  possessed  by  the  ten  tribes, 
 and  there  did  the  same.  But  while  he  was  at  Bethel,  a 
 discovering  by  the  inscription  the  monument  of  the  pro- 
 phet who  was  sent  from  J  udah  to  declare  against  the 
 altar  which  Jeroboam  had  there  set  up,  and  (above  three 
 hundred  years  before)  to  name  the  very  name  of  Josiah 
 who  was  to  destroy  it ;  he  would  not  sutler  it  to  be 
 touched,  nor  his  bones  to  be  molested. 
 
 Having  thus  carried  on  the  work  of  reformation  in  the 
 distant  parts  of  his  kingdom,  he  took  care  in  the  next 
 place,  to  have  the  temple  repaired.  To  this  purpose, 
 he  ordered  Hilkiah  the  high  priest  to  take  a  general 
 view  of  it,  and  see  what  was  necessary  to  be  done  ; 
 who,  while  he  was  surveying  and  examining  every  place, 
 chanced  to  find  '  a  book  of  the  law  of  the  Lord  given 
 by  Moses.'  The  book  was  carried  to  the  king,  who, 
 having  *  heard  some  part  of  it  read,  rent  his  robes  in 
 dread  of  the  curses  denounced  against  a  wicked  people, 
 and  immediately  sent  the  high  priest,  and  some  other  of 
 his  chief  officers,  to  Huldah  c  the  prophetess  to  inquire 
 
 i.)  But  then  the  question  is,  whether  the  people  of  Judah  sacri- 
 ficed these  horses  to  the  sun,  as  it  is  certain  that  the  Armeni- 
 ans, Persians,  and  other  nations  did,  or  only  led  them  out  in 
 state  every  morning,  to  meet  and  salute  the  sun  at  its  rising. 
 The  ancients  had  a  notion  likewise,  that  the  sun  itself  was  car- 
 ried about  in  a  chariot ;  and  therefore  chariots,  as  well  as  horses, 
 were  dedicated  to  it.  Since  then  we  find  these  horses  and 
 chariots  standing  so  near  together,  the  horses,  we  may  suppose, 
 were  designed  to  draw  the  chariots,  and  the  chariots  to  cany  the 
 King  and  his  other  great  officers,  who  were  idolaters  of  this 
 kind,  out  at  the  east  gate  of  the  city  every  morning,  to  salute 
 and  adore  the  sun  at  its  coming  above  the  horizon. — Bocharfs 
 llicruz.  part.  1.  b.  xi.  c.  10. 
 
 a  The  Jews  will  tell  us,  that,  on  one  side  of  the  grave,  where 
 the  prophet  of  Judah  and  the  prophet  of  Bethel  lay  together, 
 there  grew  nettles  and  thistles,  on  the  other,  myrtles,  and  other 
 odoriferous  plants,  signifying  that  a  true  and  false  prophet  lay 
 there ;  and  that  this  raised  the  king's  curiosity  to  inquire  whose 
 that  sepulchre  was;  but  there  is  no  ground  fortius  fabulous  fancy. 
 The  king,  we  may  suppose,  espied  a  stone  or  a  pillar  more  emi- 
 ii.  lit  than  the  rest,  with  the  names  of  the  persons  that  were 
 buried  under  it,  and  this  made  him  ask  the  question  of  the  men 
 of  the  city,  that  is,  some  of  the  old  inhabitants  that  had  escaped 
 the  captivity,  and  not  any  of  those  new-comers  whom  the  kin" 
 of  Assyria  had  sent  thither;  for  these  could  give  no  account  o^ 
 the  ancient  histories  of  the  Israelites ;  neither  can  we  suppose 
 that  the  sepulchre  itself,  after  so  many  years'  standing,  could  have 
 been  distinguishable,  had  not  some  pious  person  or  other,  with  an 
 intent  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  thing,  in  each  successive 
 
 age,  taken  care  to  preserve  and  repair  it  (Mat.  xxiii.  29.) Le 
 
 Clerc's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 '■  Whether  it  was  the  whole  Pentateuch,  or  the  hook  of  Deut- 
 ny  only,  which  the  high  priest  found  in  the  temple,  it  is 
 generally  agreed,  that  the  part  which  Sbaphail  read  to  the  king 
 ken  out  of  Deuteronomy,  and  not  without  some  probability, 
 that  the  xxviiith,  xxixth,  and  xxxth  chapters  were  that  portion  of 
 Scripture  which  the  secretary,  who,  as  we  are  told  2  Kings  xxii. 
 •s,  had  read  the  book  before  he  brought  it  to  the  king,  thought 
 proper  upon  this  occasion  to  turn  to;  for  therein  is  contained  a 
 renewal  of  the  covenant,  which  Moses,  as  mediator,  had  made 
 between  God  and  the  people  of  Israel  at  mount  Horeb;  and 
 therein  are  those  threats  and  terrible  comminations  to  the  trans- 
 greasora  ol  the  law,  whether  prince  or  people,  which  affected 
 Josiah  BO  much;  and  'which  Moses  had  given  the  Levites  to 
 I  ut  on  the  aide  ol  the  covenant,  that  it  might  be  there  for  a  wit- 
 ness   against  the  transgressors  of  it,  (Deut.  xxxi.  2o,  26.) 
 
 <  'almet  i  Commentary. 
 
 0  This  is  the  only  mention  we  have  of  this  prophetess,  and 
 
 4772.  A.  C.  639.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 of  the  Lord ;  who  returned  them  in  answer,  '  that  the 
 judgments  threatened  in  the  book  of  the  law  would  not 
 be  long  before  they  fell  upon  the  kingdom  of  Judah  ; 
 but  that,  because  the  king  had  expressed  so  deep  a  con- 
 cern upon  hearing  the  denunciation  of  them,  their  exe- 
 cution should  be  delayed  till  after  his  death.' 
 
 The  good  king-,  however,  in  order  to  appease  the 
 wrath  of  God,  called  together  a  solemn  assembly  of  all 
 the  elders  and  people  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem  ;  and  going 
 with  them  to  the  temple,  he  caused  the  law  of  God  there 
 to  be  distinctly  read;  and  when  that  was  done,  both  he 
 and  all  the  people  entered  into  a  covenant  to  observe  all 
 that  was  contained  in  it.  After  this  he  made  another 
 progress  round  the  kingdom  of  Judah  and  Samaria,  to 
 destroy  every  the  least  remainder  of  idolatry  that  he 
 could  meet  with  ;  and  when  the  season  of  the  next  pass- 
 over  was  come,  had  it  d  kept  with  such  exactness  and 
 solemnity,  as  had  never  been  observed  from  the  days  of 
 Samuel  the  prophet  to  that  time. 
 
 In  a  word,  this  excellent  prince  did  all  that  in  him  lay 
 to  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  people,  and  appease  the  wrath 
 of  God ;  but  his  decree,  e  for  the  removal  of  Judah  into  a 
 
 certainly  it  makes  much  to  her  renown,  that  she  was  consulted 
 upon  this  weighty  occasion,  when  both  Jeremiah  and  Zephaniah 
 were  at  that  time  prophets  in  Judah.  But  Zephaniah,  perhaps, 
 at  that  time,  might  not  have  commenced  a  prophet;  because, 
 though  we  are  told  that  he  '  prophesied  in  the  days  of  Josiah,' 
 (Zeph.  i.  1.)  yet  we  are  nowhere  informed  in  what  part  of  his 
 reign  he  entered  upon  the  prophetic  office.  Jeremiah,  too,  might 
 at  that  time  be  absent  from  Jerusalem,  at  his  house  at  Auathoth, 
 or  some  more  remote  part  of  the  kingdom;  so  that,  considering 
 Josiah's  haste  and  impatience,  there  might  be  no  other  remedy 
 at  hand  to  apply  to  hut  this  woman:  '  great  is  the  wrath  of  the 
 Lord  that  is  kindled  against  us,'  says  the  king  to  his  ministers, 
 (2  Kings  xxii.  13.)  and  therefore  his  intent,  in  sending  them, 
 might  be  to  inquire  whether  there  were  any  hopes  of  appeasing 
 his  wrath,  and  in  what  manner  it  was  to  be  done.  Being  thero> 
 fore  well  assured  of  this  woman's  fidelity  in  delivering  the  mind 
 and  counsel  of  God,  the  ministers  who  went  to  inquire,  conclud- 
 ed rightly,  that  it  was  much  more  considerable  what  message 
 God  sent,  than  by  whose  hand  it  was  that  he  conveyed  it. — 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  words  of  the  text  are, — '  Surely  there  was  not  held  such 
 a  passover,  from  the  days  of  the  judges,  nor  in  all  the  days  of  the 
 kings  of  Israel,  and  of  the  kings  of  Judah,'  (2  Kings  xxiii.  22.) 
 which,  taken  in  a  literal  sense,  must  denote,  that  this  passover, 
 which  was  celebrated  by  two  tribes  only,  was  more  numerous,  and 
 more  magnificent,  than  all  those  that  were  observed  in  the  days  of 
 David  and  Solomon,  in  the  most  happy  and  flourishing  state  of  the 
 Jewish  monarchy,  and  when  the  whole  twelve  tribes  were  met 
 together,  to  solemnize  that  feast.  It  may  not  be  amiss  there- 
 fore to  allow,  that,  in  these  expressions,  there  is  a  kind  of  auxesis 
 or  exaggeration,  not  unusual  in  sacred,  as  well  as  in  profane 
 authors.  For  nothing  is  more  common  than  to  say,  "  never  was 
 so  much  splendour  and  magnificence  seen,"  when  we  mean  no 
 more,  than  that  the  thing  we  speak  of  was  very  splendid  and 
 magnificent;  unless  we  suppose  with  some,  that  a  preference  is 
 given  to  this  passover  above  all  the  rest,  in  respect  of  the  exact 
 observation  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  belonging  to  it,  which,  a 
 other  times,  were  performed  according  to  custom,  and  several 
 things  either  altered  or  omitted;  whereas  at  this,  every  thing 
 was  performed  according  to  the  prescribed  form  of  the  law,  from 
 which,  since  the  finding  of  this  authentic  copy  of  it,  Josiah 
 enjoined  them  not  to  vary  one  tittle. — Calmet's  and  Le  Clerc's 
 <  'ommentaries.  [What  distinguished  this  passover  from  all  others 
 before  it,  was  doubtless  the  regularity  with  which  it  was  observed, 
 together  with  the  zeal  and  devotion  of  those  who  were  engaged 
 in  it.  The  words  of  the  text  do  not  therefore  apply  to  the 
 number  present,  but  to  the  manner  in  which  the  solemnity  was 
 kept,  and  the  spirit  which  animated  the  worshippers.]— Ed. 
 
 6  '1  hough  Josiah  was  doubtless  sincere  in  what  he  did,  and 
 omitted  nothing  t0  restore  the  purity  of  God's  worship,  wherever 
 his  power  extended ;  yet  the  people  had   still  a  hankering  after 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OP  THE  TEMPLE,  &f 
 
 639 
 
 A.  M.  324G.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4772.  A.  C.  C39.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 land  of  their  captivity,  was  passed,  irrevocably  passed  ; 
 and  therefore  when  Pharaoh  Necho  °  king  of  Egypt  de- 
 sired to  pass  through  Judea,  in  order  to  go  and  attack 
 Charchemish/'  a  city  belonging-  to  the  king  of  Babylon, 
 and  situate  upon  the  Euphrates,  Josiah  would  by  no 
 means  consent  to  it ;  but  getting  together  his  forces, 
 posted  himself  in  the  valley  of  Megiddo,c  on  purpose 
 
 the  corruption  of  the  former  part  of  Manasseh's  reign.  They 
 complied,  indeed,  with  the  present  reformation;  but  this  was 
 only  out  of  fear  of  incurring  the  king's  displeasure,  or  of  feeling 
 the  severity  of  his  justice.  Their  hearts  were  not  right  towards 
 God,  as  appears  from  the  writings  of  the  prophets  that  lived  in 
 those  times;  and  therefore,  seeing  no  sign  of  their  repentance, 
 God  had  no  reason  to  reverse  his  decree. — Calmet's  and  Le 
 Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 a  Pharaoh  signifies  no  more,  in  the  Egyptian  language,  than 
 king;  and  was  therefore  given  to  any  one  that  sat  upon  that 
 throne:  but  Necho,  according  to  Herodotus,  was  his  proper 
 name,  though  some  will  have  it  to  be  an  appellative,  which  signi- 
 fies lame,  because  this  Pharaoh,  as  they  suppose,  had  a  lameness 
 which  proceeded  from  some  wound  he  had  received  in  the  wars. 
 The  same  historian  tells  us,  that  he  was  the  son  and  successor  of 
 Psammetichus  king  of  Egypt,  and  a  man  of  a  bold  enterprising 
 spirit ;  that  he  made  an  attempt  to  join  the  Nile  and  the  Red 
 Sea,  by  drawing  a  canal  from  one  to  the  other:  that  though  he 
 failed  in  this  design,  yet,  by  sending  a  fleet  from  the  Red  Sea 
 through  the  straits  of  Babel-Mandeb,  he  discovered  the  coasts 
 of  Africa,  and,  in  this  his  expedition  to  the  Euphrates,  resolved 
 to  bid  fair,  by  destroying  the  united  force  of  the  Babylonians  and 
 Medes,  for  the  whole  monarchy  of  Asia.— Prideaux's  Connection, 
 anno  CIO,  and  Mar  sham's  Canon,  ceg.  scecul.  18.  [This 
 Pharaoh  Necho,  king  of  Egypt,  whom  Herodotus  calls  the  son  of 
 Psammetichus,  and  represents  as  an  enterprising  hero,  with 
 which  representation  the  Bible  perfectly  accords,  is  enumerated 
 by  Manetho  as  the  sixth  (Nechas  II.)  of  the  twenty-sixth  Saitic 
 dynasty.  (John's  Heb.  Commotitoealth.)  The  account  of  the 
 war  carried  on  by  Pharaoh  Necho  against  the  Jews  and  Baby- 
 lonians, is  confirmed  by  the  recent  discoveries  of  the  late  enter- 
 prising traveller  Belzoni  among  the  tombs  of  the  Egyptian 
 sovereigns.  In  one  of  the  numerous  apartments  of  the  tomb 
 of  Psammethes  or  Psammis,  the  son  of  Pharaoh  Necho,  he  found 
 a  sculptured  group  describing  the  march  of  a  military  and  trium- 
 phal procession,  with  three  different  sets  of  prisoners,  who  are 
 evidently  Jews,  Ethiopians,  and  Persians.  The  procession  begins 
 with  four  red  men  with  white  kirtles,  followed  by  a  hawk-headed 
 divinity;  these  are  Egyptians  apparently  released  from  captivity, 
 and  returning  home  under  the  protection  of  the  national  deity. 
 Then  follow  four  white  men  in  striped  and  fringed  kirtles,  with 
 black  beards,  and  with  a  simple  white  fillet  round  their  black 
 hair;  these  are  obviously  Jews,  and  might  be  taken  for  the  por- 
 traits of  those  who,  at  this  day,  walk  the  streets  of  London. 
 After  them  come  three  white  men  with  smaller  beards  and  curled 
 whiskers,  with  double-spreading  plumes  on  their  heads,  tattooed, 
 and  wearing  robes  or  mantles  spotted  like  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  ; 
 these  are  Persians,  or  Chaldeans.  Lastly,  come  four  negroes 
 with  large  circular  ear-rings  and  white  petticoats,  supported  by  a 
 bell  over  the  shoulders:  those  are  Ethiopians.] — Belzoni' s  Nar- 
 rative, 4to,  and  Atlas  of  Plates,  Nos.  4,  5,  and  6. — En. 
 
 b  Geographers  make  no  mention  of  this  city  under  this  name; 
 but  it  is  very  probably  the  same  with  what  the  Greeks  and  Latins 
 call  Cercusium  or  Cercesium,  which  was  situated  on  the  angle 
 formed  by  the  conjunction  of  the  Chaboras  or  Chebar,  and  the 
 Euphrates.  Isaiah  x.  9,  speaks  of  this  place  as  if  Tiglath-Pileser 
 had  made  a  conquest  of  it,  and  Necho,  perhaps,  now  was  going 
 to  retake  it,  as  we  find  he  did  ;  but  Jeremiah  informs  us,  (eh.  xlvi. 
 1,2.)  that  in  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiachim  king  of  Judah,  it  was 
 taken  and  quite  destroyed  by  Nebuchadnezzar  king  of  Babylon. — 
 Calmet's  Comment.,  and  Wells   Geog.  of  the  Old  Test.  vol.  iii. 
 
 c  Megiddo  was  a  city  in  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  not  far 
 from  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  which  way  Necho  was  to  pass  with 
 his  army,  in  order  to  go  into  Syria,  and  thence  to  the  Euphrates. 
 In  the  valley  adjoining  to  this  place  Josiah  was  slain,  '  while  he 
 was  at  the  head  of  his  army,'  as  Josephus  tells  us,  '  and  riding 
 up  and  down  to  give  orders  from  one  wing  to  the  other.'  Tiiis 
 action  Herodotus  makes  mention  of  when  he  tells  us,  *  that 
 Nechos  king  of  Egypt  having  fallen  upon  the  Syrians,  near  the 
 
 to  obstruct  his  passage.  The  Egyptian  king  hearing  of 
 this,  sent  ambassadors  desiring  him  to  desist,  declaring 
 that  he  came  not  to  invade  his  territories,  but  purely  to 
 do  himself  justice  on  the  king  of  Babylon  ;  and  assuring 
 him  withal,  that  what  he  did  in  this  case  was  by  the  or- 
 der and  appointment  of  God.  Josiah,  however,  thought 
 himself  no  way  concerned  to  believe  him  ;  and  therefore 
 on  Necho's  marching  up  to  the  place  where  he  was  post- 
 ed to  receive  him,  a  battle  immediately  ensued,  wherein 
 the  Egyptian  archers,  discovering  Josiah,  though  he  had 
 disguised  himself  before  the  action  began,  plied  that 
 quarter  of  the  army  where  he  fought  so  very  warmly 
 with  their  arrows,  that  at  last  receiving  a  mortal  wound 
 from  one  of  them,  he  was  carried  in  another  chariot  d 
 out  of  the  battle  to  Jerusalem,  where  after  a  reign  of 
 one  and  thirty  years,  he  died,  and  was  buried  in  the 
 sepulchre  of  his  ancestors. 
 
 e  The  death  of  so  excellent  a  prince  was  deservedly 
 lamented  by  all  his  people  ;  but  by  none  more  sincerely 
 than  by  Jeremiah  the  prophet ;  who  having  a  thorough 
 sense  of  the  greatness  of  the  loss,  as  well  as  full  fore- 
 sight of  the  sore  calamities  which  were  afterwards  to 
 follow  upon  the  whole  kingdom  of  Judah,  while  his  heart 
 was  full  with  a  view  of  both  these,  wrote  a  song  of 
 lamentation  /  upon  this  mournful  occasion  ;  but  that  is 
 
 city  Magdol,  obtained  a  great  victory,  and  made  himself  master 
 of  Cadytis,'  where  the  author  plainly  mistakes  the  Syrians  for 
 the  Jews ;  Magdolum,  a  city  in  the  Lower  Egypt,  for  Megiddo ; 
 and  Cadytis,  for  Kadesh,  (in  the  Upper  Galilee,  by  which  he  was 
 to  pass  in  his  way  to  Charchemish;)  or  rather  for  the  city  of 
 Jerusalem,  which,  in  Herodotus's  time  might  be  called  by  the 
 neighbouring  nations  Cadyta  or  Cadyscha,  that  is,  the  holy  city; 
 since,  even  to  this  day,  it  is  called  by  the  eastern  people  Al-huds, 
 which  is  plainly  both  of  the  same  signification  and  original. — 
 Calmefs  Dictionary  under  the  word  Kadesh,  and  Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  610. 
 
 d  It  was  the  custom  of  war  in  former  times  for  great  officers  to 
 have  their  led  horses,  that  it  one  failed  they  might  mount  another. 
 The  kings  of  Persia,  as  Quintus  Curtius  informs  us,  had  horses 
 attending  their  chariots,  which,  in  case  of  any  accident,  tiiey 
 might  make  to;  and,  in  like  manner,  we  may  presume,  that 
 when  it  became  a  mighty  fashion  to  fight  in  chariots,  all  great 
 captains  had  an  empty  one  following  them,  into  which  they 
 might  betake  themselves  if  any  mischance  befell  the  other. — 
 Bochart's  Hieroz.  part  1.  c.  2  and  9. 
 
 e  The  author  of  the  book  of  Ecclesiasticus  has  given  us  his 
 encomium  in  these  words: — "All,  except  David,  and  Heze- 
 kias,  and  Josias,  were  defective.  They  forsook  the  law  of  the 
 Most  High;  even  the  kings  of  Judah  failed.  But  the  remem- 
 brance of  Josias,  is  like  the  composition  of  the  perfume,  that  is 
 made  by  the  art  of  the  apothecary:  it  is  as  sweet  as  honey  in  all 
 mouths,  and  as  music  at  a  banquet  of  wine.  He  behaved  himself 
 uprightly  in  the  conversion  of  the  people,  and  took  away  the 
 abomination  of  iniquity.  He  directed  his  heart  unto  the  Lord, 
 and  in  the  time  of  the  ungodly,  lie  established  the  worship  of  God.' 
 — Ecclus.  xlix.  1,  &c. 
 
 f  The  Jews  were  wont  to  make  lamentations,  or  mournful 
 songs,  upon  the  death  of  great  men,  princes,  and  heroes,  who 
 had  distinguished  themselves  in  arms,  or  by  any  civil  arts  had 
 merited  well  of  their  country.  By  an  expression  in  2  Chron. 
 xxxv.  25,  '  behold  they  are  written  in  the  Lamentations,'  one 
 may  infer,  that  they  had  certain  collections  of  this  kind  of  com- 
 position. The  author  of  the  book  of  Samuel  has  preserved  those 
 which  David  made  upon  the  death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan,  of 
 Abner  and  Absalom:  but  this  mournful  poem,  which  the  discon- 
 solate prophet  made  upon  the  immature  death  of  good  Josiah, 
 we  nowhere  have;  which  is  a  loss  the  more  to  be  deplored  be- 
 cause, in  all  probability,  it  was  a  master-piece  in  its  kind:  since 
 never  was  there  an  author  more  deeply  affected  with  his  subject, 
 or  more  capable  of  carrying  it  through  all  the  tender  sentiments 
 of  sorrow  and  compassion. —  CalmeCs  Commentary,  and  Preface 
 on  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah, 
 
640 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  324S.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 lost;  and  the  other,  which  goes  under  his  name,  and  is 
 still  remaining,  was  composed  upon  the  destruction  ot 
 Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 CHAP.  II. 
 
 -Difficulties  Obviated,  and  Objections 
 Answered. 
 
 That  the  dung  of  swallows  is  of  a  very  hot  and  caustic 
 quality,  and  when  dropt  into  the  eye,  must  needs  be  in- 
 jurious to  the  sight,  as  being  apt  to  cause  an  inflamma- 
 tion, and  thereby  a  concretion  of  humours,  which  in  pro- 
 cess of  time  may  produce  a  white  film  that  will  obstruct 
 the  light  from  the  optic  nerves ;  and  that  the  gall  of  a 
 fish,  especially  of  the  fish  called  Callionymus,  is  of  excel- 
 lent use  to  remove  all  such  specks  and  obstructions  to 
 the  sight,  we  have  the  testimony  of  some  of  the  greatest 
 men,  '  physicians  and  naturalists,  to  produce  in  confir- 
 mation of  this  part  of  Tobit's  history.  That  good  angels 
 •are  appointed  by  God  to  be  the  guardians  of  particular 
 men,  and  in  execution  of  this  their  office,  do  frequently 
 assume  human  shapes,  to  guide  them  in  their  journeys, 
 and  to  deliver  them  from  all  dangers,  is  a  doctrine  2  as 
 ancient  as  the  patriarch  Jacob's  time,  embraced  by 
 Christians,  and  believed  by  the  wisest  heathens  ;  and 
 that  every  man,  in  like  manner,  has  an  evil  angel,  or 
 genius,  whereof  some  preside  over  one  vice,  and  some 
 over  another;  insomuch  that  there  are  demons  of  avarice, 
 demons  of  pride,  and  demons  of  impurity,  &c,  each 
 endeavouring  to  ensnare  the  person  he  attends  with  a 
 complexional  temptation,  is  another  position  that  has 
 been  almost  generally  received,  3  not  only  in  the  Jewish 
 and  Christian,  but  in  the  Pagan  theology  likewise;  and 
 therefore  thus  far  the  history  of  Tobit  can  be  no  novel 
 or  romance. 
 
 That  good  angels  have  a  superior  power  and  control 
 over  the  bad,  and  by  the  divine  authority  can  curb  and 
 restrain  their  malice,  which  is  all  that  we  need  under- 
 stand by  '  their  binding  them  up,'  is  evident  from  a  pas- 
 sage in  the  Revelations  very  similar  to  what  we  read 
 here  concerning  Raphael  and  Asmodeus  :  4  '  I  saw  an 
 angel  come  down  from  heaven,  having  the  key  of  the 
 bottomless  pit,  and  a  great  chain  in  his  hand,  and  he 
 laid  hold  on  the  dragon,  the  old  serpent,  which  is  the 
 devil  and  Satan,  and  bound  him  a  thousand  years  and 
 cast  him  into  the  bottomless  pit,  and  shut  him  up,  and 
 set  a  seal  upon  him,  that  he  should  deceive  the  nations 
 no  more  :'  and  that  this  good  angel,  personating  an 
 Israelite,  and  5  •  calling  himself  Azarias,  the  son  of 
 Ananias,'  was  not  guilty  of  any  lie  or  prevarication,  is 
 plain  from  cases  of  the  like  nature.  For  as  the  picture 
 is  usually  called  by  the  person  it  represents,  and  he  who 
 in  tragedy  acts  the  part  of  Cato,  does,  for  that  time,  go 
 
 1  Galen,  de  Simplio.  Medicament.  Facult.  b.  x.  c.  12.  iElian. 
 I),  xiii.  c.  1.  K  basis,  b.  ix.  e.  27.  Pliny,  b.  xxvii.  c.  11. 
 Gesner.  Hist.  Animal,  b.  iii.  Aldrovand.  Oraitholog.  b.  xvii. 
 Vales,  de  Sana  Philosoph.  c.  42. 
 
 »  Gen.  xlviii.  16.  I's.  xxxiv.  7.  Mat.  xviii.  10.  Acts  xii. 
 15.  Hesiod.  Oper.  et  Dies.  b.  i.  Plato,  de  Legibus,  b.  x.  and 
 Apuleius,  de  Deo  Socratis. 
 
 'See  Buxtorf.  Syoag.  Jud.  c.  10.  Basilar  Hist,  des  Juif.  b. 
 vi.  c.  19.  Orphei  Hymn.  ad.  Muses,  Plutarch  in  Bruto. 
 1  Pat.  v.  8.     Mat.  vii.  32,  S3.     Luke  xiii.  11,  16. 
 
 *  Rev.  xx.  I.  &c.  •  Tobit  v.  12. 
 
 4772.  A.  C.  639.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 under  his  name  ;  so  Raphael,  being  sent  by  God  in  the 
 form  and  appearance  of  a  young  man,  was  in  that  capa- 
 city to  act  and  speak  as  if  he  had  been  such.  Nor  was 
 there  any  fallacy  in  his  assuming  the  name  of  Azarias, 
 which  signifies  God's  help  or  assistance,  since  he  was 
 manifestly  sent  for  this  very  purpose,  that  he  might  be 
 a  guide  and  assistance  to  Tobias  in  his  journey  ;  and 
 therefore  very  prudently  concealed  his  quality  of  an 
 angel,  that  he  might  more  conveniently  execute  his  com- 
 mission. So  that  hitherto  there  is  no  incongruity  in  the 
 whole  narration,  if  we  can  but  have  a  farther  account, 
 why  6  the  smoke  of  the  fish's  liver  and  heart  should  be 
 of  an  efficacy  to  put  the  evil  spirit  to  flight. 
 
 Those  who  are  of  opinion,  7  that  demons,  or  evil 
 angels,  were  invested  with  certain  material  forms,  where- 
 in they  snuffed  up  the  perfumes,  and  feasted  themselves 
 upon  the  odours  of  the  incense  and  sacrifices  that  were 
 offered  to  them,  have  an  easy  way  of  solving  this  diffi- 
 culty, by  supposing  that  the  smell  of  the  burned  heart  and 
 liver  of  the  fish  was  offensive  to  Asmodeus,  even  as  they 
 pretend,  8  that  in  some  herbs,  plants,  stones,  and  other 
 natural  things,  there  is  a  certain  virtue  to  drive  away 
 demons,  and  to  hinder  them  from  coming  into  such  a 
 determinate  place.  The  Chaldeans,  among  whom  the 
 book  of  Tobit  was  wrote,  and  the  Israelites,  for  whose 
 use  and  instruction  it  was  wrote,  might  both  be  of  this 
 opinion  : — That  demons,  as  not  absolutely  divested  of 
 all  matter,  were  capable  of  the  same  sensations  and  im- 
 pressions that  belonged  to  corporeal  substances ;  and 
 therefore  in  accommodation  to  the  vulgar  idea  and  pre- 
 judice of  the  people,  the  author  of  this  history  might 
 express  himself,  as  though  the  expulsion  of  this  evil 
 spirit  was  effected  by  a  natural  cause,  the  smoke  of  the 
 fish,  even  though,  at  the  same  time,  he  sufficiently  inti- 
 mates, that  it  was  by  a  divine  power  that  it  came  to  pass, 
 because  we  find  the  angel  thus  enjoining  Tobias, 9  '  when 
 thou  shalt  come  to  thy  wife  Sara,  rise  up  both  of  you, 
 and  pray  to  God,  who  is  merciful,  who  will  pity  you, 
 and  save  you.' 
 
 Upon  the  contrary  supposition,  namely,  that  this 
 demon  was  a  being  incorporeal,  and  this  is  the  supposi- 
 tion concerning  the  angelical  nature  which  generally 
 prevails,  we  may  safely  conclude,  that  the  smoke  of  the 
 fish's  entrails  could  have  no  direct  and  physical  effect 
 upon  him  ;  that  his  fleeing  away  therefore  was  occasioned 
 by  a  supernatural  power,  in  the  exercise  of  which,  the 
 angel  appointed  to  attend  Tobias,  was  the  principal  in- 
 strument ;  1U  that  he  ordered  the  burning  of  the  fish's 
 entrails  as  a  sign  when  the  evil  spirit,  by  his  superior 
 power,  should  be  chased  away  ;  or  in  the  same  sense 
 that  our  blessed  Saviour  spread  clay  upon  the  eyes  of 
 the  man  that  was  born  blind,  and  ordered  him  to  wash 
 in  the  pool  of  Siloah,  namely,  not  as  the  cause,  but  the 
 proof  of  his  cure  ;  and  that  he  sent  him  away  "  '  into  the 
 uttermost  parts  of  Egypt,'  that  is,  into  the  deserts  of  Ihe 
 Upper  Egypt,  because  our  Saviour  intimates  that  such 
 is  the  usual  habitation  of  evil  spirits,  when  he  represents 
 them,  12  '  as  walking  through  dry  places,  seeking  rest, 
 and  finding  none.' 
 
 0  Tobit  viii.  2.  »  Porphyr.  de  Abstin.  b  ii. 
 
 "  Origen.  rout.  Cels.  b.  viii.  °  Tobit  vi.  17. 
 
 ,0  Saurin's  Dissert,  sur  le  Demon  Asmoilee. 
 "  Tol>it  viii.  3.  ,2  Mat.  xii. -13, 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 641 
 
 A.  M.  32IG.  A.  C.  7.";8:  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4772.  A.  C.  G39.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 However  this  be,  we  cannot  hold  ourselves  concerned 
 for  the  vindication  of  every  expression  in  a  book,  which 
 our  church  has  not  thought  fit  to  receive  into  her  canon 
 of  Scripture.  It  is  sufficient  for  our  present  purpose, 
 that  the  historical  ground-plot  of  it  be  true,  whatever 
 may  be  said  as  to  some  particular  passage  in  it ;  and 
 though  its  figurative  and  poetical  style,  as  well  as  near 
 conformity  to  the  theology  then  in  vogue,  may  give 
 some  umbrage  to  a  reader,  that  will  not  be  so  candid  as 
 to  think  with  St  Jerome,  '  'Many  things  are  spoken  in 
 the  sacred  writings  according  to  the  opinion  of  that  time, 
 and  not  according  to  what  was  the  real  truth  of  the 
 matter.'0 
 
 1  Jerome  on  Jeremiah  xxviii.  28. 
 a  By  much  the  greater  part  of  this  disquisition  on  the  book  of 
 Tobit  might  have  been  well  omitted.  That  hook  was  never  admit- 
 ted into  the  canon  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  by  the  Jews;  nor  is 
 if,  to  be  found  in  the  earliest  and  most  authentic  canons  of  the 
 Christian  church.  That  there  was  such  a  man  as  Tobit,  carried 
 captive  with  the  rest  of  the  tribe  of  Naphtali  by  Salmaneser;  that 
 he  was  eminent  for  his  piety  and  charity;  that  his  wife,  though 
 a  good  woman,  was  not  always  obedient  to  her  husband  ;  that  lie 
 became  blind  in  the  manner  which  is  recorded,  and  had  his  sight 
 restored  by  the  means  which  are  said  to  have  been  used  for  that 
 purpose ;  and  that  his  son  married  the  daughter  of  Raguel  of 
 Ecbatana,  after  she  had  been  betrothed  to  seven  husbands,  there 
 is  no  reason  to  doubt;  for  not  one  of  these  events  is  contrary  to 
 the  common  course  of  nature.  It  is  indeed  xery  singular  that 
 seven  young  men  should  have  successively  perished  on  their 
 attempting  each  to  consummate  his  marriage;  but  such  events 
 were  not,  in  themselves,  impossible,  and  perhaps  we  may  even 
 conceive  the  cause  by  which  they  were  effected.  The  whole 
 story  of  Asmodeus  and  Raphael  is  certainly  a  piece  of  poetical 
 machinery,  invented  for  a  similar  purpose  with  that  for  which 
 Homer  introduces  his  gods  and  goddesses  as  taking  opposite  sides 
 in  the  Trojan  war,  or  for  which  the  Persian  poets  introduce  the 
 agency  of  good  and  evil  genii,  in  their  beautiful  moral  allegories. 
 It  was  to  adapt  the  story  to  the  taste  of  those  for  whose  amuse- 
 ment and  instruction  it  was  written,  who  delighted  in  the  mar- 
 vellous, ami  on  whose  memory  and  imagination  a  philosophical 
 account  of  a  singular  event  would  have  made  no  deep  or  lasting 
 impression.  To  understand  the  story  of  Raphael  and  Asmodeus 
 literally,  as  Calmet  seems  to  have  done,  would  be  to  prefer  the 
 authority  of  this  beautiful  oriental  tale  to  that  of  the  whole  Hebrew 
 Scriptures,  in  which  I  heartily  agree  with  Bishop  Horsley,  that  no 
 countenance  whatever  is  given  to  the  popular  doctrine  of  guardian 
 angels.  "  This  interpretation  ;'  says  the  bishop,  "  introduces  a 
 system,  which  is  in  truth  nothing  better  than'  the  pagan  poly- 
 theism, somewhat  disguised  ami  qualified ;  for  in  the  pagan 
 system  every  nation  had  its  tutelary  deity,  all  subordinate  to 
 Jupiter,  the  sire  of  gods  and  men.  Some  of  those  prodigies  of 
 ignorance  and  folly,  the  rabbins  of  the  Jews,  who  lived  since  the 
 dispersion  of  the  nation,  thought  all  would  be  well  if  for  tutelar 
 deities,  they  substituted  tutelar  angels.  From  this  substitution, 
 the  system  of  guardian  angels,  which  I  have  described,  arose; 
 and  from  the  Jews  the  Christians  adopted  it  with  other  fooleries." 
 But  though  the  story  of  Raphael  and  Asmodeus  must  be  consider- 
 ed as  mere  machinery,  it  does  not  by  any  means  follow  that  the 
 history  itself — the  detail  of  facts,  is  not  entitled  to  great  credit. 
 No  man  of  real  learning,  Mr  Bryant  aNme  excepted,  has  ever 
 called  in  question,  1  believe,  the  great  outlines  of  the  Trojan  war 
 as  drawn  by  Homer;  though  surely  no  man  in  this  age  hath  be- 
 lieved that  the  pestilence  was  sent  among  the  Grecian  troops 
 by  Apollo,  for  Agamemnon's  cruelty  to  his  injured  priest,  or  that 
 1  'ioniedo  literally  wounded  the  god  of  war,  and  sent  him  bellowing 
 with  pain  to  heaven!  That  there  were  such  men,  however,  as 
 Agamemnon  and  Diomede;  that  the  former  was  the  commander 
 of  the  confederate  Greeks,  and  the  latter  one  of  their  must  ac- 
 complished heroes;  and  that,  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  war,  great 
 numbers  of  the  army  were  cut  off  by  some  pestilential  disease, 
 which  the  medical  knowledge  of  Machaon  did  not  enable  him  to 
 cure,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  doubt.  And  would  it  not  be 
 equally  unreasonable  to  doubt  the  historical  facts  related  in  the 
 book  of  Tobit,  though  we  do  not  interpret  literally  his  oriental 
 machinery?  or  on  account  of  that  machinery,  to  neglect  the 
 
 Whether  the  book  of  the  law,  which  Hilkiah  the  high 
 priest  found  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  in  the  time  of 
 Josiahkingof  Judah,  consisted  of  the  whole  Pentateuch, 
 or  only  of  that  part  of  it  which  is  called  Deuteronomy ; 
 and  whether  it  was  the  authentic  copy  which  Moses  com- 
 mitted to  the  priest's  custody,  or  only  some  ancient 
 manuscript  kept  in  the  temple  for  the  public  use,  namely, 
 for  the  king  to  read  to  the  people  once  every  seven 
 years,  or  for  the  priests  to  consult  upon  any  emergent 
 difficulty,  is  a  matter  of  some  debate  among  the  learned. 
 The  testimony  of  the  author  of  the  book  of  Chronicles 
 seems  however  to  determine  the  matter,  when  he  assures 
 us,  that  the  book  of  the  law  which  Hilkiah  found,  was 
 that  2  '  which  was  given  by  the  hand  of  Moses,'  and  con- 
 sequently the  whole  Pentateuch,  which,  by  his  command, 
 was  reposited  3  '  in  the  side  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant.' 
 
 It  is  presumed,  indeed,  that  Josiah's  three  predeces- 
 sor's, Ahaz,  Manasseh,  and  Anion,  as  not  content  to 
 be  impious  themselves,  and  to  instigate  their  subjects  to 
 idolatry,  had  made  it  their  business  to  burn  and  destroy 
 all  the  copies  of  the  law  that  they  could  anywhere  meet 
 with,  b  so  that  there  was  not  so  much  as  one  left  for  the 
 king's  use  ;  and  that  this  was  the  reason  of  his  discover- 
 ing so  great  a  surprise  at  his  hearing  the  commutations 
 read,  because  he  had  never  perhaps  seen  nuy  such 
 volume  before.  It  must  be  acknowledged,  indeed,  that 
 disuse  often  cancels  the  most  excellent  laws  ;  and  from 
 Josiah's  surprise,  we  have  room  to  suspect,  that  he  had 
 not  as  yet  transcribed  a  copy  of  the  law  with  his  own 
 hand,  and  had  probably  for  some  time  neglected  the 
 
 2  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  14.  3  Deut.  xxxi.  26. 
 
 moral  lessons  with  which  it  abounds,  and  affect  to  despise  the 
 beautiful  simplicity  of  the  tale?  As  a  moral  tale  founded  in  fact, 
 it  ought  undoubtedly  to  be  received;  as  such,  it  appears  to  have 
 been  alluded  to  by  Polycarp  early  in  the  second  century;  and 
 there  is  not  the  smallest  reason  to  believe  that  its  author  ever 
 expected  it  to  be  received  as  a  work  of  a  higher  order. — Bishop 
 Glciff.—ED. 
 
 b  The  rabbins  say  that  Ahaz,  Manasseh,  and  Anion  endeavour- 
 ed to  destroy  all  the  copies  of  the  law,  and  this  only  was  sacred 
 by  having  been  buried  under  a  paving-stone.  It  is  scarcely 
 reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  was  the  only  copy  of  the  law  that 
 was  found  in  Judea;  for  even  if  we  grant  that  Ahaz,  Manasseh, 
 and  Amon  had  endeavoured  to  destroy  all  the  books  of  the  law, 
 yet  they  could  not  have  succeeded  so  as  to  destroy  the  whole. 
 Besides,  Manasseh  endeavoured,  after  his  conversion,  to  restore 
 every  part  of  the  divine  worship,  and  in  this  he  could  have  done 
 nothing  without  the  Pentateuch;  and  the  succeeding  reign  of 
 Amon  was  too  short  to  give  him  opportunity  to  undo  every 
 thing  that  his  penitent  father  had  reformed.  AM  to  all  the 
 considerations,  that  in  the  time  of  Jehoshaphat,  teaching  from  the 
 law  was  universal  in  the  land,  for  lie  set  on  foot  an  itinerant 
 ministry,  in  order  to  instruct  the  people  fully:  for  be  sent  bis 
 princes  to  teach  in  the  cities  of  Judah;  and  with  them  lie  sent 
 Levites  and  priests;  and  they  went  about  through  all  the  cities 
 of  Judah,  and  taught  the  people,  having  the  book  of  the  Lord 
 with  them.'  (2  Chron.  xvii.  7 — 9.)  And  if  there  be  any  thing 
 wanting  to  show  the  improbability  of  the  thing,  it  must  be  this, 
 that  the  transactions  mentioned  here  took  place  in  the  eighteenth 
 year  of  the  reign  of  Josiah,  who  had,  from  the  time  he  came  to 
 the  throne,  employed  himself  in  the  restoration  of  the  pure 
 worship  of  God;  and  it  is  not  likely  that,  during  these  eighteen 
 years,  he  was  without  a  copy  of  the  Pentateuch.  The  simple 
 fact  seems  to  be  this,  that  this  was  tin1  original  covenant  renewed 
 by  Moses  with  the  people  in  the  plains  of  Moab,  and  which  lie 
 ordered  to  be  laid  up  beside  the  ark  ;  (Deut.  xxxi.  26.)  and  being 
 now  unexpectedly  found,  its  antiquity,  the  occasion  of  its  being 
 made,  the  present  circumstances  of  the  people,  the  imperfect 
 state  in  which  the  reformation  was  as  yet,  after  all  that  had  been 
 done,  would  all  concur  to  produce  the  effect  here  mentioned  on 
 the  mind  of  the  pious  Josiah. — Br  A.  Clarke. — Ed. 
 4  M 
 
64.5 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  324G.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 reading  it  publicly,  l  '  every  seventh  year,'  according  to 
 the  command.  But  that  he  had  never  seen  such  a  tran- 
 script of  it  before  this  time,  we  can  hardly  believe,  be- 
 cause it  is  not  conceivable  how  he  could  so  early  apply 
 himself  to  the  service  of  God,  even  in  opposition  to  the 
 corruptions  of  the  times  ;  how  he  could  begin  the  refor- 
 mation of  religion,  the  abolishment  of  idolatry  and  super- 
 stition, and  the  establishment  of  so  many  wholesome 
 ordinances  for  the  divine  worship,  without  the  assistance 
 and  direction  of  this  book. 
 
 In  this  very  year,  we  are  told,  that  such  a  passover 
 was  solemnized  -  '  as  had  not  been  kept  from  the  days 
 of  Samuel  the  prophet,  nor  among  all  the  kings  of 
 Israel ;'  but  how  the  priests  could  have  observed  all  the 
 rites  and  ceremonies  belonging  to  it,  (which  are  not  a 
 few)  if  every  prescribed  form  of  it  had  been  lost,  we 
 cannot  conceive ;  since  copies  of  the  book,  which  was 
 now  found  in  the  temple,  could  not  be  made  and  tran- 
 scribed time  enough  for  their  instruction  in  these  parti- 
 culars. 
 
 In  the  reigns  of  Jehoshaphat  and  Hezekiah,  copies 
 of  the  law  3  were  common  enough,  and  in  the  reigns  of 
 their  wicked  successors,  the  sacred  history  makes  no 
 mention  of  their  being  burned  or  destroyed.  The  Jewish 
 doctors  indeed  tell  us,  that  Manasseh  blotted  the  sacred 
 name  of  Jehovah  out  of  all  the  books  that  he  could  find  ; 
 but  they  nowhere  report,  that  he  utterly  abolished  them  : 
 and  therefore  we  may  conclude,  that  the  people,  at  this 
 time,  had  several  copies  of  the  law  among  them,  though 
 some  of  them  perhaps  were  imperfect  and  corrupt ;  and 
 the  high  priest  might  rejoice,  when  he  had  found  the 
 original,  because  by  it  all  the  other  copies  might  be 
 corrected  ;  and  rejoice  the  more,  that  he  had  found  it  at 
 a  time  when  the  king  was  going  to  make  a  reformation 
 in  religion,  which  he  could  not  but  look  upon  as  a  very 
 remarkable  providence. 
 
 The  four  Evangelists,  who  have  recorded  the  sub- 
 stance of  the  christian  religion,  we  have  by  us,  and  may 
 read  therein  every  day  ;  and  yet  who  can  say,  but  that 
 some  remarkable  passage  may  perchance  escape  his 
 observation  ?  *  But  now,  if,  by  some  lucky  accident,  we 
 should  happen  to  find  the  original  of  St  Matthew  or  St 
 John,  who  can  doubt,  but  that  we  should  both  read  and 
 listen  to  it  with  more  seriousness  and  attention  than  we 
 now  do  to  the  same  books  that  are  every  day  in  our 
 hands  ?  And  in  like  manner  Ave  may  say,  that  it  was  the 
 great  reverence  which  Josiah  bore  to  the  original  book 
 of  .Moses,  as  well  as  the  seasonable  and  remarkable  find- 
 ing it  at  this  time,  that  awakened  and  quickened  him  to 
 a  more  attentive  consideration  of  all  the  passages  con- 
 tained in  it,  than  ever  he  had  known  before,  either  in  his 
 reading,  or  hearing  the  ordinary  copies  of  the  law. 
 
 Manasseh  was  certainly,  in  the  former  part  of  his 
 reign,  a  very  impious  prince.  The  Scripture  seems  to 
 imply,  that,  till  his  miseries  had  rectified  his  notions,5  he 
 did  not  believe  at  all  in  the  God  of  Israel,  nor  in  the 
 history  of  his  forefathers  ;  but  he  is  not  the  only  son  that 
 has  degenerated  from  the  good  example  of  a  pious 
 father  ;  neither  were  his  subjects  the  only  people  that, 
 even  in  the  grossest  irreligion  and   profaneness,  have 
 
 4772.  A.  C.  C39.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 imitated  the  example  of  their  prince.  The  wonder  is, 
 how  both  prince  and  people  became,  upon  every  occa- 
 sion, so  prone  to  fall  from  the  religion  of  their  ancestors 
 into  idolatry,  notwithstanding  the  frequent  remonstrances 
 on  God's  part  to  the  contrary  ?  Now:,  to  this  purpose  it 
 may  be  observed,  6  that  in  the  whole  compass  of  the 
 law,  there  is  no  express  revelation  made  of  a  future  life  ; 
 that  the  hints  which  are  given  of  it,  are  too  obscure  for 
 every  common  reader  rightly  to  interpret ;  and  that  this 
 obscurity  might  be  a  means  of  throwing  the  ancient 
 Israelites  into  idolatrous  practices.  For  as  they  had  no 
 certain  hopes  of  another  life  to  rely  on,  they  could  not 
 see  neighbouring  nations  in  a  more  flourishing  condition, 
 without  some  uneasiness  and  perturbation  of  mind  ;  and 
 from  hence,  by  degrees,  they  might  fall  into  this  opinion, 
 — That  the  gods  of  these  nations  must  needs  be  more 
 mighty  and  powerful  than  the  God  of  Israel,  since  their 
 worshippers  were  manifestly  more  prosperous  ;  and  from 
 hence  they  were  induced  to  forsake  the  God  of  their 
 ancestors,  and  to  worship  the  gods  of  the  heathen. 
 
 It  may  be  observed  farther,  that  the  difficulty  of  keep- 
 ing the  Mosaic  law,  especially  in  what  related  to  its  rites 
 and  ceremonies,  was  very  great,  and  the  profit  which 
 resulted  from  thence  no  ways  comparable  to  the  trouble 
 which  it  occasioned  ;  and  from  thence  they  might  be 
 tempted  to  shake  on"  7  '  a  yoke  which  neither  they  nor 
 their  forefathers  were  able  to  bear,'  and  betake  them- 
 selves to  the  observance  of  other  laws,  more  easy  and 
 commodious  in  themselves,  and  such  as  were  productive 
 of  much  more  benefit  and  prosperity  to  the  observers  of 
 them.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten,  that  as  a  great  part 
 of  the  revenues  of  Palestine,  according  to  the  custom  of 
 the  Mosaic  law,  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  priests  and  Levites, 
 the  laity,  upon  every  occasion,  might  grow  weary  of 
 paying  so  much  ;  and  thereupon  be  inclined  to  any  inno- 
 vation in  religion  that  should  offer  itself,  if  it  could  but 
 be  supported  at  an  easier  expence.  And  accordingly 
 we  may  observe,  that  in  the  wicked  reigns  of  Ahaz  and 
 Manasseh,  when  the  temple  was  either  quite  shut  up,  or 
 converted  to  idolatrous  purposes,  the  payment  of  tithes 
 and  oblations  was  suspended,  which  might  be  a  great 
 gratification  to  the  people,  until,  in  the  reigns  of  Heze- 
 kiah and  Josiah,  they  were  again  restored  to  the  minis- 
 ters of  God.  These,  and  such  reasons  as  these,  might 
 make  the  ancient  Hebrews  so  unsettled  in  their  obedience 
 to  the  law  of  Moses,  a  until  the  time  that  a  clearer  and 
 
 'D'"'.  xxxi.  10,11  »  2  Chron.  xxxv.  18. 
 
 Chap.  xvn.  y.  CaJmet's  Comment,  on  2  Kings  xxii.  8. 
 
 8  (In  en.  xxxiii.  13. 
 
 6  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  2  Kings  xxi.  11. 
 7  Acts  xv.  10. 
 a  The  manner  in  which  the  author  here  endeavours  to  account 
 for  the  proneness  of  the  Israelites  to  fall  into  idolatry,  and  to 
 apostatize  from  the  worship  and  service  of  Jehovah,  is  very  un- 
 satisfactory. He  even  seems  to  frame  excuses  for  their  conduct 
 in  this  respect,  or  at  least  to  diminish  the  magnitude  of  the  guilt 
 with  which  Scripture  itself  plainly  charges  them  for  their  idola- 
 trous practices.  If,  as  the  apostle  Paul  represents,  the  Gentiles 
 were  without  excuse  because  they  did  not  worship  the  true  God 
 in  accordance  with  the  natural  dictates  of  their  own  consciences, 
 and  the  knowledge  of  his  character  and  attributes,  manifested  to 
 them  in  the  works  of  creation  and  providence;  how  much  more 
 guilty  must  the  Israelites  have  been,  in  worshipping  and  serving 
 the  creature  more  than  the  Creator;  when  to  them  pertained  the 
 adoption,  and  the  glory,  and  the  covenants,  and  the  giving  of  the 
 law,  and  the  service  of  God,  and  the  promises?  In  vain  shall  we 
 endeavour  to  account  for  the  idolatrous  propensities  of  the  chosen 
 people  of  God,  if  we  leave  out  of  view  the  natural  depravity  and 
 corruption  of  the  human  heart.  This  principle,  as  the  word  of 
 God  declares  in  language  too  plain  to  be  misunderstood,  is  the 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 643 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758 ;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 more  perfect  revelation  of  a  future  life  extended  their 
 views  and  hopes  above  the  things  of  this  world,  and 
 made  them  more  constant  and  immovable,  as  the  author 
 to  the  Hebrews  *  bears  them  testimony,  in  the  worship 
 of  the  true  God. 
 
 Josiah  may  be  thought  by  some  to  have  followed  the 
 dictates  of  his  zeal  a  little  too  far,  in  destroying  the 
 images,  and  altars,   and  other  monuments  of  idolatry, 
 
 1  Chap.  xi.  35,  &c. 
 main  source  and  spring  of  idolatry  and  apostasy  from  the  worship 
 and  service  of  God;  and  it  lias,  in  all  ages,  tended  powerfully  to 
 cause  men  to  forsake  the  Fountain  of  living  waters,  and  to  hew 
 out  to  themselves  broken  cisterns  that  can  hold  no  water.  We 
 do  not  deny  that,  in  the  case  of  the  Jews,  there  were  other  sub- 
 ordinate causes  which  operated  in  drawing  them  away  from  their 
 allegiance  to  their  God  and  King;  but  we  maintain  that  the 
 primary  cause  was  an  evil  and  bitter  heart,  and  that  this  is  the 
 plain  and  often  repeated  declaration  of  Scripture.  The  author 
 seems  to  take  for  granted,  that  the  Israelites  had  no  certain  hope 
 of  a  future  life,  and  assigns  this  as  one  cause  why  they  were  so 
 ready  to  fall  into  idolatrous  practices  ;  but  if  we  examine  carefully 
 the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  along  with  several  passages  in  the 
 New,  we  shall  find,  that,  even  on  the  subject  of  a  future  state, 
 the  Israelites  had  communicated  to  them  a  degree  of  knowledge 
 sufficient  to  render  unavailing  the  plea  which  the  author  urges  in 
 their  behalf.  The  patriarchs  cherished  a  hope  of  the  pardoning 
 mercy  of  God  towards  penitent  sinners,  (Gen.  iv.  7.)  and  con- 
 fided in  him,  as  the  judge  of  all  the  earth,  (xviii.  25.)  and  the 
 great  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him ;  which  reward 
 they  expected,  not  merely  in  the  present  evil  world,  but  in  a 
 future  state:  for  we  are  told  that  '  they  sought  a  better  country, 
 that  is,  an  heavenly.'  (Gen.  v.  22,  24,  compared  with  Heb.  xi. 
 5,  Gen.  xxviii.  13;  compared  with  Mat.  xxii.  31,  32,  and  Gen. 
 xxv.  S;  compared  with  Heb.  xi.  10,  14 — 16.)  To  this  we  may 
 add,  that  a  hope  was  cherished  from  the  beginning,  originally 
 founded  on  a  divine  promise  of  a  great  Saviour,  who  was  to  de- 
 liver mankind  from  the  miseries  and  ruin' to  which  they  were 
 exposed,  and  through  whom  God  was  to  make  the  fullest  dis- 
 coveries of  his  grace  and  mercy  towards  the  human  race,  and  to 
 raise  them  to  a  high  degree  of  glory  and  felicity.  (Gen.  iii.  15. 
 xii.  3;  xvii.  19;  xxii.  18;  xxvi.  4;  xlix.  10.)  These  were  the 
 chief  principles  of  the  religion  of  the  patriarchs  who  were  ani- 
 mated by  a  strong  sense  of  their  obligation  to  the  practice  of 
 piety,  virtue,  and  universal  righteousness.  The  belief  of  a 
 future  state,  which  we  thus  see  was  held  by  the  patriarchs,  (though 
 not  expressly  taught  by  Moses,  whose  writings  presuppose  it  as 
 a  generally  adopted  article  of  religion,)  was  transmitted  from 
 them  to  the  Israelites,  and  appears  in  various  parts  of  the  Old 
 Testament.  From  the  circumstance  of  the  promise  of  temporal 
 blessings  being  principally,  if  not  entirely,  annexed  to  the  laws  of 
 Moses,  Bishop  Warburton  attempted  to  deduce  an  argument  in 
 support  of  his  divine  mission.  It  is  impossible  here  to  enter  into 
 an  examination  of  this  argument:  but  we  may  observe,  in  the 
 first  place,  "  that  the  omission  of  a  future  state  as  a  sanction  to 
 the  laws  of  Moses,  can  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for;  and, 
 secondly,  that  the  Old  Testament  shows  that  he  himself  Believed 
 a  future  state,  and  contains  a  gradual  development  of  it.  These 
 two  propositions,  the  former  of  which  is  in  unison  with  the  opin- 
 ion of  Warburton,  the  latter  at  variance  with  him,  appear  to  be 
 very  satisfactorily  established  by  the  luminous  reasoning  of  Or 
 Graves.  Iustead  of  employing  the  omission  of  the  doctrine  as  a 
 medium,  by  which  to  prove  that  a  divine  interposition  was 
 necessary  lor  the  erection  and  maintenance  of  Judaism,  he  first 
 shows  the  reality  of  a  divine  interposition,  and  then  that  the 
 omission  iii  question,  so  far  from  being  inconsistent  with  the 
 divine  origin  of  the  system,  does,  in  fact,  necessarily  result  from 
 the  peculiar  nature  of  the  dispensation,  and  from  the  character 
 of  the  people  to  whom  it  was  given. — The  polytheistic  principle 
 ot  tutelary  deities  maintained  that  their  worship  was  attended 
 "itli  a  national  prosperity.  The  futility  of  this  it  was  the  inten- 
 tion of  God  to  display  by  open  and  unequivocal  demonstrations 
 ot  his  own  omnipotence.  The  moral  government  of  Jehovah  was 
 to  he  exhibited  on  the  earth  by  the  theocracy  which  he  establish- 
 ed. Its  very  nature  required  temporal  sanctions,  and  their 
 immediate  enforcement;  its  object  could  not  be  attaiued  by 
 waiting  till  the   invisible  realities  of  a  future  state   should  be 
 
 4772.  A.  C.  C39.  1   KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHKON. 
 
 in  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  where  he  had  neither  any 
 regal  or  judicial  authority  :  but  it  should  be  remembered, 
 that  his  authority  in  this  regard  was  founded  upon  an 
 ancient  prediction,  2  where  he  is  particularly  named,  and 
 appointed  to  this  work  of  reformation  by  God  himself, 
 and  that  consequently,  he  could  not  be  guilty  of  an 
 infringement  upon  another's  right,  even  though  he  had 
 
 8  1  Kings  xiii.  2. 
 unveiled.  The  previous  exhibition  of  such  a  moral  government 
 was  the  best  preparation  for  the  full  revelation  of  man's  future 
 destiny,  and  of  the  means  provided  for  his  welfare  in  it,  by  a 
 merciful  and  redeeming  God.  '  Life  and  immortality  were  thus 
 to  be  fully  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel.'  As  yet  the  bulk  of 
 mankind  were  unprepared  for  it,  and  were  better  fitted  to  com- 
 prehend, and  be  Influenced  by  sensible  manifestations  of  the 
 divine  judgments,  than  by  the  remoter  doctrine  of  a  future  state 
 of  retribution.  The  Old  Testament,  however,  and  even  the 
 writings  of  Moses,  contained  intelligible  intimations  of  immortali- 
 ty. The  four  last  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  indeed,  were  princi- 
 pally occupied  in  the  detail  of  the  legal  regulations,  and  the 
 sanctions  necessary  to  enforce  them:  yet  even  from  them  Jesus 
 Christ  deduced  an  argument  to  the  confusion  of  the  Sadducees. 
 And  in  the  book  of  Genesis  are  several  occurrences,  which  must 
 have  led  the  pious  Jews  to  the  doctrine  of  a  future  existence, 
 even  had  they  possessed  no  remains  of  patriarchal  tradition. 
 The  account  of  the  state  of  man  before  the  fall,  of  the  penalty 
 first  annexed  to  his  transgression,  and  of  the  sentence  pronounced 
 upon  our  first  parents,  considered  in  connexion  with  the  promise 
 of  a  deliverance,  would  necessarily  suggest  such  a  doctrine. 
 Could  the  believing  Jews  conclude  that  death  would  have  followed 
 the  acceptance  of  Abel's  sacrifice,  unless  he  was  translated  to 
 some  better  state  of  existence  and  felicity?  How  also  did  God 
 show  his  approbation  of  Enoch's  piety,  unless  he  took  him  to 
 himself,  and  to  immortality  and  bliss?  Doubtless  the  author  of 
 the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  not  the  first  who  discovered  that 
 '  the  fathers  did  not  look  for  transitory  promises ;'  that  '  they 
 sought  a  better  country,  even  a  heavenly ;'  and  that  '  God  hath 
 prepared  for  them  a  city ;'  and  that  Moses  himself  rejected  the 
 '  enjoyment  of  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season,'  because  '  he  had 
 respect  to  the  recompence  of  the  reward.'  This  important  and 
 consolatory  truth  of  a  future  state  of  being,  was,  in  process  of 
 time,  displayed  to  the  Jews  more  and  more  clearly.  The  book 
 of  Job  is  very  explicit  upon  the  subject.  The  royal  psalmist 
 has  spoken  of  it  with  great  confidence:  and  Solomon,  besides 
 several  passages  in  his  proverbs,  which  seem  to  allude  to  it,  is 
 supposed  to  have  written  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  which  concludes 
 with  a  clear  declaration  of  it,  for  the  express  purpose  of  proving 
 and  enforcing  it.  The  translation  of  Elijah,  and  the  restoration 
 to  life  of  three  several  persons  by  him  and  his  successors,  must 
 have  given  demonstration  of  the  probability  of  the  same  doctrine  ; 
 which  also  Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  Hosea,  Amos,  and  especially  Daniel, 
 very  frequently  inculcate,  and  even  presuppose  as  a  matter  of 
 notoriety  and  popular  belief."  To  these  considerations  we  may 
 add  the  fact,  that  in  the  books  of  Leviticus  (xix.  26,  31 ;  xx.  27.) 
 and  Deuteronomy  (xviii.  10,  11.)  there  are  various  enactments 
 against  diviners,  enchanters,  and  those  who  profess  to  know  the 
 future,  by  consulting  either  familiar  spirits,  or  the  spirits  of  the 
 departed.  All  these  superstitions  suppose  the  belief  of  spirits, 
 and  the  doctrine  of  the  exist!  nee  of  souls  after  death:  and  Moses 
 would  not  have  prohibited  the  consulting  of  them  by  express 
 laws,  if  he  had  not  been  apprehensive  that  the  Hebrews,  after 
 the  example  of  the  neighbouring  heathen  nations,  would  have 
 abused  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  which  was 
 universally  received  among  them.  Severe,  however,  as  these 
 laws  were,  they  did  not  entirely  repress  this  abuse:  for  the 
 Psalmist  (cvi.  2S.)  reproaches  the  Israelites  with  having  eaten 
 '  the  sacrifices  of  the  dead,'  that  is,  sacrifices  offered  to  the  manes 
 of  the  dead.  We  have  also,  in  Saul,  a  signal  instance  of  this 
 Superstition.  After  he  had  '  cut  off  those  that  had  familiar  spirits, 
 and  the  wizards,  out  of  the  land,'  (I  Sam.  xxviii.  3,  9.)  having 
 in  vain  consulted  the  Lord  respecting  the  issue  of  his  approach- 
 ing conflict  with  the  Philistines,  he  went,  in  quest  of  a  woman 
 that  had  a  familiar  spirit,  and  commanded  her  to  evoke  the  soul 
 of  the  prophet  Samuel,  (ver.  7 — 12.)  This  circumstance  evi- 
 dently proves  that  Saul  and  the  Israelites  believed  in  the  immor- 
 tality of  the  soul. — Home's  Introduction. — El. 
 
C44 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  \L 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4772.  A.  C.  639.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 no  farther  commission.  But  the  ten  tribes,  we  are  to 
 consider,  being  now  gone  into  captivity,  the  ancient 
 right  which  David  and  his  posterity  had  to  the  whole 
 kingdom  of  Israel,  before  it  was  dismembered  by  Jero- 
 boam and  his  successors,  devolved  upon  Josiah.  The 
 people  who  escaped  the  captivity  were  united  with  his 
 subjects,  and  put  themselves  under  his  protection.  They 
 came  to  the  worship  of  God  at  Jerusalem,  and  did 
 doubtless  gladly  comply  with  his  extirpation  of  idolatry  ; 
 at  which  the  Cuthites,  the  new  inhabitants  of  the  country, 
 who  worshipped  their  gods  in  another  manner;  were  not 
 at  all  offended. 
 
 The  kings  of  Assyria,  it  is  true,  were  the  lords  and 
 conquerors  of  the  country  ;  but  from  the  time  of  Manas- 
 seh's  restoration,  they  seem  to  have  conferred  upon  the 
 kings  of  Judah,  who  might  thereupon  become  their 
 homagers,  a  sovereignty  in  all  the  land  of  Canaan,  to 
 the  same  extei.t,  wherein  it  was  held  by  David  and 
 Solomon,  before  it  was  divided  into  two  kingdoms.  So 
 that  Josiah,  upon  sundry  pretensions,  had  sufficient 
 power  and  authority  to  visit  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  and 
 to  purge  it  from  idolatry,  as  well  as  his  own. 
 
 And  this,  by  the  bye,  suggests  the  reason  why  that 
 good  king  was  so  very  strenuous  in  opposing  the  king 
 of  Egypt,  when  he  demanded  a  passage  through  his 
 country.  l  He  was  now,  as  we  said,  an  homager,  and 
 ally  to  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  under  a  strict  oath  to 
 adhere  to  him  against  all  his  enemies,  especially  against 
 the  Egyptians,  and  to  defend  the  land  of  Canaan,  which 
 was  one  barrier  of  the  empire,  against  their  invasions  ; 
 and,  being  under  such  an  obligation  to  his  sovereign 
 paramount,  he  could  not  permit  his  enemy  to  pass 
 through  his  country,  in  order  to  make  Avar  upon  him, 
 and  not  oppose  him,  without  incurring  a  breach  of  his 
 oath,  and  a  violation  of  that  fidelity,  which,  in  the  name 
 of  his  God,  he  had  sworn  to  the  king  of  Babylon;  and 
 this  was  a  thing  which  so  good  and  just  a  man  as  Josiah 
 was,  could  not  but  detest. 
 
 It  was  the  sense  of  his  duty,  therefore,  and  not  any 
 rashness  of  temper,  or  opposition  to  the  divine  will,  that 
 engaged  Josiah  in  this  war  with  the  king  of  Egypt. 
 The  king  of  Egypt  indeed  sent  to  him  to  acquaint  hint, 
 that  2  God  was  with  him,  and  that  therefore  opposing 
 him,  would  bo  lighting  against  God:  but  Josiah  knew 
 Aery  well  that  he  was  an  heathen  prince,  who  had  no 
 knowledge  of  the  Lord  Jehovah,  nor  had  ever  consulted 
 his  oracles  or  prophets,  and  had  therefore  sufficient 
 reason  to  believe,  that  by  the  god  who,  as  lie  pretended, 
 had  sent  him  upon  this  expedition,  he  intended  no  other 
 than  the  false  Egyptian  god,  whom  he  served,  but  whom 
 the  king  of  Judah  had  no  reason  to  regard. 
 
 The  truth  is,  whenever  the  word  God  occurs  in  this 
 nic -age  from  Necho  to  Josiah,  it  is  not  expressed  in  the 
 Hebrew  original  by  the  word  Jehovah,  which  is  the 
 proper  name  of  the  true  God,  but  by  the  word  Elohim, 
 which,  being  the  plural  number,  is  equally  applicable  to 
 the  false  gods  of  the  heathens,  (and  is  the  word  that  is 
 used  to  denote  them,  whenever  they  are  spoken  of,)  as 
 well  as  the  true  God.  But  even  suppose  that  Necho,  in 
 his  embassy  to  Josiah, had  made  use  of  the  proper  name 
 of  the  true  God  :  yet  was  not  Josiah  therefore  bound  to 
 believe    him,  because   we    find   Sennacherib,  when   he 
 
 i  frideaux's  Connection,  anno  610.        2  2  Chron.  xxxv.  21. 
 
 came  up  against  Judah,  sending  Hezekiah  word,  3  that 
 the  Lord  (Jehovah  in  the  Hebrew)  had  ordered  him  to 
 go  up  against  the  land,  and  destroy  it ;  and  yet  it  is 
 certain  that  Sennacherib,  in  so  pretending,  lied  to 
 Hezekiah  ;  and  why  then  might  not  Josiah  have  as  good 
 reason  to  conclude,  that  Necho,  in  the  same  pretence, 
 might  have  lied  likewise  ?  Necho,  however,  in  his  mes- 
 sage, by  using  the  word  Elohim,  gave  Josiah  to  under- 
 stand that,  by  the  false  gods  of  Egypt,  he  was  sent 
 upon  that  expedition,  and  therefore  Josiah  could  not  be 
 liable  to  any  blame  for  not  hearkening  to  the  words 
 which  came  from  them. 
 
 His  death,  indeed,  was  sudden  and  immature  ;  he  fell 
 in  battle  against  the  Egyptians  ;  and  yet  he  may  be  said 
 to  have  '  gone  to  his  grave  in  peace,'  because  he  was 
 recalled  from  life,  whilst  his  kingdom  was  in  a  prosper- 
 ous condition,  before  the  calamities  wherewith  it  was 
 threatened  were  come  upon  it,  and  whilst  himself  was  in 
 peace  and  reconciliation  with  God.  Thus,  when  *  '  the 
 righteous  are  taken  away  from  the  evil  to  come,'  though, 
 5  '  in  the  sight  of  the  unwise  they  seemed  to  die,  and 
 their  departure  is  taken  for  misery ;'  yet,  in  what  manner 
 soever  their  exit  be,  they  may  well  be  said  '  to  die  in 
 peace,'  who,  after  their  dissolution  here, 6  '  are  numbered 
 among  the  children  of  God,  and  their  lot  is  among  the 
 saints.' 
 
 7  '  Truly  the  light  is  sweet,  and  a  pleasant  thing  it  is 
 for  the  eyes  to  behold  the  sun,'  says  the  wise  preacher. 
 The  love  of  life  is  natural  to  us,  and  in  our  very  frame 
 and  constitution  is  implanted  the  fear  of  death ;  so  that 
 it  requires  no  small  compass  of  thought  and  serious  con- 
 sideration, to  receive  the  sentence  of  our  dissolution 
 with  a  proper  composure  of  mind.  The  common  excuse 
 of  human  infirmity  might  therefore  apologize  for  Heze- 
 kiah's  conduct,  had  we  nothing-  more  to  say  in  his  behalf; 
 but  this  is  far  from  being  all. 
 
 The  message  which  God  sent  him  by  the  prophet 
 Isaiah  was,  that  '  he  should  die,'  that  is,  that  his  dis- 
 temper, according  to  the  natural  course  of  things,  was 
 mortal,  and  above  the  power  of  human  art  to  cure.  But 
 this  denunciation  was  not  absolute  and  irreversible.  It 
 implied  a  tacit  condition,  even  as  did  Jonah's  prediction 
 of  the  destruction  of  Nineveh,  which  the  repentance  of 
 its  inhabitants  prevented,  as  Hezekiah's  humiliation 
 retarded  the  time  of  his  death.  At  this  time,  however, 
 he  was  no  more  than  nine  and  thirty  years  old,  nor  had 
 he  as  yet  any  son  ;  for  Manasseh  was  not  born  till  three 
 years  after  his  illness.  The  Assyrians  too  were  now 
 making  g-reat  preparations  to  invade  his  kingdom ;  for 
 his  sickness  was  prior  to  their  invasion,  though,  in  the 
 course  of  the  history,  it  is  placed  immediately  after  it. 
 Putting  all  these  considerations  together,  then,  the  king 
 had  sundry  reasons,  besides  the  natural  aversion  which 
 all  men  have  to  death,  to  be  concerned  at  its  approach, 
 and  to  desire  a  prolongation  of  his  life. 
 
 Length  of  days,  and  a  peaceful  enjoyment  of  old  age, 
 was  a  promise  which  God  had  made  to  his  faithful  ser- 
 vants, and  the  reward  that  he  usually  paid  them  in  hand  ; 
 8  and  therefore  Hezekiah  was  apt  to  look  upon  himself 
 as  under  the  displeasure  of  God,  for  his  being  so  hastily 
 
 3  2  Kings  xviii.  25.  *  Is.  lvii.  1.  5  Wisd.  in.  g, 
 
 6  Wisd.  v.  5.  7  Eccl.  ix.  7. 
 
 8  Le  Clerc's  Commentary  ou  2  Kings  xx.  3. 
 
Shot.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 645 
 
 A.  M.  32IG.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4772.  A.  C.C39.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 summoned  away,  and  this  premature  death  of  his,  as  a 
 kind  of  token  of  his  final  retribution.  In  himself  he 
 saw  the  royal  family  of  David  extinct,  and  all  the  hopes 
 of  having'  the  Messiah  born  of  his  race  become  abortive. 
 He  saw  the  storm  that  was  gathering,  and  threatening 
 his  country  with  desolation,  while  there  was  none  of  his 
 family  to  succeed  in  his  throne,  and  all  tilings  were  in 
 danger  of  running  into  anarchy  and  confusion  ;  and  there- 
 fore, having  this  prospect  before  his  eyes,  he  might  well 
 melt  into  tears  at  the  apprehensions  of  his  approaching 
 death,  which  would  extinguish  all  his  hopes,  and  con- 
 summate all  his  fears,  in  making  him  go  down  childless 
 to  the  grave." 
 
 What  his  distemper  was,  the  Scripture  has  nowhere 
 expressly  told  us :  the  original  word  denotes  an  inflam- 
 mation ;  but  what  kind  of  inflammation  it  was,  or  what 
 part  of  the  body  it  affected,  we  have  no  intimation  given 
 us:  and  therefore,  being  thus  left  to  conjecture,  some 
 have  thought  it  an  imposthume  ;  others,  a  plague-sore  ; 
 and  others,  a  quinsey ;  being  all  led  in  their  opinions 
 by  what 1  naturalists  have  told  us  of  the  virtue  of  the 
 medicine  that  was  here  applied  for  the  cure,  namely,  that 
 figs,  in  a  decoction,  are  good  to  disperse  any  inflamma- 
 tion about  the  glands,  by  gargling  the  throat ;  and  that, 
 in  a  cataplasm,  they  wonderfully  soften  and  ripen  any 
 hard  tumour.  But,  whatever  the  quality  of  the  medicine 
 might  be,  that  there  was  a  divine  interposition  in  the 
 whole  affair,  is  evident,  both  from  the  speediness  of  the 
 cure,  and  the  nature  of  the  sign  which  God  gave  Heze- 
 kiah,  in  order  to  convince  him  of  it. 
 
 Some  very  considerable  writers  would  endeavour  to 
 persuade  us  that,  before  the  Babylonish  captivity,  the 
 Jews  had  no  instruments  whereby  to  measure  time,  nor 
 any  terms  in  their  language  whereby  to  denote  the  dis- 
 tinct gradation  of  it;  which,  were  it  true,  would  effec- 
 tually destroy  all  that  the  Scripture  relates,  both  con- 
 cerning this  sun-dial  which  Ahaz  set  up,  and  the  famous 
 miracle  which  was  wrought  upon  it :  but  who  the  first 
 inventors  of  such  horological  instruments  were,  it  is  not 
 so  easy  a  matter  to  determine. 
 
 3  The  Egyptians,  who  always  loved  to  magnify  the 
 
 1  Dioscor.  h.  i.  c.  1^3;  Pliny,  b.  xxiii.  e.  7. 
 2  See  Usher  ad  A.  M.  3291,  and  Jaquelot.  Dissert,  i.  on  the 
 Existence  of  God,  c.  16. 
 
 a  As  the  nation  was  at  this  time  threatened  with  an  assault 
 by  the  whole  force  of  the  Kins  "'  Assyria;  they  therefore  needed 
 a  commander,  who  united  wisdom,  courage,  and  faith,  to  head 
 them  in  such  an  emergency:  and  if  he  were  removed,  and  they 
 were  left  to  a  disputed  succession,  and  the  weakness  of  an  usurp- 
 ed or  opposed  government,  there  could  be  little  prospect,  but 
 that  Jerusalem  would  share  the  fate  of  Samaria.  Willi  great 
 earnestness  and  perseverance,  Hezekiah  had  brought  his  refor- 
 mation to  a  hopeful  establishment;  but  he  might  fear  lest  the 
 instability  of  the  people,  and  the  dissensions  of  the  nobles,  would 
 Bubvert  all,  if  he  woo  taken  away  at  this  crisis.  He  therefore 
 desired  to  live,  not  for  his  own  sake  so  much  as  for  that  of  his 
 family  anil  people,  especially  for  the  interests  of  true  religion; 
 and  he  prayed  to  that  effect,  with  many  tears  as  well  as  with 
 great  fervency.  The  Lord  knew,  and  Hezekiah  could  appeal  to 
 him,  that  he  had  walked  before  him  in  sincerity  and  uprightness 
 i't  heart;  having  used  all  his  authority  and  influence,  with  zeal 
 and  earnestness,  to  suppress  idolatry  anil  wickedness,  and  by 
 every  scriptural  means  to  promote  the  worship  and  service  of 
 God;  and  that  he  had  dime  what  was  good  in  his  sight,  being  an 
 example  to  his  people.  The  consciousness  of  his  integrity  gave 
 him  confidence;  and  he  begged  the  Lord  to  remember  the  fruits 
 ot  grace  which  had  been  produced,  and  to  spare  him,  that  lie 
 might  be  yet  more  fruitful  and  useful. — Scott's  Comment. — En. 
 
 glory  <tf  their  nation,  and  to  lay  claim  to  the  invention 
 of  every  learned  science  or  curious  art,  pretend  that 
 machines  of  this  kind  were  in  use  among  them  many 
 years  before  they  appeared  in  other  nations.  To  this 
 purpose  3  their  historians  have  observed  that  in  Acantha, 
 a  town  situate  on  the  Nile,  there  was  every  day  a  large 
 vessel  filled  with  water,  which,  as  it  sunk  gradually  by 
 running  out  at  a  small  passage,  distinguished  the  several 
 hours  of  the  day  ;  and  that  all  '  the  clepsydras,  or  icaler 
 hour  glasses  '  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  were 
 afterwards  formed  upon  this  model. 
 
 The  Babylonians  were  a  people  well  versed  in  all 
 parts  of  astronomy,  and  it  was  from  them,  as  Herodo- 
 tus 4  observes,  that  the  Greeks  had  the  pole  and  the 
 gnomon,  and  the  twelve  parts  of  the  day.  For  Anaxi- 
 mander,  whom  Pliny,  by  mistake,  calls  Anaximenes,  who 
 first  taught  them  to  distinguish  time,  travelled  into 
 Chaldea  for  the  improvement  of  knowledge,  and  from 
 thence  brought  away  this  useful  invention.  Anaximan- 
 der,  indeed,  is  said  to  have  flourished  about  two  hundred 
 years  after  this;  but  as  the  Scripture  informs  us,  that 
 there  was  a  good  deal  of  intimacy  between  Tiglath- 
 Pileser  king  of  Assyria,  and  Ahaz  king  of  Judah,  it  is 
 not  improbable,  that  as  he  was  taken  with  the  figure  of 
 a  strange  altar,  when  he  went  to  visit  that  prince  at 
 Damascus,  he  might  then  likewise  see  some  of  the  sun- 
 dials, (for  sun-dials  might  be  common  in  Chaldea,  though 
 not  in  other  countries,)  which  Tiglath-Pileser  was  accus- 
 tomed to  carry  along  with  him,  for  the  mensuration  of 
 time,  wherever  he  went ;  and,  being  highly  delighted 
 with  so  curious  and  useful  an  invention,  might  either  have 
 one  made  on  the  spot,  or  take  the  model  of  one  to  be 
 made  at  Jerusalem,  and  set  up  in  his  royal  palace. 
 
 It  is  no  easy  matter  to  determine  of  what  form  the 
 sun-dial  was,  but,  5  if  we  may  be  allowed  to  gather  any 
 thing  from  the  signification  of  the  word  mahal,  which  is 
 always  used  in  this  narration,  we  may,  with  the  learned 
 Grotius,  suppose  that  it  was  not  horizontal,  as  sun-dials 
 are  commonly  made,  but  of  a  concave  hemispherical 
 figure,  b  much  like  what  the  Greeks  call  a««<p>j,  and 
 that  therein  was  a  gnomon  of  some  kind  or  other,  which 
 cast  its  shadow  upon  the  lines  engraven  in  its  concavity. 
 
 But  of  what  make  soever  this  dial  was,  we  have  reason 
 to  believe,  that  the  recess  of  its  shadow  was  a  real  mira- 
 cle, and  not  the  effect  of  any  natural  cause,  namely, 
 the  interposition  of  a  cloud,  or  any  other  meteor,  which 
 might  diverge  the  rays  of  the  sun  to  another  part  of  the 
 dial,  for  some  small  space  of  time. 
 
 The  account  which  we  have  of  this  event,  in  the  second 
 
 3  Herod,  b.  i.,  and  Strabo  b.  ii.  c.  Iff).  *  B.  ii.  p.  76. 
 
 5  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Rotrogradation,  &c. 
 
 b  Other  authors  are  of  an  opinion  quite  contrary  to  this.  They 
 suppose  that,  as  there  is  no  mention  made  of  any  sun-dials  in 
 all  the  wmks  of  Homer,  and  the  Jews  very  probably  knew 
 nothing  of  the  division  of  the  day  into  so  many  hours  till  after 
 the  time  of  the  captivity,  the  invention  of  such  machines  was 
 subsequent  to  Hezekiah's  days:  and  therefore,  from  the  word 
 xvafiafaovs  in  the  Septuagint,  which  may  properly  enough  be 
 rendered  steps  or  stairs,  they  infer,  that  this  famous  chronometer 
 of  kin^  Ahaz,  was  nothing  but  a  flight  of  stairs  leading  up  to  the 
 gate  of  the  palace,  and  according  to  the  projection  of  the  sun, 
 marked  at  proper  distances  with  figures,  denoting  the  division 
 of  the  day,  and  not  any  regular  piece  of  dial  work. —  Universal 
 Hist.  b.  i.  c  7.  But  this  is  too  poor  a  thing  to  be  recorded  hi 
 lii  Hi  v,  as  the  invention  orerection  of  a  king,  which  every  person 
 might  have  done  as  well  as  he. 
 
G46  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  32JG.  A.  C.  T58;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A    M.  4772.  A.  C.  C39.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 book  of  Kings,  makes  no  mention  indeed  of  the  sun's 
 going  back,  but  only  of  the  shadow  upon  the  dial ;  but, 
 in  the  book  of  Isaiah's  prophecy,  wherein  we  have  this 
 miracle  more  minutely  related,  we  are  told  expressly 
 that 1  '  the  sun  returned  ten  degrees  ,'  and  from  hence 
 the  opinion  of  the  ancients,  both  Jews  and  Christians, 
 has  been,  that  the  miracle  was  wrought,  not  upon  the 
 shadow,  "  but  upon  the  body  of  the  sun  ;  or  "  that  the 
 sun,"  as  our  excellent  archbishop  Usher  2  expresses  it, 
 "  and  all  the  heavenly  bodies  went  back,  and  as  much  was 
 detracted  from  the  next  night  as  was  added  to  this  day." 
 Those  who  embrace  the  new  philosophy,  which  places 
 the  sun  in  the  centre,  and  supposes  the  earth  to  move 
 round  it,  have,  from  their  hypothesis,  no  difficulty  in 
 admitting  of  this  miracle,  whether  it  be  said  to  consist 
 in  the  different  determination  of  the  rays,  or  in  the  retro- 
 gradation  of  the  body  of  the  sun  ;  because  it  is  the  same 
 thing  as  to  all  outward  elf'ects,  whether  the  earth  turn 
 round  the  sun,  or  the  sun  round  the  earth  :  but,  in  both 
 cases,  there  is  this  difficulty  :  3  that  the  sudden  and  vio- 
 lent motion  either  of  the  sun  or  earth,  to  make  that  day 
 and  night  of  no  greater  length  than  the  rest,  would  be 
 in  danger  of  shocking  or  unhinging  the  whole  frame  of 
 nature,  as  it  certainly  would  have  done,  had  it  not  been 
 guided  and  directed  by  the  steady  and  unerring  hand  of 
 the  great  Creator  of  the  universe,  whose  motion  he  can 
 either  retard  or  accelerate  as  he  pleases,  without  occa- 
 sioning any  confusion  in  the  order  of  things,  and  with 
 
 1  Is.  xxxviii.  S.  2  Annal.  A.  3291. 
 
 3  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Retrogradation,  &c. 
 a  Those  who  maintain  the  contrary  opinion,  namely,  that  the 
 whule  miracle  was  wrought  upon  the  dial,  and  occasioned  only 
 hy  the  reversion  of  the  sun's  beams,  while  the  sun  proceeded  in 
 its  ordinary  course,  urge  in  its  defence, — That  in  2  Kings  xx.  9, 
 where  this  miracle  is  recorded,  mention  is  only  made  of  the 
 'shadow's  going  back;'  aud  though,  in  Isaiah  xxxviii.  8,  the  sun 
 i-  Baid  to  'return  ten  degrees;'  yet,  to  put  the  sun  for  its  beams 
 is  a  common  mode  of  speech  in  all  languages.  That  the  division 
 ol  the  day  into  hours,  upon  which  the  invention  of  all  horoscopieal 
 instruments  must  depend,  was  of  a  later  date  than  this :  that  Daniel 
 is  the  first  writer  in  the  Old  Testament  who  makes  any  mentiou  of 
 it ;  and  that  there  is  no  Hebrew  word,  in  the  compass  of  the  whole 
 language,  to  denote  it.  As,  therefore,  the  intent  of  this  miracle 
 was  not  to  lengthen  the  day,  as  that  of  Joshua's,  but  purely  to 
 put  back  the  shadow  upon  the  sun-dial,  this  might  have  well 
 enough  been  done,  say  they,  by  the  sole  refraction  of  the  sun's 
 rays,  and  without  giving  any  interruption  to  the  course  of  nature. 
 This  interruption,  if  the  recess  and  return  of  the  sun,  or  the 
 i  nth,  if  we  please,  was  gradual,  must  have  occasioned  g'reat  iri- 
 i  onveniences  to  mankind  upon  earth;  since,  it'  the  degrees  were 
 horary,  or  lines  of  an  hour's  distance  upon  the  dial-pfate,  as  we 
 now  speak,  to  make  the  sun  recede  ten  hours,  and  alter  that 
 re-advauce  ten  more,  this  would  have  been  to  prolong  that  day 
 for  twenty  hours,  which  in  hot  regions,  would  be  enough  to 
 Bcorch  the  people  of  the  hemisphere  that  the  sun  was  ovei°  and 
 ni  colder  climates,  when  it  happened  to  be  absent  so  Ion'"  to 
 frcew  the  inhabitants  to  death.  On  the  other  hand,  this  hiter- 
 ruption,  il  the  sun  or  earth  went  back  in  an  instant,  and  returned 
 as  hastily  again,  must  have  been  seen  and  felt  all  the  world  over 
 keen  observed  by  the  astronomers  then  living,  and  recorded  in 
 the  writings  o  subsequent  historians,  as  well  as  the  sun's  stand- 
 ing Still  in  Joshua  S  time;  but,  since  we  find  no  footsteps  of  this 
 <.n  tin'  contrary,  by  Merodach  Baladan's  sending  to  Hezekiah  to" 
 inform  himsell  about  this  phenomenon,  it.  is  rather  evident  that 
 the  thing  had  not  been  observed  as  far  as  Babylon,  they  thence 
 infer  that  there  was  ,„,  reason  for  Cod's  putting  himself  to  the 
 I  xpence  ol  so  prodigious  a  miracle,  as  to  make  an  alteration  in 
 the  whole  fabric  ol  the  universe,  when  a  bare  refraction  of  the 
 suns  rays  upon  the  dial-plate  would  have  answered  the  end  as 
 well.— Le  CUra  Comvuntury;  Lowth's  Commentary  on  Isa 
 xxxviii.,  ami  Universal  History,  b  i.  r    J. 
 
 much  greater  facility  to  himself,  than  any  human  artificer 
 can  cause  a  machine  of  his  own  making  to  go  swifter  or 
 slower,  by  the  sole  suspension  of  an  heavier  or  lighter 
 weight. 
 
 Since  the  Scripture,  therefore,  in  this  case,  tells  us  as 
 plainly,  that  the  sun  did  recede,  as,  in  the  case  of 
 Joshua,  that  it  did  stand  still  in  the  firmament  of  heaven, 
 we  have  no  other  warrant  but  to  take  words  in  their 
 literal  sense,  even  though  it  be  attended  with  some 
 difficulties.  These  difficulties  arise  chiefly  from  the 
 opposition  of  some  modern  systems  of  philosophy ;  but 
 whether  it  be  just  and  reasonable  that  revelation  should 
 conform  to  philosophy,  or  philosophy  to  revelation, 
 especially  when  the  expressions  of  Scripture  are  clear, 
 and  sentiments  of  philosophers  but  mere  conjectures,  is 
 a  question  that  need  require  no  long  deliberation  ; 
 especially  since  heavenly  bodies,  by  reason  of  their  vast 
 distance,  are  inaccessible  to  our  utmost  sagacity,  and 
 the  greater  part  of  the  secrets  of  nature  are  not  discover- 
 able by  our  most  indefatigable  search  after  truth. 
 
 4  Though  at  first  view  we  may  be  apt  to  think  that  a 
 sign,  which  precedes  the  event,  is  more  significant, 
 because  better  adapted  to  our  manner  of  conceiving  it, 
 than  one  which  follows  after  it ;  yet,  upon  a  nearer 
 examination,  we  shall  find  that  a  sign  which  is  posterior 
 to  the  event,  is  not  a  less,  but  in  some  respects,  a  more 
 convincing  proof  than  the  other ;  especially  when  the 
 person  to  whom  it  is  given  lives  to  see  both  the  sign  and 
 the  event  accomplished.  The  sign  which  goes  before 
 the  event  proves  but  one  thing,  namely,  that  the  event 
 was  from  Cod,  or  that  the  person  who  foretold  it  was 
 divinely  inspired  ;  but  the  sign  which  is  future  to  the 
 event,  manifests  these  three  things:  1st,  that  the  person 
 who  foretold  it  was  possessed  with  the  spirit  of  pro- 
 phecy :  2dly,  that  God  was  the  author  of  the  miraculous 
 event  which  he  foretold  :  and  3dly,  that  he  was  the 
 author  likewise  of  the  sign  which  followed  the  miracle  ; 
 especially  if  the  sign  be  miraculous,  as  it  generally  is. 
 
 To  apply  this  now  to  the  case  before  us.  To  convince 
 Hezekiah  of  his  approaching  deliverance,  God  gave  him 
 such  things  for  a  sign  as  would  not  come  to  pass  until 
 his  deliverance  was  accomplished  ;  but  then  it  should 
 be  remembered,  that  as  the  people  were  to  be  convinced 
 that  what  happened  to  Sennacherib  was  not  the  work  of 
 chance,  or  the  effect  of  natural  causes,  but  immediately 
 inflicted  by  the  hand  of  God,  his  prophet  was  to  foretell 
 not  only  the  particulars  of  what  befell  him,  but  such  con- 
 sequences, likewise,  as  would  appear  not  only  to  be 
 supernatural,  but  demonstrations  likewise  of  the  divine 
 power  and  goodness.  To  this  purpose  Isaiah  is  sent, 
 not  only  to  foretell  Hezekiah's  deliverance,  the  destruc- 
 tion of  the  Assyrian  army,  and  the  death  of  Senna- 
 cherib ;  but,  to  fortify  the  people  against  the  apprehen- 
 sions of  another  enemy,  namely,  a  grievous  famine, 
 after  that  Sennacherib  was  gone,  he  is  ordered  to  add, 
 that  God  would  find  one  means  or  other  to  preserve  his 
 people.  Though  the  enemy  will  destroy  all  the  corn  in 
 the  country,  '  yet  ye  shall  eat  this  year,'  says  the  pro- 
 phet, '  such  things  as  ye  can  meet  with :'  though  the 
 next  year  be  the  year  of  Jubilee,  or  Sabbatical  year,  in 
 which  ye  are  to  let  the  land  rest,  '  yet  ye  shall  eat  such 
 things  as  grow  of  themselves;'  *  God  shall  take  care, 
 
 4  Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Kings  xix.  29. 
 s  Lowth's  Commentary  on  Isaiah  xxxvii.  o3. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 G47 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.M. 
 
 one  «ay  or  other,  that  ye  shall  want  no  provisions  these 
 two  years  ;  and  in  the  third  year  there  shall  be  no  enemy 
 to  molest  you,  and  therefore  '  sow  and  reap  the  fruit  of 
 your  labours  :'  for  though  ye  have  been  brought  low  with 
 losses  innumerable  and  persecutions,  yet,  in  a  short  time 
 ye  shall  be  re-established  ;  for  '  the  remnant  that  is 
 escaped  of  Judah  shall  yet  again  take  root  downward, 
 and  bear  fruit  upward.' 
 
 The  like  may  be  said  of  the  sign  concerning  the  vir- 
 gin that  was  to  '  bear  a  son,  and  call  his  name  Imman- 
 uel ;'  though  it  was  some  hundred  years  subsequent  to  the 
 deliverance  which  God  promised  Judah,  yet  was  it  of 
 great  service  to  confirm  the  people  in  their  expectations 
 of  it.  To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that  it  is  not  to 
 Aliaz  that  the  prophet  addresses  himself,  (for  he,  out  of  a 
 specious  pretence  of  not  being  willing  to  tempt  God, 
 rejected  all  signs,)  but  to  the  princes  of  the  blood  royal  ; 
 and  therefore  he  says,  J  '  hear  ye  now,  ye  house  of 
 David,  the  Lord  himself  will  give  you  a  sign,  a  virgin 
 shall  conceive.'  The  original  word  alma  (as  -  several 
 learned  men  have  observed)  signifies  almost  always  a 
 virgin  untainted  by  a  man, — is  so  rendered  by  the  Sep- 
 tuagint  in  this  place,  and  cannot,  with  any  propriety, 
 denote  3  any  indifferent  young  woman,  who  should  after- 
 wards be  married,  and  have  a  son.  For  how  can  we 
 imagine  that,  after  so  pompous  an  introduction,  the 
 prophet  should  mean  no  more  at  last  by  '  a  virgin's  con- 
 ceiving,' than  that  a  young  woman  should  be  with  child  ? 
 What !  does  Isaiah  offer  Ahaz  a  miracle,  '  either  in  the 
 depth,  or  in  the  height  above?'  and,  when  he  seems  to 
 tell  the  house  of  David  that  God,  of  his  own  accord, 
 would  perform  a  greater  work  than  they  could  ask,  does 
 he  sink  to  a  sign  that  nature  produces  every  day  ?  Is 
 that  to  be  called  a  wonder,  (which  implies  an  uncommon, 
 surprising,  and  supernatural  event,)  which  happens  con- 
 stantly by  the  ordinary  laws  of  generation  ?  How  little 
 does  such  a  birth  answer  the  solemn  apparatus  which  the 
 prophet  uses  to  raise  their  expectation  of  some  great 
 matter  ?  '  Hear  ye,  O  house  of  Judah, — behold,  the  Lord 
 will  give  you  a  sign  worthy  of  himself;  and  what  is  that  ? 
 Why,  a  young  married  woman  shall  be  with  child.  How 
 ridiculous  must  such  a  declaration  make  the  prophet! 
 And  how  highly  must  it  enrage  the  audience,  to  hear  a 
 man,  at  such  a  juncture  as  this,  begin  an  idle  and  imper- 
 tinent tale,  which  seems  to  banter  and  insult  their  misery, 
 rather  than  administer  any  consolation  under  it ! 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed  farther,  that,  in  the  beginning  of 
 this  passage,  when  God  commanded  Isaiah  to  go  and 
 meet  Ahaz,  he  ordered  him  to  take  with  him  his  son 
 Shear-jashub,  who  was  then  but  a  child.  AVhy  the  child 
 was  to  accompany  his  father,  we  can  hardly  suppose  any 
 other  reason,  but  that  he  was  to  be  of  use,  some  way  or 
 other,  to  enforce  the  prophecy.  It  is  but  supposing 
 then  that  the  prophet,  in  uttering  the  words,  '  before 
 this  child  shall  be  able  to  distinguish  between  good  and 
 evil,'  4  pointed  at  his  own  son,  for  there  is  no  necessity 
 to  refer  them  to  Immanuel,  who  might  then  either  stand 
 by  him,  or  be  held  in  his  arms,  and  all  the  difficulty  is 
 solved  :  but  then  the  comfort  which  accrued  to  the  house 
 of  David  from  this  seasonable  prophecy,  was  very  con- 
 
 4772.  A.  C.  G39.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 sidenable.  5  For  it  assured  them  of  the  truth  and  vera- 
 city of  God's  promise,  and  that  he  would  not  suffer  them 
 to  be  destroyed,  nor  the  '  sceptre  to  depart  from  Judah/ 
 until  the  Messiah  came.  It  assured  them  of  his  almighty 
 power,  in  that  he  could  create  a  new  thing  in  the  earth, 
 by  making  a  virgin  to  conceive,  and  thereby  show  him- 
 self able  to  deliver  them  out  of  the  hands  of  their  most 
 potent  enemies ;  and  it  assured  them  likewise  of  his 
 peculiar  favour,  in  that  he  had  decreed  the  Messiah 
 should  descend  from  their  family,  so  that  the  people 
 whom  he  had  vouchsafed  so  high  a  dignity,  might  depend 
 on  his  promise,  and  '  under  the  shadow  of  his  wings,' 
 think  themselves  secure. 
 
 1  Is.  vii.  13,  14.  2  See  Kidder's  Demonstration,  part  2. 
 
 3  bee  Grounds  and  Reasons  of  the  Christian  Religion. 
 
 4  Usher's  Annul.  A.  M.  3263. 
 
 CHAP.  III.— Ok  the  Dial  of  Ahaz. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY   THE  EDITOR. 
 
 At  the  beginning  of  the  world  it  is  certain  there  was  no 
 distinction  of  time,  but  by  the  light  and  darkness ;  and 
 the  whole  day  was  included  in  the  general  terms  of  the 
 evening-  and  morning.  The  Chaldeans,  many  ages  after 
 the  flood,  were  the  first  who  divided  the  day  into  hours : 
 they  being  the  first  who  applied  themselves  with  any 
 success  to  astrology.  Sun-dials  are  of  ancient  use  : 
 but  as  they  were  of  no  service  in  cloudy  weather  and  in 
 the  night,  there  was  another  invention  of  measuring  the 
 parts  of  time  by  water  ;  but  that  not  proving  sufficiently 
 exact,  they  laid  it  aside  for  another  by  sand.  The  use 
 of  dials  was  earlier  among  the  Greeks  than  the  Romans. 
 It  was  above  three  hundred  years  after  the  building  of 
 Rome  before  they  knew  any  thing  of  them  :  but  yet 
 they  had  divided  the  day  and  night  into  four  and  twenty 
 hours  :  though  they  did  not  count  the  hours  numerically, 
 but  from  midnight  to  midnight,  distinguishing  them  by 
 particular  names,  as  by  the  cock-crowing,  the  dawn,  the 
 mid-day,  &c. 
 
 With  respect  to  the  dial  of  Ahaz,  it  is  said,  that  the 
 shadow  was  brought  ten  degrees  backward.  Was  this 
 miracle  occasioned  by  the  sun's  going  ten  degrees  bach 
 in  the  heavens,  or  by  the  earth's  turning  upon  its  axis 
 from  east  to  west,  in  a  contrary  direction  to  its  natural 
 course.  To  me  it  appears  that  the  miracle  was  effected 
 by  means  of  refraction.  For  a  ray  of  light,  we  know, 
 can  be  raised  or  refracted  from  a  right  line  by  passing 
 through  a  dense  medium  ;  and  we  know  also,  byr  means 
 of  the  refracting  power  of  the  atmosphere,  the  sun,  when 
 near  rising  and  setting,  seems  to  be  higher  above  the 
 horizon  than  he  really  is;  and  by  horizontal  refraction, 
 we  find  that  the  sun  appears  above  the  horizon  when  he 
 is  actually  below  it,  and  literally  out  of  sight :  therefore, 
 by  using  dense  clouds  or  vapours,  the  rays  of  light  might 
 be  refracted  from  their  direct  course,  ten,  or  any  other 
 number  of  degrees  ;  so  that  the  miracle  might  have  been 
 wrought  by  occasioning  this  extraordinary  refraction, 
 rather  than  by  disturbing  the  course  of  the  earth. 
 
 It  is  owing  to  refraction  that  we  have  any  morning  or 
 evening  twilight  :  without  this  power  in  the  atmosphere, 
 the  heavens  would  be  as  black  as  ebony  in  the  absence 
 of  the  sun  ;  and   at  his  rising  we  should  pass  in  a  mo- 
 
 See  Kidder's  Demonstration,  part  2. 
 
648 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  VI. 
 
 OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4772.  A.  C.  G39.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  7583 
 i.ioiit  from  the  deepest  darkness  into  the  brightest  light ; 
 and  at  his  setting,  from  the  most  intense  light  to  the 
 most  profound  darkness,  which  in  a  few  days  would  be 
 sufficient  to  destroy  the  visual  organs  of  all  animals. 
 
 That  the  rays  of  light  can  be  supernatually  refracted, 
 and  the  sun  appear  to  be  where  he  actually  is  not,  we 
 have  a  most  remarkable  instance  in  Kepler.  Some 
 Hollanders  who  wintered  in  Nova  Zembla  in  the  year 
 L596,  were  surprised  to  find  that,  after  a  continual  night 
 of  three  months,  the  sun  began  to  rise  seventeen  days 
 sooner  than  (according  to  computation  deduced  from 
 the  altitude  of  the  pole,  observed  to  be  seventy-six  de- 
 grees) he  should  have  done  ;  which  can  only  be  account- 
 ed for  by  an  extraordinary  refraction  of  the  sun's  rays 
 passing  through  the  cold  dense  air  in  the  climate.  At 
 that  time,  the  sun,  as  Kepler  computes,  was  almost  five 
 degrees  below  the  horizon  when  he  appeared,  and  con- 
 sequently the  refraction  of  his  rays  was  about  nine  times 
 stronger  than  it  is  with  us. 
 
 Now,  this  might  be  all  purely  natural  though  it  was 
 extraordinary,  and  it  proves  the  possibility  of  what  I 
 have  conjectured,  even  on  natural  principles  ;  but  the 
 foretelling  of  this,  and  leaving  the  going  back  or  for- 
 ward to  the  choice  of  the  king,  and  the  thing  occurring 
 in  the  place  and  time  when  and  where  it  was  predicted, 
 shows  that  it  was  supernatural  and  miraculous.  But 
 why  maintain,  it  may  be  asked,  that  the  event  alluded  to 
 was  effected  by  refraction  ?  Could  not  God  as  easily  have 
 caused  the  sun,  or  rather  the  earth,  to  turn  back,  as  to 
 have  produced  this  extraordinary  and  miraculous  refrac- 
 tion ?  'This  is  most  certain  :  but,  according  to  our  limit- 
 ed apprehensions,  it  seems  more  consistent  with  the 
 wisdom  of  God  to  attain  an  end  by  simple  means  than 
 by  those  that  are  complex :  and  had  it  been  done  in  the 
 other  way,  it  would  have  required  a  miracle  to  invert 
 and  a  miracle  to  restore ;  and  a  strong  convulsion  on 
 the  earth's  surface  to  bring  it  ten  degrees  suddenly  back, 
 and  to  take  it  the  same  suddenly  forward.  The  miracle, 
 according  to  my  supposition,  was  accomplished  on  the 
 atmosphere,  and  without  in  the  least  disturbing  even  that ; 
 whereas,  on  the  other  supposition,  it  could  not  have  been 
 done  without  suspending  or  interrupting  the  laws  of  the 
 solar  system.  The  point  to  be  gained  was  the  bringing 
 back  the  shadow  on  the  dial  ten  degrees  :  this  might 
 have  been  accomplished  by  the  means  which  I  have 
 described,  as  well  as  by  the  other;  and  these  means 
 being  much  more  simple,  were  more  worthy  the  divine 
 choice  than  those  which  are  more  complex,  and  could 
 not  have  been  used  without  producing  the  necessity  of 
 working  at  least  double  or  treble  miracles. 
 
 It  is  objected,  however,  to  this  view,  that  Isaiah  ' 
 expressly  asserts  that '  the  sun  returned,'  and  not  merely 
 that  '  that  the  shadow  went  backward.'  It  becomes 
 not  erring  man  even  to  seem  to  contradict  this  asser- 
 tion. I  would  only  venture  to  say,  with  all  humility, 
 tli.it  as  the  very  same  end  might  have  been  attained 
 by  means  of  refraction  as  would  have  been  accom- 
 plished by  the  retrograde  motion  of  the  sun  ;  and  as 
 the  event  was  unquestionably  miraculous  on  either  sup- 
 position, 1  do  not  see  that  the  adoption  of  the  view  of 
 this  subject  which  1  have  suggested  is  in  any  way  dero- 
 gatory to  the  authority  of  divine  revelation.2 
 
 1  Chap,  wwiii.  8. 
 2  See  Dr  Clarke's  Commentary  on  the  place. 
 
 CHAP.   IV.— Of  the  Transportation  of  the  Ten 
 Tribes,  and  their  Return. 
 
 Nothing  s  in  history  is  more  common,  than  to  see  whole 
 nations  so  changed  in  their  manners,  their  religion,  their 
 language,  and  the  very  places  of  their  abode,  as  that  it 
 becomes  a  matter  of  some  difficulty  to  find  out  their  first 
 original.  Large  empires  swallow  up  lesser  states  ;  and, 
 in  the  course  of  their  conquests,  sweeping  every  thing 
 before  them  like  a  torrent,  they  compel  the  vanquished 
 to  follow  the  fate  of  their  conquerors,  and  to  inhabit 
 such  countries  as  were  unknown  to  them  before. 
 
 Never  was  there  a  people  that  had  a  more  ample  ex- 
 perience of  these  unhappy  revolutions  than  the  kingdom 
 of  Israel,  which,  upon  the  revolt  of  Rehoboam,  came  to 
 be  called  '  the  kingdom  of  the  ten  tribes.'  God,  by  the 
 mouth  of  his  servant  Moses,  had  denounced  this  .judg- 
 ment upon  them,  in  case  of  their  obstinate  disobedience 
 to  his  law :  4  '  the  Lord  shall  scatter  thee  among  all 
 people,  from  the  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other  ;  and 
 among  all  these  nations,  thou  shalt  find  no  ease,  neither 
 shall  the  sole  of  thy  foot  have  rest.'  And  accordingly, 
 when  by  their  idolatry,  and  other  grievous  impieties, 
 they  had  '  provoked  God  to  wrath,  and  filled  up  the 
 measure  of  their  iniquity  ;'  in  the  reign  of  Pekah  king  of 
 Israel,  5  he  sent  Tiglath-Pileser  king  of  Assyria,  who 
 invaded  his  country,  and  having  overrun  gre.it  part  of  it, 
 carried  away  captive  the  tribes  of  Naphtali,  Reuben,  Gad, 
 and  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  from  the  east  side  of  the 
 river  Jordan  ;  and  about  twenty  years  after  this,  in  the 
 reign  of  Hoshea,  sent  his  son  Salmaneser  against  Sama- 
 ria, who,  after  a  siege  of  three  years,  took  it,  and  carried 
 away  all  the  remainder  of  that  miserable  people  accord- 
 ing to  what  the  prophet  Hosea  had  foretold  :  6  '  Ephraim 
 is  smitten,  their  root  is  dried  up,  they  shall  bear  no 
 fruit.  My  God  shall  cast  them  away,  because  they  did 
 not  hearken  unto  him,  and  they  shall  be  wanderers 
 among  the  nations.' 
 
 Such,  with  very  small  exception,  has  been  the  case  of 
 this  unhappy  people,  ever  since  the  time  of  the  Assyrian 
 captivity;  and  yet,  such  is  their  pride  and  arrogance, 
 that  instead  of  owning  the  truth,  they  have  devised  fables 
 of  their  living  all  along  in  great  prosperity  and  grandeur 
 in  some  unknown  land,  as  a  national  and  united  body, 
 in  an  independent  state,  and  under  monarchies  or 
 republics  of  their  own.  So,  that  before  we  begin  to 
 inquire  into  the  real  places  of  their  transportation,  and 
 some  other  circumstances  thereunto  belonging,  it  may 
 not  be  amiss  to  examine  a  little  the  merit  of  these  pre- 
 tensions, and  what  foundation  they  have  for  such  mighty- 
 boasts. 
 
 The  author  of  the  second  book  of  Esdras  informs  us, 
 7  '  that  the  ten  tribes,  being  taken  prisoners  by  Salmane- 
 ser, and  carried  beyond  the  Euphrates,  entered  into  a 
 resolution  of  quitting  the  Gentiles,  and  retiring  into  a 
 country  never  inhabited  before,  that  they  might  there 
 religiously  observe  the  law,  which  they  had  too  much 
 neglected  in  their  own  land  ;  that  to  this  purpose  they 
 crossed  the  Euphrates,  where  God  wrought  a  miracle  for 
 their  sakes,  by  stopping  the  sources  of  that  great  river, 
 
 3  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Ten  Tribes,  &e. 
 4  Dent,  xxviii.  64,  65.  5  2  Kings  xv.  29. 
 
 6  Ilosea  ix.  16,  17.  7  2  Esdras  xiii.  40,  &c 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 649 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4772.  A.  C.  639.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 3i)d  drying  up  its  channel  for  them  to  pass  over ;  that 
 having  thus  wonderfully  passed  this  river,  they  proceed- 
 ed in  their  journey  for  a  year  and  a  half,  till  they  arrived 
 at  last  at  a  country  called  Arsareth,  where  they  settled 
 themselves,  and  were  to  continue  until  the  latter  days, 
 when  God  would  appoint  their  return,  and  work  the  same 
 miracle  in  passing  the  Euphrates  that  he  had  done  for 
 them  before.' 
 
 This  is  the  substance  of  our  author's  account :  but 
 now,  who  can  believe,  that  a  people  so  fond  of  idolatry 
 in  their  own  country,  should,  in  their  state  of  captivity, 
 be  so  zealous  for  the  observation  of  the  law  ?  Arsareth, 
 we  are  told,  is  a  city  in  Media,  situate  beyond  the  river 
 Araxes  ;  but  if  this  was  the  place  they  betook  themselves 
 to  for  the  freer  exercise  of  their  religion,  what  need  was 
 there  for  so  very  long  a  peregrination  ?  Or  who  can 
 suppose  that  their  imperious  masters  would  suffer  cap- 
 tives, upon  any  pretence  whatever,  to  retreat  in  a  body, 
 out  of  their  country,  and  set  up  a  distinct  kingdom  in 
 another  place  ?  '  In  short,  this  counterfeit  Esdras,  who 
 seems  to  have  been  a  Christian,  and  to  have  lived  about 
 the  end  of  the  first,  or  the  beginning  of  the  second  cen- 
 tury, is  not  only  so  inconsistent  in  his  account  of  this,  and 
 several  other  transactions,  but  so  fond  of  uncertain  tra- 
 ditions, and  so  romantic  and  fabulous  about  the  divine 
 inspiration  which  he  boasts  of,  that  there  is  no  credit  to 
 be  given  to  what  he  says, a  concerning  the  retreat  of  the 
 ten  tribes  into  an  unknown  land. 
 
 A  famous  Jewish  traveller  2  of  the  twelfth  century, 
 and  who  seems  to  have  undertaken  his  travels  solely  to 
 discover  the  state  of  his  dispersed  brethren,  assigns 
 them  a  large  and  spacious  country,  wherein  reigned  two 
 brothers,  descendants  of  the  house  of  David.     The  elder 
 
 1  Basnag.  Hist,  of  the  Jews,  b.  6.  c.  2. 
 8  Benjamin  de  Tudela's  Itiner.  page  89. 
 a  There  is  an  unfounded  opinion,  though  very  ancient,  that  the 
 majority  of  the  ten  tribes  emigrated  to  an  unknown  country. 
 The  spurious  Ezra  asserts,  "  that  Salmaneser  carried  them  be- 
 yond the  river,  and  they  resolved  to  separate  from  the  heathen  and 
 to  seek  a  spot  where  they  might  religiously  observe  the  law,  for 
 the  violation  of  which  they  had  been  so  severely  punished." 
 Ezra  characterizes  the  country  whither  they  retired  as  follows: 
 1.  It  was  uninhabited.  (Then  they  must  have  sought  an  unex- 
 plored country.)  2.  Its  distance  was  such,  that  their  journey 
 lasted  a  year  and  a  half.  3.  To  reach  it  they  crossed  the 
 Euphrates,  which  God  miraculously  divided  for  the  passage  of 
 the  Jews  ;  and  Ezra  adds,  that  on  their  return  to  Judea  God 
 will  again  perform  the  same  miracle.  4.  This  country  is  called 
 Arsareth.  But  we  ask,  how  could  a  people  completely  subdued, 
 rise  in  a  body  and  march  unresisted  through  the  territory  of  their 
 proud  masters,  to  establish  a  kingdom  elsewhere  ?  This  event 
 happened,  if  ever,  in  the  thirty-first  year  of  the  captivity ;  but 
 Ezra  informs  us  that  they  were  then  in  the  countries  whither 
 Salmaneser  had  carried  them  captive.  Their  desire  to  keep 
 the  law  strictly  is  said  to  have  been  their  motive  ;  but  the  Jews 
 in  their  dispersions  reverenced  the  law  so  little,  that  they  adopt- 
 ed the  pagan  customs  and  worship.  There  is  a  city  called 
 Arsareth  beyond  the  river  Araxes,  and  the  Jews  are  supposed 
 to  have  given  it  this  name.  But  the  country  whither  the  ten 
 tribes  retired,  being  at  a  great  distance  from  Media,  this  cannot 
 be  the  Arsareth  of  Ezra.  The  route  they  took  is  as  little  known 
 as  the  country  to  which  they  emigrated  ;  and  hence  it  is  that  so 
 many  authors  severally  mention  China,  Tartary,  India,  and  a 
 second  river  Sabbatius,  as  the  retreat  of  the  ten  tribes  ;  while 
 they  all  appeal  to  Ezra  as  their  authority.  But  the  account  of 
 Ezra  is  suspicious  ;  for  it  does  not  appear  from  the  book  of  Tobit, 
 that  the  journey  of  the  tribes  was  long,  or  that  there  was  any 
 separation  from  the  heathen,  for  the  more  strict  observance  of 
 the  law.  On  the  contrary,  Jews  were  to  be  found  in  Susa, 
 Kiliatana,  Rages,  and  in  the  other  cities  of  Media  and  Assyria, 
 and  also  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates. 
 
 of  these,  as  he  tell  us,  was  Annas,  who,  besides  his  capi- 
 tal Thema,  had  many  other  cities,  castles,  and  fortresses, 
 and  an  extent  of  ground  which  could  not  be  travelled 
 over  under  sixteen  days.  The  other,  whose  name  was 
 Salman,  had  in  his  dominions  forty  cities,  two  hundred 
 boroughs,  and  an  hundred  castles.  His  subjects,  who 
 were  all  Jews,  were  three  hundred  thousand ;  Tanai, 
 which  was  his  capital,  containing  an  hundred  thousand ; 
 and  Tilimosa,  a  strong  city  situate  between  two  moun- 
 tains, where  he  usually  resided,  as  many  inhabitants. 
 
 Here  we  have  a  spacious  country  of  nothing  but  Jews: 
 but  the  author,  who  pretends  to  have  been  there,  has  so 
 mistaken  the  situation  of  several  places  that  he  mentions, 
 and  gives  us  such  fabulous  accounts  of  the  manner  of  the 
 Persians  fishing  for  pearls  ;  of  the  virtue  of  the  prophet 
 Daniel's  tomb ;  and  of  some  Turks,  who  had  two  holes 
 in  the  midst  of  their  face,  instead  of  a  nose ;  that  a 
 man  must  be  very  fond  of  romances,  who  can  give  credit 
 to  what  seems  to  be  calculated  on  purpose  to  flatter  the 
 pride  of  a  people,  who  are  still  foolishly  vain,  though 
 under  the  rejection  of  Almighty  God. 
 
 Another  Jewish  author  3,  in  his  description  of  the 
 world,  has  found  out  very  commodious  habitations  for 
 the  ten  tribes,  and  in  many  places  has  given  them  a 
 glorious  establishment.  In  a  country  which  he  calls 
 Perricha,  inclosed  by  unknown  mountains,  and  bounded 
 by  Assyria,  he  has  settled  some,  and  made  them  a  flourish- 
 ing and  populous  kingdom.  Others  he  places  in  the  desert 
 of  Chabor,  which,  according  to  him,  lies  upon  the  Indian 
 sea,  where  they  live,  in  the  manner  of  the  ancient  Recha- 
 bites,  without  houses,  sowing,  or  the  use  of  wine.  Nay, 
 he  enters  the  Indies  likewise,  and  peoples  the  banks  of 
 the  Ganges,  the  isles  of  Bengala,  the  Philippines,  and 
 several  other  places,  with  the  Jews,  to  whom  he  assigns 
 a  powerful  king,  called  Daniel,  who  had  three  other 
 kings  tributary,  and  dependent  on  him.  But  this  is  all 
 of  the  same  piece,  a  forged  account  to  aggrandize  then- 
 nation,  and  to  make  it  be  believed,  that  *  '  the  sceptre  is 
 not  departed  from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between 
 his  feet,'  and  that  Shiloh  consequently  is  not  yet  come. 
 
 Manasseh,  one  of  the  most  famous  Rabbins  of  the  last 
 age,  has  asserted  the  transmigration  of  the  ten  tribes 
 into  Tartary,  where  he  assigns  them  a  great  province, 
 called  Thabor,  which  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  signifies  a 
 navel,  because  this  Thabor,  as  he  says,  is  one  of  the 
 middle  provinces  of  Tartary.  Ortelius,  in  his  Geogra- 
 phy, is  not  only  of  the  same  opinion,  but  in  confirmation 
 of  it  adds  that  the  ten  tribes  succeeded  the  Scythians, 
 its  ancient  inhabitants,  and  took  upon  them  the  name  of 
 Gauthei,  because  they  were  '  zealous  for  the  glory  of 
 God;  that  Totaces,  the  true  name  of  the  Tartars,  is 
 Hebrew,  and  signifies  remains,  as  the  tribes  dispersed 
 in  the  north  were  the  remains  of  ancient  Israel;  that 
 among  these  people  there  are  several  plain  footsteps  of 
 the  Jewish  religion,  besides  circumcision  ;  and  from 
 them,  in  all  probability,  have  descended  the  Jews,  that 
 in  Poland  and  Muscovy  are  found  so  numerous. 
 
 5  It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  but  that  several  of  the 
 Israelites  might  pass  into  Tartary,  because  Armenia  is 
 the  only  country  that  parts  it  from  Assyria,  whereiuito 
 they  were  primarily  carried  :  but  there  is  no  reason  for 
 
 3  K.  Abi  Ben  Merodoche  Peritsful,  of  Ferrara. 
 4  Gen.  xlix.  10.  6  Basnag.  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  6.  c  3. 
 
 4  N. 
 
650 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4772.  A.  C.  639.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 their  penetrating  Scythia,  and  thence  dispersing-  them- 
 selves in  the  kingdoms  of  Poland  and  Muscovy;  because 
 the  tranquillity  and  privileges  which  the  princes  of  these 
 countries  have  granted  the  Jews,  are  the  true  cause  and 
 motive  of  their  resorting  thither  in  such  numbers.  In 
 confutation  therefore  of  what  has  been  said  above, *  the 
 Jewish  historian  has  well  observed,  that  the  ancient 
 Scythians  were  a  people  too  fierce  by  nature,  and  too 
 expert  in  war,  for  a  handful  of  fugitives,  such  as  the 
 Israelites  were,  ever  to  conquer  or  expel ;  that  the 
 people  of  this  country  were  all  along  idolaters,  until 
 they  were  converted  to  the  religion  of  Mahomet,  from 
 whence  they  received  the  rite  of  circumcision,  and  some 
 other  ceremonies  conformable  to  the  law  of  Moses  ;  that 
 the  etymology  of  names  is,  of  all  others,  the  weakest 
 and  most  precarious  argument ;  and  that  it  is  ridiculous 
 to  seek  for  the  glory  of  God  among  the  Tartars  before 
 the  introduction  of  Mahometanism,  since,  according  to 
 the  account  of  their  2  historian,  "some  of  them  lived 
 like  beasts,  without  any  sense  of  God  ;  others  worship- 
 ped the  sun,  moon,  and  stars;  and  others  again  made 
 gods  of  the  oxen  that  ploughed  their  land,  or  prostrated 
 themselves  before  every  great  tree.'" 
 
 Manasseh,  the  famous  Rabbin  we  lately  mentioned, 
 published  a  book,1  entitled, '  The  Hopes  of  Israel,'  found- 
 ed upon  the  number  and  power  of  the  Jews  in  America ; 
 but  in  this  he  was  imposed  upon  by  the  fabulous  relation 
 of  Montesini,  who  reported,  "that  he  found  a  great 
 number  of  Jews  concealed  behind  the  mountains  of  Cor- 
 dilleras, which  run  along  Chili  in  America  ;  that  continu- 
 ing his  journey  in  that  country,  he  came  at  length  to  the 
 banks  of  a  river,  where,  upon  his  giving  a  signal,  there 
 appeared  a  people,  who  pronounced  in  Hebrew  these 
 words  out  of  Deuteronomy,  '  Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord 
 our  God  is  one  Lord,'  that  they  looked  upon  Abraham, 
 Isaac,  and  Jacob  as  their  great  progenitors,  and  had 
 been  conducted  into  that  country  by  incredible  miracles; 
 that  the  Indians  had  treated  them  with  great  cruelty, 
 and  thrice  declared  war  against  them ;  but  that,  by  God's 
 protecting  his  people  against  idolaters,  they  had  been 
 as  often  defeated,  and  were  now  totally  destroyed  ;  and 
 that  some  of  their  Magi,  who  made  use  of  enchantments, 
 had  openly  declared  that  the  God  of  Israel  was  the  only 
 true  God,  and  that,  at  the  consummation  of  a^es  their 
 nation  should  become  the  mistress  of  the  whole  universe." 
 
 Deluded  with  this  account,  Manasseh  endeavoured  to 
 find  out  the  road  which  might  possibly  lead  the  Israelites 
 into  the  West  Indies ;  and,  to  this  purpose,  supposing 
 that  Asia  and  America  were  formerly  one  continent  be- 
 fore they  were  divided  by  the  straits  of  Anian,  he  asserted 
 that  the  Israelites  might  travel  to  America,  by  land,  be- 
 fore the  separation  happened. 
 
 Sir  William  Penn,  in  his  '  Present  State  of  the  Lands 
 of  the  English  in  America,'  tells  us,  "  that  the  faces  of 
 the  inhabitants,  especially  of  their  children,  are  so  very 
 like  the  Jews,  that  when  you  look  upon  them,  you  would 
 think  yourself  in  the  Jews'  quarter  in  London  ;  that  their 
 eyes  are  little  and  black,  like  the  Jews,  that  they  reckon 
 by  moons  ;  olfer  their  first  fruits ;  have  a  kind  of  feast  of 
 tabernacles  ;  and  that  their  language  is  masculine,  short, 
 
 1  Baanage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  vi.  c.  3. 
 3  Haitho  Armenius,  b.  on  the  Tartars,  c.  1. 
 '  Amsterdam,  16'50. 
 
 concise,  and  full  of  energy,  in  which  it  much  resembles 
 the  Hebrew." 
 
 Other  historians  *  have  observed  that  some  of  the  Ameri- 
 cans have  a  notion  of  the  deluge,  though  they  relate 
 it  in  a  different  manner ;  that  they  celebrate  a  jubilee 
 every  fifth  year,  and  a  sabbath  every  seventh  day;  that 
 others  observe  circumcision,  abstain  from  swine's  flesh, 
 and  purify  themselves  by  bathing,  whenever  they  have 
 touched  a  dead  carcase  ;  that  marriages,  among  others, 
 are  performed  i  in  a  manner  not  unlike  what  Moses  pre- 
 scribes ;  and  that  they  generally  believe  a  resurrection  ; 
 6  for  which  reason  they  cause  their  wives  and  slaves  to 
 be  buried  with  them,  that,  when  they  arise  from  their 
 graves,  they  may  appear  with  an  attendance  suitable  to 
 their  quality. 
 
 7  This  conformity  of  customs,  and  looks,  and  senti- 
 ments, have  induced  several  to  think,  that  the  captive 
 Israelites  we  are  here  in  quest  of,  went  into  America, 
 either  by  way  of  China  or  Tartary,  and  there  settled 
 themselves.  But,  how  specious  soever  these  arguments 
 may  appear,  there  is  no  manner  of  solidity  in  them.  To 
 prove  a  point  of  this  kind,  we  should  produce  a  whole 
 nation  or  province  in  America,  distinct  from  all  others 
 in  their  ceremonies  and  way  of  worshipping  God,  in  a 
 manner  exactly  agreeing  with  the  Hebrews  :  but  to  say, 
 that  because  in  one  place  the  people  abstain  from 
 swine's  flesh,  and  in  another  they  observe  the  seventh 
 day ;  in  one,  they  offer  sacrifices,  and  in  another  use 
 baths,  when  they  think  themselves  polluted,  the  Americans 
 were  originally  Israelites,  is  carrying  the  consequence 
 a  great  deal  too  far,  and  what  indeed  we  may  prove  in 
 any  other  nation  under  heaven,  if  we  may  be  allowed 
 to  argue  in  this  manner  from  particulars  to  generals. 
 
 The  truth  is,  the  devil,  in  all  his  idolatrous  countries, 
 has  made  it  his  business  to  mimic  God  in  the  rites  of  his 
 religious  worship ;  or,  if  this  were  not,  there  is  naturally 
 so  great  a  conformity  in  men's  sentiments  concerning 
 these  matters,  that  the  Americans  might  agree  with  the 
 Jews  in  the  oblation  of  their  first-fruits,  their  computa- 
 tions by  moons,  &c,  without  having  any  commerce  or 
 affinity  with  them  ;  and  though  there  be  something  more 
 characteristic  in  circumcision,  yet  as  several  other 
 nations  used  it,  the  Americans,  upon  this  account,  cannot 
 be  Jews,  a  because,  if  we  may  believe  Acosta,  who  had 
 
 4  See  Acostan,  and  other  Writers  on  American  Affairs. 
 5  Deut.  xxv.  9. 
 6  Zaaret's  History  of  the  Discovery  of  Peru,  b.  1.  c.  12. 
 
 7  Saurin's  Dissertation  on  the  Country,  &c. 
 a  We  are  not  to  believe  that  these  savages  are  Jews,  merely 
 because  their  religious  rites  resemble  in  some  respects  those  of 
 Judaism.  The  religious  worship  of  other  idolaters  has  much  in 
 common  with  Judaism;  and  can  we  infer  that  they  too  are 
 the  posterity  of  Jews  ?  There  are  those  who  attribute  this 
 similarity  in  forms  of  worship  to  the  machinations  of  the  devil, 
 who  seeks  to  rival  the  glory  of  God  by  receiving  the  same  kind 
 of  adoration.  But  without  allowing  to  the  arch  fiend  more  power 
 than  he  really  possesses,  this  resemblance  maybe  explained  from 
 the  similar  dispositions  of  men.  Idolatry  does  not  necessarily 
 derive  its  ceremonies  from  the  true  church.  Nations  which  have 
 never  had  any  intercourse  with  each  other,  have  the  same  ideas 
 of  a  God,  and  frequently  worship  him  in  the  same  manner.  The 
 aborigines  of  America  have  been  taught  neither  by  the  Mani- 
 cheans  nor  Egyptians,  the  belief  in  two  first  principles.  Yet  the 
 inhabitants  of  Peru  relate  that  man  was  created  by  a  powerful 
 being  named  Con;  but  the  sun  and  moon  begat  an  evil  being 
 called  Pachachauna,  who  was  more  powerful  than  Con.  He 
 transformed    men   into   apes,  parrots,  and    bears,  and  was   the 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 651 
 
 A.  M.  3246.  A.  C.  758  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 made  their  customs  a  good  part  of  his  study,  they  never 
 did  circumcise  their  children,  and  therefore  are  thus  far 
 excluded  from  being  descendants  of  that  race. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  find  out  the  situation 
 of  the  ten  tribes  of  Israel,  and  yet  can  meet  with  nothing, 
 but  either  the  fabulous  accounts  of  the  Talmudists,  or  the 
 uncertain  conjectures  of  modern  critics ;  let  us  now  have 
 recourse  to  the  Scriptures,  and  know  what  the  information 
 is  that  they  can  supply  us  with,  in  this  our  inquiry. 
 
 The  sacred  history  thus  expresses  it — '  e  the  king  of 
 Assyria  took  Samaria,  and  carried  Israel  away  into 
 Assyria,  and  placed  them  in  Halah  and  in  Habor,  by  the 
 river  Gozan,  and  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes  ;'  only  we 
 must  note,  that  there  is  some  ambiguity  in  the  translation: 
 for,  whereas  it  looks  as  if  Gozan  were  the  river  and  not 
 Habor,  there  is  plainly  no  river  to  be  found  of  the  name 
 of  Gozan,  and  therefore  the  emendation  should  be — '  he 
 placed  them  in  Halah,  and  by  the  river  Habor  in  Gozan, 
 and  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes.' 
 
 The  holy  penman,  we  may  observe,  distinguishes  two 
 places  into  which  the  Israelites  were  carried,  as  indeed 
 they  were  numerous  enough  to  make  two  different  colo- 
 nies, Assyria  and  Media.  In  Assyria  we  see  the  river 
 Habor,  or  Chaboras,  a  which  rises  from  mount  Masius, 
 and,  running  through  Mesopotamia,  falls  into  the  Eu- 
 phrates. Halah,  which  in  Ptolemy  is  called  Chalcitis,  is 
 a  city  and  province  situate  on  one  side  of  its  banks,  and 
 Gozan,  which  is  likewise  a  city  and  province,  is  found 
 on  the  other ;  so  that  the  ten  tribes  were  seated  in  two 
 provinces,  which  stretched  along  both  sides  of  this  river. 
 A  happy  situation  for  them,  since  they  were  only 
 separated  by  a  river  which  watered  all  the  cities  that 
 were  assigned  for  their  habitation! 
 
 2  As  to  the  cities  of  the  Medes  we  are  more  in  the  dark, 
 because  the  Scripture  does  not  specify  any;  but  we  may 
 presume  that  this  colony  was  placed  in  the  mountainous 
 part  of  Media,  because  it  was  less  peopled  than  the 
 lower  country.     It  wanted  indeed  inhabitants,  and  if  we 
 
 l2  Kings  xvii.  6.  2  Basnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  iv.  c.  4. 
 creator  of  the  Indians.  They  worship  both  these  beings  but 
 especially  the  evil  being,  because  they  fear  that  he  may  again 
 change  men  into  brutes.  They  may,  in  the  same  manner,  have 
 instituted  rites  resembling  those  of  Judaism,  without  borrowing 
 them  from  the  Jews.  They  form  their  altars  of  twelve  stones, 
 they  offer  to  God  the  first-fruits,  and  divide  the  year  by  moons; 
 but  these  are  customs  which  might  have  arisen  from  peculiar  cir- 
 cumstances in  any  country.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the 
 Indians  practised  circumcision.  Peter  Martyr  asserts  that  they 
 "  sacrificed  their  infants  to  idols,  and  circumcised  themselves;" 
 but  Gomara  says  that  the  rite  was  not  universal  among  them. 
 Acosta,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  customs  of  the  Ameri- 
 cans, observes,  "that  they  never  circumcised  their  children,  and 
 therefore  could  not  be  the  posterity  of  the  ten  tribes."  If  they 
 were  uniformly  circumcised,  it  would  not  prove  their  descent 
 from  the  Jews ,  because  there  are  other  nations  besides  the  Jews 
 who  practise  this  rite.  We  cannot  then  infer  the  origin  of  the 
 Indians  from  an  apparent  resemblance  in  their  forms  of  worship 
 to  those  of  Judaism. — John's  Heb.  Com.  pp.  316,  317. 
 
 a  Ezekiel  addresses  his  prophecies  from  the  river  Chebar,  or 
 Habor.  Our  translation  takes  Habor  for  a  city  situated  '  by  the 
 river  of  Gozan,'  and  major  Rennell  says  there  is  found  in  the 
 country  anciently  named  Media,  in  the  remote  northern  quarter 
 towards  the  Caspian  sea,  and  Ghilan,  a  considerable  river  named 
 Ozan,  or  Hozal-Ozan.  There  is  also  fonnd  a  city  named  Abhar 
 or  Habor,  situated  on  a  branch  of  the  Ozan  ;  and  it  has  the 
 reputation  of  being  exceedingly  ancient.  Here  Mr  Morner 
 found  ruins  composed  of  large  mud  bricks,  made  with  straw,  and 
 baked  in  the  sun,  like  some  of  those  found  at  Babylon.  This  is 
 probably  the  place  mentioned  in  Scripture Ed. 
 
 4772.  A.  C.  639.  1  KINGS  viu.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 will  believe  *  Strabo,  was  supplied  by  strangers  and 
 colonies  from  abroad. 
 
 The  truth  is,  the  ancients  have  extolled  Media  as  a 
 very  happy  country.  Ecbatana,  where  the  king  kept  his 
 residence  in  summer,  was  one  of  the  finest  and  largest 
 cities  in  the  world.  Susa,  where  he  spent  the  winter, 
 was  a  very  considerable  place  likewise  :  but,  on  the  north 
 side,  there  were  high  mountains,  where  nevertheless 
 there  was  good  pasturage,  so  that  what  the  country 
 wanted  was  good  husbandmen,  and  such  as  were  used 
 to  tillage ;  for  which  purpose  the  Israelites,  who  had 
 made  that  their  principal  business  in  the  Holy  Land, 
 were,  of  all  other  people,  the  fittest  inhabitants. 
 
 In  these  two  provinces  were  the  ten  tribes  seated  at 
 first ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that,  in  a  short  time,  those 
 of  Assyria  might  extend  themselves  into  several  other 
 parts  of  the  empire  ;  for,  in  Alexander's  time,  we  meet 
 with  b  a  great  body  of  them  in  Babylon  ;  and  that  those 
 of  Media  might  stretch  upon  the  right,  into  the  provinces 
 bordering  upon  the  Caspian  sea,  or,  as  4  some  imagine, 
 even  beyond  that  sea,  as  far  as  the  river  Araxes ;  but 
 that  they  ever  became  so  powerful  as  c  to  change  the 
 ancient  names  of  placts  into  those  of  their  own  language, 
 we  can  hardly  believe;  because  they  fell  under  so  many 
 bitter  persecutions,  were  subject  to  so  many  revolutions 
 of  the  kingdoms  where  they  lived,  and,  from  different 
 princes,  underwent  such  a  variety  of  transmigrations, 
 that,  before  they  could  gain  any  such  weight  and  autho- 
 rity in  the  world,  we  find  them  here  and  there  scattered, 
 in  lesser  bodies,  as  it  Avere,  over  the  whole  face  of  it. 
 
 Not  only  some  of  the  Greek  fathers,  but  some  of  our 
 modern  critics  likewise,  have  maintained,  that  the  ten 
 tribes  Avere  restored,  with  those  of  Judah  and  Benjamin, 
 under  the  conduct  of  Zorobabel  and  Nehemiah,  when 
 Cyrus  and  his  successors  were  so  kind  as  to  give  the 
 Jews  in  general  a  full  permission  to  return  into  their 
 native  land.5  To  this  purpose  they  have  observed,  that 
 several  of  the  prophets  who  foretold  their  captivity,  with 
 the  same  breath,  as  it  were,  have  predicted  their  return  ; 
 that,  in  token  of  such  their  return,  6  '  twelve  goats,'  for 
 every  tribe  one,  :  were  offered  at  the  dedication  of  the 
 new  temple,'  which  would  scarce  have  been  done,  had 
 
 3  Basnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  vi.  c.  4. 
 
 4  Fuller's  Miscell.  Sacr.  b.  ii.  c.  5. 
 
 5  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Ten  Tribes,  &c.         6  1  Esdras  vii.  8. 
 
 b  Besides  those  that  were  carried  thither  at  the  captivity, 
 Artaxerxes  sent  a  new  colony  of  that  nation  tluther,  who,  when 
 Alexauder  the  Great  was  for  rebuilding  the  temple  of  Belus,  had 
 the  courage  to  resist  him.  For,  whereas  other  people  were  eager 
 to  furnish  materials  for  the  building,  they  refused  to  do  it,  as 
 thinking  it  had  some  stain  of  idolatry. — Basnage's  Hist,  of  the 
 Jews. 
 
 c  We  read  of  the  Cadusians,  the  Geles,  and  of  Arsareth  beyond 
 the  Caspian  sea;  for  which  reason  the  learned  Fuller  supposes, 
 that  the  Jews  spread  themselves  thus:  "  For  the  name  of  Geles,'' 
 says  he,  "  is  Chaldaic,  and  signifies  strangers  or  fugitives,  which 
 title  suited  with  the  Jews,  whom  God  had  expelled  from  their 
 country  for  their  sins.  The  Cadusians  have  a  little  altered  the 
 word  Chadoschim,  which  signifies  saints,  which  was  a  title  the 
 Jews,  who  called  themselves  a  holy  nation,  much  affected  ;  and, 
 lastly,  Arsareth,  the  most  famous  of  all  the  cities  built  upon  the 
 Araxes,  had  a  Hebrew  name,  signifying  the  city  of  relics,  W 
 l/ir  remains  of  Israel."  But  the  author  of  the  History  of  the 
 Jews,  so  often  cited  upon  this  subject,  has  confuted  the  argument 
 drawn  from  the  etymology  of  the  words;  and,  in  particular, 
 shown  that  the  Cadusians  were  a  people  much  ancienter  in  the 
 country  than  the  Israelites,  since  Ninus  reckoned  them  among 
 his  subjects. — B.  vi.  c.  4. 
 
652 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3216.  A.  C.  758 ;  OX,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 ten  of  these  tribes  been  left  behind  beyond  the  Euphrates; 
 that  under  Nehemiah  the  Levites  confessed  the  sins  of 
 the  ten  tribes;  that  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees  '  all 
 Palestine  was  full  of  Israelites  as  well  as  Jews ;  that 
 2  St  Matthew  makes  mention  of  the  land  of  Naphtali ; 
 and  that  St  Paul,  in  his  defence  before  Agrippa,  de- 
 clares, 3  '  that  for  the  promise,  to  which  the  twelve  tribes 
 hope  to  come,  he  was  called  in  question.' 
 
 It  cannot  be  thought,  indeed,  but  that  the  love  which 
 the  Jews,  above  all  other  nations,  bore  to  their  native 
 country,  and  the  great  encouragement  which  the  princes 
 of  the  east  were  pleased  to  grant  to  forward  the  re- 
 establishment,  might  tempt  some  of  each  tribe  to  take 
 this  opportunity  of  returning  with  the  two  tribes  of 
 Judah  and  Benjamin  ;  nor  can  ve  doubt,  but  that,  upon 
 their  return,  they  would  be  apt  to  assume  their  former 
 names,  and,  as  far  as  in  them  lay,  to  settle  themselves 
 in  their  ancient  possessions.  S»  that,  what  with  those 
 that  escaped  their  conqueror's  fury,  and  remained  un- 
 transported;  those  who  returned  with  Ezra,  pursuant  to 
 the  commission  which  Artaxerxes  gave  him  ;  and  those 
 who  took  the  advantage  of  the  revolutions  of  the  empire, 
 and  of  the  frequent  journeys  they  tiade  to  Jerusalem, — 
 great  numbers  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  might  be  found 
 in  the  days  of  the  Maccabees,  and  some  of  every  tribe 
 in  our  Saviour's  time  :  but  that  all  tlese  returns  did  never 
 amount  to  a  full  restoration  of  the  people,  we  have 
 abundant  testimony  to  convince  us. 
 
 Josephus  4  indeed  tells  us,  that  Ezra,  upon  the  receipt 
 of  his  commission  from  Artaxerxes,  communicated  the 
 contents  of  it  to  all  the  Israelites  that  were  in  exile, 
 some  of  whom  resorted  to  Babylon  in  order  to  return 
 with  him;  "  but  there  were  then  another  sort  of  Israelites," 
 as  his  words  are,  "  who  being  wonted  to  the  place,  and 
 settled  in  their  habitations,  chose  rather  to  continue 
 where  they  were."  Upon  the  whole,  he  computes,  that 
 few  or  none,  but  those  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  and  Judah, 
 came  along  with  Ezra ;  and  "  this  is  the  reason,"  as  he 
 tells  us,  "  that  in  his  time  there  were  only  two  tribes  to 
 be  found  in  Asia  and  Europe  under  the  Roman  empire  ; 
 for,  as  for  the  ten  tribes,  they  are  all  planted  beyond  the 
 Euphrates,"  says  he,  "  and  so  prodigiously  increased  in 
 number,  that  they  are  hardly  to  be  computed."  Nay, 
 even  those  that  followed  Ezra,  according  5  to  the  senti- 
 ment of  some  of  the  Talmudists,  were  but  the  dregs  of 
 the  people,  because  the  nobility  and  principal  men  of  the 
 house  of  David  still  continued  in  Chaldea. 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain  that  Philo,  6  in  his 
 representation  to  Caligula,  tells  him,  that  Jerusalem 
 ought  to  be  looked  upon,  not  only  as  the  metropolis  of 
 Judea,  but  as  the  centre  of  a  nation  dispersed  in  infinite 
 places  ;  among  which  he  reckons  the  isles  of  Cyprus 
 and  Candia,  Egypt,  Macedonia,  and  Bithynia ;  the 
 empire  of  the  Persians,  and  all  the  cities  of  the  east, 
 except  Babylon,  from  whence  thoy  were  then  expelled. 
 Nay,  prior  to  this  we  read,  7  that  a  great  number  of  these 
 orientals  appeared  at  Jerusalem,  at  the  feast  of  Pente- 
 cost, when,  after  our  Saviour's  ascension,  his  apostles 
 began  to  preach  the  gospel  during  that  festival.  It  can- 
 not be  thought  that  they  were  only  proselytes,  whom 
 
 4772.  A.  C.  639.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 the  Jews  o  f  the  dispersion  had  converted  ;  they  must  have 
 been  Jews  who  came  to  sacrifice  at  Jerusalem,  according 
 to  the  law  ;  for  by  St  Luke's  enumeration  of  them,  it 
 appears  that  they  were  the  descendants  of  the  tribes 
 that  had  been  long  before  settled  among  the  8  Medes, 
 among  the  Paithians,  in  Mesopotamia,  in  Cappadocia, 
 in  Pontus,  and  Asia  Minor,  &c,  and  therefore  we  find 
 St  Peter,  the  apostle  of  the  circumcision,  directing  his 
 epistle  B  '  to  the  strangers  scattered  throughout  Pontus, 
 Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia.' 
 
 Upon  the  strength  of  these  authorities  we  may  then 
 conclude  that,  though  Artaxerxes,  in  his  commission  to 
 Ezra,  ,0  gave  free  liberty  to  all  Jews  whatever  that  were 
 under  his  dominions  to  return  to  Jerusalem,  if  they  were 
 so  minded,  which  some,  without  doubt,  most  gladly  em- 
 braced ;  yet  the  main  bulk  of  the  ten  tribes,  being  loth 
 to  remove,  continued  in  the  land  of  their  captivity, 
 where  they  are  still  to  be  found  in  great  numbers  :  and 
 therefore  all  those  glorious  prophecies,  which  some  by 
 mistake  have  applied  to  their  thin  returns  under  the 
 Jewish  governors  sent  from  Babylon,  do  certainly  relate 
 to  a  much  greater  event,  even  their  conversion  and  final 
 restoration  under  the  kingdom  of  the  Messias. 
 
 The  prophet  Hosea,  speaking  of  the  present  state  of 
 the  Jews,  gives  us  this  character  whereby  to  distinguish 
 them  :  n  '  They  shall  abide  many  days  without  a  king,  and 
 without  a  prince,  and  without  a  sacrifice,  and  without  an 
 image,  and  without  an  ephod,  and  without  teraphim.' 
 In  vain  do  they  boast  of  that  power  and  authority  which 
 they  never  had,  but  in  their  own  country.  The  kings 
 and  the  princes  that  they  talk  so  much  of,  are  all  ficti- 
 tious and  imaginary.  From  the  first  time  of  their 
 transmigration  to  this  very  day,  they  have  been  a  people 
 without  any  governor,  or  form  of  government ;  and  if,  in 
 the  midst  of  so  many  different  nations,  and  under  so 
 severe  persecutions,  they  nevertheless  have  hitherto  been 
 preserved,  it  must  be  imputed  to  the  secret  and  wonder- 
 ful providence  of  God,  who  hath  still  designs  of  pity 
 and  gracious  loving-kindness  towards  them.  To  this 
 purpose  the  same  prophet  assures  us,  that  12  '  the  number 
 of  the  children  of  Israel  shall  be  as  the  sand  of  the  sea, 
 which  cannot  be  measured  or  numbered ;  and  in  the 
 place  where  it  was  said  unto  them,  ye  are  not  my  people, 
 there  it  shall  be  said  unto  them,  ye  are  the  sons  of  the 
 living  God :  for  he  shall  recover  the  remnant  of  his 
 people,'  says  another  prophet,  13  '  that  shall  be  left : — 
 He  shall  set  up  an  ensign  for  the  nations,  and  assemble 
 the  outcasts  of  Israel,  and  gather  together  the  dispersed 
 of  Judah  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  ;'  for  14  '  be- 
 hold the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,'  by  another  of  his 
 prophets,  '  that  it  shall  no  more  be  said,  the  Lord  liveth 
 that  brought  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  the  land  of 
 Egypt,  but  the  Lord  liveth  that  brought  up  the  children 
 of  Israel  from  the  land  of  the  north,  and  from  all  the 
 lands,  whither  he  hath  driven  them.  And  I  will  bring 
 them  again  into  the  land  that  I  gave  unto  their  fathers ;' 
 and,  when  this  is  done,  I5  '  I  will  no  more  hide  my  face 
 from  them,' but  I6  '  will  rejoice  in  Jerusalem,  and  joy  in 
 my  people.'  '7  '  They  shall  be  no  more  a  prey  to  the 
 heathen  :'  ,8  '  violence  shall  be  no  more  heard  in  their 
 
 '  1  Mac.  v.  9,  15,  be.  '  Mat.  iv.  15. 
 
 3  Acts  xxvi.  7.  *  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  C.  5. 
 
 *  Basnage's  Hist,  of  the  Jews,  b.  vi.  <-.  2.         f'  Philo  ad  Caium. 
 '  Basnsge'a  Hist,  of  the  Jews,  I),  vi.  c  2. 
 
 8  Acts  ii.  9.  9  1  Pet.  i.  1.  10  1  Esdras  viii.  10,  11. 
 
 11  Hoe.  iii.  1.         18  ibid.  ;.  |o.  «  Is.  xi.  11,  12. 
 
 14  Jer.  xvi.  14,  15.        «  Ezck.  xxxix.  29.         16  Is.  lxv.  19. 
 17  Ezck.  xxxiv.  28.  w  Is.  Ix.  18. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 653 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  610;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4803.  A.  C.  COS.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON 
 
 land,  wasting,  nor  destruction  within  their  borders ;  but 
 they  shall  call  their  walls  salvation,  and  their  gates 
 praise.'  '  '  Their  land  shall  no  more  be  termed  desolate,' 
 J '  but  they  shall  dwell  in  the  land  that  I  have  given  to 
 Jacob  my  servant,  even  they  and  their  children's  children 
 for  ever  ;  and  my  servant  David,'  (not  the  son  of  Jesse, 
 who  was  dead  long  before  Ezekiel  prophesied,  but  the 
 Messiah,  who  was  to  be  of  the  lineage  of  David,  as 
 Kimchi  explains  it,)  '  shall  be  their  prince  for  ever.' 
 '  Moreover,  I  will  make  a  covenant  of  peace,  which 
 shall  be  an  everlasting  covenant  with  them ;  and  I  will 
 set  my  sanctuary  among  them  for  evermore.  My  taber- 
 nacle shall  be  with  them  ;  yea,  I  will  be  their  God,  and 
 they  shall  be  my  people.' 
 
 3  Now,  though  it  cannot  be  denied  that  these,  and 
 several  other  prophecies  to  the  like  purpose,  do  denote 
 a  great  and  glorious  restoration  to  God's  people  ;  yet  it 
 seems  very  evident  that  scarce  any  of  them  can  be  ap- 
 plied to  the  return  of  the  Jews  from  their  captivity  in 
 Babylon.  Long  since  that  time,  and  almost  seventeen 
 hundred  years  ago,  his  covenant  of  peace  has  been 
 departed  from  them  ;  'violence  has  been  in  their  land,' 
 which  has  been  laid  desolate  ;  their  tabernacle  and  sanc- 
 tuary have  been  consumed  ;  they  have  been  a  prey  to  the 
 heathen ;  and  have  long  ceased  to  be  God's  people, 
 and  he  to  be  their  God  :  and  therefore  these  prophecies 
 must  be  understood  of  some  other  event,  which  can  only 
 be  the  general  conversion  of  the  Jews  to  Christianity, 
 and  their  re-establishment  in  the  Holy  Land.  For  this 
 mystery  the  apostle  has  revealed,  4  '  that  blindness  in 
 part  hath  happened  to  Israel,  until  the  fulness  of  the 
 Gentiles  be  come  in,  and  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved,  as 
 it  is  written, 5  there  shall  come  out  of  Zion  the  Deliverer, 
 and  shall  turn  away  ungodliness  from  Jacob.  6  Then 
 shall  the  Lord  set  his  hand  again,  a  second  time,  to  re- 
 cover the  remnant  of  his  people,  and  to  assemble  the 
 outcasts  of  Israel,  from  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and 
 nation,  and  people,  that,  at 7  the  blowing  of  the  great 
 trumpet,  they  may  come  from  the  land  of  Assyria  and 
 Egypt,  and  may  worship  the  Lord  in  the  holy  mount  at 
 Jerusalem.'  When  this  great  event  shall  happen,  it  is 
 impossible  for  us  to  determine  ;  but  our  business,  in  the 
 mean  time,  is  to  pray,  that  8  'the  salvation  of  Israel  may 
 come  out  of  Zion,  that  Jacob- may  rejoice,  and  Israel 
 may  be  glad.'a 
 
 1  Is.  lxii.  4.  2  Ezek.  xxxvii.  25,  &c. 
 
 3  Whitby's  Treatise  of  the  true  Millennium. 
 
 4  Rom.  xi.  25,  26.         s  Is.  lix.  20.         °  Ibid.  xi.  11,  &c. 
 
 7  Ibid,  xxvii.  13.  8  Ps.  xiv.  7. 
 a  Numerous  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testament  declare,  as 
 clearly  as  language  can,  that  the  Jews  shall  return  to  Judca, 
 and  be  at  last  permanently  re-established  in  the  land  of  their 
 fathers.  The  uniform  experience  of  the  literal  truth  of  every 
 prediction  respecting  their  past  history  may  suffice  to  give  assur- 
 ance of  the  certainty  of  their  predicted  restoration.  And 
 amidst  many  signs  that  '  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  '  are  drawing 
 towards  their  fulfilment,  many  concurring  circumstances  seem 
 also  to  ha  preparing  the  way  of  the  children  of  Israel.  Scattered 
 as  they  have  been  for  so  many  ages  through  the  world,  and  main- 
 taining still  their  distinctive  character,  their  whole  history  for- 
 bids the  thought  that  they  will  ever  mingle  among  the  nations, 
 or  cease  to  be,  what  they  have  ever  been,  a  peculiar  people.  But 
 while  their  history,  as  a  nation,  gave,  for  the  space  of  many 
 generations,  unequivocal  attestations  of  an  overruling  providence, 
 sustaining  the  theocracy  of  the  commonwealth  of  Israel  ;  and 
 w'hile  during  a  period  of  still  greater  duration,  they  have  been 
 '  a  people  scattered  and  peeled  :'  yet  after  the  lapse  of  so  many 
 ages,  they  arc  still  reserved  for  illustrating  the  truth,  the  mercy, 
 
 SEC  T.     V. 
 
 CHAP.  I.— From   the  Death  of  Josiah,  to   the 
 Babylonish  Captivity. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 After  the  unhappy  death  of  good  Josiah,  his  son 
 Jehoahaz,  b  who  was  also  called  Shallum,  was  anointed 
 king ;  but  as  he  was  far  from  following  his  father's  ex- 
 
 and  the  glory  of  the  God  of  Israel;  '  at  eventide  it  shall  be  light.' 
 They  now  begin,  centuries  of  persecution  and  spoliation  having 
 passed  away,  to  participate,  in  cases  too  numerous  to  be  specified, 
 of  benefits  arising  from  the  altered  spirit  of  the  times.  And 
 possessed,  as  in  an  unexampled  degree  they  are,  of  silver  and 
 gold,  and  of  large  portions  of  the  public  funds  of  various  king- 
 doms, they  may  be  said,  even  now  in  some  manner,  to  'inherit 
 the  riches  of  the  Gentiles.'  And  commanding,  as  in  a  great 
 measure  they  do,  the  rate  of  exchange  throughout  Europe,  they 
 are  entitled  from  the  present  influence  of  money  on  the  security  of 
 governments,  and  on  the  art  and  results  of  war,  to  high  political 
 consideration ;  and  the  time  may  not  thus  be  remote,  when  they 
 shall  be  'raised  up  as  an  ensign  among  the  nations.'  Not 
 naturalized  to  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles,  either  by  law  or  affection, 
 or  bound  to  any  soil  by  the  possession  of  fixed  property,  which 
 would  be  of  no  easy  transference,  but  ever  looking  with  un- 
 diminished love  to  the  land  of  their  fathers,  even  after  an 
 expatriation  uninterrupted  for  nearly  eighteen  centuries,  they 
 are  ready,  whenever  the  time  shall  be  fulfilled,  to  fly  thither  '  like 
 a  cloud,  and  like  doves  to  their  windows.'  But  to  what  degree, 
 and  in  what  manner,  the  present  convulsions  of  the  Turkish 
 empire,  combined  with  the  peculiar,  and  in  many  instances,  novel 
 condition  of  the  Jews,  throughout  Europe  and  America,  shall  be 
 the  means  of  facilitating  their  eventual  restoration  to  their  own 
 land,  (which  is  ravaged  by  Arabs,  and  yields  but  a  scanty 
 revenue  to  the  Turks)  no  mortal  can  determine.  It  is  enough 
 for  Christians  to  know,  that  two  thousand  of  years,  through  nearly 
 which  period  it  has  been  dormant,  can  neither  render  extinct  the 
 title,  nor  prescribe  the  heaven-chartered  right  of  the  seed  of 
 Abraham  to  the  final  and  everlasting  possession  of  the  land  of 
 Canaan  :  that  God  '  will  remember  the  land,  and  gather  together' 
 unto  it  his  ancient  people,  and  that  his  word  concerning  Zion, 
 which  he  hath  neither  forgotten  nor  forsaken,  is,  '  I  have  graven 
 thee  upon  the  palms  of  my  hands,  thy  walls  are  continually  before 
 me.  Thy  children  shall  make  haste  ;  thy  destroyers,  and  they  that 
 made  thee  waste,  shall  go  forth  of  thee,  &c.,'  (Is.  xlix.  16, 17,  &c.) 
 And  that  through  all  the  changes  which  have  happened  in  the 
 kingdoms  of  the  earth  from  the  days  of  Moses  to  the  present 
 time,  which  is  more  than  three  thousand  two  hundred  years, 
 nothing  should  have  happened  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  the 
 accomplishment  of  these  prophecies,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  the 
 state  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  nations  at  this  day  should  be 
 such  as  renders  them  easily  capable,  not  only  of  a  figurative,  but 
 even  of  a  literal  completion  in  evvvy  particular,  if  the  will  of  God 
 be  so,  this  is  a  miracle  which  hath  nothing  parallel  to  it  in  the 
 phenomena  of  nature.' — Keith's  Evidence  of  Prophecies. — Ed. 
 
 b  Jehoahaz  was  not  the  eldest  son  of  Josiah,  as  appears  from 
 this, — That  he  was  but  three  and  twenty  years  old  when  he  be- 
 gan to  reign,  and  reigned  but  three  months  ;  after  which  his 
 brother  Jehoiakim,  when  he  was  made  king,  was  five  and  twenty 
 years  old,  (2  Kings  xxiii.  31,  32.)  For  this  reason,  it  is  said, 
 that  the  people  anointed  him,  because,  as  he  did  not  come  to  the 
 crown  by  right  of  succession,  his  title  might  have  otherwise  been 
 disputed  ;  for  in  all  disputed  cases,  and  where  the  kingdom  came 
 to  be  contested,  anointing  was  ever  thought  to  give  a  preference. 
 At  this  time,  however,  the  Jews  might  have  some  reason  to  pre- 
 fer the  younger  brother,  because  very  probably  he  was  of  a  more 
 martial  spirit,  and  better  qualified  to  defend  their  liberties  against 
 the  king  of  Egypt.  His  proper  name,  it  is  thought,  was  Shal- 
 lum ;  but  our  learned  Usher  supposes,  that  the  people  looking 
 upon  this  as  ominous,  because  Shallum,  king  of  Israel,  reigned 
 but  one  month,  changed  it  to  Jehoahaz,  which  proved  not  much 
 
 more  fortunate  to  him,  for  lie  reigned  but  three Patrick's  and 
 
 Calmct's  Commentaries. 
 
654 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.3384.  A.  C.  610  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 ample,  lie  was  soon  a  tumbled  down  from  his  throne 
 into  a  prison,  where  he  ended  his  days,  with  misery  and 
 disgrace,  in  a  strange  land.  For  Pharaoh-Necho,  upon 
 his  return  from  the  expedition  against  the  Babylonians, 
 wherein  he  had  great  success,  hearing  that  Jehoahaz  had 
 taken  upon  him  the  kingdom  of  Judafa  without  his  con- 
 sent, sent  for  him  to  Riblah  in  Syria,  and  on  his  arrival, 
 caused  him  to  be  put  in  chains,  and  sent  prisoner  to 
 Egypt,  h  where  he  died.  He  had  an  elder  brother,  whose 
 name  was  Eliakim  ;  but  Necho,  when  he  came  to  Jerusa- 
 lem, changed  it  into  Jehoiakim  ;  c  and  having  constitut- 
 ed him  king,  and  put  the  land  to  an  annual  tribute  of 
 an  hundred  talents  of  silver,  and  a  talent  of  gold,  he 
 returned  with  great  triumph  into  his  own  kingdom. 
 
 Jehoiakim  d  being  thus  placed  on  the  throne,  went  on 
 in  his  brother's  steps  to  relax  all  the  good  order  and 
 
 a  The  Scripture  nowhere  tells  us,  upon  what  occasion  it  was 
 that  Jehoahaz  fell  into  the  king  of  Egypt's  hands,  or  for  what 
 reason  it  was  that  he  used  him  so  severely ;  but  it  is  presumable, 
 that  to  revenge  his  father's  death,  he  might  raise  an  army,  and 
 engage  him  in  a  pitched  battle,  though  he  failed  in  the  attempt. 
 For  why  should  he  put  him  in  bands,  if  he  voluntarily  went,  and 
 surrendered  himself  at  Riblah  ?  or  why  be  so  highly  offended  at 
 him  for  accepting  of  a  crown  which  the  people  conferred  on  him? 
 The  general  opinion  therefore  is,  that  he  was  a  man  of  a  bold  and 
 daring  spirit,  and  therefore  those  words  in  the  prophet  Ezekiel 
 are  applied  to  him:  '  thy  mother  is  a  lioness;  she  brought  up  one 
 of  her  whelps  ;  it  became  a  young  lion ;  but  he  was  taken  in  the 
 pit,  and  he  was  brought  with  chains  unto  the  land  of  Egypt;'  for 
 which  reason  Pharaoh-Necho  treated  him  in  this  manner,  that  he 
 might  put  it  out  of  his  power  to  give  him  any  farther  distur- 
 bance.— Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 b  This  the  prophet  Jeremiah  foretold,  where  he  bidsthe  king, 
 and  the  people  of  Judah,  'not  to  weep  for  the  dead,'  meaning 
 Josiah,  '  but  for  him  that  goeth  away,  for  he  shall  return  no  more, 
 nor  see  his  native  country.'  Because,  '  thus  saith  the  Lord  con- 
 cerning Shallum,'  which  was  the  original  and  right  name  of 
 Jehoahaz,  '  the  son  of  Josiah  king  of  Judah,  who  reigned  instead 
 of  Josiah,  his  father,  and  who  went  forth  out  of  this  place,  he 
 shall  not  return  hither  any  more.'  (Jer.  xxii.  11.) 
 
 c  It  was  a  usual  thing  for  conquerors  to  change  the  names  of 
 the  persons  they  vanquished  in  war,  in  testimony  of  their  absolute 
 power  over  them.  Thus  we  find  the  king  of  Babylon  changing 
 the  name  of  Mattaniah  into  Zedekiah,  when  he  constituted  him 
 king  of  Judah,  (2  Kings  xxiv.  17.)  But  our  learned  Usher  has 
 farther  remarked,  that  the  king  of  Egypt  gave  Eliakim  the  name 
 of  Jehoiakim,  thereby  to  testify  that  he  ascribed  his  victory 
 over  the  Babylonians  to  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  by  whose 
 excitation,  as  he  pretended,  (2  Chron.  xxxv.  21,  22),  he  under- 
 took the  expedition. — Patrick's  and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  As  to  the  time  when  Jehoiakim  came  to  the  throne,  the  dif- 
 ference is  very  remarkable:  for  in  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  9,  it  is  said, 
 that  he  was  but  '  eight  years  old,'  but  in  2  Kings  xxiv.  8,  that 
 he  was  '  eighteen  when  he  began  to  reign,'  and  yet,  considering 
 how  common  a  thing  it  was  for  kings  to  make  their  sons  their 
 associates  in  the  kingdom,  thereby  to  secure  the  possession  of  it 
 in  their  family,  aud  prevent  all  contention  among  the  other 
 brothers,  the  difference  is  easily  reconciled,  by  supposing,  that 
 when  his  father  had  reigned  one  year,  he  took  him  to  reign  in 
 conjunction  with  him,  when  he  was  no  more  than  eight  years 
 old.  With  his  father  he  reigned  ten  years  ;  so  that,  when  his 
 father  died,  he  was  eighteen  years  old,  and  then  he  began  to 
 reign  alone,  which  was  no  more  than  three  months.  The  author 
 dl  the  book  of  Kings  makes  mention  therefore  only  of  the  years 
 when  lie  began  to  reign  alone  ;  but  the  author  of  the  Chronicles 
 speaks  of  all  the  time  that  he  reigned,  both  with  his  father,  and 
 alone.  Tins  is  a  fair  solution;  though  1  cannot  see  what  injury  it 
 can  do  to  the  authority  of  the  sacred  text,  if  we  should  aeknow- 
 ledge,  that  there  is  an  error  in  the  transcriber  of  the  book  of 
 Chronicles ;  because  two  of  the  most  ancient  and  venerable 
 versions,  the  Syriac  and  Arabic,  have  rendered  it  in  that  place, 
 net  eight  but  eighteen,  which  they  were  doubtless  induced  to  do  by 
 those  ancient  Hebrew  copies  from  whence  they  formed  their 
 translation. —  Patrick's  Commentary,  uud  Puolc's  Annotations. 
 
 4803.  A.  C.  G08.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 discipline  which  his  father  had  instituted,  and  the  people, 
 who  never  heartily  came  into  that  good  king's  reformation, 
 took  this  opportunity  to  follow  the  bent  of  their  depraved 
 inclinations  ;  whereupon  the  prophet  Jeremiah  went  first 
 to  the  king's  palace,  where  he  denounced  God's  judg- 
 ments against  him  and  his  family,  and  afterwards  into  the 
 temple,  and  there  spoke  to  all  the  people  after  the  same 
 manner.  The  priests,  offended  at  this  freedom,  caused 
 him  to  be  seized,  and  brought  before  the  king's  council, 
 in  hopes  of  having  him  put  to  death  ;  but  Ahikam,  e  who 
 was  one  of  the  chief  lords  thereof,  so  befriended  him,  that 
 he  got  him  discharged  by  the  general  suffrage,  not  only 
 of  the  princes,  but  also  of  all  the  elders  of  the  people 
 that  were  then  present. 
 
 But  aUrijah,  /  another  prophet  of  the  Lord,  who,  in 
 like  manner,  had  declared  against  the  iniquity  of  the 
 prince  and  people,  did  not  so  easily  escape  :  for  though 
 he  fled  into  Egypt,  when  he  understood  that  Jehoiakim 
 had  a  design  against  his  life  ;  yet  this  did  not  hinder  the 
 tyrant  from  pursuing  him  thither,  where  having  procured 
 him  to  be  seized,  he  brought  him  prisoner  to  Jerusalem, 
 and  there  had  him  executed,  and  his  dead  body  contemp- 
 tuously used  ;  which  was  no  small  aggravation  to  all  his 
 other  crimes. 
 
 He  had  not  been  above  three  years  upon  the  throne, 
 before  Nabopollassar,  king  of  Babylon,  being  now  be- 
 come old  and  infirm,  and  perceiving  that,  upon  the  late 
 advantage  which  the  king  of  Egypt  had  gained  against 
 his  arms,  all  Syria  and  Palestine  had  revolted  from  him, 
 took  his  son  Nebuchadnezzar  into  partnership  with  him 
 in  the  empire,  and  sent  him  with  a  strong  army  into  those 
 parts,  in  order  to  recover  what  had  been  lost. 
 
 It  was  in  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim,  when  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, having  defeated  Necho's  army  on  the  banks 
 
 1  Jer.  xxvi.  20,  &c. 
 
 e  This  Ahikam  was  the  father  of  Gedaliah,  (2  Kings  xxv.  22.) 
 who  was  afterwards  made  governor  of  the  land,  under  the  Chal- 
 deans, and  the  son  of  Shaphan  the  scribe,  (who  was  chief  minister 
 of  state  under  king  Josiah,  2  Kings  xxii.  12.)  and  brother  to 
 Gemariah,  (Jer.  xxxvi.  10,  Elasah,  xxix.  3,  and  Jaazaniah, 
 Ezek.  viii.  11,)  who  were  great  men  in  those  days,  and  members 
 likewise  of  the  council  with  him  ;  where,  in  conjunction  with 
 them,  he  could  not  fail  of  having  a  powerful  interest,  which  he 
 made  use  of  on  this  occasion,  to  deliver  the  prophet  from  that 
 mischief  which  was  intended  against  him. — Prideaux's  Connec- 
 tion, anno  609. 
 
 /About  this  time  also  were  living  the  prophets  Habakkuk, 
 Zephaniah,  and  Nahum,  who  being  called  to  the  prophetic  office 
 in  the  reign  of  Josiah,  continued,  very  likely,  to  this  time,  be- 
 cause we  find  them  prophesying  the  same  things  that  Jeremiah  did, 
 namely,  the  destruction  and  desolation  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem, 
 for  the  many  heinous  sins  that  they  were  guilty  of.  As  to 
 Habakkuk,  neither  the  time  in  which  he  lived,  nor  the  parents 
 from  whom  he  was  descended,  are  any  where  named  in  Scrip- 
 ture; but  his  prophesying  the  coming  of  the  Chaldeans,  in  the 
 same  manner  that  Jeremiah  did,  gives  us  reason  to  believe  that 
 he  lived  in  the  same  time.  Of  Zephaniah,  it  is  directly  said, 
 (chap,  i.)  that  he  prophesied  in  the  time  of  Josiah,  and  in  his 
 pedigree,  which  is  also  given  us,  his  father's  grandfather  is 
 called  Hezekiah,  whom  some  take  for  the  king  of  Judah,  and 
 consequently  reckon  this  prophet  to  have  been  of  royal  descent. 
 As  to  Nahum,  lastly,  it  is  certain,  that  he  prophesied  after  the 
 captivity  of  the  ten  tribes,  and  before  that  of  the  other  two, 
 which  he  foretold,  (chap,  i.)  Though  therefore  the  Jews  do  gene- 
 rally place  him  in  Manasseh's  reign,  yet  others  choose  to  refer 
 him  to  the  latter  part  of  Josiah's,  as  being  nearer  to  the  destruc- 
 tion of  Nineveh  and  of  the  Assyrian  monarchy,  to  which  several 
 prophecies  of  his  do  principally  relate. — Prideaux's  Connection, 
 anno  009  ;  and  Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 655 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4803.  A.  C.  G08.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 of  the  Euphrates,  marched  into  Syria  and  Palestine,  in 
 order  to  recover  these  provinces,  which  lie  soon  did  ; 
 and  having  besieged  Jerusalem,  took  it,  and  carried  away 
 the  king,  and  part  of  the  vessels  of  the  temple  along 
 with  him,  to  Babylon.  In  a  short  time,  however,  he  re- 
 leased him  and  restored  him  to  his  crown,  on  condition 
 that  ^.e  should  become  tributary  to  him,  which  he  con- 
 tinued to  be  for  three  years  ;  but  in  the  fourth,  he  re- 
 tracted from  that  subjection,  whereupon  Nebuchadnezzar 
 came  upon  him  with  a  fresh  invasion. 
 
 Upon  the  first  invasion,  the  Rechabites,  who,  accord- 
 ing to  the  institution  of  Jonadab  the  son  of  Rechab,  their 
 founder,  had  always  abstained  from  wine,  and  hitherto 
 only  lived  in  tents,  apprehending  themselves  in  more 
 danger  in  the  open  country,  came  to  Jerusalem  for  safety. 
 By  these  people  God  intended  to  convince  the  Jews  of 
 their  disobedience  to  him  ;  and  therefore  he  ordered  his 
 prophet  Jeremiah,  to  bring  them  to  an  apartment  of  the 
 temple,  and  there  offer  them  wine  to  drink,  which  when 
 they  refused  upon  account  of  its  being  contrary  to  their 
 institution,  which  they  never  yet  had  violated,  the  pro- 
 phet (after  due  commendation  a  of  their  obedience) 
 turned  it  upon  the  Jews,  and  reproached  them,  who  were 
 God's  peculiar  people,  for  being  less  observant  of  his 
 laws  than  the  poor  Rechabites,  who  were  not  of  the  stock 
 of  Israel,  had  been  of  the  injunctions  of  their  ancestor. 
 
 Before  the  next  invasion  Jeremiah  prophesied  that 
 Nebuchadnezzar  would  again  come  against  Judah  and 
 Jerusalem  ;  that  he  would  waste  the  country,  and  carry 
 the  people  captive  to  Babylon,  where  they  should  con- 
 tinue in  that  condition  for  the  space  of  seventy  years ; 
 with  many  more  calamities,  and  woful  desolations,  that 
 were  ready  to  fall  upon  them,  if  they  did  not  repent. 
 But  this  was  so  far  from  making  any  saving  impression 
 upon  them,  that  it  only  enraged  and  exasperated  them 
 the  more  against  him,  insomuch,  that,  for  fear  of  their 
 malice  and  wrathful  indignation,  he  was  b  forced  to 
 keep  himself  concealed. 
 
 a  The  prophet's  words,  upon  this  occasion,  are  these  : — '  Be- 
 cause ye  have  obeyed  the  commandments  of  Jonadab  your  father, 
 and  kept  all  his  precepts,  and  done  according  to  all  that  he  hath 
 commanded  you  ;  thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel, 
 Jonadab,  the  son  of  Rechab,  shall  not  want  a  man  to  stand  be- 
 fore me  for  ever.'  (Jer.  xxxv.  18,  19.)  To  stand  before  a  prince, 
 or  to  see  his  face,  in  Scripture  phrase,  denotes  the  honour  which 
 accrues  from  being  in  his  service,  but  the  Rechabites  were  nei- 
 ther priests  nor  Levites.  Hitherto  they  had  lived  in  the  fields, 
 separate  from  towns  and  villages,  and  were  averse  indeed  to  any 
 employment  either  in  church  or  state  ;  but  from  the  time  of 
 their  captivity,  (for  they  were  carried  along  with  the  two  tribes,) 
 we  find  them  employed  as  singers  and  porters  in  the  service  of 
 the  temple.  To  serve  in  this  capacity,  there  was  no  necessity 
 for  their  being  of  the  tribe  of  Levi ;  the  declaration  of  the  divine 
 will,  by  the  mouth  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  was  in  this  case  a 
 sufficient  vocation. — Calmet's  Commentary  on  Jer.  xxv.  19. 
 
 b  Jeremiah's  words,  upon  this  occasion,  are, — '  I  am  shut  up, 
 I  cannot  go  into  the  house  of  the  Lord,'  chap,  xxxvi.  5.  But 
 then  the  question  is,  what  we  are  to  understand  by  his  being 
 shut  up  ?  For,  that  he  was  not  at  that  time  shut  up  in  prison, 
 is  plain  from  the  prince's  advising  him  and  Baruch  to  hide 
 themselves,  ver.  19.  Junius  and  Tremellius  do  therefore  sup- 
 pose three  ways  of  his  being  shut  up,  and  leave  it  to  our  choice 
 which  to  take.  The  first  is,  that  the  king  had  forbidden  him  to 
 go  any  more  into  the  temple  to  prophesy  such  terrible  things  to 
 the  people  ;  but  the  prophets  of  God  did  not  use  to  observe  such 
 prohibitions  of  their  prophetic  ministry.  The  second  is,  that  the 
 chiet  priests  had  excommunicated  him,  and  therefore  he  might 
 not  go;  but  this,  in  all  likelihood,  he  would  have  less  regarded, 
 for  the  same  reason.     The  third  is,  that  God,  to  provide  for  the 
 
 During  his  concealment,  God  commanded  hiin  to  col- 
 lect together,  and  digest  into  one  volume,  all  the  pro- 
 phecies which  he  had  given  him  against  Israel,  against 
 Judah,  and  against  other  nations,  from  the  time  that  he 
 first  began  to  prophesy,  (which  was  in  the  thirteenth 
 year  of  Josiah,)  if  haply,  by  hearing  all  his  judgments 
 summed  up  together  against  them,  they  might  be  brought 
 to  a  better  sense  of  their  transgressions.  To  this  pur- 
 pose the  prophet  employed  Baruch,  c  his  disciple  and 
 amanuensis,  to   take  a  copy  d  of  them  from  his  mouth, 
 
 safety  of  his  prophet,  and  to  punish  the  obstinacy  of  the  people, 
 would  not  permit  him  to  go  any  more  among  them.  This,  of 
 the  three,  seems  the  most  probable ;  though  the  phrase  may  very 
 properly  denote  no  more  than  the  prophet's  concealing  himseli, 
 and  keeping  at  home,  for  fear  of  some  mischief  from  the  people. 
 — Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 c  Baruch,  the  son  of  Neriah,  and  grandson  of  Maaseiah,  was 
 of  an  illustrious  birth,  and  of  the  tribe  of  Judah.  Seraiah,  his 
 brother,  had  a  considerable  employment  in  the  court  of  king 
 Zedekiah,  but  himself  kept  close  to  the  person  of  Jeremiah,  and 
 was  his  most  faithful  disciple,  though  his  adherence  to  his  master 
 drew  upon  him  several  persecutions,  and  a  great  deal  ot  bad 
 treatment.  After  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, Baruch  and  his  master  were  nermitted  to  stay  in  the 
 land  of  Judea;  but  when  the  remains  of  the  people  which  were 
 left  behind,  after  having  slain  their  governor  Gedaliah,  were  for 
 retiring  into  Egypt,  they  compelled  Jeremiah  and  his  disciple  to 
 go  along  with  them,  where  the  prophet  died,  and  Baruch  soon 
 after  made  his  escape  to  his  brethren  in  Babylon,  where,  accord- 
 ing to  the  tradition  of  the  Rabbins,  he  likewise  died  in  the 
 twelfth  year  of  the  captivity.  But  of  what  authority  the  book, 
 which  goes  under  his  name,  is,  or  by  whom  it  was  written,  and 
 whether  any  thing  related  therein  be  historically  true,  or  the 
 whole  of  it  a  fiction,  is  altogether  uncertain.  Grotius,  in  his 
 Commentary  upon  it,  thinks  it  an  entire  fiction  of  some  Hellen- 
 istical  Jew,  under  the  name  of  Baruch ;  and  St  Jerome,  long 
 before  him,  (in  the  preface  to  his  Exposition  of  Jeremiah,)  tells 
 us,  that  the  reason  why  he  did  not  make  a  comment  on  this 
 book,  (though,  in  the  edition  of  the  Septuagint,  it  be  joined  with 
 Jeremiah,)  was,  because  it  was  not  deemed  canonical  among  the 
 Hebrews,  and  contains  an  epistle  which  falsely  bears  the  name 
 of  Jeremiah.  This  epistle  is  annexed  to  the  book,  and,  in  the 
 common  division  of  it,  makes  the  last  chapter;  but  the  main 
 subject  of  the  book  itself  is  likewise  an  epistle,  either  sent,  or 
 feigned  to  be  sent,  by  king  Jehoiakim,  and  the  Jews  who  were 
 in  captivity  with  him  in  Babylon,  to  their  brethren  the  Jews 
 who  were  still  left  in  Judah  and  Jerusalem;  wherein  they  re- 
 commend to  their  prayers  the  emperor  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his 
 children,  that,  under  his  dominion,  they  may  lead  quiet  and 
 peaceable  lives;  wherein  they  confess  their  sins,  and  ask  pardon 
 for  what  is  past,  take  notice  of  the  threats  of  the  prophets,  which 
 they  had  so  long  despised,  and  acknowledge  the  righteousness  of 
 God  in  what  he  had  brought  upon  them ;  wherein  they  remind 
 them  of  the  advantages  which  the  Jews  had  in  their  knowledge 
 of  the  law  of  God,  and  of  true  wisdom,  above  all  other  nations, 
 and  thereupon  exhort  them  to  reform  their  manners,  and  forsake 
 their  evil  customs,  which  would  be  the  only  means  to  bring  about 
 their  deliverance  from  the  captivity  under  which  they  groaned. 
 The  whole  is  introduced  with  an  historical  preface,  wherein  it 
 is  related  that  Baruch,  being  then  at  Babylon,  did,  in  the  name 
 of  the  captive  king,  and  his  people,  draw  up  the  same  epistle, 
 and  afterwards  read  it  to  them  for  their  approbation ;  and  that, 
 together  with  it,  they  sent  a  collection  of  money  to  the  high 
 priest  at  Jerusalem,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  daily  sacrifices. 
 This  is  the  substance  of  the  book  itself;  and,  in  the  letter  annexed 
 to  it,  which  goes  under  Jeremiah's  name,  the  vanity  of  the 
 Babylonish  idols  and  idolatry  is  set  forth  at  large,  and  with 
 liveliness  enough.  Of  the  whole  there  are  but  three  copies;  one 
 in  Greek,  and  the  other  two  in  Syriac,  whereof  one  agreeth  with 
 the  Greek,  though  the  other  very  much  differs  from  it;  but  in 
 what  language  it  was  originally  written,  or  whether  one  of  these 
 be  not  the  original,  or  which  of  them  may  be  so,  it  is  next  to 
 impossible  to  tell. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  595,  and  Cal- 
 met's Preface   on  Baruch. 
 
 d  How  Jeremiah  could  remember  all  the  prophecies  that  he 
 uttered  for  the  space  of  two  and  twenty  years  together,  we  can 
 
G56 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 TBook  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3391.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4803.  A.  C.  G08.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 and,  when  he  had  so  done,  ordered  him  to  go  up  into 
 the  temple,  on  the  day  of  expiation,  a  and  there  read  it 
 in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people. 
 
 Pursuant  to  his  instructions  Baruch  went,  and,  in  Ge- 
 mariah's  *  apartment,  read  the  book,  lirst  to  the  people, 
 who  stood  below  in  the  courts,  and  afterwards  to  the 
 princes  who  were  met  together  in  the  secretary's  chamber  ; 
 and  who  thereupon  advised  him  and  his  master  Jere- 
 miah, both  to  c  keep  out  of  the  way,  until  they  had  known 
 the  king's  pleasure  concerning  it.  As  soon  as  the  king 
 was  informed  of  the  book,  he  sent  one  of  his  attendants 
 for  it,  and  commanded  him  to  read  it :  but  he  had  not 
 gone  far,  before  the  king,  impatient  to  hear  the  judg- 
 ments denounced  against  him,  snatched  it  out  of  his 
 hand,  and,  notwithstanding  the  importunity  of  his  nobles 
 to  dissuade  him,  cut  it  to  pieces,  and  threw  it  into  the 
 lire,  d  which  was  upon  the  hearth,  (for  it  was  then  the 
 
 hardly  conceive,  unless  we  allow  that  he  had  the  particular  in- 
 spiration of  God  to  bring  all  things  to  his  remembrance,  that  he 
 might  neither  forget  nor  misrepresent  them  in  his  recital  to 
 Baruch:  for,  without  such  a  supernatural  assistance,  what  se- 
 curity have  we  that  this  part  of  the  Scriptures  is  the  work  of  the 
 Holy  Ghost  ? — Calmet's  Commentary  on  Jer.  xxxvi.  4. 
 
 a  Some  are  of  opinion  that  this  was  done  on  the  great  day  of 
 fasting,  or  solemn  expiation,  which  was  observed  at  the  begin- 
 ning of  the  civil  year,  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  month  Tizri, 
 which  answers  to  the  latter  end  of  our  September,  and  the  be- 
 ginning of  October;  but  the  context  seems  to  denote,  that  it  was 
 on  the  fast  day  mentioned  in  the  ninth  verse  to  have  been  pro- 
 claimed in  the  fifth  year  of  Jehoiakim,  which  must  have  been  a 
 fast  extraordinary,  and  appointed  upon  some  particular  occasion 
 of  the  state,  because  the  law  had  ordained  no  such  observation  on 
 the  ninth  month:  but  what  that  particular  occasion  was,  it  is  not 
 so  well  known ;  though  some  have  imagined  that  it  was  in  com- 
 memoration of  the  calamity  which  had  befallen  Jerusalem  in  the 
 year  before,  when  Nebuchadnezzar  had  sent  to  Babylon  part  of 
 the  vessels  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  was  upou  the  point  of 
 sending  away  captive  the  king  and  all  his  princes.—  Calmet's 
 Commentary  on  Jer.  xxvi.  4.  9. 
 
 b  This  Gemariah  was  one  of  the  captains  ot  the  temple,  whose 
 apartment  was  near  the  New  Gate,  whereof  he  kept  guard,  and 
 had  a  certain  number  of  Levites  under  him,  who  constantly  stood 
 centinel.  For  the  temple,  we  must  know,  was  guarded  like  a 
 king's  palace ;  and  as  the  upper  court,  which  is  mentioned  in  the 
 text,  was,  in  all  probability,  the  priest's  court ;  so  the  gate,  where- 
 of Gemariah  had  charge,  must  have  been  the  east  gate  of  that 
 court,  which,  in  the  reign  of  Jehoshaphat,  2  Chron.  xx.  5.  is 
 called  the  New  Court. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  advice  which  the  princes  of  Judah  gave  upon  this  occa- 
 sion is  very  remarkable,  because  it  reconciles  their  duty  to  God, 
 to  justice,  and  to  charity,  with  what  they  were  obliged  to  from 
 their  prince.  Their  prince,  they  knew,  was  of  an  hasty  and  vio- 
 lent temper;  and  yet  the  contents  of  the  book  were  such,  that  it 
 would  not  be  safe  for  him  to  be  ignorant  of  it;  and  therefore, 
 being  in  duty  bound  to  acquaint  him  with  it,  they  advised  Baruch 
 and  his  master  to  provide  for  their  own  security,  until  they  should 
 see  what  effect  it  would  have  upon  the  king,  whereof  they  pro- 
 mised, no  doubt,  to  give  them  intelligence.— Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 d  The  text  tells  us,  that  it  was  in  the  ninth  month,  (which 
 mum-,  ers.in  part  to  our  month  of  November,;  when  the  king  burned 
 the  book.  After  that  the  rain  began  to  fall  in  the  month  of  Sep- 
 tember, the  weather  generally  grew  raw  and  cold,  so  that  a  fire 
 at  this  time  was  not  unseasonable:  the  custom,  however,  in  this 
 country  was  not  to  have  chimneys,  as  it  is  among  us.  The  fire 
 was  made  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  upon  an  hearth,  or  in  a 
 stove,  and  the  smoke  went  out  either  at  the  door  or  window,  or 
 some  opening  made  on  purpose  in  the  roof  of  the  house,  as  we 
 see  in  some  oi  our  college  halls,  and  some  kitchens  in  ancient 
 monasteries,  where  the  chimney  is  in  the  midst  of  the  roof,  in 
 the  form  of  a  cupola,  with  several  openings  for  the  smoke  to  fly 
 out  at.  For,  that  there  were  formerly  no  chimneys  in  the  man- 
 ner  we  make  them  now,  is  plain  from  the  observation  which  his 
 annoialor  makes  upon  Vitruvius,  namely,  that,  in  all  his  book  of 
 
 winter  season,)  where  it  was  consumed  ;  and  then  imme- 
 diately sent  out  his  officers  to  apprehend  the  prophet 
 and  his  amanuensis ;  but  they  had  both  withdrawn  to  a 
 place  of  security,  and  could  not  be  found. 
 
 Upon  burning  the  book,  Jeremiah  was  commanded  to 
 make  another  in  the  same  manner  ;  to  have  the  same  pro- 
 phecies inserted  in  it,  with  some  l  farther  denunciations 
 against  Jehoiakim  and  his  house,  which,  in  a  short  time, 
 began  to  take  effect.  For  Nebuchadnezzar,  as  we  said, 
 having  invaded  Judea,  and  laid  siege  to  Jerusalem,  soon 
 took  it,  and  put  Jehoiakim  in  chains  to  carry  him  to 
 Babylon  ;  but,  upon  his  humiliation,  and  swearing  fealty 
 to  him,  he  again  restored  him  to  his  kingdom,  and  left 
 Jerusalem,  in  order  to  pursue  his  victories  against  the 
 Egyptians  :  but  before  he  did  that,  he  e  caused  great 
 numbers  of  the  people  to  be  sent  captives  to  Babylon, 
 and  gave  particular  orders  to  Ashpenaz  the  master  of  his 
 eunuchs,  that,  out  of  the  children  of  the  royal  family, 
 and  that  of  the  nobility  of  the  land,  he  should  make 
 choice  of  such  as  surpassed  others  in  beauty  and  wit, 
 that,  when  they  came  to  Babylon,  they  might  be  made 
 eunuchs  too,  and  attend  hi  his  palace.  This  Ashpenaz 
 accordingly  did ;  and,  among  the  children  that  were 
 carried  away  captive  /  for  this  purpose  were  Daniel, 
 Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah.     Daniel,  upon  his  ar- 
 
 1   Jer.  xxxvi.  30,  31. 
 
 architecture,  he  makes  no  mention  of  chimneys,  which  he  ques- 
 tionless would  have  done,  had  they  been  of  use  in  his  time. — Cal- 
 met's Commentary,  and  M.  Perault  on  Vitruv.  b.  vi.  c.  8.. — [In 
 Palestine,  and  the  surrounding  regions,  the  coldness  of  the  night 
 in  all  the  seasons  of  the  year,  is  often  very  inconvenient.  The 
 king  of  Judah  is  described  by  the  prophet,  as  sitting  in  his  win- 
 ter-house in  the  ninth  month,  corresponding  to  the  latter  end  of 
 November  and  part  of  December,  with  a  fire  burning  on  the 
 hearth  before  him.  This  answers  to  the  state  of  the  weather  at 
 Aleppo,  where,  as  Dr  Russel  informs  us,  the  most  delicate 
 people  make  no  fires  till  the  end  of  November.  The  Europeans 
 resident  at  Syria,  he  observes  in  a  note,  continue  them  till 
 March ;  the  people  of  the  country  seldom  longer  than  February ; 
 but  fires  are  occasionally  made  in  wet  seasons,  not  only  in  March, 
 but  in  April  also,  and  would  be  acceptable  at  the  gardens  some- 
 times even  in  May.  Dr  Pococke,  in  his  journey  to  Jerusalem, 
 being  conducted  by  an  Arab  to  his  tent,  found  his  wife  and  family 
 warming  themselves  by  the  fire  on  the  seventeenth  of  March ; 
 and  on  the  eighth  of  May  he  was  treated  with  a  fire  to  warm 
 him,  by  the  governor  of  Galilee.  The  nights  at  that  season  are 
 often  very  cold,  and  of  this  the  inhabitants  are  rendered  more 
 sensible  by  the  heats  of  the  day.  In  May  and  June,  and  even 
 in  July,  travellers  very  often  put  on  fires  in  the  evening.  This 
 statement  clearly  discovers  the  reason,  why  the  people,  who  went 
 to  Gethsemane  to  apprehend  our  Lord,  kindled  a  fire  of  coals  to 
 warm  themselves  at  the  time  of  the  passover,  which  happened 
 in  the  spring. — Paxton's  Illustrations,  vol.  i. — Ed.] 
 
 e  Since  the  people  were  thus  carried  into  captivity,  the  sons 
 of  the  royal  family,  and  of  the  nobility  of  the  land,  made  eunuchs 
 and  slaves  in  the  palace  of  the  king  of  Babylon ;  the  vessels  of 
 the  temple  carried  thither,  the  king  made  a  tributary,  and  the 
 whole  land  now  brought  into  vassalage  under  the  Babylonians ;  from 
 hence  we  must  reckon  the  beginning  of  the  seventy  years'  cap- 
 tivity foretold  by  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  ch.  xxv.  1 1 .  and  xxix.  10, 
 and  in  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim  must  be  the  first  year  in  that 
 computation.. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  606. 
 
 /Some  indeed  do  place  their  captivity  several  years  later,  but 
 it  is  absolutely  inconsistent  with  what  is  elsewhere  said  in  Scrip- 
 ture: for  these  children,  after  their  carrying  away  to  Babylon, 
 were  to  be  three  years  under  the  tuition  of  the  master  of  the 
 eunuchs,  (Dan.  i.  5,)  to  be  instructed  by  him  in  the  language  and 
 learning  of  the  Chaldeans,  before  they  could  be  admitted  into 
 the  presence  of  the  king,  to  stand  and  serve  before  him.  But  in 
 the  second  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  reign,  after  his  father's 
 death,  which  was  but  the  fourth  year  after  his  first  taking  of 
 Jerusalem,  Daniel  had  not  only  admission  and  freedom  of  access 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FK03I  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  fee. 
 
 657 
 
 A.  M.  3394    A.  C.  CIO  :   OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HAI.ES,  A.  M. 
 
 riv.il  in  Babylon,  was  called  Belteshazzar,  and  the  other 
 three  were  named  Shadrach,  M.eshach,  and  Abednego, 
 of  whom  we  have  several  things  to  say  in  another  place. 
 
 Jehoiakim,  after  he  had  lived  in  subjection  to  the 
 king  of  Babylon  for  tliree  years,  rebelled  against  him  : 
 and  refusing  to  pay  him  any  more  tribute,  renewed  his 
 confederacy  with  Necho  king  of  Egypt.  Hereupon  Ne- 
 buchadnezzar, a  not  being  at  leisure  to  come  himself  to 
 chastise  him,  sent  orders  to  all  his  lieutenants  and  go- 
 vernors of  provinces  in  those  parte,  to  make  war  against 
 him,  which  brought  upon  him  inroads  and  depredations 
 from  every  quarter ;  till,  in  the  eleventh  year  of  his 
 reign,  all  parties  joined  together  against  him,  and.  hav- 
 ing shut  him  up  in  Jerusalem,  they  took  him  prisoner  in 
 a  sally  which  he  made  upon  them,  slew  him  with  the 
 sword,  and,  in  the  completion  of  the  '  prophet's  predic- 
 tion concerning  him,  b  cast  his  dead  body  in  the  high- 
 way, without  allowing  it  the  decency  of  a  funeral. 
 
 After  the  death  of  his  father,  Jehoiachin,  c  who  is  like- 
 wise called  Coniah  and  Jeconiah,  ascended  the  throne  : 
 but  for  the  little  time  that  he  continued  thereon,  persist- 
 ing in  his  fathers   impieties,  he  drew  upon  himself  2  a 
 
 1  Jer.  xxii.  IS,  19.  2  Jer.  xxii.  24—30. 
 
 to  the  king,  but  we  find  him  there  interpreting  his  dream, 
 (Dan.  ii.)  and  immediately  thereupon  advanced  to  be  the  chief  of 
 tiit-  governors  of  the  wise  men,  and  ruler  over  all  the  provinces 
 of  Babylon ;  and,  less  than  four  years'  instruction  in  the  lan- 
 guage, laws,  usages,  and  learning  of  the  country,  can  scarce  be 
 thought  sufficient  to  qualify  him  lor  such  a  trust;  nor  could  he 
 any  sooner  be  old  enough  for  it,  because  we  may  observe,  that 
 when  he  was  first  carried  away  from  Jerusalem,  he  was  but  a 
 youth. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  606. 
 
 a  What  detained  liim  from  going  in  person  against  Jerusalem 
 we  are  not  told:  only  it  appears,  that,  in  the  tenth  year  of  Je- 
 hoiakim, he  was  engaged  in  an  arbitration  between  the  Medes 
 and  Lydians,  the  occasion  of  which  was  this: — After  the  Medes 
 had  recovered  all  the  L'pjer  Asia  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Scy- 
 thians, and  again  extended  their  borders  to  the  river  Halys, 
 which  was  the  common  boundary  between  them  and  the  Ly- 
 dians, it  was  not  long  before  there  happened  a  war  between  these 
 two  nations,  which  was  managed  for  five  years  together  with 
 various  success.  In  the  sixth  year,  intending  to  make  one 
 battle  decisive,  theyr  engaged  each  other  with  their  utmost 
 strength;  but  in  the  midst  oi  the  action,  and  while  the  fortune 
 of  the  day  seemed  to  hang  in  an  equal  balance  between  them, 
 there  happened  an  eclipse,  which  overspread  both  the  armies 
 with  darkness:  whereupon  they  desisted  from  fighting,  and 
 agned  to  refer  the  controversy  to  the  arbitration  of  two  neigh- 
 bouring princes.  The  Lydians  chose  Siennesis  king  of  Cilicia; 
 and  the  Medes  Nebuchadnezzar  (who,  by  Herodotus,  b.  1.  is 
 called  Labynctus,')  king  of  Babylon,  who  concluded  a  peace  be- 
 tween them,  on  the  terms  that  Astyages,  son  oi  Cyaxares  king 
 :,  should  take  to  wife  Ariena,  the  daughter  of  Halyattis, 
 king  of  the  Lydians;  of  which  marriage,  within  a  year  after, 
 was  bom  Cyaxares,  who  is  called  Darius  the  Mede,  in  the 
 book  of  Danief. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  528. 
 (  b  In  2  Kings  xxiv.  6,  we  are  told  expressly,  that  Jehoiakim 
 'slept  with  his  fathers,'  and  yet  it  is  very  certain  that  he  was 
 neither  buried  with  them,  nor  died  in  his  bed,  but  lay  above 
 ground  unburied,  according  to  the  prediction  of  the  prophet,  (Jer. 
 xxxvi.  30.)  '  exposed  in  the  day  to  the  heat,  and  in  the  night  to 
 the  frost;'  from  whence  it  appears,  'that  to  sleep  with  one's 
 fathers,' signifies  no  more  than  to  die  as  they  did. — Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 c  His  succeeding  his  father  in  the  throne  of  Judah  may  seem 
 to  disagree  with  the  threat  which  the  prophet  denounces  against 
 his  father,  (Jer.  xxxvi.  30.)  '  He  shall  have  none  to  sit  upon  the 
 throne  of  David.'  But  as  Jehoiachin's  reign  lasted  little  more 
 than  three  months,  dining  which  time  he  was  absolutely  subject 
 to  the  Chaldeans,  a  reign  of  so  short  a  continuance,  and  so  small 
 authority,  may  very  justly  be  looked  upon  as  nothing. — Calmefs 
 Commentary. 
 
 4803.  A.  C.  EM.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 bitter  declaration  of  God's  wrath,  which  was  speedily 
 executed.  For,  in  three  months  after  his  father's  death, 
 Nebuchadnezzar,  d  coming  in  person  with  his  roval  army 
 to  Jerusalem,  which  was  then  blocked  up  by  his  lieute- 
 nants, caused  the  place  to  be  begirt  with  a  close  siege 
 on  every  side.  This  so  terrified  Jehoiachin,  that  e  tak- 
 ing his  mother,  his  princes,  and  his  chief  ministers  with 
 him,  he  went  out  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  delivered  him- 
 self into  his  hand :  who,  though  he  spared  his  life,  put 
 him  in  chains,  and  sent  him  to  Babylon,  where  he  conti- 
 nued in  prison  until  the  death  of  his  conqueror.  But  when 
 Evilmerodach  /  succeeded  to  his  father's  throne,  he  not 
 only  released  him  from  his  imprisonment,  which  had  con- 
 tinued for  seven  and  thirty  years,  but  treated  him  with 
 great  humanity  and  respect,  allowing  him  an  honourable 
 maintenance,  and  giving  him  the  precedence  of  all  other 
 princes  in  Babylon. 
 
 At  this  time  Nebuchadnezzar  carried  away  with  him, 
 besides  the  king  and  his  family,  a  vast  number  of  other 
 captives,  among  whom  was  Ezekiel  the  prophet,  all  the 
 mighty  men  of  valour,  and  all  the  useful  artificers,  out 
 of  Jerusalem,  s  to  the  number  of  ten  thousand  men,  to- 
 gether with  all  the  treasures,  and  *  rich  furniture  of  the 
 
 d  It  is  very  probable  that  Nebuchadnezzar  heard  that  he  had 
 entered  into  a  confederacy  with  the  king  of  Egypt,  as  his  succes- 
 sor did ;  and  therefore  sent  an  army  against  him,  in  the  very 
 beginning  of  his  reign,  to  lay  siege  to  Jerusalem,  against  which 
 he  intended  to  come  himself  But  the  Jews  have  a  conceit  that 
 Nebuchadnezzar's  counsellors  represented  to  him,  how  unadvis- 
 edly he  had  acted  in  making  him  king  whose  father  bad  been  in 
 rebellion  against  him,  and  that  upun  their  representation,  he 
 resolved  to  depose  him.  '  From  an  ill  dog  there  never  comes  a 
 good  whelp,'  was  the  proverb,  they  say,  which  the  counsellors 
 made  use  of  on  this  occasion ;  and  to  make  this  more  feasible  to 
 the  father  and  son,  they  generally  apply  that  passage  in  Ezekiel, 
 '  She  took  another  of  her  whelps,  and  made  him  a  young  lion, 
 and  he  went  up  and  down  among  the  lions.  He  became  a  young 
 lion,  and  learned  to  catch  the  prey,  and  devour  men.  Then  the 
 nations  set  against  him  on  every  side  from  the  provinces:  they 
 spread  their  net  over  him,  and  he  was  taken  in  their  pit,'  chap. 
 xix.  6,  &c. —  Calmii's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  It  is  very  probable  that  he  made  this  surrender,  at  the  advice 
 of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  who  gave  the  same  counsel  more  than 
 once  to  his  successor  Zedekiah,  (Jer.  xxi.  9;  xxvii.  17; 
 xxxviii.  2.) 
 
 /  During  his  father's  indisposition,  who  fancied  himself  meta- 
 morphosed into  an  ox,  he  took  upon  him  the  administration  of 
 the  government ;  but  after  seven  years,  when  his  father  recovered 
 his  understanding,  so  as  once  more  to  ascend  the  throne,  Evil- 
 merodach, as  some  believe,  was  imprisoned  by  his  father,  and  in 
 his  confinement,  contracted  an  acquaintance  and  intimacy  with 
 Jehoiachin  ;  so  that  after  his  father's  death,  and  his  full  accession 
 to  the  throne,  he  released  him  out  of  prison,  and  heaped  many 
 favours  upon  him:  and  it  was  by  his  advice,  as  the  Jews  tell  us, 
 that  Evilmerodach  took  his  father  out  of  the  ground,  after  he  was 
 dead  and  buried,  cut  his  body  in  pieces,  and  gave  them  to  three 
 hundred  ravens,  lest  he  should  return  from  his  grave,  as  he  had 
 before  recovered  from  his  metamorphosis  into  an  ox. — Calmct's 
 Dictionary,  under  the  word  Evilmerodach. 
 
 g  This  must  be  understood  of  the  whole  number  of  the  people 
 that  were  at  this  time  carried  captive,  which,  according  to  Aber- 
 binel  was  thus  made  up : — Jehoiachin  and  all  his  court,  and  great 
 men. were  seven  thousand;  the  craftsmen  a  thousand;  and  other 
 considerable  men  in  the  country  two  thousand,  which  completed 
 the  number.  Jeremiah  indeed  computes  them  to  be  little  above 
 three  thousand  th;it  were  now  carried  away :  but  he  reckons  only 
 those  that  were  carried  from  Jerusalem ;  whereas  in  2  Kings 
 xxxi  v.  16,  there  is  an  account  of  those  who  were  carried  from  other 
 cities,  and  out  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  which  were  seven  thou- 
 sand ;  and  this  reconciles   the  difference. — Patrick's  Comment. 
 
 h  Nebuchadnezzar  carried  away  the  vessels,  and  rich  furniture 
 of  the  temple,  at  three  difierent  times.  1st.  In  the  third  year  of 
 4o 
 
658 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  CIO;  OH.  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  4814.  A.  C.  597.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 temple,  and  of  the  royal  palace.  What  he  left  in  the 
 land  were  only  the  poorer  sort  of  people,  over  whom  he 
 made  Mattaniah,  the  third  son  of  Josiah,  king.  Of  him 
 he  took  a  solemn  oath  to  be  faithful  and  true  in  his  obe- 
 dience to  the  crown  of  Babylon  ;  and,  to  engage  him  the 
 more  to  be  so,  he  changed  his  name  to  Zedekiah,  which 
 signifies  the  justice  of  the  Lord,  intending  thereby  to  put 
 him  in  mind  of  the  vengeance  he  was  to  expect  from  the 
 justice  of  the  Lord  his  God,  if  he  violated  that  fidelity 
 which  he  had  in  his  name  sworn  unto  him. 
 
 Zedekiah  was  but  just  settled  in  the  throne,  and  Ne- 
 buchadnezzar departed  out  of  Judea,  and  Syria,  when  ' 
 several  kings  of  the  neighbouring  nations,  namely,  the 
 Ammonites,  the  Moabites,  the  Edomites,  the  Zidonians, 
 'the  Tynans,  &c,  sent  their  ambassadors  to  Jerusalem,  to 
 congratulate  him  upon  his  accession  to  the  throne,  and 
 to  propose  a  league  against  the  king  of  Babylon,  in 
 order  to  shake  oft'  his  yoke,  and  prevent  his  return  into 
 those  parts  any  more.  Upon  this  occasion,  Jeremiah, 
 by  God's  command,  made  him  bonds  and  yokes,  which 
 he  sent  by  the  said  ambassadors  to  their  respective  mas- 
 ters, with  this  message  from  God,  namely,  "  That  he  had 
 given  all  their  countries  to  the  king  of  Babylon,  and 
 therefore  their  wisest  course  would  be  to  submit  to  his 
 yoke,  which  if  they  refused  to  do,  both  they  and  their 
 countries  should  most  certainly  be  destroyed  :"  but  to 
 Zedekiah  he  went  in  person,  and  having  persuaded  him 
 <.o  submit  to  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  not  to  give  credit 
 to  false  prophets,  who  might  flatter  him  with  a  deliver- 
 ance from  his  power,  he  prevailed  with  him  for  that  time 
 not  to  enter  into  the  league  that  was  proposed. 
 
 He  had  before  this, 2  under  the  emblem  of  two  baskets 
 of  figs,  foretold  Zedekiah  the  restoration  which  God 
 intended  for  those  that  were  gone  into  captivity,  and  the 
 misery  and  desolation  which  should  befal  them  who 
 were  still  in  the  land  ;  and  now  in  pursuance  of  his  pro- 
 phetic office,  he  «  took  the   opportunity  of  the   king's 
 
 1  Jer.  xxxvii.  i  Jer#  xxiy 
 
 the  «|gn  of  Jehoiakim,  when  he  first  took  Jerusalem,  he  carried 
 part  of  the  vessels  oi  the  house  of  God  away  into  the  land  of  Shi- 
 md  put  them  into  the  house  of  his  god,'  (Dan  i  2  )  ^hese 
 were  the  vessels  which  his  son  Belshazzar  profaned  (Dan  v  2  ) 
 and  which  Cyrus  restored  to  the  Jews,  (Ezra  i.  7.)  to  be"  set  up 
 again  in  the  temple  when  rebuilt,  gdly,  In  the  reign  of  Jehoia- 
 Chm,  he  took  the  city  again,  and  cut  in  pieces  a  great  part  of  the 
 vessels  of  gold  which  Solomon  had  made,  (2  Kings  xxiv  13) 
 and  by  some  chat.ee  or  other  had  escaped  his  former  plunder 
 •idly,  In  the  eleventh  year  of  Zedekiah,  he  pillaged  the  temple 
 once  more,  when  he  brake  in  pieces  the  pillars  of  brass,  and  the 
 bases,  and  the  brazen  sea,  and  took  along  with  them  all  the  vessels 
 of  silver  and  gold  that  he  could  find,  and  carried  them  to  Babylon 
 fl!  Kings  xxv.  13,)  &c.  It  is  somewhat  strange,  that  amongst  all 
 Ms  inventory  we  hear  no  mention  made  of  the  ark  of  the  cove- 
 nant, which  o  all  other  things  was  held  most  sacred;  but  it  is 
 '«TP;*«*'e  that  it  was  burned  together  with  the  temple,  in  this 
 last  desolaUon.  E  or  what  some  say  of  its  being  hidden  by  the  pro! 
 phet  Jeremiah,  inacertam  cave  in  Mount  Nebo,  is  a  mere  fable 
 
 /;,;""'  ''"hniix  Commentaries,  and  Dissertation  on  the 
 /,ut  oj  the  Covenant. 
 
 embat<llhLtWn'.!?1»U?0f  what  occasion  Zedekiah  sei,t  «»s 
 embassy  to  the  king  ol  Babylon,  the  sacred  history  is  silent;  but 
 .  to  very  pn»umable  that  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
 and  that  as  Judea  was  then  tributary  to  the  Chaldeans,  the  king' 
 I  n  icy  was  to  keep  up  ■  good  understanding  with  them.  Ezekic 
 however  was  not  as  yet  possessed  of  the  spirit  of  propl Ley  and 
 fa  tins  reason  Jeremiah,  was  obliged  to  take  care  of  tbeJews 
 who  were  gone  captives  into  the  laud  of  Babylon,  and  to  send 
 them  instructions  u,  what  manner  they  were  to  behave,  namely 
 
 sending  an  embassy  to  Babylon  to  direct  a  letter  to  the 
 Jews  of  the  captivity,  advising  them  not  to  be  deceived 
 with  such  prophets,  b  as  made  them  entertain  false  hopes 
 of  a  speedy  restoration  ;  that  by  the  ordination  of  God 
 their  captivity  was  to  last  seventy  years ;  and  that  the 
 people  left  at  Jerusalem  would  be  of  little  use  to  assist 
 them  in  their  deliverance,  because  God,  in  a  short  time, 
 would  afHict  them  with  the  sword,  with  famine,  and  with 
 pestilence,  so  as  to  consume  the  greatest  part  of  them, 
 and  scatter  the  rest  over  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  and  there- 
 fore he  exhorts  them  to  live  quietly  and  peaceably  in  the 
 country,  whither  they  were  carried,  without  expecting 
 any  return,  until  the  time  which  God  had  appointed. 
 
 Upon  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  one  Sliemaiah,  a 
 popular  man  among  the  captive  Jews  at  Babylon,  took 
 upon  him  to  write  to  Zephaniah,  the  second  priest,  and 
 to  all  the  priests  and  people  of  Jerusalem,  representing 
 Jeremiah  as  a  madman,  and  a  false  pretender  to  pro- 
 phecy, and  advising  them  to  confine  him  :  which  Jere- 
 miah hearing,  was  commanded  by  God  to  send  again  to 
 the  captives  of  Babylon,  to  let  them  know,  that  he  would 
 punish  Shemaiah  and  his  posterity  very  severely,  for 
 having  deluded  them  with  false  prophecies  ;  and  at  the 
 same  time,  to  convince  those  that  were  left  in  Jerusalem, 
 he  showed  them,  3  by  the  emblem  of  a  potter's  vessel, 
 that  it  was  in  the  Almighty's  power  to  destroy  what 
 nation  or  people  he  pleased.  But  all  this  availed  nothing. 
 They  still  resolved  to  go  on  in  their  wicked  ways  :  and, 
 to  avenge  themselves  of  the  prophet,  who  gave  them 
 some  disturbance  therein,  they  abused  him  with  words 
 and  blows,  and,  at  length,  put  him  in  the  stocks. 
 
 It  was  no  small  comfort  to  him,  however,  under  all 
 his  afflictions,  to  find  that  Ezekiel,  who,  much  about  this 
 time,  was  called  to  the  prophetic  office,  prophesied  the 
 same  things  at  Babylon  that  he  did  at  Jerusalem.  At 
 Jerusalem,  Jeremiah  4  foretold  the  divine  judgments 
 which  were  to  be  executed  upon  Chaldea  and  Babylon, 
 by  the  Medes  and  Persians,  which  he  wrote  in  a  book, 
 and  5  delivered  it  to  Seraiah,  who  was  then  going  to 
 
 *  Jer.  xviii.  *  Jer.  1.  and  li.  5  Jer.  li.  59,  64. 
 
 '  to  seek  the  peace  of  the  city,  whither  they  were  carried  away,' 
 (Jer.  xxix.  7.)  pursuant  to  which  instruction,  we  find  those  in 
 Babylon  requiring  their  brethren  at  Jerusalem  '  to  pray  for 
 the  life  of  Nabuchodonosor  king  of  Babylon,  and  for  the  life  of 
 Belthasar  his  son,  that  their  days  may  be  upon  earth  as  the 
 days  of  heaven:— That  they  might  live  under  the  shadow  of 
 Nabuchodonosor,  and  under  the  shadow  of  his  son,  and  find 
 favour  in  their  sight.'  (Baruch  i.  11,  12.) 
 
 b  The  two  persons  mentioned  in  Scripture,  who  took  upon 
 them  to  be  prophets  sent  from  God,  were  Ahaz  the  son  of 
 Kolaiah,  and  Zedekiah  the  son  of  Maaseiah,  two  of  the  captivity 
 among  the  Jews  at  Babylon  ;  who  feeding  the  people  with  false 
 promises  of  a  speedy  restoration,  hindered  them  from  making 
 any  settlements  in  the  places  assigned  for  their  habitation:  hut, 
 as  the  prophet  Jeremiah  denounced  their  sudden  and  fearful 
 destruction,  Nebuchadnezzar,  understanding  that  they  disturbed 
 the  people  by  their  vain  prophecies,  caused  them  both  to  be  seized, 
 and  roasted  to  death  in  the  fire.  The  later  Jews  say,  that  these 
 two  men  were  the  two  elders  who  would  have  corrupted  Susanna, 
 and  that  Nebuchadnezzar  commanded  them  to  be  burned  for  this 
 reason:  but  the  whole  foundation  of  this  conceit  is,  that  Jeremiah 
 (chap.  xxix.  23,  where  he  speaks  of  these  men)  says,  '  that  they 
 committed  villany  in  Israel,  and  adultery  with  their  neighbours' 
 wives  ;'  from  whence  they  conjecture  all  the  rest. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  597. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  according   to    our    translation   are, 
 
 the  word  which  Jeremiah  the  prophet   commanded   Seraiah, 
 
 the  son  of  Neriah,  &c.,  when  he  went  with  Zedekiah,  the  king 
 
 ot  Judah,  into  Babylon,  in  the  fourth  year  of  his  reign,  aud  this 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 659 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  CIO;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4814.  A.  C.  597.  1  KINfiS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  1  CHRON 
 Babylon  upon  an  embassy,  with  instructions  to  read  the 
 
 contents  of  it  to  his  captive  brethren  upon  the  banks  of 
 the  river  Euphrates ;  and  when  he  had  made  an  end  of 
 reading,  to  tie  a  stone  to  it,  and  a  throw  it  into  the  river, 
 thereby  to  denote,  that  as  it  would  naturally  sink,  so 
 should  the  Babylonish  empire  be  totally  destroyed,  and 
 never  rise  any  more. 
 
 At  Babylon,  Ezekiel,  by  several  types  and  propheti- 
 cal revelations,  foretold  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the 
 Chaldeans;  Zedekiah's  flight  from  the  city  by  night;  the 
 putting  out  of  his  eyes  ;  his  imprisonment  and  death  at 
 Babylon  ;  the  carrying  away  the  remainder  of  the  Jews 
 into  captivity ;  the  desolation  of  their  country,  and  the 
 many  and  great  calamities  which  should  befal  them  for 
 their  iniquities.  But  to  those  of  the  captivity,  who, 
 avoiding  these  iniquities,  did  endeavour  to  keep  them- 
 selves steady  and  faithful  in  God's  service,  God,  by  the 
 mouth  of  his  prophet,  promised  to  become  a  sanctuary  in 
 a  strange  country,  and  to  bring  them  back  again  unto 
 the  land  of  Israel,  where  they  should  flourish  in  peace 
 and  righteousness,  and  once  more  '  become  his  people, 
 and  he  their  God. 
 
 Thus  did  these  two  great  prophets  visit  the  people 
 which  were  still  remaining  in  Jerusalem  with  several 
 warnings ;  endeavouring,  both  by  significant  emblems, 
 and  direct  predictions,  to  reclaim  them.  But,  when  they 
 still  persisted  in  their  obstinacy  and  disobedience,  God 
 at  length  brought  upon  them  the  calamities  which  he  had 
 so  often  foretold,  and  so  severely  threatened. 
 
 Before  we  come  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  how- 
 
 1  Ezek  xi.  20. 
 
 Seraiah  was  a  quiet  prince,'  (Jer.  li.  59,)  and  from  hence  some 
 Hebrew  interpreters  infer,  that  Zedekiah  went  to  Babylon  in 
 the  fourth  year  of  his  reign  to  make  his  court,  and  cultivate  the 
 good  graces  of  li  is  patron  and  paramount  Nebuchadnezzar.  But 
 this  opinion,  though  followed  by  several,  has  no  foundation  in 
 any  other  part  of  Scripture  ;  and  the  passage  now  before  us,  may, 
 according  to  the  original,  be  very  properly  rendered  in  this  wise. 
 '  The  wend  which  Jeremiah  commanded  Seraiah,  when  he  went 
 to  Babylon  upon  an  embassy  from  Zedekiah.'  The  chief  business 
 of  this  embassy  was  to  request  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  a  restitution 
 of  the  sacred  vessels  of  the  temple  which  lie  had  taken  away, 
 when  he  carried  Jehoiakim  captive  into  Babylon.  Our  transla- 
 tion, however,  is  not  at  all  significant  in  this  place,  when  it 
 styles  this  Seraiah,  a  quiet  prince.  The  Septuagint  have  very 
 properly  rendered  the  words  oi^ut,  lugav  the  prince  of  the  pre- 
 sents, which  some  apply  to  the  presents  which  king  Zedekiah 
 made  to  the  temple,  and  others  to  the  things  he  daily  supplied 
 ior  sacrifices  ;  but  the  most  natural  sense  in  this  place  is,  that 
 he  was  charged  with  the  presents  and  tribute  which  Zedekiah 
 was  obliged  to  send  to  Nebuchadnezzar;  that  his  business  was,  to 
 present  them  to  the  emperor,  and,  upon  that  occasion,  to  solicit 
 the  restoration  of  the  sacred  vessels ;  upon  which  account,  the 
 Vulgate  has  rendered  the  words  '  princeps  prophetiae,'  the  chief 
 person  in  the  embassy,  who  at  the  time  of  audience,  was  to 
 make  a  speech  to  the  emperor,  in  his  prince's  name. — Calmefs 
 Commentary. — [Dr  Boothroyd  renders  the  passage  in  question 
 thus, — '  The  word  which  Jeremiah,  the  prophet,  commanded 
 Seraiah,  the  son  of  Meriah,  the  son  of  Maaseiah,  when  he  went 
 '  n  behalf  of  Zedekiah,  king  of  Judah,  to  Babylon,  in  the  fourth 
 year  of  his  reign ;  lor  Seraiah  carried  a  present.] — Boothroyd's 
 Aew  Version. — Ei>. 
 
 a  We  have  an  emblematical  action  of  the  like  kind  described 
 'ii  the  book  of  the  Revelation  of  St  John:  'and  a  mighty  angel 
 took  up  a  stone,  like  a  great  millstone,  and  cast  it  into  the 
 sea,  saying,  Thus,  with  violence  shall  that  great  city  Babylon 
 be  thrown  down,  and  shall  be  found  no  more  at  all,'  chap. 
 xviii.  21,  where  the  word  Babylon  is  taken  in  an  analogical 
 sij<-e,  because  the  destruction  of  that  great  city  and  empire,  as 
 we  shall  see  hereafter,  was  so  remarkable,  as  to  afford  a  com- 
 
 ever,  there  is  a  memorable  transaction,  *  which  preceded 
 it,  namely,  the  siege  of  Bethulia,  and  its  deliverance  by 
 the  courage  and  dexterity  of  a  woman,  which  must  c  not 
 be  entirely  omitted. 
 
 parison  for  any  other  great  and  opulent  state  brought  to  ruin  and 
 desolation. 
 
 /'  It  is  a  great  dispute  among  the  learned,  whether  this  his- 
 tory of  Judith  was  transacted  before  or  after  the  Babylonish 
 captivity.  Those  who  maintain  the  latter  opinion,  found  a 
 great  deal  upon  the  words  of  the  history  itself,  wherein  the 
 author,  according  to  the  Greek  version,  (chap.  iv.  3,)  expressly 
 tells  us,  that  'the  Israelites  were  newly  returned  from  captivity, 
 and  all  the  people  of  Judah  were  lately  gathered  together,  and  the 
 vessels,  and  the  altar,  and  the  house,  were  sanctified  after  their 
 profanation:'  and  wherein  it  is  farther  affirmed,  that  they  '  were 
 led  captives  into  a  land  that  was  not  theirs,'  that  the  temple  of 
 their  God  was  '  cast  to  the  ground,  and  their  cities  taken  by  the 
 enemies;  but  now  they  are  come  up  from  the  places  where  they 
 were  scattered,  and  have  possessed  Jerusalem,'  (ch.  v.  18,  19.)  It 
 is  in  vain,  say  they,  to  endeavour  to  correct  the  sense  of  these 
 passages:  the  bare  reading  of  them,  and  the  first  impression  they 
 make  upon  the  mind,  naturally  leads  one  to  say,  that  this  history 
 was  not  transacted  till  after  the  return  from  the  captivity,  which, 
 in  a  great  measure,  is  confirmed  by  the  opinion  of  almost  all  the 
 ancients,  and  a  great  many  of  the  moderns  ;  but  then  they  widely 
 disagree  in  their  computations  of  the  period  of  time  when  this 
 remarkable  event  happened.  For  some  place  it  under  Cambyses, 
 the  son  of  Cyrus,  others  under  Xerxes,  others  under  Darius; 
 and  others  again,  under  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  in  the  time  of 
 the  Maccabees;  which  last  opinion  is  the  most  tenable,  if  we  will 
 but  allow,  that  a  feast  was  instituted  in  commemoration  of  it,  as 
 we  read  in  the  Vulgate,  but  in  none  of  the  other  translations. 
 Those  who  maintain  that  this  transaction  happened  before  the 
 captivity,  are  in  like  manner  divided:  for  some  place  it  under 
 Manasseh,  and  others  under  Zedekiah. 
 
 Those  who  contend  for  Zedekiah's  reign,  make  the  Nabucho- 
 donosor  in  the  book  of  Judith,  and  the  Nebuchadnezzar  in  the 
 2d  of  Kings,  the  same  person;  and  as  it  is  positively  said  in  the 
 2d  chapter  of  Judith,  that  he  put  his  general  Holofenies  on  this 
 expedition,  in  the  first  month  of  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  reign, 
 which  was  the  ninth  of  Zedekiah  king  of  Judah,  Holoferues's 
 death,  and  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  happened,  they  say,  in  the 
 same  year;  only  it  must  be  supposed,  that  the  attempt  against 
 Bethulia  was  in  the  beginning  of  the  year,  and  the  siege  of  Jeru- 
 salem at  the  end  of  it.  The  captivity,  therefore,  from  which  the 
 Jews  are  said  to  have  newly  returned,  must  be  that  in  Jehoia- 
 kim's  time,  for  that  in  Zedekiah's  continued  seventy  years, 
 before  which  Nebuchadnezzar  had  quite  subdued  Arphaxad, 
 king  of  the  Medes,  and  demolished  Ecbatan.  And  as  for  the 
 Bethulians  enjoying  peace  during  the  life  of  Judith,  it  may  be 
 supposed  that  Nebuchadnezzar,  being  employed  two  years  in  the 
 siege  of  Jerusalem,  might  spend  some  years  in  reducing  other 
 parts  of  the  country;  and  seeing  Bethuiia  was  a  place  naturally 
 strong,  and  situated  among  the  mountains,  he  might  be  unwilling 
 to  foil  his  army  before  it,  and,  especially  considering  the  ill  suc- 
 cess of  his  general,  to  make  any  fresh  attempt  upon  it,  until  he 
 had  subdued  all  the  rest.  Those,  again,  who  contend  for  Man- 
 asseh's  reign,  make  the  Nabuchodonosor  in  Judith  to  be  the  same 
 with  Saosduchinus  in  Ptolemy,  and  Arphaxad  the  same  with 
 Phraortes,  mentioned  by  Herodotus;  and  that,  as  these  two 
 princes  made  war  with  one  another,  wherein  Phraortes  was  van- 
 quished, and  perished  with  his  army,  all  the  other  things  recorded 
 of  Saosduchinus  and  his  general  might  happen  without  inconsis- 
 tency. For  the  captivity  there  mentioned,  might  be  that  from 
 whence  Manasseh,  with  some  of  his  subjects,  had  lately  returned, 
 when  the  temple,  which  had  been  profaned,  was  purified  again, 
 and  the  service  of  the  sanctuary  restored  to  its  ancient  dignity, 
 (2  Chron.  xxxiii.  1,  &c.)  This  is  a  short  state  of  the  several 
 opinions  concerning  the  date  of  this  transaction,  and  the  last  of 
 these,  in  our  judgment,  seems  to  be  best  founded. — Pridcan.r's 
 Connection,  anno  ()C5 ;  Calmct's  Preface  on  the  Book  of  Judith. 
 c  For  though  the  Jews  and  ancient  Christians  did  not  receive 
 this  book  of  Judith  into  their  canon  of  Scripture,  yet  they  always 
 looked  upon  it  as  a  true  history;  and  accordingly  Clement,  in 
 his  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  has  cited  it  as  well  as  the  author 
 of  the  apostolic  constitutions,  which  go  under  his  name;  and  as 
 St  Athaoasius,  or  the  writer  of  the  Synopsis,  that  is  ascribed  to 
 
660 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  610;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 The  author  of  the  book  of  Judith  a  relates,  that  Nebu- 
 
 chodonosor,  b  king-  of  Assyria,  in  the  twelfth  year  of  his 
 
 rei"-!!,  fought  a  great  battle  in  the  plains  of  Ragau,  c  with 
 
 Arphaxad  ,l  king  of  Media,  wherein  he  not  only  utterly 
 
 him,  gives  a  summary  account  of  it,  even  as  he  does  of  other 
 sacred  books,  from  his  example  we  may  be  permitted  to  justify 
 tiie  short  abridgment  which  we  have  made  of  it  in  our  '  History 
 of  the  Holy  Bible.' — Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Judith. 
 
 a  Who  this  author  was,  it  nowhere  appears.  St  Jerome  seems 
 to  think  that  Judith  wrote  it  herself,  but  produces  no  good 
 authority  for  his  opinion.  Others  will  have  it,  that  the  high 
 priest  Joakim,  mentioned  in  this  book,  was  the  author  of  it; 
 but  this  is  equally  a  bare  conjecture ;  nor  is  there  much  more 
 certainty  in  those,  who,  supposing  the  history  to  have  happened 
 in  the  time  of  Cambyses,  ascribe  it  to  Joshua,  the  son  of  Josedek, 
 who  was  high  priest  at  that  time.  But  whoever  the  author  was, 
 he  seems  to  be  posterior  to  the  facts  which  he  relates,  because 
 he  speaks  of  the  festival  instituted  in  memory  of  Judith's  victory, 
 as  still  continued  in  his  time,  (Judith  xvi.  20.)  The  book  was 
 originally  written  in  the  Chaldee  language,  which  is  not  now 
 extant;  but  from  thence,  at  the  desire  of  Paula  and  Eustochium, 
 St  Jerome  formed  the  translation,  which  we  now  have  in  the 
 vulgar  Latin  edition  of  the  Bible,  not  rendering  it  word  for  word, 
 as  himself  tells  us  in  his  preface  to  the  history,  but  repairing  the 
 corruptions  of  the  various  readings,  and  giving  us,  according  to 
 the  best  of  his  judgment,  the  true  and  entire  sense  of  the  original. 
 Besides  this  translation  of  St  Jerome's,  there  are  two  others,  one 
 in  Greek,  and  the  other  in  Syriac.  That  which  is  in  Greek  is 
 attributed  to  Theodotion,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Commodus, 
 who  was  made  emperor  of  Rome  in  the  year  of  Christ  180. 
 But  the  version  was  much  ancienter;  for  Clemens  Romanus,  as 
 we  said,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  which  was  wrote  near 
 126  years  before,  has  a  quotation  from  it.  The  Syriac  translation 
 was  made  from  the  Greek,  and  so  was  also  the  English,  which 
 we,  at  present,  have  among  the  apocryphal  writings  in  our  Bible. 
 And  of  all  these  three  versions,  it  may  be  observed,  that  there 
 are  several  particulars  in  them  which  are  not  in  Jerome's,  and 
 which  seem  to  be  those  various  readings  which  he  professes  to 
 have  cut  off,  as  vicious  corruptions  of  the  text;  so  that,  in  this 
 respect,  St  Jerome's  translation  ought  to  have  the  preference, 
 whenever  there  is  any  remarkable  difference  between  them. — 
 Prideati.r's  Connection,  anno  655,  and  Calmefs  Dissertation  on 
 the  Book  of  Judith. 
 
 b  This  Nabuchodonosor  is  the  same  prince  whom  Herodotus' 
 calls  Saosiluchinus,  who,  after  the  death  of  Esarhaddon,  (the  same 
 who  took  the  advantage  of  Masessimordacus's  dying  without  issue, 
 and  united  the  kingdom  of  Babylon  to  that  of  Assyria,)  succeeded 
 to  his  acquisitions ;  and  the  reason  why  the  author  of  this  book 
 of  Judith,  who  apparently  wrote  either  in  Babylon,  or  some  other 
 part  of  Chaldea,  calls  him  Nabuchodonosor,  is,  because  this  was 
 the  common  name,  as  Pharaoh  was  in  Egypt,  of  the  kings  of  that 
 country. — Calmet's  Commentary  on  Judith,  and  Pridcaux's 
 Connection. 
 
 c  The  plains  of  Ragau  are  very  probably  those  which  lie  about 
 Rages,  a  town  of  Media,  standing  upon  the  mountains  of  Ecba- 
 
 tan,  and  distant  about  a  small  day's-joumey  from  that  city. 
 
 (.HI iiiit's  Dictionary. 
 
 d  Roth  our  learned  Prideaux  and  primate  Usher  are  of  opinion, 
 that  this  Arphaxad  was  the  person  whom  profane  historians  call 
 Dejoces,  the  fust  king  of  the  Medes,  and  founder  of  Ecbatan; 
 but  the  account  which  the  book  of  Judith  gives  of  Arphaxad, 
 and  of  the  circumstances  of  his  death,  seems  to  be  more  ap- 
 plicable to  what  Herodotus  relates  of  Phraortes,  his  son  and 
 Buccessor.  For,  as  Arphaxad  had  many  nations  under  his 
 dominion,  and  fell  in  battle  against  the  king  of  Assyria,  (Judith 
 i.  6,  15.)  so  Herodotus  (b.  i.)  tells  us  of  Phraortes,  "  That,  hav- 
 ing subdued  the  Persians,  and  made  them  part  of  his  empire,  he 
 soon  overcame  the  rest  of  the  people  of  the  Upper  Asia,  that  is, 
 all  that  lay  north  of  Mount  Taurus,  to  the  river  Halys,  passing 
 from  nation  to  nation,  and  always  attended  with  victory;  until 
 coming  with  an  army  against  the  Assyrians,  with  an  intent  to 
 besiege  Nineveh  their  capital,  he  was  vanquished  and  slain  in  the 
 two  and  twentieth  year  of  his  reign.  Dejoces,  indeed,  is  said 
 by  Herodotus  to  have  been  the  fust  founder  of  Ecbatan ;  but  as 
 the  undertaking  was  very  great,  it  is  not  improbable,  that  he  left 
 enough  to  his  successor  Phraortes  to  complete;  so  that  all  the 
 uhich  the  author  of  Judith  ascribes  to  Arphaxad  (chap,  i.) 
 
 4814.  A.  C.  597.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 defeated,  and  slew  him,  but  made  himself  master  of  seve- 
 ral of  his  cities,  and  among  others,  of  Ecbatan,  «  the 
 royal  seat  of  the  Median  empire,  which  he  miserably 
 defaced :  and  afterwards  returned  in  great  triumph  to 
 Nineveh  :  that,  some  time  after  inquiring  of  his  officers, 
 nobles,  and  counsellors,  what  tributary  countries  had  not 
 gone  with  them  to  the  war,  for  he  had  summoned  them  all 
 to  attend  him,  and  finding  that  none  of  the  western  pro- 
 vinces had  paid  that  regard  to  his  commands,  he  made 
 a  decree  that  Holofernes,/  the  chief  captain  of  his  army, 
 should  not  fail  the  next  year  to  chastise  their  disobed- 
 ience :  that,  pursuant  to  this  decree,  this  general  took  the 
 field  with  a  vast  army  ;  S  and  having  wasted  and  destroy- 
 ed several  other  nations,  at  length  came  unto  Judea, 
 where  he  laid  siege  to  Bethuliah,  h  a  strong  town  in  the 
 
 might  be  his." — Calmefs  Commentary  and  Dictionary;  and  Pri- 
 deaux's  Connection,  anno  635. 
 
 e  This  city,  Herodotus  says  expressly,  was  built  by  Dejoces, 
 the  first  king  of  the  Medes;  but  that  author  is  wrong  in  ascrib- 
 ing the  honour  of  the  whole  work  to  him,  which  his  son 
 Phraortes,  at  least  finished  and  beautified  to  such  a  degree,  that, 
 though  the  Scripture  is  silent,  profane  authors  have  given  us  a 
 very  advantageous  account  of  it.  The  city,  according  to  them, 
 was  situate  on  a  spacious  eminence,  and  into  it  Dejoces  had 
 brought  together  the  whole  nations  of  the  Medes,  who  never  be- 
 fore had  lived  in  any  thing  but  caves  and  huts,  dispersed  up  and 
 down  in  the  country,  which  great  concourse  of  people  made  it 
 very  large  and  populous.  It  was  encompassed  with  seven  walls, 
 at  equal  distances  from  each  other.  The  first  was  the  lowest  and 
 equal  in  circumference  with  those  of  Athens,  that  is,  according 
 to  Thucydides,  (b.  ii.)  178  furlongs.  The  rest  rose  gradually,  and 
 overlooked  each  other,  about  the  eighth  of  a  battlement.  The 
 battlements  were  of  different  colours.  The  first  was  white,  the 
 second  black,  the  third  red,  the  fourth  blue,  the  fifth  of  a  deep 
 red,  the  sixth  of  a  silver,  and  the  seventh  of  a  gold  colour;  and 
 for  this  reason,  as  Bochart  has  observed,  this  city  was  usually 
 called  by  the  ancients  Agbata,  which,  in  the  Arabic  language, 
 signifies,  a  thing  of  different  and  distinct  colours.  The  royal 
 palace  and  treasury  stood  within  the  seventh  wall;  and  the 
 palace  alone,  according  to  Polybius,  (b.  x.)  was  seven  furlongs 
 round,  and  built  with  all  the  cost  and  skill  that  a  stately  edifice 
 did  require ;  for  some  of  its  beams  are  said  to  have  been  of  silver, 
 and  the  rest  of  cedar,  which  were  strengthened  with  plates  of 
 gold. —  Calmet's  Curnment.  and  Dictionary  under  the  word;  and 
 Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  3.  [This  city  still 
 exists  under  the  name  of  Hamadan,  and  is  situated  in  lat.  34°  53' 
 N.,  long.  40°  E.  The  tombs  of  Esther  and  Mordecai  are  said 
 to  be  still  preserved  in  it,  and  are  protected  by  a  colony  of  Jews, 
 who  have  been  resident  there  from  time  immemorial,  and  at  pre- 
 sent amount  to  about  600  families.  The  whole  population  of 
 Hamadan  is  estimated  at  40,000.] — Ed. 
 
 /Some  annotators  are  of  opinion,  that  the  word  Holofernes  is 
 of  Persian  extract,  in  the  same  manner  as  Tisaphernes,  Intapher- 
 nes,  &c.  But  others  imagine  that  this  general  was  a  native 
 either  of  Pontus  or  Cappadocia.  Polybius  makes  mention  of  one 
 of  that  name,  who,  having  conquered  Cappadocia,  soon  lost  it 
 again,  because  he  was  for  changing  the  ancient  customs  of  the 
 country,  and  introducing  drunkenness,  together  with  feasts  and 
 songs  to  Bacchus  ;  whereupon  Casaubon  conjectures,  that  this 
 was  the  same  Holofernes  that  commanded  Nabuchodonosor's 
 forces,  as  it  must  be  owned,  that  his  riot  and  debauchery,  as  well 
 as  the  rapidity  of  his  conquests,  makes  him  not  unlike  him. — See 
 Poly  ph.  apud  Athen.  b.  x.  c.  1 1. ;  and  Casaub.  in  Athen. 
 
 g  The  author  of  Judith's  history  has  thus  described  it: — •  Ho- 
 lofernes mustered  the  chosen  men  for  the  battle,  as  his  lord  com- 
 manded him,  unto  an  hundred  and  twenty  thousand,  and  twelve 
 thousand  archers  on  horseback.  A  great  multitude  of  sundry 
 countries  went  with  them  like  locusts,  and  like  the  sand  of  the 
 earth:  for  the  multitude  was  without  number'  (Judith  ii.  15,  20). 
 
 h  Our  modern  travellers  to  the  Holy  Land  do  almost  unani- 
 mously agree,  that  Bethulia  is  situate  in  the  tribe  of  Zebulon, 
 about  a  league  from  Tiberias  towards  the  west,  where  they  pre- 
 tend that  some  marks  of  Holofernes's  camp  are  still  to  be  seen; 
 but  some  great  men  are  apt  to  suspect  the  report  of  these  travel- 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 601 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  G10 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4814.  A.  C.  597.  I    KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 tribe  of  Simeon,  and  by  cutting  off  its  waters,  reduced 
 it  to  such  extremity,  that,  through  the  people's  impor- 
 tunity, Ozias  the  governor  had  promised  to  surrender 
 the  place  unless  it  was  relieved  in  five  days  :  that 
 Judith,  a  widow  lady  of  an  ample  fortune,  but  a  of  great 
 virtue  and  piety  withal,  sent  for  the  governor  and  prin- 
 cipal men  of  the  city,  to  let  them  know  that  God,  by 
 her  hand,  would  find  out  an  expedient  to  deliver  them  ; 
 but  in  what  manner  this  was  to  be  effected,  she  desired 
 them  not  to  inquire  :  that,  having  addressed  herself  to 
 God  by  prayer  for  success,  and  being  not  insensible  of 
 her  own  beauty,  for  she  was  extremely  handsome  as  well 
 as  virtuous,  she  adorned  herself  in  all  her  rich  attire, 
 and  attended  only  with  one  maid,  b  left  Bethulia,  and 
 went  directly  to  the  Assyrian  camp  :  that,  being-  stopped 
 by  the  outguard,  and  carried  before  the  general,  he 
 received  her  with  all  the  civility  and  respect  that  her 
 appearance  seemed  to  demand ;  and,  having  understood 
 that  the  design  of  her  leaving  her  countrymen  was,  both 
 to  escape  the  destruction  which  she  foresaw  was  coming 
 upon  them,  and  to  inform  him  in  what  situation  their 
 affairs  were,  and  how  he  might  become  master  of  the 
 place  without  the  loss  of  one  man,  he  not  only  promised 
 her  his  protection,  but  appointed  her  and  her  maid  an 
 apartment  proper  for  them  ;  for  he  was  already  enamour- 
 ed with  her  wit  and  beauty :  that,  having  thus  far  suc- 
 ceeded very  prosperously,  she  requested  of  him,  that,  as 
 she  was  a  strict  observer  of  the  religion  of  her  country, 
 she  might  be  permitted  to  eat  separately  c  such  provisions 
 
 lers,  who  are  too  much  accustomed  to  take  up  witli  the  traditions 
 of  the  country,  though  there  is  not  always  the  greatest  certainty 
 in  them.  This,  however,  is  incontestihle,  that  both  Judith  and 
 her  husband  were  of  the  tribe  of  Simeon,  (Judith  viii.  1,  and  ix. 
 2,)  and  for  what  purpose  they  should  remove  to  so  great  a  dis- 
 tance from  their  own  inheritance,  and  settle  in  a  different  tribe, 
 we  cannot  see.  Since,  therefore,  the  Scripture  takes  notice  of  a 
 place  in  the  tribes  of  Simeon  named  Bethuel,  (Joshua  xix.  4,)  a 
 place  dependant  on  Gaza  of  the  Philistines,  and  famous  for  its 
 temples,  which  were  very  remarkable,  both  for  their  antiquity 
 and  fine  structure,  from  whence  not  unlikely  it  had  its  name 
 of  Bethel,  or  the  house  of  the  Lord,  there  is  much  more  rea- 
 son to  conclude,  that  this  was  the  place ;  since  the  other,  which 
 travellers  talk  of  in  the  tribe  of  Zebulun,  must  be  of  too  modern 
 a  date  to  be  the  city  intended  here,  because  we  find  neither 
 Joshua,  nor  Josephus,  nor  Eusebius,  nor  St  Jerome  making 
 any  mention  of  it. — Cahners  Dissertation  and  Commentary  on 
 the  Book  of  Judith. 
 
 a  The  character  which  the  historian  gives  her  with  respect  to 
 tiiis  is, — '  That  there  was  none  who  gave  her  an  ill  word,  for  she 
 feared  the  Lord  greatly,'  (Judith  viii.  S,)  which  is  certainly  an 
 high  commendation,  considering  how  tender  and  delicate  a  tiling 
 the  reputation  of  a  young  and  beautiful  widow  is. 
 
 b  The  word,  in  ancient  translations,  is  A  bra,  which  signi- 
 fies a  companion,  or  maid  of  honour,  such  as  ladies  of  the  first 
 condition  had,  rather  than  a  servant;  for  the  same  word  in  the 
 Septuagint  is  applied  to  the  women  that  attended  both  Pharaoh's 
 daughter,  (Exod.  xi.  5,)  and  Queen  Esther,  (chap.  iv.  4.) 
 
 c  There  was  no  law  of  God  that  prohibited  the  Jews  from  eat- 
 ing several  things  that  the  Gentiles  made  use  of.  Bread,  wine, 
 and  fruits  were  allowed  them  with  other  people;  but,  either  some 
 tradition  then  prevailing  among  the  Jews,  or  some  religious  vow 
 that  Judith  might  have  bound  herself  under,  the  fear  of  giving 
 scandal  to  her  countrymen  when  she  returned,  or  the  prayers  and 
 pagan  invocations  which  were  made  over  the  meat  that  was  served 
 up  to  Ilolofernes;  some  of  these  reasons,  I  say,  very  likely  hin- 
 dered her  from  accepting  the  otler  which  the  general  made,  of 
 provisions  from  his  table,  and  inclined  her  to  desire  to  eat  alone; 
 a  restraint  which  we  find  Daniel  putting  himself  under  in  the 
 court  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  (chap.  i.  S.)  and  Tobit,  in  that  of  Sal- 
 niar.esor,  (chap.  i.  10,  &C.)  "here  he  says  of  himself,  that  '  when 
 all  my  brethren,  and  those   that  were  of  my  kindred    did  eat  of 
 
 as  she  had  brought  with  her ;  and,  without  any  molestation > 
 to  have  leave  to  go  out  of  the  camp  at  night,  or  before  it 
 was  day,  in  order  d  to  perform  her  devotions ;  which 
 accordingly  was  readily  granted  her  :  that  having  lived 
 in  this  manner  for  three  days,  on  the  fourth,  Ilolofernes 
 invited  her  to  a  splendid  entertainment,  where  she 
 appeared  in  her  choicest  ornaments  of  dress  ;  and  the 
 general,  in  hopes  of  enjoying  the  beautiful  stranger  that 
 night,  gave  a  loose  to  mirth,  and  drank  more  plentifully 
 than  ever  he  was  known  to  do  ;  that,  in  the  evening,  all 
 the  company  being  dismissed,  except  Judith,  who  was 
 left  alone  with  the  general  intoxicated  with  liquor,  and 
 now  fallen  fast  asleep  upon  the  bed,  she  thought  this  a 
 proper  opportunity  to  put  her  design  in  execution  ;  and 
 therefore,  approaching  the  place  where  he  lay,  and  taking- 
 down  his  scimitar,  which  hung  by  him,  she  first  prayed 
 to  God  to  strengthen  her  in  the  enterprise,  and  then,  at 
 two  strokes,  severed  his  head  from  his  body,  which  she 
 gave  to  her  maid,  who,  by  her  order  was  waiting  e  at  her 
 tent  door,  to  put  it  in  the  bag  wherein  her  provisions 
 were  brought :  that,  having  thus  accomplished  their  de- 
 sign, they  passed  through  the  camp  unobserved,  and 
 made  the  best  of  their  way  to  Bethulia,  where  Judith, 
 acquainting  the  governor  and  elders  of  the  city  with 
 what  she  had  done,  and  in  testimony  thereof,  producing 
 the  head  of  Holofernes,  advised  them  to  hang  it  out 
 upon  the  walls  as  soon  as  the  morning  appeared,  and 
 then  every  one  to  arm,  and  sally  out  of  the  gates  as  if 
 they  meant  to  attack  the  enemy,  but,  in  reality,  only  to 
 give  them  an  alarm,  that  thereupon  they  might  have 
 recourse  to  their  general,  as  she  supposed  they  would, 
 and  so  come  to  know  what  fate  had  befallen  him  :  that, 
 upon  the  Bethulians  appearing  in  arms,  the  outguards 
 gave  notice  to  their  officers,  and  the  officers  sent  to  their 
 general ;  but  when  they  understood  that  their  general 
 was  dead,  his  head  gone,  and  nothing  left  behind  but  a 
 senseless  trunk  wallowing  in  blood,  such  a  general  con- 
 sternation overspread  the  camp,  that,  instead  of  prepar- 
 ing themselves  to  fight,  the  Assyrians  threw  away  their 
 arms,  and  rled  :  while  the  Bethulians,  and  other  neigh- 
 bouring people,  to  whom  Ozias  had  sent  intelligence  of 
 this  their  disaster,  attacked  them  in  small  parties,  from 
 several  quarters  ;  and  having  slain  a  considerable  number 
 of  them,  greatly  enriched/  themselves  with  their  spoils  : 
 
 the  bread  of  the  Gentiles,  I  kept  myself  from  eating,  because  I 
 remembered  God  with  all  my  heart.' — Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 d  As  prayer,  no  doubt,  is  best  performed  in  places  of  retire- 
 ment, and  the  hurry  of  a  camp  must  needs  be  inconvenient  for 
 religious  offices,  Judith,  who  professed  herself  a  woman  of  strict 
 piety,  had  a  good  pretence  to  request  of  the  general  a  liberty  to 
 retire  out  of  the  camp,  when  she  thought  proper,  and  without 
 any  questions  asked  her,  to  perform  her  devotions,  which  she 
 foresaw  would  be  a  means  to  favour  her  escape,  after  she  had 
 executed  the  design  she  came  about.  For  it  was  on  this  precau- 
 tion, rather  than  any  obligation,  either  from  the  law  or  from 
 custom,  that  this  devotion  of  her  praying  without  the  camp  was 
 founded. — Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Namely,  to  go  along  vt ith  her  out  of  the  camp  to  prayers,  as 
 she  had  done  the  nights  before;  for  it  does  not  appear,  from  the 
 whole  history,  that  Judith  had  communicated  her  design  to  her 
 woman,  but  rather  that  she  took  upon  herself  the  risk  of  the 
 whole  affair,  which  could  not  be  conducted  with  too  much  secrecy 
 and  prudence. — Ca.met's  Commentary. 
 
 /"So  great  was  the  number  of  these,  that  the  text  tells  us,  the 
 Bethulians  were  thirty  days  in  gathering  them,  (eh.  xv.  11.? 
 For  considering  the  largeness  of  (he  camp  of  the  Assyrians,  anil 
 the  several  detachments  they  might  have,  some  on  the  mouu- 
 
G62 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3391.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 that  a  deputation  of  the  elders  from  Jerusalem  with  their 
 chief  priests  accompanying  them,  came  to  Bethulia  to 
 compliment  Judith  upon  this  her  great  achievement,  with 
 whom  she  repaired  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem ;  where 
 public  thanks  were  given,  and  burnt  sacrifices  offered  to 
 God,  for  this  signal  victory,  and  Judith's  oblation," 
 upon  this  occasion  was  the  plunder  of  Holofernes's  tent, 
 with  all  his  rich  equipage,  which  the  soldiers  had  pre- 
 sented her  with ;  and,  lastly,  that  after  these  public  re- 
 joicings, b  she  went  back  to  Bethulia  again,  where  she 
 lived  in  great  splendour  and  renown,  and,  after  a  good 
 old  age,  died,  and  was  buried  with  her  husband  Manas- 
 seh,  much  beloved,  and  much  lamented  by  the  people. 
 But  to  look  back  to  the  affairs  of  Judea. 
 
 In  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign,  Zedekiah,  being 
 grown  impatient  of  the  Babylonish  yoke,  had  sent  his 
 ambassadors,  and  made  a  confederacy  with  Pharaoh 
 Hophra  king  of  Egypt;  which  when  Nebuchadnezzar 
 understood,  he  drew  together  a  great  army  out  of  all 
 the  nations  that  were  under  his  dominion,  and,  in  a  short 
 time,  marched  towards  Judea,  to  punish  hint  for  his  per- 
 fidy and  rebellion.  His  victorious  army  soon  overran 
 the  country,  and  having  taken  most  of  the  cities,  in  the 
 ninth  year  of  Zedekiah's  reign,  the  tenth  month  of  the 
 year,  and  the  tenth  day  of  the  month,  it  came  before 
 Jerusalem,  and  blocked  it  close  up  on  every  side ;  so 
 that,  in  a  short  time,  the  famine  began  to  prevail :  and 
 in  memory  of  this,  the  Jews  have  ever  since  observed 
 the  tenth  day  of  Tebeth,  (the  month  when  this  happened,) 
 as  a  day  of  solemn  fasting  and  humiliation  even  to  this 
 time. 
 
 On  that  very  day  of  the  month  when  the  siege  of  Jeru- 
 salem began,  Ezekiel,  then  a  captive  in  Chaldea,  had  it 
 revealed  to  him  by  the  type  of  a  boiling  pot,  what  a  dis- 
 mal destruction  should  be  brought  upon  that  city ;  and, 
 in  the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  Jeremiah  was  ordered 
 to  declare  to  the  king,  that  the  Babylonians  who  were 
 then  besieging  the  town,  would  certainly  take  it,  and 
 burn  it  with  fire,  make  him  prisoner,  and  carry  him  to 
 Babylon,  where  he  should  die  :  which  provoked  Zede- 
 kiah to  such  a  degree  that  he  ordered  him  to  be  clapped 
 up  close  in  prison. 
 
 As  Nebuchadnezzar's  army  was  approaching  Jerusa- 
 lem, Zedekiah,  and  his  people,  in  dread  of  what  might 
 
 tains,  and  others  on  the  plains;  the  many  valuable  things  which 
 might  he  hid,  or  thrown  aside  in  their  flight:  and  the  much  time 
 it  would  cost  the  Bethulians  to  search  diligently,  and  to  collect 
 them  all,  and  to  provide  carriages  to  bring  them  home  to  the  city, 
 there  to  be  distributed  equally  among  the  people,  and,  according 
 to  the  prescription  of  the  law,  (Num.  xxxi.  27.)  considering  all 
 this,  I  say,  thirty  days  may  not  be  thought  an  unreasonable  sp°ace- 
 though  it  must  be  owned,  that  the  Syriac  version  reads  it  only 
 three. — Cahnefa  Commentary. 
 
 o  Nothing  is  more  common,  both  in  sacred  and  profane  his- 
 tory, than  to  meet  with  Beveral  kinds  of  spoils  taken  in  war, 
 dedicated  to  God,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  goodness,  and  in 
 memory  ol  the  victory,  which,  by  his  blessing  and  assistance,  was 
 men  obtained. — Colmet'i  Commentary. 
 
 8  The  joy  which  the  people  of  Jerusalem  expressed  upon 
 Judith  s  entry,  is  thus  related  :  '  Then  all  the  women  of  Israel 
 ran  together  to  Bee  her,  and  blessed  her,  and  mad,,  a  dance  amonff 
 them  lor  her;  and  she  took  branches  in  her  hand,  and  gave  also  in 
 the  u„men  that  were  with  her,  and  put  a  garland  of  olive  upon 
 her,  and  oo  her  maid  that  was  with  her,  and  she  went  before  all 
 the  people  in  the  dance  leading  the  women,  and  all  the  men  of 
 Israel  followed  with  garlands,  and  with  .^ongs  in  their  n  ouths  — 
 Judith  xv.  12,  }'3. 
 
 U.  4814.  A.  C.  597.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 follow,  made  a  show  of  returning  unto  the  Lord  their 
 God.  They  entered  into  a  solemn  covenant  thencefor- 
 ward to  serve  him  only,  and  to  obey  his  laws  ;  and  in 
 pursuance  of  that,  agreed  to  proclaim  a  manumission,  or 
 liberty  to  all  Hebrew  servants  of  either  sex,  according 
 to  what  the  law  c  enjoined  ;  but  upon  the  coming  of 
 Hophra  king  of  Egypt,  to  the  relief  of  Jerusalem,  and 
 Nebuchadnezzar's  raising  the  siege  to  meet  him,  and 
 give  him  battle,  the  Jews  were  generally  of  opinion, 
 that  the  Chaldeans  were  gone  for  good  and  all,  and 
 thereupon  repented  of  their  covenant  of  reformation, 
 and  caused  every  man  his  servant,  and  every  man  his 
 hand-maid,  to  return  to  their  servitude.  AVhich  base 
 and  impious  prevarication  so  provoked  Gpd,  that  he 
 ordered  his  prophet  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  sword, 
 and  to  the  famine,  and  to  the  pestilence,  to  execute  his 
 wrath  upon  them,  and  their  king,  and  their  princes,  and 
 all  Judah  and  Jerusalem,  to  their  utter  destruction. 
 
 Jeremiah,  indeed,  in  all  the  answers  which  he  returned 
 the  king,  (who,  upon  the  departure  of  the  Chaldeans,  sent 
 frequently  to  consult  him,)  was  always  positive,  that  the 
 Egyptians,  whom  he  depended  upon,  would  certainly 
 deceive  him  ;  that  their  army  would  return  without  giving 
 him  any  assistance  ;  and  that  the  Chaldeans  would  there- 
 upon renew  the  siege,  take  the  city,  and  burn  it  with  fire, 
 During-  their  absence,  however,  he  thought  it  no  impro- 
 per time  to  endeavour  to  avoid  the  approaching  siege, 
 by  retiring  to  Anathoth,  his  native  place;  but  as  he  was 
 passing-  the  gate  of  the  city  which  led  that  way,  the  cap- 
 tain of  the  guard  seized  him  as  a  deserter,  and  brought 
 
 c  The  words  of  the  law  are  these: — "  If  thy  brother,  an 
 Hebrew  man,  or  an  Hebrew  woman,  be  sold  unto  thee,  and 
 serve  thee  six  years,  then,  in  the  seventh  year,  thou  shalt  let 
 him  go  free  from  thee;  and  when  thou  sendest  him  out  free 
 from  thee,  thou  shalt  not  let  him  go  away  empty ;  thou  shalt 
 furnish  him  liberally  out  of  thy  flock,  and  out  of  thy  floor,  and 
 out  of  thy  wine-press:  of  that  wherewith  the  Lord  hath  blessed 
 thee  thou  shalt  give  unto  him:  and  thou  shalt  remember,  that 
 thou  wast  a  bondman  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  the  Lord  thy 
 God  redeemed  thee. — It  shall  not  seem  hard  unto  thee,  when 
 thou  sendest  him  away  from  thee ;  for  he  hath  been  worth  a 
 double  hired  servant  to  thee,  in  serving  thee  six  years,  and  the 
 Lord  thy  God  shall  bless  thee  in  all  that  thou  doest."  (Deut.  xv. 
 12,  &c.)  Now,  for  the  better  understanding  of  this,  we  must 
 observe  that  there  were  two  periods  of  time,  wherein  this  release 
 of  Jewish  bond-slaves  was  enjoined,  the  year  of  jubilee,  which 
 was  every  fiftieth  year,  and  the  sabbatical  year,  which  was  eveiy 
 seventh  year.  The  sabbatical  year  is  what  is  here  intended:  it 
 now  happened  in  the  eighth  year  of  Zedekiah's  reign;  but,  as 
 Prideaux  in  his  preface  remarks,  had  not  been  observed  for 
 above  300  years  before ;  for  which  reason  the  Jews,  being  now 
 in  a  state  of  compunction,  were  for  restoring  it  to  its  primitive 
 institution;  but  upon  the  removal  of  their  fears,  by  the  withdraw- 
 ing of  Nebuchadnezzar's  forces,  they  repented  of  their  good  in- 
 tentions, and  recalled  their  servants  to  their  slavery  again.  Why 
 the  observation  of  such  a  year  in  seven  was  enjoined,  the  reasons 
 are  pretty  obvious:  for  besides  the  commemoration  of  the  Israel- 
 ites' release  from  the  Egyptian  bondage,  which  the  text  specifies 
 the  general  release  of  servants,  and  the  restoration  of  lands  and 
 tenements  to  their  first  owners,  which  were  then  to  be  transacted, 
 were  to  hinder  the  rich  from  oppressing  the  needy,  and  reducing 
 them  to  perpetual  slavery ;  that  debts  should  not  be  too  much 
 multiplied,  nor  the  poor,  consequently,  entirely  ruined;  but  that 
 a  liberty  of  people's  persons,  an  equality  of  their  fortunes,  and 
 the  oriler  and  distinction  of  their  tribes  and  families  (as  far  as 
 it  was  possible)  might  be  preserved :  and  as  it  was  something 
 like  this  that  Lycurgus  established  among  the  Lacedemonians,  in 
 his  instituting  an  equality  among  persons,  banishing  slavery,  and 
 preventing,  as  tar  as  he  could,  any  one's  becoming  too  powerful, 
 or  too  rich. — Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b  iv.  c.  4.  and 
 C\  Unci's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Salbutk. 
 
Sect.  V'.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c 
 
 663 
 
 ,  M.  3394.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  4811.  A.  C.  597.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON 
 
 him  before  the  princes,  who,  in  much  rage,  fell  upon 
 him,  and  beat  him,  and  then  committed  him  to  the  com- 
 mon jail,  where  he  continued  for  many  days. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  Egyptians  not  daring  to  engage 
 the  Chaldean  army,  retired  before  them  into  their  own 
 country,  leaving  Zedekiah  and  his  people,  with  their  un- 
 equal strength,  to  contend  with  Nebuchadnezzar,  who 
 now  returned  more  exasperated  than  ever,  to  re-invest 
 the  city  of  Jerusalem.  Nor  had  he  been  long  before  it, 
 ere  the  king  sent  messengers  to  Jeremiah  to  inquire  of 
 him,  then  in  prison,  concerning  the  fate  of  the  present 
 war:  but  his  constant  answer  was,  "  That  God  being 
 highly  provoked  against  him  and  his  people,  for  their 
 manifold  iniquities,  would  fight  against  the  city,  and 
 smite  it ;  that  both  king  and  people  should  be  delivered 
 into  the  hands  of  the  king  of  Babylon  ;  that  those  who 
 continued  in  the  city  during-  the  siege,  should  perish  by 
 the  pestilence,  by  the  famine,  and  by  the  sword;  but 
 that  those  who  endeavoured  to  escape,  though  they  fell 
 into  the  hands  of  the  Chaldeans,  would  have  their  lives 
 preserved:"  at  which  several  of  the  princes,  and  chief 
 commanders,  being  very  much  offended,  pressed  the 
 king  against  him,  as  one  who,  by  his  speeches,  dis- 
 couraged the  soldiers  and  people,  and  was  enough  in- 
 deed to  occasion  a  defection. 
 
 In  this  conjuncture  of  affairs,  the  king  was  obliged  to 
 deliver  him  into  their  hands ;  and  they,  with  unrelenting 
 cruelty,  cast  him  into  a  nasty  dungeon,  °  where  inevitably 
 he  must  have  perished,  had  not  Ebed-Melech,  *  one  of 
 the  king's  eunuchs,  interceded  with  his  master  to  have 
 him  released  from  thence,  and  sent  him  back  to  his 
 former  prison  ;  for  which  favour  the  prophet  assured  him 
 from  God  that  he  should  not  perish  at  the  sacking  of 
 the  city. 
 
 As  the  city  began  to  be  pressed  more  by  the  siege, 
 the  king  desired  a  private  conference  with  Jeremiah, 
 who  accordingly  was  sent  for  to  an  apartment  of  the 
 temple  ;  but  the  prophet  could  give  no  other  answer  to 
 his  questions,  than  what  he  had  done  before  ;  only  he 
 advised  him  to  surrender  to  the  enemy,  as  the  best  ex- 
 pedient to  save  both  himself  and  the  city.  The  king, 
 though  urged  by  the  prophet,  could  by  no  means  bring 
 himself  to  think  of  that.  At  his  breaking-  off  the  dis- 
 course, however,  he  obliged  him  to  secrecy,  though  he 
 did  not  forget  to  remand  him  to  prison  :  and  this  is  the 
 last  interview  that  the  prophet  had  with  the  king. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  siege  began  to  draw  toward  a 
 conclusion.  The  people  within  the  walls,  through  the 
 scarcity  of  provisions,  were  reduced  to  the  last  necessity, 
 even  '  to  feed  on   one   another  ;  and  those  without  had 
 
 1  Lam.  iv.  4,  5,  and  Ezek.  v.  10. 
 
 a  Some  think,  that  when  he  was  in  this  dismal  place,  he  made 
 those  mournful  meditations,  which  are  set  down  in  the  third  chap- 
 ter of  the  Lamentations:  '  They  have  cut  ofl'my  life  in  the  dun- 
 geon, and  cast  a  stone  upon  me. — I  called  upon  thy  name,  O 
 Lord,  out  of  the  low  dungeon,  and  thou  hast  heard  my  voice,' 
 &<•.  ver.  53,  55,  5fi. — Louth's  Commentary  on  Jer.  xxxviii. 
 
 b  This  charitable  intercessor  for  the  prophet  in  his  distress,  is, 
 in  the  text,  said  to  have  been  an  Ethiopian;  accordingly  Hnetius 
 (in  his  Treatise  on  the  voyaging  of  Solomon,  c.  7.)  observes  from 
 Josephus,  that  Solomon  in  his  voyage  to  Tarshish,  (I  Kings  x. 
 2'i.)  amongst  other  merchandise,  brought  slaves  from  Ethiopia, 
 which  was  likewise  the  practice  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  in 
 after  ages,  as  he  there  proves  by  several  testimonies:  and  such 
 
 an  one  he  supposes  this  Ebed-melech  to  have  been  originally,  '  He  shall  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  king  of  Babylon, 
 though  afterwards  he  was  promoted  to  be  an  eunuch,  or  chief  and  shall  speak  with  him  mouth  to  mouth,  and  his^eyes  shaU  1  <  - 
 officer  of  the  king's  house.— Lowth's  Commentary  on  Jer.  xxxviii.  |  hold   his   eyes,'  (chap,  xxxii.  4.)  both   of  which   were  literally 
 
 now  finished  their  works,  and  provided  all  things  for  a 
 general  assault ;  when  in  the  eleventh  year  of  king 
 Zedekiah,  and  on  the  ninth  day  of  the  fourth  month  of 
 that  year,  the  city  was  taken  by  storm,  about  midnight, 
 and  every  place  filled  with  blood  and  slaughter.  Through 
 the  favour  of  the  night,  Zedekiah  and  his  friends  c  en- 
 deavoured to  make  their  escape  towards  the  wilderness  ; 
 but  he  had  not  gone  far,  before  he  was  taken,  and  car- 
 ried to  Nebuchadnezzar,  who  was  then  at  Riblah,  d  where, 
 after  some  severe  reproaches,  e  he  first  caused  his  sons 
 and  the  princes  of  Judah  taken  with  him,  to  be  slain  be- 
 fore his  face,  and  then  commanded  his  eyes  /  to  be  put  out 
 
 c  It  is  a  hard  matter  to  conceive  how  the  besieged  could  make 
 their  escape,  seeivg  that  the'Chaldeans  had  begirt  the  city  round 
 about.  Josephus  indeed  gives  us  this  account: — "That  as  the 
 city  was  taken  about  midnight,  the  captains  with  the  rest  of  the 
 soldiers,  went  directly  into  the  temple;  which  king  Zedekiah  per- 
 ceiving, he  took  his  wives,  children,  commanders,  and  friends, 
 and  they  slipt  all  away  together,  by  a  narrow  passage  towards  the 
 wilderness.  But  then  what  this  narrow  passage  was  is  still  the 
 question.  The  Jews  indeed  think  that  there  was  a  subterraneous 
 passage  from  the  palace  to  the  plains  of  Jericho,  and  that  the  king, 
 and  his  courtiers  might  endeavour  to  make  their  escape  that  way. 
 Dion,  it  is  true,  tells  us  (b.  Ixvi.)  that  in  the  last  siege  of  Jeru- 
 salem, the  Jews  had  covert  ways,  which  went  under  the  walls  of 
 the  city,  to  a  considerable  distance  into  the  country,  out  of  which 
 they  were  wont  to  sally,  and  fall  upon  the  Romans  that  were 
 straggling  from  their  camp :  but  since  neither  Josephus,  nor  the 
 sacred  historian,  takes  notice  of  any  such  subterraneous  conduit 
 at  this  siege,  we  may  suppose  that  the  Chaldeans  having  made  a 
 breach  in  the  wall,  the  besieged  got  away  privately  between  the 
 wall  and  the  out-works,  in  a  passage  which  the  enemy  did  not 
 suspect.  The  words  in  the  second  book  of  Kings  are: — '  They 
 went  by  the  way  of  the  gate,  between  the  two  walls,  which  is  by 
 the  king's  garden,'  (chap.  xxv.  4,)  which  in  Jeremiah  are  thus 
 expressed: — 'They  went  by  the  way  of  the  king's  garden,  by 
 the  gate  between  the  two  walls:'  so  that,  as  the  king's  garden 
 faced  the  country,  very  likely  there  was  some  very  private  and 
 imperceptible  gate,  through  which  they  might  attempt  to  escape, 
 and  the  besiegers  perhaps  might  not  keep  so  strict  a  watch  at 
 that  part  of  the  town,  especially  in  the  hurry  of  storming  it,  be- 
 cause it  led  to  the  plain,  and  made  their  escape  in  a  manner 
 impracticable. — Jewish  History,  b.  x.  c.  11 ;  Patrick's,  Le  Clerc's, 
 and  C'almet's  Commentaries. 
 
 d  Riblah  was  a  city  of  Syria,  in  the  country  of  Hamath,  which 
 country  is  the  nearest  to  Judea,  and  which  city,  according  to  St 
 Jerome,  was  the  same  with  that  which  was  afterwards  called 
 Antioch;  and  as  it  was  the  most  pleasant  place  in  all  Syria,  here 
 Nebuchadnezzar  lay,  to  attend  the  success  of  the  siege  of  Jeru- 
 salem, to  send  his  army  proper  supplies,  and  to  intercept  any 
 
 relief  that  might  come  to  the  besieged Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Nebuchadnezzar  no  sooner  cast  his  eye  upon  him,  says  Jose- 
 phus, (Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  x.  c.  1 1.)  than  he  called  him  all  the 
 faithless  and  perfidious  names  that  he  could  think  of.  "  Did  you 
 not  promise  to  manage  the  power  and  authority  that  I  put  you  in 
 possession  of  for  my  advantage  and  behoof  ?  And  am  not  I  well 
 requited,  do  you  think,  for  making  you  a  king  in  your  brother 
 Jehoiakim's  place,  by  your  employing  of  the  credit  and  interest, 
 that  I  gave  you,  to  the  ruin  of  your  patron  and  benefactor  ?  But 
 that  God  is  great  and  just,  who  for  the  punishment  of  your 
 treachery  and  ingratitude,  hath  now  made  you  my  prisoner."  But 
 there  is  a  mistake  in  this  speech  of  Nebuchadnezzar's,  namely 
 his  making  Zedekiah  succeed  his  brother  Jehoiakim  where- 
 as he  was  put  in  the  place  of  his  nephew  Jehoiachin ;  but 
 his  nephew's  reign  was  so  very  short,  little  more  than  three 
 months,  that  this  imperious  monarch  might  look  upon  it  as  no- 
 thing at  all. 
 
 f  Josephus  takes  notice,  that  the  seeming  contradiction  in  the 
 prophecies  of  Ezekiel  and  Jeremiah,  concerning  the  fate  of  Zede- 
 kiah, made  that  prince  give  no  heed  to  what  was  foretold.  Ezc- 
 kiel's  prophecy  is  delivered  in  these  words: — 'I  will  bring  him 
 to  Babylon,  to  the  land  of  the  Chaldeans,  yet  he  shall  not  see  it, 
 though  be  die  there,'  (chap.  xii.  13.)  and  Jeremiah's  in  these: — 
 
664 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 and  himself  to  be  bound  in  fetters  of  brass,  to  be  sent  to 
 Babylon,  and  put  in  prison  for  life,  to  the  full  accom- 
 plishment of a  what  the  two  prophets,  Jeremiah  and 
 Ezekiel,  had  foretold  concerning  him. 
 
 As  soon  as  Nebuchadnezzar  had  advice  of  the  taking 
 of  Jerusalem,  he  sent  Nebuzaradan,  the  captain  of  his 
 guards,  with  orders  to  raze  the  place,  plunder  the  temple, 
 and  carry  the  people  that  were  left  captives  to  Babylon  ; 
 M'hich  he  failed  not  to  execute  with  the  utmost  rigour 
 and  cruelty.  For  having  taken  all  the  vessels  out  of  the 
 house  of  the  Lord,  and  gathered  together  all  the  riches 
 that  he  could  find,  either  in  the  king's  palace,  or  in  any 
 great  men's  houses,  he  b  set  both  the  temple  and  city  on 
 fire,  and  overthrew  all  the  walls,  fortresses,  and  towers 
 thereunto  belonging,  until  he  had  brought  the  whole  to  a 
 perfect  desolation  :  and  upon  these  two  sad  occasions, 
 namely,  the  taking  of  the  city,  and  the  destruction  of  the 
 temple,  the  prophet  Jeremiah  composed  a  mournful 
 poem,  which  is  called  his  Lamentations,  c  and  the  Jews 
 
 accomplished;  for  Zedekiah  was  carried  to  Riblah,  where  he  saw 
 the  king  of  Babylon,  and  spake  to  him,  and  beheld  his  children 
 executed ;  but  had  afterwards  his  eyes  put  out,  and  was  then  car- 
 ried to  Babylon,  where  he  was  incapable  of  seeing  the  city, 
 because  he  had  lost  his  eyesight . — Jewish  Antiquities  b.  x.  c. 
 1 1 ;  Calmet's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 a  The  reflection  which  Josephus  makes  upon  this  occasion  is 
 very  good  and  moral: — "This  may  serve  to  convince  even  the 
 ignorant,"  says  he,  "  of  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God,  and  of  the 
 constancy  of  his  counsels,  through  all  the  various  ways  of  his 
 operations.  It  may  likewise  show  us,  that  God's  foreknowledge 
 of  things  is  certain,  and  his  providence  regular  in  ordering  of 
 events;  besides  that,  it  holds  forth  a  most  exemplary  instance  of 
 the  danger  of  our  giving  way  to  the  motions  of  sin  and  infidelity, 
 which  deprive  us  of  the  means  of  discerning  God's  judgments, 
 which  are  ready  to  fall  upon  us. — Jeivish  Antiquities,  b.  x.  c.  11 . 
 
 o  The  temple  was  burned,  from  the  time  that  it  was  built,  400 
 years,  says  Sir  John  Marsham;  424  years  3  months  and  8  days, 
 says  Primate  Usher;  430  years,  says  Abarbinel,  and  other  learn- 
 ed Jews:  but  Josephus  computes  the  thing  still  higher;  for  he 
 tells  us,  that  the  temple  was  burned  470  years  6  months  and  10 
 days,  from  the  building  of  it;  lOfiO  years  6  months  and  10  days 
 from  the  Israelites'  coming  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt;  1950  years 
 ti  months  and  10  days,  from  the  deluge;  and  3530  years  6 
 months  and  10  days  from  the  creation  of  the  world.  Josephus 
 stands  amazed,  that  the  second  temple  should  be  burned  by  the 
 Komans  in  the  same  month,  and  on  the  very  same  day  of  the 
 month,  that  this  was  set  on  fire  by  the  Chaldeans,  and  as  some 
 of  the  Jewish  doctors  say,  when  the  Levites  were  singing  the 
 same  psalm  in  both  destructions,  namely,  xciv.  23,  '  He  shall 
 bring  upon  them  their  own  iniquity,  and  he  shall  cut  them  off  in 
 their  own  wickedness;  yea,  the  Lord  our  God  shall  cut  them  off.' 
 — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  x.  c.  11. 
 
 c  The  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,  for  the  title  is  properly  and 
 significantly  plural,  consist  of  a  number  of  plaintive  effusions, 
 composed  upon  the  plan  of  the  funereal  dirges,  all  upon  the  same 
 subject,  and  uttered  without  connexion  as  they  rose  in  the  mind, 
 in  1  lung  course  of  separate  stanzas.  These  have  afterwards  been 
 put  together,  and  formed  into  a  collection  or  correspondent  whole. 
 If  any  reader,  however,  should  expect  to  find  in  them  an  artificial 
 and  methodical  arrangement  of  the  general  subject,  a  regular  dis- 
 position of  the  parts,  a  perfect  connexion  and  orderly  succession 
 in  the  matter,  and,  with  all  this,  an  uninterrupted  series  of  ele- 
 gance and  correctness,  he  will  really  expect  what  was  foreign  to 
 the  prophet's  design.  In  the  character  of  a  mourner,  he  cele- 
 brates iu  plaintive  strains  the  obsequies  of  his  ruined  country: 
 whatever  presented  itself  to  his  mind  in  the  midst  of  desolation 
 and  misery,  whatever  struck  him  as  particularly  wretched  and 
 calamitous,  whatever  the  instant  sentiment  of  sorrow  dictated,  he 
 poors  forth  in  a  kind  of  spontaneous  effusion.  He  frequently 
 pauses,  and  as  it  were  ruminates  upon  the  same  object;  frequently 
 varies  and  illustrates  the  same?  thought  with  different  imagery, 
 and  a  different  choice  of  language:  so  that  the  whole  bears  rather 
 the  appearance  of  an  accumulation  of  corresponding  sentiments, 
 than  an  accurate  and  connected  series  of  different  ideas  arranged 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  58G.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 observe  two  annual  fasts,  the  one  in  the  fourth  month, 
 which  falls  in  with  our  June,  and  the  other  in  the  fifth 
 month,  which  answers  to  part  of  our  July,  even  to  this  day. 
 
 in  the  form  of  a  regular  treatise.  I  would  not  be  understood  to  in- 
 sinuate, that  the  author  has  paid  no  regard  whatever  to  order  or 
 arrangement;  or  that  transitions  truly  elegant  from  one  subject, 
 image,  or  character,  to  another,  are  not  sometimes  to  be  found ; 
 this  only  I  wished  to  remark,  that  the  nature  and  design  of  this 
 poem  (being  in  reality  a  collection  of  different  sentiments  or  sub- 
 jects, each  of  which  assumes  the  form  of  a  funereal  dirge)  neither 
 require,   nor   even  admit  of  a   methodical  arrangement.     The 
 whole  poem,  however,  may   be  divided   into  five  parts:  in  the 
 first,  second,  and  fourth,  the  prophet  addi esses  the  people  in  his 
 own  person,  or  else   personifies  Jerusalem,  and   introduces  that 
 city  as  a  character:  the  third  part  is  supposed  to  be  uttered  bv  the 
 chorus  of  Jews,  represented  by  their  leader,  after  the  manner  of  the 
 Greek  tragedies;  and  in  the  fifth  ,  the  whole  nation  of  the  Jews, 
 on  being  led  into  captivity,  pour  forth  their  united  complaints  to 
 Almighty  God.     This  last,  as  well  as  the  others,  is  divided  into 
 twenty-two  periods,  according  to  the  number  of  the  letters  of  the 
 alphabet;  with  this  difference,  that  in  the  four  other  parts  the 
 initial  letters  of  each  period,  exactly  correspond  with  the  alpha- 
 betical order.     And  from  this  circumstance  we  have  been  enabled 
 to  form  some  little  judgment  concerning  the  Hebrew  metres. 
 The    acrostic  or  alphabetical  poetry  of  the  Hebrews   was   cer- 
 tainly intended  to  assist  the  memory,  and  was  confined  altoge- 
 ther to  those  compositions  which  consisted  of  detached  maxims 
 or  sentiments  without  any  express  order  or  connexion.      The 
 same  custom  is  said  to  have  been  prevalent,  indeed  is  said  still  to 
 prevail  in  some  degree  among  the  Syrians,  the  Persians,  and  the 
 Arabs.      With  how  much  propriety  the  prophet  has   employed 
 this  form  of  composition  on  the  present  occasion,  is  evident  from 
 what  has  been  said  concerning  the  nature  of  this  poem.     The 
 manner  and  order  of  this  kind  of  verse  is  as  follows: — Each  of  the 
 five  parts,  or  grand    divisions,   is    subdivided    into  twenty-two 
 periods  or  stanzas ;  these  periods  in  the  three  first  parts  are  all  of 
 them  triplets,  in  other  words,  consist  each  of  three  lines  only;  in 
 each  of  the  two  former  parts  there  is  one  period,  consisting  of  four 
 lines.      In  the  four  first  parts,  the  initial  letter  of  each   period 
 follows  the  order  of  the  alphabet ;  but  the  third  part  is  so  very  regu- 
 lar, that  every  line  in  the  same  period  begins  with  the  same  letter, 
 so  as  necessarily  to  ascertain  the  length  of  every  verse  or  line  in 
 that  poem ;  indeed,  even  in  the  others,  though  the  lines  are  not 
 distinctly  marked   in  this  maimer,  it  is  no  difficult  matter  to 
 ascertain    their   limits,   by   resolving   the   sentences  into    their 
 constituent   members.       By  this    mode    of  computation  it  ap- 
 pears, that  in  the  fourth  part  all  the  periods  consist  of  distichs, 
 as  also  in  the  filth,  which  is  not  acrostic:  but  in  this  last  part 
 I    must    remark   another    peculiarity,    namely,    that    the   lines 
 are    extremely  short,  whereas  in  all   the   rest    they    are    long. 
 The  length   of  these  metres  is  worthy  of  notice:  we  find   in 
 this  poem  lines  or  verses,  which  are  evidently  longer,  by  almost 
 one  half,  than  those  which  occur  usually  and  on  other  occasions. 
 The  length  of  them  seems  to  be,  on  an  average,  about  twelve 
 syllables ;  there  are  a  few  which  do  not  quite  amount  to  that  num- 
 ber, and  there  are  a  few  which  perhaps  exceed  it  by  two  or  three 
 syllables  :   for,  although  nothing  certain  can  be  determined  con- 
 cerning the  number  of  syllables,  in   truth  I   pay  no  attention   to 
 the  fictions  of  the  Mazorites,  there  is  room,  nevertheless,  for  very 
 probable  conjecture.     We  are  not  to  suppose  this  peculiar  form 
 of  versification  utterly  without  design  or  importance;  on  the  con- 
 trary, I  am  persuaded  that  the  prophet  adopted  this  kind  of  metre 
 as  being  more  diffuse,  more  copious,  more  tender,  in  all  respects 
 better  adapted  to  melancholy  subjects.     I  must  add,  that  in  all 
 probability  the  funereal  dirges,  which  were  sung  by  the  mourners, 
 were  commonly  composed  in  this  kind  of  verse;  for  whenever,  in 
 the  prophets,  any  funereal  lamentations  occur,  or  any  passages  are 
 formed  upon  that  plan,  the  versification  is,  if  I  am  not  mistaken, 
 of  this  protracted  kind.     If  this  then  be  the  case,  we  have  disco- 
 vered a  true  legitimate  form  of  elegy  in  the  poetry  of  the  He- 
 brews.    It  ought,  however,  to  be  remarked,  that  the  same  kind 
 of  metre  is  sometimes,  though  rarely,  employed  upon  other  occa- 
 sions by  the  sacred  poets,  as  it  was  indeed  by  the  Greeks  and 
 Romans.     There  are,  moreover,  some  poems  manifestly  of  the 
 elegiac  kind,  which  are  composed  in  the  usual  metre,  and  not  in 
 unconnected  stanzas,  according  to  the  form  of  a  funereal  dirge. 
 Thus  far  in  general  as  to  the  nature  and  method  of  the  poem, 
 
Sect.  "V.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &e. 
 
 665 
 
 A.  M.  3391  A.  C.  610;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M. 
 
 Having  thus  destroyed  the  city  and  temple,  Nebuzara- 
 d.an  made  all  the  people  that  he  found  in  the  place  cap- 
 tives. Some  of  the  chief  of  these,  such  as  Seraiah  the 
 high  priest,  Zenhaniah  a  the  second  priest,  and  about 
 seventy  others,  he  carried  to  ltildah,  where  Nebuchad- 
 nezzar b  caused  them  all  to  be  put  to  death.  The  poorer 
 and  labouring  part  of  the  people,  such  as  Could  till  the 
 ground,  and  dress  the  vineyards,  he  left  behind  him,  and 
 made  Gedaliah  c  their  governor ;  but  as  for  all  the  rest, 
 he  carried  them  directly  away  to  Babylon  ;  only  Jere- 
 miah, of  whom  Nebuchadnezzar  had  given  him  charge  to 
 take  particular  care,  he  not  only  took  out  of  prison  when 
 he  first  came  to  Jerusalem,  but  as  the  rest  were  upon 
 their  departure,  gave  him  his  option,  whether  he  would 
 go  with  him  to  Babylon,  where  he  should  be  maintained 
 very  plentifully  at  the  king's  charge,  or  else  remain  in 
 
 and  the  form  of  (lie  versification; — it  remains  to  offer      few  re- 
 marks concerning  the  subject  and  the  style. 
 
 That  the  subject  of  the  Lamentations  is  the  destruction  of  the 
 holy  city  and  temple,  the  overthrow  of  the  state,  the  extermi- 
 nation of  the  people — and  that  these  events  are  described  as 
 actually  accomplished,  and  not  in  the  style  of  prediction  merely 
 — must  be  evident  to  every  reader;  though  some  authors  of  consi- 
 derable reputation  have  imagined  this  poem  to  have  been  com- 
 posed on  the  death  of  king  Josiah.  The  prophet,  indeed,  has  so 
 copiously,  so  tenderly,  and  poetically,  bewailed  the  misfortunes 
 of  his  country,  that  he  seems  completely  to  have  fulfilled  the 
 office  and  duty  of  a  mourner.  In  my  opinion  there  is  not  extant 
 any  poem  which  displays  such  a  happy  and  splendid  selection  of 
 imagery  in  so  concentrated  a  state.  What  can  be  more  elegant 
 and  poetical  than  the  description  of  that  once  flourishing  city, 
 lately  chief  among  the  nations,  sitting  in  the  character  of  a  lemale, 
 solitary,  afflicted,  in  a  state  of  widowhood,  deserted  by  her  friends, 
 betrayed  by  her  dearest  connexions,  imploring  relief,  and  seek- 
 ing consolation  in  vain  ?  What  a  beautiful  personification  is 
 that  of  '  the  Ways  of  Sion  mourning,  because  none  are  come  to 
 her  solemn  feast  !'  How  tender  and  pathetic  are  the  following 
 complaints  ! 
 
 "  Is  this  nothing  to  all  you  who  pass  along1  the  way  ?   Behold  and  see, 
 
 If  there  be  any  sorrow  like  unto  my  sorrow,  which  is  inflicted  on  me  ; 
 
 Which  Jehovah  inflicted  on  me  in  the  day  of  the  violence  of  his  wrath. 
 
 For  the»e  things  I  weep,  my  eyes  stream  with  water; 
 
 Because  the  comforter  is  far  away,  that  should  tranquillize  my  soul; 
 
 My  children  are  desolate,  because  the  enemy  was  strong." 
 But  to  detail  its  beauties  would  he  to  transcribe  the  entire  poem. 
 I  shall  make  but  one  remark  relative  to  certain  passages,  and  to 
 the  former  part  of  the  second  alphabet  in  particular.  If,  in  this 
 passage  the  prophet  should  be  thought  by  some  to  affect  a  style 
 too  bold  and  energetic  for  the  expression  of  sorrow,  let  them  only 
 advert  to  the  greatness  of  the  subject,  its  importance,  sanctity, 
 and  solemnity;  and  let  them  consider,  that  the  nature  of  the 
 performance  absolutely  required  these  to  be  set  forth  in  a  style 
 suitable,  in  some  degree  at  least,  to  their  inherent  dignity:— let 
 them  attentively  consider  these  things,  and  I  have  not  a  doubt 
 but  they  will  readily  excuse  the  sublimity  of  the  prophet. — 
 Lowth  on  Hebrew  Poetry. — Ed. 
 
 a  The  Jews  call  their  second  priest  their  Sayan,  whose  busi- 
 ness it  was  to  supply  the  function  of  the  high  priest,  in  case  lie 
 was  sick,  or  any  other  incapacity  attended  him.  We  find  no  such 
 particular  institution  under  the  law;  but  Eleazar,  the  son  of 
 Aaron,  who  is  styled  '  the  chief  over  the  chief  of  the  Levites, 
 and  who  had  the  oversight  of  them  who  kept  the  charge  of  the 
 sanctuary,'  (Num.  iii.  32,)  and  whose  authority  was  not  much 
 inferior  to  that  of  the  high  priest,  may,  not  improperly,  be  deem- 
 ed one  of  that  order. — CalmeCs  Commentary. 
 
 b  Because,  very  probably,  he  looked  upon  them  as  the  king's 
 principal  counsellors,  who  advised  him  to  rebel  against  him. — 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Gedaliah,  we  understand,  was  the  son  of  Ahikam,  Jeremiah's 
 great  friend  ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely,  that,  by  the  prophet's  advice, 
 who  exhorted  all,  both  king  and  people,  to  surrender  themselves 
 to  the  Assyrians,  (Jer.  xxxviii.  5,  17,)  he  made  his  escape  from 
 the  city,  and  went  over  to  the  king  of  Babylon  and  for  this  rea- 
 son was  promoted  to  the  government  of  Judea Calmet's  and 
 
 Patrick's  Commentaries. 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  58G.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  TIIK  END  OF  2  CITRON. 
 
 the  country  ;  and  when  the  prophet  had  chosen  the  latter, 
 he  dismissed  him  honourably,  with  a  handsome  present, 
 and  with  letters  of  recommendation  to  the  governor  Ge- 
 daliah, wherein  he  gave  him  a  strict  charge  to  take  par- 
 ticular care  of  him. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Object  ions  answered  and  Difficulties 
 obviated. 
 
 We,  who  have  not  received  the  book  of  Judith  in  our 
 canon  of  Scripture, are  not  under  the  like  necessity  of  vin- 
 dicating its  divine  inspiration  and  authority,  as  are  they 
 who,  '  by  a  public  act  of  council,  have  thought  proper  to 
 admit  it ;  but  still  we  see  no  reason  why  we  should  recede 
 from  the  opinion  of  the  ancients,  merely  because  some 
 modern  commentators,  who,  by  the  same  freak  of  fancy, 
 might  have  turned  the  plainest  narrative  in  Scripture 
 into  an  allegory,  have  adventured  to  call  it  a  parable. 
 Mysteries  indeed  may  be  made  of  any  thing,  and,  in  a 
 pregnant  brain,  fit  allusions  will  never  be  wanting,  when 
 once  a  full  scope  is  given  to  the  imagination,  and  a 
 writer  is  permitted  to  invent  what  he  pleases  :  but  it 
 would  be  madness  to  give  up  the  truth  of  historical  facts 
 merely  because  the  man  has  ingenuity  enough  to  apply 
 them  to  a  feigned  purpose,  especially  when  upon  exa- 
 mination we  find  that  there  are  sufficient  proofs  and  tes- 
 timonies of  their  reality,  and  no  insuperable  objections 
 to  the  contrary. 
 
 Let  us  suppose,  then,  that  the  events  contained  in  this 
 history  happened  before  the  Babylonish  captivity,  and  in 
 the  reign  of  Manasseh  king  of  Judah  ;  that  Nabuchodo- 
 nosor  in  Judith  was  the  same  with  Saosduchinus  in  Pto- 
 lemy, who  reigned  over  the  Assyrians  and  Chaldeans, 
 having  subdued  Esarhaddon  king  of  Assyria  ;  that  Ar- 
 phaxad is  the  same  with  Phraortes,  mentioned  in  Hero- 
 dotus, and  that  these  two  kings  waged  war  with  each 
 other;  that  Saosduchinus  having  overcome  Arphaxad, 
 resolved  to  reduce  all  the  nations  spoken  of  in  Judith, 
 under  his  dominion,  and  to  that  purpose,  sent  Holofernes 
 at  the  head  of  his  forces  to  subdue  those  countries  that 
 would  not  submit ;  that  at  this  time  Manasseh,  who  had 
 been  a  little  before  delivered  from  the  captivity  in  which 
 he  had  been  carried  to  Babylon,  dwelt  at  Jerusalem, 
 concerning  himself  but  little  with  the  government,  and 
 leaving  the  care  of  public  affairs  to  Joakim  the  high 
 priest ;  that  the  inhabitants  of  Bethulia  resolved  by  God'a 
 assistance,  to  preserve  their  religion  and  liberties,  and 
 accordingly  shut  their  gates  against  Holofernes  ;  and 
 that  Judith,  a  woman  of  great  courage  and  conduct, 
 seeing  the  extremity  to  which  the  city  was  reduced, 
 undertook  to  destroy  Holofernes,  and,  in  her  attempt, 
 succeeded.  Supposing  all  this,  I  say,  and  this  is  the 
 substance  of  the  whole,  where  do  we  find  any  thing  con- 
 trary to  the  rules  either  of  history  or  chronology  ? 
 
 The  war,  we  suppose,  commenced  between  Nabuchodo- 
 nosor  and  Arphaxad,  in  the  year  of  the  world  3347  ;  the 
 expedition  and  death  of  Holofernes  were  both  in  the  next 
 year,  3348,  Manasseh  was  taken  and  carried  to  Babylon 
 3349,  he  returned  some  years  after,  and  died  33G1 :  so  that 
 here  we  find  a  proper  space  for  the  things  related  in  this 
 
 1  Concil.  Trid.  sess.  4. 
 4p 
 
666 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3304.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 history  to  be  transacted  ;  and  that  they  were  really  thus 
 transacted  we  have  the  concurring-  testimony  both  of  the 
 Jewish  and  Christian  church,  who,  though  they  deny  the 
 book  a  place  in  the  number  of  their  sacred  and  divine 
 writings,  yet  did  always  esteem  it  one  of  their  apocry- 
 phal pieces,  and  a  true  and  incontested  history,  well 
 contrived  for  the  edification  of  the  vulgar,  though  not  of 
 authority  enough  to  determine  any  controversy  in  matters 
 of  religion. 
 
 1  Josephus  indeed  makes  no  mention  either  of  the 
 book  of  Judith,  or  of  her  famous  exploit  in  killing-  Ho- 
 lofemes  ;  but  his  silence  is  no  argument  against  what  we 
 assert,  because  he  nowhere  professes  to  take  notice  of 
 every  thing  that  occurred  in  the  Jewish  republic  ;  on  the 
 contrary,  ~  he  openly  declares  that  his  purpose  was  to 
 relate  only  such  things  as  were  recorded  in  the  books 
 which  were  originally  written  in  Hebrew,  and  declared 
 canonical,  which  that  of  Judith  never  was. 
 
 It  is  some  confirmation  of  its  genuineness,  however, 
 that,  in  writings  which  are  of  undoubted  authority,  we 
 meet  with  some  citations  out  of  it ;  and  therefore,  when 
 we  find  St  Luke,  in  Elizabeth's  salutation  of  the  Virgin 
 Mary,  using  these  words, — 3  '  Blessed  art  thou  among 
 women,'  which  are  manifestly  taken  from  the  compliment 
 which  Ozias  makes  Judith,  4  '  Blessed  art  thou  of  the 
 most  high  God,  above  all  the  women  upon  earth  ;'  and 
 St  Paul  in  his  exhortation  to  the  Corinthians,  using  these, 
 — 5  '  Neither  murmur  ye,  as  some  of  them  also  murmured, 
 and  were  destroyed  of  the  destroyer,'  which  he  certainly 
 borrows  from  the  tenth  chapter  of  Judith,  according  to 
 the  Greek  interpretation  ;  we  cannot  forbear  concluding, 
 that,  in  the  apostolic  age,  this  book  was  looked  upon  as 
 a  piece  of  true  and  uncontroverted  history. 
 
 Difficulties,  indeed,  there  will  occur  in  relation  to 
 names,  dates,  and  other  particulars,  almost  in  all  his- 
 tories, and  especially  in  the  Oriental, '  when  we  shall 
 find,  not  only  in  writers  of  different  characters,  the  Greek 
 and  Hebrew,  the  sacred  and  profane,  but  even  in  writers 
 of  the  same  nation,  the  same  person  under  different 
 appellations.  Though,  therefore,  in  strictness  of  speech, 
 it  may  be  accounted  an  error  in  history,  to  call  the  king 
 of  Nineveh  by  the  name  of  Nabuchodonosor  ;  yet,  as  it 
 was  the  style  and  manner  of  the  Jews  to  denote  any 
 prince  who  lived  beyond  the  Euphrates  by  that  name,  we 
 need  not  wonder  that  we  find  an  author,  who  lived  in  an 
 age  when  the  fame  and  reputation  of  Nabuchodonosor 
 the  Great  had  quite  eclipsed  the  name  of  all  his  prede- 
 cessors, calling  another  prince,  who  lived  at  a  far  dis- 
 tance, that  is,  Saosduchinus  the  king  of  Assyria,  by  the 
 name  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  which  perhaps  at  that  time 
 might  be  the  standing  name  of  every  great  and  distant 
 monarch. 
 
 Nor  is  there  any  great  trespass  against  the  truth  of 
 history  7  in  this  author's  asserting  that  Arphaxad  built 
 tlic  walls,  the  towers,  and  the  gates  of  Ecbatan  ;  since 
 by  Arphaxad  he  foes  not  mean  the  Dejoces  in  Herodo- 
 tus, but  his  son  Phraortes,  who  succeeded  him  in  the 
 kingdom  of  Media  :  for  that  he  must  mean  so,  is  plain, 
 because  he  gives  us  to  understand,  that  this  Arphax- 
 ad was   defeated,  and8  himself  slain  by  the   Assyrian 
 
 '  Huetius'a  Demonstrat.  propos.  4.    *  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  x.  c.  11. 
 B  Luke  i.  42.  t  Judith xiii.  18.  MCoi.x,  10. 
 
 6  Calmet's  Preface  on  the  book  of  Judith. 
 »  Jiulith  i.  2,  &v.  6  Ibid.  ver.  16. 
 
 48:25.  A.  C.  586.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 archers,  which  even  Herodotus  9  himself  makes  to  be  the 
 fate,  not  of  Dejoces  the  father,  but  of  his  son  Phraortes, 
 who,  having  subdued  the  Persians,  as  he  tells  us,  and 
 made  himself  master  of  almost  all  Asia,  was  not  content 
 therewith,  but  coming  at  last  to  attack  Nineveh  and  the 
 Assyrian  empire,  was  overcome,  and  killed  in  the 
 bold  attempt. 
 
 His  father  indeed  might  lay  the  foundation  of  Ecba- 
 tan, and  during  his  lifetime,  carry  on  the  building ;  but 
 a  work  of  this  kind  is  not  so  soon  effected,  but  that  he 
 might  leave  the  completion  of  it  to  his  son,  who  being  a 
 prince  of  a  warlike  spirit,  and  having  many  forces  under 
 his  command,  is  therefore,  in  the  book  of  Judith,  not 
 improperly  said  to  have  made  the  gates  of  this  royal  city 
 10  '  in  height  seventy  cubits,  and  in  breadth  forty  cubits, 
 for  the  going  forth  of  his  mighty  armies,  and  for  the 
 setting  in  array  of  his  footmen.' 
 
 Whoever  looks  into  the  order  and  succession  of  the 
 Jewish  high  priests,  as  we  have  them  delivered  to  us  in 
 the  first  book  of  Chronicles,  ll  in  the  books  of  Ezra,  12 
 Nehemiah,  13  and  in  the  history  of  Josephus,  14  will  find 
 them  so  intricate  and  perplexed,  so  many  omissions  and 
 mislocations,  such  a  diversity  of  names  and  numbers, 
 and  such  seeming  contrariety  in  the  several  accounts,  as 
 will  cost  him  no  small  pains  to  reduce  them  to  any  toler- 
 able regularity.  The  reason  is,  because  the  Scripture 
 nowhere  professes  to  give  an  exact  catalogue  of  all 
 such  as  had  been  admitted  to  that  office  and  dignity 
 until  the  captivity. 
 
 That  in  the  book  of  Chronicles  seems  to  bid  fairest 
 for  it :  but,  upon  examination,  it  will  appear  15  to  be 
 only  a  direct  lineal  descent  of  the  pontifical  family, 
 from  Aaron  to  Josedech  the  son  of  Seraiah,  who  was 
 high  priest  at  the  captivity ;  and  not  a  succession  of 
 such  as  had  borne  the  pontifical  office,  because  several 
 in  that  pedigree  are  inserted  that  were  never  high 
 priests,  a  and  several  are  omitted  that  were.  The  pedi- 
 grees of  the  high  priests  in  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  are  but 
 imperfect  parts  of  that  which  we  have  in  the  book  of 
 Chronicles  ;  and  as  for  the  catalogue  of  Josephus,  it  is 
 so  corrupted,  that  scarce  five  of  the  names  in  it  do  agree 
 with  any  thing  that  we  have  in  Scripture  :  so  that,  con- 
 sidering the  defect  of  these  accounts,  we  maybe  allowed 
 to  infer,  that  Joakim  or  Eliakim,  (for  they  are  names 
 both  of  the  same  import,)  might  have  been  high  priest  in 
 the  time  of  Manasseh  ;  even  though  we  should  suppose 
 there  was  no  mention  made  of  him  as  such,  either  in  the 
 Holy  Scriptures,  or  in  the  history  of  Josephus. 
 
 16  The  Scripture,  however,  takes  notice  of  one  Eliakim, 
 the  son  of  Hilkiah,  whom,  (according  to  the  prophet l? 
 Isaiah)   God  promised  '  to  clothe  with  a  robe,  and  to 
 
 9  B.  i.  c.  97.  10  Judith  i.  4.  "  Chap.  vi.  3,  &c. 
 
 12  Chap.  ii.  36,  &c.  '3  Chap.  vii.  39.        '"  B.  viii.  c.  15. 
 
 15  Piideaux's  Connection,  anno  655. 
 
 16  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Order  and  Succession,  &c. 
 
 "  Chap.  xxii.  21. 
 
 a  The  high  priests  of  the  family  of  Eli  are  instances  of  the 
 latter;  for  they  are  left  out  of  that  pedigree,  though  they  were 
 high  priests:  and  those  of  the  true  race  who  were  excluded  by 
 tliem,  are  instances  of  the  former;  for  they  are  in  it,  though 
 they  were  never  high  priests:  and  it  is  very  likely  that,  from 
 the  time  of  Solomon  to  the  captivity,  many  more  such  instances 
 might  have  happened,  to  hinder  that  pedigree  from  being  an 
 exact  catalogue  ol  the  high  priests. — Prideaux's  Connection, 
 anno  655. 
 
Skct.  V.J 
 
 FR031  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 667 
 
 A.  M.  3391.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 strengthen  with  a  girdle,'  that  is,  to  invest  with  the 
 pontifical  habit  and  office  ;  and  therefore,  his  '  being-  a 
 father  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  the  house 
 of  Judah,  and  his  having  the  key  of  the  house  of  David 
 laid  upon  his  shoulder ;  so,  he  should  open,  and  none 
 should  shut,  and  he  should  shut  and  none  should  open,' 
 does  very  well  agree  witli  the  part  which  Joakim  is  said 
 to  have  acted  in  the  book  of  Judith.  For  though  the 
 supreme  power  was  doubtless  in  Manasseh,  yet,  since 
 his  return  from  the  captivity,  having  either  sequestered 
 himself  from  public  business,  or  •  being-  engaged  in  the 
 defence  of  his  country  in  some  other  place,  he  might 
 intrust  the  management  of  his  affairs  in  Jerusalem  to  the 
 high  priest,  who,  having  such  an  amplitude  of  power, 
 and  acting  as  chief  minister  in  that  place,  might  be  well 
 enough  mentioned  in  this  transaction  of  Judith,  2  and  in 
 the  deputation  of  the  elders  from  Jerusalem  to  thank  her 
 for  it,  without  naming  his  master  at  all. 
 
 What  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Persians  were 
 we  may  in  some  measure  learn  from  the  Greek  historians, 
 who,  upon  the  dissolution  of  that  monarchy  by  the  con- 
 quest of  Alexander,  were  obliged  to  say  something  of 
 a  people  whom  they  succeeded  in  the  dominion  of  the 
 east ;  but,  as  these  historians  did  not  write  till  after  the 
 kingdom  of  Persia  was  destroyed,  they  have  taken  little 
 or  no  notice  of  other  Oriental  nations ;  and  therefore 
 what  affinity  there  might  be  in  their  manners  and  usages, 
 we  cannot  tell ;  and  3  consequently  must  not  blame  the 
 author  of  the  book  of  Judith,  for  making  Holofernes  act 
 out  of  character,  as  we  think,  unless  we  know  how  far 
 the  customs  of  the  Assyrians  and  Persians  did  conform 
 or  disagree. 
 
 Herein,  however,  we  know,  that  all  Oriental  nations 
 were  unanimous,  namely,  in  affecting  pomp  and  grandeur ; 
 and  therefore  (whether  it  was  a  Persian  custom  or  no)  we 
 need  not  wonder,  that  we  find  Holofernes,  the  captain- 
 general  of  the  Assyrian  army,  4  '  resting  upon  his  bed, 
 under  a  canopy,  which  was  woven  with  purple,  and  gold, 
 and  emeralds,  and  precious  stones  ;'  and  when  Judith  was 
 introduced,  '  coming  out  before  his  tent,  a  with  silver 
 lamps  going  before  him,'  We  need  not  wonder  at  the 
 rapidity  of  his  conquest,  since,  doubtless,  he  had  several 
 lieutenant-generals  under  him,  who,  with  strong  detach- 
 ments from  the  grand  army,  might,  in  separate  bodies, 
 invade  all  the  provinces  which  the  historian  mentions ; 
 and,  since  he  nowhere  met  with  any  opposition  until  he 
 came  into  Palestine,  but  expected  a  gTeat  deal  in  Egypt, 
 he  thought  it  advisable  to  halt,  for  some  time,  in  the 
 neighbourhood  of  Bethulia,  and  to  put  his  men  into 
 quarters  of  refreshment,  until  the  forces  which  he  had 
 detached  upon  sundry  expeditions  were  come  up,  and 
 bad  joined  him.  And  for  this  reason  he  was  not  so 
 eager  to  press  the  siege  of  Bethulia,  that  he  might  not 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  655.  2  Judith  xv.  8. 
 
 3  Calmet's  Preface  on  the  book  of  Judith.      "  Judith  x.  21,  22. 
 
 a  Holofernes  may  be  thought,  in  this  piece  of  state,  to  imitate 
 the  custom  of  the  Persians,  among  whom  it  was  usual  to  carry 
 fire  before  their  kings,  as  it  was  afterward  done  before  the  Roman 
 emperors,  and  is  at  present  before  the  emperor  of  the  Turks ; 
 but  the  reason  of  this  might  be  no  more,  than  either  that  Judith 
 and  her  maid  were  apprehended,  and  brought  to  Holofernes,  be- 
 fore it  was  quite  day,  or  that  the  inner  apartment  of  his  tent  was 
 so  veiy  dark,  that  he  had  lights  continually  binning  in  it. — Cul- 
 7»ct's  Commentary  on  Judith  x.  22. 
 
 harass  and  fatigue  his  men  in  fighting  against  rocks  and 
 inaccessible  mountains,  but  preserve  them  fresh  and  un- 
 foiled,  for  their  great  and  more  important  expedition 
 against  Egypt. 
 
 The  truth  is,  the  king  of  Nineveh  was  resolved  not 
 only  to  subdue  the  several  nations  from  the  Euphrates 
 to  Ethiopia,  but  intended  likewise  to  oblige  them  all  to 
 5  adore  and  acknowledge  him  only  to  be  god  ;  G  and 
 therefore  the  Bethulians,  who  could  not,  without  impiety, 
 and  a  renunciation  of  their  religion,  submit  to  the 
 dominion  of  such  a  king,  had  reason  to  promise  them- 
 selves the  assistance  of  God,  in  the  prosecution  of  this 
 war  ;  and  Judith,  who  found  herself  under  a  divine  and  ir- 
 resistible impulse  to  go  upon  so  adventurous  an  exploit, 
 had  good  reason  to  hope  for  success'  against  a  prince, 
 who  had  declared  himself  an  enemy  to  the  God  of  heaven, 
 and  an  usurper  of  that  honour  and  adoration  which  be- 
 longed to  him  alone. 
 
 b  '  If  thy  brother,  the  son  of  thy  mother,  or  thy  son, 
 or  thy  daughter,  or  the  wife  of  thy  bosom,  or  thy  friend, 
 which  is  as  thine  owti  soul,  entice  thee  secretly,  saying, 
 let  us  serve  other  gods  which  thou  hast  not  known,  thou, 
 nor  thy  fathers ;  thou  shalt  not  consent  unto  him,  nor 
 hearken  unto  him,  neither  shall  thine  eye  pity  him,  neither 
 shalt  thou  spare,  neither  shalt  thou  conceal  him,  but  thou 
 shalt  surely  kill  him:'  and,  in  pursuance  of  this  law, 
 much  more  might  Judith,  or  any  other  inhabitant  of 
 Bethulia,  whom  God  had  inspired  with  the  like  courage 
 and  magnanimity,  endeavour  to  counterplot  the  designs 
 of  any  person,  who,  in  an  hostile  manner,  should  come, 
 not  only  to  invade  their  civil  rights  and  liberties,  but  to 
 extirpate  their  religion  ;  and,  instead  of  enticing,  to 
 compel  them  by  force  of  arms,  to  receive  a  form  of  ido- 
 latry, which  neither  they  nor  their  fathers  knew. 
 
 Many  things  may  be  alleged  against  Judith's  method 
 of  proceeding  in  this  affair,  but  they  are  most  of  them 
 reducible  to  the  common  stratagems  of  war,  which  not 
 only  the  law  of  arms,  but  thf>  commands  of  God  in  some 
 cases,  and  the  examples  of  several  of  the  best  men  in 
 sacred  history,  have  declared  to  be  allowable.  What 
 comes  not  under  this  denomination,  we  shall  not  pretend 
 
 Judith  vi.  2. 
 
 6  Deut.  xiii.  6,  &c. 
 
 b  How  great  soever  the  folly  and  impiety  was,  in  desiring  to 
 pass  for  a  god,  yet  the  king  of  Nineveh  was  not  the  only  prince 
 that  we  find  infected  with  it.  The  flatterers  of  Darius  the 
 Median  proposed  to  him  to  make  a  decree  that,  under  pain  of 
 being  cast  into  the  den  of  lions,  no  one  should  dare  to  ask  a  peti- 
 tion of  any  god  or  man,  but  of  him  only,  for  the  space  of  thirty 
 days,  (Dan.  vi.  7.)  When  Alexander  the  Great  took  it  into  his 
 head,  to  exact  the  same  divine  honours  of  his  people  that  they 
 had  formerly  paid  to  the  kings  of  Persia  his  predecessors,  he 
 found  people  about  him  base  and  prostitute  enough  to  commend 
 the  design,  and  to  maintain,  that  thus  to  advance  kings  above  the 
 rank  of  mortal  man,  was  not  only  a  pious,  but  a  prudent  and  ad- 
 vantageous thing;  for  so  the  historian  expresses  it:  ''That  the 
 Persians,  not  only  through  motives  of  piety  but  of  wisdom,  wor- 
 shipped their  kings  as  gods,  for  they  deemed  majesty  to  be  a 
 bulwark  to  the  welfare  of  the  nation/'  {Quint.  Curt.  b.  viii.)  The 
 Egyptians  had  their  princes  in  the  like  veneration,  and  looked 
 upon  them  as  highly  raised  above  the  condition  of  other  men; 
 but  the  Greeks,  it  must  be  owned,  held  all  this  baseness  and 
 abject  flattery  in  a  just  detestation,  insomuch  that  the  Athenians 
 put  Timagoras  to  death,  for  having  prostrated  himself  before  the 
 king  of  the  Persians;  and  Spei thins  and  Bulis,  two  Lacedemo- 
 nians, though  then  in  a  state  of  captivity,  could  not  be  brought 
 to  pay  that  adoration  to  Artaxerxes,  which  he  required  of  every 
 one  that  approached  him. — Pint,  in  Artax. 
 
6G8 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  H  3394.  A.  C.  G10  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 to  vindicate  ;  '  for  the  notion  of  mental  reservations  and 
 ironical  speeches,  which  are  not  allowed  in  common 
 conversation,  are  but  the  poor  subterfuges  which  com- 
 mentators have  used  to  apologise  for  the  conduct  that 
 they  can  by  no  means  justify. 
 
 The  history,  indeed,  represents  this  Judith  as  a  woman 
 of  great  courage  ;  but  it  nowhere  intimates  that  she  was 
 without  faults.  The  manner  of  her  preparation  for  the 
 undertaking,  and  the  success  wherewith  it  was  attended, 
 may  make  us  presume,  that  its  design  was  originally 
 from  God  ;  but  then  the  continued  train  of  falsehood  and 
 dissimulation  wherewith  it  was  carried  on,  must  needs 
 persuade  us,  that  the  means  of  conducting  it  was  left  to 
 the  woman,  who,  on  this  occasion,  has  given  us  a  very 
 remarkable  specimen  of  the  cunning  and  sagacity,  the 
 guile  and  artifice,  of  her  sex. 
 
 One  thing,  however,  may  be  said,  and  that  without  any 
 forced  explication,  in  favour  of  her  conduct: — That  her 
 answer  to  the  eunuch's  suggestion  she  might  design 
 for  no  more  than  a  common  compliment,  which  the  situa- 
 tion of  her  affairs,  at  that  time,  obliged  her  to  make. 
 *  She  might  perceive,  very  likely,  the  bad  design  which 
 the  Assyrian  general  had  upon  her ;  but  she  did  not 
 think  herself  concerned  to  discover  that  she  perceived  it. 
 She  pretended,  in  some  measure,  to  be  ignorant  of  it ; 
 and  to  pretend  an  ignorance  of  what  is  proposed,  when 
 the  thing  is  naughty  and  will  not  bear  examination,  is  a 
 point  of  modesty  as  well  as  prudence  :  as,  where  it  will 
 admit  of  a  double  construction,  there  to  take  it  in  the 
 better  sense,  is  even  reputed  an  act  of  candour  and  good 
 breeding.  '  Let  not  this  fair  damsel  fear,'  says  the  old 
 pander,  '  to  come  to  my  lord,  and  to  be  honoured  in  his 
 presence,  and  drink  wine,  and  be  merry  with  us,  and  be 
 made  this  day  as  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  Assyrians, 
 who  serve  in  the  house  of  Nabuchodonosor.'  How  the 
 daughters  of  Assyria,  who  served  in  this  capacity,  were 
 used,  Judith  very  probably  had  been  informed:  but, 
 since  the  eunuch  seemed  to  put  it  on  the  foot  of  a  great 
 favour  and  honour  done  her,  she  could  not  do  less 
 than  return  him  a  compliment ;  but  then  we  all  know, 
 3  that  the  offers  of  service,  which,  upon  every  occasion, 
 we  are  so  apt  to  make  to  one  another,  and  those  expres- 
 sions of  submission  and  respect,  which  so  commonly 
 pass  among  us,  are  not  to  be  taken  in  a  literal  sense, 
 because  they  always  imply  a  tacit  condition  ;  and  there- 
 fore the  answer  which  the  historian  puts  in  Judith's 
 mouth,  'surely,  whatever  pleaseth  him,  I  will  do  speedi- 
 ly,' will  fairly  admit  of  this  construction,  '  whatever 
 Holofernes  shall  desire  of  me,  so  far  as  it  is  consistent 
 with  my  duty,  my  honour,  and  my  religion,  I  will  not 
 fail  to  do.' 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  satisfy  most  of  the 
 popular  objections,  and  to  reconcile  mostof  the  seeming1 
 inconsistencies,  that  occur  in  the  history  of  Judith;  and 
 if  there  still  remain  any  that  cannot  sufficiently  be  cleared 
 up,  they  ought,  in  justice,  to  be  imputed  to  our  ignorance 
 and  want  of  better  information.  Had  we  the  ancient  books 
 of  the  Chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and  Judah,  to 
 which  we  arc  bo  often  referred  in  Scripture,  or  had  we  the 
 histories  of  the  Assyrians,  Chaldeans,  Medes,  Persians 
 and  Egyptians,  (with  whom  the  Jewish  nation  had  so  long 
 an  intercourse,)  perfect  and  entire,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted° 
 
 1  Calmet's  Commentary  on  Judith  x.  13. 
 'Calroet's  Preface  mi  tin:  book  of  Judith. 
 
 [bid. 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  58G.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 but  that  many  of  the  difficulties  which  at  present  seem 
 insurmountable,  would  then  easily  subside  and  sink  into 
 nothing.  The  plain  truth  is,  "  there  Mas  scarce  ever  a 
 history  written  "  according  to  our  learned  Prideaux's  * 
 observation,  "  but  what  in  the  very  next  age  will  seem  to 
 have  inconsistencies  enough  in  it  as  to  time,  place,  and 
 other  circumstances,  when  the  memory  of  men  concerning 
 them  begins  to  fail ;  and  therefore  we  may  be  much  more 
 apt  to  blunder,  when  we  take  our  view  at  the  distance  of 
 above  two  thousand  years,  and  have  no  other  light  to 
 direct  us  to  our  object,  but  such  glimmerings,  from 
 broken  scraps  of  history,  as  are  in  effect  next  to  nothing." 
 The  like  is  to  be  said  of  the  several  seeming  absurdi- 
 ties that  may  be  observed  in  the  writings  and  behaviour 
 of  the  prophets  : — That  were  we  sufficiently  acquainted 
 with  the  style  and  manner  of  writing  that  was  in  use  in 
 those  days,  and  especially  in  the  eastern  countries,  we 
 should  think  it  no  strange  thing  to  find  them  expressing 
 themselves  by  types  and  figures,  parabolical  representa- 
 tions, and  emblematical  actions.  For,  however  it  comes 
 about,  so  it  is,  that  mankind  have  all  along  been  marvel- 
 lously taken  with  story  and  picture.  5  These  excite  the 
 curiosity  of  our  nature  ;  they  tempt  us  to  learn,  help  us 
 to  remember,  and  convey  instruction  to  the  mind,  in  a 
 more  pleasing  and  effectual  manner  than  plain  documents 
 can  ;  and  hence  it  came  to  pass,  that  a  great  part  of  the 
 learning  of  the  wise  men  of  the  east  consisted  in  b  '  pro- 
 phecies, in  subtle  and  dark  parables,  and  in  the  secrets 
 of  grave  sentences,'  as  the  author  of  the  book  of  Eccle- 
 siasticus  has  branched  it  out ;  for  7  '  to  understand  a  pro- 
 verb and  the  interpretation  ;  the  words  of  the  wise,  and 
 their  dark  sayings,'  was  the  very  best  description  that 
 Solomon  himself  could  give  of  wisdom.  8  Among  the 
 ancients,  indeed,  mythology  was  in  the  highest  esteem. 
 The  Egyptians,  who  were  in  great  reputation  for  learn- 
 ing, delivered  their  notions  in  hieroglyphics;  and  from 
 them  the  Greeks  took  the  mode  of  couching  their  mean- 
 ing in  fable.  Hesiod,  9  who  contends  with  Homer  for 
 antiquity,  is  supposed  by  Quintilian  to  be  the  author 
 of  the  fables  which  go  under  the  name  of  iEsop  ;  but, 
 however  this  be,  the  very  supposition  of  his  being  so, 
 makes  it  probable  that  he  did  write  fables,  as,  perhaps, 
 most  men  of  learning  and  note  in  those  days  accustom- 
 ed themselves  to  this  form  of  writing. 
 
 10  But,  besides  this  parabolical  way  of  writing  which 
 was  in  great  vogue  among  the  ancients,  and  to  which 
 the  Jews,  by  a  kind  of  natural  genius,  were  wonderfully 
 inclined,  the  people  of  the  east  had  a  way  of  expressing 
 themselves  by  actions  as  well  as  words,  and,  to  inforce 
 the  matter  they  were  upon,  would  frequently  make  use 
 of  outward  and  visible  signs  and  representations.  "  This, 
 our  learned  Mr  Mede  shows,  was  the  practice  of  the 
 Indians,  Persians,  and  Egyptians  ;  and,  even  among  the 
 Romans,  who  were  a  people  that  used  great  modesty  of 
 style,  and  more  gravity  in  their  actions,  than  many  other 
 nations,  it  was  a  customary  thing  in  their  orations  and 
 pleadings,  to  use  all  arts  to  raise  the  passions,  by  actions 
 and  representations  as  well  as  words  ;  insomuch,  n  that 
 
 4  Connection,  anno  t>55. 
 
 s  Reeve's  Sermons.         6  Ecclus.  xxxix.  1,  &c.         '  Prov.  i.  6. 
 
 8  Jenkins'  Reasonableness  of  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  c.  3. 
 
 9  Quintil.  Instit.  b.  v.  c.  11. 
 
 ,0  Lightfoot's  Heb.  and  Talmud.  Exercit.  in  Mat.  xiii.  3. 
 
 u  Comment,  in  Apoeal.  part.  1.  p.  470.       I2  Cic.  pro  P.  Sexlio. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 669 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  610;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 they  would  frequently  hang  up  the  picture  of  the  thing 
 they  were  to  speak  to.  Cicero  tells  us  of  himself,  that 
 he  sometimes  took  up  a  child,  and  held  it  in  his  arms  to 
 move  compassion  ;  and  to  excite  horror  and  indignation, 
 nothing  was  more  common,  than  for  the  accusers  to  pro- 
 duce, in  open  court,  a  bloody  sword,  or  the  garments  of 
 the  wounded  ;  to  show  the  bones  that  had  been  taken 
 out  of  the  wound,  or  the  scars  that  it  had  left  behind 
 it :  "  The  power  of  these  things  is  usually  great,"  says  ' 
 Quintilian,  "  directing  the  attention  of  men  to  the  sub- 
 ject in  question  ;"  for  it  can  hardly  otherwise  happen, 
 but  that  by  this  means  they  should  fix  the  attention  of 
 their  hearers,  when,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  they  speak 
 both  to  their  eyes  and  ears. 
 
 From  these  few  remarks,  it  appears  in  general,  that 
 the  figurative  expressions  of  the  prophets,  their  actions, 
 and  types,  and  parables,  were  not  incongruous  to  the 
 customs  of  the  times  and  places  where  they  lived,  and 
 yet  very  proper  means  to  give  a  lively  and  affecting  re- 
 presentation of  the  message  they  had  to  deliver  ;  and  so 
 proceed  we  to  the  passages  which  seem  to  give  disgust. 
 
 To  take  several  of  these  in  their  literal  sense,  would 
 be  an  effectual  way  to  disparage  the  divine  precept, 
 which,  according  to  this  acceptation,  would  put  the  pro- 
 phet upon  acting  in  a  manner  quite  inconsistent  with 
 common  prudence ;  and  therefore  interpreters  are  gen- 
 erally agreed,  that  the  things  of  this  kind,  which  will  not 
 come  under  a  literal  construction,  were  either  transacted 
 in  vision,  that  is,  the  prophet  in  a  dream,  or  some  other 
 deliquium,  imagined  that  he  did  such  and  such  things, 
 and  then  related  them  to  the  people  ;  or  that  they  were 
 parables,  which  God  dictated  to  the  prophet,  and  the 
 prophet  recited  to  the  people  ;  only  it  must  be  observed, 
 a  that  the  literal  interpretation  of  a  text  always  claims 
 the  preference,  if  there  be  not  some  weighty  reason 
 against  it,  or  some  intimation  in  the  text  itself,  that  the 
 words  are  figurative  and  enigmatical. 
 
 The  prophet  Jeremiah  3  is  ordered  by  God,  '  to  take 
 the  wine-cup  of  his  fury  at  his  hand,  and  to  carry  it  up 
 and  down,  far  and  near  Jerusalem,  and  the  cities  of 
 Judah,  and  the  kings  and  princes  thereof:  to  Pharaoh 
 king  of  Egypt,  and  his  servants,  princes,  and  people  ; 
 to  all  the  Arabians,  and  kings  of  the  land  of  Uz  ;  to  the 
 kings  of  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  Edom,  Moab,  and 
 Amnion ;  to  the  kings  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  of  the 
 isles  beyond  the  sea,  Dedan,  Tenia,  and  Buz  ;  to  the 
 kings  of  Zimri,  of  the  Modes,  and  Persians,  and  all  the 
 kings  of  the  north.'  Now,  since  it  was  morally  impossi- 
 ble for  the  prophet  to  visit  all  these  kings  and  nations 
 in  person,  and  the  nature  of  the  thing  would  not  admit 
 of  any  real  performance,  it  could  be  no  otherwise  done 
 than  in  vision.  '  The  cup  of  God's  wrath,'  is  a  common 
 figure  in  Scripture,  to  denote  the  severity  of  his  judg- 
 ments ;  and  therefore,  when  the  prophet  says,  that  '  he 
 took  the  cup  at  the  Lord's  hand,  and  made  all  the 
 nations  drink  thereof,'  he  can  mean  no  more,  than  that 
 he  prophesied  against  these  several  nations,  and,  by 
 virtue  of  the  spirit  of  foreknowledge  which  God  had  im- 
 parted to  him,  pronounced  their  doom. 
 
 4  In  like  manner,  his  sending  yokes  and  bonds  to 
 several  kings,  whose  ambassadors  were  then  at  Jeru- 
 
 1  Instit.  b,  v.  c.  1. 
 8  Chap.  xxv.  15,  &c. 
 
 2  Scripture  Vindicated,  part.  3.  p.  72. 
 4  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  '3.  p.  88. 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  586.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 salem,  can  hardly  be  understood  in  a  sense  altogether 
 literal ;  because  it  is  not  probable,  either,  that  the  am- 
 bassadors would  take  the  yokes  at  his  hands,  or  carry 
 them  to  their  respective  masters  ;  but  then,  as  yokes  and 
 bonds  are  common  figures  in  Scripture,  to  denote  capti- 
 vity, and  the  miseries  that  attend  it,  his  sending  the 
 yokes  and  bonds,  may  signify  no  more,  5  than  his  de- 
 claring, from  God,  the  fate  of  these  princes,  when  the 
 king  of  Babylon  was  let  loose  upon  them.  Only  it  must 
 be  observed,  that  the  prophet  might  really  make  some 
 of  these  yokes  and  bonds,  (as  the  Scripture  says  express- 
 ly, that  he  put  one  upon  himself,)  to  enliven  the  idea,  and 
 make  the  impression  of  what  he  was  to  say  more  stroii"- 
 and  emphatical.  For  these  ornamental  figures,  and 
 affecting  images  interspersed  with  it,  added  new  force 
 and  dignity  to  the  prophet's  message,  made  it  more 
 awful  and  solemn  to  the  delivery,  and  gave  it  the  advan- 
 tage of  a  deeper  and  more  durable  impression. 
 
 In  like  manner,  again,  the  whole  affair  of  this  prophet's 
 girdle,  his  carrying  it  to  the  Euphrates,  hiding  it  in  a  rock, 
 and,  at  such  a  determinate  time,  going  for  it  again,  and 
 finding  it  quite  rotten  and  spoiled,  can  hardly  be  taken 
 in  a  literal  sense ;  because  the  vast  a  distance  of  fhe 
 place,  and  trivialness  of  the  errand,  as  well  as  the  im- 
 possibility of  getting  out  of  Jerusalem,  if  it  was  then 
 invested  by  the  Babylonians,  make  strongly  against  it ; 
 and  therefore  we  may  suppose,  that  all  this  was  trans- 
 acted in  the  prophet's  imagination  only  ;  that,  in  the 
 night-time,  God  sent  upon  him  a  vision,  wherein  all  this 
 series  of  things  seemed  to  be  performed  by  him,  to  im- 
 print it  the  deeper  upon  his  understanding,  namely,  that 
 the  kingdom  of  Judah,  which  was  once  as  nearly  united 
 to  God  as  the  girdle  is  to  a  man's  loins,  should  be  utter- 
 ly ruined  and  destroyed  ;  and  though  the  river  Euphrates 
 be  at  a  wide  distance  from  the  prophet's  place  of  abode, 
 yet,  in  the  vision,  which  is  never  confined  to  places,  it 
 might  be  more  aptly  made  choice  of  than  any  other, 
 thereby  to  denote  to  the  Jews,  that  over  that  river  they 
 were  to  be  carried  captive  to  the  city  of  Babylon. 
 
 The  short  of  the  matter  is, — Several  things  which  the 
 prophets  set  down  as  matters  of  fact,  might  not  be  actual- 
 ly done,  but  only  represented  as  done,  to  make  the  more 
 lively  impression  upon  their  readers  and  hearers.  Nay, 
 there  are  several  commands  which  God  gives  Ezekiel  in 
 particular,  such  as,  his  '  lying  for  390  days  on  one  side,' 
 which  was  next  to  a  thing  impossible,  '  his  baking  his 
 bread  with  man's  dung,'  which  was  a  thing  unseemly, 
 and  his  '  shaving  his  head  and  beard,'  which,  as  he  was 
 a  priest,  6  was  a  thing  expressly  forbidden  him,  that  the 
 prophet  is  never  once  said  to  have  performed,  nor  were 
 they  indeed  given  him  with  an  intent  that  he  should  per- 
 form them,  but  only  relate  them  to  the  people,  and  so 
 
 5  Hemic.  Michael  Bib.  Heb.  notes  on  the  passage. 
 C  Lev.  xxi.  5. 
 
 a  The  learned  Bochart  has  invented  a  new  solution  of  this  dif- 
 ficulty. He  supposes,  that  as  it  was  a  common  thing  for  the 
 initial  letter  to  be  dropped,  in  the  names  of  places  and  persons, 
 the  Hebrew  word  1'hrath  may  be  supposed  to  stand  for  Ephratli 
 or  Ephratah,  which  is  Bethlehem,  about  five  or  six  miles  distant 
 from  Jerusalem  :  by  which  means  the  prophet's  journey  is  great- 
 ly shortened,  and  the  pains  of  going  thither  once  again  is  not 
 much.  But  whether  this  solution,  as  ingenious  as  it  is,  will 
 bear  the  test,  is  left  to  the  examination  of  the  critics. — Culmei't 
 Commentary,  ami  Scripture  Vindicated,  in  locum. 
 
670 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  610;  OR 
 
 make  them  '  signs  unto  the  house  of  Israel,1  that  is,  either 
 resemblances  of  things  past,  or  prognostications  of 
 things  to  come. 
 
 St  Peter,  we  may  observe,  *  was  commanded  in  his 
 vision,  to  do  what  he  never  did ;  '  Rise,  Peter,  kill 
 and  eat:'  nay,  by  his  reply,  it  appears,  that  himself  did 
 not  think  that  he  was  any  ways  bound  to  obey  the  com- 
 mand ;  '  Not  so,  Lord  ;  for  I  have  never  eaten  any 
 thin"-  that  is  common  or  unclean.'  And  yet  the  use 
 which  he  made  of  this  vision  was,  to  report  it  to  the 
 church  as  a  sign  or  emblematical  indication  of  God's 
 having  accepted  the  Gentiles  into  the  gospel  terms  of 
 salvation.  And,  in  like  manner,  when  Ezekiel,  in  his 
 vision,  received  the  command  of  '  shaving  his  head  and 
 his  face,'  his  answer  might  have  been  in  St  Peter's  strain, 
 •  Not  so,  Lord ;'  for,  by  thy  law,  I  am  forbidden  '  to 
 make  baldness  upon  my  head,  or  to  shave  oft' the  corner 
 of  my  beard;'  and  yet  he  might  relate  this  vision  to 
 the  people,  the  better  to  enforce  the  threats  which  God 
 had  authorized  him  to  denounce  against  Jerusalem : 
 2 '  Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Behold  I,  even  I  am 
 against  thee,  and  will  execute  judgments  in  the  midst  of 
 thee,  in  the  sight  of  the  nations ;  and  I  will  do  in  thee 
 that  which  I  have  not  done,  and  whereunto  I  will  not  do 
 any  more  the  like,  because  of  all  thy  abominations.' 
 
 In  a  word,  the  prophets,  in  their  visions,  might  receive 
 several  commands  concerning  things  illegal  or  inde- 
 cent ;  3  but  then  they  considered  these  not  as  formal 
 commands,  but  as  types,  emblems,  and  predictions,  de- 
 livered to  them  in  a  perceptive  form,  in  order  to  im- 
 print the  things  intended  the  deeper  upon  their  minds, 
 and  to  make  the  representation  thereof  to  the  people 
 with  whom  they  had  to  do  more  lively  and  affecting  ; 
 nor  should  it  seem  strange,  that  the  divine  wisdom,  in 
 this  case,  makes  choice  of  things  improper,  and  some- 
 times impracticable,  since  his  purpose  in  so  doing  is  to 
 make  the  prophet  perceive  at  once,  that  it  was  all  sym- 
 bolical, and  not  designed  to  direct  him  how  and  what  to 
 act,  but  how  and  what  to  apprehend,  foresee,  and  fore- 
 tell of  things  to  come. 
 
 Whether  the  command  given  to  Hosea  to  marry  a 
 woman  that  either  had  been  or  would  prove  a  prostitute 
 is  to  have  a  literal  or  figurative  construction,  commen- 
 tators and  critics,  both  ancient  and  modern  are  not  a 
 little  divided  ;  but  since  in  the  figurative  there  is  no  vio- 
 lence oftered  to  Scripture,  and  in  the  literal  there  is 
 nothing  immoral  or  absurd,  it  matters  not  much  in 
 which  sense  we  take  it.  In  Scripture,  it  is  a  common 
 thing  to  represent  the  defection  of  a  people  from  the 
 service  of  God,  4  by  the  metaphors  of  adultery  and  for- 
 nication ;  and,  therefore,  to  introduce  the  prophet  as 
 marrying  a  woman  that  proved  an  adulteress,  as  having 
 several  children  by  that  marriage,  and  as  calling  these 
 children  by  such  names  as  denoted  the  destruction  of  a 
 rebellious  nation,  is  no  bad  manner  of  expressing  the 
 near  relation  between  God  and  his  people ;  his  constant 
 .arc  in  preserving  and  multiplying  them ;  their  vile  in- 
 gratitude in  revolting  from  him  ;  and  the  great  severity 
 wherewith  he  intended  to  punish  their  revolt.  Or  take 
 the  words  in  a  literal  sense,  and  that  the  prophet  was 
 
 ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M  4825.  A.  C.  586.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 really  commanded  to  marry  a  woman  of  a  bad  reputation  ; 
 yet  might  there  not  be  many  prudential  considerations 
 to  make  such  a  match  eligible  ?  The  Scripture,  we  may 
 observe,  in  the  appellations  which  it  gives  persons  and 
 things,  has  less  regard  to  what  they  actually  are,  than 
 to  what  they  once  were  ;  and  hence  it  is,  that  Moses's 
 rod,  when  turned  into  a  serpent,  5  is  still  called  his  rod  ; 
 and  those  whom  our  Saviour  healed  of  their  several  in- 
 firmities, are  still  the  deaf,  6  the  lame,  &c,  even  after 
 they  are  cured.  Now,  if  the  woman  whom  Hosea  was 
 ordered  to  marry,  though  once  she  had  lived  an  inconti- 
 nent life,  was  now  become  chaste  and  virtuous,  where 
 was  the  great  absurdity  of  his  actually  doing  it,  since, 
 besides  other  motives  to  us  unknown,  he  was,  in  this  ac- 
 tion, to  be  a  sign  to  the  Israelites,  and  to  set  an  example 
 to  them,  '  who  had  gone  a  whoring  after  other  gods,'7 
 that,  if  they  would  forsake  their  false  deities,  and  return 
 to  their  true  God,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  he  would  still 
 accept,  and  receive  them,  in  the  like  manner  as  the  pro- 
 phet had  takeYi  an  adulteress  to  his  wife,  upon  assurance 
 that  ever,  for  the  future,  she  would  prove  faithful  to  his 
 bed? 
 
 The  account  of  Ezekiel's  packing  up  his  household 
 goods,  removing  them  by  night,  and  breaking  through 
 the  walls  of  his  house  to  carry  them  away  more  secretly, 
 though  some  interpreters  have  looked  upon  it  as  the 
 mere  narration  of  a  vision,  or  the  recital  of  a  parable, 
 yet  to  me  it  seems  more  probable,  that  the  whole  was 
 transacted  just  in  the  manner  wherein  it  is  described  ; 
 especially  considering  the  near  resemblance  between  the 
 prediction  and  the  event.  For,afterthat  the  prophet,  by  the 
 symbolical  action  of  removing  his  goods  in  a  fright,  had 
 typified  the  taking  of  Jerusalem,  he  proceeds  to  apply 
 what  he  had  done  in  this  prediction. — 8  '  I  am  your  sign  ; 
 like  as  I  have  done,  so  shall  it  be  done  mito  them :  they 
 shall  remove,  and  go  into  captivity ;  they  shall  dig 
 through  the  wall  to  carry  out  thereby ;  and  the  prince 
 that  is  among  them  shall  bear  upon  his  shoulder  in  the 
 twilight,  and  shall  go  forth.' — My  net  also  will  I  spread 
 upon  him,  and  he  shall  be  taken  in  my  snare  ;  and  I  will 
 scatter,  toward  every  wind,  all  that  are  about  him  to  help 
 him,  and  all  his  bands.'  And  accordingly  the  eventhap- 
 pened  ;  for  9  '  when  the  city  was  broken  up,'  says  the 
 historian,  '  all  the  men  of  war  fled  by  night,  by  the  way 
 of  the  gate,  between  two  walls,  which  is  by  the  king's 
 gardens,  for  the  Chaldees  were  against  the  city  round 
 about,  and  the  king  went  the  way  towards  the  plain. 
 But  the  army  of  the  Chaldees  pursued  after  the  king, 
 and  overtook  him  in  the  plains  of  Jericho,  and  all  his 
 army  were  scattered  from  him.' 
 
 The  like  is  to  be  said  of  the  same  prophet's  being  or- 
 dered by  God  to  delineate  upon  a  slate  the  city  of  Jeru- 
 salem, and  the  Babylonish  camp  investing  it,  namely, 
 that  the  portraiture  of  the  fort,  the  mount,  the  camp,  and 
 battering  rams,  against  it,  10  are  so  very  like  to  what 
 happened  at  the  siege,  that  we  can  hardly  forbear  pre- 
 suming, that  the  whole  narration  is  literal,  or  that  the 
 prophet  did  really  draw  a  sketch  of  the  siege  of  the  city, 
 as  God  commanded  him.  For  since,  as  we  observed 
 before,  it  was  a  practice  sometimes  among  the  best  of  ora- 
 
 2  Ezek.  v.  8,  9. 
 4  Lev.  xvii.  7. 
 
 Jer, 
 
 1  Acts  x.  13,  11. 
 
 3  Scripture  Vindicated,  part  3.  p.  94, 
 iii.  I.     Ezek,  xvi.  15.     xxiii.  3,  &c. 
 
 Exod.  vii.  12.  e  Mat.  xi.  5.  and  John  ix.  17. 
 
 Jenkins's  Reasonableness  of  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  p.  53. 
 8  Ezek-  *"■  11,  &e.  9  2  Kings  xxv.  4.  5. 
 
 lu  Josephus's  Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  x.  c.  11 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 671 
 
 A.  M.  3394  A.  C.  610  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 tors  to  represent,  in  a  picture,  the  particular  thing  they 
 were  to  speak  to,  thereby  to  gain  the  readier  attention  of 
 their  hearers,  why  should  it  be  thought  inconsistent  with 
 the  character  of  a  prophet,  or  any  diminution  of  his  dis- 
 cretion, or  gravity,  to  do  the  same  thing,  in  order  to  gain 
 the  i    me  end  ?° 
 
 To  walk  naked  indeed  for  three  years  together,  as  the 
 prophet  Isaiah  l  is  said  to  have  done,  does  not  so  well 
 comport  with  the  rules  of  decency,  and  seems  to  carry  in 
 it  an  appearance  of  frenzy  or  madness  ;  but  we  are  to 
 remember,  that,  in  Scripture  phrase,  those  are  said  to 
 go  naked,  who  either  go  without  2  their  upper  garment, 
 or  without  the  3  habit  that  is  proper  to  their  station  or 
 quality  ;  and  that  the  Hebrew  text  does  not  say,  that 
 Isaiah  walked  in  this  manner  for  three  years  together, 
 but  that  he  thus  walked  as  a  type  or  sign  of  the  three 
 years'  calamity  which  would  come  upon  Egypt  and  Ethi- 
 opia. So  that  the  sense  of  the  passage  is  thus  : — That 
 Isaiah  went  about  without  his  upper  garment,  in  token 
 that  the  Egyptians  and  Arabians  should  undergo  a  cala- 
 mity of  three  years'  continuance  from  the  king  of  Assy- 
 ria ;  but  how  long  or  how  often  he  did  this,  the  Scripture 
 is  silent ;  only  it  may  be  presumed,  that  he  did  it  in 
 such  a  manner,  whether  three  days  together,  or  thrice  the 
 same  day,  as  might  best  prefigure  the  three  years'  cala- 
 mity :  and  since  the  action  was  to  be  typical,  the  pro- 
 phet, who,  through  the  iniquity  of  the  times,  could  scarce 
 gain  the  audience  of  the  people  at  any  rate,  was  to 
 appear  in  an  uncommon  garb,  and  with  something  parti- 
 cular in  his  manner,  to  strike  the  eyes  and  awaken  the 
 observation  of  all  around  him  :  for,  had  not  there  been 
 some  visible  impropriety  in  the  action,  something  seem- 
 ingly inconsistent  with  the  character  of  so  grave  a  man, 
 it  would  not  have  answered  the  purpose  of  exciting  the 
 curiosity  and  attention  of  the  people  for  which  it  was 
 intended. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  vindicate  the  actions  of 
 the  prophets,  or  rather  the  wisdom  of  God  which  put 
 them  upon  such  actions,  from  all  imputations  of  weakness 
 and  folly  ;  and  shall  only  observe  farther,  that  our  mis- 
 conceptions of  these  things  must, in  a  great  measure,  pro- 
 ceed from  our  ignorance  of  the  prophetic  style,  as  says 
 a  learned  examiner  of  this  style  ; — *  "  For  all  places  of 
 Scripture  that  are  expressed  in  allegorical  or  proverbial 
 forms  of  speech,  or  by  types  and  resemblances  of  things, 
 as  all  prophecies  more  or  less  are,  must  needs  have  been 
 better  understood  in  those  times  when  they  were  written, 
 than  they  can  be  now,  because  we  have  but  an  imperfect 
 notion  of  many  tilings  to  which  the  allusion  is  made,  and 
 from  whence  the  similitude  is  taken." 
 
 1  Chap.  xx.  3,  4. 
 2  John  xxi.  7.    Acts  xix.  16.    Mark  xiv.  36.     Mat.  xxv.  26. 
 
 3  2  Sam.  xix.  24.     2  Sam.  vi.  20. 
 
 4  Jenkins's  Reasonableness,  vol.  ii.  c.  7. 
 
 a  Language,  as  appears  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  from  the 
 records  of  history,  anil  from  the  remains  of  the  most  ancient  lan- 
 guages yet  remaining,  was  at  first  extremely  rude,  narrow,  and 
 equivocal :  so  that  men  would  be  perpetually  at  a  loss,  on  any 
 new  conception,  or  uncommon  accident,  to  explain  themselves 
 intelligibly  to  one  another;  the  art  of  enlarging  language  by  a 
 scientific,  analogy  being  a  late  invention:  this  would  necessarily 
 Bet  them  upon  supplying  the  deficiencies  of  speech  by  apt  and 
 significant  signs.  Accordingly,  in  the  first  ages  of  the  world, 
 mutual  converse  was  upheld  by  a  mixed  discourse  of  words  and 
 actions;  hence  came  the  eastern  phrase  of  "the  voice  of  the 
 sigu ;"  and  use  and  custom,  as  in  most  other  affairs  of  life,  improv- 
 
 4825  A.  C.  58G  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  the  Sacred  Chronology  and  Profane 
 History  during  this  period. 
 
 The  particular  differences,  and  seeming  incongruities, 
 in  point  of  chronology,  that  have  occurred  in  this  period 
 of  history,  we  have  endeavoured  to  solve  and  reconcile 
 in  the  notes  that  are  annexed  to  it ;  but  there  is  a  passage 
 
 iug  what  had  arisen  out  of  necessity,  into  ornament,  this  practice 
 subsisted  long  after  the  necessity  was  over;  especially  amongst  the 
 eastern  people,  whose  natural  temperament  inclined  them  to  a 
 mode  of  conversation,  which  so  well  exercised  their  vivacity,  by 
 motion ;  and  so  much  gratified  it,  by  a  perpetual  representation 
 of  material  images.  Of  this  we  have  innumerable  instances  in 
 holy  Scripture :  as  where  the  false  prophet  pushed  with  bonis  of 
 iron,  to  denote  the  entire  overthrow  of  the  Syrians:  where  Jere- 
 miah, by  God's  direction,  hides  the  linen  girdle  in  a  hole  of  the 
 rock  near  Euphrates;  where  he  breaks  a  potter's  vessel  in  sight 
 of  the  people ;  puts  on  bonds  and  yokes ;  and  casts  a  book  into 
 Euphrates ;  where  Ezekiel,  by  the  same  appointment,  delineates 
 the  siege  of  Jerusalem  on  a  tile ;  weighs  the  hair  of  his  beard  in 
 balances ;  carries  out  his  household  stuff;  and  joins  together  the 
 two  sticks  for  Judah  and  Israel.  By  these  actions  the  prophets 
 instructed  the  people  in  the  will  of  God,  and  conversed  with  them 
 in  signs:  but  where  God  teaches  the  prophet,  and,  in  compliance  to 
 the  custom  of  that  time,  condescends  to  the  same  mode  of  instruc- 
 tion, then  the  significative  action  is  generally  changed  into  a 
 vision,  either  natural  or  extraordinary:  as  where  the  prophet 
 Jeremiah  is  bid  to  regard  the  rod  of  the  almond  tree,  and  the 
 seething  pot;  the  work  on  the  potter's  wheel,  and  the  baskets  of 
 good  and  bad  figs ;  and  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  the  ideal  scene  of 
 the  resurrection  of  dry  bones.  The  significative  action,  I  say, 
 was,  in  this  case,  generally  changed  into  a  vision ;  but  not  always. 
 For  as  sometimes,  where  the  instruction  was  for  the  people,  the 
 significative  action  was  perhaps  in  vision ;  so  sometimes  again 
 though  the  information  was  only  for  the  prophet,  God  would  set 
 him  upon  a  real  expressive  action,  whose  obvious  meaning  con- 
 veyed the  intelligence  proposed  or  sought.  Of  this  we  shall  give, 
 at  the  expense  of  infidelity,  a  very  illustrious  instance.  The  ex- 
 cellent Maimonides,  not  attending  to  this  primitive  mode  of 
 information,  is  much  scandalized  at  several  of  these  actions,  un- 
 becoming, as  he  supposed,  the  dignity  of  the  prophetic  office;  and 
 is  therefore  for  resolving  them  in  general  into  supernatural  visions 
 impressed  on  the  imagination  of  the  prophet ;  and  this,  because 
 some  few  of  them  may  perhaps  admit  of  such  an  interpretation. 
 In  this  he  is  followed  by  Christian  writers,  much  to  the  discre- 
 dit, as  I  conceive,  of  revelation;  and  to  the  triumph  of  libertinism 
 and  infidelity ;  the  actions  of  the  prophets  being  delivered  as 
 realities;  and  these  writers  representing  them  as  mean,  absurd, 
 and  fanatical,  and  exposing  the  prophet  to  contempt.  But  what 
 is  it  they  gain  by  this  expedient  ?  The  charge  of  absurdity  and 
 fanaticism  will  follow  the  prophet  in  his  visions,  when  they  have 
 removed  it  from  his  waking  actions;  for  if  these  actions  were 
 absurd  and  fanatical  in  the  real  representation,  they  must  needs 
 be  so  in  the  imaginary ;  the  same  turn  of  mind  operating  both 
 asleep  and  awake.  The  judicious  reader,  therefore,  cannot  but 
 observe,  that  the  reasonable  and  true  defence  of  the  prophetic 
 writings  is  what  is  here  offered:  where  we  show,  that  information 
 by  action  was,  at  this  time  and  place,  a  very  familiar  mode  of 
 conversation.  This  once  seen,  all  charge  of  absurdity  and  sus- 
 picion of  fanaticism,  vanish  of  themselves:  the  absurdity  of  an 
 action  consists  in  its  being  extravagant  and  insignificative ;  but 
 use  and  a  fixed  application  made  these  in  question  both  sober  and 
 pertinent:  the  fanaticism  of  an  action  consists  in  a  fondness  for 
 unusual  actions  and  foreign  modes  of  speech;  but  those  in  ques- 
 tion were  idiomatic  and  familiar.  To  illustrate  this  last  observa- 
 tion by  a  domestic  example:  when  the  sacred  writers  talk  of 
 being  '  born  after  the  spirit,'  of  being  '  fed  with  the  sincere  milk 
 of  the  word,'  of  '  putting  their  tears  into  a  bottle,'  of  '  bearing 
 testimonies  against  lying  vanities,'  of  'taking  the  veil  from  men's 
 hearts,'  and  of  'building  up  one  another;'  they  speak  the  com- 
 mon, yet  proper  and  pertinent  phraseology  of  their  country;  and 
 not  the  least  imputation  of  fanaticism  can  stick  upon  these  origi- 
 nal expressions.  But  when  we  see  our  own  countrymen  repro- 
 bate their  native  idiom,  and  affect  to  employ  only  scripture 
 phrases  in  their  whole  conversation,  as  if  some  inherent  sanctity 
 
672 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3394    .1.  C.  CIO;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 in  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  generally  supposed  to  relate  to 
 this  time,  wherein  some  learned  chronologers  do  not  so 
 well  agree. 
 
 The  passage  is  this  : — l  '  I  have  laid  upon  thee  the 
 
 1  Ezek.  iv.  5,  C. 
 resided  in  the  eastern  modes  of  expression,  we  cannot  choose  but 
 suspect  such  men  far  gone  in  the  delusions  of  a  heated  imagina- 
 tion. The  same  may  be  said  of  significative  actions.  But  it 
 is  not  only  in  sacred  story  that  we  meet  with  the  mode  of  speak- 
 ing by  action.  Profane  antiquity  is  full  of  these  examples;  the 
 early  Oracles  in  particular  frequently  employed  it,  as  we  learn 
 from  an  old  saying  of  HeracKtus:  "  That  the  king  whose  oracle 
 is  at  Delphi,  neither  speaks  nor  keeps  silent,  but  reveals  by  signs." 
 The  influence  language  would  have  on  the  first  kind  of  writ- 
 ing, which  was  hieroglyphical,  is  easy  to  conceive.  Language, 
 we  have  shown,  was  out  of  mere  necessity,  highly  figurative,  and 
 full  of  material  images;  so  that  when  men  first  thought  of  recor- 
 ding their  conceptions,  the  writing  would  be,  of  course,  that  very 
 picture  which  was  before  painted  in  the  fancy,  and  from  thence, 
 delineated  in  words:  even  long  after,  when  figurative  speech  was 
 continued  out  of  choice,  and  adorned  with  all  the  invention  of 
 wit,  as  amongst  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  that  the  genius  of 
 the  simpler  hieroglyphic  writing  was  again  revived  for  ornament, 
 in  emblems  and  devices,  the  poetic  habit  of  personalizing  every 
 thing  filled  their  coins,  their  arches,  their  altars,  &c.  with  all 
 kinds  of  imaginary  beings.  All  the  qualities  of  the  mind,  all  the 
 ailections  of  the  body,  all  the  properties  of  countries,  cities,  rivers, 
 mountains,  became  the  seeds  of  living  things:  for, 
 
 "  as  imagination  bodied  forth 
 
 The  forms  of  things  unknown,  the  artist's  hand 
 Turn'd  them  to  shape,  and  gave  to  airy  nothing 
 A  local  habitation  and  a  name."  Shalcspeare. 
 
 The  reciprocal  influence  hieroglyphic  writing  would  have  on  lan- 
 guage is  as  evident.  The  Chinese  used  this  kind  of  writing,  as 
 well  as  the  Egyptians;  and  the  character  given  of  their  language 
 is  entirely  correspondent:  "The  style  of  the  Chinese,  in  their 
 compositions,"  says  Du  Halde,  "  is  mysterious,  concise,  allego- 
 ric, and  sometimes  obscure.  They  say  much  in  few  words. 
 Their  expressions  are  lively,  animated,  and  thick  sown  with  bold 
 comparisons,  and  noble  metaphors.''  Their  style,  we  see,  was 
 concise  and  figurative;  the  very  character,  as  we  have  seen,  of 
 all  the  barbarous  nations  upon  earth,  both  ancient  and  modern  ;  for 
 nature  is  ever  uniform.  The  cold  phlegmatic  temper  of  the  Chi- 
 nese made  their  style  short  and  laconic;  the  use  of  hieroglyphics 
 made  it  figurative;  and  from  this  mixture  it  became  obscure; 
 hut  had  those  remote  inhabitants  of  the  east  and  west  possessed 
 the  warm  imagination  of  the  proper  Asiatics,  then  had  their  lan- 
 guage, like  that  of  the  people  spoken  of  above,  abounded  with 
 pleonasms  instead  of  laconisms.  The  old  Asiatic  style,  so  highly 
 figurative,  seems  likewise,  by  what  we  find  of  its  remains,  in  the 
 prophetic  language  of  the  sacred  writers,  to  have  been  evidently 
 fashioned  to  the  mode  of  ancient  hieroglyphics,  both  curiologic 
 and  tropical.  Of  the  first  kind  are  the  figurative  expressions  of 
 '  spotted  garments,'  to  denote  iniquity  ;  an  '  intoxicating  draught,' 
 to  signify  error  and  misery;  the  'sword  and  bow,'  a  warrior-  a 
 '  gigantic  Stature,'  a  mighty  leader;  '  balance,  weights,  and  mea- 
 sures,' a  judge,  or  magistrate;  'arms,'  a  powerful  nation,  like 
 the  Roman.  Of  the  second  kind,  which  answers  to  the  tropi- 
 cal hieroglyphic,  is  the  calling  empires,  kings,  and  nobles,  by  the 
 names  ol  the  'heavenly  luminaries,  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars;' 
 their  temporary  disasters  or  entire  overthrow,  denoted  by 
 'eclipses  and  extinctions;'  the  destruction  of  the  nobility,  by 
 'stars  falling  from  the  firmament;'  hostile  invasions,  by  'thun- 
 der and  tempestuous  winds;'  and  leaders  of  armies,  conquerors, 
 and  founders  of  empire,  by  'lions,  bears,  leopards,  goats,  or  high 
 trees.'  In  a  word,  the  prophetic  style  seems  to  be  a  speaking 
 hieroglj  phic. 
 
 These  observations  will  not  only  assist  us  in  the  intelligence  of 
 the  Old  and  New  Testament,  hut  likewise  vindicate  their  cha- 
 racter from  the  illiterate  cavils  of  modern  libertines,  who  have 
 foolishly  mistaken  that  colouring  for  the  peculiar  workmanship  of 
 the  speaker's  heated  imagination,  which  was  the  sober  established 
 language  of  their  times;  ;i  language  which  God  and  his  Son  con- 
 descended to  employ,  as  the  properest  vehicle  of  the  high  mys- 
 terious ways  of  Providence,  in  the  revelation  of  themselves  to 
 mankind. —  War-burton's  J)iii»r  Legation  of  Moses  vol  iv.  pp 
 133—  UG,  and  17.\S— 175.— Ed. 
 
 years  of  their  iniquity,  according  to  the  number  of  days, 
 three  hundred  and  ninety  days ;  so  shalt  thou  bear  the 
 iniquity  of  the  house  of  Israel.  And  when  thou  shalt 
 accomplish  them,  lie  again  on  thy  right  side,  and  thou 
 shalt  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  house  of  Judah  forty  days. 
 1  have  appointed  thee  each  day  for  a  year.'  The  gener- 
 ality of  commentators,  who  take  God's  laying  upon  the 
 prophet  the  years  of  his  peoples  iniquity,  to  denote  his 
 forbearing  to  punish  them  for  their  offences  for  such  a 
 determinate  time,  do  agree,  2  that  there  is  an  exact  sum 
 of  390  years  mentioned  in  this  place  ;  that  this  sum  is 
 to  begin  from  the  time  that  Jeroboam  first  set  up  the 
 golden  calves ;  and  that  the  390  and  40  years  are  not 
 distinct  numbers,  but  that  the  less  is  to  be  included  in  the 
 greater ;  but  then  the  question  is,  where  we  are  to  end 
 these  390  years  ?  or  to  which  of  the  captivities  do  they 
 extend  ? 
 
 Several  learned  men  of  great  authority  make  these 
 years  to  end  a  at  the  last  captivity  by  Nebuzaradan,  cap- 
 tain of  the  guards  under  Nebuchadnezzar  king  of  Baby- 
 lon, and  four  years  after  the  last  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
 which  happened  in  the  eleventh  year  of  Zedekiah  ;  for, 
 from  the  time  of  the  setting  up  the  calves, 4  say  they,  to 
 this  last  instance  of  God's  severity,  are  just  390  years  ; 
 from  the  eighteenth  year  of  Josiah,  when  the  kingdom  of 
 Judah  entered  into  covenant  with  God,  to  this  time,  are 
 just  forty  years  ;  and,  by  this  last  captivity,  all  the  pre- 
 dictions of  the  several  prophets,  relating  thereunto,  were 
 perfectly  fulfilled. 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  this  last  captivity 
 was  so  small,  so  sudden,  and  attended  with  so  little 
 difficulty,  as  can  by  no  means  come  up  to  the  pomp  and 
 solemnity  of  the  prophet's  description,  in  that  very  chap- 
 ter wherein  this  epocha  is  mentioned.  The  account 
 which  we  have  of  the  invasion  is  this  : — 5  "  Whilst  Ne- 
 buchadnezzar lay  at  the  siege  of  Tyre,  he  sent  Nebuza- 
 radan with  part  of  his  army  to  invade  the  land  of  Israel, 
 on  purpose,  as  is  supposed,  to  revenge  the  death  of 
 Gedaliah ;  because  there  was  no  other  reason  for  his 
 falling  upon  the  poor  remains  of  those  miserable  people, 
 whom  he  himself  had  left  and  settled  there.  In  this 
 expedition  Nebuzaradan  seized  upon  all  the  Jews  whom 
 he  found  in  the  land,  made  them  captives,  and  sent  them 
 to  Babylon  ;  but  they  all  amounted  to  no  more  than 
 seven  hundred  and  forty-five  persons."  Here  was  no 
 resistance  made,  no  siege  maintained,  no  famine  incur- 
 red. The  people  fell  a  cheap  and  easy  prey,  because 
 they  were  ruined,  and  destroyed  before.  But  now,  in 
 the  expedition  to  which  the  prophet  6  alludes,  Jerusalem 
 was  besieged,  and  the  defendants  reduced  to  the  neces- 
 sity of  7  '  eating  bread  by  weight,  and  with  ('are,  and  of 
 drinking  water  by  measure,  and  with  astonishment,'  as 
 he  expresses  it. 
 
 For  this  reason,  we  should  rather  incline  to  the  hypo- 
 thesis of  those  who  end  both  the  computations  at  the 
 destruction  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  eleventh  of  Zedekiah  ; 
 who,  according  as  they  compute  the  time  from  Jero- 
 boam's apostasy,  make  the  period  of  God's  forbearing 
 
 s  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  vi.  c.  1. 
 3  Jer.  lii.  SO. 
 4  Primate  Usher,  Dr  Prideaux,  and  Marshall,  in  their  Chro- 
 nological Tables. 
 
 Prideaux's  Connexion,  anno  584.  6  Ezek.  iv.  1 — 3. 
 
 -<  Ezek.  iv.  1G. 
 
Sect.  V] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 673 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825 
 (lie  house  of  Israel,  from  thence  to  the  destruction  of 
 Jerusalem,  to  contain  just  three  hundred   and  ninety 
 years ;  and  who  begin  the  forty  years  of  God's  forbear 
 
 ance  of  the  house  of  Judah,  from  the  mission  of  the  pro 
 phet  Jeremiah  to  preach  repentance  to  them,  that  is, 
 1  from  me  thirteenth  year  of  Josiah,  when  he  was  lirst 
 railed  to  this  office  ;  from  which  time,  to  the  last  year 
 of  Zedekiah,  when  Jerusalem  was  destroyed,  were 
 exactly  forty  years.  For  '  since  the  hundred  and  twenty 
 years  of  God's  forbearing-  the  old  world  is  reckoned 
 from  the  mission  of  Noah  to  preach  repentance,  there 
 seems  to  be  some  parity  of  reason,  that  his  forty  years' 
 forbearance  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  should  be  reckoned 
 from  the  like  mission  of  Jeremiah. 
 
 But  there  is  another  way  of  explaining  this  passage ; 
 for  if  by  the  word  iniquity,  which  God  imputes  to  the 
 house  of  Israel  and  Judah,  we  are  to  understand  the 
 punishment  of  their  iniquity,  which  is  very  common,  and 
 seems  to  be  the  most  natural  sense  in  this  place,  it  is 
 plain,  that  as  the  whole  tenor  of  the  prophet's  discourse 
 seems  to  denote  an  event  future,  and  far  distant,  it  may 
 not  improperly  relate  to  the  continuation  of  God's 
 punishment  upon  the  tribes  of  Israel  and  Judah,  for  their 
 great  and  manifold  provocations. 
 
 3  Now  the  punishment  of  Israel  for  their  iniquities  may 
 be  said  to  commence  at  the  taking  of  Samaria,  in  the 
 reign  of  Hoshea  ;  as  that  of  Judah  did,  at  the  taking  of 
 Jerusalem,  in  the  reign  of  Zedekiah.  If  then  we  reckon 
 from  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  to  the  time  when 
 Cyaxares  II.  (whom  4  the  Scripture  calls  '  Darius  the 
 Median,')  became  king  of  Babylon,  we  shall  find  it 
 about  forty  years  ;  and  as  he  was  a  known  favourer  of 
 the  Jews,  and  might  therefore  give  them  leave  to  return 
 home,  we  may  be  allowed  to  infer,  that  here  the  term  of 
 their  punishment  did  expire.  And,  in  like  manner,  if 
 we  reckon  from  Salmaneser's  taking  Samaria  to  the  last 
 victory  which  Alexander  the  Great  obtained  over  Darius 
 Codomannus,  whereby  he  became  sole  monarch  of  all 
 Asia,  we  shall  find  it  to  be  much  about  three  hundred 
 and  ninety  years:  and  as  his  kindness  to  the  Jews  was 
 very  remarkable,  we  may  here  date  the  restoration  of 
 their  liberty,  and  consequently  their  release  from  the 
 punishment  which  God  inflicted  on  them  for  their  sins. 
 
 Thus,  accordingly  as  we  take  the  sense  of  the  words 
 in  the  prophet,  the  history  which  is  alluded  to  puts  on  a 
 different  aspect,  and  relates  to  a  different  period  :  but 
 proceed  we  now  to  the  profane  history  itself. 
 
 What  dealings  and  intercourse,  in  the  space  of  these 
 last  four  hundred  years,  a  namely,  from  the  building  of 
 Solomon's  temple  to  the  captivity  of  Babylon,  the  Jew- 
 ish people  had  with  the  Philistines,  the  Ammonites, 
 Moabites,  Phcpnicians,  Syrians,  and  other  neighbouring 
 nations;  and  what  relation  and  dependence  they  had  on 
 the  great  and  powerful  kingdoms  of  Assyria,  Babylon, 
 and  Egypt,  has,  in  some  measure,  been  observed  in  the 
 course  of  this  history.  What  we  are  farther  concerned 
 to  do,  is  to  take  notice  of  some  more  remarkable  events, 
 
 'Jer.i.  1,  2.  2Gen.  vi.  3. 
 
 3  Calmet's  Dissert,  or  the  Examination  of  the  Ten  Tribes,  &e. 
 4  Dan.  v.  31. 
 
 a  Dr  Hales  dates  the  finishing  of  the  temple,  B.  C.  1020, 
 8-id  the  destruction  of  Babylon  B.  C.  536 ;  making  this  period 
 434  years. — En. 
 
 C.  58G.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 which,  during  this  period  of  time,  are  supposed  to  have 
 happened  in  the  world. 
 
 5  In  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  Uzziah  king 
 of  Judah,  and  while  there  was  an  interregnum  in  the 
 kingdom  of  Israel,  the  Olympic  games  were  instituted 
 in  Greece.  The  use  and  design  of  them  was  to  train  up 
 the  youth  in  active  and  warlike  exercises,  that,  if  occa- 
 sion required,  they  might  be  capable  of  doing  their 
 country  service  in  the  field  ;  and  it  was  not  from  the 
 mountain  Olympus,  in  Thessaly,  but  from  the  city 
 Olympia,  (since  called  Pisa,  near  Elis,  a  city  in  Pelo- 
 ponnesus, where  they  were  celebrated  in  the  adjacent 
 plains,  near  the  river  Alpheus),  that  they  took  their 
 names.  Here  was  the  splendid  temple  of  Jupiter,  which 
 had  vast  treasures  belonging  to  it,  by  reason  of  the  ora- 
 cles which  were  there  given  out,  and  these  games  which 
 were  there  celebrated  in  honour  of  that  deity ;  and  here 
 was  likewise  that  famous  statue  of  Jupiter,  *  made  by 
 Phidias,  which  was  accounted  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
 world,  and  from  which  he  obtained  the  name  of  Jupiter 
 Olympius. 
 
 It  was  about  four  hundred  and  forty  years  before  this 
 time,  that  these  games  and  exercises  were  at  lirst  insti- 
 tuted by  one  Hercules  ;  not  the  son  of  Jupiter  and 
 Alcmena,  so  much  celebrated  by  the  Greek  and  Latin 
 poets,  but  one  of  the  priests  of  Cybele  called  by  that 
 name,  who  came  into  Greece  from  Ida,  a  mountain  in 
 Phrygia,  (whence  he  and  his  companions  were  called 
 Idad,  Dactyli,  and  Corybantes,)  and  brought  in  many 
 superstitious  rites  with  them.     After  the  death  of  this 
 
 5  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  vi.  c.  2. 
 b  This  statue  of  Jupiter  is  described  by  l'ausanias,  in  the  fol- 
 lowing manner: — "He  is  made  sitting  on  a  throne  of  gold  and 
 ivory,  with  a  crown  on  his  head,  which  seems  to  be  made  ol  olive 
 branches.  In  his  right  hand  he  holds  an  image  of  victory,  made 
 of  ivory  likewise,  that  has  on  its  head-dress  a  crown  of  massy 
 gold  ;  and  in  his  left  a  sceptre,  made  of  all  kinds  of  metals  mixed 
 together,  with  an  eagle  on  the  top  of  it.  His  shoes  and  stockings 
 are  all  of  gold,  and  the  rest  of  the  drapery  is  of  the  same  metal, 
 adorned  with  figures  of  various  animals,  and  a  great  number  of 
 flower-de-luces.  His  throne  is  embellished  with  ivory,  ebony, 
 gold,  precious  stones,  and  a  multitude  of  embossed  figures.  At 
 the  four  feet,  or  pedestals  of  the  throne,  are  four  victories,  and 
 two  others  at  the  feet  of  the  statue.  At  the  two  feet,  on  the 
 foreside  of  the  throne,  on  one  hand,  are  the  figures  of  sphinxes, 
 who  are  carrying  on*  some  Theban  youths;  and  on  the  other  side, 
 are  represented  the  figures  of  the  children  of  Niobe,  whom  Apollo 
 and  Diana  shot  to  death  with  their  arrows.  Between  the  feet  of 
 the  throne  is  represented  Theseus,  and  the  rest  of  the  heroes  who 
 accompanied  Hercules  to  the  war  against  the  Amazons,  together 
 with  several  Athlete  of  diverse  kinds ;  and  the  place  is  all  around 
 adorned  with  pictures,  representing  the  labours  of  Hercules, 
 together  with  several  others  of  the  most  renowned  historical  sub- 
 jects. On  the  upper  part  of  the  throne,  on  the  one  side,  are  en- 
 graven the  Graces,  and  on  the  other  the  Hours,  because,  according 
 to  the  poets,  both  these  were  the  daughters  of  Jupiter.  On  the 
 footstool  of  the  statue  are  golden  lions,  and  a  representation  of  the 
 combat  of  Theseus  with  the  Amazons ;  and  on  a  basis  thereof 
 are  innumerable  golden  figures,  such  as  that  of  the  sun  going 
 into  his  chariot,  of  Jupiter  and  Juno,  Mercuiy,  Vesta,  and 
 Venus,  who  has  Cupid  standing  by  her;  of  Apollo,  Diana, 
 Minerva,  Hercules,  Amphitrite,  Neptune,  and  the  Moon,  which 
 is  here  represented  sitting  upon  a  horse."  This  is  the  substance 
 of  what  l'ausanias  says  of  this  famous  statue;  but  notwithstand- 
 ing that  its  workmanship  was  the  wonder  of  all  the  ancients,  and 
 the  curiosity  of  seeing  it  might  increase  the  number  of  those  who 
 came  to  the  Olympic  games,  yet  Strabo  finds  great  fault  with  it 
 for  want  of  a  due  proportion,  because  it  was  of  such  a  prodigious 
 bigness,  that  if  it  had  stood  upright,  it  must  have  made  a  hole 
 in  the  roof  of  the  temple. — Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b. 
 vi.  c.  2.  in  the  notes. 
 
 4  Q 
 
674 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3391.  A.  C.  G10  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  58G.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CIIRON. 
 
 Hercules,  these  games  were  discontinued  for  many 
 years,  till,  by  advice  from  the  oracle  of  Apollo,  Iphitus 
 established  them  again  ;  even  in  the  lifetime  of  Lycurgus, 
 who  is  nowhere  said  to  have  opposed  them ;  a  and  so 
 they  continued  until  the  time  of  Constantine  the  Great, 
 who,  upon  his  profession  of  the  Christian  faith,  first 
 slighted  the  ludi  seculares,  and  afterwards  all  other 
 games,  as  monuments  of  pagan  superstition ;  so  that 
 falling  by  degrees  into  disesteem,  in  the  time  of  Theo- 
 dosius  the  Great,  if  not  before,  they  were  utterly  unfre- 
 quented, and  dwindled  into  nothing. 
 
 These  games  were  used  to  be  performed  at  the  end  of 
 every  four  years,  and  so  every  four  years  made  an 
 Olympiad,  and  lasted  for  five  days  ;  when  the  youth  of 
 Greece  contended  for  mastery  in  five  sorts  of  exercises, 
 one  for  each  day,  namely,  the  crestus,  or  whirlbat,  the 
 quoit,  leaping,  wrestling,  and  racing,  either  on  foot  or 
 horseback,  or  in  chariots ;  all  which  exercises  were 
 thought  so  honourable,  that  even  kings  themselves  did 
 not  disdain  to  become  competitors  for  the  victory  ;  and 
 accordingly  we  find  Pindar,  the  most  celebrated  poet  in 
 those  days,  addressing  his  first  Olympic  to  Hiero  king 
 of  Syracuse,  for  having  won  the  prize  in  one  of  the 
 horse-races. 
 
 The  prize,  however,  was  not  great ;  it  was  no  more 
 than  a  garland  of  palm  or  olive :  but  the  victor  was 
 treated  with  such  tokens  of  respect  and  esteem,  and  was 
 attended  by  the  people  with  such  loud  acclamations, 
 while  he  rode  into  the  city  in  a  coach  through  a  breach 
 in  the  wall,  which,  upon  this  occasion,  was  made  for  his 
 more  pompous  entrance  ;  and  while  he  was  sure  to  have 
 the  best  of  poets  to  celebrate  his  praise,  and  rank  him 
 even  among  the  gods,  that  to  come  oft*  conqueror,  and 
 be  crowned  in  this  place,  was  thought  an  honour  not 
 inferior  to  that  of  a  triumph  in  Rome  ;  and  this  the  rather 
 because  the  inhabitants  of  Elis,  who  were  the  presidents 
 of  these  games,  were  so  remarkably  impartial  in  giving 
 sentence  according  to  merit,  that  whoever  was  crowned 
 by  their  order  and  determination  was  always  thought 
 justly  to  deserve  it. 
 
 Thus,  '  it  appears,  that  the  original  use  of  these 
 Olympic  games  was  to  encourage  activity  of  body  ;  but 
 in  process  of  time,  they  came  to  be  employed  to  a  quite 
 different  purpose,  even  to  fix  the  chronology  of  the  his- 
 tory of  the  Greeks,  among  whom  b  it  grew  a  custom  to 
 reckon  by  Olympiads  ;  for  before  that  custom  prevailed, 
 their  historians  were  vastly  negligent  in  fixing  the  date 
 
 1  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  b.  vi.  c.  2. 
 
 a  Dr  Hales  gives  the  following  account  of  the  Olympiads, 
 which  is  probably  correct,  and  is  certainly  more  perspicuous  than 
 that  in  the  text.  These  celebrated  games  were  originally  in- 
 stituted in  honour  of  Jupiter  Olympius,  by  the  Phrygian  Pelops, 
 who  settled  in  the  Grecian  peninsula,  called  from  him  Peleponne- 
 sus  about  B.  C.  1350.  They  were  repeated  by  the  Theban 
 Hercules,  about  B.  C.  1325,  and,  after  along  interruption,  restor- 
 ed in  part  by  Iphitus  King  of  Elis,  and  celebrated  at  Olympia,  on 
 the  banks  of  the  river  Alpheus,  B.  C.  884,  according  to  the  most 
 probable  account.  However,  the  vulgar  era  of  the  Olympiads 
 did  not  commence  till  108  years  alter,  July  19.  B.  C.  77(>. — 
 Halts'  Analysis,  vol.  i.  p.  135,  second  edition. — En. 
 
 b  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  it  was  not  from  the  first 
 Olympiad,  that  they  began  their  computation,  but  from  the  27th, 
 when  Choncbus,  a  native  of  Elis,  was  victor,  because  there  was 
 no  register  kept  of  the  preceding  Olympiads;  and  therefore  the 
 commencement  of  this  era  was  an  hundred  and  eight  years  after 
 the  establishment  of  the  games  which  occasioned  it.  —  Colonel's 
 Dictionary  under  the  word  Ulympiad. 
 
 of  such  transactions  as  they  related.  Varro,  the  most 
 learned  person  among  the  Romans,  both  for  history  and 
 antiquity,  reckon  three  sorts  of  times.  The  first  from 
 the  beginning  of  mankind  to  the  first  flood,  which  he 
 calls  uncertain,  because  no  account  is  given  of  it  by  any 
 heathen  writer.  The  second,  from  the  flood  to  the  first 
 Olympiad,  which  he  calls  fabulous,  because  many  strange 
 stories  are  reported  of  the  gods  and  demigods  in  those 
 times,  but  without  any  method  or  order.  The  third,  from 
 the  first  Olympiad  to  his  time,  which  he  calls  historical, 
 because  thenceforward  all  transactions  were  laid  in  their 
 proper  places  ;  but  before  the  institution  of  this  method 
 of  computation,  "  every  thing  was  confused  in  the 
 Grecian  history,"  as  Eusebius  2  tells  us,  "  and  3  no  one 
 thing  written  with  any  tolerable  exactness." 
 
 In  the  eleventh  year  of  Jotham,  c  king  of  Judah,  which 
 was  the  twelfth  of  Pekah  king  of  Israel,  another  famous 
 era  commenced,  and  was  in  use  throughout  all  the 
 empire,  upon  the  building  of  the  city  of  Rome,  the  his- 
 tory of  which  is  as  follows. 
 
 After  the  destruction  of  Troy,  4  ./Eneas  landing  in 
 Italy,  was  at  first  opposed  by  Latinus,  king  of  the  La- 
 tins, or  aborigines ;  but  being  overcome  in  battle  by  the 
 Trojans,  Latinus  made  peace  with  their  leader,  and  per- 
 mitted him  and  his  men,  to  live  independent  in  his  king- 
 dom. Enraged  at  this  treatment,  Turnus  king  of  the 
 Rutuli,  fomented  a  fresh  war  against  J^neas  ;  but  in  the 
 conclusion,  he  was  slain  in  single  combat  by  the  Trojan 
 chief,  and  his  mistress  Lavinia,  who  was  the  occasion  of 
 all  this  contention,  was,  by  her  father  Latinus,  given  to 
 the  conqueror  for  a  wife.  ./Eneas,  it  must  be  observed, 
 had  another  son  by  a  former  wife,  named  Creusa,  who 
 was  lost  in  the  siege  of  Troy  ;  and  after  his  death,  his 
 relict  Lavinia,  being  great  with  child,  and  fearing  the 
 power  of  Ascanius,  for  that  was  his  name,  fled  into  the 
 woods,  and  was  there  delivered  of  a  son,  who,  for  that 
 reason,  was  called  Sylvius,  and  because  he  was  born 
 after  his  father's  funeral,  was  likewise  called  Posthumus. 
 It  was  not  long,  however,  before  the  people  began  to 
 express  their  resentment  of  this  hard  usage  of  Lavinia, 
 so  that  Ascanius  was  obliged  to  recall  her ;  and  to  avoid 
 all  occasions  of  disagreement  for  the  future,  he  left  to 
 her  and  her  son  Sylvius,  the  city  of  Lavinia,  which 
 /Eneas  had  built,  and  called  after  her  name,  whilst  him- 
 self removed  to  Alba  Longa,  a  city  of  his  own  erecting 
 and  where  he  lived  for  the  remainder  of  his  days,  highly 
 delighted  with  the  situation  of  the  place. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Ascanius,  there  happened  a  conten- 
 tion between  this  Sylvius  the  son  of  ./Eneas,  and  lulus 
 
 2  Africanus,  and  Euseb.  Prsep.  Evan.  b.  x.  c.  10. 
 
 3  Justin  Martyr's  Exhortation  to  the  Greeks. 
 
 4  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  History,  b.  ii.  c.  24.  s.  4. 
 
 c  Of  the  time  when  this  city  was  built,  there  are  two  accounts, 
 the  Varronian  and  the  Capitolian.  The  Varronian  places  it  in 
 the  year  before,  but  the  Capitolian  in  this  year,  and  yet  they  may 
 both  be  easily  reconciled;  for  as  it  was  customary  in  those  times, 
 when  they  began  to  build  a  city,  to  go  round  it  with  a  plough, 
 and  make  a  furrow  where  the  walls  were  to  be  built,  but  leave  a 
 void  space  for  the  gates;  the  year  before  they  might  thus  mark 
 out  the  city,  dig  the  foundation  of  the  walls,  and  provide  stones, 
 timber,  and  other  materials,  and  this  year  lay  the  foundation ; 
 so  that  the  computation  might  easily  begin  from  either  year, 
 though  the  Capitolian  is  the  general  account. — Bedford's  Scrip- 
 lure  Chronology,  b.  vi.  c.  2.  [Dr  Hales  fixes  the  date  of  the 
 building  of  Home  as  B.  C.  753;  which  makes  the  fourth  year  of 
 Jotham.     See  tabic  at  the  end  of  this  section.] — Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING 
 
 A.  M.  33W.  A.  C.GIO;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 t!ie  son  of  Ascanius,  about  the  succession  to  the  king- 
 dom; but  as  the  relations  of  Lavinia  had  the  more  pre- 
 valent interest  in  the  country,  the  matter  was  so  com 
 promised  that  lulus  was  made  high  priest,  and  Sylvius 
 king",  in  whose  family  the  kingdom  continued  for  several 
 generations,  and  every  succeeding  prince  was  named 
 Sylvius. 
 
 Of  this  race  was  Latinus  the  Second,  grandson  to 
 Sylvius,  who  built  several  towns  on  the  borders  of 
 Latium ;  and  their  inhabitants,  standing  much  upon  the 
 honour  of  their  original,  were  afterwards  called  Prisci 
 Latini.  Of  this  race  was  Tiberinus,  who,  as  some  say, 
 was  drowned  in  the  Tiber,  and  from  that  unhappy  acci- 
 dent gave  name  to  the  river.  Of  this  race  was  Aventinus, 
 who,  by  being'  buried  in  the  place,  gave  name  to  one  of 
 the  mountains  on  which  Rome  was  built ;  and  of  this  race 
 was  Procas,  who,  after  his  death,  left  his  two  sons, 
 Numitor  and  Amulius,  to  reign  alternately  every  year ; 
 but  Amulius  the  younger  deposed  Numitor,  slew  his  son 
 jKgisthus,  and  to  cut  on*' the  whole  race,  compelled  his 
 daughter  Ilia  to  enter  into  a  vow  of  perpetual  virginity, 
 by  becoming-  a  priestess  to  the  goddess  Vesta.  Her  vow 
 however  did  not  last  long;  for  a  certain  soldier  found 
 means  to  get  her  with  child,  but  to  cover  the  disgrace,  a 
 report  was  raised,  that  all  this  was  done  by  Mars,  the 
 god  of  war.  At  length  she  was  delivered  of  two  sons, 
 Romulus  and  Remus,  whom  their  uncle  Amulius  com- 
 manded to  be  drowned,  and  their  mother  to  be  buried 
 alive,  as  being"  the  punishment  which  the  law  indicted, 
 when  vestal  virgins  had  violated  their  chastity. 
 
 Whether  the  mother  underwent  this  punishment,  or,  as 
 some  will  have  it,  upon  the  entreaty  of  Anlho,  the 
 daughter  of  Amulius,  obtained  her  pardon,  it  is  certain 
 that  the  two  children  were  thrown  into  the  Tiber,  in  order 
 to  be  drowned ;  but  as  the  stream  was  low,  and  much 
 mud  was  in  the  place,  a  certain  woman,  named  Lupa, 
 found  them  before  they  were  dead,  and  having  suckled 
 them  for  some  time,  from  whence  the  story  of  their  being- 
 nursed  by  a  she-wolf  took  its  rise,  brought  them  at 
 length  to  Faustulus,  the  king's  shepherd,  who  recom- 
 mended them  to  the  care  of  his  wife  Laurentia,  and  so 
 they  were  both  preserved. 
 
 As  soon  as  they  came  to  a  proper  age,  they  lived  at 
 first  in  the  capacity  of  shepherds  ;  but  being"  naturally 
 of  a  brave  and  martial  temper,  they  applied  themselves, 
 not  only  to  the  business  of  hunting"  wild  beasts,  but  of 
 clearing  the  country  likewise  of  such  gangs  of  robbers, 
 as  came  to  plunder  and  infest  it ;  so  that,  in  a  short 
 time,  the  fame  of  their  adventures  made  multitudes  of 
 the  neighbouring  youth,  who  were  of  the  like  complexion, 
 resort  unto  them.  Enraged  at  their  proceedings,  a 
 strong-  company  of  these  robbers  set  upon  them  at  a  cer- 
 tain time,  and  though  Romulus  defended  himself  against 
 their  attack,  took  Remus  prisoner,  and  pretending  that 
 he  had  plundered  the  estate  of  his  grandfather  Numitor, 
 delivered  him  to  king"  Amulius,  who  sent  him  to  his  bro- 
 ther Numitor,  to  be  executed  for  the  fact. 
 
 When  Remus  was  brought  before  Numitor,  lie  behaved 
 with  such  courage  and  intrepidity,  that  he  could  not  but 
 suspect  something"  uncommon  in  him ;  and  thereupon 
 hearing-  that  he  had  another  brother,  and  that  they  were 
 twins,  and  comparing  their  age  with  the  time  when  his 
 daughter  Ilia's  two  children  were  exposed,  he  began  to 
 think,  that  these,  without  doubt,  must  be  the  boys  whom 
 
 OP  THE  TEMPLE,  &c.  675 
 
 4S25.  A.  C.  58G,  1  KINfiS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OK  2  CHRON, 
 
 some  good  providence  had  wonderfully  preserved  ;  and, 
 being-  confirmed  in  his  opinion  by  the  information  of 
 Faustulus,  who  had  brought  them  up,  he  entered  into  a 
 conspiracy  with  them,  against  his  brother  Amulius,  where- 
 in it  was  agreed,  that  Romulus  with  his  men  should  pri- 
 vately enter  the  city,  and  being  joined  with  such  forces 
 as  Remus  could  muster  up  in  Numitor's  family,  should, 
 all  on  a  sudden,  attack  the  palace,  and  seize  the  king. 
 
 The  plot  succeeded.  Amulius  was  taken  and  killed; 
 and  after  that  Numitor  had  congratulated  his  grandsons 
 upon  their  success,  he  ascended  the  rostrum,  and  in  a 
 full  assembly  of  people,  declared  how  wicked  and  in- 
 human his  brother  Amulius  had  been;  that  these  were 
 his  two  grandchildren;  how  they  were  born,  and  bred 
 up,  and  came  to  be  discovered  ;  and  that  by  their  con- 
 trivance it  was  that  the  tyrant  was  taken  off;  where- 
 upon the  people  immediately  came  to  a  resolution,  that 
 Numitor  should  be  their  king,  and  that,  next  under  him, 
 Romulus  and  Remus  should  be  held  in  the  greatest 
 veneration. 
 
 As  soon  as  these  matters  were  settled  and  adjusted, 
 the  two  young  princes  (to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  their 
 preservation)  resolved  to  build  a  city  upon  the  spot 
 where  they  had  been  nourished  and  brought  up  ;  and 
 several  of  the  neighbouring"  people,  as  well  as  their  own 
 men,  came  in  to  their  assistance.  It  was  not  much 
 doubted,  but  that  this  new  city  would,  in  process  of  time, 
 outvie  all  the  other  towns  in  Italy  ;  but  then,  as  the  two 
 brothers  were  twins,  and  it  was  not  well  known  which 
 was  the  elder,  they  agreed  to  determine,  by  the  flight  of 
 birds  who  should  give  the  name  to  the  city,  and  upon 
 the  grandfather  Numitor's  decease,  which  of  them  should 
 reign  first. 
 
 To  this  purpose  they  went  each  of  them  to  the  top  of 
 an  hill.  Romulus  ascended  what  was  afterwards  called 
 Palatums,  and  Remus  Aventinus,  from  whence  he  disco- 
 vered six  vultures  first;  but  his  brother  afterwards  saw 
 twelve,  so  that  the  dispute  was  never  the  nearer  an  end. 
 Remus  laid  claim  to  the  sovereignty,  because  he  saw  the 
 first  vultures,  and  Romulus  because  he  saw  the  most ; 
 insomuch  that  from  words  proceeding-  to  blows,  Remus 
 was  unhappily  slain  by  his  brother,  and,  in  his  death,  ' 
 put  an  end  to  the  controversy. 
 
 When  the  city  was  built,  Romulus  called  it  Roma, 
 which,  in  the  Greek  tongue,  signified  strength,  and  not 
 by  his  own  name  Romula,  because  it  was  a  diminutive. 
 As  the  city,  however,  when  finished,  had  not  a  sufficient 
 stock  of  inhabitants,  he  found  out  an  expedient  to 
 remedy  this  defect,  by  making  a  neighbouring  grove  an 
 asylum  or  place  of  refuge,  to  all  malefactors  and  dis- 
 contented persons ;  so  that,  in  a  short  time,  vast  num- 
 bers of  all  nations,  that  could  not  live  in  their  own 
 country  with  safety  fled  hither  for  protection,  and  peopled 
 the  city.  These  inhabitants  however  could  last  but  for  one 
 age,  because  they  were  most  of  them  men,  and  when  they 
 desired  to  marry  with  their  neighbours,  were  rejected 
 
 1  Florus  makes  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Remus  to  he  ano- 
 ther matter  :  for  having  observed  that  Romulus,  hy  the  greater 
 number  of  the  vultures  which  he  saw,  had  got  the  better,  and 
 built  his  city,  with  good  hopes  that  it  would  he  remarkable  for 
 warlike  affairs,  because  those  birds  were  accounted  birds  of  prey; 
 ere  the  walls  were  raised  to  any  great  height,  his  brother  Remus 
 made  a  jest  of  them  ;  which  exasperated  the  other  to  that  degree, 
 that  he  ordered  him  immediately  to  lie  slain, 
 
076 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  G10;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4325.  A.  C.  58G.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 with  scorn  ;  so  that  they  were  under  a  necessity  to  get 
 themselves  wives  by  some  stratagem  or  other.  To  this 
 purpose  Romulus  proclaimed  a  feast,  and  public  games, 
 in  the  honour  of  Neptune,  to  be  celebrated  near  his  new 
 city;  and  when  the  virgins  from  every  quarter  came  thither 
 to  see  .and  divert  themselves,  upon  a  signal  given,  they 
 were  all  seized  by  force,  carried  into  the  city  and  com- 
 pelled to  become  wives  to  those  that  wanted  them.  Ex- 
 asperated with  this  base  treatment,  the  neighbouring- 
 people  immediately  prepared  for  war,  but  are  repulsed 
 with  loss  by  the  .Romans  ;  till  the  Sabines,  who  were  their 
 most  formidable  enemy,  and  principally  concerned  in 
 the  late  affront,  marched  against  them,  and,  under  the 
 command  of  their  king-,  Tatius,  were  just  upon  giving- 
 them  a  total  defeat;  when  their  daughters,  who  were  now 
 become  wives  to  the  Romans,  ran  between  the  two  armies, 
 and  with  their  hair  torn,  and  all  other  indications  of  sor- 
 row, acquainted  their  parents  that  they  had  been  used 
 civilly,  and  that,  if  matters  were  carried  to  such  extremi- 
 ties, nothing  could  be  expected  on  their  side  but  ruin  and 
 destruction.  Hereupon  their  parents,  being  overcome 
 by  their  prayers,  and  tears,  and  arguments,  laid  aside 
 all  angry  resentment,  and  entered  into  a  treaty  with  their 
 sons-in-law,  which  succeeded  so  well,  that  several  of  them 
 left  their  ancient  habitations,  and  came  with  all  their  sub- 
 stance, and  lived  in  Rome.  From  so  small  abeginning 
 did  this  city  gradually  increase  to  be  the  scat  of  the  wes- 
 tern empire,  and  the  mistress  of  the  then  known  world  ! 
 
 One  very  remarkable  event  more,  which  happened  the 
 very  next  year  after  the  building  of  Rome,  namely,  in 
 the  twelfth  year  of  Jotham  king  of  Judah,  and  the  thir- 
 teenth of  Pekah  king  of  Israel,  was  the  dissolution  of 
 the  Assyrian  monarchy  upon  the  death  of  Sardanapalus, 
 as  several  heathen  authors  have  thus  related  it.  This 
 emperor  exceeded  all  his  predecessors,  in  sloth  and  vo- 
 luptuousness. He  clothed  himself  in  women's  attire  ; 
 he  painted  his  face,  and  decked  his  body  more  like  a 
 strumpet  than  a  king  ;  he  affected  an  effeminate  voice  ; 
 spun  fine  wool  and  purple  among  his  concubines,  and 
 proceeded  to  such  a  degree  of  luxury  andshamelessness, 
 that  he  wrote  verses  in  commemoration  of  his  dissolute 
 manner  of  life,  and  commanded,  after  his  death,  to  have 
 them  inscribed  on  his  tomb. 
 
 The  kings  of  the  east  seldom  appeared  in  public  :  but 
 Sardanapalus  was  never  seen  by  any,  but  such  only  as 
 were  either  assistants  or  associates  in  his  lasciviousness  • 
 until  Arbaces,  the  general  of  the  Median  forces,  bribed 
 one  of  his  eunuch?,  by  giving  him  a  golden  cup,  to  be 
 introduced  into  his  presence  ;  where,  seeing  his  vile  de- 
 generate behaviour,  he  began  to  think  it  a  disparagement, 
 that  so  many  brave  and  gallant  men  should  be  under  the 
 dominion  of  a  worthless  wretch,  that  affected  to  be  a 
 spinster  rather  than  a  king.  This  he  communicated  to 
 his  friends  and  acquaintances,  to  the  governors  of  seve- 
 ral provinces,  but  more  especially  to  Belesis,  the  gover- 
 nor of  Babylon,  witli  whom  he  entered  into  a  close  con- 
 federacy to  depose  the  present  emperor,  and  to  divide 
 his  dominions  between  them,  whereof  Belesis  was  to 
 have  Babylon,  Chaldea,  and  Arabia,  and  himself  all 
 the  rest. 
 
 1  When  matters  were  thus  agreed  on,  Arbaces  endea- 
 voured,  by  all  sorts  of  arts  and  insinuations,  to  make 
 
 1  Bedford's  Scripture  History,  b.  vi.  c.  2. 
 
 himself  acceptable  to  the  Medes  ;  to  persuade  them  to 
 invade  the  Assyrian  empire,  and,  in  hopes  of  regaining 
 their  liberty,  to  draw  the  Persians  into  the  like  confe- 
 deracy. On  the  other  hand,  Belesis  prevailed  with  the 
 Babylonians  to  revolt,  and  gained  the  king  of  Arabia, 
 with  whom  he  had  a  very  great  intimacy,  to  his  party  ;  so 
 that,  when  all  their  forces  were  joined  together,  the  army 
 is  said  to  have  consisted  of  400,000  men. 
 
 Sardanapalus,  seeing  such  a  strong  confederacy  and 
 combination  of  arms  against  him,  thought  it  high  time  to 
 shake  off  his  sloth ;  and  having  drawn  forth  the  forces 
 of  the  rest  of  the  provinces,  he  engaged  the  enemy  thrice, 
 and  as  many  times  defeated  them.  In  the  first  action 
 he  pursued  them  to  the  mountains,  seventy  furlongs  be- 
 yond Nineveh.  In  the  second  he  so  defeated  them,  that 
 they  were  all  upon  the  point  of  returning  home,  had  not 
 Belesis,  who  was  a  Babylonish  priest,  and  pretended  to 
 great  skill  in  astrology  °  and  divination,  given    them 
 
 a  Whatever  skill  he  might  pretend  to  in  astrology,  it  is  certain 
 that  he  was  an  excellent  astronomer,  and  when  he  came  to 
 Babylon,  and  was  made  emperor  there,  set  himself  to  rectify  the 
 Chaldean  year,  which  seems  to  have  stood  unaltered  from  the 
 flood  till  that  time.  The  ancient  year  of  the  Chaldeans  consisted 
 of  360  days,  or  of  twelve  months,  with  thirty  days  to  each  month ; 
 but  as  this  was  five  days  and  a  quarter  less  than  the  revolution  of 
 the  sun  to  the  same  point  of  the  equinox,  the  Egyptians,  in  the 
 time  of  Thoth,  their  second  king,  and  grandson  of  Ham,  added 
 five  days  to  the  year,  so  that  every  year  consisted  exactly  of  365 
 days.  But  then,  in  four  years  there  was  one  day  less  than  in  so 
 many  Julian  years,  which  in  a  great  length  of  time,  namely,  in 
 1460  years,  made  the  beginning  of  the  year  run  through  all  the 
 seasons.  To  prevent  this  inconsistency,  the  Chaldeans,  about 
 every  six  years,  added  to  their  year  of  360  days  an  intcrcalaiy 
 month,  which  made  their  years  unequal;  and  therefore  Belesis, 
 being  well  acquainted  with  the  Egyptian  astronomers,  and  find- 
 ing that  their  year  was  equal,  though  not  absolutely  perfect,  re- 
 duced the  Babylonian  year  to  the  same  standard,  that  is,  he  made 
 it  consist  of  365  days,  which  were  divided  into  twelve  months, 
 of  thirty  days  each,  and  five  days,  which  were  added  at  the  end 
 of  the  year.  But  then,  because,  in  each  of  these  years  there 
 would  be  a  redundant  quarter  of  a  day,  and  in  four  years, 
 one  whole  day,  instead  of  the  bissextile  day,  as  it  is  in  the  Julian 
 computation,  he  began  every  fourth  year  a  day  sooner.  This  al- 
 teration he  ordered  to  begin  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  and 
 from  thence  it  was  called  "the  famous  era  of  Nabonassar," 
 for  so  Belesis  was  likewise  named,  which  continued  in  Egypt  to 
 the  death  of  Anthony  and  Cleopatra,  and  was  afterwards  in  use 
 among  the  mathematicians  and  astronomers  to  the  time  of  Ptole- 
 my, who  made  his  canon  by  this  account,  which  is  justly  esteemed 
 the  surest  and  most  useful  guide  of  ancient  chronology,  where  the 
 sacred  historians  are  silent. — Bedford's  Scrip.  Chron.  b.  vi.  c.  2. 
 JI'Mstons  Theory,  b.  ii.;  and  Chron.  of  the  Old  Testament,  p. 
 12.  [It  is  not  probable  that  the  Chaldean  astronomers,  in  whose 
 country  must  have  been  preserved  much  of  the  learning  of  the  an- 
 tediluvian world,  were  under  the  necessity  of  borrowing  any  part 
 of  their  science  from  the  Egyptians,  whose  ancestors,  at  their  first 
 emigration  from  Babylonia,  must  have  carried  with  them  from  that 
 country  the  rudiments  at  least  of  all  their  own  science.  Accord- 
 ingly the  account  of  the  origin  of  the  famous  era  of  Nabonassar, 
 which  Syncellus  has  given  us,  from  the  earliest  writers  on  Chal- 
 dean history  and  antiquities,  differs  considerably  from  this. 
 "  Nabonassar,"  says  he,  as  quoted  by  Dr  Hales,  "  having  col- 
 lected the  acts  of  his  predecessors,  destroyed  them,  in  order  that 
 the  computation  of  the  reigns  of  the  Chaldean  kings  might  be 
 made  from  himself."  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  era  of  Nabonas- 
 sar, winch  that  monarch  made  to  begin,  with  his  own  reign,  on 
 the  26th  day  of  February,  B.  C.  747,  and  the  year  employed  in 
 it,  was  the  movable  year  of  twelve  equal  months  of  thirty  days 
 each,  to  which  were  added  five  supernumerary  days.  This  year, 
 which  had  been  in  common  use  among  the  Chaldeans,  Egyptians, 
 Armenians,  Persians,  and  other  oriental  nations,  from  time 
 immemorial,  ran  through  all  the  seasons  in  the  course  of  1461 
 years,  which  was  therefore  considered  as  the  grand  Nabonassa- 
 rian  period  or  annus  magnus  of  the  Chaldean  astronomers,  for 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  TEMPLE,  &c. 
 
 677 
 
 A.  M.  3394.  A.  C.  610;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  1825.  A.  C.  58G.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 assurance,  that  God  would  at  last  reward  their  labours 
 with  success.  In  the  third  engagement  Arbaces  himself 
 was  wounded,  and  his  army  routed,  and  pursued  as  far 
 as  the  mountains  of  Babylon  ;  so  that  the  chief  officers 
 were  for  dispersing  and  shifting  for  themselves,  when 
 Belesis  gave  them  once  more  assurance,  that  if  they 
 would  but  continue  together  for  live  days  longer,  every 
 thing  in  that  time  would  have  a  different  turn. 
 
 With  much  entreaty  was  the  army  prevailed  on  not  to 
 disperse,  when  suddenly  news  was  brought,  that  a  great 
 enforcement  was  coming  from  Bactria  to  join  the  king, 
 so  that  the  only  game  which  Arbaces  had  to  play  was,  to 
 march  against  them,  and  by  all  means  imaginable,  pre- 
 vail with  them  to  revolt;  wherein  he  succeeded  beyond 
 all  men's  hopes  and  expectations,  and  so  gave  another 
 turn  to  the  face  of  allairs. 
 
 Sardanapalus,  in  the  mean  time,  knowing  nothing  of 
 this,  and  being  elated  with  his  repeated  successes,  was 
 indulging  his  sloth  and  luxury,  and  preparing  beasts  for 
 sacrifice,  with  plenty  of  wine,  and  other  things  necessary 
 to  feast  and  entertain  his  soldiers  ;  when  Arbaces,  having 
 intelligence  by  deserters  in  what  condition  his  army  lay, 
 fearless  of  any  foe,  and  overcome  already  with  surfeiting 
 and  drunkenness,  broke  into  their  camp  by  night,  and, 
 having  made  a  terrible  slaughter  of  most  of  them,  forced 
 the  rest  into  the  city, 
 
 The  king,  after  this  defeat,  took  upon  him  the  defence 
 of  the  place,  and  committed  the  charge  of  the  army  to 
 Salamenus,  the  queen's  brother ;  but  Salamenus  was 
 worsted  in  two  pitched  battles,  one  in  the  open  field, 
 and  the  other  before  the  walls  of  Nineveh,  where  himself 
 was  slain,  and  most  of  his  men  cut  to  pieces  ;  so  that  all 
 the  resource  which  Sardanapalus  had,  was  to  sustain  the 
 siege  as  long  as  he  could,  until  the  succours,  which  he 
 had  sent  for  out  of  all  his  provinces,  should  come  to  his 
 assistance  ;  and  this  he  had  some  hopes  of  being  able  to 
 do,  because  there  was  an  ancient  prophecy,  "  that  Nine- 
 veh never  could  be  taken  by  force,  until  the  river  became 
 its  enemy." 
 
 Arbaces,  on  the  other  hand,  was  much  encouraged  by 
 his  successes,  and  carried  on  the  siege  with  the  utmost 
 vigour  ;  but  the  prodigious  strength  of  the  walls,  which 
 were  an  hundred  feet  high,  and  so  very  broad,  that  three 
 chariots  might  go  .abreast  upon  them,  and  the  vast  plenty 
 of  all  manner  of  stores  and  provisions,  necessary  for  a 
 long  defence,  hindered  him  from  making  any  consider- 
 able progress. 
 
 Thus  two  years  were  spent,  without  any  prospect  of 
 relief  on  the  one  side,  or  of  taking  the  town  on  the  other. 
 In  the  third  year,  a  continued  fall  of  rains  made  the 
 Tygris  overflow  to  such  a  degree,  that  coming  into  the 
 
 much  the  same  reason  that  4714  has  been  considered  as  the  grand 
 Julian  period  by  the  astronomers  of  modern  Europe.  Hence  the 
 astronomical  era  of  Nalionassar,  or  annus  magnus  of  the  Chal- 
 deans, commenced  on  the  28th  day  of  March,  B.  C.  867,  near 
 120  years  before  the  Historic  era;  and  the  king  and  his  counsel- 
 lors were  induced  to  fix  on  that  year  and  day  for  the  commence- 
 ment of  their  grand  or  astronomical  period,  because  there  was  a 
 synchronism  of  the  new  moon  and  venial  equinox  on  that  day, 
 which  was  likewise  the  beginning  of  the  Chaldean  year.  It  is, 
 however,  the  historical  era  that  was  in  common  use  among 
 chronologers ;  and  its  freedom  from  intercalation  rendering  it  pe- 
 culiarly convenient  for  astronomical  calculations,  it  was  adopted  by 
 the  early  Greek  astronomers  Timachares  and  Hipparchus,  and  by 
 Ptolemy  and  others  of  the  Alexandrian  school  in  Egypt.]—  Ilulcs's 
 Analysis,  vol.  i.  p.  155,  second  edition.^ — Ed. 
 
 city,  it  tore  along  with  it  twenty  fathoms  of  the  wall 
 which  Sardanapalus  concluding  to  be  the  accomplishment 
 of  the  oracle,  because  by  this  means  the  river  was  appar- 
 ently become  an  enemy  to  the  city,  he  grew  quite  dispirit- 
 ed, and  gave  up  all  for  lost.  However,  to  prevent  his 
 falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  he  caused  a  large  pile 
 of  wood  a  to  be  made  in  the  court  of  his  palace,  and  there 
 heaping  up  together  all  his  gold,  silver,  and  royal  apparel, 
 and  having  enclosed  his  eunuchs  and  concubines  in  the 
 midst  of  it,  ordered  it  to  be  set  on  fire,  and  so  burned  him- 
 self and  them  together.  The  only  action  wherein  '  those 
 historians,  who  make  no  mention  of  his  victories,  repre- 
 sent him  as  a  valiant  man  !  Arbaces,  being  informed  of 
 this,  inarched  his  army  through  the  breach  of  the  Avail, 
 and  took  the  city.  After  this  he  rewarded  his  followers 
 according  to  their  merit ;  made  Belesis  governor  of 
 Babylonia,  Chaldea,  and  Arabia,  according  to  their 
 compact,  and  took  the  rest  of  the  empire  to  himself: 
 which  put  an  end  to  the  Assyrian  monarchy,  after  it  had 
 governed  all  Asia  2  above  thirteen  hundred  years,  and, 
 according  to  the  vision  which  Daniel  3  had  of  it,  in  its 
 conquests  had  been  as  swift  as  an  eagle,  but  now  its 
 wings  were  plucked.  * 
 
 1  Justin,  b.  i.  and  Athenaus,  b.  xii.  c.  12.  2  Justin,  b.  i. 
 
 3  Dan.  vii.  4. 
 
 a  Concerning  this  pile,  Athenaus  informs  us  that  it  was 
 four  hundred  feet  high,  upon  which  he  placed  one  hundred  and 
 fifty  golden  beds,  and  as  many  golden  tables ;  that  he  had  thrown 
 into  it  some  millions  of  talents  of  gold  and  silver,  besides  the 
 richest  furniture  of  purple,  and  the  finest  garments ;  and  that 
 this  pile  was  fifteen  days  in  burning.  To  which  Diodorus  adds, 
 that  Belesis,  by  craft,  obtained  leave  of  Arbaces  to  carry  oiFthe 
 ashes,  under  pretence  of  building  an  altar  with  them  at  Babylon, 
 by  which  means  he  gained  an  immense  treasure.  But  all  this 
 looks  more  like  a  romance  than  a  true  story. — Bedford's  Scrip- 
 ture Chronology,  b.  vi.  c.  2.  in  the  notes. 
 
 b  The  following  is  Dr  Hales's  table  of  this  period,  confessedly 
 the  most  difficult  part  of  sacred  chronology,  and  the  account  of 
 the  principles  on  which  he  has  harmonized  the  different  reigns, 
 in  his  own  words: — 
 
 From  the  revolt  of  the  Ten  Tribes,  to  the  destruction  of 
 
 Jerusalem.     404  years. 
 
 KINGS  OF  JUDAH.  KINGS  OF  ISRAEL. 
 
 Rehoboam 
 Abijah       .     .     . 
 Asa      .... 
 Jehosaphat      .     . 
 Jehoram,  or  Joram 
 Ahaziah       .     .     . 
 Q.  Athaliah      .     . 
 Joash,  or  Jehoash 
 Amaziah       .     . 
 Interregnum 
 Uzziah,  or  Azariah 
 Jotham 
 
 Ahaz    .... 
 Ilezekiah 
 Manasseh 
 Amon         .     .     . 
 Josiah        .     .     . 
 Jehoahaz,  3  m. 
 Jehoiakim 
 Jehoiachin,  3  m. 
 Zedekiah    .      .     . 
 
 Y.     B.C. 
 
 17  990 
 
 3  973 
 
 41  970 
 
 25  9:29 
 
 8  904 
 
 1  896 
 6  895 
 
 40  889 
 29  849 
 11  820 
 52  809 
 16  757 
 16  741 
 29  725 
 55  696 
 
 2  641 
 31  639 
 
 11  COS 
 
 11  597 
 
 1.  Jeroboam 
 
 2.  Nadab 
 
 3.  Baasha 
 4.Ela  .     . 
 
 Y.     B.C. 
 
 .     .     22  990 
 
 .     .       2  96S 
 
 (24)  23  966 
 
 (2)     1  943 
 
 5.Zimii&Omri  (12)   11  942 
 
 6.  Ahab     ....     22  931 
 
 7.  Ahaziah     ...       2  909 
 
 8.  Jehoram,  or  Joram    12  907 
 
 9 
 
 Jehu     .     .      .     . 
 
 28 
 
 895 
 
 10 
 
 Jehoahaz    . 
 
 17  867 
 
 11 
 
 Jehoash,  or  Joash 
 
 16 
 
 850 
 
 1:.' 
 
 Jeroboam  II. 
 
 41 
 
 834 
 
 1st  Interregnum 
 
 22 
 
 793 
 
 13.Zechariah&Shallum  1 
 
 771 
 
 14 
 
 Menahem       .     . 
 
 10  770 
 
 lfi 
 
 Pekahiah    .     .     . 
 
 2 
 
 760 
 
 16. 
 
 Pekah    .     .     .     . 
 
 20 
 
 75S 
 
 2d  Interregnum 
 
 10 
 
 738 
 
 17. 
 
 Hoshea      r     .     . 
 
 9  728 
 
 Samaria  taken 
 
 271 
 
 719 
 
 Jerusalem  taken       404  586 
 
 This  period  has  been  hitherto  considered  as  the  Gordian  knot  of 
 sacred  chronology ;  the  intricacy  of  which,  all  the  chronologers 
 have  complained  of,  but  none  have  been  able  to  unravel.  The 
 difficulty  of  harmonizing  the  reigns  of  the  kings  of  Judah  and 
 Isiael  together,  has  principally  arisen;   1.  from  the  discordance 
 
678 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 [Book  VI. 
 
 A.  M.  3331.  A.  C.  G10;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4925.  A.  C.  586.  1  KINGS  viii.  TO  THE  END  OF  2  CHRON. 
 
 of  some  of  the  correspondences  in  the  years  of  their  respective 
 reigns,  with  the  direct  lengths  of  those  reigns;  and  2.  from  not 
 critically  determining  the  duration  of  the  two  interregnums  or 
 vacancies,  in  the  succession  of  the  latter  kings,  so  as  to  make 
 them  correspond  with  the  former  throughout.  The  whole  is 
 In  re  adjusted  and  harmonized,  and  it  is  hoped,  satisfactorily, 
 upon  the  following  principles  : — 1.  The  standard  of  the  reigns  of 
 the  kin«s  of  Judah  is  considered  as  correct:  for  it  is  verified  by 
 the  concurrence  of  the  books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles,  the  latter 
 relating  especially  to  the  kings  of  Judah,  and  of  Josephus,  Abul- 
 fara<*i,  and  Eutychius.  The  incorrectness,  therefore,  complained 
 of,  must  be  confined  to  the  latter  series ;  and  must  be  remedied, 
 by  reducing  it  to  the  former.  2.  The  two  series  of  reigns  agree 
 in  three  points  of  time  :  1.  The  reigns  of  Rehoboam  and  Jero- 
 boam began  together,  or  in  the  same  year,  (1  Kings  xii.  1 — 20; 
 2  Chron.  x.  1—19;)  as  did  also,  2.  The  reigns  of  queen  Atha- 
 lia.li  and  of  Jehu,  who  slew  the  two  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel, 
 Ahaziah  and  Jehoram,  the  same  day,  (2  Kings  ix.  24 — 27;) 
 and,  3.  Samaria  was  taken  by  the  Assyrians  in  the  ninth  year  of 
 Hoshea  king  of  Israel,  and  in  the  sixth  year  of  Hezekiah  king  of 
 Judah,  (2  Kings  xviii.  10.)  3.  Hence  it  necessarily  follows, 
 1.  That  the  first  six  reigns  in  Judah  must  be  equal  in  length  to 
 the  first  eight  in  Israel;  and  also,  2.  That  the  next  seven  in 
 Judah,  to  the  sixth  of  Hezekiah,  including  one  interregnum,  must 
 be  equal  to  the  remainder  in  Israel,  including  two  interregnums. 
 4.  But  upon  comparing  the  former  together,  it  appears  that  the 
 first  six  of  Judah  amount  to  ninety-five  years ;  whereas,  the  first 
 eight  of  Israel  amount  to  ninety-eight  years,  according  to  the 
 table  of  reigus  in  Scripture.  Consequently,  three  years  must  be 
 retrenched  from  the  latter,  to  reduce  them  to  an  equality  with 
 the  former.  Accordingly,  one  year  is  here  subtracted  from  each 
 of  the  reigns  of  Baasha,  Ela,  and  Zimri,  which  are  thereby  re- 
 duced from  current,*  to  complete  years.  And  this  reduction  is 
 warranted  by  the  correspondences  :  for  Baasha  began  to  reign  in 
 the  third  year  of  Asa  king  of  Judah,  (1  Kings  xv.  33;)  and  his 
 son  Ela,  in  the  twenty-sixth  of  Asa,  (1  Kings  xvi.  8,)  which 
 gives  the  reign  of  Baasha,  26 — 3=23  years  complete.  Ela  was 
 slain  in  the  twenty-seventh  of  Asa,  (1  Kings  xvi.  10 ;)  he  reigned, 
 therefore,  only  27 — 26=1  year  complete.  And  Zimri  and  Omri 
 reigned  in  succession,  from  the  twenty-seventh  to  the  thirty-eighth 
 of  Asa,  (1  Kings  xvi.  29;)  or  only  38 — 27=11  years  complete. 
 And  as  their  reigns  were  all  included  in  the  one  reign  of  Asa, 
 and  therefore  more  likely  to  be  correctly  referred  thereto,  this  is 
 a  reason  why  these  three  reigns  should  be  selected  for  reduction, 
 rather  than  the  succeeding  or  the  preceding.  5.  Upon  compar- 
 ing the  latter  together,  it  appears  that  there  was  one  interregnum 
 in  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  of  eleven  years,  and  two  in  Israel  of 
 twenty-two  years,  and  often  years;  which  are  requisite  in  both, 
 to  equalize  the  two  periods  together,  of  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
 six  years  each ;  counting  them  from  the  joint  accession  of  queen 
 Athaliah  and  Jehu,  to  the  sixth  of  Hezekiah,  and  capture  of 
 Samaria,  in  the  same  year.  That  the  lengths  of  these  interreg- 
 nums are  rightly  assigned,  will  appear  from  the  correspondences 
 of  reigns.  1.  Amaziah  king  of  Judah,  survived  the  death  of 
 Jehoash  king  of  Israel,  fifteen  years;  he  died,  therefore,  about 
 the  sixteenth  year  of  his  son  Jeroboam  II.  (2  Kings  xiv.  17;  2 
 Chron.  xxv.  25;)  but  Azariah,  or  Uzziah,  did  not  begin  to  reign 
 
 *  That  the  reigns  in  these  lists  are  all  computed,  in  current  time,  ac- 
 cording to  the  popular  mode  of  computation  in  tlie  east,  and  every  where, 
 may  further  be  collected  from  that  of  Zedekiah,  eleven  years;  which 
 actually  waa  only  ten  years,  four  months,  ami  eight  days,  supposing  the 
 
 tir-t  year  to  have  been  complete.     Compare  2  Kings  .\.\iv.  18,  with  xxv 
 2—1. 
 
 until  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  Jeroboam  II.  (2  Kings  xv  1  ; 
 2  Chron.  xxvi.  1;)  therefore,  fiom  the  death  of  Amaziah  to  the 
 succession  of  his  son  Uzziah,  there  was  an  interregnum  of  27 — 
 16=11  years.  2.  Jeroboam  II.  began  to  reign  in  the  fifteenth 
 year  of  Amaziah,  king  of  Judah,  and  reigned  forty-one  years, 
 (2  Kings  xiv.  23 ;)  he  died,  therefore,  in  the  sixteenth  year  of 
 Uzziah,  king  of  Judah;  but  Zechariah,  his  son,  did  not  succeed 
 him  till  the  thirty-eighth  of  Uzziah,  (2  Kings  xv.  8;)  conse- 
 quently, the  first  interregnum  in  Israel  lasted  38 — 16=22 
 years.  3.  Pekah,  king  of  Israel,  began  to  reign  in  the  fifty-  ' 
 second  of  Uzziah,  (2  Kings  xv.  27;  2  Chron.  xxvi.  3;)  and 
 in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign  was  slain  by  Hoshea,  (2  Chron. 
 xv.  30,)  in  the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  Ahaz  king  of  Judah, 
 (2  Kings  xvi.  1 ;)  but  Hoshea  did  not  begin  to  reign  till  the 
 twelfth  year  of  Ahaz,  (2  Kings  xvii.  1.)  or  the  thirteenth  cur- 
 rent, (2  Kings  xviii.  10;)  consequently,  the  second  interregnum 
 in  Israel  lasted  13 — 3=10  years.  6.  A  curious  and  satisfactory 
 confirmation  of  this  adjustment  of  the  reigns  of  the  kings  of 
 Israel,  is  furnished  by  Josephus,  who  reckons  their  amount,  from 
 the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  to  the  extinction  of  that  kingdom, 
 210  years,  (Ant.  ix.  14,  1;)  and  if,  from  the  whole  corrected 
 amount,  271  years,  we  deduct  the  two  interregnums,  32  years, 
 the  remainder,  239  years,  complete,  or  240  current,  gives  the 
 lengths  of  the  reigns  alone.  This  furnishes  a  decisive  proof  of 
 his  great  skill  as  a  chronologer,  in  developing  the  length  of  this 
 intricate  and  perplexed  period.  That  he  was  no  stranger  to  the 
 chasm  of  thirty-two  years  in  Israel,  we  may  infer  from  his  taking 
 into  account  the  eleven  years  of  interregnum  in  Judah,  necessary 
 to  complete  his  amount  of  the  whole  period,  from  the  foundation 
 to  the  destruction  of  the  temple,  441  years.  7.  We  are  now 
 competent  to  detect  some  errors  that  have  crept  into  the  corres- 
 pondences of  reigns ;  and  which  have  hitherto  puzzled  and  per- 
 plexed chronologers,  and  prevented  them  from  critically  harmon- 
 izing the  two  series;  not  being  able  to  distinguish  the  genuine 
 from  the  spurious  numbers. 
 
 1.  '  Jehoshaphat  began  to  reign  over  Judah  in  the  fourth  year 
 of  Ahab,'  (1  Kings  xxi.  41.)  It  should  be  the  second. 
 
 2.  '  Ahaziah,  the  son  of  Ahab,  began  to  reign  over  Israel  in 
 the  seventeenth  of  Jehoshaphat,'  (1  Kings  xxii.  51.)  It  should 
 be  the  twentieth  of  Jehoshaphat. 
 
 3.  '  Jehoram,  the  son  of  Ahaziah,  began  to  reign  over  Israel 
 in  the  second  year  of  Jehoram,  sou  of  Jehoshaphat,'  (2  Kings  i. 
 17.)  It  should  be  in  the  twenty-second  year  of  Jehoshaphat;  as 
 also,  where  it  is  again  incorrectly  stated,  in  the  eighteenth,  (2 
 Kings  iii.  1.) 
 
 4.  '  Jehoram,  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  began  to  reign  over 
 Judah,  in  the  fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  Joram,  the  [grand]  son 
 of  Ahab,'  (2  Kings  viii.  16.)  It  should  be  the  fifth  year  from  the 
 death  of  Ahab ;  or  the  third  year  of  Joram's  reign.  '  Jehoshaphat 
 being  then  king  of  Judah,'  is  an  anachronism,  and  an  interpola- 
 tion in  the  Masorite  text. 
 
 5.  '  Jehoash  began  to  reign  over  Israel  in  the  thirty-seventh 
 year  of  Joash,  king  of  Judah,'  (2  Kings  xiii.  10.)  It  should  be 
 the  thirty-ninth  year ;  as  in  the  accurate  Aldine  edition  of  the 
 Greek  Septuagint.. 
 
 6.  The  correspondences  by  which  the  interregnum  in  Judah 
 was  collected,  are  incorrect;  they  should  be  25 — 14=11  years. 
 
 7.  '  Hoshea  slew  Pekah  king  of  Israel,  in  the  twentieth  year 
 of  Jotham,'  (2  Kings  xv.  30.)  But  Jotham  reigned  only  sixteen 
 years,  (2  Kings  xv.  33 )  It  should  be  in  the  third  year  of  Ahaz, 
 as  collected  from  2  Kings  xvi.  1. — Ed. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE 
 
 BOOK  VII. 
 
 CONTAINING   AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THINGS  FROM  THE   BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY  TO  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST, 
 IN  ALL  588  YEARS,— ACCORDING  TO  DR  HALES  586. 
 
 PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The  two  methods  by  which  Scripture  gives  an  account 
 of  the  events  by  which  the  great  plan  of  redeeming 
 mercy  has  been  carried  on,  are  history  and  prophecy. 
 Where  Scripture  history  fails,  prophecy  takes  place;  so  j 
 that  the  account  is  carried  on,  and  the  chain  is  not 
 broken,  till  we  come  to  the  very  last  link  of  it  in  the 
 consummation  of  all  things. 
 
 The  period,  accordingly,  on  which  we  are  now  enter- 
 ing, though  less  the  subject  of  Scripture  history  than 
 most  of  the  preceding,  is  more  the  subject  of  prophecy 
 than  the  events  of  the  former  periods.  It  was  the  will 
 of  God  that  the  spirit  of  prophecy  should  cease ;  but 
 before  that  took  place,  an  outline  of  the  history  of  events 
 till  the  coming  of  Christ  was  given  in  the  prophecies 
 which  were  recorded  in  Scripture.  It  is  also  deserving 
 of  notice,  that,  whereas  the  historical  notices  of  the  pre- 
 ceding periods  in  profane  history  are  scanty  and  im- 
 perfect, they  are,  in  regard  to  this  period,  authentic 
 and  full. 
 
 Nor  can  we  fail  to  notice  the  number  and  magnitude 
 of  the  revolutions  which,  from  this  era,  took  place  among 
 the  nations  of  the  earth,  preparatory  to  the  coming  of 
 Christ.  The  king  of  Babylon  is  represented  in  Scrip- 
 ture as  overturning  the  world  ;  but  the  Babylonish  em- 
 pire was  overthrown  by  Cyrus,  who  founded  the  Persian 
 empire  in  its  room,  and  which  greatly  surpassed  it  in 
 extent  and  glory.  But  this  also  was  overthrown  by 
 Alexander,  who  established  the  Grecian  empire  on  its  | 
 ruins  ;  and  this  in  its  turn  was  destined  to  be  subverted 
 by  the  Romans,  whose  empire  surpassed  all  that  had 
 preceded  it  in  extent  and  dominion.  These  mighty  re- 
 volutions were  designed  by  the  sovereign  Ruler  of  the 
 universe,  to  prepare  the  world  for  the  coming  of  Christ. 
 1  '  I  will  overturn,  overturn,  overturn  it,  until  he  come 
 whose  right  it  is,  and  I  will  give  it  him.'  2  '  For  thus 
 saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  I  will  shake  the  heavens  and 
 the  earth,  and  the  sea,  and  the  dry  land  ;  and  I  will 
 shake  all  nations,  and  the  desire  of  all  nations  shall 
 
 come,  and  I  will  till  this  house  with  glory,  saith  the 
 Lord  of  hosts.'  These  mighty  empires  were  suffered 
 thus  to  overthrow  and  destroy  one  another,  to  show  the 
 instability  and  vanity  of  all  earthly  power  and  greatness  ; 
 which  served  as  a  foil  to  set  forth  the  glory  of  Messiah's 
 kingdom,  which  shall  never  be  destroyed.  This  was 
 the  kingdom  which  the  God  of  heaven  was  to  set  up  ; — 
 a  kingdom  that  shall  not  be  left  to  other  people,  but 
 which  shall  break  in  pieces  and  consume  all  these  king- 
 doms, and  shall  stand  for  ever.  3 
 
 How  remarkable  was  the  preservation  of  the  church 
 amid  those  overturnings  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  ! 
 It  is  indeed  wonderful  that  the  chosen  people  should 
 have  been  preserved  for  five  or  six  hundred  years,  while 
 the  earth  was,  as  it  were,  rent  in  pieces  ;  especially 
 considering  that  the  land  of  Judea,  the  chief  place  of 
 the  church's  residence,  lay  in  the  midst  of  the  contending 
 nations,  and  was  very  much  the  object  of  the  envy  and 
 hatred  of  all  the  heathen  nations. 
 
 The  first  thing  that  offers  itself  to  our  observation  in 
 the  history  of  this  period,  is  the  captivity  of  the  Jews  in 
 Babylon.  They  were  often,  in  the  time  of  the  judges, 
 brought  under  the  dominion  of  their  enemies  ;  but  there 
 had  never  been  any  such  thing  as  destroying  the  sanc- 
 tuary and  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  all  the  towns  and 
 villages  of  the  land,  and  carrying  the  whole  body  of  the 
 people  into  a  distant  country.  Vet,  the  great  plan  of 
 redeeming  love  and  mercy  was  promoted  by  this  dis- 
 pensation ;  for  it  had  the  effect  of  curing  the  nation  of 
 their  tendency  to  idolatry.  This  was  a  remarkable  and 
 wonderful  change  in  that  people,  and  what  directly 
 promoted  the  work  of  redemption.  It  also  tended  to 
 prepare  the  way  for  the  coming  of  the  Redeemer,  by 
 diminishing  the  glory  of  the  Jewish  dispensation.  In 
 the  language  of  prophecy  2  it  removed  the  crown  and 
 diadem,  that  it  might  be  no  more,  till  he  should  come, 
 whose  right  it  was.  The  Jews  henceforward  were  always 
 dependent  on  the  governing  power  of  other  nations, 
 that  is,  during  the  space  of  near  six  hundred  years,  with 
 the  exception  of  a  short  interval.     They  were,  besides, 
 
 '  Ezek.  xxi.  27. 
 
 8  Ilaggai  ii.  6,  7. 
 
 Dan.  ii.  44. 
 
 *  Ezek.  xxi.  26. 
 
680 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Took  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OK.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7.— xlv.— DANIE  Land  EZRA  i — v. 
 by  the  captivity  into  Babylon  dispersed  over  the  world  j  representation  of  his  offices,  and  to  the  arrival  of  the 
 before  the  coming-  of  Messiah, — a  circumstance  which  period  suitable  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  work, 
 tended  greatly  to  promote  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  |  The  prophets  who  were  successively  raised  up  bore 
 Though  Cyrus  gave  them  liberty  to  return  to  their  own  testimony  concerning  him ;  and  their  power  of  eloquent 
 land,  many  of  them  never  returned,  but  were  scattered  and  of  sublime  description  never  rose  so  high,  as  when 
 abroad,  and  continued  to  dwe.ll  among  the  nations.  The  setting  forth  the  dignity  of  his  person,  the  efficacy  of  his 
 effect  of  this  dispersion  was  the  raising  of  a  general    work,  and  the  glories  of  his  kingdom.      At  length  the 
 
 expectation  of  the  Messiah — the  birth  of  a  glorious 
 person  in  Judea,  who  should  reign  over  the  world  in 
 peace  and  righteousness.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say,  how 
 much  this  general  dispersion  of  the  Jews  contributed  to 
 the  general  and  rapid  promulgation  of  the  gospel. 
 
 It  was  during  the  captivity  that  Ezekiel  and  Daniel 
 greatly  enlarged  the  canon  of  Scripture.  To  each  of 
 these  prophets  Christ  appeared  in  the  form  of  that  nature 
 which  he  was  afterwards  to  assume.  These  two  prophets, 
 in  many  respects,  were  more  particular  concerning  the 
 coming  of  Christ,  and  his  glorious  kingdom,  than  any  of 
 the  prophets  had  been  before.  Daniel  mentions  the 
 time  in  which  Messiah  should  come.  Thus  does  gospel 
 light  increase  the  nearer  we  approach  to  the  dawn  of  the 
 Sun  of  righteousness. 
 
 But  Babylon  itself,  into  which  the  Jews  had  been  car- 
 ried captive,  was  overthrown  by  Cyrus.  Its  destruction 
 was  brought  about  in  such  a  manner,  as  wonderfully  to 
 show  the  hand  of  God,  and  to  fulfil  his  word  by  his  pro- 
 phets. That  great  city  was  destroyed  after  it  had  stood 
 about  seventeen  hundred  years.  The  Jews  were  in  con- 
 sequence permitted  to  return  to  their  own  land,  and  to 
 rebuild  Jerusalem  and  the  temple.  This  return  of  the 
 Jews  from  Babylonish  captivity  is,  next  to  the  redemp- 
 tion out  of  Egypt,  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  Old 
 Testament  redemptions,  and  most  insisted  on  in  Scrip- 
 ture, as  a  type  of  the  redemption  of  man  from  the 
 dominion  of  sin  and  Satan.  Their  return  was  a  remark- 
 able dispensation  of  providence,  inasmuch  as  Cyrus,  the 
 main  instrument  by  whom  it  was  effected,  was  a  heathen 
 prince,  who  gave  them  liberty  not  only  to  rebuild  the 
 city  and  the  temple,  but  to  receive  the  silver  and  gold 
 which  were  requisite  for  their  undertaking.  Afterwards 
 God  inclined  the  heart  of  Darius  to  further  the  building 
 of  the  temple  with  his  own  tribute  money,  and  by  com- 
 manding the  Samaritans,  who  had  been  striving  to 
 hinder  them,  to  help  without  fail,  by  furnishing  them 
 with  all  that  they  needed  in  order  to  it.  1  God  inclined 
 the  heart  of  Artaxerxes,  another  king  of  Persia,  to  pro- 
 mote the  work  of  preserving  the  state  of  the  Jews,  by 
 his  ample  commission  to  Ezra;  helping  them  abundantly 
 with  silver  and  gold  of  his  own  bounty,  and  offerino 
 more  as  should  be  needful,  out  of  the  king's  treasure- 
 house.  In  the  prophecy  of  Daniel,  this  is  called  the 
 decree  for  restoring  and  building  Jerusalem;  hence  the 
 seventy  weeks  are  dated. 
 
 It  was  during  this  period  that  Ezra  added  to  the 
 canon  of  Scripture,  and  that  the  canon  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment was  completed  and  sealed  by  Malachi.  Soon  after 
 this,  the  spirit  of  prophecy  ceased  till  the  appearing  of 
 the  great  Prophet,  who  came  a  light  to  lighten  the 
 Gentiles,  and  to  be  the  glory  of  his  people  Israel. 
 
 The  events,  characters,  and  dispensations,  which  the 
 history  of  the  patriarchal  and  Mosaic  economies  re- 
 cords, were  made  subservient  to  the  Redeemer, — to  the 
 
 Divine  Redeemer,  for  whom  this  preparation  had  been 
 made,  appeared,  and  justified  by  the  works  which  he 
 performed,  and  the  redemption  which  he  wrought  out, 
 the  light  in  which  poetry,  history,  and  prophecy,  had 
 held  him  forth.  His  glory  was  beheld  as  the  glory  of 
 the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth. 
 
 Ezra 
 
 SECT.    I . 
 CHAP.  I. — From  the  Captivity  to  the  Death  of  Cyrus. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 After  the  return  of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  victorious 
 army  to  Babylon,  all  those  Jews  who,  for  fear  of  him, 
 had  taken  refuge  among  neighbouring  nations,  or  had 
 hid  themselves  in  the  fields  and  deserts  of  their  own 
 country,  hearing  that  Gedaliah  was  made  governor  of  the 
 land,  resorted  to  him  at  Mizpah,  a  where  he  set  up  his 
 residence.  Among  these  were  Johanan  and  Jonathan, 
 the  sons  of  Kereah,  and  Ishmael,  the  son  of  Nethaniah, 
 with  divers  others  :  but  Ishmael  came  to  him  out  of  a 
 treacherous  intent  only ;  for  being  of  the  blood-royal, 
 he  reckoned  to  make  himself  king  of  Judea,  now  that 
 the  Chaldeans  were  gone,  and  to  that  purpose  had  form- 
 ed a  conspiracy  to  kill  Gedaliah,  and  seize  on  the 
 government,  wherein  Baalis,  J  king  of  the  Ammonites, 
 was  confederate  with  him. 
 
 a  In  the  history  of  Jacob  we  lead,  that  after  a  stay  of  several 
 years  at  Haran,  making  his  escape  from  thence,  he  was  overtaken 
 by  Laban,  his  father-in-law,  in  a  mountainous  tract,  which  was 
 afterwards  called  Gilead,  that  is,  au  heap  of  stones,  as  also 
 Mispah,  that  is,  a  watch  tower,  because,  at  the  covenant  which 
 was  made  between  Laban  and  him,  an  heap  of  stones  was  gather- 
 ed to  remain  a  monument  of  it,  and  upon  that  occasion  Laban's 
 expressions  are  these: — '  The  Lord  watch  between  me  and  thee, 
 when  we  are  absent  one  from  another.  If  thou  wilt  afflict  my 
 daughters,  or  if  thou  wilt  take  other  wives  besides  my  daughters, 
 no  man  is  with  us;  see,  God  is  witness  between  me  and  thee.' 
 (Gen.  xxxi.  49,  50.)  From  that  time,  the  place  where  this  cove- 
 nant was  made,  and  where,  probably  in  memory  of  it,  a  city  in 
 after-ages  was  built,  was  called  Mizpah.  It  was  situate  on  the 
 east  side  of  the  river  Jordan,  and  in  the  division  of  the  land, 
 fell  to  the  tribe  of  Dan;  and  here  it  was  that  Gedaliah  chose  to 
 fix  his  habitation,  or  perhaps  was  ordered  to  fix  it  lure,  because 
 it  lay  nearest  of  any  to  Babylon,  from  whence  he  was  to  receive 
 
 his  instructions  as  to  the  administration  of  the  government. 
 
 Wells'  Geography  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  i. 
 
 b  That  Ishmael,  who  was  of  the  bluod-royal  of  Judah,  should 
 attempt  to  take  away  the  life  of  Gedaliah,  is  no  wonder  at  all. 
 His  envy  of  the  other's  promotion,  and  his  ambition  to  make 
 himself  a  king,  might  be  strong  incitements  to  what  he  did  :  but 
 why  Baalis  should  have  any  hand  in  so  black  a  design,  we  can 
 hardly  imagine  any  other  reason  than  the  ancient  and  inveterate 
 hatred  which  the  Ammonites  always  had  against  the  Hebrews: 
 and  therefore  this  king  of  theirs,  seeing  that  the  Jewish  nation 
 was  at  this  time,  in  a  manner,  brought  to  nothing,  was  minded 
 to  take  revenge  for  all  the  injuries  that  his  ancestors  had  received 
 from  them,  and  to  give  the  finishing  stroke  to  their  ruin  by  cut- 
 ting of]"  their  governor,  and  so  dispersing  all  the  remains  of  that 
 unhappy  people,  which  was  now  gathered  together  at  Mizpah. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 681 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  580.  JKIl.  .\1.7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i.— v. 
 
 His  design,  however,  was  not  carried  on  so  secretly, 
 but  that  Johanan,  the  son  of  Kereah,  got  notice  of  it, 
 and  acquainted  the  governor  with  it ;  but  he  being  a  man 
 of  a  generous  temper,  and  not  apt  to  entertain  jealousies 
 of  others,  took  no  notice  of  Jolianan's  information,  but 
 continued  the  same  friendly  correspondence  with  Ishmael 
 that  he  had  ever  done.  This  gave  the  traitor  an  advan- 
 tage against  him  ;  for  pretending  to  pay  him  a  visit  one 
 day,  he  and  his  confederates,  at  a  time  when  the  people 
 were  gone  out  to  harvest  work,  fell  upon  him,  and  slew 
 him,  even  while  he  was  entertaining  them  at  his  table. 
 With  him  he  murdered  all  the  Jews  and  Chaldeans  that 
 were  at  Mizpah,  except  some  few,  whom  he  made  cap- 
 tives ;  and  having  kept  the  matter  private,  the  next  day 
 but  one,  he  destroyed  fourscore  Israelites,  who  were 
 coming  in  a  mournful  manner,  a  with  their  oblations,  into 
 the  town,  and  there  put  them  all  to  the  sword,  except 
 ten,  who,  for  the  redemption  of  their  lives,  offered  him 
 all  the  *  treasures  they  had  in  the  field. 
 
 After  this  massacre,  Ishmael  not  thinking  himself  safe 
 in  Mizpah,  took  the  captives  with  him,  among  whom 
 were  king  Zedekiah's  daughters,  and  was  making  the 
 best  of  his  way  to  the  king  of  the  Ammonites,  when 
 Johanan  and  the  rest  of  the  captains  of  Judah,  hearing 
 of  this  detestable  deed,  made  after  him  with  what  forces 
 they  could  get  together :  but  when  he  perceived  them 
 coming,  he  left  all  his  train  behind  him,  and  with  only 
 eight  men,  made  his  escape  into  the  land  of  Ammon. 
 
 Johanan,  and  the  rest  of  the  captains,  being  thus  left 
 with  all  the  people,  and  now  reflecting  on  what  Ishmael 
 had  done  to  Gedaliah,  began  to  be  apprehensive,  that 
 the  Chaldeans  might  possibly  revenge  his  death  upon 
 them  ;  and,  therefore,  for  fear  of  the  worst,  they  retired 
 
 But  whatever  their  views  might  he,  it  is  certain  that  they  put 
 their  design  in  speedy  execution ;  for  the  murder  of  Gedaliah 
 happened  hut  two  months  after  the  destruction  of  the  city  and 
 temple  of  Jerusalem,  namely,  in  the  seventh  month  (which  is 
 Tisri,  and  answers  in  part  to  our  September  and  October),  and 
 on  the  thirtieth  day  of  the  month:  for  that  day  the  Jews  have 
 kept  as  a  fast,  in  commemoration  of  this  calamity  (which  indeed 
 was  the  completion  of  their  ruin)  ever  since. — Calmet's  Com~ 
 mentary  on  Jer.  xl.  14;  and  rrideau.v's  Connection,  anno  588. 
 
 a  The  Hebrews,  at  the  death  of  their  friends  and  relations, 
 gave  all  possible  demonstrations  of  grief  and  mourning.  The 
 duration  of  which  was  commonly  seven  days;  but  it  was  length- 
 ened or  shortened  according  to  circumstances.  That  for  Moses 
 and  Aaron  was  prolonged  for  thirty  days,  which,  Josephus  says, 
 ought  to  be  sufficient  for  any  wise  man,  on  the  loss  of  his  nearest 
 relation,  or  his  dearest  friend.  The  mourning  habit  among  the 
 Hebrews  was  not  fixed  either  by  law  or  custom.  We  only  find  in 
 Scripture,  that  they  used  to  tear  their  garments.  Though  it  was 
 an  express  prohibition  in  the  law,  '  ye  shall  not  make  any  cuttings 
 in  your  flesh  for  the  dead,  nor  print  any  marks  upon  you,'  (Lev. 
 xix.  28;)  yet  this  seems  to  relate  only  to  such  practices,  when 
 they  became  superstitious,  and  were  done  in  honour  to  false  gods; 
 for  in  cases  of  ordinary  mourning  for  the  dead,  or  for  any  other 
 grievous  disaster,  the  words  of  the  prophet  seem  to  imply,  as  if 
 they  had  been  permitted  in  common  use :  '  both  the  great  and 
 tiie  small  shall  die  in  the  land ;  they  shall  not  be  buried,  neither 
 shall  men  lament  for  them,  nor  cut  themselves,  nor  make  them- 
 selves bald  for  them,  neither  shall  men  tear  themselves  in  mourn- 
 ing to  comfort  them  for  the  dead.'  Jer.  xvi.  6,  7. 
 
 b  Treasures,  according  to  the  common  phrase  of  Scripture, 
 signify  any  thing  that  is  hid  or  kept  in  reserve,  whether  it  be 
 gold,  silver,  com,  wine,  oil,  apparel,  or  any  other  thing;  and 
 among  the  people  of  the  east,  it  was  a  usual  thing  to  bury  their 
 corn,  and  other  provisions,  in  deep  holes,  and  caverns,  which 
 they  dug  and  filled  up  so  very  dexterously,  that  no  one  could 
 perceive  that  the  earth  had  been  moved,  nor  could  any  find  them 
 out,  but  those  who  made  them. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 to  Chimham,  c  not  far  from  Bethlehem,  that  in  case  they 
 were  called  to  an  account,  they  might  more  readily 
 make  their  escape  into  Egypt. 
 
 Jeremiah,  from  the  time  that  he  parted  with  Nebuzara- 
 dan,  had  taken  up  his  abode  with  Gedaliah  the  governor  ; 
 but  after  his  death,  among  the  rest  of  the  captives,  was 
 carried  from  thence  by  Ishmael  the  conspirator,  and 
 now,  upon  his  defeat,  accompanied  Johanan,  and  the 
 rest  of  his  countrymen,  to  their  new  habitation  at  Chim- 
 ham. Here  they  had  not  been  long  before  Johanan, 
 and  the  other  princes  of  the  people  came  to  request  of 
 him  that  he  would  consult  the  Lord  concerning  their 
 intended  journey  into  Egypt,  with  warm  professions, 
 however,  of  a  ready  compliance  with  whatever  he  should 
 think  fit  to  enjoin  them.  The  prophet  did  so  :  and  in 
 ten  days'  time  returned  them  this  answer  from  God : — 
 "  That  if  they  would  tarry  in  Judea,  and  live  peaceably 
 under  the  king  of  Babylon,  he  would  screen  them  from 
 their  present  danger,  and  incline  the  heart  of  their  con- 
 queror to  be  favourable  to  them  ;  but  that  if  they  persisted 
 in  their  intention  of  going  into  Egypt,  he  would  infallibly 
 cause  every  thing  they  dreaded,  the  sword,  the  famine, 
 and  the  pestilence,  to  pursue  them."  But  notwithstand- 
 ing both  their  own  professions,  and  the  prophet's  de- 
 clarations, wherein  they  d  blamed  Baruch,  as  being- 
 accessary,  they  were  resolutely  bent  upon  going  into 
 Egypt ;  and  accordingly  taking  all  the  remnant  of  Judah, 
 men,  women,  and  children,  the  king's  daughters,  Jere- 
 miah the  prophet,  and  Baruch  his  scribe,  with  them,  they 
 went  and  settled  in  the  country,  until  the  judgments 
 wherewith  God  had  threatened  their  disobedience  came 
 upon  them. 
 
 The  Jews  e  were  no  sooner  settled  in  Egypt,  than 
 
 c  This  place  may  be  supposed,  from  2  Sam.  xix.  38,  to  have 
 been  anciently  given  by  king  David  to  Chimham,  the  son  of 
 old  Barzillai  the  Gileadite,  and  which,  at  this  time,  bore  his  name, 
 though  near  five  hundred  years  after  the  first  donation.  It  was 
 in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bethlehem,  about  two  leagues  from 
 Jerusalem,  and  hither  the  poor  people  betook  themselves ;  because 
 it  was  at  a  much  farther  distance  from  Babylon  than  Mizpah,  and 
 in  their  straight  way  to  Egypt,  in  case  they  should  determine  to 
 go  thither,  as  they  seemed  inclinable  to  do,  because  there  they 
 supposed  they  should  '  have  no  war,  nor  hear  the  sound  of  the 
 trumpet,  nor  have  hunger  of  bread.'  Jer.  xlii.  14. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,— '  The  Lord  our  God  hath  not 
 sent  thee  to  say,  go  not  into  Egypt  to  sojourn  there ;  but  Baruch, 
 the  son  of  Neriah,  setteth  thee  on  against  us,  to  deliver  us 
 into  the  hands  of  the  Chaldeans,  that  they  may  put  us  to  death, 
 and  carry  us  away  captive  into  Babylon,'  Jer.  xliii.  2,  3.  But 
 what  foundation  the  people  should  have  for  this  their  accusation 
 against  Baruch,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  conceive ;  only  we  may 
 suppose,  that  as  Baruch  was  preserved,  and  taken  care  of  by  the 
 Chaldeans,  as  well  as  his  master,  and  was  equally  against  main- 
 taining the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  when  Nebuchadnezzar  came  he- 
 fore  it;  and  that  as  he  had  been  some  time  at  Babylon  himself, 
 (see  Baruch  i.  I,  3,)  and  was  probably  not  so  virulent  in  his 
 speeches  against  the  Chaldeans  as  the  other  Jews  were ;  this,  to 
 a  blind  and  mutinous  mob,  was  reason  enough  to  suspect  him  of 
 being  engaged  in  the  enemy's  party. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  places  in  which  the  Jews  are  said  to  have  settled  them- 
 selves in  Egypt,  were  Migdol,  Tahpanhes,  Noph,  and  the  coun- 
 try of  Pathros,  (Jer.  xliv.  1.)  Migdol  is  the  same  place  in  Egypt, 
 which  Moses  makes  mention  of,  (Exod.  xiv.  2,)  over  against 
 Baal-zephon,  not  far  from  the  Red  Sea.  Tahpanhes  is  Daphne, 
 not  far  from  Pelusium,  the  first  city  in  Egypt,  in  the  road  from 
 Judea,  and,  as  it  were,  its  key.  Noph  is  Memphis,  situate 
 above  the  parting  of  the  Nile,  or  where  the  Delta  begins,  and 
 not  a  littlo  famous  for  its  pyramids;  and  the  country  of  Pathros 
 is  the  same  with  Thebais,  or  the  Upper  Egypt,  so  called  from 
 the  city  Thebes,  which  was  the  first  capital  of  it. 
 
 4  R 
 
6S2 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3117.   A.  C.   587;  OR,  ACCOPDINft  TO  HALES,   A 
 
 they  gave  themselves  wholly  up  to  idolatry,  worshipping 
 the  queen  a  of  heaven,  and  the  other  false  deities  of  the 
 land,  whereupon  Jeremiah  made  loud  remonstrances ; 
 but  all  the  effect  which  they  had  upon  them,  was  only 
 to  make  them  more  obstinate  in  their  impiety  :  so  that 
 the  prophet  was  obliged  to  denounce  God's  severest 
 judgments  against  them  in  express  terms,  and  at  the 
 same  time  to  foretel,  that  the  king-  of  Egypt,  under 
 whose  protection  they  lived  secure,  as  they  thought, 
 should  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  6 
 (rod's  agent  for  that  purpose,  in  like  manner  as  Zede- 
 kiah  was;  which,  in  the  space  of  eighteen  years  after- 
 wards, accordingly  came  to  pass. 
 
 After  this  we  have  no  more  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  c 
 and  very  little  of  his  contemporary  Ezekiel.  d  They 
 both,  no  doubt,  continued  in  their  prophetic  office  until 
 their  death  ;  but  when  or  where  that  happened,  or  by 
 whose  means  it  was  occasioned,  the  Scripture  is  silent, 
 and  tradition  is  uncertain.     This  however  we  may  learn 
 
 a  By  which  is  meant  the  moon  at  least,  if  not  all  the  planets; 
 for  what  we  render  queen,  in  the  marginal  note,  is  called  the 
 frame  of  heaven. 
 
 h  It  is  very  observable,  that  in  several  places  of  Jeremiah's 
 prophecy,  namely,  chap.  xxv.  9,  chap,  xxvii.  G,  and  chap,  xliii. 
 10,  Nebuchadnezzar  is  called  '  God's  servant,'  on  purpose  to 
 show  us,  that  as  great  a  prince  as  he  was,  he  was  no  more  than 
 the  executioner  of  his  commands;  that  he  was  the  general  of  his 
 troops,  and  that  all  the  victories  he  gained,  and  the  conquests  he 
 won,  were  by  his  direction  and  appointment;  for  no  writers 
 speak  with  so  much  deference  of  God,  as  do  the  prophets,  be- 
 cause they  only  knew,  by  the  inspiration  of  the  divine  Spirit,  to 
 express  with  a  proper  dignity  what  the  greatest  monarchs  are  in 
 comparison  with  the  divine  majesty. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  St  Jerome,  in  the  life  of  this  prophet,  and  Dorotheus,  in  his 
 Synopsis  of  the  lives  and  deaths  of  the  prophets  and  apostles,  tell 
 us,  that  he  was  stoned  to  death  in  Egypt  by  his  own  renegado 
 countrymen  the  Jews,  for  preaching  against  their  idolatry;  and 
 of  this  some  interpret  St  Paul's  iXdairwav,  they  were  stoned, 
 Heb.  xi.  o7.  It  appears  indeed  by  the  account  we  have  of  their 
 behaviour,  Jer.  xliv.  ]G,  that  they  were  bent  both  against  him 
 and  his  reproofs;  and  therefore  it  was  more  likely  that  they  were 
 the  authors  of  his  death,  than,  as  some  say.  the  Egyptians  were, 
 for  his  prophesying  against  them,  and  their  king  Pharaoh-hophra. 
 For  the  Egyptians,  according  to  the  same  tradition,  having  by 
 the  prophet's  prayers,  been  freed  from  the  crocodiles,  which  very 
 much  infested  them,  had  him  in  such  great  honour  and  esteem, 
 that,  in  testimony  thereof,  they  buried  him  in  one  of  their  royal 
 sepulchres.  The  truth  is,  Jeremiah  was,  all  his  lifetime,  ex- 
 posed  to  the  ill  treatment  of  the  Jews,  whose  irregularities,'  and 
 sad  apostasy,  he  was  always  reproving;  and  therefore  the  author 
 ol  the  book  of  Ecclesiasticus,  in  the  encomium  which  he  <>ives  of 
 this  prophet,  seems  to  draw  his  character  from  the  persecutions 
 he  endured  :  '  they  intreated  him  evil,  who  nevertheless  was  a 
 prophet,  sanctified  in  his  mother's  womb,'  Ecclus.  xlix.  7. 
 
 d  St  Jerome,  in  his  life  of  this  prophet,  tells  us,  that  he  was 
 put  to  death  hy  a  prince  of  the  children  of  Israel,  whom  he  re- 
 proved for  his  idolatry:  but  who  this  prince  of  the  Jewish  nation 
 should  be,  upon  the  river  Chehar,  where  Ezekiel,  in  the  time  of 
 his  captivity,  lived,  it  is  difficult  to  tell.  He  was  buried,  as 
 some  ^ay,  in  the  same  cave  wherein  Shem  and  Arphaxad  were 
 deposited,  upon  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates:  but  Benjamin  of 
 Tudela,  in  his  travels,  tells  us,  that  at  some  leagues  from  Bagdat, 
 he  saw  &  magnificent  mausoleum,  which  was  said  to  be'this 
 prophet's  tomb,  upon  the  top  of  which  there  was  a  famous  lib- 
 rary, wherein,  aa  they  s;iy,  was  the  original  of  the  prophet's  pre- 
 d.ctions.  written  with  his  own  hand;  that  in  the  prophet's  tomb 
 then-  is  a  lamp  continually  burning,  maintained  at  the  expense 
 ol  the  captivity  of  Bagdat:  that  every  year  this  tomb  is  fre- 
 quented by  the  several  heads  of  the  captivity,  who  resort  thither 
 with  a  numerous  retinue:  and  that  not  oidy  the  Jews,  but  the 
 Persians  Medes,  and  many  of  the  Mussulmen,  made  this  a  place 
 of  devotion,  and  came  thither  to  make  their  presents,  and  per- 
 form their  most  sacred  vows.— Calmcfs  Dictionary,  under  the 
 wuid  Ezeliitf. 
 
 M.  4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL  and  EZRA  i.— v. 
 
 from  their  own  writings,  that  after  they  had  discharged 
 their  duty  to  their  own  people  the  Jews,  they  were  di- 
 rected by  God  to  address  the  rest  of  their  predictions 
 cliieHy  to  the  fientiles.  Accordingly  we  find  Jeremiah 
 prophesying  against  Egypt  in  the  46th  chapter ;  against 
 all  the  Philistines  in  the  47th ;  against  the  Moabites  in 
 the  48th  ;  against  Amnion,  Edom,  and  other  people  in 
 the  49th ;  and  against  Babylon  in  the  50th  and  51st; 
 with  some  promises  here  and  there  interspersed  concern- 
 ing the  redemption  of  Israel.  In  like  manner  we  find 
 Ezekiel  prophesying  against  the  Ammonites  in  the  25th 
 chapter ;  against  the  Tyrians,  and  those  that  traded 
 with  them,  in  the  26th  and  27th  ;  against  the  prince  of 
 Tyre,  in  the  2Sth  ;  against  Egypt,  in  the  29th,  30th,  31st, 
 and  32d;  against  the  shepherds  of  Israel,  in  the  34th; 
 against  the  Edomites  in  the  35th  ;  and  against  the  ene- 
 mies of  the  church  of  God,  under  the  name  of  Gog  and 
 Magog,  in  the  3Sth  and  39th ;  with  promises  of  a  re- 
 storation (especially  in  the  36th  and  37th,)  to  his  cap- 
 tive countrymen,  and  a  long  description  of  the  rebuild- 
 ing of  the  temple  and  city,  wherewith  he  concludes,  as  a 
 sure  confirmation  of  it. 
 
 Daniel,  who  was  descended  from  the  royal  family  of 
 David,  in  the  first  captivity  of  Judah,  which  happened 
 under  king  Jehoiakim,  together  with  his  friends  Hana- 
 niah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah,  was  carried  to  Babylon, 
 when  he  was  .as  yet  but  a  youth.  The  custom  among 
 conquerors  then  was  to  change  the  names  of  their  cap- 
 tives, especially  when  they  were  to  serve  in  any  capacity 
 about  the  court ;  and  therefore,  by  the  order  of  Aspenaz, 
 e  master  of  the  eunuchs,  Daniel/  was  called  Belteshaz- 
 zar;  Hananiah  Sliadrach  ;  Mishael,  Meshacli  ;  and 
 Azariah,  Abeclnego. 
 
 For  three  years  they  were  instructed  in  all  the  learn- 
 ing of  the  Chaldeans,  and  had  a  daily  allowance  of  meat 
 and  wine  from  the  king's  table ;  but  Daniel,  who  was  a 
 devout  observer  of  the  religion  of  his  country,  desired  of 
 the  chief  eunuch,  that  they  might  be  excused  from  that, 
 and  have  only  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  and  pulse 
 allowed  them,  which  accordingly  was  granted  ;  and,  by 
 the  time  that  they  had  finished  their  studies,  they  were 
 found  to  excel  in  the  several  parts  of  learning  there  in 
 
 c  What  we  render  '  master  of  the  eunuchs,'  may  very  likely 
 signify  the  chief  minister  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  court.  Such  of- 
 ficers, in  the  palaces  of  eastern  princes,  were  usually  called 
 eunuchs;  because  they  who  had  the  control  of  the  king's  house- 
 hold, as  we  say,  were  ordinarily  such,  though  many  times  it 
 might  be  otherwise.  The  Jews  have  a  notion,  that  Daniel  and 
 his  three  companions  were,  by  the  .order  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
 made  eunuchs,  that  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  might  be  fulfilled: 
 '  Thy  sons,  that  shall  issue  from  thee,  shall  they  take  away,  and 
 they  shall  be  eunuchs  in  the  palace  of  the  king  of  Babylon,'  (chap, 
 xxxix.  7.)  But  that  is  no  conclusive  reason ;  because  in  that 
 prophecy,  as  well  as  in  the  passage  we  are  now  upon,  the  name 
 of  eunuch  might  mean  no  more  than  any  person  who  had  an  em- 
 ployment at  court. —  Calmet's  CoJiimetitary. 
 
 f  \t  is  very  remarkable,  that,  as  all  their  former  names  relat- 
 ed to  the  true  God,  so  all  the  names  which  on  this  occasion  were 
 imposed  upon  these  four  Jewish  youths,  had  some  reference  or 
 other  to  Babylonish  idols.  Daniel,  in  Hebrew  signifies,  God  is 
 my  judge;  Belteshazzar,  in  Chaldee,  is  the  treasure  of  Bsal; 
 Hananiah,  in  Hebrew,  is  well  pleasing  to  God;  Shadrach,  in 
 Chaldee,  the  inspiration  of  the  sun;  Mishael,  in  Hebrew,  pro- 
 ceeding from  God;  Meshach,  in  Chaldee,  belonging  to  the  god- 
 dess Skeshach;  Azariah,  in  Hebrew,  God  is  my  help;  and  Abed- 
 nego,  in  Chaldee,  the  servant  of  Nago,  that  is,  the  sun,  or  the 
 morning  star,  both  deities  among  the  Babylonians,  and  so  called 
 because  of  their  brightuess. — Calmet's  Conanentary  on  Dan.  i.  7. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &o. 
 
 683 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEI,  and  EZRAi— v- 
 
 vogue,  all  the  magicians  in  the  country  ;  a  and  especially 
 Daniel  was  become  very  famous  for  his  singular  skill  in 
 the  knowledge  and  interpretation  of  dreams. 
 
 It  so  happened  one  night,  that  king  Nebuchadnezzar 
 had  a  dream,  which  left  strong  impressions  upon  his 
 spirits  ;  but  the  thing  which  made  him  uneasy  was,  that  lie 
 could  not  recollect  the  substance  of  it.  To  assist  his 
 memory  in  this  respect,  he  summoned  all  his  wise  men 
 together,  those  especially  that  pretended  to  divination, 
 demanding  of  them  what  his  dream  was,  but  when  they 
 eudeavoured  to  excuse  themselves  upon  the  presumed 
 impossibility  of  the  thing,  he  fell  into  such  a  passion, 
 that  lie  ordered  all  who  professed  magic  *  in  his  domin- 
 ions to  be  instantly  put  to  death. 
 
 Under  this  denomination  and  sentence  were  Daniel 
 and  his  three  friends  included ;  and  there  fore,  understand- 
 ing the  reason  of  this  sudden  decree,  Daniel  applied 
 himself  to  Arioch,  captain  of  the  guard,  desiring  a  short 
 respite  of  its  execution,  in  which  time  he  did  not  in  the 
 least  doubt  but  to  give  the  king  full  satisfaction,  both  as 
 to  his  dream,  e  and  the  interpretation  of  it :  and  so  pro- 
 as The  prophet  Daniel  makes  great  mention  of  these  sort  of 
 people,  and  ranks  them  under  these  lour  different  kinds: — The 
 Chartumim,  the  Asaphim,  the  Mecasphim,  and  the  Chasdim, 
 (chap.  ii.  2.)  Chartumim,  according  to  the  Septuagint,  signifies 
 sophists,  but,  according  to  St  Jerome,  diviners,  fortune-tellers, 
 casters  of  nativity,  Sic.  Asaphim  has  no  derivation  from  the 
 Chaldee  tongue,  but  no  small  resemblance  to  the  Greek  word 
 trofio;,  (whether  the  Greeks  took  this  word  from  the  Babylonians, 
 or  the  Babylonians  from  them)  and  therefore  the  Seventy  have 
 rendered  it  by  philosophers.  Mecasphim  is  thought  by  some  to 
 be  necromancers,  such  as  pretended  to  raise  the  dead,  to  gain 
 intelligence  of  things  future:  but  the  Seventy  have  rendered  it 
 by  a  word  that  denotes  such  enchanters  as  made  use  of  noxious 
 herbs  and  drugs,  the  blood  of  victims,  and  the  bones  of  the  dead 
 for  their  superstitious  operations.  The  other  word  Chasdim  is 
 the  same  with  Chaldeans,  and  here  signifies  a  sort  of  philosophers 
 among  the  Babylonians,  who  dwelt  in  a  separate  part  of  the  city, 
 and  were  exempt  from  all  public  offices  and  employments.  Their 
 study  was  natural  philosophy,  astrology,  divination,  or  the  fore- 
 telling of  future  events  by  the  observation  of  the  stars,  the  inter- 
 pretation of  dreams,  the  science  of  auguries,  the  worship  of  their 
 gods,  &c,  as  Diodorus  Siculus,  (b.  1.)  give  us  an  account  of 
 them. — Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Marjicia7is. 
 
 b  Magic  is  properly  of  three  kinds,  natural,  artificial,  and  dia- 
 bolical. The  first  of  these  is  no  other  than  natural  philosophy, 
 but  highly  improved  and  advanced;  whereby  the  person  that 
 is  well  skilled  iu  the  power  and  operation  of  natural  bodies,  is 
 able  to  produce  many  wonderful  effects,  mistaken  by  the  illiter- 
 ate for  diabolical  performances,  but  such  as  lie  perfectly  within 
 the  verge  of  nature.  Artificial  magic  is  what  we  call  legerde- 
 main or  sleight  of  haud,  the  merry  tricks  of  jugglers,  as  we 
 corrupt  the  joculatorcs,  far  from  exceeding  the  power  of  art, 
 though  many  times  they  pass  with  the  vulgar  for  diabolical  like- 
 wise. Diabolical  magic  is  that  which  is  done  by  the  help  of  the 
 devil,  who,  having  great  skill  in  natural  causes,  may  assist  those 
 who  are  in  league  and  covenant  with  him,  to  do  many  strange 
 and  astonishing  things.  It  seems,  however,  by  the  discourse 
 which  passed  between  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  magicians,  that 
 they  had  no  knowledge  in  the  sciences  they  pretended  to;  that 
 the  king  himself  looked  upon  them  as  no  better  than  a  pack  of 
 impostors;  and  that  they  had  no  familiarity  with  any  wicked  de- 
 mons who  might  have  helped  them  out  at  this  dead  lift ;  other- 
 wise they  would  not  have  told  the  king,  '  it  is  a  rare  thing  which 
 the  king  requiroth,  and  there  is  none  other  that  can  show  it  before 
 the  king,  except  the  gods  whose  dwelling  is  not  with  fiesh,'  (Dan. 
 ii.  11.) — See  Edwards'  Body  of  Divinity,  vol.  i. 
 
 c  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream,  and  the 
 interpretation  thereof,  were  both  revealed  to  Daniel  while  he 
 was  asleep;  but  others  rather  think  that  it  was  in  a  vision  while 
 he  was  awake,  because  the  prayer  and  thanksgiving  which  he 
 made  to  God  seem  to  insinuate  that  he  was  awake;  though 
 we  cannot  see  why  he  might  not  receive  the  revelation  in  his 
 
 ceeding  to  his  three  friends,  he  acquainted  them  with  what 
 he  had  undertaken,  and  desired  tiieir  joint  prayer  to 
 God,  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  reveal  this  great  and 
 important  secret  to  him  ;  which  accordingly  was  done 
 that  very  night. 
 
 The  next  morning,  after  he  had  returned  praise  and 
 thanksgiving  to  God  for  this  singular  vouchsafement,  he 
 repaired  to  the  palace,  and,  being  introduced  by  the 
 captain  of  the  guard,  was  asked  by  the  king,  if  he  had 
 found  out  his  dream  ?  "  You  saw,"  d  says  he,  "  () 
 king,  an  image  of  a  vast  dimension, e  excellent  in  bright- 
 ness, but  terrible  in  aspect.  The  head  of  this  image  was 
 of  fine  gold,  the  breast  and  arms  of  silver,  the  belly  and 
 thighs  of  brass,  the  legs  of  iron,  and  the  feet  partly  iron 
 and  partly  clay.  You  saw,  likewise,  O  King,  a  stone 
 cut  out  of  the  mountain,  but  from  whence  it  came  you 
 knew  not.  This  stone,  falling  upon  the  feet  of  the 
 image,  brake  them  into  pieces,  and  then  the  rest  of  the 
 image  mouldered  into  dust,  which  the  wind  dispersed, 
 so  that  it  was  no  more  to  be  seen  ;  but  the  stone  which, 
 in  this  manner,  destroyed  the  image,  increased  to  a  great 
 mountain,  and  filled  the  earth.  This,  O  king,  was  the 
 dream  :  and  the  interpretation  /  of  it  is  this  : — You,  who 
 
 sleep,  and  return  God  thanks  for  it  as  soon  as  he  awoke. — Cal- 
 met's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Josephus  introduces  Daniel  as  making  this  preamble  to  his 
 discovery  and  explanation  of  the  king's  dream:  "It  is  not  any 
 high  conceit  of  my  own  wisdom,  as  if  I  understand  more 
 than  the  Chaldeans  do,  or  any  designed  reproach  upon  them 
 for  not  being  able  to  resolve  a  question  which  I  am  able  to  unrid- 
 dle, that  I  engage  in  this  matter;  for  I  am  not  a  person  that  pre- 
 tends to  more  skill  and  knowledge  than  my  neighbours;  but  it  is 
 purely  the  work  of  God,  in  pity  to  the  miserable,  and  in  mercy 
 to  my  prayers,  for  the  life  and  safety  of  myself  and  friends,  that 
 has  now  laid  open  this  dream  to  me,  and  explained  the  meaning 
 of  it.  Nor  have  I  been  so  solicitous  for  the  safety  of  myself  and 
 my  companions  under  your  displeasure,  as  for  your  honour  and 
 glory,  lest  you  should  tarnish  them,  by  putting  to  death  (contrary 
 to  all  right  and  justice)  so  many  worthy  men,  merely  because 
 they  were  not  able  to  do  a  thing  that  is  impossible  for  flesh  and 
 blood  to  perform."  (Jewish  Antiq.  b.  x.  c.  11.)  This  is  to  be 
 observed,  however,  that  though  a  great  part  of  the  book  of  Daniel 
 be  in  Hebrew,  yet  this  speech  of  his  to  the  king,  as  well  as  the 
 dialogue  which  passed  between  the  king  and  the  magicians;  the 
 king's  decree,  wherein  he  orders  the  golden  statue  to  be  wor- 
 shipped ;  and  that  other,  wherein  he  declares  his  dream  of  the 
 vast  large  tree,  which  Daniel  explained ;  the  history  of  the  feast 
 which  Belshazzar  made ;  of  his  profanation  of  the  sacred  vessels, 
 and  the  terrible  vision  of  the  handwriting  which  he  saw  upon 
 the  wall;  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Darius;  the  honours  con- 
 ferred on  Daniel,  and  the  vision  of  the  four  beasts,  denoting  the 
 four  monarchies ;  that  all  these,  I  say,  (namely,  from  the  fourth 
 verse  of  the  second  chapter,  to  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  chap- 
 ter,) are  wrote  in  the  Chaldee  or  Syriac  language,  which,  at  that 
 time,  were  both  the  same,  and  both  as  familiar  to  the  prophet  as 
 was  his  mother  tongue. ■ — Calinet's  Commentary  on  Dan.  ii.  4. 
 
 e  Grotius  accurately  observes,  that  the  image  appeared  with  a 
 glorious  lustre  in  the  imagination  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  whose 
 mind  was  wholly  taken  up  with  admiration  of  worldly  pomp  and 
 splendour;  whereas  the  same  monarchies  were  represented  to 
 Daniel  under  the  shape  of  fierce  and  wild  beasts,  (ch.  vii.)  as 
 being  the  great  supporters  of  idolatry  and  tyranny  in  the  world. 
 — Lowth's  Commentary  on  Dan.  ii. 
 
 f  By  these  different  emblems  of  metals  and  stone,  God  intend- 
 ed to  signify  to  Nebuchadnezzar  the  several  empires  that  were  to 
 be  in  the  world.  The  Assyrian  or  Chaldean  is  represented  by 
 gold,  because  it  was  the  first  and  the  most  magnificent,  if  not  the 
 most  extensive,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  being  then  upon  the  throne, 
 is  said  to  be  head  of  it.  That  of  silver  is  the  Persian,  founded 
 by  Cyrus,  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Chaldean,  but  inferior  to  the 
 Chaldean  in  its  duration  at  hast,  if  not  in  its  extent.  That  of 
 brass  is  the  Grecian,  founded  by  Alexander,  upon  the  ruins  of 
 ihe  Persian,  and   its  character  is,  that  it   'should  bear  rule  over 
 
684 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.3417.  A.  C.  587  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 are  supreme  above  all  other  kings,  and  to  whom  the  God 
 of  heaven  hath  given  power,  and  strength,  and  glory,  are 
 signified  by  this  head  of  gold.  After  you  another  king- 
 dom shall  arise,  but  as  inferior  to  yours  as  silver  is  to 
 gold.  After  that  there  shall  arise  a  third  kingdom, 
 emblemed  by  brass,  which  shall  govern  the  earth  ;  but 
 the  fourth  kingdom  shall  be  as  strong  as  iron,  and  van- 
 quish all  the  rest.  And  whereas  the  feet  were  partly 
 iron,  and  partly  clay,  this  kingdom  shall  be  divided; 
 part  of  it  shall  be  strong,  and  part  of  it  weak,  as  clay 
 and  iron  cannot  be  solidly  mixed  together  ;  but  in  the 
 times  of  these  empires,  the  God  of  heaven  shall  set  up 
 another  kingdom,  signified  by  the  stone,  which  shall 
 prevail  above  all,  and  itself  never  be  destroyed,"  &c. 
 
 Surprised  at  this  wonderful  discovery,  the  king  fell 
 prostrate  before  Daniel,  a  and  was  ready  to  pay  him 
 divine  honours.  He  loaded  him,  however,  with  presents 
 and  rich  gifts  ;  set  him  at  the  head  of  his  learned  men ; 
 made  him  governor  over  the  whole  province  of  Babylon  ; 
 and,  at  his  request,  put  his  three  friends  into  places  of 
 the  highest  trust  under  him.  But  all  this  happened  b 
 before  the  siege  of  Jerusalem. 
 
 all  the  earth,'  (Dan.  ii.  39,)  which  was  verified  in  its  great 
 founder;  for,  upon  his  return  from  India  to  Babylon,  the  ambas- 
 sadors of  almost  all  the  known  parts  of  the  world  resorted  thither 
 to  pay  their  homage  and  acknowledgment  of  his  dominion.  That 
 of  iron  is  the  Roman  empire,  which  is  distinguished  by  its 
 '  breaking  in  pieces,  and  subduing  all  things,'  (ver.  40.)  For, 
 whilst  it  was  in  its  full  strength  and  vigour,  under  its  consuls 
 and  first  emperors,  it  brought  under  its  dominion  all  the  king- 
 doms and  states  that  were  then  subsisting  in  Europe,  Africa,  and 
 a  great  part  of  Asia;  but,  from  that  time,  it  became  a  mixture 
 of  iron  and  clay.  Its  emperors  proved  most  of  them  vicious  and 
 corrupt,  either  by  their  tyranny,  making  themselves  hateful  to 
 their  subjects,  or  by  their  follies  and  vices,  contemptible.  Lastly, 
 that  of  the  'stone  out  of  the  mountain,'  is  the  fifth  monarchy,  or 
 the  kingdom  of  the  Messias ;  which,  against  all  the  power  and 
 policy  of  the  Roman  empire,  prevailed,  not  by  an  external  force, 
 but  by  the  powerful  preaching  of  the  gospel,  to  the  suppression 
 and  deleat  of  wickedness  and  impiety,  idolatry,  and  superstition, 
 and  '  it  shall  stand  for  ever,  and  never  be  destroyed,'  (Dan.  ii. 
 44,)  which  can  be  said  of  no  other  kingdom  but  that  of  Jesus 
 Christ,  which,  for  these  eighteen  hundred  years  and  upwards, 
 has  withstood  the  violence  of  persecutions,  and  all  other  contri- 
 vances formed  against  it,  and  has  the  sure  promises  of  its  almighty 
 Founder  on  its  side,  that  '  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
 it,'  Mat.  xvi.  18. — Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 a  Nebuchadnezzar  seems,  in  a  sudden  transport,  to  have  look- 
 ed upon  Daniel  as  having  something  more  than  human  in  him, 
 just  as  the  barbarians  thought  of  St  Paul,  (Acts  xxviii.  6 ;)  and 
 therefore  it  ts  said,  that  'he  fell  on  his  lace  and  worshipped  him  ;' 
 because  the  doing  of  reverence,  by  way  of  prostration,  is  not  only 
 an  act  of  worship  paid  to  God,  but  frequently  given  to  kings  and 
 great  men  in  the  Old  Testament,  according  to  the  custom  of 
 eastern  countries,  (2  Sam.  ix.  G ;)  and  sometimes  even  to  pro- 
 phets, on  account  of  the  sanctity  of  their  office,  (1  Kings  xviii. 
 7 ;)  nor  was  it  usually  refused  by  them,  except  such  circumstances 
 were  added  to  it,  as  made  it  look  like  divine  worship,  and  then 
 it  was  always  rejected,  as  in  the  case  of  St  Peter,  Acts  x.  26. — 
 Lowth't  Commentary  on  Dan.  ii.  43. 
 
 b  Namely,  in  the  seventh  year  of  Jehoiakim,  according  to 
 Prideaux.  [This  however  seems  to  be  a  mistake.  The  most 
 accurate  chronologers  suppose  it  to  have  happened  not  only  after 
 struction  of  Jerusalem,  but  even  after  Nebuchadnezzar's 
 devastation  of  Egypt;  and  the  arguments  by  which  they  support 
 their  opinion  appear  to  bo  conclusive.  1.  Daniel  was  old  enough 
 to  be  included,  with  his  three  friends,  among  the  Magi  condemned 
 to  deatb,  for  not  telling  to  the  king  his  dream,  and  not  only  so, 
 but  to  bo  appointed  Arcbimagus  on  his  declaring  and  interpret- 
 ing that  dream.  2.  He  styles  Nebuchadnezzar  king  of  kings, 
 invested  with  universal  dominion  over  all  the  earth;  but  this 
 could  not  be  said  even  in  the  hyperbolical  style  of  the  east,  till 
 after  the  king's  return  from  the  conquest  of  Egypt.     Jackson  and 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i-v. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar  being  now  returned  home,  out  of  the 
 spoils  which  he  had  brought  from  Syria  and  Palestine, 
 ordered  a  golden  statue  c  to  be  made,  thirty  yards  in 
 height,  and  of  proportionable  bigness  ;  and  having  set 
 it  up  in  the  plains  of  Dura,  near  Babylon,  he  summoned 
 all  his  subjects,  of  whatever  order  and  degree,  to  be  pre 
 sent  at  the  dedication  of  it,  and  the  moment  they  heard 
 the  music  strike  up,  which  was  to  be  the  signal,  to  fall 
 prostrate  on  their  faces,  and  adore  it,  upon  pain  of 
 being  thrown  into  a  burning  d  furnace. 
 
 Among  the  captive  Jews,  the  three  friends  of  Daniel, 
 Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego,  were  accused  to  the 
 king  as  having  violated  his  command ;  and  when  they 
 were  brought  before  him,  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  pay 
 adoration  to  the  image,  with  so  much  constancy,  that 
 the  king,  being  incensed  thereat,  ordered  those  about 
 him  to  have  the  furnace  made  seven  times  hotter  than  it 
 was  before  ;  to  bind  these  bold  contemners  of  his  will, 
 and  cast  them  immediately  into  it. 
 
 The  furnace  indeed  was  so  intensely  hot,  that  the 
 persons  who  were  ordered  to  throw  them  in,  were 
 scorched  to  death ;  but  they  themselves  came  to  no 
 manner  of  harm ;  for  an  angel  e  from  heaven  came,  and, 
 
 Hales  therefore  place  the  discovery  and  interpretation  of  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar's first  dream  569  years  B.  C,  or  seventeen  years 
 after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. — Hale's  Analysis,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
 455-6,  second  edition.] — En. 
 
 c  Grotius  is  of  opinion  that  the  image  which  Nebuchadnezzar 
 set  up  was  the  figure  of  his  father  Nabopolassar,  whom,  by  this 
 means,  he  intended  to  deify;  but  others  think  that  it  was  his 
 own  statue  which  he  erected,  to  gain  the  adorations  of  his  people 
 in  this  form.  We  cannot,  however,  in  what  we  find  Nebuchad- 
 nezzar saying  to  Daniel's  friends,  perceive  that  he  any  where 
 upbraids  them  with  contempt  offered  either  to  his  person,  or  his 
 statue,  but  only  that  they  '  would  not  serve  his  gods,  nor  worship 
 the  image  which  he  had  set  up,'  (Dan. iii.  14.)  And  therefore 
 others  have  imagined,  that  this  was  neither  his  own  nor  his 
 father's  statue,  but  that  of  Jupiter,  which  was  afterwards  found 
 in  the  temple  of  Belus,  when  Xerxes  plundered  it  of  its  im- 
 mense riches,  among  which  were  several  images  of  massy  gold, 
 but  one  more  especially  forty  feet  high,  which  might  be  the  same 
 that  Nebuchadnezzar  consecrated  in  the  plains  of  Dura.  For 
 though  that  is  said  to  have  been  sixty  cubits,  that  is,  ninety  feet 
 high,  yet  we  may  suppose,  that  it  stood  upon  a  pedestal  of  fifty 
 feet  high,  and  so  the  image  and  the  pedestal  together,  might 
 make  ninety,  (see  vol.  i.  p.  310.  in  the  notes,)  otherwise  there 
 would  be  no  proportion  between  its  height  and  its  breadth,  accord- 
 ing to  the  description  we  have  of  it  in  Dan.  iii.  I. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  573. — [That  the  image  which  Xerxes  found  in 
 the  temple  of  Belus  was  forty  feet  high,  is  indeed  said  by  Dio- 
 dorus  Siculus  (b.  ii.) ;  but  according  to  Herodotus,  (b.  i.  c.  183,) 
 it  was  only  twelve  cubits  or  eighteen  feet  high,  and  this  is  surely 
 the  more  probable  account  of  the  two.  It  may,  however,  have 
 been  the  image  set  up  by  Nebuchadnezzar;  for  in  the  height  of 
 that  image,  as  stated  in  the  book  of  Daniel,  the  pedestal  or  pillar, 
 on  which  it  was  placed  in  the  plain  of  Dura,  is  probably  in- 
 cluded.]— Bishop  Glcig. — Ed. 
 
 d  This  kind  of  punishment  was  pretty  common  in  these  parts 
 of  the  world,  so  that  some  will  have  it,  that  Abraham,  before  he 
 departed  from  Chaldea,  was  made  to  undergo  it,  but  escaped  by 
 a  miraculous  preservation,  founding  their  opinion  on  Gen.  xi.  31. 
 Of  this  furnace,  in  particular,  it  is  related,  that  the  king's  ser- 
 vants having  received  the  command  to  heat  it  seven  times 
 hotter,  '  ceased  not  to  make  the  oven  hot  with  rosin,  pitch,  tow, 
 and  small  wood ;  so  that  the  flame  streamed  forth  above  the  fur- 
 nace forty  and  nine  cubits,  and  passed  through  and  burned  the 
 Chaldeans  it  found  about  the  furnace.  The  Sotig  of  the  three  holy 
 Children,  ver.  23,  &c. — For  an  inquiry  into  the  construction  of 
 this  furnace  or  place  of  fire,  see  Taylor's  Fragments  to  Calmet, 
 and  Calmet  abridged,  p.  409. — Ed. 
 
 e  Nebuchadnezzar's  expression  upon  this  occasion  is,  '  Lo  !  I 
 see  four  men  walking  loose  in  the  midst  of  the  fire,  and  the 
 form  of  the  fourth  is  like  the  Son  of  God,'  (Dan.  iii.  25.)    Where- 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 685 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.586.  JER.  xl.  7-xlv-  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— y. 
 
 suspending  the  agency  of  the  fire,  walked  in  the  midst 
 of  the  furnace  with  them,  blessing  a  and  praising  God  ; 
 so  that  when  the  king,  who  staid  to  see  the  execution, 
 perceived  it,  he  started  up  on  a  sudden,  and,  coining 
 nearer  to  the  mouth  of  the  furnace,  called  upon  them  to 
 come  forth,  which  they  instantly  did,  in  the  presence  of 
 him  and  all  his  attendants,  without  b  so  much  as  an  hair 
 of  their  heads  being  singed,  or  the  least  smell  of  fire 
 about  them.  Convinced  by  the  greatness  of  this  miracle, 
 the  king  himself  glorified  the  God  of  Israel,  published 
 an  edict  in  favour  of  the  Jewish  religion,  and  gave  these 
 three  glorious  confessors  still  higher  promotion  in  the 
 province  of  Babylon. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  the  judgments  which  the  prophet 
 Jeremiah  •  had  denounced  against  his  countrymen  the 
 Jews,  when  they  rejected  the  counsel  of  God,  and  fled 
 into  Egypt  for  protection,  (as  they  vainly  thought,)  be- 
 
 1  Jer.  xliv.  27,  28. 
 
 upon  some  have  thought  that  this  prince,  having  little  or  no 
 knowledge  of  the  true  religion,  imagined  that  he  saw  some  demi- 
 god, an  Apollo,  a  Hercules,  a  Mercury  for  instance,  the  son 
 of  a  superior  god  walking  with  the  three  Hebrew  youths  in  the 
 fiery  furnace.  The  notion,  it  must  be  owned,  agrees  \ery  well 
 with  the  ancient  theology  of  the  Greeks,  to  which  that  of  the 
 Chaldeans  had  no  small  resemblance ;  but  as  angels  are  some- 
 times in  Scripture  called  the  '  sons  of  God,'  (Job  i.  6.  andxxxviii. 
 7.)  and  most  nations  had  not  only  a  belief  of  their  existence,  but 
 high  conceptions  likewise  of  their  power,  the  king  explains  him- 
 self what  he  means  by  '  the  son  of  God,'  when,  in  joy  for  their 
 deliverance,  he  cries  out,  '  blessed  be  the  God  of  Shadrach, 
 Meshach,  and  Abednego,  who  hath  sent  his  angel,  and  delivered 
 his  servants  that  trusted  in  him  !'  (Dan.  iii.  28.)  For,  as  it  is 
 in  the  song  of  the  three  holy  children,  "  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
 came  down  into  the  oven,  together  with  Azariah  and  his  fellows, 
 and  smote  the  flame  of  the  oven,  and  made  the  midst  of  the 
 furnace  as  it  had  been  a  moist  and  whistling  wind,  so  that  the 
 fire  touched  them  not  at  all,  neither  hurt  nor  troubled  them." 
 [Instead  of  '  the  son  of  God,'  as  we  have  it  in  Dan.  iii.  25,  Dr 
 Boothroyd  translates  '  a  son  of  God,'  and  Dr  A.  Clarke  has 
 the  following  remarks  on  the  passage  : — "  What  notion  could  this 
 idolatrous  king  have  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  for  so  the 
 place  is  understood  by  thousands ;  bar  elohim  signifies  a  son  of 
 the  gods,  that  is,  a  divine  person  or  angel;  and  so  the  king  calls 
 him  in  ver.  28:  '  God  hath  sent  his  angel,  and  delivered  his  ser- 
 vants.' And  though  even  from  this  some  still  contend  that  it 
 was  the  angel  of  the  covenant,  yet  the  Babylonish  king  knew 
 just  as  much  of  the  one  as  he  did  of  the  other.  No  other  minis- 
 tration was  necessary;  a  single  angel  from  heaven  was  quite  suf- 
 ficient to  answer  this  purpose,  as  that  which  stopped  the  mouths 
 of  the  lions  when  Daniel  was  cast  into  their  den."] — Dr  Clarke's 
 Commentary  on  Dan.  iii.  25. — Ed. 
 
 a  According  to  the  vulgar  Latin  edition,  in  the  third  chapter 
 of  Daniel,  between  the  23d  and  24th  verses,  is  added  the  '  Song 
 of  the  three  children;'  but  being  nowhere  extant,  either  in  the 
 Hebrew  or  Chaldee  language,  and  never  received  in  the  canon 
 of  holy  writ  by  the  Jewish  church,  or  by  the  ancient  Christians, 
 our  church  has  thought  proper  to  place  it  among  the  apocryphal 
 writings,  where  it  stands  next  to  the  book  of  Baruch,  though  the 
 church  of  Home,  by  a  decree  of  the  council  of  Trent,  (sess.  4.), 
 has  not  only  given  it,  but  the  history  of  Susanna  likewise,  and  of 
 Mel  and  the  Dragon  (which  most  of  the  ancients  looked  upon  as 
 mere  tables,)  a  place  among  the  canonical  Scriptures.  The  Song 
 itself  consists  of  two  parts;  a  prayer,  and  a  thanksgiving.  The 
 prayer  is  a  devout  confession  of  the  sins  of  the  people,  and  ac- 
 knowledgment of  God's  righteousness,  in  bringing  their  cap- 
 tivity, and  other  calamities,  upon  them.  And  the  thanksgiving 
 is  a  solemn  excitation  of  all  creatures  whatever,  but  more  espe- 
 cially of  the  three  Hebrew  children,  who  were  thus  '  saved  from 
 the  hands  of  death,  to  bless  the  Lord,  praise  him,  and  exalt  him 
 above  all  for  ever.' 
 
 b  "  As  if  the  flame  itself  (according  to  the  expression  of 
 Josephus)  had  been  conscious  of  the  injustice  of  their  sentence, 
 and  suspended  the  very  nature  of  its  consuming  quality  in  favour 
 of  the  innocent." — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  x.  c.  11. 
 
 gan  to  operate  ;  for,  when  Nebuchadnezzar  understood," 
 that  the  subjects  of  Pharaoh  Hophra  had  revolted  from 
 him,  and  declared  Amasis,  an  officer  of  his  court,  their 
 king,  he  took  the  advantage  of  the  intestine  troubles 
 ensuant  thereupon,  and  having  in  a  short  time  over- 
 run the  country  from  Migdol  to  Syene,  d  that  is,  from 
 one  end  of  Egypt  to  the  other,  he  plundered  and  laid  it 
 waste  ;  and  of  the  Jews,  who,  after  the  murder  of  Geda- 
 liah,  had  tied  thither,  some  he  slew,  and  others  he  car- 
 ried away  captive  to  Babylon  ;  so  that  scarce  any  escap- 
 ed but  such  as  fled  out  of  Egypt,  and  afterwards  set- 
 tled themselves  in  their  own  land,  at  the  end  of  the  cap- 
 tivity. e 
 
 Having  thus  reduced  the  king  of  Egypt,  and  constituted 
 Amasis  his  viceroy,  he  returned  to  Babylon,  Avhere  he  had 
 another  dream,  which  gave  him  fresh  disquiet.  This 
 dream  he  very  well  remembered  ;  and  therefore  he  sent 
 for  his  own  magicians  first,  in  hopes  that  they  could  have 
 interpreted  it ;  but  when  he  met  with  no  satisfaction  from 
 them,  he  was  forced  to  have  recourse  to  Daniel  again ; 
 and  thus,  upon  his  entrance,  he  accosted  him  : 
 
 "  1  saw  /  a  tree  of  a  prodigious  bigness,  which  seem- 
 ed to  reach  from  earth  to  heaven.  It  was  fair  and 
 full  of  fruit ;  yielded  shelter  to  the  beasts  and  fowls, 
 and  sustenance  to  all  flesh.     I  saw  s  likewise  an  angel 
 
 c  The  occasion  of  this  revolt  is  to  this  effect  related  by 
 Herodotus, — That  Pharaoh  Hophra,  whom  he  calls  Apries,  hav- 
 ing lost  a  great  army  in  Libya,  and,  as  some  imagined,  on  pur- 
 pose, that,  being  rid  of  them,  he  might  with  more  ease  and 
 security  govern  the  rest,  fell  under  the  resentment  of  his  sub- 
 jects to  such  a  degree,  that  several  of  them  joined  together  in  a 
 body,  and  revolted  from  him ;  that,  to  appease  and  reduce  them 
 to  their  duty,  he  sent  Amasis,  one  of  the  officers  of  his  court,  to 
 them,  but,  instead  of  his  persuading  them,  they  prevailed  with 
 him  to  be  their  king;  that  hereupon  Hophra  sent  Palerbamis,  a 
 person  of  the  first  rank,  to  arrest  Amasis,  and  bring  him  with 
 him ;  but,  when  he  returned  without  being  able  to  execute  his 
 commission,  he  commanded  his  ears  and  Ids  nose  to  be  immedi- 
 ately cut  off,  which  indignity,  to  a  man  of  his  worth  and  charac- 
 ter, so  exasperated  the  rest  of  his  subjects,  that  they  almost  all 
 forsook  him;  so  that  he  was  forced  to  hire  an  army  of  foreigners, 
 wherewith  he  attempted  to  give  Amasis  battle  not  far  from 
 Memphis ;  but  had  the  misfortune  to  be  vanquished,  taken  pri- 
 soner, and  carried  to  the  city  Sais,  where  he  was  strangled  in 
 his  own  palace. — Herod,  b.  i.,  and  Diod.   Sic,  b.   i.  part  2. 
 
 d  This  is  a  city  in  the  southern  frontiers  of  Egypt,  between 
 Thebes  and  the  great  cataracts  of  the  Nile,  of  which  the  ancients 
 speak  frequently,  as  the  farthest  part  in  Egypt  of  any  note  to- 
 wards Ethiopia. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word. 
 
 e  These  transactions  probably  took  place  before  the  erection  of 
 the  golden  image,  and  the  miraculous  deliverance  of  the  three 
 children.     See  previous  note  by  Ed. 
 
 fit  is  very  observable,  that  in  the  writings  of  the  prophets, 
 princes  are  frequently  compared  to  trees,  (Ezek.  xvii.  5,  o',  and 
 xxxi.  3.  Jer.  xxii.  15.  Ps.  xxxvii.  35.)  and  it  is  the  notion  of 
 Grotius,  that  a  tree  seen  in  a  dream,  according  to  the  principles 
 of  the  Indians,  Persians,  and  Egyptians,  denotes  some  great  and 
 excellent  personage ;  but  nothing  is  more  precarious  than  these 
 principles,  or  more  uncertain  than  these  observations,  because  in 
 tiie  dreams  which  come  from  God,  he  may  represent  an  eminent 
 person  under  a  thousand  different  types,  as  well  as  that  of  a  state- 
 ly tree. — Calmeft  Commentary  on  Dan.  iv.  7. 
 
 g  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  I  saw  '  a  watcher,'  which,  as 
 it  came  down  from  heaven,  could  be  no  other  than  an  angel.  Tho 
 Chaldee  word  is  nir,  from  whence  St  Jerome  imagines,  that  the 
 pagans  derived  their  Iris,  the  messenger  of  the  gods ;  and  by  some 
 expressions  in  Dan.  iv.  17,  it  looks  as  if  the  Chaldeans  had  a  no- 
 tion, for  the  king,  we  may  suppose,  speaks  according  to  the  com- 
 mon sentiments  of  the  people,  that  these  watchers,  or  holy  ones 
 in  heaven,  did  constitute  an  assembly  of  judges,  or  were  an  order 
 of  blessed  spirits,  who  took  under  their  cognizance  and  decision 
 the  fate  of  men;  for,  by  the  decree  of  these  watchers  it  was,  thai 
 
686 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A,  C.  5S7;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M, 
 coming-  down  from  heaven,  who  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  j 
 Hew  down  the  tree,  cut  off"  the  branches,  shake  off  the 
 leaves,  scatter  the  fruit,  and  let  all  creatures  depart  from 
 it ;  but  let  the  stump  remain  in  the  earth,  and  bind  it  with 
 a  band  of  iron  and  brass,  in  the  tender  grass  of  the  field, 
 and  let  it  be  wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven,  and  let  his  por- 
 tion be  with  the  beasts  in  the  grass  of  the  earth  :  let  his 
 heart  be  (-hanged  from  that  of  a  man,  and  a  beast's  heart 
 be  given  him,  "■  and  let  seven  times  pass  over  him. 
 
 As  soon  as  Daniel  heard  the  dream,  he  was  so  affected 
 with  the  dreadful  judgments  which  it  portended  to  the 
 king,  that  he  stood  silent  for  the  space  of  an  hour ;  but 
 being  encouraged  by  the  king  to  expound  the  thing  to 
 him,  be  it  what  it  would,  he  addressed  himself  to  him  in 
 these  words  : — "  The  tree,  O  king,  which  thou  sawest  in 
 thy  dream,  is  thyself ;  for  thy  greatness  reacheth  unto  the 
 heavens,  and  thy  dominions  to  the  end  of  the  earth  :  but 
 the  angel  which  came  from  heaven  with  orders  to  cut  down 
 the  tree,  denotes  the  decree  of  the  Most  High,  which  is 
 determined  against  thee,  namely,  that  thou  shaft  be  dri- 
 ven from  men,  and  thy  dwelling  shall  be  with  the  beasts 
 of  the  field  ;  thou  shalt  eat  grass  with  the  oxen,  and  be 
 wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven  ;  that  seven  years  shall  pass 
 over  thee,  before  thou  comest  to  consider  that  God 
 ruleth  over  the  kingdoms  of  men  ;  and  that,  after  such 
 a  term,  thou  shalt  be  restored  to  thy  kingdom  again, 
 which  is  the  thing  intimated  by  the  stump  of  the  tree  that 
 was  ordered  to  be  left.  And  now  that  thou  hast  heard 
 the  interpretation  of  this  dream,  permit  me,  O  king,  to 
 advise  thee  to  atone  for  thy  sins  by  an  holy  life,  and  by 
 acts  of  mercy  to  the  poor,  and  to  recommend  thyself 
 to  the  mercy  of  God,  that  he  may  prolong  thy  posterity." 
 This  was  the  advice  of  a  faithful  minister;  but  Ne- 
 buchadnezzar, it  is  to  be  feared,  had  b  not  the  heart  to 
 pursue  it. 
 
 the  tree,  in  the  vision,  was  ordered  to  be  cut  down. — Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 a  The  ambiguity  of  this  expression,  which  the  prophet,  in  his 
 exposition  of  the  dream,  still  adheres  to,  has  occasioned  a  great 
 variety  of  opinions  concerning  it.  Some  maintain,  that,  as  the 
 Persians  distinguished  their  years  into  two  seasons,  winter  and 
 Mimmer,  the  seven  years  of  Nebuchadnezzar  must  be  reckoned 
 in  this  manner,  which  will  therefore  reduce  them  to  the  space  of 
 three  years  and  a  half.  Dorotheus,  in  his  Synopsis  of  the  lives 
 of  the  prophets  and  apostles,  tells  us,  that  God  did  indeed  con- 
 demn Nebuchadnezzar  to  seven  years'  habitation  with  brutes  but 
 that,  at  the  prayers  and  intercessions  of  Daniel,  the  seven  years 
 were  reduced  to  seven  months.  The  word  time,  according  to 
 others,  denotes  no  more  than  the  space  of  a  month ;  so  that  the 
 king's  disorder,  of  course,  lasted  no  longer  than  seven  months; 
 whereof,  according  to  their  computation,  for  the  first  forty  days 
 he  continued  in  his  frenzy  as  a  madman ;  in  the  forty  days  fol- 
 lowing he  bewailed  his  offences,  and  in  the  last  forty  days  he 
 recovered  by  degrees  from  his  infirmity:  but  all  these  are  idle 
 conjectures.  A  year  was  a  common  measure  of  time  among 
 the  Chaldeans,  especially  in  the  chronicles  of  their  kings; 
 and,  therefore,  in  this  particular,  we  need  no  other  interpre- 
 ter for  Daniel  than  Daniel  himself,  who,  in  sundry  places  of 
 this  prophecy,  particularly  in  chap.  xii.  7,  has  set  a  time  and 
 times,  and  the  dividing,  or  half  of  a  time,  for  the  space  of  three 
 years  and  a  half.— Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Nchu- 
 chadnezxar. 
 
 I,  God  delayed  the  execution  of  his  threats  against  this  prince, 
 and  gave  him  a  whole  year's  reprieve,  (chap.  iv.  29,)  to  see  if 
 he  would  repent,  and  turn  unto  him;  but  perceiving  that  he  still 
 persisted  in  his  crimes,  as  soon  as  the  measure  of  his  iniquity 
 was  full,  he  smote  and  reduced  him  to  the  condition  of  a  beast. 
 Tiiis  is  Theodoiet's  notion  of  the  matter;  but  St  Jerome  rather 
 thinks,  that  this  king  being  terrified  with  the  threats,  andtouch- 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i-v. 
 
 His  cessation  from  war,  in  which  he  had  been  long 
 engaged,  had  by  this  time  given  an  opportunity  of  finish- 
 ing his  stately  buildings  at  Babylon  ;  and  upon  the  sur- 
 vey of  these,  as  well  as  other  monuments  of  his  greatness, 
 he  became  so  intoxicated  with  pride  and  arrogance,  that 
 God,  in  punishment  of  his  haughty  mind,  deprived  him 
 of  his  senses,  and  for  exalting  himself  above  the  state  of 
 men  reduced  him  to  the  condition  of  a  beast. 
 
 For  seven  years  he  lived  abroad  in  the  fields,  eating 
 grass  like  an  ox,  and  taking  up  his  lodging  on  the  ground 
 in  the  open  air.  But  at  the  expiration  of  this  time,  when 
 he  became  sensible  of  God's  superior  power  and  domin- 
 ion, his  senses  returned  to  him  again.  His  kingdom 
 was  restored,  and  he  re-instated  in  his  former  -majesty  ; 
 whereupon  he  made  this  solemn  and  grateful  acknow- 
 ledgment;  1  '  And  now  I,  Nebuchadnezzar,  praise,  and 
 extol,  and  honour  the  King  of  heaven,  all  whose  works 
 are  truth,  and  his  ways  judgment,  and  those  that  work 
 in  pride,  he  is  able  to  abase,  when  he  pleases.' 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  c  (for  he  lived 
 not  long  after  his  restoration,)  his  son  Evil-merodach 
 succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Babylon,  and  to  make  some 
 amends  for  his  father's  hard  usage  of  Jehoiachin,  the  cap- 
 tive king  of  Judah,  he  released  him,  as  was  said  before, 
 from  an  imprisonment  that  had  lasted  near  thirty -seven 
 years,  and  promoted  him  to  great  honour  in  his  palace. 
 His  reign  however  was  but  short ;  for  his  lusts  and 
 wickednesses  had,  in  the  space  of  two  years,  made  him 
 so  intolerable,  that  even  his  own  relations  conspired 
 against  him,  and  put  him  to  death ;  whereupon  Neriglissar, 
 his  sister's  husband,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  con- 
 spiracy, reigned  in  his  stead ;  and  as  Jehoiachin  d  did  not 
 long  survive  him,  Salathiel,  his  son,  succeeded  as  nomi- 
 nal prince  e  of  the  Jews.     Upon  his  accession  to  the 
 
 1  Dan.  iv.  37. 
 
 cd  with  the  exhortations  of  the  prophet,  began  to  set  about  his 
 reformation,  and  by  acts  of  charity  and  mercy,  to  reconcile  him- 
 self to  God,  for  which  he  obtained  a  delay  of  his  punishment  for 
 a  year's  space ;  but  that,  instead  of  persevering  in  these  good 
 purposes,  he  suffered  himself  to  fall  into  pride,  upon  the  contem- 
 plation of  the  mighty  works  he  had  done,  and  so,  by  his  vanity, 
 lost  what  he  had  gained  by  his  charity. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  This  prince  died  in  the  year  of  the  world  3442,  and  B.  C. 
 562,  according  to  Hales,  A.  M.  4850,  and  B.  C.  561,  after  he 
 had  reigned  from  the  death  of  his  father,  according  to  the 
 Babylonish  account,  three  and  forty  years.  He  was  certainly 
 one  of  the  greatest  princes  that  had  appeared  in  the  east  for  many 
 years  before  him,  and  according  to  Megasthenes,  (as  he  is  cited 
 by  Josephus,  Antiq.  b.  x.  c.  11.)  both  for  his  enterprises  and 
 performances,  far  excelled  even  Hercules  himself.  The  same 
 historian  (as  he  is  quoted  by  Eusebius,  Prczp.  b.  ix.  c.  41.)  in- 
 forms us,  that,  a  little  before  his  death,  he  foretold  his  subjects  of 
 the  coming  of  the  Persians,  and  their  subduing  the  kingdom  of 
 Babylon ;  but  this  he  might  gather  from  the  prophet  Daniel,  and 
 especially  from  the  interpretation  of  his  dreams. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  562. 
 
 d  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Jehoiachin,  being  a  favourite,  fell 
 with  him ;  for  that  best  agrees  with  Jeremiah's  prophecies  con- 
 cerning him,  wherein  it  is  denounced,  (chap.  xxii.  30,)  that  he 
 'should  not  prosper  in  his  days;'  which  could  not  be  so  well 
 verified  of  him,  had  he  died  in  the  full  possession  of  all  that  pros- 
 perity to  which  Evil-merodach  had  advanced  him. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  559. 
 
 e  Long  after  the  loss  of  all  authority,  the  Jews  kept  up  the 
 title  oi  a  king  among  them,  and  had  a  person  descended  of  the 
 house  of  David,  who,  by  the  name  of  « the  head  of  the  captivity,' 
 was  acknowledged  and  honoured  as  a  prince,  and,  as  far  as  was 
 consistent  with  the  government  they  lived  under,  was  invested 
 with  some  sort  of  jurisdiction  over  tlicm.     Nay,  to  this  very  day, 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 687 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7-xlv.  DANIEL,  AND  EZRA  i-v. 
 
 throne,  Neriglissar  made  gTeat  preparations  for  war 
 against  the  Medes,  which  obliged  Cyaxares,  their  king, 
 to  call  in  the  assistance  of  his  nephew  Cyrus  a  out  of 
 Persia,  who,  coming  with  a  body  of  thirty  thousand 
 Persians,  was  by  his  uncle  made  general  of  the  Medes 
 likewise,  and  thereupon,  with  his  joint  forces,  gave 
 Neriglissar  battle,  slew  him,  and  put  his  army  to  the 
 rout. 
 
 The  death  of  this  prince  proved  a  gTeat  loss  to  the 
 Babylonians,  especially  considering  that  his  son  Laboro- 
 soarchod,  who  succeeded  him,  was  in  every  thing  the 
 very  reverse  of  his  father,  a  man  given  to  all  manner  of 
 wickedness,  *  cruelty,  and  injustice,  for  which  he  be- 
 came so  odious  to  his  own  subjects,  that  they  conspired 
 against  him,  and  slew  him  after  he  had  reigned  only 
 nine  months. 
 
 Belshazzar  c  (in  all  probability  the  grandson  of  the 
 great  Nebuchadnezzar)  succeeded  him  ;  in  the  first  year 
 
 the  same  pageantry  is  said  to  be  kept  up  among  the  Jews,  and  chief- 
 ly with  this  view,  that  they  may  be  furnished  from  hence  with  an 
 answer  against  the  Christians,  urging  the  prophecy  of  Jacob 
 against  them,  namely,  that  '  the  sceptre  is  departed  from  Judah;' 
 for  thereupon  their  usual  reply  is,  that  the  sceptre  is  still  pre- 
 served among  them  in  the  head  of  the  captivity;  though  some  of 
 them  have  modesty  enough  to  give  up  this. — Prideauv's  Coti- 
 nection,  anno  559. 
 
 a  It  is  on  all  hands  agreed,  that  Astyages  king  of  the  Medes 
 had  a  son,  whom  profane  history  calls  Cyaxares ;  and  a  daughter 
 whose  name  was  Mandana,  married  to  Cambyses,  a  Persian,  by 
 whom  she  had  Cyrus ;  but  whether  this  Cambyses  was  king  of 
 the  country,  or  only  a  private  person,  it  is  not  so  well  agreed. 
 The  two  chief  historians  who  write  of  this  matter,  are  Herodotus 
 and  Xenophon;  but  their  relations  in  this  regard  are  different; 
 forasmuch  as  the  latter  makes  his  lather  king  of  Persia,  the  former 
 a  meaner  man.  The  account  of  Herodotus  indeed  contains  nar- 
 ratives that  are  much  more  strange  and  surprising,  and  conse- 
 quently more  diverting  and  acceptable  to  the  reader;  and  for 
 this  reason,  more  have  chosen  to  follow  him  than  Xenophon ;  but 
 though  Xenophon  (as  being  a  great  commander,  as  well  as  a  great 
 politician)  had  certainly  grafted  many  maxims  of  war  and  policy 
 into  his  history,  yet  where  nothing  of  this  appears,  he  must  be 
 allowed  to  he  an  historian  of  much  more  credit  in  matters  of  fact 
 than  Herodotus.  Herodotus  having  travelled  through  Egypt, 
 Syria,  and  several  other  countries,  in  order  to  the  writing  of  his 
 history,  did,  as  travellers  used  to  do,  put  down  all  matters  upon 
 trust,  and  in  many,  no  doubt,  was  imposed  on ;  but  Xenophon 
 was  a  man  of  another  character.  He  wrote  all  things  with  great 
 judgment,  and  due  consideration;  and  having  lived  in  the  court 
 of  Cyrus  the  younger,  a  descendant  of  the  Cyrus  whom  we  now 
 speak  of,  had  opportunities  of  being  better  informed  of  what  he 
 wrote  concerning  this  great  prince  than  Herodotus  had ;  and 
 confining  himself  to  this  argument  only,  no  doubt  he  examined 
 all  matters  relating  to  it  more  thoroughly,  and  gave  a  more  ac- 
 curate and  just  account  of  them,  than  could  he  expected  from  the 
 other,  who  wrote  of  all  things  at  large,  as  they  came  in  his  way. 
 — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  563. 
 
 b  Two  acts  of  his  tyrannical  violence  towards  two  of  his  prin- 
 cipal nobility,  Gobrias  and  Gadates,  are  particularly  mentioned 
 by  Xenophon,  namely,  that  the  only  son  of  the  former  lie  slew  at 
 a  hunting,  to  which  he  had  invited  him,  for  no  other  reason  but 
 his  throwing  a  dart  with  success  at  a  wild  beast,  when  he  him- 
 self had  missed  it;  and  that  the  other  he  caused  to  be  castrated, 
 merely  because  one  of  his  concubines  had  commended  him  for 
 a  handsome  man. — Cyropasdia,  b.  v. 
 
 c  Great  is  the  difference  among  historians,  and  others,  who 
 this  Belshazzar  (who  is  generally  believed  to  be  the  same  with 
 the  Nebonnedus  in  Berosus,  and  the  Labynetus  in  Herodotus) 
 was.  Some  will  have  him  to  be  of  the  royal  blood  of  Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, and  others  no  way  related  to  him.  Some  maintain  that 
 he  w;ts  a  Babylonian,  and  others  affirm  that  he  was  a  Mede ;  and 
 of  those  who  allow  him  to  be  of  the  royal  family  of  Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, some  will  have  it  that  he  was  his  son,  and  others  that 
 lie  was  his  grandson;  and,  therefore,  to  clear  this  matter,  we 
 must  observe,  1st,  That  Belshazzar,  be  he  who  he  will,  was  cer- 
 
 of  whose  reign,  *  Daniel  had  his  dream  of  the  four  beasts, 
 representing  the  four  empires  of  the  Chaldeans,  Persians, 
 Greeks,  and  Romans  ;  and  in  the  third,  the  famous 
 vision  of  the  2  ram  and  the  he-goat,  by  the  latter  of  which 
 was  signified  Alexander  the  Great,  and  by  the  former 
 Darius  Codomannus,  the  last  of  the  Persian  kings,  who 
 were  the  successors  of  Cyrus.  Cyrus,  indeed,  who 
 was  to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  Persian  monarchy,  had 
 several  conflicts  with  Belshazzar 's  armies  ;  but  at  length, 
 having  overthrown  him  in  a  pitched  battle,  he  shut  him 
 up  in  the  city  of  Babylon,  and  there  besieged  him. 
 
 During  the  siege,  Belshazzar  having  made  a  great  feast 
 for  all  his  courtiers,  ordered  that  the  vessels  of  gold  and 
 silver,  which  his  grandfather  Nebuchadnezzar  had  taken 
 out  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  should  be  brought  into 
 the  banqueting  house,  that  he  and  his  princes,  together  with 
 his  wives  and  concubines,  might  drink  out  of  them  ;  which 
 accordingly  was  done;  and,  to  add  to  their  profaneness, 
 in  the  midst  of  their  cups,  they  sang  songs  in  the  praise  of 
 their  several  idols.    But  it  was  not  long  before  God^put 
 
 1  Chap.  vii.  *  Chap.  viii. 
 
 tainly  of  the  seed  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  because  he  is  expressly 
 called  his  son  in  several  places  of  the  5th  chapter  of  Daniel, 
 and  in  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  20,  it  is  said,  that  Nebuchadnezzar  and 
 his  children,  or  offspring,  reigned  in  Babylon  until  the  kingdom 
 of  Persia  commenced.  2dly,  That,  according  to  the  prophecy 
 of  Jeremiah,  (chap,  xxvii.  7.)  the  nations  of  the  east  were  to 
 serve  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  son,  and  his  son's  son ;  and  there- 
 fore he  must  have  had  a  son,  and  a  son's  son,  successors  to  him 
 in  the  throne  of  Babylon,  odly,  That  as  Evil-merodach  was 
 Nebuchadnezzar's  son,  of  all  the  kings  that  reigned  after  him  at 
 Babylon,  none  but  Belshazzar  could  be  his  son's  son ;  for  Neri- 
 glissar was  only  his  daughter's  husband,  and  Laborosoarchod 
 was  Neriglissar's  son ;  so  that  neither  of  them  was  either  son  or 
 grandson  to  Nebuchadnezzar.  4thly,  That,  according  to  Hero- 
 dotus, (b.  i.)  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  who,  without  doubt,  was 
 Belshazzar,  because,  immediately  after  his  death,  the  kingdom 
 was  given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians,  (Dan.  v.  2S,  30,  31.)  was 
 son  to  the  great  queen  Nitocris ;  but  now  Nitocris,  to  have  a 
 child  that  was  grandson  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  could  be  wife  to  no 
 other  than  Evil-merodach ;  and  therefore,  putting  all  this  together, 
 it  appears  that  Belshazzar,  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  was  the 
 son  of  Evil-merodach  by  Nitocris  his  queen,  and  consequently 
 son's  son  to  Nebuchadnezzar;  nor  must  it  seem  strange,  that  we 
 find  him,  in  Dan.  v.  called  '  Nebuchadnezzar's  son,'  and  '  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar his  father,'  because  it  is  the  usual  style  of  Scripture 
 to  call  any  ancestor  upward,  father,  and  any  descendant  down- 
 ward, son. — Prideau.v's  Connection,  anno  555.  [It  is  not  often 
 safe  to  differ  on  a  point  of  ancient  history  with  Dr  Prideaux ; 
 but  the  series  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  successors  on  the  throne  of 
 Babylon,  as  given  by  Dr  Hales,  seems  more  consistent  than  this, 
 both  with  itself  and  with  sacred  Scripture.  That  Evil-merodach 
 — the  Ilverodam  in  Ptolemy's  canon — was  the  son  and  immediate 
 successor  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  seems  to  be  universally  admitted. 
 According  to  Hales,  however,  he  was  not  cut  off  in  a  conspiracy 
 of  his  own  subjects,  but  slain  in  battle  by  Cyrus  when  command- 
 ing the  armies  of  his  uncle  and  lather-in-law  Cyaxares,  whose 
 territories  Evil-merodach  had  prepared  wantonly  to  attack.  He 
 was  succeeded  by  his  son  Neriglissar,  the  Belshazzar  of  Daniel, 
 and  grandson  of  Nebuchadnezzar  the  great;  and  it  was  Belshazzar 
 or  Neriglissar,  who  so  cruelly  oppressed  his  own  subjects,  and 
 exercised  such  acts  of  tyrannic  violence  on  Gobrias  and  Gadates, 
 as  provoked  them  to  excite  a  conspiracy  against  him,  in  which 
 he  was  slain,  according  to  Ptolemy's  canon,  seventeen  years  before 
 the  final  overthrow  of  the  kingdom  of  Babylon.  Laborosoarchod, 
 who  is,  by  our  author,  called  the  predecessor  of  Belshazzar,  we 
 learn  from  Berosus  to  have  been  his  son,  and,  though  a  mere 
 boy  {this,)  to  have  succeeded  him  in  the  kingdom;  but  he  was 
 slain,  in  a  conspiracy,  nine  months  afterwards,  and  is  therefore 
 omitted  in  Ptolemy's  canon.] — Hales's  Analysis,  &c.  vol.  ii.  p 
 503,  &c.  and  vol.  iii.  p.  81,  &c. — Ed. 
 
 d  Next  to  murder,  no  sin  is  so  remarkably  punished  in  this 
 world  as  that  of  sacrilege.  This  appears  from  innumerable  in- 
 stances taken  from  all  histories,  both  sacred  and  profane.     But 
 
688 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3117.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M  4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7-xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i-v. 
 
 a  damp  to  the  king's  mirth,  by  causing  a  hand  to  appear 
 upon  the  wall,  which,  in  three  words,  wrote  the  sentence 
 of  his  condemnation.  The  king  saw  the  hand  that  wrote  ; 
 and  being  exceedingly  affrighted  and  troubled  at  it,  he 
 commanded  all  his  wise  men,  magicians,  and  astrologers 
 to  be  immediately  called,  that  they  might  read  the  writ- 
 ing, and  explain  its  meaning ;  but  when  none  a  of  them 
 could  do  either,  notwithstanding  the  great  honours  b  and 
 presents  which  he  offered  them,  at  the  instance  of  the 
 c  queen-mother,  Daniel  was  sent  for. 
 
 As  soon  as  he  came  into  the  king's  presence,  he  d  re- 
 ceived him  very  courteously,  and  made  him  the  same 
 
 in  the  heathen  story,  remarkable  examples  of  this  kind  are  the 
 miserable  end  of  the  Phocians,  who  robbed  the  temple  of  Delphos, 
 and  were  the  occasion  of  that  war,  which  was  called  from  thence 
 'the  holy  war:'  the  destruction  of  the  Gauls  in  their  attempt 
 upon  the  same  temple ;  and  of  Crassus,  who  plundered  the  temple 
 of  Jerusalem,  and  that  of  the  Syrian  goddess;  as  these  two  last 
 stories  are  related  by  Prideaux,  part  2. — Lowth's  Commentary 
 on  Dan.  v.  5. 
 
 a  The  writing  very  probably  might  be  in  a  character  unknown 
 to  the  Chaldeans,  as  the  old  Hebrew,  Phoenician,  and  Samaritan 
 were ;  or  if  they  were  acquainted  with  the  character,  yet  such  is 
 the  genius  of  most  of  the  oriental  languages,  where  so  little  use 
 is  made  of  vowels,  and  where  the  pronunciation  and  sequel  of 
 the  discourse  generally  determine  the  signification  of  the  letters, 
 that  a  man  may  be  a  perfect  master  of  a  language,  and  yet  not 
 able  to  read  and  comprehend  a  word,  when  it,  stands  alone,  and 
 without  any  context,  as  it  is  in  the  case  of  Mene,  Tckel,  Uphar- 
 sin. A  man,  for  instance,  that  understands  the  Hebrew  tongue 
 never  so  well,  were  he  to  meet  dbr  standing  alone,  would  have 
 much  ado  to  read  them,  because,  according  to  the  manner  that 
 we  pronounce  them,  the  letters  will  admit  of  many  different 
 significations;  and  it  is  much  the  same  in  the  Chaldee  language, 
 wherein  the  words  we  are  now  speaking  of  were  wrote. — Calmet's 
 Commentary  on  Dan.  v.  7. 
 
 b  The  king's  words  are  these: — 'Whosoever  shall  read  this 
 writing,  and  show  me  the  interpretation  thereof,  shall  be  clothed 
 with  scsrletj  and  have  a  chain  of  gold  about  his  neck,  and  shall 
 be  the  third  ruler  in  the  kingdom,'  (Dan.  v.  7.)  From  whence 
 it  appears,  that  the  kings  of  Babylon  wore  the  same  ornaments, 
 and,  in  rewarding  their  favourites,  gave  the  same  marks  of 
 honours  that  the  kings  of  Persia  and  their  successors  did.  For 
 purple,  we  find  in  several  Greek  authors,  was  the  ordinary  habit 
 of  the  kings  of  Persia,  and  of  the  princes  of  their  court  that  were 
 in  the  highest  posts  of  honour.  The  chain  or  collar  of  gold  was 
 one  of  the  greatest  marks  of  distinction  that  the  Persian  kings 
 could  bestow  upon  their  subjects;  and  'to  be  the  third  ruler  of 
 the  kingdom,'  was  the  same  sublime  office  that  Darius  the  Mede 
 put  Daniel  in,  (ch.  vi.  1,  2.)  when  he  constituted  him  one  of  the 
 presidents  over  the  hundred  and  twenty  princes  that  he  had 
 made  governors  over  provinces. — Xenophon's  Cyropeedia ,  b.  8  ; 
 Diudorns,  1).  xviii;  Josepkus's  Antiquities,  b.  xi.  c.  6;  Brisson 
 on  the  kingdom  of  the  Persians,  b.  i. 
 
 c  In  the  2d  verse  of  the  fifth  chapter  of  Daniel,  we  read,  '  that 
 the  king,  his  princes,  his  wives,  and  his  concubines  '  were  all  at 
 the  feast,  which  he  made  for  them;  and  yet  in  the  10th  verse  it 
 follows,  that  the  queen,  upon  hearing  of  the  news  of  the  hand- 
 writing, 'came  into  the  banquet  house;'  but  then  it  must  be 
 observed,  that  this  queen  was  not  one  of  his  wives,  but  Nitocris, 
 his  mother,  and  she  seems  there  to  be  called  the  queen  by  way 
 of  eminence,  bi  cause  she  had  the  regency  of  the  kingdom  under 
 her  son,  for  which  her  great  wisdom  duly  qualified  her.  For 
 this  reason  Herodotus  speaks  of  her,  as  if  she  had  been  sovereign 
 of  the  kingdom,  in  the  same  manner  as  Semiramis  is  said  to  have 
 been,  and  attributes  to  her  all  those  works  about  Babylon  which 
 other  authors  ascribe  to  her  son. —  Pridcau.v's  Connect,  anno  547 '. 
 d  And  yet  it  is  observable,  that  when  he  came  into  his  pre- 
 sence, he  asked  him,  'art  thou  that  Daniel?'  which  seems  to 
 imply,  though  he  was  one  of  the  chief  ministers  of  state,  (Dan. 
 v.  13.)  the  king  did  not  know  him;  but  this  only  Bhows,  that 
 Belshazzar  was  a  man  who  minded  nothing  but  his  pleasures, 
 and  left  all  things  else  to  the  management  of  others;  a  conduct 
 too  often  followed  by  such  princes  as  think  kingdoms  made  for 
 nothing  else  hut  to  serve  their  pleasures,  and  gratify  their  lusts! 
 —  Prideaur's  Connection,  anno  547, 
 
 offer  of  honours  and  presents,  that  he  had  done  to  his  own 
 magicians,  if  he  would  but  explain  the  writing.  Daniel 
 modestly  refused  the  offers  he  made  him ;  but  having 
 undertaken  to  perform  what  he  required  of  him,  he 
 first  reproved  him,  with  some  freedom,  for  his  ingratitude 
 to  God,  who  had  advanced  hhn  to  the  rank  of  a  sovereign, 
 and  for  the  profanation  of  the  vessels  which  were  conse- 
 crated to  his  service  ;  and  then  proceeded  to  the  inter- 
 pretation of  the  words,  which  were  these,  Mene,  Tekel, 
 Upharsin.  "  Mene,"  says  he  "  which  signifies  number, 
 intimates,  that  the  days,  both  of  your  life  and  of  your 
 reign,  are  numbered,  or  that  you  have  but  a  short  time 
 to  live.  Tekel,  which  signifies  weight,  intimates,  that 
 you  have  been  weighed  in  the  balance  of  God's  justice, 
 and  found  too  light ;  and  Upharsin,  e  which  signifies 
 fragment,  intimates,  that  your  kingdom  shall  be  divided, 
 and  given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians ;"  which  accord- 
 ingly came  to  pass  ;  for  that  very  night,  in  the  midst  of 
 their  feasting  and  revelling,  the  city/  was  taken  by  sur- 
 
 e  Daniel,  in  repeating  the  words,  instead  of  Upharsin,  puts 
 in  Peres;  but  they  both  signify  the  same  thing. 
 
 f  Cyrus  had  lain  before  the  town  to  little  or  no  purpose  for 
 the  space  of  two  years,  when,  understanding  that  a  great  annual 
 feast  was  approaching,  wherein  the  Babylonians,  in  honour  of 
 their  idol  Sheshach,  were  wont  to  spend  the  whole  night  in 
 revelling  and  drunkenness,  he  thought  this  no  improper  time  to 
 attempt  to  surprise  them.  To  this  purpose,  having  posted  one 
 part  of  his  men  at  the  place  where  the  river  ran  into  the  city, 
 and  another  where  it  came  out,  with  orders  to  enter  by  way  of 
 the  channel,  as  soon  as  they  found  the  river  fordable :  about  the 
 close  of  the  evening  he  fell  to  work,  broke  down  the  dams,  and 
 turned  aside  the  stream ;  so  that,  by  the  middle  of  the  night, 
 the  riverwas  so  drained,  that  the  parties  according  to  their  orders, 
 entered  the  channel,  and  finding  the  gates  leading  down  to  the 
 river  open,  by  them  they  ascended  into  the  city,  and  made 
 directly  to  the  palace,  where  they  slew  the  king,  and  all  those 
 that  were  about  him.  By  this  stratagem  Cyrus  became  master 
 of  Babylon,  but  he  took  no  care  to  repair  the  breach  in  the  banks 
 of  the  river;  so  that  all  the  country  on  that  side  was  overflown, 
 and  the  current  which  went  to  Babylon  grew  afterwards  so 
 shallow,  as  to  become  unfit  for  the  smallest  navigation.  So  fully 
 verified  were  all  these  prophecies  concerning  Babylon :  '  Behold 
 I  will  stir  up  the  Medes  against  her,'  (Isa.  xiii.  7.)  '  1  will  dry 
 up  her  sea,  and  make  her  springs  dry,'  (Jer.  li.  36.)  '  Babylon, 
 the  glory  of  kingdoms,  the  beauty  of  the  Chaldees'  excellency, 
 shall  be  like  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,'  (Is.  xiii.  19)  '  For  I  will 
 make  it  a  possession  for  the  bittern,  and  pools  of  water,'  (Is. 
 xiv.  23.)  '  saith  the  King,  whose  name  is  the  Lord  of  hosts.' — 
 Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  547.  [According  to  Dr  Hales, 
 the  taking  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus  was  long  after  this,  on  the  revolt 
 of  Nahonadius  from  the  dominion  of  the  Medes ;  and  it  is  cer- 
 tainly not  said  in  the  hook  of  Daniel,  that  on  the  night  of  Bel- 
 shazzar's  murder  the  city  was  '  taken  by  Cyrus,'  or  by  '  any 
 man.'  "  The  great  feast,  on  the  night  of  which  Belshazzar  was 
 slain,  appears  to  have  been  at  a  season  of  profound  peace  and 
 tranquillity,  when  '  a  thousand  of  his  lords '  could  freely  come 
 from  all  parts  of  his  empire  without  molestation  or  interruption 
 from  a  besieging  enemy,  and  when  the  king  would  be  most  apt 
 '  to  forget  God,  after  he  had  eaten  and  was  full.'  "  In  the  book 
 of  Daniel  it  is  not  said  how  or  by  whom  Belshazzar  was  slain  ; 
 but  it  may  be  collected,  says  Dr  Hales,  from  Xenophon,  that  he 
 was  slain  by  conspirators,  at  the  head  of  whom  were  Gobrias  and 
 Gadates.  This  is  certainly  not  said  by  Xenophon,  who  seems  to 
 have  confounded  the  time  at  which  Belshazzar  was  slain,  when 
 the  gods  punished  the  impious  king,  with  the  taking  of  Babylon 
 when  it  had  revolted  from  the  Midian  yoke ;  for  it  is  much  more 
 probable  that  Xenophon  confounded  dates  and  events,  than  that 
 there  should  be  any  mistake  in  the  canon  of  Ptolemy,  or  in  the 
 Chaldean  records  as  quoted  by  Berosus.  The  family  of  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar being  now  extinct,  our  author  thinks  that  Cyaxares 
 oi-  Darius  the  Mede,  who  was  the  brother  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
 queen,  took  possession  of  the  throne  by  the  voluntary  oner  of  the 
 Babylonians.] — Bishop  Gleig. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &<;. 
 
 6Si) 
 
 \.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.   586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— .v. 
 
 prise,  °  Belshazzar  slain,  and  the  kingdom  translated  to 
 Cyaxares,  whom  t!ie  Scripture  calls  '  Darius  the  Mede.' 
 
 Darius,  from  his  very  first  accession  to  the  throne,  had 
 a  great  esteem  for  Daniel,  as  knowing  him  to  be  a  per- 
 son of  extraordinary  parts  and  learning-,  and  long-  versed 
 in  affairs  of  state :  and  therefore  having-  divided  the 
 whole  empire  into  an  hundred  and  twenty  provinces, 
 over  which  he  set  governors,  and  over  these  three  presi- 
 dents, as  the  king's  chief  ministers,  he  made  Daniel  the 
 first  of  these;  *  but  it  happened  to  him,  as  it  usually 
 does  to  all  favourites,  to  be  maligned,  and  envied  by 
 others. 
 
 His  administration  of  public  affairs,  however,  was  so 
 just,  that  in  that  capacity  he  gave  them  no  room  for  any 
 accusation  against  him,  and  therefore  they  laid  their 
 plot  another  way.  He,  they  knew,  was  a  strict  observer 
 of  the  religion  of  his  country,  and  a  constant  resorter  to 
 God  in  prayer  ;  and  therefore  they  applied  themselves 
 to  Darius,  in  the  name  of  his  whole  council  and  officers 
 of  state,  that  he  would  be  pleased  so  far  to  indulge  his 
 people,  as  to  pass  a  decree,  only  for  thirty  days,  that 
 whoever  c  should  ask  any  petition  either  of  God  or  man, 
 except  of  the  king  only,  for  that  space  of  time,  should 
 be  thrown  to  the  lions ;  which  the  king,  taking  it  for  a 
 great  testimony  of  their  affection  and  loyalty  to  him,  at 
 his  first  accession  to  the  throne,  without  any  manner  of 
 
 a  Of  the  manner  wherein  this  was  done,  we  find  Xenophon 
 (Cyropadia,  b.  vii.)  thus  relating  the  story,  namely,  "  That  two 
 deserters,  Gadates  and  Gobryas,  having  assisted  some  of  the 
 Persian  army  to  kill  the  guards  and  seize  upon  the  palace,  they 
 entered  into  the  room  where  the  king  was,  whom  they  found 
 standing  up  in  a  posture  of  defence,  but  that  they  soon  dispatched 
 him,  and  those  that  were  with  .him,  and  thereby  fulfilled  the  pro- 
 phecy of  Jeremiah ;  '  I  will  make  drunk  her  princes,  and  her 
 wise  men,  her  captains  and  riders,  and  her  mighty  men;  and 
 they  shall  sleep  a  perpetual  sleep,  and  not  awake,  saith  the  King, 
 whose  name  is  the  Lord  of  hosts,'  "  (chap.  li.  57.) — Loivth'i 
 Commentary  on  Dan.  v.  30. 
 
 b  For  though  the  whole  power  of  the  army,  and  the  chief  con- 
 duct of  other  affairs  were  in  the  hands  of  Cyrus  (and  therefore 
 we  find  him,  in  Ptolemy's  canon,  set  down  as  immediate  suc- 
 cessor to  Belshazzar,  who  is  there  called  Nabonadius,)  yet  as 
 long  as  his  uncle  lived,  Cyrus  allowed  him  a  joint  title  with 
 him  in  the  empire,  and  out  of  deference  to  him,  yielded  him  the 
 first  place  of  honour  in  it;  though,  in  reality,  he  had  no  more 
 than  the  name  and  shadow  of  sovereignty,  except  in  Media, 
 which  was  his  own  proper  dominion  before  any  concpuests  were 
 made. — J'ridcan.v's  Connection,  anno  538.  [This  is  certainly 
 not  correct.  That  Nabonadius  was  a  very  different  man  from 
 Belshazzar  has  been  already  shown;  and  it  seems  evident  from 
 Ptolemy's  canon,  and  from  Berosus  as  quoted  by  Dr  Hales,  that 
 Darius,  whilst  he  lived,  was  the  sole  monarch  of  Babylon  and 
 Medea,  though,  being  of  an  indolent  disposition,  as  has  been  al- 
 ready observed,  In:  left  the  burden  of  military  affairs  and  the  care 
 of  the  government  to  Cyrus,  who  was  at  once  his  nephew,  his 
 son-in-law,  and  bis  destined  heir.  This  may  have  led  Zenophon, 
 and  after  him  Prideaux,  to  suppose  Cyrus  joint  sovereign  with 
 liis  uncle  of  the  Babylonian  empire,  especially  as  Darius  appears 
 tu  have  lived  only  two  years  after  lie  succeeded  to  that  throne.] — 
 Bishop  Gleig. —  Ed. 
 
 c  It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  that  Darius  should  so  readily 
 accept  of  an  honour  which  was  due  to  God  alone.  But  we  see 
 what  a  pitch  of  vanity  and  arrogance  these  eastern  princes  were 
 arrived  at,  when  we  find  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  Daniel,  asking  tbe 
 three  Hebrew  youths,  '  Who  is  that  God  that  shall  deliver  you 
 out  of  my  hands  ?'  (Dan.  iii.  15.)  when  we  find  it  said  of  another 
 of  that  name,  in  the  book  of  Judith,  '  Who  is  God  but  Nabu- 
 chodonosar  ?  He  will  send  bis  power,  and  destroy  them  from 
 the  face  of  the  earth,'  (chap.  vi.  2,  3;)  and  more  especially,  when 
 we  find  the  Persians  making  it  a  matter  of  state  policy  to  have 
 the  persons  of  their  kings  in  the  same  veneration  as  they  had 
 their  gods.— Quint.  Curt.  b.  viii. 
 
 hesitation,  passed  into  an  act,  and  issued  out  his  pro- 
 clamation to  that  purpose. 
 
 Daniel  was  not  ignorant  that  this  wicked  contrivance 
 was  designed  to  ensnare  him  ;  but  nevertheless  he  con- 
 tinued his  usual  course  of  paying  his  adorations  to  God, 
 three  times  every  day,  and  that  not  in  any  clandestine 
 manner,  but  with  his  chamber  window  open  towards  Je- 
 rusalem. d  His  enemies,  who  had  laid  this  snare  for 
 him,  were  not  forgetful  to  watch  him  diligently  ;  and 
 therefore  having  taken  him  in  the  act  of  prayer,  they 
 immediately  went  to  the  king,  accused  Daniel  of  a  con- 
 tempt of  his  decree,  and  desired  that  the  sentence  might 
 instantly  be  executed  upon  him. 
 
 The  king  too  late  perceived,  that  his  easy  compliance 
 with  a  fallacious  offer  had  betrayed  him  into  a  mistake 
 that  was  likely  to  prove  fatal  to  his  servant  Daniel ,  and 
 therefore  he  laboured  what  he  could  to  reverse  the  de- 
 cree;  but  the  grandees,  on  the  other  hand,  represented 
 to  him,  that  the  royal  decrees,  according  to  the  laws  of 
 the  Medes  and  Persians  e  were  unalterable,  and  conse- 
 quently the  penalty  which  Daniel  had  incurred,  irrever- 
 sible ;  so  that  what  through  the  importunity  of  those 
 wicked  men,  and  a  false  notion  of  honour  in  adhering  to 
 his  word,  the  king  delivered  up  Daniel  to  their  mercy, 
 but  not  without  some  glimmering  hopes,  that  the  God 
 whom  he  served  continually  would  by  some  means  or 
 other  preserve  him. 
 
 No  sooner  was  Daniel  delivered  into  their  hands,  but 
 they  hurried  him  away  to  the  lions'  den  ;  and  having 
 thrown  him  in,  they  not  only  rolled  a  large  stone  to  the 
 mouth  of  it,  but  had  it  sealed  likewise/  with  their  own, 
 as  well  as  the  king's  signet,  that  thereby  they  might  pre- 
 vent all  possibility  of  his  making  an  escape.  The  king, 
 in  the  meantime,  went  pensive  home  ;  and  having  passed 
 the  night  in  much  uneasiness  and  anxiety  of  mind,  he  rose 
 early  next  morning,  and  repaired  to  the  den,  where,  to 
 his  great  and  surprising  joy,  he  found  Daniel  alive  ;  and 
 having  caused  him  to  be  taken  out,  he  ordered,  that  his 
 accusers,  S  their  wives  and  their  children,  should  be  all 
 
 d  It  was  a  constant  custom  among  the  Jews,  for  those  that 
 were  in  the  country,  or  in  any  distant  land,  to  turn  themselves 
 towards  Jerusalem ;  and  for  those  that  were  at  Jerusalem,  to 
 turn  towards  the  temple,  when  they  prayed ;  and  the  probable 
 reason  of  this  might  be,  the  words  of  Solomon,  in  his  prayer  to 
 God,  at  the  consecration  of  the  temple:  '  If  thy  people,  when  led 
 away  captive,  pray  unto  thee  toward  their  land  which  thou  gavest 
 unto  their  fathers,  the  city,  which  thou  hast  chosen,  and  the 
 house,  which  I  have  built  for  thy  name ;  then  hear  thou  their 
 prayers,  and  their  supplication,  in  heaven,  thy  dwelling-place, 
 and  maintain  their  cause,'  (1  Kings  viii.  48,  49.) 
 
 c  So  Diodorus  Siculus  tells  us  (b.  iv.)  of  Darius  the  last  king 
 of  Per-ia,  that  he  would  have  pardoned  Charidemus  after  he  was 
 condemned  to  death,  but  could  not  reverse  the  law  that  had 
 passed  against  him.  What  made  these  laws  thus  unalterable, 
 we  are  at  a  loss  to  know,  unless  we  suppose,  that  when  they 
 passed,  either  the  king  had  confirmed  them  by  an  oath,  and  then 
 they  became  immutable ;  or  that  they  were  sealed  not  only  by 
 the  king,  but  by  all  the  princes  then  in  council,  as  one  would  be 
 apt  to  guess  from  Dan.  vi.  8,  and  xii.  9. — Lowth's  Commentary 
 on  Dan.  vi. ;  and  Patrick's  Commentary  on  Esther  i. 
 
 /'  Jiy  this  it  seems,  as  if  the  Persian  government,  at  this  time, 
 was  a  kind  of  mixed  monarchy,  consisting  of  a  king  and  nobles; 
 forasmuch  that  we  find  the  king  could  do  nothing  of  importance 
 without  his  counsellors,  nor  had  he  power  to  alter  any  thing  that 
 was  determined  in  council. — Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 q  Tbe  Lex  Talionis  condemned  all  calumniators  to  the  same 
 sort  of  punishment  which  they  intended  to  have  brought  upon 
 others;  and  in  this  case,  among  the  Persians,  it  was  a  frequent 
 4s 
 
C90 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 oast  into  it,  where  the  lions  fell  upon  them,  and  instantly  I 
 destroyed  them  ;  while  the  king,  in  grateful  acknowledg-  j 
 nient  of  a  wonderful  providence  in  Daniel's  preservation, 
 made  public  proclamation,  that  in  all  the  parts  of  his 
 dominions,  the  God,  whom  Daniel  worshipped,  should 
 be  revered. 
 
 The  term  of  seventy  years,  which  the  prophet  Jere- 
 miah "  had  prefixed  for  the  continuance  of  Judah's  cap- 
 tivity, being  now  drawing  toward  a  conclusion,  Daniel  ' 
 thought  it  his  duty  to  humble  himself  before  God,  and  to 
 make  his  ardent  supplications  to  him  that  he  would  re- 
 member his  people,  and  grant  a  restoration  to  Jerusalem, 
 and  make  his  face  again  to  shine  upon  his  holy  city, 
 and  his  sanctuary,  which  was  desolate  ;  whereupon  he 
 had  in  a  vision  assurance  given  him  by  the  angel 
 Gtibriel,  not  only  of  the  deliverance  of  Judah  from  their 
 temporal  captivity  under  the  Babylonians,  but  also  of  a 
 much  greater  redemption  which  God  would  give  his 
 church,  by  delivering  them  from  their  spiritual  captivity 
 under  sin  and  Satan,  to  be  accomplished  at  the  end  of 
 seventy  weeks  after  the  going  forth  of  the  commandment 
 to  rebuild  Jerusalem,  that  is,  at  the  expiration  of  490 
 years,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  explain  that  remark- 
 able passage  3  hereafter. 
 
 Upon  the  reduction  of  Babylon,  3  which  put  an  end  to 
 the  Chaldean  empire,  after  it  had  continued  from  the 
 reign  of  Nabonassar,  who  founded  it,  209  years,  Cyrus 
 went  into  Persia  to  make  a  visit  to  his  father  and  mother, 
 who  were  a  et  living ;  and,  on  his  return  through  Media, 
 married  the  laughter  and  only  child  of  his  uncle  Darius, 
 and  had,  in  dower  with  her,  the  reversion  of  the  kingdom 
 of  Media,  after  her  father's  death ;  so  that,  in  a  short 
 time,  he  succeeded,  not  only  to  the  Babylonish  empire, 
 but  to  the  two  additional  kingdoms  of  Persia  and  Media 
 likewise,  and  from  hence  the  whole  extent  of  his  domin- 
 ions took  the  name  of  the  Persian  empire.* 
 
 1  Chap.  ix.  2  Dan.  ix.  24,  &c. 
 
 3  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  540. 
 thing  to   include   all   the  family  in  the  penalty  inflicted  on  the 
 father;  but  "ahominahle  laws,"  says  Ammianus  Marcellinus, 
 "  by  which,  on  account  of  the  guilt  of  one  person,  death  was  in- 
 flicted on  the  whole  of  the  kindred." — Calmct's  Commentary, 
 
 a  The  particular  prophecies  to  which  Daniel  alludes,  might 
 probably  be  these  :  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  because  ye  have 
 not  heard  my  words,  behold,  I  will  send  and  take  all  the  families 
 of  the  north,  and  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  king  of  Babylon,  my  ser- 
 vant, and  will  bring  them  against  this  land  and  the  inhabitants 
 thereof:  and  this  whole  land  shall  be  a  desolation,  and  an  aston- 
 ishment, and  these  nations  shall  serve  the  king  of  Babylon  seventy 
 years;  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  seventy  years  are  accom- 
 plished, I  will  punish  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  that  nation,  saith 
 the  Lord,  for  their  iniquity:  but  I  will  visit  you,  and  perform 
 my  good  word  towards  you,  in  causing  you  to  return  to  this 
 place.  For  I  know  my  thought  that  I  think  towards  you,  saith 
 the  Lord,  thoughts  of  peace  and  not  of  evil,  to  give  you  an  ex- 
 pected end,'  .Icr.  xxv.  8.  &c,  and  xxix.  10,  11.)  But  prophe- 
 cies, he  knew  very  well,  were  but  conditional,  and,  for  their  ac- 
 complishment, depended,  in  a  great  measure,  upon  the  behaviour 
 of  those  to  whom  they  were  made.  One  part  of  this  prediction 
 he  had  seen  executed,  in  the  punishment  of  the  king  of  Babylon, 
 and  the  translation  of  his  kingdom  to  the  Medes  and  Persians; 
 but  gooil  reason  lie  had  to  fear,  lest  the  sins  of  his  countrymen 
 the  Jews  should  retard  the  completion  of  the  other  part,  namely, 
 their  return  from  captivity,  beyond  the  compass  of  seventy  years: 
 and  this  was  both  the  cause  of  his  grief  and  the  motive  of  his 
 prayer. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  There  seems  to  be  in  this  paragraph  many  mistakes.  It 
 cannot  be  true  that  Cyrus  did  not  marry  the  daughter  of  Darius 
 or  Cyaxares  Ii.  till  after  th«  conquest  of  Babylon;  for  Xenophon, 
 who  relates  this,  says  likewise   that  the  princess  and   he   were 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 4  As  soon  as  Cyrus  was  come  into  the  full  possession 
 of  the  empire,  he  published  a  decree,  c  wherein  lie  gave 
 free  liberty  to  the  Jews  to  return  to  their  own  country, 
 and  to  rebuild  the  house  of  the  Lord  at  Jerusalem. 
 d  Many  of  the  sacred  vessels,  to  the  number  of  5400, 
 
 4  Ezrai.  1,  &c. 
 
 about  the  same  age;  and  it  seems  indisputable  that  at  the  con- 
 quest of  Babylon  Cyrus  was  sixty-three  years  of. age.  But  he 
 had  two  children  by  the  daughter  of  Darius,  who  were  both 
 grown  to  man's  estate  at  his  death,  when  he  was  seventy  years 
 of  age ;  and  therefore  he  must  have  married  at  a  much  earlier 
 period  than  the  conquest  cf  Babylon.  His  father  likewise,  and 
 probably  his  mother,  must  have  been  dead  before  that  period,  as 
 will  appear  from  the  following  account  of  the  birth,  successions  to 
 different  kingdoms,  and  death  of  this  illustrious  prince,  collected 
 by  Dr  Hales  with  the  utmost  care  and  accuracy.  "The  reign 
 of  Cyrus  over  Persia  began,  according  to  Diodorus,  Thallus, 
 Castor,  Polybius,  and  Phlegon  cited  by  Eusebius,  (Prap.  Evang. 
 b.  19.)  in  the  first  year  of  the  fifty-fifth  olympiad,  corresponding 
 to  the  Julian  years,  B.  C.  5G0,  and  559.  He  reigned,  in  all, 
 thirty  years,  according  toCtesias,  Justin,  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
 and  Eusebius;  twenty-nine  according  to  Herodotus:  and  thirty- 
 one  years  according  to  Sulpitius.  The  year  of  his  death  is  ascer- 
 tained to  have  been  B.  C.  529,  by  a  lunar  eclipse  recorded  by 
 Ptolemy  to  have  happened  in  the  seventh  year  of  his  son  and 
 successor  Cambyses,  B.  C.  523.  This  determines  the  birth  of 
 Cyrus  to  have  been  B.  C.  599,  two  years  after  his  grandfather, 
 Astyages,  succeeded  to  the  crown  of  Media,  B.  C.  601.  Cyrus 
 succeeded  to  the  crown  of  Persia,  on  the  demise  of  his  father, 
 B.  C.  559,  as  hath  been  already  observed,  and  is  determined  by 
 the  thirty  years  of  his  whole  reign.  This  corrects  an  error  of 
 Xenophon,  who  represents  Cambyses,  (father  of  Cyrus)  as  still 
 alive  after  the  capture  of  Babylon,  B.  C.  536;  an  error  into 
 which  he  was  led,  perhaps,  by  confounding  this  capture  with  the 
 death  of  Belshazzar,  that  '  impious  king,'  as  he  calls  him,  who 
 was  slain  seventeen  years  before,  B.  C.  553,  when  Cyaxares,  or 
 Darius  the  Mede,  took  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  Babylon. 
 Cyrus  peaceably  succeeded  his  uncle  two  years  after,"  as  the 
 author  completely  proves,  in  opposition  to  Herodotus,  and  the 
 general  current  of  ancient  and  modern  historians,  by  the  united 
 testimony  of  iEschylus,  Xenophon,  Josephus,  and  the  Persian 
 historians,  supported  by  the  authority  of  Scripture,  and  common 
 sense.  "  And  when  Nabonadius,  who  had  been  appointed 
 viceroy  of  Babylon  by  Darius  the  Mede,  at  length  rebelled  and 
 joined  Croesus  the  sovereign  of  Lydia,  he  was  defeated,  B.  C. 
 53S,  and  Babylon  was  taken  by  Cyrus,  B.  C.  53G,  which  was, 
 of  course,  the  era  of  the  actual  commencement  of  his  full 
 sovereignty. — Hales 's  Analysis,  &c,  vol.  ii.  p.  465,  and  vol. 
 iv.  p.  88,  second  edition. — Ed. 
 
 c  It  is  a  good  deal  more  than  probable,  that  this  decree  in 
 favour  of  the  Jews  was,  in  a  great  measure,  owing  to  Daniel's 
 good  offices.  Cyrus,  at  his  first  coming  to  Babylon,  after  he  had 
 taken  the  city,  found  him  there  an  old  minister  of  state,  famed 
 for  his  great  wisdom  over  all  the  east,  and,  in  many  things,  for  a 
 knowledge  superior  to  the  rest  of  mankind ;  and  accordingly  we 
 find,  that  he  not  only  employed  him  as  such,  but,  upon  the  settling 
 of  the  government  of  the  whole  empire,  made  him  first  superin- 
 tendent or  prime  minister  of  state  over  all  the  provinces  of  it. 
 In  this  station  of  life,  Daniel  must  have  been  a  person  of  great 
 authority  at  court,  and  highly  in  the  esteem  of  his  prince:  and 
 therefore,  as  we  find  him  earnest  in  his  prayer  to  God  for  the 
 restoration  of  his  people,  (Dan.  ix.)  we  cannot  but  think,  that  he 
 would  be  equally  warm  in  his  intercessions  for  it  with  the  king. 
 To  which  purpose,  it  is  not  improbable,  that  he  might  show  him 
 those  passages  in  Isaiah,  which  speak  of  him  by  name,  150  years 
 before  he  was  born,  as  a  great  prince  and  conqueror,  the  ruler  of 
 many  nations,  and  the  restorer  of  his  people,  by  causing  his 
 temple  to  be  built,  and  the  city  of  Jerusalem  re-inhabited.  For, 
 that  Cyrus  had  seen  those  prophecies,  the  thing  is  plain,  not 
 only  from  the  testimony  of  Josephus,  {Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  1.)  but 
 from  the  recital  that  is  made  of  them  in  the  decree  itself,  (Ezra 
 i.  2;)  and  if  so,  who  should  be  so  proper  to  show  them  to  him, 
 and  to  recommend  the  accomplishment  of  them  to  his  princely 
 care,  as  Daniel,  who  had  so  great  credit  with  him,  and  so  passion- 
 ate a  concern  for  the  restoration  of  Zion.— Prideaux's  Connection, 
 anno  538. 
 
 d  Some  are  of  opinion  that  among  the  sacred  things  which 
 
Sbct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 69J 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 °  which  Nebuchadnezzar  had  taken  out  of  the  former  house, 
 brought  to  Babylon,  and  placed  in  the  temple  of  his  god 
 Bel,  he  ordered  his  treasurer  to  restore  ;  and  wrote  let- 
 ters *  recommendatory  to  the  governors  of  several  pro- 
 vinces to  assist  the  Jews  in  their  undertaking. 
 
 The  encouragement  which  was  given  them  by  virtue 
 of  this  decree,  made  the  Jews  soon  gather  together  out 
 of  the  several  parts  of  the  kingdom  of  Babylon,  to  the 
 number  of  42,360,  which,  together  with  their  servants, 
 who  were  7337  more,  amounted  in  all  to  49,697  persons. 
 For,  not  only  those  of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  but  several 
 also  of  the  other  tribes  that  had  been  carried  away  by 
 Tiglath-lJileser  and  Esarhaddon,  yet  still  retained  the 
 true  worship  of  God  in  a  strange  land,  took  the  benefit 
 of  this  decree,  to  return  to  their  own  country. 
 
 The  chief  leaders  of  these  returning  captives  were 
 Zerubbabel  and  Joshua.  Zerubbabel,  c  whose  Babylonish 
 name  was  Sheshbazzar,  was  the  son  of  Salathiel,  the  son 
 of  Jehoiakim  king  of  Judah,  who  was  kept  so  long  cap- 
 tive in  Babylon  ;  and  Joshua  was  the  son  of  Jozadach, 
 the  son  of  Seraiah,  who  was  high  priest  when  Jerusalem 
 
 Cyrus  ordered  to  be  restored,  the  ark  of  the  covenant  was  one ; 
 but  it  nowhere  appears  that  this  ark  was  carried  from  Jerusalem 
 to  Babylon.  They  tell  us,  indeed,  that  in  the  second  temple 
 sacrifices  were  offered,  as  in  the  first,  and  all  solemn  days  observ- 
 ed, especially  the  great  day  of  expiation,  when  the  law  ordained, 
 that  the  blood  should  be  sprinkled  before  the  mercy-seat;  and  the 
 mercy-seat,  say  they,  was  part  of  the  ark ;  but  besides  that,  the 
 ark,  without  the  sheehinah,  or  divine  glory,  (which  was  then 
 withdrawn,)  would  have  been  of  no  great  significance,  the  Jews 
 universally  acknowledged,  that  the  ark  was  one  of  the  five  things 
 that  were  wanting  in  the  second  temple. 
 
 a  The  sum  total  of  the  vessels,  as  they  are  named  in  Ezra,  i. 
 9,  10,  do  not  amount  to  half  this  number;  and  therefore  some 
 have  thought,  that  there  must  be  a  numerical  error  either  in  the 
 one  place  or  the  other;  whilst  others  suppose,  that  as  in  2  Chron. 
 xxxvi.  IS,  Nebuchadnezzar  is  said  to  have  carried  away  all  the 
 vessels,  both  great  and  small,  in  this  detail  the  larger  vessels 
 only,  and  such  as  were  of  great  value,  are  mentioned,  but  that  the 
 gross  sum  comprehends  all,  and  amounts  to  the  number  specified. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary  on  Ezra  i.  11. 
 
 b  Josephus  has  recorded  one,  which  is  directed  to  the  gover- 
 nors of  Syria,  in  the  following  manner: — "  Cyrus  the  king,  to 
 Sysina  and  Saraba=an  sendeth  greeting.  Be  it  known  unto  you, 
 that  I  have  given  leave  to  all  the  Jews  that  are  in  my  dominions 
 to  return  to  their  own  country,  and  there  to  rebuild  their  capital 
 city,  with  the  holy  temple  at  Jerusalem,  in  the  same  place  where 
 it  stood  before.  I  have  likewise  sent  my  treasurer,  Mithridates, 
 and  Zerubbabel  the  governor  of  Judea,  to  superintend  the  build- 
 ing, and  to  see  it  raised  sixty  cubits  upward  from  the  ground, 
 and  as  many  over;  the  walls  to  be  three  rows  of  polished  stone, 
 and  one  of  the  wood  of  the  country,  together  with  an  altar  for 
 sacrifices,  and  all  this  to  be  done  at  my  charge. — It  is  my  further 
 pleasure,  that  they  receive  entire  to  themselves  all  the  profits  and 
 revenues  that  were  formerly  enjoyed  by  their  predecessors,  and 
 that  they  have  an  allowance  paid  them  of  250,500  drachmas,  in 
 consideration  of  beasts  for  sacrifices,  wine,  and  oil,  and  2500  mea- 
 sures of  wheat,  in  lieu  of  fine  Hour,  and  all  this  to  be  raised  upon 
 the  tribute  of  Samaria;  that  the  priests  may  offer  up  sacrifices, 
 according  to  the  laws  and  ceremonies  of  Moses,  and  pray  daily 
 for  the  king  and  royal  family,  and  for  the  welfare  and  happiness 
 ot  the  Persian  empire;  and  let  no  man  presume  to  do  anything 
 contrary  to  the  tenor  of  this  my  royal  will  and  proclamation,  upon 
 pain  of  forfeiting  life  and  estate." — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  1. 
 
 c  In  the  time  of  the  captivity,  it  was  a  common  thing  for  the 
 great  men  of  Judah  to  have  two  names ;  one  of  their  own  coun- 
 try, which  was  domestic,  and  another  of  the  Chaldeans,  which 
 was  used  at  court.  Zerubbabel  was  bom  in  Babylon ;  and  his 
 name,  which  signifies  an  crile,  or  stranger  in  Babylon,  imports 
 the  misery  of  the  people  of  Israel  at  that  time ;  hut  Sheshbazzar, 
 which  is  a  compound  of  two  words,  signifying,  fine  limn  ami 
 gold,  seems  to  be  a  name  of  a  better  omen,  r.nd  to  denote  their 
 ftlture  more  nourishing  condition.—  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 was  destroyed,  and  put  to  death  by  Nebuchadnezzar  at 
 Riblah,  in  Syria ;  so  that  the  former  of  them  was  des- 
 cended from  the  regal,  and  the  latter  from  the  pontifical 
 family  in  a  direct  line.  Zerubbabel  was  made  governor 
 of  the  land  by  a  commission  from  Cyrus ;  Joshua,  of 
 course,  succeeded  to  the  chief  priesthood  ;  and  with 
 them  were  joined  several  others,  as  assisters,  for  the  set- 
 tling all  affairs  both  in  church  and  state. 
 
 On  the  first  month  of  the  Jewish  sacred  year,  which  is 
 called  Nisan,  and  answers  to  part  of  March  and  part  of 
 April  in  our  calendar,  the  people  arrived  in  Judea  ;  and. 
 having  dispersed  themselves,  according  to  their  tribes  and 
 families,  in  their  several  cities,  they  set  about  the  rebuild- 
 ing of  their  houses,  and  the  cultivation  of  their  lands, 
 after  they  had  lain  desolate,  from  the  murder  of  Geda- 
 liah,  two  and  fifty  years.  On  the  seventh  month,  which 
 is  called  Tizra,  and  answers  in  part  to  our  September 
 and  October,  all  the  people  from  their  several  cities, 
 met  together  at  Jerusalem,  and  on  the  first  day  of  that 
 month,  there  celebrated  the  d  feast  of  the  trumpets.  On 
 the  tenth  was  the  great  day  of  expiation,  e  when  the 
 
 d  The  first  day  of  the  month  Tizri  was  the  beginning  of  the 
 Jewish  civil  year,  and  on  it  was  the  feast  of  trumpets,  so  called, 
 because  it  was  proclaimed  by  sound  of  trumpet;  but,  upon  what 
 occasion  it  was  at  first  instituted,  the  Scripture  is  silent.  Theo- 
 doret  (Quest,  xxxii.  in  Lev.)  is  of  opinion,  that  it  was  in  memory 
 of  the  thunder  and  lightning  upon  Mount  Sinai,  when  God  gave 
 his  law  from  thence.  The  ancient  rabbins  will  have  it,  that  it 
 was  in  remembrance  of  the  deliverance  of  Isaac,  in  whose  stead 
 Abraham  sacrificed  a  ram ;  but  some  modern  Jews  maintain  that 
 it  was  in  memory  of  the  world's  creation,  which  they  accordingly 
 assert  was  in  the  beginning  of  autumn,  and,  as  they  hold  it  by 
 tradition,  that  on  this  day  God  particularly  judges  all  the  actions  of 
 the  foregoing  year,  and  disposes  all  the  events  of  the  year  follow- 
 ing, for  this  reason  they  generally  apply  themselves,  for  the  whole 
 eight  days  preceding  this  feast,  to  the  works  of  penance  and  mor- 
 tification. On  the  feast  itself,  which  lasts  for  two  days,  all  labour 
 and  business  are  suspended,  and,  while  sacrifices  were  in  use,  the 
 Jews  offered,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  nation,  a  solemn  holo- 
 caust of  a  calf,  two  rams,  and  seven  lambs,  all  of  the  same  year, 
 together  with  the  flour  and  wine,  that  usually  went  along  with 
 such  sacrifices ;  but,  instead  of  that,  they  now  go  to  the  syna- 
 gogue, where  they  repeat  several  prayers  and  benedictions,  and 
 having  taken  the  Pentateuch  very  solemnly  out  of  the  chest,  and 
 read  to  five  persons  the  service  that  used  to  be  performed  on  that 
 day,  they  sound  twenty  times  upon  a  horn,  sometimes  very  low, 
 sometimes  very  loud:  and  this,  they  say,  makes  them  think  of 
 the  judgments  of  God,  to  intimidate  sinners,  and  put  them  upon 
 repentance. — Caimefs  Dictionary  under  the  word  Trumpet. 
 
 e  This  was  one  of  the  principal  solemnities  of  the  Jews,  and  the 
 ceremonies  to  be  observed  hereon  were  such  as  these. — The 
 high  priest,  after  he  had  washed  not  only  his  hands  and  feet,  as 
 usual  in  common  sacrifices,  but  his  body  likewise,  dressed  him- 
 self in  a  plain  linen  garment  like  one  of  the  priests,  and  had  nei- 
 ther his  purple  robe,  his  ephod,  nor  his  pectoral  on,  because  he 
 was  going  to  expiate  his  own  as  well  as  the  pi  ople's  sins.  lie 
 first  of  all  offered  a  bullock  and  a  ram  for  his  own  sins,  and  those 
 of  the  other  priests,  putting  his  hand  upon  their  heads,  and  con- 
 fessing his  own  sins,  and  the  sins  of  his  house:  then  he  received 
 from  the  princes  of  the  people  two  goats  for  a  sin-offering,  and  a 
 ram  for  a  burnt-offering,  to  be  offered  in  the  name  of  all  the  peo- 
 ple. By  lots  it  was  determined  which  of  the  two  goats  should  be 
 sacrificed,  and  which  beset  at  liberty ;  and  therefore,  after  that 
 he  had  perfumed  the  sanctuary  with  some  burning  incense,  he 
 took  of  the  blood  of  the  bullock  which  he  had  sacrificed,  and  dip- 
 ping his  finger  in  it,  sprinkled  it  seven  times  between  the  ark 
 and  the  veil,  which  separated  between  the  holy  of  holies,  and  the 
 body  of  the  tabernacle  or  temple.  After  this  lie  came  out  again, 
 and  having  sacrificed  the  goat  upon  which  the  lot  was  fallen,  he 
 returned  with  some  of  its  blood  into  the  sanctuary,  and  there 
 sprinkled  it  as  he  had  done  before:  then  coming  out  again,  he 
 sprinkled  both  sides  of  the  court  with  the  blood  of  the  goat,  and 
 so  proceeding  to  the  altar  of  the  burnt-offerings,  he  wet  the  four 
 
692 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3117.  A.  C.  587  ;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 high  priest  made  atonement  for  all  the  people  ;  and  on 
 the  fifteenth  began  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  a  which  last- 
 ed till  the  twenty-third.  During-  all  which  solemnities, 
 the  people  staid  at  Jerusalem ;  and  to  promote  the  resto- 
 ration of  God's  worship  in  that  place,  the  free-will  offer- 
 ings, which  they  made  upon  that  occasion,  besides  an 
 hundred  vestments  for  the  priests,  amounted  to  sixty-one 
 thousand  drachms  of  gold,  and  live  thousand  minae  of 
 silver,  which,  in  all,  comes  to  about  b  seventy-five  thou- 
 
 horns  of  it  with  the  blood  of  the  goat  and  the  bullock,  and  sprin- 
 kled it  seven  times  with  the  same.  After  all  these  ceremonies 
 were  finished,  the  goat  that  was  to  be  set  at  liberty,  which  was 
 commonly  called  the  scape-goat,  was  brought  to  the  high  priest, 
 who  put  both  his  hands  upon  its  head,  and  having  confessed  all 
 his  own  sins,  and  the  sins  of  the  people,  delivered  it  to  persons 
 appointed  to  that  office,  who  carried  it  into  the  wilderness,  and 
 left  it  upon  the  brink  of  a  precipice,  at  twelve  miles'  distance 
 from  Jerusalem.  After  all  which,  the  high  priest  washed  him- 
 self  all  over  again  in  the  tabernacle  or  temple,  and  putting  on 
 his  pontifical  dress,  sacrificed  two  rams  for  a  burnt-offering,  one 
 for  himself  and  the  other  for  the  people :  and  so  concluded  the  day, 
 with  reading  the  law,  and  giving  the  blessing  to  the  people,  who 
 all,  upon  this  occasion,  behaved  with  great  devotion,  fasted  punctu- 
 ally, and  returned  home  with  a  full  persuasion  and  assurance  that 
 their  sins  were  entirely  done  away,  and  expiated.  The  modern 
 Jews,  who  have  no  sacrifices,  content  themselves  with  reading  in 
 Leviticus  what  relates  to  the  solemn  service  of  this  day,  and  tiie 
 ceremonies  concerning  the  scape-goat.  They,  in  like  manner, 
 fast  very  strictly,  and  pray  very  devoutly,  until  the  conclusion  of 
 the  day,  when  having  received  the  Rabbin's  blessing,  they  go 
 home,  fully  satisfied  that  all  their  iniquities  are  pardoned  ;  for  their 
 standing  maxim  is,  that  repentance,  though  accompanied  with  a 
 resolution  of  living  well,  does  but  suspend  sins;  whereas  the  feast 
 of  expiation  does  absolutely  abolish  them.  The  reader  that  is  de- 
 sirous to  know  more  of  this,  may  consult  Basnage's  History  of 
 the  Jews,  and  Culmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Expiation. 
 
 a  This  was  one  of  the  great  solemnities  of  the  Jews,  wherein 
 all  the  males  were  obliged  to  present  themselves  before  the  Lord. 
 In  Hebrew  it  is  called  chag  hassuchoth,  the  feast  of  tents;  be- 
 cause it  was  kept  under  green  tents,  and  arbours,  in  memory  of 
 their  dwelling  in  tents  in  their  passage  through  the  wilderness, 
 and  immediately  after  the  harvest,  in  grateful  acknowledgment 
 to  God  for  the  fruits  of  the  earth  which  they  had  lately  gathered 
 in.  It  was  observed  for  seven  days ;  and  of  the  several  sacrifices 
 which  «ere  appointed  for  each  day,  we  have  a  punctual  account 
 in  the  book  of  Numbers,  (chap.  xxix.  12,  &c.)  The  modem 
 Jews  not  hiving  now  an  opportunity  of  going  to  the  temple  and 
 performing  all  the  ceremonies  prescribed  by  Moses,  make,  each 
 for  himself,  in  some  open  place,  a  bower,  or  arbour  of  the  branches 
 of  trees  of  such  a  determinate  height,  hung  round  about  and 
 adorned,  as  much  as  they  can,  where  they  eat  and  drink,  and 
 pass  at  least  as  much  time  in  their  houses,  for  all  the  days  of  the 
 festival;  but  such  as  are  old,  or  sick,  are  excused,  and  when  it 
 rains  very  hard,  they  are  permitted  to  retire  to  their  houses. 
 On  the  first  day  of  the  feast,  they  take  one  branch  of  palm,  three 
 of  myrtle,  and  one  of  willow,  bound  together,  which  they  carry 
 in  their  ri^lit  hand,  and  having  a  branch  of  citron,  with  its  fruit 
 in  their  left,  thus  they  make  four  turns  about  the  reading  desk 
 in  their  synagogues.  On  the  seventh  day,  which  is  accounted 
 more  holy  than  the  rest,  they  rise  with  the  sun,  and  going  to  the 
 synagogue,  sing  abundance  of  prayers,  which  they  repeat  all  the 
 feast,  with  prodigious  rapidity,  as  supposing,  that  during  their 
 journey  they  were  obliged  to  make  haste  even  in  the  sen  ice  of 
 God.  On  the  eighth,  (for  they  have  added  two  days  to  w^hat 
 Moses  at  first  prescribed)  they  get  their  friends  together,  and 
 give  them  an  entertainment;  and  on  the  ninth,  which  they  call 
 'the  joy  of  the  law,'  they  complete  the  reading  of  the  Penta- 
 teuch, according  to  the  order  of  its  sections. — Basnage's  Hist, 
 of  the  Jews,  ami  Cahnet's  Diet,  under  the  word  Tabernacles. 
 
 &  For  every  drachm  of  gold  is  worth  ten  shilling.;  of  our  money, 
 and  every  mina  of  silver  nine  pounds;  for  it  contained  sixty 
 shekels,  and  every  shekel  of  silver  is  worth  three  shillings  of  our 
 money. — From  whence  it  appears,  that  the  .lews  were  not  made 
 such  poor  slaves  in  Babylon,  as  wrought  fur  their  lords  and  mas- 
 ters, but  had  some  of  them  very  considerable  offices  at  court,  and 
 ail  liberty  to  trade,  and  get  riches  for  themselves;  and  conse- 
 
 sand  five  hundred  pounds  of  our  money ;  and  with  this 
 fund,  they  began  the  work  of  rebuilding  the  temple. 
 
 To  this  purpose,  having  employed  the  first  year  in  pre- 
 paring materials  and  providing  workmen,  in  the  second 
 month  of  the  second  year,  (which  answers  in  part  to  our 
 April  and  May),  they  laid  the  foundation  of  it  with  great 
 joy  and  solemnity  ;  only  the  old  men,  who  had  seen  the 
 glory  of  the  first  temple,  and  had  no  expectation  that 
 this,  which  was  now  abuilding  by  a  few  poor  exiles, 
 lately  returned  from  their  captivity,  would  ever  equal 
 that  which  had  all  the  riches  of  David  and  Solomon  (two 
 of  the  wealthiest  princes  of  the  east)  expended  on  it, 
 wept  at  the  remembrance  of  the  old,  whilst  the  others 
 rejoiced  at  the  laying  the  foundations  of  the  new  temple. 
 
 Whilst  the  Jews  Mere  going  on  with  this  work,  the 
 Samaritans,  who  were  planted  in  several  cities  of  Israel 
 in  the  room  of  the  Israelites  whom  Salmanassar,  king  of 
 Assyria,  had  long  before  carried  away  captive,  hearing 
 that  they  were  about  rebuilding  their  temple,  came  to 
 the  governor  Zerubbabel,  and  desired  to  join  with  them 
 in  the  work,  alleging,  that  they  worshipped  the  same 
 God  that  the  people  of  Judah  did.  The  governor,  how- 
 ever, and  the  chiefs  of  the  families  of  Israel,  would  by 
 no  means  allow  them  to  have  any  share  in  the  work, 
 being  apprehensive  that  they,  who  were  no  better  than 
 idolaters,  c  notwithstanding  they  pretended  to  worship 
 the  God  of  Israel,  might  have  some  evil  design  in  the 
 ofier  of  their  service ;  and  therefore  they  absolutely 
 refused  them ;  which  so  exasperated  the  other,  that,  from 
 that  very  moment,  they  made  it  their  endeavour,  as  much 
 as  in  them  lay,  to  obstruct  the  work :  and  though  they 
 could  not  alter  the  decree  which  Cyrus  had  made  in 
 favour  of  it ;  yet  by  bribes,  and  underhand  dealings 
 with  his  ministers,  they  in  a  great  measure  defeated  its 
 effects.  So  that  for  several  years  the  building  went  but 
 slowly  on,  and,  upon  the  death  of  the  prophet  rf  Daniel, 
 
 quently  that  there  may  not  be  all  the  truth  imaginable  in  that 
 common  saying  among  them,  namely,  that  they  were  the  only 
 bran,  that  is,  the  dregs  of  the  people,  who  returned  to  Jerusalem, 
 after  the  end  of  the  captivity,  and  that  all  the  fine  flour  staid  be- 
 hind at  Babylon. — Pridcaux's  Connection,  anno  536. 
 
 c  For  although,  from  the  time  that  they  had  been  infested 
 with  lions,  in  the  days  of  Esarhaddon,  they  had  worshipped  the 
 God  of  Israel,  yet  it  was  only  in  conjunction  with  their  other 
 gods  whom  they  worshipped  before ;  and  therefore,  notwithstand- 
 ing their  worship  of  the  true  God,  since  they  worshipped  false 
 gods  too  at  the  same  time,  they  were,  in  this  respect,  idolaters, 
 which  was  reason  enough  for  the  true  worshippers  of  God  to  have 
 no  communion  with  them.  —  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  534. 
 
 d  We  do  not  find  that  Daniel  took  the  advantage  of  the  edict 
 which  Cyrus  made  in  favour  of  the  Jews;  and  therefore  we  may 
 suppose,  that,  as  he  did  not  return  with  them  to  Jerusalem,  the 
 king  might  require  his  continuance  with  him,  and  Daniel  might 
 the  rather  consent  to  it,  as  having  thereby  a  better  opportunity 
 to  befriend  his  countrymen  upon  any  exigence.  To  this  purpose 
 it  is  highly  probable,  that  he  attended  the  Persian  court,  which, 
 alter  the  taking  and  defacing  of  Babylon,  resided  in  summer  at 
 Shushan  or  Susa,  and  in  winter  at  Ecbatan.  In  the  palace  of 
 Shushan,  Daniel,  as  himself  tells  us,  (chap.  viii.  I,  &c.,)  had 
 several  visions.  In  this  city,  as  Josephus  himself  informs  us, 
 (Antiq.  b.  x.  c.  12,)  where,  instead  of  Ecbatan,  St  Jerome  reads 
 Susa,  he  built  a  famous  edifice,  finished  with  such  exquisite  art, 
 that  it  continued  fresh  and  beautiful  in  his  days;  and  in  this  city 
 the  common  tradition  is,  that  he  died  in  the  third  or  fourth  year 
 of  Cyrus,  and  about  the  ninety-first  year  of  his  age;  for  even  tc 
 this  day,  as  we  learn  from  Benjamin's  Itincrarium,  the  inhabi- 
 tants of  the  place,  at  present  called  Tuster,  show  his  monument. 
 But  the  most  valuable  monument  left  behind  him  is  in  his  writ- 
 ings, whereof  the  Jewish    historian  gives  us  this  character  — 
 
Sect.  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &< 
 
 69B 
 
 A.  HI.  3417    A.  C.  587  ;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JElt.  xl.  7—  xlv.  DANIEL,  AND     EZRA  i— v. 
 
 "  He  had  this  peculiar  blessing  attending  him,  that  he  lived  in 
 great  reputation  both  with  prince  and  people,  and  when  he  died, 
 left  an  immortal  memory  behind  him.  II is  writings,  which  are 
 still  extant,  and  in  common  use,  we  keep  as  a  sure  pledge  that  he 
 had  an  intimacy  and  conversation  with  God:  lor,  whereas  other 
 prophets  were  more  employed  in  foreboding  calamities  and  ill 
 news,  which  drew  upon  them  disgrace  from  princes,  and  hatred 
 from  the  people,  Daniel,  on  the  contrary,  foretold  nothing  but 
 happy  events,  and  what  was  agreeable;  so  that  the  nature  of  his 
 predictions  was  such,  as  gained  him  the  good  will  of  all,  and  such 
 the  certainty  of  them,  as  gained  him  a  ready  credence  with  all: 
 which,  as  the  historian  remarks,  may  serve  not  only  to  establish 
 a  veneration  for  the  memory  of  a  man  whom  God  so  signally  ho- 
 noured, but  to  confound  likewise  the  impious  doctrines  of  the 
 Epicureans,  which  will  not  allow  of  any  overruling  providence 
 interposing  in  the  government  and  preservation  of  the  universe, 
 but  will  have  the  whole  course  of  sublunary  things  to  he  nothing 
 more  than  one  grand  huddle  of  contingencies.  For  when  I  con- 
 sider the  prophecies  of  Daniel,  says  he,  I  cannot  but  blame  the 
 ignorance  or  irreverence  of  those  who  make  it  their  profession 
 to  decry  providence,  as  if  God  took  no  care  of  us,  since  it  is 
 impossible  to  conceive  how  there  should  be  such  a  corespondence 
 between  the  things  foretold  at  one  time  and  fulfilled  so  many 
 ages  alter,  if,  according  to  their  opinion,  every  thing  were  left  to 
 run  at  random,  and  fall  out  at  hap-ha/ard." — Jewish  Jlntiquitics, 
 b.  x.  c.  12.  [Mr  Bell,  iu  his  edition  of  Rollin,  lias  an  able  and 
 elaborate  inquiiy  into  the  situation  of  Shushan,  which  lie  identi- 
 fies, with  the  ruins  called  Sus  or  Shush,  100  miles  distant  from 
 the  banks  of  the  Shat-ul-Arab,  and  50  miles  N.W.  of  Sinister,  the 
 Tuster  mentioned  above.  From  this  article  we  extract  the  fol- 
 lowing interesting  account  of  the  tomb  of  Daniel: — Amongst 
 the  ruins  of  Sus,  two  mounds  stand  pre-eminent,  and  of  enormous 
 dimensions,  the  one  being  a  mile  in  circumference,  and  the  other 
 two;  their  height  measuring  nearly  150  feet.  They  are  com- 
 posed of  huge  masses  of  sun-dried  brick,  and  courses  of  burnt 
 brick  and  mortar,  and  stand  not  very  far  from  the  banks  of  the 
 Kerah  or  Karasu;  from  whose  eastern  shore  the  vestiges  of  this 
 once  famous  capital  are  yet  traceable  nearly  to  the  banks  of  the 
 Ab-zal.  approaching  the  town  of  Dezful.  The  people  of  the  coun- 
 try disUr  guish  these  two  great  mounds  by  the  name  of  the  Castle 
 and  the  Palace;  and  at  the  foot  of  the  latter  or  largest  appears  a 
 little  dome-like  building,  under  which  travellers  are  shown  the 
 tomb  of  Daniel  the  prophet.  A  dervise  resides  there,  impressed 
 with  a  belief  of  its  peculiar  sanctity,  and  who  points  to  the  grave 
 of  the  '  man  greatly  beloved,'  the  most  inspired  of  Judah's  pro- 
 phetic sons,  with  as  much  homage  as  if  it  belonged  to  the  pre- 
 tended prophet  of  Mecca  himself,  or  to  the  Imaum  Hosein.  Though 
 covered  by  this  modern  structure,  no  doubt  is  held  by  Jew,  Arab, 
 or  Mussulman,  of  the  great  antiquity  of  the  tomb  beneath — all 
 bearing  the  same  tradition,  that  it  does  in  very  deed  contain  the 
 remains  of  the  prophet.  The  exact  era  of  his  death  is  not  known ; 
 but  it  is  probable  that  he  died  in  Susa,  a  few  years  after  the  tak- 
 ing of  Babylon  by  Cyrus.  Josephus  mentions  a  famous  edifice- 
 built  by  Daniel  at  Susa,  in  the  form  of  a  castle,  which,  he  adds, 
 was  still  standing;  and  had  been  finished  with  such  wonderful 
 art,  that  even  then  it  appeared  as  fresh  and  beautiful  as  if  only 
 newly  founded.  "  Within  this  edifice,"  Josephus  says,  "  was 
 the  place  where  the  Persian  and  Parthian  kings  were  usually 
 buried  ;  and  for  the  sake  of  the  founder,  the  keeping  of  it  was 
 committed  to  one  of  the  Jewish  nation,  even  at  that  day."  Some 
 copies  of  Josephus,  now  extant,  place  this  building  at  Ecbatan, 
 or  Ilamadan,  in  Media;  but  St  Jerome,  who  also  gives  an  ac- 
 count of  it,  and  professedly  does  so  verbatim  from  Josephus, 
 places  it  at  Susa,  which'shows  that  it  was  so  in  his  copy  of  that 
 historian.  We  no  where  read  in  Scripture  that  Daniel  was  at 
 Ecbatan,  Susa  was  formerly  a  city  of  the  Babylonian  empire, 
 and  Daniel  sometimes  at  least  resided  there  before  the  taking  of 
 Babylon ;  and  it  has  since  then  been  the  constant  tradition,  that 
 there  Daniel  died,  and  there  they  still  show  his  monument.  It 
 must  also  be  remarked,  that  Josephus  calls  this  edifice  Boris, 
 the  same  name  by  which  Daniel  himself  distinguishes  the  castle 
 or  palace  of  Shushan'.  For  what  is  translated  at  Shushan  in  the 
 palace,  (Dan.  viii.  2,)  i>  in  the  original  Bish  Shushan  Ha.  Bi- 
 rah.  Here,  undoubtedly,  the  Birah  of  Daniel  is  the  same  with 
 the  Maris  of  Josephus,  and  both  signify  the  palace  or  castle  built 
 ill  Shushan  by  Daniel  while  governor  of  that  province.  The  site 
 of  t'.iis  once  famous  metropolis  of  the  east  is  now  a  mere  wilder- 
 ness, given  up  to  beasts  of  prey,  no  human  being  disputing  their 
 reign  save  the  poor  dervise  who  keeps  watch  over  the  tomb  of 
 the  prophi  I.     The  chambers  of  royalty  where  Ahasuerus  showed 
 
 the  riches  of  his  glorious  kingdom,  and  the  honour  of  his  excel- 
 lent majesty,  for  IsO  days,  unto  all  his  princes  and  servants,  the 
 power  of  Media  and  Persia,  with  the  nobles  and  princes  of  the 
 127  provinces  that  stretched  from  India  even  to  Ethiopia,  are 
 now  the  abodes  of  the  lion,  the  wolf,  and  the  hyana;  and  the 
 voice  of  festive  song  that  once  filled  the  joyous  halls  is  now  ex- 
 changed for  the  frightful  bowlings  of  these  beasts  of  prey.  The 
 earliest  notice  of  Daniel's  tomb  published  in  Europe,  seems  to 
 have  been  given  by  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  a  Spanish  Jew,  who 
 visited  Asia,  towards  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
 The  account  of  his  travels  was  first  printed  in  Hebrew,  in  154o, 
 and  has  gone  through  several  editions  and  translations  into  dif- 
 ferent languages.  The  tomb  of  Daniel  is  also  mentioned  by 
 another  Jewish  traveller,  whose  Hebrew  work,  with  a  Latin  trans- 
 lation by  the  learned  Hottenger,  was  published  at  Heidelberg, 
 in  l()5i),  under  the  title  of  '  Cippi  Hebraici.'  But  in  these  no- 
 tices the  Tigris  is  confounded  with  the  Euphrates,  and  Babylon 
 with  Susa.  "The  local  tradition  which  fixes  Daniel's  tomb  at 
 Susa,"  says  Sir  William  Ousely,  "seems  worthy  of  investiga- 
 tion. Through  the  more  modern  authors  of  some  oriental  works, 
 mostly  geographical,  I  have  pursued  the  tradition  to  Hamdalla, 
 Cazvini,  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  from  him  through  Rabbi 
 Benjamin  above-mentioned,  to  Ebn  Hawkel,  who  travelled  in  the 
 tenth  century." — Oriental  Geog.  p.  70,  of  Ebn  Hawkel,  trans- 
 lated by  Sir  William  Ousely.  This  is  probably  the  oldest  autho- 
 rity furnished  by  printed  books  on  the  subject;  but  a  venerable 
 historian,  Aasim  of  Cufah,  who  preceded  Ebn  Hawkel  by  two 
 centuries,  (for  he  died  in  735)  mentions  the  discovery  of  Daniel's 
 coffin  at  Sus,  in  a  MS.  chronicle,  from  which  Sir  William 
 Ousely  promised  an  extract,  which  is  given  in  Walpole's  me- 
 moirs of  Asiatic  Turkey,  p.  422.  The  passage  in  Ebn  Hawkel 
 respecting  Daniel's  tomb  is  as  follows: — "In  the  city  of  Sus 
 there  is  a  river;  and  I  have  heard,  that  in  the  time  of  Abou 
 Mousa  al  Ashari,  a  coffin  was  found  there,  and  it  is  said  the  hones 
 of  Daniel  the  prophet,  to  whom  be  peace,  were  in  that  coffin, 
 these  the  people  held  in  great  veneration,  and,  in  time  of  dis- 
 tress or  famine  from  drought,  they  brought  them  out  and  prayed 
 for  rain.  Abou  Mousa  al  Ashari  ordered  this  coffin  to  be  brought, 
 and  three  coverings  or  lids  to  be  made  for  it;  the  first  or  outside 
 one  of  which  was  of  boards,  exceedingly  strong,  and  caused  it  to 
 be  buried,  so  that  it  could  not  be  viewed.  A  bay  or  gulf  of  the 
 river  comes  over  this  grave,  which  may  be  seen  by  any  one  who 
 dives  to  the  bottom  of  the  water."  Now  follows  Sir  William 
 Ousely's  own  relation,  with  the  extract  from  Aasim  of  Cufah: 
 "  I  was  finally  driven  by  the  heat  to  the  tomb  of  Daniel,  or,  as  he 
 is  called  in  the  east,  Danyall,  which  is  situated  in  a  most  beau- 
 tiful spot,  washed  by  a  clear  running  stream,  and  shaded  by 
 planes,  and  other  trees  of  ample  foliage.  The  building  is  of 
 Mahommedan  date,  and  inhabited  by  a  solitary  dervise,  who 
 shows  the  spot  where  the  prophet  is  buried,  beneath  a  small  and 
 simple  square  brick  mausoleum,  said  to  be,  without  all  pro- 
 bability, coeval  with  his  death.  It  has,  however,  neither  date 
 nor  inscription,  to  prove  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  dervise's 
 assertion.  The  small  river  running  at  the  foot  of  this  building, 
 which  is  called  the  Belleran,  Hows,  it  has  been  said,  immediately 
 over  the  prophet's  tomb,  and,  by  the  transparency  of  the  water, 
 his  coffin  was  to  be  seen  at  the  bottom.  But  the  dervise  and  the 
 natives  whom  I  questioned,  remembered  no  tradition  corroborat- 
 ing such  a  fact.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  at  all  times  been  custom- 
 ary with  the  people  of  the  country  to  resort  hither  on  certain 
 days  of  the  month,  when  they  ofier  up  their  prayers  at  the  tomb 
 I  have  mentioned,  in  supplication  to  the  prophet's  shade;  and, 
 by  becoming  his  guests  for  the  night,  expect  remission  from  all 
 present  grievances,  and  an  insurance  against  those  to  come." 
 The  following  is  the  tradition  from  the  Persian  MS.  of  Aasim  of 
 Cufah,  communicated  by  our  author: — lathe  18th  year  of  the 
 Hegira,  A.  D.  640,  whilst  Omar  was  khalifi*,  an  Arabian  army, 
 under  Abou  Mousa  al  Ashari,  invaded  Susiana.  In  the  ancient 
 capital  Sua  (Sus)  that  general  found,  besides  considerable  trea- 
 sures of  various  kinds,  an  extraordinary  sepulchral  monument, 
 which,  according  to  local  tradition,  contained  the  body  of  the  pro- 
 phet Daniel.  Of  this  discovered  monument,  the  most  circum- 
 stantial account  is  given  by  Abou  Mohammed  Ahmed,  whose 
 father,  Aasim  of  Cufah,  flourished  so  shortly  after  the  conquest 
 of  Susiana,  that  he  might,  when  young,  have  conversed  with 
 several  of  the  veteran  warriors,  whose  valour  had  contributed  to 
 that  event,  for  be  died  in  A.  D.  7o5,  as  we  learn  from  Casiri. 
 Ebn  Aasim's  Book  of  Victories,  in  the  original  Arabic,  is  a  work 
 very  rare;  but  it  was  translated  into  Persian  by  Ahmed  al  Mas- 
 toitzi,  about  the  year  1200,  A.  D.  and  copies  iu  this  language 
 
694 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;   OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and   EZKA  i-v. 
 
 who  was  a  powerful  advocate  for  his  countrymen  at  the 
 Persian  court,  and  the  death  of  their  great  benefactor 
 
 are  sufficiently  numerous.  I  have  extracted  what  relates  to  the 
 tomb  of  Daniel.  "  Abou  Mousa,  having  pillaged  the  territory 
 ofAhwaz,  proceeded  to  Susa,  where  he  slew  the  governor,  a 
 Persian  prince,  named  Shapoor,  the  son  of  Azurmahan.  Then 
 he  entered  the  castle  and  palace  of  that  prince,  and  seized  all  the 
 treasure  there,  deposited  in  different  places,  until  he  came  to  a 
 certain  chamber,  the  door  of  which  was  strongly  fastened,  a  lead- 
 en seal  being  affixed  to  the  lock.  Abou  Mousa  inquired  of  the 
 people  of  Sus  what  precious  article  was  guarded  with  such  care  in 
 this  chamber.  They  assured  him,  that  he  would  not  regard  it 
 as  a  desirable  object  of  plunder ;  but  his  curiosity  was  roused,  and 
 he  caused  the  lock  to  be  broken,  and  the  door  to  be  opened.  In 
 the  chamber  he  beheld  a  stone  of  considerable  dimensions  hollow- 
 ed out  into  the  form  of  a  coffin,  and  in  that  the  body  of  a  dead 
 man,  wrapped  in  a  shroud  or  winding-sheet  of  gold  brocade.  The 
 head  was  uncovered.  Abou  Mousa  and  his  attendants  were 
 astonished ;  for  having  measured  the  nose,  they  found  that  pro- 
 portionally  he  must  have  exceeded  the  common  size  of  men 
 The  people  now  informed  Abou  Mousa,  that  this  was  the  body  of 
 an  ancient  sage  who  formerly  lived  in  Irak,  (Chaldea  or  Babylo- 
 nia,) and  that  whenever  the  want  of  rain  occasioned  a  famine  or 
 scarcity,  the  inhabitants  applied  to  this  holy  man,  and  through 
 the  efficacy  of  his  prayers,  obtained  copious  showers  of  rain  from 
 heaven.  It  happened  afterwards  that  Sus  also  suffered  from  ex- 
 cessive drought;  and  the  people  in  distress  requested  that  their 
 neighbours  would  allow  this  venerable  personage  to  reside  a  few- 
 days  among  them,  expecting  to  derive  the  blessing  of  rain  from 
 his  intercession  with  the  Almighty;  but  the  Irakians  would  not 
 grant  this  request.  Fifty  men  then  went,  deputed  by  the  people 
 of  Sus,  who  again  petitioned  the  ruler  of  Irak,  saying,  '  Let  the 
 holy  person  visit  our  country,  and  detain  the  fifty  men  until  his 
 return.'  These  terms  were  accepted,  and  the  holy  person  came 
 to  Sus,  where,  through  the  influence  of  his  prayers,  rain  fell  in 
 great  abundance,  and  saved  the  land  from  famine;  but  the  peo- 
 ple would  not  permit  him  to  return,  and  the  fifty  men  were  de- 
 tained as  hostages  in  Irak.  Such,  said  those  who  accompanied 
 Abou  Mousa,  is  the  history  of  the  dead  man.  The  Arabian  ge- 
 neral then  asked  them,  '  by  what  name  this  extraordinary  per- 
 sonage had  been  known  among  them  ?'  They  replied,  '  the  people 
 of  Irak  called  him  Daniel  Hakim,  or  Daniel  the  Sage.'  After 
 this  Abou  Mousa  remained  some  time  in  Sus,  and  despatched  a 
 im  ss,ii<;er  to  Omar  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful,  with  an  ac- 
 count of  all  his  conquests  in  Khuzistan,  and  of  the  various  trea- 
 sures that  had  fallen  into  his  possession.  He  related  also  the  dis- 
 covery of  Daniel's  body.  When  Omar  had  received  this  account, 
 lie  demanded  from  his  chief  officers  some  information  concerning 
 Daniel,  but  all  were  silent,  except  Ali,  on  whom  be  the  blessing 
 -I  God.  He  declared,  that  Daniel  had  been  a  prophet,  though 
 not  ol  the  highest  order;  that  in  ages  long  since  he  had  dwelt 
 with  Bakht  al  Nassar,  (Nebuchadnezzar),  and  the  kirns  who  had 
 succeeded  him;  and  Ali  related  the  whole  of  Daniel's  history 
 from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  Omar  then,  by  the  advice  of  his 
 counsellor  Ali,  caused  letters  to  be  directed  to  Abou  Mousa  to 
 remove  with  due  respect  and  veneration  the  body  of  Daniel  to 
 some  place  where  the  people  of  Sus  could  no  longer  enjoy  the 
 possession  of  it.  Abou  Mousa,  immediately  on  the  receipt  of  this 
 order,  obliged  the  people  of  Sus  to  turn  the  stream  which  supplied 
 them  with  water  from  its  natural  course.  Then  he  brought  forth 
 the  body  of  Daniel,  and  having  wrapped  it  in  another  shroud  of 
 gold  brocade,  he  commanded  a  grave  to  be  made  in  the  dry  chan- 
 nel of  the  river,  and  therein  deposited  the  venerable  remains  of 
 the  prophet.  The  grave  was  then  firmly  secured  and  covered 
 with  stones  of  considerable  size;  the  river  was  restored  to  its 
 wonted  channel,  and  the  waters  of  Sus  now  flow  over  the  body  of 
 I  >aniel.  The  venerable  dervise  who  watches  the  tomb  of  Daniel, 
 showed  major  Monteith  several  blocks  of  stone  curiously  sculp- 
 tured, and  of  evident  antiquity,  two  of  which  he  sketched  hastily. 
 The  first  of  these  was  a  green  granite,  so  dark  as  to  be  almost  black, 
 finely  polished,  and  in  height  twenty-two  inches,  and  twelve  in 
 width.  One  of  its  sides  was  completely  covered  with  hierogly- 
 phieal  figures,  roughly  carved  in  relief,  and  occupying  five  rows. 
 The  first  row  contains  forms  supposed  to  denote  the  sun,  moon, 
 and  one  of  the  stars;  the  second,  animals  resembling  a  hare,  a  dog[ 
 and  a  bird;  the  third,  a  figure  with  the  head  and  lower  extremi- 
 ties of  a  tiger,  the  arms  of  a  man,  and  the  tail  of  a  goat.  Three 
 symbolical  instruments  divide  this  monster  from  a  second,  who  is 
 
 Cyrus,  a  which  happened  not  long  after,  it  was  quite  in- 
 termitted, until  the  second  year  of  the  reign  of  Darius 
 the  son  of  Hystaspes,  wherein  it  was  re-assumed. 
 
 CHAP.   II. — Difficulties  Obviated  and  Objections 
 
 Answered. 
 
 That  there  was  such  a  person  as  Daniel,  of  the  Jewish 
 captivity  in  Babylon,  famous  for  his  discovery  of  future 
 events,  and  for  his  great  piety  and  devotion  towards 
 God,  can  hardly  be  denied;  that  the  discourses  and  pre- 
 dictions of  a  person  so  highly  in  favour  with  God  should 
 be  put  in  writing,  either  by  himself  or  some  other,  and 
 when  committed  to  writing,  should  be  carefully  preserv- 
 ed, is  reasonable  to  believe  ;  and  that  the  book  which 
 has  descended  to  us  contains  the  revelations,  and  other 
 accounts  of  things,  which  God  was  pleased  to  communi- 
 cate to  him,  will  sufficiently  appear  by  the  sequel. 
 
 The  character  which  the  prophet  Ezekiel  gives  his 
 contemporary,  Daniel,  l  is,  his  singular  prevalence  with 
 God  in  prayer  ;  and  whoever  looks  into  the  book  that 
 goes  under  his  name,  will  find  its  author  verifying  2  this 
 
 'Ezek.  xiv.  14.  8  Dan.  ii.  6,  9. 
 
 also  half  brute,  half  man,  with  a  staff  in  its  hand,  and  crowned 
 with  a  flat  cap ;  the  fourth  row  contains  an  animal  like  an  ante- 
 lope, a  serpent  a  scorpion,  and  something  resembling  the  orna- 
 mented top  of  a  stall"  or  sceptre  ;  the  fifth  exhibits  a  trident,  two 
 spears,  a  hawk,  and  another  bird,  finishing  the  group  with  a  re- 
 gularly formed  Greek  cross.  Besides  these  hieroglyphics,  two 
 sides  of  the  stone  are  occupied  by  inscriptions  in  the  cuneiform 
 character.  At  the  head  of  one  of  them  was  a  double  low  of  na- 
 tural objects  resembling  birds.  The  second  relic  of  Susa,  which 
 drew  the  particular  attention  of  major  Monteith,  was  a  white 
 marble  stone  found,  as  the  dervise  told  him,  in  the  great  mound  of 
 the  palace,  near  to  the  tomb  of  the  prophet.  It  does  not  exceed 
 ten  inches  in  width  and  depth,  and  measures  twenty  in  length, 
 and  is  hollow  internally.  Three  of  its  sides  are  cut  in  bas  relief, 
 two  of  them  with  similar  representations  of  a  man  apparently 
 naked,  excepting  a  sash  round  his  waste,  and  a  sort  of  cap  on  his 
 head:  his  hands  are  bound  behind  him.  The  corner  of  the  stone 
 holds  the  neck  of  the  figure,  so  that  his  head  forms  part  of  one  of 
 its  ends.  Two  lions  in  sitting  postures,  appear  on  either  side  at 
 the  top,  each  having  a  paw  on  the  head  of  the  man.  The  exe- 
 cution resembles  the  style  of  the  other  on  the  dark  stone;  but 
 there  are  no  traces  of  letters  on  this.  Both  major  Monteith  and 
 captain  Lockett  attempted  to  get  the  dark  stone  by  means  of 
 negotiating  with  the  people,  but  in  vain — the  inhabitants  viewing 
 it  in  the  light  of  a  sacred  talisman.] — Bell's  Rollin,  vol.  1,  pp. 
 195-6. — Ed. 
 
 a  It  is  generally  agreed  by  historians,  that  Cyrus  was  much 
 about  seventy  years  old  when  he  died ;  but  then  they  widely  dif- 
 fer among  themselves  as  to  the  manner  of  his  death.  Some  say 
 that  he  was  taken  in  an  engagement,  and  hanged ;  others,  that 
 he  died  of  a  wound  which  he  received  in  his  thigh;  and  others 
 that  he  was  killed  in  a  battle  with  the  people  of  Samos.  He- 
 rodotus, Justin,  and  Valerius  Maximus  relate,  that,  in  his  war 
 against  the  Scythians,  falling  into  an  ambush  which  queen  To- 
 myris  had  laid  for  him,  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and,  with  in- 
 sult enough,  had  his  head  cut  off  by  her  order:  but  Xenophon's 
 account  is, — that  he  died  peaceably  in  his  bed,  amidst  his 
 friends,  and  in  his  own  country;  as,  indeed  there  is  little  rea- 
 son to  think  either  that  so  wise  a  man  as  Cyrus  should,  in  his 
 advanced  years,  engage  in  so  desperate  an  undertaking  as  this 
 Scythian  expedition  is  represented  on  all  hands,  or  that  had 
 he  died  in  Scythia,  his  mangled  body  could  have  ever  been 
 got  out  of  the  hands  of  these  barbarians  to  be  buried  at  Pasar- 
 gada  in  Persia,  as  most  authors  agree  it  was,  and  where  his  mo- 
 nument was  to  be  seen  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great.— 
 Cahncl "x  Dictionary  under  the  word  Cyrus;  and  Prideauw's 
 Connection,  anno  530. 
 
Skct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 695 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 character,  and  his  success  in  this  particular  exemplified 
 in  several  instances.  '  His  deliverance  out  of  the  den 
 of  lions,  and  that  of  his  companions  out  of  the  h'ery  fur- 
 nace, facts  that  are  recorded  in  the  present  book,  are 
 expressly  mentioned  in  the  prayer  of  2  old  Eleazar  in 
 Egypt,  under  the  rage  of  Ptolemy  Philopater  against  the 
 Jews,  and  3  of  Mattathias,  the  father  of  the  Maccabees, 
 in  Judea,  under  the  persecution  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
 and  their  examples,  among  other  Scripture  instances, 
 are  proposed  as  motives  to  confidence  in  God,  and  con- 
 stancy in  their  religion  :  4  so  that  the  Jews  in  those 
 times,  took  this  book  to  be  written  by  Daniel  himself, 
 and  accordingly  made  use  of  it.  Nay,  long  before  these 
 times,  5  we  find  Nehemiah  beginning  his  solemn  prayer 
 to  God  in  Daniel's  own  words,  almost  with  no  variation. 
 '  O  Lord,  the  great  and  dreadful  God,  keeping  the  co- 
 venant and  mercy  to  them  that  love  him  and  keep  his 
 commandments,'  which  is  a  plain  proof,  not  only  that  he 
 looked  upon  this  book  of  Daniel  as  true  and  authentic, 
 but  that  he  esteemed  his  manner  of  prayinglikewise  not 
 unworthy  his  imitation. 
 
 Josephus,  we  know,  was  a  priest  well  versed  in  the 
 law,  and  in  the  sacred  writings,  whose  authority  he  pro- 
 fesses to  follow  through  all  his  Antiquities  ;  and  yet  he 
 seems  to  prefer  Daniel  above  other  writers  of  that  kind, 
 and  to  give  us  a  more  particular  account  of  his  than  of  all 
 the  other  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament  put  together  : 
 for  he  informs  us,  6  "  That  Daniel  not  only  foretold 
 future  things  (which  was  common  to  him  with  other 
 prophets),  but  that  he  set  the  time  likewise  for  their 
 coming  to  pass ;  7  that  this  book  therefore  was  held 
 among  the  sacred  writings,  and  8  read  in  public  assem- 
 blies (which  is  the  peculiar  privilege  of  canonical  books) 
 in  his  days,  because  the  completion  of  the  events  he 
 foretold  gained  him  belief  with  all  mankind."  Nay,  if 
 we  will  give  credit  to  this  same  Josephus,  this  book  of 
 Daniel  was  looked  upon  as  genuine,  and  of  divine  au- 
 thority, even  in  the  days  of  Alexander  the  Great ;  other- 
 wise the  high-priest  had  put  a  banter  upon  him,  when, 9 
 at  his  coming  to  Jerusalem,  and  going  into  the  temple, 
 he  showed  him  a  passage  in  it,  wherein  it  was  foretold, 
 under  the  emblem  of  a  he-goat  with  one  horn,  over- 
 coining  a  ram  with  two,  that  a  certain  king  of  Greece 
 would  conquer  the  Persians ;  which  Alexander  took  to 
 himself,  and  perhaps,  upon  that  very  account  might  treat 
 the  Jewish  nation  with  more  clemency  than  he  did  their 
 neighbours. 
 
 But  however  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  in  and  before 
 the  time  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  the  Jews  received  the 
 book  of  Daniel  as  authentic  Scripture,  without  any  sus- 
 picion to  the  contrary.  For,  whereas  the  name  of  the 
 Mnssias,  and  of  '  the  Son  of  man,'  which  they  applied 
 to  the  Deliverer  whom  they  expected,  the  title  of  the 
 '  kingdom  of  God,'  and  of  '  heaven,'  used  for  the  state 
 of  tilings  under  that  Deliverer,  his  coming  in  the  '  clouds 
 of  heaven,'  his  taking  '  all  judgment  upon  himself,  and 
 the   resurrection  of  the  dead,'  pursuant  upon  that  his 
 
 1  Dan.  iii.  anil  vi.  2  Joseph.  Jewish  Antiq. 
 
 3  1  Maccab.  ii.  60. 
 
 Bishop  Chandler's  Vindication  of  his  Defence  of  Christianity. 
 
 *  Compare  Neh.  i.  5,  with  Dan.  ix.  4. 
 
 6  Antiq.  b.  12,  c.  1 1.  r  Ibid.  b.  10,  c.  11. 
 
 8  Ibid.  c.  12.  9  Ibid.  b.  9,  c3. 
 
 482.'.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIET  ,  and  EZRA  i— v- 
 
 coming,  are  expressions  manifestly  borrowed  from  Dan- 
 iel :  these  expressions  were,  at  that  time,  the  current 
 language  of  the  Jews,  insomuch,  that  we  find  none  of 
 them  surprised  when  they  heard  the  Baptist  telling  them 
 that  '  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  at  hand,'  or  our  Sav- 
 iour calling  himself  so  frequently  '  the  Son  of  man,' 
 and  citing  Daniel  the  prophet  by  name  ;  which  they 
 certainly  would  have  been,  and  thereupon  raised  no 
 small  clamour,  had  they  perceived  that  he  was  obtrud- 
 ing a  spurious  book  upon  them  for  canonical. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that, 
 since  there  confessedly  was  such  a  person  as  Daniel, 
 whose  character  in  the  prophet  Ezekiel  agrees  with 
 what  we  find  in  our  present  Daniel ;  since  this  book  of 
 his  has  the  testimony  of  Josephus  (no  incompetent  judge 
 in  a  matter  of  this  nature),  was  commonly  cited  in  the 
 times  of  our  Saviour,  was  referred  to  before  the  times  of 
 the  Maccabees  ;  nay,  was  thought  genuine  in  the  times 
 of  Alexander,  and  has  received  no  small  confirmation 
 from  the  use  and  application  which  Nehemiah  makes  of 
 it ;  either  we  may  suppose,  that  all  these  persons,  in 
 their  different  generations,  were  mistaken,  or  else  we 
 must  allow,  that  our  present  book  of  Daniel  is  no  ficti- 
 tious piece  of  later  date,  but  the  work  of  the  prophet 
 whose  name  it  bears,  and  who  lived  in  the  age  which 
 the  sacred  records  have  assigned  him. 
 
 It  is  no  valid  objection,  either  against  his  personal 
 or  prophetic  character,  that  he  was  educated  in  the 
 learning  of  the  Chaldeans,  and  became  a  remarkable 
 proficient  therein.  The  learning  of  the  Chaldeans  con- 
 sisted chiefly  in  what  they  call  astrology,  or  the  know- 
 ledge of  the  celestial  motions,  the  art  of  building,  and 
 the  art  of  war.  Some  curious  and  superstitious  arts 
 that  were  abhorrent  to  the  law  of  Moses,  they  were  fam- 
 ous for  practising ;  but  there  is  no  necessity  for  us  to 
 infer  from  thence,  that  Daniel  and  his  friends  were  ever 
 initiated  in  these ;  on  the  contrary,  we  may  be  allowed 
 to  argue  thus : — That,  had  there  been  anything  criminal 
 in  the  method  of  their  education,  they  who  refused  to 
 defile  themselves  with  the  king's  meat,  would  never 
 have  complied  with  it.  They  refused  the  king's  provi- 
 sions, not  only  because  he  might  probably  have  such 
 things  served  up  at  his  table  as  were  prohibited  by  their 
 law,  but  because  it  was  customary  likewise  in  most 
 nations,  before  their  meals,  to  make  an  oblation  of  some 
 part  of  what  they  ate  or  drank,  to  their  gods,  as  a  thank- 
 ful acknowledgment,  that  whatever  they  enjoyed  pro- 
 ceeded from  their  bounty:  so  that  every  entertainment 
 had  in  it  the  nature  of  a  sacrifice  ;  and  therefore  Daniel 
 and  his  friends  looked  upon  the  provisions  which  came 
 from  the  king's  table  as  meats  offered  to  idols,  and 
 upon  that  account  esteemed  them  unclean.  But  the 
 same  principle  that  moved  them  to  this,  would  have 
 restrained  them  from  the  study  of  the  Chaldean  learn- 
 ing, had  any  of  their  impious  or  unwarrantable  sciences 
 been  imposed  upon  them. 
 
 The  king  indeed  is  said  ,0  '  to  have  found  them  ten 
 times  better  than  all  the  magicians  and  astrologers  that 
 were  in  his  realm.'  But  these  words,  in  ancient  times, 
 were  not  appropriated  to  the  evil  sense  which  they  now 
 bear,  but  signified,  in  the  general,  men  of  wisdom  and 
 
 10  Dan.  i.  20 
 
696 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A    M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v 
 
 learning,  skilled,  in  the  knowledge  of  things  natural  and 
 divine.  '  Those  who  in  St  Matthew  are  called  ftctyoi, 
 our  translation  has 'rendered  'wise  men,'  because  the 
 evangelist  seems  to  have  given  them  that  name,  not  as 
 a  note  of  infamy,  but  as  an  honourable  title.  And  in 
 like  manner,  why  may  not  the  words  be  here  understood 
 of  such  persons  as  employed  themselves  in  the  lawful 
 search  of  natural  causes  and  effects,  of  the  curious  pro- 
 ducts of  the  earth,  and  the  regular  motions  of  heavenly 
 bodies  ?  For  when  Daniel  made  intercession  to  the 
 captain  of  the  guard,  that "  the  'wise  men  of  Babylon 
 might  not  be  slain,'  we  can  hardly  suppose  that  all  of 
 these  were  such  as  studied  unlawful  arts  and  sciences, 
 since  he  himself  was  afterwards  made  master  and  presi- 
 dent over  them. 
 
 Nay,  even  supposing  that  these  wise  men  of  Babylon 
 made  profession  of  some  sciences,  whose  only  founda- 
 tion were  superstition  and  deceit,  yet  why  must  their 
 Hebrew  disciples  be  obliged  to  pursue  the  same  ? 
 Might  they  not  follow  such  studies  as  best  suited  their 
 genius,  and  the  principles  of  their  religion?  The  same 
 indulgence  which  they  obtained  from  the  master  of  the 
 eunuchs  with  regard  to  their  provisions,  may  well  be 
 supposed  to  have  been  granted  them  in  relation  to  their 
 studies,  in  case  any  difficulty  of  this  kind  had  been 
 imposed  upon  them.  But  there  is  no  occasion  for  our 
 imagining  this.  The  masters  of  these  occult  sciences 
 (as  they  call  them)  had  many  good  reasons  for  not 
 obtruding  them  upon  their  disciples  ;  and  Daniel  and  his 
 companions,  who  were  designed  to  attend  in  the  king's 
 presence,  were  more  properly  to  be  educated  in  .another 
 way,  viz.  in  the  knowledge  and  purity  of  the  Chaldee 
 tongue,  of  the  arts  of  war  and  policy,  of  the  state  and 
 revenues  of  the  kingdom,  and  such  other  tighter  and 
 more  polite  accomplishments,  as  would  make  their  per- 
 sons and  services  more  acceptable  at  court,  than  any 
 proliciency  in  these  abstruse  matters  could  do.  But  put 
 the  case,  that  they  were  at  any  time  called  to  lectures 
 in  any  of  the  sciences  that  were  not  so  strictly  warrant- 
 able, we  cannot  see  why  they  might  not  be  permitted 
 to  attend  to  them  with  the  same  spirit  that 3  '  Moses 
 was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,'  namely, 
 *  not  with  a  purpose  to  follow  them,  or  to  square  their 
 lives  or  sentiments  according  to  them,  but  purely  to 
 put  themselves  into  a  capacity,  upon  a  proper  occasion 
 to  confute  them,  and  with  more  advantage  to  expose 
 their  falseness  and  absurdity. 
 
 It  was  not  for  any  more  excellent  proficiency  there- 
 fore in  those  black  arts,  which  were  prohibited  by  the 
 law  of  God,  that  Daniel  obtained  an  exemption  from  the 
 punishment  of  the  fiery  furnace,  but  either  because  he  was 
 absent  upon  some  pretence  or  other,  as  most  of  the  Jews 
 might  choose  to  be  absent  upon  this  occasion,  or  because 
 he  was  not  accused  to  the  king,  at  this  time,  for  refusing 
 to  worship  the  idol  which  he  had  set  up,  though  he  might 
 be  present  at  the  dedication. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar,  5  we  read,  had  summoned  all  his 
 princes,  counsellors,  governors,  captains,  and  all  his 
 other  officers  and  ministers,  to  be  present  and  assisting 
 at  the  solemnity  of  this  dedication ;  and  therefore  it  is 
 
 1  Whitby's  Paraphrase  tm  Mat.  ii.  1.  2  Dan.  ii.  24. 
 
 3  Acts  vii.  22.  4  Calmet's  Commentary  on  Dan.  1.  17. 
 
 5  Dan.  iii.  2. 
 
 not  likely  that  Daniel,  who  was  one  of  the  chief  of  them, 
 should  be  allowed  to  be  absent ;  but  his  enemies  thought 
 it  more  advisable  not  to  begin  with  him,  because  of  the 
 great  authority  he  had  with  the  king,  but  rather  to  fall 
 first  upon  his  three  friends,  whose  promotion  in  the  pro- 
 vince of  Babylon  raised  their  envy,  that  thereby  they 
 might  more  successfully  pave  the  way  to  his  ruin :  but 
 the  miraculous  interposition  of  providence  in  behalf  of 
 his  friends  quashed  all  farther  accusations  against  him  ; 
 and  for  this  reason  it  is,  that  no  mention  is  made  of  him 
 in  this  whole  transaction. 
 
 It  is  said  indeed  of  him,  6  '  that  he  had  understanding 
 in  all  visions  Mid  dreams,'  and  dreams,  we  know,  among 
 the  eastern  people,  were  held  in  great  regard.  They 
 observed  them  much,  and  applied  to  such  persons  as  pre- 
 tended to  explain  them,  for  their  interpretation  :  nor  can 
 it  be  denied,  that  in  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world,  it  was 
 the  received  opinion,  that  such  dreams  as  were  attended 
 with  unusual  circumstances,  did  portend  and  signify  some 
 future  event ;  that  they  were  frequently  sent  from  God,7 
 '  who  in  a  dream,  in  a  vision  of  the  night,  speaks  once, 
 yea  twice,  to  men,'  as  Elihu  affirms  in  Job.  Now,  if 
 dreams  be  significative,  and  often  sent  from  God,  it  can 
 hardly  be  thought,  that  in  all  cases  the  interpretation  of 
 them  should  be  unlawful  ;  and  therefore  we  may  observe, 
 that  in  that  very  place  where  Moses  forbids  the  He- 
 brews to  consult  magicians  and  interpreters  of  dreams,  he 
 nevertheless  tells  them,  8  '  that  the  Lord  their  God  would 
 raise  up  to  them,  from  among  their  brethren,  a  prophet 
 like  unto  him,  whom  they  should  consult  and  hearken  to.' 
 So  that,  though  the  Israelites  were  forbidden  to  make  use 
 of  soothsayers  or  diviners,  as  the  custom  of  the  nations 
 was,  to  whose  possessions  they  succeeded  ;  yet  they  were 
 permitted  to  address  themselves  to  God  and  his  pro- 
 phets, in  order  to  learn  the  explanations  of  their  dreams, 
 and  the  prediction  of  future  events  ;  consequently  there 
 could  be  no  crime  in  Daniel's  applying  himself  to  this 
 kind  of  knowledge,  since  whatever  excellency  he  had  in 
 this  way,  the  Scripture  takes  care  to  ascribe  it  to  the  pe- 
 culiar gift  of  God  ° 
 
 6  Dan.  i.  17.  '  Job  xxxiii.  14,  15.         8  Dent,  xviii.  15. 
 
 a  That  he  was  taught — even  by  the  astrologers,  much  useful 
 knowledge,  can  hardly  be  doubted:  for  those  men  could  not  have 
 pretended  to  foretell  future  events  from  the  conjunctions  and  op- 
 positions of  the  stars  or  planets,  without  acquiring  great  knowledge 
 in  the  useful  and  sublime  science  of  astronomy,  which  the  agri- 
 cultural life  of  the  Jews,  and  the  perfection  of  their  law,  deprived 
 them  of  almost  every  inducement  to  study.  No  Chaldean  astro- 
 loger can  have  employed  himself  in  more  frivolous  pursuits  than 
 were  those  of  the  alchymists,  in  the  dark  ages  of  modern  Europe, 
 in  quest  of  the  Philosopher's  stone ;  and  yet  to  the  alchymists  we 
 are  in  a  great  measure  indebted  for  the  origin  of  the  science  oi 
 chemistry,  which  has  within  these  thirty  years  been  carried  tc 
 such  perfection,  and  contributed  so  much  to  the  comfort  and  ele- 
 gance of  civil  society.  Even  in  the  interpretation  of  dreams 
 something  might  be  learned  from  the  Chaldean  wise  men.  Nei- 
 ther the  gods  of  Babylon,  indeed,  nor  the  conjunctions  of  the 
 stars,  could  reveal  any  thing  to  the  astrologers  or  soothsayers, 
 but  no  man  who  admits  the  Divine  origin  of  any  part  of  the 
 Scriptures,  can  doubt,  but  that  the  true  God  occasionally  revealed 
 his  will  to  the  prophets  in  dreams  and  visions;  and  when  he  did 
 so,  he  must  nave  made  use  of  such  symbols  or  such  language  as 
 was  generally  employed  to  denote  the  things  intended.  The  nar- 
 rowness of  original  languages,  and  the  practice  of  hieroglyphieal 
 writing  which  seems  to  have  prevailed  in  most  nations — especi- 
 ally in  the  east — during  some  period  of  their  existence,  rendered 
 it  almost  necessary  to  express  occasionally  one  thing  by  another, 
 to  which  it  was  supposed  to  have  some  resemblance  or  analogy. 
 
I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &o. 
 
 697 
 
 A.  M.  3*17.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 Daniel,  indeed,  lived  in  great  prosperity,  and  in  the 
 capacity  of  a  prime  minister,  under  some  of  the  Babylo- 
 nian and  Persian  monarchs ;  and  therefore  if,  through 
 ignorance,  he  has  mistaken  their  name,  or  recorded  any 
 
 In  visions  or  dreams,  whether  sent  by  God  or  not,  some  symbols 
 or  language  must  have  been  employed :  and  the  business  of  the 
 Oneirocritic  or  interpreter  was  to  ascertain  the  import  of  such 
 symbols.  The  interpreter  who  practised  by  art  could  only  guess 
 at  that  import,  and  in  nine  instances  out  of  ten  was  likely  to 
 guess  erroneously;  but  he  who  interpreted  by  inspiration  was  in 
 no  danger  of  falling  into  error,  though  each  symbol,  or  word, 
 taken  by  itself,  must  have  had  some  meaning  generally  under- 
 stood by  those  among  whom  such  symbols  and  words  were  in 
 general  use,  as  well  as  by  the  prophet.  "  The  early  interpreters 
 of  dreams,"  says  Bishop  Warburton,  (Divine  Legation  of  Moses, 
 b.  iv.  s.  4,)  "were  not  juggling  impostors;  but,  like  the  early 
 judicial  astrologers,  more  superstitious  than  their  neighbours, 
 and  so  the  first  that  fell  into  their  own  delusions.  However,  sup- 
 pose them  to  have  been  as  arrant  cheats  as  any  of  their  successors, 
 yet,  at  their  first  setting  up,  they  must  have  had  materials  proper 
 for  their  trade;  which  could  never  be  the  wild  workings  of  each 
 man's  private  fancy.  Their  customers  would  look  to  find  a  known 
 analogy,  become  venerable  by  long  application  to  mysterious  wis- 
 dom, for  the  groundwork  of  their  deciphering;  and  the  decipher- 
 ers themselves  would  as  naturally  fly  to  some  confessed  authority 
 to  support  their  pretended  science.  But  what  ground  or  autho- 
 rity could  this  be,  if  not  the  mysterious  learning  of  symbolical 
 characters?  The  Egyptian  priests,  the  first  interpreters  of  dreams, 
 took  their  rules  for  this  species  of  divination,  from  their  symbolic 
 riddling,  in  which  they  were  so  deeply  read ; — a  ground  of  inter- 
 pretation which  would  give  the  strongest  credit  to  the  art,  and 
 equally  satisfy  the  diviner  and  the  consulter;  for  it  being  gene- 
 rally believed  that  their  gods  had  given  them  hieroglyphic  writ- 
 ing, nothing  was  more  natural  than  to  imagine,  that  those  gods, 
 who,  in  their  opinion,  gave  dreams  likewise,  had  employed  the 
 same  mode  of  writing  in  both  revelations."  When  the  true  God 
 gave  revelations  by  dreams,  he,  of  course,  made  use  of  the  sym- 
 bols that  were  most  likely  to  arrest  the  dreamer's  attention,  and 
 at  the  same  time  were  generally  understood ;  and  in  different 
 countries  he  would  make  use  of  different  symbols  according  to 
 the  practice  of  the  people,  for  whose  information  the  dream  was 
 sent.  Thus  in  Pharaoh's  two  dreams,  the  symbols  made  use  of 
 were,  in  one,  '  seven  kine,'  and,  in  the  other,  '  seven  ears  of 
 corn.'  In  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt  the  ears  of  corn  denoted  its 
 fertility,  and  the  kine  its  great  tutelar  patroness  Isis.  Thus  far 
 Pharaoh  seems  to  have  understood  the  dream  without  an  inter- 
 preter; and  hence  arose  his  anxiety  to  understand  the  rest,  as  a 
 matter  that  concerned  the  public.  ''Accordingly,  when  Joseph 
 comes  to  decipher  the  dream,  he  does  not  tell  the  king  that  the 
 two  sevens  denoted  seven  years,  in  Egypt,  but  simply  seven 
 years; — the  scene  of  the  famine  needing  no  deciphering."  In 
 Nebuchadnezzar's  second  dream,  he  saw  '  a  fair  and  high  tree,' 
 of  which  the  height  reached  to  heaven;  and  this  being  the  sym- 
 bol of  majesty  in  general,  very  naturally  made  the  proud  mo- 
 narch anxious  to  know  what  particular  monarch  it  signified;  and 
 therefore  the  prophet  Daniel  begins  his  interpretation  with  say- 
 ing — '  The  tree  that  thou  sawest — is  thou,  O  king  !  But  if 
 Daniel  was  intended  by  God,  as  he  certainly  was,  to  be  an  inter- 
 preter of  the  dreams  sent  by  him  to  the  king  of  Babylon — the 
 scourge  by  whom  he  chastised  sinful  nations — it  is  obvious  that  a 
 knowledge  of  the  symbols  by  which  events  were  supposed  to  be 
 represented  in  Chaldea,  was  a  species  of  preparatory  knowledge 
 absolutely  necessary  to  him.  The  symbols  employed  for  this  pur- 
 pose by  the  Chaldean  magi  may  have  been  different  from  those 
 in  use  among  the  priests  of  Egypt;  but  whether  they  were  or  not, 
 it  seems  evident  that  hieroglyphieal  writing,  and  all  kinds  of 
 symbolical  representations  of  God  and  his  attributes,  were  absolute- 
 ly prohibited  by  the  Mosaic  law.  Daniel,  therefore,  must  have 
 been  taught  the  import  of  the  Chaldean  symbols,  to  fit  him  for 
 an  important  part  of  the  office  which  he  was  destined  to  fill;  and 
 as  God  appears  not  on  any  occasion  to  work  miracles  for  an 
 object  which  can  be  attained  by  natural  means,  it  is  to  hi:  hoped 
 that  the  deist  will  permit  Christians  to  believe  that  Daniel  might 
 without  sin  be  taught,  the  meaning  of  the  mysterious  symbols  of 
 Chaldea  by  those  wise  men  of  that  empire,  among  whom  they 
 were  best  understood.  The  sciences  of  astronomy  and  chemistry 
 furnish  many  illustrious  proofs  of  the  power,  wisdom,  and  good- 
 
 M.  4825.  A.  C.58G.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i-v. 
 
 thing  of  them  that  is  not  true,  this  we  allow  will  have  a 
 suspicious  aspect  upon  the  authority  of  his  writings  :  but 
 when  it  is  considered  how  common  a  thing  it  was  for  the 
 princes  of  the  east,  upon  one  occasion  or  other,  to  mul- 
 tiply their  names,  and  not  only  by  foreigners,  but  even 
 by  their  own  people,  to  be  called  sometimes  by  one 
 name,  and  sometimes  by  another  ;  how  usual  it  was  for 
 them  to  continue  the  titles  of  honour  which  were  confer- 
 red in  consideration  of  those  great  exploits,  whereby  the 
 dignity  of  their  family  was  originally  raised,  and  to 
 adopt  them  into  the  number  of  their  own ;  how  custom- 
 ary it  was,  upon  their  accession  to  the  kingdom,  for  them 
 to  change  their  names,  and  yet  the  first  and  private  name 
 be  still  retained  by  most  other  people,  while  the  impe- 
 rial name  appeared  in  public  acts,  and  was  used  at  home 
 only  :  whoever  considers  this,  I  say,  will  cease  his  won- 
 der, when,  amidst  such  a  variety  of  appellations  for  one 
 and  the  same  person,  he  finds  this  historian  making  use 
 of  one,  and  that  of  another,  according  as  his  fancy,  his 
 pronunciation,  or  the  custom  of  the  country  where  he 
 lived,  led  him.  Daniel,  in  all  probability,  calls  the  same 
 person  Darius  Medus,  whom  the  Greek  historians  call 
 Cyaxares  the  Second  :  but  when  it  is  observed,  that  these 
 historians  agree  with  Daniel  as  to  the  main  points  of  his 
 narration,  namely,  l  that  Babylon  was  taken  by  an  army 
 of  Medes  and  Persians,  whereof  the  Medes  being  the 
 superior,  were,  at  that  time,  named  first ;  that  Cyaxares, 
 king  of  Media,  assisted  at  the  siege,  and  was  treated  by 
 Cyrus  as  his  chief;  that  after  a  day  of  riot  and  revelling 
 the  city  was  taken  in  the  night  time,  by  diverting  the 
 course  of  the  river  Euphrates,  and  the  king  of  Babylon 
 slain  in  his  palace  ;  that  Cyaxares  being  old,  and  natu- 
 rally inactive,  chose  rather  to  live  at  Ecbatan,  the  capi- 
 tal of  Media,  while  Cyrus  attended  the  affairs  of  the 
 government  of  Babylon  ;  and  that  Cyrus,  upon  his  death, 
 succeeded  to  the  whole  empire  :  if  we  observe,  I  say,  the 
 exact  agreement  between  these  historians,  as  to  the  chief 
 matters  of  fact,  we  may  easily  dispense  with  some  small 
 difference  in  point  of  names  ;  especially  considering  that 
 the  authors  lived  at  no  less  a  distance  than  Babylon  is 
 from  Greece,  and  that  the  Greeks  consequently  might 
 make  use  of  the  name  which  he  went  by  in  Media,  as  best 
 known  to  them,  which  the  Babylonians,  after  he  had 
 taken  their  city,  changed  into  Darius  Medus,  or  the  vic- 
 torious Mede,  and  which  Daniel,  being  a  captive  in  the 
 place,  might,  in  conformity,  call  him. 
 
 It2  may  happen,  indeed,  that  there  is  now  and  then  a 
 word  or  two,  in  the  book  of  Daniel,  which  may  seem  to 
 have  some  analogy  to  the  Greek  tongue,  and  with  some 
 little  variation,  may  be  derived  from  it ;  but  then  it  is  to 
 be  observed,  that  the  words  of  this  kind  are,  for  the  most 
 part,  technical  terms,  such  as  might  slip  into  any  lan- 
 guage, without  being  perceived,  and  such  a  writer  might 
 properly  enough  use,  without  understanding  anymore  of 
 
 1  Xenophon,  b.  v.  and  viii ;  and  Herodotus,  b.  i. 
 2  Bishop  Chandler's  Vindication  of  the  Defence  of  Christianity, 
 ness  of  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world ;  these  sciences 
 have  been  successfully  cultivated  by  philosophers  in  France,  who 
 seem  not  to  acknowledge  the  moral  attributes  of  the  great  first 
 
 Cause if  indeed   tiny  allow  any  cause  to  he  first;  but  surely 
 
 an   intelligent   Christian  clergyman,  of  a  mind   tolerably  firm, 
 mi'dit  take  lessons  in  astronomy  and  chemistry  from  such  men, 
 not  only  without  incurring  guilt  or  danger,  but  with  great  advan- 
 tage to  himself. — Bishop  Gleig. — Ed. 
 4  T 
 
693 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIL 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES 
 the  tongue  from  whence  they  are  borrowed.  Architects 
 and  mechanics,  we  know,  use  to  this  day  several  Greek 
 and  Arabic  terms  of  art  in  their  respective  professions, 
 and  yet  they  do  not  pretend  to  understand  the  language 
 from  whence  they  came  :  and  why  might  not  Daniel, 
 speaking  in  terms  of  art,  as  he  certainly  does,  when  he  a 
 names  the  musical  instruments,  very  probably  of  the 
 Grecian  make,  which  were  used  at  the  consecration  of 
 Nebuchadnezzar's  golden  image  ;  why  might  not  he,  1 
 say,  make  use  of  words  of  a  foreign  extract,  and,  at  the 
 same  time,  be  supposed  a  stranger  to  the  other  parts  of 
 the  language  ?  This  I  think  is  the  common  privilege  of 
 most  writers  :  nor  is  the  mixture  of  some  Greek  terms  in 
 the  Chaldee  language  so  difficult  a  matter  to  account 
 for,  if  we  will  but  allow  what  Grotius,  upon  the  place, 
 observes,  namely,  "  That  before  Daniel's  age,  many 
 colonies  both  of  the  Ionians  and  JEolians,  having  settled 
 themselves  in  Asia  Minor,  which  lies  contiguous  to  some 
 provinces  of  the  eastern  kingdoms,  might  that  way  com- 
 municate the  names  of  what  they  invented,  or  improved, 
 even  as  far  as  Babylon  itself." 
 
 The  translation  of  the  Septuagint  has  been  held  in  such 
 esteem,  that  to  have  any  part  of  Scripture  omitted  in  it 
 would  give  a  just  suspicion,  as  if  it  had  not  been  extant, 
 or  not  known  at  the  time  when  those  learned  men  under- 
 took the  work  :  but  this  is  so  far  from  being  true  in  the 
 case  of  Daniel,  that  we  find  the  Septuagint  version  of  him 
 read  publicly  in  our  Saviour's  time  ;  that  we  find  Justin 
 Martyr,  '  and  Clemens  Romanus,  2  who  both  wrote  be- 
 fore Theodotion's  version  was  made,  both  citing  passages 
 out  of  it ;  that  we  find  St  Jerome  3  giving  us  several 
 various  readings,  different  from  those  in  Theodotion,  and 
 sometimes  from  those  of  Aquila  and  Symmachus,  out  of 
 it;  and,  at  the  same  time,  telling  us,  why  this  transla- 
 tion of  Daniel  was  repudiated,  and  that  of  Theodotion 
 substituted  in  its  room  by  the  doctors  of  the  church. 
 
 It  was  Origen  indeed  who  first  brought  it  into  dis- 
 credit, by  comparing  it  with  that  of  Theodotion  from  the 
 original,  in  his  Hexapla,  which  showed  its  imperfections 
 a  little  too  plainly  ;  but  then  its  degradation  proves,  that 
 before  this  happened  to  it,  it  was  all  along  used  in  the 
 Christian  church. 
 
 The  omission  of  Daniel's  name  in  the  enumeration  of 
 the  prophets  which  we  meet  with  in  Ecclesiasticus,  4  is 
 of  no  great  moment,  because  we  find  no  mention  made 
 
 1  Dial.  cum.  Tryph.  p.  87.  2  Ad  Corinth,  ep.  1. 
 
 3  In  Dan.  iv.  8.  4  Chap.  xlix. 
 
 a  Our  learned  Bishop  Chandler  is  fully  of  opinion  that  the 
 names  of  the  instruments  mentioned  in  Dan.  iii.  5,  are  not 
 Greek,  but  eastern  derivations,  that  from  thence  they  did  pass 
 to  the  Greeks,  who,  with  a  little  alteration,  adapted  them  to  their 
 pronunciation,  or  termination  of  words.  "  For,"  as  he  argues, 
 "  that  their  names  were  at  first  given  them  in  the  conn  try  where 
 the  instruments  themselves  were  invented,  can  hardly  be  doubt- 
 ed ;  if  therefore  such  instruments  as  are  here  specified  were  used 
 in  the  east ;  if  their  names  be  proved  to  be  barbarous ;  and  if 
 an  eastern  root  can  be  assigned  for  their  derivation,  which  no 
 Greek  theme  will  suit  so  well,"  all  which  he  endeavours  to  prove 
 in  several  instances,  then  may  we  be  well  allowed  to  infer  that 
 the  names  of  these  instruments,  whatever  affinity  they  may  seem 
 to  have  to  the  Greek  language,  were  originally  oriental;  which 
 opinion  is  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  Strabo,  (b.  x.)  who  as- 
 sures us,  that  the  names  of  musical  instruments,  such  as  nablia, 
 sambuca,  and  barbitos,  were  derived  from  barbarous  languages, 
 by  which  the  Greeks  denote  the  eastern  tongues. — See  Vindica- 
 tion of  the  Defence  of  Christianity;  and  Louth's  Commentary 
 on  Dan.  iii. 
 
 A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL  and  EZRA  i.— v. 
 
 of  Job  or  Ezra,  and  yet  they  both  had  books  that  went 
 under  their  names,  as  well  as  he.  The  truth  is,  the  his- 
 tory of  the  book  itself  may  give  us  some  grounds  to 
 think,  that  Daniel's  character  might  possibly  have  been 
 in  it  at  first,  though  upon  some  occasion  or  other,  it 
 afterwards  came  to  be  dropped.  Jesus  the  grandfather, 
 as  Ave  read  in  the  prologue,  wrote  it  in  several  volumes, 
 and  left  it  behind  him  unfinished  :  the  original  fell  into 
 such  hands  as  carried  it  into  Egypt,  where  Jesus  the 
 gTandson  met  with  it,  and  having  compiled  it  all  orderly 
 into  one  volume,  upon  account  of  the  pains  which  he 
 had  taken  with  it,  he  joined  his  own  name  with  that  of 
 his  grandfather  in  the  titlepage  :  5  but  it  fared  with  this 
 as  it  does  with  other  books,  to  lose  in  translation,  and 
 to  suffer  by  copyists ;  insomuch,  that  whoever  will  be  at 
 the  trouble  to  compare  the  Greek  editions  with  one  ano- 
 ther, and  with  the  various  translations,  will  discover 
 words,  parts  of  sentences,  and  whole  periods,  to  be  so 
 frequently  omitted,  altered,  contracted,  explained,  or 
 enlarged,  as  to  abate  his  wonder,  that  the  mention  of 
 any  person,  though  never  so  considerable,  should  be 
 omitted  in  a  book  that  is  delivered  to  us  so  variously 
 and  imperfectly.  But  there  may  be  another  reason  as- 
 signed for  this  omission  :  most  part  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment was  written  in  Hebrew,  which  was  the  common 
 language  of  Judea,  and  in  it  did  Jesus  the  son  of  Sirach 
 write  this  book  of  Ecclesiasticus.  Now,  as  a  great  part  of 
 the  books  of  Ezra  and  Daniel  was  written  in  Chaldee, 
 which  was  a  tongue  not  so  well  known  in  Judea,  it  may 
 reasonably  be  supposed,  that  the  author's  ignorance  of 
 that  tongue  might  be  the  true  reason  why  he  omitted 
 these  two  great  men,  and  all  account  of  their  writings, 
 in  his  catalogue  of  the  prophets. 
 
 There  are  sundry  reasons  likewise  to  be  given,  why 
 we  have  no  Chaldee  paraphrase  upon  Daniel,  as  well  as 
 the  rest  of  the  prophets :  for,  besides  that  a  good  part 
 of  Daniel  is  in  the  Chaldee  tongue,  and,  upon  that  ac- 
 count, might  less  need  one  ;  it  is  a  general  complaint 
 among  the  Jews  themselves,  that  a  great  many  of  their 
 ancient  Targums  have  been  lost,  and  an  acknowledged 
 case,  that  some  of  their  sacred  writers  (such  as  Ezra  and 
 Nehemiah  for  instance,  men  famous  in  the  Jewish  story, 
 and  the  latter  of  them  highly  celebrated  by  the  son  of 
 Sirach)  never  had  any.  The  truth  is,  the  frequent  cala- 
 mities which  befell  the  Jewish  nation,  and  dispersed  them 
 into  other  countries,  made  them  negligent  of  their  books  ; 
 left  them  no  leisure  to  transcribe  long  paraphrasts  ;  and 
 when,  by  mixing  among  other  people,  they  had  lost  the 
 knowledge  of  the  language,  left  them  no  ability  to  do  it ; 
 so  that,  amidst  this  ignorance  and  confusion,  it  is  no 
 wonder  if  many  valuable  copies  were  lost,  some  of 
 which  b  have  since  come  to  light ;  but  there  is  reason  to 
 apprehend,  that  the  Targum  upon  Daniel  never  will. 
 For  so  much  does  this  prophet  speak  of  the  Messiah, 
 describe  the  signs,  and  define  the  time  of  his  coming  so 
 precisely,  that  the  Jews,  perceiving  the  advantage  which 
 their  adversaries  the  Christians  might  make  of  it,  were 
 under  strong  temptations,  either  to  omit  or  suppress  the 
 paraphrase  of  a  prophet  so  diametrically  opposite  to 
 And  accordingly,  we  have  a  story  from  6  one  of 
 
 them. 
 
 5  Bishop  Chandler's  Vindication,  &c. 
 «  R.  Abruhadam  in  Zaccath's  Juchaism,  p.  54. 
 b  It  is  but  the  other  day  that  the  Targums  of  the  two  books  of 
 Chronicles  were  discovered .—.Bp.  Chandler's  Vindication,  &c. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 699 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 their  rabbins,  that  savours  not  a  little  of  some  such  prac- 
 tice, namely,  "  that  when  Jonathan  had  finished  his  Tar- 
 gum  on  Job,  Proverbs,  and  the  Psalms,  and  was  going 
 on  to  Daniel,  he  was  restrained  by  a  voice,  which  bade 
 him  give  over  there,  lest  the  sons  of  men  should  learn 
 from  Daniel  the  time  of  the  Messias." 
 
 However  this  be,  !  since  Daniel  is  so  far  from  being 
 passed  by  in  any  dishonourable  manner,  that  even 
 Jonathan  himself,  in  his  Targum  on  the  other  prophets, 
 expresses  a  great  regard  to  him,  by  applying  predictions 
 found  only  in  his  book,  to  texts  in  other  prophets  that 
 he  was  then  interpreting;  since,  in  doing  this,  he 
 follows  Daniel  in  his  ideas,  phrases,  and  words,  and 
 explains  passages  in  other  prophets  by  such  as  were 
 plainer  and  fuller,  in  his  opinion,  in  him ;  it  certainly 
 follows,  that  (however  his  paraphrase  be  lost)  Daniel 
 was  in  his  esteem  a  prophet  of  equal,  if  not  superior, 
 credit  to  the  prophets  he  was  then  commenting  upon. 
 
 Whether  the  Jew3  were  more  than  other  nations 
 addicted  to  the  publishing  of  spurious  tracts,  under  the 
 names  of  their  great  authors,  and  particularly  under 
 Daniel's  name,  it  concerns  us  not  to  inquire  ;  since  the 
 very  supposition  implies  thus  much,  that  with  the  Jewish 
 church,  at  that  time,  the  writings  of  Daniel  were  held  in 
 high  esteem,  (for,  in  such  a  case,  who  would  choose  an 
 inglorious  father  ?)  when  these  base  pieces  came  out  in 
 his  name.  The  having  impostures  fathered  on  him  there- 
 fore is  so  far  from  being  any  prejudice  to  Daniel's  gen- 
 uine writings,  that  it  rather  redounds  to  the  confirmation 
 of  their  authority ;  since  what  Avas  spurious  did  no  sooner 
 appear  in  the  light,  but  it  was  despised,  rejected,  and 
 condemned.  The  prayer  of  the  three  children  was  not 
 read  in  all  the  copies  of  the  Septuagint ;  the  story  of 
 Susanna,  in  some  manuscripts,  stood  apart  from  the  book 
 of  Daniel,  in  others  after  it ;  and  as  for  the  fable  of  Bel 
 and  the  Dragon,  it  was  not  intended  by  its  first  inventor 
 to  pass  under  the  name  of  Daniel,  but  of  one  Habak- 
 kuk,  the  son  of  Jesus,  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  till  Theodo- 
 tion,  in  his  Greek  edition  of  the  Bible,  thought  proper 
 to  change  its  title. 
 
 The  truth  is,  the  Jewish  church  always  looked  upon 
 these  pieces  as  spurious,  and  therefore  allowed  them 
 much  the  same  place  in  their  Scriptures  that  the  apocry- 
 phal books  have  in  our  English  Bibles  ;  but  the  genuine 
 book  of  Daniel  they  held  always  in  the  greatest  venera- 
 tion, esteeming  the  author  of  it  as  one  of  the  chief  of 
 their  prophets,  until  Maimonides,  a  learned  Jew  of  the 
 twelfth  century,  in  order  to  bar  all  proofs  that  might 
 be  drawn  from  him  in  favour  of  Christianity,  thought  fit 
 to  degrade  him  from  his  prophetic  character,  and  place 
 him  in  the  number  of  a  hagiographal  writers  only. 
 
 1  Bishop  Chandler's  Vindication.  &c. 
 a  It  is  much  to  be  questioned,  whether  such  a  distinction,  as 
 hagiographal  books  was  known  in  our  Saviour's  time.  All  the 
 partition  that  we  read  of  is,  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and  the 
 rest  of  the  books  (Proleg.  to  Ecclus.)  which  in  Luke  xxiv.  44, 
 are  called  '  the  Psalms;'  and  according  to  Piiilo  (de  Vit.  Const.) 
 "are  hymns  and  other  books,  conducing  to  the  promotion  of 
 piety  and  knowledge."  This  threefold  distribution  of  the  books 
 ot  Scripture  is  taken  from  the  nature  and  subjects  of  the  books 
 themselves,  and  not  from  any  supposed  degrees  of  sacredness 
 between  them;  and,  if  the  word  Cethubim,  or  Hagiographa,  was 
 then,  or  rather  in  the  next  century,  made  use  of,  it  was  applied 
 only  as  a  general  name  for  the  poetical  and  moral  books  of  Scrip- 
 ture, to  which  class  neither  Daniel  nor  any  historical  book  was 
 reducible.— Bishop  Chandler's  Vindication,  &c. 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 Hard  is  the  fate  of  a  prophet,  when  the  very  clearness 
 as  well  as  obscurity  of  his  writings  must  be  imputed  as 
 an  objection  against  his  authority  ;  but  certainly  we  must 
 allow,  that  it  is  as  easy  for  an  all-knowing  God  to  fore- 
 tel  all  circumstances  of  an  event,  or  to  reveal  the  whole 
 series  of  events,  in  their  proper  connexion  and  succes- 
 sion, as  to  declare  one  single  occurrence.  Such  know- 
 ledge and  such  wisdom  are  essential  attributes  of  God  : 
 nor  can  there  be  any  absurdity  in  his  imparting  his 
 knowledge  of  future  events,  with  more  or  less  reserve  to 
 one  man  rather  than  another  ;  only  one  would  think,  that 
 the  freer  such  communications  were,  and  the  more  con- 
 spicuous the  revelation,  the  more  excellent  should  the 
 prophet  whom  God  pleased  to  honour  in  this  manner  be 
 accounted.  So  unreasonable  are  the  prejudices  of  those 
 who  make  the  clearness  of  prophecies  an  argument 
 against  them,  and  endeavour  to  exclude  Daniel  from  the 
 number  of  prophets,  for  a  reason  that  best  entitled  him 
 to  that  character ! 
 
 "  But  what  shall  we  say  2  to  his  dark  and  abstruse 
 way  of  writing  in  other  places,  his  figurative  and  para- 
 bolical, his  enigmatical  and  emblematical  style,  his  un- 
 couth images  and  symbols,  entirely  unlike  the  writings 
 of  the  other  prophets,  but  vastly  agreeable  to  that  turn 
 which  the  Jews  took  up,  when  they  came  to  be  formed 
 in  the  schools  of  the  Greeks  ?"  All  the  Greek  authors 
 that  we  are  acquainted  with,  are  strangers  to  this  manner 
 of  writing ;  they  abound,  indeed,  in  figures  and  allego- 
 ries ;  but  the  symbolical  and  emblematical  form  was 
 purely  oriental,  and  what  other  prophets  as  well  as 
 Daniel,  as  occasion  requires,  pursue. 
 
 For,  doth  not  Isaiah  foretell  the  destruction  of  the 
 Egyptians  under  the  image  of  God's  3  striking  with 
 a  great  and  strong  sword  the  leviathan  (or  crocodile), 
 and  slaying  the  great  dragon  that  is  in  the  sea  ?  Does 
 not  Jeremiah  4  speak  of  the  Assyrians  under  the  name 
 of  a  dove,  because  5  Semiramis  had  made  that  bird  the 
 symbol  of  her  nation  ?  Does  not  Ezekiel  prophe6y  of 
 Pharaoh  under  the  figure  of  6  a  great  dragon  that  lives  in 
 the  midst  of  the  rivers  ;  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  under 
 the  emblem  of  a  7  large  eagle  with  great  wings  ;  and  of 
 the  Assyrian,  under  the  similitude  of  8  a  tall  cedar  in 
 Lebanon,  exalted  above  all  trees,  and  reaching  the 
 clouds  with  j'ts  top,  &c,  the  very  same  figure  9  whereby 
 the  kingdon  of  Nebuchadnezzar  was  represented?  It 
 is  the  genius  of  the  eastern  people  to  be  delighted  with 
 fiction  and  imagery,  and,  as  Sir  John  Chardin,  in  his 
 description  of  Persepolis,  tells  us,  nothing  is  more 
 common  among  their  authors,  than  to  call  countries  by 
 the  names  of  their  emblems,  which  are,  as  it  were,  the 
 arms  of  that  nation  ;  and,  in  forming  these  emblems,  to 
 make  use  not  only  of  natural  animals,  but  of  such  as  are 
 chimerical  and  fabulous  likewise,  beasts  with  wings, 
 and  birds  with  four  feet  and  long  ears. 
 
 10  "  Among  the  figures  upon  the  walls  and  pillars  of 
 an  ancient  temple  in  this  h   once  famous  metropolis  of 
 
 2  See  Collins's  Scheme  of  Literal  Prophecy.  "  Is.  xxvii.  1. 
 
 4  Jer.  xlviii.  28.  5  Diodor.  Sicul.  b.  3.  6  Ezek.  xxix.  3. 
 
 7  Ezek.  xvii.  3,  12.      8  Ezek.  xxxi.  3,  &c.       9  Dan.  iv.  10,  &c. 
 
 lu  Bisiiop  Chandler's  Vindication,  &c.  p.  152. 
 
 b  While  Alexander  lay  at  this  place,  he  gave  himself  much 
 to  feasting  and  drinking,  for  joy  of  his  great  successes.  In  one 
 ot  these  feasts,  which  he  made  for  his  chief  commanders,  he  in- 
 
700 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M   482%  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 Persia,"  says  he,  "  there  are  some  very  monstrous  for 
 figure  and  size.  A  winged  lion  with  a  crown  on  his 
 head  ;  a  winged  lion  flying  on  the  back  of  a  bull ;  the 
 body  of  a  horse  with  wings  on  his  back  ;  and  a  man's 
 head  covered  with  a  high  bonnet  crowned,  &c.  In 
 images  and  hieroglyphics,"  continues  he,  "  here  one 
 may  see  the  wars  of  princes  and  countries,  and  their 
 successes  expressed.  The  beasts  represent  the  people 
 or  land  in  war  ;  their  running  at  each  other,  their  en- 
 gagement ;  and  the  crown  on  the  head  of  one  of  them, 
 or  his  taking  the  other  by  the  hair  of  the  head,  and  stab- 
 bing him,  points  out  his  victory." 
 
 Now,  since  this  method  of  describing  things  by  images 
 was  so  customary  in  the  age  and  place  where  Daniel 
 Mas  captive,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  he  con- 
 formed himself  to  it,  and  that  the  fictitious  animals 
 which  he  makes  mention  of,  were  no  improper  emblems 
 of  the  several  empires  whereof  he  writes.  The  ram,  for 
 instance,  was  the  royal  ensign  of  the  Persians,  1  as  Am- 
 mianus  Marcellinus  observes  ;  the  goat,  since  their  king- 
 Carinus,  was  the  arms  of  Macedon  ;  and  therefore,  how 
 aptly  does  Daniel  see  a  goat  with  a  notable  horn  (for 
 a  horn  2  is  always  an  emblem  of  power  and  dominion), 
 to  which  he  gives  wings,  because  of  the  quickness  of  his 
 success,  to  s  '  run  against  a  ram  with  unequal  horns,  and 
 cast  him  to  the  ground,'  when  he  foretells  what  the  Mede 
 and  Persian  empire  should  do,  and  suffer  from  the 
 Macedonian  Greeks  ?  Upon  '  the  breaking  of  the  great 
 horn,'  on  Alexander's  dying  in  the  height  of  his  tri- 
 umphs and  prosperity,  how  properly  do  4  '  four  others 
 come  up  towards  the  four  winds  of  heaven,'  to  denote 
 the  division  a  of  his  empire  among  four  kings,  whereof 
 Ptolemy  had  Egypt,  and  the  adjoining  countries  to  the 
 south  ;  Antigonus  had  Asia  to  the  north  ;  Seleucus  had 
 
 1  B.  19.  And   rams'  heads   with  horns,  the  one  higher,  and 
 the  other  lower,  are  still  to  be  seen  among  the  ruins  of  Perse- 
 polis, as  Sir  John  Chardin  takes  notice  in  his  travels. 
 2  Deut.  xxxiii.  17;    Psal.  lxxxix.  17. 
 3  Dan.  viii.  7.  4  Dan.  viii.  8. 
 
 vited  their  mistresses  likewise  to  accompany  them;  among 
 whom  was  one  Thais,  a  famous  Athenian  courtezan,  who  was 
 then  mistress  to  Ptolemy,  afterwards  king  of  Egypt.  This  wo- 
 man, in  the  heat  of  her  carousals,  proposed  to  Alexander  the 
 burning  down  of  the  city  and  palace  of  Persepolis,  in  revenge 
 to  the  Persians;  especially  for  their  burning  of  Athens  under 
 Xerxes;  and,  as  the  whole  company  was  drunk,  the  proposal 
 was  received  with  a  general  applause,  so  that  every  man  took 
 a  torch,  and  (with  Alexander  at  the  head  of  them)  setting  fire 
 to  the  city  and  palace,  in  a  short  time,  burnt  them  both  to 
 the  ground.  Thus,  at  the  motion  of  a  drunken  strumpet,  was 
 destroyed,  by  this  drunken  king,  one  of  the  finest  palaces  in  the 
 world ;  for  that  this  at  Persepolis  was  such,  the  ruins  of  it  suf- 
 ficiently show,  which  are  still  remaining  at  a  place  near  Shiras, 
 named  Chebelminar,  which,  in  the  Persian  language,  signifies 
 forty  pillars;  and  is  so  called,  because  such  a  number  of  pillars, 
 as  well  as  other  stately  ruins  of  this  palace,  are  there  still  re- 
 maining even  to  this  day. — Pridcaux s  Connection,  anno  330. 
 
 a  Dr  Prideaux  is  of  opinion,  that  this  partition  of  Alex- 
 ander's empire,  to  which  the  prophecy  has  relation,  did  not 
 happen  till  after  the  battle  at  Ipsus,  where  Antigonus  was  slain, 
 and  whereupon  the  four  surviving  princes  divided  the  conquer- 
 or's dominions  into  four  distinct  kingdoms,  whereof  Ptolemy 
 had  Egypt,  Lyhia,  Arabia,  Ccelo-Syria,  and  Palestine:  Cas- 
 sander,  Macedonia  and  Greece;  Lysimachus,  Thrace,  Bithy- 
 nia,  and  some  other  provinces  beyond  the  Hellespont  and  the 
 Bosphorus;  and  Seleucus  all  the  rest;  Prideaux' 's  Connection, 
 anno  301.  But  others  have  made  the  division  of  his  empire 
 ensuant  immediately  upou  his  death. — Caimct'i  Commentary 
 on  Dan.  vii. 
 
 Syria  to  the  east ;  and  Antipater  Greece  and  Macedo- 
 nia to  the  west. 
 
 5  A  little  horn  coming  out  of  one  of  these,  and  wax- 
 ing exceeding  great  towards  the  south,  and  east,  and 
 pleasant  land,  nay,  waxing  so  great  as  to  cast  down 
 some  of  the  host  of  heaven,  and  of  the  stars  to  the 
 ground,  and  so  trample  upon  them,  may  seem  a  wild 
 extravagant  rant :  but  when  it  is  considered,  that  all  this 
 is  meant  of  Antiochus,  who  was  afterwards  called  by 
 his  flatterers  Epiphanes,  though  himself  a  vile  person, 
 and  usurper  of  the  kingdom  ;  that  it  is  to  represent  him, 
 as  soon  as  he  got  possession  of  the  Syrian  kingdom, 
 taking  advantage  of  the  youth  of  Ptolemy  Philometer, 
 and  invading  Egypt  to  the  south,  Armenia  and  Persia 
 to  the  east ;  and  Judea,  which  is  here  styled  'the  plea- 
 sant land,'  and  frequently  described  as  a  land  flowing 
 with  milk  and  honey,  that  it  is  to  represent  him  persecut- 
 ing the  Jewish  church  and  nation,  here  styled  '  the  host 
 of  heaven ;'  murdering  the  principal  men  of  both,  here 
 called  '  the  stars  ;'  deposing  their  high  priest,  whose 
 title  is  '  the  prince  of  the  host ;'  profaning  their  temple, 
 polluting  their  altar,  abolishing  their  law,  and  establish- 
 ing idolatry  by  a  solemn  edict,  6  as  whoever  has  read  of 
 the  mad  and  impious  actions  of  Antiochus  ''  must  know : 
 when  this  is  considered,  I  say,  a  small  allowance  for 
 the  oriental  manner  of  pompous  writing  will  reduce  these 
 images  to  a  tolerable  size. 
 
 The  plain  truth  is,  princes  and  states  were  in  old 
 times  painted  by  their  symbols,  which  are  therefore 
 called  their  yvufopcnci,  and,  in  after  ages,  came  to  be 
 distinguished  by  writers  under  the  name  of  such  symbols, 
 as  well  as  by  their  proper  appellations ;  and  therefore 
 '  the  lion  with  eagle's  wings,'  signifying  the  strength  of 
 t'.e  Assyrian  empire,  and  the  celerity  of  its  conquests  ; 
 '  the  beast  with  three  ribs  in  his  mouth,'  intimating  the 
 reduction  which  Cyrus  made  of  Babylon,  Lydia,  and 
 Egypt,  to  the  Persian  monarchy ;  the  '  leopard  w  ith  four 
 wings  and  heads ;'  denoting  Alexander  and  his  four  suc- 
 cessors ;  and  the  '  other  beast  with  iron  feet  and  ten 
 horns,'  representing  the   Roman    empire,  and  the   ten 
 
 s  Daniel  viii.  9,  &c.         6  2  Maccab.  v.  24,  &c. 
 
 b  Many  of  the  heathen  writers  give  us  this  account  of  him, 
 namely,  that  he  would  frequently  get  out  of  the  palace,  and  ram- 
 ble about  the  streets  of  Antioch  with  two  or  three  persons  only 
 accompanying  him;  that,  in  his  rambles,  he  would  drink  with 
 strangers  and  foreigners,  and  even  with  the  meanest  and  vilest 
 of  them;  that,  when  he  heard  of  any  young  company  met  toge- 
 ther to  make  merry,  he  would  intrude  himself  among  them, 
 and  revel  away  the  time  with  them  in  cups,  and  songs,  and 
 other  holies,  without  any  regard  to  common  decency,  or 
 his  own  royal  character;  that,  in  these  frolics,  he  would  often 
 go  out  in  the  streets,  and  there  scatter  his  money  by  handfuls, 
 for  the  rabble  to  scramble  for;  that,  at  other  times,  he  would 
 go  about  with  a  crown  of  roses  upon  his  head,  and,  in  a  Roman 
 gown,  would  walk  the  streets  alone,  carrying  a  parcel  of  stones  in 
 his  lap,  to  throw  at  those  that  should  follow  after;  that  he  was 
 much  addicted  to  drunkenness  and  lasciviousness;  was  frequent- 
 ly found  in  the  company  of  pathics,  and  common  prostitutes,  on 
 whom  he  would  gratify  his  lust  publicly,  and  in  the  sight  of  the 
 people ;  and  that,  having  for  his  catamites  two  vile  persons, 
 called  Timarchus  and  Heraclides,  who  were  brothers,  he  made 
 the  former  of  them  governor  of  Babylon,  and  the  other  his  trea- 
 surer in  that  province.  The  short  is,  his  freaks,  follies,  and 
 vices  were  so  many,  that  men  were  iu  a  doubt  whether  he  weTe 
 a  madman  or  a  fool,  though  the  former  of  these  was  generally 
 thought  his  truest  character;  and,  therefore,  instead  of  Epiphanes 
 the  Illustrious,  they  commonly  called  him  Epimanes,  the  Mad- 
 man.— Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  175. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 701 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  580.  JEK.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 kingdoms,  a  or  principalities,  into  which  it  was  divided, 
 was  a  language  as  well  known  to  skilful  readers  at  that 
 time,  as  are  the  arms,  the  colours,  and  the  field  of 
 escutcheons,  in  these  latter  days,  to  heralds. 
 
 6  Porphyry,  no  doubt,  was  well  acquainted  with  this 
 hieroglyphic  way  of  writing,  because  all  the  objection 
 which  he  makes  to  these  prophecies  of  Daniel,  concern- 
 ing the  four  empires,  is,  that  they  were  too  plain  and 
 perspicuous,  and  more  like  historical  narratives  of  facts 
 already  done,  than  prophetical  predictions  of  things  to 
 come.  But  however  this  enemy  of  Christianity  might 
 urge  the  plainness  of  the  prophet's  predictions,  in  order 
 to  invalidate  the  authority  of  his  book,  it  must  not  be 
 denied,  but  that  God,  in  his  great  wisdom,  has  so  ordered 
 the  matter,  for  the  exercise  of  our  faith  and  industry, 
 and  so  framed  the  prophetic  style,  that  there  should  be 
 still  some  shade  and  remains  of  obscurity,  abiding  upon 
 the  face  of  almost  every  prophecy,  even  after  the  time 
 of  its  completion ;  and,  therefore,  instead  of  being  sur- 
 prised at  the  great  variety  of  computations,  which  chro- 
 nologers,  and  other  learned  men  have  put  upon  the 
 ^"*^ seventy  weeks  '  mentioned  in  Daniel,  we  may  much 
 ratrier  wonder,  how,  at  this  distance  of  time,  they  have 
 been  able  to  come  to  any  tolerable  exactness. 
 
 The  words  of  the   prophecy  are    these  :  — '  seventy 
 weeks  are  determined  upon  thy  people,  and  upon  thy 
 
 1  Dan.  ix.  24. 
 
 a  Bishop  Lloyd  hath  given  us  the  following  list  of  the  ten 
 kingdoms  which  arose  out  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  em- 
 pire, and  the  time  of  their  rise.  1.  Huims  erected  their  king- 
 dom in  that  part  of  Pannonia  and  Dacia,  which  from  them  was 
 called  Hungary,  about  A.  D.  336.  2.  Ostrogoths  settled  them- 
 selves iu  the  countries  that  reach  from  Rhetia  to  Majsia,  even 
 as  far  as  Thrace,  about  377,  and  afterwards  came  into  Italy 
 under  Alaricus  in  410.  3.  Wisigoths  settled  in  the  south  parts 
 of  France,  and  in  Catalonia,  about  378.  4.  Franks  seized  upon 
 part  of  Germany  and  Gaul,  A.  D.  420.  5.  Vandals  settled  in 
 Spain,  and  afterwards  set  up  their  kingdom  in  Africa,  A.  D.  407. 
 6.  Suevians  and  Alans  seized  the  western  parts  of  Spain, 
 A.  D.  407,  and  invaded  Italy  457.  7.  Burgundians  came  out 
 of  Germany  into  that  part  of  Gaul,  called  from  them  Burgundy, 
 407.  8.  Rugians,  and  Thuringians  settled  in  Italy  under 
 Odoacer,  about  476.  9.  Saxons  made  themselves  masters  of 
 Great  Britain,  about  the  same  time,  476.  And  10.  Longobards 
 settled  first  in  Germany,  A.  D.  383,  and  afterwards  succeeded 
 the  Ileruli  and  Thuringi  in  Hungary. — Lowth's  Commentary 
 on  Dan.  vii.  24. 
 
 b  This  Porphyry  was  a  learned  heathen,  born  at  Tyre,  in 
 the  year  of  Christ  about  230,  and  there  called  Malchus ;  but 
 upon  his  going  among  the  Greeks,  he  changed  it  to  Porphyry, 
 which  is  much  of  the  same  signification;  for  Malchus  in  the 
 Phoenician  language,  which  was  then  spoken  at  Tyre,  signifies 
 a  king,  as  rrogQugios,  in  the  Greek  denotes  one  that  wore  purple, 
 which  none  but  kings,  and  royal  persons  were  then  permitted  to 
 do.  He  was  a  bitter  enemy  to  the  Christian  religion  ;  and  there- 
 fore wrote  a  large  volume  against  it,  containing  fifteen  books, 
 whereof  the  twelfth  was  wholly  levelled  against  the  prophecies  of 
 Daniel;  but  because  the  predictions  of  this  prophet,  concerning 
 the  several  empires,  were  acknowledged,  on  all  hands,  to  have 
 been  fulfilled,  he  did  not  go  about  to  disprove  it;  on  the  con- 
 trary, he  endeavoured  to  maintain,  by  the  testimony  of  the  best 
 Greek  historians  then  extant,  that  they  were  fulfilled  so  exactly, 
 and  so  minutely,  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  be  the  pre- 
 dictions of  the  Daniel  who  belonged  to  the  Babylonish  captivity, 
 and  must  therefore  be  the  spurious  composition  of  some  later 
 author.  But  this  argument  St  Jerome,  iu  his  comment  upon 
 Daniel,  fully  turns  upon  him.  It  is  much  to  be  lamented,  how- 
 ever, that  not  only  this  whole  work  of  Porphyry  is  lost,  but  that 
 also  the  books  of  Eusebius  Apollinarius,  and  Methodius,  which 
 were  wrote  in  answer  to  this  heathen  adversary,  (to  the  great 
 damage  both  of  divine  and  human  knowledge,)  have  all  under- 
 gone the  same  fate. — Prhlcau.v's  Connection,  anno  164. 
 
 holy  city,  to  finish  the  transgression,  and  to  make  an 
 end  of  sins,  and  to  make  reconciliation  for  iniquity,  and 
 to  bring  in  an  everlasting  righteousness,  and  to  anoint 
 the  Most  Holy.  Know  therefore  and  understand,  that 
 from  the  going  forth  of  the  commandment  to  restore, 
 and  to  build  Jerusalem  unto  the  Messiah  the  prince 
 c  shall  be  seven  weeks,  and  threescore  and  two  weeks, 
 and  the  street  shall  be  built  again,  and  the  wall,  even 
 in  troublous  times  ;  and  after  threescore  and  two  weeks, 
 shall  Messiah  be  cut  oft*  but  not  for  himself:  and 
 the  people  of  the  prince  that  shall  come,  shall  de- 
 stroy the  city,  and  the  sanctuary,  and  the  end  thereof 
 shall  be  with  a  flood  ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  war,  deso- 
 lations are  determined;  and  he  shall  confirm  the  cove- 
 nant with  many,  for  a  week ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  the 
 week,  he  shall  cause  the  sacrifice  and  the  oblation  to 
 cease  ;  and  for  the  overspreading  of  abominations,  he 
 shall  make  it  desolate,  even  until  the  consummation, 
 and  that  determined  shall  be  poured  upon  the  desolate.' 
 
 Now,  to  set  these  words  in  a  right  light,  we  must  con- 
 sider, 1st,  That  the  main  design  and  intendment  of  them 
 is,  to  foretel  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  his  abolishing 
 the  Jewish,  and  setting  up  a  new  and  more  perfect  re- 
 ligion ;  which  is  so  manifest  to  every  common  reader, 
 that  later  Jews  (to  avoid  the  force  of  this  one  prophecy) 
 have  even  adventured  to  exclude  the  whole  book  of 
 Daniel  from  the  number  of  inspired  writers,  and  to 
 pronounce  a  curse  upon  any  that  shall  pretend  to  com- 
 pute the  time  of  the  Messiah's  coming.  2dly.  It  is 
 agreed  by  most  interpreters,  that  the  seventy  weeks 
 here  spoken  of  (according  to  the  prophetic  style)  are 
 to  be  taken  for  weeks  of  years,  every  one  of  which 
 contained  seven  years,  and  so  the  seventy  weeks  will 
 amount  to  490  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  term, 
 the  matters  contained  in  this  prophecy  were  to  have  their 
 accomplishment.  But  then  the  question  is,  at  what 
 point  of  time  these  seventy  weeks,  or  what  is  all  one, 
 the  490  years,  either  began  or  expired  ?  For  if  we  can 
 but  find  out  one  of  these  periods,  there  will  be  less  dif- 
 ficulty in  stating  the  other.  Now,  3dly,  It  seems  pretty 
 plain,  that  the  several  events  specified  in  the  beginning 
 of  this  prophecy,  viz.  '  to  finish  '  or  restrain  transgres- 
 sions ;  2.  To  make  an  end  of  sin  ;  &  To  make  expia- 
 tion, or  reconciliation  for  iniquity ;  4.  '  To  bring  in 
 everlasting  righteousness  ;'  5.  '  To  seal  up,'  or  com- 
 plete, and  '  fulfil  vision  and  prophecy ;'  and  6.  '  To 
 anoint,'  or  consecrate  '  the  Most  Holy,'  were  all  accom- 
 plished in  the  great  work  of  our  salvation,  by  the  death 
 and  passion,  and  by  the  doctrine  and  resurrection,  of 
 our  Saviour  Christ.  For  being  born  without  original, 
 and  having  lived  without  actual  sin,  he  truly  was  the  most 
 holy  of  all  that  ever  bore  our  nature,  and  being  thereby 
 fully  fitted  for  this  great  work,  '  he  was  anointed  with 
 the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  power,'  to  be  our  priest,  our 
 prophet,  and  our  king. 
 
 As  our  priest,  he  offered  himself  a  sacrifice  upon  the 
 cross,  and  thereby  made  atonement  for  our  sins,  which 
 is  '  making  an  end  of  them,'  by  taking  away  their  guilt ; 
 and  in  so  doing,  working  reconciliation  for  us  with  God. 
 
 c  The  colon,  which,  in  our  English  Bibles,  is  placed  after 
 '  seven  weeks,'  in  the  middle  of  this  sentence,  should  be  placed 
 after  '  two  weeks,'  at  the  end  of  it,  which  wrong  punctuation 
 may  possibly  lead  some  people  into  an  error  in  their  computa- 
 tion. 
 
102 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  j— v. 
 
 As  our  prophet,  he  gave  us  his  gospel,  a  law  of  '  ever- 
 lasting righteousness,'  and  the  only  revelation  we  are 
 to  expect.  And  as  our  king,  he  sent  his  Holy  Spirit 
 into  our  hearts,  to  guide  and  influence  us  according  to 
 this  law ;  whereby  he  has  taken  an  effectual  method  to 
 restrain,  and  extinguish  in  us,  all  manner  of  transgres- 
 sion ;  and  in  doing  all  this,  he  has  sealed  up,  that  is, 
 fulfilled,  and  thoroughly  finished  all,  that  by  visions  and 
 prophecies  had  been  before  revealed  concerning  him. 
 
 Since  l  therefore  all  these  events  were  brought  to 
 pass,  and  accomplished  at  the  time  of  Christ's  death, 
 this  must  determine  us  where  to  fix  the  end  of  the  weeks 
 wherein  these  events  were  to  be  accomplished.  And  if 
 the  end  of  these  weeks  is  to  be  fixed  at  the  death  of 
 Christ,  then,  4thly,  This  will  determine  us  where  to 
 place  the  beginning  of  them,  namely,  490  years  before,  a 
 which  is  the  very  year  and  month,  °  wherein  Ezra  had 
 his  commission  from  Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  king  of 
 Persia,  for  his  returning  to  Jerusalem,  and  there  to  re- 
 store the  church  and  state  of  the  Jews. 
 
 The  only  objection  against  this  computation  is, — That 
 the  words  of  the  prophecy  seem  to  denote  a  real  building 
 of  the  city,  since  it  makes  mention  of  its  streets  and 
 walls  ;  whereas  that  work  was  executed  upon  the  decree 
 by  Cyrus,  several  years  before  Ezra  was  in  commission. 
 But  this  objection  will  appear  of  little  force,  if  once 
 it  be  considered,  that  figurative  expressions  are,  in  a 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  409. 
 
 a  Most  learned  men  agree,  that  the  death  of  Christ  happened 
 in  the  year  of  the  Julian  period  474G,  and  in  the  Jewish  month 
 Nisan:  and  therefore,  if  we  reckon  490  years  backward,  this 
 will  lead  us  to  the  month  Nisan,  and  in  the  year  of  the  Julian 
 period  4-^56;  which,  according  to  Ptolemy's  canon,  was  the 
 seventh  year  of  Artaxerxes'  reign,  in  which  the  Scripture  tells 
 us  (Ezra  vii.  7),  that  this  commission  was  granted. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  578. 
 
 b  Others  are  of  opinion,  that  the  commission  here  intended 
 was  not  that  which  was  given  to  Ezra,  but  that  which  Nehe- 
 miah  had  from  Artaxerxes,  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign, 
 at  which  period  they  place  the  commencement  of  these  seventy 
 weeks;  which,  being  reduced  to  490  lunar  years,  bring  us  down 
 to  the  time  when  our  Saviour  Christ  was  put  to  death.  There 
 are  some  variations,  indeed,  concerning  the  calculation  of  these 
 years.  Chronologere  differ  among  themselves  a  little;  but  the 
 greatest  difference  does  not  exceed  nine  or  ten  years;  and  yet 
 even  this,  Petavius,  who  has  treated  of  the  subject,  in  his 
 twelfth  book  de  Doctrina  Temporum,  has  endeavoured  to  accom- 
 modate, by  showing  that  the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  Daniel, 
 concerning  the  going  forth  of  the  command  to  restore  and  re- 
 build Jerusalem,  ought  to  be  understood  of  the  complete  execu- 
 tion of  that  order,  which  was  performed  by  Nehemiah  only; 
 and  that  the  twentieth  year  of  Artaxerxes  mentioned  in  Nehe- 
 miah i.  1,  ought  to  be  explained,  not  of  the  twentieth  year  of 
 Artaxerxes  alone,  but  of  the  twentieth  from  the  time  that  his 
 father  made  him  his  associate  in  the  throne,  which  was  ten  years 
 before  his  death:  which  ten  years  being  deducted  from  the  num- 
 ber of  years  that  elapsed  from  the  decree  of  Artaxerxes  in  favour 
 of  Nehemiah,  to  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  deliver  the  chronolo- 
 gers  out  of  all  their  perplexities,  and  dispel  all  the  difficulties 
 that  the  few  supernumerary  years  occasioned ;  Calmeft  Disser- 
 tation on  the  Seventy  Weeks,  8tc.  What  the  learned  Bishop 
 Lylod's  manner  of  computing  these  weeks  is,  the  reader  will 
 find  fully  explained  and  illustrated  by  Mr  Bedford,  in  his  Scrip- 
 ture Chronology,  (b.  7.  c.  I);  and  if  he  would  have  still  farther 
 satisfaction  herein,  he  may  consult  Pererius  upon  Daniel;  M. 
 Uasnage's  Dissert,  upon  the  seventy  weeks  ;  F.  Hardouin's 
 Dissert,  on  the  same  subject;  and  that  of  F.  Frischmouth,  in 
 
 his  Thesaurus  Dissertationum,  at  the  end  of  the  great  critics. 
 
 [  Dr  Hales's  Analysis  of  Ancient  Chronology  is  also  worthy  of 
 being  consulted  on  the  Prophecies  of  Daniel,  though  the  worthy 
 author  is  too  eager  to  launch  into  futurity;  see  also  Mr  Bell's 
 Dissertation  on  Dau.  xi.;  Rollin,  vol.  2.  p.  510.] Ed. 
 
 manner,  necessary  in  prophecies,  and  that  nothing  is 
 more  common  in  Scripture,  than  by  Jerusalem,  in  parti- 
 cular, to  mean  the  whole  political  and  ecclesiastical 
 state  of  the  Jews. 
 
 There  is  another  difficulty  observable  in  this  pro- 
 phecy, which  deserves  our  attention,  and  that  is,  the 
 division  of  the  seventy  weeks  into  three  distinct  periods, 
 that  is,  into  seven  weeks,  sixty-two  weeks,  and  one 
 week,  to  each  of  which  a  different  event  is  assigned. 
 In  the  seven  weeks,  or  forty-nine  years,  from  the  going 
 forth  of  the  commandment,  the  streets  and  walls  of  Jeru- 
 salem, that  is,  the  restoration  and  establishment  of  the 
 church  and  state  of  the  Jews,  is  to  be  accomplished. 
 In  the  sixty -two  weeks,  or  434  years  more,  the-  Messiah 
 is  to  come,  and  make  his  appearance  in  the  world  ;  and 
 in  one  week,  or  seven  years  after  this,  he  is  to  '  confirm 
 a  covenant  with  many,  and  cause  the  sacrifice  and  obla- 
 tion to  cease:'  all  which  were  literally  fulfilled.  For, 
 in  the  space  of  forty -nine  years,  which  answers  to  seven 
 weeks,  the  reformation  and  establishment  of  the  Jewish 
 church  and  state  was  carried  on,  and  completed,  first 
 by  Ezra,  in  virtue  of  a  decree  granted  in  the  seventh 
 year  of  Artaxerxes,  and  afterwards  by  Nehemiah,  in 
 virtue  of  another  granted  him  by  the  same  prince,  in  the 
 twentieth  year  of  his  reign.  From  that  time,  in  the 
 space  of  434  years,  which  answers  to  sixty -two  weeks, 
 our  blessed  Saviour  appeared  in  the  world  as  the  Mes- 
 siah ;  and  for  seven  years  after  that  (which  answers  to  the 
 one  week  in  the  prophecy),  first,  by  his  forerunner  John 
 the  Baptist,  for  the  space  of  three  years  and  a  half  more, 
 he  conlirmed  the  covenant  of  the  gospel  with  as  many  of 
 the  Jews  as  were  converted,  and  embraced  these  laws  of 
 everlasting  righteousness  which  he  published ;  and  at 
 length  by  the  sacrifice  of  his  most  precious  blood,  made 
 all  other  victims  and  oblations  (which  were  but  types  and 
 emblems  of  his)  for  ever  cease  and  be  abolished.  As  to  the 
 other  part  of  the  prophecy,  it  relates  so  evidently  to  the 
 destruction  of  Jerusalem,  that  it  needs  no  explanation. 
 Whoever  has  read  Josephus  cannot  but  observe,  that, 
 by  the  destruction  of  the  city  and  sanctuary,  by  the 
 people  of  the  prince  that  was  to  come,  who,  with  their 
 armies  and  desolating  abominations,  should  invade 
 Judea  as  with  a  flood,  and,  by  a  terrible  and  consuming 
 war,  bring  utter  ruin  and  destruction  upon  it,  and  upon 
 all  the  people  of  the  Jews  that  should  dwell  therein,  can 
 be  meant  nothing  but  Titus  at  the  head  of  the  Roman 
 army,  executing  the  wrath  of  God  for  the  murder  of  his 
 Son,  our  Saviour,  upon  that  devoted  city  and  people,  in 
 such  a  terrible  and  tragical  manner  as  their  historian 
 has  related. 
 
 Ezekiel,  indeed,  according  to  the  sentiment  of  some 
 rabbins,  was  a  prophet  of  more  obscurity  than  Daniel, 
 and,  especially  in  the  description  of  the  chariot,  as  they 
 call  the  first  chapter,  so  very  intricate  and  abstruse,  that 
 they  would  not  permit  it  to  be  read  by  any  until  they 
 were  arrived,  at  the  age  of  thirty.  The  design  of  the 
 prophet  in  that  chapter  is,  to  represent  the  great  and 
 glorious  appearance  of  God  coming  to  give  him  instruc- 
 tions in  the  management  of  his  prophetic  office  ;  and,  to 
 this  purpose,  he  makes  use  of  images  foreign  indeed  to 
 our  manner  of  writing,  but  which  are  all  significant  and 
 full  of  majesty.  He  seats  himself  on  a  radiant  throne, 
 supported  by  cherubim  moved  by  wheels  of  an  uncom- 
 mon make,  covered  with  the  canopy  of  heaven,  and  en- 
 
Skct.  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 703 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 circled  with  the  rainbow  ;  and  though,  in  the  description 
 of  the  cherubim  and  wheels,  there  may  be  something 
 not  so  agreeable  to  our  way  of  thinking,  yet  we  are  not 
 to  suppose,  but  that,  in  the  whole,  it  was  adapted  to  the 
 age  wherein  the  prophet  wrote,  and  in  each  part  perhaps 
 did  include  an  excellent  moral.  Angels,  of  what  rank 
 or  denomination  soever,  are  all  ministering  spirits,  and 
 the  instruments  of  God's  providence  in  the  government 
 of  the  world  ;  and  therefore  are  represented  here  as 
 supporting  his  throne,  and  in  allusion,  '  very  likely,  to 
 the  triumphal  chariots  of  eastern  princes,  which  are 
 drawn  by  several  sorts  of  beasts,  they  are  said  2  every  one 
 to  have  four  faces.  Their  wings  denote  their  readiness 
 and  alacrity ;  their  eyes,  their  sagacity  and  vigilance  ; 
 their  hands,  their  prudence  and  dexterity  ;  their  feet,  their 
 steadiness  and  resolution  in  performing  the  divine  com- 
 mands ;  and  3  the  noise  of  their  wings,  when  they  went, 
 expressed  the  terribleness  of  the  judgments  which  they 
 were  to  execute  upon  Jerusalem  and  all  the  Jewish  nation. 
 And,  in  like  manner,  4  the  make  and  fashion  of  the 
 wheels  which  these  cherubim  actuate,  shows,  that  all  the 
 ways  of  providence  are  uniform,  and  subservient  to  each 
 other ;  as  5  their  going  perpetually  forward  intimates, 
 that  providence  does  nothing  in  vain,  but  always  ac- 
 complishes its  designs.  6  The  largeness  of  the  rings 
 or  circumference  of  the  wheels,  denotes  the  vast  compass 
 of  providence,  7  '  which  reacheth  from  one  end  to  another 
 mightily.'  8  Their  being  full  of  eyes  implies,  that  the 
 motions  of  providence  are  directed  by  unerring  wis- 
 dom ;  and  9  their  moving,  when  the  cherubs  moved, 
 seems  to  demonstrate,  with  what  readiness  and  alacrity 
 all  the  instruments  of  providence  do  concur  in  carrying 
 on  his  great  designs.  a     Thus,  full  of  instruction  is  every 
 
 1  Lowth's  Comment,  on  Ezek.  i.  2  Ezek.  i.  6. 
 
 3  Ibid.  ver.  24.  4  Ibid.  ver.  16.  5  Ibid.  ver.  17. 
 
 6  Ibid.  ver.  18.  7  Wisd.  viii.  1.  8  Ibid.  ver.  18. 
 
 9  Ibid.  ver.  19. 
 
 a  Each  cherub  had  four  faces:  (1.)  that  of  a  man;  (2.)  that  of 
 a  lion ;  (3.)  that  of  an  ox ;  (4.)  that  of  an  eagle.  These  four 
 faces  were  probably  attached  to  one  head,  and  seen  by  the  be- 
 holder in  union,  being  joined,  each  by  its  back  part,  to  the  others. 
 Their  body,  from  the  neck  downwards,  was  human;  '  the  like- 
 ness of  a  man.'  This  human  part  first  meeting  the  spectator's 
 eye,  had  he  seen  nothing  else,  lie  might  from  thence  have  sup- 
 posed the  whole  form  to  be  human.  Ezekiel  describes  the 
 cherub  as  having  four  wings; — Isaiah  describes  the  seraph  as 
 having  six  wings;  say,  two  on  his  head,  two  on  his  shoulders, 
 two  on  his  flanks.  Their  arms,  rendered  in  our  translation 
 hands,  were  four,  one  on  each  side  of  the  creature.  The  re- 
 mainder, or  lower  part  of  their  figure,  was,  from  the  rim  of  the 
 belly  downwards,  either  (1.)  humau  thighs,  legs,  and  feet,  to 
 which  were  appended,  at  the  posteriors,  the  body  and  hind  legs 
 of  an  ox;  or  rather,  (2.)  the  body  and  the  fore  legs  of  an  ox,  out 
 of  which  the  human  part  seemed  to  rise,  so  that  all  below  the 
 rim  of  the  belly  was  ox-like,  and  all  above  that  division  was 
 human.  From  which  formation  a  spectator  paying  most  atten- 
 tion to  their  lower  parts,  might  have  been  inclined  to  think  them 
 oxen;  or  at  least  bestial.  With  regard  to  their  services,  or 
 what  they  appeared  to  do,  Mr  Taylor  asks,  was  the  vision  seen 
 by  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  as  well  as  that  by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  the 
 resemblance  of  a  movable  throne  or  chariot,  of  prodigious  dimen- 
 sions, on  which  the  sovereign  was  understood  to  sit ;  and  to 
 which  the  wheels  were  annexed  in  much  the  same  maimer  as  to 
 the  royal  travelling,  or  military  thrones  of  the  Persian  kings; 
 while  the  four  cherubim  occupied  the  places  of  four  horses  to 
 draw  this  magnificent  machine?  This  he  thinks  probable,  and 
 illustrates  the  idea  at  some  length.  The  wheels  described  in 
 Ezek.  i.  15 — 21.  in  connexion  with  the  cherubim,  Mr  Taylor 
 conceives  to  have  been  representative  of  the  throne  of  the  Deity; 
 the  construction — wheel  within  wheel — being  for  the  purpose  of 
 their  rolling  every  way  with  perfect  readiness,  and  without  any 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.,  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 little  symbol  in  this  description  !  And  therefore  it  is 
 doing  injustice  to  the  character  of  the  prophet,  to  find 
 fault  with  his  images,  because  they  agree  not  with  the 
 present  mode,  or  to  censure  his  writings  before  we 
 understand  them. 
 
 His  prophecy  10  concerning  Gog  and  Magog  is  per- 
 haps deservedly  thought  one  of  the  most  difficult  pas- 
 sages that  occur  in  the  Old  Testament;  and  accordingly, 
 the  conjectures  about  it  have  been  various.  It  is  gener- 
 ally agreed,  however,  that  the  words  *  Gog  and  Magog- 
 are  not  real  but  fictitious  names ;  and  therefore  their 
 wars  with  the  people  of  God,  some  have  applied  to  the 
 cruelties  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  against  the  Jews ; 
 others  to  the  persecutions  of  the  Gentiles  against  the 
 Christians  ;  some  to  the  irruption  of  the  Goths,  and 
 other  barbarous  nations,  into  the  Roman  empire  ;  others 
 to  the  ravages  which  the  Turks  made  in  Asia,  and  some 
 parts  of  Europe  ;  and  others  again,  to  those,  as  is  pro- 
 phesied elsewhere,  oppressions  which,  in  the  latter  days, 
 Antichrist  shall  bring  upon  the  true  professors  of  our 
 most  holy  religion. 
 
 11  The  main  current  of  interpreters  will  have  the  Gog 
 in  Ezekiel  to  be  Antiochus ;  but  then  there  are  some 
 exceptions  to  this  opinion,  that  may  be  gathered  from 
 Ezekiel  himself.  For  whereas  the  Gog  in  Ezekiel  12 
 '  was  to  fall  upon  the  mountains  of  Israel ;'  13  '  was  to  be 
 buried  in  the  east  of  the  Mediterranean  sea  ;'  was  to 
 have  an  army  destroyed,  14  '  by  their  turning  their  swords 
 upon  one  another  ;'  and  15  the  Israelites  were  to  gather  the 
 '  spoils,  and  burn  their  arms  for  several  years  :'  whoever 
 looks  into  the  history  of  Antiochus,  will  see  that  he  died 
 at  a  little  town  called  Taba,  in  the  confines  of  Persia 
 
 1(1  Ezek.  xxxviii.  and  xxxix. 
 
 »  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  Gog  and  Magog.        12  Ezek.  xxxix.  4. 
 
 13  Ibid.  ver.  11.  I4  Ibid,  xxxviii.  21.  15  Ibid,  xxxix.  9,  10. 
 occasion  of  turning  the  whole  machine.  The  cherubim  having 
 the  conducting  of  this  throne,  it  is  obvious  to  remark  how  well 
 adapted  their  figure  was  to  their  service;  their  faces  looking 
 every  way,  so  that  there  was  no  occasion  for  turning,  as  a  horse 
 must,  in  obedience  to  directions,  to  proceed  to  the  right,  or  to 
 the  left,  instead  of  going  straight  forward.  As  much  misappre- 
 hension respecting  these  appearances,  has  arisen  from  the  idea 
 of  the  wheels  and  the  cherubim  being  full  of  eyes,  (Ezek.  i.)  Mi- 
 Taylor  next  endeavours  to  correct  that  mistake.  It  is  surprising, 
 he  remarks,  that  when  the  same  Hebrew  word  py  obi,  had  been 
 rendered  colour,  in  verses  4,  7,  16,  22,  27,  it  should  in  verse 
 18  be  rendered  eyes.  It  means  the  glittering  splendid  hues — 
 the  fugitive  reflected  tints,  those  accidental  coruscations  of 
 colours,  such  as  we  see  vibrate  in  some  precious  stones,  which, 
 seen  in  some  lights,  show  certain  colours,  but  seen  in  other  lights, 
 show  other  colours.  This  sense  of  the  word  is  confirmed  by  the 
 use  of  it  in  Numb.  xi.  7:  "  the  manna  was  like  coriander  seed,  it- 
 self; but  the  eye  of  it— the  reflected  glistening  tint  which  vibrated 
 from  it— was  like  to  the  eye — the  glistening  tint— of  the  bdellium." 
 It  would  not  be  far  from  the  truth,  to  say,  that  these  eyes  were  of 
 the  nature  of  those  we  call  eyes  in  a  peacock's  feather:  that  is,  that 
 they  were  spots  peculiarly  embellished  with  colours,  or  streaks  like 
 those  of  the  golden  pheasant  of  China. — Calmet's  Diet. — En. 
 
 b  Magog  was  the  son  of  Japhet,  (Gen.  x.  2.)  from  whom  the 
 Scythians  were  generally  supposed  to  be  derived ;  a  people  well 
 known  in  the  east  for  their  frequent  irruptions  and  devastations 
 therein  made,  and  who,  for  their  rapine  and  violence,  cruelties 
 and  barbarities  of  all  kinds,  for  some  time  passed  into  a  proverb; 
 and  therefore,  wluther  we  suppose  Cambyses  or  Antiochus,  as 
 we  shall  see  hereafter,  to  be  the  Gog  in  Ezekiel,  the  prophet's 
 calling  him  by  the  name  of  a  '  wild  Scythiau  '  can  be  no  objec- 
 tion, because  scarce  ever  were  any  two  men  more  cruel,  more 
 savage,  and  brutal  in  their  passions,  than  they ;  insomuch,  that 
 we  may  truly  say,  that,  as  the  Scythians  were  the  terror  of  all 
 the  east,  so  Cambyses  and  Antiochus  were  the  horror  and  abo- 
 mination of  mankind. — Calmet's  Commentary  on  Gog  and  Mayog, 
 
704, 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  VII. 
 
 OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 A.  M.341V.  A.  C.  1.87 
 
 and  Babylonia  ;  that,  upon  his  death,  his  army  suffered 
 no  defeat,  neither  did  the  Jews  reap  any  advantage  by 
 it,  because  his  son  Antiochus  Eupater  continued  to 
 oppress  and  harass  them  with  wars  as  much  as  ever. 
 
 But  if  Antiochus  was  not  the  Gog  in  Ezekiel,  the 
 question  is,  Who  was  ?  And  to  resolve  this  question,  we 
 may  observe,  that  (be  the  person  who  he  will)  the  pro- 
 phet speaks  of  him  as  a  powerful  prince,  who  should 
 come  from  the  north,  '  with  a  numerous  army,  2  made 
 up  of  different  nations,  exasperated  against  the  Jews, 
 aud  with  full  intent 3  to  plunder  and  ravage  their  country  ; 
 but  that  he  should  be  disappointed  in  his  design,  and  4 
 his  army  miraculously  destroyed. 
 
 We  may  observe  farther,  that  this  event  was  to  happen 
 after  the  return  from  the  captivity  ;  because  the  prophet 
 mentions  it  as  a  thing  future  :  5  '  thou  shalt  come  into  a 
 land  (speaking-  of  (jog)  that  is  brought  back  from  the 
 sword,  and  against  a  people  who  have  lately  returned 
 from  amidst  the  nations  where  they  had  been  dispersed  ;' 
 which  can  be  meant  of  none  but  the  Jews  ;  but  6  that  it 
 could  not  happen  after  the  time  of  the  Maccabees, 
 because  the  Jewish  history  is,  from  thence,  so  very  well 
 known,  that  a  transaction  of  this  nature  could  not  well 
 escape  us  ;  and  therefore  we  may  conclude  that  it  was 
 between  the  return  from  the  captivity,  and  the  first  ap- 
 pearing of  the  Maccabees,  a  very  obscure  interval  as  to 
 the  Jewish  affairs,  that  what  the  prophet  relates  of  Gog 
 and  his  adventures,  came  to  pass  ;  and  if  so,  we  can  see 
 no  prince  or  potentate  to  whom  the  characters  which  the 
 inspired  writers  give  of  him,  can  so  properly  belong-,  as 
 to  Caiubyses  the  son  of  Cyrus. 
 
 According  to  the  accounts  of  all  history,  he  was  cruel 
 and  barbarous,  excessively  impious,  and  insatiably  cove- 
 tous. His  indignation  against  the  Jews  he  expressed  7 
 by  a  revocation  of  a  grant  which  his  father  gave  for  the 
 rebuilding  of  their  city  and  temple.  He  led  a  large 
 army  into  Egypt,  composed  of  all  the  different  nations8 
 that  Ezekiel  mentions,  who  were  overwhelmed  (a  great 
 many  of  them  at  least)  by  the  driven  sands  of  the  deserts. 
 In  his  return  from  Egypt,  9  he  died  at  Ecbatan  in 
 Palestine,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Carmel,  which  faces  the 
 Mediterranean  sea,  of  a  wound  which  he  received  by  his 
 sword's  falling  accidentally  out  of  the  scabbard;  so  that 
 a  great  many  lines  of  the  picture  which  the  prophet 
 draws  of  (jog,  meet  in  Caiubyses,  though  it  must  be 
 acknowledged  that  all  do  not. 
 
 10  What  bids  fair  for  this  opinion,  however,  is  the  order 
 and  series  of  events  which  Ezekiel  seems  to  have  ob- 
 served in  his  prophecies  ;  for  having  first  foretold  the 
 taking  of  Jerusalem,  the  captivity  of  Babylon,  and  the 
 desolation  of  Tyre,  Egypt,  and  some  other  countries 
 neighbouring  upon  Judea,  he  proceeds,  in  the  next  place, 
 to  the  dissolution  of  the  Chaldean  monarchy,  and  the 
 return  of  the  Jews  from  their  captivity  :  but  before  they 
 are  well  settled  in  their  native  country,  Gog  and  his 
 numerous  army  are  introduced  to  trouble  their  repose, 
 and  threaten  their  ruin  ;  but  that  God  interposes  to  rid 
 them  of  this  fierce  enemy,  who  is  said  to  have  fallen  in 
 the  mountains  of  Israel,  he,  and  all  his  army.     It  must 
 
 1  Ezek.  xxxviii.  15.        2  Ibid.  ver.  2.        3  Ibid.  ver.  9,  &c. 
 *  Ibid.  ver.  22,  &c.  5  Ibid.  ver.  8. 
 
 6  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  Gog  and  Magog. 
 7  Ezra  iv.  19,  &e.      8  Ezek.  xxxviii.  2,  &c.      9  Herod,  b.  iii. 
 
 10  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  Gog  and  Magog. 
 
 be  owned,  indeed,  that  the  writers  of  the  life  of  Caiubyses 
 make  mention  of  no  intention  in  this  prince  to  fall  foul 
 upon  the  Jews,  nor  do  they  say  any  thing  of  the  destruc- 
 tion of  his  army,  ensuant  upon  his  death  ;  but  upon  the 
 supposition,  that  the  prophecy  relates  to  him,  God,  who 
 knew  the  evil  disposition  of  that  prince's  heart  towards 
 the  Jews,  (which  no  profane  author  could  penetrate.) 
 has  given  us  this  part  of  his  history  :  "  <  Thus  saith  the 
 Lord,  it  shall  also  come  to  pass,  that  at  the  same  time, 
 thou  shalt  think  an  evil  thought,  and  shalt  say,  I  will 
 go  up  to  the  land  of  unwalled  villages ;  I  will  go  to 
 them  that  are  at  rest,  that  dwell  safely,  all  of  them  dwell- 
 ing without  walls,  and  having  neither  bars  nor  gates,  to 
 take  a  spoil,  and  to  take  a  prey,  to  turn  my  hand  upon 
 the  desolate  places  that  are  now  inhabited,  and  upon 
 the  people  that  are  now  gathered  out  of  the  nations.' 
 What  became  of  his  army,  after  he  was  dead,  we  cannot 
 tell.  Herodotus,  who  gives  us  the  largest  accounts  of 
 him,  immediately  after  his  decease,  passes  to  the  history 
 of  the  Magian,  who  usurped  his  throne  ;  and  therefore 
 we  may  suppose, 18  that  as  they  consisted  of  so  many  dif- 
 ferent nations,  and  followed  him  only  by  compulsion, 
 when  once  their  head  was  gone,  they  crumbled  into 
 parties,  quarrelled,  and,  as  13  the  prophet  had  foretold, 
 turned  their  arms  upon  one  another ;  which  was  no  more 
 than  what  M  the  Philistines  did  in  the  time  of  Saul,  and 
 15  the  Midianites,  when  Gideon  judged  Israel.  a 
 
 "Ezek.  xxxviii.  10,  &c.  n  Calmet's  Dissert. 
 
 13  Ezek.  xxxviii.  2.         14  1  Sam.  xiv.  20.      Vj  Judg.  vii.  22. 
 
 a  The  following  is  Rosenmuller's  account  of  Gog  and  Magog. 
 It  seems  to  rest  upon  a  much  better  foundation  than  that  given 
 above  : — "  The  word  Magog,  which  in  the  ethnographic  table  in 
 Genesis,  is  the  name  of  Japhet's  second  son,  appears  in  Ezek. 
 xxxviii.  2,  as  the  name  of  a  country,  whose  ruler  was  called 
 Gog,  and  who,  at  the  same  time,  was  prince  of  Meshech  and 
 Tubal,  that  is  of  the  Moschi  and  Tibareni.  It  is  said,  that  after 
 the  people  of  God  should  be  delivered  from  all  their  enemies 
 and  oppressors,  and  enjoy  a  long  season  of  repose,  this  powerful 
 monarch  would  collect  a  numerous  and  formidable  host  of  the 
 tribes  of  the  distant  north,  and  overrun  the  Holy  Land,  where, 
 however,  he  would  meet  a  signal  overthrow,  and  be  buried  in  a 
 valley  on  the  east  side  of  the  lake  of  Gennesareth,  (chap,  \xxix. 
 11.)  In  the  Revelation  of  St  John,  (chap.  xx.  8,)  Gog  and 
 Magog  are  not  spoken  of  as  lands  or  their  rulers,  but  as  two  great 
 nations,  comprising  the  heathen  at  the  four  ends  of  the  earth, 
 who,  after  the  millennial  reign,  shall  be  stirred  up  by  Satan  to 
 encamp  against  the  holy  city,  and  shall  be  destroyed  by  fire  from 
 heaven.  Among  the  Arabs  and  Persians  the  nations  of  Vajooj 
 and  Majoqj  correspond  to  the  Gog  and  Magog  of  the  Hebrews. 
 They  are  supposed  to  have  descended  from  Japhet,  and  to  dwell 
 in  the  distant  north.  Alexander  the  Great  is  said  to  have  erected 
 a  wall,  in  order  to  prevent  the  inroads  of  these  plundering  tribes  in- 
 to the  countries  of  the  south.  From  the  accounts  found  in 
 Arabian  and  Persian  geographers  of  Vajooj  aud  Majooj,  we  con- 
 clude that  they  comprehend,  under  this  designation,  all  the  less 
 known  barbarous  people  of  the  north-east  and  north-west  of  Asia; 
 the  same  who  were  described  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  by 
 the  name  of  Scythians,  and  among  the  later  Europeans  by  the 
 name  of  Tatars,  (corrupted  into  Tartars.)  Yet  though  the  Gog 
 and  Magog  of  the  Hebrews  may  have  had  an  equally  vague  ac- 
 ceptation, it  nevertheless  seems  to  have  pointed  more  precisely 
 to  the  northern  tribes  of  Caucasus,  between  the  Euxine  and 
 Caspian  Seas.  This  idea  is  countenanced,  not  only  by  the  fact 
 of  the  names  being  connected  in  Ezekiel  with  Ararat  (Armenia,) 
 Meshech  (the  Moschi,)  and  Tubal  (the  Tibareni  0  hut  also  by 
 umstance   that    the    famous   Caucasian   wall,   anciently 
 
 the 
 
 erected  by  a  Persian  monarch  as  a  defence  against  the  incursions 
 ot  the  northern  barbarians,  and  which  extended  from  Derbend, 
 on  the  western  shore  of  the  Caspian  to  near  the  Black  Sea,  was 
 called  the  wall  (against)  Yajonj  and  Majooj,  that  is,  Gog  and 
 Magog,  a  name  which  the  remains  still  bear.    In  the  Apocalypse, 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &< 
 
 705 
 
 A.  M.  3117.  A.  C.  587;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 We  have  been  so  large  in  our  answers  to  some  of  the 
 last  objections,  that  we  have  less  room  left  for  the  re- 
 conciliation of  some  seeming-  inconsistencies  that  are 
 alleged  in  this  period  of  history  ;  but  a  little  will  suffice 
 for  this. 
 
 For,  1.  Whereas  the  number  of  the  people,  returning 
 from  the  captivity,  is  much  larger  in  the  general  sum 
 than  it  is  in  the  particulars,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  that 
 not  only  those  of  Judah  .and  Benjamin,  but  several  also 
 of  the  other  tribes,  took  the  benefit  of  the  decree  which 
 Cyrus  granted  in  favour  of  the  Jews,  to  return  again  in- 
 to their  own  land.  That  they  did  so,  is  plain  from  the 
 tenor  of  the  decree  itself,  which  extends  l  '  to  all  the  peo- 
 ple of  the  God  of  Israel,'  whereof  (as  Josephus  informs 
 us)  Zerubbabel  sent  a  copy  into  Media,  to  the  rest  of  the 
 ten  tribes,  who,  '  together  with  the  rest  of  the  fathers  of 
 Judah  and  Benjamin,'  are  supposed  to  be  those, J  '  whose 
 spirit  God  had  raised  up  to  go  :'  and  therefore  the  dif- 
 ference between  the  gross  and  the  particular  sums  arises 
 from  hence,  3that  in  the  latter,  the  tribes  of  Judah,  Benja- 
 min, and  Levi ,  only  are  reckoned  by  their  families ;  where- 
 as in  the  former,  all  those  of  the  other  tribes  that  accom- 
 panied them  in  their  return  to  Jerusalem  are  added. 
 
 This  accounts  for  the  difference  between  the  general 
 and  particular  sums  in  Ezra ;  and  then  why  the  particu- 
 lars in  Ezra  differ  from  the  particulars  in  Nehemiah,  the 
 matter  (according  to  a  very  competent  *  judge)  is  to  be 
 
 1  Ezra  i.  3.  2  Ibid.  ver.  5. 
 
 3  Patrick's  Commentary  on  Ezra  ii.  C;  and  Prideaux's  Con- 
 nection. 
 
 *  Lightfoot's  Chronology,  p.  146. 
 
 the  terms  Gog  and  Magog  are  evidently  used  allegorically,  as 
 names  of  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  who  will  endeavour  to  ex- 
 tirpate it  from  the  earth,  lint  shall  thereby  bring  upon  themselves 
 signal  destruction." — (Bib.  Cabinet,  No.  xi.  Rosenmuller,  Bib. 
 Geoff,  vol.  i.  pp.  121 — 123.)  With  regard  to  the  wall  of  Gog 
 and  Magog  mentioned  by  liosenmuller,  Ker  Porter  (Travels, 
 vol.  ii.  p.  520.)  thus  writes, — "  The  name  Daghistan  implies  a 
 land  of  mountains,  and  it  contains  some  of  the  most  inaccessible 
 of  this  bianch  of  the  Caucasian  range,  which  runs  directly  through 
 the  heart  of  this  country.  The  eastern  side,  towards  the  sea, 
 commands  the  most  level  ground ;  and  on  that  shore  we  find  the 
 district  and  city  of  Derbent.  It  possesses  a  picturesque  citadel, 
 though  situated  at  rather  an  unserviceable  distance  from  the 
 town  and  harbour;  but  I  am  told  that  part  of  the  ancient  wall, 
 named  Gog  and  Magog,  is  very  traceable  near  this  old  stronghold, 
 and  that  its  foundations  may  be  tracked  thence,  running  in  a 
 westerly  direction  over  even  the  highest  mountains.  This  place, 
 and  its  adjacent  district,  a  position  deemed  of  the  greatest  im- 
 portance by  all  conquerors,  whether  Persians,  Greeks,  Arabs, 
 &c.  who  could  acquire  its  possession,  is  now  the  property  of 
 Russia/'  This  wall  was  really  built  by  the  famous  Noushirvan, 
 king  of  Persia,  as  a  barrier  against  the  inroads  of  the  Khazars. 
 That  Gog  and  Magog  were  to  be  sought  for  in  the  Caucasus, 
 was  the  idea  (if  Bochart.  "  He  observes,"  says  Wells,  (Gcor/.  of 
 he  Old  Testament,  vol.  i.  p.  121.)  that  these  words  [divm 
 Gog-chasan,  denote  in  the  neighbouring  oriental  tongues  as  much 
 is  Gog's  Fort,  and  from  Goy-chasan  the  Greeks  framed  the 
 name  Kxixuao;,  Caucasus.''  And  besides  finding  the  word  Gog 
 preserved  in  Gogarene,  a  district  of  Iberia,  he  believes  Pro- 
 metheus, chained  to  the  Caucasus  by  Jupiter,  to  have  been  none 
 other  than  Gog. 
 
 The  Schrrif-el-Edrisi,  m  his  geographical  work  called  "  The 
 Diversion  of  the  Curious,"  gives  a  singular  account  of  Yajooj 
 and  Majooj,  taken  from  the  travels  of  one  Salam  the  interpreter. 
 This  person,  says  he,  was  sent  about  the  beginning  of  the  ninth 
 century,  by  the  Calif  Mohammed  Ameen  Billah,  to  discover 
 the  mountain  Kokaiya,  with  the  bank  or  rampart  of  Yajooj  and 
 Majooj,  who  dwelt  on  the  north  of  it,  and  who  were  confined 
 within  by  a  great  gate  of  iron,  fifty  cubits  high,  supported  by 
 great  buttresses,  with  an  iron  bulwark  reaching  to  the  summit  of 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  580.  JER.  xl.  7-xlv.,  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 conceived  and  apprehended  thus, — "  That  Nehemiah 
 found  the  list  and  catalogue  of  those  that  came  up  in  the 
 first  of  Cyrus,  as  it  was  then  taken,  and  that  he  called 
 over  the  names  of  the  families,  as  they  lay  in  order 
 there  ;  that  he  observed  the  order  of  the  old  list,  in  call- 
 ing them  over,  and  lifting  them,  but  took  the  real  number 
 of  them,  as  they  were  at  the  time,  when  he  numbered 
 them,  that  some  families  were  now  more  in  number  than 
 they  were  when  the  first  list  was  made,  and  some  fewer  ; 
 and  some  that  were  in  that  list  were  not  to  be  found  now  ; 
 for  some  more  of  the  same  stock  had  come  up  from 
 Babylon,  since  the  first  numbering,  and  others,  who 
 had  come  up  at  first,  and  were  then  numbered,  were  now 
 gone  back  again." 
 
 2.  Whereas  it  is  said  of  the  fourscore  Israelites,  that 
 they  were  5  '  carrying  their  offerings  to  the  house  of  the 
 Lord,'  when  the  house  of  the  Lord  at  Jerusalem  had,  for 
 some  time  before,  been  destroyed  by  the  Babylonians ; 6 
 why  may  we  not  suppose,  that  the  place  where  the  temple 
 stood,  even  after  its  destruction,  was  held  in  such  vener- 
 ation, that  the  people  who  were  left  in  the  country, 
 after  the  general  captivity,  chose  to  offer  their  sacrifices 
 and  oblations  there,  as  long  as  they  remained  in  the 
 land  ;  and  that  having  no  priests  at  Jerusalem,  they 
 might  go  to  Mizpeh  (where  these  servants  of  the  Lord 
 had,  very  probably,  put  themselves  under  the  governor's 
 protection)  to  fetch  one  from  thence,  in  order  to  assist 
 them  in  their  religious  offices  ? 
 
 7  Samaria,  indeed,  and  the  other  parts  from  whence 
 these  devout  persons  came,  lay  to  the  north,  and  Mizpeh 
 to  the  south  of  Jerusalem,  a  little  too  far  distant  for 
 them  to  go  for  a  priest ;  and  therefore  others  have 
 imagined,  that  after  the  destruction  of  the  temple, 
 Gedaliah,  by  the  advice  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  and 
 the  priests  that  were  with  him,  had  established  a  taber- 
 nacle, and  built  an  altar  at  Mizpeh,  where  the  people, 
 for  the  present,  might  resort  to  pay  their  devotions,  and 
 present  their  oblations,  until  by  some  happy  turn  of 
 affairs,  their  temple  might  come  to  be  built  again  ;  and 
 that  this  tabernacle  and  altar  might  with  propriety 
 enough,  be  called  '  the  house  of  the  Lord.' 
 
 We  can  hardly  believe,  indeed,  that  after  the  temple 
 was  gone,  the  people  were  to  live  without  any  place  of 
 religious  worship;  and,  therefore,  considering  that  Miz- 
 peh was  all  along  esteemed  a  place  of  more  than  ordi- 
 nary sanctity ;  that  after  the  return  of  the  ark,  there 
 8  l  Samuel  gathered  together  all  Israel  before  the  Lord  ;' 
 that  there  he  built  an  altar,  and  9  'offered  a  sacrifice;' 
 and  that  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  when  the  Jews 
 were  in  the  same  case  as  now,  without  a  temple,  and 
 without  an  altar,  they  here  ,0  '  assembled  themselves  to- 
 gether ;'  for  Mizpeh,  as  the  author  of  that  history  tells 
 us,  '  was  the  place  where  they  prajed  aforetime  iu 
 Israel:"  we  cannot  but  think,  that  there  is  something  of 
 
 5  Jer.  xl.  5.     6  Prideaux's  Connection,  in  the  notes,  anno  588. 
 
 7  Calmet's  Commentary  on  Jer.  xli.  5.  8  1  Sam.  vii.  5,  6. 
 ■    9  Ibid,  ver,  19.  ,0  Maccab.  iii.  46. 
 
 Kokaiya,  almost  beyond  the  reach  of  vision.  The  people  of 
 Yajooj,  says  he,  are  of  the  common  size,  but  those  of  Majooj  (so 
 far  from  being  giants  according  to  European  notions)  are  a  race 
 of  pigmies  only  three  spans  high.  For  farther  information  respect- 
 ing the  locality  of  Gog  and  Magog,  the  reader  is  referred  to  a  Dis- 
 sertation on  the  subject  by  D'Anville,  in  the  Memoires  de  1'Acad. 
 des  Inscriptions  et  Belles  Lettres,  vol.  xxxi.  and  Rennell's  Geog. 
 of  Herodotus,  p.  152. —  Bib.  Cab.  No.  xi.  Rosenmulkr,  Bib, 
 Geog. — Ed. 
 
 4  u 
 
706 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 reality  in  the  supposition,  and  that  these  eighty  pious 
 mourners  were  going  to  Mizpeh,  and  not  to  Jerusalem, 
 ■when  the  bloody  and  perfidious  Ishmael  circumvented 
 them. 
 
 3.  Once  more  :  whereas  it  is  said,  2  '  that  the  priests 
 and  Levites,  and  elders  of  the  fathers,'  who  had  seen 
 the  first  temple,  wept  when  the  foundation  of  the  second 
 was  laid,  though  it  is  manifest,  that  the  latter  temple 
 was  3  forty  cubits  larger  than  the  former ;  it  must  be  re- 
 membered, that  the  reason  of  their  weeping  was,  not  so 
 much  because  it  was  like  to  prove  far  inferior  to  that  of 
 Solomon  as  to  its  outward  structure,  but  because  it  was 
 to  want  those  extraordinary  marks  of  the  divine  favour, 
 wherewith  the  other  temple  was  honoured.     The  second 
 temple    was  built  upon  the  same  foundations  with  the 
 first ;  and  therefore  the  different  measures  that  we  find 
 of  them  in  the  books  of  Kings  and  Ezra,  are  to  be  under- 
 stood in  respect  of  the  different  distances  between  which 
 the  said    measures    were   taken.     The   twenty   cubits' 
 breadth,  which  is  said  of  Solomon's  temple,  was  from 
 the  inside  of  the  wall  on  the  one  side,  to  the  inside  of 
 the  wall  on  the  other ;  but  the  sixty  cubits'  breadth  of 
 that  to  be  built  by  Zerubbabel,  was  the  breadth  of  the 
 whole  building,  from  the  inside  of  the  outer  wall  of  it 
 on  the  one  side,  to  the  inside  of  the   outer  wall  on  the 
 other.     So  that  the  difference  of  the  said  twenty  cubits' 
 breadth,  and  of  the  said   sixty  cubits'  breadth,  is   no 
 more  than  this, — That  the  one  is  meant  of  the  temple 
 strictly   so   called,   the   other   of  the   temple   and   its 
 appertaining  buildings.     Both  the  temples  then,  without 
 all  doubt,  were  of  the  same  dimensions  ;  but  then  here 
 was  the  difference,  the  sad  difference,  which  drew  tears 
 from  the  eyes  of  the  elders,  viz.  that,  in  all  appearance, 
 there  were  little  or  no  hopes,  that  the  poor  beginnings 
 of  the  latter  temple  would  ever  be  raised  to  the  grandeur 
 and  magnificence  of  the  former,  since  the  one  had  been 
 built   by   the    wisest  and  richest  king,   and  constantly 
 adorned  by  some  one  or  other  of  his  posterity  ;  the  other 
 now  begun  by  a  small  company  of  exiles,  just  returned 
 from  their  captivity ;    the  one   in  a  time   of   profound 
 peace,  and  the  greatest  opulence,  the  other  in  a  time  of 
 common  calamity  and  distress  ;    the  one  finished  with 
 the  most  costly  stones  and  timber,  wrought  with  exqui- 
 site art,  and  overlaid  with  vast  quantities  of  gold,  the 
 other  to  be  raised  out  of  no  better  materials  than  what 
 could  be  dug  from  the  ruinous  foundation  of  the  old  one. 
 But  the  occasion  of  their  g-rief  was  not  only  this,  that 
 the  materials  and  ornaments  of    the  second  temple, 4 
 were  even  as  nothing  '  in  comparison  of  the  first;'  but 
 the  ark  of  the  covenant  a  and  the  mercy-seat,  which 
 
 M.  4825  A.  C.  580.  JER.  xl.  7-xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i-v. 
 
 was  upon  it,  b  the  holy  fire  c  upon  the  altar,  the  Urim  and 
 Thummim,  d  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  e  the  Shechinah,  / 
 or  divine  presence,  the  five  great  things  for  which  the 
 former  temple  was  so  renowned,  were  lost  and  gone, 
 and  never  to  be  recovered  to  this  other. 
 
 Jer.  xli.  (i.  *  Ezra 
 
 Compare  Ezra  vi.  3.  with  1  Kings  vi.  20.  and  2  Cliron 
 4  Hag.  ii.  3. 
 
 12. 
 
 never  more  be  seen ;  and  this,  though  a  fiction,  is  designed  to 
 inform  us,  that,  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  this  sacred 
 piece  of  furniture  was  lost.  The  Jews,  indeed,  upon  the  build- 
 ing of  the  second  temple,  made  an  ark  of  the  same  shape  and 
 dimensions  with  the  first,  and  put  it  in  the  same  place:  but  it 
 had  none  of  its  honours  and  prerogatives ;  no  tables  of  the  law, 
 no  Aaron's  rod,  no  pot  of  manna  in  it,  no  appearance  of  the 
 divine  glory  over  it,  no  oracles  given  from  it;  the  only  use  that 
 was  made  of  it  was,  to  be  a  representative  of  the  former  on  the 
 great  day  of  expiation,  and  to  be  a  repository  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
 tures, that  is,  of  the  original  copy  of  that  collection  which  was 
 made  of  them  after  the  captivity,  by  Ezra,  and  the  men  of  the 
 great  synagogue. — Prideaux'' s  Connection,  anno  535. 
 
 b  This  was  the  cover  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant.  It  was 
 made  of  solid  gold,  and  at  the  two  ends  of  it  were  fixed  two 
 cherubim  of  the  same  metal,  which,  by  their  wings  extended 
 forwards,  seemed  to  form  a  throne  for  the  majesty  of  God,  who, 
 in  Scripture,  is  represented  to  us  as  sitting  between  the  cheru- 
 bim, and  the  ark  itself  was,  as  it  were,  his  footstool.  The 
 Hebrew  word  caphoreth,  by  being  translated  propitiatory,  seems 
 to  imply,  that  from  thence  the  Lord  heard  the  vows  and  prayers 
 of  his  people,  and  pardoned  them  their  sins ;  and  by  its  being, 
 at  other  times,  translated  oracle,  seems  farther  to  imply,  that 
 from  thence  he  manifested  his  will  and  pleasure,  and  gave  re- 
 sponses to  Moses. — Calmefs  Dictionary,  under  the  word. 
 
 c  This  fire  came  down  from  heaven,  first  upon  the  altar  in 
 the  tabernacle,  at  the  consecration  of  Aaron  and  his  sons  to  the 
 priesthood,  (Lev.  ix.  24,)  and,  afterwards,  it  descended  anew  upon 
 the  altar  in  the  temple  of  Solomon,  at  its  consecration,  (2  Chron. 
 vii.  I,)  and  there  it  was  constantly  fed  and  maintained  by  the 
 priests,  day  and  night,  in  the  same  manner  as  it  had  been  in  the 
 tabernacle.  Tiie  Jews  have  a  tradition,  that  Jeremiah,  foresee- 
 ing the  destruction  of  the  temple,  took  this  fire,  and  hid  it  in  a 
 pit,  but  that,  at  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  being  brought 
 again  from  thence,  it  revived  upon  the  altar;  but  this  is  all  a 
 fiction:  for  the  generality  of  them  allow,  that,  at  the  destruction 
 of  the  temple,  it  was  extinguished;  and,  in  the  time  of  the 
 second  temple,  nothing  was  made  use  of  for  all  their  burnt- 
 offerings  but  common  fire  only. — Prideaux' s  Connection. 
 
 d  Whether  the  Urim  and  Thummim  lay  in  the  high  priest's 
 breastplate  itself,  or  only  in  the  clearness  and  perfection  of  those 
 oracular  answers  which  he  received  from  God,  when  he  went  to 
 consult  him  upon  any  important  matter,  so  it  was,  that,  having 
 put  on  all  his  pontifical  robes,  and  presented  himself  in  the  sanc- 
 tuary before  the  holy  of  holies,  he  knew,  by  one  means  or  other, 
 most  probably  by  an  audible  voice  from  the  mercy-seat  (which 
 was  within  behind  the  veil),  what  the  divine  pleasure  was  con- 
 cerning the  affair  wherein  he  came  to  consult  him.  This  was 
 a  singular  privilege  vouchsafed  to  the  Jews;  but  it  does  not 
 appear  from  the  sacred  history,  that  there  are  any  footsteps  of 
 consulting  the  Lord  in  this  manner  after  the  building  of  Solo- 
 mon's temple  to  the  time  of  its  destruction;  and,  after  its  de- 
 struction, all  are  agreed,  that  this  was  never  restored ;  so  that 
 there  seems  to  be  some  reason  for  that  maxim  among  the  .lews, 
 namely,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  spake  to  the  children  of  Israel,  during 
 the  tabernacle,  by  Urim  and  Thummim  ;  under  the  first  temple, 
 by  the  prophets ;  and  under  the  second  by  Bath-col,  or  a  voice 
 sent  from  heaven,  such  as  was  heard  at  the  baptism  of  Jesus 
 Christ,  and  at  his  transfiguration. — Patrick's  Commentary  ;  and 
 Calmefs  Dictio)iary. 
 
 e  This,  it  must  be  owned,  was  not  wholly  withdrawn  from  the 
 Jewish  church,  in  the  time  of  the  second  temple.  The  prophets 
 Haggai,  Zechariah,  and  Malachi  lived  in  this  time  and  prophc- 
 sied  :  but,  after  their  death  (which  the  Rabbins  say  happened  in 
 one  year),  the  prophetic  spirit  wholly  ceased  from  among  the 
 Jews. — Prideaux 's  Connection. 
 
 /The  Shechinah  was  a  sensible  token  of  God's  presence 
 among  the  Jews,  which  consisted  of  a  visible  cloud,  resting  over 
 the  mercy-seat,  or  cover  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  just  above  the 
 
 a  This  was  a  small  chest,  or  coffer,  three  feet  nine  inches  in 
 length,  two  feet  three  inches  in  breadth,  and  two  feet  three 
 inches  in  height,  Exod.  xxv.  10,  22.  In  it  were  put  the  two 
 tables  of  the  law,  the  broken  ones  as  well  as  the  whole  ones  (say 
 the  Rabbins),  and  nothing  else  was  put  therein  when  it  was 
 brought  into  Solomon's  temple,  1  Kings  viii.  9;  but  in  process 
 of  time,  Aaron's  rod,  the  pot  of  manna,  and  the  original  volume 
 of  the  law,  written  by  Moses'  own  hand,  came  to  be  likewise 
 put  into  it,  ILli.  ix.  4.  The  Jews  have  a  tradition,  which  Epi 
 phanios  [in  VitaJerem.  Prophetm)  takes  notice  of,  that  Jeremiah 
 
 foreseeing  the  approaching  ruin  of  the  temple,  carried  the  ark  of  j  two  cherubim,'  that  overshadowed  it,  (Lev.  xvi.  2.)  It  there 
 the  covenant  into  a  cave,  and  by  his  prayers  prevailed  that  it  first  appeared  when  Moses  consecrated  the  tabernacle,  and  after- 
 might  be  sunk,  and  swallowed  up  in  the  rock,  so  that  it  might  i  wards,  at  the  consecration  of  the  temple  by  Solomon,  was  trans- 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &« 
 
 707 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 This  was  a  just  matter  of  lamentation  to  those  that 
 had  seen  these  singular  tokens  of  the  divine  favour  in 
 the  former  temple,  and  a  discouragement  of  their  pro- 
 ceeding with  the  building  of  the  present ;  and  therefore 
 the  prophet  Haggai  was  sent  to  inform  them,  that  all 
 these  wauls  and  defects  should  be  abundantly  repaired 
 by  the  coining  of  the  Messiah,  the  true  Shechinah  of 
 the  Divine  Majesty,  in  the  time  of  the  second  temple  : 
 1  '  I  will  shake  all  nations,  and  the  desire  of  all  nations 
 shall  come,  and  I  will  fill  this  house  with  glory  ;  the 
 glory  of  this  latter  house  shall  be  greater  than  of  the 
 former,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts.' 
 
 CHAP.  III. — On  the  History  of  Cyrus,  andthe  Taking 
 of  Babylon. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY  THE  EDITOR. 
 
 As  the  taking  of  Babylon  is  one  of  the  greatest  events 
 in  ancient  history,  and  as  the  principal  circumstances 
 with  which  it  was  attended  were  foretold  in  the  Holy 
 Scriptures  many  years  before  it  happened,  it  may  not  be 
 improper  that,  by  the  insertion  of  a  few  observations, 
 we  enable  the  reader  more  fully  to  compare  the  predic- 
 tions and  the  accomplishment  of  them  together. 
 
 The  pride,  the  cruelty,  and  the  impiety  of  Babylon, 
 provoked  the  wrath  of  God  against  her.  With  regard  to 
 her  pride,  she  believed  herself  to  be  invincible.  '  She 
 said  in  her  heart,  I  am  the  queen  of  nations,  and  I  shall 
 remain  so  for  ever.  I  am,  and  none  else  beside  me  ; 
 I  shall  not  sit  as  a  widow,  neither  shall  I  know  the  loss 
 of  children.'  As  to  her  cruelty,  God  himself  complains 
 of  it :  'I  was  wroth  with  my  people,  and  have  given 
 them  into  thine  hand  :  thou  didst  show  them  no  mercy  ; 
 upon  the  ancient  hast  thou  very  heavily  laid  thy  yoke.' 
 And  as  to  her  impiety,  her  monarch  not  only  preferred 
 his  false  divinities  to  the  true  and  only  God,  but  fancied 
 that  he  had  vanquished  his  power,  because  he  was  pos- 
 sessed of  the  vessels  which  had  belonged  to  his  worship  ; 
 and  as  if  he  meant  to  affront  him,  he  affected  to  apply 
 those  holy  vessels  to  profane  uses. 
 
 If  ever  there  was  a  city,  as  Dr  Keith  observes,  that 
 seemed  to  bid  defiance  to  any  predictions  of  its  fall,  that 
 city  was  Babylon.  Its  walls,  which  were  reckoned 
 among  the  wonders  of  the  world,  appeared  rather  like 
 the  bulwark  of  nature,  than  the  workmanship  of  man. 
 The  temple  of  Belus,  half  a  mile  in  circumference,  and 
 a  furlong  in  height, — the  hanging  gardens,  which,  piled 
 in  successive  terraces,  towered  as  high  as  the  walls — 
 the  embankments  which  restrained  the  Euphrates — the 
 hundred  brazen  gates — and  the  adjoining  artificial  lake, 
 — all  displayed  many  of  the  mightiest  works  of  mortals 
 concentrated  in  a  single  spot.  Yet,  while  in  the  pleni- 
 tude of  its  power,  and,  according  to  the  most  .accurate 
 chronologers,  KiO  years  before  the  foot  of  an  enemy  had 
 
 1  Hag.  ii.  7,  8. 
 lated  thither;  (See  vol.  2,  437)  and  there  continued,  in  the 
 same  visible  manner,  while  the  ark  was  in  its  own  proper  place, 
 either  in  the  tabernacle  or  temple  (but  not  while  it  was  in  move- 
 ment, as  it  often  was  during  the  time  of  the  tabernacle),  till  the 
 Babylonians  destroyed  the  temple,  after  which  it  never  appeared 
 more. — Pridtaua's  Connection. 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  F5JRA  i-v. 
 
 entered  it,  the  voice  of  prophecy  pronounced  the  doom 
 of  the  mighty  and  unconquered  Babylon.  A  succession 
 of  ages  brought  it  gradually  to  the  dust ;  and  the  grada- 
 tion of  its  fall  is  marked  till  it  sink  at  last  into  utter 
 desolation.  At  a  time  when  nothing  but  magnificence 
 was  around  Babylon  the  great,  fallen  Babylon  was 
 delineated  exactly  as  every  traveller  now  describes  its 
 ruins. 
 
 Chaldea,  with  its  rich  soil,  and  warm  climate,  and 
 intersected  by  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  was  one  of  the 
 last  countries  in  the  world,  of  which  the  desolation  could 
 have  been  thought  of  by  man.  Yet  the  debasing  idola- 
 try, and  brutifying  wickedness  of  its  inhabitants  provok- 
 ed, and  brought  down  the  vengeance  of  heaven. 
 
 '  The  burden  of  Babylon,  which  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amos 
 did  see.  The  noise  of  a  multitude  in  the  mountains, 
 like  as  of  a  great  people  ;  a  tumultuous  noise  of  the 
 kingdoms  of  nations  gathered  together ;  the  Lord  of 
 hosts  niustereth  the  host  of  the  battle.  They  come  from 
 a  far  country,  from  the  end  of  heaven,  even  the  Lord, 
 and  the  weapons  of  his  indignation,  to  destroy  the  whole 
 land.  Behold  the  day  of  the  Lord  coineth,  cruel  both 
 with  wrath  and  fierce  anger,  to  lay  the  land  desolate  ; 
 and  he  shall  destroy  the  sinners  thereof  out  of  it.  Baby- 
 lon the  glory  of  kingdoms,  the  beauty  of  the  Chaldce's 
 excellency,  shall  be  as  when  God  overthrew  Sodom  and 
 Gomorrah.  It  shall  never  be  inhabited,  neither  shall  it 
 be  dwelt  in  from  generation  to  generation ;  neither  shall 
 the  Arabian  pitch  tent  there  ;  neither  shall  the  shepherds 
 make  their  fold  there.  But  wild  beasts  of  the  desert 
 shall  lie  there  ;  and  their  houses  shall  be  full  of  doleful 
 creatures ;  and  owls  shall  dwell  there,  and  satyrs  shall 
 dance  there.  And  the  wild  beasts  of  the  islands  shall 
 cry  in  their  desolate  houses,  and  dragons  in  their 
 pleasant  palaces.  2 
 
 '  I  will  cut  oft'  from  Babylon,  the  name,  and  remnant, 
 the  son  and  nephew,  saith  the  Lord.  I  will  also  make 
 it  a  possession  for  the  bittern  and  pools  of  water  ;  and 
 I  will  sweep  it  with  the  besom  of  destruction,  saith 
 the  Lord  of  hosts.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  that  saith 
 unto  the  deep,  be  dry  ;  and  I  will  dry  up  thy  rivers  ;  that 
 saith  of  Cyrus,  he  is  my  shepherd,  and  shall  perform  all 
 my  pleasure, — and  I  will  lose  the  loins  of  kings,  to 
 open  before  him  the  two  leaved  gates ;  and  the  gates 
 shall  not  be  shut. — I  will  punish  the  land  of  the  Chalde- 
 ans, and  will  make  it  perpetual  desolations.  And  I 
 will  bring  upon  that  land  all  my  words  which  I  have 
 pronounced  against  it,  even  all  that  is  written  in  this 
 book  which  Jeremiah  hath  prophesied  against  all  the 
 nations.  Declare  ye  among  the  nations,  and  publish, 
 and  set  up  a  standard ;  publish  and  conceal  not ;  say, 
 Babylon  is  taken,  Bel  is  confounded,  Merodoch  is 
 broken  in  pieces  ;  her  idols  are  confounded,  her  images 
 are  broken  in  pieces.  For  out  of  the  north  there  cometh 
 up  a  nation  against  her,  which  shall  make  her  land  de- 
 solate, and  none  shall  dwell  therein  ;  they  shall  remove, 
 they  shall  depart,  both  man  and  beast.  For,  lo,  I  will 
 raise,  and  cause  to  come  up  against  Babylon,  an  assem- 
 bly of  great  nations  from  the  north  country :  and  they 
 shall  set  themselves  in  array  against  her;  and  from 
 thence  she  shall  be  taken  ;  their  arrows  shall  be  as  of  a 
 mighty,  expert  man ;  none   shall  return  in  vain.     And 
 
 -  Is.  xiii.  1—22. 
 
708 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3117.  A.  C.  587;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7.— xlv.  DANIEL  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 Chaldea  shall  be  a  spoil  ;  and  all  that  spoil  her  shall 
 be  satisfied,  saith  the  Lord.  Behold  the  (undermost  of 
 the  nations  a  wilderness,  a  dry  land  and  a  desert. 
 Because  of  the  wrath  of  the  Lord,  it  shall  not  be  inhabit- 
 ed, but  it  shall  be  wholly  desolate  ;  every  one  that  goeth 
 by  Babylon  shall  be  astonished,  and  hiss  at  all  her 
 plagues.  The  Lord  hath  opened  his  armoury,  and  hath 
 brought  forth  the  weapons  of  his  indignation  ;  for  this  is 
 the  work  of  the  Lord  God  of  hosts  in  the  land  of  the 
 Ohaldees.  Come  against  her  from  the  utmost  border, 
 open  her  storehouses  ;  cast  her  up  as  heaps,  and  destroy 
 her  utterly,  let  nothing  of  her  be  left. — Therefore  the 
 wild  beast  of  the  desert,  with  the  wild  beasts  of  the 
 islands  shall  dwell  there,  and  the  owls  shall  dwell  there- 
 in :  and  it  shall  be  no  more  inhabited  for  ever ;  neither 
 shall  it  be  dwelt  in  from  generation  to  generation.  As 
 ( lod  overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  the  neighbour- 
 ing cities  thereof,  saith  the  Lord ;  so  shall  man  no  more 
 abide  there,  neither  shall  any  son  of  man  dwell  therein/1 
 
 '  Set  up  a  standard  in  the  land,  blow  the  trumpet  among 
 the  nations,  prepare  the  nations  against  her,  call  together 
 ag-ainst  her  the  kingdoms  of  Ararat,  Minni,  and  Asche- 
 nas :  Lo,  I  will  raise  and  cause  to  come  up  against 
 Babylon  an  assembly  of  great  nations  from  the  north 
 country.' 
 
 Cyrus  subdued  the  Armenians,  who  had  revolted 
 against  Media,  spared  their  king,  bound  them  over  anew 
 to  their  allegiance,  by  kindness  rather  than  by  force,  and 
 incorporated  their  army  with  his  own.  He  adopted  the 
 Hyrcanians  who  had  rebelled  against  Babylon,  as  allies 
 and  confederates,  with  the  Medes  and  Persians.  He 
 conquered  the  united  forces  of  the  Babylonians  and 
 Lydians,  took  Sardis,  with  Crcesus  and  all  his  wealth, 
 spared  his  life  after  he  was  at  the  stake,  restored  to  him 
 his  family  and  his  household,  received  him  into  the 
 number  of  his  counsellors  and  friends,  and  thus  prepared 
 the  Lydians,  over  whom  he  reigned,  and  who  were 
 formerly  combined  with  Babylon,  for  coming  up  against 
 it :  he  overthrew  also  the  Phrygians  and  Cappadocians, 
 and  added  their  armies  in  like  manner  to  his  accumulat- 
 ing forces.  And  by  successive  alliances  and  conquests, 
 by  proclaiming  liberty  to  the  slaves,  by  a  humane  policy, 
 consummate  skill,  a  pure  and  noble  disinterestedness, 
 and  a  boundless  generosity,  he  changed,  within  the  space 
 of  twenty  years,  a  confederacy  which  the  king  of  Baby- 
 lon had  raised  up  against  the  Medes  and  Persians, 
 whose  junction  he  feared,  into  a  confederacy  even  of  the 
 same  nature  against  Babylon  itself, — and  thus  a  standard 
 was  set  up  against  Babylon  in  many  a  land,  kingdoms 
 were  summoned,  prepared,  and  gathered  together  against 
 her. 
 
 '  They  shall  hold  the  bow  and  the  lance, — they  shall 
 ride  upon  horses, — let  the  archer  bend  his  bow, — all  ye 
 that  bend  the  bow  shoot  at  her.'  Forty  thousand  Persian 
 horsemen  were  armed  from  among  the  nations  which 
 C\,rus  subdued;  many  horses  of  the  captives  were  be- 
 sides distributed  among  all  the  allies.  And  Cyrus  came 
 up  against  Babylon  with  a  great  multitude  of  horse  ;  and 
 also  with  a  great  multitude  of  archers  and  javelin  men, 
 — that  held  the  bow  and  the  lance. 
 
 No  sooner  had  Cyrus  reached  Babylon,  with  the 
 nations  which  he  had   prepared,  and  gathered   against 
 
 1  1-.  \li\    xlvi.     Jcr.  ii. 
 
 her,  than  in  the  hope  of  discovering  some  point  not 
 utterly  impregnable,  accompanied  by  his  chief  officers 
 and  friends,  he  rode  around  the  walls,  and  examined 
 them  on  every  side,  after  having  for  that  purpose  sta- 
 tioned his  whole  army  round  the  city.  They  camped 
 against  it  round  about.  They  put  themselves  in  array 
 against  Babylon  round  about. 
 
 Frustrated  in  the  attempt  to  discover,  throughout  the 
 whole  circumference,  asingle  assailable  point,and  finding 
 that  it  was  not  possible,  by  any  attack,  to  make  himself 
 master  of  walls  so  strong  and  so  high,  and  fearing  that  his 
 army  would  be  exposed  to  the  assault  of  the  Babylonians 
 by  a  too  extended,  and  consequently  weakened  line. — 
 Cyrus  standing  in  the  middle  of  his  army  gave  orders 
 that  the  heavy  armed  men  should  move,  in  opposite 
 directions,  from  each  extremity  towards  the  centre ;  and 
 the  horse  and  light  armed  men  being  nearer  and  advan- 
 cing first,  and  the  phalanx  being  redoubled  and  closed 
 up,  the  bravest  troops  thus  occupied  alike  the  front  and  the 
 rear,  and  the  less  effective  were  stationed  in  the  middle. 
 
 A  trench  was  dug  round  the  city — towers  were  erected 
 — Babylon  was  besieged — the  army  was  divided  into 
 twelve  parts,  that  each,  monthly,  by  turn,  might  keep 
 watch  throughout  the  year  ; — and  though  the  orders  were 
 given  by  Cyrus,  the  command  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  was 
 unconsciously  obeyed,  '  let  none  thereof  escape.' 
 
 '  The  mighty  men  of  Babylon  have  forborne  to  fight. 
 They  have  remained  in  their  holds ;  their  might  hath 
 failed  ;  they  became  as  women.'  Babylon  had  been  the 
 hammer  of  the  whole  earth,  by  which  nations  were  broken 
 in  pieces,  and  kingdoms  destroyed.  Its  mighty  men 
 carried  the  terror  of  their  arms  to  distant  regions,  and 
 led  nations  captive.  But  they  were  dismayed,  accord- 
 ing to  the  word  of  the  God  of  Israel,  whenever  the  na- 
 tions which  he  had  stirred  up  against  them,  stood  in 
 array  before  their  walls.  Their  timidity,  so  clearly  pre- 
 dicted, was  the  express  complaint  and  accusation  of 
 their  enemies,  who  in  vain  attempted  to  provoke  them  to 
 the  contest.  Cyrus  challenged  their  monarch  to  single 
 combat,  but  also  in  vain  ;  2  for  the  hands  of  the  king  of 
 Babylon  waxed  feeble.  Courage  had  departed  from 
 both  prince  and  people ;  and  none  attempted  to  save 
 their  country  from  spoliation,  or  to  chase  the  assailants 
 from  their  gates.  They  sallied  not  forth  against  the 
 invaders  and  besiegers,  nor  did  they  attempt  to  disjoin 
 and  disperse  them,  even  when  drawn  all  round  their 
 walls,  and  comparatively  weak  along  the  extended  line. 
 Every  gate  was  still  shut ;  and  they  remained  in  their 
 holds.  Being  as  unable  to  rouse  their  courage,  even  by 
 a  close  blockade,  and  to  bring  them  to  the  field,  as  to 
 scale  or  break  down  any  portion  of  their  stupendous 
 walls,  or  to  force  their  gates  of  solid  brass,  Cyrus 
 reasoned,  that  the  greater  their  number  was,  the  more 
 easily  would  they  be  starved  into  surrender,  and  yield 
 to  famine,  since  they  would  not  contend  with  arms,  nor 
 come  forth  to  fight.  And  hence  arose,  for  the  space  of 
 two  years,  his  only  hope  of  eventual  success.  So 
 dispirited  became  its  people,  that  Babylon,  which  had 
 made  the  world  as  a  wilderness,  was  long  unresistingly 
 a  beleaguered  town.  But  possessed  of  many  fertile 
 fields,  and  of  provisions  for  twenty  years,  which  in  their 
 timid  caution  they  had  plentifully  stored,  they  derided 
 
 8  Xc.iK.jh.  Cyrop.  iv.  p.  290. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c 
 
 709 
 
 A.  M.  3117.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  58G.  JER.  si.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— y. 
 
 Cyrus  from  their  impregnable  walls  within  which  they 
 remained.  Their  profligacy,  their  wickedness  and  false 
 confidence  were  unabated  ;  they  continued  to  live  care- 
 lessly in  pleasures,  but  their  might  did  not  return  ;  and 
 Babylon  the  great,  utdike  to  many  a  small  fortress  and 
 nn walled  town,  made  not  one  effort  to  regain  its  freedom 
 or  to  be  rid  of  the  foe. 
 
 Much  time  having  been  lost,  and  no  progress  having 
 been  made  in  the  siege,  the  anxiety  of  Cyrus  was  strong- 
 ly excited,  and  he  was  reduced  to  great  perplexity,  when 
 at  last  it  was  suggested,  and  immediately  determined 
 on,  to  turn  the  course  of  the  Euphrates.  But  the  task 
 was  not  an  easy  one.  The  river  was  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
 broad,  and  twelve  feet  deep,  and  in  the  opinion  of  one 
 of  the  counsellors  of  Cyrus,  the  city  was  stronger  by  the 
 river  than  by  its  walls.  Diligent  and  laborious  prepara- 
 tion was  made  for  the  execution  of  the  scheme,  yet  so  as 
 to  deceive  the  Babylonians.  And  the  great  trench, 
 ostensibly  formed  for  the  purpose  of  blockade,  which  for 
 the  time  it  effectually  secured,  was  dug  around  the  walls 
 on  every  side,  in  order  to  drain  the  Euphrates,  and  to 
 leave  its  channel  a  straight  passage  into  the  city,  through 
 the  midst  of  which  it  flowed.  But,  in  the  words  of 
 Herodotus,  "  if  the  besieged  had  either  been  aware  of 
 the  designs  of  Cyrus,  or  had  discovered  the  project  be- 
 fore its  actual  accomplishment,  they  might  have  effected 
 the  total  destruction  of  their  troops.  They  had  only  to 
 secure  the  little  gates  which  led  to  the  river,  and  to  man 
 the  embankment  on  either  side,  and  they  might  have  en- 
 closed the  Persians  as  in  a  net,  from  which  they  could 
 never  have  escaped."  l  Guarding  as  much  as  possibly 
 they  could  against  such  a  catastrophe,  Cyrus  purposely 
 chose,  for  the  execution  of  his  plan,  the  time  of  a  great 
 annual  Babylonish  festival,  during  which,  according  to 
 their  practice,  "  the  Babylonians  drank  and  revelled  the 
 whole  night."  And  while  the  unconscious  and  reckless 
 citizens  "  were  engaged  in  dancing  and  merriment," 
 the  river  was  suddenly  turned  into  the  lake,  the  trench 
 and  the  canals  ;  and  the  watchful  Persians,  both  foot 
 and  horse,  so  soon  as  the  subsiding  of  the  water  per- 
 mitted, entered  by  its  channel,  and  were  followed  by 
 the  allies  in  array,  on  the  dry  part  of  the  river.  '  I  will 
 dry  up  thy  sea,  and  make  thy  springs  dry  ;  that  saith  to 
 the  deep  be  dry,  I  will  dry  up  thy  rivers.' 
 
 One  detachment,  says  Herodotus,  was  placed  where 
 the  river  first  enters  the  city,  and  another  where  it  leaves 
 it.  a  And  one  post  did  run  to  meet  another,  and  one 
 messenger  to  meet  another,  to  show  the  king  of  Babylon 
 that  his  city  is  taken  at  the  end,  and  that  the  passages 
 are  short.  They  were  taken  by  surprise,  according  to 
 the  historian  just  mentioned  ;  and  such  was  the  extent  of 
 the  city,  that  they  who  lived  in  the  extremities  were 
 made  prisoners  before  any  alarm  was  communicated  to 
 the  centre  of  the  place  where  the  palace  stood.  Not  a 
 gate  of  the  city  wall  was  opened  ;  not  a  brick  of  it  had 
 fallen.  But  '  a  snare  was  laid  for  Babylon — it  was 
 taken,  and  it  was  not  aware ;  it  was  found  and  also 
 caught,  for  it  had  sinned  against  the  Lord.  How  is  the 
 praise  of  the  whole  earth  surprised  !  For  thou  hast 
 treated  in  thy  wickedness,  and  thy  wisdom,  and  thy 
 knowledge,  it  hath  perverted  thee,  therefore  shall  evil 
 come  upon  thee,  and  thou  shalt  not  know  from  whence 
 
 1  Ilcroil.  I),  i.  c.  191, 
 
 U.  i.  c,  191. 
 
 it  riseth,  and  mischief  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  thou 
 shalt  not  be  able  to  put  it  off.' 
 
 '  In  their  heat  I  will  make  their  feasts,  and  I  will 
 make  them  drunken,  that  they  may  sleep  a  perpetual 
 sleep  and  not  wake,  saith  the  Lord.  I  will  bring  them 
 down  like  lambs  to  the  slaughter.'  Cyrus,  as  the 
 night  drew  on,  stimulated  his  assembled  troops  to 
 enter  the  city,  because  in  that  night  of  general  revel 
 within  the  walls,  many  of  them  were  asleep,  many 
 drunk,  and  confusion  universally  prevailed.  On  pas- 
 sing, without  obstruction  or  hinderance,  to  the  city,  the 
 Persians,  slaying  some,  putting  others  to  flight,  and 
 joining  with  the  revellers,  as  if  slaughter  had  been  mer- 
 riment, hastened  by  the  shortest  way  to  the  palace,  and 
 reached  it,  before  a  messenger  had  told  the  king  that  his 
 city  was  taken.  The  gates  of  the  palace,  which  was 
 strongly  fortified,  were  shut.  The  guards  stationed 
 before  them  were  drinking  beside  a  blazing  light,  when 
 the  Persians  rushed  impetuously  upon  them.  The 
 louder  and  altered  clamour,  no  longer  joyous,  caught 
 the  ear  of  the  inmates  of  the  palace,  and  the  bright  light 
 showed  them  the  work  of  destruction,  without  revealing 
 its  cause.  And,  not  aware  of  the  presence  of  an  enemy 
 in  the  midst  of  Babylon,  the  king  himself  (who  had  been 
 roused  from  his  revelry  by  the  handwriting  on  the  wall), 
 excited  by  the  warlike  tumult  at  the  gates,  commanded 
 those  within  to  examine  from  whence  it  arose  ;  and  ac- 
 cording to  the  same  word  by  which  the  gates  leading 
 from  the  river  to  the  city  were  not  shut,  the  loins  of 
 kings  were  loosed  to  open  before  Cyrus  the  two-leaved 
 gates.  At  the  first  sight  of  the  opened  gates  of  the  pal- 
 ace of  Babylon,  the  eager  Persians  sprang  in.  "  The 
 king  of  Babylon  heard  the  report  of  them  ;  anguish  took 
 hold  of  him."  He  and  all  who  were  about  him  perished  ; 
 God  had  numbered  his  kingdom  and  finished  it :  it  was 
 divided,  and  given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians  :  the 
 lives  of  the  Babylonian  princes,  and  lords,  and  rulers, 
 and  captains,  closed  with  that  night's  festival ;  the  drun- 
 ken slept  a  perpetual  sleep  and  did  not  wake. 3 
 
 '  Her  young  men  shall  fall  in  the  streets,  and  all  her 
 men  of  war  shall  be  cut  oil'  in  that  day.'  Cyrus  sent 
 troops  of  horse  throughout  the  streets,  with  orders  to 
 slay  all  who  were  found  there.  And  he  commanded 
 proclamation  to  be  made,  in  the  Syrian  language,  that 
 all  who  were  in  the  houses  should  remain  within ;  and 
 that  if  any  one  were  found  abroad,  he  should  be  killed. 
 These  orders  were  obeyed. 
 
 '  I  will  fill  thee  with  men  as  with  caterpillars.'  Not 
 only  did  the  Persian  army  enter  with  ease  as  cater- 
 pillars, together  with  all  the  nations  that  had  come  up 
 against  Babylon,  but  they  seemed  also  as  numerous, 
 Cyrus,  after  the  capture  of  the  city,  made  a  great  dis- 
 play of  his  cavalry  in  the  presence  of  the  Babylonians, 
 and  in  the  midst  of  Babylon.  Four  thousand  guards 
 stood  before  the  palace  gates,  and  two  thousand  on  each 
 side.  These  advanced  as  Cyrus  approached  ;  two  thou- 
 sand  spearmen  followed  them.  These  were  succeeded 
 by  four  square  masses  of  Persian  cavalry,  each  consist- 
 ing of  ten  thousand  men  :  and  to  these  again  were  added 
 in  their  order,  the  Median,  Armenian,  Hyrcanian, 
 Caducian,  and  Sacian  horsemen, — all,  as  before,  riding 
 upon  horses,  every  man  in  array,  with  lines  of  chariots. 
 
 3  Herod,  b.  i.  c.  191. 
 
710 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 four  abreast,  concluding  the  train  of  the  numerous  hosts. 
 Cyrus  afterwards  reviewed  at  Babylon  the  whole  of  his 
 army,  consisting  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
 borse,  two  thousand  chariots,  and  six  hundred  thousand 
 foot.  Babylon,  which  was  taken  when  not  aware,  and 
 within  whose  walls  no  enemy,  except  a  captive,  had  ever 
 been  seen,  was  also  filled  with  men  as  with  caterpillars, 
 as  if  there  had  not  been  a  wall  around  it.  There  is  in 
 every  particular  a  strict  coincidence  between  the  predic- 
 tions of  the  prophets  and  the  historical  narratives,  both 
 of  Herodotus  and  Xenophon.  The  prophecies  of  Isaiah 
 were  delivered  above  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  be- 
 fore the  taking  of  Babylon,  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
 before  Herodotus,  and  nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty 
 before  Xenophon. 
 
 On  taking  Babylon  suddenly,  and  by  surprise,  Cyrus, 
 as  had  been  literally  prophesied  concerning  him,  and 
 as  the  sign  by  which  it  was  to  be  known  that  the  Lord 
 bad  called  him  by  his  name,  l  became  suddenly  possess- 
 ed of  the  most  secret  treasures  of  Babylon.  No  enemy 
 had  ever  dared  to  rise  up  against  that  great  city.  To 
 tike  it  seemed  not  a  work  for  man  to  attempt ;  but  it 
 became  the  easy  prey  of  him  who  was  called  the  servant 
 of  the  Lord.  And  as  at  this  day,  from  the  perfect  re- 
 presentation given  by  the  prophets,  of  every  feature  of 
 fallen  Babylon,  now  at  last  utterly  desolate,  man  may 
 know  that  God  is  the  Lord,  seeing  that  all  who  have 
 visited  and  describe  it,  show  that  the  predicted  judg- 
 ments against  it  have  been  literally  fulfilled  ;  so,  at  that 
 time  Cyrus,  who,  for  two  years,  could  only  look  on  the 
 outer  side  of  the  outer  wall  of  Babylon,  and  who  had 
 begun  to  despair  of  reducing  it -by  famine,  was  to  know 
 by  the  treasures  of  darkness  and  hidden  riches  of  secret 
 places  being  given  into  his  hand,  that  the  Lord  which 
 had  called  him  by  his  name,  was  the  God  of  Israel. 
 When  the  appointed  time  had  come,  that  the  power  of 
 their  oppressor  was  to  be  broken,  Babylon  was  taken  ; 
 and  when  the  similarly  prescribed  period  of  the  captivity 
 of  the  Jews,  for  whose  sake  he  was  called,  had  expired, 
 Cyrus  was  their  deliverer. 
 
 '  Thus  saith  the  Lord  to  his  anointed,  to  Cyrus, 
 whose  right  hand  I  have  holden,  to  subdue  nations, 
 before  him.'  Cyrus,  commencing  his  career  with  a 
 small  army  of  Persians,  not  only  succeeded  to  the  king- 
 dom of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  first  united  under  him 
 but  the  Hyrcanians  yielded  also  voluntarily  to  his  au- 
 thority. He  subdued  the  Syrians,  Assyrians,  Arabs 
 Gappadocians,  both  Phrygias,  the  Lydians,  Carians, 
 Phoenicians,  and  Babylonians.  He  governed  the  Bactri- 
 ans,  Indians,  and  Cilicians,  and  also  the  Sacians,  and 
 other  nations.  He  likewise  reduced  to  his  authority  the 
 Greeks  that  were  in  Africa,  and  the  Cyprians  and  Egyp- 
 tians. 
 
 On  taking  Babylon  suddenly,  and  by  surprise,  Cyrus 
 became  immediately  possessed  of  the  treasures  of  dark- 
 ness, and  hidden  riches  of  secret  places.  On  his  first 
 public  appearing  in  Babylon,  all  the  officers  of  his  army, 
 both  of  the  Persians  and  allies,  according  to  his  com- 
 mand, wore  very  splendid  robes,  those  belonging  to  the 
 superior  officers  being  of  various  colours,  all  of  the 
 finest  and  brightest  dye,  and  richly  embroidered  with 
 gold  and  silver  ;  and  thus  the  hidden  riches  of  secret 
 
 1  Isa.  xlv.  1—4. 
 
 M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i.— v. 
 
 places  were  openly  displayed.  The  past  history  of  the 
 land  of  the  Chaldeans  may  be  briefly  closed  in  the  lan- 
 guage of  prophecy  ;  for  the  prophets,  in  their  visions, 
 saw  it  as  it  is  ;  although  historians  knew  not,  even  after 
 its  grandeur  was  partially  gone,  how  to  tell  of  its  ferti- 
 lity which  they  witnessed,  and  hope  to  be  believed. 
 Those  who  recorded  the  word  that  the  Lord  spake 
 against  Babylon  and  against  the  land  of  the  Chaldeans, 
 had  no  such  fear,  though  2400  years  have  elapsed  since 
 they  described  what  is  now  only  at  last  to  be  seen. 
 
 Where  astronomers  first  registered  eclipses,  and 
 marked  the  motions  of  the  planetary  bodies,  the  natives, 
 as  in  the  deserts  of  Africa,  or  as  the  mariner  without  a 
 compass  on  the  pathless  ocean,  can  now  direct  their 
 course  only  by  the  stars,  over  the  pathless  desert  of  Chal- 
 dea.  Where  cultivation  reached  its  utmost  height,  and 
 where  two  hundred  fold  was  stated  as  the  common  pro- 
 duce, there  is  now  one  wide  and  uncultivated  waste  ;  and 
 the  sower  and  reaper  are  cut  off  from  the  land  of  Babylon. 
 Where  abundant  stores  and  treasures  were  laid  up,  and 
 annually  renewed  and  increased,  fanners  have  fanned, 
 and  spoilers  have  spoiled  them  till  they  have  emptied 
 the  land.  Where  labourers,  shaded  by  palm  trees  100 
 feet  high,  irrigated  the  fields  till  all  was  plentifully  wa- 
 tered from  numerous  canals,  the  wanderer,  without  an 
 object  on  which  to  fix  his  eye,  but  stinted  and  shortlived 
 shrubs,  can  scarcely  set  his  feet  without  pain,  after  the 
 noonday  heat,  on  the  arid  and  parched  ground,  in  plod- 
 ding his  weary  way  through  a  desert,  a  dry  land,  and  a 
 wilderness.  Where  there  were  crowded  thoroughfares  from 
 city  to  city,  there  is  now  silence  and  solitude;  for  the 
 ancient  cities  of  Chaldea  are  desolations, — where  no  man 
 dwelleth,  neither  doth  any  son  of  man  pass  thereby. 
 
 A  chapter  of  sixty  pages  in  length,  of  Mr  Bucking- 
 ham's travels  in  Mesopotamia,  is  entitled,  "  Search 
 after  the  AY  alls  of  Babylon."  After  a  long  and  fruitless 
 search,  he  discovered  on  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 
 ruins,  on  the  summit  of  an  oval  mound,  from  seventy  to 
 eighty  feet  in  height,  and  from  three  to  four  hundred  feet 
 in  circumference,  "  a  mass  of  solid  wall,  about  thirty  feet 
 in  length,  by  twelve  or  fifteen  in  thickness,  yet  evidently 
 once  of  much  greater  dimensions  each  way,  the  work 
 being,  in  its  present  state,  broken  and  incomplete  in  every 
 part ;"  s  and  this  heap  of  ruin  and  fragment  of  wall  he 
 conjectured  to  be  a  part — the  only  part,  if  such  it  be, 
 that  can  be  discovered — of  the  walls  of  Babylon,  '  so 
 utterly  are  they  broken.'  Beyond  this  there  is  not  even 
 a  pretension  to  the  discovery  of  any  part  of  them. 
 
 Captain  Frederick,  of  whose  journey  it  was  the 
 "  principal  object  to  search  for  the  remains  of  the  wall 
 and  ditch  that  had  compassed  Babylon,"  states  that, 
 "  neither  of  these  have  been  seen  by  any  modern  travel- 
 ler. All  my  inquiries  among  the  Arabs,"  he  adds,  "  on 
 this  subject  completely  failed  in  producing  the  smallest 
 effect.  Within  the  space  of  twenty- one  miles  in  length 
 along  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  and  twelve  miles  across 
 it  in  breadth,  I  was  unable  to  perceive  any  thing  that  could 
 admit  of  my  imagining  that  either  a  wall  or  a  ditch  had 
 existed  within  this  extensive  area.  If  any  remains  do 
 exist  of  the  walls,  they  must  have  been  of  greater  cir- 
 cumference than  is  allowed  by  modern  geographers.  I 
 may  possibly  have  been  deceived  ;  but  1  spared  no  pains 
 
 8  Buckingham's  Travels,  vol.  ii.  pp.  306,  307 
 
Skct.  1.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVTY,  &t 
 
 711 
 
 A.  M.   3117.  A.  C.  587;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JEH.  xl.  7— xlv.  I)  VMM,.   ind  EZRA  i— r. 
 
 to  prevent  it.  I  never  was  employed  in  riding  and 
 Walking  less  than  eight  hours  for  six  successive  days, 
 and  upwards  of  twelve  on  the  seventh."  ' 
 
 Major  Keppel  relates,  that  he  and  his  party  who  ac- 
 companied him,  in  common  with  other  travellers,  had 
 totally  failed  in  discovering  any  trace  of  the  city  walls, 
 and  he  adds,  the  divine  predictions  against  Babylon 
 have  been  so  literally  fuliilled  in  the  appearance  of  the 
 ruins,  that  I  am  disposed  to  give  the  fullest  signification 
 to  the  words  of  Jeremiah,  2  '  the  broad  walls  of  Babylon 
 shall  be  utterly  broken.' 
 
 From  palaces  converted  into  broken  hills,  as  Dr 
 Keith  observes, — from  streets  to  long  lines  of  heaps — 
 from  the  throne  of  the  world  to  sitting  on  the  dust — from 
 the  hum  of  mighty  Babylon  to  the  death-like  silence  that 
 rests  upon  the  grave  to  which  it  is  brought  down  ; — from 
 the  great  storehouse  of  the  world,  where  treasures  were 
 gathered  from  every  quarter,  and  the  prison-house  of 
 the  captive  Jews,  where  they  served  in  hard  bondage  to 
 Babylon,  the  spoil  of  nations,  itself  taken  from  thence, 
 and  nothing  left ; — from  a  vast  metropolis,  the  place  of 
 palaces,  and  the  glory  of  kingdoms,  whither  multitudes 
 ever  flowed,  to  a  dreaded  and  shunned  spot,  not  inha- 
 bited nor  dwelt  in  from  generation  to  generation,  where 
 even  the  Arabian,  though  the  son  of  the  desert,  pitches 
 not  his  tent,  and  where  the  shepherds  make  not  their  folds ; 
 — from  the  treasures  of  darkness,  and  hidden  riches  of 
 secret  places,  to  the  taking  away  of  bricks,  and  to  an 
 uncovered  nakedness  ; — from  making  the  earth  to  trem- 
 ble, and  shaking  kingdoms,  to  being  cast  out  of  the 
 grave  like  an  abominable  branch; — in  extremes  like 
 these,  there  is  not  a  single  fact  that  may  not  most  appro- 
 priately be  ranked  under  a  prediction,  and  that  does  not 
 tally  entirely  with  its  express  and  precise  fulfilment, 
 while,  at  the  same  time,  they  all  united,  show  the  de- 
 struction which  has  come  from  the  Almighty  upon  Ba- 
 bylon. 
 
 "  Who  hath  declared  this  from  ancient  time  ?  Who 
 hath  told  it  from  that  time  ?  Have  not  I  the  Lord  ?  and 
 there  is  no  god  beside  me  ; — declaring  the  end  from  the 
 beginning,  and  from  ancient  times,  the  things  that  are 
 not  yet  done — saying,  my  counsel  shall  stand,  and  I  will 
 do  all  my  pleasure."  Is  it  possible  that  there  can  be  any 
 attestation  of  the  truth  of  prophecy,  if  it  be  not  witnessed 
 here  ?  Is  there  any  spot  on  earth  which  has  undergone  a 
 more  complete  transformation  ?  "  The  records  of  the 
 human  race,"  it  has  been  said  with  truth,  "  do  not  pre- 
 sent a  contrast  more  striking,  than  that  between  the 
 primeval  magnificence  of  Babylon,  and  its  long  desola- 
 tion." 3  Could  any  prophecies  respecting  any  single 
 place  have  been  more  precise,  or  wonderful,  or  numer- 
 ous, or  true,  or  more  perfectly  accomplished  throughout 
 many  generations  ?  And  when  they  look  at  what  Baby- 
 lon was,  and  what  it  is,  and  perceive  the  minute  realiza- 
 tion of  them  all, — may  not  nations  learn  wisdom — may 
 not  tyrants  tremble, — may  not  sceptics  think.4 
 
 Before  concluding  this  chapter,  it  should  be  remarked, 
 that  the  recording  of  the  name  of  Cyrus  in  an  inspired 
 book,  and   showing   beforehand  that  God  had    chosen 
 
 1  Transactions  of  the  Lit.  Soc,  Bombay,  vol.  i.  p.  130,  31. 
 '  Jer.  li.  58. 
 See  Keith's  Evidence  of  Prophecy,  and  Bell's  Notes  to  Rollin. 
 4  Edin.  Review,  No.  i.  p.  -131). 
 
 him  to  overturn  the  Babylonian  empire,  is  expressly 
 mentioned  as  having  respect  to  two  great  objects  :  first, 
 the  deliverance  of  Israel  ;  and,  second,  the  making 
 known  his  supreme  divinity  among  the  nations  of  the 
 earth. 
 
 '  For  the  sake  of  my  servant  Jacob, 
 
 And  of  Israel  my  chosen, 
 
 I  liave  even  called  thee  by  thy  name, 
 
 I  have  surnamed  thee,  though  thou  knowest  me  not, 
 
 I  am  Jehovah  and  none  else. 
 
 Beside  me  there  is  no  God. 
 
 I  will  gird  thee,  though  thou  hast  not  known  me 
 
 That  they  may  know  from  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
 
 And  from  the  west,  that  there  is  none  beside  me.' 
 
 It  was  therefore  intended  by  tJiis  proceeding,  on  the  part 
 of  Providence,  to  teach  not  only  Cyrus,  but  the  people 
 of  his  vast  empire,  and  surrounding  nations,  first,  that 
 he  was  Jehovah,  the  self-subsistent,  the  eternal  God  ; 
 second,  that  he  was  God  alone,  there  being  no  Deity  be- 
 side himself;  and  third,  that  good  and  evil  represented 
 by  light  and  darkness,  were  neither  independent  nor 
 eternal  subsistences,  but  his  great  instruments,  and  under 
 his  control. 
 
 The  Persians  who  had  vastly  extended  their  empire 
 by  the  conquests  of  the  countries  formerly  held  by  the 
 monarchs  of  Babylon,  were  thus  prepared  for  such  a  re- 
 formation of  their  religion  as  Zoroaster  effected.  If  the 
 Magi  who  came  from  the  east  to  seek  Christ  were  Per- 
 sians, some  true  worshippers  of  God  would  appear  to 
 have  remained  in  Persia  to  that  day  ;  and  if,  as  is  pro- 
 bable, the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  and  Daniel  were  retained 
 among  them,  they  might  be  among  those  who  waited  for 
 redemption,  not  at  Jerusalem,  but  in  a  distant  part  of  the 
 world. 
 
 CHAP.  IV. — Of  the  Pride  and  Punishment  of 
 Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 AVhoever  looks  back  upon  the  actions  of  Nebuchadnez- 
 zar, will  easily  perceive  that  he  was  a  great  and  suc- 
 cessful warrior  ;  that,  during  a  his  father's  lifetime,  and, 
 while  he  commanded  the  army  as  general  under  him,  he 
 drove  the  Egyptians,  the  only  nation  that  pretended,  .it. 
 this  time,  to  rival  the  Babylonish  monarchy,  out  of  Syria 
 and  Palestine,  took  Jerusalem,  and  carried  away  the 
 people  captive ;  and  that,  upon  his  own  accession  to 
 the  throne,  he  overcame  the  Phoenicians  and  Tyrians, 
 overran  all  Egypt,  and  made  it  tributary,  and  returned 
 home  in  triumph  loaded  with  rich  spoils.  The  Scrip- 
 ture, however,  does  not  impute  the  occasion  of  his  prido 
 to  the  number  of  his  conquests,  or  the  extent  of  his 
 dominions,  but  to  the  state  and  magnificence  of  his  roy*.l 
 city,  in  which,  as  it  were  at  one  view,  he  saw  all  the 
 fruits  of  his  martial  toil,  all  the  spoils  of  his  many  vic- 
 tories, and  all  the  revenues  of  his  vast  empire  comprised, 
 and  displayed  in  their  utmost  splendour.  For  while  he 
 was  walking  upon  his  palace  at  Babylon,  very  probablv 
 in  his  hanging  gardens,  and  in  the  uppermost  terrace  of 
 them,  from  whence  he  might  have  a  full  prospect  of  the 
 whole  city,  B  '  Is  not  this   Great  Babylon,'  said  he  to 
 
 5  See  Prideaux's  Connection,  vol.  i.  pp.  62,  65,  66,  and  92. 
 '  Dan.  iv.  30. 
 
712 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  C.  r,87;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4825 
 
 C.  5SG.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v 
 
 himself,  '  \vlii<;h  1  have  built  for  the  house  of  the  king- 
 dom, by  the  might  of  my  power,  and  for  the  honour  of 
 my  majesty  ?' 
 
 Babylon  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  cities  of  the 
 world.  It  was  founded  by  Nimrod,  not  long  after  the 
 building  of  the  famous  tower  of  Babel,  and  was  enlarged 
 and  beautified  by  Semiramis  ;  but  Nebuchadnezzar  was 
 the  person  who  put  the  finishing  hand  to  it,  to  make  it 
 one  of  the  great  wonders  of  the  world  :  and  therefore  it 
 may  not  be  amiss,  to  take  a  short  survey  of  the  works 
 that  are  generally  ascribed  to  him,  in  order  to  see  what 
 grounds  he  might  have  for  this  arrogant  vaunt. 
 
 1.  The  whole  city,  which  stood  on  a  large  flat,  con- 
 sisted properly  of  two  parts,  which  were  divided  by  the 
 river  Euphrates.  That  part  of  it  which  was  on  the  east 
 side  of  the  river  was  the  old  city  ;  the  other,  on  the  west 
 side,  was  added  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  the  whole  was 
 a  square  of  120  furlongs,  or  fifteen  miles  every  way, 
 which  made  the  whole  circumference  of  it  to  be  480  fur- 
 longs, or  exactly  threescore  miles.  Its  walls,  which  were 
 in  thickness  eighty-seven  feet,  a  in  height  350  feet,  and 
 in  compass  480  furlongs,  were  all  built  of  large  bricks, 
 cemented  together  with  bitumen,  a  glutinous  slime, 
 which,  issuing  out  of  the  earth  in  that  country,  binds 
 stronger  and  firmer  than  lime,  .and,  in  a  short  time,  grows 
 harder  than  the  very  brick  and  stone  which  it  cements. 
 
 The  city  was  encompassed  without  the  walls  with  a 
 vast  ditch,  tilled  with  water,  and  lined  with  bricks  on 
 botli  sides,  after  the  manner  of  a  counterscarp;  and,  as 
 the  earth  which  was  dug  out  of  it  made  the  bricks  where- 
 with the  walls  were  built,  we  may  judge  of  the  depth  and 
 largeness  of  the  ditch  from  the  vast  height  and  thickness 
 of  the  walls.  In  the  whole  compass  of  the  wall  there 
 were  100  gates,  that  is,  five  and  twenty  on  each  of  the 
 four  sides,  all  made  of  solid  brass  ;  and,  between  every 
 two  of  these  gates,  at  proper  distances,  were  three  towers, 
 that  is,  at  the  four  corners  of  this  great  square,  there 
 were  four  towers,  h  between  each  of  these  corners  and 
 the  next  gate  on  either  side  three  towers  ;  and  every  one 
 of  these  towers  was  ten  feet  higher  than  the  walls. 
 
 Answering  to  every  one  of  these  gates,  there  was  a 
 street  which  led  from  gate  to  gate ;  so  that  there  were 
 fifty  in  all,  each  fifteen  miles  long;  whereof  twenty-five 
 going  one  way,  and  twenty-five  another,  they  crossed 
 each  other  at  right  angles,  and  so  cut  the  whole  city  out 
 into  676  squares,  each  of  which  was  four  furlongs  and  an 
 half  on  every  side,  that  is,  two  miles  and  a  quarter  in 
 compass  ;  and  round  these,  on  every  side  towards  the 
 
 a  Some  authors  indeed  will  have  them  to  have  been  no  more 
 than  filly  cubits;  hut  then  they  speak  of  them  only  as  they  were 
 after  the  time  of  Darius  Hystaspes;  for  the  Babylonians  having 
 revolted  from  him,  and,  in  confidence  of  their  strong  walls, 
 Stood  out  against  him  in  a  long  siege,  after  he  had  taken  the 
 place,  in  order  to  prevent  their  rebellion  for  the  future,  he  took 
 away  their  gates,  and  beat  down  their  walls  to  the  height  above- 
 mentioned,  and  beyond  this  they  were  never  after  raised. — 
 Prideau.v's  Connection,  anno  570. 
 
 b  This  is  to  be  understood  only  of  those  parts  of  the  walls 
 where  there  was  need  of  towers;  for  some  parts  of  them  lying 
 against  morasses  always  full  of  water,  where  they  could  not  he 
 approached  by  any  enemy,  had  no  need  of  any  towers  at  all  for 
 their  defence;  and  therefore  in  them  there  were  none  built;  for, 
 whereas  the  whole  number  of  them  amounted  to  no  more  than 
 250,  had  the  same  uniform  order  been  observed  in  their  disposi- 
 tion all  round,  there  must  have  been  many  more.- — Prideau.v's 
 Connection,  anno  570. 
 
 street,  stood  the  houses,  all  built  three  or  four  stories 
 high,  with  fronts  adorned  with  all  manner  of  embellish- 
 ments, and  with  yards  and  gardens  thrown  backwards. 
 Besides  these,  there  were  four  other  streets,  built  only 
 on  one  side,  because  they  had  the  wall  on  the  other, 
 which  went  round  the  four  sides  of  the  city,  and  were  all 
 of  them  200  feet  broad,  though  the  other  streets  were 
 but  150.  c 
 
 Quite  cross  the  city  ran  a  branch  of  the  river  Euphrates, 
 which  entered  in  on  the  north,  and  went  out  on  the  south 
 side  ;  and  over  it,  in  the  very  middle  of  the  city,  was  a 
 bridge  of  a  furlong  in  length,  and  thirty  feet  in  breadth, 
 built  with  wonderful  art,  to  supply  the  defect  of  a  foun- 
 dation in  the  bottom  of  the  river,  which  was  all  sandy. 
 By  this  bridge  a  communication  was  kept  up  between 
 the  two  parts  of  the  city  ;  and,  at  the  two  extremities  of 
 it,  stood  two  palaces,  the  old  one  on  the  east,  and  new 
 one  on  the  west  side  of  the  river.  The  former  of  these 
 took  up  four  of  the  squares  abovementioned,  the  other 
 nine  ;  and  the  temple  of  Belus,  which  stood  near  the  old 
 palace,  took  up  another. 
 
 2.  The  temple  of  Belus,  which  was  one  of  the  most 
 wonderful  works  in  the  world,  was  a  square  of  a  furlong 
 on  each  side,  that  is,  half  a  mile  in  the  whole  compass  ; 
 and  consisted  of  eight  towers,  or  what  seemed  like 
 towers,  built  one  above  another.  Herodotus  tells  us, 
 that  the  way  to  go  up  it  was  by  stairs  on  the  outside 
 round  it;  from  whence  it  seems  most  likely,  that  the 
 whole  ascent  to  it  was  by  the  benching-in,  drawn  in  a 
 sloping  line,  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  eight  times 
 round  it,  and  that  this  made  the  appearance  of  eight 
 towers  one  above  another.  The  eight  towers,  as  they 
 are  called,  being  like  so  many  stories,  were  each  of 
 them  rf  seventy-five  feet  high,  and  in  them  were  many 
 great  rooms,  with  arched  roofs,  supported  with  pillars, 
 which,  after  that  the  place  was  consecrated  to  an  idola- 
 trous use,  were  all  made  parts  of  the  temple  ;  but  the 
 most  sacred  parts  of  alb  and  where  the  chiefest  devotions 
 were  performed,  was  the  uppermost  story,  over  which,  on 
 the  top  of  the  tower,  was  an  observatory,  by  the  benefit 
 of  which  the  Babylonians  advanced  their  knowledge  in 
 astronomy  beyond  e  all  other  nations. 
 
 c  For  an  interesting  inquiry  into  the  extent  and  population  of 
 Babylon,  we  refer  the  reader  to  Bell's  Rollin,  vol.  i.  pp.  ISO,  1S7, 
 ■  note. — Ed. 
 
 d  Some,  following  the  mistake  of  the  Latin  version  of  Hero- 
 dotus, wherein  the  lowest  of  these  towers  is  said  to  be  a  furlong 
 thick  and  a  furlong  high,  will  have  each  of  these  towers  to  be  a 
 furlong  high,  which  amounting  to  a  mile  in  the  whole,  is  enough 
 to  shock  any  one's  belief.  But  the  Greek  of  Herodotus,  which 
 is  the  authentic  text  of  that  historian,  says  no  such  thing,  but 
 only  that  it  was  a  furlong  long  and  a  furlong  broad,  without  men- 
 tioning any  thing  of  its  height  at  all.  And  therefore  Strabo,  in 
 his  description  of  it,  calling  it  a  pyramid,  because  of  its  decreas- 
 ing and  benching-in  at  every  tower,  says  of  the  whole,  that  it 
 was  a  furlong  high  and  a  furlong  on  every  side,  which,  without 
 any  farther  addition  makes  it  exceed  the  greatest  of  the  pyramids 
 of  Egypt.  I  mean  for  its  height.  For,  whereas  the  height  of  the 
 tallest  pyramid  was  no  more  than  481  feet,  that  of  the  temple  of 
 Belus  was  COO,  that  is,  higher  by  1 19  feet,  which  is  one  quarter 
 ot  the  whole. — Prideaita's  Connection,  anno  570. 
 
 c  The  Babylonians  made  great  boasts  of  the  antiquity  of  their 
 knowledge  in  this  kind  of  learning.  They  reckoned  473,000 
 years,  from  the  observations  of  their  first  astrologers  to  the  arrival 
 of  Alexander  the  Great;  but  Aristotle,  who  was  curious  in  in- 
 quiring into  the  truth  of  what  was  related  of  these  observations, 
 desired  of  Calisthenes,  his  scholar,  who  accompanied  Alexander 
 to  Babylon,  to  send  him  the  most  certain  and  exact  account  that 
 
Sfxt.  V."" 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 713 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  8— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 This  tower,  and  the  several  rooms  in  it,  were  all  that 
 was  called  '  the  temple  of  Belus,'  until  Nebuchadnezzar 
 enlarged  it  with  vast  buildings,  which  were  erected  in  a 
 square  of  two  furlongs  on  every  side,  or  a  mile  in  circum- 
 ference. On  the  outside  of  these  was  a  wall  enclosing 
 the  whole,  in  which  were  several  gates  leading  to  the 
 temple,  all  made  of  solid  brass,  very  probably  from  the 
 brazen  sea,  the  brazen  pillars,  and  the  other  brazen  ves- 
 sels, which,  *  from  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  were  car- 
 ried to  Babylon. 
 
 This  temple  stood  till  the  time  of  Xerxes  ;  but  he,  on 
 his  return  from  the  Grecian  expedition,  having  first  plun- 
 dered it  of  its  immense  riches,  among  which  were  sev- 
 eral images  or  statues  of  massy  gold,  demolished 
 the  whole  of  it,  and  laid  it  all  in  ruins.  Alexander, 
 upon  his  return  to  Babylon  from  his  Indian  expedition, 
 proposed  to  have  rebuilt  it,  and,  to  that  purpose,  set 
 ten  thousand  men  on  work  to  clear  away  the  rubbish  ; 
 but  his  death,  in  a  short  time  after,  put  an  end  to  all 
 further  proceedings  in  that  design,  and  (as  modern  trav- 
 ellers assure  us)  the  knowledge  of  the  very  place  where 
 it  once  stood  is  at  this  time  lost.  a 
 
 3.  Near  to  this  temple,  on  the  east  side  of  the  river, 
 as  we  said,  stood  the  old  palace  of  the  kings  of  Baby- 
 lon, four  miles  in  circumference  ;  and  exactly  over- 
 against  it,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  was  the  new 
 palace,  built  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  eight  miles  in  compass, 
 and  surrounded  with  three  walls  one  within  another. 
 But  the  most  wonderful  things  belonging  to  it  were  the 
 hanging  gardens,  which  Nebuchadnezzar  made  in  com- 
 plaisance to  his  wife  Amylis,  2  daughter  of  Astyages 
 king  of  Media ;  for  she,  retaining  a  strong  inclination 
 for  the  mountains  and  forests  of  her  own  country,  de- 
 sired to  have  something  like  it  in  Babylon  :  and  there- 
 fore, to  gratify  her,  he  erected  this  monstrous  work  of 
 vanity. 
 
 These  gardens  contained  a  space  of  four  hundred  feet 
 square,  and  were  carried  up  aloft  into  the  air,  in  the 
 
 1  Dan.  i.  2;  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  7. 
 2  Herodotus  calls  her  Nitomis. 
 he  could  gather  of  this  matter;  and  accordingly  he  sent  him 
 astronomical  observations  that  had  been  made  for  1903  years, 
 which  came  within  115  years  of  the  flood,  or  fifteen  years  after 
 the  tower  of  Babel  was  built,  but  tell  infinitely  short  of  their  other 
 monstrous  computation,  though  this  of  Calisthenes  seems  to  be  a 
 little  enlarged ;  because,  according  to  our  chronology,  we  reckon 
 no  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years  from  Nimrod  and  the  tower 
 of  Babel,  to  the  reign  of  Alexander  at  Babylon. — Calmet's  Dic- 
 tionary, under  the  word  Babylon. 
 
 a  Tin's  was  supposed  to  be  the  case  at  the  time  our  author 
 wrote;  but  the  investigations  of  Rich,  Ker,  Porter,  Kinnear, 
 &<•.,  have  satisfactorily  proved  that  the  mound  called  by  the 
 Arabs,  Birs  Nimroud,  or  the  Palace  of  Nimrod,  and  by  the  Jews 
 Nebuchadnezzar's  Prison,  is  the  site  ot  the  celebrated  temple  of 
 Belus,  completed,  if  not  begun,  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  This 
 mound  stands  in  the  centre  of  an  immense  court,  surrounded  by 
 a  canal,  and  which  encloses  a  space  of  about  two  miles,  the 
 whole  of  which  is  one  mass  of  ruins.  The  Birs  rises  in  the  cen- 
 tre of  this  to  the  height  of  19S  feet,  surmounted  by  a  tower, 
 whose  shattered  elevation  is  37  feet  above  the  massy  mound, 
 and  22  feet  broad.  The  country  round  this  for  many  miles  is 
 covered  with  remains  of  buildings  in  the  form  of  larger  or  smal- 
 ler mounds,  but  clearly  traceable  by  the  masses  of  brick  of  which 
 they  are  composed.  A  full  description  of  these  ruins  would 
 occupy  more  space  than  we  can  allbrd ;  but  the  inquiring  reader 
 may  refer  to  Mr  Bell's  note  on  this  subject  in  his  edition  of 
 Kollin,  vol.  i.  p.  180,  et  seq.,  where  a  full  and  satisfactory  ac- 
 count oi  the  ruins  is  given,  and  the  exact  fulfilment  of  all  the  pro- 
 phecies respecting  ancient  Babylon  clearly  demonstrated. — En. 
 
 manner  of  several  large  terraces,  one  above  another, 
 until  the  highest  of  them  came  up  to  the  height  of  the 
 walls  of  the  city,  that  is  to  say,  was  three  hundred  and 
 fifty  feet  high.  The  ascent  was  from  terrace  to  terrace, 
 by  stairs  ten  feet  wide,  and  the  whole  pile  was  sustained 
 by  vast  arches  built  upon  arches  one  above  another,  and 
 strengthened  by  a  wall  surrounding  it  on  every  side,  of 
 two  and  twenty  feet  in  thickness. 
 
 On  the  top  of  the  arches  were  first  laid  large  flat 
 stones  sixteen  feet  long,  and  four  broad  ;  over  them  was 
 a  layer  of  reed,  mixed  with  a  great  quantity  of  bitumen  ; 
 over  this  were  two  rows  of  brick,  closely  cemented  toge- 
 ther by  plaster  ;  over  these  were  laid  thick  sheets  of  lead, 
 and  all  this  to  keep  the  moisture  of  the  mould  from 
 draining  away  ;  and  then,  lastly,  upon  this  lead  was  laid 
 such  a  large  quantity  of  earth  heaped  together,  as  affor- 
 ded depth  enough  for  the  largest  trees  to  take  root  in  it. 
 For,  in  this  garden  there  was  every  thing  that  could 
 either  delight  the  eye,  or  gratify  the  curiosity,  beautiful 
 and  large  trees,  flowers,  plants,  and  shrubs  ;  and  to  keep 
 every  thing  verdant  and  gay  in  the  upper  terrace,  there 
 was  an  aqueduct  or  engine  which  drew  up  water  out  of 
 the  river  into  a  kind  of  reservoir  above,  and  from  thence 
 watered  the  whole  garden. 
 
 4.  The  river,  indeed,  at  a  certain  season  of  the  year, 
 namely,  in  the  months  of  June,  July,  and  August,  by  the 
 sun's  melting  the  snow  in  the  mountains  of  Armenia, 
 used  to  overflow  its  banks  (in  the  same  manner  as 
 the  Nile  in  Egypt  does),  to  the  great  damage  of  the 
 city  and  country  of  Babylon  ;  and  therefore,  to  prevent 
 this  inconvenience  for  the  future,  Nebuchadnezzar  had 
 two  artificial  canals  cut,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Euphrates, 
 in  order  to  carry  oft' the  superfluous  water  into  the  Tigris. 
 One  of  these  canals  discharged  itself  near  Seleucia,  and 
 the  other  over  against  Apamia  :  and,  for  the  farther 
 security  of  the  country,  from  the  head  of  these  canals 
 down  to  the  city,  and  some  way  lower,  he  made  vast 
 banks  of  brick  and  bitumen  ;  but  the  most  wonderful 
 part  of  the  work  was  within  the  city. 
 
 There,  on  each  side  of  the  Euphrates,  he  built,  from 
 the  very  bottom  of  the  channel,  a  great  wall  of  the  same 
 thickness  with  the  walls  of  the  city,  that  is,  eighty -seven 
 feet  thick,  and  of  an  hundred  and  sixty  furlongs  (which 
 are  *  twenty  miles  of  our  measure)  in  length  ;  and  over- 
 against  every  street  that  crossed  the  river,  he  made  on 
 each  side  a  brazen  gate  in  the  wall,  and  stairs  leading- 
 down  to  the  river,  from  whence  the  inhabitants  used  to 
 pass  by  boat  from  one  part  of  the  city  to  the  other. 
 
 5.  It  was  necessary,  however,  that  while  this  work 
 was  carrying  on,  the  stream  should  be  diverted  some 
 other  way  ;  and  therefore,  to  this  purpose,  he  had  a 
 vast  artificial  lake  made  to  the  west  of  Babylon,  which, 
 according  to  the  lowest  computation,  was  forty  miles 
 square,  and  an  hundred  and  sixty  in  compass  ;  and  being 
 of  a  proportionable  depth,  was  able  to  contain  all  the 
 water  until  the  work  was  finished.  When  this  was  done, 
 the  river  was  returned  to  its  former  channel ;  but  the 
 lake,  and  the  canal  which  led  to  it,  were  still  preserved, 
 because  they  were  found  of  use,  not  only  to  prevent  the 
 
 b  And  therefore  this  work  must  have  begun  two  miles  and  an 
 half  above  the  city,  and  continued  two  miles  and  an  half  below 
 it,  because  the  city  throughout  was  no  more  thau  fifteen  miles 
 1'ridcau.f's  Connection ,  anno  570. 
 
 4  x 
 
714 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 
 
 danger  of  all  overflowings  of  the  river,  but  to  keep 
 water  likewise  all  the  year  round,  as  in  a  common 
 reservatory,  which  might  be  let  out  on  proper  occasions, 
 by  sluices,  for  the  improvement  and  fertilizing  of  the 
 ground. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  vast  works  «  which  the  gener- 
 ality of  historians  ascribe  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  upon 
 the  view  and  contemplation  of  which  he  grew  so  arro- 
 gant and  elated,  as  to  think  himself  equal,  if  not  super- 
 ior to  God  :  for,  •  Is  not  this  great  Babylon,  which  I 
 have  built  for  the  honour  of  my  majesty  ?'  says  he  of 
 himself ;  '  and,  '  Who  is  god  but  Nebuchadnezzar  ?'  say 
 his  sycophants  concerning  him.  The  truth  is,  if  we  will 
 credit  the  account  in  the  book  of  Judith  relating  to  this 
 prince,  he  was,  in  his  temper,  a  professed  atheist. b  The 
 sense  of  his  success  in  life,  and  of  the  wonderful  works 
 which  he  had  achieved,  both  in  a  civil  and  military  ca- 
 pacity, had  so  intoxicated  his  reason,  as  to  make  him 
 become  fool  enough,  to  say  in  his  heart  there  was  no 
 other  god  but  himself ;  for  this  is  the  avowed  purpose  of ' 
 his  sending  his  armies  under  the  general  Holofernes, 
 2  '  That  ail  nations  should  worship  him  only,  and  that 
 all  tongues  and  tribes  should  call  upon  him  as  god.' 
 
 Fit  therefore  it  was,  that  such  impious  pride  should 
 be  abased,  and  that  he  who  set  himself  above  the  rank 
 
 1  Judith  vi.  2. 
 
 2  Judith  iii.  S. 
 
 a  Berosius,  Megasthenes,  and  Abydenus  attribute  all  these 
 works  to  Nebuchadnezzar;  but  Herodotus  tolls  us,  that  the 
 bridge,  the  river-banks,  and  the  lake  were  the  work  of  Nitocris, 
 his  daughter-in-law,  who  might  possibly  finish  what  he,  at  his 
 death,  left  incomplete,  and,  upon  that  account,  receive  from  this 
 historian  the  honour  of  the  whole. 
 
 I  There  is  nothing  in  the  canonical  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment, where  Nebuchadnezzar  is  mentioned,  from  which  it  can 
 reasonably  he  inferred  that  he  was  an  atheist;  and  the  Nabu- 
 chodonosor of  the  apocryphal  book  of  Judith  appears  to  have  been 
 a  very  different  man.  In  that  book  Nabuchodonosor  is  expressly 
 said  to  have  reigned  in  Nineveh,  and  to  have  been  the  king  of 
 the  Assyrians;  but  it  nowhere  appears  that  Nebuchadnezzar  ever 
 held  his  court  in  Nineveh.  By  Dr  Hales,  Nabuchodonosor  is 
 supposed,  on  good  ground,  to  have  been  the  immediate  success- 
 or of  Ninus  III.  the  immediate  predecessor  of  Sarea,  or  Sar- 
 danapolus  II.  and  therefore  the  last  king  of  Nineveh  but  one  of 
 the  Assyrian  dynasty.  Nebuchadnezzar  of  Babylon  appears  to 
 have  been  an  arrogant  and  vainglorious  conqueror,  but  in  no 
 other  sense  an  atheist  than  many  such  conquerors  have  been, 
 even  in  Christian  countries,  who,  elated  by  success,  forgot  in 
 their  practice  the  God  of  battles,  by  whom  that  success  was  ob- 
 tained. Far  from  being  a  speculative  atheist,  or  from  demand- 
 ing divine  worship  to  himself,  the  Babylonian  conqueror  appears 
 to  have  been  a  zealous  polytheist  and  idolater,  acknowledging, 
 •  however,  as  most  polytheists  of  any  reflection  did,  that  there  was 
 one  God  superior  to  all  the  others,  and  ready  occasionally — per- 
 haps always — to  attribute  this  superiority  to  the  God  of  Israel. 
 It  is  probable  likewise  that  he  believed  in  the  Metempsychosis,  a 
 .doctrine  which  appears,  from  the  Asiatic  Researches,  and  other 
 ancient  records,  to  have  prevailed  over  all  the  east  horn  a  period 
 long  anterior  to  the  reign  of  Nebuchadnezzar;  and,  if  such  was 
 the  case,  there  was  a  peculiar  propriety  in  punishing  his  pride 
 by  the  disease  called  lycanthropy.  He  persisted,  in  opposition 
 to  his  own  repeated  conviction,  to  worship  the  gods,  in  whom  he 
 appears  at  times  to  have  had  no  confidence  whatever,  giving,  it 
 may  be  supposed,  some  degree  of  credit  to  this  gloomy  doctrine ; 
 and  therefore,  with  wisdom  truly  divine,  he  was  visited  with  a 
 species  of  madness,  which,  though  it  has  been  occasionally  wit- 
 nessed in  every  age  and  in  different  countries,  appears  to  have 
 been  most  frequent  where  the  doctrine  of  the  metempsychosis 
 or  the  transmigration  of  souls  prevailed.  See  VVarburton's  Div. 
 Leg.  on  this  subject,  and  likewise  Mosheim's  edition  of  Cud- 
 worth's  Intellectual  System,  with  the  authors  referred  to  by  the 
 learned  editor  of  that  profound  work. 
 
 4825.  A.  C.  586.  JER.  xl.  7— xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  i— v. 
 
 of  men,  upon  a  level  with  God,  nay,  in  an  elevation 
 superior  to  God,  should  be  made  sensible  of  his  depen- 
 dent state,  and  taught  humility  and  self-annihilation,  by 
 being  degraded  to  the  condition  of  a  brute.  '  He  had 
 said  in  his  heart,'  for  of  him  is  that  prophecy  in  Isaiah, 
 3 '  I  will  ascend  into  heaven,  I  will  exalt  my  throne 
 above  the  stars  of  God  ; — I  will  ascend  above  the  heights 
 of  the  clouds,  I  will  be  like  the  Most  High. — But  how  art 
 thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O  Lucifer,  son  of  the  morning  ? 
 How  art  thou  cut  down  to  the  ground,  who  didst  weaken 
 the  nations  ? — They  that  see  thee  shall  narrowly  look 
 upon  thee,  and  consider  thee,  saying,  Is  this  the  man 
 that  made  the  earth  to  tremble,  that  did  shake  all  king- 
 doms, that  made  the  world  as  a  wilderness,  anchdestroy- 
 ed  the  cities  thereof  ?'  And  well  they  might,  when  they 
 saw  4  '  him  dwelling  with  the  beasts  of  the  field ;  eating- 
 grass  like  oxen,  and  wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven,  and 
 his  hair  gTown  like  eagle's  feathers,  and  his  nails  like 
 the  claws  of  birds.'  But  then  the  question  is,  what  the 
 proper  sense  of  these  words  is  ?  Or,  what  is  the  same 
 thing,  of  what  kind  this  divine  infliction  upon  the  king 
 of  Babylon  was  ? 
 
 Origen,  5  who  was  for  resolving  every  thing  that  he 
 could  not  comprehend  in  Scripture  into  allegory,  was  of 
 opinion,  that  under  the  name  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  Daniel 
 intended  to  give  us  a  representation  of  the  fall  of  Lucifer, 
 being  probably  led  to  think  so  by  the  above  cited  pas- 
 sage in  the  prophet  Isaiah.  But  the  account  of  the 
 punishment  which  befell  this  prince  is  so  often  inculcated 
 in  the  same  chapter ;  foretold  in  the  dream  explained 
 by  the  prophet ;  repeated  by  the  voice  from  heaven  ;  and 
 all  this  published  in  a  solemn  declaration  by  the  king 
 himself  after  the  recovery  of  his  senses,  that  there  is  no 
 manner  of  grounds  to  think  of  any  figure  or  allegory  in 
 this  piece  of  history. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's  real  metamorphosis  into  an  ox,  both 
 as  to  his  outward  and  inward  form,  is  a  notion  too  gross 
 for  any  but  the  vulgar,  who  may  be  taken,  perhaps  with 
 such  fictions  of  the  poets  ;  and  what  we  have  no  need  to 
 recur  to,  thereby  to  multiply  miracles  to  no  purpose, 
 from  any  words  in  the  text  which  will  fairly  admit  of 
 another  interpretation. 
 
 The  metempsychosis  of  an  ox's  soul  into  Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's body,  thereby  to  communicate  the  same  motions, 
 taste,  and  inclinations,  that  are  observable  in  that  animal, 
 is  a  notion  unknown  to  all  antiquity  ;  for,  according  to 
 the  doctrine  of  Pythagoras,  such  a  transmigration  was 
 never  made  until  the  body  was  actually  dead  ;  besides 
 the  manifest  incongruity  of  supposing  two  souls,  a  ration- 
 al and  a  brutal,  animating  the  same  prince,  or  the  prince's 
 soul  departed  from  him,  and  become  the  substitute  to  a 
 brute. 
 
 A  fascination,  both  in  the  eyes  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
 subjects,  and  in  his  own  fancy  and  imagination,  which 
 might  make  them  both  believe,  that  he  really  was  changed 
 into  an  ox,  and  had  the  figure  of  one,  is  a  notion  every 
 whit  as  liable  to  exception.  For,  besides  that  it  is  difficult 
 to  conceive,  how  a  deception  of  this  kind  could  abide 
 upon  a  whole  nation  for  the  space  of  seven  years,  the 
 Scripture  takes  notice  of  no  evil  spirit  in  this  whole 
 transaction,  but  imputes  all  to  the  sole  power  of  God, 
 
 Is.  xiv.  13,  &c.  *  Dan.  iv.  32,  33. 
 
 5  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Metamorphosis,  &c. 
 
I] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 715 
 
 A.  M.  3117.  A.  C.  587;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M,  4325.  A.  C.586.  JEK.  xl.  7 -xlv.  DANIEL,  and  EZRA  l-v. 
 
 who  can  humble  the  proud,  and  chastise  the  wicked,  as 
 he  pleases. 
 
 The  most  general  therefore,  and  most  probable  opinion 
 is, — that  Nebuchadnezzar,  by  the  judgment  of  God,  was 
 punished  with  madness,  which  so  disordered  his  imagina- 
 tion, that  he  fancied  himself  a  beast,  and  was  prompted 
 to  act  like  one. 
 
 There  is  a  distemper,  not  a  very  common  one  indeed, 
 but  what  has  befallen  several,  which  naturalists  and 
 physicians  call  lycanthropy,"  when  by  the  power  of  a 
 depraved  imagination,  and  a  distempered  brain,  a  man 
 really  thinks  that  he  is  a  wolf,  an  ox,  a  dog,  or  the  like, 
 and  accordingly  in  his  inclinations,  motions,  and  beha- 
 viour, cannot  forbear  imitating  the  particular  creature 
 which  he  fancies  himself  to  be.  In  this  manner  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, imagining  that  he  was  become  an  ox,  want- 
 ed upon  all  four,  fed  upon  grass,  went  naked,  lowed 
 with  his  voice,  and  butted,  as  he  thought,  witli  his  horns  ; 
 and,  in  short,  did  all  the  actions,  as  far  as  he  was  able, 
 that  a  real  ox  is  known  to  do.  l  Hereupon  his  subjects, 
 perceiving  this  change  in  him,  took  him  and  bound  him, 
 .as  madmen  are  wont  to  be  treated,  but,  at  last,  he  escap- 
 ing out  of  their  hands,  fled  to  the  fields,  where  he  herded 
 with  the  cattle,  exposed  to  the  dew  of  heaven,  and  the 
 inclemencies  of  the  weather ;  where  his  neglected  body 
 became  horrid  and  dreadful  to  behold ;  where  his  hair,  and 
 his  nails,  in  process  of  time,  grew  in  the  hideous  manner 
 that  the  prophet  had  described  them  ;  and, where  his  heart, 
 that  is,  his  apprehension,  appetite,  and  inclinations,  by 
 the  continuance  of  his  distemper,  became  quite  brutal, 
 and  of  the  same  cast  with  the  beasts  that  graze. 
 
 The  masters  of  the  medics,  who  have  treated  of  this 
 kind  of  madness,  have  made  it  their  observation,  that 
 the  persons  infected  with  it  are  generally  so  excessively 
 strong,  that  no  bands  or  chains  can  hold  them.  They 
 can  live  a  long  while  without  eating  or  drinking,  and 
 endure  wet  and  cold  without  any  great  inconvenience  to 
 themselves  ;  and  therefore  Nebuchadnezzar,  though  bred 
 up  in  the  pleasures  and  delicacies  of  the  court,  might, 
 by  the  strength  of  his  distemper,  be  enabled  to  do  what 
 otherwise  he  would  not ;  to  live  in  the  fields  for  seven 
 years  together,  naked,  and  exposed  to  the  injuries  of 
 the  weather,  without  any  thing  to  nourish  him,  except 
 either  the  grass  on  the  ground,  or  the  wild  fruits  on  the 
 hedges  ;  but  then,  whether  he  retained  the  use  of  his 
 reason  whilst  he  continued  in  this  disastrous  state,  is  a 
 question  that  is  not  so  easily  determined. 
 
 The  Scripture,  indeed,  at  first  sight,  seems  to  intimate, 
 that  he  had  no  sense  of  his  misery,  nor  made  any  reflec- 
 tion upon  himself,  or  upon  what  he  was  doing,  until  God 
 was  pleased  to  remove  his  afflicting  hand  :  for  these  are 
 his  own  words.2  '  At  the  end  of  my  days,  I  Nebuchad- 
 nezzr  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  heaven,  and  my  under- 
 standing returned  unto  me  ;'  which  seem  to  imply,  that 
 all  along  before  this,  his  reason  was  in  a  kind  of  deli- 
 
 1  Dan.  iv.  33.  2  Ibid.  iv.  31. 
 
 a  Such  was  the  distemper  of  Lycaon  king  of  Arcadia,  which 
 Ovid  has  described,  as  if  he  had  been  turned  into  a  wolf.  In 
 terror  he  flies  to  the  silent  wilderness,  and  there  endeavouring  to 
 talk  articulately,  he  can  only  howl — his  mouth  spontaneously 
 acquires  a  rabid  longing  for  food,  and  his  wonted  fury  is  direct- 
 ed against  the  cattle,  his  delight  is  now  in  bloodshed — his  gar- 
 ments are  changed  to  hair,  his  amis  to  legs — he  becomes  a  wolf, 
 though  still  in  shape  retaining  the  marks  of  his  former  nature. — 
 Ovid.  Met.  b.  i. 
 
 quium,  and  without  any  consciousness  of  what  he  was 
 about.  But  then  it  may  be  asked,  wherein  would  his 
 punishment  and  humiliation  consist,  if  the  man  was  in- 
 sensible ;  if  he  knew  nothing  of  the  matter  ;  nay,  if  he 
 took  pleasure,  as  most  madmen  do,  in  the  disorder  of 
 the  imagination  ? 
 
 To  be  miserable,  and  not  to  know  it,  by  some  may  be 
 thought  the  very  height  of  misery ;  but  the  person  in 
 Horace,  who  frequented  the  empty  theatre  every  day, 
 and  delighted  himself  with  the  reveries  of  his  own  fancy, 
 with  plays  and  shows  which  nobody  saw  but  himself,  was 
 not  so  well  pleased  with  his  friends  when  they  had  reco- 
 vered him  to  his  senses  : — *'  Friends,  you  have  of  a 
 surety  killed,  not  cured  me,  since  my  delight  is  thus  va- 
 nished, and  the  agreeable  aberration  of  my  mind  expelled 
 by  medicine."  3 
 
 To  answer  the  ends  of  Providence,  therefore,  in  afflict- 
 ing in  this  manner  this  haughty  and  assuming  prince, 
 which  was  to  mortify  his  pride,  and  bring  him  to  a  state 
 of  humiliation  and  acknowledgment  of  God's  superior 
 hand,  we  may  suppose,  that  at  certain  intervals  at  least, 
 he  had  a  sense  and  perception  of  his  misery  ;  that  he 
 saw  the  condition  to  which  he  was  degraded  ;  but  being 
 carried  away  with  his  brutal  appetite,  found  it  not  in  his 
 power  to  extricate  himself.  St  Paul,  in  his  description 
 of  a  man  given  up  to  his  lusts,  whereof  Nebuchadnezzar, 
 in  his  present  condition,  is  no  improper  emblem,  has 
 these  remarkable  words.  4  '  I  know  that  in  me,'  that  is, 
 in  my  flesh,  '  dwelleth  no  good  thing  ;  for  to  will  is  pre- 
 sent with  me,  but  how  to  perform  that  which  is  good,  I 
 find  not;  for  the  good  that  I  would,  I  do  not,  but 
 the  evil  that  I  would  not,  that  I  do.  For  though  I 
 delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inner  man,  yet  I  see 
 another  law  in  my  members,  warring  against  the  law 
 in  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the  law 
 of  sin,  that  is  in  my  members.  O  wretched  man  that 
 I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  !' 
 And,  in  like  manner,  if  we  suppose  this  king  of  Babylon, 
 in  such  a  perpetual  struggle  and  conflict  with  himself ; 
 seeing  his  error  but  not  able  to  avoid  it ;  sensible  of  his 
 disgrace,  but  not  capable  to  redress  it ;  committing  the 
 things  which  his  soul  abhorred;  and  detesting  himself 
 for  what  he  found  himself  necessitated  to  do,  till  God 
 should  think  fit  to  restore  his  understanding",  by  allaying 
 the  ferment  of  his  blood  and  humours,  correcting  his  ap- 
 petite, and  ranging  his  ideas  into  their  proper  order : 
 if  we  suppose  this,  I  say,  we  have  before  us  the  image  of 
 a  creature  completely  miserable;  reasons  for  his  humi- 
 liation, during  his  affliction,  innumerable  ;  *  a  fountain 
 
 3  Hor.  Ep.  b.  ii.  4  Rom.  vii.  18,  &c. 
 
 b  What  Nebuchadnezzar  says  of  himself,  with  regard  to  this 
 duty,  is  very  remarkable, — '  I  blessed  the  Most  High,  and  prais- 
 ed and  honoured  him,  that  liveth  for  ever,  whose  dominion  is  an 
 everlasting  dominion,  and  his  kingdom  is  from  generation  to  ge- 
 neration. All  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  are  reputed  as  nothing, 
 for  he  doth  according  to  his  will,  in  the  armies  of  heaven,  and 
 among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth;  and  none  can  stay  his  hand 
 or  say  unto  him,  What  dost  thou?  I  therefore  now  praise,  and 
 extol,  and  honour  the  king  of  heaven,  all  whose  works  are  troth, 
 and  his  ways  judgment,  and  those  that  walk  in  pride,  he  is  able 
 to  abase,'  (Dan.  iv.  34,  &c.)  Which  is  enough,  one  would 
 imagine,  to  make  us  think  charitably  of  the  conversion  and  final 
 end  of  this  prince;  and  with  St  Austin,  to  conclude,  that  what- 
 ever happened  to  him,  by  way  of  punishment,  was  designed  by 
 providence  for  his  soul's  health.  "  By  the  hidden  providence 
 and  mercy  of  God  such  a  plan  was  adopted  for  the  king's  salva- 
 tion."— Epist.  3. 
 
716 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3417.  A.  C.  587  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4882.  A 
 
 to  supply  his  gratitude  upon  the  removal  of  it,  inex- 
 haustible ;  and,  from  his  example,  this  lecture  of  admoni- 
 tion to  all  succeeding  generations :  *  '  Thus  saith  the 
 Lord,  let  not  the  wise  man  glory  in  his  wisdom  ;  neither 
 let  the  mighty  man  glory  in  his  might.  Let  not  the 
 rich  man  glory  in  his  riches  ;  but  let  him  that  glorieth, 
 glory  in  this, — that  he  understandeth,  and  knoweth  me, 
 that  I  am  the  Lord,  who  exerciseth  loving-kindness, 
 judgment,  and  righteousness  in  the  earth ;  for  in  these 
 things  I  delight,  saith  the  Lord/ 
 
 SECT.    II. 
 
 CHAP.  I.— From  the  Death  of  Cyrus  to  that  of 
 Nehemiah. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 Cyrus  died,  when  he  was  seventy  years  old,  after  he  had 
 reigned,  from  his  first  being  made  commander  of  the 
 Persian  and  Median  armies,  thirty  years ;  from  his 
 taking  of  Babylon,  nine  years  ;  and  from  his  becom- 
 ing sole  monarch  of  the  east,  seven  years  ;  and  was 
 succeeded  by  his  son  Cambyses,  whom  the  Scripture 
 calls  Ahasuerus.  As  soon  as  he  was  well  settled  in  the 
 throne,  the  Samaritans,  instead  of  applying  themselves 
 secretly  to  the  ministers  and  officers  of  his  court,  pre- 
 sented their  petition  2  to  him  openly,  desiring  that  the 
 rebuilding  of  Jerusalem  might  be  stopped  ;  and  though 
 they  did  not  prevail  with  him  to  revoke  his  father's  decree, 
 yet  by  the  several  discouragements  which  he  put  upon  it, 
 he,  in  a  great  measure,  defeated  its  main  design  :  so  that 
 the  work  went  on  very  heavily  in  his  reign.  But  his  reign 
 was  not  long  :  it  was  but  seven  years  and  five  months, 
 before  he  came  to  an  untimely  end,  and  was  succeeded, 
 for  a  short  time,  by  the  Magian,   a  who  pretended  to 
 
 1  Jer.  ix.  23,  &c.  2  Ezra  iv.  6'. 
 
 a  The  word  Magian  or  Migc-gush,  in  the  old  Persian  lan- 
 guage, signifies  a  person  that  had  his  ears  cut  off,  and  was  a  name 
 ot  contempt  given  to  the  whole  sect,  upon  account  of  a  certain 
 impostor  among  them,  who  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  ears, 
 and  yet  had  the  confidence  to  usurp  the  crown  of  Cyrus;  but 
 before  this  incident  they  went  under  another  name,  and  were 
 held  in  great  reputation  among  the  Persians.  They  were  indeed 
 their  chief  professors  of  philosophy,  and  iu  matters  of  religion 
 made  these  the  great  articles  of  their  faith: — "  That  there  were 
 two  principles  or  gods,  the  one  the  cause  of  all  the  good,  and  the 
 other  the  cause  of  all  the  evil  in  the  world  ;  but  in  this  they  were 
 divided;  that  some  of  them  held  both  these  principles  to  have 
 been  from  all  eternity,  whereas  others  maintained,  that  the  good 
 principle  only  was  eternal,  and  the  evil  one  created,  in  the  like 
 manner  as  we  believe,  that  the  devil  is  a  creatine,  who  is  fallen 
 from  his  original  purity  and  perfection.  These  two  principles, 
 they  believed,  were  in  continual  opposition  to  each  other,  which 
 was  to  continue  till  the  end  of  the  world  ;  but  then  the  good  prin- 
 ciple having  overcome  the  evil,  they  should  each  of  them  have  a 
 distinct  world  to  himself;  the  good  reigning  over  all  good  beings 
 and  the  evil  over  all  the  wicked.  They  imagined  farther,  that 
 darkness  was  the  truest  symbol  of  the  evil,  as  light  was  of  the 
 good  god;  and  therefore  they  always  worshipped  him  before  fire, 
 a.  being  the  cause  of  light,  and  before  the  sun  more  especially, 
 because  thejr  accounted  it  the  most  perfect  light.  They  paid 
 divine  honours,  in  short,  to  light,  to  the  sun,  to  the  fire  in  their 
 temples,  and  to  lire  in  their  houses;  but  they  always  hated  dark- 
 ness, because  they  thought  it  a  representation  of  the  evil  god, 
 whom  they  ever  bad  in  the  utmost  detestation."  Such  were 
 tlie  Ma_i  among  the  ancient  Persians,  and  such  are  the  Guebres, 
 or  worshipper*  of  fire,  anion:;  the  present  Persians  and  Indians. 
 —  Prideaiur'a  Connection,  ami  Calmed  Die.  under  the  worn 
 
 C.  5-'9.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 be  his  brother  Smerdis,  h  and  whom  the  history  of  Ezra  c 
 calls  Artaxerxes.  To  him  the  Samaritans,  in  like  manner, 
 addressed  themselves,  and  in  a  memorial,  represented, 
 "  That  d  the  Jews  were  rebuilding  their  city  and  temple 
 at  Jerusalem,  which  might  be  a  matter  of  pernicious 
 consequence  to  his  empire  ;  that  these  Jews  had  always 
 been  a  rebellious  people,  as  he  would  find,  if  he  con- 
 sulted the  records  of  his  ancestors  ;  that  therefore  there 
 was  reason  to  suspect,  that  in  case  they  were  permitted 
 to  go  on,  when  once  they  had  finished  the  work,  they 
 would  withdraw  their  obedience,  or  refuse  to  pay  tri- 
 bute ;    e    and  that  by  their  example,  very  probably,  all 
 
 b  The  manner  in  which  this  Magian  came  to  usurp  the  Per- 
 sian throne  is  thus  related  by  most  historians:— Cambyses  had  a 
 brother,  the  only  son  of  Cyrus  besides  himself,  and  born  of  the 
 same  mother.  His  name,  according  to  Xenophon,  was  Tana- 
 oxares,  but  Herodotus  calls  him  Smerdis,  and  Justin,  Mergis. 
 He  accompanied  him  in  his  wars  for  some  time;  but  upon  a 
 pique  of  jealousy,  the  king  sent  him  back  into  Persia,  and  there 
 caused  him  to  be  murdered  privately.  The  king,  when  lie 
 went  upon  the  Egyptian  expedition,  had  left  the  supreme  govern- 
 ment of  his  affairs  in  the  hands  of  Patizithes,  one  of  the  chief  of 
 the  Magians  (for  the  king  was  addicted  to  that  sect  of  religion), 
 who  had  a  brother  that  did  very  much  resemble  Smerdis,  the 
 son  of  Cyrus,  and  was,  for  that  reason  perhaps,  called  by  the 
 same  name.  Patizithes,  hearing  of  the  young  prince's  death, 
 and  supposing  that  this,  and  some  other  extravagances  of  Cam- 
 byses, had  made  him  odious  to  his  subjects,  placed  this  brother 
 of  his  on  the  throne,  pretending  that  he  was  the  true  Smerdis, 
 the  son  of  Cyrus,  and  so  sent  heralds  through  the  empire  to 
 proclaim  him  king.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  eastern  princes  in 
 those  days  to  live  retired  in  their  palaces,  and  there  transact  all 
 their  aflairs  by  the  intercourse  of  their  eunuchs,  without  admit- 
 ting any  else,  unless  those  of  the  highest  confidence,  to  have 
 access  to  them.  This  conduct  the  pretended  Smerdis  exactly 
 observed;  but  Otanes,  a  Persian  nobleman,  having  a  daughter, 
 whose  name  was  Phedyma,  who  had  been  one  of  Cambyses' 
 wives,  and  was  now  kept  by  Smerdis  in  the  same  quality,  and 
 being  desirous  to  know  whether  he  was  the  real  son  of  Cyrus  or 
 no,  sent  her  instructions,  that  the  first  night  she  lay  with  him, 
 she  should  feel  whether  he  had  any  ears  (because  Cyrus,  for 
 some  crime  or  other,  had  cut  off  this  Magian's  ears),  and  she 
 acquainted  her  father  that  he  had  none,  he  immediately  took  six 
 others  of  the  Persian  quality  with  him,  among  whom  Darius 
 was  one,  and,  entering  the  palace,  slew  both  the  usurper  and 
 his  brother  who  had  been  the  contriver  of  the  whole  plot. — Pri- 
 deaux's  Connection,  anno  522. 
 
 c  That  Cambyses  was  the  Ahasuerus,  as  we  said  before,  and 
 the  false  Smerdis  the  Artaxerxes  who  obstructed  the  work  of  the 
 temple,  is  plain  from  hence, — That  they  are  said  in  Scripture 
 (Ezra  iv.  5,  &c.)  to  be  the  kings  of  Persia  that  reigned  between 
 the  time  of  Cyrus  and  the  time  of  that  Darius  by  whose  decree 
 the  temple  was  finished ;  but  as  that  Darius  was  Darius  the 
 son  of  Hystaspes,  between  whom  and  Cyrus  there  reigned  none 
 in  Persia  but  Cambyses  and  Smerdis,  it  must  follow  from  hence, 
 that  none  but  Cambyses  and  Smerdis  could  be  the  Ahasuerus  and 
 Artaxerxes  who  are  said  in  Ezra  to  have  put  a  stop  to  this  work. 
 —  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  522. 
 
 d  After  the  return  from  the  captivity,  the  people  in  general 
 came  to  be  called  Jews,  because,  though  there  were  many  Israel- 
 ites among  them,  yet  they  chiefly  consisted  of  the  tribes  of  Ju- 
 dah  and  Benjamin;  and  though  the  edict  of  Cyrus  gave  all  per- 
 mission to  return  when  they  pleased,  yet  the  sacred  writers  take 
 notice  only  of  those  who  returned  in  a  body. — Patrick's  Com 
 mentary  on  Ezra. 
 
 e  For  this  there  are  three  expressions  in  the  text,  toll,  tribute, 
 and  custom.  By  the  first  of  these  Grotins  understands  that 
 which  every  head  paid  to  the  king,  which  we  call  poll-money : 
 by  the  second,  the  excise  (as  we  now  speak)  that  was  upon  com- 
 modities and  merchandise;  and  by  the  last  the  land-tax.  But 
 Witsius,  (in  his  Miscell.  part.  2,)  is  of  opinion,  that  the  first  word 
 rather  signifies  that  part  which  every  man  paid  out  of  his  estate, 
 according  as  it  was  valued;  the  second,  that  which  was  paid  for 
 every  head  ;  and  the  third,  that  which  was  paid  upon  the  high- 
 ways, by  every  traveller  that  went  about  the  country  with  any 
 kind  of  merchandise. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 717 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4890.  A.  C.  521. EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL 
 
 Syria  and  Palestine  would  be  tempted  to  revolt ;  so 
 that,  in  a  short  time,  his  majesty  would  be  excluded 
 from  having  any  benefit  from  his  territories  on  that  side 
 of  the  river  Euphrates." 
 
 Upon  consulting  the  records  which  the  Samaritans 
 referred  the  king  to,  it  plainly  appeared,  that  the  Jews 
 had  defended  themselves  with  great  valour,  and  had 
 been  subdued  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  not  without  much  dif- 
 ficulty ;  whereupon  he  issued  out  an  edict,  wherein  he 
 prohibited  the  Jews  to  proceed  any  farther  in  their 
 building,  and  ordered  his  officers  in  Samaria  to  put  it 
 in  execution.  They  immediately  went  up  to  Jerusalem 
 witli  an  armed  force,  and  having  pursued  the  king's 
 orders  with  the  utmost  rigour,  put  a  full  stop  to  any  far- 
 ther proceeding  in  the  work,  until  the  second  year  of 
 «  Darius  Hystaspes. 
 
 Darius,  upon  the  death  of  the  pretended  Smerdis, 
 was,  °  by  a  stratagem,  chosen  king  of  Persia ;  and 
 though  the  edict  which  prohibited  the  building  of  the 
 temple,  expired  with  the  usurper,  yet  had  the  prophets 
 Zechariah  c  and  Haggai  much  ado  to  prevail  with  the 
 
 a  There  are  some  who  take  the  Darius  here  mentioned,  not 
 to  be  Darius  the  Second,  who  was  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  but  the 
 Darius  who  is  commonly  called  Nothus;  but  then  they  are 
 pressed  with  this  difficulty,  which  may  well  be  called  insur- 
 mountable. For,  from  the  first  year  of  Cyrus,  who  gave  orders 
 for  the  building  of  the  temple,  to  the  sixth  year  of  Darius  Nothus, 
 in  which  they  supposed  that  it  was  finished,  there  were,  at  least, 
 an  hundred  and  thirteen  years;  according  to  some,  an  hundred 
 and  seventeen;  and  according  to  others,  an  hundred  and  forty- 
 two.  But  now,  if  all  this  time,  Zerubbabel  was  in  the  govern- 
 ment of  Judea,  and  Joshua  in  the  high-priesthood,  so  long  an 
 authority  in  church  or  state  was  never  heard  of  in  any  age  be- 
 fore. Nor  must  it  be  forgotten,  what  the  prophet  Haggai,  (chap.  ii. 
 8,)  supposes,  namely,  That  some  then  alive  remembered  the  glory 
 of  the  first  temple,  and  compared  it  with  the  glory  of  the  second  ; 
 which  upon  the  supposition  that  this  was  in  the  sixth  year  of 
 Darius  Nothus,  will  make  them  at  least  an  hundred  and  four- 
 score years  old,  a  thing  almost  incredible.  And  therefore  the 
 must  probable  opinion  is,  that  the  Darius  here  meant,  was  Dar- 
 ius Hystaspes,  whose  second  year  was  the  eighteenth  after  the 
 first  of  Cyrus,  as  Huetius  reckons. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  seven  princes,  who  had  slain  the  usurper  Smerdis,  and 
 his  brother,  consulting  together  about  the  settling  of  the  govern- 
 ment, came  at  length  to  this  resolution,  that  the  monarchy 
 should  continue  in  the  same  manner  that  it  had  been  established 
 by  Cyrus,  and  that,  to  determine  which  of  them  should  ascend 
 the  throne,  they  should  all  meet  at  a  certain  place  the  next 
 morning,  against  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  that  he  whose  horse 
 first  neighed,  should  be  appointed  king.  For  as  the  sun  was  the 
 great  deity  of  all  the  Persians,  they  seemed  by  this  method,  to 
 refer  their  election  to  it;  but  Darius's  groom,  being  informed  of 
 this,  tietl  a  mare  on  the  night  before  the  election  to  the  place 
 where  the  next  morning,  they  were  to  meet,  and  brought  his 
 master's  horse  to  cover  her.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  the  princes 
 met  together  at  the  time  appointed,  Darius's  horse  remembered 
 the  place,  ran  immediately  thither,  neighing  and  prancing  all 
 along;  whereupon  the  rest  dismounting,  saluted  him  as  their 
 king)  and  accordingly  placed  him  on  the  throne. — Pridcaux's 
 Connection,  anno  521. 
 
 c  Zechariah  was  the  son  of  Barachiah,  and  grandson  of  Iddo; 
 but  the  time  and  place  of  his  birth  are  unknown.  Some  will 
 have  him  to  be  born  at  Babylon,  during  the  captivity;  but  others 
 think  that  he  was  bom  at  Jerusalem,  before  the  tribes  of  Judah 
 and  Benjamin  were  carried  away.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
 he  returned  from  Babylon  with  Zerubbabel,  and  very  probable 
 that  he  began  to  prophesy  in  the  second  year  of  Darius,  the  son 
 of  Hystaspes.  The  number,  excellency,  and  preciseness  of  his 
 prophecies  made  him  be  styled  "the  sun  among  the  lesser  pro- 
 phets," and  as  he  began  his  predictions  about  two  months  after 
 Haggai,  with  him  he  encouraged  the  Jews  to  go  on  in  the  re- 
 building of  their  temple,  and  gave  them  assurance  of  the  divine 
 protection.     But  these  prophecies  were  inconsiderable,  in  com- 
 
 people  to  reassume  the  work.  They  were  fearful  of  the 
 interest  which  the  Samaritans  Mere  presumed  to  have  at 
 court;  and  accordingly  found,  that  no  sooner  had  they 
 provided  themselves  with  stone  and  timber,  and  other 
 materials,  in  order  to  proceed  in  the  building,  but  these 
 implacable  enemies  betook  themselves  to  their  old  prac- 
 tices, and  endeavoured  to  possess  Tatnai,  whom  Darius 
 had  made  governor  over  the  provinces  of  Syria  and 
 Palestine,  with  a  notion  that  what  the  Jews  were  doing 
 was  without  authority,  and  would  prove  prejudicial  to 
 the  king. 
 
 Tatnai,  upon  this  information,  came  to  Jerusalem, 
 and  having  called  the  governor  and  elders  of  the  Jews 
 together,  d  he  understood  from  them,  that  they  had  a 
 
 parison  of  those  which  foretell  the  coming  of  the  Messias  in  the 
 plainest  terms;  the  cruel  war  which  Antiochus  Epiphanes  waged 
 with  the  Jews,  and  God's  severe  judgments  against  this  tyrant; 
 the  Jewish  war  with  the  Romans,  and  the  siege  of  Babylon  by 
 Darius ;  the  dissolution  of  the  old  covenant,  and  the  substitution 
 of  a  new  one  under  Christ;  the  glorious  state  of  the  Christian 
 church,  and  the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles;  the  persecutions 
 which  the  Christians  should  endure,  and  the  severe  punishment 
 of  their  persecutors,  and  other  such  like  events,  contained  in  the 
 ninth  and  following  chapters  of  his  prophecies.  Some  critics, 
 however,  are  of  opinion,  that  the  style  of  this  prophet  is  a  little 
 interrupted,  and  without  connexion,  and  that  the  ixth,  xth,  and 
 xith  chapters,  which  go  under  his  name,  were  originally  written 
 by  Jeremiah;  because  in  Matthew,  (ch.  xxvii.  9,  10.)  under  the 
 name  of  Jeremiah,  we  find  Zechariah  xi.  12,  quoted  ;  and  as  the 
 aforesaid  chapters  make  but  one  continued  discourse,  they  con- 
 clude from  thence,  that  all  three  belonged  to  Jeremiah.  But  it 
 is  much  more  natural  to  suppose,  that  the  name  of  Jeremiah,  by 
 some  unlucky  mistake,  has  slipt  into  the  text  of  St  Matthew, 
 instead  of  that  of  Zechariah.  Contemporary  with  him  was  the  pro- 
 phet Haggai,  who,  in  all  probability,  was  born  at  Babylon,  and 
 returned  with  Zerubbabel  to  Jerusalem.  They  both,  with  united 
 zeal,  encouraged  the  people  to  go  on  with  the  work  of  the  temple, 
 which,  by  the  envy  of  the  Samaritans,  who  were  their  enemies, 
 and  the  ill  offices  of  some  at  the  court  of  Cyrus  and  Cambyses, 
 whom  they  influenced,  was  discontinued  for  some  time:  but  upon 
 the  accession  of  Darius  to  the  throne,  Haggai,  in  particular,  by 
 reproaching  the  people  with  their  indolence  and  insensibility,  by 
 telling  them  that  they  were  careful  enough  to  lodge  themselves 
 very  commodiously,  while  the  house  of  the  Lord  lay  buried  in  its 
 own  ruins,  and  by  putting  them  in  mind,  that  the  calamities  of 
 drought  and  famine,  wherewith  God  had  afflicted  them  since 
 their  return,  were  owing  to  their  neglect  in  repairing  the  temple, 
 prevailed  with  them  to  set  about  the  work  in  good  earnest;  so 
 that,  by  virtue  of  these  reproofs,  as  well  as  some  encouragements 
 which  God  occasionally  authorized  him  to  give  them,  they 
 brought  the  whole  to  a  conclusion  in  a  short  time. — Calmct's 
 Dictionary  under  the  words,  and  Universal  History,  b.  ii.  c.  1. 
 d  The  plea  which  Josephus  makes  Zerubbabel  the  governor, 
 and  Joshua  the  high  priest,  urge  upon  this  occasion,  is  to  this 
 effect — "  That  they  were  the  servants  of  the  great  God,  to  whose 
 honour  this  temple  was  built,  and  to  his  service  dedicated  by  the 
 greatest,  the  happiest,  and  the  wisest  prince  that  ever  sat  on  that 
 throne ;  that  it  stood  for  many  ages,  till,  by  reason  of  the  wicked- 
 ness of  their  forefathers,  the  city,  by  God's  permission,  was  taken 
 by  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  king  of  Chaldea,  the  temple  pillaged, 
 and  laid  in  ashes,  and  the  people  carried  away  captives  into 
 Babylon;  that  when  Cyrus  came  to  be  possessed  of  the  throne 
 of  Persia  and  Babylon,  he  ordered,  by  his  royal  proclamation,  the 
 rebuilding  of  the  temple,  and  the  restoring  of  all  the  sacred  ves- 
 sels that  had  been  taken  away  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  which  accord- 
 ingly were  transported  to  Jerusalem,  and  laid  up  again  in  the 
 temple ;  that  by  the  command  of  the  same  king,  Abassar  was 
 sent  to  see  tin'  work  expedited,  and  accordingly  was  present  at 
 the  laying  of  the  foundation;  but  that,  ever  since  that  time,  by 
 one  artifice  or  other,  their  enemies  had  found  means  to  obstruct 
 and  retard  it:  and  that,  for  the  truth  of  these  allegations,  tiny 
 desired  that  Darius  might  be  wrote  to,  that,  by  consulting 
 public  records,  it  might  be  known,  whether  or  no  these  facts 
 were  according  to  this  their  representation." — Jewish  Hist.  b. 
 xi.  c.  J. 
 
718 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII 
 
 A.  M.  3475.   A.  C.  529  ;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  48U0  A.  C.  521.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  paut  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 decree  from  Cyrus,  which  empowered  and  authorized 
 them  in  what  they  did  :  whereupon  the  governor  wrote 
 to  court,  acquainting  the  king  with  the  true  state  of  the 
 case,  and  desiring  that  search  might  be  made  into  the 
 public  records,  whether  the  Jews  really  had  any  such 
 decree  from  Cyrus,  and  upon  the  whole,  that  he  would  be 
 pleased  to  signify  his  will,  what  he  would  have  him  to 
 do  in  this  aliair. 
 
 Darius,  *  who,  the  better  to  fortify  his  title  to  the 
 crown,  had  married  two  of  the  daughters  of  Cyrus, 
 thought  himself  concerned  to  do  every  thing  that  might 
 tend  to  the  honour  of  that  great  prince  ;  and  therefore 
 confirmed  the  decree  which  he  had  granted  to  the  Jews, 
 with  a  fresh  one  of  his  own,  wherein  he  gave  them  an 
 assignment  upon  his  revenues  in  several  provinces  for 
 whatever  money  they  wanted,  to  enable  them  to  go  on 
 with  the  work,  and  to  provide  them  sacrifices  for  the 
 sen  ice  of  the  temple,  that  the  priests,  in  their  daily 
 offices,  might  "  put  up  their  prayers  for  the  prosperity 
 of  the  king  and  the  royal  family  :  and  wherein  he  ordered, 
 that  the  man  should  be  hanged,  and  his  house  pulled 
 down  '  for  timber  to  make  him  a  gallows,  who  ever  should 
 pretend  to  put  any  let  or  obstruction  to  this  his  injunc- 
 tion. 
 
 Upon  the  publication  of  this  decree,  and  the  great 
 care  that  was  taken  to  have  it  fully  put  in  execution,  the 
 work  of  the  temple  went  on  so  very  successfully,  that,  in 
 the  sixth  year  of  Darius,  according  to  the  Jewish  ac- 
 count, and  on  the  third  day  of  the  twelfth  month,  (which 
 is  called  Adar,  and  answers  in  part  to  our  February  and 
 March,)  the  whole  of  it  was  finished,  and  its  dedication 
 celebrated  by  the  priests  and  Levites,  and  all  the  con- 
 gregation of  Israel,  with  great  joy  and  solemnity.     By 
 
 '  Prideaux's  Connection. 
 
 a  Though  the  Jews  were  not  allowed  to  desire  the  heathen  to 
 pray  to  their  deities  for  their  prosperity,  because  they  were  for- 
 biddi  n  to  acknowledge  any  other  God  hut  one:  yet  the  heathen, 
 if  they  thought  fit,  might  worship  their  God;  nor  did  the  Jews 
 deny  them  that  privilege,  or  refuse  the  offerings  which  they 
 brought  for  that  purpose,  until  in  the  time  of  their  wars  with 
 the  Romans,  the  faction  of  the  zealots  grew  to  be  predominant: 
 fur  then,  as  Josephus  tells  us,  (b.  ii.  c.  7.)  "  one  Eleazar,  the 
 son  of  Ananias  the  high  priest,  a  desperate  daring  young  man, 
 and  a  military  officer  then  in  command,  pressed  some  of  his 
 friends  among  the  priests  to  receive  no  oflering  or  sacrifice 
 but  from  the  Jews  only;  by  which  means  it  came  to  pass,  that 
 the  very  offerings  of  Caesar,  which  were  used  constantly  to  be 
 made  for  the  welfare  of  the  Roman  people,  came  to  be  rejected  • 
 and  this  proved  the  very  ground  and  foundation  of  the  war 
 with  that  nation.  The  high  priest,  however,  and  the  men  of 
 the  best  quality,  declared  themselves  extremely  dissatisfied 
 with  the  novelty  of  this  prohibition,  and  with  great  importuni- 
 ties, desired  the  continuance  of  so  pious  a  custom,  as  ofler- 
 ing up  prayers  for  princes  and  governors."  But  all  is  in  vain; 
 though  this  place  in  Ezra,  (chap.  vi.  10.)  one  would  think,  sets 
 the  duty  in  a  clear  light. — Le  Clerc's  Commentary  on  Ezra. 
 
 b  The  most  obvious  sense  of  the  words  in  the  text,  (chap.  vi.  11.) 
 seems  to  be  this;  but  Lud.  de  Dieu,  observes,  that,  in  the 
 words  which  we  there  lender  '  being  set  up,'  there  is  no  proper 
 construction;  ami  therefore  he  would  rather  have  them  trans- 
 lated, according  to  the  Septuagint,  •  And  standing,  let  him  be 
 beat  upon  it,'  that  is,  '  whipped,'  as  we  say,  '  at  a  post,'  for  that 
 was  a  punishment  among  the  Persians  and  other  nations.  But  if 
 a  greater  punishment  than  this  should  here  be  intended,  then  he 
 makes  the  first  words  refer  to  the  timber,  and  the  latter  to  the 
 man,  in  this  manner;  'and  from  above,  let  it  fall  upon  him,' 
 that  is,  the  stake  being  lifted  up,  shall  be  struck  into  his  body, 
 and  come  out  at  his  fundament,  which  was  a  cruel  punishment 
 among  the^  Eastern  people,  and  continues  still  in  use  to  this  day. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 the  next  month,  which  was  the  month  Nisan,  the  first  in 
 the  Jewish  year,  the  temple  was  made  fit  for  every  part 
 of  divine  service  ;  and,  therefore,  on  the  fourteenth  day 
 of  that  month,  the  passover  was  observed  in  it,  accord- 
 ing to  the  law  of  God,  and,  by  all  the  Jews  that  had  re- 
 turned from  the  captivity,  solemnized  with  great  joy  and 
 gladness  of  heart,  '  because  the  Lord  had  made  them 
 joyful,'  (as  it  is  expressed  in  the  book  of  Ezra,)  '  and 
 turned  the  heart  of  the  king  of  Assyria  c  unto  them,  to 
 strengthen  their  hands  in  the  house  of  God,  the  God  of 
 Israel.' 
 
 By  the  decree  of  Cyrus,  .which  was  thus  confirmed  by 
 that  of  Darius,  the  tribute  of  Samaria  had  been  assigned 
 for  the  reparation  of  the  temple  ;  but  now,  that  the  body 
 of  the  temple  was  finished,  (though  the  outworks  remained 
 still  untouched,)  the  Samaritans  pretended  that  the  end  of 
 this  assignment  was  ceased,  and  thereupon  refused  to 
 pay  the  tribute  any  longer.  But  the  Jews,  upon  send- 
 ing Zerubbabel  their  governor,  with  two  other  principal 
 men,  to  Shushan,  or  Susa,  which  was  then  the  residence 
 of  the  Persian  monarch,  in  order  to  complain  of  this 
 unjust  detention  of  the  royal  bounty,  met  with  a  proper 
 redress ;  and  returned  with  the  king's  order  d  to  his 
 officers  of  Samaria,  requiring-  them  to  take  an  effectual 
 care,  that,  pursuant  to  his  edict,  the  Samaritans  paid 
 their  tribute  to  the  temple,  and  gave  the  Jews  for  the 
 future  no  cause  to  complain  of  their  refusal  herein  : 
 which  put  a  full  end  to  all  contest  about  that  matter,  and 
 was  the  last  good  office  we  find  recorded  in  Scripture, 
 that  Darius  did  the  Jews.  For,  in  the  six  and  thirtieth 
 year  of  his  reign  e  he  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Xerxes, 
 
 c  Darius  is  called  '  the  king  of  Assyria,'  as  now  reigning  over 
 all  the  kingdoms  which  were  formerly  under  the  power  of  the 
 Assyrians  ;  and  from  hence  Archbishop  Usher  infers,  that 
 Babylon,  (which,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  had  revolted,) 
 must  necessarily  have  been  reduced  by  Darius  before  this  time, 
 otherwise  he  thinks  he  could  not  have  here  been  styled,  '  king  of 
 Assyria,'  whereof  Babylon  was  then  the  metropolis. — Patrick's 
 Commentary  ;  and  Prideaux's   Connection,  anno  515. 
 
 d  A  copy  of  the  king's  order,  or  the  letter  which  he  sent  back 
 by  the  Jewish  commissioners  to  the  officers  and  lieutenants  ot 
 the  province,  and  the  senate  of  Samaria,  Josephus  has  recorded 
 in  these  words. 
 
 "  King  Darius,  to  Tangar  and  Sambaba,  masters  of  our  horse 
 at  Samaria,  and  to  Shadrack,  Bobelon,  and  the  rest  of  their 
 fellow  subjects  there,  sendeth  greeting  : 
 
 "  Whereas  I  am  given  to  understand  by  Zerubbabel,  Ananias, 
 and  Mardocheus,  on  the  part  of  the  Jews,  that  you  stand  accused 
 of  interrupting  and  discouraging  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple, 
 and  of  refusing  to  bear  your  part  in  the  charge  of  the  sacrifices, 
 which,  by  my  order  and  command,  you  ought  to  have  done: 
 this  is  to  will  and  require  you,  upon  sight  of  this  letter,  forth- 
 with to  supply  them,  out  of  my  treasury  at  Samaria,  with  what- 
 soever they  shall  want  for  the  use  of  their  sacrifices  and  worship, 
 to  the  end  that  they  may  offer  up  daily  prayers  and  oblations, 
 both  for  myself  and  all  my  people." — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  4. 
 
 e  The  character  which  our  celebrated  connecter  of  the  Old 
 and  New  Testament  has  given  us  of  tliis  Darius,  is, — That  he 
 was  a  prince  of  great  wisdom,  clemency,  and  justice,  and  has  the 
 honour  to  be  recorded  in  holy  writ,  for  a  favourer  of  God's  people, 
 and  a  restorer  of  his  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  a  promoter  of  his 
 worship  therein.  For  all  this  God  was  pleased  to  make  him  his 
 instrument ;  and,  with  respect  to  this,  I  doubt  not,  it  was,  that 
 he  blessed  him  with  a  numerous  issue,  a  long  reign,  and  great 
 prosperity.  For,  though  he  was  not  so  very  fortunate  in  his  wars 
 against  the  Scythians  and  Greeks,  yet  every  where  else  he  had 
 full  success  in  all  his  undertakings,  and  not  only  restored  and 
 fully  settled  the  empire  of  Cyrus,  after  it  had  been  much  shaked 
 by  Cambyses,  and  the  Magian,  but  also  added  many  large  and 
 rich  provinces  to  it,  especially  those  of  India,  Thrace,  Macedon, 
 and  the  isles  of  the  Ionian  sea. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anuo  486. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 719 
 
 A.  M.  3175.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4036.  A.  C 
 
 the  a  eldest  of  his  sons  by  Atossa,  daughter  to  Cyrus, 
 the  great  founder  of  the  Persian  monarchy. 
 
 Xerxes,  !  according"  to  Josephus,  (for  we  have  but 
 little  account  of  him  in  the  sacred  records),  confirmed 
 to  the  Jews  all  the  privileges  that  his  lather  Darius  had 
 granted  them,  and  particularly  that  which  assigned  them 
 the  tribute  of  Samaria,  for  the  charge  of  the  sacrifices 
 that  were  to  be  offered  in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem.  It 
 is  of  him  that  the  words  of  the  prophet  Daniel  are 
 meant:  %  '  Behold,  there  shall  stand  up  yet  three  kings 
 in  Persia,'  which  were  Cyrus,  Cambyses,  and  Darius 
 Hystaspes, '  and  the  fourth  shall  be  far  richer  than  they 
 all ;  and,  by  his  strength  through  his  riches,  he  shall  stir 
 up  all  against  the  realm  of  Greece  ;'  for  the  story  is 
 well  known,  with  what*  a  prodigious  armament,  both  by 
 sea  and  land,  he  set  out  against  the  Greeks,  c  but  with 
 
 1  Jewish  Antiq.  b,  xi.  c.  5.  Where  we  have  a  copy  of  his 
 letter  to  his  governors  and  lieutenants  of  Syria,  but  too  long  to  be 
 inserted  here. 
 
 2  Dan.  xi.  2,  3. 
 
 a  Darius  had  three  sons  by  his  first  wife,   the   daughter   of 
 Gobrias,  all  born  before  his  advancement  to  the  throne,  and  four 
 Others  by  Atossa,  the  daughter  of  Cyrus,  who  were  all  born  after 
 it.     Of  the  former,  Artabasanes  was  the  eldest;  of   the  latter, 
 Xerxes :  and,  as  Darius  advanced  in  years,  between  these  two 
 was  the  competition  lor  the  succession.    Artabasanes  urged,  that, 
 as  he  was  the  eldest  son,  according  to  the  custom  and  usage  of 
 all  nations,  he  ought  to  be  preferred  before  any  that  was  younger. 
 But  Xerxes  replied  to  this,  that  he  was  the  sou  of  Darius  by 
 Atossa,  the  daughter  of  Cyrus,  who  was  the  first  founder  of  the 
 Persian  empire ;  for  which  reason  he  held  it  just  and  reasonable, 
 that  the  crown  of  Cyrus  should  rather  come  to  a  descendant  of 
 Cyrus,  than  to  one  that  was  not;  and  to  this  he  added,  that 
 though  Artabasanes  was  the  eldest  son  of  Darius,  yet  he  was  not 
 the  eldest  son  of  a  king;  that  he  was  born  when  he  was  only  a 
 private  person,  and  could  therefore  claim  no  more  than  to  be 
 heir  of  his  private  fortunes;  but  that,  as  to  himself,  he  was  the 
 first  born  after  his  father  was  king,  and  had  therefore  the  best 
 right  to  succeed  him  in  the  kingdom.    Whereupon  he  was  nomi- 
 nated to  the  succession,  but  not  so  much  for  the  strength  of  his 
 plea,  as  for  the  influence  which  his  mother  Atossa  had  over  the 
 inclinations  of  her  husband. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  4S0. 
 b  Alter  he  had  passed  over  the  Hellespont,   his  land-army, 
 ui)on  the  muster,  was  found  to  be  one  million  and  seven  hundred 
 thousand  foot,  and  fourscore  thousand  horse,  besides  his  chariots 
 and  camels,  for  which,  allowing  twenty  thousand  more,  the  whole 
 will  amount  to  one  million  and  eight  hundred  thousand  men. 
 Mis  fleet  consisted  of  twelve  hundred  and  twenty  ships  of  the 
 line  of  battle,  besides   galleys,  transports,  victuallers,  and  other 
 sorts  of  vessels  that  attended,  -which  were  three  thousand  more ; 
 and  on  board  of  all  these  were  reckoned  to  be  five  hundred  and 
 seventeen  thousand,  six  hundred  and  ten  men:  so  that  the  whole 
 number  of  forces  by  sea  and  land  which  Xerxes  brought  with 
 him  out  of  Asia  to  invade  Greece,  amounted  to  two  millions 
 three  hundred  and  seventeen  thousand  six  hundred  and  ten  men. 
 Alter  his  passing  the  Hellespont,  the  nations  on  the  other  side 
 that  submitted   to  him  added  to  his  land-army  three   hundred 
 thousand  men  more,  and  two  hundred  and  twenty  ships  to  his 
 fleet,  on  board  of  which  were  twenty-four  thousand  men ;  and 
 the  servants,  eunuchs,  women,  suttlers,  and  all  such  other  people 
 as  followed  the  camp,  were  computed  to  be  no  less  than  as  many 
 more..    So  that  the  whole  number  of  the  persons  of  all  sorts  that 
 followed  Xerxes  in  this  expedition  were  at  least  five  millions. 
 This  is  Herodotus's  account  of  that  armament:  and,  considering 
 that  he  is  the  most  ancient  author  that  has  written  of  this  war, 
 was  himself  alive  when  it  happened,  and  has  treated  of  it  with 
 greater  appearance  of  exactness  than  any  other,  there  is  reason 
 to  believe,  that  his  computation  is  the  truest. — Prideaux's  Con- 
 nection, anno  480. 
 
 c  For  having  lost  most  of  the  forces  which  he  left  behind 
 him  at  the  battle  of  Platica,  and  a  great  many  of  his  ships  at  the 
 light  in  the  straits  of  Salamis,  and  being  frightened  with  an  appre- 
 ln  neion,  lest  the  conqueror  should  sail  to  the  Hellespont,  and 
 there  obstruct  his  return,  he  fled  thither  with  all  the  haste  and 
 
 EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAI, 
 
 what  foul  disgrace  he  returned  home  from  the  inglorious 
 expedition,  when,  falling  into  contempt  with  his  own 
 subjects,  not  a  long  while  after,  he  was  murdered  by  the 
 captain  of  his  guard,  and  succeeded  by  his  son  d  Arta- 
 xerxes  Longimanus,  whom  the  Scripture  calls  Ahasuerus, 
 and  was  the  same  e  who  had  the  beautiful  Hebrew  Esther 
 for  his  queen. 
 
 Upon  /some  occasion  or  other,  Ahasuerus  appointed  a 
 
 precipitation  that  he  could ;  but,  at  his  coming  thither,  finding 
 the  bridge  of  boats  which  he  had  left  there  broken  by  storms,  he, 
 who  had  passed  over  that  sea  but  a  few  months  before  with  such 
 pomp  and  pride,  was  forced  to  repass  in  a  poor  fisher-boat,  a 
 piece  of  history  this  which  Juvenal  has  not  badly  represented  in 
 thesewords:  "But  how  did  he  return  after  his  flight  from  Salamis? 
 he  that  used  to  lash  the  north,  west,  and  east  winds  with  stripes — . 
 barbarian  that  he  was!  they  never  endured  such  treatment  in  the 
 iEolian  prison.  But  how  did  he  return?  forsooth  in  a  single 
 bark,  over  blood-coloured  waves,  and  the  vessel  retarded  by  the 
 closely-huddled  dead  bodies." — Sat.  10. 
 
 d  This  prince,  to  distinguish  him  from  others  of  that  name, 
 was  called  Maxf>o%iig,  or  Longimanus,  upon  the  supposed  length 
 of  his  hands,  with  which  it  is  said  that  he  could  have  touched  his 
 knees,  even  when  he  stood  upright;  but  this  notwithstanding,  it 
 is  reported  of  him,  that  he  was  both  the  handsomest  person  of 
 the  age  in  which  he  lived,  and  a  prince  likewise  of  a  very  mild 
 and  generous  disposition. — Prideaux 's  Connection,  anno  465. 
 
 e  Our  learned  Usher  is  of  opinion,  that  Darius  Hystaspes  was 
 the  king  Ahasuerus  who  married  Esther,  namely,  that  Atossa  was 
 the  Vashti,  and  Artystona  the  Esther  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
 But  Herodotus  positively  tells  us,  that  Artystona  was  the  daugh- 
 ter of  Cyrus,  and  therefore  could  not  be  Esther;  and  that  Atossa 
 had  four  sons  by  Darius,  besides  daughters,  all  born  to  him  after 
 he  was  king;  and  therefore  she  could  not  be  that   queen  Vashti 
 who  w:as  divorced  from  the  king  her  husband  in  the  third  year 
 of  nis  reign,  (Esther  i.  3);  nor  he  that  Ahasuerus  that  divorced 
 her.     Joseph  Scaliger  is  likewise  of  opinion,  that  Xerxes  was 
 the  Ahasuerus,  and  Hamestris  his  queen  the  Esther  of  the  Holy 
 Scriptures.     But  whatever  seeming  similitude  there  may  be  in 
 the  names  (and  this  is  the  whole  foundation  of  his  conjecture),  it 
 is  plain  from  Herodotus,  that  Xerxes  had  a  son  by  Hamestris, 
 who  was  marriageable  in  the  seventh  year  of  his   reign ;  and 
 therefore  it  is  impossible  that  he  should  be  Esther's,  because 
 Esther  was  not  married  to  Ahasuerus  until  the  seventh  year  of 
 his   reign,  (Esther  ii.  16) ;  and,  considering  that  the  choice  of 
 virgins  was  made  for  him  in  the  fourth  of  his  reign,  and  a  whole 
 year  employed  in  their  purifications,  the  soonest  that  she  could 
 have  a  son  by  him,  mnst  be  in  the  sixth ;  and  therefore  we  may 
 conclude  (with   Josephus,  the  Septuagint,    and  the  Apocryphal 
 additions  to  the  book  of  Esther),  that  the  Ahasuerus  in  Scripture 
 was  Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  and  Esther  an  Hebrew  virgin,  as 
 she  is  all  along  represented.— Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  465. 
 f  The  occasion  of  this  great  festival  is,  very  likely,  intimated 
 to  us  in  the  phrase,   '  When   the  king  Ahasuerus  sat  on  the 
 throne  of  his  kingdom,'  (chap.  i.  2,)  that  is,  enjoying  peace  and 
 tranquillity  through  his  large  dominions;  for  the  history  of  his 
 accession  to  the  throne  is  this: — Xerxes,  his  father,  was  priv-  ' 
 ately  murdered  by  Artabanus,  captain  of  his  guard.      He  coming 
 to  him  (who  was  then  but  the  third  son),  made  him  believe  that 
 Darius,  his  eldest  brother,  had  done  it,  to  make  his  way  to  the 
 throne,  and  had  a  design  likewise  to  cut  him  off,  to  secure  him- 
 self in  it.     This  Ahasuerus  believing,  went  immediately  to  his 
 brother's  apartment,  and,  by  the  assistance  of  the  wicked  Arta- 
 banus and  his  guards,  slew  him,  thinking  all  the  while  that  he 
 acted  but  in  his  own  defence.     Artabauus's  drift  was  to  seize  on 
 the  throne  himself ;  but  for  the  present,  he  took  Ahasuerus,  and 
 placed  him  thereon,  with  a  design  to  pull  him  down  as  soon  as 
 matters   were   ripe  for  his  own  ascent  :  but  when    Ahasuerus 
 understood    this    from  Magabyzus,    who    had    married    one    of 
 his  sisters,  he  took  care  to  counterplot  Artabanus,  and  to  cut  him 
 and  his  whole  party  oil'  before  his  treason  was  come  to  maturity ; 
 and  for  this,  and  some  other  successes  against  his  brother  Hystas- 
 pes, which  settled  him  in   a  peaceable  possession  of  the  whole 
 Persian  empire,  very  probably  it  was,  that  a  festival  season  of 
 above  an  hundred  and  fourscore  days'  continuance  was  appointed, 
 which  even  to  this  day,  according  to  some  travellers,  is  no  un- 
 common thing  in  those  parts  of  the  world. — Prideaux's  Connec- 
 tion, anno  405;  and  Patrick's   Commentary  on  Esther,  chap.  i. 
 
720 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  620;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4920\ 
 
 solemn  rejoicing  in  the  city  of  Shushan,  a  which  lasted 
 for  an  hundred  and  eighty  days  ;  and  in  conclusion 
 thereof,  for  seven  days  successively  he  made  a  great 
 feast  for  all  the  princes  and  governors  of  his  provinces  ; 
 as  the  queen  Vashti,  *  in  her  apartment,  did  for  the  ladies 
 of  the  best  distinction.  In  the  last  day  of  this  feast, 
 the  king,  either  out  of  a  frolic,  or  fondness  to  his  queen, 
 sent  seven  of  his  chamberlains  to  conduct  her  into  his 
 presence,  that  he  might  show  her  to  the  company,  for 
 she  was  extremely  beautiful ;  and  ordered,  at  the  same 
 time,  that  she  should  come  with  the  crown  on  her  head.  c 
 This  was  an  order  so  contrary  to  the  usage  of  the 
 Persians,  and  so  little  becoming  her  dignity  and  high 
 station  in  life,  that  rather  than  be  made  a  public  specta- 
 cle, she  adventured  to  disobey  the  king's  command ; 
 
 i.  A.  C.  485.  EZRA  \v.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 a  Cyrus,  and  the  rest  of  the  Persian  kings,  after  the  conquest 
 of  the  Medes,  whose  country  lay  remote,  settled  their  royal 
 seat  at  Shushan,  that  they  might  not  be  too  far  from  Babylon, 
 and  made  it  the  capital  of  Persia.  It  stood  upon  the  river  Ulai, 
 and  was  a  place  of  such  renown,  that  Strabo  calls  it  n«X/v 
 a^icXoyoTarhv,  a  city  most  worthy  to  be  praised.  The  whole 
 country  about  it  was  wonderfully  fruitful,  producing  an  hundred, 
 and  sometimes  two  hundred  fold,  as  the  same  author  informs  us, 
 (b.  xv.)  Pliny  indeed  supposes  that  Darius  Hyst.aspes  was  the 
 first  founder  of  it,  but  he  only  enlarged  and  beautified  it  with  a 
 most  magnificent  palace,  which  Aristotle  (in  his  book  de  Mundu) 
 calls  "  a  wonderful  royal  palace,  shining  with  gold,  amber,  and 
 ivory. "  Nor  is  it  altogether  foreign  to  this  purpose,  what  our 
 learned  Lightfoot  {de  Templo,  chap.  3,)  tells  us,  namely,  that  the 
 outward  gate  of  the  eastern  wall  of  the  temple,  was  called  "  the 
 gate  of  Shushan,"  and  had  the  figure  of  that  city  carved  on  it,  in 
 acknowledgment  of  the  decree  which  this  Darius  granted  in  that 
 place,  in  order  to  permit  and  encourage  the  Jews  to  rebuild 
 their  temple  at  Jerusalem. — Patrick's  Commentary  on  Esther, 
 chap,  i.,  and  Culinets  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Shushan. 
 
 b  It  has  been  a  great  inquiry  among  the  learned,  who  this 
 Vashti  was.  Those  who  make  the  Ahasuerus  in  Scripture  to 
 be  Darius  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  suppose  that  she  was  Atossa  the 
 daughter  of  Cyrus,  who  was  first  married  to  Cambyses,  her  own 
 brother,  then  to  the  Magian,  who  would  have  passed  for  Smei  dis, 
 and  last  of  all  to  Darius.  Others  suppose,  that  she  was  Aha- 
 Buerus's  own  sister,  because  the  Persians,  in  those  days,  made  no 
 scruple  of  these  kinds  of  marriages;  though  there  is  much  more 
 reason  to  think,  that  before  her  marriage,  there  had  been  such  a 
 collection  of  virgins  made  for  the  use  of  the  king,  as  was  before 
 Esther's,  (this  is  implied  in  chap.  ii.  19,)  and  that  having  the 
 good  fortune  then  of  obtaining  the  preference  in  the  kind's 
 esteem,  she  was  created  queen;  but  being,  perhaps,  a  woman  of 
 no  high  descent,  her  family  extraction,  for  that  reason,  might  be 
 concealed. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  name. 
 
 c  It  would  appear  that  the  general  usage  which  obtained 
 among  the  Persians,  of  keeping  the  females  of  the  harem  strictly 
 secluded,  was  on  particular  occasions  dispensed  with ;  for  Hero- 
 dotus (b.  v.  c.  18,)  relates  a  story  of  seven  Persians  of  rank,  who 
 were  sent  by  Megabyzus  a  Persian  general,  on  a  mission  to 
 Amyntas,  a  Grecian  province.  This  province  received  them 
 hospitably,  and  gave  them  a  splendid  entertainment.  When 
 after  the  entertainment,  they  began  to  drink,  one  of  the  Persians 
 thus  addressed  Amyntas :  "  Priuce  of  Macedonia,  it  is  a  custom 
 with  us  Persians,  whenever  we  have  a  public  entertainment,  to 
 introduce  our  concubines  and  young  wives.  Since,  therefore, 
 you  have  received  us  kindly,  and  with  the  rites  of  hospitality, 
 imitate  the  custom  we  have  mentioned."  Their  request  was 
 complied  with,  and  the  consequence  was,  what  no  doubt  queen 
 Vashti  had  reason  to  expect  in  her  own  case,  namely,  that  when 
 the  Persians  were  warmed  with  wine,  they  began  to  behave  in- 
 decorously towards  the  females.  However  improperly  Ahasue- 
 rus may  have  acted  in  commanding  his  queen  to  be  brought  into 
 the  public  assembly,  he  would  appear  to  have  done  nothing  con- 
 trary to  general  usage  on  such  occasions;  but  we  cannot  help 
 admiring  the  high  sense  of  honour,  if  not  virtue  and  modesty, 
 which  queen  Vashti  exhibited,  in  refusing  to  expose  herself  to 
 the  indecent  treatment  and  inflamed  passions  of  a  group  of 
 drunken  Bacchanalians. — En. 
 
 which  (l  incensed  him  to  such  a  degree,  that,  e  advising 
 with  his  counsellors  in  what  manner  he  was  to  punish 
 her  for  this  public  affront,  he  came  to  this  resolution, 
 (which  was  afterwards  passed  into  an  irreversible  decree,) 
 that,  for  fear  that  Vashti's  ill  example  should  encourage 
 other  women  to  contemn  and  disobey  their  husbands, 
 she  should  be  deposed  from  her  royal  dignity,  and  an 
 order  be  issued  out,  for  the  making  a  collection  of  the 
 fairest  virgins,  in  every  province  through  the  whole 
 empire,  that,  out  of  them,  one  might  be  chosen  whom 
 the  king  should  like  best  to  be  queen  in  the  room  of  the 
 divorced  Vashti. 
 
 At  this  time  there  lived  at  Shushan  a  certain  Jew  of 
 the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  named  Mordecai,  a  descendant 
 of  those  who  had  been  carried  captive  to  Babylon  with 
 Jehoiachim  king  of  Judah,  and,  by  his  attendance  at 
 1  the  king's  gate,  seems  to  have  been  one  of  /  the  por- 
 ters of  the  royal  palace.  He,  having  no  children  of  his 
 own,  bred  up  Hadassah,  S  his  uncle's  daughter,  who, 
 being  a  very  beautiful  young  woman,  among  other  vir- 
 gins, was  made  choice  of  upon  this  occasion.  As  soon 
 as  she  ll  was  carried  to  court,  she  was  committed  to  the 
 
 1  Esther  ii.  19. 
 
 d  The  expression  in  th<;  text  is,  '  that  the  king  was  very 
 wroth,  and  his  anger  burned  in  him,'  (Esther  i.  12.)  It  was 
 more  immoderate,  because  his  blood  was  heated  with  wine,  which 
 made  his  passion  too  strong  for  his  reason ;  otherwise  he  would 
 not  have  thought  it  decent  for  the  queen,  nor  safe  for  him- 
 self, to  have  her  beauty,  which  was  very  great,  exposed  in  this 
 unusual  manner;  especially  if  there  be  any  thing  in  what  the 
 Jewish  Targum  seems  to  suggest,  namely,  that  he  commanded 
 her  to  be  brought  quite  naked,  that  her  comely  proportion  might  be 
 seen  as  well  as  her  face. — Patrick's  Commentary  on  Esther,  ch.  i. 
 
 e  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  '  the  wise  men  who 
 knew  the  times,'  (chap.  i.  13.)  and  from  hence  some  have 
 observed,  that  as  the  Persian  kings  did  nothing  without  their 
 magi,  who  were  great  pretenders  to  astrology,  men  of  this  sort 
 were  called  to  know  whether  it  was  a  proper  time  to  set  about 
 the  thing  which  the  king  might  then  have  in  ins  mind.  For 
 such  was  the  superstition  of  the  eastern  people,  that,  as  the 
 satirist  remarks,  "  whatever  came  from  the  mouth  of  the  astrolo- 
 ger, they  supposed  it  to  issue  from  the  fountain  of  Ammon." 
 (Juv.  Sat.  6.)  The  explication,  however,  which  Vitringa  gives 
 us  of  the  original  words,  Jodehe  habitim,  is  far  from  being  im- 
 proper, namely,  that  they  were  men  well  versed  in  ancient  his- 
 tories, and  in  the  laws  and  customs  of  their  country ;  and  were 
 therefore  able  to  give  the  king  counsel  in  all  extraordinary  and 
 perplexed  cases,  as  this  certainly  was. — Patrick's  and  JLe  Clerc's 
 Commentaries  on  Esther  i. 
 
 f  But  perhaps  he  might  have  been  an  officer  of  a  higher 
 rank,  because  it  was  an  order  instituted  by  Cyrus,  as  Xenophon, 
 in  his  Cyropcsd.  (b.  viii.)  informs  us,  that  all  persons  whatever, 
 who  had  any  employment  at  court,  should  attend  at  the  palace 
 gate,  where  there  was,  doubtless,  a  proper  waiting  room  for 
 their  reception,  that  they  might  be  in  readiness,  whenever  they 
 were  wanted  or  called  for ;  and  that  this  custom  was  afterwards 
 continued,  we  may  learn  from  Herodotus,  (b.  iii.  c.  120.) — Le 
 Clerc's  Commentaries  on  Esther,  ch.  ii. 
 
 y  This  woman  was  born  in  Babylon,  and  therefore,  in  analogy 
 to  that  language,  they  gave  her  the  name  of  Hadassah,  which, 
 in  Chaldee,  signifies  a  myrtle;  but  her  Persian  name  was  Esther, 
 which  some,  a  little  incongruously,  derive  from  curing,  a  star, 
 and  others  from  satar,  which  signifies  hidden,  because  she  was 
 concealed  in  Mordecai's  house ;  or  rather,  because  her  nation 
 was  concealed,  and  she  not  known,  until  Mordecai's  merit  and 
 services  to  the  crown  came  to  be  rewarded. — Patrick's  Comment. 
 
 h  The  harems  in  the  east  were  guarded  with  extreme  vigilance. 
 Chardin  (Trav.  p.  332,)  informs  us,  that  it  is  a  crime  for  any 
 person  whatever  to  be  inquiring  what  passes  within  those  walls; 
 that  it  is  very  difficult  to  be  informed  of  the  transactions  in  those 
 habitations ;  and  that  a  man  may  walk  a  hundred  days,  one  after 
 another,  by  the  house  where  the  women  are,  and  yet  know  no 
 more  what  is  done  therein  than  at  the  farther  eud  of  Tartary 
 
Skct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 121 
 
 This  sufficiently  explains  the  reason  of  Mordecai's  conduct. — 
 Ed. 
 
 a  The  reason  is  assigned  in  the  following  verse  for  their  being 
 kept  so  long  in  this  course,  namely,  that  for  six  months  they 
 might  be  anointed  with  the  oil  of  myrrh,  which,  besides  the  fra- 
 grancy  of  its  smell,  was  good  to  make  the  skin  soft  and  smooth, 
 and  clean  it  from  all  manner  of  scurf:  and  for  six  more  with 
 sweet  odours,  which,  in  these  hot  countries,  were  necessary  to 
 take  away  all  ill  scents,  and,  as  some  think,  to  make  the  body 
 more  vigorous.  But  besides  this,  there  might  be  something  of 
 state  in  making  those  vassals  (for  such  they  were  counted)  wait, 
 before  they  were  admitted  to  the  honour  of  the  king's  bed;  and 
 something  of  precaution  too,  in  keeping  them  seeluse  for  so  long 
 a  time,  that  the  king  might  be  satisfied  that  he  was  not  imposed 
 upon  by  a  child  begotten  by  any  other  man. — Patrick's  Com- 
 mentary, and  Poole's  Annotations  on  Esther  ii.  12. 
 
 b  According  to  this  account  of  things,  this  Persian  monarch 
 seems  to  have  had  but  one  wife,  at  least  but  one  in  chief  favour 
 and  esteem  with  him,  though  it  is  certain  he  could  not  fail  of 
 having  an  infinite  number  of  secondary  wives  or  concubines. 
 This  was  the  name  of  every  one  that  was  taken  from  among  the 
 virgins,  who  had  a  separate  house  for  themselves,  and  conducted 
 to  the  king's  bed;  where  having  passed  a  night,  she  returned  no 
 more  to  the  virgins'  apartments,  but  was,  the  next  morning,  re- 
 ceived into  the  house  of  the  concubines,  and  there  treated  in  the 
 state  and  port  of  one  of  the  king's  wives;  for  such  they  were  ac- 
 counted. No  man  was  permitted  to  marry  them,  as  long  as  the 
 king  lived;  and  upon  his  demise,  they  generally  fell  to  his  suc- 
 cessor. Of  these  Darius  Nothus  is  reckoned  to  have  had  no 
 less  than  360. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  manner  of  the  Persian  king  was,  to  give  his  queens,  at 
 their  marriage,  such  a  city  to  buy  them  clothes;  another  for  their 
 hair,  another  for  their  necklaces;  and  so  on  for  the  rest  of  their 
 expenses.  And  as  it  was  customary  for  him,  according  to  the 
 testimony  of  Herodotus,  upon  his  accession  to  the  throne,  to  remit 
 the  tribute  that  was  due  to  him  from  all  the  cities;  so  he  misjht 
 upon  this  occasion,  out  of  his  abundant  joy,  make  a  release  to  the 
 provinces,  and  forgive  them  some  of  the  duties  and  imposts  that 
 they  were  bound  to  pay  him. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 A.  M.  .'51T5.  A.  C.  5-29;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947.  A. 
 
 care  of  an  eunuch,  who  was  to  have  the  custody  of  these 
 virgins,  and  by  her  sweet  and  engaging  behaviour,  made 
 herself  so  acceptable  to  him,  that  he  ttssigned  her  the 
 best  apartment  in  the  house  appointed  for  their  habita- 
 tion, and  gave  her  a  preference  in  other  matters  before 
 all  the  rest  of  the  virgins. 
 
 It  was  the  custom,  at  this  time,  that  every  virgin  thus 
 taken  into  the  palace  for  the  king's  use,  was  to  go 
 through  a  a  course  of  purification,  by  sweet  oils  and 
 perfumes,  for  a  whole  year ;  which,  when  Hadassah  had 
 done,  and  so  prepared  herself  for  the  king's  bed,  the 
 king  was  so  highly  delighted  with  her,  that  intending  to 
 make  her  b  more  than  a  concubine,  he  continued  her  in 
 his  own  palace,  and  in  a  short  time  set  the  royal  diadem 
 upon  her  head,  and  made  her  queen  in  the  room  of 
 Vashti.  The  nuptials  were  celebrated  with  great  magni- 
 ficence. A  splendid  entertainment  was  made,  which,  in 
 honour  to  the  new  queen,  was  called  '  Esther's  feast,' 
 for  that  was  the  Persian  name  which  had  lately  been  given 
 her,  and  the  king,  upon  this  joyful  occasion,  not  only  gave 
 e  rich  presents  to  the  queen,  and  largesses  to  the  guests, 
 but  granted  pardons  likewise  to  his  subjects,  and  a  relax- 
 ation of  tribute  for  some  time  to  all  the  provinces  of  his 
 dominions. 
 
 At  Esther's  first  going  to  court,  Mordecai  had  given 
 her  a  strict  caution,  not  to  discover  that  she  was  a  Jew- 
 ess, lest  the  king  should  despise  her  for  being  a  captive, 
 which  she  carefully  observed  ;  and  he  for  the  same  rea- 
 son concealed  his  relation  to  her,  contenting  himself  with 
 the  little  employment  he  had  at  court,  until  a  more 
 favourable  opportunity  should  present  itself.  In  the 
 mean  time,  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  discover  a  con- 
 
 C.  4G1.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEII.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.   MAL. 
 
 spiracy,  which  d  two  of  the  king's  chamberlains  were 
 forming  against  his  life-  This  he  communicated  to  the 
 queen,  and  the  queen  acquainted  the  king  with  it  in  Mor- 
 decai's name,  so  that  the  conspirators  were  seized,  con- 
 victed, and  executed  :  but  though  the  whole  affair  was 
 recorded  in  the  Persian  annals,  yet  Mordecai,  for  the 
 present,  was  no  more  thought  on,  until  his  merit  and  great 
 services  came  to  be  remembered  upon  this  occasion. 
 
 Hainan,  an  Amalekite,  of  the  posterity  of  Agag,  king 
 of  Amalek,  in  the  time  of  Saul,  was  become  the  king's 
 chief  favourite,  and  all  the  servants  at  court  were  order- 
 ed to  show  him  great  respect  and  reverence  ;  which  every 
 one  readily  did,  except  Mordecai,  who,  upon  his  pass- 
 ing to  and  fro,  took  no  manner  of  notice  of  him.  e  This 
 so  exasperated  the  proud  Amalekite,  that  being  inform- 
 ed that  Mordecai  was  a  Jew,  he  was  resolved,  in  revenge 
 of  the  affront,  not  to  destroy  him  only,  but  his  whole  na- 
 tion with  him  :  but  because  there  might  be  some  danger 
 in  so  bold  an  undertaking,  he  called  together  his  divin- 
 ers, to  find  out  what  day  would  be  most  lucky  for  putting 
 his  design  in  execution. 
 
 The  way  of  divination  then  in  use  among  the  eastern 
 people,  was  by  casting  lots,  and  therefore,  having  tried 
 in  this  manner,  first  each  month,  and  then  each  day  in 
 every  month,  they  came  at  last  to  a  determination,  that 
 the  /  thirteenth  day  of  the  twelfth  month,  which  is  called 
 
 d  These  were  two  great  men  who  perhaps  kept  the  door  of  the 
 king's  bedchamber,  and  being  either  incensed  at  the  divorce  of 
 Vashti,  whose  creatures  they  were,  or  at  the  advancement  of 
 Esther,  who,  in  all  probability,  would  raise  her  kinsman  Morde- 
 cai to  a  superiority  over  them,  took  disgust  thereat,  and  so  re- 
 solved to  revenge  themselves  on  the  king  for  it Prideaux's 
 
 Connection,  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Josephus  tells  us,  that  Haman  taking  notice  of  this  singular- 
 ity in  Mordecai,  asked  him,  what  countryman  he  was  ?  And 
 finding  him  to  be  a  Jew,  broke  out  into  a  violent  exclamation 
 at  the  insolence  of  such  a  scoundrel,  that  when  all  the  natives  of 
 the  freeborn  Persians  made  no  difficulty  in  doing  him  that  ho- 
 nour, this  slave  of  a  Jew  should  presume  to  affront  him;  and  in 
 this  rage  he  took  up  a  desperate  resolution,  not  only  to  be  re- 
 venged of  Mordecai,  but  to  destroy  the  whole  race  of  Jews  like- 
 wise: well  remembering,  that  his  ancestors,  the  Amalekites,  had 
 been  formerly  beaten  out  of  their  land,  and  utterly  exterminated 
 by  the  Jews. — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  6.  [That  a  man  of  Morde- 
 cai's character  should  neglect  or  obstinately  refuse  to  give  to  any 
 person  in  authority  the  usual  marks  of  civil  respect,  cannot  be 
 supposed ;  and  therefore  we  must  consider  that  the  homage 
 which  Haman  received  from  the  venial  crowd  that  hung  about 
 the  palace,  was  something  more  than  this,  probably  that  prostra- 
 tion of  body  which  the  Persians  were  accustomed  to  give  as  the 
 profoundest  act  of  submission,  and  which  was  nothing  else  than 
 a  species  of  worship — an  act  of  homage  which  even  the  ancient 
 Greeks  refused  to  render,  and  which  it  would  have  been  the  greatest 
 impiety  in  Mordecai,  to  render  to  any  mortal  man,  however  ex- 
 alted his  character  and  situation.  Into  his  religious  scruples,  the 
 ambitious  favourite  did  not,  nor  could  not  enter,  and  determined 
 at  all  hazards  to  rid  himself  of  one  who  was  likely  to  prove  an 
 obstacle  in  his  way  to  universal  power,  he  had  formed  the  pur- 
 pose of  taking  the  life  of  the  obnoxious  Jew.] — Jamicson's  Eastern 
 Manners,  pp.  346,  347. — Ed. 
 
 /It  was  in  the  first  month  in  the  year,  when  Haman  began 
 to  cast  lots,  and  the  time  for  the  execution  of  the  Jews  was,  by 
 these  lots,  delayed  until  the  last  month  in  the  year;  which  plainly 
 shows,  '  That  though  the  lot  he  cast  into  the  lap,  yet  the  wholo 
 disposing  thereof  is  from  the  Lord,'  (Prov.  xvi.  33.)  For  here- 
 by almost  a  whole  year  intervened  between  the  design  and  its 
 execution,  which  gave  time  for  Mordecai  to  acquaint  queen  Es- 
 ther with  it,  and  for  her  to  intercede  with  the  king  for  revoking 
 or  suspending  the  decree,  and  thereby  disappointing  the  conspi- 
 racy :  for  we  can  hardly  think,  what  Le  Clerc  suggests,  that 
 Haman  gave  the  Jews  all  this  time,  that  they  might  make  their 
 escape  out  of  the  kingdom,  and  not  stay  to  be  slain,  which  possi« 
 4  Y 
 
722 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  .W5.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  4917.  A 
 
 Adar,  would  be  most  fortunate  for  his  design.  Where- 
 upon he  went  to  the  king,  and  having  insinuated  to  him, 
 "  That  there  were  a  certain  people  dispersed  all  over 
 his  empire,  who  called  themselves  Jews,  and  who,  hav- 
 ing laws  and  ordinances  of  their  own,  despised  all  his 
 edicts  and  injunctions ;  that  their  principles,  in  short, 
 tended  to  the  disturbance  of  the  good  order  of  his  go- 
 vernment, and  the  breach  of  all  uniformity;  that,  upon 
 these  accounts,  it  was  not  consistent  with  the  rules  of 
 policy  to  allow  them  any  farther  toleration  ;  and  therefore 
 he  proposed  they  should  be  destroyed,  and  extirpated  all 
 out  of  the  empire  of  Persia;  and  lest  the  loss  of  so  many 
 subjects  should  be  thought  a  diminution  of  the  king's  re- 
 venue, he  proposed  to  make  up  the  defect  out  of  his  own 
 private  fortune."  The  king  was  easy  enough  to  be 
 wrought  upon  by  this  court-minion  ;  who,  having  obtained 
 his  royal  consent,  a  ordered  the  secretaries  of  state  b  to 
 form  a  decree  pursuant  hereunto,  which  when  it  was 
 
 hly  might  1  ring  an  odium  upon  himself,  when  it  came  to  be  known 
 by  whose  instigation  this  massacre  was  committed. — Patrick's 
 and  Calmet's  Commentaries. 
 
 a  In  the  text  it  is  said,  (chap.  iii.  10,)  '  And  the  king  took  his 
 ring  from  his  hand  and  gave  it  unto  Hainan.'  This  he  did  both 
 as  a  token  of  affection  and  honour.  With  the  Persians,  for  a 
 King  to  give  a  ring  to  any  one  was  a  token  and  bond  of  the  great- 
 est love  iind  friendship  imaginable.  {Alex,  ah  Alex.  Genial.  Dier. 
 b.  i.  c.  26.)  "  Mirza  Sheffeea  entertained  us  with  a  breakfast 
 more  elegant  than  any  of  the  similar  meals  to  which  we  had  been 
 invited.  Just  before  we  were  rising  to  depart,  the  minister, 
 after  having  talked  much  on  the  hopes  which  he  cherished,  that 
 the  friendship  of  the  two  nations  would  long  subsist,  pulled  a 
 diamond  ling  from  off  his  own  finger,  and  placed  it  on  the  en- 
 voy's, saying,  '  And,  that  I  may  not  be  thought  to  be  insincere 
 in  my  professions,  let  me  beg  of  you  to  accept  this  as  a  pledge 
 of  my  friendship  for  you;  and  intreat  you  to  wear  it  for  my  sake.' 
 This  gift,  unlike  the  generosity  of  Persian  presents,  was  really 
 handsome;  it  was  a  beautiful  stone,  perfect  in  all  its  parts." — 
 (Mmer'g  Journey  through  Persia,  p.  149.)  It  may  be  this 
 was  given  to  Hainan,  to  seal  with  it  the  letters  that  were  or  should 
 he  written,  giving  orders  for  the  destruction  of  the  Jews. 
 Among  the  Romans  in  aftertimes,  when  anyone  was  put  into  the 
 equestrian  order,  a  ring  was  given  to  him,  for  originally  none  but 
 knights  were  allowed  to  wear  them.  It  was  sometimes  used  in 
 appointing  a  successor  in  the  kingdom:  as  when  Alexander  was 
 tlying,  he  took  his  ring  from  oil'  his  finger,  and  gave  it  to  Per- 
 diccas,  by  which  it  was  understood  that  he  was  to  succeed  him. — 
 S,*c  Mace.  vi.  14,  15 — Ed. 
 
 b  The  decree  itself,  according  to  Josephus,  was  to  this  effect: 
 — "  The  great  king  Artaxerxes,  to  the  hundred  and  seven  and 
 twenty  governors  of  the  provinces,  between  India  and  Ethiopia, 
 greeting.  Whereas  it  hath  pleased  God  to  give  me  the  command 
 of  so  many  nations,  and  a  dominion  over  the  rest  of  the  world, 
 as  large  as  I  myself  desire,  I  being  resolved  to  do  nothing  that 
 may  be  tyrannical,  or  grievous  towards  my  people,  and  to  bear 
 a  gentle  and  easy  hand  over  them,  with  an  eye  more  especially 
 to  the  preservation  of  their  peace  and  liberties,  and  to  settle 
 them  in  a  state  of  tranquillity  and  happiness,  not  to  be  shaken. 
 All  this  I  have  taken  into  mature  deliberation;  and  being  given 
 to  Understand  by  my  trusty  and  well  beloved  friend  and  counsellor, 
 Hainan,  a  person  of  a  tried  faith,  prudence,  and  justice,  and  whom 
 I  esteem  above  all  others,  that  there  is  a  mixture  of  a  sort  of  inhu- 
 man people  among  my  subjects,  that  take  upon  them  to  govern 
 by  their  own  laws,  and  to  prescribe  ways  to  themselves,  in  con- 
 tempt of  public  order  and  government;  men  depraved  both  in 
 their  customs  and  in  their  manners,  and  enemies  not  only  to 
 monarchy,  but  to  the  methods  of  our  royal  administration.  This 
 is  therefore  to  will  and  require,  that  upon  notice  given  you  by 
 Haman  (who  is  to  me  as  a  father)  of  the  persons  intended  by  this 
 my  proclamation,  you  put  all  the  said  persons,  men,  women, 
 and  children,  to  the  sword,  without  any  commiseration  or  favour, 
 in  a  strict  pursuance  of  my  decree.  And  it  is  my  further  eom- 
 m:md,  that  you  put  this  in  execution  \ipon  the  thirteenth  day  of 
 the  twelfth  month  of  the  present  year,  to  make  but  one  day's 
 work  of  the  destruction  of  all  mine  and  your  enemies,  in  order 
 
 .  C.  4C4.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NE1I.  part  or  HAG.  ZECH.  RIAL. 
 
 was  signed,  he  sent  c  by  posts  to  all  lieutenants,  and 
 governors  of  provinces,  with  strict  charge  to  destroy, 
 and  cause  to  be  killed,  all  the  Jews,  of  whatever  sex 
 or  condition,  both  young  and  old,  that  were  any  where 
 within  their  jurisdiction,  on  the  thirteenth  of  Adar  fol- 
 lowing. 
 
 The  publication  of  this  horrid  decree  occasioned  an 
 universal  grief  and  lamentation,  wherever  the  Jews 
 inhabited  ;  and  in  the  city  of  d  Shushan,  which  was  not 
 well  pleased  with  it,  Mordecai  in  particular  having  put 
 on  sackcloth,  and  covered  his  head  with  ashes,  went 
 along  the  streets,  e  bemoaning  his  and  his  countrymen's 
 
 to  a  future  peace  and  security  of  all  our  lives  after." — Jewish 
 Antiq.  b.  11,  c.  6. 
 
 c  The  fust  institution  of  posts  is  generally  ascribed  to  the 
 Persians;  for  the  kings  of  Persia,  as  Diodorus  Siculus,  (b.  xix.) 
 observes,  that  they  might  have  intelligence  of  what  passed  in 
 all  the  provinces  of  their  vast  dominions,  placed  centinels  on 
 eminences,  at  convenient  distances,  where  towers  were  built, 
 and  these  centinels  gave  notice  of  public  occurrences  to  one  ano- 
 ther, with  a  very  loud  and  shrill  voice,  by  which  means  news 
 was  transmitted  from  one  extremity  of  the  kingdom  to  the  other, 
 with  great  expedition.  But  as  tin's  could  be  practised  only  in 
 the  case  of  general  news,  which  might  be  communicated  to  the 
 whole  nation,  Cyrus,  as  Xenophon  relates,  ^'yropecd.  b.  viii.)  set 
 up  couriers,  places  for  post-horses  on  all  high-roads,  and  offices, 
 where  they  might  deliver  their  packets  to  one  another.  This, 
 says  our  author,  they  did  night  and  day;  so  that  no  rain  or  hard 
 weather  being  to  stop  them,  in  the  judgment  of  many,  they  went 
 faster  than  cranes  could  fly.  The  like  is  said  by  Herodotus, 
 b.  viii.  And  he  acquaints  us  farther,  that  Xerxes,  in  his  famous 
 expedition  against  Greece,  planted  posts  from  the  yEgean  sea  to 
 Shushan,  at  certain  distances,  as  far  as  a  horse  could  ride  with 
 speed,  that  thereby  he  might  send  notice  to  his  capital  city  of 
 whatever  might  happen  in  his  army.  The  Greeks  borrowed 
 the  use  of  posts  from  the  Persians;  and,  in  imitation  of  them, 
 called  them  ayya.^01.  Among  the  Romans,  Augustus  was  the 
 person  who  set  up  public  posts,  who  at  first  were  running 
 lootsmen,  but  were  afterwards  changed  into  post-chariots  and 
 horses,  for  the  greater  expedition.  Adrian  improved  upon  this; 
 and  having  reduced  the  posts  to  great  regularity,  discharged  the 
 people  from  the  obligation  they  were  under  before  of  furnish- 
 ing horses  and  chariots.  With  the  empire  the  use  of  posts  de- 
 clined. About  the  year  807,  Charlemagne  endeavoured  to 
 restore  them;  but  his  design  was  not  prosecuted  by  his  succes- 
 sors. In  France,  Louis  XI.  set  up  posts  at  two  leagues'  distance 
 through  the  kingdom.  In  Germany,  count  Taxis  set  them  up, 
 and  had,  for  his  recompence,  in  1616,  a  grant  of  the  office  of 
 postmaster- general  to  himself  and  his  heirs  for  ever.  Above 
 eight  hundred  years  ago,  couriers  were  set  up  in  the  Ottoman 
 empire:  and,  at  this  time,  there  are  some  among  the  Chinese; 
 but  their  appointment  is  only  to  carry  orders  from  the  king  and 
 the  governors  of  provinces,  and,  in  a  word,  for  public  affairs  and 
 those  of  the  greatest  consequence. —  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under 
 the  word. 
 
 d  Not  only  the  Jews,  but  a  great  many  others  in  Shushan, 
 might  be  concerned  at  this  horrid  decree,  either  because  they 
 were  related  to  them,  or  engaged  with  them  in  worldly  concerns, 
 or  perhaps  out  of  mere  humanity  and  compassion  to  so  vast  a 
 number  of  innocent  people,  now  appointed  as  sheep  for  the 
 slaughter.  They  might  apprehend  likewise  that,  upon  the  exe- 
 cution of  the  decree,  some  sedition  or  tumult  might  ensue;  that, 
 in  so  great  a  slaughter,  it  was  hard  to  tell  who  would  escape 
 without  being  killed  or  plundered,  because  those  who  were  em- 
 ployed in  this  work  would  be  more  mindful  to  enrich  themselves 
 than  to  observe  their  orders. — Poole's  Annotations;  and  Patrick's 
 and  Le  Clerc's  Commentaries. 
 
 e  The  latter  Tar  gum,  upon  the  book  of  Esther,  gives  us  this 
 account  of  Mordecai's  behaviour  upon  this  sad  occasion,  namely, 
 that  in  the  midst  of  the  streets  he  made  his  complaint,  saying, 
 "  What  a  heavy  decree  is  this  which  the  king  and  Hainan  have 
 passed,  not  against  a  part  of  us,  but  against  us  all,  to  root  us  out 
 of  the  earth!"  Whereupon  all  the  Jews  flocked  about  him,  and 
 having  caused  the  book  of  the  law  to  be  brought  to  the  gate  of 
 Shushan,  he  being  covered  with  sackcloth,  read  therein  these 
 words  out  of  Deut.  iv.  30,  31,  '  When  thou  art  in  tribulation 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY    &<•,. 
 
 723 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  4947.  A 
 
 hard  fate,  even  until  he  came  to  the  palace-gate  ;  which, 
 when  the  queen  understood,  and  sent  to  inquire  the 
 the  cause,  he  returned  her  a  copy  of  the  king's  decree, 
 whereby  she  might  plainly  perceive  what  mischief  was 
 intended  against  all  the  nation,  unless,  by  a  timely 
 intercession  with  the  king,  she  would  endeavour  a  to 
 prevent  it. 
 
 Esther,  at  first,  excused  herself  from  engaging  in  this 
 affair,  because  an  ordinance  was  passed,  inhibiting  any 
 person,  whether  man  or  woman,  upon  pain  of  death, 
 from  approaching  the  king's  presence,  without  a  special 
 order.  But  when  he  returned  her  in  answer,  '  that  the 
 decree  extended  to  the  whole  Jewish  nation,  without  any 
 exception  ;  that  if  it  came  to  execution,  she  must  expect 
 to  escape  no  more  than  the  rest ;  that  God  very  probably 
 raised  her  to  her  present  greatness,  on  purpose  that  she 
 might  save  and  protect  his  people  :  but  that  if  she  ne- 
 glected to  do  this,  and  their  deliverance  should  come  some 
 other  way,  then  should  she,  and  her  father's  house,  by 
 the  righteous  and  just  judgment  of  God,  most  certainly 
 perish  :'  which  so  roused  her  drooping  courage,  that  she 
 sent  him  word  again,  that  he  and  all  the  Jews  in  Shu- 
 shan  should  b  fast  for  her  three  days,  as  she  herself  in- 
 tended to  do,  and  offer  up  their  humble  supplications  to 
 God,  that  he  would  prosper  her  in  so  hazardous  an  under- 
 taking, and  then  she  would  not  fail  to  address  the  king, 
 though  it  were  at  the  utmost  peril  of  her  life. 
 
 The  people  fasted  as  she  had  enjoined  them  ;  and  on 
 the  third  day  she  dressed  herself  in  her  royal  apparel, 
 and  c  went  toward  the  room  where  the  king  was  sitting 
 
 and  all  these  things  are  come  upon  thee  in  the  latter  days,  if 
 thou  turn  to  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  shalt  he  obedient  to  his  voice 
 (for  the  Lord  thy  God  is  a  merciful  God),  he  will  not  forsake 
 thee,  nor  destroy  thee,  nor  forget  the  covenant  of  thy  fathers, 
 which  he  sware  unto  them.'  After  which  he  exhorted  them  to 
 fasting,  humiliation,  and  repentance,  according  to  the  example 
 of  the  Ninevites. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  Ever  since  the  reign  of  Dejoces  king  of  Media,  Herodotus, 
 (It.  i.)  informs  us,  that,  for  the  preservation  of  royal  majesty,  it 
 was  enacted,  "  That  no  one  should  be  admitted  into  the  king's 
 presence;  but  that,  if  he  had  any  business  with  him,  he  should 
 transact  it  by  the  intercourse  of  his  ministers."  The  custom 
 passed  from  the  Medes  to  the  Persians ;  and  therefore  we  find  it 
 in  the  same  historian,  (b.  iii.)  that  after  the  seven  Persian  princes 
 had  killed  the  Magian  who  had  usurped  the  throne,  they  came 
 to  this  agreement,  that  whoever  should  be  elected  king,  should 
 allow  the  others  to  have  at  all  times  a  ready  access  to  his  pre- 
 sence (which  is  an  implication  that  they  had  it  not  before), 
 whenever  they  should  desire  it,  except  only  when  he  was  accom- 
 panying with  any  of  his  wives.  This,  therefore,  was  the  ancient 
 law  of  the  country,  and  not  procured  by  Haman,  as  some  ima- 
 gine: though  it  cannot  be  denied,  but  that  the  reason  of  the  law 
 at  first  might  be,  not  only  the  preservation  of  the  majesty  and 
 safety  of  the  king's  person,  hut  a  contrivance  likewise  of  the  great 
 officers  of  state,  that  they  might  engross  the  king  to  themselves, 
 by  allowing  admittance  to  none  but  whom  they  should  think 
 proper  to  introduce. — Poole's  Annotations;  and  Lc  Clerc's  Com- 
 mentaries. 
 
 b  This  is  not  to  be  understood,  as  if  the  people  were  to  take 
 no  manner  of  sustenance  for  three  days,  because  few  or  none 
 could  undergo  that,  but  only,  either  that  they  should  abstain  from 
 all  delicacies,  and  content  themselves  with  coarse  fare,  as  Jose- 
 phus  expounds  it,  or  that  they  should  make  no  set  meals  of  dinner 
 or  supper  in  their  families,  but  eat  and  drink  no  more  than  would 
 suffice  to  sustain  nature,  and  support  them  in  prayer  to  God  for 
 a  blessing  upon  her  undertaking. — Patrick's  and  Lc  Clerc's 
 Commentaries. 
 
 c  But  fust,  says  the  latter  Targum,  she  made  a  solemn  prayer 
 t"  God,  with  many  tears,  as  soon  as  she  was  dressed,  saying, 
 "  Thou  art  the  great  God,  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
 Jacob,  the  God  of  my  father  Benjamin;  as  thou  didst  deliver 
 
 C.  4'J4.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  OP  HAG.  ZECII.  MAL. 
 
 upon  his  throne  in  the  inner  part  of  the  palace.  Upon 
 the  first  sight  of  her,  he  held  out  his  golden  sceptre,  (a 
 token  that  he  pardoned  her  presumption  and  spared  her 
 life,  and  then  asked  her,  what  the  request  was  that  she 
 had  to  make  to  him.  At  the  extension  of  this  favour, 
 she  approached  nearer,  and  having  touched  <l  the  end 
 of  his  sceptre,  only  desired  that  he  and  Haman  would 
 come  to  a  banquet  which  she  had  prepared  for  him. 
 Haman,  who  happened  then  to  be  absent,  was  called  to 
 attend  the  king ;  and  when  the  king  and  he  were  at  the 
 banquet,  he  asked  her  again  concerning  her  petition,  pro- 
 mising that  he  would  grant  it  her,  even  were  it  to  extend 
 to  half  his  kingdom  :  but  e  her  request  again  was  no 
 more,  than  that  he  and  Hainan  would  favour  her  again, 
 the  next  day,  with  their  company  at  the  like  entertain- 
 ment, and  that  then  she  would  not  fail  to  disclose  her 
 request. 
 
 Hainan/  was  not  a  little  proud  of  the  peculiar  honour 
 
 Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah,  out  of  the  fiery  furnace,  and 
 Daniel  from  the  lion's  den,  so  deliver  me  now  out  of  the  hand 
 of  the  king,  and  give  me  grace  aud  favour  in  his  eyes,'  &c. 
 
 d  A  sceptre  was  the  ensign  of  the  highest  and  most  absolute 
 authority ;  and  therefore  some  have  observed,  that  when  Morde- 
 cai  was  advanced  to  the  greatest  dignity  next  the  king,  having 
 the  royal  robes  on,  and  other  ensigns  of  royal  dignity,  no  men- 
 tion is  made  of  any  sceptre,  for  that  was  proper  and  peculiar  to 
 the  king;  and  the  queen's  touching,  or,  as  some  say,  kissing 
 it,  was  a  token  of  her  subjection,  and  thankfulness  for  his  favour. 
 But  Josephus  has  mightily  improved  upon  the  story;  for  he  tells 
 us,  "  that  as  the  queen  with  her  two  handmaids  approached  the 
 room  where  the  king  was,  leaning  gently  upon  one,  and  the  other 
 bearing  up  her  train,  her  face  being  covered  with  such  a  blush, 
 as  expressed  a  graceful  majesty,  but  at  the  same  time,  some 
 doubtful  apprehensions  upon  her  approaching  of  the  king,  mount- 
 ed on  his  throne,  and  the  sparkling  glory  of  his  robes,  that  were 
 all  over  embroidered  with  gold,  pearl,  and  precious  stones,  she 
 was  taken  all  on  a  sudden  with  a  trembling  at  so  surprising  a 
 sight;  and  upon  fancying  that  the  king  looked  upon  her  as  if  he 
 were  uneasy,  and  out  of  humour,  she  fell  into  the  arms  of  one  of 
 her  maids  in  a  direct  swoon.  This  accident,  says  he,  by  the 
 intervention  of  God's  holy  will  and  providence,  put  the  king  into 
 a  fright,  for  fear  she  might  not  come  to  herself  again ;  so  that 
 making  what  haste  he  could  from  his  throne,  he  took  her  up  in 
 his  arms,  and  with  the  kindest  words  that  could  be,  gave  her  this 
 comfort: — That  no  advantage  should  be  made  of  the  law  to  her 
 prejudice,  though  she  came  without  calling,  because  the  decree 
 extended  only  to  subjects ;  whereas  he  looked  upon  her  as  his 
 companion  and  partner  in  the  empire." — Jewish  jint.  b.  xi.  c.  6. 
 
 e  Her  intention  in  desiring  thus  to  entertain  the  king  twice  at 
 her  banquet,  before  she  made  known  her  petition,  was,  that 
 thereby  she  might  the  more  endear  herself  to  him,  and  dispose 
 him  the  better  to  grant  her  request,  for  which  reason  she  thought 
 it  a  piece  of  no  bad  policy  to  invite  his  first  favourite  to  come 
 along  with  him.  But  in  the  whole  matter,  the  singular  proi  i- 
 dence  of  God  is  not  a  little  conspicuous,  which  so  disposed  her 
 mind,  that  the  high  honour  which  the  king  bestowed  upon  Mor- 
 decai  the  next  day,  might  fall  out  in  the  mean  time,  and  so 
 make  way  for  her  petition,  which  would  come  in  very  seasonably 
 at  the  banquet  of  wine:  for  as  then  it  "as  niost  likely  for  the 
 king  to  be  in  a  pleasant  humour,  so  it  was  most  usual  for  the 
 Persians  to  enter  upon  business  of  state,  when  tiny  began  to 
 drink. — Lc  Clerc's  and  Patrick's  Commentaries-,  and  Priileaux's 
 Connection,  anno  453. 
 
 f  Athenreus  mentions  it  as  a  peculiar  honour,  which  no  Gre- 
 cian ever  had  before  or  after,  that  Artaxerxes  vouchsafed  to 
 invite  Timagoras  the  Cretan  to  dine  even  at  the  table  where  his 
 relations  eat,  and  to  send  sometimes  a  part  of  "hat  was  served 
 up  at  his  own;  which  some  Persians  looked  upon  as  a  diminu- 
 tion of  his  majesty,  and.a  prostitution  of  their  nation's  honour. 
 In  the  life  of  Artaxerxes,  Plutarch  tells  us,  that  none  but  the 
 king's  mother,  and  his  real  wife,  were  permitted  to  sit  at  his 
 table;  and  therefore  he  mentions  it  as  a  condescension  in  that 
 prince  that  he  sometimes  invited  his  brothers.  So  that  this  par- 
 ticular favour  was  a  matter  that  Hainan  had  some  reason  to 
 value  himself  upon. — Lc  C/ere's  Commentary. 
 
724 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  1917.  A.  C.  4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7-end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 which  both  the  king  and  queen  had  done  him  ;  but  upon 
 his  return  home,  seeing  Mordecai  sitting  at  the  palace 
 gate,  and  refusing  to  show  him  the  least  obeisance, 
 though  a  he  restrained  himself  at  present,  yet  so  moved 
 was  he  with  indignation  against  him,  that  when  he 
 came  home,  and  related  to  his  family  the  favours 
 which  that  day  he  had  received,  he  could  not  forbear 
 complaining  of  the  affront  and  disrespect  which  Morde- 
 cai  had  put  upon  him  ;  insomuch,  that  his  wife,  and 
 others  that  were  present,  advised  him  to  have  a  gibbet  of 
 b  fifty  cubits  high  instantly  erected,  and  the  very  next 
 morning  to  go  to  the  king,  and  obtain  a  grant  of  him  to 
 have  that  insolent  fellow  hanged  upon  it. 
 
 This  project  he  liked  very  well,  and  therefore  caused 
 the  gibbet  to  be  set  up  :  but  when  he  came  to  court  in 
 the  morning,  he  found  that  things  had  taken  quite  ano- 
 ther turn.  The  king,  that  very  morning,  happened  to 
 awake  sooner  than  ordinary,  and  being  not  able  to  com- 
 pose himself  to  sleep  again,  he  called  for  c  the  annals 
 of  his  reign,  and  ordered  a  person  that  was  then  in  wait- 
 ing to  read  them  to  him.  The  reader  went  on,  until  he 
 came  to  the  passage  which  made  mention  of  Mordecai's 
 discovery  of  the  treason  of  the  two  chamberlain's  ;  and 
 when  the  king  upon  inquiry  was  given  to  understand, 
 that  the  man,  for  so  signal  a  service,  had  received  no 
 reward  at  all,  he  called  unto  Haman  (who  was  waiting 
 for  admittance  upon  a  quite  different  intent),  and  asked 
 him,  What  it  was  he  would  advise  him  to  do  to  the  man, 
 on  whom  he  designed  to  confer  some  marks  of  his  fav- 
 
 a  It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  that  so  proud  a  man  as  Haman 
 was,  should  not  he  prompted  immediately  to  avenge  himself  on 
 MordecaJ  for  his  contemptuous  usage  of  him,  since  he  had 
 enough  about  him,  no  doubt,  who,  upon  the  least  intimation  of 
 his  pleasure,  would  have  done  it;  and  since  he,  who  had  interest 
 enough  with  his  prince  to  procure  a  decree  for  the  destruction  of 
 a  whole  nation,  might  have  easily  obtained  a  pardon  for  having 
 killed  one  obscure  and  infamous  member  of  it.  But  herein  did 
 the  wise  and  powerful  providence  of  God  appear,  that  it  dis- 
 posed Hainan's  heart,  contrary  to  his  own  inclination  and 
 interest,  instead  of  employing  his  power  against  his  enemy,  to 
 put  tetters,  as  it  were,  upon  his  own  hands. — Poole's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 b  That  men  might  at  a  great  distance  see  him,  to  the  increase 
 of  his  disgrace  (as  Haman  might  think),  and  that,  struck  with 
 the  greater  terror  by  that  spectacle,  they  might  not  dare  for  the 
 future  to  despise  or  olicnd  him. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  In  these  diaries  (which  we  now  call  journals)  wherein  was 
 set  down  what  passed  every  day,  the  manner  of  the  Persians  was 
 to  record  the  names  of  those  who  had  done  the  king  any  signal 
 service.  Accordingly  Josephus  informs  us,  "  That  upon  the 
 secretary's  reading  these  journals,  he  took  notice  of  such  a  per- 
 son, who  had  great  honours  and  possessions  given  him  as  a  re- 
 ward tor  a  glorious  and  remarkable  action ;  and  of  such  another 
 who  made  his  fortune  by  the  bounties  of  his  prince,  for  his  fidel- 
 ity; but  that,  when  he  came  to  the  particular  story  of  the  con- 
 Bpiracy  of  the  two  eunuchs  against  the  person  of  the  king,  and 
 of  the  discovery  of  this  treason  by  Mordecai,  the  secretary  read 
 it  over,  and  was  passing  forward  to  the  next,  when  the  king 
 Stopped  him,  and  asked  it'  that  person  had  any  reward  given  him 
 for  his  .service?''  &c,  which  shows  indeed  a  singular  providence 
 of  God,  that  the  secretary  should  read  in  that  very  part  of  the 
 book,  wherein  the  service  of  Mordecai  was  recorded.  But  the  i 
 latter  Targum,  to  make  a  thorough  miracle  of  it,  tells  us,  that 
 when  the  reader  opened  the  book  at  the  place  where  mention 
 was  made  of  Mordecai,  he  turned  over  the  leaves,  and  would 
 have  read  in  another,  but  that  the  leaves  flew  back  again  to  the 
 same  place  where  he  opened  it  at  first,  so  that  he  was  forced  to 
 read  that  story  to  the  king. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Jew- 
 ish Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  6. 
 
 Haman,  who  never  dreamed  but  that  the  person  he 
 meant  of  was  himself,  was  resolved  to  lay  it  on  thick  ; 
 and  therefore  he  gave  advice,  rf  that  the  royal  robe 
 should  be  brought,  which  the  king,  on  solemn  occasions, 
 was  wont  to  wear ;  the  horse,  which  was  kept  for  his  own 
 riding,  c  and  the  crown,  which  was  used  to  be  set  upon 
 the  horse's  head,/  and  that,  with  this  robe,  the  person 
 whom  the  king  thought  proper  to  distinguish  should  be 
 arrayed,  and  the  chief  man  in  the  kingdom  appointed  to 
 lead  his  horse  by  the  reins,  walking  before  him  in  the 
 quality  of  an  officer,  and  proclaiming,  '  Thus  shall  it  be 
 done  to  the  man  whom  the  king  delights  to  honour.' 
 '  Take  then  the  horse  and  the  robe,'  says  the  king, '  and 
 do  all  that  thou  hast  mentioned  to  Mordecai  the  Jew, 
 who  has  not  been  yet  rewarded  for  the  discovery  of  the 
 treason  of  the  two  eunuchs  that  intended  to  have  taken 
 away  my  life.' 
 
 Nothing  certainly  oould  cut  a  proud  man  more  to  the 
 
 d  To  form  a  notion  of  that  height  of  pride  and  arrogance  to 
 which  Haman  (who  thought  all  the  honours  he  specified  were 
 designed  for  him)  was  arrived,  we  may  observe,  that,  for  any 
 one  to  put  on  the  royal  robe,  without  the  privity  and  consent  of 
 the  king,  was,  among  the  Persians,  accounted  a  capital  crime. 
 To  which  purpose  Plutarch,  in  his  life  of  Artaxerxes,  has  related 
 this  story: — "  That  one  day,  when  in  hunting,  the  king  hap- 
 pened to  tear  his  garment,  and  Tiribazus  was  telling  him  of  it, 
 the  king  asked  him  what  he  should  do.  Why,  put  on  another, 
 says  Tiribazus,  and  give  that  to  me.  That  I  will,  says  the  king, 
 but  then  I  enjoin  you  not  to  wear  it.  Tiribazus,  however,  who 
 was  a  good  kind  of  a  man  enough,  but  a  little  weak  and  silly, 
 adventured  to  put  it  on,  with  all  its  fine  ornaments;  and  when 
 some  of  the  nobles  began  to  resent  it,  as  a  thing  not  lawful 
 for  any  subject  to  do,  I  allow  him,  says  the  king,  laughing  at  the 
 figure  he  made,  to  wear  the  fine  trinkets  as  a  woman,  and  the 
 robe  as  a  madman.'' — Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 e  There  was  a  custom,  not  unlike  this,  among  the  Hebrews, 
 as  appears  from  the  history  of  Solomon,  (1  Kings  i.  33,)  for  the 
 person  that  was  to  be  declared  successor  to  the  crown,  on  the 
 day  of  his  inauguration,  to  be  mounted  on  the  king's  horse :  and 
 to  the  like  custom  among  the  Persians,  it  is  highly  probable  that 
 the  poet  Statius,  in  his  description  of  a  young  king  succeeding  to 
 his  father's  throne,  may  allude  : — "  As  an  Achemenian  youth, 
 on  receiving  the  throne  and  lands  of  his  ancestors,  hangs  in  un- 
 certainty while  deliberating  to  whom  he  may  entrust  the  various 
 boundaries  of  his  kingdom,  he  is  still  afraid  to  handle  the  bow 
 and  mount  his  father's  steed,  and  to  himself  he  seems  scarce  able 
 to  bear  the  load  of  empire,  or  as  yet  to  use  the  badge  of  majesty." 
 —  Thebaid.  b.  viii. 
 
 f  Commentators  are  not  agreed  whether  this  crown  was 
 placed  upon  the  king's  head  or  his  horse's.  Those  who  refer  it  to 
 the  king,  will  have  it  to  be  what  we  call  a  turban,  made  of  fine 
 white  and  pure  linen,  which  it  was  death  for  any  one  to  put  on 
 his  head,  without  the  king's  express  order;  to  which  purpose 
 Arrian  (Ale.v.  E.rped.  b.  vii.)  tells  us  this  story: — "  That  as 
 Alexander  was  sailing  on  the  Euphrates,  and  his  turban  hap- 
 pened to  fall  off  among  some  reeds,  one  of  the  watermen  imme- 
 diately jumped  in  and  swam  to  it;  but  as  he  could  not  bring  it 
 back  in  his  hand  without  wetting  it,  he  put  it  upon  his  head, 
 and  so  returned  with  it.  Whereupon  most  historians  that  have 
 wrote  of  Alexander  (says  he)  tell  us  that  he  gave  him  a  talent 
 of  silver  for  this  expression  of  his  zeal  to  serve  him,  but,  at  the 
 same  time,  ordered  his  head  to  he  struck  oflj  for  presuming  to 
 put  on  the  royal  diadem."  Other  commentators  are  of  opinion, 
 that  this  keter,  which  we  render  crown,  being  a  word  of  a  large 
 signification,  will  equally  denote  that  ornament  which  the  horse 
 that  the  king  rode  wore  upon  his  head.  As  it  must  be  acknow- 
 ledged that  this  application  of  the  thing  agrees  better  with  the 
 signification  and  order  of  the  Hebrew  words;  with  the  following 
 verses,  wherein  no  mention  is  made  of  the  keter,  but  only  of  the 
 robe  and  the  horse  to  which  this  crown  belonged ;  and  with  the 
 custom  of  the  Persians,  who  used  to  put  a  certain  ornament  (in 
 Italian  called  fiocco)  upon  the  head  of  that  horse  whereon  the 
 king  was  mounted. — Le  Clerc's  aud  Patrick's  Commentaries, 
 and  Puole'.j  Annotations. 
 
Skct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 725 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947.  A 
 
 heart,  than  to  be  employed  in  such  an  office  ;  but  the 
 king's  command  was  positive,  so  that  Hainan  was  forced 
 to  do  it,  how  much  soever  it  might  go  against  the  grain: 
 and  when  the  irksome  ceremony  was  over,  he  returned 
 to  his  house,  lamenting  the  disappointment  and  great 
 mortification  he  had  met  with,  in  being  forced  to  pay  so 
 signal  an  honour  to  his  most  hated  enemy.  But  while 
 he  was  relating  this  to  his  family,  and  they  thereupon 
 expressing  some  uneasy  apprehensions,  as  if  this  were 
 a  very  bad  omen,  one  of  the  queen's  chamberlains  came 
 to  his  house  to  hasten  him  to  the  banquet ;  and,  having 
 seen  the  gallows  winch  had  been  set  up  the  night  before, 
 he  fully  informed  himself  of  the  intent  for  which  it  was 
 prepared. 
 
 When  the  king  and  Hainan  were  set  down  to  the 
 entertainment,  the  king  asked  Esther  again,  what  her  re- 
 quest was  ;  renewing  his  promise,  that  he  would  not  fail 
 to  grant  it  her,  even  though  it  extended  to  the  half  of 
 his  kingdom.  '  But  my  petition,  O  king,'  says  she,  '  is 
 only  for  my  own  life,  and  the  life  of  my  people,  because 
 there  is  a  design  laid  against  us,  not  to  make  us  bond- 
 men and  bond-women  (for  then  I  should  have  been  si- 
 lent), but  to  slay  and  destroy  us  all.  If  therefore  I 
 have  found  favour  in  thy  sight,  O  king,  let  my  life  and 
 the  life  of  my  people  be  given  at  my  request.'  At  this 
 the  king  asking,  with  some  commotion,  who  it  was  that 
 durst  do  any  such  thing  ?  the  Hainan  then  present,  she 
 told  him,  was  the  contriver  of  all  the  plot :  whereupon 
 the  king  rising  up  from  the  banquet  in  a  passion,  a  went 
 into  the  garden  adjoining  ;  and  Hainan,  taking  this  op- 
 portunity, b  fell  prostrate  on  the  bed  where  the  queen 
 was  sitting,  to  supplicate  his  life  ;  but  the  king,  coming 
 in  the  mean  time,  and  seeing  him  in  this  posture,  '  What, 
 will  he  ravish  the  queen  before  my  eyes  !'  cried  out 
 aloud  :  whereupon  those  that  were  in  waiting  came  and 
 covered  his  face,  c  as  a  token  of  the  king's  indignation 
 
 a  Partly  as  disdaining  the  company  of  so  audacious  and  un- 
 grateful a  person;  partly  to  cool  and  allay  his  spirit,  boiling  and 
 struggling  with  such  a  variety  of  passions;  and  partly  to  consider 
 within  himself  the  heinousness  of  Haman's  crime,  the  mischief 
 which  himself  had  like  to  have  clone  by  his  own  rashness,  and 
 what  punishment  was  fit  to  be  inflicted  on  so  vile  a  miscreant. 
 — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  It  was  a  custom  of  the  Persians,  as  well  as  other  nations,  to 
 sit,  or  rather  to  lie  upon  beds,  when  they  ate  or  drank ;  and 
 therefore,  when  Haman  fell  down  as  a  supplicant  at  the  feet  of 
 Esther,  and  (as  the  manner  was  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
 and  not  improbably  among  the  Persians)  embraced  her  knees, 
 the  king  might  pretend  that  he  was  offering  violence  to  the 
 queen's  chastity.  Not  that  he  believed  that  this  was  his  inten- 
 tion, but,  in  his  furious  passion,  he  turned  every  thing  to  the 
 worst  sense,  and  made  use  of  it  to  aggravate  his  crime. — Pat- 
 rick's Commentary. 
 
 c  The  majesty  of  the  kings  of  Persia  did  not  allow  malefac- 
 tors to  look  at  them.  As  soon  as  Haman  was  so  considered,  his 
 face  was  covered.  Some  curious  correspondent  examples  are 
 collected  together  in  Poole's  Synopsis,  in  loc.  From  Pococke 
 we  find  the  custom  still  continues.  Speaking  of  the  artifice  by 
 which  an  Egyptian  bey  was  taken  off,  lie  says,  {Travels,  vol.  ii. 
 p.  179)  "  A  man  being  brought  before  him  like  a  malefactor 
 just  taken,  with  his  hands  behind  him  as  if  tied,  and  a  napkin 
 put  over  his  head,  as  malefactors  commonly  have,  when  he  came 
 into  his  presence,  suddenly  shot  him  dead." — Harmer,  vol.  ii.  p. 
 96.  This  custom  maybe  traced  among  the  Romans  in  the  pun- 
 ishment of  a  patricide,  who,  when  convicted,  was  immediately 
 hooded,  as  unworthy  of  the  common  light,  (Kcnnclt's  Rom. 
 Antuj.  part  ii.  b.  3,  c.  20,  p.  14G,)  and  in  that  form  of  pro- 
 nouncing sentence  on  a  criminal  ascribed  by  Cicero  (Pro 
 Goto  Rabirio,  c.   iv.)   to  Tarquinius  Superbus.     '•  Go,  officer, 
 
 C.  464.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEII.  paut  op  HAG.  ZECH.  MaL. 
 against  him  :  and  when  the  chamberlain,  who  had  been 
 to  call  him  to  the  banquet,  acquainted  the  king  of  the 
 gallows  which  he  had  prepared  for  Mordecai,  who  had 
 saved  the  king's  life,  he  gave  immediate  orders,  that  d 
 he  should  be  hanged  thereon  (which  accordingly  was 
 done),  and  his  whole  estate  given  to  the  queen,  whereof 
 she  appointed  Mordecai  her  steward.  At  the  same  time 
 she  informed  the  king  of  her  near  relation  to  Mordecai , 
 so  that  he  took  him  into  his  royal  favour,  advanced  him 
 to  gTeat  power,  riches,  and  dignity  in  die  empire,  and 
 made  him  keeper  of  his  signet,  in  the  same  manner  as 
 Haman  had  been  before. 
 
 But  though  Hainan  was  thus  removed,  yet  the  decree 
 which  he  had  procured  remained  still  in  full  force  ;  nor 
 could  it  be  repealed,  because  the  laws  of  the  Medes 
 and  Persians  were  such,  that  nothing  written  in  the 
 king's  name,  and  signed  with  the  royal  signet,  could  be 
 reversed.  All  therefore  that  the  king  could  do,  upon 
 the  queen's  second  petition,  to  have  the  decree  cancel- 
 led, was  to  grant  the  Jews,  by  another  e  decree,  such  a 
 power  to  defend  themselves  against  all  that  should  as- 
 sault them  on  the  day  /  when  the   former  decree  was  to 
 
 bind  his  hands,  muffle  his  head,  hang  him  ou  the  fatal  tree." — 
 Ed. 
 
 d  Josephus  indeed  tells  us,  that  he  died  on  the  cross :  but 
 others  have  observed,  that  crucifixion  was  not  a  Persian  punish- 
 ment; and  Salmasius  (in  his  book  de  Cruce)  shows  that  it  was 
 the  manner  of  the  Persians  first  to  cut  off  the  heads  of  malefac- 
 tors, and  then  to  hang  them  on  a  gibbet.  However  this  be,  "I 
 cannot  pass  over  the  wonderful  harmony  of  providence/'  says 
 Josephus,  "  without  a  remark  upon  the  almighty  power,  and  the 
 admirable  justice  and  wisdom  of  God,  not  only  in  bringing 
 Haman  to  his  deserved  punishment,  but  entrapping  him  in  the 
 very  same  snare  that  he  had  laid  for  another,  and  turning  a 
 malicious  invention  upon  the  head  of  the  inventor."  Neither  is 
 there  any  law  more  just,  than  to  ensnare  the  murderer  by  his 
 own  artifice. — Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  6. 
 
 e  Josephus  has  given  us  a  true  copy,  as  he  says,  of  this  decree, 
 or,  as  he  calls  it,  of  the  letters  which  Artaxerxes  sent  to  the  ma- 
 gistrates of  all  the  nations  that  lie  between  India  and  Ethiopia, 
 under  the  command  of  a  hundred  and  seven  and  twenty  prin- 
 ces:— "  Wherein  he  represents  the  abuse  which  favourites  are 
 wont  to  make  of  their  power  and  credit  with  their  prince,  by 
 insulting  their  inferiors,  by  flying  in  the  face  of  those  that  raised 
 them,  and,  to  gratify  their  resentments,  calumniating  the  inno- 
 cent, and  putting  honest  men  in  danger  of  their  lives:  wherein 
 he  makes  mention  of  the  uncommon  favours  and  honours  which 
 he  had  bestowed  upon  Haman,  the  Amalekite,  who  had,  not- 
 withstanding, taken  measures  to  supplant  him  of  his  kingdom, 
 to  destroy  Mordecai,  the  preserver  of  his  life,  together  with  his 
 dearest  wife  the  queen,  and  to  extirpate  the  whole  nation  of  Jews, 
 who  were  good  and  peaceable  subjects,  and  worshippers  of  that 
 God  to  whom  he  was  indebted  for  the  possession  and  preserva- 
 tion of  his  empire :  wherein  he  acquaints  them,  that  for  these 
 wicked  and  treasonable  practices,  having  caused  him  and  his 
 whole  family  to  be  executed  before  the  gates  of  Susa,  his  royal 
 pleasure,  by  these  presents,  was  that  they  should  not  only  dis- 
 charge the  Jews  from  all  the  pains  and  penalties  to  which  they 
 are  made  liable  by  his  letters  which  Haman  had  sent  them;  but 
 that  they  should  likewise  aid  and  assist  them  in  vindicating 
 themselves  upon  those  that  spitefully  and  injuriously  oppressed 
 them ;  and  wherein  he  tells  them,  that  whereas  the  time  ap- 
 pointed for  the  utter  destruction  of  these  people,  was  to  have  been 
 on  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  month  Adar,  his  further  pleasure 
 was,  that  the  same  month  and  day  should  be  employed  in  their 
 rescue  and  deliverance;  and  that  if  any  person,  either  by  dis- 
 obedience oi'  neglect,  should  act  in  any  thing  contrary  to  tile  ter- 
 ror of  this  his  imperial  command,  he  should  be  liable  to  military 
 execution  by  fire  and  sword." 
 
 f  It  might  be  presumed  that  some,  out  of  hatred  to  the  Jews 
 might  be  inclinable  to  obey  Haman's  decree:  for  though  he  him- 
 self was  gone,  yet  it  cannot  be  imagined,  that  all  the  friends  and 
 creatures  that  lie  had  made  perished  with  him.      He  might  have 
 
726 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4917.  A. 
 
 be  executed,  as  might  render  it  in  a  great  measure  in- 
 effectual. 
 
 To  this  purpose,  a  fresh  edict  was  drawn  up  in  the 
 third  month,  signed  by  the  king,  and  transmitted  to  the 
 provinces  :  so  that,  when  the  thirteenth  day  of  Adar  came, 
 by  the  means  of  these  different  and  discordant  decrees, 
 a  war  was  commenced  between  the  Jews  and  their  ene- 
 mies, through  the  whole  Persian  empire  ;  but  as  the  rulers 
 of  the  several  provinces,  and  other  officers  of  the  king, 
 well  understood  what  power  and  credit  Esther  and  Mor- 
 decai  then  had  with  him,  they  so  favoured  the  Jews  every 
 where, that  on  that  day  they  slew,  in  the  whole  empire, 
 75,000  persons,  and  in  the  city  of  Shushan,  on  that  day 
 and  the  next,  800  more ;  among  whom  were  a  the  ten 
 sons  of  Hainan,  whom,  by  a  special  order  from  the  king, 
 they  hanged  perhaps  on  the  same  gallows  whereon  their 
 father  had  hung  before ;  and  in  memory  of  this,  their 
 wonderful  deliverance,  the  Jews  did  then,  and  have  ever 
 since,  on  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  days  of  the  month 
 Adar,  kept  a  great  festival,  which  they  called  b  the  '  feast 
 of  lots.'     But  proceed  we  now  to  some  other  affairs. 
 
 a  great  party  every  where,  and  some  of  them  so  furiously  enraged 
 at  his  fall,  as,  even  at  the  hazard  of  their  own  lives,  would  not 
 fail  to  show  their  indignation  at  those  who  were  the  occasion  of 
 it:  and  therefore  this  second  decree  procured  hy  Mordecai,  gave 
 them  authority,  if  any  attempt  was  made  upon  them,  either  in 
 great  bodies,  or  small  parties,  not  only  to  defend  themselves  and 
 repel  them,  hut  to  make  as  great  a  slaughter  of  them  as  they  were 
 able,  and  even  to  take  possession  of  their  goods,  as  Haman  had 
 procured  them  license  (chap.  iii.  13,)  to  seize  the  goods  of  the 
 Je ws .  —  Patrick 's  Com m cnta ry. 
 
 a  It  is  not  unlikely,  that  many  might  be  enraged  at  his  death, 
 and  his  sons,  in  particular,  might  set  themselves  at  the  head  of 
 those  who  were  bold  enough  to  attempt  the  destruction  of  the 
 Jews  in  Shushan,  being  resolved  to  revenge  their  father's  death, 
 though  in  so  doing  they  were  sure  to  meet  their  own.  And  this 
 seems  to  suggest  the  reason  why  Esther  was  so  solicitous  to  have 
 their  dead  bodies  (for  they  were  slain  already)  hung  upon  the 
 gallows,  (chap.  ix.  13,)  even  because  they  had  shown  more  ma- 
 lice and  indignation  against  the  Jews,  and  on  the  day  when  the 
 cruel  edict  came  to  take  place,  had  made  more  desperate  attacks 
 upon  them  than  any;  though  the  reason  of  the  state,  in  this 
 severity,  might  be  to  expose  the  family  to  the  greater  infamy, 
 and  to  deter  other  counselors  from  abusing  the  king  at  any  time 
 with  false  representations.  For  though  the  Jews  suffered  none 
 to  hang  on  the  tree,  as  they  called  the  gallows,  longer  than  till 
 the  evening  of  the  day  whereon  they  were  executed;  yet  other 
 nations  let  them  hang  until  they  were  consumed,  as  appears  from 
 the  story  of  the  Giheonite?,  (2  Sam.  xxi.  9,  10,)  or  devoured  by 
 crows,  vultures,  or  other  ravenous  creatures;  from  whence  that 
 vulgar  saying  among  the  Romans,  pascere  in  cruce  corvos,  had 
 its  rise. —  Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 B  Pur,  in  the  Persian  language,  signifies  a  lot,  and  the  feast 
 at  purim  or  lots,  which  had  its  name  from  Hainan's  casting  lots 
 in  order  to  divine  which  day  would  be  most  lucky  to  prefix  for  the 
 murder  oi  all  the  Jews  in  the  whole  Persian  dominions,  is,  to 
 this  vi -ry  day,  celebrated  by  the  Jews,  with  some  peculiar  cere- 
 monies, but  most  of  them  reducible  to  these  three  things,  reading, 
 resting,  and  feasting.  Before  the  reading,  which  is  performed 
 in  the  synagogue,  and  begins  in  the  evening,  as  soon  as  the  stars 
 appear,  they  make  use  of  three  forms  of  prayer:  in  the  first  of 
 these,  they  prai  e  God  for  counting  them  worthy  to  attend  this 
 divine  service;  in  the  second,  they  thank  him  for  the  miracu- 
 lous preservation  of  their  ancestors ;  and  in  the  third,  they  bless 
 his  holy  name,  for  having  continued  their  lives  to  the  celebration 
 of  another  festival  in  commemoration  of  it.  Then  they  read 
 over  the  whole  history  of  Haman  from  the  beginning  to  the  end, 
 but  not  out  of  any  printed  book,  for  that  is  not  lawful,  but  out  of 
 B  Hebrew  manuscript,  written  on  parchment.  There  are  five 
 places  in  the  text,  wherein  the  reader  raises  his  voice  with  all  his 
 might:  when  tie  comes  to  the  place  that  mentions  the  nanus  of 
 the  ten  sous  of  Haman,  he  repeats  them  very  quick,  to  show  that 
 they  were  all  destroyed  in  a  moment;  and  every  time  that  the 
 
 C.  4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  mt  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAIa, 
 In  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  year  of  Ahasuerus, 
 Ezra,  a  priest  descended  from  c  Seraiah  the  high  priest, 
 who  was  slain  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  when  he  burned  the 
 temple  and  city  of  Jerusalem,  a  man  of  great  learning, 
 and  excellently  d  skilled  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
 tures, who  had  hitherto  continued  in  Babylon,  with  others 
 of  the  captivity  that  had  not  yet  returned,  obtained  leave 
 of  the  king  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  and  to  take  as  many  of 
 
 name  of  Haman  is  pronounced,  the  children,  with  great  fury, 
 strikeagaiustthe  benches  of  the  synagogues,  with  the  mallets  which 
 they  bring  for  that  purpose.  After  that  the  reading  is  finished, 
 they  return  home  and  have  a  supper,  not  of  flesh,  but  of  spoon- 
 meat  ;  and  early  next  morning  they  arise  and  return  to  the  syna- 
 gogue ;  where,  after  they  have  read  that  passage  in  ExocUis,  which 
 makes  mention  of  the  war  of  Amalek,  they  begin  again  to  read  the 
 book  of  Esther,  with  the  same  ceremonies  as  before;  and  so  con- 
 clude the  service  of  the  day,  with  curses  against  Haman  and  his 
 wife  Zeresh,  with  blessings  upon  Mordecai  and  Esther,  and  with 
 praises  to  God  for  having  preserved  his  people.  Their  resting 
 on  this  day  is  observed  so  religiously,  that  they  will  not  so  much 
 as  set  or  sow  any  thing  in  their  gardens,  with  full  persuasion  that 
 it  would  not  come  up  if  they  did ;  and  therefore  they  either  play 
 at  chess,  and  such  like  games,  or  spend  the  time  in  music  and 
 dancing,  until  it  be  proper  to  begin  their  feasting,  wherein  they 
 indulge  themselves  to  such  an  immoderate  degree,  that  their  feast 
 of  purim  has,  with  great  justice,  been  called  the  Bacchanals  of  the 
 Jews.  They  allow  themselves  to  drink  wine  to  excess,  nay, 
 even  to  such  a  pitch,  as  not  to  be  able  to  distinguish  between  the 
 blessing  of  Mordecai,  and  the  curse  of  Haman,  as  themselves 
 speak ;  and  amidst  the  other  sports  and  diversions  of  the  day, 
 they  used  formerly  to  erect  a  gibbet,  and  burn  upon  it  a  man  made 
 of  straw,  whom  they  called  Haman  ;  but  herein  it  was  thought,  that 
 they  might  have  a  design  to  insult  Christians,  upon  the  death  of 
 our  crucified  Saviour;  and  therefore  Theodosius  the  second, 
 (Anno  Dom.  408,)  forbade  them  to  use  this  ceremony,  under  the 
 penalty  of  forfeiting  all  their  privileges.  We  have  only  farther 
 to  remark  concerning  this  festival,  that  it  is  always  kept  for  two 
 days  together,  and  the  reason  hereof  is  this: — the  Jews  at  Shu- 
 shan had  two  days  allowed  them  to  revenge  themselves  of  their 
 enemies,  (Esther  ix.  13,)  hut  the  rest  of  the  Jews  in  other  na- 
 tions had  but  one.  This  caused,  at  first,  some  dilierence  in  their 
 time  of  feasting;  for  the  Jews  in  all  other  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
 having  done  execution  on  their  enemies  on  the  thirteenth  day, 
 kept  their  rejoicing  feast  on  the  fourteenth  ;  but  the  Jews  at  Shushan, 
 being  engaged  in  this  work  both  on  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
 days,  kept  their  festival  for  their  deliverance  on  the  fifteenth. 
 When  Mordecai,  however,  had  made  a  record  of  this  great  de- 
 liverance, he  sent  letters  to  all  the  Jews  throughout  the  domin- 
 ions of  Ahasuerus,  to  establish  it  as  a  standing  ordinance  among 
 them,  that  they  should  keep  both  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  of 
 the  month  Adar  every  year,  as  the  days  whereon  the  Jews 
 rested  from  their  enemies:  and  this  is  the  reason  why  the  festi- 
 val continues  for  two  days,  though  the  former  of  them  is  only 
 kept  with  great  solemnity. — Patrick's  Commentary,  HoieeVs  His- 
 tory, in  the  notes,  and  Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word 
 Purim. 
 
 c  In  Ezra  vii.  1,  Ezra  is  called  the  son  of  Seraiah,  but  as  the 
 death  of  Seraiah  occurred  1'cO  years  before  this  time,  our  author 
 very  properly  considers  the  term  as  implying  here  a  descendant. 
 —Ed. 
 
 d  Both  the  Septuagint,  Vulgate,  and  our  translation,  render 
 the  words  sopher  mahir,  a  ready  scribe,  (Ezra  vii.  6,)  as  if  to 
 have  a  quick  hand  at  writing  out  the  law,  were  any  great  perfec- 
 tion, or  that  any  aged  man,  as  Ezra  was,  should  be  renowned  for  it. 
 It  was  not  then  for  writing,  but  for  explaining  the  things  con- 
 tained in  the  Scriptures  that  Ezra  was  so  famous.  For  as  sepher 
 signifies  a  book,  so  sopher  denotes  one  skilled  and  learned  in  that 
 book;  and  as  there  was  no  book  comparable  to  the  book  of  the 
 law,  therefore  sepher  became  a  name  of  great  dignity,  and  sig- 
 nified one  that  taught  God's  law,  and  instructed  the  people  out  of 
 it;  in  which  sense  we  find  the  word  ygafi/zartTs,  or  scribes,  used 
 in  the  New  Testament.  For  when  our  Saviour  is  said  to  have 
 taught  the  people,  'as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as  the 
 scribes,  this  plainly  shows,  that  these  scribes  were  not  transcrib- 
 ers, but  teachers  and  expounders  of  the  laws,  though  they  did 
 not  do  it  with  a  proper  authority. — Patrick's  and  Le  Clcrc's 
 Commentaries, 
 
Sfct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY    &c. 
 
 721 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947. 
 
 his  own  nation  with  hhu,  as  were  willing  to  accompany 
 him  thither. 
 
 On  the  first  day  of  the  first  month,  which  is  called  Ni- 
 san,  and  might  fall  about  the  middle  of  our  March,  he 
 set  forward  on  his  journey  from  Babylon,  a  with  an  am- 
 ple commission  and  authority  to  restore  and  settle  the 
 state,  reform  the  church  of  the  Jews,  and  regulate  and 
 govern  both  according  to  their  own  Jaws.  AVhen  he 
 came  to  the  river  Ahava,  b  he  there  halted,  until  the 
 rest  of  his  company  was  come  up  ;  and  then,  having,  in 
 tt   solemn    fast,    c  recommended    himself,  and    all   that 
 
 a  It  can  hardly  be  imagined,  but  that  some  more  than  ordinary 
 means  were  used  to  obtain  so  great  a  favour  from  the  king,  as 
 this  commission  was;  and  therefore  we  may  suppose  that  it  was 
 granted  at  the  solicitation  of  Esther,  who  was  become  the  bust 
 beloved  of  the  king's  concubines,  though  not  as  yet  advanced  to 
 the  dignity  of  queen:  for  seeing  it  was  usual  for  the  kings  of 
 Persia,  on  some  particular  days  and  occasions,  to  allow  their  wo- 
 men to  ask  what  boons  they  pleased,  it  is  not  unlikely,  that,  by 
 the  direction  of  Mordecai,  upon  some  such  time  and  occasion  as 
 this,  Esther,  though  she  had  not  discovered  her  kindred  and  na- 
 tion, might  make  this  the  matter  of  her  request. — Pridcuit.r' s 
 Connection,  anno  459.  [It  is  not  improbable  that  the  king, 
 who  in  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign,  had  made  Mordecai  the 
 Jew  his  prime  minister,  and  Esther  the  Jewess  his  queen,  should 
 give  to  Ezra  the  Jew,  a  commission  conferring  such  full  powers 
 as  we  find  vested  in  Ezra,  (Ezra  vi.  vii.  viii.  31 ;  Esther  ii. ;  Dan. 
 ix.  1.)  Xerxes  might  hope,  that  by  thus  patronising  the  Jews,  he 
 should  obtain  some  favour  after  his  unsuccessful  campaigns  from 
 the  God  of  heaven,  whom  the  Jews  worshipped,  and  to  whom 
 Cyrus  attributed  all  his  victories.  This  much  seems  to  be  inti- 
 mated by  the  words  of  the  edict,  (Ezra  vii.  23.)  The  commis- 
 sion of  Ezra  was  given  in  the  seventh  year  of  the  king,  after  the 
 retreat  from  Greece.  It  is  no  objection  to  our  hypothesis,  that 
 Ezra  began  his  journey  on  the  first  day  of  the  first  month,  and 
 arrived  at  Jerusalem  on  the  first  of  the  fifth  month,  in  the 
 seventh  year  of  Artaxerxes,  while  Esther  is  said  to  have  been 
 declared  queen  in  the  tenth  month  of  this  year;  for  the  book  of 
 Esther  computes  the  months  from  harvest,  or  Tishri,  while  Ezra 
 reckons  from  spring  or  Nisan.  Moreover,  the  favour  of  the  king 
 towards  the  Jews  did  not  commence  with  the  elevation  of  Esther 
 to  the  throne;  for  before  this  time  Mordecai  had  a  place  among 
 the  nobles  in  the  court  of  the  palace,  and  consequently  he  must 
 have  been  one  of  the  royal  officers.  The  difference  of  the  names 
 Artaxerxes,  Xerxes,  and  Ahasuerus,  need  occasion  no  difficulty, 
 for  these  are  not  so  much  proper  names,  as  appellatives  applied 
 to  every  king  at  pleasure.  Thus  Daniel  calls  even  Astyages, 
 Ahasuerus  of  the  Median  line.] — John's  Hebrew  Commonwealth, 
 vol.  i.  p.  199 Ed. 
 
 b  This  was  a  river  of  Assyria,  and  very  probably  that  which 
 ran  along  the  Adiabene,  where  the  river  Diava,  or  Adiava,  is 
 known  to  be,  and  upon  which  Ptolemy  places  the  city  of  Abane, 
 or  Aavane.  Here,  some  imagine,  was  the  country  which,  in  the 
 second  book  of  Kings  xvii.  24,  is  called  Ava,  from  whence  the 
 king  of  Assyria  translated  the  people  called  Avites  into  Pales- 
 tine, and,  in  their  room,  settled  some  of  the  captive  Israelites. 
 It  was  a  common  thing  for  those  that  travelled  from  Babylon  to 
 Jerusalem,  in  order  to  avoid  the  scorching  heat  of  the  desert  of 
 Arabia,  to  shape  their  course  northward  at  first,  and  then,  turn- 
 ing to  westward,  to  pass  through  Syria,  into  Palestine;  but  Ezra 
 haif  a  farther  reason  for  his  taking  this  route;  for  as  lie  intended 
 to  get  together  as  many  Israelites  as  he  could,  to  carry  along 
 with  him  to  Jerusalem,  he  took  his  course  this  way,  and  made  a 
 halt  in  the  country  of  Ava,  or  Ahava,  from  whence  he  might 
 send  emissaries  into  the  Caspian  mountains,  to  invite  such  Jews 
 as  were  there  to  come  and  join  him. —  Lc  Clerc's  Commentary 
 on  Ezra  viii.,  and  Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Ahava, 
 
 c  This  they  had  the  greater  reason  to  do,  because  they  carried 
 things  of  considerable  value  along  with  them;  were  apprehensive 
 ot  enemies  that  lay  in  wait  for  them;  and  were  ashamed  to  ask 
 any  guard  of  the  king;  who  being  not  much  instructed  in  divine 
 matters,  might  possibly  think  that  what  they  said  of  God's  favour 
 towards  them,  and  the  prophecies  concerning  their  restoration, 
 were  but  vaiu  boasts,  in  case  they  should  seem  to  distrust  his 
 power  and  favour,  of  whom  they  had  spoken  so  magnificently,  by 
 
 A.  C.  4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEII.  part  of  HAG.  ZECII.  MAL. 
 
 were  with  him,  to  the  divine  protection,  on  the  twelfth 
 day  he  set  forward  for  Jerusalem,  where  they  all  safely 
 arrived  on  the  first  day  of  the  fifth  month,  called  Ab, 
 that  is,  about  the  middle  of  our  July,  having  spent  four 
 whole  months  in  their  journey  from  Babylon  thither. 
 
 Upon  his  arrival,  Ezra  delivered  up  to  the  temple  the 
 offerings  which  had  been  made  to  it  by  the  king,  his  no- 
 bles, and  the  rest  of  the  people  of  Israel  that  staid  be- 
 hind, which  d  amounted  to  a  very  large  sum,  and  having 
 communicated  his  commission  to  the  king's  lieutenants 
 and  governors  throughout  all  Syria  and  Palestine,  lie 
 betook  himself  to  the  executing  of  the  contents  of  it. 
 
 He  had  not  been  long  in  his  government,  before  he 
 found  that  many  of  the  people  had  taken  wives  of  other 
 nations,  contrary  to  the  law  of  God  ;  and  that  several 
 of  the  priests  and  Levites,  as  well  as  other  chief  men 
 of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  had  transgressed  in  this  parti- 
 cular. And  therefore  after  he  had,  e  in  mourning  and 
 fasting  and  /  prayer,  deprecated  God's  wrath  for  so  sad 
 
 making  application  to  the  king  for  his  protection  and  defence. 
 Rather  therefore  than  give  any  such  umbrage,  they  were 
 resolved  to  commit  themselves  entirely  to  God:  but  then  it 
 was  necessary  that  they  should  beseech  that  of  him,  which,  with- 
 out giving  offence,  they  could  not  request  of  the  king. — Pa- 
 trick's Commentary. 
 
 d  According  to  the  account  we  have  of  them,  (Ezra  viii.  2G, 
 27,)  there  were  650  talents  of  silver,  which  at  375  pounds  to  the 
 talent,  make  243,750  pounds.  The  silver  vessels  weighed  100 
 talents,  which  came  to  37,500  pounds.  The  gold  in  coin  was  100 
 talents,  which  at  4500  pounds  per  talent,  made  450,000  pounds; 
 and  besides  all  this,  there  were  20  basins  of  gold  of  1000  drachms, 
 and  two  vessels  of  fine  copper,  as  valuable  as  gold. — Howell's 
 History  in  the  notes.  [Sir  J.  Chardin,  (MS.  note,)  has  men- 
 tioned a  mixed  metal  used  in  the  east,  and  highly  esteemed 
 there,  which  might  probably  be  of  as  ancient  an  origin  as  the 
 time  of  Ezra.  He  says,  I  have  heard  some  Dutch  gentlemen 
 speak  of  a  metal  in  the  island  of  Sumatra  and  among  the  Ma- 
 cassars, much  more  esteemed  than  gold,  which  royal  personages 
 alone  might  wear.  It  is  a  mixture,  if  I  remember  right,  of  gold 
 and  steel.  Calmbac,  is  this  metal,  composed  of  gold  and  copper ; 
 it  in  colour  nearly  resembles  the  pale  carnation  rose,  has  a  very 
 fine  grain,  and  the  polish  extremely  lively.  Gold  is  not  of  so 
 lively  and  brilliant  a  colour.] — Harnicr,  vol.  ii.  p.  490. — Ed. 
 
 e  The  manner  in  which  Ezra  is  said  to  have  expressed  his 
 concern  for  the  people's  unlawful  marriages,  is,  by  '  rending  his 
 garment,  and  his  mantle,'  (chap.  ix.  3,)  that  is,  both  his  inner 
 and  upper  garment:  which  was  a  token  not  only  of  great  grief 
 and  sorrow,  but  of  his  apprehensions  likewise  of  the  divine  dis- 
 pleasure; and  by  'pulling  off"  the  hair  of  his  head  and  beard,' 
 which  was  still  a  higher  sign  of  exceeding  great  grief  among 
 other  nations,  as  well  as  the  Jews;  and  therefore  we  find  in 
 Homer,  that  when  Ulysses  and  his  companions  bewailed  the 
 death  of  Elpinor,  "  they  sat  together  lamenting  and  tearing  their 
 hair." — Odyss.  x. 
 
 /  The  prayer  we  have  in  Ezra  ix.  6,  &c.  the  purport  of  which 
 is  this : — '  That  he  was  confounded  when  he  thought  of  the 
 greatness  of  their  sins,  which  were  ready  to  overwhelm  them, 
 and  of  the  boldness  and  insolence  of  them  beyond  measure,  even 
 though  they  had  seen  the  divine  vengeance  upon  their  fore- 
 fathers, in  so  terrible  a  manner,  that  they  had  not  yet  worn  off 
 the  marks  of  his  displeasure.  He  had  begun  indeed  to  show 
 favour  to  some  of  them  ;  but  this  so  much  the  more  aggravated 
 their  wickedness,  in  that,  so  soon  after  their  restoration  and  set- 
 tlement in  their  native  country,  they  had  returned  to  their  old 
 provocations,  notwithstanding  the  many  admonitions  in  the  law 
 and  the  prophets,  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  people  of  Can- 
 aan, except  it  were  to  expel  and  root  them  out.  What  then  can 
 we  expect,  says  lie,  but  the  utter  destruction  of  the  small  rem- 
 nant that  is  left  of  us,  if,  after  all  the  punishments  which  tied 
 has  inflicted  on  us,  and  his  beginning  now  to  lie  gracious  unto 
 us,  we  relapse  into  the  same  offences  for  which  we  have  so 
 severely  suffered?  For  while  we  remain  monuments  of  his 
 mercy,  and  yet  appear  before  him  in  our  abominations,  wo  must 
 
728 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947. 
 
 an  apostasy,  he  caused  proclamation  to  be  made  for 
 all  the  people  of  the  land,  that  had  returned  from  the 
 captivity,  to  meet  together  at  Jerusalem,  under  the  pen- 
 alty of  excommunication  and  confiscation  of  their  goods  ; 
 and  when  they  met,  he  endeavoured  to  make  them  sen- 
 sible of  their  sin,  and  engaged  them  in  a  promise  and 
 covenant  before  God,  to  depart  from  it,  by  putting 
 away  their  strange  wives,  and  the  children  that  were 
 born  of  them,  that  the  seed  of  Israel  might  not  be  pol- 
 luted by  such  an  undue  commixture  ;  and  accordingly 
 commissioners  were  appointed  to  inspect  this  affair,  who, 
 in  three  months'  time,  made  a  proper  inquiry,  and  a 
 thorough  reformation  of  this  enormity. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Zerubbabel,  the  administration 
 both  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs  devolved  upon 
 Ezra ;  but  in  the  twentieth  year  of  Ahasuerus,  a  Nehe- 
 niiah,  a  very  religious  and  excellent  person  among  those 
 of  the  captivity,  and  who  was  a  great  favourite  with  that 
 prince,  succeeded  him  in  the  government  of  Judah  and 
 Jerusalem.  He  had  informed  himself,  from  some  peo- 
 ple that  were  come  from  Jerusalem,  of  the  miserable 
 state  and  condition  of  that  city  ;  that  *  its  walls  were 
 broken  down,  and  its  gates  burned,  so  that  its  inhabi- 
 tants lay  open  not  only  to  the  incursions  and  insults  of 
 their  enemies,  but  to  the  reproach  likewise  and  contempt 
 of  their  neighbours.  This  mournful  relation  affected  the 
 good  man  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  applied  himself  in 
 fasting  and  '  prayer  to  God,  and  humbly  besought,  that 
 he  would  be  pleased  to  favour  the  design  which  he  had 
 conceived  of  asking  the  king's  permission  to  go  to  Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 By  his  office,  c  he  was  cupbearer  to  the  king;    and 
 
 A.  C.  464.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  Part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 therefore,  when  it  came  d  to  his  turn  to  wait,  the  king, 
 observing  that  his  countenance  was  not  so  cheerful  as 
 at  other  times,  and  being  told,  that  the  distressed  state 
 of  his  country,  and  of  the  city  where  his  ancestors  were 
 buried,  were  the  only  cause  of  it,  gave  him,  at  his  re- 
 quest, through  the  intercession  of  the  queen  (who  2  was 
 then  sitting  with  him),  leave  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  and  a 
 full  commission,  as  his  governor  of  the  province  of  Ju- 
 dea,  to  repair  the  walls,  and  to  set  up  the  gates,  and 
 fortify  the  city  again  in  the  same  manner  that  it  was 
 before  it  was  dismantled  and  destroyed  by  the  Babylon- 
 ians ;  but,  upon  this  condition  it  was,  that  he  should 
 return  to  court  again,  at  such  a  e  determinate  time. 
 
 The  king,  at  the  same  time,  wrote  letters  to  all  the  go- 
 vernors beyond  the  Euphrates,  to  be  aiding  and  assisting 
 to  him  in  the  work.  He  sent  his  order  to  Asaph,  the 
 keeper  of  his  forests  in  those  parts,  to  furnish  him  with 
 whatever  timber  he  should  want,  not  only  for  the  repar- 
 ation of  the  towers  and  gates  of  the  city,  but  for  the 
 building  of  himself  a  house  likewise,  as  governor  of  the 
 province,  to  live  in  ;  and,  to  do  him  still  more  honour, 
 he  sent  a  guard  of  horse,  under  the  command  of  some  of 
 the  captains  of  his  army,  to  conduct  him  safe  to  his 
 government. 
 
 With  these  letters  and  powers,  Nehemiah  arrived  at 
 Jerusalem,  and  was  kindly  received  by  the  people  ;  but 
 it  was  three  days  before  he  acquainted  any  one  with  the 
 occasion  of  his  coming.  On  the  third  day  at  night,  he, 
 with  some  few  attendants,  went  privately  round  the  city, 
 to  take  a  view  of  the  walls,  which  he  found  in  a  ruinous 
 condition  ;  and,  on  the  next,  called  together  the  chief  of 
 the  people,  and,  /  having  reminded  them  of  the  desolate 
 
 1  Neh.  i.  5. 
 
 be  dumb  and  have  nothing  to  plead  in  excuse  of  our  detestable 
 ingratitude. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 a  It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  this  Nehemiah  be  the 
 same  that  is  mentioned  in  Ezra  (chap.  ii.  2,  and  Neh.  vii.  7), 
 as  one  that  returned  from  the  Babylonish  captivity  under  Zerub- 
 babel; since  from  the  first  year  of  Cyrus  to  the  twentieth  of 
 Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  there  are  no  less  than  ninety-two  years 
 intervening;  so  that  Nehemiah  must,  at  this  time,  have  been  a 
 very  old  man,  upon  the  lowest  computation  above  an  hundred 
 and,  consequently,  utterly  incapable  of  being  the  king's  cup- 
 bearer, of  taking  a  journey  from  Shushan  to  Jerusalem,  and  of 
 behaving  there  with  all  that  courage  and  activity  that  is  recorded 
 of  him.  Upon  this  presumption,  therefore,  we  may  conclude 
 that  this  was  a  different  person,  though  of  the  same  name  •  and 
 that  Tarshatha  (the  other  name  by  which  he  is  called  Ezra  ii 
 US,  and  Neh.  vii.  C5,)  denotes  the  title  of  his  office,  and  both 
 in  the  Persian  and  Chaldean  tongues,  was  the  general  name 
 given  to  all  the  king's  deputies  and  governors/ — Le  Clerc's  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  commissions  which  had  hitherto  been  granted  to  the 
 Jews  were  supposed  to  extend  no  farther  than  to  the  rebuilding 
 of  the  temple,  and  their  own  private  houses;  and  therefore  the 
 walls  and  gates  of  their  city  lay  in  the  same  ruinous  condition  in 
 which  the  Chaldeans  left  them  after  that  devastation. — Patrick's 
 Commentary,   and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  This  was  a  place  of  great  honour  and  advantage  in  the  Per- 
 sian (unit,  because  of  the  privilege  which  it  gave  him  that  was 
 in  it,  ol  being  daily  in  the  king's  presence,  and  the  opportunity 
 which  he  had  thereby  of  gaining  his  favour,  for  the  obtaining 
 of  any  petition  that  he  should  make  to  him.  And  that  it  was 
 a  place  of  great  advantage  seems  evident,  by  Nehemiah's  gain- 
 ing those  immense  riches  which  enabled  him  for  so  many  years, 
 (Neh.  v.  14,  1!))  out  of  his  own  private  purse  only,  to  live  in  his 
 government  with  all  I  hat  splendour  and  expense,  that  will  here- 
 after be  related,  without  burdening  the  people  at  all  for  it. — 
 Pridcaux's  Connection,  anno  445. 
 
 2  Neh.  ii.  6. 
 
 d  Commentators  have  generally  observed,  that  it  was  almost 
 four  months  between  his  hearing  of  the  disconsolate  condition 
 wherein  Jerusalem  lay,  and  his  requesting  leave  of  the  king  to 
 go  thither.  But,  besides  that  it  might  not  come  to  his  own  turn 
 of  waiting  sooner,  there  might  be  these  farther  reasons  assigned 
 for  this  his  long  silence  and  delay:  as  that  he  could  not  take  so 
 long  and  dangerous  a  journey  in  the  winter;  that  he  could  no 
 sooner  meet  with  a  seasonable  opportunity  of  speaking  with  the 
 king  upon  so  critical  an  affair;  or,  as  others  will  have  it,  that  he 
 retired  all  this  intermediate  while,  and  spent  it  in  fasting  and 
 prayer. — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 e  How  long  this  was,  it  is  not  certain.  It  is  said  indeed  that 
 he  was  '  governor  in  the  land  of  Judah  for  twelve  years,'  chap, 
 v.  14 — xiii.  6.  But  considering  what  haste  he  made  in  des- 
 patching the  building  of  the  walls,  which  he  finished  in  two  and 
 fifty  days,  the  leave  which  he  asked  might  be  but  for  a  year,  or 
 perhaps  half  so  much ;  after  which  time,  it  is  likely,  that  he 
 returned  to  Shushan,  according  to  his  promise;  but,  some  time 
 after,  was  sent  back  again  by  the  king,  who  found  his  presence 
 there  serviceable,  or  perhaps  necessary,  for  the  better  regulation 
 of  that  province,  to  be  his  governor  for  twelve  years. — Patrick's 
 Commentary. 
 
 /The  speech  which  Josephus  puts  in  the  mouth  of  the  gover- 
 nor upon  this  occasion  is  to  this  effect: — "  You  cannot  but  see 
 and  understand,  you  men  of  Judea,  that  we  ourselves  are,  at  this 
 day,  under  the  power  and  providence  of  the  same  almighty  and 
 merciful  God  that  did  so  many  things  for  our  forefathers  Abra- 
 ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob,  out  of  a  gracious  regard  to  their  piety 
 and  justice:  and  it  is  by  the  favour  of  that  God  that  I  have  now 
 obtained  leave  from  the  king  to  enter  upon  the  rebuilding  of 
 your  wall,  and  the  putting  of  an  end  to  the  work  of  the  temple 
 that  is  yet  unfinished.  But  taking  this  for  granted,  that  you  live 
 among  a  sort  of  malicious  and  spiteful  neighbours,  who  would 
 do  all  that  is  to  be  done  in  nature  for  the  crossing  of  your  design, 
 when  they  come  once  to  see  you  heartily  intent  upon  the  under- 
 taking, 1  shall  therefore  recommend  it  to  you,  in  the  first  place, 
 resolutely  and  fearlessly   to  cast  yourselves  upon  God,  who  will 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 729 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4917.  A.  C.  4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7— END,  EST.  NEII.  v.uvv  01  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 manner  in  which  the  walls  of  their  city  lay,  and  exhorted 
 them  to  set  about  the  reparation  of  them,  he  produced 
 his  commission  and  letters  to  that  purpose,  which,  when 
 they  were  read,  so  gladdened  and  revived  their  droop- 
 ing spirits,  tliat  they  joyfully  and  unanimously  cried  out 
 '  Let  us  rise  and  build.' 
 
 In  carrying  on  the  building,  Nehemiah  divided  the 
 people  into  several  companies,  and  assigned  to  each  of 
 them  the  quarter  where  they  were  to  work,  reserving  to 
 himself  the  reviewal  and  direction  of  the  whole.  But 
 they  had  not  long  proceeded  in  the  work,  before  San- 
 ballat, an  officer  of  the  Moabites,  and  Tobiah,  a  man  of 
 note  among  the  Ammonites,  two  bitter  enemies  to  the 
 Jewish  nation,  began  to  scoff* and  ridicule  their  under- 
 taking. As  the  work,  however,  advanced,  they  changed 
 their  note,  and  apprehending  themselves  in  danger  from 
 the  growing  greatness  of  the  Jews,  were  resolved  to  put 
 a  stop  to  their  future  progress. 
 
 To  this  purpose  they  entered  into  a  confederacy  with 
 some  neighbouring  nations,  to  come  upon  them  by  sur- 
 prise, demolish  their  works,  and  put  them  all  to  the 
 sword  ;  but  the  governor  having  notice  of  this  their  de- 
 sign, and  senduig  out  scouts  daily  to  observe  their  mo- 
 tions, placed  a  guard  well  armed  to  defend  and  encourage 
 the  workmen  ;  and  ordered,  that  each  workman  should 
 have  his  arms  nigh  at  hand,  in  case  they  were  attacked ; 
 while  himself  went  often  in  person  among  them,  by  his 
 precept  and  example,  encouraging  them  to  trust  in  the 
 Lord,  and,  in  his  speeches  and  exhortations,  putting 
 them  frequently  in  mind,  that  it  was  for  their  wives,  their 
 brethren,  and  children,  (in  case  they  were  compelled  to 
 it,)  that  they  fought ;  so  that,  by  these  means,  they  se- 
 cured themselves  against  all  the  attempts  and  designs 
 of  their  enemies,  until  the  work  was  brought  to  a  con- 
 clusion. 
 
 Sanballat,  and  the  rest  of  his  confederates,  perceiving 
 that  their  plot  was  discovered,  and  not  daring  to  attack 
 Nehemiah  by  open  force,  had  recourse  to  craft  and 
 stratagem.  To  this  purpose,  under  pretence  of  ending 
 the  difference  between  them  in  an  amicable  manner,  they 
 sent  to  invite  him  to  a  conference,  in  a  certain  village, 
 in  the  plain  of  Ono,  which  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Ben- 
 jamin, intending  there  to  do  him  a  mischief;  but  Nehe- 
 miah, very  probably  suspecting  their  wicked  design, 
 returned  in  answer  to  the  four  messages  of  the  same 
 import,  which  they  successively  sent,  "  that  the  work 
 wherein  he  was  engaged  required  his  personal  attend- 
 ance, and  therefore  he  could  not  come." 
 
 Sanballat,  perceiving  that  Nehemiah  was  too  cautious 
 to  be  insnared  by  a  general  invitation,  sent  by  his  ser- 
 vant a  letter,  a  wherein  lie  informed  him,  that  the  current 
 
 most  certainly  defeat,  all  the  practices  of  your  enemies;  and,  in 
 the  next  place,  to  ply  your  business  day  and  night,  without  any 
 intermission  either  of  care  or  of  labour,  this  being  the  proper 
 season  for  it." — Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  xi.  c.  5. 
 
 a  To  send  an  open  letter,  was  considered  a  mark  of  great  dis- 
 respect. A  Ii  tter  lias  its  Hebrew  name  from  the  circumstance 
 of  its  being  rolled  or  folded  together.  The  modem  Arabs  roll  up 
 their  litters,  and  then  flatten  them  to  the  breadth  of  an  inch;  and, 
 instead  of  sealing  them,  paste  up  their  ends.  The  Persians  make 
 ap  their  letters  in  a  roll  about  six  inches  long;  a  bit  of  paper  is 
 fastened  round  it  with  gum,  and  sealed  with  an  impression  of 
 ink.  In  Turkey,  letters  are  commonly  sent  to  persons  of  dis- 
 tinction in  a  bag  or  purse;  to  equals  they  are  also  inclosed,  but 
 i'>  interiors,  or  these  win,  are  held  in  contempt,  they  are  -cut 
 < ; "'n  or  nninclosed      This  explains  the  reason  of  Nehemiah's  eb- 
 
 report  was,  —  "  That  he  was  building  the  walls  of  Jeru- 
 salem only  to  make  it  a  place  of  strength,  to  support  his 
 intended  revolt;  that,  to  this  purpose,  he  had  suborned 
 false  prophets  to  favour  his  design,  and  to  encourage  the 
 people  to  choose  him  king  ;  and  that  therefore,  to  stop 
 the  course  of  these  rumours,  (which  in  a  short  time  would 
 come  to  the  king's  ears,)  he  advised  him  to  come  to  him, 
 that  they  might  confer  together,  and  take  such  resolutions 
 as  were  convenient."  But  Nehemiah,  knowing  his  own 
 innocence,  easily  saw  through  this  shallow  contrivance, 
 and  returned  him  for  answer,  that  "  all  these  accusations 
 were  false,  and  the  inventions  only  of  his  own  naughty 
 heart;"  so  that  finding  himself  disappointed  here  like- 
 wise, he  betook  himself  to  this  last  expedient. 
 
 There  was  one  Shemaiah,  the  son  of  Delaiah  the  priest, 
 a  great  friend  to  Nehemiah,  whom  Sanballat  had  bribed 
 to  his  interest.  This  man  pretended  to  the  gift  of  pro- 
 phecy :  and,  therefore,  when  Nehemiah  came  to  his  house 
 one  day,  he  foretold,  that  his  enemies  would  make  an 
 attempt  to  murder  him  that  very  night,  and  therefore  ad- 
 vised him  to  go  with  him  b  into  the  inner  part  of  the 
 temple,  and  so  secure  themselves  by  shutting  the  doors. 
 But  though  Nehemiah  did  not  apprehend  the  other's  de- 
 sign, which  he  came  to  find  out  afterwards,  yet,  out  of  a 
 sense  of  honour  and  religion,  he  declared  positively, 
 "  That,  come  what  would,  c  he  could  not  quit  his  station, 
 because  it  would  badly  become  a  man  in  his  character, 
 to  seek  out  for  refuge,  when  he  saw  danger  approaching." 
 
 These,  and  many  more  difficulties,  the  good  governor 
 had  to  contend  with ;  but  by  God's  assistance  he  over- 
 came them  all,  and  in  the  space  of  two  and  fifty  days, 
 having  completed  the  whole  work,  he  afterwards  held 
 
 servation ;  '  Then  sent  Sanballat  his  servant  unto  me  with  an 
 open  letter  in  his  hand.'  In  refusing  him  the  mark  of  respect 
 usually  paid  to  persons  of  his  station,  and  treating  him  contemp- 
 tuously, by  sending  the  letter  without  the  customary  appendages, 
 when  presented  to  persons  of  respectability,  Sanballat  offered  him 
 a  deliberate  insult.  Had  this  open  letter  come  from  Geshem, 
 who  was  an  Arab,  it  might  have  passed  unnoticed,  but  as  it  came 
 from  Sanballat,  the  governor  had  reason  to  expect  the  ceremony 
 of  inclosing  it  in  a  bag,  since  he  was  a  person  of  distinction  in 
 the  Persian  court,  and  at  that  time  governor  of  Judea. — Pa.vton's 
 Illustrations,  vol.  iii.  p.  241. — Ed. 
 
 b  By  '  the  house  of  God  within  the  temple,'  (as  it  is  in  the 
 text,  Neh.  vi.  10.)  Shemaiah  certainly  meant  the  sanctuary ; 
 and  to  advise  Nehemiah  to  retreat  thither,  he  had  a  good  pre- 
 tence, because  it  was  both  a  strong  and  a  sacred  place,  being  de- 
 fended by  a  guard  of  Levites,  and  by  its  holiness,  privileged 
 from  all  rude  approaches.  But  his  real  design  herein  might  be, 
 not  only  to  disgrace  Nehemiah,  and  dishearten  the  people,  when 
 they  saw  their  governor's  cowardice,  but  to  prepare  the  way 
 likewise  for  the  enemies  assaulting  and  taking  the  city,  when 
 there  was  no  leader  to  oppose  them ;  to  give  countenance  to  the 
 calumny  that  had  been  spread  abroad,  of  his  ai'eeting  to  be  made 
 king,  because  he  tied  upon  the  report  of  it;  and,  perhaps,  by  the 
 assistance  of  some  other  priests,  that  were  his  con  federates,  either 
 to  destroy  him,  or  to  secure  his  person,  until  the  city  was  be- 
 trayed into  the  enemy's  hands. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  words  of  Nehemiah,  upon  this  occasion,  ave  very  sig- 
 nificant, as  well  as  magnanimous.  "  Should  such  a  man  as  i 
 flee  ?  '  I,  the  chief  governor,  upon  whose  presence,  and  coun- 
 sel, and  conduct,  the  very  life  and  being  of  the  whole  city  and 
 nation  does,  in  a  great  measure,  depend  :  I,  who  have  professed 
 such  resolution,  courage,  and  confidence  in  God;  I,  who  have 
 had  such  eminent  experience  of  God's  gracious,  and  powerful 
 assistances,  of  his  calling  me  to  this  employment,  and  carrying 
 me  through  it,  when  the  danger  was  greater  than  now;  shall  I 
 dishonour  (rod  and  religion,  and  betray  the  people  and  city  ■!' 
 God  by  m\  cowardice  ?  God  forbid." 
 -t  z 
 
730 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947.  A.  C.4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  op  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 a  dedication  "  of  the  walls  and  gates  of  Jerusalem, 
 with  such  solemnity  and  magnificence  as  a  work  of  that 
 nature  required. 
 
 To  this  purpose  he  separated  the  priests,  the  Levites, 
 and  the  princes  of  the  people,  into  two  companies,  one 
 of  which  walked  to  the  right  hand,  and  the  other  to  the 
 left,  on  the  top  of  the  walls.  The  two  companies  which 
 were  to  meet  at  the  temple  in  their  procession,  were  at- 
 tended with  music,  both  vocal  and  instrumental.  When 
 they  came  to  the  temple,  they  there  read  the  law,  offered 
 sacrifices,  and  made  great  rejoicings ;  and  as  the  feast 
 of  tabernacles  happened  at  the  same  time,  they  failed  not 
 to  celebrate  it  with  great  solemnity. 
 
 When  the  walls  were  finished,  Nehemiah,  to  prevent 
 any  treachery  from  his  enemies,  either  within  or  with- 
 out the  city,  b  gave  the  charge  of  the  gates  to  his  bro- 
 ther Hainan i,  and  to  Hananiah,  marshal  of  his  palace,  c 
 two  men  in  whom  he  could  confide;  commanding  them 
 not  to  sutler  the  gates  to  be  opened  till  some  time  after 
 sunrising-,  to  see  them  safe  barred  at  night,  and  to  set 
 the  watch,  which  should  consist  of  settled  housekeepers 
 that  were  careful  and  diligent  men.  And  for  the  still 
 farther  security  of  the  city,  observing  that  the  d  number 
 of  its  inhabitants  was  too  few,  he  ordered  that  the  prin- 
 cipal men  of  the  nation  should  there  fix  their  habitations, 
 and,   at  the  same  time,   caused   the  rest  to    cast  lots, 
 
 a  Dedication  is  a  religious  ceremony,  whereby  any  temple, 
 altar,  and  vessel  thereunto  belonging,  is,  by  the  pronunciation  of 
 a  certain  form  of  blessing,  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God ;  and 
 this  dedication,  we  may  observe,  extends  not  only  to  things 
 sacred,  but  to  cities  and  their  walls,  and  sometimes  to  private 
 houses,  (Deut.  xx.  5.)  As,  therefore,  Moses  in  the  wilderness 
 dedicated  the  tabernacle,  and  Solomon  the  temple,  when  he  had 
 finished  it;  so  Nehemiah,  having  put  things  in  good  order,  built 
 the  walls  and  set  up  the  gates,  thought  proper  to  dedicate  the 
 city,  as  a  place  which  God  himself  had  chosen,  and  sanctified  by 
 his  temple  and  gracious  presence ;  and  by  this  dedication,  to  re- 
 store it  to  him  again,  after  it  had  been  laid  waste,  and  profaned 
 by  the  devastation  of  the  heathens. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 /'  Nehemiah,  very  likely,  was  now  returning  to  Shushan  to 
 give  the  king  an  account  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  Judea,  and 
 therefore  he  took  care  to  place  such  men  in  the  city  as  he  knew 
 would  faithfully  secure  it  in  his  absence.  Hanani  is  said  to  be 
 his  brother;  but  he  chose  his  officers,  not  out  of  partial  views  to 
 his  own  kindred,  but  because  he  knew  that  they  would  acquit 
 themselves  in  their  employment  with  a  strict  fidelity.  Hanani 
 had  given  proof  of  his  zeal  for  God  and  his  country,  in  his  taking 
 a  tedious  journey  from  Jerusalem  to  Shushan,  to  inform  Nehe- 
 miah of  the  sad  estate  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  implore  his  helping 
 hand  to  relieve  it,  chap,  i.  And  the  reason  why  Nehemiah  put 
 such  trust  and  confidence  in  Hananiah  was,  because  he  was  a 
 man  of  conscience,  and  acted  upon  religious  principles,  which 
 would  keep  him  from  those  temptations  to  perfidiousness  which 
 he  might  probably  meet  with  in  his  absence,  and  against  which 
 
 a  man,  destitute  of  the  fear  of  God,  has  no  sufficient  fence 
 
 Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 C  So  the  house  which  was  built  for  Nehemiah's  residence 
 might  justly  he  called,  because  he  livid  there  in  great  splendour, 
 though  wholly  at  bis  own  charge,  aud  as  the  king's  viceroy, 
 there  gave  audience  to  the  people,  as  a  king  is  wont  in  his  pal- 
 ace.— Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  One  reason  why  the  bulk  of  the  Jews  (who  were  originally 
 ,  and  lovers  of  agriculture)  might  rather  choose  to  live  in 
 tiie  country  than  at  Jerusalem  was,  because  it  was  more  suited 
 to  their  genius  and  manner  of  life.  But  at  this  time  their  ene- 
 mies were  so  enraged  to  see  the  walls  built  again,  and  so  restless 
 in  their  designs  to  keep  the  city  from  rising  to  its  former  splen- 
 dour, that  it  terrified  many  from  coming  to  dwell  there,  thinking 
 themselves  more  safe  in  the  country,  where  their  enemies  had 
 no  pretence  to  disturb  them. — Le  Gere's  and  Patrick's  Com- 
 mentaries. 
 
 e  whereby  a  tenth  part  of  the  whole  people  of  Judah  and 
 Benjamin  /  became  obliged  to  dwell  at  Jerusalem, 
 though  those  who  came  voluntarily  were  better  re- 
 ceived. 
 
 While  the  walls  of  the  city  were  building,  there  hap- 
 pened a  kind  of  mutiny  among  the  common  people, 
 which  might  have  been  of  fatal  consequence,  had  it  not 
 been  timely  composed  :  for  the  rich,  taking  the  advan- 
 tage of  the  meaner  sort,  had  s  exacted  heavy  usury  of 
 them,  insomuch,  that  they  made  them  pay  the  centesima 
 for  all  the  money  that  was  lent  them,  that  is,  one  per 
 cent,  for  every  month,  which  amounted  to  twelve  per 
 cent,  for  the  whole  year.  This  oppression  reduced  them 
 so  low,  that  they  were  forced  to  mortgage  their^ lands, 
 houses,  and  tenements,  and  even  to  sell  their  children 
 into  servitude  h    to  have  »  wherewith  to  buy  bread  for 
 
 e  Though  the  casting  of  lots  be  certainly  forbidden,  where  the 
 thing  is  done  out  of  a  spirit  of  superstition,  or  with  a  design  to 
 tempt  God;  yet,  on  some  occasions,  it  is  enjoined  by  God  him- 
 self; and  the  most  holy  persons  both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
 ment, in  particular  cases,  have  practised  it.  The  wise  man  ac- 
 knowledges the  usefulness  of  this  custom,  when  he  tells  us,  '  that  the 
 lot  causeth  contention  to  cease,  and  parteth  between  the  mighty," 
 Prov.  xviii.  IS ;  and  therefore  it  was  no  bad  policy  (as  things  now 
 stood)  to  take  this  method  of  decision,  since  the  lot,  which  all 
 allowed  was  under  the  divine  direction,  falling  upon  such  a  per- 
 son, rather  than  another,  would  be  a  great  means,  no  doubt, 
 to  make  him  remove  more  contentedly  to  the  city. — Pa- 
 trick's Commentary,  and  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word 
 Lot. 
 
 f  These  were  the  two  tribes  that  anciently  possessed  Jerusa- 
 lem, which  stood  partly  in  one  tribe,  and  partly  in  the  other :  for 
 which  reason,  in  some  places  of  Scripture,  Jerusalem  is  reckoned 
 as  belonging  to  the  children  of  Judah,  Josh.  xv.  62,  and  Judg. 
 viii.  28;  and  in  others,  to  the  children  of  Benjamin,  Judg. 
 xxi.  2S;  but  what  part  of  the  city  belonged  to  the  one,  and 
 what  to  the  other,  is  not  so  well  agreed  among  learned 
 men.  Since  these  two  tribes,  however,  were  the  ancient  inhab- 
 itants of  the  city,  there  was  all  the  reason  in  the  world,  why,  in 
 this  scarcity  of  inmates,  they,  above  any  others,  should  be 
 obliged  to  come  and  dwell  there. — Patrick's  Commentary . 
 
 g  This  usury  was  the  more  grievous,  because  it  was  not  only 
 contrary  to  their  law,  and  demanded  at  a  time  when  they  were 
 hard  at  work,  and  their  enemies  threatening  to  destroy  them  all ; 
 but,  as  some  have  observed,  that  the  twentieth  of  Ahasuerus 
 (wherein  this  was  done)  began  about  the  end  of  a  sabbatical  year 
 after  the  law,  which  forbade  every  creature  to  exact  any  debt  of 
 '  his  neighbour  or  his  brother,'  Deut.  xv.  2,  had  been  so  fre- 
 quently read.  This  raised  the  cry  of  the  poor  to  a  greater 
 height,  having  been  forced  to  sell  their  children,  and  deprived 
 now  of  all  power  of  redeeming  them,  because  their  lands  were 
 mortgaged  to  those  oppressors. — Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 h  As  to  the  paternal  power  of  the  Hebrews,  the  law  gave  them 
 leave  to  sell  their  daughters,  (Exod.  xxi.  7) ;  but  the  sale  was  a 
 sort  of  marriage,  as  it  was  with  the  Romans.  Fathers  sold  their 
 children  to  their  creditors,  (Isaiah  1.  1);  and  in  the  time  of  Nehe- 
 miah, the  poor  proposed  to  sell  their  children  for  something  to 
 live  upon;  and  others  bewailed  themselves  that  they  had  not 
 wherewith  to  redeem  their  children  that  were  already  in  slavery. 
 They  had  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  their  children,  (Prov. 
 xix.  18).  But  they  had  not  so  much  liberty  as  the  Romans,  to 
 make  use  of  this  severe  privilege  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
 magistrate.  The  law  of  God  only  permitted  the  father  and  mo- 
 ther, after  they  had  tried  all  sorts  of  correction  at  home,  to 
 declare  to  the  elders  of  the  city  that  their  son  was  stubborn  and 
 rebellious;  and  upon  their  complaint  he  was  condemned  to  death 
 and  stoned,  (Deut.  xxi.  19).  The  same  law  was  in  force  at 
 Athens. — Fleury's  Hist,  of  the  Israelites,  p.  140. — Ed. 
 
 i  Not  long  before  this  there  had  been  a  great  scarcity  for 
 want  of  rain,  which  God  thought  proper  to  withhold,  in  pun- 
 ishment for  the  people's  taking  more  care  to  build  their  own 
 houses  than  his,  as  we  read,  Hag.  i.  9,  &c.  In  which  time  the 
 rich  had  no  compassion  on  their  poor  brethren,  but  forced  them 
 to  part  with  all  they  had  for  bread;  and  cow  (what  made  them 
 
Skct.  II.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 731 
 
 nanciug  any  manner  of  oppression,  that  he  did  not  ex 
 act  the  daily  revenue  of  forty  shekels  of  silver,  and  the 
 constant  furniture  of  his  table  with  provisions  ;  but  re- 
 mitted these  and  all  other  advantages  of  his  place,  that 
 might  any  way  be  troublesome  and  chargeable  to  the 
 people.  Nay,  he  not  only  refused  the  allowance  which 
 was  due  to  him  as  governor,  but,  at  his  own  charge,  ° 
 kept  open  house,  entertaining  every  day  at  his  table  a 
 hundred  and  fifty  of  the  Jews,  and  their  rulers,  besides 
 strangers ;  for  which  he  constantly  allowed  an  ox,  six 
 fat  sheep,  and  fowl  in  proportion,  and,  on  every  tenth 
 day,  wine  of  all  sorts.  Besides  this,  he  gave  2  many 
 rich  presents  to  the  temple  ;  and,  by  his  generous  exam- 
 ple, encouraged  others,  both  princes  and  people,  to  do 
 the  like. 
 
 Thus  Nehemiah,  with  great  honour  and  applause, 
 having  executed  the  commission  with  which  he  was  sent 
 to  Jerusalem,  at  the  expiration  of  the  time  which  was 
 allowed  him,  he  returned  to  Shushan,  according  to  his 
 promise  to  the  king.  But  before  he  did  that,  c  Ezra  the 
 learned  scribe,  at  the  request  of  the  people,  produced 
 the  book  of  the  law,  which  he  had  now  completed,  and 
 having  divided  the  company  into  several  parts,  he,  with 
 thirteen  priests  more,  read  from  a  wooden  pulpit,  d  and 
 as  he  went  along,  expounded  it  to  them.  e     This  they 
 
 A.  M.  3175.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947.  A.  C.  4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7— esu,  EST.  NEH.  tart  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 the  support  of  themselves  and  their  families  ;  which  being 
 a  manifest  breach  of  the  law  of  (iod  (for  1  that  forbids 
 all  the  race  of  Israel  to  take  usury  of  any  of  their  bre- 
 thren), Nehemiah,  as  soon  as  he  was  informed  thereof, 
 resolved  to  remove  so  great  an  iniquity.  And,  accord- 
 ingly, having  called  a  general  assembly  of  the  people, 
 wherein  he  set  before  them  the  nature  of  the  offence, 
 how  great  a  breach  it  was  of  the  divine  law,  and  how 
 heavy  an  oppression  upon  their  brethren ;  what  handle 
 it  might  give  their  enemies  to  reproach  them  ;  and  how 
 much  it  might  provoke  the  wrath  of  God  against  them 
 all ;  he  caused  it  to  be  enacted,  by  the  general  suffrage 
 of  the  whole  assembly,  that  every  one  should  return  to 
 his  brother  whatever  he  had  exacted  of  him  upon  usury  ; 
 and  should  likewise  release  all  the  lands,  houses,  and 
 tenements,  that  he  had,  at  any  time,  taken  of  him  upon 
 mortgage  ;  which  act  presently  removed  all  uneasiness, 
 and  pacified  the  minds  of  the  people.  a 
 
 The  governor  himself  indeed  was  so  far  from  counte- 
 
 1  Exod.  xxii.  25. 
 still  more  miserable)  another  dearth  was  come  upon  them, 
 which  might  easily  happen,  from  the  multitude  of  people  that 
 were  employed  in  the  repair  of  the  walls;  from  the  building- 
 work,  which  hindered  them  from  providing  for  their  families 
 some  other  way;  and  from  the  daily  dread  they  had  of  their  ene- 
 mies, which  might  keep  them  from  going  abroad  to  fetch  in 
 urovision,  and  the  country  people  from  bringing  it  in. — Patrick's 
 Commentary,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  In  the  text,  Neh.  ch.  v.  15,  it  is  said,  '  even  their  ser- 
 vants bare  rule  over  the  people.'  By  these  words  it  is  evident 
 that  some  oppressive  practices  are  referred  to.  They  probably 
 relate  to  the  forcible  taking  away  of  provisions  from  the  people 
 by  the  servants  of  former  governors.  In  these  countries  this  was 
 no  uncommon  thing;  many  instances  of  it  might  be  easily  pro- 
 duced :  the  one  which  follows  may,  however,  suffice.  After  the 
 jealousy  of  the  poor  oppressed  Greeks,  lest  they  snouid  he  pil- 
 laged,  or  more  heavily  loaded  with  demands  by  the  Turks,  had 
 prevented  their  voluntarily  supplying  the  Baron  du  Tott  for  his 
 money,  Ali  Aga  undertook  the  business,  and  upon  the  Molda- 
 vian pretending  not  to  understand  the  Turkish  language,  he 
 knocked  him  down  with  his  fist,  and  kept  kicking  him  while  he 
 was  rising,  which  brought  him  to  complain  in  Turkish  of  his 
 beating  him  so,  when  he  knew  very  well  they  were  poor  people, 
 who  were  often  in  want  of  necessaries,  and  whose  princes  scarcely 
 left  them  the  air  they  breathed.  "  Pshaw!  thou  art  joking, 
 friend,"  was  the  reply  of  Ali  Aga,  "thou  art  in  want  of  nothing 
 except  of  being  basted  a  little  oftener.  But  all  in  good  time. 
 Proceed  we  to  business.  I  must  instantly  have  two  sheep,  a 
 dozen  of  pigeons,  fifty  pounds  of  bread,  four  oques  (a  Turkish 
 weight  of  about  forty-two  ounces)  of  butter,  with  salt,  pepper, 
 nutmeg,  cinnamon,  lemons,  wine,  salad,  and  good  oil  of  olives, 
 all  in  great  plenty."  With  tears  the  Moldavian  replied :  "  I  have 
 already  told  you  that  we  are  poor  creatures,  without  so  much  as 
 bread  to  eat;  where  must  we  get  cinnamon?"  The  whip  was 
 taken  from  under  his  habit,  and  the  Moldavian  beaten  till  he 
 could  bear  it  no  longer,  but  was  forced  to  fly,  finding  Ali  Aga 
 inexorable,  and  that  these  provisions  must  be  produced.  A 
 quarter  of  an  hour  was  not  expired,  within  which  time  Ali  Aga 
 required  these  thing-;,  before  they  were  all  brought. — Memoirs, 
 vol.  i.  part  ii.  p.  10;  and  Forbes's  Oriental  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p. 
 831. — It  was  nearly  dark  when  we  reached  the  town,  if  a  long 
 Straggling  village  may  bear  this  appellation.  Ibrahim  rode  first, 
 and  had  collected  a  few  peasants  around  him,  who  we  could  just 
 discern  by  their  white  habits,  assembled  near  his  house.  In 
 answer  to  his  inquiries  respecting  provisions  for  the  party,  they 
 replied,  in  an  humble  tune,  that  they  had  consumed  all  the  food 
 in  their  houses,  and  had  nothing  left  to  oiler.  Instantly  the 
 noise  of  Ibrahim's  lash  about  their  heads  and  shoulders  made 
 them  believe  that  he  was  the  herald  of  a  party  of  Turks,  and 
 they  fled  in  all  directions.  This  was  the  only  way,  he  said,  to 
 make  those  misbegotten  dogs  provide  any  thing  for  our  supper. 
 It  was  quite  surprising  to  see  how  such  lusty  fellows,  any  one  of 
 whom  was  more  than  a  match  for  Ibrahim,  suffered  themselves 
 ti   be  horse-whipped,  and  driven  from  their  homes,  owing  to  the 
 
 2  Neh.  vii.  70,  &c. 
 dread    in   which   they  hold    a  nation   of  stupid   and    cowardly 
 Mahometans.' — Clarke's  Travels,  vol.  iii.  p.  G14.' — Ed, 
 
 I)  From  this  great  and  daily  expense,  it  seems  most  probable, 
 either  that  Nehemiah  had  large  remittances  from  the  Persian 
 court,  even  besides  his  own  estate,  to  answer  it,  or  that  he  did 
 not  continue  at  Jerusalem  for  the  whole  twelve  years  together: 
 or  tViat,  if  he  did,  he  did  not  continue  this  expensive  way  of 
 house-keeping  all  the  time,  but  only  during  the  great  and  present 
 exigencies  and  distresses  of  the  Jews,  which  ceased  in  a  good 
 measure  after  that  the  walls  were  built,  the  act  against  usury 
 passed,  and  the  people  discharged  to  their  ordinary  course  of 
 maintaining  themselves  and  families. — Poole's  Annotations,  and 
 Le  Clerc's  Commentary. 
 
 c  This  Ezra,  without  all  controversy,  was  the  same  Ezra  who 
 came  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem,  in  the  seventh  of  Artaxerxes, 
 with  a  full  commission  to  assist  Zerubbabel  in  the  reformation  of 
 the  whole  state  of  the  Jewish  church.  After  the  death  of  Zerub- 
 babel, the  whole  administration  devolved  upon  him;  but  as  his 
 commission  iasted  but  twelve  years,  upon  its  expiration  Nehe- 
 miah succeeded  to  the  government,  and  we  hear  no  more  of 
 Ezra,  until  he  is  here  called  upon  to  read  and  expound  the  law  to 
 the  people;  whether,  as  some  think,  he  returned  to  Babylon,  to 
 give  the  people  an  account  of  affairs  in  the  province  of  Judea,  or 
 whether,  in  this  intermediate  time,  he  employed  himself,  in 
 some  retirement,  in  the  great  work  of  preparing  a  new  and  cur- 
 rent edition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  of  which  we  shall  give  a  full 
 account  in  our  next  section. — Patrick's  Commentary,  and  Poole's 
 Annotations. 
 
 d  This  pulpit  was  to  raise  him  up  higher  than  the  people,  the 
 better  to  be  seen  and  heard  by  them ;  but  we  are  not  to  think 
 that  it  was  made  in  the  fashion  of  ours,  which  will  hold  no  more 
 than  one  person :  for,  as  we  may  observe  by  the  very  next  words, 
 it  was  made  large  and  long  enough  to  contain  fourteen  people  at 
 once. —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  (Neh.  viii.  S,)  are,  'so  they  read  in 
 the  book  in  the  law  of  God  distinctly,  and  gave  the  sense,  and 
 caused  them  to  understand  the  reading.'  The  Israelites  having 
 been  lately  brought  out  of  the  Babylonish  captivity,  in  which 
 they  had  continued  seventy  years,  according  to  the  prediction 
 of  Jeremiah,  (xx.  11,)  were  not  only  extremely  corrupt,  but  it 
 appears  that  they  had  in  general  lost  the  knowledge  of  the 
 ancient  Hebrew  to  such  a  degree,  that  when  the  book  of  the  law 
 was  read,  they  did  not  understand  it:  but  a  certain  Levite  stood 
 by,  and  gave  the  sense,  that  is,  translated  into  the  Chaldee 
 dialect.  This  was  not  only  the  origin  of  the  Chaldee  targums, 
 oi  translations  of  the  law  and  the  proi  liets  into  that  tongue;  but 
 
732 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A    M.  3170.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4347. 
 
 all  listened  to  with  a  very  devout  attention,  a  and  cele- 
 brated the  ensuing  feast  of  tabernacles  with  great  glad- 
 ness of  heart ;  and,  on  a  day  appointed  for  a  solemn  fast, 
 confessing  their  own  sins,  in  deprecating  the  judgments 
 due  to  the  iniquity  of  their  fathers  ;  acknowledging  the 
 omnipotence  of  God  in  creating  and  preserving  all 
 things,  and  enumerating  his  gracious  mercies  in  their 
 sundry  deliverances  from  their  enemies  and  persecutors, 
 they  made  a  covenant  with  him,  that  they  would  walk  in 
 his  law,  which  was  given  by  Moses  ;  and,  to  b  oblige 
 themselves  to  a  more  strict  performance  of  this  covenant, 
 it  was  ordered  to  be  engrossed,  that  the  prince,  priests, 
 and  Levites, might  set  their  "  hands  and  seals  to  it;  and 
 those  who  did  not  set  their  seals,  of  what  age,  sex,  or 
 condition  soever,  did  bind  themselves  with  an  oath, 
 punctually  to  observe  it. 
 
 But,  notwithstanding  all  this  precaution,  Nehemiah  had 
 not  been  long  gone  from  Jerusalem,  before  the  people 
 relapsed  into  their  old  corruptions  ;  which,  in  a  great 
 measure,  was  owing  to  the  mismanagement  of  d  Eliashib 
 
 was  also,  in  all  probability,  the  origin  of  preaching  from  a  text; 
 /or  it  appears  that  the  people  were  not  only  ignorant  of  their 
 ancient  language,  but  also  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  their 
 religion,  having  been  so  long  in  Babylon,  where  they  were  not 
 permitted  to  observe  them.  This  being  the  case,  not  cnly  the 
 language  must  be  interpreted,  but  the  meaning  of  the  rites  and 
 ceremonies  must  also  be  explained;  for  we  find  from  ver.  13, 
 &c.  of  this  chapter,  that  they  had  even  forgotten  the  feast  of 
 tabernacles,  and  every  thing  relating  to  that  ceremony.  As  we 
 ,  no  where  find  that  what  is  called  preaching  on  or  expounding  a 
 text,  was  even  in  use  before  that  period,  we  are  probably  beholden 
 to  the  Babylonish  captivity  for  producing,  in  the  hand  of  Divine 
 providence,  a  custom  the  most  excellent  and  beneficial  ever  in- 
 troduced among  men. — Br  A.  Clarke.- — Ed. 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  since  the  days  of  Joshua,  the 
 son  of  Nun,  unto  that  day,  had  not  the  children  of  Israel  done  so, 
 and  there  was  very  great  gladness,'  (Neh.  viii.  17.)  But  it  can 
 hardly  be  thought  that  this  festival  had  never  been  observed 
 since  Joshua's  time;  because  we  read  in  the  foregoing  book  of 
 Ezra,  that  it  was  kept  at  their  return  from  Babylon ;  but  the 
 nn  aniiig  is,  that  the  joy  since  that  time  had  never  been  so  great 
 as  it  was  upon  this  occasion;  for  which  the  Jews  themselves 
 assign  this  reason,  namely,  that  in  the  days  of  Joshua  they  rejoiced, 
 because  they  had  got  possession  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  now 
 they  equally  rejoiced,  because  they  were  restored,  and  quietly 
 settled  in  it,  after  they  had  been  long  cast  out  of  it. —  Patrick's 
 Commentary ■. 
 
 b  The  observances,  which  they  chiefly  obliged  themselves  to 
 in  this  covenant,  were,  1st,  not  to  make  intermarriages  with  the 
 Gentiles.  2dly,  to  observe  the  sabbaths  and  sabbatical  years. 
 3dly,  to  pay  their  annual  tribute  for  the  reparation  and  service 
 of  tin;  temple.  And,  4thly,  to  pay  their  tithes  and  first-fruits 
 for  the  maintenance  of  the  priests  and  Levites:  from  which  par- 
 ticulars, thus  named  in  this  covenant,  we  may  learn  what  were 
 the  laws  of  God,  which  hitherto  they  had  been  most  neglective 
 of,  since  their  return  from  the  captivity. — Prideaxix's  Connection, 
 anno  111. 
 
 c  It  signifies  little,  indeed,  what  such  untoward  people  promis- 
 ed ;  for  what  regard  would  they  have  to  their  own  hand-writing, 
 who  regarded  not  the  ten  commandments,  written  on  tables  of 
 stone  by  the  finger  of  God?  It  was  very  useful,  however,  that 
 there  should  be  a  public  instrument  to  convince  them  of  their 
 impiety,  and  that  they  might  be  publicly  confounded  when  they 
 proved  perfidious  deserters,  by  showing  them,  under  their  own 
 hands,  their  engagements  to  future  fidelity. — Patrick's  Comment. 
 
 d  Some  are  apt  to  imagine,  that  this  Eliashib  was  no  more  than 
 a  common  priest,  because  he  is  said  to  have  had  '  the  oversight 
 of  the  chambers  of  the  house  of  God,'  (Neh.  xiii.  4,)  which  was 
 an  office  too  mean,  as  tin  y  think,  for  the  high-priest.  But  we 
 cannot  sec  why  the  oversight  of  the  '  chambers  of  the  house  of 
 God  '  may  not  import  the  whole  government  of  the  temple,  which 
 certainly  belonged  to  the  high-priest  only;  nor  can  we  conceive 
 how  any  une  that  was  Jess  tfcs  pvernor  *>*'  the  whole 
 
 A.  C.  464.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  r-ARr  OF  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 the  high-priest,  who,  being  by  marriage  allied  to  Tobiah, 
 the  Jews'  great  enemy,  had  allowed  him  an  apartment  in 
 the  temple,  in  the  very  place  where  the  offerings,  and 
 other  things  appertaining1  to  the  priests  and  Levites, 
 used  to  be  reposited.  So  that  when  Nehemiah  returned 
 from  the  Persian  court  with  a  new  commission  for  the 
 reforming  of  all  abuses,  both  in  church  and  state,  he  was 
 not  a  little  surprised  to  find  such  a  gross  profanation  of 
 the  temple,  and  that  chambers  should  be  provided  in  the 
 house  of  God  for  one  who  was  a  declared  enemy  to  his 
 worship. 
 
 He  therefore  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  this  ;  but  found 
 himself  under  a  necessity  of  proceeding  with  caution 
 in  the  affair,  because  e  Tobiah  had  insinuated  himself 
 into  the  good  opinion  of  most  of  the  people,  and  espe- 
 cially those  of  note.  The  first  step  therefore  that  he 
 took  towards  this  reformation  was  to  convince  them  of 
 their  error,  by  causing  the  book  of  the  law  to  be  read 
 publicly,  and  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people  ;  so  that 
 when  the  reader  came  to  that  place  in  Deuteronomy, 
 wherein  it  is  commanded  that  '  an  Ammonite  or  Moabite 
 / '  should  not  come  into  the  congregation  of  God,  even 
 
 1  Deut.  xxiii.  3. 
 
 temple  could  make  so  great  an  innovation  in  it.  He  was  assis- 
 tant, indeed,  in  the  reparation  of  the  walls  of  the  city;  but  ex- 
 cepting this  one  act,  where  do  we  read  of  his  doing  any  thing 
 worthy  of  memory,  towards  the  reforming  of  what  was  amiss 
 in  church  or  state,  in  the  times  either  of  Ezra  or  Nehemiah? 
 And  yet  we  cannot  but  presume,  that  had  he  joined  with  them 
 in  so  good  a  work,  some  mention  would  have  been  made  of  it  in 
 the  books  written  by  them.  Since,  therefore,  instead  of  this,  we 
 find  it  recorded  in  Ezra,  (chap.  x.  18,)  that  the  pontifical  house 
 was,  in  his  time,  grown  very  corrupt,  and,  not  improbably,  by 
 his  connivance,  began  to  marry  into  heathen  families,  (Neh.  xiii. 
 28,)  it  seems  most  likely  that  it  was  Eliashib  the  high-priest 
 who  was  the  author  of  this  great  profanation  of  the  house  of  God  ; 
 but  as  he  might  die  before  Nehemiah  returned  from  Babylon,  for 
 this  reason  we  hear  nothing  of  the  governor's  reprehending  him 
 for  it. — Prideau.v,s  Connection,  anno  428. 
 
 e  By  his  making  two  alliances  with  families  of  great  note 
 among  the  Jews:  for  Johanan  his  son  had  married  the  daughter 
 of  Meshullam  the  son  of  Berechiah,  (Neh.  vi.  18 — iii.  4,)  who 
 was  one  of  the  chief  managers  of  the  building  of  Jerusalem,  under 
 the  direction  of  the  governor;  and  he  himself  had  married  the 
 daughter  of  Shechaniah  the  son  of  Arah,  another  great  man 
 among  the  Jews ;  by  which  means  he  had  formed  an  interest, 
 and  was  looked  upon  as  a  worthy  man,  though  (being  an  Am- 
 monite) he  could  not  but  bear  a  national  hatred  to  all  that  were 
 of  the  race  of  Israel. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  428. 
 
 f  They  who,  by  'the  congregation  of  God,'  in  this  place,  do 
 understand  '  the  public  assemblies  for  divine  worship,'  lie  under 
 a  great  mistake ;  for  no  man  of  any  nation  was  forbidden  to  come 
 and  pray  to  God  in  the  temple.  Men  of  all  nations,  indeed,  that 
 were  willing  to  become  proselytes,  were  admitted  into  the  Jew- 
 ish communion;  and,  if  they  submitted  to  be  circumcised,  were 
 allowed  to  eat  the  passover,  and  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges  that 
 true  Israelites  did,  except  only  in  the  case  of  marriage ;  and 
 therefore  this  phrase  of  not  '  entering  into  the  congregation  of  the 
 Lord,'  must  be  understood  to  mean  no  more  than  a  prohibition  of 
 marriage ;  for  this,  according  to  their  rabbins,  was  the  case  of 
 such  prohibitions.  None  of  the  house  of  Israel,  of  either  sex, 
 were  to  enter  into  marriage  with  any  Gentiles,  of  what  nation 
 soever,  unless  they  were  first  converted  to  their  religion,  aud 
 became  entire  proselytes  to  it;  and  even  in  that  case,  some  were 
 debarred  from  it  for  ever;  others  only  in  part;  and  others  again 
 only  for  a  limited  time.  Of  the  first  sort  were  all  of  the  seven 
 nations  of  the  Canaanites,  mentioned  in  Deut.  vii ;  of  the  second 
 sort  were  the  Moabites  and  the  Ammonites,  whose  males  were 
 excluded  for  ever,  but  not  their  females ;  and  of  the  third  sort 
 were  the  Edomites  and  Egyptians,  with  whom  the  Jews  might 
 not  marry  until  the  third  generation;  but  with  all  others  who 
 were  not  of  these  three  excepted  sorts,  they  might  freely  make 
 intermarriages   whenever   they   became  thorough  proselytes  to 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 "33 
 
 A.  M.  3-175.  A.  C.  529;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4847.  A 
 
 to  the  tenth  generation  for  ever  :1  they  being-  sensible  of 
 their  transgression  in  this  respect,  separated  themselves 
 immediately  from  the  mixed  multitude,  which  gave  Neh- 
 emiah  an  easy  opportunity  of  getting  rid  of  Tobiah, 
 who  was  an  Ammonite  ;  and  therefore  he  ordered  the 
 people,  while  they  were  in  this  good  disposition,  to  cast 
 his  furniture  out  of  the  sacred  chambers,  and  to  have 
 them  cleansed  again,  and  restored  to  their  former  use. 
 
 Among  other  corruptions  that  grew  up  during  the 
 governor's  absence,  there  was  one  of  which,  as  he  was  a 
 constant  frequenter  of  the  public  worship,  he  could  not 
 but  take  notice,  and  that  was,  the  neglect  of  carrying  on 
 the  daily  service  of  the  house  of  God,  in  a  proper  and 
 decent  manner.  For  the  tithes,  which  were  to  maintain 
 the  ministers  of  the  temple  in  their  offices  and  stations, 
 being  either  embezzled  by  the  high-priest,  or  withheld 
 by  the  laity,  for  want  of  them  the  Levites  and  singers 
 were  driven  from  the  temple  into  the  country,  to  find  a 
 subsistence  some  other  way  :  and  therefore,  to  remedy 
 this  abuse,  he  forthwith  ordered  the  people  to  bring  in 
 their  tithes  of  corn,  wine,  and  oil,  into  the  treasury  of 
 the  temple  ;  and  having  appointed  proper  officers  to 
 receive  and  distribute  them,  he  recalled  the  absent  min- 
 isters, and  restored  everything  to  its  former  order. 
 
 The  neglect  of  the  service  of  God  had  introduced  a 
 profanation  of  the  sabbath :  for,  during  Nehemiah's  ab- 
 sence, the  Jews  had  not  only  done  all  manner  of  servile 
 works  on  that  day,  but  had  permitted  strangers,  Tyrians, 
 and  others,  to  come  and  sell  their  fish,  and  other  com- 
 modities, publicly  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem.  Against 
 these  wicked  and  irregular  practices,  Nehemiah  remon- 
 strated to  the  chief  men  of  the  city  with  some  warmth  ; 
 and,  to  let  them  see  that  he  was  resolved  to  make  a 
 thorough  reformation  in  this  matter,  he  gave  a  strict 
 order,  that  towards  the  evening,  before  their  sabbath 
 began,  the  city  gates  should  be  shut,  and  not  opened, 
 until  the  sabbath  was  over  :  and  to  have  this  order  more 
 duly  executed,  he  appointed  b  some  of  his  own  servants 
 for  the  present  to  guard  the  gates,  that  no  burden  might 
 pass  through  on  the  sabbath  day.  So  that  when  the 
 merchants  and  other  dealers  came,  and,  finding  the  gates 
 shut  against  them,  took  up  their  lodgings  without  the 
 walls  in  hopes  of  selling  to  the  country  people,  though 
 
 their  religion.  At  present,  however,  because,  through  the  con- 
 fusions which  have  since  happened  in  all  nations,  it  is  not  to  be 
 known  who  is  an  Ammonite,  who  an  Edomite,  a  Moabite,  or  an 
 Egyptian,  they  hold  this  prohibition  to  have  been  long  out  of 
 date,  and  that  now,  any  gentile,  as  soon  as  proselyted  to  their 
 religion,  may  immediately  be  admitted  to  make  intermarriages 
 with  them. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  428. 
 
 a  The  method  of  purifying  any  tiling  or  person  that  was  legal- 
 ly unclean  is  thus  described : — '  For  an  unclean  person,  they 
 shall  take  of  the  ashes  of  the  burnt  heifer  of  purification  for  sin,' 
 (that  is,  of  the  heifer  that  was  sacrificed  on  the  great  day  of 
 expiation),  '  and  running  water  shall  be  put  thereto  in  a  vessel,' 
 which  being  afterwards  strained  oil' and  kept  for  this  purpose,  '  a 
 clean  person,'  that  is,  the  priest  (for  to  him  the  work  of  purify- 
 ing is  appropriated,  Lev.  xiii.)  '  shall  sprinkle  upon  the  unclean 
 person;'  and  on  the  seventh  day  at  even,  after  having  bathed 
 himself,  and  washed  his  clothes,  he  shall  be  deemed  clean;  but  it 
 is  very  likely  that  things  inanimate  were,  immediately  upon  their 
 being  sprinkled  with  this  water  of  separation,  as  it  is  called, 
 (Numb.  xix.  9)  reputed  clean. —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 b  It  seems  as  if  matters  were  come  to  that  pass,  that  he  could 
 not  trust  the  common  porters  of  the  gates,  and  therefore  appointed 
 some  of  his  own  domestics  (who,  he  knew,  would  neither  be  care- 
 less nor  corrupted)  to  see  that  the  gates  were  shut,  am!  all  traffic 
 prohibited —  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 C.  464.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  PART  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAI* 
 
 they  could  not  to  the  citizens,  the  next  day  he  threatened 
 to  take  them  into  custody,  if  they  did  not  go  about  their 
 business  ;  and  to  this  purpose,  appointed  a  guard  of 
 Levites  c  to  take  up  their  station  at  the  gate,  and  to  stop 
 all  comers  in,  that  might  any  way  profane  the  sabbath. 
 
 Another  reformation,  and  the  last  indeed  that  we  find 
 recorded  of  Nehemiah,  was  his  dissolution  of  unlawful 
 marriages  among  the  Jews.  Their  law  strictly  forbade 
 them  to  make  intermarriages  with  any  foreign  nations, 
 either  by  giving  their  daughters  to  them  for  wives,  or  by 
 taking  their  daughters  to  themselves ;  but,  since  their 
 return  from  captivity,  people  of  all  conditions  had  paid 
 so  little  regard  to  this  command,  that  even  the  pontifical 
 house,  which  of  all  others  ought  to  have  set  a  better 
 example,  was  become  polluted  with  such  impure  mixtures, 
 insomuch  that  Joiada  the  high  priest  had  a  son,  who 
 married  the  daughter  of  Sanballat  the  Horonite,  who, 
 at  that  time,  very  probably  was  governor  of  Samaria. 
 
 These  mixed  marriages,  besides  many  other  damages 
 that  accrued  to  the  state,  would,  in  a  short  time,  as  he 
 observed  to  them,  quite  corrupt  their  native  language, 
 d  because  he  perceived,  that  the  children  already  began 
 to  smatter  the  speech  of  their  foreign  parent ;  e  and 
 therefore  he   required  them  all,  under  the  penalties  / 
 
 c  The  reason  why  he  appointed  the  Levites  to  this  office  of 
 keeping  the  gates  on  the  sabbath-day,  was,  because  he  not  only 
 thought,  that,  by  virtue  of  their  character,  they  would  meet  with 
 more  deference  and  respect  than  his  domestic  servants,  but  that 
 when  he  and  his  servants  were  gone  from  Jerusalem,  he  was 
 resolved  to  have  this  watch  continued,  until  this  evil  custom  of 
 admitting  dealers  into  the  city  on  the  sabbath-day  was  quite 
 broken . — Patrick's  Commentary 
 
 d  What  the  natural  language  of  the  Jews  at  this  time  was 
 whether  the  Hebrew  or  Chaldee,  is  matter  of  some  inquiry 
 among  the  learned.  Those  who  suppose  that  it  was  Hebrew, 
 produce  the  books  of  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and  Esther,  besides  the 
 prophecies  of  Daniel,  which,  for  the  most  part,  were  written  in 
 Hebrew,  and  which  they  suppose  the  authors  of  them  would  not 
 have  done,  if  Hebrew  at  that  time  had  not  been  the  vulgar 
 language.  But  to  this  it  is  replied,  that  these  Jewish  authors 
 might  make  use  of  the  Hebrew  language  in  which  they  wrote, 
 not  only  because  the  things  which  they  recorded  concerned  the 
 Jewish  nation  only,  among  whom  there  were  learned  men 
 enough  to  explain  them ;  but  chiefly  because  they  were  minded 
 to  conceal  what  they  wrote  from  the  Chaldeans,  who  at  that  time 
 were  their  lords  and  masters,  and,  considering  all  circumstances 
 might  not  perhaps  have  been  so  well  pleased  with  them,  had  they 
 understood  the  contents  of  their  writings.  Since  it  appears 
 then,  say  they,  by  several  words  occurring  in  the  books  of  Mac- 
 cabees, the  New  Testament,  and  Josephus,  that  the  language 
 which  the  Jews  then  spoke  was  Chaldee;  that  this  language 
 they  learned  in  their  captivity,  and,  after  their  return  from  it, 
 never  assumed  their  ancient  Hebrew  tongue,  so  as  to  speak  it 
 vulgarly,  it  hence  must  follow,  that  what  is  here  called  the  lan- 
 guage of  the  Jcivs,  and  their  native  tongue,  was  at  that  time  no 
 other  than  the  Chaldee,  for  the  ancient  Hebrew  was  only  pre- 
 served among  the  learned. — Lc  Clcrc's  Commentary. 
 
 e  From  Nehemiah  xiii.  23,  21,  it  appears  that  there  were 
 children  in  the  same  family  by  Jewish  and  Philistine  mothers. 
 As  the  Jewish  mother  would  always  speak  to  her  children  in 
 Hebrew  or  Chaldee,  so  they  learned  to  speak  these  languages; 
 and  as  the  Ashdod  mother  would  always  speak  to  her  children 
 in  the  Ashdod  language,  so  they  learned  that  tongue.  Thus  there 
 were  in  the  same  family  children  who  could  not  understand  each 
 other;  half,  or  one  part,  speaking  one  language  and  the  other  part 
 another.  Children  of  different  wives  did  not  ordinarily  mingle 
 together;  and  the  wives  had  separate  apartments.  This  is  a 
 better  explanation  than  that  the  same  child  spoke  a  jargon  half 
 Ashdod  and  half  Hebrew. — Dr  A.  Clarke. — Ed. 
 
 f  There  are  some  things  in  the  text,  which,  as  they  are  made  to 
 proceed  from  Nehemiah's  own  mouth,  and  appear  in  our  transla- 
 tion,sound  a  little  oddly:  T  contended  with  them, and  cursed  them 
 and  smote  certain  of  them,  anil  plucked  oil' their  hair,'  c.  xiii.  25, 
 
73 1 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  8*75.  A.  C.  5-:S;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947. 
 
 which  he  inflicted  upon  some  that  were  obstinate,  to  put 
 away  their  wives,  and  to  have  no  more  communion  of  that 
 kind  with  any  foreign  nation  :  in  which  he  proceeded 
 with  such  impartiality,  that  when  the  son  of  Joiada  re- 
 fused to  quit  his  wife,  he  ordered  him  immediately  to  de- 
 part the  country  ;  a  which  accordingly  he  did,  and  with 
 several  others  that  were  in  the  like  circumstances,  went 
 and  settled  under  his  father-in-law  in  Samaria. 
 
 These  were  some  of  the  reformations  which  Nehe- 
 miah,  as  a  wise  and  pious  governor,  made  in  the  Jewish 
 church  and  state.  But  after  his  death,  it  was  not  long- 
 before  the  people  relapsed  into  the  same  enormities  ;  for 
 which  reason  we  find  Malachi,  b  the  last  prophet  under 
 the  law  ;  who,  not  long  after  Haggai  and  Zechariah, 
 must  have  lived  in  the  time  of  Nehemiah,  reproving-  the 
 
 But  the  sense  ot  these  words  is  no  more  than  this: — 'I  con- 
 tended with  them,'  that  is,  I  expostulated  the  matter  with  them. 
 '  I  cursed  them,'  that  is,  excommunicated  them,  in  the  doing  of 
 which  I  denounced  God's  judgments  against  them,  'I  smote  cer- 
 tain of  them,'  that  is  ordered  the  officers  to  beat  some  of  the  most 
 notorious  offenders,  either  with  rods  or  with  scourges,  according 
 to  Deut.  xxv.  2,  '  And  I  plucked  off  their  hair,'  that  is,  I  com- 
 manded them  to  be  shaved,  thereby  to  put  them  to  shame,  and 
 make  them  look  like  vile  slaves:  for  as  the  hair  was  esteemed  a 
 great  ornament  among  eastern  nations,  so  baldness  was  accounted 
 a  great  disgrace;  and  to  inflict  these  several  punishments  upon 
 them,  Nehemiah  had  a  sufficient  provocation,  because  in  their 
 marrying  with  heathen  nations,  they  had  acted  contrary,  not  only 
 to  the  express  law  of  God,  but  to  their  own  late  solemn  covenant 
 and  promise,  Ezrax.  19. — Poole 's  Annotations.  [The  author  of 
 tins  note,  by  the  phrase  '  plucking  off  the  hair,'  (Neh.  xiii.  25) 
 understands  shaving  the  head  ;  but  there  is  no  reason  for  departing 
 from  the  literal  sense  of  the  words  in  our  version,  particularly 
 as  the  words  signify  to  pluck  off  with  violence,  as  if  one  were 
 plucking  a  live  bird.  The  same  word  is  used  in  the  same  sense 
 Ezra  ix.  3,  '  plucked  off  the  hair  of  my  head,  and  of  my  beard.' 
 Also  in  Isaiah  1.  (5,  '  I  gave  my  cheeks  to  them  that  plucked  off 
 the  hair.'  Not  only  was  this  mode  of  punishment  practised 
 among  the  Jews,  but  it  was  also  common  in  Persia,  and  some- 
 times hot  ashes  were  put  upon  the  skin  after  the  hair  was 
 torn  off,  in  order  to  make  the  pain  the  more  exquisite. — See 
 Home's  Introduction,  Pa.vton's  Illustrations,  and  Gesen.  Heb. 
 Le  >\ — Ed.] 
 
 a  Josephus  relates  the  matter,  as  if  this  expulsion  had  been 
 ellected  by  the  power  of  the  great  Sanhedrim:  but  whether 
 the  Sanhedrim  was  at  this  time  in  being  or  no,  as  we  have  no 
 clear  footsteps  of  it  until  the  time  of  Judas  Maccabteus,  there 
 was  no  occasion  for  their  interposing,  since  Nehemiah,  no  doubt 
 as  governor  of  the  province,  had  authority  enough  to  banish  him 
 out  of  Judea,  as  Bertram,  (On  the  Jewish  Republic,  c.  13.)  ex- 
 pounds the  phrase,  '  I  chased  him  from  me,'  (Neh.  xiii.  28.) 
 
 b  Whether  the  word  Malachi  be  the  proper  name  of  a  man,  or 
 only  a  generical  name  to  denote  an  angel,  a  messenger,  a  pro- 
 phet, or  the  like,  has  been  a  matter  of  some  inquiry.  From  the 
 prophet  Haggai,  (chap.  i.  13,)  and  this  other,  whom  we  cite  under 
 the  name  of  Malachi,  (chap.  iii.  1,)  it  appears,  that  in  these  times 
 the  name  of  Malach- Jehovah,  or  the  messenger  of  the  Lord,  was 
 often  given  to  prophets;  and  under  this  title,  the  Septuagint  have 
 characterized,  and  the  fathers  of  the  Christian  church  have  fre- 
 quently quoted,  this  prophetic  writer.  But  the  author  of  the 
 Lives  ol  the  Prophets,  under  the  name  of  Epiphanius  Dorotheus, 
 tells  us,  that  this  writer  was  of  the  tribe  of  Zebulun,  a  native  of 
 Sapha,  and  that  the  name  of  Malachi  was  given  him,  because  an 
 angel  used  visibly  to  appear  to  the  people  after  the  prophet  had 
 spoken  to  them,  to  confirm  what  he  had  said  ;  though  most  of  the 
 ancient  Jews,  as  well  as  the  Chaldee  paraphrast,  were  of  opinion 
 that  Malachi  was  no  other  than  Ezra  under  a  borrowed  name. 
 However  this  be,  it  is  agreed  on  all  hands,  that  he  was  the  last 
 of  the  prophets  of  the  synagogue,  and  lived  about  40(1  years 
 before  Christ;  of  whose  coming,  and  the  coming  of  his  fore- 
 runner John  the  Baptist,  and  of  whose  religion,  and  the  in- 
 stitution of  a  catholic  and  universal  church,  in  the  room  of  the 
 Jewish,  he  speaks  in  very  full  and  express  terms,  (chap.  iii.  1.) 
 —  Calnufs  Dictionary  under  the  word. 
 
 A.  C.  461.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  r.uir  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 priests  for  their  iniquity  and  scandalous  lives,  and  up- 
 braiding the  people  with  their  neglect  of  the  worship  of 
 God  ;  with  their  refusal  to  pay  their  tithes  and  offer- 
 ings ;  with  their  divorcing-  their  own  wives,  and  marrying' 
 strange  women ;  and  with  their  inhumanity  and  cruel 
 usage  of  their  indigent  brethren  ;  the  very  same  enormi- 
 ties which  this  good  governor  laboured  to  reform. 
 
 How  long  after  this  Nehemiah  lived  at  Jerusalem,  is 
 uncertain  :  it  is  most  likely,  however,  that,  notwithstand- 
 ing all  the  revolutions  c  in  the  Persian  court,  he  conti- 
 nued in  his  government  to  the  time  of  his  death,  but  when 
 that  happened,  it  is  no  where  said  ;  only  we  may  ob- 
 serve, that  at  the  time  when  he  ends  his  book  he  couid 
 not  be  much  less  than  seventy  years  old. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Objections  answered  and  Difficulties 
 obviated. 
 
 The  Jewish  law  against  marrying  with  heathens  runs 
 thus  : — l  '  When  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  bring  thee  into 
 the  land  whither  thou  goest  to  possess  it,  and  hath  cast 
 out  many  nations  before  thee, — Thou  shalt  not  make 
 marriages  with  them  ;  thy  daughter  thou  shalt  not  give 
 unto  his  son,  nor  his  daughter  shalt  thou  take  to  thy  son. 
 And  the  reason  of  the  law  is  assigned  in  the  following 
 verse  :  '  For  they  will  turn  away  thy  sons  from  following 
 me,  that  they  may  serve  other  gods :  for  did  not  Solo- 
 mon 2  king  of  Israel,' as  Nehemiah  argues  with  the  peo- 
 ple, '  sin  by  these  things  ?'  And  if  so  great  a  one  as 
 he,  who  excelled  all  mankind  in  wisdom,  was  not  safe 
 from  the  seducement  of  these  outlandish  women,  how 
 shall  ye  be  able  to  preserve  yourselves  from  their  entice- 
 ments ?  And  yet,  as  Moses  goes  on  in  his  reasoning,  3 
 '  Thou  art  an  holy  people  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  ;  and 
 the  Lord  hath  chosen  thee  to  be  a  special  people  unto 
 himself  above  all  the  people  that  are  upon  the  face  of 
 the  earth.' 
 
 Here  then  is  an  express  law,  enforced  with  weighty 
 
 1  Deut.  vii.  1,  2,  3,  4.  2  Neh.  xiii.  26. 
 
 3  Deut.  vii.  6. 
 c  Upon  the  death  of  Artaxerxes,  (in  Scripture  called  Ahasue- 
 rus,)  Xerxes,  his  only  son  by  his  queen,  for  he  had  several  by  his 
 concubines,  and  among  these,  the  most  famous  were  Sogdianus, 
 (Jehus,  and  Arsites,  succeeded  in  the  Persian  throne ;  but,  by  the 
 treachery  of  one  of  his  eunuchs,  Sogdianus  came  upon  him  while 
 he  was  drunk,  and,  after  he  had  reigned  no  more  than  five  and 
 forty  days,  slew  him,  and  seized  on  the.  kingdom.  But  his  un- 
 just possession  did  not  hold  long,  for  his  brother  Ochus,  being 
 then  governor  of  Hyrcania,  raised  a  considerable  army,  and,  hav- 
 ing gained  many  of  the  nobility  and  governors  of  provinces  to  his 
 interest,  marched  against  him,  and,  under  a  pretence  of  a  treaty, 
 having  got  him  into  his  power,  threw  him  headlong  into  ashes,  a 
 punishment  used  among  the  Persians  for  very  enormous  crimi- 
 nals ;  so  that,  after  he  had  reigned  only  six  months  and  fifteen  days, 
 he  died  a  very  miserable  death,  and  was  succeeded  by  Ochus; 
 who  as  soon  as  he  was  settled  in  the  kingdom,  took  the  name  of 
 Darius,  and  is  therefore  by  historians  called  Darius  Nothus,  and 
 after  he  had  slain  his  brother  Arsites,  who  thought  to  have  sup- 
 planted him,  as  he  had  done  Sogdianus,  and  Sogdianus,  Xerxes, 
 and  suppressed  several  other  insurrections  against  him,  continued 
 to  sway  the  Persian  sceptre  for  nineteen  years,  but  whether  he  or 
 Nehemiah,  his  governor  of  Judea,  died  first,  we  have  no  certain 
 account :  all  that  we  know  is  that  the  last  act  of  the  governor's 
 reformation,  namely,  his  dissolution  of  strange  marriages,  was  in 
 the  fifteenth  year  of  this  prince's  reign,  and  consequently  but  four 
 before  his  death. —  Pridcau.v's  Connection,  anno  425. 
 
SliCT.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 735 
 
 A.  M.  3175.  A.  C.  029;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947.  A.  C.  4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 reasons,  against  these  pagan  marriages  :  and  therefore,  \ 
 since  whatever  is  done  contrary  to  the  law,  is  ipso  facto 
 null  and  void,  these  marriages  with  idolatrous  women, 
 which  were  strictly  forbidden  by  God,  were,  properly 
 speaking,  no  marriages  at  all  ;  and  the  children  which 
 proceeded  from  them,  were  in  no  better  condition  than 
 those  whom  we  call  bastards.  l  No  interposition  of  civil 
 authority  was  therefore  needful  to  dissolve  these  mar- 
 riages. The  infidelity  of  the  party  espoused  was  as  much 
 an  interdiction,  as  any  of  the  most  proximate  degTec  of 
 consanguinity,  which,  by  the  laws  of  all  civilized  na- 
 tions, is  known  to  vacate  the  marriage. 
 
 But  even  suppose  that  the  civil  authority  thought  pro- 
 per to  interpose  in  this  matter,  yet,  wherein  had  the  Jews 
 any  reason  to  complain,  if  in  just  punishment  for  their 
 wilful  breach  of  a  known  and  positive  law,  they  were 
 excluded  from  cohabiting  with  these  illegal  wives  ?  The 
 Jews,  I  say,  especially,  who  for  every  light  and  trivial 
 cause  a  made  no  scruple  even  to  give  their  lawful  wives 
 a  bill  of  divorcement,  and  might  therefore,  with  much 
 less  difficulty,  be  supposed  willing  to  repudiate  those 
 whom  the  laws  of  their  God,  for  fear  of  their  catching 
 the  infection  of  idolatry,  had  forbidden  them  to  live 
 with. 
 
 St  Paul,  indeed,  is  not  for  'turning  away  an  unbeliev- 
 ing wife,'  in  case  she  is  '  willing  to  dwell  with  her  hus- 
 band ;'  but  then  he  supposes,  that  this  couple  were  mar- 
 ried when  they  were  both  heathens,  and  in  a  state  of 
 infidelity,  in  which  case  there  was  no  law,  either  divine 
 or  human,  forbidding  them  to  marry,  whereas  in  these 
 Jewish  marriages  with  pagans  the  prohibition  is  strict ; 
 and  therefore,  as  there  was  no  sin  in  their  coming  toge- 
 ther at  first,  and  the  Christian  religion,  whether  it  was 
 the  man  or  the  woman  that  embraced  it,  made  no  altera- 
 tion in  the  case,  his  advice  is,  that  they  continue  to  dwell 
 together,  even  though  they  be  of  different  persuasions  in 
 matters  of  religion  ;  because,  as  he  farther  adds  this 
 reason,  2  '  the  unbelieving  husband  is  sanctified  by  the 
 wife  ;  and  how  knowest  thou,  O  man,  but  that  by  thy 
 peaceable  cohabitation  with  her,  thou  niayest  convert, 
 and  save  thy  wife  ?' 
 
 Though  therefore  the  apostle  is  not  for  encouraging 
 any  separation  between  husband  and  wife  upon  account 
 of  their  difference  in  religion,  when  their  marriage  was 
 previous  to  either  of  their  conversions  to  Christianity ; 
 yet,  if  we  will  make  him  consistent  with  himself,  we 
 must  allow,  that  he  is  utterly  averse  to  all  mixed  mar- 
 riages with  infidels,  when  in  his  following  epistle  he 
 advises  all  Christians,  3  '  Not  to  be  unequally  yoked 
 together  with  unbelievers  ;  for  what  communion,'  says  he, 
 1  has  light  with  darkness,  or  what  concord  has  Christ 
 with  Belial  ?'  &c.  Whereby  he  gives  us  to  think,  that 
 he  esteemed  all  marriage  with  heathens  illegal,  and  that, 
 
 1  Patrick's  Commentary  on  Ezra  x.  3. 
 3  2  Cor.  vi.  14. 
 
 2  1  C( 
 
 16. 
 
 a  The  school  of  Shammah,  who  lived  a  little  before  our  Saviour, 
 taught,  that  a  man  could  not  lawfully  he  divorced  from  his  wife, 
 unless  he  had  found  her  guilty  of  some  action  which  was  really 
 infamous,  and  contrary  to  the  rules  of  virtue.  But  the  school  of 
 Ilillel,  who  was  Shammah's  disciple,  taught,  on  the  contrary, 
 that  the  least  reasons,  such  as,  if  she  did  not  dress  his  int. it  well, 
 if  she  was  not  agreeable  to  him  in  person  or  temper,  or  if  he 
 found  any  other  woman  that  he  liked  better,  were  sufficient  to 
 tmMiorizo  a  man  to  put  away  his  wife. — Selden's  Uxor.  Hebraica, 
 b.  iii.  c.  IS. 
 
 had  the  apostle,  at  that  time,  been  either  of  Ezra's  or  Ne- 
 hemiah's  council,  he  would  have  given  his  vote  for  their 
 dissolution  among  the  Jews. 
 
 We  own,  indeed,  that  it  is  a  very  gracious  declaration 
 of  God,  '  Behold,  all  souls  are  mine,  as  the  soul  of  the 
 father,  so  also  the  soul  of  the  son  is  mine  ;  that  soul  that 
 sinneth,  it  shall  die  ;'  but  then  we  are  to  consider,  that  as 
 life  signifies,  in  general,  all  that  happiness  which  attends 
 God's  favour,  so  death  denotes  all  those  punishments 
 which  are  the  effects  of  divine  displeasure  ;  and  among 
 these,  the  miseries  of  the  next  world  are  chieffy  intended. 
 These  indeed  shall  be  allotted  to  men,  according  to  their 
 own  demerits,  without  any  regard  to  the  faults  of  their 
 forefathers,  which  shall  neither  be  laid  to  their  charge  nor 
 made  an  aggravation  of  their  guilt ;  but  as  to  temporal 
 evils  and  calamities,  it  cannot  well  otherwise  be,  but 
 that,  in  the  very  course  of  tilings,  children  should  suffer 
 for  the  iniquities  of  their  parents. 
 
 Though  therefore  it  may  seem  a  little  hard,  that  the 
 children  should  be  included  in  their  mother's  divorce, 
 yet  the  laws  of  most  nations  have  determined  this 
 point : — That  children  are  to  follow  the  condition  of  their 
 mothers,  be  it  what  it  will,  and,  consequently  as  they  are 
 unlawfully  born,  they  must  of  course  be  alienated  from 
 the  family,  at  the  same  time  that  the  mother  is  repudiated, 
 and  in  virtue  of  that  very  law  which  declares  her  marriage 
 to  be  null.  So  that  it  was  no  arbitrary  act  in  Ezra  to 
 abdicate  the  children,  as  well  as  the  mothers:  though,4 
 to  prevent  the  danger  of  their  corrupting  the  other  chil- 
 dren of  the  family,  if  they  were  allowed  to  stay,  and  of 
 insinuating  themselves  so  far  into  their  father's  affec- 
 tions, as  to  prevail  with  them  in  time  to  recall  their 
 ejected  wives,  might  be  motive  enough  to  a  prudent  ruler, 
 considering  the  then  situation  of  affairs,  to  put  the  law 
 rigidly  in  execution.  As  this  however  was  an  act  of  the 
 government,whereinEzra,  and  other  good  men  who  feared 
 the  Lord,  were  concerned,  we  may  reasonably  presume, 
 that  some  provision  was  made  for  the  maintenance,  and 
 perhaps  the  education  of  these  poor  children,  in  the  prin- 
 ciples of  the  Jewish  religion,  at  the  public  charge. 
 
 How  long  Nehemiah  was  in  finishing  the  walls  of  Je- 
 rusalem, interpreters  are  not  agreed;  because  some  of 
 them,  supposing  the  space  of  two  and  fifty  days,  5  men- 
 tioned in  the  Scripture,  to  be  too  short  for  the  perfecting 
 of  the  whole,  have  begun  their  computation  from  the 
 time  that  Nehemiah  returned  his  answer  to  Sanballat's 
 first  message,  and  others,  from  the  time  that  the  stone- 
 wall was  finished,  and  so  allow  the  whole  fifty-two 
 days  for  the  perfecting  of  the  rest.  But  if  we  look  into 
 the  compass  of  time,  from  Nehemiah 's  being  at  Shushan, 
 to  the  day  of  the  month  when  these  walls  are  said  to  have 
 been  finished,  we  shall  find,  that  no  more  than  fifty-two 
 days  could  well  be  allowed  for  the  perfecting  of  the 
 whole. 
 
 It  was  6  in  the  first  month,  called  by  the  Jews  Nisan, 
 that  Nehemiah  was  at  Shushan,  and  obtained  of  the  king 
 leave  to  go  to  Jerusalem  :  and  though  we  have  no  ex- 
 press account  what  time  he  spent  in  his  journey,  and 
 when  he  came  to  Jerusalem  ;  yet  if  we  may  make  a  con- 
 jecture from  the  time  that  Ezra  expended  in  the  same  jour- 
 ney, we  can  scarce  suppose  that  he  arrived  at  Jerusalem 
 before  the  end  of  the   fourth  month.     Ezra  set  out  on 
 
 4  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 Neb.,  vi.  15. 
 
 Neb.  ii.  1. 
 
736 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3l7o.  A.  C.  529  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  If'  17.  A 
 
 the  first  day  of  the  first  month.  He  made  a  '  short  stay 
 indeed  at  the  river  Ahava ;  but  it  was  the  first  day  of 
 the  fifth  month  before  he  reached  Jerusalem.  Nehemiah 
 could  not  possibly  set  out  so  soon  in  the  year,  because 
 his  commission  *  from  the  king-,  and  instructions  to  the 
 neighbouring  governors,  must  have  taken  some  time  in 
 passing  through  the  several  offices  :  and  therefore  we 
 can  scarce  suppose  that  he  reached  Jerusalem  sooner 
 than  the  time  specified  ;  and  from  thence  to  the  twenty- 
 fifth  day  of  the  sixth  month,  (including  the  three  days  of 
 rest  that  he  gave  himself  before  he  began,)  the  space 
 will  be  much  about  fifty-two  days,  wherein  we  suppose 
 that  the  whole  work  was  finished  :  3  for  if  Alexander  the 
 (ireat,  as  Arrianus  and  Curtius  relate,  built  the  walls  of 
 Alexandria,  which  Mas  seven  miles  in  compass,  in  the 
 space  of  twenty  days,  why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing 
 incredible,  that  avast  number,  not  of  hired  but  voluntary 
 men,  full  of  zeal  for  the  work  themselves,  animated  by 
 the  example  of  their  rulers,  and  ranged  and  distributed 
 in  a  proper  manner  for  dispatch,  should,  in  almost  thrice 
 that  space  of  time,  be  able  to  finish  a  work  of  less  com- 
 pass ,  when  they  had  long  summer  days  for  it,  plenty  of 
 stones,  and  other  materials  hard  at  hand,  the  foundation 
 of  the  wall  unrazed,  some  parts  of  it  standing  entire, 
 only  some  breaches  here  and  there  to  be  amended ;  and 
 when  their  design  in  the  whole  was,  not  to  study  curiosity 
 but  strength,  and  to  provide  themselves  with  such  a 
 fortification  for  the  present,  as  would  secure  them  from 
 any  sudden  invasion  of  their  enemies? 
 
 How  4  long  Nehemiah  continued  at  the  Persian  court, 
 after  his  return  from  Jerusalem,  the  sacred  history  no- 
 where informs  us.  It  tells  us,  indeed,  that  he  came  back 
 again,  after  certain  days;  but  since  the  word  yamin, 
 which  we  render  days,  does  equally  signify  years,  and 
 in  many  places  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  is  used  in  that 
 sense,  we  cannot  but  wonder  how  the  generality  of  chro- 
 nologers,  as  well  as  commentators,  came  to  overlook 
 this  sense  of  the  word,  and  in  so  doing,  to  make  Nehe- 
 miah's  stay  at  Shushan  much  shorter  than  it  possibly 
 could  be.  For  since  he  had  been  twelve  years  in  reform- 
 ing what  he  found  amiss  among  the  Jews,  and  Ezra  had 
 been  doing  the  same  for  thirteen  years  before  him ; 
 they  must,  one  would  think,  have  brought  their  reforma- 
 tion to  such  a  state  and  stability,  that  a  little  time  could 
 not  have  been  sufficient  so  totally  to  have  unhinged  it: 
 and  therefore  we  may  conclude,  that  his  absence  at  court, 
 which  gave  room  for  these  irregularities  to  grow  to  such 
 an  height,  was  not  for  certain  days,  but  for  some  years' 
 continuance;  and  consequently  that  the  author  of  this 
 part  of  his  life  had  no  intention,  either  to  magnify  his 
 good  offices,  or  to  relate  any  thing  incredible  concern- 
 ing him;  since,  though  he  acquaints  us  with  sundry  cor- 
 ruptions that  had  sprung  up,  yet  he  makes  the  time  of 
 his  absence,  if  we  take  his  words  in  their  proper  sense, 
 long  enough  for  that  purpose. 
 
 That  Nehemiah  was  the  writer  of  the  account  of  his 
 own  government  in  Judea,  for  that  is  the  subject  of  his 
 book,  most  interpreters  are  agreed  :  5  and,  as  he  appears 
 in  that  character,  it  cannot  misbecome  him  to  cive  the 
 
 i  Em  viii.  15,  .">1.  2  jfeh.  ii.  6,  &c. 
 
 -  Patrick's  Commentary,  ami  Poole's  Annotations  on  Neh.  vi  15 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  42S. 
 
 5  Patrick's  Commentary  on  Neh.  v,  !!». 
 
 .  C.  4GI.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  i-abt  op  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 world  a  narrative  how  himself  behaved  in  that  high,  sta- 
 tion ;  though,  in  doing  this,  he  could  not  avoid  the  say- 
 ing of  something  in  his  own  commendation,  unless  he 
 had  been  minded,  out  of  his  excessive  modesty,  to  con- 
 ceal from  posterity  (which  it  had  been  invidious  to  do) 
 an  excellent  example  of  his  extraordinary  virtue,  and 
 love  of  his  country. 
 
 St  Paul,  no  doubt,  was  a  very  modest  man  :  6  he 
 durst  not,  as  he  tells  us,  make  himself  of  the  number, 
 or  compare  himself  with  such  as  commended  themselves  ; 
 and  yet,  in  the  very  next  chapter,  (that  '  he  might  stop 
 the  mouths  of  false  apostles,  and  covetous  people,)  we 
 find  him  telling  the  Corinthians,  that  he  preached  the 
 gospel  to  them  freely,  and  without  desiring  any  contri- 
 butions of  them  for  his  necessary  support.  8  '  I  robbed 
 other  churches,'  says  he,  '  taking  wages  of  them,  to  do 
 you  service ;  and  when  1  was  present  with  you,  and 
 wanted,  I  was  chargeable  to  no  man  : — for  in  all  things 
 I  have  kept  myself  from  being  burdensome  to  you,  and 
 so  will  I  keep  myself;  as  the  truth  of  Christ  is  in  me, 
 no  man  shall  stop  me  of  this  boasting  in  the  regions 
 of  Acfaaia ;  for  what  I  do,  that  I  will  do,  that  I  may  cut 
 ofT  occasion  from  those  that  desire  occasion,  that  where- 
 in they  glory,  they  may  be  found  even  as  we  :'  and  after 
 all  this,  can  any  find  fault  with  Nehemiah,  for  telling  his 
 reader,  that 9  '  what  was  prepared  for  me  daily,  was  an 
 ox  and  six  choice  sheep,  fowls  in  proportion,  and  once 
 in  ten  days,  store  of  all  sorts  of  wine;  yet  for  all  this, 
 required  not  I  the  bread  of  the  governor,'  that  is,  the 
 allowances  which  were  made  to  the  governors  appointed 
 by  the  kings  of  Persia,  to  provide  them  a  table,  '  because 
 the  bondage  was  heavy  upon  this  people,'  and  they  not 
 in  a  condition,  without  much  difficulty,  to  maintain  them- 
 selves :  wherefore  '  think  upon  me,  O  God,  for  good, 
 according  to  all  that  I  have  done  for  this  people.' 
 
 To  serve  God  for  nothing,  or  purely  for  his  own  sake, 
 is  a  notion  that  perhaps  may  comport  with  our  glorified 
 state,  where  our  service  will  be  attended  with  vision ; 
 but,  at  present,  it  is  too  romantic,  and  what  the  Author 
 of  our  being  expects  not  from  us.  He  who  made  us, 
 and  set  the  springs  in  our  nature,  knows  very  well,  that 
 we  are  principally  moved  by  hopes  and  fears,  and  for 
 this  reason  has  propounded  rewards  and  punishments  to 
 us  ;  nor  did  we  ever  find  it,  till  now,  accounted  a  flaw 
 in  the  character  of  the  worthies  of  old,  or  an  indication 
 of  their  mercenary  spirits,  that,  in  all  their  good  works 
 or  sufferings,  they  10  '  had  a  respect  to  the  recompence 
 of  the  reward,  which  God,  the  righteous  judge,'  had 
 promised  to  give  unto  his  faithful  servants. 
 
 Ezra,  no  doubt,  was  at  this  time  a  man  of  great  esteem 
 among  his  brethren,  and  no  less  favoured  in  the  Persian 
 court :  otherwise  Artaxerxes  would  never  have  granted 
 him  a  commission  to  reform  and  regulate  the  afiairs  of 
 the  Jewish  church,  fraught  with  such  ample  powers. 
 Ever  since  that  time,  the  Jews  have  looked  upon  him  as 
 another  Moses,  who,  as  Moses  was  the  giver  of  the  law, 
 revived  and  restored  it,  after  it  had  been  in  a  manner 
 quite  lost  and  extinguished  in  the  Babylonish  captivity. 
 There  is  some  reason  to  believe  therefore,  that  "  '  this 
 scribe  of  the  law  of  the  God  of  heaven,'  was  the  usual 
 title  or  appellation  of  honour,  whereby  Ezra  was  digni- 
 
 2  Cor.  x.  12. 
 Neh.  v.  IS. 
 
 7  2  Cor.  xi.  7. 
 lu  Heb.  xi.  26. 
 
 s  Ibid.  ver.  S,  &c. 
 "  Ezra  vii.  12. 
 
Sect.  UJ] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 737 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  KA  LES,  A.  M.  4947.  A 
 fied  and  distinguished  among  liis  countrymen  ;  and  that 
 Artaxerxes  might  take  it  upon  common  report,  and  so 
 insert  it  in  his  commission,  as  the  name  whereby  he  was 
 generally  styled  among-  the  Jews,  without  ever  giving 
 himself  time  to  consider  what  was  the  full  purport  and 
 intendment  of  it. 
 
 But  if  even  he  did  attend  to  this,  yet,  as  the  heathens 
 had  different  kinds  of  gods,  celestial,  terrestrial,  and 
 infernal,  he  might  easily  reconcile  this  to  his  own  princi- 
 ples, only  by  supposing  that  this  God  of  the  Jews  was 
 one  of  the  celestial  order,  and,  though  a  deity  peculiar 
 to  them,  might  nevertheless  be  reverenced  and  worship- 
 ped by  him  in  conjunction  with  his  other  gods. 
 
 But,  after  all,  if  we  reflect  a  little  on  the  ease  and  in- 
 dolence, and,  in  a  manner,  total  sequestration  from  all 
 business,  wherein  these  great  monarchs  of  the  east  were 
 used  to  indulge  themselves,  we  shall  find  reason  to  be- 
 lieve, that  Artaxerxes  knew  nothing  of  the  matter.  If 
 he  be  the  same  who  goes  under  the  name  of  Ahasuerus 
 in  the  book  of  Esther,  he  had  been  imposed  on  by 
 Hainan  to  consent  to  a  bloody  decree  against  the  Jews, 
 with  so  little  thought  and  consideration  of  what  he  was 
 about,  that 1  he  did  not  so  much  as  remember  the  person 
 at  whose  instigation  it  was  done  :  and  yet,  notwithstand- 
 ing the  great  mischief  which  this  negligence  of  his  might 
 have  brought  upon  him,  we  rind  him  instantly  sinking 
 into  the  like  sleepy  and  careless  temper.  3  '  Write  ye 
 for  the  Jews,  says  he  to  Mordccai  and  Esther,  '  as  it 
 liketh  you,  in  the  king's  name,  and  seal  it  with  the  king's 
 ring,'  and  whatever  is  thus  wrote  and  sealed,  no  man 
 may  reverse.  And,  by  parity  of  reason,  why  may  we 
 not  suppose,  that  when  Ezra  applied  to  court  for  his 
 commission,  the  whole  form  of  drawing  it  up  was  referred 
 to  him,  and  such  other  Jews  as  he  thought  proper  to  take 
 into  his  council  ?  For,  '  Write  ye,  as  it  liketh  you,  in  the 
 king's  name,'  might,  in  one  case  as  well  as  the  other, 
 be  all  that  the  king  had  to  say  to  the  matter.  And  in- 
 deed, if  we  look  into  the  contents  of  the  commission 
 itself,  we  shall  soon  perceive  that  it  must  have  been  drawn 
 by  something  more  than  a  heathen  hand.  For  if  Ezra 
 himself  had  been  to  dictate  the  words,  how  could  he 
 have  expressed  the  tenor  of  his  commission  more  fully 
 than  in  these  :  3  '  forasmuch  as  thou  art  sent  by  the  king, 
 and  his  seven  counsellors,  to  inquire  concerning  Judah 
 and  Jerusalem,  according  to  the  law  of  thy  God,  which 
 is  in  thine  hand:'  what  Jewish  king  could  have  given 
 more  pious  instructions  than  these :  *  '  and  thou  Ezra, 
 after  the  wisdom  of  thy  God,  set  magistrates  and  judges, 
 such  as  know  the  laws  of  thy  God,  and  teach  ye  them 
 that  know  them  not?  And  where  can  we  find  a  livelier 
 sense  of  God's  supreme  authority,  and  of  that  regard 
 which  is  due  from  the  greatest  kings  and  potentates  to 
 his  commands,  more  emphatically  expressed  than  here  : 
 '  whatsoever  is  commanded  by  the  God  of  heaven,  let  it 
 be  diligently  done  for  the  house  of  the  God  of  heaven  ?' 
 "  Words,"  as  Jacobus  Capellus,  in  a  kind  of  rapture, 
 cries  out,  "  fit  to  be  written  upon  the  palaces  of  kings  in 
 letters  of  gold,  and  engraven  on  the  minds  of  all  the 
 faithful  with  a  stile  of  adamant." 
 
 5  Who  the  author  of  the  six  iirst  chapters  of  Ezra  was, 
 is  a  matter  of  some  uncertainty  ;  though  it  is  generally 
 
 Est.  vii.  5. 
 4  Ibid.  ver.  25. 
 
 '-'  Ibid,  viii.  8.  3  Ezra  vii.  14. 
 
 *  Iluttii  Pemorvst.  prop.  4. 
 
 .  C.  4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7-end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 agreed,  that  the  same  hand  which  composed  the  two 
 books  of  Chronicles  was  concerned  in  writing  that  part 
 of  Ezra,  because  the  Chronicle  concludes  with  the  very 
 same  words  wherewith  the  history  begins,  which,  in 
 ancient  authors,  to  connect  the  thread  of  the  discourse, 
 as  Grotius  observes,  is  no  unusual  thing.  The  Jewish 
 doctors  indeed  are  chiefly  of  opinion,  that  these  Chroni- 
 cles were  written  by  Ezra.  But  this  can  hardly  be,  be- 
 cause the  author,  whoever  he  was,  continues  the  c  gene- 
 alogy of  Zerubbabel  to  the  twelfth  generation,  which  is 
 lower  than  Ezra  lived.  Nor  can  Ezra  be  the  author  of 
 the  six  first  chapters  of  the  book  which  bears  his  name, 
 because  the  person  who  wTote  it 7  is  said  to  have  been 
 at  Jerusalem  in  the  time  of  Darius  Hystaspes ;  whereas 
 Ezra  8  did  not  go  thither  until  the  reign'  of  Artaxerxes. 
 It  is  most  likely,  therefore,  that  Ezra,  upon  his  coming 
 to  Jerusalem,  might  meet  with  certain  annals  or  memoirs 
 kept,  of  the  several  transactions  that  had  happened  since 
 the  time  of  the  people's  return  from  captivity,  and  that 
 to  these,  after  he  had  made  an  extract  of  such  as  were 
 true  and  authentic,  he  added  a  farther  continuation  of  the 
 history  of  his  own  government.  For,  that  the  four  last 
 chapters  of  the  book  were  of  his  own  composing-,  is  evi- 
 dent from  this  testimony.  9  '  And  at  evening  sacrifice, 
 I  arose  up  from  my  heaviness,  and  having  rent  my  gar- 
 ment, and  my  mantle,  I  fell  upon  my  knees,  and  spread 
 out  my  hands  unto  the  Lord.'  Then  follows  the  prayer 
 which  he  made,  and  immediately  it  is  subjoined, I0  '  Now 
 when  Ezra  had  prayed,  and  when  he  had  confessed,  and 
 cast  himself  down  before  the  house  of  God:'  which 
 plainly  shows,  that  Ezra  was  the  author  of  that  part  of 
 the  book,  which  speaks  of  himself  in  the  first  person. 
 
 And,  in  like  manner,  that  Nehemiah  was  the  writer  of 
 what  is  reputed  his,  seems  to  be  evident,  "  not  only  from 
 his  own  declaration  in  the  front  of  it,  (which  was  the 
 practice  of  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  and  other  ancient 
 historians  in  those  days,)  but  from  the  testimony  of  the 
 Jewish  church  likewise,  which  all  along  received  it  into 
 their  canon,  and  from  the  approbation  of  the  seventy  in- 
 terpreters, who,  from  the  very  first,  gave  it  a  place  in 
 their  translation  under  that  name. 
 
 There  is  some  difficulty,  indeed,  in  reconciling-  the 
 account  of  Josephus  concerning  Sanballat,  and  what  is 
 recorded  of  him  in  Nehemiah.  Josephus  12  tells  us,  "  That 
 he,  being  made  governor  of  Samaria  under  the  last 
 Darius,  married  his  daughter  to  one  whose  father  had 
 been  high  priest  of  the  Jews,  and  that  when  his  son-in- 
 law  was  thereupon  driven  out  of  Jerusalem,  he  obtained 
 leave  of  Alexander  to  build  a  temple  on  mount  Gerizim, 
 like  that  at  Jerusalem,  and  to  make  him  the  priest  there- 
 of." Now,  to  make  this  accord  with  what  we  read  in  Nehe- 
 miah, 1S  the  general  opinion  is,  that  there  were  two  San- 
 ballats,the  first  the  Sanballat  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
 the  other  the  Sanballat  of  Josephus  ;  and  that  there  were 
 two  marriages  contracted  by  two  different  persons,  sons 
 of  two  different  high  priests  of  the  Jews,  with  two  differ- 
 ent women,  who  were  each  daughters  of  two  different 
 Sanballata  ;  the  first  the  daughter  of  the  Sanballat  of  the 
 Scriptures,  and  the  other  the  daughter  of  the  Sanballat 
 of  Josephus,  and  that  he  who  married  the  first  of  them 
 
 6  1  Clnon.  iii.  19.  7  Ezra  v,  and  vi.  8  Chap.  vii. 
 
 3  Chap.  ix.  5.       10  Ezra  x.  1.       "  Huetii  Demonst.  prop.  4, 
 '-'  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  7  and  8. 
 13  Piideaux's  Connection,  anno  409. 
 5  A 
 
738 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3473.  A.  C.  529;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  4917.  A 
 
 was  the  son  of  Joiada,  but  he  who  married  the  second  of 
 them  was  the  son  of  Johauan,  and  brother  of  Jaddua. 
 But  there  is  no  reason  to  have  recourse  to  this  perplexed 
 solution,  seeing  that  Josephus  has  incurred  a  palpable 
 mistake  in  point  of  chronology.  For,  '  since  this  mar- 
 riage was  consummated  while  Joiada,  the  son  of  Eliashib, 
 was  the  high  priest  of  the  Jews,  even  in  the  iiftli  year  of 
 his  pontificate ;  2  and  since  he  entered  upon  that  office 
 in  the  eleventh  year  of  Darius  Nothus,  who  reigned  in 
 all  nineteen  years,  it  must  follow,  that  the  license  which 
 Sanballat  obtained  for  the  building  of  a  temple  at  Sama- 
 ria, was  not  from  Alexander,  but  from  this  Darius,  in  the 
 fifteenth  year  of  his  reign,  and  above  eighty  years  before 
 the  Darius  Codomannus  whom  Alexander  vanquished  was 
 known.  There  is  no  occasion,  therefore,  to  suppose  any 
 more  Sanballats  than  one,  or  to  extend  his  life  to  any 
 immoderate  length;  only  we  may  perceive,  that  Jose- 
 phus was  under  a  mistake  in  placing  this  Sanballat  under 
 the  reign  of  Codomannus,  who  should  have  been  placed 
 under  a  former  Darius,  sirnamed  Nothus;  and  conse- 
 quently, that  all  he  tells  us  of  this  Sanballat's  attending 
 Alexander  in  his  wars,  and  obtaining  of  him  a  license 
 to  build  a  temple,  is  a  mere  fiction  founded  on  that  mis- 
 take ;  because,  in  Alexander's  time,  the  Samaritans,  by 
 murdering  Andromachus,  his  governor  of  Syria,  had  so 
 incensed  that  great  conqueror  against  them,  that,  instead 
 of  granting  them  any  favours,  3  we  find  him  making  all 
 the  havoc  of  them  that  he  could. 
 
 Who  the  author  of  the  book  of  Esther  was,  the  opinions 
 of  the  learned  are  various.  Some  ascribe  it  to  Ezra, 
 others  to  Mordecai,  others  to  Mordecai  and  Esther  in 
 conjunction,  and  others  again  to  the  joint  labours  of  the 
 great  synagogue,  who,  from  the  time  of  Ezra  to  Simon 
 the  Just,  superintended  the  edition  and  canon  of  Scrip- 
 ture. Those  who  contend  for  Mordecai,  have  these  words 
 to  allege  in  his  behalf:  i  '  And  Mordecai  wrote  these 
 things,  and  sent  letters  unto  all  the  Jews,  that  were  in 
 all  the  provinces  of  king  Ahasuerus,  and  the  Jews  under- 
 took to  do  as  Mordecai  had  written  to  them  :'  5  but  the 
 thing  is  evident,  that  these  words  relate,  not  to  the  book 
 itself,  but  to  the  circular  letters  which  Mordecai  sent  to 
 the  Jews,  in  all  tlie  provinces  of  the  Persian  empire, 
 signifying  what  a  mighty  deliverance  God  had  vouch- 
 safed them,  and,  in  commemoration  of  it,  instituting  an 
 annual  festival  to  be  observed  for  ever. 
 
 And  indeed  the  institution  of  this  annual  festival  and 
 its  continued  observation,  is  a  standing  proof  that  this 
 history  of  Esther  is  real,  and  not  fictitious  ;  since  we  can 
 hardly  conceive,  how  a  wise  nation  should  at  first  ap- 
 point, and  afterwards  continue  the  celebration  of  this 
 solemn  time  of  feasting  and  rejoicing  every  year,  merely 
 because  a  certain  man  among  them  had  once  the  good 
 fortune  to  write  an  agreeable  fable  or  romance  ;  much 
 less  can  we  conceive,  from  what  motive  a  whole  assembly 
 of  learned  doctors  should  receive  a  writing  of  no  better 
 character  into  the  canon  of  their  Scriptures,  or  (to  make 
 it  of  more  universal  use)  should  honour  it  with  a  Greek 
 translation. 
 
 It  must  be  owned,  indeed,  that  no  foreign  author  has 
 taken  any  notice  of  this  piece  of  history  ;  but  the  reason 
 
 jNeh.  xiii.  28.  2  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 Joseph,  contra  Apion,  l>.  ii.  *  Est.  i\.  20   ~.l'.'.. 
 
 ''  lluttii  Dt-inuiist  prop.  4. 
 
 C.  I'M.  EZRA  \v.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG  ZECH.  MAL.  I 
 
 hereof  is  obvious,  namely,  6  because  the  authors  who 
 wrote  of  the  affairs  of  Persia  at  this  time,  entered  no 
 farther  into  them  than  as  they  were  coincident  with  the 
 affairs  of  Greece  ;  and  though  the  last  six  chapters  of 
 this  history  are  not  to  be  found  in  any  Hebrew  copy,  yet 
 Origen  is  of  opinion,  7  that  once  they  were  extant,  though 
 now  lost,  and  that  from  it  the  Septuagint  formed  their 
 translation  ;  though  others,  with  more  probability,  think, 
 that  (as  the  history  of  this  memorable  transaction  might 
 be  recorded  by  divers  hands)  there  were  once  two  He- 
 brew copies  of  it,  one  in  a  larger,  and  the  other  in  a  less 
 volume,  and  that,  as  the  less  is  what  we  have  at  present, 
 from  the  larger  has  proceeded  the  Greek  copy,  with  its 
 sundry  additions. 
 
 Haman,  we  read,  was  an  Amalekite,  one  of  that 
 nation  8  against  which  God  pronounced  a  curse  ;  and 
 therefore,  upon  this  consideration,  Mordecai  might 
 think  himself  not  obliged  to  pay  him  the  reverence 
 which  he  expected  ;  and,  if  the  rest  of  the  Jews  had  the 
 like  notion  of  him,  this  might  be  reason  sufficient  for  his 
 extending  his  resentment  against  the  whole  nation. 
 But  there  seems  to  be  something  more  in  the  reverence 
 which  the  people  were  commanded  to  pay  him,  than 
 what  is  the  effect  of  civil  respect.  The  king  of  Persia, 
 we  know,  expected  a  kind  of  divine  adoration  from 
 all  that  approached  his  presence  ;  9  as  we  read  of  one 
 Tiniagoras,  upon  whom  the  people  of  Athens  passed 
 sentence  of  death,  for  his  worshipping  of  Darius, 
 accounting  the  honour  of  their  whole  city  debased  by 
 this  mean  submission  of  one  of  their  citizens,  though  at 
 that  time  Darius  was  one  of  the  greatest  monarchs 
 upon  earth.  And  as  the  kings  of  Persia  did  arro- 
 gate this  to  themselves,  so  they  sometimes  imparted  it 
 to  their  chief  friends  and  favourites,  as  it  seems  at  this 
 time  to  have  been  the  case  with  Haman.  For  we  can 
 hardly  conceive,  why  the  king  should  give  a  particular 
 command, lfl '  that  all  his  servants  should  reverence  him, 
 if  by  this  reverence  no  more  is  intended  than  that  they 
 should  show  him  a  respect  suitable  to  his  station :  but 
 now,  if  we  suppose  that  the  homage  expected  from  them 
 was  such  as  came  near  to  idolatry, ll '  we  need  not  won- 
 der, that  a  Jew  should  deny  that  honour,  or  the  outward 
 expressions  of  it,  to  any  man,  since  the  wise  and  sober 
 Greeks  did  positively  refuse  to  give  it  to  the  very  kings 
 themselves.  And  that  this  was  the  case  before  us,  the 
 author  of  the  apocryphal  additions  to  the  book  of  Esther 
 seems  to  imply,  when  he  introduces  Mordecai  as  pray- 
 ing in  these  words, — 12  '  Thou  knowest,  O  Lord,  that  it 
 is  not  contumacy,  nor  pride,  nor  desire  of  vain  glory, 
 that  makes  me  not  worship  Haman  :  for  I  would  willingly 
 kiss  his  feet  for  the  safety  of  Israel.  But  I  do  it,  that 
 I  may  not  prefer  the  glory  of  a  man,  to  the  glory  of 
 God,  nor  adore  any  one  but  thee,  my  Lord,  alone.' 
 
 Though  we  are  far  from  pretending  to  apologize, 
 either  for  the  injustice  of  Ahasuerus  in  abdicating  his 
 queen,  or  for  the  conduct  of  Esther  in  going  to  his  bed, 
 yet  a  good  deal  of  this  might  be  resolved  into  the  custom 
 of  a  nation,  where  the  king  was  absolute,  and  his  sub- 
 jects mere  vassals,  where  the  will  of  the  prince,  I  say, 
 
 *  Huetii  Demonst.  prop.  4.  7  Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 Exod.  xvii.  14.  s  Valer.  Max.  b.  iv.  c.  3. 
 
 kst.  '•'•  2  "  Poole's  Annotations  on  Esther  iii. 
 
 12  Est.  xiii.  12,  &c. 
 
Skct.  II.]  FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c.  739 
 
 A.  M.  3473.  A.  C.  529;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  40+7.  A.  C.  4GI.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  ok  HAfi.  ZECH.   MAL. 
 
 was  .1  perfect  law,  and  a  plurality  of  wives  and  concu- 
 bines reputed  honourable.  This,  however,  may  be  said 
 in  behalf  of  Ahasuerus,  that  he  did  not  divorce  his  wife, 
 without  first  consulting  his  counsellors,  and  such  as  were 
 best  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  their  country ;  and 
 therefore,  if  there  was  any  iniquity  in  it,  they  were  the 
 persons  chiefly  to  be  blamed,  who  represented  the 
 queen's  disobedience  as  a  crime  of  such  a  dangerous 
 nature,  that  it  would  have  had  a  noxious  influence  upon 
 the  whole  nation,  had  it  not  been  severely  punished. 
 And  tliis  may  be  said  in  excuse  for  Esther,  that  the 
 words  which  we  render,  *  '  she  was  brought,'  may  equally 
 signify  '  she  was  taken  away,'  namely,  by  violence  ; 
 2  for  (as  the  Targum  upon  this  passage  relates  the  matter) 
 '  Mordecai,  hearing  of  the  king's  edict  for  the  collection 
 of  all  the  beautiful  virgins  in  his  dominions,  hid  his 
 cousin  in  a  private  place,  where  the  officers  could  not 
 find  her  ;  but  when  Esther  (whom  all  the  neighbourhood 
 knew  to  be  a  great  beauty)  was  missing,  an  order  from 
 the  king  to  Mordecai  was  procured,  which,  upon  pain  of 
 death,  obliged  him  to  produce  her.'  However  this  be, 
 it  is  certain,  that  the  persons  whom  the  king  took  to  his 
 bed  in  this  manner,  were  not  reputed  harlots,  but  became 
 his  lawful  wives,  though  wives  of  an  inferior  degree ; 
 and  therefore  it  is  no  great  wonder,  that  Esther,  in  these 
 circumstances,  though  a  very  virtuous  woman,  should 
 consent;  nor  can  Ave  tell,  but  that  Mordecai  and  she 
 might  have  a  dispensation  from  God,  (as  God,  no  doubt, 
 can  dispense  with  his  own  laws,)  supposing  there  were 
 any  contrariety  to  the  divine  laws  in  this  transaction. 
 
 To  account  for  the  humour  of  princes,  and  their 
 management  of  public  affairs,  is  next  to  a  thing  impos- 
 sible. We  see,  even  among  us,  that  great  men  are  some- 
 times unmindful  of  the  highest  services  that  are  done 
 them,  and  take  no  care  to  reward  them,  especially  if  the 
 person  be  in  himself  obscure,  and  not  supported  by  a 
 proper  recommendation.  And  therefore  we  are  not  at 
 all  to  wonder,  if  a  prince,  that  buried  himself  in  indo- 
 lence, and  made  it  a  part  of  his  grandeur  to  live  un- 
 acquainted and  unconcerned  with  what  passed  in  his 
 dominions,  (as  this  was  the  custom  of  most  eastern  kings,) 
 should  overlook  the  great  service  which  Mordecai  fiad 
 done  him,  or  if  he  ordered  him  .a  reward,  that,  by  the 
 artifice  of  those  at  court,  who  were  no  well-wishers  to 
 the  Jews,  he  might  be  disappointed  of  it. 
 
 There  seems,  however,  to  have  been  a  particular  direc- 
 tion of  providence  in  having  his  reward  delayed  till  this 
 time,  when  he  and  all  his  nation  were  appointed  to  de- 
 struction, when  the  remembrance  of  his  services  might 
 be  a  means  to  recommend  them  to  the  king's  mercy,  and 
 the  honours  conferred  on  him  a  deep  mortification  to  his 
 adversary.  These  honours  indeed  were  very  remark- 
 aide  ;  but  by  Hainan's  manner  of  proposing  them,  they 
 seem  to  have  been  the  usual  marks  of  distinction  and 
 esteem,  that  the  kings  of  Persia  conferred  on  those 
 whom  they  were  minded  to  make  conspicuous  ;  and  so 
 far  was  Mordecai  from  being  elated  with  them,  that  as 
 soon  as  the  solemnity  was  over,  we  read,  that3  he 
 returned  to  his  duty,  and  attendance  at  the  king's  gate. 
 
 He  had  declared  himself  a  Jew,  to  satisfy  the  people 
 at  court,  that  he  could  not,  with  a  good  conscience,  coin- 
 ply  with  the  king's  command  relating  to  the  reverence 
 
 1  Est.  ii.  8. 
 
 Patrick's  Commentary. 
 
 Est.  vi,  12. 
 
 which  was  to  be  paid  to  Hainan  ;  and  the  interposition 
 of  Providence  in  behalf  of  the  Jewish  nation,  even  dur- 
 ing their  captivity,  had  been  so  visible,  that  the  wise 
 men  about  Hainan  might,  from  experience,  form  a  con- 
 jecture, that  if  their  God  was  become  their  friend,  (as  by 
 this  strange  turn  of  affairs  in  favour  of  Mordecai  it  looked 
 as  if  he  was,)  no  weapon  forged  against  them  would 
 prosper  ;  because  they  had  seen  so  many  plots,  which 
 would  have  crushed  any  other  nation,  turn  to  their 
 advancement,  as  well  as  their  enemies'  destruction.  The 
 advice  4  which  Achior  gave  to  Holofernes,  is  founded 
 upon  the  known  experience  of  those  times,  and  bespeaks 
 a  man  well  acquainted  with  the  state  of  the  Jews  :  '  Now, 
 therefore,  my  lord,  and  governor,  if  there  be  any  error 
 in  this  people,  and  they  sin  against  their  God,  let  us 
 consider  that  this  will  be  their  ruin. — But  if  there  be  no 
 iniquity  in  their  nation,  let  my  lord  now  pass  by,  lest 
 their  Lord  defend  them,  and  their  God  be  for  them,  and 
 we  become  a  reproach  before  all  the  world.'  Consider- 
 ing, then,  that  Mordecai  was  of  the  seed  of  the  Jews,  a 
 people  whom  God  had  wonderfully  raised  from  under 
 great  oppressions,  and  that,  at  this  time,  there  was  a 
 desperate  design,  by  Hainan's  management,  carrying 
 on  against  them,  Hainan's  wise  men  might  easily,  and 
 without  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  divine, 5  that  as  Mordecai 
 (whom  they  knew  to  be  a  man  of  great  courage  and 
 wisdom,)  was  now  got  into  the  king's  favour,  ic  would 
 not  be  long  before  he  would  find  an  opportunity  of  ap- 
 plying to  him,  who  was  a  person  of  a  mild  disposition, 
 for  a  revocation  of  the  bloody  decree  which  Hainan,  by 
 imposing  upon  his  credulity,  had  procured,  and  conse- 
 quently of  ruining  Hainan  in  the  king's  good  graces. 
 For  the  known  instability  of  court  favours,  and  the  little 
 quarter  that  there  is  given  to  rivals  or  enemies,  made  it 
 no  hard  matter,  from  Mordecai's  advancement  to  read 
 Hainan's  destiny. 
 
 Hainan,  indeed,  was  outrageously  bent  against  the 
 Jews,  and  what  he  offered  the  king  in  lieu  of  the  damage 
 which  his  revenues  might  sustain  by  the  destruction  of  so 
 many  of  his  subjects,  is  a  prodigious  sum  for  any  private 
 man  to  be  owner  of;  but  we  read  of  several  such  persons 
 in  history,  who,  in  those  ancient  times,  were  possessors 
 of  much  greater.  Pithius  the  Lydian,  for  instance, 6 
 when  Xerxes  passed  into  Greece,  was  possessed  of  2000 
 talents  of  silver,  and  of  4,000,000  daricks  in  gold,  which 
 together,  amounted  to  near  L5, 500,000  of  our  sterling 
 money  ;  and  7  Marcus  Crassus,  the  Roman,  after  he  had 
 consecrated  the  tenth  of  what  he  had  to  Hercules,  feasted 
 all  the  people  of  Rome  at  10,000  tables,  and  gave 
 a  donative  of  worn  to  every  citizen,  as  much  as  would 
 last  him  three  months,  found  the  remainder  of  his  es- 
 tate to  be  7,100  Roman  talents,  which  amount  to  above 
 LI, 500 ,000  of  our  money.  This  may  seem  a  little 
 strange  to  us  at  present ;  but  our  wonder  will  cease,  if 
 we  consider  that,  from  the  time  of  David  and  Solomon, 
 and  for  1500  years  afterwards,  the  riches  of  this  kind 
 were  in  much  greater  plenty  than  they  are  nowr.  The 
 prodigious  quantities  of  gold  and  silver  which  Alexander 
 found  in  the  treasures  of  Darius  ;  the  vast  loads  of  them 
 which  were  often  carried  before  the  Roman  generals, 
 when  they  returned  from  conquered  provinces  ;  and  the 
 
 4  Judith  v.  20,  21. 
 i  Poole's  Annot.  and  Patrick's  Comment,  on  Esther  vi.  13. 
 r'  Herodotus,  b.  vii,  '  Plutarch  in  Ciasso. 
 
740 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947.  A.  C.  4C4.  EZRA  iv.  7 
 
 excessive  sums  which  certain  of  their  emperors  expended 
 in  donatives,  feasts,  shows,  and  other  instances  of  luxury 
 and  prodigality,  are  of  this  proof  sufficient :  '  but  at 
 length  the  mines  of  the  ancient  Ophir,  which  furnished  all 
 this  plenty,  being  exhausted,  and  by  the  burning  of  cities, 
 and  devastation  of  countries,  which  followed  upon  the 
 eruptions  of  the  Goths,  Vandals,  and  Huns,  and  other 
 barbarous  nations  in  the  west,  and  of  the  Saracens, 
 Turks,  and  Tartars  in  the  east,  a  great  part  of  the  gold 
 and  silver,  which  the  world  then  abounded  with,  being 
 wasted  and  destroyed  by  this  means,  the  great  scarcity 
 of  both,  which  afterwards  ensued,  was  occasioned  ;  nor 
 have  the  mines  of  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Brazil,  been  as  yet 
 able  fully  to  repair  it. 
 
 The  great  sum  which  Hainan  would  have  given  to  gra- 
 tify his  revenge  against  the  Jewish  nation,  was  an  addi- 
 tional provocation  to  them,  no  doubt,  to  slay  every  one 
 who  came  to  annoy  them ;  but  then  it  must  be  considered 
 that,  in  this,  they  acted  by  virtue  of  an  edict,  which 
 authorized  them  to  stand  upon  their  own  defence  ;  that 
 they  were  not  the  first  aggressors,  but  only  opposed 
 those  that  openly  assaulted  them,  and  were  for  putting  an 
 unjust  decree  in  execution  against  them;  and  as  the 
 Amalekites,  who  might  be  dispersed  throughout  the  Per- 
 sian dominions,  were  the  known  and  inveterate  enemies 
 of  the  Jews,  and,  following  now  the  fortune  of  Haman, 
 might  be  forward  enough  to  execute  the  decree  which  he 
 had  procured  against  them,  it  is  therefore  reasonably  pre- 
 sumed, that  most  of  those  whom  the  Jews,  in  their  neces- 
 sary defence,  both  in  Shushan  and  in  the  provinces,  did 
 destroy,  were  of  that  devoted  nation  ;  and  that,  by  this 
 their  slaughter,  the  prophecies  against  Amalek  were  ac- 
 complished. 
 
 However  this  be,  we  cannot  take  leave  of  this  won- 
 derful deliverance  of  the  Jewish  nation,  without  making 
 this  one  reflection  upon  it,  namely,  2 "  That  though,  in 
 the  whole,  there  was  no  extraordinary  manifestation  of 
 God's  power,  no  particular  cause  or  agent,  that  was  in 
 its  working,  advanced  above  the  ordinary  pitch  of  nature; 
 yet  the  contrivance,  and  suiting  these  ordinary  agents 
 appointed  by  God,  is,  in  itself,  more  admirable  than  if 
 the  same  end  had  been  effected  by  means  that  were  truly 
 miraculous.  That  a  king  should  not  sleep,  is  no  unusual 
 thing,  nor  that  he  should  solace  his  waking  thoughts  by 
 hearing  the  annals  of  his  own  kingdom,  or  the  journals 
 of  his  own  reign,  read  to  him,  &c. ;  but  that  he  should  lie 
 awake  at  that  time  especially,  when  Haman  was  Match- 
 ing to  destroy  the  Jews ;  and  that,  in  the  chronicles  of 
 the  kingdom  they  should  light  on  that  place  where  Mor- 
 decai'8  unrewarded  services  were  recorded  ;  that  the 
 king  thereupon  should  resolve  forthwith  to  do  him  ho- 
 nour ;  that  Hainan  should  come  in  at  the  very  nick  of 
 time,  when  he  was  so  disposed,  and  should  ignorantly 
 determine  what  honour  should  be  done  him,  and  be  ap- 
 pointed to  that  ungrateful  office  himself:  this  was  from 
 the '  keeper  of  Israel,'  who  '  neither  slumbers  nor  sleeps,' 
 and  was  truly  '  marvellous  in  his  people's  eyes.'  For 
 although  miracles,  in  their  nature,  are  more  apt  to  strike 
 the  sense,  yet  such  secret  contrivances  of  God's  wisdom 
 and  providence  do  more  affect  the  understanding :  the 
 one  works  astonishment,  the  other  admiration." 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  543. 
 
 -  Patrick's  Commentary  on  Esther  vii.  10. 
 
 -end,  EST.  NEH.  tart  of  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of Ezra! 's edition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
 and  the  institution  of  Synagogue-Worsliip. 
 
 Ezra,  no  doubt,  in  his  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scrip 
 tures,  was  a  great  man.  The  sacred  history  gives  him 
 this  character,  that  3  c  he  was  a  ready  scribe  in  the  law 
 of  Moses,  which  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  had  given.'  The 
 Jewish  doctors  look  upon  him  as  the  second  founder  of 
 it ;  and  are  generally  of  opinion,  that  he  was  the  prophet 
 Malachi,  "  and  had  that  title  given  him  because  he  was 
 sent  as  God's  messenger,  to  revive  their  religion,  after  it 
 had  been,  in  a  manner,  quite  extinguished.  Nay,  5  many 
 ancient  fathers  of  the  Christian  church  attribute  more  to 
 him,  in  this  particular,  than  even  the  Jews  themselves  ; 
 for  they  suppose,  that,  in  the  Babylonish  captivity,  all 
 the  Scriptures  were  entirely  lost  and  destroyed,  but  that 
 Ezra,  by  divine  revelation,  renewed  and  recovered  them 
 again.  This,  however,  is  carrying  the  compliment  too 
 far,  and  leaving  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  to 
 stand  upon  a  very  precarious  bottom  ;  since  some  may 
 be  apt  to  infer,  that  he  who  is  said  thus  wonderfully  to 
 have  restored  them,  might  much  more  likely  have  forged 
 the  whole. 
 
 We  readily  acknowledge,  indeed,  that  in  the  time  of 
 Josiah,  through  the  two  preceding  reigns  of  Manasseh 
 and  Amnion,  copies  of  the  law  might  be  very  scarce.  But 
 by  the  pious  care  of  that  good  prince,  we  are  informed, 
 that  this  defect  was  soon  remedied  ;  that  copies  were 
 taken  of  the  original  law  that  was  then  found  in  the  tem- 
 ple ;  that  search  was  made  in  the  schools  of  the  prophets, 
 and  in  all  other  places  where  they  could  be  found,  for 
 the  other  parts  of  holy  writ,  and  transcripts  formed  out 
 of  these  likewise,  so  that,  in  a  short  time,  all  that  were 
 desirous  to  know  the  law  of  their  God,  either  by  writing 
 them  out  themselves,  or  procuring  others  to  do  it  for 
 them,  were  furnished  with  copies  both  of  the  law  and  the 
 prophets.  AVithin  a  few  years,  indeed,  the  city  and 
 temple  were  destroyed,  and  with  them  was  the  authentic 
 copy  of  the  laws,  which  was  reposited  in  the  temple, 
 burned  and  consumed ;  but  before  this  calamity  befell 
 the  Jews,  all  the  sacred  writings  then  extant  were  got 
 into  private  hands,  and  carried  away  with  them  into 
 captivity. 
 
 That  Daniel  had  a  copy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  with 
 him  in  Babylon,  is  certain,  because  6  he  not  only  quotes 
 the  law,  but  makes  mention  likewise  7  of  the  prophecies 
 of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  which  he  could  not  have  done, 
 had  he  not  had  them  by  him.  That,  at  the  finishing'  of 
 the  temple,  (which  was  in  the  sixth  of  Darius,  and  above 
 fifty  years  before  Ezra  came  to  Jerusalem,)  copies  of 
 the  law  were  in  common  use,  no  one  can  doubt,  who 
 reads,  how  the  priests  and  Levites  were  settled  in  their 
 respective  functions,  s  '  according  as  it  is  written  in  the 
 books  of  Moses  :'  and  that  when  the  people  called  for 
 the  Scripture,  to  have  it  read  unto  them,  they  did  not 
 request  of  Ezra  to  get  it  anew  dictated  to  him,  but  that 
 he  '■>  '  would  bring  forth  the  book  of  the  law  of  Moses, 
 
 3  Ezra  vii.  6. 
 4  See  Chald.  Paraph,  in  Malach. ;  and  Buxtorf  in  Tiberiade,  c.  3. 
 5  See  Irenwus  against  Hreresies,  b.  lii.  c.  15;  Tertul.  on  the 
 Dress  of  Women,  c.  iii ;  Hieronym.  against  Helvidius;  August, 
 on  the  Miracles  of  Scripture,  b.  ii ;  and  Chrysost.  Horn.  8.  on 
 the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
 6  Dan.  ix.  11.  13.    '  Ibid.  ver.  g.    s  Ezra  vi.  18.    "Neh.viii.  1. 
 
Sect.  11.  J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 741 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  529;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947.  A 
 
 which  the  Lord  had  commanded  Israel ;'  which  plainly 
 implies,  that  all  the  people  well  knew  that  this  book  was 
 then  extant,  and  needed  not  such  a  miraculous  expedient 
 as  that  of  a  divine  revelation  for  its  recovery. 
 
 But  if  Ezra  did  not  restore  the  Scripture  in  this  man- 
 ner, the  question  is,  what  did  he  towards  it?  Now,  to 
 this  it  may  be  answered,  that,  upon  his  coming  to  Jeru- 
 salem, '  he  got  together  as  many  copies  as  he  could 
 meet  with,  either  in  private  hands,  or  public  repositories  ; 
 that  by  comparing  these  copies  one  with  another,  he 
 found  out  the  true  reading,  and  so  corrected  all  the 
 mistakes  that  had  crept  into  them,  either  through  the 
 negligence  or  ignorance  of  transcribers  ;  that,  having 
 thus  made  the  copies  perfect,  he  collected  from  them  all 
 the  books  of  which  the  Holy  Scriptures  did  then  consist, 
 (for  some  books  that  appeared  later  were  admitted  after 
 this  time,)  disposed  them  in  their  proper  order,  and  so 
 far  settled  the  canon  of  Scripture,  that,  for  the  illustra- 
 tion, connexion,  and  completion  of  these  books,  espe- 
 cially such  as  were  historical,  he  added  some  passages 
 that  were  not  in  them  before,  and  changed  some  names 
 that  were  then  grown  obsolete,  for  such  as  were  more 
 modern,  and  better  understood,  which,  as  he  was  a  pro- 
 phet, lie  was  authorized  to  do ;  that  having  thus  made 
 the  books,  in  all  their  parts,  perfect  and  intelligible,  for 
 the  still  greater  ease  and  convenience  of  the  vulgar,  he 
 caused  the  whole  to  be  written  out  in  the  Chaldee  charac- 
 ter, which,  after  the  Babylonish  captivity,  was  in  general 
 use  among  the  people,  so  that  the  old  Hebrew  letters 
 were,  from  that  time,  laid  aside  among  the  Jews,  and 
 oidy  retained  by  the  Samaritans  ;  and  lastly,  that  to 
 ascertain  the  reading  of  this  introduced  character,  he 
 added  the  vowel-points  that  are  now  found  in  our 
 Hebrew  bibles  :  but  whether  tins  was  of  his  doing-,  or 
 the  work  of  some  later  hand,  is  a  matter  of  much  debate 
 among  the  learned. 
 
 Those  who  maintain  that  Ezra,  whom  all  held  to  be 
 a  prophet,  was  the  author  of  these  points,  and  that  they, 
 consequently,  are  of  the  same  authority  with  the  text 
 itself,  argue  in  this  manner, — That  when  the  Hebrew 
 language  ceased  to  be  the  mother-tongue  of  the  Jews, 
 as  all  agree  it  did  after  the  Babylonish  captivity,  it 
 thence  became,  in  a  manner,  impossible  to  teach  it,  with- 
 out the  assistance  of  the  vowel-points  ;  and  therefore, 
 at  least,  they  must  have  begun  in  the  time  of  Ezra,  and 
 continued  in  use  ever  after  :  that  two  ancient  books, 
 called  Baliir  and  Zohar,  which  are  said  to  have  been 
 written,  the  one  a  little  before,  and  the  other  a  little  after 
 the  time  of  our  Saviour,  made  express  mention  of  these 
 points  in  more  places  than  one:  that  whereas  it  is  said, 
 on  the  other  side,  that  the  Masorites  of  Tiberias  (above 
 live  hundred  years  after  Christ)  were  the  inventors  of 
 these  points  ;  this  appears  unlikely,  because  the  schools 
 which  the  Jews  once  had  in  Judea  were  at  this  time  all 
 suppressed  :  nor  was  there  any  number  of  learned  men 
 left  in  the  nation,  of  sufficient  ability  for  such  a  work  : 
 and,  lastly,  that  if  it  be  allowed  that  the  present  points 
 are  not  of  the  same  authority  with  the  letters  themselves, 
 but  only  of  a  late  and  human  invention,  this  will  weaken 
 the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  and  leave  the  sacred  text 
 to  an  arbitrary  and  uncertain  reading  and  interpretation. 
 
 Those  who  maintain  the   contrary  opinion,  namely, 
 
 1  Frideaux's  Connection,  anno  44(i. 
 
 C.4C4.  EZRAiv.  7-end,  EST.  NEH.  part  or  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 that  these  vowel-points  are  of  a  later  date  than  Ezra, 
 fortify  themselves  with  such  arguments  as  these, — That 
 the  sacred  books,  which  the  Jews  make  use  of  in  their 
 synagogue-service,  neither  have,  nor  ever  had,  any  of 
 these  points  in  them,  which  can  only  be  imputed  to  this, 
 — That  when  the  Holy  Scriptures  began  lirst  to  be  pub- 
 licly read  in  the  synagogues,  (which  was  presently  after 
 this  edition  which  Ezra  made  of  them,)  there  were  no 
 such  vowel-points  then  in  being:  that  if  we  compare  the 
 translation  of  the  Septuagint,  the  Chaldee  paraphrases, 
 or  the  Latin  version  of  St  Jerome,  with  the  present 
 pointed  Hebrew  bibles,  Ave  shall  in  several  places  find, 
 that  they  read  the  text  otherwise  than  according  to  the 
 present  punctuation ;  which  is  an  argument  that  these 
 points  were  either  not  in  being,  or  not  in  any  great 
 authority  in  those  times :  and,  lastly,  that  if  we  consult 
 Philo  Judams,  or  Josephus,  who  are  two  of  the  oldest 
 authors  of  the  Jews,  or  any  of  the  ancient  Christian 
 writers,  for  several  ages  after  Christ,  we  shall  not  find 
 one  word  mentioned  of  these  points,  though  they  could 
 not  but  have  sundry  occasions  to  take  notice  of  them,  if 
 either  they  had  been  in  use,  or  of  such  great  credit  and 
 authority  with  the  Jews,  as  is  pretended.  And  therefore, 
 to  answer  the  arguments  on  the  other  side,  they  allege, 
 that  the  books  of  Bahir  and  Zohar  are  not  near  so  ancient 
 as  they  are  reputed ;  that  for  above  a  thousand  years 
 after  their  pretended  composure,  the  Jews  themselves 
 knew  nothing  of  them,  nor  were  they  once  mentioned  by 
 any  author  whatever  during  that  interval ;  and  therefore 
 there  is  reason  to  think,  that  a  false  date  of  antiquity 
 was  fraudulently  put  to  them,  to  give  them  some  sanction, 
 and  to  recommend  them  to  the  world  with  a  better  credit. 
 
 That  the  Masorites  of  Tiberias  were  certainly  in  being 
 a  long  time  in  Judea,  and  in  their  way  of  learning  were 
 not  a  little  eminent;  for  St  Jerome  himself  informs  us, 
 that  he  made  use  of  them :  that  though  there  may  be 
 some  difficulty  in  reading  without  points  ;  yet  since  we 
 find  that  the  Samaritans,  who  understand  Hebrew  no 
 better  than  the  Jews,  have  no  points  to  this  day,  yet  can 
 read  the  Hebrew  text,  in  the  Samaritan  character,  we 
 need  not  doubt  but  that  custom,  good  sense,  and  the 
 coherence  of  the  discourse,  will  supply  rules  for  the 
 remedying  of  these  inconveniences.  And  lastly,  since 
 there  is  no  language  in  the  world,  wherein  there  are  not 
 several  equivocal  expressions,  which  may  occasion  an 
 ambiguity  in  the  sense  ;  though  points  in  this  case  may 
 be  of  some  use,  yet  they  cannot  totally  secure  us  from 
 error,  because  faults  in  transcribing  or  printing  and 
 variations  in  pointing,  are  unavoidable. 
 
 To  accommodate  the  matter  then,  as  well  as  we  can, 
 between  these  contending  parties  ;  though  these  vowel 
 points  Mere  never  anciently  esteemed  any  part  of  the 
 Sacred  Scripture  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  only  addi- 
 tions of  human  invention,  for  the  more  easy  reading  of 
 the  text,  because  they  were  never  received  by  the  Jews, 
 to  whom  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God,  into  the 
 books  which  were  read  in  their  synagogues  ;  yet  we  have 
 good  reason  to  conclude,  that  upon  the  Hebrew  ceas- 
 ing to  lie  a  vulgar  language,  as  it  certainly  did  in  the 
 time  of  Ezra,  they  must  of  necessity  have  been  intro- 
 duced. 
 
 When  every  child  learned  the  Hebrew  tongue  from 
 his  cradle,  it  was  no  hard  matter  for  those  v>ho  thus  un- 
 derstood it  by  rote,  to  learn  to  read  it  by  letters  onh, 
 
742 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  629;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947. 
 
 without  the  vowels  ;  but  when  it  became  <i  dead  language, 
 the  case  was  altered  :  '  for  then,  instead  of  understand- 
 ing it  first,  in  order  to  read  it,  they  were  first  to  read  it,  in 
 order  to  understand  it;  and  therefore  having  not  the  pre- 
 vious knowledge  of  the  language  to  direct  them  herein, 
 they  must  necessarily  have  had  some  other  helps,  in  or- 
 der to  know  with  what  vowel  each  syllable  was  to  be 
 pronounced  ;  and  to  give  them  this  help,  the  vowel-points 
 seem  certainly  to  have  been  invented  ;  and  therefore  the 
 time  of  this  invention  cannot  be  placed  later  than  the 
 time  when  they  became  necessary,  that  is,  when  the  He- 
 brew became  a  dead  language,  and  so  was  acquirable 
 no  other  way  than  by  study  and  instruction. 
 
 From  this  necessity  of  instruction,  and  probably  not 
 long  after  Ezra's  edition  of  the  holy  Scripture,  there 
 sprung  up  a  set  of  men  among  the  Jews,  whose  profes- 
 sion it  was  to  write  out  copies  of  the  Hebrew  text,  and 
 to  preserve  and  teach  the  true  reading  of  it.  What  they 
 did  of  this  kind,  is  called  by  the  Jews  the  Masorah,that 
 is,  the  tradition  ;  because  they  pretend  to  have  the  true 
 reading,  as  the  Talnmdists  pretend  to  have  the  true  in- 
 terpretation, of  the  Scriptures  handed  down  to  them  from 
 generation  to  generation.  However,  as  their  whole  bu- 
 siness was  to  study  the  true  reading  of  the  Hebrew  text, 
 to  preserve  it  from  being  corrupted,  and  to  teach  it  to 
 others,  it  is  highly  probable  that  they  were  the  first  in- 
 ventors of  vowel-points,  because  the  whole  use  of  these 
 points  was  to  be  subservient  to  this  purpose. 
 
 But  though  these  points  might  be  invented  by  the  He- 
 brew grammarians,  whom  we  call  Masorites,  much  ear- 
 lier than  some  will  allow;  yet,  from  their  late  appear- 
 ance in  the  world,  it  seems  very  probable,  that  as  at  first 
 they  might  invent  them  only  for  their  private  use,  so,  for 
 some  time,  they  might  reserve  them  to  themselves,  and 
 teach  them  only  to  their  scholars.  For  the  Jews,  we 
 must  know,  had  anciently  two  sorts  of  schools,  those  of 
 the  Masorites  and  those  of  the  Rabbins  :  the  former 
 taught  only  the  Hebrew  language,  and  to  read  the  Scrip- 
 tures in  it;  but  the  other  taught  their -pupils  to  understand 
 the  word  of  God,  and  all  the  interpretations  of  it.  These 
 were  the  great  doctors  of  divinity  among  them,  to  whom 
 the  Masorites  were  as  much  inferior  as  the  teachers  of 
 grammar  schools  among  us  are  to  the  professors  of  divi- 
 nity in  our  universities. 
 
 As  long  therefore  as  these  vowel-points  went  no  higher 
 than  the  schools  of  the  Masorites,  they  were  not  much 
 regarded  among  their  learned  men  ;  and  this  is  the  rea- 
 son why  we  find  no  mention  made  of  them  either  in  the 
 Talmud,  or  in  the  writings  of  some  .ancient  fathers,  from 
 whom  it  might  have  been  expected.  But  after  the  pub- 
 lication  of  die  Talmud,  the  Jewish  doctors  thought  it 
 advisable,  in  order  to  preserve  the  right  reading  of  the 
 text,  as  the  Mislina  and  Gemara  were  supposed  to  pre- 
 serve its  right  interpretation,  to  take  this  punctuation  of 
 the  Masorites  into  their  divinity  schools,  and  having  re- 
 viewed and  corrected  it  with  great  care,  they  added  it  to 
 the  text,  and  so  gave  it  all  the  venerable  aspect  it  now 
 bears. 
 
 But  though  these  vowel-points  were  added  to  the  text 
 by  such  persons  as  understood  the  language  perfectly, 
 and  having  since  undergone  the  review  and  correction 
 of  many  ages,  may  be  justly  accounted  a  work,  as  com- 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  ilo'. 
 
 A.  C.  4G4.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  HEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZF.CH.  MAL. 
 plete  in  its  kind,  as  can  be  done  by  human  art;  yet  since 
 it  was  only  done  by  human  art,  it  is  no  authentic  part  of 
 the  Scriptures  :  and  therefore  these  points  are  not  so  un- 
 alterably fixed  to  the  text,  but  that  a  change  may  be 
 made  in  them,  when  the  nature  of  the  context,  the  ana- 
 logy of  grammar,  or  the  style  of  the  language,  shall  give 
 a  sufficient  reason  for  it ;  especially  considering,  that 
 notwithstanding  their  exact  fixation  at  first,  they  are  still 
 liable  to  the  mistakes  of  transcribers  and  printers,  and  by 
 reason  of  their  number,  the  smallness  of  their  figures, 
 and  their  position  under  the  letters,  are  more  liable  to 
 suffer  by  them  than  any  other  sort  of  writing  whatever. 
 
 So  that,  upon  the  whole,  it  appears,  that  though  these 
 vowel-points  were  not  affixed  to  the  Hebrew  text  by 
 Ezra  himself;  yet  were  they  of  early  date  after  his  edi- 
 tion of  the  Holy  Scriptures  :  that,  though  they  did  not 
 immediately  appear  in  the  world,  nor  are  taken  notice 
 of  by  any  writer  of  repute  for  many  ages  after  ;  yet  this 
 was  occasioned  by  their  being  confined  to  the  schools  of 
 the  Masorites,  who  in  all  probability  were  the  first  in- 
 ventors of  them  :  and  though,  being  of  human  invention 
 only,  they  cannot  be  supposed  of  equal  authority  with 
 the  text  itself;  yet  are  they  of  excellent  use  for  the  pre- 
 servation of  its  right  reading  and  for  the  prevention  of 
 innumerable  perplexities  and  ambiguities,  that  would 
 otherwise  be  incident  to  it. 
 
 The  learned  are  not  a  little  divided  concerning  the 
 rise  and  antiquity  of  the  Jewish  synagogues :  for  some 
 contend,  that  they  were  in  use  under  the  tabernacle  and 
 first  temple,  whilst  others  assert,  that  they  had  no  being 
 until  the  times  of  the  captivity.  The  former,  in  behalf 
 of  their  opinion,  urge,  2  that,  as  in  the  wilderness,  the 
 court  of  the  tabernacle  could  not  contain  the  hundredth 
 part  of  the  worshippers  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and,  as  in 
 the  promised  land,  the  temple  was  too  far  distant  for 
 devout  persons  of  every  tribe  to  resort  to  it  every  sab- 
 bath day  ;  there  was  a  necessity  for  other  places  to  be 
 appointed  for  the  service  of  God,  that  the  sense  of  reli- 
 gion might  not  be  extinguished  and  lost.  To  this  pur- 
 pose they  observe  that  the  Levites  were  dispersed  in 
 several  cities,  and  the  prophets  and  sons  of  the  prophets 
 settled  in  their  respective  colleges,  that  they  might  be 
 ready  at  hand,  upon  all  occasions,  to  expound  the  law, 
 and  instruct  the  people  in  their  duty,  whenever  they  met 
 together  for  that  purpose.  And  therefore  we  find  the 
 Shunamite's  husband  thus  expostulating  with  his  wife  ;  3 
 '  wherefore  wilt  thou  go  to  the  man  of  God,  to-day,  see- 
 ing it  is  neither  new-moon,  nor  the  sabbath  ;'  which 
 plainly  implies,  that  at  such  stated  seasons  as  these,  the 
 custom  was  to  resort  to  such  teachers  for  instruction  : 
 and,  if  this  was  the  custom,  there  is  no  question  to  be 
 made,  but  that  proper  places  Avere  appointed  for  their 
 reception.  It  is  an  unworthy  imputation  therefore  to 
 think  that  so  many  temples  should  be  built  for  idol-wor- 
 ship, and  yet  none  should  have  zeal  or  piety  enough  to 
 erect  a  synagogue  for  the  God  of  heaven,  or  that  the 
 Pharisees  should  set  up  these  useful  inventions,  and  yet 
 the  elders  and  prophets,  and  holy  men  under  the  Old 
 Testament,  should  want  them. 
 
 These  are  the  principal  arguments  on  that  side ;  but 
 the  silence  of  Scripture  seems  to  be  a  strong  confutation 
 of  them  :   for  had  these  places  of  religious  worship  been 
 
 ■i  Mede's  Works,  b.  iv.  p.  1049. 
 
 3  2  Kings  iv.  23. 
 
Sect.  II. J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 743 
 
 A.  M.  3175.  A.  C.  529;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947.  A.  C.  464.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  fart 
 hi  use  anion"-  the  Jews  in  the  time  we  are  now  speaking 
 
 of,  we  cannot  conceive  why  there  should  not  as  frequent 
 a  mention  have  been  made  of  them  in  the  Old  Testament, 
 as  there  is  in  the  New.  The  common,  therefore,  and 
 indeed  the  most  probable,  opinion  is,  '  that  there  were 
 no  such  things  as  synagogues  built  before  the  captivity 
 of  Babylon  and  the  destruction  of  the  temple  ;  that  the 
 Jews,  seeing-  themselves  carried  away  into  a  strange 
 country,  where  they  had  no  temple  for  divine  service, 
 came  to  .a  resolution  of  building  such  houses  as  were 
 afterwards  called  synagogues,  there  to  be  instructed  in 
 the  law,  and  to  worship  the  God  of  their  fathers,  in  the 
 best  manner  they  could,  on  every  sabbath  day;  and 
 that,  upon  their  return,  finding  the  great  conveniency 
 of  such  like  buildings,  they  erected  the  same  in  their 
 own  country,  as  they  had  done  before  in  the  land  of  their 
 captivity,  and  herein  were  followed  by  the  Jews  of  the 
 dispersion,  in  all  parts  of  the  world  wherein  they  lived. 
 
 After  Ezra  had  set  forth  a  correct  edition  of  the  law, 
 the  prophets,  and  other  sacred  writings,  which  were  extant 
 in  his  time,  his  next  care  was  to  appoint  proper  persons, 
 namely,  the  most  learned  of  the  Levites,  and  other 
 scribes,  that  Mere  well  skilled  in  these  writings,  to  read 
 and  expound  them  to  his  people.2  This,  no  doubt,  they 
 did  at  first  in  the  same  manner  that  himself  had  done, 
 that  is,  by  gathering  the  people  together  in  some  wide 
 street,  or  open  place  of  the  city,  that  was  of  the  fittest 
 capacity  to  receive  them.  But,  in  the  wet  and  winter 
 seasons  of  the  year,  the  inconvenience  of  this  came  to 
 be  felt ;  so  that,  in  process  of  time  they  erected  houses 
 and  tabernacles,  wherein  to  meet  for  this  purpose  :  and 
 this  was  the  true  cause  and  original  a  of  such  edifices  in 
 Judea. 
 
 Synagogues  were  public  edifices,  situate  either  within 
 or  without  their  city,  and  generally  in  an  elevated  place. 
 3  They  were  usually  raised  above  any  private  house, 
 except  when  there  was  an  interdiction  from  the  civil 
 power,  because  the  Jews  have  a  notion,  that  it  is  a  dis- 
 honour to  God  to  have  his  house  inferior,  nay,  so  much 
 as  equal,  to  those  of  men,  and  in  whatever  city  this  hap- 
 pens, they  threaten  it  with  a  speedy  destruction.  They 
 are  always  roofed,  and  covered  over,  and  by  this  are 
 
 1  Jurieu's  History  of  Opinions,  part  i.  c.  17. 
 2  Prideaux's  Connection.        "  Basnage's  History  of  the  Jews. 
 
 a  Mr  Basnage,  in  his  history  of  the  Jews,  is  of  opinion,  that 
 the  origin  of  synagogues  was  not  until  the  reign  of  the  Asmonreans, 
 some  tew  ages  before  Christ,  and  he  imputes  it  to  this  occasion  : 
 — The  zealous  traditionists,  who  made  long  commentaries  upon 
 the  law,  thought  it  a  crime  to  keep  the  people,  whose  applause 
 they  mightily  desired,  in  ignoiance  of  them;  and  instead  of  con- 
 fining their  explications  to  Jerusalem,  where  they  found  them- 
 selves too  much  slighted  and  confined,  they  carried  them  into 
 every  city,  where  there  were  oratories,  and  public  places  of 
 assembly.  Before  this,  private  persons  made  their  prayers  to 
 God  in  their  houses,  where  they  had  a  place  set  apart  for  that 
 holy  exercise.  It  was  generally  upon  the  top  of  the  house,  for 
 their  houses  were  flat-roofed,  that  the  family  and  their  friends 
 met  together,  to  read  some  portion  of  the  law  on  the  sabbath 
 day;  and  when  there  was  any  prophet  in  the  city,  the  devout 
 people  assembled  at  his  house.  But  after  that  the  doctors  had 
 added  their  traditions  and  commentaries  to  the  law,  the  business 
 ot  interpreters  became  so  much  the  more  necessary,  because 
 those  traditions  were  not  written ;  so  that  the  number  of  inter- 
 preters and  interpretations  increased  daily.  For  this  reason,  con- 
 venient places  were  made  choice  of,  that  the  people  might  the 
 better  meet  together  to  be  instructed;  and  from  hence,  in  all 
 probability,  it  is  that  they  derive  their  synagogues. — B.  v.  c.  4. 
 
 f  HAG.  ZECH.  MAL. 
 distinguished  from  the  prosenchcr,  which  were  commonly 
 in  the  fields,  and  open  to  the  heavens.  In  the  midst  of 
 them  there  is  a  desk,  or  pulpit,  made  very  probably  in 
 imitation  of  that,  which,  as  4  we  read,  Ezra  made  use  of, 
 from  whence  the  book  or  roll  of  the  law  is  read  very 
 solemnly,  and  from  whence  both  he  that  expounds  it,  or 
 he  that  preaches  to  the  congregation  at  any  time,  always 
 delivers  himself.  At  the  upper  end  of  the  synagogue, 
 and  over  against  the  door,  which  ever  stands  to  the  west 
 there  is  a  chest,  or  press,  wherein  the  book  of  the  law  is 
 kept,  wrapt  in  a  fine  embroidered  cloth,  and,  what  is 
 uncommon  in  our  churches,  during  the  time  of  divine 
 service  the  women  are  separated  from  the  men,  and 
 seated  in  a  gallery  inclosed  with  lattices. 
 
 Every  town,  wherein  there  were  ten  batelnim,  that  is, 
 ten  persons  of  full  age  and  free  condition,  alwa\s  at 
 leisure  on  week-days,  as  well  as  sabbaths,  to  attend  on 
 divine  service,  was  thought  large  enough  to  have  a 
 synagogue  built  in  it :  otherwise  it  was  not ;  because 
 the  Jewish  notion  is,  that  less  than  such  a  number  could 
 not  make  a  congregation,  and,  without  a  congregation, 
 no  part  of  the  synagogue  service  could  be  performed. 
 But  as  their  notion  was  farther,  that  any  person,  Gentile 
 as  well  as  Jew,  might  be  permitted  to  erect  a  synagogue, 
 because  the  holiness  of  the  place,  as  they  thought,  con- 
 sisted not  so  much  in  the  fabric,  as  in  its  being  set  apart 
 and  dedicated  to  holy  uses  ;  it  thence  came  to  pass,  that 
 though  there  were  but  few  at  first,  yet  in  process  of  time 
 they  became  so  numerous,  that,  in  our  Saviour's  time, 
 there  was  no  town  in  Judea,  but  what  had  one  or  more 
 in  it ;  that,  in  Tiberias,  a  city  of  Galilee,  there  were  no 
 less  than  twelve,  and,  if  we  may  credit  the  Jews,  480  in 
 Jerusalem.  The  buildings  were  contrived  much  after  the 
 same  manner  as  our  parish  churches ;  had  over  their  door 
 or  entrance  this  inscription  written,  This  is  the  gate  of 
 the  Lord,  the  righteous  shall  enter  into  it ;  and  upon  the 
 walls  within,  were  these,  or  such  like  sentences.  Remem- 
 ber thy  Creator :  Keep  thy  foot  when  thou  goest  into  the 
 house  of  the  Lord :  Silence  is  commendable  in  the  time 
 of  prayer  :  and,  Prayers  without  attention,  are  like  a 
 body  without  a  soul,  &c. 
 
 5  1.  In  the  synagogue  service  the  first  office  was 
 prayer.  Their  prayers  at  first  were  but  very  few,  but 
 have  since  increased  to  a  very  large  bulk,  which  makes 
 the  synagogue  service  very  long  and  tedious.  What  they 
 reckon  the  most  solemn  part  of  their  prayers  are  those, 
 which  they  call  Shemonek  Eslireth,  that  is,  the  *  eigldeen 
 prayers,  which,  according  to  them,  were  composed,  and 
 
 4  Neh.  viii.  4.  5  Prideaux's  Connection. 
 
 b  These  prayers  were  originally  no  more  than  eighteen,  but 
 R.  Gamaliel,  a  little  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  added 
 the  nineteenth,  which  is  the  12th  in  the  subsequent  order, 
 against  Christians,  who  are  therein  meant  by  the  names  of 
 apostates  and  heretics:  and  that  we  may  judge  of  the  merits  of 
 these  prayers,  a  very  learned  hand  has  given  us  the  following 
 translation  of  them,  in  the  same  order  as  they  are  in  the  Jewish 
 liturgies. 
 
 I.  "  Blessed  be  thou,  O  Lord,  our  God,  the  God  of  our  fathers, 
 the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob, 
 the  great  God,  powerful  and  tremendous  ;  the  high  God. 
 bountifully  dispensing  benefits;  the  Creator  and  Possessor 
 of  the  universe,  who  rememberest  tiie  good  deeds  of  our  fathers, 
 and  in  thy  love  sendest  a  redeemer  to  those  who  are  descended 
 from  them,  for  thy  name's  sake,  O  King,  our  helper,  our  Saviour, 
 and  our  shield.  Blessed  art  thou,  our  Lord,  who  art  the  shield 
 of  Abraham.' 
 
7U 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3475.  A.  C.  !V29:  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947. 
 
 instituted  by  Ezra,  and  the  great  synagogue  ;  and  there- 
 fore they  enjoin  all  that  are  at  age,  oi'  what  sex  or  con- 
 dition soever,  either  in  private  or  public,  to  repeat  them 
 three  times  a  day,  and  on  every  synagogue-day,  they 
 offered  them  up,  with  the  greatest  solemnity,  in  their 
 public  assemblies.  These  prayers,  however,  are  but  of 
 the  same  nature  that  the  Lord's  prayer  is  in  our  public 
 service,  that  is,  the  fundamental  and  principal  part ;  for 
 besides  these,  they  have  some  prayers  going  before, 
 some  following  after,  and  others  interspersed  between 
 them,  which  make  the  liturgies  very  tedious,  and  justify 
 our  Saviour's  finding  fault  with  their  long  prayers. 
 
 2.  In  the  synagogue-service  there  are  three  things  that 
 are  read,  the  Shema,  the  Law,  and  the  Prophets.  The 
 Shema  consists  of  three  portions  of  Scripture  ;  the  first 
 is,  from  the  beginning  of  the  4th  verse  of  the  sixth  chap- 
 
 II.  '  Thou,  O  Lord,  art  powerful  for  ever.  Thou  raisest  the 
 dead  to  life,  and  art  mighty  to  save.  Thou  sendest  down  the 
 dew,  stillest  the  winds,  and  makest  the  rain  to  come  down  upon 
 the  earth,  and  sustainest  with  thy  beneficence  all  that  live  there- 
 in; and  of  thy  abundant  mercy,  makest  the  dead  again  to  live. 
 Thou  helpest  up  those  that  fall ;  thou  curest  the  sick ;  thou  loosest 
 them  that  are  bound,  and  makest  good  thy  word  of  truth  to  those 
 that  sleep  in  the  dust.  Who  is  to  be  compared  to  thee,  O  thou 
 Lord  of  might  ?  And  who  is  like  unto  thee,  O  our  King,  who 
 killest,  and  makest  alive,  and  makest  salvation  to  spring  up  as 
 the  herb  out  of  the  field?  Thou  art  faithful,  to  make  the  dead 
 rise  again  to  life.  Blessed  art  thou,  O  God,  who  raisest  the 
 dead  to  life.' 
 
 III.  '  Thou  art  holy,  and  thy  name  is  holy,  and  thy  saints  do 
 praise  thee  every  day.  Selah.  For  a  great  king,  and  an  holy 
 one  art  thou,  O  God.  Blessed  art  thou,  0  Lord,  God  most 
 holy.' 
 
 IV.  '  Thou  of  thy  mercy,  givest  knowledge  to  men,  aud  teach- 
 est  them  understanding;  give  graciously  unto  us  knowledge, 
 wisdom,  and  understanding.  Blessed  art  thou,  O  Lord,  who 
 graciously  givest  knowledge  unto  men.' 
 
 V.  '  Bring  us  back,  O  our  Father,  to  the  observance  of  thy 
 la«,  and  make  us  to  adhere  to  thy  precepts;  and  do  thou,  O  our 
 King,  draw  us  near  to  thy  worship,  and  convert  us  unto  thee  by 
 perfect  repentance  in  thy  presence.  Blessed  art  thou,  O  Lord, 
 who  vouchsafest  to  receive  us  by  repentance.' 
 
 VI. '  Be  thou  merciful  to  us,  O  our  Father,  for  we  have  sin- 
 ned: pardon  us,  O  our  King,  for  we  have  transgressed  against 
 thee,  tor  thou  art  a  God,  good  and  ready  to  pardon.  Blessed 
 art  thou,  0  Lord  most  gracious,  who  multipliest  thy  mercies  in 
 the  forgiveness  of  sins.' 
 
 VII.  '  Look,  we  beseech  thee,  upon  our  afflictions:  be  thou  on 
 our  side,  in  all  our  contentions;  and  plead  thou  our  cause  in  all 
 our  litigations;  and  make  haste  to  redeem  us  with  a  perfect  re- 
 demption, for  thy  name's  sake:  for  thou  art  our  God,  our  King 
 and  a  strong  Redeemer.  Blessed  art  thou,  O  Lord,  the  Redeem- 
 er of  Israel.' 
 
 VIII.  '  Heal  u=,  O  Lord  our  God,  and  we  shall  be  healed- 
 save  us,  and  we  shall  be  saved;  for  thou  art  our  praise.  Brin« 
 unto  us  sound  health,  and  a  perfect  remedy  for  all  our  infirmities3 
 for  all  our  griefs,  and  for  all  our  wounds ;  for  tliou  art  a  God' 
 who  healest,  and  art  merciful.  Blessed  art  thou,  O  Lord,  our 
 God,  who  curest  the  diseases  of  thy  people  Israel.' 
 
 IX.'  Bless  us,  O  Lord,  our  God,  in  every  work  of  our  hands 
 and  bless  unto  us  the  seasons  of  the  year,  and  give  us  the  dew' 
 and  the  rain  to  be  a  blessing  unto  us  upon  the  face  of  all  our 
 land,  and  satiate  the  world  with  thy  blessings,  and  send  down 
 moisture  upon  every  part  of  the  earth  that  is  habitable.  Blessed 
 art  thou,  O  Lord,  who  givest  thy  blessing  to  the  years.' 
 
 X.  '  Convocate  us  together  by  the  sound  of  the  great  trumpet, 
 to  the  enjoyment  of  our  liberty;  and  lift  up  thy  ensigns  to  call 
 together  all  of  the  captivity,  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth 
 to  our  own  |a„d.  Blessed  art  thou,  O  Lord,  who  gatherest  to- 
 gether the  exiles  of  the  people  of  Israel.' 
 
 But  this  is  enough  for  a  specimen.  The  rest  are  much  of  the 
 same  strain;  but  the  reader  that  is  desirous  to  see  them,  will  find 
 them  in  Dr  Pndeaux's  Connection  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
 ment, part  1.  b.  vi. 
 
 A.  C.  4G1.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NEH.  part  of  HAG.  ZECH.  JUL. 
 
 ter  of  Deuteronomy,  to  the  end  of  the  9th  verse :  the 
 second,  from  the  beginning  of  the  13th  verse  of  the 
 eleventh  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  to  the  end  of  the  21st 
 verse  :  and  the  third,  from  the  beginning  of  the  37th 
 verse  of  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Numbers,  to  the  end  of 
 the  chapter  :  and  because  the  first  of  these  portions,  in 
 the  Hebrew  bible,  begins  with  the  word  Shema,  that  is, 
 hear,  therefore  the  reading  of  the  whole  is  called  the 
 reading  of  the  Shema,  which,  next  to  their  saying  of  the 
 Shemonech  Eshreth,  or  the  famous  eighteen  -prayers,  is 
 reckoned  the  most  solemn  part  of  their  religious  service. 
 
 The  five  books  of  the  law  were  divided,  as  some  say, 
 by  Moses  himself,  but  not  improbably  by  Ezra,  into  fifty- 
 four  sections,  because  in  their  intercalated  years,  (when 
 a  month  was  added  to  the  year,)  there  were  fifty-four 
 sabbaths,  and  so  a  section,  being  read  every  sabbath 
 day,  completed  the  whole  in  the  space  of  a  year  ;  but 
 when  the  year  was  not  thus  intercalated,  those  who  had 
 the  direction  of  the  synagogue-worship,  reduced  the 
 sections  to  the  number  of  sabbaths,  by  joining  two  short 
 ones  several  times  into  one,  because  they  held  themselves 
 obliged  to  have  the  whole  law,  from  the  beginning  of 
 Genesis  to  the  end  of  Deuteronomy,  read  over,  in  this 
 manner,  every  year. 
 
 In  the  persecution  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  when  the 
 reading  of  the  law  was  prohibited,  in  the  room  of  the 
 fiftyr-four  sections  of  it,  the  Jews  substituted  fifty-four 
 sections  of  the  prophets,  which  were  ever  after  continued  ; 
 insomuch  that  when  the  reading  of  the  law  was  again 
 restored  by  the  Maccabees,  the  section  which  was  read 
 every  sabbath  out  of  the  law,  served  for  the  first  lesson, 
 and  the  section  out  of  the  prophets  for  the  second  ;  for 
 that  is  the  meaning  of  '  St  Paul's  '  standing  up  to  preach, 
 after  the  reading  of  the  law  and  the  prophets;'  that  is, 
 after  the  reading  of  the  first  lesson  out  of  the  law  and 
 the  second  lesson  out  of  the  prophets. 
 
 3.  The  exposition  of  the  law  and  the  prophets  went 
 along  with  the  reading  of  them  :  for  after  that  the  Hebrew 
 language  had  ceased  to  be  the  mother-tongue  of  the 
 Jews,  and  the  Chaldee  grew  up  into  use  instead  of  it, 
 the  custom  of  the  synagogue  was,  that  one  should  first 
 read  a  paragraph  of  the  Scriptures  to  the  people  in  the 
 Hebrew  tongue,  and  then  another  interpreted  it  in  the 
 Chaldee,  which  they  better  understood.  And  this  seems 
 to  suggest  the  reason  why  these  sections  of  Scripture 
 came  to  be  divided  into  verses,  namely,  that  by  this 
 means  the  reader  might  certainly  know  how  much  he  was 
 to  read ;  and  the  interpreter  how  much  he  was  to  inter- 
 pret at  every  interval. 
 
 4.  After  that  the  reading  and  expounding  were  over, 
 any  person  of  learning,  and  knowledge  in  the  Scriptures, 
 might  address  himself  to  the  people,  upon  what  moral 
 or  divine  subject  he  thought  proper ;  only  we  may  ob- 
 serve, that  this  was  a  compliment  usually  paid  to  stran- 
 gers ;  and  therefore  when  St  Paul  and  his  company  came 
 to  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  and  went  into  the  place  of  divine 
 worship  on  the  sabbath  day,  2  '  after  the  reading  of  the 
 law  and  the  prophets,  the  rulers  of  the  synagogue  sent 
 unto  them,  saying,  ye  men  and  brethren,  if  ye  have  any 
 word  of  exhortation  for  the  people,  say  on.' 
 
 From  what  has  been  said  it  appears,  that  the  ministra- 
 tion of  the  synagogue-service  was  not  confined  to  the 
 
 1  Acts  xiii.  1G. 
 
 *  Ibid.  51. 
 
Sue*.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 745 
 
 A.  M.  3175.  A.  C.  529;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  4947 
 
 sacerdotal  order  ;  for  the  priests  were  consecrated  only 
 to  the  service  of  the  temple,  which  was  widely  different 
 from  this,  as  consisting-  chiefly  in  the  offering"  up  of  sa- 
 crifices and  oblations,  but  to  this  in  the  synagogue  any 
 one  that  by  learning  was  qualified  for  it,  was  admitted. 
 Only  for  the  preservation  of  order,  there  were  in  every 
 synagogue  some  fixed  officers,  whose  business  it  was  to 
 tnke  care  that  all  religious  duties  were  therein  decently 
 performed. 
 
 The  first  of  this  kind  are  those  whom  the  Scriptures 
 of  the  New  Testament  call  'rulers  of  the  synagogue  :' 
 but  how  many  of  these  belonged  to  each  synagogue  we 
 cannot  tell,  only  we  may  presume,  there  were  more  than 
 one,  because  they  are  mentioned  in  the  '  plural  number, 
 in  respect  of  the  same  synagogue.  Next  to  them,  and 
 perhaps  one  of  them,  was  the  minister  of  the  synagogue, 
 whose  business  it  was  to  offer  up  to  God  the  public  prayers 
 of  the  congregation  ;  and  being  for  this  purpose  dele- 
 gated, as  it  were,  by  them  to  God,  is  therefore  in  the 
 Hebrew  language,  called  Sheliach  Zibber,  that  is,  the 
 angel  of  the  church,  or  congregation  :  from  whence  the 
 name  of  the  bishops  of  the  seven  churches,  mentioned 
 in  the  Revelations,  is  manifestly  borrowed.  Next  to  this 
 angel  of  the  church,  were  the  deacons,  and  inferior  mi- 
 nisters of  the  synagogue,  called  in  Hebrew  Chazanim, 
 or  overseers,  who,  under  the  rulers  of  the  synagogue, 
 had  the  charge  and  oversight  of  all  things  in  it,  and  kept 
 the  books  of  the  holy  Scriptures,  the  liturgies,  and  uten- 
 sils, which  they  brought  forth,  and  carried  away  again,  as 
 there  was  occasion  :  and  next  to  these  overseers  was  the 
 interpreter,  whose  office  it  was  to  recite  in  Chaldee  the 
 lessons,  as  they  were  read  in  Hebrew,  to  the  congrega- 
 tion ;  and  because  a  good  deal  of  skill  in  both  languages 
 was  requisite  for  such  an  undertaking",  whenever  the 
 rulers  of  the  synagogue  found  a  person  fit  for  this  pur- 
 pose, they  retained  him  by  a  salary,  and  so  made  him  a 
 standing  minister  among  them. 
 
 We  have  nothing  more  to  add  concerning  this  syna- 
 gogue-worship, but  that  the  times  appointed  for  it  were 
 three  days  a  week,  besides  their  holidays,  whether  fasts 
 or  festivals,  and  thrice  on  every  one  of  those  days,  that 
 is,  in  the  morning,  in  the  afternoon,  and  at  night :  and 
 that  when  at  any  of  these  times  the  blessing  was  to  be 
 given,  if  there  was  a  priest  present  in  the  congregation 
 lie  always  did  the  office  ;  but  if  there  was  none  there,  the 
 Sheliach  Zibber,  who  read  the  prayers,  in  a  form  of  be- 
 nediction made  proper  for  him,  dismissed  the  people. 
 
 Before  we  dismiss  this  subject,  there  is  one  common 
 inquiry  which,  by  this  time,  we  may  be  able  to  satisfy, 
 and  that  is. — How  it  came  to  pass,  that  the  Jews  were  so 
 prone  to  idolatry  before  the  Babylonish  captivity,  and 
 so  strongly  bent  against  it,  even  to  a  degree  of  supersti- 
 tion, after  that  captivity  Mas  ended  ?  which  can  hardly 
 be  imputed  to  any  other  cause,  but  that  they  had  the  law 
 and  the  prophets  every  week  read  unto  them,  after  that 
 captivity,  which  they  had  not  before.  Before  the  capti- 
 vity they  had  no  synagogues  for  public  worship,  or  in- 
 struction, nor  any  places  to  resort  to  for  these  purposes, 
 but  either  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  or  the  cities  of  the 
 Levites ;  and  from  hence  great  ignorance  grew  among 
 the  people  :  God  was  little  known  among  them,  and  his 
 laws  in  a  manner  wholly  forgotten  ;  and  therefore,  as 
 occasions  offered,  they  were  easily  drawn  into  all  the 
 
 A.  C.  464.  EZRA  iv.  7— end,  EST.  NF.1I.  mrtof  HAG.  ZECH.  MAIi. 
 
 superstitions  and  idolatrous  practices  of  the  heathen 
 nations  that  lived  about  them.  But  now,  when,  after 
 the  Babylonish  captivity,  synagogues  were  erected  in 
 every  city,  to  which  they  constantly  resorted  for  public 
 worship,  and  where,  every  week,  they  had  the  law  at 
 first,  and  afterwards  both  the  law  and  the  prophets  read 
 to  them  ;  and  where,  by  sermons  and  exhortations,  they 
 were,  at  least  every  sabbath  day,  instructed  in  their 
 duty,  and  excited  to  the  performance  of  it ;  this  kept 
 them  in  a  thorough  knowledge  of  God  and  his  laws,  as 
 the  comminations  in  the  prophets,  when  once  they 
 came  to  be  read  among  them,  deterred  them  from  trans- 
 gressing against  them  ;  for,  2  '  all  Scripture,'  as  the 
 apostle  speaks,  'is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is 
 profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for 
 instruction  in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God,'  or 
 every  man  who  resolves  to  be  godly,  '  may  be  perfect, 
 wise  unto  salvation,  and  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all 
 good  works.' 
 
 One  thing  we  may  observe  farther  : — That,  since  there 
 was  a  public  liturgy  established  in  the  Jewish  church, 
 and  forms  of  prayer,  though  very  empty  and  jejune  in 
 comparison  of  those  that  are  in  use  among  us  ;  our  bless- 
 ed Saviour,  when  upon  earth,  was  contented  to  join  with 
 the  public  in  these  forms,  and  to  frequent  the  synagogue 
 3  every  sabbath  day.  And  this  may  inform  us,  that  to 
 break  the  union  of  a  church,  upon  the  account  of  bet- 
 ter edification,  or  more  ecstatic  prayers,  is  a  refinement 
 that  the  great  Teacher  of  all  righteousness  knew  nothing 
 of.  In  the  course  of  his  preaching,  he  spared  not  to  tell 
 the  Jews  freely  of  all  the  corruptions  that,  in  his  time, 
 they  had  run  into :  and  therefore  had  it  been  contrary 
 to  the  will  of  God,  to  use  set  forms  of  prayer  in  his  pub- 
 lic service,  or  had  it  been  displeasing  to  him  to  be  ad- 
 dressed in  such  mean  forms,  when  much  better  might 
 have  been  made,  we  may  be  sure  he  would  have  told 
 them  both,  and  joined  with  them  in  neither  :  but  since  he 
 never  found  fault  with  them  for  using  set  forms,  but,  on 
 the  contrary,  he  taught  his  own  disciples  a  set  form  to 
 pray  by,  since  he  no  where  expressed  a  dislike  of  the 
 forms  then  in  use,  upon  account  of  their  meanness,  but, 
 on  the  contrary,  testified  his  approbation  of  them,  by 
 joining  with  them  in  their  synagogues  ;  this  should  con- 
 vince our  separatists,  one  would  think,  that  neither  our 
 using  set  forms  of  prayer  in  our  public  worship,  nor  the 
 using  of  such  as  they  think  not  sufficiently  edifying,  can 
 be  objections  sufficient  to  justify  them  in  their  refusal  to 
 join  with  us  in  them,  because  in  both  these  cases  they 
 have  the  example  of  Christ  directly  against  them. 
 
 The  truth  is,  whether  there  be  a  form  or  no  form,  or 
 whether  the  form  be  elegantly  or  meanly  composed  ;  no- 
 thing of  this  availeth  to  the  recommending  of  our  prayers 
 unto  God.  It  is  the  true  and  sincere  devotion  of  the 
 heart  .alone,  that  can  make  them  acceptable  unto  him  : 
 for  it  is  this  only  that  gives  life  and  vigour,  and  a  true 
 acceptance,  to  all  our  religious  addresses.  Without  this, 
 how  elegantly,  how  movingly,  soever  the  prayer  may  be 
 composed,  and  how  fervently,  how  zealously,  soever  it 
 may  seem  to  be  poured  out,  yet  all  this  is  dead  mat- 
 ter, and  of  no  validity  in  the  presence  of  our  God.  But, 
 on  the  contrary,  the  very  heathens  can  tell  us,  that,  be 
 our  prayers  and  oblations  ever  so  mean,  they  will  be 
 a  '  sacrifice  of  a  sweet  smelling  savour'  unto  him,  if  we 
 
 i  Mark  v.  35   &c.  Luke  viii,  41 — xifi.  1  1. 
 
 ^2  Tim.  iii.  10,  17. 
 
 a  Luke  iv.  1G. 
 
;4'6 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  359G.  A.  C.  403;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C.  311.  1  MAC.  i-vi.  7.  2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c.  7— b.  vii.  c  14. 
 
 bring  but  to  his  worship,  "  a  fixed  purity  of  purpose,  and 
 a  mind  holy  at  its  inmost  core,  with  a  will  untarnished 
 by  low  chicane  ;  the  suppliant  yielding  these,  shall  prove 
 grateful  to  the  sods."  l 
 
 SECT.    III.* 
 
 CHAP.  I.— From  the  Death  of  Nehemiah,  to  the  Death 
 of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 Manasseh,  as  Josephus  calls  him,  (for  we  have  now  left 
 the  sacred  history,  and  have  nothing  but  the  books 
 of  the  Maccabees,  Philo  Judasus,  and  Josephus,  with 
 some  fragments  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  writers,  to  de- 
 pend on,)  being  expelled  from  Jerusalem,  with  several 
 others,  who  would  not  subnut  to  Nehemiah's  order  for  their 
 parting-  with  their  idolatrous  wives,  went  to  Samaria,  as 
 we  said  before,  and  there  put  himself  under  the  protec- 
 tion of  Sanballat,  his  father-in-law  ;  who,  applying  to 
 Darius  Nothus,  the  then  king  of  Persia,  did  so  far  insi- 
 nuate himself  into  his  favour,  as  to  obtain  a  grant  for  the 
 building  of  a  temple  on  Mount  Gerizim,  near  Samaria, 
 and  for  making  Manasseh,  his  son-in-law,  the  high  priest 
 of  it.° 
 
 1  Pcrs.  sat.  2. 
 a  On  the  supposition  that  Nehemiah  returned  to  Judea  in  the 
 latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Darius  Nothus,  it  is  easy  to  see  what 
 gave  occasion  to  the  mistake  of  Josephus,  who  assigns  Sanballat, 
 the  chief  of  the  Samaritans,  contemporary  with  Nehemiah,  to  the 
 reign  of  Darius  Codomannus;  and  makes  Manasseh,  the  son  of 
 Joiada  and  son-in-law  of  Sanballat,  the  son  of  the  high  priest 
 Jaddua.  Misled  by  the  similarity  of  the  names,  he  confounded 
 Darius  Nothus  with  Darius  Codomarimis;  and  this  is  not  at  all 
 surprising,  for  Josephus  in  his  Antiquities  treats  of  tin's  period 
 very  negligently,  and  has  fallen  into  numerous  errors.  The  more 
 modern  Jews  were  very  ignorant  of  the  later  periods  of  Persian 
 history.  If  we  correct  this  oversight  of  Josephus,  it  will  no  longer 
 be  necessary  to  maintain  the  very  improbable  assumption,  that 
 there  were  two  chiefs  of  the  Samaritans  of  the  name  of  Sanballat, 
 separated  from  each  other  by  a  century,  (B.  C.  431  and  331,)  each 
 of  whom  had  a  daughter  married  to  a  fugitive  son  of  the  Jewish 
 high  priest.  There  was  but  one  Sanballat,  chief  of  the  Samaritans, 
 whose  daughter  was  married  to  a  son  of  the  high  priest  Joiada, 
 and  that  about  the  year  B.  C.  408.  That  important  historical 
 fact,  therefore,  which  Josephus  has  placed  in  the  reign  of  Darius 
 Codomannus,  properly  belongs  to  the  last  years  of  Darius  Nothus. 
 It  was  from  this  last  mentioned  monarch  that  Sanballat  obtained 
 permission  to  build  a  temple  for  the  Samaritans  on  mount  Gerizim. 
 This  chief  had  distinguished  himself,  perhaps  by  his  alacrity  iu 
 furnishing  with  provisions  the  army  destined  lor  Egypt;  and  hav- 
 ing thus  ingratiated  himself  with  the  king,  his  request  was  the 
 more  readily  granted.  In  this  temple  Manasseh  the  son  of  the 
 high  priest  Joiada,  whom  Nehemiah  had  expelled  from  Judea  on 
 account  of  his  connexion  with  the  daughter  of  Sanballat,  was 
 appointed  high  priest.  Afterwards,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
 Josephus,  those  .lews,  who  in  their  own  country  had  been  guilty 
 of  criminal  offences,  or  who  from  any  cause  became  dissatisfied, 
 took  refuge  in  Samaria.  By  means  of  these  emigrants  the  Sa- 
 maritans were  recalled  from  idolatry,  and  brought  to  Worship 
 Jehovah  alone.  But  this  circumstance,  far  from  allaying  the 
 enmity  between  the  two  nations,  tended  rather  to  increase  it, 
 at  least  on  the  part  of  the  Jews,  to  whom  this  temple,  built  after 
 tiie  year  B.  C.  408,  and  the  reception  of  fugitive  Jews,  vtas  a 
 constant  source  ol  provocation.  In  this  manner  every  thing  fulls 
 naturally  and  without  violence  into  its  proper  order  of  time,  and 
 the  succession  of  the  high  priests,  (Neh.  xii.  10,  11,)  is  completely 
 reconciled  with  history.  For  though  this  table  was  evidently 
 completed  by  a  later  hand,  this  circumstance  alone,  without  other 
 reasons,  cannot  prove  it  incorrect.  And  no  such  other  proof  of 
 jts  incorrectness  now  remains ;  for  if  Joiada  entered  on  the  priest- 
 
 The  Samaritans  *  were  originally  the  Cutheans,  and 
 such  other  of  the  eastern  nations,  as  Esarhaddon,  after 
 the  deportation  of  the  Israelites,  planted  there  ;  but  after 
 this  temple  was  built,  and  Samaria  became  a  common 
 refuge  for  ail  relractory  Jews,  this  mixture  of  inhabitants 
 in  a  short  time  produced  a  change  in  religion.  For 
 whereas  they  had  hitherto  worshipped  the  God  of  Israel, 
 in  conjunction  with  the  gods  of  the  east,  from  whence 
 they  came,  when  once  the  Jewish  worship  came  to  be 
 settled  among  them,  and  the  book  of  the  law  ol  Moses 
 to  be  read  publicly,  they  conformed  themselves  wholly 
 to  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  and  in  their  performance 
 of  this  were  as  exact  as  the  Jews  themselves.  The 
 Jews,  however,  looking  on  them  as  apostates,  hated 
 them  to  such  a  degree,  as  to  avoid  all  manner  of  con- 
 verse and  communication  with  them.  This  hatred  first 
 began  from  the  malice  which  the  Samaritans  expressed 
 against  them,  both  in  the  rebuilding  of  their  temple,  and 
 in  the  repairing  the  walls  of  their  city.  It  was  afterwards 
 much  increased  by  the  apostasy  of  Manasseh,  and  his 
 setting  up  an  altar  and  temple,  in  opposition  to  those  at 
 Jerusalem ;  and  it  was  all  along  kept  up,  on  account  of 
 some    particular  tenets  wherein  the  two    nations    were 
 
 hood  B.  C.  412,  there  are  for  the  eighty  years  which  intervene 
 between  this  period  and  the  time  of  Alexander,  three  high  priests, 
 namely,  Joiada,  Jonathan  or  Johanan  (John)  and  Jaddua;  and 
 it  is  known  that  Jaddua  was  very  aged  when  Alexander  visited 
 Jerusalem.  It  is  accordingly  no  longer  necessary  to  assume, 
 without  evidence,  that  there  were  two  high  priests  of  the  name 
 of  Jaddua,  one  at  the  time  of  Nehemiah,  and  a  second  in  the  days 
 of  Alexander. — Jahn,s  Hebrew  Commonwealth. — Ed. 
 
 b  If  we  believe  their  chronicle,  which  they  tell  us  is  of  great 
 antiquity,  though  others  who  have  examined  it,  will  not  allow  it 
 to  be  as  old  as  Constantine's  days,  they  give  us  an  account  of 
 their  origin  quite  different  from  what  we  gather  from  sacred  writ. 
 They  pretend  to  be  descended  from  Joseph  by  Ephraim,  in  a 
 direct  line ;  and  that  when  Joshua  entered  into  the  promised 
 land,  he  caused  a  temple  to  be  built  upon  Mount  Gerizim,  and 
 appointed  one  Buz  of  the  seed  of  Aaron,  to  officiate  as  high 
 priest,  from  whom  they  have  an  exact  genealogy,  and  uninter- 
 rupted succession  ever  since.  They  neither  own  Jeroboam's 
 schism,  nor  the  transmigration  of  the  ten  tribes,  but  give  this 
 account  of  their  leaving  their  country,  and  returning  to 
 it  again : — That  when  the  kings  of  Jerusalem  and  Syria  had 
 revolted  against  Bachtnezzar,  so  they  called  Nebuchadnezzar, 
 he  came  with  an  army  and  took  Jerusalem,  and  thence 
 marching  to  the  Shechemites,  for  that  is  the  name  they  give 
 themselves,  ordered  them  to  leave  their  country  in  seven  days, 
 upon  pain  of  military  execution,  which  they  readily  did:  that 
 when  he  sent  Persians  to  inhabit  the  cities  which  they  had  left, 
 they  could  not  live  there,  because  the  fruits  which  seemed  fair  to 
 the  eye,  were  tainted  with  poison,  and  so  destroyed  them :  that 
 upon  complaints  of  this,  the  king  consulted  with  some  of  the  ancient 
 inhabitants  of  these  provinces,  who  informed  him  that  the  only 
 remedy  was  to  send  the  Hebrews  back  again  into  their  own 
 country  ,  which  when  he  consented  to,  a  place  was  appointed 
 for  their  general  rendezvous:  that  when  they  came  to  this  place 
 a  dispute  arose  between  them,  whether  they  should  go  and  rebuild 
 the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  or  that  of  Gerizim,  and  when  Zerubba- 
 bel  was  for  the  former,  and  Sanballat  for  the  latter,  each  pleading 
 the  sanction  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  each  pretending  that  the  copy 
 of  his  opponent  was  corrupt,  they  resolved  to  end  the  controversy 
 by  a  fiery  trial:  that  Zerubbabel's  copy  being  thrown  into  the  fire, 
 was  immediately  consumed,  but  that  Sanballat's  endured  the 
 flames  three  times  together,  and  received  no  manner  of  harm; 
 whereupon  the  king  honoured  the  Shechemites  with  rich  presents, 
 and  sent  Sanballat  as  the  head  of  the  ten  tribes,  to  take  possession 
 of  Mount  Gerizim.  But  who  sees  not  that  this  whole  history, 
 full  of  falsities  and  absurdities  as  it  is,  was  only  invented  to  wipe 
 on"  the  shame  and  disgrace  of  the  Samaritans,  for  being  the  off- 
 spring of  proselytes,  and  a  medley  of  foreign  nations  ? — Bus- 
 nage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  ji.  c.  1.,  and  Universal  History, 
 b.  ii.  c.  1. 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 747 
 
 made  Bagoses  governor  of  Syria  and  Phoenicia,  who 
 took  upon  him  to  confer  the  pontificate,  even  while 
 Johanan  the  high  priest,  who  had  been  several  years 
 invested  with  it,  Mas  alive,  upon  the  high  priest's  brother 
 Joshua,  and  who  accordingly  came  with  this  grant  to 
 Jerusalem,  in  order  to  take  possession  of  the  office. 
 1  But  while  the  one  endeavoured  by  force  to  get  posses- 
 sion, and  the  other  by  force  to  keep  him  from  it,  it  so 
 happened,  that  Johanan  slew  Joshua  in  the  inner  court 
 of  the  temple  ;  which,  when  Bagoses  heard,  he  came  in 
 gTeat  wrath  to  Jerusalem  ;  went  into  the  temple,  notwith- 
 standing the  remonstrances  that  were  made  against  it ; 
 and,  having  taken  a  thorough  cognizance  of  the  fact, 
 imposed  a  mulct  for  the  punishment  of  it,  and  obliged 
 the  priests  to  pay,  out  of  the  public  treasury,  for  every 
 lamb  that  they  offered  in  the  daily  sacrifice,  c  the  sum 
 
 A    M.  3596.  A.  C.  408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C.  341  1  MAC.  i—vi.  7.  2  MAC.  iii—x   JOS.  HIST.b.  xi.  c.  7— b  xii.c.  14 
 
 known  to  disagree.  For  the  Samaritans  received  no 
 other  Scriptures  than  the  five  books  of  Moses ;  they  re- 
 jected all  traditions,  and  adhered  only  to  the  written 
 word  itself ;  and  they  maintained,  that  Mount  Gerizim, 
 a  whereon  their  temple  was  built,  was  the  only  proper 
 place  for  the  worship  of  God  ;  and  from  this  variety  of 
 causes  did  ensue  all  the  hatred  and  virulence,  which,  in 
 the  course  of  this  history,  we  shall  have  but  too  frequent 
 occasion  to  take  notice  of. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Nehemiah,  who  was  the  last  gover- 
 nor that  the  kings  of  Persia  sent  to  Jerusalem,  Judea 
 being  added  to  the  prefecture  of  Syria,  was  from  thence- 
 forward subjected  to  the  rulers  of  that  province  ;  and 
 under  them  the  administration  of  all  public  affairs,  both 
 civil  and  ecclesiastical,  was  committed  to  the  high  priest, 
 which  made  that  office  much  more  coveted  than  it  used 
 to  be,  and  many  times  tempted  those  who  had  no  right 
 to  it,  to  invade  it. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Darius  Nothus,  Artaxerxes,  who 
 for  his  extraordinary  memory,  is  by  the  Greeks  called 
 the  remembrancer ,  succeeded  his  father  in  tire  throne 
 of   Persia ;  b  and  towards  the  latter  end  of   his  reign, 
 
 a  Josephus,  in  his  Jewish  Antiquities,  (b.  xiii.  c.  6,)  relates  a 
 dispute,  which  arose  in  Egypt,  in  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philopa- 
 ter,  between  the  Jews  and  Samaritans,  concerning  their  temples. 
 The  Samaritans  maintained,  that  their  temple  upon  Mount  Ge- 
 rizim was  the  only  true  temple  of  the  Lord :  and  the  Jews  on 
 the  contrary  affirmed  that  theirs  at  Jerusalem  was  the  only  true 
 one.  The  dispute  was  brought  before  the  king;  advocates  on 
 both  sides  were  named;  and  it  was  agreed,  that  they  who  did 
 not  make  their  allegations  good,  should  be  condemned  to  death. 
 Both  parties  promised  that  they  would  produce  all  their  testi- 
 monies from  the  law  only.  Andronicus,  advocate  for  the  Jews, 
 spake  first,  and  proved  so  very  evidently  from  the  Scriptures, 
 the  antiquity  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  the  succession  of  the 
 higb  priests,  and  the  value  which  the  Asiatic  princes  always  had 
 for  that  holy  place,  while  at  the  same  time  they  never  so  much  as 
 thought  of  the  temple  at  Gerizim,  that  the  king  and  his  assessors, 
 declared  he  had  carried  his  cause,  and  ordered  Sabhajus  and 
 Theodosius,  the  advocates  for  the  Samaritans,  to  be  put  to  death. 
 Whether  there  be  any  reality  in  this  account  of  Josephus  or 
 no,  it  is  certain  that  the  Samaritans,  on  behalf  of  Mount  Geri- 
 zim, have  to  plead, — That  there  Abraham,  (Gen.  xii.  (5,  7,  and 
 xiii.  4,)  and  there  Jacob,  (Gen.  xxxiii.  20,)  built  altars  unto 
 God,  and  by  their  offering  up  sacrifices  thereon  consecrated  that 
 place  above  all  others  to  his  worship;  that  for  this  reason  God 
 himself  appointed  it  (Deut.  xxvii.  12,)  to  be  the  hill  of  blessing ; 
 and  that  accordingly  Joshua  on  his  entrance  upon  the  land  of 
 Canaan,  caused  the  blessings  of  God,  to  such  as  would  observe 
 liis  laws,  from  hence  to  be  pronounced;  and,  lastly,  that  when 
 he  passed  the  Jordan,  he  built  here  an  altar  of  the  twelve  stones, 
 which  he  took  out  of  the  river  in  his  passage,  (Deut.  xxviii.  2 — 
 7.)  according  to  what  God  had  commanded  him  by  Moses.  But 
 herein  the  Samaritans  are  guilty  of  a  great  prevarication;  for 
 they  have  changed  the  words  in  the  text  of  Deuteronomy,  and 
 instead  of  Mount  Ebal,  as  it  is  in  the  original,  have  put  Mount 
 Gerizim,  the  better  to  serve  their  cause.  The  truth  of  the 
 matter  is,  since  Manasseh  was  resolved  to  make  a  schism  in  the 
 Jewish  church,  and  Sanballat  to  build  a  temple  for  him,  the  rea- 
 sons above  mentioned  might  be  inducement  enough  for  them  to 
 make  choice  of  that  place,  rather  than  any  other;  but  from  thence 
 to  pretend  to  vie  with  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  is  highly  arrogant : 
 because  the  Jews  have  authentic  testimonies,  that  the  public 
 exercise  of  the  true  religion  was  settled  among  them,  and  solem- 
 nized at  Jerusalem  long  before  this  temple  at  (ierizim  was 
 thought  of.  In  short,  the  religious  observances  of  the  Jewish 
 worship  did  always  attend  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  but  the  ark 
 was  never  once  at  Gerizim,  nor  indeed  was  it  fixed  in  any 
 settled  place,  until  David  took  it  to  his  palace  at  Jerusalem,  and 
 Solomon  had  built  a  temple  for  it  in  the  same  city. —  Prideau.r's 
 Connection,  anno  409,  and  Calmct's  Dictionary  under  the  word 
 Gerizim. 
 
 b  Artaxerxis    the    second,  surnamfd    Mncmcn,  also    called 
 
 1  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  7. 
 Arsaces,  ascended  the  throne  on  the  death  of  his  father,  notwith- 
 standing the  exertions  of  his  mother  l'arysatis  to  secure  the  suc- 
 cession to  her  younger  son  Cyrus.  Though  at  the  commence- 
 ment of  his  reign  he  permitted  his  queen  Statira  to  be  guilty  of 
 an  act  of  the  most  horrid  cruelty,  and  generally  yielded  too  far 
 to  the  wickedness  of  his  mother,  he  was  on  the  whole  a  just  and 
 magnanimous  prince.  He  pardoned  his  brother  Cyrus,  who,  on 
 the  information  of  Tissaphernes,  was  detected  in  an  attempt  to 
 assassinate  him  at  his  coronation,  and  even  reinstated  him  in  his 
 government  of  Asia  Minor.  But  Cyrus  was  so  little  affected  by 
 his  brother's  generosity,  that  he  now  determined  on  accomplish- 
 ing his  object  by  open  rebellion.  Under  pretence  of  making  war 
 upon  Thrace,  and  afterwards  upon  Tissaphernes,  he  levied  a 
 powerful  army,  and  was  powerfully  supported  by  the  Lacedaemo- 
 nians, whom  he  had  assisted  with  money  in  the  Peloponnesian 
 war.  Clearchus,  a  Lacedrcmonian  general  joined  his  forces, 
 already  consisting  of  100,000  men  of  various  nations,  with  a  body 
 of  13,000  Greeks.  With  these  forces  Cyrus  marched  to  Baby- 
 lon, B.  C.  401,  the  same  year  in  which  Socrates  was  put  to 
 death.  Artaxerxes,  who  had  been  seasonably  informed  of  the 
 revolt  by  Tissaphernes,  came  against  him  with  an  army  of 
 900,000  men.  They  engaged  in  a  bloody  battle  at  the  village 
 of  Cunaxa,  which  was  situated  about  thirty  English  miles  south 
 of  Babylon,  between  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  The  13,000 
 Greeks  had  already  half  gained  the  victory,  when  Cyrus,  pressing 
 on  too  zealously  against  his  brother,  whom  he  wounded,  was  himself 
 slain  by  the  royal  guards.  This  expedition,  and  particularly  the 
 astonishing  retreat  of  the  10,000  surviving  Greeks  by  a  route  of 
 more  than  eighteen  hundred  English  miles,  have  been  described 
 by  Xenophon,  the  eye -witness  and  director  of  that,  achievement. — 
 Jahri's  Hebrew  Commonwealth. — Ed. 
 
 c  This,  if  extended  only  to  the  ordinary  sacrifices  which  were 
 offered  e\ery  day,  amounted  to  305,000  drachms  for  the  whole 
 year,  which  is  no  more  than  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
 forty  pounds  twelve  shillings  and  sixpence  of  our  money:  but,  if 
 it  extended  also  to  the  extraordinary  sacrifices,  which  on  solemn 
 days,  when  added  to  the  ordinary,  it  will  come  to  about  half  as 
 much  more.  For  the  ordinary  sacrifices,  which  were  offered 
 every  day,  and  therefore  called  '  the  daily  sacrifices,'  were  a  lamb 
 in  the  morning  and  another  in  the  evening,  which  are  called 
 'the  morning  and  evening  sacrifices ;'  and  these,  in  the  whole 
 year,  came  to  seven  hundred  and  thirty.  But,  besides  these, 
 there  were  added,  on  every  sabbath,  two  lambs  more,  (Numb, 
 xxviii.  9,  10;)  on  every  new  moon,  seven,  (Numb,  xxviii.  1 1 ;) 
 on  each  of  the  seven  days  of  the  paschal  solemnity,  seven,  (Numb. 
 xxviii.  16 — 24:)  besides  one  more  on  the  second  day,  when  the 
 wave-sheaf,  was  offered,  (Lev.  xxiii.  12:)  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
 cost, seven,  (ver.  17,  IN;)  on  the  feast  of  trumpets,  seven. 
 (Numb,  xxviii.  27;  on  the  great  day  of  expiation,  seven,  (chap. 
 xxix.  8;)  on  each  of  the  seven  days  of  the  feast  of  tabernacles, 
 fourteen,  (chap.  xxix.  13;)  and  on  tint  eighth  day,  seven,  (Numb. 
 xxix.  3(3;)  so  that  the  additional  lambs  being  three  hundred 
 seventy  and  one,  these,  if  reckoned  to  the  other,  make  the  whole 
 number  annually  oflered  at  the  morning  and  evening  sacrifices, 
 to  be  eleven  hundred  and  one:  and  therefore,  if  the  mulct  of 
 fifty  drachms  a  lamb  were  paid  for  them  all,  it  would  make  the 
 whole  of  it  to  amount  to  55,050  drachms,  which  comes  to  seven- 
 teen hundred  and  twenty  pounds  six  shillings  and  threepence  of 
 
748 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.M   53)1).  A.  C.  408j  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  A07j.  A. 
 
 of  fifty  drachms,  which  is  about  one  pound  eleven  shil- 
 lings and  three  pence  of  our  money. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Artaxerxes  Mnjjftew,  Ochus  succeed- 
 ed his  father,  but  obtained  the  crown  a  by  very  wicked 
 and  indirect  means.  He  reigned,  however,  for  one  and 
 twenty  years,  after  which  '  he  was  poisoned  by  his  favour- 
 ite eunuch  b  Bagoas,  who  put  the  crown  upon  the  head  of 
 Arses,  his  youngest  son  ;  but,  in  a  short  time,  dispatched 
 him  likewise,  and  made  Codomannus  -  (one  of  the  same 
 family,  but  at  some  distance,  and  who,  upon  his  acces- 
 sion, took  the  name  of  Darius)  king  of  Persia. 
 
 In  the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  Ochus,  about  35G 
 years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  Alexander  the  Great, 
 who  overthrew  the  Persian  empire,  was  born  at  Bella  in 
 Macedonia.  His  father  Philip  had  been  chosen  captain- 
 general  of  all  Greece,  which,  at  this  time,  made  a  very 
 considerable  figure  in  history,  for  carrying  on  the  war 
 against  Persia  ;  but  when  he  was  just  ready  to  set  for- 
 ward upon  that  expedition,  c  he  was  slain  at  home,  while 
 he  was  celebrating  the  marriage  of  Cleopatra  his  daughter 
 with  Alexander  king  of  Epirus. 
 
 Upon  his  death,  Alexander  his  son  succeeded  him  in 
 the  kingdom  of  Macedon,  when  he  was  twenty  years 
 old  ;  and  3  having  been  chosen,  as  his  father  was,  to 
 command  the  Grecian  forces  against  Persia,  he  took  the 
 field,  and  in  one  campaign  only,  overran  almost  all 
 Asia  Minor  ;  vanquished  Darius  in  two  pitched  battles  ; 
 took  his  mother,  wife,  and  children  prisoners  ;  and, 
 having  subdued  all  Syria,  came  to  Tyre  ;  but  there  he 
 
 1  Diodorus  Siculus,  b.  xvii.  ~  IbiA 
 
 3  Justin,  b.  xi.  c.  2. 
 our  money.  But  even  this  sum  being  too  small  for  a  national 
 mulct,  it  seems  most  probable,  that  all  the  lambs  which  were 
 offered  in  the  temple  in  any  sacrifice,  and  upon  any  account 
 whatever,  were  taken  into  the  reckoning.  We  may  observe, 
 however,  that  whatever  this  mulct  was,  the  payment  of  it  lasted 
 no  longer  than  seven  years;  for,  on  the  death  of  Artaxerxes, 
 the  changes  ami  revolutions  which  then  happened  in  the  empire, 
 made  a  change  in  the  government  of  Syria,  and  he  that  succeed- 
 ed liagoses  in  that  province  no  farther  exacted  it. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  366. 
 
 a  Artaxerxes,  when  he  died,  left  three  sons,  Ariaspes,  Ochus, 
 and  Arsames ;  Ariaspes  was  an  easy  credulous  prince ;  and 
 therefore  Ochus  so  terrified  him  with  menaces,  which  he  pre- 
 tended came  from  his  father,  that  for  fear  of  being  put  to  death, 
 lie  poisoned  himself.  Arsames  he  caused  to  be  assassinated  by 
 Harpates;  and  this  loss,  added  to  the  other,  so  overwhelmed  the 
 old  king  with  grief,  that  he  broke  his  heart  and  died. — Pri- 
 deaux's  Connection,  anno  359. 
 
 b  This  eunuch  having  poisoned  both  Ochus  and  his  son  Arses, 
 set  the  crown  upon  Darius's  head  :  but,  finding  that  he  would 
 not  answer  his  purpose,  in  permitting  him  to  govern  all  in  his 
 name,  which  was  the  thing  he  aimed  at  in  his  advancement,  he 
 was  resolved  to  have  removed  him,  in  the  same  manner  as  he  had 
 done  his  predecessors;  and  accordingly  had  provided  a  poisonous 
 potion  for  him.  But  Darius,  being  advised  of  the  design,  when 
 the  potion  was  brought  to  him,  made  him  drink  it  all  himself, 
 and  so  got  rid  of  the  traitor  by  his  own  artifice. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  335. 
 
 c  Thi  F  his  death  is  said  to  be  this: — Pausanias,  a 
 
 young  noble  Macedonian,  and  one  of  his  guards,  having  had  his 
 body  forced,  and  sodomitically  abused  by  Attalus  the  chief  of  the 
 king's  confidants,  had  often  complained  to  Philip  of  the  injury: 
 but,  finding  no  redress,  he  turned  his  revenge  from  the  author  of 
 the  injury  upon  him  who  refused  to  do  him  justice  for  it,  and 
 slew  him  as  he  was  passing  in  great  state  to  the  theatre,  hav- 
 ing the  images  of  the  twelve  gods  and  goddesses,  and  his  own 
 in  the  same  pompous  habit,  carried  before  him.  Hereby  he 
 arrogated  to  himself  the  honour  of  a  god;  but  being  slain  as 
 soon  as  his  image  entered  the  theatre,  he  gave  a  signal  proof 
 that  he  was  no  more  than  a  mere  mortal  man. — Justin,  b.  ix., 
 Dtodar.  SieuL  b.  wi. 
 
 C.  311.  1  MAC.i— vi.7.  2  MAC.iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.b.  xi.e.7— b.  xii.  c.  14. 
 
 met  with  a  stop ;  for  the  Tyrians,  4  in  confidence  of  the 
 strength  of  the  place,  and  of  assistance  from  their  allies, 
 when  he  would  have  entered  the  city,  denied  him  admit- 
 tance. 
 
 While  his  army  was  besieging  Tyre,  he  sent  out  his 
 commissioners,  requiring  the  inhabitants  of  the  neigh- 
 bouring countries,  namely,  of  Galilee,  Samaria,  and 
 Judea,  to  submit  to  him,  and  to  furnish  him  with  what 
 he  wanted.  Other  provinces  complied  ;  but  the  Jews, 
 pleading  their  oath  to  Darius,  by  which  they  thought 
 themselves  bound  not  to  acknowledge  any  new  master 
 so  long  as  he  was  alive,  refused  to  obey  his  commands. 
 This  exasperated  the  conqueror  not  a  little,  who,  d  in 
 the  flush  of  his  many  successes,  could  bear  no  contra- 
 diction ;  and  therefore,  as  soon  as  he  had  done  with 
 Tyre,  e  he  marched  directly  against  Jerusalem. 
 
 4  For  an  account  of  the  ancient  and  present  state  of  Tyre,  see 
 b.  iv.  s.  iii.  c.  4,  pp.  342,  343. — Ed. 
 
 d  No  sooner  was  he  chosen  general  of  all  the  Grecian  cities 
 confederated  against  the  Persian  empire,  but  he  subdued  the 
 Tyrians  and  Triballians  in  Thrace;  and,  upon  his  return,  took 
 Thebes,  that  had  revolted  from  the  confederacy,  and  razed  it  to 
 the  ground.  After  this,  setting  out  upon  the  Persian  expedition, 
 he  vanquished  Darius  near  the  Granicus;  and  after  the  action, 
 took  Sardis,  Ephesus,  Miletum,  and  Halicarnassus,  the  next 
 year  he  made  himself  master  of  all  Phrygia,  Lycia,  Pam- 
 phylia,  Pisidia,  Paphlagonia,  and  Cappadocia.  The  next  year 
 he  gave  Darius  a  second  defeat  (and  a  terrible  one  it  was) 
 at  Issus,  took  his  mother,  wife,  two  daughters,  and  a  young  son, 
 prisoners;  seized  Damascus,  and  in  it  immense  riches;  subdued 
 in  short,  all  Syria,  Ccelo-Syria,  and  Phoenicia:  for  every  place 
 yielded  to  him,  none  pretending  to  make  any  resistance  till  he 
 came  to  Tyre. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  333. 
 
 e  As  soon  as  he  had  taken  the,  town,  he  burned  it  down  to  the 
 ground,  and  destroyed  and  enslaved  all  the  inhabitants.  Eight 
 thousand  he  slew  in  the  sackage  of  the  town,  and  two  thousand 
 of  those  whom  he  took  prisoners  he  caused  to  be  crucified,  a 
 piece  of  cruelty  this  highly  unbecoming  a  generous  conqueror. 
 But,  to  palliate  the  matter,  he  gave  out,  that  it  was  done  by  way 
 of  just  revenge  upon  them,  for  their  murdering  their  masters, 
 and  that,  being  originally  but  slaves,  crucifixion  was  the  proper 
 punishment  for  them.  But  this  depended  upon  an  old  story. 
 Some  ages  before,  the  slaves  of  Tyre,  having  made  a  conspiracy 
 against  their  masters,  murdered  them  all  in  one  night,  (except 
 only  Strato,  whom  his  slave  secretly  saved)  and  having  married 
 their  mistresses,  continued  masters  of  the  town,  and  from  them 
 the  present  Tyrians  were  descended.  So  that  Alexander  pre- 
 tended, on  this  occasion,  to  revenge  on  them  the  murder  that 
 was  committed  by  their  progenitors  so  many  ages  before,  though, 
 in  reality,  it  was  to  gratify  his  rage  for  being  so  long  detained 
 before  the  place,  and  there  so  valiantly  resisted.  Recovering,  how 
 ever,  its  beauty  and  riches  again,  it  was  invested  with  the  privi- 
 leges of  a  Roman  city  for  its  fidelity,  and  in  the  flourishing  times 
 of  Christianity  was  distinguished  as  the  first  archbishopric  under 
 the  patriarchate  of  Jerusalem.  It  shared  the  fate  of  the  country  in 
 the  Saracen  invasion,  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century. 
 It  was  reconquered  by  the  crusaders  in  the  twelfth,  and  formed 
 a  royal  domain  of  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  as  well  as  an  archie- 
 piscopal  see.  William  of  Tyre,  the  well-known  historian,  an  Eng. 
 lishman,  was  the  first  archbishop.  In  12S9,  it  was  retaken  by 
 the  Saracens,  the  Christians  being  permitted  to  remove  with 
 their  eilects.  When  the  Sultan  Selim  divided  Syria  into  pa- 
 chalics,  Tyre,  which  had  probably  gone  into  decay  with  the  de- 
 pression of  commerce,  was  merged  in  the  territory  of  Sidon. 
 In  1766,  it  was  taken  possession  of  by  the  Motoualies,  who 
 repaired  the  port,  and  enclosed  it  on  the  land  side  with  a  wall 
 twenty  feet  high.  This  wall  was  standing  at  the  time  of  Vol- 
 ney's  visit  (1784).  It  was  a  miserable  village:  its  exports  con- 
 sisted of  a  fi  w  sacks  of  corn  and  cotton,  and  the  only  merchant 
 of  which  it  could  boast  was  a  solitary  Greek,  in  the  service  of 
 the  French  factory  at  Sidon,  who  could  hardly  gain  a  livelihood. 
 It  is  only  within  the  last  five  and  twenty  years  that  it  has  once 
 more  begun  to  lift  its  head  from  the  dirt. — See  page  343. — 
 Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  333;  Maundr ell's  Journey  from 
 .    -'Salem,  and  IVood.  Traveller. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 749 
 
 A.M.  3596.  A.  C.  408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  fit  5070.  A.  C.  311.  MAC.  i— vi.  7,  2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c.  7,  b.  xii.  c  14. 
 
 1  Jaddua  the  high  priest,  who  at  this  time  hail  the 
 chief  government  of  the  Jews  under  the  king  of  Persia, 
 was  in  dreadful  apprehensions  of  what  the  event  might 
 prove  :  but  having  no  protection  to  depend  on  but 
 God's,  he,  and  all  Jerusalem  with  him,  made  their  cries 
 and  supplications  to  him,  imploring  his  mercy  for  their 
 deliverance  from  the  approaching  storm  ;  whereupon  he 
 was  ordered,  in  a  vision  of  the  night,  to  go  out  and 
 meet  Alexander,  whenever  he  should  come,  in  his  pon- 
 tifical robes,  with  the  priests  attending  him  in  their 
 proper  habits,  and  all  the  people  in  white  garments. 
 
 Jaddua,  next  day,  with  the  priests  and  people,  hab- 
 ited in  the  manner  directed,  went  out  of  the  city  to  a 
 certain  eminence,  which  commanded  the  prospect  of  all 
 the  country  round,  and  there  waited  the  coming  of  Al- 
 exander. As  soon  as  the  high  priest  saw  him  at  some 
 distance,  he  moved  towards  him  in  this  solemn  pomp  ; 
 which  struck  the  king  with  such  an  awe,  that,  as  he  drew 
 near,  he  bowed  down  to  him,  and  saluted  him  with  a 
 religious  veneration,  to  the  great  surprise  of  all  that 
 attended  him. 
 
 While  every  one  stood  amazed  at  this  behaviour, 
 Parmenio,  his  first  favourite,  took  the  freedom  to  ask 
 him,  how  it  came  to  pass,  that  he  whom  all  mankind 
 adored,  paid  such  adoration  to  the  Jewish  high  priest  ? 
 To  which  his  reply  was,  "  That  he  did  not  pay  that 
 adoration  to  him,  but  to  the  God  whose  high  priest  he 
 was  ;  that  while  he  was  at  Dio  in  Macedonia,  and  delib- 
 erating with  himself  how  to  carry  on  the  war  with  Per- 
 sia, that  very  person,  and  in  that  very  habit,  appeared 
 to  him  in  a  dream,  encouraging  him  to  pass  boldly  over 
 into  Asia,  and  not  to  doubt  of  success,  because  God 
 would  be  his  guide  in  the  expedition,  and  give  him  the 
 empire  of  the  Persians  ;  and  that  therefore  from  hence 
 he  was  assured  that  he  made  the  present  war  under  the 
 conduct  of  that  God  to  whom  in  the  person  of  this  high 
 priest,  he  paid  adoration."  And  hereupon,  turning  to  I 
 Jaddua  again,  he  embraced  him  very  kindly  :  and  so, 
 going  into  the  city  with  him,  offered  sacrifices  to  God, 
 in  the  temple,  where  the  high  priest  showed  him  the 
 prophecies  of  Daniel,  "  predicting  the  overthrow  of  the 
 Persian  empire  by  a  Grecian  king,  which  he  applied  to 
 himself,  and  thereby  confirmed  his  opinion  that  God  had 
 chosen  him  to  execute  this  great  work. 
 
 When  he  left  Jerusalem,  he  offered  to  grant  the  people 
 whatever  immunities  the  high  priest  should  desire ;  but 
 he  requested  no  more  than  a  toleration  to  live  according 
 to  their  own  laws  and  religion,  and  an  exemption  from 
 the  payment  of  tribute  every  seventh  year,  because  on 
 the  sabbatical  year  the  Jews  were  forbidden  to  till  their 
 ground.  This  he  readily  consented  to,  and  having  sig- 
 nified his  pleasure,  that  if  any  of  them  were  minded  to 
 list  in  his  troops,  he  would  readily  receive  them,  great 
 multitudes  did  hereupon  offer  their  service,  and  followed 
 him  in  his  other  expeditions. 
 
 2  No  sooner  was  he  well  got  out  of  the  city,  but  the 
 Samaritans  met  him  in  great  pomp  and  parade,  desiring 
 
 1  Joseph,  b.  xi.  c.  8.  '-'  Ibid. 
 
 a  Namely,  what  is  written  of  the  ram  and  the  he-goat,  chap. 
 viii.  when:  that  he-goat  is  interpreted  to  be  the  king  of  Grccia, 
 who  should  conquer  the  Medes  and  Persians,  ver.  20.  As  like- 
 wise what  is  written  hy  the  same  prophet,  of  the  same  Grecian 
 king,  chap.  xi.  :i ;  for  both  these  prophecies  foretold  the  destruc- 
 tion of  the  Persian  king. —  Prideaum's  Connection,  anno 
 
 of  him,  that  he  would  likewise  honour  their  city  and 
 temple  with  his  presence.  "  He  was  then  hastening  to 
 Egypt,  he  told  them,  but  that  when  he  returned,  if  his 
 affairs  would  permit  him,  he  would  not  fail  to  comply 
 with  their  desires  :  and  when  they  requested  of  him  an 
 immunity  from  all  taxes  every  seventh  year,  because 
 they,  as  well  as  the  Jews,  did  every  seventh  year  suffer 
 their  land  to  lie  fallow,  he  asked  them  if  they  were  Jews, 
 because  to  them  only  he  had  granted  that  privilege. 
 Their  answer  was,  that  they  were  Hebrews,  but  that  the 
 Phopnicians  called  them  Sichemites  :  whereupon,  hav- 
 ing no  leisure  to  make  any  farther  inquiry  into  the  mat- 
 ter, he  referred  this  likewise  to  his  return,  when  he  pro- 
 mised to  examine  into  their  pretensions,  and  to  do  them 
 justice  ;  but  before  his  return,  they  had  done  enough  to 
 incense  him  against  them. 
 
 On  his  going  from  these  parts  into  Egypt,  he  had 
 made  Andromachus,  a  special  favourite  of  his,  governor 
 of  Syria  and  Palestine  ;  who  3  coming  to  Samaria,  in 
 order  to  settle  some  affairs,  was  burnt  to  death  in  his 
 house,  which  the  people  set  on  fire,  out  of  rage  and  dis- 
 content, very  probably,  that  the  privileges,  which  were 
 granted  to  their  enemies  the  Jews,  were  denied  to  them. 
 This  barbarous  action  exasperated  Alexander  not  a  little  ; 
 insomuch  that,  having  caused  those  who  had  acted  any 
 part  in  the  murder  of  the  governor  to  be  put  to  death, 
 he  drove  all  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  out  of  Samaria, 
 planted  therein  a  colony  of  Macedonians,  and  gave  the 
 rest  of  their  territories  to  the  Jews. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Alexander,  *  who  did  not  long  sur- 
 
 3  Quint.  Curt.  b.  iv,  17.  c.  8. 
 b  It  is  not  well  agreed  among  historians,  how  this  great  con- 
 queror of  the  world  died.  Some  of  them  are  of  opinion,  that  he 
 was  poisoned  by  the  procurement  of  Antipater,  whom  he  had 
 left  governor  of  all  his  dominions  in  his  absence,  and  who,  for 
 his  maladministration,  had  been  lately  dismissed ;  and,  there- 
 lore,  fearing  to  be  called  to  an  account,  did,  by  the  hands  of  his 
 sons,  who  were  about  the  person  of  the  king,  and  one  of  them 
 his  cupbearer,  execute  this  treason  upon  his  master's  life,  in 
 order  to  save  his  own;  but  in  the  judgment  of  other  historians 
 he  died  by  nothing  but  excessive  drinking;  and  thus  they  relate 
 the  story.  "  One  day  after  he  had  been  sacrificing  to  the  gods 
 for  the  many  victories  which  he  had  obtained,  lie  made  an  enter- 
 tainment for  his  friends,  wherein  he  drank  very  hard,  and  con- 
 tinued the  debauch  till  late  at  night;  when  returning  from  the 
 feast  he  and  his  company  were  invited  by  a  physician  of  Thes- 
 salia  to  come  and  drink  a  little  more  at  his  house.  Alexander 
 accepted  of  the  ofler  :  and,  as  there  were  twenty  in  company,  he 
 first  drank  to  each  of  them  in  their  order,  and  so  pledged  them 
 again,  and  then  called  for  the  Herculean  cup.  There  was  in 
 company  one  Prodeas,  a  Macedonian,  but  a  terrible  drinker,  and 
 to  him  the  king  drank  this  Herculean  brimful,  which  they  tell 
 us  held  six  of  our  quarts,  and  not  long  after  pledged  him  in  the 
 same;  but  immediately  after  the  second  cup  he  dropped  down 
 upon  the  place,  and  then  fell  into  a  violent  level-,  of  which  he 
 died,  in  the  thirty-third  year  of  his  age,  after  a  reign  of  twelve 
 years,  six  years  as  king  of  Maeedoii,  and  six  more  as  monarch 
 of  Asia."  lie  was  a  man  of  a  hold  enterprising  spirit,  hut  fuller 
 of  fire  than  discretion.  His  actions,  though  they  were  attended 
 with  success,  were  carried  on  with  a  furious  and  extravagant 
 rashness;  and  the  few  virtues  that  he  had  were  obscured  with 
 much  greater  vices.  Vain-glory  was  the  predominant  passion 
 hi  his  soul;  and  the  fables  of  the  ancient  (Jreek  heroes,  the  only 
 chart  by  which  he  steered  his  conduct.  This  was  the  reason  that 
 he  dragged  Betis  round  the  walls  of  Gaza,  in  the  same  manner 
 aa  Achilles  hail  used  Elector;  that  he  undertook  that  hazardous 
 expedition  into  India,  as  Hercules  had  done  before  him;  that  he 
 made  a  drunken  procession  through  Caramania,  because  Bacchus 
 is  said  to  have  done  the  like  in  the  same  place;  and  that  he 
 affected  to  be  called  the  sou  of  Jupiter,  because  most  of  the 
 
750 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  359G.  A.C.  408 ;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.C 
 
 vive  the  unfortunate  Darius,  a  the  Grecian  or  Macedo- 
 nian empire,  for  so  it  was  now  become,  was  divided 
 among  the  chief  commanders  of  his  army,  who  soon  fell 
 to  leaguing  and  fighting  against  each  other,  till  after 
 some  years  they  were  all  destroyed,  except  four,  and 
 these  agreed  to  make  a  partition  of  the  whole  among 
 themselves,  and  so  cantoned  it  into  four  kingdoms, 
 though  all  this  while  Aridams,  *  a  bastard  brother  of 
 Alexander's,  that  took  upon  him  the  name  of  Philip,  and 
 after  him  Alexander  iEgus,  his  own  son  by  his  wife 
 Iioxana,  bore  both  of  them  the  title  of  kings. 
 
 In  this  division,  Ptolemy,  the  son  of  Lagus,  whom 
 the  Greeks  call  Soter,  having  taken  possession  of  Egypt, 
 thought  that  the  provinces  of  Syria,  Phoenicia,  and  Judea, 
 would  be   an  excellent  barrier  for  him  ;  and  therefore 
 
 ancient  heroes  pretended,  that  they  had  for  their  fathers  one 
 god  "i-  other.  The  truth  is,  this  young  conqueror,  having  the 
 Iliad  of  Homer  in  great  admiration,  always  carried  them  with 
 him,  laid  them  under  his  pillow  when  he  slept,  and  read  in  them 
 on  all  leisure  opportunities;  and  therefore  finding  Achilles  to  be 
 the  great  hero  in  that  poem,  he  thought  every  thing  said  of  him 
 worthy  of  imitation,  and  the  readiest  way  to  become  a  hero  him- 
 self, which  was  the  main  impulsive  cause  of  all  his  undertakings: 
 but  in  reality,  were  actions  to  be  duly  estimated,  he  could  de- 
 serve no  other  character  than  that  of  the  great  cut-throat  of  the 
 age  in  which  he  lived.  The  folly  of  mankind,  however,  and  the 
 error  of  historians  is  such,  that  they  usually  make  the  actions  of 
 war,  bloodshed,  and  conquest,  the  subjects  oi  their  highest  en- 
 comiums, and  those  their  most  celebrated  heroes  that  most  ex- 
 cel in  these;  whereas  those  only  are  the  true  heroes,  who  most 
 benefit  the  world,  by  promoting  the  peace  and  welfare  of  man- 
 kind. In  a  righteous  cause  indeed,  and  the  just  defence  of  a 
 man's  country,  all  actions  of  valour  are  just  reasons  of  praise ;  but 
 in  all  other  cases  victory  and  conquest  are  no  more  than  murder 
 and  rapine,  and  those  who  thus  oppress  the  world  with  the 
 slaughter  of  man,  the  desolation  of  countries,  the  burning  of 
 cities,  and  the  other  calamities  which  attend  war,  are  the  scourges 
 of  God,  the  Attilas  of  the  age  in  which  they  live,  and  the  greatest 
 plagues  and  calamities  that  happen  to  it ;  and  therefore  to  make 
 these  the  subject  of  praise  and  panegyric,  is  to  lay  ill  examples 
 before  princes,  as  il  such  oppressions  of  mankind  were  the  truest 
 ways  to  honour  and  glory. — Diod.  Sic.  b.  xvii;  Arrian.  b.  vii; 
 Jut/tin,  b.  xii;  Quin.  Curt.  b.  x;  Plutarch,  in  Alexundro;  and 
 Pridcan.v,s  Connection,  anno  328,  and  332. 
 
 a  After  the  battle  of  Arbela,  wherein  he  was  sore  discomfited, 
 he  made  his  escape  into  Media,  and  having  got  some  few  forces 
 together,  thought  to  have  tried  his  fate  in  one  battle  more; 
 when  Bessus,  his  governor  of  Bactria,  and  Nabazanes,  another 
 Persian  nobleman,  conspired  together;  and  having  seized  the 
 poor  King,  and  made  him  their  prisoner,  put  him  in  chains,  and 
 shut  him  up  in  a  close  cart,  and  so  carried  him  with  them  to- 
 wards Bactria,  intending,  if  Alexander  pursued  them  to  pur- 
 chase their  peace  by  delivering  him  up  into  his  hands;  but  if 
 he  did  not,  to  kill  him,  and  seize  his  kingdom,  and  so  renew  the 
 war.  Alexander  having  heard  what  these  traitors  had  done, 
 made  all  the  haste  he  could  to  rescue  Darius  out  of  their  hands ; 
 but  when,  after  several  days'  march,  he  came  up  with  them, 
 (l»c-;uise  Darius  refused  to  mount  on  horseback,  for  his  more 
 speedy  flight  with  them,)  they  gave  him  several  mortal  wounds, 
 and  left  him  dying  in  the  cart.  He  was  dead  before  Alexander 
 came  ;  but  when  he  saw  his  corpse,  he  could  not  forbear  shedding 
 tears  at  so  melancholy  a  spectacle:  and  having  cast  his  cloak  over 
 it,  he  ordered  that  it  should  be  wrapped  up  therein,  and  carried 
 to  his  mother  Sisygambis,  at  Shushan,  where  he  had  left  her  with 
 the  other  captive  ladies,  to  be  buried  there  with  a  royal  funeral, 
 for  which  himself  allowed  the  expense,  in  the  sepulchres  of  the 
 kings  of  Persia. —  Prideatut's  Connection,  anno  330. 
 
 b  Aridaus,  with  his  wife  Eurydice,  was  put  to  death  by 
 Olympias,  the  mother  of  Alexander  the  Great,  after  he  had 
 borne  the  title  of  king  for  six  years  and  seven  months:  and 
 Alexander  /Egus,  with  his  mother  Iioxana,  after  a  long  imprison- 
 ment in  the  castle  of  Amphipolis,  was,  in  like  manner,  murder- 
 ed by  Cassander,  to  make  way  for  himself  to  the  crown  of 
 Macedon. 
 
 .311.  1  MAC.  i— vi.  7.  2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c  7— b.  xii.  e.  14. 
 
 1  he  first  of  all  attempted  to  bribe  Laomedon,  a  Mityle- 
 nian  captain  of  Alexander's,  (who  after  the  death  of 
 Andromachus,  very  probably  was  made  governor  of 
 Syria,  and  the  adjacent  countries,)  with  a  vast  sum  of 
 money,  to  deliver  them  up  into  his  hands  :  but  not  being 
 able  to  prevail  this  way,  he  sent  Nicanor,  one  of  his 
 captains,  with  an  army  into  Syria,  whilst  himself,  with  a 
 fleet,  invaded  Phoenicia ;  and  so  having  vanquished 
 Laomedon,  and  taken  him  prisoner,  he  made  himself 
 master  of  all  these  provinces. 
 
 2  The  Jews, however, for  sometime,  stood  out  against 
 him,  and  upon  account  of  the  oath  they  had  taken  to 
 the  deposed  governor,  refused  to  submit  to  his  authority. 
 Hereupon  he  marched  into  Judea,  and,  having  got  pos- 
 session of  most  of  the  country,  laid  siege  to  Jerusalem. 
 The  place  was  strong  enough,  both  by  nature  and  art, 
 to  have  made  a  considerable  defence  against  him  ;  but 
 the  Jews  had  then  such  a  superstitious  notion  for  the 
 observance  of  the  sabbath,  that  they  thought  it  a  breach 
 of  their  law,  even  to  defend  themselves  on  it :  which 
 when  Ptolemy  understood,  he  made  choice  of  that  day 
 to  storm  the  place,  and  in  the  assault  took  it,  because 
 there  were  none  that  would  defend  the  walls  against 
 him.  At  first  he  dealt  hardly  with  the  inhabitants,  and 
 carried  above  an  hundred  thousand  of  them  captives  into 
 Egypt ;  but  afterwards,  considering  how  faithful  they  had 
 been  to  their  former  governors,  he  employed  them  in  his 
 army  and  garrisons,  and  granted  them  large  immunities 
 and  privileges  ;  whereupon  the  whole  nation  of  the  Jews 
 became  subject  to  the  power  and  dominion  of  the  kings 
 of  Egypt. 
 
 In  the  fifth  year  of  this  Ptolemy's  reign,  Onias,  the 
 Jewish  high  priest,  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Simon 
 his  son,  who,  from  the  holiness  of  his  life,  and  the  great 
 righteousness  which  shone  forth  in  all  his  actions,  was 
 called  '  Simon  the  Just.'  He  continued  in  his  office 
 for  nine  years,  in  which  time  he  did  many  beneficial 
 acts  c  both  in  the  church  and  state  of  the  Jews  ;  but 
 what  is  chiefly  commemorated  of  him,  is  his  complet- 
 ing the  canon  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament. 
 What  Ezra,  3  and  the  men  of  the  great  synagogue, 
 who,  as  some  say,  assisted  him,  did  in  this  work,  we 
 have  taken  sufficient  notice  of  before.  The  books  of 
 Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Esther,  and  Malachi,  as  well  as  the 
 two  Chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel,  could 
 not  possibly  be  inserted  by  Ezra  himself,  because  some 
 of  these  books  claim  him  for  their  author    and  in  others 
 
 1  Diod.  Sic.  b.  xviii ;  Plutarch,  in  Demetrio. 
 
 2  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  1. 
 
 3  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  292. 
 
 c  The  commendation  which  the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  gives 
 of  this  high  priest,  is  thus  expressed : — '  He,  in  his  lifetime, 
 repaired  the  house  again,  and  in  his  days  fortified  the  temple. 
 By  him  was  built  from  the  foundation,  the  double  height,  the 
 high  fortress  of  the  wall  above  the  temple.  In  his  days,  the 
 cistern  to  receive  water,  being  in  compass  as  the  sea,  was  cover- 
 ed with  plates  of  brass.  He  took  care  of  the  temple  that  it  should 
 not  fall,  and  fortified  the  city  against  besieging.  How  was  he 
 honoured  amidst  the  people,  in  his  coming  out  of  the  sanctuary? 
 He  was  as  the  morning  star  in  the  midst  of  a  cloud,  and  as  the 
 moon  at  the  full,  or  the  sun  shining  upon  the  temple  of  the  Most 
 High,  and  as  a  rainbow  giving  light  in  the  bright  clouds: — 
 When  he  put  on  the  robe  of  honour,  and  was  clothed  with  the 
 perfection  of  glory,  and  when  he  went  up  to  the  holy  altar,  he 
 made  the  garments  of  holiness  honourable.' — Ecclus.  b.  i.  ii.  &c 
 
Sect.  111.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 751 
 
 A.  M.:i5!G.  A.  C.  108;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C, 
 
 there  are  some  particulars  which  refer  to  times  as  low  as 
 Alexander  the  Great,  and  therefore  a  later  time  must  be 
 assigned  for  their  reception  into  the  canon.  And  if  so, 
 there  seems  to  be  none  so  proper  as  that  when  the  men 
 of  the  great  synagogue,  who,  under  the  direction  and 
 presidency  of  Simon  the  Just,  were  employed  in  this 
 work,  ceased  to  be. 
 
 Simon  was  succeeded  in  the  pontificate  by  his  brother 
 Eleazar,  (for  his  son  Onias  was  but  a  minor  when  he 
 died)  ;  and,  upon  the  death  of  Ptolemy  Soter,  his  son 
 Ptolemy  Philadelphus  succeeded  in  the  throne  of  Egypt, 
 and  pursued  his  father's  example  in  continuing  the  mu- 
 seum, "  or  college  of  learned  men,  which  he  had  erect- 
 ed, and  in  augmenting  the  noble  library  b  which  he  had 
 left  behind  him  at  Alexandria.  To  this  purpose,  hear- 
 ing that  the  Jews  had  among  them  a  famous  book,  name- 
 ly, the  book  of  their  law,  which  well  deserved  a  place 
 among  his  collection,    he    sent   to  Eleazar  c  the    high 
 
 a  This  was  a  large  edifice  m  Alexandria,  which  stood  in  that 
 quarter  of  the  city  called  Brachium,  and  was  designed  for  the 
 habitation  of  such  learned  men  as  made  it  their  study  to  improve 
 philosophy,  and  all  useful  knowledge,  like  that  of  the  lloyal 
 Society  at  London,  and  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Paris. 
 This  building,  which  was  not  far  distant  from  the  palace,  was 
 surrounded  with  a  portico  or  piazza,  where  the  philosophers 
 walked  and  conversed,  and  had  in  it  a  common  hall,  where  they 
 used  to  eat  together.  The  members  of  this  society  were  under 
 the  government  of  a  president,  whose  office  was  of  that  considera- 
 tion and  dignity,  that,  during  the  reign  of  the  Ptolemies,  he  was 
 always  constituted  by  those  kings,  and  afterwards  by  the  Roman 
 emperors.  The  revenues  appointed  for  the  maintenance  of  this 
 college,  from  the  first  foundation  of  it,  were  large.  From  it  did 
 proceed  men  of  very  excellent  literature;  and  to  it  was  owing, 
 that  Alexandria,  for  a  great  many  ages  together,  was  the  greatest 
 school  of  learning  in  all  those  parts  of  the  world;  until,  in  the 
 war  which  the  Alexandrians  had  with  Aurelian  the  Roman  em- 
 peror, all  that  quarter  of  the  city  where  the  museum  stood  was 
 destroyed,  and  with  it  this  college  of  learned  men  dissolved.— 
 Prideaux  s  Connection,  anno  285. 
 
 b  This  library  was  at  first  placed  in  the  museum  ;  but,  when 
 it  was  filled  with  books  to  the  number  of  400,000  volumes,  there 
 was  another  library  erected  within  the  Serapeum.  or  the  famous 
 temple  where  the  image  of  Serapis  was  set  up,  which  increased  in 
 time  to  the  number  of  300, 000  volumes,  and  the-e  two  put  together 
 made  up  the  number  of  700,000  volumes  in  the  whole,  of  which 
 the  royal  libraries  of  the  Ptolemean  kings  at  Alexandria  are  said 
 to  ((insist.  Their  manner  of  collecting  them  was  not  so  very 
 honourable ;  for  whatever  books  were  brought  by  any  foreigner 
 into  Egypt,  these  they  seized,  and  sending  them  to  the  museum, 
 whcic  they  maintained  people  for  that  purpose,  they  caused  them 
 to  be  transcribed,  and  then  sent  the  copies  to  the  owners,  but 
 laid  up  the  originals  in  the  library.  When  Julius  C:esar  waged 
 war  with  the  Alexandrians,  it  so  happened,  that  the  library  in 
 the  Brachium  was  burned,  and  the  400,000  volumes  that  were 
 laid  up  there  were:  all  consumed.  But  that  of  the  Serapeum 
 still  remained,  and  soon  grew  to  be  larger,  and  of  more  eminent 
 note  than  the  former;  but  at  length,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  642, 
 when  the  Saracens  made  themselves  masters  of  the  city,  they 
 tntally  destroyed  it.  For,  when  the  general  of  the  army  wrote 
 to  Omar,  who  was  then  the  caliph  or  emperor  of  the  Saracens, 
 to  know  his  pleasure  concerning  it,  his  answer  was,  "that  if 
 these  books  contained  what  was  agreeing  with  the  Alcoran,  there 
 was  no  need  of  them,  because  the  Alcoran  alone  was  sufficient 
 for  all  truth;  but  if  they  contained  what  was  disagreeing  with 
 it,  they  were  not  to  be  endured:"  and  therefore  he  ordered,  that 
 whatsoever  the  contents  of  them  were,  they  should  all  be  de- 
 stroyed.— Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  285. 
 
 c  Josephus  hath  given  us  both  Ptolemy's  letter  to  Eleazar, 
 and  Eleazar's  answer  at  large;  but  whether  these  pieces  are 
 genuine  or  no,  is  a  matter  of  some  dispute  among  the  learned. 
 They  are  too  long,  however,  t»  be  here  inserted ;  but  the  sub- 
 stance of  the  letter  is, — "That  both  Ptolemy  and  his  father 
 had  been  extremely  kind  to  the  Jews;  his  father,  in  placing  them 
 in  ollices  of  trust;  and   himself,  in   redeeming  great  numbers  of 
 
 341.1  MAC.  i-vi.  7.  2  MAC.  ui— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.xi.  c.  7.— b-  xii.c  14. 
 
 priest,  to  desire  an  authentic  copy  of  it :  and,  because 
 it  was  written  in  a  language  that  he  did  not  under- 
 stand, he  desired  him,  at  the  same  time,  to  send  a  com- 
 petent number  of  learned  men,  well  versed  in  both  the 
 Hebrew  and  Greek  tongues,  who,  out  of  the  former,  might 
 translate  it  for  him  unto  the  latter.  This  Eleazar  failed 
 not  to  do  ;  and,  from  the  joint  labours  of  the  LXX.  or 
 rather  LXXII.  translators,  that  were  employed  in  the 
 work,  the  version  has  ever  since  gone  under  the  name  of 
 the  Septuagint :  but  of  this  piece  of  history  we  have  al- 
 ready had  occasion  to  s;xy  what  we  thought  sufficient, 
 towards  the  conclusion  of  our  ll  apparatus. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  e  his  son 
 Euergetes  came  to  the  crown  of  Egypt,  and  Onias  suc- 
 ceeded his  uncle,  though  not  immediately,  in  the  pontifi- 
 cate. He  was  the  son  of  Simon  the  Just ;  but  in  many 
 things,  the  very  reverse  of  his  father.  At  the  best  he 
 was  but  a  weak  and  inconsiderate  man  ;  '  but  being  now 
 grown  very  old,  and  very  covetous,  he  took  no  care  to 
 pay  Ptolemy  Euergetes  the  annual  tribute  of  twenty  ta- 
 lents, which  his  predecessors  used  to  do  ;  so  that,  when 
 the  arrears  were  swelled  to  a  large  sum,  the  king  sent 
 one  Athenion,  an  officer  of  his  court,  to  Jerusalem,  to 
 demand  the  full  payment  of  the  money,  upon  peril  of 
 having  an  army  sent  among  them  to  dispossess  them  of 
 their  country. 
 
 -  Onias  had  a  nephew   by  his    sister's    side,   whose 
 
 1  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  3.  2  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  4. 
 
 them  from  slavery,  and  employing  several  of  them  both  in  his 
 court  and  camp ;  and  that,  as  a  farther  testimony  of  iiis  kindness 
 to  them,  he  proposed  to  make  a  translation  of  their  law  into  the 
 Greek  language,  for  which  he  desired  them  to  send  a  proper 
 number  of  such  men  as  he  knew  were  qualified  for  the  under- 
 taking.'' In  answer  to  which,  Eleazar  acknowledges  the 
 receipt  of  his  most  gracious  letter,  and  of  the  valuable  presents 
 which  he  had  sent ;  and,  in  return  promises,  that  the  people 
 should  not  fail  to  pray  to  God  daily  for  the  protection  of  his  per- 
 son, and  the  prosperity  of  his  royal  family;  and  that,  pursuant 
 to  his  commands,  he  had  sent  an  authentic  copy  of  the  law,  and 
 six  men  out  of  each  tribe  to  assist  in  the  translation  of  it. — 
 Jeutish  Hist.  b.  xii.  c.  2. 
 
 d  Those  who  would  see  more  at  large  what  are  the  opinions  of 
 learned  men  concerning  the  Septuagint,  and  the  account  whu  h 
 Aristscas  gives  of  the  manner  in  which  it  was  done,  may  consult 
 the  critics  who  have  expressly  handled  this  matter,  such  as  Sca- 
 liger,  Usher,  Walton,  Frassen,  Dupin,  Valdai,  Hody,  Calmet, 
 Winston,  and  Prideaux  in  his  Connection,  anno  27  7. 
 
 e  After  the  death  of  his  beloved  wife  Arsinoe,  Ptolemy  did  not 
 long  survive  her  :  for,  being  of  a  tender  constitution  himself,  and 
 having  farther  weakened  it  by  a  luxurious  indulgence,  he  could  not 
 bear  the  approach  of  age,  or  the  grief  of  mind  which  he  fell  un- 
 der upon  this  occasion  ;  but,  sinking  under  these  burdens,  he  died, 
 in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  life,  alter  he  had  reigned  in  Egypt 
 thirty-eight  years.  As  he  was  a  learned  prince,  himself,  and  a 
 great  patron  of  learning,  many  of  those  who  were  eminent  for 
 any  part  of  literature  resorted  to  him  from  all  parts,  and  partook 
 of  his  favour  and  bounty.  Seven  celebrated  poets  of  that  age  are 
 said  to  have  lived  at  his  court:  four  of  which,  namely,  Theocri- 
 tus, Callimachus,  Lyeophrou,  and  Aratus,  have  their  works  still 
 remaining;  and,  among  these,  the  first  of  them  has  a  whole 
 Idyllium,  and  the  second,  part  of  two  hymns,  written  in  his 
 praise.  Manetho,  the  Egyptian  historian,  dedicated  his  history 
 to  him;  and  Zoilus  the  snarling  critic,  came  also  to  his  court; 
 but  how  great  soever  his  wit  was,  he  could  never  recommend 
 himself  to  king  Ptolemy,  who  hated  him  for  the  bitterness  and 
 ill-nature  of  it:  and,  for  the  same  reason,  having  drawn  on  him- 
 self the  odium  and  aversion  of  all  men,  he  at  length  died  miser 
 ably  ;  for  some  say  that  he  was  stoned  ;  others  tl-.at  he  was  burned 
 to  death;  and  others  again,  that  lie  was  crucified  by  king  Ptole- 
 my, for  a  crime  that  deserved  that  punishment. —  Prideaux  s 
 Connection,  anno  249. 
 
752 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.3596.  A.  C.108;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5070.  A.  C.341. 1  MAC.  i— vi.  7.  2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c.  7— b.xii.c.  14, 
 
 name  was  Joseph,  a  young  man  of  great  reputation 
 among  the  Jews,  for  prudence,  justice,  and  sanctity  of 
 life.  He,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  message,  which 
 Athenion  had  brought,  and  of  the  people's  great  con- 
 sternation thereupon,  went  immediately  to  his  uncle,  and 
 severely  upbraided  him  with  his  ill  management  of  the 
 public  interest,  who,  for  the  lucre  of  a  little  money,  had 
 exposed  the  whole  nation  to  such  imminent  danger, 
 which  now  there  was  no  way  to  avoid,  as  lie  told  him, 
 but  by  his  going  immediately  to  the  Egyptian  court,  and, 
 by  a  timely  application  to  the  king  there,  endeavouring 
 to  pacify  his  wrath. 
 
 The  bare  mentioning  of  a  journey  to  Alexandria  a  so 
 terrified  the  high  priest,  that  upon  his  declaring,  that  he 
 would  quit  his  station  both  in  church  and  state,  rather 
 than  undertake  it,  Joseph  offered,  with  his  permission, 
 and  the  people's  approbation  to  go  in  his  stead.  In  the 
 tnean  time  he  took  care  to  entertain  Athenion  at  his  own 
 house,  as  long  as  he  continued  in  Jerusalem,  in  a  very 
 splendid  and  magnificent  manner  :  when  he  departed, 
 he  presented  him  with  several  very  valuable  gifts ;  and 
 so  sent  him  away  in  a  good  disposition,  to  make  as  fa- 
 vourable a  representation  to  the  king  as  the  case  would 
 bear,  until  himself  should  come  to  the  Egyptian  court,  in 
 order  to  give  him  a  full  satisfaction. 
 
 Athenion  was  so  taken  with  this  prudent  behaviour, 
 and  kind  entertainment  of  Joseph,  that  when  he  came  to 
 give  the  king  a  report  of  his  embassy,  he  could  not  but 
 mention  his  name  with  pleasure  ;  and  when  he  told  him  of 
 his  intentions  to  come  and  wait  upon  him  himself,  he  set 
 forth  his  character  with  so  much  advantage,  that  the  king 
 expressed  a  desire  to  see  him.     In  a  short  time  Joseph 
 
 a  This  city,  which  was  built  by  Alexander  the  Great,  A.M. 
 3G73,  was,  after  his  death,  made  the  capital  of  Egypt,  by  Ptole- 
 my and  his  successors,  for  almost  300  years.  Dinocrates,  who 
 rebuilt  the  temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus,  after  it  had  been  burned 
 by  Erostratus,  was  the  architect  who  drew  the  plan  of  it,  and  had 
 the  chief  direction  of  the  work;  but  to  have  it  carried  on  with 
 more  expedition,  Alexander  appointed  Cleomenes,  one  of  his 
 captains  to  be  the  surveyor  of  it;  and  for  this  reason,  Justin  (b. 
 xiii.  c.  4.)  calls  him  the  founder  of  it.  The  happy  situation  of 
 this  city  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Red  Sea,  and  upon 
 the  river  Nile,  drew  thither  the  commerce  of  the  east  and  west, 
 and  made  it  in  a  very  little  time  one  of  the  most  flourishing  cities 
 in  the  world.  It  has  still  some  small  repute  for  merchandise ; 
 but  what  has  occasioned  the  decay  of  its  trade,  is  the  discovery  of 
 the  passage  to  the  East  Indies  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  on 
 the  south  of  Africa.  Before  this  discovery  the  whole  spice  trade 
 was  carried  into  this  part  of  the  world  through  this  city ;  for  the 
 spices  were  brought  from  the  East  Indies,  up  the  Red  Sea  to 
 Egypt,  and  from  thence  were  carried  by  land  on  camels  to  Alex- 
 andria. When  Egypt  became  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire, 
 this  city  continued  the  metropolis  of  it,  and  when  the  Arabians 
 took  it,  which  was  about  640  years  after  Christ,  there  were  4000 
 still  standing  in  it,  4000  bagnios,  40,000  Jews  paying 
 tribute,  400  squares,  and  12,000  persons  that  sold  herbs  and 
 fruits.  Here,  as  we  said,  was  the  famous  Serapeum,  or  temple 
 oi  Serapis,  for  beauty  of  workmanship  and  magnificence  of  struc- 
 ture, inferior  to  nothing  but  the  Roman  capitol.  Here  was  the 
 museum,  or  collegeof  philosophers;  and  here  that  noble  library, 
 which  was  erected  by  Ptolemy  Philadelphia,  but  unhappily 
 burned  in  the  war  between  Caesar  and  Pompey,  but  notwith- 
 standing all  its  former  splendour  and  magnificence,  this  city  is 
 now  become  a  poor  village,  by  the  Egyptians  called  Rachot, 
 without  any  thing  remarkable  in  it,  except  its  ruins,  and  the  re- 
 mains of  its  former  grandeur;  only  without  the  city,  Pompey's 
 pillar,  the  shaft  whereof  is  six  fathoms  high,  all  of  "one  piece  of 
 curious  granite,  is  justly  admired  as  one  of  the  finest  columns  that 
 is  anywhere  to  be  seen. — Calmefs  Dictionary  under  the  word ; 
 ami  Wells'  Geography  of  the  JS'eiv  Testament. 
 
 set  out  for  Alexandria ;  and  falling  in  upon  the  road 
 with  several  of  the  chief  nobility  of  Coelo-Syria  and 
 Phoenicia,  whose  business  at  court  was  to  farm  the  royal 
 revenues  of  these  provinces,  he  joined  company  with 
 them,  and  having  learned  from  their  discourse  of  what 
 value  these  revenues  were,  he  made  use  of  that  intelli- 
 gence afterwards,  both  to  his  own  and  the  king's  ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 When  they  all  arrived  at  Alexandria,  the  king  was  gone 
 to  Memphis ;  l  so  that  Joseph  made  haste  thither,  and 
 had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  him,  the  queen,  and  Athe- 
 nion, all  in  the  same  chariot,  returning  to  Alexandria. 
 The  king,  upon  Athenion's  signifying  who  he  was,  called 
 him  into  the  chariot ;  and  having  mentioned  his  uncle's 
 ill-usage,  in  not  paying  him  his  tribute,  he  was  there- 
 upon entertained  with  so  handsome  an  apology  for  that 
 neglect,  which  he  chiefly  imputed  to  his  uncle's  old  age, 
 and  other  infirmities,  that  he  not  only  satisfied  the  king, 
 but  gave  him  withal  so  good  an  opinion  of  the  advocate, 
 that,  when  they  came  to  Alexandria,  he  ordered  him  to 
 be  lodged  in  the  palace,  and  entertained  at  his  expense. 
 
 When  the  day  of  farming  out  the  revenues  to  the  best 
 bidder  was  come,  the  Syrian  and  Phoenician  noblemen, 
 with  whom  Joseph  had  travelled  to  Alexandria,  beat 
 down  their  price,  and  would  give  no  more  for  all  the 
 duties  of  Ccelo-Syria,  Phoenicia,  Judea,  and  Samaria, 
 than  eight  thousand  talents  :  but  Joseph  having  found 
 fault  with  them  for  undervaluing  the  king's  revenues, 
 offered  to  give  twice  as  much,  even  exclusive  of  the  for- 
 feitures, which  used  before  to  belong  to  the  farmers ; 
 and  was  thereupon  admitted  to  be  the  king's  receiver- 
 general  of  all  these  provinces. 
 
 Upon  the  credit  of  this  employment,  he  borrowed  at 
 Alexandria  five  hundred  talents,  wherewith  he  satisfied 
 the  king  for  his  uncle's  arrears  ;  and  having  received  a 
 guard  of  two  thousand  men,  to  support  him  in  the  collec- 
 tion of  the  duties,  he  left  Alexandria,  and  immediately 
 entered  upon  it.  In  some  places  he  met  with  opposi- 
 tion, and  very  opprobrious  language  ;  but  having  ordered 
 the  chief  ringleaders  to  be  seized,  and  exemplary  justice 
 to  be  executed  upon  them,  he  hereby  so  terrified  the  rest, 
 that  they  readily  paid  him  his  demands  without  any  mo- 
 lestation. And  in  this  office  he  continued  for  the  space 
 of  two  and  twenty  years,  under  Ptolemy  Euergetes,  and 
 
 b  This  was  a  very  famous  city,  and,  till  the  time  of  the  Pto- 
 lemies, who  removed  to  Alexandria,  the  place  of  residence  for 
 the  ancient  kings  of  Egypt.  It  was  situated  above  the  parting 
 of  the  river  Nile,  where  the  Delta  begins.  Towards  the  south 
 of  this  city  stood  the  famous  pyramids,  two  of  which  were 
 esteemed  the  wonders  of  the  world  ;  and,  in  this  city,  was  fed  the 
 ox  Apis,  which  Camhyses  slew  in  contempt  of  the  Egyptians 
 worshipping  it  as  a  god.  The  kings  of  Egypt  took  great  plea- 
 sure in  adorning  this  city;  and  in  all  its  beauty  it  continued, 
 till  the  Arabians  made  a  conquest  of  Egypt  under  the  Caliph 
 Omar.  The  general  who  took  it  built  another  city  just  by  it, 
 which  was  called  Fustat,  because  his  tent  had  been  a  long  time 
 set  up  in  that  place,  and  the  Caliph's  Fatamites,  when  they  be- 
 came masters  of  Egypt,  added  another  to  it,  which  is  known  to 
 us  at  this  day  by  the  name  of  Grand  Cairo.  The  Mameluke 
 Sultans,  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Carcassians,  having  afterwards 
 built  a  strong  fort  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Nile,  did,  by  de- 
 grees, annex  a  city  to  it,  which  came  to  be  called  the  New  Cairo, 
 as  what  the  Fatamites  had  built  was  called  the  Old;  but  it  must 
 be  observed,  that  the  ancient  Memphis  stood  on  the  western 
 shore  of  the  Nile,  whereas  whatever  the  Arabians  have  there 
 built,  from  time  to  time,  is  on  the  eastern  shore  of  that  river. — 
 Calmet's  Dictionary ,  under  the  word. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c 
 
 753 
 
 A.M.  359G.  A.C.408  ;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C.  311.  1  MAC.  i-vi.  7.  2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c.  7— b.  xii.  c.  14. 
 
 them  more  furious,  were  intoxicated  with  nine,  mingled 
 with  frankincense  :  but  the  king,  the  night  before,  hav- 
 ing- sitten  up  late  at  a  drunken  carousal,  overslept  him- 
 self, so  that  the  show  was  put  off  till  the  day  following-; 
 and,  the  next  night,  having-  done  the  same  again,  the 
 show,  for  the  same  cause,  was  put  off  to  the  third  day. 
 All  this  while  the  Jews,  continuing-  shut  up  in  the  Hippo- 
 drome, ceased  not  with  lifted  up  hands  and  voices, 
 to  pray  unto  God  for  their  deliverance,  which,  accord- 
 ingly, he  vouchsafed  them.  For,  on  the  third  day, 
 when  the  king-  was  present,  and  the  elephants  were  let 
 loose,  instead  of  falling-  upon  the  Jews,  they  turned 
 all  their  rage  upon  those  that  came  to  see  the  show,  and 
 destroyed  great  numbers. 
 
 This  wonderful  interposal  of  providence,  in  the  pro- 
 tection of  these  poor  people,  together  with  some  strange 
 appearances,  at  the  same  time,  seen  in  the  air,  so  terri- 
 fied the  king,  and  all  the  spectators,  that  he  ordered  all 
 the  Jews  to  be  set  free ;  restored  them  to  their  former 
 privileges  ;  revoked  every  decree  that  had  been  made 
 against  them,  and,  among  other  favours,  indulged  them 
 with  his  liberty — even  to  put  to  death  all  those  Jews, 
 who,  in  fear  of  persecution,  had  apostatized  from  their 
 religion,  which  accordingly  they  put  in  rigorous  execu- 
 tion. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  *  Ptolemy  Philopater,  his  son 
 Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  a  child  but  of  five  years  old,  suc- 
 ceeded him  in  the  throne  :  but  Antiochus  the  Great,  tak 
 ing  the  advantage  of  the  young  king's  inability  to  oppose 
 him,  marched  an  army  into  Ccelo-Syria  and  Palestine, 
 and,  in  a  very  short  time,  made  himself  master  of  them 
 The  Egyptians,  however,  under  the  command  of  Scapas 
 their  general,  endeavoured  to  regain  them,  and  had 
 actually  recovered  Jerusalem  into  their  possession  ;  but, 
 upon  the  approach  of  Antiochus  in  person,  and  the  defeat 
 which  he  gave  them  at  Paneas,  the  Jews,  who  had  been 
 but  badly  used  by  Scapas,  a  very  covetous  and  rapacious 
 man,  submitted  to  him  very  cheerfully  ;  and  receiving- 
 him  and  his  army  into  the  city,  assisted  him  in  the  reduc- 
 tion of  the  castle,  where  Scapas  had  left  a  garrison. 
 In  acknowledgment  of  which  services,  he,  by  a  public 
 edict,  granted  them  many  favours,  and,  among  the  rest, 
 a  liberty  to  live  according  to  their  own  laws  and  religion, 
 and  a  power  to  prohibit  any  stranger  to  enter  within  the 
 sept  of  the  temple,  alluding  to  the  attempt  which  Philo- 
 pater had  lately  made  that  way. 
 
 But  Antiochus  had  greater  things  in  view,  than  the 
 subjection  of  a  province  or  two  ;  and  therefore,  to  have 
 
 Philopater  his  son,  until  Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  the  son  of 
 Philopater  lost  these  provinces  to  Antiochus  the  Great. 
 
 On  the  death  of  Ptolemy  Euergetes  his  son  Philopater 
 ^not  without  some  suspicion  of  having  poisoned  his  fa- 
 ther) succeeded  to  the  throne  ;  and,  in  the  fifth  year  of 
 his  reign,  having,  at  Raphia,  a  town  not  far  from  Gaza, 
 defeated  the  army  of  Antiochus  the  Great,  he  afterwards 
 visited  the  cities  which  by  this  victory  he  had  regained, 
 among  which  Jerusalem  was  one.  Here  he  took  a  view 
 of  the  temple,  gave  valuable  donatives  to  it,  and  offered 
 up  many  sacrifices  to  the  God  of  Israel :  but,  not  being- 
 content  with  this  view  from  the  outer  court,  beyond  which 
 no  Gentile  was  allowed  to  pass,  he  was  for  going  into 
 the  sanctuary,  nay,  even  into  the  holy  of  holies  itself, 
 where  no  one  but  the  high  priest  (and  that  only  on  the 
 great  day  of  expiation)  was  allowed  to  enter.  This 
 made  a  great  uproar  all  over  the  city.  The  high  priest 
 informed  him  of  the  sacredness  of  the  place,  and  of  the 
 law  of  God,  which  forbade  his  entrance.  The  priests 
 and  Levites  were  gathered  together  to  hinder  it.  The 
 people  did  earnestly  deprecate  it ;  and  great  lamen- 
 tations were  every  where  made,  upon  the  apprehension 
 of  the  approaching  profanation  of  their  holy  temple. 
 But  all  to  no  purpose.  The  king,  the  more  he  was  op- 
 posed, the  more  resolute  he  was  to  have  his  will  satisfied, 
 and,  accordingly,  pressed  into  the  inner  court ;  but  as 
 he  was  passing  farther  to  go  into  the  temple,  he  was 
 seized  with  such  a  sudden  terror  and  consternation  of 
 mind,  that  he  was  carried  out  of  the  place,  in  a  manner 
 half  dead,  and,  in  a  short  time,  departed  from  Jerusa- 
 lem, highly  incensed  against  the  whole  nation  of  the  Jews, 
 and  venting  many  bitter  threatening^  against  them. 
 
 Nor  was  he  forgetful  to  put  his  threats  in  execution. 
 For  no  sooner  was  he  returned  to  Alexandria,  but  he 
 published  a  decree,  and  caused  it  to  be  engraven  on  a 
 pillar  erected  at  the  gate  of  his  palace,  excluding  every 
 one  who  would  not  sacrifice  to  the  god  whom  he  worship- 
 ped, from  having  any  access  to  him  ;  degrading  the  Jews 
 from  the  rights  and  privileges  they  had  in  the  city ;  and 
 ordering  them  all  to  come,  and  l  be  stigmatised  with  the 
 mark  of  an  ivy  leaf  (the  badge  of  his  god  Bacchus)  by 
 a  hot  iron  impressed  upon  them,  and,  as  many  as  re- 
 fused to  come,  commanding  them  to  be  put  to  death. 
 
 Nor  did  his  rage  end  here  :  for,  being  determined  to 
 extirpate  the  whole  Jewish  nation,  as  many  at  least  as 
 were  in  his  dominions,  he  sent  out  orders  to  his  officers, 
 requiring  them  to  bring  all  the  Jews  who  lived  any 
 where  in  Egypt,  bound  in  chains  to  Alexandria ;  and 
 having  shut  them  up  in  the  Hippodrome,  (a  large  place, 
 without  the  city,  where  the  people  used  to  assemble  to 
 see  horse-races,  and  other  shows,)  he  proposed  the  next 
 day  to  make  a  spectacle  of  them,  by  having  them  de- 
 stroyed by  his  "  elephants.      The  elephants,  to  make 
 
 1  2  Mac.  vi.  7. 
 a  In  the  books  of  the  Maccabees,  we  find  frequent  mention 
 made  of  elephants,  because  alter  the  reign  of  Alexander  the 
 Great,  these  animals  were  very  much  employed  in  the  armies, 
 which  the  kings  of  Syria  and  Egypt  raised.  They  were  natu- 
 rally of  a  very  quiet  and  gentle  disposition,  and  never  made  use 
 of  their  strength,  but  when  they  were  irritated,  or  compelled  to 
 it;  and  for  this  reason,  we  find  that  the  elephants  which  were  in 
 the  army  of  Antiochus  Eupater,  had  the  blood  of  grapes  and 
 mulberries  shown  them,  thereby  to  animate  them  to  the  combat, 
 (1  Mac.  vi.  34,)  as  those,  which  here  Ptolemy  Philopater  kept, 
 were   intoxicated  with  incense  dipped  in  wine,  to  make  them 
 
 more  mad  and  furious.  When  they  are  thus  irritated  and  in- 
 flamed, their  strength  is  prodigious,  and  nothing  can  stand  be- 
 fore them.  Every  creature  that  comes  in  their  way,  they 
 trample  under  foot,  overthrow  whole  squadrons,  knock  down 
 trees,  and  demolish  houses. —  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the 
 word. 
 
 o  This  Ptolemy  was  a  man  entirely  given  up  to  his  lusts  and 
 voluptuous  delights.  Drinking,  gaming,  and  laseiviousness, 
 were  the  whole  employments  of  his  lite.  Agathoclea  his  concubine, 
 and  Agathocles  her  brother,  who  was  his  catamite,  governed 
 him  absolutely;  and  when  Arsinoe,  who  was  both  his  sister  and 
 wife,  complained  of  the  neglect,  which,  by  means  of  these  two 
 favourites,  was  put  upon  her,  this  so  ofiended  the  king  and  bis 
 catamite,  that  orders  wen'  given  to  have  her  put  to  death.  But 
 he  did  not  long  survive  her;  for,  having  worn  out  a  strong  con- 
 stitution by  his  intemperance  and  debaucheries,  he  ended  his 
 life  before  "he  had  lived  out  half  the  course  of  it. — Pridcaux" i 
 Cofinection,  anno  204. 
 
 5  c 
 
754 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3596,  A.  C.  409 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C 
 
 his  armies  at  liberty  to  engage  the  Romans,  a  who,  since 
 the  defeat  of  Hannibal,  in  the  second  Punic  war,  were 
 become  justly  formidable,  made  a  peace  with  Ptolemy, 
 nnd,  giving  him  his  daughter  Cleopatra  in  marriage, 
 with  her  he  resigned  the  provinces  of  Coplo-Syria  and 
 Palestine,  by  way  of  dower. 
 
 By  this  means  Judea  reverted  to  the  Egyptian  crown, 
 and  Joseph,  the  nephew  of  Onias,  the  high  priest,  was 
 reinstated  in  the  office  of  collecting  the  king's  revenues, 
 in  that  and  the  neighbouring  provinces.  But,  as 
 Ptolemy,  in  a  short  time,  had  a  sou  by  Cleopatra,  upon 
 which  occasion  it  was  necessary  for  Joseph,  among  other 
 great  officers  of  state,  to  congratulate  the  king  and 
 queen,  and  to  make  them  such  presents  as  were  usual, 
 lie,  being  now  too  old  to  take  such  a  journey,  and  his 
 other  sons  refusing  to  go,  was  obliged  to  send  Hyrcanus, 
 w  !io  was  the  youngest,  but  the  best  qualified  for  such  a 
 negotiation,  to  make  his  compliment  in  his  stead.  But 
 the  history  of  the  young  man's  birth  is  somewhat  remark- 
 able. 
 
 1  As  Joseph's  occasions,  in  his  less  advanced  years, 
 called  him  frequently  to  Alexandria  ;  one  night  while 
 he  was  at  supper  with  the  king, 2  he  fell  desperately  in 
 love  with  a  beautiful  damsel  that  danced  before  him  ; 
 and,  not  being  able  to  master  his  inordinate  passion, 
 he  communicated  it  to  his  brother  Salimius,  who  had 
 accompanied  him  in  his  journey,  and  carried  with  him  a 
 daughter  of  his,  with  an  intent  to  many  her  at  Alexan- 
 dria, and  desired  of  him,  if  possible,  to  procure  him  the 
 enjoyment  of  her  ;  but,  as  secretly  as  he  could,  because 
 of  the  sin  and  shame  that  would  attend  such  an  act. 
 Salimius  promised  that  he  would  :  but  instead  of  that, 
 he  conveyed  his  own  daughter  into  his  bed,  and,  the 
 next  morning,  as  secretly  conveyed  her  away,  so  that 
 his  brother  never  discovered  the  deceit.  In  this  man- 
 ner Joseph  accompanied  with  her  several  nights ; 
 till,  every  time  growing  more  and  more  enamoured,  he 
 made  his  complaint  one  day  to  his  brother,  of  his  hard 
 fate,  who,  by  the  laws  of  his  religion,  was  forbidden  to 
 marry  the  woman  that  he  loved,  because  she  was  an 
 alien  :  whereupon  the  other  discovered  the  whole  matter 
 to  him,  and  how,  instead  of  the  admired  dancer,  he  had 
 put  his  daughter  to  bed  to  him,  as  thinking  it  more 
 eligible  to  wrong  his  own  child,  than  to  suffer  him  to 
 join  himself  to  a  strange  woman,  which  their  law  ex- 
 pressly forbade.  The  surprisingness  of  this  discovery 
 and  the  singular  instance  of  his  brother's  kindness  so 
 wrought  upon  Joseph's  heart,  that  he  immediately  made 
 the  young  woman  his  wife,  *  and  of  her,  the  next  year 
 was  born  this  Hyrcanus. 
 
 1  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  4.  *  Ibid. 
 
 a  It  was  by  Hannibal's  instigation  that  he  entered  upon  this 
 war,  wherein  lie  was  far  from  having  the  success  which  he  cx- 
 pected.  Two  years  he  took  up  in  preparations  for  it;  and  had 
 got  together  an  army  consisting  of  seventy  thousand  foot,  twelve 
 thousand  horse,  and  fifty-four  elephants;  but  the  Romans,  with 
 less  than  half  the  number,  met  him  near  Magnesia,  under  mount. 
 Siphilus,  and  there  gave  him  a  total  overthrow. 
 
 b  According  to  the  Jewish  law,  an  uncle  might  marry  his 
 niece,  though  an  aunt  (Lev.  xviii.  12,  13,  and  xx.  19,)  might 
 not  many  her  nephew,  for  which  the  Jewish  writers  assign  this 
 reason: — That  the  aunt  being  in  respect  of  the  nephew,  in  the 
 same  degree  with  the  father  or  mother,  in  the  line  of  descent, 
 had  naturally  a  superiority  over  him;  and  therefore  for  him  to 
 make  her  his  wife,  and  thereby  to  bring  her  down  to  be  in  a 
 degree  below  him,  as  all  wives  in  respect  of  their  husbands  are 
 
 341.  1MAC.  l— vi.  7.  2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.b.xi.  c.  7— b.  vii.  c.  14. 
 
 Hyrcanus,  when  he  undertook  the  journey  to  Alexan- 
 dria, persuaded  his  father  not  to  send  his  presents  from 
 Judea,  but  to  purchase  them  rather  at  Alexandria,  ob- 
 tained, by  this  means,  an  unlimited  credit  upon  his  agent 
 in  that  city  :  and  therefore,  when  he  came  thither,  in- 
 stead of  ten  talents,  as  might  be  expected,  he  demanded 
 a  thousand,  which  in  our  money  amounts  to  above  two 
 hundred  thousand  pounds. 
 
 With  this  money  he  bought  an  hundred  beautiful  boys 
 for  the  king,  and  an  hundred  beautiful  young  maids  for 
 the  queen,  at  the  price  of  a  talent  a  head  ;  and  when  he 
 presented  them,  they  carried  each  a  talent  in  their  hands, 
 the  boys  for  the  king,  and  the  young  maids  for  the  queen  ; 
 so  that  this  article  alone  cost  him  four  hundred,  talents. 
 The  rest  he  expended  all  in  valuable  gifts  to  the  cour- 
 tiers, and  great  officers  about  the  king,  except  what  he 
 kept  for  his  own  private  use. 
 
 By  these  means  growing  highly  in  favour  with  the 
 king,  queen,  and  all  the  court,  he  made  use  of  his  in- 
 terest to  supplant  his  father  ;  and  under  pretence  of  his 
 old  age  and  imbecility,  obtained  of  the  king  a  commis- 
 sion to  be  the  collector  of  the  royal  revenues  in  all  the 
 country  beyond  Jordan  ;  which  so  enraged  his  brothers, 
 that,  with  their  father's  connivance  at  least,  if  not  direct 
 approbation,  they  conspired  to  waylay  him,  and  cut  him 
 off,  as  he  returned  :  but  the  guards  who  attended  him, 
 and  were  to  assist  him  in  the  execution  of  his  office, 
 proved  too  strong  in  the  assault,  wherein  two  of  his 
 brothers  fell. 
 
 When  he  came  to  Jerusalem,  however,  his  father 
 would  not  see  him,  and  nobody  would  own  him ;  so  that 
 he  passed  over  Jordan,  and  entered  upon  the  execution 
 of  his  office  :  but  upon  his  father's  death,  which  happened 
 soon  after,  a  war  commenced  between  him  and  his  sur- 
 viving brothers,  about  the  paternal  estate,  which,  for 
 some  time,  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem. 
 But  as  the  high  priest,  and  generality  of  the  people, 
 sided  with  the  brothers,  he  was  again  forced  to  retreat 
 beyond  Jordan,  where  he  lived  in  a  strong  castle  ;  until 
 Antiochus  Epiphanes,  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Syria, 
 and  threatening  to  punish  him  according  to  his  deserts, 
 made  him,  for  fear  of  his  threats,  fall  upon  his  sword 
 and  slay  himself. 
 
 Upon  the  unhappy  death  of  Antiochus  the  Great,  c  his 
 son  Seleucus  Philopater  succeeded  him  in  the  kingdom 
 of  Syria,  to  which  was  annexed  Judea,  and  the  other 
 
 would  be  to  disturb  and  invert  the  order  of  nature  ;  but  that  there 
 is  no  such  thing  done,  when  the  uncle  married  the  niece,  in 
 which  case,  both  keep  the  same  degree  and  order  that  they  were 
 in  before,  without  the  least  mutation. — Pridcaux 's  Connection, 
 anno  187. 
 
 c  On  his  coming  into  the  province  of  Elymais,  hearing  that 
 in  that  country  there  was  a  great  treasure  in  the  temple  of  Jupi- 
 ter Belus,  and  being  in  great  difficulties  how  to  raise  money  to 
 pay  the  Romans,  he  seized  the  temple  by  night,  and  spoiled  it  of 
 all  its  riches ;  which  so  enraged  the  people  of  the  country,  that 
 to  revenge  this  sacrilege,  they  rose  upon  him,  and  slew  him,  and 
 all  that  were  with  him.  He  was  a  prince  of  that  laudable  char- 
 acter for  humanity,  clemency,  beneficence,  and  of  great  justice 
 in  the  administration  of  his  government,  and  till  the  fiftieth  year 
 of  his  life,  managed  all  his  affairs  with  that  valour,  prudence, 
 and  application,  as  made  him  prosper  in  all  his  undertakings, 
 and  deservedly  gained  him  the  title  of  the  Great;  but  in  the 
 latter  part  of  his  life,  declining  in  the  wisdom  of  his  conduct,  as 
 well  as  in  the  vigour  of  his  application,  every  thing  he  did  then 
 lessened  him  as  fast  as  all  his  actions  had  aggrandized  him 
 before. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  187. 
 
Sect.  1 1  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 755 
 
 A.M.  359G.  A.  C.  408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A. 
 
 adjacent  provinces.  At  his  first  accession,  he  favoured 
 the  Jews,  and  supplied  them  with  all  things  for  the  service 
 of  the  temple  at  his  own  expense;  but  being,  some  time 
 after,  informed  by  one  Simon  a  Benjamite,  that  there 
 were  great  riches  in  the  temple,  he  sent  his  treasurer 
 Heliodorus,  to  make  seizure  of  them,  and  bring  them  to 
 Antioch.  But  Heliodorus,  going  into  the  temple  for 
 that  purpose,  and  entering  into  the  sacred  treasury,  was 
 stopped  in  his  attempt  by  an  apparition  of  angels,  armed, 
 as  it  were,  to  defend  the  place  against  his  sacrilegious 
 hands  ;  for  these  are  the  words  wherein  the  history  of  the 
 Maccabees  relates  the  matter  :  '  '  There  appeared  unto 
 him  an  horse,  with  a  terrible  rider  upon  him,  and  adorned 
 with  a  very  fair  covering,  and  he  ran  fiercely,  and  smote 
 at  him  with  his  fore-feet ;  and  he  that  sat  upon  the  horse, 
 seemed  to  have  a  complete  harness  of  gold.  Moreover, 
 two  other  men  appeared  before  him,  notable  in  strength, 
 excellent  in  beauty,  and  comely  in  apparel,  who  stood 
 by  him  on  either  side,  scourging  him  continually,  and 
 giving  him  many  sore  stripes,'  insomuch  that  he  fell  to 
 the  ground  ;  but  being  taken  up  by  those  that  attended 
 him,  and  carried  oft'  in  a  litter,  he  continued  speechless, 
 and  without  all  hopes  of  life,  for  some  time,  till,  at  the 
 intercession  of  his  friends,  the  high  priest  prayed  to  God 
 for  him,  and  so  he  recovered. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  the  same  Heliodorus,  aspiring  at 
 the  crown,  poisoned  his  master  Seleucus,  in  hopes  of 
 succeeding  him;  but  Eumenes,  king  of  Pergamus,  and 
 Attains  his  brother  obstructed  his  design,  and  placed 
 Antiochus,  surnamed  Epiphanes  ;  a  another  son  of  Anti- 
 
 1  2  Mac.  iii.  25,  &c. 
 
 «  If  we  may  credit  the  conjecture  of  Appian  he  was  surnamed 
 'ETitfavh;  (the  Illustrious)  because  he  vindicated  the  claims  of 
 the  royal  family  against  the  usurpations  of  the  foreigner  Helio- 
 dorus. He  also  liore  the  surname  of  Qio;,  which  is  still  seen  up- 
 on his  coins.  But  as  he  is  represented  by  historians,  he  well 
 merited  the  surname  of  Etfipavris  (the  Insane)  which  his  subjects 
 gave  him  instead  of  Etfitpccvtis.  He  often  lounged  like  a  mere 
 idler  about  the  streets  of  Antioch,  attended  by  two  or  three  ser- 
 vants; and,  not  deigning  to  look  at  the  nobles,  would  talk  with 
 goldsmiths  and  other  mechanics  in  their  workshops,  engage  in 
 trilling  and  idle  conversation  with  the  lowest  of  the  people,  and 
 mingle  in  the  society  of  foreigners  and  men  of  the  vilest  charac- 
 ter. He  was  not  ashamed  to  enter  the  dissipated  circles  of  the 
 young,  to  drink  and  carouse  with  them,  and  to  promote  their 
 revelries  by  singing  and  playing  on  his  flute.  He  often  appeared 
 among  the  common  people  at  the  public  baths,  engaging  in  every 
 kind  of  foolish  jest  without  the  least  regard  to  the  dignity  of  his 
 station  and  character.  Not  {infrequently  did  he  appear  in  the 
 streets  in  a  state  of  intoxication,  when  he  would  scatter  his 
 money  about  and  practise  various  other  fooleries  equally  extrava- 
 gant. Sometimes  he  ^exhibited  still  more  decisive  tokens  of 
 madness.  He  would  parade  the  streets  of  his  capital  in  a  long 
 robe  and  with  a  garland  of  roses  upon  his  head,  and  if  any  at- 
 tempted to  pass  by  or  to  follow  him,  he  would  pelt  them' with 
 stones  which  he  carried  concealed  under  his  garments.  When 
 ilie  humour  pleased  him,  he  would  array  himself  in  a  white  robe 
 like  the  candidates  at  Rome,  and  in  this  dress  go  about  Antioch, 
 saluting  the  citizens  whom  he  met,  taking  them  by  the  hand, 
 embracing  them  and  supplicating  their  suffrages  for  some  Itoman 
 office,  of  which  they  probably  had  never  before  heard  even  the 
 name.  When  he  had  thus  obtained  a  number  of  votes,  sufficient 
 to  constitute  him  a  tribune  or  an  edile,  he  would  with  great  so- 
 lemnity seat  himself  in  an  ivory  chair  in  the  market-place,  after 
 the  manner  of  the  Romans,  listen  with  deep  attention  to  the  most 
 trifling  disputes,  and  pronounce  judgment  upon  them  with  all 
 the  gravity  of  a  Roman  magistrate.  At  other  times  he  publicly 
 appeared  in  familiar  intercourse  with  panders  and  common  pros- 
 titutes. His  liberality  was  profusion  without  bounds,  and  often 
 ridiculous.     He  sometimes  presented  great  sums  of  money  to 
 
 C.  341.  1  MAC.  i-vi.7. 2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.b.  xi.  c.7— b.  xii.  c.  14 
 
 ochus  the  Great,  upon  the  Syrian  throne,  who  proved  a 
 very  terrible  enemy  and  persecutor  of  the  Jews.  No 
 sooner  was  lie  settled  in  the  kingdom,  but  being  desti- 
 tute of  money,  and  having  an  heavy  tribute  to  pay  to  the 
 Romans,  2  he  deposed  Onias,  a  man  of  singular  piety 
 and  goodness,  from  the  high  priesthood,  and  for  3G0 
 talents,  which  he  engaged  to  pay  yearly,  sold  it  to  his 
 brother  Jason.  But  as  Jason  had  supplanted  Onias,  so 
 his  brother  Menelaus,  being  sent  to  Antioch  with  this  tri- 
 bute-money, for  300  talents  more  than  Jason  had  given, 
 purchased  the  priesthood,  and  had  him,  in  like  manner 
 deposed :  whereupon  he  withdrew  to  the  country  of  the 
 Ammonites,  waiting  for  some  revolution  in  his  favour. 
 
 Thus  Menelaus  got  the  chief  priesthood  by  outbidding 
 his  brother ;  but  being  summoned  to  appear  before  the 
 king  at  Antioch,  for  non-payment  of  the  money,  3  lie 
 left  Lysimachus,  another  of  his  brothers,  his  deputy  in 
 his  absence,  and,  by  his  means,  got  many  gold  vessels 
 out  of  the  temple,  which  he  selling  at  Tyre,  and  the  cities 
 round  about  raised  money  enough,  not  only  to  pay  the 
 king  his  tribute,  but  to  bribe  Andronicus  *  likewise  to 
 murder  his  brother  Onias,  because  he  supposed,  that  at 
 one  time  or  other  he  might  stand  in  his  way,  and  because 
 he  had  lately  taken  the  freedom  to  reprove  him  sharply 
 for  this  gross  piece  of  sacrilege. 
 
 Andronicus  did  it  to  earn  the  money,  but  was  soon 
 overtaken  with  justice   at  Antioch,  c  and   Lysimachus  (l 
 
 2  2  Mac.  iv.  7 ;  Joseph,  on  Mac.  c.  4.  3  2  Mac.  iv.  29. 
 
 cities;  and  often  he  would  give  gold  to  any  person  whom  he 
 chanced  to  meet,  though  an  entire  stranger;  and  to  another  he 
 would  make  a  present  of  a  few  dates,  or  some  such  trifle.  He 
 outdid  all  his  predecessors  in  the  splendour  of  the  games  which 
 he  celebrated  at  Daphne  in  honour  of  Jupiter  Olympius;  but  his 
 conduct  was  so  ridiculous  that  the  foreigners  who  were  present 
 thought  him  insane.  Yet  he  was  so  strict  as  to  exclude  all  females 
 from  the  exhibition.  He  paid  little  regard  to  the  other  gods, 
 but  for  Jupiter  Olympius  he  built  a  magnificent  temple,  made 
 offerings  to  him  at -an  unprecedented  expense,  and  attempted  to 
 compel  all  his  subjects,  and  the  Jews  among  the  rest,  to  worship 
 him.  But  without  referring  to  this  persecution  of  the  Jewish 
 religion,  the  other  parts  of  his  conduct  are  amply  sufficient  to 
 justify  the  appellation  nnJ,  vile,  contemptible,  which  Daniel  gives 
 him. — Jahn's  Hebrew  Commonwealth. — En. 
 
 b  This  Audrouicus  seems  to  have  been  left  by  Antiochus  at 
 Antioch,  to  govern  in  his  absence,  and  without  this  governor's 
 interposition,  Menelaus  could  not  compass  his  end,  to  murder  his 
 brother;  for  Onias  had  fled  to  the  asylum  at  Daphne,  a  small 
 distance  from  the  city,  which  always  used  to  be  a  place  of  re- 
 treat, secure  and  inviolable:  and  therefore  Menelaus  was  forced 
 to  give  the  governor  a  round  sum,  to  engage  him,  by  false  pro- 
 mises of  safety,  to  prevail  with  his  brother  to  come  out,  and  as 
 soon  as  he  hail  him  in  his  power,  to  dispatch  him. — Calmed 
 Commentary . 
 
 c  For  Onias  having,  by  his  laudable  carriage,  while  he  lived 
 at  Antioch,  gained  much  upon  the  esteem  and  affections  of  tho 
 people  of  the  place,  Greeks  as  well  as  Jews,  they  took  hi* 
 murder  in  such  high  indignation,  that  they  both  joined  in  a 
 petition  to  the  king  against  Andronicus  for  it.  Hereupon,  cog- 
 nisance being  taken  of  the  crime,  and  the  wicked  murderer  con- 
 victed of  it,  Antiochus  caused  him,  with  infamy,  to  be  carried 
 to  the  place  where  the  murder  was  committed,  and  there  put  to 
 death  for  it,  in  such  a  manner  as  he  deserved.  For  Antiochus, 
 as  wicked  a  tyrant  as  he  was,  had  sorrow  and  regret  upon  him 
 for  the  death  of  so  good  a  man;  ami,  therefore,  in  the  revenging 
 it,  he  satisfied  his  own  resentments,  as  well  as  those  of  the  people 
 who  had  petitioned  him  for  it. — Prideati.vs  Connection,  anno  172. 
 
 d  Winn  it  came  to  be  known  that  Lysimachus  had  been  tho 
 chief  instrument  in  robbing  the  temple,  tho  multitude,  fired  with 
 indignation,  gathered  themselves  together  against  him,  and 
 though  he  attempted  to  form  a  party,  under  the  command  of  one 
 Tyrannus,  an  old   experienced  officer,   in  order  to  resist  their 
 
756 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  359G.  A.C.408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C.  311.  1  MAC.  i— vi.  7.2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.b.  xi.c.  7— b.xii.  c.  14. 
 
 slain  by  the  people  of  Jerusalem ;  yet  such  was  the 
 power  of  bribery  at  the  Syrian  court,  that  by  the  strength 
 of  this  Menelaus,  who  was  the  contriver  of  all  these  mis- 
 chiefs, found  means  to  clear  himself  before  Antiochus, 
 and  to  get  the  three  delegates  from  the  sanhedrim,  who 
 came  from  Jerusalem  on  purpose  to  accuse  him,  con- 
 temned and  executed. 
 
 While  Antiochus  was  engaged  in  war  with  Egypt,  a 
 false  rumour  Mas  spread  in  Palestine  that  he  was  dead ; 
 and  Jason  thinking  this  a  line  opportuity  for  him  to  re- 
 cover his  station  in  Jerusalem  as  high  priest,  marched 
 thither  with  above  a  thousand  men  ;  and  having-,  by  the 
 assistance  of  the  party  which  he  had  there,  taken  the  city, 
 and  driven  Menelaus  into  the  castle,  he  acted  all  manner 
 of  cruelties  upon  his  fellow-citizens,  and  put  to  death, 
 without  mercy,  all  that  he  could  light  on,  whom  he  took 
 to  be  hisadversaries. 
 
 Antiochus,  hearing  of  this,  and  supposing  that  the 
 whole  Jewish  nation  had  revolted  from  him,  marched 
 with  all  haste  out  of  Egypt  into  Judea ;  and  '  being  in- 
 formed, on  his  march,  that  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  on 
 the  news  which  came  of  his  death,  had  made  great  re- 
 joicings ;  the  sense  of  this  so  provoked  him  against 
 them,  that  laying  siege  to  the  city,  and  taking  it  by 
 storm,  «  he  slew  of  the  inhabitants,  in  three  days'  time, 
 40,000  persons,  and  having  taken  as  many  more  captives, 
 sold  them  to  the  neighbouring  nations. 
 
 Nor  did  all  this  satisfy  his  rage  ;  for,  notwithstanding 
 his  father's  edict,  he  forced  himself  into  the  temple,  *  and 
 
 1  1  Mac.  i.  20,  &c;  2  Mac.  v.  5,  6.— Joseph.  Antig.  b.xii. 
 
 c.  8. 
 
 rage,  and  defend  himself;  yet  the  mob  fell  on  them  with  such 
 fury,  that  wounding  some,  and  killing  others,  they  forced  the  rest 
 to  (lee:  and  then  seizing  upon  Lysimachus,  him  they  slew  beside 
 the  treasury  within  the  temple,  and  thereby,  for  that  time,  put 
 an  end  to  this  sacrilege. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  172. 
 
 a  Both  the  author  of  the  second  book  of  the  Maccabees,  (chap. 
 v.  11.)  and  Diodorus  Siculus,  (b.  xlvi.)  tell  us,  that  Antiochus 
 took  Jerusalem  by  force;  and  yet  Josephus  (in  his  12th  book  of 
 Antiquities,  c.  7.)  affirms,  that  he  made  himself  master  of  it 
 without  any  manner  of  difficulty,  because  the  gates  were  set  open 
 to  him  by  the  treachery  of  a  party  he  made  in  the  town:  but 
 herein  lie  is  contrary  to  himself.  For  in  his  history  of  the  Jewish 
 wars,  (b.  i.  c.  1.)  he  says,  that  Antiochus  took  it  Kark  x^roc, 
 that  i-,  by  force;  and  there  represents  him  as  enraged  by  what 
 lie  had  suffered  in  the  siege;  and  in  the  same  history,  (b.  vi. 
 c.  1 1 .)  lie  speaks  of  those  who  were  slain  at  the  siese,  figh'tino-  jn 
 defence  of  the  place.  But  the  history  of  the  Jewish  wars,  and 
 that  of  his  Antiquities,  he  wrote  at  different  times,  which  might 
 make  him,  in  some  places,  not  so  consistent. — Prideau.v's  Con- 
 nection. 
 
 />  Several  heathen  authors,  in  their  account  of  their  king 
 Antiochus,  make  mention  of  his  taking  a  city,  that  was  at  peace 
 and  in  alliance  with  him,  meaning  thereby  Jerusalem,  commit- 
 ting many  cruelties  there,  and  plundering  the  temple,  wherein 
 he  found  great  riches;  but  Diodorus  Siculus,  in  his  relation  of 
 this  matter,  (b.  xxxiv.)  is  more  particular  and  express. — "  That 
 this  prince  having  intruded  into  the  most  sacred  place  of  the 
 tempi.',  which  none  but  the  high  priest  was  permitted  to  enter,) 
 
 ",""1   ,llrn'  a  s1 Statue  of  a  man  with  a  long  beard,  and   a 
 
 book  n.  his  hand,  mounted  upon  an  ass.  This  lie  took  for  Moses, 
 the  author  o  the  law,  and  founder  of  the  nation  of  the  Jews,  and 
 of  the  city  ol  Jerusalem  ;  and,  therefore,  to  remove  the  cause  of 
 that  universal  hatred  which  all  nations  bore  to  the  Jews,  he  went 
 about  abolishing  of  their  law;  and,  to  this  purpose,  caused  a  large 
 sow  to  be  sacrificed  to  this  image  of  their  legislator,  on  an  altar 
 which  he  found  there  j  and,  having  sprinkled  the  blood  and  the  broth 
 that  he  mad,,  of  the  victim,  and  therewith  polluted  the  sacred 
 volume  of  their  law,  he  made  the  high  priest,  and  other  Jews,  eat  of 
 its  flesh,  and  jut  out  the  lamp  which  used  to  be  kept  perpetual- 
 
 polluted,  by  his  presence,  both  the  holy  place,  and  the 
 holy  of  holies.  He  sacrificed  a  great  sow  upon  the  altar 
 of  burnt-oflerings,  and  caused  the  broth  (which  was  made 
 of  some  part  of  the  flesh)  to  be  sprinkled  all  over  the 
 temple,  that  he  might  defile  it  as  much  as  possible.  He 
 took  away  the  altar  of  incense,  the  showbread  table,  the 
 candlestick  of  seven  branches,  and  several  other  golden 
 vessels,  utensils,  and  donatives  of  former  kings,  to  the 
 value  of  800  talents  of  gold  ;  and  making  the  like  plunder 
 in  the  city,  he  returned  to  Antioch, 2  leaving  behind  him 
 Philip  a  Phrygian,  a  man  of  a  cruel  and  barbarous 
 temper,  to  be  governor  of  Judea ;  Andronicus,  another 
 of  the  like  disposition,  to  be  governor  of  Samaria ;  and 
 Menelaus,  who  was  worse  than  all  the  rest,  to  continue 
 still  over  them  in  the  office  of  high  priest. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  3  there  were  seen  at  Jerusalem, 
 for  forty  days  together,  strange  sights  in  the  air  of  horse- 
 men and  footmen,  armed  with  shields,  spears,  and  swords, 
 and  in  great  companies  lighting  against,  and  charging 
 each  other,  as  in  battle  array ;  which  foreboded  those 
 calamities  of  war  and  desolation  that  soon  after  happened 
 in  that  city  and  nation.  For  Antiochus,  still  breathing 
 out  rage  against  the  poor  Jews,  sent  Apollonius,  one 
 of  his  generals,  with  an  army  of  22,000  men,  and  .an  ex- 
 press order  to  kill  all  the  men  that  remained  in  Jerusa- 
 lem, and  to  sell  the  women  and  children  for  slaves.  *  On 
 his  first  arrival,  Apollonius,  carried  himself  peaceably, 
 concealing  his  intent,  and  forbearing  all  hostilities,  till 
 the  return  of  the  sabbath,  when  he  put  his  bloody  com- 
 mission in  execution.  5  For,  falling  upon  the  city  while 
 the  people  were  at  their  devotion,  he  massacred  many 
 of  the  inhabitants,  plundered  the  place,  led  away  the 
 women  and  children  captives,  and  forced  the  few  that 
 escaped  to  betake  themselves  to  deserts  and  caves  for 
 shelter.  Nor  was  this  all ;  for  in  a  short  time  after 
 Antiochus  made  a  decree,  commanding  all  nations  to 
 leave  their  ancient  rites  and  usages,  and  to  conform  to 
 the  religion  of  the  king ;  which,  however  expressed  in 
 general  terms,  was  chiefly  designed  against  the  Jews. 
 
 6  The  officer  who  was  sent  to  see  this  decree  put  in 
 execution,  was  one  Athenajus,  a  man  well  versed  in  all 
 the  ceremonies  of  the  Grecian  idolatry,  and  therefore 
 thought  a  proper  person  to  initiate  the  people  into  the 
 observance  of  them.  On  his  coming  to  Jerusalem,  7  all 
 sacrifices  to  the  God  of  Israel  were  superseded,  and  the 
 rites  of  the  Jewish  religion  suppressed.  The  temple  it- 
 self was  dedicated  to  Jupiter  Olympius,  c  (whose  image 
 
 2  2  Mac.  v.  22,  23.  3  Tbid  ver  2,  3. 
 
 4  1  Mac.  i.  29,  30.  5  g  Mac.  v.  24,  &c. 
 
 6  Chap.  vi.  1. 
 7  1  Mac.  i.  44,  &c;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  7. 
 ly  burning.''  But  several  of  these  circumstances,  (more  especial- 
 ly that  of  a  man  mounted  on  an  ass,)  are  no  where  to  be  found  in 
 any  other  history;  and  may  therefore,  not  improperly,  be  placed 
 among  those  fables,  which  the  heathens  invented  and  published, 
 on  purpose  to  give  some  colour  for  their  inveterate  hatred  against 
 the  Jews.— Catmet's  Commentary  on  1  Mac.  i.  23. 
 
 c  This  profanation  of  the  temple,  and  the  erecting  of  this 
 idol  in  it,  had  long  before  been  foretold  by  the  prophet  Daniel, 
 under  the  name  of  '  abomination  of  desolation,'  chap.  xi.  31.  For 
 this  is  the  description  which  he  gives  of  the  reign  of  Antiochus, 
 and  the  bitter  persecutions  which  he  raised:  'He  shall  return 
 with  indignation  against  the  holy  covenant,  and  have  intelligence 
 with  them  that  forsake  it.  Armies  shall  stand  on  his  side,  and 
 he  shall  pollute  the  sanctuary  of  strength,  and  shall  takeaway  the 
 daily  sacrifice,  and  there  place  the  abomination,  or  abominable 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 757 
 
 A.  M.  3M)G.  A.  C.  408;  OR  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C.341.  1  MAC.  i— vi.7.  2  MAC.  iii 
 
 was  set  up  on  the  altar  of  burnt-offerings,)  and  all  the 
 people,  upon  pain  of  death,  were  obliged  to  sacrifice  to 
 it.  Those  who  met  in  caves  to  keep  the  sabbath,  if  they 
 happened  to  be  discovered,  were  burned.  The  book  of 
 the  law  was  torn  and  cast  into  the  lire ;  the  circumcising 
 of  infants  was  forbidden  ;  and  women  accused  of  having 
 circumcised  their  children,  were  led  about  the  streets 
 with  those  children  hanging  about  their  necks,  and  then 
 both  cast  headlong  over  the  steepest  part  of  the  walls. 
 
 No  less  severity  was  used  to  enforce  upon  the  people 
 the  heathen  worship,  which  the  decree  enjoined,  than 
 there  was  to  deter  them  from  their  own.  In  every  city, 
 altars,  groves,  and  chapels,  for  idols  were  set  up,  and 
 officers  sent  to  compel  them,  once  every  month,  to  offer 
 victims  to  the  Grecian  gods,  and  to  eat  of  the  flesh  of 
 swiue,  and  of  other  unclean  beasts,  that  were  at  that 
 time  sacrificed.  In  short,  no  manner  of  cruelty  was 
 omitted  to  force  the  Jews  to  abandon  their  religion,  and 
 turn  idolaters ;  but  though,  in  this  terrible  persecution, 
 some  of  these  wretched  people  yielded  to  violence,  many 
 of  them  chose  rather  to  die,  than  to  forsake  the  law  of 
 their  God. 
 
 Among  the  latter  sort,  '  those  of  the  most  memor- 
 able note  were  a  Eleazar,  a  chief  doctor  of  the  law,  and 
 that  heroine  Soloniona,  and  her  seven  sons.  Eleazar 
 was  a  very  aged  man ;  yet,  when  his  persecutors  would 
 
 1  2  Mac.  vi.j  Joseph,  on  Maccab. 
 thing,  that  maketh  desolate,  or  (as  in  the  margin)  quite  astonish- 
 eth.  Such  as  do  wickedly  against  the  covenant,  shall  he  corrupt 
 by  flatteries,  but  the  people  that  know  their  God,  shall  do  great 
 exploits;  and  they  that  have  understanding,  shall  instruct  many; 
 yet  they  shall  tall  by  the  sword,  by  famine,  by  captivity,  and  by 
 spoil:  and  the  king  shall  do  according  to  his  will,  and  skall  exalt 
 and  magnify  himself  above  every  God.  He  shall  speak  wonder- 
 ful things  gainst  the  God  of  gods,  and  shall  prosper,  till  the  in- 
 dignation be  accomplished  ;  for  that  which  is  determined  shall 
 be  done,'  ver.  30. 
 
 a  Some  interpreters  are  of  opinion,  that  this  was  the  same 
 Eleazar,  who,  at  the  head  of  the  seventy-two  interpreters  that 
 were  to  translate  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  was  sent  into  Egypt, 
 and  that  he  suffered  at  Jerusalem,  in  the  presence  of  the  gover- 
 nor named  Felix;  but  Ruffinus  (in  his  Latin  paraphrase  on  the 
 book  of  Josephus,  concerning  the  Maccabees)  will  needs  have 
 it,  that  not  only  Eleazar,  but  the  mother  and  her  seven  sons, 
 namely,  Maccabseus,  Aber,  Machir,  Judas,  Achas,  Areth,  and 
 Jacob,  (for  these  are  the  names  which  he  gives  them,)  were 
 all  carried  from  Judea  to  Antioch,  and  there  suffered  martyr- 
 dom. The  reason  of  the  thing,  however,  as  well  as  the  tenor 
 of  the  history,  which  is  given  us  by  the  author  of  the  second  book 
 of  Maccabees,  chap.  vi.  and  vii.  and  by  Josephus  in  the  above- 
 mentioned  book,  made  it  much  more  likely,  that  Jerusalem,  and 
 not  Antioch,  was  made  the  scene  of  this  cruelty;  especially 
 since  it  bring  designed  for  an  example  of  terror  to  the  Jews  in 
 Judea,  it  would  have  lost  its  force  had  it  been  executed  in  any 
 other  country,  lint  wherever  this  happened,  it  is  certain  that 
 Eleazar  deserved  all  the  commendation  which  the  fathers  have 
 given  him:  for,  whether  we  consider  the  purity  of  his  sentiments 
 or  the  sublimity  of  his  doctrine,  or  the  delicacy  of  his  conscience, 
 we  must  acknowledge,  that  there  are  few  saints,  in  the  Old  Tes- 
 tament that  have  given  us  a  more  exact  pattern  of  charity,  sin- 
 cerity, and  magnanimity.  '  It  becometh  not  our  age,'  saith  he, 
 '  in  any  wise  to  dissemble,  whereby  many  young  persons  might 
 think,  that  Eleazar  being  fourscore  years  old  and  ten,  was  now- 
 gone  to  a  strange  religion,  and  so  they,  through  my  hypocrisy, 
 and  desire  to  live  a  little  time,  and  a  moment  longer,  should  be 
 deceived  by  me,  and  I  get  a  stain  in  my  old  age,  and  make  it 
 abominable.  For  though,  for  the  present  time,  I  should  be  deli- 
 vered from  the  punishment  of  men,  yet  should  not  I  escape  the 
 hand  of  the  Almighty,  neither  alive  nor  dead  ;  wherefore  now, 
 manfully  changing  his  life,  I  will  show  myself  such  a  one,  as  my 
 age  rcqniieth,'  2  Mac.  vi.  24,  &c. — Calmvt's  Cummentari/,  and 
 J'ridcuux's  Connccliuji,  anno  1(37. 
 
 x.  JOS.  HIST.b.  xi.  c.7— b.  xii.c.  14. 
 have  compelled  him  to  eat  swine's  flesh,  which  they 
 forced  into  his  mouth,  he  spit  it  out,  and  even  when 
 some,  in  pity  to  his  age,  would  have  given  him  leave  to 
 elude  the  sentence,  by  taking  a  piece  of  any  other  flesh 
 and  eating  it  as  swine's  flesh,  he  scorned  to  purchase  his 
 life  at  so  sordid  a  rate,  desiring  them  to  dispatch  him, 
 rather  than  sutler  him  to  be  guilty  of  dissimulation,  and 
 stain  the  honour  of  his  grey  hairs  with  so  mean  an  act. 
 Nor  were  the  seven  brothers  and  their  mother  inferior  to 
 him  in  religious  courage  and  magnanimity  :  for  when 
 the  king,  pretending  pity  to  their  youth,  and  respect  to 
 their  family,  which  was  noble,  persuaded  them  to  re- 
 nounce their  religion,  and  embrace  that  of  the  Gentiles, 
 promising  them  great  rewards  and  promotions,  if  they 
 would  comply  ;  and  when  finding  that  this  would  have 
 no  effect,  he  ordered  the  great  variety  of  torments,  which 
 he  had  provided,  to  be  shown  thein,  thinking  thereby 
 to  affright  them  with  the  sad  prospect  of  what  they  were 
 to  sutler  ;  the  instruments  of  death  did  no  more  terrify, 
 than  the  allurements  of  the  tyrant  did  persuade  them  ; 
 but  inspired  with  a  truly  holy  zeal  and  celestial  bravery, 
 "  they  unanimously  declared  their  obedience  to  the  law 
 of  God,  and  the  precepts  which  he  had  delivered  by 
 Moses  ;  assuring  him,  that  all  his  cruelty  could  not  hurt 
 them;  that  the  only  effect  their  tortures  could  have,  would 
 be  to  secure  to  them  the  glorious  rewards  of  unshaken 
 patience  and  injured  virtue;  but, at  t'he  same  time,  ad- 
 monishing him,  that,  by  the  murder  of  so  many  innocent 
 men,  he  would  arm  the  divine  vengeance  against  him,  and 
 for  the  momentary  pains  which  he  inflicted  on  them,  would 
 himself  become  obnoxious  to  everlasting  torments." 
 
 This  is  the  main  purport  of  most  of  their  speeches ; 
 but  the  variety  of  their  tortures  was  almost  innumerable, 
 and  for  the  horror  of  them  inexpressible.  All  this  while 
 their  mother  stood  by,  beholding  their  sufferings,  and 
 exhorting  every  one,  as  it  came  to  his  turn,  to  behave 
 gallantly.  At  length  when  herself  was  only  left,  and  the 
 soldiers  were  approaching  to  carry  her  to  execution,  she 
 prevented  their  rage,  and  all  attempts  upon  her  person, 
 by  throwing  herself  voluntarily  into  the  fire.6  Thus  end- 
 ed this  doleful,  but  glorious  day,  with  the  death  of  the 
 victorious  Solomona,  who  triumphed  in  the  sharpest 
 agonies  of  her  sons,  and  her  own  sufferings,  and  through 
 a  sea  of  the  most  exquisite  pains,  waded  to  the  port  of 
 eternal  rest ! 
 
 AYhile  this  persecution  raged  at  Jerusalem,  2  Matta- 
 thias,  the  son  of  John,  the  son  of  Simeon,  the  son  of 
 Asmonaeus,  from  whom  the  family  had  the  name  of  As- 
 mona;ans,a  priest  of  the  course  of  Joarib,  e  with  his  five 
 
 3  I  Mac.  ii.  &e. ;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  8. 
 
 b  The  Latin  version  says,  that  she  was  dragged  on  the  ground 
 to  execution,  where  having  cut  off  her  breasts,  and  scourging  her 
 naked  body,  they  flung  her  into  a  boiling  caldron:  but  the  Ara- 
 bic version,  en  the  contrary,  confirms,  that,  having  lived  to  see 
 her  seven  sons  martyred,  and  lying  dead  on  the  ground  before 
 her,  she  dung  herself  into  the  midst  of  them,  and  praying  to  God 
 to  take  her  out  of  the  world,  immediately  expired. —  Universal 
 1 i i. story,  b.  ii.  C.  11. 
 
 c  This  was  the  first  of  the  twenty-four  courses  of  the  priests  that 
 served  in  the  temple,  (1  Chron.  xxiv.  7.)  and  because  Mattathias 
 undertook  to  determine  for  the  necessity  of  fighting  on  the  sab- 
 bath, in  case  tliey  were  assaulted  by  the  enemy,  some  have  from 
 hence  inferred,  that  the  people  had  made  choice  of  him  for  their 
 high  priest:  but,  besides  that,  this  decision  is  not  sufficie-nt  to 
 [Hove  this,  and  that  it  no  where  appears,  that  he  ever  performed 
 
758 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M„3:,9G   A.  C 
 
 OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C.34I.  iMAC.i— vi.7.  2MAC.iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.xi.  c.7-b.  xii.  c.  l-i 
 
 sons,  John,  Simeon,  Judas,  Eleazar,  and  Jonathan,  re- 
 tired to  Modin,  a  little  place  in  the  tribe  of  Dan,  and 
 there  bemoaned  the  hard  fate  of  their  religion  and  coun- 
 try. But  they  had  not  been  long-  in  this  retreat,  before 
 Antiochus  sent  one  of  his  military  officers, named  Apel- 
 les,  to  put  his  decree  in  execution. 
 
 Apelles  having  called  the  people  together,  and  told 
 them  the  intent  of  his  coining,  addressed  himself  more 
 particularly  to  Mattathias  ;  persuading  him  to  comply 
 with  the  king's  commands,  that,  by  his  example,  he  might 
 influence  others;  and  promising  him  withal,  that  in  case 
 he  would  do  so,  lie  should  be  taken  into  the  number  of 
 the  king's  friends,  and  promoted  to  great  honour  and 
 riches.  But  to  this  Mattathias  made  answer,  with  a  loud 
 voice,  and  in  the  audience  of  all  the  people,  that  no 
 consideration  whatever  should  ever  induce  him,  or  any 
 of  his  family,  to  forsake  the  law  of  their  God  ;  that  the 
 examples  of  those  who  had  apostatized,  were  no  rule  to 
 him,  nor  the  commandments  of  the  greatest  monarch  of 
 any  validity,  when  they  were  sent  to  oblige  him  to  em- 
 brace idolatry :  and  with  these  words,  seeing  a  Jew  of 
 the  place  presenting  himself  at  the  heathen  altar,  in  or- 
 der to  offer  sacrifice  according  to  the  king's  injunctions, 
 he  ran  up  to  the  apostate,  and,  with  a  zeal  like  that  of 
 Phineas,  slew  him  with  his  own  hand  ;  and  then  turning 
 upon  the  king's  commissioner,  by  the  assistance  of  his 
 sons,  and  those  that  were  with  them,  dispatched  him  like- 
 wise, and  all  that  attended  him. 
 
 After  this,  Mattathias  overturned  the  altars,  and  pull- 
 ed down  the  idols  that  were  in  the  place  ;  and,  having 
 got  together  his  own  family,  and  invited  all  that  Avere 
 zealous  for  the  law,  to  follow  him,  he  retired  to  the 
 mountains,  in  order  to  make  there  the  best  defence  he 
 could  :  but  the  Jews  a  had  one  principle,  which,  in  the 
 
 the  office  of  high  priest,  but  only  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  poor 
 distressed  people,  as  being  a  person  of  the  greatest  power  and 
 authority  among  them,  it  is  certain,  that  both  Menelaus  and  Al- 
 cimus  were  then  alive;  and  though  they  were  wicked  men,  and 
 intruders  into  the  office,  yet  they  were  nominated  by  king  An- 
 tiochus, who  then  assumed  the  right  of  nomination,  and  so  were 
 looked  upon  as  high  priests — Calmtt's  Dictionary,  under  the 
 word  Maflathias. 
 
 a  By  the  law  of  Moses,  the  Jews  were  commanded  '  to  do  no 
 maimer  of  work  on  the  sabbath  day;'  but  this  was  a  precept 
 which  would  admit  of  some  exceptions,  and  what  some  people 
 took  in  a  mire  rigorous  sense  than  others.  The  Samaritans,  for 
 instance,  thought  themselves  obliged  to  observe  it  to  such  a  de- 
 gree of  strictness,  as  not  to  stir  out  of  their  places  on  that  day, 
 because  the  law  is  literally  so  expressed.  (Exod.  xvi.  29;)  but 
 the  Jews  were  of  opinion,  that  they  were  permitted  to  make 
 their  escape  from  danger,  or  to  walk  such  a  compass  of  ground, 
 which  they  called  a  '  sabbath  day's  journey,'  if  it  were  for  any 
 ary  occasion  on  that  day.  In  our  Saviour's  time,  it  was 
 allowable,  they  thought,  to  pull  any  animal  out  of  a  pit,  or  a  ditch, 
 on  that  day,  (Mat.  xii.  11.);  but  the  Talmudical  doctors  were 
 for  revoking  that  permission,  and  found  fault  with  him  for  even 
 healing  the  sick  and  the  lame,  on  the  sabbath.  Mattathias,  and 
 iiis  company,  by  sundry  experiences,  were  convinced,  that  too 
 scrupulous  an  observance  of  the  sabbath  had  brought  several 
 calamities  upon  their  nation ;  that  Ptolemy,  the  son  ofLagus,  the 
 first  king  of  Egypt  of  that  name,  by  assaulting  Jerusalem  on  the 
 sabbath  day,  (wherein  the  Jews  would  do  nothing  to  defend 
 themselves,)  became  master  of  it  without  opposition;  and  that, 
 but  just  lately,  a  great  number  of  their  brethren  had  been  passive- 
 ly slain,  because  they  would  not  so  much  as  handle  their  arms  on 
 that  day;  and  thereupon  they  came  to  a  resolution  to  defend 
 themselves,  whenever  they  were  attacked,  be  the  day  what  it 
 would;  but  we  do  not  find  that  they  came  to  any  decision, 
 whether  they  themselves  were  to  attack  the  enemy  on  the  sab- 
 bath.    On  the  contrary,  it  seems  as  if  they  had  determined,  that 
 
 beginning  of  this  resistance,  had  like  to  have  ruined 
 them  quite,  and  that  was  the  scrupulous  observation  o£ 
 the  sabbath,  even  to  such  a  degree,  as  not  to  defend 
 themselves  on  that  day ;  whereof  their  enemies  taking 
 the  advantage,  destroyed  great  numbers  of  them,  with- 
 out their  making  the  least  opposition.  Mattathias  how- 
 ever and  his  followers,  finding-  the  fatality  of  their  mis- 
 take in  this  particular,  '  made  a  decree,  (which  was  con- 
 firmed by  the  unanimous  consent  of  all  the  priests  and 
 elders  among  them,)  that,  whenever  they  were  attacked 
 on  the  sabbath  day,  it  was  lawful  for  them  to  fight  for 
 their  lives,  and  to  defend  themselves  in  the  best  manner 
 they  could,  which  afterwards  became  a  general  rule  in 
 all  their  Avars. 
 
 While  Mattathias  abode  in  the  mountains,  great  multi- 
 tudes of  JeA\s,  Avho  had  any  true  concern  for  their  holy 
 religion,  came,  and  joined  him  ;  and,  among  these, 
 there  Avas  a  good  company  of  Assidaeans,  b  men  mighty 
 in  valour,  and  extremely  zealous  for  the  law ;  so  that, 
 Avhen  he  had  got  together  such  a  number,  as  made  the 
 appearance  of  a  small  army,  2  he  came  out  of  his  fast- 
 nesses, and,  going  round  the  cities  of  Judah,  pulled 
 doAvn  the  heathen  altars ;  re-established  the  true  Avor- 
 ship ;  caused  the  children  to  be  circumcised  ;  cut  oft*  all 
 apostates,  that  fell  in  his  way  ;  and  destroyed  all  perse- 
 cutors, Avherever  he  came.  Having  thus  acted  the  part 
 of  a  brave  and  prudent  general,  for  the  small  time  he 
 had  the  command  of  his  little   army,  Mattathias  was 
 
 1  1  Mac.  ii.  40,  41 ;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  8. 
 
 2  1  Mac.  ii.  44.,  &e. ;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  8. 
 
 they  were  only  permitted  to  repel  force  by  force ;  and  therefore 
 we  lead,  that,  when  Pompey  besieged  the  temple,  observing 
 that  the  Jews  did  barely  defend  themselves  on  the  seventh  day, 
 he  ordered  his  men  to  offer  no  hostilities,  but  only  to  raise  the 
 batteries,  plant  their  engines,  and  make  their  approaches  on  that 
 day,  being  well  assured,  that  in  doing  of  this,  he  should  meet 
 with  no  molestation  from  them;  and,  by  this  means,  he  carried 
 the  place  much  sooner,  than  he  otherwise  would  have  done. — 
 Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xiv.  c.  8;  Jewish  Wars,  b.  i.  c.  5;  and  Cal- 
 met's  Commentary  on  1  Mac.  ii.  14. 
 
 b  When  the  Jewish  church  came  to  be  settled  again  in  Judea, 
 after  the  return  of  the  Babylonish  captivity,  there  were  two  sorts 
 oi  men  among  the  members  of  it;  the  one,  who  contented  them- 
 selves with  that  only,  which  was  written  in  the  law  of  Moses, 
 and  these  were  called  zadikim,  that  is,  the  righteous;  and  the 
 other,  who,  over  and  above  the  law,  added  the  constitutions  and 
 traditions  of  the  elders,  and,  by  way  of  supererogation,  devoted 
 themselves  to  many  rigorous  observances;  and  these  being 
 reckoned  in  a  degree  of  holiness,  above  the  others,  were  called 
 chasidim,  that  is,  the  pious.  From  the  former  of  these  were 
 derived  the  sects  of  the  Samaritans,  Sadducees,  and  Karaites, 
 and  from  the  latter  the  Pharisees,  the  Essenes,  and  Assidteans. 
 These  Assidseans,  or  Chasidseans,  rather,  as  they  should  be  writ- 
 ten, were  a  kind  of  religious  society,  whose  chief  and  distinguish- 
 ing character  was,  to  maintain  the  honour  of  the  temple;  and 
 therefore  they  were  not  only  content  to  pay  the  usual  tribute  for 
 the  reparation  of  it,  but  charged  themselves  with  farther  expenses 
 upon  that  account ;  for  extvy  day,  except  that  of  the  great  ex- 
 piation, they  sacrificed  a  lamb,  besides  those  of  daily  oblation, 
 which  was  called  the  *  sin-offering  of  the  Assidreans.'  They 
 practised  greater  hardships  and  mortifications  than  the  rest,  and 
 their  common  oath  was  by  the  temple,  for  which  our  Saviour 
 reproves  the  Pharisees,  (Mat.  xxiii.  16.  who  had  learned  that 
 oath  of  them.  Mattathias,  however,  being  joined  by  men  of  this 
 principle,  who  made  it  one  of  the  main  points  of  their  piety  to 
 fight  zealously  for  the  defence  of  the  temple,  which  was  then  fal- 
 len into  the  hands  of  the  heathen,  was  not  a  little  strengthened 
 in  his  party,  and  in  some  measure  able  to  take  the  field. — Scali- 
 ycr,  in  Elench.  Trchcresii,  &c;  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  197; 
 aud  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  II1.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 759 
 
 A.  M.35W3.  A.  C.  408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M .  5070.  A.  C 
 
 forced  at  last  to  submit  to  the  weight  of  140  years  ;  but 
 before  his  death,  '  he  called  his  live  sons  together,  and, 
 having  exhorted  a  them  to  stand  up  valiantly  for  the  law 
 of  God,  and,  with  a  steady  courage  and  constancy,  to 
 light  the  battles  of  Israel  against  the  present  persecutors, 
 he  appointed  Judas  to  be  their  captain  in  his  stead,  and 
 Simeon  to  be  their  counsellor;  and  so,  giving  up  the 
 ghost,  he  was  buried  at  Modin,  in  the  sepulchres  of  his 
 forefathers,  and  all  the  faithful  in  Israel  made  great 
 lamentation  for  him.  * 
 
 Judas,  who  is  surnamed  Maccabams,  as  he  had  taken 
 upon  him  the  command,  went  round  the  cities  of  Judea, 
 
 1  Mac.  ii.  49,  &c. ;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  8. 
 
 a  The  speech  which  Josephus  puts  in  the  mouth  of  old  Matta- 
 thias  upon  this  occasion,  is  widely  different  from  what  we  find  in 
 1  Mac.  ii.  49,  &c,  but  not  undeserving  of  our  observation. 
 "  My  dear  sons,"  says  he,  "  my  life  is  drawing  to  an  end ;  but 
 I  am  to  charge  you,  upon  my  blessing,  before  I  leave  you,  that 
 you  stand  firm  to  the  cause  that  your  father  has  asserted  before 
 you  without  any  staggering  or  shrinking.  Remember  what  I 
 have  told  you,  and  do  as  I  have  advised  you.  Do  your  utmost 
 to  support  the  rights  and  laws  of  your  country,  and  to  restore  the 
 order  of  a  nation  that  wants  but  very  little  of  being  swallowed  up 
 in  confusion.  Have  nothing  to  do  with  those  that,  either  for 
 fear  or  for  interest,  have  betrayed  it.  Show  yourselves  to  be 
 sons  worthy  of  such  a  father;  and,  in  contempt  of  all  force  and 
 extremity,  carry  your  lives  in  your  hands,  and  deliver  them  up 
 with  comfort,  if  any  occasion  should  require  it,  in  defence  of 
 your  country;  computing  with  yourselves,  that  this  is  the  way 
 to  preserve  yourselves  in  God's  favour,  and  that,  in  consideration 
 of  so  unshaken  a  virtue,  he  will  in  time  restore  you  to  the  liberty 
 of  your  former  life  and  manners.  Our  bodies,  it  is  true,  are 
 mortal  ;  but  great  and  generous  actions  will  make  us,  immortal 
 in  our  memory;  and  that  is  the  glory  I  would  that  you  aspire 
 to,  that  is  to  say,  the  glory  of  making  the  history  of  your  lives 
 famous  to  after  ages  by  your  illustrious  actions."  The  rest  of 
 his  speech  agrees  with  what  we  find  in  the  book  of  Mattathias, 
 wherein  he  distributes  to  each  son  the  office  that  he  knew  him 
 best  qualified  for;  and  then  concludes,  "Do  but  mind  your  busi- 
 ness, and  depend  upon  it,  that  all  men  of  honour  and  piety  will 
 join  with  you.'' — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  8. 
 
 I  Why  Judas  and  his  successors  were  called  Maccabees  is 
 uncertain.  The  book  from  which  this  epithet  is  derived,  being 
 written  in  Greek,  we  have  no  certainty  which  were  the  original 
 letters  of  the  word.  It  might  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  be  derived 
 from  the  Hebrew  term  macchabeh ,  a  word  which  signifies  hid, 
 as  a  contemptuous  epithet  bestowed  on  them  by  their  adversaries, 
 or  their  apostate  countrymen,  because  they  concealed  themselves 
 in  caves  and  rocks;  but  who  having  afterwards  wiped  oft"  that 
 reproach  by  their  bravery,  still  retained  that  appellation  in 
 memory  of  their  former  concealment;  or,  from  the  word  mak- 
 kebah,  n  carcm;  and  so,  they  might  be  called  caverners,  or 
 those  who  lurked  in  caverns.  The  book  itself,  which  contains 
 the  history  of  Judas  and  his  successors,  down  to  the  death  of  the 
 high  priest  Simon — a  period  of  forty  years, — was  originally  writ- 
 ten in  that  dialect  of  the  Hebrew  which  the  Jews  used  after 
 {heir  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity,  lint  of  which  book 
 we  now  possess  only  the  Greek  version ;  but  by  whom  the  trans- 
 lation was  made,  or  the  original  composed,  is  unknown.  It  is 
 plain,  however,  that  the  author  of  this  book  has  forfeited  all  title 
 to  an  honest  veracious  historian :  his  exaggerations  are  so  mon- 
 strous, and  his  discrepancies  so  manifest.  I  by  no  means  dis- 
 pute the  fact,  that  a  number  of  faithful  Jews  stood  out  against 
 the  invaders  of  their  country,  and  were  zealous  for  the  God  of 
 their  fathers.  I  as  really  believe  this,  as  I  believe  in  the  exist- 
 ence of  Wallace,  the  hero  of  Scottish  romance.  It  is  the 
 tissue  of  gross  exaggeration  which  runs  through  the  whole  nar- 
 rative of  the  Jewish  hero's  exploit',  with  which  fault  is  here 
 found.  Of  this  I  am  firmly  persuaded,  that  no  sensible,  well- 
 iniormed  man,  will  ever  place  such  a  romantic  history  as  that 
 of  the  first  book  of  the  Maccabees  on  a  level  with  the  historical 
 books  of  the  Old  Testament;  as  the  facts  there  narrated  bear 
 internal  evidence  of  their  truth,  and  are  perfect  sobriety  com- 
 pared with  the  deeds  of  a  hero,  whom  his  biographer  has  made, 
 
 341.  1  MAC.  i— vi.  7,  2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c.  T— b.xii.  c.  14. 
 in  the  same  manner  as  his  father  had  done,  destroying 
 every  where  all  utensils  and  implements  of  idolatry; 
 slaying  all  idolaters  and  apostate  Jews  ;  rescuing  the 
 true  worshippers  of  God  from  the  hands  of  their  oppres- 
 sors ;  and  for  their  better  security  for  the  future,  fortify- 
 ing their  towns,  rebuilding  their  fortresses,  and  placing 
 strong  garrisons  in  them.  These  proceedings  gave  the 
 Syrian  court  some  umbrage  ;  and  therefore  Antiochus  2 
 ordered  Apollonius, c  his  governor  in  Samaria,  to  raise 
 forces,  and  go  against  him  ;  but  Judas  having  defeated 
 and  slain  him,  made  a  great  havock  among  his  troops, 
 and,  finding  the  governor's  sword  among  the  spoils,  he 
 took  it  for  his  own  use,  and  generally  fought  with  it  all 
 his  life  after.  Seron,  the  deputy  governor  of  some  part 
 of  Co?lo-Syria,  hearing  of  Apollonius's  defeat,  got  to- 
 gether all  the  forces  that  were  under  his  command,  and, 
 in  hopes  of  gaining  himself  honour,  3  came  in  pursuit  of 
 Judas ;  but,  instead  of  that,  he  met  with  the  same  fate, 
 being  vanquished  and  slain  in  the  manner  that  Apollo- 
 nius was. 
 
 Enraged  at  these  two  defeats,  Antiochus  sent  three 
 eminent  commanders,  Ptolemy-Macron,  Nicanor,  and 
 Gorgias,  to  manage  the  war  against  the  Jews ;  who, 
 with  an  army  of  forty  thousand  foot,  and  seven  thousand 
 horse,  together  with  a  great  number  of  auxiliaries  from 
 neighbouring  nations,  and  renegado  Jews,  4  came,  and 
 encamped  at  Enunaus, d  not  far  from  Jerusalem.  Judas, 
 on  the  other  hand,  marched  with  his  men  to  Mizpeh,  e 
 where,  having  implored  God's  merciful  assistance  in 
 this  time  of  distress,  and  /  encouraged  them  in  words 
 
 2  I  Mac.  iii.  10;  Jewish  A'ntiq.  b.  xi.  c.  10. 
 
 3  1  Mac.  iii.  13,  &c. ;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  10. 
 
 4  1  Mac.  iii.  39,  &c,  and  Josephus,  ibid. 
 
 in  the  number  and  splendour  of  his  victories,  to  exceed  all  those 
 recorded  of  a  Joshua  and  a  Jephthah,  a  Barak  and  a  Gideon: 
 with  this  difference,  that,  in  the  former,  the  Israelites  obtained 
 peace  and  rest  in  consequence  of  divine  interpositions,  whilst,  in 
 the  latter,  such  were  wholly  unavailing,  till  the  growing  weak- 
 ness of  the  Syrian  power,  and  the  frequent  political  struggles  for 
 the  crown  among  the  worthless  descendants  of  Seleucus,  enabled 
 the  Jews  gradually  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  their  pagan  rulers, 
 and  secure  their  independence. — Bell's  Rollin,  vol.  ii.  p.  609. 
 _Er>. 
 
 c  This,  in  all  probability,  was  the  same  Apollonius  whom 
 Antiochus  sent  at  first  to  plunder  Jerusalem,  and  afterwards  to 
 set  up  the  statue  of  Jupiter  Olympius,  and  to  compel  the  Jews 
 to  relinquish  their  religion.  —  Calmct's  Commentary, 
 
 d  This  was  a  village  lying  to  the  west  of  Jerusalem,  and  be- 
 tween seven  and  eight  miles  from  it.  It  was  honoured  with  our 
 Saviour's  presence  after  his  resurrection,  and  therein  were  hot 
 baths,  for  Emmaus  comes  from  the  Hebrew  Chaiuath,  which 
 signifies  baths  of  hot  voter,  that  were  very  beneficial  to  those 
 that  used  them. — Calmct's  Dictionary  under  the  word. 
 
 c  At  this  time  Jerusalem  was  in  the  hands  of  the  heathen, 
 and  the  sanctuary  trodden  under  foot;  so  that  Judas  could  not 
 assemble  his  men  there  to  implore  the  assistance  of  God  in  this 
 time  of  imminent  danger;  and  therefore  he  repaired  to  Mizpeh, 
 a  place  w  here  the  people  oftentimes  used  to  assemble  for  prayer, 
 (Jud.  xx.  1.  1  Kings  xv.  22.  2  Chron.  xvi.  0.')  Here  lie  and 
 all  his  army  addressed  themselves  to  God,  in  solemn  fasting  and 
 prayer,  for  his  assistance  and  protection:  and  herein  he  acted 
 the  part  of  a  wise  and  religious  commander,  as  knowing  that  the 
 battle  was  the  Lord's,  and  that  therefore  it  would  be  impious  to 
 begin  any  such  enterprise,  without  first  imploriug  the  divine 
 aid. — Prideau.v's  Connection,  anno  166. 
 
 /The  speech  which  Judas  makes  to  his  men  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, as  we  have  it  in  Josephus,  is  a  very  excellent  one: — "  We 
 shall  never  have,"  says  he,  "  my  fellow  soldiers  and  companions, 
 such  an  opportunity  again  of  showing  our  bravery  in  the  defence 
 of  our  country,  and  the  contempt  of  all  dangers,  as  we  have  now 
 
760 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.M.  3596.  A.C.408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C. 
 proper  on  such  an  occasion  to  fight  for  their  religion, 
 laws,  and  liberties,  with  a  courage  undaunted,  and,  as 
 the  cause  was  God's,  with  a  firm  assurance  of  success, 
 he  led  them  forth  to  the  engagement.  But,  having  first 
 caused  proclamation  x  to  be  made,  that  all  such  as  had 
 that  year  built  houses, planted  vineyards,  betrothed  wives, 
 or  were  in  any  degree  fearful,  should  depart,  his  six 
 thousand  men,  which  he  had  at  first,  were  reduced  to 
 three  thousand. 
 
 a  With  this  handful  of  men,  however,  he  was  resolved 
 to  give  the  enemy  battle.  But  hearing  that  Gorgias 
 was  detached  from  them  with  five  thousand  foot,  and  a 
 thousand  horse,  to  surprise  his  camp  by  night,  he  coun- 
 termined his  plot  by  another  of  the  same  kind:  for, 
 quitting  his  own  camp,  and  marching  towards  the  enemy, 
 he  fell  upon  them,  while  Gorgias  with  the  best  of  his 
 forces  was  absent,  and  put  them  into  such  a  surprise  and 
 confusion,  that  they  took  to  their  heels,  and  fled,  leav- 
 ing him  master  of  their  camp,  and  three  thousand  of  their 
 men  dead  upon  the  spot. 
 
 Gorgias,  coming  to  the  Jewish  camp,  found  it  empty  ; 
 and  concluding  from  thence,  that  Judas  had  fled  into 
 the  mountains  for  fear,  he  pursued  him  thither  ;  but, 
 when  he  found  him  not,  and  was  returning  to  his  own 
 camp,  he  understood  that  it  had  been  entered  and 
 burned ;  that  the  main  army  was  broken  and  fled ;  and 
 that  Judas  was  ready  in  the  plains  to  give  him  a  warm 
 reception.  Hereupon  he  could  no  longer  keep  his  men 
 together  ;  for,  seized  with  a  panic  fear,  they  flung  down 
 their  arms,  and  fled :  when  Judas,  putting  himself  in 
 pursuit  of  them,  slew  great  numbers  more,  so  that  the 
 whole  amounted  to  nine  thousand,  and  of  those  that 
 escaped  from  the  battle,  most  were  sorely  wounded  and 
 maimed.  Judas,  3  with  his  victorious  army,  returning 
 from  the  chase,  entered  the  enemy's  camp,  where  he 
 found  plenty  of  rich  plunder  ;  and  so  proceeding  in 
 triumph  to  Jerusalem,  celebrated  the  next  day,  which 
 was  the  Sabbath,  with  great  devotion,  rejoicing  and 
 praising  God  for  this  signal  and  merciful  deliverance. 
 
 Judas,  after  this,  having  intelligence,  that  Timotheus, 
 4  governor  of  the  country  beyond  Jordan,  and  Bacchides, 
 another  lieutenant  in  those  parts,  were  drawing  forces 
 
 1  Deut.  xx.  7,  8.  2  I  Mac.  iv.  1,  &c. 
 
 3  1  Mac.  iv.  23,  &c. ;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  10. 
 
 4  Mac.  viii.  SO,  31. 
 
 before  us ;  for,  upon  the  issue  of  to-morrow's  combat  depends, 
 not  only  our  liberty,  but  all  the  comforts  and  advantages  that 
 attend  it;  and,  over  and  above  the  blessing  of  such  a  freedom,  our 
 very  religion  lies  at  stake  with  it  too,  and  we  cannot  secure  the 
 one  but  by  preserving  the  other.  Bethink  yourselves  well, 
 therefore,  what  it  is  you  are  to  contend  for,  and  you  will  find  it 
 to  be  no  less  than  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  greatest  happi- 
 ness that  you  have  ever  enjoyed,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  peaceable 
 possession  of  your  ancient  laws,  rites  and  discipline.  Now, 
 whether  you  will  rather  choose  to  perish  with  infamy,  and  to 
 involve  the  miserable  remainder  of  all  your  countrymen  in  the 
 same  ruin,  or  to  venture  one  generous  push  for  the  redemption 
 of  yourselves  and  your  friends,  that  is  the  single  question.  Death 
 is  the  same  to  the  coward  that  it  is  to  the  valiant  man,  and  as 
 certain  to  the  one  as  the  other;  but  there  is  great  difference  in 
 point  of  honour,  and  everlasting  fame,  between  a  gallant  man, 
 that  falls  in  vindication  of  his  religion,  liberties,  laws,  and  coun- 
 try, and  a  scoundrel  that  abandons  all  for  fear  of  losing  a  life 
 which  lie  cannot  save  at  last.  Take  these  things  into  your 
 thoughts,  and  make  this  use  of  the  meditation.  You  have  no- 
 thing to  trust  to  but  God's  providence,  and  your  own  concurring 
 resolutions,  and,  at  the  worst,  while  we  contend  for  victory,  we 
 can  never  fail  of  glory." — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  11. 
 
 341.  1  MAC.  i— vi.7.  2  MAC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST-  b.  xi.  c.  7— b.xii.c.  14. 
 
 together,  in  order  to  invade  him,  marched  directly 
 against  them ;  and,  having  overthrown  them  in  a  great 
 battle,  slew  above  twenty  thousand  of  their  men,  enriched 
 his  army  with  their  spoils,  and,  out  of  them,  provided 
 himself  with  arms,  and  other  things  necessary  for  the 
 future  carrying  on  of  the  war. 
 
 5  Lysias,  whom  the  king,  when  he  went  upon  his 
 expedition  into  Persia,  had  constituted  chief  governor 
 of  all  the  country  from  Euphrates  to  Egypt,  being  vexed 
 and  ashamed  at  all  these  defeats,  put  himself  at  the 
 head  of  an  army  of  sixty  thousand  foot,  and  five  thousand 
 horse ;  and  marched  into  Judea,  with  a  full  intent  to 
 destroy  the  country,  and  all  its  inhabitants,  he  pitched 
 his  camp  at  Bethzura, a  a  strong  place  lying  to  the  south 
 of  Jerusalem,  near  the  confines  of  Idumea.  *  There 
 Judas  met  him  with  ten  thousand  men  only  ;  and  having 
 engaged  his  numerous  army,  and  slain  five  thousand  of 
 them,  the  rest  he  put  to  flight,  and  sent  Lysias  back 
 again  with  his  baffled  forces  to  Antioch,  but  with  a  pur- 
 pose to  come  again  with  a  greater  strength  another 
 year. 
 
 By  this  retreat  of  his,  Judas  having  made  himself 
 master  of  all  Judea,  thought  it  his  duty  to  purge  the 
 house  of  the  Lord,  and  to  remove  those  profanations, 
 which  for  three  years  last  past  it  had  been  forced  to 
 submit  to.  To  this  purpose,  he  appointed  a  certain 
 number  of  priests  to  cleanse  the  sanctuary,  to  pull  down 
 the  altar  which  the  heathens  had  set  up,  and  to  build 
 another  of  6  unhewn  stones,  to  consecrate  the  courts 
 anew,  and  to  make  all  things  again  fit  and  commodious 
 for  the  service  of  God. 
 
 Antiochus,  in  his  sacrilegious  pillage  of  the  temple, 
 which  we  have  related,  had  taken  away  the  altar  of 
 incense,  the  table  of  the  showbread,  the  golden  candle- 
 stick, and  several  other  vessels  and  utensils,  without 
 which  the  service  could  not  regularly  be  performed ;  but 
 out  of  the  spoils  "  which  Judas  had  taken  from  the  ene- 
 my he  Avas  able  to  have  all  these  things  made  anew,  of 
 the  same  metal,  and  in  the  same  manner  as  they  were 
 before  ;  and  having  thus  put  all  things  in  their  proper 
 
 5  Mac.  iv.  26,  &c. ;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  10. 
 
 6  Exod.  xx.  25;  Deut.  xxviii.  5;  Josh.  viii.  31. 
 
 7  1  Mac.  iv.  49. 
 
 a  It  had  been  fortified  by  king  Rehoboam,  (2  Chron.  xi.  7,) 
 and  was,  at  this  time,  a  very  important  fortress,  as  being  one  of 
 the  keys  of  Judea  on  the  south  side  of  Idumea. —  Universal  Hist. 
 b.  ii.  c.  11. 
 
 b  Wherever  the  name  of  Idumea,  or  the  land  of  Edom,  occurs 
 in  any  of  the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  is  to  be  under- 
 stood of  that  Idumea,  or  land  of  Edom,  which  lay  between  the 
 Lake  of  Sodom  and  the  Red  Sea,  and  was  afterwards  called 
 Arabia  Petrrea.  But  the  inhabitants  of  this  country,  being 
 driven  out  by  the  Nabathseans,  while  the  Jews  were  in  the  Baby- 
 lonish captivity,  and  their  land  laid  desolate,  they  then  took  pos- 
 session of  as  much  of  the  southern  part  of  it  as  contained  what 
 had  formerly  been  the  whole  inheritance  of  the  tribe  of  Simeon, 
 and  half  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  where,  at  this  time,  they  dwelt,  • 
 but  had  not  as  yet  embraced  the  Jewish  religion.  And  this  is 
 the  only  Idumea,  and  the  inhabitants  of  it  the  only  Idumeans,  or 
 Edomites,  which  are  any  where  spoken  of  after  the  Babylonish 
 captivity.  After  their  coming  into  this  country,  Hebron,  which 
 had  formerly  been  the  metropolis  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  became 
 the  capital  of  Idumea,  and  between  that  and  Jerusalem  lay 
 Bethzura,  a  strong  fortress,  which  the  author  of  the  second  book 
 of  Maccabees,  (ch.  xi.  5.)  places  at  no  more  than  five  furlongs' 
 distance  from  Jerusalem;  but  this  is  a  visible  mistake;  for 
 Eusehius  makes  it,  at  least,  twenty  miles  distant  from  it. — 
 Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  165. 
 
Skct.  III.l 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 761 
 
 A.M.  35'JG.  A.C.  409;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5070.  A.  C. 
 
 order,  he  had  the  temple  dedicated  again,  with  as  much 
 solemnity  as  the  present  state  of  affairs  would  permit, 
 and  in  commemoration  hereof,  appointed  a  festival  "  of 
 eight  days'  continuance,  which  began  on  the  fifth  of  the 
 month  Chisleu,  much  about  the  twentieth  of  our  Novem- 
 ber, to  be  annually  observed. 
 
 But  though  the  temple  was  recovered  and  restored  to 
 its  former  use,  yet  Apollonius,  at  his  taking  Jerusalem, 
 had  erected  a  fortress  on  mount  Acra,  *  which  com- 
 manding the  mountain  of  the  temple,  and  being  still  in 
 the  hands  of  the  enemy,  gave  him  the  advantage  of 
 annoying  all  those  who  went  up  to  the  temple  to  wor- 
 ship. To  remedy  this  inconvenience,  Judas  at  first 
 blocked  up  the  fortress  ;  but  finding  that  he  could  not 
 conveniently  spare  such  a  number  of  men  as  were  neces- 
 sary for  that  purpose,  '  he  caused  the  mountain  of  the 
 temple  to  be  fortified  with  strong  walls  and  high  towers, 
 and  placed  therein  a  sufficient  garrison,  both  to  defend 
 it,  and  protect  those  who  went  up  to  worship. 
 
 When  the  neighbouring  nations  came  to  understand 
 that  the  Jews  had  recovered  the  city  and  temple  of  Jeru- 
 salem,and  again  restored  the  worship  of  God  in  that  place, 
 2  they  were  moved  with  such  envy  and  hatred  against 
 them,  that  they  proposed  to  join  with  Antiochus  in  the 
 extirpation  of  the  whole  nation ;  and  accordingly  had 
 put  all  to  death  whom  they  found  sojourning  among 
 them  :  but  Judas  having  first  fortified  Bethzura,  to  be  a 
 barrier  against  the  Idumajans,  who,  at  this  time,  were 
 bitter  enemies  to  the  Jews,  made  war  against  them,  and 
 all  the  other  nations  that  had  confederated  against  him, 
 in  such  a  manner,  and  with  such  success,  as  shall  here- 
 after be  related. 
 
 Antiochus,  in  his  expedition  into  Persia,  was  not  so 
 
 1  Mac.  iv.  60;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  11. 
 *  1  Mac.  v.  1,  &c. 
 
 a  This  festival  is  commemorated  in  the  gospel,  (John  ii.  23.) 
 and  our  blessed  Saviour,  we  are  told,  came  up  to  Jerusalem  on 
 purpose  to  bear  a  part  in  the  solemnizing  of  it.  Some  indeed  are 
 of  opinion,  that  it  was  another  dedication-feast,  which  Christ  thus 
 honoured  with  his  presence:  but  besides  that  the  dedications  both 
 of  Solomon's  and  Zerubbabel's  temples,  who,  though  they  were 
 very  solemnly  celebrated  at  the  first  erection  of  these  temples, 
 had  never  any  anniversary  feast  afterwards  kept  in  commemora- 
 tion of  them,  the  very  history  of  the  gospel,  which  tells  us  that 
 it  was  kept  in  winter,  confines  us  to  this  dedication  of  Judas 
 only.  That  of  Solomon  was  on  the  seventh  month,  which  fell 
 about  the  time  of  the  autumnal  equinox:  and  that  of  Zerubbabel 
 was  on  the  twelfth  month,  which  fell  in  the  beginning  of  the 
 spring ;  but  that  of  Judas  Maccabeus  was  on  the  twenty-fifth  day 
 of  the  ninth  month,  which  fell  in  the  middle  of  winter.  So  that 
 the  feast  of  the  dedication  which  Christ  was  present  at  in  Jeru- 
 salem, was  no  other  than  that  which  was  instituted  by  Judas,  in 
 commemoration  of  his  dedication  of  the  temple  anew,  after  that 
 it  had  been  cleansed  from  idolatrous  pollutions ;  and  from  hence 
 Grotius,  in  his  commentary  on  the  gospel  of  St  John,  (ch.x.22.) 
 very  justly  observes,  that  festival  days,  in  memory  of  public 
 blessings,  may  be  piously  instituted  by  persons  in  authority, 
 without  a  divine  command.  —  Pr/dcin/.c's  Convection,  anno  166. 
 
 b  The  word  sicra,  which  is  of  Greek  original,  signifies  in 
 general  <i  citadel,  in  which  sense  the  Syrians  and  Chaldeans  used 
 it;  but  when  Antiochus  i;ave  orders  for  the  building  of  a  citadel 
 on  the  north  side  of  the  temple  upon  an  eminence,  that  command- 
 ed it,  the  hill  itself  was  called  by  the  name  of  Acra;  which,  ac- 
 cording to  Josephus,  (b.  xii.  c.  7,  and  14.)  was  in  the  form  of  a 
 semicircle.  John  Maccaba-us  took  it  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
 Syrians,  who  there  kept  a  garrison,  and  pulled  down  its  fortifica- 
 tions, and  in  their  room  were  afterwards  built  the  palace  of 
 Helena,  and  that  of  Agrippa,  a  place  where  the  public  records 
 wire  kept,  and  another  where  the  magistrates  of  Jerusalem  as- 
 sembled.—  Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word. 
 
 341.1  MAC.  i-vi.7.  2MAC.iii_x.JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c.  7-b.  xii.  c.  14- 
 successful  as  he  expected  :  for,  3  being  informed  that 
 Elymais,  a  city  in  that  country,  was  an  opulent  place, 
 wherein  stood  the  temple  of  Diana,  c  where  immense 
 riches  were  to  be  found,  he  marched  his  army  thither, 
 with  an  intent  to  plunder  both  it  and  the  temple :  but 
 the  country  round  about,  taking  the  alarm,  joined  with 
 the  inhabitants  in  the  defence  of  the  city  and  temple, 
 and  having  beat  him  off,  they  obliged  him  to  return  to 
 Ecbatan  in  Media,  where,  with  shame  and  confusion, 
 having  received  news  of  the  ill  success  of  his  arms  in 
 Judea,  and  how  the  Jews  had  pulled  down  the  images 
 and  altars  that  he  had  erected,  recovered  their  temple 
 at  Jerusalem,  and  restored  that  place  to  its  former  wor- 
 ship, he  made  all  the  haste  home  he  possibly  could, 
 threatening,  as  he  went  along,  utterly  to  destroy  the 
 whole  nation,  and  make  Jerusalem  the  common  place  of 
 sepulpture  to  all  the  Jews.  But  A  while  these  proud 
 words  were  in  his  mouth,  the  judgments  of  God  overtook 
 him  ;  for  he  was  instantly  seized  with  a  pain  in  his  bowels, 
 and  a  grievous  torment  in  his  inward  parts,  which  no 
 remedy  could  assuage.  Being  resolute  however  in  his 
 revenge,  he  ordered  his  charioteer  to  double  his  speed ; 
 but  in  the  rapid  motion,  the  chariot  was  overturned,  and 
 he  thrown  to  the  ground  with  such  violence,  as  sorely 
 bruised  his  whole  body,  and  mashed,  as  it  were,  his 
 limbs  with  the  fall ;  so  that  being  able  to  travel  no  far- 
 ther, he  was  forced  to  put  in  at  Tabaj,  a  little  town  in 
 the  confines  of  Persia  and  Babylonia,  where  he  suffered 
 most  exquisite  torments  both  of  body  and  mind.  In  his 
 body,  a  filthy  ulcer  broke  out  in  his  privy  parts,  where- 
 in were  bred  an  innumerable  quantity  of  vermin,  con- 
 tinually flowing  from  it,  and  such  a  stench  proceeding 
 from  thence,  as  neither  those  that  attended  him,  nor  even 
 he  himself  could  well  bear  :  and  in  this  condition  he  lay, 
 languishing  and  rotting,  till  he  died.  In  his  mind,  his 
 torments  were  no  less,  by  reason  of  the  several  spectres 
 and  apparitions  of  evil  spirits  which  he  imagined  were 
 continually  about  him,  reproaching  and  stinging  his  con- 
 science with  accusations  of  the  evil  deeds  which  he  had 
 been  guilty  of.     Being  made  sensible  at  length  by  his 
 
 3  I  Mac.  vi.  1,  Sic.' 
 
 *  2  Mac.  ix.  5,  &c. 
 
 c  Other  authors  agree  with  the  account  in  the  first  book  of 
 Maccabees,  that  the  temple  of  Elymais  was  prodigiously  rich; 
 and  both  Polybius  and  Diodorus  Siculus  (as  they  are  cited  by 
 St  Jerome,  on  Dan.  xi.)  mention  this  attempt  of  the  king  of  Syria 
 to  plunder  it.  But  the  manner  in  which  he  came  to  be  disap- 
 pointed, is  related  quite  differently  in  the  second  book  of  Macca- 
 bees. For  therein  we  are  told,  that  when  Antiochus,  pretending 
 that  he  would  marry  the  goddess  of  the  temple,  whose  name 
 was  Nanea,  that  thereby  he  might  have  the  better  title  to  the 
 riches  of  it,  by  way  of  dowry,  was  let  into  the  temple,  to  take 
 possession  of  them,  the  priests  opened  a  secret  door  that  was  in 
 the  ceiling,  and  from  thence  threw  upon  him  and  his  attendants 
 such  a  shower  of  stones  as  quite  overwhelmed  them,  and  so  cut 
 off  their  heads,  and  cast  them  out,  (2  Mac.  i.  13,  &c);  but 
 who  the  goddess  Nanea,  who  had  this  temple  at  Elymais,  was, 
 the  conjectures  of  the  learned  are  various,  since  some  will  have 
 her  to  be  Venus,  and  others  Cybele  the  mother  of  the  gods,  be- 
 cause the  word  in  tl>*  Persian  language  signifies  mother,  though 
 the  most  common  opinion  is,  mat  she  was  Diana,  or  the  moon, 
 the  same  that  Strabo  calls  Anais,  or  Anaitis  ;  for  that  she  was 
 held  to  be  a  virgin  goddess  is  plain,  because  Antiochus  pretended 
 to  espouse  her,  and  that  she  was  a  chaste  goddess,  Plutarch 
 (de  Artaaer*es)  seems  to  intimate,  when  he  tells  us,  that  Arta- 
 xerxes  took  the  beautiful  Aspasia,  with  whom  lie  himself  was 
 in  love,  from  his  son  Darius,  and  devoted  her  to  a  perpetual  vir- 
 ginity, in  the  service  of  Anais,  the  goddess  of  Ecbatan.  —  Col- 
 '   iinmentary  on  I   Mac.  vi.  1. 
 
 5  » 
 
762 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3596.  A.  C.  408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C 
 
 .afflictions,  that  all  his  sufferings  were  from  the  hand  of 
 God,  for  his  plundering  and  profanation  of  his  temple  at 
 Jerusalem,  and  for  his  hatred  and  cruelties  to  his  ser- 
 vants, who  worshipped  there,  l  he  made  an  ample  ac- 
 knowledgment of  this  before  he  died,  and  many  vows 
 and  solemn  promises  of  a  full  reparation,  in  case  he  re- 
 covered. But  his  repentance  "  came  too  late  :  and  there- 
 fore, after  having  languished  out  a  while  in  this  miserable 
 condition,  and  under  these  horrid  torments  of  body  and 
 mind,  at  length,  being  half  consumed  with  the  rottenness 
 of  his  ulcer,  he  gave  up  the  ghost,  and  died,  after  he 
 had  reigned  eleven  years. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Objections  answered. 
 
 Of  what  weight  and  authority  both  the  history  of  the 
 Maccabees,  and  that  of  the  Jews  by  Josephus  ought  to 
 be  accoimted,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  inquire  in  the 
 two  following  chapters,  and  need  only  here  observe,  that 
 what  the  Maccabaean  history  has  recorded  of  Antiochus 
 Epiphanes  is,  in  a  great  measure  confirmed  by  the  testi- 
 mony of  Polybius,  an  exact  historian,  who  was  con- 
 temporary with  him,  and  could  not  therefore  be  at  a  loss 
 for  proper  instructions  in  what  he  wrote,  Epiphanes,  ac- 
 cording to  2  him,  was  a  man  of  great  expense,  and 
 squandered  away  vast  sums  in  the  gratification  of  his 
 lusts  and  amours,  in  the  gifts  he  bestowed  upon  his  fa- 
 vourites, and  the  entertainments  he  made  for  the  people  : 
 but  then  Athenaeus3 informs  us,"  that  all  these  expenses 
 were  made,  partly  out  of  the  gifts  which  his  friends  sent 
 him,  partly  out  of  the  prey  which  he  took  from  Ptolemy 
 king  of  Egypt,  when  he  was  a  minor  ;  but  chiefly  out  of 
 the  spoils  of  the  many  temples  which  he  sacrilegiously 
 robbed." 
 
 4  '  I  was  bountiful,  and  beloved  in  my  power,  and  5  I 
 have  done  great  benefits,'  both  public  and  private,  to  the 
 Jews.  These  were  the  vain  boasts  of  the  dying  tyrant : 
 but  since  the  same  Polybius  6  tells  us,  that  his  distemper 
 so  far  grew  upon  him,  as  to  come  to  a  constant  delirium, 
 or  state  of  madness,  these  expressions,  we  may  suppose, 
 came  from  him,  7  when  he  was  in  that  condition.  For 
 we  know  no  instance  of  his  kindness,  but  many  of  his 
 cruelty  to  the  people  of  God ;  and,  as  to  his  bounty,  as 
 he  calls  it,  this  he  usually  committed  in  his  drunken 
 frolics,  8  in  which  he  spent  a  great  part  of  his  revenues 
 and  used  often  to  go  out  into  the  streets,  and  to  scatter 
 his  money  in  handfuls  among  the  rabble.  We  may 
 therefore  reasonably  suppose,  that  such  a  wild,  crack- 
 
 1  1  Mac.  vi.  12,  13 ;  2  Mac.  ix.  11,  18;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b  xii 
 c.  13. 
 
 -  Deipnosoph.  I.,  vi.  3  Apud  Athenreum,  1).  v. 
 
 1  Mac.  vi.  II.  5  2  Mac.  ix.  26. 
 
 fi  In  the  Extracts  .,!"  Valesius.      "  Camlet's  Commentary. 
 R  Athenfeus,  b.  x. 
 
 a  This  wicked  king  is  an  example  of  all  hardened  sinners, 
 and  false  penitents,  whose  only  motive  of  turning  to  God,  is 
 their  fear,  or  feeling  of  punishment.  The  Maccab:ean  martyrs 
 had  threatened,  or  rather  foretold,  that  '  through  the  judgment 
 of  God,  he  should  receive  a  just  punishment  for  liis  pride,' 
 (2  Mac  vii.  36.),  and,  therefore,  <  when  he  called,  God  would 
 not  answer;'  but,  as  the  royal  penman  expressed,  'laughed  at 
 his  calamity,  and  mocked  when  his  distress  and  anguish  came 
 upon  him,'  Prov.  i.  2Q,  2". 
 
 341.  1  MAC.  i— vi.  7.  2  MAC.  iii     x.  JOS.  HIST.  !>.  xi.  c.  7-b.  xii.  c.  14. 
 
 brained  creature  as  this,  had  seldom  any  serious  thought 
 of  establishing  an  uniformity  in  religion,  though  that 
 religion,  by  the  bye,  was  impious,  in  his  dominions ;  but 
 that,  to  justify  the  depredations  that  he  made  upon  the 
 Jews,  and  to  revenge  the  defeats  which  they  had  so  fre- 
 quently given  to  his  armies,  these  were  the  true  reasons 
 of  his  exasperation  against  them  ;  because  it  is  not  con- 
 ceivable, how  he  could  have  any  sober  sense  of  religion, 
 who,  to  satisfy  his  greedy  avarice,  was  not  afraid  to  rob 
 the  temple  of  Diana. 
 
 This  robbing  of  temples,  in  the  opinion  of  all  sober 
 heathens,  was  accounted  a  crime  of  so  heinous  a  nature 
 as  justly  deserved  the  vengeance  of  heaven  ;  and  there- 
 fore Polybius,  9  as  well  as  the  author  of  the  Maccabees, 
 informs  us,  that  Antiochus,  before  he  died,  was  scared 
 with  visions,  and  apparitions  of  evil  spirits  ;  but  then  he 
 supposes,  that  it  was  the  goddess  Diana,  that  thus  haunted 
 him,  for  his  attempting  to  pillage  her  temple  at  Elymais  ; 
 whereas  he  himself,  in  the  presence  of  all  his  friends, 
 openly  declares,  that  these  troubles  were  come  upon 
 him,  because  10he  '  had  taken  all  the  vessels  of  gold  and 
 silver  that  were  in  Jerusalem,'  and  had  destroyed  '  the 
 inhabitants  of  Judea  without  a  cause.' 
 
 The  sacrilege  at  Elymais  was  only  intended,  not  exe- 
 cuted :  but  that  at  Jerusalem  was  committed,  with  horrid 
 impiety  against  God,  and  as  horrid  cruelty  against  all 
 those  that  served  him  there.  But  even  if  the  former  had 
 been  committed,  it  was  only  against  a  false  deity  ;  where- 
 as the  latter  was  against  the  true  God,  the  great  and  al- 
 mighty Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  :  and  therefore  we 
 need  less  wonder,  that  the  marks  of  a  divine  infliction 
 were  so  visible  in  the  nature  of  his  disease.  Appian  n  and 
 Polybius,  12  as  well  as  Josephus,  and  the  author  of  the 
 books  of  Maccabees,  have  informed  us,  that  he  died  with 
 ulcers,  and  putrefying  sores  in  his  secret  parts  ;  and, 
 upon  this  occasion,  we  cannot  forbear  remarking,  that 
 most  of  the  great  persecutors  of  the  church  of  God  have 
 been  smitten  in  the  like  manner;  that  thus  died  Herod, 
 the  great  persecutor  of  Christ,  and  the  infants  at  Beth- 
 lehem ;  thus  Galerius  Maximianus,  the  author  of  the 
 tenth,  and  greatest,  persecution  against  the  Christians ; 
 and  thus  Philip  the  second,  king  of  Spain,  who  was  as 
 infamous  for  the  cruelty  of  his  persecution,  and  the  num- 
 bers destroyed  by  it,  as  any  of  the  other  three.  13  It  is 
 no  small  confirmation  therefore  of  what  the  Jewish 
 writers  relate  concerning  the  judgments  of  God  upon 
 Antiochus,  that  these  heathen  authors,  whose  credit  is 
 thought  indubitable,  do  agree  with  them  as  to  the  matter 
 of  fact,  though  they  differ  from  them,  in  assigning  a 
 wrong  cause  for  it. 
 
 14  '  If  you  will  walk  in  my  statutes,  and  keep  my  com- 
 mandments, and  do  them,  ye  shall  chase  your  enemies, 
 and  they  shall  fall  before  you :  five  of  you  shall  chase 
 an  hundred,  and  an  hundred  of  you  shall  put  ten  thou- 
 sand to  flight,  and  your  enemies  shall  fall  before  you 
 by  the  sword.'  This  is  the  promise  which  God  made  to 
 the  children  of  Israel,  upon  their  entrance  into  the  land 
 of  Canaan  ;  and,  in  virtue  of  this  promise,  we  find  that 
 their  leader  Joshua  was  so  very  successful,  that,  after  he 
 had  relieved  the  city  of  Gibeon,  destroyed  twelve  kings, 
 
 9  In  the  Extracts  of  Valesius.  in  j  Mac.  vi.  12.  13. 
 
 "  !n  Syriacis.  12  \n  the  Extracts  of  Valesius. 
 
 18  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  164.  14  Lev.  xxvi.  3,  &e. 
 
Sfxt.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,    &c. 
 
 763 
 
 A.  M.  3596.  A.C.4C8;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  S070.  A.  C 
 
 and  made  himself  master  of  their  dominions,  in  one 
 campaign  only,  it  is  said  of  him,  that  l  '  he  returned,  and 
 all  Israel  with  him,  unto  the  (-amp  to  Gilgal ;'  and  there- 
 fore we  need  less  wonder,  that  the  Jews,  who  at  this 
 time  were  under  the  conditions  of  God's  promise,  nay, 
 under  a  state  of  persecution  upon  the  account  of  their 
 religion,  and  were  consequently  the  proper  objects 
 of  his  more  immediate  care  and  compassion,  should 
 come  off  victorious,  even  though  they  were  but  poorly 
 armed,  and  sometimes  without  the  loss  of  one  man,  hav- 
 ing the  Lord  of  hosts  on  their  side,  both  to  inject  terror 
 into  their  enemies,  and  to  '  cover  their  heads  in  the  day 
 of  battle  ;'  but,  even  without  this  supposition  of  a  divine 
 interposal,  might  there  not  be  some  remarkable  difference 
 in  the  soldiers  and  generals  themselves  ? 
 
 Judas  Maccabams,  an  excellent  commander,  bold  and 
 enterprising,  with  a  small  body  of  men,  but  all  deter- 
 mined to  conquer  or  die,  attacks  one  of  no  capacity, 
 with  a  much  larger  army  indeed,  but  made  up  chiefly  of 
 raw  men,  and  forces  levied  in  haste.  He  attacks  him,  I 
 say,  and  defeats  him ;  and  are  not  miracles  of  this  kind 
 very  common  ?  Do  not  both  ancient  and  modern  history 
 furnish  us  with  victories  in  great  abundance  of  this  sort, 
 and  much  more  surprising  than  any  obtained  by  the  Mac- 
 cabees ?  2  The  contempt  of  a  weak  enemy,  whose  forces 
 are  so  disproportionate  to  the  numerous  army  which 
 comes  against  them,  is  one  of  the  greatest  errors,  as 
 well  as  dangers,  that  can  happen  in  war ;  because  in 
 this  case  people  are  less  upon  their  guard,  not  thinking 
 the  enemy  capable  of  daring  to  undertake  any  thing 
 against  them,  until  they  are  surprised  in  their  security; 
 and  an  army  surprised  in  their  camp,  we  know,  is  an 
 army  half  conquered. 
 
 Though  therefore  the  Jews,  under  the  command  of  the 
 gallant  Judas,  were  always  fewest  in  number,  yet,  con- 
 sidering the  boldness  of  their  undertakings,  and  the 
 prudence  of  their  conduct,  their  skill  in  the  military 
 art,  "  and  the  providence  of  God,  which  attended  and 
 prospered  their  arms,  the  wonder  is  not  much,  that  they 
 were,  in  a  manner,  always  superior  to  their  enemies. 
 
 '  There  shall  be  signs  in  the  sun,  and  in  the  moon, 
 and  in  the  stars,'  that  is,  in  the  heavens,  where  they 
 move,  '  and  upon  the  earth  distress  of  nations,  with  per- 
 plexity :'  these  were  the  presages,  which  our  Saviour 
 foretold  ;  and,  accordingly  Josephus  3  informs  us,  that, 
 before  the  last  siege  of  Jerusalem,  there  were  seen  in 
 the  air,  a  little  before  sunset,  for  some  days  together, 
 chariots  and  armed  men,  passing  along  the  clouds, 
 round  about  the  city  ;  "  which  I  would  hardly  venture  to 
 report,"  says  he,  "  but  that  I  can  produce  sundry  eye- 
 witnesses, that  are  still  alive,  to  confirm  the  truth  of  it." 
 Several  accounts  of  this  kind  we  have  in  Livy  and 
 Suetonius  :  and  though  it  must  be  owned,  that  too  great 
 a  credulity  in  some  historians  may  possibly  have  enlarg- 
 ed, or  multiplied  these  prodigies,  yet  we  must  not  there- 
 
 1  Josh.  x.  43.  2  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Bethzur. 
 3  On  the  Jewish  Wars,  b.  vii.  c.  12. 
 a  It  is  indeed  surprising,  that  Polyhius,  an  historian,  in  other 
 things  so  punctual,  and  so  well  acquainted  with  the  ailairs  of 
 Asia,  should  make  no  mention  of  the  Maccabees,  nor  of  the  wars 
 which  they  maintained  with  so  much  glory  against  Antiochus, 
 and  his  successors,  especially  since  lie  describes  the  wars  of  the 
 same  Antiochus,  in  other  respects,  with  all  the  care  and  exact- 
 ness that  can  be  desired. — Calmet'6  Dictionary,  under  the 
 w  'id  Modin. 
 
 341.  1  MAC.  i— vi.  7..  2  MAC.  iii-x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c.  7-b.  xii.  c.  14. 
 
 fore  imagine,  that  there  never  were  any  such  things, 
 because  very  good  reasons  may  be  given  why  God  should 
 exhibit  them  :  and,  as  to  the  phenomena  that  4  are  now 
 under  consideration,  they  certainly  have  all  the  marks 
 of  credibility  in  them  that  we  can  well  desire.  For  they 
 are  related  by  an  author  that  was  contemporary,  or  very 
 near  contemporary,  with  them.  They  were  seen,  not 
 transiently,  and  by  a  few  weak  superstitious  people ; 
 but,  for  forty  days  together,  they  appeared  to  the  view 
 of  a  Avhole  city,  wherein  were  above  an  hundred  thousand 
 inhabitants,  most  of  sound  intellects,  and  some  of  them 
 of  so  little  superstition,  as  to  abandon  the  laws  and 
 customs  of  their  country  for  fear  of  persecution. 
 
 The  Jews  have  a  tradition,  founded  upon  what  we 
 read  in  the  second  book  of  the  Maccabees,  5  namely, 
 that,  some  time  before  the  Babylonish  captivity,  the 
 prophet  Jeremiah  received  instructions  from  God  to 
 hide  the  ark  of  the  covenant  in  a  cave  in  Mount  Nebo, 
 which  accordingly  he  did,  and  at  the  same  time  declared 
 that  the  place  should  not  be  discovered  until  the  people's 
 return  from  their  captivity ;  that,  after  the  people's  re- 
 turn, in  the  time  of  Nehemiah,  this  ark  was  found  out, 
 and  replaced  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  temple  ;  that  when 
 Pompey  6  entered  the  sanctuary,  he  saw  an  ark  and 
 cherubim,  like  those  which  Moses  had  made ;  and  that, 
 some  time  after,  the  same  ark  was  carried  before  Ves- 
 pasian, when,  from  the  Jewish  wars,  he  returned  to 
 Rome  in  triumph. 
 
 Now,  upon  the  supposition  that  there  is  any  truth  in 
 this  tradition,  and  the  ark  of  the  covenant  was  in  fact 
 replaced  in  the  second  temple,  the  history  of  Uzzah  will 
 inform  us  of  what  sacred  account,  in  the  esteem  of  God, 
 this  repository  of  the  divine  covenant  was,  and  how 
 severely  God,  in  his  case,  was  pleased  to  avenge  the 
 least  violation  of  it.  For,  if  the  '  anger  of  the  Lord  was 
 kindled  against  Uzzah,'  so  that  he  smote  him  dead  upon 
 the  spot  '  for  his  rashness  in  taking  hold  of  the  ark,' 
 even  because  he  was  no  priest,  no  descendant  of  the 
 house  of  Aaron ;  why  should  it  be  thought  a  strange 
 thing,  that  God  should  show  some  tokens  of  his  dis- 
 pleasure against  an  heathen  prince,  intruding  into  the 
 place  which  he  had  consecrated  for  his  own  presence 
 and  inhabitation  ?  Or,  if  we  suppose,  that  the  shekinah, 
 or  presence  of  God,  was  not  resident  in  the  second 
 temple  ;  yet  still  the  holy  of  holies  was  reserved  for 
 the  entrance  of  none  but  the  high  priest ;  and  there- 
 fore it  is  no  more  than  what  might  be  expected,  that 
 he,  who,  in  contempt  of  the  divine  command,  and  the 
 remonstrances  of  all  about  him,  would  intrude  into  it, 
 should  meet  with  some  severe  rebuke,  that  thereby  he 
 might  be  convinced  of  the  power  of  the  God  of  Israel, 
 and  of  the  divine  institution  of  their  religion.  And, 
 though  it  be  acknowledged  that  Pompey  met  with  no 
 remarkable  judgment,  in  the  instant  when  he  was  guilty 
 of  the  like  profanation,  yet 7  our  learned  connector  of 
 the  sacred  and  profane  history  has  observed,  that  after 
 this  act  he  never  prospered  ;  that  this  put  an  end  to  all 
 his  successes  ;  insomuch,  that  this,  over  the  Jews,  was 
 the  last  of  his  victories.  So  mindful  has  God  all  along 
 been,  not  to  suffer  the  profaners  of  his  sanctuary  to  go 
 unpunished ! 
 
 *  Calmet's  Commentary.  5  Chap.  ii.  4 — 9. 
 
 '  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 
 
 7  Anno  C4. 
 
764 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.3596.  A.  C.  408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.5070.  A.  C.  341.  1  MAC  i—  vi.7.2  MAC. in— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi  c.7— b.xii.c.H 
 
 The  intended  destruction  of  all  the  Egyptian  Jews  at 
 Alexandria,  in  the  barbarous  manner  wherein  the  author 
 of  the  second  book  of  the  Maccabees  has  related  it,  can 
 hardly  be  thought  an  incredible  thing  to  those  who  have 
 read  in  Philo,  *  the  like,  if  not  worse,  cruelties,  which  the 
 same  people  underwent  in  the  same  town,  in  the  reign 
 of  Caligula,  and  under  the  administration  of  Flaccus. — 
 That  they  were  not  only  driven  from  their  habitations, 
 plundered  of  their  goods,  and  cooped  up  in  a  narrow 
 corner  of  the  city  in  order  to  be  starved  ;  but  that,  if 
 any  attempting  to  make  their  escape  were  apprehended, 
 they  were  either  knocked  on  the  head,  torn  limb  from 
 limb,  or  tortured  to  death,  and  their  dead  bodies  dragged 
 through  the  streets;  and,  if  any  pretended  to  lament 
 them,  they  were  immediately  seized,  whipped  without 
 mercy,  and  having  suffered  all  the  torments  that  cruelty 
 could  invent,  were  condemned  at  last  to  be  crucified  : — 
 That,  without  any  regard  to  sex  or  condition,  without 
 any  respect  to  the  aged,  or  compassion  to  the  young, 
 not  only  whole  families  were  burned  together,  but  some, 
 being  tied  to  stakes,  had  fires  of  green  wood  kindled 
 round  them,  in  order  to  prolong  their  torments,  and  that 
 the  spectators  might  have  the  horrid  pleasure  of  seeing 
 •  lie  poor  creatures  suffocated  in  the  smoke. — That,  on 
 the  very  festival  of  the  emperor's  birth-day,  which  gener- 
 ally lasted  for  some  time,  thirty-eight  of  their  council, 
 persons  of  the  most  distinguished  note  among  them 
 were  bound  like  criminals,  some  with  chains,  and  so 
 dragged  through  the  market-place  to  the  theatre,  and 
 "Were  whipped  so  unmercifully,  that  some  of  them  did 
 not  long  survive  it. — Nay,  that  at  this  time  more  espe- 
 cially, it  was  a  usual  tiling  with  the  people,  when 
 they  came  to  the  theatre,  first  to  entertain  themselves 
 with  scourging,  racking,  and  torturing  the  poor  Jews  at 
 their  pleasure,  and  then,  to  call  for  their  dancers  and 
 players,  and  other  diversions  in  use  among  the  Romans  : 
 whoever  has  read,  I  say,  the  account  of  these  cruelties, 
 as  Philo  has  related  them,  need  not  much  wonder  to  find 
 an  exasperated  prince,  as  Ptolemy  was,  intending  the 
 total  destruction  of  a  people  he  imagined  had  offend- 
 ed him ;  when  a  bare  Roman  prefect,  as  Flaccus  was 
 no  more,  without  any  provocation  that  we  hear  of,  was 
 not  afraid  to  treat  the  same  people  in  this  inhuman 
 manner. 
 
 But  then,  as  to  the  former  case,  if  we  will  allow  the 
 providence  of  God,  and  its  interposition  in  the  occur- 
 rences of  this  world,  we  need  not  want  a  reason,  why  he 
 should  turn  the  elephants,  which  were  designed  to  de- 
 stroy the  innocent,  upon  the  spectators,  who  could  not 
 be  so  ;  because  both  his  justice  and  mercy  seem  to  plead 
 for  the  deliverance  of  those,  whose  only  crime  was  their 
 profession  of  his  true  religion,  and  for  the  punishment  of 
 such  as  came  to  glut  their  eyes  with  the  hellish  pleasure 
 of  seeing  their  fellow  creatures  trampled  to  pieces.  In 
 this  sense,  there  seems  to  be  a  necessary  call  for  a  divine 
 interposition  ;  but,  abstracted  from  this  consideration, 
 the  wonder  is  not  great,  that  creatures  intoxicated,  as 
 these  elephants  are  said  to  have  been,  should  mistake 
 their  objects,  and  fall  foul  upon  those  that  they  were 
 least  of  all  intended  to  destroy. 
 
 There  is  something,  we  confess,  more  wonderful,  in 
 the  appearances  of  angels  mounted,  as  it  were,  on  horse- 
 
 1  Vol.  ii.  p.  52.">,  &c.  i'x  edit.  Mtungi  aua. 
 
 back,  2  heading  the  Jewish  army,  3  protecting  the  Jew- 
 ish general,  and  4  defending  the  sacred  treasures  of  the 
 temple  ;  but  as  we  esteem  these  books  of  the  Maccabees 
 no  part  of  divine  writ,  we  leave  the  proper  defence  of 
 them  to  those  who  have  received  them  as  canonical,  and 
 shall  only  add,  5  with  the  learned  Huetius,  upon  this 
 subject, — That,  how  improbable  soever  these  accounts 
 may  be  thought  by  some,  they  are  not  destitute  of 
 examples  of  the  like  nature  in  several  heathen  histories  ; 
 that,  in  the  battle  which  the  Romans  had  with  the  Latins, 
 at  the  lake  Regillus,  Castor  and  Pollux  were  seen 
 mounted  on  horseback  in  the  Roman  army,  and,  when 
 the  victory  was  wavering,  they  restored  the  fight,  and 
 gained  the  field,  and  carried  the  news  thereof  to  Rome 
 that  very  evening ;  that,  when  the  Romans  invaded  the 
 Lucani  and  Brutii,  Mars,  the  great  founder  of  their 
 nation,  led  their  forces  to  the  onset,  and  assisted  them 
 not  a  little  in  taking  and  destroying  great  numbers  of 
 their  enemies  ;  and,  to  name  no  more,  that,  at  the  battle 
 of  Marathon,  Pan  appeared  on  the  side  of  the  Athenians, 
 made  great  slaughter  among  the  enemy's  army,  and 
 injected  such  a  terror  into  them  all,  as,  from  that  time, 
 it  has  obtained  the  name  of  a  panic  fear. 
 
 Now,  though  there  might  be  a  good  deal  of  fiction  in 
 these  instances,  yet  since  we  find  some  of  the  best  Roman 
 historians  relating  them,  and  so  grave  an  author  as  Tully, 
 even  6  in  some  of  his  most  serious  pieces,  making  mention 
 of  the  first  of  these  as  a  matter  of  just  credibility  ,we  cannot 
 but  suppose,  that  the  common  tradition  at  this  time  was, 
 that,  to  the  victorious  army,  especially  when  it  was  much 
 inferior  in  numbers,  some  celestial  and  superior  beings 
 were  always  assistant ;  and,  consequently,  that  the  author 
 of  the  book  of  the  Maccabees,  in  this  respect,  wrote 
 nothing  but  what  at  that  time  was  the  common  sense  of 
 mankind ;  nothing,  indeed,  but  what  the  sense  of  the 
 royal  psalmist,  in  military  matters,  authorized  him  to 
 write  :  for  7 '  let  them  be  turned  back,'  says  he,  '  and 
 brought  to  confusion,  that  imagine  mischief  against  me  ; 
 let  them  be  as  the  dust  before  the  wind,  and  the  angel  of 
 the  Lord  scatterin"'  them.' 
 
 CHAP.  III.—  Of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim. 
 
 Before  we  proceed  to  examine  into  this  great  national 
 council  among  the  Jews,  which  we  suppose  might  have 
 its  rise  much  about  this  period  of  time,  it  may  not  be 
 improper  to  take  a  short  view  of  the  sundry  forms  of 
 civil  administration  that  Avere  previous  to  it. 
 
 The  government  of  the  Jewish  republic  was  originally 
 divine  :  for,  8  if  we  call  a  state  where  the  people  govern 
 a  democracy,  and  that  where  the  nobles  govern  an 
 asistocracy,  there  is  the  same  reason  why  this  should  be 
 styled  a  theocracy ;  because  God  was  not  only  the  deity 
 they  were  bound  to  worship  and  adore,  but  the  sovereign, 
 likewise,  to  whom  they  were  to  pay  all  the  honours  and 
 rights  that  w  ere  due  to  supreme  majesty.  Their  republic, 
 however,  was  not  completely  settled  until  God  had  given 
 
 2  2  Mac.  xi.  8.         a  Ibid.  ver.  10.         "  Chap.  iii.  25,  &c. 
 
 5  Qusest.  Alnetana,  b.  ii.  c.  12. 
 
 6  Tuscu).  Qnrcst.  b.  i.  et.de  Nat.  Deor.  I>.  ii. 
 
 '  Ps.  mv.  4,  5.  8  Lamy's  Introduction,  b.  i.  c.  11. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c 
 
 765 
 
 A.  M.  3596.  A.  C.  408;  OR,  ACCORDINGTO  HALES,  A.  M.5070.  A.  C. 
 
 them  the  law  from  Mount  Sinai,  when  the  noise  and 
 thunderings  in  which  it  was  delivered  were  so  very  ter- 
 rible, that  1  the  people  requested  of  him  not  to  speak 
 any  more  to  them  himself,  but  to  make  use  of  the  minis- 
 try of  Moses  as  his  interpreter. 
 
 Thus  Moses,  by  the  people's  own  election,  was  ap- 
 pointed to  the  administration  of  all  public  affairs  ;  and, 
 in  this  important  office,  as  the  author  of  the  Hebrews  2 
 testifies  of  him,  acquitted  himself  with  much  faithfulness  : 
 but,  in  a  short  time,  he  found,  that  lie  had  undertaken  a 
 work  of  too  much  labour  and  fatigue  for  any  single  per- 
 son to  sustain  ;  and  therefore,  in  pursuance  of  his  father- 
 in-law's  advice,  he  made  choice  of  some  of  the  most 
 prudent  and  understanding-  men  in  every  tribe,  divided 
 them  into  several  classes,  and  gave  them  names  accord- 
 ing to  the  authority  wherewith  he  invested  them,  or  the 
 number  of  the  persons  over  whom  they  were  to  preside  ; 
 3  '  he  made  them  captains  over  thousands,  and  captains 
 over  hundreds,  and  captains  over  fifties,  and  captains 
 over  tens,  and  officers  among  the  tribes.' 
 
 But  this  establishment  lasted  not  long,  or  at  least  re- 
 ceived some  change  or  addition  to  it.  For,  as  soon  as 
 the  Israelites  were  arrived  at  Kibroth-Hattaavah,  or  the 
 '  graves  of  lust,'  as  the  place  is  called,  but  three  days' 
 journey  from  Mount  Sinai,  4  God  appointed  a  body  of 
 seventy  elders,  to  whom  he  communicated  his  Spirit,  to 
 assist  Moses  in  bearing  the  burden  of  the  people  :  and 
 from  hence  it  is  that  the  defenders  of  the  antiquity  of 
 the  sanhedrim  date  the  first  institution  of  that  great 
 council.  But,  however  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  this 
 council  continued  among  them  all  the  while  that  they 
 sojourned  in  the  wilderness  ;  and  was,  indeed,  5  an  in- 
 stitution proper  enough  for  a  people  in  their  circum- 
 stances, who,  being  all  of  one  community,  could  assem- 
 ble together  with  ease,  and,  having  no  great  matters  in 
 possession,  could  have  but  few  processes,  and,  conse- 
 quently, might  dispense  with  a  lesser  number  of  judges. 
 
 Moses,  however,  foreseeing  that  this  institution  would 
 not  be  sufficient,  when  once  the  people  were  settled  in 
 the  land  of  promise,  G  left  it  as  an  injunction  behind 
 him,  that,  whoever  had  the  government  of  the  nation 
 should  appoint  judges  and  magistrates  in  every  city,  to 
 determine  the  controversies  that  came  before  them  ;  but 
 that,  when  any  thing  of  great  moment,  or  of  difficult 
 discussion,  should  happen,  the  contending  parties  should 
 carry  their  cause  7  '  to  the  place  which  the  Lord  had 
 chosen,'  propose  it  to  '  the  priests,  and  to  the  judge,  that 
 should  be  in  their  days ;'  and,  upon  pain  of  death,  ac- 
 quiesce in  their  decision. 
 
 Moses  was  succeeded  by  Joshua ;  but  his  time  was 
 spent  in  making  a  conquest  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  and, 
 till  he  had  done  that,  he  could  not  put  the  order  which 
 his  predecessor  had  left  him  in  execution.  However, 
 at  his  first  accession  to  the  government,  we  find  that  R  all 
 the  people  promised  the  same  obedience  to  him  that  they 
 had  paid  to  Moses  ;  and  that,  when  himself  grew  old,  '■> 
 '  he  called  for  the  elders  of  Israel,  and  for  their  heads, 
 and  for  their  judges,  and  for  their  officers,'  that  is,  all  the 
 judges  and  magistrates  which  Moses  had  enjoined  him 
 
 1  Exotl.  xx.  19. 
 
 s   Chap.  iii.  2.  3  Deut.  i.  15. 
 
 Num.  xi.  16. 
 
 J  Comet's  Commentary  cm  the  Government  of  the  Hebrew: 
 
 6  Deut.  xvi.  IS.  "  Decit.  xvii.  9.  »  Josh.  i.  ]<j,   17. 
 
 9  Cliau.  xxiv.  1. 
 
 341.1  MAC.  i— vi.  7.  2  M  AC.  iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xi.  c  7-  -b.  xii.  c.  14. 
 
 to  establish  in  the  country,  for  the  security  of  the   state 
 and  administration  of  justice. 
 
 On  this  footing  Joshua  left  the  civil  administration  ; 
 and  thus  it  stood,  till  the  people  revolted  from  the  ser- 
 vice of  God,  and  then  all  things  ran  to  confusion.  In 
 what  manner  the  state  was  governed,  and  justice  dis- 
 pensed during  the  long  succession  of  judges,  it  is  difficult 
 to  determine  :  but,  towards  the  conclusion  of  that  form 
 of  government,  we  find  Samuel  I0  '  going,  from  year  to 
 year,  in  a  circuit  round  the  country,  to  judge  Israel,'  and 
 when  himself  grew  impotent  and  unable  to  travel,  "  mak- 
 ing his  sons  judges  in  his  stead  ;  but  their  mal-adminis- 
 tration  occasioned  an  alteration  in  the  government. 
 
 The  institution  of  regal  power  dissolved  that  polity 
 which  Moses  had  settled  :  but  though  he  both  foreknew 
 and  foretold  this  change  in  the  constitution,  yet  we  no- 
 where find  him  giving  any  particular  directions  how 
 kings  were  to  conduct  themselves  in  the  administration 
 of  the  state,  and  the  dispensation  of  justice  ;  12  whether  it 
 was  that  God  did  not  vouchsafe  to  communicate  any 
 fresh  discovery  to  him  upon  that  subject,  or  whether  he 
 might  think  that  the  rules  which  he  had  already  pre- 
 scribed were  not  incompatible  with  the  authority  and 
 government  of  kings. 
 
 Saul  seems  to  have  concerned  himself  with  nothing 
 but  military  affairs,  leaving  the  priests  and  judges  the 
 same  jurisdiction  that  they  had  before  ;  but  David,  when 
 he  came  into  a  peaceable  possession  of  the  king- 
 dom, 13  did  himself,  in  causes  of  great  consequence  at 
 least,  administer  justice  to  the  people.  The  famous 
 decision  between  the  two  mothers,  u  who  both  laid  their 
 claim  to  the  living  child,  is  a  plain  proof,  that,  in  per- 
 plexed and  intricate  cases,  Solomon  himself  did  some- 
 times the  office  of  a  judge;  and  when  we  read  of  this 
 prince,  that  he  came  to  is  Gibeon,  '  with  the  captains  of 
 thousands  and  of  hundreds,  with  the  judges,  and  the 
 chief  of  the  fathers,'  we  may  learn  from  hence,  that 
 magistrates  of  the  same  kind  that  Moses  had  ordained 
 were  at  this  time  existing  in  the  kingdom  of  Israel. 
 
 By  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes  from  the  house  of  David 
 to  that  of  Jeroboam,  the  civil  constitution  of  the  Jews 
 suffered  very  much  ;  because  the  avowed  purpose  of  that 
 prince  was,  to  change  the  religion,  and  reverse  the 
 orders  which  Moses  had  instituted  :  and,  therefore,  from 
 henceforward,  we  must  look  only  into  the  kingdom  of 
 Judah  for  the  succession  of  the  true  discipline  and  form 
 of  ancient  government  of  the  Jews. 
 
 A\  hen  Jehoshaphat  formed  the  design  of  introducing-  a 
 reformation  both  in  church  and  state,  he  pursued  the 
 rule  which  Moses  had  given  him  ;  for  16  '  he  set  judges 
 in  the  land,  through  all  the  fenced  cities,'  and  in  Jeru- 
 salem the  capital,  erected  two  tribunals  ;  l7  one  composed 
 of  priests  and  Levites,to  hear  appeals  from  lesser  courts 
 relating  to  religious  matters:  and  the  other,  composed 
 of  the  '  chief  of  the  fathers  of  Israel,'  to  hear  such  as  re- 
 lated to  civil.  Nor  is  their  conjecture  much  amiss,  who 
 suppose,  that  the  seventy  men,  whom  ls  Ezekiel  saw  in  a 
 vision,  '  burning  incense  to  idols,'  and  the  '  five  and 
 twenty,'  who,  19  '  between  the  porch  and  the  altar,  were 
 
 111  1  Sam.  vii.  15,  16.  U  Chap,  vii.  1 
 
 12  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Government  of  the  Hebrews. 
 
 13  2  Sam.  xv.  2.        •<  I  Kings  iii.  Hi,  ke.     l3  2  Chron.  i.  2. 
 H  Chap.  xix.  5.  '"  [bid.  ver.  8.  18  Ezek.  viii.  II, 
 
 10  Ibid.  vtr.  16. 
 
766 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3596.  A  C.  418 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C 
 
 worshipping-  the  sun  in  the  east,'  are  the  rather  men- 
 tioned, because  they  were  men  of  eminence,  and  very 
 probably  the  judges  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  matters. 
 
 What  kind  of  judicature  prevailed  in  the  time  of  the 
 captivity,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  From  the  story  of  Susan- 
 nah we  may  learn,  that  in  these  circumstances  the  Jews 
 were  allowed  their  own  courts  and  judges,  even  in  Baby- 
 lon itself;  but  of  what  number,  order,  or  authority  these 
 judges  were,  none  can  tell.  It  is  plain,  however,  that 
 upon  the  restoration  Ezra  returned  with  full  power  from 
 Artaxerxes,  '  '  to  set  magistrates  and  judges  in  all  the 
 land,'  who  might  punish  criminals  according  to  their  de- 
 merit, either  with  death,  or  banishment,  imprisonment, 
 or  confiscation  of  goods :  and  in  this  condition  the 
 Jewish  state  continued,  namely,  in  the  form  of  an  aristo- 
 cracy, with  the  high  priest  at  the  head  of  it,  sometimes 
 under  the  king  of  Egypt,  and  sometimes  under  the  king 
 of  Syria,  for  a  considerable  time  after  the  return  from 
 the  captivity. 
 
 The  persecution  which  Antiochus  Epiphanes  raised 
 among  the  Jews,  ruined  all  the  economy  of  their  go- 
 vernment :  but  Matthias,  and  his  sons,  endeavoured  to 
 restore  2  '  the  decayed  state  of  the  people',  as  it  is 
 ♦•ailed,  as  far  as  those  troublesome  times  would  permit 
 them.  Judas  Maccabams,  in  a  general  assembly  held 
 at  Maspha,  revived  the  ancient  order,  and  appointed 
 rulers  3  '  over  the  people,  even  captains  over  thousands, 
 over  hundreds,  over  fifties,  and  over  tens:'  and  when 
 Jonathan,  his  brother  and  successor,  took  upon  him  both 
 the  sovereign  and  sacerdotal  authority,  he,  nevertheless, 
 governed  by  the  advice  of  a  senate,  not  excluding  the 
 people  from  some  share  in  their  deliberations,  as  ap- 
 pears by  the  letters  4  which  the  Jews,  at  this  time,  sent 
 to  the  Lacedemonians. 
 
 Aristobulus,  who  was  the  first  of  the  Asmonasan  race 
 that  took  upon  him  the  diadem  and  title  of  a  king,  con- 
 tinued the  senate  in  great  authority,  but  excluded  the 
 common  people  from  having  any  part  in  the  administra- 
 tion ;  as  the  kings  who  succeeded  him,  endeavoured  to 
 confirm  their  own  power,  by  curtailing  that  of  the  senate, 
 till  Pompey  came,  and  quite  overturned  the  Jewish  state, 
 by  subjecting  it  to  the  empire,  and  making  Judea  a  Ro- 
 man province. 
 
 From  this  short  review  of  the  Jewish  republic,  we  may 
 perceive,  that  its  form  of  government,  at  different  times, 
 has  been  various  ;  that  Moses  (with  the  concurrence  of 
 seventy  chief  magistrates)  as  God's  vicegerent,  governed 
 the  people  in  an  absolute  manner  ;  that  under  the  judges 
 the  state  had  been  sometimes  without  any  ruler  at  all 
 independent  sometimes,  and,  at  other  times,  under  the 
 jurisdiction  of  its  enemies ;  that  the  ancient  kin^s  of 
 Judah  vouchsafed  to  administer  justice  to  their  subjects, 
 but  that  towards  the  decline  of  the  kingdom,  its  princes 
 affected  state,  and  a  despotic  power ;  that  from  the  cap- 
 tivity to  the  time  of  the  Asmonaeans,  the  government, 
 under  the  high  priest,  was  partly  aristocratical,  and 
 partly  popular ;  and  that  the  Asmomean  kings  made  it 
 monarchical,  till  the  Romans  destroyed  it :  and  so  we 
 proceed  to  consider,  in  which  of  these  periods  the  famous 
 council  of  the  Jews,  which  is  usually  called  their  san- 
 hedrim, might  have  its  rise,  with  some  other  particulars 
 relating  to  its  authority  and  proceedings. 
 
 1  Ezra  vii.  2i>,  26. 
 
 2  I  Mar.  iii    13, 
 '    bid.  xiv    19. 
 
 ?  Ihid.  ver.  55. 
 
 Ml.  I  MAC  i— vi.  7.  2  MAC.  iii— x.JOS.  HIST.b.  xi.  c.  7— b.  xii.  c.  14. 
 
 When  Moses,  in  conducting  the  children  of  Israel 
 through  the  wilderness,  was  teased  and  wearied  out,  as 
 we  say,  with  the  perpetual  complaints  and  murmurings 
 of  that  people,  in  the  impatience  of  his  soul,  he  addressed 
 himself  to  God  in  these  words :  s  '  wherefore  hast  thou 
 afflicted  thy  servant,  that  thou  layest  the  burden  of  all 
 this  people  upon  me  ? — I  am  not  able  to  bear  all  this 
 people  alone,  because  it  is  too  heavy  for  me,'  &c.  Where- 
 upon the  Lord  said  unto  him,  '  Gather  unto  me  seventy 
 men  of  the  elders  of  Israel,  whom  thou  knowest  to  be  the 
 elders  of  the  people,  and  officers  over  them,  and  bring 
 them  unto  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation,  that  they 
 may  stand  there  with  thee ;  and  1  Avill  come  down  and 
 talk  with  thee  there  ;  and  I  will  take  of  the  spirit,  which 
 is  upon  thee,  and  will  put  it  upon  them,  and  they  shall 
 bear  the  burden  with  thee,  that  thou  bear  it  not  thyself 
 alone.'  This  command  Moses  took  care  to  put  in  exe- 
 cution :  the  elders  accordingly  met  at  the  '  tabernacle  of 
 the  congregation,  and  when  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  rested 
 upon  them,  they  prophesied,  and  did  not  cease.'  These 
 words,  as  we  said  before,  are  held  by  the  generality  of 
 the  rabbins,  as  well  as  by  some  Christian  writers,  to  be 
 the  true  origin  of  that  great  sanhedrim,  "  which,  from  its 
 first  institution  here  under  Moses,  subsisted  all  along  in 
 the  Jewish  nation,  even  to  the  time  of  their  utter  disper- 
 sion under  Vespasian,  and  had  the  cognizance  of  all 
 matters  of  the  greatest  moment,  both  civil  and  eccle- 
 siastical." 
 
 But  for  the  better  understanding  of  the  sense  and  de- 
 sign of  them,  we  may  observe,  1st,  that  Moses  does  not 
 here  speak  of  the  difficulty  or  multiplicity  of  business 
 that  was  laid  upon  him,  but  of  the  perverse  temper  of  the 
 people,  always  addicted  to  mutiny  and  sedition,  which  he 
 himself  alone  was  not  able  to  withstand.  To  ease  him- 
 self of  the  labour  of  judging  the  people  in  all  civil  and 
 capital  causes,  he  had,  by  the  advice  of  his  father-in-law, 
 6  appointed  a  certain  number  of  judges,  and  it  seems  not 
 unlikely,  that  some  of  these  seventy  Avere  of  the  number 
 of  these  judges,  because  they  are  called  by  God  himself, 
 '  the  elders  and  officers  of  the  people.'  Moses  wanted 
 no  assistance  therefore  in  the  administration  of  affairs  of 
 this  nature  ;  but  what  he  wanted,  was  a  sufficient  number 
 of  persons  of  such  power  and  authority  among  the  peo- 
 ple, as  might  restrain  them  from  seditious  practices,  and 
 awe  them  into  obedience  ;  and  for  this  reason  it  was, 
 that  God,  when  he  made  choice  of  them,  gave  them  the 
 Spirit  of  prophecy,  as  an  evident  sign  of  his  having  ap- 
 pointed them  coadjutors  to  Moses,  in  the  exercise  of  his 
 supreme  authority,  and  as  a  means  to  procure  them  the 
 greater  reverence  and  esteem  among  the  people. 
 
 2dly,  We  may  observe  farther,  that  it  does  not  appear 
 from  the  foregoing  passage,  that  this  assembly  of  seven- 
 ty persons  was  to  be  perpetuated  in  the  Jewish  state,  and 
 when  any  died,  others  submitted  in  their  room :  on  the 
 contrary  it  rather  seems  to  have  been  an  occasional  in- 
 stitution, or  present  expedient  for  the  relief  of  Moses, 
 that  by  the  addition  of  other  rulers,  (all  endued  with  gifts 
 extraordinary  as  well  as  he,)  the  murmurs  and  complaints 
 of  the  people  might  not  fall  all  upon  him,  but  be  divert- 
 ed, some  of  them  at  least,  upon  others  ;  and  that  by  the 
 joint  influence  of  so  many  persons,  all  possessed  with 
 the  same  spirit  of  government,  they  might  either  hinder 
 
 Num.  xi.  II,  &<_ 
 
 Exud.  xviii.  2i. 
 
Skct.  111. J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 7G7 
 
 A.M.  35&C    A.C.  IK;  OK.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5070.  A.  C.  311.  1  MAC.  i-vi.  7.  2  MAC 
 
 or  appease  them.    And  as  this  was  an  institution  only  for 
 
 that  purpose,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  con- 
 tinued any  longer  than  Moses  lived  ;  because,  if  we  take 
 
 a  view  of  the  history  of  succeeding  ages,  we  shall  find 
 
 no  footsteps  of  it. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Moses,  we  find  Joshua  ruling  the 
 
 people  with  an  absolute  authority  ;  settling  the  portions 
 
 of  the  several  tribes  in  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  dismissing 
 
 those  who  had  assisted  their  brethren  in  the  conquest  of 
 
 it;  receiving  all  appeals,  redressing  all  grievances,  and 
 
 acting,  in  short,  as  the  only  governor   of  the    nation, 
 
 without  one  word  mentioned  of  any  supreme  council  to 
 
 control  him.  After  the  death  of  Joshua,  God  raised  up 
 judges,  men  of  courage  and  wisdom  extraordinary,  to 
 
 deliver  his  people  from  the  oppressions  of  their  enemies, 
 and  to  attend  to  the  administration  of  justice  among  them; 
 and  yet  we  read  of  no  act  or  decree  of  this  pretended 
 sanhedrim  all  this  while,  '  which  could  no  more  have 
 been  omitted  in  the  account  of  these  times,  had  it  been 
 then  existing,  than  the  mention  of  the  Roman  senate  is 
 in  any  of  their  historians. 
 
 "In  those  days,'  as  the  sacred  history  informs  us, 
 '  there  was  no  king  in  Israel,  but  every  man  did  what 
 was  right  in  his  own  eyes  ;'  and  3  where  then  was  this 
 venerable  assembly,  whose  authority,  according  to  the 
 rabbins,  was  superior  to  that  of  princes,  to  interpose  in 
 this  time  of  need  ?  The  Jews  certainly  could  never  have 
 degenerated  into  such  a  state  of  licentiousness,  had  there 
 been  a  court  of  seventy  or  seventy-two  elders,  chosen 
 out  of  every  tribe,  and  invested  with  a  supreme  authority 
 to  punish  criminals,  and  reform  abuses  ;  nor  can  we  see 
 what  reason  the  Levite  had  to  cut  in  pieces  the  body  of  his 
 concubine,  abused  by  the  Gibeonites,  and  to  send  it  to  the 
 several  tribes,  in  demand  of  justice,  if  there  had  been  such 
 a  constant  tribunal,  as  this  is  represented,  to  resort  to. 
 The  kings  who  succeeded  the  judges,  acted  in  such  a 
 manner,  as  to  make  us  believe,  that  there  was  no  such 
 thing  as  a  sanhedrim  then  in  being.  *  They  displaced 
 high  priests  without  opposition  ;  they  waged  war  without 
 advising  with  any  ;  they  made  and  deposed  judges,  as 
 they  pleased  ;  and  in  short  did  every  thing  that  other 
 princes  are  wont  to  do,  without  the  sanhedrim's  ever  in- 
 terposing its  authority,  that  we  read  of,  to  stop  the  course 
 of  their  extravagancies,  or  curb  their  exorbitant  power. 
 Some  of  these  kings,  we  know,  were  for  extinguishing 
 the  true  worship  of  God,  and  establishing  idolatry  in  its 
 stead :  here  then  was  a  proper  opportunity  for  this  ve- 
 nerable body  to  step  in,  by  condemning  idolatry  in  some 
 public  act  of  theirs,  and  opposing  the  innovations  of  the 
 court.  But  of  this  we  hear  not  one  word  ;  neither  do  we 
 find,  that  5  the  prophets,  who  so  severely  inveighed 
 against  the  wickedness  of  the  people,  ever  referred  them 
 to  the  sanhedrim,  or  complained,  that  that  court  was 
 too  remiss  or  negligent  in  the  punishment  of  crimes. 
 
 If  ever  mention  were  to  be  made  of  this  great  coun- 
 cil, it  would  be,  one  would  think,  in  the  books  of  Ezra 
 and  Nehemiali,  which  were  written  after  the  Babylonish 
 captivity,  when  there  was  no  king  in  the  land,  and  con- 
 sequently a  fit  opportunity  for  the  sanhedrim  to  appear  ; 
 and  yet,  even  here,  we  find  several  matters  of  great  mo- 
 
 1  Le  Clerc's  Dissert,  tie  Synedrio.  '2  Judg.  xxi.  25. 
 
 3 Sentiments  of  some  Theologians  on  Critical  History. 
 
 Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Government  of  the  Jews. 
 
 3  Basnago*s  History,  l>  v.  <■.  I. 
 
 -X.  JOS.  [[1ST.  I)    xi.  c.  7— b.  xii.  c.  14. 
 
 ment  transacted,  such  as  the  reformation  of  the  people's 
 manners,  the  dissolution  of  illegal  marriages,  a  stop  put 
 to  the  profanation  of  the  sabbath,  and  a  covenant  of  obe- 
 dience to  God,  made  and  signed  by  the  deputies  of  the 
 priests,  Levites  and  common  people  ;  but  not  one  word 
 of  the  gTeat  sanhedrim  all  this  while. 
 
 In  short,  not  only  the  sacred  writers,  but  even  Jose- 
 phus,  Philo,  Origen,  Eusebius,  and  St  Jerome,  who  were 
 all  well  versed  in  the  ancient  government  of  the  Jews, 
 make  no  manner  of  mention  of  any  such  body  of  men  in 
 the  times  that  we  are  now  upon  ;  and  therefore  we  can- 
 not but  think,  that  this  universal  silence,  in  writers  of  all 
 kinds,  is  a  very  good  argument,  that  this  supreme  na- 
 tional council  did  not  then  subsist.  Its  name  is  confes- 
 sedly of  Greek  derivation  ;  to  which  purpose  Livy  6  ob- 
 serves, that  those  senators  whom  the  Macedonians 
 intrusted  with  the  administration  of  their  government , 
 were  called  synedri :  and  therefore  it  seems  somewhat 
 incongruous  to  look  into  the  first  centuries  of  the  Jewish 
 church  for  the  original  of  a  council,  whose  very  name  is 
 of  later  extract. 
 
 Before  the  times  of  the  gospel,  wherein  frequent  men- 
 tion is  made  of  this  council,  we  find  it  in  so  great  autho- 
 rity, as  even  to  call  Herod,  7  though  then  governor  of 
 Galilee,  upon  his  trial  for  some  misdemeanour  :  and 
 therefore  it  is  no  improbable  conjecture,  that  in  the  time 
 of  the  Maccabees,  either  Judas  or  Jonathan  was  the  first 
 institutor  of  it ;  and  the  reason  they  might  have  for  this  in- 
 stitution, might  be  the  change  which  they  had  made  in  the 
 nature  of  the  government,  for  which  they  wanted  the  con- 
 sent of  the  people,  or  at  least  of  a  body  that  represented 
 them,  that  thereby  they  might  act  with  more  authority  : 
 and  though,  as  yet,  they  did  not  assume  the  title  of  kings, 
 yet  they  thought  it  a  matter  of  prudence  to  have  their 
 resolutions  ratified  by  a  council. 
 
 The  Maccabees,  who,  in  all  probability,  were  the  first 
 institutors  of  this  council,  would  hardly  exclude  them- 
 selves from  it;  and  therefore  we  may  presume,  that  the 
 high  priest  was  the  settled  president,  who,  for  that  rea- 
 son was  called  nasi,  or  prince  of  the  sanhedrim,  and 
 in  his  absence  had  a  deputy  called  ab-betli-din,  or  fa- 
 ther of  the  house  ofjudqment,  and  a  sub-deputy  called 
 chacam,  that  is,  thes  ivie;  but  all  the  rest  had  the  com- 
 mon name  of  elders  or  senators. 
 
 These  senators,  which  are  usually  taken  from  other 
 inferior  courts,  were  to  be  some  priests,  and  some  lay- 
 men, but  all  persons  of  untainted  birth,  good  learning, 
 and  profound  knowledge  in  the  law,  both  written  and 
 traditional.  All  eunuchs,  usurers,  gamesters,  those  that 
 brought  up  pigeons  to  decoy  others  to  their  dove-houses, 
 or  made  any  gain  of  their  fruits  in  the  sabbatical  year, 
 all  old  men,  deformed  persons,  and  such  as  had  no  chil- 
 dren, because  they  were  suspected  of  being  cruel  and 
 hard-hearted,  were  excluded  from  this  council ;  and 
 those  only  who  were  of  mature  age,  competent  fortunes, 
 and  comely  personages,  were  admitted  to  it. 
 
 The  room  in  which  this  council  met,  was  a  rotunda, 
 half  of  which  was  built  without  the  temple,  and  half 
 within.  The  nasi,  or  prince  of  the  council,  sat  upon  a 
 throne  elevated  above  the  rest,  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
 
 6  It  was  decreed  by  the  Macedonian  state,  tliat  senators,  will  m 
 they  name  synedri,  should  he  commissioned  for  the  administra- 
 tion of  the  kingdom. — B.  xlv.  c  .  .'>".'. 
 
 7  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xiv,  c.  17. 
 
'J  68 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII.' 
 
 A.  M  3-59G   A.C.  408;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5070.  A.  C.  341.  1  MAC.i—vi.7.  2  MAC.iii— x.  JOS.  HIST.b.  xi.c  7— b.  xii.  c  14, 
 
 room,  having  his  deputy  on  his  right  hand,  and  his  sub- 
 deputy  on  his  left.  The  senators  were  ranged  in  order 
 on  each  side ;  and  the  secretaries  who  were  to  record 
 the  matters  that  came  before  them,  were  three  ;  whereof 
 one  WTote  the  sentences  of  those  that  were  absolved, 
 the  other  had  the  condemnations  under  his  care,  and  the 
 third  entered  into  their  books  the  several  pleadings  of 
 all  contending  parties. 
 
 The  vanity  and  ridiculous  pride  of  the  rabbins  appear 
 in  nothing  more,  than  in  the  excessive  power  which  they 
 give  to  this  high-court  of  judicature.  For,  according  to 
 them,  it  not  only  decided  such  cases  as  were  brought 
 before  it  by  way  of  appeal  from  other  inferior  courts, 
 but  had  under  its  jurisdiction  likewise  a  the  king,  the 
 high  priest,  and  prophets.  '  The  king,  for  instance,  if 
 he  offended  against  the  law,  if  he  married  above  eighteen 
 wives,  if  he  kept  too  many  horses,  if  he  hoarded  up  too 
 much  gold  or  silver,  the  sanhedrim  had  him  stripped 
 and  whipped  in  their  presence.  But  whipping,  it  seems, 
 among  the  Jews  2  was  not  so  ignominious  a  thing-,  but 
 that  the  king  bore  it  by  way  of  penance,  with  great  pa- 
 tience, and  himself  made  choice  of  the  person  that  was 
 to  exercise  this  discipline  upon  him.  However  this  be, 
 it  is  certain,  that  all  private  controversies  of  difficult 
 discussion,  all  matters  relating  to  religion,  and  all  im- 
 portant affairs  of  state,  were  submitted  to  the  determina- 
 tion of  this  august  assembly,  from  whose  sentence  no 
 appeal  could  be  made,  because  a  demurring  to  the  juris- 
 diction of  their  court  was  punished  by  death,  that  is, 
 while  the  power  of  life  and  death  was  in  their  hands ; 
 but  how  long  this  lasted,  after  that  Judea  became  a  Ro- 
 man province,  has  been  a  matter  of  some  dispute  among 
 the  learned. 
 
 Josephus  3  tells  us  expressly,  that  the  senate  and  em- 
 perors of  Rome  took  no  ancient  rights  from  the  nations 
 whom  they  conquered  ;  and  by  the  words  of  Pilate  con- 
 cerning our  Saviour  Christ,  4 '  Take  ye  him  and  judge 
 him  according  to  your  law,'  it  seems,  as  though  they 
 still  retained  their  power,  though  perhap  s  it  might  be 
 under  some  limitations. 
 
 Upon  St  Peter's  5  speech  before  the  great  council,  we 
 find  them  so  exasperated  against  the  apostles,  that  they 
 began  to  think  of  putting  them  all  to  death,  and  might, 
 very  probably,  have  proceeded  in  their  design,  had  they 
 not  been  dissuaded  from  it  by  the  wise  advice  of  Gama- 
 liel. The  stoning  of  St  Stephen  was  not  the  effect  of  any 
 hasty  judgment  of  some  zealots,  but  of  the  regular  pro- 
 ceedings of  this  court.  He  6 '  was  brought  before  the 
 council,'  we  read  ;  false  witnesses  accusing  him  of  blas- 
 phemy were  produced  against  him  ;  in  his  own  defence, 
 he  made  a  long  discourse  ;  but  his  own  defence  was  not 
 admitted,  nor  his  innocence  acknowledged  ;  and  there - 
 
 1  Calmet's  Dissertation  on  the  Government  of  the  Hebrews. 
 
 2  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Sanhedrim. 
 
 3  Against  Apion.  Jewish  Antiq.  book  ii.  c.  17. 
 
 4  John  xviii.  31.       6  Acts  v.  29,  &c.        6  Acts  vi.  22,  &c. 
 
 a  This  is  directly  the  opinion  of  Maimonides,  (in  Sanhed. 
 per.  2,  3.),  but  that  learned  rabbi  was  strangely  prejudiced  in 
 favour  of  this  great  council  ;  and  though  Josephus  is  of  the  same 
 opinion,  yet  to  allow  such  an  extent  of  jurisdiction  to  this  court, 
 so  as  to  indict  corporal  punishment  upon  the  persons  of  their 
 kings,  is  contrary  to  the  general  notions  of  sovereignty,  and  the 
 laws  of  all  kingdoms  and  nations  j  besides  that  the  Holy  Scrip- 
 tures are  absolutely  silent  in  this  particular,  and  nothing  can  be 
 inferred  from  them,  to  countenance  such  a  coercive  power. — 
 Lewis's  Hebrew  Audi],  vol.  i.  c.  6. 
 
 fore  they  sentenced  him  to  be  stoned  'according  to  the 
 law. 
 
 St  Paul  himself  declares  before  this  very  court,  that 
 before  his  conversion  to  Christianity,  8  he  '  persecuted 
 those  of  that  way'  unto  death,  and  '  received  letters  from 
 the  estates  of  the  elders,'  or  the  sanhedrim,  to  bring 
 '  Christians  from  Damascus  to  Jerusalem  in  bonds,  in 
 order  to  be  punished.'  Tertullus,  avIio,  in  the  trial  of  this 
 apostle,  was  council  for  the  sanhedrim,  9  tells  Felix,  the 
 governor  of  Judea,  that  having  apprehended  the  criminal 
 at  the  bar,  they  thought  to  have  proceeded  against  him 
 '  according  to  their  law  ;  but  that  the  chief  captain,  Ly- 
 sias,  came  upon  them,  and  took  him  out  of  their  hands.' 
 
 The  true  reason  why  Lysias  exerted  his  power  upon 
 this  occasion,  and  took  him  out  of  their  hands,  was,  be- 
 cause they  had  accused  him,  not  only  of  blasphemy,  and 
 profanation  of  their  temple,  but  of  sedition  likewise, 
 which  was  a  crime  falling  more  properly  under  the  cog- 
 nizance of  the  civil  government,  and  for  which  Paul  was 
 therefore  brought  before  Felix,  Festus,  and  Agrippa. 
 10  So  that  from  an  examination  of  these  particulars,  where- 
 in the  power  of  the  sanhedrim  was  concerned,  Ave  may 
 conclude,  that  even  after  the  subjection  of  the  Jewish 
 state  to  the  Roman  empire,  this  sanhedrim  had  the 
 power  of  life  and  death  in  crimes  committed  against  their 
 own  law ;  but  that  in  matters  of  sedition,  and  crimes 
 committed  against  the  civil  administration,  the  Roman 
 governors  interposed  their  authority,  and  in  cases  of  this 
 nature  took  the  dispenscition  of  justice  out  of  their  hands. 
 
 11  What  formality  was  observed  in  bringing  a  lawsuit 
 before  the  sanhedrim,  Maimonides  has  in  this  manner 
 described  : — "  The  business,"  says  he,  "  was  first  to  be 
 examined  in  the  inferior  courts ;  but  if  it  could  not  be 
 decided  there,  the  judges  sent  to  Jerusalem  to  consult 
 the  judgment-chamber,  that  sat  upon  the  mount  of  the 
 temple.  From  this  first  tribunal  they  proceeded  to  that 
 which  sat  at  the  temple  gate  ;  and  if  the  matter  was  not 
 determined  there,  they  came  at  last  to  the  great  council 
 chamber,  which  was  held  in  one  of  the  apartments  be- 
 longing to  the  temple  ;  and  this  last  council  determined 
 with  so  much  justice  and  authority,  that  there  were  no 
 divisions  seen,  during  all  the  time  that  the  second  temple 
 lasted."  And  what  caution  was  taken,  in  passing  the 
 sentence  of  death  upon  criminals,  by  the  same  tribunal, 
 the  Jewish  doctors  (if  we  will  believe  them)  have  thus 
 informed  us. — "  After  the  witnesses  were  heard,  and  the 
 matter  in  question  decided,  the  judge  putofTthe  sentence 
 till  next  morning.  Hereupon  the  sanhedrim  went  home, 
 eat  but  little,  drank  no  wine,  and  then  met  again,  two 
 by  two,  in  order  to  weigh  all  the  particulars  of  the  trial. 
 The  next  morning,  he  that  had  given  his  opinion  for 
 condemning  of  the  criminal,  had  power  to  revoke  it ;  but 
 he  who  had  once  given  it  for  absolving  him,  could  not 
 alter  his  mind.  As  soon  as  the  judge  had  pronounced 
 sentence,  the  malefactor  was  conducted  to  the  place  of 
 execution,  while  an  herald,  on  horseback,  proclaimed, 
 as  he  went  along,  '  such  an  one  is  condemned  for  such 
 a  crime  :  but  if  any  body  can  allege  any  thing  in  his 
 behalf,  let  him  speak.'  If  it  happened  that  any  one 
 came  to  the  gate  of  the  court,  the  door-keeper  made  a 
 sign  to  the  herald  to  bring  back  the  malefactor,  while 
 
 7  Deut.  xvii.  7.     8  Acts  xxii.  4,  &c.      9  Chap.  xxiv.  6.  7. 
 
 10  See  Beausobre  and  L'enfant's  Gen.  Pref.  to  the  New  Test. 
 
 11  BaJsnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  5.  c.  2. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 769 
 
 A.M.3841.A.C163;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.5247.A.C.164.1 
 
 two  judges  were  appointed  to  receive  what  his  friend  had 
 to  say  in  his  favour,  and  to  consider  whether  there  was 
 any  thing  material  in  it. 
 
 These  formalities  are  indeed  related  in  the  Mishneh  ; 
 but  it  is  much  to  be  questioned,  whether  they  were  not 
 invented  since,  on  purpose  to  recommend  the  justice  and 
 equity  of  the  ancient  Jewish  tribunals.  For,  besides 
 that  no  other  nation  did  ever  yet  observe  such  favourable 
 proceedings,  in  relation  to  those  that  were  found  guilty, 
 there  is  not  the  least  mention  of  any  thing  of  this  kind 
 in  the  sacred  history  ;  and  in  the  Talmud  itself  we  meet 
 with  maxims  and  matter  of  fact  quite  contrary  to  it. 
 For  1  therein  we  are  told,  that  though  a  prisoner  declare 
 upon  oath,  at  the  place  of  execution,  that  he  was  inno- 
 cent, and  in  confirmation  of  this  the  false  witnesses  re- 
 canted ;  yet  the  judges  took  no  notice  of  their  retraction, 
 but  only  said,  "Let  the  false  witnesses  perish;  but  a 
 judge  cannot  recall  his  sentence,  when  once  it  is  pro- 
 nounced." 
 
 Upon  the  whole  therefore  we  may  observe,  that  what 
 the  Jewish  doctors  tell  us  of  the  origin  and  succession, 
 the  authority  and  proceedings  of  their  sanhedrim,  is  in 
 a  great  measure  fabulous ;  that  the  council  of  seventy 
 men,  which  God  instituted  in  the  wilderness,  was  de- 
 signed only  to  serve  a  particular  purpose,  and  was  there- 
 fore of  short  continuance  in  the  Jewish  state  ;  that  from 
 the  time  of  Joshua  till  after  the  return  from  the  Baby- 
 lonish captivity,  there  are  no  footsteps  to  be  found,  either 
 in  sacred  or  profane  history,  of  such  an  assembly,  as  the 
 rabbins  represent  their  sanhedrim  to  have  been  ;  but 
 that  in  the  times  of  the  Maccabees  we  read  of  the  senate 
 of  the  nation,  which,  under  the  Asmonsean  princes,  grew 
 into  great  power,  and  in  the  days  of  our  Saviour's  min- 
 istry, had  matters  of  the  highest  consequence  committed 
 to  their  determination ;  till  in  the  final  destruction  of 
 Jerusalem,  and  the  dispersion  of  the  Jewish  nation,  the 
 very  name  and  authority  of  that  senate  was  entirely  lost. 
 
 SECT.    IV. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — From  the  Death  of  Anliochus  Epiphanes, 
 to  that  of  John  Hyrcanus. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes, s  his  son  Anti- 
 ochus  Eupator,  a  minor,  nine  years  old,  succeeded  in  the 
 throne  of  Syria.  His  father,  upon  his  death-bed,  had 
 constituted  Philip,  one  of  his  chief  favourites,  regent  of 
 the  kingdom,  during  the  minority  of  his  son,  and  had 
 delivered  to  him  his  crown,  his  signet,  and  other  ensigns 
 of  royalty,  giving-  him  strict  charge  to  educate  him  in 
 such  a  manner  as  would  quality  him  to  reign  well;  but 
 Philip,  when  he  came  to  Antioch,  found  his  office  usurped 
 by  another.  For  Lysias,  who  in  the  king's  absence  was 
 left  governor  in  chief,  hearing  of  the  death  of  Epiphanes, 
 tookAntiochus  his  son,  who  was  then  under  his  care,  and, 
 having  placed  him  on  the  throne,  assumed  to  himself  the 
 tuition  of  his  person,  and  the  government  of  his  kingdom, 
 without  any  manner  of  regard  to  the  will  and  appoint- 
 ment of  the  late  king :   and  Philip,  finding  himself  too 
 
 i  El  G.-mara,  tit.  Sanhed.  c.  6.  f.  4. 
 2  1  Mac.  vi.  17:  2  Mac.  x.  10, 11 ;  Joseph.  Antio.b.  12.  c.  14. 
 
 MAC.v.l.  JOS.IIIST.b.  xii.o.14—  END  of  MAC.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.t-.I9. 
 
 weak  at  present  to  contest  it  with  him,  fled  into  Egypt, 
 in  hopes  of  procuring-  some  assistance  there,  which 
 would  enable  him  at  one  time  or  other  to  make  good  his 
 claim. 
 
 3  Not  long  after  the  death  of  Epiphanes,  Judas  Mac- 
 cabants,  hearing  of  the  confederacy  which  the  neighbour- 
 ing nations  were  engaged  in,  namely,  to  destroy  and 
 extirpate  the  whole  race  of  Israel,  and  that  they  had 
 already  begun  to  cut  oft*  as  many  as  were  within  their 
 power,  4  marched  first  against  the  Idunueans,  who  were 
 the  forwardest  in  the  conspiracy,  and  having  fallen  into 
 that  part  of  their  country  which  was  called  Acrabatene,  a 
 he  there  slew  twenty  thousand  of  them.  He  next  fell 
 upon5  the  children  of  Bean,*  another  tribe  of  these 
 Idumaeans,  and  having  vanquished  them  in  the  field, 
 pursued  them  to  their  fortresses,  which  he  besieged,  took, 
 and  therein  slew  twenty  thousand  more.  He  then  pas- 
 sed over  the  Jordan  into  the  land  of  the  Ammonites, 
 wherein  he  defeated  them  in  several  engagements  ;  slew 
 great  numbers  of  them  ;  took  Jahazah,  c  and  its  appen- 
 dant villages ;  and  after  his  return  to  Judea,  when  Ti- 
 motheus,  the  governor  in  those  parts,  pretended  to  follow 
 him  with  a  numerous  army,  he  fell  upon  him,  and  over- 
 threw him  with  a  great  slaughter,  so  that  himself  was 
 forced  to  fly  to  Gazara,  a  city  in  the  tribe  of  Ephrahu, 
 where  his  brother  Chereas  was  governor :  but  Judas, 
 pursuing  him  thither,  beset  the  place,  took  it  in  five  days, 
 and  there  slew  Chereas,  Timotheus,  and  Apollophanes, 
 another  great  captain  of  the  Syrian  forces. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  heathen  nations  about  Galaad 
 6  had  fallen  upon  the  Jews  that  dwelt  in  the  land  of 
 Tob,  which  lay  on  the  east  of  Gilead  ;  had  slain  to  the 
 number  of  a  thousand  men  ;  taken  their  goods  for  a  spoil ; 
 and  carried  away  their  wives  and  children  into  captivity  : 
 whereupon  most  of  the  other  Jews  inhabiting  those  parts 
 betook  themselves  to  a  strong  fortress  in  Gilead,  called 
 Dathema,  with  a  resolution  to  defend  themselves.  This 
 when  the  heathens  understood  they  drew  together,  in  a 
 great  body,  under  the  command  of  Timotheus,  the  suc- 
 cessor, and  (very  probably)  the  son,  of  the  late  Timo- 
 theus, who  was  slain  at  Gazara,  in  order  to  besiege  them, 
 while  the  inhabitants  of  Tyre,  Sidon,  Ptolemais,  and 
 other  parts  thereabout,  were  laying  their  schemes  to  cut 
 oft* all  the  Jews  that  were  in  Galilee  ;  so  that  Judas  was 
 sent  to,  both  from  Gilead  and  Galilee,  to  come  to  the 
 succour  and  assistance  of  his  poor  distressed  countrymen. 
 7  In  this  critical  juncture  of  affairs  lie  consulted  the 
 sanhedrim,  or  general  council  of  the  nation;  and,  by 
 their  advice,  divided  his  army  into  three  parts.  With 
 the  first,  which  consisted  of  eight  thousand  men,  he,  and 
 
 31  Mac.  v.  1,  &c.     42  Mac.  x.  14,  15.      '•>  1  Mac.  v.  4,  5 
 6  1  Mac.  v.  !>— IS.  7  Ibid.  ver.  16,  17. 
 
 a  It  is  a  canton  of  Judca,  upon  the  frontiers  of  ldumtca,  to- 
 wards the  southern  extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea. 
 
 b  Who  these  children  (if  Bean  were,  it  is  difficult  to  say. 
 Some  think,  that  this  Bean  was  the  name  of  an  ancient  king, 
 whose  descendants  livid  in  hostility  with  the  children  of  Israel  ; 
 hut  others  (with  more  probability)  account  it  the  name  of  a  place  ; 
 and  if  in  the  confines  of  the  Dead  Sea  there  was,  as  some  affirm,  a 
 city  of  this  name,  without  all  controversy  this  was  it. — Calmet's 
 Commentary  on  1  Mac.  v.  4. 
 
 c  This  city,  which  lay  beyond  the  Jordan,  was  first  of  all 
 given  to  the  tribe  of  Gad,  and  afterwards  to  the  Levites,  Josh. 
 xxi.  ."fi.  It  was  situated  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  of  Gilead, 
 near  the  brook  Jazah,  which  forms  a  rivulet  or  torrent,  that  falls 
 into  the  Jordan. 
 
 5  K 
 
770 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  DIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.M.3Stl.A.C.ir>3;  OH,  ACCOKDING  TO  H  ALES,  A.M.5247.  A.C.  1C1.1 
 
 Jonathan  his  brother,  marched  for  the  relief  of  the  Gilcad- 
 ites :  with  the  second,  consisting  of  three  thousand,  Si- 
 mon, another  of  his  brothers,  was  sent  into  Galilee  ;  and 
 the  rest  were  left  at  Jerusalem,  under  the  command  of 
 Joseph,  for  the  defence  of  the  place,  and  the  country 
 adjacent,  but  with  a  strict  charge  from  Judas,  not  to  en- 
 terprise any  thing  against  the  enemy,  but  to  stand  wholly 
 upon  the  defensive,  until  he  and  Simon  should  return 
 again. 
 
 1  Judas  and  Jonathan  passing  the  Jordan,  and  march- 
 ing into  Gilead,  had  intelligence,  that,  at  Bassora,  a 
 town  of  the  Edomites,  a  great  number  of  Jews  were  im- 
 prisoned, in  order  to  be  destroyed,  as  soon  as  Dathema 
 was  taken  :  whereupon,  by  hasty  inarches,  they  came 
 upon  the  city  sooner  than  was  expected,  and,  having  slain 
 all  the  males,  taken  their  spoils,  and  freed  their  brethren, 
 they  set  it  on  fire,  and  so  proceeded  on  their  way  to 
 Dathema.  On  the  morning,  when  they  arrived,  (for  they 
 marched  all  night,)  Timotheus  and  his  men  had  begun 
 to  storm  the  place ;  but  Judas,  coming  upon  them  when 
 they  Fittle  expected  so  sudden  and  violent  an  assault, 
 put  them  all  to  the  rout,  and,  in  the  pursuit,  slew  eight 
 thousand  of  them.  He  thence  marched  his  army  from 
 place  to  place,  where  he  understood  that  any  Jews  were 
 oppressed  or  imprisoned ;  and  having  treated  them  in 
 the  same  manner  as  he  did  Bassora,  slain  all  the  males, 
 taken  their  spoils,  and  set  their  cities  on  lire,  he  returned 
 to  Jerusalem. 
 
 While  Judas  and  his  brother  Jonathan  were  thus  suc- 
 cessful in  Gilead,  the  other  brother  Simon  was  not  idle 
 in  Galilee.  For  he  defeated  the  enemy  ~  in  several  en- 
 counters, drove  them  out  of  the  country,  and  pursued 
 them,  with  a  great  slaughter,  to  the  very  gates  of  Ftole- 
 mais:  and,  being  now  ready  to  return,  he  took  along 
 with  him  all  the  Jews,  men,  women,  and  children,  that 
 he  could  find  in  those  parts,  because  he  thought  them  too 
 far  distant  from  Jerusalem  to  be  under  the  eye  and  pro- 
 tection of  their  brethren  ;  and,  having  brought  them  safe 
 into  Judea,  with  them  he  repeopled  these  places  which 
 had  been  desolated  by  the  enemy,  during  the  persecution 
 of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 
 
 3  Joseph,  who,  with  the  remainder  of  the  armv,  was 
 left  in  Jerusalem,  hearing  of  these  great  successes  in 
 Gilead  and  Galilee,  would  needs  be  doing  something; 
 and  therefore,  contrary  to  the  orders  that  had  been  jyiven 
 him,  led  forth  the  forces  on  an  ill-projected  expedition 
 against  Jamnia,  a  seaport  on  the  Mediterranean,  think- 
 ing to  take  the  place  :  but  GrOrgias,  who  commanded  in 
 those  parts  for  the  king  of  Syria,  fell  upon  Joseph's 
 army,  put  them  to  flight,  and,  in  the  pursuit,  slew  about 
 two  thousand  of  them  ;  which  rash  attempt  ended  in  the 
 confusion  of  those  that  undertook  it ;  for  Judas  had  given 
 contrary  orders,  and  by  his  wise  conduct,  and  undaunted 
 bravery,  was  every  where  attended  with  success. 
 
 Enraged  at  these  successes,  Lysias,  *  who  was  com- 
 mander-in-chief of  the  Syrian  forces,  having  raised  an 
 army  of  eighty  thousand  men,  marched  against  Judas, 
 with  all  the  horse  of  the  kingdom,  and  eighty  elephants  ; 
 and  coming  to  Bethzura,  thought  it  necessary  to  take 
 that  place  in  his  way;  but  while  he  was  besieging  it, 
 Judas  came  upon  him,  and  having  slain  eleven  thousand 
 
 MAC.  v.  I  JOS.HIST.b.  xii.c.  14-endof  MAC.  JOS.  HIST,  b.xiii.c.  19. 
 
 foot,  and  sixteen  hundred  horse,  put  the  rest  of  his  army 
 to  flight :  so  that  Lysias,  who  with  much  ado  escaped  to 
 Antioch,  growing  weary  of  so  unprosperous  a  war,  and  not 
 knowing  where  to  raise  fresh  recruits,  made  a  peace  with 
 Judas  and  his  people,  whereby  the  decree  of  Antiochus 
 Epiphanes,  obliging  them  to  conform  to  the  religion  of 
 the  Greeks,  was  rescinded,  and  a  liberty  granted  them 
 to  live  according  to  their  own  laws. 
 
 This  peace  was  ratified  by  Antiochus  Eupator,  but  it 
 did  not  last  long,  5  because  the  governors  of  the  several 
 neighbouring  places  did  not  like  it.  The  people  of 
 Joppa  were  the  first  that  broke  it,  by  drowning  in  the  sea 
 two  hundred  of  the  Jews,  who  lived  among  them  in  that 
 city  ;  but  Judas  severely  revenged  their  cruelty :  for, 
 falling  upon  them  by  night,  he  burned  their  shipping,  put 
 all  to  the  sword  that  had  escaped  the  fire,  and  then  hear- 
 ing that  the  people  of  Jamnia  had  but  badly  treated  the 
 Jews,  he  set  fire  to  that  haven  likewise,  and  burned  all 
 the  ships  in  it. 
 
 Timotheus  was  one  of  the  governors  that  was  dissatis- 
 fied with  the  peace  ;  and  therefore,  when  Judas  under- 
 stood that  he  had  drawn  all  his  forces  together,  6  to  the 
 number  of  an  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  foot,  and  two 
 thousand  five  hundred  horse  ;  and  that  he  was  going  to 
 give  the  Jews  in  Gilead  fresh  vexations,  he  marched 
 against  him  ;  and,  having  defeated  a  strong  party  of  wan- 
 dering Arabs  a  in  his  way,  and  made  peace  with  them, 
 he  first  took  the  city  of  Caspis,  b  slew  the  inhabitants, 
 and  destroyed  the  place ;  then  attacked  Caraca,  which 
 was  garrisoned  with  ten  thousand  men,  whom  he  put  to 
 the  sword;  and,  at  last,  coming  up  with  Timotheus, 
 near  a  place  called  Raphon,  on  the  river  Jabboc,  he 
 there  gave  him  battle,  slew  of  his  army  thirty  thousand 
 men,  and 7  took  him  prisoner  ;  but,  upon  condition  that  he 
 should  release  all  the  Jews  that  were  captives  in  any 
 places  under  his  command,  he  gave  him  both  his  life  and 
 his  liberty.  Understanding,  however,  that  a  great  part 
 of  the  vanquished  army  had  fled  to  Carnion,  a  city  in 
 Arabia,  he  pursued  them  thither,  and  having  taken  the 
 place,  slew  twenty-five  thousand  more  of  Timotheus's 
 forces,  that  had  there  taken  refuge. 
 
 In  his  return  to  Jerusalem,  he  took  along  with  him 
 all  the  Jews  that  were  in  the  land  of  Gilead,  for  the 
 same  reason  that  Simon  had  carried  them  out  of  the 
 land  of  Galilee  the  year  before,  namely,  to  inhabit  and 
 fortify  the  cities  of  Judea,  which  were  not  sufficiently 
 peopled  :  8  but  being  in  his  way  to  pass  through  Ephron,  c 
 
 Mac  v.  21,  8tc. 
 Ibid.  ver.  5"i,  &e. 
 
 2  Ibid,  ver.  21,  &c. 
 4  2  Mac.  xi.  1,  &c. 
 
 5  2  Mac.  xii.  2,  &c.  6  I  Mac.  v.  37,  &c;  2  Mac.  xii.  20—23. 
 1  2  Mac.  xi.  24,  25. 
 8  1  Mac.  v.  40,  &c. ;  2  Mac.  xii.  21,  28. 
 
 a  These  people  lived  in  tents,  and  stayed  in  a  place  no  longer 
 than  it  afforded  them  provision  for  themselves  and  their  cattle. 
 They  were  the  descendants  of  Ishmael,  and  according  to  the 
 angel's  prediction  of  them  (Gen.  xvi.  12.)  'their  hand  was  against 
 every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against  them:'  for  they  lived 
 chiefly  upon  plunder;  but  as  they  were  a  stout  and  warlike  peo- 
 ple, and  well  acquainted  with  the  course  of  those  countries,  it 
 was  no  bad  policy  in  the  Jewish  general,  after  he  had  forced  them 
 to  sue  for  peace,  and  had  obliged  them  to  furnish  him  with  a 
 certain  quantity  of  cattle  and  provisions,  to  secure  their  friend- 
 ship and  future  services. — 2  Mac.  xii.  11;  Universal  History, 
 b.  2.  c.  11. 
 
 fi  This  is  the  same  as  Hesbon,  in  the  tribe  of  Reuben. 
 
 c  The  Scripture  makes  mention  of  this  city  of  Ephron,  as 
 standing  upon  the  Jordan,  only  in  this  place;  and  therefore  it  is 
 hard  to  define  its  particular  situation. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &e. 
 
 771 
 
 A.  M.3841.A.C.163;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5247.A.C.164. 
 
 S  strong  city,  and  well  garrisoned  by  Lysias,  the  people 
 refused  to  open  their  gates  ;  whereupon  he  assaulted  the 
 place,  and,  having  taken  it  by  storm,  put  all  the  males, 
 to  the  number  of  twenty-five  thousand  persons,  to  the 
 sword,  took  their  spoils,  and  razed  the  city  to  the  ground. 
 After  this,  repassing  Jordan,  and  returning  to  Jerusa- 
 lem, 1  he  and  his  company  went  up  to  the  temple,  to  give 
 God  thanks  for  the  great  success  wherewith  he  had  been 
 pleased  to  prosper  this  expedition,  and  for  his  singular 
 and  wonderful  protection  of  them,  in  that,  notwithstand- 
 ing all  the  hazardous  enterprises  they  had  been  engaged 
 in,  they  had  not  so  much  as  lost  one  man. 
 
 This  continued  series  of  success  gave  Judas  2  encou- 
 ragement to  carry  the  war  into  the  southern  parts  of  Idu- 
 iiKi-a,  where  lie  took  and  dismantled  Hebron,  the  metro- 
 polis thereof:  and  thence  passing  into  the  laud  of  the 
 Philistines,  took  Azotus,  formerly  called  Ashdod  ;  pulled 
 down  their  heathen  altars,  burned  their  carved  images, 
 and  spoiled  the  place  ;  and  having  done  the  like  to  all 
 the  other  cities  of  that  country,  where  he  prevailed,  he 
 led  his  victorious  army,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  their 
 enemies,  back  again  to  Judea. 
 
 But,  notwithstanding  all  these  successes,  the  Jews 
 could  not  call  themselves  entirely  masters  of  Jerusalem. 
 The  fortress  of  Acra  still  held  out  for  the  king  of  Syria, 
 and  the  garrison,  consisting  of  Macedonians  and  rene- 
 gado  Jews,  was  very  troublesome  to  such  as  resorted  to 
 the  temple.  Judas  therefore  thought  it  highly  necessary 
 to  attempt  the  reduction  of  the  place ;  and  having  got 
 engines  a  and  machines  for  that  purpose,  he  soon  strait- 
 ened the  garrison.  The  besieged,  however,  found  means 
 to  acquaint  king  Antiochus  with  their  distress,  who  pro- 
 mised to  relieve  them,  and,  for  that  end,  gathered  an 
 army  of  an  hundred  and  ten  thousand  foot,  twenty  thou- 
 sand horse,  thirty-two  elephants,  with  castles  on  their 
 backs  full  of  archers,  and  three  hundred  armed  chariots 
 of  Avar.  With  all  this  force,  Antiochus,  marching  to  the 
 relief  of  the  fortress  of  Jerusalem,  passed  through  Idu- 
 ni.ia,  where,  in  his  way,  he  laid  siege  to  Bethzura,  which 
 made  a  brave  defence;  for  the  inhabitants,  by  bold  sal- 
 lies, so  burned  and  disordered  his  engines,  that  he  spent 
 much  time  about  it  to  no  purpose.  Judas  all  this  while 
 pressed  the  fortress  of  Acra  with  all  his  might;  but  fear- 
 ing lest  the  Bethzurians  should  be  forced  to  submit  to  the 
 superior  strength  of  the  enemy,  he  left  the  siege  of  it, 
 and  went  to  the  relief  of  them. 
 
 4  His  intent  was  to  surprise  the  king's  forces;  and 
 therefore  marching  in  the  night,  he  fell  upon  one  quarter 
 of  the  army  in  the  dark;  killed  four  thousand  of  them; 
 and  having  put  the  whole  army  into  confusion,  retreated 
 on  break  of  day,  without  suffering  any  loss.  In  the 
 morning,  when  both  sides  prepared  for  an  open  battle, 
 Judas  and  his  men,  with  great  lierccness,  began  the  onset, 
 and  did  wonders :  for  Eleazar,  5  a  brother  of  Judas, 
 observing  one  particular  elephant,  which  was  higher  than 
 
 1  1  Mac.  v.  54.       2  Ibid.  ver.  65— (5S.        3  Chap,  vi.  19,  &c. 
 *  Ibid.  ver.  32.  a  2  Mac.  xiii.  15,  &c. 
 
 a  These,  in  Jeremiah  vi.  6,  are  rendered  in  the  margin 
 'engines  of  shot,'  and,  without  doubt,  resembled  in  some  mea- 
 sure, the  balistu-  and  catapults  among  the  Romans,  which  were 
 used  for  throwing  stones  and  arrows,  and  were  to  them  of  old 
 instead  of  mortars  and  carcasses. —  Lewis's  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  6. 
 c.  46. 
 
 lMAC.v.l.  JOS.IIIST.b.xil.c.14— end  ok  MAC.  JOS.H1ST  b.xilj.c.  19. 
 the  rest,  b  armed  with  royal  harness,  and  supposing 
 thereby  that  the  king  was  upon  it,  at  once,  both  to  deli- 
 ver his  country,  and  gain  himself  immortal  honour,  he 
 made  at  it  with  all  his  might;  and  having  slain  every  one 
 that  stood  in  his  way,  got  under  its  belly,  and  thrust  his 
 spear  into  it,  so  that  the  creature  fell  down  dead,  bwt 
 unhappily  crushed  him  to  death  by  its  weight  in  the  fall. 
 
 At  length,  after  having  slain  about  six  hundred  of  the 
 king's  forces,  perceiving  that  they  must  be  overpowered 
 by  so  great  a  number,  6  they  withdrew  from  the  right,  an  d 
 made  a  safe  retreat  to  Jerusalem.  Antiochus  followed 
 after  with  one  part  of  his  army,  but  left  the  other  to  carry 
 on  the  siege  of  Bethzura,  which  the  inhabitants,  seeing 
 no  prospect  of  relief  from  their  friends,  were  forced  to 
 surrender.  From  Bethzura  the  king's  forces  7  marched 
 to  Jerusalem,  where  Judas  had  shut  himself  up,  and  his 
 friends,  in  the  temple.  They  defended  the  place  with 
 great  resolution, but  must  inevitably  have  been  compelled 
 to  surrender,  had  they  not  been  relieved  by  this  lucky 
 and  unexpected  accident. 
 
 In  the  absence  of  the  king,  and  the  regent  Lysias, 
 that  Philip,  whom,  as  we  said  before,  Antiochus  Epi- 
 phanes,  at  his  death,  constituted  guardian  of  his  son,  had 
 made  himself  master  of  Antioch,  and  taken  upon  him  the 
 government  of  the  Syrian  empire.  8  Upon  the  receipt 
 of  this  news,  Lysias  found  it  necessary  to  make  peace 
 with  the  Jews,  that  he  might  be  at  liberty  to  return,  and 
 expel  the  intruder.  Accordingly  a  peace  was  gTanted 
 them  upon  honourable  and  advantageous  terms,  and  rati- 
 fied by  oath ;  but  when  Antiochus  came  to  see  the  strength 
 of  the  fortifications  belonging  to  the  temple,  he  caused 
 them,  contrary  to  the  articles  he  had  sworn,  to  be  all 
 pulled  down  and  demolished,  and  then  returned  towards 
 Syria,  where  he  found  that  Philip  had  seized  on  the  im- 
 perial city;  but  by  one  easy  battle,  wherein  Philip  was 
 worsted  and  slain,  he  soon  recovered  the  posses,  ion 
 of  it. 
 
 0  In  this  expedition  against  Judea,  Menelaus,  the  high 
 priest,  accompanied  Antiochus,  and  was  as  busy  in  offer- 
 ing him  his  service  against  his  own  people  as  any:  but 
 falling  by  some  means  under  the  displeasure  of  Lysias, 
 he  was  accused,  and  condemned,  as  the  author  and  fo- 
 mentor  of  this  Jewish  war,  and  accordingly  was  carried 
 to  Berhfea,  c  a  town  in  Syria,  and  there  cast  headlong 
 
 6  1  Mac.  vi.  47.  »  Ibid.  ver.  48,  &e. 
 
 8  Ibid.  ver.  55,  56;  2  Mac.  xiii.  23.  9  Ibid.  ver.  3 — 3. 
 
 b  Though  elephants  have  an  hide  impenetrable  almost  in  every 
 part,  except  their  belly,  yet  for  their  greater  safety,  those  that 
 are  appointed  for  the  wars,  are  usually  armed  and  covered  all 
 over,  as  it  were  with  a  coat  of  mail.  The  kings  of  India,  accord- 
 ing to  Q.  Curtius,  (b.  2.)  when  they  took  the  field,  were  drawn 
 by  elephants  all  covered  over  with  gold  ;  and  Florus  described 
 the  elephants  made  use  of  in  battles,  as  brilliant  with  gold,  silver, 
 purple,  and  their  own  ivory,  (b.  2.  c.  8.)  harnessed,  and  set  out, 
 much  after  the  fashion  of  the  war-horse  in  Virgil:  "  lie  pricked 
 on  his  foaming  steed,  covered  over  with  a  skin  of  brazen  scales, 
 clasped  together  with  gold." — JEn.  11. 
 
 c  This  was  one  of  the  punishments  of  the  Persians,  whereby 
 great  criminals  among  them  were  put  to  deatr.  The  manner  of 
 it  is  described  in  the  Kith  chapter  of  the  second  book  of  the 
 Maccabees,  to  be  thus:  An  high  tower  was  filled  a  great  way 
 up  with  ashes;  the  criminal,  being  from  the  top  thrown  down 
 headlong  into  them,  there  had  the  ashes  by  a  wheel  continually 
 stirred  up,  and  raised  about  him,  till  he  was  Suffocated  and  died. 
 '  Such  was  (lie  death  of  that  wicked  man,'  says  the  author  of  the 
 book  above  cited,  '  that  he  had  not  a  burial  in  the  earth,  and  that 
 very  justly.'     But  then  the  reason  which  he  gives  for  this  pro- 
 
772 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.M.3841.A.C.163;  O R, ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. M.5247.A.C.  1G1.1 
 
 into  a  tower  of  ashes  ;  but  after  his  death,  '  Antiochus 
 conferred  the  office  of  high  priest  upon  one  Alcimus,  a 
 man  altogether  as  wicked  as  the  other. 
 
 All  this  while  Antiochus  Eupater  held  the  crown  of 
 Syria,  by  an  unjust  title  ;  for  Demetrius,  the  son  of  Se- 
 leucus  Philopater,  elder  brother  to  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
 was  the  legal  heir  thereof.  He,  in  exchange  for  his  un- 
 cle Antiochus,  had  been  sent  an  hostage  to  Rome,  the 
 very  year  that  his  father  died  ;  and  Antiochus  returning 
 at  the  very  nick  of  time,  was  unanimously  declared  king, 
 in  the  absence  and  minority  of  the  rightful  heir.  But 
 Demetrius,  being  now  in  the  twenty-third  year  of  his  age, 
 when  his  uncle  died,  and  his  son  Eupater,  who  was  ap- 
 pointed king  in  his  room,  a  thought  it  high  time  to  put 
 in  his  claim  ;  and  accordingly  moved  the  senate  of  Rome 
 for  their  assistance  in  the  recovery  of  his  father's  king- 
 dom ;  and  as  an  inducement  thereunto,  he  alleged,  that 
 having  been  bred  up  in  that  city  from  his  childhood,  "  he 
 should  always  look  on  Rome  as  his  country,  the  senators 
 as  his  fathers,  and  their  sons  as  his  brothers."  But  the 
 senate  having  more  regard  to  their  own  interest,  than 
 the  right  of  Demetrius,  and  judging  it  more  to  their 
 advantage  to  have  a  boy  reign  in  Syria,  as  Eupater  then 
 was,  than  a  man  of  mature  understanding,  as  they  knew 
 Demetrius  to  be,  instead  of  asserting  his  right,  to  whom 
 it  belonged,  they  confirmed  Eupater  in  the  kingdom. 
 
 Demetrius  being  excluded  from  all  hopes  of  any  fa- 
 vour or  assistance  from  the  senate,  had  nothing  left  to 
 do,  but  to  endeavour  to  make  his  escape  from  Rome, 
 and  to  risk  his  fortune  in  his  own  country :  this  he  did  ; 
 -  and  landing  at  Tripolis  in  Syria,  made  it  believed,  that 
 he  was  sent  by  the  Roman  senate,  which  would  support 
 his  pretensions,  to  take  possession  of  the  kingdom. 
 Hereupon  Eupater's  cause,  being  in  the  general  opinion 
 given  up  for  lost,  everyone  deserted  from  him  to  Deme- 
 trius; nay,  the  very  soldiers  seized  on  him,  and  the  re- 
 gent Lysias,  with  an  intent  to  deliver  them  up  to  this 
 new  comer,  as  soon  as  he  arrived  at  Antioch  ;  but  he  re- 
 fusing to  see  them,  ordered  them  both  to  be  put  to  death, 
 
 1  2  Mar.  xiv.  3;  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  15. 
 2  1  Mac.  vii.  1,  &c;  2  Mac.  xiv.  1,  2;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xii. 
 c.  16 ;  Justin,  b.  xxxiv.  c.  3. 
 
 viilential  judgment  upon  him  is  very  light  and  trifling:   'foras- 
 much as  he  had  committed  many  sins  about  the  altar,  whose  fire 
 
 and  ashes  were  holy,  he  received  his  death  in  ashes,'  v.  7,  8. 
 
 Pridmu.v's  Connection,  anno  424. 
 
 a  What  excited  him  the  rather  to  do  it  at  this  time,  was  the 
 murder  of  Cn.  Octavius:  for  the  Roman  senate  having  sent  three 
 ambassadors  into  Syria,  whereof  Octavius  was  chief,  to  adminis- 
 ter the  atl'airs  of  the  nation,  (hiring  the  minority  of  the  king, 
 these  ambassadors,  finding  that  there  were  more  ships  in  the  navy, 
 and  more  elephants  in  the  army,  than  the  treaty  made  with  An- 
 tiochus  the  Great,  after  the  battle  of  Mount  Siphilus.  allowed  of, 
 caused  the  ships  to  be  burned,  and  the  elephants  to  be  slain,  that 
 exceeded  the  number  stipulated.  This  occasioned  great  mur- 
 murings  and  discontent  among  the  people,  and  provoked  one 
 Leptines  to  such  a  degree  of  indignation,  that  he  fell  upon  Octa- 
 vius, as  ho  was  anointing  himself  in  the  gymnasium  at  Laodicea, 
 and  there  slew  him.  Eupater  and  Lysias  did  all  they  could  to 
 clear  themselves  from  having  any  hand  in  this  vile  act,  and  to 
 this  purpose  sent  ambassadors  to  Rome  to  inform  the  senate  of 
 their  innocence  ;  but  the  .-mate,  after  having  heard  what  the  am- 
 bassadors had  to  say,  gave  them  no  answer,  expressing  their  re- 
 sentment by  their  angry  silence:  and  therefore  Demetrius  thought 
 this  no  improper  time  to  move  the  senate,  when  he  perceived 
 them  thus  out  of  humour  with  Eupater,  the  usurper  of  his  king- 
 dom.— Prideaur's  Connection,  auno  1C2. 
 
 MAC. v.  I.  JOS.HIST.b.xii.c.14-  end  of  MAC.  JOS.  HIST,  b,  xiii.c.  IS 
 
 and  so,  without  any  farther  opposition,  became  thorough- 
 ly settled  in  the  whole  kingdom. 
 
 He  had  not  been  long  so  settled,  be  fore  Alcimus,  who, 
 on  the  death  of  Menelaus,  had  by  Antiochus  Eupater 
 been  constituted  high  priest  of  the  Jews,  but  was  never 
 acknowledged  as  such,  because  in  the  time  of  persecu- 
 tion he  had  apostatised,  came,  and  implored  his  protec- 
 tion against  Judas  Maccabasus  and  his  party  ;  accusing 
 them  of  being  enemies  to  the  kings  of  Syria,  fomentors 
 of  sedition,  and  murderers  and  persecutors  of  his  most 
 faithful  subjects.  By  this  representation  Demetrius  was 
 so  exasperated  that 3  he  immediately  ordered  Bacchides, 
 the  governor  of  Mesopotamia,  to  march  with  an  army  into 
 Judea  ;  and  having  confirmed  Alcimus  in  the  office  of 
 high  priest,  joined  him  in  the  same  commissidn  for  car- 
 rying on  the  war  in  Judea. 
 
 No  sooner  were  they  arrived  in  Judea,  with  a  consi- 
 derable body  of  troops,  but  the  scribes  *  and  doctors  of 
 the  law  met  together,  and  consulted  what  they  were  to 
 do  upon  this  occasion.  Very  desirous  they  were  to  have 
 an  high  priest  again  settled  among  them,  and  not  at  all 
 suspicious  that  any  of  the  sons  of  Aaron  would  do  them 
 any  wrong  ;  and  therefore  upon  promise  of  safe  conduct, 
 they  waited  upon  them,  in  order  to  bring  matters  to  a 
 peaceable  accommodation  :  but  the  perfidious  Alcimus, 
 having  got  them  in  his  power,  caused  sixty  of  them  to 
 be  seized,  and  all  put  to  death  on  one  day,  which  made 
 the  people  more  cautious  of  him  for  the  future. 
 
 Bacchides,  however,  returning  to  Antioch,  put  Alci- 
 mus in  possession  of  the  country,  and  left  him  some  forces 
 to  support  him  in  it.  With  these  the  wicked  high  priest 
 did  much  mischief,  and  committed  many  murders  upon 
 those  that  were  not  for  him  :  but  as  soon  as  Judas,  4  with 
 his  men,  appeared  in  the  field  again,  he  left  the  country 
 for  fear,  and  returned  to  the  king  with  fresh  accusations 
 against  him  and  his  brothers,  who,  as  long  as  they  were 
 permitted  to  live,  as  he  told  him,  would  never  suffer  the 
 king's  authority  to  take  place,  nor  any  lasting  peace  to 
 be  established  in  the  country.  So  that,  upon  this  repre- 
 sentation, Demetrius  sent  another  army  against  the 
 Jews,  under  the  command  of  Nicanor,  with  strict  orders 
 to  destroy  Judas,  disperse  his  followers,  and  thoroughly 
 establish  Alcimus  in  the  high  priest's  office. 
 
 Nicanor  was  not  insensible  of  the  courage  and  conduct 
 of  Judas ;  and  therefore,  loath  to  come  to  an  engage- 
 ment with  him,  he  endeavoured  to  compose  matters  by  a 
 treaty,  and  accordingly  entered  into  articles  of  peace 
 with  him  :  but  the  high  priest,  e  not  liking  the  peace,  be- 
 cause his  interest,  as  he  imagined,  Mas  not  sufficiently 
 secured  in  it,  went,  the  third  time  to  the  king,  and  so 
 possessed  him  against  it,  that  he  refused  to  ratify  what 
 was  agreed,  and  sent  his  positive  commands  to  Nica- 
 nor, to  go  on  with  the  war,  and  not  cease  prosecut- 
 ing it,  until  he  had  either  slain  Judas,  or  taken  him 
 prisoner,  and  sent  him  bound  to  Antioch.  Upon  these 
 these  instructions,  Nicanor  being  obliged,  though  much 
 against  his  will,  to  alter  his  conduct,  marched  his  army 
 
 3  1  Mac.  vii.  8—20.  4  1  Mac.  vii.  23,  24. 
 
 6  Ibid.  ver.  26—29.  2  Mac.  xiv.  12—25. 
 6  1  Mac.  vii.  26—29. 
 b  These,  in  all  probability,  were  a  deputation  from  the  great 
 sanhedrim,  which,  at  this  time,  had  the  government  of  the  na- 
 tion in  their  hands;  and  why  Judas,  who  was  at  the  head  of 
 them,  did  not  think  proper  to  accompany  them,  the  reason  is 
 pretty  obvious.—  Cal/nct's  Commentary  on  1  Mac.  vii.  12. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 773 
 
 A.J1.3SII.  A.C.  163;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5247.  A.C 
 up  to  Jerusalem,  and  designing-,  by  craft  and  treachery, 
 to  get  Judas  into  his  power, '  invited  him  to  a  conference, 
 which  the  other,  upon  the  presumption  of  the  depending 
 peace,  readily  complied  with,  and  came  to  the  place  ap- 
 pointed :  but  when  he  found  that  an  ambush  was  laid 
 for  his  apprehension,  he  lied  from  his  presence,  and  so 
 began  the  war  afresh.  This  war  was  carried  on  with 
 various  successes  for  some  time,  and  with  some  par- 
 ticular cruelties  on  Nieanor's  side,  "  but  at  length,  com- 
 ing to  a  decisive  battle  near  a  village  called  Bethoron, 
 Nicanor  was  slain  in  the  first  onset,  which  the  rest  of  the 
 army  perceiving,  cast  away  their  arms,  and  lied  ;  so  that, 
 what  with  Judas's  pursuing  them,  and  the  country  rising 
 upon  them  as  they  endeavoured  to  escape,  not  one  of 
 the  whole  army,  which  consisted  of  five  and  thirty  thou- 
 sand men,  was  left  to  carry  home  the  tidings  of  their 
 overthrow. 
 
 After  the  pursuit  was  ended,  the  victorious  army  re- 
 turning to  the  Held  of  battle,  took  the  spoils  of  the  slain  ; 
 and  having  found  Nicanor's  body  among  the  dead,  they 
 cut  oft'  his  head,  and  this  right  hand  which  he  stretched 
 out  so  proudly  in  his  threatenings  against  the  temple, 
 and  hanged  them  up  upon  one  of  the  towers  of  Jerusa- 
 lem. A  general  joy  overspread  the  whole  city  upon  this 
 occasion,  and  in  commemoration  of  so  gTeat  a  deliver- 
 ance, it  was  ordained,  that  the  thirteenth  day  of  their 
 month  Adar,  (which  answers  in  part  to  our  February,)  the 
 day  whereon  this  victory  was  obtained,  should  be  ever 
 after  observed  as  an  anniversary  day  of  solemn  thanks- 
 giving ;  and  so  it  is  kept  even  to  this  present  time,  under 
 the  name  of  the  day  of  Nicanor. 
 
 2  Judas,  having  now  some  respite  after  this  victory, 
 was  thinking  of  making  a  league  with  the  Romans. 
 He  had  heard  much  talk  of  their  power,  prowess,  and 
 policy ;  and  was  therefore  desirous  of  making  an  al- 
 liance b  with  them,  in  hopes  of  receiving  thereby  some 
 protection  and  relief  against  the  oppressions  of  the 
 Syrians.  To  this  purpose  he  sent  Jason  and  Eupolemus, 
 men  of  sufficiency  for  such  an  embassy,  to  Rome,  who 
 were  kindly  received  by  the  senate,  and  from  them  ob- 
 tained a  decree,  acknowledging  the  Jews  for  friends 
 and  allies  to  the  Romans,  a  league  of  mutual  defence 
 between  them,  and  a  letter  to  Demetrius,  requiring  him, 
 upon  the  peril  of  having  war  denounced  against  him,  to 
 
 <  2  Mar.  vii.  27—31. 
 2  Mac.  viii. — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  17. 
 
 a  One  instance  of  this  kind  was  practised  upon  Razis,  an 
 eminent  and  honourable  senator  of  the  Jewish  sanhedrim,  who 
 had  not  only  persevered  in  his  religion  through  the  worst  of 
 tiir.es,  but  upon  all  occasions  been  very  munificent  to  the  people. 
 Him  Nicanor  was  resolved  to  cut  oil',  the  rather,  because  he 
 thought  it  would  be  an  act  of  high  displeasure  to  the  Jews;  and 
 therefore  sent  a  party  to  seize  him.  Razis  was,  at  this  time,  at 
 a  cattle  of  his  which  he  had  in  the  country,  where  he  defended 
 himself  against  them  for  some  time  with  great  valour;  but  at 
 length  finding  thai  he  could  hold  out  no  longer,  he  fell  upon  his 
 sword.  The  wound  however  was  not  mortal,  and  therefore  he 
 threw  himself  headlong  over  the  battlements  of  the  tower  where- 
 on he  fought;  but  finding  himself  still  alive,  he  thrust  his  hand 
 into  his  wound,  and  pulling  out  his  bowels,  cast  them  upon  the 
 assailants,  and  so  died,  2  Mac.  xiv.  4G. 
 
 b  Josephus  takes  notice,  that  this  was  the  very  first  treaty 
 that  ever  the  Jews  made  with  the  Romans,  which  is  very  pro- 
 bable from  the  manner  in  which  the  author  of  the  fust  book 
 of  Maccabees  prefaces  his  account  of  it;  for  there  it  appears 
 that  the  Jews,  till  this  time,  had  very  little  knowledge  of  the 
 ■toman  state. — Jus.  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  17;  and  1  Mac.  \iii.  1. 
 
 lG4.lMAC.v.I.JUS.HIST.b.xii.e.l  1— end  op  MAC.JOS.HIST.b.xiii.c.19. 
 desist  from  giving  the  Jews  any  farther  molestation  ; 
 but  before  the  return  of  these  ambassadors  Judas  was 
 dead. 
 
 3  For  Demetrius,  having  received  an  account  of  the 
 defeat  and  death  of  Nicanor,  sent  Bacchides,  with  Alci- 
 mus,  the  second  time  into  Judea,  at  the  head  of  a  very 
 numerous  army,  made  up  of  the  prime  forces  and  Mower 
 of  his  militia.  Judas,  at  their  coming,  had  no  more  than 
 three  thousand  men  to  oppose  them  ;  and  these  were  so 
 terrified  with  the  strength  and  number  of  the  enemy,  that 
 they  deserted  their  general,  all  to  eight  hundred  men. 
 However,  with  these  few,  he  resolved  to  try  his  fortune ; 
 and  when  his  soldiers  advised  him  to  retreat,  and  wait  for 
 a  supply  ;  "  God  forbid,"  says  he,  "  that  the  sun  should 
 ever  see  me  turn  my  back  to  my  enemies.  If  provi- 
 dence has  ordained  that  we  should  die,  let  us  die  man- 
 fully, lighting  for  our  brethren  ;  and  let  us  never  stain  the 
 honour  of  our  former  valorous  deeds  by  an  ignominious 
 flight :"  and  so  animating  them  by  his  own  example,  he 
 charged  and  broke  the  right  wing,  where  Bacchides  com- 
 manded in  person,  and  pursued  them  as  far  as  the  moun- 
 tains of  Azotus  ;  but  having  not  forces  enough  to  keep 
 the  left  wing  in  play,  he  was  followed  and  encompassed. 
 The  action  was  very  hot  and  obstinate  :  the  Jews  sold 
 their  lives  at  a  dear  rate  :  their  general  did  every  valiant 
 thing  that  man  could  do  ;  till,  being  overpowered  by 
 numbers,  he  was  slain,  and  his  men,  thus  deprived  of 
 their  heroic  leader,  were  forced  to  fly. 
 
 Thus  fell  the  great  Judas  Maccabceus,  the  restorer 
 and  preserver  of  the  true  worship  of  God,  and  the  re- 
 liever and  protector  of  his  distressed  countrymen,  while 
 he  lived.  His  two  brothers,  Simon  and  Jonathan,  took 
 up  his  dead  body,  and  conveying  it  to  the  city  of  Modin, 
 they  there  buried  it,  in  the  sepulchre  of  his  ancestors, 
 with  all  the  funeral  honour  that  was  due  to  the  memory 
 of  so  brave  a  man,  and  so  excellent  a  commander. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Judas,  Bacchides  made  himself 
 master  of  the  country,  and  used  all  the  friends  and  ad- 
 herents to  the  Maccabees,  wherever  he  found  them,  with 
 the  utmost  barbarity  ;  4  so  that  Jonathan  was  in  a  man- 
 ner necessitated  to  take  upon  him  the  command  in  the 
 room  of  his  brother  Judas,  and  to  become  the  captain 
 of  all  those  who  had  preserved  their  integrity'.  To  this 
 purpose,  taking  with  him  his  brother  Simon,  and  those 
 that  had  resorted  to  him,  lie  retired  into  the  wilderness 
 of  Tekoa,  and  there  encamped,  with  a  morass  on  one 
 side,  and  the  river  Jordan  on  the  other,  so  that  they 
 could  not  easily  be  come  at.  But  Bacchides  5  marching 
 after  them,  and  having  made  himself  master  of  the  pass 
 that  led  to  their  encampment,  assaulted  them  in  it  on 
 the  sabbath  day,  expecting  to  meet  with  no  resistance. 
 Jonathan,  however,  reminding  his  men  of  the  determina- 
 tion that  was  made  in  this  case  in  the  time  of  his  father 
 Mattathias,  encouraged  them  to  dispute  it  bravely ; 
 which  accordingly  they  did,  even  till  they  had  slain 
 about  a  thousand  of  the  assailants  :  but  then,  finding  that 
 they  should  be  overpowered  with  numbers,  they  cast 
 themselves  into  the  river,  and,  by  swimming  over  to  the 
 other  side,  made  their  escape. 
 
 Bacchides  thought  it  not  proper  to  pursue  them  any 
 farther,  but  rather  to  go  back  to  Jerusalem  ;  where,  hav- 
 
 3  I  Mac.  ix.  1,  &c. 
 *  1  Mac.  ix.  28—33.  5  Ibid.  ver.  43—53. 
 
774 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.M.384I.A.C.163  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. M.5247.  A. C.151. 
 ing  fortified  Mount  Acra,  ami  the  neighbouring  towns,  i 
 and  put  garrisons  in  them,  he  took  hostages  for  the 
 fidelity  of  the  inhabitants,  and  so  returned  to  Syria :  a 
 but,  before  he  departed,  Aleimus,  the  great  troubler  of 
 Israel,  and  whom  he  had,  not  long  before,  settled  in  the 
 high-priesthood,  was  smitten  with  a  palsy,  whereof  he 
 suddenly  died;  so  that  the  land  had  rest  for  two  years, 
 and  Jonathan  an  opportunity  of  bringing  his  affairs  to 
 some  better  settlement  in  Judea. 
 
 1  The  adverse  party,  however,  was  not  long  easy ; 
 but,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  prevailed  with  Bacchides 
 to  return  with  his  army  into  Judea,  proposing  to  seize 
 Jonathan,  and  all  his  abettors,  as  soon  as  he  was  arrived 
 with  his  forces  to  support  the  enterprise  :  but  when 
 Jonathan  had  intelligence  of  this,  he  laid  hold  on  fifty 
 of  the  principal  conspirators,  and  put  them  to  death, 
 Which  quelled  all  the  rest.  Being  sensible,  however, 
 that  lie  could  not  stand  against  so  great  a  force  as 
 Bacchides  had  brought  against  him,  he  retired  to  Beth- 
 basi,  a  place  strongly  situate  in  the  wilderness,  and  here 
 lie  purposed  to  make  a  stand  against  the  enemy. 
 
 Bacchides,  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in  Judea,  went  after 
 Jonathan  ;  but,  upon  his  approach,  Jonathan  left  Simon 
 his  brother  with  one  part  of  the  forces  to  defend  the 
 place,  whilst  himself,  with  the  other  part,  took  the  field 
 to  harass  the  enemy  abroad:  in  which  capacities  they 
 both  acted  so  well,  Jonathan,  by  cutting  oft'  several  of 
 their  parties,  and  now  and  then  falling  upon  the  out- 
 skirts of  their  army  employed  in  the  siege  ;  and  Simon, 
 by  making  frequent  sallies  upon  them,  and  burning  the 
 engines  they  had  brought  against  the  place  ;  that  Bac- 
 chides, -  growing  weary  of  this  undertaking,  and  not  a 
 little  enraged  at  those  who  were  the  occasion  of  his 
 return  and  disgrace,  put  several  of  them  to  death.  This 
 opportunity  Jonathan  laid  hold  on,  and  therefore  sent 
 messengers  to  him,  to  desire  an  accommodation,  which 
 Bacchides  readily  came  into,  so  that  a  peace  was  con- 
 cluded. The  prisoners  whom  he  had  in  his  custody  were 
 all  restored,  and  himself  took  an  oath,  never  to  molest 
 the  Jews  .any  more  :  which  accordingly  he  fulfilled  ;  for 
 as  soon  as  the  peace  was  ratified  on  both  sides  he  went 
 away,  and  never  more  returned  into  the  country. 
 
 When  the  wars  were  thus  happily  ended,  Jonathan 
 retired  to  Michmash,  a  town  about  nine  miles'  distance 
 to  the  north  of  Jerusalem,  where  he  governed  the  people 
 according  to  law  ;  cut  oft' all  those  that  had  apostatised 
 from  him  ;  and,  as  far  as  in  him  lay,  reformed  all  abuses 
 both  in  church  and  state  ;  repairing  the  city  of  Jerusa- 
 lem ;  fortifying  it  on  every  side,  and  causing  the  wall 
 round  the  mount  of  the  temple,  which  had  been  pulled 
 down,  to  be  rebuilt. 
 
 At  this  time  Alexander,  (for  that  was  the  name  which 
 he  assumed,)  pretending  to  be  the  son  of  Antiochus  Epi- 
 phar.es/'  laid  claim  to  the  Syrian  monarchy;  and  being 
 
 l  MAC.v.l.JOS.HIST.b.xii.c.14— ENDOFMAC.JOS.HIST.b.xiii.c.19. 
 
 well  supported  by  foreign  powers,  seized  Ptolemais,  a 
 city  of  Palestine,  and  was  making  preparations  to  drive 
 Demetrius  out  of  the  throne.  On  this  occasion  the  two 
 rival  princes  did  both  make  their  court  to  Jonathan,  as 
 thinking  him  a  good  ally  :  Demetrius  3  sent  him  letters, 
 constituting  him  his  general  in  Judea,  with  full  authority 
 to  raise  forces,  and  to  provide  them  with  arms  to  come 
 to  his  assistance,  and  commanding,  at  the  same  time, 
 that  the  hostages,  which  were  in  the  fortress  of  Jerusa- 
 lem, should  be  delivered  to  him;  which  accordingly  was 
 done.  "  Alexander,  on  the  other  hand,  c  having  sent  him 
 a  purple  robe  and  a  crown  of  gold,  as  ensigns  of  great 
 dignity,  made  him  a  grant  of  the  high-priesthood,  and  of 
 the  honour  to  be  called  the  king's  friend.  Demetrius 
 hearing  of  this,  5  and  being  resolved  to  outbid  Alex- 
 ander, made  him  still  more  advantageous  offers:  but  the 
 Jews,  remembering  what  a  bitter  enemy  he  had  been  to 
 all  those  that  had  adhered  to  the  true  interest  of  their 
 country,  and  suspecting  that  these  offers  proceeded  only 
 from  the  necessity  of  his  aft'airs,  which  would  certainly 
 be  revoked  as  soon  as  the  storm  was  blown  over,  resolved 
 rather  to  enter  into  league  with  Alexander :  and  therefore 
 Jonathan/*   accepting  of  his  grant  of  the  high  priest's 
 
 1  Ma 
 
 1  1  Mac.  ix.c.58— 61. 
 
 ix.  69—73;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  12,  c.  1,  and  2. 
 
 a  It  is  most  likely,  that  Demetrius  had,  by  this  time,  received 
 the  letters  which  were  Bent  to  him  by  the  Romans  in  behalf  of 
 the  .IeuS  and  thereupon  gave  Bacchides  orders  to  surcease  his 
 vexations  of  that  people;  and  that,  in  obedience  to  these  orders, 
 Bacchides  took  occasion,  on  the  death  of  Aleimus,  to  leave  the 
 conntiy. —  Prideatue's  Connection,  anno  l(jO. 
 
 />  In  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  one  Heraclides  "as 
 lus  treasurer  in  the  province  of  Babylon,  while    his   brother 
 
 3  1  Mac.  x.  25,  &c. ;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  4. 
 
 4  Ibid.  x.  15—20.  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  5. 
 
 5  1  Mac.  x.  25,  &c;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13,  c.  5. 
 
 Timarchus,  another  favourite  of  the  king's,  was  governor  of  it ; 
 but  on  the  coming  of  Demetrius  to  the  crown,  they  were  both 
 found  guilty  of  great  misdemeanours,  for  which  Timarchus  was 
 put  to  death;  but  Heraclides  made  his  escape  out  of  the  king- 
 dom, and  took  up  his  residence  at  Rhodes.  While  he  was  there, 
 Demetrius,  having  given  himself  up  entirely  to  luxury  and 
 sloth,  so  neglected  the  affairs  of  government,  that  his  subjects 
 justly  took  a  disgust  against  him,  and  were  ready  to  enter  into 
 auy  conspiracy  to  depose  him;  which  Heraclides  understanding, 
 in  hopes  of  making  a  revolution  in  favour  of  himself,  he  contriv- 
 ed this  plot. — In  the  isle  of  Rhodes  there  was  a  youth  of  a  very 
 mean  and  obscure  condition,  called  Balas,  but,  in  other  respects, 
 every  way  fit  for  his  purpose.  Him  he  prevailed  with  to  pass  for 
 the  son  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes;  and  having  thoroughly  instruct- 
 ed him  how  to  act  his  part,  he  carried  him  to  Rome,  where,  by 
 his  craft  and  earnest  solicitations,  he  not  only  prevailed  with  the 
 senate  to  own  him,  but  procured  a  decree  from  them  likewise, 
 permitting  him  to  recover  the  kingdom  of  Syria  out  of  the  hands 
 of  Demetrius,  and  promising  their  assistance  in  doing  it.  By 
 virtue  of  this  decree  he  raised  forces,  and  with  them  sailing  to 
 Ptolemais  in  Palestine,  seized  that  city;  and  there,  by  the  name 
 of  Alexander,  son  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  took  upon  him  to  be 
 king  of  Syria.  Great  numbers,  out  of  disaffection  to  Demetrius, 
 flocked  to  him  ;  so  that,  at  length,  Demetrius  being  defeated  and 
 slain,  Alexander  obtained  the  full  possession  of  the  Syrian  em- 
 pire.— Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  152. 
 
 c  The  letter  which  he  sent  him,  together  with  these,  is  to 
 this  effect: — 'King  Alexander,  to  his  brother  Jonathan,  &c. 
 Being  informed  of  your  power  and  valour,  and  that  you  are 
 worthy  of  friendship,  we  constitute  you  high  priest  of  your  nation  ; 
 and  it  is  our  pleasure  that  you  should  be  enrolled  in  the  number 
 of  the  king's  friends.  To  this  end  we  have  sent  you  a  purple 
 robe,  and  a  golden  crown,  not  doubting  of  a  suitable  return 
 from  you,  for  our  affection  and  friendship.' — Joseph.  Antiq.  b. 
 13.  c.  5. 
 
 d  From  the  time  of  the  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity, 
 the  office  of  high  priest  had  been  in  the  family  of  Jozadack, 
 and,  in  a  lineal  descent,  was  transmitted  down  to  Onias,  the  third 
 of  that  name.  He  was  supplanted  by  Jason  his  brother,  as  Jasou 
 was  by  his  brother  Menelaus,  and  after  the  death  of  Menelaus," 
 Aleimus,  who  was  of  a  different  family,  was  put  into  the  office 
 by  the  command  of  the  king  of  Syria.  Whether  the  Asmoneans 
 were  of  the  race  of  Jozadack,  or  not,  it  is  no  where  said;  but  it 
 is  certain  that  they  were  of  the  course  of  Joarib,  (1  Mac.  ii.  1 .), 
 which  was  the  first  class  of  the  sons  Aaron ;  and  therefore,  upon 
 the  failure  of  the  former  pontifical  family,  they  had  the  best  right 
 
Sect.  IV.l 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c 
 
 775 
 
 A.M.  3841.  A.C.  1G3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS.A.M.  5247.A.C.  164. 1  MAC.v.l.JOS.HIST.b.  xii.cM— ENDOF  MAC.JOS.IIIST.b.xiij.c.19. 
 
 office,  did,  on  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  which  soon  en- 
 sued, put  on  the  pontifical  robe,  and  officiate  as  high 
 priest,  after  that  the  place,  from  the  death  of  Alciinus, 
 hail  been  vacant  seven  years. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  two  contending  kings  having 
 drawn  together  all  their  forces,  committed  the  determin- 
 ation of  their  cause  to  a  decisive  battle,  in  which  Deme- 
 trius "  being  defeated  and  slain,  and  Alexander,  by  this 
 victory,  made  master  of  the  whole  Syrian  empire,  '  he 
 sent  to  Ptolemy  king  of  Egypt,  demanding  his  daughter 
 Cleopatra  in  marriage.  To  this  marriage  (which  was 
 performed  at  Ptolemais)  Jonathan  the  high  priest  was 
 invited,  and  was  received  by  both  the  kings  (for  Pto- 
 lemy was  likewise  at  the  nuptials)  with  great  favour, 
 especially  by  Ptolemy,  who,  to  do  him  a  particular  hon- 
 our, caused  him  to  be  clothed  in  purple,  and  to  take 
 place  near  himself,  among  the  first  princes  of  his  king- 
 dom; and,  besides  making  him  general  of  all  his  forces 
 in  Judea,  gave  him  an  office  b  of  great  credit  and  renown 
 in  his  palace. 
 
 But  Alexander  himself  did  not  long  enjoy  this  pros- 
 perous state.  Demetrius/  the  son  of  the  late  Demetrius, 
 resolving  to  revenge  his  father's  death,  and  recover  his 
 kingdom,  came  from  Crete,  (where  he  and  his  brother 
 Antiochus  had  been  concealed  in  the  late  troubles,)  and 
 with  an  army  of  mercenaries,  landed  in  Cilicia.  It  was 
 not  long  before  he  gained  over  to  his  interest  Apollonius  c 
 
 1  1  Mac.  x.  54;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  7. 
 1 1  Mar.  x.  67 ;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  8  ;  Justin,  b.  35.  c.  2. 
 to  succeed.  With  this  right  it  was,  that  Jonathan  took  the 
 cilice:  and  in  his  family  it  became  settled,  and  continued  for 
 several  descents,  until  the  time  of  Herod,  who,  from  an  office  of 
 inheritance,  changed  it  into  that  of  arbitrary  will  and  pleasure. 
 Whoever  had  the  power  after  him,  put  the  high  priests  in  or 
 out,  as  they  thought  fit,  till  at  length  the  office  was  extinguished 
 by  the  destruction  of  the  temple  by  the  Romans. — Prideau.v's 
 Connection,  anno  253. 
 
 a  In  the  first  onset,  Demetrius's  left  wing  put  the  opposite 
 wing  of  the  enemy  to  flight ;  but  as  he  pursued  them  too  far,  (a 
 fault  in  war  which  has  lost  many  victories,)  by  the  time  that 
 they  came  back,  the  right  wing,  in  which  Demetrius  fought  in 
 person,  was  overborne,  and  he  slain  in  the  rout:  for  his  horse 
 having  plunged  him  into  a  bog,  they  who  pursued  him  shot 
 at  him  there  with  their  arrows,  till  he  died. — Joseph.  Antiq.  b. 
 13.  c.  5;  Justin,  b.  35.  C  1  Apion,  dc  Si/riucis;  and  Poly- 
 bius,  b.  3. 
 
 b  The  word  meridarches,  which  we  translate  a  dulic,  Gro- 
 tius,  in  his  commentary  on  1  Mac.  x.  C5,  makes  to  be  the 
 chief  sewer,  which,  even  in  the  German  empire,  is  an  office  that 
 one  of  the  electors  bears:  but,  in  his  commentary  on  Matth. 
 xix.  28.,  he  makes  it  denote  the  governor  of  a  province:  and  if, 
 in  this  place,  it  were  so  taken,  it  would  better  become  Jonathan, 
 one  would  think,  to  be  made  governor  of  some  part  of  the  Sy- 
 rian empire,  than  to  be  the  regulator  of  the  dishes  at  the  royal 
 table.  —  Prideau.v's  Connection,  anno  150. 
 
 c  Apollonius  was  a  common  name  among  the  Syro-Macedo- 
 nians  and  Greeks;  and  in  the  history  of  the  Maccabees  we  find 
 so  many  mentioned  of  that  name,  that,  for  the  prevention  of 
 mistakes,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  give  some  account  of  the 
 several  persons  who  bore  it.  The  first  that  we  meet  with  of  that 
 name,  is  Apollonius,  the  son  of  Thraseas,  (2  Mac.  iii.  5,)  who 
 was  governor  of  Caelo-Syria  and  Phoenicia,  under  Seleucus  Philo- 
 pater,  when  Heliodorus  came  to  Jerusalem,  to  rob  the  temple. 
 He  was  chief  minister  of  state  to  Seleucus  ;  but,  on  the  accession 
 of  his  brother  Antiochus  Epiphanes  to  the  crown,  he  left  Syria, 
 and  retired  to  Miletus.  He  had  a  son  of  his  own  name,  that 
 was  bred  up  at  Rome,  and  resided  with  Demetrius,  the  son  of 
 Seleucus  I'hilopater,  who  was  then  an  hostage  in  that  place. 
 \\  hen  Demetrius  recovered  the  crown  of  Syria,  this  Apollonius 
 became  his  prime  favourite,  and  was  made  governor  of  Ceelo- 
 Syiia  and  Phoenicia,  the  same  government  which  his  father  held 
 
 the  governor  of  Coelo-Syria,  who,  to  oblige  Jonathan  to 
 quit  Alexander's  party,  and  join  with  Demetrius,3 
 marched  an  army  as  far  as  Jamnia,  and  from  thence  sent 
 a  challenge  to  Jonathan  to  leave  his  fastnesses  on  the 
 mountains,  and  come  and  fight  him  on  the  plains. 
 
 Provoked  at  this  message,  Jonathan  inarched  out  with 
 ten  thousand  men.  He  first  took  Joppa,  in  the  sight  of 
 Apollonius  and  his  army,  and  then  joining  battle,  not 
 only  vanquished  him  in  the  open  field,  but  pursued  his 
 broken  forces  to  Azotus.  Here  was  a  famous  temple  of 
 the  god  Dagon,  unto  which  the  Syrians  fled  for  shelter  ; 
 but  Jonathan  entering  the  town,  burnt  it  to  the  ground, 
 and  set  the  temple  on  fire  ;  so  that  the  number  of  those 
 who  were  slain  in  battle,  and  perished  by  the  flames, 
 amounted  to  no  less  than  eight  thousand  men.  After 
 this,  having  treated  the  neighbouring  towns,  that  belong- 
 ed to  the  enemy,  in  the  like  manner,  he  led  his  victorious 
 army  back  to  Jerusalem,  loaded  with  spoils ;  whither 
 he  had  not  been  long  come,  before  Alexander,  hearing 
 of  his  renowned  actions  in  favour  of  his  cause,  *  sent  him 
 a  rf  buckle  of  gold,  such  as  none  but  the  royal  family  were 
 allowed  to  wear,  and,  at  the  same  time,  made  him  a  pre- 
 sent of  the  city  of  Ekron,  and  all  the  territories  thereunto 
 belonging. 
 
 5  When  Apollonius,  governor  of  Ccelo-Syria,  had  de- 
 clared for  Demetrius,  Alexander  called  in  his  father- 
 in-law,  Ptolemy  Philometer,  to  his  assistance.  He 
 marched  into  Palestine  with  a  great  army  ;  and  as  he 
 passed,  in  all  the  cities  (which,  by  Alexander's  orders, 
 opened  their  gates  to  him)  he  left  a  good  number  of  his 
 own  soldiers  to  strengthen  the  garrisons.  But,  whe- 
 ther or  not  this  might  give  some  umbrage  to  Alexander, 
 so  it  was,  that  Ptolemy  discovered  a  design,  which 
 Ammonius,  Alexander's  great  favourite,  had  formed,  to 
 have  him  cut  oil'  at  his  coming  to  Ptolemais  ;  and  upon 
 his  demanding  justice  to  be  done  to  the  traitor,  by 
 Alexander's  refusing  to  give  him  up,  he  plainly  per- 
 ceived that  the  king  was  a  party  to  the  treason,  and 
 thence  began  to  harbour  an  implacable  hatred  against 
 him. 
 
 He  therefore  marched  his  army  to  Antioch ;  and,  hav- 
 
 3  I  Mac.  x.  9—77 ;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  S. 
 4  1  Mac.  x.  SS,  S9. 
 
 5  1  Mac.  xi.  1 — 5;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  S. 
 under  Seleucus  Philopater;  and  this  I  take  to  be  the  same  Apol- 
 lonius, who,  being  continued  in  the  same  government  by  Alex- 
 ander, now  revolted  from  him,  to  embrace  the  interest  of 
 Demetrius,  the  son  of  his  old  master,  and  to  engage  Jonathan  to 
 do  the  like,  marched  his  forces  against  him.  Another  Apollonius 
 is  spoken  of,  (2  Mac.  iv.  21,)  as  the  chief  minister  of  Antiochus 
 Epiphanes,  who  from  him  was  sent  as  ambassador,  first  to  Rome 
 and  afterwards  to  Ptolemy  Philometer,  king  of  Egypt;  and  him 
 I  take  to  be  the  same,  that,  with  a  detachment  of  two  and 
 twenty  thousand  men,  was  sent  to  destroy  Jerusalem,  and 
 build  a  fortress  on  Mount  Acia.  There  are,  besides  these,  two 
 other  persons,  in  the  history  of  the  Maccabees,  mentioned  under 
 the  name  of  Apollonius.  The  former  of  these,  being  governoi 
 of  Samaria  in  the  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  (1  Mac.  iii 
 10,)  was  slain  in  battle  by  Judas  Maccabams;  anil  the  latter 
 (who  is  called  the  son  of  Genneus,)  (2  Mae.  xii.  2,)  being  go- 
 vernor of  some  toparchy  in  Palestine,  under  Antiochus  Eupater, 
 did  then  signalize  himself  by  being  a  great  enemy  to  the  Jews. 
 
 —  Prideau.v's  Connection,  anno  148. 
 
 d  The  golden  buckle,  which  was  worn  upon  the  shoulder,  was 
 a  very  singular  mark  of  distinction  both  among  the  Greeks  and 
 the  Persians,  from  whom  the  Macedonians  took  it,  and  was 
 generally  made  the  reward  of  great  and  gallant  actions  in  war, 
 
 —  Calmcfs  Commentary  on  L  Mac.  x.  89. 
 
776 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.M.  3841,  A.C.  163;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.5247.  A.  C.164.1  MAC.  v.l.JOS.HIST.b  xii.c.14— end  or  MAC.  JOS.HlST.b.xiii.c.19. 
 
 ing  taken  his  daughter  from  Alexander,  gave  her  to  his 
 rival  Demetrius,  ami  with  her  assurance  to  restore  him  to 
 his  father's  throne.  '  The  Antiochians,  taking  the  op- 
 portunity of  Ptolemy's  approach  to  execute  their  resent- 
 ments upon  Ammonius,  rose  in  a  tumult,  ami  slew  him  ; 
 and  then  opening  their  gates  to  Ptolemy,  were  all  dis- 
 posed to  make  him  their  king  ;  but  he  modestly  declin- 
 ing that  offer,  recommended  to  them  the  restoration  of 
 Demetrius,  the  true  heir  :  whereupon  Demetrius  was 
 received  into  the  city,  and  placed  on  the  throne  of  his 
 ancestors. 
 
 Alexander,  who  was  then  in  Cilicia,  hearing  of  this, 
 came  with  all  his  forces  towards  Antioch,  wasting  the 
 country  with  fire  and  sword  ;  but  when  Ptolemy  with  his 
 new  son-in-law,  met  him,  and  gave  him  battle,  his  army 
 was  routed,  and  himself  Avas  forced  to  fly  to  Arabia, 
 where  Zabdiel,  king  of  the  country,  cut  oft* his  head,  and 
 sent  it  as  a  present  to  Ptolemy,  who  was  not  a  little 
 pleased  with  the  sight  of  it.  His  joys  however  did  not 
 last  long ;  for  in  five  days'  time  he  died  of  the  wounds  he 
 had  received  in  battle,  leaving  Demetrius  in  quiet  pos- 
 session of  his  father's  kingdom,  which  he  having  recov- 
 ered by  virtue  of  this  victory,  did  thenceforward  take 
 upon  him  the  name  of  Nicanor,  that  is,  conqueror. 
 
 During  these  transactions,  Jonathan  3  laid  siege  to  the 
 fortress  at  Jerusalem  ;  but  some  of  the  garrison,  escaping 
 by  night,  came  and  acquainted  Demetrius  with  it,  who 
 thereupon  marched  from  Antioch  with  an  army  to  relieve 
 it.  But  coming  to  Ptolemais,he  stopped  there  and  sent 
 for  Jonathan  to  appear  before  him,  and  answer  to  such 
 accusations  as  were  preferred  against  him.  Jonathan 
 went  thither,  though  he  ordered  the  siege  still  to  go  on  ; 
 and,  when  he  came  to  Demetrius,  by  his  rich  presents 
 and  wise  management,  he  so  mollified  the  king,  and  in- 
 sinuated himself  into  his  good  graces,  that  he  not  only 
 confirmed  him  in  the  possession  of  what  he  had,  but 
 honoured  him  likewise  with  many  new  favours,  and  upon 
 the  payment  of  300  talents,  agreed  to  exempt  from  all 
 tolls,  taxes  and  tributes,  all  the  Dlaces  that  were  under 
 his  government. 
 
 Jonathan,  upon  his  return  to  Jerusalem,  pressed  the 
 siege  of  the  fortress  very  closely  ;  but  finding  little  or 
 no  success  therein,  he  sent  an  embassy,  3  to  Demetrius, 
 desiring  him  to  withdraw  the  garrison,  which  he  could 
 not  expel.  This  and  much  more  Demetrius  promised 
 to  do  for  him,  if  he  would  but  send  him  some  forces  to 
 reduce  the  inhabitants  of  Antioch,  who,  incensed  by  his 
 cruelty  and  oppression,  had  taken  up  arms  against  him. 
 Jonathan  immediately  dispatched  3000  choice  men  to  his 
 aid,  who  coming  to  Antioch,  when  the  people  had  beset 
 the  place  with  an  intent  to  murder  the  tyrant,  as  they 
 called  him,  fell  on  with  fire  and  sword,  and  having  burn- 
 ed a  great  part  of  the  city,  and  slain  of  the  inhabitants 
 about  100,000  persons,  obliged  the  rest  to  have  recourse 
 to  the  kind's  clemency,  and  pray  for  peace.  But  all  this 
 service  availed  nothing.  Demetrius,4  seeing  this  storm 
 overpast,  forgot  the  bargains  which  he  had  made  with 
 Jonathan  at  l'tolemais  ;  and,  though  he  had  received  the 
 300  talents  in  lieu  of  them,  threatened  him  witli  military 
 
 1  1  Mac.  xi.  13;  Joseph.  Antiq.  I>.  xiii.  c.  S. 
 
 2  Ibid.  ver.  20,  47;  Joseph.   Antiq.  b.  xvii.  c.  S. 
 *  Ibid.  ver.  47 — 52;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  9. 
 
 4  I  Mac.  xi.53 
 
 execution,  unless  he  sent  the  taxes  and  tribute  which 
 were  usually  paid  by  his  predecessors  ;  and  would  cer- 
 tainly have  done  all  that  he  had  threatened,  had  not 
 Tryphon  found  out  another  employment  for  his  arms. 
 
 This  Tryphon  had  formerly  served  Alexander,  as  go- 
 vernor of  Antioch,  but,  in  the  present  king's  reign,  was 
 laid  aside.  Observing,  however,  that  the  cruelty  and 
 tyranny,  which  were  every  where  practised,  the  disband- 
 ing the  Syrian  soldiers,  and  retaining  only  foreigners  in 
 pay,  together  with  many  more  grievances,  which  the  peo- 
 ple laboured  under,  had  quite  alienated  their  hearts,  and 
 made  them  ready  for  a  general  defection,  he  thought  this 
 no  unfit  opportunity  to  put  in  practice  his  long  concerted 
 scheme  of  advancing  himself  to  the  crown  of  Syria. 
 
 To  this  purpose  he  goes  into  Arabia  ;  5  gets  Antiochus, 
 son  of  the  late  Alexander,  into  his  hands ;  brings  him 
 into  Syria,  claims  the  kingdom  for  him  ;  and,  to  support 
 this  claim,  all  the  soldiers  whom  Demetrius  had  disband- 
 ed, and  several  others,  whom  his  ill  conduct  had  made 
 his  enemies,  flock  in  great  numbers  to  the  pretender. 
 With  these  Tryphon  marches  against  Demetrius,  van- 
 quishes him  in  battle,  forces  him  into  Seleucia,  and  hav- 
 ing taken  possession  of  Antioch,  places  Antiochus  upon 
 the  throne,  and  gives  him  the  name  of  Theos,  or  the 
 Divine. 
 
 The  ill  return  which  Demetrius  made  Jonathan,  was, 
 doubtless,  the  chief  reason  for  his  declaring  for  this  new 
 king  ;  6  who,  by  the  advice  of  those  that  were  about  him, 
 took  care,  not  only  to  confirm  him  in  the  office  of  high 
 priest,  and  in  all  his  other  places  and  dignities,  but  to 
 make  likewise  his  brother  Simon  commander  of  all  his 
 forces,  from  Tyre  to  the  frontiers  of  Egypt.  Upon  this 
 defection  from  him,  Demetrius  sent  all  the  troops  that 
 were  left  in  Ccelo-Syria  and  Phoenicia,  to  chastise  him 
 for  it :  but  he  not  only  repulsed  them  twice,  but  took 
 Gaza  likewise,  and  all  the  country  as  far  as  Damascus ; 
 while  Simon, 7  whom  he  left  in  Judea,  penetrating  into  the 
 land  of  the  Philistines,  took  Joppa,  and  placed  a  strong 
 garrison  in  it.  Tryphon,  who  had  no  other  aim  in  get- 
 ting young  Antiochus  into  his  hands,  than  to  serve  his 
 wicked  purposes,  knew  very  well,  that,  as  long  as  Jona- 
 than continued  in  his  interest,  it  would  be  in  vain  for  him 
 to  attempt  the  crown  ;  and  8  therefore,  having  prevailed 
 with  him  to  dismiss  his  army,  and  to  accompany  him  to 
 Ptolemais,  under  pretence  of  putting  that  place  into  his 
 hands,  with  no  more  than  a  thousand  men,  they  were  no 
 sooner  entered,  but  the  garrison,  having  shut  the  gates 
 upon  them,  seized  Jonathan,  and  put  his  men  to  the 
 sword. 
 
 Having  thus  circumvented  Jonathan,  he  took  him  along 
 with  him,  and  marched  his  army  into  Judea  ;  but  the 
 Jews  by  this  time  had  chosen  Simon  his  brother  for  their 
 commander,  and  were  ready  to  give  him  a  warm  recep- 
 tion. Not  finding  himself  therefore  able  to  engage  them, 
 he  sent  Simon  this  deceitful  message,—9  "  That  he  had 
 seized  Jonathan  only  because  he  owed  100  talents  to  the 
 king ;  but  that  in  case  he  would  send  the  money,  and 
 Jonathan's  two  sons  to  be  hostages  for  their  father's 
 fidelity,  he  would  set  him  again  at  liberty."  Simon  soon 
 
 5  1  Mac.  xi.  54 — 56;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  9;  and  Apion, 
 de  Syriacis. 
 
 6  Ibid.  xi.  57 — 59;  Joseph,  ibid. 
 
 "  1  Mac.  xi.  Ci4:  Joseph.  Ibid.  Ibid.  xii.  39— 52. 
 
 w  Ibid.  xiii.  12 — 19;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  C.  11. 
 
Sect.  IV.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &o. 
 
 777 
 
 A.  M.3S41.A.C.1G3;  OH,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.5247.A.C.164. 
 
 saw  through  this  deceit;  but  lie  complied  with  the  trai- 
 tor's demand,  for  fear  it  should  be  said  that  lie  had  not 
 done  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to  save  his  brother's  life  ; 
 and  accordingly  sent  the  money,  and  two  young-  men. 
 But  when  the  villain  had  got  them  in  his  power,  he  put 
 both  them  and  their  father  to  death  ;  and  thinking  that 
 lie  had  now  nothing  to  obstruct  his  main  design,  he  caus- 
 ed Antiochus  to  be  murdered  privately  ;  and  then  assum- 
 ing the  crown,  declared  himself  king  of  Syria  in  his 
 stead. 
 
 When  Simon  heard  of  his  brother's  death,  and  that  he 
 was  buried  at  Bascama  in  the  land  of  Gilead,  '  he  sent 
 and  fetched  his  dead  body  from  thence;  and,  having 
 buried  it  with  great  funeral  solemnity  in  his  father's  se- 
 pulchre at  Modin,  lie  erected  over  it  a  stately  monu- 
 ment, a  all  built  of  white  marble,  and  curiously  wrought 
 and  poliohed. 
 
 2  Simon,  as  soon  as  he  was  admitted  to  the  govern- 
 ment of  the  laud,  sent  to  Demetrius,  who  was  then  at 
 Laodicea,  a  crown  of  gold,  and  ambassadors  to  treat 
 with  him  about  terms  of  peace  and  alliance.  The  king 
 granted  to  Simon  a  confirmation  of  the  high  priesthood 
 and  principality,  and  to  the  people  a  release  of  all  taxes, 
 tolls,  and  tributes,  with  an  oblivion  of  all  past  acts  of 
 hostility,  on  condition  that  they  would  join  with  him 
 against  the  usurper:  in  virtue  of  which  treaty,  Simon, 
 being  made  sovereign  prince  of  the  land,  and  the  land 
 freed  from  all  foreign  yoke,  the  Jews  from  this  time, 
 instead  of  dating  their  instruments  and  contracts  by  the 
 years  of  the  Syrian  kings,  as  hitherto  they  had  done, 
 dated  them  by  the  years  of  Simon  and  his  successors. 
 
 Having  thus  obtained  the  independent  sovereignty  of 
 the  land, 3  he  took  a  progress  through  it,  to  inspect  what 
 was  wanting  for  its  security;  repairing  the  fortifications 
 that  were  decayed,  making  new  ones  where  they  were 
 wanted,  and  besieging  and  taking  the  places  that  stood 
 out  .against  him.  He  had  no  occasion  however  to  be- 
 siege the  fortress  of  Jerusalem,  because  the  wall  which 
 his  brother  Jonathan  had  built  against  it  had  so  cut  oft' 
 all  communication  with  the  city,  that  the  garrison  being 
 sore  distressed  for  want  of  provisions,  and  all  other  ne- 
 cessaries, was  forced  to  surrender  the  place;  and  Simon, 
 wisely  considering  how  much  the  city  of  Jerusalem  had 
 been  infested  by  that  citadel,  pulled  it  down  to  the 
 ground,  that  it  might  no  longer  be  a  retreat  to  sedition 
 and  faction  ;  and,  to  prevent  its  being  built  at  any  time, 
 levelled  the  hill  on  which  it  was  situated ;  so  that  now  no 
 eminence  was  left  but  the  mount  of  the  temple  only. 
 
 Demetrius  *  at  this  time  was  prisoner  in  Parthia,  and 
 
 1  I  Mac.  xiii.  25 — 30;  Joseph.  Antiq.  I),  xiii.  c.  11. 
 1  1  Mac. xiii.   34—42;  Joscp.  ibid.         J  1  Mac.  xiv.  7—33. 
 
 a  This  edifice,  being  erected  on  an  eminence,  was  seen  far  off 
 at  sea;  and,  on  that  coast,  was  taken  notice  of  as  a  good  sea- 
 mark. Near  to  the  monument  Simon  placed  seven  pyramids, 
 two  for  iiis  father  and  mother,  four  for  his  four  brothers,  and  the 
 seventh  for  himself,  and  then  encompassed  the  whole  with  a 
 stately  portico,  supported  by  marble  pillars,  each  of  one  entire 
 piece,  and  whereon  were  engraved  ships  and  arms,  and  other 
 military  ensigns.  Josephus  tells  us,  that  tin's  whole  fabric  was 
 standing  entire  in  his  days,  and  looked  upon  as  a  very  curious 
 and  excellent  piece  of  architecture;  (Antiq,  b.  13.  c.  11.)  and 
 Eusebius  mentions  it  as  still  in  being  in  lus  time,  which  was  two 
 hundred  years  after  the  time  of  Joseybus.—Prideaua/'s  Connec- 
 tion, anno  144. 
 
 b  The  reason  of  Demetrius's  being  in  this  condition  in  this 
 place,  by  profane  historians,  is  said  to  be  this: — As  the  Par- 
 
 lMAC.v.l.  JOS.IIIST.b.xii.c.M-F.Nn  or  MAC.  JOS.HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19. 
 Cleopatra  his  queen  had  shut  up  herself  and  her  children 
 in  Seleucia;  c  but,  fearing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
 traitor  Tryphon,  and  being  provoked  at  her  husband's 
 marrying  the  daughter  of  Mithridates,  king  of  Parthia,  4 
 she  sent  to  his  brother  Antiochus,  who  still  continued  in 
 Crete,  offering  him  the  crown,  and  herself  in  marriage, 
 if  he  would  come  and  join  his  interest  with  hers  against 
 Tryphon.  This  offer  he  readily  accepted  of;  and,  in  the 
 beginning  of  the  next  year,  landed  in  Syria,  with  an  army 
 of  mercenaries,  which  was  soon  augmented  by  a  large  ac- 
 cession of  the  usurper's  forces,  which  every  day  deserted 
 from  him:  so  that,  not  being  able  to  keep  the  held,  he 
 fled  from  place  to  place,  till  at  length,  coming  to  Apa- 
 mea,  <l  his  own  native  city,  he  was  there  taken  and  put 
 to  death.  This  end  being  put  to  his  usurpation,  Antio- 
 chus became  fully  possessed  of  his  father's  throne;  and, 
 being  a  man  much  addicted  to  hunting,  he  had  for  that 
 reason  the  name  of  Sicletes,  which,  in  the  Syrian  lan- 
 guage, signifies  the  hunter. 
 
 Before  Antiochus  landed  in  Syria,  to  gain  Simon  over 
 to  his  interest,  he  wrote  him  a  letter,  »  wherein  he  made 
 him  many  grants,  and  promised  him  more;  but,  as  soon 
 as  he  was  settled  in  the  kingdom,  he  forgot  his  promises, 
 
 4  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  12.         s  1  Mac.  xv.  2—5. 
 
 thians  had  at  this  time  overrun  in  a  manner  all  the  East,  and 
 had  made  themselves  masters  of  every  country  from  the  river 
 Indus  to  the  Euphrates,  those  who  were  of  the  Macedonian  race 
 in  those  parts,  not  bearing  their  usurpation  and  insolence,  invit- 
 ed Demetrius,  by  repeated  embassies,  to  come  to  their  relief, 
 promising  him  a  general  revolt  from  the  Parthians,  and  such 
 assistance  of  forces  against  them  as  would  enable  him  to  suppress 
 these  usurpers,  and  recover  to  his  dominions  all  the  provinces  of 
 the  East.  Upon  confidence  of  these  promises,  he  undertook  the 
 expedition;  and  found  as  soon  as  he  appeared,  that  the  Ely- 
 ma?ans,  the  Persians,  and  the  Baetrians,  declared  for  him.  By 
 the  assistance  of  these  nations  lie  overthrew  the  Parthians  in 
 several  conflicts ;  but  at  last,  under  the  show  of  a  treaty  of  peace, 
 being  drawn  into  a  snare,  he  was  made  prisoner,  and  all  his 
 army  cut  to  pieces.  The  king  that  reigned  in  Parthia  at  this 
 time  was  Mithridates,  the  son  of  Priapatites,  who,  having  thus 
 got  Demetrius  into  his  power,  carried  him  round  the  revolted 
 provinces,  that,  by  seeing  the  prince  whom  they  confided  in  re- 
 duced to  this  ignominious  condition,  they  might  more  easily  lie 
 brought  to  submit  to  their  former  yoke:  but,  when  he  had  done 
 this,  he  allowed  him  a  maintenance  suitable  to  the  state  of  a 
 king,  and  gave  him  one  of  his  daughters,  whose  name  was 
 Uhodaguna,  in  marriage. — Justin,  b.  41.  c.  5,  and  6;  Joseph. 
 Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  9  and  12;  and  Orosus,  b.  5.  c.  4. 
 
 c  Seleucia  was  a  city  of  Syria,  situate  upon  the  Mediterranean, 
 near  the  place  where  the  Orontes  discharges  itself  into  that  sea. 
 It  was  generally  called  Pieria,  to  distinguish  it  from  other  cities 
 of  the  same  name ;  and  from  it  the  country  adjoining  received 
 the  name  of  Seleucis.  To  the  natural  strength  of  the  place,  were 
 added  so  many  fortifications,  that,  in  the  opinion  of  Strabo,  the 
 city  was  rendered  impregnable.  Pompey,  the  Roman  general, 
 conferred  on  it  the  privilege  uf  a  free  eity,  a  privilege  which  was 
 confirmed  by  several  emperors,  as  appears  from  many  ancient 
 medals.  The  chief  deity  of  the  inhabitants,  previous  to  the  rece|  - 
 tion  of  Christianity,  was  Jupiter,  whose  worship  was  splendidly 
 celebrated  on  Casius,  a  neighbouring  mountain.  It  was  from  the 
 port  of  this  city  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  embarked  for  Cyprus, 
 Acts  xiii.  4;  and,  like  the  neighbouring  city  of  Antioch,  where 
 the  disciples  of  Jesus  were  first  called  Christians.  The  city  of 
 Seleucia  also  very  early  received  the  gospel,  probably  about  A.  D. 
 43.  At  a  subsequent  period  it  became  an  eminent  Christian  city; 
 but  nothing  remains  of  Seleucia  at  the  present  time,  except  ruins, 
 among  which  are  those  of  some  of  its  ancient  churches  and  con- 
 n  at  -. — En. 
 
 d  It  is  a  city  of  Syria,  lying  upon  the  Orontes,  and  was  built, 
 as  is  believed,  either  by  Seleucus  the  first  king  of  Syria,  or  by 
 his  son  Antiochus  Sett  r,  in  honour  of  Qui  en  Apamea  the  wife  of 
 Seleucus,  the  mother  of  Antiochus. —  Cahmt's  Lit  tionary,  under 
 the  word. 
 
 5  F 
 
778 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.M.38U.A.C.163;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.5247.A.C.l6t.l  MAC.v.i.JOS.  HIST.  b.  xii.  c.  14— end  op  MAC.JOS.HIST.b.xiii.e.19'. 
 
 and  sent  an  ambassador,  demanding  him  to  deliver  up 
 Joppa  and  Gazara,  and  other  places,  or  else  to  pay  him 
 a  thousand  talents  of  silver  for  them.  1  These  conditions 
 were  thought  too  unreasonable  to  be  complied  with;  and 
 therefore,  when  Antiochus  sent  an  army  under  the  com- 
 mand of  Cendebeus,  to  enforce  them,  Simon,  though 
 very  far  advanced  in  years,  with  a  juvenile  courage,  pre- 
 pared to  give  him  a  warm  reception ;  and,  with  his  two 
 sons,  Judas  and  John,  who  was  afterwards  called  Hyr- 
 Ctinus,  put  his  army  to  flight  almost  at  the  first  onset, 
 and,  in  the  pursuit,  cut  oft' a  great  number  of  them:  but, 
 to  be  revenged  of  him  for  this  defeat,  Antiochus  concert- 
 ed the  most  abominable  measures. 
 
 Simon  had  a  son-in-law  named  Ptolemy,  whom  he 
 had  appointed  governor  of  the  plains  of  Jericho.  2  This 
 man,  who  was  rich  and  ambitious,  had  laid  a  design, 
 which  he  communicated  to  Antiochus,  for  the  usurpation 
 of  the  government  to  himself;  but  this  could  not  well  be 
 done  without  the  destruction  of  Simon  and  his  family. 
 As  Simon,  therefore,  and  two  of  his  sons,  Judas  and 
 Mattathias,  were  making  a  progress  through  the  cities 
 of  Judah,  when  they  came  to  Jericho,  Ptolemy  invited 
 them  to  an  entertainment  which  he  had  prepared  for  them 
 in  a  castle  of  his  own  building:  but,  while  they  were 
 drinking  and  making  merry,  he  caused  them,  and  all  that 
 attended  them,  to  be  assassinated;  and,  thinking  there- 
 upon to  make  himself  master  of  the  whole  land,  he  sent  a 
 party  to  Gazara,  where  John  Hyrcanus,  a  Simon's  third 
 son,  resided,  with  a  design  to  slay  him  likewise.  But 
 Hyrcanus  having  had  intelligence  of  what  passed  at 
 Jericho,  was  prepared  to  receive  his  intended  murderers, 
 and  having  dispatched  them,  hastened  to  Jerusalem  to 
 secure  the  city,  and  the  mount  of  the  temple,  against 
 those  whom  the  traitor  had  sent  to  take  possession  of 
 both.  After  this  Hyrcanus  was  declared  high  priest  and 
 prince  of  the  Jews,  in  place  of  his  father  Simon,  who 
 was  greatly  b  lamented  :  but  what  finally  became  of  this 
 
 a  '  1  Mac.  xv.  30—36. 
 
 Ibid.  xvi.  14—22  ;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  13.  c.  14. 
 
 a  Why  this  captain  was  called  Hyrcanus,  some  impute  to  the 
 victory  winch  he  obtained  over  Hyrcanus,  whom  the  books  of  the 
 '  Maccabees,  and  Josephus,  call  Cendebeus,  though  others  say, 
 that  he  had  this  name  from  a  gallant  action  against  the  Hyrea- 
 nians,  perhaps  in  the  expedition  wherein  he  accompanied  Alex- 
 ander Sidetes  beyond  the  Euphrates.— Cahnel's  Dictionary,  under 
 the  word. 
 
 b  The  commendation  which  the  author  of  the  first  book  of  the 
 Maccabees,  (chap.  xiv.  4,)  &c.  bestows  upon  Simon,  is  worth  our 
 observation  ;  for  he  therein  tells  us,  that  he  'sought  the  good  of 
 the  nation,Mn  every  thing,  '  so  that  his  authority  always  pleased 
 them  well-.'  that  during  his  administration,  whilst  Syria,  and 
 other  neighbouring  kingdoms  were  almost  destroyed  by  wars,  the 
 Jews  lived  quietly,  '  every  man  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree,' 
 enjoying,  without  fear,  the  fruits  of  their  labours,  and  beholding 
 with  pleasure  the  flourishing  state  of  their  country  ;  their  trade 
 increased  by  the  reduction  of  Joppa,  and  other  maritime  places; 
 their  territories  enlarged;  their  armies  well  disciplined;  their 
 towns  and  fortresses  well  garrisoned;  their  religion  and  liberties 
 secured;  their  land  freed  from  heathen  enemies,  and  Jewish 
 apostates;  and  their  f.iendship  courted  by  all  thenationsabout 
 them,  even  by  the  Komans  and  the  Lacedemonians.  He  observes 
 lart her,  that  tins  bimon  was  no  less  zealous  for  the  service  of 
 bod,  in  exterminating  apostasy,  superstition,  idolatry,  and  every 
 thmg  else  that  was  contrary  to  his  laws;  that  he  was  a  great 
 protector  of  the  true  Israelites,  and  a  friend  to  the  poor;  that  he 
 restored  the  service  of  the  temple  to  its  ancient  splendour,  and 
 repaired  the  number  of  its  sacred  vessels:  so  that  we  need  not 
 wonder,  il  the  Jewish  sanhedrim  thought  no  dignity  or  honour, 
 while  lie  lived,  and  when  he  was  so  basely  aud  barbarously  cut 
 
 execrable  villain,  c  we  have  no  manner  of  account  in 
 history. 
 
 3  Antiochus  having  received  from  Ftolemy  an  account 
 of  the  death  of  Simon  and  his  sons,  thought  that  he  had 
 now  a  fair  opportunity  to  reduce  Judea  again  under  the 
 Syrian  empire  ;  and  therefore  he  immediately  marched  a 
 large  army  thither  ;  and  having  overrun  the  country,  and 
 driven  Hyrcanus  out  of  the  field,  he  shut  him  up  and  all 
 his  forces  within  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  and  there  be- 
 sieged him.  The  siege  was  carried  on  vigorously;  and 
 the  defence  of  the  place  was  executed  as  gallantly  :  but 
 Hyrcanus  being  distressed  for  want  of  provisions  for  so 
 vast  a  number  of  people  as  was  in  the  city,  was  forced 
 to  sue  for  peace,  which  was  granted  him  upon  these  terms, 
 that  the  besieged  should  deliver  up  their  arms  ;  that 
 Jerusalem  should  be  dismantled  ;  that  tribute  should  be 
 paid  to  the  king  for  Joppa,  and  the  other  towns  which 
 were  held  by  the  Jews  out  of  Judea  ;  and  that,  to  buy 
 oft'  the  fortress  of  Jerusalem,  from  being  rebuilt,  which 
 Antiochus  much  insisted  on,  they  should  pay  him  five 
 hundred  talents ;  rf  three  hundred  down  in  hand,  and  the 
 
 3  I  Mac.  xvi.  IS;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  16. 
 off,  no  grief  aud  lamentation,  too  great  for  a  man  of  his  uncommon 
 merit. —  Universal  History,  b.  ii.  c.  11. 
 
 c  Josephus  has  something  peculiar  in  his  account  of  this  vile 
 miscreant,  namely,  that  after  he  had  killed  his  father-in-law 
 Simon,  he  seized  on  his  wife,  and  two  of  her  children,  and  with 
 them  betook  himself  to  a  certain  castle  not  far  from  Jerusalem, 
 called  Dagon;  that  when  Hyrcanus  came  to  besiege  it,  the  vil- 
 lain's custom  was,  to  bring  out  his  mother  and  brothers,  and  to 
 whip  and  torment  them  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people,  with  men- 
 aces to  cast  them  headlong  from  the  battlements,  unless  Hyrca- 
 nus withdrew  the  siege;  that  when  Hyrcanus,  out  of  tenderness 
 to  his  mother  and  brothers,  was  thinking  of  raising  the  siege,  and 
 suffering  the  traitor  to  escape,  his  mother  called  aloud  to  him 
 from  the  walls,  not  to  regard  her,  or  her  children's  sufferings,  but 
 to  proceed  in  the  siege  with  vigour,  that  so  he  might  do  himself 
 and  his  family  right,  in  taking  a  just  vengeance  upon  that  execra- 
 ble monster ;  that,  notwithstanding  this  magnanirrfous  exhortation, 
 he  could  not  bear  to  see  his  relations  tortured,  and  therefore 
 delayed  the  siege,  until  the  sabbatical  year  came  on,  wherein  the 
 Jews  were  obliged  to  rest;  so  that  Ptolemy,  by  this  means,  being 
 delivered  from  the  war,  and  the  siege,  after  he  had  slain  the 
 mother  and  brothers  of  Hyrcanus,  withdrew  to  Zeno,  surnamed 
 Catyla,  a  tyrant  who  at  that  time  had  usurped  to  himself  the 
 government  of  Philadelphia;  {Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  15.)  But  our 
 learned  Usher  is  of  opinion,  that  this  whole  account  of  Josephus 
 is  fabulous. 
 
 d  Josephus  tells  us  that  Hyrcanus,  to  find  some  money  for 
 this,  and  other  occasions  of  the  government,  broke  up  the  sepul- 
 chre of  David,  and  took  from  thence  three  thousand  talents,  and 
 that  Herod  the  Great  did  afterwards  the  like,  Antiq,  b.  xvii. 
 c.  16,  and  b.  xvi.  c.  11.  But  both  these  stories  are  highly  im- 
 probable. David  had  now  been  dead  nearly  nine  hundred  years, 
 and  what  is  told  of  this  treasure,  supposes  it  to  have  been  buried 
 with  him  all  this  time.  It  supposes,  that  as  oft  as  the  city  of 
 Jerusalem,  the  palace,  and  the  temple,  during  the  reigns  of  the 
 kings  of  Judah,  had  been  plundered  of  all  their  wealth  and  trea- 
 sure by  prevailing  enemies,  this  dead  stock  still  remained  safe 
 trom  all  rifle  or  violation.  It  supposes,  that  as  oft  as  these  kings 
 were  forced  to  take  all  the  treasure  that  was  found  in  the  house 
 ol  the  Lord,  as  well  as  in  their  own,  to  relieve  the  exigencies  of 
 the  state,  they  never  meddled  with  this,  that  was  uselessly  buried 
 with  David  in  his  grave.  It  supposes,  that  when  one  of  the 
 worst  of  their  kings  (2  Kings  xv.  8,  &c.  and  2  Chron.  xxviii.  21, 
 &c.)  plundered  the  temple  of  its  sacred  vessels,  and  cut  them  in 
 pieces,  to  melt  them  down  into  money  for  his  common  occasions; 
 and  that  when  one  of  the  best  of  them  (2  Kings  xviii.  15,  16.) 
 was  forced  to  cut  oil'  the  gold  wherewith  the  gates  and  pillars  of 
 the  temple  were  overlaid,  to  bribe  a  destroying  enemy,  this  use- 
 less treasure  still  continued  untouched.  Nay,  it  supposes,  that 
 when  Nebuchadnezzar  destroyed  both  the  city  and  the  temple  of 
 Jerusalem  ;  so  that,  for  many  years  they  both  lay  in  rubbish,  this 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY.  &c. 
 
 779 
 
 A.M. 3841.  A.C.1C3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5247. A.C.I 
 
 other  two  in  a  reasonable  time,  for  which  they  were  to 
 give  hostages. 
 
 The  treaty  being  thus  concluded,  Hyrcanus  invited 
 the  king  and  his  army  into  the  city,  where  he  gave  them 
 a  splendid  and  most  magnificent  reception,  and  after- 
 wards, with  some  of  his  forces,  attended  him  to  the 
 Parthian  war  :  for  Antiochus,  under  pretence  of  rescuing 
 his  brother  Demetrius  Nicanor  from  the  hands  of  Phra- 
 ortes  king  of  Parthia,  who  had  long  detained  him  as 
 prisoner,  marched  against  him  with  a  powerful  army. 
 In  three  pitched  battles  he  gained  the  victory,  and  reco- 
 vered Babylonia,  Medea,  and  some  other  provinces  that 
 formerly  belonged  to  the  Syrian  monarchy ;  and  as  Hyr- 
 canus had  his  share  in  all  these  actions,  he  returned  with 
 the  glory  of  them  at  the  end  of  the  year  ;  but  Antiochus 
 1  and  his  army,  who  chose  to  winter  in  the  east,  were 
 all,  in  one  night,"  destroyed  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
 country. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  Demetrius,2  whom  Phraortes  b  had 
 set  at  liberty,  was  returned  to  Syria,  and,  upon  his  bro- 
 ther's death,  had  recovered  his  kingdom;  but  still  per- 
 sisting in  his  vicious  courses,  and  tyrannical  way  of 
 government,  he  had  not  been  long  reinstated,  before  his 
 subjects  rebelled  against  him,  and  one  Alexander  Zabina, 
 
 1  Justin,  b.  xxxviii. 
 2  Justin,  b.  xxxviii;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  16. 
 treasure  in  David's  sepulchre  lay,  all  the  while,  safe  and  secure 
 under  it ;  and  that  when  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  in  like  manner, 
 destroyed  the  city,  and  robbed  the  temple  of  all  that  he  could  find, 
 tiiis  treasure  still  escaped  his  rapacious  hands,  nor  was  ever 
 molested,  till  Hyrcanus,  at  this  time,  was  forced  to  make  bold 
 with  it:  all  which  suppositions  seem  highly  improbable,  and  be- 
 yond belief.  There  is  this,  however,  to  be  said  in  the  matter, 
 that  as  there  certainly  was  a  bank  or  treasury  in  the  temple  where 
 money  was  laid  up  for  the  support  of  the  poor,  for  the  relief  of 
 widows  and  fatherless  children,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  divine 
 service;  and  where  the  great  men,  and  rich  men  of  the  nation, 
 were  used  to  deposit  their  wealth,  for  its  better  security:  it  is 
 not  improbable,  that  upon  the  account  of  the  frequent  invasions 
 and  depredations  they  were  liable  to,  this  treasure  might  be  kept 
 in  some  secret  and  subterraneous  place,  unknown  to  all,  but  such 
 as  were  at  the  head  of  affairs;  that  Hyrcanus,  beiug  now  under 
 great  difficulty  to  raise  money,  might  borrow  it  out  of  this  bank, 
 till  better  times  enabled  him  to  repay  it;  and  that  Herod,  when 
 he  plundered  it  quite,  might  trump  up  this  plausible  story,  that 
 it  neither  belonged  to  church,  nor  poor,  nor  any  private  person, 
 but  had  been  deposited  there  by  David  and  his  successors,  as  a 
 proper  supply  for  the  state  in  times  of  need. — Prideaux's  Con- 
 nection, anno  135;  and  Universal  History,  b.  ii.  c.  11. 
 
 a  The  army,  which,  together  with  its  attendants,  amounted 
 to  the  number  of  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  persons,  being 
 forced  to  disperse  all  over  the  country,  were  quartered  at  too 
 great  a  distance  from  each  other  to  be  able  in  any  time  to  gather 
 together  in  a  body ;  and  as  they  had  grievously  oppressed  all 
 places  wherever  they  lay,  the  inhabitants  took  the  advantage  of 
 this  their  dispersion,  and  conspired  with  the  Paithians,  in  one 
 and  the  same  day,  to  fall  upon  them  in  their  several  quarters, 
 and  cut  their  throats;  which  accordingly  they  did,  and  when 
 Antiochus,  with  the  forces  which  he  had  about  him,  hastened  to 
 the  assistance  of  the  quarters  that  were  near  him,  he  was  over- 
 powered, and  slain;  so  that  of  this  numerous  army,  there  scarce 
 returned  a  man  into  Syria,  to  carry  the  doleful  news  of  this  ter- 
 rible overthrow.  Phraortes,  however,  (who  was  then  king  of 
 Parthia,)  caused  the  body  of  Antiochus  to  be  taken  up  from 
 among  the  dead,  and  having  put  it  into  a  silver  coffin,  sent  it 
 honourably  into  Syria,  to  be  there  buried  among  his  ancestors. — 
 Justin,  b.  xxxviii.  c.  12 ;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  1(3. — 
 Apian  dc  Syriacis. 
 
 b  The  reason  of  his  releasing  Demetrius,  and  sending  him 
 into  Syria,  was,  that  by  raising  troubles  there  for  the  recovery  of 
 his  crown,  he  might  force  Antiochus  to  return,  in  order  to  sup- 
 press them. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  130. 
 
 64.  1  MAC.v.I.JOS.HIST.b.xii.c.14— END  of  MAC.JOS.HIST.bxui.e-19. 
 
 pretending  to  be  the  son  of  Alexander  Balas,  laid  claim 
 to  his  crown ;  and  by  the  assistance  of  Ptolemy  Phys- 
 con,  king  of  Egypt,3  defeated  him  in  a  pitched  battle. 
 Demetrius  rled  for  refuge  to  Ptolemais,  where  his  wife 
 Cleopatra  c  then  resided ;  but  she  ordered  the  gates  to 
 be  shut  against  him,  so  that  he  was  forced  to  betake 
 himself  for  refuge  to  Tyre,  where  he  fell  into  the  hands 
 of  his  enemies,  who  first  made  him  prisoner,  and  then 
 put  him  to  death.  Zabina,  by  this  means,  ascended  the 
 throne  of  Syria,  but  he  did  not  sit  long  there  ;  for  Phys- 
 con,  expecting  that  he  should  hold  it  in  homage  from 
 him,  which  the  other  was  not  inclinable  to  do,  resolved 
 to  pull  him  down  as  fast  as  he  had  set  him  up  ;  and 
 therefore,  having  married  his  daughter  Tryphama  to 
 Antiochus  Gryphus,  the  son  of  the  late  Demetrius,  he 
 assisted  him  with  an  army,  which  vanquished  Zabina,  and 
 compelled  him  to  shut  himself  up  in  Antioch  :  but  the 
 Antiochians,  being  informed  that  he  intended  to  rob 
 their  temple  of  Jupiter  of  a  golden  statue,  which  was 
 very  massy,  to  enable  him  to  carry  on  the  war,  thrust 
 him  out  from  thence,  so  that  wandering  from  place  to 
 to  place,  he  fell  at  last  into  the  hands  of  those  who  car- 
 ried him  to  Antiochus,  by  whose  direction  he  was  put  to 
 death. 
 
 During  these  divisions  and  disturbances,  Hyrcanus 
 laid  hold  on  the  opportunity,  not  only  to  enlarge  his 
 own  territories,  but  to  shake  off  the  Syrian  yoke  like- 
 wise, and  make  himself  wholly  independent.  He  built 
 the  stiitely  tower,  or  rather  castle  of  Baris,  d  upon  a 
 steep  rock,  that  was  fifty  cubits  high,  and  on  all  sides 
 inaccessible,  except  towards  the  temple.  He  took 
 several  cities,  which  the  great  draughts  of  men  the  kings 
 of  Syria  had  made  for  their  foreign  expeditions,  had  left 
 unprovided  with  garrisons  :  he  subdued  Shechem,  the 
 chief  seat  of  the  sect  of  the  Samaritans,  and  destroyed 
 their  temple  which  Sanballat  had  built  them  on  Mount 
 Gerazzim:  4he  conquered  the  Idumeans,  and  prevailed 
 with  them  all  to  become  proselytes  e  to  the  Jewish  reli- 
 
 3  Justin,  b.  xxxix.  c.  1,  and  2;  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  17. 
 *  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  17. 
 
 c  This  Cleopatra  was  the  daughter  of  Ptolemy  Philometer, 
 king  of  Egypt,  and  Cleopatra  his  wife.  She  was  at  first  married 
 to  Alexander  Balas,  and  afterwards  to  this  Demetrius,  in  her 
 father's  lifetime.  While  Demetrius  was  detained  a  prisoner  in 
 Parthia,  she  became  the  wife  of  his  brother  Antiochus  Sidetes ; 
 but,  upon  the  death  of  Sidetes,  the  restoration  of  Demetrius,  and 
 recovery  of  his  kingdom,  she  returned  to  his  bed  again,  but  never 
 had  any  great  esteem  for  him,  because  in  his  captivity  he  had 
 married  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  Parthia. — Prideaux's  Con- 
 nection, anno  127. 
 
 d  The  word  baris,  which  is  originally  Chaldee,  signifies  pro- 
 perly a  house,  or  castle,  inclosed  on  every  side,  as  this  was  encom- 
 passed with  the  wall  which  Simon  built  to  stop  the  communica- 
 tion between  the  temple  and  the  fortress  of  Acre.  Here  it  was 
 that  Hyrcanus  built  an  apartment,  for  the  safe  keeping  of  his 
 pontifical  robes  and  ornaments,  whenever  he  undressed  himself; 
 and  here  the  Asmonean  princes  took  up  their  abode,  and  made 
 it  their  royal  palace,  until  Hcrcd  ascended  the  throne,  and  hav- 
 ing rebuilt,  enlarged,  and  beautified  it,  gave  it  the  name  of  An- 
 tonia,  in  honour  of  his  friend  M.  Antony. —  Universal  History, 
 b.  ii.  c.  11. 
 
 c  Among  the  Jews  there  were  two  sorts  of  proselytes,  namely, 
 the  proselytes  of  the  gate,  and  the  proselytes  of  justice.  1.  The 
 proselytes  of  the  gate,  were  so  called,  because  they  were  permitted 
 to  dwell  with  the  Jews  in  the  same  cities,  and  the  occasion  of 
 their  name  seems  to  have  been  taken  from  that  expression  in  the 
 fourth  commandment, 'the  strangers  which  are  within  thy  gates; 
 where   the  word  gcr,  which  we   render  strangers,  does  every 
 
780 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BfBLK 
 
 Book  VII. 
 
 A.M. 3811. A.C.163;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.A.  M.  5247.  A.C.  164 
 
 gion,  so  that  thenceforward  they  were  incorporated  into  | 
 the  same  church  and  nation,  and  in  time  lost  the  name 
 of  Idumeans  or  Edomites,  and  were  all  called  Jews.  He 
 renewed  the  alliance  with  the  Romans,  and,  by  a  de- 
 cree "  from  them,  obtained  greater  privileges  and  ad- 
 vantages than  the  Jews  ever  had  before ;  and  now, 
 being  much  increased  in  riches  and  power,  he  sent  his 
 two  sons,  Aristobulus  and  Antigonus,  to  besiege  Samaria, 
 who  on  this  occasion  gave  good  proofs  of  their  valour 
 and  conduct.  The  place  held  out  for  a  whole  year  ; 
 but,  being  forced  to  surrender  at  last,  by  the  direction 
 of  Hyrcanus,  it  was  utterly  demolished  :  for  he  caused 
 not  only  the  houses  and  walls  to  be  pulled  down,  and 
 razed,  but  trenches  to  be  dug  every  way  across  the  ground 
 whereon  it  stood,  and  to  be  filled  with  water,  that  it  might 
 never  again  be  built. 
 
 After  the  taking  of  Samaria,  the  remainder  of  his  life 
 Hyrcanus  enjoyed  in  full  quiet  from  all  foreign  Avars  ; 
 but, '  towards  the  conclusion  of  it,  met  with  some  trouble 
 from  the  Pharisees,  a  prevailing  sect  among  the  Jews. 
 They,  by  their  pretences  to  extraordinary  strictness  in 
 religion,  had  gained  to  themselves  a  great  reputation 
 and  interest  among  the  common  people ;  and,  for  this 
 reason,  Hyrcanus  endeavoured  to  gain  their  esteem  by 
 all  manner  of  favours.  Having  therefore,  one  day,  in- 
 vited several  of  their  leading  men  to  a  splendid  enter- 
 tainment, when  the  banquet  was  over,  he  desired  them  to 
 tell  him,  '  if,  in  the  conduct  of  his  life,  he  had  done  any 
 thing  contrary  to  justice  and  religion,  according  to  the 
 maxims  received  and  taught  amongst  them.'  As  soon 
 as  he  had  ended  his  discourse,  all  began  to  praise  his 
 
 'Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  18. 
 whit  as  properly  signify  proselytes.  Now,  this  kind  of  prose- 
 lytes was  obliged  only  to  renounce  idolatry,  and  to  worship  God 
 according  to  the  law  of  nature,  which  the  doctors  of  the  Talmud 
 reduced  to  seven  articles,  called  by  them  the  'seven  precepts  of 
 the  sons  of  Noah.'  Whoever  performed  these  were  looked  upon 
 ;n  in  a  state  of  acceptance  with  God;  and  allowed,  not  only  to 
 live  quietly  in  their  cities,  but  to  resort  likewise  to  their  temple, 
 there  to  oiler  up  their  prayer*;  but  then  they  were  permitted  to 
 enter  no  farther  than  into  the  outer  court,  which  was  called  the 
 'court  of  the  Gentiles.'  2.  The  '  proselytes  of  justice'  were  so 
 called,  because  they  took  upon  them  to  observe  the  whole  law, 
 both  moral  and  ceremonial,  in  the  latter  of  which  some  of  the 
 Jew.-,  and  especially  the  Pharisees,  made  justification  to  consist. 
 The  former  sort  of  proselytes  had  no  form  of  initiation,  but  these 
 were  admitted  by  baptism,  sacrifice,  and  circumcision;  and  when 
 they  were  thus  admitted,  they  were  received  into  the  Jewish 
 church,  and  to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  church-membership, 
 in  the  same  manner  as  if  they  had  been  natural  Jews. — Preface 
 Generate  sur  le  Nov.  Test,  par  de  Beausoure,  and  JJ enfant;  and 
 vtur's  Connection,  anno  \2d. 
 a  The  ambassadors  whom  Hyrcanus  sent  to  Rome  to  renew 
 the  league,  which  his  father  Simon  had  made  with  the  senate, 
 made  their  complaint — That  Antiochus  Sidetes  had  made  war 
 upon  the  Jews,  contrary  to  what  the  Romans  had  in  their  behalf 
 decreed  in  that  league:  that  they  had  taken  from  them  several 
 cities,  and  made  them  become  tributary  to  them  for  others,  and 
 forced  them  to  a  dishonourable  peace,  by  besieging  Jerusalem: 
 Whereupon  the  senate  decreed,  that  whatever  of  this  kind  had 
 been  done  against  them,  since  the  time  of  the  late  treaty  with 
 Simon,  should  be  all  null  and  void;  that  all  the  places  which  had 
 either  been  taken  from  them,  or  made  tributary  by  the  Syrians, 
 should  be  restored,  and  made  free  from  all  homage,  tribute,  and 
 other  services;  that,  for  the  future,  the  Syrian  kings  should  have 
 no  right  to  march  their  armies  through  the  Jewish  territories; 
 that  for  all  the  damages  which  the  Syrians  had  done  the  Jews, 
 reparation  should  be  made  them;  and  that  ambassadors  should 
 
 be  scut  from  Rome  to  see  this  decree  put  in  execution. Jewish 
 
 Jriiiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  17. 
 
 .  !MAC.v.l.JOS.IIIST.b.xiJ.c.l4— end  of  MAC.JOS.HIST.  1>.  xiii.  c.19 
 
 administration,  and  to  give  him  all  the  commendations 
 due  to  a  brave  man,  and  a  just  and  worthy  governor. 
 
 When  the  rest  had  done  their  encomiums,  Eleazar,  who 
 had  hitherto  said  nothing,  rose  up,  and,  directing  his  dis- 
 course to  Hyrcanus,  "  Since  you  desire,"  said  he,  "to 
 have  the  truth  freely  told  you,  if  you  would  show  your- 
 self a  just  man,  resign  the  high  priesthood,  and  content 
 yourself  with  the  civil  government  of  the  nation."  Hyr- 
 canus then  asking  him  for  what  reason  he  gave  him  that 
 advice  ?  "  Because,"  replied  he,  "  we  are  assured,  by  the 
 testimony  of  the  ancients  among  us,  that  your  mother 
 was  a  captive  taken  in  the  wars,  and  being  therefore  the 
 son  of  a  strange  woman,  you  are  incapable  of  that  high 
 oilice  and  dignity." 
 
 This  was  an  allegation  false  in  fact,  and  therefore  all 
 the  company  resented  it  with  a  just  indignation  ;  but 
 Hyrcanus  was  so  exasperated  at  it,  that  he  resolved  to 
 be  revenged  in  a  very  signal  manner.  This  disposition 
 one  Jonathan,  an  intimate  friend  of  his,  but  a  zealous 
 Sadducee,  observing,  took  the  opportunity  to  endeavour 
 to  set  him  against  the  whole  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  (among 
 whom  Hyrcanus  had  been  bred  up,)  and  to  draw  him  over 
 to  that  of  the  Sadducees.  To  this  purpose  he  suggested 
 to  him, — "  That  this  was  not  the  single  act  of  Eleazar, 
 but,  most  certainly  a  thing  concerted  by  the  whole  party  ; 
 that  Eleazar,  in  speaking  it  out,  was  no  more  than  the 
 mouth  of  the  rest ;  and  that,  to  satisfy  himself  in  these 
 particulars,  he  needed  only  refer  it  to  them  in  what  man- 
 ner the  calumniator  deserved  to  be  punished."  Hyrcanus 
 followed  his  advice  :  and  therefore,  consulting  the  chief 
 leaders  of  the  Pharisees  with  relation  to  the  penalty 
 which  he  might  deserve,  who  had  thus  slandered  the 
 prince,  and  high  priest  of  his  nation,  lie  received  for 
 answer, — "  That  as  calumny  was  no  capital  crime,  all 
 the  punishment  that  it  merited  could  be  only  whipping  '> 
 or  imprisonment :"  2  which  fully  convinced  Hyrcanus, 
 that  what  Jonathan  had  suggested  was  true,  and,  from 
 that  very  moment,  he  became  a  mortal  enemy  to  the 
 whole  sect  of  the  Pharisees.  Their  traditional  constitu- 
 tions he  forthwith  abrogated  ;  he  enjoined  a  penalty  on 
 all  that  should  observe  them  ;  and  he  himself  for  ever  re- 
 nouncing their  party,  went  over  to  that  of  the  Sadducees. 
 But,  notwithstanding  this,  he  was  an  excellent  governor  ; 
 and,  from  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  having  had  the 
 administration  of  all  affairs,  both  in  church  and  state,  for 
 the  space  of  nine  and  twenty  years,  at  his  death  he  left 
 the  high  priesthood  and  sovereignty  to  Judas  Aristobulus, 
 who  was  the  first  that,  in  a  formal  manner,  took  upon 
 him  the  title  of  a  king,  by  putting  a  diadem  on  his  head. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Objections  answered  and  Difficulties 
 obviated. 
 
 The  name  of  Maccabees  relates  not  only  to  Judas  and 
 his  brothers,  but  to  all  those  who  joined  him  in  the  same 
 
 2  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  18. 
 Ij  This  punishment,  among  the  Jews,  was  not  to  exceed  forty 
 stripes,  Dent.  xxv.  3. ;  and  therefore  the  whip  wherewith  it  was 
 inflicted,  was  made  with  three  thongs,  and  each  blow  gave  three 
 stripes,  they  never  inflicted  upon  any  criminal  more  than  thirteen, 
 because  thirteen  of  these  blows  made  thirty-nine  stripes,  and  to 
 have  added  another  blow,  would  have  been  a  transgression  of  the 
 law,  by  inflicting  two  stripes  more  than  what  was  prescribed. 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 781 
 
 A.M.  3811.  A.C.1G3;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,A.M.5247.A.C.1C4.1  MAC.v.l.  JOS.  HIST.  b.xii.c.M— end  oi-MAC.JOS.IHST.l..xiii.c.l9. 
 
 cause  ;  and,  not  only  to  them,  but  also  to  all  others,  who 
 Buffered  in  the  like  cause  under  any  of  the  Grecian  kings, 
 whether  of  Syria  or  Egypt,  though  some  of  them  lived 
 long  before  them.  Thus  those  who  suffered  under  Ptole- 
 my Philopater,  at  Alexandria,  fifty  years  before  the  time 
 of  Judas,  were  afterwards  called  Maccabees,  as  were 
 likewise  Eleazar,  and  the  mother,  and  her  seven  sons, 
 though  they  suffered  likewise  before  Judas  erected  the 
 standard  which  gave  occasion  to  the  name. 
 
 1  As  therefore  those  books  which  give  us  the  history 
 of  .hulas  and  his  brethren,  and  their  wars  against  the 
 Syrian  kings,  in  defence  of  their  religion  and  liberties, 
 are  called  the  first  and  second  books  of  the  Maccabees; 
 so  that  which  gives  us  the  history  of  those,  who,  in  the 
 like  cause,  under  Ptolemy  Philopater,  were  exposed  to 
 his  elephants  at  Alexandria,  is  called  the  third  book  of 
 the  Maccabees;  as  that  which  contains  the  account  of 
 the  martyrdom  of  Eleazar,  and  of  the  seven  brothers 
 and  their  mother,  is  called  the  fourth. 
 
 a  According  to  the  order  of  time,  indeed,  and  the  sub- 
 ject matter  which  they  treat  of,  these  books  are  wrong- 
 placed;  for  the  third  should  be  set  first,  the  second 
 placed  before  the  first,  and  the  fourth  immediately  after 
 it;  so  that,  to  reduce  them  to  right  order,  the  first  should 
 be  put  in  the  place  of  the  third,  and  the  third  in  the 
 place  of  the  first.  Grotius,  indeed,  is  of  opinion,  that 
 the  third  book,  though  it  treats  of  matters  antecedent  to 
 what  is  the  subject  of  the  first  and  second,  was  neverthe- 
 less written  after  them,  even  after  the  book  of  Ecclesias- 
 ticus,  and  upon  that  account  had  the  name  of  the  third 
 book  given  it;  but  the  true  reason  of  its  being  postponed 
 is  : — that,  being  of  less  repute  and  authority  than  the 
 two  former,  it  has  always  been  reckoned  after  them, 
 according  to  the  order  of  dignity,  though  it  be  before 
 them  in  the  order  of  time. 
 
 The  first  of  these  books  3  was  originally  written  in  the 
 Chaldee  "  language  of  the  Jerusalem  dialect,  which  was 
 the  only  language  spoken  in  Judea  after  the  return  from 
 the  Babylonish  captivity,  and  is  a  very  accurate  and 
 excellent  history,  coming  nearest  to  the  style  and  man- 
 ner of  the  sacred  historical  writings  of  any  extant.  The 
 second  is  a  compilation  of  several  pieces;  of  two  epis- 
 tles from  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem  to  those  of  Alexandria 
 4  which  seem  to  be  spurious;  b  of  a  preface  preceding 
 
 '  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  21G. 
 2  Calmet's  Preface  on  the  third  book  of  Maccabees. 
 3  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  lu'C.        4  Ibid. 
 Rather  than  do  this  therefore,  the  usual  way  was,  to  give  one  too 
 few;  and  therefore  St  Paul  tells  us,  2  Cor.  xi.  24,  that  when   he 
 \\as  whipped  by  the  Jews,  '  he  received  forty  stripes,  save  one.' 
 /'. -idea U.e's  Connection,  in  the  notes,  anno  108. 
 
 a  H  was  extant  in  this  language  in  the  time  of  St  Jerome;  for 
 he  telk  us,  that  lie  had  seen  it,  and  that  the  title  which  it  then 
 bore,  w\  9  Sharbit  sar  bene  El,  that  is,  the  sceptre  of  the  prince 
 of  the  sons  of  Cod,  a  title  which  well  suited  Judas,  who  was  so 
 valiant  a  commander  of  God's  people  then  under  persecution. 
 Prom  the  Chaldee  it  was  translated  into  Greek  by  Theodotion, 
 as  some  think,  though  others  account  that  version  elder;  and, 
 from  the  Greek,  both  the  Latin  translation  and  our  English  did 
 proceed — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  1G6. 
 
 b  The  former  of  these  epistles  calls  the  feast  of  the  dedication, 
 'ZKnvirrr.y'ia.  h  Ka0-1A.11;,  that  is,  the  feast  of  making  tabernacles  or 
 booths  in  C'isleu.  Now,  as  the  month  CiSleu  fell  in  the  middle 
 ol  winter,  it  can  hardly  he  presumed,  that  the  people  could  either 
 lie  abroad  in  these  booths,  or  find  green  boughs  enough  at  this 
 time  ot  the  year  wherewith  to  make  them.  'Phis  is  an  incon- 
 gruity enough  to  explode  the  former  epistle.     And  then,  as  to 
 
 the  history  ;  and  of  the  history  itself,  which  is  an  abridg- 
 ment of  a  larger  work,  composed  by  one  Jason,  an  Hellen- 
 ist Jew  of  Gyrene ;  but  the  whole  is  by  no  means  equal  to 
 the  excellence  and  accuracy  of  the  first.  The  third,1 'which 
 seems  to  have  been  written  by  an  Alexandrian  Jew,  d  in 
 the  Greek  language,  is  set  oft' with  enlargements  and  em- 
 bellishments of  the  author's  own  invention;  but,  as  to  the 
 main  ground-work  of  it,  or  the  reality  of  such  a  perse- 
 cution raised  against  the  Jews  at  Alexandria,  it  is  un- 
 doubtedly true;  and,  though  its  style  be  a  little  too 
 theatrical,  its  sentiments  in  many  places  are  both  beau- 
 tiful and  sublime.  The  fourth,  e  which  is  generally 
 allowed  to  be  the  same  with  what  is  ascribed  to  Jose- 
 phus,  the  Jewish  historian,  under  the  title  of  "  The  gov- 
 erning power  of  reason,"  is  designed  to  enlarge  and 
 adorn  the  history  of  old  Eleazar,  and  of  the  seven  bro- 
 thers, who,  with  their  mother,  suffered  martyrdom  under 
 Antiochus,  as  it  is  related  more  succinctly  in  the  second 
 book  of  5  Maccabees. 
 
 The  author  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  G  has  stamped 
 some  authority  upon  these  books,  by  alluding-  to  their 
 history,  and  the  punishment  which  the  Maccabees  were 
 made  to  undergo ;  but  we  must  not  therefore  receive 
 them  as  canonical,  because,  according-  to  the  report  of 
 St  Jerome,  neither  the  Jewish  nor  the  Christian  church 
 ever  looked  upon  them  in  that  capacity  :  the  church  in- 
 deed read  the  books  of  Maccabees  but  did  not  receive 
 them  among-  the  canonical  writings.  They  read  them  as 
 books  which  contained  lessons  of  wholesome  instruction, 
 and  excellent  examples  of  worthy  patriots,  and  glorious 
 martyrs  suffering-  manfully  in  the  defence  of  their  reli- 
 gion and  liberty,  and  "  '  not  accepting- deliverance,  that 
 they  might  obtain  a  better  resurrection.' 
 
 s  In  the  whole  compass  of  history,  where  can  we  find  a 
 pattern  in  all  respects  equal  to  Judas  Maccabaeus?  Most  of 
 
 5  Chap.  vi.  and  vii.  8  Ihh.  xi.  35,  &c.         '  Ibid. 
 
 B  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Mac.  ix.  IS. 
 
 the  second,  it  is  not  only  written  in  the  name  of  Judas  Maeca- 
 bams,  who  was  slain  six  anil  thirty  years  before. the  date  which 
 it  bears,  but  also  contains  such  fabulous  and  absurd  stuflj  as  could 
 never  have  been  written  by  the  great  council  of  the  Jews,  assem- 
 bled at  Jerusalem  for  the  whole  nation,  as  this  pretends  to  be. — 
 Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  ICC. 
 
 c  This  book,  though  it  is  in  most  of  the  ancient  manuscript 
 copies  of  the  Greek  Septuagint,  and  quoted  by  several  fathers  as 
 an  holy  and  divine  book,  yet  was  it  never  inserted  in  the  vulgar 
 Latin  translation  of  the  bible;  and,  as  our  first  English  transla- 
 tions were  made  from  that,  none  of  them  have  it  among  the 
 apocryphal  books;  nor  has  it  ever  since  been  added,  though  it 
 certainly  deserves  a  place  therein  much  better  than  several 
 other  pieces  that  are  there. — Prideaux's  connection,  anno  214. 
 Tin's  is  a  mistake.  It  was  added  to  the  other  books  in  Becke's 
 bible,  (1551)  and,  lastly,  ill  a  new  version,  in  Bishop  Wilson's 
 bible. —  Up.  Gleig. 
 
 d  To  this  day  it  is  extant  in  most  of  the  ancient  manuscript 
 copies  of  the  Greek  Septuagint:  as,  particularly  in  the  Alexan- 
 drian manuscript  in  our  king's  library,  and  in  the  Vatican  manu- 
 script at  Rome.  But,  as  it  was  never  inserted  in  the  vulgar 
 Latin  version  of  the  bible,  and  as  that  version  was  the  only  one 
 in  use  through  the  whole  western  church,  until  the  reformation, 
 it  thence  came  to  pass,  that,  in  the  first  translations  which  we 
 have  of  the  bible  in  the  English,  the  third  book  of  Maccabees 
 has  never  yet  been  inserted  among  other  apocryphal  tracts, 
 though  it  certainly  deserves  a  place  there  much  better  than  some 
 parts  of  the  second  book  of  the  Maccabees. —  Prideaux's  Connect 
 tioJi,  anno  2  16. 
 
 e  This  book,  in  like  manner,  though  it  be  found  in  most  of 
 tiie  ancient  Greek  manuscripts,  is  not  to  be  met  with  in  any  of 
 our  Latin  bjbles;  and  has  therefore  no  place  among  our  apo- 
 cryphal books. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  210. 
 
782 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3841.  A.  C.  163 ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H ALES, A.M.5247. A.C.164.IMAC. v.l.JOS.HIST.b.xU.c.14—  end  of  MAC.  JOS.HIST.  b.xiii.c.iy. 
 
 the  commanders  we  read  of  were  carried  away  with  their 
 ambition,  vanity  or  vain  glory ;  and  while  they  valued 
 themselves  upon  the  subduction  of  others,  had  no  rule  or 
 command  over  their  own  passions.  But  in  this  Jewish 
 leader  we  find  all  the  characters  of  a  great  hero:  cour- 
 age and  intrepidity,  guided  by  counsel  and  wisdom,  and 
 without  any  allay  eitiier  of  rashness  or  pride.  And  what 
 a  profound  knowledge  he  had  of  the  laws  of  God,  and 
 the  principles  of  true  morality,  every  speech  that  he 
 makes  to  his  men,  when  he  is  animating  them  to  the 
 combat,  and  inspiring  them  with  a  contempt  of  the 
 greatest  dangers,  is  a  sufficient  indication. 
 
 He  died  indeed  a  little  unfortunately,  and,  when  his 
 army  had  forsaken  him,  encountered  his  enemies  with  an 
 incompetent  strength  ;  but,  as  he  had  all  along  fought 
 under  the  protection  of  God's  good  providence,  he  had 
 no  more  reason  to  be  diffident  at  this  time  than  he  had 
 been  formerly.  In  his  first  engagement  with  the  Sy- 
 rians, when  he  was  to  encounter  '  '  forty  thousand  horse, 
 and  seven  thousand  foot,'  he  made  proclamation  in  the 
 camp,  that  all  such  ! '  as  had  betrothed  wives,  or  were 
 building  houses,  or  planting  vineyards,  or  were  any  ways 
 afraid,'  might  return  home,  which  could  not  but  reduce  his 
 army  considerably  ;  and  yet  we  find  him,  with  this  hand- 
 ful of  men,  routing  three  generals  that  were  sent  against 
 him  at  once,  forcing  and  burning  their  camp,  defeating 
 their  troops,  and  returning  loaded  with  their  spoils.  His 
 notion  was,  that  God  could  save  with  a  few  as  well  as 
 with  a  multitude ;  and  therefore  he  might  look  on  the 
 desertion  of  his  forces  as  a  providential  thing,  to  make 
 the  victory  more  conspicuous,  and  to  magnify  the  divine 
 interposition  in  his  deliverance. 
 
 3  '  The  people  that  are  with  thee,'  says  the  Lord  to 
 Gideon,'  '  are  too  many  for  me  to  give  the  Midianites 
 into  their  hands,  lest  Israel  vaunt  themselves  against 
 me,  saying,  Mine  hand  hath  saved  me  :  proclaim  there- 
 fore in  the  tents  of  the  people,  that  whosoever  is  fearful 
 and  afraid,  let  him  return,  and  depart  from  mount 
 Gilead  ;'  which  reduced  the  Jewish  army  to  ten  thou- 
 sand, and  these  again,  by  another  expedient,  were  reduc- 
 ed to  three  hundred  ;  and  yet  even  these,  by  die  assistance 
 of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  utterly  subdued  the  vast  army  of 
 the  Midianites.  Upon  this  presumption,  then,  that 
 Judas  thought  his  army  under  the  care  and  direction  of 
 the  same  Lord  of  Hosts,  there  was  no  discouragement 
 in  the  desertion  of  his  forces,  nor  any  false  reasoning  in 
 his  speech  :  "  If  our  time  is  come,  let  us  die  manfully 
 for  our  brethren  ;  which,  in  the  present  juncture  of  our 
 affairs,  is  the  best  thing  we  can  do  :  but  if  it  be  not, 
 God,  we  know,  is  able  to  give  us  victory,  and  to  defend 
 us.  For  how  often  have  we  experienced  the  effects  of 
 his  almighty  power?  Is  not  conquest  always  in  his 
 hands  ?  Or  is  there  any  difference,  with  regard  to  him 
 between  a  larger  or  a  smaller  number  ?"  These  seem  to 
 be  the  reasons  that  determined  Judas  in  his  choice  of 
 engaging  the  enemy,  though  superior  in  force :  and  if 
 these  reasons  are  built  upon  right  notions  of  God,  and 
 confirmed  by  a  long  experience  of  his  goodness,  they 
 will  certainly  clear  him  from  all  imputation  of  rashness, 
 or  presumptuous  tempting  of  God  in  this  action:  an 
 action  for  which  St  Ambrose,  in  particular,  has  represent- 
 ed  him  as  a  perfect  model  of  true  heroism :  for  4  "  You 
 
 1  1  Mac.  iii.  U9.         2  I  hid  vrr.  5<i.         3  Judges  vii.  2,  &c. 
 *  Ambios.  b.  i.  Oflic.  c.  41. 
 
 have  here,"  says  he,  a  "  warlike  bravery,  in  which  there 
 is  no  silly  appearance  of  honour  and  decency,  because 
 he  preferred  death  to  slavery  and  disgrace." 
 
 The  message  which  Moses  sent  to  the  king  of  Edom 
 was  delivered  in  these  words, — '  Let  us  pass,  I  pray 
 thee,  through  thy  country.  AVe  will  not  pass  through 
 the  fields,  or  through  the  vineyards,  neither  will  we 
 drink  of  the  water  of  thy  wells.  We  will  go  by  the 
 king's  highway  ;  we  will  not  turn  to  the  right  hand  or  to 
 the  left,  until  we  have  passed  thy  borders :  and  Edom 
 said  unto  him,  Thou  shalt  not  pass  by  me,  lest  I  come  out 
 against  thee  with  the  sword.'  But  hereupon  a  question 
 has  arisen,  whether  the  Edomites  might  lawfully,  and  ac- 
 cording to  the  rules  of  strict  right,  deny  the  Israelites  a 
 passage  through  their  country. 
 
 5  Selden  is  of  opinion,  that  princes  have  always  a 
 right  to  deny  foreign  troops  a  passage  through  their 
 country,  not  only  to  preserve  their  territories  from  being 
 invaded,  and  their  subjects  from  being  plundered,  but 
 to  prevent  their  being  corrupted  likewise,  by  the  intro- 
 duction of  strange  manners  and  customs  into  their  king- 
 dom. But  6  Grotius,  on  the  other  hand,  asserts,  that  this 
 refusal  of  the  Edomites  was  an  act  contrary  to  the  just 
 rights  of  human  society  ;  that,  after  the  promise  which 
 the  Israelites  had  made  of  marching  through  their  coun- 
 try quietly  and  inoffensively,  they  might  very  justly  have 
 fallen  upon  the  Edomites,  had  they  not  been  restrained 
 by  a  divine  prohibition  :  that,  for  this  very  cause,  the 
 Greeks  thought  proper  to  make  war  upon  the  kings  of 
 Mysia  ;  and  that  the  principal  reason  which  the  powers 
 of  Christendom  gave  for  their  carrying  their  arms  against 
 the  Saracens  was,  because  they  hindered  their  brethren 
 going  in  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  from  passing  through 
 their  country. 
 
 However  the  sentiments  of  these  two  great  men  may 
 be,  it  is  certain,  that  Gideon's  severity  against  the  inha- 
 bitants of  Succoth,  for  denying  his  army  some  necessary 
 refreshments  when  they  were  pursuing  the  enemy,  is 
 justified  upon  the  presumption,  that  such  a  refusal  was  a 
 kind  of  rebellion  against  the  state,  that  those  who  expos- 
 ed their  lives  for  the  public  safety  had  a  right  to  be 
 maintained  at  the  public  expense,  and  that  no  man  might 
 call  any  thing  his  own  when  a  demand  of  this  nature 
 came  upon  him.  And  if  Gideon,  7  who  was  sent  imme  - 
 diately  by  an  angel  to  deliver  his  brethren,  and,  in  all 
 his  achievements,  was  supported  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
 thought  it  no  injustice  to  put  the  people  of  Succoth  8  to 
 exquisite  tortures  for  denying  his  army  what  they  wanted  ; 
 why  might  not  Judas  give  the  people  of  Ephron  up  to 
 military  execution,  for  being  so  cruel  and  inhuman  as  to 
 deny  him  a  passage  through  their  city,  when  there  was 
 no  possibility  of  taking  his  route  any  other  way  ? 
 
 What  the  particular  situation  of  this  Ephron  was,  we 
 can  no  where  learn ;  but  the  author  of  the  book  of  Mac- 
 cabees seems  to  imply,  that  the  country  all  about  it  was 
 impassable,  that  is,  was  very  probably  so  full  of  water 
 and  morasses,  that  the  '  company  which  Judas  had  along 
 with  him  must  have  been  lost,  had  they  been  obliged  to 
 turn  either  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left.  In  their 
 own  defence,  therefore,  they  were  necessitated  to  make 
 their  way  through  the  town  ;  and  if,  in  the  siege  and 
 
 *  Marc  Clausum,  c.  20.  c  On  the  law  of  War  and  Peace, 
 
 b.  ii.  c.  2;  and  Marc  Clausum,  b.  i.  c.  1. 
 Judges  vi.  14.  8  Chap.  viii.  1C.         9  1  Mac.  v.  45,  46. 
 
Sbct.  IV.]  FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c 
 
 A.M.384I.A.C.1G3;  OR,  ACCORDINGTO  HALES,  A.  M.5247.  A.  C.lG4.1MAC.v.i.JOS.  HIST.b.  xii.c.14- 
 
 gackage  of  it,  great  numbers  of  people  were  put  to  the 
 
 783 
 
 sword,  this  was  properly  the  effect  of  their  own  folly 
 and  obstinacy,  in  refusing  not  so  much  to  do  a  favour 
 as  an  act  of  common  right,  even  when  it  was  humbly 
 requested  by  a  general,  at  the  head  of  a  victorious 
 army. 
 
 The  strength  of  the  behemoth  (which  by  most  inter- 
 preters, is  supposed  to  be  the  elephant  a)  is  thus  ex- 
 pressed in  the  book  of  Job  :  ' '  His  bones  are  as  strong 
 pieces  of  brass,  and  his  small  bones  like  bars  of  iron ;' 
 and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder,  that  creatures  of  this  pro- 
 digious strength  (when  the  method  of  fighting  was 
 chiefly  by  force)  should  be  made  use  of  in  all  military  ex- 
 peditions. 2  Some  of  these  creatures  have  been  known 
 to  carry  two  cannons,  fastened  together  by  a  cable  rope 
 of  three  thousand  pounds'  weight  each,  for  five  hundred 
 paces  together,  with  their  teeth  ;  and  what  reason  have 
 we  to  doubt,  but  that  they  are  able  to  carry  a  much  greater 
 weight  upon  their  backs  ? 
 
 The  largest  and  strongest  species  of  these  animals  is 
 said  to  be  bred  in  India,  (for  those  that  come  out  of 
 Africa  are  not  near  so  big  ;)  and  therefore,  if  we  suppose 
 that  the  elephants  which  Antiochus  carried  to  the  wars 
 with  him  were  of  this  Indian  breed,  (as  3  the  circum- 
 stances of  the  whole  story  make  it  highly  probable  that 
 they  were)  there  cannot  be  so  much  difficulty  as  is  imag- 
 ined in  one  of  these  creatures  carrying  upon  its  back  two 
 and  thirty  men  light  armed,  (as  archers  are  known  to  be,) 
 with  towers,  or  other  such  vehicles  as  might  be  thought 
 proper  to  give  them  an  ascendant  in  the  fight,  and  so 
 secure  them  from  the  darts  and  other  weapons  of  the 
 enemy.  For,  upon  supposition  that  each  of  these  men, 
 one  with  another,  weighed  an  hundred  and  fifty  pounds, 
 the  amount  of  the  weight  of  thirty-two  will  be  no  more 
 than  four  thousand  eight  hundred  pounds  ;  and  yet  it  is 
 a  common  thing  to  meet  with  elephants  of  a  moderate 
 size,  that  will  carry  you  five  or  six  thousand  pounds' 
 weight;  so  that,  upon  the  lowest  computation,  we  have 
 full  two  thousand  pounds'  weight  allowed  for  the  wooden 
 machine  wherein  the  slingers  and  archers  were  seated 
 and  secured. 
 
 The  danger  indeed  of  approaching  this  animal,  with 
 such  a  number  of  armed  men  upon  its  back,  is  very  visi- 
 ble ;  but  most  of  the  Jewish  doctors  and  fathers  of  the 
 Christian  church  look  upon  Eleazar's  action  in  killing 
 the  royal  elephant,  (as  he  took  it  to  be,)  though  at  the 
 expense  of  his  own  life,  as  a  singular  instance  of  courage 
 and  magnanimity.  Fool-hardiness  it  would  have  been, 
 had  he  been  certainly  persuaded,  that  the  creature  would 
 have  fallen  upon  him  so  directly  and  so  suddenly  as  it 
 did  ;  but  why  might  he  not  rather  think,  that  it  might 
 possibly  tumble  down  on  one  side,  so  as  to  miss  him,  or 
 live  for  some  moments  after  it  had  received  the  wound, 
 so  as  to  give  him  an  opportunity  to  escape  ? 
 
 *  The  motives  which  the  history  assigns  for  his  adven- 
 turing upon  this  exploit  are  not  discommendable.  The 
 preservation  of  our  laws,  liberties,  and  religion,  requires, 
 
 1  Mac.  xl.    18.         2  Calmet's  Commentary  on  1  Mac.  vi.  37. 
 3  Ibid.  *  1  Mac.  vi.  44. 
 
 a  This  seems  to  be  a  mistake.  Most  of  the  modern  interpre- 
 ters suppose  the  behemoth  to  be  the  hippopotamus  or  river-horse. 
 For  the  arguments  in  favour  of  this,  see  Taylor's,  Calmet's,  and 
 Harris's  Natural  Hist,  of  the  Bible. — Ed. 
 
 end  of  MAC.JOS.H  ST.  1>.  xiii.  c.  19. 
 
 upon  a  proper  occasion,  the  hazarding  our  lives  :  <  ur 
 reputation,  too,  is  a  natural  good,  which  we  are  not  only 
 bound  to  preserve,  but,  by  all  lawful  means,  allowed  to 
 improve  and  increase  ;  and  therefore  charity  5  will  not 
 suffer  us,  without  very  good  reasons,  to  believe,  that 
 these  motives,  which  in  themselves  were  laudable,  lost 
 all  their  merit,  and  were  adulterated  by  any  sinister  ends 
 that  Eleazar  might  propose  to  himself.  We  cannot,  I 
 say,  without  rashness,  blame  him,  or  deny  him  that  justice 
 which  we  owe  to  all  actions  that  are  apparently  commen- 
 dable, that  is,  to  believe  them  really  good,  so  long  as  we 
 have  no  proofs  to  the  contrary  :  and,  as  it  is  no  uncom- 
 mon thing  in  such  heroic  acts  as  these,  to  find  persons 
 (under  the  Jewish  economy  more  especially)  instigated 
 by  a  divine  impulse,  it  will  best  become  us  to  suspend 
 our  judgments  concerning  this  action  of  Eleazar's,  until 
 we  can  find  arguments  to  prove  that  he  had  no  motive 
 extraordinary  to  attempt  it. 
 
 But  there  is  not  the  like  reason,  I  think,  to  suspend 
 our  judgment  concerning  the  action  of  Kazis,  which, 
 upon  due  consideration,  was  no  better  than  self-murder. 
 6  To  consider  it,  indeed,  according  to  the  notion  which 
 some  heathens  had  of  courage  and  magnanimity,  contempt 
 of  death,  and  love  of  liberty,  it  comes  nearer  to  what 
 they  called  true  heroism,  than  all  the  great  actions 
 that  history  has  recorded  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
 Nay,  the  Jews  themselves  are  willing  to  place  this  man 
 in  the  number  of  their  most  illustrious  martyrs,  and  from 
 his  example  (as  well  as  some  others)  pretend,  that  upon 
 certain  occasions,  self-murder  is  not  only  allowable,  but 
 highly  commendable ;  never  considering,  7  that,  in  the 
 sixth  commandment,  it  is  as  much  prohibited  as  the  mur- 
 der of  any  one  else ,  and  that,  if  I  must  not  shed  the 
 blood  of  another  man  for  this  very  reason,  because  8  '  he 
 is  made  in  the  image  of  God,'  I  must  not  shed  the  blood 
 of  myself,  because  I  also  am  a  man,  and  made  in  the 
 image  of  God  as  well  as  he. 
 
 9  Razis,  indeed,  was  sorely  beset,  and  ready  to  have 
 been  taken  by  his  enemies  on  every  side  ;  but  then  he 
 should  have  surrendered  himself  to  their  treatment,  and 
 testified  his  magnanimity,  not  in  butchering  himself,  but 
 in  manfully  enduring  whatever  inflictions  they  laid  upon 
 him.  Had  the  martyrs  of  old  thought  themselves  at 
 liberty  to  dispose  of  their  own  lives  upon  any  emergent 
 danger,  or  apprehension  of  suffering-,  we  had  read  little 
 of  their  being  I0 '  mocked  and  scourged,'  and  tormented, 
 and  less  of  their  being  'stoned,  and  sawn  asunder,'  but 
 a  great  deal  of  their  stepping  out  of  the  world,  as  some 
 call  it,  Avhen  any  difficulty  or  persecution  came  to  press 
 upon  them. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that  as 
 this  was  not  the  practice  of  these  worthies  of  old,  who  ll 
 '  obtained  a  good  report  by  faith,'  it  was  not  true  courage, 
 but  the  want  of  it,  that  put  Razis  upon  committing  this 
 barbarous  cruelty  to  himself;  that  it  was  pride,  not  pa- 
 tience, which  is  the  proper  virtue  of  a  martyr,  that  made 
 him  fly  to  death,  merely  for  refuge  against  these  outrages 
 which  he  had  not  strength  of  mind  to  withstand ;  and 
 therefore  St  Austin's  short  reflection  upon  the  whole  is,  u 
 
 1  Mac.  vi.  44.     fi  Calmet's  Commentary  on  2  Mac.  xiv.  42. 
 Bishop  Fleetwood  against  Self-murder.  8  Gen.  ix.  6. 
 
 a  2  Mac.  xiv.  42.  ">  Heb.  xi.  36,  37. 
 
 11  Heb.xi.39.  12Epist.  61. 
 
7S4 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII- 
 
 A.  M.  3841.A.C.1G3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.A.M.5247.  A.C 
 
 "  The  deed  hath  been  told,  but  not  applauded,  it  is  rather 
 to  be  considered  than  imitated." 
 
 This  reflection  indeed  will  hold  good  in  several  other 
 matters  related  in  the  history  of  the  Maccabees,  namely, 
 that  the  author  of  it  neither  commends  nor  discommends, 
 but  only  relates  them.  Demetrius  Soter,  for  instance,  was 
 the  rightful  heir  to  the  crown  of  Syria,  and  Alexander 
 Balas  no  more  than  a  vile  impostor ;  and  yet  Jonathan 
 thought  proper  to  adjoin  himself  to  him,  because  1  he 
 remembered  what  a  bitter  enemy  Demetrius  had  all  along 
 been  to  the  Jewish  interest ;  how  oft  he  had  sent  his 
 generals  with  positive  orders  to  take  his  brother  Judas 
 dead  or  alive  ;  and  what  ruin  and  oppression  his  frequent 
 invasions  had  brought  upon  the  whole  nation.  And  there- 
 fore no  wonder,  that  we  find  him  taking-  a  contrary  part 
 to  the  man,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  an  enemy  to  his 
 country.  Demetrius  Nicanor,  in  like  manner,  Mas  the 
 true  heir  to  the  same  crown,  and  Alexander  Zabina  no 
 more  than  a  broker's  son  of  Alexandria  ;  and  yet  we  find 
 John  Hyrcanus  entering-  into  a  league  and  alliance  with 
 the  latter,  because  indeed  Demetrius  had  behaved  so 
 ungratefully  to  the  Jews,  (who  had  rescued  him  from  the 
 rebellion  of  his  subjects,)  as  to  load  them  with  heavy 
 taxes,  even  though  he  had  promised  them  an  immunity 
 from  them  to  engage  their  assistance. 
 
 The  truth  is,  the  kingdom  of  Syria  was  always  in  hos- 
 tility with  Judea.  Its  kings  were  tyrants,  and  great 
 persecutors  of  the  Jewish  religion  ;  and  therefore  what 
 reason  had  any  Jewish  prince  to  trouble  himself  with  the 
 right  of  succession  in  an  enemy's  country  ?  All  that  he 
 seemed  to  be  concerned  in  was,  2  to  make  what  advan- 
 tages he  could  of  their  divisions,  and  by  adjoining  him- 
 self to  the  party,  from  whence  he  might  expect  the  best 
 treatment  and  support,  to  secure  and  establish  his  own, 
 and  his  country's  interest. 
 
 It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to  think,  that  Hyrcanus  de- 
 stroyed Samaria,  out  of  the  hatred  which  the  Jews  bore 
 to  the  sect  of  the  Samaritans,  because,  upon  examination, 
 we  shall  find,  that  none  of  that  sect  did,  at  that  time, 
 live  in  that  place.  3  The  ancient  Samaritans,  who  were 
 of  the  sect  that  worshipped  God  on  mount  Gerizzim,had 
 slain  in  a  tumult,  (as  we  related  before,)  one  Andro- 
 machus,  a  favourite  of  Alexander  the  Great,  whom  he 
 had  constituted  governor  of  Syria  ;  and  in  revenue  for 
 this  base  act  Alexander  had  expelled  them  all  from 
 Samaria,  and  in  their  stead,  new  planted  the  city  with  a 
 colony  of  Macedonians,  Greeks,  and  Syrians  mixed 
 together,  and  they  were  the  descendants  of  those  who 
 inhabited  Samaria,  when  Hyrcanus  made  war  against  it  • 
 for  the  expelled  Samaritans  retired  to  Shechem,  where 
 they  settled  their  abode,  and  made  it  the  head  seat  of 
 their  sect  ever  since. 
 
 In  like  manner,  it  is  a  mistake  to  think,  that,  because 
 Hyrcanus  is  said  to  have  left  the  Pharisees,  and  ad- 
 joined himself  to  the  Sadducees,  therefore  he  espoused 
 their  doctrine  against  the  resurrection  and  a  future  state. 
 4  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  highly  probable,  that  at  this 
 time  the  Sadducees  had  gone  no  further  in  the  doctrine 
 of  this  sect,  than  their  rejecting  all  the  unwritten  tradi- 
 tions which  the  Pharisees  held  in  so  much  veneration. 
 Josephus  mentions  no  other  diflerence,  in  his  time,  be- 
 
 liJI.lMAC.v.l.JOS.TnST.b.xii.c.M-ENDOFMAC.JOS.HIST.b.xii.c.I.'l. 
 
 tweeu  them  ;  a  nor  does  he  say,  that  Hyrcanus  went 
 over  to  the  Sadducees  in  any  other  particular,  than  in 
 the  abolishing  the  traditional  constitutions  of  the 
 Pharisees  ;  and  therefore  we  can  hardly  think,  that  so 
 good  and  righteous  a  man,  as  he  is  represented  to  have 
 been,  would,  upon  any  provocation  whatever,  have  been 
 induced  to  renounce  the  great  and  fundamental  articles  of 
 his  religion  ;  but  it  can  be  no  diminution  to  his  character, 
 we  hope,  that  he  made  it  his  business  to  oppose  those 
 false  interpretations  of  the  law,  which  our  blessed 
 Saviour,  in  the  course  of  his  ministry,  so  severely 
 condemned. 
 
 1  Prideaux'a  Connection,  anno  153.  ^Ibid   331 
 
 3  H»id.  100.  «  Ibid.  108. 
 
 CHAP.  III.— Of  the  Original  and  Tenets  of  the 
 Jewish  Sects. 
 
 It  seems  very  probable,  indeed,  that  during  the  times  of 
 the  prophets,  who,  by  their  commerce  with  God,  were 
 immediately  instructed  in  his  will,  no  disputes  about  mat- 
 ters of  religion  could  possibly  arise,  because  their 
 authority  was  sufficient  for  the  decision  of  every  con- 
 troversy ;  but  that  when  this  race  of  prophets  dis- 
 appeared, and  their  authority  ceased,  men  soon  began 
 to  wrangle  and  dispute,  and  to  form  themselves  into 
 different  sects  and  parties,  upon  the  first  occasion  that 
 offered. 
 
 After  the  return  of  the  people  from  Babylon,  Joshua 
 the  high  priest,  and  Zerubbabel  the  governor,  together 
 with  the  chief  elders,  their  contemporaries  and  others  that 
 afterwards  succeeded  them,  collected  together  all  the 
 ancient  and  approved  usages  of  the  Jewish  church, 
 which  had  been  in  practice  before  the  captivity.  These, 
 and  whatever  else  pretended  to  be  of  the  like  nature, 
 Ezra  brought  under  a  review,  and,  after  due  examination, 
 having  settled  them  by  his  approbation  and  authority, 
 he  thereby  gave  birth  to  what  the  Jews  call  their  Oral 
 Law.  For 5  they  pretend,  that  when  God  gave  unto 
 Moses  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai,  he  gave  him,  at  the 
 same  time,  the  interpretation  of  it,  with  a  strict  injunc- 
 tion to  commit  the  former  to  writing,  but  to  deliver  the 
 other  down  to  posterity  only  by  word  of  mouth  ;  that, 
 pursuant  to  this  injunction,  Moses  wrote  several  copies 
 of  the  law,  which  he  left  behind  him  among  the  several 
 tribes,  but,  in  the  interpretation  of  it,  he  took  care  more 
 especially  to  instruct  his  successor  Joshua  ;  that,  after 
 his  death,  Joshua  delivered  this  interpretation,  or  oral 
 law,  to  the  elders  who  succeeded  him,  and  that  they  de- 
 livered it  to  the  prophets,  who  transmitted  it  down  to 
 each  other,  until  it  came  to  Jeremiah  ;  that  Jeremiah 
 delivered  it  to  Baruch ;  Baruch  to  Ezra ;  Ezra  to  the 
 men  of  the  great  synagogue,  until  it  came  to  Simon  the 
 Just;  and  that  Simon  delivered  it  to  others,  who  handed 
 it  down  in  a  continued  succession,  until  it  came  to  Rab- 
 bah  Judah  Hakkadosh,  who  wrote  it  into  the  book  which 
 they  call  the  Mishnah. 
 
 But  all  this  is  a  mere  fiction,  spun  out  of  the  fertile 
 
 5  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  445. 
 a  There  is  good  ground  for  supposing  that  the  Sadducees  held 
 the  impious  tenets  ascribed  to  them  in  the  New  Testament,  long 
 before  the  time  of  Josephus,  and  that  even  Sadoe,  the  founder 
 ot  the  sect,  denied  that  there  was  any  future  stale  of  rewards 
 and  punishments.  Indeed  the  author  seems  to  allow  as  much  in 
 the  succeeding  dissertation. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 785 
 
 A.M.3341.A.C.lG3;OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.A.M.5247.A.C.1C4. 
 
 invention  of  the  Talmudists,  and  the  little  truth  that 
 there  seems  to  be  in  it,  is  only  this, — that  after  the 
 death  of  Simon  the  Just,  there  arose  a  sort  of  men, 
 (whom  the  Jews  call  Tannaim,  or  Mishnical  doctors,) 
 that  made  it  their  business  to  study  and  descant  upon 
 these  traditions,  which  had  been  received,  and  allowed 
 by  Ezra  and  the  men  of  the  great  synagogue,  to  draw 
 such  consequences  and  inferences  from  them,  as  they 
 thought  proper  ;  to  ingraft  these  into  the  body  of  the 
 ancient  traditions,  and  to  expect  from  others  that 
 they  should  receive  them,  as  if  they  had  been  as  authen- 
 tic as  the  other.  But  this  imposition  was  too  gross  and 
 palpable  not  to  be  attended  with  remonstrances  from 
 several  :  so  that,  in  a  short  time,  the  Jewish  church 
 came  to  be  divided  into  two  grand  parties,  namely,  those 
 who  adhered  to  the  written  law  only,  among  whom  the 
 Sadducees  were  the  chief ;  and  those  who,  over  and 
 above  this,  received  the  traditions  and  constitutions  of 
 the  elders,  among  whom  the  Pharisees  made  the  greatest 
 figure.  . 
 
 1  The  most  ancient  sect  among  the  Jews,  was  that  of 
 the  Sadducees,  which  took  its  name  from  Sodock,  the 
 founder  of  it.  This  Sodock  (as  the  Talmudic  story  is) 
 was  the  disciple  of  Antigonus  Socho,  who  lived,  accord- 
 ing to  the  Jewish  calculation,  about  three  hundred  years 
 before  Christ,  and  used  often  to  inculcate  to  his  disciples, 
 that  they  ought  to  serve  God  disinterestedly,  without  any 
 view  of  compensation,  and  not  like  slaves,  who  only  serve 
 their  master  for  the  sake  of  a  reward :  and  from  hence 
 his  disciples  Sodock  and  Baithus  made  this  wrong  infer- 
 ence, namely,  that  there  was  no  reward  to  be  expected  in 
 another  world,  and  consequently  that  the  soul  dies, 
 and  the  body  will  not  rise  again.  AVhether  this  mistake 
 of  the  doctrine  of  Antigonus,  or,  as  others  suppose,  the 
 dissoluteness  of  manners  which  at  that  time  might  pre- 
 vail, gave  occasion  to  the  opinion  of  the  Sadducees^ 
 but  so  it  was,  that,  in  process  of  time,  they  grew  to  be 
 very  impious  and  detestable.  They  denied  the  resur- 
 rection of  the  dead,  the  being  a  of  angels,  and  the  exis- 
 
 1  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  446 ;  L'amy  and  Beausobre's 
 Introduction. 
 
 a  In  what  sense  the  Sadducees  denied  the  existence  of  angels, 
 it  is  difficult  to  determine,  since  they  certainly  acknowledged  the 
 authority  of  the  Pentateuch.  Some  pretend,  that  they  accounted 
 tin;  invention  of  angels  but  a  novel  thing,  and  that  their  very 
 name  was  never  heard  of,  until  the  return  from  the  captivity, 
 and  therefore  they  rejected  them;  whilst  others  suppose,  that 
 they  looked  upon  them  as  the  inseparable  powers  of  God,  which, 
 like  the  rays  of  the  sun,  without  being  parted  from  that  planet, 
 shine  and  shed  their  influence  here  below.  But  now,  consider- 
 ing that  the  Sadducees  received  the  five  books  of  Moses,  they 
 could  hardly  entertain  any  such  notions  as  these.  As  therein 
 they  read  of  frequent  apparitions  of  angels,  they  could  not  fancy 
 them  a  new  invention  of  the  Rabbins  that  returned  from  the  cap- 
 tivity* As  they  saw  in  these  books,  that  they  properly  came  down 
 from  heaven  upon  earth,  they  could  not  imagine  that  they  were 
 beings  inseparable  from  the  Deity;  and  therefore  we  may  suppose, 
 that  they  rather  looked  upon  them  only  as  so  many  phantasms  ; 
 and  that,  as  the  bodies,  which  these  angels  put  on,  had  perhaps 
 only  the  appearance  of  human  bodies,  the  same  notion  they  might 
 have  of  the  spirits  which  animated  them:  because  every  thing, 
 except  God,  in  their  opinion,  was  material. — Basnat/e's  History 
 of  the  Jews,  b.  ii.  c.  6.  [Mr  Taylor,  in  his  supplements  to 
 Calmct,  remarks,  that  it  is  more  likely  when  the  Sadducees  are 
 charged  with  denying  the  existence  of  angels,  we  misapply  the 
 term;  intending  by  it  celestial  angels,  whereas  they  meant  it  of 
 disembodied  human  spirits.  If  this  were  the  case,  it  easily 
 accounts  for  the  reception  of  the  Pentateuch.] — En. 
 
 1  MAC.v.l.JOS.HIST.b.xii.c.l4-END  or  MAC.JOS.HIST.b.xiii.c.l9. 
 
 tence  of  the  spirits  or  souls  of  men  departed.  Their 
 notion  was,  that  there  was  no  spiritual  being,  but  God 
 only  ;  that,  as  to  man,  this  world  was  his  all  ;  that,  at 
 his  death,  his  soul  and  body  die  together,  never  to  live 
 any  more  ;  and  that  therefore  there  is  no  future  reward 
 or  punishment.  They  acknowledged  indeed,  that  God 
 made  this  world  by  his  power,  and  governs  it  by  his 
 providence,  and  for  the  carrying  on  of  this  government, 
 hath  ordained  rewards  and  punishments  ;  but  then  they 
 suppose,  that  these  rewards  and  punishments  are  in  this 
 world  only  ;  and  for  this  reason  alone  it  was,  that  they 
 worshipped  him,  and  paid  obedience  to  his  laws.  All 
 unwritten  traditions,  as  well  as  all  written  books,  *  ex- 
 cept the  live  books  of  Moses,  they  absolutely  rejected  ; 
 and  the  probable  reason  why  they  did  so,  is,  that  they 
 could  not  so  well  maintain  these  opinions,  which  are  not 
 so  llatly  contradicted  in  the  Pentateuch,  as  in  the  other 
 sacred  books,  if  once  they  admitted  these  books  to  be 
 canonical.  All  supernatural  helps  to  their  duty  they 
 utterly  denied  :  for  their  doctrine  was,  that  God  had 
 made  man  perfect  master  of  all  his  actions,  with  a  full 
 freedom  to  do  either  good  or  evil  as  he  thinks  fit,  with- 
 out any  assistance  to  him  for  the  one,  or  restraint  upon 
 him  as  to  the  other ;  and  for  this  reason,  because  they 
 looked  upon  all  men  to  have  an  inherent  power  to  make 
 their  condition  better  or  worse,  according  as  they  took 
 right  or  wrong  measures,  whenever  they  sat  in  judgment 
 upon  criminals,  they  were  always  remarked  to  pass  the 
 severest  sentences ;  as  indeed  their  general  character 
 was,  that  they  were  a  very  ill-natured  sort  of  men,  chur- 
 lish and  morose  in  their  behaviour  even  to  each  other, 
 but  cruel*  and  savage  to  every  one  besides.  Their  prin- 
 ciples, one  might  suppose,  would  have  naturally  led 
 them  into  all  manner  of  riot  and  excess  ;  but  it  was  not 
 always  so.  Some  of  them  were  men  of  rigid  virtue  and 
 strict  probity ;  for  2  though  they  had  cast  oil*  the  belief 
 of  a  future  state,  yet  as  they  admitted  of  a  providence 
 to  punish  vice,  and  reward  virtue,  in  this  life,  their  desire 
 
 2  Basnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  ii.  c.  6. 
 b  Mr  Basnage,  in  his  History  of  the  Jews,  (b.  ii.  c.  6*,)  though 
 he  allows  the  question  to  be  difficult,  seems  to  be  of  a  contrary 
 opinion.  1st,  because  the  Sadducees  taught  and  prayed  in  the 
 temple,  where  the  prophets,  and  other  holy  writers,  were  read, 
 as  appears  from  the  example  of  Christ,  who  explained  a  passage 
 out  of  Isaiah.  2dly,  because  Josephus,  who  ought  to  have  been 
 well  acquainted  with  the  principles  of  this  sect,  relates  of  them, 
 (b.  vi.  c.  9,)  that  they  received  what  was  written.  And,  3d)y, 
 because  the  Pharisees,  in  their  disputes  with  them  about  the 
 doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  quote,  not  only  the  writings  of 
 Moses,  but  those  of  the  prophets  likewise,  and  other  hagiogra- 
 phers,  whose  authority  the  others  do  not  deny,  but  only  endea- 
 vour to  elude  the  force  of  the  passages  that  are  thence  produced 
 against  them.  Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  Scaliger  (Blench. 
 Trihar.  c.  16.)  is  of  opinion,  that  these  Sadducees  did  not  abso- 
 lutely reject  all  the  sacred  writings,  but  rather  looked  upon  them 
 as  books  composed  by  holy  men,  whose  memoirs  they  reverenced, 
 though  they  could  not  believe  them  of  the  like  authority  with  the 
 law  of  Moses,  which  to  them  was  the  only  rule  of  faith.  But 
 notwithstanding  this,  "  the  account  which  is  given  us  in  the 
 gospel,"  says  the  learned  Prideaux,  "  of  the  disputation  which 
 Christ  had  with  the  Sadducees,  plainly  proves  the  contrary. 
 For  seeing  there  are  so  many  texts  in  the  prophets  and  hagiogra- 
 pha,  which  plainly  and  directly  prove  a  future  state,  and  the 
 resurrection  from  the  dead,  no  other  reason  can  be  given  why 
 Christ  waved  all  these  proofs,  and  drew  his  argument,  only  by 
 consequence,  from  what  is  said  in  the  law,  but  that  he  knew, 
 that  the  Sadducees,  had  rejected  the  prophets  and  the  hagiogra- 
 pha,  and  therefore  would  admit  of  no  arguments,  but  from  the 
 law  only."' — Anno  107. 
 
 C  a 
 
786 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3841.  A.  C.  163,  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5247. A.  C.  164. 1  MAC.v.l.JOS.HIST.b.xii.c.l4.END  of  MAC.JOS.HIST.b.xii.c.15. 
 
 mystical  way  of  interpretation,  made  a  considerable 
 figure  :  but  at  length  the  school  of  Hillel,  by  the  deter- 
 mination of  a  voice  from  heaven,  as  was  pretended 
 carried  it  against  the  school  of  Shammai,  so  that  the 
 Karraites  were  quite  absorbed,  till  they  appeared  again 
 about  the  sixth  century  after  Christ. 
 
 At  this  time  the  Talmud,  a  vast  voluminous  book, 
 which  contained  all  the  traditions  of  the  Jewish  church 
 was  published,  and  a  great  deal  of  deference  and  venera- 
 tion was  required  to  be  paid  to  it:  but  when  men  of 
 learning  and  judgment  came  to  look  into  it,  and  found 
 it,  as  it  is,  stuffed  with  trifling  and  incredible  stories, 
 they  rejected  its  authority,  as  not  deserving  their  belief, 
 and  betook  themselves  wholly  to  such  as  were  of  un- 
 doubted credibility,  '  the  writings  of  the  law  and  the 
 prophets.'  In  consequence  of  which  there  arose  two 
 parties,  one  standing  up  for  the  Talmud  and  its  tradi- 
 tions, and  the  other  disavowing  both,  as  containing,  in 
 their  opinion,  the  inventions  of  men,  and  not  the  doc- 
 trines and  commands  of  God.  Those  who  stood  up  for 
 the  Talmud  and  its  traditions  were  chiefly  the  rabbins 
 and  their  followers,  from  whence  their  party  had  the 
 name  of  rabbinists,  and  the  others,  who  were  for  the 
 scripture  only,  were  again  called  Karraites ;  under 
 which  two  names  the  controversy  was  at  that  time  carried 
 on  between  them,  and  so  continues  even  to  this  day. 
 
 Among  all  the  Jewish  doctors,  these  Karraites  are 
 justly  accounted  the  most  learned  set  of  men  ;  but  their 
 number,  in  these  western  parts  especially,  is  but  small, 
 4  About  the  middle  of  the  lasst  century  there  was  a  parti- 
 cular account  taken  of  them,  wherein  it  appeared  that  in 
 Poland  there  were  2000  ;  at  Cafta  in  Oim-Tartary, 
 1200  ;  at  Cairo,  300  ;  at  Damascus,  200  ;  at  Jerusalem, 
 thirty  ;  in  Babylon,  100  ;  and  in  Persia,  GOO,  which,  in 
 all,  amount  to  no  more  than  4430  ;  a  small  number  in 
 comparison  of  the  bulk  of  the  nation,  which  is  of  the 
 party  of  the  rabbinists. 
 
 The  Pharisees  were  so  called  from  the  Hebrew  word 
 Pharcift,  which  signifies  to  separate  ;  because  the  pre- 
 vailing passion,  or  rather  ambition,  of  this  sect  was,  to 
 distinguish  and  separate  itself  from  the  rest  cf  the 
 people,  by  a  greater  degree  of  holiness  and  piety,  but 
 accompanied  with  very  much  affectation  and  abundance 
 of  vain  observances.  5  At  what  time  this  sect  began 
 first  to  appear,  is  no  easy  matter  to  determine.  Jose- 
 phus  makes  mention  of  them  in  the  government  of 
 Jonathan,  an  hundred  and  forty  years  before  Christ,  as 
 a  very  powerful  body  of  men  at  that  time ;  nor  is  it  im- 
 probable, that  their  origin  was  somewhat  earlier,  and 
 that,  as  soon  as  the  Sadducees  discovered  their  princi- 
 ples to  the  world,  these  men  of  different  sentiments 
 might  not  long  after  rise  up  in  opposition  to  them  :  for 
 it  is  evident  from  the  character  which  the  Jewish  histo- 
 rian gives  of  them,  that,  in  the  main  articles  of  their 
 belief,  they  were  entirely  repugnant  to  the  Sadducees. 
 6  The  Pharisees  believe  in  a  fate,  says  he,  and  attribute 
 all  things  to  it,  but  nevertheless  they  acknowledge  the 
 freedom  of  man  ;  but  how  they  made  these  two  apparent 
 incompatibles  consist  together,  is  no  where  sufficiently 
 explained.     They  teach,  that  God  will  one  day  judge  the 
 
 of  present  and  temporal  happiness  put  a  restraint  upon 
 their  appetites,  and  kept  them  within  the  bounds  of  their 
 duty.  And  for  the  same  reason,  they  were  not  without 
 their  expectations  of  a  Messias  to  come.  Nay,  upon 
 this  subject  they  argued  with  more  consistency  than  the 
 other  Jews  did.  For  confining  all  their  hopes  to  the 
 present  state  of  things,  and  looking  upon  him  as  a 
 temporal  king  and  deliverer  only,  they  had  a  more  than 
 ordinary  interest  and  concern  in  his  appearance  in  their 
 lifetime,  that  thereby  they  might  reap  the  fruits  of  his 
 conquests,  and  enjoy  the  happiness  which  the  prophets 
 had  promised  during  his  reign.  Their  number  was  the 
 1  -west  of  all  the  sects  of  the  Jews;  but  they  were  men 
 of  the  best  quality  and  greatest  estates  :  and  as  all  those 
 who  were  of  the  greatest  power  and  riches,  were  cut  off 
 in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Romans,  it  is 
 generally  supposed  that  this  whole  sect  then  perished 
 with  them.  " 
 
 1  The  Jews,  who  were  carried  captive  into  Egypt, 
 though  they  kept  themselves  clear  from  the  idolatry  of 
 the  country,  did  nevertheless,  about  the  time  of  Ptolemy 
 Philometer,  fall  into  their  method  of  handling  divinity, 
 and  were  not  a  little  fond  of  their  allegorical  interpre- 
 tations. This  mystical  treatment  of  the  scriptures 
 alarmed  others,  who,  from  the  word  Kara,  2  which  signi- 
 fies to  read,  obtained  the  name  of  Karraites,  that  is, 
 such  as  adhered  to  the  text,  and  were  literal  expounders 
 of  scripture.  Josephus  indeed  takes  no  notice  of  any 
 people  of  this  denomination  ;  but  his  silence  is  no  argu- 
 ment against  their  existence,  because  we  find  him  omis- 
 sive  in  other  particulars  of  the  like  nature.  The  Hero- 
 dians,  for  instance,  a  sect  well  known  in  the  gospel, 
 and  remarkable  for  their  political  as  well  as  doctrinal 
 principles,  he  makes  no  mention  of,  and  might  there- 
 fore well  pass  by  the  Karraites,  who,  having  no  peculiar 
 tenets,  but  only  that  of  teaching  and  expounding  the 
 law  according  to  its  literal  sense,  could  not  well  be 
 discriminated  by  the  name  of  any  particular  sect.  These 
 Scripturists,as  they  were  called,3  when  they  came  to  be 
 headed  by  Shammai,  a  learned  doctor  of  the  law,  who 
 about  an  hundred  years  before  our  Saviour  Christ, 
 opened  a  great  school  against  Hillel,  who  was  for  the 
 
 1  Basnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  1).  ii.  c.  9. 
 !  Lamy's  Introduction,  b.  i.  c.  9. 
 3  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  37. 
 a  This  is  not  true.  The  sect  of  the  Sadducees  was  not  extin- 
 guished; it  was  much  reduced  by  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
 and  by  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews;  but  it  revived  afterwards. 
 At  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  it  was  so  formidable  in 
 Kgypt,  that  Ammonias,  Origen's  master,  thought  himself  obliged 
 to  write  again-t  them;  or  rather  against  the  Jews,  who  tolerated 
 the  Sadducees,  though  they  denied  the  fundamental  points  of 
 their  religion.  The  emperor  Justinian  mentions  the  Sadducees 
 in  one  of  his  edicts,  banishes  them  out  of  his  dominions,  and 
 condemns  them  to  the  severest  punishments,  as  a  people  that 
 maintained  atheistical  and  impious  tenets.  Annas  or  Ananus, 
 a  di-ciple  of  Juda,  son  of  Nachman,  a  famous  rabbin,  about 
 A.  D.  755,  declared  himself,  it  is  said,  in  favour  of  the  Saddu- 
 cees, and  strenuously  protected  them  against  their  adversaries. 
 They  had  also  a  celebrated  defender  in  the  twelfth  century  in 
 the  person  of  Alpharagius,  a  Spanish  rabbi.  Gazor  Tornich, 
 David,  p.  1^5.  There  are  still  Sadducees  in  Africa,  and  other 
 places,  who  deny  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  the  resurrec- 
 tion of  the  body;  but  few  declare  themselves  for  these  opinions. 
 Some  have  confounded  the  Sadducees  with  such  as  hold  tiie 
 metempsychosis,  and  with  the  defenders  of  the  two  principles, 
 tint  is.  tiie  Manichees;  but  it  is  certain  these  sects  are  different 
 horn  tile  Sadducees.  —  Taylor  a  Calmet,  4io. — En. 
 
 4  Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the  word. 
 5  See  Lamy's  Introduction,  and  Prideaux's  Connection. 
 6  Josephus  on  the  Jewish  Wars,  b.  ii.  c.  12. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FltOM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 787 
 
 A  M3S11.A.C.1G3,  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  H  ALES,  A.M.5247.  A.C.1G4  1 
 
 world,  and  punish  or  reward  men  according"  to  their 
 merits.  They  maintain,  that  souls  are  immortal,  and 
 that,  in  the  other  world,  some  will  be  shut  up  in  an  eternal 
 prison  and  others  sent  back  again  ;  but  with  this  differ- 
 ence, that  those  of  good  men  shall  enter  into  the  bodies 
 of  men,  those  of  wicked  men  into  the  bodies  of  beasts ; 
 which  exactly  agrees  with  the  famous  transmigration  of 
 Pythagoras.  Their  adherence  to  the  law  was  so  exact, 
 that,  for  fear  of  violating  the  least  precept  of  it,  they 
 scrupulously  observed  every  thing-  that  had  the  least 
 relation  to  it,  even  though  the  law  had  neither  command- 
 ed nor  forbiildeu  them.  Their  zeal  for  the  traditions  of 
 the  elders  was  such,  that  they  derived  them  from  the 
 same  fountain  with  the  written  word  itself,  pretending" 
 that  Moses  received  both  of  them  from  God  on  Mount 
 Sinai,  and  therefore  ascribing"  an  equal  authority  to  both. 
 They  had  a  notion,  that  good  works  were  meritorious  ; 
 .und  therefore  they  invented  a  great  number  of  superero- 
 gatory ones,  upon  which  they  valued  themselves  more 
 than  upon  a  due  observance  of  the  law  itself.  Their 
 frequent  washings  and  ablutions,  l  their  long  prayers  in 
 public  places,  their  2  nice  avoidance  of  reputed  sinners, 
 their  fasting"  and  great  abstinence,  their  penance  and 
 mortification,  3  their  minute  payment  of  tithes,  their  4 
 strict  observance  of  the  sabbath,  and  5  ostentatious 
 enlargement  of  a  phylacteries,  were  all  works  of  this 
 kind ;  which  nevertheless  gained  them  such  esteem  and 
 veneration,  that  while  the  common  people  loved,  the 
 greater  ones  dreaded  them,  so  that  their  power  and 
 authority  in  the  state  was  considerable,  though  generally 
 attended  with  pernicious  consequences,  because  their 
 hearts  were  evil :  for  notwithstanding-  their  show  of 
 mighty  zeal  and  g-reat  austerity,  they  were  in  reality,  no 
 better  than  what  our  Saviour  calls  them,  vain  and  osten- 
 tatious, spiteful  and  malicious,  griping  and  voracious, 
 lovers  of  themselves  only,  and  despisers  of  others  ;  in- 
 somuch, that  it  was  hard  to  say  which  was  most  predo- 
 minant in  them,  their  insatiable  avarice,  their  insupporta- 
 ble pride,  or  abominable  hypocrisy. 
 
 In  conjunction  with  the  Pharisees,  the  Scribes  are  often 
 mentioned  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament. 
 They  were  not  however  any  particular  sect,  but  a  pro- 
 fession of  men  of  divers  kinds,  following"  literature. 
 For  generally  all  that  were  any  way  learned  among  the 
 
 1  Mat.  vi.  5,  &c.  2  Luke  vii.  39.  3  Mat.  xxiii.  23. 
 
 4  Chap.  xii.  2.  5  Chap,  xxiii.  5. 
 
 a  The  word  phylactery,  in  the  Greek,  signifies  a  place  to  heep 
 any  thing  in;  in  the  Hebrew,  it  is  called  tepkillim,  which  sig- 
 liilies  prayers ,  because  the  Jews  wear  their  phylacteries  chiefly 
 "hen  they  go  to  their  devotion.  It  is  a  common  opinion,  that 
 these  phylacteries  were  long  pieces  of  parchment,  whereon  were 
 written  certain  passages  out  of  Exodus  and  Deuteronomy,  which 
 they  tied  to  their  foreheads  and  left  arm,  in  memory  of  the  law; 
 but  a  late  explainer  of  the  Jewish  customs  assures  us,  that  they 
 were  parchment  cases,  formed  with  vi-vy  great  nicety,  into  then- 
 proper  shapes:  that  the  case  for  their  head  had  four  cavities, 
 into  each  of  which  they  put  a  piece  of  parchment  rolled  up, 
 wherein  were,  written  some  sections  of  the  law;  hut  that  which 
 was  for  the  arm,  had  but  one  cavity,  and  into  it.  they  put  one 
 piece  of  parchment,  whereiu  four  passages  of  Scripture  were 
 written.  {Lamy's  Introduction,  b.  i.  c.  16.)  The  whole  of  this 
 custom  is  founded  on  Exod.  xiii.  9.  and  Deut.  vi.  8;  but  the 
 words  are  only  metaphorically  to  be  understood,  as  a  command 
 to  have  God's  laws  perpetually  before  our  eyes,  and  his  deliver- 
 ance always  in  remembrance.  It  cannot  be  denied,  however, 
 that  these   phylacteries  were   generally  worn   by  the  Jews  in  our 
 
 Saviour's  time,  and  were  not  disused  so  late  as  St  Jerome's 
 
 Liuty's  Introduction. 
 
 MAC.v.l.  JOS.H1ST.  b.  xii.  c.  ll— end  of  MAC.JOS.  HIST.b.  xii.  c.  19. 
 
 Jews  were,  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour  and  his  apostles, 
 called  scribes,  but  especially  those,  who  by  their  skill  in 
 the  law  and  divinity  of  the  Jews,  were  advanced  to  sit  in 
 Moses'  seat,  either  as  judges  in  their  sanhedrim,  or 
 teachers  in  their  schools  or  synagogues.  Botli  their 
 name  and  profession  began  immediately  after  the  Baby- 
 lonish captivity,  about  five  hundred  years  before  the 
 birth  of  Christ;  for  Ezra  himself  was  one  of  the  first. 
 They  were  a  body  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  na- 
 tion, and  chiefly  of  the  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  though 
 some  of  them  might  possibly  be  Karraites,  or  Anti-tradi- 
 tionists,  as  it  seems  to  appear  from  one  of  them  asking 
 our  Saviour,  B  '  which  was  the  first  commandment  of  all, 
 and  being  so  highly  pleased  with  his  answer. 
 
 Those  who  were  descended  from  the  stock  of  Levi, 
 were  usually  called  scribes  of  the  clergy  ;  but  such  as 
 were  sprung  from  any  other  tribe,  were  named  scribes  of 
 the  people.  The  business  of  the  latter  was  to  take  care 
 to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  text  in  all  the  bibles  which 
 they  copied  out,  and  to  see  that  no  corruption  was  crept 
 into  the  original.  It  was  not  held  proper  for  every  vul- 
 gar pen  to  transcribe  the  great  mysteries  of  the  law,  and 
 therefore  this  peculiar  order  of  men  was  appointed  to 
 that  purpose ;  but  they  did  not  so  entirely  apply  them- 
 selves to  it,  as  not  to  take  in  many  other  matters  both  of 
 civil  and  religious  concern,  being  public  notaries  in  the 
 sanhedrim  and  courts  of  justice,  as  well  as  registers  in 
 the  synagogues.  The  office  of  the  scribes  of  the  clergy 
 was  to  teach  in  public,  and  instruct  the  people,  by  ex- 
 pounding to  them  the  law  in  their  sermons  and  set  dis- 
 courses ;  by  which  practice  they  grew  into  such  repute  in 
 the  Jewish  state,  that  it  was  hard  to  say,  whether  the 
 Pharisees  or  they  were  held  in  the  greater  veneration  : 
 for  what  the  Pharisees  gained  among  the  common  peo- 
 ple by  their  pretences  to  extraordinary  sanctity,  these 
 more  justly  obtained  by  their  zeal  for  the  written  word, 
 in  preserving  it  from  the  dangers  of  corruption,  and  ex- 
 pounding it  in  the  ears  of  the  people. 
 
 It  is  supposed,  with  a  good  deal  of  probability,  that 
 the  sect  of  the  Essenes  began  about  150  years  before 
 Christ,  and  during  the  persecution  of  Antiochus  Epipha- 
 nes,  when  great  numbers  of  Jews  were  driven  into  the 
 wilderness,  where  they  inured  themselves  to  a  hard  and 
 laborious  course  of  living.  Why  we  find  no  mention  made 
 of  them  in  all  the  New  Testament,  the  probable  reason 
 may  be,  that  the  major  part  of  them  lived  in  Egypt  at  a 
 considerable  distance  from  Judea,  which  at  this  time 
 was  infested  with  such  persecutions  and  intestine  broils, 
 as  were  abhorrent  to  their  retired  and  hermitic  course  of 
 life,  which,  as  it  secluded  them  from  all  places  of  great 
 resort,  might  make  them  less  curious  to  inquire  after  our 
 Saviour's  person  and  doctrine,  thinking,  very  probably, 
 that  if  lie  was  really  the  Messiah,  he  would  not  fail  to 
 seek  and  find  out  them  ;  but  that  if  he  was  not,  he  had 
 already  enemies  enough  to  oppose  him,  without  dieir 
 leaving  the  solitary  and  contemplative  life  they  were  ac- 
 customed to,  merely  to  bear  testimony  against  him. 
 Philo,  who  gives  a  full  account  of  these  people,  tells  us 
 that  they  were  called  Essenes,  from  the  Greek  word  oaiog, 
 which  signifies  Itoly,  and  that  there  were  two  sorts  of 
 them  :  some  who,  living  in  society  and  marrying,  though 
 with  a  great  deal  of  wariness  and  circumspection,  lived 
 
 "  Mark  xii.  28,  && 
 
783 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  381J.  A.  C.  1G3;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  H  ALES,  A.M.5247.  A.C.164. 1  MAC.v.l.JOS.HIST.b.xii.c.14— end  of  MAC  JOS.HIST  b.3.ii,c.  13. 
 
 iii  villages,  and  applied  themselves  to  husbandry  and 
 other  innocent  trades  and  occupations,  and  were  there- 
 fore called  practical  ;  but  others  who,  living  a  kind  of 
 monastic  life,  gave  themselves  wholly  up  to  meditation, 
 and  were  therefore  called  the  contemplative  Essenes  : 
 but  however  they  differed  in  their  maimer  of  life,  they  were 
 both  of  the  same  belief,  and  followed  the  same  maxims. 
 
 They  had  not  indeed  the  like  traditions  with  the  Pha- 
 risees, but  as  they  were  allegorists,  they  had  several 
 mystical  books  which  served  them  for  a  rule  in  explaining 
 the  sacred  writings,  all  of  which,  contrary  to  the  Saddu- 
 cees,they  acknowledged  and  received.  Theybelievedthat 
 trod  governs  the  world,  but  by  such  an  absolute  predes- 
 tination of  every  thing,  as  allowed  mankind  no  liberty  of 
 choice  in  all  their  actions.  They  acknowledged  a  future 
 state,  thinking  that  the  souls  of  good  men  went  into  the 
 Fortunate  Islands,  while  those  of  the  wicked  were  shut 
 up  in  subterraneous  places  ;  but  as  for  the  resurrection  of 
 the  body,  and  the  soul's  returning  to  it  again  after  they 
 were  once  parted,  of  this  they  had  no  manner  of  notion. 
 All  practical  religion  they  reduced  to  these  three  kinds- 
 1,  The  love  of  God ;  2,  the  love  of  virtue;  and,  3,  the  love 
 of  mankind.  1,  Their  love  of  God  expressed  itself  in 
 accounting  him  the  author  of  all  good,  and,  consequent- 
 ly, applying  to  him  every  morning  and  night  for  the 
 blessings  they  wanted  :  in  their  abstaining  from  swearing, 
 from  lying,  and  all  other  sins  that  are  abhorrent  to  his 
 nature ;  and  in  their  strict  observance  of  the  sabbath, 
 and  all  other  holy  rites,  except  sacrificing  ;  for  though 
 they  sent  their  gifts  to  the  altar,  yet  they  themselves  went 
 not  thither,  presuming  that  the  sanctity  of  their  lives  was 
 the  purest  and  most  acceptable  sacrifice  to  God  that  they 
 could  offer.  2,  Their  love  of  virtue  was  shown  in  the 
 government  of  their  passions,  their  refraining  from  plea- 
 sures, their  contempt  of  riches,  their  abstinence  in  eating, 
 their  continence,  their  patience,  the  simplicity  of  their 
 speech,  and  the  modesty  of  their  carriage.  And,  3,  their 
 love  of  mankind  appeared  in  their  great  benevolence  and 
 strict  justice  ;  their  charity  to  the  poor,  and  hospitality 
 to  strangers ;  and  there  needs  no  other  proof  of  their 
 love  to  one  another,  than  the  union  in  which  they  lived. 
 For  they  had  the  same  houses,  the  same  provisions,  the 
 same  habits,  the  same  tables  ;  their  gains  were  put  in  the 
 common  stock  ;  they  divided  the  care  of  the  sick  among 
 them  ;  and  honoured  the  elder  men  of  their  society  with 
 the  same  reverence,  as  if  they  had  been  their  fathers. 
 
 This  strictness  and  regularity  of  theirs  gave  them  an 
 eminent  character,  and  made  it  a  matter  of  no  small  conse- 
 quence to  be  admitted  into  their  society.  For  when,  after 
 a  due  course  of  probation,  any  one  presented  himself 
 for  that  purpose,  they  bound  him  under  the  most  solemn 
 vows  and  protestations,  "  To  love  and  worship  God,  and 
 do  justice  to  all  men  ;  to  profess  himself  an  enemy  to  the 
 wicked,  and  a  friend  to  the  lovers  of  virtue  ;  to  keep  his 
 hands  from  theft,  and  all  fraudulent  dealings,  and  his 
 soul  unpolluted  with  the  desire  of  unjust  gain  ;  not  to 
 usurp  upon  his  inferiors,  nor  distinguish  himself  from 
 them  by  any  ornaments  of  dress  or  apparel  ;  not  to  con- 
 ceal any  of  the  mysteries  of  religion  from  his  brethren, 
 nor  to  disclose  any  to  the  profane,  though  it  were  to  save 
 his  life  ;  but  to  preserve  the  doctrine  he  professed,  the 
 books  that  were  written  of  it,  and  the  names  of  those 
 from  whom  he  had  it."  This  was  the  form  of  admission 
 into  their   communion    which   whoever   violated   in  any 
 
 gross  instance,  was  immediately  excluded,  and  never  re- 
 ceived again  without  the  deepest  humiliation  and  repen- 
 tance. And  if  such  was  the  religion  and  manner  of  life 
 of  the  Essenes,  we  have  less  reason  to  be  surprised,  at 
 our  finding  some  authors  so  much  extolling  their  courage 
 and  magnanimity  upon  several  occasions,  as  persons 
 who,  under  distresses  and  persecutions,  suffered  death, 
 and  the  most  grievous  torments,  even  with  joy  and  cheer- 
 fulness, rather  than  say  or  do  any  thing  contrary  to  the 
 law  of  God.  They  are  said,  however,  to  have  '  greatly 
 degenerated  from  their  primitive  purity  of  life  and  doc- 
 trine. In  the  time  of  Trajan  and  the  reign  of  Justinian, 
 though  they  were  known  under  the  pompous  title  of 
 "  angels  or  angelic  persons,"  yet  were  they  found  to  come 
 infinitely  short  of  the  beings  whose  names  they  assumed, 
 and,  upon  that  account,  falling  into  great  disesteeni,  in 
 a  very  short  time  a  they  dwindled  into  nothing. 
 
 There  was  another  sect  among  the  Jews,  2  mentioned 
 in  the  gospels,  which,  though  of  later  original,  may  not 
 improperly  be  considered  in  this  place,  and  that  is  the 
 Herodians,  b  who,  in  their  main  principles,  were  not 
 very  different  from  the  Sadducees.  They  sprang  up,  no 
 doubt,  in  the  time  of  Herod  the  Great,  some  twenty  or 
 thirty  years  before  Christ,  and  had  their  denomination 
 from  him  ;  but  upon  what  account  is  not  so  well  agreed. 
 The  common  opinion  is,  that  they  looked  upon  Herod 
 as  the  promised  Messiah  :  but  it  is  a  very  improbable 
 thing,  that  any  Jew  should,  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour's 
 ministry,  above  thirty  years  after  the  death  of  Herod, 
 hold  him  to  have  been  the  Messiah,  when  they  had  found 
 no  one  of  those  particulars  which  they  expected  from 
 the  Messiah  performed  by  him,  but  rather  every  thing 
 quite  contrary.  3  Others  therefore  suppose,  that  they 
 were  called  Herodians,  because  they  constituted  a  so- 
 dality, or  club,  as  we  call  it,  in  honour  of  Herod  at  Je- 
 rusalem, as  there  were  several  in  Rome  in  honour  of 
 their  emperors.  c  But,  since  the  earliest  of  these  so- 
 dalities in  Rome  were  not  instituted  till  after  the  death 
 of  Augustus,  who  outlived  Herod  sixteen  years  and  up- 
 wards, this  could  be  no  pattern  or  foundation  for  the 
 institution  of  the  like  in  memory  of  Herod,  who  died  so 
 lonp-  before. 
 
 1  Basnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  ii.  c.  13. 
 2  Mat.  xxii.  16;  Mark  iii.  16;  viii.  15;  xii.  13. 
 
 3  Scaliger  in  Animadver.  ad  Eusebii  Cliron.  et  Casaubon. 
 Exereit.  &c. 
 
 a  Some  indeed  are  of  opinion,  that  these  Essenes  did  renounce 
 Judaism,  and  were  converts  to  Christianity;  and  that  surh 
 among  them  as  were  called  Therapentaa  became  monks,  and 
 were  formed  into  that  order  by  St  Mark,  who  was  the  first 
 founder  of  the  Christian  church  in  Alexandria.  But  though  it 
 seems  not  unlikely,  that  some  of  this  sect  might  be  converted, 
 yet,  that  the  main  body  of  them  should  embrace  Christianity, 
 and  so  he  lost  in  the  societies  of  Christian  hermits,  is  far  from 
 being  probable ;  especially  since  we  find  no  traces  of  any  such 
 institution  as  monkism  till  after  the  beginning  of  the  second 
 century,  when  these  ascetics,  who  had  formerly  fled  from  perse- 
 cution, finding  the  sweets  of  their  retirement  and  solitude,  began 
 to  multiply,  and  so  erected  themselves  into  bodies. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  107:  and  Basnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  ii. 
 c.  13. 
 
 b  Accordingly  St  Mark  (chap.  viii.  15.)  calls  that  '  the  leaven 
 of  Herod,'  which  Christ  styles  '  the  leaven  of  the  Sadducees,' 
 Mat.  xvi.  6. 
 
 c  Such  were  the  Augustales,  Adrianales,  Antonini,  &c.  con- 
 stituted in  honour  of  Augustus,  Adrian,  and  Antoninus,  and  the 
 rest  of  the  emperors,  after  their  death. — Prideavx's  Connection, 
 anno  1(17. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 789 
 
 A.  M.  3841.  A.  C.  163;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 Herod,  no  doubt,  came  into  the  government  with  great 
 opposition,  and,  as  he  was  by  birth  a  foreigner,  and  had 
 made  his  entrance  with  much  blood,  his  title  was  not  ac- 
 knowledged by  the  greater  part  of  the  Jews,  especially 
 as  long  as  Antigonus  was  alive.  Those,  therefore,  that 
 would  own  his  title  and  espouse  his  interest,  might,  for 
 this  reason,  perhaps,  go  under  the  name  of  Herodians  ; 
 but  this  seems  not  to  be  the  whole  of  the  matter.  Our 
 blessed  Saviour  cautions  his  disciples  '  '  against  the 
 leaven,'  that  is,  against  the  evil  and  erroneous  tenets,  of 
 Herod  ;  which  seems  to  imply,  that  Herod  himself  was 
 the  author  of  some  false  notions,  which  constituted  a  par- 
 ticular sect  differing  from  the  other  sects  of  the  Jews  ; 
 and  that  his  followers,  imbibing  these  principles  from 
 him,  had  the  denomination  of  Herodians.  2  Forasmuch, 
 then,  that  Herod,  3  the  better  to  secure  his  possession 
 of  the  throne,  had  put  himself  under  the  Roman  protec- 
 tion, *  contrary  to  an  express  precept  of  the  law:  and, 
 to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  great  men  at  Rome,  built 
 temples,  and  erected  images  in  them  for  idolatrous  wor- 
 ship, excusing  himself  to  the  Jews,  that  all  this  he  did 
 purely  in  compliance  to  the  commands  he  was  necessi- 
 tated to  obey,  and  might  probably  lay  it  down  for  a 
 maxim  in  religion,  that,  in  case  of  compulsion,  it  was 
 lawful  to  submit  to  unjust  injunctions  ;  there  is  no  won- 
 der at  all  that  some  bold  men  should  rise  up  to  justify 
 the  king's  practice,  and,  by  the  royal  permission,  call 
 themselves  by  his  name,  whose  distinguishing  tenet 
 might  probably  be,  "  That  although  they  professed  the 
 Jewish  religion,  and  abominated  idolatry  in  their  hearts, 
 yet,  to  humour  the  Romans,  and  make  themselves  easy 
 with  their  governors,  it  was  not  unlawful  to  comply 
 sometimes  with  their  demands,  and,  at  least  outwardly, 
 to  become  occasional  conformists."  This  is  the  leaven 
 of  the  Herodians,  which  our  Saviour  cautions  his  disciples 
 against ;  but  it  was  not  of  long  continuance  in  the  Jewish 
 church  :  for  Herod  Antipas  5  having-  lost  his  credit  at 
 Rome,  and  being  deposed  and  banished  out  of  Judea, 
 the  sect  that  was  instituted  by  his  father,  and  supported 
 by  his  favour  and  countenance,  could  not  support  itself 
 after  his  disgrace. 
 
 Another  sect,  mentioned  by  Josephus  6  as  rising  after 
 this  time,  was  that  of  Judas  of  Galilee  :  for  when  Arche- 
 Jius,  son  of  Herod  the  Great,  was  sent  into  banishment, 
 and  Judea  reduced  to  a  Roman  province,  Judas,  a  a 
 rative  of  Galamala,  took  occasion  from  some  new  exac- 
 tions, to  exhort  his  countrymen  to  shake  off*  the  Roman 
 yoke ;  pretending,  that  to  pay  tribute  to  any  foreign 
 power  was  a  shameful  badge  of  their  slavery.  An  aver- 
 sion to  the  Roman  dominion,  and  an  hatred  of  the  publi- 
 cans, who  had  the  care  of  receiving  the  taxes  and  tributes, 
 Was  natural  enough  to  all  the  Jews ;  but  they,  whose 
 zeal  led  them  to  join  Judas,  and  form  a  particular  sect, 
 valued  themselves  upon  their  holiness  and  justice,  be- 
 cause they  would  not  acknowledge  any  other  sovereign 
 but  God  ;  and,  rather  than  submit  to  the  dominion  of 
 man,  or  give  him  the  title  of  Lord,  they  chose  to  subject 
 
 M.  5217.  A.  C.  1G4.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  b.  XV. 
 
 themselves  to  any  torments,  or  even  to  death  itself. 
 Judas  indeed  perished,  '  and  all,  as  many  as  obeyed 
 him,  were  dispersed  for  a  while  ;'  but  in  the  time  of  the 
 Jewish  wars  they  gathered  again,  and  soon  became  a 
 faction  strong  and  considerable  enough  to  put  every 
 thing  in  confusion.  They  affected  the  title  of  zealots, 
 says  7  Josephus,  as  if  their  undertakings  had  been  good 
 and  honourable,  even  while  they  outdid  the  very  worst 
 of  men  in  wickedness.  They  looked  upon  themselves, 
 indeed,  as  the  true  successors  of  Phinehas,  s  who,  out  of 
 zeal  for  the  honour  of  God,  did  immediate  execution 
 upon  Zimri  and  Cosbi,  for  which  he  received  the  divine 
 thanks  and  approbation.  And,  in  imitation  of  him,  these 
 men  took  upon  them  to  execute  judgment  upon  such  as 
 they  called  notorious  offenders,  without  staying  for  the 
 ordinary  formalities  of  law.  And,  therefore,  they  made 
 no  scruple  of  robbing,  and  plundering,  and  killing  the 
 principal  of  the  nobility,  under  pretence  of  their  holding 
 correspondence  with  the  Romans,  and  betraying  the 
 liberty  of  their  country.  At  last,  joining  with  the  Idu- 
 mseans,  they  committed  all  manner  of  outrage,  seized  on 
 the  temple,  and  profaned  the  sanctuary,  and  slew  many 
 of  the  high  priests  themselves.  So  that,  when  Jerusalem 
 came  to  be  besieged,  they  were  perpetually  raising 
 tumults  and  distractions  within,  which  ended  at  last  in 
 the  destruction  of  their  city  and  temple,  and  the  total 
 dissolution  of  their  state. 
 
 These  were  the  several  sects,  which,  much  about  this 
 period  of  time,  sprang  up  in  the  Jewish  church  ;  and,  if 
 the  like  differences  in  opinion  have  since  appeared  in  the 
 Christian,  it  is  no  more  than  what  the  Spirit  of  God  hath 
 foretold :  u  '  For  there  must  be  heresies  among  you,  that 
 they  who  are  approved  may  be  made  manifest  among 
 you.' 
 
 1  Mark  viii.  15.  2  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  107. 
 
 8  Joseph.  Antiq.  I),  xv.  c.  12.  <  Deut.  xvii.  15. 
 
 s  Basnage's  History,  b.  ii.  c.  14.     *  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xviii. 
 
 a  Augustus  furnished  him  with  a  plausible  pretence  for  it,  by 
 issuing  out  his  edict  to  have  the  whole  province  of  Syria  new 
 surveyed  and  taxed  about  this  time. 
 
 SECT.    V. 
 
 CHAP.   I. — From  the  Death  of  John  Hyrcanus,  to  the 
 Birth  of  Jesus  Christ 
 
 THE  HISTORY 
 
 Hyrcanus,  when  he  died,  left  five  sons:  Aristobulus, 
 Antigonus,  and  Alexander,  were  the  three  first;  who  the 
 fourth  was,  we  no  where  read;  but  the  name  of  the  fifth 
 was  Absalom.  Aristobulus,  as  eldest,  succeeded  his 
 father,  both  in  the  pontificate  and  principality  of  the 
 nation,  and,  as  we  said  before,  was  the  first  in  Judea, 
 since  the  Babylonish  captivity,  who  put  on  a  diadem, 
 and  assumed  the  title  of  a  king;  but  he  was  a  man  of  a 
 bloody  and  suspicious  disposition.  His  own  mother, 
 because,  in  virtue  of  his  father's  will,  she  claimed  some 
 share  in  the  sovereignty,  he  first  cast  into  prison,  and 
 there  starved  to  death.  All  his  brothers  he  put  under 
 the  like  confinement,  except  Antigonus,  who  was  his 
 great  favourite,  and,  at  first,  shared  in  the  government 
 with  him:  but  he  soon  cooled  in  his  affections,  and  at 
 last  had  him  put  to  death;  though  in  this  piece  of  cruelty 
 the  instruments  about  him  were  more  to  blame  than  he. 
 
 7  Of  the  Jewish  War,  b.  iv. 
 8  Num.  xxv.  13.         3  1  Cor.  xi.  19. 
 
790 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  If.  3807.  A.  C.  107 ,  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 As  soon  as  he  was  settled  in  the  throne,  he  engaged 
 in  a  war  with  the  Iturreans ;  a  and  having  subdued  the 
 greatest  part  of  them,  he  forced  them  to  become  prosy- 
 lytes  to  the  Jewish  religion,  in  the  same  manner  as  his 
 father  had  done  to  the  Idumreans  :  but  returning  sick  from 
 the  war  to  Jerusalem,  he  left  his  brother  behind  him  to 
 finish  it,  which  accordingly  he  did  with  success  ;  and  so, 
 returning  in  triumph,  at  a  time  when  the  feast  of  taber- 
 nacles was  celebrating,  he  went  directly  to  the  temple, 
 as  did  the  guards  that  attended  him,  with  his  armour  on, 
 to  pay  his  devotions  to  God. 
 
 The  queen,  and  the  courtiers  of  her  party,  who  envied 
 the  interest  which  Antigonus  had  with  the  king,  were 
 always  buzzing  in  his  ears  such  stories  as  they  thought 
 would  excite  his  jealousy;  and  now  they  come  and  tell 
 him,  "  That  it  was  high  time  for  him  to  look  to  himself: 
 that  his  brother  was  gone  into  the  temple  in  an  equipage 
 not  becoming  a  private  man ;  and  that,  in  all  probability, 
 it  would  not  be  long  before  he  could  come  with  a  troop 
 of  his  armed  soldiers,  and  execute  his  wicked  design 
 against  him." 
 
 This  representation  made  some  impression  upon  Aris- 
 tobulus,  so  that  he  sent  to  his  brother  to  put  ofl"  his 
 armour,  and  immediately  come  to  him,  concluding  that 
 if,  pursuant  to  his  orders,  he  came  unarmed,  there  was 
 no  mischief  intended,  but  that  if  he  did  otherwise,  there 
 might  be  something  in  what  the  queen  had  suggested; 
 and  therefore  placing  his  guards  in  a  subterraneous  pas- 
 sage, which  led  from  the  palace  b  to  the  temple,  and 
 through  which  his  brother  was  to  come  to  the  king's 
 apartment,  he  ordered  them,  that,  if  he  came  unarmed, 
 they  should  let  him  pass,  but  if  otherwise,  they  should 
 instantly  fall  upon  him,  and  dispatch  him. 
 
 The  queen,  knowing  this,  prevailed  with  the  messenger 
 whom  Aristobulus  sent  to  bid  his  brother  come  unarmed, 
 to  tell  him,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  king  being  informed 
 of  a  very  beautiful  suit  of  armour  which  he  had  brought 
 with  him  from  the  wars,  was  minded  to  see  how  it  became 
 him,  and  therefore  desired  him  to  come  in  it;  which 
 accordingly  he  did,  suspecting  no  ill.  When  he  came 
 to  the  place  where  the  guards  were  posted,  they,  seeing 
 his  armour  on,  executed  their  orders,  and  immediately 
 
 a  Iturrea,  the  country  where  these  people  dwelt,  was  part  of 
 (  ii  In  Syria,  bordering  upon  the  north-east  part  of  the  land  of 
 Israel,  and  lying  between  the  inheritance  of  the  half  tribe  of 
 Manasseh  beyond  Jordan,  and  the  territories  of  Damascus.  It 
 is  the  same  country  that  is  sometimes  called  Auronitis,  and  had 
 its  name  from  Itur,  one  of  the  sons  of  Ishmael,  (Gen.  xxv.  15.) 
 who.  in  our  English  version,  is  wrongfully  called  Jetur. — Pri- 
 deaux's  Connection,  anno  107. 
 
 b  When  Ifyrcanus  built  the  palace  of  Baris,  he  caused  this 
 passage,  which  led  from  thence  to  the  temple,  to  be  made,  that 
 upon  all  occasions  he  might  have  a  ready  communication  with  it: 
 and  as  over  this  passage  there  was  a  turret,  or  tower  of  the 
 palace,  called  Straton's  tower,  Josephus  tells  us  a  very  remark- 
 able story  concerning  it,  namely,  that  one  Judas,  an  Essene, 
 having  foretold  that  Antigonus  should,  that  very  day,  be  slain  in 
 Straton's  tower,  which  he  took  to  be  a  town  so  called,  lying  on 
 the  sea  coast,  -d\u]  two  days'  journey  from  Jerusalem  ;  and  seeing 
 Antigonus  come  into  the  temple,  he  fell  into  a  great  passion,  and 
 began  to  exclaim  against  truth  itself,  as  supposing  his  prediction 
 impossible  now  to  be  fulfilled;  but,  while  be  was  in  this  agony, 
 news  In  ing  brought,  that  Antigonus  was  slain  in  that  part  of  the 
 subterraneous  gallery  which  was  directly  under  the  turret  called 
 Straton's  tower,  the  Essene  rejoiced  in  the  comfort  and  satisfac- 
 tion of  having  his  prophecy  verified,  at  the  same  time  that  every 
 one  else  was  lamenting  the  murder  of  this  young  prince. — Jewish 
 t'.nliq.  b.  12.  c.  19. 
 
 M.  530").  A.  C.  106  JOS.  HIST.  1>.  xiii.  c.  19— END  OP  b.  xv. 
 
 slew  him:  but,  no  sooner  was  the  fact  committed,  than 
 Aristobulus  severely  repented  it. 
 
 For  the  sense  of  the  loss  of  a  good  brother  brought  to 
 his  remembrance  the  murder  of  his  mother,  and  his  con- 
 science flew  in  his  face  for  both  at  once.  The  anxiety 
 of  his  mind  increased  the  distemper  of  his  body ;  so  that, 
 finding  no  ease  for  the  one,  and  no  cure  for  the  other, 
 in  the  utmost  agonies  of  guilt,  and  with  many  bitter 
 accusations  of  himself,  he  gave  up  the  ghost,  c  and, 
 after  a  reign  of  no  more  than  one  year,  was  succeeded 
 by  his  brother  Alexander  Jannasus. 
 
 Ever  since  his  father's  death,  he  had  been  kept  in  pri- 
 son by  the  late  king  ;  but,  upon  his  decease,  his  widow 
 Salome  released  him,  and  his  other  two  brothers,  from 
 their  confinement ;  so  that,  being  now  on  the  throne,  and 
 having  discovered  that  the  elder  of  these  brothers  had 
 formed  a  design  to  supplant  him,  he  caused  him  to  be 
 put  to  death  ;  but  the  other,  who  was  called  Absalom, 
 desiring  to  live  quietly,  and  in  a  private  condition,  he 
 took  into  liis  favour,  and  under  his  protection. 
 
 As  soon  as  he  had  settled  his  matters  at  home,  he  led 
 forth  his  forces  to  make  war  with  the  people  of  Ptolemais  ; 
 and,  having  vanquished  them  in  a  pitched  battle,  shut 
 them  up  in  the  city,  and  laid  close  siege  to  it.  This 
 place,  and  Gaza,  together  with  the  tower  of  Straton,  and 
 the  fortress  of  Dura,  which  Zoilus  possessed,  were  the 
 only  places  on  the  coast, which  were  not  under  Alexander's 
 dominion  ;  and,  therefore,  dividing  his  forces,  with  one 
 part  he  besieged  Ptolemais,  and  employed  the  other  in 
 ravaging  the  territories  of  Zoilus,  and  those  of  Gaza. 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  besieged  had  sent  to  Ptolemy 
 Lathyrus,  d  the  expelled  king  of  Egypt,  who  reigned 
 then  in  Crete,  to  come  to  their  relief;  but  afterwards, 
 bethinking  themselves  better,  they  came  to  a  resolution, 
 which  they  communicated  to  Ptolemy,  to  trust  to  their 
 own  strength,  rather  than  admit  of  any  auxiliaries. 
 
 Ptolemy  however  was  already  set  to  sea,  when  he 
 heard  this  news  ;  and  therefore  proceeding  in  his  voyage, 
 and  landing  his  army  in  Phoenicia,  he  advanced  towards 
 Ptolemais  ;  but  the  people  in  the  town  would  neither  re- 
 ceive his  messengers,  nor  send  him  any  answer,  so  that 
 he  was  in  no  small  perplexity  what  course  to  take,  when 
 
 c  Aristobulus  was  a  great  favourer  of  the  Greeks,  for  which 
 reason  he  was  called  Philellen,  and  the  Greeks  indeed  had  an 
 equal  favour  for  him:  for,  as  Josephus  tells  us  out  of  Strabo,  one 
 of  their  historians  has  left  his  character  of  him: — "  Tliat  he  was 
 a  prince  of  equity,  and  had  in  many  things  been  very  benefi- 
 cial to  the  Jews,  in  that  he  had  augmented  their  territories,  aipl 
 ingrafted  into  the  Jewish  state  part  of  the  nation  of  the  Iturceans  *: 
 but  the  actions  of  his  short  reign  show  him  to  have  been  a  man 
 of  a  quite  different  disposition. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno 
 106. 
 
 d  This  Ptolemy  Lathyrus,  by  his  mother  Cleopatra,  was  made 
 king  of  Esypt;  by  his  affecting  to  reign  without  her,  he  so  far 
 incurred  her  displeasure,  that  she  procured  his  expulsion  by  this 
 artifice.  Some  of  her  favourite  eunuchs  she  caused  to  be  wounded  ; 
 and  then  bringing  them  out  into  the  public  assembly  of  the  Alex- 
 andrians, she  there  pretended,  that  they  had  suffered  this  from 
 Lathyrus,  in  defence  of  1  er  person  against  him,  and  thereupon 
 accused  him  of  having  made  an  attempt  upon  her  life;  and  by 
 this  means  she  so  far  incensed  the  people,  that  they  rose  in  a 
 general  uproar  against  him,  and  would  have  torn  him  in  pieces, 
 had  he  not  fled  for  his  life.  Hereupon  Cleopatra  sent  for  Alex- 
 ander, her  younger  son,  who,  for  some  time  had  reigned  in 
 Cyprus,  and  having  made  him  king  of  Egypt,  forced  Lathyrus 
 to  be  cunt,  i it  with  Cyprus,  upon  his  brother's  leaving  it — Justin, 
 b.  xxxix.  c.  4. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,    &c 
 
 791 
 
 A.  M.  3897.  A.  C.  107;  Oil,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  53105.  A.  C.  IOC.  JOS.  HIST.  Ij.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 Zoilus,  and  the  Gazeans  sent  ambassadors,  desiring  his 
 assistance  against  Alexander's  forces,  which  they  were 
 not  able  to  oppose. 
 
 Ptolemy,  being  very  glad  of  any  opportunity  to  make 
 an  honourable  retreat  from  before  Ptolemais,  readily 
 marched  his  army  to  their  relief;  but  Alexander,  not 
 thinking  it  advisable  to  hazard  an  engagement  with  him, 
 withdrew  his  army  into  their  quarters,  and  there  thought 
 to  gain  by  policy,  what  he  could  not  attain  by  force. 
 
 To  this  purpose  he  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Lathyrus, 
 and  engaged  to  pay  him  four  hundred  talents  of  silver, 
 on  condition  that  lie  would  deliver  Zoilus,  and  his  terri- 
 tories, into  his  hands,  which  Lathyrus  agreed  to  do,  and 
 accordingly  had  got  Zoilus  into  his  custody ;  but  when 
 he  came  to  understand,  that  at  the  same  time  Alexander 
 was  clandestinely  treating  with  Cleopatra,  to  bring  her 
 upon  him  with  all  her  forces,  he,  detesting  such  double 
 dealing,  broke  off  all  friendship  with  him,  and  resolved 
 to  do  him  what  mischief  he  could. 
 
 The  two  armies  therefore  met  the  next  year,  and  a 
 very  fierce  battle  ensued  near  Asophus,  not  far  from  the 
 river  Jordan,  wherein  Alexander  being  vanquished,  lost 
 thirty  thousand  of  his  men,  besides  those  that  were  taken 
 prisoners.  After  this  victory,  Ptolemy  made  every  where 
 great  havoc,  and  spread  the  terror  a  of  his  name  through- 
 out all  the  province ;  but  his  mother  Cleopatra  being 
 fearful,  lest  so  much  success  should  make  him  powerful 
 enough  to  invade  Egypt,  set  out  with  a  large  fleet,  and 
 a  numerous  army,  which  she  landed  in  Phoenicia,  and 
 thence  proceeded  to  Ptolemais,  expecting  that  the  people 
 would  have  opened  their  gates  to  her ;  but  finding  the 
 contrary,  she  invested  the  place  to  take  it  by  force  ; 
 while  Ptolemy,  believing  that  it  would  be  easy  for  him 
 to  recover  Egypt  in  the  absence  of  his  mother  and  her 
 army,  left  Syria,  and  went  upon  that  expedition  ;  but 
 meeting  with  more  opposition  than  he  expected,  he  was 
 obliged  to  return  to  Gaza,  where  he  passed  the  winter, 
 and  from  thence  went  back  again  to  Cyprus. 
 
 As  soon  as  Cleopatra  had  taken  Ptolemais,  Alexander 
 went  thither  with  considerable  presents,  and  was  kindly 
 received  as  an  unhappy  prince,  who  was  Ptolemy's 
 enemy,  and  had  no  other  refuge  but  the  queen's  protec- 
 tion :  and  therefore  when  some  about  her  suggested,  that 
 now  she  had  an  opportunity  to  seize  on  him  and  his 
 dominions,  Ananias,  one  of  her  generals,  who  by  birth 
 was  a  Jew,  and  by  descent  a  relation  to  Alexander,  by 
 representing  to  her  the  danger  and  injustice  of  such  a 
 procedure  ;  how  base  and  injurious  to  her  own  honour, 
 which  for  no  considerations  whatever  ought  to  be  tar- 
 nished;  how  prejudicial  to  her  interest,  by  provoking  all 
 the  Jews  in  the  world  against  her  ;  and  how  contrary  to 
 (he  rules  of  faith  and  common  honesty,  which  are  ob- 
 served among  all  mankind,  it  would  be  to  treat  a  friend 
 and  ally  in  this  manner;  he  prevailed  with  her  to  desist 
 
 a  There  is  a  very  cruel  and  barbarous  act,  which  he  is  said 
 to  have  done  at  this  time,  namely,  that,  coming  with  his  army  in 
 the  evening  after  the  victory,  to  take  up  his  quarters  in  the  ad- 
 joining villages,  and  rinding  them  full  ofwomm  and  children,  he 
 caused  them  to  be  all  slaughtered,  and  their  bodies  to  be  cut  in 
 pieces,  and  put  in  caldrons  over  the  fire  to  be  boiled,  as  if  they 
 had  been  for  supper;  that  so  he  might  leave  an  opinion  in  that 
 country,  that  his  men  f<  I  upon  human  flesh,  and  thereby  create 
 iter  dread  and  terror  of  his  army.  This  barbarous  cruelty 
 Strabo  and  Nicholaus,  as  Josephus  tells  us,  make  mention  of. — 
 Tewieh  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  21. 
 
 from  all  thoughts  of  it;  so  that,  having  concluded  an 
 amicable  alliance  with  Alexander,  she  returned  with  her 
 army  to  Egypt. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  country  was  clear  of  these  foreigners, 
 and  Alexander  had  recruited  his  shattered  forces,  he 
 marched  into  Ccelo-Syria,  where,  after  a  siege  of  ten 
 months,  he  took  Gadara,  and  after  that,  the  strong  for- 
 tress of  Amathus,  where  Theodorus,  the  son  of  Zeno, 
 prince  of  Philadelphia,  had  laid  up  all  his  treasure  ;  but 
 Theodorus  falling  suddenly  upon  him,  as  he  was  return- 
 ing from  the  conquest,  not  only  recovered  his  treasure 
 again,  but  slew  ten  thousand  of  his  men,  and  took  all 
 his  baggage  from  him. 
 
 All  these  misfortunes,  however,  did  not  discourage 
 this  prince.  The  next  year  he  marched  his  forces  again 
 over  the  Jordan  ;  and  after  having  taken  some  neigh- 
 bouring places,  came,  and  sat  down  before  Gaza,  with  a 
 design,  if  he  took  it,  to  use  the  people  with  the  utmost 
 severity  ;  but  Apollodorus,  who  commanded  the  town, 
 made  a  gallant  defence,  and  in  a  sally  with  twenty  thou- 
 sand of  his  men,  one  night  fell  so  furiously  upon  Alex- 
 ander's camp,  that  he  had  like  to  have  ruined  him 
 and  his  whole  army  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  day  appeared, 
 the  Jews,  discovering  who  they  were,  (for  they  thought 
 in  the  dark  that  Lathyrus  was  come  again  to  the  as- 
 sistance of  Gaza,)  rallied  again,  and  repulsed  the  Ga- 
 zeans into  the  city,  with  the  loss  of  a  thousand  of  their 
 men. 
 
 The  city,  however,  still  held  out,  till  Lysimachus,  en- 
 vying the  credit  and  esteem  which  hi?  brother  Apollo- 
 dorus had  gained  in  the  defence  of  the  place,  treacher- 
 ously slew  him,  and  then  as  treacherously  delivered  up 
 the  city  to  Alexander  ;  who,  as  soon  as  he  had  got  pos- 
 session of  it,  let  loose  his  soldiers  upon  it,  with  a  full 
 license  to  kill,  plunder,  and  destroy,  which  produced  a 
 sad  scene  of  barbarity.  The  Gazeans,  thus  finding 
 that  they  were  to  have  no  quarter,  stood  upon  their  de- 
 fence, and  sold  their  lives  at  so  dear  a  rate,  that  in  the 
 carnage  and  sackage  of  the  place,  Alexander  lost  as 
 many  men  of  his  own,  as  he  killed  of  the  enemy ;  but 
 had  the  horrid  pleasure,  before  he  went  away,  to  see  this 
 ancient  and  famous  city  reduced  to  utter  ruin  and  deso- 
 lation. 
 
 When  he  returned  to  Jerusalem,  he  was  far  from 
 finding  matters  there  in  any  peaceable  posture.  For, 
 in  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  while  he  was  ottering  the 
 usual  sacrifices  as  high  priest,  the  people  who  were 
 assembled  in  the  temple,  had  the  insolence  to  pelt  him 
 with  citrons,  (for  during  the  festival  it  was  a  custom 
 among  the  Jews  to  carry  *  branches  of  palm-trees,  and 
 lemon-trees  in  their  hands)  and  to  give  him  very  op- 
 probrious language,  telling  him,  that  lie  was  a  slave,  c 
 
 b  The  word  in  the  original  is  Attrog,  which  the  Jews  ima- 
 gine to  have  been  the  forbidden  fruit,  that  our  first  parents  ate 
 in  paradi-tj.  It  very  much  resembles  a  citron  or  lemon,  except 
 that  it  has  a  very  rough  ami  uneven  rind,  which  they  fondly 
 imagine,  was  originally  occasioned  by  Eve's  impressing  her  teeth 
 on  it,  and  that  these  marks  it  has  still  retained.  The  custom  of 
 carrying  these  in  their  hands  is  in  testimony  of  their  joy,  but  on 
 the  seventh  day,  which  closes  the  festival,  they  break  their 
 branches,  and  throw  them  away;  and  therefore  it  is  supposed, 
 that  it  was  mi  this,  day,  when  the  mutinous  multitude  pelted  the 
 high  priest  with  these  attrogs,  which,  at  this  time,  were  very 
 common  in  Palestine. — Universal  Hktory,  b.  ii,  c.  11. 
 
 c  In  this  they  alluded  to  what   Eleazar,  a  leading  Ph 
 had  said  to  his  father  Hyrcanus,  namely,  "  That  his  mother  was 
 
792 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  3897.  A.  C.  107;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5305.  A.  C.106.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiij.c.  19— END  of  b.  xv. 
 
 and  unworthy  to  go  up  to  the  holy  altar  to  offer  solemn 
 sacrifices,  which  enraged  him  to  such  a  degree,  that  he 
 fell  upon  them  with  his  soldiers,  and  slew  six  thousand 
 of  them.  After  this  he  surrounded  the  court  of  the 
 priests,  wherein  the  altar  and  the  temple  stood,  with  a 
 wooden  partition,  to  hinder  the  people  from  coming  near 
 him,  while  he  was  officiating,  and  to  secure  his  person 
 against  all  future  attempts,  he  took  guards  into  his  pay 
 from  Pisidia  and  Cilicia,  (for  he  durst  not  trust  his  own 
 countrymen,)  and  of  these  he  had  six  thousand  always 
 about  him. 
 
 Having  thus,  in  some  measure,  laid  the  storm  at  home, 
 lie  marched  his  forces  against  the  Moabites  and  Ammon- 
 ites, and  made  them  become  tributary  to  him.  He  at- 
 tacked again  the  fortress  of  Amathus ;  but  Theodorus, 
 not  daring  to  stand  his  coming,  had  removed  his  trea- 
 sure, and  withdrawn  the  garrison,  so  that  he  took  it  with- 
 out opposition  :  but  in  his  war  with  Thedas,  an  Arabian 
 king,  he  had  not  the  like  success ;  for  falling  into  an 
 ambuscade  which  that  prince  had  laid  for  him  near  Ga- 
 dara,  he  there  lost  most  of  his  army,  and  not  without 
 some  difficulty  escaped  himself. 
 
 This  loss,  added  to  the  hatred  which  the  Jews  had 
 conceived  against  him,  made  them  fly  out  into  an  open 
 rebellion,  so  that  here  a  civil  war  commenced,  which 
 lasted  for  six  years.  In  most  encounters  he  had  the  ad- 
 vantage of  his  subjects  ;  but  so  exasperated  were  they 
 against  him,  that  he  could  never  bring  them  to  submit : 
 for  having  one  day  asked  them  what  they  would  have 
 him  do  to  please  them,  they  all  with  one  voice  replied, 
 "  That  he  should  cut  his  own  throat;  for  upon  no  other 
 terms  would  they  be  at  peace  with  him;  and  well  it  were," 
 they  said,  "  considering  the  great  a  mischiefs  he  had 
 done  them,  if  they  could  be  reconciled  to  him,  even 
 after  he  was  in  his  grave ;"  and  thereupon  they  sent 
 deputies  to  Demetrius  Euchserus  who  was  then  king  of 
 Damascus,  to  desire  succours  from  him  against  their 
 sovereign. 
 
 Demetrius,  at  their  request,  came  into  .ludea  with  an 
 army  of  three  thousand  horse,  and  forty  thousand  foot, 
 Syrians  and  Jews.  Alexander  marched  against  him  with 
 six  thousand  Greek  mercenaries,  and  twenty  thousand 
 Jews,  who  continued  faithful  to  him  ;  but  in  the  engage- 
 ment he  was  quite  vanquished.  All  his  foreign  troops 
 w  ere  lost  to  a-  man  ;  and  the  greatest  part  of  his  other 
 forces  was  so  miserably  broken,  that  he  was  forced  to 
 flee  for  shelter  to  the  mountains,  with  the  poor  remnant 
 he  could  get  together. 
 
 This  misfortune,  which,  in  all  appearance,  must  have 
 totally  ruined  his  affairs,  proved    the    very    means  of 
 re-establishing  them.     Six  thousand  of  those  very  Jews 
 who  had  so  lately  appeared  in  arms  against  him,  when 
 
 a  captive  taken  in  the  wars,  and  he,  consequently,  disqualified 
 to  be  their  high  priest."  But  assuredly  the  true  reason  of 
 their  exaspiration  against  him  was,  that  he  followed  his  father's 
 Bteps,  and  not  only  gave  countenance  to  the  contrary  sect,  but 
 continued  the  penal  laws  against  those  who  should  observe  the 
 traditions  and  customs  introduced  by  the  Pharisees.—  Universal 
 Wst'.rij,  h.  -2,  c.   11. 
 
 a  The  fourth  book  of  the  Maccabees  (chap,  xxix.)  tells  us, 
 that  this  war  was  chiefly  between  the  Pharisees  and  Saddu- 
 cees,  and  that  Alexander,  having  declared  himself  against  the 
 former,  had  put  fifty  thousand  of  them  to  death  within"  the  space 
 of  six  yars,  which  so  exasperated  the  rest,  that  they  would 
 hearken  to  no  accommodation. —  Universal  History,  b.  2   c.  11. 
 
 they  saw  him  reduced  to  this  distressed  condition,  were 
 moved  with  compassion,  and  went  over  to  him :  and 
 Demetrius,  being  content  with  the  first  advantage  he 
 had  gained,  or  fearing,  perhaps,  that  the  rest  of  the 
 Jews  would  do  the  same,  retired  into  Syria,  leaving 
 the  rebels  to  make  war  against  their  king  with  their  own 
 forces. 
 
 In  most  of  the  conflicts  that  happened  between  them 
 Alexander  defeated  them,  but  still  he  could  bring  them 
 to  no  terms  of  peace ;  till  at  last  coming  to  a  decisive 
 battle,  he  cut  off  the  major  part  of  them,  and  the  rest  he 
 shut  up  in  a  place  called  Bethome.  This  he  besieged, 
 and  took  ;  and  having  carried  eight  hundred  of  the  rebels 
 prisoners  to  Jerusalem,  he  there  caused  them 'to  be  cru- 
 cified all  on  one  day,  and  their  wives  and  children  to  be 
 slain  before  their  faces,  as  they  were  hanging  on  the 
 crosses,  whilst  he  made  an  entertainment  for  his  wives 
 and  concubines  near  the  place  where  this  scene  of  terror 
 was  acting-,  with  an  intent  chiefly  to  feast  himself  and 
 them  with  this  horrid  sight.  This  was  a  savage  and  un- 
 heard of  cruelty  :  and,  upon  this  occasion,  the  people 
 of  his  own  party  called  him  Thracides,  that  is,  as  cruel  as 
 a  Thracian,  as  no  man  indeed  could  be  bad  enough  to 
 express  so  inhuman  a  procedure. 
 
 After  these  civil  wars  were  ended,  Alexander  led  his 
 army  against  the  two  kings  of  Damascus,  Antiochus  first, 
 and  afterwards  Aretas,  *  who,  at  different  times,  had 
 invaded  his  kingdom.  He  took  several  strong  places 
 in  the  neighbouring  territories,  and,  after  an  expedition 
 of  three  years'  continuance,  returned  to  Jerusalem,  and 
 was  well  received  by  his  subjects.  But  that  felicity  he 
 did  not  long  enjoy  :  for  having  at  a  certain  time  drank 
 to  a  great  excess,  he  thereupon  fell  sick,  and  was  after- 
 wards seized  with  a  quartan  ague,  which  he  was  never 
 able  to  shake  off.  This,  however,  did  not  interrupt  his 
 military  undertakings,  till,  being  quite  exhausted,  he 
 was  forced  to  submit  to  fate,  while  he  was  besieging 
 the  castle  of  Ragaba,  in  the  country  of  the  Gerasens. 
 His  queen  Alexandra,  who  was  with  him  at  the  siege, 
 observing  him  to  draw  near  his  end,  was  exceedingly 
 troubled  at  the  ill  state  wherein  she  and  her  children 
 should  be  left  at  his  death.  She  knew  how  much  he  had 
 exasperated  the  Pharisees,  then  a  powerful  sect  among 
 the  Jews,  and  how  great  hatred  the  generality  of  the 
 people,  at  their  instigation,  had  contracted  against  them  ; 
 and  therefore  she  saw  nothing  else,  but  that  she  and  her 
 family  would  be  given  up  to  destruction,  and  made  vic- 
 tims to  the  public  rage  ;  and  thus  she  sat  by  his  bedside, 
 lamenting  and"bemoaning  herself,  while  he  lay  a-dying. 
 
 To  ease  her  mind  from  these  dismal  apprehensions, 
 the  advice  which  he  gave  her  was  this  : — '  "  That  she 
 should  conceal  his  death  till  the  castle  was  taken,  and 
 then,  carrying  his  dead  body  with  her,  should  lead  back 
 the  army  in  triumph  for  this  success  ;  that,  as  soon  as  she 
 was  come  to  Jerusalem,  she  should  send  for  some  of  th 
 leading  men  of  the  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  lay  his  dead 
 corpse  before  them,  and  tell  them,  that  she  resigned  it 
 wholly  to  their  pleasure,  either  to  treat  it  with  indignity,  as 
 his  treatment  of  them  had  deserved,  or  to  dispose  of  it  as 
 they  thought  fit ;  and,  withal,  that  she  should  not  forget 
 
 1  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiii.  c.  23. 
 
 b  This  Aretas  was  king  of  Arabia  Petraea,  but,  upon  the  death 
 of  Antiochus,  was  chosen  king  of  Damascus  likewise. 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 A.M.  38!)7.  A.C.  107;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES.  A.M.  5305.  A.  C.  10G.  JOS.  HIST.  I),  xii.  c.  ID.-bnd  of  b.  xv. 
 
 793 
 
 to  assure  them,  that,  as  her  husband  had  made  her  regent 
 during  her  children's  minority,  she  would  do  nothing  in 
 the  administration  without  their  advice  and  participa- 
 tion." 
 
 After  the  reduction  of  Ragaba,  Alexandra  returned  to 
 Jerusalem  in  the  manner  that  was  prescribed,  and  in 
 every  thing  else  observed  her  husband's  directions  most 
 jmnctually:  which  succeeded  so  well,  that  the  usual 
 invectives  against  him  were  changed  into  encomiums. 
 All  deplored  the  loss  of  so  valiant  a  prince,  and  honour- 
 ed his  funeral  with  a  more  than  ordinary  pomp  and 
 solemnity  ;  all  pitied  the  queen-dowager,  and,  in  obe- 
 dience to  her  husband's  will,  settled  her  in  the  supreme 
 government  of  the  nation. 
 
 Alexander,  when  he  died,  left  behind  him  two  sons, 
 Hyrcanus  and  Aristobulus;,  but  the  regency  he  invested 
 in  the  queen,  who  had  indeed  the  name  of  the  govern- 
 ment, but  the  administration  was  entirely  in  the  power 
 of  the  Pharisees.  The  first  thing  therefore  that  they  did, 
 was  to  have  the  decree  of  John  Hyrcanus  against  their 
 traditionary  constitutions  abolished  ;  next  to  release  all 
 the  prisoners,  and  recall  all  the  exiles  that  were  con- 
 cerned with  them  in  the  late  civil  wars  ;  and  then  to 
 demand  justice  against  all  those  by  whose  instigation 
 and  advice  the  eight  hundred  rebels  above  mentioned 
 had  been  crucified. 
 
 To  this  purpose  they  exhibited  articles  against  one 
 Diogenes,  a  noted  confidant  of  the  late  king's  ;  had  him 
 condemned  and  executed  ;  and  proceeded  in  like  manner 
 against  several  others ;  so  that  the  late  king's  friends 
 and  adherents,  seeing  no  end  of  these  persecutions,  went 
 at  length  to  the  queen  in  a  body,  with  Aristobulus,  her 
 younger  son,  at  the  head  of  them,  to  remonstrate  against 
 these  proceedings.  They  had  been  old  officers  to  the 
 kiii»,  and  had  faithfully  adhered  to  him  in  all  his  wars 
 and  difficulties  ;  and  therefore  they  requested,  that  if  no 
 regard  were  to  be  had  to  their  services,  they  might  at 
 least  be  permitted  to  depart  the  land,  and  seek  their 
 safety  elsewhere,  or  else,  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  their 
 enemies,  might  be  sent  into  the  several  garrisons  of  the 
 kingdom  :  and  to  this  last  demand  of  theirs  the  queen 
 consented. 
 
 In  the  mean  time  news  was  brought  to  Jerusalem,  that 
 Tigranes,  king  of  Armenia,  with  an  army  of  five  hundred 
 thousand  men.  had  invaded  Syria,  and  would  in  a  short 
 time  be  in  Judea.  This  put  the  queen,  and  all  the  Jews, 
 into  a  terrible  fright;  and  therefore  they  immediately 
 dispatched  away  ambassadors,  with  presents  of  great 
 value,  to  court  his  friendship,  and  divert  the  storm. 
 The  ambassadors  found  him  laying  close  siege  to  Ptole- 
 mais,  and  when  they  were  introduced,  for  he  was  a  man 
 a  of  great  pride  and  state,  he  commended  their  forward- 
 
 (i  This  vain  man  assumed  to  himself  the  title  of  king  of  kings  j 
 and,  to  make  his  claim  to  it  the  better  appear,  having  taken 
 several  petty  princes  prisoners  in  his  wars  with  them,  he  made 
 them  wait  on  him  as  his  domestic  servants.  He  never  went 
 abroad  but  he  had  four  of  them  to  attend  him;  two  running  by 
 him  on  one  side  of  his  horse,  and  two  on  the  other;  and  thus,  in 
 like  maimer,  he  was  served  by  some  of  them  at  his  table,  in  his 
 bed  chamber,  and  on  all  other  occasions,  but  more  especially 
 when  lie  gave  audience  to  ambassadors;  for  then,  to  make  the 
 greater  ostentation  of  his  glory  to  foreign  nations,  he  made  all 
 thee  captive  kings,  in  the  posture  rind  habit  of  servants,  to  range 
 themstlves  oo  each  side  of  him.  But  as  proud  as  he  was,  when 
 once  he  came  to  feel  the  power  of  the  Roman  arms,  he  was  soon 
 brought  to  such  a  state  of  mean  and  abject  humiliation,  that  when 
 
 ness  in  applying  to  him,  accepted  their  presents,  and 
 assured  them  of  his  good  inclinations:  but  the  true 
 reason  of  all  this  civility  was,  that  Lucullus,  the  Roman 
 general,  in  pursuit  of  Mithridates,  had  entered  Armenia, 
 and  was  putting  the  country  under  military  contribution, 
 which  obliged  Tigranes  to  return  home,  and  so  delivered 
 the  Jews  from  the  apprehensions  of  an  invasion  from 
 that  quarter. 
 
 Alexandra,  when  she  was  declared  queen,  made  Hyr- 
 canus high  priest,  and  left  Aristobulus  to  lead  a  private 
 life  ;  but  a  private  life  was  not  agreeable  to  his  aspiring 
 temper.  As  soon  therefore  as  he  perceived  that  the 
 queen  was  sick  and  past  all  hopes  of  recovery,  he 
 privately  in  the  night  went  out  of  Jerusalem,  attended 
 only  with  one  servant ;  and  having  visited  all  the  castles, 
 in  which,  by  his  procurement,  his  father's  friends  had 
 been  placed  in  garrison,  in  fifteen  days'  time  he  secured 
 to  his  interest  twenty  of  these  fortresses,  and  thereby 
 in  a  manner  made  himself  master  of  the  rest  of  the 
 strength  of  the  kingdom  ;  so  that  when  his  mother  died, 
 which  was  not  long  after  his  departure  from  Jerusalem, 
 though  she  had  declared  his  brother  Hyrcanus  her  suc- 
 cessor, he  nevertheless  met  him  in  the  plains  of  Jericho  ; 
 but  as  the  two  armies  were  going  to  engage,  most  of  the 
 forces  of  Hyrcanus  deserted,  and  went  over  to  Aristo- 
 bulus, which  obliged  Hyrcanus  to  come  to  a  treaty  with 
 his  brother ;  in  which  it  was  agreed,  that  he  should  make 
 resignation  of  the  crown  and  high  priesthood  to  Aristo- 
 bulus, and  submit  to  live  quietly  upon  his  own  private 
 fortune  ;  which  accordingly  was  ratified  by  public  sanc- 
 tion. 
 
 Hyrcanus  was  a  quiet  and  peaceable  man,  a  lover  of 
 retirement  and  ease,  and  therefore  his  resignation  of  the 
 crown  was  not  so  great  a  grievance  to  him,  as  it  was  to 
 some  about  him.  Among  these  Antipater,  *  the  father 
 of  Herod,  surnamed  the  Great,  was  the  chief;  who  hav- 
 ing persuaded  Hyrcanus,  that,  while  he  continued  in 
 Judea,  his  life  was  in  danger,  and  that  he  had  no  other 
 choice  left,  but  either  to  reign  or  die,  advised  him  to 
 make  his  escape  to  Aretas,  king  of  Arabia,  and  with  him 
 
 he  appeared  before  Pompey,  he  plucked  his  crown  or  royal  tiara 
 from  ofl'his  head,  and  cast  himself  prostrate  on  the  ground  before 
 him. — Plutarch  in  the  Life  of  Lucullus  and  Pompey. 
 
 b  Eusebius  and  Julius  Africanus  tell  us,  that  the  father  of 
 this  Antipater  was  a  heathen,  and  an  inhabitant  of  Ascalon; 
 that  a  company  of  robbers  having  pillaged  a  temple  near  Ascalon, 
 took  this  young  Antipater,  the  father  of  Herod  the  Great,  who, 
 at  that  time,  was  the  priest  of  the  temple,  a«ay  with  them;  and 
 that  his  father  being  not  able  to  redeem  him,  they  carried  him 
 into  Idumaca,  where  he  settled,  and  made  his  fortune.  But 
 there  is  much  mure  probability,  that  what  Josephus,  in  the  his- 
 tory of  the  Jewish  wars,  (b.  i.  C.  5.)  tells  us  of  this  great  man 
 maybe  true,  namely,  that  he  was  the  son  of  another  Antipater, 
 who  was  made  governor  of  lduuuea  by  Alexander  Jannrrus;  and 
 as  to  his  religion,  there  is  no  question  to  be  made,  but  that  he 
 was  a  .lew  and  circumcised  ;  because  the  IdumceanS  had  long  be- 
 fore received  circumcision  and  the  religion  of  the  Jews,  even 
 when  Hyrcanus  made  a  conquest  of  their  country.  This  Anti- 
 pater, having  had  his  education  in  the  court  of  Alexander  Jan- 
 iiteus,  and  Alexandra  his  queen,  who  reigned  after  him,  had 
 wrought  himself  into  the  good  graces  of  Hyrcanus,  the  eldest  of. 
 their  sons,  in  hopes  to  rise  by  his  favour,  when  he  should  come 
 to  the  crown  alter  his  mother;  but  when  Hyrcanus  was  deposed, 
 arid  Aristobulus  made  King  in  his  place,  all  the  measures  which 
 he  had  taken  for  his  advancement  were  broken;  and  being  too 
 obnoxious  to  Aristobulus  ever  to  have  any  prospect  of  favour  from 
 him,  he  thought  himself  obliged,  both  in  his  own  interest  and 
 defence,  to  act  the  part  we  find  he  did. —  Culmet's  Dictionary, 
 under  the  word;  and  Pridcati.vs  Connection,  anno  65. 
 5  H 
 
794 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Rook  VII. 
 
 A.M.3936.  A.  C.  69;  OR,  ACCOUOINr,  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5312.  A.  C.  69.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.c  19-end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 to  stipulate  for  forces  for  the  recovery  of  his  kingdom. 
 Hyrcanus  did  so ;  and  upon  condition  that  he  would  re- 
 store the  towns  which  his  father  Alexander  had  taken 
 from  him,  Aretas  supplied  him  with  fifty  thousand  men, 
 who,  being  joined  with  the  Jews  that  were  of  Hyrcanus 's 
 party,  gave  battle  to  Aristobulus,  and  having  obtained 
 a  complete  victory,  pursued  him  to  Jerusalem,  and  thence 
 to  the  mount  of  the  temple,  where  they  besieged  him, 
 and  committed  some  outrageous  acts.  a  In  the  mean 
 time,  Scaurus,  one  of  Fompey's  lieutenants,  being  come 
 with  a  Roman  army  as  far  as  Damascus,  Aristobulus 
 took  care,  with  the  promise  of  four  hundred  talents,  to 
 engage  him  on  his  side  ;  so  that  he  sent  to  Aretas  to 
 withdraw  his  forces  from  Jerusalem,  and  threatened  him 
 with  the  Roman  arms  in  case  of  refusal.  Hereupon 
 Aretas  was  forced  to  raise  the  siege  and  march  on";  but 
 in  his  retreat  Aristobulus  fell  upon  his  rear,  and  de- 
 stroyed about  seven  thousand  of  his  men. 
 
 Not  long  after  this  Pompey  himself  caine  into  Syria, 
 and  took  up  his  residence  at  Damascus,  where  he  was 
 attended  with  ambassadors  from  several  nations,  and, 
 among  the  rest,  Hyrcanus  and  Aristobulus  sent  their 
 deputies,  desiring  both  his  protection  and  determination 
 of  the  controversy  depending  between  them.  But  when 
 Pompey  had  heard  what  they  both  had  to  say,  he  ordered 
 that  the  two  brothers  should  appear  in  person  before 
 him,  that  so  he  might  be  better  able  to  inquire  into  the 
 merits  of  the  cause,  and  determine  it  in  such  a  maimer 
 as  justice  should  direct. 
 
 The  two  brothers  accordingly  waited  upon  Pompey  to 
 receive  his  decision;  and,  at  the  same  time,  several 
 chief  men  of  the  Jews  came  to  remonstrate  against  them 
 both.  The  Jews  pleaded,  "  That  it  had  been  formerly 
 the  usage  of  their  nation  to  be  governed  by  the  high 
 priest  of  the  God  whom  they  worshipped,  who,  without 
 assuming  any  other  title,  administered  justice  to  them, 
 according  to  the  laws  and  constitutions  transmitted  down 
 to  them  from  their  forefathers.  They  owned,  indeed, 
 that  the  two  contending  brothers  were  of  the  sacerdotal 
 race,  but  then  they  alleged,  that  they  had  changed  the 
 old,  and  introduced  a  new  form  of  government,  in  order 
 to  enslave  the  people,  and  thereupon  they  prayed  that 
 they  might  not  be  governed  by  a  king." 
 
 Hyrcanus  on  his  part  urged,  "  That,  being  the  elder 
 brother,  he  was  unjustly  deprived  of  his  birthright  by 
 Aristobulus,  who,  leaving  him  only  a  small  portion  of 
 land  for  his  subsistence,  had  usurped  all  the  rest,  and 
 as  a  man  born  for  mischief,  practised  piracy  at  sea,  and 
 rapine  and  depredation  at  land,  upon  his  neighbours." 
 And  for  the  attestation  of  all  this,  there  appeared  above 
 
 a  One  barbarous  action  of  this  kind  is  thus  related  by  Jose- 
 phus: — At  this  time  there  was  at  Jerusalem  one  Onias,  a  man 
 of  great  reputation  for  the  sanctity  of  his  life,  and  who,  by  his 
 prayers,  had  been  thought  to  have  once  obtained  rain  from  hea- 
 ven in  an  extremity  of  drought.  Upon  a  fond  imagination, 
 therefore,  that  his  curses  would  be  as  prevalent  as  his  prayers, 
 the  besiegers  brought  him  into  the  camp,  and  there  pressed  him 
 to  curse  Aristobulus,  and  all  that  were  with  him.  He  opposed 
 their  request  as  long  as  he  could;  but  at  length,  finding  no  rest 
 from  their  importunities,  he  lifted  up  his  hands  to  heaven,  and, 
 as  he  was  standing  in  the  midst  of  them,  said,  "  O  Lord  God, 
 ruler  of  the  universe,  since  both  we,  that  stand  here  before  thee, 
 are  thy  people,  and  they  that  are  besieged  in  the  temple,  are  thy 
 priests,  I  humbly  beseech  thee  not  to  hear  the  prayers  of  either  of 
 them  against  the  other."  Whereupon  they  who  brought  him 
 tnither,  were  so  enraged  against  the  good  man,  that  they  fell 
 upon  him,  and  stoned  him  to  death. — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xiv.  c   3. 
 
 a  thousand  of  the  principal  Jews.  What  Aristobulus 
 had  to  say,  in  answer  to  this,  was,  ''  That  Hyrcanus 
 was  superseded  in  the  government,  by  reason  of  his  in- 
 capacity to  rule,  and  not  through  any  ambition  of  his ; 
 that  his  sloth  and  inactivity  had  brought  upon  him  the 
 contempt  of  the  people,  and  that  therefore  he  was  forced 
 to  interpose,  merely  to  preserve  the  government  from 
 falling  into  other  hands."  And,  to  witness  the  truth  of 
 this,  he  produced  several  young  gentlemen  of  the  nation, 
 who  by  the  gaudiness  of  their  dress,  and  the  levity  of 
 their  carriage,  did  no  great  credit  to  the  cause  which  they 
 pretended  to  support. 
 
 Upon  this  hearing,  Pompey  could  not  but  perceive 
 the  injury  which  Aristobulus  had  done  his  brother ;  but 
 for  the  present  he  dismissed  them  with  fair  words,  and 
 referred  the  full  determination  of  the  matter,  until  him- 
 self should  come  to  Jerusalem,  which  he  would  not  fail 
 to  do,  as  soon  as  he  had  finished  the  Arabian  war.  Upon 
 the  whole,  Aristobulus  perce:ving  which  way  Pompey's 
 discourse  and  inclinations  tended,  left  Damascus  without 
 ever  taking  leave,  and,  returning  to  Judea,  there  armed 
 the  country  in  his  defence.  Pompey  had  soon  done  his 
 business  in  Arabia,  and  thence  coming  to  Judea,  found 
 that,  upon  his  approach,  Aristobulus  had  shut  himself  up 
 in  the  castle  of  Alexandrion,  which  was  a  strong  fortress, 
 built  by  his  father  (and  therefore  called  by  this  name) 
 on  a  high  mountain,  that  stood  in  the  entrance  of  the 
 country  of  Judea,  towards  the  Samaritan  side.  Hither 
 Pompey  inarched  his  army ;  and,  having  encamped  be- 
 fore it,  sent  a  messenger  to  Aristobulus  to  come  down  to 
 him.  Aristobulus,  though  with  much  reluctancy,  was 
 forced  to  comply  ;  and  when  Pompey  demanded  of  him 
 to  deliver  up  his  castles,  and  to  sign  orders  to  that  pur- 
 pose to  all  who  commanded  in  them,  he  durst  not  refuse 
 doing  it,  though  he  complained  of  the  force  that  was  thus 
 put  on  him  ;  and,  as  soon  as  he  got  out  of  Pompey's 
 hands,  fled  to  Jerusalem,  and  there  prepared  for  war. 
 
 Pompey  was  not  long  before  he  marched  after  him  ; 
 but  when  he  drew  near  to  Jerusalem,  Aristobulus,  b  re- 
 penting of  what  he  had  done,  went  out  to  him,  and,  en- 
 deavouring to  reconcile  matters  with  him,  promised  an 
 entire  submission  for  the  future,  and  a  considerable  sum 
 of  money  besides,  if  he  would  but  withdraw  his  forces. 
 Pompey  accepted  the  proposal ;  and  accordingly  sent 
 Gabinius,  one  of  his  lieutenants,  with  a  body  of  men,  to 
 receive  the  money  ;  but,  when  he  came  to  Jerusalem,  he 
 found  the  gates  shut  against  him,  and  was  told  from  the 
 walls,  that  those  within  would  stand  to  no  such  agreement. 
 
 This  was  such  treatment,  that  the  Roman  general, 
 without  any  more  to  do,  clapped  Aristobulus,  whom  he 
 had  taken  with  him,  in  chains,  and  so  marching  forward 
 with  his  whole  army,  was,  by  the  prevalence  of  Hyrcan- 
 us's  party,  received  into  Jerusalem  ;  but  the  other  faction, 
 retiring  to  the   mount  of  the  temple,  broke  down  the 
 
 b  The  fourth  book  of  the  Maccabees  (chap,  xxxvi.),  says  nothing 
 of  this  submission  of  Aristobulus  to  the  Roman  general,  but  tells 
 us,  that  Pompey  marched  directly  against  Jerusalem,  where 
 observing  the  situation  of  the  place,  the  strength  of  its  walls, 
 towers,  &c.  he  resolved  to  try  to  gain  Aristobulus  by  fair  means; 
 that  he  invited  him  to  come  into  his  camp,  and  promised  him  all 
 the  safety  that  he  could  desire ;  that  accordingly  he  came  to  him, 
 and  engaged  to  deliver  up  all  the  treasure  of  the  temple,  if  he 
 would  but  declare  for  him ;  but  that  the  priests  having  refuset. 
 to  ratify  the  king's  promise,  this  made  the  general  lay  siege  to  the 
 temple. —   Universal  History,  b.  li.  c.  1 1. 
 
Se<  t.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c 
 
 795 
 
 A.  M.  3935.  A.  C  60;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5342.  A.  C.  69.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 bridges  over  the  deep  ditches  and  valleys  that  surrounded 
 it,  and  so  resolved  to  defend  the  place  :  but  there  was 
 no  withstanding  a  Roman  army  long.  In  three  months' 
 time  Pompey  a  became  master  of  the  mount,  which  he 
 carried  sword  in  hand ;  and,  having  made  a  dreadful 
 carnage  upon  this  occasion,  he  caused  afterwards  all 
 such  prisoners  °  to  be  put  to  death,  as  were  found  to 
 have  been  the  principal  incendiaries  of  this  war. 
 
 Before  he  left  Jerusalem,  he,  with  several  other  chief 
 officers  accompanying  him,  went  into  the  temple,  and 
 caused  the  most  sacred,  parts  of  it,  even  the  holy  of  holies, 
 into  which  himself  entered,  to  be  opened.  He  visited 
 the  treasuries  likewise,  where  he  found  two  thousand 
 talents  of  silver,  besides  vessels,  and  other  things  of  great 
 value  ;  but  c  touching  nothing  of  all  this,  he  left  it  entire 
 for  the  sacred  uses  to  which  it  was  appropriated.  He 
 thought  it  advisable,  however,  to  destroy  the  walls  of 
 Jerusalem  ;  and  though  he  restored  Hyrcanus  to  the  high 
 priesthood,  and  made  him  prince  of  the  country,  yet  he 
 deprived  him  of  all  the  new  conquests  which  his  prede- 
 cessors had  made  ;  would  not  permit  him  to  wear  a  dia- 
 dem ;  and  obliged  him  to  pay  an  annual  tribute  to  the 
 Romans  :  and  having  thus  regulated  all  matters,  he  set 
 forward  on  his  journey  home,  carrying  with  him  Aristo- 
 bultis,  his  two  sons,  Alexander  and  Antigonus,  and  two 
 of  his  daughters,  as  captives,  to  be  led  before  him  in  his 
 triumph. 
 
 Alexander,  oy  the  way,  found  means  to  make  his 
 escape ;  and,  after  three  years,  returning  into  Judea, 
 gathered  forces,  and  possessed  himself  of  several  places  ; 
 but  Gabinius,  the  Roman  governor  in  Syria,  defeated 
 him  in  all  his  attempts,  and  then  coming  to  Jerusalem, 
 confirmed  Hyrcanus  in  the  priesthood :  but  the  civil 
 administration   d   he    took    from    the    sanhedrim,    and 
 
 a  It  is  supposed  by  Josephus,  that  the  mount  of  the  temple 
 would  have  hardly  been  taken  so  soon  by  the  Romans,  had  it  not 
 been  for  the  superstition  of  the  Jews  in  their  observation  of  the 
 sabbath.  For  though  they  now  held  it  lawful  to  defend  themselves 
 vigorously  on  that  day,  yet  they  would  not  stir  a  hand  to  annoy 
 the  enemy,  or  obstruct  them  in  any  of  their  works.  This  Pompey 
 Observing,  ordered  his  men  to  employ  the  sabbath-day  in  nothing- 
 else  but  in  making  their  approaches,  wherein  the  besieged  giving 
 them  no  molestation,  their  engines  of  battery  were  brought  for- 
 ward, and  without  opposition  placed  just  as  they  pleased;  and 
 so  being  fitted,  and  raised  to  advantage,  soon  made  a  breach  in 
 the  wall  large  enough  for  an  assault. — Josephus's  Jewish  JPars, 
 b.  i.  c.  5. 
 
 b  Among  these,  it  is  supposed,  that  Absalom,  a  younger  son 
 of  the  famous  Jolui  Hyrcanus,  suffered;  he  had  lived  a  private 
 life,  without  meddling  with  public  allairs,  under  the  protection 
 of  his  brother  Alexander  Jannreus:  but  having  unhappily  married 
 his  daughter  to  his  nephew  Aristobulus,  he  was,  by  that  means, 
 drawn  into  his  son-in-law's  party,  and  being  taken  prisoner,  in 
 all  probability  was  put  to  death:  because  from  that  time  we  find 
 no  farther  mention  made  of  him. — Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiv.  c.  8;  and 
 Universal  History. 
 
 c  But  though  Pompey  was  thus  modest,  yet  Crassus  soon  after 
 coming  that  way,  not  only  extorted  the  two  thousand  talents, 
 and  a  large  bar  of  gold,  by  way  of  bribe,  to  restrain  him  from 
 farther  plunder,  but,  contrary  to  the  promise  which  he  had  given 
 upon  oath,  ransacked  the  temple  all  over,  and  robbed  it  of  every 
 thing  that  he  thought  worth  taking  away,  insomuch,  that  the 
 whole  of  his  sacrilegious  plunder  amounted  to  the  value  of  ten 
 thousand  talents,  which  is  above  two  millions  of  our  money. — 
 Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiv.  c.  12,  and  Jewish  JPars,  b.  i.  c.  6. 
 
 d  Before  this,  the  government  had  been  managed  under  the 
 prince  by  two  sorts  of  councils,  or  courts  of  justice;  one  con- 
 sisting of  twenty-three  persons,  called  the  '  lesser  sanhedrim ;' 
 and  the  other,  of  seventy-two,  called  the  'greater  sanhedrim.' 
 O:  the  first  sort  there  was  one  in  eveiy  city;  only  in  Jerusalem, 
 
 put  into  the  hands  of  such  magistrates  as  himself  made 
 choice  of ;  and  having  divided  the  whole  land  into  five 
 provinces,  appointed  a  court  of  justice,  with  power  ulti- 
 mately to  determine  every  thing,  over  each  of  them. 
 Aristobulus,  late  king  of  Judea,  after  he  had  been  five 
 years  a  prisoner  at  Rome,  having  with  his  son  Antigo- 
 nus made  his  escape,  returned  to  Judea,  with  some  few 
 forces  which  he  had  got  together,  was  endeavouring  to 
 raise  fresh  troubles.  But  Gabinius  came  upon  him  be- 
 fore he  was  prepared  to  make  a  sufficient  resistance  ;  and 
 having  taken  him  and  his  son  prisoners,  sent  them  both 
 again  to  Rome,  where  his  father  was  kept  in  durance ; 
 but  his  children,  upon  the  intercession  of  Gabinius,  were 
 immediately  sent  back  to  Judea. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  the  difference  between  Caesar  and 
 Pompey  occasioned  a  distraction  in  the  Roman  affairs, 
 and  a  general  contention  all  the  empire  over.  Pompey 
 had  left  some  forces  in  Syria ;  and  Caesar,  to  oppose 
 against  these,  had  set  Aristobulus  at  liberty,  and  pro- 
 posed to  have  sent  him  with  two  legions  into  Judea,  in 
 order  to  secure  that  province  ;  but  before  he  could  get 
 out  of  Rome,  he  was  poisoned  by  some  of  Pompey's 
 party,  and  his  body  remained  a  long  time  there,  em- 
 balmed in  honey,  till  M.  Anthony  procured  it  to  be  car- 
 ried into  Judea,  where  it  was  honourably  interred  in  the 
 royal  sepulchre. 
 
 When  Caesar  returned  from  the  Alexandrian  war,  An- 
 tigonus, the  second  son  of  Aristobulus,  (for  Scipio,  by 
 Pompey's  order  had  caused  his  elder  brother's  head  to 
 be  struck  off  at  Antioch,)  met  him  in  Syria,  and  having 
 complained  of  the  hard  fate  which  his  father  and  brother 
 had  met  with,  he  charged  Hyrcanus  and  Antipater  with 
 having  possessed  themselves  of  the  government  by  force  ; 
 but  Antipater,  who  was  then  with  Caesar,  defended  his 
 own  and  Hyrcanus's  cause  so  very  well,  that  Caesar,  in- 
 stead of  restoring  Antigonus,  as  he  desired,  made  it  a  e 
 decree,  that   Hyrcanus  should  hold  the  office   of  high 
 
 because  of  the  greatness  of  the  place,  there  were  two,  which 
 sat  apart  from  each  other  in  two  distinct  rooms.  Of  the  latter 
 sort  there  was  only  one  in  the  whole  land.  The  lesser  sanhe- 
 drim despatched  all  affairs  of  justice  arising  within  the  respec- 
 tive cities  where  they  sat,  and  the  precincts  belonging  to  them. 
 The  great  sanhedrim  presided  over  the  aflairs  of  the  whole  nation, 
 received  appeals  from  the  lesser  sanhedrims,  interpreted  the  laws, 
 and,  by  new  institutions  from  time  to  time,  regulated  the  exe- 
 cution of  them.  All  this  Gabinius  abolished  ;  and,  instead  thereof, 
 erected  five  courts,  or  sanhedrims,  and  invested  them  all  with 
 sovereign  power,  independent  on  each  other.  The  first  of  them 
 he  placed  at  Jerusalem;  the  second  at  Jericho;  the  third  at 
 Gadra;  the  fourth  at  Amathus;  and  the  fifth  at  Sepphorus;  and 
 having,  under  these  five  ci'ies,  divided  the  land  into  five  pro- 
 vinces, he  ordered  the  inhabitants  of  each  to  repair  to  the  court 
 which  he  had  there  erected,  and  from  which  there  was  no  appeal, 
 except  it  was  to  Rome.  Besides  the  two  sorts  of  sanhedrims 
 above-mentioned,  there  was  a  third  court  among  the  Jews,  which 
 was  not  affected  by  any  of  these  alterations,  and  that  was  the 
 court  of  three,  instituted  for  the  deciding  of  all  controversies  about 
 bargains,  sales,  contracts,  and  all  other  such  matters  of  common 
 right  between  man  and  man.  In  all  which  cases,  one  of  the 
 litigants  chose  one  judge,  and  the  other  another,  and  these  two 
 chose  a  third,  which  three  constituted  a  court  to  hear,  and  ulti- 
 mately determine  the  matter  in  contest. —  Talmud  on  the  San- 
 hedrim; Lightfoot's  Prospect  of  the  Temple,  c.  xx.andxxii;  and 
 Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiv.  c.  10. 
 
 e  This  decree,  which  at  once  abolished  the  aristocracy  which 
 Gabinius  had  lately  set  up,  and  restored  the  Jewish  state  to  its 
 pristine  sovereignty,  according  to  Josephus,  runs  in  this  form:  — 
 "Julius  Crcsar,  emperor,  the  second  time  dictator,  and  Ponti- 
 fex  Maximus,  &c.     Forasmuch  as  Hyrcanus,  the  son  of  Alexau- 
 
796 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 \.  M.  3935.  A.C.69;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5342. -A.  C.  09.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.c.  19— end  op  b.  xv. 
 
 priest  at  Jerusalem,  and  the  principality  of  Judea  with 
 it,  to  him  and  those  of  his  family  in  a  perpetual  succes- 
 sion ;  by  which  he  restored  the  government  to  its  ancient 
 form,  and  abolished  the  aristocracy  which  Gabinius  had 
 instituted,  and  that  Antipater  should  be  the  procurator  of 
 Judea  under  him. 
 
 This  Antipater,  who  was  a  person  of  great  wisdom,  of 
 powerful  interest  in  several  places,  and  in  high  favour 
 with  the  Romans,  had  two  sons,  Phasael  and  Herod  ;  to 
 the  former  of  which  lie  gave  the  government  of  the  coun- 
 try about  Jerusalem,  and  to  the  other  that  of  Galilee. 
 Phasael  behaved  himself  in  his  administration  with  great 
 lenity  ;  but  Herod  was  a  man  of  a  different  character, 
 and  his  boisterous  temper  made  him  less  acceptable  to 
 the  Jews. 
 
 At  this  time  there  was  a  gang  of  thieves  that  infested 
 Galilee,  and  the  neighbouring  parts  of  Ccelo-Syria,  whom 
 Herod  fell  upon,  and  having  taken  one  Hezekiah  their 
 ringleader,  with  several  of  his  associates,  put  them  all  to 
 death.  Those  who  envied  the  prosperity  of  Antipater, 
 and  the  growth  and  greatness  of  his  power,  made  this 
 a  handle  to  accuse  Herod  to  Hyrcanus  for  executing 
 men  without  a  legal  trial,  and  obtained  a  citation  from 
 him  to  summon  Herod  to  answer  for  it  before  the  sanhe- 
 drim. He  came  ;  but  as  he  made  his  appearance  in  a 
 purple  robe,  and  surrounded  with  his  guards,  he  so  over- 
 awed that  great  council,  that  they  all  sat  silent  without 
 saying  a  word  against  him,  until  Simeas,  a  man  of  gTeat 
 justice  and  integrity,  rose  up,  and  with  a  becoming  pre- 
 sence of  mind,  complained,  that  he  never  sawr  a  criminal 
 appear  in  a  court  of  justice  so  attended;  that  it  looked 
 as  if  he  meant  to  make  the  administration  thereof  more 
 dangerous  to  the  judges,  than  the  malefactor:  "  but  this," 
 says  he,  turning  to  the  high  priest,  "  is  not  so  much  to  be 
 imputed  to  his  insolence,  as  to  your  connivance,  which 
 encourages  it :  yet  know,"  continued  he,  "  that  his  per- 
 son whom  you  screen  from  the  justice  of  the  laws,  will  be 
 a  scourge  to  you  all,"  Nor  was  he  in  this  a  false  pro- 
 phet. 
 
 For  Herod  having,  by  the  persuasion  of  the  high  priest, 
 for  fear  that  the  sentence  of  the  sanhedrim  should  pass 
 against  him,  made  his  escape  from  Jerusalem,  and  retir- 
 ed to  Damascus,  where  Sextus  Cfesar,  the  prefect  of 
 Syria,  then  resided,  and  put  himself  under  his  protection, 
 he  so  far  insinuated  himself  with  him,  that  for  a  sum  of 
 money,  with  which  he  presented  hint,  he  obtained  the 
 government  of  Cudo-Syria,  where  he  soon  raised  an 
 army,  and  marched  it  into  Judea,  with  an  intent  to  have 
 deposed  Hyrcanus,  and  cut  off  the  whole  sanhedrim  for 
 the  indignity  they  had  put  upon  him  by  their  late  process  ; 
 but  his  father  Antipater,  and  his  brother  Phasael,  met 
 
 tier,  a  Jew,  has,  at  all  times,  as  well  in  war  as  peace,  approved 
 himself  to  lie  our  good  and  trusty  friend  anil  ally,  as  appeareth 
 by  several  attestations  of  unquestionable  credit,  &C.  These  ser- 
 vices and  good  offices  duly  considered,  I  do  hereby  confirm  and 
 establish  to  him  and  his  heirs,  the  perpetual  government  of  the 
 Jews,  both  as  their  prince  and  high  priest,  after  the  manner  and 
 method  of  their  own  laws;  and  from  this  day  forward,  enrol  them 
 among  the  number  of  my  trusty  and  well  beloved  friends,  and 
 ratify  an  affinity  with  them  as  my  associates.  I  ordain  likewise 
 that  all  the  legal  pontifical  rights  and  privileges  be  devolved  upon 
 him,  and  his  sons  fur  evi  r  ;  and  that  in  case  any  controversy  shall 
 arise  among  the  people  concerning  the  Jewish  discipline,  himself 
 and  his  family,  in  the  course  of  succession,  shall  be  the  only 
 judge  of  it." — Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiv.  c.  17. 
 
 him,  and  dissuaded  him  from  it;  so  that,  for  the  present, 
 he  dropped  his  resentment. 
 
 As  long  as  Julius  Cfesar  lived,  the  Jews  were  held  in 
 great  honour  and  esteem  by  the  Romans,  and  had  several 
 decrees  passed  in  their  favour :  but  a  after  his  untimely 
 death,  their  country  became  a  prey  to  every  hungry 
 general  of  Rome.  Cassius,  having  made  himself  master 
 of  Syria,  exacted  of  the  Jews  about  seven  hundred 
 talents  of  silver,  which  Antipater  prevailed  with  his  two 
 sons  to  pay  him,  and  so  preserved  himself  the  longer  in 
 the  government  of  Judea.  He  was,  as  we  said,  procu- 
 rator of  the  province  under  Hyrcanus  ;  and  the  next 
 man  to  him  in  power  and  authority  was  Malicus  :  but 
 not  being  contented  to  be  the  second  marr  next  the 
 prince,  he  would  fain  have  been  the  first ;  especially 
 since  he  was  a  natural  Jew,  and  Antipater  but  an  Idu- 
 mean.  Antipater  had  all  along  been  his  fast  friend, 
 and  upon  more  occasions  than  one  saved  his  life  :  but 
 he,  like  an  ungrateful  wretch,  was  continually  laying 
 plots  against  him ;  and,  at  length,  taking  the  opportu- 
 nity of  his  dining-  one  day  with  Hyrcanus,  he  bribed  the 
 butler  to  give  him  poison  in  his  wine,  of  which  he  died, 
 and  then,  with  an  armed  force,  seized  on  the  govern- 
 ment of  Jerusalem.  Phasael  and  Herod  had,  for  a  long 
 time,  suspected  this  traitor's  design  against  their  father, 
 and  when  they  heard  of  his  death,  they  concluded  that 
 he  was  the  author  of  it.  They  thought  proper,  however, 
 to  conceal  their  resentment  for  the  present;  but  as 
 soon  as  Herod  found  a  fit  opportunity,  *  he  had  him 
 taken  off. 
 
 a  While  Julius  Ccesar  was  preparing  for  an  expedition  against 
 the  Parthians,  in  order  to  revenge  the  death  of  Crassus,  and  the 
 Romans  that  were  slain  with  him  at  the  battle  of  Carrhre,  on  the 
 ides  of  March,  that  is,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  that  month,  four 
 days  before  he  intended  to  set  out  upon  that  expedition,  he  was 
 murdered  in  the  senate-house,  by  a  conspiracy  of  the  senators. 
 This  was  the  most  villanous  act,  and  the  more  so,  because  the 
 prime  authors  of  it,  namely,  Marcus  Brutus,  Decimus  Brutus, 
 Cassius,  Trebonius,  and  some  others  of  them,  were  the  very  per- 
 sons whom  Ccesar,  in  the  highest  manner,  had  obliged;  yet  it 
 was  executed  under  the  notion  of  a  high  heroic  virtue,  in  thus 
 freeing  their  country  from  one,  whom  they  called  a  tyrant:  and 
 the  manner  in  which  it  was  executed,  is  this:  as  soon  as  he  came 
 into  the  senate-house,  Attilius  Cimher,  who  was  one  of  the 
 conspirators,  presented  himself,  according  as  it  was  agreed  among 
 them,  to  demand  his  brother's  pardon,  who  was  banished;  but 
 upon  Caesar's  refusal,  under  pretence  of  begging  it  with  greater 
 submission,  laid  hold  of  the  bottom  of  his  robe,  and  pulled  it  so 
 hard,  that  he  made  him  bend  his  back:  then  Casca  drew  his  dag- 
 ger, and  stabbed  him  in  the  shoulder,  but  the  wound  proved  but 
 slight,  so  that  Ccesar  fell  upon  him:  but  as  they  were  scuffling, 
 another  of  the  conspirators  came  behind  and  stabbed  him  in  the 
 side,  Cassius  at  the  same  time  wounded  him  in  the  face,  and 
 Brutus  pierced  his  thigh.  With  much  courage  he  still  defended 
 himself;  but  the  blood  he  lost  through  so  many  wounds  having 
 much  weakened  him,  he  went  to  the  foot  of  Pompey's  statue, 
 where  he  fell  and  expired,  after  having  been  stabbed  in  three  and 
 twenty  'places  by  the  hands  of  those  whom  he  thought  he  had 
 disarmed  by  his  good  offices. — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  44, 
 and  Vertot's  Revolution  of  Rome,  c.  13. 
 
 b  The  matter  was  conducted  thus: — Cassius  being  informed 
 by  Herod  of  the  manner  of  his  father's  death,  gave  him  leave  to 
 revenge  himself  on  the  murderer,  and  sent  his  orders  to  the 
 forces,  under  his  command  at  Tyre,  to  be  assistant  to  him 
 therein.  On  Cassius's  taking  Laodicea,  all  the  princes  and 
 chief  lords  of  Syria  and  Palestine  hastened  thither  with  their 
 presents  and  congratulations.  Hyrcanus,  together  with  Malicus 
 and  Herod,  put  himself  upon  the  road  for  the  same  purpose; 
 and  as  they  drew  near  to  Tyre,  where  they  were  to  lodge  that 
 night,  Herod  invited  all  the  company  to  sup  with  him ;  and 
 sending    his  servants   before,    under  pretence  of  providing  the 
 
Shot.  V  .] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 797 
 
 A.  M.  3935.  A.  C.  69;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,   A.  M.  5342.  A.  C.69.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii. 
 
 C   19— END  OF  b.  XV. 
 
 No  sooner  was  the  death  of  Malicus,  and  the  manner 
 of  it  known  at  Jerusalem,  but  a  party  of  his  friends  rose 
 in  arms  to  revenge  it  on  the  sons  of  Antipater  ;  and 
 having-  gained  Hyrcanus,  and  Felix  the  commander  of 
 the  Roman  forces  on  their  side,  put  the  whole  city  in  an 
 uproar.  Herod  was  then  with  Fabius,  the  Roman 
 governor  of  Damascus,  and  there  laid  up  with  sickness  ; 
 so  that  the  whole  storm  fell  upon  Phasael,  which  he 
 weathered  with  full  success  :  for  he  drove  Felix  and  all 
 that  tumultuous  party  out  of  Jerusalem,  and  when  his 
 brother  recovered  and  returned,  they  both  together  soon 
 quelled  the  faction,  and  would  doubtless  have  resented 
 the  high  priest's  behaviour  upon  this  occasion  with  more 
 severity,  but  that,  at  this  time  a  match  was  set  on  foot 
 between  Herod  and  his  grand-daughter  Mariamne,  a 
 which  reconciled  all  differences.  But  though  the  faction 
 was,  for  the  present,  suppressed,  it  was  not  long  before 
 it  revived. 
 
 After  the  defeat  of  Brutus  b  and  Cassius,  by  M. 
 Anthony  and  Cresar  Octavianus  c  at  Philippi,  Anthony, 
 coming  into  Asia,  was  attended  by  the  deputies  of  most 
 princes  and  states  in  that  part  of  the  world,  and,  among 
 others,  with  several  principal  persons  of  the  Jewish 
 nation,  who  were  sent  to  accuse  Phasael  and  Herod  of 
 usurping  the  government  from  Hyrcanus  :  but  partly  by 
 money,  and  partly  by  interest,  Herod  had  so  far  pre- 
 
 Bupper  by  them,  he  communicated  the  orders  of  Cassius  to  the 
 commanders  of  the  Roman  garrison  in  the  city,  who  accordingly 
 sent  out  a  party  of  armed  men,  that  fell  upon  Malicus  as  he 
 drew  near  to  the  place,  and  slew  him. — Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiv. 
 c.  10 ;  and  Jewish  Wars,  b.  i.  c.  9. 
 
 a  She  was  the  daughter  of  Alexander,  the  son  of  king  Aristo- 
 bulus,  by  Alexandra  the  daughter  of  Hyrcanus  the  second,  and 
 therefore  was  grand-daughter  to  both  these  brothers.  She  was 
 a  lady  of  extraordinary  beauty  and  great  virtue,  and  in  all  other 
 laudable  qualifications,  accomplished  beyond  most  of  her  time; 
 but  the  true  motive  for  Herod's  desiring  to  make  her  his  wife 
 was,  because  the  Jews  at  this  time  had  a  very  zealous  affection 
 for  the  Asmonrcan  family;  and  therefore  he  thought  that,  by 
 marrying  this  lady,  he  should  the  easier  reconcile  the  hearts  of 
 the  people  to  him. — P  rideaux'  s  Connection,  anno  38. 
 
 I  Philippi  is  a  town  of  Macedonia,  to  the  inhabitants  of  which 
 St  Paul  wrote  his  epistle ;  but  what  made  this  place  the  most 
 remarkable,  was  the  famous  battle  that  was  fought  near  it,  be- 
 tween the  army  under  Octavianus  and  Anthony,  and  that  under 
 Brutus  and  Cassius,  consisting  of  near  a  hundred  thousand  men 
 each.  Brutus  and  Cassius  both  commanded  in  the  action;  but 
 Octavianus  being  sick  in  his  tent,  the  command  of  the  other 
 army  it'll  wholly  upon  Anthony.  The  forces  commanded  by 
 Cassius  were  sunn  repulsed,  so  that  he  retired  to  a  hill,  there  to 
 wait  for  an  account  of  that  part  of  the  army  which  was  com- 
 manded by  BrutUS;  but  in  the  confusion  and  dust,  not  being 
 able  to  perceive  what  was  doing,  his  mind  misgave  him  that 
 Brutus  was  overcome,  and  thereupon  he  commanded  his  servant 
 Pindarus  to  cut  off  his  head.  Brutus,  in  the  first  day  of  action, 
 was  so  successful,  that  he  made  the  enemy  retire,  and  took 
 Octavianus's  camp;  but  in  a  few  days  after,  coming  to  a  second 
 engagement,  lie  was  entirely  routed  ;  and  being  loath  to  fall  into 
 the  enemy's  hands,  prevailed  with  his  friend  Strabo  to  despatch 
 him:  and  what  is  very  remarkable  in  these  two  men's  deaths,  is, 
 that  they  were  both  killed  with  the  same  swords  wherewith  they 
 had  murdered  Caesar. — Pint,  on  Brutus;  VeUehu  Paterculus, 
 b.  ii.  c.  70;  Apiort  on  the  Civil  Wars,  b.  iv.  ;  and  Dion  Cassius, 
 '.    xlvii. 
 
 c  Octavianus  was  the  son  of  Caius  Octavius,  by  Atia  the 
 daughter  of  Julia,  sister  of  Julius  Cssar;  and  therefore  Julius 
 adopted  him,  as  being  his  nephew  and  next  male  relation,  to  be 
 his  son:  upon  his  uncle's  death  he  took  upon  him  the  name  of 
 Caius  Julius  Cssar  Octavianus,  and  by  this  name  he  was  after- 
 wards known,  till  that  of  Augustus,  which  was  given  after  the 
 victory  at  Actium  swallowed  up  all  the  rest. — Prideaux's  Con- 
 nection, anno  4«.  « 
 
 vailed  with  Anthony,  that  he  would  not  so  much  as  hear 
 them.  This,  however,  did  not  discourage  the  Jews  that 
 were  his  enemies :  for  when  Anthony  came  to  Daphne 
 near  Antioch,  a  hundred  of  the  most  considerable 
 among  them  waited  upon  him  with  the  like  complaints. 
 Here  Anthony  gave  them  a  hearing  ;  and  when  he  put 
 it  to  Hyrcanus,  whether  the  two  brothers  or  their  accus- 
 ers were  in  his  opinion  fittest  to  govern  the  state  under 
 him,  he  gave  it  for  the  two  brothers  ;  and  Anthony, 
 being  minded  to  do  them  a  farther  favour,  made  them 
 both  tetrarchs,  d  and  committed  all  the  affairs  of  Judea 
 to  their  administration.  This  he  continued  by  letters 
 to  the  Jews  ;  and  to  oblige  them  to  obey  what  he  had 
 done,  he  detained  fifteen  of  the  hundred  as  hostages,  and 
 would  have  put  them  to  death,  had  not  Herod  saved  them 
 by  his  intercession. 
 
 This  notwithstanding,  they  did  not  still  give  over  their 
 solicitation  ;  but  when  Anthony  came  to  Tyre,  they  sent 
 a  thousand  of  their  principal  men  with  the  like  accusa- 
 tions against  the  two  brothers  :  but  looking  on  this  as  a 
 tumult,  rather  than  embassy,  he  directed  his  soldiers  to 
 fall  upon  them,  so  that  some  of  them  were  slain,  and 
 more  wounded;  and  at  the  same  time  he  sent  a  peremp- 
 tory order  to  the  magistrates  to  assist  Herod  in  the  re- 
 covery of  his  government.  With  this  order  Herod  went 
 to  Jerusalem,  and  would  have  persuaded  the  people  to 
 receive  him,  by  expostulating  the  danger  of  disobeying 
 him,  and  provoking  the  Roman  general  ;  but  instead  of 
 regarding  his  threats  or  advice,  they  fell  upon  him  ;  and 
 by  killing  some  and  wounding  others  of  his  attendants, 
 so  enraged  Anthony  against  them,  that  he  ordered  their 
 fifteen  hostages  to  be  put  to  death,  and  threatened  a 
 severe  revenge  against  the  rest. 
 
 In  the  mean  time  Antigonus,  the  son  of  Aristobulus, 
 having  had  long  before  attempted  to  possess  himself  of 
 Judea,  but  being  defeated;  and  expelled  by  Herod,  fled 
 to  Parthia,  and  was  there  kindly  received  and  protected. 
 After  he  had  been  there  some  time,  and  established  an 
 interest  among  the  most  considerable  persons  of  that 
 nation,  he  promised  them  1000  talents,  and  500  of  the 
 finest  e  women  in  the  country,  if  they  would  assist  him  in 
 the  recovery  of  his  father's  kingdom.  The  Parthians 
 accepted  of  the  proposal,  and  the  king  sent  his  general 
 along  with  Antigonus,  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army, 
 to  invade  Judea.  As  soon  as  they  had  entered  the 
 country,  great  numbers  of  the  Jews  joined  them  in  their 
 march ;  and  when  they  came  to  Jerusalem,  the  faction 
 that  hated  the  two  brothers  declared  for  them  :  so  that 
 
 d  This  word,  which  sometimes  occurs  in  scripture,  and  is 
 pretty  frequent  among  the  descendants  of  Herod  the  Great, 
 according  to  the  force  of  the  Greek,  signifies  a  lord  that  has  the 
 fourth  part  of  a  state,  province,  or  kingdom,  without  wearing  a 
 diadem,  or  bearing  the  title  of  a  king:  but  it  must  not  always 
 be  understood  in  a  rigorous  sense,  because  the  name  of  tetrarch 
 was  given  to  him  that  possessed  sometimes  a  half,  and  some- 
 times a  third  part,  of  any  principality ;  nay,  oftentimes  the  name 
 of  a  king  was  given  to  him  that  was  but  a  tetrarch,  and  that  of 
 a  kingdom,  to  a  tetraichy. —  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the 
 word. 
 
 e  The  fourth  bunk  of  Maccabees  (chap,  xlix.)  says  800  women, 
 the  fairest  and  best  bred  in  all  the  country:  but  Josephus  adds, 
 that  Antigonus  was  not  able  to  make  good  his  contract,  by  rea- 
 son that  Herod  had  seized  on  most  of  the  fine  women,  and  sent 
 them  away  with  his  wife  and  family  to  Massada,  a  place  of  safe 
 retreat,  whilst  himself  stayed  behind  with  his  guards,  to  cover 
 their  march,  and  prevent  their  being  pursued. 
 
798 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  393:.  A.  C.  69  ;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 Herod,  not  being  able  to  defend  the  city,  especially 
 after  he  found  that  Hyrcanus,  and  his  brother  Phasael 
 were  taken  by  the  Parthians,  and  put  in  chains,  made 
 his  escape  by  night ;  and  taking-  his  mother  Cypros,  and 
 his  sister  Salome,  Mariamne  his  bride,  and  Alexandra 
 the  mother  of  Mariamne  with  him,  made  the  best  of  his 
 way  to  Massada,  a  prodigious  strong  fortress,  built  on 
 the  top  of  a  very  high  mountain,  near  the  west  side  of  the 
 lake  Asphaltites;  and  having  furnished  it  with  provisions 
 for  several  months,  he  there  left  his  mother,  and  the 
 other  women  of  quality,  whom  he  had  brought  with  him 
 from  Jerusalem,  under  the  care  and  government  of  Jo- 
 seph, another  of  his  brothers,  and  so  took  his  way  to 
 Petra  in  Arabia,  hoping  to  procure  some  assistance  from 
 Malchus,  who  had  succeeded  Aretas,  as  king  of  that 
 country :  but  before  he  reached  Petra,  he  received  a 
 message  from  Malchus,  desiring  him  to  depart  his  domin- 
 ions, because  he  was  afraid  he  should  offend  the  Par- 
 thians, who  were  his  neighbours,  if  he  should  receive 
 him. 
 
 The  Parthians,  when  they  found  that  Herod  was  gone 
 from  Jerusalem,  after  they  had  plundered  the  place,  and 
 the  country  round  about,  made  Antigonus,  as  they  had 
 agreed,  king  of  Judea,  and  delivered  to  him  Hyrcanus  and 
 Phasael  in  chains.  Phasael,  knowing  that  his  death  was 
 determined,  put  a  voluntary  end  to  his  life  and  suffer- 
 ings. For  not  having  the  liberty  of  his  hands  to  dis- 
 patch himself,  he  beat  out  his  brains  against  the  wall  of 
 the  prison,  and  Hyrcanus,  to  incapacitate  him  from 
 being  any  longer  high  priest,  had  his  ears  cut  off,  and 
 was  then  delivered  back  again  to  the  Parthians,  by  them 
 to  be  carried  into  the  east,  who,  upon  their  return,  left 
 him  at  Seleucia. 
 
 Herod,  having  met  with  this  unworthy  treatment  in 
 Arabia,  made  what  haste  he  could  into  Egypt,  but  when 
 he  came  to  Rinocorura,  he  there  was  informed  of  his  bro- 
 ther's death,  and  in  what  manner  he  had  effected  it ;  from 
 thence  he  went  to  Pelusium,andsoto  Alexandria,  where 
 he  took  ship,  and  after  a  voyage  of  no  small  danger  and 
 difficulty,  landed  at  Brundusium,  from  whence  he  pro- 
 ceeded to  Rome  ;  and  having  acquainted  M.  Anthony 
 with  the  miserable  state  of  his  affairs  in  Judea,  he  most 
 earnestly  prayed  his  aid. 
 
 Anthony,  remembering  his  friendship  which  he  had 
 with  his  father  first,  and  afterwards  with  him,  and  being- 
 exasperated  against  Antigonus,  whom  he  always  looked 
 upon  as  an  enemy  to  the  Roman  people,  and  not  a  little 
 affected  with  the  promises  which  Herod  had  made,  of 
 giving  him  a  large  sum  of  money,  if  ever  he  should  be 
 reinstated  ;  not  only  warmly  espoused  his  cause  himself, 
 but  engaged  likewise  Octavianus,  who  was  afterwards 
 called  Augustus,  so  closely  in  his  interest,  that,  by  the 
 help  and  influence  of  these  two  men,  the  senate  unani- 
 mously decreed  that  Herod  should  be  king  of  Judea, 
 and  Antigonus  declared  an  enemy  to  the  commonwealth. 
 Having  in  the  short  space  of  seven  days  dispatched  his 
 affairs  thus  prosperously,  he  left  Rome,  and  landing  at 
 Ptolemais,  began  to  raise  forces,  with  a  design  to  march 
 against  Antigonus,  who,  ever  since  his  departure,  had 
 besieged  the  fortress  of  Massada.  With  these,  and  such 
 Roman  auxiliaries  as  he  received  from  Ventidius,  An- 
 thony's general,  and  Silo  his  lieutenant  in  Palestine,  he 
 
 i  Lev.  xxi.  18—21. 
 
 M.  5342.  A.  C.  69.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 made  himself  master  of  the  greatest  part  of  the  country, 
 took  Joppa,  relieved  Massada,  and,  taking  the  castle 
 of  Ressa  in  his  way,  marched  directly  to  Jerusalem,  and 
 there  encamped  on  the  west  side  of  the  city.  Antigonu3 
 had  provided  the  place  with  all  warlike  munitions,  and 
 a  good  garrison,  which,  with  darts  and  stones  from  the 
 walls,  and  flying  parties  frequently  making  excursions, 
 very  much  infested  Herod's  army.  Herod,  in  hopes 
 of  making  easy  work  of  it,  sent  a  herald  about  the  walls, 
 to  proclaim  indemnity  to  all  that  would  submit.  Anti- 
 gonus, on  the  contrary,  directed  his  speech  to  Silo  and 
 the  Romans,  complained  of  the  injustice  they  did  him,  in 
 transferring-  the  crown  from  him,  who  was  of  royal  de- 
 scent, to  a  plebeian,  and  half  Jew,  as  Herod  was  :  and 
 from  these,  and  such  like  reproaches  on  both  sides,  they 
 came  at  length  to  acts  of  hostility,  wherein  Antigonus 
 and  his  men  behaved  themselves  so  valiantly,  that  they 
 soon  drove  the  enemy  from  the  walls. 
 
 Ventidius,  indeed,  had  left  Silo  in  Judea,  to  be  assis- 
 tant to  Herod  in  the  reduction  of  Jerusalem  :  but  in  his 
 manner  of  managing  the  war,  which  was  to  get  great 
 sums  from  Herod  to  promote  his  interest,  and  greater 
 from  Antigonus  to  hinder  it,  he  did  him  more  harm  than 
 good  :  for  he  did  not  only  take  all  methods  to  squeeze 
 him,  but  encouraged  his  soldiers  likewise  to  mutiny,  on 
 pretence  of  wanting  forage  and  provisions,  more  com- 
 modious quarters,  and  better  pay  ;  which,  when  at  any 
 time  Herod  endeavoured  to  remedy,  Antigonus,  having 
 notice  of  all  that  passed,  with  flying  parties  and  ambus- 
 cades, frequently  intercepted  and  cut  oft'  the  convoys 
 that  were  designed  for  the  united  army  :  though  Herod, 
 who  was  as  active  and  diligent  as  the  enemy,  very  often 
 came  up  with  them,  and  pursued  his  advantage  so  closely, 
 that,  having  with  some  difficulty  recovered  all  Galilee 
 from  Antigonus,  he,  after  that,  betook  himself  to  rid  it 
 of  those  gangs  °  of  thieves  and  banditti,  which  at  that 
 time  very  much  infested  it. 
 
 All  this  while  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  went  on  but  slow- 
 ly; and  Herod,  perceiving  that  the  Roman  generals 
 were  very  cool  to  his  interest,  was  resolved  to  go  again 
 to  Anthony,  who  was  then  besieging  Samosata,  a  city 
 upon  the  Euphrates,  to  make  a  representation  of  their 
 behaviour.  During  his  absence,  he  left  his  brother 
 Joseph  to  command  in  Judea,  giving  strict  orders  to  put 
 nothing  to  the  hazard  until  his  return  ;  but  Joseph  for- 
 getting this,  ventured  upon  an  expedition  against 
 Jericho,  where,  being  circumvented  by  the  enemy,  ,he 
 was  slain  himself,  and  most  of  his  forces  cut  to  pieces ; 
 which  gave  those  that  were  disaffected  to  Herod,  both  in 
 Galilee  and  Idumsea,  an  opportunity  of  revolting. 
 Anthony,  when  he  heard  that  Herod  was  coming,  drew 
 out  his  army  to  receive  him,  and,  while  he  staid  with 
 him,  showed  him  all  the  marks  of  friendship  and  esteem  : 
 but,  designing  himself  to  go  into  Egypt,  *  he  left  the 
 
 a  These  thieves  had  so  sheltered  themselves  in  the  caves,  and 
 holes  of  the  mountains,  that  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  come  at 
 them,  because  the  steepness  and  cragginess  of  the  mountains 
 made  it  almost  impossible,  either  to  scale  them  from  below,  or 
 from  above  to  get  down  to  them  by  any  passage ;  and  therefore, 
 to  ferret  them  out  of  their  dens,  Herod  was  forced  to  make  cer- 
 tain large  chests,  and,  filling  them  with  soldiers,  to  let  them 
 down  into  the  entrance  of  these  caves  by  chains  from  engines 
 which  he  had  fixed  above ;  by  which  means,  he  either  destroyed 
 all  that  lurked  in  them,  or  else  reduced  them  to  terms  of  sub- 
 mission.— Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xiv. 
 
 b  Where  Cleopatra,   at  this   time,  was   queen:  who,    by   the, 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 799 
 
 A.  M.  393--1.  A.  C.  69;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5342.  A.  C.G9.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19.  end  op b.  xv. 
 
 army  with  Soeius,  ordering  him  to  assist  Herod  upon  all 
 occasions ;  and  he  accordingly  gave  him  two  legions  for 
 the  guard  of  his  person,  and  inarched  after  himself  with 
 the  rest  of  the  forces. 
 
 Upon  his  return  from  Anthony,  Herod,  while  he  was 
 at  Daphne,  had  an  account  of  his  brother's  death  and 
 defeat,  which  made  him  hasten  to  mount  Lebanon,  where 
 he  raised  eight  hundred  of  the  natives,  and  with  these 
 and  the  Roman  forces  came  to  Ptolemais,  and  thence 
 inarching-  by  night,  he  passed  through  Galilee,  subdued 
 all  that  came  in  his  way,  and  forced  the  rest  into  their 
 strongholds.  But  while  he  was  hastening  towards 
 Jericho,  with  an  intent  to  avenge  his  brother  Joseph's 
 death,  a  party  of  six  thousand  of  the  enemy  came  reso- 
 lutely down  the  hills,  and  put  the  Romans  into  great 
 consternation,  beating  back  the  vanguard,  and  pursuing 
 them  home  to  their  camp,  where  they  so  warmly  engaged 
 them,  that  Herod  himself  was  wounded  in  the  conflict: 
 but,  not  long  after,  when  Antigonus,  Hushed  with  this 
 success,  had  sent  Pappus  his  general,  with  the  main 
 strength  of  his  forces  against  him,  he  gave  them  an  en- 
 tire defeat,  slew  Pappus  in  the  rout,  and,  had  it  not  been 
 for  the  severity  of  the  winter,  which  was  now  approach- 
 ing, had  gone  immediately  to  Jerusalem,  and  so  made 
 an  end  of  the  war :  but  that  he  was  forced  to  refer  to  the 
 operations  of  the  next  campaign. 
 
 When  Herod  came  before  Jerusalem,  his  own  army 
 consisted  of  about  thirty  thousand,  to  which  Soeius  a 
 brought  eleven  legions  of  foot,  and  six  thousand  horse, 
 besides  the  auxiliary  troops  of  Syria.  However,  the  city 
 held  out  several  months  with  a  great  deal  of  resolution ; 
 but,  at  last,  the  besieged  being  beaten  out  of  all  their 
 places  of  defence,  and  the  enemy  exasperated  at  the 
 length  and  tediousness  of  the  siege,  all  things  were  in 
 the  utmost  confusion.  Rapine  and  devastation  was  the 
 general  work;  and  death  and  slaughter  raged  every 
 where,  without  distinction  of  age  or  sex.  In  vain  did 
 Herod  endeavour  to  put  a  stop  to  this  rage  and  cruelty. 
 "  The  spoils  of  the  city,  he  was  told,  were  the  soldiers' 
 due,  as  a  reward  for  their  Labour  and  valour  in  taking- 
 it. "  So  that,  with  a  large  sum  of  money,  he  was  forced 
 to  preserve  and  redeem  it. 
 
 charms  of  her  beauty  and  wit,  had  drawn  him  into  those  snares 
 which  held  him  enslaved  to  her  as  long  as  he  lived,  and,  in  the 
 end,  caused  his  ruin.  She  was  a  woman  of  great  parts,  and 
 spoke  several  languages,  as  well  as  Latin  and  Greek,  very 
 fluently;  hut  then  she  was  a  person  of  great  vices,  and,  among 
 others,  of  such  insatiable  avarice  and  ambition,  that  she  made  a 
 conscience  of  nothing  if  she  could  but  get  by  it.  Her  brother, 
 a  youth  of  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  she  caused  to  be  dispatched, 
 and  prevailed  with  Anthony  to  have  her  sister  Arsinoe  cut  off 
 at  Ephesus,  even  in  the  temple  of  Diana.  Anthony  indeed  was 
 a  man  of  a  sweet  temper,  and  great  generosity,  an  eloquent 
 speaker,  and  a  complete  master  in  all  military  abilities:  hut  then 
 he  was  a  great  libertine  in  his  way,  and  so  eager  in  the  pursuit 
 of  his  unlawful  pleasures,  that  he  stuck  at  nothing  to  attain 
 them  ;  by  which  means  he  brought  himself  so  absolutely  under 
 the  command  of  this  wicked  and  voluptuous  woman,  that,  as 
 Josephus  expresses  it,  "  she  seems,  not  only  to  have  captivated, 
 but  bewitched  him." — Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  30,  and 
 Josejjh.  slntiq.  b.  xv.  c.  4. 
 
 a  It  is  generally  thought,  that  a  legion  was  composed  of  ten 
 cohorts;  a  cohort,  of  fifty  maniples;  a  maniple,  of  fifty  men,  and 
 consequently  that  a  legion  was  a  body  of  six  thousand  soldiers; 
 but  others  are  clearly  of  opinion,  that  it  was  an  uncertain  num- 
 her,  and  contained  sometimes  four,  sometimes  five,  and  some- 
 times six  thousand  men. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word, 
 ami  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  37,  in  the  notes. 
 
 Antigonus,  seeing  all  lost,  surrendered  himself  to 
 Soeius,  and,  in  a  submissive  and  abject  manner,  fell  at 
 his  feet,  imploring  mercy:  but  Soeius,  insulting  his 
 meanness  of  spirit  and  want  of  courage,  had  him  put  in 
 chains  ;  and  so  leaving  Herod  in  full  possession  of  the 
 kingdom,  took  his  prisoner  along  with  him  to  Anthony. 
 Anthony,  at  first,  intended  to  have  reserved  Antigonus 
 in  order  to  grace  his  triumph ;  but  Herod,  not  thinking 
 himself  safe  in  his  kingdom,  as  long  as  this  remainder 
 of  the  royal  family  continued  alive,  never  left  soliciting 
 him,  till  at  length,  by  a  good  sum  of  money,  he  obtained 
 that  this  poor  prince  should  be  put  to  death  ;  and,  with 
 him  ended  the  reign  of  the  famous  and  illustrious  house 
 of  the  Asnionteans  ;  illustrious  in  itself,  for  the  long  con- 
 tinuance of  the  regal  and  sacerdotal  succession  in  it, 
 and  no  less  famous  for  the  many  signal  services  which 
 they  and  their  ancestors,  from  time  to  time,  had  done 
 the  public,  after  it  had  lasted,  from  the  beginning  of 
 Judas  Maccabteus  to  this  time,  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
 nine  years. 
 
 As  soon  as  Herod  had  got  full  possession  of  the  king- 
 dom of  Judea,  he  began  to  revenge  himself  on  all  those 
 whom  he  looked  upon  as  his  enemies  ;  and,  among  these, 
 put  all  the  members  of  the  great  sanhedrim  to  death, 
 except  Pollio  b  and  Simeas,  who,  during  the  siege, 
 were  all  along  for  delivering  up  the  city  to  Herod, 
 whereas  all  the  rest  opposed  the  motion,  and  did  what 
 they  could  to  excite  the  people  to  that  fierce  and  obsti- 
 nate resistance  which  they  made.  All  this  while  Hyr- 
 canus  was  captive  in  Parthia  ;  and,  as  the  people  wanted 
 a  high  priest,  Herod's  business  was  to  choose  a  man  of 
 obscurity  to  that  office,  who,  having  no  credit  or  interest 
 at  Jerusalem,  might  not  be  capable,  notwithstanding  his 
 high  station  and  dignity  in  the  church,  to  interfere  with 
 
 b  They  are  so  named  by  Josephus;  but  the  Jewish  writers 
 generally  call  them  Hillel  and  Shammai ;  and  of  Hillel,  in  par- 
 ticular, they  give  us  this  account,  namely,  that  he  was  born  in 
 Babylonia,  and  there  lived  till  he  was  forty  years  old ;  that  when 
 he  came  to  Jerusalem,  he  betook  himself  to  the  study  of  the  law, 
 in  which  he  grew  so  eminent,  that,  after  forty  years  more,  he 
 became  president  of  the  sanhedrim,  and  that  in  this  ollice  he 
 continued  forty  years  after;  so  that,  according  to  this  account, 
 he  lived  full  a  hundred  and  twenty  years;  but  the  Jewish 
 writers,  for  the  sake  of  a  round  number,  are  frequently  negligent 
 whether  they  are  exact  or  not  in  their  chronological  computa- 
 tions. Of  Shammai  they  likewise  tell  us,  that  he  was  for  some 
 time  the  scholar  of  Hillel,  and  upon  the  removal  of  Manahem 
 into  Herod's  service,  was  made  vice-president  of  the  sanhedrim 
 in  his  loom;  and  that  of  all  the  Tannaim  or  Mishnical  doctors, 
 he  came  nearest  to  his  master  in  eminence  of  learning,  though 
 in  many  points  he  dirlered  in  opinion  from  him.  AVhat  we  are 
 chiefly  to  observe  in  relation  to  these  two  men  at  preseut  is, — 
 that  Herod  should  thus  generously  forgive  them  both,  though 
 Shammai,  or  Simeas,  was  the  person  who  appeared  so  intrepid 
 against  him  at  his  trial  before  the  sanhedrim,  and  Hillel,  or 
 Pollio,  had  all  along  warmly  espoused  the  party  of  Hyrcanus. 
 It  must  lie  presumed,  however,  that  these  two  great  men,  whom 
 he  not  only  spared  above  all  the  rest,  but  took  into  his  especial 
 favour  and  confidence,  had,  dining  the  siege,  taken  care  to  make 
 their  peace  with  him,  by  exhorting  the  besieged  to  a  surrender: 
 for  while  the  contrary  faction  was  encouraging  the  people  with 
 crying  out,  '  The  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,' 
 and  making  them  expect  some  miraculous  deliverance,  these 
 two  wise  politicians,  foreseeing  that  the  city  could  not  hold  out 
 much  longer  against  such  a  vigorous  siege,  and  under  the  exces- 
 sive want  of  all  provisions,  told  them,  in  short,  that  all  resistance 
 was  in  vain,  since  God,  for  their  sins,  was  now  bringing  them 
 into  subjection  to  this  foreigner;  and  this  piece  of  service,  had 
 Herod  been  of  a  more  viudictive  temper  than  he  really  was, 
 could  not  well  fail  of  reconciling  them  to  his  favour. — Prideaux's 
 Connection,  anno  37;  and  Joseph.  .Inliq.  h.  xv.  c.  1. 
 
800 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE 
 
 [Book  VII 
 
 A.  M.  3935.  A.  C.  G9;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5342.  A.  C.  G9.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  b.  xt. 
 
 the  regal  authority ;  and  accordingly  he  sent  for  one 
 Ananel  from  Babylon,  who  was  of  the  pontifical  family 
 indeed,  but  of  no  farther  merit,  than  that  he  Mas  an 
 acquaintance  of  Herod's,  and  put  him  into  the  office. 
 
 Mariamne,  his  best  beloved  wife,  had  then  a  brother, 
 whose  name  was  Aristobulus,  to  whom  by  right  of  birth 
 the  high  priesthood  did  belong  ;  and,  as  she  was  con- 
 tinually soliciting-  him  in  behalf  of  her  brother,  so  her 
 mother  Alexandra,  who  was  the  daughter  of  Hyrcanus, 
 and  a  woman  of  a  high  spirit,  wrote  to  Cleopatra  queen 
 of  Egypt,  who  had  an  absolute  ascendant  over  Anthony, 
 to  incline  him  to  bestow  the  pontifical  honour  upon  her 
 son :  so  that  for  fear  of  offending  Anthony,  more  than 
 for  gratifying  of  the  ladies,  he  deposed  Ananel,  a  and 
 made  Aristobulus,  who  was  then  but  a  youth  of  seven- 
 teen years  old,  high  priest  in  his  stead. 
 
 When  Phraortes  came  to  be  king  of  Parthia,  and  was 
 informed  of  Hyrcanus 's  character  and  quality,  he  treated 
 him  with  great  courtesy  :  for  he  ordered  him  to  be 
 released  from  his  chains,  and  allowed  him  to  reside  at 
 Babylon,  which  was  then  part  of  the  Parthian  empire, 
 and  where  a  great  number  of  Jews  dwelt,  who  paid  him 
 both  the  reverence  due  to  a  high  priest,  and  the  honour 
 due  to  a  king. 
 
 In  this  condition  Hyrcanus  might  have  lived  and 
 ended  his  days  very  happily ;  but,  being  desirous  of 
 returning^  to  his  native  country,  he  began  to  entertain 
 great  hopes  of  Herod's  friendship,  as  having  been  once 
 the  preserver  of  his  life,  when  he  was  arraigned  before 
 the  sanhedrim,  and  the  founder  indeed  of  all  his  for- 
 tunes. Herod,  on  the  other  hand,  was  as  desirous  to 
 have  Hyrcanus  in  his  power  as  the  other  was  to  come  : 
 and  therefore  he  not  only  invited  him  with  great  earnest- 
 ness and  greater  promises,  but  sent  an  embassy  to 
 Phraortes  to  solicit  his  return.  Thus  having  obtained 
 the  king's  dismission,  the  unfortunate  old  prince  was 
 carried  back  to  Jerusalem,  and,  for  some  time,  treated 
 by  Herod  with  all  the  outward  tokens  of  kindness  and 
 respect. 
 
 His  daughter  Alexandra  having,  by  her  interest  with 
 Cleopatra,  obtained  the  high  priesthood  for  her  son, 
 thought  that  (as  it  was  his  right)  she  might  by  the  same 
 means  procure  him  the  crown,  and  therefore  went  on 
 intriguing  with  Cleopatra,  which  when  Herod  came  to 
 understand,  he  confined  her  to  the  palace,  and  set  spies 
 upon  her.  This  she  resented  with  great  indignation,  as 
 being  made  a  prisoner,  and  therefore  formed  a  design 
 to  make  her  escape,  and  to  carry  her  son  with  her  into 
 Egypt  to  Cleopatra,  who,  upon  this  occasion,  had  in- 
 vited them  thither.     But  the  design  was  discovered,  and 
 
 a  This  is  the  third  person  that  had  been  deposed  from  the 
 pontifical  dignity  since  the  time  of  the  return  from  the  Babylon- 
 Mi  captivity;  and  Herod  was  so  sensible  of  the  illegality  of  it, 
 that  when  Anthony  sent  to  him  to  desire  him  to  put  Aristobulus 
 into  Ananel'a  place,  at  first  he  excused  himself,  by  alleging, 
 that  such  depositions  were  contrary  to  the  Mosaic,  law,  which 
 enjoined  that  the  dignity  should  last  as  long  as  the  life  of  the  pos- 
 sessor, miles-;  some  defect  happened  to  disqualify  him.  The  first 
 instance  «•■  meet  with  of  this  kind  is  that  of  Jason's  supplanting 
 his  brother  Ouias,  and  by  a  larger  sum  of  money,  buying  that 
 office  of  Aiitiochus  in  prejudice  of  the  incumbent.  The  other 
 was  that  of  Hyrcanus,  by  his  nephew  Aristobulus,  who  wrested 
 that  dignity  from  him  by  main  force.  But  these  deposi- 
 tions became  afterwards  so  frequent,  that  there  was  hardly  any 
 other  way  of  corning  into  that  office,  but  by  the  expulsion  of  the 
 incumbent. —  Universal  Ilhtury,  b.  ii.  c.  11. 
 
 their  journey  stopped.  Herod,  however,  for  fear  of 
 Cleopatra,  was  forced  to  suspend  his  resentment,  and 
 making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  pretended  with  great 
 clemency  to  pardon  in  both  what  he  could  not  well 
 punish  in  either  :  but  in  a  short  time  he  had  his  revenge. 
 
 At  the  approach  of  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  Aristo- 
 bulus was  to  officiate  as  high  priest.  He  was  a  very 
 beautiful  person,  tall  and  well  shaped,  and  in  the  eigh- 
 teenth year  of  his  age.  In  the  time  of  his  officiating  he 
 discharged  himself  with  so  becoming  a  reverence,  and 
 the  splendour  of  the  pontifical  robes  added  such  a  lustre 
 to  the  gracefulness  of  his  person,  that  by  both  these  he 
 captivated  the  affections  of  the  people,  and  every  man's 
 mouth  was  full  of  his  praises  ;  which  raised  the  tyrant's 
 jealousy  to  such  a  degree,  that  as  soon  as  the  festival 
 was  over,  he  had  him  drowned  at  Jericho,  b  though,  to 
 make  his  death  pass  for  an  unhappy  accident,  wherein 
 he  had  no  hand,  he  acted  the  part  of  chief  mourner,  and 
 expended  a  large  sum  in  a  splendid  funeral  for  him  :  but 
 his  hypocrisy  was  seen  through,  and  detested  by  all. 
 
 Alexandra,  in  particular,  was  inconsolable  for  the  loss 
 of  her  son ;  nor  could  she  have  survived  it,  but  for  the 
 hopes  of  having  an  opportunity  of  being  revenged.  To 
 this  purpose,  having  acquainted  Cleopatra  with  the  mur- 
 der, she  so  represented  Herod's  villany,  and  her  own 
 distress,  as  moved  the  queen's  compassion,  and  engaged 
 her  to  do  her  utmost  to  revenge  her  cause  :  for  she  never 
 left  soliciting  Anthony,  till,  at  length,  she  prevailed  with 
 him  to  call  Herod  to  an  account  for  this  wicked  fact. 
 But  when  Herod  appeared  before  him,  by  fair  words 
 and  large  presents,  he  so  effectually  wrought  upon  An- 
 thony, that  instead  of  condemning,  he  seemed  to  vindi- 
 cate him  for  what  he  had  done  :  whereupon,  returning 
 with  much  joy,  and  in  triumph  as  it  were  over  his  ac- 
 cusers, he  grew  more  tyrannical  than  ever,  and  in  a  short 
 time  shut  up  Alexandra  in  close  confinement. 
 
 When  he  went  to  appear  before  Anthony,  he  left  his 
 uncle  Joseph  in  the  administration  of  the  government, 
 and  gave  him  particular  charge,  that  in  case  Anthony 
 should  put  him  to  death,  he  should  not  suffer  Mariamne, 
 his  best  beloved  wife,  to  survive  the  first  news  of  it,  that 
 none,  as  he  proceeded,  c  might  enjoy  so  rare  a  beauty 
 but  himself.  In  his  absence,  some  words  had  passed 
 between  Mariamne  and  his  sister  Salome,  wherein  the 
 queen  reproached  her  with  the  meanness  of  her  original, 
 in  comparison  of  the  royal  stock  of  the  Asmonreans, 
 from  whom  she  descended.    This  the  other  was  resolved 
 
 b  Herod  had  invited  him  to  an  entertainment  at  Jericho,  and 
 when  after  dinner  several  of  his  attendants  bathed  themselves 
 in  a  fish  pond,  Aristobulus  was  prevailed  upon  to  bear  them 
 company ;  but  no  sooner  was  he  plunged  into  the  water,  but 
 those  that  were  in  it  before,  according  as  they  were  directed 
 by  Herod,  ducked  and  dipped  him,  by  way  of  sport  and  play,  as 
 they  pretended,  so  long  under  water,  that  at  length  he  was  actu- 
 ally drowned. — Jewish.  Antiq.  b.  xv.  c.  3. 
 
 c  This  he  did,  not  so  much  that  none  else  might  have  the  en- 
 joyment of  the  beautiful  Mariamne,  as  that  none  might  be  left 
 alive  of  the  Asmonrean  family  to  claim  the  crown,  in  oppositiou 
 to  that  disposal  which  he  had  made  of  it  to  his  brother  Pheroras. 
 Alexandra,  the  mother  of  Mariamne,  he  knew  veiy  well  was  a 
 crafty  and  aspiring  woman;  and,  therefore,  being  apprehensive 
 that  the  scheme  which  he  had  laid  for  the  succession,  cotdd  not 
 take  place,  if  either  she,  or  her  daughter  were  left  alive  after 
 him,  he  ordered  that  both  of  them  should  be  put  to  death,  in 
 case  he  should  miscarry  in  his  application  to  Anthony. — Joseph. 
 Antiq.  b.  xv.  c.  1 1. 
 
Book  VII.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c 
 
 601 
 
 A.  M.  3978.  A.  C.  20;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M 
 
 to  revenge  ;  and,  therefore,  as  soon  as  Herod  returned, 
 she  accused  Mariamne  of  having  too  great  a  familiarity 
 With  Joseph,  whom,  though  he  was  her  own  husband,  as 
 well  as  her  uncle,  she  was  content  to  sacrifice  rather 
 than  not  obtain  her  will  upon  the  other.  One  thing  that 
 might  contribute  to  the  increase  of  Herod's  jealousy, 
 and  the  confirmation  of  what  his  sister  had  told  him, 
 was  the  fatal  secret  which  Joseph  had  indiscreetly 
 blabbed  out,  and  Mariamne,  in  her  passion,  could  not 
 retain  ;  for  nothing  less  than  an  adulterous  conversation, 
 he  thought,  could  have  produced  such  a  discovery;  and, 
 therefore,  when  she  upbraided  him  with  it,  he  was  going 
 to  draw  his  dagger,  and  strike  her  to  the  heart ;  but 
 though  his  love  interposed  to  save  her,  he  ordered  his 
 uncle  immediately  to  be  executed,  without  allowing  him 
 leave  so  much  as  to  speak  for  himself ;  which  when  he 
 came  to  know  his  innocence,  and  the  queen's  virtue,  he 
 could  not  but  regret. 
 
 While  these  things  were  thus  going  on  in  Judea,  there 
 happened  a  grievous  breach  a  between  Anthony  and 
 Octavianus,  which  terminated  in  a  civil  war,  wherein 
 Anthony  at  the  battle  of  Actium  was  quite  ruined  and 
 undone.  During  the  whole  course  of  this  war,  Herod 
 had  always  followed  Anthony's  party,  and  had  therefore 
 reason  to  fear  that  the  conqueror  would  deprive  him  of 
 his  kingdom  for  being  so  firm  a  friend  to  his  enemy,  and 
 perhaps  restore  again  Hyrcanus,  who  had  once  reigned 
 under  the  protection  of  the  Romans  ;  and,  therefore,  to 
 prevent  this,  upon  pretence  of  his  holding  correspon- 
 dence with  Malchus  king  of  Arabia,  in  order  to  accom- 
 plish some  treasonable  designs  against  him,  he  *  caused 
 him  to  be  put  to  death,  after  he  had  passed  the  eightieth 
 year  of  his  age.  His  wife  Mariamne,  and  her  mother, 
 he  secured  in  the  castle  of  Alexandrion,  with  a  strong 
 guard  under  the  command  of  Sohemus,  and  with  the 
 same  order  that  he  had  left  with  his  uncle  Joseph  before  ; 
 and  having  committed  the  government  of  the  kingdom  to 
 the  care  of  Pheroras,  another  of  his  brothers,  he  set  for- 
 ward on  his  journey  to  meet  Octavianus. 
 
 Octavianus  was  then  at  Rhodes,  where  Herod,  having 
 obtained  audience,  as  he  entered  into  his  presence,  laid 
 aside  his  diadem,  and  in  his  address  to  him  freely  owned 
 all  that  he  had  done  for  Anthony,  and  what  he  was  far- 
 os Anthony  had  provoked  Octavianus  against  him,  l>y  the 
 wrong  done  to  tMavia  his  sister,  whom  Anthony  had  married, 
 and  yet  divorced  her  tor  the  gratification  of  Ids  adulterous  love 
 to  Cleopatra,  though  Octavia  was  mneli  the  handsomer  of  the 
 two.  Anthony  had  likewise  given  out,  that  Cleopatra  had  heen 
 married  to  Julius  Csesar,  and  that  Cesarion,  whom  she  had  by 
 him,  was  his  lawful  son,  and  consequently  had  the  proper  right 
 to  the  inheritance,  which  Octavianus  held  only  as  his  adopted 
 son.  These  things  were  objected  against  Anthony;  and  An-' 
 thony,  by  Ins  agents  and  letters,  was  not  forgetful  to  recriminate. 
 But  these  things  were  no  more  than  pretences:  the  true  reason 
 ol  their  disagreement  was,  that  both  these  two  £veat  men,  being 
 not  contented  with  half  of  the  Roman  empire,  were  each  re- 
 solved to  have  all,  and  accordingly  agreed  to  throw  the  dice  of 
 war  for  it. — Plutarch  on  AntonUtSj  and  Prideaux's  Coimectiun, 
 anno  .'i.'i. 
 
 b  The  character  which  Josephns  gives  of  this  prince  is  to  this 
 effect: —  He  was  a  man  of  eminent  candour,  justice,  and  modera- 
 tion; but  a  lover  of  his  ease,  and  so  conscious  to  himself  of  his 
 own  insufficiency  for  the  offices  of  public  administration,  that, 
 for  the  most  part,  he  intrusted  that  charge  in  other  hands.  This 
 facility  of  Ins  was  the  making  of  Antipater  and  Herod's  fortune, 
 though,  without  any  colour  of  law  or  equity,  it  cost  him  Ids 
 life. — Jewish  Aiitii/.  b.  xv.  c.  9. 
 
 .  5374.  A.  C.  74.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  l>.  xv, 
 
 ther  ready  to  have  done, had  he  required  itof  him.  "  Tins," 
 he  said,  "  he  thought  himself  obliged  to,  by  the  friendship 
 that  was  between  them ;  and  would  he  be  pleased  to 
 think  the  like  friendship  worthy  of  his  acceptance,  since 
 Anthony  was  now  quite  lost,  he  would  not  fail  to  serve 
 him  with  the  same  zeal  and  fidelity."  This  Herod  de- 
 livered with  such  an  intrepidity,  that  Octavianus,  pleased 
 with  the  spirit  of  the  man,  caused  him  to  put  on  his  dia- 
 dem again,  accepted  of  his  friendship,  and  confirmed 
 him  iu  the  kingdom  of  Judea. 
 
 Pleased  with  this  good  success,  Herod  went  back  to 
 Judea  with  great  joy;  but  on  his  arrival  found  all  his 
 felicity  soured  with  the  troubles  of  his  own  family. 
 Mariamne,  his  most  beloved  wife,  in  whose  conversation 
 he  took  the  greatest  delight,  having  bribed  the  secret  out 
 of  Sohemus,  conceived  thereupon  such  a  strong  hatred 
 and  aversion  to  him,  that  she  received  his  embraces  with 
 scorn,  and  concealing  the  true  cause  of  her  resentment, 
 was  perpetually  upbraiding  him  with  the  murder  of  her 
 nearest  relations  f  so  that,  by  this  provoking  treatment, 
 his  patience  was  almost  quite  worn  out.  Hearing,  how- 
 ever, of  the  death  of  Anthony  and  Cleopatra,  and  how 
 Octavianus  had  thereupon  made  himself  master  of  all 
 Egypt,  he  thought  himself  obliged  to  wait  on  him  thero 
 likewise. 
 
 He  was  received  with  great  kindness,  and  having,  in 
 his  return,  accompanied  him  to  Antioch,  he  so  far  in- 
 gratiated himself  with  him  on  the  way,  that  he  granted 
 him  several  places  in  augmentation  of  his  dominions, 
 and,  for  ever  after,  of  all  the  tributary  princes  in  the 
 Roman  empire,  gave  him  the  first  place  in  his  favour. 
 But  how  prosperous  soever  he  was  in  his  affairs  abroad, 
 when  he  returned,  he  found  nothing  but  trouble  and  vex- 
 ation at  home.  Mariamne  still  retained  her  resentment, 
 for  the  cruel  commission  given  to  Sohemus  ;  so  that, 
 when  he  offered  her  his  caresses,  she  not  only  rejected 
 them,  as  usual,  with  the  utmost  aversion,  but  added,  over 
 and  above,  such  bitter  reproaches  for  the  death  of  her 
 relations,  as  provoked  and  enraged  him  to  so  high  a 
 degree,  thathe  could  hardly  forbear  laying  violent  hands 
 upon  her.  This  fit  of  rage  her  implacable  enemy  Salome 
 took  the  advantage  of,  and  sent  in  his  butler,  whom  she 
 had  before  suborned  for  that  purpose,  to  accuse  the  queen 
 of  having  tempted  him  to  give  the  king  poison  ;  there- 
 upon he  ordered  her  favourite  eunuch,  without  whose 
 privity  he  knew  she  did  nothing,  to  be  put  upon  tfie  rack  ; 
 but  all  that  he  confessed  was,  that  something  which  So- 
 hemus had  told  Mariamne,  was  the  cause  of  her  being 
 out  of  humour. 
 
 Upon  the  hearing  of  this,  Herod  fell  into  a  rage  of 
 jealousy;  and,  supposing  that  nothing  but  a  criminal 
 intimacy  could  have  induced  Sohemus  to  betray  this 
 secret  to  her,  he  ordered  him  immediately  to  be  put  to 
 death  ;  and  then,  calling  together  a  council  of  his  friends, 
 and  accusing  her  of  an  intention  to  take  away  his  life, 
 he  had  her  condemned,  but  not  with  a  design  to  have 
 her  put  to  death  ;  but  the  malice  of  his  mother  and  sister 
 was  so  bitter  against  her,  they  would  not  let  him  be 
 quiet.  They  knew  very  well  his  temper  ;  and,  being  ap- 
 prehensive, that  as  long  as  she  was  alive,  he  might 
 easily  relapse  into  his  former  fondness,  they  urged  the 
 necessity  of  her  speedy  execution,  and  had  that  influence 
 over  him,  that  he  commanded  her  immediately  to  be  put 
 to  death.     But  he  soon  repented  him  of  his  rashness. 
 
 5  i 
 
802 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 .A.   M.3378.  A    C.  25;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  537-1.  A.  C.  71.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  o.  19-end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 For,  after  that  his  rage  was  quenched  by  her  blood,  his 
 love  revived,  and  the  consideration  of  what  he  had  done 
 filled  his  mind  with  the  agonies  of  remorse,  and  the  re- 
 gret of  her  loss  alt'ected  him  so,  that  he  fell  dangerously 
 ill ;  but,  upon  recovery,  he  nevertheless  gave  orders  for 
 the  execution  of  Alexandra,  for  having  too  easily  credited 
 the  news  that  was  spread  abroad  of  his  death. 
 
 He  had  two  sons  by  Mariamne,  Alexander  and  Aristo- 
 bulus,  whom  he  had  sent  to  Rome  for  the  benefit  of  edu- 
 cation ;  but,  upon  their  return  home,  by  the  same  instru- 
 ments that  had  procured  their  mother's  death,  they  fell 
 under  their  father's  displeasure.  For  having  in  the  heat 
 of  their  youth  let  fall  many  rash  words,  which  expressed 
 their  resentment  of  their  mother's  hard  usage,  with  threats 
 of  revenge  upon  those  that  had  been  the  chief  authors  of 
 it ;  all  this  was  carried  to  their  father,  with  such  malicious 
 glosses  and  comments  upon  it,  as  made  him  believe  that 
 they  were  hatching  ill  designs  against  his  person.  He 
 was  naturally  of  a  jealous  temper,  and  this  was  so  im- 
 proved by  the  artifices  of  Pheroras  and  Salome,  his 
 brother  and  sister,  that,  in  a  council  which  consisted  of 
 none  but  his  own  creatures,  he  procured  their  condemna- 
 tion, a  and  so  ordered  them  to  be  strangled :  and  it  was 
 upon  the  account  of  their  fate,  and  the  execution  of  An- 
 
 a  Josephus  has  represented  this  whole  proceeding  in  this  light: 
 When  Herod  had  complained  to  Augustus  of  the  undutiful  be- 
 haviour of  his  sons,  how  they  had  plotted  against  his  life,  and 
 designed  to  have  made  their  escape  out  of  his  dominions, 
 Augustus  advised  him  to  call  together  a  council  at  Berytus  in 
 Phoenicia,  and  so  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  their  offences. 
 This  Herod  accordingly  did  ;  but  when  he  came  into  the  assembly, 
 which  consisted  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  such  asAugustus 
 had  directed  him  to,  (except  Archelaus,  king  of  Cappadocia, 
 who,  being  father-in-law  to  Alexander,  was  thought  by  Herod 
 too  much  engaged  by  that  relation,  to  be  an  impartial  judge  in 
 this  matter,)  he  began  to  accuse  his  sons  with  great  vehemence 
 and  passion,  and,  alter  having  spoken  in  terms  very  unbecoming 
 a  father,  he  said,  "that  not  only  Augustus  made  him  master  of 
 his  sons'  destiny,  but  that  the  very  laws  of  the  Jews  declared, 
 that  if  a  son  was  accused  by  his  parents,  and  they  put  their  hands 
 upon  his  head,  all  who  were  present  should  stone  him,  and  put 
 him  to  death;  and  therefore,  though  he  might  treat  his  sons  in 
 this  manner,  after  the  crimes  whereof  they  stood  convicted,  yet 
 he  chose  rather  to  have  their  opinions  upon  the  matter,  not 
 doubting  but  that  they  would  join  with  him  in  giving  an  example 
 to  future  ages,  of  that  just  severity  which  ought  to  be  exercised 
 upon  unnatural  children."  Saturinus,  a  man  of  consular  dignity, 
 who  was  at  the  head  of  the  council,  was  for  punishing  Alexander 
 and  Aristobulus,  but  not  with  death;  and  three  sons,  who  were 
 present  with  him,  concurred  in  the  same  opinion;  but  Volum- 
 nius  pronounced  that  they  were  worthy  of  death,  which  the 
 majority  of  the  assembly  too  readily  coming  into,  carried  the 
 question.  On  this  occasion  every  one  pitied  the  two  princes, 
 but  no  one  durst  speak  plainly,  for  fear  of  incurring  the  king's 
 displeasure:  but  at  last,  an  old  soldier  of  the  king's,  who  had  a 
 son  about  Alexander's  age,  and  his  particular  friend,  took  the 
 liberty  to  make  Bome  sharp  remonstrances  to  the  king,  telling 
 him  withal,  that  not  only  the  officers  and  soldiers,  but  the  whole 
 body  of  the  people,  was  moved  with  compassion  for  the  young 
 princes,  and  pitied  their  sad  fate.  Whereupon  the  king,  losing 
 all  patience,  commanded  the  soldier  and  his  son  to  be  seized,  and 
 all  besides  whom  lie  had  named.  When  the  old  man  was  put 
 upon  the  rack,  he  confessed  that  he  had  taken  up  a  resolution  to 
 kill  the  king,  and  to  expose  himself,  for  the  love  of  Alexander, 
 to  all  sorts  of  punishment.  This  confession  both  enraged  and 
 intimidated  Herod,  so  that  he  sent  his  sons  immediately  to 
 Sebaste,  (formerly  called  Samaria,)  and  there  ordered  them  to 
 be  strangled.  And  thus  ended  the  life  of  these  two  unfortunate 
 brothers,  who,  by  too  much  expressing  their  resentment  for  their 
 mother's  death,  provoked  those  who  had  been  the  chief  authors 
 oi  it,  by  tin;  like  artifices,  to  procure  theirs. — See  Josephus's 
 reflection  hereupon.-—  Joscjjh.  Antiq.  b.  xvi.  c.  17. 
 
 tipater,  h  another  of  his  sons  after  this,  (who  was,  in  re- 
 ality, for  procuring-  his  father's  death,)  that  Octavianus, 
 then  called  Augustus,  was  used  to  say,  that  it  was  bet- 
 ter to  be  Herod's  hog-  than  his  son. 
 
 But  whatever  opinion  Augustus  might  have  of  Herod, 
 it  is  certain  that  Herod  had  no  small  veneration  for  him, 
 or  at  least  carried  his  compliments  very  far.  For  he 
 not  only  built  two  stately  cities,  and  called  them  both 
 by  his  name,  c  but  in  the  very  city  of  Jerusalem  built 
 a  theatre  and  an  amphitheatre,  and,  in  honour  of  Augus- 
 tus, celebrated  games,  and  exhibited  shows,  which  gave 
 great  disgust  to  the  Jews,  as  things  inconsistent  with  the 
 legal  constitutions  and  religion  of  their  country.  Nay, 
 to  such  a  degree  of  complaisance  proceeded^  he,  as  not 
 only  to  set  up  the  Roman  ensign,  d  which  was  the  figure 
 
 b  This  Antipater  was  Herod's  eldest  son  by  Doris,  a  woman 
 of  no  quality,  whilst  himself  was  a  private  man  ;  for  which  reason 
 he  kept  him  and  his  mother,  for  some  time,  at  a  distance  from 
 court:  but  when  he  began  to  take  offence  at  Alexander  and 
 Aristobulus,  his  two  sons  by  Mariamne,  he  thereupon  treated 
 him  with  a  great  deal  of  distinction,  and,  in  a  full  assembly  of 
 the  people,  declared  him  his  immediate  heir  to  the  crown.  After 
 the  death  of  Mariamne's  sons,  he  had  nothing  that  stood  in  his 
 way,  but  only  the  life  of  his  father  Herod :  and,  to  get  rid  of  him, 
 he  formed  a  conspiracy  with  his  uncle  Pheroras,  (who,  at  this 
 time,  was  in  some  disgrace  with  his  brother  the  king,)  to  have 
 him  poisoned:  but,  that  there  might  be  no  suspicion  of  his  being 
 concerned  in  the  thing,  he  procured  some  of  his  friends  to  send 
 for  him  to  Rome,  where  he  had  been  before  under  Agrippa's 
 protection,  on  pretence  of  waiting  upon  Augustus.  Herod, 
 however,  having  found  out  the  whole  plot,  wrote  to  his  son, 
 without  giving  him  the  least  hint  of  it,  to  hasten  his  journey 
 home,  lest  something  should  happen  in  his  absence  to  his  great 
 disadvantage;  whereupon  he  returned  into  Palestine,  without 
 the  least  suspicion  of  what  had  passed.  When  he  came  to  Jeru- 
 salem, his  friends,  who  attended  him,  were  not  permitted  to 
 enter  the  palace ;  and  when  he  went  to  embrace  the  king,  the 
 king  thrust  him  from  him,  upbraiding  him  with  the  murder  of 
 his  brothers  Alexander  and  Aristobulus,  and  with  the  parricide 
 which  he  intended  to  have  committed  on  his  person,  and  whereof 
 he  accused  him  the  next  day,  before  Quintilius  Varus,  the  gov- 
 ernor of  Syria.  The  proof  was  so  plain  against  him,  that  Anti- 
 pater, having  nothing  to  say  in  his  justification,  was  loaded  with 
 irons  and  put  in  prison.  But  while  he  was  there,  a  false  report 
 being  spread,  that  Herod  was  dead,  he  begged  of  his  keeper  to 
 set  him  at  liberty,  and  made  him  large  promises  if  he  would  do 
 it,  which  being  brought  to  his  father's  ear,  as  weak  as  he  was, 
 (for  he  died  in  a  few  days  after,)  he  raised  himself  upon  his  elbow, 
 and  calling  one  of  his  guards,  sent  him  that  moment  to  dispatch 
 his  son. — Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xvii.  c.  7.  and  9;  and  Jewish  Wars, 
 b.  i.  c.  2\. 
 
 c  The  one  was  Sebaste,  which  signifies  the  same  in  Greek  as 
 Augustus  does  in  Latin.  It  was  situated  on  the  same  place 
 where  stood  Samaria,  which  Hyrcanus  had  destroyed,  and  was 
 in  part  rebuilt  by  Gabinius,  when  he  was  governor  of  Syria,  and 
 called  after  his  name:  hut  as  he  was  soon  turned  out  of  his 
 government,  it  advanced  no  farther  than  a  good  large  village, 
 until  Herod,  who,  from  his  stately  structures,  was  afterwards 
 called  the  Great,  undertook  to  finish  it,  and,  in  so  doing,  spared 
 no  cost  to  make  it  one  of  the  richest  and  most  beautiful  cities  in 
 his  kingdom.  The  other  was  Cajsarea,  so  called  in  honour  of 
 the  emperor,  though  its  former  appellation  was  "  the  Tow  er  of 
 Straton."  It  stood  by  the  sea  side,  on  the  coasts  of  Phoenicia, 
 upon  the  pass  into  Egypt,  and  was  very  convenient  for  trade, 
 hut  that  it  had  a  bad  harbour.  To  remedy  this,  therefore,  he 
 ordered  a  mole  to  be  made  in  the  form  of  a  half  moon,  and  large 
 enough  for  a  royal  navy  to  ride  in.  The  buildings  of  the  town 
 were  all  of  marble,  private  houses  as  well  as  palaces ;  but  the 
 master-piece  of  all  was  the  port,  whereof  we  meet  with  a  descrip- 
 tion in  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xv.  c.  13. 
 
 d  This  gave  great  offence  to  the  Jews,  because  the  Romans 
 were  known  to  pay  divine  honours  to  their  ensigns,  which  they 
 used  to  set  up  in  some  eminent  place  in  their  camp;  according  to 
 that  known  passage  of  Tertullian,  "  the  religion  of  the  Romans 
 was  wholly  of  a  warlike  nature;  the  standard  they  venerated,  by 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 S03 
 
 A.  M.3978.  A.  C.2G;  OK,  ACCORDING  TOHALKS,  A.M.  537 1.  A.  C.  74.  JOS.  IIIST.b.xii.c.  19—  end  of  b.  xv 
 
 of  an  eagle,  over  one  of  the  gates  of  the  temple,  but  even 
 to  raise  a  sumptuous  temple,  all  of  white  marble,  in 
 memory  of  the  favours  which  Augustus  hail  conferred 
 on  him ;  though,  by  this  act  of  idolatrous  Mattery,  he 
 alienated  the  hearts  of  the  Jews,  and  raised  some  con- 
 spirators "  against  his  life. 
 
 To  recover  therefore  their  good  opinion,  and  to  make 
 some  amends  for  these  breaches  upon  their  law,  in  the 
 nineteenth  year  of  his  reign  he  formed  a  design  for  re- 
 building the  temple,  b  which,  by  length  of  time,  having 
 
 the  standard  they  swore,  the  standard  they  preferred  to  all  their 
 gods.'' 
 
 a  There  is  a  remarkable  one  of  this  kind,  which  is  related  by 
 Josephus  to  this  e fleet: — Ten  citizens,  taking  offence  at  Herod's 
 bringing  in  the  rites  of  heathenish  superstition,  entered  into  a 
 Conspiracy  to  cut  him  ofl'by  an  assassination.  One  of  these  con- 
 spirators was  blind,  and  though  in  no  condition  to  act  any 
 thing  for  the  public  good,  ottered  to  bear  his  part  in  suffering  for 
 it,  and  by  his  generous  offer  settled  them  all  in  their  determina- 
 tions. They  therefore  provided  themselves  with  daggers  under 
 their  garments,  and  went  to  the  theatre,  where  Herod  was  to 
 come,  with  a  full  intent  to  slay  him  there.  But,  as  he  was 
 entering  the  theatre,  one  of  his  spies,  for  he  had  great  plenty  of 
 them,  having  got  some  notice  of  the  matter,  made  a  discovery  of 
 it  to  him;  so  that,  returning  to  his  palace,  he  sent  for  the  con- 
 spirators, who  were  so  far  from  denying  their  design,  that  they 
 produced  the  very  daggers  that  were  to  have  done  the  execution, 
 alleging  for  themselves,  "  that  they  were  not  engaged  in  any 
 criminal  combination,  to  gratify  their  passions  or  interests,  but 
 in  a  secret  league,  lor  the  common  good,  and  the  defence  of  their 
 laws,  which  all  true  patriots  and  professors  were  bound  to  main- 
 tain with  their  lives."  After  this  declaration  they  were  hurried 
 away  to  death,  and  made  to  undergo  the  most  exquisite  torments. 
 But  the  infamous  informer  did  not  long  survive  them  ;  for,  having 
 incurred  the  general  odium  of  the  people,  he  was  met  by  some 
 in  a  private  place,  and  torn  to  pieces. — Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xv.  c.  11. 
 
 b  Whatever  some  Jewish  Rabbins  may  tell  us,  it  is  certain 
 that  the  temple  of  Herod  was  widely  different  from  that  of  Solo- 
 mon, and  from  that  which  was  built  by  Zerubbabel  after  the  cap- 
 tivity; for  the  description  of  it,  according  to  Josephus,  who  him- 
 self had  seen  it,  is  much  to  this  purpose: — The  front  of  this 
 magnificent  building,  which  resembled  that  of  a  royal  palace,  was 
 adorned  with  many  rich  spoils,  which  the  kings  of  the  Jews  had 
 dedicated  to  God  as  the  monuments  of  their  victories.  The 
 middle  of  it,  which  was  much  higher  than  the  two  extremes, 
 aflbrded  a  very  agreeable  prospect  to  the  extent  of  several  fur- 
 longs to  those  that  either  lived  in  the  country,  or  were  travelling 
 to  the  city.  The  gate  of  it  was  a  very  curious  piece  of  work- 
 manship. From  the  top  of  it  hung  a  variety  of  rich  tapestry,  of 
 several  colours,  embellished  with  purple  flowers.  On  each  side 
 of  it  stood  a  stately  pillar,  with  a  golden  vine  creeping  and  twin- 
 ing about  it,  whose  branches  were  laden  with  a  cluster  of  grapes, 
 that  hung  dangling  down  from  the  cornices.  Round  about  the 
 temple  were  large  galleries,  answerable  to  the  rest  of  the  work 
 in  magnificence,  and  in  beauty  much  exceeding  all  that  had  been 
 before.  The  temple  was  surrounded  by  three  courts  or  inclo- 
 sures.  The  first  inclosure,  which  was  a  square  of  a  furlong  on 
 every  side,  had  a  gate  on  the  east,  another  on  the  south,  and 
 another  on  the  north  side;  but  it  had  four  towards  the  west;  one 
 leading  to  the  palace,  another  into  the  city,  and  two  more  into 
 the  fields.  It  was  secured  without  by  a  strong  wall,  and  within 
 was  adorned  with  stately  porticoes  or  galleries,  sustained  by  no 
 less  than  1C2  columns  of  Corinthian  work,  and  all  so  very  thick, 
 that  hardly  three  men  could  grasp  one  with  their  arms.  They 
 supported  a  roof  of  cedar  very  curiously  wrought,  and  made  three 
 galleries ;  the  two  outermost  of  which  were  of  the  same  dimen- 
 sions, that  is,  thirty  feet,  in  breadth,  fifty  in  height,  and  a  fur- 
 long in  length ;  but  that  in  the  middle  was  half  as  broad  again 
 as  the  other,  and  twice  as  high.  The  court  or  area  before  these 
 galleries  was  paved  with  marble  of  several  colours,  and,  at  a  little 
 distance,  was  a  second  inclosure,  formed  by  a  handsome  balus- 
 trade of  stone,  and  pillars  at  equal  distances,  whereon  were  in- 
 scriptions in  Greek  and  Latin,  giving  warning  to  all  strangers 
 not  to  proceed  any  farther  upon  pain  ot  death.  To  this  inclosure 
 there  was  but  one  entrance  towards  the  east,  but  towards  the 
 north  and  south,  at  equal  distances,  time.      In  the  middle  of 
 
 now  stood  five  hundred  years,  as  well  as  the  violence  of 
 enemies,  was  in  a  very  decayed  and  ruinous  condition. 
 In  two  years'  time  he  got  together  all  proper  materials, 
 and  in  nine  c  and  a  half  more,  had  it  so  far  finished  as 
 to  make  it  lit  for  divine  service ;  though,  to  carry  on  the 
 outbuildings,  workmen  were  continued  about  it  to  the 
 time  of  our  Saviour's  ministry,  and  longer. 
 
 While  these  tilings  were  doing  in  Judea,  the  temple 
 of  Janus  was  shut  at  Rome.  In  times  of  war  the  cus- 
 tom was  to  have  its  gates  laid  open,  but  shut  in  the 
 time  of  peace ;  and  it  was  now  the  fifth  time,  since  the 
 building  of  that  city,  that  the  gates  of  this  temple  had 
 been  shut.  The  first  time  was  in  the  reign  of  Nuina  ; 
 the  second,  after  the  end  of  the  first  Punic  war;  the 
 third,  after  Augustus's  victory  over  Anthony  and  Cleo- 
 patra ;  the  fourth,  upon  his  return  from  the  Cantabrian 
 war  in  Spain  ;  and  the  fifth,  now  in  the  twenty-sixth  year 
 of  his  reign,  and  in  the  thirty-third  of  Herod's,  when  a 
 general  peace,  which  lasted  for  twelve  years  together, 
 prevailed  over  the  world,  and  was  a  proper  prelude  for 
 ushering  in  the  advent  rf  of  the  Prince  of  peace,  even 
 
 these  two  inclosures,  there  was  a  third,  which  included  the 
 temple,  strictly  so  called,  and  the  altar  of  burnt  sacrifices,  which 
 was  fifty  cubits  high,  and  forty  cubits  wide  every  way,  all  built 
 of  rough  stone,  on  which  no  tool  had  ever  been  used.  Into  this 
 court,  which  none  but  priests  were  permitted  to  enter,  there 
 were  nine  gates ;  one  towards  the  east,  four  towards  the  south, 
 and  as  many  towards  the  north ;  but  towards  the  west  there  was 
 no  gate,  only  one  great  wall  ran  all  along  from  north  to  south. 
 At  the  entrance  of  each  gate  within  were  large  rooms  in  form 
 of  pavilions,  of  thirty  cubits  square,  and  forty  high,  supported  by 
 a  pillar  of  eighteen  feet  in  circumference;  and  the  whole  was 
 adorned  with  porticoes,  sustained  by  two  rows  of  pillars,  to  the 
 east,  north,  and  south,  but  towards  the  west  there  was  nothing 
 but  the  wall  just  now  mentioned.  This  is  the  description  of  the 
 temple,  as  it  was  repaired  by  Herod,  that  may  be  extracted  from 
 Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xv.  c.  13;  but  whoever  is  desirous  to  know 
 these  things  more  minutely,  must  consult  those  authors  that 
 have  written  upon  them  professionally;  among  which  Mess,  de 
 Beausobre  and  L'enfant,  in  their  general  preface  to  the  New 
 Testament,  have  given  us  no  bad  sketch ;  and  Juries,  in  his 
 History  of  Opinions,  &c.  has  rectified  some  mistakes  in  the  ac- 
 count of  Josephus,  part  ii.  c.  4. 
 
 c  And  yet  the  Jews  could  tell  our  Saviour,  that  '  forty  and 
 six  years  had  the  temple  been  building,'  (John  ii.  20);  but  this 
 is  easily  reconciled.  For,  though  at  the  time,  when  the  Jews 
 spake  to  our  Saviour,  six  and  forty  years  had  passed  from  the 
 time  that  this  building  was  begun,  yet  in  nine  years  and  a  half 
 it  was  made  fit  for  divine  service.  The  outbuildings  however 
 were  far  from  being  finished ;  and  therefore  a  great  number  of 
 labourers  and  artificers  were  continued  at  work  all  the  time  that 
 our  Saviour  was  upon  the  earth,  and  for  some  years  after;  till 
 upon  the  coming  of  Gessius  Floras,  to  be  governor  of  Judea, 
 eighteen  thousand  of  them  were  discharged  at  one  time,  and 
 these  for  want  of  other  employ,  began  those  mutinies  and  sedi- 
 tions, which  at  last  drew  on  the  destruction  cf  Jerusalem,  and 
 the  temple  with  it Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xx.  c.  8. 
 
 d  According  to  the  vulgar  era,  Christ  was  born  in  the  four 
 thousand  and  fourth  year  of  the  world's  creation;  bui  this  way  of 
 computation,  though  it  be  commonly  used,  especially  in  this 
 western  part  of  the  world,  is  a  manifest  mistake,  which  Diony- 
 sius  Exiguus,  a  Scythian  by  birth,  and  afterwards  a  Roman  abbot, 
 was  the  first  author  of.  In  the  first  ages  of  Christianity,  Chris- 
 tians had  no  particular  epocha  to  themselves;  they  generally 
 used  that  of  the  building  ol  the  city,  or  the  years  of  the  Cccsars 
 in  common  with  the  Romans.  The  first  that  they  made  use  of, 
 was  the  era  of  Dioclesian ;  for  his  terrible  persecution  had  made 
 such  an  impression  on  their  minds,  that  the  time  when  it  hap- 
 pened was  long  had  in  remembrance.  It  was  in  the  year  527  of 
 the  vulgar  Christian  era,  and  not  sooner,  that  the  world  began  to 
 compute  time  from  our  Saviour's  birth;  and  therefore  the  wonder 
 is  less,  that,  after  so  great  a  distance  of  time,  this  Roman  abbot 
 should  make  a  mistake  in  fixing  the  first  year  of  it;  but  the  mis- 
 
804 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI L 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 Christ  our  Lord,  who,  according  to  the  exactest  com- 
 putation, was  born  in  the  4000th  year  a  [the  541 1th 
 year  according-  to  Hales]  of  the  world's  creation. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Objections  answered. 
 
 It  cannot  be  expected,  indeed,  that  any  human  compo- 
 sition should  be  without  faults,  and  least  of  all  can  his- 
 tory promise  itself  that  exemption,  when  it  has  so  many 
 distant  and  abstruse  matters  to  inquire  into,  and  is  forced 
 in  many  cases  to  take  up  with  the  testimony,  and  some- 
 times the  conjectures  of  others.  It  may  be  said,  how- 
 ever, in  favour  of  Josephus,  that  the  records  from  whence 
 he  compiled  his  history  of  the  Jews,  were  either  those  of 
 their  own  sacred  Hebrew  books  ;  those  of  the  prophets 
 during  the  continuance  of  their  succession ;  or  those  of 
 the  most  authentic  writers  that  flourished  in  their  nation 
 all  along  afterward.  For,  in  the  main,  he  was  not  so 
 much  an  original  historian  himself,  as  an  abridger  of 
 such  ancient  histories  as  he  found  in  the  highest  esteem 
 and  veneration ;  and  how  fair  and  impartial  he  has  been, 
 about  these  times  more  particularly,  in  making  this 
 compilation,  any  one  may  perceive  that  will  but  give 
 himself  the  trouble  of  comparing  his  abridgment  of  the 
 first  book  of  the  Maccabees  with  the  book  itself.     So 
 
 fortune  was,  that,  before  the  mistake  was  discovered,  our  country- 
 man Bede's  taking  it  without  examination  from  him,  and  using 
 it  in  all  his  writings,  gave  it  a  sanction;  nor  has  the  learned 
 world  as  yet  thought  fit  to  correct  it,  out  of  a  persuasion,  I  pre- 
 sume, that  there  may  be  some  danger  in  altering  things  that  are 
 settled.  It  is  thought  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  chronology, 
 that  there  is  a  certain  Christian  era  fixed,  which  every  one  knows, 
 and  reckons  by,  though  there  may  be  some  mistake,  as  to  the 
 particular  time  when  it  should  have  commenced.  In  short,  this 
 error  has  been  too  long  followed  to  be  corrected,  which  must  of 
 course  alter  all  dates,  and  give  the  world  too  much  trouble;  and 
 therefore  it  is  but  calling  it  a  vulgar  Christian  era,  and  remember- 
 ing that  Christ  was  born  four  years  before  it  began ;  it  is  but  re- 
 membering, I  say,  that  the  year  ivhich  we  now  write,  1743,  ought 
 to  be  1747,  and  all  is  well. — Prideaux's  Preface  to  the  first  part 
 of  his  Connection;  and  Hearne's  System  of  Universal  History, 
 b.  i.  c.  8. 
 
 a  This,  we  may  observe,  falls  in  exactly  with  the  time  where 
 an  old  tradition  of  the  Jews  places  the  beginning  of  the  days  of 
 the  Messiah.  According  to  that  tradition,  the  world  was  to  last 
 six  thousand  years;  two  thousand  before  the  law,  two  thousand 
 under  the  law,  and  two  thousand  under  the  Messiah.  This  tra- 
 dition is  of  great  antiquity,  and  esteemed  as  authentic  as  any  of 
 this  sort;  and  though  its  pretending  to  foretel  when  the  world 
 shall  end,  (which  the  scriptures  make  a  secret  that  God  has  re- 
 served for  himself,)  sufficiently  shows  its  vanity ;  yet  since  the 
 Jews  have  thought  fit  to  place  it  among  the  most  authentic  of 
 their  traditions,  it  serves  against  them,  1st,  To  prove  the  time 
 when,  according  to  their  own  doctrine,  the  Messiah  was  to  come: 
 and,  2dly,  To  convict  them  of  their  gross  and  most  perverse  in- 
 fidelity, in  that,  though  Christ  was  born  in  the  4000th  year  of 
 the  creation,  from  which,  according  to  this  their  tradition,  his 
 appearance  was  to  commence,  they  have  now  suffered  above 
 seventeen  hundred  and  twenty  years  to  pass,  and  have  not  yet 
 acknowledged  him. —  Prideaux's  Connection  anno  4.  [This  is  verv 
 well  argued,  if  the  Jewish  tradition  respecting  the  ages  of  the 
 world,  were  exactly  such  as  it  is  here  said  to  have  been;  but 
 there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  \cry  different.  Ac- 
 cording to  the  rabbinical  tradition  founded,  as  the  Jews  pre- 
 tended, on  prophecy,  the  world  was  to  last  7000  years,  and  the 
 Messiah  to  make  his  appearance  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
 millenary,  or  the  year  of  the  world  5500;  and,  according  to  Dr 
 IIalesrs  computations,  he  actually  appeared  in  the  year  5111.] — 
 Up.  Glei'j. — Ed. 
 
 M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST,  b   xiii.  c.  19— END  of  b.  xv. 
 
 justly  might  Suidas  give  1  Josephus  the  title  of  a  "  lover 
 of  truth  ;"  and  so  truly  might  Josephus  say  of  himself,  at 
 the  conclusion  of  his  Antiquities,  as  well  as  of  his  Jewish 
 Wars,  "  As  for  the  style  and  manner  of  my  writing  them, 
 that  1  submit  to  the  judgment  of  my  readers  ;  but  as  for 
 the  candour  and  sincerity  of  my  accounts,  I  do  here  de- 
 clare to  the  world,  that  I  have  kept  strictly  to  the  truth, 
 and  have  had  nothing  else  in  view,  through  the  course  of 
 my  whole  work." 
 
 2  That  Alexander  the  Great,  after  his  ha\ing  taken 
 the  city  of  Tyre,  invaded  the  northern  parts  of  Judea, 
 and  went  as  far  as  the  balsam  trees,  near  Jericho,  not 
 only  Eusebius  in  his  Chronicon,  but  Pliny,  *  in  his  Na- 
 tural History  likewise,  direc  ly  informs  us  ;  and  that  he 
 not  only  subdued  that  part  of  Syria,  which  is  called 
 Palestine,  but  went  also  about  at  this  time  to  those  cities 
 that  refused  to  submit  to  him,  we  have  the  concurring 
 testimony  both  of  Curtius  3  and  Arrian ;  4  and  if  their 
 testimony  be  true,  it  is  very  presumable  that  he  did  not 
 forget  to  visit  Jerusalem  in  his  indignation  for  its  having 
 refused  to  send  him  supplies. 
 
 The  Samaritans,  indeed,  acted  another  part :  they 
 obeyed  Alexander's  summons,  and  went  in  a  body  of 
 8000  men  to  his  assistance  at  Tyre.  As  soon  as  he  had 
 carried  the  place,  they  marched  with  his  army  to  Jerusa- 
 lem, and  these  are  the  men  whom  Josephus  joins  with 
 the  Phoenicians,  though  by  an  error  of  the  press,  or  tran- 
 scription at  first,  they  are  called  Xu7\0»iov;,  instead  of 
 ~5Lvdcciovs,  according  to  Bishop  Loyd's  emendation,  Chal- 
 deans, instead  of  Cutheans  or  Samaritans,  the  old  inve- 
 terate enemies  of  the  Jews,  and  who  therefore  were  glad 
 of  this  opportunity  of  destroying  them,  and  promised 
 themselves,  as  Josephus  5  expresses  it,  "  all  the  licence 
 of  blood  and  pillage  upon  the  high  priest  himself,  as 
 well  as  upon  the  citizens,  that  rage  or  revenge  could 
 draw  from  a  victorious  prince,  under  the  sense  and  pro- 
 vocation of  the  affront  he  had  received." 
 
 Alexander  accordingly  comes,  breathing  out  wrath 
 against  the  Jews,  and,  with  his  victorious  army,  is  ready 
 to  revenge  the  insolent  message  of  their  being  unwilling 
 to  light  for  any  but  his  enemy  Darius  :  but,  instead  of 
 that,  in  a  day  or  two  he  goes  away  with  the  greatest  love 
 and  kindness  for  them ;  permits  them  to  live  by  their 
 ancient  laws  ;  forgives  them  the  tribute  of  the  sabbatical 
 year  ;  readily  invites  them  to  fight  for  him  as  his  allies, 
 and,  the  very  next  year,  in  his  own  new  built  city  of 
 Alexandria,  gives  them  all  equal  privileges  with  the 
 Macedonians  themselves.  Now  this  sudden  alteration 
 of  his  cannot  well  be  imputed  to  any  thing  else  but  a 
 divine  interposition  ;  and  therefore,  since  Plutarch  6  in- 
 forms us,  that  it  was  no  unusual  thing  for  this  great  man 
 to  be  influenced  in  his  conduct  by  dreams  and  visions  on 
 other  occasions,  it  is  highly  probable,  that  this  remarka- 
 ble change  in  him  did  likewise  depend  upon  the  remem- 
 brance of  the  vision  which  he  had  at  Dio  in  Macedoiua, 
 as  himself  relates  in  the  history. 
 
 1  Page  1261.         2  Mr  Winston's  Alexander  at  Jerusalem. 
 
 3  B.  iv.  c.  17.         4  B.  1.         5  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xi.  c.  8. 
 
 6  In  Alexandro 
 b  Therein  he  tells  us,  that  as  this  tree  was  peculiar  to  Judea, 
 he  might  have  said  to  that  part  near  Jericho,  Alexander,  when 
 he  waged  war  there,  caused  an  experiment  to  be  made  of  the 
 quantity  of  balsam  that  distilled  from  one  of  these  trees ;  and  upon 
 trial  it  was  found,  that,  on  a  summer's  day,  so  much  would  drop 
 from  one  as  filled  a  coucha.  —  Natural  History,  b.  xii.  c.  25. 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 805 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 1  The  like  is  to  be  said  of  the  change  that  was  made 
 at  this  juncture  in  the  conduct  of  the  high  priest,  and  all 
 the  people.  For  since,  before  this,  they  durst  not  light 
 against  Darius  for  their  oath's  sake,  and  yet  could  now, 
 without  any  scruple,  go  into  that  very  army  which  had 
 twice  conquered  his  forces,  and  was  then  going  to  take 
 away  all  his  dominions,  they  must  have  had  such  a  di- 
 vine warrant  for  doing  this,  as  the  vision  and  admonition 
 which,  the  night  before,  was  given  to  the  high  priest,  may 
 be  interpreted  to  imply.  This,  indeed,  we  own,  is  all 
 providential  and  miraculous  :  but,  if  we  look  into  their 
 histories,  whether  canonical  or  apocryphal,  we  shall  find, 
 that  from  the  days  of  Abraham  to  the  days  of  Josephus 
 himself,  things  of  this  nature  were  very  common  among 
 the  Jews. 
 
 The  short  of  the  matter  is  this, — The  Jews  at  this 
 time  had  certainly  a  great  and  eminent  deliverance  ; 
 but  then  the  question  is,  AVhence  did  this  deliverance 
 come  ?  2  If  we  judge  by  the  entire  history  of  the  Jewish 
 nation,  we  shall  expect  it  to  have  been  after  some  extra- 
 ordinary and  providential  manner.  The  Jewish  records 
 tell  us,  that  it  Mas  really  so,  and  give  us  the  particular 
 account  of  it.  The  heathen  records  say  nothing  at  all, 
 either  against  it  or  about  it ;  and  therefore  we  must  be 
 left  at  liberty  to  think,  that  the  authority  of  the  Jewish 
 historian  who  relates  it,  if  nothing  absurd  or  incongruous 
 appears  in  his  relation,  does  certainly  preponderate  such 
 a  negative  argument,  as  the  bare  omission  of  one  trans- 
 action by  some  later  heathen  historians  can  amount  to. 
 
 Upon  the  supposition  then,  that  Alexander,  by  this 
 supernatural  direction,  entered  Jerusalem  in  a  peaceable 
 manner,  his  offering  sacrifice  to  the  God  of  Israel,  whom, 
 according  to  the  principles  of  his  own  religion,  he  might 
 take  for  the  national  god  of  the  Jews,  was  exactly  agree- 
 able, as  appears  by  the  several  accounts  of  his  life,  to 
 his  usual  method  upon  the  like  occasions  ;  and  his  pro- 
 mising to  grant  the  same  immunities  he  had  given  to  them 
 in  Judea,  to  the  Jews  in  Media  and  Babylonia,  though 
 he  had  not  as  yet  conquered  these  countries,  was  the 
 natural  result  of  his  having  seen  the  prophecy  of  Daniel, 
 which,  both  he  and  the  high  priest  fully  persuaded  them- 
 selves, that  he  was  the  person  appointed  by  Providence 
 to  fulfil. 
 
 Now,  whoever  considers  the  natural  effects  of  con- 
 quests, what  changes  and  revolutions  they  make,  not  only 
 in  the  constitution,  but  in  the  language  likewise,  of  any 
 kingdom,  and  how  fatally  prone  the  very  conquered  are 
 to  learn  the  speech,  as  well  as  imitate  the  manners,  of 
 those  that  have  brought  them  under  subjection,  will  have 
 no  occasion  to  wonder,  that,  after  the  reduction  of  Judea, 
 by  a  Grecian  prince,  and  a  prince  who  had  distinguished 
 that  nation  above  all  others  with  his  royal  favours,  the 
 Grecian  language  should  soon  grow  into  request,  espe- 
 cially among  the  people  of  the  better  fashion,  and  such 
 as  made  learning  their  profession. 
 
 3  The  Macedonians  had  not  long  made  themselves 
 masters  of  Babylon,  before  Berosus,  who  is  said  by  Tatian 
 to  have  lived  in  the  time  of  Alexander,  became  such  a 
 proficient  in  the  Greek  tongue,  that  in  it  he  wrote  the 
 history  of  the  affairs  of  the  Chaldeans,  and  the  actions 
 of  their  kings,  whereof  we  have  some  fragments  in  the 
 
 .  M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  opb.  jv. 
 
 writings  of  Josephus  and  Eusebius  ;  and,4  not  long  after 
 him,  Manetho,  a  priest  of  Heliopolis  in  Egypt,  in  the 
 same  language  wrote  his  commentaries  of  the  Egyptian 
 affairs,  which  he  dedicated  to  this  very  Ptolemy  Phila- 
 delphus,  for  whose  use  the  Septuagint  translation  was 
 made.  The  Greek  language,  in  short,  spread  itself 
 abroad  wherever  Alexander's  arni3  prevailed,  and  soon 
 became  the  universal  language  of  the  polite  and  learned  ; 
 and  therefore  we  can  hardly  suppose,  but  that  in  a  popu- 
 lous nation  there  should  be  found  a  competent  number 
 of  persons  duly  qualified  to  translate  a  short  book,  for 
 the  Pentateuch  a  was  all  that  they  translated,  and  this, 
 every  one  knows,  is  far  from  being  a  long  one,  into  a 
 language  that  was  then  in  the  highest  vogue,  from  ano- 
 ther in  which  some  of  their  doctors  are  said  to  have  been 
 so  critically,  so  minutely  skilled,  as  to  be  able  to  tell 
 how  often  each  letter  occurred  in  the  whole. 
 
 Demetrius  Phalereus  was  not  only  a  learned  philoso- 
 pher, but  a  person  likewise  of  great  wisdom,  justice,  and 
 probity,  as  appeared  by  his  government  of  Athens,  6  un- 
 der Cassander,  one  of  Alexander's  captains  :  but  being 
 expelled  from  thence  by  the  prevailing  power  of  Deme- 
 trius, the  son  of  Antigonus,  and,  after  the  death  of  Cas- 
 sander, forced  to  withdraw  into  Egypt,  he  was  there 
 received  with  great  favour  and  honour  by  Ptolemy  Soter, 
 and  became  one  of  his  chief  counsellors.  He  dissuaded 
 the  king  from  making  any  of  his  sons  co-partner  with 
 him  in  the  kingdom,  and  5  told  him  the  inconvenience  of 
 it:  but  we  do  not  perceive  from  Laertius,  or  any  other 
 historian,  that  he  any  ways  opposed  the  succession  of  Phi- 
 ladelphus.  The  king  indeed  did  not  follow  his  advice  in 
 this  particular  ;  but  still  we  find  him  in  great  favour  and 
 request  at  court  both  with  the  father  and  son  :  and  there- 
 fore, if,  after  the  son's  accession  he  fell  into  some  dis- 
 grace, whatever  the  occasion  of  it  might  be,  it  is  but 
 supposing,  either  that  this  misfortune  befell  him  some 
 years  after  the  king's  accession,  or  that  he,  after  a  short 
 disgrace,  was  restored  to  favour  again,  and  then  we  may 
 allow  him  space  enough,  and  without  any  disparagement 
 to  his  character,  to  have,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  both 
 the  direction  of  the  Septuagint  version,  and  the  superin- 
 tendency  of  the  royal  library.  For  whatever  some  may 
 think  of  the  servile  employment  of  looking  after  books, 
 it  is  very  well  known  B  that,  at  Rome,  one  of  the  prime 
 cardinals  always  holds  the  office  of  librarian  to  the  pope, 
 and,  as  to  the  king's  library  in  France,  it  is  not  long 
 since  the  archbishop  of  Rheims,  who  is  by  his  place  pri- 
 mate of  the  Gallican  church,  and  first  peer  of  the  whole 
 realm,  thought  it  no  disparagement  to  his  honour  to  be 
 appointed  to  the  same  office. 
 
 It  is  natural  to  suppose,  that  a  prince,  who  himself 
 was  a  man  of  great  learning,  and  had  always  a  long  train 
 of  learned  men  about  him,  should  be  for  making  some 
 trial  of  the  abilities  of  the  Jewish  interpreters,  before  he 
 
 1  Mr  Winston's  Alexander  at  Jerusalem. 
 
 3  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  2C0. 
 
 2  Ibid. 
 
 4  Prideaux's  Connect,  anno  250.  5  Diod.  Laertius  in  Phalereo. 
 6  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  284. 
 
 a  Aristeas,  Aristobulus,  and  Philo  say,  that  the  law  only  was 
 translated  by  the  LXX  ;  and  Josephus  in  the  preface  to  his  An- 
 tiquities, expressly  tells  us,  that  they  did  not  translate  for  Ptolemy 
 the  whole  scriptures,  but  the  law  only. 
 
 6  In  acknowledgment  of  his  just  government,  the  Athe- 
 nians erected  for  him  as  many  statues  in  their  city  as  there  were 
 days  in  a  year,  which  was  the  greatest  honour  that  ever  was  done 
 to  any  citizen  in  that  place — Diog.  Laertius  in  the  Life  of  De- 
 metrius Phakrius;  and  Diodor.  Sicul.  b.  xviii. 
 
806 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  1001.  A.C.  3;  OR,  ACCOKDINOTO  HALES,  A 
 
 set  iheni  about  the  work;  and  therefore,  if  the  questions 
 which  the  king  made,  and  the  answers  which  the  inter- 
 preters returned,  be  but  adapted  to  their  respective  cir- 
 cumstances, instead  of  being  an  argument  against,  they 
 will  prove  a  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  account 
 which  Josephus  gives  us  of  this  transaction.  Now,  who- 
 ever looks  into  these  questions  and  answers,  as  they  are 
 set  down  in  Aristeas,  will  find  that  the  former,  which  are 
 said  to  have  been  suggested  by  Demetrius,  are  chiefly 
 philosophical,  such  as  savour  of  the  museum  or  college 
 of  learned  men  that  had  lately  been  erected  at  Alexan- 
 dria ;  '  such  as  became  an  inquisitive  heathen  philoso- 
 pher, who,  in  a  great  measure,  was  grown  weary  of 
 the  gross  polytheism  and  idolatry  of  the  Egyptians, 
 and,  by  his  conversation  with  the  Alexandrian  Jews,  more 
 inclinable  to  the  belief  that  one  invisible  and  true  (iod, 
 whom  they  worshipped  :  and  that  the  latter  are  every  one 
 made  with  such  a  distinct  regard  to  God  and  his  provi- 
 dence, as  is  always  uppermost  both  in  the  words  and 
 writings  of  every  wise  and  religious  Jew. 
 
 The  character  which  Appian  2  gives  us  of  Ptolemy 
 Philadelphia,  is,  that  "he  was  the  most  splendid  and 
 magnificent  of  all  the  kings  of  his  time  in  expending  his 
 money  ;"  and  therefore  we  may  less  wonder  at  his  giving 
 so  much  for  the  redemption  of  the  captive  Jews,  3  when 
 we  find  him  bestowing  upon  Aratus  the  Sicyonian,  for 
 his  having  been  serviceable  to  him  in  the  collection  of 
 some  books  and  pictures,  the  sum  of  150  talents  to  ad- 
 just the  properties  and  settle  the  peace  of  his  city  ;  4  may 
 less  wonder  at  his  sending  away  the  Jewish  interpreters 
 so  amply  rewarded,  when  we  find  him  presenting  the 
 Roman  ambassadors  every  one  of  them  with  a  crown  of 
 gold,  and,  upon  their  taking  their  leave,  heaping  upon 
 them  gifts  of  an  inestimable  value;  may  less  wonder,  in 
 short,  at  his  profusion  in  this  particular,  when  we  find 
 him,  5  as  Atheiueus  assures  us,  spending  2200  talents  in 
 one  pompous  festival  to  Bacchus. 
 
 His  own  inclination,6  prompted  by  Demetrius  Phala- 
 reus,  led  him  to  be  prodigiously  fond  of  the  most  com- 
 plete and  authentic  copies  of  any  curious  book.  Fifteen 
 talents  he  gave  for  such  copies  of  the  tragedies  of  /Ks- 
 chylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides,  and  yet  these  were 
 already  written  in  Greek  and  needed  no  translation  ;  7 
 whereas  the  bare  permission  of  a  version  of  the  Jewish 
 law,  that  nation's  peculiar  and  inestimable  treasure,  was 
 a  favour  that  had  never  been  asked  before,  and  what 
 upon  any  common  application,  would  probably  have  been 
 denied :  and  as  the  authenticity  of  this  version  must 
 entirely  depend  on  the  skill  and  faithfulness  of  the 
 Jewish  translators,  since  they  were  the  only  persons  that 
 understood  the  Hebrew  language,  the  king  had  no  other 
 way  to  obtain  a  confidence  herein,  than  by  gaining  the 
 entire  good  opinion  of  the  high  priest  and  people  of  the 
 Jews. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that 
 though  the  sums  bestowed  upon  the  Jews  upon  account 
 of  this  translation  be  very  large,  yet  considering  the 
 king's  vast  liberality  upon  other  occasions,  the  objection 
 would  have  been  stronger,  had  the  sums  been  less  ;  since, 
 
 i  Winston's  Defence  of  Aristeas.    2'  In  Pra-fat.  ad  Opera  Hist. 
 J  Plutarch  in  Arato.  *  Livy  xiv.;  Eutropius,  b.  ii.  Diog. 
 
 *  Laeitius  in  Strata       _        s  Van  Dale's  Dissert,  de  Aristea. 
 7  Winston's  Defence  of  Aristeas. 
 
 M.  5110.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST.  l».  xiii.  r.  19— KNn  op  1>.  xv. 
 
 upon  the  highest  computation,  his  whole  expense  in  re- 
 deeming the  captives,  in  presents  to  the  temple  and  altar, 
 and  in  rewards  to  the  interpreters  and  high  priest,  being 
 all  put  together,  does  not  amount  to  so  much  as  he  spent 
 in  one  festival  to  Bacchus. 
 
 In  so  great  and  pompous  a  court  as  this  of  Philadel- 
 phia must  needs  have  been,  we  need  not  be  solicitous 
 to  answer  the  objection  of  his  being  addressed  to  by 
 way  of  letter,  or  memorial,  even  by  persons  that  had 
 otherwise  a  constant  access  to  him ;  because  in  matters 
 of  great  importance,  this,  in  most  courts,  is  the  common 
 method  of  proceeding  even  now.  But  this  we  may  safely 
 add,  that  how  warmly  soever  some  modem  critics  have 
 attacked  the  history  of  this  Septuagint  version,  yet  the 
 ancient  testimonies  of  such  authors  as  have  made  men- 
 tion of  it,  namely,  of  Alexander  Polyhistor,  s  a  learned 
 heathen,  who  was  greatly  inquisitive  about  the  affairs 
 of  the  Jews  ;  of  Aristobulus,  the  peripatetic  philosopher, 
 and  tutor  to  Ptolemy  Philopater  ;  of  Philo,  who  lived 
 at  Alexandria,  the  very  place  where  this  version  was 
 made  ;  of  Tertullian,  one  of  the  most  accurate  writers 
 of  Christian  antiquity  ;  of  Eusebius,  a  learned  and  faith- 
 ful ecclesiastical  historian  ;  of  St  Jerome,  a  vehement 
 enemy  to  this  very  version,  as  compared  with  the  Hebrew 
 copy;  and  of  several  others,  that  might  be  produced, 
 are  a  confirmation  of  what  Josephus  (a  priest  of  that 
 very  temple,  to  which  the  presents  from  Philadelphia 
 were  sent)  relates  concerning  it,  and  such  strongholds 
 and  fastnesses,  as  the  maintainers  of  its  antiquity  have 
 not  yet  been  prevailed  upon  to  give  up. 
 
 CHAP.  III. 
 
 ■Of  the  Profane  History  during  this 
 period. 
 
 Most  of  the  historical  facts  in  profane  authors,  that  had 
 any  relation  to  the  sacred  records,  we  have,  in  the  course 
 of  this  history,  endeavoured  to  abridge,  and  reduce  into 
 notes,  at  their  proper  periods ;  and  have  nothing  more 
 now  to  do,  but  only  to  take  notice  of  some  extraordinary 
 and  remarkable  events  in  the  Persian,  Grecian,  and 
 Roman  empires,  down  to  our  Saviour's  time,  which  did 
 not  then  so  properly  fall  in  with  our  design. 
 
 After  the  dissolution  of  the  ancient  Assyrian  monarchy, 
 by  the  death  of  Sardanapalus,  there  arose  up  two  lesser 
 empires  in  its  stead  ;  one  founded  by  Arbaces,  governor 
 of  Media,  and  the  other  by  Belesis,  governor  of  Baby- 
 lon, the  two  principal  commanders  who  headed  the  con- 
 spiracy, whereby  the  former  empire  was  brought  to  an 
 end. 
 
 Arbaces,  who  in  scripture  ?  is  called  Tiglath  Pileser, 
 had  the  larger  share  of  empire,  and  therefore  fixed  his 
 seat  at  Nineveh,  where  the  former  Assyrian  kings  used  to 
 have  their  residence,  and  there  governed  his  new  erected 
 empire  for  nineteen  years.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
 son  Salmanassar  ;  Salmanassar  by  Senacherib  ;  Senach- 
 erib  by  Esarhaddon  ;  Esarhaddon  by  Suosduchinus,  in 
 lu  the  book  of  Judith  called  Nabuchodonosor ;  Suosdu- 
 chinus by  Chyniladanus  ;  Chyniladanus  by  Nabopolassar  ; 
 and  Nabopolassar  by  his  son  Nebuchadnezzar  the  Great, 
 
 °2Ki 
 
 8  Whiston's  Defence  of  Aristeas. 
 ;s  xv.  29,  and  xvi.  7,  10.  :*  Juditl 
 
 i  i.  1. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 807 
 
 A.M.  4001.  A.  C.  3:  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  C.  I.JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— r.ND  of  b.  xv. 
 
 of  whom  we  have  said  so  many  things  ;  Nebuchadnezzar 
 the  Great  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Evilmerodach ; 
 Evilmerodach  by  Neroglissor  ;  and  Neroglissor  by  Bel- 
 shazzar ;  in  whom  the  united  empire  of  the  Assyrians 
 and  Babylonians  terminated. 
 
 Belesis,  who  in  scripture  is  called  "■  Baladan,  took  up 
 his  residence  at  Babylon,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
 Merodach  ;  but  who  were  his  successors,  we  have  no 
 account  to  be  depended  on,  only  we  know,  that  Esar- 
 haddon,  king  of  Assyria,  conquered  the  kingdom  of 
 Babylon,  and  that  he  and  his  successors  Suosduchinus 
 and  Chyniladanus  possessed  it,  until  Nabopolassar, 
 governor  of  Babylon,  and  general  of  the  Assyrian  forces, 
 joining  his  arms  with  Astyages,  the  son  of  Cyaxares 
 king  of  Media,  slew  Chyniladanus,  took  and  destroyed 
 Nineveh,  and  translated  the  empire  to  Babylon. 
 
 After  the  terrible  blow  which  Sennacherib's  forces  re- 
 ceived in  Judea,  the  Medes,  understanding  in  what  a 
 low  condition  he  was,  returned  to  Nineveh,  immediately 
 shook  oft* his  yoke,  and  made  Dejoces,  who  in  scripture 
 is  called  Arphaxad,  their  king;  who,  having  beautified 
 and  enlarged  Ecbatana,  made  it  the  royal  seat  of  his 
 kingdom,  and  there  reigned  for  fifty-three  years.  He 
 was  succeeded  by  his  son  Phraortes  ;  Phraortes,  by 
 Cyaxares  1.;  Cyaxares  I.,  by  Astyages;  Astyages,  by 
 Cyaxares  II.,  called  in  scripture  Darius  the  Mede,  who 
 conquered  Belshazzar,  and  began  to  lay  the  foundation 
 of  the  Persian  monarchy,  which,  during  his  life,  was 
 called  the  empire  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  but,  after 
 his  death,  was  united  by  Cyrus." 
 
 Cyrus  succeeded  his  father  Cambyses  in  the  kingdom 
 of  Persia,  and  his  uncle  Cyaxares,  in  the  kingdom  of 
 the  Medes,  and  empire  of  Babylon,  by  this  means  found- 
 ed the  second  great  monarchy,  which  was  the  Persian. 
 His  wars  with  the  Assyrians,  his  defeat  of  Croosus  king 
 of  Lydia,  his  wonderful  taking  of  Babylon,  and  obliging 
 all  the  east  to  submit  to  his  power,  are  subjects  that  we 
 have  already  touched  upon,  either  in  our  history  or 
 notes  :  but  there  are  some  things  in  his  Mar  with  the 
 Scythians,  might  we  but  credit  their  story,  that  justly 
 deserve  our  observation. 
 
 2  At  the  time  when  he  made  his  expedition  into  Scy- 
 thia,  Tomyris  was  queen  thereof,  a  woman  of  great 
 courage  and  bravery  of  mind  ;  for,  though  she  could 
 have  hindered  Cyrus's  army  from  passing  the  river 
 Araxes,  she  permitted  them  to  do  it,  in  confidence  of 
 fighting  them  with  more  advantage  within  her  own  domin- 
 ions, and  of  making  their  retreat  more  difficult,  by  their 
 having  the  river  on  their  backs.  Cyrus  took  this  oppor- 
 tunity to  pass  the  river,  and,  having  marched  a  little  into 
 the  country,  and  pitched  his  camp,  the  next  day  he 
 abandoned  it  as  if  he  had  fled  for  fear,  leaving  plenty  of 
 wine,  and  other  provisions  behind  him.  Tomyris  having 
 intelligence  of  this,  sent  her  son,  with  the  third  part  of 
 her  forces,  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy ;  but  when  he  came 
 to  their  camp,  as  if  he  had  been  sent  to  a  banquet,  not  a 
 battle,  he  suffered  his  men,  who  were  strangers  to  that 
 
 1  Isa.  xxxix.  1.  2  Justin.  b.  i.  c.  8. 
 a  This  series  of  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  and  Median  kings  is 
 not  perfectly  correct.  Such  parts  of  it  as  may  seem  to  affect  the 
 credit  of  the  Scripture  History  have  been  already  corrected  in 
 different  notes  on  the  preceding  books  of  this  work;  and  those 
 who  are  desirous  to  see  the  whole  adjusted  and  rendered  consis- 
 tent with  itself,  and  with  unquestionable  eras,  may  have  recourse 
 to  Dr  Hales's  Analysis  of  Ancient  Chronology. — JSp,  Glciy. Ed, 
 
 kind  of  liquor,  to  intoxicate  themselves  with  wine  to  su.h 
 a  degree,  that  when  Cyrus  marched  his  army  back  again 
 in  the  night  time,  and  came  upon  them,  he  found  them 
 incapable  of  fighting,  or  of  making  any  resistance,  and 
 therefore  put  them  all  to  the  sword. 
 
 Upon  the  loss  of  so  "Teat  an  army,  and,  what  more 
 nearly  concerned  her,  the  loss  of  her  only  son,  Tomyris 
 did  not  betake  herself  to  tears,  the  usual  refuge  of 
 women  upon  such  occasions,  but  cast  about  in  her  mind 
 how  she  might  revenge  herself  of  the  enemy  ;  which,  in 
 a  short  time,  she  did  by  the  like  stratagem,  and  with  the 
 like  success.  For,  observing  that  the  Persians  were 
 now  grown  secure  by  reason  of  their  late  victory,  she 
 retired  before  them  with  her  army,  as  if  she  had  been 
 afraid  to  venture  the  decision  of  a  battle,  until  she  had 
 drawn  Cyrus  unawares  into  a  defile,  where,  having  placed 
 an  ambuscade  in  the  mountains,  she  killed  two  hundred 
 thousand  of  his  men,  insomuch  that  there  was  not  one 
 left  to  carry  home  the  news,  and  himself  upon  the  spot. 
 Thus  fell  this  great  prince,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  his 
 age,  though  Xenophon,  and  from  him  other  historians, 
 are  clearly  of  opinion,  that  he  died  peaceably  in  his  a 
 bed. 
 
 b  Xenophon  adds,  (b.  viii.)  that  finding  his  death  approaching, 
 he  called  his  nobility  together,  his  two  sons,  Cambyses  and  Ta- 
 naoxares,  to  Ins  bedside,  and  after  a  long  speech  concerning  the 
 immortality  of  the  soul,  and  rewards  or  punishments  consequent 
 upon  every  man's  good  or  ill  conduct  in  this  life,  he  exhorted  his 
 sons,  by  the  strongest  arguments,  to  a  perpetual  concord  and 
 agreement,  and  uttered  many  other  things,  which  make  it  not 
 improbable,  that  he  received  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God 
 from  Daniel,  when  he  governed  Shushan  in  Persia.  Strabo  as- 
 sures us,  (b.  xv.)  that  he  was  buried  in  a  city  called  Pasagardes, 
 which  himself  had  built,  and  where  his  monument,  even  in  his 
 time,  was  with  this  inscription,  "  O  man,  whoever  thou  art,  and 
 from  whatever  place  you  come,  for  1  was  not  ignorant  that  you 
 would  come  here;  I  am  Cyrus,  who  gave  laws  to  the  Persians; 
 do  not  envy  me  this  little  heap  of  earth  with  which  my  body  is 
 covered  o'er."  This  very  tomb,  Alexander  the  Great,  according 
 to  Q.  Curtius,  opened,  either  in  hopes  of  some  treasure,  which 
 he  imagined  might  have  been  there  deposited,  or  with  a  desire 
 rather  to  do  honour  to  his  remains:  for  so  we  are  told,  that  he 
 caused  the  coffin,  wherein  his  body  lay,  to  be  covered  with  his 
 own  garment,  and  a  crown  of  gold  to  be  set  upon  it:  all  which 
 gives  credit  to  the  account  we  have  in  Xenophon,  but  derogates 
 not  a  little  from  Herodotus,  who  leaves  his  body  in  the  hands  of 
 Tomyris. — Raleigh's  Hktory,  b.  iii.  c.  6.  [The  whole  story  of 
 the  invasion  of  Scythia  by  Cyrus  is  rejected  as  false,  by  Dr  Hales, 
 who  produces,  lrom  Scripture,  the  Persian  writers,  Xenophon,  and 
 others,  such  evidence  in  support  of  his  own  opinion,  that  Cyrus, 
 far  from  being  a  mad  conqueror,  thirsting  for  blood,  was  revered 
 as  the  father  of  his  people,  as  is  much  more  than  sufficient  to 
 counterbalance  the  testimony  of  Herodotus  and  Justin.  "  Hero- 
 dotus viewed  Cyrus  with  aversion  as  the  enslaver  of  his  country. 
 And  this  antipathy  biased  an  historian,  elsewhere  so  candid  and 
 impartial,  to  prefer  a  worse  account  before  the  better,  of  which 
 lie  was  not  ignorant,  and  which  was  afterwards  furnished  by  Xe- 
 nophon, tacitly  vindicating  the  character  of  his  hero  from  the 
 aspersions  of  Herodotus.'' — "The  Persian  writers  relate,  that 
 after  a  long  and  bloody  war  Khesru  (Cyrus;  subdued  the  empire 
 of  Turen.  and  made  the  city  of  Balk,  in  Choresen,  a  royal  resi- 
 dence, to  keep  in  order  his  new  subjects;  that  he  repaid  every 
 family  in  Persia  the  amount  of  their  war  taxes,  out  of  the  im- 
 mense spoils  that  he  had  acquired  by  his  conquests;  that  he  en- 
 deavoured to  promote  peace  and  harmony  between  the  Turenians 
 and  [remans;  that  he  regulated  the  pay  of  his  soldiers,  reformed 
 civil  and  religious  abuses  throughout  the  provinces ;  and  at  length, 
 after  a  long  and  glorious  reign,  resigned  his  crown  to  his  son  Lo- 
 horesh  (Cambyses),  and  retired  to  solitude,  saying,  '  that  he  had 
 lived  long  enough  for  his  own  glory,  and  that  it  was  now  time  to 
 devote  the  remainder  of  his  days  to  God.' "  That  Cyrus  was  a 
 monotheist;  that  he  was  well  acquainted  with  the  prophet  Da- 
 niel; and  that  the  God  whom  he  worshipped  was  the  Lord,  the 
 
808 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Canibyses,  and  Camby- 
 ses  by  the  Magian,  who,  under  the  false  name  of  Smerdis, 
 usurped  the  throne,  and  brought  discredit  upon  the  whole 
 sect,  until  its  character  came  to  be  restored  again  by 
 the  management  and  reformation  of  Zoroastres. 
 
 At  what  time  this  Zoroastres,  or  Zardusht,  as  the  Per- 
 sians call  him,  lived,  there  is  a  wide  difference  both 
 among  the  Greek  and  oriental  writers ;  since  some  of 
 them  will  have  it,  that  he  lived  many  years  before  the 
 flood,  others  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  and  others  again 
 not  before  the  reign  of  Darius  the  son  of  Hystaspes. 
 Moses,  according  to  the  sentiments  of  several  learned 
 men,  speaks  of  the  pyra?a,  or  temples  consecrated  to 
 the  worship  of  fire,  when  he  brings  in  God  threatening 
 the  Israelites,  '  '  to  overthrow  their  high  places,  and  de- 
 stroy their  chaminim,  or  places  appointed  for  the  worship 
 of  lire,  and  to  cast  their  carcasses  upon  the  carcasses  of 
 their  idols  ;'  a  although  they  are  certainly  mistaken  who 
 think,  that  the  fire  which  he  ordered  to  be  kept  always 
 burning  upon  the  altar  of  the  Lord,  was  in  imitation  of 
 the  lire  of  the  Magians. 
 
 If  then  we  suppose  that  Zoroastres  was  the  first  author 
 of  the  worship  of  fire,  we  must  acknowledge  him  more 
 ancient  than  Moses,  but  if  we  look  upon  him  only  as  the 
 reformer  or  restorer  of  it,  though  we  cannot  tell  the  pre- 
 cise time  when  he  flourished,  it  must  not  be  long  after  the 
 Magians  fell  into  disgrace,  and  may  therefore  very  pro- 
 perly be  thought  to  be  in  the  reign  of  Darius  Hystaspes. 
 
 He  was  a  man  of  a  mean  and  obscure  parentage  ;  *  by 
 
 1  Ezek.  vi.  4,  &c. 
 
 God  of  heaven,  who  '  had  given  to  him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
 earth,  and  charged   him,'  as  he  said  himself,  '  to  build  him  a 
 
 house   at  Jerusalem,'  there   seems  to  be  no  room  for  doubt.] 
 
 Hales's  Analyses,  vol.  iv.  second  edition. — Bp.  Gleig. — Ed. 
 
 a  That  the  worship  of  the  sun — the  source  of  light  and  heat, 
 was  more  ancient  than  Moses  there  can  be  no  doubt;  but  that 
 the  worship  of  the  element  of  fire  or  of  fires  burning  on  earth  was 
 more  ancient  can  never  be  proved  by  this  text  of  Ezekiel.  They 
 were  the  idolatrous  Jews  of  his  own  age  that  the  prophet  thus  ad- 
 dressed in  the  name  of  Jehovah ;  and  they  certainly  had  idols  or 
 images,  perhaps  indeed  images  of  the  sun,  which  the  prophet 
 assured  them  should  be  broken ;  but  the  Persian  worshippers  of 
 fire  or  light  allowed  no  other  images  of  their  god.  No  ground 
 therefore  is  furnished  by  this  text  from  which  an  argument  can 
 be  drawn  to  ascertain  the  era  of  Zoroaster. — Bp.  Gleig. Ed. 
 
 b  To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that  most  of  his  reforma- 
 tions in  the  old  religion  of  the  Magians  are  taken  either  from  the 
 ancient  writings  or  the  ancient  usages  of  the  Jews.  For  whereas 
 Moses  heard  God  speak  to  him  out  of  a  flame  of  fire  in  the  bush, 
 Zoroastres  pretended  that  he  in  like  manner  heard  God  speak  to 
 him,  at  the  time  when  he  was  taken  up  to  heaven.  Whereas  the 
 Jews  had  a  visible  shechinah  of  the  divine  presence  among  them, 
 resting  over  the  mercy-seat  in  the  holy  of  holies,  unto  which  they 
 turned  themselves  when  they  prayed ;  Zoroastres  taught  his  dis- 
 Ciples,  that  in  the  sun,  and  in  the  sacred  fires  in  their  temples, 
 God  more  especially  dwelt;  and  therefore  he  obliged  them  to  ofler 
 up  all  their  pi  ayers  with  their  faces  turned  to  both  these.  Whereas 
 the  Jews  had  a  sacred  fire  which  came  down  from  heaven  upon 
 their  altar  of  burnt  offerings,  which  as  long  as  Solomon's  temple 
 stood,  was  preserved  with  the  utmost  care  from  extinguishing ; 
 Zoroastres  pretended,  that  when  he  was  in  heaven,  he  brought 
 some  of  that  holy  fire  out  of  which  God  spake  unto  him:  and 
 therefore  he  enjoined  that  it  should  be  kept  with  diligent  care, 
 and  that  all  the  fires  on  the  altars  of  the  new  erected  fire  temples, 
 should  at  first  be  lighted  only  from  thence  :  and  whereas  the 
 Jews  were  very  nice  in  using  no  wood  on  the  altar  of  their  tem- 
 ple, but  what  was  reputed  clean,  and  had  it  therefore  all  barked 
 and  examined,  before  it  w'as  laid  on,  and,  when  it  was  laid  on, 
 allowed  of  no  bellows  to  blow  it,  but  left  it  to  kindle  and  flame  out 
 of  itself;  Zoroastres  ordained  his  followers,  in  relation  to  the  sacred 
 
 .  M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  k  xv. 
 
 birth  and  education  very  probably  a  Jew,  and,  as  some 
 suppose,  a  servant  to  the  prophet  Daniel ;  because  he 
 was  certainly  a  man  of  great  learning,  and  thoroughly 
 acquainted  with  the  books  of  Moses.  As  soon  as  he  took 
 upon  him  the  prophetic  office,  he  retired  into  a  cave,  and 
 there  lived  a  long  time  as  a  recluse,  pretending  to  be 
 abstracted  from  all  worldly  considerations,  and  to  be 
 given  wholly  to  prayers  and  divine  meditations.  In 
 this  retirement  he  composed  the  book,  c  wherein  all  his 
 pretended  revelations  are  contained.  2  The  first  part  of 
 it  contains  a  liturgy,  which  the  Magians,  in  all  their  ora- 
 tories and  fire  temples,  make  use  of  to  this  day.  The 
 rest  is  an  historical  account  of  the  life,  actions,  and  pro- 
 phecies of  its  author,  the  several  articles  and  branches 
 of  his  superstition,  together  with  rules  and  exhortations 
 to  morality,  wherein  he  is  very  pressing  and  exact,  except 
 his  allowing  of  incest ;  and  the  whole  being  interspersed 
 with  several  things  taken  out  of  the  Old  Testament, 
 abundantly  shows  that  his  original  was  from  the  Jews. 
 
 Upon  leaving  his  retirement,  he  went  into  India  among 
 the  Brachmans,  where,  having  learned  all  their  knowledge 
 in  mathematics,  astronomy,  and  natural  philosophy,  he 
 came  back,  and  taught  his  disciples  these  sciences,  which 
 gained  him  so  great  a  reputation,  that,  for  many  years 
 after,  a  learned  man  and  a  Magian  became  equivalent 
 terms.  Nay,  he  pretended,  that,  once  upon  a  time,  he 
 was  taken  up  into  heaven  to  be  instructed  in  those  doc- 
 trines which  he  was  to  deliver  unto  men  ;  that  there  he 
 heard  God  speak  out  of  the  midst  of  a  great  and  bright 
 flame  of  fire  ;  and  for  this  reason  he  taught  his  followers 
 that  fire  was  the  truest  representation  of  the  divine  pre- 
 sence, and  the  sun,  as  the  most  perfect  fire,  the  more  im- 
 mediate throne  of  his  glory  ;  that  of  the  fire  from  whence 
 God  spake,  he  upon  his  return  brought  some  with  him, 
 and  placed  it  on  the  altar  of  the  first  fire-temple  he 
 erected ;  from  whence,  as  they  say,  it  was  propagated 
 to  all  the  rest,  and  this  is  the  reason  they  give  for  keeping 
 it  so  carefully,  and  treating  it  with  so  much  superstition. 
 
 Having  thus  qualified  himself  to  be  a  prophet,  he  made 
 his  first  appearance  in  Media,  in  the  city  of  Ziz,  say  some, 
 or  in  Ecbatan,  now  Taurus,  according  to  others  ;  where 
 the  principal  doctrines  that  he  professed,  as  a  refine- 
 ment upon  what  the  old  Magians  maintained,  were  these, 
 — "  That  there  was  one  Supreme  Being,  independent, 
 and  self-existing  from  all  eternity  ;  that  under  him  there 
 
 2  Prideaux's  Connection,  486. 
 
 fires  of  their  temples,  to  observe  both  these  particulars,  com- 
 manding them  to  bark  all  their  wood,  and  use  no  other  means  for 
 the  kindling  it  up  into  a  flame  but  the  pouring  oil,  and  leaving 
 it  to  the  blasts  of  the  open  air:  and  that  he  should,  in  so  many 
 singular  and  unobvious  things,  imitate  the  Jewish  religion  in  the 
 scheme  of  his  reformations,  it  can  hardly  be  imagined,  without 
 supposing,  that  at  first  he  had  his  education  in  it ;  nor  is  it  im- 
 probable, that  if,  as  some  think,  he  was  the  disciple  of  Daniel,  his 
 seeing  that  great  and  good  man  arrive  at  such  a  height  ot  dig- 
 nity, by  being  a  true  prophet  of  God,  might  put  him  upon  the 
 thoughts  of  being  a  false  one,  in  hopes  that,  if  he  acted  his  part 
 well,  he  might  obtain  to  himself  the  like  advancement. — Light- 
 f  out's  Temple  Service;  Hyde's  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Persians; 
 and  Prideaux's  Connection ,  anno  486. 
 
 c  This  book  is  called  Zendavesta,  and  by  contraction,  Zenda, 
 which  signifies  a  fire-hindler,  such  as  a  tinder  box  is  with  us; 
 and  this  fantastical  name  the  impostor  gave  it,  because,  as  he 
 pretended,  all  that  would  read  this  book,  and  meditate  thereon, 
 might  from  thence  kindle  in  their  hearts  the  fire  of  all  true  love 
 to  God,  and  his  holy  religion.—  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  486. 
 
Sbct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &r 
 
 809 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  C.I.JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— ENDOPb.  xv. 
 
 were  two  angels,  one  the  angel  of  light,  who  is  the  author 
 and  director  of  all  good,  and  the  other  the  angel  of  dark- 
 ness, who  is  the  author  and  director  of  all  evil,  and  that 
 these  two  out  of  the  mixture  of  light  and  darkness,  made 
 all  things  ;  that  they  are  in  perpetual  struggle  with  each 
 other,  and  that  where  the  angel  of  light  prevails,  there  the 
 most  is  good,  where  the  angel  of  darkness,  there  the  most 
 is  evil;  that  this  struggle  shall  continue  unto  the  end  of  the 
 world,  when  there  shall  be  a  general  resurrection,  a  day 
 of  judgment,  and  a  retribution  to  every  one  according  to 
 his  works;  and  that  after  this,  the  angel  of  darkness  and 
 his  disciples  shall  go  also  into  a  world  of  their  own,  where 
 they  shall  sutler,  in  everlasting  darkness,  the  punish- 
 ments of  their  evil  deeds  ;  and  the  angel  of  light  and  his 
 disciples,  shall  go  also  into  a  world  of  their  own,  where 
 they  shall  receive,  in  everlasting  light,  the  reward  due 
 to  their  good  deeds,  whereupon  they  shall  remain  sepa- 
 rated for  ever,  and  light  and  darkness  are  to  be  no  more 
 mixed  together  to  all  eternity."  And  all  this,  the  re- 
 mainder of  that  sect,  which  is  now  in  Persia  and  India, 
 do,  after  so  many  ages,  still  hold  without  any  variation, 
 even  to  this  day. 
 
 After  Zoroastres  had  acted  the  part  of  a  prophet  in 
 Media,  and  there  settled  all  things  according  to  his  inten- 
 tions, he  removed  from  thence  into  Bactria,  the  most 
 eastern  province  of  Persia,  and  their  settling  in  the  city 
 of  Balch,  which  lies  on  the  river  Oxus,  in  the  confines 
 of  Persia,  under  the  protection  of  Hystaspes  the  father 
 of  Darius,  he  soon  spread  his  imposture  through  all  that 
 province  with  success.  From  Bactria  he  went  next  to 
 the  royal  court  at  Susa,  where  he  managed  his  preten- 
 sions with  so  much  address  and  insinuation,  that  he  made 
 Darius  likewise  a  proselyte,  and,  from  his  example, 
 drew  over  the  courtiers,  nobility,  and  great  men  of  that 
 city  into  the  same  profession :  but  when,  upon  his  re- 
 turn into  Balch,  he  attempted  the  like  upon  Agarsp, 
 king  of  the  oriental  Scythians,  and  a  zealous  Sabian, 
 and  pretended  an  authority  from  Darius  to  that  purpose, 
 the  Scythian  prince  resented  it  with  such  indignation, 
 that  he  invaded  Bactria  with  an  army,  and,  having  there 
 defeated  the  forces  that  opposed  him,  slew  Zoroastres, 
 with  all  the  priests  of  his  patriarchal  church,  amounting 
 to  the  number  of  eighty  persons,  and  demolished  all  the 
 fire-temples  in  the  province  ;  but  it  was  not  long  before 
 Darius  a  fell  upon  him,  and  revenged  the  injury.  4 
 
 a  After  he  had  overthrown  him  with  a  great  slaughter,  and 
 driven  him  out  of  the  province,  he  rebuilt  all  the  fire-temples, 
 and  especially  that  of  Balch,  which,  as  it  was  the  patriarchal 
 temple  of  the  sect,  he  failed  not  to  erect  with  a  grandeur  suitable 
 to  its  dignity,  and  had  it  called  after  las  own  name.  For  he  was 
 a  zealous  promoter  of  tins  religion,  and  after  the  death  of  its 
 author,  continued  to  propagate  it  with  the  same  ardour  as  before. 
 — Pridcau.v's  Connection,  anno  486. 
 
 b  According  to  Dr  Hales  there  were  two  Zoroasters — the 
 former  contemporary  with  Abraham,  and  king  of  Bactria;  the 
 latter  a  disciple  of  the  prophet  Daniel,  who  flourished  in  the 
 reign  of  Darius  Hystaspes.  Of  the  religion  taught  by  the  former, 
 he  speaks  in  terms  of  the  highest  praise,  as  a  sublime  system  of 
 pure  atheism,  similar  to  the  religion  of  Abraham  and  the  other 
 patriarchs  of  the  Old  Testament;  and  the  object  of  the  teaching 
 of  the  latter,  was  to  bring  back  the  religion  of  Persia  to  its  ori- 
 ginal purity,  by  the  expunging  from  it  the  corruptions  which 
 had  been  introduced  into  it  from  Zebiism.  All  this  seems  to  be 
 very  probable :  but  what  the  modern  Persian  writers,  together 
 with  Abulfaragi,  say  of  his  foretelling  the  precise  time  of  the 
 birth  of  a  Divine  Child  in  Palestine,  and  his  doctrine  of  the 
 resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 
 
 This  Darius  was  one  of  the  seven  lords  who  slew  the 
 false  Smerdis  ;  and  by  an  artifice  he  obtained  the  king- 
 dom of  Persia  ;  but  it  was  by  the  cruel  policy  of  Zopy- 
 rus,  that  he  made  himself  master  of  the  city  of  Babylon. 
 This  city  having  for  many  years,  during  the  Babylonish 
 empire,  been  mistress  of  the  east,  and  domineered  over 
 all  its  neighbouring  countries,  could  not  bear  the  subjec- 
 tion it  was  fallen  under  to  the  Persians  ;  especially  since 
 the  removal  of  the  imperial  seat  to  Shushan,  whereby  its 
 wealth  and  grandeur  were  much  diminished.  Taking 
 the  advantage  therefore  of  the  late  revolution  which  had 
 happened  in  the  Persian  empire,  the  Babylonians  resolv- 
 ed to  set  up  for  themselves  ;  and  accordingly,  having 
 stored  the  city  with  a  sufficient  quantity  of  arms  and 
 provisions,  in  the  fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  this  Darius, 
 they  broke  out  into  an  open  revolt. 
 
 1  The  city,  by  reason  of  the  strength  and  height  of  its 
 walls,  was  impregnable  against  all  storms,  batteries, 
 and  assaults ;  and  as  it  was  furnished  with  provisions 
 for  a  great  many  years,  and  had  large  quantities  of 
 void  ground  within  the  walls,  from  whence  it  might 
 annually  be  supplied  with  more,  could  never  have  been 
 starved  into  a  surrender,  and  must  have  worn  out  Darius 
 and  all  his  army,  had  it  not  been  for  a  stratagem  of 
 Zopyrus,  one  of  his  commanders. 
 
 The  army  had  now  lain  before  the  city  a  year  and 
 eight  months,  without  having  made  any  great  progress 
 in  the  siege,  which  raised  the  indignation  of  Zopyrus  to 
 such  a  degree,  that,  having  cut  oft'  his  nose  and  ears, 
 and  mangled  his  body  all  over  with  stripes,  in  this  con- 
 dition he  tied  to  the  besieged,  and  feigning  to  them  that 
 he  had  suffered  all  this  by  the  cruel  usage  of  Darius,  he 
 thereby  insinuated  himself  so  far  into  their  confidence, 
 that  at  length  they  made  him  the  chief  commander  of 
 their  forces,  which  trust  he  made  use  of  to  deliver  the 
 city,  which  could  not  otherwise  have  been  taken,  into 
 his  master's  hand  ;  and,  for  this  remarkable  piece  of  ser- 
 vice, was  rewarded  with  the  highest  honours  that  his 
 prince  could  heap  on  him,  all  his  life  after. 
 
 By  this  hardy  stratagem  Darius  recovered  the  city  of 
 Babylon ;  but  in  his  war  with  the  Greeks  he  was  so  far 
 from  having  any  good  success,  that,  2  at  the  battle  of 
 Marathon,  his  vast  army  received  a  total  overthrow  by 
 Miltiades,  prince  of  the  Thracian  Chersonesus,  and  his 
 two  generals,  Dotis  and  Artaphernes,  were  forced  to 
 return  home  witli  baffle  and  disgrace. 
 
 He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Xerxes,  who,  3  after  ten 
 
 i  Prideaux's  Connection,  anno  516. 
 2  Herod,  b.  vi. :  Justin,  b.  ii.  c.  9.   3  Herod,  b.  ii. ;  Diod.  Sic.  b.  ii. 
 
 ments,  much  more  perspicuous  than  any  thing  on  the  subject 
 that  is  to  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  is  unquestionably  a 
 legend  forged  since  the  general  propagation  of  Christianity. 
 This  led  Warburton  to  deny  the  very  existence  of  the  second 
 Zoroaster,  and  to  treat  with  contempt,  as  a  set  of  fablers,  all  the 
 Persian  writers  by  whom  he  is  mentioned ;  but  this  was  surely 
 going  too  far.  That  the  Seilder  and  Zendaviste  are  unworthy  of 
 the  Persian  reformer,  or  of  regard,  is  indeed  true ;  but,  as  Dr 
 Hales  well  observes,  the  rejection  of  such  spurious  productions, 
 as  well  as  of  the  legends  of  Abulfaragi  and  others,  by  no  means 
 invalidates  the  actual  existence  of  such  a  reformer  of  the  Magian 
 religion,  as  Zerdusht  or  the  younger  Zoroaster;  for  what  ancient 
 teacher  of  religion  has  there  been,  of  whom  fables  have  not  beeD 
 told  in  the  course  of  ages?  In  all  probability  Zoroaster  himself 
 never  pretended  to  have  gone  to  heaven  for  the  sacred  fire,  of 
 which  he  may  have  conceived  the  idea  from  Daniel's  account  of 
 the  sacred  fire  among  the  Jews. — Bp.  Gleig. — Ed. 
 5  K 
 
810 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OR.  ACCORDING  TO   HALES,   A.M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19-end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 years'  preparation,  renewed  the  war  with  the  Greeks  ; 
 but  with  worse  success  than  his  father:  for,  at  the 
 straits  of  Thermopylae,  Leonidas,  the  king  of  the 
 Lacedemonians,  with  a  handful  of  men,  slew  twenty 
 thousand  of  his  forces:  at  the  straits  of  Salamis, 
 Themistocles,  the  general  of  the  Athenians,  ruined  the 
 greatest  part  of  his  fleet :  in  Sicily,  Gelo,  the  king  there- 
 of, made  great  havoc  among  his  confederates  the  Car- 
 thaginians :  at  Platea,  Pausanias  slew  his  general  Mar- 
 donius,  and  cut  his  army  to  pieces  ;  and  at  Mycale, 
 Leotychides  both  vanquished  his  troops  by  land,  and 
 burned  the  remainder  of  his  fleet ;  so  that  never  was  there 
 a  man  who  set  out  with  so  great  an  armament  both  by 
 sea  and  land,  and  returned  in  so  abject  and  disgraceful 
 a  manner.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Artaxerxes  ; 
 Artaxerxes  by  Xerxes  II.;  Xerxes  II.  by  his  brother 
 Soo'dianus  ;  and  Sogdianus  by  his  brother  Ochus,  who  is 
 commonly  called  Darius  Nothus.  Ochus  was  succeeded 
 by  Artaxerxes  II.,  surnamed  Mnenion  ;  Artaxerxes  II. 
 by  another  Ochus,  who  took  upon  him  the  name  of 
 Artaxerxes  III.;  this  Ochus  by  Arses;  and  Arses  by 
 Darius  Codomanus  ;  in  whom  the  Persian  monarchy, 
 terminating  by  Alexander  the  Great,  was  translated  to 
 Greece. 
 
 The  army  which  Alexander  carried  into  Asia,  accord- 
 ing to  the  highest  computation,  amounted  to  no  more 
 than  thirty  thousand  foot,  and  five  thousand  horse  ;  and 
 yet,  with  these   few  forces,  he  not  only  attempted,  but 
 accomplished  likewise  the  conquest  of  the  whole  Persian 
 empire,  and  added  India  likewise  to  his  acquisitions  : 
 but  what  was  the  most  remarkable  thing  in  his  expedi- 
 tion is,  that  he  set  out  upon  it  with  no  more  than  seventy 
 talents,  which  was  scarce  enough  to    supply  the  army 
 with  necessaries  for  thirty  days  ;  but,  as  he  trusted  in 
 providence,  providence  did  not  fail  him.      In  a  few  days, 
 at  the  river  Granieus,  he  encountered  Darius,  and,  having 
 vanquished  his  troops,  though  they  were  five  times  more 
 in  number,  he  thereby  got  possession  of  a  great  part  of 
 his  treasure,  and  all  the  provinces  of  the  Lesser  Asia. 
 Not  long  after  this,  at   Issus   in  Cilicia,  he  gave  him 
 another  defeat;  where,  having  taken  all  his  camp,  ba»- 
 and  baggage,  with   his  mother,  wife,  and  children,  he 
 left  a  hundred  thousand  Persians  dead  upon  the  field 
 of  battle  :  and  about  two  years  after,  not  far  from  Arbela 
 he  gave  him  a  final  overthrow  :   for  there,  with  no  more 
 than  fifty  thousand  men,  he  vanquished  the  vast  army  of 
 the  Persians,  which  consisted  of  above  twenty  times  as 
 many,  and  thereby  determined  the  fate  of  the  Persian 
 and  established  the  third  great  monarchy,  which  Mas  the 
 Grecian,  in   the  person   of   Alexander.      It   lasted   no 
 longer  than  six  years  and  ten  months  :   for,  after  his 
 -  death,  it  was  divided  among  his  generals,  and,  as  Judea 
 lay  between  Syria  and  Egypt,  according  as  their  arms 
 prevailed,  it  was  generally  under  the  dominion  of  one 
 of  these,  until  the  Roman  power  began  to  exert  itself. 
 The  Romans,  having  built  their  city,  and  out  of  the 
 neighbouring  villages  '  (as  we  related  the  story  before) 
 furnished  themselves  with   wives,  for  seven  successions 
 lived  under  the  dominion  of  kings ;  but  in  the  family  of 
 Tarquin,  which  had  justly  incurred  the  people's  displea- 
 sure, "  that  form  of  government  was    quite  dissolved. 
 
 1  bee  p.  675. 
 a  To  make  his  way  to  the  throne,  he  murdered  his  father- 
 
 Many,  however,  and  fierce  were  the  wars  which,  both  in 
 their  regal  and  consular  state,  the  Romans  waged  with 
 the  nations  round  about  them,  but  their  conquests  were 
 confined  to  the  bounds  of  Italy  only ;  nor  was  the  glory 
 of  their  name  much  known  to  foreign  nations,  until  the 
 war  which  they  had  with  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus,  gave 
 them  an  opportunity  b  to  signalize  their  bravery  and 
 qreatuess  of  mind,  which  excited  Ptolemy  Philadelphus, 
 then  king  of  Egypt,  to  send  them  an  embassy,  congratu- 
 lating their  successes,  and  desiring  to  enter  into  alliance 
 with  them. 
 
 2  To  make  a  return  of  the  like  respects,  the  Romans 
 next  year  sentQ.  Fabius  Gurges,  Cn.  FabiusPictor,  and 
 Q.  Ogulinus,  their  ambassadors  to  the  Egyptian  court, 
 whose  behaviour,  in  that  capacity,  was  very  remarkable  ; 
 for  when  the  king,  having  invited  them  to  supper,  in  the 
 conclusion  of  the  entertainment,  presented  each  of  them 
 
 2  Livy,  b.  xiv. ;  Eutropius,  b.  ii.;  Valerius  Maximus,  b.  iv. 
 in-law  Servius  Tullius,  and,  upon  his  ascending  it,  put  all  his 
 friends  to  death.  The  aflairs  of  the  state  he  managed  by  him- 
 self alone,  slighted  the  senate,  diminished  their  authority,  cut 
 off  several  of  them  upon  frivolous  pretences,  and  seized  upon 
 their  estates.  Among  these  Marcus  Junius  was  one,  who  left 
 behind  him  a  son  named  Lucius  Junius:  but  he,  fearing  the  fate 
 that  his  father  and  brother  had  undergone,  counterfeited  the  fool 
 (and  was  thence  called  Brutus)  so  very  artfully,  that  he  was  taken 
 by  Tarquin  into  his  house  to  make  his  children  sport.  In  the 
 mean  time,  Sextus,  one  of  Tarquin's  sons,  inflamed  with  the 
 beauty  of  Lucretia,  got  privately  to  Collatia,  where  she  resided, 
 and  ravished  her;  whereupon  she  sent  for  her  father  from  Rome, 
 and  her  husband  Collatinus  from  the  camp,  which  was  then 
 before  Ardiea,  desiring  them  to  bring  along  with  them  some  of 
 their  particular  friends.  Publius  Valerius  came  with  her  father 
 Lucretius,  and  Lucius  Junius  Brutus  with  her  husband;  to 
 whom,  as  soon  as  they  were  arrived,  she  related  the  whole  story, 
 and  then  with  a  poniard  stabbed  herself  to  the  heart.  Upon  the 
 sight  of  this  they  were  all  filled  with  grief  and  indignation:  but, 
 to  their  great  surprise,  Brutus,  throwing  off  the  disguise  of  his 
 folly,  declared  his  resolution,  and  made  them  swear  upon  the 
 bloody  poniard  to  assist  him  in  revenging  this,  and  the  other 
 wickednesses  of  Tarquin  and  his  family,  by  expelling  him  and 
 them  from  the  government,  which  accordingly  they  did,  thereby 
 putting  an  end  to  the  regal  power  at  Rome,  and  turning  it  into 
 
 a  consular  state Hearne's  System,  b.  iii. 
 
 b  One  great  instance  of  this  appeared  in  the  course  of  this  war, 
 which  is  thus  related  by  Plutarch: — When  Fabricius  was  consul, 
 and  at  the  head  of  his  army,  an  unknown  persou  came  into  the 
 camp,  and  delivered  him  a  letter  from  king  Pyrrhus's  chief 
 physician,  offering  to  take  him  off  by  poison,  and  so  end  the  war 
 without  any  farther  hazard  to  the  Romans,  if  he  might  have  a 
 reward  proportionable  to  his  service.  Fabricius,  enraged  at  the 
 villain/  of  the  man,  and  disposing  the  other  consul  to  the  same 
 opinion,  sent  dispatches  immediately  to  Pyrrhus  to  caution  him 
 against  the  treason.  His  letter  was  to  this  effect: — "  Caius  Fa- 
 bricius, and  Quintus  /Emilius,  consuls  of  the  Romans,  to  Pyr- 
 rhus the  king,  health.  You  seem  to  have  a  very  ill  judgment 
 both  of  your  friends  and  enemies.  You  will  understand  by  this 
 letter,  which  was  sent  to  us,  that  you  are  in  war  with  honest 
 men,  and  trust  knaves  and  villains:  but  we  have  not  discovered 
 this  to  you  to  insinuate  into  your  favour,  but  lest  your  ruin  might 
 bring  a  reproach  upon  us,  as  if  we  had  ended  this  war  by  treach- 
 ery, when  we  were  not  able  to  do  it  by  our  courage  and  virtue." 
 When  Pyrrhus  had  read  the  letter,  and  made  strict  inquiry  into 
 the  treason,  he  caused  the  physician  to  be  executed,  and,  in 
 acknowledgment  of  this  civility  of  the  Romans,  sent  to  Rome 
 the  prisoners  without  ransom,  and  again  employed  Cineas  to 
 negotiate  a  peace  for  him.  The  Romans,  who  were  above  re- 
 ceiving from  their  enemy  a  recompence  for  not  having  been 
 guilty  of  the  vilest  injustice,  disdained  to  accept  of  the  prisoners, 
 without  returning  to  him  an  equal  number  of  Samnites  and  Tar- 
 entines  ;  but,  as  for  the  peace,  they  would  not  sutler  Cineas  so 
 much  as  to  mention  it,  until  Pyrrhus  had  removed  his  arms  and 
 forces  out  of  Italy,  and  sailed  back  to  Epirus  in  the  same  ships 
 that  brought  him  over.— Plut.  on  Pyrrhus. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 811 
 
 A.  Mi.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OK,  ACCOKDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 with  a  crown  of  gold,  they  accepted  of  the  crowns,  upon 
 account  of  the  honour  that  was  done  them,  but,  next 
 morning,  they  crowned  therewith  the  statues  of  the  king 
 that  stood  in  the  public  places  of  the  city  ;  and  when 
 again,  at  their  audience  of  leave,  he  presented  them  with 
 very  valuable  gifts,  they  took  them  indeed  for  fear  that 
 their  refusal  should  give  offence  ;  but  as  soon  as  they 
 were  returned  to  Rome,  they  delivered  them  all  into  the 
 public  treasury,  before  they  appeared  in  the  senate  to 
 give  an  account  of  their  embassy,  whereby  they  declared, 
 that  they  desired  no  other  advantage  from  the  service  of 
 the  public,  than  the  honour  of  discharging  it  well. 
 
 This  spirit  of  moderation  and  disinterestedness,  while 
 it  continued  in  the  state,  and  the  many  great  instances  of 
 invincible  courage  and  resolution,  which  upon  all  occa- 
 sions they  showed,  made  the  Romans  of  great  note  in 
 the  world,  and  after  the  defeat  of  the  Carthaginians  in 
 the  second  Punic  war,  they  became  indeed  the  terror  of 
 all  other  nations. 
 
 Hannibal  was  certainly  the  most  dangerous  enemy 
 that  ever  Rome  had.  As  soon  as  war  was  declared  be- 
 tween these  two  states,  he  left  Spain,  where  he  then  was, 
 and  at  the  head  of  fifty  thousand  foot  and  nine  thousand 
 horse,  marched  directly  towards  Italy.  He  crossed  the 
 Pyrenoean  mountains  into  Gaul,  crossed  the  Rhone,  and 
 came  to  the  foot  of  the  Alps,  which,  in  fifteen  days'  time 
 he  got  over,  but  not  without  much  danger  and  difficulty, 
 as  well  as  the  loss  of  half  his  army.  When  he  got  foot- 
 ing in  Italy,  he  defeated  Scipio,  one  of  the  Roman  con- 
 suls, at  Pavia,  and  his  colleague  Sempronius,  in  another 
 action  near  Trebia.  Near  the  lake  Thrasymene  he  cut 
 off  the  Roman  army,  and  their  consul  Flaminius,  even 
 after  he  had  destroyed  a  detachment  of  forty  thousand, 
 which  the  other  consul  Servilius  had  sent  to  his  assistance ; 
 but  in  the  famous  battle  at  Cannae,  he  made  the  greatest 
 slaughter  of  them ;  for  therein  he  defeated  the  whole 
 army,  and  slew  iEmilius,  one  of  their  consuls  ;  killed 
 50,000  men,  two  questors,  twenty-one  tribunes,  eighty  of 
 the  senatorial!,  and  of  the  equestrian  order  a  much 
 greater  number. 
 
 This  last  defeat  caused  a  dreadful  consternation  in 
 Rome,  but  did  not  abate  the  people's  courage,  who  still 
 refused  to  hearken  to  any  overtures  of  peace  ;  till,  having 
 sent  Scipio  the  Younger  into  Africa,  they  by  that  means 
 gave  the  Carthaginians  so  much  disturbance,  that  they 
 were  forced  to  recall  Hannibal,  who,  coming  to  a 
 decisive  battle,  was  routed  by  the  Romans,  and  his 
 countrymen  forced  to  sue  for  a  peace,  which  was  granted 
 them  upon  terms  very  honourable  and  advantageous  to 
 Rome. 
 
 After  this  peace  with  the  Romans,  Hannibal  ]  lived 
 quietly  at  Carthage  for  the  space  of  six  years  ;  but,  being 
 under  a  suspicion  of  holding  correspondence  with  Anti- 
 ochus,  surnamed  the  Great,  (between  whom  and  the  Ro- 
 mans there  was  at  that  time  a  misunderstanding,)  and  of 
 plotting  with  him  to  bring  a  new  war  upon  Italy,  some 
 of  his  enemies  at  Rome  procured  ambassadors  to  be  sent 
 to  Carthage,  in  order  to  inquire  into  the  matter,  and  if 
 they  found  any  reason  for  it,  to  have  him  delivered  into 
 their  hands  ;  which  when  Hannibal  understood,  he  made 
 his  escape  before  the  ambassadors  had  time  to  deliver 
 
 1  Livy,  b.  xxxiii.;  Cornelias  Nepos,  on  Hannibal;  Justin,  b. 
 xxxi   c.  2,  S 
 
 M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST.b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  OFb.  xv. 
 
 their  message,  and  put  himself  under  the  protection  of 
 Antiochus. 
 
 *  Antiochus,  at  this  time,  was  in  debate  with  himself 
 on  the  point  of  entering  into  war  with  the  Romans,  but 
 at  the  coming  of  Hannibal  he  soon  determined  for  war ; 
 and  had  he  taken  Hannibal's  advice  of  carrying  it  into 
 the  bowels  of  Italy,  he  might  probably  have  met  with  a 
 better  event ;  a  but  his  resolution  was  to  begin  it  in 
 Greece,  where  being  shamefully  defeated  in  every  en- 
 gagement, both  by  sea  and  land,  he  was  forced  at  last 
 to  send  an  embassy  to  the  Roman  consuls,  desiring  con- 
 ditions of  peace,  which  were  granted  him  upon  these 
 hard  terms  : — That  he  should  pay  the  whole  expenses  of 
 the  war,  which  were  estimated  at  fifteen  thousand  talents 
 of  Euba^a ;  4  should  quit  all  Asia  on  that  side  the  mount 
 Taurus,  and  deliver  up  Hannibal  the  Carthaginian,  and 
 Thoas  the  JEtolian,  as  the  chief  incendiaries  of  the  war  : 
 but  as  soon  as  these  heard  that  a  treaty  was  begun,  they 
 easily  foresaw  what  would  be  the  result  of  it,  and  there- 
 fore both  took  care  c  to  get  out  of  the  way  before  it  came 
 to  a  conclusion. 
 
 1  Livy,  b.  xxxvii.;  Justin,  b.  xxxi.  c.  8;  Appian.  de  Syriacis. 
 
 a  Antiochus's  army  is  said  to  have  consisted  of  seventy  thou- 
 sand foot,  twelve 'thousand  horse,  and  fifty-four  elephants:  where- 
 as all  the  Roman  forces  amounted  to  no  more  than  thirty  thou- 
 sand, and  yet  Antiochus  was  totally  overthrown:  for  in  the  field 
 of  battle  he  lost  fifty  thousand  foot,  and  four  thousand  horse ; 
 fourteen  bundled  were  taken  prisoners,  and  himself  with  much 
 difficulty  escaped  to  Sardis. — Appian.  in  Syriacis;  Livy,  b.  xxxvii. 
 and  Justin,  b.  xxxi.  c.  7. 
 
 b  There  is  a  difference  between  Livy  and  Polybius  in  this 
 matter;  for  whereas  in  Polybius  the  words  are,  that  the  money 
 to  be  paid  to  the  Romans  should  be  agyuoiau  'Attikcu  a^'ia-rco, 
 Livy,  mistaking  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  phrase,  rendered 
 it  Attic  talents;  whereas  Polybius  meant  it  only  the  Attic 
 standard;  for  as  the  Eubsean  talent  was  the  greatest  weight,  so 
 the  Attic  money  was  the  finest  silver  of  any  in  Greece,  and  by 
 this  treaty  the  money  was  to  be  paid  according  to  both,  that  is, 
 the  Romans,  having  conquered  Antiochus,  not  only  obliged  him 
 to  pay  this  vast  sum  for  his  peace,  but  also  made  him  pay  it  in 
 talents  of  the  highest  weight,  and  of  silver  of  the  best  and  finest 
 standard  in  all  Greece. — Prideau.vs  Connection,  anno  290. 
 
 c  What  became  of  the  /Etolian  we  are  not  concerned  to  in- 
 quire;  but  Hannibal,  after  he  was  deserted  by  Antiochus,  fled 
 to  Prusias,  king  of  Bithyuia;  where,  being  slighted  by  him,  and 
 in  danger  of  being  delivered  to  the  Romans,  it  is  generally  said 
 that  he  put  an  end  to  his  days,  for  which  purpose  he  carried  poi- 
 son always  about  him  concealed  under  the  stone  of  his  ring. 
 This  is  the  account  we  have  in  Livy,  b.  xxxix.  c.  51  ;  and  what 
 Plutarch  and  the  Roman  satirist  dots  more  than  allude  to. — "  O 
 glory,  what  art  thou  !  The  same  man,  (namely,  Hannibal,)  is  van- 
 quished, and  flies  precipitantly  into  exile,  where  he  sits,  the  great 
 and  wonderful  suppliant  !  beside  the  king's  tent,  until  it  pleases 
 the  Bithynian  tyrant  to  protect  him.  Neither  swards  nor  stones, 
 nor  darts,  but  that  ring,  the  avenger  of  Camee,  and  the  puuisher 
 of  so  much  slaughter,  shall  put  an  end  to  that  soul  which  once 
 confounded  all  human  affairs." — Juv.  Sat.  x.  He  was  born  a 
 soldier;  and  a  continual  exercise  of  arms  made  him  a  great  cap- 
 tain. Hi  was  always  just  in  his  schemes,  and  immense  in  hi* 
 views:  had  an  admirable  genius  at  hitting  the  true  means  for  the 
 execution  of  his  designs,  anil  the  greatest  artifice  in  acting  with- 
 out being  discovered.  He  was  infinite  in  expedients,  and  as 
 skilful  in  recovering  himself  out  of  danger,  as  he  was  in  drawing 
 others  into  it.  But  then  he  was  a  person  of  no  fidelity,  no  re- 
 ligion, no  humanity,  though  he  had  the  art  of  putting  on  the  ap- 
 pearance of  all  these  virtue--,  whenever  lie  thought  it  subservient 
 to  his  interest. —  J'ertut's  Revolution  of  the  Human  Republic. 
 [The  author  seems  to  have  founded  his  opinion  of  Hannibal  trom 
 the  Roman  writers,  who  have  loaded  his  memory  with  every  im- 
 putation of  cruelty  and  perfidy.  It  is  however  evident  that  the 
 Romans  were  actuated  by  feelings  of  the  most  bitter  hostility 
 and   resentment  against  Hannibal,  and  were  therefore  little  in- 
 
812 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  40:1.  A.  C.3;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 a  Next  to  the  Carthaginian  war,  the  longest  and  most 
 obstinate  that  the  Romans  ever  had,  was  the  war  which 
 Mithridates  king  of  Pontus,  in  the  reign  of  Alexander 
 Jannams  at  Jerusalem,  waged  with  them.  For,  having 
 very  unjustly  seized  on  the  kingdoms  of  Cappadocia 
 and  Bithynia,  when  the  Romans  interposed  for  the  sur- 
 render of  them  to  the  persons  to  whom  they  had  decreed 
 them,  he  refused  to  obey,  and  thereupon  hostilities  en- 
 sued. l  For  some  time  at  first  Mithridates  was  success- 
 ful ;  but  b  was  very  cruel,  while  he  had  the  superiority ; 
 till,  having  sent  into  Greece  an  army  of  three  hundred 
 and  ten  thousand  men,  under  the  command  of  three  of 
 his  best  generals,  Sylla  alone,  with  no  more  than  fifteen 
 thousand  foot,  and  fifteen  hundred  horse,  vanquished 
 them  all  in  several  battles;  and  Fimbria,  the  next  year, 
 With  another  Roman  army,  pressed  Mithridates  himself 
 so  very  close,  that  inPatana,  a  maritime  town  in  J^tolia, 
 he  was  in  imminent  danger  of  being  made  a  prisoner,  2 
 which  terrified  him  to  such  a  degTee  that  he  sued  for 
 peace,  which,  upon  these  conditions,  was  granted  him  : — 
 "  That  he  should  restore  Bithynia  to  Nicomedes,  and 
 Cappadocia  to  Ariobarzanes,  and  to  the  Romans  what- 
 ever he  had  taken  from  them  in  the  late  war  ;  that  he 
 should  content  himself  with  his  paternal  kingdom  of 
 Pontus,  yield  to  the  Romans  seventy  of  his  ships ;  and 
 pay  them  three  thousand  talents  for  the  charge  of  the 
 war." 
 
 1  Plutarch  on  Sylla;   Appian  on  Mithridates;  and  Velleius 
 Paterculus,  b.  ii.  c.  23. 
 
 2  Ibid. 
 
 clined  to  do  justice  to  his  character.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  he 
 was  one  of  the  most  consummate  masters  of  the  art  of  war  re- 
 corded in  ancient  history,  and  although  profuse  of  human  blood, 
 and  but  little  scrupulous  as  to  the  manner  in  which  he  accom- 
 plished his  ends,  he  showed  on  several  occasions  that  he  was  not 
 destitute  of  noble  and  generous  sentiments.  For  a  particular  ac- 
 count of  this  illustrious  general,  and  a  vindication  of  his  character 
 from  the  aspersions  of  Livy,  see  Hooke's  Roman  History.] Ed. 
 
 a  The  war  with  Jugurtha  intervened  indeed,  but  this  was  not 
 of  any  long  continuance,  nor  is  it  any  where  referred  to  in  the 
 sacred  history:  however,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  mention  thus 
 much  of  it : — That  this  Jugurtha  was  nephew  to  Micipsa,  king  of 
 Nnmidia,  who  left  behind  him  two  sons,  Adherbal  and  Hiempsal, 
 both  of  whom  Jugurtha  murdered,  and  then  usurped  their  king- 
 dom;  that  when  the  Romans  were  for  calling  him  to  an  account 
 for  all  this  wickedness,  he  for  a  long  while  bribed  the  commis- 
 sioners and  generals  that  were  sent  against  him,  till  at  length 
 being  defeated  first  by  Metellus,  and  afterwards  by  Marius"  he 
 was  betrayed  by  Bocchus  king  of  Mauritania,  who  was  both' his 
 ally  and  father-in-law:  that  being  thus  betrayed  and  seized,  he 
 was  laden  with  chains,  and  given  up  to  Sylla,  who  delivered  him 
 into  the  hands  of  the  general  Marias,  and  he,  in  the  triumph 
 that  was  given  him,  dragged  him  like  a  slave  at  the  wheels  of 
 hi-;  chariot:  and  that,  after  this  ceremony  was  over,  he  was  led 
 to  prison,  stripped  of  his  royal  robes,  and  then  pushed  naked  into 
 
 a  dungeon,  where  he  was  condemned  to  be  starved  to  death. 
 
 Sidlust'x  Jugurthine  War. 
 
 b  To  this  purpose  historians  have  observed,  that  when,  upon 
 a  defeat  given  the  Roman  forces,  he  had  taken  Manlius  Auuilius 
 and  QuintUS  Oppius,  the  two  generals,  prisoners,  he  not  only 
 treated  them  with  the  utmost  indignity,  but  afterwards  with 
 equal  cruelty  tortured  them  to  death ;  and  that,  finding  a  great 
 number  of  Romans  and  Italians,  upon  one  occasion  or  other,  dis- 
 persed through  all  the  provinces  and  cities  of  the  Lesser  Asia, 
 lie  sent  secret  orders  to  all  the  governors  of  these  provinces,  and 
 magistrates  of  these  cities,  to  put  them  all  to  death  in  one  and 
 the  same  day,  which  was  accordingly  executed  with  such  rigour, 
 that  no  less  than  eighty  thousand,  say  some,  near  double  that 
 number,  say  others,  of  Romans  and  Italians  were  then  massacred 
 in  that  country.—  Appian.  in  Mithrid.  epist.;  Liv.  b.  lxxvii 
 Ixxviii.;   and  L.  Floras,  b.  iii.  c.  5. 
 
 M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 But  the  terms  of  this  peace  were  too  hard  long  to  be 
 submitted  to  by  a  man  of  Mithridates's  spirit ;  and  there- 
 fore, as  soon  as  Nicomedes,  who  left  the  Roman  people 
 his  heirs,  was  dead,  he  again  seized  on  Bithynia  and 
 Paphlagonia,  and  the  Romans  again  were  forced  to 
 declare  war  against  him. 
 
 3  The  two  consuls  for  the  year,  Lucius  Lucullus  and 
 Marcus  Cotta,  were  sent  to  carry  on  this  war  ;  but  the 
 latter  of  these,  being  no  ways  skilled  in  military  affairs, 
 was  overcome  by  Mithridates  not  far  from  Chalcedon, 
 with  the  loss  of  most  of  his  men,  and  a  good  part  of  his 
 fleet,  which  was  there  to  defend  the  coasts  ;  till  Lucullus, 
 coming-  to  his  assistance,  not  only  drove  Mithridates 
 from  the  siege  of  Cyzirus,  a  city  on  the  Propontis,  that 
 was  in  the  Roman  interest,  but  destroyed  his  fleet  in  the 
 Hellespont,  retook  Bithynia  and  Paphlagonia  from  him, 
 pursued  him  into  his  kingdom,  besieged  his  very  capital, 
 and  in  one  engagement  ruined  all  his  forces,  and  com- 
 pelled him  to  flee  into  Armenia,  there  to  implore  the 
 protection  and  assistance  of  Tigranes,  his  son-in-law. 
 
 Nor  was  this  all ;  for,  as  soon  as  Lucullus  understood 
 that  Tigranes  was  engaged  in  the  war  with  him,  he  im- 
 mediately marched  his  army  against  him,  passed  the 
 Euphrates,  passed  the  Tigris,  defeated  the  forces  that 
 were  sent  against  him,  and  having-  besieged  his  metro- 
 polis, with  not  the  twentieth  part  of  their  number,  in  one 
 battle  gained  a  complete  victory  over  an  army  of  three 
 hundred  and  six  thousand  men  that  were  coming  to 
 relieve  it.  Lucullus,  in  short,  had  in  every  place  the 
 advantage  against  these  two  confederate  kings,  4  until, 
 by  the  management  of  Publius  Clodius,  his  own  soldiers 
 began  to  mutiny  against  him,  insomuch,  that  having  lost 
 all  the  power  and  authority  of  a  general,  he  was  forced 
 to  deliver  up  the  army  to  Pompey,  and  return  to  Rome. 
 
 Pompey,  at  his  first  entering  upon  the  war,  had  taken 
 into  alliance  with  him  Phraortes  king"  of  Parthia  ;  but  the 
 mutiny  which  had  happened  in  the  latter  end  of  Lucullus's 
 time,  had  given  Mithridates  an  opportunity  of  recovering 
 a  good  part  of  his  kingdom,  and  of  getting  together  a 
 great  number  of  forces,  wherewith  he  endeavoured  to 
 harass  and  distress  the  Roman  army,  till  Pompey  at 
 length  fell  upon  him  by  surprise,  vanquished  his  troops, 
 made  him  flee  for  shelter  northward  beyond  the  springs 
 of  the  Euphrates,  and  then  marched  directly  against  his 
 confederate  Tigranes  ;  but  Tigranes,  terrified  at  this, 
 and  not  sufficiently  provided  to  resist  the  power  that  was 
 coming  against  him,  was  resolved  to  surrender  both  him- 
 self and  his  kingdom  into  the  hands  of  the  Roman 
 general ;  who,  upon  his  paying  the  Romans  six  thousand 
 talents  for  making  a  causeless  war  against  them,  and 
 yielding  up  to  them  all  his  conquests  on  this  side  the 
 Euphrates,  ordered  that  he  should  still  reign  in  his  pa- 
 ternal kingdom  of  Armenia  the  Greater,  and  his  son  c  jn 
 
 3  Plutarch  on  Lucullus;  and  Appian  on  Mithridates. 
 4  Plutarch  on  Lucullus  and  Pompey;  and  Dion  Cassius,  b.  xxxvi. 
 c  The  reason  why  Pompey  made  this  partition  of  Tigranes's 
 kingdom,  was,  because  Tigranes's  son  had  put  himself  under  the 
 protection  ot  the  Romans.  The  father  Tigranes  had  three  sons 
 by  Cleopatra,  the  daughter  of  Mithridates,  two  of  whom  he  had, 
 upon  slight  occasions,  put  to  death;  and  therefore  this  third,  not 
 thinking  his  lite  safe  within  the  power  of  so  cruel  a  father,  fled  to 
 1  hraortes,  king  of  Parthia,  whose  daughter  he  had  married,  and 
 by  him  was  assisted  to  invade  his  father's  dominions,  and  lay 
 siege  to  Artaxata,  his  capital  city;  but,  being  routed  by  Tigranes 
 the  lather,  and  driveu  out  of  the  country,  he  betook  himself  to 
 
Sect.  V.]  FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5110.  A.  C.  I.  JOS.  HIST.b.  xui.  c.  19-bnd  op  b.  xv. 
 
 Gordena  and  Sophena,  two  provinces  that  bordered 
 upon  it. 
 
 1  In  tiie  mean  time  Mithridates,  having  passed  through 
 several  Scythian  nations,  came  at  last  into  the  Cimmerian 
 Bosphorus,  now  the  country  of  the  Crim  Tartars,  which 
 was  part  of  his  dominions,  and  where  he  had  appointed 
 one  of  his  sons,  called  Machares,  a  to  reign.  From 
 heme  he  sent  ambassadors  to  Pompey,  offering  in  his 
 behalf,  that  in  case  he  might  be  allowed  to  hold  his 
 paternal  kingdom,  as  Tigranes  had  been,  he  would  pay 
 tribute  to  the  Romans  for  it,  and  relinquish  to  them  all 
 his  other  dominions  ;  but,  when  he  understood  that  Poni- 
 pey would  listen  to  no  proposals  of  peace,  upon  any 
 other  condition  than  that  he  should  come  and  surrender 
 himself  as  Tigranes  had  done,  he  could  not  bring  him- 
 self to  submit  to  that ;  and,  therefore,  having  got  toge- 
 ther a  considerable  number  of  forces  out  of  the  Scythian 
 nations,  wherewith  he  augmented  his  own  army,  and  sent 
 agents  to  engage  the  Gauls  to  join  him,  as  soon  as  he 
 approached  the  Alps,  2  he  resolved  to  make  a  desperate 
 expedition  b  through  the  way  of  Panonia,  and  the  Taren- 
 tine  Alps,  into  Italy  itself,  and  there  assault  the  Romans, 
 as  Hannibal  had  done,  at  their  very  doors.  But  when 
 the  army  was  to  go  upon  their  march,  they  were  so 
 frightened  at  the  thoughts  of  it,  that  they  conspired 
 against  him,  and  made  Pharnaces  his  son  their  king. 
 
 Mithridates  dreaded  nothing  so  much  as  to  fall  into 
 the  hands  of  the  Romans,  and  be  led  in  triumph  by  them  ; 
 and,  therefore,  being  apprehensive  that  his  son  might 
 deliver  him  to  Pompey,  and  finding  no  possibility  of  mak- 
 ing his  escape,  he  retired  into  his  apartment,  and  hav- 
 ing there  distributed  poison  to  his  wives,  his  concubines, 
 and  daughters,  that  were  with  him,  he  took  a  dose 
 of  it  himself ;  but  when  he  found  it  did  not  sufficiently 
 operate  upon  him,  he  had  recourse  to  his  sword  to  finish 
 the  work,  c  and  so  died,  after  he  had  lived  seventy-two 
 years,  and  reigned  sixty  of  them. 
 
 813 
 
 1  Appian.  in  Mithrid.;  Epit.  Liv.  b.  ci.;  and  Dion  Cassius, 
 b.  xxxvi. 
 
 2  Plutarch  on  Pompey;  Dion  Cassius,  b.  xxxvii.;  Appian.  in 
 Mithrid.;  Epit.  Liv.  b.  cvi.;  and  L.  Florus,  b.  iii.  c.  5. 
 
 the  Roman  camp,  and  there  by  way  of  a  supplicant,  cast  himself 
 at  the  feet  of  Pompey.  Pompey  at  first  received  him  very  kindly ; 
 but  when  he  seemed  dissatisfied  with  the  portion  of  his  father's 
 kingdom  that  lie  had  allotted  him,  and  was  for  exciting  the  nobility 
 of  Armenia  to  renew  the  war  against  the  Romans,  and  the  Par- 
 tisans to  join  in  it,  Pompey  put  him  among  those  whom  he  re- 
 served for  Ids  triumph,  and  after  that  triumph  left  him  in  prison. 
 —  Pridcaux's  Connection,  anno  6(j. 
 
 a  This  young  prince  having  been  hard  pressed  by  the  Romans, 
 while  they  lay  at  the  siege  ofSinape,  and  had  then  by  their  fleet 
 the  mastery  of  the  Euxine  sea,  which  lay  between  Sinape  and  the 
 kingdom  of  Machares,  had  made  a  peace  with  them,  and  ever 
 since  maintained  the  terms  of  it.  By  this  means  he  had  much 
 (licensed  his  father,  and  dreaded  his  approach.  While,  therefore, 
 he  was  on  the  way,  he  sent  ambassadors  to  him  to  make  his  peace, 
 and  to  urge  in  excuse,  that  what  he  had  done  in  that  respect  was 
 by  the  necessity  of  his  allaiis,  and  not  by  choice:  but,  finding  his 
 father  implacable,  and  no  possibility  of  making  his  escape,  he  slew 
 himself,  to  avoid  falling  into  his  hands. — Appian.  in  Mithrid. 
 
 b  A  desperate  expedition  indeed,  which  contained  a  march  of 
 about  two  thousand  miles,  through  all  those  countries  which  are 
 now  called  Tartaria  Crimea,  Podolia,  Moldavia,  Walachia, 
 Transylvania,  Hungaria,  Stiria,Carmthia,  Tyrol,  and  Lombardy, 
 and  over  the  three  great  rivers  of  the  Boristhenes,  the  Danube, 
 and  the  Po. — Prideau.v's  Connection,  anno  C4. 
 
 c  The  character  which  Velleius  Paterculus  gives  us  of  this 
 great  man,  is  expressed  in  these  words  : — "  During  these  times 
 Mithridates  a  king   of  Pontus  lived.      He  was  a  man  whose 
 
 The  Romans,  after  they  had  overcome  all  foreign 
 powers  and  potentates  that  pretended  to  rival  them,  and 
 thereby  become  masters  of  the  greatest  part  of  the  then 
 known  world,  fell  soon  into  contests  with  one  another 
 about  the  government  of  it,  and  in  every  age  some  one 
 appeared,  who,  at  the  expense  of  the  public  peace,  af- 
 fected to  become  the  sole  regent  of  it :  but  the  most  re- 
 markable struggles  of  this  kind,  that  any  way  relate  to 
 the  scripture  history,  were  between  Sylla  and  Marius, 
 Ccesar  and  Pompey,  Anthony  and  Augustus. 
 
 The  occasion  of  the  difference  between  Sylla  and 
 Marius  was  the  choice  of  a  general  to  the  Mithridatic 
 war.  Marius,  3  who  was  by  birth  a  plebeian,  and  of  a 
 very  mean  parentage,  had,  by  his  military  prowess  and 
 interest  with  the  common  people,  raised  himself  to  the 
 chief  command  of  the  Jugurthine  war;  and,  in  the  war 
 against  the  Teutones  and  Cimbri,  had  gained  himself 
 immortal  honour ;  but,  being  now  upwards  of  seventy 
 years  old,  in  the  late  confederate  war  he  had  not  so  well 
 maintained  his  reputation  ;  whether  it  was  that  old  age 
 rebated  his  activity,  or  fortune  had  not  thrown  occasions 
 of  signalizing  himself  in  his  way.  Sylla,  on  the  contrary, 
 a  patrician  by  birth,  and  one  of  the  most  illustrious  fa- 
 milies in  Rome,  was  lively,  active,  and  impetuous,  had 
 gained  great  battles,  taken  considerable  towns,  and, 
 through  the  whole  course  of  the  war,  so  distinguished 
 himself  by  his  many  and  glorious  successes,  that  he  soon 
 had  the  consulate  conferred  on  him,  and  was  afterwards 
 declared  governor  of  Asia  Minor,  and  commander-in- 
 chief  in  the  war  against  Mithridates.  Marius,  who  thought 
 that  all  the  preferments  of  the  commonwealth  did  of  right 
 belong  to  him,  looked  upon  this  preference  as  an  injustice 
 done  him,  and  was  therefore  resolved  to  carry  by  force, 
 what  he  had  not  attained  by  the  people's  choice. 
 
 3  Vertot's  Revolutions  of  Rome,  c.  x. 
 
 character  can  neither  be  passed  over  in  silence,  nor  spoken  of 
 without  care.  In  war  he  was  most  acute,  in  valour  most  illus- 
 trious; sometimes  by  fortune  and  always  with  judgment  was  his 
 success  obtained ;  in  the  closet  he  was  a  leader,  in  the  field  a 
 soldier,  and  his  hatred  towards  the  Romans  was  that  of  a  Hanni- 
 bal ;"  and  from  other  historians  we  may  learn,  that  he  was  naturally 
 a  man  of  great  capacity  and  understanding,  which  he  had  taken 
 much  care  to  improve:  for  he  was  not  only  well  skilled  in  all  the 
 learning  of  those  times,  but,  though  he  had  two  and  twenty  dirier- 
 ent  nations  under  his  dominions,  yet  he  could  speak'to  everyone 
 of  them  in  their  own  proper  language.  He  was  a  prince  of  great 
 undertakings;  and  though  lie  lailed  in  most  of  those  wherein  he 
 had  to  do  with  the  Romans,  yet,  after  every  overthrow,  we  find 
 him  still  rising  up  again  with  new  vigour;  for  his  last  design  of 
 invading  Italy  sufficiently  shows,  that,  though  his  fortune  often 
 forsook  lu'm,  yet  his  stout  heart,  his  courageous  spirit,  and  his 
 enterprising  genius  never  did.  After  all,  he  was  a  man  of  great 
 vices,  as  well  as  virtues.  His  cruelty  was  shown  in  the  murder 
 of  his  mother,  and  his  brother,  and  the  great  number  of  his  sons, 
 friends,  and  followers,  whom,  at  several  times,  and  often  on  slight 
 occasions,  he  put  to  death.  His  ambition  was  manifest  by  his 
 many  unjust  invasions  of  other  men's  rights  for  the  augmentation 
 of  his  own  dominions,  and  the  many  wicked  methods  of  treachery, 
 murder,  and  perfidiousness,  that  he  took  to  accomplish  his  end. 
 And  his  lust  appeared  in  the  great  number  of  wives  and  concu- 
 bines he  had  to  serve  it:  for,  in  the  one  or  other  of  these  capa- 
 cities, wherever  he  found  a  handsome  woman,  he  always  took 
 her  to  him,  and  carried  some  of  these  with  him  wherever  he 
 went:  but,  when  reduced  to  any  distress,  he  always  poisoned 
 those  whom  he  could  not  carry  oil',  in  like  manner  as  he  did  his 
 sisters  and  daughters  in  this  case,  that  none  of  them  might  fall 
 into  the  enemy's  hands. —  Velleius  Paterculus,  b.  ii.  c.18;  J'ale- 
 rius  Maximus,  b.  viii.  c.  7;  Appian.  in  Mithrid.;  and  Plu- 
 tarch on  Lucullus  and  Pompey. 
 
814 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3.  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALKS,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  C.  l.JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 To  this  purpose  he  drew  over  to  his  interest  a  tribune, 
 called  Publius  Sulpicius,  an  inveterate  enemy  to  Sylla,  and 
 who,  by  his  power  and  authority  among  the  people,  pro- 
 cured a  law  to  pass,  which  took  from  Sylla  the  command 
 of  the  army  against  Mithridates,  and  conferred  it  upon 
 Marius.  Marius  accordingly  sent  some  officers  of  his 
 party  to  take  possession  of  the  command  of  the  army, 
 until  he  himself  could  come  to  them  ;  but  Sylla  had  pre- 
 vented them,  and  made  so  sure  of  the  affections  of  the 
 soldiers,  that,  instead  of  obeying  the  orders  sent  from 
 Marius,  they  killed  his  officers,  and  besought  Sylla  to 
 lead  them  against  his  enemies  at  Rome,  before  he  trans- 
 ported them  into  Asia.  Incensed  at  the  death  of  his 
 officers,  Marius  had  caused  several  of  Sylla's  friends  to 
 be  put  to  death,  and  their  houses  to  be  plundered.  This 
 made  Sylla  hasten  his  march  to  Rome,  where  he  soon 
 defeated  the  body  which  Marius  and  Sulpicius  had  raised 
 to  oppose  him,  and  entered  the  city  sword  in  hand.  The 
 decree  which  transferred  the  command  of  the  army  from 
 him  to  Marius,  he  caused  to  be  repealed,  and  articles  of 
 impeachment  drawn  up  against  C.  Marius,  young  Marius 
 his  son,  the  tribune  Sulpicius,  and  twelve  senators,  who 
 were  of  their  party,  for  having  been  the  authors  of  the 
 late  insurrection.  Hereupon  they  were  declared  enemies 
 to  the  Roman  commonwealth  ;  were  interdicted  water 
 and  fire,  that  is,  all  manner  of  sustenance,  or  assistance 
 from  any  body  ;  had  rewards  set  upon  their  heads,  and 
 troops  on  all  sides  detached  to  hunt  them  down. 
 
 Sulpicius  in  the  search  was  apprehended  by  some  of 
 Sylla's  soldiers,  who  cut  off  his  head,  and  carried  it  to 
 Rome,  and  nailed  it  to  the  rostrum ;  but  Marius  had  the 
 good  luck  to  make  his  escape,  though  a  he  underwent 
 many  dangers  and  hazards  of  his  life  during  the  time  of 
 his  exile. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  Cornelius  Cinna,  who,  though  a 
 
 a  After  he  was  upwards  of  seventy  years  of  age,  and  had  been 
 six  times  consul,  he  was  forced  to  fly  from  Rome  on  foot,  without 
 either  friend  or  servant  to  accompany  him;  and  to  avoid  Sylla's 
 people,  that  pursued  him,  to  throw  himself  into  a  morass,  where 
 he  lay  the  whole  night,  sunk,  and  buried  in  mud  up  to  the  neck. 
 In  the  morning,  when  he  got  out,  and  endeavoured  to  gain  the 
 sea  shore,  in  hopes  of  meeting  some  vessel  to  carry  him  out  of 
 Italy,  he  was  known  by  the  people  of  Minturnre,  seized  and  car- 
 ried into  the  town,  with  a  rope  about  his  neck,  all  naked  and 
 muddy.  The  magistrates  of  the  place,  in  obedience  to  the  decree 
 of  the  senate,  which  had  attainted  him,  and  set  a  price  upon  his 
 head,  sent  a  public  slave,  a  Cimbrian  by  birth,  to  put  him  to 
 death;  but  as  the  slave  approached  with  his  naked  sword,  "  Canst 
 thou,  thou  barbarian,"  said  he  with  a  loud  voice,  "have  the  as- 
 surance to  assassinate  Cains  Marius!''  Whereupon  the  siave, 
 frightened  at  the  sound  of  a  name  so  terrible  to  his  countrymen, 
 threw  down  his  sword,  and  ran  out  of  the  prison  in  great  disorder, 
 crying  out,  "that  it,  was  not  in  his  power  to  kill  Marius."  The 
 magistrates  of  Minturnse,  looking  on  this  as  an  interposition  of 
 heaven  for  the  preservation  of  this  great  man,  not  only  set  him 
 at  liberty,  but  furnished  him  with  a  vessel,  wherein  he  sailed 
 first  into  the  island  of  yEnaria,  and  thence,  designing  for  Africa, 
 lie  was  forced,  either  by  stress  of  weather,  or  want  of  water,  to 
 go  on  shore  on  the  coasts  of  Sicily,  where  he  met  with  new 
 dangers.  For  a  Roman  qutestor,  who  had  the  chief  command 
 there,  offered  to  seize  him;  so  that  Marius,  being  forced  to  defend 
 himself,  lost  sixteen  of  his  men,  who  made  a  stand  just  upon  the 
 shore  whilst  others  helped  him  on  board.  From  Sicily  he  sailed 
 to  Africa,  and  landed  at  Carthage;  but  from  thence  he  was  ex- 
 pelled by  Sextilius,  who,  as  pretor,  commanded  in  that  province, 
 and, notwithstanding  the  rigour  of  the  season,  was  forced  to  go  on 
 board,  and  spend  a  good  part  of  the  winter  in  his  ship,  wandering 
 up  and  down  those  seas,  till  being  informed  of  what  was  doing  at 
 Rome  by  a  messenger  from  Cinna,  he  returned  to  Italy,  joined 
 Cinna,  besieged  Rome,  and  revenged  himself  too  severely  on  his 
 enemies. —  Fertot's  Revolutions  of  Rome,  b,  x. 
 
 patrician  by  birth,  had  devoted  himself  to  the  plebeian 
 party  ;  when  once  he  was  created  consul,  and  Sylla  was 
 gone  to  his  command  in  Asia,  was  for  rescinding  the 
 decree,  whereby  Marius  was  proscribed  :  but,  when  the 
 senate  perceived  his  design,  they  soon  passed  sentence 
 upon  him,  declaring  him  fallen  from  the  right  of  a  citizen, 
 and  deprived  of  the  dignity  of  a  consul,  and  in  his  room 
 they  elected  Lucius  Merula.  Cinna,  who  was  naturally 
 proud  and  fiery,  upon  hearing  of  this  sentence,  raised  an 
 army  with  purpose  to  revenge  himself  upon  the  authors 
 of  it,  and  sent  to  Marius  to  come  to  his  assistance,  who, 
 as  he  passed  through  the  cities  of  Italy,  was  joined  by 
 some  veterans  that  had  formerly  served  under  him,  and, 
 by  promising  freedom  to  all  slaves  that  would  come 
 under  his  banner,  had  got  together  a  good  body  of  men. 
 With  these,  and  the  forces  that  Cinna  had  collected,  they 
 both  marched  directly  to  Rome,  where,  of  the  two  con- 
 suls, Octavius  was  killed  on  his  tribunal,  and  Merula, 
 to  prevent  the  enemy  from  putting  him  to  a  worse  death, 
 had  his  veins  opened ;  where  several  senators  of  great 
 note  were  by  the  order  of  Marius  murdered  in  the  streets, 
 their  heads  cut  off,  and  laid  upon  the  rostrum,  and  their 
 mangled  bodies  left  to  be  devoured  by  dogs  ;  and  where 
 he  caused  Sylla's  house  to  be  razed,  his  goods  confis- 
 cated, his  wife,  children,  and  friends  to  be  proscribed, 
 and  himself  to  be  declared  an  enemy  to  the  common- 
 wealth, even  while  he  was  adding  large  provinces  and 
 kingdoms  to  the  Roman  state. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  his  wife,  children,  and  friends,  who 
 had  fled  to  his  camp  for  protection,  were  continually 
 soliciting  him  to  turn  his  arms  against  his  private  enemies, 
 and  to  free  his  country  from  these  tyrants,  who  had  so 
 long  oppressed  it :  so  that,  having  concluded  a  peace 
 with  Mithridates  upon  very  advantageous  terms,  he  passed 
 over  with  his  army  into  Italy.  But,  before  he  was  ar- 
 rived, Marius  was  dead  of  a  pleurisy,  occasioned  by 
 excessive  chinking,  to  which,  in  the  decline  of  life,  he 
 accustomed  himself ;  and  young  Marius,  who  inherited 
 his  father's  cruelty,  as  well  as  power,  entered  into  a  close 
 league  with  Cinna,  and  engaged  Valerius  Flaccus,  whom 
 they  procured  to  be  made  consul,  in  their  interest,  and 
 design  of  opposing  Sylla.  But  Sylla,  as  soon  as  he 
 landed  in  Italy,  defeated  Marius,  and  reduced  him  to 
 the  necessity  of  laying  violent  hands  upon  himself;  and 
 having  vanquished  all  his  other  enemies,  entered  Rome 
 at  the  head  of  his  victorious  forces,  and  there  gave  a 
 loose  to  his  licentious  passion  of  revenge.  All  the  po 
 people,  that  had  appeared  against  him  in  arms,  even 
 though  they  came  to  beg  quarter,  he  ordered  to  be  mas- 
 sacred. Fourscore  senators,  and  six  hundred  knights, 
 together  with  an  infinite  number  of  the  richest  citizens  of 
 Rome,  he  caused  to  be  proscribed :  their  sons  and 
 grandsons  he  degraded  from  all  their  rights  and  privi- 
 leges :  those  that  should  protect  or  harbour  any  of  them, 
 he  threatened  with  the  like  proscription  ;  and  to  those 
 that  should  apprehend  or  murder  any  of  them,  he  pro- 
 mised a  reward  of  two  talents  ;  so  that  it  became  no  un- 
 common thing  for  slaves  that  had  murdered  their  masters, 
 nay,  for  children  that  had  murdered  their  fathers,  to  come, 
 with  their  hands  reeking  in  blood,  to  demand  the  reward 
 of  their  treason  or  parricide. 
 
 Nor  was  it  only  the  party  that  favoured  Marius  which 
 suffered  in  this  barbarous  manner,  but,  as  Sylla  '  made 
 
 1  Vertot's  Revolutions  of  Rome,  b.  x. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &< 
 
 815 
 
 A.M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OK,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 little  or  no  account  of  any  man's  life,  he  permitted  his 
 friends  and  officers,  with  impunity,  to  revenge  themselves 
 of  all  their  private  enemies,  insomuch,  that  fresh  numbers 
 were  proscribed,  and  murdered  every  day,  and  no  one, 
 especially  if  ne  was  rich  and  wealthy,  was  secure  of  Ii is 
 life  for  a  moment :  nay,  to  such  an  excess  of  cruelty  and 
 arbitrariness  did  he  proceed  at  last,  that,  without  naming 
 any  particular  persons,  he  proscribed  whole  cities  and 
 nations,  and,  by  way  of  confiscation,  seized  on  all  the 
 estates,  houses,  and  territories,  belonging"  to  such  towns 
 in  Italy  as  had  declared  for  Marius  during  the  civii  war, 
 which,  to  attacli  them  more  liriuly  to  his  interest,  he  took 
 care  to  distribute  among  his  soldiers. 
 
 Some,  however,  that  were  about  him,  .and  had  pro- 
 bably been  benefited  by  these  usurpations,  being  appre- 
 hensive that  such  violent  proceedings  might  not  last  long, 
 to  give  them  the  better  sanction,  and  some  colour  of 
 law,  advised  him  to  take  upon  him  the  office,  not  of  a 
 temporary,  but  perpetual  dictator.  The  power  of  this 
 supreme  magistrate  was  boundless.  The  authority  of 
 the  consuls,  and  all  other  magistrates,  except  that  of  the 
 tribunes,  was  superseded  by  it.  He  had  power  of  life 
 and  death  over  his  fellow  citizens,  was  sole  arbiter  of 
 peace  and  war,  was  at  liberty  to  raise  or  disband  forces 
 as  he  thought  fit,  and  under  no  obligation  to  give  an 
 account  of  his  conduct  to  any  body.  In  a  word,  he  had 
 all  the  power  of  the  most  absolute  king,  greater  indeed 
 than  any  of  the  ancient  kings  ot  Rome  ever  had ;  but 
 then  it  was  only  in  the  times  of  the  greatest  exigences 
 of  the  commonwealth,  when  it  was  endangered  either  by 
 powerful  enemies  abroad,  or  by  civil  commotions  at 
 home,  that  such  an  officer  was  appointed  ;  and,  lest  such 
 a  large  power  should  be  abused,  no  man  was  invested 
 with  it  for  longer  than  six  months.  But  Sylla,  who  had 
 terrified  the  people  into  a  tame  submission,  and  made 
 himself  absolute  at  Rome,  would  have  it  conferred  on 
 him  for  a  time  undetermined  ;  so  that  the  Romans,  who 
 had  changed  kingly  government  into  the  republican 
 under  consuls,  and  military  tribunes,  after  many  ages, 
 relapsed  again  into  the  absolute  power  of  one  ;  though 
 Sylla,  to  lessen  the  aversion  which  all  republicans  could 
 not  but  have  to  such  a  form  of  government,  took  care  to 
 disguise  what  was  in  reality  a  royalty,  under  the  less 
 odious  title  of  a  a  dictatorship. 
 
 This  success  of  Sylla's  in  climbing  up  to  the  empire, 
 and  supporting  himself  therein,  made  it  apparent  to  those 
 
 a  One  thing  is  wonderful  in  this  Sylla,  that  after  he  had 
 destroyed  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  of  his  fellow  citizens 
 in  the  civil  war,  and  had  caused  ninety  senators,  of  which 
 fitteen  had  been  consuls,  and  more  than  six  and  twenty  hun- 
 dred knights  to  be  put  to  death,  he  had  the  courage  to  lay 
 down  the  dictatorship,  and  to  reduce  himself  to  the  level  of  a 
 private  citizen,  without  fearing  the  resentment  of  so  many  illus- 
 trious families,  whose  heads  he  had  destroyed  by  his  cruel  pro- 
 scriptions. The  Romans  in  general  looked  upon  this  his  abdi- 
 cation of  the  sovereign  power,  as  an  instance  of  the  greatest 
 magnanimity,  and  gladly  forgave  him  all  the  murders,  for  the 
 sake  of  the  liberty  which  he  thereby  restored  them;  but  his  ene- 
 mies imputed  it  to  the  natural  uneasiness  of  his  mind,  and  his 
 continual  fear,  lest  some  Roman  might  be  bold  enough,  at  one 
 stroke,  to  deprive  him  of  both  his  empire  and  his  life.  However 
 this  be,  it  is  certain,  that,  after  having  shed  so  much  blood,  he 
 died  peaceably  in  his  bed,  and  a  few  days  before  his  death,  com- 
 posed his  own  epitaph,  which  comprises  his  true  character, 
 namely,  "  That  no  body  had  ever  outdone  him,  either  in  obliging 
 his  fiiends,  or  persecuting  his  enemies." — Fcrtot's  Revolutions, 
 b.  xi. 
 
 M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST,  b  xiii.  c.  19— end  orb.  xv. 
 
 that  came  after  him,  that  the  Romans  could  bear  a  master, 
 and  gave  occasion  to  the  violent  contests  which  after- 
 wards happened  between  Cajsar  and  Pompey,  who,  after 
 the  death  of  Crassus,  *  and  the  Parthian  war,  were  the 
 two  great  competitors  for  the  sovereignty  of  Rome. 
 
 Cneius  Pompeius,  whose  father  being  of  the  same 
 name,  had  been  consul,  and  served  his  country  faithfully 
 in  the  wars,  was,  from  his  very  youth,  the  darling  of  the 
 Roman  people ;  created  a  general  before  he  had  been  a 
 soldier  ;  and  through  the  whole  course  of  his  life  attend- 
 ed with  a  wonderful  train  of  victories  and  successes  :  ' 
 but  being  all  along  accustomed  to  the  command  of  ar- 
 mies, he  could  not  so  well,  upon  the  expiration  of  his 
 commission,  reduce  himself  to  the  simplicity  of  a  private 
 life ;  and  therefore,  whenever  he  appeared  in  public, 
 he  was  always  followed  by  a  crowd  of  his  dependents, 
 whose  numerous  appearance  looked  more  like  the  court 
 of  some  great  prince,  than  the  attendants  of  a  citizen  of 
 any  republic.  It  must  be  owned,  however,  that  in  his 
 pursuit  of  dignities,  he  was  less  fond  of  the  power  that  is 
 inseparable  from  them,  than  of  the  honours  and  splen- 
 dours that  surround  them  ;  that,  in  short,  he  was  a  man 
 of  show  rather  than  real  ambition  ;  and,  if  he  affected  any 
 high  office  in  state,  it  was  chiefly  to  raise  himself  above 
 all  the  commanders  of  his  time  ;  for  the  great  pride  of 
 his  soul  was,  to  be  thought  the  only  general  of  the  com- 
 monwealth, whereas,  he  ought  to  have  contented  him- 
 self with  being  the  first. 
 
 2  Caius  Julius  Caesar  was  bom  of  the  illustrious  fami- 
 ly of  the  Julii,  and  was  indeed  the  most  extraordinary 
 person  of  his  age.  Nature,  which  seemed  to  have  form- 
 ed him  for  the  command  of  the  rest  of  mankind,  had 
 given  him  an  air  of  empire,  and  a  dignity  of  aspect  in- 
 expressible ;  but  then  this  air  of  grandeur  was  allayed 
 by  the  gentleness  and  sweetness  of  his  behaviour,  which 
 gained  him  the  hearts  of  those  he  conversed  with,  and 
 laid  the  foundation  of  his  future  greatness.  He  was  a 
 man  of  exalted  courage  and  insinuating  eloquence,  ex- 
 tensive in  his  designs,  indefatigable  in  pursuing  them 
 
 1  Vertot's  Revolutions,  b.   xiii. 
 
 2  Ibid. 
 
 b  When  Crassus  led  his  army  into  Mesopotamia,  there  came 
 to  him  a  certain  chief  of  an  Arabian  tribe,  who,  having  served 
 in  the  wars  under  Pompey,  had  contracted  an  acquaintance 
 with  several  of  the  Romans,  and  was  therefore  a  proper  instru- 
 ment for  Surenas,  the  Parthian  general,  to  employ  upon  this 
 occasion.  He  told  Crassus,  inquiring  about  the  strength  of  the 
 enemy,  that  they  were  unable  to  stand  before  him,  and  that,  to 
 obtain  a  complete  victory,  he  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  march 
 directly  against  them,  for  which  purpose  he  offered  himself  to  be 
 their  guide;  Crassus  was  weak  enough  to  accept  of  his  offer; 
 and  accordingly  the  crafty  man  led  them  along  the  plains  of  Me- 
 sopotamia, until  he  had  brought  them  into  a  sandy  desert,  where 
 the  Parthians,  he  knew,  would  have  the  best  opportunity  of  de- 
 stroying them,  and  then  rode  oil'  to  acquaint  Surenas  with  it, 
 who  immediately  fell  upon  them,  and  gave  them  a  terrible  de- 
 feat. Nor  was  this  the  only  false  Step  that  Crassus  made  :  for 
 having  rested  the  remains  of  his  army  for  one  day  at  Carrha;,  not 
 far  from  the  place  where  the  battle  was  fought,  when,  in  the  night 
 following,  he  endeavoured  to  make  his  escape,  he  committed 
 himself  to  the  guidance  of  one  Andromachus,  another  traitor, 
 who  led  him  into  the  midst  of  bogs  and  morasses,  where  Sure- 
 nas overtook  him,  slew  him,  and  gave  his  army  the  greatest 
 overthrow  that  the  Romans  had  ever  received  since  the  battle  ol 
 Cannffi;  for,  in  this  engagement,  twenty  thousand  were  slain, 
 and  ten  thousand  taken  prisoners ;  and  the  rest  forced  to  make 
 their  escape  by  several  ways  into  Armenia,  Cilicia,  and  Syria. — 
 Plutarch,  in  Crasso;  /1/>pian.  in  Parthicis;  and  Dion  Cassius, 
 
 b.  xl. 
 
816 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 and  ambitious  of  the  great  offices  of  state,  chiefly  for 
 the  increase  of  his  interest  and  power,  and  for  the  means 
 and  opportunity  which  they  afforded  him,  by  gentle  de- 
 grees, of  becoming  the  master  and  sovereign  of  his 
 country. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Crassus,  who  held  the  balance  be- 
 tween these  two  great  men,  the  emulation  between  them 
 began  to  break  out.  Caesar  was  in  Gaul,  pursuing  his 
 victories  against  the  Helvetians,  the  Germans,  the  Bel- 
 g£e,  the  Britons,  and  several  other  nations,  and  astonish- 
 ing all  the  world  with  the  fame  of  his  great  exploits  ;  but 
 Pompey,  since  the  time  of  his  victories  in  Asia,  had  con- 
 tinued, now  for  the  space  of  twelve  years,  for  the  most 
 part  in  Rome,  notwithstanding  he  had  obtained  a  large 
 commission  to  govern  the  provinces  of  Spain  and  Af- 
 rica. 
 
 By  his  constant  residing  at  Rome,  he  had  got  a  per- 
 fect ascendancy  over  the  senate ;  and  some,  to  remedy  the 
 disorders  they  then  laboured  under,  were  for  creating 
 him  dictator,  till  Cato,  who  was  always  watchful  for  the 
 public  liberty,  proposed  rather  to  choose  him  sole  consul, 
 without  a  colleague ;  because  a  consul  was  responsible 
 to  the  people  and  senate  for  his  conduct,  which  a  dic- 
 tator was  not. 
 
 The  senate  approved  of  this  expedient,  and  accord- 
 ingly made  Pompey  the  sole  consul.  They  continued 
 him  likewise  in  his  former  governments,  and  for  the 
 payment  of  the  forces  he  had  under  him,  gave  him  an 
 annual  allowance  of  a  thousand  talents  out  of  the  ex- 
 chequer :  but,  as  all  good  understanding  between  him 
 and  Caesar  was  now  vanished,  he  took  care  to  prefer  two 
 laws,  which  the  senate  readily  agreed  to,  namely,  "  That 
 the  miscarriages  of  officers,  for  twenty  years  last  past, 
 should  be  inquired  into  ;  and  that  all  absent  persons 
 should  not  be  allowed  to  demand  any  public  employ- 
 ments ;"  the  latter  of  which  was  more  immediately  level- 
 led at  Caesar  :  for  Pompey's  design  herein  was,  to  oblige 
 him  to  abandon  the  government  of  the  two  Gauls,  and 
 the  command  of  his  army,  in  order  to  come  in  person  to 
 solicit  the  consulate,  which  he  in  his  return,  as  he  assign- 
 ed by  his  letters,  expected  to  have  conferred  on  him. 
 
 Caesar  was  very  well  aware  of  Pompey's  design  ;  but, 
 instead  of  relinquishing  his  government  and  returning  to 
 Rome,  he  chose  to  remain  at  the  head  of  his  forces,  and 
 ■when  the  senate,  by  Pompey's  procurement,  came  to  a 
 resolution  of  taking  the  government  from  him  by  naming 
 his  successor,  he  wrote  several  letters  to  them,  with  a 
 great  deal  of  temper,  requesting  either  that  they  would 
 continue  him  in  his  government,  as  they  had  done  Pom- 
 pey, or  permit  him,  though  absent  from  Rome,  to  put  up 
 for  the  consulate;  but  the  majority  of  the  senate,  that 
 was  entirely  under  Pompey's  direction,  rejected  every 
 proposal  that  he  sent ;  so  that,  finding  himself  treated 
 with  contempt,  he  passed  the  Alps  at  the  head  of  the 
 third  legion,  and  halted  at  Ravenna,  from  whence  he 
 sent  Fabius,  one  of  his  lieutenants,  with  letters  to  the 
 senate, '  "wherein  he  magnified  his  own  exploits,  expect- 
 ing that  some  regard  should  be  had  to  his  services  ;  and 
 wherein  he  declared  his  readiness  to  lay  down  his  com- 
 mand, in  case  Pompey  would  do  the  like ;  but  that  if 
 that  general  pretended  to  retain  his  forces,  he  knew 
 very  well  how  to  defend  himself  at  the  head  of  his  le- 
 
 1  Vertot's  Revolutions,  b.  xiii 
 
 M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19— end  of  b.  xv. 
 
 gions,  and  would  in  a  few  days  be  at  Rome,  to  revenge 
 the  injuries  which  were  done  to  him,  as  well  as  the 
 public." 
 
 This  letter,  when  read  to  the  senate,  was  represented 
 as  a  kind  of  declaration  of  war,  and  accordingly  procur- 
 ed a  "  decree  that  Lucius  Domitius  should  be  Caesar's 
 successor,  and  have  four  thousand  new  levies  to  enable 
 him  to  go  and  take  possession  of  his  government;  and 
 that  in  case  Caesar  refused  to  disband  his  army  within 
 such  a  time,  he  should  be  prosecuted  as  an  enemy  to  the 
 commonwealth."  AYhen  Caesar  was  informed  of  this  de- 
 cree, he  sent  orders  to  such  of  his  troops  as  were  near- 
 est at  hand,  to  advance  towards  the  Rubicon,  a  small 
 river  that  parted  his  government  of  Gallia  Cisalpina  from 
 the  rest  of  Italy.  When  he  came  up  the  next  day,  he 
 found  there  five  thousand  foot,  and  three  hundred  horse  ; 
 and  having  halted  a  while  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  he 
 is  said  there  to  have  been  seized  with  some  remorse  upon 
 consideration  of  what  he  was  about  to  do ;  till  hav- 
 ing reflected  on  the  hatred  and  inveteracy  of  his  ene- 
 mies, he  threw  himself  into  the  river  at  once,  passed  it, 
 and  took  Ariminum  by  surprise  ;  and  from  thence  put  all 
 Rome  in  such  a  disorder,  that  Pompey,  not  having  suffi- 
 cient forces  to  resist  him,  with  the  consuls  and  a  great 
 number  of  senators,  retired  to  Capua,  and  thence  to 
 Brundusium,  where  taking  shipping,  they  soon  arrived 
 at  the  port  of  Dyrrachium,  a  city  of  Epirus,  where  Pom- 
 pey intended  to  gather  together  such  an  army  as  might 
 enable  him  to  make  a  stand. 
 
 Upon  the  retreat  of  Pompey,  Caesar,  in  the  space  of 
 sixty  days,  made  himself  master  of  all  Italy,  and  came 
 to  Rome,  where  he  promised  the  people  every  thing 
 should  be  done  for  the  good  of  the  commonwealth  :  and 
 having  filled  up  the  senate,  and  settled  some  kind  of 
 government  among  them,  he  marched  his  army  directly 
 into  Spain,  where  Pompey  was  governor,  and  had  left 
 several  troops  attached  to  his  interest.  As  soon  as  he 
 came  thither,  he  fell  upon  Afranius  and  Petreius,  Pom- 
 pey's lieutenants ;  and  having  driven  them  out  of  the 
 province,  he  made  himself  master  thereof,  and  so  returned 
 to  Rome,  where  he  was  declared  dictator,  though  after 
 eleven  days,  he  laid  down  that  office,  and,  together  with 
 Servilius  Isauricus,  was  elected  consul  for  the  year 
 ensuing. 
 
 Pompey,  by  this  time,  had  been  in  Epirus  for  the  space 
 of  a  year,  and  had  got  together  a  considerable  army  out 
 of  Greece,  Asia,  and  all  the  eastern  countries,  to  support 
 his  interest ;  but  when  Caesar  went  after  him,  the  season 
 of  the  year  was  too  far  advanced,  either  for  the  fleets  to 
 be  at  sea,  or  the  armies  to  take  the  field,  and  so  both 
 sides  lay  still  in  their  winter  quarters. 
 
 In  the  spring  both  armies  took  the  field,  and  encamped 
 against  each  other  near  Dyrrachium,  now  Durazzo, 
 where,  in  several  skirmishes,  Caesar  had  the  better ;  but 
 at  length  in  one  of  them  he  received  so  great  a  defeat, 
 that  himself  acknowledged  he  must  have  been  utterly 
 undone,  had  Pompey  seen  his  advantage,  and  pursued 
 it.  For  fear  of  the  like  disaster,  therefore,  or  the  want  of 
 provisions  for  his  army,  Caesar  decamped  the  next  day, 
 and  marched  towards  Thessaly,  where  he  found  plenty 
 of  all  things,  and  there  waited  to  give  Pompey  battle. 
 Pompey  had  an  army  of  forty-five  thousand  foot,  and 
 five  thousand  horse,  but  they  were  most  of  them  raw  in- 
 experienced men,  raised  out  of  the  effeminate  nations  of 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 817 
 
 A.M.  4001.  A.C..1;OR.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5410.  A.  C.  !.  JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.  c.  19 
 
 Asia,  ami  some  Roman  senators,  and  other  gentlemen, 
 v.'ho  knew  very  little  of  war.  Caesar,  on  the  other  hand, 
 bad  an  army  of  twenty-two  thousand  foot,  and  one 
 thousand  horse  ;  but  then  they  were  most  part  of  them 
 veteran  soldiers,  who,  for  the  space  of  ten  years,  had 
 been  accustomed  to  war  and  victory  in  Gaul.  On  the 
 plains  of  Pharsalia  these  two  armies  met  with  two  of  the 
 greatest  generals  in  the  world  at  the  head  of  them,  dis- 
 puting for  universal  empire.  The  engagement  for  some 
 time  was  sharp  on  both  sides :  but,  at  length,  Poinpey's 
 army  was  vanquished  and  broken.  Fifteen  thousand  of 
 them  were  slain;  twenty-four  thousand  made  prisoners; 
 their  camp  was  taken,  and  their  general,  with  much  ado, 
 forced  to  make  his  escape  in  disguise,  and,  after  having 
 wandered  from  place  to  place,  was,  at  length,  in  Egypt,  " 
 perfidiously  slain  in  the  fifty -ninth  year  of  his  age. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Pompey,  and  the  return  of  Cfesar 
 to  Rome,  the  senate  decreed  him  uncommon  honours, 
 and  an  unlimited  authority.  He  was  appointed  consul 
 for  ten  years,  and  perpetual  dictator  ;  had  the  name  of 
 '  imperator '  given  him,  and  the  august  title  of  'father  of 
 his  country.'  His  person  was  declared  sacred  and  in- 
 violable ;  and  at  all  public  games  he  had  the  privilege 
 of  sitting  in  a  gilded  chair,  with  a  golden  crown  upon 
 his  head ;  but,  notwithstanding  all  this  profusion  of 
 honours,  we  find  in  what  a  barbarous  way  he  was  murder- 
 ed at  last. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Julius  Cassar,  great  confusion  and 
 disorders  happened  in  the  Roman  state,  till  at  length 
 Anthony  and  Octavianus,  upon  the  forced  abdication  of 
 Lepidus,  became  the  two  great  men  in  the  empire.  An- 
 thony had  all  the  east,  and  Octavianus  all  the  west;  but 
 not  content  with  this,  they  soon  took  occasion  to  differ 
 with  each  other,  and  entered  into  contest  who  should  have 
 the  whole. 
 
 '/  After  the  defeat  of  his  army,  Pompey,  not  well  knowing 
 which  way  to  betake  himself,  determined  at  last  to  go  to  Egypt. 
 He  had  been  a  very  considerable  friend  to  the  late  king  Ptolemy 
 Aulet.es,  and  therefore  he  expected  a  kind  reception  from  his  son. 
 Taking  therefore  his  wife  Cornelia,  and  his  younger  son  Sextus 
 with  him,  lie  steered  his  course  towards  Egypt,  and,  as  he  drew 
 near  to  land,  sent  messengers  to  the  king,  desiring  his  protection 
 and  aid  in  his  present  distress.  The  king  was  then  a  minor, 
 under  the  tuition  of  Pothynus  a  eunuch,  and  Achillas  the  gen- 
 eral of  his  army,  who,  taking  Theodotus,  and  some  others  into 
 the  consultation,  advised  together  what  answer  to  send.  Some 
 were  for  receiving,  and  others  for  rejecting  him;  but  Theodotus 
 was  nt  opinion,  that  their  only  safe  way  was  to  despatch  him: 
 for  should  they  receive  him,  as  lie  argued,  Caesar  would  revenge 
 it;  should  they  reject  him,  if  ever  he  recovered  power,  himself 
 would  revenge  it;  and  therefore  the  only  method  to  secure  them- 
 selves from  both,  was  to  cut  him  oil';  for  hereby  they  would 
 certainly  make  Caesar  their  friend,  and  prevent  the  other  from 
 doing  any  mischief;  'for  dead  men,'  said  he,  according  to  the  pro- 
 verb, 'never  bite.'  This  advice  prevailed,  and  accordingly 
 Achillas,  with  Septimus  a  Roman  commander,  then  in  the  service 
 ot  the  kin;;  of  Egypt,  was  sent  to  put  it  in  execution.  Under 
 the  pretence  therefore  of  conducting  Pompey  to  the  king,  they 
 took  him  out  of  the  ship  into  a  boat;  hut  as  soon  as  they  came 
 near  the  shore,  they  fell  upon  him,  and  slew  him,  cut  oll'his  head, 
 and  cast  his  dead  carcass  on  the  strand.  His  wife  and  son,  seeing 
 this  barbarous  murder,  raised  bitter  cries  and  lamentations:  but. 
 all  to  do  purpose:  perceiving  therefore  themselves  hi  the  like 
 danger,  they  hoisted  sail  and  made  on",  leaving  this  great  man, 
 who,  in  the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  came  to  this  woi'ul  end. 
 no  other  funeral,  than  what  Philip,  an  enfranchised  bondman  of 
 his,  and  a  poor  Roman,  who  came  thither  by  accident,  could  give 
 him,  by  making  a  funeral  pile  of  the  broken  pieces  of  an  old  boat, 
 that  lay  wrecked  on  the  shore. —  Plutarch  on  Pompey;  and 
 stppian  on  the  Civil  Wars,  b.  ii. 
 
 END  OF  b.  XV. 
 
 Anthony  was  a  person  of  great  note  for  his  military 
 skill  and  abilities.  At  the  battle  of  Pharsalia  he  did 
 wonders  :  and  in  that  of  Philippi,  where  Octavianus  b 
 behaved  but  very  meanly,  the  whole  victory  was  owing 
 to  his  courage  and  conduct ;  but  he  was  exceedingly 
 addicted  to  vice,  especially  to  the  love  of  women,  which 
 Cleopatra  observing,  laid  hold  on  him  on  this  weak  side, 
 and  for  the  gratification  ol  her  ambition  and  avarice, 
 which  were  the  two  predominant  passions  in  her,  put 
 him  upon  such  measures,  as  gave  a  general  offence  to 
 the  Romans. 
 
 Octavianus,  on  the  other  hand,  though  he  was  always 
 successful,  yet  for  this  he  was  indebted  not  so  much  to 
 his  courage,  as  his  cunning  and  management ;  for,  though 
 he  had  a  genius  capable  of  framing  the  greatest  projects, 
 yet,  in  cool  blood,  he  found  himself  incapable  of  facing 
 the  meanest  danger.  And  therefore  being  conscious  of 
 his  weakness  in  this  respect,  he  contented  himself  with 
 supplying  the  schemes,  and  called  in  the  valour  of  other 
 men  to  put  them  in  execution.  In  most  of  his  military 
 undertakings,  he  borrowed,  as  it  were,  Agrippa's  courage, 
 and  the  rather  made  use  of  him,  because  he  was  a  mere 
 soldier  of  fortune,  and,  consequently,  incapable  of 
 creating  any  jealousy,  or  making  himself  head  of  any 
 party. 
 
 After  c  a  vast  preparation  for  war,  these  two  great  men, 
 of  different  characters,  met  with  their  armies  and  fleets 
 near  Actium,  a  town  on  the  coast  of  Epirus,  there  to  de- 
 cide the  empire  of  the  world.  Canidius,  who  had  the 
 chief  command  of  Anthony's  army,  persuaded  him  to  de- 
 camp and  march  into  the  country  of  Thrace,  or  Mace- 
 don,  there  to  try  his  fortune  in  a  battle  at  land,  because 
 his  army  was  much  more  to  be  depended  on  than  his 
 fleet :  but  Cleopatra,  who  was  then  in  company  with 
 Anthony,  advised  him  rather  to  decide  the  matter  by  a 
 fight  at  sea ;  and  her  advice  prevailed. 
 
 On  the  second  of  September,  therefore,  a.  m.  3973, 
 a.  c.  31,  the  two  fleets  engaged  before  the  mouth  of 
 the  Ambrasian  gulf,  in  the  sight  of  the  two  armies, 
 the  one  drawn  up  on  the  north,  and  the  other  on  the 
 south,  side  of  the  straits  which  entered  the  gulf,  there 
 to  attend  the  event  of  the  battle.  The  fight  for  some 
 time  continued  dubious,  with  as  fair  a  prospect  of  suc- 
 cess for  Anthony  as  for  his  adversary,  until  Cleopatra 
 forsook  him  :  for  she,  being  affrightened  with  the  noise 
 and  terror  of  the  battle,  gave  orders  to  the  captain  that 
 commanded  her  ship  to  sheer  off',  and  so  drew  after  her 
 the  whole  Egyptian  squadron,  which  consisted  of  sixty 
 large  men  of  war. 
 
 Anthony,  giving  all  for  lost,  made  after  her  as  fast  as 
 he  could,  and  so,  by  his  flight,  yielded  the  victory  to 
 Octavianus ;  but  after  he  was  gone,  his  ships  fought  so 
 
 *  On  the  eve  before  the  battle  at  Philippi,  under  pretence  of 
 some  indisposition,  he  left  the  body  which  he  commanded,  and, 
 while  the  two  armies  were  engaged,  hid  himself  amongst  the 
 baggage;  and,  in  a  sea  fight  against  young  Pompey,  he  had  not 
 the  courage  to  see  the  two  fleets  engage,  but  lay  in  the  bottom  of 
 the  ship,  with  his  eyes  lift  up  to  heavi  n,  as  if  he  had  been  in  a 
 trance,  and  never  once  showed  himself  to  his  soldiers,  until  news 
 was  brought  him  that  the  enemy  was  lied. —  I'crtot's  Revolutions 
 of  Rome,  b.  xiv. 
 
 c  Anthony's  forces,  by  land  and  sea,  consisted  of  a  hundred 
 thousand  loot,  twelve  thousand  horse,  and  five  hundred  ships  of 
 war  :  and  Oetavianus's  of  eighty  thousand  foot,  twelve  thousand 
 horse,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  ships  of  war.  —  Plutarch  on 
 Antony;  and  Dion  Cassius,  b.  lxxx. 
 5l 
 
813 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII. 
 
 A.  M.  4001  .  A.  C.  3;   OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A. 
 
 valiantly,  that,  though  the  engagement  began  at  noon,  it 
 was  not  ended  till  it  was  night. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  Anthony  and  Cleopatra  got  to  Te- 
 neros,  in  Laconia,  whither  some  of  his  ships,  that,  had 
 escaped  the  fight,  and  several  of  his  friends,  repaired  to 
 him,  from  whom  we  understand,  that  though  his  fleet  was 
 destroyed,  his  land-army  was  still  safe  ;  and  therefore 
 he  wrote  to  Canidius  to  retire  with  it  through  Macedonia 
 into  Asia,  in  hopes  of  being  able,  by  that  means,  to  renew 
 the  war  :  but  Canidius,  in  his  march,  being  overtaken 
 by  Octavianus,  fled  by  night  to  Anthony,  and  the  army, 
 finding  themselves  deserted  by  their  generals,  went  over 
 to  the  enemy,  as  the  foreign  forces,  which  had  come  to 
 the  assistance  of  Anthony,  fled  all  home  to  their  respec- 
 tive countries,  and  made  their  peace  afterwards  with  the 
 conqueror  on  the  best  terms  they  could. 
 
 By  this  time  Anthony  and  Cleopatra  were  both  return- 
 ed to  Alexandria,  and  it  was  not  long  before  Octavianus 
 went  in  pursuit  of  them.  On  their  first  coining,  Anthony 
 fell  upon  the  Roman  troops,  while  under  the  fatigue  of 
 their  march,  and  put  them  to  a  total  rout ;  but  in  a 
 second  engagement  with  them,  he  was  vanquished,  and 
 driven  back  into  the  city  with  great  loss.  The  next 
 morning,  when  he  went  down  to  the  harbour  to  put  the 
 fleet  in  order  to  engage  the  enemy,  no  sooner  were  they 
 drawn  up  in  line  of  battle,  but  he  saw  them  desert  and 
 go  over  to  them,  and,  to  his  great  mortification,  when  he 
 returned  to  the  city,  he  found  that  all  the  land-forces, 
 both  horse  and  foot,  had  in  like  manner  revolted  from 
 him. 
 
 ^  hen  Anthony  understood  that  all  this  was  done  by 
 Cleopatra's  treachery,  and  in  hopes  of  making  her  peace 
 with  Octavianus,  he  could  not  forbear  expressing  his  re- 
 sentment of  it  in  loud  complaints  ;  so  that  Cleopatra,  for 
 fear  of  him,  but,  as  she  pretended,  to  secure  herself 
 from  the  enemy,  fled  to  a  monument,  which  she  caused 
 t  >  be  built  of  a  great  height,  and  wonderful  structure, 
 and  having  there  shut  herself  up  with  two  maids  and  one 
 eunuch,  she  had  it  given  out  that  she  was  dead.  An- 
 thony no  sooner  heard  the  news,  but,  supposing  it  to  be 
 true,  fell  upon  his  sword  ;  however,  having  intelligence 
 some  time  after,  that  Cleopatra  was  still  alive,  he  order- 
 ed those  about  him  to  carry  him  to  her  monument,  where 
 might  be  seen  one  of  the  most  deplorable  spectacles  that 
 can  lie  imagined.  Anthony,  all  over  bloody,  and  breath- 
 ing out  his  last,  was,  by  the  hands  of  Cleopatra  and  her 
 two  maids,  drawn  up  by  the  ropes  and  pulleys  that  were 
 employed  in  the  building,  to  the  top  of  the  monument 
 and  there,  in  a  few  moments,  expired  in  her  arms. 
 
 After  the  death  of  Anthony,  the  great  care  of  Octavi- 
 anus was  to  make  himself  master  of  Cleopatra's  person 
 and  riches  :  of  her  person  to  adorn  his  triumph  ;  and  of  her 
 riches  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  war:  but  after  he  had 
 luckily  compassed  both,  she,  having  private  notice  giv- 
 en her  of  her  being  designed  to  be  carried  to  Rome,  to 
 make  part  of  the  show  in  her  conqueror's  triumph,  caus- 
 ed herself  "  to  be  bitten  with  an  asp, and  so,  to  avoid  this 
 
 n  The  asp  i-  a  serpent  of  Egypt  and  Libya,  and  proper  only 
 to  those  climates.  Those  that  air  bitten  by  it  die  within  time 
 hours,  m  a  kind  of  gentle  sleep  or  lethargy,  without  any  srnsa- 
 
 ti' f  pain ;  and  therefore  Cleopatra,  who  had  experienced  all 
 
 kinds  oi  poisons  upon  other  creatures,  mad.;  choice  of  this,  as 
 the  easiest  way  of  dying;  and,  to  deceive  her  keepers,  kept  an 
 asp  always  hid.  in  her  chamber,  under  figs,  grapes,  and  flowers, 
 which,  when  she  was  determined  to  die,  she  took  and  held  t<. 
 
 M.  5410.  A.  C.  I.  JOS.  HIST.  h.  xiii.e.  19— end  OFb.xv. 
 
 infamy,  h  died,  after  she  had  reigned,  from    the  death 
 of  her    father,  twenty-two   years,  and  lived  thirty-nine. 
 
 Octavianus,  '  though  much  concerned  for  having  thus 
 lost  the  chief  glory  of  his  triumph,  did  nevertheless  make 
 for  Cleopatra,  as  he  had  permitted  her  to  make  for  An- 
 thony, a  splendid  and  royal  funeral.  He  had  them  both 
 deposited  in  the  same  monument  which  they  had  begun, 
 and  gave  orders  to  have  it  finished.  Having  thus  settled 
 his  affairs  in  Egypt,  and  cut  oft*  all  those  from  whom  he 
 might  expect  any  fresh  disturbances,  he  made  a  review 
 of  the  several  provinces  of  the  Lesser  Asia,  and  the  isles 
 adjoining,  and  so,  passing  through  Greece,  returned  to 
 Rome,  where  he  triumphed  for  three  days  successively, 
 for  his  victory  over  the  Dalmatians,  and  for  the  sea-fight 
 at  Actium,  and  for  the  conquest  of  Egypt ;  in  the  last  of 
 which  were  led  before  him  the  children  of  Cleopatra, 
 and  though  herself  had  escaped  that  fate,  her  effigy  was 
 carried  in  procession,  with  an  asp  hanging  at  her  arm, 
 to  denote  the  manner  of  her  death. 
 
 After  this  triumph,  he  held  a  private  consultation  with 
 Agrippa  and  Mecaanas,  his  two  chief  ministers  and  prin- 
 cipal instruments  of  his  greatness,  whether  he  should 
 restore  the  commonwealth  to  its  ancient  state,  or  retain 
 the  sovereign  power.  Agrippa  was  for  restoring,  but 
 Meca^nas  for  the  retaining  part ;  whereupon  Octavianus, 
 knowing  that  the  senate  was  tilled  with  his  creatures, 
 whose  fortunes  depended  on  his  holding  the  sovereign- 
 ty, proposed  indeed,  in  a  formal  speech,  to  resign  his 
 authority  ;  but,  no  sooner  was  the  proposal  made,  than 
 the  whole  senate,  with  a  unanimous  voice,  dissuaded 
 him  from  it,  and,  with  all  manner  of  arguments,  pressed 
 him  to  take  upon  him  the  sole  administration  of  the  go- 
 vernment, which,  with  much  seeming  reluctancy,  at  length 
 he  consented  to.  But  by  no  means  would  he  submit  to 
 accept  of  it  for  a  longer  term  than  ten  years,  though 
 from  ten  years  to  ten  years,  upon  one  pretence  or  other, 
 he  continued  himself  in  it  as  long  as  he  lived,  and  so 
 transmitted  it  to  his  successors. 
 
 With  this  new  power  the  senate  was  determined  to 
 confer  on  him  a  new  name.  Himself  iiad  taken  upon 
 him  the  common  title  of  imperator ,  which  the  soldiers, 
 during  the  times  of  the  republic,  used  to  give  to  victori- 
 ous generals  ;  but  this  was  not  thought  adequate  to  his 
 merit :  and  therefore,  since  the  word  Augustus  seemed  to 
 signify  something  that,  above  human,  was  sacred  and 
 venerable,  this  was  made  choice  of,  and,  by  the  general 
 suffrage  of  the  senate,  first  given  to  him,  with  many 
 more  things  decreed  to  his  honour,  by  the  flattery  of 
 some  who  courted  his  favour,  and  the  fear  of  others, 
 who  dreaded  his  power. 
 
 Augustus,  for  so  we  must  now  call  him,  having  raised 
 himself  to  this  height  of  power  and  glory,  as  soon  as 
 Lepidus, c    who  had  been    pontifex    maximus,  or   high 
 
 1  Dion  Cassias,  b.  ii.  ;  and  Suetonius  on  Octavianus. 
 
 her  arm,  and,  soon  after  its  biting  her,  fell  into  a  sleep,  and  so 
 died. 
 
 l>  In  her  death  ended  the  reign  of  the  family  of  the  Ptole- 
 mies in  Egypt,  which  hereupon  was  reduced  into  the  form  of  a 
 Roman  province,  and  was  governed  by  a  prefect  sent,  thither 
 from  Rome.  Under  this  form  it  continued  a  province  of  the 
 Roman  empire  six  hundred  and  seventy  years,  till  it,  was  taken 
 from  them  by  the  Saracens,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  641.— Pri- 
 dea/ux's  Connection,  anno  30. 
 
 c  Tin's  Lepidus  was  one  of  the  triumvirate  with  Octavianus 
 and    Anthony,  but   a  man  of  no  manner  of  merit.      He  joined 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BABYLONISH  CAPTIVITY,  &c. 
 
 819 
 
 A.  M.4001.  A.C.3j  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 
 priest  of  Rome,  was  dead,  assumed  to  himself,  as  did 
 his  successors  in  the  empire,  that  office  ;  and  the  first 
 tiling  lie  did,  was  to  examine  into  the  prophetical  books, 
 which  at  that  time  went  abroad  under  the  name  of  the 
 sibyls.  "■ 
 
 That  in  the  reign  of  Tarquinius  Superbus,  there  came 
 a  strange  woman  to  Rome,  who  offered  to  sell  to  the 
 king  nine  volumes  of  these  sibylline  oracles,  but,  upon 
 Ins  refusing  to  purchase  them,  burnt  three  of  them,  and 
 afterwards  coming-  with  six,  and  being-  rejected,  burnt 
 three  more,  and  yet  at  last  obtained  the  full  amount  of 
 what  she  had  asked  at  first  for  the  three  remaining- :  that 
 these  volumes  when  purchased,  1  were  laid  up  in  the 
 capitol,  committed  to  the  custody  of  proper  officers, 
 never  consulted  but  upon  great  exigences  of  state,  and 
 carefully  preserved,  until  at  the  burning  of  the  capitol 
 in  the  civil  wars  between  Sylla  and  Marius,  they  hap- 
 pened to  be  consumed :  that,  upon  the  rebuilding-  of  the 
 Capitol,  2  the  Romans,  with  great  care,  made  another 
 collection  of  sibylline  oracles  from  several  countries, 
 and,  after  they  had  selected  such  as  their  church  and 
 state  did  approve  of  for  their  purpose,  laid  them  up  in 
 the  new  capitol,  instead  of  those  which  the  fire  had  con- 
 sumed ;  that,  besides  those  capitoline  volumes,  there  were 
 a  great  many  more  sibylline  oracles  in  the  world,3  which 
 Augustus,  in  the  beginning-  of  his  office  of  pontifex  maxi- 
 
 1  Dionys.  Haliear.  b.  iv. ;  Pliny's  Natural  History,  b.  xxiii. ; 
 Solin.  Polyliist.  b.  ii. :  ami  Aul.  Gel.  b.  i.  c.  19. 
 
 2  Tally  on  Divination,  b.  i. ;  Dionys.  Haliear.  and  Aul.   Gel. 
 ubi  supra. 
 
 3  Lactantius  on  a  false  Religion,  b.  vi.  and  on  the  Wrath  of 
 God,  c.  xxii. 
 
 Ovtavianus,  in  carrying  on  the  war  against  Sextus  Pompeius,  the 
 son  of  Pompey  the  Gnat ;  but  when  he  arrogated  the  whole 
 honour  of  their  successes  to  himself,  Octavianus  drew  overall  his 
 army  to  desert  him,  and  so  reduced  him  to  the  necessity  of  begging 
 his  life,  and  of  being  content  to  lead  the  remainder  of  it  in  a  pri- 
 vate and  mean  condition,  at  Circeii,  a  small  maritime  town 
 among  the  Latins,  where  he  was  sent  into  banishment,  and 
 there  died  in  obscurity  and  contempt. — Suetonius  in  Octavio, 
 b.  xvi.;  Appian  on  the  Civil  Wars,  b.  v.;  L.  Florics,  b.  iv.  c.  8. 
 a  The  sibyls  were  women  of  ancient  times  said  to  be  endued 
 with  a  prophetic  spirit,  and  to  have  delivered  oracles,  foreshow- 
 ing the  fates  and  destinies  of  kingdoms.  We  have  in  the  writ- 
 ings of  the  ancients,  mention  made  often  of  them:  the  Cumsean, 
 the  Cumanian,  the  Persian,  the  Ilellespontican,  the  Lybian,  the 
 Samian,  the  Delphian,  the  Phrygian,  the  Tihurtine,  and  the 
 Erythraean:  but  some  are  of  opinion,  that  the  Cuma:an  and  the 
 Erythraean  was  one  and  the  same  sibyl:  that  she  was  born  at 
 Erythrae  in  Ionia,  and  therefore  was  by  the  Greeks  called  Erythra;; 
 lut,  having  removed  from  Erythrae  to  Cuma:  in  Italy,  and  there 
 delivered  all  her  oracles,  she  was  from  thence  by  the  Romans 
 and  Italians  called  Cumaa.  These  sibyls,  among  the  pagans, 
 were  what  the  prophets  and  prophetesses  were  accounted  among 
 the  Hebrews;  and,  as  the  most  ancient  of  these  were  named 
 Sibylla,  so  all  others  of  the  same  sex.  who  pretended  to  the  like 
 fatidical  spirit,  were  called  sibyls.  The  place  from  whence 
 these  sibyls  gave  out,  their  oracles,  was  generally  a  cave  or  sub- 
 terraneous vault,  if  we  may  judge  of  others  by  that  at  Cuma;, 
 whereof  Justin  Martyr  gives  us  this  account.  "  I  have  seen  the 
 place,"  says  he,  "  which  is  a  large  chapel,  or  oratory,  hewn  out 
 of  the  main  rock,  and  must  have  been  a  work  of  great  labour. 
 Here  the  sibyl,  as  the  inhabitants,  who  had  a  tradition  thereof, 
 told  me,  gave  forth  oracles.  In  the  middle  of  the  chapel  they 
 showed  me  three  hollow  places  hewn  out  of  the  same  rock,  in 
 which,  when  filled  with  water,  the  Sibyl  used  to  Bathe  herself, 
 and  so  having  put  on  her  garment  retired  into  the  innermost  cell 
 ot  the  chapel,  which  was  likewise  hewn  out  of  the  same  rock,  and 
 having  placed  herself  upon  an  elevated  seat,  which  jutted  out  into 
 the  middle  of  the  cell,  she  there  uttered  her  oracles.'' — Lactan- 
 tius  on  a  False  Religion,  b.  i.  c.  6;  Salmasius  in  his  Es, 
 Solinus,  p.  8:  and  Justin  Martyr's  Exhortation  to  the  Greeks. 
 
 M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  JOS.  HIST.b.  xiii.r.  19— r.NDor  b.  xv. 
 
 mus,  endeavoured  to  collect,  and  what  he  reputed  genu- 
 ine, or  rather  what  suited  his  purpose  best,  these  he 
 deposited  likewise  in  the  capitol,  burning  the  rest:  that 
 4  Tiberius  made  another  review  of  these  oracles,  and 
 condemned  several  volumes  of  them  to  the  flames  ;  but 
 the  capitoline  copies  were  still  held  in  great  veneration, 
 0  until  they  fell  into  disgrace  in  the  reign  of  Honorius, 
 and,  by  his  order  and  appointment,  were  burnt  and  de- 
 stroyed ;  6  these  are  facts  that  are  confirmed  by  all  anti- 
 quity, and  what  comprise  indeed  the  whole  history  of 
 these  sibylline  writings.  But  if  they  were  all  thus  finally 
 destroyed,  the  question  is,  how  came  we  by  the  present 
 collection  of  Greek  verses,  comprised  in  eight  books, 
 which  go  under  the  name  of  sibyls,  and  of  what  merit 
 and  authority  are  we  to  account  them  ? 
 
 Now,  in  answer  to  this,  it  is  to  be  observed,  7  that, 
 long  before  the  times  of  Christianity,  there  were  extant, 
 among  the  heathens,  several  oracles,  or  predictions  of 
 future  events,  ascribed  to  one  or  more  of  these  pro- 
 phetesses, who  were  styled  sibyls,  that  these  predictions 
 were  held  in  great  esteem  among  the  ancients,  as  con- 
 taining notions  consonant  to  true  religion,  the  worship 
 of  one  God,  the  conflagration  of  the  world,  the  renova- 
 tion of  it  again,  the  general  resurrection,  and  the  rewards 
 and  punishments  hereafter ;  and  that  both  heathen, 
 Jewish,  and  Christian  authors,  who  make  mention  of 
 these  sibyls  give  a  strong  sanction  to  their  authority. 
 Varro  looks  upon  them  as  inspired  prophetesses  ;  Virgil 
 does  them  honour  in  citing  their  predictions ;  Josephus 
 thinks  them  useful  to  establish  some  positions  in 
 sacred  history ;  and  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  as  he  quotes 
 a  more  ancient  author  for  it,  brings  in  St  Paul  address- 
 ing himself  to  a  heathen  audience  in  these  words : 
 "  Take  the  Greek  books  in  your  hands,  read  the  sibyls, 
 and  see  what  they  say  of  the  unity  of  God,  and  how  they 
 foretel  what  is  to  come,  and  you  will  there  (dearly  lind 
 the  Son  of  God."  It  must  be  acknowledged,  indeed, 
 that  the  whole  collection  of  these  sibylline  oracles,  as 
 they  are  now  extant,  in  eight  entire  books,  is  far  from 
 being  genuine.  The  first,  second,  and  most  of  the  fifth, 
 all  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  books,  seem  to  be  a 
 manifest  forgery,  the  spurious  production  of  some  zealous 
 Christian,  perhaps  about  the  middle  of  the  second  age 
 after  Christ,  for  the  promotion  of  the  religion  he  pro- 
 fessed. 
 
 s  In  one  place,  he  explicitly  declares  himself  to  be  a 
 Christian,  and  speaks  of  the  whole  mystery  of  our  sal- 
 vation, and  of  the  methods  whereby  it  was  accomplished  ; 
 of  the  incarnation  and  birth,  the  circumcision  and  death, 
 the  resurrection  and  ascension  of  our  Saviour  Christ, 
 with  as  much  accuracy  as  do  the  evangelists.  '  In  another 
 place  he  mentions  Christ's  future  reigning  here  upon 
 earth,  according  to  the  notion  of  the  niillennarians, 
 which  was  not  started  till  the  second  century ;  and,  I0  in 
 another,  gives  us  a  succession  of  the  Roman  emperors, 
 in  their  order,  from  Julius  Caesar  to  Antoninus  Pius, 
 together  with  the  adoption  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  and 
 Lucius  Verus,  which  has  much  more  the  air  of  an  histori- 
 cal narrative,  than  a  prophetic  prediction. 
 
 4  Sueton  in  Octavio. 
 
 5  Dion.  Cassius,  b.  Ivii.;  Tacit.  Annal.  b.  vi. 
 
 6  Aug.  de  Civitate  Dei,  b.  xxiii.  c.  53,  54. 
 
 7  Winston's  Vindication  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles. 
 
 8  B.  viii.  9  Ibid.  b.  ii.  10  Ibid.  b. 
 
820 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 LBook  VII. 
 
 A.M.  4031.  A.C.3;  OR,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.54I0.  A.  C.I.JOS.  HIST.  b.  xiii.c.  19-eno  of  b.  XV. 
 
 These  things  discover  a  forgery,  at  least  a  great  part 
 of  these  pretended  oracles,  a  little  too  palpably  ;  but 
 then,  it  must  be  observed,  that  neither  the  heathens  be- 
 fore, nor  the  Christians  for  the  three  first  centuries  after 
 Christ,  knew  any  thing  of  these  spurious  pieces,  because 
 we  no  where  find  them  making  any  citations  from  them ; 
 but  now,  '  from  the  whole  proem,  the  greatest  part  of  the 
 third,  all  the  fourth,  and  a  small  branch  of  the  fifth  book, 
 which  are  the  only  parts  of  the  present  collection,  that  are 
 either  cited  or  referred  to  by  the  ancient  heathens,  their 
 quotations  are  innumerable  :  and  therefore  we  may  justly 
 infer,  that  the  present  copy  of  eight  books  is  not  the 
 same  with  what  was  extant  before,  and  in  the  first  ages 
 of  Christianity,  but  widely  different  from  it;  that  those 
 are  the  genuine  prophecies  only,  which  we  find  the 
 ancient  heathens,  and  primitive  Christians,  so  frequent- 
 ly citing,  and  so  generally  esteeming,  upon  the  account 
 of  their  divine  inspiration  ;  and  that  the  rest,  which  have 
 visible  marks  of  forgery  upon  them,  were  probably  the 
 spurious  additions  of  such  conceited  Christians  as  called 
 themselves  Gnostics :  because  Epiphanius  tells  us,  that 
 this  set  of  men  boasted  of  having  books  written  by  the 
 daughter  of  Noah,  even  as  the  pretended  prophetess,  at 
 the  end  of  the  third  book,  which  is  a  spurious  addition 
 to  what  went  before,  gives  us  to  know  that  she  was  a 
 wife  to  one  of  the  three  sons  of  Noah,  and  was  with  him 
 in  the  ark  during  the  whole  time  of  the  deluge. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that 
 though  in  the  collection  which  we  now  have  of  the 
 sibylline  prophecies,  several  whole  books,  and  some 
 parts  in  others,  are  confessedly  spurious,  yet  others  there 
 are,  which  have  all  the  evidences  we  can  desire  of  their 
 being  genuine  :  and  therefore  to  condemn  them  all  in 
 the  Jump,  and,  because  some  appear  to  be  palpable 
 forgeries,  to  include  all  under  the  same  category,  is  an 
 act  of  great  injustice. 
 
 If  indeed  we  attend  ever  so  little  to  the  contents  of 
 those  oracles,  which  we  deem  genuine,  we  cannot  but 
 perceive,  that  neither  heathens,  Jews,  nor  Christians, 
 could  consistently  with  themselves,  be  any  ways  the 
 forgers  of  them.  2  The  heathens  could  not,  because  they 
 are  directly  levelled  against  their  wickedness,  idolatry, 
 and  polytheism.  The  Jews  could  not,  because  they 
 foretell  the  subversion  of  their  state  and  temple  by  the 
 Romans,  which  we  all  know  they  would  never  believe  : 
 and  the  Christians  could  not,  because  many  quotations 
 out  of  these  oracles  are  found  in  other  authors  previous 
 to  Christianity ;  and  in  the  beginning  of  it  several  of 
 them  are  cited  by  the  first  Christians,  in  the  open  view 
 of  all  men,  as  very  ancient  at  that  time,  very  well  known, 
 and  universally  received  over  all  the  heathen  world. 
 
 If  then  these  genuine  prophecies  of  the  sibyls  were 
 not  of  human  contrivance  and  invention,  the  conclusive 
 question  is,  from  whence  was  it  that  they  derived  their 
 original?  God,  no  doubt,  who  forced  Balaam,  contrary 
 to  his  will,  to  bless  the  Israelites,  and  to  prophecy  3  '  the 
 coming  (if  his  Son  out  of  Jacob,'  could,  in  what  manner 
 he  pleased,  control  the  diabolical    spirits,  which    pre- 
 
 '  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  b.  v. 
 -'  Wniston's  Vindication  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles. 
 3  Num.  xxiv.  5,  &c. 
 
 sided  in  the  heathen  oracles,  and  make  them  utter  things 
 even  relating  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  which 
 otherwise  they  might  have  no  incluiation  to  utter.  But 
 there  is  no  necessity  for  our  having  recourse  to  this  ex- 
 traordinary expedient ;  since  the  contents  of  the  sibylline 
 oracles,  those  I  mean  that  are  genuine,  are  every  where 
 agTeeable  to  the  scriptures,  and  foretell,  for  the  main  part, 
 the  same  great  revolutions  of  providence  that  they  do  ;  it 
 is  no  way  inconsistent  with  the  divine  attributes  to  sup- 
 pose, that  though  God  gave  positive  laws,  or  an  institu- 
 tion of  religious  worship  to  the  Jews  only,  and  intrusted 
 none  but  them  with  those  divine  oracles,  which  related 
 to  that  worship  ;  yet  he  might  not  wholly  confine  divine 
 inspiration  to  that  nation,  but  might  support  the  law  and 
 religion  of  nature,  and  the  right  worship  of  himself,  as 
 the  one  true  God,  among  the  heathens  likewise,  by  the 
 help  of  these  oracles,  until 4  '  the  day  dawned,'  that  is, 
 a  more  perfect  revelation  came,  and  '  he  who  commanded 
 the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  gave  the  light  of  the 
 knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
 Christ.'  a 
 
 *  2  Cor.  iv.  6. 
 a  The  most  rational  and  consistent  account  of  the  sibylline 
 oracles,  that  is  perhaps  anywhere  to  be  found  within  a  small 
 compass,  is  given  by  Bishop  Horsley  in  his  ingenious  '  Disser- 
 tation on  the  prophecies  of  the  Messiah  dispersed  among  the 
 Heathen.'  In  that  dissertation  there  are  one  or  two  positions 
 strenuously  maintained,  which  I  cannot  admit;  but  the  general 
 principle  on  which  the  reasoning  rests  as  its  foundation,  no  re- 
 flecting Christian  can,  I  think,  call  in  question.  It  is,  that  the 
 rise  and  progress  of  idolatry  were  partial  and  gradual:  that  all 
 nations  did  not  become  idolaters  at  the  same  period  of  time ;  that 
 the  first  idolaters  no  where  abjured  the  worship  of  the  true  God, 
 when  they  began  to  worship  subordinate  deities  in  conjunction 
 with  him;  and  that  they  carefully  collected  and  religiously  pre- 
 served the  prophecies  of  the  patriarchal  ages,  until  they  degener- 
 ated so  far  as  to  forget  the  worship  of  the  true  God  entirely. 
 Even  then  they  would  not  destroy  the  sacred  books  of  their  more 
 orthodox  and  pious  ancestors,  but  would  rather  add  to  them 
 other  predictions  or  pretended  predictions,  derived  from  an  im- 
 pure source ;  for,  as  he  jnstly  observes,  superstition  has  uniformly 
 been  in  its  own  nature  timid,  and  more  likely  to  give  credit  to 
 false  predictions  than  to  destroy  the  books  which  contain  predic- 
 tions that  are  true.  He  supposes  therefore  that  the  sybils  were 
 fictitious  beings  who  never  really  existed;  but  that  the  oracles 
 attributed  to  them  were  collections  of  true  and  false  prophecies — 
 of  prophecies  which  had  really  been  delivered  under  the  influence 
 of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  the  patriarchs  of  the  human  race,  and  of 
 false  prophecies  which  had  been  added  to  these  by  the  heathen 
 priests  and  soothsayers,  to  whom  were  committed  the  original 
 sacred  oracles.  Such  a  mixture  of  truth  and  imposture  he  sup- 
 poses to  have  constituted  the  matter  of  the  sybilline  books  which 
 were  preserved  in  the  capitol  of  Rome;  which  the  early  fathers 
 of  the  Christian  church,  such  as  Justin  Martyr  and  Clemens 
 Alexandrinus  quoted;  and  which  furnished  Virgil  with  the 
 ideas  which  run  through  his  sublime  eclogue  entitled  Pollio. 
 Four-fifths  of  the  oracles  quoted  from  these  books  by  the  latter 
 fathers,  after  pious  frauds  became  frequent,  he  justly  considers 
 as  palpable  forgeries  by  some  indiscreet  Christians,  who  absurdly 
 hoped  to  serve  their  cause  by  means  calculated  to  injure  it  among 
 thinking  men.  It  is  not,  I  confess,  clear  to  me  that  Virgil  took 
 his  ideas  from  the  sybilline  books,  though  he  quotes  them,  or 
 rather  refers  to  them ;  for  the  Old  Testament,  having  long  be- 
 fore been  translated  into  Greek,  was  accessible  to  Virgil,  who 
 was  himself  a  learned  man  of  great  curiosity;  though,  wishing  to 
 pay  a  compliment  to  a  great  man  of  Rome,  he  might  not  choose 
 to  rest  the  foundation  of  that  compliment  upon  the  sacred  books 
 of  a  people  so  generally  hated  and  despised  as  were  the  Jews  by 
 the  Romans. — Bp.  Ghig. — Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 HISTORY   OF  THE   NEW   TESTAMENT. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — Judaism  preparatory  to  CJiristianity. 
 
 "  That  the  Mosaic  dispensation  was  from  the  first  intend- 
 ed not  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  chosen  people,  but 
 as  instrumental  to  the  introduction  of  an  universal  blessing 
 to  mankind,  is  evident  from  the  very  first  promise  made 
 to  Abraham  ;  which  to  the  personal  and  national  blessing, 
 with  which  it  encouraged  and  rewarded  the  faith  and 
 obedience  of  the  patriarch,  added  this  remarkable  de- 
 claration, as  the  crown  and  completion  of  all :  '  'And 
 in  thee  shall  all  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed ;'  a  de- 
 claration again  repeated  to  the  same  patriarch  on  two 
 solemn  occasions.  2  First  on  disclosing  to  him  the  in- 
 tended punishment  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  receiv- 
 ing with  the  most  gracious  condescension,  his  humble 
 but  earnest  intercession  in  favour  of  those  few  righteous 
 who  might  be  found  in  those  receptacles  of  guilt ;  and 
 again  still  more  emphatically,  in  consequence  of  his 
 obeying  the  voice  of  God,  and  3  '  and  not  withholding 
 his  son,  his  only  son.' 
 
 "  It  deserves  to  be  particularly  noticed,  that  in  the  for- 
 mer of  these  transactions,  the  patriarch  interceding  with 
 God,  '  '  as  Judge  of  all  the  earth,'  was  an  evident  re- 
 presentation of  the  Great  Intercessor  whose  appearance 
 was  predicted  in  the  promised  blessing:  and  that  in  the 
 latter  he  beheld,  in  the  commanding  sacrifice,  and  the 
 providential  restoration  of  his  only  begotten  son,  the 
 clear  representation  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God ; 
 prefiguring  at  once  the  voluntary  sacrifice  and  the  tri- 
 umphant resurrection  of  that  Christ  who  was  the  promised 
 seed,  '  in  whom  all  the  nations  of  the  eartli  were  to  be 
 blessed.'  So  that  in  both  cases,  but  especially  the  last, 
 the  nature  of  the  promised  blessing  was  not  obscurely 
 intimated,  by  the  immediate  circumstances  attending  the 
 divine  declaration. 
 
 "  As  the  patriarch  thus  '  rejoiced  to  behold  the  day  of 
 Christ,'  it  cannot  be  doubted  but  he  communicated  to  his 
 
 family  this  joyful  hope,  and  explained  the  great  object 
 to  which  it  was  directed  ;  so  that  when  the  same  promise 
 was  solemnly  renewed,  first  to  Isaac;,  5  and  afterwards  to 
 Jacob,  6  its  meaning  and  object  were  distinctly  under- 
 stood by  these  patriarchs  :  and  that  wherever  the  bles- 
 sing of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  is  referred  to,  or  the 
 covenant  which  God  made  with  them  and  their  posterity 
 recognized  as  the  glory  and  the  hope  of  Israel ;  this  es- 
 sential part  of  it,  the  promise  of  the  Messiah,  and  the 
 blessing  by  him  to  be  communicated  to  all  the  nations  of 
 the  earth,  must  have  been  equally  and  perpetually  recog- 
 nized as  the  great  object  of  the  Jewish  scheme,  to  which 
 every  other  part  of  it  was  instrumental  and  subordinate. 
 So  that  the  original  foundation  and  primary  characteris- 
 tic of  this  scheme,  far  from  being  partial  and  exclusive, 
 avowedly  extended  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and 
 centered  in  that  Messiah,  who  is  the  grand  object  of  all 
 the  divine  dispensations,  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
 to  its  close. 
 
 "  This  original  and  perpetual  purpose  of  God,  to  extend 
 the  effects  of  the  Jewish  dispensation  to  all  the  nations  of 
 the  earth,  is  also  most  clearly  recognized  in  the  cele- 
 brated prophecy  of  Jacob  ;  *  *  The  sceptre  shall  not  de- 
 part from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between  his  feet, 
 until  Shiloh  come  ;  and  unto  him  shall  the  gathering  of 
 the  people  be.'  Whatever  difference  of  opinion  may 
 exist  as  to  the  event  described,  and  the  period  marked 
 out  by  the  '  sceptre's  departing  from  Judah,  and  the  law- 
 giver from  between  his  feet ;'  there  appears  no  reason- 
 able ground  for  doubting,  that  the  word  Shiloh  designates 
 the  Messiah,  and  that  the  gathering  of  the  people  to  him, 
 
 *  Gen.  xxvi.  4. 
 
 6  Ibid,  xxviii.  14. 
 
 »  Gen.  xii.  3. 
 
 2  Ibid,  xviii. 
 1  Ibid,  xviii.  25. 
 
 3  Ibid.  x\ii,   18. 
 
 a  Gen.  xlix.  10.  I  am  disposed  to  adopt  Warburton's  inter- 
 pretation of  this  prophecy,  in  preference  to  any  other;  and  to 
 believe  that  it  denoted  the  continuance  of  the  theocratic  sceptre 
 over  the  Jews,  which  remained  until  our  Saviour  came,  who  insti- 
 tuted in  its  place  his  kingdom  '  not  of  this  world.'  (See  Warhurton, 
 b.  v.  sect.  3.  subsect  3.  roL  iv.  p.  243—866.)  The  interpreta- 
 tion of  Patrick  from  YVagenseil,  seems  the  next  in  clearness  and 
 probability.  Consult  also  Newton's  fourth  Dissertation,  l'oli 
 Synopsin,  Dcdd,  and  the  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  in  locum. 
 
822 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 presignifies  the  extension  of  the  church  to  all   nations 
 without  distinction. 
 
 "  The  admission  of  the  Gentiles  into  the  church  of  God, 
 is  indeed  an  event  which  the  inspired  psalmist  predicts 
 in  a  variety  of  passages  with  the  greatest  clearness  ;  and 
 which  all  the  prophets  dwell  on  with  such  distinctness, 
 copiousness  and  animation,  as  prove  beyond  controversy, 
 that  this  great  consummation  was  uninterruptedly  the 
 leading  object  of  the  divine  purposes  and  communica- 
 tions, to  which  the  whole  Jewish  scheme  was  merely  pre- 
 paratory and  subordinate.  It  is  expedient  to  cite  a  few 
 passages  to  illustrate  this  assertion  ;  a  few,  however,  will 
 be  sufficient,  for  its  truth  is  so  certain,  it  scarcely  requires 
 confirmation,  and  the  passages  establishing  it  are  so 
 numerous,  to  transcribe  them  all  would  be  at  once  tedi- 
 ous and  unnecessary. 
 
 "  In  the  second  psalm,  which  is  clearly  and  exclusively 
 prophetic  of  the  Messiah,  the  psalmist  asks,  '  AVhy  do 
 the  heathen  rage,  and  the  people  imagine  a  vain  thing? 
 The  kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  the  rulers  take 
 counsel  together  against  the  Lord,  and  against  his  a 
 Anointed  ;  saying,  Let  us  break  the  bands  asunder,  and 
 cast  away  their  cords  from  us.'  This  clear  prophecy  of 
 the  resistance  which  would  be  attempted,  against  the  es- 
 tablishment of  the  Messiah's  kingdom,  is  followed  by  as 
 clear  a  prediction  that  this  opposition  would  be  ineffec- 
 tual. '  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh,  the 
 Lord  shall  have  them  in  derision.  Then  shall  he  speak 
 unto  them  in  his  wrath  and  vex  them  in  his  sore  displea- 
 sure. Yet  have  I  set  my  king  upon  my  holy  hill  of 
 Zion  ;  I  will  declare  the  decree  the  Lord  hath  said  unto 
 me,  Thou  art  my  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee.' 
 Thus,  emphatically  and  distinctly  does  the  inspired  pen- 
 man predict  the  divine  nature  and  supreme  exaltation  of 
 the  Messiah,  and  he  then  proceeds  to  declare  the  univer- 
 sal extent  of  his  dominion.  '  Ask  of  me  and  I  shall  give 
 thee  the  heathen  for  thine  inheritance,  and  the  utter- 
 most parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession :  thou  shalt 
 break  them  with  a  rod  of  iron,  thou  shalt  dash  them 
 in  pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel.  Be  wise  now  there- 
 fore, 0  ye  kings,  be  instructed,  ye  judges  of  the  earth  ; 
 serve  the  Lord  with  fear,  and  rejoice  with  trembling  : 
 kiss  the  Son,  lest  he  be  angry,  and  ye  perish  from  the 
 way  ;  when  his  wrath  is  kindled  but  a  little,  blessed  are 
 all  they  that  put  their  trust  in  him.'  It  seems  impossible 
 to  describe  in  clearer  terms  the  Messiah's  reign,  as  not 
 confined  like  the  Mosaic  law  to  a  single  nation,  but  in- 
 cluding within  its  sway  all  nations  and  regions  of  the 
 earth. 
 
 "  In  the  twenty-second  psalm,  which  describes  with 
 equal  distinctness,  the  rejection,  the  sufferings,  and  the 
 deatli  of  the  appointed  Saviour,  even  to  the  minutest 
 
 a  All  the  versions  agree  in  translating  this  passage  in  a  man- 
 ner applicable  to  the  Messiah.  The  Chaldee  Targum  uses  the 
 xery  word,  Messiah,  and  the  Seventy  the  word  Christ  or  Anoint- 
 ed. Sue  Bihlia  Polyglotta  Waltoni ;  indeed  the  seventh,  eighth, 
 arid  twelfth  verses  are  entirely  incapable  of  being  fully  accom- 
 plished  or  charly  understood,  except  as  applied  to  the  Messiah. 
 The  only  variety  of  any  moment  is  in  the  eleventh  verse,  where 
 instead  of  '  kiss  the  Son,'  that  is,  as  we  explain  it,  adore  him,  all 
 the  versions  except  the  Syriac  read,  '  receive  instruction  lest  the 
 Lord  be  aiizry,'  &c.  This  makes  the  sense  more  clear  and  co- 
 herent,  and  is  justified  by  a  very  slight  change  in  the  original. 
 ^  el  Efoubigant,  whose  authority  is  considerable,  retains  the  pre- 
 sent reading  of  our  Hebrew  text,  and  translates  it,  « adore  the 
 Son.' 
 
 particulars  of  °  '  their  piercing  his  hands  and  his  feet, 
 parting  his  garments  among  them,  and  casting  lots  upon 
 his  vesture.'  The  prophecy  goes  on  to  declare  that, 
 notwithstanding  this  apparent  depression,  God  would  re- 
 gard and  exalt  the  sufferer.  '  He  hath  not  despised  nor 
 abhorred  the  affliction  of  the  afflicted,  neither  hath  he  hid 
 his  face  from  him,  but  when  he  cried  unto  him  he  heard 
 him.'  And  it  proceeds  to  declare  that  the  final  event 
 would  be,  his  extending  universally  the  dominion  of  true 
 religion.  '  All  the  ends  of  the  world  shall  remember  and 
 turn  unto  the  Lord,  and  all  the  kindreds  of  the  nations 
 shall  worship  before  thee  ;  for  the  kingdom  is  the  Lord's, 
 and  he  is  the  governor  among  the  nations.' 
 
 "  AVith  equal  sublimity  does  the  forty-seventh  psalm  call 
 on  all  nations  ;  '  O  clap  your  hands,  all  ye  nations  ;  shout 
 unto  God  with  the  voice  of  triumph,  for  God  is  the  king 
 of  all  the  earth ;  sing  ye  praises  with  understanding, 
 God  reigneth  over  the  heathen,  God  sitteth  upon  the 
 throne  of  his  holiness  ;  the  princes  of  the  people  are  ga- 
 thered together  unto  the  people  of  the  God  of  Abraham  ; 
 for  the  shields  of  the  earth  belong  unto  God,  he  is  great- 
 ly exalted.' 
 
 "  The  sixty-seventh  and  the  seventy-second  psalms,  are 
 not  less  express  in  predicting  that  a  period  should  arrive, 
 when  the  dominion  of  the  God  of  Israel  should  be  ac- 
 knowledged by  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  The  seventy- 
 second  especially  declares,  that  a  Son  should  inherit  the 
 kingdom  of  David,  '  who  should  judge  the  people  with 
 righteousness,  and  the  poor  with  judgment ;'  and  the  ex- 
 tent and  effects  of  his  dominion  are  described  in  terms 
 applicable  only  to  the  Messiah's  reign.  '  In  his  days 
 shall  the  righteous  flourish,  and  abundance  of  peace  so 
 long  as  the  moon  endureth.  He  shall  have  dominion 
 also  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  unto  the  ends  of 
 the  earth  ;  they  that  dwell  in  the  wilderness  shall  bow 
 before  him,  and  his  enemies  shall  lick  the  dust.  The 
 kings  of  Tarshish  and  of  the  isles  shall  bring  presents, 
 the  kings  of  Arabia  and  Seba  shall  offer  gifts  ;  yea 
 all  kings  shall  fall  down  before  him,  all  rations  shall 
 serve  him.'  The  nature  of  this  homage  and  its  motives 
 are  declared  to  be  spiritual  and  religious  :  'for  he  shall 
 deliver  the  needy  when  he  crieth,  the  poor  also  and  him 
 that  hath  no  helper  ;  he  shall  spare  the  poor  and  needy, 
 and  shall  save  the  soul  of  the  needy ;  he  shall  redeem 
 their  souls  from  deceit  and  violence,  precious  shall  their 
 blood  be  in  his  sight.  His  name  shall  endure  for  ever, 
 his  name  shall  be  continued  as  long  as  the  sun,  and  men 
 shall  be  blessed  in  him,  all  nations  shall  call  him  bles- 
 sed.' Enraptured  at  the  glorious  prospect  of  the  univer- 
 sal dominion  of  him,  in  whom,  according  to  the  promise 
 made  to  Abraham,  '  all  nations  were  to  be  blessed,'  the 
 psalmist  exclaims,  '  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God,  the  God 
 of  Israel,  who  only  doeth  wondrous  things  ;  and  blessed 
 be  his  glorious  name  for  ever,  and  let  the  whole  earth 
 be  filled  with  his  glory  :    amen  and  amen.' 
 
 "  Isaiah,  the  great  evangelic  prophet  is  still  more  ex- 
 plicit, in  predicting  the  extension  of  the  Messiah's  king- 
 dom over  the  Gentile  world  :  and  that  the  character  of 
 the  religion  to  be  by  him  established,  would  be  in  the 
 highest  degree  spiritual  and  comprehensive,  free  from 
 any  local  or  national  restriction,  and  unincumbered  with 
 
 Ps.  xx.  17,  IS,  19. 
 
 b  See  Mat.  xxvii.  46,  where  our  Lord  appropriates  this  psalm 
 as  directly  applicable  to  his  sufferings. 
 
INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 823 
 
 any  burdensome  ritual  or  ceremonial  observances.  Yet 
 that  Israel  should  be  instrumental  in  forming  this  king- 
 dom, and  should,  ultimately  at  least,  partake  of  the  bless- 
 ings it  confers.  '  '  It  shall  come  to  pass,'  says  he, '  in  the 
 last  (or  latter)  days,  that  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house 
 shall  be  established  in  the  top  of  the  mountains,  and  shall 
 be  exalted  above  the  hills,  and  all  nations  shall  flow  unto 
 it.  And  many  people  shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye  and  Jet 
 us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the  house  of 
 the  God  of  Jacob,  and  he  will  teach  us  of  his  ways,  and 
 we  will  walk  in  his  paths.  For  out  of  Zion  shall  go 
 forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem, 
 and  he  shall  judge  among  the  nations,  and  shall  rebuke 
 "  many  people  ;  and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into 
 plough -shares,  and  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks  ; 
 nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither 
 shall  they  learn  war  any  more.' 
 
 "  This  prediction  of  the  extent  and  effects  of  the  Mes- 
 siah's reign,  though  exactly  descriptive  of  the  genuine 
 character  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  its  perpetual 
 tendency  to  produce  the  full  effect  here  described,  yet 
 undoubtedly  peculiarly  relates  to  a  period  in  the. history 
 of  the  church  of  Christ  not  yet  arrived  ;  to  the  final  result 
 of  a  system  yet  in  progress  :  which,  whenever  it  shall  be 
 accomplished,  will  display  in  full  lustre  the  wisdom  and 
 the  mercy  of  the  divine  dispensations  ;  but  it  is  such  a 
 result  as  the  continuance  of  the  Jewish  ritual,  and  the 
 restrictions  of  the  Jewish  law  could  never  produce.  It 
 therefore  implies  an  improvement  of  that  law,  and  a 
 breaking  down  of  that  wall  of  partition  between  Jews 
 and  Gentiles,  founded  on  the  Mosaic  ritual,  which  the 
 Messiah,  appearing  as  a  new  lawgiver,  could  alone  have 
 authority  to  remove. 
 
 "  In  various  subsequent  chapters,  the  prophet  with  still 
 greater  clearness  predicts  the  extension  of  the  Messiah's 
 kingdom  over  the  heathen  world.  I  select  only  one  pas- 
 sage; as  remarkable  from  its  connecting  this  prediction 
 with  the  declaration  of  the  Messiah's  humiliation;  and 
 therefore  proving  the  kingdom  described  by  the  prophet 
 was  spiritual  not  temporal.  2  '  And  now,  saith  the  Lord, 
 that  formed  me  from  the  womb  to  be  his  servant,  to  bring 
 Jacob  again  to  him  ;  though  Israel  be  not  gathered,  yet 
 shall  1  be  glorious  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord,  and  my  God 
 shall  be  my  strength.  And  he  said,  it  is  a  light  thing 
 that  thou  shouldest  be  my  servant,  to  raise  up  the  tribes 
 of  Judah,  and  to  restore  the  preserved  of  Israel ;  I  will 
 also  give  thee  as  a  light  to  the  Gentiles,  that  thou  mayest 
 be  my  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Thus  saith  the 
 Lord,  the  Redeemer  of  Israel,  and  his  Holy  One  :  to 
 him  whom  man  despiseth,  to  him  whom  the  nation  abhor- 
 relh,  to  a  servant  of  rulers  ;  kings  shall  see  and  arise, 
 princes  also  shall  worship  the  name  of  the  Lord  that  is 
 faithful,  and  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  and  he  shall  choose 
 thee.' 
 
 "  Thus  expressly  do  the  prophets  foretell  the  universal 
 extent  and  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  Messiah's  reign. 
 Now,  had  no  distinct  and  direct  intimation  been  given, 
 that  a  change  must  take  place  in  the  character  of  the  re- 
 ligion established  by  divine  interposition,  in  order  to  fit 
 it  for  this  greater  extension,  and  more  spiritual  efficacy  ; 
 
 1  Is.  ii.  2  et  seq  *  Is.  xlix.  5. 
 
 a  Instead  of  this  line,  'he  shall  rebuke  many  people,'  Lowth 
 translates,  •  he  shall  work  conviction  in  many  peoples,'  which 
 gives  a  much  more  clear  and  consistent  sense. 
 
 |  yet  the  nature  of  the  case  would  compel  us  to  infer  the 
 necessity  of  such  a  change. 
 
 "  A  religion  which  was  to  be  received  in  every  nation 
 and  region  of  the  globe,  could  not,  like  the  Jewish  law, 
 require  that  all  the  adult  males  of  every  nation  profess- 
 ing it,  should  visit  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  three  times 
 each  year,  to  celebrate  the  three  great  festivals  :  this 
 would  be  physically  impossible.  It  could  not  enjoin  the 
 observance  of  those  various  rites,  ceremonies,  and  insti- 
 tutions, which  were  either  commemorative  of  events,  in 
 which  the  Jewish  nation  alone  were  interested  ;  or  which 
 were  calculated  to  separate  them  from  all  other  nations, 
 by  a  marked  opposition  of  laws  and  manners  :  this  would 
 be  totally  unnatural  and  irrational,  when  it  was  predict- 
 ed that  the  Jewish  dispensation  should  terminate  in  a 
 religious  system,  calculated  to  attract,  not  to  repel  the 
 rest  of  mankind,  and  destined  to  embrace  all  the  nations 
 of  the  earth. 
 
 "  It  is  indeed  unreasonable  to  expect,  that  the  Jewish 
 lawgiver  at  the  very  moment  he  was  delivering  his  Jaw, 
 should  be  directed  by  God  to  weaken  the  reverence  of 
 the  nation  for  it,  by  declaring  that  its  duration  would  be 
 short,  and  its  obligation  transitory  ;  or  that  while  he  was 
 labouring  to  impress  the  necessity  of  avoiding  all  simi- 
 larity of  manners,  principles,  and  religion,  with  the  sur- 
 rounding nations,  he  should  at  the  same  moment  distinct- 
 ly announce,  that  it  was  for  the  sake  of  these  very  nations 
 ultimately,  that  the  peculiar  scheme  of  the  Jewish  insti- 
 tutions was  formed,  and  that  this  scheme  would  terminate 
 in  the  abolition  of  all  the  distinctions  now  established. 
 
 **  We  know  the  Jews  were  at  that  time  at  once  dull  and 
 carnally  minded,  very  averse  to  the  restraints  their  law 
 imposed,  and  above  all  to  its  prohibitions  against  imi- 
 tating the  manners  of  their  neighbours,  sharing  in  their 
 festivities  and  idolatries,  and  uniting  with  them  by  inter- 
 marriages. And  we  can  hardly  conceive  it  possible  for 
 Moses  to  have  expressed  to  them  such  sentiments  as 
 these,  without  utterly  alienating  them  from  the  system  he 
 proposed,  and  subverting  the  influence  of  his  laws,  by 
 the  very  manner  of  promulgating  them  :  and  this  without 
 the  least  conceivable  necessity  for  acting  so  hazardous 
 a  part,  or  the  prospect  of  any  advantage  to  be  derived 
 from  it. 
 
 "  The  divine  wisdom  is  indeed  most  conspicuous  in  the 
 conduct  of  this,  as  of  every  other  part  of  the  Jewish 
 scheme.  In  the  infancy  of  the  Jewish  people,  while  they 
 were  immature  in  intellect,  and  wedded  to  external  ob- 
 jects, a  law  adapted  to  that  state,  and  calculated  at  the 
 same  time  to  prepare  for  a  more  universal  and  perfect 
 religion,  was  employed  to  control  them  by  its  restraints, 
 while  it  attracted  and  engaged  them  by  its  ceremonies  and 
 its  festivals.  During  this  stage  of  their  progress  it  was 
 unnecessary,  and  would  probably  have  been  injurious, 
 to  have  announced  distinctly  the  future  abrogation  of  the 
 ceremonial  law,  and  the  admission  of  the  Gentiles  into 
 the  church  of  God.  But  .as  soon  as  the  adherence  of  the 
 people  to  that  law  was  sufficiently  secured  by  its  long 
 establishment,  and  by  the  erection  of  the  temple,  the 
 prophets  were  empowered  to  predict  this  constantly  in- 
 tended change  in  the  divine  dispensations  with  perpe- 
 tually increasing  clearness,  as  that  change  approached. 
 "  It  ought  however  to  be  observed,  that  the  Jewish  law- 
 giver, to  prevent  all  suspicion  of  inconsistency  in  the 
 divine  conduct,  not  only  recorded  the  promise  to  Abra- 
 ham and  the  prophecy  of  Jacob,  but  was  himself  em- 
 
824 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 powered  to  intimate  the  purpose  of  God,  to  send,  .at  some 
 future  period,  another  lawgiver,  authorized  to  promulgate 
 a  new  law. 
 
 "  This  seems  plainly  the  purport  of  his  celebrated  pro- 
 phecy, delivered  towards  the  close  of  his  own  ministry. 
 '  The  Lord  thy  God  will  raise  up  unto  thee  a  prophet 
 from  the  midst  of  thy  brethren,  like  unto  me  :  unto  him 
 ye  shall  hearken.  According  to  all  that  thou  desiredst 
 of  the  Lord  thy  God,  in  the  day  of  the  assembly,  saying  ; 
 Let  me  not  hear  again  the  voice  of  the  Lord  my  God, 
 neither  let  me  see  this  great  fire  any  more,  that  1  die  not. 
 And  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  they  have  well  spoken  that 
 they  have  spoken,  I  will  raise  them  up  a  prophet  from 
 among  their  brethren  like  unto  thee  ;  and  I  will  put  my 
 words  in  his  mouth,  and  he  shall  speak  unto  them  all  that 
 1  shall  command  him ;  and  it  shall  come  to  pass  that 
 w  hosoever  will  not  hearken  unto  my  words,  which  he  shall 
 speak  in  my  name,  I  will  require  it  of  him.' 
 
 "  It  has  been  justly  observed,  "  that  this  prophet  to  be 
 like  unto  Moses  must  be  a  lawgiver  ;  for  this  appears  the 
 essential  distinction  between  him  and  all  inferior  pro- 
 phets. We  cannot  suppose  the  divine  messenger  thus 
 pre-eminently  marked  out,  Mas  to  do  nothing  more  than 
 cause  the  ancient  statutes  of  his  predecessor  to  remain 
 as  originally  established  ;  since  that  essential  character 
 of  similarity  would  thus  be  wanting,  and  no  sufficient 
 reason  would  appear  for  his  mission  being  peculiarly 
 predicted.  And  since  the  promulgation  of  a  new  law 
 implies  a  change  of  the  pre-existing  system,  the  certain- 
 ty of  such  a  change  being  intended,  may  be  fairly  inferred 
 from  this  prophecy. 
 
 "  We  cannot  but  observe  how  accurately  the  meek  and 
 humble  tenor  of  our  Saviour's  life,  and  the  merciful 
 nature  of  all  his  stupendous  miracles,  accords  with  the 
 motive  assigned  by  the  Jews,  for  imploring  that  they 
 might  not  again  receive  the  will  of  God  in  the  same  man- 
 ner as  they  had  done  at  Mount  Sinai ;  even  the  over- 
 whelming terror  with  which  they  were  then  filled,  '  Let 
 me  not  hear  again  the  voice  of  the  Lord  my  God,  neither 
 let  me  see  this  great 'fire  any  more  that  I  die  not.'  God, 
 indulgent  to  this  weakness  of  huntan  nature,  approves  of 
 and  grants  this  entreaty  ;  and  as  the  mode  of  impressing 
 the  Jewish  law  was  suited  to  its  nature  as  a  system  of 
 coercion;  so  the  gospel  scheme,  which  proclaimed  not 
 only  '  *  glory  to  God  in  the  highest,'  but  '  on  earth  peace 
 and  good  will  to  man,'  was  ushered  in  with  the  most  at- 
 tractive manifestations  of  mildness  and  mercy,  benignity 
 and  love.  As  Moses  deserved  the  epithet  of  the  'meek- 
 est of  men,'  so  the  Son  of  God  displayed  meekness  and 
 forbearance  as  much  greater,  as  the  dignity  from  which 
 he  stooped  was  unspeakably  exalted,  his  voluntary  hu- 
 miliation profound,  and  his  sufferings  unparalleled. 
 How  wonderful    the  coincidence  of  the  prophetic  de- 
 
 1  Luke  ii.  14. 
 a  See  Newton's  sixth  dissertation,  where  it  seems  to  me 
 clearly  proved,  that  this  prophecy  cannot  be  applied  either  to 
 Joshua  or  any  other  successor  of  Moses,  as  judge  or  king;  nor 
 yet  to  any  single  prophet  or  succession  of  prophets;  particularly 
 from  the  three  concluding  verses  of  Deuteronomy,  probably  added 
 by  Ezra,  and  the  history  in  Numbers  xii.  from  1  to  8.  See  also 
 Mr  Faber's  Horse  Mosaics,  vol.  ii.  b.  ii.  sect.  3.  ch.  3.  This 
 learned  writer  has  very  fully  treated  of  the  subject  of  this  entire 
 Lecture  in  lus  second  book,  to  which  I  would  refer  my  reader;  as 
 I  conceive  it  unnecessary  for  me  to  dwell  more  fully  than  I  have 
 done,  on  a  subject  which  has  been  so  lately  and  amply  discussed 
 t>y  this  learned  divine. 
 
 scription  and  the  real  history !  2  '  Behold,'  the  evangelic 
 prophet  thus  anticipates  the  facts,  '  my  servant  whom  I 
 uphold,  mind  elect  in  whom  my  soul  delighteth  ;  I  have 
 put  my  Spirit  upon  him,  he  shall  bring  forth  judgment  to 
 the  Gentiles  ;  he  shall  not  cry  nor  lift  up,  nor  cause  his 
 voice  to  be  heard  in  the  street ;  a  bruised  reed  shall  he 
 not  break,  and  the  smoking  flax  shall  he  not  quench,  lie 
 shall  bring  forth  b  judgment  unto  truth  ;  he  shall  not  fail 
 nor  be  discouraged,  till  he  have  set  judgment  in  the 
 earth,  and  the  isles  shall  wait  for  his  law.'  And  again, 
 3  '  He  was  oppressed  and  afflicted,  yet  he  opened  not  his 
 mouth ;  he  is  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as 
 a  sheep  before  her  shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his 
 mouth.'  Yet  notwithstanding  this  humiliation,  he  dis- 
 played a  dignity  as  a  divine  lawgiver,  which,  no  other 
 prophet  presumed  to  claim.  '  He  spake  as  one  having 
 authority,'  as  exercising  a  right  not  only  to  explain  and 
 enforce  the  Mosaic  laws,  but  to  repeal,  to  alter,  and  to 
 improve  them  ;  as  in  the  instance  of  the  libertywith  re- 
 spect to  divorce,  which  our  Lord  states  Moses  to  have 
 yielded  to  the  Jews  '  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts  ;'  but 
 which  he  disallows,  as  inconsistent  with  the  original 
 strictness  of  the  marriage  tie,  and  the  perfect  purity  of 
 the  gospel  scheme. 
 
 "  And  to  complete  the  accurate  accomplishment  of  the 
 Mosaic  prediction,  how  awfully  is  that  clause  fulfilled, 
 which  declares  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  '  AA  hosoever  will 
 not  hearken  unto  my  words,  which  he  shall  speak  in  my 
 name,  1  will  require  it  of  him.'  The  Jewish  nation  did 
 not  hearken  to  the  promised  prophet,  and  of  the  whole 
 nation  how  awfully  has  it  been  required?  1800  years' 
 dispersion  and  degradation  has  not  yet  closed  the  effect 
 of  that  dreadful  imprecation,  '  his  blood  be  on  us  and  on 
 our  children.' 
 
 "  Thus  is  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  though  in  his  divine  nature 
 infinitely  superior,  yet  as  a  prophet  accurately  like  unto 
 Moses  ;  c  in  his  office  as  legislator  ;  in  his  full  partici- 
 pation of  the  divine  councils  and  the  divine  influence, 
 for  '  God  gave  not  the  Spirit  by  measure  unto  him  :'  in 
 the  magnitude  and  variety  of  his  miracles  :  in  the  impor- 
 tance and  permanence  of  that  religious  system  which  he 
 introduced  :  in  the  meekness  of  his  character,  and  the 
 signal  punishments  with  which  God  has  vindicated  the 
 authority  and  punished  the  neglect  of  his  laws. 
 
 "  Subsequent  intimations  of  the  intended  substitution 
 of  a  more  spiritual  religion,  and  a  more  refined  and 
 perfect  law,  in  place  of  the  Mosaic,  are  frequent  and 
 clear.  The  fact  recorded  by  the  Jewish  lawgiver,  of  the 
 great  patriarch  Abraham  having  paid  religious  reverence 
 to  Melchizedek,  '  the  priest  of  the  most  high  God ;'  re- 
 ceiving his  blessing  and  paying  him  tithes,  is  alluded  to 
 by  the  inspired  psalmist,  at  the  very  period  when  the 
 Levitical  priesthood  and  the  ceremonial  law  were  most 
 fully  established  :  when  he  describes  that  promised  ruler 
 whom  he  terms  '  his  Lord,'  declaring,  '  the  Lord  said 
 unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand,  until  I  make 
 
 2  Is.  xlii.  1.  3  Is   ]i;i    7> 
 
 b  Lowth  for  the  words  '  he  shall  bring  forth  judgment  unto 
 truth,'  reads  '  he  shall  publish  judgment  so  as  to  establish  it  per- 
 fectly ;'  which  gives  a  much  more  clear  sense. 
 
 c  For  a  variety  of  more  minute  points  of  resemblance  con- 
 sult Bishop  Newton's  sixth  dissertation:  Eusebius,  Demonstrate 
 Evangelica,  b.  i.  c.  3,  and  b.  ix.  c.  11,  and  Collatio  Philippi  a 
 Limborch  cum  erudite  Judseo,  pp.  4,  31,  2S9,  et  seq. ;  and 
 Faber's  Horse  Mosa'c.T,  vol.  ii.  pp.  145  and  26G. 
 
INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 825 
 
 thine  enemies  thy  footstool ;'  to  whom  lie  ascribes  as  a 
 distinguishing  feature  of  his  character,  his  possessing  a 
 priesthood  similar  to  that  of  Melchizedek.  '  The  Lord 
 hath  sworn  and  will  not  repent,  thou  art  a  priest  for  ever 
 after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.'  This  declaration  the 
 apostle  to  the  Hebrews"  argues  on  at  large,  and  irrefut- 
 ably proves,  that  it  implies  the  abrogation  of  the  Leviti- 
 eal  law,  and  the  substitution  of  a  more  perfect  religion. 
 1  If  says  he,  'perfection  were  by  the  Levitical  priest- 
 hood, for  under  it  the  people  received  the  law,  what  far- 
 ther need  was  there  that  another  priest  should  rise  after 
 the  order  of  Melchizedek,  and  not  be  called  after  the  order 
 of  Aaron  ;  for  the  priesthood  being  changed  there  is  made 
 of  necessity  a  change  also  of  the  law.'  For  the  full 
 illustration  of  this  argument,  I  refer  to  the  learned  com- 
 mentators who  have  explained  the  passages  in  which  it 
 is  contained,  the  conclusion  thus  staled  by  the  apostle, 
 is  evidently  contained  in  the  scriptures,  and  is  that  which 
 1  wish  to  impress,  as  it  proves  the  consistency,  and  illus- 
 trates the  connexion,  of  the  Mosaic  and  the  Christian 
 codes. 
 
 "  With  equal  clearness  the  same  great  apostle  argues 
 from  the  very  nature  of  the  Levitical  law,  that  it  was  in- 
 tended as  the  type  and  introduction  of  the  Christian 
 scheme  ;  and  here  again  adduces  the  prophetic  declara- 
 tion of  the  inspired  psalmist.  '  The  law  having  a  sha- 
 dow *  of  good  things  to  come,  and  not  the  very  image 
 
 a  The  general  scope  of  the  apostle's  argument  is,  that  Abra- 
 hani  acknowledged  the  superiority  of  Melchizedek;  that  his  order 
 of  priesthood  was  therefore  prior  and  superior  to  the  Aaronical 
 order,  and  that  Christ  being  of  that  order,  as  the  psalmist  pro- 
 phesies, his  priesthood  is  superior  to  and  supersedes  the  Aaroni- 
 cal, which  must  therefore  he  changed,  and  with  it  the  Levitical 
 law.  In  the  second  verse  the  apostle  declares  Melchizedek  was 
 by  interpretation  king  of  righteousness,  and  after  that  also  king 
 of  Salem,  that  is,  '  king  of  peace.'  In  these  great  and  peculiar 
 characters  the  priesthood  of  Christ  was  pre-eminently  distinguish- 
 ed. The  apostle  then  in  the  third  verse,  describes  the  priest- 
 hood of  Melchizedek  by  additional  characters,  which  belong  not 
 to  him  as  a  human  individual,  but  to  the  priesthood  he  possessed. 
 *  In  this  sense  he  was  without,'  that  is,  independent  of,  '  father, 
 without  mother,  without  descent,'  that  is,  independent  of  his  de- 
 scent, '  having  neither  beginning  of  days,  nor  end  of  life,'  as  to 
 his  priesthood,  '  but  being  made  like  unto  the  Son  of  God,  abideth 
 a  priest  continually.'  '  See  Macknight's  very  clear  illustration 
 of  this  passage,  in  his  view  and  illustration  prefixed  to  this  chap- 
 ter. Like  Melchizedek:  Christ  is  a  king  as  well  as  a  priest,  be- 
 ing the  Son  of  God  and  Lord  of  all.  He  is  also  king  of  righteous- 
 ness, to  promote  which  is  the  object  of  his  moral  government. 
 He  is  also  king  of  peace,  reconciling  sinners  to  God  and  to  one 
 another.  Like  Melchizedek  Christ  is  not  descended  from  parents 
 who  were  priests,  but  derives  his  priesthood  from  the  special  de- 
 signation of  God,  independent  of  all  limitations  of  descent,  and  his 
 priesthood  is  of  a  nature  so  excellent  as  to  have  no  companion  nor 
 successor  in  it,  but  he  liveth  for  ever  to  execute  it  himself.  Like 
 Melchizedek,  Christ's  priesthood  did  not,  as  that  of  the  Levites, 
 begin  at  thirty  and  end  at  fifty  years ;  hut  he  exercised  it  from 
 the  first,  and  retains  it  through  his  whole  existence:  and  finally, 
 like  Melchizedek,  he  acts  as  priest,  not  for  one  particular  nation, 
 but  for  all  the  true  worshippers  of  God. 
 
 b  '  The  law  having  a  shadow  of  good  tilings  to  come,  and  not 
 the  very  image  of  the  things.'  On  these  words  it  is  remarked, 
 "  The  word  s'i*ova,  rendered  image,  seems  from  the  tenor  of  the 
 apostle's  argument,  to  be  used  for  the  essential  or  substantial  form 
 of  a  thing,  that  is,  for  the  very  thing  itself,  as  opposed  to  its  <rx.ia, 
 shadow  or  delineation;  so  it  is  paralleled  to  <rcoy.x,  the  body  or 
 substance,  which  the  apostle  elsewhere  opposes  in  like  manner  to 
 its  CKia,  or  shadow,  (Col.  ii.  17.)  Accordingly  the  Syriac  version 
 explains  ukoio.  by  the  substance,  and  Chrysostom  by  the  truth 
 or  reality  as  opposed  to  types  or  emblems.  Cicero  has  used 
 almost  the  same  expression  in  the  same  sense;  "We  have 
 no  solid  and  express  substance  of  true  law,  the  sister  of  justice ; 
 we   use  only   its  shadow  and  semblance."     (X>e  Officiis,  b.  iii. 
 
 of  the  things,  can  never  with  those  sacrifices  which  they 
 offered  year  by  year  continually,  make  the  comers 
 thereunto  perfect ;  for  then  would  they  not  have  ceased 
 to  be  offered,  because  that  the  worshippers  once  purged, 
 should  have  had  no  more  conscience  of  sins.  But  in  those 
 sacrifices  there  is  a  remembrance  again  made  of  sins 
 every  year  ;  for  it  is  not  possible  that  the  blood  of  bulls 
 and  of  goats  should  take  away  sins.  Wherefore  when  lie, 
 (the  promised  Redeemer  predicted  by  the  psalmist  in  the 
 fortieth  psalm,)  cometh  into  the  world,  he  saith,  Sacri- 
 fice and  offering  thou  wouldest  not,  but  a  body  thou  hast 
 prepared  me  ;  in  burnt-offerings  and  sacrifices  for  sins, 
 thou  hast  had  no  pleasure.  Then  said  I,  lo  I  come,  (in 
 the  volume  of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me)  to  do  thy  will, 
 O  God.  Above  when  he  said,  sacrifice  and  offering, 
 and  burnt-offerings,  and  offering  for  sin  thou  wouldest 
 not,  neither  hadst  thou  pleasure  therein  (which  are  offer- 
 ed by  the  law).  Then  he  said,  lo  I  come  to  do  thy 
 will,  O  God  ;  he  taketh  away  the  first  that  he  may  estab- 
 lish the  second ;  by  the  which  will  we  are  sanctioned, 
 through  the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once 
 for  all.' 
 
 "  The  prophet  Jeremiah,  who  is  also  appealed  to  by  the 
 great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  foretells  the  propagation  of 
 a  pure  and  spiritual  religion,  the  abolition  of  legal  or- 
 dinances, the  call  of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  final  restora- 
 tion of  Israel.     Calling  upon  '  back-sliding  Israel '  to 
 return  from  her  transgressions  and  idolatries.     The  pro- 
 phet encourages  their  repentance  by  declaring-,  1  '  I  will 
 give  you  pastors  according  to  mine  heart,  which  shall 
 feed  you  with   knowledge  and    understanding  ;    and  it 
 shall  come  to  pass  when  ye  be  multiplied  and  increased 
 in  the  land,  in  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  they  shall  say 
 no  more,  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord,  neither 
 shall  it  come  to  mind,  neither  shall  they  remember  it, 
 neither  shall  they  visit  it,  neither  shall  that  be  done  any 
 more.     At  that  time  they  shall  call  Jerusalem  the  throne 
 of  the  Lord,  and  all  the  nations  shall  be  gathered  unto 
 it,  to  the  name  of  the  Lord,  to  Jerusalem  ;  neither  shall 
 they  walk  any  more  after  the  imagination  of  their  evil 
 heart.  In  those  days  the  house  of  Judah  shall  walk  with  the 
 house  of  Israel ;  and  they  shall  come  together  out  of  the 
 land  of  the  north,  to  the  land  that  I  have  given  for  an  inhe- 
 ritance to  their  fathers.'    And  still  more  expressly  in  a  sub- 
 sequent chapter, 2 '  Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord, 
 that  I  will  make  anew  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel, 
 and  with  the  house  of  Judah  ;  not  according  to  the  cove- 
 nant that  I  made  with  their  fathers,  in  the  day  that  I  took 
 them  by  the  hand,  to  bring  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt; 
 which  my  covenant  they  brake,  although  I  was  an  husband 
 unto  them,  saith  the  Lord.     But  this  shall  be  the  covenant 
 that  I  will  make  with  the  house  of  Israel,  after  those 
 
 i  Jer.  iii.  14—19.  2  Jer.  xxxi.  31,  et  seq. 
 
 c.  17.)  The  apostle  means  to  illustrate  the  imperfection  of  the 
 law,  that  it  could  not  bring  men  to  perfection,  that  the  good  things 
 it  promised  were  but  a  shadow  of  the  great  realities  secured  by 
 Christ,  the  veriest  sketch  or  outline,  in  comparison  of  the  perfect 
 and  exact  picture.  See  Dodd,  Macknight,  Heylin,  and  Wolfius 
 on  Heb.  x.  1.  and  Suicer's  Thesaurus,  and  Parkhurst  on  the  word 
 'E'ikuv.  It  is  necessary  to  remark,  that  in  the  words  '  a  body  hast 
 thou  prepared  me,'  the  apostle  follows  the  Septuagint,  and  not 
 the  Hebrew  text  as  it  now  stands.  But  for  the  probability  of  a 
 corruption  in  the  Hebrew  text,  consult  Dr  Thomas  Randolph's 
 comparison  of  the  citations  in  the  New  Testament,  with  the 
 Hebrew  and  the  Septuagint,  No.  159,  p.  22  and  44,  and  the 
 authors  by  him  referred  to. 
 
 5  M 
 
826 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 days,  saith  the  Lord  ;  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward 
 parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts,  and  will  be  their  God, 
 and  they  shall  be  my  people.  And  they  shall  teach  no 
 more  every  man  his  neighbour,  and  every  man  his  bro- 
 ther, saying,  know  ye  the  Lord,  for  they  shall  all  know 
 me,  from  the  least  of  them  to  the  greatest  of  them,  saith 
 the  Lord,  for  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity,  and  will  re- 
 member their  sin  no  more.'  According  to  this  predic- 
 tion the  ancient  Levitical  covenant  was  to  be  dissolved, 
 and  the  ordinances  of  Moses  to  be  succeeded  by  a  law 
 not  in  any  degree  typical,  but  entirely  promotive  of  real 
 virtue  ;  not  requiring  ceremonies  to  preserve  it,  but  in 
 its  very  essence  practical  and  influential,  regulating  the 
 temper  and  written  in  the  heart." 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Judaism  preparatory  to  Christianity, 
 continued. 
 
 "  Let  us  next  proceed  to  evince,  that  as  the  law  and  the 
 prophets  were  thus  avowedly  designed  to  predict  and 
 introduce  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  so  they  did  in  fact  ac- 
 complish this  design,  their  pre-existence  being  indispen- 
 sably necessary  to  prepare  for  the  reception  of  that 
 gospel,  and  in  a  variety  of  ways  illustrating  its  impor- 
 tance and  facilitating-  its  promulgation. 
 
 "  To  place  this  conclusion  in  a  clear  light,  let  us  reflect 
 what  would  probably  have  been  the  situation  of  mankind 
 as  to  religion  and  morality,  if  no  such  nation  or  system 
 as  the  Jewish  had  existed,  before  the  appearance  of  our 
 Lord.  It  seems  certain  that  the  whole  world  would  have 
 been  sunk  in  the  most  gross  idolatry,  and  an  almost  total 
 ignorance  of  the  principles  of  natural  religion.  The 
 very  idea  of  the  Supreme  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  uni- 
 verse would  have  been  obliterated  from  the  minds  of 
 men  ;  or  at  most  thought  of  only  by  a  few  speculative 
 philosophers,  who  had  never  ventured  to  inculcate  the 
 necessity  of  confining  adoration  to  the  one  true  God,  or 
 openly  to  condemn  the  absurdities  and  profanations  of 
 idolatry,  which  would  have  prevailed  over  the  world,  un- 
 censured,  we  may  almost  say  unsuspected  of  error  or 
 depravity  ;  since  no  purer  system  would  have  existed,  to 
 which  an  appeal  might  have  been  made,  as  clearly  true, 
 or  supported  by  any  acknowledged  authority. 
 
 '*  In  such  a  state  of  religious  blindness,  all  expectations 
 of  a  future  retribution  would  have  appeared  ridiculous  or 
 incredible,  from  the  falsehoods  and  extravagancies  with 
 which  that  opinion  had  been  universally  encumbered  and 
 disgraced.  The  evidence  from  prophecy  could  not  have 
 existed ;  and  any  appeal  to  miracles  would  have  been 
 disregarded  or  discredited,  from  the  multitude  of  lying 
 wonders  which  had  usurped  that  name,  without  a  single 
 instance  of  any  plainly  supernatural  interposition. 
 
 "  Had  the  world  been  permitted  to  sink  thus  universally 
 into  ignorance,  idolatry,  and  depravity  ;  almost  deprived 
 of  all  ideas  of  true  religion,  and  totally  estranged  from 
 every  feeling  of  pure  morality  ;  without  any  fixed  prin- 
 ciples to  recur  to  on  these  subjects,  nay  almost  without 
 a  language  in  which  to  speak  of  them :  it  seems  nearly 
 impossible  to  conceive  any  means,  by  which  mankind 
 could  have  been  instructed  or  reformed,  without  utterly 
 subverting  the  whole  course  of  nature,  and  forcibly  con- 
 trolling the  moral  character  of  man.  Darkness  would 
 have  overspread  the  earth  and  thick  darkness  the  nations  ; 
 
 and  amidst  this  universal  moral  chaos,  no  spot  could  have 
 been  found,  on  which  the  foundation  of  the  church  of  God 
 could  have  been  laid  ;  no  nation,  or  tribe,  or  family,  who, 
 if  the  standard  of  true  religion  were  reared,  could  be 
 expected  to  rally  round  it  and  support  the  sacred  cause. 
 
 "  A  degeneracy  so  fatal  and  irremediable  was  effectual- 
 ly prevented  by  the  operation  of  the  Jewish  scheme.  The 
 world  was  rapidly  sinking  into  idolatry  with  all  its  pro- 
 fanations and  crimes,  the  pure  principles  of  that  patriar- 
 chal religion,  which  had  originally  enlightened  mankind, 
 were  preserved  in  the  family  of  Abraham  by  the  trans- 
 mission of  parental  instruction,  until  that  family  became 
 a  nation:  that  then  this  nation,  which  would  otherwise  have 
 been  hurried  away  by  the  resistless  torrent  of  universal 
 corruption,  was  placed  under  the  immediate  government 
 of  Jehovah,  as  their  national  Lord  and  King  ;  rescued 
 from  Egypt  and  settled  in  Canaan,  by  a  series  of  mira- 
 culous interpositions,  which  exhibited  an  irrefragable 
 proof  of  the  power,  the  providence,  and  the  majesty  of 
 the  true  God,  as  well  as  the  impotence  and  nullity  of  those 
 base  idols,  who  usurped  his  honour  in  a  deluded  world. 
 
 "  To  preserve  this  nation  as  a  lasting  monument  of  the 
 divine  supremacy,  and  a  permanent  asylum,  where  the 
 truths  of  religion  and  the  principles  of  morals  might  take 
 refuge,  and  be  preserved  for  a  more  favourable  period, 
 when  their  salutary  influence  might  be  again  extended  to 
 all  mankind  with  effect  by  the  promised  Messiah,  '  in 
 whom  all  nations  were  to  be  blessed,'  the  Mosaic  law 
 was  given,  which  in  this  infancy  of  human  reason  and 
 human  virtue,  was  to  act  as  the  '  schoolmaster  to  bring 
 men  to  Christ ;'  a  task  which  it  effected  by  a  variety  of 
 means  which  can  here  be  only  briefly  hinted  at. 
 
 "  First,  it  maintained  the  radical  principles  of  true  theo- 
 logy, while  it  clothed  them  in  such  a  form,  and  promul- 
 gated them  in  such  circumstances,  as  without  detracting" 
 in  the  slightest  particular  from  their  purity  and  truth, 
 rendered  them  interesting  and  attractive  to  a  nation, 
 which  could  scarcely  have  been  induced  to  attend  to  any 
 mere  abstract  doctrines  concerning  the  being  and  attri- 
 butes of  the  Deity,  if  he  had  not  authorized  them  to  look 
 up  to  him  as  their  peculiar,  national,  and  guardian  God. 
 
 "  The  same  law  inculcated  the  principles  of  pure  mo- 
 rality, with  a  similar  attention  to  the  feelings  and  the 
 character  of  the  Jewish  nation  ;  enforcing  the  entire  sys- 
 tem by  temporal  sanctions,  which  alone  were  capable  of 
 influencing  a  people,  short-sighted,  incredulous,  attached 
 to  present  objects,  and  habituated  from  the  example  of 
 the  rest  of  mankind,  to  consider  temporal  prosperity  and 
 success  as  the  criterion  of  the  power  and  fidelity  of  that 
 God,  who  allowed  them  to  consider  him  as  their  national 
 and  peculiar  Lord  and  King. 
 
 "  Such  a  system  could  be  carried  into  effect,  only  by  a 
 particular  providence  proportioning  the  visible  prosperi- 
 ty both  of  the  state  and  of  individuals,  to  their  obedience 
 to  the  divine  law.  The  continued  display  of  this  won- 
 derful providential  interference,  supplied  a  perpetually 
 increasing  proof  of  the  power,  the  justice,  and  the  mercy 
 of  Jehovah,  and  exhibited  the  most  awful  and  instructive 
 examples  to  mankind,  of  the  general  conduct  of  God's 
 moral  government. 
 
 "  The  Mosaic  law  not  only  promulgated  a  system  of 
 true  religion  and  pure  morality,  and  supported  that  sys- 
 tem by  the  most  powerful  sanctions;  but  it  guarded  it 
 from  the  contagion  of  that  idolatry  and  vice  which  uni- 
 versally prevailed,  by  a  corresponding  system  of  peculiar 
 
INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 827 
 
 laws  and  manners,  rites  and  ceremonies,  calculated  to 
 form  a  barrier  between  the  chosen  people  and  the  idola- 
 trous world  :  while  by  the  multitude  of  its  rites,  the  mag- 
 nificence, first  of  the  sanctuary,  and  afterwards  of  the 
 temple,  the  solemnity  and  attraction  of  its  festivals,  and 
 finally  by  the  influence  of  the  priests  and  Levites,  who 
 were  set  apart  as  the  public  instructors  of  the  nation  in 
 morals  and  religion,  it  supplied  the  means  of  counteract- 
 ing the  attractions  of  idolatry. 
 
 "  Further,  the  Mosaic  institution  combining  the  civil 
 government,  the  national  religion,  the  tenure  of  private 
 property,  aud  the  regulations  of  domestic  life  in  one 
 connected  scheme  ;  all  whose  parts  tended  to  one  ob- 
 ject, the  permanence  of  the  entire  system  :  it  effectually 
 secured  that  object,  notwithstanding  the  crimes  and 
 errors  of  the  chosen  people,  their  idolatries  and  apos- 
 tasies both  private  and  public,  which  no  system  of  moral 
 government  could  totally  prevent ;  amidst  the  power- 
 ful temptations  from  without,  and  the  wrong  propen- 
 sities from  within,  necessarily  arising  from  the  general 
 state  of  the  world,  and  the  peculiar  character,  of  the 
 Jewish  people,  during  the  entire  period  from  Moses  to 
 Christ. 
 
 "  In  truth,  the  adherence  of  the  Jewish  nation  to  their 
 law  from  its  delivery  to  this  hour,  a  period  of  near  3300 
 years,  is  an  event  so  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  man- 
 kind, particularly  when  we  consider  the  calamitous  cir- 
 cumstances of  the  Jews  for  the  last  1750  years,  as  seems 
 sufficient,  even  if  considered  singly,  to  prove  the  reality 
 of  a  providential  interposition,  unprecedented  in  the  his- 
 tory of  any  other  nation.  But  when  we  reflect  that  the 
 chastisements  which  should  attend  the  misconduct  of  the 
 Jews,  were  distinctly  announced  by  their  lawgiver,  the 
 preservation  of  their  nation  as  a  peculiar  people,  pre- 
 dicted by  him,  nay  the  circumstances  of  their  present 
 dispersion  not  obscurely  sketched  out ;  such  a  prophecy, 
 decidedly  antecedent  by  ages  to  the  events  which  it  pre- 
 dicts, and  predicting  events  which  as  nothing  but  an  im- 
 mediate and  peculiar  interposition  of  Providence  could 
 bring  about,  so  nothing  but  a  divine  sagacity  could  fore- 
 see ;  seems  to  supply  a  decisive  proof  of  the  divine 
 original  of  the  Jewish  scheme. 
 
 "  But  we  are  still  to  view  this  scheme  in  another  light 
 clearly  illustrative  of  its  divine  original,  as  introductory 
 to  the  Gospel.  And  here  we  must  observe,  that  the  chief 
 rites  and  festivals  of  the  Mosaic  ritual  were  not  only  cal- 
 culated to  commemorate  the  leading  interpositions  of 
 God,  in  the  deliverance  and  settlement  of  the  nation, 
 and  to  exclude  the  infection  of  idolatry  ;  but  that  they 
 had  a  prospective  signification,  and  were  clearly  a  typical 
 and  figurative  of  the  Messiah's  character  and  kingdom. 
 
 "  This  typical  character  of  the  ritual  law  has  been  illus- 
 trated by  so  many  eminent  writers,  and  above  all  has 
 been  so  clearly  established  by  the  gTeat  apostle  of  the 
 
 a  This  typical  significance  of  Judaism  lias  been  fully  and 
 learnedly  expounded  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Mather,  a  clergyman 
 of  Dublin,  in  a  quarto  volume  published  in  1683,  entitled  the 
 Figures  and  Types  of  the  Old  Testament,  &c.  Consult  particu- 
 larly the  Gospel  of  the  Perpetual  Types,  pp.  208 — 218,  also  the 
 Gospel  of  the  Sacrifices  and  Offerings,  pp.  232 — 254,  and  the 
 Gospel  of  the  Jewish  Festivals,  from  pp.  520 — 545;  see  also  the 
 learned  Mr  Faber's  Horse  Mosaics,  b.  ii.  sect.  2,  on  the  Con- 
 nection between  Judaism  and  Christianity  by  Means  of  Types, 
 vol.  ii.  pp.  40 — 173;  also  the  learned  Outram  on  Sacrifice,  par- 
 ticularly b.  i.  c\  18,  and  b.  ii.  c.  7:  also  Hartley  on  the  Truth  of 
 Christianity,  propus.  30 — 33. 
 
 Gentiles,  in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  that  I  need  only 
 touch  on  it;  and  observe,  that  the  whole  system  of 
 bloody  sacrilices,  which  had  plainly  preceded  the  Mosaic 
 institutions,  and  leads  us,  when  tracing  its  origin  to  the 
 very  earliest  revelations  of  God  to  man  ;  as  it  served  to 
 awaken  in  the  minds  of  the  offerers  a  strong  sense  of  the 
 danger  of  sin,  and  the  punishment  it  merited  even  unto 
 death  ;  so  it  most  evidently  prefigured  that  great  sacri- 
 fice, by  which  Christians  '  are  sanctified  through  the 
 offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all.' 
 
 "  This  prefiguration  of  the  Messiah  is  peculiarly  re- 
 markable in  the  ceremonies  observed  in  the  great  day  of 
 atonement,  when  the  high  priest  entered  once  a  year  into 
 the  holy  of  holies,  '  not  without  blood,  which  he  offered 
 for  himself  and  for  the  errors  of  the  people,  being,'  says 
 the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews,  'the  figure  of  him,  who  by 
 his  own  blood  entered  in  once  into  the  holy  place,  hav- 
 ing obtained  eternal  redemption  for  us,'  a  redemption 
 which,  as  the  apostle  explains,  essentially  implies  '  a  pu- 
 rification of  the  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  the 
 living  God.' 
 
 "  Of  the  three  great  festivals  of  the  Jewish  law,  two,  the 
 passover  and  the  feast  of  pentecost,  as  they  Avere  com- 
 memorative of  the  deliverance  from  Egypt,  and  the  pro- 
 mulgation of  the  law  on  Sinai ;  so  were  they  as  clearly 
 figurative  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  and  the  effusion  of 
 the  Spirit  by  which  the  gospel  was  disseminated  over  the 
 world.6 
 
 b  The  analogy  between  the  paschal  sacrifice  and  our  Lord's 
 suffering,  between  the  delivery  of  the  law  and  the  effusion  of 
 the  Holy  Spirit,  has  been  remarked  from  the  earliest  period  of  the 
 gospel.  But  it  has  not,  as  far  as  I  can  recollect,  been  noticed 
 by  any,  that  our  not  having  as  yet  discovered  any  event  in  the 
 history  of  Christianity,  corresponding  to  that  commemorated  in 
 the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  or  any  Christian  festival  similar  to  that 
 feast;  instead  of  supplying  an  instance  of  dissimilitude  between 
 the  two  systems,  strongly  confirms  their  perfect  analogy,  when 
 we  consider  the  further  progress  of  the  gospel,  which  the  word  of 
 prophecy  leads  us  to  expect.  This  observation  has  been  sug- 
 gested to  me  by  my  learned  friend  the  Hev.  Dr  Ellington,  late 
 fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin;  and  who,  in  the  course  of 
 sermons  he  preached  and  published  as  Donnellan's  Lecturer,  in 
 the  year  179(3,  has  so  ably  illustrated  the  truth  of  the  gospel  mi- 
 racles, and  exposed  the  sophistry  of  Hume.  As  his  ideas  on  the 
 present  topic  appear  to  me  both  original  and  just,  I  annex  his 
 own  statement  of  them.  "That  the  Jews  annually  observed 
 tlu-ee  great  festivals  at  Jerusalem,  and  that  two  of  them,  the  pas- 
 sover and  the  feast  of  pentecost,  had  a  reference  to  events,  which 
 were  to  happen  under  the  Christian  dispensation,  is  well  known. 
 Hence  we  are  led  to  consider,  whether  the  third  solemnity  was 
 of  a  similar  nature  and  has  received  a  similar  completion.  This 
 was  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  beginning  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the 
 seventh  month ;  when  for  seven  days  all  that  were  Israelites  bom 
 were  to  dwell  in  booths  in  remembrance  of  their  duelling  in 
 booths  when  they  were  brought  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  on 
 the  eighth  day  to  return  to  their  houses,  celebrating  it  with  great 
 rejoicings,  Lev.  xxiii.  34 — 36,  42,  43.  Now  it  is  evident 
 that  no  circumstance  attending  the  establishment  of  Christianity, 
 had  any  resemblance  to  the  journey  through  the  wilderness,  and 
 the  dwelling  there  under  tents;  nor  has  any  attempt,  I  believe, 
 been  made,  to  prove  a  similarity  of  the  sort.  We  must  therefore 
 either  admit,  that  this  feast  of  tabernacles  differs  from  the  others 
 iri  having  no  prospective  reference;  or  we  must  seek  in  some 
 future  event  its  completion  or  antitype.  And  it  will  probably 
 incline  us  to  this  latter  opinion,  when  we  consider,  that  the 
 Jews  will  undoubtedly  be  brought  back  to  Judea  when  the  fulness 
 of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  come  in  ;  and  if  we  suppose  the  season  of 
 the  feast  of  tabernacles,  to  coincide  with  that  of  their  future 
 return,  as  it  appears  to  have  done  with  their  return  from  the 
 Babylonish  captivity,  we  shall  have  a  fulfilment  of  the  three 
 Jewish  festivals  completed  finally  in  the  conversion  of  the  Jews 
 to  Christianity;  which,  with  their  return  to  their  own  land,  will 
 
828 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 "  The  Jewish  law  not  only  prepared  for  the  introduc- 
 tion of  the  gospel,  by  its  types  and  prophecies,  and  by 
 preserving  the  principles  of  sound  theology  and  pure 
 morals  ;  which  without  it  would  probably  have  been  al- 
 most irrecoverably  banished  from  the  earth.  But  by  the 
 strictness  of  its  moral  prohibitions,  audits  denunciations 
 of  God's  displeasure  against  sin,  it  probed  and  exposed 
 the  moral  maladies  of  man.  It  proved  to  him  by  deci- 
 sive experience,  his  proneness  to  violate  the  commands  of 
 his  God,  even  when  most  distinctly  promulgated,  and  his 
 culpable  neglect  of  duties  of  the  most  obvious  necessity  ; 
 so  that  he  could  not  but  acknowledge  how  infinitely  im- 
 probable it  was,  that  he  could  by  his  own  unassisted 
 strength  escape  sin  ;  and  that  consequently  far  from 
 being  able  to  claim  eternal  happiness,  as  a  reward  which 
 human  merit  might  challenge  from  divine  justice,  he  was 
 liable  to  condemnation  and  punishment. 
 
 "  Thus  the  law  prepared  men  to  hail  with  fervent  grati- 
 tude the  glad  tidings  of  the  gospel  of  peace,  which  offers 
 the  aid  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  to  assist  the  weakness  of  those 
 who  will  humbly  implore  and  diligently  improve  it ;  and 
 proclaim  free  pardon  to  all  who,  repenting  of  their  sins, 
 and  acknowledging  their  own  inability  to  escape  from 
 their  power,  or  expiate  their  guilt,  embrace  with  faith 
 and  joy  those  gracious  terms  of  pardon  and  acceptance, 
 offered  by  the  mediation  of  that  Jesus,  who  was  '  '  deli- 
 vered for  their  offences,  and  raised  again  for  their  justi- 
 fication; who  still  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us  : 
 thus  destroying  the  power  of  death,  and  2  '  bringing  life 
 and  immortality  to  light.'  Not  that  in  the  gospel  the 
 doctrine  of  a  resurrection  and  a  future  retribution  was 
 first  promulgated,  for  they  were  intimated  by  Moses  and 
 clearly  taught  by  the  prophets,  but  because  the  means  a 
 
 1  Rom.  iv.  25.  2  2  Tim.  i.  10. 
 
 furnish  a  perpetual  cause  for  thanksgiving  and  religious  observ- 
 ance. Of  the  reference  of  this  festival  to  the  final  restoration  of 
 the  Jews,  some  of  their  traditions  and  practices  may  perhaps 
 afford  a  further  confirmation.  It  was  their  custom  on  the  last 
 day  of  the  feast,  to  bring  water  from  the  fountain  of  Siloah,  which 
 the  priest  poured  on  the  altar,  singing  the  words  of  Isaiah, 
 (xii.  3,)  '  With  joy  shall  ye  draw  water  from  the  fountain  of  sal- 
 vation ;'  which  words  the  Targum  interprets,  '  With  joy  shall 
 ye  receive  a  new  doctrine  from  the  elect  of  the  just;'  and  they 
 appear,  from  the  preceding  chapter,  to  relate  to  the  final  restora- 
 tion of  the  Jews.  The  feast  itself  was  also  called  Hosanna,  save 
 we  beseech  thee;  and  was  the  time  when  our  Lord  spoke  the 
 remarkable  words  mentioned  in  St  John  (vii.  37,  3S,)  marking 
 the  relation  which  the  ceremony  of  pouring  out  the  water  bore  to 
 his  ministry.  And  amongst  the  traditions  of  the  Jews  we  find 
 that  the  defeat  of  Gog  and  Magog  shall  fall  out  upon  the  feast  of 
 tabernacles,  or  that  the  consequent  seven  months' cleansing  of  the 
 land  (Ezek.  xxxix.  12.)  shall  terminate  at  that  period  ;  and  there 
 seems  little  reason  to  doubt  the  reference  of  that  prophecy  to  the 
 final  restoration  of  the  Jews. 
 
 a  I  am  aware  that  commentators  in  general  interpret  this  verse 
 solely  of  the  gospel's  bringing  to  light  the  doctrine  of  life  and  im- 
 mortality; and  Warburton  advances  as  an  irrefutable  argument, 
 that  as  it  was  reserved  to  be  so  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel,  it 
 must  have  been  unknown  under  the  Old  Testament.  Now  as  I 
 think  I  have  proved  it  was  not  unknown  under  the  Old  Testament, 
 it  follows  it  was  not  reserved  to  be  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel 
 alone.  Undoubtedly  where  the  Jewish  religion  was  unknown, 
 the  doctrine  was  first  clearly  promulgated  by  the  gospel,  and  even 
 amongst  the  Jews  it  was  supported  by  such  additional  miracles 
 and  examples,  as  threw  round  it  a  brightness  of  conviction,  com- 
 pared with  which,  the  assent  previously  yielded  to  it  was  doubt- 
 ful and  dim.  So  that  this  expression  may  bear  the  sense  usually 
 given  it,  without  supporting  the  inference  which  Warburton 
 would  deduce  from  it.  But  I  cannot  but  think  the  apostle  meant 
 to  express  much  more  than  a  bare  promulgation  of  the  doctrine 
 of  life  and  immortality.     He  encourages  his  beloved  son  in  the 
 
 f  of  securing  life  and  immortality  were  then  first  clearly 
 and  satisfactorily  ascertained,  and  placed  within  the 
 reach  of  all  who  would  embrace  the  gracious  offers  of 
 pardon  and  mercy  held  out  by  the  Redeemer  of  man. 
 
 "  Such  is  the  strict  unity  of  design  and  the  accurate 
 harmony  of  parts,  between  the  Jewish  and  the  Christian 
 schemes,  so  clearly  establishing  their  common  and  hea- 
 venly original.  As  the  period  approached  when  the 
 promised  Messiah  was  to  appear,  we  have  seen  this  unity 
 and  harmony  display  itself  in  more  illustrious  characters. 
 The  visible  and  immediate  interference  of  Providence  in 
 rewarding  virtue  and  punishing  vice,  seems  to  have  been 
 gradually  withdrawn  from  amongst  the  Jews  after  the 
 Babylonish  captivity  ;  and  the  expectations  of  a  future 
 retribution,  now  plainly  and  authoritatively  established 
 by  their  sacred  writers,  left  to  operate  in  its  room  ;  so 
 that  at  the  time  of  our  Lord's  appearance,  these  expec- 
 tations were  a  leading  article  of  the  popular  creed  ;  and 
 when  promulgated  anew  with  additional  miracles,  to  im- 
 press them  on  mankind  in  general,  found  amongst  the 
 Jews  minds  prepared  to  receive  them,  wherever  worldly 
 views  or  vicious  propensities  did  not  resist  and  defeat 
 the  influence  of  truth. 
 
 gospel,  to  perseverance  in  the  faith,  for  which  he  himself  cheer- 
 fully sustained  persecution  and  bonds ;  and  for  this  purpose  he 
 describes  in  the  strongest  terms  the  blessedness  of  a  true  Chris- 
 tian's temper,  views,  and  hopes.  '  God,'  says  he,  '  hath  not  given 
 us  the  spirit  of  fear,  but  of  power,  and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound 
 mind,'  that  is,  strength  to  resist  evil,  derived  from  the  assistance 
 of  the  Holy  Spirit;  accompanied  with  a  sincere  and  active  love 
 of  God,  and  a  just  discrimination  of  things,  which  clearly  recog- 
 nizes the  superiority  of  future  and  heavenly  objects  above  present 
 and  sensual;  thus  comprehensively  describing  a  perfect  Chris- 
 tian;  whose  will  is  rectified,  whose  affections  are  purified,  and 
 whose  understanding  is  spiritually  enlightened.  To  attain  or 
 preserve  such  a  character  is  the  most  glorious  object  of  human 
 ambition;  '  Be  not  thou  therefore,'  says  the  apostle,  'ashamed 
 of  the  testimony  of  our  Lord,  nor  of  me  his  prisoner ;  but  be  thou 
 partaker  of  the  afflictions  of  the  gospel,  according  to  the  power 
 of  God,  who  hath  saved  and  called  us  with  an  holy  calling,  not 
 according  to  our  works,  but  according  to  his  own  purpose  and 
 grace,  which  was  given  us  in  Christ  Jesus  before  the  world  be- 
 gan ;  but  is  now  made  manifest  by  the  appearing  of  our  Saviour 
 Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  abolished  death,  and  hath  brought  life 
 and  immortality  to  light  through  the  gospel,  whereunto  I  am  ap- 
 pointed a  preacher,  and  an  apostle,  and  a  teacher  of  the  Gentiles.' 
 Now  is  it  not  evident,  that  the  apostle  here  means  to  unfold  the 
 whole  scheme  of  the  gospel,  the  eternal  purpose  of  God  to  admit 
 in  the  fulness  of  time  the  Gentiles  into  his  church,  notwithstand- 
 ing their  antecedent  idolatries  and  crimes;  the  abolition  of  death, 
 by  depriving  it  of  its  terrors  and  its  sting,  and  redeeming  men 
 from  the  power  of  death  eternal ;  and  aid  to  secure  eternal  life, 
 arising  from  that  spirit  of  power  and  love  and  religious  wisdom, 
 with  which  divine  grace  supplies  the  true  Christian.  It  is  not 
 then  the  simple  promulgation  of  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life,  which 
 the  apostle  here  understands ;  but  a  promulgation  of  it,  accom  - 
 panied  with  such  clear  instruction  how  to  seek,  and  such  merci- 
 ful assistance  to  obtain  life  and  immortality,  as  were  now  first 
 brought  to  light  by  the  gospel.  Thus,  to  adopt  the  words  of  the 
 pious  Doddridge,  "  hath  Jesus  Christ  in  effect  abolished  death, 
 hath  deposed  it  from  its  tyrannical  empire,  and  thrown  a  light  on 
 the  important  doctrine  of  life  and  immortality  by  the  gospel, 
 which  gives  us  a  more  express  assurance  and  a  more  lively  view 
 of  it,  than  any  former  dispensation  had  ever  done  or  could  pos- 
 sibly du."  See  also  Parkhurst's  exposition  of  this  passage  as 
 quoted  by  Dodd  in  locum:  Bishop  Sherlock's  opinion  in  opposi- 
 tion to  Warburton,  illustrated  and  vindicated  by  Dr  Parry,  in 
 his  defence  of  the  bishop  of  London:  and  the  judicious  Benson 
 in  his  paraphrase  and  notes  on  this  passage,  who  admits  "  the 
 Jews  had  expectations  of  a  resurrection  even  before  the  coming 
 of  our  Saviour,  and  refers  to  Matt.  xxii.  32,  and  Dan.  xii.  2;  but 
 the  more  full  and  clear  discovery  is  owing  to  the  Christian  re- 
 velation." 
 
INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 8ii9 
 
 "  Thus  also  the  gracious  intention  of  Providence,  to  ad- 
 mit the  heathen  world  into  the  church,  and  for  this  pur- 
 pose abrogate  that  ritual  which  formed  the  wall  of  sepa- 
 ration excluding  them,  was  gradually  more  plainly 
 notified  ;  until  by  the  last  prophets  it  was  distinctly  an- 
 nounced ;  and  as  we  perceive,  clearly  understood  by  all, 
 whom  national  pride  and  prejudice  did  not  induce  to 
 close  their  eyes  against  the  light.  Of  this  we  find  signal 
 instances  in  John  the  Baptist  and  the  devout  Cornelius; 
 and  certainly  there  were  multitudes  of  others  amongst 
 the  Jews  and  Gentiles,  who  like  them  looked  for  salva- 
 tion by  the  appearance  of  that  Messiah,  '  who  was  to  be 
 a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,  and  the  glory  of  his  peo- 
 ple Israel ;'  and  we  know  that  the  whole  nation  of  the 
 Samaritans  acknowledged  the  same  truth. 
 
 "  As  this  glorious  era  drew  near,  we  see  various  events 
 crowding  on  our  observation  preparatory  to  its  arrival  ; 
 the  translation  of  the  Jewish  scriptures  into  Greek  ;  the 
 general  expectation  of  a  great  king  to  arise  in  Judea, 
 diffused  over  the  East ;  the  increasing  light  of  philoso- 
 phy ;  the  extension  of  the  Roman  empire ;  all  combine 
 to  prepare  for  and  facilitate  the  promulgation  of  the  gos- 
 pel. But  still  the  Jews  are  the  more  immediate  instru- 
 ments whom  God  meant  to  employ  in  effecting  his 
 gracious  purposes  ;  and  accordingly  Ave  find  that,  after 
 the  Babylonish  captivity,  they  are  rapidly  prepared  to 
 act  their  part  in  the  great  and  important  change  which 
 now  approached. 
 
 "  It  is  certain  that  in  the  interval  between  the  Babylon- 
 ish captivity  and  the  advent  of  the  Messiah,  the  Jews 
 were  gradually  settled  and  multiplied,  not  only  in  Egypt, 
 but  in  all  Asia,  Greece,  Italy,  and  the  western  regions 
 of  Europe.  The  Jewish  historian  l  cites  numerous  de- 
 crees of  the  magistrates,  the  senate,  and  the  emperors  of 
 Rome,  encouraging  and  protecting  them.  Julius  Cassar 
 ordered  that  tables  of  brass,  containing  his  decrees  to 
 this  effect,  should  be  fixed  in  the  capitol,and  communi- 
 cated to  the  qmestors  and  praetors  where  the  Jews 
 resided.  We  find  similar  decrees  formed  by,  or  direct- 
 ed to  the  governors  and  people  of  Ephesus,  Sardis,  and 
 Miletus,  Athens  and  Pergamus,  as  well  as  the  islands  of 
 the  ./Kgean  Sea  :  and  we  have  the  most  decided  classical 
 authorities,  "■  to  prove  the  multitude  of  the  Jews  at  Rome, 
 the  number  of  their  proselytes,  and  the  popularity  of 
 their  opinions. 
 
 "  As  the  Jews  were  thus  dispersed  and  situated,  so  that 
 they  might  most  generally  spread  their  opinions,  there  is 
 also  reason  to  believe  that  their  general  character  and 
 conduct,  especially  in  heathen  countries,  were  such  as  to 
 
 1  Sec  Josephus's  Antiquities,  b.  iv.  c.  10,  where  extracts  from 
 the  original  decrees  are  given;  also  b.  xvi.  c.  2,  and  xix.  c.  5; 
 also  Lardner'a  Credibility,  part  1.  b.  ii.  c.  2  and  3. 
 
 a  See  Horat.  Sat.  b.  i.  satyra  ix.  line  G9 — 71,  and  still  more 
 expressly  sat.  iv.  line  140;  and  sat.  v.  line  100;  where  the 
 "  credat  Judeua  Apulia"  is  used  as  a  proverbial  expression, 
 opposed  to  the  incredulity  of  the  Epicureans.  The  sarcasm  of 
 Persius,  sat.  v.  line  184,  "  You  shudder  at  the  sahhath  of  the 
 circumcised,"  equally  shows  the  prevalence  of  the  Jewish  opin- 
 ions. See  also  Martial's  epigram,  b.  iv.  4,  "  fastings  of  the 
 Sabbatarians,"'  &c,  and  various  passages  of  Juvenal,  sat.  iii.  line 
 13,  sat.  vi.  158,  and  from  line  541  to  540,  and  particularly  sat. 
 xiv.  from  95  to  105.  See  also  Lardner's  Credibility,  part  1,  b. 
 i.  C.  2,  on  the  state  of  the  Jews  in  Judea,  who  gives  also  much 
 information  on  the  general  state  of  the  nation  in  Egypt  and  else- 
 where ;  but  especially  his  second  chapter,  on  the  state  of  the 
 Jews  out  of  Judea.  See  also  Tauitus  Annal.  b.  ii.  c.  85:  Sue- 
 tonius, Vita  Tiburii,  c.  3G. 
 
 recommend  them ;  they  seem  in  general  to  have  been 
 humble  and  rational,  peaceable  and  industrious.  "  Na- 
 tural justice,"  says  their  historian,  "  is  most  to  the  advan- 
 tage of  all  men  equally,  Greeks  and  barbarians,  to  which 
 our  laws  have  the  greatest  regard ;  and  thereby  render 
 us,  if  we  abide  in  them  after  a  pure  manner,  benevolent 
 and  friendly  to  all  men  ;  on  which  account  we  have 
 reason  to  expect  the  like  return  from  others,  and  to  in- 
 form them  that  they  ought  not  to  esteem  difference  of 
 positive  institutions,  a  sufficient  cause  of  alienation,  but 
 join  with  us  in  the  pursuit  of  virtue  and  probity." 
 
 "  By  this  providential  distribution  and  settlement  of  the 
 Jews,  in  almost  every  part  of  the  civilized  world ;  they 
 were  every  where  to  be  found  carrying  with  them  their 
 law  and  their  prophets,  establishing  their  synagogues, 
 celebrating  their  sabbaths,  bearing  constant  testimony 
 to  the  unity,  the  supremacy,  and  the  providence  of  God, 
 in  opposition  to  pagan  superstition  and  idolatry ;  and 
 numbers  of  them  declaring  their  firm  belief  in  a  future 
 state  of  retribution  ;  while  all  maintained  a  constant  con- 
 nexion with  Jerusalem,  attended  there  at  the  three  great 
 festivals,  whenever  it  was  practicable,  sent  thither  their 
 pious  and  charitable  contributions,  and  universally  glo- 
 ried in  the  expectation  of  that  Messiah,  '  who  was  to  be 
 a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,'  as  well  as  '  the  glory  of 
 his  people  Israel.' 
 
 "  The  influence  of  such  a  preparation  for  the  reception 
 and  diffusion  of  the  gospel,  must  have  been  great  and 
 salutary ;  every  where  its  preachers  found  synagogues, 
 where  the  law  and  the  prophets  were  expounded  each  sab- 
 bath ;  every  where  they  found  not  only  Jews,  but  pro- 
 selytes of  righteousness,  who,  without  binding  themselves 
 under  the  heavy  yoke  of  the  Mosaic  ritual,  acknowledged 
 the  great  truths  of  natural  religion,  and  complied  with 
 the  sacred  precepts  of  the  moral  law  ;  every  where  some, 
 like  the  officer  2  of  Candace  queen  of  Ethiopia,  studied 
 the  scriptures  ;  others  there  were  like  the  devout  Corne- 
 lius, 3  '  who  feared  God  with  all  his  house,  and  gave  much 
 alms  to  the  people,  and  prayed  to  God  always.'  Hence 
 the  preachers  of  Christianity  almost  every  where  instantly 
 found  hearers  who  could  understand  and  feel  their  ad- 
 dresses. Thus  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  Paul  and  Barnabas 
 4  were  invited  to  preach  by  the  rulers  of  the  synagogue  ; 
 and  after  the  Jews  went  out  of  it,  '  the  Gentiles  and 
 religious  proselytes  besought  that  these  words  might  be 
 preached  to  them  the  next  sabbath  :  and  on  that  day  came 
 almost  the  whole  city  together  to  hear  the  word  of  God.' 
 Thus  also  at  Iconium,  5  when  these  apostles  went  to  the 
 synagogue,  they  found  an  audience  not  only  of  Jews  but 
 of  Gentiles,  who  were  undoubtedly  such  proselytes,  and 
 '  when  they  had  preached,  a  multitude  both  of  Jews  and 
 Greeks  believed.'  Thus  again  at  Thessalonica,  6  '  of 
 the  Jews  some  believed,  and  of  the  devout  Greeks  a  great 
 multitude,  and  of  the  chief  women  not  a  few.'  And  fi- 
 nally we  see  that 7  '  at  Jerusalem  were  dwelling  Jews, 
 devout  men  out  of  every  nation  under  heaven  ;'  who  were 
 attracted  by  the  very  first  sound  of  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
 for  when  the  apostles  '  were  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 and  began  to  speak  with  tongues  as  the  Spirit  gave  them 
 utterance,  the  multitude  came  together,  and  were  con- 
 founded, because  every  man  heard  them  speak  in  his  own 
 language  ;  Parthians  and  Medes,  and  Elamites,  and  the 
 
 2  Acts  viii.  27,  &c.     "  Ibid.   x.     <  Ibid.  xiii.  15,  42,  and  41. 
 5  Ibid.  xiv.  1—3.  6  |bil].  Xvii.  1—4.  7  Ibid.  ii. 
 
830 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,  and  Judea,  and  Cappadocia, 
 in  Pontus  and  Asia,  Phrygia  and  Pamphylia,  in  Egypt 
 and  in  the  parts  of  Libya  about  Cyrene,  and  strangers 
 of  Rome,  Jews  and  proselytes,  Cretes  and  Arabians, 
 exclaimed,  we  do  hear  them  speak  in  our  tongues  the 
 wonderful  works  of  God.' 
 
 "  Of  this  assembly,  which  may  be  considered  as  a  col- 
 lective representation  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  three 
 thousand  souls  converted  on  this  memorable  day,  and  at 
 least  two  thousand  '  on  a  second  illustrious  miracle  with- 
 in a  few  days  after,  formed  a  body  of  missionaries,  to 
 bear  to  their  respective  countries  the  tidings  of  the  ap- 
 pearance of  that  promised  Messiah,  '  in  whom  all  the 
 kindreds  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed ;'  a  promise 
 which  in  these  signal  instances  began  to  be  so  conspicu- 
 ously verified. 
 
 "  The  rejection  of  Christianity  by  the  great  bulk  of  the 
 Jewish  nation,  assuredly  forms  no  valid  objection  to  the 
 connexion  and  consistency  of  the  law  and  the  gospel. 
 This  rejection  was  not  2  obscurely  intimated  by  the  pro- 
 phets, was  expressly  3  predicted  by  our  Lord  ;  and  was  a 
 the  natural  consequence  of  that  national  ambition,  that 
 carnal  and  worldly  temper,  which  induced  the  great  bulk 
 of  the  Jewish  people  to  misunderstand  and  misinterpret 
 the  prophecies ;  by  directing  their  attention  exclusively 
 to  those  predictions,  which  speak  of  the  supremacy  and 
 extent  of  the  Messiah's  kingdom,  and  which  they  under- 
 stood of  a  temporal  instead  of  a  spiritual  reign,  by  which 
 the  Jewish  nation,  as  they  vainly  imagined,  was  to  be 
 rescued  from  the  Roman  yoke,  and  exalted  to  the  do- 
 minion of  the  world  ;  while  they  wilfully  overlooked  the 
 equally  clear  predictions  of  the  same  Messiah's  humi- 
 liation and  sufferings,  and  the  express  declarations,  that 
 the  new  dispensation  should  not  be  confined  to  one 
 chosen  people,  like  the  old  ;  but  should  embrace  without 
 distinction  all  nations,  who,  according  to  the  original 
 promise  of  God  to  the  great  patriarch  Abraham,  were  to 
 '  be  blessed  in  his  seed.'  But  the  true  interpretation  and 
 application  of  the  prophecies  is  not  obscured,  or  the 
 proof  of  divine  foreknowledge,  and  co-operation  in  the 
 establishment  of  the  gospel  arising  from  them  subverted 
 by  the  errors  or  the  obstinacy  of  the  Jews.  The  pro- 
 phecies are  open  to  our  inspection  as  well  as  theirs  ;  and 
 when  by  combining  the  temporal  humiliation  with  the 
 spiritual  dominion  of  the  Messiah,  both  which  the  gospel 
 attests,  we  perceive  all  the  predictions  respecting  him 
 accomplished,  however  apparently  opposite  ;  the  proof 
 thence  resulting  is  the  more  decisive  as  it  was  more 
 difficult  for  mere  human  sagacity  to  anticipate,  or 
 mere  human  agency  to  produce  so  extraordinary  a  coin- 
 cidence. 
 
 ';  The  rejection  of  the  gospel  by  the  Jews  is  indeed  so 
 far  from  weakening,  that  it  greatly  confirms  the  proof 
 from  prophecy,  by  establishing  the  authenticity   and  un- 
 
 1  Acts  iv.  4. 
 
 2  See  Doddridge's  Lect.  leet.  cxxx.  prop.  112;  Is.  xlix.  16, 
 11.  Hi ;  the  entire  liii.  1—9,  and  the  passages  quoted  in  the  first 
 chapter. 
 
 3  Mat.  xvi.  21 ;  xxvi.  2,  and  the  parallel  passages. 
 
 a  I  refer  for  a  full  refutation  of  the  objection  against  the  truth 
 of  the  gospel  history,  derived  from  the  rejection  of  Christianity 
 by  the  Jews,  to  two  sermons  preached  in  the  chapel  of  Trinity 
 College,  by  Dr  Elrington,  and  published  at  the  desire  of  the 
 provost  and  senior  fellows.  I  have  only  taken  such  a  brief  view 
 of  it  as  my  subject  indispensably  required.  See  ako  Larduer's 
 Collection  of  Jewish  Testimonies,  c.  ii.  and  vii. 
 
 corruptedness  of  these  great  records  of  divine  truth,  of 
 which  the  Jews  are  unsuspected, because  hostile  vouchers. 
 Had  their  nation  universally  or  generally  embraced  the 
 gospel  at  its  first  publication,  the  sceptic  might  with 
 some  plausibility  allege,  that  the  prophecies  might  have 
 been  fabricated  or  altered  to  fit  them  to  the  events  ;  the 
 contrary  is  now  certain.  And  so  great  is  the  importance 
 of  this  circumstance,  as  appears  to  me,  to  establish  the 
 truth  of  Christianity ;  that  I  firmly  believe  it  to  be  one 
 of  the  great  causes,  why  the  national  conversion  of  the 
 Jews  is  delayed 4  '  until  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  shall 
 come  in.'  They  are  to  continue  the  guardians  of  the 
 prophetic  records,  till  these  shall  have  had  their  contents 
 examined,  and  their  application  ascertained,  by  every 
 other  nation  in  the  world. 
 
 "  A  little  reflection  will  also  evince,  that  the  rejection 
 of  Christianity  by  the  Jewish  nation,  does  not  subvert, 
 but  on  the  contrary  confirms  the  certainty  of  the  miracles 
 recorded  in  the  gospel  history.  It  not  only  appears 
 from  that  history,  5  but  from  the  admission  c  of  the 
 Jews  themselves,  that  the  cotemporaries  of  these  mira- 
 cles did  not  deny  their  performance,  but  on  the  con- 
 trary admitted  it ;  though  they  would  not  upon  their 
 evidence  embrace  the  gospel,  because  they  conceived 
 this  contrary  to  the  Mosaic  law,  whose  obligation  their 
 carnal  and  ambitious  views  led  them  to  believe  was  eternal, 
 and  which  they  conceived  no  miracles  could  prove  was 
 abrogated.  They  therefore  contented  themselves  with 
 asserting,  that  the  miracles  of  Christ  and  his  apostles 
 must  be  ascribed  to  magical  influence,  diabolical  agency, 
 or  the  mysterious  potency  of  the  ineffable  name  of  God, 
 which  they  conceived  our  Lord  had  learned  to  pronounce. 
 But  these  opinions  of  the  Jews  affect  not  the  reality  or 
 greatness  of  the  gospel  miracles  :  we  can  judge  as  clearly 
 as  they  could  possibly  do,  whether  the  scriptures  des- 
 cribe the  Mosaic  law  as  of  strictly  eternal  obligation,  or 
 on  the  contrary  represent  it  as  designed  to  introduce  a 
 more  perfect  and  universal  religion  ;  and  our  improved 
 reason  and  philosophic  knowledge  reject  without  hesita- 
 tion the  wild  and  absurd  causes  to  which  they  imputed 
 works,  which  the  fair  and  candid  reasoners  amongst  them- 
 selves confessed,  '  no  man  could  do  except  God  was 
 with  him.' 
 
 "  In  truth  the  hostility  of  the  Jewish  nation  to  Chris- 
 tianity from  the  first,  confirms  the  truth  of  the  gospel  mi- 
 racles. Had  the  Jews  been  universally  or  even  generally 
 converted  by  them,  the  sceptic  might  argue  with  some  ap- 
 pearance of  probability,  that  the  facts  had  been  invented 
 or  exaggerated  to  gratify  the  national  propensity,  credit- 
 ed without  examination  or  proof,  and  all  inquiry  into  them 
 checked  at  the  only  period  when  inquiry  could  have  de- 
 tected imposition.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  now  certain, 
 that  the  gospel  miracles  were  wrought  in  the  presence  ot 
 enemies,  and  thus  subjected  to  the  severest  scrutiny,  and 
 that  they  carried  with  them  conviction  to  multitudes,  not- 
 withstanding the  fiercest  opposition  which  national  pre- 
 judice, bigotry,  and  vice  could  excite,  and  the  strictest 
 research  which  could  be  formed  by  the  most  vigilant 
 hostility. 
 
 '  Undoubtedly  the  most  powerful  cause  of  the  rejection 
 
 4  Rom.  xi.  25. 
 s  Matt.  ix.  34;  xii.  24;  Mark  III.  22;  Luke  xi.  15,  and  the 
 
 corresponding  passages. 
 
 6  See  Wagenseil's  Fiery  Darts  of  SataD,  and  Lardner's  Jewish 
 Testimonies,  ch.  v.  awl  vii. 
 
INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 831 
 
 of  the  gospel  by  the  Jews,  was  the  deplorably  vicious 
 and  depraved  character  of  the  nation  at  large,  '  so 
 strongly  attested  by  their  own  historian,  and  incontro- 
 vertibly  established  by  the  facts  which  he  relates.  And 
 this  depravity,  it  may  be  said,  disproves  every  thing-  1 
 have  adduced  to  show,  that  Judaism  was  designed  or 
 adapted  to  prepare  for  the  reception  of  the  gospel.  But 
 let  it  be  remembered,  that  notwithstanding  this  allowed 
 depravity  of  the  Jews  in  general,  it  has  been  proved  that 
 amongst  them  were  preserved  the  principles  of  true 
 theology  and  pure  morals,  which  the  gospel  adopts,  and 
 which  were  banished  from  all  mankind  beside.  Let  it 
 be  remembered,  that  amongst  them,  and  the  various  de- 
 scriptions of  persons  connected  with  and  enlightened  by 
 their  religion,  the  gospel  found  its  first  teachers  and 
 hearers,  its  first  converts  and  missionaries  ;  and  that  the 
 noblest  and  purest  principles  of  piety  adorned  these 
 great  instruments,  employed  by  God  for  dispensing  his 
 mercies  to  mankind  ;  instruments  which  through  every 
 other  region  of  the  world  would  have  been  sought  in  vain. 
 Finally,  let  us  recollect  the  great  probability,  that  the 
 gospel  attracted,  and  as  it  were  detached  from  the  Jew- 
 ish nation  every  thing  pure  and  pious,  candid  and  vir- 
 tuous ;  and  left  behind  the  dregs  and  dross  alone,  the 
 hypocritical  Pharisees,  the  epicurean  Sadducees,  the 
 worldly-minded  Herodians,  the  fierce  zealots,  the  de- 
 praved and  seditious  rabble.  Thus,  according  to  the 
 intimation  of  its  divine  founder,  sifting  the  chaff  from  the 
 wheat,  separating  the  tares  from  the  good  seed,  2  '  ga- 
 thering the  one  into  his  barn,  and  consuming  the  other 
 with  fire  unquenchable.' 
 
 "  In  truth,  after  the  Jewish  nation  had  obstinately  re- 
 jected the  Messiah,  rebelled  against  his  authority,  and  in 
 opposition  to  his  religion  maintained,  that  the  perpetual 
 observance  of  the  Mosaic  ritual  was  an  indispensable 
 condition  of  divine  acceptance,  and  their  own  nation 
 exclusively  the  chosen  people  of  God.  It  was  indispen- 
 sably necessary  to  put  an  end  to  their  national  establish- 
 ment, and  destroy  that  temple  with  which  tfte  observance 
 of  their  ritual  was  essentially  connected ;  in  order  to 
 maintain  the  universal  sovereignty  of  the  Messiah,  in 
 opposition  to  their  rebellion,  as  well  as  to  prevent  all 
 possibility  of  corrupting  Christianity  by  the  adoption  of 
 their  errors,  and  of  their  now  burdensome  because  useless 
 ceremonies.  Whoever  observes  the  struggles  of  the 
 Judaizing  Christians,  thus  to  encumber  the  religion  of 
 Christ,  and  the  extreme  difficulty  with  which  their  efforts 
 were  resisted,  even  by  direct  revelation,  and  apostolic 
 authority,  in  the  very  first  and  purest  era  of  the  church, 
 will  easily  perceive  the  necessity  of  this  precaution,  to 
 preserve  the  purity,  and  extend  the  dominion  of  the  gos- 
 pel ;  and  that  in  this  view,  3  '  through  the  fall  of  the 
 Jews  salvation  is  come  unto  the  Gentiles.'" — Graves' 
 Lectures  on  the  Pentateuch. 
 
 CHAP.  III. — On  the  Genuineness  and  Authenticity  of 
 the  Books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
 
 "  There   are  now,  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  a 
 numerous  body  of  people  called  Christians  ;  and  others 
 
 1  See  Josephus's  History  of  the  Jewish  War,  particularly  b. 
 iv.  v.  and  vi.:  or   Lardner's  judicious  view  of  his  testimony  to 
 the  fulfilment  of  our  Lord's  predictions,  in  his  Jewish  Test.  c.  iii. 
 2  Mat.  iii.  12 ;  xiii.  30.  3  Rom  xi    j , 
 
 denominated  Jews,  who  are  scattered  among  the  various 
 nations  of  the  earth.  When  we  inquire  into  the  reason 
 of  these  denominations,  we  find  the  former  are  so  called 
 from  their  belief  in,  and  adherence  to,  a  divine  teacher, 
 called  Christ;  and  the  latter,  from  their  being  the  de- 
 scendants of  Judah,one  of  the  twelve  patriarchs,  sprung 
 from  Jacob.  The  former  maintain  certain  opinions 
 which  were  taught  by  Christ;  they  observe  certain  rites 
 appointed  by  him  ;  and  they  meet  on  the  first  day  of  the 
 week  to  worship  the  Deity  by  prayer  and  praise.  They 
 have  among  them  wi-itten  books  which  they  account 
 sacred  ;  and  one  part  of  their  worship  is,  for  a  person 
 properly  qualified  to  read  some  portion  of  these  books, 
 and  to  explain  to  them  the  various  duties  which  man  owes 
 to  his  Creator,  himself,  and  his  neighbour. 
 
 "  In  every  country  where  Christians  are  numerous, 
 they  erect  edifices  for  the  purpose  of  divine  worship;  and 
 where  they  are  few,  they  assemble  in  some  house  with 
 the  same  design.  For  public  worship  is  essential  to 
 Christianity;  and  one  day  in  seven  has  been,  and  is  now, 
 kept  sacred,  and  spent  in  the  exercises  of  devotion. 
 When  we  inquire  into  its  origin,  the  most  authentic  his- 
 tory carries  us  back  near  eighteen  centuries ;  and,  from 
 the  testimony  of  those  who  then  lived,  we  are  sure  that 
 there  were  persons  at  that  period  denominated  Christians, 
 and  that  they  had  among  them  the  same  sacred  books 
 which  they  now  have,  and  that  they  observed  the  same 
 rites,  and  believed  the  same  doctrines.  Happily  we  have 
 not  only  the  testimony  of  Christian  writers,  but  of  poly- 
 theists  who  were  the  avowed  enemies  of  Christianity. 
 
 "  Tacitus,  writing  the  life  of  Nero,  who  set  the  city  of 
 Rome  on  fire,  the  report  of  which  rendered  him  odious, 
 tells  us,  that  Nero  imputed  it  to  a  set  of  people  called 
 Christians.  The  founder  of  that  name  was  Christ,  who 
 suffered  death  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  under  his  procu- 
 rator Pontius  Pilate.  This  pernicious  superstition,  thus 
 checked  for  a  while,  broke  out  again  ;  and  spread  not 
 only  over  Judea,  where  the  evil  originated,  but  through 
 Rome  also,  whither  every  thing  bad  upon  earth  finds 
 its  way  and  is  practised.  Some,  who  confessed  their  sect, 
 were  first  seized,  and  afterwards,  by  their  information,  a 
 vast  multitude  were  apprehended,  who  were  convicted, 
 not  so  much  of  the  crime  of  burning  Rome,  as  of  hatred 
 to  mankind.  Their  sufferings  at  their  execution  were 
 aggravated  by  insult  and  mockery  ;  for  some  were  dis- 
 guised in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  and  worried  to  death 
 by  dogs ;  some  were  crucified ;  and  others  were  wrapt 
 up  in  pitched  shirts,  and  set  on  fire  when  the  day  closed, 
 that  they  might  serve  as  lights  to  illuminate  the  night. 
 
 "  This  testimony  proves,  first,  that  the  founder  of 
 Christianity  was  put  to  death  :  secondly,  that,  in  the 
 same  country  in  which  he  was  put  to  death,  the  religion, 
 after  a  short  check,  broke  out  and  spread  :  and,  thirdly, 
 that  it  so  spread  that,  within  thirty-four  years  from  the 
 author's  death,  a  very  great  number  of  Christians  were 
 found  at  Rome.  This  testimony  from  a  heathen  historian 
 establishes  the  leading  facts  of  the  Christian  records. 
 His  opinion  of  this  sect  is  what  we  might  expect  from 
 his  habits  and  principles.  Suetonius  gives  the  same 
 account  of  the  sufferings  of  Christians  at  that  period. 
 
 "On  examining  the  books  held  as  sacred  and  divine 
 by  Christians,  we  find  that  four  of  the  disciples  of  Christ 
 WTOte  narratives  of  his  life.  They  differ  in  their  manner, 
 style,  and  in  the  order  they  observe,  but  agree  in  a  most 
 wonderful  manner  as  to  the  facts  they  record.     They 
 
832 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 write  like  persons  who  had  heard  and  seen  what  they 
 relate,  or  who  had  received  information  from  such  as 
 had  ;  and  through  the  whole  of  their  narratives  an  artless 
 simplicity  prevails  which  strongly  prepossesses  the  mind 
 in  favour  of  their  veracity.  Another  book  contains  a 
 history  of  the  persecutions  of  Christians,  and  the  pro- 
 gress of  Christianity,  during  a  period  of  about  thirty 
 years.  The  remaining  books  are  letters  directed  to  dif- 
 ferent Christian  societies  ;  and  were  evidently  wi-itten  on 
 particular  occasions,  either  to  oppose  some  error  or  to 
 explain  and  enforce  some  part  of  Christian  truth.  One 
 book  is  so  peculiar  in  its  style,  imagery,  and  design, 
 that  it  has  been  considered  prophetical,  and  as  emble- 
 matically setting  forth  the  events,  whether  adverse  or 
 prosperous,  of  the  Christian  church  till  the  consummation 
 of  all  things. 
 
 "  It  is  generally  admitted  that  Matthew  wrote  his  gos- 
 pel for  the  use  of  the  church  in  Jerusalem,  and  of  the 
 Jews  in  Palestine.  According  to  the  testimony  of 
 antiquity,  it  was  written  in  Hebrew,  a  or  the  language 
 the  Jews  then  spoke ;  and  of  course  it  would  be  acces- 
 sible to  the  whole  Jewish  nation.  The  time  when  this 
 gospel  was  composed  has  not  been  precisely  ascertained. 
 Dr  H.  Owen  thought  that  it  was  written  as  early  as  Anno 
 Domini  39  or  40,  or  about  six  years  after  our  Lord's 
 ascension.  Lardner,  however,  supposes  it  was  not 
 written  till  the  year  64.  It  is  most  probable  that  Mat- 
 thew wrote  his  gospel  while  Peter  and  Mark  were  in  the 
 northern  part  of  the  Lesser  Asia,  which  might  be  while 
 Paul  was  preaching  in  Greece,  about  the  year  54. 
 Peter,  we  know,  was  at  Antioch  about  this  period  ;  and 
 might  with  Mark  thence  go  to  Pontus  and  Bithynia. 
 
 "  On  the  establishment  of  Christian  societies  beyond 
 the  boundaries  of  Judea,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  an 
 authentic  narrative  would  be  given  in  Greek,  the  lan- 
 guage then  most  generally  spoken.  Accordingly,  the 
 gospel  of  Mark  is  said  to  have  been  the  second  narrative 
 presented  to  the  church;  but  when  published  is  uncer- 
 tain. He  was  the  companion  and  attendant  of  Peter, 
 as  the  Christian  fathers  relate  :  and,  with  the  greatest 
 probability,  is  supposed  to  be  the  person  he  mentions 
 in  his  first  epistle,  chap.  v.  3,  and  calls  his  son. 
 
 "  It  is  not  improbable  that,  while  Paul  was  at  Rome, 
 Peter  again  visited  Antioch,  find  afterwards,  the  churches 
 in  Pontus,  Galatia,  &rc.  ;  and  Mark,  his  convert  and 
 attendant,  as  the  fathers  relate,  might  write  his  gos- 
 pel for  the  use  of  those  churches ;  and  as  it  would  have 
 the  approbation  of  Peter,  it  would  often  be  called  the 
 gospel  of  Peter,  as  in  fact  it  was  called;  Peter  after- 
 wards going  to  Rome,  and  communicating  a  copy  of 
 Mark's  gospel  to  that  church,  the  tradition  might  arise 
 that  it  was  written  for  that  church.  After  weighing  the 
 statements  of  the  fathers  and  the  opinions  of  learned 
 men,  this  seems  the  most  probable  hypothesis. 
 
 "  The  evangelist  Luke  has  given  to  the  church  the 
 fullest  history  of  its  founder  and  head.  There  is  no 
 ground  for  doubt  but  that  he  is  the  person  who  accom- 
 panied Paul,  and  who  wrote  afterwards  the  Acts  of  the 
 Apostles.  Paul  has  mentioned  him  with  the  highest  re- 
 spect in  his  epistles.  '      From  Acts,  it  appears  that  he 
 
 1  Col.  iv.  14 ;  2  Tim.  iv.  11 ;  Phil.  24. 
 a  Eusebius  has  preserved  the  testimony  of  Papias  to  this  fact, 
 who  informs  us  that  "  Matthew  wrote  his  Divine  Oracles  in  the 
 Hebrew  tongue,  and  every  one  interpreted  them  as  well  as  they 
 were  able."  (Euseb.  h.  iii.  c.  39.)  Irenaius  and  the  following 
 fathers  giv<»  us  the  same  account. 
 
 regularly  attended  Paul  from  his  voyage  into  Macedonia 
 till  he  was  carried  prisoner  to  Rome,  whither  the  evan- 
 gelist also  went  with  him.  Compare  Acts  xx.  5,  where 
 Luke  speaks  of  himself  as  with  Paul,  and  he  ever  after 
 uses  the  same  mode  of  speaking. 
 
 "  The  style  of  Luke  proves  that  he  was  a  Jew  by 
 descent ;  and  most  probably  one  early  converted  to 
 the  faith.  It  does  not  appear,  from  what  he  says, 
 that  he  had  personally  seen  Christ,  but  had  derived 
 his  knowledge  from  the  apostles,  who  had  been  eye 
 and  ear  witnesses  of  what  our  Lord  did  and  taught ;  and 
 especially  from  Paul,  to  whom  the  gospel  had  been 
 communicated  by  special  revelation.2  Dr  Campbell 
 thinks  it  highly  probable  that  he  was  a  native  of  Antioch, 
 the  capital  of  Syria,  where  the  Greek  language  had  been 
 long  cultivated,  and  was  generally  spoken  by  the  higher 
 classes.  If  Mark  wrote  his  gospel  while  Paul  was  a  pri- 
 soner at  Rome,  whither  Luke  had  accompanied  him, 
 and  where  he  continued  till  the  release  of  the  apostle, 
 as  is  nearly  certain  from  Paul's  mentioning-  him  in  the 
 epistles  which  he  there  wrote,  3  he  could  not,  I  think, 
 have  written  his  gospel  sooner  than  a.  d.  63,  and  most 
 probablv  in  Greece. 
 
 "  It  has  been  observed  that  the  language  of  Luke  is 
 more  pure  and  copious,  and  there  is  more  of  composi- 
 tion in  his  sentences  than  in  those  of  the  other  evangel- 
 ists. From  his  profession  as  a  physician,  he  might  have 
 received  a  superior  education ;  and  from  his  intercourse 
 with  men  might  have  derived  his  superior  accomplish- 
 ments in  the  Greek  language.  In  relating  the  same  facts 
 which  Matthew  and  Mark  had  related,  he  uses,  in  some 
 instances,  the  same  expressions,  and  in  others  there  is 
 but  little  variation.  From  him  we  learn  whatever  relates  to 
 the  birth  of  John  the  Baptist,  the  annunciation,  and  other 
 important  circumstances  concerning  the  nativity  of  the 
 Messiah ;  the  occasion  of  Joseph's  being  then  in  Beth- 
 lehem ;  the  vision  granted  the  shepherds  ;  the  early  testi- 
 mony of  Simeon  and  Anna  ;  the  wonderful  manifestation 
 of  our  Lord'^roficiency  in  knowledge  when  only  twelve 
 years  old;  his  age  at  the  commencement  of  his  ministry, 
 connected  with  the  year  of  the  reigning  emperor.  » 
 
 "  He  has  given  us  also  an  account  of  several  memora- 
 able  incidents  and  cures  which  had  been  overlooked  by 
 the  rest ;  the  conversion  of  Zaccheus  the  publican  ;  the 
 cure  of  the  crooked  woman,  of  the  dropsical  man,  the 
 cleansing  of  the  ten  lepers,  the  repulse  he  met  with  when 
 about  to  enter  a  Samaritan  city,  and  the  instructive  re- 
 buke he  gave  on  that  occasion,  to  two  of  his  disciples 
 for  their  intemperate  zeal :  also  the  affecting  interview 
 he  had,  after  his  resurrection,  with  two  of  his  disciples, 
 in  the  way  to  Emmaus,  and  at  that  village.  Luke  has 
 likewise  added  many  edifying  parables  to  those  which 
 had  been  recorded  by  the  other  evangelists.  Of  this 
 number  are  the  parable  of  the  creditor  who  had  two  debt- 
 ors ;  of  the  rich  fool  who  hoarded  up  his  increase,  and, 
 when  he  had  not  one  day  to  live,  vainly  exulted  in  the 
 prospect  of  many  happy  years  ;  of  the  rich  man  and  La- 
 zarus ;  of  the  reclaimed  prodigal ;  of  the  pharisee  and 
 the  publican  praying  in  the  temple  ;  of  the  judge  who 
 was  prevailed  on  by  a  widow's  importunity,  though  he 
 
 2  Gal.  i.  11,  12.  3  Col.  iv.  14. 
 
 6  These  facts  he  might  learn  from  some  of  the  kindred  of  our 
 Lord,  or  from  John,  with  whom  his  mother  Mary  dwelt  after 
 the  crucifixion,  who  had  preserved  and  would  not  fail  to  com- 
 municate them  to  him  and  to  the  church. 
 
INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 833 
 
 feared  not  God  nor  regarded  man ;  of  the  barren  fig- 
 tree  ;  of  the  compassionate  Samaritan ;  and  several 
 others ;  most  of  which  so  early  a  writer  as  Irenams  has 
 specified  as  peculiarly  belonging  to  this  gospel. 
 
 "  On  comparing  these  three  gospels,  it  is  clear  that  one 
 was  not  copied  from  another ;  for  in  this  case  there 
 would  have  been  not  only  the  same  facts,  but  the  same 
 order.  It  is  equally  clear  that  the  two  latter  could  not 
 be  translations  of  Matthew's  Hebrew  original  ;  we  must 
 then  deem  them  independent  testimonies  to  the  same 
 facts,  and  account  for  the  coincidences  and  verbal  agree- 
 ment from  the  materials  they  possessed ;  and  for  the  va- 
 riation of  the  order  and  arrangement,  from  the  judgment 
 of  each  writer,  and  from  the  circumstances  and  design  he 
 had  in  view. 
 
 "  Luke  also  wrote  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which  con- 
 tains the  history  of  the  church  till  Paul  obtained  his  li- 
 berty, about  the  year  63.  He  has  traced  the  most  ma- 
 terial occurrences  during  this  period,  and  the  history 
 may  be  considered  as  a  continuation  of  his  own  gospel. 
 His  information  was  derived  from  the  best  sources:  and, 
 in  regard  to  many  transactions,  he  was  personally  con- 
 cerned. This  book  is  of  the  greatest  value,  as  it  shows 
 the  manner  in  which  the  apostles  fulfilled  their  commis- 
 sion and  propagated  the  gospel  abroad. 
 
 "The  gospel  of  John  is  uniformly  stated  to  have  been 
 written  the  last ;  and  he  has  designedly  omitted  most  of 
 what  the  others  had  related,  with  whose  writings  he  was 
 acquainted  ;  and  has  given  many  interesting  discourses 
 of  our  Lord  at  great  length.  It  is  generally  admitted 
 that  John  lived  to  an  advanced  age  :  and  that  one  de- 
 sign of  his  gospel  was  to  refute  the  errors  which  had  al- 
 ready sprung  up  in  the  church.  John  himself  mentions 
 the  Nicolaitans,  '  a  sect  of  the  Gnostics.  They  intro- 
 duced into  the  Christian  church  the  most  absurd  specu- 
 lative doctrines  respecting  the  person  of  the  Saviour, 
 his  works,  sufferings,  and  resurrection.  John,  in  con- 
 sequence, begins  his  gospel,  with  establishing  his  glory 
 as  God,  and  the  Creator  of  all  things.  He  is  wonder- 
 fully simple  .and  artless  in  his  style  and  manner  ;  and 
 every  where  discovers  the  most  amiable  and  affectionate 
 temper.  From  internal  evidence  he  is  supposed  to  have 
 written  previously  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 2  In 
 the  year  70,  this  city  was  taken  and  in  a  great  measure 
 destroyed  ;  and  had  John  written  after  that  event,  it  is 
 natural  to  think  he  would  have  referred  to  it. 
 
 "  The  epistles  of  Paul  have  been  generally  admitted 
 genuine.  When  considered  in  connexion  with  the  Acts 
 of  the  Apostles,  there  is  such  an  undesigned  coincidence 
 of  persons,  circumstances,  and  facts,  as  not  only  proves 
 their  genuineness,  but  their  truth.  It  is  concluded,  from 
 evidence  contained  in  the  Acts  and  epistles  themselves 
 that  they  were  written  in  the  following  order,  according 
 to  Dr  Wall.  1.  The  first  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians, 
 a.  d.  54,  from  Corinth.  "  The  copiers  at  the  end  of  this 
 epistle  say  it  was  written  from  Athens  :  and  the  English 
 have  thought  that  note  of  theirs  worth  translating :  but 
 whoever  reads  Acts  xviii.  5,  will  see  that  it  was  at  Co- 
 rinth that  Silas  and  Timothy  came  to  Paul ;  and  they 
 join  in  the  epistle."  2.  The  second  epistle  to  the  Thes- 
 salonians, in  the  same  year,  54,  from  the  same  place.  3. 
 The  epistle  to  the  Galatians  from  Ephesus,  a.  d.  55.  4. 
 The   first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  from  Ephesus,  a.  d. 
 
 1  Rev.  ii.  15. 
 
 Ibid.  v.  2. 
 
 57.  5.  The  second  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  from  the 
 same  place,  in  the  following  year.  C.  The  epistle  to 
 the  Romans  from  Corinth,  a.  d.  GO,  Usher  ;  58,  Pearson. 
 7.  The  epistle  to  the  Philippians  from  Rome,  during  his 
 imprisonment,  a.  d.  62.  8,  9,  and  10.  The  three  epistles 
 to  the  Ephesians,  Colossians,  and  Philemon  were  written 
 from  the  same  place,  and  sent  by  the  same  person,  Ty- 
 chicus,  during  the  same  period.  From  internal  evidence 
 it  is  now  generally  admitted  that  the  epistle  to  the  Ephe- 
 sians is  the  same  as  that  to  the  Laodiceans,  and  Paley 
 considers  that  the  true  reading  is  "Laodicea."3  11. 
 The  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  soon  after  the  former,  in 
 the  opinion  of  Wall,  but  whether  sent  to  the  church  at 
 Jerusalem,  or  some  other  church  of  Judea,  is  not  known.0 
 12.  After  Paul  obtained  his  liberty,  he  travelled  into 
 various  parts ;  and  having  left  Timothy  at  Ephesus,  he 
 sent  from  Laodicea  the  first  epistle  to  Timothy,  about 
 a.  d.  (15.  b  13.  About  the  same  time,  he  wrote  the  epistle 
 to  Titus,  whom  he  left  the  year  before  in  Crete.  14.  Paul 
 was  again  a  prisoner  at  Rome  when  he  wrote  the  second 
 epistle  to  Timothy.  This  last  letter  of  the  great  apos- 
 tle contains  intimations  that  he  considered  his  course  as 
 now  run,  and  that  he  was  ready  to  be  offered  up  as  the 
 victim  of  persecution. 
 
 "  The  first  epistle  of  John  and  the  first  of  Peter  are,  by 
 the  consent  of  antiquity,  admitted  to  be  genuine.  The 
 second  and  third  of  John,  and  the  second  of  Peter,  as 
 well  as  of  James  and  Jude,  were  not  so  generally  re- 
 ceived. They  possess,  however,  such  internal  evidence 
 as  must  satisfy  any  impartial  inquirer,  and,  accordingly, 
 they  have  been  admitted  into  the  canon.  The  book  of 
 Revelation  was  for  some  time  undisputed,  and,  as  far  as 
 external  authority  goes,  it  is  better  supported  than  most 
 others. 
 
 "  James  is  called  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  that  is,  kins- 
 man ;  and  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  stated  bishop  or 
 pastor  of  the  church  at  Jerusalem.  He  was  eminently 
 pious,  and  was  called  James  the  just.  Josephus  has 
 mentioned  the  manner  in  which  Herod,  to  please  the 
 Jews,  put  him  to  death  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year 
 62,  or  the  beginning  of  63.  The  epistle  might  be 
 written  the  year  before.  It  is  directed  to  the  twelve 
 tribes  of  Israel,  or  to  those  who  dwelt  among  the  Gen- 
 tiles ;  but  I  consider  it  as  particularly  referring  to  such 
 as  had  embraced  the  gospel.     It  is  wholly  practical. 
 
 "  The  first  and  second  epistles  of  Peter  were  addressed 
 to  believing  Jews  and  Gentiles,  scattered  through  Pon- 
 tus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia.  It  is 
 evident,  from  the  design  of  the  first  epistle,  that  those  to 
 whom  it  is  directed  were  in  a  state  of  suffering  and  per- 
 
 3  See  Griesbaeh's  Greek  Testament. 
 
 a  Thi-i  epistle  was  not  so  soon  known  or  admitted  into  the 
 canon  a-;  the  rest.  As  it  was  written  to  the  Hebrews,  and  chief- 
 ly respected  them,  it  is  natural  to  infer,  it  might  be  some  time 
 before  it  was  "communicated  to  the  Gentile  churches.  On  hav- 
 ing examined  the  testimonies  of  the  fathers,  Lardner  observes, 
 "  It  is  evident  that  this  epistle  was  genorally  received,  in  an- 
 cient times,  by  those  Christians  who  used  the  Greek  language, 
 and  lived  in  the  eastern  parts  of  the  Roman  empire.  Professor 
 Stuart,  in  his  valuable  critical  examination  of  this  epistle,  has 
 made  it  probable  that  it  was  composed  and  sent  to  the  Christian 
 church  at  Cssarea,  where  Paul  had  resided  as  a  prisoner  more 
 than  two  full  years. — Acts  xxiv.  27. 
 
 b  Bishop   Pearson,   Paley,  and  others,  have  justly  observed, 
 that  the  epistle  to  Timothy  and  that  to  Titus  must  have  been 
 written  subsequent  to  Paul's  imprisonment  at  Rome,  recorded  in 
 the  Acts. — See  Hone  Pauliiicr,  pp.  320 — 322. 
 5  N 
 
834 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 sedition:  and  sonic  think  it  was- written  about  the  same 
 time  with  the  above.  The  second  is  supposed  to  have 
 been  written  just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Jewish 
 war,  a.  d.  66. 
 
 "The  epistle  of  Jude  is  thought  to  refer  to  the  second 
 of  Peter,  v.  17,  and  of  course  was  written  after  it.  He 
 calls  himself  the  brother  of  James.  It  might  be  written 
 soon  after  the  above,  about  the  year  70.  The  epistles 
 of  John  are  thought  to  have  been  written  as  late  as  the 
 year  90.  The  first  breathes  the  spirit  and  manner  of  the 
 evangelist;  the  two  latter  are  directed  to  two  pious  in- 
 dividuals, and  the  sameness  of  style  would  justify  us  in 
 considering  John  the  author,  had  we  no  other  testimony. 
 
 "The  Revelations  were  communicated  to  John  in  the 
 isle  of  Patmos,  and  contain  the  last  divine  revelations 
 given  to  the  church.  They  are,  with  the  greatest  proba- 
 bility, supposed  to  have  been  given  about  the  year  96. 
 
 "The  four  gospels  and  the  epistles  were  communicated 
 by  one  church  to  another,  and  were  most  of  them  read 
 and  commented  on  in  the  churches  on  the  Lord's  day. 
 Some  of  them  are  quoted  or  alluded  to  by  Clement  of 
 Rome,  by  Hermes,  by  Ignatius,  by  Polycarp,  disciples 
 and  contemporaries  with  the  apostles,  and  by  every  Chris- 
 tian writer  that  followed  in  the  next  age  ;  by  Justin 
 Martyr,  Irenasus,  Theophilus,  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
 Tertullian,  and  others.  Tertullian  refers  to  the  churches 
 as  then  possessing  the  very  letters  which  Paul  addressed 
 to  them.  He  bids  "  any  one  who  is  willing  to  exercise 
 his  curiosity  profitably  in  the  business  of  his  salvation,  to 
 visit  the  apostolical  churches,  in  which  their  very  authen- 
 tic letters  are  recited,  ipsa  authentic^  literce  eorum 
 recitantur"  Then  he  goes  on  :  "  Is  Achala  near  you  ? 
 You  have  Corinth.  If  you  are  not  far  from  Macedonia, 
 you  have  Philippi,  you  have  Thessalonica.  If  you  can 
 go  to  Asia,  you  have  Ephesus  ;  but  if  you  are  near  to 
 Italy,  you  have  Rome." 
 
 "  Little  more  than  seventy  years  after  the  death  of  our 
 Lord  nearly  the  whole  of  the  canonical  books  were  trans- 
 lated into  Syriac,  which  still  remains.  The  accurate 
 Lardner  observes,  '  In  the  remaining  works  of  Irennsus, 
 Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  Tertullian,  there  are  per- 
 haps more  and  larger  quotations  of  the  small  volume  of 
 the  New  Testament,  than  of  all  the  works  of  Cicero,  in 
 the  writings  of  all  characters  for  several  ages.' 
 
 "Having  stated,  according  to  the  best  evidence  extant, 
 the  manner  and  the  time  when  the  books  of  the  New  Tes- 
 tament were  published,  we  may  justly  infer  that  nothing 
 can  be  brought  to  invalidate  either  their  genuineness  or 
 authenticity.  a  As  far  as  the  authority  of  external  testi- 
 mony goes,  it  is  wholly  in  their  favour,  without  any  di- 
 rect opposing  testimony. 
 
 "  There  is  strong  reason  to  believe  that,  within  forty 
 years  after  the  ascension,  the  evangelists  and  the  chief 
 part  of  the  epistles  were  collected  together,  and  read 
 and  commented  on  in  the  Christian  churches,  as  the  law 
 and  the  prophets  were  in  the  Jewish  synagogues.  Ig- 
 natius contrasts  the  gospel  with  the  prophets.  '  Ye 
 ought,'   says  he,  '  to  hearken  to  the  prophets,  but  espe- 
 
 a  Bishop  Watson  has  pertinently  observed,  that  there  is  an 
 important  distinction  between  the  genuineness  and  authenticity 
 of  any  book.  "  A  genuine  book,  is  that  which  was  written  by 
 the  person  whose  name  it  bears,  as  the  author  of  it.  An  authen- 
 tic book  is  that  which  relates  matters  of  fact  as  they  really  hap- 
 pened. A  book  may  be  genuine  without  being  authentic  j  and  a 
 book  may  be  authentic,  without  being  genuine." 
 
 daily  to  the  gospel,  in  which  the  passion  has  been  ma- 
 nifested to  us,  and  the  resurrection  perfected.' 
 
 "Supposing  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  the  mere 
 invention  of  men,  and  the  facts  they  relate  respecting 
 the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  to  be  without  foundation,  it  is 
 difficult,  nay  impossible,  to  account  for  the  rise,  spread, 
 and  duration  of  Christianity  in  the  world.  General  ex- 
 perience supports  the  remark,  that  on  no  subject  are 
 men,  in  general,  more  indisposed  and  disinclined  to  en- 
 tertain and  cordially  receive  a  new  sentiment  than  on 
 religion. 
 
 "  Were  the  Christian  records  merely  the  invention  of 
 artful  and  designing  men,  how  could  it  have  been  possi- 
 ble to  persuade  either  Jews  or  heathens  to  become  Chris- 
 tians ?  It  cannot  be  denied  that  these  books  contain 
 doctrines  and  precepts  wholly  opposed  to  the  known 
 prejudices,  sentiments,  and  practices  of  both  those  class- 
 es of  men.  By  the  doctrine  of  Christ  their  religious  ri- 
 tual and  ceremonies  were  represented  as  of  no  intrinsic 
 importance,  and,  unless  accompanied  with  faith,  purity 
 of  heart,  and  integrity  of  life,  unavailable  in  the  sight  of 
 God.  Another  part  of  the  Christian  doctrine  was  equal- 
 ly opposed  to  Jewish  pride  and  prejudices,  that  the  Gen- 
 tiles should  enjoy  equal  privileges  with  them  under  the 
 Messiah's  reign. 
 
 "In  the  same  manner  was  the  Christian  doctrine  oppos- 
 ed to  the  opinions  and  prejudices  of  the  heathens.  They 
 had  gods  many  and  lords  many  ;  and  were  ready  to  ad- 
 mit any  new  god  to  a  place  in  their  pantheon.  The 
 Christian  doctrine  on  this  point  was  opposed  to  every 
 article  of  their  mythology  ;  it  denied  the  very  existence 
 of  every  object  of  their  worship.  It  taught  that  an  idol 
 was  nothing  but  an  imagination.  It  is  evident  that  such  a 
 sentiment  must  have  tended  to  overthrow  every  statue,  al- 
 tar, and  temple  in  the  world ;  and  how  could  a  doctrine 
 like  this  prevail,  unless  founded  in  truth,  and  supported 
 by  such  evidence  of  its  divine  origin,  as  must  have  been 
 most  convincing  to  those  who  embraced  it  ? 
 
 "Were  men  induced  to  become  Christians  by  the  pros- 
 pect of  temporal  gain  ?  Were  riches  and  honours  the  con- 
 sequence of  embracing  Christianity  ?  No;  this  was  a  sect 
 every  where  spoken  against ;  and  Christians  had  nothing 
 to  expect  but  reproaches,  insults,  and  persecutions. 
 During  a  considerable  part  of  the  first  three  centuries, 
 Christians  had  to  endure  whatever  the  malice  of  Jews 
 and  heathens  could  inflict.  The  civil  power  was  exerted 
 in  every  way  to  induce  them  to  renounce  Christianity, 
 and  to  conform  to  the  established  and  prevailing  super- 
 stition. They  were  plundered  of  their  property,  many 
 were  banished,  many  immured  in  prisons,  and  great  num- 
 bers tortured  and  put  to  death  in  the  most  painful  man- 
 ner. 
 
 "The  arguments  in  proof  of  the  reality  and  certainty  of 
 the  Christian  doctrine,  derived  from  these  sufferings,  un- 
 dergone only  on  account  of  their  testimony  to  Jesus,  and 
 their  adherence  to  him,  are  strong  and  decisive.  When 
 was  it  found  that  men,  without  any  temporal  interest, 
 and  in  the  face  of  the  most  formidable  difficulties,  per- 
 sisted in  a  scheme  of  falsehood  ?  The  Christian  records 
 only  assign  adequate  causes  of  the  effects  which  are  ac- 
 knowledged to  exist ;  and  from  them  we  see  why  the 
 first  Christians  chose  rather  to  suffer  than  to  be  silent, 
 or  to  deny  their  Lord.  The  objects  then  which  usually 
 influence  the  human  mind  are  here  out  of  question  ; 
 and  it  must  be  admitted,  either  that  the   first  Christiai  s 
 
INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 835 
 
 acted  contrary  to  the  known  principles  of  human  nature, 
 or  that  the  facts  they  believed,  on  the  evidence  of  their 
 own  senses,  were  true.  To  admit  the  former  supposi- 
 tion is  to  admit  a  miracle  ;  for  what  is  a  miracle,  but  a 
 fact  above,  or  contrary  to,  the  usual  course  of  nature  . 
 To  admit  the  latter,  is  to  admit  that  Christianity  is  found- 
 ed in  truth. 
 
 "  The  facts  contained  in  the  New  Testament  were  the 
 continual  topics  on  which  the  apostles  of  our  Lord  dwelt 
 in  their  public  ministry  ;  and  if  these  facts  were  not  true, 
 their  enemies  would  not  have  failed  to  expose  them  ;  as 
 they  could  not  have  wanted  either  the  inclination  or  the 
 opportunity.  The  books  of  Christians  were  not  locked 
 up,  but  alike  accessible  to  friends  and  to  foes.  Curios- 
 ity, as  well  as  a  desire  to  invalidate  their  authority, 
 must  have  stimulated  the  latter  to  peruse  them  ;  and  had 
 they  not  been  supported  by  the  most  decisive  evidence, 
 we  should  have  had  refutations  without  end.  After  a 
 lapse  of  more  than  a  century,  an  attempt  was  made,  nol 
 to  prove  that  the  Christian  records  were  a  mere  fiction, 
 but  to  account  for  the  miracles  they  contained  from  the 
 supposed  powers  of  magic.  The  Christian  records 
 could  not,  therefore,  be  a  cunningly  devised  fable,  but 
 must  have  been  allowed  to  contain  a  faithful  narrative  of 
 facts,  which  courted  the  strictest  scrutiny,  and  which  did 
 not  admit  of  refutation. 
 
 "These  three  circumstances  support  both  the  genuineness 
 and  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament. 
 First,  the  recognition  of  the  facts,  doctrines,  and  pre- 
 cepts they  contain,  by  a  series  of  succeeding  writers  ; 
 secondly,  the  total  absence  of  anyr  account  of  the  origin 
 of  Christianity  substantially  different ;  thirdly,  the  early 
 and  extensive  prevalence  of  rites  and  institutions,  found- 
 ed on  the  facts  and  doctrines  contained  in  the  Christian 
 records. 
 
 "  Admitting  the  authenticity  of  the  New  Testament,  we 
 cannot  reasonably  doubt  that  of  the  books  of  the  Old. 
 The  evangelists  and  apostles  appeal  to  them,  and  often 
 quote  largely  from  them.  We  have  in  their  writings  re- 
 ferences to  most  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament :  to 
 the  five  books  of  Moses,  to  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel, 
 Kings,  Chronicles,  Job,  the  Psalms,  Proverbs,  and  the 
 Prophets.  Independently  of  this  evidence,  we  have  a 
 translation  of  these  books  into  the  Greek  language, 
 made,  at  least  in  part,  in  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Philadel- 
 phus,  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the 
 Christian  era.  The  Samaritans,  who  were  opposed  to 
 the  Jews  in  many  tilings,  retained  the  law,  or  the  five 
 books  of  Moses,  in  the  old  Hebrew  character,  which  the 
 Jews  used  prior  to  their  captivity  in  Babylon.  This 
 carries  us  back  a  considerable  period ;  and  the  existence 
 of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  and  the  version  of  the  Se- 
 venty, incontestably  prove  that  the  authenticity  of  the 
 books  of  the  Old  Testament  was  then  admitted. 
 
 "  The  books  of  Moses  contain  the  civil  and  religious 
 institutions  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  the  body  of  their 
 laws  ;  and  it  cannot  admit  of  doubt  that  their  civil  po- 
 lity and  religious  ritual  and  conduct  were  regulated  by 
 these  laws.  Their  whole  history  proves  this ;  and  the 
 unvarying  testimony  of  Greek  and  Roman  writers  cor- 
 roborates the  fact.  All  the  subsequent  writers  of  the 
 Old  Testament  refer  to  the  facts  and  laws  contained  in 
 the  five  books  of  Moses  ;  the  state  of  the  earth  when  cre- 
 ated— the  primeval  darkness — the  division  of  time  into 
 weeks  which  has  obtained  among  the  most  ancient  na- 
 
 tions— the  creation  of  man,  and  the  happiness  of  the 
 paradisiacal  state — his  fall  and  consequent  depravity 
 and  misery — the  longevity  of  the  antediluvians — Noah's 
 Hood,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  and  all  with  him  were 
 saved  in  the  ark — the  increase  of  mankind  and  rise  of 
 ancient  nations,  have  been  either  more  expressly  or  more 
 obscurely  referred  to  by  the  most  ancient  heathen  histo- 
 rians and  poets.  Josephus  refers  to  Berosus,  Manetho, 
 Hesiod,  Hecata;us  and  others  in  proof  of  what  Moses 
 relates. l 
 
 "  The  history  of  Abraham,  and  of  his  posterity,  is  so 
 full  of  particulars  and  incidents  that  it  may  be  regarded 
 as  a  family  memorial.  The  promises  and  predictions 
 made  to  him  we  find  subsequently  fulfilled.  His  poster 
 ity  increased  wonderfully  on  their  having  gone  down  to 
 Egypt,  and  were  afterwards  enslaved  and  greatly  op- 
 pressed. Moses  was  raised  up,  by  a  special  provi- 
 dence, to  be  their  deliverer,  lawgiver,  and  ruler.  God 
 furnished  him  with  talents  and  power  to  do  what  he  de- 
 signed ;  and  by  .a  series  of  miracles  and  judgments, 
 Pharaoh  and  his  people  were  compelled  to  permit  the 
 Israelites  to  depart  from  Egypt.  The  events  which  fol- 
 lowed the  exodus,  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  journey 
 to  Sinai,  the  giving  of  the  law,  the  idolatry  of  the  peo- 
 ple, erection  of  the  tabernacle,  the  pillar  of  cloud  and 
 of  fire,  the  manna,  &c,  are  clearly  described,  and  by 
 one  who  was  eye-witness  of  what  he  relates.  The  his 
 torians  and  prophets  of  after-times  borrow  their  lan- 
 guage and  imagery  from  the  facts  Moses  relates. 
 
 "  On  the  whole,  there  is  no  ground  for  doubt  as  to  the 
 genuineness  or  authenticity  of  the  Old  any  more  than  of 
 the  New  Testament.  The  external  evidence  is  as  com- 
 plete as  could  be  expected  in  respect  to  writings  by  far 
 the  most  ancient  in  the  world.  The  internal  evidence 
 arising  from  the  style,  foreign  terms,  simplicity,  brevity, 
 sublimity,  and  grandeur,  the  pure  morality,  elevated 
 views  of  the  divine  nature,  of  the  works  of  God,  of  his 
 providence,  his  universal  dominion,  power  and  glory, 
 not  only  prove  the  truth  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  its 
 inspiration  and  divine  authority. 
 
 "  The  scriptures  are  not  only  genuine  and  authentic, 
 but  inspired.  Inspiration  consisted  in  a  supernatural 
 influence  on  the  human  mind,  elevating  and  directing 
 its  natural  powers,  and  imparting  such  truths,  and  such 
 knowledge  of  God's  will,  as  could  not  be  otherwise  at- 
 tained. Inspiration  must,  from  its  very  nature,  have 
 been  personal,  and  the  inspired  person  must  have  been 
 fully  assured  of  it  from  his  own  consciousness.  Inspi- 
 ration included  both  the  divine  influence,  and  the  effect 
 of  it,  in  the  communications  or  discoveries  made  ;  and 
 these  communications  and  discoveries,  when  embodied 
 in  language,  constituted  a  divine  revelation.  A  revela- 
 tion indeed  might  be  made  without  inspiration.  God 
 might,  and  from  scripture  we  know,  he  actually  did, 
 assume  some  form,  and  make  known  his  will  to  men  ; 
 or  without  any  form,  speak  in  human  language,  as 
 at  the  giving  of  the  law,  and  on  many  other  oc- 
 casions. In  these  cases,  the  discoveries  made  would  bo 
 of  the  same  nature  and  deserve  the  same  regard  as  truths 
 directly  inspired. 
 
 "  From  this  statement,  it  appears  that  inspiration  was 
 miraculous.  An  uncommon  influence  was  exerted,  and 
 knowledge  imparted,  without  the  intervention  of  the  us- 
 
 1  Antiquities,  b.  i.  c.  8. 
 
836 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 ual  means.  How  was  it  possible  for  the  inspired  per- 
 son to  convince  others  that  God  had  inspired  him  ;  and 
 that  the  truths  he  announced  were  divine  revelations  ? 
 Such  a  pretension  would  be  regarded  with  suspicion,  as 
 being  contrary  to  general  experience  ;  and,  without 
 some  sensible,  evident  proof  of  divine  power  and  in- 
 fluence, would  command  no  respect,  nor  produce  any 
 beneficial  effects.  If  the  inspired  person  should  work 
 miracles,  or  should  miracles  be  wrought  at  his  word,  this 
 must  with  all  reasonable  men,  establish  his  claim  ;  for  it 
 would  be  absurd  to  suppose  the  God  of  truth  would 
 give  his  sanction  to  falsehood  and  imposture.  As  a  mi- 
 racle is  an  effect  above  the  power  of  created  beings  to 
 produce,  and  a  deviation  from  the  laws  and  course  of 
 nature,  it  is  the  strongest  and  most  convincing  proof  of 
 the  agency  of  God.  Nicodemus  reasoned  justly,  when 
 he  said  to  our  Lord,  '  We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher 
 come  from  God :  for  no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that 
 thou  doest,  except  God  be  with  him.' 
 
 "  1.  Inspiration  has  been  properly  divided  into  that  of 
 superintendence  and  that  of  suggestion.  '  The  former 
 implies  such  a  divine  influence  on  the  mind,  as  to  se- 
 cure the  person  who  speaks  or  writes  from  error  in  the 
 statements  of  facts,  or  the  declaration  of  any  doctrine.' 
 It  cannot  be  denied  that  such  an  influence  is  possible. 
 Such  an  influence  as  this  is  also  consistent  with  the  free 
 exercise  of  the  persons  own  faculties  :  so  that  he  would 
 express  himself  in  his  own  usual  manner,  in  words  and 
 phrases  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed.  Such  an  in- 
 spiration, the  writers  of  the  historical  books  of  the  holy 
 scriptures  enjoyed  ;  so  that  what  they  wrote  contained 
 only  truth,  though  expressed  in  their  own  style.  And 
 though  they  availed  themselves  of  well-authenticated 
 documents,  and  the  oral  testimony  of  honest  and  com- 
 petent witnesses,  yet,  in  arranging  these  materials,  and 
 stating  circumstances,  they  enjoyed  this  superintending 
 inspiration. 
 
 "  From  the  Acts,  it  is  evident  that  the  apostles  and 
 other  disciples  were  in  a  most  wonderful  manner  inspir- 
 ed by  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  were  originally  Galilean 
 fishermen  ;  and  their  circumstances  must  have  precluded 
 any  literary  advantages.  They  attended  the  ministry 
 of  Jesus,  but  they  had  no  opportunity  of  acquiring  the 
 knowledge  of  any  foreign  language.  How  then  was  it 
 possible  for  these  men  to  speak  at  once  in  various  lan- 
 guages, unless  they  had  been  inspired  ?  Whoever  re- 
 flects on  the  nature  of  language  must  be  sensible  that 
 there  could,  in  this,  be  no  collusion.  When  the  multitude 
 heard  the  disciples  speaking  and  praising  God,  each  in 
 his  own  tongue,  well  might  they  be  amazed,  and  say, 
 '  Are  not  all  these  who  speak  Galileans  ?'  The  gift  of 
 tongues  was  essentially  necessary  in  their  circumstances 
 to  spread  the  doctrines  of  their  Lord  and  Saviour  ;  and 
 the  power  of  conferring  this  gift  seems  to  have  been  be- 
 stowed on  the  apostles.  Hence,  those  who  went  forth 
 to  preach  the  gospel  were,  by  this  supernatural  gift,  qua- 
 lified for  the  work,  and  with  the  strictest  truth  the  apos- 
 tle might  say,  that  the  gospel  was  preached,  '  not  in  the 
 enticing  words  of  human  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration 
 of  the  Spirit.' 
 
 "  If  inspiration  were  necessary  to  those  who  first  preach- 
 ed the  gospel,  and  if  the  preachers  assert  that  they  en- 
 joyed it,  it  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  those  apos- 
 tles and  evangelists  who  wrote  the  life,  and  stated  and 
 illustrated  the  doctrines  of  our  Lord,  should  be  consi- 
 
 dered as  having  been  unaided  in  this  important  work. 
 The  interests  of  Christianity  were  involved  in  the  accu- 
 racy, faithfulness,  and  truth  of  their  writings,  and  had 
 they  not  enjoyed  as  full  an  inspiration  as  was  neces- 
 sary, their  writings  would  have  been  of  less  authority 
 than  their  oral  testimony.  Examine  their  writings,  and, 
 unless  I  am  greatly  deceived,  their  agreement  in  the 
 facts  they  record,  their  harmony  in  doctrinal  sentiments, 
 in  moral  precepts,  directions,  cautions,  and  exhortations 
 to  duty,  will  produce  the  fullest  conviction  that  they 
 wrote  under  the  influence  of  the  same  Spirit.  In  short, 
 the  excellence  of  the  doctrines  delivered  in  their  writ- 
 ings, their  elevation,  holiness,  and  spirituality,  their  ob- 
 vious tendency  to  raise  the  moral  state  of  man,  and  to 
 promote  his  happiness,  demonstrate  their  divine  origin. 
 
 "As  the  miracles  which  the  Saviour  wrought  demonstra- 
 ted his  divine  mission,  so  those  of  the  apostles  and  dis- 
 ciples support  the  inspiration  and  truth  of  their  writings. 
 Those  to  whose  writings  we  are  most  indebted  wrought 
 miracles,  and  by  this  clearly  evinced  that  they  were 
 under  a  special  divine  influence.1 
 
 "  Think  of  the  lustre  of  those  astonishing  works  which 
 were  wrought  by  Paul  wherever  he  went,  and  of  those 
 wrought  in  his  favour,  which  showed  him  so  eminently 
 the  care  of  heaven  :  demons  ejected,  distempers  cured, 
 sometimes  with  a  touch,  and  sometimes  without,  by  a 
 garment  sent  from  him  to  the  patient ;  his  motions  guid- 
 ed from  place  to  place  by  a  divine  oracle ;  Elymas 
 struck  blind  for  opposing  him ;  his  bands  loosed  by  an 
 earthquake  ;  his  strength  and  vigour  instantaneously  re- 
 stored, when  the  rage  of  the  mutable  and  barbarous  po- 
 pulace at  Lystra  had  stoned  him  and  left  him  for  dead  ; 
 and,  to  add  no  more,  his  safety  in  a  shipwreck,  with  that 
 of  near  three  hundred  more  in  the  same  vessel  for  his 
 sake,  promised  by  an  angel,  and  accomplished  without 
 the  loss  of  a  single  person. 
 
 "John  is  associated  with  Peter  in  the  cure  of  the  impo- 
 tent man  ;  -  and  to  him  Jesus  appeared  in  the  isle  of  Pat- 
 mos,  and  made  use  of  him  as  his  amanuensis,  expressly 
 dictating  to  him  the  letters  he  was  to  send  to  the  seven 
 churches  of  Asia.  Is  it  possible  then  to  think  that  he 
 was  not  under  an  inspiration  of  superintendency,  or  of 
 suggestion,  when  he  wrote  his  gospel  and  his  epistles  ? 
 
 "The  sacred  writers  expressly  assert  such  a  divine  in- 
 spiration.3 They  represent  their  Lord  and  Saviour, 
 while  he  was  yet  with  them,  as  giving  them  power  to  ef- 
 fect miraculous  cures  and  other  wonders  in  his  name  ; 
 and  also  as  promising  that,  after  his  departure  from 
 them,  he  would  send  them  the  '  Spirit  of  truth.'  * 
 
 "  If  the  apostles  and  evangelists  did  not  receive  this 
 Spirit,  and  were  not  divinely  inspired  in  their  preaching 
 and  writing,  they  furnished  their  enemies  with  an  argu- 
 ment to  prove  that  Jesus  was  a  deceiver  ;  but  their  writ- 
 ings show  us  that  our  Lord  fulfilled,  in  the  most  ample 
 manner,  the  promises  which  he  had  made.  Under  the 
 influence  of  this  '  Spirit  of  truth,'  their  mistakes  re- 
 specting the  nature  of  our  Lord's  kingdom  were  correct- 
 ed, their  timidity  was  converted  into  a  holy  boldness, 
 and  they  displayed,  through  the  whole  course  of  their 
 ministry,  a  wisdom  truly  heavenly,  a  fortitude,  patience, 
 meekness,  love,  and  zeal  suitable  to  the  cause  they  ad- 
 
 1  Acts  iii.  7;  v.  5—10;  ix.  32—43.  3  Acts  iii.  3,  4. 
 
 3  1  Cor.  ii.  10,  12,  13;  iii.  21—23;  Gal.  i.  11,  12;  Eph.  iv. 
 11,  12;  1  Peter  i.  12:   1  John  iv.  6. 
 
 4  Jolm  xiv.  20,  27;  xvi.  7. 
 
INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 837 
 
 vacated,  and  according  with  the  example  of  their  Lord  j 
 and  Saviour. 
 
 "Collateral  proof  of  the  inspiration  of  the  New  Testa- 
 ment may  be  derived  from  a  comparison  of  these  writ- 
 ings with  the  spurious  writings  handed  down  to  us  under 
 the  name  of  the  apostles.  Let  any  man  read  the  gospel 
 of  Nicodemus,  of  the  Egyptians,  or  the  remains  of  that 
 of  the  Ebionites,and  compare  them  with  Matthew,  Mark, 
 Luke,  and  John  :  and  if  he  possess  any  judgment,  he  will 
 not  hesitate  to  conclude  that,  while  the  latter  possess  all 
 the  characters  of  truth,  and  are  worthy  of  the  high  claims 
 which  they  maintain,  the  former  contain  ridiculous  sto- 
 ries, in  language  and  style  below  notice. 
 
 "The  belief  of  the  first  Christians  in  the  divine  authority 
 of  the  scriptures,  the  regard  they  paid  to  them,  and  the 
 care  with  which  they  read  and  transcribed  them,  furnish 
 a  strong  presumptive  proof  of  their  genuineness,  authen- 
 ticity, and  inspiration.  a  They  found  here  recorded 
 the  facts  and  doctrines  taught  them  by  the  apostles  and 
 the  first  Christian  preachers  ;  and  thus  their  faith  would 
 be  strengthened.  On  the  doctrines  taught  by  our  Lord 
 and  his  apostles,  and  contained  in  the  writings  of  the 
 New  Testament,  the  Christian  church  was  founded;  and  on 
 the  preservation  of  these,  its  purity,  perpetuity,  and  safe- 
 ty depended.  If  our  Lord  intended  that  his  kingdom 
 should  continue  among  men,  that  the  great  purposes  of 
 his  divine  mission,  sufferings,  and  death  should  be  ac- 
 complished, it  was  necessary,  either  that  the  power  of 
 miracles  should  be  continued  to  his  disciples,  or,  that 
 they  should  leave  behind  them  written  records  of  what- 
 ever was  requisite  for  faith  and  practice,  and  that  these 
 records  should  contain  nothing  but  the  truth  ;  or  in  other 
 words,  that  they  should  be  sanctioned  by  divine  authority. 
 Such  authority  was  at  first  admitted,  and  on  the  same 
 authority  Christians  now  build  their  faith  and  their  hopes. 
 "  2.  The  second  kind  of  inspiration  is  that  of  sugges- 
 tion, in  which  God  by  his  Spirit  speaks  directly  to  the 
 mind,  making  such  discoveries  as  could  not  otherwise 
 be  in  any  manner  known.  Thus,  if  a  man  was  to  give  a 
 just  aceount  of  what  another  did  at  a  distance,  at  any 
 given  moment,  it  must  be  evident  that  this  was  given  to 
 him  by  an  inspiration  of  suggestion.  In  like  manner,  if 
 a  man  declare  what  will  come  to  pass  in  any  future  pe- 
 riod, and  the  event  happen  accordingly,  he  must  be  un- 
 der the  influence  of  the  same  kind  of  inspiration.  For 
 instance,  should  a  man  inform  us  that  a  person  of  such 
 a  name  shall  exist  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  hence, 
 that  he  shall  obtain  power,  and  reign  over  such  a  king- 
 dom, and  vanquish  the  surrounding  nations,  and  should 
 it  happen  accordingly,  who  could  doubt  but  that  this  had 
 been  revealed  to  him  ?  In  the  New  Testament  we  have 
 many  instances  of  this  inspiration.  Indeed,  every  pre- 
 diction of  future  events,  and  every  revelation  of  doc- 
 trines and  truths,  which  unfolds  what  are  the  designs  of 
 the  divine  wisdom  and  mercy,  comes  under  this  species 
 of  inspiration.  When  the  inspired  person  was  to  commit 
 such  discoveries  to  writing,  that  of  superintendence  was 
 
 a  The  attachment  of  the  early  Christians  to  the  word  of  God 
 was  exceedingly  strong,  and  manifested  itself  in  various  ways, 
 according  to  the  circumstances  and  inclinations  of  different 
 persons.  Women  wore  it  hanging  at  their  necks.  Children 
 were  trained  up  from  their  infancy  to  repeat  it  hy  heart.  Most 
 persons  carried  it  about  with  them.  Some  washed  their  hands 
 before  they  took  it  up  to  read.  And  many  have  been  found  bu- 
 ried with  the  gospel  lying  on  their  breasts." — Plenty,  Mains 
 des  Chretiens,  s.  7. 
 
 necessary  to  preserve  him  from  mistake  or  error.  Hence 
 both  kinds  were  often  united.  h 
 
 "The  marks  and  evidences  of  inspiration,  in  the  books 
 of  the  New  Testament,  are  equally  manifest  in  those  of 
 the  Old.  The  prophetical  books  contain  many  singular 
 predictions  of  events  which  were  to  happen  at  distant 
 periods,  and  which  in  the  New  Testament  are  said 
 to  be  fulfilled.  In  the  writings  of  the  prophets 
 there  is  a  frequent  reference  to  the  future  Saviour ; 
 his  incarnation  and  his  miraculous  birth,  his  family, 
 his  poverty,  his  miracles,  his  sufferings,  his  death,  his 
 resurrection,  his  kingdom  and  glory  are  described 
 with  an  accuracy  which  defies  misapplication.  Circum- 
 stances the  most  minute  are  noticed  ;  and  though  the 
 Jews  have  rejected  our  Lord  as  the  Messiah,  they  still 
 apply  the  same  prophecies  to  him  whom  they  expect. 
 Of  the  inspiration  of  the  prophets,  in  the  highest  sense, 
 there  can  be  no  doubt ;  unless  it  can  be  proved  that  they 
 wrote  after  the  events  which  it  is  pretended  they  predict- 
 ed ;  but  this  is  impossible,  as  the  Jews  never  would  have 
 supplied  arguments  in  favour  of  Christianity. 
 
 "  In  regard  to  the  Psalms,  some  are  prophetical,  others 
 didactic,  and  others  only  commemorative.  The  Pro- 
 verbs and  Ecclesiastes  contain  maxims  of  prudence  and 
 wisdom.  The  evident  design  and  tendency  of  these 
 writings  establish  their  claim  to  a  divine  inspiration, 
 either  of  superintendence  or  suggestion.  The  same  view 
 may  be  taken  of  the  historical  books.  We  may  also 
 add  that  our  Lord  affirms  their  divine  authority,  and  he 
 directs  his  hearers  to  search  them.  As  to  the  writings 
 of  Moses,  they  have  the  highest  authority  God  spoke 
 to  him  with  an  audible  voice,  '  as  a  man  speaketh  with 
 his  friend.' 
 
 "Considering  the  laws  of  Moses,  in  respect  to  civil  po- 
 lity or  religion,  they  are  so  peculiar  that  little  doubt  can 
 be  entertained  of  their  divine  origin.  On  these  laws  the 
 Jewish  state  was  founded,  and  continued  with  little  in- 
 terruption for  a  period  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
 years.  The  prophets  refer  to  these  laws  as  of  divine 
 origin,  and  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  in  like  manner. 
 We  may  then  conclude  that  the  writings  which  Jews 
 and  Christians  deem  sacred,  are  not  only  genuine  and 
 authentic,  but,  in  the  sense  explained,  divinely  inspired. 
 They  mutually  illustrate  and  support  each  other. 
 
 "We  may  fairly,  and  in  all  reason,  incontrovertibly  in- 
 fer, the  inspiration  of  the  holy  scriptures  from  a  compa- 
 rison with  the  writings  of  the  most  enlightened  and  po- 
 lished heathens.  The  Jews  were  never  celebrated  for 
 their  attainment  in  science  or  literature.  We  have  rea- 
 son to  believe  that  they  never  carried  the  arts  to  any 
 high  degree  of  perfection.  Solomon,  in  erecting  the 
 temple,  and  in  accomplishing  his  other  works,  availed 
 himself  of  the  superior  skill  of  the  Tynans,  and  proba- 
 
 b  God,  in  communicating  his  will,  spoke  at  various  times  and 
 in  various  manners  to  the  fathers,  by  the  prophets.  Sometimes 
 in  a  dream.  (Compare  Geu.  xv.  12 — 15,  and  xxviii.  12 — 17, 
 and  other  places.)  Sometimes  in  a  vision.  By  this  term  is 
 meant,  such  a  representation  to  the  mind  of  things,  distant  or 
 future,  as  occupied  and  abstracted  it  from  all  other  things.  In  a 
 dream,  the  person  was  asleep  :  hut  in  a  vision  awake.  The  pro- 
 phets in  general  received  the  divine  will  in  the  latter  method. 
 (Compare  Ezek.  viii.)  Sometimes  the  word  of  Jehovah  came  to 
 the  prophet  in  an  audible  voice,  and  he  was  expressly  told  what 
 to  speak  or  do.  (Compare  1  Sam.  iii.  1,  &c.)  It  is  probable 
 that  this  was  the  case  when  the  prophets  assert  that,  'Thus 
 saith  the  Lord.' 
 
838 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 bly  of  other  neighbours.  The  Jews  were  employed  in 
 agriculture,  a  calling  which,  while  it  furnishes  the  means 
 of  subsistence,  does  not  require  to  call  forth  the  active 
 and  inventive  powers  of  the  human  mind.  A  people  de- 
 voted to  the  labours  and  toils  of  agriculture  have  neither 
 leisure,  means,  nor  inclination  to  indulge  in  speculation, 
 to  investigate  the  laws  of  matter  or  the  properties  of 
 mind.  Content  with  the  produce  of  their  lands  and 
 flocks,  their  vine-yards  and  olive-yards,  they  remain 
 nearly  stationary  in  arts  and  speculative  sciences. 
 
 "Such  being  the  general  state  and  character  of  the  Jews, 
 from  their  origin  down  to  their  dispersion,  the  question 
 forces  itself  on  the  mind,  how  did  this  people  attain 
 such  just  notions  of  the  divine  nature,  of  the  unity,  spiri- 
 tuality, omnipotence,  omniscience,  and  other  natural  and 
 moral  perfections  of  God  ?  How  did  they  discover  the 
 Creator  in  his  works,  and  inform  others  that  he  made  the 
 world  and  governed  it  ?  Are  these  things  so  evident 
 that  men  in  the  lowest  state  of  mental  culture  perceive 
 and  understand  them  ?  Why  then  has  not  pure  theism 
 every  where  prevailed  ?  It  is  well  known  that  the  re- 
 verse is  the  fact,  and  that  men  have  in  every  age  and 
 country  where  divine  revelation  has  not  been  enjoyed, 
 worshipped  the  creature  and  not  the  Creator.  Will  it 
 be  said  that  they  received  these  just  and  noble  senti- 
 ments from  Abraham  ?  The  question  still  recurs,  whence 
 did  he  receive  them  ?  To  say,  by  tradition  from  his 
 fathers,  will  not  satisfy  the  inquirer  after  truth.  For 
 why  did  not  others  secure  and  retain  the  same  truths  in 
 the  same  manner  ? 
 
 "Will  it  be  said  that  Moses,  by  the  force  of  his  own 
 genius,  aided  by  the  learning  of  Egypt,  discovered 
 these  truths,  and  founding  his  civil  and  religious 
 polity  on  them,  perpetuated  them  among-  that  people  ? 
 It  may  readily  be  granted  that  Moses  possessed  great 
 powers  of  mind,  and  that  these  were  improved  by  the 
 literature  of  Egypt :  but  this  supposes  that  the  Egyp- 
 tians also  possessed  great  powers  of  mind  ;  and  how  is 
 it  that,  so  far  from  acknowledging  the  unity  and  perfec- 
 tions of  the  divine  nature,  they  were  the  most  degraded 
 for  worshipping  the  vilest  idols  ?  Had  Moses  received 
 no  instruction  but  from  the  Egyptians,  from  the  penetra- 
 tion, genius,  and  force  of  his  mind,  he  might,  like  Ho- 
 mer, have  written  an  epic  poem,  and  converted  the 
 Egyptian  pantheon  into  the  machinery  of  it :  but  there 
 is  no  reason  to  think  that  his  ideas  would  have  excelled 
 those  of  the  Grecian  bard. 
 
 "In  short,  the  just  sentiments  respecting  the  divine  na- 
 ture, good  and  evil,  providence,  the  state  and  condition 
 of  man,  his  civil,  social,  and  relative  duties,  his  account- 
 ableness,  and  final  state,  scattered  through  every  part  of 
 the  holy  scriptures,  clearly  prove  that  the  authors  were 
 
 inspired  ;  or  else  we  must  admit,  what  must  be  deemed 
 altogether  miraculous,  that  shepherds,  herdsmen,  and 
 Galilean  fishermen,  without  literature,  possessed  wisdom, 
 and  made  discoveries  in  moral  science  unattained,  and 
 it  may  be  said,  unattainable  by  all  the  heathen  sages  of 
 the  east  and  west,  north  and  south.  It  has  already  ap- 
 peared that  the  sacred  writers  ascribed  all  their  know* 
 ledge  to  divine  influence,  they  asserted  that  Jehovah 
 spoke  by  them,  and  that  his  word  was  on  their  tongues. 
 It  remains  for  those  who  deny  their  divine  inspiration  to 
 account  for  their  attainments,  which  has  not  yet,  and  on 
 their  principles,  never  will  be  done. 
 
 "  Another  argument  may  be  derived  from  the  harmony 
 of  the  sacred  writers.  From  Moses  to  the  close  of  reve- 
 lation elapsed  a  period  of  above  fifteen  hundred  years  ; 
 and  the  sacred  authors  lived  and  wrote  at  successive  in- 
 tervals. In  matters  of  opinion,  we  find  one  writer  dif- 
 fering from  another,  and  each  controverting  the  reason- 
 ing of  his  antagonist.  The  sentiments  of  one  age  are 
 exploded  by  the  following ;  and  on  a  variety  of  inter- 
 esting subjects  the  human  mind  is  kept  in  suspense.  The 
 schools  of  philosophers  were  only  the  arenas  where  the 
 masters  and  scholars  exercised  their  powers  in  opposing 
 one  another ;  and  after  an  impartial  person  has  read  all 
 that  they  have  said  on  religion  and  morals,  he  will  be 
 constrained  to  admit  that  they  have  done  little  more  than 
 '  darken  counsel  by  words  without  knowledge.' 
 
 "Go  to  the  sacred  scriptures,  examine  them  closely  and 
 critically.  Can  you  find  one  writer  controverting  the 
 statements  or  opinions  of  his  predecessor  ? — one  his- 
 torian who  disputes  any  fact  which  another  had  stated  ? 
 Is  there  in  the  prophets  any  discrepancy  in  doctrines, 
 precepts,  or  predictions  ?  However  they  vary  in  style 
 or  manner  of  illustration,  the  sentiment  and  the  morality 
 is  the  same.  In  their  predictions  they  exceed  one  ano- 
 ther in  particularity  and  clearness  :  but  where  is  there 
 any  contradiction  ?  The  same  remarks  apply  to  the  New 
 Testament.  Whence  then  arises  this  harmony  of  scrip- 
 ture ?  Had  the  writers  been  under  no  peculiar  divine 
 influence,  they  would  have  reasoned  and  speculated  like 
 others,  and  their  writings  would  have  opposed  each 
 other.  But  if  they  were  inspired,  if  they  all  spoke  and 
 wrote  under  the  influence  of  the  same  Spirit,  then  is  this 
 harmony  accounted  for,  and  it  is  impossible  to  account 
 for  it  on  any  other  principle.  Hence  we  may  conclude 
 that  all  scripture  is  not  only  genuine  and  authentic,  but 
 divinely  inspired,  '  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for 
 reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness  : 
 that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  throughly  furnish- 
 ed unto  all  good  works."' — BoothroycCs  Introduction 
 to  the  Holy  Bible,  chap.  i. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE 
 
 BOOK  VIII. 
 
 r~XTTAINlNG   AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THINGS   FROM   THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST   TO  THE  COMPLETION  OF  THE  CANON   OF 
 THE  NEW  TESTAMENT,  IN  ALL  ABOUT  97  YEARS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 We  have  now  perused  the  history  of  the  divine  dispen- 
 sations from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  coming  of 
 Christ.  We  are,  therefore,  about  to  survey  those  great 
 events  by  which  human  redemption  was  procured,  and 
 the  mighty  effects  which  resulted  from  these  events. 
 
 The  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  is  one  of  those 
 events,  and  one  which  may  well  awaken  our  surprise  and 
 gratitude.  He  who  was  God,  assumed  the  likeness  of  sin- 
 ful flesh,  and  the  form  ot  a  servant.  He  did  so,  that  he 
 might  be  capable  of  acting  as  the  Surety  and  Saviour  of 
 sinners,  in  obeying  and  suffering  in  their  room  ;  and 
 that  he  might  thus  satisfy  divine  justice,  and  reconcile 
 them  to  God.  He  came  into  the  world  at  a  time,  which 
 to  infinite  wisdom  appeared  the  most  fit  and  proper. 
 1  '  When  the  fulness  of  time  was  come,  God  sent  forth 
 his  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  that 
 he  might  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law,  and  that 
 they  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons.' 
 
 The  time  chosen  for  this  great  event  was,  on  every 
 account,  the  most  fitting.  During  the  interval  which  in- 
 tervened since  the  fall,  the  effects  of  the  curse  had  been 
 developed';  the  hardening  nature  of  sin,  and  the  misery 
 which  it  produces,  had  been  shown ;  and  the  necessity 
 of  the  gracious  interposition  of  God  for  the  redemption 
 of  mankind  had  been  fully  demonstrated. 
 
 What  were  the  means  by  which  this  redemption  was 
 procured  ?  These  were  the  obedience  which  was  ren- 
 dered by  the  Son  of  God,  and  his  atoning  sufferings  and 
 death  His  satisfaction  for  sin  was  not  only  by  his  last 
 sufferings,  though  it  was  principally  by  them  ;  but  all  his 
 sufferings,  and  all  the  humiliation  that  he  was  subject  to, 
 from  the  first  moment  of  his  incarnation  to  his  resurrec- 
 tion, were  propitiatory  or  satisfactory.  In  like  maimer. 
 his  meriting  eternal  life  for  his  people,  consisted  not  only 
 in  the  obedience  of  his  whole  life,  but  in  his  laying  down 
 his  life  in  compliance  with  the  will  of  his  father.  One 
 and  the  same  act  of  Christ,  as  Edwards  remarks,  consi- 
 
 1  Gal.  iv.  4. 
 
 dered  with  respect  to  the  obedience  there  was  in  it,  was 
 part  of  his  righteousness,  and  procured  heaven  ;  but  con- 
 sidered with  respect  to  the  self-denial,  and  difficulty, 
 and  humiliation  with  which  he  performed  it,  had  the 
 nature  of  satisfaction  for  sin,  and  procured  our  pardon. 
 Thus,  his  going  about  doing  good,  preaching  the  gos- 
 pel, and  teaching  his  disciples,  was  a  part  of  his  right- 
 eousness, and  purchase  of  heaven,  as  it  was  done  in  obe- 
 dience to  the  Father ;  and  the  same  was  a  part  of  his  satis- 
 faction, as  he  did  it  with  great  labour,  trouble,  and  wea- 
 riness, exposing  himself  to  reproach  and  contempt.  His 
 laying  down  his  life  had  the  nature  of  satisfaction  to 
 God's  offended  justice,  considered  as  his  bearing  our 
 punishment  in  our  stead  ;  but  considered  as  an  act  of 
 obedience  to  God,  who  had  given  him  his  command  that 
 he  should  lay  down  his  life  for  sinners,  it  was  a  part  of 
 his  righteousness  and  purchase  of  heaven. 
 
 He  obeyed  all  the  commands  of  the  moral  law  ;— 
 all  the  precepts  of  the  ceremonial  law ; — all  the  obli- 
 gations of  the  mediatorial  law.  And  the  history  record- 
 ed by  the  evangelists  consists  in  an  account  of  this  infi- 
 nitely perfect  and  meritorious  obedience  of  the  Son  of 
 God  : — an  obedience  which  he  rendered  in  room  of  his 
 people,  during  the  whole  of  his  life,  public  and  private; 
 and  in  the  rendering  of  which,  he  exercised  all  the  vir- 
 tues of  sinless  humanity. 
 
 In  making  atonement  for  sin,  he  was  subject  to  great 
 humiliation  and  suffering.  Born  in  a  low  condition,  he 
 became  the  object  of  persecution  from  his  infancy.  The 
 Son  of  God,  tiie  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  veiled  his 
 glory,  and  made  himself  of  no  reputation.  '  The  foxes 
 have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests,  but  the 
 Son  of  Man  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.'  He  was 
 despised  and  rejected  of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows,  and 
 acquainted  with  grief.  He  came  to  his  own,  and  his 
 own  received  him  not.  He  endured  the  contradiction 
 of  sinners,  and  the  reproach  and  derision  of  the  wicked. 
 It  was,  however,  in  the  close  of  his  course  of  deep  hu- 
 miliation, that  he  suffered  more  peculiarly  the  wrath  ot 
 God  due  to  us  for  sin.  It  was  then  that  his  soul  was 
 sorrowful,  even  unto  death  ; — that  he  was  smitten,  strick- 
 en of  God,  and  afflicted  ; — that  lie  was  wounded  for  our 
 
840 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  3999.  A.  D.  1 ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5406.  A.  D.  5.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT. 
 
 ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 transgressions,  and  bruised  for  our  iniquities,  the  chas- 
 tisement of  our  peace  having  been  laid  upon  him,  that 
 by  his  stripes  we  might  be  healed.  It  was  thus  he 
 finished  the  great  work  which  had  been  given  him  to  do— 
 the  work  of  redeeming  sinful  men  from  the  condemna- 
 tion and  the  misery  of  sin,  and  of  making  provision  for 
 bringing  them  to  God  and  to  happiness. 
 
 But  it  was  necessary  for  carrying  on  the  great  and 
 gracious  designs  of  his  death,  that  he  should  rise  from 
 the  dead.  This  formed  a  part  of  his  promised  reward. 
 '  Because  he  humblod  himself,  God  highly  exalted  him, 
 and  gave  him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name  :  that 
 at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  and  every 
 tongue  should  confess,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the 
 glory  of  God  the  Father.'  Till  Christ  rose  from  the 
 dead,  the  Old  Testament  Dispensation  remained ;  but 
 with  that  event  it  ceased,  and  that  new  and  glorious  eco- 
 nomy began,  which  is  to  continue  till  the  end  of  time, 
 and  under  which  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  to  be 
 blessed. 
 
 The  reader  will  observe,  that,  at  the  commencement 
 «>f  this  dispensation,  the  Saviour  commissioned  his  apos- 
 tles to  go  into  all  the  world,  and  teach  all  nations,  bap- 
 tizing them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
 and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  After  his  ascension  into  hea- 
 ven, he  copiously  poured  out  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  plen- 
 teously  endued  his  servants  with  his  saving  iniluences 
 and  miraculous  gifts.  Hence  the  extraordinary  success 
 of  the  gospel  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  estab- 
 lishment of  the  Christian  church.  Hence,  also,  the  clear 
 and  full  revelation  of  those  glorious  doctrines  of  tlie 
 gospel,  which,  under  the  Old  Testament,  had  been  ob- 
 scurely made  known : — '  even  the  mystery  which  hath 
 been  hid  from  ages  and  generations,  but  now  is  made 
 manifest  to  his  saints.' 
 
 "A  person  was  selected  and  qualified  for  the  apostolic 
 office,  who  was  eminently  instrumental  in  the  furtherance 
 of  the  great  designs  of  redeeming  mercy.  As  Paul  was 
 the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  so  it  was  mainly  by  his 
 ministry  that  the  Gentiles  were  called,  and  the  gospel 
 spread  through  the  world  ;  and  our  nation,  and  the  other 
 nations  of  Europe,  have  the  gospel  among  them  chiefly 
 through  his  means.  To  the  labours,  trials,  and  suffer- 
 ings of  this  apostle,  our  attention  is  directed  in  the 
 greater  part  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  This  extraor- 
 dinary man,  as  presented  to  our  view  in  that  inspired 
 record,  and  in  his  own  epistles,  belongs  not  particularly 
 to  the  period  in  which  he  lived,  but  is  equally  the  pro- 
 perty of  the  Christian  church  in  every  successive  age. 
 Time  does  not  diminish  our  interest  in  him.  He  is  as 
 fresh  to  every  country  as  to  his  own  ;  and  the  truth  he 
 preaches  will  be  as  intimately  connected  with  that  age 
 which  shall  precede  the  dissolution  of  the  world,  as  with 
 that  in  which  he  wrote.  By  the  Christians  of  all  coun- 
 tries Paul  will  be  considered  as  a  cosmopolite,  and  by 
 those  of  all  ages  as  a  contemporary."1 
 
 The  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  committed  to 
 writing  by  the  direction  and  infallible  inspiration  of  the 
 (Spirit  of  God.  AVith  the  exception  of  Mark  and  Luke, 
 the  penmen  were  the  apostles.  The  historical  books 
 are  the  writings  of  the  four  evangelists,  giving  us  the 
 history  of  Christ  and  his  purchase  of  redemption,  and 
 
 1  Mrs  H.  More's  Essay  on  St  Paul,  vol.  i.  p.  251. 
 
 his  resurrection  and  ascension  :  and  the  Acts  of  the 
 Apostles,  giving  an  account  of  the  great  things  by  which 
 the  Christian  church  was  first  established  and  propagat- 
 ed. The  doctrinal  books  are  the  epistles,  fourteen  of 
 which  were  written  by  Paul  ;  two  by  Peter  ;  three  by 
 John ;  one  by  Jude.  There  is  one  prophetical  book 
 which  takes  place  after  the  end  of  the  history  of  the 
 Avhole  Bible,  and  gives  an  account  of  the  great 
 events  which  were  to  come  to  pass,  by  which  the  work 
 of  redemption  was  to  be  carried  on  to  the  end  of  the 
 world. 
 
 All  these  books  are  supposed  to  have  been  written  be- 
 fore the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  excepting  those  which 
 were  written  by  the  apostle  John,  who  lived  the  longest 
 of  all  the  apostles.  To  this  beloved  disciple  it  was  that 
 Christ  revealed  those  wonderful  things  which  were  to 
 come  to  pass  in  the  church  to  the  end  of  time ;  and  he 
 was  the  person  who  put  the  finishing  hand  to  the  canon 
 of  scripture,  and  sealed  the  whole  of  it.  A  curse  is  de- 
 nounced against  him  that  adds  anything  to  it,  or  dimi- 
 nishes anything  from  it.  The  means  of  grace,  and  ordi- 
 nances of  religion,  were  settled  by  divine  authority  be- 
 fore the  death  of  the  apostle  John,  and  are  to  remain 
 unaltered  to  the  day  of  judgment. 
 
 SECT.    I. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — From  the  Birth  of  Christ,  to  the  beginning 
 of  the  first  Passover. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  time  foretold  by  the  prophets,  a  for  the 
 incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  began  to  draw  near,  b 
 
 a  The  two  principal  prophets  who  determine  the  period  when 
 our  Lord  was  to  appear  in  the  world,  are  Daniel  and  Haggai. 
 Daniel  foretells,  that,  at  '  the  end  of  the  seventy '  prophetical 
 '  weeks,'  that  is,  at  the  expiration  of  four  hundred  and  ninety  years 
 after  the  building  of  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  the  '  Messiah  should 
 come,'  chap.  ix.  25;  and  Haggai  prophesies  that,  before  the  de- 
 struction of  the  second  temple,  (even  when  the  '  sceptre  was  de- 
 parted from  Judah,'  Gen.  xlix.  10,)  the  '  desire  of  all  nations 
 should  come,'  and  by  his  frequent  personal  appearance  in  the 
 temple,  make  the  '  glory  of  that  latter  house'  much  '  greater  than 
 that  of  the  former,'  chap.  ii.  7,  &c. 
 
 b  The  word  zvayyiXiov  signifies,  in  general,  good  neivs,  and  is 
 of  the  same  import  with  our  Saxon  word  gospelj  only  in  the  sacred 
 use  of  them  both  there  seems  to  be  a  metonymy,  whereby  the 
 words  that  denote  good  news  are  set  to  signify  the  history  of  that 
 good  news,  namely,  of  the  birth  and  life,  the  miracles  and  doctrine, 
 the  death  and  resurrection  of  our  Saviour  Christ;  all  of  which 
 put  together  do  make  up  the  joyful  tidings  which  we  call  the 
 gospel;  and  from  the  etymology  of  the  words  the  persons  who 
 have  recorded  the  life  and  actions  of  our  Saviour  are  called 
 evangelists,  or  writers  of  the  gospel.  The  works  of  this  kind, 
 which  are  received  as  canonical,  are  but  lour,  namely,  that  of  St 
 Matthew,  St  Mark,  St  Luke,  and  St  John;  but  the  spurious 
 pieces  which  are  handed  down  to  us,  even  though  several  of  them 
 be  lost,  do  exceed  the  number  of  forty.  The  truth  is,  the  ancient 
 heretics  began  generally  with  attacking  the  gospels,  in  order 
 either  to  maintain  their  errors,  or  excuse  them.  To  this  purpose 
 some  rejected  all  the  genuine  gospels,  and  substituted  others  that 
 were  spurious  in  their  room.  This  produced  the  gospels  of  Apel- 
 les,  Basilides,  Cerinthus,  the  Ebionites,  and  Gnostics.  Others 
 corrupted  the  true  gospels,  by  suppressing  whatever  gave  them 
 any  trouble,  and  inserting  whatever  might  favour  their  erroneous 
 doctrines.     Thus  the  Nazarenes  corrupted  the  original  gospel3 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 841 
 
 A.  M.  3999.  A.  1).  I;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5406.  A.  D.  5 
 
 the  evangelist  St  Luke  gives  us  this  account  of  the  birth 
 o!  his  great  forerunner  John  the  Baptist.  a 
 
 While  his  father  b  Zacharias,  who  was  a  priest  of  the 
 eighth  course,  namely,  the  course  of  Abia,  was  executing 
 his  office  at  Jerusalem,  which  was  in  the  latter  part  of 
 
 of  St  Matthew,  as  the  Marcionites  did  that  of  St  Luke;  while 
 the  Alogians  rejected  St  John,  as  the  Ebionites  did  St  Matthew, 
 and  the  Valentinians  only  acknowledged  St  John,  as  the  Cerin- 
 thians  did  St  Mark.  —  Hammond's  Annotations;  M.  Fabricius's 
 Codex  apocryphus  N.  Test.;  and  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the 
 word  Gospel. 
 
 a  There  are  two  places  in  the  prophets  referred  to,  hotli  hy  our 
 Saviour  and  his  evangelists,  wherein  the  Baptist  is  described 
 under  this  character.  The  former  is  in  the  prophet  Isaiah, 
 '  The  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  Prepare  ye  the  way 
 of  the  Lord,  make  straight  in  the  desert  an  high  way  for  our  God.' 
 chap.  xi.  3;  and  the  latter,  which  is  inure  plain  and  express,  is  in 
 Malachi,  '  Behold  I  will  send  my  messenger,  and  he  shall  pre- 
 pare the  way  before  me,'&c,  chap.  iii.  1.  Both  the  passages  allude 
 to  harbingers,  and  such  other  officers  as,  upon  the  journeys  of 
 princes,  are  employed  to  take  care  that  the  ways  should  be  levelled 
 and  put  in  order,  and  all  such  obstructions  removed  as  might 
 hinder  their  passage,  or  tender  it  less  commodious;  and  the 
 manner  in  which  the  Baptist  thus  prepared  the  way  of  the  Lord 
 was  by  his  preaching  and  by  his  baptism.  By  his  preaching 
 he  endeavoured  to  bring  the  Jews  to  a  due  sense  of  their  sins ; 
 to  abate  their  confidence  in  being  of  Abraham's  seed,  and  punctual 
 observers  of  the  ceremonial  law ;  and  to  forewarn  all  of  the  dread- 
 ful effects  of  God's  anger,  who  did  not  bring  forth  fruits  worthy 
 of  repentance:  and  by  his  baptism,  when  administered  to  such 
 persons  as  were  under  the  obligation  of  the  law,  he  plainly  show- 
 ed, that  he  was  therein  admitting  them  to  some  privileges  which 
 they  had  not  before,  namely,  the  remission  of  their  sins,  upon 
 their  faith  and  obedience  to  him  who  was  the  messenger  of  the 
 covenant.  Since  therefore  the  Baptist  was  born  six  months  be- 
 fore our  Saviour,  and  entered  upon  his  ministry  six  months  be- 
 fore our  Saviour  began  his;  and  since  no  part  of  his  doctrine 
 terminated  in  himself,  and  his  baptism  referred  every  one  to 
 Christ  for  acceptance  and  salvation;  he  is  very  properly  said  to 
 be  his  harbinger,  '  a  messenger  sent  to  prepare  his  way  before 
 him,' or  to  set  all  things  in  readiness  for  his  approach,  by  putting 
 an  end  to  the  old,  and  making  an  entrance  into  the  new  dispen- 
 sation, in  which  sense  he  is  represented  by  the  fathers  as  a  kind 
 of  middle  partition  between  the  law  and  the  gospel;  of  the  law, 
 as  a  thing  now  come  to  a  period ;  and  of  the  gospel,  as  commenc- 
 ing under  him  who  was  shortly  to  make  his  appearance. — Stan- 
 hope on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 b  Some  of  the  fathers  were  of  opinion  that  this  Zacharias  was, 
 at  this  time,  high  priest,  upon  a  false  supposition  that  the  offer- 
 ing of  incense  was  reserved  to  the  high  priest  only:  but,  besides 
 the  testimony  of  Josephus,  who  tells  us  expressly  that  Simon, 
 the  son  of  Boethus,  was  high  priest  this  year;  it  appears  from 
 St  Luke  himself,  that  Zacharias  was  no  more  than  an  ordinary 
 priest  of  the  family  or  course  of  Abia,  which,  of  the  four  and 
 twenty  courses  appointed  by  David  for  the  service  of  the  temple, 
 when  it  should  be  built,  was  the  eighth,  1  Chron.  xxiv.  10.  For 
 though  it  was  the  high  priest's  prerogative,  on  the  great  day  of 
 expiation,  to  enter  into  '  the  holy  of  holies,'  and  there  burn  in- 
 cense, which  no  ordinary  priest  might  do,  Lev.  xvi.  12;  yet, 
 in  the  common  service  of  the  day,  each  priest  whose  lot  it  was, 
 went  every  morning  and  evening  into  the  sanctum,  or  body  of 
 the  temple,  and  there  burnt  the  daily  incense  upon  the  altar, 
 which  was  placed  before  the  veil  of  the  most  holy  place,  Exod. 
 xxx.  6,  &c.  For  these,  and  several  other  reasons  which  anno- 
 tators  have  produced,  it  seems  plain  that  Zacharias  could  not 
 possibly  be  high  priest  at  this  time;  and,  whatever  credit  may 
 be  given  to  the  tradition, — That,  by  the  order  of  Herod  the  Great, 
 he  was  put  to  death  between  the  porch  and  the  altar,  namely,  in 
 the  inclosure  that  surrounded  the  altar  of  burnt-offerings;  and 
 that,  when  every  one  was  ignorant  of  this  murder,  a  certain 
 priest,  thinking  that  he  staid  too  long,  entered  into  the  temple, 
 and  found  him  dead,  and  his  blood  congealed  upon  the  ground, 
 and,  at  the  same  time,  hearing  a  voice  that  it  should  never  be 
 wiped  out  until  his  revenger  came: — whatever  credit,  I  say,  may 
 be  given  to  this  tradition,  it  was  doubtless  upon  this  foundation 
 that  many  of  the  ancients  thought,  that  Zacharias,  the  father  of 
 John  the  Baptist,  was  that  Zachariah,  son  of  Barachiah,  mention- 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 the  reign  of  Herod  the  Great,c  it  came  to  his  lot  d  to  go 
 into  the  temple  with  his  censer  in  his  hand,  in  order  to 
 burn  incense,  while  the  people  without  were  e  offering 
 up  their  supplications  in  the  court  that  was  called  '  the 
 court  of  Israel.'  At  the  altar  of  incense  /he  was  great- 
 ly surprised  with  the  sight  of  an  angel  standing  on  the 
 right  side  of  it :  but  the  angel  soon  dissipated  his  fears 
 with  the  joyful  news,  that  God  intended  to  bless  him  with 
 a  son,  whose  name  should  be  John,  who  would  prove 
 a  person  of  uncommon  merit,  and  be  appointed  to  the 
 office  of  harbinger  to  the  Messiah,  S  who,  in  a  short  time, 
 was  to  make  his  appearance. 
 
 ed  by  our  Saviour  in  the  gospel,  whose  blood  was  shed  between 
 the  temple  and  the  altar. — Poole's  and  IVhitby's  Annotations; 
 and  Calmet's  Dictionary. 
 
 c  St  Luke,  in  particular,  takes  notice,  that  the  time  when  our 
 Lord's  forerunner  was  to  be  conceived,  was  in  the  reign  of  He- 
 rod, son  of  Antipater,  (for  it  was  Herod  Antipas  that  put  him  to 
 death,)  commonly  called  the  Great,  who,  under  the  Romans, 
 fought  his  way  to  the  government  of  the  Jews,  and  came  to  his 
 throne  by  the  slaughter  of  their  sanhedrim,  by  which  means  he 
 extinguished  all  the  dominion  which,  till  that  time,  they  held  in 
 the  tribe  of  Judah,  not  in  a  single  person  indeed,  for  that  was  ex- 
 tinguished in  the  Asmoiifean  family,  but  in  a  select  number  out 
 of  that  royal  tribe,  and  so  verified  the  prophecy  of  Jacob,  (Gen. 
 xlix.  10,)  'that  the  sceptre,'  or  government,  '  was  departed 
 from  Judah,  and  the  lawgiver  from  between  his  feet,'  which  was  a 
 certain  sign  thatShiloh,  that  is,  the  Messiah,  was  shortly  to  come. 
 — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  several  courses  of  the  priests  began  on  the  sabbath  day, 
 and  continued  to  serve  till  the  sabbath  following;  but  because 
 they  were  now  increased  to  a  great  number,  (Josephus  tells  us 
 there  were  no  less  than  a  thousand  in  each  course,)  there  were 
 several  parts  of  the  priestly  office,  whereof  burning  of  incense  was 
 one,  which  the  course  that  then  ministered  seems  to  have  divided 
 among  themselves  for  the  week  that  they  were  to  attend  by  lot. 
 —  Poole's  and  Whitby's  Annotations.  See  also  Jenning's  Jewish 
 Antiquities,  vol.  i.  p.  269. 
 
 e  A  Jewish  congregation,  for  the  most  part,  consisted  of  all  the 
 priests  of  the  course  which  was  then  in  waiting,  of  the  Levites,  and 
 of  certain  stationary  men,  as  they  called  them,  who  represented 
 the  body  of  the  people,  besides  some  accidental  worshippers;  and 
 when  the  priests  went  into  the  sanctuary,  or  within  the  first  veil, 
 to  offer  incense,  notice  was  given  by  the  sound  of  a  bell,  that  it 
 was  then  the  time  of  prayer;  whereupon  every  one  present  offered 
 up  his  supplications  to  God  silently:  and  though  this  silent  prayer 
 was  not  commanded,  yet  there  seems  a  manifest  allusion  to  it  in 
 those  words  of  St  John,  where,  '  at  the  offering  of  incense  with 
 the  prayers  of  the  saints,'  it  is  said  '  there  was  silence  in  heaven 
 for  half  an  hour,'  (Rev.  viii.  1,  &c.)  Nor  is  that  passage  in  Ec- 
 clesiasticus,  (chap.  1.  19,  20,)  any  bad  representation  of  this  part 
 of  the  Jewish  worship,  'And  the  people  besought  the  Lord,  the 
 Most  High,  by  prayer  before  him  that  is  merciful,  till  the  solem- 
 nity of  the  Lord  was  ended ;  and  then  he  went  down,'  namely, 
 Simon  the  high  priest,  '  and  lifted  up  his  hands  over  the  whole 
 congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  to  give  the  blessing  of  the 
 Lord  with  his  lips.' — Hammond's  and  IVhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 ./"The  Jews  had  a  peculiar  notion,  that  such  like  apparitions 
 were  always  fatal  to  those  that  had  them,  and  a  sure  token  of  their 
 instantaneous  death  (Gen.  xvi.  7;  xxii.  11,  15:  Exod.  xx.  19, 
 &c):  but  it  this  were  not,  it  is  natural  for  men  to  be  afiHgbtened 
 at  sudden  and  unusual  things,  especially  at  any  divine  appear- 
 ances, whether  of  God  himself  taking  a  visible  shape,  or  authoriz- 
 ing an  angel  so  to  do.  For  though  God  does  not  make  the 
 appearances  to  afirighten  us,  yet  such  is  the  imbecility  of  our 
 nature,  that  we  cannot  but  be  startled  at  them;  and  reason  good 
 there  is  that  God,  by  this  means,  should  both  declare  his  own 
 glory  and  majesty,  and  humble  his  poor  creatures,  in  order  to 
 make  them  more  susceptible  of  his  divine  revelations.  —  Pvdc's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Dictionary. 
 
 y  This  word  is  derived  from  the  llebrew  mashach,  to  anoint, 
 and  is  the  very  same  with  X{;<rT«$,  the  anointed,  in  Greek.  It  is  a 
 name  sometimes  given  to  the  kings  and  high  priests  of  the  He- 
 brews, (1  Sam.  xii.  5,  &c,  Ps.  cv.  15.);  but  principally,  and  by 
 way  of  eminence  it  belongs  to  that  sovereign  Deliverer  who  was 
 So 
 
842 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  3999.  A.  C.  1;  ACCORDING   TO  HALES,  A.  M.  540G.  A.  C.  5. 
 
 The  sense  of  his  own  great  age,  as  well  as  his  wife's 
 long  sterility,  made  Zacharias  a  express  a  kind  of  diffi- 
 dence in  this  promise,  and  for  his  farther  satisfaction,  de- 
 sire some  miracle  in  confirmation  of  it;  wliereupon  the 
 angel  let  him  know,  "  That  he  was  no  less  than  Gabriel, 
 a  special  attendant  on  God's  throne,  and  despatched  on 
 purpose  to  inform  him  of  this  gTeat  happiness  ;  but  that, 
 since  he  was  so  incredulous  as  to  require  a  sign,  he  should 
 have  such  an  one  as  would  be  both  a  punishment  of  his 
 unbelief,  and  a  confirmation  of  his  faith ;  for,  until  the 
 birth  of  the  child,  he  should  be  both  deaf  and  dumb ;"  b 
 which  accordingly  came  to  pass  :    for,  when  he   came 
 
 expected  by  the  Jews,  and  whom  they  vainly  expect  even  to  this 
 day,  since  he  is  already  come  at  the  appointed  time,  in  the  person 
 of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  The  Jews  were  used  to 
 anoint  kings,  high  priests,  and  sometimes  prophets.  Saul,  Da- 
 vid, Solomon,  and  Joash,  kiugs  of  Judah,  received  the  royal  mic- 
 tion. Aaron  and  his  sons  received  the  sacerdotal ;  and  Elisha 
 received  the  prophetical,  at  least  God  ordered  Elijah  to  give  it  to 
 him.  But  now,  though  Jesus  Christ  united  in  his  own  person 
 all  the  offices  of  prophet,  priest,  and  king,  yet  we  no  where  find 
 that  he  received  any  outward  or  sensible  unction  ;  and  therefore 
 the  unction  which  the  prophets  and  apostles  speak  of,  with  regard 
 to  him,  is  the  spiritual  and  internal  unction  of  grace  in  the  Holy 
 Ghost,  of  which  the  outward  unction  was  no  more  than  a  figure 
 and  symbol. — Calmet's  Dictionary. 
 
 a  The  words  of  Zacharias  to  the  angel  are,  '  Whereby  shall  I 
 know  this  ?  For  I  am  an  old  man,  and  my  wife  well  stricken  in 
 years?  (Luke  i.  18,)  much  of  the  same  import  with  those  of 
 Abraham  upon  a  like  occasion,  '  Whereby  shall  I  know  that  I 
 shall  inherit  the  land  of  Canaan?'  (Gen.  xv.  8.)  How  then  came 
 it  to  pass  that  Abraham  was  gratified  with  a  sign  in  the  same 
 request  for  which  Zacharias  was  punished  with  dumbness?  Now, 
 though  there  may  be  a  very  great  similitude  in  the  words  which 
 are  spoken  by  several  persons,  yet  there  may,  at  the  samo  time, 
 be  a  very  considerable  difference  in  the  heart  aud  habit  of  mind 
 from  whence  they  proceed,  which,  we  must  allow,  God  can  see 
 much  better  than  we  can  perceive  by  words.  In  relation  to 
 Abraham,  then,  the  Holy  Spirit  bears  him  testimony,  that '  he 
 staggered  not  at  the  promise  through  unbelief,  but  was  strong  in 
 faith,  giving  glory  to  God,  being  fully  persuaded,  that  what  he 
 had  promised,  he  was  able  to  perform  '  (Rom.  iv.  19,  20,  &c.); 
 and  therefore  if  he  asked  a  sign,  it  was  not  to  beget,  but  to  nou- 
 rish and  confirm  this  faith  in  him.  But  in  Zacharias,  the  asking 
 of  a  sign  savoured  of  perfect  infidelity,  in  that  he  believed  not  an 
 angel  appearing  to  him  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  in  a  place 
 where  evil  angels  durst  not  come:  an  angel  telling  him  his  prayer 
 was  heard,  which  evil  angels  could  not  know;  and  acquainting 
 him  with  things  which  tended  to  the  glory  of  God,  the  com- 
 pletion of  his  promises,  and  the  welfare  of  mankind,  which  evil 
 angels  would  not  do.  His  punishment  therefore  was  the  just 
 result  of  his  unbelief;  but,  (what  shows  the  mercy  of  God  in 
 inflicting  it,)  it  was  a  punishment  of  such  a  nature,  as  carried 
 with  it  an  answer  to  his  desire,  being  no  more  than  a  priva- 
 tion of  speech,  until  the  words  of  the  angel  were  fulfilled. — Poole's 
 and  IVhitby's   Annotations. 
 
 b  The  words  of  the  text  are,  '  Behold  thou  shalt  be  dumb  and 
 not  able  to  speak,'  (Luke  i.  20.)  "  The  affirmation  of  a  thing, 
 joined  with  the  denial  of  its  contrary,  is  an  idiom  peculiar  to  the 
 Jewish  language,  and  is  used  to  express  the  strongest  affirmation 
 possible.  The  style  of  the  evangelist  John  is  remarkable  for  the 
 frequency  of  this  idiom,  and  many  instances  of  it  are  to  be  found 
 in  the  Old  Testament. — Macknight.  There  is  no  authority 
 whatever  in  the  text  for  the  author's  assertion,  that  Zacharias 
 was  deprived  of  his  hearing,  as  well  as  of  the  power  of  speech. 
 In  verse  62  it  is  indeed  said  that  his  friends  made  signs  to  him, 
 how  he  would  have  his  son  called,  and  some  have  inferred  from 
 this  that  he  was  both  deaf  and  dumb,  because,  if  he  had  only  been 
 dumb,  there  was  no  necessity  for  making  signs  to  him,  or  for  not 
 asking  the  question  directly  in  words.  "  But  it  must  be  observed, 
 that  we  often  use  signs  and  gestures  to  those  who  hear  us  very 
 well.  So  John  xiii.  24.  And  this  is  especially  done  towards 
 those  who  have  lost  the  faculty  of  speech.  Nor  are  we  told  that 
 the  friends  of  Zacharias  did  not  also  use  words,  and  it  is  very 
 probable  that  they  did  so." — Bloomfield. — En. 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  l 
 
 out  to  the  people,  who  waited  to  '  receive  his  benediction, 
 he  made  signs,  that  he  was  not  able  to  speak  to  them, 
 and  they  thence  inferred  that  he  had  seen  some  extraor- 
 dinary vision  within.  After  the  time  of  his  ministration, 
 however,  was  over,  he  returned  home,  and  it  was  not 
 long  before  his  wife  Elizabeth  perceived  herself  with 
 child,  though  her  modesty  made  her  conceal  it  for  the 
 space  of  five  months. 
 
 Six  months  after  Elizabeth's  conception  the  same 
 angel  Gabriel  was  sent  to  c  Nazareth,  a  city  of  Galilee, 
 to  a  virgin  named  Mary,  a  near  relation  to  Elizabeth, 
 and  of  the  house  of  David,  who  had  lately  been  <*  es- 
 
 1  Num.  vi.  24. 
 c  Nazareth  was  a  little  town  of  Zebulun  in  Lower  Galilee, 
 west  of  Tabor,  and  east  of  Ptolemais,  celebrated  for  having  been 
 the  residence  of  Christ  for  the  first  thirty-three  years  of  his  life. 
 It  is  situated  upon  the  side  of  a  barren  rocky  elevation,  facing 
 the  east,  and  commanding  a  long  valley  of  a  round  concave  form, 
 and  encompassed  with  mountains. — Calmet.  "It  seems,'' 
 says  our  writer,  "as  if  fifteen  mountains  met  to  form  an  en- 
 closure for  this  delightful  spot;  they  rise  round  it  like  the  edge 
 of  a  shell  to  guard  it  from  intrusion.  It  is  a  rich  and  beautiful 
 field  in  the  midst  of  barren  hills."  The  place  is  shown 
 where  the  house  of  the  Virgin  Mary  stood  !  hut  the  house 
 itself,  say  the  Catholics,  was  transported  by  angels  to  Loretto  !  ! 
 Dr  E.  D.  Clarke,  who  describes  Nazareth,  mentions  the  vil- 
 lage of  Sephourg,  in  which  is  shown  the  house  of  St  Anne,  the 
 mother  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  five  miles  from  the  town;  the 
 fountain  near  Nazareth,  called  "the  Virgin  Mary's  fountain ;" 
 the  great  church  or  convent,  at  that  time  the  refuge  of  wretches 
 afflicted  with  the  plague,  hoping  for  recovery  from  the  sanctity 
 of  the  place ;  Joseph's  workshop  converted  into  a  chapel ;  the 
 synagogue  wherein  Jesus  is  said  to  have  preached,  now  a  church  ; 
 the  precipice  whence  the  inhabitants  would  have  thrown  our 
 Lord,  concerning  which  the  words  of  the  evangelist  are  remark- 
 ably explicit,  and  it  is  probably  the  precise  spot  alluded  to  in  the 
 text  of  St  Luke's  gospel.  A  stone  that  is  said  to  have  served 
 as  a  table  to  Christ  and  his  disciples  is  an  object  of  worship  to 
 the  superstitious  of  Galilee.  Buckingham  estimates  the  inhabi- 
 tants of  Nazareth  at  about  2000,  and  the  houses  at  250,  which 
 are  built  of  stone,  flat-rooted,  and  of  one  story,  but  sufficiently 
 spacious  and  commodious  for  the  accommodation  of  a  large  fam- 
 ily. The  streets  are  steep,  from  the  inclination  of  the  ground  on 
 which  they  stand,  narrow  from  custom,  and  dirty  from  the  loose- 
 ness of  the  soil. — Ed. 
 
 d  Espousing  or  betrothing  was  nothing  else  but  a  solemn  pro- 
 mise of  marriage,  made  by  two  persons,  each  to  other,  at  such  a 
 distance  of  time  as  they  agreed  upon.  The  manner  of  perform- 
 ing this  espousal  was  either  by  a  writing,  or  by  a  piece  of  silver 
 given  to  the  bride,  or  by  cohabitation.  The  writing  that  was 
 prepared  on  these  occasions  ran  in  this  form — "  On  such  a  day, 
 of  such  a  month,  in  such  a  year,  A,  the  son  of  A,  has  said  to 
 B,  the  daughter  of  B,  '  Be  thou  my  spouse  according  to  the 
 law  of  Moses  and  the  Israelites,  and  I  will  give  thee  for  the 
 portion  of  thy  virginity,  the  sum  of  two  hundred  zuzims,  as  it  is 
 ordained  by  the  law.'  And  the  said  B  has  consented  to  become 
 his  spouse  upon  these  conditions,  which  the  said  A  has  promised 
 to  perform  upon  the  day  of  marriage.  To  this  the  said  A 
 obliges  himself;  and  for  this  he  engages  all  his  goods,  even  as 
 far  as  the  cloak  which  he  wears  upon  his  shoulders.  Moreover, 
 he  promises  to  perform  all  that  is  intended  in  contracts  of  mar- 
 riage, in  favour  of  the  Israelitish  women.  Witnesses,  A,  B, 
 C."  The  promise  by  a  piece  of  silver,  and  without  writing, 
 was  made  before  witnesses,  when  the  young  man  said  to  his  mis- 
 tress, "  Receive  this  piece  of  silver  as  a  pledge  that  you  shall 
 become  my  spouse." — Poole's  Annotations;  Calmet' s  Dictionary . 
 — The  espousals  by  money,  or  a  written  instrument,  were  per- 
 formed by  the  man  and  woman  under  a  tent  or  canopy  erected 
 for  that  purpose.  Into  this  chamber  the  bridegroom  was  accus- 
 tomed to  go  with  his  bride,  that  he  might  talk  with  her  more 
 familiarly ;  which  was  considered  as  a  ceremony  of  confirmation 
 to  the  wedlock.  While  he  was  there  no  person  was  allowed  to 
 enter;  his  friends  and  attendants  waited  for  him  at  the  door, 
 with  torches  and  lamps  in  their  hands ;  and  when  he  came  out 
 he  was  received  by  all  that  were  present  with  great  joy  and  ao- 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &o. 
 
 843 
 
 A.  M.3999.  A.  C   1;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5406.  A.  C.  5.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOS1 
 
 poused  to  one  Joseph,  a  person  of  the  same  pedigree 
 indeed,  but  of  no  higher  profession  than  that  of  a  car- 
 penter. The  angel,  approaching  the  pious  maid,  began 
 to  congratulate  her  with  '  being  highly  in  the  favour  of 
 God,  and  blessed  above  all  the  rest  of  her  sex  ;  because 
 she  should  have  the  happiness  of  bearing  a  son,  called 
 by  the  name  of  Jesus  a  or  Saviour,  the  long  expected 
 Messiah,'  to  whom  God  would  jnve  the  throne  °  of  his 
 
 elamation.  To  this  ancient  custom  the  psalmist  alludes  in  liis 
 magnificent  description  of  the  heavens:  'In  them  he  set  a  tab- 
 ernacle for  the  sun;  which,  as  a  bridegroom  coming  out  of  his 
 chamber,  rejoices  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race.'  A  Jew- 
 ish virgin  legally  betrothed,  was  considered  as  a  lawful  wife; 
 and  by  consequence  could  not  be  put  away  without  a  bill  of 
 divorce.  And  if  she  proved  unfaithful  to  her  betrothed  hus- 
 band, she  was  punished  as  an  adulteress;  and  her  seducer  incur- 
 red the  same  punishment  as  if  he  had  polluted  the  wife  of  his 
 neighbour.  This  is  the  reason  that  the  angel  addressed  Joseph, 
 the  betrothed  husband  of  Mary,  in  these  terms:  ■  Joseph,  thou 
 son  of  David,  fear  not  to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy  wife;  for  that 
 which  is  conceived  in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'  The  evangelist 
 Luke  gives  her  the  same  title:  '  And  Joseph  also  went  up  from 
 Galilee  unto  Bethlehem,  to  be  taxed,  with  Mary  his  espoused 
 wife.'  Ten  or  twelve  months  commonly  intervened  between  the 
 ceremony  of  espousals  and  the  marriage;  during  this  interval 
 the  espoused  wife  continued  with  her  parents,  that  she  might  pro- 
 vide herself  with  nuptial  ornaments  suitable  to  her  station.  This 
 custom  serves  to  explain  a  circumstance  in  Samson's  marriage, 
 which  is  involved  in  some  obscurity:  '  He  went  down,'  says 
 the  historian,  '  and  talked  with  the  woman  (whom  he  had  seen 
 at  Timnath),  and  she  pleased  him  well.'  These  words  seem  to 
 refer  to  the  ceremony  of  espousals;  the  following  to  the  subse- 
 quent marriage,  '  And  after  a  time  he  returned  to  take  her.' 
 Hence,  a  considerable  time  intervened  between  the  espousals 
 and  their  actual  union.  From  the  time  of  the  espousals, 
 the  bridegroom  was  at  liberty  to  visit  his  espoused  wife  in 
 the  house  of  her  father,  yet  neither  of  the  parties  left  their 
 own  abode  during  eight  days  before  the  marriage,  but  per- 
 sons of  the  same  age  visited  the  bridegroom  and  made 
 merry  with  him.  These  circumstances  are  distinctly  marked 
 in  the  account  which  the  sacred  historian  has  given  us  of 
 Samson's  marriage:  'So  his  father  went  down  unto  the 
 woman,  and  made  there  a  feast;  for  so  used  the  young  men  to 
 do.  And  it  came  to  pass  when  they  saw  him,  that  they  brought 
 thirty  companions  to  be  with  him.'  These  companions  were 
 the  children  of  the  bridechamber,  of  whom  our  Lord  speaks: 
 'Can  the  children  of  the  bridechamber  mourn  as  long  as  the 
 bridegroom  is  with  them?' — Pa.vton's  Illustrations  < f the  Holy 
 Scripture*,  vol.  iii.  pp.  137,  138. — Ed. 
 
 a  We  read  but  of  few  instances  in  scripture,  where  men  had 
 names  determined  for  them  by  particular  appointment  from 
 heaven,  and  before  the  time  of  their  birth;  and,  as  such  names 
 appear  to  be  very  significant,  so  the  persons  distinguished  by 
 them  were  always  remarkable  for  some  extraordinary  qualities 
 or  events  which  their  respective  names  were  designed  to  de- 
 note. Our  Lord's  name  indeed,  in  sense  and  substance,  is  the 
 same  with  Joshua,  that  famous  leader  heretofore,  who,  after  the 
 death  of  Moses,  settled  the  Israelites  in  the  promised  land,  and 
 subdued  the  enemies  that  opposed  their  entrance  into  it.  But, 
 as  that  earthly  was  a  figure  of  the  heavenly  Canaan,  so  was  the 
 captain  of  that  an  eminent  type  of  our  salvation;  and  if  he  was 
 worthy  to  be  called  a  Saviour,  much  more  is  this  Jesus  what  his 
 name  imports;  for  he  delivers  us  from  the  heaviest  of  all  bond- 
 ages, and  from  the  most  formidable  of  all  enemies,  as  he,  and  he 
 only  it  is,  who  saves  his  people  from  their  sins. — Stanhope  on 
 the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 o  The  prophets  in  their  predictions  are  very  full  and  express, 
 that  the  Messiah  should  be  a  great  king,  and  descend  from  the 
 line  of  David;  (see  Ps.  x.  16,  Is.  ix.  G,  7,  Dan.  vii.  14,  and 
 Lzek.  xxvi.  7)  and  therefore  the  angel  in  his  message  to  Mary 
 characterizes  him  as  a  successor  to  that  prince's  throne,  and 
 seems  to  accommodate  himself  in  some  measure  to  the  preju- 
 dices of  the  Jews,  and  perhaps  of  the  virgin-mother  herself, 
 who,  being  hied  up  in  the  synagogue,  might  expect  that  the 
 Messiah  should  be  a  temporal  prince,  as  well  as  they;  but  our 
 Lord's  kingdom,  as  himself  plainly  declares,  is  not  of  this  world, 
 
 TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  2J.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 father  David,  and  of  whose  sovereignty  and  dominion 
 there  should  be  no  end.'c 
 
 Conscious  of  her  own  virtue,  and  yet  surprised  at  this 
 uncommon  appearance  and  salutation,  the  holy  virgin 
 fl  began  to  expostulate  with  the  heavenly  messenger  the 
 possibility  of  the  thing,  since  she  had  all  along  lived  in 
 a  strict  state  of  virginity.  But  the  angel,  to  satisfy  her 
 in  this  particular,  told  her  "  that  this  wonderful  work 
 was  to  be  effected  by  the  invisible  power  and  operation 
 of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  e  and,  to  show  her  that  nothing  was 
 
 nor  of  the  like  nature  with  other  empires  upon  earth.  His 
 reign  is  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men,  and  his  dominion  is  in 
 the  church,  against  which  '  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail,' 
 and  in  which,  'of  the  increase  of  his  government  and  peace  there 
 shall  be  no  end,'  (Is.  ix.  7)  *  until  the  end  cometh,  when  he 
 shall  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father,'  (1  Cor. 
 xv.  24). — CalmeCs  Commentary. 
 
 c  So  the  prophet  Isaiah,  ch.  ix.  6,  7,  '  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,' 
 &c.  •  Of  the  increase  of  his  government  and  peace  '  there  shall  be 
 '  no  end.'  The  kingdom  of  Christ  is  twofold:  1.  His  spiritual 
 kingdom,  or  the  dominion  of  righteousness  in  the  minds  of  men: 
 2.  His  temporal  kingdom,  or  the  outward  dispensation  of  the 
 gospel,  together  with  an  exercise  of  government  over  the  world, 
 by  which  all  events  are  ordered,  so  as  to  promote  the  empire  of 
 righteousness  in  the  hearts  of  men.  This  distinction  removes 
 the  difficulty  arising  from  1  Cor.  xv.  2S,  where  we  are  told,  that 
 after  the  worlds  are  judged,  Christ  shall  deliver  up  the  kingdom 
 to  God  the  Father:  compared  with  what  Gabriel  said  to  Mary 
 on  this  occasion,  and  with  the  other  passages  of  scripture,  which 
 affirm  that  our  Lord's  kingdom  shall  be  everlasting.  His  tem- 
 poral kingdom,  or  the  gospel  dispensation,  will  end  with  the 
 world  being  of  no  farther  use.  At  that  period  likewise  he  will 
 deliver  up  to  God  the  government  of  the  world  that  was  com- 
 mitted to  him  for  the  good  of  his  church,  after  having  accom- 
 plished the  end  of  his  coming,  by  putting  down  all  rule,  and  all 
 authority  and  power  opposite  to  God's.  But  his  spiritual  king- 
 dom, or  the  dominion  of  righteousness  in  the  minds  of  reasonable 
 beings,  which  he  came  down  to  establish,  will  continue  «vith 
 them  to  all  eternity.  Or  we  may  suppose,  that  after  the  man- 
 agement of  the  world  is  delivered  up  to  God,  Jesus  will  still  pre- 
 side as  head  over  the  redeemed  society  in  heaven,  and  perform 
 such  acts  of  government  as  their  condition  allows  and  circum- 
 stances require,  though  still  in  subordination  to  God.  For  the 
 apostle  says  expressly,  that  '  then  shall  the  Son  also  himself  be 
 subject  unto  him  that  put  all  things  under  him,  that  God 
 may  be  all  in  all.'  Or  the  epithet  everlasting,  when  applied  to 
 Christ's  kingdom,  may  be  taken  in  a  popular  sense,  for  a  duration 
 to  the  end  of  time,  in  opposition  to  the  short  continuance  of 
 earthly  kingdoms. — Macknights  Harmony  of  the  Gospels. 
 
 d  The  words  of  her  expostulation  arc,  '  How  shall  this  be, 
 seeing  I  know  not  a  man?'  Which  some  look  upon  as  no  more 
 than  a  reply  of  admiration,  and  a  desire  to  be  further  informed 
 in  what  manner  God  intended  to  etl'ect  such  a  wonderful  work; 
 though  others  perceive  in  them  some  small  indications  of  diffi- 
 dence, but  what  might  be  more  excusable,  because  there  had 
 been  no  such  precedent  of  the  divine  power  made  in  the  world, 
 as  to  cause  a  virgin  to  conceive,  and  bring  forth  a  son. — Poole's 
 Annotations. 
 
 e  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon 
 thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall  overshadow*  thee;' 
 wherein,  according  to  the  usual  modesty  of  scripture  language, 
 is  implied  all  that  action  of  the  Holy  Ghost  whereby  the  blessed 
 virgin  was  enabled  to  become  fruitful,  and  the  place  of  ordinal** 
 generation  was  in  this  case  supplied.  Now,  when  this  action  is 
 in  scripture  represented  as  entirely  the  work  of  God,  and  yet 
 is  attributed  to  the  Holy  Ghost  in  particular,  we  are  not  to 
 understand  it  so  peculiarly  his,  tliat  the  two  other  persons,  sub- 
 sisting in  the  Godhead  should  have  no  concern  in  it:  for  hem 
 that  rule  of  the  school  takes  place,  that  the  entire  union  of  the 
 divine  nature  makes  all  such  actions  common  to  all  the  three 
 as  do  nut.  refer  to  the  properties  and  relations  by  which  they 
 stand  distinguished  from  each  other.  As  therefore  the  Holy 
 Spirit  began  the  first  creation  by  moving,  or  brooding,  as  it 
 were,  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  so  did  he  here  begin  the 
 new  creation,   by  conveyuig  a  principle,   or  power   of  fruitful- 
 
844 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A   M.3.999.  A.  D.  1;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  54C6.  A.  D.  5.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8,  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.I. 
 
 in  she  recounted  his  mercies,  and  the  promises  which  he 
 had  made  to  the  people  of  Israel,  and  which,  by  making 
 her  the  blessed  instrument  of  them,  he  was  now  about  to 
 fulfil. 
 
 About  three  months  Mary  continued  with  her  cousin 
 Elizabeth,  and  then  returned  home.  Elizabeth,  not  long- 
 after,  was  delivered  of  a  son  ;  but,  on  the  eighth  day,  d 
 when  the  child  was  to  he  circumcised  and  named,  his 
 relations  and  friends  were  not  a  little  surprised  to  hear 
 that  he  was  to  be  called  John,e  since  none  of  the  family 
 bore  that  name  ;  but  their  surprise  became  much  greater 
 when  they  found  that,  upon  this  occasion,  his  father's 
 speech  was  immediately  restored  to  him,/  which  he  em- 
 ployed in  the  praises  of  Almighty  God,  who  had  wrought 
 such  prodigies  among  them. 
 
 The  holy  virgin,  being  returned  to  Nazareth,  still 
 concealed  the  mystery  which  God  had  wrought  in  her 
 from  her  espoused  husband  ;  but  her  pregnant  symptoms 
 soon  discovered  it ;  and  though  her  deportment  had  been 
 extremely  chaste  and  modest,  yet  he  might  be  well  as- 
 sured that  she  was  with  child.  This  raised  no  little  con- 
 cern in  his  breast ;  but,  being  a  merciful  good  man/  and 
 
 impossible  to  the  Almighty,  gave  her  to  understand  that 
 her  cousin  Elizabeth,  notwithstanding  her  old  age,  and 
 former  sterility,  had  been  now  six  months  with  child." 
 Whereupon  the  holy  Virgin  humbly  acquiesced  in  what- 
 ever God  had  determined  to  do  with  her  ;  and,  as  soon 
 as  the  angel  was  departed,  made  preparations  for  her 
 journey  to  Hebron,ffi  where  her  cousin  Jived. 
 
 As  soon  as  she  arrived  at  Zacharias's  house,  Eliza- 
 beth, upon  hearing  her  h'rst  salutation,  perceived  that 
 the  child6  sprang  in  her  womb,  and,  being  inspired  with 
 the  Holy  Ghost,  she  cried  out,  "  Blessed  art  thou  above 
 thy  sex  !  blessed  is  the  fruit  of  thy  body  !  and  how  vast 
 is  my  felicity  to  be  visitetl  by  the  mother  of  my  Lord  !" 
 And  having,  by  the  same  prophetic  spirit,  assured  Mary 
 of  the  accomplishment  of  every  thing  that  the  angel  had 
 told  her,  she  so  transported  the  blessed  virgin,  that  she 
 broke  out  into  a  rapture  of  thanksgivings0  to  God,  where- 
 
 ness,  into  a  person  otherwise  incapable  of  it.  And  yet,  as  there, 
 without  the  Father,  and  his  divine  Word  or  Son,  '  not  anything 
 was  made  that  was  made,'  (John  i.  3,)  so  did  he  here  bring  this 
 second,  '  tin's  creation  of  a  new  thing,'  (Jer.  xxxi.  22,)  to  effect, 
 by  the  same  co-operation  of  the  whole  undivided  Trinity,  as 
 he  had  done  the  former. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels, 
 vol.  i. 
 
 a  This  very  probably  was  the  place  where  Zacharias  and 
 Elizabeth  lived,  and  where  John  the  Baptist  was  born;  because 
 it  was  not  only  one  of  the  cities  appointed  for  the  priests  to  dwell 
 in,  (Josh.  xx.  7.)  but  situated  likewise  in  mountains,  which  run- 
 ning cross  the  middle  of  Judea  from  south  to  north,  gave  the 
 tract  which  they  run  along,  the  name  of  the  '  hill-country.' 
 Hebron  was  ten  leagues  distant  from  Jerusalem,  and  about  forty 
 from  Nazareth,  which  made  it  a  long  journey  for  the  blessed 
 virgin,  had  not  her  zeal  to  go  and  partake  in  her  cousin's  joy 
 (more  than  to  satisfy  her  curiosity,  whether  what  the  angel  had 
 told  her  was  true;  made  her  surmount  all  difficulties. — /Fell's 
 Geography  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  Calmct's  Commentary. 
 [Mary  and  Elizabeth  might  be  cousins,  as  the  text  affirms, 
 although  the  former  was  a  descendant  of  David,  and  the  latter 
 a  daughter  of  Aaron;  because  the  law  (Num.  xxxvi.  6.)  for- 
 bidding women  to  marry  out  of  their  own  tribes,  related  only  to 
 heiresses,  and  consequently  did  not  include  the  tribe  of  Levi, 
 which  had  no  particular  heritable  possessions  that  could  be  ali- 
 enated by  such  marriages.  Accordingly  (Lev.  xxii.  12.)  it  is 
 supposed,  as  a  common  case,  that  a  priest's  daughter  might  be 
 married  to  a  stranger. — Maeknight's  Harmony. —'En. 
 
 b  It  is  said  indeed  of  the  Baptist,  that  he  '  should  be  filled 
 with  the  Holy  Ghost  from  his  mother's  womb;'  and  from  hence 
 some  have  thought  that  this  extraordinary  motion  of  the  child 
 in  Elizabeth  was  an  act  of  his  own,  and  proceeded  from  a  sen- 
 sation of  joy,  which  himself  felt  at  the  salutation  of  the  hlessed 
 virgin:  but,  besides  that  being  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  from 
 his  mother's  womb,  means  no  more,  than  that  the  power  of  the 
 Holy  Ghost  should  be  discerned  to  be  upon  him  very  early,  it 
 is  certain  that  infants  in  the  womb  are  not  capable  of  any  joy 
 themselves,  as  having  no  apprehensions  of  good  to  be  enjoyed, 
 or  evil  to  be  avoided ;  but,  as  they  are  sensibly  affected  with  the 
 joy,  or  grief,  or  surprise  of  the  parent,  to  whom  they  are  united, 
 the  uncommon  motion  of  the  child,  at  this  conjuncture,  must 
 have  been  occasioned  by  the  joy  which  transported  his  mother. 
 — Hammond's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  It  was  customary  among  the  Jews,  for  pious  and  devout 
 persons,  when  they  found  themselves  inspired,  upon  great  and 
 solemn  occasions,  to  celebrate  the  praises  of  God  in  songs  made 
 on  purpose.  Several  of  this  kind  we  meet  with  in  the  Old 
 Testament;  but  this  of  the  blessed  virgin  is  the  first  that  oc- 
 curs in  the  New,  and,  for  the  majesty  of  its  style,  the  nobleness 
 of  its  sentiments,  and  that  spirit  of  piety  which  runs  through 
 the  whole,  is  inferior  to  none.— Calmet's  Commentary.  [The 
 song  of  the  virgin  is  considered  by  many  to  be  the  first  piece 
 of  poetry  in  the  New  Testament;  but  the  address  of  the  angel 
 to  Zacharias,  (ver.  13—17,)  is  delivered  in  the  same  way;  so  is 
 that  to  the  virgin,  (ver.  30—33,)  and  so  is  also  Elizabeth's  ans- 
 wer to  Mary,  (ver.  42—45.)  All  these  portions  are  easily  re- 
 ducible to   the   KemUich  form,  in  which  the   Hebrew  poetry 
 
 of  the  Old  Testament  is  found  in  many  MSS.,  and  in  which 
 Dr  Kennicott  has  arranged  the  psalms  and  other  poetical  parts 
 of  the  sacred  writings. — Dr  A.  Carke  on  Luke  i.  46.] — Ed. 
 
 d  The  Jews  had  a  positive  command  in  their  law,  that  no 
 child  should  be  circumcised  before  the  eighth  day;  because  the 
 mother  for  seven  days  was  reputed  unclean,  and  so  was  the 
 child  by  touching  her,  (Lev.  xii.  1,  2,)  but  the  law  appointed 
 no  certain  place  in  which  circumcision  was  to  be  done,  nor  any 
 certain  person  that  was  to  perform  it;  neither  did  it  enjoin  that 
 the  child  should  have  his  name  given  him  at  that  time,  only  the 
 custom  prevailed  of  doing  it  then ;  because,  when  God  instituted 
 the  rite,  he  changed  the  names  of  Abraham  and  Sarah.. — Whit- 
 by's Annotations. 
 
 e  The  Jews,  from  their  first  beginning,  seem  to  have  made 
 it  a  point  of  religion,  to  give  such  names  to  their  children  as 
 were  significative  either  of  God's  mercy  to  them,  or  of  their 
 duty  to  God,  and  from  the  passage  now  before  us,  (though  it 
 was  no  ancient  usage,)  it  seems  to  be  a  custom  introduced,  at 
 least  in  the  days  of  Zacharias,  to  call  children  by  the  name  of 
 their  parents,  or  the  nearest  relations,  as  it  is  usual  now  among 
 us,  if  there  was  no  particular  reason  to  the  contrary. — Poole's 
 Annotations  ,"  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 /These  extraordinary  circumstances,  I  mean  the  appearing 
 of  the  angel  to  Zacharias  in  the  temple;  Zachaiias's  dumbness; 
 Elizabeth's  pregnancy,  when  past  the  age  of  child-bearing;  and 
 the  restoration  of  Zachaiias's  speech  on  the  day  of  his  son's  cir- 
 cumcision, were  all  wisely  ordered  by  Providence,  to  accom- 
 pany the  conception  and  birth  of  John,  that  he  who  was  the 
 Messiah's  forerunner  might  not  seem  an  obscure  and  ordinary 
 man,  but  one  that  was  the  peculiar  object  of  the  decrees  and 
 counsels  of  Heaven.  He  was  introduced  into  the  world  in  this 
 magnificent  manner,  that,  the  attention  of  his  countrymen  being 
 awakened,  and  high  expectations  of  him  raised,  he  might  exe 
 cute  the  duties  of  his  ministry  with  greater  advantage,  and  ef- 
 fectually prepare  the  people  for  receiving  the  Messiah  himself, 
 who  was  soon  to  appear  in  person. — Maeknight's  Harmony. — 
 Ed. 
 
 g  The  words  in  the  text,  as  we  translate  them,  are — '  Jo- 
 seph her  husband  being  a  just  man:'  but,  if  he  was  a  just  man, 
 and  was  satisfied  that  his  intended  wife  had,  some  way  or  other, 
 violated  her  chastity,  (as  he  knew  nothing  to  the  contrary  at 
 that  time,)  instead  of  screening  her  crime,  he  ought  to  have 
 brought  her  to  punishment,  (Deut.  xxii.  20,  21.)  Now,  it  is  to 
 be  observed  that,  upon  the  discovery  of  his  wife's  pregnancy,  Jo- 
 seph had  the  choice  of  three  things.  1st,  either  he  might,  not- 
 withstanding this,  have  taken  her  to  his  house  as  his  wife, 
 because  the  law  of  divorce  laid  none  under  an  obligation,  hut 
 gave  a  permission  only,  in  case  of  some  discovered  unclean- 
 ness,  to  put  away  the  wife:  or,  2dly,  he  might  give  her  a 
 bill  of  divorcement,  either  in  public  or  in  private,  (for  that  was 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &o. 
 
 845 
 
 A.  M.3999.  A.D.I;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5406.  A.  D.  5.   FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.8.  MARKii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1 
 
 unwilling  either  to  expose  the  honour  of  her  family, 
 .vhich  he  thought  she   had  stained,  or  to  inflict  public 
 
 punishment  upon  her,  according  to  the  sentence  of  the 
 law,  he  resolved  upon  a  separation  "  with  the  utmost 
 privacy :  but  before  he  came  to  put  it  in  execution,  an 
 angel   from  heaven  ''  appeared  to  him  in  a  vision,  in- 
 
 1  Deut.  xxii.  23. 
 left  to  his  opinion,)  cither  before  two  or  three  witnesses,  or  be- 
 fore a  proper  magistrate,  and  that  without  specifying  any  crime 
 against  her:  or,  odly,  lie  might,  according  to  the  law,  have 
 brought  her  upon  her  trial,  whether  in  the  matter  of  her  preg- 
 nancy she  had  suffered  a  rape,  or  was  herself  consenting, 
 (Dent.  xxii.  23,  24.)  Had  therefore  Joseph  dune  the  first  of 
 these,  he  must  have  acted  counter  to  his  own  honour,  and  have 
 incurred  the  common  reproach,  that  he  who  retaineth  an  adul- 
 teress is  a  fool.  Had  he  done  the  last  of  these,  he  was  not  sure 
 of  convicting  her,  because,  upon  examination,  it  might  appear 
 that  she  had  been  forced;  and,  in  that  case,  the  man  that  did  it 
 was  to  die,  (Deut.  xxii.  25:)  or  she  might  have  been  with  child 
 before  her  betrothing,  and,  in  that  case,  she  was  only  obliged  to 
 marry  the  person  that  had  abused  her,  (ver.  28,  29.)  Upon  the 
 whole,  therefore,  Joseph  thought  it  the  best  and  justest  way  to 
 proceed  upon  the  foot  of  a  divorce.  Mary's  being  visibly  with 
 child  was  reason  sufficient  to  authorize  his  parting  with  her: 
 but  he  did  not  know  for  certain  that  she  was  guilty  of  adultery, 
 or  that  consequently  she  deserved  to  die ;  and  therefore  he  did 
 not  think  it  right,  by  bringing  her  upon  her  trial,  to  expose  her. 
 — Poole  s  Annotations  ;  and  Calmet's  Commentary  ;  and  Spati- 
 hcim's  Dub.  Evang.  part  i.  dub.  31.  [Considerable  diversity 
 of  opinion  exists  as  to  the  interpretation  of  the  text  here  quoted. 
 Instead  of  '  a  just  man,'  as  in  our  version,  Dr  Campbell  ren- 
 ders 'a  worthy  man,'  and  others,  such  as  Grotius,  Hammond, 
 Rosenmiiller,  Kuinoel,  '  a  kind  or  humane  man.'  Dr  Booth- 
 royd's  version  is  '  a  righteous  man,'  which  certainly  expresses 
 the  usual  sense  of  the  original  term  1ix.tr.wi,  and  includes,  as  he 
 remarks,  "  all  that  is  essential  in  a  truly  good  and  pious  char- 
 acter." Dr  Bloomfiekl  observes,  that  the  term  Sixains  in  its 
 usual  acceptation  denotes  '  lover  of  justice,'  and  '  a  man  of  up- 
 rightness and  integrity.'  Joseph  being  such,  determined  to  put 
 away  his  betrothed  wife  by  law ;  and  yet  with  that  mercy  which 
 ever  accompanies  true  justice,  he  waited  not  to  make  her  a  pub- 
 lic example,  but  to  put  her  away  privately  ;  that  is,  with  only 
 two  witnesses  required  to  attest  the  delivery  of  the  bill  of  di- 
 vorce; which  did  not  necessarily  state  the  reason,  for  the  di- 
 vorcement.]— Bloom  field's  Greek  New  Testament  — Ed. 
 
 a  The  common  way  of  separation  among  the  Jews  was,  by  the 
 man's  giving  the  woman  a  letter  of  divorce.  This,  in  their 
 language,  is  called  Ghetb,  and  the  substance  of  it  is  to  this  effect  : 
 i — "  On  such  a  day,  month,  and  year,  and  at  such  a  place,  I  A 
 divorce  you  voluntarily,  put  you  away,  and  restore  you  to  your 
 liberty,  even  you  B,  who  was  heretofore  my  wife;  and  I  permit 
 you  to  marry  whom  you  please."  When  the  day  of  divorce 
 conies,  the  rabbi  that  attends,  having  strictly  examined  both 
 parties,  and  finding  that  they  are  resolved  to  part,  bids  the  woman 
 open  her  hands,  and,  when  she  has  received  the  deed,  to  close 
 them  both  together,  lest  it  should  chance  to  fall  to  the  ground. 
 The  man,  when  he  gives  her  the  parchment,  (for  on  parchment 
 the  bill  of  divorce  was  to  be  written,  in  the  presence  of  two  rab- 
 bins, and  with  many  other  trifling  circumstances,)  tells  her, 
 "  Here  is  thy  divorce,  I  put  thee  away  from  me,  and  leave  thee 
 at  liberty  to  many  whom  thou  pleasest;"  and,  when  the  woman 
 has  taken  it,  and  the  rabbi  read  it  over  once  more,  she  is  entirely 
 free.  There  is  in  this  ceremony,  however,  to  be  remarked,  that 
 they  always  endeavour  to  have  ten  or  twelve  persons  at  it,  besides 
 the  two  witnesses  who  si^n  the  deed.  When  therefore  Joseuh 
 intended  to  dismiss  Mary  privately,  it  could  not  be,  by  having 
 no  witnesses  at  all,  but  as  few  as  the  nature  of  the  thing  would 
 bear,  and  by  giving  her  the  letter  of  divorcement  into  her  own 
 hand,  which  she  might  suppress,  if  she  thought  fit,  or  by  insert- 
 ing no  accusation  against  her  in  it,  in  case  it  came  to  be  read 
 before  the  company.-—  Co Imet's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Di- 
 vorce;   JFhitby  and  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 b  This  visiun  was  in  a  dream,  and  while  he  was  asleep;  and 
 dreams,  we  know,  were  one  way  whereby  God  revealed  his  mind 
 to  the  people  formerly,  (Job  vii.  14,)  whereby  he  made  himself 
 known  to  his  prophets,  (Num.  xii.  6,)  and  not  to  prophets  only, 
 
 forming  him,  "  that  his  wife's  conception  was  the  im- 
 mediate work  of  the  Holy  Ohost,  that  she  should  bear 
 a  son,  the  same  person  3  whom  the  prophet  had  foretold 
 under  the  name  Emanuel,  or  God  xvith  us :"  where- 
 upon Joseph  was  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision, 
 but  taking  the  holy  virgin  home  to  him,  he  lived  with 
 her,  to  all  outward  appearance,  in  conjugal  love,  though 
 he  certainly  had  no  carnal  knowledge  of  her,  c  till  she 
 was  delivered  of  her  first-born  son,  who,  by  a  lineal 
 descent,  was  true  heir  to  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  as  sprung 
 from  the  house  of  David. 
 
 Some  time  before  this,  Augustus  Cffisar  had  issued 
 out  a  general  edict,  that  all  persons  in  the  lioman  em- 
 pire, with  their  estates  and  conditions,  should  be  re- 
 gistered at  certain  appointed  places,  according  to  their 
 respective  provinces,  cities,  and  families.  By  virtue  of 
 this  edict,  Joseph  and  his  wife  Mary  being  both  of  the 
 tribe  of  Judah,  and  family  of  David,  were  obliged  to  go 
 
 2  Is.  ix.  6. 
 
 but  to  pagan  princes  sometimes,  as  appears  by  the  instances,  both 
 of  Pharaoh  and  Nebuchadnezzar,  (Gen.  xli.  1.;  Dan.  ii.  1.)  But 
 how  to  distinguish  divine  from  natural  dreams,  it  is  difficult  to 
 say,  unless  it  be  by  the  clear  and  distinct  series  of  their  repre- 
 sentation, and  the  forcible  impression  which  they  leave  upon 
 men's  spirits ;  whereas  natural  dreams,  for  the  most  part,  are 
 rambling  and  inconsistent,  aud  '  whoso  regardeth  them,'  says  the 
 wise  son  of  Sirach,  '  is  like  him  who  catcheth  at  a  shadow,  or 
 followeth  after  the  wind,'  (Ecclus.  xxxiv.  2.) — Poole's  Annota- 
 tions. Why  God  reveals  himself  by  dreams,  and  in  the  night- 
 time;  see  Spanhehn's  Dub.  Evang.  part  ii.  dub.  59. 
 
 c  The  word  first-born  in  scripture  admits  of  various  significa- 
 tions. Sometimes,  and  most  commonly  indeed,  it  denotes  the 
 eldest  of  two  or  more  children,  as  Eliab  is  called  the  first-born  of 
 Jesse,  1  Sam.  xvii .  13;  at  others,  the  first  that  is  born,  without 
 regard  to  any  else,  as  when  God  says  to  Moses,  '  sanctify  me 
 all  the  first-born,'  Exod.  xiii.  2.  In  some  places  it  imports 
 figuratively  what  is  most  dearly  beloved  by  us;  in  which  sense 
 God  frequently  calls  the  Israelites  his  first-born;  and  in  others, 
 what  is  most  remarkable  for  greatness  or  excellency,  as  God 
 promises  David,  who  was  but  a  younger  brother  of  the  family,  to 
 '  make  him  the  first-born  of  the  kings  of  the  earth,'  Ps.  lxxxix. 
 27.  In  any  of  these  three  last  senses  our  Saviour  might  very 
 properly  be  called  his  mother's  first-born  son,  forasmuch  as  he 
 was  really  her  first  child ;  her  most  and  only  beloved ;  and  the 
 most  illustrious  of  his  race :  but  then  Joseph's  not  knowing  his 
 wife  until  she  was  delivered  of  her  first-born  son,  seems  to  imply, 
 that  he  knew  her  afterwards.  Those  who  maintain  the  perpetual 
 virginity  of  the  blessed  mother,  tell  us,  that  \u>;  ov,  which  we 
 render  until  in  several  places  of  scripture,  has  relation  only  to 
 the  time  which  precedes,  and  not  to  that  which  follows  any 
 event;  so  that  '  he  knew  her  not  until,' may  be  taken  in  the 
 same  sense  as  Samuel  '  came  not  to  see  Saul  till  the  day  of  his 
 death,'  1  Sam.  xv.  35,  that  is,  he  never  came  to  see  him  :  but, 
 besides  that  most  of  the  passages  which  are  produced  to  this  pur- 
 pose, are  far  from  coming  up  to  the  case  in  hand,  since  the  angel 
 commanded  '  Joseph  to  take  Mary  as  his  wife,'  without  any  in- 
 timation that  lie  should  not  perform  the  duty  of  a  husband  to 
 her,  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  why  he  should  live  twelve  years 
 with  her,  and  all  that  while  deny  that  duty  which  both  the  law 
 and  the  canons  of  the  Jews  command  the  husband  to  pay  his 
 wife,  Exod.  xxi.  10.  If  we  imagine,  that  our  Saviour  would 
 have  been  dishonoured  in  any  other's  lying  in  the  same  bed  after 
 him,  we  seem  to  forget  how  much  he  humbled  and  debased 
 himself  in  lying  in  that  lied  first,  and  then  in  a  stable  and  a 
 manger.  But,  leaving  this  question  to  those  who  aflect  to  be 
 curious  beyond  what  is  written,  we  may  safely  conclude  with 
 St  Basil,  "  That  though  it  was  necessary  for  the  completh  n 
 of  the  prophecy,  that  the  mother  of  our  Lord  should  continue  a 
 virgin,  until  she  had  brought  forth  her  first-born;  yet  what  she 
 was  afterwards  it  is  idle  to  discuss,  because  it  is  of  no  manner 
 of  concern  to  the  mystery." — HoicclVs  History  in  the  notes  ; 
 Poole's  and  Whitby's  Annotations;  and  S/panheimZi  Dub. 
 Evang.  part  i.  dub.  28.. 
 
846 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 that  no  better  place  could  be  found  for  their  lodging 
 than  a  stable,  where  they  had  not  been  long  before  the 
 blessed  virgin  was  delivered  of  a  son,  whom  (herself 
 performing  the  office  of  a  midwife)  c  she  bound  in  swad- 
 dling clothes,  and  laid  down  to  rest  in  a  manger.  But, 
 notwithstanding  this  obscurity  of  our  Saviour's  birth, 
 God  was  pleased,  that  very  night,  by  the  message  of  an 
 angel,  with  a  radiant  light  surrounding  him,  to  make  a 
 pompous  revelation  of  it  to  certain  poor  shepherds  who 
 were  attending  their  flocks  on  the  plains  of  Bethlehem  ; 
 and,  after  one  angel  had  delivered  the  joyful  tidings,  an 
 innumerable  company  of  the  same  celestial  choir  broke 
 out  all  together  into  this  triumphant  doxology,  '  Glory 
 be  to  God  on  high,  peace  on  earth,  and  good  will 
 towards  men.' 
 
 A.  M.  ?TO9.  A.  C.5  ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5106.  A.  C.  5.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  EUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 as  far  as  Bethlehem,  a  which  was  the  mother  city  of  their 
 tribe,  there  to  have  their  names  and  estates  enrolled.  1 
 The  great  conflux  of  people  upon  this  occasion  had 
 already  filled  all  the  inns,  *  and  houses  of  reception,  so 
 
 1  Respecting  this  enrolment,  see  next  chapter. 
 a  Bethlehem,  now  called  Beit-Lahhm,  was  a  celebrated  city 
 about  six  miles  south-west  from  Jerusalem:  it  was  formerly 
 called  Ephrath  or  Ephrata.  (Gen.  xxxv.  19. ;  xlviii.  7. ;  Mic.  v. 
 2.)  It  was  a  city  in  the  time  of  Boaz  (Ruth  iii.  11.;  iv.  1.), 
 and  was  fortified  by  Rehoboam.  (2  Chron.  xi.  6.)  In  Mat.  ii. 
 1,  5,  it  is  called  Bethlehem  of  Judiea,  to  distinguish  it  from 
 another  town  of  the  same  name  situated  in  Lower  Galilee,  and 
 mentioned  in  Josh.  xix.  15.  In  Luke  ii.  4,  it  is  called  the  '  city 
 of  David,'  because  David  was  born  and  educated  there.  (Com- 
 pare John  vii.  42.;  and  1  Sam.  xvi.  1,  IS.)  This  city,  though 
 not  considerable  for  its  extent  or  riches,  is  of  great  dignity  as  the 
 appointed  birth-place  of  the  Messiah  (Mat.  ii.  6. ;  Luke  ii.  6 — 
 15..)  :  it  is  pleasantly  situated  on  the  brow  of  an  eminence,  in  a 
 very  fertile  soil,  which  only  wants  cultivation  to  render  it  what 
 the  name  Bethlehem  imports — a  house  of  bread.  Between  the 
 clefts  of  the  rock,  when  the  soil  is  cultivated,  vines,  figs,  and 
 olives,  appear  to  grow  in  great  luxuriance.  Bethlehem  is  said 
 to  be  nearly  as  large  as  Nazareth,  and  to  contain  from  a  thousand 
 to  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants,  who  are  almost  wholly  Christians. 
 On  the  north-eastern  side  of  it  is  a  deep  valley,  where  tradition 
 says  that  the  angels  appeared  to  the  shepherds  of  Judaea,  with  the 
 glad  tidings  of  our  Saviour's  nativity  (Luke  ii.  S — 14.);  and  in 
 this  valley  Dr  Clarke  halted  at  the  identical  fouutain  for  whose 
 delicious  water  David  longed.  (2  Sam.  xxiii.  15 — 18.)  Of  the 
 various  pretended  holy  places  which  are  here  shown  to  Christians, 
 the  cave  of  the  nativity  is  the  only  spot  verified  by  tradition  from 
 the  earliest  ages  of  Christianity.  Between  one  and  two  miles 
 from  this  place,  on  the  road  to  Jerusalem,  stood  the  site  of 
 Rachel's  tomb,  (Geu.  xxxv.  19,  20.;  1  Sam.  x.  2.)  which  is  now 
 covered  by  a  small  square  Mohammedan  building,  surmounted 
 by  a  dome,  and  resembling  in  its  exterior  the  tombs  of  saints 
 and  sheiks  in  Arabia  and  Egypt."  In  the  vicinity  of  Bethlehem 
 are  the  pools  of  Solomon,  which  seem  to  have  been  connected 
 with  a  scheme  for  supplying  Jerusalem  with  water. — Hume's 
 Introduction. — Ed. 
 
 b  There  appear  to  be  three  descriptions  of  these  buildings. 
 Some  are  simply  places  of  rest,  by  the  side  of  a  fountain,  if  pos- 
 sible, which  being  at  proper  distances  on  the  road,  are  thus 
 named,  though  they  are  mere  naked  walls ;  others  have  an  at- 
 tendant, who  subsists  either  by  some  charitable  donation,  or  the 
 benevolence  of  passengers ;  and  others  are  more  considerable 
 establishments,  where  families  reside  and  take  care  of  them,  and 
 furnish  many  necessary  provisions.  Conformably  to  these  ideas, 
 the  scripture  uses  at  least  two  words  to  express  a  caravanserai, 
 though  our  translators  have  rendered  both  by  the  same  term  inn, 
 Thus,  Luke  ii.  7.  '  There  was  no  room  for  them  in  the  inn.' 
 (x«™Xii^«Ti,)  "  the  place  of  untying,"  of  beasts,  &c.,  for  rest. 
 (Luke  x.  34.)  The  good  Samaritan  '  brought  him  to  the  {yra^o-^uoi) 
 inn,'  (whose  keeper  is  called  in  the  next  verse  IlavSo^ju,-,)  a  re- 
 ceptacle open  to  all  comers.  It  may  reasonably  be  supposed, 
 that  a  caravanserai  in  a  town  should  be  better  furnished  than  one 
 in  the  country,  in  a  retired  place,  and  where  few  travellers  pass; 
 and  Mr  Taylor  therefore  iuelines  against  Harmer,  (Obs.  vol.  iii. 
 p.   2  IS,)  to  think  that  the  inn,  to  which  the  good  Samaritan  is 
 
 represented  as  conducting  the  wounded  traveller,  was  intentional- 
 ly described  of  an  inferior  kind,,     If  so,  we  may  reasonably  take 
 
 the  other  word,  "  the  untying  place,"  as  denoting  a  larger  edifice ; 
 
 and  this  accounts  for  the  evangelist  Luke's  mention  of  there  being 
 
 no  room  (ro*o;)  in  it :  as  if  he  had  said,  "  though  it  was  large 
 
 enough  for  such  occasions  as   usually  occurred   in  the  town  of 
 
 Bethlehem,    yet   now  every  apartment   in    this   receptacle;   was 
 
 occupied;  so  that  no  privacy  fit  for  a  woman  in  the   situation  of 
 
 Mary  could  be  had  :"  especially,  as  Colonel  Campbel  has  in- 
 formed us,    "  they  are  continually  attended  by  numbers  of  the 
 
 very  lowest  of  the  people" —  very  unfit  associates  for  Mary  at  any 
 
 time,  and   certainly  in  her  present  condition  !   "  Caravanserais 
 
 were  originally  intended  for,  and  are  now  pretty  generally  applied 
 
 to,  the  accommodation  of  strangers  and  travellers ;  though,  like 
 
 every  other  good  institution,  sometimes  perverted  to  the  pur- 
 poses of  private   emolument,  or  public  job.     They  are  built  at 
 
 proper  distances  through  the  loads  of  the  Turkish  dominions, 
 
 0-ud  afford  to  the  indigent  and  weary  traveller,  an  a  vlum  from 
 
 the  inclemency  of  the  weather.  They  have  commonly  one  story 
 above  the  ground-floor,  the  lower  of  which  is  arched,  and  serves 
 for  warehouses  to  store  goods,  for  lodgings,  and  for  stables,  while 
 the  upper  is  used  merely  for  lodgings;  besides  which  they  are 
 always  accommodated  with  a  fouutain,  and  have  cooks'  shops 
 and  other  conveniences  to  supply  the  wants  of  lodgers." — Camp- 
 bell's Travels,  part  ii.  p.  8.  This  description  applies,  of  course, 
 to  the  better  sort  of  caravanserais.  The  nearest  construction 
 amongst  us  to  a  caravanserai,  appears  in  some  of  our  old  inns, 
 where  galleries,  with  lodging  rooms  in  them,  run  round  a  court, 
 or  yard ;  but  then,  as  travellers  in  the  east  always  carry  with 
 them  their  own  bedding,  &c,  it  is  evident  that  our  inns  are 
 better  provided  than  the  best  Eastern  caravanserais.  It  is  neces- 
 sary to  keep  this  in  mind ;  because  we  must  not  suppose  that 
 Joseph  and  Mary  travelled  without  taking  the  necessary  utensils 
 with  them;  or  that  they  could  have  procured,  in  this  inn,  any 
 thing  beyond  provisions  and  lodging.  Perhaps  even  they  could 
 not  have  procured  provisions.  But  of  the  poverty  of  their  eastern 
 inns,  we  shall  obtain  a  pretty  distinct  idea  from  the  following  ex- 
 tract :  "There  are  no  inns  any  where ;  but  the  cities,  and  common- 
 ly the  villages,  have  a  large  building  called  a  Kan,  or  Kervanserai, 
 which  seives  as  an  asylum  for  all  travellers.  These  houses  of 
 reception  are  always  built  '  without  the  precincts  of  towns,  and 
 consist  of  four  wings  round  a  square  court,  which  serves  by  way 
 of  enclosure  for  the  beasts  of  burden.  The  lodgings  are  cells, 
 where  you  find  nothing  but  bare  walls,  dust,  and  sometimes 
 scorpions.  The  keeper  of  this  khan  gives  the  traveller  the  key 
 and  a  mat;  and  he  provides  himself  with  the  rest.  He  must, 
 therefore,  carry  with  him  his  bed,  his  kitchen  utensils,  and  even 
 his  provisions ;  for  frequently  not  even  bread  is  to  be  found  in 
 the  villages.  On  this  account  the  orientals  contrive  their  equi- 
 page in  the  most  simple  and  portable  form.  The  baggage  of  a 
 man  who  wishes  to  be  completely  provided,  consists  in  a  carpet, 
 a  mattress,  a  blanket,  two  saucepans  with  lids,  contained  within 
 each  other,  two  dishes,  two  plates,  and  a  coflee-pot,  all  of  copper 
 well  tinned;  a  small  wooden  box,  for  salt  and  pepper;  a  round 
 leathern  table,  which  he  suspends  from  the  saddle  of  his  horse ; 
 small  leathern  bottles  or  bags  for  oil,  melted  butter,  water,  and 
 brandy,  if  the  traveller  be  a  Christian;  a  pipe,  a  tinder-box,  a 
 cup  of  cocoa-nut,  some  rice,  dried  raisins,  dates,  Cyprus  cheese, 
 and  above  all,  coffee-berries'  with  a  roaster,  and  wooden  mortar 
 to  pound  them.  I  am  thus  particular,  to  prove  that  the  Orientals 
 are  more  advanced  than  we,  in  the  art  of  dispensing  with  many 
 things,  an  art  which  is  not  without  its  use.  Our  European  mer- 
 chants are  not  contented  with  such  simple  accommodations."— 
 {Volney's  Travels,  vol.  ii.  p.  419,  Eng.,  edit.)  The  reader  will 
 bear  this  account  in  mind ;  for  we  shall  find  that  he  is  not  a  poor 
 man  in  the  east,  who  possesses  this  quantity  of  utensils.  One 
 would  hope  that  at  Bethlehem,  "  the  house  of  bread,"  it  was  not 
 difficult  to  procure  that  necessary  of  life." — Calrnet's  Dictionary . 
 — Ed. 
 
 e  Which  she  could  not  have  done,  to  be  sure,  had  she  been 
 delivered  in  the  common  manner  of  other  women :  but  it  was 
 always  the  opinion  of  the  church,  from  the  days  of  Gregory 
 Nazianzen  until  now,  though  before  his  days  there  were  some 
 opinions  to  the  contrary,  that,  as  there-  was  no  sin  in  the  con- 
 ception, so  neither  had  the  virgin  any  pains  in  the  production  ; 
 for  to  her  alone  the  punishment  of  Eve,  that  '  in  sorrow  she 
 should  bring  forth  children,' did  not  extend;  because,  where 
 nothing  of  sin  was  the  ingredient,  there  nothing  of  misery  couid 
 cohabit. —  Taylor's  Life  of  Christ. 
 
Skct.  I.j 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 817 
 
 A.M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5107.  A.  C.  4.  FROM  BEGIN.  Or  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  Ix.  8.  MARKxi.23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 No  sooner  was  this  heavenly  concert  ended,  but  the 
 overjoyed  shepherds,  remembering'  the  signs  which  the 
 angel,  before  he  disappeared,  had  given  them,  immedi- 
 ately hastened  to  Bethlehem,wherc  they  found  the  virgin- 
 mother,  and  Joseph  the  supposed  father,  attending  the 
 Godlike  babe,  whom,  in  humble  reverence  they  adored, 
 and  then  returned,  praising  and  extolling  the  mercies  of 
 God,  and,  to  the  great  amazement  of  all  that  heard  them, 
 publishing  in  all  places  what  they  knew  concerning  this 
 child. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  child  was  eight  days  old,  his  parents 
 had  him  circumcised  "  according  to  the  law ;  when,  pur- 
 suant to  the  order  which  the  angel  had  given  before 
 his  conception,  they  called  his  name  Jesus;  and,  as 
 soon  as  he  was  forty  days  old,  two  other  ceremonies 
 were  pevformed,  namely,  the  purification  *  of  his  mother, 
 and  the  presentation  of  her  first-born.  Though  therefore 
 her  son's  immaculate  conception  needed  not  that  cere- 
 mony ;  yet  the  holy  virgin  went  up  with  Joseph  to  Jeru- 
 
 a  Our  blessed  Lord,  as  he  was  the  supreme  lawgiver  of  the 
 world,  was  not  in  strictness  bound  to  the  observation  of  his  own 
 law,  nor  did  he  stand  in  any  need  of  circumcision,  considered  as 
 a  remedy  against  original  sin;  because,  in  his  incarnation,  he 
 contracted  no  pollution ;  but,  as  he  was  '  made  of  a  woman,  made 
 under  the  law,'  and  'came  (as  himself  testifies,  Mat.  iii.  15.) 
 '  to  fulfil  all  righteousness,'  it  became  him  to  receive  the  charac- 
 ter which  distinguished  the  Jews  from  all  other  nations.  Among 
 the  Jews,  indeed,  it  was  thought  a  reproach  to  keep  company 
 with  persons  that  were  not  circumcised:  '  thou  wentest  in  to  men 
 uncircumcised,  and  didst  eat  with  them,'  is  the  accusation  which 
 they  brought  against  St  Peter,  Acts  xi.  3;  and  therefore,  as  our 
 Lord  was  sent  chiefly  to  the  lost  sheep  of  Israel,  he  could  not 
 have  been  qualified  for  their  acceptance  and  free  conversation 
 had  he  not  submitted  to  this  ordinance.  Of  him  was  that  most 
 gloi  ions  of  all  the  promises  made  to  Abraham  intended,  '  In  thy 
 seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed,'  Gal.  iii.  16. 
 And  therefore  fit  it  was  that  he  should  have  the  seal  or  testimony 
 of  circumcision,  in  order  to  show  that  he  was  truly  and  rightly 
 descended  of  that  ancestor  :  and,  as  he  was  come  to  be  the  Medi- 
 ator of  a  new  and  better  covenant,  it  was  but  decent  that  the 
 former  should  recede  with  houour,  and,  that  it  might  do  so,  him- 
 self should  approve  of  a  sacrament  which  was  both  of  divine 
 institution,  and  a  means  of  admission  into  that  former  covenant. 
 —  Poole's  Annotations ;  and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gos- 
 pels, vol.  i. 
 
 b  The  law  concerning  the  purification  of  women,  we  have  in 
 the  twelfth  chapter  of  Leviticus,  wherein  it  is  ordained  that  a 
 woman,  after  bearing  of  children,  should  continue,  for  a  certain 
 number  of  days,  in  a  state  which  the  law  termed  unclean.  For 
 the  first  seven  days,  all  conversation  or  contact  polluted  them 
 that  approached  her,  and  lor  three  and  thirty  days  more,  which 
 in  all  amounted  to  forty,  she  was  still,  though  in  an  inferior  de- 
 gree, reputed  unclean  :  but,  at  the  expiration  of  this  term,  if  her 
 child  was  a  son,  (for  the  time  was  double  for  a  daughter,)  she  was 
 commanded  to  bring  a  burnt-offering,  and  a  sin-offering,  which 
 wiped  out  the  stain  which  the  law  laid  upon  her,  and  restored 
 her  to  all  the  purity  and  privileges  she  had  before.  Now,  though 
 the  miraculous  conception  of  the  blessed  virgin  set  her  quite 
 above  any  obligation  to  the  law  of  impurity,  yet,  since  her  being 
 a  mother  was  sufficiently  notorious,  though  the  manner  of  her 
 being  so  was  a  secret,  it  was  fit  that  she  should  submit,  as  the 
 known  mother  of  a  son,  to  the  ceremonies  expected  from  her. 
 Her  sin-offering  was  not  indeed  due  in  any  sense;  but  she  lay 
 under  the  same  legal  incapacity  in  the  eye  of  the  world  as  other 
 women  did,  and  was  to  be  restored  to  the  temple  by  it.  Her 
 burnt-offering  was  not  due  as  that  of  other  parents  is,  to  com- 
 memorate a  deliverance  from  pangs  and  danger;  but  never  sure 
 were  thanks  so  justly  due  for  any  son  as  this;  never  from  any 
 mother  as  from  her,  who  had  the  honour  to  bring  forth  her  own, 
 and  the  world's  Saviour,  the  blessing  and  expectation  of  all 
 the  earth.  As  therefore  he  was  circumcised  in  his  own  person, 
 though  the  mystical  and  moral  part  of  circumcision  had  nothing 
 to  do  with  him;  so  bis  mother  submitted  to  all  the  purifications 
 
 saleni,  there  to  offer  the  sacrifice  c  prescribed  by  the  law 
 for  her  own  purification,  and  there  to  present  her  son  to 
 the  Lord,  by  delivering  him  into  the  priest's  hands,  and 
 redeeming  him  .again  for  five  shekels.  d  But,  while  she 
 was  in  the  temple  performing  this,  old  Simeon  e  who  had 
 long  waited  for  the  redemption  of  Israel,  and  had  been 
 promised,  by  the  mouth  of  heaven,  that  lie  should  not 
 leave  this  world,  before  he  had  seen  the  illustrious  person 
 who  was  to  affect  it,  came  in,  and  taking  the  blessed 
 infant  in  his  arms,  in  an  heavenly  ecstasy  praised  God 
 for  the  completion  of  his  promises,  in  letting  him  live  to 
 see  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  before  he  quitted  it.  /  And 
 no  sooner  had  he  ended  his  divine  rapture,  but  an  ancient, 
 widow  of  the  tribe  of  Aser,  whose  name  was  Anna,  and 
 whose  piety  and  devotion,  severity  of  life,  and  con- 
 stant frequeutation  of  the  public  worship,  were  very 
 remarkable,  coming  into  the  temple,  and  being  her- 
 self likewise  excited  by  a  prophetic  spirit,  gave 
 God  thanks  for  his  infinite  mercies  ;  testifying  that  this 
 child  was  the  true  Messiah,  and  declaring  the  same  to 
 all  such  devout  persons  in  Jerusalem  as  waited  for  his 
 coming. 
 
 After  these  legal  performances  and  solemn  testimon- 
 ies in  favour  of  the  child,  Joseph  and  Mary  returned  to 
 
 of  any  other  Israelitish  woman,  though  she  partook  not  in  any 
 degree  of  the  infirmities  and  pollutions  common  to  other  births. 
 — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 c  What  the  blessed  virgin  offered,  we  read,  was  a  pair  of  turtles, 
 which  being  the  oblation  appointed  only  for  the  meaner  sort  of 
 people,  Lev.  xii.  6.  8,  discovers  the  poverty  of  Joseph  and  Mary, 
 that  they  could  not  reach  to  a  lamb  of  the  first  year,  the  offering 
 which  they  who  iiad  ability  were  obliged  to  make. — TFhitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 d  The  rite  of  redemption  was  instituted  to  perpetuate  the 
 memory  of  the  divine  mercy,  which  spared  the  first-born  of  Israel, 
 when  those  of  Egypt,  men  and  beasts,  were  destroyed.  Accord- 
 ingly, by  this  title  God  claimed  the  whole  first-born  of  Israel,  in 
 all  succeeding  generations,  as  his  property;  ordering  the  firstlings 
 of  clean  beasts  to  be  offered  to  him  in  sacrifice,  and  the  first-born 
 of  men  to  be  presented  before  him  in  the  temple,  as  an  acknow- 
 ledgment of  his  right  to  them;  but  at  the  same  time  permitting 
 their  parents  to  redeem  them,  by  paying  to  the  priests  five  shekels 
 in  value  about  twelve  shillings  and  sixpence  of  our  money ;  a 
 sum  that  was  exacted  for  the  redemption  of  every  first-born  son 
 whatever,  without  regard  to  the  condition  of  the  family.  Num. 
 xviii.  15,  10. — Macknight's  Harmony Ed. 
 
 e  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  this  Simeon  was  the  son  and  suc- 
 cessor of  Hillel,  a  very  famous  doctor  in  the  Jewish  church  before 
 our  Saviour's  time,  and  that  he  was  either  the  father  or  master 
 of  Gamaliel,  at  whose  feet  St  Paul  was  educated.  But,  besides 
 that,  we  can  hardly  suppose,  how  a  person  of  this  note  could  make 
 so  public  a  declaration  in  favour  of  our  Lord,  and  yet  no  more 
 notice  be  taken  of  it,  if  we  look  into  the  several  revelations  which 
 God  at  this  time  was  pleased  to  give  of  his  Son,  we  shall  find 
 that  none  of  them  were  directed  to  any  of  the  Pharisees,  or  prin- 
 cipal doctors  of  the  law,  but  that  to  Joseph  a  carpenter,  to 
 Zacharias  an  ordinary  priest,  and  to  a  company  of  poor  shepherds, 
 such  discoveries  were  made:  and  therefore  it  is  much  more 
 reasonable  to  presume  that  this  Simeon,  to  whom  God  had  reveal- 
 ed the  time  of  Christ's  coming,  was  some  honest  plain  man,  more 
 remarkable  for  his  piety  and  devotion  than  any  other  quality  oi 
 accomplishment. —  Poole's  Annotations;  Calmet's  Commentary 
 and  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Simeon. 
 
 f  The  words  of  the  text  are,  '  Lord,  now  Iettest  thou  thy  servant 
 depart  in  peace  according  to  thy  word,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen 
 thy  salvation,'  Lu.  ii.  29,  30.  The  sense  of  the  passage  is  '  now 
 Lord  thou  dost,  by  this  sight,  dismiss  me  to  the  grave  as  thou 
 promisedst,  in  peace  and  tranquillity,  because  mine  eyes  have  seen 
 thy  salvation;'  that  is,  the  author  of  it.  The  aged  saint,  by  a 
 beautiful  figure,  takes  this  sight  of  his  Redeemer  as  a  dismissal 
 from  tiie  burden  of  life,  a  sort  of  go  in  peace. — Bloomjield's  Greek 
 Test— Ed. 
 
818 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book.  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A 
 Bethlehem,  a  where,  in  a  very  short  time,  they  were 
 visited  by  certain  strangers,  coming  from  afar,  of  a  rank 
 and  character  somewhat  extraordinary.  For  God,  to 
 notify  the  birth  of  his  Son  to  the  Gentiles  as  well  as  to 
 the  Jews,  caused  an  uncommon  star  to  arise  in  the  east, 
 which  some  wise  men,  or  astronomers,  in  those  parts 
 observing-,  and  understanding  withal  that  this  was  to 
 signify  the  birth  of  the  Messiah  promised  to  the  Jews, 
 travelled  to  the  metropolis  of  Judea,  there  inquiring 
 after  this  new-born  prince,  that  they  might  testify  their 
 homage  and  adoration  of  him.  Their  public  character 
 and  appearance,  and  their  openly  calling  him  the  'king 
 of  the  Jews,'  put  Herod  h  into  a  great  consternation, 
 and  the  whole  city  indeed  into  no  small  commotion,  as 
 both  fearing  and  hoping  something  extraordinary. 
 
 Herod  however,  being  resolved  to  destroy  this  sup- 
 posed rival  in  his  kingdom,  immediately  assembled  the 
 whole  body  of  the  sanhedrim,  and  demanded  of  them 
 the  very  place  where  the  Messiah  should  be  born.  Beth- 
 lehem, in  the  land  assigned  to  the  tribe  of  Judah,  they 
 told  him,  was  the  very  spot  which  the  Holy  Spirit,  by 
 the  prophet  Micah,had  marked  out  for  this  great  event; 
 which  when  he  understood,  he  dismissed  the  assembly  ; 
 and  sending  for  the  above-mentioned  astronomers,  with 
 the  utmost  secrecy  he  inquired  of  them  the  exact  time 
 of  the  star's  first  appearance,  and  then  dismissed  them 
 to  Bethlehem,  with  orders  to  make  diligent  search  for 
 the  young  prince,  and,  when  they  had  discovered  where 
 he  was,  to  bring  him  Avord  to  Jerusalem,  that  he,  in  like 
 manner,  might  go  and  pay  him  his  homage  :  but  this 
 pretence  of  worshipping  was  no  more  than  a  cloak  to 
 his  intention  of  killing  the  child. 
 
 These  persons,  however,  having  received  the  king's 
 instructions,  °  departed  towards  Bethlehem,  and  in  their 
 
 M.  54C7.  A.  C.  4.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  t 
 
 a  The  words  in  St  Luke  are,  '  When  they  had  performed  all 
 things  according  to  the  law  of  the  Lord,  they  returned  into 
 Galilee,  to  their  own  city  Nazareth,'  chap.  ii.  39,  which  must  be 
 interpreted  of  some  time  at  least  after  they  had  performed  these 
 things;  for,  upon  supposition  that  the  magians  came  to  Beth- 
 lehem, after  that  Joseph  and  Mary  had  been  at  Jerusalem  with 
 the  child,  upon  the  child's  return  from  thence,  his  parents  must 
 have  taken  Bethlehem  in  their  way,  and  there  made  some  small 
 stay,  in  which  time  we  suppose  that  the  wise  men  came,  before 
 they  departed  to  the  place  of  their  settled  abode :  because  the 
 other  two  suppositions,  namely,  that  the  wise  men  came  to 
 Bethlehem  before  the  presentation  of  the  child  at  Jerusalem, 
 or  that  they  came  not  till  he  was  in  the  second  year  of  his  age, 
 when  his  parents,  upon  some  business  or  other,  happened  to  be 
 at  Bethlehem,  are  attended  with  more  difficulties  than  can  be 
 easily  surmounted. — See  Spanheim's  Dub.  Evang.  part  ii.  dub. 
 25,  26. 
 
 b  Herod,  who  was  naturally  of  a  jealous  and  suspicious  temper, 
 knew  very  well  that  himself  was  hated  by  the  Jews,  and  that 
 the  Jews  were  then  in  full  expectation  of  the  Messiah,  a  prince 
 that  was  to  subdue  all  other  nations,  to  come  and  reign  over 
 them,  and  had  therefore  great  reason  to  fear  that  this  rumour  of 
 a  king's  being  born  among  them,  confirmed  by  such  extraordi- 
 nary means,  as  persons  coming  from  a  far  country,  and  con- 
 ducted to  Jerusalem  by  the  guidance  of  a  wonderful  star,  might 
 be  a  means  to  excite  sedition  among  the  people,  and  occasion 
 perhaps  a  revolution  in  the  government. — Calmct's  Comment- 
 ary. 
 
 c  Some  upon  this  occasion  are  apt  to  wonder  why  none  of  the 
 Jews  should  have  the  curiosity  to  attend  the  wise  men  in  their 
 journey  to  Bethlehem ;  &\\&  the  reason  that  is  commonly  as- 
 signed for  their  omission  in  this  respect,  is  the  dread  they  might 
 have  of  offending  the  tyrant  under  whom  they  lived:  but,  as  it 
 is  highly  probable  that  when  the  wise  men  came  to  Jerusalem, 
 they  made  their  immediate  application  to  court  as  the  most 
 likely  place  where  to  gain  intelligence  of  him   that   was  bom 
 
 way  were  very  agreeably  surprised  Avith  a  new  sight  of 
 the  same  miraculous  star  they  had  seen  in  their  own 
 country,  which  went  before  them,  and  like  the  fiery  pil- 
 lar in  the  wilderness,  directed  them  to  the  very  house 
 where  Jesus  and  his  mother  abode.  As  soon  as  they 
 entered  in  they  fell  prostrate  on  the  ground,  according 
 to  the  eastern  custom,  and  having  in  this  manner  adored 
 the  child  d  presented  him  with  the  richest  products  of 
 their  country,  gold,  and  precious  odours,  more  particu- 
 larly frankincense  and  myrrh. 
 
 Having  thus  performed  their  homage  and  congratula- 
 tions, these  eastern  strangers  were  thinking  of  nothing 
 more  than  to  return  to  Jerusalem,  and  acquaint  Herod 
 with  the  happy  discovery  they  had  made  ;  but  God,  who 
 knew  the  heart  of  that  tyrant,  prevented  them  by  a  vision 
 that  very  night,  which  directed  them  into  their  own 
 country  another  way  ;  and,  not  long  after,  sent  an  angel 
 to  Joseph  to  acquaint  him  with  Herod's  intended  cruelty 
 against  the  child,  and  to  order  him  to  retire  into  Egypt 
 with  him  and  his  mother,  and  there  to  continue  till  far- 
 ther notice  ;  which  Joseph  instantly  obeyed,  and,  for 
 fear  of  discovery,  taking  the  advantage  of  the  night,  with 
 all  possible  speed  set  forward  for  Egypt. 
 
 In  the  mean  time  Herod  waited  impatiently  for  the 
 return  of  the  eastern  sages  ;  but  at  length,  finding  him- 
 self deluded,  and  his  most  secret  and  subtle  designs 
 
 king  of  the  Jews;  and  as  it  is  much  to  be  questioned  whether 
 Herod,  when  he  convened  the  doctors  of  the  law,  made  any 
 mention  of  the  wise  men's  coming,  but  nakedly  propounded  the 
 question  to  them,  '  Where  Christ  was  to  be  born?'  So  there  is 
 great  reason  to  presume  that  he  sent  them  away  so  privately, 
 that  if  any  of  the  Jews  had  been  courageous  enough  to  have 
 gone  along  with  them,  they  possibly  might  not  have  had  an  op- 
 portunity. The  greater  wonder  of  the  two  therefore  is,  that 
 Herod,  should  send  none  in  whom  he  could  confide  to  be  present 
 at  the  discovery  of  this  rival  prince,  and  to  bring  him  word 
 thereof,  if  not  dispatch  him ;  but  in  this  the  protection  and  pro- 
 vidence of  God  was  visible. —  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Some  of  the  ancients  are  of  opinion,  that  in  the  presents 
 which  these  eastern  sages  made,  they  had  a  mystical  meaning, 
 and  designed  to  signify  their  acknowledgment  both  of  the  divin- 
 ity, royalty,  and  humanity  of  our  blessed  Saviour:  for  the  in- 
 cense, say  they,  was  proper  to  be  given  to  him  as  a  God,  the 
 gold  as  a  king,  and  the  myrrh  as  a  mortal  man,  whose  body  was 
 to  be  embalmed  therewith.  But  all  this  is  no  more  than  the 
 sport  of  a  luxuriant  fancy.  It  is  certain  that  the  eastern  people 
 never  came  into  the  presence  of  their  princes  without  some  pre- 
 sents, and  that  their  presents  were  usually  of  the  most  choice 
 things  that  their  country  did  afford.  All  that  they  meant,  there- 
 fore, was  to  do  homage  to  a  new  born  prince  of  a  neighbouring 
 nation,  in  the  best  manner  they  could ;  and  if  what  naturalists 
 tell  us  be  true,  namely,  that  myrrh  was  only  to  be  found  in 
 Arabia,  and  frankincense  in  Sabrea,  which  is  part  of  Arabia,  and 
 that  tliis  country  was  not  destitute  of  gold  (2  Chron.  ix.  14), 
 and  at  the  same  time  was  famous  for  men  conversant  in  astron- 
 omy, this  makes  a  \evy  probable  argument,  that  the  wise  men 
 came  from  thence.  But  of  this  we  shall  see  more  hereafter. — 
 Poole's  Annotations. — [The  gold  and  frankincense  which  the 
 wise  men  presented  was  a  most  seasonable  and  providential  as- 
 sistance to  furnish  Joseph  and  Mary  for  so  long  and  expensive  a 
 journey  as  that  into  Egypt,  a  country  where  they  were  entirely 
 strangers,  and  yet  were  able  to  abide  there  for  some  considerable 
 time.  I  take  it  for  granted  that  the  magi  had  some  divine  or 
 human  instruction,  which  Joseph  and  Mary  might  indeed  give 
 them,  that  Jesus  was  to  save  his  people  from  their  sins, 
 and  was  Emmanuel,  God  with  us.  Surely  God  would  not 
 have  guided  them  in  this  extraordinary  manner  merely  to 
 pay  a  transient  compliment  to  Jesus.  Their  prostration  pro- 
 bably expressed  religious  adoration  as  well  as  civil  respect;  and  it 
 is  not  unlikely  that  their  report  might  in  due  time  make  way  for 
 the  reception  of  the  gospel  in  the  country  from  whence  they 
 came.  — Doddridge's  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  1.1 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 849 
 
 A.  M  4001.  h.  C.  3;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5407.  A.  C.  4.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 blasted,  he  fell  into  a  most  violent  rage  and  fury  ;  and, 
 having  resolved  to  effect  by  cruelty  what  he  had  been 
 disappointed  of  doing  by  policy,  he  sent  out  his  sol- 
 diers, and  a  made  a  bloody  massacre  of  all  the  children 
 in  the  city  of  Bethlehem,  and  the  neighbouring  towns, 
 that  were  *  two  years  of  age  and  under,  including  herein 
 the  whole  time,  and  more,  that  the  wise  men  had  told 
 him,  and  not  doubting,  but  that,  in  this  general  slaughter, 
 he  should  dispatch  the  young  prince  whom  he  so  much 
 dreaded  :  but  God  had  provided  him  with  a  safe  retreat. 
 The  shrieks,  however,  of  tender  mothers  for  their  innocent 
 babes,  and  the  groans  of  expiring  infants,  which  on  this 
 occasion  filled  the  skies,  were  inexpressible,  and  were 
 one  reason,  doubtless,  why  the  divine  vengeance,  not 
 long  after,  overtook  this  tyrant,  and  c  smote  him  with  a 
 
 a  It  is  thought  strange  by  some  that  Josephus,  who  writes  the 
 life  of  Ileroil  in  most  of  its  circumstances,  should  make  no  man- 
 ner of  mention  of  the  murder  of  these  innocents:  but,  when  it  is 
 considered  that  Josephus  was  only  born  in  the  first  year  of  Cali- 
 gula, and  the  thirty-seventh  year  of  Christ,  that  he  wrote  his 
 history  of  the  Jewish  wars,  which  he  extracted  from  public 
 records,  in  the  fifty-sixth  year  of  his  age;  and  that  it  can 
 scarce  be  supposed  an  action  so  inglorious  to  the  memory  of 
 Herod  as  this  massacre  was,  should  be  preserved  in  the  Jewish 
 records;  it  is  not  so  very  wonderful  that  he,  who  wrote  above 
 ninety-three  years  after  the  fact  was  committed,  should  make  no 
 mention  of  it ;  nor  is  it  very  material  that  he  did  not,  since  we 
 find  Macrobius,  an  heathen  author,  about  the  latter  end  of  the 
 fourth  age,  not  forgetting  to  acquaint  us,  that,  "Herod  the  king 
 ordered  to  be  slain  in  Syria,  which,  in  Roman  authors,  is  fre- 
 quently set  for  Judea,  some  children,  that  were  under  two  years 
 old:"  though  he  is  mistaken  in  the  circumstances  of  the  story, 
 when  he  makes  Herod's  own  son  to  be  one  of  them. — Saturn,  b. 
 ii.  c.  4. — The  massacre  of  the  infants  is  likewise  noticed  in  a 
 rabbinical  work  called  Toldoth  Jeshu,  in  the  following  passage: 
 i — "  And  the  king  gave  orders  for  putting  to  death  every  infant 
 to  be  found  in  Bethlehem,  aud  the  king's  messengers  killed  every 
 infant  according  to  the  royal  order." — Dr.  G.  Sharpe's  first 
 Defence  of  Christianity. — Ed. 
 
 b  Some  will  needs  infer  from  heuce,  that  this  dreadful  massa- 
 cre was  not  committed  until  our  Lord  was  almost  two  years  old, 
 because  they  were  children  of  that  age,  and  under,  whom  Herod 
 ordered  to  be  slain:  but,  besides  that  the  word  "Snrvg,  may  signify 
 one  who  has  lived  one  year  only,  and  so  the  words  avro  Parous 
 x.a)  KecTUTi^ei),  may  be  translated,  from  a  year  old,  and  under; 
 Herod  might  possibly  think,  that  the  star  did  not  appear  till  some 
 considerable  time  after  the  young  king's  birth,  and  so,  to  make 
 sure  work,  might  be  induced  to  slay  all  born  at  Bethlehem  a  year 
 before,  and  more  even  to  the  time  of  the  star's  appearing.  For 
 he  who  had  the  heart  to  slay  three  of  his  own  sons  would  hardly 
 be  sparing  of  the  blood  of  other  people's  children. —  Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 c  The  disease  of  which  he  died,  and  the  misery  which  he  suf- 
 fered under  it,  plainly  showed,  that  the  hand  of  God  was  then, 
 in  a  signal  manner,  upon  him.  For,  not  long  after  the  murder 
 of  the  infants  at  Bethlehem,  his  distemper,  as  Josephus  informs 
 us,  daily  increased,  after  an  unheard  of  manner,  and  he  himself 
 laboured  under  the  most  loathsome  and  tormenting  accidents  that 
 can  be  imagined.  "  He  had  a  lingering  and  wasting  fever,  and 
 grievous  ulcers  in  his  entrails  and  bowels ;  a  violent  cholic,  an 
 insatiable  appetite,  venomous  swelling  in  his  feet,  convulsions  in 
 his  nerves,  a  perpetual  asthma,  and  stinking  breath,  rottenness 
 in  his  joints  and  privy  members,  accompanied  with  prodigious 
 itchings,  crawling  worms,  and  intolerable  smells,  so  that  lie  was 
 a  perfect  hospital  of  incurable  diseases."  And  thus  he  died  in 
 horrid  pain  and  torment,  being  smitten  by  God  for  his  many 
 euormous  iniquities.  For,  setting  aside  some  appearances  of 
 generosity  and  greatness,  there  was  never  a  more  complete  tyrant 
 than  he.  He  suppressed  and  changed  the  high  priest's  office  as 
 he  thought  fit,  aud  even  profaned  the  temple  itself.  He  slew 
 the  legal  king  of  the  Jews,  extirpated  all  the  race  of  the  Macca- 
 bees, destroyed  the  whole  sanhedrim,  and  substituted  others  in 
 their  room:  nor  was  his  rage  confined  to  the  Jews,  but  descend- 
 ed to  his  own  family  and  nearest  relations,  even  to  the  executing 
 
 strange  and  terrible  distemper,  which  put  an  end  to  his 
 wicked  and  brutal  life. 
 
 1  Before  his  death,  he  had,  by  will,  which,  in  some 
 measure,  Augustus  confirmed,  settled  his  dominions  upon 
 his  sons,  and  his  sister.  Archelaus  he  had  made  his  suc- 
 cessor in  that  part  of  his  kingdom  which  included  Judea, 
 Idumsea,  aud  Samaria  ;  to  Philip  he  had  given  Auronitis, 
 Trachonitis,  Panea,  and  Batanea :  to  Herod  Antipas, 
 Galilee  and  Perasa ;  and  to  his  sister  Salome,  some 
 particular  cities,  with  a  considerable  sum  of  money. 
 After  his  death,  therefore,  which  was  notified  to  Joseph 
 by  a  vision,  God  ordered  him  to  return,  with  the  child 
 and  his  mother,  into  the  land  of  Israel,  which  Joseph 
 readily  obeyed ;  but,  when  he  arrived  in  Judea,  hearing 
 that  Archelaus  succeeded  Herod  in  that  part  of  the 
 country,  and  being  apprehensive  that  the  cruelty  and 
 ambition  of  the  father  might  be  entailed  upon  the  son, 
 he  feared  to  settle  there ;  and,  therefore,  being  directed 
 by  God  in  another  vision,  he  retired  into  the  dominions  <* 
 
 1  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xvii.  c.  8. 
 
 his  beloved  wife  Mariamne,  and  his  own  sons,  Alexander  and 
 Aristobulus,  upon  slight  and  trivial  occasions.  So  wicked  a 
 prince,  as  he  was  conscious  he  had  been,  could  not,  he  knew, 
 occasion  any  true  lamentation  at  his  death,  but  rather  a  great 
 deal  of  gladness  and  rejoicing  all  the  kingdom  over ;  and  therefore, 
 to  prevent  this,  he  framed  a  project,  which  was  one  of  the  most 
 horrid  that  ever  entered  into  the  mind  of  man.  All  the  nobility, 
 and  most  considerable  men  in  every  city,  town,  and  village  in 
 Judea,  upon  pain  of  death,  he  summoned  to  come  together  to 
 Jericho,  where  he  was  then  lying  sick,  and  when  they  were  come, 
 commanded  his  soldiers  to  shut  them  all  up  in  a  spacious  place, 
 called  the  Hippodrome:  when  having  called  his  sister  Salome 
 and  her  husband  Alexas,  with  some  choice  friends,  he  told  them 
 with  tears,  "  that  he  was  sensible  of  the  Jews'  hatred  to  his  gov- 
 ernment and  person,  and  that  his  death  would  be  a  high  satis- 
 faction to  them:  that  his  friends  therefore  ought  to  procure  him 
 some  solace  in  the  midst  of  his  bitter  anguish,  which  if  they 
 performed  according  to  his  order,  the  mournings  and  lamentations 
 at  his  death  would  be  as  great  and  magnificent  as  ever  any  prince 
 had ;  and  this  order  was,  that,  on  the  same  hour  when  he  expired, 
 the  soldiers  should  surround  the  Hippodrome,  and  put  all  the 
 enclosed  persons  to  the  sword,  and  then  publish  his  death,  which, 
 as  he  said,  would  cause  his  exit  to  be  doubly  triumphant,  first, 
 for  the  posthumous  execution  of  his  commands ;  and  secondly, 
 for  the  quality  and  number  of  his  mourners."  But  Salome  and 
 Alexas,  not  being  wicked  enough  to  do  what  they  had  been  made 
 solemnly  to  promise,  chose  rather  to  break  their  obligation,  than 
 make  themselves  the  executioners  of  so  bloody  a  design ;  and, 
 therefore,  as  soon  as  Herod  was  dead,  they  opened  the  Hippo- 
 drome, and  permitted  all  that  were  shut  up  in  it  to  return  to 
 their  respective  homes. — Josephus  on  the  Jewish  War,  b.  i.  c.  IS. 
 Prideaux's  Connection,  part  ii ;  and  Eackard's  Ecclesiastical 
 History,  b.  i. 
 
 d  This  Antipas,  his  father  Herod  had  once  appointed  to  be  his 
 successor  in  his  kingdom,  but  afterwards  expunged  him  out  of 
 his  will,  and  only  made  him  tetrarch;  but,  not  long  after  his 
 brother's  accession  to  the  throne,  he  went  to  Rome,  with  a  pur- 
 pose to  dispute  the  kingdom  with  him,  on  pretence  that  his  father's 
 former  will,  by  which  he  was  constituted  king,  ought  to  take 
 place  before  the  latter,  which  was  made  when  his  understanding 
 was  not  so  perfect.  Both  the  brothers  procured  able  orators  to 
 set  forth  their  pretensions  before  the  emperor,  but  the  emperor 
 nevertheless  refused  to  decide  any  thing  concerning  their  affair, 
 nor  did  he  at  length  give  Archelaus  the  title  of  a  king,  but  only 
 of  an  ethnarch,  with  one  moiety  of  the  territories  which  his 
 father  enjoyed:  but  these,  in  a  few  years  after,  he,  by  his  ill 
 conduct,  forfeited.  Of  all  the  sons  of  Herod,  indeed,  this  Arche- 
 laus is  said  to  have  been  of  the  most  fierce  and  bloody  temper. 
 At  his  first  accession  to  the  government,  under  the  pretence  of 
 a  mutiny,  he  had  killed  near  three  thousand  of  his  subjects;  and 
 therefore  Joseph,  hearing  of  this,  might  well  dread  to  go  aud 
 settle  in  any  part  of  his  dominions;  but,  as  Antipas  was  a  man 
 of  a  more  mild  disposition,  and  the  birth  of  Jesus  not  made  so 
 5p 
 
850 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4001.  A.C.  3  s  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 of  his  brother  Herod  Antipas,  in  Galilee,  to  his  former 
 habitation  in  Nazareth,  where  the  strange  occurrences  of 
 our  Lord's  birth  were  not  so  well  known.  a  After  this, 
 we  have  no  certain  account  either  of  him,  or  his  parents, 
 only  that  they  annually  repaired  with  him  to  Jerusalem 
 at  the  passover ;  and  that,  as  his  body  increased  in 
 stature,  so,  *  more  especially  the  faculties  of  his  soul 
 were  enlarged,  being  highly  replenished  with  wisdom, 
 and  the  grace  of  God. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  l  Archelaus,  following  the  steps  of 
 his  father,  made  himself  so  odious  to  the  Jews,  that  the 
 principal  men  among  them,  joining  with  those  of  Samaria, 
 made  a  public  complaint  of  him  to  Augustus,  who,  upon 
 a  full  hearing  both  of  his  crimes  and  vindication,  deprived 
 him  of  his  government,  confiscated  all  his  goods,  banish- 
 ed him  to  Vienna,  a  city  in  Gaul,  and  reduced  his  do- 
 minions to  the  form  of  a  Roman  province,  which,  for 
 ever  after,  was  nded  by  a  governor  sent  from  Rome, 
 who  was  called  by  the  name  of  procurator,  but,  in  some 
 cases,  was  subject  to  the  president  or  governor  of  Syria. 
 
 When  Palestine  was  reduced  to  this  state,  and  our 
 blessed  Saviour  now  advanced  to  the  twelfth  year  of  his 
 age,  c  he  went  up  with  his  parents,  according  as  their 
 
 1  Jewish  Antiq.  b.  xvii.  c.  12.  and  Jewish  Wars,  b.  ii.  c.  2. 
 
 public  in  Galilee,  and  at  Nazareth,  as  it  was  at  Bethlehem,  and 
 even  at  Jerusalem,  by  the  coming  of  the  wise  men,  and  what 
 happened  at  the  purification  of  the  blessed  virgin,  it  was  thought 
 more  advisable  to  retreat  into  this  village,  than  to  set  up  his 
 abode  in  any  populous  city. —  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  N.  B.  That  the  vulgar  Christian  era,  according  to  Diony- 
 sius  Exiguus,  which  commences  four  years  after  the  true  time 
 of  Christ's  birth,  may  begin  to  be  computed  much  about  this 
 time,  namely,  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  year  of  Arche- 
 laus's,  and  the  thirty-first  of  Augustus's  reign,  computing  from 
 his  victoiy  over  Anthony  and  Cleopatra. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom,  and 
 in  stature,  and  in  favour  with  God  and  man,'  (Lu.  ii.  52.)  But 
 if  it  be  asked,  how  he,  who  was  the  eternal  wisdom  of  the  father, 
 could  be  improved  in  any  quality  of  his  mind?  the  answer  is, 
 that  all  things  in  scripture,  which  are  spoken  of  Christ,  are  not 
 spoken  with  respect  to  his  entire  person,  but  only  with  respect 
 to  one  or  other  of  the  natures  that  are  united  in  that  person.  His 
 divine  nature  was  infinite,  and,  consequently,  capable  of  no  im- 
 provements, but  his  human  was:  and,  therefore,  though  the  divine 
 Xoyis  was  united  to  the  human  soul  by  its  conception,  yet  might 
 the  divine  nature  communicate  its  powers  to  the  human  by  dis- 
 tinct and  gradual  illuminations;  and  accordingly,  we  may  ob- 
 serve, that  all  public  manifestation  of  it  to  the  world  seems  to 
 have  been  industriously  declined,  till  ripeness  of  years  and  judg- 
 ment had  carried  him  up  to  the  perfections  of  a  man.  So  little 
 reason  have  we  to  suppose,  that  he,  who  condescended  to  be  like 
 us  in  body,  should  think  it  below  him  to  be  so  too  in  that  other 
 no  less  essential,  but  much  more  noble  part  of  us,  our  soul,  with- 
 out which,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  be  man;  so  little  reason 
 to  imagine,  that  the  divine  essence  in  him  supplied  the  place 
 and  offices  of  intellectual  faculties. —  Whitby's  Annotations;  and 
 Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
 c  It  is  commonly  observed  by  those  that  are  learned  in  the 
 customs  and  institutions  of  the  Jewish  church,  that,  till  a  child 
 was  twelve  years  old,  he  was  not  obliged  to  go  to  Jerusalem  at 
 the  time  of  the  passover,  and  that  though  their  youth  were 
 usually  thirteen  before  they  were  brought  before  the  masters  of 
 the  synagogue  to  give  an  account  of  their  proficiency  in  religion, 
 which  answers  in  a  great  measure  to  the  Christian  rite  of  confir- 
 mation, yet,  since  the  season  then  appointed  was  accommodated 
 to  the  capacities  and  attainments  of  children  in  general,  without 
 forbidding  those  of  qualifications  extraordinary,  and  whose  genius, 
 in  the  Jewish  phrase,  did  run  before  the  commandment,  to  ap- 
 pear sooner,  our  Saviour  might  offer  himself  to  his  examination 
 a  year  before  the  common  time:  and  this  is  the  best  reason  that 
 can  be  assigned  for  his  staying  behind  his  parents,  when  he  could 
 not  but  know,  that  they  were  departed  from  Jerusalem  without 
 
 custom  was,  to  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of  the  passover. 
 His  parents,  after  a  stay  of  the  whole  seven  days,  having 
 performed  the  usual  ceremonies  of  the  feast,  were  now 
 returning,  with  great  numbers  of  their  neighbours  and 
 acquaintance,  towards  Galilee,  and,  never  doubting 
 but  that  Jesus  had  joined  himself  with  some  of  the  com- 
 pany, they  travelled  on  patiently  for  a  whole  day's  jour- 
 ney :  but,  when  night  came  on,  and,  among  their  relations 
 and  particular  friends  they  could  hear  no  tidings  of  him, 
 it  is  not  easy  to  imagine  the  greatness  of  their  fears  and  ,l 
 apprehensions,  which  made  them  return  to  Jerusalem 
 with  the  utmost  speed,  to  make  all  possible  inquiry,  for 
 him. 
 
 e  At  the  end  of  three  days,  they  found  him  }n  one  of 
 the  rooms  of  the  temple,  probably  in  that  of  the  grand 
 sanhedrim,  sitting  among  the  learned  doctors  and  mas- 
 ters of  Israel,  hearing  them  discourse,  and  propounding 
 such  questions  to  them  as  raised  the  admiration  of  all 
 that  heard  him,  and  made  them  astonished  at  the  ripeness 
 of  his  understanding.  Nor  were  his  parents  less  surpris- 
 ed to  find  him  in  that  place  ;  but,  when  his  mother  told 
 him,  with  what  impatience  they  had  sought  him,  and,  in 
 some  measure,  blamed  him  for  putting  them  in  such  a 
 fright,  the  excuse  which  he  made  for  himself  was,  'know 
 ye  not,  that  I  must  be  employed  in  my  Father's  house  ?'  / 
 
 him,  and  for  his  being  found  in  one  of  the  rooms  adjoining  to  the 
 temple,  where  the  doctors  of  the  law  used  to  meet,  not  only  to 
 resolve  the  questions  that  were  brought  before  them,  but  to  ex- 
 amine likewise  and  confirm  such  of  the  youth  as  they  found  to 
 be  qualified  for  that  ceremony,  which,  according  to  the  same 
 authors,  was  actually  performed  by  devout  prayers  and  solemn 
 benedictions. — Grotius  on  Lu.  ii.  45;  Beausobre  and  Poole's 
 Annotations;  and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
 d  It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  perhaps,  that  Mary  and  Joseph, 
 who  had  been  sufficiently  instructed,  one  would  think,  in  the 
 great  article  of  Christ's  divinity,  and  therefore  must  certainly 
 know,  that,  as  he  was  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God,  he  could 
 neither  fall  into  any  danger,  nor  come  to  any  harm,  should  so 
 mightily  afflict  themselves,  when  they  came  to  miss  him.  The 
 reason  which  Origen  {Horn.  i.  9.  in  Luc.)  seems  to  assign  is,  not 
 that  his  parents  supposed  that  he  was  lost  or  come  to  any  mis- 
 chance, but  were  apprehensive  that  he  had  withdrawn  himself  to 
 some  other  place,  and  was  possibly  gone  up  to  heaven,  there  to  con- 
 tinue, till  his  eternal  Father  should  think  proper  to  send  him  down 
 again  :  but  the  most  easy  and  natural  solution  is,  that  without  ever 
 considering  what  they  had  sufficient  reason  to  believe  concerning 
 his  divinity  and  omnipotence,  they  suffered  themselves  to  be  car- 
 ried away  by  their  natural  tenderness ;  and  could  not,  without 
 great  concern,  see  themselves  deprived  of  his  company,  uncertain 
 of  what  had  befallen  him,  or  for  what  possible  reason  he  should 
 absent  himself  from  theirs.  It  must  not  be  denied,  however,  that 
 though  something  may  be  allowed  to  a  parent's  fondness,  yet  it 
 does  not  appear  lrom  their  whole  conduct,  and  especially  from 
 Mary's  complaint,  and  our  Saviour's  reply,  ver.  48,  49,  that 
 they  had,  as  yet,  a  clear  and  perfect  knowledge  of  his  divine 
 nature  in  union  with  the  human :  and  therefore  the  evangelist 
 has  remarked  upon  them,  *  that  they  understood  not  the  saying 
 which  he  spake  unto  them,'  ver.  50. — Calmet's  Commentary;  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  after  three  days  they  found  him ;' 
 but  we  need  not  from  thence  infer,  that  they  were  three  day3 
 a  seeking  him,  but  rather,  that  it  was  three  days  from  the  time 
 they  set  out  from  Jerusalem ;  going  on  their  journey  the  first 
 day;  returning  to  Jerusalem  the  second  ;  and  finding  him  in  the 
 temple  on  the  third:  for,  since  they  found  him  in  the  temple, 
 which,  in  all  probability,  was  the  first  place  they  sought  for  him 
 in,  we  can  hardly  imagine,  that  they  should  be  three  days  in 
 Jerusalem  before  they  found  him. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 /The  words  of  the  text  (Lu.  ii.  49.)  '  wist  ye  not  that  I  must 
 be  about  my  Father's  business,'  contain  an  ambiguity;  that  is, 
 according  to  the  original,  our  Saviour  may  either  refer  to  the 
 work  which  his  Father  had  given  him  to  do,  or  to  the  templo 
 
Sect.  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 851 
 
 A.  M.  4001.  A.  C.  3;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  C.  1.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GUSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 words  which,  though  she  at  that  time  did  not  rightly 
 understand,  she  took  care  nevertheless  for  ever  after  to 
 register  in  her  mind  ! 
 
 Being  thus  happily  found  by  his  parents,  he  returned 
 with  them  to  Nazareth,  and  there  living  in  all  dutiful 
 subjection  to  them,  wrought,  very  probably,  with  his  re- 
 puted father  in  the  trade  of  a  carpenter  ;  and,  after  his 
 father's  death,  which  is  supposed  to  have  happened  about 
 a  year  before  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist, *  still 
 continued  in  the  same  occupation  :  as  indeed  we  can 
 scarce  help  inferring,  from  the  rude  treatment  of  the 
 Nazarenes  his  townsmen  ;  as  also  from  the  total  silence 
 of  the  evangelists  as  to  the  intermediate  actions  of  his 
 life,  a  that,  though  he  '  grew  in  favour  with  God  and 
 man,'  yet  considering  his  excellences,  he  lived  in  a 
 very  obscure  manner,  and,  till  the  time  of  his  manifesta- 
 tion to  Israel,  showed  no  miraclous  marks  to  distin- 
 guish him  from  the  rest  of  mankind. 
 
 In  the  eighteenth  year  of  our  Saviour's  life,  died 
 Augustus  Ccesar  at  Nola,  in  Campania,  after  a  reign  of 
 near  forty  years,  to  the  inexpressible  grief  of  all  his  sub- 
 jects, and  was  succeeded  by  Tiberius,  the  son  of  his  wife 
 
 1  Mark  vi.  3.  2  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  3.  and  Dion, 
 
 where  Joseph  and  Mary  found  him  sitting  with  the  doctors. 
 Campbell,  Boothroyd,  Bloomfield,  Doddridge,  and  many  other 
 eminent  critics,  both  ancient  and  modern,  follow  the  latter  sense, 
 and  contend  that  the  passage  ought  Co  be  translated,  '  wist,  or 
 knew  ye  not,  that  I  must  be  in  my  Father's  house.'  Doddridge 
 well  observes  that  "  though  a  general  apprehension  of  our  Saviour's 
 being  well  employed  might  be  a  reason  against  the  excessive 
 anxiety  of  his  parents,  yet  it  could  not,  (as  the  words  taken  in 
 connexion  seem  to  imply)  have  directed  them  where  to  find  him. 
 It  is  to  be  remembered  that  this  was  the  first  visit  Christ  had 
 ever  made  to  the  temple  since  he  was  a  child  in  arms;  and  it  is 
 no  wonder  therefore  that  the  delight  he  found  there  inclined  him 
 to  prolong  his  visit.' — Dodd.  Fam.  E.vpos. — Ed. 
 
 a  It  may  possibly  be  made  a  question,  why  the  evangelists 
 have  given  us  no  account  of  our  Saviour's  life  from  the  twelfth 
 year  of  his  age,  till  he  began  his  ministry,  which,  according  to 
 the  vulgar  era,  was  about  the  thirtieth;  because  if,  in  this  inter- 
 mediate space,  he  did  any  thing  worthy  of  remembrance,  it 
 ought  in  all  reason  to  have  been  recorded.  But  when  it  is  con- 
 sidered that  the  end  of  the  sacred  penmen  was,  not  so  much  to 
 gratify  our  curiosity,  as  to  consult  our  profit,  we  cannot  but 
 admire  the  great  wisdom  of  God,  by  whose  inspiration  they  wrote, 
 in  passing  by  the  less  active  parts  of  our  Lord's  life,  which 
 would  certainly  have  swelled  their  gospels  to  immensurable 
 volumes,  fit  for  the  perusal  of  none  but  the  studious  and  such  as 
 had  plenty  of  time  at  their  command:  whereas  now,  taking  the 
 four  gospels  together,  they  make  hut  a  small  book,  and  sepa- 
 rately, no  more  than  little  manuals  that  may  be  carried  about 
 with  us  wherever  we  go;  may  be  soon  read  over,  and  easily  re- 
 membered even  by  men  of  mean  capacities  and  no  great  leisure; 
 and  yet  they  contain  all  the  transactions  of  our  Saviour's  life 
 which  chiefly  concern  us  to  know;  I  mean  such  as  relate  to  his 
 mediatorial  office,  as  that  he  came  into  the  world  to  teach  us; 
 to  die,  and  to  rise  again  for  us;  to  instruct  us  by  his  heavenly 
 doctrine,  as  our  prophet;  to  ofier  himself  as  a  sacrifice  upon  the 
 cross  as  our  priest ;  and  to  loose  the  bands  of  death,  and  ascend 
 triumphant  into  heaven,  as  our  king.  Therefore  those  periods, 
 says  the  learned  Spanheim,  are  notified,  '  which  are  of  chief  con- 
 cern to  us,  which  were  spent  for  our  benefit,  which  seem  to  add 
 to  the  security  of  our  faith,  which  exhibit  Christ  either  in  the 
 temple,  or  on  the  cross,  or  on  the  throne;  for  thus  it  has  been 
 demonstrated,  that  those  things  are  only  to  be  inquired  after,  and 
 investigated  in  the  character  of  the  Messiah,  which  relate  to  the 
 acts  of  his  offices,  both  as  prophet,  priest,  and  king,  for  the  sake 
 of  which  aloue  he  came  to  earth.'  '  For  there  are  also  many  other 
 things,'  says  the  evangelist,  '  that  Jesus  did,  which  are  not  writ- 
 ten in  this  book;  hut  these  are  written,  that  ye  might  believe 
 tint  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing  ye 
 might  have  life  through  his  name,  John  xxi.  25;  and  xx.  31. — 
 Sjanheim's  Dub.  Evang.  part  ii.  dub.  9G. 
 
 Livia,  by  a  former  husband,  but  a  prince  of  a  quite  con- 
 trary disposition  to  his  predecessor.  In  the  second 
 year  of  his  succession  to  the  empire,  he  recalled  Rufus 
 from  the  government  of  Judea,  and  sent  Valerius  Gratus, 
 who  was  the  fourth  governor  in  these  parts  since  the 
 banishment  of  Archelaus,  to  succeed  him.  3  Gratus  hav- 
 ing continued  in  Judea  about  eleven  years,  was  at  length 
 recalled,  and  Pontius  Pilate,  a  person  too  like  his  master 
 Tiberius,  of  a  fierce  and  irreconcilable  spirit,  and  of 
 a  b  cruel  and  covetous  disposition,  was  sent  governor  in 
 his  place.  In  the  first  year  of  his  coming,  which  was 
 the  fifteenth  year  of  Tiberius,  from  the  time  that  he  was 
 admitted  to  reign  in  copartnership  with  Augustus,  c  John 
 the  Baptist  began  to  open  his  commission  for  the  pre- 
 paration of  our  Saviour's  way  before  him,  d  by  preaching 
 '  the  baptism  of  repentance  for  the  remission  of  sins.' 
 
 8  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  3.  and  Dion. 
 
 b  Josephus  has  given  several  instances  of  Pilate's  great  cruelty 
 in  the  course  of  his  government,  namely,  that  he  caused  the 
 Roman  soldiers  to  fall  upon  a  great  number  of  Galileans,  very 
 likely  the  followers  of  Judas  Gaulonites,  and  to  slaughter  them 
 like  so  many  sheep  in  the  temple,  and  on  the  very  day  appointed 
 for  the  killing  of  the  passover,  and  so  '  mingled  their  blood  with 
 their  sacrifices,'  Luke  xiii.  1.  That  when  the  people  clamoured 
 against  his  taking  some  of  the  sacred  money  out  of  the  temple, 
 he  ordered  the  soldiers,  upon  a  signal  giveu,  to  fall  upon  them 
 with  large  batoons,  so  that  many  died  of  the  blows  which  they 
 received,  and  many  were  trodden  to  death  in  the  throng:  and 
 that  the  Samaritans,  as  well  as  the  Jews,  felt  the  severity  of  his 
 administration,  when  he  destroyed  great  numbers  of  them  near 
 Tirathaba;  and  of  those  whom  he  took,  that  were  of  any  interest 
 or  quality  among  them,  struck  off  their  heads. — Josephus's  Jewish 
 JFar,  b.  ii.  c.  8;  and  Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  5. 
 
 c  [How  Johu  passed  the  former  part  of  his  life  the  scripture  is 
 silent:  but  there  is  surely  no  reason  to  suppose,  with  many 
 fathers  and  interpreters,  that  he  was  in  the  desert  from  his  in- 
 fancy. It  has  been  well  observed  by  Basnage,  that  he  retired 
 thither  at  an  age  when  he  was  sufficiently  furnished  with  strength 
 of  body  to  provide  food,  and  of  mind  to  bear  solitude.  His  re- 
 tirement originated  in  two  reasons  :  1st.  That  by  using  no 
 teachers,  and  frequenting  no  schools,  his  mind  might  not  be  cor- 
 rupted by  rabbinical  errors,  but  be  enlightened  only  by  the  Holy 
 Spirit,  so  that  he  might  appear  to  the  Jews  a  teacher  sent  from 
 God ;  2dly,  that,  remote  from  all  communication  with  Christ,  he 
 might  avoid  all  suspicion  of  collusion  with  him,  in  announcing 
 a  new  religion,  and  thereby  add  greater  weight  to  the  opinions 
 he  should  ofier,  and  the  testimony  he  should  bear,  respecting 
 Christ.  Lightfoot  supposes  the  desert  in  which  John  lived  to 
 have  been  some  spot  in  the  hill-country  near  Ziph  and  Maone 
 (as  in  1  Sam.  xxiii.  14,  25.),  not  far  from  Hebron,  where  he 
 was  born.  But  it  has  not  been  satisfactorily  determined  where 
 John  was  born.  The  period  of  his  retirement  'a  with  probability 
 supposed  to  have  been  at  the  age  of  puberty."]—  Bloumjield's  Crit. 
 Digest  of  Annotations  on  the  New  Testament.  When  he  began 
 his  preaching  it  is  also  not  well  agreed.  Lightfoot,  and  some 
 others  who  believe  that  our  Saviour  was  born  in  September,  and 
 that  John  was  now  beginning  to  be  thirty  years  of  age,  are  of 
 opinion  that  he  began  his  ministry  about  the  passover;  but  Usher, 
 and  his  followers,  do,  with  more  probability,  suppose  that  his 
 preaching  began  upon  the  tenth  day  of  the  seventh  month,  which 
 answers  to  our  nineteenth  day  of  October,  five  days  before  tho 
 feast  of  tabernacles,  upon  the  great  day  of  expiation,  when  the 
 high  priest  entered  the  holy  of  holies,  and  whin  so  solemn  a  fast 
 was  enjoined,  that  whosoever  did  not  afi'iict  his  soul  at  that  time 
 was  to  he  cut  oil' from  the  people. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  meaning  of  this  phrase  is,  that  John  preached  repent- 
 ance, (Mat.  iii.  2.)  and  baptized  those  that  were  penitent,  in 
 token  of  the  remission  of  their  sins,  even  as  they,  on  their  parts, 
 received  baptism  in  testimony  of  the  sincerity  of  their  repent- 
 ance. Now,  baptism,  we  know,  was  no  new  or  strange  thing 
 among  the  Jews.  It  was  acknowledged,  and  practised  as  an 
 emblem  of  purification  from  past  guilt,  and  a  rite  of  entering  so- 
 lemnly into  covenant  with  God.  The  expositors  of  their  law 
 agree,  that  this  ceremony  passed  upon  the  whole  congregation  of 
 
852 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  40S3.  A.D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5437.A.  D.  2G.  FROM  BEGIN.  OFGOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  yi.  I. 
 
 He  had  been  a  bred  up  in  the  wilderness,  and  lived  an 
 austere  life.     b  Locusts  and  wild  honey,  such  as  nature 
 
 Israel,  just  before  the  law  was  given  at  mount  Sinai ;  and  their 
 custom,  in  all  succeeding  ages,  has  been  to  receive  their  heathen 
 proselytes  by  baptism,  as  well  as  by  sacrifice  and  circumcision. 
 In  conformity  to  this,  therefore,  John  both  administered  and  ex- 
 norted  his  followers  to  this  ordinance  of  baptism,  as  an  evidence 
 of  their  penitence  for  past  sins,  and  profession  of  better  obedience 
 for  the  future.  But  then  as  faith  is  a  qualification  for  baptism  as 
 well  as  repentance,  he  propounded  our  Lord  for  the  object  of  faith 
 to  all  who  received  this  ordinance  at  his  hands.  '  For  John  verily 
 baptized  with  the  baptism  of  repentance,  saying  unto  the  people 
 that  they  should  believe  in  him  who  should  come  after  him,'  that 
 is,  on  Christ  Jesus,  (Acts  xix.  4.)  It  is  a  great  mistake  there- 
 fore in  some,  to  suppose  that  the  baptism  of  John  was,  in  sub- 
 stance, the  same  with  what  Christ  did  afterwards  institute:  for 
 John  neither  did,  nor  could  baptize  his  disciples  in  the  '  name  of 
 the  Holy  Ghost,'  as  the  apostle  did,  because  the  '  Holy  Ghost 
 was  not  yet  given,'  (John  vii.  39):  he  did  not  baptize  them  in  the 
 name  of  Christ;  for  had  he  done  so,  there  had  been  no  occasion 
 for  the  question,  '  whether  he  himself  were  the  Christ,'  or  not  ? 
 (Luke  iii.  15.)  Herein  therefore  lay  the  imperfection  of  John's 
 baptism,  that  though  it  prepared  men  to  be  Christians,  yet  it  did 
 not  make  them  so;  and  therefore  we  find  St  Paul  baptizing  again 
 some  disciples  at  Ephesus,  (who  had  before  received  the  baptism 
 of  John,)  in  order  to  fit  them  for  the  reception  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
 (Acts  xix.  5,  6.) — Whitby's  Annotations;  and  Stanhope  on  the 
 Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 a  A  wilderness  among  the  Jews  did  not  signify  a  place  wholly 
 void  of  inhabitants,  but  a  place  that  was  more  mountainous,  less 
 fruitful,  less  peopled,  and  where  the  inhabitants  were  more  dis- 
 persed, than  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  For,  as  it  is  incon- 
 gruous to  suppose  that  the  Baptist  should  preach  the  doctrine  of 
 repentance  to  stocks  and  stones,  and  wild  beasts :  the  wilderness 
 here  must  be  understood  in  a  comparative  sense,  and  consequently 
 the  wilderness  of  Judea,  where  he  preached  and  baptized  must 
 be  that  tract  of  land  which  lay  on  each  side  of  the  river  Jordan 
 on  the  confines  of  Enon  and  Salim. — Whitby's  Annotations; 
 Wells''  Geography  of  the  New  Testament;  and  Spanheim's  Dub. 
 Evang.  part  ii.  club.  97. 
 
 b  The  Jews  were  allowed  to  eat  locusts;  (Lev.  xi.  22.)  and 
 when  sprinkled  with  salt,  and  fried,  they  are  not  unlike  our  fresh 
 water  cray  fish.  The  Acridophagi  must  have  preferred  them  to 
 almost  every  other  species  of  food,  since  they  derive  the'ri  name 
 from  their  eating  locusts.  We  learn  from  the  valuable  work  of 
 Dr  Russel,  that  the  Arabs  salt  and  eat  them  as  a  delicacy. 
 Locusts  were  accordingly  the  common  food  of  John,  the  precur- 
 sor of  Christ,  while  he  remained  in  the  wilderness.  In  feeding 
 on  that  insect,  the  Baptist  submitted  to  no  uncommon  privation, 
 and  practised  no  savage  rigour,  like  many  of  the  hermits  who 
 inhabited  the  deserts ;  but  merely  followed  the  abstemious  mode 
 of  living,  to  which  the  people  were  accustomed,  in  the  less  fre- 
 quentod  parts  of  the  country.  The  food  upon  which  he  subsisted 
 in  the  wilderness  appears  to  be  particularly  mentioned,  merely 
 to  show  that  he  fared  as  the  poorest  of  men,  and  that  his  manner 
 of  living  corresponded  with  the  meanness  of  his  dress.  Much 
 unnecessary  pains  have  been  taken  by  some  squeamish  writers, 
 to  prove  that  the  locusts  which  John  used  for  food,  were  the  fruit 
 of  a  oertaiu  tree,  and  not  the  carcass  of  the  insects  distinguished 
 by  that  name;  but  a  little  inquiry  will  fully  clear  up  this  matter, 
 and  show  that,  however  disgusting  the  idea  of  that  kind  of  meat 
 may  appear  to  us,  the  orientals  entertain  a  different  opinion. 
 Many  nations  in  the  east,  as  the  Indians  of  the  Bashee  islands, 
 the  Tonquinese,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Madagascar,  make  no 
 scruple  to  eat  these  insects,  of  which  they  have  innumerable 
 swarms,  and  prefer  them  to  the  finest  fish.  The  ancients  affirm 
 that  in  Africa,  Syria,  Persia,  and  almost  throughout  Asia,  the 
 people  commonly  eat  these  creatures.  Clenard,  in  a  letter  from 
 Fez,  in  1541,  assures  us,  that  he  saw  wagon  loads  of  locusts 
 brought  into  that  city  for  food.  Kirstenius,  in  his  notes  on 
 Matthew,  says,  he  was  informed  by  his  Arabic,  master,  that  he 
 had  often  seen  them  on  the  river  Jordan;  that  they  were  of  the 
 same  form  with  ours,  but  larger ;  that  the  inhabitants  pluck  off 
 their  wings  and  feet,  and  hang  the  rest  at  their  necks  till  they 
 grow  warm,  and  ferment;  and  then  they  eat  them,  and  think 
 them  very  good  food.  A  monk,  who  had  travelled  into  Egypt, 
 asserts,  that  he  had  eaten  of  these  locusts,  and,  that  in  the  coun- 
 try they  subsisted  on  them  four  months  in  the  year.     In  Bushire, 
 
 produced  in  these  desert  places,  was  the  chief  die.  lie 
 lived  upon,  and  a  loose  coat  made  of  camel's  hair  c  and 
 fastened  with  a  leathern  girdle,  the  only  garb  he  wore  ■ 
 and  therefore  no  person  was  so  proper  to  inculcate  the 
 doctrines  of  repentance  and  reformation,  as  he  who,  by 
 his  free  and  resolute  preaching,  joined  with  this  great 
 severity    of  life,  soon    procured  a  vast   auditory,  and 
 
 they  are  used  by  the  lowest  peasantry  as  food.  The  Arabs  feed 
 on  them  to  this  day,  and  prepare  them  for  use  in  the  following 
 manner  :  They  grind  them  to  flour  in  their  hand  mills,  or 
 powder  them  in  stone  mortars.  This  flour  they  mix  with 
 water  to  the  consistency  of  dough,  and  make  thin  cakes  of 
 it,  which  they  bake  like  other  bread  on  a  heated  girdle ;  and  this, 
 observes  Hasselquist,  serves  instead  of  bread  to  support  life  for 
 want  of  something  better.  At  other  times  they  boil  them  in 
 water,  and  afterwards  stew  them  with  butter,  and  make  a  sort 
 of  fricassee,  which  has  no  bad  taste.  There  is  no  reason 
 for  men  to  puzzle  themselves  about  what  this  piXi  aypmv,  or 
 '  wild  honey,'  means,  since  e\ery  one  knows  that  Judea  was 
 famed  for  plenty  of  honey,  that,  in  several  places  of  scripture, 
 it  is  said  to  flow  with  honey  ;  and  from  the  instances  of  Samson, 
 Judg.  xiv.  8,  and  Jonathan,  1  Sam.  xiv.  25,  it  must  be  con- 
 cluded, that  wild  honey,  such  as  either  distilled  from  the 
 boughs  like  dew,  or  was  found  in  the  clifls  of  rocks,  or  hollow 
 trunks  of  trees,  was  no  uncommon  thing  in  that  country.  But 
 though  these  locusts  and  wild  honey  may  very  properly  be  taken 
 in  their  natural  and  most  obvious  sense,  yet  it  must  not  therefore 
 be  thought,  that  John  never  eat  any  thing  else,  but  that,  for  the 
 generality,  he  made  use  of  such  slender  diet,  and  contented  him- 
 self with  what  the  desert  place,  which  he  chose  for  his  habitation, 
 could  afibrd  him. — Spanheim's  Dub.  Evang.  part  ii.  dub.  99. 
 
 c  The  raiment  of  John  was  not  made  of  the  fine  hair  of  the 
 camel,  whereof  an  elegant  kind  of  cloth  is  made,  which  is  thence 
 called  camlet,  in  imitation  of  which,  though  made  of  wool,  is  the 
 English  camlet,  but  of  the  long  and  shaggy  hair  of  camels,  which 
 is  in  the  east  manufactured  into  a  coarse  stuff  anciently  worn 
 by  monks  and  anchorites.  It  is  only  when  understood  in  this 
 way,  that  the  words  suit  the  description  here  given  of  John's 
 manner  of  life. — Campbell's  Translation  of  the  Gospels,  note. 
 It  is,  indeed,  sufficiently  apparent,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the 
 wilderness,  where  John  spent  his  days  before  he  entered  upon 
 his  ministry,  and  other  thinly  settled  districts,  manufactured  a 
 stuff,  in  colour  and  texture  somewhat  resembling  our  coarse  hair- 
 cloths, of  the  hair  which  fell  from  their  camels,  for  their  own 
 immediate  use,  of  which  the  raiment  of  that  venerable  prophet 
 consisted.  In  the  same  manner,  the  Tartars  of  modern  times, 
 work  up  their  camel's  hair  into  a  kind  of  felt,  which  serves  as 
 a  covering  to  their  tents,  although  their  way  of  life  is  the  very 
 reverse  of  easy  and  pompous.  Like  the  austere  herald  of  the 
 Saviour,  the  modern  dervishes  wear  garments  of  the  same  texture, 
 which  they  too  gird  about  their  loins  with  great  leathern  girdles. 
 Elijah,  the  Tishbite,  seems  to  have  worn  a  habit  of  camel's  hair, 
 equally  mean  and  coarse ;  for  he  is  represented  in  our  translation 
 as  a  'hairy  man,'  which  perhaps  ought  to  be  referred  to  his  dress, 
 and  not  to  his  person.  A  garment  of  haircloth  was,  in  those 
 times,  the  costume  of  a  prophet;  and  was  assumed  occasionally 
 by  impostors,  to  enable  them  with  greater  ease  and  success  to 
 deceive  their  credulous  neighbours.  '  And  it  shall  come  to  pass 
 in  that  day,  that  the  propheis  shall  be  ashamed  every  one  of  his 
 vision,  when  he  hath  prophesied  ;  neither  shall  they  wear  a  rough,' 
 or  hairy,  '  garment  to  deceive.'  The  prophet  Isaiah  was  clothed 
 in  the  same  stuff,'  for  God  required  him  to  '  loose  the  sackcloth 
 from  off'  his  '  loins.'  Sackcloth  of  hair  was  deemed  a  badge  of 
 humiliation  and  self-denial;  and  was  probably,  for  this  reason, 
 selected  as  the  most  proper  material  for  the  official  habiliments 
 of  an  ancient  prophet.  Joel  accordingly  commands  the  priests 
 and  Levites;  '  come,  lie  all  night,'  or  constantly,  'in  sackcloth, 
 ye  ministers  of  my  God.'  In  allusion  to  the  same  mode  ot  think- 
 ing, it  is  said,  '  the  sun  became  black  as  sackcloth  of  hair.'  And 
 Isaiah  declares  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  '  I  clothe  the  heavens 
 with  blackness,  I  make  sackcloth  their  covering.'  These  state- 
 ments throw  light  on  that  expression:  'my  two  witnesses  shall 
 prophesy,  clothed  in  sackcloth:' — arrayed  in  the  official  dress  of 
 ancient  prophets,  and  like  them  humble  and  self-denied,  but  very 
 jealous  for  the  Lord  God  of  hosts,  and  fearless  in  the  discharge 
 of  their  duty. —  Paxton's  Illustrations. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  1.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 853 
 
 A.  M.  -4034.  A.  D.  31 ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  543*.  A.  D.  27.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vl.  I. 
 
 numerous  proselytes  of  all  ranks  and  qualities,  from 
 Jerusalem,  and  all  Judea,  and  all  the  region  about  Jor- 
 dan, confessing  their  sins  before  God,  and  entering-  into 
 this  new  institution  by  baptism. 
 
 Among  the  great  multitudes  that  came  to  his  preaching 
 and  baptism,  there  were  Pharisees,  a  and  Sadducees  not 
 a  few,  whose  confidence  and  immorality  he  sharply  re- 
 proved ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  exhorted  the  common 
 people  to  works  of  extensive  charity ;  the  publicans,  b 
 to  avoid  oppression  and  injustice  ;  the  soldiers,  to  abs- 
 tain from  plunder  and  violence  ;  and  every  one,  in  short, 
 to  beware  of  those  crimes  to  which  their  employments 
 and  manner  of  life  did  most  expose  them. 
 
 These  solemn  admonitions,  pronounced  with  so  much 
 weight  and  authority,  procured  him  a  mighty  veneration 
 among  the  people,  insomuch,  that  several  began  to  look 
 upon  him  as  the  promised  and  now  expected  Messiah ; 
 but,  to  remove  all  thoughts  of  this  kind,  he  freely  de- 
 clared, "  that  he  only  baptized  them  with  water  to  repen- 
 tance, and  a  new  life,  but  that  there  was  one  coming-,  and 
 ready  to  appear  among  them,  who  would  baptize  them 
 with  the  eftusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  who  so  far  ex- 
 ceeded him  in  power  and  excellency,  that  he  was  not 
 worthy  to  do  for  him  the  meanest  or  most  servile  office."  c 
 
 These  were  the  doctrines  which  John  preached,  and  this 
 the  testimony  which  he  gave  of  Jesus,  even  before  he 
 had  the  happiness  to  know  him. 
 
 After  John  had  continued  in  his  ministry  for  several 
 months,  our  Lord  thought  fit  to  remove  from  his  private 
 retirement  at  Nazareth,  and,  taking  leave  of  his  mother 
 and  his  trade,  passed  over  into  Judea,  to  Bethabara,  d 
 on  the  banks  of  the  river  Jordan,  where  John  was  then 
 baptizing. 
 
 He  who  was  innocence  and  purity  itself,  had  certainly 
 no  need  of  the  baptism  of  repentance,  but  beino-  minded 
 to  honour  and  sanctify  the  institution,  e  he  offered  him- 
 self to  John,  and  when  John,  inspired  with  a  prophetic 
 spirit,  /knew  him,  and  thereupon  endeavoured  to  decline 
 
 a  We  have  already,  in  a  separate  dissertation,  given  a  particu- 
 lar account  of  the  rise  and  principles  of  the  several  sects  among 
 the  Jews,  and  need  only  take  notice  here,  that  the  Pharisees  are 
 thought  to  take  their  name  from  the  word  parash,  which  signi- 
 fies separation,  because  they  were  separated  from  all  others  in 
 thu'r  extraordinary  pretences  to  sanctity,  and  some  particular 
 observances;  and  that  the  Sadducees,  who  were  directly  opposite 
 to  the  Pharisees  both  in  temper  and  principles,  derived  their 
 name,  either  from  Sadoc,  who  lived  near  300  years  before 
 our  Saviour's  birth,  and  is  supposed  to  be  the  founder  of  the  sect, 
 or,  as  some  thick,  from  sedeck,  which  ignifies  justice,  be- 
 cause they  pretended  to  be  the  only  exact  distributers  of  justice, 
 and  were  rigid  indeed  in  the  execution  of  it. — Eachard's  Ecclesi- 
 astical History,  in  the  introduction. 
 
 b  The  publicans  were  persons  of  no  particular  sect,  nor  of  any 
 religious  function  among  the  Jews,  but  certain  public  officers 
 whom  the  Romans  employed  to  collect  their  tributes,  tolls,  and 
 imposts.  This  office  was  once  of  great  account  among  the 
 Romans,  and  conferred  upon  none  less  than  the  equestrian  order; 
 but,  when  it  came  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Jews,  who  farmed  it 
 of  the  Romans,  it  soon  became  base  and  infamous,  and  more 
 especially  odious  to  the  Jews  upon  these  two  accounts:  1st, 
 because  these  tributes  were  looked  upon  as  a  standing  instance 
 of  their  slavery,  which  they,  who  made  such  boasts  of  their  being 
 a  fine-born  people,  and  invested  in  that  privilege  by  God  himself, 
 could  least  of  all  endure.  And,  2dly,  because  these  publicans, 
 having  farmed  the  customs  of  the  Romans  at  high  rates,  did 
 generally  make  use  of  all  methods  of  extortion  and  oppression,  to 
 enable  them  both  to  pay  their  rents,  and  to  raise  some  advantage 
 to  themselves.  Upon  these  accounts,  the  publicans,  as  conspiring 
 with  the  Romans  both  to  impoverish  and  enslave  their  country- 
 men, became  so  universally  abhorred  by  the  Jewish  nation,  that 
 they  held  it  unlawful  to  do  them  any  act  of  common  courtesy, 
 nay,  even  to  eat  or  to  drink  with  them,  for  which  we  find  them 
 so  frequently  blaming  our  Saviour. — Eachard's  Ecclesiastical 
 History,  in  the  introduction,  page  27. 
 
 c  '  Whose  shoes,'  says  John,  'I  am  not  worthy  to  bear.'  The 
 custom  of  loosing  the  sandals  from  oil' the  feet  of  an  eastern  wor- 
 shipper was  ancient  and  indispensable.  It  is  also  commonly 
 observed  in  visits  to  great  men.  The  sandals  or  slippers  are 
 pulled  oft' at  the  door,  and  either  left  there,  or  given  to  a  servant 
 to  bear.  The  person  to  bear  them  means  an  inferior  domestic, 
 or  attendant  upon  a  man  of  high  rank,  to  take  care  of,  and  return 
 them  to  him  again. — See  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  i.  p.  239 :  Plu- 
 tarch, Sympos.  b.  vii.  qu.  8.  712.  This  was  the  work  of  ser- 
 vants among  the  Jews;  and  it  was  reckoned  so  servile,  that  it 
 was  thought  too  mean  for  a  scholar  or  a  disciple  to  do.  The 
 Jews  say,  '  all  services  which  a  servant  does  for  his  master,  a 
 
 disciple  does  for  his  master,  except  unloosing  his  shoes.'  John 
 thought  it  was  too  great  an  honour  for  him  to  do  that  for  Christ, 
 which  was  thought  too  mean  for  a  disciple  to  do  for  a  wise  man. 
 See  Kypkins,  in  loc. ;  Braumins  de  Vest.  Sac.  Heb.  p  59 ;  Pig. 
 norius  de  Servis,p.  206;  Denlingi.  Obs.  s.  iii.  26.  8;  Bynceus 
 de  Calceis.  Heb.  c.  6;  Eisner.  Comment.  Crit.  Phil,  in  Mat.  t. 
 i.  p.  S4. — Ed. 
 
 d  Bethabara  does,  in  the  Hebrew  language,  signify  as  much 
 as  a  place  of  passage,  and  therefore,  whereas  we  lead,  Jos.  ii.  7, 
 23,  that  there  was  a  fording  place  over  Jordan  not  far  from  Jeri- 
 cho; and  again,  Jos.  iii.  16,  that  the  people  passed  over  right 
 against  Jericho,  it  is  probably  conjectured,  that  hereabouts  stood 
 Bethabara,  and  was  the  place  of  reception  and  entertainment  for 
 passengers  out  of  Judea  into  Petrcea,  or  the  country  beyond  Jor- 
 dan; nay,  it  is  imagined  by  some  that,  in  the  very  same  place 
 of  the  river  where  the  ark  stood,  while  the  Israelites  passed  over, 
 our  blessed  Saviour,  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  was  baptized 
 by  John  the  Baptist. — Wells'  Geography  of  the  Neiu  Testament. 
 Almost  all  the  ancient  manuscripts  and  versions  instead  of 
 Bethabara  here  have  Bethany,  and  this  is  doubtless  the  true  read- 
 ing. There  was  a  Bethany  about  two  miles  east  of  Jerusalem, 
 but  there  was  also  another  in  the  tribe  of  Reuben,  on  the  east 
 side  of  the  river  Jordan,  and  in  this  place  probably  John  was 
 baptizing.  It  is  about  twelve  miles  above  Jericho. — Barnes  on 
 the  Gospels. 
 
 e  There  are  some  other  reasons  which  might  induce  our  Lord 
 to  come  to  John's  baptism,  besides  what  himself  alleges,  namely, 
 '  the  performance  of  all  righteousness,'  or  whatever  had  a  ten- 
 dency to  the  people's  edification;  as,  that  he  might  authorize 
 this  baptism  of  John  by  his  public  approbation ;  that  by  this  rite 
 he  might  be  initiated  to  his  prophetic  office,  and  consecrated  to 
 the  service  of  God;  that  hereby  he  might  abolish  the  ceremony 
 of  the  Jewish  baptism,  and  more  eil'ectually  recommend  that  of 
 his  own  institution,  to  which  this  of  the  Baptist  was  an  intro- 
 duction ;  and  more  especially,  that,  in  the  presence  of  the  Bap- 
 tist, and  all  the  company  that  had  resorted  to  him,  he  might 
 obtain  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  of  his  heavenly 
 Father,  to  confirm  John  in  the  belief  of  his  being  the  promised 
 Messiah,  and  to  induce  the  people,  as  soon  as  he  began  his  minis- 
 try, to  follow  and  attend  to  him. — Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 f  The  words  in  the  text  are  these,  '  Then  cometh  Jesus  from 
 Galilee  to  Jordan  unto  John  to  be  baptized  of  him,  but.  John  for- 
 bade him,'  (Mat.  iii.  13,  14):  but  how  could  John  forbid  him, 
 when  he  says  of  himself  '  I  knew  him  not,  but  he  that  sent  me 
 to  baptize  with  water,  the  same  said  unto  me,  upon  whom  thou 
 shalt  see  the  Spirit  descending  and  remaining  on  him,  the  same 
 is  he  who  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost,'  (John  i.  33.)  Now 
 to  this  it  may  be  answered,  that  since  one  part  of  John's  minis- 
 try was  '  to  bear  witness  of  that  light  which  lighteth  every  man 
 that  cometh  into  the  world,'  it  was  highly  necessary  that  our 
 Saviour  should  be  unknown  to  him  in  person  before  he  came  to 
 his  baptism,  that  the  world  might  have  no  suspicion  of  any  col- 
 lusion, or  that  the  Baptist  testified  of  him  by  compact.  Though, 
 therefore,  lie  had  never  seen  the  face  of  our  Saviour,  because  they 
 were  bred  up  in  ditierent  countries,  yet,  by  a  particular  revelation, 
 he  knew  that  he  was  already  come  into  the  world,  and  was  short- 
 ly to  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  therefore,  when  out 
 Saviour  came,  and  presented  himself  to  be  baptized,  he  htd  im- 
 mediately another  revelation,  that  this  was  the  great  person  nf 
 whom  he  had  been  told  before;  even  as  Samuoi  having  been  told 
 
854 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5438.  A.  D.  27. 
 
 the  office,  he  gave  him  such  reasons  for  the  expediency 
 of  the  thing,  as  made  him  no  longer  hesitate,  but  imme- 
 diately baptized  him.  Jesus  a  was  no  sooner  got  out  of 
 the  water,  but,  as  he  was  making  his  addresses  to  heaven, 
 the  sky  on  a  sudden  was  divided  by  a  great  radiancy, 
 6  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  manner  of  a  c  dove,  de- 
 
 by  God,  that,  '  on  the  morrow  a  man  should  come  to  him  to  be 
 the  captain  over  his  people  Israel,'  (1  Sam.  ix.  16.)  Upon  Saul's 
 appearing,  had  another  inspiration  resembling  the  Baptist's  here, 
 '  Behold  the  man  of  whom  I  spake  to  thee,  (ver.  17.) — JFhWy's 
 Annotations. 
 
 a  The  observation  of  the  Greek  church,  in  relation  to  this  mat- 
 ter, is  this,  that  he  who  ascended  out  of  the  water  must  first 
 descend  down  into  it;  and  consequently  that  baptism  is  to  be 
 performed,  not  by  sprinkling  but  by  washing  the  body.  And 
 indeed  he  must  be  strangely  ignorant  of  the  Jewish  rites  of  bap- 
 tism, who  seems  to  doubt  of  this,  since  to  the  due  performance 
 of  it,  they  required  the  immersion  of  the  whole  body  to  such  a 
 degree  of  nicety,  that  if  any  dirt  was  upon  it  that  hindered  the 
 water  from  coming  to  that  part,  they  thought  the  ceremony  not 
 rightly  done.  The  Christians,  no  doubt,  took  this  rite  from  the 
 Jews,  and  followed  them  in  their  manner  of  performing  it.  Ac- 
 cordingly, several  authors  have  shown,  that  we  read  no  where  in 
 scripture  of  any  one's  being  baptized,  but  by  immersion,  and, 
 from  the  acts  of  councils  and  ancient  rituals,  have  proved  that 
 this  manner  of  immersion  continued,  as  much  as  possible,  to  be 
 used  for  thirteen  hundred  years  after  Christ.  But  it  is  much  to 
 be  questioned,  whether  the  prevalence  of  custom,  and  the  over 
 fondness  of  parents,  will,  in  these  cold  climates  especially,  ever 
 sutler  it  to  be  restored. —  TJrhitby's  Annotations. — There  seems 
 indeed  to  be  no  necessity  for  doing  so.  When  Paul  and  Silas,  in 
 the  middle  of  the  night,  baptized  the  jailor  and  his  household 
 in  the  common  prison,  (Acts  xv.  33.)  there  is  no  reason  to  sup- 
 pose that  they  had  water  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of  baptizing 
 the  converts  by  immersion.  It  is  as  little  likely  that  three  thou- 
 sand people  could,  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  be  in  one  day  bap- 
 tized by  immersion  (Acts  ii.  41.);  for  though  this  might  have 
 been  done  in  the  brook  Kedron,  is  it  supposable  that  the  chief 
 priests  and  rulers  of  the  Jews  would  have  permitted  so  great  a 
 multitude  to  go  quietly  out  of  the  city  for  such  a  purpose  ?  — 
 Gleig. — Ed. 
 
 b  The  words  of  St  Matthew  are : — '  Lo,  the  heavens  were 
 opened ;'  in  St  Mark  '  cloven  or  rent.'  The  common  people  of 
 the  Jews  indeed  were  of  opinion,  that  the  heavens  were  firm  and 
 solid,  and  that  the  fire  which  fell  from  thence  upon  the  face  of 
 the  earth  burst  through  this  firmament,  and  made  an  opening  in 
 this  vast  concave  that  surrounds  us;  and  therefore  it  is,  that  the 
 evangelists  express  themselves  in  this  manner,  in  accommoda- 
 tion to  the  prejudices  and  capacities  of  the  vulgar.  But  by  the 
 phrase  we  need  understand  no  more,  thau  that  a  sudden  beam  of' 
 radiant  light  came  darting  from  the  skies,  like  a  flash  of  lightning 
 from  the  clouds,  and  made  it  seem  as  though  the  heavens  had 
 been  opened  or  rent  to  let  it  out;  because  to  the  naked  eye,  the 
 air  at  that  time  seems  to  divide,  to  make  a  clearer  and  fuller  way 
 for  the  light. —  Calmct's  Commentary ,  and  Poole's  Annotations. — 
 There  is  no  doubt  that  the  light  spoken  of  was  preternatural, 
 and  that  it  accompanied  the  divine  Spirit — such  a  light  as  ac- 
 companied Jesus  on  being  visibly  revealed  to  St  Paul  at  his  con- 
 versi  on . — Bloom  field. — Ed  . 
 
 c  The  ancients  were  generally  of  opinion,  that  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 in  his  descent  upon  our  Saviour,  assumed  the  real  shape  of  a  dove, 
 which,  at  that  time  more  especially,  was  a  very  proper  repre- 
 sentation of  his  dove-like  nature  (Isa.  xlii.  2.)  and  of  all  such  as 
 were  to  receive  the  same  Spirit,  and  are  required  to  be  as  harm- 
 less as  doves:  but  most  of  the  moderns  (though  they  allow  that 
 the  blessed  Spirit  did,  at  this  time,  assume  a  visible  shape,  to 
 render  his  descent  manifest)  do  maintain  that  the  iiaii  vrigirregcl 
 relates  not  to  the  body  or  shape  of  a  dove,  but  to  the  manner  of  a 
 dove's  descending  and  lighting  on  any  thing;  and  thence  they 
 infer,  that  it  was  this  body  of  light  which  issued  from  the  skies 
 that  came  down  upon  Christ,  and,  while  he  was  praying,  hung 
 hovering  over  his  head,  just  after  the  manner  and  motion  of  a 
 clove,  before  it  settles  upon  any  thing.  Whether  of  these  opinions 
 should  prevail,  it  is  idle  to  dispute,  since  neither  of  them  is  desti- 
 tute of  some  countenance  from  scripture,  neither  of  them  injurious 
 to  the  dignity  of  the  Holy  Ghost. — Calmct's  Commentary;  and 
 Hammond's    Annotations. —  The    dove,  among  the   Jews,  was 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  Ol  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK.  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  X. 
 
 scended  upon  his  sacred  head,  with  an  audible  voice 
 from  heaven,  wherein  God  declared  him  '  his  beloved 
 Son,  in  whom  he  was  well  pleased.' 
 
 Our  blessed  Lord,  being  thus  by  baptism,  and  the 
 unction  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  prepared  for  his  prophetic 
 office,  was,  by  the  impulse  of  the  divine  Spirit,  carried 
 further  into  the  wilderness  of  Judea,  where,  after  he  had 
 fasted  forty  days  and  forty  nights/*  as  Moses  did  on 
 Mount  Sinai,  and  was  now  very  hungry,  the  devil  «  as- 
 sumed a  bodily  shape,  and  set  upon  him  with  a  threefold 
 temptation.  1st,  From  his  hunger  he  took  occasion  to 
 tempt  him  to  despair,  and  distrust  of  his  Father's  care  of 
 him,  who  had  abandoned  him  in  that  condition,  and 
 therefore,  persuading  him  that  he  was  not  the  Son  of  God, 
 he  put  him  upon  the  experiment  of  his  being  such,  by 
 making  the  stones  become  bread ;  but  our  Saviour  soon 
 answered  him  by  a  '  passage  out  of  the  scripture,  inti- 
 mating, that "  God,  when  he  pleased,  could  employ  means 
 extraordinary  for  the  support  and  nourishment  of  men." 
 2dly,  His  next  essay  was,  to  try  how  far  pride  and  pre- 
 sumption would  affect  him  ;  and,  therefore,  carrying  him 
 through  the  air,  and  setting  him  upon  the  /  highest  part 
 
 1  Deut.  viii.  3. 
 
 the  symbol  of  purity  or  harmlessness  (Mat.  x.  16),  and  of  soft- 
 ness (Ps.  lv.  7.)  The  form  chosen  here  was  doubtless  an  em- 
 blem of  the  innocence,  meekness,  and  tenderness  of  the  Saviour. 
 The  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  this  manner,  was  the  public  ap- 
 probation of  Jesus  (John  i.  33),  and  a  sign  of  his  beiug  set  apart 
 to  the  office  of  the  Messiah.  We  are  not  to  suppose  that  there 
 was  any  change  wrought  in  the  moral  character  of  Jesus,  but 
 only  that  he  was  publicly  set  apart  to  his  work,  and  solemnly 
 approved  by  God  in  the  office  to  which  he  was  appointed.  The 
 baptism  of  Jesus  has  usually  been  considered  a  striking  mani- 
 festation of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  or  the  doctrine  that  there 
 are  three  persons  in  the  divine  nature.  1.  There  is  the  person 
 of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  baptized  iu  the  Jordan,  else- 
 where declared  to  be  equal  with  God.  (John  x.  30.)  2.  The 
 Holy  Spirit,  descended  in  a  bodily  form  upon  the  Saviour. 
 The  Holy  Spirit  is  also  equal  with  the  Father,  or  is  also  God. 
 (Acts  v.  3,  4.)  3.  The  Father  addressing  the  Son,  and  declaring 
 that  he  was  well  pleased  with  him.  It  is  impossible  to  explain 
 this  transaction  consistently  in  any  other  way  than  by  supposing 
 that  there  are  three  equal  persons  in  the  divine  nature,  or  essence, 
 and  that  each  of  these  sustains  important  parts  in  the  work  of  re- 
 deeming men. — Barnes  on  the  Gospels. — Ed. 
 
 d  Whoever  considers  the  frailty  of  human  nature,  cannot  but 
 allow,  that  so  great  and  so  long  an  abstinence,  without  any  sense 
 of  hunger,  (for  the  evangelists  tell  us,  that  our  Saviour  was  oidy 
 hungry  afterwards,)  must  be  altogether  miraculous,  and  so  no 
 duty  to  us;  and,  if  he  reflects  withal,  that  the  end  of  his  fast 
 was  not  to  chastise,  or  subdue  that  body,  which  was  never  irre- 
 gular, as  the  design  of  all  our  fasting  is,  he  must  allow,  that  our 
 Saviour,  in  this  particular,  set  no  precedent  to  us ;  and  therefore 
 it  is  cruelty,  or  a  superstitious  folly  at  least,  in  a  matter  so  super- 
 natural, to  enjoin  men  to  follow  his  steps. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  This  word,  which  answers  exactly  with  the  Hebrew  Satan, 
 signifies  a  calumniator  or  accuser;  and,  as  it  occurs  in  scrip- 
 ture always  in  the  singular  number,  is  supposed  to  denote  that 
 evil  spirit  who  tempted  our  first  parents,  the  chief  of  the  rebel 
 angels,  and  the  avowed  enemy  of  the  saints,  (1  Thess.  iii.  5,  and 
 1  Pet.  v.  8,  &c.) — Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 f  According  to  the  description  that  Josephus  gives  us  of  the 
 temple  which  Herod  built,  we  hear  of  no  pinnacles  or  lofty  turrets 
 above  the  rest  of  the  building;  and  therefore  have  reason  to  think, 
 that  the  TTTtgvyiov  which  is  rendered  pinnacle,  should  rather  signify 
 the  battlement,  or  that  parapet-wall  which  was  carried  round  the 
 top  of  the  temple,  as  well  as  private  houses,  (Deut.  xxii.  8.)  to 
 keep  men  from  falling  horn  the  roof;  and,  if  we  may  be  allowed 
 to  conjecture  on  what  part  of  the  battlement  it  was  that  the  deul 
 placed  our  Saviour,  it  seems  very  likely,  that  it  was  on  the  top 
 of  that  gallery,  whose  building,  according  to  the  same  author, 
 was  so  prodigiously  high,  and  the  valley  underneath  it  so  prodigi- 
 
FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 855 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A  M.  5488.  A.  D.  27. 
 
 of  the  temple,  he  put  him  upon  the  proof  of  his  being  the 
 Son  of  God,  by  throwing  himself  ort'  from  thence,  and 
 dying  in  the  air,  alleging  a  text  out  of  the  Psalmist  *  to 
 encourage  him;  but  Jesus  as  soon  answered  him  by  an- 
 other text,  commanding  men  2  not  to  tempt  God  or  depend 
 upon  his  providence  for  their  conservation  in  dangers  of 
 their  own  seeking.  3dly,  His  last  experiment  was,  to 
 tempt  him  with  the  charms  of  ambition;  and,  therefore, 
 transporting  him  again  through  the  air,  to  the  top  a  of  an 
 exceeding  high  mountain,  he  there  made  a  lively  repre- 
 sentation to  him  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  with 
 all  their  dazzling  glories,  at  one  view,  and  then  told  him 
 that  "  these,  with  all  their  pomp  and  splendour,  were  de- 
 livered to  his  disposal,  and  should  be  given  to  him,  if  he 
 would  but  acknowledge  his  benefactor,  and  worship 
 him ;"  but  this  was  a  boldness  and  blasphemy,  such  as 
 provoked  our  Lord  to  exert  his  divine  power,  and  to 
 command  him  peremptorily  to  be  gone,  but  with  this 
 memento  out  of  the  scripture  likewise,  3  '  Thou  shalt 
 
 1  Ps.  xci.  11.  2  Deut.  vi.  16.  3  Deut.  vi.  13. 
 
 oasly  deep,  that  it  turned  one's  eyes  and  head  to  look  from  the 
 top  to  the  bottom  of  it,  and  was  indeed  one  of  the  most  confound- 
 ing spectacles  under  the  sun. — Hammond's  Annotations;  and 
 Jewish  Antiquities,  b.  xv.  c.  14. —  Scripture  is  silent  as  to  the 
 precise  manner  in  which  the  tempter  conveyed  our  Saviour  to 
 the  top  of  the  temple,  but  surely  this  might  have  been  effected  in 
 an  ordinary  way.  The  phrase  to  take  up  in  the  original  signifies 
 to  conduct  one,  to  lead  one ;  to  attend  or  accompany  one ;  or  to 
 induce  one  to  go.  It  is  used  in  many  parts  of  scripture  in  such 
 a  sense.  Here  no  more  is  meant  by  the  evangelist  than  that  Satan 
 conducted  Jesus,  or  accompanied  him,  and  that  this  was  not  done 
 contrary  to  the  will  of  Jesus.  — Barnes  on  the  Gospels. — Ed. 
 
 a  The  best  account  that  we  have,  both  of  the  wilderness  and 
 high  mountain  where  our  Lord  was  tempted,  is  in  the  travels  of 
 Mr  Maundrell,  (for  the  ancients  tell  us  very  little  of  them,)  who 
 informs  us,  that  in  his  journey  from  Jerusalem  to  Jordan,  after 
 he  had  passed  over  Mount  Olivet,  he  proceeded  in  an  intricate 
 way,  among  hills  and  valleys  interchangeably:  and,  after  some 
 hours'  travel  in  this  sort  of  road,  arrived  at  the  mountainous 
 desert,  into  which  our  blessed  Saviour  was  led  by  the  Spirit,  to 
 be  tempted  by  the  devil:  "  A  miserable  dry  place,"  says  he,  "  it 
 is,  consisting  of  high  rocky  mountains  so  torn  and  disordered,  as 
 if  the  earth  had  here  suilered  some  great  convulsion,  in  which  its 
 very  bowels  had  been  turned  outward.  From  the  tops  of  these 
 hills  of  desolation,  we  had,  however,  a  delightful  prospect  of  the 
 mountains  of  Arabia,  the  Dead  Sea,  and  the  plains  of  Jericho, 
 into  which  last  we  descended  after  about  five  hours'  march  from 
 Jerusalem.  As  soon  as  we  entered  the  plain,  we  tinned  upon 
 the  left  hand,  and  going  about  one  hour  that  way,  came  to  the 
 foot  of  the  Quarantania,  so  called  from  our  Loid's  forty  days' 
 fast,  which,  they  say,  is  the  mountain  where  the  devil  tempted 
 him  with  the  visionary  scene  of  all  the  kingdoms  and  glories  of 
 the  world.  It  is  very  high,  and  steep,  and  its  ascent  not  only 
 difficult  but  dangerous."  This  is  the  account  which  our  country- 
 man gives  us  of  the  place  where  our  Saviour  was  probably  tempted  ; 
 but  it  is  not  supposable,  that,  even  from  the  highest  mountain 
 of  the  world,  the  devil  could  show  all  the  kingdoms  of  it;  and 
 therefore  the  most  rational  account  of  this  matter  is,  that,  "  as 
 he  was  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  he  formed  an  airy 
 horizon,"  as  Dr  Lightfoot  expresses  it,  "  before  the  eyes  of  Christ, 
 which  might  cany  such  a  pompous  and  glorious  appearance  of 
 kingdoms,  states,  and  royalties  in  the  face  of  it,  as  if  he  had  seen 
 those  very  kingdoms  and  states  in  reality."  God,  we  are  told, 
 caused  Moses  to  see  the  whole  land  of  promise  from  the  top  of 
 Nebo,  as  it  is  generally  thought,  by  representing  it  to  him  in  a 
 large  plan  or  map  of  it,  in  all  the  valleys  round  about  him;  and, 
 in  like  manner,  by  divine  permission,  in  all  the  valleys  round 
 about  the  high  mountain  on  which  our  Lord  stood,  the  devil 
 might  make  a  large  draught  of  the  stately  edifices,  the  guards, 
 and  attendants  of  kings  and  princes,  appearing  in  their  splendour, 
 visible  to  his  eye,  which  he  could  not  have  seen  so  advantageously 
 had  he  stood  on  a  plain. —  [Pells'  Geography  of  the  New  Testa- 
 ment; Calmet's  Commentary;  and  Poole's  and  ff'hitby's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 FKOM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1 . 
 worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve;' 
 whereupon  the  devil  left  him  for  that  time,  and  angels, 
 sent  from  heaven,  came  with  refreshments  for  him,  after 
 his  triumphant  combat. 
 
 During  our  Saviour's  fasting  and  temptation  in  the 
 wilderness,  his  faithful  forerunner  John  the  Baptist, 
 being  thus  assured  both  by  the  descent  of  the  Spirit,  and 
 the  voice  from  heaven,  that  Jesus  was  the  true  and 
 long  expected  Messiah,  made  full  and  open  declarations 
 of  it  to  all  the  multitude  that  came  to  hear  him ;  and 
 When  the  sanhedrim  at  Jerusalem  had  sent  a  deputation 
 of  their  priests  and  Levites,  who  were  of  the  sect  of 
 the  °  Pharisees,  to  demand  of  him,  who  he  was  ?  He 
 very  readily  acknowledged  that  he  was  not  the  Messiah, 
 whom  they  expected,  nor  Elias,  who,  as  they  imagined, 
 would  personally  appear  among  them,  nor  any  other 
 prophet  c  risen  from  the  dead,  but  then  he  gave  them  to 
 understand,  that,  though  he  was  not  Elias  himself,  yet 
 he  was  the  prophet  whom  Isaiah  intended,  when  he  call- 
 ed him  '  the  voice  of  one  "*  crying  in  the  wilderness, 
 Make  straight  the  way  of  the  Lord,'  that  his  baptism  was 
 only  of  water,  but  the  efficacy  of  it  depended  upon  one 
 among  them,  whom  they  knew  not ;  one,  who  succeeded 
 him  indeed  in  time,  but  so  far  surpassed  him  in  dignity, 
 that  he  was  not  worth  so  much  as  to  be  his  servant. 
 
 The  very  next  day,  after  the  departure  of  the  Phari- 
 sees, as  our  Saviour  was  returning  from  the  wilderness 
 to  Bethabara,  John  pointed  him  out  to  the  multitude  '  as 
 the  immaculate  Lamb  e  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the 
 
 b  The  sanhedrim,  whose  business  it  was  to  take  cognisance  of 
 the  pretensions  of  all  prophets  when  they  began  to  appear  in  the 
 world,  and  to  inquire  into  their  authority  and  mission,  thought 
 proper,  out  of  their  body,  to  depute  such  as  were  of  tins  sect, 
 because,  as  they  were  persons  who  believed  the  immortality 
 of  the  soul,  and  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  they  were  better 
 qualified  than  the  Sadducees,  who  believed  neither,  to  inquire  of 
 John,  Whether  he  was  Elias  ?  Being  in  this  particular  mere 
 Pythagoreans,  and  fancying,  that  the  soul  of  one  great  or  good 
 man  might  frequently  pass  into  another's  body. — See  Joseph. 
 Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  2 ;  and  Jewish  War,  b.  ii.  c.  8.  And  as  they 
 were  the  patrons  of  tradition,  and  exact  in  all  the  ordinary  rules 
 and  customs  that  were  to  be  observed,  they  were  the  properest 
 persons  to  examine  into  this  new  rite  of  baptism,  by  way  of  pre- 
 paration for  the  Messiah,  of  which  their  traditions  were  wholly 
 silent;  and  therefore  they  ask  him,  Why  baptizest  thou?  that  is, 
 "  Why  usurpest  thou  an  authority  which  belongs  to  none  but 
 either  to  the  Messiah,  Elias,  or  some  other  prophet,  by  initiating 
 us,  who  are  already  under  the  covenant  into  a  new  doctrine  by 
 baptism,  which  is  usually  administered  to  none  hut  heathen 
 proselytes?"  And  from  hence  it  appears,  that  the  Pharisees  were 
 the  properest  men  to  send  to  the  Baptist  upon  this  message. — 
 Calmet's  Commentary;  and  JFhitby's  and  Bcausobre's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 c  It  was  a  received  tradition  among  the  Jews,  that  at  the 
 coming  of  the  Messiah,  several  of  the  ancient  prophets  should 
 arise  from  the  dead. — Bcausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  It  is  the  opinion  of  some,  that  John  chose  rather  to  preach 
 and  to  fulfil  his  ministry  in  the  wilderness  than  in  the  temple,  in 
 order  to  make  a  more  illustrious  difference  between  himself,  who 
 was  but  a  messenger  whose  office  it  was  to  prepare  his  Lord's 
 way,  and  his  Lord  himself,  of  whom  it  was  prophesied  that  he 
 should  frequently  appear  and  teach  in  the  temple,  Mai.  iii.  1. — 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  Under  the  Jewish  law,  when  any  sacrifice  was  offered  for 
 sin,  he  that  brought  it,  laid  his  hand  upon  it,  according  to  the 
 commandment  of  God,  Lev.  i.  4;  iii.  2:  iv.  4,  and  by  that 
 rite,  transferred  his  sins  upon  the  victim,  which,  after  such  act, 
 is  said  to  take  and  to  carry  them  away.  Accordingly,  in  the 
 daily  sacrifice  of  the  lamb,  the  stationary  men,  who  were  the  re- 
 presentatives of  the  people,  laid  their  hands  upon  the  lambs  that 
 were  to  be  offered,  and  when  they  were  thus  offered,  they  are 
 
856 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30  ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5438.  A.  D.  '27. 
 sins  of  mankind  ;'  and  then  freely  declared  that  he  was 
 the  very  person,  of  whose  superiority,  both  in  dignity 
 and  existence,  he  had  spoken,  and  of  whom,  by  certain 
 tokens,  he  both  knew  and  could  bear  record,  that  he  was 
 the  Son  of  God. 
 
 To  two  of  his  own  disciples,  the  next  day,  he  gave  the 
 same  testimony,  insomuch  that  they  left  their  old  master 
 and  followed  Jesus  ;  and  when  Andrew,  a  who  was  one 
 of  them,  went  and  discovered  the  same  thing  to  his  elder 
 brother  Simon,  he,  in  like  manner,  became  one  of  his 
 disciples,  to  whom,  the  day  following,  were  adjoined 
 Philip,  an  inhabitant  of  the  city  Bethsaida,  *  and  an 
 intimate  friend  of  his  '  named  Nathaniel  of  Cana  in  Ga- 
 lilee, and  supposed  to  be  the  same  with  the  apostle  Bar- 
 tholomew. 
 
 This  Nathaniel,  at  his  very  first  coming,  upon  our  Sa- 
 viour's expressing  some  tokens  of  his  omniscience,  made 
 a  liberal  confession  of  his  being  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of 
 God ;  whereupon  our  Saviour  assured  him,  that,  in  a 
 short  time  he  should  have  a  fuller  conviction  of  his  di- 
 vinity, when  he  should  see  the  angels  of  heaven  c  as- 
 cending and  descending,  as  they  did  once  in  a  vision  to 
 Jacob,  to  attend  the  person,  and  execute  the  orders  of 
 the  Son  of  Man.  <* 
 
 1  John  xxi.  2. 
 said  to  make  an  atonement  for  their  souls,  Exod.  xxx.  15,  16; 
 and,  in  analogy  thereunto,  Christ  is  here  called,  by  way  of  emi- 
 nence, '  the  Lamb  of  God,'  because  God  intended  to  '  lay  upon 
 him,  who  was  manifested  to  take  away  sin,'  1  John  iii.  5,  and 
 came  to  suffer  in  our  stead,  the  punishments  due  to  the  iniquities 
 of  us  all. — Jlliithy's  and  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 a  The  other,  in  all  probability,  was  John,  the  beloved  apostle 
 and  evangelist,  because  he  describes  the  circumstances  of  the 
 time  and  conversation  that  passed  so  very  punctually,  John  i.  40; 
 but  in  this,  and  several  other  places  of  his  gospel,  according  to 
 his  wonted  modesty,  he  chooses  to  conceal  his  name. — Ham- 
 mond's Annotations. 
 
 b  There  is  no  mention  of  this  place  in  the  Old  Testament, 
 and  the  reason  is,  because,  as  Josephus  tells  us,  it  was  but  a  veiy 
 small  village,  till  Philip  the  tetrarch  built  it  up  to  the  bulk  and 
 appearance  of  a  very  magnificent  city,  and  gave  it  the  name  of 
 Julias,  out  of  respect  to  Julia,  the  daughter  of  Augustus  Cresar. 
 Its  original  name,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  imports  a  place  of  fish- 
 ing or  else  hunting,  and  for  both  these  exercises  it  was  very 
 commodiously  situated.  As  it  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Naphtali, 
 a  country  remarkable  for  its  plenty  of  deer,  Gen  xlix.  21,  it  was 
 excellently  fitted  for  the  latter  of  these  pastimes;  and  as  it  lay  on 
 the  north  end  of  the  lake  of  Gennezareth,  just  where  the  liver 
 Jordan  runs  into  it,  it  was  so  commodious  for  the  former,  that 
 two  of  the  persons  just  now  mentioned,  namely,  Peter  and  An- 
 drew, were  fishermen  by  trade. —  Wells'  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament. 
 
 c  To  ascend  and  descend,  to  come  and  go,  according  to  the 
 Hebrew  manner  of  expression,  denotes  a  free  and  familiar  com- 
 merce: and  such,  no  doubt,  was  the  ministry  of  angels  at  our 
 Saviour's  temptation  aud  agony,  at  his  resurrection  and  ascen- 
 sion. The  words  however  must  be  owned  to  be  a  plain  allusion 
 to  Jacob's  ladder,  Gen.  xxviii.  12,  13.  on  the  top  of  which  was 
 the  divine  majesty,  and  the  angels  ascending  to  receive  his  com- 
 mands, and  descending  to  execute  them:  and  therefore  others 
 have  thought  that  Christ  by  these  words  intended  to  inform  his 
 apostles,  "  that  the  miracles  which  they  should  soon  see  him  per- 
 form, would  declare  the  divine  majesty  present  with  him,  and 
 giving  him  such  commands  as  he  was  to  execute  in  his  prophe- 
 tic office,  as  clearly  and  manifestly  as  if  they  had  seen  the  angels 
 of  God  ascending  and  descending  upon  him."—  Whitby's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 d  It  is  observed  by  several,  that  only  Ezekiel  in  the  Old  Tes- 
 tament, and  our  Saviour  in  the  New,  are  called  by  this  name ; 
 that  our  Saviour  is  never  called  so  but  by  himself:  and  that  that 
 is  the  common  appellation  that  he  gives  himself.  Ezekiel  was 
 doubtless  so  called,  to  distinguish  him  from  those  spiritual  beings, 
 
 FROM  BERIN.  OFGOSP.  TO  MAT.  be.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 With  these  five  disciples,  Jesus,  e  and  his  mother, 
 were  invited  next  day  to  a  marriage-feast  in  Cana,  J  a 
 small  place  in  Galilee,  not  far  from  Nazareth.  At  this 
 solemnity  there  happened  to  be  a  scarcity  of  wine,  which 
 when  his  mother  understood,  she  mada  'her  application 
 to  him,  in  hopes  that,  by  some  means  or  other,  he  would 
 not  fail  to  supply  the  defect.  In  other  instances,  no 
 doubt,  she  had  been  made  sensible  of  his  supernatural 
 power  ;  and  therefore,  though  his  answer  to  her  seems 
 to  carry  in  it  the  appearance  of  a  denial,  she  still  expect- 
 ed something  extraordinary  from  him ;  and  therefore 
 ordered  the  waiters  to  obey  his  commands  with  the  utmost 
 exactness,  s 
 
 with  whom  he  so  frequently  conversed :  and  our  Saviour  took 
 upon  him  that  title  not  only  to  distinguish  his  human  from  his 
 divine  nature,  but  to  express  his  humility  likewise,  and  want  of 
 reputation,  while  he  continued  in  the  form  of  a  servant.  Chem- 
 nitius,  however,  puts  another  construction  upon  this  title.  He 
 thinks  that,  as  the  term  Messiah,  which  is  commonly  called 
 Christ,  is  taken  out  of  Daniel,  so  that  other  of  the  Son  of 
 Man,  is  taken  from  thence  likewise ;  for  behold  one,  '  like  the 
 Son  of  Man,'  says  the  prophet,  '  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven, 
 and  came  to  the  Ancient  of  Days,'  c.  vii.  13,  and  that  therefore 
 our  Saviour  did  usually  call  himself  so,  in  compliance  to  the  pro- 
 phecy, as  well  as  to  assert  his  humanity,  and  declare  himself  his 
 Father's  servant,  according  to  the  character  given  of  him  by 
 Isaiah  xlii.  1.. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Iu  all  probability  it  was  at  some  relation's  house  that  this 
 marriage  was  kept,  because  Mary  was  so  solicitous  for  the  sup- 
 ply of. wine;  and  the  opinion  of  the  ancients  is,  that  it  was  at 
 the  house  of  Alphceus,  otherwise  named  Cleophas,  whose  wife 
 was  Mary,  the  sister  or  cousin-german  of  the  blessed  virgin,  and 
 who,  at  this  time,  married  his  son  Simon  the  Canaanite,  Mat. 
 x.  4:  though  others  will  have  it,  that  the  bridegroom  was 
 Nathaniel. — Calmet's  Commentary  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  This  is  called  Cana  of  Galilee,  to  distinguish  it  from 
 another  town  of  the  same  name,  mentioned,  Jos.  xiv.  28,  belong- 
 ing to  the  tribe  of  Asher,  not  far  from  the  city  of  Sidou,  aud  so 
 situated  much  more  north  than  this  Cana  was. — Wells'  Geo- 
 graphy of  the  New  Testament. —  The  village  now  bearing  the 
 name,  and  supposed  to  occupy  the  site  of  the  ancient  town,  is 
 pleasantly  situated  on  the  descent  of  a  hill,  about  sixteen  miles 
 north-west  of  Tiberias,  and  six  north-east  of  Nazareth.  It  is 
 worthy  of  note,  says  Dr  Clarke,  that  walking  among  the  ruins 
 of  a  church,  he  saw  large  massy  stone  pots,  answering  the  de- 
 scription given  of  the  vessels  of  the  country;  not  preserved  nor 
 exhibited  as  relics,  but  lying  about  disregarded  by  the  present 
 inhabitants,  as  antiquities  with  whose  original  use  they  were  un- 
 acquainted. From  their  appearance,  and  the  number  of  them, 
 it  was  quite  evident,  that  a  practice  of  keeping  water  in  large 
 stone  pots,  each  holding  from  eighteen  to  twenty-seven  gallons 
 was  once  common  in  the  country.  Cana,  or  as  it  is  now  called 
 Kessen,  Kenna,  or  Cane  Galit,  contains  about  300  inhabitants; 
 who  are  chiefly  Catholic  Christians.  — Ed. 
 
 g  John  ii.  1. — 11.  Marriage  is  here  sanctioned  by  our  Lord  as  a 
 holy  and  honourable  institution.  It  is  an  ordinance  of  God,  and, 
 therefore,  the  duties  of  those  who  enter  into  its  sacred  engage- 
 ments are  particularly  specified  in  the  scriptures.  2.  That  con- 
 vivial meetings,  when  conducted  with  decorum  and  temperance, 
 may  be  attended  by  Christians.  It  is  difficult  to  lay  down  any 
 general  rule  on  this  subject:  for  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
 disciples  of  Christ  are  charged  not  to  be  present  at  meetings 
 which  ever  approximate  to  the  tenets  of  intemperance,  it  is  evi- 
 dent, on  the  other  hand,  that  they  may,  on  certain  occasions, 
 cheerfully  enjoy  with  their  friends  the  bounties  of  providence. 
 But  in  all  cases  our  festivities  should  be  conducted  as  if  Jesus 
 himself  were  present.  3.  Our  relations  must  not  interfere  with 
 us  in  the  discharge  of  the  great  duties  we  owe  to  God  and  re- 
 ligion. We  are  to  receive  their  directions  only  in  so  far  as  they 
 coincide  with  the  revealed  will  of  God.  The  language  of  the 
 apostles  on  this  subject  after  their  conversion  was;  henceforth 
 know  we  no  man  after  the  flesh.  4.  Let  us  deserve  and  imitate 
 the  example  of  kindness  and  condescension  which  the  Saviour 
 has  here  set  before  us.  If  he  wrought  a  miracle  to  supply  the 
 wants  of  his  people,  let  us  also  minister  to  the  necessities  of  our 
 
gWT.   I.'J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 857 
 
 ji.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HA  LBS,  A.  M.  5138.  A.D.  27. 
 
 The  custom  of  the  Jews,  in  all  their  entertainments, 
 was  to  use  frequent  washings  ;  and  for  this  purpose  there 
 were,  in  a  certain  private  room,  six  water-cisterns,  con- 
 taining" each  about  twenty  gallons  of  our  measure.  These 
 our  Saviour  commanded  the  servants  to  fill  up  to  the 
 brim,  and  when  they  had  so  done,  to  carry  the  liquor  to 
 the  governor  of  the  feast,  for  him  to  distribute  to  the  rest 
 of  the  company,  as  the  manner  then  was.  But  when  the 
 governor  had  tasted  it,  he  was  not  a  little  surprised  ;  and 
 calling  to  the  bridegroom,  told  him,  with  a  pleasant  air, 
 that,  at  most  entertainments  like  this,  it  was  an  usual 
 thing  for  people  to  bring  out  their  best  wine  at  first,  and 
 worse,  when  the  guests  had  drunk  plentifully ;  but  that 
 he,  contrary  to  the  common  custom,  had  reserved  his 
 best  to  the  latter  end  of  the  feast. 
 
 This  was  the  first  miracle  our  Saviour  did  in  any  public 
 manner,  which  proved  both  a  manifestation  of  his  own 
 divinity,  and  a  confirmation  of  his  disciples'  faith.  From 
 Cana  he  went  down  to  a  Capernaum,  the  place  where  he 
 usually  afterwards  resided  ;  but  his  stay  at  this  time  was 
 not  long  there,  because  his  purpose  was  to  go  to  Jerusa- 
 lem, at  the  approaching  feast  of  the  passover.  b 
 
 brethren.  5.  Without  being  fanciful  in  our  use  of  scripture,  it 
 may  be  here  worthy  of  our  notice,  that  Jesus  began  his  ministry 
 by  changing  water  into  wine, — teaching  us  that  he  came  not  to 
 destroy  men's  lives  but  to  save  them,  and  he  confers  on  his  people 
 the  blessings  of  joy  and  salvation.  Moses,  on  the  other  hand, 
 began  his  ministry  by  changing  water  into  blood,' — a  fit  emblem 
 of  that  ministry  of  death  which  was  entrusted  to  him, — but  to 
 Jesus  and  his  apostles  was  committed  the  ministry  of  reconcilia- 
 tion, that  God  is  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself, 
 not  imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them;  and  hath  committed 
 unto  them  the  word  of  reconciliation.  6.  The  manner  in  which 
 this  marriage-feast  was  conducted  is  a  fit  emblem  of  the  way  in 
 which  God  deals  with  his  people.  They  are,  whilst  on  earth,  but  en- 
 joying the  foretastes  of  those  blessings  which  God  has  reserved  for 
 them.  They  will  be  put  in  possession  of  his  greatest  and  his  best 
 gifts  when  they  sit  down  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  to 
 the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb. — Ed. 
 
 a  This  city  is  no  where  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament, 
 either  under  this,  or  any  name  like  it;  and  therefore  it  is  not 
 improbable,  that  it  was  one  of  those  towns  which  the  Jews  built 
 after  their  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity.  It  stood  on 
 the  sea-coast,  that  is,  '  on  the  coast  of  the  sea  of  Galilee,  in  the 
 borders  of  Zebulun  and  Naphtali,'  Mat.  iv.  15,  16,  and  conse- 
 quently towards  the  upper  part  thereof.  It  took  its  name,  no 
 doubt,  from  an  adjacent  spring  of  great  repute  for  its  clear  and 
 limpid  waters,  and  which,  according  to  Josephus,  is  by  the  na- 
 tives called  Capernaum.  As  this  spring  might  be  some  in- 
 ducement for  the  building  of  the  town  in  the  place  where  it  stood, 
 so  its  being  a  convenient  wafting  place  from  Galilee  to  any  parts  on 
 the  other  side  of  the  sea,  might  be  some  motive  to  our  Lord  for  his 
 moving  from  Nazareth,  and  making  this  the  place  of  his  most  con- 
 stant, residence.  Upon  this  account  Capernaum  was  highly  honour- 
 ed, and  is  said  by  our  Lord  himself  to  be  exalted  unto  heaven  ;  but 
 because  it  made  no  right  use  of  this  signal  favour,  it  chew  from  him 
 the  severe  denunciation,  that  it  should  be  brought  down  to  hell. — 
 Wells'  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. — Buckingham, 
 Burckhardt,  and  some  other  writers,  believe  it  to  have  been  the 
 place  now  calledTalhhewn,  or  Tel  Houm,  which  is  upon  the  edge 
 of  the  sea,  from  nine  to  twelve  miles  N.  N.  E.  of  Tiberias,  and 
 where  there  are  ruins  indicative  of  a  considerable  place  at  some 
 former  period.  Dr  Richardson,  however,  in  passing  through  the 
 plain  of  Gennesareth,  inquired  of  the  natives  whether  they  knew 
 such  a  place  as  Capernaum?  to  which  they  replied,  "  Cavernahum 
 wa  Chonasi,  they  are  quite  near,  but  in  ruins."  This  should, 
 perhaps,  induce  us  to  fix  the  site  of  Capernaum  further  south;  but 
 our  Saviour's  denunciation  against  it  seems  to  have  been  literally 
 accomplished  ;  and  it  has  been  cast  down  into  the  grave,  for  hither- 
 to no  satisfactory  evidence  has  been  found  of  the  place  on  which  it 
 stood,  Mat.  xi.  23. — Cahnefs  Dictionary,  art.  Capernaum. — Ed. 
 
 6  This  feast  is  so  well  known,  and  has  been  so  fully  explained 
 the  at  time  of  its  first  institution,  Exod.  xii.  that  we  need  only 
 remind  our  reader,  that,  from  the  word  pasach,  which  signifies 
 
 FKOM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 As  soon  as  our  Saviour  came  to  Jerusalem,  the  first 
 thing  he  did  was  to  reform  the  public  abuse  and  profa- 
 nation of  the  temple,  occasioned  by  the  shops  which 
 money-changers  had  set  up,  and  the  beasts  which  the 
 dealers  therein  used  to  bring  into  the  courts  of  the  Gen- 
 tiles. c  This  our  Lord's  zeal  for  his  Father's  honour 
 could  not  well  brook ;  and  therefore,  with  a  scourge 
 made  of  cords,  he  drove  all  the  sellers  d  and  barterers 
 from  the  sacred  ground,  overturned  the  tables  e  of  the 
 money-changers,  and  commanded  those  who  dealt  in 
 doves  or  pigeons,  to  take  away  their  goods,  and  make 
 his  Father's  house  no  longer  a  house  of  merchandise. 
 
 to  leap  or  skip  over,  the  Jews  gave  the  name  of  pascha,  or 
 Passover  to  that  great  festival,  which  was  annually  appointed, 
 in  commemoration  of  their  coming  forth  out  of  Egypt ;  because 
 the  night  before  their  departure  the  destroying  angel,  who  slew 
 the  first-born  of  the  Egyptians,  passed  over  the  houses  of  the 
 Israelites,  which  were  marked  with  the  blood  of  the  lamb,  killed 
 the  evening  before,  and  for  this  reason  called  the  paschal  lamb. 
 The  feast  itself  began  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  Nisan,  which  is, 
 the  first  month  in  their  sacred,  but  the  seventh  in  the  civil  years, 
 and  answers  in  part  to  our  March  and  April ;  but  as  the  Jews 
 began  their  days  at  six  in  the  evening,  this  feast  was  to  continue 
 seven  days  complete,  and  so  ended  on  the  one  and  twentieth  day 
 in  the  evening. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word. 
 
 c  There  were  three  courts  belonging  to  the  temple.  The  court 
 of  the  priests,  where  the  altar  of  incense  stood:  the  court  of  the 
 Israelites,  where  the  Jews  that  were  clean,  and  the  proselytes  of 
 justice,  that  is,  those  who  had  embraced  circumcision,  and  the 
 whole  law  of  Moses,  met  at  their  devotions;  and  the  court  of  the 
 Gentiles,  where  the  unclean  Jew,  and  the  Gentile,  who  owned 
 the  true  God,  without  professing  Judaism,  were  permitted  to 
 come  and  worship.  Now,  under  the  same  pretext  of  having  the 
 sacrifices  near  at  hand,  as  well  as  out  of  a  contempt  of  that  court, 
 where  the  Gentile  worshippers  were  permitted  to  enter,  the 
 priests,  for  their  sordid  gain,  had  permitted  beasts  and  poultry  to 
 be  brought  within  this  court,  and  graziers  and  hucksters,  whose 
 business  properly  was  in  the  markets  of  Jerusalem,  to  mix  with 
 people  at  their  devotions,  which  was  an  abuse  notoriously  scanda- 
 lous.—  Whitby  s  Annotations ;  and  Eachurd's  Ecclesiastical  His- 
 tory, c.  iii. 
 
 d  It  may  possibly  be  asked,  how  our  blessed  Lord,  with  nothing 
 but  a  whip  in  his  hand,  should  be  able  to  execute  this  heroic  act 
 upon  a  multitude  of  people,  who  might  sutler  damage  in  then- 
 wares,  and  consequently  be  in  a  disposition  to  resist  him?  Now, 
 whoever  considers  that  our  Saviour  had  done  enough  already  to 
 prove  himself  a  prophet  sent  from  God,  and  that  the  general  con- 
 cession was,  that  the  prophet  thus  sent  had  sufficient  authority  to 
 rectify  disorders ;  if  he  remembers,  at  the  same  time,  the  great 
 reverence  that  was  constantly  paid  to  the  temple,  and  what  titles 
 of  honour  and  respect  were  given  it  by  God  himself,  cannot  hut 
 allow  that  the  present  abuse  of  it  was  abominable,  our  Saviour's 
 zeal  in  redressing  it  commendable,  and  that,  from  all  thinking 
 and  disinterested  persons,  it  would  consequently  meet  wit1- 
 countenance  and  approbation.  Nor  is  it  to  be  doubted  but  that 
 a  consciousness  of  guilt  in  the  profaners  themselves  might,  in 
 some  measure,  contribute  to  their  submission  and  acquiescence, 
 even  in  the  same  manner  as  his  enemies  were  struck  backwards 
 with  a  sense  of  their  own  guilt,  as  well  as  the  majesty  of  his  ap- 
 pearance, and  fell  down  to  the  ground)  when  they  rame  to  appre- 
 hend him  in  the  garden,  John  xviii.  fa'. — Poole's  Annotations, 
 and  Pishop  Smallbrook's  Vindication,  p.  146. 
 
 e  It  was  an  appointment  of  the  law  that  every  man,  from 
 twenty  years  old  and  upwards,  should  annually  pay  into  the 
 treasury  of  the  temple,  in  order  to  defray  the  expense  of  the  daily 
 sacrifices,  the  sum  of  half  a  shekel,  Exod.  xxx.  12.  15.  This, 
 and  the  voluntary  oblations  of  people  of  all  ranks  occasioned  a 
 necessity  of  changing  greater  coin  into  less,  and  very  often  of 
 foreign  coin  into  that  which  was  current  in  the  nation.  Under 
 the  pretence,  therefore,  of  having  things  near  at  hand,  the  priests 
 took  this  opportunity  to  gratify  their  covetousness,  by  letting  out 
 places  to  money-changers,  who,  to  make  up  their  rent,  which 
 very  likely  was  exorbitant,  might  extort  from  those  that  came 
 to  them,  or,  as  Origen  imagines,  give  them  u^-yu^io*  ahoxim* 
 base  money,  instead  of  good,  and  so  made  the  temple  a  den  of 
 thieves. — Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  xxi.  13. 
 5Q 
 
85S 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4031.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28. 
 
 This  extraordinary  procedure  incensed  the  Jews  to 
 such  a  degree,  that  they  came  and  demanded  of  him  by 
 what  a  authority  he  did  these  things,  and  to  give  them 
 some  evidence  of  his  having  a  commission  so  to  do  :  but 
 to  this  he  made  no  other  reply,  than  by  foretelling  his 
 own  resurrection,  expressed  in  the  metaphor  of  the  temple, 
 which  they  understood  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  that 
 had  been  b  six  and  forty  years  a-building,  but  he,  of  the 
 temple  c  of  his  own  body,  which  in  three  days  after  they 
 had  slain  it,  he  promised  to  revive.  Though  therefore 
 at  this  time  he  refused  to  work  any  miracle  at  the  insti- 
 gation of  the  Jews,  yet,  shortly  after,  we  find  him  work- 
 ing many,  which  surprised  the  whole  city,  and  excited 
 the  curiosity  of  one  person  in  particular,  whose  name  was 
 Nicodemus,  a  considerable  man  in  the  sanhedrim,  and 
 of  the  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  to  repair  to  him,  but  pri- 
 vately, and  in  the  night-time,  for  fear  of  being  known, 
 and  to  declare  freely  to  him,  "  that  he  verily  believed  he 
 was  come  immediately  from  heaven,  because  the  mira- 
 cles d  which  he  wrought  were  a  demonstration  of  it." 
 
 e  Hereupon  our  blessed  Saviour  took  occasion  to  let 
 
 a  Whether  it  were  the  priests,  the  magistrates,  or  the  common 
 people,  that  put  this  question  tu  our  Saviour,  it  is  certain,  that 
 they  do  not  in  the  least  pretend  to  justify  the  profanation  which 
 he  had  thus  reformed ;  and  therefore  their  principle  seems  to 
 have  been,  "  that,  let  the  corruptions  and  abuses  in  a  church  be 
 never  so  great,  yet  they  were  not  to  be  reformed,  but  either  by 
 the  ordinary  authority  of  the  magistrate,  or  by  an  extraordinary 
 authority  from  God.  Such  an  authority  they  were  ready  to  ac- 
 knowledge in  prophets;  but  then  they  expected  that  those  who 
 pretended  to  this,  and  to  have  their  mission  from  God,  should  be 
 able  to  prove  that  mission  by  some  miraculous  operations."  But 
 how  they  came  to  put  this  question  to  our  Lord,  after  they  had 
 seen  his  miracles,  and  knew  that  he  claimed  a  divine  commission, 
 and  had  told  them,  '  that  the  works  he  had  done  in  his  Father's 
 name  bore  witness  of  him,'  (John  v.  36,)  can  be  imputed  to  nothing 
 but  their  perverseness,  and  obstinate  infidelity. — Poole's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 b  From  Herod's  beginning  to  rebuild  the  temple,  to  this  first 
 passover  after  our  Saviour's  baptism,  it  is  agreed,  that  the  time 
 was  exactly  six  and  forty  years;  but  then  Josephus  {Antiq.  b.  xv. 
 c.  14.)  tells  us,  that  the  whole  was  finished  iu  nine  years  and  a 
 half.  But  this  is  to  be  understood  of  the  general  building  only, 
 since,  according  to  the  same  author,  (b.  xx.  c.  8.)  several  new 
 works  and  decorations  were  still  carrying  on,  and  near  eighteen 
 thousand  men  employed  therein,  even  to  the  time  that  young 
 Agrippa  was  made  king  of  Judea,  which  was  about  the  sixtieth 
 year  of  the  Christian  era. — Calmet's  Commentary;  and  Beauso- 
 bre's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  Jews  had  a  maxim,  or  proverbial  speech  among  them, 
 that  '  the  sanctuary  of  sanctuaries  was  the  Messiah,'  and  therefore 
 there  could  be  no  impropriety  in  our  Saviour's  calling  his  body 
 a  temple;  for  if  the  apostle  calls  our  bodies.  '  the  temple  of 
 God,'  as  he  does,  1  Cor.  iii.  16,  and  2  Cor.  vi.  16,  how  much 
 more  does  that  title  belong  to  the  body  of  Christ,  in  which  the 
 fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwelt  always,  and  inseparably. — Poole's 
 and  Beatuobre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  But  are  miracles  alone  a  demonstration  of  a  person's  being 
 sent  by  God?  Nicodemus  was  not  ignorant  of  the  caution  which 
 Moses  had  given  the  Jews  against  false  prophets,  Deut.  xii.  1, 
 &c;  nor  does  he  here  speak  of  miracles  in  general,  but  of  those 
 particular  ones  which  Jesus  had  done  in  the  time  of  the  passover, 
 and  these  were  so  great  in  their  nature,  so  solid  in  their  proof, 
 so  beneficial  in  their  effects,  and  in  their  end  so  well  designed  to 
 confirm  a  doctrine  every  way  suitable  to  the  divine  attributes, 
 and  to  fulfil  the  prophecies  concerning  the  Messiah,  the  Suu  of 
 Righteousness,  who  was  to  rise  with  healing  in  his  wings,  {Mai. 
 iv.  2,)  that  there  was  the  greatest  assurance  that  none,  without  an 
 omnipotent  hand,  could  do  them.  Not  to  say  that  Nicodemus 
 might  have  both  examined  the  doctrine,  and  inquired  into  the 
 life  of  Jesus,  before  he  made  that  inference  from  his  miracles. — 
 Poole's  Annotations;  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Some  have  imagined,  from  the  seeming  abruptness  of  the 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23   LUKE  vi.  \. 
 
 him  know,  that  this  belief  was  not  the  only  qualification 
 requisite  to  become  his  disciple,  and  then  proceeded  to 
 instruct  him  in  the  great  mystery  of  regeneration,  telling 
 him,  "  That,  as  no  production  could  transcend  the  na- 
 ture and  condition  of  its  parent,  flesh,  for  instance, 
 though  never  so  much  diversified,  could  still  produce  no 
 more  than  flesh  ;  so  this  formation  of  a  new  creature  was 
 to  be  effected  by  different  principles,  namely,  by  the 
 water  of  baptism  /  washing  away  sins,  and  by  the  Holy 
 Spirit,  giving  a  power  and  efficacy  to  men's  endeavours 
 to  do  well ;  which  Spirit  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  is, 
 as  the  wind,  certain  and  notorious  in  its  effects,  but  secret 
 in  the  principle  and  manner  of  its  production." 
 
 This  doctrine  of  regeneration,  which  to  Nicodemus  3 
 
 answer  which  our  Lord  gives  Nicodemus,  that  Nicodemus  might 
 have  put  some  previous  question  to  him,  not  recorded  by  the 
 evangelist,  concerning  the  means  of  attaining  the  kingdom 
 of  God,  that  is,  eternal  happiness,  or  of  qualifying  himself  to 
 be  a  disciple  of  the  Messiah ;  for  in  that  sense  the  kingdom  of 
 God  is  likewise  taken.  But,  besides  that  the  term  answered 
 does  not  always,  in  the  New  Testament,  signify  a  reply  to  a 
 question  already  propounded,  but  very  frequently  no  more  than 
 the  beginning  of  a  new  speech,  the  connexion  between  the  com- 
 pliment which  Nicodemus  makes  our  Lord,  and  our  Lord's  re- 
 ply to  it,  will  not  be  amiss,  if  we  can  but  suppose  in  the  words 
 this  implication: — "  Thy  acknowledgment  of  my  divine  mission 
 and  authority,  free  and  generous  though  it  be,  will  not  be  sufficient 
 to  render  thee  a  member  of  that  kingdom  which  I  am  going  to 
 set  up ;  for,  except  a  man  be  born  again,  that  is,  renewed  in  his 
 mind,  will,  and  affections,  by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 and  so  become  a  new  creature,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of 
 God,  that  is,  he  cannot  be  a  Christian  here,  or  a  saint  hereafter." 
 —  Poole's,  JFhitby's,  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 /Those  who  make  the  water  and  the  Spirit,  here  mentioned 
 by  our  Saviour,  one  and  the  same  thing,  (which  to  every  com- 
 mon reader,  must,  at  first  sight,  appear  to  be  distinct,)  would  do 
 well  to  consider,  that  the  question  between  Christ  and  Nicodemus 
 was  about  what  was  requisite  to  prepare  a  man  for  the  kingdom, 
 that  is,  God's  church,  and  make  him  partaker  of  the  gospel  bles- 
 sing. Certain  it  is,  that  baptism  by  water  was  not  only  the  com- 
 mon method  of  receiving  proselytes  into  the  Jewish  church,  but 
 it  is  declared  likewise  by  our  Lord  himself  to  be  the  ordinary 
 way  of  entering  into  his  kingdom;  '  for  he  that  believeth,  and  is 
 baptized,'  says  he,  '  shall  be  saved,'  (Mark  xvi.  16);  and  there- 
 fore he  gave  commission  to  his  apostles  to  make  disciples  in  all 
 nations  by  baptizing  them.  (Mat.  xxviii.  19.)  Nay,  so  far  are 
 the  gifts  and  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit  from  superseding  the  ne- 
 cessity of  this  ordinance,  that,  in  the  apostolic  age,  we  find  them 
 rather  esteemed  a  proper  predisposition  for  it:  for,  when  the 
 Holy  Ghost  fell  upon  Cornelius  and  his  company,  in  the  same 
 manner  that  it  fell  upon  the  apostles  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  . 
 (Acts  ii.  1,)  what  is  St  Peter's  inference  from  these  miraculous 
 gifts  ?  Is  it  that  the  persons  on  whom  they  rested  had  no  need  of 
 baptism  ?  No;  but  rather  that  these  extraordinary  pifts  were  a 
 full  evidence,  that  they  were  the  proper  objects  of  it;  for,  'can 
 any  one,'  says  he,  '  forbid  water,  that  these  should  not  be  bap- 
 tized ?'  So  far  is  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit,  even  where  it  is  un- 
 deniable, from  excluding  the  baptism  of  water,  and  so  strong  a 
 proof  is  the  instance  before  us,  that  the  graces  of  the  Spirit  may  be 
 the  foundation  of  a  just  claim  to  baptism,  but  never,  where  the 
 sacrament  can  be  had,  a  lawful  dispensation  to  any  man  for  the 
 refusal  or  neglect  of  it. — JFhitby's  Annotations;  and  Stanhope 
 on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 g  Our  blessed  Saviour  might  well  wonder  at  Nicodemus's 
 ignorance  iu  the  point  of  regeneration,  when  this  was  the  com- 
 mon notion  of  proselytism  among  the  Jews,  that  he  who  was 
 washed  and  circumcised,  was  looked  upon  as  an  infant  new-bom: 
 and  where  there  were  so  many  passages  in  the  law  and  the  pro- 
 phets, relating  to  this  veiy  doctrine ;  for  what  else  can  the  mean- 
 ing be  of  the  circumcision  of  the  heart,  commanded  by  Moses, 
 (Deut.  x.  16.)  of  the  renewal  of  a  clean  and  right  spirit,  prayed 
 for  by  David,  (Ps.  Ii.  10.)  of  the  putting  God's  law  in  the  in- 
 ward parts,  mentioned  by  Jeremiah,  chap.  xxxi.  33,  and  the 
 giving  his  people  a  new  heart,  and  a  new  spirit,  promised  by  God, 
 (Ezek.  xxxvi.  26)  ?  These,  and  many  more,  were  intimations  of 
 
FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 859 
 
 .  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30. 
 seemed  so  very  abstruse,  "  our  Saviour  proceeds  to  tell 
 Lim  was  no  more,  in  respect  of  other  mysteries  of  the 
 gospel,  than  the  earth  is  in  comparison  of  the  heavens ; 
 and  so  goes  on  to  acquaint  him  with  matters  of  a  more 
 sublime  nature  ;  with  his  descent  from  heaven,  his  death, 
 his  ascension,  and  the  blessing  of  that  redemption  which 
 he  came  into  the  world  to  accomplish.  He  instructs 
 them  in  the  love  of  the  Father,  the  mission  of  the  Son, 
 the  rewards  of  faith,  and  the  glories  of  eternity.  He 
 upbraids  the  unbelieving  and  impenitent,  and  declares 
 the  difference  between  a  pure  and  corrupt  conscience, 
 the  shame  and  fears  of  the  one,  and  the  confidence  and 
 serenity  of  the  other." 
 
 This  is  the  substance  of  our  Saviour's  discourse  to 
 Nicodemus,  who  afterwards  became  a  convert;  and  no 
 sooner  was  the  passover  ended,  but  our  Lord,  in  com- 
 pany with  many  of  his  disciples,  who,  by  his  miraculous 
 works,  were  convinced  of  his  divinity,  went  about  the 
 province  of  Judea,  a  making  proselytes  wherever  he 
 came,  and  causing  them  to  be  baptized  by  the  hands  of 
 his  disciples,  because  himself  was  employed  in  greater 
 affairs,  namely,  in  teaching  the  people,  and  relieving 
 their  necessities. 
 
 John  the  Baptist  had,  at  this  time,  removed  his  station 
 from  Bethabara  to   iEnon,  a  place  remarkable,  as  its 
 name  imports,  for  springs  and  waters,  and  therefore  of 
 great  conveniency  for  baptizing.     While  he  was  there,  a 
 dispute  happened  to  arise  between  his  disciples  and  cer- 
 tain Jews,  who  were  present,  which  of  the  baptisms,  that 
 of  John,  or  that  of  Jesus,  was  preferable  ?  And  when  his 
 disciples,  by  way  of  appeal  to  John,  came  and  acquainted 
 him  that  the  person  of  whom  he  had  given  such  honour- 
 able testimony,  received  proselytes,  and  that  in  vast 
 numbers,  by  the  same  ceremony  of  baptism  as  he  did, 
 John  repeated  the  same  testimony  again,  and  reminded 
 his  disciples  how  frequently  he  had  told  them,  "  That 
 the  person  of  whom  they  spake,  was  the  Messiah  whom 
 God  had  sent  into  the  world  for  the  salvation  of  man- 
 kind, and  himself  no  more  than  his  herald  ;  and  that  his 
 ministry  therefore  was  now  going  to  decline,  even  as, 
 upon  the  approach  of  the  sun,  the  glory  of  the  morning 
 star  decreases."     And  having  said  many  things  of  the 
 like  nature,  to  prove  Jesus  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  and 
 co-equal  with  the  Father,  he  closed  up  his  commission 
 with  these  important  words,  '  He  that  believes  on  the 
 Son,  hath  everlasting  life  ;  but  he  that  believeth  not  on 
 the  Son,  shall  not  see  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth 
 on  him.' 
 
 John  was  at  this  time  in  the  territories  of  Herod  Anti- 
 pas,  b  and,  as  he  was  a  man  of  great  freedom  of  speech 
 
 the  doctrine  of  regeneration ;  but  the  Pharisees  were  so  taken  up 
 with  their  rites  and  traditions,  that  they  gave  small  attention  to 
 the  spiritual  things  of  nearer  and  much  greater  concernment  to 
 their  souls. — Poole's  and  Beatisobre's  Annotations. 
 
 a  The  evangelist  no  where  mentions  the  particular  place 
 where  our  Saviour  began  his  baptism ;  but  there  is  reason  to  pre- 
 sume, that  it  was  somewhere  about  Jericho,  because  there  it  was 
 that  John  the  Baptist  first  entered  upon  his  ministry;  because  it 
 seems  expedient,  that  lie  should  open  the  first  scene  of  his  office 
 where  his  faithful  forerunner  had  given  such  glorious  and  advan- 
 tageous testimonies  of  him,  and,  in  one  and  the  same  place,  com- 
 plete John's  baptism  of  repentance  for  sins,  which  was  preparatory 
 tu  his  coming,  by  the  baptism  of  remission  of  sins,  which  he  alone 
 had  proper  power  to  give. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  This  Antipas,  or  Antipater,  for  they  are  words  of  the  same 
 signification,  was  the  son  of  Herod  the  Great,  by  one  of  his  wives, 
 
 upon  all  occasions,  he  was  not  afraid,  when  he  came  to 
 Herod's  court,  to  reprove  him  for  his  many  enormities, 
 and  particularly  for  bis  cohabiting  with  Herodias,  c  the 
 wife  of  his  brother  Philip,  who  was  still  living.  This  ex- 
 asperated the  woman  against  him  to  such  a  degree,  that, 
 though  Herod  at  first  had  some  esteem  and  reverence 
 for  him,  yet,  by  her  malicious  instigations,  d  she  prevail- 
 ed with  him  to  cast  him  into  prison,  with  a  purpose  to 
 have  him  destroyed  whenever  he  could  find  out  a  proper 
 opportunity. 
 
 About  the  time  of  John's  imprisonment,  our  Lord, 
 who,  by  the  hands  of  his  apostles,  *  had  been  baptizing 
 for  near  seven  or  eight  months  in  Judea,  understanding 
 
 named  Cleopatra,  a  native  of  Jerusalem.     In  his  first  will,  his 
 father,  as  was  said  before,  named  him  successor  to  his  kingdom; 
 but  afterwards  he  changed   his  mind,  made  his  son  Archelaus 
 king  of  Judea,  and  gave  to  Antipas  the  title  only  of  tetrarch  of 
 Galilee  and   Petraa,  which   made   him   appeal  to  Augustus  at 
 Rome,  in  order  to  have  his  father's  former  will   confirmed,  and 
 the  latter  reversed  ;  but  he  did  not  obtain  his  end. — Joseph.  Antiq. 
 c  This  woman  was  the  daughter  of  Aristobulus  and   Bernice, 
 sister  to  king  Agrippa,  and  grand-daughter  to  Herod  the  Great. 
 She  was  at  first  married  to  her  uncle  Philip,  son  of  the  same  He- 
 rod by  Mariamne,  by  whom  she  had  a  daughter  named  Salome, 
 the  same  who  pleased  Herod  so  well  in  her  dancing;  and  how 
 she  came  to  run  from  one  brother  to  live  with  another,  Josephus 
 has  thus  related  the  story: — "  Antipas,  in  his  passage  to  Rome, 
 made  some  stay  with  his  brother  Philip,  where  he  fell  so  passion- 
 ately in    love  with   his  wife  Herodias,  that  he  could  not  forbear 
 expressing  it  to  her,  and  promised  her  withal,  that,  at  his  return 
 from  Rome    he  would   put  away  his  own  wife,  and  many  her. 
 Upon  these  conditions  Herodias  accepted  of  the  offer,  and,  as 
 soon  as  Antipas  was  returned,  and  his  wife  gone,  (for  she,  having 
 notice   of  the   engagement  between   her  husband  and  Herodias, 
 made  her  escape  to  her  father  Areta,  king  of  Petraa,)  she,  with 
 her  daughter  Salome,  left  her  husband  Philip,  and  coming  di- 
 rectly to  Antipas,  for  ever  after  lived  with  him  in  a  state  of  in- 
 cest, Lev.  xviii.  15.      Nor  was  her  ambition  much  less  criminal 
 than  her  lust:  for,  growing  uneasy  to   see  her  brother  Agrippa 
 promoted  to  the  title  of  a  king  while  her  new  husband  Antipas 
 had  no  more  than  that  of  a  tetrarch,  she  pressed  him  so  much 
 that  he  determined  to  make  a  journey  to  Rome,  with  an  inten- 
 tion to  ask  the  like  dignity  of  Caligula  the  emperor;  but  the  em- 
 peror, being  prejudiced  by  several  letters,  which  Agrippa  had 
 written  against  Antipas,  instead  of  advancing  him,  deprived  him 
 of  his  tetrarchy,  and  condemned  him  to  perpetual  banishment." 
 The  emperor,  however,  understanding  that  Herodias  was  Agrip- 
 pa's   sister,  showed  an   inclination  to  pardon  her ;  but  she  chose 
 rather  to  follow  her  husband   in   the   calamity  she  had  brought 
 upon  him,  than  to  owe  any  thing  to  her  brother's  fortune,  so  that 
 they  were   both  confiscated,   and   banished    together,   first   into 
 Fiance,  and   afterwards  into   Spain,  where  they  died. — Jewish 
 Antiq.  b.  8.  c.  9. 
 
 d  The  evangelists  have  assigned  the  true  reason  for  the  Bap- 
 tist's imprisonment.  But  since  the  Pharisees,  very  probably, 
 represented  him  as  the  author  of  a  new  sect,  a  promoter  of  sedi- 
 tions and  rebellions,  and  a  person  dangerous  to  the  government, 
 by  reason  of  the  multitude  of  his  followers,  Antipas  craftily  made 
 that  his  pretence,  as  appears  from  Josephus,  (b.  xviii.  c.  7.)  for 
 confining  him ;  and  the  better  to  remove  him  from  the  people,  sent 
 him  bound  out  of  Galilee,  into  Petraa,  to  a  strong  castle,  called 
 Mariuerus,  near  the  Dead  sea,  and  towards  the  borders  of  Ara- 
 bia, where  he  continued  above  a  year  in  prison Eachard's  Ec- 
 clesiastical History,  c.  3. 
 
 e  Several  reasons  may  be  assigned  why  our  Saviour  delegated 
 the  office  of  baptizing  to  his  apostles.  1.  Because  it  was  nowise 
 proper  for  him  to  baptize  in  his  own  name.  2.  Because  the  bap- 
 tism that  was  peculiarly  his  was  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 Acts  xi.  16.  3.  Because  it  was  an  office  of  more  importance,  to 
 preach  the  gospel  than  to  baptize,  1  Cor.  i.  17.  And,  4.  Be- 
 cause Christ's  baptizing  of  any  might  possibly  have  occasioned 
 disgusts  and  jealousies  among  the  disciples,  in  the  same  manner 
 as,  in  the  early  ages  of  the  church,  we  find  people  valuing  them- 
 selves and  despising  others,  upon  their  being  baptized  by  such  or 
 such  an  eminent  apostle,  1  Cor.  i.  12. — Bcausobre's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
860 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 TBook  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4031.  A.C.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  m.  I. 
 
 that  the  Pharisees  began  to  be  envious  at  him  for  the 
 great  multitudes  of  people  that  resorted  to  him,  resolved 
 to  leave  that  province,  and  pass  into  a  Galilee,  in  order 
 to  enter  upon  the  more  solemn  part  of  his  ministerial 
 function.  In  this  journey  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
 pass  through  Samaria  ;  *  and,  as  he  travelled  on  foot, 
 and  the  weather  was  hot,  when  he  came  within  a  little  of 
 c  Sychar,  he  sent  his  disciples  in  to  the  city  to  buy  pro- 
 
 as It  is  a  province  of  Palestine,  which  extends  itself  chiefly  into 
 the  northern  parts  thereof.  The  tribes  which  it  contains,  are 
 Issachar,  Zehulun,  Naphtali,  and  Asher,  with  part,  as  some  say, 
 of  Dan,  and  Penca,  beyond  the  Jordan.  On  the  north,  it  is 
 bounded  by  Lebanon  and  Syria :  on  the  west,  by  Phoenicia ;  on 
 the  south,  by  Samaria;  and  on  the  east  mostly  by  the  river  Jor- 
 dan, and  the  sea  of  Galilee.  It  is  generally  divided  into  two 
 parts,  the  Upper  and  the  Lower  Galilee,  whereof  the  former  is  cal- 
 led '  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles,'  (Mat.  iv.  15.)  either  because  it  was 
 chiefly  possessed  by  the  Gentiles,  with  Jews  interspersed  among 
 them,  or  rather  because  it  bordered  upon  Gentile  nations,  such 
 as  the  Phoenicians,  Syrians,  and  Arabians.  The  whole  country, 
 according  to  Josephus,  was  fruitful,  and  well  cultivated,  and 
 the  people  laborious  and  industrious.  The  number  of  its  towns 
 and  villages  was  prodigiously  great,  and  so  well  inhabited,  that  the 
 least  of  them  did  not  contain  less  than  fifteen  thousand  souls. 
 The  natives  were  a  bold  intrepid  race  of  men,  who  defended 
 themselves  bravely  against  the  foreign  nations  that  surrounded 
 them ;  but  then  their  wealth  and  prowess  made  them  seditious,  and 
 very  apt  to  rebel  against  the  Romans,  for  which  they  sometimes 
 suffered  very  much. — Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table. —  "  Galilee," 
 says  Chateaubriand,  "  would  be  a  paradise  were  it  inhabited  by  an 
 industrious  people  under  an  enlightened  government.  Vine 
 stocks  are  to  be  seen  here  a  foot  and  a  half  in  diameter,  forming, 
 by  their  twining  branches,  vast  arches  and  extensive  ceilings  of 
 verdure.  A  cluster  of  grapes,  two  or  three  feet  in  length,  will 
 give  an  abundant  supper  to  a  whole  family.  The  plains  of  Es- 
 draelon  are  occupied  by  Arab  tribes,  around  whose  brown  tents 
 the  sheep  and  lambs  gambol  to  the  sound  of  the  reed,  which  at 
 night-fall  calls  them  home.  For  some  years  this  fine  country 
 has  groaned  and  bled  under  the  malignant  genius  of  Turkish 
 despotism ;  the  fields  are  leit  without  cultivation,  and  the  towns 
 and  villages  are  reduced  to  beggary ;  late  events  encourage  us  to 
 hope  that  a  milder  administration  will  soon  change  the  aspect  of 
 affairs,  and  bestow  on  the  Syrian  provinces  at  large  some  of  the 
 benefits  which  the  more  liberal  policy  of  Mohammed  Ali  has 
 conferred  upon  the  pashalic  of  Egypt." — Ed. 
 
 b  It  is  a  province  of  Palestine,  so  called  from  its  city  of  the 
 same  name,  that  was  once  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel, 
 which  lies  exactly  between  Judea  to  the  south,  and  Galilee  to 
 the  north,  and  extends  itself  from  the  Mediterranean  sea  west- 
 ward, to  the  river  Jordan  eastward,  taking  up  the  most  consid- 
 erable part  of  what,  formerly  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Ephraim, 
 
 and  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  on  the  west  side  of  Jordan. 
 
 Wells'  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 c  Sychar  is  only  a  corrupt  pronunciation  of  Sychem,  or 
 Shechem,  which  is  the  capital  of  the  country  that  was  once  called 
 Samaria.  At  present  it  is  called  Naplosa,  and  stands  in  a 
 narrow  valley,  between  Mount  Gerizim  on  the  south,  at  the 
 foot  of  which  it  is  situate,  and  Ebal  on  the  north.  On  Mount 
 Gerizim  they  had  once  a  temple,  which  seemed  to  rival  that  of 
 Jerusalem ;  but  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  it  was  destroyed 
 by  Hyrcanus,  and  what  they  have  now  is  only  a  little  place  of 
 worship,  to  which,  at  certain  seasons,  they  nevertheless  repair 
 for  the  performance  of  the  rites  of  their  religion;  but  what  those 
 rites  are,  it  is  not,  easy  to  say. — Wells'  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament. — The  ancient  Shechem  is  one  of  the  most  prosperous 
 towns  in  the  holy  land,  being  still  the  metropolis  of  a  rich  and 
 extensive  country,  and  abounding  in  agricultural  wealth.  Nor 
 is  there  any  thing  finer  than  its  appearance  when  viewed  from 
 the  heights  by  which  it  is  surrounded.  It  strikes  the  eye  of  the 
 traveller  who  advances  from  the  north,  as  being  embosomed  in 
 the  most  delightful  and  fragrant  bowers,  half  concealed  by  rich 
 gardens  and  stately  trees,  collected  into  groves  all  round  the 
 beautiful  valley  in  which  it  stands.  There  is  a  considerable  trade, 
 as  well  as  a  flourishing  manufacture  of  soap;  and  the  population 
 has  been  reckoned  as  high  as  ten  thousand, — an  estimate,  however, 
 vi  liich  Mr  Buckingham  thinks  somewhat  overrated.      Within  the 
 
 visions,  and  sat  himself  down  by  the  side  of  a  famous 
 well,  called  Jacob's  well.  d 
 
 While  he  was  sitting  there,  a  woman  of  a  loose  life 
 and  conversation  came  out  of  the  city  to  draw  water,  and 
 when  he  requested  some  of  her  to  drink,  she,  perceiving 
 that  he  was  a  Jew,  took  the  freedom  to  ask  him,  how  he 
 could  offer  any  such  request  to  a  Samaritan,  since  there 
 were  so  great  feuds,  and  so  little  dealings  e  between 
 
 town  are  six  mosques,  five  baths,  one  Christian  church,  an  ex- 
 cellent covered  bazar  for  fine  goods,  and  an  open  one  for  provis- 
 ions, besides  numerous  cotton-cloth  manufactories,  and  shops  of 
 every  description.  The  inhabitants  are  chiefly  Mohammedans. 
 The  Jews,  inheriting  their  ancient  enmity  towards  the  Samari- 
 tans, avoid  the  country  which  the  latter  formerly  possessed  ;  while 
 the  Christians,  alienated  by  the  suspicion  of  heresy  among  their 
 brethren  at  Nablous,  prefer  the  more  orthodox  assemblies  at  Jer- 
 usalem and  Nazareth.  The  Samaritans  themselves  do  not  exceed 
 forty  in  number.  They  have  a  synagogue  in  the  town  where  they 
 perform  divine  service  every  Saturday.  Four  times  a  year  they  go 
 in  solemn  procession  to  the  old  temple  on  Mount  Gerizim;  on 
 which  occasion  they  meet  before  sunrise,  and  continue  reading  the 
 law  till  noon.  On  one  of  these  days  they  kill  six  or  seven  rams. 
 They  have  but  one  school  in  Nablous  where  their  language  is 
 taught,  though  they  take  much  pride  in  preserving  ancient  manu- 
 scripts of  their  Pentateuch  in  the  original  character.  Mr  Con- 
 nor saw  a  copy  which  is  reported  to  be  three  thousand  five  hun- 
 dred years  old;  but  was  not  allowed  to  examine  nor  even  to  touch 
 it.  If  any  thing  connected  with  the  memory  of  past  ages  be  calcu- 
 lated to  awaken  local  enthusiasm,  the  land  around  this  city  is 
 eminently  entitled  to  that  distinction.  The  sacred  record  of 
 events  transacted  in  the  fields  of  Shechem  is  from  our  earliest 
 years  remembered  with  delight.  "Along  the  valley,"  observes 
 a  late  traveller,  "  we  beheld  a  company  of  Ishmaelites  coming 
 from  Gilead,  as  in  the  days  of  Reuben  and  Judah,  with  their 
 camels,  bearing  spicery,  and  balm,  and  myrrh;  who  would  gladly 
 have  purchased  another  Joseph  of  his  brethren,  and  conveyed 
 him  as  a  slave  to  some  Potiphar  in  Egypt.  Upon  the  hills  around 
 flocks  and  herds  were  feeding  as  of  old;  nor  in  the  simple  garb 
 of  the  shepherds  of  Samaria  was  there  any  thing  to  contradict 
 the  notions  we  may  entertain  of  the  appearance  formerly  exhibit- 
 ed by  the  sons  of  Jacob." — Ed.  Cab.  Lib. — Ed. 
 
 d  It  is  much  to  be  questioned,  whether  the  well  that  is  at 
 present  shown  to  travellers  as  Jacob's  well,  be  that  where  our 
 Saviour  discoursed  with  the  Samaritan  woman,  because  it  seems  t<? 
 be  too  remote  from  the  town  for  women  to  come  thitherto  draw 
 water;  unless  we  may  suppose  that  the  city  did  formerly  extend 
 itself  farther  that  way  than  it  does  now.  However  this  be,  the 
 well  is  at  present  covered  with  a  small  vault,  into  which  you 
 get  down  by  a  very  strait  hole,  and  then  removing  a  broad 
 flat  stone,  you  discover  the  mouth  of  the  well  itself.  It  is  dug 
 in  a  firm  rock,  about  three  yards  in  diameter,  and  thirty-five  in 
 depth;  and  to  confute  the  story,  which  is  commonly  told  to  tra- 
 vellers, namely,  that  it  is  all  the  year  dry,  except  on  the  anni- 
 versary when  our  Saviour  sat  upon  it,  but  that  then  it  bubbles 
 up  with  abundance  of  water,  Mr  Maundrell  tells  us,  that  when 
 they  came  to  sound  it,  they  found  no  less  than  five  yards  of  water 
 in  it. —  Journey  from  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem;  and  Wells'  Geogra- 
 phy of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 e  The  chief  reasons  of  the  Jewish  hatred  against  the  Samari- 
 tans were  these  three  :  1.  the  foreign  extraction  of  the  Samari- 
 tans, they  being  most  of  them  descendants  from  the  Cutheans, 
 whom  Salmanazar  sent  to  Samaria,  when  he  carried  away  the 
 ten  tribes  into  captivity,  (2  Kings  xviii.  9.)  2.  the  difference  of 
 their  religion  and  worship,  forasmuch  as  that  of  the  Samaritans 
 was  a  kind  of  mixture  of  Jewish  and  Pagan  rites  together;  and, 
 3.  the  rival  temple,  which  the  Samaritans  had  built  on  Mount 
 Gerizim,  and  consecrated  to  Jupiter  Olympius,  in  order  to  avoid 
 the  persecution  of  Antiochus. — Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xii.  c.  2. 
 These  were  the  chief  causes  of  the  animosities  between  them. 
 The  Jews,  however,  did  not  carry  their  resentment  so  high,  but 
 that,  in  some  cases,  they  would  traffic  or  buy  any  thing  of  them  ; 
 but  then  the  Pharisees  came  in  with  a  tradition,  that  they  were 
 not  to  borrow  any  thing  of  them,  or  receive  any  kindness  from 
 them,  nor  drink  of  their  water,  nor  eat  of  their  morsels.  This, 
 however,  our  Lord  despised,  as  having  no  foundation  either  in 
 the  law  of  God  or  equity,  and  as  lending  to  impair  the  law  of 
 
Ssct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 861 
 
 A.M.  4031.  A.D  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28. 
 
 them  and  the  Jews  ?  Little  did  the  woman  know  the  ex- 
 cellency of  the  person  who  asked  her  so  small  a  favour  ; 
 but  in  some  measure  to  convince  her,  our  Lord  took 
 occasion  from  hence,  under  the  metaphor  of  water,  to 
 discourse  to  her  of  spiritual  blessings ;  and  to  make  her 
 sensible  of  his  omniscience,  he  reminded  her  of  some 
 passages  of  her  life,  particularly  of  the  a  five  times  she 
 had  been  divorced  for  her  adulteries,  and  of  the  state  of 
 fornication  wherein  she  then  lived. 
 
 Convinced  by  this  discovery  that  he  was  a  prophet, 
 she  propounded  to  him  the  great  question  so  much  con- 
 troverted between  the  Jews  and  Samaritans,  namely, 
 Which  was  the  proper  place  of  public  worship,  Gerizim 
 or  Jerusalem  ?  To  which  our  Saviour,  in  his  answer,  gives 
 manifestly  the  preference  to  the  Jewish  form  and  place 
 of  worship  ;  but  makes  it  a  question  of  no  great  moment, 
 since  the  time  was  approaching  when  all  sacrifices  and 
 ceremonial  rites  should  cease,  and  when  God,  who  is  a 
 spirit,  expected  to  be  worshipped  in  a  more  b  rational 
 and  spiritual  manner  than  hitherto  he  had  been. 
 
 common  friendship  and  humanity;  and  therefore  we  find  him 
 asking  to  drink  with  the  Samaritan  woman,  and  afterwards  going 
 into  the  city  and  eating  with  the  Sechemites. — Beaitsobre  and 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  The  words  of  the  text  are,  '  thou  hast  had  five  husbands ;' 
 but  whether  five  successively,  and  after  the  death  of  one  another 
 or  five  from  whom  she  had  been  divorced  for  adultery,  is  not 
 agreed.  The  most  modern  interpreters,  however,  judge  that 
 she  had  been  manned  to  five  several  men,  but  so  behaved  herself 
 towards  them,  that  for  her  adultery,  or  some  other  froward  be- 
 haviour, they  had  given  her  a  bill  of  divorce.  This  seems  more 
 likely  to  be  the  true  sense,  than  that,  after  the  death  of  five  legal 
 husbands,  she  should  live  in  whoredom  with  a  sixth  person. — 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  Jews  gave  out  that  the  Samaritans  worshipped  God 
 in  the  image  of  a  dove;  but  this  seems  to  be  a  mere  forgery  on 
 them.  1.  Because  among  all  the  idols  which  they  worshipped 
 when  they  came  from  Assyria,  there  is  not  the  least  hint  of  the 
 image  of  a  dove.  2.  Because  Josephus,  who,  in  several  places 
 of  his  history,  inveighs  against  them  bitterly,  does  no  where 
 charge  them  with  this  crime.  And,  3.  Because  it  is  a  thing 
 utterly  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  Moses,  which  they  embraced  ; 
 for,  as  it  forbids  all  images,  so  it  requires  men  to  sacrifice  the 
 dove  to  God ;  and  surely  nothing  can  be  more  absurd,  than  to 
 worship  that  which  we  are  bound  to  sacrifice.  It  is  very  likely, 
 therefore,  that  the  Samaritans  had  no  false  objects  of  worship 
 among  them,  and  yet  they,  as  well  as  the  Jews,  might  not  be 
 furnished  with  right  apprehensions  of  the  true  one.  They  both 
 were  to  blame,  no  doubt,  in  confining  the  worship  of  God  to 
 any  particular  place,  and  thinking  that  he  could  not  be  rightly 
 adored,  but  either  at  Gerizim,  according  to  the  one,  or  at  Jer- 
 usalem, according  to  the  other,  when  his  presence  is  certainly 
 e\ery  where,  and  in  every  nation,  'he  that  feareth  him,  and 
 worketh  righteousness,  is  accepted  with  him,'  Acts  x.  35.  They, 
 as  well  as  the  Jews,  might  think  that  God  was  pleased  with  out- 
 ward ordinances,  with  sacrifices  and  expiations,  which  sanctified 
 only  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh;  but  perhaps  they  never  sup- 
 posed that  these  things  were  but  types  and  figures  of  what  was 
 to  succeed,  and  therefore  to  be  of  no  longer  continuance,  than 
 until  the  substance  of  the  things  themselves  were  come.  They 
 doubtless  both  had  some  expectations  of  a  Messiah:  but  perhaps 
 it  never  entered  into  their  heads  that  he  should  be  the  angel  of  the 
 covenant,  who,  with  the  incense  of  his  blood,'  should  offer  up  the 
 prayers  of  all  the  saints  upon  the  altar  that  is  before  the  throne,' 
 Rev.  viii.  3.  So  that  our  Saviour,  by  this  part  of  his  discourse 
 with  the  woman,  plainly  intimates,  that,  after  his  resurrection, 
 and  the  promulgation  of  his  gospel,  not  only  the  Jews  and  Sama- 
 ritans, but  the  people  of  all  nations  whatever,  should  have  righter 
 notions  of  God,  the  only  object  of  religious  worship,  of  the  extent 
 and  universality  of  his  church,  of  the  qualifications  requisite  in 
 true  worshippers,  and  of  the  Mediator  appointed  by  God  to  in- 
 troduce and  enforce  their  prayers. — Whitby's  Annotations  and 
 Culmet's  Commentary. 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.8.  MARKii.  23.  LUKEvi.  I. 
 
 Our  Saviour,  before  he  had  done  talking  with  the 
 woman,  and  just  as  his  disciples  were  returned  from  the 
 city,  had  informed  her,  that  himself  was  the  '  Messiah 
 whom  she  spoke  of;  whereupon,  leaving  her  water-pots, 
 she  ran  into  the  city,  proclaiming  aloud  that  she  had  met 
 with  a  person  who  had  told  her  all  the  secrets  of  her 
 life,  and  who  could  be  no  other  than  that  great  prophet 
 who  was  to  come  into  the  world  ;  so  that  the  inhabitants 
 waited  on  him  at  the  well,  invited  him  into  their  city,  re- 
 ceived him  with  great  civility  ;  and  though  some  believ- 
 ed on  him  from  the  testimony  of  the  woman,  many  more 
 did  so,  from  their  own  conviction,  on  hearing  his  ser- 
 mons and  divine  discourses. 
 
 After  two  days'  stay  in  the  city,  our  Lord  proceeded 
 to  Cana,  where  he  had  changed  the  water  into  wine,  and 
 where  the  Galileans,  who  at  the  passover  had  seen  the 
 miracles  which  he  did  at  Jerusalem,  received  him  with 
 great  kindness  and  respect.  Hither  it  was  that  an  offi- 
 cer belonging  to  the  court  came,  and  addressed  himself 
 to  him  with  great  humility  and  reverence,  desiring  him 
 that  he  would  come  and  cure  his  son,  who  was  just  at 
 the  point  of  death ;  and  when,  with  more  importunity, 
 he  renewed  his  request,  and  our  Lord,  to  show  the  ex- 
 cellency of  his  power,  that  could  cure  in  absence  as 
 well  as  presence,  dismissed  him  with  this  assurance, that 
 his  son  was  restored  to  health,  the  believing  father  joy- 
 fully returning  home,  was  by  the  way  congratulated  with 
 the  welcome  news  of  his  son's  recovery ;  and  inquiring 
 of  his  servants  the  hour  when  the  child  began  to  amend, 
 by  the  account  which  they  gave  him  he  perceived  that 
 it  was  at  the  very  instant  that  Jesus  declared  to  him, 
 'thy  son  is  well :'  whereupon  both  he  and  his  whole  fami- 
 ly, being  convinced  of  our  Saviour's  divinity,  were  con- 
 verted to  the  Christian  faith. 
 
 The  imprisonment  of  John  had  put  an  end  to  his 
 ministry  ;  and  therefore,  to  supply  that  loss,  our  Saviour 
 himself  began  to  preach  the  sum  and  substance  of  the 
 gospel,  faith,  hope,  and  repentance,  in  the  province  of 
 Galilee  ;  and  this  he  did  in  such  an  extraordinary  man- 
 ner, that  he  was  admired  by  all,  and  his  fame  spread 
 through  the  whole  country.  Coming  however  to  Naza- 
 reth, the  place  of  his  education,  he  went  into  the  syna- 
 gogue c  on  the   sabbath-day,   and  when    he   stood  up, 
 
 1  Her  words  are,  '  I  know  that  the  Messiah  cometh,  who  is 
 called  Christ,'  John  iv.  25. 
 
 c  That  the  synagogue  worship  was,  at  this  time,  loaded  with 
 rites  and  ceremonies  of  human  invention,  that  the  priests  were 
 very  defective  in  the  discharge  of  their  functions,  and  the  man- 
 ners of  those  who  met  there  very  much  corrupted,  no  one  can 
 doubt,  who  is  at  all  acquainted  with  the  scriptures  and  the  Jewish 
 history;  and  yet  we  find  that  our  Saviour  and  his  disciples,  as 
 members  of  the  church  of  Nazareth,  went  constantly  every  sab- 
 bath-day to  these  synagogues,  preserving  thereby  '  the  unity  of  the 
 Spirit  in  the  bond  ol  peace,'  and  not  upon  slight  pretences  '  forsak- 
 ing the  assembling  of  themselves  together,  as  the  manner  ol  some 
 is,'  Heb.  x.  25. — Whitby's  Annotations.  The  scribes  ordinarily 
 taught  in  the  synagogues,  but  it  was  not  confined  to  them,  as  it 
 appears  that  Christ  did  the  same.  It  has  been  questioned  by 
 what  right  Christ  and  his  apostles,  who  had  no  public  character 
 among  the  Jews,  taught  in  their  synagogues.  In  answer  to  this 
 Dr  Lightl'oot  observes,  "  That  though  this  liberty  was  not  allow- 
 ed to  any  illiterate  person  or  mechanic,  but  to  the  learned  only, 
 they  granted  it  to  prophets  and  workers  of  miracles;  and  such  as 
 set  up  for  heads  and  leaders  of  new  sects,  in  order  that  they 
 might  inform  themselves  of  their  dogmata,  and  not  condemn 
 them  unheard  and  unknown.  Under  this  character  Christ  and 
 his  apostles  were  admitted  to  this  privilege. 
 
862 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.8.  MARK  li.  23.  LUKE  vi.  l. 
 
 and  read,  a  as  the  custom  for  laymen  was  at  that  time,  a 
 passage  in  the  prophet  Isaiah,  beginning  with  these 
 words,  l  '  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  nie,  because  he 
 hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor,'  &c. 
 which  he  applied  to  himself,  but  in  general  terms,  and 
 spake  thereupon  with  so  much  gracefulness,  that  the 
 eyes  of  the  whole  congregation  were  turned  upon  him, 
 admiring  his  discourse ;  many  who  had  known  him  in 
 the  disadvantages  of  his  education,  began  to  have  abject 
 thoughts  of  him  upon  the  meanness  of  his  extract,  as  if  he 
 had  been  no  more  than  a  carpenter's  son ;  so  that  his 
 taking  an  occasion  to  upbraid  them  with  their  ingratitude 
 and  insensibility,  so  far  provoked  the  whole  assembly, 
 that  they  hurried  him  out  of  the  city,  and  brought  him 
 to  the  brow  of  the  hill  on  which  it  was  built,  with  a  de- 
 sign to  have  b  cast  him  down  from  thence,  and  destroy- 
 ed him,  had  not  he,  by  a  miraculous  power,  c  withdrawn 
 himself  from  the  fury  of  these  wretched  people,  and  left 
 their  city. 
 
 This  barbarous  treatment  of  the  Nazarenes  made  our 
 Saviour  remove  from  them,  and  settle  his  habitation  in 
 Capernaum,  which  was  the  metropolis  of  Galilee,  and  by 
 
 1  Isaiah  lxi.  1. 
 
 a  What  the  nature  and  design  of  synagogues  were,  and  at  what 
 time,  and  upon  what  occasion  they  were  at  first  erected  by  the 
 Jews,  we  have,  in  a  particular  dissertation,  already  discussed,  and 
 need  only  take  notice  that,  though  every  synagogue  had  a  settled 
 reader,  to  whom  was  allowed  an  annual  stipend,  yet,  when  any  grave 
 and  learned  person  came  in,  especially  if  he  was  a  stranger,  it 
 was  customary  to  make  him  the  compliment  of  reading  the  por- 
 tion of  scripture  appointed  for  the  day,  (Acts  xiii.  15.)  which 
 he  always  did  in  a  standing  posture.  For,  as  the  law  was  given 
 with  reverence,  say  the  Jews,  so  it  is  to  be  handled  with  reve- 
 rence;  and,  when  he  had  read  what  he  thought  fit,  he  might,  if 
 he  was  so  disposed  and  qualified,  expound  and  comment  upon  it. 
 The  character  which  John  the  Baptist  had  given  of  our  Saviour, 
 and  the  miracles  which  he  had  lately  done  in  Cana  and  Caper- 
 naum, might  possibly  excite  the  curiosity  of  the  master  of  the 
 synagogue  to  hear  him  read  and  expound ;  read  in  Hebrew,  and 
 expound  in  Chaldee,  as  Ezra  had  introduced  the  custom.  In 
 reading  the  law,  people  were  confined  to  the  lesson  of  the  day ;  but 
 the  rabbins  have  observed,  that,  in  reading  the  prophets,  there 
 was  a  greater  license  allowed;  and  therefore,  though  our  Saviour 
 might  read  just  where  the  book  opened,  yet  there  seems  to  be  a 
 good  deal  of  the  hand  of  God  in  directing  him  to  a  place  which  re- 
 lated to  himself,  and  gave  him  so  lair  an  opportunity  of  declaring 
 the  purpose  of  his  coming  into  the  world,  namely,  to  publish  re- 
 demption and  liberty,  pardon  and  reconciliation  with  God. 
 
 b  Such  kinds  of  popular  executions  were  sometimes  tolerated, 
 and,  under  pretence  of  zeal  for  the  law,  several  were  put  to  death, 
 especially  in  times  of  public  calamity,  and  when  the  Jews  were 
 in  their  greatest  distress,  (Josephus  on  the  Jewish  IFar,  b.  5.) 
 without  the  formality  of  justice.  But  what  made  the  Nazarenes 
 so  exceedingly  outrageous  against  our  Saviour  was,  his  declaring 
 them  unworthy  of  the  miracles  he  had  done  at  Capernaum,  his 
 equalizing  himself  to  some  of  the  greatest  of  the  ancient  prophets, 
 and,  by  the  instances  of  the  Sidonian  woman,  and  Naaman  the 
 Syrian,  plainly  intimating  that  his  gospel  should  chiefly  be  re- 
 ceived  by  the  Gentiles Calmet's  Commentary,  and    JFhitby's 
 
 Annotations . 
 
 c  How  he  got  out  of  their  hands,  when  they  had  laid  hold  of 
 him,  the  scripture  does  not  tell  us;  nor  is  it  our  concern  to  be 
 curious  to  inquire.  We  know  very  well  that  it  was  an  easy 
 thing  for  him,  who  was  God  as  well  as  man,  to  quit  himself  of 
 any  mortal  enemies;  but  how  he  did  it,  whether  it  was  by  blind- 
 ing them  for  the  present,  or  making  himself  invisible,  or  merely 
 by  allaying  their  rage  and  changing  their  wills,  it  is  impossible 
 to  determine.  Which  way  soever  he  did  it,  it  was  certainly 
 something  miraculous,  and  therefore  deprived  the  Nazarenes  of 
 the  liberty  of  complaining  that  he  had  done  no  miracles  among 
 them. — Poole's  Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 reason  of  the  lake  2  which  was  near  it,  a  place  highly 
 convenient  for  his  designs.  He  had  not  long  been  here 
 before  great  multitudes  flocked  to  him  ;  and  as  he  was 
 walking  one  day  by  the  side  of  the  lake,  with  a  crowd 
 of  people  pressing  upon  him,  he  saw  two  fishing  ves- 
 sels, d  one  belonging  to  Peter  and  Andrew,  and  the  other 
 to  James  and  John,  who  were  all  partners  and  companions 
 in  that  business,  and  stepping  into  Peter's  ship,  he  de- 
 sired him  to  put  a  little  from  the  shore,  that  from  thence 
 he  might  preach  to  the  people. 
 
 Peter  and  his  companions  had  been  hard  at  work  all 
 night,  but  without  any  manner  of  success ;  and,  therefore, 
 when  sermon  was  ended,  and  our  Saviour  ordered  Peter 
 to  launch  out  further,  and  to  let  down  his  nets  for  a 
 draught,  he  modestly  told  him  of  their  unsuccessful  toil- 
 ing all  night,  but,  nevertheless,  in  obedience  to  him,  he 
 was  willing  :  nor  had  he  cause  to  repent ;  for,  upon 
 letting  down  the  nets,  they  inclosed  such  a  multitude  of 
 fishes,  that  their  tackle  began  to  break,  so  that  they  were 
 forced  to  call  to  their  partners  in  the  other  ships,  to  come 
 to  their  assistance,  because  the  draught  was  such  that  it 
 loaded  both  the  vessels  so  very  deep,  that  they  were  in 
 some  danger  of  sinking  before  they  got  to  shore. 
 
 Amazed  at  this  marvellous  sight,  and  dreading  the 
 visible  appearance  of  so  great  and  so  divine  a  power  just 
 by  him,  Peter  threw  himself  down  at  our  Saviour's  feet, 
 desiring  him  to  e  depart  from  him,  because  he  was  a 
 person  no  ways  worthy  of  his  presence.     But  our  Saviour 
 
 a  For  an  account  of  this  lake,  see  page  352. — Ed. 
 
 d  St  Matthew  and  St  Mark,  in  their  relations  of  this  trans- 
 action, are  pretty  uniform:  but  St  Luke  differs  from  them  so 
 widely,  that  interpreters  have  been  at  some  pains  to  reconcile 
 them.  For,  whereas  the  two  former  tell  us,  that  these  fishermen 
 were  casting  a  net  into  the  sea.  St  Luke  informs  us,  that  they 
 were  gone  out  of  their  ships,  and  had  washed  their  nets,  besides 
 some  other  variation  in  the  manner  of  the  call  of  the  four  apostles. 
 But  not  to  enter  into  a  minute  examination  of  particulars,  we 
 ought  to  consider,  that  some  allowances  are  reasonable,  and  ne- 
 cessary to  be  made  for  the  variation  of  circumstances  in  one  his- 
 torian, who  makes  it  his  business  to  recount  matters  distinctly, 
 and  at  large,  and  in  another,  whose  intention  it  is,  only  to  de- 
 clare facts  in  general,  without  entering  into  the  series  and  order 
 of  each  action.  Now,  this  is  the  case  of  the  two  former  evangelists, 
 they  designed  no  more  than  a  summary  account  of  these  four 
 apostles'  call,  and  their  compliance  with  it;  and  therefore  they 
 contented  themselves  with  setting  down  a  part,  so  much  first,  as 
 relates  to  Andrew  and  Peter,  and  afterwards  what  related  to 
 James  and  John.  But  St  Luke,  who  proposes  to  show  the  man- 
 ner and  whole  process  of  the  call,  records  the  miracle  at  large, 
 and  interweaves  several  remarkable  passages,  which  were  not 
 needful  to  be  mentioned  in  the  brief  account  of  St  Matthew  and 
 St  Mark,  but  highly  conducive  to  St  Luke's  purpose  of  under- 
 taking to  describe  the  miraculous  draught  of  fishes,  (Luke  v.  10.) 
 which,  upon  our  Lord's  command  to  make  a  fresh  experiment, 
 was  taken. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  arid  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 e  We  have  several  instances,  both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
 ment, of  persons  struck  with  dreadful  apprehensions  at  the  pre- 
 sence of  the  divine  majesty,  or  even  of  some  angel  or  a  prophet 
 delivering  a  message  from  him.  And  therefore  Giotius  supposes 
 that  Peter's  case  was  much  the  same  with  that  of  the  widow  of 
 Sarepta,  when  she  complained  to  Elijah,  '  What  have  1  to  do 
 with  thee,  O  thou  man  of  God,  art  thou  come  unto  me  to  call 
 my  sins  to  remembrance  ?'  (1  Kings  xvii.  18.)  But  others  more 
 justly  think  that  Peter's  words  are  expressive,  rather  of  his  high 
 sentiments  of  our  Lord,  and  the  consciousness  of  his  own  un- 
 worthiness  to  be  found  in  such  a  person's  company,  and  that 
 therefore  they  do  not  a  little  resemble  that  glorious  declaration  of 
 the  centurion  in  the  gospel,  '  Lord,  I  am  not  worthy  that  thou 
 shouldst  come  under  my  roof,  but  speak  the  word  only,  and  my 
 servant  shall  be  healed,'  (Mat.  viii.  8.) — Calmet's  Commentary; 
 and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FR(M  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 863 
 
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 bid  him  be  of  good  comfort,  and  from  the  present  inci- 
 dent, took  occasion  to  inform  him  that  he  had  a  nobler 
 work  and  employment  for  him.  even  the  a  gaining  of  men's 
 souls  to  salvation,  if  he  would  adjoin  himself  to  him;  and 
 having  given  the  like  invitation  to  the  other  three,  An- 
 drew, James,  and  John,  they  all  obeyed  his  call,  and  leav- 
 ing their  vessels,  nets,  relations,  and  employments,  *  be- 
 came ever  after  his  constant  and  inseparable  disciples. 
 
 After  the  choice  of  these  four  disciples,  our  Saviour 
 returned  with  them  into  the  city;  and,  on  the  next  sabbath 
 day  went  into  the  chief  synagogue,  and  there  preached 
 to  the  people,  with  so  much  force  and  authority,  and  in 
 a  manner  so  widely  different  from  their  usual  teachers 
 the  scribes,  c  that  all  were  astonished  at  him;  and  to  in- 
 
 a  The  words  in  our  translation  are,  '  From  henceforth  thou 
 shalt  catch  men,'  hut  in  the  Greek  cttta  too  tvv  avUoavoui  i<rn 
 Z,uiyoa*,  there  is  something  very  remarkable.  For  it  does  not 
 say  that  Peter  should  catch  men,  as  people  generally  do  wild 
 beasts  or  fishes,  in  order  to  kill  them,  and  eat  them;  but  that  he 
 should  take  them  alive,  as  such  fish  and  wild  creatures  are  taken 
 that  are  designed  to  be  put  in  stews  and  parks ;  and  therefore  the 
 sense  of  the  word  is,  '  Thou  shalt  be  a  fisher  of  men,'  but  such  a 
 fisher,  as  shall  preserve  them  alive;  as  shall  retrieve  them,  in 
 short,  from  error  anil  ignorance,  and  death  ;  and  conduct  them  to 
 truth  and  knowledge,  and  eternal  life. —  Hammond's  Paraphrase; 
 and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Towards  the  conclusion  of  the  first  chapter  of  St  John's 
 gospel,  we  meet  with  a  call  of  some  five  of  our  Lord's  disciples 
 about  a  year  prior  to  this;  but,  by  the  account  of  the  other 
 evangelists,  it  appears  that  they  did  not,  at  this  time,  become 
 our  Saviour's  constant  attendants,  because  it  is  presumable,  that 
 though  he  took  this  opportunity  to  make  himself  known  to  them, 
 yet  he  had  not  as  yet  any  immediate  occasion  for  them,  and 
 therefore  remitted  them  to  their  respective  trades.  Only  Philip 
 is  supposed  to  have  retained  to  him  fiom  the  very  first,  because 
 he  seems  to  have  called  him  in  a  formal  manner,  as  he  did  not, 
 at  that  time,  the  rest,  (John  i.  43.);  and  because  we  find  no 
 further  interview  between  him  and  Philip  upon  this  score,  as 
 there  was  between  him  and  three,  at  least,  of  the  rest,  (Luke  v. 
 10,  1 1.)  These  three  disciples,  therefore,  namely,  Andrew,  Peter, 
 and  John,  were  twice  called ;  but  the  former  calling  was  rather 
 a  warning  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  for  it,  than  an  actual 
 engaging  them  in  his  service;  hut  now  in  Philip  we  meet  with 
 no  other  call  than  what  he  had  at  first;  and,  therefore,  though 
 the  fathers,  and  some  ancient  writers,  have  given  the  honour  to 
 St  Andrew,  of  being  the  first  disciple ;  yet  that  prerogative  is 
 evidently  St  Philip's.  For,  though  Andrew  and  Peter  were  the 
 first  that  came  and  conversed  with  our  Lord,  yet  we  find  them 
 returning  to  their  trades  again,  and  not  ordained  to  their  dis- 
 Cipleship,  till  after  the  time  that  the  Baptist  was  cast  into  prison. 
 — fieausobre's  Annotations,  and  Calmefs  Commentary;  and 
 Howell's  History,  b.  ii.  in  the  notes. 
 
 C  There  are  several  opinions  wherein  the  excellency  of 
 Clirist's  preaching,  above  that  of  the  Jewish  doctors,  did  consist. 
 Some  think  that  his  teaching  was  not  so  much  in  the  manner  of 
 an  instructor,  as  a  legislator,  and  one  who,  in  his  own  name,  had 
 power  to  propound  the  terms  of  life  and  death.  But  though  this, 
 in  relation  to  Christ's  divinity,  be  certainly  true,  yet  it  is  not  so 
 agreeable,  either  to  his  prophetic  office,  or  his  frequent  declara- 
 tions, '  that  the  doctrine  which  he  taught  was  not  his  own,  hut 
 his  who  sent  him;  and  that  he  spake  not  of  himself,  but  as  his 
 Father  had  commanded  him,'  (John  vii.  16'.  and  xi.  61.)  Others 
 imagine,  that  the  excellency  of  Christ's  preaching  consisted  in 
 the  miracles  wherewith  he  confirmed  his  doctrine:  for  so  the 
 evangelist  represents  the  matter:  '  They  all  marvelled,  saying, 
 What  new  doctrine  is  this  ?  For  with  authority  he  commanded 
 the  unclean  spirits,  and  they  obey  him.'  (Mark  i.  27.)  But  he- 
 cause  another  evangelist  tells  us,  that  it  was  his  doctrine,  with- 
 out his  miracles,  that  astonished  the  people,  (Mat.  vii.  29.) 
 Others  are  of  opinion,  that  his  excellency  lay  in  the  graceful  and 
 lively  manner  of  his  delivery,  not  like  the  teachers  of  the  Jews, 
 who  read  their  lectures  of  the  law  so  coldly,  so  perfunctorily,  as 
 never  to  affect  the  hearts  of  their  hearers:  and  that,  in  short,  he 
 spake  as  a  prophet,  who  had  a  full  commission  from  God  to  de- 
 liver his  message  to  them  ;  not  as  the  scribes,  who  pretended  only 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  be.  8.  MARKii  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 crease  their  admiration,  one  in  the  congregation,  whose 
 body  was  possessed  with  an  unclean  spirit,  d  cried  out 
 in  a  hideous  manner,  '  Let  us  alone,  what  have  we  to  do 
 with  thee,  thou  Jesus  of  Nazareth?  Art  thou  come  to 
 destroy  us  ?  *  I  know  thee  who  thou  art ;  the  Holy  One 
 of  God.'  But  Jesus,  who  wanted  the  testimony  of  no 
 such  confessors,  commanded  his  silence,  and  departure 
 out  of  the  poor  man's  body  ;  which  immediately  was 
 done,  to  the  great  surprise  and  amazement  of  all  the 
 spectators. 
 
 From  the  synagogue  our  Lord  retired  to  Peter"* 
 house,  where  his  wife's  mother  lay  sick  of  a  fever ;  but, 
 upon  his  approaching  the  bedside,  and  taking  her  by  the 
 hand,  he  commanded  the  fever  /  to  depart,  and  that  mo- 
 
 to  deliver  the  traditions  of  their  forefathers. — TFhitby's  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Those  who  are  minded  to  depreciate  our  Saviour's  miracles 
 will  needs  persuade  us  that  the  Jews,  having  a  notion  that  the 
 diseases  whose  symptoms  they  could  not  account  for  were  in- 
 flicted by  devils,  whom  God  might  employ  to  chastise  mankind, 
 did  therefore  give  the  name  of  evil  spirits  to  several  distempers 
 which  proceeded  merely  from  natural  causes ;  that,  of  these  dis- 
 tempers, such  as  had  any  thing  loathsome  or  nauseous  attending 
 them,  they  generally  called  by  the  name  of  '  an  unclean  spirit;' 
 and  that,  because  sepulchres,  of  all  other  places,  were  reputed  the 
 most  polluted;  therefore  whenever  any  crazy  or  melancholic 
 people  took  it  in  their  heads  to  frequent  such  places,  they  were 
 always  said  to  be  possessed  with  such  spirits ;  see  Heausobre's 
 Annotations  on  Mat.  iv.  24.  and  x.  1.  But  how  groundless  this 
 whole  hypothesis  is,  we  shall  take  occasion  to  show  at  large,  in 
 our  answer  to  the  objections  belonging  to  this  chapter. 
 
 e  It  may  justly  be  made  a  question,  whether  the  devil,  who 
 possessed  this  man,  did  actually  know  our  Saviour  to  be  the  Son 
 of  God,  as  he  pretended  ?  There  are  two  evangelists  who  relate 
 this  miracle,  and,  in  the  conclusion  of  it,  both  tell  us  that  our 
 Saviour  '  suffered  not  the  devils  to  speak,  because  they  knew  him 
 to  be  Christ,'  (Mark  i.  34;  Luke  iv.  41.)  But,  notwithstand- 
 ing this,  some  interpreters  do  not  scruple  to  affirm  the  contrary, 
 namely,  that  the  devil  had  no  perfect  perception  of  our  Lord's 
 divinity,  until  his  resurrection  from  the  dead.  The  state  of 
 humiliation  which  he  chose,  the  obscurity  in  which  he  lived,  and 
 the  persecutions  which  he  suffered,  without  ever  employing  his 
 power  to  redress  them;  the  care  which  he  took  to  conceal  his 
 most  renowned  actions,  and  to  refer  the  glory  of  them  all  to  God 
 alone,  deceived  the  devil,  and  kept  him  in  suspense.  For,  had 
 he  known  Jesus,  say  they,  he  would  never  have  put  it  into  the 
 heart  of  Judas  to  betray,  or  of  the  Jews  to  crucify  him,  since 
 this  was  the  proper  way  to  accomplish  man's  redemption.  But 
 the  answer  to  this  is  obvious.  That  though  the  devil  did  know 
 Jesus  to  be  the  Messiah,  yet  he  did  not  know  the  mystery  of 
 man's  redemption.  When  he  first  essayed  our  Lord  in  his  temp- 
 tations, he  spake  indeed  in  a  different  manner,  '  If  thou  he  the 
 Son  of  God ;'  but  by  his  defeat  he  soon  perceived  that  his  anta- 
 gonist was  more  than  man.  Though,  therefore,  he  perfectly 
 knew  him  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  yet  seeing  him  invested  with 
 our  nature,  he  might,  very  likely,  be  so  far  infatuated  as  to  think 
 that,  by  destroying  his  humanity,  he  might  possibly  defeat  God's 
 great  design.  For  how  sublime  soever  we  may  suppose  his  in- 
 tellective faculties  to  be,  yet  the  wonderful  work  of  man's  salva- 
 tion by  the  death  of  Christ,  the  apostle  plainly  tells  us,  is  what 
 no  finite  understanding  could  comprehend,  until  '  God  was  pleased 
 to  make  all  men  see  what  is  the  fellowship  of  the  mystery,  which 
 from  the  beginning  of  the  world  hath  been  hid  in  God,  to  the  in- 
 tent that  now,  unto  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places, 
 might  he  known  by  the  church,  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God,  ac- 
 cording to  the  eternal  purpose,  which  he  purposed  in  Christ  Jesus 
 our  Lord,'  Eph.  iii.  9,  Kcc. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 f  Fevers  are  common  distempers,  and  very  often  cured  by 
 ordinary  means,  so  that  the  nature  of  this  miracle  did  not  lie  in 
 the  cure  of  an  incurable  disease,  but  in  the  manner  of  the  cure, 
 which  was  with  a  touch ;  the  suddenness  of  it ;  her  fever  imme- 
 diately left  her ;  and  the  perfectness  of  it,  in  that  she  was  able  to 
 rise  and  wait  on  the  company.  This  is  said  to  be  Peter's  wile's 
 mother;  and  from  hence  it  may  he  presumed,  that  Peter,  who 
 was  himself  of  Bethsaida,  had  married  a  woman  of  Capernaum, 
 
861 
 
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 nient  restored  her  to  such  perfect  health,  that  immediate- 
 ly she  arose,  and,  as  if  she  had  never  been  sick,  waited 
 on  the  company.  This,  and  the  other  miracle  in  the 
 synagogue,  as  soon  as  the  sun  was  set,  and  the  sabbath 
 ended,  gathered  all  the  city  together  about  Peter's  house, 
 bringing  demoniacs,  a  and  diseased  people  of  all  kinds, 
 and  begging  the  relief  of  this  heavenly  physician,  who 
 very  readily  cured  them  all,  by  a  touch  only,  or  the  im- 
 position of  his  hand. 
 
 The  next  morning  he  retired  very  early  into  a  private 
 place,  that,  being  free  from  the  noise  and  importunities 
 of  the  multitude,  he  might  have  an  opportunity  to  pray  ; 
 but  even  in  his  solitude  he  was  found  out ;  and  therefore, 
 to  disengage  himself  from  such  a  crowd  of  attendants, 
 he  told  his  disciples  that  the  purport  of  his  mission  was 
 to  preach  the  gospel  in  other  neighbouring  cities ;  and, 
 therefore,  leaving  Capernaum,  he  made  a  progress  into 
 Galilee,  preaching  in  their  public  synagogues,  curing  all 
 kinds  of  distempers,  and  dispossessing  all  demoniacs 
 that  were  brought  to  him. 
 
 In  his  progress  through  Galilee,  he  met  with  a  man 
 overspread  with  a  foul  leprosy,  b  whom,  upon  his  humble 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1 
 
 petition,  with  one  touch  c  he  immediately  healed,  but  at 
 the  same  time  d  gave  him  direct  charge  not  to  discover 
 it  to  any  one,  until  he  e  had  presented  himself  before  the 
 
 and  there  lived  with  his  mother-in-law. — Poole  and  Beausobre's 
 Annotations. 
 
 a  This  plainly  shows,  that  the  curing  of  diseases,  and  the  cast- 
 ing out  of  devils,  were  two  distinct  things,  and  consequently  the 
 error  of  those  who,  in  their  annotations  upon  the  very  texts 
 where  they  are  mentioned  separately,  endeavour  to  persuade  us 
 that  the  devils  cast  out  were  only  diseases. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  No  disease  with  which  the  human  family  has  been  afflicted, 
 has  been  more  dreadful  than  that  which  is  often  mentioned  in  the 
 Bible  as  the  leprosy.  It  first  exhibits  itself  on  the  surface  of  the 
 skin.  The  appearance  is  not  always  the  same,  but  it  commonly 
 resembles  the  spot  made  by  the  puncture  of  a  pin,  or  the  pustules 
 of  a  ring  worm.  The  spots  generally  make  their  appearance  very 
 suddenly.  Perhaps  its  appearance  might  be  hastened  by  any 
 sudden  passion,  as  fear  or  anger.  (See  Num.  xii.  10;  2  Chron. 
 xxvi.  19.)  The  spots  commonly  exhibit  themselves,  at  first,  on 
 the  face,  about  the  nose  and  eyes,  and  increase  in  size  a  number  of 
 years,  till  they  become  as  large  as  a  pea  or  a  bean.  There  are 
 three  kinds  of  leprosy,  distinguished  by  the  appearance  of  the 
 spots  :  the  white,  the  black,  and  the  red  leprosy.  These  spots, 
 though  few  at  first,  gradually  spread  till  they  cover  the  whole  body. 
 But  though  the  appearance  of  the  disease  is  at  first  in  the  skin,  yet 
 it  is  deeply  seated  in  the  bones,  and  marrow,  and  joints  of  the  body. 
 We  have  reason  to  suppose  that  it  is  concealed  in  the  system 
 for  a  number  of  years,  in  children,  till  they  arrive  at  the  age  of 
 puberty;  and  in  adults,  for  three  or  four  years,  till  at  last  it  gives 
 fearful  indications  on  the  skin  of  its  having  gained  a  well  rooted 
 and  permanent  existence.  A  leprous  person  may  live  twenty,  or 
 thirty,  or  even  fifty  years,  if  he  received  the  disease  at  his  birth, 
 but  they  will  be  years  of  indescribable  misery.  The  bones  and 
 marrow  are  pervaded  with  the  disease.  The  malady  advances 
 from  one  stage  to  another  with  slow  and  certain  ruin.  '  Life 
 still  lingers  amidst  the  desolation;'  the  joints,  and  hands,  and 
 feet,  lose  their  power;  and  the  body  collapses,  or  falls  together, 
 in  a  form  hideous  and  awful.  There  is  a  form  of  the  disease  in 
 which  it  commences  at  the  extremities  :  the  joints  separate;  the 
 fingers,  toes,  and  other  members  one  by  one  fall  oh"';  and  the 
 malady  thus  gradually  approaches  the  seat  of  life.  The  wretched 
 victim  is  thus  doomed  to  see  himself  dying  piecemeal,  assured 
 that  no  human  power  can  arrest  for  a  moment  the  silent  and 
 steady  march  of  this  foe  to  the  seat  of  life.  This  disease  is  con- 
 tagious and  hereditary.  It  is  easily  communicated  from  one  to 
 another,  and  is  transmitted  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 
 The  last  generation  that  is  afflicted  with  it  commonly  exhibits 
 the  symptoms  by  decayed  teeth,  and  fetid  breath,  and  diseased 
 complexion.  Moses  gave  particular  directions  by  which  the  real 
 leprosy  was  to  be  distinguished  from  other  diseases.  (See  Lev.  xiii.) 
 The  leprous  person  was,  in  order  to  avoid  contagion,  very  pro- 
 perly separated  from  the  congregation.  The  inspection  of  the 
 disease  was  committed  to  the  priest;  and  a  declaration  on  his 
 part  that  the  person  was  healed,  was  sufficient  evidence  to  re- 
 
 store the  afflicted  man  to  the  congregation.  It  was  required  also 
 that  the  leprous  person  should  bring  an  offering  to  the  priest  of 
 two  birds,  commonly  doves,  one  of  which  was  slain,  and 
 the  other  dismissed,  (see  Lev.  xiv.)  In  compliance  with  the 
 laws  of  the  land,  Jesus  directed  the  man  that  he  had  healed  to 
 make  the  customary  offering,  and  to  obtain  the  testimony  of  the 
 priest  that  he  was  healed. — Barnes  on  the  Gospels. — Ed. 
 
 c  But  how  came  our  Saviour  to  run  the  hazard  of  making 
 himself  unclean,  (Lev.  v.  3,)  by  touching  one  that  was  mani- 
 festly so?  No,  whatever  the  law  concerning  the  leper's  unclean- 
 ness  might  be,  it  seems  as  if  the  priest  that  officiated  about  him 
 was  not  affected  by  it,  because  we  find  him  directed  to  make  so 
 near  an  examination  and  inspection  into  his  distemper,  (Lev. 
 xiii.  14,  &c.)  Aaron,  we  may  observe,  though  he  officiated 
 about  his  sister  Miriam  in  her  leprosy,  is  not  said  to  have  con- 
 tracted any  pollution  by  it;  and  therefore  well  might  a  much 
 greater  high  priest  than  Aaron,  in  virtue  of  his  office,  claim  the 
 same  immunity.  But  then,  in  virtue  of  his  divinity,  it  was  im- 
 possible for  him  to  incur  any  legal  uncleanness.  As  therefore  the 
 effect  wrought  upon  this  leper  was  a  plain  demonstration,  that 
 the  finger  of  God  was  in  it,  and  he  consequently  approved  pf 
 the  action;  so  the  Jews  make  it  a  received  rule,  that  a  prophet 
 might  vary  from,  and  even  change,  the  ritual  law:  and  from 
 hence  we  may  infer,  that  as  Elijah  and  Elisha  both  might  touch 
 the  dead  children  whom  they  raised  to  life  again,  without  im- 
 putation of  uncleanness,  (1  Kings  xvii.  19,  and  2  Kings  iv.  34,) 
 so  might  our  Saviour  touch  this  leper:  though  the  opinion  of 
 some  is,  that  he  did  not  properly  touch  him  as  a  leper,  because 
 the  moment  that  he  stretched  out  his  hand,  the  leprosy  was 
 cured:  but  if  it  were  not,  the  observation  of  Theophylact,  on 
 Luke  vii.  13,  still  stands  good,  namely,  "That  our  Lord  might 
 touch  the  leper,  in  order  to  show  that  it  was  not  necessary  to 
 observe  those  lesser  matters  of  the  law;  that  touching  an  un- 
 clean person  did  not  defile  one  that  was  pure  himself;  and  that 
 the  only  thing  indeed  that  did  defile  was  the  leprosy  of  the  soul. 
 Calmet's  Commentary,  and  IFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  If  it  be  asked,  why  our  Saviour  should  so  often  command 
 the  concealing  his  miracles?  we  may  assign  for  reasons,  not  only 
 his  modesty  and  great  humility,  that  there  might  be  no  appear- 
 ance of  ostentation  in  him,  and  that  the  Jews  might  have  no 
 pretence  to  accuse  him  of  seeking  his  own  glory,  (Mat.  xii.  16,) 
 but  because  at  this  time  it  vvas  not  proper  to  irritate  the  scribes 
 and  Pharisees,  who  had  already  made  him  quit  Judea,  too 
 much.  He  knew  that  in  such  a  determinate  space,  they  would 
 bring  about  what  God  in  his  counsel  had  decreed.  In  the  mean 
 time,  he  was  to  '  work  the  works  of  him  that  sent  him,  while  it 
 was  day,'  (John  ix.  4,)  and  to  propagate  his  gospel,  as  much  as 
 possibly  he  could,  both  among  the  Jews  and  the  Gentiles,  which 
 could  not  have  been  so  conveniently  done,  if  the  greatness  of  his 
 miracles  had  once  provoked  the  malice  and  envy  of  his  enemies 
 to  make  their  utmost  opposition  against  him.  He  knew  likewise 
 the  mad  and  capricious  humour  of  the  multitude,  and  had  rea- 
 son to  apprehend  that  they  might  '  come  and  take,  him  away  by 
 force,  and  make  him  a  king,'  (John  vi.  15,)  if  all  his  miracles 
 had  been  blazed  abroad,  before  he  had  sufficiently  instructed  them 
 in  the  spiritual  nature  of  his  kingdom.  As  therefore  he  was  far 
 from  being  a  friend  to  popularity  or  sedition,  he  desired  that 
 several  of  his  miracles  might  be  suppressed,  lest  any  bad  con- 
 sequences should  attend  the  publication  of  them,  until  his  own 
 resurrection  from  the  dead  should  be  an  undeniable  proof  and 
 confirmation  of  all  the  rest.  And  this  I  take  to  be  the  reason  of 
 his  referring  the  Pharisees,  when  they  came  to  demand  a  sign 
 of  him,  to  that  of  the  prophet  Jonah,  (Mat.  xii.  39,)  whereby 
 he  implied  that  he  would  use  no  more  means  for  their  convic- 
 viction,  until,  by  the  miracle  of  his  resurrection,  his  divine 
 power,  and  the  completion  of  the  ancient  types  and  prophecies 
 should  be  so  di lucidly  manifested,  as  to  leave  them  without  any 
 excuse. — Calmet's  Commentary;  Beausobre  and  Hammond's 
 Annotations. 
 
 e  The  priesthood,  at  this  time,  was  much  degenerated  from 
 its  primitive  institution,  and  many  human  rites  and  ordinances 
 were  added  to  God's  law  concerning  the  priest's  examination  of 
 the  leper  who  pretended  to  be  clean ;  and  yet  our  Lord  sent  this 
 leper  to  submit  to  all  these  newly  invented  ceremonies,  as  know- 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 865 
 
 A.M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OFGOSP,  TO  MAT.ix.8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKEvv.'.!. 
 
 priest,  and  offered  the  sacrifice  that  was  appointed  for  a 
 testimony  a  of  his  cure  :  but  the  poor  man,  out  of  the 
 abundance  of  his  joy,  could  not  refrain  from  publishing 
 it  abroad  wherever  he  came,  which  still  increased  our 
 Saviour's  fame,  so  that  he  avoided  returning  openly  to 
 Capernaum,  lest  the  multitude  of  his  followers  should 
 give  some  umbrage  to  the  state  ;  and  therefore,  having 
 finished  his  progress  through  Galilee,  which  lasted  for 
 almost  three  months,  he  retired  into  a  desert  place,  and 
 there  employed  some  part  of  his  time  in  prayer. 
 
 Upon  leaving  his  retirement,  he  went  privately  into 
 Capernaum,  but  it  was  not  long  before  he  was  discov- 
 ered ;  and  as  soon  as  he  was,  such  vast  crouds  were 
 gathered  together  to  hear  his  sermons,  and  to  bring  their 
 diseased  for  cure,  that  the  house  where  be  was,  and 
 all  the  court-yard  about  it,  were  not  sufficient  to  con- 
 tain them.  In  the  house  were  many  great  persons, 
 Pharisees  and  doctors  of  the  law  from  Jerusalem  and 
 Judea,  as  well  as  Galilee,  who,  led  thither  by  their  curi- 
 osity, sat  hearing  his  discourses,  and  observing  his 
 miracles,  when  four  men  came  bearing  a  paralytic  *  on 
 
 ing  that  though  they  did  indeed  corrupt,  yet  they  did  not  extin- 
 guish the  divine  institution.  The  divine  institution  was  no 
 more  than  this, — That  when  a  leper  was  cured  he  was  to  ap- 
 pear at  the  city  gate,  and  the  priest  was  to  examine  whether  he 
 was  truly  healed  or  no;  that  if  he  was,  the  priest  received  him 
 into  the  city,  and  by  degrees  into  the  temple,  whither  he  should 
 bring  two  clean  birds  of  any  kind,  the  marginal  note  says  spar- 
 rows, and,  having  made  a  bunch  of  cedar  and  hyssop  mixed 
 together,  should  tie  them  with  a  scarlet  riband  made  of  wool ; 
 that  to  this  bunch  of  cedar  and  hyssop  one  of  these  birds  should 
 be  fastened  alive,  and  the  other  killed  by  the  leper  that  was  cured, 
 and  its  blood  received  in  a  vessel,  filled  with  water;  that 
 when  this  was  done,  the  priest  should  take  the  bunch  with  the 
 live  bird,  and  having  dipped  both  in  the  water,  tinged  with  the 
 blood  of  the  other  bird,  should  seven  times  sprinkle  the  leper 
 with  it;  and  that,  after  this,  the  live  bird  should  be  let  loose  to 
 fly  where  it  would,  and  the  person,  thus  healed  and  purified, 
 should  again  be  admitted  to  the  society  of  the  healthy,  and  a  com- 
 munion in  religious  offices.  (Lev.  xiv.  1,  &c.) — Whitby's  and 
 Hammond  s  Annotations . 
 
 a  Various  are  the  senses  of  the  words,  '  a  testimony  to  them  ;' 
 for  they  may  signify,  that  the  gift  or  oblation  which  the  leper 
 was  to  carry,  would  be  a  means  to  evince  the  perfection  of  his 
 cure,  when  the  priests  had  examined  and  admitted  it  as  such; 
 that  this  would  likewise  be  an  evidence  to  the  people,  who  stood  by 
 at  that  time  and  saw  him  cured,  when  they  should  hear  that  the 
 priests  had  pronounced  him  clean;  a  proof  to  the  priests,  that 
 himself  was  an  observer  of  the  law,  by  requiring  his  patient  to 
 comply  with  the  ceremonies  of  it;  and  a  full  demonstration  that 
 he  was  a  prophet  come  from  God,  since  they  themselves  owned, 
 that  a  leprosy  could  only  be  cured  by  the  finger  of  God. — Beau- 
 sobre's,  Hammond's,  and  JFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  palsy  of  the  New  Testament  is  a  disease  of  very  wide 
 import,  and  the  Greek  word,  which  is  so  translated,  compre- 
 hended not  fewer  than  five  different  maladies,  namely,  (1.)  Apo- 
 plexy, a  paralytic  shock,  which  affected  the  whole  body; — {2.) 
 Hemiplegy,  which  affects  and  paralyzes  only  one  side  of  the  body; 
 the  case  mentioned  in  Mat.  ix.  2,  appears  to  have  been  of  this 
 sort; — (3.)  Paraplegy,  which  paralyzes  all  the  part  of  the  sys- 
 tem below  the  neck; — (4.)  Catalepsy,  which  is  caused  by  a 
 contraction  of  the  muscles  in  the  whole  or  part  of  the  body ;  the 
 hands,  for  instance.  Tiiis  is  a  very  dangerous  disease;  and  the 
 effects  upon  the  parts  seized  are  very  violent  and  deadly.  Thus, 
 when  a  person  is  struck  with  it,  if  his  hand  happens  to  be  ex- 
 tended, he  is  unable  to  draw  it  back:  if  the  hand  be  not  extended, 
 when  he  is  so  struck,  he  is  unable  to  extend  it.  It  seems  to  be 
 diminished  in  size,  and  dried  up  in  appearance ;  whence  the  He- 
 brews were  accustomed  to  call  it  a  '  withered  hand.'  The 
 impious  Jeroboam  was  struck  with  catalepsy  (1  Kings  xiii. 
 4 — 6.);  the  prophet  Zechariah,  among  the  judgments  he  was 
 commissioned  to  denounce  against  the  '  idol  shepherd  that  leaveth 
 the  flock,'  threatens  that  'his  arm  shall  be  dried  up.'    (Zech.  xi. 
 
 his  bed;  but  finding  it  impossible  to  pass  through  the 
 throng,  they  adventured  to  uncover  the  house,  c  and  to 
 let  down  the  sick  man,  bed  and  all,  into  the  very  room 
 where  he  was  sitting. 
 
 Our  Blessed  Saviour,  being  not  a  little  pleased  with 
 such  an  instance  d  of  their  faith,  and  reliance  on  his 
 mercy,  was  resolved  to  cure  the  man  ;  and  accordingly, 
 in  the  first  place,  he  gave  him  an  absolution  e  from  his 
 
 17.)  Other  instances  of  this  malady  occur  in  Mat.  xii.  10,  and 
 John  v.  3.  5. — (5.)  The  Cramp.  This,  in  oriental  countries,  is 
 a  fearful  malady,  and  by  no  means  unfrequent.  It  originates 
 from  the  chills  of  the  night:  the  limbs,  when  seized  with  it, 
 remain  immovable,  sometimes  turned  in,  and  sometimes  out,  in 
 the  \ery  same  position  as  when  they  were  first  seized.  The  per- 
 son afflicted  resembles  a  man  undergoing  the  torture,  (Zxtrcaii- 
 go/u.sv!,i,  and  experiences  nearly  the  same  sufferings.  Death 
 follows  this  disease  in  a  few  days.  Alcimus  was  struck  with  it 
 (1  Mac.  ix.  55 — 5S,)  as  also  was  the  centurion's  servant.  (Mat. 
 viii.  6.) — Home's  Introduction,  vol.  iii.  pp.  516,  517. — Ed. 
 
 c  But  how  could  they  possibly  uncover  the  house,  when  they 
 could  not  so  much  as  get  to  it,  much  less  get  upon  it,  by  reason  of 
 the  throng  that  was  before  the  door?  Now,  to  have  a  right 
 notion  of  this  matter,  we  must  observe,  that  the  houses  in  Judea 
 were,  for  the  most  part,  even  as  they  are  to  this  day,  (Sandys's 
 Travels,  p.  36,)  low  built,  and  flat  roofed,  and  surrounded  with  a 
 battlement  about  a  breast  high,  according  to  God's  own  injunction, 
 Deut.  xxii.  8;  so  that,  to  go  up  to  the  top  of  their  houses,  the 
 Jews  had  two  ways ;  one  by  a  pair  of  stairs  within  the  house, 
 leading  up  to  the  trap-door,  which  lay  even  with  the  roof;  and 
 the  other  on  the  outside  of  the  house,  by  a  ladder,  or  pair  of  stairs 
 rather,  either  fixed  or  movable,  by  which  they  could  ascend  to  the 
 roof  when  they  pleased,  without  ever  going  into  the  house  itself. 
 Since  this  then  was  the  general  fashion  of  Jewish  houses,  we  need 
 not  doubt  but  that  this  at  Capernaum  was  of  the  same  figure 
 and  make;  and  therefore  the  bearers  of  the  paralytic,  finding  that 
 they  could  not  come  at  the  door  by  reason  of  the  crowd,  be- 
 thought themselves  of  another  expedient.  They  went  round 
 about  a  private  way,  and  coming  to  the  stairs  which  stood  on  the 
 outside  of  the  house,  up  these  they  carry  him,  and  presently  gain 
 the  top.  But  finding  the  trap-door,  or  way  of  the  roof,  as  the 
 Jews  call  it,  shut  against  them,  immediately  they  go  to  work, 
 and  forcing  it  open,  which  St  Mark  calls  '  uncovering  or  break- 
 ing up  the  roof,'  (chap,  ii  4.)  because  the  door,  which  lay  even 
 with  the  roof,  when  let  down  and  shut,  was  reputed  a  part  of  it, 
 they  conveyed  him  down  that  way,  which  St  Luke  calls  letting 
 him  down  through  the  tiling,  that  is,  through  the  roof,  which, 
 except  where  the  door  was,  was  all  paved  with  large  tiles,  and 
 by  this  means  they  found  it  no  difficult  matter  to  place  him  in 
 the  midst  before  Jesus. — Calmet's  Commentary ;  and  Pearce's 
 Vindication  of  our  Saviour's  Miracles ;  see  on  this  subject 
 Calmet's  Dictionary,  art.  House ;  Home's  Introduction,  vol.  iii. 
 pp.  385,  386  ;  Paxton's  Illustrates,  vol.  ii.  pp.  537—540. — Ed. 
 
 d  Some  have  supposed  that,  because  the  history  makes  no 
 mention  of  any  faith,  but  that  of  the  friends  and  bearers  of  this 
 impotent  man,  therefore  the  patient  himself  had  no  part  in 
 that  virtuous  disposition  which  inclined  our  Saviour  to  compas- 
 sionate him ;  and  thence  they  infer  how  far  a  man  may  be  bene- 
 fited by  the  faith  and  intercessions  of  others  in  his  behalf.  But  it 
 is  a  mistake  to  think  that  the  words  '  their  faith  '  exclude  that 
 of  the  sick  person:  for  had  he  not  been  persuaded  that  Christ 
 was  able  to  cure  him,  he  would  never  have  suffered  himself  to 
 be  presented  to  him,  in  a  method  so  troublesome  to  his  weak 
 condition.  We  read  indeed  of  no  petition  he  made  to  our 
 Lord,  but  the  violence  of  his  distemper  might  possibly  have 
 deprived  him  of  the  use  of  speech;  or,  if  it  had  not,  the  very 
 spectacle  of  a  body  so  debilitated,  the  manner  of  the  action, 
 and  the  fatigue  which  he  must  have  undergone  in  it,  all  spake 
 for  him,  and  carried  a  more  moving  eloquence  than  it  was 
 possible  for  any  tongue  to  utter. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and 
 Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 e  The  Jews  were  of  this  persuasion, — That  every  disease  of 
 the  body,  those  especially  which  were  of  a  grievous  nature,  were 
 sent  upon  men  for  the  punishment  of  their  sins ;  and  though  they 
 might  carry  this  maxim  too  far  (John  ix.  3.),  yet  sure  it  is,  that 
 the  scriptures  represent  most  of  the  calamities  of  life  as  the 
 natural  effect  of  men's  iniquities.  And  therefore  some  have 
 5r 
 
866 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30 ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN-  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 .sins.  This  provoked  the  indignation  of  the  scribes  and 
 Pharisees,  as  deeming  him  guilty  of  blasphemy  a  because 
 none,  as  they  imagined,  could  forgive  sins,  but  God 
 alone.  But  he,  knowing  their  secret  thoughts,  first  re- 
 proved their  censoriousness ;  and  then,  by  curing  the 
 patient  before  them,  plainly  demonstrated  what  authority 
 he  had  to  forgive  sins.  For  though  the  power  of  healing 
 be  much  inferior  to  that  of  forgiving  sins  ;  yet,  because 
 it  is  not  so  easy  to  impose  a  cure  upon  the  world,  where 
 men's  senses  are  witnesses,  as  remission  of  sins,  which 
 is  a  secret  and  invisible  operation ;  therefore  all  the 
 people,  who  were  convinced  by  their  eyes  of  the  efficacy 
 of  Christ's  last  words,  «  Rise  and  walk,'  were  satislied 
 of  the  truth  of  the  former,  '  Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee.' 
 And  accordingly  they  glorified  the  Almighty,  who  had 
 manifested  such  power  on  earth,  and  being  filled  with 
 reverential  fear  declared  that '  they  had  seen  strange  and 
 wonderful  things  that  day.' 
 
 While  our  Lord  continued  at  Capernaum,  he  went 
 out  one  day,  as  frequently  he  did,  to  the  lake-side, 
 and  finding  one  Matthew, b  otherwise  named  Levi,  the 
 
 observed,  that  as  the  word  sins  is  frequently  put  for  the  punishment 
 of  sins,  our  Saviour's  forgiving  the  man's  sins  was  no  more  than 
 a  declaration  of  his  intention  to  cure  his  distemper.  Instead  of 
 '  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee '  (Mat.  ix.  5),  it  is  better  to  render 
 'thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee,'  affirmatively;  for,  had  it  been  a 
 prayer,  the  Jews  would  not  have  objected  to  it.  If  nothing  more 
 was  meant  by  our  Saviour's  words,  than  the  removal  of  the  tem- 
 poral punishment  of  sin,  the  scribes  could  not  have  charged 
 Christ  with  blasphemy.  There  would  be  no  blasphemy  in  a 
 miraculous  cure.  It  is  plain  therefore  that  they  understood  our 
 Lord  as  remitting  the  eternal  punishment  of  the  paralytic's  sins, 
 and  that  he  does  assume  this  power  appears  from  ver.  5,  '  Whether 
 is  it  easier  to  say,  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee,  or  to  say,  Arise  and 
 walk,'  which  shows  that  Christ  makes  a  distinction  between  the 
 forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  cure  of  diseases ;  and  in  the  next 
 verse  he  lays  claim  to  the  former,  and  performs  the  miraculous 
 cure  as  a  proof  that  he  'had  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins' — a 
 proof  of  Christ's  Deity,  as  God  only  can  forgive  sins. — Holden's 
 Christian  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 a  This  word,  in  heathen  writers,  signifies  no  more  than 
 slander,  calumny,  or  opprobrious  language  of  any  kind,  such  as 
 tends  to  impair  a  man's  good  name ;  but  in  the  sacred  style  it 
 means  unworthy  and  injurious  talk  concerning  God's  nature  or 
 attributes ;  as  when  we  ascribe  unto  him  such  qualities  as  belong 
 not  to  him,  or  rob  him  of  those  that  do:  to  him,  the  infirmities 
 of  man;  or  to  man,  the  perfections  of  God.  This  is  the  nature 
 of  the  sin  ;  and  the  punishment  of  it,  under  the  law,  was  '  stoning 
 without  the  gates  of  the  city,'  Lev.  xxiv.  15,  16. — Calmet's 
 Commentary . 
 
 b  Grotius,  and  those  that  follow  him,  are  of  opinion,  that  the 
 Levi  mentioned,  Luke  v.  27,  is  not  the  same  with  Matthew,  in 
 Mat.  ix.  9,  because  Matthew  never  calls  himself  Levi,  nor  does 
 Mark  or  Luke  ever  call  Levi  Matthew.  But  the  answer  to  this 
 has  long  since  been  given  by  St  Jerome,  in  Mat.  ix.  9,  namely, 
 that  the  other  two  evangelists,  as  their  charity  and  good  nature  be- 
 came them,  endeavour  to  cover  the  infamy  of  their  brother's  former 
 way  of  life,  and  therefore  never  call  him  the  publican,  lest  they 
 should  seem  to  reproach  him  with  the  remembrance  of  his  former 
 conversation,  but  speak  of  him  under  his  other  name;  though  he, 
 out  of  his  great  humility,  in  the  gospel  written  by  himself,  does 
 not  only  take  the  more  commonly  known  name  of  Matthew,  but 
 adds  that  odious  title  likewise  of  Matthew  the  publican.  Since 
 then  the  custom  of  having  more  names  than  one,  is  known  to 
 have  prevailed  amung  the  Jews;  and  as  St  Mark  calls  him  Levi, 
 the  son  of  Alpheus;  so  Matthew,  in  all  church  history,  is  said  to 
 be  the  son  of  one  of  the  same  name ;  and  since  the  history  of  the 
 person  called  Levi  in  Mark  and  Luke,  agrees  so  exactly  with 
 what  is  said  of  him,  who,  in  the  other  evangelist,  is  called  Mat- 
 thew, that  there  is  not  one  circumstantial  difference  to  be  per- 
 ceived, we  cannot  but  conclude  that  this  Matthew  and  Levi  were 
 one  and  the  same  person. — Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Stanhope 
 on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 son  of  Alpheus,  a  rich  publican,  sitting  in  his  office,  c 
 he  asked  him  to  be  one  of  his  disciples,  who  immedi- 
 ately d  forsook  his  gainful  employment,  and  afterwards 
 became  both  an  apostle  and  evangelist.  Within  a  few 
 days  after  his  conversion,  Matthew  invited  our  Saviour 
 and  his  disciples,  and,  among  others,  some  of  the  pro- 
 fession which  he  had  forsook,  to  a  feast.  The  scribes 
 and  Pharisees,  who  accounted  all  in  a  manner  sinners, 
 besides  themselves,  but  more  especially  these  epublicans, 
 began  to  expostulate  with  these  disciples,  how  it  came 
 to  pass  that  their  Master,  who  set  himself  up  for  a 
 preacher  of  righteousness,  and  a  reformer  of  others, 
 came  to  be  so  intimate  with  these  lewd  and  lost  wretches, 
 as  to  sit  and  eat  with  them  at  the  same  table  :  but,  when 
 our  Saviour  undertook  the  argument,  he  gave  so  fair  an 
 account  of  the  reasons  for  his  conversing  with  these 
 people,  as  made  the  very  objection  /become  his  apo- 
 
 c  '  Sitting  at  the  receipt  of  custom.'  The  publicans  had 
 houses  or  booths  built  for  them  at  the  foot  of  bridges,  at  the 
 mouth  of  rivers,  and  by  the  sea  shore,  where  they  took  toll  of 
 passengers  that  went  to  and  fro.  Hence  we  read  of  the  tickets 
 of  seals  of  the  publicans,  which  when  a  man  had  paid  toll  on  one 
 side  of  a  river,  were  given  him  by  the  publican  to  show  to 
 him  that  sat  on  the  other  side,  that  it  might  appear  he  had  paid. 
 On  these  were  written  two  great  letters,  larger  than  those  in 
 common  use. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  old  enemies  of  our  religion,  Julian  and  Porphyry,  ac- 
 cused Matthew  of  folly  and  inconsiderateness,  in  following  a 
 man  whom  he  knew  nothing  of.  But  St  Jerome's  reply  is, — 
 That  he  could  not  want  a  sufficient  knowledge  both  of  our  Savi- 
 our's doctrines  and  miracles  before  his  call.  The  publicans,  we 
 find,  were  great  frequenters  of  the  synagogues  and  other  places 
 where  our  Saviour  taught,  and,  of  all  others,  expressed  the 
 greatest  eagerness  to  be  instructed  by  him;  and  therefore,  if 
 Matthew  was  of  the  same  disposition,  he  could  not  want  oppor- 
 tunities of  being  acquainted  with  our  Saviour's  preaching,  and 
 of  the  wonderful  works  which  he  did  every  where,  but  more 
 especially  at  Capernaum.  It  is  very  probable,  therefore,  that 
 Matthew,  upon  such  conviction,  was  inclinable  to  become  one 
 of  our  Saviour's  disciples,  even  before  he  asked  him:  but  if  he 
 was  not,  the  lustre  and  majesty  of  the  divinity  hid  under  the 
 manhood,  but  shining  conspicuously  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ, 
 was  enough  to  attract  every  one  that  he  cast  his  eyes  upon ;  at 
 least,  that  powerful  impulse  which  he,  to  whom  all  hearts  are 
 open,  knew  how  to  inject  into  Matthew's  breast,  could  not  fail 
 to  do  it:  and  from  this  supernatural  movement  doubtless  it 
 chiefly  was,  that  so  readily,  and  without  the  least  hesitation,  he 
 left  all,  and  followed  Christ. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Nor  was  it  only  among  the  Jews,  but  among  the  heathens 
 likewise,  that  the  name  of  &  publican  was  infamous.  For,  ac- 
 cording to  their  writers,  they  were  accounted  no  better  than 
 thieves  and  cheats:  free  violence,  and  unpunished  rapine,  and 
 shameless  covetousness,  were  their  public  profession.  JJatn-ii 
 TiXavcci  vravrss  iicriv  ugvrxyss,  was  the  saying  of  the  poet;  and  it  is 
 said  of  Theocritus,  that  being  asked,  which  was  the  most  cruel 
 among  the  beasts r1  his  reply  was,  "That,  of  those  in  the 
 mountains,  the  bear  and  the  lion  ;  but  of  those  in  the  city,  the 
 publicans  and  sycophants." — Whitby's  and  Hammond's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 f  The  arguments  which  our  Saviour  uses  to  the  Pharisees  for 
 his  keeping  company  with  publicans  and  sinners,  are  these 
 three: — 1st.  'They  that  are  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they 
 that  are  sick,'  Mat.  ix.  12  ;  by  which  he  intimates  to  them, 
 that,  in  conversing  with  such  sort  of  persons,  he  was  about  the 
 discharge  of  his  proper  business  ;  and  that  as  a  physician's  pro- 
 fession did  sometimes  call  him  among  patients  that  had  the 
 most  virulent  distempers ;  so  he,  whose  office  it  was  to  heal 
 souls,  ought  not  to  refuse  his  assistance  to  those  whose  circum- 
 stances most  of  all  wanted  his  help  and  advice.  2d.  God's  say- 
 ing, in  the  prophet  Hosea,  (chap.  vi.  6.)  '  that  he  would  have 
 mercy,'  meaning  thereby  all  the  kind  offices  whereby  we  pro- 
 mote our  neighbour's  advantage,  '  rather  than  sacrifice,'  that  is, 
 the  rites  and  ordinances  of  the  ceremonial  law ;  whereby  he 
 taught  them,  that  though  these  latter  might,  in  their  due  place 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 867 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30 ,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D. 28 
 
 logy.  But  all  this  would  not  content  the  Pharisees  ;  and 
 therefore,  joining  with  some  of  John's  disciples,  that 
 were  then  present,  they  came  and  demanded  of  him, 
 why  it  was  that  his  disciples  observed  no  fasts,  when  a 
 they,  and  John's  disciples,  were  known  to  keep  many, 
 to  which  he  replied,  '  that  it  was  not  the  proper  season 
 for  the  b  friends  of  the  bridegroom  to  fast  and  afflict 
 themselves,  c  while  they  had  the  bridegroom's  company, 
 
 and  season,  be  acceptable  to  God,  yet  charity  to  the  souls  of  men 
 (which  was  the  highest  act  of  mercy,  and  that  wherein  he  was 
 then  employing  himself)  was  much  more  esteemed  by  him.  3d. 
 That  '  he  came  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  repent- 
 ance ;'  or  that  the  great  design  of  his  appearance  in  the  world 
 was,  to  change  the  corrupt  manners  and  dispositions  of  men  ;  a 
 change,  which  the  righteous  standing  less  in  need  of,  should  no 
 more  grudge  the  opportunities  of  it  to  sinners,  than  the  health- 
 ful ought  to  think  themselves  disparaged,  when  the  physician 
 forbears  the  visits  to  them  which  he  makes  to  the  sick.  Some 
 commentators  however  have  observed  in  this  last  argument  a 
 severe  irony,  and  thus  they  expound  it;  "I  am  not  come  to 
 cure  those  that  think  themselves  well,  nor  to  save  those  that 
 account  themselves  righteous,  as  you  Pharisees  seem  to  do  ;  but 
 I  am  come  to  cure  those  who  find  themselves  sick,  and  are 
 sensible  of  the  burden  of  their  manifold  iniquities,  as  these  pub- 
 licans seem  to  be." — Stanhope  on  the  Ejnstles  and  Gopeis,  vol. 
 iv;  and  Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 a  Besides  the  public  fasts  appointed  by  the  church,  the  Pha- 
 risees in  general  did  fast  two  days  every  week,  and  those  of 
 more  strictness  than  ordinary,  four.  The  disciples  of  John  too, 
 who  was  himself  a  man  of  such  abstinence,  that  our  Saviour  says 
 of  him,  'he  came'  comparatively,  'neither  eating  nor  drinking,' 
 (Mat.  xi.  18.)  did,  no  doubt,  in  a  great  measure  follow  the  ex- 
 ample of  their  Master  ;  and,  now  that  he  was  confined  in  prison, 
 might,  very  probably,  double  their  fasts  and  their  prayers 
 to  God  for  his  deliverance.  And  if  they  and  the  Pharisees  were 
 able  to  do  this,  why  should  the  disciples  of  Christ  be  deemed 
 insufficient?  Now,  to  this  it  may  be  answered,  that  among  the 
 Jews  there  were  not  only  the  sects  of  the  Essenes  and  Phari- 
 sees, who  led  an  austere  life,  but  also  schools  of  the  prophets, 
 many  of  whom  were  Nazarites,  and  consecrated  to  the  service 
 of  God ;  and  that,  besides  these,  the  Jews  had  likewise  aca- 
 demical and  private  schools,  from  whence  might  come  disciples 
 to  John,  and  the  Pharisees,  already  trained  up  to  fasting  and 
 penance,  and  other  severe  duties  of  religion.  But  now  it  is 
 certain,  that  the  disciples  of  our  Lord  were  chosen  from  their 
 fishing  trade,  and  so  came  to  him  wholly  unacquainted  with, 
 and  unfitted  for  these  austerities,  which  to  impose  upon  them 
 now  was  not  necessary,  because  his  continuance  among  them 
 was  not  to  be  long,  and  after  his  departure  they  would  have 
 occasion  more  than  enough,  to  exercise  these,  and  many  more 
 painful  duties,  in  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  and  the  persecu- 
 tions which  should  attend  it. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  Baptist,  in  his  discourse  to  his  disciples,  had  compared 
 our  Saviour  to  a  bridegroom,  and  himself  to  his  friend,  or  chief 
 guest,  John  iii.  29;  and  therefore,  as  our  Saviour  designedly 
 makes  use  of  the  same  allusion,  his  argument  runs  thus, — "  I  am 
 the  bridegroom,  and  my  church  is  my  bride;  as  long  as  I  am 
 here,  lasts  the  marriage-feast,  and  my  disciples  are  the  children 
 or  friends  of  the  bridegroom,  and  so  are  not  to  mourn,  but  to  re- 
 joice with  me  while  this  time  lasts:  but,  at  my  death  and  de- 
 parture, this  bridegroom  shall  be  taken  from  them,  and  then  it 
 will  be  time  for  them  to  fast  and  mourn." — ffhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  'Children  of  the  bride  chamber.'  Great  mirth  and  cheer- 
 fulness accompanied  the  celebration  of  nuptials  among  the  Jews. 
 The  children  of  the  bride-chamber  were  the  friends  and  acquain- 
 tances of  the  parties,  and  assisted  in  those  rejoicings.  But  to 
 set  some  bounds  to  their  exultations,  a  singular  ceremony  was 
 introduced,  according  to  the  rabbins: — a  glass  vessel  was  brought 
 in  amongst  the  company,  and  broke  to  pieces,  that  they  might 
 by  this  action  restrain  their  joy,  and  not  run  to  excess.  The 
 Gemara  produces  some  instances  of  this  sort.  Mar,  the  son  of 
 Rabbena,  made  wedding  feasts  for  his  son,  and  invited  the  rab- 
 bins; and  when  he  saw  that  their  mirth  exceeded  its  bounds,  he 
 brought  forth  a  glass  cup,  worth  four  hundred  zuzees,  and  broke 
 it  before  them,  whereupon  they  became  sad.  The  reason  which 
 they  assign  for  this  action  is,  because  it  is  forbidden  a  man  to  fill 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  L 
 but  when  they  were  deprived  of  it ;  and  that  it  would  be 
 as  imprudent  and  preposterous  a  thing,  to  impose  rigor- 
 ous austerities  upon  his  disciples,  who  were  but  novices 
 in  religion,  and  inured  to  another  way  of  life,  as  it  would 
 be  to  sew  a  piece  of  new  cloth  upon  a  rotten  garment, 
 which,  upon  any  stress,  would  make  the  rent  worse  ;  or 
 to  put  new  wine  d  into  old  leathern  bottles  ;  which,  upon 
 the  least  fermentation,  would  both  burst  the  bottles  and 
 destroy  the  liquor;  for  see  the  prevalence  of  custom, 
 and  how  difficult  it  is  to  change  an  inveterate  habit,  for- 
 asmuch as  1  '  none  having  drank  old  wine  desireth  new  ; 
 for  he  saith  the  old  is  better.' 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  obviated  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 That  the  evangelists  were  persons  of  too  much  probity 
 to  deal  in  lies,  and  cunningly  devised  fables,  is  evident 
 from  their  writings  ;  wherein  we  find,  not  only  the  strict- 
 est prohibitions  against  guile  and  dissimulation,  both 
 in  words  and  deeds,  but  such  evident  tokens  of  their 
 simplicity  and  godly  sincerity,  as  show  that  they  would 
 not  be  prevailed  upon  to  conceal  truth,  even  though  it 
 might  tend  to  their  lasting  dishonour.  For  let  any  one 
 tell  me,  how  they  can  be  supposed  capable  of  forging 
 any  thing  for  the  advancement  of  their  cause,  2  who  have 
 not  been  wanting  to  record  the  obscurity  of  their  Mas- 
 ter's birth  and  life,  the  poverty  and  reproaches  he  en- 
 dured in  his  ministry,  the  ignominy  of  his  passion  and 
 death,  and  the  terrors  and  agonies  of  his  mind  upon  the 
 approach  of  them  ;  nay,  who  have  not  dissembled  their 
 own  faults  and  failings,  their  mean  extraction  and  em- 
 ployments, their  ignorance  and  mistakes,  their  cowardly 
 desertion  of  their  Lord,  and  many  unsuccessful  attempts 
 to  convert  others  by  their  preaching?  Men  that  were 
 thus  frank  and  open  in  their  proceedings,  could  never 
 designedly  palm  any  falsehoods  upon  the  world  ;  and  if 
 they  were  mistaken  in  some  passages,  it  must  be  esteem- 
 ed their  misfortune,  not  their  crime. 
 
 They  were  indeed  illiterate  men  all,  except  St  Luke, 
 and  brought  up  in  mean  employments  ;  so  very  mean, 
 that  we  cannot  suppose  them  capable  of  writing  a  regu- 
 lar history  of  any  kind,  had  they  not  been  directed  in  it 
 by  the  Spirit  of  Truth ;  but  then  to  frame  such  an  excel- 
 lent system  of  morality  as  is  contained  in  the  gospels  ; 
 to  give  such  an  extraordinary  account  of  the  satisfaction 
 for  sin,  and  of  the  nature  and  office  of  a  mediator;  to 
 feign  the  life  and  actions  of  a  Messiah,  which  should 
 
 l  Luke  v.  39. 
 Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
 his  mouth  with  laughter  in  this  world. — Light/out's  JVorhs,  vol. 
 ii.  p.  172.— Ed. 
 
 d  The  bottles  which  were  in  use  in  the  east,  and  at  this  time 
 are  very  common  in  other  countries,  were  not  made  of  glass,  as 
 ours  are,  but  were  certain  bags  made  of  goats'  skins,  being  well 
 pitched  and  sewed  together.  They  are  very  good  vessels  to 
 preserve  wine,  oil,  or  any  other  liquor  in;  and  in  this  respect, 
 more  especially,  very  convenient  to  carry  from  place  to  place, 
 because,  fall  they  ever  so  often,  they  will  not  break,  unless  they 
 be  very  old  or  decayed.  In  which  sense  our  Saviour  compaier 
 his  disciples,  before  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  them, 
 to  old  bottles,  because  they  were  not  capable  either  of  compre 
 bending  or  practising  all  that  perfection  which  he  came  into  the 
 world  to  teach  mankind. —  Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
868 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  J. 
 
 agree  so  exactly  with  the  predictions  of  the  prophets, 
 and  the  types  and  prefigurations  of  the  Mosaic  law  ; 
 this  they  were  no  more  able  to  do,  without  the  assistance 
 of  the  same  Divine  Spirit,  than  they  were  to  create  a 
 world:  and  yet,  notwithstanding  the  great  variety  and 
 difficulty  of  this  province,  it  is  wonderful  to  observe  how 
 all  the  four  evangelists,  who  wrote  at  different  times, 
 and  in  distant  places,  agree,  not  only  in  the  main  topics, 
 but  sometimes  in  the  most  minute  circumstances,  l  inso- 
 much that  whenever  they  seem  to  disagree,  which  chiefly 
 arises  from  them  not  confining  themselves  to  the  same 
 words,  or  the  same  order  of  time,  it  looks  as  if  the 
 Spirit  of  God  designed  on  purpose  that  it  should  be  so, 
 not  only  that  they  might  be  distinct  witnesses  of  the  same 
 things,  but  that  all  succeeding  ages  of  the  Christian 
 world  might  see  with  their  eyes,  that  they  had  neither 
 transcribed  from  one  another,  nor  combined  together  like 
 crafty  knaves. 
 
 2  The  truth  is,  though  the  evangelists  no  where  con- 
 tradict themselves,  or  one  another,  yet  they  were  not  so 
 solicitous  to  prevent  their  being  suspected  of  doing 
 so  by  injudicious  and  rash  men,  as  they  would  have  been 
 had  they  recorded  any  thing  but  truth  ;  because  it  is  suit- 
 able to  the  simplicity  of  truth,  not  to  be  over  nice  and 
 curious  about  any  punctilio,  and  smaller  circumstance, 
 as  the  manner  of  falsehood  is,  but  to  speak  fully  and 
 intelligibly,  and  then  leave  it  to  men  whether  they  will 
 believe  or  not.  Instead  of  criticising,  therefore,  upon 
 some  difficult  parts  of  the  evangelical  writers,  we  ought 
 to  consider  their  whole  design,  method,  and  contrivance  ; 
 and  if  in  these  we  rind  them  rational  and  uniform,  the 
 common  candour  of  mankind  will  hinder  us  from  think- 
 ing them  capable  of  any  gross  mistakes  or  inconsisten- 
 cies, and  where  we  perceive  the  appearance  of  any  such, 
 put  us  upon  the  charitable  office  of  adjusting  and  recon- 
 ciling them. 
 
 There  is,  indeed,  a  great  and  uncommon  difference 
 between  St  Matthew  and  St  Luke,  in  their  genealogies 
 of  our  Saviour  ;  but  to  accommodate  this,  we  may  ob- 
 serve, 1st.  That  these  two  evangelists  were  men  of  dif- 
 ferent nations,  and  in  that  respect  had  different  designs. 
 For  3  St  Matthew  was  by  birth  a  Jew,  wrote  his  gospel 
 for  the  benefit  of  the  Jewish  converts  ;  and  wrote  it,  very 
 probably,  in  their  language  :  and  as  he  adhered  to  the 
 received  custom  of  the  Jews  in  this  matter  of  genealogy, 
 he  began  his  deduction  no  higher  than  Abraham,  the 
 father  of  the  Hebrews ;  but  St  Luke  was  a  Gentile,  and 
 may  truly  be  called  the  evangelist,  as  St  Paul  was  the 
 apostle  of  the  Gentiles  ;  and,  therefore,  when  he  comes 
 to  relate  the  pedigree  of  Jesus,  he  takes  a  different 
 method,  and  carries  it  up  as  far  as  Adam,  the  father  of 
 all  mankind. 
 
 2d,  We  may  observe,  likewise,  that  St  Matthew  4  in- 
 tends only  to  set  down  our  Lord's  a  political  or  royal 
 
 1  Grew's  Cosmologia  Sacra,  p.  304. 
 
 *  Jenkin's  Reasonableness  of  the  Christian  Religion,  vol.  ii.  c.  8. 
 
 3  Bishop  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  ii,  c.  14. 
 
 4  South's  Sermons,  vol.  iii. 
 
 a  That  St  Matthew  used  the  word  begat  only  in  a  political 
 sense,  is  clear  from  hence, — That  he  applies  it  to  him  who 
 had  no  child,  even  to  Jeconiah,  of  whom  is  expressly  said, 
 (Jer.  xxiii.  30.)  that  God  wrote  him  childless;  whereupon, 
 being  deposed  by  the  king  of  Babylon,  Zedekiah  his  uncle  was 
 made  king,  and  afterwards  upon  the  removal  of  him    likewise, 
 
 pedigree,  by  which  he  had  a  right  to  the  crown  of  the 
 Jews,  but  St  Luke  shows  his  natural  descent  through 
 the  several  successions  of  those  from  whom  he  took 
 flesh  and  blood :  and,  to  this  purpose,  we  find  St 
 Matthew,  as  we  said  just  now,  beginning  his  reckoning 
 only  from  Abraham,  5  to  whom  the  first  promise  of  the 
 kingdom  was  made  ;  whereas  St  Luke  runs  his  line  up 
 to  Adam,  the  first  head  and  fountain  of  human  nature  ; 
 which  plainly  shows,  that  the  one  deduced  only  his  title 
 to  the  crown,  and  the  other  the  natural  descent  of  his 
 humanity. 
 
 3d.  We  may  observe  farther,  that  as  David  had  seve- 
 ral sons  by  former  wives,  so  by  Bathsheba  likewise  he 
 had  three  besides  Solomon,  whereof  the  eldest,  next 
 to  him,  was  Nathan,  and  that  Christ  descended  naturally 
 from  David,  not  by  Solomon,  but  by  Nathan  :  for, 
 though  it  be  frequently  said  in  scripture,  that  the  Mes- 
 siah should  spring  from  David,  it  is  never  said  that  he 
 should  descend  from  Solomon ;  for  which  reason  St 
 Luke  only  deduces  Nathan's  line,  which  came  into  the 
 possession  of  the  throne,  upon  Jeconiah's  captivity,  and 
 want  of  issue,  in  the  person  of  Salathiel. 
 
 4th.  We  may  observe  again,  that  the  crown  of  Judah, 
 being  now  come  into  the  line  of  Nathan  in  the  person  of 
 Salathiel,  and  after  him,  in  the  great  and  renowned 
 Zorobabel,  forasmuch  as  the  two  evangelists  agree  from 
 Jeconiah  to  Zorobabel,  and  after  him  divide,  each  ascrib- 
 ing to  him  a  different  successor,  namely,  the  former 
 Abiud,  and  the  latter  Rhesa,  we  may  rationally  suppose 
 that  these  two  were  the  sons  of  Zorobabel,  and  that  from 
 Abiud,  the  elder  brother,  lineally  descended  Joseph, 
 according  to  the  computation  of  St  Matthew,  and 
 from  Rhesa,  the  younger  brother,  descended  Mary,  of 
 whom  Jesus  was  born,  according  to  the  description  of 
 St  Luke. 
 
 5th.  Once  more  we  may  observe,  that  it  was  a  custom 
 of  the  Jews,  not  to  reckon  the  woman  by  name  in  her 
 pedigree,  but  to  reckon  the  husband  in  right  of  his  wife, 
 for  which  reason,  we  are  not  to  think  it  strange,  that  we 
 find  Joseph  twice  reckoned,  first  in  his  own  right  by  St 
 Matthew,  and  then  in  his  wife  Mary's  right  by  St  Luke ; 
 for  it  is  certain,  that  Mary  was  properly  the  daughter  of 
 Eli,  and  that  Joseph,  who,  in  the  account  succeeds  him, 
 is  so  reckoned,  not  as  his  natural  son,  but  as  his  son-in- 
 law,  instead  of  his  wife  Mary,  as  the  manner  of  the  Jews 
 was :  and  accordingly  it  is  remarked  by  some  learned 
 men,  that  St  Luke  6  does  not  say  of  Joseph,  that  he  was 
 the  son  of  Eli,  but  only  tov  'Ha/,  he  was  of  Eli,  namely, 
 related  to  him,  and  belonging  to  his  family,  as  his  son- 
 in-law.  Fit  however  it  was,  that  the  genealogy  of  Jesus 
 should  be  deduced  from  Joseph,  because  it  was  so  gene- 
 rally received  by  the  Jews,  that  Jesus  7  was  the  son  of 
 the  carpenter,  8  the  son  of  Joseph  ;  so  that  if  Joseph 
 had  not  been  acknowledged  to  have  been  of  the  tribe  of 
 Judah,  and  of  the  family  of  David,  9  since,  according 
 
 5  Gen.  xviii.  8.  6  Chap.  iii.  24. 
 
 7  Mat.  xviii.  55.  8  John  vi.  42.  9  Whitby's  Annotations, 
 there  remaining  no  more  of  the  line  of  Solomon,  Salathiel,  being 
 next  of  kin,  was  declared  king  of  the  Jews;  which  Salathiel, 
 upon  that  account,  is  said  by  Matthew  (chap.  i.  12,)  to  have 
 been  begotten  by  Jeconiah,  not  because  he  was  naturally 
 his  son,  but  only  legally  or  politically  so,  as  succeeding  in 
 the  kingdom  during  Jeconiah's  captivity. — South's  Sennons, 
 vol.  iii. 
 
Sect.  f.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 869 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30  ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 to   preserve   the  stems  of  the  royal  family  of  David. 
 Since  then  the   Jews,  who   lived   in  the  time  when  the 
 
 Lo  the  received  rule  of  the  Jews,  "  the  family  of  the  mo- 
 ther is  not  called  a  family,"  they  would  not  have  failed 
 to  have  objected  this  as  a  just  prejudice  against  all  our 
 Lord's  pretences  of  being-  the  Messiah. 
 
 The  sum  of  these  observations,  in  short,  is  this 
 
 1  That  the  royal  line  of  David  by  Solomon  being'  ex- 
 tinct in  Jeconiah,  the  crown  and  kingdom  passed  into 
 the  next  younger  line  of  Nathan,  another  son  of  David, 
 in  Salathiel  and  Zorobabel,  which  Zorobabel  having  two 
 sons,  Abiud  and  Rhesa,  the  royal  dignity  descended  of 
 right  upon  the  line  of  Abiud,  of  which  Joseph  was  the 
 last ;  and  he  marrying  the  Virgin  Mary,  who  sprung 
 from  the  line  of  Rhesa,  the  younger  son  of  Zorobabel, 
 and,  as  some  imagine,  having  no  issue  himself,  his  right 
 passed  into  the  line  of  Mary,  being  next  of  kin,  and,  by 
 that  means,  upon  Jesus  her  son  ;  so  that  he  was  both  na- 
 turally the  son  of  David,  and  also  legally  the  king  of  the 
 Jews,  the  latter  of  which  is  accounted  to  us  by  St  Mat- 
 thew, as  the  former  is  by  St  Luke. 
 
 This  seems  to  be  a  pretty  clear  deduction  of  our  Sa- 
 viour's pedigree,  and  is  capable  of  giving  a  fair  solution 
 to  a  great  many  of  those  objections,  which  arise  from  the 
 different  names,  or  the  unequal  numbers  in  the  names, 
 or  the  unequal  distances  from  each  other,  which  are  dis- 
 cernible in  the  two  genealogies.  But  perhaps  interpre- 
 ters might  save  themselves  the  trouble  of  giving- a  reason 
 for  several  difficulties  occurring  therein,  by  saying  that 
 St  Matthew,  2  concerning  whom  the  main  dispute  is,  re- 
 cites his  account  as  he  found  it  in  the  authentic  copies  of 
 the  Jews,  who  doubtless  in  every  family  had  preserved 
 some  known  and  approved  genealogy  of  their  descent 
 from  Abraham,  the  father  of  their  nation,  in  whom  they 
 so  much  gloried,  and  from  whose  loins  they  expected  the 
 promised  Messiah.  a 
 
 That  even  in  our  Saviour's  time,  the  Jews  3  had  gene- 
 alogical tables,  wherein  they  kept  an  account  of  their 
 families  and  tribes,  is  evident  from  what  Josephus  says, 
 namely,  4  That  he  gave  the  succession  of  his  family,  as 
 he  found  it  written  in  the  public  books  ;  nor  need  we 
 question  but  that  the  like,  or  greater,  care  was  employed 
 
 1  South's  Sermons. 
 
 !  Bishop  Kidder's  Demonstration,  part  ii,  c.  14. 
 
 8  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  i.  2.  4  Chap.  iv.  5. 
 
 a  Dr  Hales  has  the  following  observations  on  the  genealogies 
 of  Christ,  which  appear  very  satisfactory,  and  remove  at  once 
 every  difficulty,  in  so  natural  and  consistent  a  manner,  that  his 
 interpretation  can  hardly  be  rejected.  "  There  are,"  says  he, 
 "two  distinct  genealogies  given  in  the  introductions  of  St 
 Matthew's  and  St  Luke's  gospels:  the  former,  principally  design- 
 ed for  the  Jews,  traces  Christ's  pedigree  as  the  promised  seed, 
 down  from  Abraham  to  David,  and  from  him  through  Solomon's 
 line,  to  Jacob  the  father  of  Joseph,  who  was  the  reputed  or  legal 
 father  of  Christ,  (St  Mat.  i.  1 — 16.)  The  latter,  designed  for 
 the  Gentiles,  also  traces  it  upwards  from  Heli  the  father  of  Mary, 
 to  David,  through  his  son  Nathan's  line,  and  from  David  to 
 Abraham,  concurring  with  the  former,  and  from  Abraham  up  to 
 Adam,  who  was  the  immediate  '  son  of  God.'  (St  Luke  iii.  23 
 — 38.)  That  Luke  gives  the  pedigree  of  Mary,  the  real  mother 
 of  Christ,  may  be  collected  from  the  following  reasons: — 1.  The 
 angel  Gabriel,  at  the  annunciation,  told  the  Virgin,  that  'God 
 would  give  her  divine  Son  the  throne  of  his  father  David  (St 
 Luke  i.  32);  and  this  was  necessary  to  be  proved  by  her  genea- 
 logy afterwards.  2.  Mary  is  called  by  the  Jews  '  ?V  fo,  '  the 
 daughter  of  Eli'  (Lightfoot  on  Luke  iii.  23);  and  by  the  early 
 Christian  writers,  the  daughter  of  Joakim  and  Anna.  But 
 Joakim  and  Eliakim  (as  being  derived  from  the  names  of  God 
 MP  and  ?**  Jahoh  and  JEt)  are  sometimes  interchanged,  as  in 
 
 gospels  were  published,  though  exactly  curious  in  things 
 of  this  nature,  and  withal  maliciously  bent  against  Christ 
 and  Christianity,  never  once  endeavoured  to  invalidate 
 the  account  which  these  evangelists  give  us  ;  this  seems 
 to  be  a  sufficient  proof,  that  these  genealogies,  when 
 first  they  came  abroad,  were  neither  thought  erroneous, 
 nor  inconsistent,  but  agreeable  to  the  public  records 
 then  in  use  ;  and  if  any  difficulties  now  arise  in  them 
 they  are  not  to  be  attributed  to  any  real  and  intrinsic 
 cause,  but  accidentally  to  the  ignorance  of  interpreters, 
 for  want  of  proper  helps,  at  this  distance  of  time,  whereby 
 to  explain  them. 
 
 It  may  seem  a  little  incongruous,  perhaps,  that  the 
 Baptist  should  deny  what  our  Saviour  confirms  concern- 
 ing him,  namely,  that  he  was  the  Elias  who  was  to  be 
 sent  before,  to  make  preparations  for  his  coming  ;  but  in 
 this  there  will  be  no  manner  of  contradiction,  if  it  does 
 but  appear  that  the  affirmation  of  the  one,  and  the  ne- 
 gation of  the  other,  proceed  upon  different  considera- 
 tions. Now  the  state  of  the  matter  is  this, — The  Jews 
 at  this  time  were  in  full  expectation  of  the  Messiah  ;  but 
 then  it  was  an  universal  belief  among  them,  that  Elias 
 should  appear  before  him,  and  that  his  appearance  should 
 be  a  certain  token  of  his  coming  :  this  belief  they  found- 
 ed on  the  prophecy  of  Malachi,  '  Behold,  I  will  send 
 you  Elijah  the  prophet,  before  the  coming  of  the  great 
 and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord  ;'  but  then  they  imagined, 
 either  that  the  body  of  Elijah  was  preserved  in  para- 
 dise, and  should  again  appear  upon  earth  at  this  season 
 appointed  for  it,  or  that  his  body  being  dissolved,  God 
 would  infuse  the  spirit  of  Elijah  into  a  new  one,  creat- 
 ed for  that  purpose.  When  therefore  the  great  coun- 
 cil of  Jerusalem  sent  to  inquire  of  the  Baptist,  whether 
 he  was  either  the  Christ  or  Elias,  now  returned  from 
 heaven,  as  they  imagined  he  was  to  do  upon  Christ's 
 appearance,  to  this  their  sense  of  the  question  he  replies, 
 in  express  terms,  that  he  Avas  neither  the  one  nor  the 
 other.  But  this  does  not  at  all  interfere  with  our  Lord's 
 affirming,  that  he  was  the  person  foretold  under  the  name 
 and  character  of  Elias,  in  the  true  signification  of 
 Malachi's  prophecy.  He  was  not  indeed  the  very  Elias, 
 who  had  lived  in  king  Ahab's  time,  of  whose  second 
 coming  into  the  world  the  sanhedrim  now  inquired, 
 according  to  their  misconstruction  of  that  prophecy  ;  but, 
 according  to  the  true  construction  thereof,  he  was  the 
 person  who  came  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias,  of 
 
 (2  Chron.  xxxvi.  4.)  Eli  therefore,  or  Heli,  is  the  abridg- 
 ment of  Eliakim;  nor  is  it  of  any  consequence  that  the  rabbins 
 call  him  '•'V,  instead  of  *'**,  the  aspirates  aleph  and  ain  being 
 frequently  interchanged.  3.  A  similar  case  in  point  occurs  else- 
 where in  the  genealogy.  After  the  Babylonish  captivity,  the 
 two  lines  of  Solomon  and  Nathan — the  sons  of  David — unite 
 in  the  generations  of  Salathiel  and  Zorobabel,  and  thence  diverge 
 again  in  the  sons  of  the  latter,  Abiud  and  Rhesa.  Hence,  as 
 Salathiel  in  St  Matthew  was  the  son  of  Jechoniah  or  Jehoiachin, 
 who  was  carried  away  into  captivity  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  so,  in 
 St  Luke,  Salathiel  must  have  been  the  grandson  of  Neri,  by  his 
 mother's  side.  4.  The  evangelist  has  himself  critically  distin- 
 guished the  real  from  the  legal  genealogy,  by  a  parenthetical  re- 
 mark: 'iwrou; — iv  {ois  ttofti£tro)  vio;  'la/tr;/)<p  \_aXk'  hrui"\  uii;  tdu 
 'HXi.  'Jesus  being,  as  was  reputed,  the  son  of  Joseph,  [but  in 
 reality  J  the  sou  or  grandson  of  Heli,'  by  the  mother's  side ;  for  so 
 should  the  ellipsis  involved  in  the  parenthesis  be  supplied. — Hales' 
 Analysis,  vol.  iii.  pp.  42,  43,  second  edition. — Ed. 
 
870 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30  ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5d39.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARKii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 whom  Elias  was  a  type,  and  whose  temper  and  manner 
 of  life  Elias  much  resembled. 
 
 How  usual  a  thing  it  is  for  persons,  who  resemble 
 others  in  qualities,  offices,  or  actions,  to  be  described  by 
 the  names  a  of  those  whom  they  resemble,  no  one  can  be 
 ignorant,  who  is  the  least  acquainted  either  with  the 
 phrase  of  scripture,  or  with  the  common  forms  of  speech. 
 Thus  the  Messias  is  promised  by  the  name  of  David, 
 because  he  was  to  be  a  king ;'  Zadock  the  high  priest, 
 and  his  sons,  are  recorded  by  the  name  of  Aaron,  and 
 his  sons,  by  reason  of  their  office ;  and,  among  us,  it 
 is  no  uncommon  thing  to  call  the  rich  man,  a  Croesus  ; 
 the  wise  man,  a  Solomon;  the  warrior,  a  Caesar,  an 
 Alexander,  or  the  like ;  and  where  then,  1  pray,  can  be 
 the  misapplication,  in  our  Saviour's  calling  the  Baptist 
 by  the  name  of  Elias,  when,  in  the  severity  of  his  life, 
 his  zeal  for  God's  glory,  his  suffering  persecution,  his 
 bold  rebuking  of  vice,  his  reproofs  of  Herod,  and  the 
 hatred  of  his  incestuous  queen,  answerable  to  the  pro- 
 phet's chidings  of  Ahab,  and  the  malice  of  Jezebel,  he 
 so  nearly  resembled  the  Tishbite  ? 2  He  was  not  indeed 
 the  real  Tishbite ;  but,  by  the  answer  which  he  returns  to 
 these  delegates  from  the  sanhedrim,3  '  I  am  the  voice  of 
 one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  make  straight  the  way  of 
 the  Lord,'  &c,  he  plainly  intimates  that  he  was  the  very 
 messenger  promised  in  Malachi,  and  came  to  discharge 
 the  office  assigned  to  him  in  that  prophet.  So  far  is 
 John's  answer  from  contradicting  what  our  Lord  asserts 
 of  him,  that  it  is  indeed  a  confirmation  of  it. 
 
 The  better  to  understand  the  nature  of  that  taxation 
 which  St  Luke  4  refers  us  to,  we  must  observe,  that  every 
 fifth  year,  it  was  a  customary  thing  to  take  an  account 
 of  the  citizens  of  Rome,  for  which  purpose  there  were 
 proper  officers  appointed,  who  were  called  censors  ; 5  that 
 their  business  was  to  make  a  registration  of  all  the 
 Roman  citizens,  their  wives  and  children,  with  the  age, 
 qualities,  trades,  offices,  and  estates,  both  real  and  per- 
 sonal of  them  all ;  that  Augustus  Caesar  was  the  first  that 
 extended  this  to  the  provinces,  and  three  times  in  his 
 reign,  first  in  the  twenty-eighth  year  before  the  Christian 
 era;  secondly,  in  the  eighth  before  it;  and  thirdly,  in 
 the  fourteenth  year  after  it,  caused  the  like  description 
 to  be  made  of  all  the  provinces  belonging  to  the  Roman 
 empire,  and  that  this  second  enrolment,  which  was  in  the 
 eighth  year  of  the  vulgar  Christian  era,  that  is,  three 
 years  before  that  in  which  Christ  was  born,  was  the 
 description  to  which  Luke  refers  us. 
 
 Now,  supposing  the  execution  of  Caesar's  decree,  in 
 every  province  of  the  Roman  empire,  to  be  committed 
 to  the  govenor  of  it ;  the  carrying  this  work  through  all 
 the  countries  that  made  up  the  province  of  Syria,  namely, 
 through  Syria,  Ccelo-Syria,  Phoenicia,  and  Judea,  could 
 not  well  take  up  less  than  the  space  of  three  years ;  for 
 
 1  Exek.  xxxiv.  23,  24. 
 2  Kidder's  Demonstration,  part  ii.  c.    16 ;  and  Stanliope  on 
 the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 3  Mark  i.  3.     *  Chap.  ii.  J.     5  Prideaux's  Connect.,  part  ii. b.  9. 
 
 a   Thus  the  poet  calls  Turnus  another  Achilles: 
 
 -In  Latium  there  has  appeared  another  Achilles,  and  he 
 
 is  also  born  of  a  goddess- 
 
 And  elsewhere  he  uses  the  same  liberty  of  speech: 
 
 There  shall  be  another  Typhis,  and  another  Argo,  which 
 
 will  carry  the  bravest  of  heroes ;  there  shall  be  also  other  wars, 
 and  once  again  the  mighty  Achilles  shall  be  sent  to  Troy. 
 
 t'irg.  Mn.  6,  and  Eclog.  4. 
 
 if  Joab  b  was  nine  months  and  twenty  days  in  taking  an 
 account  only 7  of  the  ten  tribes  of  Israel,  and  in  them  only 
 of  such  persons  as  were  able  to  bear  arms,  we  cannot 
 think  it  unreasonable  that  the  execution  of  the  survey, 
 which  extended  to  all  manner  of  persons,  their  posses- 
 sions, qualities,  circumstances,  should  in  so  large  a  pro- 
 vince take  up  less  than  three  years. 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed  farther,  that  though  the  registra- 
 tion was  made  at  this  time,  yet  the  taxes  thereupon  were 
 not  paid  till  Judea  was  made  a  Roman  province,  and 
 Publius  Sulpicius  Quirinus,  who  in  Greek  is  caUed 
 Cyrenius,  was  made  governor  of  Syria ;  for,  before 
 Archelaus  was  deposed,  the  Jews  paid  their  taxes  to 
 their  princes,  and  their  princes  paid  their  tributes  to 
 the  Roman  emperors  ;  but,  when  Archelaus  was  deposed, 
 and  Judea  made  a  Roman  province,  the  tax  was  levied 
 according  to  the  valuation  that  was  made  eleven  years 
 before. 
 
 Upon  the  whole  therefore  it  appears,  that  in  this  affair 
 there  were  two  distinct  particular  actions,  done  at  two 
 distinct  particular  times,  namely,  first,  the  making  of  the 
 survey,  and  then  the  levying  the  tax  thereupon  ;  so  that, 
 if  what  is  said  in  Luke  ii.  1,  be  understood  of  the  for- 
 mer of  these,  and  what  he  said  in  verse  2,  only  of  the 
 latter,  this  will  remove  all  difficulties,  and  reconcile  that 
 evangelist  with  Josephus ;  and  that  it  is  to  be  thus 
 understood  we  have  the  opinion  of  many  learned  inter- 
 preters. 
 
 The  truth  is,8  this  levy  of  the  tax,  which  was  settled 
 eleven  years  before,  in  the  time  when  Cyrenius  was  pro- 
 curator of  Syria,  a  was  attended  with  so  many  commo- 
 tions and  seditious  tumults,  that  the  evangelist  thought 
 he  could  not  make  mention  of  its  being  decreed,  without 
 giving  some  hint  of  the  manner  of  its  being  executed : 
 and  therefore  he  puts  it  in,  by  way  of  parenthesis,  that 9 
 '  this  taxing  was  first  made,'  that  is,  first  put  in  execution, 
 '  when  Cyrenius  was  governor  of  Syria.'  b 
 
 There  is  a  passage  indeed  in  the  prophet  Isaiah,  which 
 
 6  2  Sam.  xxiv.  8.  ''  1  Chron.  xxi.  6. 
 
 8  Beausobre's  Annotations.  9  Luke  ii.  2. 
 
 a  The  account  which  Josephus  gives  us  of  this  matter  is 
 this: — "  Cyrenius,  at  this  time,"  says  he,  "  was  sent  governor 
 by  Cresar  into  Syria.  He  was  a  man  of  eminent  fame,  a  Roman 
 senator,  and  one  that  had  passed  through  all  the  degrees  and 
 offices  of  honour  up  to  the  dignity  of  a  consul.  Coponius,  who 
 commanded  the  horse,  went  along  with  him  as  governor  of  Judea; 
 but  Judea  being  already  annexed  to  Syria,  it  was  Cyrenius's 
 province  to  tax  and  cess  the  Jews,  and  to  make  seizure  of  the 
 monies  and  movables  of  Archelaus.  The  Jews  grumbled  at  this 
 way  of  assessing  at  first,  but  through  the  persuasion  and  authority 
 of  the  high  priest  Joazar,  the  son  of  Boethus,  they  were  per- 
 suaded to  submit  and  comply  without  any  further  trouble,  until 
 one  Judas,  a  Gaulonite,  of  the  city  of  Gamala,  together  with  one 
 Sadducus  a  Pharisee,  inveigled  the  people  into  a  revolt.  Taxes, 
 they  said,  were  only  marks  of  slavery,  and  therefore  the  whole 
 nation  should  do  well  to  stand  up  for  an  universal  liberty ;  and 
 one  lucky  hit  would  make  them  free  and  easy  for  ever,  and  ad- 
 vance them  in  their  reputation,  as  well  as  secure  them  in  their 
 possessions.  This  was  enough  to  put  the  multitude  in  tune  for 
 any  sort  of  mischief;  nor  is  it  to  be  expressed  the  havoc  these 
 turbulent  incendiaries  made  in  the  nation,  and  what  murders, 
 robberies,  and  depredations,  without  distinction  of  friend  or  foe, 
 they  committed,  under  the  pretence  of  advancing  the  common 
 good  of  liberty  and  property,  when  nothing  but  passion  and 
 private  interest  was  at  the  bottom." — Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  4. 
 
 b  If  the  solution  be  not  satisfactory,  the  reader  may  consult  Dr 
 Hales'  Analysis,  vol.  iii.  page  48,  et  seq. ;  the  disquisition  is  too 
 long  to  be  inserted  here. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &< 
 
 871 
 
 A.  W.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5349.  A  D.  28 
 
 St  Matthew  applies  to  the  birth  of  Jesus,  yet,  according 
 to  the  context,  it  seems  at  first  sight  to  have  a  more  im- 
 mediate reference  to  another  event ;  but  let  us  exaxnine 
 the  history  from  whence  it  is  taken.  In  the  days  of 
 Ahaz,  king  of  Judah,  and  probably  in  the  second  or 
 third  year  of  his  reign,  Rezin,  king  of  Syria,  and  Pekah, 
 king  of  Israel,  united  their  forces  to  come  against  Jer- 
 usalem, which  put  the  king  and  his  people  in  such  con- 
 sternation, '  '  that  their  hearts  were  moved,'  according 
 to  the  scripture  expression,  '  as  the  trees  of  the  wood 
 are  moved  by  the  wind.'  Hereupon  Isaiah  is  command- 
 ed to  take  his  little  son  Shear-jashub  with  him,  and  to 
 go  and  meet  Ahaz,  in  order  to  assure  him,  that  the  design 
 formed  against  him  by  the  two  confederate  kings  should 
 not  prosper  :  but  finding  no  credence  with  the  king,  the 
 prophet  undertakes  to  perform  whatever  miracle  he  should 
 ask,  in  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  what  he  had  promised 
 him.  Ahaz  however  still  refusing,  out  of  a  specious  pre- 
 tence of  not  being  willing  to  tempt  God,  the  prophet 
 turns  from  him,  and  addressing  himself  to  the  nobles  of 
 the  roval  blood,  a ;  Hear  ye  now,  O  house  of  David,'  says 
 he,  '  the  Lord  himself  shall  give  you  a  sign.  Behold  a 
 virgin  shall  conceive,  and  bear  a  son,  and  shall  call  his 
 name  Immanuel.' 
 
 Now,  not  to  insist  upon  the  original  word  Alma,  a 
 which,  as  3  learned  men  have  observed,  signifies  almost 
 always  a  virgin  untainted  by  man,  and  which  the  Greek 
 translators  before  Christ,  who  were  not  interested  in  the 
 controversy,  and  yet  knew  the  signification  of  Hebrew 
 words  much  better  than  any  moderns  can  pretend  to, 
 have  so  rendered  this  place  ;  and,  not  to  insist  upon  the 
 tradition  which  prevailed  among  the  Jews,  not  long  be- 
 fore our  Saviour's  appearing,  namely,  that  the  Messiah 
 should  come  into  the  world  in  such  an  extraordinary 
 manner,  that '  no  man  should  know  whence  he  was,'  and, 
 as  the  Talmud  expresses  it, '  that  his  birth  should  be  like 
 the  dew  of  the  Lord,  as  drops  from  the  grass,  expecting 
 
 Is.  vii.  13,  14. 
 
 1  Is.  vii.  2. 
 3  Kidder's  Demonstration,  part  ii.  c.  5. 
 
 a  Alma  comes  from  the  Hebrew  word,  which  signifies  to  hide, 
 and  very  fitly  agrees  with  the  customs  of  the  eastern  countries, 
 who  were  wont  to  keep  their  daughters,  while  they  were  in  their 
 virginity,  from  all  company  and  public  conversation,  and  inter- 
 views. Thus,  it  is  said,  upon  a  public  and  extraordinary  con- 
 sternation, '  the  virgins,  who  were  kept  in,  ran,  some  to  the 
 gates,  and  some  to  the  walls,  and  others  looked  out  of  the  windows,' 
 2.  Mac.  iii.  19.  But  there  is  another,  and  more  proper  signi- 
 fication, which,  from  the  same  word,  that  signifies  to  hide  or 
 cover,  this  Alma  will  bear,  namely,  as  it  denotes  one  who  has  not 
 known  man,  or,  according  to  the  scripture  phrase,  one  whose 
 nakedness  has  not  been  uncovered.  The  knowledge  of  a  woman 
 is  expressed  in  the  law  of  Moses  by  '  uncovering  her  nakedness;' 
 and,  agreeably  hereunto,  Alma  is  a  most  proper  word  for  a  virgin, 
 who  is  covered,  and  whose  nakedness  was  never  uncovered,  or 
 revealed  by  the  knowledge  of  man.  This  account  is  perfectly 
 agreeable  to  the  Hebrew  manner  of  speech,  and  to  the  style  of 
 the  law  of  Moses.  But  this  is  not  all ;  as  several  learned  men 
 have  shown,  that  there  is  a  great  affinity  between  the  Hebrew 
 and  Punic  language,  this  makes  the  words  of  St  Jerome  more 
 remarkable:  "  In  the  Punic  language,  which  is  said  to  be  derived 
 from  the  Hebrew,  she  who  is  properly  a  virgin  is  called  Alma," 
 in  Isaiah  c.  vii.  especially  considering  that  St  Matthew  renders 
 it  by  the  word  vx^hvo;,  which  signifies  a  virgin,  properly  so  call- 
 ed, the  very  same  word  that  the  Seventy  interpreters  made  use 
 ot,  about  three  hundred  years  before  St  Matthew  wrote  his  gos- 
 pel, and  consequently  long  enough  before  this  controversy  arose 
 between  Jews  and  Christians. — Bishop  Kidder's  Messiah,  part 
 ii.  c.  5. 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSF.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  tuI. 
 
 not  the  labour,'  or  action  of  men  ;  not  to  insist  on  these 
 things,  I  say,  though  they  make  very  much  for  Christ's 
 title  to  the  prophecy,  4  how  can  we  imagine,  that,  after 
 so  pompous  an  introduction,  and  so  important  a  name, 
 the  prophet  should  mean  no  more  at  last,  by  a  virgin's 
 conceiving,  than  that  a  young  woman  should  be  with 
 child?  What,  does  Isaiah  offer  Ahaz  a  miracle,  either  in 
 the  depth  or  in  the  height  above  ?  and  when  he  seems  to 
 tell  the  house  of  David,  that  God,  of  his  own  accord, 
 would  perform  a  greater  work  than  they  could  ask,  does 
 he  sink  to  a  sign  that  nature  produces  every  day  ?  Is  that 
 to  be  called  a  wonder,  which  word  implies  an  uncommon, 
 surprising,  and  supernatural  event,  which  happens  con- 
 stantly by  the  ordinary  laws  of  generation  ?  How  little 
 does  such  a  birth  answer  the  solemn  apparatus  which  the 
 prophet  uses,  to  raise  their  expectation  of  some  great 
 matter  ?  '  Hear  ye,  O  house  of  David, — Behold,  the  Lord 
 himself  will  give  you  a  sign,'  worthy  of  himself,  and  what 
 is  it  ?  why,  a  young  married  woman  shall  be  with  child. 
 How  ridiculous  must  such  a  discovery  make  the  prophet, 
 and  how  highly  must  it  enrage  the  audience  to  hear  a 
 man,  at  such  a  juncture  as  this,  begin  an  idle  and  imper- 
 tinent tale,  which  seems  to  banter  and  insult  their  misery, 
 rather  than  administer  any  consolation  under  it. 
 
 5But  of  what  use  or  consolation  could  the  future  birth 
 of  the  Messiah  be  to  the  house  of  David  at  that  time  ?  Of 
 very  great  use,  without  all  doubt ;  for  it  assured  them  of 
 the  truth  of  God's  promise,  in  that  he  would  not  sutler 
 them  to  be  destroyed,  nor,  6  '  the  sceptre  to  depart  from 
 Judah,'  until  the  Messiah  came.  It  assured  them  of  his 
 almighty  power,  in  that  he  could  create  a  new  thing  in 
 the  earth,  by  making  a  virgin  conceive,  and  thereby  show 
 himself  able  to  deliver  them  from  their  most  potent 
 enemies;  and  it  assured  them  likewise  of  his  peculiar 
 favour,  in  that  he  had  decreed  the  Messiah  should  de- 
 scend from  their  family  ;  so  that  the  people  to  whom  he 
 had  vouchsafed  so  high  a  dignity,  might  depend  upon 
 his  protection,  and,  under  the  shadow  of  his  wings,  think 
 themselves  secure.  '  In  short,  God  had  promised  the 
 Messiah  should  spring  from  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  from 
 the  family  of  David,  even  while  that  tribe,  and  that  fam- 
 ily, continued  a  polity  undestroyed  ;  and  therefore,  since 
 that  promise  was  not  yet  absolved,  nor  the  Messiah  as 
 yet  come,  there  was  no  fear  of  the  extinction  of  Judah, 
 and  the  house  of  David,  at  that  time,  whatever  their 
 present  distress  might  be  ;  but  as  God's  promises  were 
 immutable,  they  had  all  manner  of  reason  to  believe, 
 that  the  enemies  now  combined  against  them  would,  by 
 some  turn  of  Providence  or  other,  be  disappointed  iu 
 their  design. 
 
 Thus  one  great  prophecy  at  least  in  the  Old,  as  well 
 as  sundry  promises  in  the  New  Testament,  made  it  a 
 thing  necessary  that  when  the  Son  of  God  came  to  be 
 incarnate,  he  should  be  born  of  a  pure  and  immaculate 
 virgin  ;  and  it  is  impious  to  dispute  the  possibility  of 
 the  thing,  when  God  Almighty  was  the  agent  of  it  :  but 
 why  this  virgin  should  be  8  married,  rather  than  a  single 
 woman,  is  the  other  question  we  are  to  resolve.  And  in 
 order  to  do  this,  we  must  observe,  that  by  this  means 
 Mary's  genealogy,  not  only  by  her  father's  side,  which 
 
 4  Bishop  Chandler's  Demonstration  of  Christianity. 
 5  Collins's  Grounds  and  Reasons,  p.  43.  6  Gen.  xlix.  10. 
 
 7  Spanheim's  Dub.  Evang.  part  i.  dub.  27. 
 8  Kidder's  Demonstration,  part  ii.  b.  5. 
 
872 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5439.  A.  D.28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 St  Luke  has  recorded,  but  by  her  husband's  likewise, 
 which  St  Matthew  has  done,  came  to  be  deduced ;  and 
 so  we  have  a  double  testimony,  that  she  sprang  from  the 
 seed  of  David,  and,  according  to  the  promises  of  old, 
 was  the  true  mother  of  the  Messiah  ;  and  by  this  means  we 
 have  the  testimony  of  her  husband  Joseph  concerning 
 her  virginity,  who  was  not  a  little  uneasy  in  his  mind, 
 before  he  had  satisfaction  given  him  by  the  angel,  and 
 might  possibly  have  been  the  first  that  would  have  blasted 
 her  reputation,  had  he  not  been  fully  convinced  of  her 
 innocence  and  modesty  ;  that  by  this  means  our  Lord's 
 birth  was  secured  against  all  imputation  of  spuriousness, 
 and  his  mother's  character  protected  from  the  persecu- 
 tion of  opprobrious  tongues,  which  she  must  have  endur- 
 ed, if  not  the  censure  of  the  law,  and  brought  withal  a 
 perpetual  scandal  upon  her  family,  had  not  her  preg- 
 nancy, by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  been  con- 
 cealed under  the  umbrage  of  a  common  husband  ;  and 
 that  by  this  means  our  Lord  was  provided  with  a  guar- 
 dian in  his  childhood  and  minority,  and  his  mother  with 
 a  companion  in  her  journey  she  was  shortly  to  take,  from 
 Nazareth  to  Bethany,  and  from  thence  into  Egypt,  and 
 both  of  them  with  a  supporter,  who,  by  honest  labour  in 
 his  proper  occupation,  might  provide  them  with  the 
 necessaries  of  life. 
 
 These,  and  several  other  reasons,  might  be  assigned 
 for  our  Lord's  choosing  to  be  born  of  a  virgin  that  went 
 under  the  notion  of  being  married  •  but  how  came  he  to 
 be  a  man  of  poverty  and  affliction,  to  live  meanly,  and 
 die  ignominiously,  when,  had  he  been  the  true  Messiah, 
 he  must,  according  to  the  representations  made  of  him 
 in  the  prophets,  have  appeared  as  one  of  the  greatest 
 monarchs  in  the  world.  This  is  the  grand  objection  of 
 the  Jews  ;  and  therefore,  to  give  it  a  proper  solution,  it 
 ought  to  be  considered  that  the  '  Messiah,  in  order  to 
 accomplish  the  prophecies  concerning  him,  was  to  sus- 
 tain three  different  characters  ;  for  he  was  to  be  a  pro- 
 phet and  a  priest,  as  well  as  a  king.  The  predictions 
 indeed  which  refer  to  his  kingly  office,  are  more  in 
 number,  and  enlarged  upon  more  copiously,  than  either 
 of  the  other ;  yet  both  the  other  are  so  essential  to  the 
 character  of  the  Messiah,  that  had  any  one  of  these  been 
 wanting  in  him,  the  scheme  of  man's  redemption  had 
 been  broken  and  imperfect :  and  yet  it  is  certain,  that 
 these  three  offices  require  operations,  not  only  dis- 
 tinct and  peculiar  to  each,  but  such  as  could  not  equally 
 be  exercised  at  one  and  the  same  time,  by  one  and  the 
 same  person. 
 
 As  a  prophet,  the  Messiah  was  not  only  to  teach  and 
 instruct  his  people,  but  to  undergo  the  common  fate  of 
 prophets,  in  being  despised,  contradicted,  persecuted, 
 and  in  bearing  testimony  of  the  truth  of  his  doctrine,  by 
 the  example  of  his  sufferings  for  it.  As  a  priest,  he  was 
 to  make  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  his  people,  which  in 
 this  case  could  not  be  otherwise  done  than  by  offering 
 his  own  blood,  and  consequently  dying  in  their  stead. 
 Now,  both  these,  in  the  course  of  things  appointed  by 
 God,  were  to  go  before  the  entrance  upon  his  kingly 
 office,  because  the  prophecies  mentioned  this  last  as  a 
 recompence  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  the  other  two. 
 This  is  a  matter  that  both  the  2  royal  and  3  evangelical 
 
 1  Stanhope   on   the  Epistlt;s  and  Gospels,    vol.   iii  -  and   his 
 seventh  sermon  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
 g  Ps.  xxii.  3  Is.  liii. 
 
 prophet  express  so  very  plainly,  that  St  Paul  in  effect 
 does  but  expound  these  passages,  when  he  tells  the 
 Hebrews,  *  that  Jesus,  '  for  the  suffering  of  death,  was 
 crowned  with  glory  and  honour:'  and  the  Philippians,5 
 that  '  for  his  taking  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and 
 becoming  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
 cross,  God  had  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name, 
 which  is  above  every  name,'  &c.  Since,  therefore,  his 
 regal  office  was  not  to  commence  till  after  he  had  ac- 
 complished his  other  two,  to  complain,  that  his  kingly 
 power  was  not  exercised  at  his  first  coming,  is  to  mis- 
 understand the  prophecies,  and  confound  the  order  of 
 events  :  it  is  to  expect  a  full  accomplishment  of  predic- 
 tions within  a  very  narrow  space,  that  strictly  Jbelong  to 
 an  office  still  in  exercise,  and  to  which,  the  scripture 
 says, 6  '  there  shall  be  no  end.' 
 
 2.  It  is  to  be  observed  farther,  that  the  style  and  man- 
 ner of  the  prophets,  especially  when  they  treat  of  sub- 
 jects uncommon,  sublime,  and  spiritual,  abound  with 
 figurative  schemes  of  speech,  and  such  pompous  and 
 bold  metaphors  and  descriptions,  taken  from  sensible 
 objects,  as  awaken  in  our  minds  the  most  lofty  ima- 
 ginations we  are  capable  of.  This  the  Jews  themselves 
 make  no  difficulty  to  allow,  and  '  some  of  their  greatest 
 doctors  have  laid  it  down  for  a  rule,  in  the  interpreta- 
 tion of  the  prophets,  that  in  many  places  they  are  not 
 literally  to  be  understood,  by  reason  of  those  metaphor- 
 ical expressions,  whose  true  intent  is  to  represent  things, 
 according  to  our  capacity,  by  images  familiar  to  our 
 senses.  If,  therefore,  most  of  these  great  and  pompous 
 things  that  are  said  in  the  prophets  concerning  the  glori- 
 ous reign  of  the  Messiah,  may  be  understood  of  the 
 spiritual  benefits  which  we  have  received  by  his  coming  ; 
 such  as,  the  grace  of  our  regeneration  and  sanctification, 
 the  wisdom  of  his  laws,  the  comforts  of  his  ordinances, 
 the  holy  and  peaceable  temper  which  his  gospel  inspires, 
 the  large  extent  of  its  propagation,  and  the  blessed 
 effects  which  in  all  places  where  it  is  sincerely  believed 
 and  practised  it  produces  :  if  things  be  reduced  to  this 
 sense,  I  say,  I  cannot  see  but  that  the  character  of  a 
 powerful  prince  has  been  fulfilled  in  our  Saviour  already; 
 for  what  king  was  ever  so  prosperous  as  he,  who  by  the 
 propagation  of  his  gospel  has  enlarged  his  dominions  so 
 wonderfully  over  the  most  distant  regions  of  the  habit- 
 able world  ?  Or  what  conquest  was  ever  so  glorious  as 
 that  which  he  hath  gained  over  errors  and  prejudices,  the 
 lusts  and  passions  of  wicked  and  mistaken  men,  nay, 
 even  over  all  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  sin,  and  death, 
 and  hell  ? 
 
 But  be  it  granted,  as  it  seems  indeed  very  probable, 
 that  several  passages  in  the  prophets  relate  to  the  tem- 
 poral greatness,  prosperity,  and  peace,  that  shall  attend 
 the  government  of  the  Messiah  :  yet  we  are  to  consider, 
 
 3.  That,  before  the  consummation  of  all  things,  there 
 will  be  an  enlargement  of  Christ's  kingdom,  even  here 
 upon  earth.  For,  though  he  have  all  power  both  in 
 heaven  and  earth,  already  vested  in  the  human  nature, 
 united  with  his  own  divine  person,  yet  is  not  that  power 
 so  visibly  and  fully  executed,  as  it  shall  one  day  be ; 
 nor  are  all  these  glorious  effects  as  yet  accomplished, 
 
 4  Chap.  ii.  9.  s  Chap.  ii.  8,  9. 
 
 6  Is.  ix.  7. 
 '  Maim.  More  Nevocli.,  part  ii.  c.  39,  47 ;  Mciias  Ben.  Israel, 
 Qu.  in  Gen.  xxx. 
 
Skct.  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 873 
 
 A.M.  I  34.  A.  D.30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 which  the  prophets  foretold,  when  describing  the  vic- 
 torious and  peaceable,  the  unlimited  and  everlasting, 
 dominion  of  the  Messiah.  The  enlightening  of  the  Jews 
 and  Gentiles,  by  bringing  such  multitudes  of  the  one  and 
 so  many  nations  of  the  other  sort,  to  the  acknowledg- 
 ment of  the  truth,  is  already  a  partial  completion  of  the 
 prophecies ;  but  there  is  still  a  nobler  in  reserve,  when 
 the  fulness  of  both  shall  come  in.  He  reigns  now  actu- 
 ally in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  subdues  the  most  formid- 
 able of  our  enemies,  by  the  holiness  of  his  laws,  and  the 
 mighty  operations  of  his  grace  ;  but  that  dominion  and 
 conquest  will  be  much  more  absolute,  when  the  time 
 comes  for  every  enemy  to  be  utterly  destroyed.  Though 
 therefore  the  whole  be  not,  yet  abundantly  enough  has 
 already  been  fulfilled,  to  make  us  acquiesce  in  a  stedfast 
 assurance,  that  what  is  still  behind  will  most  certainly 
 come  to  pass.  For  sure,  how  meanly  soever  they  that 
 consider  things  imperfectly,  may  think  of  a  despised  and 
 crucified  man  ;  yet  there  is  nothing  so  gloriously  great 
 that  may  not  most  reasonably  be  expected  from  that  very 
 man  when  i  '  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power, 
 according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resurrection 
 from  the  dead.' 
 
 It  is  made  a  strong  objection  by  the  Socinians,  against 
 our  Saviour's  being  the  Son  of  God,  that,  at  the  time  of 
 his  baptism,  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  upon  him,  for 
 which  there  had  been  no  manner  of  occasion,  say  they, 
 had  the  Divinity,  which  was  certainly  no  less  powerful 
 than  the  Holy  Ghost,  been   personally  united  to  him. 
 AVhile  our  blessed  Saviour  was  discoursing  concerning 
 his   approaching  death,  and  a  voice  from  heaven  was 
 heard  speaking  unto  him,  he  told  the  people,  who  seemed 
 to  be  divided  in  their  opinions  of  it,  2  '  This  voice  came 
 not  because  of  me,'  that  is,  to  satisfy  me  of  the  divine 
 favour,  or  to  comfort  me  against  the  agonies  of  death, 
 '  but  for  your  sake,'  that  ye  might  believe  in  me  :  and, 
 in  like  manner,  it  might  be  a  sufficient  answer  to  this 
 objection,  that  this  visible  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
 upon  our  Saviour  was  not  for  his  sake,  or  to  convey 
 any  virtue  or  power,  that  he  was  not  equally  possessed 
 of  by  the  divine  nature  that  resided  in  him,  but  for  the 
 sake  of  the  Baptist,  and  those  that  were  then  present  with 
 him,  even  to  inform  them  of  the  excellency  of  his  person, 
 and  divine  mission  :  for  though  the  voice,  which  immedi- 
 ately follows  the  prodigy,  3  '  This  is  my  beloved  Son, 
 in  whom  1  am  well  pleased  :  4  Hear  him  ye  him,'  plainly 
 shows  that  this  whole  transaction  was  designed  for  the 
 instruction  of  all  the  company.     Our  Saviour  indeed  was 
 now  entering  upon  his  prophetic  office,  and  fit  it  was 
 that  the  world  should  have  some  previous  notice  of  it, 
 before  he  came  to  open  his  commission.    When  he  came  to 
 offer  himself  to  John  for  baptism,  John  indeed,  by  some 
 sudden  inspiration,  knew  him;  but  he  had  not,  as  yet, 
 made  any  public  declaration  of  that  knowledge ;  and 
 therefore  God  took  care  to  give  the  company  this  glori- 
 ous manifestation  of  his  being  his  Son,  and  a  person 
 sanctified  by  this  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  him 
 to  declare  his  will  to  the  world,  according  to  the  pro- 
 phecy 5  concerning  him,  and  whose  words  and  doctrine 
 it  therefore  concerned  all  men  to  hear  and  obey.     Our 
 blessed  Saviour  indeed,  as  he  Avas  God,  had  no  need  of 
 
 Rom.  i.  4.         -  John  xii. 
 4  Mat.  xvii.  5. 
 
 30. 
 
 a  Mat.  iii.  17. 
 Is.  xiii.  1. 
 
 this  unction  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  as  he  was  to  exe- 
 cute the  prophetic  office,  it  was  expedient  for  him  to 
 have  it :  for,  as  a  prophet  is  not  to  speak  in  his  own 
 name,  but  in  the  name  of  God,  and  what  he  has  suggested 
 to  him  by  the  Spirit  of  God ;  so  this  prophetical  office 
 was  to  be  performed,  not  by  the  divine  nature  of  our 
 Lord,  but  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  "  We 
 must  therefore,"  with  a  great  divine 6  of  our  church,  "  dis- 
 tinguish between  the  excellencies  and  perfections  of 
 Christ,  which  flowed  from  the  hypostatical  union  of  the 
 two  natures,  and  those  which  flowed  from  the  donation 
 and  anointing  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  From  the  hyposta- 
 tical union  of  the  natures  flowed  the  infinite  dignity  of 
 his  person,  his  impeccability,  his  self-sufficiency  to  fulfil 
 the  law,  and  satisfy  the  divine  justice ;  as  from  the 
 anointing  of  the  Spirit  flowed  his  knowledge  of  all  evan- 
 gelical mysteries,  the  doctrines  and  precepts  which  he 
 delivered  in  his  Father's  name,  and  the  miraculous  works 
 which  he  did  in  confirmation  of  his  mission  and  doctrine." 
 For  this  is  plain  to  every  one  that  looks  into  the  gospels, 
 that  almost  in  every  page  our  Saviour "  owns  his  mission 
 from  God ;  that  the  doctrines  which  he  taught  were  not 
 his  own,  but  God's  ;  that  they  were  all  dictated  by  the 
 Spirit  of  God  ;  and  that  the  miracles  which  he  exhibited, 
 in  testimony  of  these,  proceeded  from  the  same  Spirit 
 of  God.  Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude, 
 that  Jesus  Christ  being  now  in  a  state  of  humiliation, 
 and  emptied  of  the  form  of  God,  acted,  in  things  relat- 
 ing immediately  to  his  prophetic  office,  not  as  God,  but 
 only  as  a  prophet  sent  from  God  ;  not  by  the  power  of 
 his  divine  nature,  but  of  that  Spirit  by  which  he  was 
 anointed,  and  sanctified  to  that  office  ;  though,  notwith- 
 standing this  quiescence  in  the  Deity,  being  still  God, 
 of  the  same  essence  derived  from  the  Father,  he  might 
 do  many  other  things  by  virtue  of  his  divinity,  such  as 
 discerning  the  hearts  of  all  men,  walking  upon  the  sea, 
 and  stilling  the  stormy  winds  with  a  word,  &c.  And  as 
 this  divinity  was  part  of  the  doctrine  he  was  to  publish, 
 he  might,  without  any  contradiction  to  himself,  assert, 
 that  God  was  properly  his  Father,  and  lie  properly  his 
 Son ;  that  he  and  his  Father  were  one ;  and  that  '  all 
 men  were  to  worship  the  Son,  even  as  they  worshipped 
 the  Father.' 
 
 Something  of  the  like  nature  is  to  be  said  in  relation 
 to  our  Saviour's  being  tempted  by  the  devil,  <*  namely, 
 
 «  Dr  Lightfoot,  on  Mark  xiii.  32. 
 7  See  Whitby's  Preface  to  the  Gospel  of  St  John. 
 
 a  Tt  has  been  said  that  the  circumstances  which  occur  in  the 
 narrative  of  the  evangelists  regarding  the  temptation  of  our 
 Lord,  may  be  viewed,  cither  as  events  which  happened  in  the 
 most  literal  meaning  which  the  words  convey;  or,  they  may  be 
 regarded  as  the  representation  of  scenes  that  were  exhibited  only 
 in  vision  to  the  mind  of  Jesus;  or,  they  may  be  considered  as  a 
 picturesque  and  lively  description  of  the  seductive  conceptions 
 that  were  actually  suggested  to  his  mind  by  Satan — a  description 
 in  which  the  tempter  and  his  arts  are  brought  forth  before  our 
 imagination  as  a  specimen  of  what  takes  place  in  every  tempta- 
 tion that  assails  us.  The  first  of  these  suppositions  is  that  which 
 has  been  generally  adopted,  and  it  is  that  to  which  I  feel  myself 
 bound  to  adhere.  For,  dues  not  the  scripture  assert  in  point  of 
 fact,  that  the  devil  has  occasionally  been  permitted  to  appear  in 
 a  bodily  form?  And  if,  as  has  been  remarked,  in  the  form  of  a 
 serpent,  he  seduced  the  first  Adam  from  his  duty,  there  is  nothing 
 incongruous  in  the  supposition  that  he  assumed  the  form  of  a 
 man  to  assail  the  second.  He  had  just  left  the  state  of  privacy 
 in  which  his  youth  was  spent;  his  approach  as  the  Messiah  pro- 
 5  S 
 
874 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  103-1.  A.  D  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439,  A.  D.  28. 
 that  though  his  divinity  did  set  him  far  above  the  utmost 
 opposition  of  any  created  being,  yet  did  not  that  divinity 
 
 mised  to  the  fathers  had  just  been  publicly  announced  to  his 
 countrymen  by  the  messenger  appointed  to  prepare  the  way  be- 
 fore him;  the  Spirit  of  God  had  visibly  descended  on  him  in 
 baptism;  and  a  voice  from  heaven  had  declared,  'This  is  my 
 beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased.'  The  time  therefore 
 was  come  for  his  appearing  on  a  new  scene — as  the  Teacher  and 
 Redeemer  of  mankind.  To  fulfil  all  righteousness,  and  to  prove 
 him  worthy  of  his  office,  it  remained  that  he  should  be  tried  by 
 temptation.  For  this  purpose  he  was  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
 into  the  wilderness.  The  plan  of  redemption  rendered  it  neces- 
 sary that  he  should  assume  the  character  of  the  Son  of  man ;  and 
 as  a  man  he  was  liable  to  the  same  temptations  which  encompass 
 his  followers ;  for  it  behoved  him  to  be  made  like  unto  his 
 brethren,  and  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  though  with- 
 out sin.  But  if  there  be  no  improbability  in  the  supposition  that 
 Jesus  should  be  subjected  to  trials,  it  surely  cannot  appear  in- 
 credible that  the  agent  should  have  been  the  same  malicious  spirit 
 who  in  the  beginning  deceived  our  first  parents,  and  gave  rise 
 to  all  the  wickedness  and  miseiy  which  we  observe  among  their 
 descendants,  and  from  which  it  was  the  great  object  of  Christ's 
 incarnation  to  redeem  the  human  race.  Satan,  indeed,  could 
 not  but  know  that  Jesus  was  the  Holy  One  of  God,  who  had  come 
 into  the  world  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil;  but,  notwith- 
 standing he  may  have  had  some  presumptuous  expectations  of 
 success  in  assailing  him.  As  he  had  already  put  it  into  the  heart 
 of  Herod  to  murder  Jesus  in  his  infancy,  he  now  attempted  to 
 draw  him  into  sin,  with  the  view  of  frustrating  the  plan  of  re- 
 demption. It  is  probable  that.  Satan  renewed  his  temptations, 
 from  time  to  time,  during  the  whole  forty  days,  continually  in- 
 terrupting Christ's  holy  meditations  with  his  hateful  suggestions. 
 Those  who  allege  that  Satan  did  not  appear  in  a  bodily  form  on 
 tliis  occasion,  but  merely  assailed  our  Lord  by  his  usual  artifices 
 of  deceit,  argue,  that  the  method  in  which  Satan  is  commonly 
 represented  in  scripture  as  seducing  mankind,  is  by  working  on 
 their  imagination  and  passions.  He  does  not  appear  to  them 
 himself,  but  he  places  before  them  occasions  of  sin,  influences  the 
 train  of  their  thoughts,  and  employs  against  them  all  the  deceiv- 
 ableness  of  unrighteousness,  by  suggesting  to  their  minds  such 
 views  as  are  most  favourable  to  his  purpose,  by  inflaming  their 
 desires,  and  through  this  medium  hurrying  them  forward  to  the 
 commission  of  iniquity.  The  power  which  he  exerts  over  them 
 operates  through  the  force  of  motives  and  persuasion,  and  in  a 
 manner  similar  to  that  by  which  one  man  corrupts  the  principles 
 and  undermines  the  virtue  of  another.  And  what  reason  have 
 we  to  believe  that  he  acted  differently  in  the  present  instance? 
 Why  may  we  not  suppose  that  he  employed  against  the  human 
 nature  of  Christ  the  same  artifices  that  he  employs  against  our- 
 selves? Is  it  incredible  that  he  should  suggest  to  Jesus,  pinched 
 with  hunger,  that  he  ought  no  longer  to  wait,  confiding  in  pro- 
 vidence, for  the  usual  appointed  means  of  nourishment,  but  to 
 exert  his  miraculous  power  for  creating  bread  to  himself?  Is  it 
 incredible  that  he  should  suggest  to  Jesus,  deliberating  on  the 
 obligations  involved  in  his  arduous  commission,  some  difficulties 
 concerning  the  expediency  of  the  gradual  humiliating  plan  com- 
 mitted to  him  by  his  Father:  and  that  he  should  inspire  the 
 thought  of  producing  more  immediate  conviction  on  his  country- 
 men, by  descending  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  or  from  the 
 clouds  of  heaven;  or  of  extending  the  benefits  of  his  religion  at 
 once  to  the  whole  race,  by  appearing  in  his  native  dignity  as  the 
 King  and  Sovereign  of  the  nations?  That  there  is  nothing  either 
 incredible  or  improbable  in  supposing  that  Satan  might  labour  to 
 insinuate  such  thoughts  into  the  mind  of  Jesus,  is  demonstrated 
 by  the  fact  that  these  are  the  very  suggestions  which  he  has  com- 
 mitted to  all  his  emissaries  since  that  time,  as  sources  of  agree- 
 ment against  the  wisdom  of  the  plan  pursued  by  Christ  for  in- 
 structing and  saving  mankind.  Now,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
 Satan  often  acted  as  an  invisible  tempter  in  regard  to  Christ, 
 suggesting  thoughts  to  his  mind,  as  he  does  to  the  minds  of  his 
 followers:  but  the  form  of  the  narration  leads  to  the  conclusion, 
 that  in  the  progress  of  the  temptation,  Satan  assumed  a  bodily 
 appearance.  It  has  been  thought  that  in  the  character  in  which 
 he  presented  himself,  he  professed  to  be  a  friend,  and  proposed 
 to  him,  that,  if  he  were  indeed  the  Son  of  God,  he  should  com- 
 mand the  stones  before  him  to  be  made  bread.  Some  think,  that 
 the  temptation  was  chiefly  intended  to  make  him  question, 
 whether  he  were  indeed  the  Son  of  God ;  but  this  seems  rather 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.l. 
 
 exert  itself  upon  all  occasions,  but  sometimes  suspended 
 its  operations,  and  was  quiescent,  as  we  said  before. 
 1  That  the  divinity  was  thus  quiescent  in  Christ,  until  he 
 entered  upon  the  public  exercise  of  his  prophetic  office, 
 is  generally  thought  by  most  orthodox  divines ;  that,  in 
 all  the  actions  relating  to  the  execution  of  that,  his  office, 
 it  ceased  in  the  like  manner  to  act,  we  have  just  now 
 endeavoured  to  prove  ;  and  it  is  generally  thought  that 
 this  was  the  case  of  his  temptation  by  the  devil,  in  which 
 his  divine  perfections  lying  by,  as  it  were,  and  forbear- 
 ing to  engage,  he  is  to  be  considered  abstractly  as  a 
 man,  though  much  more  perfect   than  any  other  man. 
 For  fit  it  was  that  he,  who,  for  this  very  reason,  perhaps, 
 is  called  the  second  Adam,  should  overcome  the  great 
 enemy  of  mankind,  in  that  very  nature  alone,  and  unas- 
 sisted, wherein  the  first  Adam  was  so  miserably  foiled. 
 Whether  the  devil  might  know  that  our  Saviour  was 
 in  reality  the  Son  of  God,  or  only  some  peculiar  favour- 
 ite of  his,  divines  are  at  a  stand  to  determine.     It  is  the 
 observation  of  Origen,  that  s  all  the  while  that  our  Sa- 
 viour was  under  the  temptation,  he  never  confessed  him- 
 self to  be  the  Son  of  God  :  and  therefore,  3  since  the 
 dispensation  of  the  gospel  was  not  fully  and  perfectly 
 understood  by  good  angels,  but  gradually  manifested  to 
 them,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  devil  should  be  ignorant 
 of  the  mysteries  of  the  gospel,  particularly  that  '  great 
 mystery  of  godliness,  God's  manifestation  in  the  flesh.' 
 The  devil  therefore,  seeing  our  Saviour,  after  he  had 
 been  4  declared  the  Son  of  God,  so  long  in  the  wilder- 
 ness with  wild  beasts,  and  hungry,  without  any  food  to 
 sustain  him,  might  be  induced  to  question  whether  he 
 was  indeed  the  Son  of  God,  in  the  most  proper  and 
 highest  sense  of  the  words,  and  thereupon  incited  to 
 assail  him  :  but  if  even  he  knew  him  ever  so  well,  sucli 
 is  his  inveterate  malice,  that  it  hath  often  prevailed  with 
 him  to  attempt  things  very  foolish  and  impossible.     For 
 what  could  be  more  so,  than  for  a  creature  to  attempt 
 to  be  like  God,  or  to  annul  the  truth  of  the  prophecies 
 concerning  Christ  ?  What  could  be  more  pernicious  to 
 him  than  the  death  of  the  Lord  of  life  for  the  redemption 
 of  mankind  ;  and  yet  this  he  attempted  with  the  utmost 
 eagerness,  and  by  setting  all  his  instruments  to  work  to 
 accomplish  it,  though  5  '  it  was  impossible  for  our  Lord 
 to  be  held  under  the  power  of  death  :'  whatever  Satan, 
 therefore,  might  conceive  of  Christ,  as  Petavius  retorts 
 the  argument  upon  the  head  of  Crellius,  he  could  not  but 
 certainly  know  from  the  scriptures,  that  he  was  to  be 
 the  Redeemer  of  mankind,  and  the  Author  of  their  salva- 
 tion ;  that  he  was  '  the  seed  of  the  woman,  who  was  to 
 bruise  his  head,  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  his  father  David, 
 and  there  rule  for  ever  :'  and  therefore,  knowing  all  this, 
 he  could  not  hope  to  prevail  in  his  temptations  of  our 
 Lord,  unless  he  could  believe  that  he  was  able  to  reverse 
 both  the  decrees  and  oath  of  God.     Whether  therefore 
 the  devil  knew,  or  knew  not,  our  Saviour,  it  may  well 
 
 1  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
 2  Horn.  6.  in  Lucam.         3  Eph.  i.  10.  and  1  Pet.  i.  12. 
 
 4  Mat.  iii.  17.  5  Acts  ii.  24,  25. 
 
 to  have  been  assumed  as  a  kind  of  principle,  about  which  queries 
 were  to  be  proposed  ;  in  something  of  the  same  manner,  as  when 
 Eve  was  tempted  by  the  serpent.  But  the  great  enemy  was 
 baffled,  and  angels  came  to  honour  the  Redeemer,  and  torr.inistei 
 to  him, — Fi?ilai/son's  Sermons, — 7  &8th;  Scott's  Commentary, 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 875 
 
 A.  M.  4034    A.  D.  30;   ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A. 
 
 be  deemed  an  infatuation  in  him,  to  think  of  being  able 
 to  pervert  him,  as  he  had  done  our  first  parents  in  their 
 obedience  to  God ;  but  then,  it  was  far  from  being  a 
 foolish  or  unnecessary  thing  for  our  Lord  thus  to  suffer 
 himself  to  be  tempted,  1  since  thereby  he  hath  instructed 
 us,  that  not  any,  the  best,  and  most  exalted  degree  of 
 virtue  sets  men  above  temptations  ;  and  since  thereby  he 
 has  encouraged  us  to  hope  for  his  assistance  and  support 
 under  the  like  circumstances ;  both  because  2  '  himself 
 hath  suffered,  being  tempted,'  and  because  3  'he  was  in 
 all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  he  cannot  but  be  touch- 
 ed with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities.'  These  were  the 
 true  ends  and  reasons,  why  our  Saviour  suffered  tempta- 
 tion, and  the  proper  and  natural  inference  from  hence  is 
 that  which  the  same  author  to  the  Hebrews  makes,  4  '  Let 
 us  therefore  come  boldly  to  the  throne  of  grace,  that  we 
 may  obtain  mercy,  and  find  grace  to  help  us  in  time  of 
 need.' 
 
 There  are  few  things  wherein  mankind  seem  to  be 
 more  agreed,  than  in  the  acknowledgment  and  accep- 
 tance of  miracles,  as  an  authentic  and  indisputable  testi- 
 mony, that  the  persons  intrusted  with  such  power  were 
 employed  by  God  ;  because  the  constant  apprehensions, 
 which  both  reason  and  revelation  have  given  us  of  God, 
 are,  that  he  will  not  employ  his  power,  as  no  true  mira- 
 cles can  be  done  without  the  concurrence  of  his  power, 
 to  deceive  his  creatures  ;  and  therefore,  the  reasoning  of 
 Nicodemus,  when  he  came  to  visit  our  Saviour,  was 
 right, 5  '  Ave  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God, 
 because  no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that  thou  doest, 
 except  God  be  with  him.'  Since  miracles  then  are  the 
 avowed  effects  of  a  divine  power,  we  must  certainly  be 
 mistaken  in  our  judgment  of  them,  when,  with  regard 
 to  their  author,  we  esteem  one  greater  than  another.  In 
 effects,  indeed,  that  are  produced  by  human  power,  we 
 are  apt  to  say,  that  some  of  them  are  greater  than  others, 
 that  is,  that  they  require  more  and  greater  degrees  of 
 power  for  the  production  of  them  ;  but  this  distinction 
 vanishes  in  our  consideration  of  the  Supreme  Being,  to 
 whose  omnipotence  the  greatest  effect  we  can  imagine, 
 gives  no  limitation,  but  is  equal  with  the  smallest,  under 
 the  compass  of  his  acting.  To  us,  perhaps,  it  may  seem 
 a  greater  cure  to  dispossess  a  demon,  than  to  drive  away 
 a  fever ;  but  in  the  hand  of  the  Son  of  God,  while  he 
 dwelt  among  us,  they  were  operations  equally  easy  ;  and 
 yet  a  misconception  in  this  matter  has  certainly  led  some 
 into  an  opinion,  that  the  several  demoniacs  mentioned 
 in  the  gospels,  were  only  so  many  persons  afflicted  with 
 some  strange  and  uncommon  diseases. 
 
 But  that  these  demons,  or  evil  spirits,  which  our  Savi- 
 our, his  apostles,  and  the  primitive  Christians,  expelled 
 out  of  the  bodies  of  men,  could  not  be  diseases,  is  plain 
 both  from  the  scriptures,  and  ecclesiastical  writers,  who 
 make  a  constant  and  manifest  distinction  between  the 
 curing  diseases  and  casting  out  of  devils  ;  for,  when  the 
 evangelist  tells  us,  that 6  '  they  brought  unto  Christ  all 
 sick  people,  that  were  taken  with  divers  diseases,  and 
 those  which  were  possessed  with  devils,  and  those  that 
 were  lunatic,  and  had  the  palsy,  and  he  healed  tliem  ;' 
 when  7  '  he  gave   to   the  apostles  power  against  evil 
 
 i  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  ii.     2  Heh.  ii.  IS. 
 3  Heb.  iv.  15.  "  I  bill.  iv.  10.  5  John  iii.  2. 
 
 "Mat.iv.  24.  r  Ibid.  x.  1. 
 
 D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OFGOSP.  TO  MAT.ix.8.  MARKii.23.  LUKE  vi.  1 
 
 spirits,  to  cast  them  out,  and  to  heal  all  manner  of  sick- 
 nesses and  diseases  ;'  and  accordingly,  8  '  they  healed 
 many  that  were  sick  with  divers  diseases,  and  cast  out 
 many  devils ;'  when  Irenaius  9  informs  us  that  the  Chris- 
 tians, in  his  days,  '  did  truly  cast  out  devils,  and  heal 
 the  sick  by  imposition  of  hands ;'  and  lu  Origen,  that 
 '  they  cast  out  devils,  and  healed  many  diseases  ;'  can 
 any  one  of  tolerable  understanding  think,  that  the  dis- 
 eases healed  and  the  devils  cast  out,  were  one  and  the 
 same  thing  ? 
 
 That  there  were  evil  spirits  of  this  kind,  the  holy 
 scriptures  have  taken  such  abundant  care  to  acquaint  us 
 with  their  origin  and  fall,  their  names  and  numbers,  their 
 government  and  orders,  their  malicious  designs,  and  em- 
 ployments, &c,  that  no  one  can  doubt  of  their  existence, 
 who  believes  these  holy  oracles  to  be  true.  That  both 
 among  the  Jews  and  Gentiles,  before  our  Saviour's  ad- 
 vent, men  were  possessed  with  these  evil  spirits,  is  evi- 
 dent from  the  testimony  of  u  Josephus,  who  tells  us  of  a 
 very  powerful  form  of  exorcism,  which  descended  from 
 Solomon,  who  learned  it  of  God  ;  and  from  the  testimony 
 of  12  Plutarch,  who  acquaints  us,  that  the  exorcists  of  most 
 nations  advised  those  that  were  possessed,  to  repeat  the 
 Ephesian  letters.  And,  that  these  evil  spirits,  in  our 
 Saviour's  time,  were  distinct  substances,  and  not  the 
 diseases  of  mankind,  is  evident  from  the  circumstances 
 of  their  ejection,  from  their  expostulating  with  him, '  what 
 have  we  to  do  with  thee  ?  Art  thou  come  to  destroy  us  ? 
 Art  thou  come  to  torment  us  before  the  time  ?'  And  from 
 his  commanding  them  sometimes  to  be  silent,  and  some- 
 times to  come  out  of  the  man,  and  enter  into  him  no 
 more,  &c. 
 
 The  truth  is,  these  apostate  spirits  had  gotten  so  far 
 possession  of  the  world,  that  they  began  to  rival  God  in 
 his  worship  ;  and  therefore  one  end  of  his  Son's  incar- 
 nation is  said  to  be  this,  13  '  that  he  might  destroy  the 
 works  of  the  devil,'  and  l*  '  overcome  the  strong  one,  and 
 divide  his  spoils.'  And  this,  by  the  way,  may  suggest 
 a  reason,  why  at  or  about  the  time  of  our  Saviour's  ad- 
 vent, and  perhaps  more  especially  in  the  places  which 
 he  frequented,  God  might  permit  the  devil  to  exert  him- 
 self in  an  unusual  manner,  in  order  to  be  the  more  sig- 
 nally triumphed  over  by  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and 
 those  that  were  delegated  by  him  to  convert  mankind  to 
 his  religion.  Nay,  had  I  leisure  to  proceed  to  ecclesi- 
 astical writers,  I  might  easily  show  how  victorious  the 
 name  of  Christ  was  over  these  principalities  and 
 powers  of  darkness,  even  after  his  departure  out  of  this 
 world ;  for  "  that  our  Lord  was  sent  for  the  destruction 
 of  these  evil  spirits,  you  may  now  learn,"  says  Justin 
 Martyr, 15  "  from  what  is  done  before  your  eyes ;  for  many 
 Christians,  throughout  all  the  world,  and  in  every  city 
 of  your  empire,  have  healed  many  that  were  possessed 
 of  the  devil,  and  still  do  they  eject  them,  by  the  invoca- 
 tion of  the  name  of  Jesus,  whom  none  of  your  enchan- 
 ters, conjurers,  or  sorcerers,  were  able  to  expel :"  "  and 
 give  me  a  man,"  says  Tertullian, 1C  in  thatnoble  challenge 
 of  his  to  the  heathen  powers,  "  give  me  a  man  here  before 
 your  tribunals,  that  is  visibly  possessed  by  the  devil  ; 
 
 8  Mark  i.34. 
 "'  Contra  Celsum,  b.  i. 
 "  Sympos.  l>.  i.  ij.  5. 
 '«  Luke  xi.  22,  23.       I5  Apol.  i. 
 
 9  B.  ii.  c.  16. 
 
 1  Antiq.  b.  viii.  c.  2. 
 13  I  John  iii.  8. 
 .  4o.      '6  Ajpol.  C.  fcft. 
 
876 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.D  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 and  if,  when  he  is  commanded  by  any  Christian  to  de- 
 clare what  he  is,  he  don't  immediately  confess  himself 
 to  be  a  devil,  not  daring  to  lie  to  a  Christian,  then  let 
 the  blood  of  that  Christian  be  shed  before  you,  in  that 
 very  place."  a  But  1  forbear,  and  so  proceed  to  the  next 
 objection,  which  relates  to  our  Saviour's  behaviour  at 
 the  marriage  feast. 
 
 a  Lardner,  and  some  other  writers,  have  supposed,  that  the 
 demoniacs,  or  persons  who  were  possessed  by  evil  spirits,  were 
 only  lunatics  or  diseased  persons.  They  argue  against  the  exis- 
 tence of  real  possessions  on  various  grounds,  more  especially,  of 
 their  being  inconsistent  with  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  the 
 divine  government.  All  the  persons,  they  say,  spoken  of  in  the 
 New  Testament  as  possessed  with  devils,  were  either  mad  or 
 epileptic,  and  precisely  in  the  same  condition  with  the  madmen 
 and  epileptics  of  modern  times.  Some  of  the  Jews,  offended 
 with  Christ's  discourses,  said,  he  hath  a  devil,  and  is  mad;  why 
 hear  ye  him?  The  expressions,  '  he  hath  a  devil,  and  is  mad,'  were 
 used,  as  they  suppose,  on  this  occasion,  as  synonymous.  Those 
 who  thought  more  favourably  of  Christ,  replied  to  the  calumny 
 of  his  enemies,  '  These  are  not  the  words  of  him  that  hath  a 
 devil;'  meaning,  that  they  did  not  discover  in  his  discourse  the 
 incoherence  of  a  madman,  or  of  one  disordered  in  his  understand- 
 ing. Every  thing,  they  allege,  related  in  the  New  Testament 
 concerning  demoniacs,  shows  that  they  were  persons  affected 
 with  such  natural  diseases  as  are  not  uncommon  among  mankind 
 in  the  present  age.  VVhen  the  symptoms  of  the  disorders  which 
 were  cured  by  our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  as  cases  of  demoniacal 
 possession,  correspond  so  exactly  with  those  of  diseases  well  known 
 as  natural  at  the  present  time,  why  should  we  impute  them  to 
 a  supernatural  cause?  Is  it  not  more  consistent  with  common 
 sense  and  sound  philosophy,  to  suppose  that  our  Saviour  and  his 
 apostles  adopted  the  vulgar  phraseology  in  speaking  of  those  un- 
 fortunate persons,  who,  without  any  foundation,  were  imagined 
 to  be  possessed  with  demons?  Now,  I  agree  with  Bishop  Gleig 
 in  regarding  all  these  objections  to  the  literal  interpretation  of 
 this  part  of  scripture,  as  proceeding  either  from  a  desire  to  re- 
 present Christianity  as  nothing  more  than  a  republication  of 
 natural  religion,  or  from  a  groundless  apprehension  of  giving 
 countenance  to  the  lying  wonders  of  the  Church  of  Home.  That 
 Christianity  is  something  very  different  from  any  system  of  re- 
 ligion which  can  be  called  natural,  it  has  been  a  main  design  of 
 this  work  to  establish.  The  triumphs  of  our  Lord  over  the  powers 
 of  darkness  were  an  essential  part  of  the  great  scheme  of  redemp- 
 tion, 'for  the  Son  of  God  was  manifested  that  he  might  destroy 
 the  works  of  the  devil.'  Though  some  of  the  Jewish  prophets  had 
 performed  many  and  great  miracles,  and  even  restored  the  dead  to 
 life,  it  was  yet  reserved  for  the  Son  of  God — the  Saviour  of  the 
 world — to  compel  the  spiritual  powers  that  were  opposed  to  his 
 kingdom  to  proclaim  their  own  ruin: — '  What  have  we  to  c!o  with 
 thee,  Jesus,  thou  Son  of  God  ;  art  thou  come  hither  to  torment  us 
 before  the  time?'  "When  I  find,"  says  Dr  Campbell,  (Prelimi- 
 nary Dissertations  to  the  Gospels,  Diss,  xi.)  "  mention  made  of  the 
 number  of  demons  in  particular  possessions,  their  actions  so  ex- 
 pressly distinguished  from  those  of  the  man  possessed,  conversa- 
 tions held  by  the  former  in  regard  to  the  disposal  of  them  after 
 their  expulsion,  and  accounts  given  how  they  were  actually  dis- 
 posed of;  when  I  find  desires  and  passions  ascribed  peculiarly  to 
 them,  and  similitudes  taken  from  the  conduct  which  they  usually 
 observe;  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  deny  their  existence,  without 
 admitting  that  the  sacred  historians  were  either  deceived  them- 
 selves in  regard  to  them,  or  intended  to  deceive  their  readers. 
 The  language  in  which  the  demoniacs  are  mentioned,  and  the 
 actions  aud  sentiments  ascribed  to  them  in  the  New  Testament, 
 show  that  our  Saviour  and  his  apostles  did  not  consider  the  idea 
 of  demoniacal  possession  merely  as  a  vulgar  error  concerning  the 
 origin  of  a  disease  or  diseases  produced  by  natural  causes.  If 
 any  person,  in  compliance  with  popular  opinions,  should  talk 
 seriously  of  the  existence,  dispositions,  declarations,  and  actions, 
 of  a  race  of  beings  whom  he  knew  to  be  entirely  fabulous,  we  cer- 
 tainly could  not  praise  him  for  his  integrity.  Our  Lord  and  his 
 apostles  talked  and  acted  as  if  they  believe  d  that  evil  spirits  had 
 actually  entered  into  those  who  wore  brought  to  them  as  possessed 
 with  devils,  and  as  if  those  spirits  had  been  actually  expelled  by 
 their  authority  from  the  unhappy  persons  possessed.  They  also 
 demanded  that  their  authority  and  declarations  should  be  believed, 
 in  consequence  of  their  performing  such  mighty  works,  and  thus 
 
 Our  blessed  Saviour  indeed  was  a  person  of  so  grave 
 and  serious  a  deportment,  that,  whatever  instances  we 
 find  of  his  pity  and  compassion  to  mankind,  of  his  griev- 
 ing and  being  troubled,  and  even  weeping  upon  some 
 
 triumphing  over  the  powers  of  hell."  The  reality  of  demoniacal 
 possession  rests  on  the  same  evidence  as  the  gospel  system  in 
 general.  There  is  nothing  unreasonable  in  this  doctrine.  We 
 often  fancy  ourselves  able  to  comprehend  things  to  which  our  un- 
 derstanding is  wholly  inadequate;  we  frequently  persuade  our- 
 selves that  the  whole  extent  of  the  works  of  the  Deity  must  be 
 well  known  to  us,  and  that  his  designs  must  always  be  such  as 
 we  can  understand.  We  are  then  ready,  whenever  any  difficulty 
 arises  in  considering  the  conduct  of  providence,  to  model  things 
 according  to  our  own  ideas,  to  deny  that  the  Deity  can  be  the 
 author  of  things  for  which  we  are  not  able  to  account,  and  to  as- 
 sert that  he  must  act  on  every  occasion  in  a  manner  'consistent 
 with  our  narrow  views.  This  is  the  pride  of  reason,  which  seems 
 to  have  suggested  the  strongest  objections  against  the  reality  of 
 demoniacal  possessions.  But  the  Supreme  Being  may  surely 
 employ  whatever  agents  he  may  think  proper,  in  the  execution 
 of  his  purposes.  All  that  divine  revelation  makes  known,  all 
 that  human  reason  can  conjecture,  concerning  the  existence  of 
 various  orders  of  spiritual  beings,  good  or  bad,  is  perfectly  con- 
 sistent with,  aud  favourable  to,  the  doctrine  of  demoniacal  pos- 
 session. It  is  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament  in  such  language, 
 and  such  narratives  are  related  concerning  it,  that  the  gospel  can 
 be  regarded  only  as  parts  of  an  imposture,  if  this  doctrine  be  only 
 a  vulgar  error.  In  confirmation  of  these  views,  it  may  further 
 be  remarked,  that  the  demons  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament 
 as  possessing  persons  were  conceived  to  be  malignant  spirits. 
 They  are  exhibited  as  the  causes  of  the  most  direful  calamities 
 to  the  unhappy  persons  whom  they  possess — dumbness,  deafness, 
 madness,  palsy,  epilepsy,  and  the  like.  The  descriptive  titles 
 given  them,  always  denote  some  ill  quality  or  other.  Most  fre- 
 quently they  are  called  unclean  spirits,  sometimes  malign  spirits. 
 They  are  represented  as  conscious  that  they  are  doomed  to  misery 
 and  torments,  though  their  punishments  be  for  a  while  suspend- 
 ed. It  is  evident  that  the  devil  and  his  angels,  according  to  all 
 that  we  can  learn  of  them  in  the  sacred  books,  are  real  beings, 
 that  the  demons  of  the  New  Testament  are  malignant  spirits, 
 arid  that  they  act  upon  the  same  principles,  and  even  under  the 
 authority  of  Satan  himself,  who  is  otherwise  called  Beelzebub, 
 and  the  prince  of  the  devils.  Nay,  in  these  very  cases  of  pos- 
 session, the  chief  of  the  apostate  angels  is  clearly  set  forth  as 
 acting  either  in  his  own  person  or  by  means  of  his  infernal  agents. 
 And  it  is  on  this  supposition  alone  that  we  can  explain  the  lan- 
 guage of  Christ  in  that  remarkable  declaration  which  he  makes 
 to  the  Pharisees  and  rulers  of  the  Jews,  and  which  we  find  re- 
 corded in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  gospel  Ly  Matthew :  '  the 
 Pharisees  heard  it,  and  they  said,  this  fellow  doth  not  cast  out 
 devils  but  by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  the  devils.  And  Jesus 
 knew  their  thoughts,  and  said  unto  them,  every  kingdom  divided 
 against  itself  is  brought  to  desolation,  aud  every  city  or  house 
 divided  against  itself,  shall  not  stand:  and  if  Satan  cast  out  Satan, 
 he  is  divided  against  himself,  how  shall  then  his  kingdom  stand?' 
 It  should  also  be  observed,  that  the  inspired  writers  uniformly 
 make  a  distinction  between  diseases  occurring  in  the  ordinary 
 course  of  nature,  and  diseases  occasioned  by  the  agency  of  evil 
 spirits.  "  There  is  every  where,"  says  Bishop  Porteus,  "  a  plain 
 distinction  made  between  common  diseases  and  demoniacal  pos- 
 sessions, which  shows  that  they  are  totally  different  things.  In 
 the  fourth  chapter  of  the  gospel  by  Matthew,  where  the  very  first 
 mention  is  made  of  these  possessions,  it  is  said  that  our  Lord's 
 '  tame  went  throughout  all  Syria,  and  that  they  brought  unto  him 
 all  sick  people,  that  were  taken  with  divers  diseases  and  torments, 
 and  those  which  were  possessed  with  devils,  and  he  healed  them.' 
 Here,  those  that  were  taken  with  divers  diseases  and  torments, 
 and  those  possessed  with  devils,  are  mentioned  as  distinct  and 
 separate  persons:  a  plain  proof  that  the  demoniacal  possessions 
 were  not  natural  diseases;  and  the  very  same  distinction  is  made 
 in  several  other  passages  of  holy  writ.  There  can  be  no  doubt, 
 therefore,  that  the  demoniacs  were  persons  really  possessed  with 
 evil  spirits;  and  although  it  may  seem  strange  to  us,  yet  we 
 find  from  Josephus  and  other  historians,  that  it  was  in  those  times 
 no  uncommon  case." — Por/eus's  Lectures  on  St  Mat.,  vol.  i.  p. 
 '2H4  :  Fanner's  Essay  on  the  Demoniacs  of  the  New  Testament i 
 Jorlin's  Remarks  on  F.cclcs.  Hist.  vol.  i. ;  Lardner 's  /forks,  vol.  i. 
 —En. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 877 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.D.30,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.28. 
 
 occasions,  we  can  meet  with  none  of  his  laughing,  nor 
 any  token  of  a  mirth  or  joy  extraordinary,  in  the  whole 
 history  of  his  life  :  but  we  must  not  from  hence  infer, 
 that  he  was  of  a  stiff' and  precise  temper,  or  in  any  degree 
 an  enemy  to  such  forms  of  civility,  or  social  usages,  as 
 were  then  in  practice.  If  therefore  we  may  be  allowed 
 to  suppose,  what  seems  indeed  highly  probable,  that  this 
 marriage  at  Cana  was  between  persons  of  his  own  kin- 
 dred and  acquaintance,  and  that  by  the  very  rules  of 
 celebrating  such  festivals  among  the  Jews,  all  excess 
 and  intemperance  was  excluded,  then  will  it  follow,  that 
 it  could  be  no  disparagement  to  our  Saviour's  character 
 to  accept  of  the  invitation  that  was  made  him,  and  to  be 
 present  at  such  a  meeting. 
 
 Among  us  indeed,  especially  among  the  vulgar  sort, 
 there  are  sometimes,  on  these  occasions,  liberties  taken 
 that  are  not  so  justifiable ;  but,  among  the  Jews,  there 
 was  always  the  greatest  decency  and  sobriety  imaginable 
 observed  in  the  celebration  of  their  marriages.  "  To  this 
 purpose  a  governor  of  the  feast,  as  some  say  of  the 
 sacerdotal  race,  was  always  chosen,  whose  office  it  was 
 to  have  the  superintendency  of  the  dishes  and  wine,  and 
 to  oblige  the  guests  to  observe  all  the  deeorums  that 
 religion  required  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  other  persons,  at 
 this  time,  were  likewise  appointed  to  break  glass  vessels, 
 as  a  common  signal,  to  give  the  company  notice,  that 
 they  had  already  drank  enough,  and  were  not  permitted 
 to  run  to  excess.  Under  this  regulation,  it  is  scarcely 
 imaginable  that  the  guests,  at  a  Jewish  marriage,  could  be 
 guilty  of  any  intemperance,  and  least  of  all  at  this  in  Ga- 
 lilee, where  our  Saviour's  presence  and  observation,  the 
 gravity  of  his  behaviour, and  the  seasonableness  of  his  dis- 
 course, might  well  be  presumed  to  heighten  the  decorum, 
 and  to  keep  all  the  company  under  a  proper  restraint. 
 
 What  therefore  the  governor  of  the  feast  says  to  the 
 bridegroom,  2  in  relation  to  the  water  that  was  turned 
 into  wine,  is  to  be  understood  only  as  a  general  repre- 
 sentation of  a  custom,  usual  at  other  festivals,  which  was, 
 to  bring  the  best  wine  at  first,  and  towards  the  conclusion, 
 that  which  was  worse ;  which  custom,  as  the  governor 
 tells  him,  was  not  observed  here  ;  for  the  difference  be- 
 tween this  entertainment  and  others  is,  that  '  thou  hast 
 kept  the  good  wine  until  now.'  3  So  that  '  when  men 
 have  well  drunk,'  is  only  a  circumstance  thrown  in  to 
 illustrate  the  comparison,  or  describe  the  latter  end  of  a 
 feast,  and  has  no  manner  of  reference  to  the  condition 
 of  the  company  then  present.  But  allowing  the  words 
 orctv  ftidvaduoi,  to  be  a  description  of  the  condition  that 
 die  company  were  then  in,  yet  it  will  by  no  means  fol- 
 low, that  they  had  proceeded  to  any  intemperance,  be- 
 cause the  words  are  equally  capable  of  an  innocent,  as 
 well  as  vicious  meaning.  *  Mi6vttv  indeed,  in  its  primi- 
 tive signification,  means  no  more  than  '  drinking  after 
 the  sacrifice ;'  and  as  there  is  nothing  in  the  etymology 
 that  determines  this  to  be  done  to  excess,  or  beyond  the 
 proper  bounds  of  joy  in  a  festival,  so  there  are  several 
 instances  in  scripture,  wherein  it  was  certainly  done 
 according  to  the  rules  of  sobriety  and  moderation. 
 Thus,  to  mention  one  out  of  many,  in  the  Seventy's  ver- 
 sion of  (ienesis,  where  it  is  said,  that 5 '  Joseph's  brethren 
 drank,  and  were  merry  with  him,'  the  words  are  ifitdva- 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 %actv  per  ctvrov,  and  yet  no  one  can  imagine,  but  that, 
 in  their  present  circumstances,  thinking  no  other  than 
 that  he  was  the  governor  of  Egypt,  and  being  apprehen- 
 sive that  he  had  no  good  design  against  them,  they  were 
 too  much  upon  their  guard,  and  solicitous  about  their 
 own  safety,  to  give  any  way  to  intemperance  in  his 
 presence  :  and,  if  the  expression  here,  and  in  «  several 
 other  passages,  may  be  taken  in  a  virtuous  sense,  we 
 cannot  but  conclude,  unless  we  can  suppose  that  St  John 
 designed  to  expose  his  Master's  behaviour  upon  this 
 occasion,  that  he  intended  we  should  understand  him  in 
 the  most  favourable  acceptation.  « 
 
 We,  indeed,  in  our  translation,  say,  that  the  water- 
 pots,  wherein  the  wine  was  created,  7  contained  two  or 
 three  firkins  apiece  ;  but  some,  who  have  looked  more 
 nicely  into  ^e-rgjjTijj,  or  measure,  here  spoken  of,  6  have 
 brought  it  so  low,  as  to  make  the  whole  six  pots  hold  no 
 more  than  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  gallons  of  our 
 English  measure.  But  not  to  descend  so  low,  we  will 
 suppose,  at  present,  that  the  quantity  of  wine  made  by 
 our  Saviour  at  this  feast,  was  as  large  as  our  translation 
 represents  it ;  yet  whoever  considers  the  nature  of 
 Jewish  marriages,  how  they  were  celebrated  with  feast- 
 ing and  rejoicings,  not  only  on  the  day  of  solemnity, 
 as  it  is  with  us,  but  for  six  or  seven  days  after,  and  that 
 at  these  feasts  not  only  all  their  relations,  and  neigh- 
 bours, and  acquaintance,  were  invited,  but  that  it  was 
 well  taken  likewise,  if  any  others,  though  not  invited, 
 would  come  to  partake  of  the  entertainment,  and  bear  a 
 share  in  the  joy  :  whoever  considers  this,  I  say,  cannot 
 but  imagine,  that  a  very  large  quantity  of  wine  must 
 needs  be  requisite  at  such  a  time,  since  it  was  to  be  a 
 supply,  not  for  that  day  only,  but  for  all  the  succeeding 
 days,  until  the  time  of  the  feasting  was  expired. 
 
 Nay,  even  supposing  farther,  that  our  Lord,  upon  this 
 occasion,  did  not  confine  himself  to  a  precise  quantity, 
 proportionate  to  the  company,  or  period  of  the  festival, 
 and,  what  is  more,  9  that  some  of  the  company  might 
 abuse  his  liberality  by  their  intemperance,  which  is  a 
 concession  not  to  be  gathered  from  the  text,  yet  he  can- 
 not therefore  be  charged  with  the  administering  to  their 
 excess,  by  making  such  an  ample  provision,  any  more 
 than  we  can  charge  the  providence  of  God  with  being 
 instrumental  to  all  the  gluttony  and  drunkenness  which 
 is  committed  in  the  world,  merely  because  he  affords  that 
 
 1  Lewis's  Antiq.  of  the  Heb.  Repub.  vol.  iii.        2  John  ii.  10. 
 Dr  Poarce's  Vindication  of  our  Saviour's  Miracles,  part  iii. 
 *  Ibid.  >■  Chap,  xliii.  31. 
 
 6  See  Whitby's  Annot.  ad  locum. 
 
 7  John  ii.  6.  8  See  Cumberland,  of  Weights  and  Measures. 
 9  Whitby's  Annot.  in  locum. 
 
 a  The  probability  is,  that  the  expression  under  consideration 
 relates  not  at  all  to  excess,  nor  indeed  to  drinking  at  any  other 
 feast  than  that  which  was  kept  at  a  marriage.  The  Abbi  Mariti, 
 speaking  of  the  age  of  the  wines  of  Cyprus,  says, — '  It  is  certain, 
 that  at  the  birth  of  a  son  or  daughter,  the  father  causes  a  jar  filled 
 with  wine  to  be  buried  in  the  earth,  having  first  taken  the  pre- 
 caution to  seal  it  hermetically;  and  in  this  manner  it  is  kept  till 
 the  child's  marriage.  It  is  then  placed  on  the  table  before  the 
 bride  and  bridegroom,  and  is  distributed  among  their  relations, 
 and  tlie  other  guests  invited  to  the  wedding.'  If  such  a  custom 
 prevailed  formerly,  and  prevailed  among  the  Jews,  it  is  evident 
 that  the  wine  first  drunk  at  a  marriage  feast  must  have  been  the 
 best,  as  nothing  but  wine  of  a  very  superior  quality  could  have 
 been  preserved  from  the  birth  of  a  child  to  his  or  her  marriage, 
 even  at  the  early  age  at  which  marriages  were  made  in  Judea. 
 The  probability  therefore  is,  that  the  governor  of  the  feast  meant 
 nothing  more  than  to  express  his  surprise  at  the  bridegroom's 
 having  deviated,  as  he  supposed,  from  the  common  practice  of 
 presenting,  the  jar  of  old  and  superior  wine  at  first. — See  Bur- 
 tier's  Oriental  Customs. 
 
878 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28. 
 
 meat  and  drink,  which  men  of  inordinate  appetites  abuse 
 to  excess.  The  truth  is,  as  it  is  a  high  commendation 
 of  providence,  that  it  crowns  us  with  plenty,  whatever 
 use  we  make  of  it,  and  bestows  upon  us  all  things  richly 
 to  enjoy  ;  so  was  it  not  unbecoming  a  person,  invested 
 with  a  divine  commission,  to  give,  on  this  occasion,  an 
 eminent  instance  of  his  flowing  liberality,  and,  by  his 
 generous  provision  for  the  family,  to  leave  a  grateful 
 memorial  of  his  benevolent  regard  to  two  persons  that 
 very  likely  were  his  relations,  and  had  just  entered  into 
 the  honourable  state  of  matrimony. 
 
 Since  therefore  our  Lord  answered,  in  so  free  and 
 plentiful  a  manner,  his  mother's  request  at  last,  there 
 seems  to  be  something  in  their  supposition,  who,  from 
 the  propriety  *  of  the  Greek  expression,  think  that  his 
 mother  spake  to  him,  before  the  wine  was  out,  but  when 
 it  grew  so  low  that  she  plainly  perceived  there  would 
 not  be  enough  for  the  company ;  and  therefore  our  Savi- 
 our's reply  to  her  will  very  justly  bear  this  sense,  TV  ifiol 
 xxl  vol  ;  '  what  is  it  to  you  or  me  ?'  that  is,  the  care  of  pro- 
 viding wine  upon  this  occasion  does  not  properly  belong 
 to  you  or  me  ;  but  admitting  it  did,  '  my  hour  is  not  yet 
 come.'  It  is  too  soon  as  yet  to  set  about  it ;  because  it 
 is  highly  fitting  that  the  necessity  of  that  supernatural 
 supply,  which  1  intend  them,  should  be  a  little  more  felt, 
 in  order  to  recommend  the  benefit  itself,  and  to  give  the 
 manner  of  attaining  it  a  power  of  making  a  deeper  im- 
 pression on  their  minds. 
 
 This  seems  to  be  no  unnatural  construction  of  the 
 words,  and  removes  all  the  seeming  harshness  of  our 
 Saviour's  answer, '  woman,  what  have  I  to  do  with  thee?' 
 We  mistake  the  matter,  however,  very  much,  if  we  think 
 that  the  word  yyvij,  which  we  render  woman,  was  any 
 title  of  disrespect  or  indifference,  as  it  seems  to  be  in 
 our  translation,  since  it  is  frequently  used  by  the  best 
 authors,  when  the  highest  marks  of  esteem  are  intended. 
 The  polite  Xenophon  himself  puts  it  in  the  mouth  of  one 
 of  his  Persian  chiefs,  when  he  was  addressing  himself  to 
 a  captive  lady,  and  comforting  her  under  her  unfortunate 
 circumstances  ;  and  certainly  a  time  there  was,  that  our 
 Lord  called  his  mother  by  this  appellation,  when  he  was 
 far  from  being  harsh  or  undutiful  to  her,  even  when  he 
 was  hanging  on  the  cross,  and  tenderly  recommending 
 both  his  mother  to  the  care  of  his  beloved  apostle,  and 
 that  apostle  to  his  mother's  love  and  affection,2' woman 
 behold  thy  son.'  So  little  does  our  Saviour's  conduct, 
 in  this  whole  transaction,  deserve  these  horrid  and  im- 
 pious censures  which  of  late  have  been  thrown  upon  it ! 
 
 W  hatever  some  modern  Jews  and  infidels  may  allege 
 against  the  abuse,  as  they  pretend,  which  the  writers  of 
 the  New  Testament  have  put  upon  the  prophecies  of 
 the  Old,  by  applying  them  to  a  wrong  sense  ;  3  no  man 
 need  be  told,  that  an  attempt  of  this  nature  had  been 
 as  impertinent,  the  affront  to  man's  reason  as  insolent, 
 and  the  event  as  fruitless,  nay  as  fatal  to  their  cause, 
 had  they  imposed  a  false,  or  even  controverted,  sense 
 upon  the  predictions  confessedly  relating  to  the  Messiah, 
 as  it  would  have  been  had  they  urged  such  predictions 
 as  were  not  acknowledged  to  belong  to  him  at  all.  The 
 truth  is,  if  the  Jews  understood  the  prophecies  relating 
 to  the  Messiah  in  one  sense,  and  the  apostles,  in  their 
 
 1  'VrrrfiffuvTo;  o'/vou,  ver.  3.  2  John  xix.  25.  27. 
 
 •  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures,  sermon  viii. 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 address  to  them,  applied  them  in  another,  we  cannot 
 see  how  they  could  ever  have  made  one  proselyte, 
 being  in  the  same  condition  with  what  St  Paul  describes, 
 when  he  tells  us,  that,  4  '  he  who  speaketh  in  an  unknown 
 tongue,'  and  why  not  he  that  speaketh  in  an  unknown 
 meaning,  speaketh  to  the  air,  and  becometh  a  barbarian 
 to  him  that  heareth,  but  understandeth  him  not.  So  that 
 every  Jew  converted  to  the  Christian  faith  is  an  implicit 
 proof  of  the  apostle's  applying  the  ancient  prophecies  in 
 a  sense  that  was  then  current  and  familiar  to  them. 
 
 That  the  famous  prophecy  in  Isaiah  5  is  thus  applied  by 
 St  Matthew, 6  to  prove  that  Christ  was  born  of  an  immacu- 
 late virgin,  we  took  occasion  to  show.  The  remaining 
 allegation  is,  that  the  name  of  the  person  of  wjioni  the 
 prophet  speaks  was  to  be  Immanuel ;  whereas  the  name 
 of  that  son  of  Mary,  of  whom  St  Matthew  speaks  by 
 God's  express  command,  was  Jesus ;  and  therefore  the 
 words  of  the  prophet  are  misapplied  by  the  evangelist. 
 
 Now,  nothing  is  more  common  in  scripture  than  by 
 the  calling  or  naming  of  a  person  or  thing,  not  to  mean 
 that  the  person  or  thing  would  be  commonly  distinguished 
 by  that  name,  but  only  that  it  should  have  such  properties 
 and  qualities  in  it  as  that  name  did  denote ;  or,  in  other 
 words,  that  it  should  really  be  what  the  full  sense  of  that 
 name  imported.  Thus,  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem  it  is 
 foretold  by  the  prophet, 7  that  it  should  be  called  '  the  city 
 of  righteousness,'  when  it  really  was  to  be  such  a  city  ; 
 for  in  the  foregoing  words  it  is  promised, '  that  God  would 
 restore  her  judges  as  at  the  first,  and  her  counsellors  as 
 at  the  beginning.'  And  in  like  manner,  though  it  be 
 declared  by  this  prophet, 8  that  the  wonderful  child  which 
 God  promised  to  the  house  of  David  should  be  called 
 Immanuel ;  yet  if  he  was  but  what  that  name  properly 
 imports,  God  with  us,  in  a  most  eminent  and  pe- 
 culiar manner,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  that  the  pro- 
 phecy received  its  full  completion  in  the  person  of  our 
 Saviour  Christ. 
 
 For,  besides  God's  universal  presence,  there  is  a  pre- 
 sence of  favour  and  distinction,  whereby  he  is  said  to 
 be,  in  a  more  peculiar  manner,  with  those  whom  he  loves 
 and  blesses  above  others.  And  in  this  regard  the  child 
 here  spoken  of  is  justly  called  Immanuel,  because,  as 
 St  Paul  speaks,  9  '  God  was  in  him  reconciling  the  world 
 to  himself,'  for  his  sake  and  sufferings, '  not  imputingtheir 
 trespasses  unto  them  ;'  so  that  by  him  lu  they  who  were 
 some  time  afar  oft' are  made  nigh,  have  access  to  the  Fa- 
 ther, are  accepted  in  the  Beloved, u  '  and  become,  of  ene- 
 mies and  strangers,  friends  and  children,  insomuch  that 
 God  vouchsafes  to  dwell  in  them  and  to  be  one  of  them. 
 And  as  God  unites  us  to  himself  by  grace,  so  did  he,  in  this 
 child,  condescend,  by  an  ineffable  generation,  to  unite 
 our  substance  and  nature  to  himself,  "to  be  perfect  God 
 and  perfect  man,12  that  so  he  might  be  the  first-born  among 
 many  brethren,  and  redeem  the  children  from  death,  who 
 are  partakers  of  flesh  and  blood,  by  himself  taking  part 
 of  the  same."  Let  it  not  then  be  any  more  objected,  that 
 the  child  in  the  prophecy  could  not  be  called  Immanuel, 
 whom  we  confess  to  have  been  called  Jesus ;  for  he  is 
 therefore  our  Immanuel,  because  our  Jesus  ;  therefore, 
 most  eminently,  most  literally, '  God  with  us,'  because,  by 
 
 4 1  Cor.  xiv.  2. 
 
 6  Chap.  i.  23.  ■■ 
 
 "  2  Cor.  v.  19. 
 11  Ibid.  i.  6. 
 
 5  Chap.  vii.  14. 
 Is.  i.  26.         "  Ibid,  chaj).  vii.  14. 
 '"Eph.  ii.  13.  18 
 12  Rom.  viii.  29;  Heb.  ii.  14. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 879 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A   M.  5139.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  M  AT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 so  miraculous  an  union,  '  a  Saviour  of  his  people  from 
 their  sins.' 
 
 It  may  seem  perhaps  surprising  to  some,  that  St  Mat- 
 thew should  so  frequently  introduce  his  citations  with  a 
 1  This  was  done,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
 spoken  by  the  prophet:'  but  whoever  considers  the 
 idiom  of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  cannot  but  know  that  the 
 phrase,  answering  to  the  expressions,  '  that  it  might  be 
 fulfilled,'  means  no  more,  than  that  hereby  was  verified, 
 or  that  this  event  answered  to  the  prediction,  or  the  like. 
 Nay,  the  Jews  were  accustomed  to  say,  that  a  passage 
 of  scripture  was  then  fulfilled,  when  any  thing  happened 
 that  was  applicable  to  it ;  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder, 
 that  St  Matthew,  who  himself  was  a  Jew,  and  very  pro- 
 bably wrote  his  gospel  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  for  the 
 benefit  of  his  countrymen,  should  naturally  fall  into  their 
 style  and  manner  of  expression.* 
 
 *  Though  it  should  be  admitted,  that  the  word  ■x'kYiooiSn  in 
 Mat.  i.  22,  is  used  in  the  strictest  sense,  to  express  the  fulfil- 
 ment of  a  prophecy,  which  pointed  to  this  single  event;  it  can- 
 not be  denied  that  the  general  import  of  the  verb  -rXn^ou,  in  the 
 gospel,  is  more  properly  expressed  by  the  English  verb  verify, 
 than  by  fulfil.  Those  things  are  said  ■rknguSwa,!,  which  are 
 no  predictions  of  the  future,  but  mere  affirmations  concerning 
 the  present,  or  the  past.  Thus,  chap.  ii.  15,  a  declaration  from 
 the  prophet  Hosea,  (xi.  1.)  which  God  made  in  relation  to  the 
 people  of  Israel,  whom  he  had  long  before  recalled  from  Egypt, 
 is  applied  by  the  historian  allusively  to  Jesus  Christ,  where  all 
 that  is  meant  is,  that,  with  equal  truth,  or  rather  with  much 
 greater  energy  of  signification,  God  might  now  say,  "I  have 
 recalled  my  Son  out  of  Egypt."  Indeed  the  import  of  the 
 Greek  phrase,  as  commonly  used  by  the  sacred  writers,  is  no 
 more,  as  Le  Clerc  has  justly  observed,  than  that  such  words  of  any 
 of  the  prophets  may  be  applied  with  truth  to  such  an  event. 
 For  it  is  even  used,  where  that  which  is  said  to  be  fulfilled  is 
 not  a  prophecy,  but  a  command ;  and  where  the  event  spoken  of 
 is  not  the  obedience  of  the  command  (though  the  term  is  some- 
 times used  in  this  sense  also,)  but  an  event  similar  to  the  tiling 
 required ;  and  which,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  tallies  with 
 the  words.  Thus,  in  the  directions  given  about  the  manner  of 
 preparing  the  paschal  lamb,  it  is  said,  (Exod.  xii.  46.)  '  none  of 
 his  bones  shall  be  broken.'  This  saying  the  evangelist  John 
 (xix.  36.)  finds  verified  in  what  happened  to  our  Lord,  when  the 
 legs  of  the  criminals  who  were  crucified  with  him,  were  broken, 
 and  his  were  spared.  '  But  were  not  the  recall  of  Israel  from 
 Egypt,  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  passover,  typical  of  what  hap- 
 pened to  our  Lord  ?  I  admit  they  were.  But  it  is  not  the 
 correspondence  of  the  antitype  to  the  type,  that  we  call  properly 
 fulfilling:  this  English  word,  if  I  mistake  not,  is,  in  strictness, 
 applied  only,  either  to  an  event  to  which  a  prophecy  directly 
 points,  or  to  the  performance  of  a  promise.  Whereas  the  Greek 
 word  is  sometimes  employed  in  scripture  to  denote  little  more 
 than  a  coincidence  in  sound.  In  this  sense  I  think  it  is  used, 
 chap.  ii.  23.  We  have  an  instance  of  its  being  employed  by  the 
 Seventy,  to  denote  verifying  or  confirming  the  testimony  of  one, 
 by  the  testimony  of  another,  1  Kings  i.  14.  The  word  fulfill- 
 ing, in  our  language,  has  a  much  more  limited  signification: 
 and  to  employ  it  for  all  those  purposes,  is  to  give  a  handle  to  cavil- 
 lers, where  the  original  gives  none.  It  makes  the  sacred  penman 
 appear  to  call  those  things  predictions,  which  plainly  were  not, 
 and  which  they  never  meant  to  denominate  predictions.  The  most 
 apposite  word  that  I  could  find  in  English  is  verify;  for,  though 
 it  will  not  answer  in  every  case,  it  answers  in  more  cases  than 
 any  other  of  our  verbs.  Thus,  a  prophecy  is  verified  (for  the 
 word  is  strictly  applicable  here  also),  when  it  is  accomplished; 
 a  promise,  when  it  is  performed  ;  a  testimony,  when  it  is  con- 
 firmed by  additional  testimony,  or  other  satisfactory  evidence  ; 
 a  maxim  or  proverb,  when  it  is  exemplified;  a  declaration  of  any 
 kind  may  be  said  to  be  verified  by  any  incident  to  which  the 
 words  can  be  applied.  1  acknowledge  that  this  word  does  not, 
 in  every  case,  correspond  to  •x\i\^oa.  A  law  is  fulfilled,  not 
 verified;  and  if  the  import  of  the  passage  he  to  denote  that  addi- 
 tional strength  is  given  to  it,  it  is  better  to  say  confirmed,  or 
 ratified.  In  some  places  it  means  to  fill-up,  in  others  to  perfect, 
 in  others  to  make  known. — Campbell  oti  the  Gospels,  vol.  ii. — En. 
 
 Now,  whoever  considers  the  state  of  the  Jews  in 
 Egypt,  their  bondage,  and  danger  of  utter  extinction,  by 
 reason  of  the  decree  which  passed  for  the  destruction  of 
 all  their  male  children,  (had  not  the  providence  of  God 
 prevented  the  execution  of  it)  will  soon  perceive  the 
 cause,  why  Egypt  is  made  in  scripture  the  common  figure 
 and  emblem  of  extreme  danger,  and  imminent  death ; 
 and  why  a  deliverance  out  of  Egypt  should  be  applied 
 to  every  great  act  of  preservation,  where  there  seemed 
 to  be  no  visible  means  of  escape  ;  insomuch,  that  when- 
 ever any  instance  of  such  a  watchful  and  protecting  pro  - 
 vidence  happened,  it  was  an  usual  and  proverbial  speech 
 among  the  Jews  (who  were  wont  then,  as  they  are  still, 
 to  apply  sentences  out  of  holy  writ  to  the  common  oc- 
 currences of  life)  to  say,  in  scripture  phrase,  '  Out  of 
 Egypt  have  I  called  my  Son,'  or  '  He  hath  called  him 
 out  of  Egypt,'  that  is,  he  hath  rescued  him  from  the  jaws  of 
 death,  or  from  the  like  danger  that  the  Israelites  were 
 in  when  he  brought  them  out  of  Egypt  with  a  mighty 
 hand  and  a  stretched-out  arm.  Since  Joseph  then  was 
 ordered  to  flee  to  Egypt,  and  tarry  there  until  Herod  was 
 dead,  for  this  reason,  because  Herod  sought  the  young 
 child's  life ;  this  distinguishing  preservation  of  Jesus, 
 by  means  of  his  retreat,  till  the  danger  was  over,  will 
 justify  the  evangelist  (even  though  it  had  been  any  other 
 country,  as  well  as  Egypt,  whereunto  he  retired)  in 
 applying  to  him  the  proverbial  saying  upon  that  occa- 
 sion, l  "Out  of  Egypt  (that  is,  out  of  manifest  danger) 
 have  I  called  my  son." 
 
 The  deportation  of  the  ten  tribes  from  their  native 
 country  into  a  foreign  land,  there  to  die  or  live  in 
 slavery,  was  so  grievous  a  calamity,  that  the  prophet 
 Jeremiah  2  byway  of  prosopopoeia,  introduces  Rachel, 
 the  favourite  wife  of  Jacob ,  that  great  progenitor  of  the 
 Israelites,  making  bitter  lamentation  for  their  loss,  and 
 refusing  all  consolation,  because  there  were  no  hopes  of 
 their  recovery.  And  the  murder  of  so  many  innocent 
 babes  at  Bethlehem,  by  the  bloody  decree  of  Herod, 
 was  an  event  so  dolorous  to  their  tender  parents,  that 
 the  evangelist,  when  he  came  to  relate  it,  thought  he 
 might  justly,  by  way  of  accommodation,  apply  the 
 words  of  the  prophet,  and,  in  the  name  of  all  the  mis- 
 erable mothers  that  had  lost  their  children,  make  Rachel 
 upon  this  occasion,  and  as  a  farther  accomplishment  of 
 the  prophecy,  return  to  her  weeping  again.  The  rather 
 because  Rachel,  having  been  long  dead  before  the  cap- 
 tivity, may,  with  equal  propriety,  by  the  evangelist,  as 
 she  is  by  the  prophet,  be  introduced  weeping;  the  rather, 
 because  she  was  3  so  fond  a  lover  of  children,  that  she  is 
 fitly  enough  brought  in  here  in  the  room  of  the  tendor 
 mothers  who  wept  for  the  loss  of  theirs  ;  and  the  rather, 
 because  the  slaughter  of  the  Bethlehemites  might  be  call- 
 ed that  of  her  children,  because  among  them  *  was  the 
 place  of  her  sepulchre,  after  that  she  had  lost  her  life  in 
 the  bitter  pangs  of  childbirth. 
 
 There  is  no  prophet,  we  own,  wherein  it  is  expressly 
 said,  that  the  Messiah  should  be  called  a  Nazarene  ;  5 
 but  the  observation  of  St  Jerome,  in  his  comment  upon 
 this  place,  is  not  amiss,  namely,  that  when  St  Matthew  6 
 
 1  Mat.  ii.  J  5.  s  Chap.  xxxi.  15. 
 
 3  Gen.  xxx.  1.  <  Ibid.  xxxv.  19. 
 
 Bishop  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  ii.  c.  3, 
 "Chap.  ii.  23. 
 
880 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5139.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  '2*f.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 learning,  and  integrity  ;  of  which  ours,  and  some  other 
 translations  of  the  Bible,  have  been  so  sensible,  as  very 
 prudently  to  decline  the  odious  name  of  magicians , 
 and  to  call  them  '  the  wise  men  of  the  east ;'  but  what 
 part  of  the  east  it  was  that  they  came  from,  few  interpre- 
 ters have  agreed. 
 
 7  Some  have  imagined  that  these  travellers  came  out 
 of  Persia  ;  others  from  Chaldea,  others  from  Arabia,  and 
 others  again  from  Mesopotamia.  All  these  countries 
 lay  eastward  from  Jerusalem  and  the  Holy  Land  ;  and 
 in  each  of  these,  some  antecedent  notions  of  the  Messiah 
 may  be  accounted  for.  In  Chaldea  and  Persia,  by  the 
 captivity  of  the  Jews,  and  the  books  of  Daniel ;  in 
 Arabia,  by  the  nearness  of  their  neighbourhood,  and 
 frequent  commerce ;  and  in  Mesopotamia,  besides  these 
 common  helps,  they  had  the  prophecy  of  their  country- 
 man Balaam,  concerning  a  star  8  that  should  come  out 
 of  Jacob  to  direct  them.  9  But  as  we  know  of  no  re- 
 cord, wherein  this  prophecy  was  preserved,  but  the  book 
 of  Moses,  which  the  people  of  Mesopotamia  neither  read 
 nor  believed,  so  it  seems  evident,  that  Balaam's  words 
 do  not  refer  to  a  star  that  should  arise  at  any  prince's 
 birth,  but  to  a  certain  king,  who  should  be  as  glorious 
 and  splendid  in  his  dominions,  as  the  stars  are  in  the 
 firmament.  Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  it  seems  most 
 likely  that  these  wise  men  came  out  of  Arabia,  10  which, 
 according  to  Tacitus,  was  the  bound  of  Judea  eastward, 
 not  only  because  the  gifts  which  they  presented  were  the 
 natural  products  of  that  country,  which  was  famous  like- 
 wise for  its  magi,  insomuch  that  Pythagoras,  as  Porphyry 
 informs  us,  went  into  Arabia  to  acquire  wisdom  ;  but  be- 
 cause its  neighbourhood  to  Judea  might  give  these  wise 
 men  the  advantage  of  discerning  the  star  better  than  any 
 more  distant  nation  had. 
 
 For,  that  this  star  was  no  celestial  one,  and  such  as 
 might  be  seen  at  a  vast  distance,  its  motion,  contrary  to 
 the  ordinary  course  of  stars,  its  performing  the  part  of 
 a  guide  to  the  travellers,  and  that  by  day,  very  probably, 
 as  well  as  night,  its  accommodating  itself  to  their  neces- 
 sities, and  disappearing  and  returning,  as  they  could 
 best,  or  least,  be  without  it ;  and,  what  is  a  circumstance 
 as  remarkable  as  any,  its  pointing  out,  and  standing  over 
 the  very  place  where  the  child  was,  which  the  height  and 
 distance  of  common  stars  makes  it  impossible  for  them 
 to  do,  are  a  sufficient  demonstration.  It  seems  not  im- 
 probable, therefore,  that  what  the  evangelist  calls  a  star, 
 was  only  that  glorious  light  u  that  shone  upon  the  Beth- 
 lehem shepherds,  when  the  angel  came  to  impart  unto 
 them  the  tidings  of  our  Saviour's  birth  ;  for  that  this  light 
 was  exceeding  great,  is  clear  from  that  expression,  which 
 styles  it  the  I2  '  glory  of  the  Lord,'  and  that  it  was  a  light 
 from  heaven  hanging  over  their  heads,  the  words  in  the  13 
 Greek,  as  well  as  14  Latin  version,  sufficiently  inform  us. 
 
 Now,  every  one  knows,  that  such  a  light,  at  a  great 
 distance,  appears  like  a  star  ;  or  at  least,  after  it  had 
 thus  shone  about  the  shepherds,  it  might  be  lifted  up  on 
 high,  and  then  formed  into  the  likeness  of  a  star,  where 
 standing  vertically  over  Judea  for  some  time,  it  might 
 direct  the  Arabian  astrologers,  whom  so  strange  a  phe- 
 nomenon could  hardly  escape,  to  the  capital  city,  as  the 
 
 mentions  the  word  prophets  in  the  plural  number,  whereas, 
 in  other  places,  he  had  always  cited  some  particular 
 prophet,  he  thereby  shows  that  he  did  not  take  the  words 
 from  the  prophets,  but  only  the  sense.  Since  then  the 
 title  of  Nazarene  bodi  Jews  and  other  enemies  of  Chris- 
 tianity have  always,  by  way  of  contempt,  given  to  our 
 blessed  Saviour,  because  he  was  supposed  to  come  out 
 of  that  very  city,  from  whence  it  was  thought  impossible, 
 that  l  any  good  thing  should  come ;  and  since  most  of 
 the  prophets  speak  of  Christ,  as  a  person  that  was  to  be 
 reputed  vile  and  abject,  2  a  stranger  to  his  brethren,  and 
 even  an  alien  to  his  mother's  sons,  3  despised  and  re- 
 jected of  men,  despised  and  esteemed  not,  here  is  the 
 plain  sense  of  the  words,  '  he  shall  be  a  Nazarene,'  4  and 
 the  angel,  by  God's  appointment,  no  doubt,  sent  him 
 to  this  contemptible  place,  that  he  might  thence  have  a 
 name  of  infamy  and  contempt  put  upon  him,  ac- 
 cording  to  the    frequent  intimation  by  the  prophets. 
 
 5  The  word  we  render  wise  men,  in  its  original,  sig- 
 nifies magicians  ;  which,  however  now  it  bespeaks  not 
 so  good  a  character,  was,  nevertheless,  heretofore  a 
 name  of  very  innocent  and  honourable  signification. 
 The  studious  and  inquisitive,  whose  business  and  profes- 
 sion led  them  to  search  into  nature,  its  most  abstruse 
 causes  and  effects,  and  more  particularly  into  the  motions 
 and  dispositions  of  heavenly  bodies,  were  distinguished 
 by  this  title  :  and  in  what  profound  veneration  and  re- 
 spect they  were  held,  appears  from  the  most  important 
 matters,  both  sacred  and  civil,  being  committed  to  their 
 administration.  They  were  the  counsellors,  the  judges, 
 the  priests,  the  princes,  in  a  word,  the  oracles  of  the 
 eastern  countries.  But,  as  the  best  arts  are  sometimes 
 perverted  to  ill  purposes  ;  so  it  happened  to  these,  that, 
 falling  into  the  hands  of  bad  men,  who  met  with  people 
 ignorant  and  credulous,  and  not  only  easy,  but  even 
 glad,  to  be  deluded,  they  degenerated  into  the  cheats  of 
 judiciary  astrology  ;  and.  these  abuses  grew  so  general, 
 as,  at  last,  to  fix  an  ill  sense  upon  the  word,  and  a 
 scandal  on  the  science  itself. 
 
 It  were  a  wrong  and  great  indignity  to  the  persons 
 now  before  us,  not  to  believe  them  of  the  nobler  and 
 better  sort;  but  we  can  hardly  be  persuaded,  though 
 some  would  endeavour  to  do  it,  that  they  were  persons 
 of  royal  dignity,  6  because  we  cannot  reasonably  sup- 
 pose that  the  evangelist  would  have  omitted  a  circum- 
 stance of  so  great  moment,  both  for  their  honour  and 
 our  Lord's.  We  can  hardly  think  but  that  some  account 
 would  have  been  given  of  their  royal  train  and  equipage 
 and  that  all  Jerusalem  would  have  been  moved  as  much 
 to  see  their  entry,  as  they  were  to  hear  their  questions  : 
 nor  can  we  imagine  that  it  would  have  been  decent  in 
 Herod  to  have  received  them  with  no  more  respect ;  to 
 have  dismissed  them  to  Bethlehem  without  attendants ; 
 much  less  to  have  laid  his  commands  upon  them  to  return 
 back,  and  bring  him  an  account  of  the  child,  as  soon  as 
 they  had  found  him,  had  they  been  persons  of  equal  rank 
 and  dignity  with  himself.  Upon  these  considerations 
 we  may  justly  deny  them  the  title  of  kings,  though  we 
 cannot  but  allow  them  to  be  persons  of  great  wisdom, 
 
 Is.  liii. 
 
 1  ^hn  i.  46.  *ps.   ixjx<  8< 
 
 4  W  hitby's  Annotations  in  locu.... 
 
 5  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,"  vol 
 
 6  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  ii.  l,  &c 
 
 '  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 8  Num.  xxiv.  17.  9  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 ^  ,0  Ibid.  >    H  Ibid.  a  Lake  ii.  9. 
 
 3  ni£iixaf*-j,ii  ccItous.  '<  Emicuit  ex  alto. 
 
Shot.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &< 
 
 881 
 
 A.M.  4134.  A.  D.30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  2S.  FROM  BEGIN.  OFGOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  21  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 tendency  is  to  another ;  and  then  it  will  appear,  that 
 there  is  no  certain  measure  to  be  taken  of  the  divine 
 justice  or  goodness,  towards  us,  without  taking  in  the  dis- 
 tributions of  that  other  life,  which,  indeed,  is  the  main 
 end  of  our  living  at  all.  What  Solomon,  therefore,  in 
 his  wisdom,  says  of  the  righteous  in  general,  is  much 
 more  verified  in  the  case  of  these  harmless  babes  :  8  '  In 
 the  sight  of  the  unwise,  they  seemed  to  die,  and  their 
 departure  is  taken  for  misery  ;  but  they  are  in  peace  : 
 for,  though  they  were  punished  in  the  sight  of  men,  yet 
 is  their  hope  full  of  immortality.'  9  For  a  frail,  a  short, 
 a  troublesome,  a  dangerous  life,  God  gives  them  the  re- 
 compence  of  an  immortal,  a  securely  happy,  a  complete- 
 ly glorious  one  ;  which  not  only  vindicates,  but  magnifies 
 his  goodness  and  liberality  to  them.  He  considers  their 
 infancy,  and  the  noble  fruit  which  might  have  sprung 
 from  these  tender  plants,  had  they  been  allowed  to  grow 
 to  full  maturity,  and  accordingly  rewards  them  :  for, 
 though  they  wanted  the  will  of  martyrdom,  which  riper 
 years  may  have,  yet  it  must  be  allowed,  that  they  were 
 clear  of  that  voluntary  and  actual  sin  which  those  riper 
 years  would  have  contracted :  and  therefore,  as  in  the 
 most  literal  sense,  10  they  were  not  defiled  with  sensual 
 pleasures,  but  left  the  world  in  virgin-innocence,  as  they 
 were  truly  redeemed  from  among  men,  whose  early  trans- 
 lation to  a  state  of  bliss,  prevented  the  hazards  and 
 temptations  of  a  wicked  world ;  and,  as  they  were, 
 strictly  speaking,  the  first  fruits  unto  God  and  the  Lamb, 
 who  began  to  shed  their  blood  in  the  cause  of  a  new  born 
 Saviour,  so  God  hath  been  pleased  to  vouchsafe  them  a 
 peculiar  honour, iU  to  sing,  as  it  were,  a  new  song  before 
 the  throne,  and  to  follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  he 
 goeth,  because  in  their  mouth  was  found  no  guile  ;  for 
 they  were  without  fault  before  the  throne  of  God.' 
 
 We  have  but  one  objection  more  to  answer,  and  that 
 is  a  seeming  inconsistency  in  our  Saviour,  in  discovering 
 to  the  Samaritan  woman  his  divine  character,  which  he 
 had  so  often  desired  his  disciples  to  conceal.  Our 
 Saviour,  it  is  true,  was  so  far  from  making  any  unneces- 
 sary declarations  of  himself,  that,  both  upon  12  St  Peter's 
 confessing  him  to  be  the  Christ,  and13  after  his  transfig- 
 uration, wherein  he  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God, 
 we  find  him  charging  his  disciples  to  say  nothing  of  this, 
 until  his  resurrection  ;  H  because  their  testimony,  in  these 
 points,  might  not  only  be  like  a  matter  concerted  between 
 him  and  them,  but  because  indeed  they  were  not  qualified 
 to  be  his  witnesses  in  these  things,  until  they  had  received 
 power  from  on  high,  by  the  coming  down  of  the  Holy 
 Ghost.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that,  when  our 
 Lord  is  himself  fairly  called  upon,  and  especially  by 
 persons  invested  with  authority,  he  never  once  conceals 
 his  divine  nature  and  commission. 
 
 When  15  the  Jews  came  round  in  Solomon's  porch,  and 
 said  unto  him,  '  How  long  dost  thou  make  us  doubt  ?  If 
 thou  be  the  Christ,  tell  us  plainly  ;'  his  answer  is  express  ; 
 '  I  told  you,  and  ye  believed  not :  the  works  that  I  do 
 in  my  Father's  name,  they  bear  witness  of  me ;  for  I  and  my 
 Father  are  one.'  AA  hen  he  stood  before  the  judgment- 
 seat,  and  the  high  priest  demanded  of  him,  16  '  I  adjure 
 
 likeliest  place  to  gain  intelligence  of  the  new-born  king, 
 whose  '  star  they  had  seen  in  the  east,'  that  is,  from  the 
 place  of  their  abode,  which  was  in  the  east :  for,  should 
 we  suppose  that  this  light  was  placed  in  any  part  of  the 
 eastern  hemisphere,  it  would  have  denoted  something 
 extraordinary  among  the  Indians,  or  eastern  nations, 
 rather  than  among  the  people  of  the  Jews. 
 
 1  But  how  came  these  eastern  sages  to  know  that  this 
 star,  or  luminous  appearance  in  the  heavens,  place  it  where 
 we  will,  denoted  the  birth  of  a  king?  Now,  for  the  re- 
 solution of  this  question,  it  must  be  observed,  what  " 
 some  heathen  historians  tell  us,  namely,  '  that  through 
 the  whole  east  it  was  expected,  that  about  this  time  a 
 king  was  to  arise  out  of  Judea,  who  should  rule  over  all 
 the  world.'  Nor  could  it  well  be  otherwise,  since,  from 
 the  time  of  the  Babylonish  captivity,  we  find  the  Jews 
 dispersed  3  through  all  the  provinces  of  the  Persian 
 monarchy,  and  that  *  in  great  numbers,  and  5  many 
 people  of  the  land  becoming  Jews  ;  and,  after  their 
 return  home,  increasing  so  mightily,  that  they  were 
 dispersed  through  Africa,  Asia,  and  many  cities  and 
 islands  of  Europe,  and,  as  Josephus  6  tells  us,  wherever 
 they  dwelt,  making  many  proselytes  to  their  religion. 
 a  7  Now  these  wise  men,  living  so  near  to  Judea,  the  seat  of 
 this  prophecy,  and  conversing  with  Jews,  that  is,  with 
 those  who  every  where  expected  the  completion  of  it  at 
 that  time,  as  soon  as  they  came  to  see  this  extraordinary 
 star,  or  body  of  light,  hovering  over  Judea,  they  might 
 rationally  conjecture  that  it  signified  the  completion  of 
 that  celebrated  prophecy  concerning  the  king  of  Jewry, 
 over  the  centre  of  which  land,  they,  being  then  in  the 
 east,  might  see  this  meteor  hang. 
 
 Not  long  after  the  departure  of  these  eastern  sages 
 from  Bethlehem,  we  find  a  prodigious  multitude  of  inno- 
 cent babes  inhumanly  put  to  death,  upon  the  account  of 
 him  whom  these  wise  men  came  to  adore.  But,  to  vin- 
 dicate the  justice  and  goodness  of  providence  in  this 
 proceeding,  we  need  not  appeal  to  God's  universal 
 dominion  over  all  his  creatures,  and  the  right  he  has  to 
 take  away,  in  what  manner  he  pleases,  the  being  which 
 he  gives  us  ;  we  need  only  consider  the  present  life,  not 
 as  our  last  .and  final  state,  but  as  one  whose  principal 
 
 1  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 2  Tacit.  Hist,  and  b.  5;  Suet,  de  Vita  Vesp.  p.  4. 
 
 3  Est.  iii.  8.  4  (bid.  ix.  2.  5  Ibid.  iii.  13. 
 6  Antiq.  b.  xiv.  c.  12.                  '  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  This  visit  which  the  magi,  under  the  divine  direction,  made 
 to  the  Son  of  God  at  his  entrance  into  the  world,  answered 
 several  valuable  purposes.  1.  The  principal  thing  was  to  show- 
 succeeding  generations  what  expectations  of  him  were  entertained 
 at  this  very  time  among  the  Gentiles,  and  thereby  to  confirm  in 
 latest  ages,  the  existence  of  those  prophecies  which  had  raised 
 such  a  general  hope  in  the  breasts  of  mankind.  2.  It  is  far  from 
 being  absurd  to  suppose,  that  these  philosophers,  by  the  tidings 
 wbicb  they  carried  home  concerning  the  king  of  the  Jews,  might 
 prepare  their  countrymen  for  becoming  his  subjects  in  due  time, 
 For  if  their  report  was  remembered  by  the  succeeding  generation, 
 it  must  have  contributed  not  a  little  to  their  cheerful  reception 
 of  the  gospel  when  it  was  preached  to  them.  3.  The  coming  of 
 the  magi  occasioned  the  answer  of  the  sanhedrim,  wherein  it 
 was  declared  to  be  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  most  learned 
 Jewish  doetors  then  living,  that,  by  the  designation  of  heaven, 
 Bethlehem  was  to  be  the  place  of  their  Messiah's  nativity.  4. 
 The  seasonable  beneficence  of  those  learned  strangers,  put  Joseph 
 in  a  condition  to  subsist  his  family  in  Egypt,  whither  he  was 
 soon  to  be  sent  from  the  wrath  of  the  king. — Macknight's  Har- 
 x>Kny,  vol.  i. — Ed. 
 
 s  Wisdom  iii.  2,  &c. 
 9  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol  i 
 10  Rev.  xiv.  4.  "  Ibid.  ver.  3 — 5.  ''  Mark  viii.  29. 
 
 '»  Mat.  xvii.  9.  '4  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  ix.  30. 
 
 ' '  John  x.  25,  &c.  16  Mat.  xxvi.  G3,  04. 
 
 5    T 
 
882 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4031.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5430.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.«.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi. 
 
 thee  by  the  living-  God,  that  thou  tell  us.  whether  thou 
 be  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  ;'  his  answer  is,  '  thou  hast 
 said  ;'  or,  as  St  Mark  1  expresses  it,  'lam;  and  ye  shall 
 see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power, 
 and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.'  Nay,  there  arc 
 some  instances,  wherein,  of  his  own  accord,  and  without 
 any  provocation  of  this  kind,  he  freely  discovers  who  he 
 was  ;  for,  having  cured  the  man  that  was  born  blind,  and 
 afterwards  meeting  hiin  accidentally,  2  '  Dost  thou  be- 
 lieve on  the  Son  of  God?'  says  he.  Whereupon  the  man 
 asking,  '  Who  is  the  Son  of  God,  that  1  may  believe  on 
 him  ?'  Our  Saviour  replies, '  Thou  hast  both  seen  him,  and 
 it  is  he  whotalketh  with  thee :'  and  therefore  we  need  less 
 wonder  that,  when  this  Samaritan  woman  had  first  of  all 
 confessed  him  to  be  a  prophet,  and,  as  her  words  seem 
 to  imply,  3  was  a  little  dubious  whether  he  was  not  the 
 Messiah,  our  Saviour  should  prevent  her  inquiry,  and 
 tell  her  voluntarily  that  he  was.  Especially  con- 
 sidering, that  *  such  a  declaration  might  be  a  means  to 
 prepare  her,  and  the  rest  of  the  Samaritans,  whenever  his 
 apostles  should  come  and  preach  the  gospel  unto  them, 
 to  receive  their  testimony,  as  we  find,  by  the  history  of 
 the  apostolic  acts,  that  they  did  it  with  great  gladness. 
 Thus  have  we  endeavoured  to  satisfy  all  the  exceptions 
 of  any  weight,  that  the  lovers  of  infidelity  have  hitherto 
 made  to  this  part  of  the  evangelical  history ;  and,  if  Chris- 
 tianity stood  in  need  either  of  the  support  or  testimony  of 
 heathen  authors,  we  might  say,  that  the  incarnation  of 
 Christ  the  Son  of  God,  is  no  more  than  5  what  the  Greeks, 
 as  Julian  avers,  affirm  both  of  iEsculapius  and  Pythago- 
 ras, namely,  that  they  were  both  the  sons  of  Jupiter,  though 
 they  appeared  in  human  nature,  which  doctrine,  in  the 
 evangelist  St  John,  Amelius,  a  the  master  of  Porphyry, 
 allows  to  be  true  :  That  the  birth  of  our  blessed  Jesus  of 
 a  virgin  immaculate  is  no  more  than  6  what  the  ancient 
 Jewish  doctors  expected  in  their  Messiah  ;  and  therefore 
 Simon  Magus,  who  greatly  affected  that  character,  pre- 
 tended that  his  mother  Rachel  bore  him  without  the  loss 
 of  her  virginity :  That  the  new  star,  or  body  of  light, 
 which,  upon  our  Saviour's  birth,  conducted  the  wise  men 
 to  him,  u  is  acknowledged  by  Julian,  though  he  would 
 gladly  ascribe  it  to  natural  causes,  is  set  off  with  great 
 eloquence  by  Chalcidius,  in  his  comment  upon  Plato's 
 Tima?us,and  perhaps  might  be  that  very  phenomenon,  c 
 
 1  Mark  xiv.  62.  2  John  ix.  35,  &c.  3  Ibid.  iv.  25. 
 
 *  Whitby,  in  locum.  5  Huetii  Qurest.  Alnet.  b.  ii.  c.  13. 
 
 6  Ibid.  c.  15.  '  Ibid.  Demons,  prop.  3. 
 
 a  This  Platonist,  upon  reading  the  beginning  of  St  John's  gos- 
 pel, swore  by  Jupiter,  "That  the  Barbarian"  as  he  called  him, 
 "  had  hit  upon  the  right  notion,  when  he  affirmed  that  the  Word, 
 which  made  all  things,  was  in  the  beginning,  in  place  of  prime 
 dignity  and  authority  with  God,  and  was  that  God  who  created 
 all  things,  and  in  whom  every  thing  that  was  made,  had,  according 
 to  his  nature,  its  life  and  being  ;  that  he  was  incarnate,  and  cloth- 
 ed with  a  body,  wherein  he  manifested  the  glory  and  magnificence 
 of  his  nature ;  and  that,  after  his  death,  he  returned  to  the  re- 
 possession of  his  divinity,  and  became  the  same  God  which  he  was 
 before  his  assuming  a  body,  and  taking  the  human  nature  and 
 flesh  upon  him." — Euseb.  Prap.  ix.  Evang.  b.  xi. 
 
 b  In  his  relation  of  some  portentous  significations  of  stars,  he 
 adds :  "There  is  another  tale  told  of  a  more  sacred  and  holy  nature ; 
 it  says  that,  at  the  appearance  of  a  certain  unusual  star,  diseases, 
 and  pestilences  were  not,  as  is  commonly  the  case,  foretold,  but 
 the  descent  of  a  holy  God,  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race,  and 
 its  affairs;  the  star  is  said  to  have  been.seen  by  Chaldeans,  who 
 worshipped  the  young  God  by  the  ollering  of  gifts." — Hammond's 
 Annotations  on  Mat.  ii.  2. 
 
 c  The  words  of  Huetius  concerning  this  matter  are  these: — 
 
 which  Pliny  8  describes  under  the  name  of  a  comet :  that 
 our  Lord's  forerunner,  John  the  Baptist,  was  such  a  per- 
 son as  the  gospel  represents  him,  namely,  an  exhorter  of  the 
 Jews,  to  the  love  and  practice  of  virtue,  and  to  regenera- 
 tion by  baptism  and  newness  of  Jife,  we  have  an  ample  tes- 
 timony in  Josephus :  that  our  Lord  himself  was  certainly  a 
 prophet,  Phlegon,9rf  who  was  the  emperor  Adrian's  freed  - 
 man,  acknowledges,  and  in  his  history  has  related 
 several  events  which  he  foretold  ;  that  he  was  10  a  great 
 worker  of  miracles,  the  authors  of  the  Talmud  own  ;  nor 
 can  Celsus  and  Julian,  his  bitterest  enemies,  deny  it,  only 
 they  would  gladly  impute  them  to  a  wrong  cause,  his  great 
 skill  in  magical  incantations :  that  human  bodies  were 
 frequently  possessed  with  devils,  who  afflicted  them  with 
 grievous  and  tormenting  diseases,  is  the  joint  concession 
 both  of  u  Jamblicus  and  Minutius  Felix  ;  e  and  that  our 
 blessed  Lord  had  the  power  of  curing  these,  12  and  of 
 destroying  the  dominion  of  evil  spirits,  wherever  he  came, 
 is  the  great  complaint  of  Porphyry,  who  makes  it  no 
 Avonder  that  their  cities  should  be  wasted  with  plagues, 
 since  iEsculapius,  and  the  rest  of  the  gods,  ever  since 
 the  admission  of  the  Christian  religion,  were  either  be- 
 come useless  or  fled.  So  prevalent  is  the  force  of  truth, 
 that  it  seldom  fails  to  draw  confessions  from  those  who 
 least  of  all  intend  them. 
 
 CHAP.  IV. — An  account  of  the  marriage  ceremonies 
 of  the  east. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL  BY  THE  EDITOR. 
 
 Marriage  is  evidently  meant  by  scripture  and  reason, 
 to  be  the  union  of  one  man  with  one  woman.  When  God 
 said,  '  It  is  not  good  that  the  man  should  be  alone,'  he 
 promised  him  the  help  only  of  a  single  mate  :  '  I  will 
 make  him  an  help  meet  for  him.'  13  This  gracious  promise 
 he  soon  performed  in  the  formation  of  one  woman  who 
 should  be  joined  in  wedlock.  This  design  Adam  re- 
 cognized and  acknowledged  in  express  terms ;  and  his 
 declaration  was  certainly  meant  as  a  rule  for  his  descen- 
 dants in  every  succeeding  age.  '  Therefore  shall  a  man 
 leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his 
 
 8  B.  ii.  c.  25.  9  Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  7. 
 
 10  Huetii  Demons,  prop.  iii.  "  De  Myster.  sect.  ii.  c.  6. 
 
 12  Huetii  Demons,  prop.  iii.  '3  Gen.  ii.  IS. 
 
 "Pliny  writes  that  at  a  certain  time  there  had  appeared  a  brilliant 
 comet,  the  silvery  hair  of  which  shone  so  clearly  that  it  could 
 not  be  beheld  by  the  human  eye,  and  that  it  contained  in  it  the 
 appearance  of  a  God  in  the  shape  of  a  man." — Qurest.  Alnet.  b. 
 ii.  c.  16. 
 
 d  He  composed  a  history,  digested  by  Olympiads,  as  far  as 
 the  year  of  Christ  140.  In  his  history  he  takes  notice,  that,  in 
 Olympiad,  which  determines  about  the  middle  of  the  33d  y«:ar 
 of  the  common  era,  there  happened  the  greatest  eclipse  of  the 
 sun  that  ever  had  been  seen,  insomuch,  that  the  stars  were  vis- 
 ible at  noonday,  and  that  afterwards  there  was  a  great  earth- 
 quake in  Bithynia.  Several  critics  believe  that  this  was  the 
 darkness  which  happened  at  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  a 
 matter  we  shall  have  occasion  to  inquire  into,  when  we  come  to 
 that  part  of  his  history. 
 
 e  The  words  of  Minutius  are  worth  observing, — "  Evil  spirits 
 harass  life,  disturb  our  sleep,  and  even  like  thin  air  creep  into 
 our  bodies;  they  create  distempers,  terrify  the  mind,  rack  the 
 limbs,  and  compel  men  to  worship  them.'' 
 
Sbct.  L] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 883 
 
 IVL  4034.  A.D.30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OE  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.8.  MARK  U.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 wife,  and  they  shall  be  one  flesh.'  These  quotations, 
 which  are  all  couched  in  terms  of  the  singular  number, 
 are  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine  of  polygamy.  The 
 original  appointment  was  confirmed  by  our  Lord  in  these 
 words :  ' '  Have  ye  not  read,  that  he  which  made  you  at 
 the  beginning,  made  them  male  and  female  ;  and  said, 
 For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father  and  mother,  and 
 shall  cleave  to  his  wife ;  and  they  twain  shall  be  one 
 flesh?  Wherefore  they  are  no  more  twain  but  one  flesh.' 
 The  apostle  is  not  less  decisive  in  his  direction  to  the 
 churches  :  2  '  nevertheless,  to  avoid  fornication,  let  every 
 man  have  his  own  wife  ;  and  let  every  woman  have  her 
 own  husband.'  But  though  the  law  is  so  decisive,  it 
 cannot  be  doubted  that  polygamy  was  introduced  soon 
 after  the  creation ;  Lamech,  one  of  the  descendants  of 
 Cain,  and  only  the  sixth  person  from  Adam,  married  two 
 wives ;  he  was  probably  the  first  who  ventured,  in  this 
 manner,  to  transgress  the  law  of  his  Maker.  This  un- 
 warrantable practice,  derived  from  the  antediluvian  world, 
 seems  to  have  become  very  common  after  the  flood  ;  for 
 it  is  mentioned  as  nothing  remarkable  that  Sarah,  when 
 she  despaired  of  having  children,  took  her  handmaid 
 Hagar,  and  gave  her  to  Abraham  her  husband,  by  whom 
 she  had  a  son.  Both  Esau  and  Jacob  had  a  number  of 
 wives  ;  and  that  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  practices 
 which  Moses  suffered  to  remain  among  his  people,  be- 
 cause of  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  prohibiting  only 
 the  high  priest  to  have  more  than  one  wife. 
 
 Every  transgression  of  the  divine  law  is  attended  by 
 its  corresponding  punishment.  Polygamy  has  proved 
 in  all  ages,  and  in  all  countries  where  it  has  been  suf- 
 fered, a  teeming  source  of  evil.  The  jealousy  and 
 bitter  contentions  in  the  family  of  Abraham,  and  of  his 
 grandson  Jacob,  which  proceeded  from  that  cause,  are 
 well  known,  and  still  more  deplorable  were  the  dissen- 
 sions that  convulsed  the  house,  and  shook  the  throne  of 
 David.  Such  mischiefs  are  the  natural  and  necessary 
 effects  of  the  practice  ;  for  polygamy  divides  the  affec- 
 tions of  the  husband,  and,  by  consequence,  generates  in- 
 curable jealousies  and  contentions  among  the  unhappy 
 victims  of  his  licentious  desires.  To  prevent  his  abode 
 from  becoming  the  scene  of  unceasing  confusion  and 
 uproar,  he  is  compelled  to  govern  it,  as  the  oriental 
 polygamist  still  does,  with  despotic  authority,  which  at 
 once  extinguishes  all  the  rational  and  most  endearing 
 comforts  of  the  conjugal  state.  The  husband  is  a  stern 
 and  unfeeling  despot ;  his  harem,  a  group  of  trembling 
 slaves.  The  children  espouse  with  ardour,  unknown  to 
 those  who  are  placed  in  other  circumstances,  the  cause 
 of  their  own  mother,  and  look  upon  the  children  of  other 
 wives  as  strangers  and  enemies.  They  regard  their 
 common  father  with  indifference  or  terror ;  while  they 
 cling  to  their  own  mother  with  the  fondest  affections,  as 
 the  only  parent  in  whom  they  feel  any  interest,  or  from 
 whom  they  expect  any  suitable  return  of  attention  and 
 kindness.  This  state  of  feeling  and  attachment  is  at- 
 tested by  every  writer  on  the  manners  of  the  east :  and 
 accounts  for  a  way  of  speaking  so  common  in  the  scrip- 
 tures, 3  '  It  is  my  brother ;  the  son  of  my  mother,'  '  they 
 were  my  brethren,'  said  Gideon,  *  the  sons  of  my 
 mother  ;  as  the  Lord  liveth,  if  ye  had  saved  them  alive, 
 I  would  not  slay  you.'     It  greatly  aggravated  the  afflic- 
 
 1  Mat.  xix.  4. 
 
 I  Cur.  vii.  2. 
 
 3  Judges  viii.  19. 
 
 tion  of  David,  that  he  had  become  an  alien  to  his  mother's 
 children ;  4  the  enmity  of  his  brethren,  the  relations  of  his 
 father's  other  wives,  or  his  more  distant  relatives,  gave 
 him  less  concern ;  '  I  am  become  a  stranger  to  my 
 brethren,  and  an  alien  to  my  mother's  children.'  The 
 same  allusion  occurs  in  the  complaint  of  the  spouse  : 
 '  Look  not  upon  me  because  I  am  black,  because  the 
 sun  hath  looked  upon  me  :  my  mother's  children  were 
 angry  with  me :  they  made  me  the  keeper  of  the  vine- 
 yards.' s  The  children  of  one  wife  scarcely  looked 
 upon  the  children  of  the  other  wives  as  their  brothers 
 and  sisters  at  all ;  and  they  scarcely  felt  more  regard 
 for  their  father.  An  oriental,  in  consequence  of  this 
 unnatural  practice,  takes  little  notice  of  an  insult  offered 
 to  his  father,  but  expresses  the  utmost  indignation  when 
 a  word  is  spoken  to  the  disadvantage  of  his  mother.  To 
 defame  or  to  curse  her,  is  the  last  insult  which  his  enemy 
 can  offer  ;  and  one  which  he  seldom  or  never  forgives. 
 '  Strike,'  cried  an  incensed  African  to  his  antagonist, 
 '  but  do  not  curse  my  mother.'  6 
 
 Marriage  contracts  seem  to  have  been  made  in  the 
 primitive  ages  with  little  ceremony.  The  suitor  him- 
 self, or  his  father,  sent  a  messenger  to  the  father  of  the 
 woman,  to  ask  her  in  marriage.  Abraham  sent  the 
 principal  servant  of  his  household,  with  a  considerable 
 retinue  and  costly  presents,  to  the  city  of  Nahor,  to  take 
 a  wife  unto  his  son  Isaac,  from  among  his  relations. 
 The  father  of  the  suitor  sometimes  solicited  the  person 
 whom  he  had  chosen  for  his  wife  ;  for  Hamor,  the  father 
 of  Shechem,  went  out  unto  Jacob,  to  treat  with  him  about 
 the  marriage  of  Dinah  to  his  son,  the  heir  of  his  house, 
 and  the  hope  of  his  family.  If  the  woman  resides  under 
 her  father's  roof,  the  parents  were  consulted,  and  their 
 consent  obtained  ;  and  the  damsel  was  asked  if  she 
 agreed  to  the  proposal.  The  servant  of  Abraham  stated 
 the  design  of  his  journey  to  Bethuel  and  Laban,  the 
 father  and  brother  of  Rebekah,  and  solicited  their  con- 
 sent ;  and  when  they  had  agreed  to  his  request,  they 
 said,  '  We  will  call  the  damsel  and  inquire  at  her  mouth. 
 And  they  called  Rebekah,  and  said  unto  her,  Wilt  thou  go 
 with  this  man  ?  And  she  said,  I  will  go.' 
 
 The  kings  and  nobles  of  Israel  were  not  more  cere- 
 monious on  these  occasions.  When  David  heard  that 
 Nabal  was  dead,  he  sent  messengers  to  Abigail  to  solicit 
 her  hand  in  marriage.  7  'And  they  spake  unto  her,  saying, 
 David  sent  us  unto  thee,  to  take  thee  to  him  to  wife.  And 
 she  arose  and  bowed  herself  on  her  face  to  the  earth, 
 and  said,  Behold,  let  thine  handmaid  be  a  servant  to 
 wash  the  feet  of  the  servants  of  my  Lord.'  After  the 
 death  of  Urijah,  the  same  prince  sent  and  fetched  Bath- 
 sheba  to  his  house,  and  she  became  his  wife.  This  en- 
 tirely corresponds  with  the  manner  in  which  the  oriental 
 princes  generally  form  their  matrimonial  alliances.  The 
 king  of  Abyssinia  "  sends  an  officer  to  the  house  where  the 
 lady  lives,  who  announces  to  her,  that  it  is  the  king's 
 pleasure  she  should  remove  instantly  to  the  palace.  She 
 then  dresses  herself  in  the  best  manner,  and  immediately 
 obeys.  Thenceforward  he  assigns  her  an  apartment  in 
 the  palace,  and  gives  her  an  house  elsewhere,  in  any 
 part  she  chooses.     The  nearest  resemblance  to  marriage 
 
 4  Ps.  lxix.  8. 
 Song  df  Solomon,  i.  G;  sue  also  chap.  viii.  1,  2. 
 Park's  Travels,  vol.  i.  '  1  Sam.  xx\.  10,  41. 
 
884 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30 ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 is  when  he  makes  her  iteghe  or  queen  ;  for  whether  in 
 the  court  or  in  the  camp,  he  orders  one  of  the  judges  to 
 pronounce  in  his  presence,  that  he,  the  king,  has  chosen 
 his  handmaid,  naming  her,  for  his  queen ;  upon  which 
 the  crown  is  put  upon  her  head,  but  she  is  not  anoint- 
 ed." » 
 
 In  the  primitive  ages,  women  received  no  portions 
 from  their  relations,  when  they  were  married ;  but  were 
 purchased   by  their   husbands,  whose  presents   to   the 
 woman's  relations  were  called  her  dowry.     Thus,  we 
 find  Shechem  bargaining  with  Jacob  and  his  sons  for 
 Dinah.  2  '  Let  me  find  grace  in  your  eyes,  and  what  ye 
 shall  say  unto  me,  I  will  give  :  ask  me  never  so  much 
 dowry  and  gift,  and  I  will  give  according  as  ye  shall 
 say  unto  me ;  but  give  me  the  damsel  to  wife.'     The 
 practice  still  continues  in  the  country  of  Shechem  ;  for 
 when  a  young  Arab  wishes  to  marry  he  must  purchase 
 his  wife ;  and  for  this  reason,  fathers,  among  the  Arabs, 
 are  never  more  happy  than  when  they  have  many  daugh- 
 ters.    They  are  reckoned  the  principal  riches  of  a  house. 
 An  Arabian  suitor  will  oiler  fifty  sheep,  six  camels,  or 
 a  dozen  of  cows  ;  if  he  be  not  rich  enough  to  make  such 
 offers,  he  proposes  to  give  a  mare  or  a  colt ;  considering 
 in  the  offer,  the  merit  of  the  young  woman,  the  rank  of 
 her  family,  and  his  own  circumstances.     When  they  are 
 agreed  on  both  sides,  the  contract  is  drawn  up  by  him 
 that  acts  as  cadi  or  judge  among  these  Arabs.     In  some 
 parts  of  the  east,  a  measure  of  corn  is  formally  mentioned 
 in  contracts  for  their  concubines,  or  temporary  wives, 
 besides  the  sum  of  money  which  is  stipulated  by  way  of 
 dowry.     This  custom  is  probably  as  ancient  as  concu- 
 binage, with  which  it  is  connected  ;  and  if  so,  it  will 
 perhaps  account  for  the  prophet  Hosea's  purchasing  a 
 wife  of  this  kind,  for  fifteen  pieces  of  silver,  and  for  an 
 homer  of  barley,  and  an  half  homer  of  barley.  3     When 
 the  intended  husband  was  not  able  to  give  a  dowry,  he 
 offered  an  equivalent.     The  patriarch  Jacob  who  came 
 to  Laban  with  only  his  staff,  offered  to  serve  him  seven 
 years  for  Rachel ;   a  proposal  which  Laban  accepted. 
 Saul,  instead  of  a  dowry,  required  David  to  bring  him 
 an  hundred  foreskins  of  the  Philistines,  under  the  pre- 
 tence of  avenging  himself  of  his  enemies.     This  custom 
 has  prevailed  in  later  times  ;  for  in  some  countries  they 
 give  their  daughters  in  marriage  to  the  most  valiant  men, 
 or  those  who  should  bring  them  so  many  heads  of  the 
 people  with  whom  they  happen  to  be  at  war.     It  is  re- 
 corded of  a  nation  in  Carmania,thatno  man  among  them 
 was  permitted  to  marry  till  he  had  first  brought  the  head 
 of  an  enemy  to  the  king.     Aristotle  admits,  that  the 
 ancient  Greeks  were  accustomed   to   buy   their  wives  ; 
 but  they  no  sooner  began  to  lay  aside  their  barbarous 
 meanness,  than  this  disgusting  practice  ceased,  and  the 
 custom  of  giving  portions  to  their  sons-in-law,  was  sub- 
 stituted in  its  place.     In  like  manner,  the  Romans,  in 
 the  first  ages  of  their  history,  purchased  their  wives  ;  but 
 afterwards,  they  required  the  wife  to  bring  a  portion  to 
 the  husband,  that  he  might  be  able  to  bear  the  charges  of 
 the  matrimonial  state  more  easily. 
 
 The  contract  of  marriage  was  made  in  the  house  of 
 the  woman's  father,  before  the  elders  and  governors  of 
 the  city  or  district.     The  manner  of  contracting  or  es- 
 
 pousing was  various.  Sometimes  the  man  put  a  piece 
 of  money  into  the  woman's  hand  before  witnesses,  and 
 said,  'Be  thou  espoused  to  me  according  to  the  law  of 
 Moses  and  Israel ;'  or  it  was  done  by  writing,  which  was 
 no  more  than  writing  the  same  words  with  the  woman's 
 name,  and  delivering  it  to  her  before  witnesses  ;  or  lastly, 
 by  cohabitation,  when  the  law  obliged  the  man  to  marry 
 her  whom  he  had  dishonoured,  if  her  father  gave  his  con- 
 sent. They  had  also  several  forms  of  betrothing  in 
 Greece  ;  of  which  one  is  quoted  by  Clemens  of  Alexandria, 
 out  of  Meander  :  '  I  give  you  this  my  daughter,  to  make 
 you  father  of  children  lawfully  begotten.'  According  to 
 Xenophon,  the  dowry  was  sometimes  mentioned  ;  for 
 when  Cyaxares  betrothed  his  daughter  to  Cyrus,  he  ad- 
 dressed him  in  these  words  :  '  I  give  you,  Cyrus,  this 
 woman,  who  is  my  daughter,  with  all  Media  for  her 
 dowry.' 
 
 The  espousals  by  money,  or  a  written  instrument,  were 
 performed  by  the  man  and  woman  under  a  tent  or  canopy 
 erected  for  that  purpose.  Into  this  chamber  the  bride- 
 groom was  accustomed  to  go  with  his  bride,  that  he  might 
 talk  with  her  more  familiarly  ;  which  was  considered  as 
 a  ceremony  of  confirmation  to  the  wedlock.  While  he 
 was  there,  no  person  was  allowed  to  enter  ;  his  friends 
 and  attendants  waited  for  him  at  the  door,  with  torches 
 and  lamps  in  their  hands  ;  and  when  he  came  out,  he  was 
 received  by  all  that  were  present  with  great  joy  and  ac- 
 clamation. To  this  ancient  custom,  the  psalmist  alludes 
 in  his  magnificent  description  of  the  heavens  :  '  In  them 
 he  set  a  tabernacle  for  the  sun ;  which  as  a  bridegroom 
 coming  out  of  his  chamber,  rejoices  as  a  strong  man  to 
 run  a  race.'  * 
 
 A  Jewish  virgin  legally  betrothed,  was  considered  as 
 a  lawful  wife ;  and  by  consequence  could  not  be  put 
 away  without  a  bill  of  divorce.  And  if  she  proved  un- 
 faithful to  her  betrothed  husband,  she  was  punished  as 
 an  adulteress  ;  and  her  seducer  incurred  the  same  punish- 
 ment as  if  he  had  polluted  the  wife  of  his  neighbour. 
 This  is  the  reason  that  the  angel  addressed  Joseph,  the 
 betrothed  husband  of  Mary,  in  these  terms  :  'Joseph,  thou 
 son  of  David,  fear  not  to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy  wife  ; 
 for  that  which  is  conceived  in  her  is  of  the  holy  Ghost.' 
 The  evangelist  Luke  gives  her  the  same  title  :  'and  Joseph 
 also  went  up  from  Galilee  unto  Bethlehem,  to  be  taxed 
 with  Mary  his  espoused  wife.' 5 
 
 Ten  or  twelve  months  commonly  intervened  between 
 the  ceremony  of  espousals  and  the  marriage  ;  during 
 this  interval,  the  espoused  wife  continued  with  her 
 parents,  that  she  might  provide  herself  with  nuptial  orna- 
 ments suitable  to  her  station.  This  custom  serves  to 
 explain  a  circumstance  in  Samson's  marriage,  which  is 
 involved  in  some  obscurity  :  '  He  went  down,'  says  the 
 historian,  '  and  talked  with  the  woman  (whom  he  had 
 seen  at  Tinmath,)  and  she  pleased  him  well.'  These 
 words  seem  to  refer  to  the  ceremony  of  espousals  ;  the 
 following  to  the  subsequent  marriage,  '  And  after  a 
 time  he  returned  to  take  her.'  6  Hence  a  considerable 
 time  intervened  between  the  espousals,  and  their  actual 
 union. 
 
 From  the  time  of  the  espousals,  the  bridegroom  was 
 at  liberty  to  visit  his  espoused  wife  in  the  house  of  her 
 
 1  Bruce's  Travels,  vol.  i. 
 2  Gcu.  xxiv.  2.  3  Chardiu's  Travels. 
 
 4  Ps.  xix.  4.  s  Luke  ii.  4,  5. 
 
 6  Judg.  xiv.  7,  &c. 
 
Skct.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 885 
 
 A.M.  4034.  A.  D.30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5439.  A.  D.  28. 
 
 father ;  yet  neither  of  the  parties  left  their  own  abode 
 during  eight  days  before  the  marriage  ;  but  persons  of 
 the  same  age  visited  the  bridegroom,  and  made  merry 
 with  him.  These  circumstances  are  distinctly  marked 
 in  the  account  which  the  sacred  historian  has  given  us  of 
 Samson's  marriage  :  '  so  his  father  went  down  unto  the 
 woman,  and  made  there  a  feast ;  for  so  used  the  young 
 men  to  do.  And  it  came  to  pass  when  they  saw  him, 
 that  they  brought  thirty  companions  to  be  with  him.'  1 
 These  companions  were  the  children  of  the  bride-cham- 
 ber, of  whom  our  Lord  speaks  ;  '  can  the  children  of 
 the  bride-chamber  mourn  as  long  as  the  bridegroom  is 
 with  themP'^ 
 
 An  eastern  bride  submitted  to  various  purifications, 
 before  the  celebration  of  her  nuptials.  The  virgins  of 
 Persia  were  prepared  for  the  bed  of  Ahasuerus,  '  six 
 months  with  oil  of  myrrh,  and  six  months  with  sweet 
 odours,  and  with  other  things,  for  the  purifying  of  the 
 women.'  It  was  a  custom  among  the  ancient  Jews,  to 
 adorn  the  married  couple  with  bridal  crowns,  which  were 
 generally  of  gold,  made  in  the  form  of  a  tower.  We 
 discover  this  usage  in  the  invitation  of  the  spouse  to  her 
 companions  ;  '  go  forth,  O  ye  daughters  of  Zion,  and 
 behold  king  Solomon,  with  the  crown  wherewith  his 
 mother  crowned  him  in  the  day  of  his  espousals,  and  in 
 the  day  of  the  gladness  of  his  heart.'  3  And  in  the  com- 
 pliment of  the  bridegroom  ;  '  thine  head  upon  thee  is 
 like  Carmel ;'  rising  with  the  tower -shaped  crown,  '  like 
 that  mountain  in  shape  ;  and  rough  with  jewels  as  that 
 mountain  is  with  protuberances.'4 
 
 The  prophet  Isaiah  makes  an  allusion  to  the  same 
 custom,  where  he  celebrates,  in  strains  of  rapturous 
 pleasure,  the  future  prosperity  of  Zion  :  '  I  will  greatly 
 rejoice  in  the  Lord  ;  my  soul  shall  be  joyful  in  my  God  ; 
 for  he  hath  clothed  me  with  the  garments  of  salvation  ; 
 he  hath  covered  me  with  the  robe  of  righteousness,  as  a 
 bridegroom  decketh  himself  with  garments  ;'  5  literally, 
 decketh  himself  witli  a  crown. 
 
 The  Greeks  were  decked  with  garlands  of  various 
 herbs  and  flowers  on  their  marriage  day  ;  whence  Cly- 
 temnestra,  in  Euripides,  speaks  thus  to  Achilles  about 
 her  daughter  lphigenia.  '  But  oh,  in  vain,  though  I 
 had  crowned  her  to  be  wedded  to  thee.'6  The  hair  of  a 
 Roman  bride  was,  in  like  manner,  crowned  with  flowers, 
 after  being  divided  into  six  locks  with  the  point  of  a 
 spear.  This  very  ancient  practice  of  crowning  the  bride- 
 groom and  the  bride,  has  been  continued  among  the 
 members  of  the  Greek  church  in  Egypt,  to  our  own 
 times. 
 
 The  marriage  ceremony  was  commonly  performed  in 
 a  garden,  or  in  the  open  air  ;  the  bride  was  placed 
 under  a  canopy,  supported  by  four  youths  ;  and  adorned 
 with  jewels  according  to  the  rank  of  the  married  persons  ; 
 all  the  company  crying  out  with  joyful  acclamations, 
 Blessed  be  he  that  cometh.  It  was  anciently  the  custom, 
 at  the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony,  for  the  father  and 
 mother,  and  kindred  of  the  woman,  to  pray  for  a  blessing 
 upon  the  parties.  Bethuel  and  Laban,  and  the  other 
 members  of  their  family,  pronounced  a  solemn  benedic- 
 tion   upon  Rebekah    before    her   departure :   '  and  they 
 
 1  Judg.  xiv.  10.      •  Mat.  ix.  15.       3  Song  of  Solomon  iii.  11. 
 4  Ibid.  vii.  5:  See  Calmet,  vol.  iii.  s  Is.  Ixi.  II. 
 
 ■  Potter's  Gr.  Autin.  p.  023,  Boyd's  edition,  1837. 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OK  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 blessed  Rebekah,  and  said  unto  her,  Thou  art  our  sister, 
 be  thou  the  mother  of  thousands  of  millions,  and  let  thy 
 seed  possess  the  gate  of  those  which  hate  them.' 7  And 
 in  times  long  posterior  to  the  age  of  Isaac,  when  Ruth 
 the  Moabitess  was  espoused  to  Boaz,  '  all  the  peonle 
 that  were  in  the  gate,  and  the  elders  said,  We  are  wit- 
 nesses :  the  Lord  make  the  woman  that  is  come  into 
 thine  house  like  Rachel  and  like  Leah,  which  two  did 
 build  the  house  of  Israel ;  and  do  thou  worthily  in  Eph- 
 ratah,  and  be  famous  in  Bethlehem.'  8  After  the  bene- 
 dictions, the  bride  is  conducted,  with  great  pomp,  to  the 
 house  of  her  husband  ;  this  is  usually  done  in  the  evening ; 
 and  as  the  procession  moved  along,  money,  sweetmeats, 
 flowers  and  other  articles  were  thrown  among  the  popu- 
 lace, which  they  caught  in  cloths  made  for  such  occasions, 
 stretched  in  a  particular  manner  upon  frames.  The  use 
 of  perfumes  at  eastern  marriages  is  common,  and  upon 
 great  occasions  very  profuse.  Not  only  are  the  garments 
 scented,  till,  in  the  psalmist's  language,  they  smell  of 
 myrrh,  aloes,  and  cassia  ;  it  is  also  customary  for  virgins 
 to  meet,  and  lead  the  procession,  with  silver -gilt  pots  of 
 perfumes  ;  and  sometimes  aromatics  are  burned  in  the 
 windows  of  all  the  houses  in  the  streets  through  which 
 the  procession  is  to  pass,  till  the  air  becomes  loaded 
 with  fragrant  odours.  In  allusion  to  this  practice  it  is 
 demanded,  '  Who  is  this  that  cometh  out  of  the  wilder- 
 ness, like  pillars  of  smoke  perfumed  with  myrrh  and 
 frankincense.'  9  So  liberally  were  these  rich  perfumes 
 burned  on  this  occasion,  that  a  pillar  of  smoke  ascended 
 from  the  censers,  so  high,  that  it  could  be  seen  at  a  con- 
 siderable distance  ;  and  the  perfume  was  so  rich,  as  to 
 equal  in  value  and  fragrance  all  the  powders  of  the  mer- 
 chants. The  custom  of  burning  perfumes  on  these  occa- 
 sions, still  continues  in  the  east ;  for  Lady  Mary  Wortley 
 Montague,  describing  the  reception  of  a  young  Turkish 
 bride  at  the  bagnio,  says,  '  Two  virgins  met  her  at  the 
 door;  two  others  filled  silver-gilt  pots  with  perfumes, 
 and  began  the  procession,  the  rest  following  in  pairs  to 
 the  number  of  thirty.' 
 
 It  was  the  custom  among  the  ancient  Greeks,  and  the 
 nations  around  them,  to  conduct  the  new-married  couple 
 with  torches  and  lamps  to  their  dwelling,  as  appears 
 from  the  messenger  in  Euripides,  who  says,  he  called  to 
 mind  the  time  when  he  bore  torches  before  Menelaus  and 
 Helena.  These  torches  were  usually  carried  by  servants  ; 
 and  the  procession  was  sometimes  attended  by  singers 
 and  dancers.  The  Roman  ladies  were,  in  like  manner, 
 led  home  to  their  husbands  in  the  evening,  by  the  light 
 of  torches.  A  Jewish  marriage  seems  to  have  been  con- 
 ducted in  much  the  same  way  ;  for  in  that  beautiful 
 psalm,  where  David  describes  the  majesty  of  Christ's 
 kingdom,  we  meet  with  this  passage  :  '  and  the  daughter 
 of  Tyre  shall  be  there  with  a  gift ;  even  the  rich  among 
 the  people  ?hall  entreat  thy  favour.  The  king's  daughter 
 is  all  glorious  within  :  her  clothing  is  of  wrought  gold. 
 She  shall  be  brought  unto  the  king  in  raiment  of  needle- 
 work ;  the  virgins,  her  companions  that  follow  her,  shall 
 be  brought  unto  thee.  With  gladness  and  rejoicing  shall 
 they  be  brought :  they  shall  enter  into  the  king's 
 palace.'  10  In  the  parable  of  the  ten  virgins,  the  same 
 circumstances  are  introduced  :  '  they  that  were  foolish 
 
 7  Gen.  xxiv.  GO. 
 
 Sung  of  Solomon  iii.  G. 
 
 B  Ruth  iv.  11. 
 Psalm  xlv.  12— 1U. 
 
886 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30 ;  ACCORDING  TO  H  AXES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 took  their  lamps,  and  took  no  oil  with  them :  but  the 
 wise  took  oil  in  their  vessels  with  their  lamps.  While 
 the  bridegroom  tarried,'  leading  the  procession  through 
 the  city,  the  women  and  domestics  that  were  appointed 
 to  wait  his  arrival  at  home,  ■  all  slumbered  and  slept. 
 And  at  midnight  there  was  a  cry  made,  Behold,  the 
 bridegroom  cometh  ;  go  ye  out  to  meet  him.  Then  all 
 those  virgins  arose  and  trimmed  their  lamps.  And  the 
 foolish  said  unto  the  wise,  Give  us  of  your  oil ;  for  our 
 lamps  are  gone  out.'  * 
 
 But  among  the  Jews,  the  bridegroom  was  not  always 
 permitted  to  accompany  his  bride  from  her  father's  house  ; 
 an  intimate  friend  was  often  sent  to  conduct  her,  while 
 he  remained  at  heme  to  receive  her  in  his  apartment. 
 Her  female  attendants  had  the  honour  to  introduce  her ; 
 and  whenever  they  changed  the  bride's  dress,  which  is 
 often  done,  they  presented  her  to  the  bridegroom.  It  is 
 the  custom,  and  belongs  to  their  ideas  of  magnificence, 
 frequently  to  dress  and  undress  the  bride  ;  and  to  cause 
 her  to  wear  on  that  same  day  all  the  clothes  made  up  for 
 her  nuptials.  For  the  same  reason,  the  bridegroom's 
 dress  is  less  frequently  changed.  These  circumstances 
 discover  the  propriety  and  force  of  John's  language,  in 
 his  magnificent  description  of  the  Jewish  church  in  her 
 millennial  state  :  '  and  I,  John,  saw  the  holy  city,  new 
 Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  pre- 
 pared as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband.'  2 
 
 Those  that  were  invited  to  the  marriage,  were  expected 
 to  appear  in  their  best  and  gayest  attire.  If  the  bride- 
 groom was  in  circumstances  to  afibrd  it,  wedding  gar- 
 ments were  prepared  for  all  the  guests,  which  were  hung 
 up  in  the  antechamber  for  them  to  put  on  over  the  rest 
 of  their  clothes,  as  they  entered  the  apartments  where  the 
 marriage  feast  was  prepared.  To  refuse,  or  even  to 
 neglect  putting  on  the  wedding  garment,  was  reckoned 
 an  insult  to  the  bridegroom,  aggravated  by  the  circum- 
 stance that  it  was  provided  by  himself  for  the  very  pur- 
 pose of  being  worn  on  that  occasion,  and  was  hung  up 
 in  the  way  to  the  inner  apartment,  that  the  guests  must 
 have  seen  it,  and  recollected  the  design  of  its  suspen- 
 sion. This  accounts  for  the  severity  of  the  sentence 
 pronounced  by  the  king,  who  came  in  to  see  the  guests, 
 and  found  among  them  one  who  had  neglected  to  put  it 
 on  :  '  and  he  saith  unto  him,  friend,  how  earnest  thou  in 
 hither,  not  having  a  wedding  garment?  And  he  was 
 speechless,'  because  it  was  provided  at  the  expense  of 
 the  entertainer,  and  placed  full  in  his  view.  '  Then  said 
 the  king  to  the  servants,  bind  him  hand  and  foot,  and 
 take  him  away  and  cast  him  into  outer  darkness  :  there 
 shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth.'  3  The  arrival 
 of  the  bride  at  the  house  of  her  husband,  was  followed 
 by  the  marriage  feast,  at  which  they  indulged  in  great 
 mirth  and  hilarity.  It  was  made  entirely  at  the  expense 
 of  the  bridegroom ;  thus  Homer  sings ;  '  a  shot-free 
 banquet,  or  a  marriage  feast,  not  such  as  is  by  contribu- 
 tion made.'  4 
 
 From  the  parable  of  the  marriage  feast,  we  have  a 
 right  to  conclude  that  such  entertainments  among  the 
 Jews  were  equally  free.  '  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
 like  unto  a  certain  king  which  made  a  marriage  for  his 
 son,  and  sent  forth  his  servants  to  call  them  that  were 
 bidden  to  the  weddinar.'  5 
 
 1  Mat.  xxv.  6.  2  Rev.  xxi.  2. 
 
 4  Potter,  p.  62  J,  Boyd's  Edition,  18o7. 
 
 3  Mat.  xxii.  11. 
 5  Mat.  xxii.  2. 
 
 The  marriage  feast  was  of  old  frequently  protracted 
 to  the  length  of  seven  days  :  for  so  long  Samson  enter- 
 tained his  friends  at  Timnath.  *  To  this  festival  Laban 
 is  thought  by  many  divines  to  refer,  in  his  answer  to 
 Jacob's  complaint,  that  he  had  imposed  Leah  upon  him 
 instead  of  Rachel ;  '  fulfil  the  week  of  the  marriage,  and 
 we  will  give  thee  this  also.'  This  feast  was  called  the 
 nuptial  joy,  with  which  no  other  was  to  be  intermixed  ; 
 all  labour  ceased  while  it  continued,  and  no  sign  of 
 mourning  or  sorrow  was  permitted  to  appear.  It  may 
 be  only  further  observed,  that  even  in  modern  times 
 none  but  very  poor  people  give  a  daughter  in  marriage 
 without  a  female  slave  for  a  handmaid,  as  hired  servants 
 are  unknown  in  the  oriental  regions.  7  Hence  Laban, 
 who  was  a  man  of  considerable  property  in  Mesopota- 
 mia, '  gave  unto  his  daughter  Leah  Zilpah  his  maid,  for 
 an  handmaid  ;'  and  '  to  Rachel  his  daughter,  Bilhah  his 
 handmaid,  to  be  her  maid.'  8  In  Greece  also  the  mar- 
 riage solemnity  lasted  several  days.  On  the  third  day 
 the  bride  presented  her  bridegroom  with  a  robe ;  gifts 
 were  likewise  made  to  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  by  the 
 bride's  father  and  friends  ;  these  consisted  of  golden 
 vessels,  beds,  couches,  plates,  and  all  sorts  of  neces- 
 saries for  housekeeping,  which  were  carried  in  great  state 
 to  the  house  by  women,  preceded  by  a  person  carrying 
 a  basket,  in  the  manner  usual  at  processions,  before  whom 
 went  a  boy  in  white  vestments,  with  a  torch  in  his  hand. 
 It  was  also  customary  for  the  bridegroom  and  his  friends 
 to  give  presents  to  the  bride,  after  which,  the  bridegroom 
 had  leave  to  converse  freely  with  her,  and  she  was  per- 
 mitted to  appear  in  public  without  her  veil.  9  To  these 
 circumstances  the  holy  psalmist  certainly  refers,  in  his 
 magnificent  description  of  Messiah's  kingdom  ;  '  and 
 the  daughter  of  Tyre  shall  be  there  with  a  gift ;  even  the 
 rich  among  the  people  shall  entreat  thy  favour'1"  with 
 gifts  and  offerings  suited  to  their  wealth  and  thy  dignity. 
 
 The  apartments  of  the  women  are  counted  sacred  and 
 inviolable,  over  all  the  east ;  it  is  even  a  crime  to  inquire 
 what  passes  within  the  walls  of  the  harem,  or  house  of 
 the  women.  Hence,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  be  in- 
 formed of  the  transactions  in  those  sequestered  habita- 
 tions ;  and  a  man,  says  Chardin,  may  walk  an  hundred 
 days,  one  after  another,  by  the  house  where  the  women 
 are,  and  yet  know  no  more  what  is  done  there  than  at 
 the  farther  end  of  Tartary.  This  sufficiently  explains 
 the  reason  of  Mordecai's  conduct,  who  '  walked  every  day 
 before  the  court  of  the  women's  house,  to  know  how 
 Esther  did,  and  what  should  become  of  her.'  u 
 
 The  Arabs  are  not  so  scrupulous  as  the  Turks  about 
 their  women  ;  and  though  they  have  their  harem,  or 
 women's  apartment  in  the  tent,  they  readily  introduce 
 their  acquaintances  into  it,  or  those  strangers  whom  they 
 take  under  their  special  protection.  Pococke's  conduc- 
 tor, in  his  journey  to  Jerusalem,  led  him  two  or  three 
 miles  to  his  tent,  where  he  sat  with  his  wife  and  others 
 round  a  fire.  The  faithful  Arab  kept  him  there  for 
 greater  security,  the  wife  being  always  with  him :  no 
 stranger  ever  daring  to  come  into  the  women's  apsrtatbOHt 
 unless  introduced.  We  discover  in  this  custom,  the  reason 
 of  Jael's  invitation  to  Sisera,  when  he  was  defeated  by 
 Barak :  '  turn  in,  my  lord,  turn  in  to  me,  fear  not.'  12 
 
 6  Judg.  xiv.  1.     7  Chardin's  Travels.     8  Gen.  xxix.  24,  29. 
 9  Potter's  Gr.  Antiq.  p.  628,  Boyd's  Edition,  1837. 
 10  Ps.  xlv.  12.  "  Est.  ii.  11.  '*  h\d«.  iv.  18. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  ike. 
 
 887 
 
 A.  M.4031.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M  5139.  A.  D.  -2*.  FItoM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ii.  S.  MARK  \i.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 She  invited  him  to  take  refuge  in  her  own  division  of 
 
 the  tent,  into  which  no  stranger  might  presume  to  enter ; 
 and  where  he  naturally  supposed  himself  in  perfect 
 safety.  ' 
 
 CHAP.  V. — Of  the  four  evangelists  and  their  writings. 
 
 Before  we  proceed  any  farther  in  the  history  of  our 
 blessed  Saviour's  life,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  give 
 some  short  account  of  the  four  evangelists  that  have  re- 
 corded it.  I  call  them  four,  because,  whatever  spurious 
 pieces  gained  credit  in  the  world  afterwards,  the  tradition 
 of  the  church  from  the  beginning  of  the  second  century 
 makes  it  evident,  that  the  gospels  then  received  were 
 only  the    four  gospels   which  we  now  own. 
 
 St  Matthew,  who  stands  in  the  front  of  these  evangelists, 
 and  is  generally  allowed  to  be  the  first  who  committed  the 
 gospel  to  writing,  was  the  son  of  Alpheus,  a  Galilean  by 
 birth,  a  Jew  by  religion,  and  a  publican  by  profession. 
 Among  the  Jews,  as  well  as  other  nations,  the  custom  at 
 this  time  prevailed  of  having  more  names  than  one  ;  and 
 therefore  we  find  his  brother  evangelist  St  Mark  2  and 
 Luke,  3  giving  him  the  name  of  Levi,  with  a  civil  intent 
 to  avoid  all  mention  of  his  former  not  so  reputable  pro- 
 fession, before  he  was  called  to  the  apostleship  ;  but,  what 
 is  no  less  an  instance  of  his  own  modesty,  in  the  gospel 
 written  by  himself,  he  not  only  takes  the  name  by  which 
 he  was  most  commonly  known,  but  generally  adds  the 
 odious  epithet  to  it  of  '  Matthew  the  publican  ;'  in- 
 tending thereby  no  doubt  to  magnify  the  grace  of  God, 
 and  the  condescension  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  who  did 
 not  disdain  to  take  into  the  highest  dignity  of  the 
 Christian  church  those  whom  the  world  rejected,  and  ac- 
 counted vile. 
 
 *  \V  hether  he  wasborn  in  Nazareth  or  no,  it  is  certain  that 
 his  ordinary  abode  was  at  Capernaum,5  because  his  proper 
 business  was  to  gather  the  customs  on  goods  that  came  by 
 the  sea  of  Galilee,  and  the  tribute  which  passengers  were 
 to  pay  that  went  by  water ;  for  which  purpose  there  was 
 a  custom-house  by  the  sea-side,  where  Matthew  had  his 
 office,  or  toll-booth,  'there  sitting  at  the  receipt  of  custom.' 
 Our  Lord  having  lately  cured  a  famous  paralytic,  retired 
 out  of  the  town,  to  walk  by  the  sea-side,  where  he  taught 
 the  people  that  flocked  after  him ;  and  having  espied 
 Matthew  in  his  office,  he  asked  him  to  become  one  of  his 
 disciples  ;  whereupon,  without  any  manner  of  hesitation, 
 without  staying  so  much  as  to  settle  his  accounts,  and  put 
 his  affairs  in  order,  he  left  all  and  followed  him.  a 
 
 We  cannot  but  suppose  that,  as  he  lived  in  Capernaum, 
 the  place  of  our  Lord's  usual  residence,  and  where  his 
 sermons  and  miracles  were  so  frequent,  he  must  have 
 been  acquainted  with  his  person  and  doctrine  before 
 this  time  ;  and  consequently  in  a  good  preparation  to  re- 
 ceive the  call  with  gladness.  And  that  he  did  so,  a  good 
 evidence  it  seems  to  be,  his  entertaining  our  Lord  and 
 his  disciples  at  dinner  next  day  in  his  house  ;  whither  he 
 invited  several  of  his  own  profession,  in  hopes,  no  doubt, 
 that  our  Saviour's  company  and  converse  might  make  the 
 like  impression  upon  them. 
 
 From  his  election  to  the  apostolate  he  continued  con- 
 stantly with  our  Lord,  during  his  abode  upon  earth  ;  and 
 after  his  ascension  for  the  space  of  eight  years  preached 
 the  gospel  in  several  parts  of  Judea  :  but  being  now  to 
 betake  himself  to  the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles,  he  was 
 entreated  by  the  Jews,  who  had  been  converted  to  the 
 Christian  faith,  to  commit  to  writing  the  history  of  our 
 Lord's  life  and  actions,  and  to  leave  it  among  them  as  a 
 standing  record  of  what  he  had  preached  to  them  ;  which 
 accordingly  he  did,  and  so  composedHhe  gospel  which 
 we  have  now  under  his  name. 
 
 6  The  countries  in  which  he  preached  were  chiefly 
 Parthia  and  Ethiopia,  in  the  latter  of  which  he  con- 
 verted multitudes,  settled  churches,  and  ordained  ministers 
 to  confirm  and  build  them  up ;  and  having  signalized  his 
 zeal  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  and  his  contempt  of 
 the  world  in  a  life  b  of  most  exemplary  abstinence,  he  is 
 most  probably  thought  to  have  suffered  martyrdom  at 
 Nadabar,  c  a  city  in  Ethiopia  ;  but  of  the  time  and  manner 
 of  his  death  no  certain  account  is  transmitted  to  us. 
 
 At  the  request  of  the  Jewish  converts,  as  we  said,  and, 
 as  some  add,  at  the  command  of  the  rest  of  the  apostles, 
 St  Matthew  wrote  his  gospel,  about  eight  or  nine  years 
 after  our  Lord's  resurrection :  for  that  it  was  extant  be- 
 fore the  dispersion  of  the  apostles,  is  plain  from  Barthol- 
 omew carrying  it  with  him  into  India,  where,  as  Euse- 
 bius 7  informs  us,  it  was  found  by  Pana^tus,  when  he  went 
 
 Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 Hist.  Eccl.  b.  v.  c.  10. 
 
 1  Paxton,  Harmer.  2  Chap.  ii.  14.  3  Chap.  v.  27. 
 
 *  Kirslin,  on  the  life  of  the  four  Evang.  says  he  was,  part  22. 
 s  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 a  This  is  a  rash  conjecture.  Although  it  is  said  in  the  text 
 (Luke  v.  27.)  that  Levi,  or  Matthew  left  all,  rose  up,  and  followed 
 Clirist,  it  is  not  necessary  to  infer  from  this,  that  in  obeying  the 
 divine  call  he  committed  an  act  of  injustice  to  his  employers, 
 and  made  no  settlement  of  his  accounts.  He  might  have  left  his 
 office  to  the  care  of  some  of  his  friends,  or  he  might  have  returned 
 soon  afterwards  to  arrange  his  affairs.  Surely  he  who  said,  '  render 
 unto  Ciesar  the  things  which  are  Coesar's,'  would  not  encourage 
 one  whom  he  had  chosen  to  be  his  follower  to  act  the  part  of  an 
 unfaithful  steward  even  in  temporal  concerns.  "The  feast,"  says 
 Doddridge,  *'  was  made  the  day  following  his  calling,  or  perhaps 
 sonic  months  after  it,  when  he  had  made  up  his  accounts,  and 
 
 passed  his  busiuess  into  other  hands.  And  an  attentive  consid- 
 eration of  the  context,  and  the  mode  of  the  gospel  narratives, 
 will  show  that  this  is  no  way  inconsistent  with  the  mention  of 
 the  feast  immediately  after  his  call." — Ed. 
 
 b  Clemens  Alexandriuus  tells  us,  that  he  abstained  from  the 
 eating  of  flesh:  and  that  the  chief  of  his  diet  was  herbs,  roots, 
 seeds,  and  berries. — Padag.  b.  ii.  c.  1. 
 
 b  This  is  contradicted  by  the  account  of  Heraclion,  a  learned 
 Valentinian  of  the  second  century,  who,  as  cited  by  Clement  of 
 Alexandria,  reckons  Matthew  among  the  apostles  that  did  not 
 die  by  martyrdom ;  and  as  his  statement  is  not  contradicted  by 
 Clement,  it  is  more  likely  to  be  true  than  the  relation  of  Socrates, 
 who  did  not  flourish  until  three  hundred  years  after  Heraclion. 
 — Home's  Introduction,  vol.  iv. — Ed. 
 
 c  Matthew  is  generally  allowed  to  have  written  his  gospel 
 before  the  other  evangelists;  though  vthe  precise  time  when  it 
 was  composed  cannot  be  determined.  Dr  Mill,  Michaelis,  and 
 Bishop  Percy,  alter  Irenreus,  assign  it  to  a.  d.  61 ;  Dr  Hales  to 
 63;  Dr  Laidncr  and  Mr  Hewlett  to  64;  Baronius,  GroCius, 
 Wetstein,  J.  Jones  and  others  after  Eusebius,  to  41;  Dr  Owen 
 and  Bishop  Tomliuc,  to  I3S.  It  is  proper  to  remark  that  Calvin, 
 Beza,  Gomarus,  the  antagonist  of  Arminius,  Lardner,  Michaelis, 
 Dr  Macknight,  and  others,  seem  all  to  have  been  decidedly  of 
 opinion  that  Luke  wrote  before  Matthew.  But  the  question, 
 really,  is  of  no  importance.  For  the  evidence  of  the  inspiration 
 of  Luke,  which  has  lately  been  controverted  by  divines  both  in 
 England  and  in  Germany,  does  in  no  degree  depend  upon 
 it. — Ed. 
 
888 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.4134.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  :x.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 to  propagate  the  faith  in  those  parts,  and  by  such  as 
 retained  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  was  reputed  a  valuable 
 treasure. 
 
 a  As  it  was  primarily  designed  for  the  benefit  of  the 
 Jewish  converts,  whatever  some  moderns  may  say  to  the 
 contrary,  the  voice  of  all  antiquity  must  carry  it  against 
 them,  that  it  was  originally  wrote  in  Hebrew,  not  in  the 
 ancient  pure  Hebrew,  for  that,  in  a  great  measure,  was 
 lost  among  the  vulgar,  but  in  a  language  commonly  used 
 at  that  time  by  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  and  therefore 
 still  called  the  Hebrew  tongue,  because  wrote  in  He- 
 brew characters,  which  was  the  Syriac,  with  a  mixture  of 
 Hebrew  and  Chaldee. 
 
 This  gospel  of  St  Matthew  was,  for  a  long  time,  in  use 
 among  the  Jews,  who  had  been  converted  to  Christianity, 
 and  when,  some  time  before  the  Romans  laid  siege  to  Jer- 
 usalem, they  retired  to  Pella,  they  carried  it  thither  along 
 with  them ;  from  whence  it  was  diffused  into  Decapolis, 
 
 a  There  is  a  diversity  of  opinion  respecting  the  language  in 
 which  it  was  written:  many  learned  men  have  contended,  that 
 it  was  written  in  the  Hehrew,  or  Syro-Chaldaic  dialect  then 
 spoken  by  the  Jews;  and  others  have  as  strenuously  vindicated 
 the  Greek  original.  A  third  opinion  has  been  offered  by  Dr 
 Townson,  to  whose  opinion  great  deference  is  due,  and  some 
 other  modern  divines,  that  there  were  two  originals,  one  in  He- 
 brew, and  the  other  in  Greek.  He  thinks  that  there  seems  to  be 
 more  reason  for  allowing  two  originals  than  for  contesting  either; 
 the  consent  of  antiquity  pleading  strongly  for  the  Hebrew,  and 
 evident  marks  of  originality,  for  the  Greek.  Dr  Campbell  argues 
 strongly  in  favour  of  a  Hebrew  original.  After  adducing  the 
 external  testimonies  in  support  of  this  view  of  the  matter,  he 
 says,  have  we  not  reason  to  conclude,  from  the  express  order,  as 
 well  as  from  the  example  of  our  Lord,  and  from  the  uniform 
 practice  of  his  disciples,  that  it  was  suitable  to  the  will  of  Pro- 
 vidence, in  this  dispensation  of  grace,  that  every  advantage  should 
 be  first  ottered  to  the  Jews,  especially  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusa- 
 lem; and  that  the  gospel  which  had  been  first  delivered  to  them 
 by  word,  both  by  our  Lord  himself,  and  by  his  apostles,  should 
 be  also  first  presented  to  them  in  writing,  in  that  very  dialect  in 
 which  many  of  the  readers,  at  the  time  of  the  publication,  might 
 remember  to  have  heard  the  same  sacred  truths,  as  they  came 
 from  the  mouth  of  him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake,  the  great 
 oracle  of  the  Father,  the  interpreter  of  God.  This  loss  of  this 
 gospel  proved  the  prelude  to  the  extinction  of  that  church.  But 
 we  have  reason  to  be  thankful  that  what  was  most  valuable  in  the 
 work,  is  not  lost  to  the  Christian  community.  The  version  we 
 have  in  Greek  is  written  with  much  evangelical  simplicity,  en- 
 tirely in  the  idiom  and  manner  of  the  apostles.  It  only  remains 
 that  we  notice  the  third  opinion  above  mentioned,  namely,  that 
 there  were  two  originals  one  in  Hebrew,  the  other  in  Greek, 
 but  both  written  by  Matthew.  This  opinion,  we  believe,  was 
 first  intimated  by  Sixtus  Senensis,  from  whom  it  was  adopted 
 by  Drs  Whitby,  Benson,  Hey,  and  Townson,  and  some  other 
 modern  divines.  It  has  been  conjectured,  that  Matthew  on  his 
 departure  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles,  left  with  the  church 
 at  Jerusalem,  the  Hebrew  or  Syriac  narrative  of  our  Lord's  doc- 
 trines and  miracles,  and  that  the  Greek  gospel  was  written  long  after 
 the  apostles  had  quitted  Jerusalem,  and  dispersed  themselves  in  the 
 discharge  of  the  duties  of  their  office.  This  conjecture  receives 
 some  countenance  from  the  terms  in  which  Eusebius,  when  giving 
 hu  own  opinion,  mentions  Matthew's  gospel.  Matthew,  says  that 
 historian,  having  first  preached  to  the  Hebrews,  delivered  to  them, 
 when  he  was  preparing  to  depart  toother  countries,  his  gospel  com- 
 posed in  their  native  language:  that  to  those,  from  whom  he  was 
 sent  away,  he  might  by  his  writings  supply  the  loss  of  his  presence. 
 This  opinion  is  further  corroborated  by  the  fact,  that  there  are  in- 
 stances on  record,  of  authors  who  have  themselves  published  the 
 same  work  in  two  languages.  Tims  Josephus  wrote  the  History  of 
 the  Jewish  war  in  Hebrew  and  Greek.  Upon  the  whole,  the  evi- 
 dence preponderates  in  favour  of  the  opinion  that  Matthew  wrote 
 first  a  Hebrew  gospel  for  the  use  of  the  first  Hebrew  converts ; 
 and  that  afterwards,  within  a  few  years  after  our  Lord's  ascen- 
 sion, the  same  evangelist  wrote  his  gospel  in  Greek. Ed. 
 
 and  all  the  countries  beyond  Jordan,  where  the  Juda- 
 izing  Christians  still  made  use  of  it  in  the  time  of 
 Epiphanius  1  and  Eusebius  2  of  Cajsarea.  But  these 
 Christians  3  did  not  preserve  this  sacred  depositum, 
 with  all  the  fidelity  they  should  have  done.  They  added 
 to  it  several  things,  which  perhaps  they  might  have  heard 
 from  the  mouths  of  the  apostles,  or  from  their  immediate 
 disciples,  and  this  in  time  brought  it  under  the  suspicion 
 of  other  believers.  The  "Ebionites,  at  length,  got  it  into 
 their  hands,  and  by  their  additions  and  defalcations,  in 
 favour  of  some  errors  they  had  fallen  into  concerning  the 
 divinity  of  our  Saviour  and  the  virginity  of  the  blessed 
 mother,  so  corrupted  it,  that  at  length  it  was  given  up 
 by  other  churches  which  adhered  to  the  form  of  sound 
 doctrine.  It  continued,  however,  a  long  time  in  its  prim- 
 itive purity  in  the  hands  of  the  Nazarenes,  or  first 
 believers  in  Palestine,  who,  though  they  were  zealous  in 
 the  observation  of  the  law,  embraced  no  such  opinions 
 as  the  Ebionites  did,  nor  made  any  alterations  in  the  gos- 
 pel. But  after  the  extinction  of  this  sect,  we  hear  no 
 more  of  the  genuine  gospel  of  St  Matthew,  because  the 
 ancient  Greek  version,  which,  in  the  apostolic  times, 
 was  made  from  it,  having  always  preserved  its  primitive 
 integrity,  did,  long  before  this,  universally  prevail,  and 
 was  looked  upon  as  authentic  as  the  original ;  for,  though 
 its  author  be  uncertain,  yet  every  one  who  mentions  it, 
 always  ascribes  it  to  some  one  apostle  or  other.  b 
 
 When  St  Matthew  began  to  write,  the  great  question 
 among  the  Jews  was,  Whether  our  blessed  Saviour  was 
 
 1  Epiphan.  Hceres.  xxix.  c.  7.  '2  Hist.  Eccl.  b.  iii.  c.  25. 
 
 3  Calmet's  Dictionary,  and  Preface  to  St  Matthew's  Gospel. 
 
 b  Those  who  maintain  that  St  Matthew  wrote  in  Greek, 
 produce  these  arguments  for  their  opinion.  1st,  That  some  of  the 
 fathers,  such  as  Origen,  Epiphanius,  and  St  Jerome,  quote  indeed 
 the  Hebrew  of  St  Matthew,  but  quote  it  as  a  book  of  no  great 
 authority,  which  they  would  not  have  done,  had  it  been  the  true 
 original.  2c/,  That  had  St  Matthew  wrote  in  Hebrew,  the 
 Hebrew  names  in  his  gospel  would  not  have  been  interpreted  into 
 Greek,  nor  would  he  have  quoted  the  Old  Testament,  according 
 to  the  Septuagint  translation.  3d,  That  the  Greek  language  was 
 then  very  common  in  Palestine,  and  all  the  east.  And,  4th,  since 
 all  the  other  authors  of  the  New  Testament  wrote  in  Greek,  why 
 should  St  Matthew  alone  write  his  gospel  in  Hebrew?  But  to 
 these  arguments  it  may  be  replied,  1st,  That  the  uniform  testi- 
 mony of  all  the  ancients,  who  tell  us  that  St  Matthew  wrote  his 
 gospel  in  Hebrew,  is  certainly  of  very  great  weight;  but  then 
 we  must  know  that  there  were  two  of  these  copies  of  St  Matthew, 
 the  one  pure  and  uocorrupted,  of  which  they  have  spoken  with  great 
 esteem,  the  other  depraved  by  heretics,  which  they  have  contemn- 
 ed, and  looked  upon  as  apocryphal.  2d,  The  Hebrew  names,  in- 
 terpreted into  Greek,  prove  the  \ery  contrary  to  what  would  be 
 inferred  from  it;  for  this  demonstrates  that  the  translation  was 
 Greek,  and  the  original  Hebrew.  3d,  Of  the  ten  passages  iu  the 
 Old  Testament  that  St  Matthew  cites  in  his  gospel,  there  are 
 seven  of  them  which  resemble  the  Hebrew  more  than  the  Sep- 
 tuagint; in  the  other  three,  the  Septuagint  and  the  Hebrew  them- 
 selves agree ;  but  the  plain  truth  is,  that  St  Matthew  quotes  by 
 memory,  and  relates,  not  so  much  the  words,  as  the  sense, 
 of  the  passages.  4th,  However  common  the  Greek  tongue  might 
 be  in  Palestine  among  the  better  sort  of  people,  yet  it  is  certain 
 that  the  generality  of  the  Jews  spoke  commonly  what  they  called 
 Hebrew,  which  was  Syriac  and  Chaldee  mixed  with  Hebrew. 
 And,  5th,  Though  all  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament  were  writ- 
 ten in  Greek,  yet  that  is  no  argument  why  this  part  of  it  should ; 
 though,  if  convenience  were  considered,  it  should  rather,  one 
 would  think,  be  adapted  to  the  general  use  and  capacity  ot  those 
 for  whom  it  was  wrote.  The  dispute,  however,  is  about  matter  of 
 fact,  and  this  is  a  fact  attested  by  all  the  ancients,  many  of  whom 
 had  seen  the  original,  and  were  capable  of  making  a  judgment  of 
 it. —  Whitby's  Prefatory  Discourse  to  the  four  Evangelists;  and 
 Calmet's  Dicticmary ,  under  the  word  Matthew. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &. 
 
 839 
 
 A.M.  4031.  A.D.30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5139.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  l.OSP.  TO  MAT.  iv  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 apostles,  .iiul  most  likely  by  St  Peter,  to  whom  he  was  a 
 constant  retainer,  .and  served  him  in  the  capacity  of  an 
 amanuensis,  and  an  interpreter.  10  For,  though  the  apostles 
 
 the  true  Messiah  or  no  ?  and  the  main  tendency  of  his 
 gospel  seems  to  prove  this.  For  he  shows  by  his  mighty 
 deeds,  that  he  was  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God ;  that  his 
 mother  Mary  was  a  virgin ;  that  he  was  not  come  to  destroy 
 the  law,  but  to  fulfil  it;  and  that  his  miracles  were  not 
 magical  operations,  nor  the  effects  of  any  human  art,  but 
 incontestable  proofs  of  the  power  of  Cod,  and  of  his  divine 
 mission.  *  St  Ambrose  observes,  that  none  of  the  apostles 
 has  entered  so  far  into  the  particulars  of  our  Saviour's 
 actions  a  as  has  St  Matthew ;  that  none  of  them  has  re- 
 lated the  history  of  the  wise  men  coming  from  the  east, 
 or  the  parable  of  the  wise  and  foolish  virgins,  and  some 
 others,  but  he  ;  that,  in  short,  he  has  given  us  more  rules 
 for  the  conduct  of  life,  and  more  lessons  of  morality, 
 suitable  to  our  necessities,  than  any ;  and  all  this  2  in  a 
 natural  and  easy  style,  (though  sometimes  mixed  with 
 Hebraisms,)  such  as  becomes  an  historian,  and  especially  a 
 sacred  historian,  whose  narration  should  be  free  from 
 affectation,  and  all  such  trifling  ornaments  as  do  not 
 agree  with  the  gravity  and  dignity  of  his  subject. 
 
 Though  the  name  of  Mark  seems  to  be  of  Roman  ex- 
 traction, yet  the  evangelist  now  before  us  was  born  of 
 Jewish  parents,  and  originally  descended  from  the  tribe 
 of  Levi.  What  his  proper  name  was,  or  upon  what 
 change  or  accident  of  life  he  might  assume  this,  we  have 
 no  manner  of  intelligence  ;  but  as  it  was  no  unusual  thing 
 for  the  Jews,  when  they  went  into  the  European  pro- 
 vinces of  the  Roman  empire,  to  conform  to  the  customs 
 of  the  country,  and  while  they  continued  there,  to  be  called 
 by  some  name  of  common  use ;  so  some  have  conjectured, 
 that  when  Mark  attended  upon  St  Peter  to  Rome,  he 
 might  at  that  time  take  upon  hiiu  this  name,  which,  as  he 
 never  returned  to  Judea  to  reassume  his  own,  he  for  ever 
 after  retained.  In  the  writings  of  the  apostles  we  read 
 of  several  called  by  this  name.  There  is  John,3  whose  sur- 
 name was  Mark  ;  *  Mark,  the  sister's  sou  of  Barnabas  ; 
 Mark,  5  who  was  employed  in  the  ministry  ;  Mark,  whom 
 St  Paul  calls  his  fellow  labourer ;  6  and  Mark,  whom  St 
 Peter  7  styles  his  son  :  but  which  of  these  was  the  evan- 
 gelist, or  whether  the  evangelist  might  not  be  a  person 
 distinct  from  each  of  these,  has  been  a  matter  of  some 
 doubt  among  the  learned. 
 
 That  he  was  one  of  the  seventy  disciples,  and  amon»- 
 them  one  of  those  who  took  offence  at  our  Lord's  dis- 
 course of  8  eating  his  rlesh  and  drinking  his  blood,  some 
 of  the  ancients  have  affirmed ;  but  Eusebius, 9  from  Papias 
 who  was  bishop  of  Hierapolis,  and  lived  near  those 
 times,  tells  us  positively  that  he  was  no  hearer  or  follower 
 of  our  Saviour.     He  was    converted    by  some    of  the 
 
 i  Ambros.  Pref.  in  Luc. 
 3  Acts  xii.  12. 
 6  2  Tim.  iv.  11. 
 8  John  vi.  CO. 
 
 2  Beausobn  's  Pref,  on  St  Matthew. 
 4  Cul.  iv.  10. 
 Phil.  ver.  24.  7  1  Pet.  v.  13. 
 
 9  Hist.  Eccl.  h.  iii.  c.  39 
 
 a  If  we  compare  St  Matthew  with  the  tin-,  e  other  evangelists, 
 we  may  perceive  a  remarkable  difference  in  the  order  and  suc- 
 cession of  our  Saviour's  actions,  and  from  chap.  iv.  22  to 
 chap.  xiv.  13,  which  has  much  perplexed  chronologers  and 
 interpreters.  Some  pretend,  that  St  Matthew  should  be  followed, 
 but  others  think  it  more  reasonable  to  submit  to  the  authority  of 
 the  other  three,  especially  since  St  Murk,  who  follows  him  elose 
 enough  in  every  other  thing,  forsakes  him  in  this  particular. 
 However,  this  be,  it  can  prove  no  prejudice  to  the  truth  of  facts, 
 whiefa  are  the  essential  part  of  the  gospel:  and  as  to  the  order 
 oi'  time,  the  sacred  authors  are  not  always  solicitous  to  follow  it 
 exactly. — Colmel's  Dictionary  under  the  word  Matthev. 
 
 were  divinely  inspired,  and,  among  other  miraculous 
 powers,  had  the  gift  of  languages  conferred  on  them  ;  yet 
 the  interpretation  of  tongues  seems  to  be  a  gift  more  pe- 
 culiar to  some  than  others;  and  it  might  be  St  Mark's 
 talent,  either  by  word  or  writing,  to  expound  St  Peter's 
 discourses  to  those  who  understood  not  the  language 
 wherein  they  were  delivered.  h 
 
 10  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 h  With  regard  to  the  evangelist  Mark,  all  that  we  learnfrom  the 
 New  Testament,  concerning  him  is,  that  he  was  sister's  son  to  Bar- 
 nabas, (Col.  iv.  10.)  and  the  son  of  Mary,  a  pious  woman  of  Jeru- 
 salem, at  whose  house  the  apostles  and  first  Christians  often 
 assembled.  His  Hebrew  name  was  John,  and  Miehaelis  thinks 
 that  lie  adopted  the  surname  of  Marie  when  he  left  Judea  to 
 preach  the  gospel  to  foreign  countries — a  practice  not  unusual 
 among  the  Jews  of  that  age,  who  frequently  assumed  a  name 
 more  familiar  to  the  nations  which  they  visited  than  that  by 
 which  they  had  been  distinguished  in  their  own  country.  But 
 Dr  Campbell,  and  others,  were  not  convinced  that  the  nephew 
 of  Barnabas  is  the  person  who  wrote  the  gospel  which  bears  the 
 name  of  Mark.  Of  John,  surnamed  Mark,  says  Dr  Campbell,  one 
 of  the  first  things  we  learn  is,  that  he  attended  Paul  and  Bar- 
 nabas in  their  apostolical  journeys,  when  these  two  travelled  to- 
 gether, Acts  xii.  25.  xiii.  5.  And  when  afterwards  there  arose  a 
 dispute  between  them  concerning  him,  insomuch  that  they  separ- 
 ated, Mark  accevnpanied  his  uncle  Barnabas,  and  Silas  attended 
 Paul.  When  Paul  was  reconciled  to  Mark,  which  was  probably 
 soon  after,  we  find  Paul  again  employing  Mark's  assistance,  re- 
 commending him,  and  giving  him  a  xmy  honourable  testimony, 
 Col.  iv.  10.  2  Tim.  iv.  11.  Phil.  24.  But  we  hear  not  a  syllable 
 of  his  attending  Peter,  as  his  minister,  or  assisting  him  in  any 
 capacity.  This  is  so  different  from  the  accounts  which  the  most 
 ancient  writers  give  of  the  evangelist  Mark,  that  though  they 
 cannot  be  said  to  contradict  each  other,  they  can  hardly  be  un- 
 derstood as  spoken  of  the  same  individual.  The  evangelist  is  not 
 said  to  have  derived  any  part  of  his  information  from  our  Lord 
 himself,  or  even  from  any  of  his  apostles,  except  the  apostle 
 Peter,  whose  disciple  he  is  always  represented  as  having  been; 
 and  who  doubtless  speaks  of  him  when  he  says,  1  Pet.  v.  13, 
 '  Marcus  my  son  salutethyou ;'  a  denomination  commonly  given  in 
 those  times  by  the  minister,  to  everyone  who  by  his  means  had  been 
 converted  to  the  Christian  faith.  In  brief,  the  accounts  given  of 
 Paul's  attendant,  and  those  of  Peter's  interpreter,  concur  in 
 nothing  but  the  name,  Mark,  or  Marcus ;  too  slights  circumstance 
 to  conclude  the  sameness  of  the  person  from,  especially  when  we 
 consider  how  common  the  name  was  at  Rome,  and  how  customary 
 it  was  for  the  Jews,  in  that  age,  to  assume  some  Roman  name 
 when  they  went  thither. — (Dr  Campbell's  Preface  to  Mark,  vol. 
 ii.  p.  1  lo'J  But  this  is  a  question  of  no  great  importance.  That 
 Mark  was  the  author  of  the  gospel  which  bears  his  name,  is  proved 
 by  the  unanimous  testimony  of  the  Christian  writers  of  the  four 
 first  centuries.  From  the  earliest  ages  of  the  church  this  gospel 
 was  received  net  only  as  genuine  and  authentic,  but  as  divinely 
 inspired. — It  has  always  been  fully  admitted,  that  the  apostle 
 Peter  during  his  residence  in  Rome  saw  the  gospel  of  Mark,  and 
 approved  of  it;  so  that  the  work  comes  to  us  with  the  highest 
 apostolical  authority.  The  deep  humility  of  Peter  has  been  justly 
 inferri  d  from  the  fact,  that  in  this  gospel,  which  was  writti  n 
 under  his  superintendence,  his  denial  of  his  Master  is  described 
 with  circumstances  of  higher  aggravation)  and  with  fainter  views 
 of  his  repentance,  than  are  to  be  found  in  the  other  gospels.  In 
 regard  to  the  time  when  this  gospel  was  written  there  are  differ- 
 ent opinions.  But  as  it  is  evident  from  the  evangelist's  own 
 narrative,  (Mark  xvi.  20.)  that  he  did  not  write  until  after  the 
 apostles  had  dispersed  themselves  among  the  Gentiles,  and  hi  1 
 preached  the  gospel  every  where,  the  Lord  working  with  them, 
 am!  confirming  the  word  with  si^ns  following;  and  as  it  does 
 not  appear  that  all  the  apostles  quitted  Judea  earlier  than  the  year 
 50^  perhaps  we  si  all  approximate  nearest  to  the  real  date,  if  we  place 
 it  bi  twice,  the  years  CO  and  63.  That  Mark  is  not  to  be  con- 
 sidered as  an  abridger  of  Matthew's  gospel,  as  he  has  been  re- 
 presented by  some  modern  divines,  may  be  proved  by  the  following 
 5  u 
 
890 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4034.  A.  D.30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  ?i.  1. 
 
 the  senseless  idols  of  the  Egyptians,  so  exasperated  their 
 rage,  that  they  were  resolved  to  destroy  this  introducer 
 of  a  new  religion  among  them.  It  was  at  the  time  of 
 Easter  when  the  great  solemnities  of  their  god  Serapis 
 happened  to  be  celebrated  ;  at  which  festival  the  minds 
 of  the  people  being  excited  to  a  passionate  vindication 
 of  the  honour  of  their  idol,  they  broke  in  upon  St  Mark, 
 then  engaged  in  the  solemn  celebration  of  divine  worship 
 and  binding  his  feet,  they  dragged  him  through  the  streets, 
 and  other  rugged  places,  to  a  precipice  near  the  sea  ; 
 but  for  that  night  they  thrust  him  into  a  dark  prison, 
 where  his  soul,  by  a  divine  vision,  was  strengthened  and 
 encouraged  under  the  ruins  of  a  shattered  body.  Early 
 next  morning  the  tragedy  began  again.  For,  in  the  same 
 manner  as  they  had  done  the  day  before,  they  dragged 
 him  about,  till,  his  flesh  being  raked  off,  and  his  veins 
 emptied  of  blood,  his  spirits  failed,  and  he  expired :  but 
 their  malice  died  not  with  him  ;  for  taking  the  poor 
 remains  of  his  body,  they  threw  them  into  a  fire,  and  so 
 burned  them ;  but  his  bones  and  ashes  the  Christians 
 gathered  up,  and  decently  entombed  near  the  place  where 
 he  usually  preached.  b 
 
 2  After  the  defeat  of  Simon  Magus,  whereof  we  shall 
 have  occasion  to  say  more  hereafter,  the  reputation  of 
 the  Christian  religion  grew  so  great,  and  converts  at 
 Rome  became  so  many,  that  they  were  desirous  to  have 
 in  writing  those  doctrines  which  had  hitherto  been  im- 
 parted to  them  by  word  of  mouth  only.  St  Mark,  to  whom 
 this  request  was  made,  accordingly  set  himself  to  recollect 
 what  he,  by  long  conversation,  had  learned  from  St  Peter, 
 who,  when  the  other  had  finished  the  work,  perused,  ap-. 
 proved,  and  recommended  it  to  the  use  of  the  churches  : 
 and  for  this  reason  it  is,  by  some  of  the  ancients,  styled 
 St  Peter's  gospel ;  not  that  St  Peter  dictated  it  to  St 
 Mark,  but  because  St  Mark  did  chiefly  compose  it  out 
 of  that  account  which  St  Peter  usually  delivered  in  his 
 discourses  to  the  people :  and  accordingly  St  Chry- 
 sostom  3  observes  that  the  evangelist,  in  his  nervous  style 
 and  manner  of  expression,  takes  a  great  delight  to  imi- 
 tate St  Peter. 
 
 c  This  gospel  indeed  was  principally  designed  for  the 
 
 He  accompanied  St  Peter  in  all  his  travels,  preached 
 Christianity  in  Italy,  and  at  Rome,  and  at  the  request 
 of  the  Christians  in  those  parts,  composed  his  gospel, 
 which  St  Peter  afterwards  revised  and  approved.  From 
 Italy  he  went  into  Egypt,  and  having  fixed  his  chief  resi- 
 dence in  Alexandria,  he  there,  and  in  the  country  round 
 about,  propagated  the  Christian  faith  with  such  success, 
 that  multitudes  of  both  men  and  women,  not  only  be- 
 came converts,  but  engaged  themselves  likewise  in  a 
 more  strict  profession  a  of  the  religion  that  he  taught 
 them  than  ordinary. 
 
 From  Alexandria  he  removed  westward;  and  passing 
 through  the  countries  of  Marmorica,  Pentapolis,  and 
 some  others  in  his  way  to  Libya,  though  the  people  were 
 barbarous  in  their  manners,  as  well  as  idolatrous  in  their 
 worship,  by  his  preaching  and  miracles,  he  not  only  con- 
 verted, but,  before  he  departed,  confirmed  them  in  the 
 profession  of  the  gospel.  Upon  his  return  to  Alexandria, 
 he  preached  with  all  boldness,  ordered  and  disposed  of 
 the  affairs  of  the  church,  and  wisely  provided  for  the  con- 
 tinuance thereof,  by  constituting  governors  and  pastors 
 in  it.  '  The  great  number  of  miracles  which  he  wrought, 
 and  the  reproaches  which  some  of  the  converts  made  upon 
 
 1  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 circumstances:  first,  he  omits  altogether  several  things  related 
 by  Matthew — our  Lord's  pedigree,  his  birth,  the  visit  of  the 
 magians,  Joseph's  flight  into  Egypt,  and  the  cruelty  of  Herod. 
 As  his  intention  appears  to  have  been  to  give  in  brief  the  history 
 of  our  Lord's  ministry,  he  begins  very  properly  with  the  preach- 
 ing of  the  Baptist.  Secondly,  it  is  clear,  that  whereas  Matthew 
 had  designed  his  gospel  chiefly  for  the  Jewish  Christians,  that 
 of  Mark  was  principally  intended  for  Gentile  believers.  Thus, 
 the  first  time  the  Jordan  is  mentioned,  the  appellation  river  is 
 added  to  the  name,  Mark  i.  5.  As  the  Romans  could  not 
 understand  the  Jewish  phrase  of  defiled  or  common  hands,  this 
 evangelist  adds  the  parenthetical  explanation  of  it,  that  is,  unwash- 
 en,  Mark  vii.  2.  When  he  uses  the  word  corban,  he  subjoins  the 
 interpretation,  '  that  is  a  gift'  (vii.  11.):  and  instead  of  the  word 
 mammon,  he  uses  the  common  term  riches. — Br  Toivnson's 
 /Forks,  vol.  i.  p.  151.  The  manner  in  which  Mark  relates  the 
 life  of  our  Saviour  is  an  additional  evidence  that  he  wrote  for 
 Gentile  Christians.  His  narrative  is  clear  and  concise,  and  while 
 the  other  evangelists  style  our  Saviour  the  Son  of  Man,  he  an- 
 nounces him  as  'the  Son  of  God.'  Thirdly,  there  are  some 
 things  in  Matthew,  of  which,  though  they  fall  within  the  time 
 to  which  Mark  had  confined  himself,  he  has  taken  no  notice; 
 and  some  things  are  mentioned  by  Mark  which  had  been  over- 
 looked by  Matthew.  Fourthly,  he  has  not  always  followed  the 
 same  arrangement  with  his  predecessor;  and  his  relation  of  some 
 facts,  so  far  from  being  an  abridgment  of  Matthew's,  is  the  more 
 circumstantial  of  the  two.  His  style  in  general,  instead  of  beinf 
 more  concise,  is  more  diffuse.  —  Campbell;  Michaelis;  Koppe; 
 Jones. — Ed. 
 
 a  Philo,  in  his  '  Treatise  of  a  contemplative  Life,'  gives  us  a 
 long  account,  and  high  commendation,  of  a  set  of  people,  whom 
 he  calls  ®i£arr<.ura'i,  who,  in  a  pleasant  place  near  Maraeotic  lake 
 in  Egypt,  formed  themselves  into  religious  societies,  and  lived 
 a  strict  philosophic  life,  and  these  Eusebius  {Hist.  Eccl.  b.  ii.  c. 
 16.)  affirms  to  have  been  Christians,  converted  and  brought  un- 
 der these  admirable  rules  by  St  Mark,  at  his  coming  into  Egypt: 
 but  whoever  seriously  considers  Philo's  account,  will  plainly 
 find  that  he  intends  it  of  Jews,  and  professors  of  the  Mosaic  re- 
 ligion, and  not  of  Christians;  partly  because  it  is  improbable 
 that  Philo,  being  a  Jew,  should  give  so  great  a  character  and 
 commendation  of  Christians,  who  were  so  hateful  to  the  Jews  at 
 that  time  in  all  places  of  the  world;  partly  because  Philo  speaks 
 of  them  as  an  institution  of  a  considerable  standing,  whereas  Chris- 
 tians had  but  lately  appeared  in  the  world,  and  were  later  come 
 into  Egypt;  and  partly  because  many  things  in  Philo's  account 
 do  no  way  suit  with  the  state  and  manners  of  Christians  at  that 
 time. — Cave's  Life  of  St  Mark. 
 
 2  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 3  Horn.  iii.  in  Mat. 
 
 b  The  martyrdom  of  St  Mark  is  not  mentioned  by  Eusebius, 
 or  any  other  ancient  writer,  and  is  contradicted  by  Jerome,  whose 
 expressions  seem  to  imply  that  he  died  a  natural  death. — Home's 
 Introduction. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  original  Greek  copy,  under  St  Mark's  own  hand,  is  said 
 to  be  extant  at  Venice  at  this  day,  written,  as  they  tell  us,  by 
 him  at  Aquileia,  and  thence,  after  many  hundred  years,  translated 
 to  Venice,  where  it  is  still  preserved,  though  the  letters  are  so 
 worn  out  with  length  of  time,  that  they  are  not  capable  of  being 
 read.  There  are  likewise  some  Greek  manuscripts,  wherein  the 
 last  twelve  verses  of  this  gospel  are  omitted ;  but  they  are  extant  iu 
 the  greatest  number  of  the  most  ancient  and  authentic  copies,  as 
 well  as  in  the  works  of  Irenseus,  an  author  of  prior  date  to  any  of  the 
 mauuscripts  that  want  them.  It  is  not  to  be  questioned,  there- 
 fore, but  that  they  originally  belonged  to  St  Mark's  gospel,  and 
 were  suppressed  by  some  ignorant  or  conceited  transcriber,  upon 
 the  account  of  some  seeming  contradictions  between  St  Matthew 
 and  this  other  evaugelist,  which,  with  a  small  skill  in  critical 
 learning,  may  be  easily  reconciled. — Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles; 
 and  Beausobre's  Preface  on  St  Mark. — The  story  of  the  auto- 
 graph of  St  Mark's  gospel,  said  to  be  preserved  at  Venice,  is  now 
 proved  to  be  a  mere  fable,  for  the  Venetian  MSS.  formerly  made 
 part  of  the  Latin  MSS.  preserved  at  Friuli,  most  of  which  was 
 printed  by  Blanchini  in  his  Evangeliorum  Quadruplex.     The 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 891 
 
 A.  M.4034.  A.  D.  30  ;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M. 5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  M  ARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 use  of  the  Christians  at  Rome,  and  from  hence  some  may 
 be  apt  to  think  it  highly  congmous  that  it  should  at  first 
 be  written  in  the  Latin  tongue :  but  it  must  be  considered, 
 1  that  as  the  Jewish  converts,  in  that  city,  understood  but 
 little  Latin,  so  there  were  very  few  Romans  that  did  not 
 understand  Greek,  which,  as  appears  from  the  writers  of 
 that  age,  was  the  genteel  and  fashionable  language  of 
 those  times  ;  nor  can  any  good  reason  be  assigned,  why 
 it  should  be  more  inconvenient  for  St  Mark  to  write  his 
 gospel  in  Greek  for  the  use  of  the  Romans,  than  that  St 
 Paul  should  in  the  same  language,  write  his  epistle  to 
 that  church. 
 
 We  cannot  compare  St  Matthew  and  St  Mark  together 
 but  must  perceive,  that  the  latter  had  seen  the  writings 
 of  the  former,  because  he  often  uses  the  same  terms,  re- 
 lates the  same  facts,  and  takes  notice  of  the  same  circum- 
 stances; but  we  must  not  therefore  infer,  that  all  he  in- 
 tended in  his  work  was  simply  to  abridge  him  ;  because 
 he  begins  his  gospel  in  a  different  manner ;  he  omits 
 several  things,  particularly  our  Lord's  genealogy  ;  he 
 varies  from  him  in  the  order  of  his  narration ;  he  relates 
 some  facts  that  the  other  has  omitted ;  he  enlarges  upon 
 others  in  many  particulars,  and,  what  is  no  mean  argu- 
 ment of  his  truth  and  impartiality  in  all  the  rest,  the 
 shameful  lapse  and  denial  of  his  beloved  master  St 
 Peter  he  sets  down,  with  more  and  more  aggravating 
 circumstances  than  any  of  the  other  evangelists  have 
 recorded. 
 
 St  Luke,  who  by  some  ancient  authors,  is  called 
 Lucius  and  Lucanus,  was  a  Syrian  by  birth,  a  native 
 of  Antioch,  and  by  profession  a  physician.2    a  Antioch  3 
 
 1  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 3  Beausobre's  Preface  on  St  Mark. 
 
 '  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 Venice  MSS.  contained  the  first  forty  pages,  or  five  quaternions 
 of  Mark's  gospel ;  the  two  last  quaternions  or  sixteen  pages  are 
 preserved  at  Prague,  where  they  were  printed  by  M.  Dobrowsky, 
 under  the  title  of  Fragmentum  Pragense  Evangelii  S.  Marci 
 vulgo  Autographi,  1773,  4to. — Home's  Introduction. — Ed. 
 
 a  As  to  whether  Luke  was  originally  a  Jew  or  a  pagan,  different 
 opinions  have  been  entertained.  Some  have  inferred  the  latter 
 opinion  from  an  expression  of  the  apostle  Paul  to  the  Collosians, 
 (chap,  iv,  10 — 14,)  where,  after  naming  some  with  this  ad- 
 dition, '  who  are  of  the  circumcision,'  he  mentions  others,  and 
 among  them  Luke,  without  any  addition.  These,  are  therefore, 
 supposed  to  have  been  Gentiles.  But  this,  though  a  plausible 
 inference,  as  Dr  Campbell  observes,  is  not  a  necessary  conse- 
 quence from  the  apostle's  words.  He  might  have  added  the 
 clause,  '  who  are  of  the  circumcision,'  not  to  distinguish  the 
 persons  from  those  after-mentioned  as  not  of  the  circumcision, 
 but  to  give  the  Colossiahs  particular  information  concerning  those 
 with  whom  perhaps  they  had  not  previously  been  acquainted.  If 
 they  knew  what  Luke,  and  Epaphras,  and  Demas,  whether  Jews 
 or  Gentiles,  originally  were,  the  information  was  quite  unneces- 
 sary with  regard  to  them.  It  will  perhaps  add  a  little  to  the 
 weight  of  this  consideration  to  observe,  that  in  those  days,  in  in- 
 troducing to  any  church  such  Christian  brethren  as  were  unknown 
 to  them  before,  it  was  a  point  of  some  importance  to  inform  them, 
 whether  they  were  of  the  circumcision  or  not,  inasmuch  as  there 
 were  certain  ceremonies  and  observances,  in  which  the  Jewish 
 converts  were  indulged,  which,  if  found  in  one  converted  from 
 Gentilism,  might  render  it  suspected,  that  his  conversion  was 
 rather  to  Judaism  than  to  Christianity. — But  that  Luke  was, 
 with  all  the  other  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  a  convert  to 
 Christianity  from  Judaism,  not  from  Gentilism,  is,  upon  the 
 whole,  sufficiently  evident  from  his  style,  in  which,  notwith- 
 standing its  greater  copiousness  and  variety,  there  are  as  many 
 Hebraisms,  as  are  found  in  the  other  evangelists,  and  such  as, 
 I  imagine,  could  not  be  exemplified  in  any  writer,  originally 
 Gentile,  unless  his  conversion  to  Judaism  had  been  very  early 
 in  life. — Dr  CamptwWs  Preface  to  Lnke,vo\.  ii.  p.  129. — Ed. 
 
 the  metropolis  of  Syria,  was,  at  this  time,  a  city  cele- 
 brated for  the  pleasantness  of  its  situation,  the  fertility 
 of  its  soil,  the  riches  of  its  traffic,  the  wisdom  of  its  sen- 
 ate, the  learning  of  its  professors,  and  the  civility  and 
 politeness  of  its  inhabitants,  by  the  pens  of  some  of  the 
 greatest  orators  of  their  times ;  and  yet,  above  .ill  these, 
 it  was  renowned  for  this  one  peculiar  honour,  that  in  this 
 place  it  was,  where  the  disciples  were  first  named 
 Christians. 
 
 In  Antioch  there  was  a  famous  university,  well  re- 
 plenished with  learned  professors  of  all  arts  and  sciences, 
 where  St  Luke  could  not  miss  of  a  liberal  education; 
 however,  he  did  not  only  study  in  Antioch,  but 
 in  all  the  schools  of  Greece  and  Egypt,  whereby  he 
 became  accomplished  in  every  part  of  human  literature, 
 and,  as  the  Greek  academies  were  then  more  especially 
 famous  for  the  study  of  physic,  our  evangelist,  for  some 
 time,  applied  himself  solely  to  the  practice  of  that ;  and, 
 after  his  conversion,  continued,  very  likely,  in  the  same 
 profession,  which  was  far  from  being  inconsistent,  but 
 rather  subservient  to  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  or  the 
 cure  of  souls. 
 
 As  to  his  other  accomplishment,  the  art  of  painting,  the 
 ancients  knew  nothing  of  it.  Nicephorus  "  isthe  firstauthor 
 that  mentions  it ;  and  though  a  great  deal  of  pains  has 
 been  taken  to  prove,  that  some  pieces,  still  extant,  were 
 drawn  by  his  own  hand,  yet  the  ancient  inscription  found 
 in  a  vault  near  St  Mary's  church,  in  the  Via  lata  at  Rome, 
 the  place  where  St  Paul's  house  is  said  to  have  stood, 
 where  mention  is  made  of  a  picture  of  the  blessed  virgin, 
 as  one  of  the  seven  painted  by  St  Luke,  is  an  argument 
 of  better  authority  for  his  skill  in  that  art,  than  any  that 
 the  Jesuit  Gretser,  in  his  laborious  treatise,  5  *  has  pro- 
 duced. But,  whether  our  evangelist  ever  painted  the 
 blessed  virgin  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  he  has  left  us  so 
 many  particulars,  omitted  by  others,  relating  to  the  con- 
 ception, birth,  and  infancy  of  her  son,  6  that  he  seems  to 
 have  been  acquainted  with  her,  and  to  have  had  some  share 
 in  her  confidence. 
 
 That  he  was  one  of  the  seventy  disciples,  is  a  notion 
 inconsistent  with  his  own  declaration,  in  the  preface  to 
 his  gospel,  wherein  he  informs  us,  that  the  facts  therein 
 contained  were  communicated  to  him  by  others,  who 
 had  been  7  eye-witnesses,  and  ministers  of  the  word  from 
 the  beginning  ;  and  therefore  the  most  probable  opinion 
 is,  that,  as  the  Jews  lived  in  great  numbers,  and  had  their 
 synagogues,  and  schools  of  education  at  Antioch,  St 
 Luke  was  at  first  a  Jewish  proselyte,  but  afterwards,  by 
 St  Paul,  while  he  abode  in  this  city,  converted  to  the 
 Christian  faith.  A  companion  of  his  travels  and  suf- 
 ferings he  plainly  appears  to  have  been,  if  not  from  his 
 first  conversion,  at  least  from  the  time  of  St  Paul's  first 
 going  into  Macedonia  ;  for  there,  in  his  account  of 
 the  apostle's  actions,  he  changes  his  style,  and,  8 in- 
 cludes himself  ever  after  as  a  party  concerned  in  the 
 narrative. 
 
 The  truth  is,  he  followed  him  in  all  his  dangers,  was 
 
 4  B.  ii.  c.  43. 
 5  De  Imagine  non  manuf.  et  a  St.  Luca  pict.  c.  18,  19. 
 *  Grotius  on  Luke  ii.  51.  '  Luke  i.  2. 
 
 8  Acts  xvi.  10. 
 *  The  tradition  that  St  Luke  was  a  painter  is  utterly  unworthy 
 of  credit,;  it  rests  on  no  solid  foundation,  and  is  countenanced  by 
 no  authorities. — Ed. 
 
892 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4034-  A.C.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.M.  5139.  A.  D.  88.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 with  him  at  several  arraignments  at  Jerusalem,  and 
 accompanied  him  in  his  desperate  voyage  to  Rome,  where 
 he  still  attended  on  him,  to  serve  his  necessities,  and 
 supply  those  ministerial  offices  which  the  apostle's  con- 
 finement would  not  suffer  him  to  undergo.  Nay,  it  ap- 
 pears from  a  passage  of  St  Paul  1  to  Timothy,  that  he  re- 
 turned with  him  to  Rome  the  second  time,  waiting  on  him 
 in  the  same  capacity,  and  especially  in  carrying  mes- 
 sages to  those  churches  where  they  had  planted 
 Christianity  :  nor  can  we  well  forbear  thinking,  that  he 
 continued  his  attendance  on  him  until  the  apostle  had 
 finished  his  course,  and  crowned  his  ministry  with  his 
 martyrdom  ;  by  which  kind  offices  he  infinitely  endeared 
 himself  to  St  Paul,  who  owned  him  for  his  fellow-labourer, 
 and  called  him  '  the  beloved  physician,'  2  and  '  the 
 brother,  whose  praise  is  in  the  gospel,  throughout  all  the 
 churches.' 
 
 After  the  death  of  St  Paul,  how  he  disposed  of  him- 
 self is  not  so  certain.  Some  are  of  opinion  that  he 
 returned  into  the  east,  and  in  Egypt  and  Lydia  preached 
 the  gospel,  wrought  miracles,  converted  multitudes,  and 
 constituted  guides  and  ministers  of  religion  ;  but  others 
 rather  think,  that  he  travelled  into  Dalmatia,  Gallia,  Italy, 
 and  Macedonia,  where  he  spared  no  pains,  nor  declined 
 any  dangers,  that  he  might  faithfully  discharge  the  trust 
 committed  to  him.  3  Upon  his  coming  into  Greece,  those 
 who  make  him  die  a  violent  death,  for  some  are  of  a 
 contrary  opinion,  tell  us,  that  he  preached  with  great 
 success,  and  baptized  many  converts  into  the  Christian 
 faith,  till  a  party  of  infidels,  making  head  against  him, 
 drew  him  to  execution,  and,  for  want  of  a  cross  whereon 
 to  dispatcli  him,  hanged  him  upon  an  olive-tree,  in  the 
 eightieth  year  of  his  age.  a 
 
 We  have  two  pieces  of  his,  namely,  his  gospel,  and 
 the  history  of  the  apostolic  acts,  wrote  for  the  use  of  the 
 churches,  and  both  dedicated  to  Theophilus  :  but  who 
 this  Theophilus  was,  it  is  not  so  easy  a  matter  to  determine, 
 since  many  of  the  ancients  themselves  have  taken  this 
 name  in  a  general  appellative  sense,  for  a  lover  of  God, 
 a  title  common  to  every  good  Christian  ;  but  others,  with 
 better  reason,  have  thought,  that  it  is  the  proper  name  of 
 some  person  of  distinction,  since  the  title  of  '  most  ex- 
 cellent '  is  annexed  to  it,  which  is  the  usual  form  of  ad- 
 dress to  princes  and  great  men.  But  who  this  person  of 
 distinction  was,  it  is  impossible  to  tell,  only  we  may 
 suppose,  that  he  was  some  considerable  magistrate,  whom 
 St  Luke  had  converted,  and  to  whom  he  now  dedicated 
 his  books,  not  only  as  a  testimony  of  honourable  respect, 
 but  as  a  means  of  giving  him  a  farther  information  of  those 
 things  wherein  he  had  instructed  him. 
 
 4  The  occasion  of  his  writing  his  gospel  was,  as  himself 
 intimates,  the  rash  and  wrong  accounts  given  to  the 
 world  by  some,  who,  either  out  of  ignorance  or  design, 
 had  misrepresented  the  actions  and  doctrines  of  Christ, 
 and  sowed  the  seeds  of  error  in  the  church.  *  It  is  certain, 
 
 1  2  Tim.  iv.  11.  22  Cor.  viii.  IS. 
 
 3  Cave's  Life  of  St  Luke. 
 Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 a  In  regard  to  the  latter  part  of  the  life,  and  to  the  death  of 
 this  evangelist,  antiquity  has  not  furnished  us  with  any  accounts 
 which  can  he  relied  on. — Campbell. — Ed. 
 
 b  St  Luke  does  not  charge  those  who  had  written  before  him, 
 cither  with  misrepresenting  the  actions  and  doctrines  of  Christ, 
 or  with  sowing  the  seeds  of  error  in  the  church Mis  design 
 
 that  this  evangelist  is  more  circumstantial  in  relating  the 
 facts,  and  more  exact  in  the  method  and  order  of  them, 
 than  either  of  the  two  who  wrote  before  him.  a  The  his- 
 tory of  Zacharias,  the  generation  of  John  the  Baptist, 
 the  angel's  coming  to  the  blessed  virgin,  Elizabeth's 
 salutation  of  her  at  the  first  interview,  the  occasion  of 
 Joseph  and  Mary's  going  to  Bethlehem,  the  cir- 
 cumstances of  our  Saviour's  birth  there,  the  publication 
 of  it  to  the  shepherds,  and  the  testimony  which  Simeon 
 and  Anna  gave  to  him  in  the  temple  ;  these,  and  several 
 other  pieces  of  history,  as  well  as  the  parables  of  the 
 lost  sheep,  lost  piece  of  money,  and  returning  prodigal 
 son,  &c,  are  not  related  by  any  other  evangelist.  His 
 history  therefore  is  an  excellent  supplement  of  what  they 
 have  omitted ;  nor  does  it  in  the  least  detract  from  the 
 authority  of  his  relations,  that  he  himself  was  not  pre- 
 sent at  the  doing  of  them :  for,  if  we  consider  who  were 
 the  persons  from  whom  he  derived  his  account  of  things, 
 he  had  a  stock  of  intelligence  sufficiently  authentic  to 
 proceed  upon  ;  and,  when  he  had  finished  it,  had  the 
 sanction  and  approbation  of  an  apostle,  divinely  inspired, 
 as  himself  likewise  was,  even  of  the  great  apostle  of  the 
 Gentiles,  to  confirm  it. 
 
 Whoever  looks  into  the  beginning  of  St  Luke's  history 
 of  the  apostolic  acts,  may  easily  perceive  that  it  is  a  con- 
 tinuation of  what  he  had  related  in  his  gospel ;  for  it 
 takes  up  the  story  at  our  Saviour's  ascension,  and  con- 
 tinues it  to  St  Paul's  arrival  at  Rome  after  his  appeal  to 
 
 5  Poole's  Argument  on  St  Luke. 
 
 in  writing  this  gospel  was  to  supersede  the  defective  narratives 
 of  the  life  of  Christ  which  were  then  in  circulation,  and  to 
 furnish  the  church  with  a  genuine  account  of  the  life,  doc- 
 trines, miracles,  death,  and  resurrection  of  our  Saviour.  Dr 
 Campbell  truly  observes,  that  the  very  circumstance  of  the 
 number  of  such  narratives  at  so  early  a  period  is  itself  an  evidence 
 that  there  was  something  in  the  first  publication  of  the  Christian 
 doctrine,  which,  notwithstanding  the  many  unfavourable  circum- 
 stances wherewith  it  was  attended,  excited  the  curiosity,  and 
 awakened  the  attention  of  persons  of  all  ranks  and  denominations  • 
 insomuch  that  every  narrative  which  pretended  to  furnish  men 
 with  any  additional  information  concerning  so  extraordinary  a 
 person  as  Jesus,  seems  to  have  been  read  with  avidity.  Who 
 they  were  to  whom  the  evangelist  alludes,  who  had  published 
 narratives  not  entirely  to  be  depended  on,  it  is  impossible  for  us 
 now  to  discover:  but  we  are  certain  they  were  not  the  evangelists 
 Matthew  and  Mark,  because  they  could  not  be  called  '  many ;' 
 and  the  former  of  them  at  least  wrote  from  his  own  personal 
 knowledge,  as  well  as  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
 while  the  persons  to  whom  Luke  refers  had  written  merely  from 
 report.  Some  writers  have  supposed  that  Luke  derived  his  in- 
 formation chiefly  from  the  apostle  Paul,  whom  he  had  faithfully 
 attended.  But  though  Paul,  who  was  divinely  enlightened  in  all 
 that  concerned  the  life  and  doctrine  of  his  Master,  must  have 
 been  of  great  use  to  this  evangelist,  it  appears  from  Luke's  own 
 words,  that  the  chief  source  of  his  intelligence,  as  to  the  facts 
 related  in  his  gospel,  was  from  those  who  had  been  eye  and  ear 
 witnesses  of  what  our  Lord  both  did  and  taught.  Now  of  this 
 number  Paul  evidently  was  not.  At  the  same  time,  the  sanction 
 of  the  apostle,  and  the  early  and  unanimous  reception  of  the 
 writings  of  Luke,  as  divinely  inspired,  and  a  part  of  the  canon 
 of  Scripture,  are  sufficient  to  satisfy  us  of  the  divine  authority 
 both  of  the  gospel  which  bears  the  name  of  this  evangelist,  and 
 of  the  acts  of  the  apostles.  As  to  the  time  when  this  gospel  was 
 written,  the  majority  of  biblical  critics  are  of  opinion  that  >t  was  in 
 the  year  63,  or  64.  As  to  the  place  of  publication,  though 
 nothing  certain  can  be  affirmed,  it  has  been  conjectured  with 
 much  probability  that  it  was  written  by  Luke  while  he  attended 
 on  Paul  during  his  two  years'  imprisonment  at  Cjesarea  ;  and 
 that  before  he  set  sail  with  the  apostle  for  Rome,  he  sent  it  to 
 fhi  oj  luius,  wherever  that  person  was  residing Ed. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &o. 
 
 893 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28. 
 
 Csesar,  and  so,  properly  speaking,  is  but  one  history 
 divided  into  two  parts.  The  main  difference  between 
 the  gospel  and  the  Acts  is,  that  in  the  former  he  writes 
 from  the  information  he  had  from  others,  but  such  as 
 were  true  and  authentic  witnesses  ;  in  the  latter,  from 
 his  own  knowledge,  and  personal  concern  in  the  things  he 
 relates. 
 
 His  chief  design,  in  the  composition  of  this  work,  was, 
 to  write  a  true  history  of  the  apostles,  and  of  the  founda- 
 tion of  the  Christian  church,  in  opposition  to  the  false 
 Acts,  and  false  histories,  which  began  then  to  be  dispersed 
 about  the  world.  This  history,  however,  does  not  com- 
 prise the  acts  of  all  the  apostles,  but  confines  itself  chief- 
 ly to  the  most  remarkable  passages  of  two,  St  Peter  and 
 St  Paul,  and  even  of  these  two,  it  gives  us  but  a  short 
 and  summary  account.  St  Peter's  story  carries  it  down 
 no  lower  than  his  deliverance  from  Herod's  imprisoning 
 him,  and  the  death  of  his  persecutor,  which  happened  in 
 the  year  of  our  Lord  44 ;  and  yet,  the  apostle  lived  four 
 and  twenty  years  after  this.  And  in  like  manner,  the 
 history  of  St  Paul  is  far  from  being  complete,  for,  as 
 from  the  time  of  his  conversion,  there  is  very  little 
 said  of  him,  to  his  coming  to  Iconium,  which  was  twelve 
 years  after ;  so  his  story  proceeds  no  farther  than  to  his 
 first  coming  to  Rome,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  58 ;  and 
 yet,  after  this,  he  lived  ten  years,  and  having  preached 
 the  gospel  in  Spain,  and  other  parts  of  the  west,  at  last 
 returned  to  Rome,  and  there  suffered  martyrdom. 
 
 1  It  must  be  owned,  however,  that  the  evangelist  is  more 
 particular  in  his  account  of  St  Paul,  than  of  any  other 
 of  the  apostles,  and  that  not  only  because  he  was  more 
 finally  active  in  the  cause  of  Christianity,  but  because 
 St  Luke  was  his  constant  attendant,  an  eye-witness  of 
 the  whole  carriage  of  his  life,  and  privy  to  his  most  in- 
 timate transactions,  and  therefore  capable  of  giving  a 
 more  full  and  satisfactory  relation  of  them. 
 
 2  The  evangelist's  design,  in  short,  was  not  to  compose 
 a  large  volume,  but  only  to  single  out  some  few  things 
 which  he  thought  necessary  for  the  instruction  of  the  faith- 
 ful ;  and  in  this  respect  his  work  may  be  called  'An  his- 
 torical Demonstration  of  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  re- 
 ligion ;'  since  therein  we  perceive  our  Lord's  promises 
 fulfilled  in  his  mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  his  re- 
 surrection, and  ascension  into  heaven,  in  the  sovereign 
 power  he  exercises  there,  in  the  miracles  he  enabled  his 
 followers  to  work,  in  the  rise  and  wonderful  progress 
 of  his  religion,  and,  in  one  word,  in  the  Christian  church 
 becoming  the  church  universal  by  the  call  to  the  Gentiles. 
 
 We  have  only  one  thing  more  to  remark  concerning 
 this  history,  namely,  That  as  St  Luke  wrote  it  at  Rome 
 and  at  the  end  of  St  Paul's  two  years'  imprisonment 
 there,  with  which  he  concludes  his  story  ;  so  his  way  and 
 manner  of  writing  is  exact  and  accurate  ;  his  style  polite 
 and  elegant,  sublime  and  noble,  and  yet  easy  and  per- 
 spicuous, flowing  with  a  natural  grace  and  sweetness,  ad- 
 mirably adapted  to  an  historical  design,  and  all  along 
 expressed  in  a  vein  of  purer  and  more  refined  lan- 
 guage than  is  to  be  found  in  the  other  writers  of  the  sacred 
 story. 
 
 St  John,  though  the  last  in  order,  yet  first  in  quality, 
 among  the  evangelists,  was  by  birth  a  Galilean,  the  son 
 
 1  Cave's  Life  of  St  Luke. 
 *  Beausobre's  Preface  on  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OFGOSP.  TO  MAT.ix.8.  MARK ii.  23.  LUKS  vi.  1. 
 
 of  Zebedee  and  Salome,  one  of  those  devout  women 
 who  constantly  attended  our  Lord  in  his  ministry,  and 
 brother  of  James,  who,  to  distinguish  him  from  another 
 apostle  of  the  same  name,  is  generally  called '  James  the 
 great.'  Before  his  adjoining  himself  to  Christ,  he  seems 
 to  have  been  a  disciple  to  John  the  Baptist,  and  is  thought 
 to  have  been  that  other  disciple  who,  in  the  first  chapter  3 
 of  his  gospel,  is  said  to  have  been  present  with  Andrew 
 when  John  declared  Jesus  to  be  the  Lamb  of  God, 
 and  thereupon  to  have  followed  him  to  the  place  of  his 
 abode. 
 
 He  was  by  much  the  youngest  of  the  apostles  ;  yet 
 was  he  admitted  into  as  great  a  share  of  his  Master's  con- 
 fidence as  any.  He  was  one  of  those  to  whom  he  com- 
 municated the  most  private  passages  of  his  life  ;  one 
 of  those  whom  he  took  with  him  when  he  went  and 
 restored  Jairus's  daughter  to  life  ;  one  of  those  to  whom 
 he  exhibited  a  specimen  of  his  divinity,  in  his  trans- 
 figuration on  tiie  mount ;  one  of  those  who  were  present 
 at  his  conference  with  Moses  and  Elias,  and  heard  that 
 voice  which  declared  him  the  beloved  Son  of  God  ;  and 
 one  of  those  who  were  companions  of  his  solitude,  and 
 most  retired  devotions,  and  bitter  agonies  in  the  garden. 
 Thus,  of  the  three  who  were  made  the  witnesses  of  their 
 Master's  actions,  which  he  saw  convenient  to  conceal,  St 
 John  had  constantly  the  privilege  to  make  one.  Nay,  even 
 of  these  three  he  seems,  in  some  respects,  to  have  the  pre- 
 ference ;  to  be  known  by  the  most  desirable  of  all  titles, 
 '  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  ;'  to  have  the  honour  of  a 
 leaning  upon  his  Lord's  bosom  at  meat ;  to  have  the  in- 
 timacy with  him  to  ask  him  a  question,  namely,  who  in 
 the  company  was  the  traitor  ;  which  even  St  Peter  himself 
 had  not  courage  to  do  ;  and,  what  is  the  highest  instance 
 of  his  affection,  to  have  his  mother,  his  sorrowful  and  dis- 
 consolate mother,  with  his  last  dying  breath,  committed  to 
 his  care  and  comfort;  4  which  peculiar  tokens  of  his 
 Master's  favour  and  esteem,  some  have  ascribed  to  the 
 apostle's  eminent  modesty,  others  to  his  unspotted  chas- 
 tity, others  think  it  an  indulgence  due  to  his  youth  ;  but 
 they  seem  to  have  the  brightest  notion  who  impute  it  to  a 
 nearness  of  relation,  and  a  peculiar  sweetness  of  disposi- 
 tion conspiring  to  recommend  him. 
 
 5  Upon  the  division  of  the  provinces,  which  the  apos- 
 tles made  among  themselves,  Asia  fell  to  St  John's 
 share,  though  he  did  not  immediately  enter  upon  his 
 charge,  but  staid  at  Jerusalem,  at  least  till  the  death  of 
 the  blessed  virgin,  which  was  about  fifteen  years  after 
 our  Lord's  ascension.  After  he  was  thus  released  from 
 his  trust,  he  took  his  journey  into  Asia,  and  industriously 
 applied  himself  to  propagate  Christianity,  preaching 
 where  the  gospel  had  not  yet  taken  place,  and  confirming 
 it  where  it  had  been  already  planted.  Many  churches 
 of  note  and  eminence  were  of  his  foundation ;  but  the 
 chief  place  of  his  residence  was  at  Ephesus,  where,  though 
 St  Paul  had  many  years  before  settled  a  church,  and 
 constituted  Timothy  bishop  of  it,  yet  considering  that  it 
 was  a  city  of  exceeding  great  resort,  both  upon  the  account 
 
 3  Voi'.  :;5— 40.     4  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol  i. 
 5  Cave's  Lite  of  St  John. 
 
 a  Among  the  eastern  people  the  custom  was,  not  to  sit  on 
 chairs,  as  it  is  with  us,  hut  to  lie  along  at  meals  upon  couches; 
 so  that  the  second  lay  with  Ins  head  in  the  hosom  of  him  thai 
 afore  hirn. 
 
894 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.  30;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  I. 
 
 of  its  traffic,  and  the  convenience  of  its  port,  the  apostle 
 thought  he  could  not  be  seated  more  commodiously 
 than  here  for  dispersing  the  knowledge  of  his  doc- 
 trines to  natives  of  several  nations  and  quarters  at 
 once. 
 
 After  several  years,  some  say  twenty-seven,  spent 
 here,  he  was  accused  to  Domitian,  who  had  then  begun  a 
 severe  persecution,  as  a  great  asserter  of  atheism  and 
 impiety,  and  a  public  subverter  of  the  religion  of  the 
 empire  ;  so  that,  by  his  command,  the  proconsul  of  Asia 
 sent  him  bound  to  Rome,  where,  as  Tertullian  relates, 
 in  a  manner  importing  the  fact  abundantly  notorious,  he 
 was  plunged  into  a  caldron  of  oil  set  on  lire  ;  but  God, 
 who  had  reserved  him  for  farther  services  to  the  truth,  re- 
 strained the  heat  of  it,  as  he  did  in  the  fiery  furnace  of 
 old,  and  so  preserved  him  from  this  seemingly  unavoid- 
 able destruction.  The  emperor,  however,  unmoved 
 with  his  miraculous  deliverance,  ordered  him  to  be  ban- 
 ished to  Patmos,  a  small  disconsolate  island  in  the 
 Archipelago,  where  he  remained  several  years,  instruct- 
 ing the  inhabitants  in  the  faith  of  Christ ;  and  where  he 
 was  vouchsafed  those  visions  and  prophetical  represen- 
 tations which  he  then  recorded  in  his  book  of  Reve- 
 lation, reaping  this  great  advantage  from  his  exile, 
 that  though  he  was  cut  off*  from  the  society  of  men, 
 he  was  the  more  entertained  with  immediate  converses  of 
 heaven. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Domitian,  and  the  succession  of 
 Nerva,  who  rescinded  all  the  odious  acts  of  his  pre- 
 decessor, and,  by  public  edict,  recalled  those  whom  the 
 other's  fury  had  banished,  St  John  took  the  opportunity 
 to  return  into  Asia,  and  fixed  his  seat  again  at  Ephesus ; 
 the  rather,  because  the  people  of  that  place  had  lately 
 martyred  their  bishop,  Timothy.  Here,  with  the  assis- 
 tance of  seven  other  bishops,  he  took  upon  him  the  govern- 
 ment of  the  large  diocese  of  Asia  Minor,  erected  ora- 
 tories, and  disposed  of  the  clergy  in  the  best  manner 
 that  the  circumstances  of  those  times  would  permit ;  and 
 having  spent  his  time  in  an  indefatigable  execution  of  his 
 charge,  travelling  from  east  to  west  to  instruct  the  world 
 in  the  principles  of  the  holy  religion  which  he  was  sent 
 to  propagate  ;  and  shunning  no  difficulties  or  dangers, 
 to  redeem  men's  minds  from  vice,  error,  or  idolatry,  he 
 finished  his  course,  in  the  beginning  of  Trajan's  reign, 
 in  a  good  old  age,  and,  in  the  ninety-ninth  year  of  his 
 life,  died  a  natural  death,  and  was  buried  near  Ephesus  ; 
 a  wonderful  pattern  of  holiness  and  charity,  and  a  writer 
 so  profound,  as  to  deserve,  by  way  of  eminence,  the 
 character  of  St  John  the  divine. 
 
 The  first  in  time,  though  placed  last,  is  his  Apocalypse, 
 or  book  of  Revelation,  which  he  wrote  in  his  confinement 
 at  Patmos.  After  the  preface,  and  admonition  given  to 
 the  bishops  of  the  seven  churches  in  Asia,  it  contains  the 
 persecutions  which  the  faithful  have  suffered  from  the 
 Jews,  heretics,  and  Roman  emperors,  down  as  far  as 
 Julian  the  apostate.  After  this  we  have  a  view  of  that 
 vengeance  which  God  has  exercised  against  the  persons 
 of  persecutors,  against  the  Roman  empire,  and  the  city  of 
 Rome,  which  is  described  under  the  name  of  Babylon, 
 the  great  prostitute,  seated  upon  seven  hills  ;  then  we  have 
 a  description  of  the  peaceable  and  flourishing  state  of 
 the  church  for  a  thousand  years,  and,  after  some  moles- 
 tation from  the  Turks,  as  is  supposed,  the  happiness  of 
 the  church  triumphant,  set  off'  with  all  the  imaginable 
 
 beauties  of  rhetoric ;  and,  at  last,  we  come  to  a  formal 
 conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,  and  a  severe  commination 
 to  all  those  who  shall  presume  either  to  add  or  diminish 
 any  thing  from  this  prophecy. 
 
 1  That  St  John  the  evangelist  was  the  author  of  the  book 
 of  revelation,  all  the  most  ancient  ecclesiastical  writers 
 were  agreed,  until  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  in 
 his  answer  to  one  Nepos,  another  Egyptian  bishop,  Avho 
 had  revived  the  gross  notion  of  Cerinthus,  concerning 
 the  millennium,  in  order  to  evade  the  use  which  this 
 Nepos  had  made  of  the  Apocalypse,  called  in  question 
 its  authority,  by  asserting  that  several  of  the  ancients 
 had  disowned  this  book  to  have  been  wrote  by  any  apos- 
 tolic man  ;  that  Cerinthus  had  prefixed  John's  name  to  it, 
 to  give  the  better  countenance  to  his  dream  of  Christ's 
 reign  upon  earth  ;  and  that,  though  it  might  be  the  work 
 of  some  inspired  person,  it  could  not  possibly  be  St 
 John's,  because  its  style,  matter,  and  method,  did  by 
 no  means  agree  with  his  other  writings.  Now,  whoever 
 looks  into  the  ancient  writers  of  the  church,  will  find 
 that  Polycarp,  bishop  of  Smyrna,  who,  according  to  z 
 Irenseus,  had  seen  St  John  ;  Ignatius,  bishop  of  Antioch, 
 who,  according  to  St  3  Chrysostom,  was  conversant  with 
 the  apostles  ;  Justin  Martyr,  4  Irenseus,  *  Clemens  6  of 
 Alexandria,  and  Tertullian,  7  authors  all  of  the  second 
 century,  are  unanimous  in  their  ascribing  this  work  to 
 the  same  hand  from  whence  the  gospel  and  epistles  did 
 proceed  ;  and  that  therefore  the  opinion  of  one  private 
 doctor  should  not  prevail  against  the  authority  of  so 
 many  writers,  who  were  either  cotemporary,  or  nearly 
 subsequent  to  the  apostles.  For,  be  it  allowed  that 
 there  is  a  diversity  of  style,  yet  does  not  every  able 
 writer  vary  that  according  to  the  nature  of  the  subject  he  is 
 upon  ?  In  history,  the  style  should  be  simple  ;  in  epistles, 
 familiar  ;  and  in  prophecies,  majestic  and  sublime  ;  and 
 therefore  what  wonder  is  it,  if,  in  arguments  so  vastly 
 different,  the  same  person  did  not  always  observe  the  same 
 tenor  and  way  of  writing  ?  Nothing  can  be  more  different 
 in  their  method  and  diction,  than  the  book  of  Proverbs  and 
 the  book  of  Canticles,  and  yet  few  have  doubted  but 
 that  Solomon  was  the  writer  of  both  :  but  now,  that 
 Cerinthus  should  be  the  author  of  a  book  which  con- 
 tains doctrines  directly  opposite  to  the  errors  which  he 
 broached,  is  a  thing  incredible.  For,  whereas  Cerinthus 
 did  not  believe  that  God  made  the  world,  or  that  Christ 
 died,  and  rose  again  ;  the  author  of  the  Revelation  8 
 ascribes  to  God  the  work  of  the  creation,  and  calls  our 
 blessed  Saviour  9  the  '  first  begotten  of  the  dead  ;'  and 
 whereas  Cerinthus  made  Jesus  merely  the  Son  of  Joseph, 
 and  a  being  different  from  that  of  Christ ;  the  author  of 
 the  Revelation  calls  him  expressly  1U  '  the  Son  of  God,' 
 and  makes  him  u  one  and  the  same  person  with  Christ. 
 Though  therefore  there  may  be  some  similitude  between 
 St  John's  expressions,  and  the  notions  of  Cerinthus,  in 
 regard  to  Christ's  reign  of  a  thousand  years,  yet  it  had 
 been  much  more  prudent  in  Dionysius,  to  have  given  a 
 spiritual  sense  and  interpretation  of  these  expressions, 
 than  to  ascribe  to  a  wicked  and  sensual  man,  as  Cerin- 
 thus was,  a  book,  which  breathes  nothing  but  piety  and 
 
 1  Boausobre's  Preface  on  the  Apocalypse.     2  Iren.  b.  iii.  c.  3. 
 3  Horn,  in  Ignatium.     4  Dial.  cum.  Tryph.      5  B.  iv.  c.  37. 
 6  Strom.  1.         7  De  Resurrect,  c.  58.  8  Chap.  x.  6. 
 
 9  Rev.  i.  5.  ■"  Chap.  ii.  IS.  u  Chap.  i.  5. 
 
Sect.  I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 895 
 
 A.  M.  4034.  A.  D.30,  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  54.39.  A.  D.28, 
 
 holiness,  an  awful  dread  of  God,  and  a  devotion  such 
 as  the  angels  perform  in  heaven. 
 
 The  truth  is,  all  circumstances  concur  to  entitle  our 
 apostle  to  be  the  author  of  this  book.  His  name  fre- 
 quently expressed  in  it ;  his  writing  it  in  the  island  of 
 Patmos,  whither  none  but  he  was  banished  ;  his  directing 
 particular  epistles  to  the  seven  churches  of  Asia,  which 
 had  either  been  planted  or  cultivated  by  him,  and  his 
 styling  himself '  their  brother  and  companion  in  tribulation, 
 and  in  the  kingdom  and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ :'  these, 
 and  many  more  circumstances  that  might  be  mentioned, 
 added  to  the  doctrine  contained  in  it,  which  is  highly 
 suitable  to  the  apostolic  spirit  and  temper,  evidently 
 bear  witness,  that  this  book  was  the  work  of  St  John,  and 
 consequently,  of  divine  and  canonical  authority. 
 
 1  Next  to  the  Apocalypse,  in  order  of  time,  are  the 
 three  epistles,  which  St  John  wrote.  The  first  of  these 
 is  catholic,  calculated  for  all  times  and  places,  and 
 contains  most  excellent  rules  for  the  conduct  of  the 
 Christian  life,  and  for  preservation  against  the  crafty 
 insinuations  of  seducers.  The  other  two  are  but  short, 
 and  directed  to  particular  persons  :  the  one  to  a  lady 
 of  honourable  quality  ;  and  the  other  to  the  charitable 
 and  hospitable  Gaius,  so  kind  a  friend,  and  so  courteous 
 an  entertainer,  of  all  indigent  Christians. 
 
 2  Eusebius,  and  after  him  St  Jerome,  informs  us,  that 
 St  John,  having  perused  the  other  three  gospels,  ap- 
 proved and  confirmed  them  by  his  authority  ;  but  observ- 
 ing withal,  that  these  evangelists  had  omitted  several 
 of  our  Saviour's  actions,  such  especially  as  were  done 
 before  the  Baptist's  imprisonment,  he  wrote  his  gospel 
 in  order  to  supply  what  was  wanting  in  them  :  a  and  be- 
 cause at  this  time  there  were  several  heretics,  such  as 
 Cerinthus,  Ebion,  and  their  followers,  sprung  up  in  the 
 church,  who  denied  the  divine  nature  of  Jesus  Christ, 
 another  end  of  his  writing  was,  to  antidote  the  world 
 against  the  poison  of  these  heresies,  by  making  it  appear 
 that  our  blessed  Saviour  was  God  from  all  eternity,  and 
 before  his  incarnation  ;  3  and  that  as  other  evangelists 
 had  written  the  series  of  his  generation  according  to  the 
 flesh,  he  might  write  a  spiritual  gospel,  beginning  from 
 the  divinity  of  Christ :  which  was  a  subject  reserved 
 for  him,  as  the  most  excellent  person  by  the  Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 When  therefore  the  bishops  of  Asia,  and  several 
 ambassadors  from  other  churches,  had  been  for  some 
 
 FROM  BEGIN.  OF  GOSP.  TO  MAT.  ix.  8.  MARK  ii.  23.  LUKE  vi.  1. 
 
 time  soliciting  him,  he  caused  them  to  proclaim  a  general 
 fast,  to  seek  the  blessing  of  heaven  on  so  great  and 
 momentous  an  undertaking ;  and  when  this  was  done, 
 he  set  about  the  work,  and  *  completed  it  in  so  excellent 
 and  sublime  a  manner,  that  the  ancients  generally  re- 
 sembled him  to  an  eagle  soaring  aloft  within  the  clouds, 
 whither  the  weak  eye  of  man  was  not  able  to  follow  him  : 
 for,  'as  the  evangelical  writings,'  says4  St  Basil,  'tran- 
 scend all  the  other  parts  of  the  holy  scriptures,  because 
 in  other  parts  God  speaks  to  us  by  his  servants  the  pro- 
 phets ;  but  in  the  gospels  our  Lord,  who  is  God  blessed 
 for  evermore,  speaks  to  us  himself :  so  among  all  the 
 evangelical  preachers  none  is  like  St  John,  the  son  of 
 thunder,  for  the  sublimity  of  his  discourses,  beyond  any 
 man's  capacity  duly  to  reach  and  comprehend.' 
 
 1  Cave's  Life  of  St  John.         2  Hist.  Eccl.  b.  iii.  c.  24. 
 3  Whitby's  Preface  to  St  John's  Gospel. 
 
 a  It  is  manifestly  not  without  design  that  he  commonly  passes 
 over  those  passages  of  our  Lord's  history  and  teaching,  which 
 had  been  treated  at  large  by  the  other  evangelists,  or,  if  he 
 touches  them  at  all,  he  touches  them  but  slightly,  whilst  he  re- 
 cords many  miracles  which  had  been  overlooked  by  the  rest,  and 
 expatiates  on  the  sublime  doctrines  of  the  pre-existence,  the  di- 
 vinity, and  the  incarnation  of  the  Word,  the  great  ends  of  his 
 mission,  and  the  blessings  of  his  purchase.  This  gospel  may 
 be  truly  said  to  interfere  less  with  the  rest  than  these  do  with 
 one  another:  in  consequence  of  which,  if  its  testimony  cannot 
 often  be  pleaded  in  confirmation  of  theirs,  neither  is  it  liable  to 
 be  urged  in  contradiction.  It  is  remarkable  also,  that  though 
 this  evangelist  appears,  more  than  any  of  them,  to  excel  in  that 
 artless  simplicity,  which  is  scarcely  compatible  with  the  subtlety 
 of  disputation,  we  have,  in  his  work,  a  fuller  display  of  the  evi- 
 dences of  our  religion,  on  the  footing  on  which  it.  then  stood, 
 than  in  all  the  rest  put  together. — Campbell's  Preface  to  John's 
 Gospel. — Ed. 
 
 CHAP.  V. — On  Philo  and  Josephus. 
 
 (supplemental  by  the  editor.) 
 
 It  is  proper  that  the  reader  should  have  some  acquain- 
 tance with  the  general  character  and  principles  of  the 
 two  highly  respectable  Jewish  writers  whose  names  are 
 at  the  head  of  this  chapter. 
 
 Philo,  who  is  called  Judasus,  to  distinguish  him  from 
 Philo  the  Carpathian,  lived  when  Christ  appeared  on 
 earth.  He  is  generally  regarded  as  a  Jew  of  Alexan- 
 dria :  from  his  own  account,  however,  Ave  learn  that  he 
 Avas  born  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  he  doubtless  repaired  to 
 that  city  occasionally  to  attend  at  the  festivals.  He 
 Avas  a  man  of  distinguished  family,  and  of  great  author- 
 ity at  Alexandria,  being  brother  to  Alexander  Lysima- 
 chus,  Avho  was  alibarch,  or  chief  of  the  fiscal  scribes,  in 
 that  city ;  exercising  an  office  which  is  supposed  to  have 
 had  the  direction  of  the  territorial  revenue,  and  which 
 Avas  probably  a  situation  of  considerable  rank,  as  his 
 son  married  Bernice,  the  daughter  of  Agrippa. 
 
 Philo  appears  to  have  been  brought  up  a  Pharisee, 
 
 4  Horn.  16.  t.  i. 
 
 I  His  gospel  was  originally  written  in  Greek,  but  in  a  Greek 
 that  abounds  with  Hebraisms,  as  do  the  other  evangelists.  His 
 words  are  peculiar  to  himself,  and  his  phrases  used  in  an  uncom- 
 mon sense,  which  may  possibly  make  his  way  of  writing  not  so 
 grateful  to  some  nice  masters  of  eloquence.  In  citing  places 
 from  the  Old  Testament,  though  he  sometimes  makes  use  of  the 
 Septuagint,  yet  he  usually  translates  from  the  Hebrew  original, 
 and  generally  renders  them  word  for  word:  for  being  an  Hebrew 
 of  the  Hebrews,  and  admirably  skilled  in  the  language  of  his 
 country,  this  probably  made  him  less  exact  in  his  Greek  com- 
 posures, wherein  he  had  no  advantage  besides  what  was  imme- 
 diately communicated  from  above.  But  what  he  Avanted 
 in  the  politeness  of  his  style,  was  abundantly  made  up  in  the 
 excellence  and  sublimity  of  his  matter. — Cave's  Life  of  St  John. 
 — One  thing  very  remarkable  in  John's  style,  is  an  attempt  to 
 impress  important  truths  more  strongly  on  the  minds  of  the 
 readers,  by  employing,  in  the  expression  of  them,  both  an  affir- 
 mative proposition,  and  a  negative.  Thus:  'All  things  were 
 made  by  it,  (the  word,)  and  without  it  not  a  single  creature  was 
 made.  He  acknowledged  and  denied  not,  but  acknowledged.' 
 Pleonasms  are  very  frequent  in  this  gospel :  '  This  man  came 
 as  a  witness  to  testify  concerning  the  light:'  tautologies  also, 
 and  repetitions.  Thus  it  follows:  'He  was  not  the  light,  but 
 came  to  testify  concerning  the  light.'  Again:  'In  the  be- 
 ginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the 
 Word  Avas  God.  This  Avas  in  the  beginning  with  God.' — 
 Campbell's  Preface  to  John's  Gospel. — Ed. 
 
896 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4052.  A.  D.  48.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5457.  A,  D.  4G. 
 
 and  to  have  attained  extensive  and  various  information, 
 and  great  knowledge  of  the  scriptures  of  the  Old  Tes- 
 tament, which  he  read  probably  in  the  Septuagint  ver- 
 sion, not  having-,  it  is  supposed,  been  acquainted  with 
 the  Hebrew,  being  an  Hellenist,  and  writing  himself  in 
 the  Greek  language.  He  was  a  man  of  very  eminent 
 qualities,  and  highly  revered ;  and  a  remark  of  his 
 wife  which  is  recorded,  bears  testimony  to  his  worth, 
 since,  on  being  inquired  of  wherefore  she  did  not  wear 
 ornaments,  she  answered,  '  that  the  virtue  of  an  husband 
 was  a  sufficient  ornament  for  a  ivife.' 
 
 He  was  deputed  by  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  upon  an 
 embassy  to  Rome,  in  the  fourth  year  of  Caligula,  a.d. 
 40,  or  41.  The  object  was  to  counteract  the  calumnies 
 of  Apion,  and  to  make  a  complaint  to  Caligula  on  the 
 subject  of  a  persecution  excited  against  these  Jews,  for 
 having  refused  divine  honours  to  the  statues  of  the 
 emperors,  while  the  rest  of  the  world  was  submitting, 
 with  servile  flattery,  to  adore  a  weak  and  depraved 
 mortal  as  a  god.  Philo  describes  his  reception  by  the 
 emperor  at  a  villa,  which  had  belonged  to  Mecaenas, 
 near  Rome.  He  was  treated  with  a  contemptuous 
 levity,  equally  unbecoming  the  imperial  dignity,  and 
 the  venerable  character  of  Philo.  He,  however,  mani- 
 fested his  firmness,  and  upon  the  failure  of  his  petition, 
 turned  to  the  Jews  who  accompanied  him,  and  encour- 
 aged them  by  saying,  '  Now  Caius  is  against  us,  God 
 will  be  with  us.' 
 
 Eusebius  and  Jerome  state,  that  during  Philo's  stay  at 
 Rome,  he  conversed  with  St  Peter ;  and  some  have  affirmed 
 that  he  was  converted  to  Christianity  either  by  that 
 apostle,  or  by  reading  the  gospel  of  St  Mark  at  Alex- 
 andria, and  that  he  afterwards  renounced  the  Christian 
 faith.  l  These  accounts  have  been  disputed  by  the 
 learned  editor  of  the  works  of  Philo,  and  it  has  been 
 maintained  that  it  is  not  probable  that  St  Peter  was  at 
 Rome  so  early  as  Philo's  time,  if  at  all,  and  that  St 
 Mark's  gospel  was  not  published  till  a.  d.  45.  Bry- 
 ant, however,  contends,  that  Philo's  age  is  placed  too 
 far  back  when  it  is  assigned  to  the  time  of  Julius  Cassar, 
 that  he  was  a  contemporary  of  the  apostles,  and  lived 
 so  late  as  the  reign  of  Nero  ;  and  that  as  St  Mark  came 
 to  Alexandria  in  48  or  49,  Philo  had  an  opportunity  of 
 conversing  with  the  apostle,  and  of  seeing  his  gospel, 
 which  some  suppose  to  have  been  published  in  45. 
 
 In  the  works  of  Philo,  we  discover  a  great  devotion 
 to  the  Old  Testament,  but  he  sometimes  follows  a  vague 
 strain  of  allegory,  particularly  in  interpreting  the  his- 
 tory of  the  temptation  in  paradise  ;  he  expected  that  all 
 nations  should  be  converted  to  the  law  of  Moses ;  and 
 conceived  that  the  promises  relating  to  Christ  referred 
 only  to  a  temporal  Messiah,  describing  him  as  a  man, 
 who,  as  the  oracle  foretold,  should  '  go  forth  warring  and 
 conquering,  and  who  should  subdue  great  and  numerous 
 nations.  Though  he  appears  to  have  conceived  that  the 
 divine  could  not  be  united  to  the  human  nature,  he  had 
 nevertheless  been  led  to  form  very  just  apprehensions, 
 in  some  respects,  of  the  eternal  nature  and  attributes  of 
 the  Logos,  and  to  describe  him  as  a  real  and  acting 
 being,  '  the  first  begotten  Son,'  '  the  express  image  of 
 God,  esteemed  the  same  as  God,  the  great  Cause  of  all 
 things,  by  whom  all  tilings  were  produced  and  disposed,' 
 
 1  Euseb.  Hist.  Ecd.  b.  ii.  c.  17.  vol.  i.  p.  65. 
 
 "  the  person  who  visibly  appeared  to  Abraham,  to  Jacob, 
 and  to  Moses  in  the  bush,  the  appointed  mediator  and 
 intercessor  for  the  sins  of  the  world  ;  the  Word  of  the 
 Supreme  God,  by  whom  a  ransom  and  price  of  redemp- 
 tion of  the  soul  may  be  paid." 
 
 Philo  speaks  also  remarkably  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
 styles  him  '  the  all-wise  Spirit,  the  divine  power  which 
 breathed  the  breath  of  life  into  man,  being  sent  from 
 God  for  abode  here,  to  the  advantage  of  the  human  race, 
 that  if  man  be  mortal  as  to  the  visible,  he  might  at  least 
 be  rendered  immortal  as  to  the  invisible  part.'  He  re- 
 presents a  prophet  also  as  '  not  manifesting  any  thing 
 of  his  own,  but  as  being  an  interpreter, — the  divine 
 Spirit  coming  upon  and  dwelling  in  him,  impelling  and 
 directing  the  organism  of  his  voice  to  a  distinct  mani- 
 festation of  what  the  Spirit  predicts.'  Philo  then, 
 though  he  does  not  state  an  association  and  equality  in 
 the  mysterious  union  of  the  Godhead,  still  must  be  al- 
 lowed to  have  caught,  either  from  the  scriptures  or 
 from  Plato,  some  outline  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  ;  * 
 and  he  appears  in  one  instance,  if  the  present  reading 
 of  the  passage  be  adhered  to,  to  represent  the  Logos  as 
 '  bearing  the  similitude  of  man,  and  as  the  shepherd  of 
 the  holy  flock.' 
 
 The  observations,  however,  expressed  by  Philo  upon 
 these  and  other  points  of  faith,  and  particularly  upon 
 regeneration  and  the  divine  grace,  so  much  resemble  what 
 is  communicated  by  St  Luke  and  St  James,  and  by  the 
 author  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  that  we  may  sup- 
 pose them  to  have  been  borrowed  from  the  inspired 
 writings,  if  we  admit  that  these  scriptures  were  produced 
 sufficiently  early  for  that  purpose.  AA  e  have  seen 
 indeed  that  Philo  might  possibly  have  conversed  with 
 St  Mark,  and  seen  his  gospel  ;  and  if  he  had  not  any 
 intercourse  with  the  early  disciples,  he  might  at  least 
 have  caught  the  distant  reports  of  those  preachers, 
 whose  sound  went  forth  with  rapid  communication  into 
 all  lands.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  attended  with  diffi- 
 culties to  suppose,  that  the  testimonies  to  the  word  of 
 Christ  should  have  been  presented  to  Philo,  and  not 
 have  been  noticed  by  him.  Many  who  like  him  ima- 
 gined that  the  divine  perfections  could  not  be  united  to 
 the  flesh,  maintained,  as  did  the  Nicolaitans,  and  after- 
 wards the  Gnostics,  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  a  heav- 
 enly substance,  which  assumed  merely  the  appearance 
 of  the  human  form  ;  it  is  probable,  therefore,  that  Philo 
 either  did  not  hear,  or  was  withholden  by  his  belief  in 
 the  perpetuity  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  from  receiv- 
 ing the  witness  of  the  evangelists,  if  brought  before  him. 
 He  was  employed,  however,  by  providence,  indirectly 
 to  support  the  cause  of  religion,  and  to  bear  his  suffrage 
 to  many  doctrines  communicated  in  the  gospel  :  thus, 
 for  instance,  he  gives  a  remarkable  account  of  Pilate, 
 the  Roman  governor,  being  apprehensive  that  the  Jews 
 should  send  an  embassy  to  Rome,  to  represent  the  crimes 
 of  his  government,  and  the  murder  of  eminent  persons 
 who  had  been  condemned  by  him. 
 
 The  attempts  which  are  recorded  in  the  Acts  of  the 
 Apostles  to  have  been  made  upon  the  life  of  Paul  will 
 be  more  readily  accounted  for,  and  the  danger  from 
 which  he  was  delivered  be  more  fully  understood,  if  we 
 consider  that  the  Jews  were  so  blinded  by  bigotry  and 
 a  persecuting  spirit,  that  even  Philo  states  it  to  be 
 I  proper  that  all  who  had  a  zeal  for  virtue  should  have  a 
 
Sect.  I.j 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 A.M.  40G7.  A.  D.  63;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5472.  A.  D.  61. 
 
 897 
 
 ri°kt  to  punish,  without  delay,  and  with  their  own  hands, 
 those  who  forsook  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  not  car- 
 rying- them  before  a  court  of  judicature,  or  the  council, 
 or  any  magistrate  whatsoever,  but  indulging  the  abhor- 
 rence of  evil  and  the  love  of  God,  in  the  immediate 
 punishment  of  those  impious  wretches  ;  and  from  such 
 principles  might  originate  the  custom  among  the  Jews 
 of  making  a  vow  not  to  eat  and  drink  until  they  had 
 killed  the  object  of  their  religious  abhorrence. 
 
 The  writings  of  Philo,  which  abound  with  just  senti- 
 ments eloquently  expressed,  furnish  much  that  has  a 
 general  claim  to  regard.  He  speaks  of  God,  and  of  the 
 worship  and  purity  becoming  his  creatures,  and  describes 
 the  duties  of  life,  and  the  rewards  and  punishments  of 
 sin,  with  great  solemnity  and  effect.  The  elevation  of 
 his  thoughts  sometimes  swells  out  his  representations 
 beyond  a  strict  and  literal  accuracy.  He  bears,  how- 
 ever, the  testimony  of  an  enlarged  mind  to  the  truth  of 
 revelation,  and  to  the  harmony  and  importance  of  its 
 communications ;  and  his  works  illustrate  the  provi- 
 dence of  God,  who  at  no  time  left  himself  without  a 
 witness,  and  employed  in  different  ages  and  countries 
 distinguished  men  to  diffuse  a  light  around  them,  which, 
 however  defective  when  compared  with  the  brightness  of 
 gospel  knowledge,  served  at  least  to  open  the  minds  of 
 men  for  the  reception  of  some  preliminary  convictions. 
 Philo,  by  his  wisdom  and  eloquence,  attracted  much 
 attention  at  Alexandria  to  his  writings,  which  were 
 widely  spread,  excited  doubtless  a  reverence  for  the 
 Hebrew  scriptures  among  many  who  were  not  acquaint- 
 ed with  them. 
 
 With  respect  to  JosEPHUs,his  character  as  an  historian 
 is  entitled  to  very  particular  consideration,  and  the  tes- 
 timonies which  he  affords  in  support  of  Christianity  have 
 an  especial  claim  to  regard. 
 
 This  eminent  man  appears  to  have  been  raised  up  by 
 providence  for  purposes  equally  remarkable  and  impor- 
 tant. He  stands  on  a  distinct  ground  between  sacred 
 and  heathen  writers,  and  his  works  afford  most  valuable 
 illustrations  of  the  divine  authority  of  the  scriptures, 
 and  of  the  truth  of  many  facts  on  which  the  claims  of 
 religion  rest.  The  attestation  which  he  gives  to  the 
 fidelity  of  the  sacred  accounts  of  the  Old  Testament,  is 
 so  full,  that  he  transcribes  almost  every  part,  with  such 
 variation  as  might  naturally  be  expected  from  an  his- 
 torian who  composes  a  work  in  his  own  style,  but  with 
 an  evident  deference  to  the  sacred  writers,  demonstrat- 
 ing the  deep  veneration  for,  and  entire  confidence  in 
 them.  It  has  been  alleged  that  lie  suppressed  some 
 miraculous  circumstances,  in  accommodation  to  the  opin- 
 ions and  manners  of  a  people  who  differed  in  all  respects 
 so  much  from  his  countrymen  ;  and  that  he  was  not  him- 
 self sufficiently  aware  of  the  spiritual  import  of  the  Jew- 
 ish dispensation,  and  of  the  figurative  application  of  its 
 prophecies.  It  does  not  however  appear  that  he  in- 
 tended to  withhold  the  proofs  of  the  miraculous  economy 
 under  which  the  Jews  were  governed  in  subjection  to  a 
 the  icracy.  The  detail  of  circumstances  which  he  re- 
 cords, every  where  demonstrates  the  direction  and  sup- 
 port of  providence,  manifesting  its  interference,  and 
 exhibiting  the  signs  of  peculiar  protection. 
 
 He  mentions  the   frequent  disclosures  of  the  divine 
 presence  ;  the  descent  and  ministry  of  angels  convers- 
 
 ing with  the  patriarchs  and  others ;  the  miraculous 
 deliverance  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt,  and  their 
 support  in  the  wilderness,  with  many  subsequent  indica- 
 tions of  God's  special  direction ;  the  descent  of  celes- 
 tial fire  on  the  altar,  consuming  the  sacrifices  ;  the  per- 
 manent abode  of  a  divine  oracle,  or  source  of  illumin- 
 ation from  which  revelations  were  obtained  by  the  high 
 priest,  by  means  of  the  Urim  and  Thutnmini,  the  opera- 
 tion of  which  was  expected  to  be  restored  when  the 
 temple  was  rebuilt  in  the  time  of  Nehemiah,  1  and  which 
 Josephus  represents  to  have  ceased  two  hundred  years 
 before  he  composed  his  antiquities.  2 
 
 In  treating  of  the  declarations  of  God,  which  were 
 prophetic,  as  relating  to  the  Messiah,  he  sometimes  gen- 
 eralizes what  is  particular,  from  not  apprehending  the 
 import  of  the  words  now  distinctly  seen  by  those  who 
 have  the  veil  of  prejudice  taken  from  their  hearts.  He 
 qualifies,  therefore,  or  omits  that  spiritual  meaning  which 
 is  included  in  the  inspired  promises  :  thus,  in  speaking 
 of  the  first  intimation  of  the  Messiah,  delivered  by  God 
 at  the  fall  in  paradise,  he  interprets  the  divine  threat, 
 with  respect  to  the  bruising  of  Satan  by  the  triumph  of 
 Christ,  to  imply  only  that  men  should  direct  their  strokes 
 against  the  serpent's  head. 
 
 The  works  of  Josephus  consist  of  the  Jewish 
 Antiquities,  the  W  ars  of  the  Jews,  his  own  Life, 
 his  books  against  Apion,  and  a  few  other  smaller 
 pieces.  He  was  the  son  of  Matthias,  of  sacerdotal 
 extraction,  and  of  royal  descent,  on  the  mother's  side, 
 she  being  of  the  Asmonean  race.  He  was  born  at 
 Jerusalem,  a.  d.  37,  and  died  in  93.  He  appears  to 
 have  been  educated  in  strict  adherence  to  the  Mosaic 
 law.  He  appears  to  have  entertained  some  apprehen- 
 sion of  the  approaching  termination  of  the  Jewish  dis- 
 pensation, as  he  combated  the  opinions  of  his  country- 
 men with  respect  to  the  necessity  of  circumcision, 
 maintaining  that  every  man  should  be  left  to  serve  God 
 in  his  own  way,  and  he  seems  to  have  expected  the  fall 
 of  Jerusalem.  But  whatever  his  religious  persuasions 
 were,  he  certainly  established  a  high  character  by  his 
 judgment  and  attainments,  so  as  to  have  been  consulted 
 at  a  very  early  age  by  those  who  had  the  direction  of 
 public  affairs.  He  obtained  stations  of  considerable 
 authority,  and  was  employed  in  many  undertakings  of 
 great  moment  and  enterprise,  in  which  he  displayed 
 much  activity  and  courage.  His  distinguished  talents 
 enabled  him  to  record  his  own  actions,  and  to  transmit 
 the  memorial  of  them,  with  that  of  the  history  of  his 
 country,  to  after  ages. 
 
 He  went  to  Rome  in  the  twenty-sixth  year  of  his  age, 
 a.  d.  63,  and  having  been  introduced  by  an  Hebrew 
 comedian  to  Pappfea  the  empress,  he  experienced  much 
 favour  from  her.  On  his  return  to  his  country,  he  ob- 
 tained the  command  of  some  forces,  and  distinguished 
 himself  in  the  defence  of  Jolapata  against  Vespasian 
 and  Titus.  When  the  place  was  reduced,  he  was  not 
 only  pardoned  at  the  intercession  of  Titus,  but  received 
 into  much  consideration  and  favour  with  Vespasian,  who 
 took  him  to  the  siege  of  Jerusalem.  Josephus,  after 
 beholding  the  accomplishment  of  the  divine  predictions, 
 in  the  siege  and  destruction  of  that  place,  accompanied 
 Titus  to  Rome,  and  obtained  the  freedom  of  the  city, 
 and  an  allowance  from  Vespasian,  which  he  enjoyed  for 
 
 Neh.  vii.  6. 
 
 5  x 
 
 :  Antiq.  b.  iii.  c.  8. 
 
898 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  409".  A.  D.93;  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  A.  M.  5502.  A.  D.  91,  &c. 
 
 many  years,  employing"  his  time  in  the  study  of  the 
 Greek  language,  and  in  composing  his  works.  He 
 wrote  his  history  of  the  Jewish  war  at  the  command  of 
 Vespasian.  Some  think  that  it  was  first  written  in 
 Hebrew ;  and  Hebrew  manuscripts,  either  of  this  ori- 
 ginal or  of  a  subsequent  version,  are  occasionally  men- 
 tioned, one  particularly  that  was  in  the  Vatican.  The 
 work,  however,  was  presented  to  Vespasian  in  the 
 Greek  language,  and  the  emperor  with  his  own  hand 
 wrote  an  order  for  it  to  be  published  ;  and  it  afterwards 
 obtained  the  approbation  of  king  Agrippa,  Archelaus, 
 and  Herod.  It  was  deposited  in  the  public  library  at 
 Rome,  and  a  statue  was  erected  in  honour  of  the  author.  1 
 It  is  indeed  greatly  to  be  admired  for  the  striking  and 
 animated  manner  in  which  it  describes  the  affecting 
 scenes  which  the  author  beheld. 
 
 The  Jewish  Antiquities,  which  extend  to  twenty 
 books,  bring  down  the  history  from  the  beginning  of  the 
 world  to  the  twelfth  year  of  the  reign  of  Nero,  when  the 
 Jews  rebelled  against  the  Romans.  This  work  was  fin- 
 ished in  the  thirteenth  year  of  Domitian,  a.  d.  93.  It 
 is  almost  a  transcript  of  the  sacred  history,  written  with 
 the  latitude  of  a  paraphrase.  The  author  introduces 
 dates  with  more  attention  to  chronology  than  is  usual  in 
 ancient  writers,  but  still  with  less  accuracy  than  might 
 be  wished,  as  they  do  not  correspond  with  the  chron- 
 ology of  the  Hebrew  text  or  of  the  Septuagint  version. 
 It  is  possible,  however,  that  the  copies  may  have  been 
 mutilated,  since  they  differ  from  each  other  in  many 
 points,  as  well  as  in  chronology,  and  vary  also  from 
 the  accounts  of  other  writers.  The  history  of  his  own 
 life,  which  seems  originally  to  have  been  annexed  to  the 
 Antiquities,  is  continued  down  to  the  reign  of  Domitian, 
 who  distinguished  him  for  some  time  by  his  favour. 
 
 His  two  books  against  Apion  were  written  after  his 
 Antiquities.  Apion  was  a  grammarian  of  Alexandria, 
 who  entertained  great  prejudices  against  the  Jews,  and 
 made  many  misrepresentations  concerning  them,  which 
 were  refuted  by  Josephus,  who  has  preserved  in  his  work 
 some  interesting  fragments  of  ancient  historians,  which 
 repeat  or  confirm  many  accounts  in  scripture.  How 
 many  years  Josephus  lived  after  completing  this  work  is 
 not  exactly  known.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  he  did 
 not  long  survive  his  patron  Epaphroditus,  who  was  put 
 to  death  by  Domitian,  a.  d.  95,  after  which,  it  has  been 
 suspected,  that  the  historian  fell  a  victim  to  the  malice 
 of  his  enemies.  2 
 
 Another  work  also,  entitled  the  History  of  the  Mac- 
 cabees, has  been  ascribed  to  him,  but  some  writers  at- 
 tribute it  to  another  Josephus. 
 
 Josephus,  as  an  historian,  is  justly  celebrated  for  his 
 fidelity  and  correctness.  If  he  admitted  some  relations 
 of  questionable  character  into  his  earlier  accounts,  and 
 even  intermixed  them  with  particulars  of  sacred  history, 
 and  also  disagreed  with  other  writers,  yet  upon  an  im- 
 partial judgment,  he  is  entitled  to  the  highest  regard 
 and  respect;  and  Scaliger  justly  observes  that  it  is 
 more  safe  to  believe  him,  not  only  as  to  the  affairs  of 
 the  Jews,  but  as  to  those  of  foreign  nations,  than  any 
 of  the  Latin  writers,  and  that  his  fidelity  and  compass 
 of  learning  are  every  where  conspicuous.  A  great  mass 
 of  information   might  be  collected  from  the  works  of 
 
 1  Euseb.  Hist.  Eccl.  b.  iii.  c.  9.  2  Dodwell's  Dissert,  vi. 
 
 Josephus,  in  confirmation  of  the  evidence  of  Christi. 
 anity  ;  it  is  intended,  however,  here  to  adduce  only 
 such  particulars  as  occur  on  a  general  view  of  his  writ- 
 ings. 
 
 These  will  be  found  to  relate  to  the  establishment  of 
 facts,  as  well  those  which  illustrate  the  completion 
 of  prophecy,  as  those  which  tend  to  verify  circumstances 
 on  which  the  credibility  of  the  gospel  depends.  AVe 
 shall  not,  however,  insist  much  upon  the  many  proofs 
 which  might  be  adduced  from  the  works  of  Josephus,  in 
 confirmation  of  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament, 
 relating  to  events  completed  before  the  time  of  Christ, 
 since,  as  being  a  Jew,  he  may  be  supposed  to  have  had 
 a  bias  in  favour  of  such  prophets  :  he  acknowledged  as 
 sacred  all  the  canonical  books  of  the  Old  Testament  as 
 now  received  by  the  protestant  church  ;  as,  for  instance, 
 when  he  relates  that  Antiochus  Epiphanes  spoiled  the 
 temple,  and  put  a  stop  to  the  constant  practice  of  offer- 
 ing a  daily  sacrifice  or  expiation  during  three  years  and 
 six  months.  The  general  picture  of  the  corruption  of 
 manners  among  the  Jews  which  Josephus  has  furnished, 
 is  full  of  interest,  from  the  relation  which  it  bears  to  the 
 argument  for  the  necessity  of  the  divine  mission  of 
 Christ,  and  of  his  interposition  as  a  mediator. 
 
 The  first  particular  which  may  be  mentioned  as  de- 
 monstrating strongly  the  advantage  to  be  derived  from 
 attention  to  the  writings  of  Josephus  is,  that  the  histor- 
 ian appears  to  relate  with  minute  and  unusual  accuracy 
 and  detail  of  dates,  that  Nehemiah,  by  unwearied  perse- 
 verance, finished  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem,  after 
 three  years  and  four  months'  exertion,  in  the  twenty- 
 eighth  year  of  Xerxes,  and  in  the  ninth  month.  Again, 
 although  he  seldom  adverts  to  astronomical  circum- 
 stances, he  mentions  an  eclipse  of  the  moon,  which  took 
 place  a  little  before  the  death  of  Herod  the  Great.  By 
 these  chronological  notices  some  most  important  points 
 relating  to  the  history  of  Christianity  have  been  ascer- 
 tained, as  the  explication  of  the  seventy  weeks  of  Dan- 
 iel, the  duration  of  our  Lord's  ministry,  and  the  time  of 
 his  death,  in  conformity  to  the  prediction  of  the  prophet. 
 The  historian,  in  describing  Daniel's  interpretation  of 
 the  dream  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  when  he  comes  to  the 
 part  which  relates  to  the  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain 
 without  hands,  which  was  to  break  in  pieces  the  iron, 
 the  brass,  and  the  clay,  the  silver  and  the  gold,  and 
 which  is  generally  supposed  to  relate  to  the  kingdom 
 of  the  Messiah,  speaks  thus  :  "  Daniel  did  also  declare 
 the  meaning  of  the  stone  to  the  king,  but  I  do  not  think 
 proper  to  relate  it,  since  I  have  only  undertaken  to 
 describe  things  past,  or  things  present,  but  not  things 
 future ;  yet,  if  any  one  be  so  very  desirous  of  knowing- 
 truth  as  not  to  waive  such  points  of  curiosity,  and  cannot 
 curb  his  inclination  for  understanding  the  uncertainty 
 of  futurity,  and  whether  they  will  happen  or  not,  let  him 
 be  diligent  in  reading  the  book  of  Daniel,  which  he  will 
 find  among  the  sacred  writings." 
 
 Upon  this  intimation  of  the  belief  of  Josephus  in  a 
 prophecy  relating  to  Christ,  Havercamp  observes,  that 
 it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  the  historian  would  not 
 meddle  with  things  future,  for  he  had  no  mind  to  pro- 
 voke the  Romans  by  speaking  of  the  destruction  of  that 
 city  which  they  called  the  eternal  city.  Josephus 
 admits  that  Daniel  predicted  that  the  Jews  should  be 
 destroyed  by  the  Romans.     He  was  induced  by  some 
 
Sect.   I.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 899 
 
 A.  M.  4007.  A.  D.  93.  ACCORDING  TO  HALES,  5502.  A.  D.  91,  &c. 
 
 interested  view  to  apply  the  prophecies  relating  to 
 Christ  to  Vespasian,  since  he  himself  afterwards  inti- 
 mated that  the  Messiah  was  yet  to  come  ;  and  he  en- 
 deavours to  introduce  a  latitude  of  opinion  upon  the 
 subject,  by  saying  that  interpretations  go  by  fancy, 
 some  one  way,  some  another,  and  that  the  Jews  in  the 
 end  came  to  suffer  for  their  mistakes  with  the  irreparable 
 destruction  of  their  country.  The  account  which  he 
 gives  of  the  twenty-two  books  of  the  canon,  and  of  the 
 conviction  which  the  Jews  entertained  of  the  divine 
 authority  of  those  books,  not  in  any  case  adding  to  or 
 altering  any  part  of  them,  is  highly  important.  The 
 circumstantial  detail  likewise  which  he  recites  of  the 
 translation  of  the  Mosaic  law,  under  Ptolemy  Phila- 
 delphus,  exhibits  a  proof  of  the  care  with  which  provi- 
 dence substantiated  to  heathen  nations  the  authority  of 
 the  Pentateuch,  securing  its  distribution  in  a  language 
 generally  understood  long  before  the  promulgation  of 
 the  gospel. 
 
 The  passages  in  which  Josephus  confirms  the  accounts 
 of  the  evangelists  are  numerous  ;  thus,  for  instance,  the 
 description  which  he  gives  of  the  Jewish  sects,  particu- 
 larly of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  corresponds  with 
 what  is  stated  of  them  in  the  gospel.  He  observes  that 
 the  Pharisees  asserted  that  God  had  decreed  to  put  an 
 end  to  Herod's  government ;  which  confirms  the  account 
 given  by  the  evangelist  Matthew,  that  the  chief  priests 
 and  scribes,  many  of  whom  were  Pharisees,  declared 
 that  it  was  written  in  the  prophets,  that  out  of  Bethle- 
 hem should  come  a  governor,  who  should  rule  over  the 
 people  Israel. 
 
 The  dissensions,  the  incestuous  marriages  in  violation 
 of  the  laws  of  Moses,  and  the  other  abominable  crimes 
 of  the  family  of  Herod,  especially  their  conduct  with 
 respect  to  Christ  and  the  Baptist,  and  his  disciples, 
 drew  down  the  divine  vengeance,  and  effected  the  de- 
 struction of  their  house.  The  fate  of  Herod  was  distin- 
 guished by  the  most  striking  miseries ;  and  his  death 
 was  characterized  by  a  malignity  which  preserved  to  the 
 last  the  same  spirit  that  had  led  him  to  murder  the  chil- 
 dren of  Bethlehem.  Josephus  states  that  not  long 
 before  he  expired,  he  sent  orders  through  Judea,  requir- 
 ing the  presence  of  all  the  chief  men  in  Jericho,  and 
 he  earnestly  enjoined  his  sister  Salome,  and  her  husband 
 Alexis,  to  kill  them  when  he  should  die.  The  other 
 accounts  with  respect  to  Herod  and  his  successors 
 accord  with  the  circumstances  of  their  reigns  and  char- 
 acters, incidentally  mentioned,  or  alluded  to,  by  the 
 evangelists.  The  historian  informs  us,  that  Herod,  by 
 his  will,  appointed  Archelaus  to  succeed  him  in  Judea, 
 with  the  title  of  king,  and  assigned  the  rest  of  his 
 dominions  to  Herod  Antipas,  as  tetrarch  of  Galilee, 
 and  to  Philip,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  part  given 
 to  Salome.  The  will  was  ratified  in  part  by  Augustus, 
 and  Archelaus  was  appointed  ruler  over  ldumea  and 
 Judea,  with  the  title  of  ethnarch,  that  of  king  being 
 reserved  till  he  should  deserve  it.  He,  however,  soon 
 assumed  it,  and  Josephus,  who  admits  the  restriction 
 imposed,  nevertheless  calls  him  "the  king  who  succeeded 
 Herod."  The  historian  adds,  that  Herod  Antipas  con- 
 tinued tetrarch  of  Galilee  till  removed  by  Caligula, 
 thus  confirming  the  account  of  St  Luke,  that  our  Lord 
 was  sent  to  Herod,  who  himself  was  at  Jerusalem  at 
 that  time,  because  he  belonged  unto  his  jurisdiction  : 
 
 and  attesting  the  justice  of  the  punishment  inflicted 
 upon  the  man  who  had  dared  to  set  at  nought  the  Savi- 
 our of  the  world. 
 
 The  history  shows  how  fully  the  prophecy  was  accom- 
 plished, which  declared  that  the  sceptre  should  not  de- 
 part from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between  his  feet, 
 till  Shiloh  come.  This  is  considered  by  Prideaux  to 
 relate  to  a.  d.  12,  at  which  time  Christ  made  his  first 
 appearance  in  the  temple.  According  to  Josephus,  it 
 was  in  the  same  year  that  Coponius  was  sent  into  Judea, 
 to  govern  it  as  a  Roman  province.  Julian  seems  to 
 have  considered  the  government  as  passed  away  from 
 that  time,  since  he  states  it  as  an  objection  to  the  Chris- 
 tians, that  Jesus,  whom  they  proclaimed,  was  one  of 
 Caisar's  subjects.  The  census  was  suspended  on  the 
 reconciliation  of  Augustus  to  Herod,  and  afterwards 
 completed  when  Archelaus  was  deposed,  on  the  com- 
 plaint of  the  Jews,  who  requested  that  Judea  might  be 
 rendered  a  province,  and,  then,  if  the  sceptre  departed, 
 the  Shiloh  was  come. 
 
 Josephus  mentions  the  government  of  Felix  and  that 
 of  Porcius  Festus,  and  others,  in  a  manner  which  con- 
 curs Avith  the  representations  of  sacred  history,  and  the 
 circumstances  stated  by  the  evangelical  writers.  He 
 also  relates  in  regard  to  that  same  Agrippa  before  whom 
 Paul  defended  himself,  that  he  was  a  man  of  great  ac- 
 tivity and  experience,  who  had  been  appealed  to  upon 
 disputes  concerning  the  Jews.  Josephus  speaks  of 
 Pontius  Pilate,  and  confirms  the  account  of  Caiaphas  be- 
 ing high  priest  during  his  government.  The  evangelist 
 Luke  mentions  that  Pilate,  when  he  knew  that  Jesus  be- 
 longed to  Herod's  jurisdiction,  sent  him  to  Herod,  the 
 tetrarch  of  Galilee,  who  himself  was  at  Jerusalem  at 
 that  time  ;  and  it  is  deserving  of  notice,  that  Josephus 
 alludes  to  the  practice  of  Herod  to  go  up  to  Jerusalem 
 at  the  feast  of  the  passover. 
 
 In  the  eighteenth  book  of  the  Antiquities,  the  following 
 passage  occurs  :  "  Now  there  was  about  this  time,  Jesus, 
 a  wise  man,  if  we  ought  to  call  him  a  man,  for  he  was  a 
 doer  of  wonderful  works,  a  teacher  of  such  men  as  re  - 
 ceive  the  truth  with  pleasure.  He  drew  over  to  him 
 many  of  the  Jews  and  many  of  the  Gentiles  :  he  was  the 
 Christ ;  and  Pilate,  upon  the  denunciation  of  the  princi- 
 pal men  amongst  us,  having  condemned  him  to  the  pun- 
 ishment of  the  cross,  they  that  loved  him  at  the  first  did 
 not  cease  (to  love  him,)  for  he  appeared  unto  them  alive 
 again  the  third  day  ;  the  divine  prophets  having  spoken 
 these,  and  ten  thousand  other  things  concerning  him  : 
 the  sect  of  Christians,  so  named  from  him,  have  con- 
 tinued until  this  day."1 
 
 There  appears  to  have  been  a  strong  disposition  in 
 some  writers  to  consider  this  passage  as  spurious,  though 
 Fabricius  represents  it  to  have  been  in  all  the  Greek 
 and  Latin  editions  and  manuscripts  which  Bosius  Bigo- 
 tius  and  Lambecius  examined ;  in  a  very  ancient  He- 
 brew version  in  the  Vatican,  but  afterwards  erased,  as 
 it  was  said,  by  the  Jews ;  and  in  two  manuscripts  of  an 
 Hebrew  version,  spoken  of  by  Robert  Canute  in  the 
 twelfth  century.  It  has  been  objected  against  the  pas- 
 sage, that  it  is  not  cited  by  Justin  Martyr,  Tertullian, 
 Chrysostom,  Origen,  or  Photius,  even  when  some  of 
 these  writers  argue  against  the  Jews  ;  but  the  testimony 
 
 1  13.  xviii.  c.  4.  s.  3. 
 
900 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1- 
 
 was  of  less  importance  in  early  times  than  it  may  now 
 be  deemed  ;  and  it  seems  to  be  cited  in  a  discourse, 
 which  some  consider  as  genuine,  addressed  to  Diocle- 
 sian  by  Macarius,  who  held  an  office  of  distinction  in 
 that  emperor's  court :  it  is  referred  to  likewise  by 
 Jerome,  by  Eusebius  in  the  most  express  manner,  by 
 Ambrose,  Hegesippus  and  others. 
 
 It  has  however  been  urged,  that  the  passage  speaks 
 in  such  clear  terms  of  Christ,  and  with  such  apparent  ac- 
 knowledgment of  some  of  his  claims,  that  if  it  were  gen- 
 uine, the  author  must  have  been  a  believer  in  the  divine 
 authority  of  the  gospel,  since  it  admits  that  Jesus  was 
 Christ  or  Messiah,  and  attests  his  resurrection  on  the 
 third  day  from  the  grave,  in  agreement  with  the  predic- 
 tions of  the  prophets.  But  in  answer  to  this  it  may  be 
 observed,  that  Josephus  could  not  omit  all  mention  of 
 Christ,  without  convicting  himself  of  a  manifest  sup- 
 pression of  facts ;  and  that,  considering  the  passage  as 
 genuine,  the  historian  may  perhaps  be  understood  to 
 relate  the  account  only  as  it  was  currently  received, 
 without  intending  to  substantiate  it,  or  allowing  our  Sa- 
 viour to  be  the  Messiah  in  the  Christian  construction  of 
 the  word,  but  only  to  be  the  person  known  under  that 
 designation.  Jerome  cites  the  passage  as  speaking  of 
 him  who  was  believed  to  be  the  Christ.  Origen  men- 
 tions a  passage  in  Josephus,  in  which  the  historian  spoke 
 of  Christ's  discourse  with  the  doctors  in  the  temple,  but 
 the  passage  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  works  which  are 
 extant.  The  Jews  accused  the  Christians  of  interpolat- 
 ing, and  the  Christians  reproached  the  Jews  for  erasing 
 testimonies  to  their  cause. 
 
 The  representation  which  Josephus  gives  of  the  des- 
 truction of  Jerusalem  verifies  in  the  fullest  and  most 
 circumstantial  manner  the  completion  of  our  Saviour's 
 denunciations  with  respect  to  that  ever  memorable  event : 
 some  particulars,  in  illustration  of  this  fact,  might  be 
 here  produced,  but  the  whole  relation  of  Josephus  is  an 
 exact  and  striking  comment  upon  the  prophecies  of 
 Christ ;  and  nothing  can  be  more  interesting  than  to  pur- 
 sue the  subject  by  comparing  the  specific  declarations 
 of  our  Lord  with  the  history  of  their  accomplishment. 
 A  spectator  and  an  historian  of  the  events,  he  verifies 
 the  completion  of  the  divine  revelation  in  every  part, 
 and  while  he  thought,  possibly,  that  he  was  describing 
 only  the  fulfilment  of  the  Jewish  prophecies,  he  unin- 
 tentionally substantiated  the  exact  accomplishment  of 
 the  denunciations  of  our  Lord.  He,  and  the  writers 
 who  consent  with  him,  inscribe  a  title  in  Greek,  Latin 
 and  Hebrew,  which,  with  whatever  view  it  was  written 
 is  written,  and  declares  that  "  Jesus  is  the  King  of  the 
 Jews.'"1 
 
 SECT.     II. 
 ('HAP.   I. — Fro)?i  the  beginning  of the  second passover 
 to  our  Lord's  transfiguration;  in  all,  one  year  and 
 about  four  months. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 Our  Blessed  Saviour  was  now  in  the  second  year  of  his 
 public  ministry,  when  the  near  approach  of  the  passover, 
 
 1  Whiston's  Josephus;  Gray's  Connection;  &c;  Eusebius's 
 Ecclesiastical  History;  Cave's  Hist.  Literal.;  Huet.  Demonst. 
 Evang,  prop.  3.  s.  13. 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 a  which  was  the  second  after  his  baptism,  called  him  to 
 Jerusalem.  On  the  south-east  side  of  the  city  there  was 
 a  famous  pool,  and  an  hospital  called  Bethesda,  *  which 
 consisted  of  five  porticos,  in  which  lay  a  great  multitude 
 of  poor  impotent  people,  with  distempers  of  all  kinds, 
 waiting  for  the  moving  of  the  water  ;  for  at  certain  times 
 an  angel  came  from  heaven,  and  putting  the  pool  in  a 
 fermentation,  conveyed  such  a  medicinal  virtue  into  it, 
 that  the  first  person  who  entered  it,  after  such  commo- 
 tion, was  cured  of  whatsoever  distemper  he  had.     On 
 
 a  From  the  time  that  our  Lord  first  began  his  ministry,  to  the 
 conclusion  of  it,  there  had  been  four  passovers  held  at  Jerusalem  ; 
 all,  except  the  last,  are  not  mentioned  by  the  three  first  evan- 
 gelists; but  St  John  has  been  mindful  to  set  every  pne  down; 
 the  first,  chap.  ii.  13.;  the  second,  chap.  v.  i.;  the  third,  chap, 
 vi.  4.;  and  the  fourth,  chap.  xiii.  I. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  words  of  the  text  (John  v.  2.)  are  '  Now  there  is  in  Jeru- 
 salem by  the  sheep-marhet  a  pool,  which  is  called  in  the  He- 
 brew tongue  Bethesda  having  five  porches.'  The  word  market 
 is  supplied  by  the  translators,  there  being  an  ellipsis  in  the  ori- 
 ginal, but  the  most  eminent  modern  critics,  among  whom  are 
 Bloomfield,  Campbell,  and  Boothroyd,  instead  of  sheep-market, 
 render  sheep-gate,  and  observe  that  this  rendering  is  confirmed 
 beyond  a  doubt  by  Nehem.  iii.  1,  32,  and  xii.  39,  where  men- 
 tion is  made  of  the  sheep-gate,  and  also  that  there  is  no  evi- 
 dence of  there  having  been  any  such  place  there  as  the  sheep- 
 market.  The  word  xoXufifiyifya.  signifies  a  lath  or  bathing  pool, 
 as  is  evident  from  its  etymology,  but  it  would  seem  to  denote 
 here  not  only  the  pool,  but  the  buildings  connected  with  it.  Be- 
 thesda, which  is  a  Syro-Chaldaic  word,  signifies  the  house  of 
 mercy,  or  charity-hospital.  "  Some  have  supposed  that  the 
 pool  received  its  name  because  the  sheep  used  for  sacrifice  in 
 the  temple  were  washed  in  it ;  and  others,  because  it  served  as 
 a  kind  of  reservoir  for  the  blood  of  the  sacrifices.  But  it  is  well 
 known  that  the  sheep  were  washed  as  soon  as  they  were  bought 
 in  the  adjoining  market,  from  which  they  were  driven  to  this 
 pool;  and  the  supposition  that  the  blood  of  the  sacrifices  ran  into 
 it,  which  was  Dr  Pococke's  opinion,  is  erroneous,  when  we 
 know  that  there  was  a  drain  or  ditch  between  this  pool  and  the 
 temple,  over  which  a  bridge  was  thrown  for  access  to  the  latter. 
 Besides,  Dr  Lightfoot  has  sufficiently  proved,  that  from  the  sit- 
 uation of  the  sheep-gate,  near  which  the  pool  of  Bethesda  stood, 
 which  was  on  the  south-east  wall  of  Jerusalem,  a  part  of  the  city 
 lay  between  it  and  the  temple.  The  interpretation,  therefore, 
 the  house  of  mercy,  is  more  in  unison  with  the  design  for  which 
 this  pool  or  bath  was  constructed,  and  the  purposes  to  which  it 
 was  applied."  "  Tradition  now  points  out  this  pool  on  the  east 
 side  of  the  mount  on  which  the  temple  stood,  where  there  is  an 
 empty  tank  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  long,  forty  broad,  and 
 about  eight  feet  deep,  walled  round  with  stones,  but  without 
 water.  This  agrees  with  Maundrell's  measurement,  who  sur- 
 veyed it  in  169(3,  and  found  at  the  west  end  three  old  arches 
 built  or  choked  up,  which  are  said  to  be  the  remains  of  the  five 
 original  porches  in  which  sat  the  lame,  blind,  and  withered  of 
 Jerusalem.  Sandys  was  in  Jerusalem  on  Good  Friday,  a.  p. 
 1611,  and  says  he  saw  the  spring  running,  but  in  small  quanti- 
 ties. The  erection  of  the  pool  of  Bethesda  is  ascribed  to  King 
 Hezekiah.  The  following  observations  on  it  are  given  by  the 
 author  of  '  Letters  from  Palestine,'  an  anonymous  work  published 
 in  1S19: — 'Towards  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  town,  not  far 
 from  the  gate  of  St  Stephen,  is  the  Piscina  d'  Israel.  This  is 
 the  pool  of  Bethesda,  which  an  angel  was  commissioned  periodi- 
 cally to  trouble.  It  appears  to  have  been  of  considerable  size, 
 and  finished  with  much  care  and  architectural  skill ;  but  I  was 
 unable  to  ascertain  either  the  depth  or  the  dimensions  for  its 
 contiguity  to  the  enclosure  which  contains  the  Mosque  of  Omar 
 made  it  rather  hazardous  to  approach  even  the  outer  borders,  and- 
 our  dragoman  entreated  us  to  be  satisfied  with  a  cursory  view. 
 Near  to  this  place  is  the  church  of  St  Anna,  so  named  from  be- 
 ing erected  on  the  ground  where  the  house  of  the  virgin's  mo- 
 ther formerly  stood,  and  where  the  virgin  herself  was  born. 
 Between  that  structure  and  Pilate's  palace  is  the  tower  An- 
 tonia,  which  has  a  more  striking  air  of  antiquity  than  any  in  the 
 city.' — Scripture  Gazetteer,  part  4.  art.  Bethesda.  p.  320. 
 Edinb.  1836 — See  more  on  this  subject  in  Answers  to  Ob- 
 jections, next  chapter.     Ed. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 PROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 901 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1.- 
 
 the  sabbath-day  our  Saviour  came  to  this  place  ;  an<l 
 seeing  a  poor  paralytic,"  who  had  been  in  that  condition 
 for  the  space  of  eight  and  thirty  years,  and  lain  there  a 
 long-  while  in  expectation  of  a  cure,  but  all  in  vain,  be- 
 cause, whenever  the  water  Avas  moved,  some  one  or  other 
 always  stepped  in  before,  and  prevented  him  ;  *  he  im- 
 mediately healed  him  with  a  word's  speaking,  and  at  the 
 same  time  c  ordered  him  to  take  up  his  bed,  and  walk 
 home ;  but  while  he  was  doing-  this,  the  Jews  exclaimed 
 against  him  for  bearing  a  burden  on  the  Sabbath-day,  a 
 
 a  The  word  atrSin'tx,  which  we  rentier  infirmity,  or  weakness, 
 is  indeed  a  general  name  for  almost  all  distempers;  but  here  it 
 is  so  limited  in  its  signification,  by  the  circumstances  occurring 
 in  the  man's  history,  that  it  can  properly  denote  no  other  dis- 
 ease than  what  we  call  a  confirmed  palsy .  For,  besides  that  the 
 symptoms  of  no  other  distemper  do  so  exactly  agree  with  the 
 description  given  of  this  infirmity,  both  in  point  of  its  long  con- 
 tinuance, and  extreme  weakness;  the  very  word  weakness,  in 
 its  most  obvious  sense,  answers  exactly  to  such  a  relaxation  of 
 the  nervous  system,  as  the  palsy  is  known  to  be ;  and,  what  is 
 no  mean  circumstance,  our  Saviour  makes  use  of  the  same 
 form,  and  method  of  cure,  to  this  very  man,  that  he  applies  to 
 another  paralytic,  '  Rise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk,'  Mat.  ix.  6. 
 
 b  If  it  be  asked,  how  it  came  to  pass,  that  of  the  multitude  of 
 infirm  people,  who  lay  at  this  pool,  our  Saviour  should  think  fit 
 to  cure  but  one?  the  answer  is  obvious,  because  he  was  an  ob- 
 ject most  to  be  compassionated  of  any  in  the  place,  not  only  be- 
 cause he  was  too  feeble  to  step  into  the  water  himself,  and  too 
 poor  to  have  any  to  assist  him,  but,  more  especially,  because 
 he  had  been  now  a  long  while  in  this  condition,  and  yet  still  de- 
 pended upon  the  good  providence  of  God  for  an  opportunity  to 
 be  cured  at  one  time  or  other.  To  cure  at  once  whole  multi- 
 tudes, indeed,  sounds  more  popular,  and  carries  the  face  of  a 
 more  extensive  goodness;  but,  besides  that  our  Saviour  might, 
 in  this  case,  very  probably  conform  to  the  rule  of  cure  established 
 providentially  at  Bethesda,  which  was,  to  heal  but  one  person  at 
 one  time,  his  great  design,  in  every  action  of  this  kind,  was  to 
 prove  his  character  and  commission  from  God,  to  which  end  one 
 single  and  incontestible  miracle  was  as  sufficient  an  evidence  as 
 a  thousand.  The  short  is,  since  our  Lord  was  at  liberty  to  do 
 what  he  would  with  his  own,  or  to  bestow  his  favours  where  he 
 pleased,  his  goodness  was  conspicuous,  in  choosing  the  most 
 nelpless  object,  and  his  wisdom  no  less  manifest,  in  leaving  the 
 rest  to  the  standing  miracle  of  the  pool. — Bishop  Smallbroke's 
 Vindication  of  our  Saviour's  Miracles,  p.  525. 
 
 c  It  is  very  observable,  that  whenever  our  Lord  did  any  miracle, 
 he  generally  adjoined  some  circumstance  or  other,  to  denote  the 
 truth  and  reality  of  it.  Thus,  after  his  multiplication  of  the. 
 loaves  and  fishes,  he  ordered  his  disciples  to  gather  up  the  frag- 
 ments, which  amounted  to  twelve  baskets  full.  Upon  his 
 changing  the  water  into  wine  at  Cana,  he  commanded  the  ser- 
 vants to  cany  it  to  the  ruler  of  the  feast,  for  him  to  taste  it. 
 When  he  had  healed  the  leper  near  Capernaum,  he  sent  him  to 
 present  his  oblation  in  testimony  of  his  cure.  And  here,  for  the 
 same  reason,  namely,  the  demonstration  of  the  completeness  of 
 his  cure,  he  bids  the  paralytic  take  up  his  bed  and  go  home. 
 But  why  did  he  this  on  the  sabbath-clay?  Even  to  make  his 
 divine  power  and  mission  more  universally  known,  especially  in 
 Jerusalem,  the  capital  of  the  nation,  and  centre  of  the  Jewish 
 chinch,  by  first  working  this  miracle  on  the  sabbath-day,  when 
 there  were  more  people  at  liberty  to  view  and  consider  it;  and 
 then  sending  his  patient  along  the  streets  in  a  very  uncommon 
 manner,  and,  to  make  the  people  more  inquisitive,  with  his  bed 
 upon  his  back.  —  CalmeVs  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  sabbath  was  originally  instituted  as  a  day  of  sacred 
 rest,  and  was  to  be  employed  in  the  service  of  God.  Of 
 tliis  latter  circumstance  the  Jews  had  so  far  lost  sight,  that  they 
 substituted  their  own  superstitious  rites  in  the  place  of  divine 
 ordinances,  and  thus  exchanged  a  spiritual  for  a  merely  cere- 
 monious observance  of  the  day.  Concerning  some  of  the  super- 
 stitious which  prevailed  among  the  people,  M.  Basnage  thus 
 speaks:  "  In  the  places  where  they  had  liberty,  in  Maimonides's 
 time,  they  sounded  the  trumpet  six  times,  to  give  notice  tbat  the 
 sabbath  was  beginning.  At  the  first  sound  the  countryman  left 
 his  plough,  at  the  second  they  shut  up  their  shops,  at  the  third 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  MJKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.l-vii.  1. 
 which  was  e  directly1  contrary  to  their  law.  The  man  ex- 
 cused himself,  by  declaring  that  the  person  who  had 
 miraculously  cured  him,  commanded  him  to  do  so,  which 
 he  thought  a  sufficient  warrant ;  but,  when  they  under- 
 stood that  it  was  Jesus,  they,/ brought  him  before  the 
 sanhedrim,  with  a  design  to  take  away  his  life,  as  an 
 open  profaner  of  the  sabbath.  Here,  in  defence  of 
 himself,  he  alleged, — That,  "  since  God,"  from  whose 
 rest  they  took  the  observation  of  the  sabbath,  "  did,  on 
 that  day,  and  all  others,  exercise  the  works  of  providence, 
 preservation,  and  mercy,  there  could  be  no  reason  why 
 he,  who  was  his  Son,  and  invested  with  full  authority 
 from  him,  (as  2  he  proves  immediately  in  a  set  speech 
 before  the  council,)  might  not  employ  himself  on  the 
 sabbath,  as  well  as  any  other  day,  in  actions  of  the  like 
 nature  ;"  which  provoked  the  Jews  still  more  and  more 
 against  him,  for  they  looked  upon  him  now,  not  only  as 
 a  sabbath-breaker,  but  a  blasphemer  likewise,  who  by 
 
 1  Jer.  xvii.  21. 
 
 2  John  v.  19.  to  the  end. 
 
 they  covered  the  pits.  They  lighted  candles,  and  drew  the 
 bread  out  of  the  oven ;  but  this  last  article  deserves  to  be  insist- 
 ed upon  because  of  the  different  cases  of  conscience,  about 
 which  the  masters  are  divided.  When  the  sound  of  the  sixth 
 trumpet  surprised  those  that  had  not  as  yet  drawn  their  bread, 
 what  was  to  be  done?  To  fast  the  next  day  was  disturbing  the 
 feast;  to  draw  their  bread  at  the  beginning  of  the  sabbath  was  to 
 violate  it.  The  perplexity  is  great:  some  have  not  ventured  to 
 decide  it,  others  have  given  leave  to  draw  out  what  was  neces- 
 sary for  the  three  meals  of  the  sabbath.  But  this  permission 
 has  caused  abuses ;  for  a  multitude  of  people  meet,  who  under 
 pretence  of  drawing  out  the  quantity  of  bread  they  have  need  of 
 for  their  three  meals,  take  out  all  that  might  be  spoiled.  The 
 difficulty  is  increased  if  any  one  suffers  his  bread  to  bake  after 
 the  sabbath  is  begun.  If  he  has  sinned  knowingly,  he  must 
 leave  his  bread  there,  and  fast  to  expiate  his  fault.  Nothing 
 but  ignorance  is  ground  sufficient  to  permit  them  taking  where- 
 with to  subsist  their  family  for  twenty-four  hours.  But  how  is 
 this  bread  to  be  taken  out?  They  must  not  make  use  of  a  peal, 
 but  a  knife,  and  do  it  so  nicely  as  not  to  touch  the  stones  of  the 
 Oven,  for  that  is  a  crime.  Such  are  the  questions  that  arise 
 upon  the  entrance  of  the  sabbath." — History  of  the  Jews,  p.  443. 
 Similar  superstitions  are  related  by  this  author  concerning  other 
 particulars  which  affect  the  Jews.  See  Stehelin's  Traditions  of 
 the  Jews,  vol.  ii.  p.  263.' — Ed. 
 
 e  The  prohibition  runs  in  these  words: — 'Thus  saith  the 
 Lord,  Take  heed  to  yourselves,  and  bear  no  burden  on  the  sab- 
 bath-day, nor  bring  it  in  by  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  neither 
 carry  forth  a  burden  out  of  your  houses  on  the  sabbath-day, 
 neither  do  ye  any  work,  but  hallow  ye  tlxe  sabbath-day  as  I 
 commanded  your  fathers,'  Jer.  xvii.  21,  22;  and  according  to 
 the  Jewish  canons,  those  who  did  this,  were  punishable,  either 
 by  death  or  scourging.  It  must  be  acknowledged,  therefore,  that 
 our  Saviour's  injunction  to  the  late  impotent  man,  was  contrary 
 to  the  letter  of  the  law;  but  then  it  may  be  justly  said,  that  it 
 was  not  contrary  to  the  sense  and  intention  of  it.  The  law  only 
 prohibited  civil  labour,  and  restrained  men  from  carrying  such 
 burdens  as  they  were  wont  to  do  in  the  way  of  their  trade;  but 
 it  did  not  forbid  the  doing  of  any  thing  that  might  be  a  testimony 
 of  God's  mercy  or  goodness  to  mankind.  As  therefore  the  sab- 
 bath was  made  for  the  honour  of  God,  and  this  action  was  a  pub- 
 lic monument  of  his  mercy  and  power,  the  man,  properly  speak- 
 ing, did  not  break  the  sabbath,  neither  did  our  Lord  deserve 
 any  censure  from  the  Jews,  especially  considering,  that  as  he 
 was  a  prophet,  even  by  their  own  rules,  he  had  power  to  require 
 what  was  contrary  to  the  ceremonial  rest  of  the  sabbath. — Poole's 
 and  Whitby  s  Annotations;  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 /John  v.  1C.  It  certainly  doth  not  appear  from  this  verse, 
 nor  from  any  part  of  the  chapter,  that  a  meeting  of  the  sanhe- 
 drim, or  great  council,  was  called  for  the  purpose  of  trying  Jesus 
 for  a  breach  of  the  law.  They  were  probably  members  of  that 
 council  who  challenged  him  for  what  he  had  done,  and  with 
 whom  he  condescended  to  reason ;  but  it  seems  evident  that  he 
 was  not  brought  to  trial  for  his  offence. — Ghig 
 
902 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 a  From  hence  it  seems  to  follow,  that  though  the  Jews  of  our 
 Saviour's  time  had  very  high  conceptions  of  the  Messiah,  and 
 were  confident,  that  when  he  came,  he  would  be  a  mighty  prince, 
 and  subdue  all  other  nations  under  his  feet ;  yet  they  never  once 
 imagined  that  he  would  be  God ;  or,  in  the  strict  and  sublime 
 sense  of  the  word,  '  the  Son  of  God,'  though  in  the  very  pro- 
 phecies, which,  as  they  themselves  acknowledge,  relate  to  the 
 Messiah,  he  is  called  Immanuel,  Isaiah  vii.  14.,  and  else- 
 where, '  the  mighty  God,  the  everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of 
 Peace,'  Isaiah  ix.  6.. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  What  our  Lord's  disciples  did  in  this  case,  could  not  be 
 accounted  any  unjust  invasion  of  another's  property,  because  the 
 law  had  indulged  them  thus  far  : — '  When  thou  goest  into  thy 
 neighbour's  standing  corn,  thou  mayest  pluck  the  ears  with  thy 
 hand,  but  thou  shalt  not  move  a  sickle  to  thy  neighbour's  stand- 
 ing corn,'  (Deut.  xxiii.  25.)  It  was  not  then  for  plucking  the  ears 
 of  corn,  much  less,  as  some  say,  for  breaking  their  fasts,  before 
 they  had  celebrated  the  public  offices,  (which  was  contrary  to  the 
 custom  of  the  Jews,  Acts  ii.  15.)  that  the  Pharisees  took  ex- 
 ceptions to  the  disciples,  but  for  plucking  them  on  the  sabbath- 
 day,  whereof  they  thought  this  action,  which  at  other  times  was 
 lawful  enough,  to  be  a  violation,  and  accordingly  our  Saviour's 
 whole  vindication  of  them  turns  upon  this  supposition. — Ham- 
 mond's and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  There  is  something  very  cogent  in  our  Saviour's  argument, 
 taken  from  David's  practice,  because,  according  to  the  conces- 
 sion of  the  Jews  themselves,  his  example  contains  two  things 
 tending  to  excuse  the  violation  of  the  sabbath;  1.  That  they 
 suppose,  that  David  and  his  men  fled  on  the  sabbath-day,  and 
 yet  were  not  guilty  of  breaking  the  rest  of  the  sabbath;  for  "our 
 masters  think  it  lawful,"  say  they,  "  in  him  whom  the  Gentiles, 
 or  thieves,  pursue,  to  profane  the  sabbath,  by  the  preservation 
 of  his  life,  even  as  David,  when  Saul  pursued  to  kill  him,  fled 
 and  escaped."  2.  That  their  own  canons  allowed  the  laity  to 
 eat  of  the  shew-bread  for  the  preservation  of  life;  for  "  it  is  a 
 small  thing,"  say  they,  "  to  hold  that  it  is  lawful  for  us  to  eat  of 
 the  bread  removed  from  the  table;  it  would  be  lawful  for  us,  in 
 the  extremity  of  hunger,  even  to  eat  of  the  bread  now  sanctified 
 upon  the  table,  if  there  were  no  other."  And  indeed  this 
 opinion,  that  it  was  lawful  to  violate  the  sabbath  for  the  preser- 
 vation of  life  seems  plainly  to  have  obtained  before  the  translation 
 of  the  Septuagint,  who  render  the  words  in  Exod.  xii.  16,  to 
 this  purpose,  '  Ye  shall  do  no  servile  work  on  it,  but  that  which 
 shall  be  done  for  the  safety  of  life." — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  shew-bread,  which  in  Hebrew  is  literally  the  bread  of 
 faces,  was  so  called,  not  because  it  was  set  upon  the  golden  table, 
 which  was  in  the  sanctuary,  but  because  it  was  placed  '  before 
 the  Lord,'  that  is,  not  far  from  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  which 
 was  the  symbol  of  his  more  immediate  presence.  These  loaves, 
 according  to  the  number  of  the  tribes,  were  twelve:  they  were 
 made  four  square,  covered  over  with  leaves  of  gold,  and  were  of 
 a  considerable  bigness,  having  about  three  quarts  of  flour  in  each. 
 They  were  served  up  hot  every  sabbath-day,  and,  at  the  same 
 time,  the  stale  ones,  which  had  been  exposed  the  whole  preceding 
 week,  were  taken  away,  and  allowed  to  be  eaten  by  none  but  the 
 priests,  and  that  only  in  the  holy  place,  which  was  the  tabernacle 
 at  first,  and  afterwards  the  temple,  (Lev.  xxiv.  5,  &c.)  And 
 the  reason  of  this  institution  seems  to  have  been  to  represent, 
 in  a  more  lively  manner,  to  the  people,  God's  government  and 
 presence  among  them ;  that,  as  the  tabernacle  first,  and  then  the 
 temple,  was  his  palace  and  place  of  residence,  so  these  weekly 
 
 A.  M.  403  >.  A.  D.31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— 
 
 making  himself  the    Son   of  God,«  had  claimed  a  co- 
 equality  with  him. 
 
 What  the  result  of  our  Saviour's  defence  before  the 
 sanhedrim  was,  we  cannot  tell,  because  none  of  the 
 evangelists  have  acquainted  us ;  but  the  sequel  of  the 
 history  informs  us,  that  it  no  ways  abated  the  malice  of 
 the  Pharisees,  because,  on  the  very  next  sabbath-day, 
 upon  his  disciples  pulling  some  ears  of  corn,4  as  they 
 passed  through  the  fields,  rubbing  them  in  their  hands, 
 and  so  eating  them,  because  they  were  really  hungry, 
 they  began  again  to  clamour  against  this  violation  of 
 the  sabbath  ;  until  our  Saviour,  in  vindication  of  his 
 disciples,  both  from  the  example  of  David c  and  his 
 attendants,  who  ate  the  shew-bread  ; d  which  it  was  un- 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I, 
 lawful  for  the  laity  to  eat,  when  they  were  hungry,  and 
 from  the  example  of  their  own  priests,  Avho  performed 
 the  work  of  the  temple  on  the  sabbath-day,  endeavoured 
 to  convince  them,  "that  works  of  necessity  were  some- 
 times permitted,  even  to  the  breach  of  a  ritual  command  ; 
 that  acts  of  mercy  e  were  the  best  and  most  acceptable 
 method  of  serving  God  upon  any  day  whatever ;  that  it 
 was  inverting  the  order  of  things,  to  suppose  that  man 
 was  made  for  the  sabbath,  and  not  the  sabbath  for  the 
 benefit  of  man  :  but,  if  even  it  were  not  so,  that  he,  a\ 
 the  Son  of  God/  and,  consequently,  Lord  of  the  sabbath, 
 had  a  power  to  dispense  with  the  ceremonial  laws  1  con- 
 cerning it. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  our  Saviour  left  Jerusalem,  and 
 returned  into  Galilee,  where  on  another  sabbath-day, 
 Avhile  he  was  preaching,  there  stood  before  him  a  man, 
 whose  right  hand  was  shrunk,  and  withered  ;  and  when 
 
 1  Mark  ii.  27. 
 services  of  bread,  wine,  and  salt,  say  the  Jews,  were  to  denote 
 his  habitation  among  them,  as  if  he  had  been  an  earthly  prince, 
 
 for  whom  such  provisions  are  made Calmet's  Dictionary  under 
 
 the  word,  and  Lamy's  Introduction. 
 
 e  On  the  text  here  alluded  to,  '  I  will  have  mercy  and  not 
 sacrifice,'  (Mat.  xii.  7.)  Doddridge  has  the  following  important 
 note:  "I  must  here  repeat  a  very  obvious  remark,  because  the 
 sense  of  so  many  important  scriptures  depends  upon  it,  namely, 
 that  according  to  the  genius  of  the  Hebrew  language,  one  thing 
 seems  to  be  forbidden,  and  another  commanded,  when  the  mean- 
 ing only  is,  that  the  latter  is  greatly  to  be  preferred  to  the  former. 
 The  text  before  us  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  this ;  as  likewise 
 Joel  ii.  13;  Mat.  vi.  19.  20;  John  vi.  27;  Luke  xii.  4,  5,  and 
 Col.  iii.  2.  And  it  is  evident  that  Gen.  xlv.  8,  Exod.  xvi.  8, 
 John  v.  13,  and  vii.  19;  and  many  more  passages  are  to  be  ex- 
 pounded in  the  same  comparative  sense.  A  late  ingenious 
 writer  says,  "our  Lord  does  not  compare  moral  and  positive 
 duties  together  here,  but  only  the  commandments  of  men  with 
 the  commandments  of  God."  But  it  is  plain,  the  series  of  our 
 Lord's  arguments  here  is  intended  to  prove  that  circumstances 
 of  necessity  dispense  with  some  ceremonial  observances  which 
 were  in  the  general  commanded  by  God,  and  manifestly  goes 
 upon  this  foundation,  that  ceremonial  institutes  being  the  means 
 of  religion,  if  circumstances  occurred  in  which  they  interfered 
 with  the  end  of  it,  they  were  suspended  of  course,  and  when 
 this  is  the  case,  the  conscience  of  particular  persons  is  to  judge 
 as  in  the  sight  of  God. — Ed. 
 
 /There  are  some  who  pretend  to  infer,  from  the  passage 
 of  St  Mark  ii.  27,  that  the  words  in  St  Matthew,  <  the  Son 
 of  Man  is  Lord  also  of  the  sabbath,'  chap.  xii.  8,  are  of  the 
 same  import  with,  '  the  sabbath  was  made  for  man;'  so  that  the 
 Son  of  man  is  here  put  for  all  men  in  general,  and,  consequently, 
 the  sense  of  the  words  must  be,  that  every  one  is  lord  of  the 
 sabbath,  to  observe  or  dispense  with  it,  according  to  the  call  or 
 exigency  of  his  affairs.  But  besides  that  the  phrase,  '  Son  of 
 Man,'  which  is  used  no  less  than  eighty-eight  times  in  the  New 
 Testament,  is,  in  all  other  places,  set  to  denote  our  blessed  Lord, 
 and  in  Dan.  vii.  13,  from  whence  it  is  originally  taken,  it  is 
 thought  by  all  ancient  Jews  as  well  as  Christians,  to  signify 
 the  Messiah  only;  it  is  plain  that  these  two  passages  are  dis- 
 tinct propositions  in  St  Mark,  chap.  ii.  27,  28,  and  that  they  can 
 relate  to  no  other  than  our  Saviour  Christ ;  because  he  tells  the 
 Pharisees,  and  therein  means  of  himself,  that,  in  that  place, 
 'there  was  one  greater  than  the  temple,' that  is,  whose  prophetic 
 office  was  of  more  consequence  to  the  world  than  the  sacerdotal 
 administrations  in  the  temple,  and  ought  therefore,  least  of  all, 
 to  be  interrupted  by  a  superstitious  observation  of  the  sabbath. 
 '  The  sabbath  was  made  for  man,'  must  therefore  signify,  that  it 
 was  first  appointed  for  the  good  and  benefit  of  man ;  and,  being 
 so,  it  cannot  reasonably  be  supposed  to  oblige  him  to  any  thing 
 so  contrary  to  humanity  as  starving  or  debilitating  his  nature ; 
 and  therefore,  as  '  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  destroy  men's 
 lives,  but  to  save  them,'  he  must  have  power,  in  such  cases  as 
 concern  the  good  and  welfare  of  mankind,  to  dispense  with  the 
 strict  rest  of  the  sabbath  which  the  law  required. — Calmet's 
 Commentary;  and  Hammond's  and  Whitbv's  Annotations. 
 
Skct.  I  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 903 
 
 A.  M.  4(35.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.M.  5439.  A.  D.  28.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 the  scribes  and  Pharisees  insidiously  watched  himwhether 
 he  would  cure  him  or  not,  our  Lord  bade  him  stand  up 
 in  the  midst  of  the  assembly  as  an  object  of  public  com- 
 miseration, and  turning  to  these  superstitious  observers 
 of  the  sabbath,  put  the  question"  to  them,  whether  they 
 '  thought  it  lawful,  on  the  sabbath-day,  to  do  good  or 
 ill,  actually  to  save  life,  or  negligently  to  destroy  it?' 
 And  then,  from  their  own  practice,  in  running  to  the 
 relief  of  any  dumb  creature  on  the  sabbath-day,  he  fairly 
 inferred,  that  whatever  their  hypocritical  pretences  might 
 be,  they  themselves  esteemed  it  lawful  to  do  good  on 
 that  day  ;  and  so,  looking  about  him  with  some  marks  of 
 indignation  for  their  strange  perverseness,  he  commanded 
 the  poor  man  to  stretch  out  his  lame  hand,  and  that  very 
 moment  it  became  as  sound  as  the  other. 
 
 The  Pharisees,  however,  though  silenced  by  his  argu- 
 ments, and  surprised  at  his  miracles,  would  not  surcease 
 their  malice,  but  joined  in  consultation  with  the  Hero- 
 dians,  though  a  sect  quite  opposite  to  them  in  principles, 
 how  they  might  take  away  his  life ;  which  when  our 
 Saviour  understood,  he  withdrew  with  his  disciples* 
 toward  the  sea-side  ;  but  which  way  soever  he  went,  his 
 name  was  now  grown  so  famous,  that  vast  multitudes, 
 not  only  out  of  Galilee,  but  from  Jerusalem,  from  the 
 
 a  This  is  not  contrary  to  what  St  Matthew,  (xii.  10) 
 tells  us,  namely,  that  they  asked  him,  because  both  are  true. 
 They  asked  him,  '  whether  it  was  lawful  to  heal  ?'  And  he,  in 
 reply,  says,  '  I  also  will  ask  you  one  thing:  is  it  lawful  on  the 
 sabbath-day  to  do  good,  or  to  do  evil  ?'  (Luke  vi.  9.)  We  are 
 not  however  to  suppose,  that  by  doing  evil  our  Saviour  pro- 
 pounded to  the  Pharisees,  whether,  on  the  sabbath-day,  it  was 
 lawful  to  do  that  which,  on  any  other  day,  is  utterly  unlawful; 
 for  then,  without  doubt,  they  would  have  had  a  ready  answer  for 
 him;  but  only,  whether,  according  to  the  distinction  of  the 
 sabbath,  it  was  lawful  to  do  good,  or  not  to  do  it,  to  save  life,  or 
 not  to  save  it,  when  a  man  had  it  equally  in  his  power.  And 
 the  reason  why  our  Saviour  instances  in  saving  a  life  is,  because 
 it  was  a  maxim  then  among  the  Jews,  that,  on  the  sabbath-day, 
 all  servile  work  was  prohibited,  except  where  the  life  of  any 
 man  or  beast  was  concerned ;  but  the  modern  Jews  are  of  a  con- 
 trary opinion,  and  in  hatred  to  Christians,  as  Grotius  thinks, 
 have  loaded  the  observation  of  the  sabbath  with  such  trifling  and 
 superstitious  practices,  as  their  forefathers  and  ancient  doctors 
 knew  nothing  of. — Whitby's  and  Beausobre's  Annotations,  and 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  It  was  a  direction  which  our  Saviour  gave  to  his  disciples, 
 '  when  they  persecute  you  in  this  city,  flee  to  another,'  (Mat.  x. 
 23.)  and  a  rule  which  himself  put  in  practice:  for,  when  by  his 
 doctrine  arid  miracles  he  could  do  no  good  upon  men  by  reason 
 of  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  (Mark  iii.  5.)  he  usually  departed, 
 and  retired,  that  he  might  give  place  to  their  wrath,  and  secure 
 himself  from  their  malice,  (Mat.  xii.  15;  and  John  viii.  59.) 
 When  the  providence  of  God  brings  trials  upon  us,  we  may 
 reasonably  hope,  that  his  mercy  will  be  magnified  in  our  rescue 
 from  them :  but  there  is  not  the  same  assurance  due  to  those 
 troubles  which  our  own  forwardness  or  indiscretion  involves  us 
 in.  God  hath  no  where  promised  to  work  miracles  for  our  de- 
 liverance, nor  engaged  to  save  those  who  are  not  careful  to  save 
 themselves.  He  hath  commanded  us  '  to  take  up  our  cross,' 
 when  he  lays  it  in  our  way;  but  he  hath  not  commanded,  that 
 we  should  go  out  and  seek  it;  nay,  or  that  we  should  meet  it, 
 when  we  can  pass  by  another  way,  and  honestly,  and  with  a 
 good  conscience,  escape  from  it.  He  hath  promised  to  succour 
 them  that  are  tempted,  that  is,  such  as  are  purely  passive  in  the 
 thing;  but,  when  men  break  their  ranks,  and,  without  orders 
 from  their  commander,  will  needs  march  up,  as  it  were,  to  the 
 mouth  of  a  loaded  cannon,  by  turning  their  own  tempters,  this 
 is  not  courage,  but  fool-hardiness;  and,  whatever  expectations 
 these  men  may  cherish  of  God's  assistance  in  such  cases,  they 
 are  not  the  effects  of  a  vigorous  faith  and  well-grounded  trust, 
 but  of  a  blind  and  hot-headed  presumption. — Stanhope's  Occa- 
 ii  vital  Sermons. 
 
 — xvii.  14.  MARKii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.JOHN  F.-viLl. 
 
 provinces  of  Judea,  and  Idumea  c  and  all  the  country 
 about  Jordan,  as  far  as  the  Mediterranean  sea,  to  the 
 coasts  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  hearing  the  report  of  his 
 miraculous  power  to  cure  all  diseases  with  a  word  of  his 
 mouth,  the  touch  of  his  hand,  or  barely  the  touch  of  hi3 
 garment,  came,  with  their  sick  and  possessed,  for  help, 
 and,  as  fast  as  they  came,  he  cured  them.  Nay,  to  such 
 a  degree  was  his  fame  increased,  that  the  very  devils  and 
 unclean  spirits  publicly  confessed  that  he  was  '  the  Son 
 of  God,'  till,  upon  all  occasions,  they  were  restrained 
 and  compelled  to  silence. 
 
 Finding  some  inconvenience  in  the  pressures  of  the 
 people,  he  ordered  his  disciples,  for  the  time  to  come, 
 to  have  a  small  vessel  always  in  readiness  for  him  to 
 step  into  upon  occasion ;  and  so  retired  to  a  solitary 
 mountain,**  where  he  continued  all  night  in  prayer,  in- 
 tending next  morning  to  make  an  election  of  some 
 particular  persons,  both  to  be  witnesses  of  his  actions 
 and  discourses,  and,  after  his  departure  out  of  the  world, 
 his  vicegerents  upon  earth,  founders  of  his  church,  and 
 propagators  of  his  gospel. 
 
 The  number  of  these,  according  to  the  patriarchs,  was 
 twelve  ;  Simon,  who  is  likewise  named  Peter,  and  An- 
 drew ;  James,e  commonly  called  the  Great,  and  John  : 
 
 c  Though  this  be  no  more  than  a  Greek  name  derived  from  the 
 Hebrew  idiom,  yet  it  is  not  to  be  understood  of  the  original 
 habitation  of  the  Edomites,  mount  Seir,  but  rather  of  that 
 southern  part  of  the  province  of  Judea,  which,  during  the  cap- 
 tivity of  the  Jews  at  Babylon,  being  left  destitute,  or  not  suffi- 
 ciently inhabited  by  its  natives,  seems  to  have  been  possessed  by 
 the  neighbouring  Idumeans.  These  Idumeans,  when  afterwards 
 conquered  by  the  Maccabees,  chose  rather  to  embrace  the  Jewish 
 religion  than  to  quit  the  habitations  they  had  taken  possession  of; 
 and,  though  hereupon  they  were  incorporated  into  the  body  of 
 the  Jewish  nation,  yet  that  tract  of  Judea  which  they  inhabited 
 did  not  so  soon  lose  the  name  of  Idumea,  derived  from  them,  but 
 retained  it,  not  only  in  our  Saviour's  days,  but  for  a  considerable 
 time  afterwards. — IVelVs  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 d  Some  have  thought  that  the  words  tv  ?n  <rgoiriv%ri  too  ©saw, 
 should  be  rendered  '  in  an  house  of  prayer  of  God,'  or  in  a  syna- 
 gogue dedicated  to  the  service  of  God ;  but  then  they  will  be 
 concerned  to  find  out  any  house  of  prayer  which  at  this  time 
 stood  on  a  mountain,  or  any  place,  except  the  temple,  which  was 
 called  by  that  name:  nor  can  we  conceive  why  our  Lord  should 
 go  into  a  mountain  to  pray,  if  it  were  not  for  the  privacy  and 
 retirement  of  it,  which  he  could  not  have  had  in  any  common 
 place  of  divine  worship.  Our  Saviour  however,  being  about  to 
 send  out  his  twelve  apostles,  thought  that  so  great  a  work  as  this 
 could  not  be  done,  without  offering  up  his  solemn  addresses  to 
 God  for  their  success,  and  accordingly  having  found  out  a  place 
 of  retirement,  he  thither  betook  himself,  and  as  the  evangelists 
 inform  us,  continued  'all  night  in  prayer,'  leaving  the  bishops 
 and  governors  of  his  church  an  example  what  they  are  to  do  in 
 the  great  and  momentous  affair  of  appointing  persons  to  the 
 ministry  of  the  gospel. —  Whitby's  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  These  two  brothers  our  Saviour  calls  Boanerges,  a  word 
 composed  of  two  Hebrew  or  Syriac  words,  but  which  have  suf- 
 fered some  alteration  in  their  passing  into  the  Greek  language. 
 For  whether  it  be  that  the  Greek  transcriber  has  mistaken  them, 
 or  that  this  might  be  the  corrupt  way  of  pronouncing  them  in 
 Galilee,  certain  it  is,  that  the  originals  are  benei  rehem,  denoting 
 sons  of  thunder,  or  of  a  tempest;  a  name  given  to  them  in 
 allusion  to  the  natural  heat  and  zeal  of  their  temper,  and  that 
 vehemence  and  efficacy  wherewith  our  Saviour  foresaw  that  they 
 would  preach  the  gospel.  Of  the  former  of  these  they  gave  an 
 early  instance,  in  their  desire  to  call  down  fire  from  heaven  to 
 consume  the  Samaritans,  (Luke  ix.  54:)  and,  in  the  Acts  of  the 
 Apostles,  we  find  that  Peter  and  John  are  the  chief  actors  and 
 speakers  in  the  defence  and  propagation  of  the  gospel,  and  that 
 the  zeal  of  James  and  Peter  seems  to  be  the  reason  why  the  one 
 was  slain  by  Herod,  and  the  other  imprisoned,  in  order  to  the 
 like  execution. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Beausobre's  and 
 HTiitby's  Annotations. 
 
904 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D. 29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1—  xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  1*.  LUKE  vi.  I—  ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 Philip  and  Bartholomew  ; a  Matthew  and  Thomas;6 
 James,  commonly  called  the  Less,  and  Simon  c  the 
 Canaanite  ;  Judas,  the  brother  of  this  James,  and  d 
 Judas  Iscariot,  who  so  justly  deserved   the  title  e  of 
 
 a  The  name  given  here  to  this  apostle  is  not  his  proper  but 
 patronymical  name,  and  imports  oniy  the  son  of  Tholomew,  or 
 Tolmai ;  so  that  we  are  still  at  a  loss  for  his  personal  name, 
 unless  we  will  admit  of  the  conjecture,  that  he  was  indeed  no 
 other  than  Nathanael.  To  this  purpose  it  is  remarkable,  1st, 
 That  as  no  other  evangelist  makes  mention  of  Nathanael  but 
 St  John,  so  he  never  once  makes  mention  of  Bartholomew. 
 2dly,  That  in  the  catalogue  of  the  apostles,  Philip  and  Barthol- 
 omew are  always  coupled  together,  and  were,  very  probably, 
 sent  out  together  to  preach  the  gospel:  and  fit  companions  they 
 were,  supposing  Nathanael  to  be  the  man  with  whom  it  is 
 plain  that  Philip  had  an  intimacy,  and  was  the  first  instrument 
 of  bringing  him  to  Jesus.  3dly,  That  this  Nathanael  is  by  St 
 John  (chap.  xxi.  2.)  named  in  company  with  several  of  the 
 apostles  upon  our  Saviour's  showing  himself  at  the  sea  of  Tiber- 
 ias, after  his  resurrection,  which  the  evangelist  tells  us  was  the 
 third  time  of  his  doing  so,  (ver.  14.)  and  some  presumption 
 that  he  was  one  of  them.  4thly,  That,  at  the  two  former  times, 
 it  is  expressly  said,  that  he  appeared  to  the  eleven.  John  xx. 
 19,  26.  And  here,  at  the  third  time  of  his  appearance,  those 
 that  are  named  with  Nathanael  are.  all  of  that  number.  From 
 these  considerations,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  Nathanael 
 was  one  of  the  apostles ;  which  can  only  be  accounted  for  by 
 supposing  that  St  John  calls  the  same  person  by  his  proper 
 name  Nathanael,  whom  the  other  evangelist  calls  by  his  patro- 
 nymical,Bartholomew. — Stanhope  on  the  Epist.  and  Gos.,  vol.iv. 
 b  Thomas,  in  Hebrew  or  Syriac  either,  signifies  a  twin,  and 
 so  is  the  same  with  Didymus,  that  other  name  whereby  this 
 apostle  is  sometimes  called. 
 
 c  Simon,  the  cousin  of  our  Lord,  and  brother  of  James  the 
 Less,  is  called  by  Mark  '  the  Canaanite.'  But  it  is  plain  that  the 
 epithet  does  not  express  his  descent,  otherwise  his  brothers 
 James  and  Judas  ought  to  have  been  termed  Canaanites  like- 
 wise. Luke  calls  him  Simon  Zelotes,  which  seems  to  be  the 
 Greek  translation  of  the  Hebrew  appellation  given  him  by  Mark. 
 For  from  n:s  zclotypus  fuit,  he  was  jealous,  comes  the  Chaldaic 
 word  [:p,  zelotes,  a  zealot,  (Buxtorff,  on  the  word).  Put  the 
 Greek  termination  to  this  Chaldaic  word,  and  it  becomes  xavav- 
 trii.  Wherefore,  the  appellation  of  Canaanites,  given  to  Simon 
 by  Mark,  and  Zelotes,  the  epithet  which  he  bears  in  Luke,  are 
 as  perfectly  the  same  as  Cephas  and  Petros,  Tabitha  and  Dorcas. 
 The  zealots  were  a  particular  sect  or  factiun  among  the  Jews, 
 who,  in  later  times,  under  colour  of  zeal  for  God,  committed  all 
 the  disorders  imaginable.  They  pretended  to  imitate  the  zeal 
 which  Phiuehas,  Elijah,  and  the  Maccabees  expressed  in  their 
 manner  of  punishing  offenders.  But  they  acted  from  blind 
 fury,  or  from  worse  principles,  without  regard  either  to  the  laws 
 of  God  or  to  the  dictates  of  reason.  Some  are  of  opinion  that 
 Simon  the  apostle  had  formerly  been  one  of  this  pestilent  fac- 
 tion. But  as  there  is  no  mention  made  of  it  till  a  little  before 
 the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  (Josephus's  JFars,  b.  iv.  c.  3.),  we 
 may  rather  suppose  that  the  surname  of  Zelotes  was  given  him, 
 on  account  of  his  uncommon  zeal  in  matters  of  true  piety  and 
 religion. — Macknight's  Harmony. — Ed. 
 
 d  This  man's  surname  may  be  taken,  either  from  the  place  of 
 his  birth,  which  was  Carioth,  in  the  tribe  of  Issachar,  whereof 
 we  have  mention  in  Josh.  xvi.  25,  and  Amos  ii.  2,  or  from  the 
 Syriac  word  secariat,  denoting  the  purse  or  wallet  which  it  was 
 the  office  of  this  Judas  to  carry;  or  from  the  word  ashara,  or 
 iscara,  which  signifies  to  strangle;' and  therefore  a  name  which 
 the  evangelists  might  give  him  after  his  death:  but  all  these 
 etymologies  are  no  more  than  mere  conjectures. — Hammond's 
 and  Beausobre's  Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  wisdom  of  Christ  saw  fit  to  admit  Judas  into  the  num- 
 ber of  his  disciples,  that  by  him  the  counsel  of  God,  in  giving 
 up  his  Son  to  death,  and  the  predictions  of  the  prophets,  might 
 be  fulfilled  (Acts  i.  16).  This  very  person,  however,  is  by  our 
 Lord  sent  to  preach  the  gospel,  to  cure  diseases,  and  to  cast  out 
 devils,  who  had  himself  a  devil,  (John  vi.  70.)  thereby  to  teach 
 us,  that  the  mission  of  a  person  may  be  valid,  though  he  be  not 
 sanctified;  and  that  in  things  belonging  to  the  ministerial  office 
 
 we  should  hearken  even    to   such  persons,  and  obey  them. 
 
 TFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 traitor.  To  these  he  gave  the  name  of  apostles,  /  and 
 as  he  perceived  the  multitude  gathering  round  him, 
 these  he  called  nearer  than  the  rest  to  him,  and  began 
 that  most  excellent  discourse,  which  comprises  all  the 
 great  principles  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  is  com- 
 monly called  the  s  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
 
 Herein  he  pronounces  divers  blessings,  both  spiritual 
 and  temporal,  to  such  as  the  generality  of  the  world 
 esteemed  miserable  ;  to  the  poor  in  spirit,  or  humble- 
 minded  ;  to  the  kind  and  merciful ;  to  the  pious  mourn- 
 ers ;  to  the  peace-makers  ;  to  the  meek  and  patient ;  to 
 the  pure  in  heart ;  to  such  as  hunger  and  thirst  after 
 righteousness  ;  and  to  such  as  are  persecuted  upon  the 
 account  thereof.     Herein  he  instructs  the  apostles  more 
 
 /The  word  avoaroXoi  signifies  an  envoy,  and  was  a  name 
 given  by  the  Jews  to  any  messenger  in  general,  but  more  espe- 
 cially to  such  persons  as  were  sent  by  the  high  priest  and  heads 
 of  the  people,  to  collect., the  tithes  and  other  dues  belonging  to 
 the  temple  or  synagogue,  or  to  carry  their  orders  and  mandates 
 to  the  cities  and  provinces,  when  any  affairs  relating  to  religion 
 were  transacted ;  and  to  this  custom  St  Paul  seems  to  allude, 
 where  he  styles  himself  '  an  apostle,  not  of  man,  neither  by 
 man,  but  by  Jesus  Christ.'  (Gal.  i.  1.)  Our  Saviour  indeed, 
 as  he  was  no  lover  of  innovations,  took  the  word  from  among 
 the  Jews ;  but  then  he  raised  it  to  a  much  higher  and  more 
 honourable  signification;  for  himself  declares,  that  he  sent  out 
 his  apostles,  even  as  his  Father  sent  out  him,  (John  xx.  21.) 
 that  is,  with  a  full  commission  to  act  in  his  stead,  even  as  he 
 did  in  God's:  and  accordingly  we  may  observe,  that  as  the 
 Father  gave  judgment  to  the  Son,  (John  v.  22.)  so  in  effect  the 
 Son  gives  judgment  to  the  apostles,  (Mat.  xix.  28.  and  Luke 
 xxii.  30.);  that  as  the  Father  gave  the  Son  power  to  forgive 
 sins  upon  earth,  (Mat.  ix.  6.)  so  the  Son  gives  power  to  the  apos- 
 tles to  remit  sins  on  earth  likewise  (John  xx.  23.) ;  that  as  the 
 Father  gave  the  Son  the  honour  to  sit  down  with  him  on  his 
 throne,  so  the  Son  gave  the  apostles  the  privilege  to  sit  with 
 him  on  thrones  (Mat.  xix.  28.  and  Luke  xxii.  30) ;  and  that  as 
 the  Father  gave  the  Son  to  be  the  foundation  or  corner-stone  of 
 the  church,  (Mat.  xxi.  42.)  so  the  Son  gave  the  apostles  to  be 
 foundations  upon  a  foundation ;  for  so  the  church  is  said  to  be 
 built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles,  '  Christ  being  the  chief 
 corner  stone.'  (Eph.  ii.  20.) — Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 g  The  mountain  where  our  Lord  delivered  his  discourse 
 is  generally  supposed  to  be  Tabor ;  for  by  comparing  St 
 Mark  iii.  13,  with  the  other  two  evangelists,  Matthew 
 xiv.  23,  and  Luke  vi.  12,  &c,  we  may  perceive  that  it 
 was  not  far  distant  from  some  part  of  the  sea  of  Tiberias,  whi- 
 ther our  Lord  had  retired  very  lately  from  the  Pharisees,  and 
 about  five  or  six  leagues  from  Capernaum,  whither  he  returned 
 after  his  descent  from  this  mount.  But  then  the  question  is, 
 whether  this  sermon  be  the  same  with  what  we  find  recorded 
 by  St  Luke,  vi.  20  ?  Now,  in  order  to  resolve  this,  we 
 may  observe,  1st,  That  the  sermon  in  St  Matthew  was  deliv- 
 ered before  the  healing  of  the  leper,  viii.  2  ;  whereas  St  Luke, 
 who  promises  to  discourse  in  order  of  what  Christ  did,  gives  us 
 first  the  story  of  the  leper,  (v.  12.)  and  then  an  account  of 
 Christ's  sermon,  (vi.  20.)  2dly,  That  the  sermon  in  St  Mat- 
 thew, our  Lord  preached  on  the  mount,  and  called  his  disciples 
 up  to  him ;  whereas  St  Luke  informs  us,  that  our  Lord  came 
 down  with  his  disciples  from  a  mount,  and  stood  in  the  plain, 
 and  from  thence  preached  what  he  recorded  ver.  20.  And, 
 3dly,  That  St  Luke  omits  the  much  greater  part  of  the  sermon, 
 as  it  is  recorded  by  St  Matthew,  mentions  only  four  beatitudes; 
 whereas  St  Matthew  speaks  of  eiyht,  and  has  added  four  woes, 
 (ver.  24,  &c.)  whereof  we  find  no  indications  in  St  Luke. 
 Since  the  sermons  then  are  so  very  different  in  their  matter,  as 
 well  as  in  the  circumstances  of  time  and  place,  it  is  reasonable 
 to  suppose  that  they  were  not  the  same;  though,  considering 
 that  after  both  the  sermons  we  find  our  Lord  returning  to  Ca- 
 pernaum, and  healing  the  centurion's  servant,  (Mat.  viii.  5. 
 and  Luke  vii.  I.)  we  may  probably  conjecture,  that  he  spake  the 
 sermon  in  St  Matthew,  whilst  he  was  sitting  on  the  mount,  to 
 his  disciples ;  but  that  in  St  Luke  he  afterwards  spake  when  he 
 came  down  into  the  plain  (vi.  20.)  in  the  audience  of  all  the 
 people,  (vii.  1.) — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 905 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FKOM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 especially  in  their  duty  ;  and  in  several  comparisons 
 setting  before  them  the  high  station  wherein  he  had  so 
 lately  placed  them,  and  how  much  it  would  redound  to 
 their  honour  if  they  behaved  well,  and  to  their  dishonour 
 if  otherwise ;  lie  recommends  to  them,  above  all  other 
 things,  purity  of  life  and  conversation.  Herein  he 
 expounds  the  true  meaning,  and  shows  the  just  extent 
 of  several  moral  precepts,  namely,  the  laws  against 
 murder,  against  adultery,  against  perjury  ;  that  con- 
 cerning retaliation,  and  that  of  loving  our  neighbour : 
 and  rescues  them  from  the  wretched  glosses  and  inter- 
 pretations which  the  Jews  had  put  upon  them.  Herein 
 he  explains  and  teaches  the  proper  method  of  perform- 
 ing with  acceptance  the  several  duties  of  charity  to  the 
 poor,  prayer  and  fasting.  Herein  he  dissuades  us  from 
 all  covetous  inclinations,  and  anxious  thoughts  concern- 
 ing the  things  of  this  world,  from  a  consciousness  of  our 
 being  under  the  providential  care  of  God ;  and  having 
 laid  down  several  other  precepts  and  instructions,  he 
 eoncludes  the  whole  with  this  admonition,  '  That  who- 
 ever heard,  believed,  and  practised  the  things  contained 
 in  his  discourses,  would,  in  the  event,  be  like  a  wise 
 builder,  who  laid  the  foundation  of  his  house  upon  a 
 rock,  not  to  be  affected  by  wind  or  weather  ;  but  that  he 
 who  heard  and  practised  them  not,  would  be  like  a  man 
 who  built  his  house  upon  the  sand,  soon  to  be  blown 
 down  by  the  winds,  and  washed  away  by  the  floods.'  « 
 
 This  sermon  was  delivered  with  such  a  grace  and  ma- 
 jesty, as  gained  the  applause  of  the  whole  audience,  and 
 made  them  very  readily  declare  their  sense  of  the  differ- 
 ence between  such  divine  discourses,  and  the  jejune 
 harangues  b  of  their  ordinary  teachers,  the  scribes  ;  and, 
 
 a  The  words  of  the  text,  Mat.  vii.  24 — 27,  Bishop  Jebb  lias 
 arranged  into  two  stanzas  of  six  parallel  lines  each;  thus, 
 Whoever,  therefore,  heareth  these  my  words,  and  doeth  them, 
 I  will  liken  him  to  a  prudent  man, 
 Who  built  his  house  upon  the  rock: 
 
 And  the  rain  descended, 
 
 And  the  floods  came, 
 
 And  the  winds  blew, 
 
 And  fell  upon  that  house  : 
 Audit  fell  not;  for  it  was  founded  upon  the  rock. 
 
 And  eiery  one  bearing  these  my  words,  and  doing  them  not, 
 
 Shall  be  likened  to  a  foolish  man, 
 
 Who  built  his  house  upon  the  sand: 
 And  the  rain  descended, 
 And  the  floods  came, 
 And  the  winds  blew, 
 And  struck  upon  that  house  ; 
 
 And  it  fell ;  and  the  fall  thereof  was  great. 
 In  these  two  connected  stanzas,  he  observes,  the  language  maybe 
 justly  termed  picturesque.  The  marked  transition  in  each  of 
 them  from  a  long  and  measured  movement,  to  short  rapid  lines, 
 and  the  resumption,  at  the  close,  of  a  lengthened  cadence,  are 
 peculiarly  expressive.  The  continual  return,  too,  in  the  shorter 
 lines,  of  the  copulative  particle  (a  return  purely  Hebraic,  and 
 foreign  from  classic  usage)  has  a  fine  effect:  it  gives  an  idea  of 
 danger,  sudden,  accumulated,  and  overwhelming.  These  are 
 beauties  which  can  only  be  retained  in  a  literal  translation;  and 
 
 which  a  literal   translation  may  exhibit   very  competently. 
 
 Jebb's  Sacred  Literature,  vol.  ii.  p.  438. — In  the  above  passage 
 there  is  a  manifest  allusion  to  the  rains  of  Palestine,  which  de- 
 scend with  great  violence,  and  the  torrents  which  they  form 
 sweep  away  often  whole  villages,  the    houses    being    generally 
 
 constructed  of  sun-dried  bricks En. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  he  taught  them  as  one  that 
 had  authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes,'  (Mat.  vii.  29.)     But  they 
 
 certainly  are  mistaken  who  interpret  the  words  in  this  sense : 
 
 "  He  taught  them  as  the  author  of  the  doctrine  which  he  preached; 
 as  one  who  had  authority  in  his  own  name  to  propound  the 
 terms  of  life  and  death ;"  because  it  is  not  only  contrary  to  the  na- 
 ture of  his  prophetic  office,  but  to  his  own  frequent  declarations, 
 
 to  confirm  his  doctrine  by  the  testimony  of  miracles,  our 
 blessed  Saviour,  upon  his  descent  from  the  mount, 
 healed  a  leper,  and  then  remitted  him  to  the  priest,  to 
 make  his  oblation,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  cure. 
 
 At  his  return  to  Capernaum  he  cured,  at  a  distance,  the 
 favourite  servant  of  the  Roman  centurion,  c  who  had  made 
 an  ample  declaration  of  his  divine  power,  and  thereupon 
 received  from  him  as  ample  commendation  of  his  faith  ; 
 and,  at  his  arrival  at  the  gates  of  Nain,  d  he  restored  to 
 life  a  widow's  only  son,  as  the  people  were  carrying  him 
 out  to  his  funeral,  e  to  the  great  joy  and  comfort  of  his 
 parent,  and  the  no  less  wonder  and  astonishment  of  the 
 spectators,  who,  upon  this  occasion,  glorified  God,  and 
 
 that  "  the  doctrine  which  he  taught  was  not  his  own,  but  his  who 
 sent  him ;  and  that  he  spake  not  of  himself  nor  in  his  own  name, 
 but  as  he  had  heard  from  his  Father,  and  as  he  had  commanded 
 him  to  speak"  (John  vii.  16,  17,  18;  viii.  28;  xii.  49;  xiv.  10.); 
 and  therefore  the  truer  interpretation  is,  what  Lightfoot  and 
 others  give  us,  namely,  "  That  he  spake  as  a  prophet,  having 
 authority  from  God  to  deliver  his  message  to  them,  and  not  as 
 the  scribes,  who  pretended  only  to  deliver  the  traditions  of  their 
 forefathers,  and  to  teach  them  no  more  than  what  they  had 
 learned  from  Hillel,  Shammai,  Abtalion,"  &c. —  JFhitby's  An- 
 notations. 
 
 c  He  was  an  officer,  commanding  an  hundred  men,  much  of 
 the  same  rank  and  station  as  one  of  our  captains,  and  belonged 
 to  the  iron  legion,  as  it  was  called,  which  was  usually  quartered 
 in  Judea. — Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 d  Nairn  or  Nain,  so  called  for  the  pleasantness  of  its  situation, 
 was  a  town  of  Galilee,  about  two  leagues  from  Nazareth,  and  not 
 so  much  from  mount  Tabor,  between  which  and  the  city  ran  the 
 river  Kison.  From  our  Saviour's  meeting  the  funeral  coming 
 out  of  the  gates,  we  may  learn,  that  it  was  a  custom  among  the 
 Jews  to  bury  their  dead  in  the  day-time,  when  their  nearest 
 friends  and  relations  followed  the  corpse,  which  was  usually  carried 
 in  procession  through  the  streets  and  public  places,  to  the  ceme- 
 teries, which  were  generally  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
 city,  because  they  looked  upon  their  graves  as  places  fidl  of  pollu- 
 tion.— Whitby's  Table  of  Places;  and  Calmet's  Commentary  on 
 Luke  vii.  12.  The  raising  of  this  young  man,  was  one  of  the 
 most  decisive  and  instructing  of  our  Lord's  miracles.  It  was 
 decisive.  There  was  no  doubt  that  he  was  dead.  There  could 
 be  no  delusion — no  agreement  to  impose  upon  the  people.  He 
 came  near  to  the  city  with  no  reference  to  this  young  man ;  he 
 met  the  funeral  procession,  as  it  were  by  accident ;  and  by  a 
 word  he  restored  him  to  life.  All  those  who  had  the  best  op- 
 portunity of  judging,  the  mother,  and  friends,  believed  him  to  be 
 dead,  and  were  about  to  bury  him.  The  evidence  that  he  came 
 to  life  was  decisive.  He  sat  up,  he  spoke,  and  all  were  inform- 
 ed witli  the  full  assurance  that  God  had  raised  him  to  life.  Many 
 witnesses  were  present,  and  none  doubted  that  Jesus,  by  a  word, 
 had  restored  him  to  his  weeping  mother.  The  whole  scene  was 
 affecting.  Here  was  a  widowed  mother,  who  was  following  her 
 only  son,  her  stay  and  hope,  to  the  grave.  Here  was  borne 
 along  one  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  the  only  comfort  of  his  parent 
 — impressive  proof  that  the  young,  the  useful,  the  vigorous,  and 
 the  lovely,  may  die.  Jesus  met  them — apparently  a  stranger. 
 He  approached  the  procession,  as  if  he  had  something  important 
 to  say — he  touched  the  bier,  and  the  procession  stood  still.  He 
 was  full  of  compassion  for  the  weeping  parent;  and,  by  a  word, 
 restored  the  youth,  stretched  upon  the  bier,  to  life.  He  sat  up, 
 and  spoke.  Jesus  therefore  had  power  over  the  dead.  He  also 
 has  power  to  raise  sinners,  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  to  life. 
 He  can  speak  the  word;  and  though  in  their  death  of  sin  they 
 are  borne  along  towards  ruin,  he  can  open  their  eyes  and  raise 
 them  up,  and  teach  them  to  speak  his  power,  and  restore  them 
 revived  to  real  life,  to  their  friends.  Often  he  raises  up  children 
 in  this  manner,  and  gives  them,  converted  to  God,  to  their 
 friends;  imparting  as  real  joy  as  he  gave  to  the  widow  of  Nain, 
 by  raising  her  son  from  the  dead. — Barnes  on  the  Gospels — En. 
 
 c  The  Jews  had  different  ways  of  carrying  their  dead  to  the 
 grave.  A  child  under  a  month  old  was  carried  out  in  the  bosom 
 of  a  person:  if  a  full  month  old,  in  a  little  coffin  which  they  car-  4 
 ried  in  their  arms;  one  of  a  twelve  month  old,  was  carried  in  a 
 little  coffin  on  the  shoulder:  and  one  of  three  years  old  on  a 
 bier  or  bed  ;  in  this  manner  was  this  corpse  carried  out.  Ac- 
 5t 
 
906 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  J).  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— xi  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 publicly  declared,  that  '  '  a  mighty  prophet  was  sprung 
 up  among  them  ;  and  that  God  a  had  visited  his  people. 
 Upon  the  fame  of  this,  and  several  other  miracles, 
 which  our  Saviour  did  daily,  John  the  Baptist,  who  was 
 still  in  prison,  sent  two  of  his  disciples  to  inquire  of 
 him,  6  whether  he  himself  was  the  promised  Messiah,  or 
 some  other  person  was  to  appear  in  that  character  ?  As 
 our  Lord  was  at  that  time  working  many  miracles,  c  cu- 
 ring the  deaf,  the  blind,  the  lame,  &c,  and  instructing 
 the  people  that  were  gathered  about  him ;  instead  of  giv- 
 ing a  direct  answer  to  their  question,  be  bade  them  go 
 and  report  what  they  saw  to  their  master.  And  having 
 thus  dismissed  them,  he  began  to  discourse  to  the  people 
 concerning  John,  giving  a  large  encomium  of  the 
 austerity  and  holiness  of  his  person,  d  the  greatness  of 
 
 1  Luke  vii.  16. 
 
 cording  to  the  age  of  persons  was  the  company  that  attended  them 
 to  the  grave.  If  it  were  an  infant  not  a  month  old,  it  was  buried 
 by  one  woman  and  two  men ;  but  not  by  one  man  and  two 
 women.  If  a  month  old,  by  men  and  women:  and  whoever  was 
 carried  out  on  a  bier  or  bed,  many  mourned  for  him.  Persons 
 well  known  were  accompanied  by  great  numbers  ol  people.  It 
 was  looked  upon  as  an  act  of  kindness  and  mercy  to  follow  a 
 corpse  to  the  grave,  and,  what  must  have  tended  to  increase  the 
 number  of  persons  who  attended  at  such  a  time,  it  was  forbidden 
 to  do  any  work  at  the  time  a  dead  man  was  buried,  even  one 
 of  the  common  people. —  Ed. 
 
 a  The  people  of  Nain,  in  these  words,  acknowledge  Jesus 
 to  be  the  Messiah,  or  tliat  great  prophet  whom  Moses  had  pro- 
 mised to  the  Jews:  'the  Lord  thy  God  will  raise  up  unto  thee 
 a  prophet,  from  the  midst  of  thee,  of  thy  brethren,  like  unto  me, 
 unto  him  shall  ye  hearken,'  Deut.  xviii.  15  ;  for  they  describe 
 this  prophet  in  the  very  same  terms  that  Zacharias,  the  father  of 
 ■f  John  the  Baptist,  makes  use  of  to  denote  the  Messiah:  'the 
 Lord  hath  visited  his  people,'  Luke  i.  6S. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  art  thou  he  that  should  come,' 
 or  rather,  '  he  that  is  coming?'  For  the  prophecies  of  the  Messiah 
 in  the  Old  Testament  were  so  plain,  and  yet  his  person  or  name 
 so  unknown  to  the  Jews,  that  they  were  wont  to  express  it  by  some 
 circumlocution,  and  more  especially,  by  this  of  o  i^o^iioi,  he  that 
 cometh;  for  so  he  is  termed,  Mat.  iii.  11.  xxi.9.  Luke  vii.  20. 
 xix.  38.  John  xii.  13.  and  Heb.  x.  37,  &c;  and  this  name 
 they  gathered  from  Habakkuk,  where  he  is  called,  '  he  that  shall 
 come,'  chap.  ii.  3;  and  from  Daniel,  where  he  is  styled,  'he 
 that  cometh  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,'  chap.  vii.  13. — Ham- 
 mond's and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  If  it  be  asked,  how  the  seeing  of  these  things  done  by  our 
 Saviour  could  be  a  sufficient  argument  to  John's  disciples,  that 
 he  was  in  truth  the  Messiah  ?  The  reply  is,  that  the  per- 
 formance of  these  things  was  exactly  answering  the  character 
 which  the  prophet  had  given  of  the  Messiah,  namely,  that,  '  at 
 the  coming  of  God  to  save  them,  the  eyes  of  the  blind  should  be 
 opened,  and  the  ears  of  the  deaf  unstopped ;'  that  '  the  lame 
 should  leap  as  an  hart,  and  the  tongue  of  the  dumb  should  sing,' 
 Is.  xxxv.  4,  &c.  And  therefore,  instead  of  giving  them  a 
 direct  answer,  which  might  be  liable  to  the  old  objection  of  his 
 bearing  record  of  himself,  (John  viii.  13.)  our  Saviour  refers  them 
 to  the  miracles  they  saw  him  do ;  miracles  of  the  same  kind  that 
 were  predicted  of  the  Messiah,  and  then  leaves  it  to  their  own 
 master  to  draw  the  conclusions  from  thence ;  which  was  a  method 
 of  conviction  more  short  and  strong,  and  withal  more  agreeable 
 to  our  Saviour's  modesty  and  great  humility,  than  any  long  de- 
 tail ot  arguments  would  have  proved: — Poole's  Annotations,  and 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Maimonides  observes,  that  though  the  Jews  generally 
 reckon  eleven  degrees  of  prophecy  ;  yet  two  of  these  were  some- 
 thing more  sublime  and  excellent  than  ordinary  prophecy.  The 
 ^  one  of  these  was  what  they  call  yrudus  Mosaieus,  when  the 
 prophet  had  a  familiar  converse  with  God  upon  all  occasions,  and 
 the  other,  when  he  had  his  revelations,  not  from  a  dream  or 
 ecstasy,  but  an  immediate  dictate  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Of  this 
 sort  was  John  the  Baptist,  who  was  plainly  told  by  the  Father, 
 (Mat.  iii.  17.  John  xiii.  3.);  and  as  plainly  proclaimed  it  to  others, 
 
 his  function,  and  divinity  of  his  commission ;  and  hence 
 taking  occasion  to  blame  the  perverseness  of  the  age,  in 
 rejecting  both  his  and  the  Baptist's  testimony,  though  the 
 Baptist  was  a  man  of  a  mortified  deportment,  and  he  a 
 person  of  a  free  and  affable  behaviour,  so  that  e  nothing 
 woidd  please  them,  he  proceeded  to  upbraid  the  several 
 cities  where  most  of  his  miracles  had  been  wrought,  name- 
 ly, Chorazin,  Bethsaida,  and  more  especially  Caper- 
 naum, with  their  obstinacy  and  impenitence,  and  having 
 declared  that  the  mysteries  of  the  gospel-revelation  were 
 better  adapted  to  the  humble  and  modest,  than  to  the 
 proud  and  worldly-wise,  he  concludes  his  discourse  with 
 an  exhortation  to  such  as  were  thus  qualified  to  be  his  2 
 disciples,  '  come  unto  me,/  all  ye  that  labour,  and  are 
 heavy  laden,  and  1  will  give  you  rest,'  &c. 
 
 No  sooner  had  he  finished  this  discourse,  but  a  rich 
 Pharisee,  whose  name  was  Simon,£  invited  him  to  din- 
 
 2  Mat.  xi.  28. 
 that  Jesus  '  was  the  Lamb  of  God.'  Other  prophets  spoke  of  the 
 coming  of  Christ,  but  then  they  did  it  in  a  dark  and  obscure 
 manner.  They  saw  him  only  at  a  distance  in  a  dream,  or  in  a 
 vision  of  the  night,  and  couched  their  predictions  under  a  veil 
 of  enigmatical  phrases,  but  the  Baptist  spoke  of  him  openly  and 
 distinctly.  He  knew  him;  he  was  conversant  with  him;  he 
 pointed  him  out  to  the  people  ;  had,  in  short,  the  honour  of  baptiz- 
 ing him,  and  hearing  the  voice  from  heaven  testifying  of  him, 
 '  this  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased.'  And, 
 upon  these  accounts,  we  find  him  called  a  great  and  illustrious 
 person,  (Luke  i.  15,)  one  'filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,'  and,  by 
 way  of  excellence,  the  '  Prophet  of  the  Highest,'  verse  76. — 
 Hammond's  Annotations;  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  words  of  our  Saviour,  to  illustrate  this,  are  these. — 
 '  We  have  piped  unto  you,  and  ye  have  not  danced ;  we  have 
 mourned  unto  you,  and  ye  have  not  lamented,'  (Mat.  xi.  17.) 
 which  seem  to  be  a  proverb,  founded  upon  a  custom  among  the 
 Jewish  children,  to  imitate  what  they  saw  done  by  others  upon 
 greater  occasions,  and  particularly  the  custom  in  festivities,  or 
 funerals;  when,  in  the  former,  as  soon  as  the  musician  struck  up 
 a  tune,  the  company  began  to  dance  to  his  pipe  ;  and  in  the  latter, 
 as  soon  as  some  old  women  had  begun  the  mournful  song,  the 
 rest  followed,  lamenting  and  beating  their  breasts.  These  the 
 children  were  used  to  act  and  personate  in  the  streets  at  play ; 
 and  when  one  had  begun  the  musician's  part,  and  another 
 the  old  woman's  part,  and  the  rest  did  not  follow  them  in  theirs, 
 this  gave  occasion  to  the  proverbial  saying  which  our  Saviour 
 applies  to  the  present  purpose,  in  this  sense.  "  I  and  John  have 
 both  of  us  invited  you  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  or 
 to  turn  to  God  by  repentance.  John,  by  the  austerity  of  his 
 life,  and  I  by  my  affability  and  courtesy,  have  endeavoured  to 
 recommend  ourselves ;  but  all  to  no  purpose.  You  will  neither 
 mourn  with  him,  nor  laugh  with  me;  but,  for  that  very  reason, 
 censure  and  revile  our  different  behaviour,  accounting  him,  for 
 his  reserved  temper,  no  better  than  a  '  melancholic  kind  of  mad- 
 man ;'  and  me,  for  my  free  and  open  conversation,  a  mere  glutton 
 and  wine-bibber." — Hammond's  Annotations;  and  Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 f  '  To  come  unto  Christ,'  in  the  phrase  of  the  New  Testament, 
 is  to  believe  in  him,  and  to  become  one  of  his  disciples;  and  this 
 invitation  our  Saviour  gives  to  all  mankind  in  general,  and  to 
 the  Jews  in  particular.  To  all  mankind,  forasmuch  as  all, 
 without  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  are  heavy  laden  with  the 
 burden  of  their  sins,  and  the  calamities  incident  to  life ;  are 
 surrounded  with  a  cloud  of  ignorance,  and  held  in  bondage 
 through  the  fear  of  death :  and  to  the  Jews  in  particular,  as  they, 
 under  their  dispensation,  were  oppressed  with  a  load  of  cere- 
 monies, '  a  yoke  which  neither  they  nor  their  fathers  were  able 
 to  bear,'  (Acts  xv.  10.)  besides  the  additional  weight  which  the 
 Pharisees  laid  upon  them,  by  their  traditions,  '  heavy  burdens, 
 and  grievoustobe  borne,' Mat.  xxiii.  4. — Whitby's  Annotations; 
 and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 g  Is  it  not  a  little  strange,  that  any  interpreters  should  ever 
 imagine,  that  this  is  the  same  story  with  what  we  find  related 
 in  Mat.  xxvi.  Mark  xiv.  and  John  xii;  since  the  histories  agree 
 scarce  in  any  thing,  unless  it  be  in  bringing  the  alabaster  box  of 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 907 
 
 A.  M.  403?).  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23.-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 ner  ;  but  while  he  was  at  table  there  happened  an  inci- 
 dent somewhat  remarkable  :  for  a  certain  woman,  who 
 not  long  before  a  had  been  noted  for  a  lewd  liver,  came 
 into  the   house,  and*  throwing  herself  at  the  feet  of 
 
 ointment,  and  anointing  our  Saviour's  feet,  which  in  these 
 countries,  especially  at  great  entertainments,  was  no  uncommon 
 thing.  But  now  the  anointing,  in  the  other  evangelists,  was 
 done  at  Bethany,  within  two  miles  of  Jerusalem ;  this  in  St  Luke, 
 in  Galilee;  that  in  the  house  of  one  Simon  the  leper;  this  in  the 
 house  of  one  Simon  a  Pharisee;  that  but  a  little  before  our 
 Saviour's  passion:  this  a  considerable  time  before  it:  at  that, 
 Judas  was  offended  for  the  waste  of  the  ointment ;  at  this  Simon 
 for  the  woman's  touching  our  Saviour:  upon  that  occasion  our 
 Lord  vindicates  the  woman  from  one  head  of  argument,  and 
 upon  this  from  another.  So  that  all  circumstances  make  it  plain, 
 that  these  were  different  actions,  done  by  different  persons,  and 
 at  different  times.— Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  Who  this  woman  was,the  gospel  no  where  tells  us.  We  read 
 indeed  of  three  persons,  who  by  several  evangelists  are  said  to 
 have  anointed  our  Lord's  head  and  feet,  namely,  Mary  Magda- 
 lene, Mary  the  sister  of  Lazarus,  and  this  other  woman,  whom 
 St  Luke  calls  a  siuner:  and  some  commentators  make  these  three 
 to  be  one  and  the  same  person.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however, 
 that  the  sister  of  Lazarus  is  all  along  represented  as  a  person  of 
 great  sobriety  and  virtue,  who  always  lived  at  Bethany,  was 
 none  of  our  Lord's  attendants,  nor  ever  came  into  Galilee  ;  and 
 consequently  was  a  woman  distinct  from  Mary  Magdalene,  who 
 was  of  his  retinue,  (Luke  viii.  2,)  and  from  this  other  woman  who 
 anointed  his  feet  in  Simon's  house:  but  whether  this  Mary 
 Magdalene,  and  this  woman,  here  called  a  sinner,  might  not  be 
 the  same  person,  is  not  so  easy  to  determine.  The  characteristic 
 of  Magdalene  is,  that  she  was  the  person  out  of  whom  our  Lord 
 had  cast  seven  devils;  but  then,  if  the  ejection  of  these  devils  be 
 understood,  as  some  will  have  it,  in  an  allegorical  sense,  the 
 words  will  well  enough  suit  with  the  sinner  in  St  Luke ;  or 
 suppose  they  were  real  devils,  the  ejection  of  them  might  be 
 some  time  before  her  coming  into  Simon's  house,  and,  as  our 
 Saviour's  vindication  of  her  seems  to  imply,  her  reformation  con- 
 sequent thereupon,  though  Simon  knew  nothing  of  it.  For  these 
 reasons  some  have  imagined,  that  the  sinner  in  St  Luke  and 
 Mary  Magdalene  were  both  the  same  person ;  and  that  she  was 
 called  Magdalene  from  the  town  and  castle  of  Magdal,  where  her 
 husband,  who  had  been  a  man  of  great  distinction,  but  then  dead, 
 had  lately  had  his  habitation.  It  must  not  be  dissembled,  how- 
 ever, that  the  most  general  and  prevailing  opinion  is  that  these 
 were  two  dillerent  and  distinct  women. —  Calmet's  Dissertation 
 on  the  three  Marys;  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 b  On  the  passage  here  alluded  to  Dr  Campbell  thus  observes : — 
 To  show  that  errors  in  translation,  however  trivial  they  may 
 appear,  are  sometimes  highly  injurious  to  the  sense,  and  render 
 a  plain  story  not  only  incredible  but  absurd,  I  must  entreat  the 
 reader's  attention  to  the  following  passage,  as  it  runs  in  the 
 common  version:  (Luke  vii.  36.  38.)' One  of  the  Pharisees  desired 
 Jesus  that  he  would  eat  with  him  ;  and  he  went  into  the  Pharisee's 
 house;  and  sat  down  to  meat.  And  behold  a  woman  in  the  city, 
 which  was  a  sinner,  when  she  knew  that  Jesus  sat  at  meat  in  the 
 Pharisee's  house,  brought  an  alabaster  box  of  ointment,  and  stood 
 at  his  feet  behind  him  weeping,  and  began  to  wash  his  feet  with 
 ■ears,  and  did  wipe  them  with  the  hairs  of  her  head,  and  kissed 
 his  feet,  and  anointed  them  with  the  ointment.'  Now  a  reader 
 of  any  judgment  will  need  to  reflect  but  a  moment  to  discover, 
 that  what  is  here  told  is  impossible.  If  Jesus  and  others  were 
 in  our  manner  sitting  together  at  table,  the  woman  could  not  be 
 behind  them,  when  doing  what  is  here  recorded.  She  must  in 
 that  case,  on  the  contrary,  have  been  under  the  table.  The 
 chairs,  on  which  the  guests  were  seated,  would  have  effectually 
 precluded  access  from  behind.  It  is  said  also  that  she  stood, 
 while  she  bathed  his  feet  with  tears,  wiped  them  with  the  hairs 
 of  her  head,  anointed  and  kissed  them.  Another  manifest  ab- 
 surdity. On  the  supposition  of  their  sitting,  she  must  have  been 
 at  least  kneeling,  if  not  lying  on  the  floor.  These  inconsistencies 
 instantly  disappear,  when  the  evangelist  is  allowed  to  speak  for 
 himself,  who,  instead  of  saying  that  Jesus  sat  down,  says  ex- 
 pressly that  he  lay  down,  a.nx\i$n.  And  to  prevent,  if  possible, 
 a  circumstance  being  mistaken  or  overlooked,  on  which  the 
 practicability  of  the  tiling  depended,  he  repeats  it  by  a  synony- 
 mous term  in  the  very  uext  verse.    *  When  she  knew  that  Jesus 
 
 Jesus,  washed  them  with  the  tears  which  flowed  from  her 
 eyes,  and  then,  having  wiped  them  with  her  hair  she 
 kissed  them  and  anointed  them  with  very  precious  oint- 
 ment. c 
 
 Simon,  who  still  retained  something  of  the  censorious 
 spirit  of  his  sect,  seeing  this  woman  thus  busy  in  ex- 
 pressing her  love  and  veneration  for  Jesus,  began  to 
 think  within  himself,  that d  he  could  not  possibly  be  a 
 prophet,  otherwise  he  would  have  known  the  woman  to 
 be  infamous,  and  consequently  not  suffered  her  to  touch 
 him ;  but  our  Saviour,  who  well  understood  Simon's 
 thoughts,  proposed  to  him  a  parable  of  a  certain  cred- 
 
 lay  at  table,'  amxurai.  The  knowledge  of  their  manner  at 
 meals  makes  every  thing  in  this  story  level  to  an  ordinary  capacity. 
 At  their  feasts,  matters  were  commonly  ordered  thus:  Three 
 couches  were  set  in  the  form  of  the  Greek  letter  U,  the  table  was 
 placed  in  the  middle,  the  lower  end  whereof  was  left  open,  to 
 give  access  to  the  servants,  for  setting  and  removing  the  dishes, 
 and  serving  the  guests.  The  other  three  sides  were  inclosed  by 
 the  couches,  whence  it  got  the  name  of  triclinium.  The  middle 
 couch,  which  lay  along  the  upper  end  of  the  table,  and  was  there- 
 fore accounted  the  most  honourable,  and  that  which  the  Pharisees 
 are  said  particularly  to  have  affected,  was  distinguished  by  the 
 name  •x^uroK'Kuna..  (Mat.  xxiii.  6.)  The  person  intrusted  with  the 
 direction  of  the  entertainment  was  called  ag%irgiK\ms.  (John.  ii. 
 8.)  The  guests  lay  with  their  feet  backwards,  obliquely,  across  the 
 couches,  which  were  covered,  for  their  better  accommodation,with 
 such  sort  of  cloth,  or  tapestry,  as  suited  the  quality  of  the  enter- 
 tainer. As  it  was  necessary,  for  the  conveniency  of  eating,  that 
 the  couches  should  be  somewhat  higher  than  the  table,  the  guests 
 have  probably  been  raised  by  them  three  feet,  and  upwards,  from 
 the  floor.  When  these  particulars  are  taken  into  consideration, 
 every  circumstance  of  the  story  becomes  perfectly  consistent  and 
 intelligible. — Campbell  on  the  Gospels. — Ed. 
 
 c  That  it  was  a  customary  thing  among  the  ancients,  especially 
 at  great  entertainments,  to  use  ointments  and  costly  perfumes, 
 appears  from  several  authorities.  The  psalmist  plainly  informs 
 us,  that  this  was  the  custom  of  the  Jews,  when  in  acknowledg- 
 ment of  God's  great  bounty  to  him,  he  declares,  '  Thou  hast 
 prepared  a  table  for  me ;  thou  hast  anointed  my  head  with  oil, 
 and  my  cup  shall  be  full,'  (Ps.  xxiii.  5.)  The  scholiast  upon 
 Aristophanes  acquaints  us  with  the  same  custom  among  the 
 Greeks,  when  he  makes  it  a  rule  that  they  who  invite  to  an  en- 
 tertainment should  bring  forth  to  their  guests  crowns  and  oint- 
 ments. And  that  among  the  Romans  the  like  usage  prevailed, 
 is  evident  from  that  sharp,  jocular  epigram  in  Martial  b  iii.  'I  con- 
 fess Master,  that  thou  hast  given  the  guests  plenty  of  ointment,  but 
 no  victuals  have  they  tasted,  it  is  an  inconsistent  thing  for  a 
 man  to  have  scented  locks  and  a  hungry  belly — yes,  Fabullus, 
 he  who  is  supperless  and  perfumed  seems  to  me  something  like 
 a  corpse." — The  general  custom  indeed,  upon  these  occasions, 
 was,  to  anoint  the  head,  and  very  seldom  the  feet:  but,  besides 
 that  the  latter  was  a  token  of  more  humility,  and  no  less  esteem 
 in  this  woman,  she  could  not  perhaps  have  an  opportunity  of 
 coming  at  our  Saviour's  head,  without  giving  some  disturbance 
 to  the  company. — Hammxmd's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Though  the  Jewish  religion  permitted  harlots  of  their  own 
 nation  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  other  women,  except  that 
 their  oblations  were  rejected  as  impure,  yet  the  Pharisees,  who 
 pretended  to  a  greater  degree  of  sanctity  than  others,  would  not 
 admit  them  to  civil  usage,  or  the  common  benefits  of  society, 
 and  thought  religion  itself,  and  the  honour  of  every  prophet  con- 
 cerned in  this  preciseness.  This  was  the  reason  of  Simon's 
 making  this  objection  within  himself.  But  therein  he  draws 
 three  false  conclusion*:  1st,  That  had  Jesus  been  a  prophet,  he 
 must  have  known  what  the  woman  was ;  as  if  prophets  knew 
 every  thing,  and  were  able  to  look  into  the  secrets  of  the  heart. 
 2dly,  That  as  this  woman  was  a  sinner,  our  Saviour  should  not 
 have  suffered  her  to  touch  him ;  as  if  the  external  touch  of  a 
 person  engaged  in  any  vicious  course  could  communicate  pollu- 
 tion to  one  that  was  innocent.  And,  3dly,  That  this  wo- 
 man, whom  he  knew  to  be  a  sinner  some  time  before,  was  still 
 in  the  same  condition;  as  if  it  were  not  in  the  power  of  God  at 
 any  time  to  touch  the  heart,  and  in  a  moment  to  inspiic  sincere 
 repentance. —  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
908 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  I— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 itor  who  had  two  debtors,  one  of  whom  owed  him  ten 
 times  as  much  as  the  other,  but  because  both  of  them 
 were  insolvent,  he  frankly  forgave  them  both  ;  and  then, 
 gaining  from  him  a  confession,  that  the  debtor  to  whom 
 the  larger  sum  was  forgiven,  would,  in  gratitude,  be  bound 
 to  love  the  creditor  most,  he  turned  to  the  woman,  and, 
 by  way  of  application,  not  only  apologized  both  for  her 
 behaviour  and  his  own,  but  reproached  his  host  likewise, 
 for  having  omitted  some  instances  of  respect  and  civility 
 which  this  contemptible  woman,  as  he  esteemed  her,  had 
 abundantly  supplied.  And  therefore,  in  return  for  such 
 uncommon  kindness,  he  gave  her  a  full  pardon  and  ab- 
 solution of  her  sins,  which  some  in  the  company  seemed 
 to  resent,  as  an  invasion  of  the  divine  prerogative  ;  but 
 that  gave  him  no  manner  of  uneasiness. 
 
 Upon  his  leaving  Nain,  he  made  a  progress,  for  some 
 months,  round  other  parts  of  Galilee,  accompanied  with 
 his  apostles,  and  several  devout  women,  whom  he  cured 
 of  sundry  diseases,  and  who,  in  gratitude,  attended  his 
 person,  and,  out  of  their  own  substance,  administered  a  to 
 his  necessities :  till  returning  at  length  to  his  own  city 
 Capernaum,  such  multitudes  of  people,  upon  the  rumour 
 of  his  being  come  again,  resorted  to  him,  that  neither  he 
 nor  his  disciples  could  find  time  to  eat.  But  '  his  meat 
 was  to  do  the  will  of  God,'  by  healing  the  sick  and  re- 
 lieving the  oppressed ;  and  therefore,  as  soon  as  a  poor 
 demoniac,  both  blind  and  dumb,  was  brought  before 
 him,  he  immediately  restored  him  both  to  his  speech  and 
 eyesight,  insomuch  that  all  who  saw  it  were  greatly 
 astonished,  and,  with  a  general  voice,  declared  that  the 
 person  who  did  such  wonderful  works  could  be  no  other 
 than  the  promised  Messiah. 
 
 The  Pharisees,  however,  and  doctors  of  the  law,  who 
 came  from  Jerusalem,  gave  another  turn  to  this  miracle. 
 They  ascribed  it  to  the  power  of  the  devil,  *  even  to 
 Beelzebub,  c  the  chief  of  the  devils  ;  and  therefore  our 
 
 a  It  was  customaiy,  says  St  Jerome  on  Mat.  xxvii.  55, 
 among  the  Jews,  for  women,  and  especially  for  widows,  to  min- 
 ister necessaries  to  their  teachers;  and  this  without  any  scandal 
 or  imputation  upon  their  honour.  Our  Saviour  lays  it  down  as 
 a  general  rule,  that  '  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,'  (Luke 
 x.  7.) ;  and  the  apostle  accounts  it  no  more  than  justice,  that 
 they  who  sow  to  others  spiritual  things,  should  be  allowed  to  reap 
 their  carnal  things.  (1  Cor.  ix.  11.)  Of  what  condition  or  quality 
 these  women  were  that  attended  our  Lord,  we  are  not  told. 
 They  might  be  virgins,  widows,  or  wives,  who  had  an  allowance 
 for  themselves  from  their  husbands:  however,  it  could  be  no  in- 
 justice done  their  families,  to  give  unto  him,  who  was  Lord  of 
 all  that  they  and  their  husbands  possessed;  and  who,  '  though 
 he  was  rich,  yet,  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we,  through 
 his  poverty,  might  be  rich.'  (2  Cor.  viii.  9.) — Whitby's  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 b  That  which  made  the  Pharisees  thus  calumniate  our  Sav- 
 iour's miracles,  was  their  finding  the  people  induced  by  them  to 
 believe  that  he  was  the  Son  of  David,  (Mat.  xii.  23.)  which  was 
 but  another  word  for  the  Messiah,  the  king  of  the  Jews.  For, 
 though  they  might  have  some  apprehensions,  that  if  this  belief 
 obtained,  it  might  possibly  bring  the  power  of  the  Romans  upon 
 them  (John  xi.  48.);  yet  their  chief  fear  was,  that  the  greatness 
 of  his  miracles  and  excellence  of  his  doctrine  would  put  an  end 
 to  their  credit  and  authority  among  the  people,  since  they  were 
 conscious  to  themselves,  that  they  could  not  vie  with  him  in 
 either —  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  By  several  passages  in  the  gospel  it  seems  evident,  that  the 
 Jews  at  this  time  had  a  notiou  of  a  kind  of  empire,  and  subordi- 
 nation among  the  infernal  powers,  and  that  the  prince  of  this 
 empire  was  called  Beelzebub.  Beelzebub  signifies  properly  the 
 god  of  flics;  but  why  a  name  of  so  mean  an  import  should 
 denote  the  head  of  the  apostate  angels,  is  not  so  easy  a  matter 
 
 "  blessed  d  Saviour,  by  the  comparison  of  a  kingdom,  or 
 house,  divided  against  itself,  which  is  the  readiest  way 
 to  bring  it  to  desolation,  shows  the  absurdity  of  their 
 allegations,  since,  by  that  means,  the  devil  would  take 
 the  most  effectual  course  to  destroy  his  own  empire. 
 Nay,  he  argues  from  their  own  pretensions  of  having 
 certain  allowed  exorcists,  e  among  them,  that  evil  spirits 
 might  be  cast  out  by  the  finger  of  God ;  that,  when 
 they  were  apparently  so,  it  was  very  manifest,  that  the 
 kingdom  of  God,  or  the  Messiah,  was  come  among  them, 
 that  obstinately  to  resist  the  evidence  of  such  miracles, 
 or  to  ascribe  them  to  a  diabolical  power,  was  that  sin 
 against  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  of  a  nature  unpardon- 
 able ;  and  that,  since  they  had  been  so  impious,  as  to 
 blaspheme  the  Holy  Spirit  by  which  he  Avrought  them, 
 nothing  less  could  be  expected,  than  that  the  devils 
 ejected  by  him,  finding  no  where  among  the  heathens 
 such  desirable  habitations  of  rest  and  contentment,  as 
 among  them,  would  endeavour  to  return,  with  several 
 others  worse  than  themselves,  and,  by  their  prodigious 
 wickedness  and  obstinate  infidelity,  finding  them  more 
 prepared  than  ever  to  receive  them,  would  there  take  up 
 their  settled  abode  ;  and  having  made  them  more  incred- 
 
 to  determine,  unless  we  will  admit  of  this  conjecture,  namviy, 
 that  as  the  people  of  Ekron  had  an  idol  which  they  styled  Beel- 
 samen,  that  is,  the  God  of  heaven,  by  other  nations  called  Jup- 
 iter Olympius,  the  Jews,  who  used  to  give  nicknames,  or  names 
 of  contempt,  to  all  false  gods,  called  it  sometimes  Beelzebub,  or 
 the  god-fly,  because  these  heathens  worshipped  it  under  the  fig- 
 ure of  that  insect,  and  sometimes  Beelzebul,  or  the  god  of  or- 
 dure, because  some  sort  of  flies  delight  to  feed  on  excrements. 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  apostles,  in  several  places 
 of  their  writings,  seem  to  insinuate,  that  among  the  apostate 
 spirits  there  was  one  superior  to  the  rest,  whom  therefore  they 
 call  '  the  prince  of  darkness,'  (Luke  xxii.  53.)  '  the  prince  of  this 
 world,'  (John  xii.  31.)  and  '  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the 
 air,'  (Eph.  ii.  2.)  who,  in  the  days  of  Tobit,  went  under  the 
 name  of  Asmodeus,  (c.  iii.  8.)  and  is  now  by  the  Jews  generally 
 called  Sammael,  and  by  the  Christians  Lucifer. — Beausobre's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  argument  which  our  Saviour  employs  against  the  Jews 
 upon  this  occasion  is  what  we  call  ad  hominem.  He  supposes, 
 as  they  did,  that  among  evil  spirits  there  was  a  form  of  govern- 
 ment, which  was  to  last  unto  the  end  of  the  world,  and  in  it  a 
 certain  subordination,  which  made  it  subsist;  and  from  this 
 principle  he  argues,  "that  it  was  impossible  that  an  empire 
 divided  against  itself  should  last  long ;  incongruous  to  think,  that 
 a  prince,  who  knew  his  own  interest,  would  send  part  of  his 
 forces  to  engage  his  own  generals,  and  compel  them  to  surrender 
 to  the  enemy  what  they  had  lately  taken  from  them ;  and  there- 
 fore a  thing  utterly  incredible,  that  the  prince  of  the  devils 
 should  give  orders  to  other  inferior  devils  to  quit  the  bodies 
 which  they  had  taken  possession  of,  and  consequently  that  he 
 should  expel  any  in  the  name  or  by  the  authority  of  Beelzebub."' 
 — Calm.et's  Commentary. 
 
 e  That  it  was  customary  among  the  Jews  to  cast  out  devils 
 by  the  invocation  of  the  name  of  the  Most  High,  we  may  learn 
 from  Justin  Martyr,  who,  in  his  dialogue  with  Trypho,  tells 
 him,  "  that  if  any  Jew  exorcised  a  devil  in  the  name  of  the  God 
 of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  perhaps  he  would  obey  him ;" 
 from  what  Irenseus  tells  us,  namely,  "  that  by  the  invocation  of 
 the  name  of  God,  even  before  the  advent  of  our  Lord,  men  were 
 saved  from  evil  spirits,  and  all  kinds  of  demons ;"  and  from  what 
 Origen  (contra  Cels.)  affirms,  namely,  "  that  the  name  of  the 
 God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  being  used  by  the  Jews, 
 in  the  incantation  of  devils,  did  great  miracles:"  and  if  this 
 was  a  common  practice  among  the  Jews,  then  will  the  force  of 
 our  Saviour's  argument  be  this:  "  You  make  no  doubt,  but  that 
 your  exorcists,  who  use  the  name  of  God,  do  eject  devils  by  vir- 
 tue of  that,  name ;  and  how  partial  is  it  then  in  you,  to  pass  an 
 unjust  censure  upon  me,  in  whom  you  see  far  greater  evidences 
 of  the  finger  of  God,  in  my  casting  out  all  manner  of  evil  spirits, 
 and  healing  all  kinds  of  diseases?" — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 909 
 
 A.  M.4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5U0.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK 
 
 ulous  and  obdurate,  more  impure  and  wicked,  more 
 hypocritical  and  blasphemous  than  they  were  before, 
 would  bring  upon  them  too  a  more  lamentable  destruc- 
 tion." 
 
 All  this,  however,  hindered  not  the  Scribes  and  Phari- 
 sees from  demanding  of  our  Saviour  some  new  sign  or 
 miracle  in  evidence  of  his  mission  ;  but  as  he  had  given 
 them  a  sufficient  number  of  these  already,  he  only  refer- 
 red them  to  one,  that  would  not  come  to  pass  till  after 
 his  death,  namely,  that  of  Jonas,  whose  deliverance 
 from  the  whale's  a  belly,  after  three  days'  confinement 
 was  an  eminent  type  of  his  resurrection,  after  as  long  a 
 continuance  *  of  his  body  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  :  and 
 thence  he  took  occasion  to  remind  them,  "  that  the  in- 
 habitants of  Nineveh,  c  a  pagan  city,  and  also  the  queen 
 of  Sheba  <*  should  rise  up  in  judgment e  against  that  gen- 
 eration, and  condemn  it,  because  the  former  repented  at 
 the  preaching  of  Jonas,  and  the  latter  took  a  vast  jour- 
 ney to  partake  of  the  benefits  of  Solomon's  wisdom  ; 
 whereas  they  refused  to  hearken  to  one  who  was  incon- 
 testibly/ greater  than  either  Jonas  or  Solomon," 
 
 a  The  word  iu  the  original  signifies  not  a  whale,  but  any  large 
 fish;  and  some  naturalists  are  of  opinion,  that  it  was  not  a  whale, 
 whose  gullet  is  too  narrow  for  that  purpose,  but  rather  what  the 
 Greeks  call  the  lamia,  or  dog-fish,  as  we  showed  elsewhere, 
 whose  throat  is  more  capacious,  that  swallowed  up  Jonah ;  how- 
 ever, this  fish  may  either  have  been  the  lamia,  as  was  sup- 
 posed, or  the  shark,  both  of  which  are  found  in  the  Mediter- 
 ranean.    Whales  do  not  inhabit  that  sea. — Ed. 
 
 b  But  how  can  our  Saviour  be  said  to  have  continued  as  long 
 in  the  grave,  as  Jonah  did  in  the  whale's  belly,  when  there  were 
 no  more  than  two  nights,  and  one  whole  day,  between  his  death 
 and  his  resurrection?  Now  for  a  resolution  of  this,  we  must 
 observe,  1st,  That  the  Hebrews  began  their  computation  of  a 
 natural  day  from  the  evening  or  night  preceding ;  so  that,  from  one 
 sunset  to  another  sunset,  they  reckoned  a  complete  day,  even  as 
 Moses  does,  when  he  says,  '  the  evening  and  the  morning  were 
 the  first  day,'  Gen.  i.  5.  2dly,  That  it  is  a  common  thing  with 
 them,  as  well  as  other  nations,  to  put  part  of  a  day  for  the  whole; 
 so  that,  whatever  is  done  in  any  part  of  the  day,  is  properly 
 enough  said  to  be  done  on  that  day:  and,  3dly,  That  they  usu- 
 ally reckon  that  to  be  done  in  so  many  days,  or  so  many  days 
 and  nights,  which  begins  in  any  part  of  the  first,  and  ends  in 
 any  part  of  the  last  day.  Now,  allowing  this  manner  of  compu- 
 tation, and  reckoning  that  the  first  day  began  on  Thursday  at 
 sunset,  and  ended  upon  Friday  at  sunset;  since  our  Saviour 
 died  on  Friday  about  three  in  the  afternoon,  by  putting  a  part 
 for  the  whole,  here  we  have  one  day.  Saturday  is  allowed  on  all 
 hands  to  be  another;  and,  since  the  third  day  began  on  Saturday 
 at  sunset,  and  our  Saviour  rose  on  the  morning  following,  that 
 part  of  the  day  being  likewise  put  for  the  whole,  is  fairly  com- 
 puted for  the  third.  The  Hebrew  child,  according  to  law,  was 
 to  be  circumcised  the  eighth  day,  but  then  the  day  of  its  birth 
 and  of  its  circumcision,  were  both  counted;  and,  in  like  manner, 
 if  we  reckon  the  day  on  which  Christ  died  for  one,  and  that  on 
 which  he  rose  for  another,  including  withal  the  night  belonging 
 to  the  former,  we  may  properly  enough  say,  that,  in  imitation  of 
 the  prophet  Jonah,  '  he  was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the 
 heart  of  the  earth.' — Whitby's  and  Hammond's  Annotations,  and 
 Bishop  Kidder's  Demonstration,  b.  i.  c.  8. 
 
 c  This  city  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  built  by  Nim- 
 rod,  was  situate  upon  the  river  Tigris,  and  famous  once  for  be- 
 ing the  metropolis  of  the  first,  that  is,  the  Assyrian  empire. — 
 Wells'  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 d  Sheba,  or  Saba,  is  a  province  of  Arabia  Felix,  lying  to  the 
 south  of  Judea,  and  on  the  extreme  part  of  the  continent,  and, 
 being  bounded  by  the  ocean,  is  therefore  said  to  be  '  the  utmost 
 part  of  the  earth.' — Wells'  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 e  This  is  spoken  in  allusion  to  a  custom  among  the  Jews  and 
 Romans,  which  was,  for  the  witnesses  to  rise  from  their  seats, 
 when  they  accused  criminals,  or  gave  any  evidence  against  them. 
 '—Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 f  Since  God  had  promised  Solomon,  that  as  there  was  none 
 
 23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37-  JOHN  v.  1—  vi».  1. 
 
 While  he  was  continuing  his  discourse  in  this  manner, 
 word  was  brought  that  his  mother  s  and  some  other  kins- 
 folk were  at  the  door,  desiring  to  speak  with  hiin ;  (for 
 fearing  either  that  he  might  be  too  much  transported  by 
 his  ministry,  or  grow  faint  for  want  of  eating,  or  be  en- 
 dangered by  the  throng,  they  came  to  get  him  away,)  but 
 being  dissatisfied  with  their  unseasonable  interruption,  he 
 took  occasion  to  inform  the  audience,  "  that  all  worldly 
 relations  were  of  less  consideration  than  the  ties  of  duty 
 and  religion;  that  the  names'*  of  mother  and  brother, 
 which  are  sanctified  by  the  laws  of  God  and  nature,  were 
 made  much  more  sacred,  when  a  spiritual  kindred  does 
 supervene  ;"  and  so  turning  to  his  disciples,  he  declared, 
 "  that  they  were  his  truest  relations  who  heard  the  word 
 of  God,  and  practised  it." 
 
 The  same  day  he  went  out  of  the  house  where  he  com- 
 monly abode,  and,  for  the  greater  conveniency  of  teach- 
 ing the  people,  repaired  to  the  sea-shore,  where,  being 
 followed  by  the  same  multitudes,  to  avoid  the  throng,  he 
 went  on  board  a  vessel,  and  from  thence  taught  them  in 
 
 like  him  before  him,  so  after  him  none  should  arise  like  him  for 
 wisdom,  (1  Kings  iii.  12.)  our  Saviour's  declaring  that  in  this 
 respect  he  was  greater  thau  Solomon,  must  be  plainly  avowing 
 himself  to  be  more  than  man. —  Whitby's  Annotations. — Our 
 Lord  chooses  on  this  occasion  rather  to  insinuate,  than  to  affirm 
 the  dignity  of  his  character ;  and  to  afford  matter  of  reflection  to 
 the  attentive  among  his  disciples,  without  furnishing  his  de- 
 clared enemies  with  a  handle  for  contradiction. — Dr  Campbell. 
 —Ed. 
 
 g  The  words  in  the  text  are,  'his  mother  and  his  brethren,' 
 Mat.  xii.  46;  but  as  the  word  brethren,  according  to  the  lan- 
 guage of  the  Jews,  (Gen.  xxix.  12;  Lev.  x.  4.)  is  of  great  lati- 
 tude, these  brothers  are  supposed  to  be  either  Joseph's  sons  by  a 
 former  wife,  and  so  our  Saviour's  brothers-in-law,  or  the  chil- 
 dren of  Mary,  the  wife  of  Cleophas,  and  so  his  cousins-german. 
 There  is,  indeed,  a  tradition  in  the  church,  that  before  his  es- 
 pousing the  virgin  Mary,  Joseph  had  another  wife,  whose  name 
 was  Ischa,  by  whom  he  had  six  children,  four  sons,  James,  Jo- 
 seph, Simon,  and  Jude,  and  two  daughters,  whose  names,  some 
 say,  were  Esther  and  Thamar,  others  Mary  and  Salome.  But 
 whoever  compares  Mat.  xiii.  55 — xxvii.  56.  Mark  xv.  40,  and 
 John  xix  25,  together,  will  find,  that  the  four  persons  there  said 
 to  be  our  Saviour's  brothers,  were  the  sons  of  Mary,  the  wife  of 
 Cleophas,  (or  Alpheus,  for  the  name  is  all  one,)  and  sister  to  the 
 blessed  Virgin ;  and  so  these  brothers  of  his,  as  we  said,  were 
 no  more  than  his  cousins-german.  Others,  however,  strenu- 
 ously maintain  the  former  opinion,  namely,  that  Mary  the  mo- 
 ther of  Jesus  was  their  mother,  that  is,  their  stepmother,  and 
 they  consequently  his  brothers-in-law;  and  that,  1st,  because 
 this  opinion  retains  the  proper  signification  of  the  word  brothers, 
 in  which  the  Jews  always  seem  to  use  it,  when  they  speak  of  our 
 Lord's  brothers  and  sisters:  and  2dly,  because  it  agrees  with  the 
 sense  of  antiquity,  which,  ever  before  St  Jerome's  time,  (says 
 the  learned  Pearson,)  looked  upon  them  as  the  brothers  of  our 
 Lord,  who  lived  with  his  mother,  and  are  therefore  so  frequently 
 found  together,  Mat.  xii.  46.  John  ii.  12. —  Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary, and  Beausobrc's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 h  We  have  another  speech  of  our  Saviour's,  much  of  the  same 
 import  with  this.  For  when  a  certain  woman  in  the  company, 
 upon  hearing  his  excellent  doctrine,  broke  out  into  this  exclama- 
 tion, '  blessed  is  the  womb  that  bare  thee,  and  the  paps  which 
 thou  hast  sucked!'  his  reply  is,  'yea,  rather  blessed  are  they  that 
 hear  the  word  of  God  and  keep  it,'  (Luke  xi.  27.  28.)  for  '  who- 
 soever shall  do  the  will  of  my  Father,  who  is  in  heaven,  the  same 
 is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and  mother,  (Mat.  xii.  50.)  which 
 texts  do  not  derogate  any  thing  from  the  honour  truly  due  to  the 
 blessed  virgin,  as  the  mother  of  the  Messiah;  hut  only  show  the 
 folly  of  some  who  exalt  her  above  Christ,  whom,  considered  only 
 as  his  mother,  Christ  himself  seems  here  to  set  beneath  every 
 true  believer ;  though,  considered  as  a  believer  likewise,  she  has 
 a  just  title  to  pre-eminence;  and  it  is  by  that  she  is  infinitely 
 more  happy  than  if  she  had  only  been  his  mother  according  to 
 the  flesh. — Chrysostom,  horn.  45;  Calmet's  Commentary,  and 
 Poole's  Annotations. 
 
910 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  11.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  11.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 parables,  an  usual  way  of  instruction  among-  the  Jews, 
 but  what  he  had  not  practised  before,  thereby  to  engage 
 the  attention,  and  accommodate  himself  to  the  capacity 
 of  those  that  heard  him.  By  the  parable  of  the  sower, 
 he  represented  the  different  successes  of  the  gospel, 
 according  to  the  different  dispositions  of  its  hearers  ;  by 
 the  tares  growing  among  the  good  seed,  the  mixture  of 
 the  wicked  and  godly  under  the  same  profession  of 
 Christianity  ;  by  the  grain  of  mustard  seed,  and  the  little 
 piece  of  leaven,  the  wonderful  increase  and  propagation 
 of  the  gospel  from  small  beginnings  ;  by  the  treasure  in 
 the  field,  and  the  pearl  of  great  price,  the  inestimable 
 benefits  that  would  accrue  to  the  true  professors  of  re- 
 ligion ;  but  that  the  profession  of  it  would  include  a  mixed 
 multitude,  and  be  therefore  like  a  net  cast  into  the  sea, 
 which  incloses  fishes  of  all  kinds,  some  good  and  some 
 bad,  the  good  to  be  preserved,  but  the  bad  cast  away. 
 This  is  the  explanation  which  our  Lord  gave  his  disciples 
 of  these  several  parables;  and  Avhen,  by  their  answer, 
 he  perceived  that  they  understood  them  all,  he  concluded 
 his  discourse  with  one  similitude  more,  namely,  that1 
 "  every  gospel-teacher  ought  to  resemble  a  well  furnished 
 house-keeper,"  who  brings  all  things  out  of  his  repository, 
 both  old  and  new,  according  to  the  occasions  of  his 
 guests." 
 
 He  had  not  continued  long  in  Capernaum,  before  he 
 resolved  to  cross  the  lake  or  sea  of  Galilee,  and  to  that 
 purpose  had  ordered  his  disciples  to  prepare  a  vessel 
 for  him:  but  just  as  he  was  going  on  board,  a  certain 
 scribe6  came,  and  offered  to  attend   him  wherever  he 
 
 1  Mat.  xiii.  52. 
 
 a  And  what  this  house-keeper  was  iu  his  own  family,  that 
 should  every  minister  of  the  gospel  be  in  the  church  of  Christ. 
 He  should  be  thoroughly  instructed  in  the  word  of  God,  and 
 capable  of  amassing  a  plentiful  provision  of  all  knowledge,  both 
 sacred  and  profane.  'To  bring  out  of  his  treasure,'  or  store- 
 house,' things  new  and  old,'  was  a  kind  of  proverbial  saying  among 
 the  Hebrews,  and  denoted  a  man's  giving  a  plentiful  or  liberal 
 entertainment  to  his  friends,  and  such  as  came  about  him.  And 
 therefore,  as  the  householder,  if  a  man  of  substance  and  suffi- 
 ciency, of  a  large  stock,  and  as  large  a  mind,  will  entertain  his 
 friends  and  guests  with  plenty,  and  variety  of  provisions,  answer- 
 able to  the  difference  of  men's  palates,  as  well  as  to  the  difference 
 of  the  seasons;  so  our  gospel-scribe,  or  teacher,  in  the  entertain- 
 ment of  his  spiritual  guests,  is  not  always  to  set  before  them  only 
 the  main  substantial  of  religion,  whether  for  belief  or  practice 
 but,  as  the  matter  shall  require,  to  add  also  illustration  to  the 
 one,  and  enforcement  to  the  other,  sometimes  persuading  some- 
 times terrifying;  and  accordingly  addressing  himself  to  the 
 afflicted  and  desponding  with  gospel  lenitives,  and  to  the  hard 
 and  obstinate,  with  legal  corrosives:  and,  since  the  relish  of  all 
 is  not  the  same,  he  is  to  apply  to  the  vulgar,  with  plain  familiar 
 similitudes,  and  to  the  learned,  with  greater  choice  of  language, 
 and  coolness  of  argument,  and  so  suit  his  discourses  to  the  various 
 
 circumstances,  tempers,  and    apprehensions    of   his  hearers. 
 
 Calmefs  Commentary;  and  South's  Sermons,  vol.  iv. 
 
 b  What  might  possibly  be  the  motive  of  this  scribe's  offering 
 to  attend  our  Saviour,  the  conjectures  of  commentators  have  been 
 different.  Some  think,  that  he  did  it  with  a  sincere  desire  to 
 became  his  disciple;  others,  with  a  design  to  turn  spy  upon  him; 
 some,  out  of  a  spirit  of  vanity,  to  distinguish  himself,  by  being  a 
 retainer  to  a  master  in  so  great  reputation  among  the  people; 
 others,  out  of  a  principle  of  self-interest,  that  he  might  obtain 
 some  post  of  honour  and  advantage,  upon  our  Lord's  advancement 
 to  his  kingdom.  This,  indeed,  seems  to  be  the  most  probable 
 ground  of  his  resolution;  and  accordingly  the  design  of  our 
 Saviour's  answer  is  to  discourage  him  from  being  his  disciple 
 upon  such  secular  views,  'The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of 
 the  air  have  nests,  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his 
 own  head,'  (Mat  vlii.  20.)  and  therefore  much  less  any  aecom- 
 
 went ;  but  when  he  understood,  that  no  temporal  emolu- 
 ment was  to  be  obtained  by  such  attendance,  he  v«?ry 
 probably  retracted.  A  disciple  of  his  own  at  the  same 
 time  desired  leave  c  to  bury  his  father  before  he  went 
 along  with  him;  but  he  commanded  him  to  follow  him, 
 and  to  leave  such  offices  to  the  children  d  of  this  world  ; 
 and,  when  another  was  for  taking  leave  of  his  family,  and 
 disposing  of  his  effects  before  he  went,  our  Saviour  let 
 him  know,  2  '  that  whoever  laid  his  hand  to  the  plough,  e 
 and  looked  back,  was  not  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God.' 
 
 8  Luke  ix.  62. 
 modation  or  prospect  of  preferment  for  his  followers. — Calmefs 
 Commentary,  and  JVTiitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  It  is  generally  supposed  that  Luke  has  given  this  branch  of 
 the  history,  chap.  ix.  57,  but  it  appears  to  be  a  very  different 
 passage.  For  here  Jesus  was  beside  the  sea  of  Galilee ;  there  he 
 was  passing  through  Samaria.  Here  a  scribe  being  present, 
 when  he  ordered  the  disciples  to  carry  him  to  the  other  side, 
 offers  to  accompany  him ;  there  one  comes  running  to  him,  as  he 
 travelled  on  the  road,  and  of  his  own  accord  said  that  he  would 
 follow  him.  It  is  true,  the  answer  given  to  both  was  the  same ; 
 but  it  might  easily  be  so,  on  supposition  that  the  men  had  the 
 same  sentiments  and  dispositions.  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  however, 
 supposing  with  most  harmony  writers,  that  the  two  evangelists 
 are  speaking  of  the  same  transaction,  thinks  that  Jesus  was  now 
 crossing  the  lake  in  his  way  to  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  mentioned 
 John  vii.  2.  But  the  circumstances  both  of  time  and  place, 
 distinctly  marked  by  the  two  historians,  overturn  his  hypothesis 
 entirely. — Macknight's  Harmony,  vol.  i.  180. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are, — '  Let  the  dead  bury  the  dead,' 
 (Mat.  viii.  22.)  which  is  a  form  of  speech  common  in  all  sorts 
 of  authors,  when  in  the  same  place  they  use  the  same  words 
 twice,  though  very  frequently  in  different  senses.  Thus  the 
 psalmist,  speaking  of  God,  says,  '  with  the  froward  thou  shalt 
 show  thyself  froward,'  (Ps.  xviii.  26.)  even  as  Moses  introduces 
 God  speaking  of  himself,  '  if  ye  walk  contrary  to  me,  I  will 
 also  walk  contrary  to  you.'  (Lev.  xxvi.  23,  24.)  where  the  words 
 froward  and  contrary,  as  they  relate  to  God,  denote  the  punish- 
 ments which  he  intended  to  bring  upon  the  obstinate,  and  are 
 the  rather  used,  because  the  same  words  went  before.  And,  in 
 like  manner,  'let  the  dead  bury  their  dead,  but  follow  thou  me,' 
 may  signify,  'let  others  bury  the  dead;  thou  hast  work  of  more 
 consequence  to  do.'  It  must  not  be  dissembled,  however,  that 
 by  the  dead,  both  sacred  and  profane  authors  do  frequently 
 mean,  not  only  those  who,  in  a  natural  sense,  are  dead,  but  those 
 likewise  who  in  a  spiritual  sense  are  so,  by  being  '  alienated  from 
 the  life  of  God,  and  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.'  Thus  Clemens 
 of  Alexandria  tells  us,  that  the  philosophy  of  the  barbarians 
 called  those  dead,  who  deserted  their  doctrines,  and  subjected 
 their  minds  to  sensual  pleasures,  which  Pliilo  calls  the  death  of 
 the  soul,  entombed  in  passions  and  all  manner  of  wickedness. 
 And  therefore  the  full  import  of  our  Saviour's  words  must  be, 
 "  Let  those  who  are  unconcerned  for  the  things  of  God,  and 
 unfit  to  engage  in  promoting  them,  perform  such  offices,  which 
 they  can  do  as  well  as  others ;  but  thou  who  hast  begun  to  fol- 
 low me,  and  to  attend  upon  the  kingdom  of  God,  go  on  with 
 resolution,  and  without  allowing  thyself  any  avocation  from  that 
 work:"  hereby  teaching  us,  that  they  who  are  called  to  the 
 preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  should  not 
 suffer  any  earthly  business,  which  may  be  done  as  well  by  others, 
 who  are  unfit  to  be  employed  in  spirituals,  to  give  them  the 
 least  impediment  or  molestation. — Hammond's  and  JFhitbys 
 Annotations. 
 
 e  '  To  put  the  hand  to  the  plough,'  is  a  proverbial  saying  not 
 only  among  the  Greeks  and  Hebrews,  but  many  other  nations, 
 and  denotes  in  general  the  beginning  of  any  enterprise;  This 
 our  Saviour  applies  to  spiritual  husbandry :  and  thereby  gives  us 
 to  understand,  that  as  he  who  undertakes  to  plough,  should  not 
 look  behind  him,  for  fear  of  making  his  furrows  crooked  nr  un- 
 equal; so  he  that  engages  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  should 
 not  suffer  himself  to  be  encumbered  with  much  serving  about 
 other  matters,  but,  in  the  language  of  the  apostle,  '  forgetting 
 those  things  that  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things 
 which  are  before,  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the 
 high  calling  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ. '(Pfcif.  iii.  13,  14.)—  Whitby  i 
 Annotations,  and  Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
II.1 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 911 
 
 A.  M.  403a    a.  D.  31 ,  OR  A.  M.  6440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  I—: 
 
 While  the  ship  was  under  sail,  and  Jesus  asleep  in 
 the  stern,  there  arose  a  most  terrible  storm,  so  violent 
 and  impetuous  that  the  whole  ship  was  almost  swallowed 
 up  by  the  waves.  Hereupon  his  disciples,  in  great  con- 
 sternation, awoke  him  ;  and  when  he  arose,  at  his  rebuk- 
 ing the  waves,  they  obeyed  his  command,  and 
 immediately  composed  themselves  into  a  profound 
 calm,  a  to  the  no  small  astonishment  of  every  one  that 
 saw  it. 
 
 The  next  morning,  as  our  Lord  landed  on  the  east 
 side  of  the  lake,  in  that  part  of  the  province  of  Tracho- 
 nitis,  b  which  is  called  '  the  country  of  the  Gadarenes,'  c 
 two  demoniacs,  d  most  grievously  distracted,  with  some 
 
 a  The  stilling  of  the  raging  of  the  sea  was  so  peculiar  a  pre- 
 rogative of  God  (Ps.  lxxxix.  9.  and  cvii.  25,  29.)  that  it  is  not  at 
 all  to  be  wondered  that  our  Saviour's  disciples  should  be  con- 
 vinced of  a  divine  power  residing  in  him  who  was  able  to  do 
 this  with  the  breath  of  his  command. — fFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  This  country,  which  is  so  called  by  the  Greeks  from  its 
 rough  and  craggy  mountains,  together  with  Ituraia,  made  in  our 
 Saviour's  time  one  tetrarchy,  that  is,  one  fourth  part  or  rather 
 division  (for  they  were  not  equal  parts)  of  the  kingdom  of  Herod 
 the  Great  when  he  died.  It  was  anciently  called  Argob,  (Deut. 
 iii.  13.)  and,  according  to  the  best  account,  is  bounded  to  the 
 east  by  Arabia  Deserta;  to  the  west,  by  Batanrea;  to  the  south, 
 by  Ituraa;  and  to  the  north  by  the  country  of  Damascus:  and 
 as  it  was  a  province  full  of  rocky  hills,  which  served  for  an  har- 
 bour to  a  great  number  of  thieves  and  robbers,  it  often  found 
 employment  for  Herod  the  Great,  as  we  may  see  in  the  history 
 of  Josephus,  to  expel  them. —  Wells'  Geog.  of  the  New  Test.,  and 
 Whitby's  Table.— The  singularly  rocky  country  described  by 
 Burckliardt,  on  the  south  of  Damascus,  called  El  Ledja,  corres- 
 ponds in  a  remarkable  manner  with  Trachonitis,  as  described 
 by  Josephus  and  Strabo. —  Ed. 
 
 c  This,  in  St  Matthew,  is  called  the  country  of  the  Gerge- 
 senes,  because  it  lay  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  two  cities,  Gad- 
 ara  and  Gergesa,  which  were  both  situated  within  the  district  of 
 Decapolis.  Gadara,  which  took  its  name  from  the  tribe  of  Gad, 
 to  whom  it  fell  by  lot  in  the  division  of  the  land,  was  a  famous 
 city  beyond  Jordau,  the  capital  of  Parcea,  as  Josephus  (Jewish 
 War,  b.  v.  c.  3.)  tells  us,  and  stood  eastward  of  the  sea  of 
 Tiberias,  about  sixty  furlongs  from  the  shore.  Gergesa  was  a 
 place  of  some  importance  likewise,  according  to  the  same  histo- 
 rian ;  and  the  adjacency  of  these  two  towns  made  the  evangelists 
 call  the  country  that  lay  between  them  sometimes  by  one  name 
 
 and  sometimes  by  another. — I Veils'  Geog.  of  the  New  Test. 
 
 Gadara  was  one  of  the  ten  cities  of  the  Decapolis ;  and,  according 
 to  an  article  in  the  tweuty-sixth  volume  of  the  Quarterly  Review, 
 which  uses  the  authority  of  Mr  Bankes,  is  at  present  found 
 under  the  name  of  Oomkais:  where  are  extensive  ruins,  and 
 numerous  caverns  on  the  east  side  of  the  hill,  which  are  the 
 ancient  tombs;  in  many  of  which  Burckhardt  found  sarcophagi. 
 This  traveller  expresses  himself  doubtful  as  to  what  city  these 
 ruins  belong:  his  editor,  however,  considers  Oomkais  to  be 
 Gamala;  and  that  Gadara  was  situated  at  the  hot  springs  at  the 
 foot  of  the  hill.  Mr  Buckingham  has  given  a  very  good  de- 
 scription of  this  place ;  mistaking  it,  however,  as  appears,  for 
 Gamala. — Hansford's  Gazetteer,  p.  178. — Ed. 
 
 d  There  is  some  difference  between  the  evangelists  in  their 
 account  of  this  cure:  for  whereas  St  Mark  (v.  2.)  and  St  Luke 
 (viii.  27.)  take  notice  only  of  one  demoniac,  St  Matthew  (viii. 
 28.)  makes  mention  of  two.  Now,  to  reconcile  this  seeming 
 difference,  Dr  Lightfoot  ingeniously  conjectures  that  one  of 
 these  two  was  a  Gergesen,  and  a  Jew,  and  so  in  casting  the 
 devil  out  of  him,  our  Lord  did  no  more  than  what  he  had  fre- 
 quently done  in  Judea;  but  the  other  a  Gadaren,  that  is,  one  of 
 an  heathen  city,  as  Josephus  testifies;  for  which  reason  St 
 Mark  and  St  Luke  take  chiefly  notice  of  him,  as  a  more  remark- 
 able instance,  because  he  and  the  Syroplunician  woman  were 
 the  only  two  heathens  we  read  of  that  our  Saviour  cured.  But 
 there  is  a  farther  reason  for  the  evangelist's  taking  notice  of  one 
 rather  than  the  other,  and  that  is,  that  the  one,  in  his  behaviour, 
 was  more  remarkable  than  the  other;  was  possessed  of  an  un- 
 clean spirit,  called  himself  legion,  and  could  not  be  bound  with 
 letters  or  chains  ;  went  about  naked,  and  cutting  himself  with 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-rii.  I. 
 poor  rags  about  them,  came  running  towards  him,  and 
 fell  at  his  feet,  and  worshipped  him.  Hideous  specta- 
 cles were  they  both;  but  one,  much  fiercer  than  the 
 other,  made  dismal  outcries  both  day  and  night,  and  cut 
 his  flesh  with  sharp  stones  ;  and  though  he  had  been 
 often  bound  with  fetters  and  chains,  yet  he  as  often 
 broke  them  to  pieces,  ranging,  with  his  companion, 
 among  the  rocks  e  and  tombs,  and  so  very  furious  and 
 outrageous,  that  no  traveller  durst  pass  that  way. 
 Upon  their  approach  to  Jesus,  the  devils  who  spake  by 
 their  mouths,  declared  him  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  and 
 expressed  their  fear  of  his  being  come  to  /  torment 
 them  before  their  time.  They  acknowledged  their  number 
 to  be  vastly  great,  and,  if  he  cast  them  out  of  the  pos- 
 sessed persons,  implored  him  to  sutler  them  to  enter  s  into 
 
 stones;  and  when  he  was  cured,  distinguished  himself,  by  desir- 
 ing to  follow  Christ:  circumstances  all  which  St  Matthew 
 omits,  but  St  Mark  and  St  Luke  have  particularly  related,  and, 
 upon  these  accounts,  might  very  likely  think  that  he  fell  more 
 properly  under  their  consideration  than  the  other. — Whitby's 
 and  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 e  The  tombs  which  the  evangelists  here  mention  are  said  to 
 be  in  the  mountains,  and  in  the  wilderness.  For  the  custom  of 
 the  Jews  was,  to  have  their  tombs,  like  so  many  little  cells,  cut 
 out  in  the  sides  of  caverns,  and  hollow  parts  of  rocks  and  moun- 
 tains, at  some  distance  from  their  towns,  and  usually  in  very 
 lonely  and  desert  places;  "hence  they  often  served  as  places  of 
 shelter  to  the  houseless  wanderer,  or  such  poor  wretches  as  lep- 
 ers or  demoniacs,  who  were  driven  from  human  habitations; 
 places  indeed  which  might  seem  not  unsuitable  to  the  latter, 
 since  the  ancients  supposed  that  evil  demons  hovered  about 
 sepulchres." — Dr  Bioomfie Id.— Mr  Buckingham  tells  us  that 
 the  account  given  in  the  gospel  of  the  habitation  of  the  demoniac 
 out  of  whom  the  legion  of  devils  was  cast,  struck  him  veiy  for- 
 cibly while  wandering  among  savage  mountains  and  surrounded 
 by  tombs,  still  used  as  houses  by  individuals  and  even  by  whole 
 families.  A  finer  occasion  for  expressing  the  passions  of  mad- 
 ness in  all  their  violence,  contrasted  with  the  serene  virtue  and 
 benevolence  of  him  who  went  about  continually  doing  good, 
 could  hardly  be  chosen  for  the  pencil  of  an  artist;  and  a  faithful 
 delineation  of  the  rugged  and  wild  majesty  of  the  mountain 
 scenery  on  the  one  hand,  with  the  still  calm  of  the  lake  on  the 
 other,  would  give  an  additional  charm  to  the  picture. — Buck- 
 ingham's Travels. — Ed. 
 
 f  St  Jerome,  upon  the  passage  now  before  us,  is  apt  to  ima- 
 gine, that  as  slaves,  who  have  a  long  while  run  from  their  mas- 
 ter, no  sooner  see  his  face,  but  they  bethink  themselves  of  the 
 punishment  which  they  have  deserved;  so  the  devils,  finding 
 our  Saviour  upon  earth,  thought  at  first  sight  that  he  was  come 
 to  judge  and  condemn  them ;  and  therefore  they  ask,  '  Art  thou 
 come  hither  to  torment  us  before  the  time?'  that  is,  before  the 
 time  of  the  last  judgment,  when  they  expect  no  other  than  to  be 
 eternally  punished,  or,  as  the  scripture  expresses  it,  '  to  be  cast 
 into  the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone  for  ever.' — Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 g  In  Luke  viii.  31,  it  is  said,  that  '  the  devils  besought  him 
 that  he  would  not  command  them  to  go  out  into  the  deep.' 
 The  word  a&vaaof,  rendered  deep,  signifies,  in  this  passage,  the 
 place  where  wicked  spirits  are  punished ;  as  it  does  likewise, 
 Rev.  xx.  3,  where  it  is  translated  the  bottomless  pit.  Properly 
 it  denotes  a  place  without  a  bottom,  or  so  deep  that  it  cannot  be 
 fathomed.  The  Greeks  described  their  Tartarus  in  this  man- 
 ner; and  the  Jews,  when  they  wrote  Greek,  did  not  scruple  to 
 adopt  their  expressions,  because  they  were  universally  under- 
 stood. Besides,  the  Hebrew  language  did  not  furnish  proper 
 words  for  these  ideas,  which  was  the  reason  that  the  first  Chris- 
 tians also,  when  they  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  state  of  evil 
 spirits,  made  use  of  terms  purely  Greek,  such  as  ri'Sxj,  tx^tu.- 
 £utras,  &c.  (See  2  Pet.  ii.  4.)  Mark  says  the  devils  begged 
 that  Jesus  would  not  send  them  out  of  the  country.  To  explain 
 this  circumstance,  some  pretend  that  particular  genii  preside 
 over  particular  regions,  founding  their  opinion  on  Dan.  x.  13, 
 20.  And  because  the  prophet  speaks  there  of  angels  contending 
 with  one  another,  and  of  Michael's  assisting  one  of  the  parties, 
 
912 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1- 
 
 a  herd  of  swine  that  were  feeding  on  the  mountains  not 
 far  off.  Accordingly  he  permitted  them :  whereupon 
 the  whole  herd,  to  the  number  of  two  thousand,  ran  vio- 
 lently upon  the  rocks,  and  casting  themselves  headlong 
 into  the  lake,  were  all  drowned  and  utterly  lost. 
 
 The  keepers  of  the  swine  fled  in  the  utmost  fright, 
 and  reported  this  strange  accident  in  the  city  of  Gadara 
 and  the  neighbouring  villages,  which  brought  great  mul- 
 titudes to  the  place,  where  they  found  the  man,  who  had 
 been  the  more  furious  of  the  two,  sitting  at  our  Saviour's 
 feet,  clothed,  and  in  his  perfect  senses.  But,  whether  it 
 was  that  they  took  amiss  the  destruction  of  the  swine,  or 
 thought  themselves  unworthy  of  his  divine  presence,  so 
 it  was  that  they  intreated  our  Lord  to  depart  out  of  their 
 country ;  which  accordingly  he  did ;  a  but,  instead  of 
 permitting  the  man,  out  of  whom  he  had  cast  the  most 
 devils,  to  go  along  with  him,  as  he  desired,  he  ordered 
 him  l  *  to  return  to  his  house,  and  his  friends,  and  there 
 to  declare  what  wonderful  things  the  Lord  had  done  for 
 him.' 
 
 As  soon  as  our  Lord  had  repassed  the  lake,  and  was 
 returned  to  Capernaum,  the  people  came  flocking  about 
 him  as  usual ;  and,  while  he  was  teaching  them,  one 
 Jairus, b  a  chief  ruler  of  the  synagogue,  falling  prostrate 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23—  ix.  14.  LUKE  vi,  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v,  1— vii.  1. 
 
 at  his  feet,  humbly  besought  him  to  come  and  cure  his 
 daughter,  who  was  at  the  point  of  death ;  not  doubting 
 but  that,  if  he  laid  his  hands  upon  her,  she  would  instantly 
 recover.  The  forwardness  of  the  ruler's  faith  claimed 
 our  Saviour's  compassion  and  assistance  ;  and  therefore 
 he  immediately  rose,  and  followed  him  :  but,  as  he  was 
 on  the  way,  and  pressed  with  great  throngs  of  people, 
 a  certain  woman,  c  who  had  been  diseased  with  an  un- 
 natural flux  of  blood  for  twelve  years,  and,  in  hopes  of 
 a  cure,  had  in  vain  spent  all  her  estate  upon  physicians, 
 being  now  confident,  that  if  she  could  but  come  to  touch 
 the  hem  d  of  his  garment,  she  should  be  healed,  pressed 
 forward  ;  and  having  got  a  touch  of  it  privately,  as  she 
 thought,  found  herself  perfectly  sound.  But  she  was  not 
 unknown  to  Jesus  ;  and,  therefore,  when  he,  perceiving 
 that  e  '  virtue  was  gone  out  of  him,'  turned  about  in  the 
 throng,  and  demanded  who  it  was  that  /  had  touched 
 
 iMark  v.  19. 
 
 (ver.  13.)  they  think  the  war  was  waged  between  good  and  bad 
 genii.  For  as  kingdoms  and  provinces  are  supposed  to  be  com- 
 mitted to  the  care  of  benign  tutelar  powers,  so  the  evil  genii 
 have  their  provinces  assigned  to  them  by  their  chieftain,  in 
 which  they  are  to  do  all  the  mischief  they  can  to  mankind. 
 Pursuant  to  this  hypothesis,  its  abettors  fancy  that  the  band  of 
 evil  spirits  which  tormented  these  miserable  men  were  stationed 
 in  this  part  of  the  country  to  oppose  Christ,  and  so  begged  that 
 they  might  not  be  expelled,  thinking  they  could  do  more  mis- 
 chief here  than  elsewhere.  But  whatever  be  in  this,  certain  it 
 is,  that  by  making  such  a  request,  the  devils  acknowledged  that 
 it  was  not  in  the  power  even  of  a  legion  of  them,  to  do  any  mis- 
 chief to  so  contemptible  a  creature  as  a  swine  without  Christ's 
 permission,  far  less  could  they  destroy  the  man  in  whom  they 
 lodged.  The  whole  of  this  history  teaches  us  to  rely  on  the 
 providence  of  God,  and  not  to  live  in  fear  of  evil  spirits.  They 
 are  under  the  strictest  restraint,  and  cannot  hurt  us  without  the 
 divine  permission. — Macknight's  Harmony,  vol.  i.  18S  ■ — Ed. 
 
 a  One  reason,  as  some  imagine,  why  this  man  desired  to  be 
 with  Christ,  was  his  fear  lest  the  devil,  at  his  departure,  might 
 seize  upon  him  again ;  and  it  was  partly  to  avoid  the  suspicion 
 of  vain  glory,  whereof  our  Lord  might  have  given  some  umbrage, 
 had  he  carried  about  with  him  all  those  upon  whom  his  greatest 
 miracles  were  wrought,  and  partly  to  show,  that  in  his  absence 
 he  was  able  to  protect  such  as  believe  and  trust  in  him,  from  the 
 malice  of  evil  spirits,  that  he  would  not  accept  of  his  company. 
 —  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  Some  learned  men  are  of  opinion,  that  this  ruler  of  the 
 synagogue  was  the  president  of  the  consistory  of  the  twenty- 
 three  judges,  who  were  appointed  in  every  city  to  punish  such 
 offences  as  were  not  capital;  but  it  is  more  generally  thought, 
 that  he  was  not  a  civil  magistrate,  but  a  leading  man  in  the 
 synagogue  of  Capernaum,  who  had,  in  a  great  measure,  under 
 his  direction  such  things  as  related  to  the  service  of  God.  We 
 are  to  observe,  however,  that  the  word  cc;>xHrvva.'yoyos  is  some- 
 times taken,  in  a  strict  sense,  for  the  person  who  was  the  president, 
 the  head  and  master  of  the  synagogue,  who,  according  to  this 
 acceptation,  was  but  one  ;  and,  at  other  times,  in  a  larger  sense, 
 so  as  to  comprehend  the  presbyters,  and  elders  likewise,  in  which 
 sense  the  rulers  of  the  synagogue  were  more  than  one.  How 
 many  they  were,  is  no  where  denned  because  that  depended  upon 
 the  largeness  of  the  city,  and  the  number  of  those  who  frequented 
 the  place  of  divine  worship  ;  only  we  may  observe,  that  Jairus 
 was  not  the  chief  president,  because  he  is  called  '  one  of  the 
 rulers  of  the  synagogue,'  (Mark  v.  22.) — Vitringa  de  Regim. 
 Sj/nag.  b.  ii.  c.  11  ;  Calmct's  Commentary,  and  Hammond's 
 and  f Hatty's  Amiotations. 
 
 c  The  case  of  this  woman  was  a  very  afflicting  one :  1 .  Because 
 of  the  nature  of  her  malady  ;  it  was  such  as  could  not  be  made 
 public,  without  exposing  her  to  shame  and  contempt.  2.  It  was 
 an  inveterate  disorder ;  it  had  lasted  twelve  years.  3.  It  was 
 continual ;  she  appears  to  have  had  no  interval  of  health.  4. 
 Her  disorder  was  aggravated  by  the  medicines  she  used — she 
 suffered  much,  &c.  5.  Her  malady  was  ruinous  both  to  her 
 health  and  circumstances — she  spent  all  that  she  had.  6.  She 
 was  now  brought  to  the  last  point  of  wretchedness,  want,  and 
 despair  ;  she  was  growing  worse,  and  had  neither  money  nor 
 goods  to  make  another  experiment  to  procure  her  health.  7. 
 She  was  brought  so  low  by  her  disorder  as  to  be  incapable  of 
 earning  any  thing  to  support  her  wretched  life  a  little  longer. 
 It  has  been  said,  and  the  saying  is  a  good  one,  "man's  ex- 
 tremity is  God's  opportunity."  Never  could  the  power  and 
 goodness  of  God  be  shown  in  a  more  difficult  and  distressful  case. 
 And  now  Jesus  comes  and  she  is  healed. — A.  Clarke  on  Mark 
 v.  23. 
 
 d  Mark  ix.  20.  This  woman  having  probably  been  a  constant 
 witness  of  the  many  wonderful  miracles  wrought  by  Christ,  was 
 convinced  that  he  was  a  divine  person,  and  that  every  thing 
 belonging  to  him  was  sacred:  and  therefore,  as,  according  to 
 the  custom  of  the  eastern  nations,  to  kiss  the  fringe  of  any  con- 
 secrated robe,  {Arabian  Nights,  vol.  iv.  p.  236.)  was  an  act  of 
 the  most  profound  reverence,  so  by  touching  the  hem  of  our 
 Saviour's  garment  she  was  persuaded  that  she  should  not  only 
 pay  him  the  greatest  respect,  but  dispose  him  to  pity  her,  and 
 heal  her  disease ;  which  was  instantly  done.  The  garment  of 
 Christ,  in  consequence  of  the  humble  appearance  which  he  made 
 upon  earth,  was  not  ornamented  with  that  striking  appendage 
 which  usually  adorned  the  borders  of  the  eastern  garments,  a 
 beautiful  fringe.  Had  his  garment  been  in  the  prevailing  fashion 
 of  the  east,  the  woman  probably  would  have  been  represented 
 as  touching  the  fringe  of  his  garment,  instead  of  its  hem. — Ed. 
 
 e  Hence  it  is  evident,  that  the  virtue,  whereby  our  Saviour 
 did  these  miraculous  cures,  was  not  communicated  to  him,  but 
 resided  in  him,  and  consequently  proves  that  he  was  God.  For 
 the  virtue  whereby  the  prophets  and  apostles  did  their  cures  is 
 ascribed  to  God:  as  when  it  is  said,  that  '  God  did  special  mira- 
 cles by  the  hand  of  Paul,  (Acts  xix.  11. ;)  but  the  miracles  done 
 by  Christ  are  imputed  to  '  the  virtue  which  went  out  of  him, 
 and  healed  all  that  sought  to  touch  him,'  (Luke  vi.  19.)  '  The 
 virtue's  going  out  of  him,'  however,  is  a  popular  expression, 
 which  must  not  be  taken  in  its  literal  sense,  as  if  it  were  a 
 quality  distinct  from  the  person  of  Christ,  and  what  might  pass 
 from  him  to  another  ;  because  the  divine  power  residing  in  him 
 was  incapable  of  any  alienation  or  diminution,  be  the  cures  he 
 performed  ever  so  many,  ever  so  miraculous ;  and  therefore 
 the  only  meaning  of  the  expression  must  be,  that  it  went  out, 
 with  regard  to  us,  or  according  to  our  conceptions  and  apprehen- 
 sions of  things,  when  it  discovered  and  manifested  itself  in  the 
 cure  of  some  disease,  or  any  other  outward  effects. — Whitby's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 f  Our  Saviour's  disciples,  we  find,  admired  at  his  asking  this 
 question,  (Mark  v.  31.)  but  the  reason  for  his  doing  so,  we  may 
 suppose,  was  to  discover  to  the  people  the  greatness  of  the  mira-- 
 cle,  which,  without  this  examination,  might  have  gone  offwithout 
 
Skct.  ii.]  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c.  913 
 
 A   M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  l-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  1, 
 
 him  ?  The  poor  woman  came  trembling,  and  falling  down 
 at  his  feet,  declared  to  all  the  company,  both  the  cause 
 and  miraculous  effects  of  her  touching  him,  which  he  was 
 so  far  from  blaming,  that  he  commended  her  faith,  and 
 imputed  her  cure  to  the  wonderful  strength  of  it. 
 
 During  this  transaction,  the  delay  proved  fatal,  as  one 
 might  imagine,  to  Jairus ;  for  a  message  was  brought 
 him,  that  his  daughter  was  actually  dead,  and  therefore 
 there  was  no  occasion  to  give  Jesus  any  farther  trouble ; 
 but  our  Saviour,  who  overheard  what  the  messenger  said, 
 bid  the  father  not  fear,  but  only  believe,  and  then  he 
 should  find  the  blessed  effects  of  his  faith  in  the  recovery 
 of  his  daughter  :  but  he  had  scarce  spoke  these  words, 
 when  approaching  the  house,  he  found  the  musicians  a 
 and  mourners  already  come,  who  were  deploring  her 
 death  with  melancholy  tones  and  loud  lamentations,  ac- 
 cording to  the  custom  of  those  times.  He  desired  them 
 however,  as  he  went  in,  to  cease  their  funeral  ceremonies, 
 because  at  that  time,  b  there  was  no  occasion  for  them ; 
 and  so,  with  the  young  woman's  parents,  and  Peter,  and 
 James,  and  John,  going  into  the  chamber,  he  approached 
 the  bed  where  she  lay,  and  taking  her  by  the  hand,  com- 
 manded her  to  arise ;  at  which  powerful  word  she  imme- 
 diately revived,  and  walked  round  the  room,  to  the  no 
 small  amazement  of  her  parents.  At  his  departure,  he 
 ordered  them  to  give  her  something  to  eat,  and  left  a 
 strict  charge  with  them  that  they  should  make  the  miracle 
 a  secret;  but  their  joy  was  too  great  to  conceal  what, 
 
 being  known  ;  to  show  them  the  strength  and  virtue  of  the 
 woman's  faith  and  confidence  in  his  power  ;  and  thence  to  con- 
 vince Jairus,  who  began  a  little  to  stagger  in  his  faith,  that  he 
 was  able  to  revive  his  daughter,  even  though  she  was  dead,  if  he 
 <lid  but  believe. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Beausobre's 
 Annotations. 
 
 a  In  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  there  is  not  the  least 
 hint  given  us  of  any  musical  instruments  employed  in  funerals. 
 We  read  indeed  of  a  good  deal  of  mourning  for  the  dead,  of 
 mourners  hired  on  purpose,  and  of  the  dismal  ditties  which  these 
 people  sung,  to  excite  sorrow  in  others :  but  the  use  of  music 
 was  reckoned  an  incongruous  thing,  and  nowise  comporting 
 with  the  solemnity  of  this  sad  season.  Among  heathen  authors 
 there  is  frequent  mention  made  of  it,  as  a  thing  long  in  use,  both 
 with  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  and  therefore  we  may  presume, 
 that  from  these  nations  it  was  that  the  Jews  borrowed,  and  adopted 
 it  into  their  funeral  ceremonies.  That  among  them  it  was  in 
 use  in  our  Saviour's  time,  at  least  among  persons  of  the  better 
 rank,  is  plain  from  the  passage  now  before  us:  that  it  was  an 
 established  custom  in  the  time  of  Josephus,  is  evident  from  his 
 own  testimony;  and  that  it  grew  into  a  kind  of  superstitious  use, 
 in  the  times  following,  is  evident  from  what  the  rabbins  enjoin, 
 namely,  that  none,  even  of  the  meaner  sort,  should,  at  the  funeral 
 of  a  wife,  have  fewer  than  two  flutes,  besides  the  voices  of  old 
 women,  who,  by  their  sad  modulation,  were  to  extort  lamentation 
 from  others. — Seldenrs  Uxor.  Hcbr.  b.  iii.  c.  8.;  Hammond's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  reason  which  our  Saviour  gives  for  this,  is, — That  '  the 
 maid  was  not  dead,  but  asleep,'  (Mat.  ix.  24.)  Now,  in  several 
 places  of  the  New  Testament  especially,  death  is  called  a  sleep, 
 (John  xi.  11.  Act-i  vii.  CO.  1  Cor.  xv.  6.  &c.)  and  therefore  our 
 Saviour  only  makes  use  of  this  word  of  a  softer  signification,  not 
 so  much  with  a  design  to  impose  upon  those  to  whom  he  directed 
 his  speech,  as  tr  testify  his  humility,  and  great  modesty,  in  his 
 desire  to  concea  his  divine  power.  The  persons  he  spoke  to 
 were  certainly  those  who  were  preparing  for  her  interment,  and 
 performing  the  funeral  rites  belonging  to  it;  and  therefore  he 
 only  intimates,  that  she  was  not  so  dead  as  they  accounted  her, 
 tbat  is,  not  to  come  to  life  again  before  the  resurrection;  but 
 that  her  death  was  no  more  than  what  he  could  remove  with  the 
 same  facility  as  another  might  be  awakened  out  of  sleep. — 
 Whitby's,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 in  gratitude  for  so  great  a  mercy,  they  thought  they  were 
 obliged  to  divulge. 
 
 In  his  return  from  Jairus,  our  Lord  was  followed  in  the 
 streets  by  two  blind  men,  imploring  his  aid,  who,  as  soon 
 as  he  had  entered  the  house,  came  after  him,  and  when  he 
 had  cured  them,  were  dismissed  with  a  strict  charge 
 to  conceal  the  miracle,  which,  out  of  the  abundance 
 of  their  joy,  they  could  not  do.  And  no  sooner  were 
 the  blind  men  gone,  but  the  people  brought  to  him  a 
 dumb  man  possessed  with  a  devil,  which  when  he  had 
 cast  out,  the  person  immediately  recovered  his  speech, 
 to  the  great  astonishment  of  the  multitude,  who  unani- 
 mously acknowledged  that  the  like  had  never  been  in 
 Israel ;  only  the  Pharisees  persisted  in  their  old  malice, 
 and  insinuated  to  the  people,  as  formerly,  that  he  ejected 
 devils  by  the  help  of  some  supreme  devil,  who  had  the 
 rest  under  his  control,  and  with  whom  he  was  confed- 
 erate. 
 
 After  a  short  stay  at  Capernaum,  our  Lord  departed, 
 with  his  disciples,  into  some  other  parts  of  Galilee. 
 About  a  year  before,  he  had  been  barbarously  treated  by 
 the  inhabitants  of  Nazareth,  the  place  of  his  education  ; 
 and  yet,  notwithstanding  this,  he  was  resolved  once  more 
 to  make  them  a  fresh  tender  of  mercy.  To  this  purpose 
 he  went  into  their  synagogue  on  the  sabbath-day,  and 
 taught  the  people  ;  but,  instead  of  being  converted  to  the 
 faith,  though  they  were  astonished  at  his  abilities,  they 
 were  scandalized  at  his  person,  and  began  to  upbraid  him 
 with  the  meanness  c  of  his  parentage  and  employment, 
 as  they  had  done  before  ;  insomuch,  that  being  sensible 
 that  d  '  a  prophet  never  wanted  honour  but  in  his  own 
 country,'  he  did  not  abide  with  them  long  :  nor  did  he 
 work  any  miracles  there,  except  the  cure  of  a  few  sick 
 persons;  by  reason  of  their  infidelity.  e 
 
 Upon  his  departure  from  Nazareth,  he  visited  most  of 
 the  cities  and  villages  of  Galilee,  teaching  in  the  syna- 
 gogues, preaching  the  gospel,  and  curing  all  kinds  of 
 diseases  among  the  people  ;  and  as  he  observed,  one 
 day,  the  numerous  throngs  and  multitudes  that  resorted 
 to  him,  he  looked  upon  them  with  an  eye  of  pity  and 
 compassion,  as  so  many  sheep  dispersed  and  destitute 
 of  shepherds  :  and  from  thence  formed  a  resolution  to 
 
 c  The  word  rixrav  is  of  general  signification,  and  denotes  any 
 worker,  either  in  wood,  metal,  or  stone;  but  the  tradition  of  the 
 church  has  all  along  been,  that  our  blessed  Saviour  was,  what  our 
 translation  has  specified,  a  carpenter;  and  Justin  Martyr  assures 
 us,  that  he  made  ploughs  and  yokes,  which  at  that  time  were 
 the  carpenter's  business.  However  this  be,  it  is  certain  that  by 
 the  Jewish  canons,  all  parents  were  bound  to  teach  their  children 
 some  trade:  that  their  most  celebrated  rabbins  thought  it  a  great 
 reproach  not  to  be  of  some  profession ;  and  that  there  was  a 
 peculiar  reason,  why  our  Saviour  should  he  of  one,  and  that  no 
 very  liberal  one  neither,  even  to  take  ofl'all  suspicion  of  his  being 
 bred  up  in  curious  arts,  which  his  enemies  at  all  times  were 
 forward  enough  to  say,  notwithstanding  the  disadvantages  of  his 
 education. —  Beausobrc's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  This  was  a  common  proverb  among  other  nations,  as  well  as 
 the  Jews ;  and  therefore  Aristides  was  wont  to  say,  that  '  a  philo- 
 sopher was  never  worse  than  at  home.' — Grotius  on  Mat. 
 xiii.  57. 
 
 e  Our  Saviour  could  not  work  miracles  among  his  countrymen 
 the  Nazarenes,  says  Theophylact,  not  because  he  wanted  power, 
 but  because  the  subjects  of  the  miracles  were  unbelieving,  and 
 therefore,  as  Whitby  says,  wanted  the  condition  on  which  alone 
 it  was  fit  he  should  heal  them ;  Christ  could  not,  consistently 
 with  the  rule  on  which  he  invariably  acted  in  performing  mira- 
 cles, namely,  to  require  faith  in  his  divine  mission,  perform 
 these  miracles  among  the  Nazarenes. — Btoomfield. — En. 
 5  z 
 
914 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  403.).  A.  D.  31  :  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  t— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 send  out  his  twelve  apostles,  by  two  and  two  together, 
 into  the  more  distant  parts  of  Judea,  whilst  himself  con- 
 tinued preaching  in  Galilee,  and  the  places  adjacent. 
 
 To  this  purpose  a  he  invested  them  with  a  full  power 
 to  cure  all  diseases,  eject  devils,  and  even  raise  the 
 dead.  h  He  gave  them  instructions  in  what  manner  they 
 were  to  behave  in  the  places  whither  they  went ;  but  for- 
 bade thenr.,  at  the  same  time,  to  address  themselves  to  any 
 of  the  Gentiles,  or  Samaritans,  but  only  to  the  lost  c  sheep 
 of  the  house  of  Israel.  He  told  them  the  consequences  of 
 their  ministry,  which,  after  his  death  more  especially, 
 instead  of  entitling  them  to  temporal  advantages,  would 
 expose  them  to  sundry  kinds  of  persecutions ;  but  for 
 their  encouragement,  he  acquainted  them,  that  those  who 
 rejected  their  message  should  be  treated  with  severity, 
 at  least  at  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  ;  whereas  those 
 that  received  them  kindly,  and  gave,  were  it  but  a  cup 
 of  cold  water,  to  the  least  of  his  disciples,  for  their 
 Master's  sake,  should  in  no  wise  miss  of  their  reward. 
 With  this  commission  the  apostles  went  into  all  the  parts 
 of  Palestine,  where  the  Jews  inhabited,  preaching  the 
 gospel,  and  the  doctrine  of  repentance  as  part  of  it, 
 working  miracles  for  its  confirmation,  and d  anointing 
 
 a  Among  all  the  accounts  which  the  heathens  have  given  us 
 of  their  famous  magicians,  and  workers  of  wonders,  there  are 
 none  to  be  found  who  ever  pretended  to  a  power  to  delegate  their 
 virtue  to  others,  or  to  impart  their  power  to  them,  upon  the  in- 
 vocation of  their  names,  or  belief  of  their  doctrine.  Hence  Ar- 
 nobius,  (advers.  Gentes,  b.  i.)  having  summed  up  the  miracles 
 which  our  Saviour  did,  adds,  that  he  not  only  did  them  by  his 
 power,  but  permitted  many  others  to  do  them  by  invocation  of 
 his  name,  nor  did  he  any  peculiar  and  astonishing  miracles  him- 
 self, that  he  did  not  enable  his  little  ones,  and  even  rustics,  to 
 perform.  Whereupon  he  asks  those  he  writes  to,  Did  ever 
 that  Jupiter,  whom  the  Romans  worship  in  their  capitol,  give  the 
 like  power  to  any  mortal?  And  then  concludes  this  to  be  a  de- 
 monstration of  a  truly  divine  power:  for,  to  transfer  your  mira- 
 culous power  to  a  man,  and  to  give  authority  and  strength  to  a 
 creature  to  do  that  which  you  alone  can  do,  is  an  infallible  evi- 
 dence of  one  who  hath  power  over  all,  and  the  causes  of  all  things 
 at  his  beck. —  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  clause  *  raise  the  dead '  (Mat.  x.  S.)  is  rejected  by  the 
 generality  of  critics,  as  it  is  wanting  in  many  ancient  copies  of 
 authority,  and  also  as  it  does  not  appear  that  the  disciples  raised 
 any  dead  persons  previous  to  our  Lord's  resurrection.  Other 
 critics,  however,  defend  the  clause,  and  it  would  appear  that 
 the  evidences  for  and  against  it  are  pretty  nearly  balanced.  If  it 
 be  retained,  it  may  be  considered  as  having  a  reference  to  events 
 which  were  not  to  take  place  till  after  our  Lord's  resurrection, 
 when  his  apostles  received  a  more  extensive  commission. — Ed. 
 
 c  He  calls  all  Israel  sheep,  though  they  were  not  obedient  to 
 the  voice  of  the  shepherds  as  being  all  chosen  people.  He  calls 
 them  lost  sheep,  because  they  were  in  great  danger  of  being  lost 
 and  mined  by  the  ignorance  and  wickedness  of  their  guides; 
 and  to  them  the  apostles  were  sent,  because  they  were  the 
 children  of  the  kingdom,  (Mat.  viii.  12,)  to  whom  the  promise  of 
 the  Messiah  was  made,  (Gen.  xvii.  1,)  and  of  whom  as  concerning 
 the  fl«  sh  he  came,  (Rom.  ix.  5;)  and  therefore  it  was  the  divine 
 will,  that  they  should  be  first  honoured  with  the  preaching  of  the 
 gospel,  and  alone  enjoy  the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  his 
 disciples,  while  he  continued  upon  earth.  But,  upon  their  re- 
 jecting of  so  great  salvation,  the  apostle's  commission  was  en- 
 larged. For  '  it  was  necessary,'  says  St  Paul  to  the  Jews,  '  that 
 the  word  of  God  should  first  have  been  spoken  to  yon;  but  seeing 
 you  put  it  from  you,  and  judge  yourselves  unworthy  of  everlasting 
 life,  lo,  we  turn  to  the  Gentiles.'  (Acts  xiii.  46.) — Whitby's  and 
 licaiisobre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  That  it  was  usual  with  the  Jews  to  prescribe  oil  as  a  proper 
 thing  to  anoint  the  sick,  in  order  to  their  recovery,  Dr  Lightfoot, 
 upon  Mark  vi.  13,  has  fully  proved;  nor  can  we  think  that  the 
 apostles,  having  no  command  from  Christ  to  do  so,  would  have 
 used  this  ceremony,  had  it    not  been    customary  among  tlieir 
 
 the  sick,  for  a  token  of  their  recovery,  whilst  our  Lord 
 continued  the  course  of  his  ministry  in  Galilee. 
 
 It  was  now  about  a  year  since  Herod  Antipas  had 
 committed  John  the  Baptist  close  prisoner  to  the  castle 
 Macha;rus,e  and  upon  the  return  of  his  birthday,/ having 
 made  a  splendid  entertainment  for  the  lords  and  chief 
 officers  of  his  dominions,  he  was  infinitely  pleased  with 
 the  dancing  of  a  young  lady,  daughter  to  his  unlawful 
 wife  Herodias/  insomuch  that,  in  the  height  of  his  mirth 
 and  jollity,  he  promised,  with  the  addition  of  an  oath, 
 to  grant  her  whatever  she  demanded/'  though  it  amounted 
 to  half  of  his  dominions.  Unwilling  to  lose  so  fair  an 
 opportunity,  she  immediately  consulted  with  her  mother 
 what  favour  to  ask,  who,  being  prompted  by  the  height 
 of  her  malice  and  revenge,  named  the  head  of  John  the 
 Baptist*  to  be  given  her  ;  which  the  daughter  accordingly 
 
 countrymen:  bnt  whether  they  did  it  symbolically,  in  hopes  of 
 obtaining  to  the  patient  the  oil  of  gladness,  or  only  medicinally, 
 it  is  certain,  that  the  virtue  which  attended  it,  when  used  by  the 
 apostles,  could  not  be  natural  and  inherent  in  the  oil,  but  must 
 be  supernatural,  and  derived  from  him  who  sent  them,  because 
 this  unction  always  produced  a  certain  and  constant  cure  in  those 
 that  were  anointed. — IVTiitly's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Both  the  city  and  fort  that  were  called  by  this  name,  were 
 situated  beyond  Jordan,  about  two  leagues  from  that  river,  on 
 the  north-east  side  of  the  lake  Asphaltites,  or  Dead  Sea,  and 
 not  far  distant  from  the  place  where  the  river  discharges  itself 
 into  it.  It  was  in  the  hands  of  Aretas,  king  of  Arabia,  when  he 
 married  his  daughter  to  Herod  Antipas ;  but  how  it  afterwards 
 came  into  Herod's  possession,  as  it  certainly  was  when  he  be- 
 headed John  the  Baptist,  we  have  no  account  from  history. — 
 CalmeVs  Commentary. 
 
 /That  it  was  an  usual  custom  with  kings  to  celebrate  the  day 
 of  their  birth,  and  that  of  their  accession  to  the  throne,  for  the 
 word  may  be  applied  to  either,  with  great  solemnity,  we  have  an 
 example  as  old  as  Pharaoh,  (Gen.  xl.  20,)  nor  need  we  doubt  but 
 that,  on  such  joyful  occasions,  there  were  music  and  dancing, 
 and  all  manner  of  diversions  to  entertain  the  company;  but  that 
 persons  of  the  first  rank  and  distinction  should  act  any  part  in 
 these  diversions,  was  a  rare  and  unwonted  thing;  and  therefore  St 
 Chrysostom,  (in  Mat.  horn,  xlix.)  is  of  opinion,  that  Herodias, 
 foreseeing  what  would  happen,  forced  this  young  lady  upon  a 
 thing  which  would  have  better  become  an  actress  upon  the  stage. 
 — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 y  This  Herodias,  as  Josephus  relates  the  matter,  in  contempt 
 of  the  laws  of  her  country,  was  married  again  to  Herod,  the 
 natural  brother  of  her  husband,  separating  herself  from  him 
 whilst  living,  although  he  had  a  child  by  her  ;  so  that  being 
 guilty  both  of  incest  and  adultery,  she  might  well  be  called  his 
 unlawful  wife. — Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  17. 
 
 h  An  offer  like  this  we  find  Ahasuerus,  a  great  Persian 
 monarch,  making  Queen  Esther,  chap.  v.  3. 
 
 i  It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  take  notice  of  the  remarkable 
 providence  of  God,  in  avenging  the  death  of  this  righteous  man 
 upon  Herod,  Herodias,  and  her  daughter.  1st,  As  the  war 
 between  Herod  and  Aretas,  king  of  Arabia,  was  occasioned  by 
 Herod's  wicked  contract  with  Herodias  to  eject  his  daughter, 
 who  was  his  lawful  wife,  and  to  marry  her  who  was  his  brother 
 Philip's;  so  Josephus  declares,  that  the  Jews  looked  upon  his 
 putting  John  to  death  as  the  cause  of  the  miscarriage  of  his  arm)', 
 God  being  angry  with  him  for  the  death  of  John  the  Baptist. 
 2d,  Envying  the  glory  of  her  brother  Agrippa,  upon  whom  Cali- 
 gula had  conferred  the  title  of  a  king,  Herodias  prevailed  with 
 her  husband  to  repair  to  Rome,  in  order  to  request  the  like  favour 
 of  the  emperor;  but  the  emperor,  having  received  a  bad  im- 
 pression against  him,  instead  of  granting  what  he  desired,  deprived 
 him  of  his  government,  and  banished  both  her  and  him  to  Lyons 
 in  France,  where  they  lived  ingloriously,  and  died  miserably; 
 and  this,  according  to  Josephus,  {Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  9.)  was  done 
 in  punishment  of  her  envy,  and  of  his  readiness  to  hearken  to 
 her  solicitations.  And,  3d,  Of  her  daughter,  it  is  related,  that 
 as  she  was  going  over  the  ice  in  winter,  the  ice  broke,  and  let 
 her  in  up  to  the  head,  which,  upon  the  meeting  of  the  ice  again, 
 was  severed  from  her  body.  And  this  stoiy,  if  it  be  true,  as  it 
 is  confidently  told  us  by  Nicephorus,  Hist.  Eccl.  b.  i.  c.  20,  is  & 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 915 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT  .  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  «— vii.  I. 
 
 demanded  of  the  king,  in  the  presence  of  the  whole 
 assembly. 
 
 This  strange  request  at  first  caused  an  exceeding'  damp 
 upon  the  king's  spirits  ;a  but  having  recovered  himself, 
 out  of  a  pretended  reverence  to  his  oath,  and  respect  to 
 his  nobility  then  present,  he  sent  an  executioner,  b  who 
 beheaded  c  John,  and  brought  his  head  in  a  charger  to 
 the  young  lady,  which  she  presented  to  her  mother  ;  but, 
 as  for  his  body,  his  disciples,  when  they  came  to  hear  of 
 his  death,  took  care  d  to  bury  it,  and  to  bring  Jesus  the 
 news  of  the  tragical  fate  that  had  befallen  their  Master. 
 
 wonderful  instance  of  God's  avenging  providence. — Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 a  Herod  was  no  more  than  a  tetrarch,  or  one  of  those  four 
 among  whom  his  father's  kingdom  was  divided;  but  St  Mark, 
 (vi.  14,)  gives  him  the  title  of  a  king,  as  himself  no  doubt  was 
 fond  enough  of  it,  and  perhaps,  in  the  provinces  under  his 
 dominions,  was  generally  called  by  it.  Why  he  came  to  be  con- 
 cerned at  the  young  lady's  desiring  so  strange  a  boon  as  that  of 
 the  Baptist's  head,  is  no  wonder.  The  very  mention  of  such  a 
 thing  from  such  a  person,  and  in.  such  an  assembly,  was  enough 
 to  shock  any  man  of  less  than  uncommon  barbarity ;  but  then  the 
 evangelists  inform  us,  that  Herod  had  conceived  a  good  opinion 
 of  the  Baptist,  as  a  just  and  holy  man,  and  when  he  heard  him, 
 as  he  did  it  very  gladly,  in  many  things  he  followed  his  advice, 
 (Mark  vi.  20;)  and  not  only  so,  but  feared  the  resentment  of  the 
 people  likewise,  with  whom  he  was  in  high  esteem,  when  they 
 should  come  to  be  informed  of  the  cause  and  circumstances  of 
 his  death,  (Mat.  xiv.  5.)  There  might,  however,  be  another 
 reason,  less  observed,  for  Herod's  concern  upon  this  occasion. 
 It  was  now  his  birth-day ;  and  it  was  usual,  even  among  heathen 
 princes,  at  such  a  time  to  be  gay  and  merry,  to  think  of  no  ill 
 omens,  to  surcease  all  contentions,  and  not  so  much  as  to  de- 
 prive of  life  even  condemned  criminals,  on  that  day  when  the 
 sovereign  of  the  country  received  his,  lest  they  should  offend  or 
 sadden  the  genius  that  presided  over  their  nativity;  and  there- 
 fore it  is  more  than  probable  that  Herod,  who  was  more  than 
 half  a  pagan,  might  have  the  same  notion  of  the  thing.  But  if 
 he  had  not,  it  can  hardly  be  thought  but  that  such  an  execution 
 would  damp  the  joy  of  the  meeting,  and  procure  him  more  ene- 
 mies among  the  thinking  part  of  the  company,  than  the  non-per- 
 formance of  a  wicked  and  illegal  oath  could  have  done. — Ham- 
 mond s  Annotations  and  C'almct's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  word  airiKivXaru^,  which  we  render  executioner,  in  the 
 history  of  the  Roman  emperors,  signifies  a  soldier  of  the  guard; 
 and  among  the  Jews,  Romans,  Chaldeans,  and  Egyptians,  it 
 was  customary  for  one  of  the  king's  guard  to  be  the  executioner 
 of  those  whom  he  had  condemned  to  death. — Hammond's  An- 
 notations. 
 
 c  Thus  died  the  great  forerunner  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  about 
 two  years  and  three  months  after  his  entrance  upon  his  public 
 ministry,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  and  was  the  first 
 who  suffered  upon  the  account  of  the  gospel,  though  seldom 
 called  the  first  martyr.  "  lie  was  indeed  a  man,"  according 
 to  the  character  which  Josephus  gives  of  him,  "  endued  with  all 
 virtue,  who  exhorted  the  Jews  to  the  practice  of  justice  towards 
 men,  and  piety  towards  God,  and  also  to  baptism,  which  would 
 become  acceptable  to  God,  if  they  renounced  their  sins,  and  to 
 the  cleanness  of  their  bodies  added  the  purity  of  their  souls." — 
 Antiq.  b.  xviii.  c.  7. 
 
 d  When  Herodias  had  got  the  Baptist's  head  in  her  posses- 
 sion, it  is  said,  that  she  thrust  his  tongue  through  with  her  bod- 
 kin, and  for  fear  that  the  head,  if  buried  with  the  body,  should 
 be  reunited,  and  rise  again  to  disturb  her  unlawful  lust,  and  dis- 
 quiet Herod's  conscience,  she  buried  it  in  her  own  palace:  but 
 where  his  disciples  buried  his  body,  the  evangelists  have  not 
 informed  us;  only  we  are  so  told,  that  in  the  time  of  Julian  the 
 apostate,  his  tomb  was  shown  at  Samaria,  where  the  inhabitants 
 of  the  countiy  opened  it,  and  burnt  part  of  his  bones ;  but  the 
 rest  were  saved  by  some  Christians,  that  carried  them  to  one 
 Philip,  an  abbot  at  Jerusalem,  who  presented  them  to  St  Atha- 
 nasius;  but  some  time  after,  when  Theodosius  built  a  church  in 
 honour  of  the  Baptist,  in  the  place  where  the  temple  of  Serapis 
 stood,  a.  D.  396,  these  holy  relics  were  reposited  in  it.  Though 
 tvliat  became  of  his  head  we  no  where  read ;  only  the  Abbot 
 
 About  the  same  time  that  Jesus  was  informed  of  John's 
 death  by  his  disciples,  his  own  apostles  returned  from 
 their  several  journeys,  and  gave  him  an  account  of  all 
 their  transactions.  The  fame  of  the  miracles  which  our 
 Saviour,  both  by  himself  and  his  apostles,  had  wrought, 
 gave  Herod  some  ground  to  think,  that  the  person  who 
 did  them  was  John,  whom  he  had  unjustly  murdered,  and 
 who  now  very  probably  e  was  risen  from  the  dead  to  revenge 
 his  blood  upon  him  ;  and  therefore,  knowing  the  subtilty 
 and  cruelty  of  that  prince,  our  Saviour  ordered  his  apos- 
 tles to  prepare  a  vessel,  wherein  he,  and  they  only,  might 
 cross  the  sea  of  Galilee,  and  retire  for  a  little  while  from 
 the  multitude  to  a  desert  near  Bethsaida.  But  in  vain 
 was  it  for  him  to  think  of  concealing  himself:  the 
 people,  seeing  where  he  took  shipping,  ran  after  him  on 
 foot  by  the  lake  side,  and,  though  they  had  a  great  cir- 
 cuit of  land  to  take,  were  got  into  the  desert  almost  as 
 soon  as  he ;  which  singular  instance  of  their  zeal  so  af- 
 fected his  compassion,  that  though  he  came  to  that  place 
 for  the  sake  of  retirement,  he  could  no  longer  withhold 
 his  presence  from  them  ;  but,  ascending  a  mountain,  and 
 taking  his  disciples  with  him,  he  there  first  instructed 
 them  in  several  things  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God, 
 and  having  afterwards  cured  their  sick  and  diseased,  he, 
 at  last,  fed  them  all,  to  the  number  of  five  thousand  men, 
 besides  women  and  children,  with  five  barley-loaves, 
 and  two  small  fishes,  having  at  first  invoked  a  blessing  / 
 
 Villeloin  tells  us  in  his  Memoirs,  that  he  saw  one  at  Amiens, 
 but  that  this  was  the  fifth  or  sixth  head  of  the  Baptist  that,  in 
 the  course  of  his  travels,  he  had  the  honour  to  kiss. — Theodoret. 
 Hist.  Eecl.  b.  ili.  c.  3.  Rvffin.  Hist.  c.  27.  and  CalmeVs  Dic- 
 tionary under  the  word. 
 
 e  Erasmus  indeed  thinks,  that  as  Herod  was  of  the  sect  of  the 
 Sadducees,  who  denied  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  (comp.  Mat. 
 xvi.  6.  Mark  viii.  15.)  he  might  say  by  way  of  irony  to  his  ser- 
 vants, (Mat.xiv.2.)  'This  is  John  the  Baptist:  he  is  risen  from 
 the  dead;'  ridiculing  the  notions  of  the  vulgar,  and  those  who 
 joined  in  that  opinion.  And  the  solution  might  have  passed, 
 had  not  Herod  been  perplexed  on  this  occasion,  Luke  ver.  7. 
 The  image  of  the  Baptist,  whom  he  wrongfully  put  to  death, 
 presented  itself  often  to  his  thoughts,  and  tormented  him. 
 Therefore,  when  it  was  reported  that  he  was  risen  from  the  dead, 
 and  was  working  miracles,  Herod  feared  some  punishment  would 
 be  inflicted  on  him  for  his  crime,  and  in  the  confusion  of  his 
 thoughts,  said,  that  John  was  risen  from  the  dead,  notwithstand- 
 ing he  was  a  Sadducee.  Nay,  he  might  say  this,  although  he 
 had  heard  of  Jesus  and  his  miracles  before,  there  being  nothing 
 more  common,  than  for  persons  in  vehement  perturbation  to  talk 
 inconsistently.  Besides,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  arrive  at  a  steady 
 belief  of  so  great  an  absurdity  as  the  annihilation  of  the  human 
 mind.  The  being  of  a  God,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the 
 rewards  and  punishments  of  a  future  state,  with  the  other  great 
 principles  of  natural  religion,  often  obtrude  themselves  upon  un- 
 believers, in  spite  of  all  their  eflbrts  to  banish  them,  and  leave  a 
 sting  behind  them  in  the  conscience,  whose  pain,  however  it 
 may  be  concealed,  cannot  easily  be  allayed.  Of  this,  Herod  is 
 a  remarkable  example.  For,  notwithstanding  he  was  a  kiny, 
 his  conscience  made  itself  heard  and  felt  amidst  all  the  noise, 
 the  hurry,  the  flatteries,  and  the  debaucheries  of  a  court. — 
 Mackniyht 's  Harmony. — En. 
 
 /The  evangelists  make  use  of  two  words  upon  this  occasion, 
 '  blessing,'  and  '  giving  thanks ;'  and  by  the  former  of  these  some 
 interpreters  understand  the  multiplying  virtue,  which  he  then 
 commanded  down  upon  the  sustenance  that  he  was  going  to  give 
 to  the  people,  and  its  marvellous  increase  in  the  hands  of  the 
 distributors,  whereby  it  became  a  repast  sufficient  for  sn 
 large  a  multitude:  though  others  think  that  he  did  no  more  than 
 what  we  call  'saying  grace,'  that  is,  thanked  God  for  his  boim 
 tiful  provision  of  all  things,  and  bogged  his  blessing  upon  what 
 he  was  going  to  dispense  among  the  people,  that  it  mi-fit  tend 
 to  the  wholesome  nourishment  of  their  bodies.     However  this 
 
916 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.    xii.  1-xvii.  It.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  »— ix.  37  JOHN  v.  I  — viii.  I 
 
 upon  them,  and  that  with  a  plenty  so  exuberant,  that 
 the  very  fragments  a  which  remained  filled  twelve 
 baskets. 
 
 This  miraculous  multiplication  made  such  an  impres- 
 sion upon  the  multitude,  that  they  no  longer  doubted  of 
 his  being  the  Messiah,  and  were  therefore  resolved  to 
 set  him  up  for  their  king  by  main  force  ;  but  he,  knowing 
 the  mischief  of  such  a  design,  constrained  his  disciples, 
 who  were  forward  enough  perhaps  to  join  in  the  thing, 
 immediately  to  take  shipping,  and  to  pass  by  Bethsaida  * 
 to  Capernaum,  whilst  himself  dismissed  the  multitude; 
 and,  when  he  had  so  done,  continued,  till  after  midnight, 
 in  meditation  and  prayer. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  ship  where  the  apostles  were  on 
 board  was  tossed  with  a  great  storm  in  the  middle  of  the 
 lake.  The  waves  ran  so  high,  and  the  wind  was  so  con- 
 trary, that  as  soon  as  morning  appeared,  they  had  not 
 got  much  above  a  league  on  their  voyage,  when  our  Sa- 
 viour came  walking  c  upon  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and 
 drew  near  towards  the  ship.  This  strange  appearance, 
 d  which  they  took  for  a  spirit,  increased  their  fear  not  a 
 little.     Our  Lord  indeed,  to  dispel  it,  told  them  who  he 
 
 ■ 1 — • 
 
 be,  it  is  enough  to  warrant  the  indifferent  use  of  these  two 
 words,  that  the  forms  of  address  to  Almighty  God,  upon  the  use 
 of  his  gifts  for  our  refreshment,  have  usually  been  of  a  mixed 
 nature,  as  consisting  partly  of  praises,  and  partly  of  petitions  ; 
 because  the  end  of  such  devotions  is  manifestly  twofold,  namely, 
 to  render  our  acknowledgments  to  God  for  his  liberality,  and 
 then  to  beg  of  him  that  the  good  creatures  which  he  hath  given 
 
 us  may  be  sanctified  to  our  use Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and 
 
 Gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
 a  It  was  a  sufficient  reason  for  our  Saviour's  ordering  the 
 fragments  to  be  gathered  up  and  put  into  baskets,  that  from  them 
 might  appear  both  the  reality  of  the  miracle  and  the  exceeding 
 greatness  of  the  increase ;  but  because  our  Lord  assigns  another, 
 by  saying,  '  Gather  up  the  fragments,  that  nothing  may  be 
 lost,'  he  hath  herein  showed  us  that  all  reserving  for  the  future 
 is  not  unlawful;  that  charity  is  very  consistent  with  frugality; 
 indeed,  not  only  that  they  may,  but  that  they  should  go  toge- 
 ther; for  God  will  be  sure  to  make  a  mighty  difference  between 
 the  virtue  and  the  specious  extreme  beyond  it;  between  the  lib- 
 eral and  the  lavish  man. — Ibid. 
 
 b  St  Mark  tells  us,  that  our  Saviour  ordered  his  apostles  to 
 cross  the  sea,  and  wait  for  him  on  the  other  side  at  Bethsaida. 
 (vi.  45.)  St  John  writes,  that  accordingly  they  entered  into 
 the  ship,  but  instead  of  going  where  they  were  directed,  they 
 steered  their  course  towards  Capernaum,  (chap.  vi.  17.)  and  yet 
 after  all,  if  we  will  believe  St  Matthew,  they  landed  at  last,  nei- 
 ther at  Bethsaida,  nor  Capernaum,  but  in  the  country  of  Gen- 
 nesareth,  (chap.  xiv.  34.)  Now,  to  reconcile  this,  we  need  only 
 remember  what  all  the  evangelists  tell  us,  namely,  that  while  the 
 apostles  were  on  board,  there  arose  a  strong  gale  of  wind,  which, 
 blowing  them  from  the  north,  proved,  in  a  manner,  quite  con- 
 trary to  them,  so  that,  instead  of  making  the  port  of  Bethsaida, 
 which  is  on  the  north  coast  of  the  sea  of  Galilee,  the  next  morn- 
 ing they  found  themselves  on  the  opposite  side,  not  far  from 
 Tiberias,  and  to  the  south  of  Capernaum.  Though  therefore  our 
 Saviour  ordered  them  to  go  to  Bethsaida,  yet  they  could  not  do 
 it,  because  the  wind  was  against  them.  Their  next  attempt 
 therefore  was  to  get  to  Capernaum ;  but  even  that  they  could  not 
 do;  but  being  forced  to  yield  to  the  storm,  were  carried  a  good 
 way  below  to  the  south  of  it,  from  whence  they  just  touched  at 
 Nazareth,  and  thence  proceeded  to  Capernaum. —  Calmet's  Com- 
 inentary. 
 
 c  Among  several  other  instances  of  God's  omnipotence,  Job 
 mentions  this  as  one,  that  '  he  treadeth  upon  the  waves  of  the 
 sea,'  Job  ix.  8. 
 
 d  It  was  a  common  opinion  among  the  Jews,  that  spirits  did 
 sometimes  appear  clothed  in  a  human  form;  but  what  put  the 
 apostles  at  this  time  in  the  greater  fright,  was  their  imagining, 
 that  those  who  appeared  at  night,  were  usually  evil  spirits,  and 
 that  this,  which  they  now  saw,  might  possibly  be  the  demon  who 
 had  raised  the  storm. —  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 was  ;  but  Peter,  still  doubtful,  wanted  a  demonstration, 
 which  when  he  permitted  him  to  try,  and  the  apostle7 
 upon  the  experiment,  was  ready  to  sink,  he  graciously 
 reached  out  his  hand,  and,  with  a  gentle  rebuke  for  the 
 weakness  of  his  faith,  setting  him  again  upon  the  top  of 
 the  waves,  walked  along  with  him  to  the  vessel ;  which 
 they  had  no  sooner  entered,  but  the  winds,  knowing  their 
 duty  to  their  sovereign,  ceased.  This  the  rest  of  the 
 disciples  observing,  came  and  adored  Jesus,  acknow- 
 ledging his  omnipotence,  and  admiring  the  divinity  of 
 his  power  and  person  ;  and  as  it  was  not  long  before  the 
 ship  gained  the  port,  great  numbers  out  of  the  country, 
 as  soon  as  they  understood  that  he  was  arrived,  brought 
 their  sick  and  diseased  on  beds,  and  laid  them  before 
 him  in  the  streets,  beseeching  him  to  permit  them  only 
 to  touch  the  border  of  his  garment,  and  as  many  as 
 touched  him  were  made  whole. 
 
 The  multitudes  whom  our  Lord  had  miraculously  fed 
 in  the  desert  near  Bethsaida,  were  in  expectation  of  find- 
 ing him  the  next  morning  on  the  mountain  ;  for  they  had 
 seen  the  disciples  take  shipping  without  their  Master, 
 and  no  other  vessel  left  for  him :  but  perceiving  that  he 
 was  gone,  as  well  as  his  disciples,  and  having  an  oppor- 
 tunity of  other  vessels  from  Tiberias,  they  passed  over 
 with  all  expedition  to  Capernaum,  where  they  found  him 
 teaching  in  the  synagogues  ;  and  being  in  no  small  sur- 
 prise, desired  to  know  of  him  how  he  got  thither  ?  But 
 instead  of  gratifying  their  curiosity  e  with  a  direct  an- 
 swer, he,  who  knew  their  corrupt  expectations,  and  that 
 they  came  after  him,  not  so  much  for  his  miraculous  gifts 
 as  the  gratification  of  their  own  appetites,  took  occasion 
 from  thence  to  discourse/  to  them  of  a  certain  food,  dif- 
 ferent from  what  he  had  given  them  in  the  desert  of 
 Bethsaida,  infinitely  more  deserving  of  their  inquisition, 
 and  whereof  the  manna  in  the  wilderness  was  no  more 
 than  a  figure,  or  a  type.  What  this  food  was,  he  signi- 
 fied to  them,  namely,  the  merits  of  his  future  death  and 
 passion,  which  alone  could  be  available  for  the  obtain- 
 
 e  We  may  observe  from  several  parts  of  the  gospel,  particu- 
 larly from  Luke  xiii.  23,  24 ;  John  xii.  34,  35,  that  it  was  usual 
 with  our  blessed  Saviour  to  answer  nothing  to  such  curious 
 questions  as  had  no  tendency  to  edification,  but  to  divert  the 
 people  from  them,  by  proposing  some  more  profitable  subject. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  Our  blessed  Saviour,  through  the  greatest  part  of  the  sixth 
 chapter  of  St  John's  gospel,  takes  an  occasion,  from  the  multi- 
 tude's coming  after  him  out  of  a  greedy  desire  to  be  fed,  to  dis- 
 course to  them  of  spiritual  blessings,  under  the  metaphors  of 
 meat  and  drink ;  and  for  his  apology  in  so  doing,  we  may  ob- 
 serve, that  among  the  oriental  and  Jewish  writers,  no  metaphor 
 was  more  common  than  this;  that  to  this  purpose  Solomon,  in 
 his  book  of  Proverbs,  introduces  Wisdom  crying  in  the  streets, 
 '  Come,  eat  of  my  bread,  and  drink  of  my  wine,  which  I  have 
 mingled,'  (Prov.  ix.  5.)  '  For  they  that  eat  me  shall  yet  be  hun- 
 gry, and  they  that  drink  me  shall  yet  be  thirsty,'  says  the  wise 
 son  of  Sirach,  "for  the  soul,"  as  Plato  expresses  it,  "is  nourished 
 by  receiving  and  practising  good  things ;  and  wisdom,  temperance, 
 and  piety,  are  the  food  of  a  soul  that  can  suck  them  in:"  that  as 
 our  Saviour  calls  himself  the  bread  which  came  down  from  hea- 
 ven, Philo  upon  the  words  of  Moses  descants,  "what  food  can 
 God  rain  dowD  from  heaven,  but  that  heavenly  wisdom  which  he 
 sends  down  upon  the  soul  that  desires  it?"  That  as  he  exhorts 
 the  people  to  labour  for  the  meat  that  perishes  not,  Philo  declares, 
 that  the  wisdom  of  God  is  the  "nurse  and  nourisher  of  those  that 
 desire  incorruptible  diet."  And  from  hence  we  may  perceive 
 why  our  Saviour  insists  so  much  upon  this  metaphor,  even  be- 
 cause it  was  familiar  to  the  Jews,  and  used  by  their  most  cele- 
 brated writers. — ff 'kitty's  Annotations. 
 
Skct.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 917 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1—  xvii.  14.  MARKii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKEvi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.l. 
 
 ing  of  eternal  life  to  such  as  believed  in  his  divine  mis- 
 sion, and  descent  from  heaven. 
 
 But  these  sublime  truths,  which  for  the  present  he 
 thought  proper  to  couch  in  terms  obscure  and  figurative 
 enough,  so  gravelled  the  intellects  of  his  auditory,  that 
 even  his  disciples  began  to  murmur,  and  many  of  his  fol- 
 lowers, mistaking  the  words  in  a  literal,  which  he  in- 
 tended in  a  spiritual,  sense,  and  thence  inferring  that  he 
 was  not  such  a  Messiah  as  they  imagined,  wholly  de- 
 serted him,  insomuch  that  lie  began  to  suspect  the  fide- 
 lity of  his  very  apostles,  until  Peter,  in  behalf  of  all  the 
 rest,  declared  their  fixed  purpose  of  adhering  to  him, 
 upon  full  conviction  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of 
 the  living  God.  But  notwithstanding  this  liberal  and 
 frank  confession,  our  Lord  gave  them  to  understand, 
 that  they  were  not  equally  sound  ;  for  among  the  twelve 
 whom  he  had  selected,  one  of  them  was  to  prove  a  trai- 
 tor, meaning  this  of  Judas  lscariot,  who  justly  deserved 
 that  name,  because  he  afterwards  betrayed  him. 
 
 Whether  our  blessed  Saviour  was  at  Jerusalem  on  the 
 third  passover  after  his  baptism,  the  evangelists  have  not 
 informed  us  ;  but  it  is  very  probable,  that  he  who  came 
 to  fulfil  all  righteousness,  would  not  neglect  so  great  an 
 ordinance.  Upon  this  presumption,  it  is  most  generally 
 believed  that  he  was  there,  though  very  likely  he  might 
 not  stay  long,  but  as  soon  as  the  festival  was  over,  re- 
 turn into  Galilee,  J  because  the  rulers,  at  Jerusalem,  lay 
 in  wait  for  an  opportunity  to  put  him  to  death. 
 
 Upon  his  return  into  Galilee,  a  certain  number  of 
 Scribes  and  Pharisees  a  were  sent  from  Jerusalem  to  be 
 spies  upon  his  actions,  and  to  criticise  upon  his  doctrine. 
 These  men  observing,  that,  when  he  and  his  disciples 
 were  to  eat,  they  frequently  sat  down  without  washing 
 their  hands,  contrary  to  the  common  custom  of  the  Jews, 
 which,  as  they  pretended,  was  founded  upon  a  tradition,* 
 
 l  John  vii.  1. 
 
 a  The  sanhedrim,  which  sat  at  Jerusalem,  and  was  the  su- 
 preme court  in  all  religious  affairs,  sent  messengers  to  John  the 
 Baptist,  when  he  began  his  preaching,  inquiring  who  he  was, 
 and  by  what  authority  he  baptized,  John  i.  19.  And  as  the 
 Pharisees  had  charged  our  Saviour's  disciples  with  a  violation  of 
 the  sabbath,  in  plucking  and  rubbing  the  ears  of  the  corn,  and 
 himself  with  the  same  crime,  in  curing  the  sick  on  the  sabbath 
 day,  it  is  not  improbable  that  these  accusations  had  reached 
 Jerusalem,  and  that  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  here  mentioned, 
 were  emissaries  sent  from  the  sanhedrim  to  watch  and  observe 
 our  Saviour.  And  this  seems  the  rather  to  be  so,  because  they 
 were  so  very  ready,  when  they  could  find  him  guilty  of  no  vio- 
 lation of  the  laws  of  God,  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  him  about  some 
 rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  church,  which  he  and  his  disciples 
 thought  not  so  very  necessary  to  be  observed. — Poole's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 b  The  traditions,  in  the  Jewish  church,  came  to  gain  credit, 
 upon  this  presumption,  that  Moses,  when  he  received  the  law 
 from  God  on  mount  Sinai,  which  he  recorded  in  his  five  books, 
 was  instructed  at  the  same  time  in  several  things,  which  God 
 enjoined  him  not  to  commit  to  writing,  for  fear  that  the  heathens 
 should  transcribe  them:  that,  in  these  things,  Moses  instructed 
 his  successor  Joshua,  and,  from  Joshua,  they  were  transmitted, 
 through  the  elders  of  the  people,  by  oral  conveyance  only,  until 
 Ezra,  after  the  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity,  collected 
 them  all  together,  and  made  the  Cabbala,  in  seventy-two  books, 
 which  was  kept  by  Gamaliel,  and  others  tliat  succeeded,  as 
 heads  of  the  sanhedrim,  until  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem: 
 that,  about  an  hundred  and  twenty  years  after  this,  R.  Judas, 
 the  son  of  Simon,  composed  a  book  of  them,  called  the  Mishna, 
 that  is,  the  second  law,  which  is  indeed  the  most  ancient 
 collection  of  traditions  that  the  Jews  have:  that  three  hundred 
 years  after  this,   R.   Jonathan,  meeting  with  more,  compiled 
 
 expostulated  with  him  the  reason  for  so  doing  :  but,  in- 
 stead of  answering  them  directly  he  put  another  question 
 to  them,  by  way  of  recrimination,  namely,  why  they,  by 
 their  pretended  traditions,0  vacated  the  laws  of  God, 
 particularly,  that  so  solemn  one  of  honouring  their  pa- 
 rents, and  relieving  them  in  their  wants?  And  there- 
 upon, looking  upon  them  as  so  many  hypocrites, d  with 
 whom  he  disdained  to  hold  any  farther  converse,  he 
 turned  to  the  multitude,  and  informed  them,  "  that  true 
 
 them  into  a  larger  volume:  and  an  hundred  years  after  this,  an- 
 other rabbi  made  a  collection  of  such  as  were  found  among  the 
 Jews  who  remained  in  Babylon:  that  these  two,  which  are  a 
 kind  of  supplement  and  explication  of  the  Mishna,  are  called, 
 the  one  the  Talmud  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  other,  of  Babylon ; 
 and  that  by  these,  the  Jews,  at  this  day,  are  governed  in  matters 
 ecclesiastical  all  the  world  over.  In  relation  to  the  particular  custom 
 of  washing  before  meat,  their  canon  is,  that  "  whosoever  despiseth 
 the  washing  of  hands,  is  worthy  to  be  excommunicated:  he  comes 
 to  poverty,  and  will  be  extirpated  out  of  the  world:"  for,  accord- 
 ing to  the  sense  of  one  of  their  doctors,  namely,  R.  Aquiba,  "he  > 
 that  takes  meat  with  unwashed  hands  is  worthy  of  death ;"'  and 
 therefore  when  the  same  doctor  was  in  prison,  and  had  not  water 
 enough  both  to  drink  and  wash  his  hands,  he  chose  to  do  the  lat- 
 ter; because  "it  is  better,"  says  he,  "to  die  with  thirst,  than  to 
 transgress  the  tradition  of  the  elders."  It  is  no  wonder  then 
 that  persons  inured  to  those  notions,  should  so  readily  take  ex- 
 ception at  our  Saviour's  omitting  what  were  indeed,  though  they 
 thought  not  so,  matters  of  an  indifferent  nature.— Poole's,  Whit- 
 by's,  Hammond's,  and  Beausobre's  Annotations  ;  and  Lightfoot 
 on  Mat.  xv.  2. 
 
 c  The  way  whereby  the  Jews  made  the  law  of  honouring  and 
 subsisting  their  father  and  mother  of  no  effect,  was  by  pretending, 
 that  whatever  their  parents  requested  of  them,  was  a  Corban, 
 that  is,  that  they  had  devoted  it  as  a  gift  or  offering  to  God,  or 
 to  his  temple ;  and  whatever  was  thus  devoted,  was  not  to  be 
 touched,  be  the  necessity  ever  so  urgent.  For  their  canon  about 
 vows  was. — "That  they  reach  even  to  things  commanded,  and 
 take  place  as  well  in  things  required  by  the  law,  as  things  in- 
 different; that  a  man  may  be  so  bound  by  them,  that  he  cannot, 
 without  great  sin,  do  what  God  had  commanded  to  be  done ;  and 
 that,  in  this  case,  if  he  makes  a  vow,  which  cannot  be  perform- 
 ed without  breaking  a  commandment,  his  vow  must  be  ratified, 
 and  the  commandment  violated."  This  was  a  superstition  which 
 the  Pharisees,  and  other  doctors  of  the  law,  who  had  a  property 
 in  the  gifts  and  oblations  that  were  made  to  the  temple,  thought 
 themselves  concerned  to  indulge;  and  therefore,  when  any  pre- 
 tended that  their  parents  stood  in  need  of  their  help,  they  told 
 them,  that  if  they  did  but  acquaint  them  that  it  was  a  gift,  or 
 that  they  had  vowed  such  a  portion  of  their  estate  to  sacred  uses, 
 that  would,  before  God,  excuse  them  from  relieving  them:  nay, 
 they  affirmed  farther,  that  if  a  man  but  did  in  a  passion  say,  that 
 the  thing  which  another  asked  of  him  was  a  corban,  though  it 
 were  not  actually  consecrated  to  religious  uses,  this  was  vow 
 enough  to  prevent  his  relieving  that  other  person,  even,  putting 
 the  case,  that  it  were  his  own  father;  unless  they  should  absolve 
 him  from  it,  which  they  would  undertake  to  do  for  so  many 
 shekels  of  silver,  Lev.  xxvii.  Such  abundant  reason  had  our 
 blessed  Saviour  to  charge  the  Jewish  doctors  with  making  one 
 of  the  greatest  commands  in  the  second  table  of  the  law  void  by 
 their  traditions  concerning  vows. — Poole's  and  JFhitby's  Anno- 
 tations, and  Pocock's  Miscel.  p.  415. 
 
 d  In  several  places  of  the  gospel,  our  Lord  calls  the  Pharisees 
 hypocrites  not  only  because  they  placed  the  worship  of  God,  and 
 a  great  deal  of  sanctity  and  religion,  in  ceremonies  of  human  in- 
 stitution, and  though  they  pretended  to  extraordinary  purity,  did 
 all  their  good  works  to  be  seen  of  men,  Mat.  xxiii.  5.  but  more 
 especially  in  this  place,  because,  being  superstitiously  careful  to 
 avoid  the  outward  pollution  of  the  body,  by  abstaining  from  the 
 touch  of  any  thing  which  they  reputed  unclean,  and  washing 
 their  hands  whenever  they  thought  they  had  done  so;  they  left 
 that  which  was  within,  namely,  their  hearts  and  affections,  full 
 of  iniquity,  uncleanness,  extortion,  and  excess,  Mat.  xxiii.  25. 
 and  Luke  xi.  39.  But  from  Christ's  example  in  this  particular 
 we  must  not  be  forward  to  pronounce  men  hypocrites,  because 
 we  have  neither  that  authority,  nor  that  knowledge  of  their 
 hearts,  which  he  had. —  HTiitby's  Annotations. 
 
918 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5140.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  I— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vji.  1. 
 
 piety  did  not  consist  in  outward  ceremonies,  but  in  a 
 sincere  observance  of  the  laws  of  God  ;  that  no  pollution 
 could  be  in  what  entered  into  a  man's  mouth,  but  only 
 in  what  proceeded  from  it ;  for,"  as  he  afterwards  ex- 
 plains the  thing  to  his  disciples,  whatever  we  eat  does 
 not  affect  the  mind,  the  only  seat  of  defilements  ;  for  it 
 passes  into  the  stomach,  and  is  soon  thrown  out  of  the 
 body,  so  that,  be  it  never  so  gross  or  unclean,  it  cannot 
 pollute  the  eater:  but  all  pollution  is  from  within,  from 
 the  corruption  of  the  heart,  such  as  impure  thoughts,  un- 
 chaste desires,  unholy  purposes,  immodest  and  indecent 
 speeches,  &c.  These  are  the  things  that  leave  a  lasting 
 stain  upon  the  soul,  which  a  thing  so  merely  external, 
 as  omitting  to  wash  before  meat,  cannot  do." 
 
 This  was  a  doctrine  not  well  pleasing  to  the  Phari- 
 sees, as  his  disciples  told  him ;  but  they  were  a  set  of 
 people  whose  censure  he  justly  despised,  '  blind  leaders 
 of  the  blind,'  as  he  properly  enough  calls  them,  whose 
 vain  traditions,  as  having  nothing  of  divine  institution 
 in  them,  his  purpose  was  to  abolish.  And  from  thence, 
 in  departing  to  the  coasts  of  Tyrea  and  Sidon,  lie  en- 
 tered into  a  house,  with  a  design  to  conceal  himself: 
 but  a  certain  Syro-phcenician  woman,  having  got  intel- 
 ligence where  he  was,  came,  and  earnestly  requested  of 
 him  to  cure  her  daughter,  who  was  sadly  tormented  with 
 a  devil.  Our  Lord,  for  the  trial  of  her  faith,  seemed  at 
 first  to  take  no  notice  of  her,  until  his  disciples,  to  get 
 rid  of  her  importunity,  desired  him  to  grant  her  request, 
 and  dismiss  her.  His  ministry,  he  told  them,  was  con- 
 fined to  Judea,  nor  was  he  properly  sent  to  any,  but  the 
 lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.  All  this  the  poor 
 woman  heard,  but  so  far  was  she  from  being  discouraged 
 by  such  coldness,  that,  advancing  nearer,  she  threw  her- 
 self prostrate  at  his  feet,  imploring  his  help  for  her 
 child  ;  and  when,  in  an  harsh  metaphor,  he  told  her,  that 
 it  was  not  proper  to  work  those  miracles  for  an  heathen, 
 which  were  originally  designed  for  God's  people,  the 
 Jews ;  the  afliicted  mother  owned  indeed  the  truth  of 
 what  he  had  alleged,  but  then,  continuing  the  same 
 figure,  she  humbly  hoped,  that  a  poor  distressed  heathen 
 might,  in  some  small  measure,  partake  of  the  mercies 
 which  were  more  peculiarly  promised  to  the  Jews.  Which 
 answer  was  so  highly  expressive  of  the  woman's  humility, 
 faith,  and  reliance,  that  he  granted  her  petition  ;  so  that, 
 when  she  returned  home,  she  found  her  daughter  laid 
 upon  the  bed,  and  perfectly  well. 
 
 From  the  coasts  of  Sidon,  our  Lord  passed  eastward 
 to  Decapolis,'  and  from  thence,  towards  the  sea  of 
 Galilee,  where,  in  his  way,  he  cured  a  deaf  and  dumb  c 
 
 a  For  an  account  of  the  ancient  and  present  state  of  Tyre  and 
 Sidon  see  supplement  on  the  land  of  Canaan,  ante  pp.  341 — 343. 
 — Ed. 
 
 b  It  is  a  country  in  Palestine,  which  was  so  called,  because  it 
 contained  ten  cities,  some  situated  on  the  east,  and  others  on 
 the  west  side  of  the  river  Jordan;  the  first  and  principal  city  is 
 Scythopolis;  and  the  rest,  according  to  Pliny,  are,  2d,  Phila- 
 delphia; 3d,  Raphanoe;  4th,  Gadara;  5th,  Hippos;  6th,  Dion; 
 7th,  Pella;  8th,  Gerasa;  9th,  Canatha;  and  10th,  Damascus; 
 though  others  reckon  them  after  another  manner,  as  Pliny  him- 
 self observes,  b.  v.  c.  18.—  Calmefs  Dictionary,  under  the  word. 
 
 c  This  is  a  mistake.  Mark  (vii.  32.)  does  not  say  that  the  man 
 was  dumb  absolutely,  but  that  he  had  an  impediment  in  his 
 tpeech;  for  so  the  word  poy,Xu\ov,  is  rightly  translated,  and  be- 
 sides it  is  said,  v.  35,  that  '  the  string  of  his  tongue  was  loosed 
 and  he  spake  plain,'  evidently  implying  that  he  spoke  before, 
 although  in  an  inarticulate  or  stammering  manner,  and  that  his 
 
 man,  by  putting  his  fingers  d  in  his  ears,  and  some  of 
 his  spittle  upon  his  tongue ;  and  thence  repairing  to  a 
 mountain,  he  not  only  cured  every  person  that  was 
 brought  unto  him,  whatever  his  malady  or  distemper  was, 
 but,  in  the  conclusion,  fed  all  the  multitude,  which 
 amounted  to  four  thousand  men,  besides  women  and 
 children,  and  who,  for  three  days  successively,  had  been 
 attending  him,  with  seven  loaves,  and  a  few  small  fishes. 
 
 Having  thus  dismissed  the  company,  he  embarked 
 with  his  disciples  for  the  coast  of  Dalmanutha  ;e  but  no 
 sooner  was  he  arrived  there,  than  the  Pharisees,  joining 
 with  their  enemies  the  Sadducees,  came,  and  demanded 
 of  him  a  sign  from  heaven,  in  order  to  convince  them 
 that  he  was  the  true  Messiali :  but  having  first  upbraided 
 them  with  their  acuteness  in  discerning  the  face  of  the 
 sky,  and  from  thence  the  prognostics  of  fair  or  foul 
 weather,  and  their  blindness  in  not  perceiving  the  mani- 
 fest signs  of  the  Messiah's  coming,  he  remitted  them, 
 as  he  had  done  before,  to  the  miracle  of  his  own  resur- 
 rection, and  so  sailed  back  with  his  disciples. 
 
 His  disciples,  in  the  hurry  of  their  departure,  had  for- 
 got to  take  bread  with  them ;  and  therefore,  when  our 
 Saviour,  in  their  passage,  gave  tiiem  caution  to  take 
 care  of  the  leaven/  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  and 
 they  were  ignorant  enough  to  take  his  words  in  a  literal 
 sense,  he  first  gently  reproved  the  blindness  of  their 
 
 impediment  arose  from  the  state  of  his  tongue ;  so  that  he  appears 
 to  have  been,  as  we  say,  tongue-tied. — Ed. 
 
 d  Christ  often  made  use  of  visible  signs  to  represent  that  divine 
 invisible  virtue  which  was  inherent  in  him,  and  which,  upon 
 that  occasion,  he  intended  to  exert;  and  therefore,  because  deaf 
 persons  seem  to  have  their  ears  closed,  he  put  his  fingers  into  the 
 man's  ears,  to  intimate,  that,  by  his  power,  he  would  open  them  ; 
 and,  because  the  tongue  of  the  dumb  man  seems  to  be  tied,  or 
 to  cleave  to  the  palate,  therefore  he  moistened  it  with  spittle,  to 
 signify  that  he  would  loose  and  give  free  motion  to  it.  These, 
 it  is  true,  were  not  capable  to  effect  the  cure,  but  they  had  this 
 use  in  them,  that  they  excited  the  observation  and  attention  of 
 the  people  before  whom  these  cures  were  wrought. —  TVnitby^s 
 and  Beausobre's  Annotations.  Since  this,  and  the  other 
 action  mentioned,  could  contribute  nothing  to  the  cure  (though 
 we  find  such  used  on  other  occasions  as  Mark  viii.  23, 
 and  John  ix.  6.)  it  has  been  asked  why  our  Lord  used  them. 
 Such  inquiries  are  often  rash,  and  we  are  not  bound  in  all 
 cases  to  give  a  reason  (since  our  Saviour's  adoption  of  an 
 action  shows  its  fitness) ;  yet  here  we  can  be  at  no  loss.  The 
 reason  was,  no  doubt,  that  assigned  by  Grotius  and  Whitby,  and 
 adopted  by  most  recent  commentators,  as  Kuinoel  and  Fritz. ; 
 namely,  that  Christ  was  pleased,  in  condescension  to  human 
 weakness,  to  use  external  actions  significant  of  the  cure  to  be 
 performed;  and  thereby  to  strengthen  the  faith  and  confirm  the 
 hopes  of  the  sick  persons,  and  those  who  brought  them ;  and, 
 moreover,  to  show  that  the  power  he  was  about  to  exert  resided 
 in  himself.  Our  Lord  adopted  these  actions,  and  also  the  usual 
 one  of  laying  his  hands  on  the  sick,  in  order  to  show  that  he  was 
 not  confined  to  any  one  particular  mode. — Bloonifield's  Greek 
 Testament Ed  . 
 
 /  What  St  Matthew  calls  Magdala,  St  Mark  names  Dalma- 
 nutha, and  the  reason  hereof  is,  because  these  two  places  lay  very 
 near  together,  and  Dalmanutha  very  probably  within  the  precincts 
 of  Magdala. — Welts'  Geography  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
 Beausobre 's  Annotations. 
 
 g  The  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  was  their  hypocrisy,  and  too 
 scrupulous  observance  of  the  traditions  of  their  elders;  and  that 
 of  the  Sadducees  was  their  denial  of  the  existence  of  angels  and 
 devils,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  the  immortality  of  the 
 soul;  so  that  the  meaning  of  our  Saviour's  caution  to  his  apostles 
 is: — To  avoid  the  principles  of  those,  who  place  the  sum  of  their 
 religion  in  outward  performances,  which  avail  nothing  to  the 
 sanctification  of  the  soul ;  and  to  reject  all  such  doctrines  as 
 tended  to  subvert  religion,  by  cutting  off' all  hope' of  happiness  in  a 
 future  state. — Calmefs  Commentary,  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
6£cr;  !L]  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c.  919 
 
 A.  H.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OK,  A.  M.  5110.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-xi.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  1. 
 
 understandings,  and  the  shortness  of  their  memories,  who 
 had  so  soon  forgotten  his  miraculous  multiplication  of 
 the  loaves  and  fishes,  at  two  different  times,  and  then 
 gave  them  to  understand,  that  his  words  did  not  concern 
 the  leaven  of  bread,  but  the  corrupt  doctrines  of  the 
 Pharisees  and  Sadducees. 
 
 With  this  discourse  they  landed  at  Bethsaida,  which, 
 though  the  birth-place  of  several  of  his  apostles,  had  by 
 the  perverseness  and  infidelity  of  its  inhabitants  so 
 offended  him,  that,  when  a  blind  man  was  presented  to 
 him  for  cure,  he  would  not  do  it  in  the  city  in  the  sight 
 of  the  inhabitants ;  but  taking  him  out  of  the  gate,  he 
 anointed  his  eyes  with  his  spittle,  and  laid  his  hands  on 
 them.  The  man  at  first  saw  objects  indistinctly,  men 
 like  trees  walking ;  but  when  our  Lord  had  laid  his 
 hands  upon  him  the  second  time,  he  restored  him  to  his 
 perfect  sight ;  and  so  sent  him  home,  with  a  charge  a  not 
 to  return  into  the  city,  nor  to  discover  the  thing  to  any 
 person  belonging  to  that  place. 
 
 From  that  place  he  departed  into  the  coasts  of  Cassarea 
 Philippi,  b  where,  being  minded  to  make  some  trial  of 
 his  apostles'  faith  and  proficiency,  he  demanded  of  them 
 what  opinion  mankind  had  of  him,  and  whom  they  took 
 him  to  be  ?  Some,  say  they,  take  you  to  be  John  the 
 Baptist  c  risen  from  the  dead  ;  some  Elias  sent  down  from 
 
 a  The  reason  of  our  Saviour's  giving  the  man  this  charge,  is 
 founded  upon  the  infidelity  of  the  people  of  Bethsaida,  wherewith 
 he  upbraids  them,  Mat.  xi.  21. 
 
 b  Ctesarea  Philippi,  fcefore  called  Paneas,  and  now  Banias, 
 was  situated  at  the  foot  of  mount  Paueus,  near  the  springs  of  the 
 Jordan.  It  has  been  supposed,  that  its  ancient  name  was  Dan, 
 or  Laish ;  and  that  it  was  called  Paneas  by  the  Phoenicians  only. 
 Eusebius,  however,  distinguishes  Dan  and  Paneas  as  different 
 places.  Ctcsarea  was  a  day's  journey  from  Sidon,  and  a  day  and 
 a  half  from  Damascus.  Philip  the  tetrarch  built  it,  or,  at  least, 
 embellished  and  enlarged  it,  and  named  it  Csesarea,  in  honour  of 
 the  emperor  Tiberius;  but  afterwards,  in  compliment  to  Nero,  it 
 was  called  Neronias.  The  woman  who  had  been  troubled  with 
 an  issue  of  blood,  and  was  healed  by  our  Saviour,  (Mat.  ix.  20. 
 Luke  vii.  43.)  is  said  to  have  been  of  Cresarea  Philippi,  and  to 
 have  returned  thither  after  her  cure,  and  erected  a  statue  to  her 
 benefactor.  The  present  town  contains,  according  to  Burekhardt, 
 about  150  houses,  inhabited  mostly  by  Turks.  The  goddess 
 Astarte  was  worshipped  here,  as  appears  from  the  medals  extant. 
 The  Greek  language  was  more  used  in  this  city  than  the  Latin: 
 yet  it  struck  medals  in  each  language.  It  seems  to  have  been 
 made  a  Roman  colony;  though  not  mentioned  as  such  by  any 
 writer.  It  is  likely  that  Ca;sarea  Libanus  was  among  the  most 
 forward  cities  to  compliment  Severus,  since  several  authors  report 
 that  it  was  his  birth-place.  Lampridius  even  says,  that  he  was 
 named  Alexander,  because  his  mother  was  delivered  of  him  in  a 
 temple  dedicated  to  Alexander  the  Great,  on  a  festival  in  honour 
 of  that  hero,  at  which  she  had  assisted  with  her  husband.  The 
 editor  of  the  Modern  Traveller  has  industriously  collected  and 
 judiciously  compared  the  several  notices  of  this  place  which  are 
 found  in  modern  writers.  Palestine,  pp.  353 — 363. — Calmet's 
 Dictionary. — Ed. 
 
 c  Those  who  held  that  Jesus  was  John  the  Baptist  risen  from 
 the  dead,  were  of  the  same  opinion  with  Herod  the  tetrarch, 
 (Mat.  xiv.  2.)  and  seem  to  have  imbibed  the  notion  of  the  Phari- 
 sees, who,  according  to  Josephus,  used  to  say,  '  that  a  good  man 
 might  easily  return  to  life  again.'  Those  who  took  him  for  Elias, 
 ran  into  the  general  opinion  of  the  nation,  that  Elias  was  to  come 
 before  the  Messiah,  and  anoint  him  when  he  came ;  and  there- 
 fore, notwithstanding  his  doctrine  and  miracles,  they  could  not 
 conceive  him  to  be  the  Messiah,  so  long  as  his  mean  appearance 
 was  contrary  to  their  expectations:  and  those  who  thought  him 
 to  be  Jeremias,  seem  to  have  espoused  the  sentiment  of  some  of 
 their  doctors,  who  looked  upon  that  prophet  as  the  head  of  the 
 whole  order,  not  improbably  upon  the  character  which  God  gives 
 him,  'Before  I  formed  thee  in  the  belly,  I  knew  thee,  and  before 
 thou  earnest  forth  out  of  the  womb  I  sanctified  thee,  and  I  or- 
 
 heaven  ;  and  others  Jeremias,  or  some  other  of  the  ancient 
 prophets,  restored  to  life  again  :  but  when  he  continued 
 asking  what  their  notion  of  him  was,  and  Simon,  d  in  the 
 name  of  the  rest,  had  made  an  open  confession  that  he 
 was  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  he  not  only  al- 
 lowed that  confession  to  be  true,  and  what  was  confirmed 
 by  the  attestation  e  of  God  himself,  but,  in  allusion  to 
 the  name  he  had  given  him,  which  signifies  a  rock  f  or 
 
 dained  thee  a  prophet  unto  the  nations,'  Jer.  i.  5. — JUiitby's  and 
 Bcatisobre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  That  the  rest  of  the  apostles  knew  and  believed  the  great 
 truth  which  St  Peter  here  declares,  no  one  can  doubt,  who  calls 
 to  mind  the  attestation  made  of  it  before  by  John  the  Baptist, 
 (John  i.  34.)  the  frequent  confessions  of  it  by  evil  spirits  dispos- 
 sessed before  their  eyes,  (Mark  iii.  15.)  and  that  full  declaration 
 of  it  in  the  name  of  the  whole  fraternity,  '  We  believe,  and  are 
 sure,  that  thou  art  that  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,'  John 
 vi.  69.  For  which  reason  we  find  the  fathers,  upon  this  occasion, 
 speaking  of  St  Peter  as  the  mouth,  the  tongue,  the  voice  of  the 
 church,  and  a  kind  of  foreman  to  the  rest  of  the  apostles ;  for  this 
 they  might  think  a  matter  of  decency  and  good  manners,  a  means 
 to  prevent  confusion  and  disorder,  and  a  token  of  that  union  and 
 harmony  which  was  among  them,  that  one  man  should  speak  for 
 all  the  rest.  And  why  that  one  man  should  be  St  Peter,  rather 
 than  any  of  the  rest,  may  very  reasonably  be  imputed  to  the 
 seniority  of  his  age,  the  natural  fervour  of  his  temper,  and  his 
 longer  attendance  upon  our  blessed  Saviour  than  several  of  the 
 rest  had  been  employed  in.  These  are  sufficient  reasons  for  his 
 delivering  the  judgment  of  the  company,  and  for  our  accounting 
 his  confession  the  common  voice  of  all,  to  a  question  which  had 
 evidently  been  propounded  to  them  all. — Stanhope  o?i  the  Epistles 
 and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 e  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  Flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed 
 this  to  thee,  but  my  Father  which  is  heaven,'  Mat.  xvi.  17.  But 
 how  did  God  reveal  this  to  Peter?  Those  who  pretend  that  he 
 had  a  particular  revelation,  not  vouchsafed  to  any  others,  without 
 which  he  could  not  have  owned  Christ  to  have  been  the  Son  of 
 God,  must  not  only  allow  the  like  revelation  toNathanael,  (John 
 i.  49.)  to  the  centurion  who  was  present  at  our  Lord's  crucifixion, 
 (Mat.  xxvii.  54.)  and  to  all  others  who  made  declaration  of  the 
 same  faith ;  but  must  likewise  excuse  all  those  Jew-s  who  did  not 
 believe  in  Christ,  because  it  was  not  in  their  power  so  to  do 
 without  this  peculiar  revelation.  Without  running  ourselves 
 into  these  premunires  therefore,  we  may  reasonably  conclude, 
 that  the  sense  of  our  Saviour's  words  is  this, — "  What  others  say 
 of  me,  namely,  that  I  am  John,  Elias,  Jeremias,  or  the  like,  this 
 thou  hast  learnt  from  men ;  but  the  faith  which  thou  hast  now 
 confessed  concerning  me,  though  it  required  of  thee  a  due  atten- 
 tion to  the  proofs  given  of  it;  yet  since  those  proofs  are  the 
 doctrine  which  I  teach  from  God,  and  the  miracles  done  in  con- 
 firmation of  it,  are  apparently  the  finger  of  God,  thy  faith  must 
 be  acknowledged  to  be  the  result,  not  of  human  wisdom,  but  of 
 divine  revelation.  God  has  given  thee  a  teachable  and  intelli- 
 gent mind,  to  perceive,  by  my  doctrine  and  miracles,  that  I  am 
 the  true  Messiah,  notwithstanding  the  obscurity  of  my  appear- 
 ance, and  therefore  thou  mayest  be  truly  said  to  be  taught  of  God, 
 because  my  doctrine  is  the  word,  and  my  miracles  are  the  power 
 of  God.'' — Whitby's  Ayinotations  and  Cdlmefs  Commentary, 
 
 f  We  are  now  advanced  to  a  passage  on  which,  as  the  church 
 of  Home  mainly  rests  its  doctrines  of  the  supremacy  and  infalli- 
 bility of  the  Pope,  and  the  power  of  the  church,  we  are  bound  to 
 discuss  the  sense  with  especial  care.  Let  us,  then,  examine  the 
 words  and  clauses  in  order,  as  they  ofler  themselves.  First, 
 from  the  very  form  of  expression  in  Kiyu  It  <ro)  \iyoj,  it  is  plain, 
 that  what  is  here  said  by  Christ  is  meant  to  correspond  to  what 
 had  been  just  said  by  Peter.  As  he  had  declared  to  Jesus:  2u 
 8T — 'C,uivros,  "thou  art  the  Christ  the  Son  of  the  living  God,' so  Jesus 
 says  to  him  :  Kiyu  Ss  ao\  Xiyco,  the  sense  of  which  is:  '  Moreover 
 I  also  say  to  thee."  In  the  next  clause  on  cu  u  W\  too;,  '  that  thou 
 art  Peter,'  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  Peter  was  not  the  original 
 name  of  this  disciple ;  but  a  surname,  given  to  him,  (as  was  cus- 
 tomary with  the  Jewish  rabbis  at  the  baptism  of  proselytes.)  at  his 
 conversion.  And  as  those  names  were  often  given  with  allusion  to 
 some  peculiar  quality  or  disposition;  so,  in  the  case  of  Simon,  it 
 had  reference  to  that  zeal  and  firmness  which  he  displayed  :  as  well 
 (  in  first  making  this  confession  of  faith  in  Christ,  as  in  afterwards 
 
920 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI]  I. 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.31;  OK,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— Lx.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vis.  1. 
 
 atone,  he  told  Simon,  "  that  he  would  make  him  a  founda- 
 tion stone,  or  a  prime  minister  in  building  his  church, 
 
 building  up  the  church  and  establishing  the  religion  of  Christ. 
 For  examples  of  this  kind  of  Paronomasia  in  giving  names,  see 
 Gen.  xvii.  5.  xxxii.  27.  and  compare  Gen.  xxvii.  36.  Eurip. 
 Phoen.  645.  jEschyl.  Prom.  472.  Theb.  401.  Agam.  670.  So 
 also  Christ,  in  like  manner,  surnamed  James  and  John  Boan- 
 erges, sons  of  thunder.  Moreover  Peter,  or  rather  Cephas,  (for 
 n£f£«;  is  only  the  name  Grecized,)  means,  not  stone,  as  some 
 affirm,  but  rock,  as  Cephas  often  does,  and  ■riT^at  not  unfre- 
 quently  in  the  classical  writers,  as  Herodot.  ix.  55.  Soph.  (Ed. 
 T.  334.  Callim.  Hymn  in  Apoll.  22.  So  Juvencus  {Hist.  Ev. 
 iii.  275.)  must  have  understood  it,  who  well  expresses  the  sense 
 thus:  "Tu  nomen  Petri  digna  virtute  tueris.  Hac  in  mole 
 mihi,  Saxique  in  robore  ponam  Semper  mansuras  sterols 
 mcenibus  redes."  "  With  worthy  faith  dost  thou  maintain  the 
 name  of  Rock,  on  this  structure  and  on  the  strength  of  this 
 Rock  will  I  plant  my  church  to  remain  with  eternal  walls  for 
 ever."  Moreover,  <rv  ii  may  be  rendered  "  thy  name  denotes." 
 So  Mark  iii.  17.  Bouv.gyts  a  lem,  vloi  (Zgovrws,  Boanerges,  that 
 is,  '  sons  of  thunder.'  But  commentators,  both  ancient  and 
 modern,  are  not  agreed  as  to  what  is  meant  by  \ir)  raurn  tn  Tir^a, 
 '  on  this  Rock.'  Now  that  depends  upon  the  reference  which 
 some  suppose  to  be  the  confession  of  faith  just  made  by  Peter,  while 
 others,  and  indeed  almost  every  modern  expositor  of  any  note,  refer 
 it  to  Peter  himself:  and  with  reason ;  for  certainly,  as  is  observed 
 by  Bishop  Marsh  (comp.  View,  App.  p.  27.),  "  it  would  be  a  des- 
 perate undertaking  to  prove  that  Christ  meant  any  other  person 
 than  Peter."  In  fact,  they  can  indicate  no  other,  consistently 
 with  the  rules  of  correct  exegesis;  for,  not  to  mention  that  the 
 profession  had  not  been  Peter's  only,  but  in  making  it,  he  spoke 
 not  for  himself  alone,  but  for  all  the  apostles,  and  in  that  quality 
 returned  answer  to  a  question  which  had  been  addressed  to  them 
 collectively:  "Whom  say  ye  that  I  am?"  &c,  the  connexion 
 subsisting  in  the  reason  given  for  the  surname  which  had  been 
 bestowed  on  Simon,  confines  it  to  that  alone ;  as  also  does  the 
 parallelism  between  Christ's  reply  to  Peter,  and  the  answer  which 
 he  had  given.  And  when  the  expositors  above  alluded  to  con- 
 jecture that,  in  pronouncing  the  words,  Christ  pointed  to  himself, 
 as  the  great  foundation,  they  argue  upon  a  wholly  gratuitous  and 
 very  improbable  supposition.  Moreover,  the  words  following 
 kcu  <ro)  \u<ra  '  besides  to  thee  I  will  give,'  imply  that  there  had 
 been  some  previous  gift  or  distinction.  In  short,  the  sense  is: 
 "  Thou  art  by  name  Rock;  that  is,  thy  name  means  Rock,  and 
 suitably  to  that  will  be  thy  work  and  office :  for  upon  thee,  that 
 is,  upon  thy  preaching,  as  upon  a  rock,  shall  the  foundation  of 
 the  church  be  laid."  It  may,  indeed,  seem  strange,  that  so 
 natural  and  well-founded  an  interpretation  should  have  been 
 passed  over  by  any.  But  that  may  be  attributed  partly,  to  the 
 causeless  fears  into  which  protestants  have  been  betrayed;  lest, 
 by  admitting  it,  they  should  give  a  countenance  to  the  papal 
 claim  of  supremacy;  and  partly,  to  an  idea,  that  such  a  sense 
 
 would  be  contrary  to  what  is  elsewhere  said    in    scripture, 
 
 namely.thatChrististheonlyfoundation.  (Seel  Cor. iii.  11.)  But 
 as  to  the  first,  the  fear  is  groundless:  it  being,  as  Bishop  Mid- 
 dleton  observes,  "difficult  to  see  what  advantage  could  be  gained  ; 
 unless  we  could  evade  the  meaning  of  §w<w  aoi  t«;  x\us,  'I  will 
 give  to  thee  the  keys,'  which  follows.  And  as  to  the  latter  fear, 
 it  is  equally  without  foundation;  since  the  two  expressions  are 
 employed  in  two  very  different  senses.  In  St  Peter's  case,  it 
 was  \ery  applicable ;  for  as  he  was  the  first  apostle  called  to  the 
 ministry,  so  he  was  the  first  who  preached  the  gospel  to  the  Jews, 
 and  also  the  first  who  preached  it  to  the  Gentiles.  So  that,  to 
 use  the  words  of  Bishop  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  "the  promise  made 
 here  was  punctually  fulfilled,  by  Christ's  using  Peter's  ministry 
 in  laying  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  church  among  both  Jews 
 and  Gentiles;  and  in  his  being  the  first  preacher  to  them  of  that 
 faith  which  he  here  confesses,  and  making  the  first  proselytes  to 
 it:  for  St  Peter  laid  the  first  foundations  of  a  church  among  the 
 Jews,  by  the  conversion  of  3000  souls,  (Acts  ii.  41.)  who,  when 
 they  gladly  had  embraced  St  Peter's  doctrine,  were  all  baptized ; 
 and  then,  ver.  47,  we  first  find  mention  of  a  Christian  church. 
 St  Peter  also  laid  the  first  foundation  of  a  church  among  the 
 Gentiles,  by  the  conversion  of  Cornelius  and  his  friends,  Acts 
 x.  "  If,"  says  Bishop  Taylor,  "St  Peter  was  chief  of  the  apostles, 
 and  head  of  the  church,  he  might  fairly  enough  be  the  repre- 
 sentative  of  the  whole  college   of  apostles,   and   receive    this 
 
 which  should  be  so  firmly  established,  that  all  the  power 
 a  and  policy  of  its  enemies  should  not  be  able,  at  any 
 time,  to  destroy  it ;  and  that,  for  the  more  orderly  gov- 
 
 promise  in  their  right,  as  well  as  his  own ; — that  promise,  [  say, 
 which  did  not  pertain  to  Peter  principally  and  by  origination, 
 and  to  the  rest  by  communication,  society,  and  adherence ;  but 
 that  promise  which  was  made  to  Peter  first ;  yet  not  for  himself, 
 but  for  all  the  college,  and  for  all  their  successors:  and  then  made 
 a  second  time  to  them  all,  without  representation,  but  in  diffusion, 
 and  performed  to  all  alike  in  presence,  except  St  Thomas."  In 
 fact,  the  apostles  generally  are,  in  other  parts  of  the  New  Testa- 
 ment, called  the  foundation  on  which  the  church  is  built,  as  in  Eph. 
 ii.  20.  and  Rev.  xxi.  14.  as  being  the  persons  employed  in  erecting 
 the  church  by  their  preaching.  And  what  they  all,  more  or  less, 
 did,  Peter  commenced  the  doing  thereof,  and  might  therefore  be 
 said  to  be  the  first  foundation;  though  in  matters  of  doctrine, 
 the  Christian  church  rests  on  the  testimony,  not  of  one,  but  of 
 all. — Bloom,  fie  Id's  Greek  Testament,  Mat.  xvi.  18,  19. — Ed. 
 
 a  '  The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it,'  (Mat.  xvi. 
 18,)  may  with  more  propriety  be  rendered,  '  the  gates  of  hades 
 shall  not  prevail  against  it.'  It  is  obvious  that  the  term  hell 
 which  occurs  so  often  in  our  English  bibles  does  not  always 
 denote  the  same  place  or  thing.  Dr  Campbell  has  investigated 
 this  subject  with  great  ability  and  accuracy,  and  has  thereby 
 done  much  service  to  the  cause  of  sound  scripture  criticism. 
 He  observes  that  in  the  Hebrew  scriptures  the  word  sheol  often 
 occurs,  and  uniformly  denotes  the  state  of  the  dead  in  general, 
 without  regard  to  the  virtuous  or  vicious  characters  of  the  per- 
 sons, their  happiness  or  misery.  The  Seventy  have  almost  in- 
 variably rendered  the  same  Hebrew  word,  by  the  Greek  term 
 hades,  which  means  the  receptacle  of  the  dead,  and  ought  rarely 
 to  have  been  translated  hell  in  the  sense  in  which  we  now  use 
 the  word,  namely,  as  the  place  of  torment.  To  denote  this  latter 
 place,  the  New  Testament  writers  employ  the  Greek  word  yiwvx, 
 gehenna,  compounded  of  two  Hebrew  words  ge  hinnom,  that  is, 
 '  the  valley  of  Hinnom,'  a  place  near  Jerusalem,  where  children 
 were  cruelly  sacrificed  by  fire  to  Moloch,  and  which  is  some- 
 times called  Tophet.     (See  a  subsequent  part  of  this  work.) 
 
 As  in  process  of  time  this  place  came  to  be  considered  an 
 emblem  of  hell,  or  the  place  of  torment,  reserved  for  the  wicked 
 in  a  future  state,  the  name  Tophet  came  gradually  to  be  used  in 
 this  sense,  and  at  length  to  be  confined  to  it.  In  this  sense  also 
 the  word  gehenna,  a  synonymous  term,  is  always  to  be  under- 
 stood in  the  New  Testament,  where  it  occurs  about  a  dozen 
 times.  The  confusion  that  has  arisen  on  this  subject  has  been 
 occasioned  not  only  by  our  English  translators  having  rendered 
 the  Hebrew  word  Sheol,  and  the  Greek  word  gehenna,  fre- 
 quently by  the  term  hell;  but  the  Greek  word  hades  which 
 occurs  eleven  times  in  the  New  Testament,  is  in  every  instance 
 except  one  translated  by  the  same  English  word  hell,  which  it 
 ought  never  to  have  been  (see  Jones'  Biblical  Cyclopedia!)  With 
 regard  to  the  meaning  of  the  expression,  'gates  of  death  (hades)  ' 
 Dr  Campbell  observes,  '  it  is  by  death,  and  by  it  only,  that  the 
 spirit  enters  into  hades.  The  gate  of  hades  is  therefore  a  very 
 natural  periphrasis  for  death;  insomuch  that,  without  any  positive 
 evidence,  we  should  naturally  conclude  this  to  be  the  meaning 
 of  the  phrase.  But  we  have  sufficient  evidence,  both  sacred  and 
 profane,  that  this  is  the  meaning.  The  phrase  occurs  in  the 
 Septuagint,  in  the  thanksgiving  of  Hezekiah,  after  his  miraculous 
 recovery  from  the  mortal  disease  he  had  been  seized  with  (Is. 
 xxxviii.  10.)  I  said,  '  I  shall  go  to  the  gates  of  the  grave,'  tv 
 <7tv\a.is  a'Sov.  It  follows,  '  I  am  deprived  of  the  residue  of  my 
 years.'  Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  -rvXai  alou  here  means 
 death,  in  other  words,  I  shall  die  and  be  deprived  of  the  residue 
 of  my  years.  But,  though  the  phrase  is  the  same  (for  tvXxi 
 ahou  is  a  literal  version  of  the  Hebrew)  with  that  used  by  our 
 Lord,  our  translators  have  not  liked  to  make  Hezekiah,  who  was 
 a  good  man,  speak  as  if  he  thought  himself  going  to  hell,  and 
 have  therefore  rendered  it  the  grave.  Another  example  we  have 
 in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  which,  though  not  canonical  scrip- 
 ture, is,  in  a  question  of  criticism,  a  good  authority,  (JJ'isd.  xvi. 
 13.)  '  Thou  hast  power  of  life  and  death,  thou  leadest  to  the 
 gates  of  hades,  si;  vrvka;  alou,  and  bringest  up  again.'  This 
 passage  is  as  little  susceptible  of  doubt  as  the  former.  The 
 classical  use  of  this  phrase  is  the  same  with  that  of  the  inspired 
 writers.  Homer  makes  Achilles  say,  as  rendered  by  our  English 
 poet,  (Iliad  i.  312.) 
 
Sect.  II.  1 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 921 
 
 M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OH,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.29.  FROM  MAT.xu.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23 — ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37-  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 eminent  of  it,  he  would  give  him  the  keys  of  the  kingdom 
 of  heaven,  so  that  his  sentence,  whenever  it  should  regu- 
 larly exclude  or  admit  any  person  into  the  bosom  of  the 
 church  upon  earth,  should  in  like  manner  be  ratified  and 
 confirmed  in  heaven."  But  then,  to  prevent  the  ill  use 
 that  might  be  made  of  this  discovery,  he  strictly  charged 
 his  apostles  a  not  to  declare  to  any  man,  that  he  was  the 
 Messiah. 
 
 Perceiving,  by  this  discourse  with  Peter,  that  his  dis- 
 ciples had  got  a  right  notion  of  his  office  and  divinity, 
 he  began  thenceforward  to  prepare  their  minds  for  his 
 sufFerings,  and  to  talk  more  openly  of  his  death  and 
 resurrection.  One  day,  therefore,  as  he  was  insisting 
 on  the  sufferings  which  he  was  to  undergo  at  Jerusalem,6 
 and  Peter,  unable  to  endure  a  thought  so  disagreeable 
 to  the  dignity  of  his  Master,  desired  him  to  desist,0  he 
 
 Who  can  think  one  thing,  and  another  tell, 
 My  soul  detests  him  as  the  gates  of  hell : 
 
 ofiui  ai^ao  xvXytri. 
 
 that  is,  I  hate  him  as  death,  or  I  hate  him  mortally.  To  say 
 then  that  the  gates  of  hades  shall  not  prevail  against  the  church, 
 is,  in  other  words,  to  say,  It  shall  never  die,  it  shall  never  be 
 extinct.  Le  Clerc,  though  meaning  the  same  thing  (as  appears 
 by  his  note,)  has  expressed  it  inaccurately:  '  Les  portes  de  la 
 mort  ne  la  surmonteront  point;'  the  gates  of  death  shall  not 
 surmount  it.  We  see  at  once  how  appositely  death  is  called  the 
 gates  of  hades.  But  what  should  we  call  the  gates  of  death? 
 Not  death  itself,  surely.  They  must  be  diseases;  for  by  these  we 
 are  brought  to  death.  But  in  this  sense  we  cannot  apply  the 
 promise.  For  many  direful  diseases  has  the  church  been 
 afflicted  with,  if  the  introduction  of  the  grossest  errors,  the  most 
 superstitious  practices,  and  senseless  disputes,  are  to  be  accounted 
 such;  but  they  have  not  hitherto  proved  mortal,  and  we  have 
 reason  to  believe  never  shall. — Br  Campbell's  Preliminary 
 Dissertation  vi.  part  ii.  sect.  17. — Ed. 
 
 a  In  several  parts  of  the  gospel  we  find  our  Saviour  enjoining 
 the  people  whom  he  had  cured,  not  to  make  any  publication  of 
 his  miracles,  (Mat.  viii.  4.  and  ix.  30,)  but  it  is  an  injunction  of 
 a  particular  nature,  not  to  discover  that  he  was  the  Christ, 
 though  this  was  an  article  necessary  for  every  man  to  know  and 
 believe  in  order  to  his  salvation.  Now,  though  this  was  a  point 
 necessary  for  all  to  know,  yet  the  apostles  were  not  the  proper 
 persons  at  this  time  to  declare  it,  because  it  might  look  like  a 
 kind  of  confederacy  between  them,  if  they  should  prove  too  lavish 
 in  the  commendations  of  their  Master.  It  would  much  better 
 become  his  infinite  wisdom,  therefore,  to  find  out  himself  a  proper 
 opportunity  for  the  discovery  of  this  great  truth,  without  drawing 
 the  envy  of  the  Pharisees  upon  him,  and  obstructing  the  pro- 
 gress of  the  gospel,  which  could  hardly  be  believed,  considering 
 the  low  circumstances  wherein  he  appeared;  and  which,  had  it 
 been  believed,  might  have  encouraged  the  attempt  of  the  Jews 
 to  come,  and  make  him  a  king,  John  vi.  15.  What  therefore 
 our  Saviour  says  to  his  three  apostles,  in  relation  to  his  trans- 
 figuration, that  they  should  '  tell  no  man  of  it,  until  he  was  risen 
 from  the  dead,'  (Mat.  xvii.  9.)  is  applicable  to  this  passage  like- 
 wise. Fur,  after  his  resurrection,  they  were  by  office  to  be  his 
 witnesses,  and  to  declare  toothers  that  he  was  the  Christ,  because 
 they  could  then  do  it,  not  only  without  suspicion  of  confederacy, 
 but  with  great  advantages  and  success,  after  that  Christ  had 
 taken  possession  of  his  kingdom,  and  had  testified  this,  by  sitting 
 down  at  the  right  hand  of  power,  and,  by  sending  down  upon 
 them  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  enable  them  to  confirm  their  testimony. 
 •—Poole's,  Beauso'/re's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  Jerusalem  was  the  place  where  this  tragedy  was  to  be  acted, 
 because,  as  our  Lord  observes,  a  prophet  could  not  sutler  out  of 
 that  city,  (Luke  xiii.  33,)  for  there  sat  the  sanhedrim  that  was  tc 
 try  him;  and  there  lived  the  Roman  governor  who  had  the 
 power  of  life  and  death,  and  was  to  condemn  him. —  Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 c  Peter's  words  in  the  Greek  are  "xiu;  <roi,  Kvgu,  (Mat.  xvi. 
 22,)  which  we  may  render  propitius  esto  tibi,  Bomine,  favour 
 thyself,  or  be  kind  to  thyself.  "  Since  the  rulers  at  Jerusalem 
 have  such  malevolent  designs  against  thee,  why  shouldst  thou 
 thiuk  of  going  any  more  among  them?     If  they  intend  to  evil 
 
 gave  him  a  very  sharp  rebuke,**  as  a  person  whose  advice 
 crossed  his  gracious  purposes  of  mans  redemption,  and 
 savoured  of  nothing  but  worldly  grandeur  ;  and  therefore, 
 to  extinguish  in  them  all  notions  of  a  temporal  kingdom, 
 he  called  his  disciples,  and  told  them,  that  "  whoever 
 pretended  to  possess  his  religion,  should  take  up  his 
 cross,  e  or  patiently  submit  to  all  manner  of  persecutions, 
 in  sure  and  certain  hope  of  a  happy  immortality,  which 
 he  would  procure  for  his  followers,  when  he  was  in  his 
 kingdom,  in  which  some,  that  were  then  present  among 
 them,  ere  it  was  long,  but  certainly  before  the  day  of 
 their  death,  /should  see  him  happily  instated." 
 
 s  About  eight  days  after  this,  our  Lord,  to  revive  the 
 
 entreat  thee,  and  take  away  thy  life,  be  thou  kind  and  favourable 
 to  thyself;  avoid  the  danger  by  keeping  at  a  distance  from  it, 
 and  consult  thine  own  preservation  by  continuing  here."  This 
 seems  to  be  the  proper  sense  of  St  Peter's  words,  and  they  were 
 doubtless  spoken  with  a  good  intention,  and  singular  affection  for 
 his  Master;  but  still  they  argued  great  weakness  in  him,  in  pre- 
 tending to  contradict  one  whom  he  had  just  before  acknowledged 
 to  be  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  denote  him  ignorant  of 
 the  redemption  of  mankind  by  that  death  which  God  in  his  wise 
 counsel  had  determined. — Poole's  Annotations;  and  Young's 
 Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 
 d  The  words  of  our  Saviour  upon  this  occasion  are, — '  get  thee 
 behind  me,  Satan;  thou  art  an  offence  to  me,'  (Mat.  xvi.  23.) 
 Not  that  we  are  to  thiuk,  that  our  Saviour  ever  imagined  that 
 St  Peter,  in  this  advice,  had  any  pernicious  designs  against  him, 
 as  the  great  enemy  of  mankind  has,  when  he  tempts  and  deludes 
 them  into  sin;  but  his  only  meaning  is,  that  his  interposition  in 
 this  affair  was  very  unreasonable,  and  highly  repugnant  to  his 
 design  of  coming  into  the  world,  which  was  to  save  it.  "  Thou 
 thinkest  perhaps,"  says  he,  "  Peter,  that  in  this  thy  advice  thou 
 showest  thy  kindness  to  me,  as  a  friend  that  respects  my  welfare, 
 and  art  tender  of  my  preservation;  but,  instead  of  that,  thou  art 
 an  adversary  to  me,  (for  so  the  word  Satan  signifies,  Num.  xxii. 
 32.  2  Sam.  xix.  23.  1  Kings  v.  4.  &c.,)  in  thy  endeavouring 
 to  draw  me  aside  from  doing  what  is  my  Father's  will  and  com- 
 mand, (John  x.  18,)  I  told  thee  that  I  must  sutler ;  that  such  is  the 
 determinate  counsel  of  God,  and  such  my  fixed  purpose  and  re- 
 solution; and  therefore  all  advice  to  the  contrary  is  so  far  from 
 pleasing,  that  it  is  an  offence  to  me;  I  cannot  away  with  it; 
 and  therefore  get  thee  behind  me,  Satan:  for,  though  there  is  no 
 malice  in  thy  intention,  yet  imprudently  hast  thou  run  upon  the 
 same  advice,  that  Satan  uses  the  most  successfully  of  all  others 
 to  undo  men  by,  and  that  is,  the  advice  of  self-indulgence.  For 
 favour  thyself  is  the  most  artificial  of  all  the  suggestions  of  the 
 devil;  because  that  being  made  specious  with  the  pretences  of 
 reason  and  justice,  and  sweetened  by  its  agreeableness  to  that  of 
 self-love,  with  which  all  men  do  naturally  abound,  it  seldom  fails 
 of  being  swallowed,  though  poison  and  death  lurk  under  it." — 
 Poole's  and  Whitby's  Annotations;  Calmet's  Commentary  and 
 Young's  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 
 e  Among  several  nations,  it  was  a  custom  for  the  criminal  to 
 bear  the  cross  whereon  he  was  to  sutler,  to  the  place  of  execution  ; 
 (Lipsus  de  Cruce,  b.  ii.  c.  65.)  and,  in  allusion  to  this,  our  Sa- 
 viour makes  use  of  the  phrase,  to  denote  our  cheerfully  bearing 
 those  trials  and  persecutions  which  the  divine  providence  brings 
 upon  us  in  the  execution  of  our  duty,  and  our  adherence  to  his 
 most  holy  religion. — Poole's  and  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 f  Our  Saviour's  words  are  these: — 'Verily  I  say  unto  you, 
 there  are  some  of  them,  who  are  standing  here,  who  shall  not 
 taste  of  death,  until  they  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  his 
 kingdom,'  Mat.  xvi.  28.  "  Of  the  various  interpretations  of  this 
 verse,  the  most  easy  and  natural  is,  that  some  of  Christ's  disci- 
 ples should  live  to  see  him  fully  enter  upon,  that  is,  establish 
 that  spiritual  and  mediatorial  reign,  at  the  consummation  of 
 which  he  will  come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father,  to  reward  every 
 man  according  to  his  works,  (Mat.  xvi.  27.)  And  he  did  thus 
 establish  it  by  his  resurrection  and  ascension,  by  the  diffusion  of 
 the  Holy  Ghost,  by  the  gift  of  miraculous  powers,  by  the  trium- 
 phant success  of  the  gospel,  and  the  punishment  of  the  unbelieving 
 Jews,  by  the  destruction  of  their  city  and  polity;  which  St  John 
 at  least  lived  to  witness." — Hotden's  Christian  Expositor  of  the 
 Neio  Testament. 
 
 g  What  St  Luke  calls  uaii  h/ii^a-i  oxrv,  '  about  eight  days/ 
 G    A 
 
922 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,A.  M.  5410.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1.— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  It.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  1. 
 
 hearts  of  his  disciples,  as  well  as  to  instruct  them  more 
 fully  in  the  nature  of  his  kingdom,  thought  it  not  improper 
 to  give  some  of  them  at  least  a  specimen  of  his  future 
 glory  ;  and  accordingly,  taking  with  him  his  three  most 
 intimate  apostles,  Peter,  James,  and  John,  he  ascended 
 a  high  mountain,  a  and  there,  while  he  was  employed 
 in  prayer,  he  was  suddenly  transformed  into  another 
 kind  of  appearance  ;  for  a  bright  lustre  darted  from  his 
 face,  more  glorious  than  the  sun,  and  a  dazzling  splen- 
 dour, piercing  from  his  body  through  his  garment,  made 
 them  appear  whiter  than  snow,  and  more  radiant  than  the 
 light.  During  this  heavenly  scene  there  appeared  Moses 
 and  Elias,  clothed  with  all  the  brightness  and  majesty 
 of  a  glorified  state,  familiarly  conversing  with  him,  and 
 discoursing  of  his  death  and  sufferings. 
 
 While  the  intercourse  continued  between  these  three, 
 Peter,  and  his  two  fellow  apostles,  were  fallen  asleep  ; 
 but  waking  just  before  their  departure,  they  were  exceed- 
 ingly surprised  and  terrified  at  the  sight  of  so  much  glory 
 and  majesty.  Peter  indeed  begged  of  his  Master,  that 
 they  might  continue  in  that  happy  place,  and  erect  three 
 tents,  one  for  him,  and  the  other  two  for  Moses  and  Elias  : 
 but  while  he  was  thus  talking,  scarce  knowing  what  he 
 said  in  his  fright  and  transport,  a  bright  and  shining 
 cloud  suddenly  came  over  them,  and  a  voice  from  thence 
 proclaimed, '  This  is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well 
 pleased;  hear  ye  him.'  Upon  which  the  apostles  were 
 seized  with  a  greater  consternation  than  ever,  and  fell 
 prostrate  upon  the  ground ;  but  upon  our  Lord's  touching 
 and  encouraging  them,  they  looked  up,  and  saw  none 
 but  him  ;  for  the  other  two  were  vanished. 
 
 chap.  ix.  28,  St  Matthew  and  St  Mark  make  'after  six  days:' 
 but  the  reason  of  this  seeming  disagreement  is,  that  the  two  last 
 evangelists  compute  only  the  entire  clays  between  our  Saviour's 
 discourse,  and  his  going  up  into  the  mount,  and  therefore  style 
 them  six:  whereas  St  Luke,  including  both  the  days  of  his  dis- 
 course and  his  ascent,  calls  them  eight  days.  And  this  is  evi- 
 dent from  the  word  uas)  which,  when  any  sum  is  mentioned,  is 
 always  added  to  signify,  that  it  is  not  exact,  but  wants  something 
 to  make  it  complete,  as  may  be  seen  in  Mat.  xiv.  21.  Luke  i. 
 56. — iii.  23. — xxiii.  44.  John  iv.  6. — xix.  14.  Acts  ii.  41,  &c. 
 — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  An  opinion  has  been  entertained  among  Christians  since  the 
 days  of  Jerome,  that  mount  Tabor  was  the  scene  of  the  trans- 
 figuration. On  the  eastern  part  of  the  hill  are  the  remains  of  a 
 strong  castle ;  and  within  the  precincts  of  it  is  the  grotto,  in 
 which  are  three  altars  in  memory  of  the  three  tabernacles,  that 
 St  Peter  proposed  to  build,  and  where  the  Latin  friars  always 
 perform  mass  on  the  anniversary  of  the  transfiguration.  It  is 
 said  there  was  a  magnificent  church  built  here  by  Helena,  which 
 was  a  cathedral  when  this  town  was  made  a  bishop's  see.  On 
 the  side  of  the  hill  they  show  a  church  in  a  grot,  where  they  say 
 Christ  charged  his  disciples  not  to  tell  what  things  they  had  seen 
 till  he  should  be  glorified.  It  is  very  doubtful,  however,  whether 
 this  tradition  be  well  founded,  or  whether  it  has  not,  as  Mr 
 Maundrell  and  other  writers  suspect,  originated  in  the  misinter- 
 pretation of  a  very  common  Greek  phrase.  Our  Saviour  is  said 
 to  have  taken  with  him  Peter,  James,  and  John,  and  brought 
 them  into  a  high  mountain  'apart;'  from  which  it  has  been 
 rather  hastily  inferred  that  the  description  must  apply  to  Tabor, 
 the  only  insulated  and  solitary  hill  in  the  neighbourhood.  We 
 may  remark  with  the  traveller  just  named,  that  the  conclusion 
 may  possibly  be  true,  but  that  the  argument  used  to  prove  it 
 seems  incompetent ;  because  the  term  '  apart '  most  likely  re- 
 lates to  the  withdrawing  and  retirement  of  the  persons  here  spoken 
 of,  and  not  to  the  situation  of  the  mountain.  In  fact,  it  means 
 nothing  more  than  that  our  Lord  and  his  three  disciples  betook 
 themselves  to  a  private  place  for  the  purpose  of  devotion.— Edin- 
 burgh Cabinet  Library,  Palestine,  pp.  306 — 309.  For  a  descrip- 
 tion of  Tabor,  see  note  a.  p.  402. — Ed. 
 
 As  they  descended  the  mount,  he  strictly  commanded 
 them  not  to  tell  any  man  what  strange  things  they  had 
 seen  until  he  was  risen  from  the  dead.  They  were  ready 
 to  obey  his  commands,  but  did  not  rightly  understand 
 his  last  words ;  *  and  therefore  they  had  some  altercations 
 among  themselves  concerning  the  meaning  of  his  rising 
 from  the  dead  :  and  another  difficulty  they  had  to  solve ; 
 for  having  seen  Elias  with  our  Saviour  upon  the  mount, 
 they  could  not  forbear  asking  him,  what  reason  the 
 Scribes  and  Pharisees  had  for  asserting  that  that  prophet 
 was  to  come  upon  the  earth  before  the  Messiah  ?  To 
 which  our  Saviour  replied,  that  these  Jewish  doctors  were 
 not  mistaken  in  their  notion,  because  Elias  was  in  effect 
 come  already,  and  had  received  the  same  bad  treatment 
 from  his  countrymen  that  himself  in  a  short  time  was  to 
 expect ;  from  whence  they  perceived,  that  by  the  Elias 
 he  spoke  of.  he  plainly  intended  John  the  Baptist. 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  obviated  and  objections 
 answered. 
 
 St  John,  according  to  the  general  sense  of  antiquity, 
 having  perused  the  other  evangelists,  and  observed  in 
 what  particulars  they  were  defective,  at  the  persuasion 
 of  the  other  bishops  of  Asia,  was  prevailed  upon  to  write 
 his  gospel  as  a  supplement  to  their  omissions.  Who- 
 ever will  give  himself  the  trouble  to  compare  his  history 
 with  that  of  the  other  evangelists,  will  find  this  notion 
 in  a  great  measure  verified.  For,  not  to  mention  other 
 particulars,  our  Saviour's  miracles,  antecedent  to  his 
 resurrection,  as  they  are  recorded  by  St  John,  are  no 
 more  than  eight.  1st,  His  turning  water  into  wine  at 
 the  marriage  of  Cana  in  Galilee.  2d,  His  telling  the 
 Samaritan  woman  the  secrets  of  her  life.  3d,  His  heal- 
 ing the  nobleman's  son  at  Capernaum.  4>th,  His  curing 
 the  lame  man  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda.  5th,  His  feeding 
 five  thousand  men  with  five  barley  loaves  and  two  fishes. 
 6th,  His  walking  upon  the  surface  of  the  water,  and 
 calming  the  storm  at  sea.  1th,  His  giving  sight  to  a 
 blind  man  by  anointing  his  eyes  with  clay.  And  8th, 
 His  raising  Lazarus  from  the  dead.  Now,  all  these  are 
 omitted  by  the  former  evangelists,  except  the  5th  and 
 6th,  which  St  John  seems  to  have  recorded  chiefly  to  in- 
 troduce a  moral  discourse  which  our  Saviour  took  occa- 
 sion to  make  to  the  people,  and  which  the  other  sacred 
 penmen  had  omitted  ;  which  is  a  plain  argument  that  the 
 intent  of  St  John's  gospel  was  to  supply  the  defects  of 
 
 b  The  doctrine  of  the  general  resurrection  they  could  not  but 
 understand;  for  that  the  Pharisees  believed,  (Acts  xxiv.  15.) 
 and  of  that  Martha  makes  acknowledgment,  (John  xi.  24 ;)  nor 
 could  they  be  ignorant  of  the  meaning  of  any  particular  man's 
 rising  from  the  dead;  for  of  that  they  had  instances  in  the  Old 
 Testament,  and  had  lately  seen  an  example  of  it  in  the  gates  of 
 Nairn,  (Luke  vii.  15.)  But  being  taught  out  of  the  law,  that 
 Christ  was  to  abide  for  ever,  (John  xii.  34.)  and  that  of  his 
 kingdom  there  should  be  no  end,  (Luke  i.  33.)  they  could  not 
 tell  how  to  reconcile  his  death,  which  was  to  be  previous  to  his 
 resurrection  to  the  predictions  of  the  prophets,  and  their  own 
 conceptions  of  his  temporal  kingdom;  and  therefore  we  may 
 observe,  that  when  Christ  was  dead,  their  hopes  died  with  him: 
 '  we  trusted  that  it  had  been  he  who  should  have  redeemed 
 Israel,'  (Luke  xxiv.  21;)  but  that  at  his  resurrection  they 
 revived  again,  which  made  them  ask,  '  wilt  thou  at  this  time 
 restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel?'  (Acts  i.  6.) — IFhitby's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
Sbct.  I  I.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &< 
 
 923 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5140.  A.D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1—  xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.l— vii.  1. 
 
 the  other  three  ;  and  that  therefore  their  silence  is  no 
 manner  of  argument  against  St  John's  account  of  the 
 pool  of  Bethesda. 
 
 It  may  seem  a  little  strange,  indeed,  that  Josephus 
 should  give  us  no  account  of  it,  especially  when  the 
 sanative  virtue  of  its  waters,  occasioned  by  so  extraor- 
 dinary a  means,  could  not  but  redound  to  the  honour  of 
 his  country. 1  But  when  it  is  considered  that  the  like 
 omissions  have  been  frequently  made  by  other  historians, 
 who  in  their  writings  have  neglected  to  insert  several 
 considerable  matters  of  antiquity,  merely  because  they 
 were  so  familiar  and  well  known  to  them.  2  When  it  is 
 considered  that  Josephus,  in  particular,  wrote  his  history 
 for  the  information  of  the  Greeks  and  learned  Romans, 
 who  were  heathens,  and  for  fear  of  shocking  their  belief, 
 is  very  tender  of  dwelling  too  much  upon  miracles: 
 when  it  is  considered,  that  he  is  entirely  silent  in  several 
 other  instances  that  bear  some  relation  to  our  Saviour 
 Christ ;  that  he  does  not  so  much  as  intimate  the  slaughter 
 of  the  infants  at  Bethlehem,  mentioned  by  St  Matthew,3 
 nor  give  any  clear  account  of  the  Roman  census  or  taxa- 
 tion, which  occasioned  our  Lord  to  be  born  at  Bethlehem, 
 as  it  is  recorded  by  St  Luke : 4  when  it  is  considered, 
 that  the  miraculous  cure  of  the  impotent  man  by  Jesus 
 had  so  visible  a  connexion,  that  he  could  not,  in 
 decency,  give  an  account  of  the  one  without  making 
 some  mention  of  the  other ;  and  therefore  chose  rather 
 to  decline  the  history  of  both  :  and,  lastly,  when  it  is 
 considered,  that  this  pool,  according  to  5  Tertullian, 
 "  ceased  to  be  beneficial  to  the  Jews,  upon  their  final 
 perseverance  in  blasphemy  and  infidelity  against  Christ ;" 
 there  is  no  wonder  at  all  that  Josephus,  who  was  very 
 defective  in  other  matters,  and  no  great  lover  of  miracles, 
 should  omit  giving  us  an  account  of  a  pool,  whose  virtue 
 was  extinct  and  gone  when  first  he  wrote  his  Antiquities, 
 and  which  he  could  not  well  make  mention  of,  without 
 giving  an  implicit  honour  to  Christ. 
 
 That,  upon  the  death  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  this  pool 
 might  lose  its  sanative  quality,  is  no  improbable  con- 
 jecture, because  the  Jews  no  longer  deserved  such  a 
 peculiar  blessing ;  but  when  at  first  it  came  to  be  im- 
 pregnated with  it,  is  not  a  matter  of  so  easy  solution. 
 The  words  in  the  text  are,  that '  anB  angel  went  down,' 
 Kccrei  xcuqov,  'at  a  certain  season,'  which7  a  learned 
 author  chooses  rather  to  render  '  at  the  season,'  that  is,  of 
 the  passover,  '  and  troubled  the  water ;'  from  whence  he 
 infers,  that  the  first  time  of  this  supernatural  moving  of 
 the  water,  and  consequently  of  the  pool's  receiving  a 
 miraculous  healing  quality,  was  at  this  passover  ;  which 
 was  the  second  after  the  commencement  of  our  Saviour's 
 public  ministry  :  and  the  reason  he  assigns  for  its  being 
 this  rather  than  any  other  passover,  is, — "  That  our 
 Saviour,  having  gone  through  all  the  cities  of  Galilee, 
 and  most  of  the  other  parts  of  the  country  of  Judea, 
 preaching  and  healing  diseases,  came  up  to  Jerusalem 
 at  the  passover,  with  an  intent  to  fix  his  abode  there  ; 
 that,  to  prepare  his  way  before  him,  God  might  give  this 
 pool  an  healing  quality,8  thereby  to  show  the  Jews,  in 
 a  typical  manner,  that  the  messenger  of  the  covenant 
 
 1  Bishop  Smallhrook's  Vindication,  p.  49S. 
 
 »  Dr  Pearce'a  Vindication,  part  4.  p.  19.         s  Chap.  ii.  16. 
 
 4  Chap.  ii.  1,  2.  5  Adv.  Jud.  c.  13.  6  John  v.  4. 
 
 7  Dr  Pearce's  Vindication,  part  4. 
 
 8  Whithy's  Annotations  on  John  v.  4. 
 
 was  coming  among  them,  to  'open  a  fountain9  to  the 
 house  of  David,  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  for 
 sin  and  for  uncleanness  ;'  but  that,  instead  of  giving  him 
 a  kind  reception,  they  took  counsel  together  how  they 
 might  take  away  his  life,  which  made  him  withdraw  him- 
 self from  them,  and,  upon  his  departure,  the  miraculous 
 virtue  of  the  water  ceased."  The  only  objection  against 
 this  hypothesis  is,  that  it  makes  the  miracle  of  no  more 
 than  a  week  or  ten  days'  continuance,  which  is  too  short 
 a  space  for  so  great  a  company  as  is  here  represented, 
 to  be  gathered  together  ;  to  have  taken  up  their  abode,  as 
 it  were,  in  the  apartments  of  this  hospital ;  and  to  be 
 acquainted  so  perfectly,  as  the  paralytic,  in  his  discourse 
 with  our  Saviour,  seems  to  be,  with  the  nature  of  the 
 pool,  and  the  manner  of  its  preternatural  perturbation. 
 And  therefore,  to  follow  the  generality  of  commenta- 
 tors, though  we  should  suppose,  that  its  medicinal  virtue 
 began  at  the  time  of  this  second  passover,  yet  we  may 
 still  adhere  to  the  opinion  of  Tertullian,  and  say,  that,  at 
 certain  times  at  least,  it  continued  with  the  Jews,  and 
 a  singular  blessing  it  was,  until  they  had  filled  the 
 measure  of  their  iniquity, 1U  by  denying  the  Holy  One, 
 and  the  Just,  and  by  killing  the  Prince  of  Life. 
 
 How  the  waters  of  this  pool  came  by  their  sanative 
 quality,  opinions,  in  some  measure,  have  been  divided. 
 Our  n  learned  Hammond,  who  sometimes  afreets  a  singu- 
 larity of  interpretation,  supposes,  that  the  waters  became 
 medicinal  by  being  impregnated  with  a  healing  warmth 
 from  the  blood  and  entrails  of  the  sacrificed  beasts  that 
 were  washed  there,  and  that  the  angel  in  the  text  is  not 
 to  be  understood  of  any  of  those  celestial  beings  that 
 are  usually  distinguished  by  that  name,  but  only  of  a 
 common  messenger,  namely,  an  officer  or  servant  of  the 
 priests,  who,  at  a  proper  season,  was  sent  by  him  to  stir 
 the  pool.  The  great 12  Bartholine  supposes,  that  these 
 waters  were  naturally  medicinal,  and  that  their  com- 
 motion was  occasioned  by  an  extraordinary  fermentation 
 of  some  mineral  in  them ;  and  therefore  he  makes  the 
 angel  no  more  than  a  divine  power,  which  originally 
 gave  this  efficacy,  though  it  was  exerted  in  a  natural 
 way.  But  besides  that  the  word  olyye^o;  seldom  occurs 
 in  the  former,  and  never  in  this  sense,  in  any  historical 
 narrative  in  scripture,  there  are  these  plain  objections 
 against  both  hypotheses,  namely, 13  That,  be  the  waters 
 impregnated  with  what  ingredient  Ave  please,  had  their 
 operation  been  mechanical,  they  must  necessarily  have 
 cured  more  than  one  person,  at  every  commotion  or 
 fermentation ;  and  yet  they  never  can  be  supposed  of 
 efficacy  enough  to  cure  all  manner  of  diseases  in  an 
 instant,  and  at  one  single  immersion,  as  the  waters  of 
 Bethesda  are  represented  to  do  :  and  therefore,  waving 
 all  such  groundless  suppositions,  we  may  be  allowed  to 
 set  the  authority  of  an  ancient  father  of  the  church 
 against  these  modern  names,  and  say,  "  That  the  angel, 
 which  descended  at  a  certain  seoson,  gave  the  water  its 
 medicinal  virtue  ;  for  the  nature  of  the  water  was  not 
 sanative  in  itself,  if  it  had,  cures  would  have  always 
 happened,  but  the  whole  depended  on  the  virtue  com- 
 municated to  it  by  the  angel." 
 
 9Zeoh.  xiii.  1.  10Acts  iii.  14,  15. 
 
 11  Annotations  on  the  5th  chapter  of  St  John. 
 
 12  On  the  Paralytics  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 13  Whitby's  Annot.  and  Bp.  Smallbrook's  Vindication,  p.  507. 
 
924 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARKii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 Now  the  true  reason  why  the  virtue  thus  communicated 
 to  the  water  by  the  operation  of  an  angel,  was  effectual 
 only  to  the  curing  of  one  person  at  one  time,  was  to 
 evince  the  miraculousness  of  the  cure.  Had  many  been 
 cured  at  once,  the  soeptic  might  have  imputed  their  cures 
 to  the  natural  virtue  of  the  water,  and,  upon  this  sup- 
 position, been  emboldened  to  ask,  "  Where  is  the  wonder 
 of  this  ?  Do  not  many  medicinal  baths  cure  various  kinds 
 of  diseases,  and  multitudes  of  such  as  labour  under  each 
 disease,  provided  their  case  be  curable  ?  Had  one  only 
 indeed  been  cured,  the  first  that  could  get  in  after  the 
 troubling  of  the  water,  there  would  have  been  then  a 
 great  and  real  miracle  :  but  now  the  numbers  make  the 
 fact  suspicious.  To  make  it  appear  a  miracle  indeed, 
 its  effects  should  have  been  confined  and  limited  to  par- 
 ticular times  and  persons,  and  otherwise  so  circum- 
 stantiated, as  that  the  power  of  God,  and  not  of  blind 
 nature,  might  have  been  apparent  in  it."  But  all  this 
 language  is  effectually  silenced  by  the  method  which  the 
 wise  providence  of  God  took  in  this  case,  and  the  miracle 
 established  upon  such  evident  conviction,  as  the  mouth 
 of  infidelity  itself  cannot  gainsay." 
 
 a  The  nature  and  manner  of  the  cures  performed  here,  and 
 the  times  of  their  performance,  as  a  subject  of  great  interest, 
 has  exercised  the  speculations  of  most  commentators.  As  to  the 
 nature  of  the  cures,  or  the  sensible  means,  if  any,  employed  in 
 effecting  them,  as  the  whole  is  represented  as  a  special  miracle, 
 second  causes  are  out  of  the  question:  all  that  was  required  on 
 the  part  of  the  patient,  let  his  case  be  what  it  might,  being  the 
 mere  act  of  immersion;  the  water  having  at  other  times  no 
 power  to  convey  any  specific  benefit.  We  are  consequently  re- 
 leased from  all  such  unscriptural  and  unphilosophical  opinions  as 
 that  entertained  by  Dr  Hammond ;  who  ascribes  the  medicinal 
 properties  of  the  pool  to  the  stirring  up  of  the  blood  and  entrails 
 of  the  slaughtered  animals,  and  other  filth  contained  in  it:  which, 
 as  observed  by  Dr  Jennings,  must  make  the  bath  so  foul  and 
 fetid,  that  it  would  be  more  likely  to  poison  than  to  cure.  But 
 this  part  of  the  inquiry  involves  another  question,  which  although 
 not  essential  either  to  the  truth  or  to  the  right  understanding  of 
 the  history,  has  acquired  an  accidental  importance,  namely,  the 
 mode  by  which  the  miraculous  but  transient  virtue  was  conveyed 
 to  the  water.  An  angel  is  said  to  have  gone  down  on  these  oc- 
 casions into  the  pool,  and  to  have  troubled  or  agitated  the  water: 
 the  visible  and  supernatural  effect  being  probably,  as  conjectured 
 by  Grotius,  Lightfoot,  and  Doddridge,  caused  by  an  invisible  and 
 celestial  agent:  this  mode  of  expression,  in  fact,  implying  a  con- 
 viction, common  with  the  Jews,  that  such  things  were  effected 
 by  the  ministration  of  angels.  From  the  omission,  however,  in 
 some  ancient  manuscripts,  of  the  fourth  verse  of  this  chapter, 
 and  its  being  found  in  another  in  the  shape  of  a  marginal  note, 
 it  has  been  contended  by  some,  that  this  part  of  the  narrative  has 
 been  inserted  without  authority,  in  support  of  a  popular  supersti- 
 tion. The  case  of  this  disputed  text  is  thus  stated  by  Bishop 
 Marsh,  in  his  notes  on  Michaelis's  Introduction  to  the  New 
 Testament:  "  The  Codex  Ephrem  (a  very  ancient  Greek  MS.  of 
 the  New  Testament  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris)  has  many 
 marginal  notes  written  in  uncial  letters,  without  accents.  This 
 proves  what  has  been  sometimes  doubted,  that  marginal  notes 
 were  made  in  the  most  ancient  MSS.,  and  that  this  practice 
 prevailed  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity.  But  these  marginal 
 scholia  seem  to  have  been  confined  to  such  MSS.  as  were  in  the 
 hands  of  private  persons;  while  those  which  have  been  used  for 
 church  service,  such  as  the  Codex  Bezae,  are  without  them.  It 
 is  likewise  remarkable,  that  in  this  MS.,  the  disputed,  or  rather 
 spurious  text  of  John  v.  4,  is  written,  not  in  the  text,  but  in  a 
 marginal  scholion.  Now,  as  this  verse  is  totally  omitted  in  the 
 Codex  Bezae  and  the  Codex  Vaticanus,  which  are  the  two  most 
 ancient  MSS.  now  extant;  as  it  is  likewise  omitted  in  the  Codex 
 Ephrem  (which  is  inferior  in  age  to  the  Codex  Bezfe),  but  writ- 
 ten in  the  margin  as  a  scholion;  is  written  in  more  modern 
 MSS.  in  the  text,  but  marked  with  an  asterisk,  or  obelus,  as 
 suspicious;  and  in  MSS.  still  more  modem  is  written  without 
 
 That  the  widow  of  Nain's  son,  and  the  ruler  of  the 
 synagogue's  daughter,  were  both  of  them  really  dead, 
 
 any  mark;  we  see  the  various  gradations  by  which  it  has  acquired 
 its  place  in  our  present  text;  and  have  proof  positive,  that  the 
 verse  was  originally  nothing  more  than  a  marginal  scholion,  and 
 of  course  spurious.  Other  passages  likewise  in  the  Greek  Testa- 
 ment owe  their  present  existence  in  the  printed  editions  to  the 
 same  cause."  But  the  rejection  of  the  fourth  verse  as  spurious, 
 so  long  as  the  seventh  remains  an  undisputed  portion  of  the 
 sacred  text,  is  of  very  little  importance ;  for  here  the  two  prin- 
 cipal facts  which  the  fourth  verse  relates,  namely,  the  miraculous 
 agitation  of  the  water,  and  the  single  cure,  which  of  course  must 
 also  have  been  miraculous,  are  both  implied.  It  matters  not, 
 indeed,  in  this  view  of  the  case,  whether  an  angel  was  known, 
 or  only  inferred,  to  have  been  present.  It  was  the  belief  of  the 
 Jews,  a  belief  warranted  by  numerous  instances  of  the  kind  re- 
 corded in  their  scriptures,  that  every  supernatural  occurrence 
 was  effected  by  the  agency  of  a  heavenly  messenger,  or  angel, 
 specially  appointed  for  that  purpose;  and  it  is  as  easy  to  conceive, 
 that,  in  the  present  instance,  the  water  was  moved,  and  the 
 healing  virtue  imparted  to  it,  by  an  angel,  as  that  these  miracu- 
 lous effects  were  caused  in  any  other  way.  Admitting  then  the 
 spuriousness  of  the  disputed  text  as  proved,  neither  the  character 
 nor  the  credibility  of  the  miracle  are  thereby  affected :  the  seventh 
 verse  implies  as  much  of  the  statement  of  the  fourth  as  it  is 
 necessary  for  us  to  know.  And  with  respect  to  the  means  by 
 which  the  miracle  was  accomplished,  the  revealed  mode  in 
 which  it  has  pleased  the  Almighty  that  supernatural  events 
 should  frequently  be  brought  about,  and  the  belief  of  the  Jewish 
 church  on  this  subject,  leave  it  highly  probable  that  the  same 
 mode  was  adopted  in  the  present  instance,  although  the  evan- 
 gelist has  been  silent  on  the  subject.  With  respect  to  the  times 
 at  which  the  miracle  was  performed,  some  confine  it  to  a  par- 
 ticular season;  as,  for  instance,  to  that  of  the  festival  mentioned 
 in  the  first  verse.  But  the  original  implies  no  fixed  and  par- 
 ticular season ;  much  less  one  of  so  rare  occurrence  as  an  annual 
 feast.  The  words  Kara,  xcuoav,  which  are  rendered  in  our 
 translation  '  at  a  certain  season,'  imply  as  well,  according  to 
 time,  or  from  time  to  time,  or  at  times;  on  occasion,  or  occa- 
 sionally: x.a.f  hfitgar, '  with  the  day,' or  '  daily' (Acts  ii.  46,  47); 
 xar'  iviaurov,  '  from  year  to  year,'  or  '  year  by  year'  (H'eb.  ix.  25; 
 x.  1) ;  xar  oixo)i,  '  from  house  to  house'  (Acts  ii.  46)  ;  xar'  uxota. 
 npiTi^av  xat  xaf  bpoioxnv  (Sept.),  '  iu,'  or  '  according  to,  our 
 image  and  our  likeness.'  The  precise  time  of  the  angel's  visit 
 was  thus  perhaps  uncertain.  At  whatever  time,  however,  and 
 under  whatever  circumstances,  this  visit  was  made,  we  have 
 reason  to  believe,  from  the  terms  employed,  and  from  the  bene- 
 volent object  of  the  visit  itself,  that  it  was  more  frequently  re- 
 peated than  once  in  a  year.  Thus  one  happy  individual  at  least, 
 on  each  occasion,  was  relieved  perhaps  from  agonising  pain,  and 
 restored  to  health  and  his  friends.  But  then,  how  many  must 
 have  returned  to  their  homes,  bearing  their  diseases  back  with 
 them,  with  the  addition  of  fatigue  and  disappointment!  True: 
 but  let  it  be  remembered,  that  every  one  of  these  disappointed 
 sufferers  of  Jerusalem  possessed  an  advantage  over  the  sick  of 
 all  other  places,  and  one  which  even  we,  at  the  present  day, 
 with  all  the  means  which  the  improved  state  of  medical  science 
 can  furnish,  do  not  possess,  namely,  the  knowledge,  that  let  his 
 case  be  ever  so  desperate,  there  existed  a  certain  cure ;  which, 
 although  he  had  not  been  so  fortunate  as  to  find  on  this  occasion, 
 the  ensuing  one  would  renew  the  opportunity  of  obtaining.  Thus 
 hope  was  kept  alive,  pain  mitigated,  and  faith  exercised;  and  it 
 is  probable,  that  none  who  visited  the  pool  duly  impressed  with 
 their  own  helplessness,  the  greatness  of  the  gift,  and  the  power 
 and  goodness  of  the  Giver,  failed,  sooner  or  later,  of  receiving 
 the  reward  of  their  faith  and  perseverance.  It  is  further  to  be 
 observed,  that,  from  the  simple  style  of  living  of  the  ancient 
 Jews,  diseases  were  comparatively  few;  the  number  furnished 
 by  the  population  of  Jerusalem  bearing,  in  all  probability,  no 
 proportion  to  that  found  in  a  similar  population  in  civilized 
 society  at  the  present  day.  So  that,  supposing  all  the  cases 
 which  had  failed  of  obtaining  relief  elsewhere  to  have  resorted 
 to  this  last  resource,  and  that  in  the  aggregate  they  were  justly 
 entitled  '  a  great  multitude,'  the  number  might  not  have  been 
 so  great  as  to  preclude  the  chance  of  each  being  healed  in  course 
 of  time.  Neither  Philo  nor  Josephus  notice  this  miracle;  hut 
 that,  as  observed  by  Dr  Macknight,  in  no  way  affects  its  credi- 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 925 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.31;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  I).  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  I. 
 
 is  evident  from  the  sense  of  all  that  were  about  them, 
 who  were  actually  carrying  the  one  to  his  burial,  and 
 making  preparation  for  the  funeral  of  the  other  ;  so  that 
 had  not  our  blessed  Saviour  been  confident  of  the  divine 
 virtue  residing  in  him,  whereby  he  was  able  to  recover 
 them  to  life  again,  it  would  have  been  madness  in  him 
 to  have  attempted  to  do  it. 
 
 "  He  might  suppose,  perhaps,  that  there  was  a  mistake 
 in  the  people  that  were  about  them,  and  that  these  two 
 young  persons  might  possibly  be  in  a  lethargic  state." 
 But,  besides  the  folly  of  presuming  upon  a  thing,  which 
 scarce  happens  once  in  a  century,  how  could  he  tell, 
 that,  upon  his  touching  the  bier  of  the  one,  or  the  hand 
 of  the  other,  and  calling  upon  them,  they  would  instantly 
 awake  ?  And  if  they  did  not  awake  at  his  call,  his  whole 
 pretensions  of  being  a  prophet  sent  from  God,  with  a 
 power  to  restore  life  to  the  dead,  must  as  effectually 
 have  been  ruined,  as  if  the  persons  here  supposed  in  a 
 lethargy  only,  had  actually  been  dead.  But  now,  if  we 
 examine  a  little  into  our  Lord's  conduct  in  both  these 
 cases,  we  shall  find  that  he  acted  not  upon  any  supposi- 
 tion of  mistake  in  the  people,  but  out  of  the  fulness  of 
 the  Godhead  that  dwelt  in  him  bodily.  He,  coming  to 
 the  city  of  Nain,  attended  with  his  disciples,  meets  at 
 the  gate  the  funeral  of  a  certain  young  man,  the  only 
 son  of  a  woman  that  was  a  widow.  The  consideration 
 of  her  destitute  condition  moved  his  compassion  indeed ; 
 but,  for  all  that,  he  might  have  let  the  funeral  pass. 
 None  of  the  company  either  asked  or  challenged  him  to 
 raise  the  dead  youth  :  it  was  entirely  his  own  offer ;  and 
 an  offer  that  no  wise  man,  who  set  up  for  a  prophet, 
 would  have  ever  made,  had  he  not  been  conscious,  as  we 
 find  he  was,  that  he  was  able  to  perform  it. 
 
 While  he  was  at  Capernaum,  a  person  of  some  note 
 requests  of  him  to  go  and  heal  his  daughter,  who  was  at 
 the  point  of  death.  Before  he  could  get  to  the  house,  a 
 messenger  comes,  and  acquaints  the  father  that  she  was 
 actually  dead.1  Here  our  Lord  had  a  fair  opportunity 
 to  excuse  himself;  for,  though  he  might  pretend  to  cure 
 diseases,  which  was  all  that  Jairus  requested  of  him,  yet 
 it  did  not  therefore  follow  that  he  was  to  raise  the  dead. 
 But,  instead  of  retracting,  he  offers,  of  his  own  accord, 
 to  go  forward,  and  tells  the  father,  as  he  afterwards  did, 
 that  he  would  raise  her  to  life  again : 2  be  not  afraid ; 
 only  believe,  says  he,  and  she  shall  be  made  whole, 
 which  he  could  never  have  said  from  any  other  principle 
 than  a  consciousness  of  that  3  almighty  power  whereby 
 he  is  able  to  subdue  all  things  to  himself. 
 
 But,  though  our  Lord  was  conscious  of  his  divine 
 power,  yet,  upon  his  coming  to  the  ruler's  house,  instead 
 of  making  any  ostentatious  boast  of  it,  we  find  him,  by 
 the  modesty  of  his  expression,  the  maid  is  not  dead,  but 
 sleepeth,  endeavouring  to  conceal  it.  It  is,  in  a  great 
 measure,  indeed,  owing  to  his  modesty,  and  great 
 humility,  that,  instead  of  proclaiming,  lie  requires  the 
 
 1  Defence  of  the  Scripture  History,  p.  17.  2  Luke  vii.  50. 
 
 3  Phil.  iii.  21. 
 bility ;  as  these  writers  have  omitted  other  and  greater  transac- 
 tions, which  they  had  an  opportunity  of  knowing.  Dr  Doddridge 
 supposes  the  waters  of  this  pool  to  have  been  endued  with  their 
 miraculous  properties  not  long  before  the  ministry  of  Christ,  and 
 thiit  these  properties  ceased  at  his  death;  which  is,  in  fact,  what 
 is  related  of  them  by  Tertullian. — Munsford's  Scripture  Gazet- 
 teer.— Ed. 
 
 people  so  frequently  to  suppress  the  fame  of  his  mar- 
 vellous works  :  but  in  the  present  case  he  might  have 
 some  regard  to  the  character  of  Jairus,  as  ruler  of  the 
 synagogue,  and,  by  this  advice  of  silence,  dispense  with 
 his  speaking  publicly  of  a  miracle,  which  might  possibly 
 draw  the  malice  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  upon  hint, 
 as  well  as  upon  himself.  In  the  case  of  his  raising 
 Lazarus,  we  find,  that, 4  '  because,  by  reason  of  him 
 many  of  the  Jews  went  away,  and  believed  on  Jesus,  the 
 chief  priests  consulted,'  not  only  how  to  destroy  Jesus, 
 but  '  to  put  Lazarus  likewise  to  death:'  and  much  of  the 
 same  design  might  have  been  suspected,  which  our 
 Saviour,  by  this  kind  caution,  endeavoured  to  prevent, 
 if  it  once  came  to  their  knowledge,  that  so  great  a  man 
 as  a  governor  of  a  synagogue,  by  the  miraculous  recovery 
 of  his  daughter,  had  forsaken  the  religion  of  his  ances- 
 tors, and  was  become  a  convert  to  the  Christian  faith. 
 
 Gadara  was  one  of  the  cities  beyond  Jordan,  belong- 
 ing to  the  country  called  Decapolis,  which  was  some- 
 times in  the  hands  of  the  Jews,  and  sometimes  of  the 
 Syrians,  but,  at  this  time,  was  inhabited  by  both.  The 
 Syrians  were  heathens,  and,  consequently,  made  use  of 
 swine,  not  only  for  food,  but  for  sacrifices  likewise  : 
 and  it  is  not  improbable,  that  the  Jews  of  the  country 
 might  be  tempted  to  feed  swine,  by  the  advantage  they 
 made  in  selling  them  to  their  heathen  neighbours.  5  This 
 was  against  a  prohibition  of  their  law,  it  is  true ;  but 
 laws,  we  know,  are  not  always  observed,  and  perhaps 
 least  of  all  at  Gadara,  which,  being  in  the  extremities  of 
 the  Jewish  territories,  and  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
 heathens,  left  the  Jews  without  any  restraint  upon  them, 
 but  that  of  conscience,  which  is  too  frequently  violated 
 for  the  sake  of  gain. 
 
 To  bring  the  matter  then  to  a  narrow  compass.  The 
 swine  which  were  destroyed,  in  consequence  of  the  per- 
 mission which  our  Saviour  gave  the  evil  spirits  to  enter 
 into  them,  belonged  either  to  the  Jews,  or  Gentiles  of 
 Gadara  :  if  they  belonged  to  the  Jews,  it  cannot  be  de- 
 nied, but  they  were  justly  punished  for  breaking  their 
 own  laws  and  constitutions,  which  forbade  them  to  keep 
 any  ;  nor  can  our  Saviour's  right  of  inflicting  the  punish- 
 ment be  called  in  question,  because  it  was  a  received 
 maxim  among  the  Jews,  that  any  person  invested  with 
 the  character  of  a  prophet,  and  acting  by  the  Spirit  of 
 God,  might,  without  the  assistance  of  a  magistrate,  put 
 the  laws  in  execution  against  offenders  :  and  therefore, 
 we,  who  acknowledge  our  Jesus  to  have  been  more  than 
 a  prophet,  can  never  be  at  a  loss  to  account  for  his  ex- 
 ercising an  authority  among  the  Jews,  which,  according 
 to  their  own  confession,  was  allowable  in  the  lowest  of 
 that  order.  But,  if  the  heathens  of  Gadara  were  the 
 owners  of  these  swine,  our  Saviour  might  be  induced  to 
 permit  the  devils  to  enter  into  them,  not  only  to  teach 
 them  the  sacredness  of  the  Jewish  laws,  which  they,  on 
 account  of  the  prohibition  of  swine's  flesh,  may  be  sup- 
 posed to  have  ridiculed  ;  but  to  cure  them  likewise  of 
 their  idolatrous  worship  of  demons,  and  to  engage  them 
 to  embrace  the  Christian  faith.  For  when  they  saw  our 
 Lord's  power  over  such  a  multitude  of  devils,  exhibited 
 in  their  possession  of  such  a  number  of  swine,  had  they 
 made  a  right  application  of  the  miracle,  they  could  not 
 but  perceive  the  truth  and  divinity  of  his  doctrine,  and 
 
 *  John  xii.  10.  11. 
 
 *  Dr  Pearce's  Vindication,  part  2. 
 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V1IL 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.   xii.  1  — 
 
 the  madness^  of  their  worshipping  such  impure  spirits,  as 
 were  both  cast  out  of  the  men  at  his  command,  and  could 
 not  enter  into  the  swine  without  his  permission. 
 
 They  could  not  but  perceive,  I  say,  that  our  Saviour 
 was  a  prophet  sent  from  heaven  ;  that  what  he  did  was 
 by  a  commission  from  God ;  and,  consequently,  that  he 
 could  not  be  guilty  of  any  injustice  in  the  destruction  of 
 the  swine,  which,  upon  this  supposition,  was  not  his  act, 
 but  the  act  of  providence.  He  indeed,  as  a  man,  had 
 no  right  to  destroy  the  people's  swine ;  but  God,  who  is 
 the  supreme  proprietor  of  the  whole  earth,  most  certainly 
 had ;  and  shall  we  then  complain  of  him  for  such  a  pun- 
 ishment as  this,  when  every  day  we  see  more  surprising 
 instances  before  our  eyes  ?  When  we  see  him  laying 
 whole  nations  waste  with  pestilence,  with  famine,  and 
 with  earthquakes,  shall  we  confess  his  sovereign  authority 
 in  these  cases,  and  yet,  upon  the  loss  of  two  thousand 
 swine,  cry  out,  and  say,  why  hast  thou  done  this  ?  The 
 heathens  themselves,  upon  the  supposition  of  a  provi- 
 dence, will  acknowledge  this  to  be  unreasonable  ;  nor 
 can  our  Saviour,  as  acting  by  a  divine  commission,  ever 
 be  justly  blamed,  because  he  once  or  twice  did  the  same 
 thing  which  God  does  every  day. 
 
 But,  after  all,  whether  the  proprietors  were  Jews  or 
 Gentiles,  *  the  words  in  the  text  do  not  imply,  that  our 
 Saviour  was  either  principal  or  accessory  to  the  destruc- 
 tion of  the  swine.  St  Mark,  indeed,  tells  us,  that  '  he 
 gave  the  devils  leave ;'  and  St  Luke,  that  '  he  suffered 
 them'  to  enter  into  the  swine  ;  but  by  this  is  meant  no 
 more,  than  that  he  did  not  prevent  them  ;  that  he  did  not 
 interpose  his  divine  power,  in  order  to  hinder  them  from 
 entering ;  but,  if  this  made  our  Saviour  a  sharer  in  the 
 destruction  of  the  swine,  by  parity  of  reason,  it  will  make 
 God,  because  he  permits  it,  answerable  for  all  the  evil 
 that  is  done  under  the  sun.  Thus,  whether  we  suppose 
 the  Jews  or  heathens  owners  of  the  herd  of  swine,  our 
 Saviour's  permitting  the  devils  to  enter  into  them  made 
 him  not  accessory  to  their  destruction ;  or,  if  it  be  said, 
 that  he  did  it  with  a  punitive  intent,  it  was  either  to  make 
 the  Jews  suffer  for  the  breach  of  their  law,  or  the  heathens 
 for  their  obstinate  idolatry ;  which  his  character  of  a 
 prophet,  and  the  testimony  of  his  being  the  Son  of  the 
 most  High,  without  all  controversy,  authorized  him  to  do. 
 
 To  know  the  true  end  and  design  of  our  Saviour's 
 transfiguration,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  look  back  a 
 little  into  the  context,  where  we  find,  that  after  Peter's 
 confessing  him  to  be  2  '  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  livino- 
 God,  from  that  time  he  began  to  show  unto  his  disciples, 
 how  that  he  must  go  unto  Jerusalem,  and  suffer  many 
 things  of  the  elders,  and  chief  priests,  and  scribes,  and 
 be  killed,  and  be  raised  again  the  third  day.'  Nor  was 
 this  all ;  for  he  foretold  them,  that  they  likewise  were  to 
 suffer  many  grievous  persecutions  for  his  name's  sake  ; 
 and  therefore  he  recommended  to  them  the  unpleasant 
 doctrines  of  3  <  self-denial,  and  taking  up  the  cross,  and 
 following  him,'  with  this  great,  though  distant,  encourage- 
 ment, that 4  <  when  the  Son  of  Man  should  come  in  the 
 glory  of  his  Father,  with  his  angels,  he  should  reward 
 every  one  according  to  his  works.' 
 
 These  predictions,  doctrines,  and  promises,  were  so 
 contrary  to  the  expectations  of  his  disciples,  who  hoped 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— is.  k4.  LUKE  vi.  1—  ix-  37JOHN  y.  1 — vii.  1. 
 in  him  to  have  a  temporal  prince  and  deliverer,  a  restorer 
 of  the  decayed  state  of  Israel,  and  promoter  of  themselves 
 to  great  honours  and  employments,  that  our  Saviour 
 thought  proper,  not  many  days  after,  in  order  to  revive 
 their  faith  and  trust  in  him,  and  5  to  fortify  their  minds 
 against  what  was  likely  to  ensue,  to  take  as  many  with 
 him  into  the  mount,  as  made  up  a  legal  evidence,  and 
 there  to  give  them  ocular  conviction  of  what  he  had  pro- 
 mised, in  recompense  of  what  they  were  to  suffer,  by 
 assuming,  for  a  while,  the  lustre  a  and  appearance  of  a 
 glorified  body ;  which  so  raised  their  drooping  hearts, 
 that  we  find  St  Peter  immediately  declaring,  6  '  Lord,  it 
 is  good  for  us  to  be  here  ;  and,  if  thou  wilt,  let  us  make 
 here  three  tabernacles,  one  for  thee,  and  one  for  Moses, 
 and  one  for  Elias.'  For  the  design  of  these  words  is, 
 not  only  to  secure  his  Master,  by  staying  in  that  retreat, 
 from  the  sufferings  and  death,  which  would  be  the  con- 
 sequence of  his  going  up  to  Jerusalem,  as  St  Chrysostom 
 and  others  understand  it,  but  to  express  likewise  the 
 pleasure  and  satisfaction  he  took  in  this  transfiguration, 
 and  glorified  company ;  and  how  he  resumed  fresh  spirits 
 and  comforts  from  a  miracle,  which  was  emblematical  of 
 the  glorious  state,  not  of  Christ  only,  but  of  all  good 
 Christians,  after  their  resurrection. 
 
 The  only  instance  we  have  in  scripture  of  any  transfigur- 
 ation like  unto  this,  is  in  the  case  of  Moses,  '  after  he 
 had  been  forty  days  and  forty  nights  with  God  on  mount 
 Sinai ;  for,  upon  his  descent,  we  are  told,  '  that  the  skin 
 of  his  face  so  shone,  that  the  children  of  Israel  were 
 afraid  to  come  nigh  him ;  and  therefore  he  put  a  veil  on 
 his  face,  while  he  talked  with  them.'  That  our  blessed 
 Lord,  in  the  act  of  his  transfiguration,  might  probably 
 have  respect  to  this  preceding  one  of  Moses,  and,  both 
 in  the  nature  of  the  change,  and  the  place  where  it 
 was  wrought,  design  some  conformity  thereunto,  is  what 
 we  are  at  liberty  to  suppose ;  and  consequently  can 
 account  why  the  scene  of  this  transaction  was  in  a  moun- 
 tain, rather  than  a  valley  :  and  why  the  three  apostles, 
 Peter,  James,  and  John,  and  not  the  whole  multitude, 
 were  allowed  to  be  spectators  of  it,  we  have  several  rea- 
 sons to  allege. 
 
 For  besides  that  this  was  a  vouchsafement,  fit  only  to 
 be  communicated  to  such  as  were  of  his  more  immediate 
 confidence,  and  stood  in  the  highest  degree  of  his  esteem ; 
 to  such  as,  for  their  zeal  and  affection  to  him,  were  hon- 
 oured and  distinguished  8  with  a  peculiar  title,  and,  after 
 his  resurrection,  appointed  by  providence  to  be  the  great 
 pillars  of  his  church ;  and  besides,  that  it  would  have 
 looked  like  vanity  and  ostentation  in  him  to  have  taken 
 the  multitude  into  the  mount,  and  there  made  a  public 
 sight  of  his  miracles,  which  was  the  thing  he  always  care- 
 fully declined:  besides  this,  I  say,  there  seems  to  be 
 
 1  Dr  Pearce's  Vindication,  part  1.  p.  23.      2  Mat.  xvi   21   &c 
 3  Ibid.  ver.  24.  <  l|)i(]_  vw_  g?       ' 
 
 Young's  Sermons,  vol.  ii.  p.  360. 
 '  Exod.  xxxiv.  28,  &c. 
 
 6  Luke  ix.  33. 
 Luke  vi.  13. 
 
 a  This  is  the  proper  meaning  of  the  word  fitrafioeQufa.  For 
 p.o£<Qrt,  both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  doth  not  signify  the 
 essence  or  constituent  properties  of  a  man,  but  only  his  external 
 shape  or  appearance :  as  when  it  is  said  of  Belshazzar,  (Dan.  v.  1 0.) 
 and  of  Daniel,  (chap.  viii.  28.)  that  h  po^n  vkXiatv,  their  forms 
 were  changed;  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  that  »  ^<p»i  poZ  Wiht^i* 
 W  l/ii,  '  my  form  returned  to  me,'  (Dan.  iv.  36.)  and  of  Christ 
 that  he  appeared  to  two  of  his  disciples  iv  irioa  po^Qn,  '  in  another 
 form,'  (Mark  xvi.  12.)  and  therefore  the  word  which  is  derived 
 from  it,  can  extend  no  further  than  to  a  change  of  the  outward 
 form  or  appearance  only. — Whitby  on  Phil.  ii.  6. 
 
Sect.  II.]  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29,  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14, 
 
 927 
 
 something  in  the  transfiguration  itself,  which  might  have 
 been  of  dangerous  consequence  for  the  multitude  to  have 
 been  admitted  to. 
 
 St  Peter,  who  himself  was  one  of  those  who  were  with 
 him  on  the  holy  mount,  gives  us  this  account  of  it.  1 '  We 
 have  not  followed  cunningly  devised  fables,'  says  he, 
 '  when  we  made  known  unto  you  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
 Jesus  Christ,  but  were  eye-witnesses  of  his  majesty  ;  for 
 he  received  from  God  the  Father,  honour  and  glory, 
 when  there  came  such  a  voice  to  him  from  the  excellent 
 glory,  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleas- 
 ed.' Now,  2by  his  majesty  in  this  place,  most  properly 
 is  to  be  understood  that  lustre  and  radiancy  wherein  he 
 appeared,  when  his  '  face  shone  as  the  sun,  and  his  gar- 
 ments,' pierced  through  with  the  beams  that  were  darted 
 from  his  body, '  became  white  as  light :'  3  For  to  shine  as 
 the  sun,  is  a  phrase  expressing  something  belonging  to 
 celestial  majesty  ;  and  white  and  splendid  garments  are 
 proper  for  kings,  and  4  royal  ministers  of  the  heavenly 
 court.  And,  in  like  manner,  by  the  '  excellent  glory', 
 from  whence  the  voice  proceeded,  can  be  meant  nothing 
 but  the  bright  and  shining  cloud  that  then  appeared, 
 which  the  Jews  call  the  schechinah,  and  is  made  up,  as 
 most  imagine,  of  an  host  of  angels,  the  constant  symbol 
 of  the  divine  presence  ;  and  how  great  and  magnificent 
 this  symbol  is,  we  may,  in  some  measure,  learn  from  the 
 vision  of  the  prophet  Daniel :  5'  the  ancient  of  days  did 
 sit,  whose  garment  was  white  as  snow,  and  the  hair  of 
 his  head  like  pure  wool.  His  throne  was  like  the  fiery 
 flames,  and  his  wheels  as  burning  fire.  A  fiery  stream 
 had  issue  from  before  him  ;  thousands  of  thousands  min- 
 istered unto  him,  and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand 
 stood  before  him.' 
 
 Supposing  then  that  this  was  the  manner  of  our  Savi- 
 our's transfiguration  ;  that  not  only,  in  his  own  person, 
 he  was  arrayed  with  all  his  glory  and  lustre,  but  had 
 likewise  an  angelic  host  surrounding  him,  two  of  the 
 greatest  prophets  of  ancient  ages  attending-  him,  and  a 
 voice  from  heaven,  declaring  him  to  be  the  well-beloved 
 Son  of  God  :  while  the  multitude  stood  by,  and  saw  and 
 heard  all  this,  it  would  have  been  almost  unavoidable, 
 but  that,  upon  such  conviction  of  his  being  the  Messiah, 
 6  '  they  would  have  taken  him  by  force,  and  made  him  a 
 king.'  But  since,  as  our  Saviour  tells  us,  his  7'  king- 
 dom was  not  of  this  world,'  nor  to  come  with  the  pomp 
 and  observation  which  the  Jews  expected  ;  and  since  one 
 of  his  great  concerns  was,  that  no  disturbance  of  the 
 civil  government  should  be  occasioned  by  him,  or  laid 
 to  his  charge,  he  wisely  made  choice  of  three  only,  but 
 these  the  principal  of  his  apostles,  to  whom  he  exhibited 
 a  specimen  of  his  future  glory  ;  which  had  he  done  to  the 
 multitude,  it  might  probably  have  occasioned  a  general 
 insurrection  ;  and,  as  he  came  down  from  the  mount,  he 
 charged  them,  '  that  they  should  tell  the  vision  to  no 
 man,  till  after  his  resurrection.' 
 
 From  the  word,  '6^»tux  which  we  render  vision,  some 
 have  supposed  that  Moses  and  Elias  were  not  there  in 
 their  proper  persons,  but  that  the  apostles,  in  their  fancy 
 and  imagination,  had  only  a  strong  idea  or  impression 
 of  them ;  or,  at  most,  that  their  spectres,  or  some  sha- 
 
 1  9  Pet.  i.  16,  &c. 
 Mat.  xiii.  43. 
 
 6  John  vi.  15. 
 
 2  See  Whitby  on  2  Pet.  i.  1G. 
 Ilev.  iii.  4.         5  Dan.  vii.  9,  10 
 7  lb.  xviii.  3o. 
 
 LUKE  vi.V-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii    1. 
 
 dowy  resemblance  of  them,  only  were  there.  Since  the 
 evangelists,  however,  speak  of  them  in  a  personal  char- 
 acter and  capacity  ;  since  they  represent  thenras  talking 
 with  Christ,  and  speaking  of  his  decease,  which  Tie  was 
 to  accomplish  at  Jerusalem  ;  since  they  tell  us,  that  \\h.  a 
 they  were  come  out  of  the  ecstasy  into  which  this  vision 
 had  cast  them,  they  saw  two  men  standing  with  him ;  it 
 is  much  more  probable  to  think,  that  Moses  and  Elias 
 were  really  there,  and  that  God  had,  somewhere  or  other, 
 from  the  time  of  their  departure  out  of  this  world,  pre- 
 served both  their  bodies  to  this  end.  The  scriptures, 
 indeed,  are  express  as  to  Elias,  that  he  was  translated 
 into  heaven  by  the  ministry  of  angels  resembling  s  a 
 chariot  of  fire,  and  horses  of  fire  ;  and  it  is  a  pretty  gen- 
 eral opinion, 9  both  among  Jewish  and  Christian  •authors 
 taken,  as  is  supposed,  from  some  apocryphal  book,  that 
 Moses  did  not  die,  but  was  translated  into  heaven,  or 
 some  terrestrial  paradise,  in  the  same  manner  as  were 
 Enoch  and  Elias.  There  is  a  passage  in  St  Jude,  where 
 iU  Michael  the  archangel  is  said  to  contend  with  the  devil, 
 and  dispute  about  the  body  of  Moses  which,  if  taken  in 
 a  literal  sense,  will  greatly  favour  this  opinion ;  for  if 
 we  can  but  suppose  that  u  the  contest  between  this  good 
 and  evil  angel  concerning  Moses's  body,  related  not  to 
 its  burial,  as  some  will  have  it,  but  its  assumption  into 
 heaven,  or  some  other  place  of  happiness,  which  the 
 devil  might  oppose,  and  urge  the  obligation  of  his  dying 
 the  common  death  of  all  men,  for  this  reason  more  espe- 
 cially, because  he  had  once  taken  away  the  life  of  an 
 Egyptian  :  if  we  can  but  suppose,  I  say,  that  the  contest 
 arose  upon  this  subject,  then  Ave  may  easily  conceive 
 both  how  Moses  might  subsist  in  a  separate  state  from 
 the  time  of  his  assumption,  and  how  he,  together  with 
 Elias,  might  be  dispatched  from  thence  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, to  set  oft' the  lustre  of  our  Lord's  transfiguration, 
 by  their  appearing  at  the  same  time  in  their  resplendent 
 robes  of  glory. 
 
 And  indeed,  if  this  was  the  purpose  of  their  errand, 
 what  subject  can  we  suppose  so  proper,  and  so  well  be- 
 coming the  conversation  of  three  such  illustrious  persons, 
 as  the  redemption  of  mankind  by  the  death  and  passion 
 of  the  Son  of  God  ?  What  these  two  ancient  prophets 
 had  in  their  times  imperfectly  revealed*  nay  what  the 
 angels  of  heaven  desire  at  all  times  to  look  into,  namely, 
 the  harmony  of  the  divine  attributes  in  this  stupendous 
 work,  12<  the  depth  of  the  riches,  both  of  the  wisdom  and 
 knowledge  of  God,'  and  13  '  the  breadth,  and  length,  and 
 depth,  and  height,  of  the  love  of  Christ,  which  passeth 
 knowledge  ;  M  mysteries  which  have  been  hid  from  ages, 
 and  from  generations,  but  are  now  made  manifest  to  th  *. 
 saints  :'  these  were  the  sublime  subjects,  for  these  are> 
 implied  in  15  their  speaking  of  Christ's  decease,  of  their 
 conversation  at  this  interview  ;  and,  in  comparison  of 
 these,  how  jejune  and  worthless  are  all  the  wise  sayings 
 of  philosophers,  or  compositions  of  human  wit?  "With 
 good  reason,  therefore,  might  the  great  apostle  of  the 
 Gentiles,  who  himself  was  no  mean  proficient  in  what 
 the  world  falsely  calls  knowledge,  instead  of  the  16  ex- 
 
 8  2  Kings  ii.  11. 
 
 9  See  Calmet's  Dissert,  on  the  Deatli  and  Burial  of  Mo>es,  vol.  iii. 
 
 10  Jude  9.        u  See  Whitby  in  locum,        n  Rom.  xi.  3o. 
 
 13  Eph.  iii.  18,  19.         M  Col.  i.  26.         15  Luke  ix.  31. 
 
 16  1  Cor.  ii.  1,  2. 
 
928 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  D.29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1—  xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-  ix.  14.  LUKE  vi,  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v,  1-vii.  I. 
 
 not  send  this  message  with  a  design  to  satisfy  any  scruples 
 of  his  own,  but  purely  for  the  sake  and  conviction  of  his 
 disciples  who  brought  it ;   to   set  them  right  in    their 
 
 cellence  of  speech  and  wisdom,  determine  to  know 
 nothing  among  his  Corinthians,  '  but  Jesus  Christ,  and 
 him  crucified :'  for  l  '  we  preach  Christ  crucified,'  says 
 he,  '  unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and  unto  the 
 Greeks  foolishness  ;  but  unto  them  which  are  called,  both 
 Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wis- 
 dom of  God  ;  for  2  of  God  he  is  made  unto  us  wisdom, 
 and  righteousness,  and  sanctification,  and  redemption.' 
 The  scriptures,  upon  all  occasions,  acquaint  us,  that 
 the  Baptist,  through  the  whole  course  of  his  ministry, 
 had  borne  constant  and  ample  testimony  to  our  Saviour's 
 divine  mission  ;  that  he  exhorted  those  who  came  to  him 
 to  rest  their  faith,  not  on  himself,  but  on  him  that  should 
 come  after  him ;  and  that  as  soon  as  he  was  acquainted 
 who  he  was,  by  a  visible  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
 a  voice  from  heaven,  he  made  it  his  business  to  dispose 
 the  Jews  in  general,  and  his  own  disciples  in  particular, 
 to  receive  and  reverence  him,  by  testifying  every  where, 
 that  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  came 
 from  above,  and  spake  the  words  of  God,  and  to  whom 
 God  had  not  given  the  Spirit  by  measure.  And  yet  after 
 all  this,  3  some  are  of  opinion,  that  the  Baptist  might 
 have  the  same  conception  of  Christ's  temporal  kingdom 
 that  the  rest  of  the  Jewish  nation  had  ;  and  that  his  long 
 and  irksome  imprisonment  might  by  this  time  have 
 tempted  him  to  doubt,  whether  he,  who  by  birth  was  his 
 relation,  and  from  whose  assistance,  very  probably,  he 
 expected  a  deliverance,  was  in  reality  the  Messiah.  4  It 
 seems,  however,  not  a  little  injurious  to  the  character  of 
 the  Baptist,  to  suppose  either  his  constancy  so  shaken, 
 or  his  behaviour  so  inconsistent  with  itself,  as,  after  such 
 open  and  solemn  declaration,  to  admit  of  any  doubt, 
 whether  our  Lord  were  he  that  should  come,  that  is,  the 
 long  promised  and  universally  expected  Messiah.  And 
 therefore  a  the  safest  way  is,  to  conclude,  that  he  did 
 
 notions,  and  confirm  them  in  the  belief  of  Jesus,  and  so  t 
 turn  them  over  to  their  proper  and  better  master,  now 
 that  himself  was  upon  the  point  of  leaving  the  world. 
 And  this  was  the  rather  necessary,  because  their  immo- 
 derate zeal,  and  partial  respect  for  the  Baptist,  had 
 hitherto  made  them  averse  to  Jesus,  and  envious  at  his  \ 
 honour  and  miracles.  What  John  had  discoursed  to 
 them  formerly  upon  this  subject  had  made  but  little  im- 
 pression upon  them ;  and  therefore,  in  compassion  to 
 their  infirmities,  he  condescended  to  have  their  scruples,  . 
 propounded  in  his  own  name  ;  and  our  Saviour's  method 
 of  resolving  them,  which  was  by  showing  them  that  the 
 miracles  which  he  wrought  were  the  same  kind  that  the 
 Messiah  was  to  do,  gave  so  great  satisfaction,  that  when 
 their  former  master  was  gone,  they  repaired  to  him  with 
 the  melancholy  news  of  his  death,  and,  according  to  the 
 received  tradition,  for  ever  after  became  his  constant 
 disciples. 
 
 5  The  frequent  use  of  parables  and  emblems  in  the 
 discourses  and  writings  of  the  oriental  sages,  and  espe- 
 cially of  the  Jewish  doctors,  s  is  so  very  well  known, 
 
 s  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  xiii. 
 
 supernatural  endowments  as  should  completely  answer  to  the 
 predicted  character  of  the  Messiah;  and  then  sent  them  to  their 
 master  for  the  application.  With  respect  to  the  reply  itself, 
 both  the  manner  and  the  matter  of  it  are  highly  deserving  of  at- 
 tention. As  to  the  former,  it  is,  as  Bp.  Atterbury  observes,  not 
 direct  and  positive,  but  so  ordered  only,  as  to  give  them  an  oc- 
 casion of  answering  the  question  themselves,  which  they  had 
 proposed  to  Christ.  As  to  the  latter,  the  learned  prelate,  with 
 his  usual  taste,  ably  points  out  the  gradation  to  be  observed  in 
 the  particulars,  and  the  appositeness  of  it  in  relation  to  the  in- 
 quiries. So  that  the  words,  'Go  show  John,'  &c,  may  mean, 
 "You  come  to  learn  of  me  whether  I  am  the  Messiah.  Your 
 master  has  often  told  you  I  am  he,  but  you  will  not  believe  him. 
 To  him  you  should  have  gone  as  my  forerunner:  to  me  it  belongs 
 not  so  properly  to  proclaim  my  own  titles,  which  might  excite 
 your  suspicion.  Behold  therefore  the  testimony  of  God!  for  the 
 works  which  I  am  doing  before  your  eyes  bear  witness  that  the 
 Father  hath  sent  me."  The  description  of  the  works  in  question 
 is  so  framed  as  to  be  taken  from  a  prophecy  of  Isaiah  lxi.  1.  and 
 xxxv.  5.  6.  of  the  Messiah.  Thus  it  is  as  if  our  Lord  had  sard, 
 "Ye  believe  not  the  Baptist's  testimony,  that  I  am  he  who 
 should  come.  Yet  surely  Isaiah,  whom  ye  so  reverence,  and 
 upon  whose  authority  ye  have  received  the  Baptist  himself,  will 
 obtain  credence  with  you;  and  he  has  thus  prophesied  of  me.'' — 
 Bloomjield's  Greek  Testament  on  Mat.  xi.  3. 
 
 b  The  Jews,  above  all  nations,  delighted  in  this  way  of  reason- 
 ing. Their  books,  at  this  day,  are  full  of  such  parables  as  our 
 Saviour  used ;  and  are  generally  introduced  in  a  form  of  speech 
 not  unlike  his.  '  Whereunto  shall  I  liken  such  or  such  a  thing? 
 Nay,  in  the  talmudieal  treatises,  such  as  the  treatise  Killaim, 
 there  is  a  dispute  of  sowing  upon  the  rocks  and  stones,  and  of 
 mixing  wheat  and  tares  together;  and  in  Peah,  a  tract  in  the 
 Jerusalem  Talmud,  there  is  mention  made  of  a  tree  of  mustard- 
 seed,  which  one  might  climb  up  into,  like  other  trees.  So  that 
 our  Saviour  was  by  no  means  to  blame,  but  rather  highly  to  be 
 commended,  for  pursuing  this  parabolical  way  of  teaching  mor- 
 ality, which  was  the  most  celebrated  method  among  the  Jews. 
 For  his  farther  vindication,  however,  some  have  observed,  that 
 what  our  Saviour  delivered  in  this  manner  did  not  contain  the 
 fundamental  precepts  and  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  for  these  were 
 against  John,  the  rebuke  is  levelled.  It  should  seem  that  for  taught  with  sufficient  clearness  in  the  5th,  6th,  and  7th  chap- 
 their  satisfaction  John  had  sent;  and  as  they  would  not  heed  his  |  ters  of  St  Matthew,  but  only  the  mysteries  relating  to  the  pro- 
 repeated  endeavours  to  remove  their  doubts,  he  resolved  to  refer  |  gress  of  the  gospel,  and  the  event  of  it  among  the  Jews  and 
 them  to  Christ  himself,  for  the  removal  of  their  scruples:  and  |  Gentiles;  and  the  Jews  themselves  acknowledge,  that  the  pre- 
 that  our  Lord,  well  aware  of  his  intention,  took  the  surest  means  j  dictions  of  this  nature  were  usually  taught  in  allegorical  and 
 of  fixing  the  wavering  minds  of  his  disciples,  by  displaying  such  |  emblematical  expressions,  being  not  so  necessary  to  be  known, 
 
 1  1  Cor.  i.  23.  2  Ibid.  ver.  30. 
 
 3  Lightfoot  and  Beausobre  in  locum. 
 
 *  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 a  Few  questions  have  been  more  debated  than  the  purpose  of 
 John's  sending  this  message  to  Jesus.  Some  ancients  and  many 
 moderns  think  that  he  sent  in  order  to  satisfy  certain  doubts 
 which  had  occurred  to  his  mind  during  his  confinement.  But 
 surely  his  view  of  the  descent  of  the  holy  Ghost  at  Christ's  bap- 
 tism, the  testimony  he  then  heard  from  heaven,  the  divine  im- 
 pulse by  which  he  recognised  Jesus  as  '  the  Lamb  of  God  that 
 taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,'  and  his  own  reiterated  testi- 
 monies forbid  such  a  supposition:  and  to  imagine  that  John's 
 confinement  should  have  affected  the  strength  of  his  resolves,  or 
 drawn  from  him  the  language  of  fretful  remonstrance,  or  peevish 
 complaint,  would  do  great  injustice  to  so  noble  a  character.  In 
 short,  the  opinion  has  been  shown  to  be  utterly  untenable  by 
 Chrys.,  Euthem.,  Theophyl.,  and  Greg.,  of  the  ancients;  and  of 
 the  moderns,  Hamm.,  Whitby,  Doddr.,  Bp.  Atterbury,  and  Mr 
 Benson  (Hulsean  Lectures,  1S20,  pp.  GO — 67.);  who  maintain, 
 that  John  sent  for  the  satisfaction  of  his  disciples,  who,  mortified 
 at  seeing  their  master  imprisoned  for  preaching  the  coming  of 
 the  Messiah;  and  disappointed  that  he  whom  he  testified  to  be 
 such,  should  make  no  such  claim ;  nor  make  any  attempt  to  de- 
 liver his  forerunner:  stumbling,  too,  at  the  humbleness  of  Jesus's 
 birth,  and  the  lowliness  of  his  station;  and  offended  at  his  differ- 
 ence in  character  from  their  own  ascetic  master,  had  entertained 
 doubts  as  to  his  Messiahship.     Against  them,  therefore,  and  not 
 
 It  should  seem  that  for 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &< 
 
 929 
 
 A.  84.4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  I).  29.  FKOM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 
 Unit  a  man  must  discover  his  ignorance,  who  pretends  to 
 assert  that  our  blessed  Saviour  attempted  any  innovation, 
 when  lie  lirst  began  to  instruct  the  people  in  a  parabolical 
 way  ;  since  several  of  his  discourses  of  this  kind,  parti- 
 cularly that  l  of  the  rich  glutton,  and  2  of  the  foolish 
 virgins,  3  are  acknowledged  to  be  borrowed  from  the 
 writings  of  their  rabbins. 
 
 The  truth  is,  4  the  eastern  way  of  reasoning-  was  so 
 different  from  that  of  the  west,  that  the  soundest  philoso- 
 phy of  Greece  or  Rome  would  have  been  mere  jargon 
 and  cant  at  Jerusalem.  The  only  method  of  reasoning, 
 which  was  agreeable  to  the  Jewish  taste,  was  to  usher  in 
 a  handsome  simile,  or  story,  apposite  to  the  matter  in 
 hand ;  to  apply  a  smart  saying  of  some  ancient  worthy  ; 
 or  to  bring  good  proof  from  their  law,  or  ancient  tradi- 
 tion ;  but  to  go  to  prove  morality  to  them,  as  Plato  or 
 Tully  do,  from  the  eternal  rules  of  justice,  from  the  rec- 
 titude and  honourableness  of  virtue,  and  the  depravity  and 
 turpitude  of  vice,  would  have  been  such  a  way  of  talking, 
 as  the  wisest  men  of  their  way  of  education  would  have 
 greatly  despised;  and  therefore  our  blessed  Saviour, 
 who  was  well  acquainted  w ith  the  temper  and  customs  of 
 the  people  with  whom  he  conversed,  took  care  that  his 
 way  of  instructing  them  should  be  such  as  was  most 
 agreeable  to  their  education,  and  consequently  such  as 
 would  tend  more  to  their  edification,  than  if  he  had  in- 
 troduced the  philosophic  method  of  morality,  which  was 
 only  in  use  in  such  nations  as  were  destitute  of  the  bene- 
 fits of  a  divine  revelation. 
 
 The  heathens  indeed  couched  their  religious  mysteries 
 under  fables  and  allegories,  out  of  a  principle  both  of 
 fear  and  policy,  to  conceal  them  from  the  contempt  of 
 the  vulgar,  and  to  excite  the  study  and  curiosity  of  the 
 learned.  But  in  this  latter  design  they  seem  to  be  mis- 
 taken, because  the  learned  could  no  sooner  look  into  the 
 matters  hid  under  these  fables,  but  they  must  have  dis- 
 covered their  shame,  absurdity,  and  ridiculousness.  The 
 design  of  our  Lord's  speaking  to  the  people  in  parables 
 was  quite  contrary  to  this,  as  himself  declares,  namely,6 
 '  because  they  seeing  see  not,  and  hearing  they  hear  not, 
 neither  do  they  understand,'  which  words, a  both  in  sacred 
 and  profane  authors,  are  a  proverbial  expression,  con- 
 cerning men  so  wicked  and  so  slothful,  that  either  they 
 attend  not  to,  or  will  not  follow,  the  clearest  intimations 
 and  convictions  of  their  duty  ;  and  therefore,  to  awaken 
 their  attention,  and  make  the  stronger  impression  upon 
 them,  our  Saviour  was  forced  to  have  recourse  to  para- 
 bles. 
 
 1  Luke  xvi.  19.         s  Mat.  xxv.  1.  '  Sheringham,  Pncf. 
 
 4  Nichols's  Conference,  part  3,  page  413.  '  Mat.  xiii.  13. 
 as  were  the  fundamental  rules  of  faith  and  manners. — Lightfoot's 
 Harmony  < f  the  New  Testament,  page  30;  Nichols's  Conference, 
 part  3,  page  413;  and  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  xiii.  10. 
 
 a  To  this  purpose  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  to  a  revolting  and 
 rebellious  people,  which  had  cast  off  the  fear  of  God,  speaks  in 
 this  wise:  '  hear  now  this,  ye  foolish  people,  and  without  under- 
 standing, which  have  eyes,  and  see  not,  which  have  ears,  and 
 hear  not,'  chap.  v.  21.  And  in  like  manner  God  speaks  to 
 Ezekiel:  '  Son  of  man,  thou  dwellest  in  the  midst  of  a  rebellious 
 house,  which  have  eyes  to  see,  and  see  not ;  that  have  ears  to 
 hear,  and  hear  not,  for  they  are  a  rebellious  house,'  chap.  xii.  2. 
 Philo  uses  the  phrase  in  the  same  signification;  for,  speaking  of 
 tlinse  that  were  addicted  to  wine,  and  sensual  pleasures,  he  says, 
 iva/ura,  mix  o^uiri,  xai  axovotrt;,  ovx  uxovoviri,  '  they  seeing,  see  not, 
 and  hearing,  do  not  hear;'  and  Demosthenes  mentions  it  as  a 
 common  proverb,  i^uvra;,  fj.n  oexv,  xa\  uxovovras,  fun  axouuv. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations  on  .Mat.  xiii. 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  l-xi.  ?,7.  JOHN  v.  1-vii. 
 
 This  passage,  indeed,  in  the  other  evangelists  that 
 mention  it,  seems  to  bear  a  different  sense,  6  '  unto  them 
 that  are  without,  all  these  things  are  done  in  parables, 
 that  seeing  they  may  see,  and  not  perceive,  and  hearing 
 they  may  hear,  and  not  understand  -.'  or,  as  it  is  in  St 
 Luke, 7  '  that  seeing  they  might  not  see,  and  hearing 
 they  might  not  understand  :'  as  if  our  Lord  had  spoken 
 to  the  multitudes  in  parables,  that  is,  in  a  plain  and 
 familiar  way,  on  purpose  that  they  might  not  understand 
 him,  which,  besides  the  contradiction,  seems  to  include 
 a  spice  of  malevolence,  where  there  never  was  any.  8 
 But  all  this  is  occasioned  by  the  mistake  of  our  transla- 
 tors, who,  both  in  St  Mark  and  St  Luke  have  rendered 
 the  word  IW,  by  that,  which  should  have  been  because; 
 for  this  gives  the  words  a  quite  different  turn  :  in  St  Mark, 
 '  because  seeing  they  do  see,  and  not  perceive,'  and  in 
 St  Luke, '  because  seeing  they  see  not,  and  hearing  they 
 understand  not.'  The  natural  import  of  which  is  this, — 
 "  That  the  Jews,  by  reason  of  their  prejudices,  not  being 
 able  to  understand  the  great  mysteries  of  the  gospel,  our 
 Saviour,  out  of  love  to  their  souls,  accommodated  himself 
 to  their  capacities,  by  speaking  to  them  in  parables,  that 
 is,  in  metaphors  and  similitudes,  borrowed  from  things 
 temporal  and  corporeal,  in  order  to  bring  them  to  a  more 
 competent  understanding,  of  his  doctrine."  b 
 
 6  Mark  iv.  11.  12.  J  Chap.  viii.  10. 
 
 8  Howell's  History,  in  the  Notes. 
 
 b  The  passage  which  the  author  here  attempts  to  explain  is 
 thus  paraphrased  by  Doddridge. — "  And  he  replying  said  unto 
 them,  I  thus  express  myself  in  parables,  because,  though  it  is 
 granted,  through  the  divine  goodness,  to  you,  whose  hearts  are 
 open  to  receive  the  truth  in  the  love  of  it,  to  know  and  understand 
 the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  which  have  been  long 
 concealed ;  yet  it  is  not  granted  to  others,  who  are  prejudiced 
 against  them,  but  they  are  justly  suffered  to  continue  unacquainted 
 with  them:  and  therefore  to  them  that  are  without,  and  who  are 
 strangers,  through  their  own  neglect  and  folly,  to  what  they 
 might  before  have  learned,  all  these  things  are  now  involved  in 
 parables  and  figures :  which,  though  they  affect  the  mind  of  the 
 attentive  hearer,  and  promote  his  edification,  are  disregarded  by 
 the  rest,  and  only  looked  upon  as  an  empty  amusement.  For  to 
 every  one  who  hath  any  talent  committed  to  him,  and  shows  that 
 he  hath  it  by  his  diligent  improvement  of  it,  yet  more  shall  be 
 given,  and  he  shall  have  a  still  greater  abundance  of  means  for 
 his  further  improvement;  but  even  that  which  he  already  hath 
 shall  be  taken  away  from  the  slothful  creature,  and  be  withdrawn 
 from  him  who  acts  like  one  who  hath  not  any  thing  to  improve, 
 (compare  Luke  viii.  IS.)  Thus  wise  men  deal  with  their  ser- 
 vants; and  thus  God  will  generally  act  in  dispensing  opportuni- 
 ties of  a  religious  nature.  And  therefore,  on  this  very  principle 
 do  I  now  speak  to  them  in  parables,  whereas  I  have  formerly 
 used  the  plainest  manner  of  discourse:  because  seeing,  they  see 
 not;  and  hearing,  they  hear  not,  neither  do  they  understand; 
 inasmuch  as  they  do  not  honestly  use  the  faculties  that  God  has 
 given  them,  but  are  like  persons  that  have  their  eyes  and  ears, 
 and  yet  will  neither  see  nor  hear.  So  that  it  is  in  just  displeasure 
 that  I  preach  to  them  in  this  obscure  language,  that  what  has  been 
 their  crime  may  be  their  punishment;  that  seeing  my  miracles, 
 they  may  see  the  outward  act,  but  not  perceive  the  evidence 
 arising  from  them :  and  hearing  my  discourses,  they  may  indeed 
 hear  the  sound  of  them,  but  not  understand  their  true  intent  and 
 meaning;  lest  at  any  time  they  should  be  converted,  and  their 
 sins  shall  be  forgiven  them,  which  to  many  of  these  people  they 
 never  shall.  And  thus  in  them  is  the  prophecy  of  Isaial  most 
 exactly  fulfilled,  (Isa.  vi.  9,  10.)  which  indeed  was  originally 
 intended  to  include  them,  and  saith,  '  By  hearing,  you  shall 
 hear,'  (or  you  may  still  go  on  to  hear  with  eagerness,)  but  you 
 shall  not  understand;  and  seeing  you  shall  see,  or  you  may  still 
 go  on  to  see,  but  you  shall  not  perceive.  For,  like  a  wretch 
 who  lias  besotted  and  stupified  himself  with  riot,  the  heart  or 
 intellectual  faculty  of  this  people  is,  as  it  were,  grown  stiff  with 
 fatness,  and  they  hear  with  heavy  ears,  and  draw  up  their  eyes 
 6  B 
 
930 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIIL 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,A.  M.  5410.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  '23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1—  ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-yii.  1. 
 
 companions  ;  were  more  disposed  to  receive  his  doctrine  ; 
 
 1  '  To  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the 
 kingdom  of  heaven,  but  not  to  them,'  does  not  therefore 
 imply,  that  our  Saviour's  parables  were  dark  and  obscure, 
 and  that  by  speaking-  to  the  people  in  this  manner,  he 
 had  a  design  to  conceal  any  truth  that  was  requisite  for 
 them  to  know ;  but  only,  that  he  made  a  fuller  discovery 
 of  his  doctrine  to  his  disciples,  than  it  was  necessary  at 
 that  time  to  make  to  the  multitude ;  that  he  instructed 
 them  in  private,  and  enlarged  upon  the  sense  of  his  para- 
 bles, and  let  them  into  the  knowledge  of  several  things, 
 that  were  not  yet  proper  to  be  communicated  to  all, 
 because  they  were  his  peculiar  friends,  and  his  constant 
 
 1  Mat.  xiii.  11. 
 as  if  they  were  more  than  half  asleep;  so  that  one  would  imagine 
 they  were  afraid  lest  at  any  time  they  should  happen  to  he  roused, 
 so  as  to  see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears,  and  un- 
 derstand with  their  hearts,  and  should  he  converted,  and  I  should 
 heal  and  save  them.  I  therefore  justly  leave  them  to  their  own 
 obstinacy,  and  direct  thee,  O  Isaiah,  to  methods  which  I  know 
 will  increase  it." — Doddridge's  Family  Expositor,  end  of  sect.  65. 
 On  the  same  subject  Doddridge  has  the  following  notes: — 
 A  late  learned  writer  has  endeavoured  to  prove  that  Christ's 
 use  of  parables  was  not  in  displeasure,  but  in  tender  condescen- 
 sion to  their  aversion  to  truths  delivered  in  a  less  pleasing  man- 
 ner: but  this  is  in  effect  supposing  both  Mark,  (chap.  iv.  12.) 
 and  Luke  (chap.  viii.  10.)  to  have  reported  what  our  Lord 
 says  in  a  sense  directly  contrary  to  what  he  intended ;  for  they 
 say  in  so  many  words,  it  was  that  the  multitude  might  not  per- 
 ceive, nor  understand;  and  it  also  makes  Mat.  xiii.  12.  both 
 foreign  and  opposite  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  spoken.  We 
 must  therefore  submit  to  the  difficulties  which  attend  this  natural 
 interpretation;  which  are  much  lessened  by  considering  that  this 
 happened  after  Christ  had  upbraided  and  threatened  the  neigh- 
 bouring places,  (from  whence  doubtless  the  greatest  part  of  the 
 multitude  came,)  which  was  some  time  before  this  sermon:  (see 
 Mat.  xi.  20 — 24.  s.  58.)  And  it  is  not  improbable,  that  the 
 scribes  and  Pharisees,  who-  had  so  vilely  blasphemed  him  this 
 very  morning,  (Mat.  xii.  24.)  might  with  an  ill  purpose  have 
 gathered  a  company  of  their  associates  and  creatures  ahout 
 Christ  to  insnare  him;  which,  if  it  were  the  case,  willfully  ac- 
 count for  such  a  reserve. — It  signifies  little  to  plead  on  the  other 
 side,  that  these  parables  are  plain.  Their  being  so  to  us,  is  no 
 proof  they  were  so  to  these  hearers:  and  since  the  apostles  them- 
 selves did  not  understand  even  that  of  the  sower,  it  is  no  wonder 
 if  the  rest  were  unintelligible  to  the  careless  and  captious  hearer. 
 — Consistent  with  all  this  is  what  was  said  of  the  advantages  at- 
 tending this  method,  to  those  who  were  honest  and  attentive;  in 
 the  paraphrase  on  Mark  iv.  2.  Seeing  you  shall  see,  but 
 you  shall  not  perceive.  This  is  a  just  translation  of  the  original, 
 both  here  and  in  Isaiah;  and  is  another  considerable  argument 
 for  the  interpretation  here  given  of  the  whole  context. — A  pious 
 and  learned  friend,  by  whose  kind  animadversions  I  have  been 
 led  to  insert  some  additional  notes  in  this  work,  has  urged  several 
 arguments  to  prove  that  this  clause  should  be  rendered,  'seeing, 
 &c,  you  will  not  perceive.'  But  on  the  maturest  review  of  this 
 passage  both  in  Isaiah  and  the  several  places  where  it  occurs  in 
 the  New  Testament,  I  cannot  apprehend  that  it  was  spoken 
 merely  by  way  of  complaint,  but  think  it  plain  that  it  was  intended 
 also  as  a  prediction;  (compare  Mark  iv.  12;  Luke  viii.  10;  John 
 xii.  40;  Acts  xxviii.  26,27;  Rom.  xi.  8.)  Now  in  predictions, 
 we  generally  render  the  future  form,  "  Such  or  such  a  thing  shall 
 happen,"  though  we  only  mean  to  express  the  certainty  of  the 
 event,  without  denying  the  freedom  of  the  moral  agents  concerned 
 in  it,  or  detracting  from  it  in  any  degree.  (Ibid,  notes  (k)  and  (1). 
 The  correction  of  the  received  translation  which  the  author  pro- 
 poses in  Mark  iv.  12.  and  Luke  \iii.  10,  does  not  rest  upon  suffi- 
 cient ground,  and  is  evidently  introduced  to  get  rid  of  an  apparent 
 difficulty,  which  is  removed  by  the  above  extract  from  Doddridge. 
 Dr  Boothroyd  follows  the  received  translation  of  the  passage,  and 
 DrBloomfield  contends  that  the  Jvadoes  not  signify  because,  but 
 with  the  design  that,  co  consilio  ut,  and  observes  that  the  sense  of 
 Mark  iv.  1,  2.  is  ;  •'  To  the  multitude,  all  things  are  propounded  by 
 the  intervention  of  parables;  with  the  intent  that,  as  the  prophet 
 says,  since  they  have  eyes  and  years  perfect,  and  yet  see  not, 
 nor  understand,  they  may  not  repent  and  obtain  forgiveness  oi 
 their  sins." — Ed. 
 
 were  afterwards  to  be  the  preachers  of  it ;  and  at  length 
 to  seal  the  truth  of  it  with  their  blood. 
 
 They  were  honest  and  well-designing  men  ;  but  it 
 would  be  doing  too  great  a  compliment  to  their  under- 
 standing, to  say,  that  there  was  any  thing  extraordinary, 
 until  they  were  endued  from  above,  in  their  sagacity  and 
 penetration :  and  therefore  we  are  not  to  impute  it  to 
 the  obscurity  of  our  Saviour's  parables,  that  we  find  his 
 disciples  so  frequently  at  a  loss  for  the  meaning  of  them, 
 since  some  of  them  were  quoted  from  Jewish  authors, 
 and  many  of  them  taken  from  the  most  obvious  and  com- 
 mon things,  but  we  should  rather  impute  it  to  their  natural 
 dulness  and  want  of  apprehension,  as  we  find  Our  Saviour 
 himself  does,  when,  upon  their  requesting  him  to  expound 
 the  plain  parable  of  the  sower,  he  could  not  forbear  say- 
 ing, Avith  admiration,  2  '  Know  ye  not  this  parable,  and 
 how  then  shall  ye  know  all  parables  ?' 
 
 It  was  not  then  to  cloud  and  obscure,  but  rather  illus- 
 trate and  enforce  his  meaning,  that  our  Lord  delivered 
 himself  so  frequently  in  parables ;  and  the  reason  why 
 he  refused  to  gratify  the  Pharisees  in  their  desire  of  a 
 sign  from  heaven,  was,  because  he  had  already  done 
 miracles  enough  to  satisfy  them,  had  not  their  obstinacy 
 been  proof  against  all  conviction.  In  that  very  chapter  3 
 wherein  they  make  this  insolent  demand,  they  had  seen, 
 before  their  faces,  *  a  withered  hand  made  whole,  and,  5 
 upon  the  ejection  of  a  devil,  a  blind  and  dumb  man  re- 
 stored to  his  sight  and  speech ;  but  observe  the  turn 
 which  their  resolute  infidelity  gives  to  the  miracles  :  6 
 '  this  fellow  does  not  cast  out  devils,  but  by  Beelzebub, 
 the  prince  of  the  devils  :'  and  yet  these  very  men  have 
 the  modesty,  in  a  few  verses  after,  to  come  to  the  person 
 they  had  just  before  reviled  and  blasphemed  at  this  rate, 
 with  this  arrogant  demand ;  7  '  Master,  we  would  see  a 
 sign  from  thee.'  After  such  an  affront,  would  it  have 
 become  the  meekest  man  upon  earth  to  gratify  these  men 
 in  any  request  whatever  ?  But  much  more,  would  it  have 
 become  the  majesty  of  the  Son  of  God  to  prostitute  his 
 divine  power,  merely  to  satisfy  the  curiosity,  for  that  was 
 all  they  wanted  to  have  satisfied,  of  such  abandoned 
 miscreants  ? 
 
 The  sign,  which  they  wanted  to  see,  may  be  supposed 
 to  be,  either  such  8  a  shower  of  manna,  as  Moses ;  or 
 such  y  a  clap  of  thunder,  as  Samuel ;  or  1U  such  a  fall  of 
 fire,  as  Elijah  ;  or11  such  an  arrest  of  the  sun,  as  Joshua 
 once  called  for.  Now,  supposing  that  our  Saviour  had 
 been  flexible  enough  to  humour  them  in  their  unreason- 
 able request, 12  what  grounds  have  we  to  think,  that  these 
 aerial  or  celestial  prodigies  would  have  wrought  in  them 
 any  more  conviction  than  those  miracles,  which  were  in- 
 contestable, done  in  their  presence,  within  their  feeling, 
 and  compass  of  examination  ?  These,  we  see,  they  im- 
 puted to  a  diabolical  power,  and  much  more  might  they 
 do  it  to  those  that  were  at  so  vast  a  distance,  since  they 
 could  not  be  ignorant  of  what  is  said  of  the  prince  of  the 
 power  of  the  air  in  the  book  of  Job,  namely,  that  the  fire, 
 which  fell  from  heaven,  and  consumed  that  holy  man's 
 substance,  as  well  as  the  wind  which  overturned  the  house, 
 
 2  Mark  iv.  13.  3  Mat.  xii.  38.  4  Mat.  xii.  13, 
 
 5  Mat.  xii.  22.  6  Mat.  xii.  24.  '  Mat.  xii.  38. 
 
 8  Exod.  xvi.  14.  9  1  Sam.  vii.  10.       10  1  Kings  xviii.  38 
 
 11  Josh.  x.  12.  a  Calmet's  Commentary  on  Mat.  xii.  38. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &< 
 
 931 
 
 A.  M.  4U35.  A.  D.  3i  ;  OR,  A.  M  5140.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 
 where  his  children  were  met  together,  were  the  effects  of 
 Satan's  procuring. 
 
 What  notions  the  ancient  Jews  had  of  the  power  of 
 magic,  we  cannot  positively  say  ;  but  it  is  certain,  that 
 the  heathen  magicians  made  it  their  boast,  a  that  they 
 could  stop  the  course  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  turn 
 them  into  darkness,  as  they  pleased,  and  make  them 
 obey  their  voice  :  and,  if  the  Pharisees  had  the  like 
 notions  of  these  things,  their  demanding  a  sign  from 
 heaven  was  to  no  manner  of  purpose ;  because,  upon 
 their  own  supposition,  that  our  Lord  acted  by  a  magical 
 power,  what  they  desired  him  to  do,  was  not  above  the 
 sphere  of  his  ability,  and,  if  they  thought  it  so,  it  could 
 never  have  wrought  in  them  any  good  conviction ;  because 
 the  same  hardness  of  heart,  and  hatred  of  him,  would 
 have  kept  them  under  the  same  persuasion  still,  that  all 
 his  wonders,  whether  above  or  below,  whether  in  heaven 
 or  on  earth,  whether  on  human  or  celestial  bodies,  were 
 done  by  the  assistance  of  the  devil. 
 
 Since  then  no  sign  that  the  Pharisees  could  ask,  even 
 had  our  Saviour  condescended  to  work  it,  would  have 
 been  effectual  to  their  conviction,  our  Saviour  was  not 
 unkind  in  remitting  them  to  one,  that  would  not  fail  of 
 convincing  them,  that  what  he  did  was  not  by  a  diabolical 
 but  divine  power.  For,  since  it  was  agreed  on  all  hands, 
 that  a  person,  when  dead,  whatever  he  had  in  his  lifetime, 
 could  not  then  have  the  devil  at  his  command  ;  if,  after 
 they  had  crucified  him,  they  should  find  him  restored  to 
 life  again,  this  would  be  a  sign  wherein  there  could  be 
 no  fallacy  ;  that  as  his  restoration  was  from  the  hand  of 
 God,  so  his  commission  had  all  along  been  from  the 
 same  ;  and  *  that,  as  Jonas's  miraculous  escape  from  the 
 whale's  belly,  wherewith  the  Ninevites  were  doubtless 
 acquainted,  was  a  powerful  means  to  confirm  to  them  the 
 truth  of  his  prophetic  office  ;  so  now,  though  all  Christ's 
 miracles,  while  living,  prevailed  but  little,  yet,  after  his 
 death  and  resurrection  from  the  grave,  he  would  then  be 
 credited,  in  the  same  manner  as  Jonas  was  ; 2  '  he  would 
 then  draw  all  men  after  him,'  and  the  very  Pharisees 
 themselves  would  be  prevailed  upon  to  acknowledge  his 
 divine  mission.  This  is  the  sense  of  his  comparing 
 himself  so  often  with  the  prophet  Jonas  :  and  that  the 
 chief  priests  and  Pharisees  understood  the  comparison 
 in  this  sense,  is  manifest  from  what  they  say  to  Pilate :  3 
 '  Sir,  we  remember  that  that  deceiver  said,  while  he  was 
 yet  alive,  after  three  days  I  will  rise  again  ;'  for  I  no 
 where  remember,  that  he  made  any  declaration  to  the 
 chief  priests  and  Pharisees,  though  he  did  it  frequently 
 to  his  apostles,  of  his  intended  resurrection  after  three 
 days,  but  only  in  this  comparison  of  himself  to  Jonas. 
 
 Had  human  wisdom  indeed  been  consulted  in  the  elec- 
 tion of  Christ's  apostles,  it  would  have  made  choice  of 
 the  profoundest  rabbins,  the  acutest  philosophers,  and 
 the  most  powerful  orators,  who,  by  the  strength  of  reason, 
 and  arts  of  eloquence,  might  have  triumphed  over  the 
 minds  of  men,  grappled  with  the  stubbornness  of  the 
 Jews,  and  baffled  the  fine  notions  and  speculations  of 
 the  Greeks  and  Romans  ;  but  then  it  must  be  allowed, 
 that  one  argument  for  the  proof  of  the  divinity  of  the 
 
 a  The  witch   who  with  ht:r  voire  draws  down  the  enchanted 
 Btars  and  moon  from  heaven  — Hor.  in  Canidiam. 
 
 1  Whitby's  limitations  on  Mat.  xii.  39. 
 2  John  xii.  32.  Mat.  xxvii.  G3. 
 
 xvii.  H.  MARK  ii,  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  I— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1, 
 
 Christian  religion  had  been  lost.  Nay,  it  might  have 
 been  objected, "  that  no  wonder,  indeed,  that  this  religion 
 should  thrive  so  well  in  the  world,  when  it  had  all  human 
 advantages  to  assist  it,  and  was  supported  and  carried 
 on  by  the  united  force  of  the  reason  and  eloquence  of 
 such  renowned  scholars."  But  now,  by  making  choice 
 of  weak  and  illiterate  persons  to  be  his  apostles,  and 
 first  publishers  of  the  gospel,  our  Lord  has  taken  an 
 effectual  means,  that 4  '  our  faith  should  not  stand,'  as  St 
 Paul  expresses  it,  '  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the 
 power  of  God,'  because  '  their  speech  and  their  preaching 
 was  not  with  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  the 
 demonstration  of  the  Spirit,  and  of  power.' 
 
 And,  indeed,  what  less  than  a  divine  power  could  have 
 enabled  a  few  illiterate  mechanics,  who  had  no  art,  no 
 address  of  their  own,  to  propagate  a  new  and  unheard-of 
 religion,  contrary  to  the  laws  every  where  established, 
 and  contrary  to  man's  natural  passions  and  appetites, 
 with  such  a  wonderful  success,  as,  in  the  space  of  twenty 
 or  thirty  years,  to  extend  it  over  all  the  principal  parts  of 
 the  Roman  empire,  and,  in  the  next  age,  to  fill  all  places, 
 cities,  and  islands,  castles  and  boroughs,  palaces  and 
 senates,  courts  and  camps,  with  multitudes  of  converts, 
 as  the  great  apologist,  Tertullian,  justly  glories  ?  Doubt- 
 less, if  ever  there  was  an  intervention  of  divine  power 
 in  human  affairs,  it  was  here,  '  when  5  God  chose  the 
 foolish  and  ueak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the 
 wise  and  mighty,'  and  when  simplicity  and  ignorance 
 not  only  had  the  advantage,  but  absolutely  triumphed 
 over  all  the  wit,  and  learning,  and  power,  and  policy  of 
 the  world. 
 
 That  therefore  the  mighty  force  of  Christianity,  to 
 make  its  way  through  the  greatest  obstacles,  might  more 
 evidently  appear,  the  instruments  which  our  Saviour 
 employed  in  the  propagation  of  it,  so  far  as  their  own 
 abilities,  either  natural  or  acquired,  were  concerned,  were 
 the  meanest  that  can  be  imagined,  but,  by  an  extraordi- 
 nary communication  of  his  blessed  Spirit  to  them,  he  in- 
 spired them  with  the  gift  of  languages,  that  they  might 
 be  able  to  address  themselves  to  people  of  all  nations  ; 
 with  the  power  of  working  miracles,  that  they  might  be 
 able  to  confirm  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  which  they 
 taught ;  and,  upon  all  emergencies,  6 '  with  such  a  mouth 
 and  wisdom,  as  all  their  adversaries  were  not  able  to 
 gainsay  or  resist.' 
 
 These,  and  several  other  gifts  extraordinary,  did  more 
 than  supply  the  natural  defects  which  the  apostles 
 laboured  under  in  the  execution  of  so  great  a  work  ;  but 
 now  that  these  gifts  are  withdrawn,  our  religion  establish- 
 ed, and  the  canon  of  the  holy  scriptures  completed,  their 
 successors  have  a  different  province  to  manage.  Instead 
 of  travelling  all  the  world  over,  and  compassing  sea  and 
 land  to  gain  proselytes  to  the  Christian  faith,  their  duty 
 is,  to  keep  in  order  the  things  that  are  settled,  and  7  '  to 
 feed  the  Hock  of  God  that  is  among  them,  taking  the 
 oversight  thereof,  not  for  filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready 
 mind  ;  not  as  lords  over  God's  inheritance,  but  as  en- 
 samples  to  their  flocks  ;'  and,  instead  of  delivering  to 
 their  respective  churches  such  writings  as  might,  in  all 
 ages,  be  the  pillar  and  foundation  of  truth,  their  business 
 is  to  study  the  scriptures,  which  they  have  received,  to 
 
 1  Cor 
 
 '  I.uU 
 
 ii.  4,  5. 
 xxi.  15. 
 
 s  Ibid.  i.  27. 
 ■  1  Pet.  v.  ■/. 
 
932 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.    4.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  I—  ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I. 
 
 defend  their  authority,  and  expound  their  sense ;  l  '  to 
 preach  the  word,'  as  the  apostle  to  Timothy  specifies 
 their  office  ;  '  to  be  instant  in  season,  and  out  of  season  ; 
 to  reprove,  rebuke,  and  exhort,  with  all  long-suffering 
 and  doctrine  ;'  and  what  compass  of  learning-  and  share 
 of  influence  among  the  people  are  requisite  to  a  due 
 discharge  of  all  this,  '  as  2  a  workman  that  needeth  not 
 to  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  word  of  God,'  wants 
 no  detail  of  arguments  to  prove,  since  we  find  the  great 
 apostle  St  Paul,  amidst  all  the  gifts  that  were  then  dis- 
 pensed to  the  church,  and  the  particular  revelations  which 
 were  vouchsafed  him,  upon  the  consideration  of  the 
 weightiness  of  his  office,  crying  out,  and  saying,  3  '  who 
 is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?'  Upon  the  whole,  therefore, 
 we  may  observe,  that  it  was  highly  requisite,  that  the 
 apostles  and  first  publishers  of  the  gospel,  and  the 
 present  ministers  and  preachers  of  it,  should  be  men  of 
 different  characters  and  abilities  ;  that  the  former  of 
 these,  for  the  more  effectual  discharge  of  their  office, 
 should  have  several  kinds  of  gifts  supernatural,  the  latter 
 no  more  than  was  the  product  of  their  own  labour  and 
 acquisition  ;  or,  to  speak  in  the  phrase  of  the  scripture, 
 that  as,  at  first,  our  Saviour  *  '  gave  some  apostles  ;  some 
 prophets  ;  and  some  evangelists ;'  so  now  he  should  ap- 
 point some  '  rulers,  some  pastors,  and  some  teachers ; 
 for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  min- 
 istry, for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  till  we  all 
 come,  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of 
 the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of 
 the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.' 
 
 *  That  anger,  considered  in  itself,  and  upon  all  occa- 
 sions whatever,  is  unlawful,  neither  the  most  rigid  philo- 
 sophers, nor  the  most  severe  Christians,  have  ever  been 
 able  to  prove.  It  is  one  of  those  passions  that  are  im- 
 planted in  us  by  the  God  of  nature.  The  first  motions 
 of  it  seem  to  be  mechanical,  and  the  hastiness  or  slowness 
 of  it  depends,  in  a  great  measure,  upon  the  temper  of 
 the  body,  and  the  animal  spirits :  so  far  then  as  it  is 
 natural,  we  dare  not  account  it  criminal,  for  fear  of 
 making  God,  who  hath  implanted  it  in  us,  the  author  of 
 sin.  Those  who  define  it  '  a  desire  of  revenge,'  or  of 
 doing  evil  to  another,  purely  because  he  has  done  so  to 
 us,  make  it  indeed  a  sinful  passion,  and  a  plain  violation 
 of  that  command  which  requires  us  6  '  not  to  avenge 
 ourselves,  but  rather  give  place  unto  wrath  ;'  but  if  it  be 
 considered  7  as  proceeding  upon  a  desire  of  obtaining 
 satisfaction  for  some  injury  done  to  us,  or  to  those  for 
 whom  we  are  concerned,  the  honour  of  God,  the  reverence 
 due  to  the  laws,  the  love  of  virtue,  and  the  protection  of 
 good  men,  may  make  this  not  only  innocent,  but  highly 
 necessary  and  commendable.  There  is  a  tameness  of 
 spirit  that  justly  deserves  censure;  and  in  some  cases 
 we  even  do  not  well  unless  we  are  angry  :  and  for  this 
 reason,  I  make  no  doubt  it  was,  s  that  our  blessed  Sa- 
 viour, on  some  occasions,  suffered  himself  to  be  seen  in 
 some  degrees  of  this  passion,  namely  to  evince  the  law- 
 fulness of  it,  and,  by  his  example,  to  confute  the  doctrine 
 of  those  heathen  stoics,  who  condemned  the  use  of  all 
 
 '  2  Tim.  iv.  2. 
 
 Ibid.  ii.  15. 
 Eph.iv.  11,  &c. 
 
 2  Cor. 
 
 L6. 
 
 s  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 «  Rom.  xii.  19.  '  Whitby's  Aniic.tat.iuns  on  Mat. 
 
 6  Nichols's  Conference,  part  o.  p.  410. 
 
 passions,  and  were  for  making  those  natural  tendencies 
 which  God  has  given  us  altogether  superfluous. 
 
 For  religion  admits  of  no  such  paradoxical  notions ; 
 when  it  requires  us  to  be  9  slow  to  wrath,  it  allows  of  the 
 passion  upon  a  just  provocation,  and  only  blames  him1* 
 who  is  angry  with  his  brother  without  a  cause  ;  and  when 
 it  gives  us  this  caution, u  '  be  angry  and  sin  not,  let  not 
 the  sun  go  down  upon  your  wrath,'  it  supposes  the  thing 
 itself  warrantable,  and  only  prohibits  the  excess  or  long 
 duration  of  it.  It  is  the  rash,  causeless,  and  continued 
 anger,  that  our  holy  religion  condemns  :  but  Avho  shall 
 say,  that  our  Saviour's  resentment  to  the  Pharisees  was 
 not  upon  good  grounds,  when  they,  by  their  traditions, 
 had  made  void  the  moral  law,  excused  men  from  doing 
 what  God  had  commanded,  and  laid  upon  them  other 
 unnecessary  burdens,  which  he  had  no  where  enjoined  ? 
 When  the  pride  and  arrogance  of  their  sect,  and  their 
 contempt  and  hatred  of  all  that  contradicted  them,  made 
 it  necessary  for  him  to  use  some  smartness  in  his  repre- 
 hensions, thereby  to  excite  them  to  sensibility  of  their 
 errors,  they  12  had  consulted  with  the  Herodians  how 
 they  might  destroy  him ;  the  works  which  he  did  by  the 
 finger  of  God,  they  had  ascribed  to  a  diabolical  power  ; 
 and  therefore  no  wonder  that  he  should  look  upon  th«m 
 with  indignation,  because  of  the  hardness  of  their  hearts. 
 But  when  there  was  no  such  cause  for  any  degree  of 
 anger,  and  where  the  glory  of  God  was  not  immediately 
 concerned,  his  whole  life  was  the  most  perfect  pattern 
 of  meekness  and  patience,  according  to  that  prediction 
 concerning  him, 13  '  he  shall  not  cry,  nor  lift  up,  nor 
 cause  his  voice  to  be  heard  in  the  streets,  a  bruised  reed 
 shall  he  not  break,  and  the  smoking  flax  shall  he  not 
 quench.' 
 
 But  how  comes  it  then,  that  St  Mark,  in  his  gospel, 
 represents  our  Saviour  a  person  that  was  supposed  14  to 
 be  beside  himself?  Various  are  the  significations  which 
 are  given  to  the  word  i%t<ri%  in  this  place  ;  but  there  are 
 three  that  bid  fairest  for  the  solution  of  that  difficulty.  15 
 In  the  preceding  verse  it  is  said,  that  the  multitude  came 
 so  fast  upon  him,  that  he  had  not  time  to  take  any  food 
 to  recruit  his  spirits  ;  and  thereupon  some  interpreters 
 would  have  the  word  signify  his  fainting  through  hunger, 
 or  being  in  danger  of  falling  into  a  deliquium  by  spend- 
 ing his  spirits,  and  taking  no  manner  of  refreshment  to 
 revive  them.1(i  Others  had  rather  mean  by  the  word  such 
 an  ecstasy,  or  transport  of  mind,  as  those  who  are  moved 
 with  a  vehement  zeal,  or  prophetic  spirit,  are  wont  to 
 be  affected  with;  and  consequently  that  his  friends' 
 apprehensions  were,  that,  in  the  execution  of  his  pro- 
 phetic office,  that  is,  in  his  preaching1  and  instructing  the 
 people,  he  expended  his  strength  too  much,  forgetful  of 
 that  care  and  preservation  which  he  ought  to  have  had 
 of  himself.  But  for  my  part  I  cannot  see  why  the  word 
 may  not  here  be  taken  in  its  common  and  ordinary 
 sense,  for  what  is  called  madness  and  distraction.  We 
 acknowledge,  indeed,  that  our  Lord,  neither  in  his 
 actions  nor  gestures,  showed  ever  any  symptoms  of  a  dis- 
 ordered mind :  nor  could  his  relations,  from  any  be- 
 haviour of  his,  conceive  any  such  thing  of  him  :  but  then 
 the  words  in  the  text,  I'Asyoi/  yoL^,  '  for  they  said,'  may 
 
 9  James  i.  19.         io  Mat.  v.  22.  "  Eph.  iv.  2fi. 
 
 12  Mark  iii.  6.  »  ISl  xlii.  2,  3.  "  Mark  iii.  21. 
 
 '•'  Wltithy  in  locum.  '6  Hammond's  Annotation. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 933 
 
 A.  M.  403V  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1- 
 
 not  relate  to  his  friends,  but  to  other  people  who  had 
 raised  this  report  of  him.  The  Pharisees  had  given  out 
 that  he  had  a  devil,  and  did  all  these  miracles  by  a  con- 
 federacy with  him  :  and  others  who  did  not  run  to  this 
 length  of  blasphemy,  said  nevertheless  that  he  was  mad, 
 and  his  head  turned  ;  and  when  this  came  to  his  friends' 
 ears,  they,  out  of  a  charitable  design  perhaps,  went  to 
 apprehend  him,  supposing  that  he  might  possibly  be 
 under  some  such  disorder  ;  and  not  rightly  understanding 
 the  end  of  his  mission,  as  the  evangelist1  informs  us, 
 that  some  of  his  kindred  did  not  believe  in  him.  And 
 indeed,  z  if  we  consider  with  ourselves  how  common  a 
 thing  it  is  to  look  upon  those  who  think  or  speak,  or  act 
 in  a  manner  different  from  other  people,  as  fools  and 
 madmen  ;  how  this  was  the  fate  3  of  the  young  prophet 
 before  Jehu's  companions,  and  of  St  Paul  4  before 
 Festus ;  we  shall  not  think  it  strange  that  our  Lord 
 should  fall  under  the  same  opprobrious  imputation,  or 
 that  his  relations,  who  had  no  true  conception  of  him  or 
 his  office,  hearing  of  this  rumour,  should  endeavour  to 
 get  him  into  their  custody,  and  so  prevent  his  exposing 
 himself  to  the  scorn  and  derision  of  those  that  hated 
 him.  For  though  some  of  the  people  were  of  opinion, 
 that  '  he  spake  as  never  man  spake, 5  yet  many  of  them 
 said,  he  has  a  devil,  and  is  mad,  why  hear  ye  him  ?' 
 
 The  name  of  Peter  or  Cephas,  as  it  is  in  the  Syriac, 
 our  blessed  Lord  gave  to  Simon,  when  his  brother 
 Andrew  first  brought  them  together  ;  and  in  allusion  to 
 this  name  it  is,  that  he  calls  him  the  rock,  or  stone,  upon 
 which  lie  intended  to  build  his  church.  Some  indeed  by 
 this  rock  think,  that  our  Saviour  intends  himself, 6  and 
 that,  in  uttering  these  words,  he  pointed  at  his  own  per- 
 son, as  he  seems  to  have  done  upon  another  like  occa- 
 sion, when  he  speaks  to  the  Jews,7  destroy  this  temple, 
 meaning  his  own  body,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it 
 up  :  but  the  sense  seems  abstruse,  and  the  transition 
 abrupt,  that  our  8  Saviour,  speaking  to  Peter,  and  call- 
 ing him  a  rock,  should,  with  the  same  breath,  pass  to 
 himself,  and  yet  not  say,  upon  myself  but  upon  this 
 rock,  and  St  Peter  was  the  only  rock  he  mentioned,  will 
 I  build  my  church."  Others  therefore  would  rather  have 
 St  Peter's  faith  and  confession  to  be  the  rock  here 
 spoken  of,  as  it  must  be  acknowledged  indeed,  that,  in 
 tliis  confession  of  his,  the  sum  and  substance  of  the 
 Christian  doctrine  is  comprised  ;  but  then  it  should  be 
 considered,  that  as  our  Lord,  without  all  doubt,  meant 
 to  say  something  singular  to  St  Peter,  as  a  reward  of 
 his  frank  confession  of  him,  if  this  confession  was  all 
 the  rock  he  intended,  here  was  nothing  particular  said 
 to  the  apostle,  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  the  whole 
 grace  of  the  allusion  to  his  name  was  entirely  lost.  It 
 is  reasonable  therefore  to  think,  9  that  as  our  Saviour 
 here  directs  his  speech,  not  to  the  whole  college  of  the 
 
 1  John  vii.  5.  aCalmet's  Commentary  in  locum. 
 
 '2  Kings  ix.  11.  '•Acts  xxvi.  24.  5  John  x.  20. 
 
 c  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv.       7  John  ii.  19. 
 
 8  Poole's  Annotations  on  Mat.  xvi.  18. 
 
 9  Whitby's  Annotations  in  locum. 
 
 a  Promising  that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  his 
 
 church,  our  Lord  promises  not  only  perpetuity  to  the  church,  to 
 
 the  last  moment  of  the  world's  existence,  notwithstanding  the 
 
 successive  mortality  of  all  its  members  in  all  ages,  but  what  is 
 
 much  more,  a  final  triumph  over  the  power  of  the  grave.    Firmly 
 
 as  the  gates  of  hades  may  be   haired,  they  shall   have  no  power 
 
 to  confine  his  departed  saints,  when  the  last  trump  shall  sound, 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.l— vii.  1. 
 apostles,  but  to  St  Peter  only,  and  seems  to  promise 
 him  something  peculiar  as  the  reward  of  his  liberal  con- 
 fession, the  sense  of  the  expression  should  be,  that  he 
 would,  in  a  more  eminent  manner,  make  use  of  his 
 ministry,  in  laying  the  first  foundation  of  the  Christian 
 church,  both  among  the  Jews  and  Gentiles,  as  we  find 
 he  did  the  former, 10  in  his  most  efficacious  sermon  at 
 the  day  of  pentecost,  and  the  latter,  u  in  the  conversion 
 of  Cornelius  and  his  company. 
 
 There  is  a  passage  in  Isaiah,  which,  as  some  imagine, 
 helps  us  to  the  knowledge  of  what  our  Saviour  means 
 1  by  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;'  *  it  is  where 
 God  foretells  Eliakim,12  that  he  '  will  call  him  and  clothe 
 him  with  the  robe  of  Shebna,  (who  13  was  over  the  house- 
 hold,) and  strengthen  him  with  his  girdle,  and  commit  his 
 government  into  his  hand  and  lay  the  key  of  the  house 
 of  David  c  upon  his  shoulder,'  &c.     Now,  because  the 
 
 '0  Acts  ii.  1'  Ibid.  x.  »*  Is.  xxii.  20.       "  Ibid.  ver.  15. 
 
 and  the  voice  of  the  archangel  shall  thunder  through  the  deep. — 
 Horsley's  Sermons. — Ed. 
 
 b  On  this  subject  Bishop  Horsley  has  the  following  excellent  re- 
 marks. St  Peter's  custody  of  the  keys  was  a  temporary,  not  a 
 perpetual  authority:  its  object  was  not  individuals,  but  the  whole 
 human  race.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth  is  the  true 
 church  of  God.  It  is  now,  therefore,  the  Christian  church ; — 
 formerly  the  Jewish  church  was  that  kingdom.  The  true  church 
 is  represented  in  this  text,  as  in  many  passages  of  holy  writ, 
 under  the  image  of  a  walled  city,  to  be  entered  only  at  the 
 gates.  Under  the  Mosaic  economy  these  gates  were  shut,  and 
 particular  persons  only  could  obtain  admittance, — Israelites  by 
 birth,  or  by  legal  incorporation.  The  locks  of  these  gates  were 
 the  rites  of  the  Mosaic  law,  which  obstructed  the  entrance  ot 
 aliens.  But,  after  our  Lord's  ascension,  and  the  descent  of  the 
 Holy  Ghost,  the  keys  of  the  city  were  given  to  St  Peter,  by  that 
 vision  which  taught  him,  and  authorised  him  to  teach  others, 
 that  all  distinctions  of  one  nation  from  another  were  at  an  end. 
 By  virtue  of  this  special  commission,  the  great  apostle  applied 
 the  key,  pushed  back  the  bolt  of  the  lock,  and  threw  the  gates  of 
 the  city  open  for  the  admission  of  the  whole  gentile  world,  in 
 the  instance  of  Cornelius  and  his  family.  To  this,  and  to  this 
 only,  our  Lord  prophetically  alludes,  when  he  promises  to  St 
 Peter  the  custody  of  the  keys.  With  this,  the  second  article  of 
 the  promise,  the  authority  to  loose  and  bind,  is  closely  connected. 
 This  again  being,  by  virtue  of  our  rule  of  interpretation,  peculiar 
 to  St  Peter,  must  be  a  distinct  thing  from  the  perpetual  standing 
 power  of  discipline,  conveyed  upon  a  later  occasion  to  the  church 
 in  general,  in  the  same  figurative  terms.  St  Peter  was  the  first 
 instrument  of  providence  in  dissolving  the  obligation  of  the 
 Mosaic  law  in  the  ceremonial,  and  of  binding  it  in  the  moral 
 part.  The  rescript,  indeed,  for  that  purpose,  was  drawn  by  St 
 James,  and  confirmed  by  the  authority  of  the  apostles,  in 
 general,  under  the  direction  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  but  the  Holy 
 Ghost  moved  the  apostles  to  this  great  business  by  the  suggestion 
 and  the  persuasion  of  St  Peter,  as  we  read  in  the  fifteenth  chapter 
 of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  And  this  was  his  particular  and 
 personal  commission  to  bind  and  loose.  I  must  not  quit  this 
 part  of  my  subject  without  observing,  that  no  authority  over  the 
 rest  of  the  apostles  was  given  to  St  Peter,  by  the  promise  made 
 to  him,  in  either  or  in  both  its  branches;  nor  was  any  right  con- 
 veyed to  him,  which  could  descend  from  him  to  his  successors 
 in  any  see.  The  promise  was  indeed  simply  a  prediction  that 
 he  would  be  selected  to  be  the  first  instrument  in  a  great  work 
 of  providence,  which  was  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be  done  oik  e 
 for  all;  and,  being  done,  it  cannot  be  repeated.  The  great 
 apostle  fulfilled  his  commission  in  his  lifetime.  He  applied  his 
 key, — he  turned  back  the  lock, — he  loosed  and  he  bound.  The 
 gates  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  are  thrown  open, — the  ceremonial 
 law  is  abrogated— the  moral  is  confirmed;  and  the  successors  of 
 St  Peter,  in  the  see  of  Rome,  can  give  neither  furtherance  nor 
 obstruction  to  the  business. — Horsley's  Servions. — Ed. 
 
 c  This  custom  of  carrying  keys  upon  men's  shoulders  may 
 seem  very  strange  to  us:  but  the  ancients  had  their  keys  made 
 very  large,  and  in  the  form  of  a  sickle,  and  the  weight  and  shape 
 of  them  was  such,  that   they  could  no  otherwise  be  carried  con- 
 
934 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5410.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  I. 
 
 key  was  an  ensign  of  great  honour  and  power,  and  what 
 the  chief  stewards  in  princes'  palaces  usually  wore,  as  an 
 indication  of  their  office,  our  Saviour  makes  use  of  this 
 expression,  to  denote  that  authority  and  jurisdiction 
 wherewith  he  invested  the  apostles  and  their  successors 
 in  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  his  church.  But, 
 besides  the  key  of  government,  there  is  1  the  key  of 
 knowledge,  which  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  are  blamed 
 for  having  taken  away  ;  and  therefore  as  the  use  of  a  key 
 is  to  open  a  door  or  gate,  we  should  rather  think  the 
 import  of  Christ's  promise  here  to  Peter  is,  2  that  he 
 should  be  the  person  who  should  first  open  the  mysteries 
 of  the  gospel-dispensation,  both  to  Jew  and  Gentile  ; 
 by  the  power  of  his  preaching,  make  the  first  converts 
 among  both;  and,  by  the  rite  of  baptism,  receive  such 
 converts  into  the  pale  of  the  Christian  church :  and  by 
 the  binding  and  loosing  which  follow,  though  some  are 
 willing  to  extend  them  to  the  power  of  excommunication 
 and  absolution,  I  should  rather  be  inclined  to  think, 
 that,  according  to  the  language  then  in  use  among  the 
 Jews,  our  Saviour  means  the  forbidding  or  permitting 
 such  and  such  things  ;  that 3  he  is  here  declaring  his  will, 
 that  his  apostles  should  settle  the  affairs  of  his  church 
 by  virtue  of  their  infallible  Spirit;  should  determine 
 what  was  lawful  or  unlawful  for  Christians  to  do,  and 
 that  such  their  determinations  should  be  ratified  in 
 lieaven;  "  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth,  that  is, 
 declare,  to  be  forbidden,  shall  expose  the  man  that  com- 
 mits it  to  punishment ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose 
 on  earth,  or  declare  to  be  lawful  now,  though  formerly 
 forbidden,  shall  be  allowed  to  be  done,  without  any 
 one's  incurring  my  displeasure."  So  that  in  this  sense 
 the  words  are  a  foundation  of  our  faith  and  obedience 
 to  the  doctrines  and  commands  of  the  apostles,  and  of 
 the  cessation  of  the  ritual  precepts  of  the  law  of  Moses. 
 
 According  to  this  exposition,  the  sense  of  our  Lord's 
 promise  to  Peter,  supposing  it  personal,  and  directed  to 
 him  only,  will  be  this —  4  "  Thy  name  signifies  a  rock, 
 and,  suitable  to  that  name  shall  be  thy  work  and  office  ; 
 for  upon  thee,  that  is,  upon  the  strength  of  thy  preach- 
 ing, shall  the  foundation  of  my  church  be  laid.  Thee  I 
 will  appoint  to  make  the  first  converts,  both  of  Jews  and 
 Gentiles,  to  my  holy  religion,  and,  by  the  ordinance  of 
 baptism  to  admit  them  into  the  communion  of  saints ; 
 and  to  thee  I  will  give  power  to  enact  laws,  for  the  good 
 government  of  my  church ;  to  determine  what  is  proper 
 or  improper  to  be  done,  and  to  release  my  people  from 
 the  observation  of  legal  ceremonies." 
 
 This  is  the  full  force  of  our  Saviour's  speech  to 
 Peter ;  and  yet  it  neither  denotes  nor  implies  any  oecu- 
 menical, pastoral  power  in  him,  much  less  in  his  suc- 
 cessors, above  the  rest  of  the  apostles.  For,  if  he  be 
 here  called  the  rock,  or  foundation-stone,  the  same 
 honour  is  attributed  to  the  rest,  where  it  is  said,  that  5 
 '  we  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  prophets  and 
 apostles,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner- 
 stone.' If  he  had  the  power  of  the  keys  intrusted  with 
 him,  and  thereby  admitted  the  first  converts,  both  Jews 
 
 1  Luke  xi.  52.  2  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  xvi.  19. 
 
 s  Poole's  Annotations  on  Mat.  xvi.  IS. 
 
 4  Whithy's  Annotations.  *  Eph.  ii.  20. 
 
 veniently,  but  as  wo  see  our  reapers  carry  their  sickles. — Cal- 
 
 l/ut'i  Dictionary  under  the  word  Key. 
 
 and  Gentiles,  into  the  Christian  church  ;  both  James  and 
 John  exercised  the  same  office,  in  converting  those  of 
 the  circumcision ;  and  St  Paul  opened  the  kingdom  of 
 heaven  to  many  more  Gentiles  than  ever  he  did.  If  he 
 had  authority  to  discharge  the  converts  he  made  from 
 the  observation  of  the  ceremonial  law,  St  Paul,  without 
 doubt,  had  the  same  with  regard  to  this,  and  perhaps  a 
 clearer  notion  of  the  Christian  liberty,  than  St  Peter 
 seems  to  have  had,  when  he  gave  occasion  to  the  other 
 to 6  withstand  him  to  the  face,  and  so  frequently  to 
 declare,  '  that  we  are  not  justified  by  the  works  of  the 
 law,  but  by  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ:'  and,  whatever 
 the  sense  of  binding  and  loosing  may  be,  it  is  certain, 
 that  the  same  power  and  authority  was  given,  in  as 
 ample  a  manner  to  all  the  apostles  in  general,  where  it 
 is  said,  7  'whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall  be 
 bound  in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth, 
 shall  be  loosed  in  heaven  :'  and  again  s  '  whosesoever  sins 
 ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them,  and  whosesoever 
 sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained.'  So  wisely  did  our 
 blessed  Saviour  settle  an  equality  among  his  apostles, 
 that9 '  there  might  be  no  schism  in  his  church,'  but  that 10 
 '  in  him  all  the  building  fitly  framed  together,'  as  the 
 apostle  continues  the  metaphor,  '  might  grow  unto  an 
 holy  temple  in  the  Lord  !' 
 
 Nothing  certainly  can  be  plainer  in  scripture,  than 
 that  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  our  Saviour 
 mentions  as  a  sin  unpardonable,  is  to  be  understood  of 
 the  Pharisees  imputing  the  miracles,  which  he  wrought 
 by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  the  power  of  the 
 devil ;  and  yet,  I  know  not  how,  a  great  many  learned 
 men  have  made  shift  to  mistake  it.  n  A  denial  of 
 Christ's  divinity,  a  denial  of  his  religion  for  fear  of 
 suffering,  a  wilful  opposition  to  the  truth,  a  malicious 
 envying  other  men's  graces,  gross  relapses  into  sin,  or 
 final  impenitence,  and  perseverance  therein,  have,  some 
 by  one,  and  some  by  others,  been  made  the  character- 
 istics of  this  sin ;  and  yet  the  very  occasion  of  our 
 Saviour's  discourse  concerning  it  cannot  but  give  us 
 quite  different  conceptions. 
 
 12  He  had  just  now  healed  one  possessed  of  a  devil, 
 blind  and  dumb,  whereat  the  people  were  much  amazed, 
 and  began  to  say  among  themselves, '  is  not  this  the  son 
 of  David  ?'  that  is,  the  promised  Messiah  :  which  when 
 the  Pharisees  understood,  they  gave  this  vile  and  malici- 
 ous turn  to  the  miracle,  '  this  fellow  does  not  cast  out 
 devils,  but  by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  the  devils.'  This 
 calumny  our  Saviour  undertook  to  confute,  by  showing 
 how  unlikely  a  thing  it  was,  that  the  devil  should  lend 
 him  his  power  to  use  it  against  himself;  and  then  pro- 
 ceeds to  discourse  of  this  sin,  13  '  wherefore  I  say  unto 
 you,  all  manner  of  sin  and  blasphemy,'  which  is  of 
 another  nature,  '  shall  be  forgiven  unto  men,  but  the 
 blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  not  be  forgiven 
 unto  them.'  The  Pharisees  therefore  are  the  persons 
 charged  with  the  sin,  and  the  sin  is,  their  attributing 
 what  was  done  by  the  finger  of  God  to  a  diabolical 
 power. 
 
 14  A  learned  annotator  of  our  own  is  of  opinion,  that, 
 
 6  Gal.  ii.  11.  16.  '  Mat.  xviii.  18.  8  John  xx.  23. 
 
 9  1  Cor.  xii.  25.     1Q  Eph.  ii.  21.      u  Tillotson's  Sermons,  vol.  i. 
 
 18  Mat.  xii.  22.  13  Ibid.  ver.  31. 
 
 '4  Whitby,  in  his  Appendix  to  the  xiith  chapter  of  St  Matthew. 
 
Seat.  II.] 
 
 PROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 935 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.29.  FROM  MAT.xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  83.— Ix,  I  I.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37-  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 resist  the  last  and  utmost  means  of  their  conviction,  and, 
 consequently,  neither  will  nor  can  repent ;  especially, 
 
 though  our  Saviour  entered  upon  this  discourse,  because 
 the  Pharisees  imputed  his  miracles  to  a  confederacy  with 
 Satan,  yet  his  chief  design  was  to  deter  his  hearers 
 from  blaspheming  the  ensuing  dispensation  of  the  Holy 
 Ghost,  which,  upon  his  resurrection  and  ascension,  he 
 had  promised  to  send  down  from  heaven  :  so  that  this 
 sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  neither  was,  nor  could  be 
 committed,  when  our  Saviour  spake  these  words,  not 
 until  the  time  that  its  miraculous  gifts  were  communicated 
 to  the  apostles,  which  was  on  the  day  of  Pentecost. 
 But,  besides  that  our  blessed  Saviour  had  not  as  yet 
 made  mention  either  of  his  own  ascension,  or  of  the 
 mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  since  the  power,  whereby 
 both  he  and  his  apostles  wrought  their  miracles,  pro- 
 ceeded from  the  same  divine  Spirit,  a  reviling  this 
 power,  when  our  Saviour  did  the  miracle,  must  be  blas- 
 phemy against  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  much  as  it  was  when 
 his  apostles  did  it ;  and  so  the  difference  amounts  to 
 nothing. 
 
 1  Our  blessed  Lord  indeed,  to  show  that  he  was  sent 
 from  God,  wrought  miracles,  such  as  did  plainly  evince 
 a  divine  power  and  presence  accompanying  him.  These 
 miracles,  to  which  he  frequently  appeals,  the  Pharisees 
 were  eye-witnesses  of,  and  therefore  could  not  deny 
 them ;  yet  such  was  their  hatred  and  opposition  to  him 
 and  his  doctrine,  that,  rather  than  allow  his  divine  mis- 
 sion, they  were  resolved  to  ascribe  all  he  did  to  the 
 power  of  the  devil.  Their  design  in  this  was  to  destroy 
 the  whole  credit  of  Christianity,  and,  by  making  him  a 
 confederate  with  Satan,  to  represent  his  religion  as  the 
 work  and  contrivance  of  hell,  and  such  only  as  would 
 tend  to  the  mischief  and  destruction  of  mankind.  To 
 slander  and  calumniate  the  Son  of  Man,  was  a  great 
 sin,  no  doubt,  but  such  as  might  more  easily  be  forgiven 
 them,  because  of  his  state  of  humiliation,  and  poor 
 appearance,  which  might  occasion  their  disesteem  :  but 
 to  represent  the  Spirit  of  God  as  an  apostate  angel,  and 
 whatever  he  did  for  the  good  and  salvation  of  mankind, 
 as  the  work  and  intrigue  of  the  devil,  is  a  sin  of  such  a 
 horrid  nature,  as  may  well  deserve  a  particular  exemp- 
 tion from  the  general  promise  and  covenant  of  pardon. 
 
 2  God,  no  doubt,  can,  if  he  will,  work  so  powerfully 
 upon  the  minds  of  men  by  his  grace  and  Spirit,  as  to 
 convince  the  most  obstinate  ;  and,  supposing  them  to  be 
 convinced,  and  repent,  it  cannot  be  denied,  but  that 
 they  would  be  forgiven:  and  therefore,  when  our  Saviour 
 says,  that  such  'as  blaspheme  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 shall  not  be  forgiven,'  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that 
 he  means,  that  when  men  are  come  to  such  a  degree  of 
 inveterate  malice,  God,  as  he  justly  may,  will  withdraw 
 his  grace  from  them,  and  leave  them  to  the  bent  of  their 
 perverse  minds,  which  will  insensibly  engage  them  in  a 
 further  opposition  to  the  truth,  and  sink  them  finally  into 
 perdition  ;  so  that  being  deserted  of  God,  and,  for  want 
 of  the  necessary  aid  of  his  grace,  continuing  finally 
 impenitent,  they  become  incapable  of  forgiveness  '  both 
 in  this  world,  and  in  that  which  is  to  come.'  The  short 
 then  of  all  is  this,  that  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost 
 is  unpardonable,  not  because  there  is  not  a  sufficiency 
 of  merit  in  Christ  to  atone  for  it,  or  of  mercy  in  God  the 
 Father  to  forgive  it,  but  because  those  who  commit  it 
 are  of  such  a  refractory  and  incorrigible  spirit,  that  they 
 
 if  God  in  judgment,  as  it  sometimes  happens,  and  3  '  be- 
 cause they  received  not  the  love  of  the  truth,  that  they 
 might  be  saved,  should  send  upon  them  a  strong  delu- 
 sion, that  they  might  believe  a  lie.' 
 
 That  which  has  made  some  passages  in  the  Gth  chapter 
 of  St  John's  gospel,  and  especially  the  command  of  ' 
 '  eating  the  flesh,  and  drinking  the  blood  of  the  Son  of 
 Man,'  a  matter  of  so  much  perplexity,  is  the  want  of 
 attending  to  the  occasion  of  his  discourse,  and  the 
 figurative  forms  of  expression  that  were  then  in  use  in 
 the  eastern  nations.  Our  Lord,  it  seems,  but  the  day 
 before, 5  had  fed  a  great  number  of  people  with  a  very 
 small  matter  of  provisions.  The  day  following  they 
 resort  to  him,  in  hopes  of  the  same  bounteous  supply. 
 Our  Lord,  who  knew  their  design,  rebuked  their  greedy 
 appetite.  They,  in  return,  reminded  him  of  Moses's 
 liberality,  much  superior  to  his,  in  providing  them  manna 
 for  the  space  of  forty  years.  Hereupon  our  Lord  took 
 occasion  to  acquaint  them,  6  '  that  he  was  the  bread  of 
 God,  which  came  down  from  heaven,'  "■  highly  preferable 
 to  manna ;  forasmuch  as  that  gave  only  their  forefathers 
 a  transitory,  but  this  an  everlasting  life  to  the  whole 
 world  :  for  7  '  he  that  cometh  to  me,'  continues  he,  '  shall 
 never  hunger ;  and  he  that  believeth  in  me  shall  never 
 thirst ;'  and  again,  8  '  I  am  the  living  (or  rather  life- 
 giving)  bread,  which  came  down  from  heaven  ;  if  any 
 man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  for  ever,  and  the 
 bread  that  I  will  give  him  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will  give 
 for  the  life  of  the  world.  9  For  my  flesh  is  meat  indeed, 
 and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed :  he  that  eateth  my  flesh, 
 and  drinketh  my  blood,  hath  eternal  life,  and  I  will  raise 
 him  up  at  the  last  day.' 
 
 Now,  whosoever  considers  the  genius  of  the  eastern 
 languages,  abounding  in  lofty,  and  sometimes  abstruse, 
 figures,  and  how  common  a  thing  it  was,  among  the  Jews 
 especially,  to  use  the  metaphors  of  eating  and  drinking 
 in  a  spiritual  sense,  namely,  to  denote  the  exercise  or 
 
 l.Tillotsou's  Sermuua.  vol.  i. 
 
 2  Ibid. 
 
 3  2  Thess.  ii.  10.  11.  4  John  vi.  52.  5  Ibid.  ver.  9,  10. 
 
 6  Ibid.  ver.  33.  7  Ibid.  ver.  35.  8  Ibid.  ver.  51 . 
 
 »  Ibid.  ver.  54,  55. 
 a  There  is  a  beautiful  gradation  observable  in  our  Lord's  dis- 
 course. The  first  time  that  he  called  liimself  the  bread  of  life, 
 (John  vi.  35.)  he  assigned  the  reason  of  the  name  somewhat 
 obscurely.  '  He  that  cometh  to  me  shall  never  hunger,  and  he 
 that  believeth  on  me  shall  never  thirst.'  The  second  time  that 
 he  called  himself  '  the  bread  of  life,'  verse  47,  he  spake  to  the 
 same  purpose  as  before,  but  more  plainly ;  '  he  that  believeth  on 
 me,  hath  everlasting  life;'  therefore  'I  am  the  bread  of  life.' 
 And  by  connecting  tbis  with  his  affirmation,  verse  46,  that  he 
 was  the  only  teacher  of  mankind  that  had  ever  personally  seen 
 and  been  taught  of  the  Father,  he  insinuated  that  he  gave  life 
 to  men  by  his  doctrine,  being  on  that  account  also  the  bread  of 
 life.  The  third  time  he  called  himself  bread,  he  added  to  the 
 name  the  epithet  of  living,  not  only  because  he  gives  life  to  men 
 by  raising  them  from  the  dead,  and  making  them  eternally 
 happy,  but  because  he  giveth  them  this  life  by  means  of  his 
 human  nature,  which  was  not  an  inanimate  thing  like  the 
 manna,  but  a  living  substance.  For  he  told  them  plainly  that 
 the  bread  or  meat  which  he  would  give  them  was  his  flefh, 
 which  he  would  give  for  the  life  of  the  world,  and  spake  uf 
 men's  eating  it,  in  order  to  its  having  that  effect.  But  the 
 meaning  of  this  expression  he  had  directed  them  to  before, 
 when  in  calling  himself  the  bread  of  life,  he  always  joined  be- 
 lieving on  him,  as  necessary  to  men's  living  by  him.  AV  here- 
 fore,  to  eat,  in  the  remaining  part  of  tiiis  discourse,  is  to  believe. 
 — Mack-night's  Harmony. — Ed, 
 
936 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIH. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 improvement  of  any  of  the  intellective  faculties  of  the 
 soul,  will  not  be  much  surprised  at  our  Saviour's  expres- 
 sing- himself  in  this  manner.  '  '  Ho,  every  one  that 
 thirsteth,'says  the  prophet,  exhorting  the  people  to  hear 
 his  instructions, '  come  ye  to  the  waters,  and  he  that  hath 
 no  money,  come  ye,  buy  and  eat,  yea,  come  buy  wine 
 and  milk,  without  money  and  without  price  ;  and  eat  ye 
 that  which  is  good,  and  let  your  soul  delight  itself  in 
 fatness.'  To  the  same  purpose  we  frequently  find  Philo 
 calling-  wisdom  and  virtue  the  food  of  the  soul,  which 
 nourishes  it  to  eternal  life  ;  and  3  the  Talmudists  telling 
 us,  "  that  all  the  eating  and  drinking  which  is  mentioned 
 in  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  relates  to  the  observation  of 
 the  law,  and  good  works  :"  nay,  manna,  in  particular, 
 according  to  the  sense  of  some  Jewish  authors,  was  an 
 eminent  type  of  Christ ;  and  therefore,"  the  good  man," 
 3  says  Philo, "  lifts  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  looking  to  the 
 manna,  the  divine  and  heavenly  "hoyog,  the  incorruptible 
 food  of  the  soul,  that  loves  God ;"  and  if  this  was  the 
 Jews'  sense  of  things,  our  Saviour  was  guilty  of  no  pre- 
 sumption in  styling  himself  the  '  true  bread  which  came 
 down  from  heaven,'  nor  of  any  absurdity  in  insisting  upon 
 a  metaphor  which  so  frequently  occurred  in  the  best  of 
 their  authors.  The  only  question  is,  whether  our  Savi- 
 our's words  in  this  place  are  to  be  taken  in  a  literal  or 
 metaphorical  sense  ?  that  is,  whether  they  relate  to  a 
 corporeal  or  spiritual  eating  his  flesh  ? 
 
 There  is  something  so  shocking  in  the  very  notion  of 
 one  man's  eating  the  flesh  of  another,  that  when  the  Jews 
 heard  our  Saviour,  as  they  imagined,  discourse  at  this 
 rate,  they  might  well  say,  *  "  How  can  this  man  give  us 
 his  flesh  to  eat?  5  Will  he  cut  it  to  pieces,  and  distribute 
 to  every  one  of  us  a  share  ?  It  is  no  agreeable  thought 
 to  eat  human  flesh  ;  but,  supposing  we  could  bring  our- 
 selves to  that,  how  could  he  multiply  himself  into  so  many 
 parts,  as  that  each  of  us  might  have  one  ?  Or  how  could 
 himself  subsist,  if  he  should,  in  this  barbarous  .and  in- 
 human manner,  cut  and  mangle  his  own  body  ?"  This 
 seems  to  be  the  reasoning  of  the  Jews  upon  the  case  :  6 
 but,  on  all  hands,  it  is  agreed,  that  they  mistook  the  sense 
 of  our  Saviour's  words,  and  fancied  such  a  meaning  in 
 them  as  he  never  intended  ;  whereas,  had  the  literal  sense 
 been  the  proper  and  intended  meaning,  it  is  certain,  that 
 they  imposed  no  false  construction  upon  what  he  said  ; 
 since,  upon  this  supposition,  he  intended  that  his  human 
 flesh  should  properly  be  eaten,  and  they,  in  their  ques- 
 tioning the  truth  of  what  he  said,  meant  no  more. 
 
 We  may  observe  farther,  that  when  our  Saviour  knew 
 within  himself  that  the  abstruseness  of  his  discourse  upon 
 this  subject  had  given  some  disgust  to  his  disciples, 7 '  he 
 said  unto  them,  Does  this  offend  you  ?  What,  and  if  you 
 should  see  the  Son  of  Man  ascend  up  where  he  was  be- 
 fore ?'  The  only  sense  of  which  words  can  be,8  "Are 
 you  offended  that  I  thus  speak  of  giving  you  my  flesh  to 
 eat?  Do  you  look  on  this  expression  now  us  a  thino-  so 
 very  absurd  and  unintelligible  ?  What  then  will  you  think 
 of  it,  when  this  body  is  removed  hence  into  heaven  ?  that 
 is,  How  will  you  then  be  scared,  and  think  it  still  more 
 difficult,  and  more  impossible  to  apprehend,  how  ye  shall 
 
 10. 
 
 .52. 
 
 '  Is.  lv.  1,  2.  2  Maimon.  More.  Nev.  b.  i. 
 
 s  L.  De  eo  quud  deterius.  page  137.  4  Jolm 
 
 *  Calmet's  Comment,  in  locum. 
 
 0  Whitby's  Annotations  in  locum.  7  John  vi.  61.  62. 
 
 s  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 then  eat  my  flesh,  and  drink  my  blood,  provided  ye  go 
 on  to  understand  my  words  in  a  gross  and  carnal  manner?" 
 For  St  Athanasius  has  well  observed,  that  our  Saviour 
 here  mentions  his  ascent  into  heaven,  that  he  might  divert 
 his  disciples  from  entertaining  a  carnal  sense  of  his 
 words :  and  therefore  his  argument  is, — "  Since  it  will 
 be  then  impossible  for  you  to  eat  my  flesh  corporeally, 
 when  it  is  so  far  removed  from  you ;  by  this  you  may 
 perceive,  that  my  purpose  is,  that  you  should  understand 
 my  words  in  a  spiritual  sense." 
 
 We  may  observe  again,  that  when  several  disciples 
 revolted  upon  the  account  of  this  hard  saying,  as  9  it  is 
 called,  and  our  Saviour  was  apprehensive  that  his  apos- 
 tles might  do  the  like,  St  Peter,  in  the  name  of-the  rest, 
 answers  him,10 '  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast 
 the  words  of  eternal  life  :'  whereas  had  he  understood 
 our  Saviour  as  speaking  here  of  oral  manducation,  his 
 answer  very  probably  would  have  been  to  this  effect : 
 "  Whatsoever  appearance  there  may  be  of  inhumanity, 
 absurdness,  and  impossibility,  in  eating  thy  natural  flesh, 
 and  drinking  thy  blood,  yet  we  believe  it  because  thou 
 hast  said  it,  who  art  truth  itself,  and  able  to  make  good 
 thy  words."  But  since  we  hear  nothing  from  him  of  this 
 tendency,  we  may  reasonably  conclude,  that  he  had  no 
 such  notion  of  our  Saviour's  words.  And  indeed  our 
 Saviour,  one  would  think,  had  done  enough  to  explain 
 his  own  meaning,  when  he  tells  us,  that  the  eating  which 
 he  intends  is  ll  believing  on  him,  and  that  it  was  such  an 
 eating  as  would  make  a  man  13  live  for  ever  ;  that 13  flesh, 
 if  we  could  eat  it,  profiteth  nothing,  since  the  soul  can 
 only  be  nourished  by  spiritual  food  ;  and  that  therefore 
 the  words  which  he  spake  unto  them  were  spirit,  that  is, 
 were  to  be  understood  in  a  spiritual  sense,  otherwise  they 
 would  not  be  conducive  to  eternal  life  :  and  therefore  u 
 Eusebius  introduces  our  Saviour  as  thus  addressing  his 
 disciples, "  Do  not  think  that  I  speak  of  that  flesh  where- 
 with I  am  compassed,  as  if  you  must  eat  of  that ;  neither 
 imagine  that  I  command  you  to  drink  my  bodily  blood, 
 but  understand  well,  that  the  words  which  I  have  spoken 
 unto  you.  they  are  spirit  and  life."  For,  as  St  Austin 
 15  lays  down  the  rule  for  the  exposition  of  scripture- 
 phrases,  '*  if  the  saying  be  preceptive,  either  forbidding 
 a  wicked  action,  or  enjoining  a  good  one,  it  is  no  figura- 
 tive speech  ;  but  if  it  seems  to  command  any  wickedness, 
 or  to  forbid  what  is  profitable  and  good,  it  is  figurative." 
 Accordingly  this  saying,  "  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the 
 Son  of  Man,  and  drink  his  blood,  seems  to  command  a 
 wicked  thing,  and  is  therefore  a  figure,  enjoining  us  to 
 communicate  in  the  passion  of  our  love,  and  sweetly  and 
 profitably  remember,  that  his  flesh  was  wounded  and 
 crucified  for  us."  16  In  this  sense,  his  flesh  and  blood 
 are  d^nSag,  truly  meat  and  drink ;  because  the  eating  of 
 this  flesh  by  faith  in  his  salutary  passion  doth  nourish 
 the  soul  to  life  eternal ;  and  the  drinking  of  his  blood 
 by  faith,  as  that  which  was  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins 
 does  refresh  the  person  thirsting  after  righteousness, 
 and  convey  into  him  a  principle  of  living  well,  and  of 
 living  for  ever.  a 
 
 9  John  vi.  60.  10  Ibid.  ver.  6S.  n  Ibid.  ver.  47. 
 
 12  Ibid.  ver.  51.  13  Ibid.  ver.  (ij-i. 
 
 14  De  Eccles.  Theolog.  b.  iii.  c.  12. 
 
 ,5  De  Doctrin.  Christian,  b.  iii.  c.  IK. 
 
 16  Whitby's  Annotations  on  John  vi.  55. 
 
 a  It  is  a  disputed  point  whether  in  what  is  said  at  ver.  50.  about 
 
Sect.  11.1 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 937 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  \j.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  54-10.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MAHKii.23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  I— vii. 
 
 Thus  we  have  gone  through  the  several  objections 
 that  are  usually  made  to  the  facts  contained  in  the  evan- 
 gelical history  of  this  period  ;  and,  if  it  would  be  of  any 
 farther  satisfaction  to  those  that  delight  to  make  them, 
 we  might  show,  that  whatever  is  recorded  of  our  blessed 
 Saviour,  the  like,  in  one  instance  or  other,  the  heathens 
 themselves  have  acknowledged  in  their  deified  heroes 
 and  great  men  :    '  that  the  same  power  of  curing  all 
 kinds  of  diseases  the  Greeks  ascribe  to  their  jKsculapius, 
 and  the  Egyptians  to  their  Serapis  and  Isis.     That  Ha- 
 drian, according  ~  to  Spartianus,  was  cured  of  fever,  by 
 the  touch  of  a  certain  blind  man  :  that  Sesostris,  king  of 
 Egypt,  upon  offering  a  sacrifice  to  the  god  Mnevis,  was 
 restored  to  his  eyesight :    that  Vespasian,  if   we  may 
 believe  Tacitus,  cured  a  man  of  his  lameness,  and  an- 
 other of  his  blindness,  by  anointing  his  eyes  with  spittle, 
 in  the  manner  that  our  Saviour  did  :  and  that  Apollo- 
 nius  Tyanseua,  whom  3Philostratus  sets  up  as  a  powerful 
 rival  of  our  Lord's  miracles,  cured  a  young  man  that  was 
 possessed  with  a  devil ;  and  when  he  had  restored  him 
 to  his  right  senses,  received  him  into  the  number  of  his 
 disciples.     Simplicius,  in  his  dissertations  upon  Epicte- 
 tus,  seems  to  promise  to  all  pious  and  wise  men   the 
 power  of  calming  the  waves  of  the  sea  ;  and  how  Neptune 
 rebuked  and  allayed  the  winds,  which,  without  his  per- 
 mission, had  raised  a  tempestuous  storm,  is  a  story  well 
 known,  and  well  set  off  in  4  Virgil.     Every  poet  almost 
 mentions  this  same  Neptune's  riding  in  his  chariot  on  the 
 surface  of  the  sea  ;  and  the  tradition  is,  that  to  his  son 
 Euphemus,  and  his  nephew  Orion,  he  gave  the  faculty  of 
 walking  upon  it  without  fear  of  sinking.     Nothing  can  be 
 more  common  among  the  fictions  of  these  writers,  than  the 
 transfiguration  of  their  gods  upon  one  occasion  or  other  ; 
 and  that  our  Saviour's  method  of  electing  his  disciples 
 might  not  want  a  precedent  in  profane  history,  s  we  are 
 told  that  the  famous  eastern  philosopher  Confucius,  out 
 of  the  three  thousand  followers  that  he  had,  made  choice 
 of  seventy-two  of  principal  note,  and,  out  of  these,  of 
 twelve  only  to  be  his  more  immediate  companions,  and 
 to   whom   he   committed   the   hidden   mysteries   of  his 
 
 1  Huetii  Qurcst.  18.  Alnet.  b.  ii. 
 
 *  ^Elius   Spartian.    Hadrian,    c.    25. 
 
 3  Philost.  Vit.  A  poll.  b.  iv,  c.  6.         i  iEneid  1. 
 
 5  Martin,  Hist.  Sinica,  b.  iv. 
 
 eating,  &c,  there  is  a  reference  to  the  eucharist,  or  not.  The 
 affirmative  was  maintained  by  most  ancients,  and  is  by  most 
 moderns,  especially  the  Romanist  interpreters:  while  the  nega- 
 tive has  been  adopted  by  many  of  the  most  eminent  expositors, 
 of  the  ancient  ones  by  Tertull.,  Clem.,  Alex.,  Origan,  Cyrill, 
 Chrys.,  and  Augustine;  and  of  the  moderns,  by  Grot.,  Whitby, 
 Wolf,  Lampe,  Tittm.,  and  Kuin.,  who  show  that  the  context  will 
 not  permit  us  to  take  the  words  of  the  eucharist.  (See  Reccns. 
 St/nop.  and  Tittm.)  But  though  they  successfully  prove  that  by 
 eating  the  flesh  and  drinking  the  blood  of  Christ,  must  here  be 
 meant  securing  to  ourselves  the  benefits  of  the  sacrifices  of  Christ 
 by  a  true  and  lively  faith,  yet  that  will  not  prove  that  there  is  no 
 reference  by  allusion  to  the  eucharist.  Hence  I  would,  with  Dr 
 Hey  and  Mr  Holden,  steer  a  middle  course,  and  take  the  passage 
 primarily  of  the  propitiatory  sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  the  benefits 
 thence  derived  by  faith ;  and  secondarily,  as  a  prophetic  intima- 
 tion of  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a  worthy  participation 
 of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper;  since  the  two  have  so 
 close  a  relation  one  to  the  other,  that  the  mention  of  the  one 
 must  suggest  the  other.  Thus  in  speaking  of  the  offering  of  his 
 body,  our  Lord  may  be  supposed  to  have  had  reference,  by  anti- 
 cipation, to  that  sacrament,  soon  to  be  instituted,  in  which,  to 
 the  end  of  time,  that  sacrifice  would  be  typified  and  its  benefit, 
 applied. — BloomfieUV  t  Greek  Testament. — Ed. 
 
 philosophy  :  but  our  happiness  is,  that  the  credibility 
 of  the  scripture  history  wants  no  such  weak  supports  as 
 these. 
 
 CHAP.  III.  Of  the  Prophecies  relating  to  the 
 Messiah,  and  their  accomplishment  in  our  blessed 
 Saviour. 
 
 One  great  evidence  of  our  Saviour's  divine  mission, 
 and,  consequently,  of  the  truth  of  his  religion,  is  the 
 completion  of  the  ancient  prophecies,   relating  to  the 
 Messiah,  in  his  person,  doctrine,  and  miracles.     He  in- 
 deed makes  more  frequent  appeal  to  his  miracles  :  6 '  The 
 works  which  the  Father  hath  given  me  to  finish,'  says  he, 
 'the  same  works  that  I  do,  bear  witness  of  me,  that  the 
 Father  hath  sent  me.'     But  since,  at  the  same  time,  he 
 lays  claim  to  the  character  of  being  the  person  spoken  of 
 by  Moses  and  the  prophets,  when  he  bids  the  people  7 
 '  search  the  Scriptures,  because  they  testified  of  him  ;' 
 it  is  certain,  that  his  title  to  the  Messiahship  must  be  tried, 
 by  the  testimony  of  the  prophets  ;  and  all  the  miracu- 
 lous works  which  he  did,  Avill  not  prove  him  to  be  the 
 Messenger  of  the  covenant,  whom  God  was  to  send,  un- 
 less the  several  predictions,  which  his  servants  the  pro- 
 phets gave  of  that  renowned  person,  are  found  to  unite 
 and  agree  in  him.     It  can  hardly  be  thought,  but  that 
 God  almighty,  who  designed  such  an  inestimable  benefit 
 for  mankind,  as  the  sending  his  own  Son  into  the  world 
 for  the  redemption   of  it,  should  give  some  previous 
 notice  of  his  coming,  and  draw  his  picture,  as  it  were, 
 so  much  to  the  life  and  likeness,  that,  when  the  original 
 should  be  brought  to  view,  it  might  be  known  and  dis- 
 tinguished by  it.      It  is  acknowledged,  I  think,  on  all 
 hands,  that  the  prophets,  at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers 
 manners,  have  done  this  ;  s  that  each  of  them,  in   his 
 turn,  has  drawn  out  a  feature,  if  I  may  so  say,  and  left 
 some  masterly  stroke  behind  him  of  this  great  personage 
 that  was  to  come  from  heaven  ;  that  one  has  described 
 his  parentage,  another  the  time,  another  the  place,  and 
 another  the  uncommon  manner  of  his  birth ;  that  some 
 have  taken  notice  of  the  most  remarkable  actions  and 
 events  of  his  life,  and  several  of  the  most  minute  and 
 altogether  singular  circumstances  of  his  death  ;  that  by 
 some  his  resurrection  is  foretold,  by  others  his  ascent  to 
 the  throne  of  God,  and  by  others,  the  perpetual  duration 
 of  his  kingdom.     And,  if  the  prophets  are  allowed  to 
 have  done  this,  our  only  inquiry  is,  Whether  the  linea- 
 ments, which  they,  in   their   several    capacities,    have 
 drawn  of  the  promised  Messiah,  when  all  brought  to- 
 gether, be  answerable  to  the  account,  which  the  evan- 
 gelists have  given  us   in  their   history  of    the  blessed 
 Jesus  ? 
 
 We  readily  own  indeed,  that  there  is  a  great  obscurity 
 in  the  ancient  prophecies."   They  are  generally  penned  in 
 
 o  John  v.  36.         »  Ibid.  v.  39. 
 8  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  lecture. 
 a  There  has  been  much  complaint  about  the  obscurity  of  pro- 
 phecy. But  the  absurdity  of  the  complaint  has  been  so  often  ex- 
 posed, and  is  so  palpable  to  the  reflecting  mind,  that  it  cannot  be 
 necessary  to  say  much  respecting  it.     The  language  of  prophecy 
 might  be  so  clear  and  ambiguous  as  altogether  to  defeat  its  own 
 object.      Were  it  as  explicit  as  seems  to  be  demanded,  an  indi- 
 vidual,   placed    in  favourable    circumstances    for   the    purpose, 
 G  c 
 
9^8 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1- 
 
 a  very  exalted  style,  and  abound  with  so  many  bold  meta- 
 phors, and  hyperbolical  expressions,  so  many  allegories 
 and  parables,  and  other  abstruse  forms  of  speech,  as 
 make  it  very  difficult  for  the  interpreters  of  scripture  to 
 discover  their  true  scope  or  meaning.  The  prophecies 
 relating  to  the  Messiah  are  still  more  obscure  ;  because, 
 p.s  they  consider  him  in  the  different  capacities  of  his 
 humiliation  and  exaltation,  unless  this  distinction  is  taken 
 along  with  us,  when  we  apply  them  to  one  and  the  same 
 person,  they  will  seem  to  load  his  character  with  con- 
 tradictions. But  still,  since  it  is  acknowledged,  that 
 the  great  design  of  prophecy  was  to  acquaint  the  world 
 with  the  Messiah,  and  that  upon  whatever  particular 
 occasions  God  sent  his  messengers,  he  always  made 
 this  one  part  of  their  errand,  we  can  hardly  believe,  that 
 he  would  multiply  these  messages  to  no  purpose  ;  or, 
 when  he  pretended  to  reveal  this  matter  to  them,  mock 
 them  with  unintelligible  words,  and  leave  them  as  much 
 in  the  dark  as  he  found  them.  He  might  indeed,  for 
 wise  purposes,  1  '  multiply  visions,  and  use  similitudes, 
 2  dark  speeches,  by  the  ministry  of  the  prophets  ;'  but  in 
 this  grand  discovery  of  all,  he  certainly  left  such  indi- 
 cations as  enabled  those,  who  looked  for  the  redemption 
 of  Israel,  and  accordingly  made  it  their  business  to 
 search  the  scriptures,  and  inquire  into  the  marks  of  the 
 Messiah,  to  attain  to  a  competent  knowledge  of  them. 
 Nor  can  it  be  well  doubted,  but  that  the  Jews  had  some 
 fixed  and  well  known  rules,  though  they  have  not 
 descended  to  us,  whereby  they  distinguished  the  pas- 
 sages in  the  prophetic  writings  which  related  to  this  im- 
 portant subject,  from  any  others,  a  because  we  find,  that 
 
 1  Hos.  xii.  19.  2  Num.  xii.  8. 
 would  have  it  in  his  power  so  to  conform  his  own  pretensions,  as 
 well  as  his  own  appearance  and  manner  of  life,  to  what  had  been 
 foretold,  as  to  impose  himself  on  the  world  for  the  person  actually 
 designed  in  the  language  of  the  prophet  ; — Or,  if  no  such  de- 
 ceitful attempt  were  made,  still  the  person  designed  would,  in  a 
 great  measure,  lose  the  advantage  which  the  fulfilment  of  pro- 
 phecy was  intended  to  afford  him ;  for  it  would  be  urged  with 
 too  much  seeming  reason,  that  the  prophetic  language  had  put 
 it  in  his  power  to  bring  about  its  fulfilment  in  the  way  best  cal- 
 culated to  accomplish  his  object.  It  was  therefore  wisely 
 ordered  that  the  prophecies  concerning  the  Messiah  should  be 
 involved  in  as  much  obscurity  as  to  leave  no  ground  for  this 
 objection.  Yet  we  shall  find,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  cir- 
 cumstances connected  with  their  fulfilment  reflect  such  li»ht  on 
 the  prophetic  language,  as  may  now  satisfy  every  candid  mind 
 respecting  its  original  import.  It  is,  besides,  to  be  considered 
 that,  if  the  language  of  the  prophets  respecting  the  advent  and 
 character  of  the  Messiah  had  been  so  explicit  as  to  make  it  im- 
 possible for  any  one  to  misconstrue  or  misapply  it,  we  can 
 scarcely  suppose  that  the  „  iws  would  have  put  him  to  death, 
 without  their  minds  being  so  overruled  of  God  as  to  deprive 
 them  of  their  free  agency.  The  operation  and  effect,  therefore, 
 of  such  prophecies  might,  for  aught  we  know,  be  incompatible 
 with  the  condition  of  men  as  accountable  creatures.  It  is  only 
 from  such  a  degree  of  obscurity  in  the  prophetic  language  as  its 
 fulfilment  effectually  removes,  that  we  have  assurance  of  its 
 being  a  fit  instrument  iu  the  hands  of  an  all-wise  Being  for 
 the  accomplishment  of  his  gracious  purposes. — Br  Inglis'  Vindi- 
 cation of  the  Christian  Faith. — Ed. 
 
 a  This  is  by  no  means  probable.  If  we  look  into  the  first 
 epistle  of  St  Peter,  we  shall  find  that  the  ancient  prophe- 
 cies, iu  the  text,  and  which  he  styles  the  '  more  sure  word 
 of  prophecy,'  were  not  apprehended  or  clearly  unders'ood  by 
 those  inspired  persons  who  delivered  them;  for  there  he  re- 
 presents them  '  searching  what  or  what  manner  of  time  the 
 Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it  tes- 
 tified beforehand  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that 
 should  follow:'  i.  11.     To  the  same  purpose  our  Saviour  speaks. 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  I— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 3  '  when  Herod  summoned  the  sanhedrim  together,  and 
 demanded  where  '  Christ  was  to  be  born,'   they  readily 
 replied  'at  Bethlehem  in  Judea,'  having  the  prophecy  of 
 Micah  4  to  that  purpose  ready  to  produce.' 
 
 We  acknowledge  again,  that  the  prophecies  concern- 
 ing the  Messiah  were  delivered,  not  only  in  an  obscure 
 manner,  but  in  different  proportions,  and  at  very  distant 
 times.  Thus  to  Adam  and  Eve  he  was  promised  in 
 general,  5  as  a  man  ;  b  to  Abraham,  6  as  his  posterity  ;  to 
 
 3  Mat.  ii.  3,  etc.  4  Chap.  v.  2.  5  Gen.  iii.  15. 
 
 6  Ibid.  xxii.  18. 
 Matt.  xiii.  17.  '  Many  prophets  and  righteous  men  have  desir- 
 ed to  see  those  things  which  ye  see,  and  have  not  seen  them ; 
 and  to  hear  those  things  which  ye  hear,  and  haver  not  heard 
 them.'  St  Paul  gives  the  like  account  of  the  gift  of  prophecy 
 under  the  gospel  dispensation:  'we  know  in  part,  and  we  pro- 
 phecy in  part ;  but  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then  that 
 which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away.  Now  we  see  through  a 
 glass  darkly;  but  then  face  to  face:  now  I  know  in  part,  but 
 then  shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am  known:'  1  Cor.  xiii.  9, 
 10,  12.  Now  if  the  prophets  and  righteous  men  of  old,  to  whom 
 the  word  of  God  came,  did  not  clearly  understand  the  things 
 which  they  foretold,  but  employed  themselves  in  searching  and 
 examining  the  prophetic  testimonies  of  the  Spirit  which  was  in 
 them ;  if  the  prophets  of  the  New  Testament  knew  only  in  part, 
 and  prophecied  only  in  part,  seeing  but  darkly  as  through  a  glass; 
 it  is  most  evident  that  others,  in  all  appearance  less  qualified  than 
 they  to  understand  the  determinate  sense  of  the  prophecies,  could 
 have  but  a  confused  and  indistinct  notion  of  the  things  foretold. 
 The  prophet  Daniel,  after  a  very  extraordinary  vision,  which  he 
 reports  in  his  last  chapter,  immediately  adds,  '  I  heard,  but  I 
 understood  not:  then  said  I,  O  my  Lord,  what  shall  be  the  end 
 of  these  things?  And  he  said,  Go  thy  way,  Daniel;  for  the 
 words  are  closed  up  and  sealed  till  the  time  of  the  end.'  The 
 answer  here  given  to  Daniel  is  very  like  the  answer  which  our 
 Saviour  gave  the  apostles,  on  an  inquiry  made  by  them:  they 
 ask,  '  Lord,  wilt  thou  at  this  time  restore  again  the  kingdom  to 
 Israel?  And  he  said  unto  them,  it  is  not  for  you  to  know  the 
 times  and  seasons  which  the  Father  hath  put  in  his  own  power:' 
 Acts  i.  6,  7.  It  did  belong  to  them  undoubtedly  and  to  eveiy 
 believing  Jew,  '  to  give  heed  to  the  word  of  prophecy'  accord- 
 ing to  St  Peter's  exhortation  in  the  text;  and  since  it  did  not 
 belong  to  them  to  know  the  times  and  seasons,  it  is  evident  the 
 word  of  prophecy  was  not  intended  to  give  a  clear  and  distinct 
 light  in  this  case. — Sherlock  on  Prophecy,  Discourse  2. — En. 
 
 b  This  prophecy  was  to  our  first  parents  but  very  obscure:  it 
 was,  in  the  phrase  of  St  Peter,  but  a  light  shining  in  a  dark 
 place:  all  that  they  could  certainly  conclude  from  it  was,  that 
 their  case  was  not  desperate ;  that  some  remedy,  that  some  de- 
 liverance from  the  evil  they  were  under,  would  in  time  appear; 
 but  when,  or  where,  or  by  what  means,  they  could  not  under- 
 stand :  their  own  sentence,  which  returned  them  back  again  to  the 
 dust  of  the  earth,  made  it  difficult  to  apprehend  what  this  victory 
 over  the  serpent  should  signify,  or  how  they  who  were  shortly  to 
 be  dust  and  ashes,  should  be  the  better  for  it.  But  after  all  that 
 can  be  urged  on  this  head  to  set  out  the  obscurity  of  this  promise, 
 I  would  ask  one  question:  was  not  this  promise  or  prophecy, 
 though  surrounded  with  all  this  obscurity,  a  foundation  for  reli- 
 gion, and  trust  and  confidence  towards  God  after  the  fall,  in  hopes 
 of  deliverance  from  the  evils  introduced  by  disobedience?  If  it 
 was,  it  fully  answered  the  necessity  of  their  case  to  whom  it  was 
 given,  and  manifested  to  them  all  that  God  intended  to  make 
 manifest.  They  could  have  had  towards  God  no  religion  without 
 some  hopes  of  mercy:  it  was  necessary  therefore  to  convey  such 
 hopes;  out  to  tell  them  how  these  hopes  should  be  accomplished, 
 at  what  time  and  manner  precisely,  was  not  necessary  to  their 
 religion.  And  what  now  is  to  be  objected  against  this  prophecy? 
 It  is  very  obscure  you  say;  so  it  is:  but  it  is  obscure  in  the 
 points  which  God  did  not  intend  to  explain  at  that  time,  and 
 which  were  not  necessary  to  he  known.  You  see  a  plain  reason 
 for  giving  this  prophecy,  and  as  far  as  the  reason  for  giving  the 
 prophecy  extends,  so  far  the  prophecy  is  very  plain:  it  is  obscure 
 only  where  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  be  plain;  which 
 surely  is  a  fault  easily  to  be  forgiven,  and  very  far  from  being  a 
 proper  subject  for  complaint. — Sherlock  on  Prophecy,  Discourse 
 3.— Ed. 
 
939 
 
 Skct.  iij  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &o 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ■;  OR,  A.M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  1. 
 Jacob,  '  as  descending  from  the  tribe  of  Judali  in  parti- 
 
 cular; to  David,  that  he  should  be  of  his  family,  and 
 the  fruit  of  his  body  ;  to  Micah,  that  he  should  be  born 
 at  Bethlehem  ;  3  to  Isaiah,  that  his  birth  should  be  mira- 
 culous, and  his  mother  a  virgin  ;  4  to  the  same  prophet, 
 that  his  death  should  be  for  5  the  redemption  of  man- 
 kind ;  to  Daniel, 6  when  the  precise  time  of  his  suffering 
 should  be  ;  to  Haggai,  lastly,  and  Zechariah  and  Mala- 
 chi,  that 'all  these  events  should  be  accomplished  be- 
 fore the  destruction  of  the  second  temple.  8  Now,  not 
 to  mention  any  more,  if  we  compute  the  seasons  of  these 
 few,  the  general  prediction  of  a  Saviour  in  human 
 nature,  will  be  found  to  bear  date  before  that  of  his 
 being  Abraham's  seed,  about  two  thousand  and  four- 
 score years  ;  from  this,  to  the  declaration  of  his  parti- 
 cular tribe,  were  two  hundred  and  fourscore  years  ; 
 thence  to  the  prophecy  of  his  particular  family,  above 
 six  hundred  years ;  after  that,  to  the  signification 
 of  his  miraculous  nativity,  more  than  three  hundred 
 years  ;  and  from  thence  to  the  time  of  his  public  appear- 
 ance in  the  world,  three  hundred  and  fifty  years,  a  or 
 thereabouts.  Now,  since  these  prophecies  were  thus  de- 
 livered by  degrees,  and  at  such  distant  and  different 
 times,  it  may  easily  so  happen,  that  considering  them 
 singly  and  apart,  we  may  find  some  other  person  and 
 event,  to  which  they  may  be  adapted,  without  any  great 
 violence  to  the  text :  but  then  the  right  way,  in  this  case, 
 to  make  a  judgment,  is,  not  by  separate  and  particular 
 passages,  but  by  connexion  of  the  whole,  by  the  exact 
 coincidence,  and  entire  agreement  of  all  the  prophecies, 
 which,  at  several  times,  denoted  the  Messiah,  brought 
 into  one  point  of  light,  and  laid  together.  b  This  is  the 
 only  method  we  have  to  determine  the  matter :  and  ac- 
 cordingly, let  us  now  look  into  some  of  the  principal 
 passages  of  our  Saviour's  life,  as  it  is  recorded  by  the 
 
 lGen.  xlix.  10.     *  Ps.  cxxxii.  11.      3Chap.v.2       4  Is.  vii.  14. 
 
 5  Ibid.  lilt.         6  Chap.  ix.         7  Hag.  ii.  Zech.  xv.  Mai.  iii. 
 
 8  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 a  These  dates  are  all  different  from  those  given  by  Hales. 
 The  rectified  dates  of  that  author  will  be  found  in  the  previous 
 part  of  this  work. — Ed. 
 
 b  Of  any  single  text  of  prophecy,  it  is  true  that  it  cannot  be 
 its  own  interpreter;  for  this  reason, — because  the  scripture  pro- 
 phecies are  not  detached  predictions  of  separate  nor  independent 
 events,  but  are  united  in  a  regular  and  entire  system,  all  termi- 
 nating in  one  great  object — the  promulgation  of  the  gospel,  and  the 
 complete  establishment  of  the  Messiah's  kingdom.  Of  this  sys- 
 tem, every  particular  prophecy  makes  a  part,  and  bears  a  more 
 immediate  or  a  more  remote  relation  to  that  which  is  the  object 
 of  the  whole.  It  is  therefore  very  unlikely  that  the  true  signi- 
 fication of  any  particular  text  of  prophecy  should  be  discovered 
 from  the  bare  attention  to  the  terms  of  the  single  prediction, 
 taken  by  itself,  without  considering  it  as  a  part  of  that  system  to 
 which  it  unquestionably  belongs,  and  without  observing  how  it 
 may  stand  connected  with  earlier  and  later  prophecies,  especially 
 with  those  which  might  more  immediately  precede  or  more  im- 
 mediately follow  it.  Again,  of  the  whole  of  the  scripture  pro- 
 phecies, it  is  true  that  it  cannot  be  its  own  interpreter.  Its 
 meaning  never  can  be  discovered,  without  a  general  knowledge 
 of  the  principal  events  to  which  it  alludes ;  for  prophecy  was  not 
 given  to  enable  curious  men  to  pry  into  futurity,  but  to  enable 
 the  serious  and  considerate  to  discern  in  past  events  the  hand  of 
 providence.  Every  particular  prophecy  is  to  be  referred  to  the 
 system,  and  to  be  understood  in  that  sense  which  may  most  aptly 
 connect  it  with  the  whole;  and  the  sense  of  prophecy  in  general 
 
 is  to  be  sought  in  the  events  which  have  actually  taken  place, 
 
 the  history  of  mankind,  especially  in  the  article  of  their  religious 
 improvement,  being  the  public-  infallible  interpreter  of  the  oracles 
 of  God. — Horsley's  Sermons. — El). 
 
 evangelists,  and  so  see  whether  they  do  not  exactly  agree 
 with  the  several  characters  which  the  prophets  have  given 
 us  of  the  Messiah. 
 
 Our  Lord  Jesus,  we  are  told, 9  was  conceived  and  born 
 of  a  pure  virgin,  without  the  concurrence  of  any  man  : 
 for  so  the  prophecy  had  foretold,  that, 10 '  the  seed  of  the 
 woman  should  bruise  the  serpent's  head,'  and  that  n  '  a 
 virgin  should  conceive,  and  bear  a  son,  and  call  his  name 
 Innnanuel.'  He  was  descended 12  of  the  family  of  David, 
 and  born  13  at  the  town  of  Bethlehem  ;  because,  in  favour 
 to  that  king,  God  had  promised  that  "  '  he  would  estab- 
 lish his  seed  for  ever,'  and  that  15  'out  of  Bethlehem  a 
 ruler  of  Israel  should  come,  whose  goings  forth  had  been 
 from  everlasting :'  and  he  was  born  I6  in  the  reign  of  king 
 Herod,  that  is,  before  the  total  dissolution  of  the  Jewish 
 government,  and  during  the  standing  of  the  second  tem- 
 ple ;  because  one  prophecy  says,  that  17  '  the  sceptre 
 should  not  depart  from  Judah  until  Shiloh  come  ;'  and 
 another,  that  1S  '  the  desire  of  all  nations  should  coine,' 
 and,  by  his  presence,  '  make  the  glory  of  God's  latter 
 house  greater  than  that  of  the  former.' 
 
 Well :  but  before  his  appearance  in  the  world,  19  John 
 the  Baptist  was  appointed  his  forerunner,  and  came  to 
 bear  witness  of  him,  because  the  Lord,  by  the  mouth  of 
 his  prophets,  had  said, 20 '  Behold,  I  send  my  messenger, 
 and  he  shall  prepare  the  way  before  me:  21  he  shall  cry 
 in  the  wilderness,  prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make 
 straight  an  highway  for  our  God.'  When  he  made  his 
 appearance  in  the  world  he  took  up  his  chief  residence 22 
 in  the  province  of  Galilee  ;  because  the  prophet,  speak- 
 ing of  the  inhabitants  of  that  country,  tells  us,  that '  upon 
 them  23  who  dwelt  before  in  the  land  of  the  shadow  of 
 death,  did  a  great  light  shine,'  when  they  had  it  to  say, 
 '  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given,  and  the 
 government  shall  be  upon  his  shoulder,'  &c.  When  he 
 came  to  converse  in  it,  such  was  his  quiet  and  inoffensive 
 temper  and  behaviour,  that  the  prophet  did  not  misrepre- 
 sent him,  when  he  styled  him  2i  '  the  Prince  of  Peace,' 
 and  one  25  '  who  would  not  cry,  nor  cause  his  voice  to  be 
 heard  in  the  streets.'  When  he  entered  upon  his  public 
 ministry,  the  very  actions  which  the  evangelical  prophet 
 had  foretold  of  the  Messiah,  he  performed  to  a  tittle  ; 
 '  for  26  he  preached  good  tidings  to  the  meek,  and  pro- 
 claimed liberty  to  the  captives ;  he  27  opened  the  eyes  of 
 the  blind,  and  unstopped  the  ears  of  the  deaf ;  he  made 
 the  lame  man  to  leap  as  an  hart,  and  the  tongue  of  the 
 dumb  to  sing.' 
 
 But,  during  the  course  of  his  ministry,  our  Saviour, 
 we  read,  lived  in  a  very  mean,  obscure  condition,  and 
 suffered  at  last  a  violent  death  :  and  why  so  ?  Because 
 of  the  Messiah  it  was  foretold,  that 2S  '  he  should  be  de- 
 spised and  rejected  of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows,  and  ac- 
 quainted with  grief;  who  should  be  cut  off  from  the  land 
 of  the  living,  and  pour  out  his  soul  unto  death.'  But, 
 for  whom  should  he  suffer  all  this  ?  ^  For  us  men,  and 
 our  salvation  ;  for  so  it  was  appointed,  that  the  Messiah 
 should  M  '  bear  our  griefs,  and  carry  our  sorrows ;  that 
 
 9  Mat.  i.  18.  and  Luke  i.  26,  &c. 
 n  Is.  vii.  14.  «  Mat:  i 
 
 10  Gen.  iii.  15. 
 1.  and  LuKe  i.  27. 
 
 >3  Mat.  ii.  5.  6.  M  Ps.  lxxxix.  4.  15  Mic.  v.  % 
 
 l(i  Mat.  ii.  1.  and  Luke  vii.  27.  ir  Gen.  xlix.  10. 
 
 18  Hag.  ii.  7.  19  Mat.  iii.  1.  20   Mai.  iii.  1. 
 
 »"  Is.  xl.  3.  "  Mat.  ii.  22,  83.  !3  Is.  ix.  2,  G. 
 
 21  Ibid.  v,r.  (i.  »  Ibid.  xlii.  2.    M  xli.  1.  27  Ibid.  xxxv.  5,  fi. 
 2t  Ibid.  liii.  3.  29  Col.  i.  14  30  Is.  liii.  4.  5,  G. 
 
940 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.31 ;  OR,  A.  M.5440.  A.  D.29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 he  should  be  wounded  foi  our  transgressions,  and  bruised 
 for  our  iniquities  ;'  because  '  the  Lord  would  lay  upon 
 him  the  iniquities  of  us  all.'  And  in  what  manner  was 
 he  to  suffer  ?  With  a  patience  and  meekness  answerable 
 to  the  prophecy,  1  '  he  was  oppressed,  and  he  was  afflict- 
 ed, yet  he  opened  not  his  mouth ;  he  was  brought  as  a 
 lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  before  her  shearers 
 is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth.' 
 
 It  might  seem  a  little  strange,  that  our  Lord,  who  all 
 his  lifetime  affected  no  popularity,  should  a  little  before 
 his  death,  2  make  his  public  entry  into  Jerusalem,  and  in 
 a  manner  so  very  singular,  had  not  the  prophet  called 
 upon  'the  daughter  of  Zion  3  to  rejoice  greatly,  because 
 her  King  was  coming  unto  her,  bringing  salvation,  lowly, 
 and  riding  upon  an  ass,  and  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass.' 
 Strange,  that 4  he  should  be  betrayed  by  his  own  disciple, 
 to  whom  he  had  been  so  very  kind,  had  not  the  psalmist 
 foretold  it  in  these  words  :  5  '  mine  own  familiar  friend, 
 in  whom  I  trusted,  which  did  eat  of  my  bread,  hath  lift 
 up  his  heel  against  me  :'  and  strange,  that  of  all  other 
 deaths,  he  should  be  sentenced  to  crucifixion,  which  was 
 neither  a  Jewish  punishment,  nor  proper  to  be  inflicted 
 6  for  the  crime  of  blasphemy,  7  that  was  alleged  against 
 him,  had  not  the  same  royal  prophet  determined  the  mat- 
 ter in  these  words  :  8  '  they  pierced  my  hands,  and  my 
 feet;  '  they  stand  staring,  and  looking  upon  me.' 
 
 Such  then  was  the  will  of  God,  that  the  Saviour  of  the 
 world  should  be  crucified ;  but  in  what  company  did  he 
 suffer  ?  The  gospel  tells  us,  9  '  between  two  thieves,' 
 because  the  prophecy  had  declared,  that  he  should  10 '  be 
 numbered  with  the  transgressors.'  But  how  did  the 
 spectators  behave  while  he  was  thus  hanging  on  the 
 cross  ?  Just  in  the  manner  that  the  psalmist  described  :  u 
 '  All  they  that  see  me  laugh  me  to  scorn,  they  shoot  out 
 the  lip,  and  shake  the  head,  saying,  he  trusted  in  the 
 Lord,  that  he  would  deliver  him,  let  him  deliver  him,  if 
 he  would  have  him,'  what  did  they  give  him  to  drink  in 
 the  mean  time  ?  a  A  narcotic  potion  was  generally  al- 
 lowed, in  such  cases,  to  stupify  the  sense  of  pain  ;  but 
 in  his,  nothing  but  vinegar  was  allowed ;  because  the 
 prophecy  before  had  specified  the  liquor  : 12 '  They  gave 
 me  gall  to  eat,  and  when  I  was  thirsty,  they  gave  me 
 vinegar  to  drink  :'  and  what  became  of  his  clothes  ?  All 
 disposed  of  according  to  the  prophecy  :  l3 '  They  parted 
 my  garments  among  them,  and  upon  my  vesture  did  they 
 cast  lots.' 
 
 But  under  all  these  provocations  and  indignities,  what 
 did  he  do  ?  Why  he  prayed  to  God  for  the  forgiveness 
 of  his  crucifiers  ;  because  the  prophet  had  foretold,  that 14 
 
 1  Is.  liii.  7.  2  Mat.  xxi.  2,  &c.  3  Zech.  ix.  9. 
 
 *  Mat.  x.  4.  5  Ps.  xli.  9.  6  Lev.  xxiv.  16. 
 
 '  Mat.  xxvi.  65.         8  Ps.  xxii.  16,  17-       9  Mat.  xxvii.  38. 
 10  Is.  liii.  12.  «  Mat.  xxvii.  39.  &c;  Ps.  xxii.  7,  8. 
 
 12  John  xix.  28,  29;  Ps.  lxix.  21. 
 la  Mat.  xxvii.  35;  Ps.  xxii.  18.     14  Luke  xxiii.  34;  Is.  liii.  12. 
 
 a  For  this  the  Jews  ground  themselves  upon  the  words  of 
 Solomon:  '  give  strong  drink  to  him  that  is  ready  to  perish,  and 
 wine  to  those  that  are  of  an  heavy  heart:  let  him  drink,  and 
 forget  his  poverty,  and  remember  his  misery  no  more,'  Prov. 
 xxxi.  7.  The  usual  portion  of  this  kind  was  frankincense  in  a 
 glass  of  wine;  and  there  is  a  tradition  among  them,  that  the  ladies 
 of  the  city  of  Jerusalem  were  at  this  charge,  out  of  their  own 
 good  will,  for  the  ea«e  of  the  poor  sufferers  :  but  notwithstanding 
 this  custom,  what  God  foretold  was  fulfilled. — Kidder's  Demon- 
 stration of  the  Messiah,  p.  80. 
 
 '  while  he  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death,  he  should  also 
 make  intercession  for  the  transgressors.'  In  his  greater 
 agonies,  what  were  his  ejaculations  to  God  ?  The  same 
 that  the  royal  psalmist,  personating  the  Messiah  in  his 
 extremity,  has  left  upon  record  :  15  '  My  God,  my  God, 
 look  upon  me  :  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me,  and  art  so 
 far  from  my  help,  and  from  the  words  of  my  complaint  ?' 
 What  the  words  wherein  he  gave  up  the  ghost  ?  The  very 
 same  that  the  psalmist,  in  another  place,  had  prescribed : 
 16  '  Father  ;  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit.'  But 
 after  our  Saviour's  death,  in  what  manner  was  his  body 
 disposed  of?  Contrary  to  the  custom  of  the  Romans, 
 who  left  those  that  suffered  in  this  manner  hanging  upon 
 the  cross  until  they  were  consumed ;  and,  contrary  to 
 the  intention  of  his  enemies,  who  wished  him  no  better 
 than  a  malefactor's  funeral,  he  was  honourably  and  nobly 
 interred  ;  because  it  was  pre-ordained,  that 17 '  he  should 
 make  his  grave  with  the  rich  in  his  death.'  After  his 
 burial,  Avhat  became  of  his  body  ?  It  was  raised  again, 
 and  restored  from  the  state  of  the  dead  ;  because,  in 
 confidence  of  this,  he  laid  down  his  life,  that 18  '  God 
 would  not  leave  his  soul  in  hell,  nor  suffer  his  Holy  One 
 to  see  corruption.'  After  his  resurrection,  and  continu- 
 ance for  some  time  upon  earth,  what  did  he  do  next  ?  In 
 the  sight  of  his  disciples,  and  several  other  spectators, 
 ascend  triumphantly  into  heaven ;  for  so  the  divine 
 order  was, 19 '  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates,  and  be  ye 
 lift  up,  ye  everlasting  doors,  that  the  King  of  glory  may 
 come  in.'  After  his  ascension  into  heaven,  what  did  he 
 finally  do  ?  Sent  down  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  his  apostles, 
 to  enable  them  to  propagate  his  religion  all  the  world 
 over  ;  for  such  is  the  purport  of  the  prophecy :  20 '  Thou 
 art  gone  up  on  high,  thou  hast  led  captivity  captive,  and 
 received  gifts  for  men,  that 21  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's 
 house  might  be  established  on  the  top  of  the  mountains, 
 and  exalted  above  the  hills,  and  that  all  nations  should 
 flow  unto  it.' 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  then,  w-e  may  perceive,  that  the 
 several  things  which  the  prophets  had  foretold  of  the 
 promised  Messiah,  were  fulfilled  in  the  person  and  actions 
 of  our  blessed  Saviour  ;  but  then  there  is  something 
 farther  to  be  considered  in  this  matter,  and  that  is,  the 
 visible  interposition  of  an  overruling  providence,  in  the 
 completion  of  these  predictions.  22  For  that  our  Lord 
 should  be  born  of  a  virgin,  contrary  to  the  known  laws 
 of  nature,  at  the  city  of  Bethlehem,  when  he  was  con- 
 ceived at  Nazareth,  and  under  the  declension  of  the 
 Jewish  polity,  as  it  was  predicted  :  that  upon  the  cruelty 
 of  Herod  he  should  be  carried  into  Egypt,  upon  the 
 succession  of  Archelaus,  return  into  Judea,  and  settle 
 his  abode  in  the  obscure  country  of  Galilee,  whence  no 
 good  thing,  much  less  so  eminent  a  prophet,  could  ever 
 have  been  expected  to  come :  that  the  judge  who  pro- 
 nounced him  innocent  should  deliver  him  to  death,  and 
 to  the  death  of  the  cross,  who,  had  he  been  guilty,  must, 
 by  the  law  of  the  land,  have  been  stoned  :  that  he  who 
 had  so  many  enemies  should  be  betrayed  by  one  of  his 
 disciples ;  and  by  a  disciple  who  carried  the  bag,  and 
 
 15  Mat.  xxvii.  46;  Ps.  xxii.  1.      I6  Luke  xxiii.  46  ;  Ps.  xxxi  5. 
 17  Mat.  xxvii.  57 ;  Is.  liii.  9.      ls  Mat.  xxviii.  6 ;  Ps.  xvi.  [0. 
 19  Luke  xxiv.  51  ;  Ps.  xxiv.  7,  9. 
 20  Acts  ii.  1.  &c;  Ps.  lxviii.  18.  21  Is.  ii.  2. 
 
 22  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  p.  331. 
 
FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c.  941 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvil.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.' 
 
 Sbct.  II.] 
 
 consequently  all  his  master's  riches,  for  a  vile  sum  of 
 money  :  and  that  this  money,  the  price  of  blood,  should 
 be  employed  in  a  work  of  charity,  to  buy  a  field  to  bury 
 strangers  in  :  that  he  who  spent  all  his  time  in  doing 
 good,  should  be  doomed  to  sutler  among  thieves  and 
 malefactors ;  and  the  multitude,  who  were  wont  to  pity 
 dying  criminals,  should  insult  and  deride  him  in  his 
 greatest  misery  :  that  in  the  division  of  his  clothes,  they 
 should  cast  lots  for  his  coat,  and,  contrary  to  the  usage 
 of  the  country,  in  the  midst  of  his  agonies,  give  him  vine- 
 gar to  drink :  that,  contrary  to  the  practice  of  the  Romans, 
 he  that  was  crucified  should  be  permitted  to  be  buried, 
 and,  although  he  died  among  malefactors,  have  persons 
 of  the  first  rank  and  character  joining  together  in  his 
 honourable  interment:  these,  and  several  other  particu- 
 lars that  might  be  produced,  are  so  very  strange  and 
 surprising,  that  they  must  needs  strike  every  pious  and 
 devout  soul  with  a  profound  sense  of  the  unspeakable 
 wisdom,  as  well  as  goodness  of  God,  in  accomplishing 
 in  Jesus  what  he  had  promised  and  foretold  of  the  Mes- 
 siah, by  ways  and  means  to  human  wisdom  very  unlikely, 
 and  very  disproportionate.  And,  if  the  predictions  re- 
 lating to  the  Messiah  have,  in  this  wonderful  manner,  and 
 by  the  particular  direction  and  appointment  of  provi- 
 dence, thus  met  in  the  blessed  Jesus,  like  lines  in  one 
 common  centre,  the  natural  result  of  this  contemplation, 
 is,  '  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
 God.' 
 
 1  For  can  it  be  imagined,  with  any  worthy  conception 
 of  God,  that  a  work  of  love  and  wonder,  so  great  as  the 
 sending  his   Son  to  redeem  the  world,  should   be  in 
 agitation  for  full  four  thousand  years :  that  each  suc- 
 ceeding  age,  in   this   long  space,  should   have   some 
 notices  of  it ;  that  the  several  characters  he  was  to  sus- 
 tain, should  be  described  by  different  prophets,  living 
 at  times  and   places  so  remote,  that  no   confederacy 
 could  be  suspected ;  that  each  of  these  prophets  should 
 draw,  some  one  line  of  him,  and  some   another,  and 
 point  him   out,  some   in   one   capacity,  and   some  in 
 another  ;  and  above  all,  that  every  one  of  these  strokes 
 or  lineaments  should  be  directed  by  the  unerring  hand 
 of  God,  to  make  at  least  one  finished  picture,  on  purpose 
 that  the  original,  when  it  appeared,  might  be  found  out, 
 and  distinguished  by  it ;  can  it  be  imagined,  I  say,  that 
 a  God  of  infinite  truth,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  would 
 have  ever   permitted,  much   less   appointed,  that   our 
 blessed  Lord  should,  in  every  part  and  line,  be  so  ex- 
 actly like  that  piece,  unless  he  intended  that  we  should 
 receive  him  as  the  true  original  ?  Unless  we  can  entertain 
 a  thought  so  unworthy  of  God,  I  say,  as  that  he  designed 
 to  impose  upon  us  in  this  whole  dispensation,  we  cannot 
 but  conclude,  that  he  would  never  have  permitted  all  the 
 marks  belonging  to  the  Messiah,  to  have  concurred  in 
 the  life  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  and  by  these  marks,  have 
 suffered  so  many  millions  of  souls  to  have  been  mistaken 
 in  the  object  of  their  faith  and  worship,  and  thereupon, 
 without  any  fault  of  theirs,  deluded  into  the  heinous  sin 
 of  idolatry,  had  he  not  appointed  the  man  Christ  Jesus 
 to  be  the  great  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  the  Lord  of 
 life  and  glory. 
 
 1  But,  you  are  frequently  mistaken,'  says  the  Jew,  to 
 
 avoid  the  force  of  this, '  in  your  application  of  these  pro- 
 phetical passages  to  your  Jesus,  which  properly  belonged 
 to  another  person,  and  in  him  received  their  utmost  ac- 
 complishment. The  22d  psalm,  for  instance,  which 
 complains  of  the  sufferings  and  indignities  which  its 
 author  endured,  you  refer  to  the  Messiah,  and  thence 
 apply  to  your  Jesus ;  whereas  it  relates  entirely  to 
 David,  and  the  troubles  he  underwent  under  the  perse- 
 cution of  Saul.  2  The  prophecy  of  Micah,  which  makes 
 mention  of  a  ruler,  whose  goings  forth  had  been  from 
 everlasting,  whatever  use  you  may  make  of  it,  was  only 
 intended  of  Zerubbabel,  who  was  sprung  from  the  ancient 
 house  of  David  ;  and  that  famous  53d  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
 which  is  so  frequently  cited  by  the  apostles,  when  rightly 
 inquired  into,  is  nothing  else  but  a  lively  description  of 
 the  sufferings  of  the  Jews,  under  the  Babylonish,  or 
 some  other  captivity.  Thus,  by  misapplying,  and  mis- 
 interpreting several  texts,  in  such  a  sense,  as  the  Jewish 
 church  never  received,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  never  in- 
 tended, you  bedeck  your  Jesus  with  feathers  that  are 
 none  of  his  own,  and  then  cry  out,  how  well  he  becomes 
 them,  and  how  exactly  they  befit  him  !' 
 
 The  completion  of  prophecies,  in  the  person  of  our 
 Saviour  Christ,  is  one  of  the  most  general  arguments 
 that  the  first  Christians  made  use  of, °  in  order  to  con- 
 
 1  Stanhope's  Sermon?  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
 2  Collins's  Discourse  of  the  Grounds  and  Reasons,  p.  44. 
 a  They  who  are  educated  in  the  belief  of  Christianity,  and 
 taught  to  receive  the  books  of  both  Testaments  with  equal  rever- 
 ence, are  not  apt  to  distinguish  between  the  evidence  for  their 
 faith,  arising  from  the  one  and  the  other.     But  if  we  look  back 
 to  the  earliest  times  of  preaching  the  gospel,  and  consider  how 
 the  case  stood  as  to  the  Jewish  converts  on  one  side,  who  were 
 convinced  of  the  divine  authority  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  as 
 to  the  Gentile  converts  on  the  other,  who  had  no  such  persuasion, 
 the  distinction  will  appear  very  manifestly.     The  ancient  pro- 
 phecies, though  they  are  evidence  both  to  the  Jew  and  to  the 
 Gentile,  yet  are  they  not  so  to  both  in  the  same  way  of  reason- 
 ing and    deduction,   nor  to  the  same  end  and  purpose.     For 
 consider ;   the  Jew  was  possessed  of  the  oracles  of  God,  and 
 firmly  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  them  ;  the  very  first  tiling  there- 
 fore which  he  had  to  do  on  the  appearance  of  the  Messiah  was 
 to   examine '  his  title   by  the    character   given   of  him  in  the 
 prophets ;  he  could  not,  consistently  with  his  belief  in  God  and 
 faith  in  the  ancient  prophecies,  attend  to  other  arguments,  till 
 fully  satisfied  and  convinced  in  this.     All  the  prophecies  of  the 
 Old  Testament   relating   to  the    office   and    character  of  the 
 Messiah  were  immovable  bars  to  all  pretensions,  till  fulfilled 
 and  accomplished  in  the  person  pretending  to  be  the  promised 
 and  long-expected  Redeemer.     For  this  reason  the  preachers  of 
 the  gospel,  in  applying  to  the  Jews,  begin  with  the  argument 
 from  prophecy.     Thus  St  Paul,  in  his  discourse  with  the  Jews 
 at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  begins  with  the  call  of  Abraham,  and 
 after  a  short  historical  deduction  of  matters  from  thence  to  the 
 times  of  David,  he  adds,  '  of  this  man's  seed  hath  God,  accord- 
 ing to  his  promise,  raised  unto  Israel  a  Saviour  Jesus:'  (Acts 
 xiii.  23.)  where  you  see  plainly  that  the  whole  argument  rests 
 on  the  authority  of  prophecy;  and  all  the  parts  of  this  apostolical 
 sermon  are  answerable  to  this  beginning,  proceeding  from  one 
 end  to  the  other  on  the  authority  of  the  old  prophets.      But  the 
 very  same  apostle  St  Paul,  preaching  to  the  people  of  Athens, 
 Acts  xvii.  argues  from  other  topics;  he  says  nothing  of  the  pro- 
 phets, to  whose  mission  and  authority  the  Athenians  were  per- 
 fect strangers,  but  begins  with  declaring  to  them,  '  God  that 
 made  the  world  and  all  things  therein:'  he  goes  on  condemning 
 all  idolatrous  practices,  and   assuring  them  that  '  God  is    not 
 worshipped  with  men's  hands,  as  though  he  needed  any  thing.' 
 He  accounts  to  them  for  the  past  times  of  ignorance  at  which 
 God  winked,  and  tells  them  that  now  he  calls  all  men  to  repen- 
 tance, having  appointed  Christ  Jesus  to  be  the  judge  of  all  men  ■ 
 for  the  truth  of  which    he  appeals  to  the  evidence  of  Christ's 
 resurrection,    'whereof,'   says    the    apostle,    'he    hath    given 
 assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  he  hath  raised  him  from  the 
 
942 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4033.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 vert  such  as  were  persuaded  of  their  divine  authority. 
 St  Peter, l  in  his  first  public  sermon  that  he  made,  out 
 of  the  IGth  and  110th  psalms,  cites  two  passages,  which 
 he  plainly  shows,  could  not  be  intended  of  the  patriarch 
 David,  to  prove  our  Lord's  resurrection,  and  exaltation 
 to  glory.  2  St  Paul,  who  by  being  brought  up  at  the 
 feet  of  Gamaliel,  understood  the  force  of  his  argument, 
 uses  more  proofs  of  this  kind  than  any  other  writer  of 
 the  New  Testament,  as  the  least  cast  of  an  eye  into  his 
 epistles  to  the  Romans,  Galatians,  and  Hebrews,  will 
 show : 3  and  St  Matthew,  who  wrote  his  gospel  for  the 
 use  of  the  Jews  more  particularly,  and  for  that  reason, 
 as  some  imagine,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  is  more  express 
 and  copious  in  his  application  of  the  prophecies  to  our 
 blessed  Saviour  than  any  of  the  other  evangelists. 
 
 Now,  to  mention  no  more  than  these,  how  absurd 
 would  it  have  been  for  these  apostles,  who  were  no 
 strangers  to  the  Jewish  way  of  arguing,  to  allege  any 
 passage  in  the  prophets  as  relating  to  the  Messias, 
 which  properly  belonged  to  another  person,  in  whom  it 
 had  its  accomplishment  ?  Such  a  method  of  proceeding 
 could  not  fail  of  discovering  their  confidence  and  folly, 
 of  exposing  them  to  the  scorn  and  ridicule  of  their  ad- 
 versaries, and,  instead  of  gaining  proselytes,  of  ruining 
 the  cause,  which  by  such  unfair  practices  they  endeav- 
 oured to  maintain.  It  is  but  supposing  then,  that  these 
 apostles  were  men  of  common  sense,  and  desirous  to 
 promote  the  cause  that  they  had  taken  in  hand,  and 
 then  we  can  hardly  think,  that  they  argued  from  any 
 prophecies  concerning  the  Messiah,  but  such  as  really 
 belonged  to  him,  and  such  as  the  whole  Jewish  church 
 acknowledged  so  to  do. 
 
 St  Peter,  by  virtue  of  the  sermon  which  he  preached 
 on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  made  about  three  thousand 
 converts  to  the  Christian  faith  ;  and  yet,  it  is  obvious 
 that  the  whole  hinge  of  his  discourse  turns  upon  the  tes- 
 timony of  the  prophets :  had  he  therefore  applied  this 
 testimony,  either  to  persons,  to  whom  it  did  not  belong, 
 or  in  a  sense  contrary  to  its  true  intendment,  his  doc- 
 trine must  have  been  exploded  at  once,  and  could  never 
 have  met  with  such  uncommon  success.  And,  in  like 
 manner,  as  to  the  subsequent  conversions  which  the 
 apostles  made,  4  how  can  we  imagine,  that  such  a  num- 
 
 — xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23—  ix.  14.  LUKE  vi,  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v,  1— vii   I. 
 
 1  Acts  ii.  14,  &c.  2  Ibid.  xxii.  3. 
 
 3  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
 4  Bishop  Chandler's  Defence  of  Christianity. 
 
 dead:'  ver.  31 .  Whence  comes  this  difference?  How  comes  St 
 Paul's  argument,  on  one  and  the  same  subject,  in  Acts  xiii. 
 and  xvii.  to  be  so  unlike  to  each  other?  Can  this  be  accounted 
 for  any  other  way  than  by  considering  the  different  circumstances 
 of  the  persons  to  whom  he  delivered  himself.  Iq  Acts  xiii.  he 
 argues  professedly  with  Jews,  to  whom  were  committed  the 
 oracles  of  God,  and  who,  from  these  oracles,  were  well  instructed 
 in  the  great  marks  and  characters  of  the  expected  Messiah.  It 
 had  been  highly  absurd  therefore  to  reason  with  them  on  other 
 arguments,  till  he  had  first  convinced  them  by  their  prophets; 
 and  having  so  convinced  them,  it  would  have  been  impertinent. 
 To  them  therefore  he  urges  and  applies  the  authority  of  prophecy 
 only;  but  to  the  Athenians,  who  knew  not  the  prophets,  or  if 
 they  knew  them,  yet  had  no  reverence  or  esteem  for  them,. it 
 had  been  quite  ridiculous  to  oiler  proofs  from  prophecies:  the 
 appeal  therefore  before  them  is  made  to  the  sound  and  clear 
 principles  of  natural  religion,  and  to  the  miracles  of  the  gospel, 
 the  fame  of  which  probably  had,  long  before,  reached  to  Athens: 
 and  the  truth  of  which,  they  being  mere  matters  of  fact,  was 
 
 capable  of  undeniable  evidence  and  demonstration Sherlock  on 
 
 rrvphecy,  Discourse  6. — Ed. 
 
 ber  of  Jews  of  all  degrees,  rulers,  priests,  and  scribes  of 
 all  sects,  men  of  learning,  and  who  by  their  station  and 
 profession,  were  obliged  to  know  the  scriptures,  should 
 forsake  the  religion  they  were  accustomed  to,  upon  the 
 authority  of  passages,  which,  in  their  proper  meaning 
 and  intendment,  were  so  far  from  countenancing,  that 
 they  openly  confronted  the  new  religion  they  were  to 
 embrace ;  and  all  this  without  any  view  of  worldly 
 interest,  with  the  certain  hazard  of  their  lives  here, 
 and  the  loss  of  God's  favour  hereafter,  in  case  of  insin- 
 cerity. 5 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  conclude,  that 
 every  Jew  converted  to  the  Christian  faith,  is  an  implicit 
 proof,  that  the  apostle's  allegations  of  the  ancient  pro- 
 phecies, both  as  to  the  ground  and  sense  of  them,  were 
 agreeable  to  their  received  notions  of  them;  insomuch 
 that,  were  we  at  leisure  to  enter  into  particulars,  we 
 might  show,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  name  one  single 
 prediction  of  the  many  applied  to  the  blessed  Jesus, 
 which  one  or  other  of  their  most  celebrated  writers  do  not 
 acknowledge  to  belong  to  the  Messiah. 
 
 The  modern  Jews,  it  must  be  owned,  have  fallen  off 
 from  the  notions  of  their  more  ingenuous  ancestors,  and 
 do  deny  the  prophecies  quoted  in  the  New  Testament 
 those  views  that  we  would  ascribe  to  them  :  6  but  who- 
 ever considers  the  destruction  of  their  city  and  polity, 
 which  confounded  all  the  expectations  of  a  glorious 
 Messiah,  and  put  them  upon  new  measures  in  the  appli- 
 cation of  such  predictions  as  they  saw  must  needs  have 
 been  fulfilled  while  their  state  and  temple  stood.  Who- 
 ever considers  the  darkness  and  ignorance  that  would 
 necessarily  ensue  upon  their  long  dispersion,  and  many 
 sad  calamities,  when  they  fell  into  the  hands  of  perse- 
 cuting powers,  who  hated  them  and  their  religion  most 
 implacably  :  whoever  considers  their  neglect  of  apply- 
 ing themselves  to  the  study  of  the  written  law,  and  at- 
 tending wholly  to  their  oral,  and  affecting  to  be  curious 
 in  ceremonies,  while  they  continued  careless  of  their  doc- 
 trines :  whoever  considers  their  violent  prejudice  against 
 Jesus  and  his  disciples,  which,  as  it  stuck  at  nothing, 
 though  ever  so  false  or  wicked,  to  oppose  them,  might 
 easily  put  them  upon  tampering  with  the  scriptures,  and, 
 by  interpolations  or  defalcations,  labouring  to  make 
 them  look  another  way  :  and,  lastly,  whoever  considers 
 that  judicial  blindness  and  hardness  of  heart,  so  often 
 and  expressly  threatened,  and  so  visibly  and  lamentably 
 inflicted  upon  this  once  elect  people  of  God  :  may  he, 
 in  his  infinite  mercy,  so  open  their  eyes,  that  they  may 
 see  the  wondrous  things  of  the  law,  and  its  agreement 
 with  the  blessed  gospel !  Whoever  considers  these 
 things,  I  say,  will  not  be  at  a  loss  for  reasons  why  the 
 present  synagogue  have  departed  from  the  sentiments  of 
 the  ancient,  and  are  so  earnest  to  apply  to  David,  Solo- 
 mon, Hezekiah,  Zerubbabel,  or  a:iy  other  person  of  note, 
 what  their  ancestors  never  thought  of  attributing  to  any 
 other  than  the  promised  Messiah. 
 
 7  One  of  their  famous  interpreters,  in  his  comment 
 upon  the  *22d  psalm,  after  some  feeble  efforts  to  wrest 
 that  evidence  out  of  our  hands,  makes  at  length  this  am- 
 ple confession  :  s  "  Our  great  masters,"  says  he,  "have 
 interpreted  this  psalm  of  Messiah  the  King ;  but  I  shall 
 
 5  Jones's  Biblical  Cyclopedia. 
 6  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 8  It.  Sol.  Jarchi. 
 
 7  Ibid. 
 
Sect.  II1.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 943 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.l— vii.  1. 
 
 interpret  it  of  David  himself,  that  we  may  have  where- 
 with to  answer  the  heretics."  But,  with  all  his  art  and 
 subtilty  he  can  never  make  it  out,  how  David,  with  any 
 propriety,  can  say  of  himself,  1  '  As  for  me,  I  am  a 
 worm,  and  no  man,  the  very  scorn  of  men,  and  the  out- 
 cast of  the  people.'  The  greatest  affliction  that  ever 
 befell  that  prince,  was  his  expulsion  from  the  capital  city, 
 upon  the  rebellion  of  his  son  Absalom  :  and  t  Shimei's 
 cursing  and  upbraiding  him  may  seem  perhaps  to  coun- 
 tenance this  complaint,  3  '  All  they  that  see  me,  laugh 
 me  to  scorn,  they  shoot  out  their  lips,  and  shake  their 
 heads  ;'  but  we  no  where  read  in  his  history,  that  his 
 enemies  ever  4  '  pierced  his  hands  or  his  feet,'  much  less 
 that,  after  they  had  made  an  end  of  him,  '  they  parted 
 his  garments  among  them,  and  cast  lots  upon  his  vesture.' 
 It  was  our  blessed  Saviour  alone  in  whom  this  predic- 
 tion was  verified  ;  of  him  alone,  that  his  enemies  took 
 up  the  taunting  proverb,  and  said,  5 '  He  trusted  in  God 
 that  he  would  deliver  him,  let  him  deliver  him,  if  he 
 would  have  him  ;'  to  him  alone,  that  these  words  can, 
 with  any  tolerable  construction,  belong,  '  '  Many  oxen 
 are  come  about  me,  fat  bulls  of  Bashan  close  me  in  on 
 every  side  ;  they  gape  upon  me  with  their  mouths,  as  if  it 
 were  a  ramping  and  roaring  lion  ;'  as  he  indeed  appro- 
 priates the  whole  psalm  to  himself,  when,  in  his  dying 
 minutes,  he  uttered  this  citation,  7  '  My  God,  my  God, 
 why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?' 
 
 David,  indeed,  in  all  his  troubles,  had  no  occasion  to 
 make  this  lamentation  ;  for  though  the  malice  and  per- 
 secutions of  Saul  were  upon  him,  yet  he  had  always 
 abundant  reason  to  say  of  God,  8  '  Thou  art  my  stony 
 rock,  and  my  defence,  my  Saviour,  my  God,  and  my 
 might :  my  buckler,  the  horn  also  of  my  salvation,  and 
 my  refuge  :  therefore  will  I  follow  upon  mine  enemies, 
 and  overtake  them  ;  neither  will  I  turn  again  till  I  have 
 destroyed  them.'  His  splendour  and  greatness,  his  vic- 
 tories and  conquests,  the  reduction  of  his  foes,  and  the 
 enlargement  of  his  kingdom,  made  him  a  proper  emblem 
 of  our  Saviour's  exaltation,  and  triumph  over  our  spirit- 
 ual enemies  ;  but  there  are  few  passages  in  his  life  re- 
 semblant  of  his  sufferings,  and  none  at  all  that  will 
 justify  this  complaint,  9  '  I  am  poured  out  like  water, 
 and  all  my  bones  are  out  of  joint ;  my  strength  is  dried 
 up  like  apotsherd,and  my  tongue  cleaveth  to  my  gums.' 
 So  true  is  that  observation  of  Grotius,  10  "  That  partiality 
 was  the  cause  of  these  new  explications,  among  the  Jews, 
 and  that  those  which  they  formerly  received,  agreed  very 
 well  with  the  sense  of  Christians." 
 
 Upon  the  decree  of  Cyrus,  for  the  restoration  of  the 
 Jews,  we  find  Zerubbabel,  among  other  princes  of  the 
 people,  superintending  matters,  and  taking  upon  him  the 
 government  of  the  tribe  to  which  he  belonged  ;  but  that 
 he  should  be  the  person  intended  by  Micah's  prophecy, 
 is  a  thing  impossible  ;  because  he  was  not  born  in  Beth- 
 lehem, which  is  the  place  assigned  for  the  birth  of  a  ruler 
 that  the  prophet  mentions,  but  in  Babylon,  as  his  name 
 imports.  That  it  was  essentially  necessary  for  the  Mes- 
 siah to  be  born  in  "  Bethlehem,  and  no  where  else,  is 
 I  lain  from  the  answer  which  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
 
 1    Ps.  xxii.  6.         2  2  Sam.  xvi.  7,  8.         3  Ps.  xxii.  7. 
 
 4  Ibid.  ver.  17,  18.       5  Ibid.  ver.  S.         6  Ibid.  ver.  12,  13. 
 
 ;  Il.id.  ver.  1.         s  Ps.  xviii.  2,  37.  u  Ps.  xxii.  14,  15. 
 
 >»  Grotius  deVerit.  b.  v.  s.  18.  u  Mat.  ii.  1,  etc. 
 
 make  Herod,  upon  his  consulting  them,  and  their  quota 
 tion  of  Micah  for  the  proof  of  it ;  is  plain  from  the  gen- 
 eral notion  which,  not  only  the  learned,  but  the  vulgar, 
 at  this  time,  had  imbibed,  namely,  12 '  That  Christ  was  to 
 come  of  the  seed  of  David,  and  out  of  the  town  of  Beth- 
 lehem, where  David  was  born  ;'  and  is  plain  from  the 
 petition  in  their  liturgy,  wherein  they  still  pray  for  the 
 advent  of  the  Messiah,  in  these  terms  :  13  "  Shake  thyself 
 from  the  dust,  arise,  put  on  thy  beautiful  garments,  O 
 my  people  ;  by  the  hand  of  Benjesse,  the  Bethlehemite, 
 bring  redemption  near  to  my  soul :'  so  that  the  pro- 
 phecy, in  all  reason,  must  be  applied  to  the  person  that 
 was  born  there,  and  not  to  one  whose  place  of  nativity 
 was  in  a  distant  country.  It  is  to  be  observed  farther, 
 that  Zerubbabel  was  never  any  ruler  of  Israel ;  for  though 
 he  might  be  at  the  head  of  the  capacity  for  some  years, 
 yet  it  was  without  the  title  or  authority  of  a  governor, 
 and  when  he  had  executed  his  commission,  he  returned 
 to  Babylon,  and  there  died.  But  even  supposing  he 
 were  never  so  much  a  governor,  it  is  certainly  carrying  the 
 matter  too  far,  to  say  of  him,  that  he  14 '  should  stand  and 
 rule  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord,  and  in  the  majesty  of 
 the  Lord  his  God ;'  much  more  it  is  so,  to  say,  that  the 
 going  forth  or  birth  of  this  ruler  was  of  old,  and  from 
 the  days  of  eternity,  as  the  marginal  note  has  it,  which 
 is  only  applicable  to  the  Messiah,  and,  in  a  proper  sense, 
 only  verified  in  our  blessed  Saviour,  lb '  who  in  the  be- 
 ginning was  with  God.' 
 
 And,  in  like  manner,  if  we  consider  the  words  of  the 
 prophet  Isaiah,  in  the  53d  chapter,  and  compare  them 
 with  our  Lord's  history,  as  the  evangelists  have  recorded 
 it,  we  shall  soon  perceive  that  they  are  applicable  to 
 none  but  our  blessed  Saviour  only  ;  for,  to  waive  other 
 arguments  that  might  be  drawn  from  them,  with  what 
 propriety  of  construction  can  any  of  these  passages, 
 16  '  he  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  he  was  bruis- 
 ed for  our  iniquities,  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was 
 upon  him,  and  by  his  stripes  we  are  healed,'  be  applied 
 to  the  Jewish  nation  ?  When  did  we  ever  hear  that  the 
 Jews  bore  the  griefs,  and  carried  the  sorrows  of  others  ; 
 that  they  were  wounded  for  other  men's  transgressions, 
 and  bruised  for  iniquities  not  their  own  ?  The  public 
 calamities  which  God,  at  any  time,  sent  upon  them,  are 
 by  all  the  prophets  imputed  to  their  own  sins ;  but  the 
 person  here  afflicted  is  said  to  have  done  '  no  violence, 
 neither  was  any  deceit  found  in  his  mouth ;'  and  does 
 this  character  suit  them  under  any  captivity,  or  other 
 sort  of  calamity,  that  the  prophet  might  have  in  view  ? 
 If  we  will  believe  him,  it  is  plain,  that  he  had  another 
 opinion  of  them,  when,  in  the  very  beginning  of  his  pro- 
 phecy, we  find  him  lamenting  them  and  their  captivity, 
 in  these  words  :  17  '  Ah,  sinful  nation  !  A  people  laden 
 with  iniquity,  a  seed  of  evil  doers,  children  that  are 
 corrupters ;  they  have  forsaken  the  Lord,  they  are 
 gone  backwards ;  wherefore  your  country  is  desolate, 
 your  cities  are  burnt  with  fire,  your  land  strangers  de- 
 vour it  in  your  presence,  and  it  is  desolate,  as  overthrown 
 by  strangers. 
 
 The  sum  of  our  answer  is  this  :  if  our  Saviour  and  his 
 
 12  John  vii.  42. 
 
 13  Sec  Bishop  Chandler's  Di  Knee,  of  Christianity. 
 
 ii  Micah  v    4.  l:'  John  i.  2.  1G  Is.  Jiii.  4,  5. 
 
 17  Ibid.  i.  4,  etc 
 
944 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5141.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARKii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii    1. 
 
 apostles  cannot  be  supposed,  with  any  justness  of  rea- 
 soning, or  prospect  of  success,  to  allege  prophecies 
 concerning  the  Messiah,  which  the  Jewish  church,  at  that 
 time,  did  not  acknowledge  to  be  intended  of  him  ;  if  all 
 the  prophecies  thus  alleged  do  even  yet  appear,  by  sev- 
 eral of  their  most  renowned  doctors  to  be  interpreted  of 
 the  Messiah  ;  if  the  22d  psalm  cannot,  with  any  propriety 
 of  construction,  be  applied  to  David,  nor  the  4th  chap, 
 of  Micah  to  Zerubbabel,  nor  the  53d  of  Isaiah  to  the  Jew- 
 ish nation  in  general ;  and  if  good  reasons  may  be 
 assigned,  why  the  present  and  ancient  doctors  of  the 
 Jewish  church  do  differ  in  the  manner  of  applying  the 
 predictions  of  the  prophets ;  then  is  the  Christian  inter- 
 pretation of  them,  which  appears  to  be  plain  and  natural, 
 and  lias  antiquity  on  its  side,  not  to  be  less  esteemed, 
 because  some,  out  of  partiality  and  prejudice,  have  for- 
 ced their  wits  to  invent  another. 
 
 Nay,  even  supposing  that  there  were  more  grounds  than 
 what  hitherto  have  appeared,  to  dispute  the  justness  of 
 the  allegation  of  any  prophecy ;  yet  still  we  Christians 
 must  aver,  that  the  application  of  Christ  and  his  apostles 
 is  to  be  preferred  before  that  of  any  other,  because  it 
 was  attended  with  such  irresistible  proof  of  its  truth  and 
 fidelity,  as  must  overbear  all  objections  to  the  contrary. 
 1  For,  upon  a  dispute  of  the  application  of  some  passage, 
 or  a  competition  of  two  different  senses  of  the  same  pas- 
 sage, can  any  thing  in  nature  be  more  decisive  than  the 
 testimony  of  God  ?  And  can  the  testimony  of  God  ap- 
 pear by  any  stronger  evidence  than  by  the  power  of 
 miracles  supporting  the  allegation?  God  certainly  knew 
 the  intention  of  every  prophecy  delivered  by  his  Spirit ; 
 and  therefore,  if  Christ  and  his  apostles,  when  they 
 applied  any  prophecy  to  the  Messiah,  gave  the  best 
 proof  that  could  be  given  of  their  being  sent  by  God, 
 and  of  their  speaking  and  acting  by  his  commission, 
 God  himself  must  be  understood  as  confirming  their  ap- 
 plication. The  authority  of  the  application,  or  of  the 
 exposition,  must,  in  such  a  case,  be  equal  to  that  of  the 
 prophecy ;  for  there  cannot  be  a  better  proof  that  the 
 prophet  was  sent  from  God,  than  the  expositor  gives  of 
 his  mission  :  and  the  reason  for  his  assenting  to  the  one 
 as  well  as  the  other,  is  on  both  sides  the  same. 
 
 The  result  of  this  whole  inquiry  is  this, — That,  since 
 our  blessed  Saviour  appeals  to  the  writings  of  the  pro- 
 phets for  the  proof  of  his  being  the  Messiah  or  messenger 
 sent  from  God  to  deliver  his  will  to  mankind ;  and  since 
 the  marks  and  characters  which  the  prophets  give  of  the 
 Messiah,  are  found  all  to  agree  and  unite  in  him,  ac- 
 cording to  the  account  which  the  evangelists  give  us  of 
 his  life,  we  have  all  the  reason  in  the  world  to  believe, 
 that  he  was  really  the  person  he  pretended  to  be  ;  that 
 his  doctrine,  consequently,  is  the  word  of  God,  and  his 
 religion2  '  the  grace  of  God,  that  bringeth salvation,  and 
 hath  appeared  unto  all  men ;  teaching  us,  that  denying 
 ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly, 
 righteously,  and  godly,  in  this  present  world ;  looking 
 for  that  blessed  hope,  and  the  glorious  appearing  of  the 
 great  God,  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.' 
 
 SECT.  III. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — Containing  an  account  of  things,  from  our 
 Lord's  transfiguration  to  his  last  entry  i?ito  Jerusalem. 
 
 THE   HISTORY. 
 
 The  day  following  our  Lord's  transfiguration,  (for  that 
 transaction  was  very  probably  in  the  night-time,)  a  as 
 he  came  down  from  the  mount,  he  perceived  the  scribes 
 in  deep  debate  *  with  the  apostles  he  had  left  behind 
 him,  and  while  he  was  inquiring  into  the  subject  of  their 
 dispute,  a  certain  man,  breaking  through  the  crowd, 
 came  and  fell  prostrate  at  his  feet,  and  besought  him  to 
 have  pity  upon  his  only  son,  a  deplorable  object,  a 
 lunatic, c  and  possessed,  deaf  and  dumb,  often  thrown 
 upon  the  ground,  and  into  the  fire  and  water,  racked 
 with  violent  convulsions,  accompanied  with  dismal  out- 
 cries, foamings,  bruises,  and  torments,  and  every  way  in 
 so  desperate  a  condition,  that  his  disciples,  in  his 
 absence,  were  not  able  to  cure  him.  Our  Lord,  upon 
 hearing  of  this,  was^  not  a  little  grieved  at  the  want  of 
 faith  in  his  disciples,  but  ordered  the  child  to  be  brought 
 
 1  Rogers's  Necessity  of  Revelation.  2Ti*   ii.  11,  &c. 
 
 a  The  evangelist  acquaints  us,  that  while  our  Saviour  was  at 
 prayer  on  the  mount,  St  Peter,  '  and  they  that  were  with  him, 
 were  heavy  with  sleep,'  (Luke  ix.  32.)  which,  in  some  measure, 
 confirms  the  conjecture,  that  the  transfiguration  was  in  the 
 night ;  a  time  much  more  proper  for  the  display  of  the  lustre  of 
 such  an  appearance,  than  if  it  had  happened  in  the  broad  day- 
 light.— Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  What  the  subject  matter  of  this  debate  was,  the  evangelists 
 have  not  informed  us;  but  it  seems  not  unlikely,  that  the  scribes 
 were  disputing  with  the  apostles  about  their  master's  method  of 
 ejecting  devils,  and  the  power  which,  in  that  matter,  he  had 
 conferred  upon  them;  because,  in  the  case  before  them,  they 
 saw  them  nonplused,  and  not  able  to  cast  a  devil  out  of  one, 
 who,  in  his  absence,  was  brought  to  them.  This  is  the  rather 
 probable,  not  only  because  our  Saviour's  dispossessing  devils  was 
 what  gravelled  and  vexed  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  more  than 
 all  his  other  miracles,  and  forced  them  to  the  sorry  refuge  of, 
 'he  casteth  out  devils  by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  devils;'  but 
 because,  upon  his  coming  to  the  timely  relief  of  his  apostles,  and 
 demanding  of  the  scribes,  what  they  were  questioning  and  dis- 
 puting about,  it  immediately  follows,  one  of  the  multitude  an- 
 swered and  said,  '  Master,  I  have  brought  unto  thee  my  son, 
 which  hath  a  dumb  spirit: — And  I  spake  to  thy  disciples,  that 
 they  should  cast  him  out,  and  they  could  not,'  (Mark  ix.  17.  18.) 
 — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  word  o-s\r,viu.£t<rai,  comes  from  aiXwti,  the  moon,  and 
 signifies  literally,  "he  is  moon-struck.''  From  the  symptoms 
 mentioned  here  and  at  Mark  ix.  18.  this  disorder  is  supposed  to 
 have  been  epilepsy;  under  whose  paroxysms  those  afflicted  with 
 it  are  deprived  of  all  sense,  bodily  and  mental,  and  nearly  all 
 articulation.  And  as  we  find,  in  the  ancient  medical  writers, 
 epileptic  patients  said  to  be  moonstruck,  agreeably  to  the 
 common  notion,  of  the  influence  of  the  moon  in  producing  the 
 disorder,  it  is  very  possible  that  the  disorder  in  question  was 
 epilepsy.  Be  that,  however,  as  it  may,  the  symptoms  are  all 
 reconcilable"  with  demoniacal  influence. — Bloom  field' s  Greek 
 Testament. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  rebuke  which  our  Saviour  utters  upon  this  occasion, 
 '  O  faithless  and  perverse  generation,  how  long  shall  I  be  with 
 you,'  &c.  (Mat.  xvii.  17.)  seems  to  be  intended  for  the  whole 
 company,  and  every  one  to  have  a  share  in  it,  in  proportion  to 
 their  deserts.  The  disciples  are  not  exempted;  for  they  are 
 charged  with  infidelity,  ver.  20.  The  father  of  the  patient  is 
 pointed  at,  for  his  faith  was  wavering,  Mark  ix.  21,  &c.  And 
 the  whole  nation  of  the  Jews  is  included  in  it;  for  this  was  ex- 
 pressly their  character  of  old,  '  a  very  froward  and  perverse 
 generation,  and  children  in  whom  is  no  faith,'  (Deut.  xxxii.  5. 
 20.) — Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 945 
 
 A.  M.4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  I— xi.  37.  JOHN  v.  I-vii.  1. 
 
 to  him.  As  he  was  drawing  near,  the  devil  began  to  rack 
 him  with  convulsions,  which  put  the  father  in  a  terrible 
 fright ;  and  when  our  Lord  commanded  the  evil  spirit  to 
 depart  out  of  the  young  man,  and  never  to  molest  him 
 more  ;  after  some  hideous  outcries,  he  tore  and  distorted 
 him  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  left  him  breathless  on  the 
 ground,  so  that  many  concluded  he  was  quite  dead  :  but 
 Jesus,  taking  him  by  the  hand,  lifted  him  up,  and  de- 
 livered him  to  his  father,  perfectly  cured,  to  the  great 
 astonishment  of  all  the  spectators.  And  when  his  dis- 
 ciples in  private  desired  to  know  the  reason  why  they 
 could  not  cast  out  this  spirit,  he  imputed  it,  partly  to 
 their  want  of  faith,  and  partly  to  this  spirit's  being  of  a 
 kind"  which  was  not  to  be  ejected  without  fasting  and 
 prayer. 
 
 From  the  mount  of  transfiguration,  our  Lord  pro- 
 ceeded in  his  journey  through  the  other  parts  of  Galilee 
 towards  Capernaum,  and,  as  they  were  in  the  way,  he 
 acquainted  his  disciples,  the  second  time,  with  his 
 approaching  death  and  resurrection,  desiring  them  to 
 take  good  notice  of  what  he  told  them ;  but  the  hopes  of 
 a  temporal  kingdom  had  so  intoxicated  their  minds,  that 
 they  found   it  very  difficult   to  believe, l>  or   conceive 
 
 a  Josephus,  who  himself  was  a  Pharisee,  and  well  acquainted 
 with  the  notions  of  every  sect  among  the  Jews,  gives  it  for  a 
 current  opinion,  that  the  demons,  in  his  and  some  preceding 
 ages,  were  nothing  else  but  the  souls  of  wicked  men,  who  after 
 death  took  possession  of  the  living,  and  were  continually  either 
 afflicting  and  tormenting,  or  exciting  and  soliciting  them 
 to  such  sins,  as  they  found  were  agreeable  and  complexional 
 to  them;  and  that,  according  to  their  different  ways  of  vex- 
 ing or  tempting  those  that  they  possessed,  they  had  different 
 appellations  given  them,  an  uuclean  spirit,  a  deaf  and  dumb 
 spirit,  a  spirit  of  infirmity,  &c.  In  conformity  to  this  notion 
 |)€iliaps  it  is,  that  our  Saviour  here  takes  notice  of  the  different 
 kinds  of  evil  spirits,  and  as,  among  wicked  men,  there  are  dif- 
 ferent degrees  of  impiety,  and  some  are  more  hardened  and 
 profligate  than  others ;  so  he  seems  to  intimate,  that  some  of  these 
 spirits  are  more  desperate  and  malicious  than  others;  (Mat. 
 xii.  45.)  but  all  of  them  obstinate  enough,  and,  might  they 
 have  their  own  option,  unwilling  to  leave  the  bodies  they  have 
 taken  possession  of.  Here  they  think  themselves  safe,  and,  in 
 some  measure,  screened  from  the  divine  vengeance;  and  there- 
 fore, we  find  them  at  some  times  crying  to  our  Lord,  'Let  us 
 alone;  what  have  we  to  do  with  thee?  Art  thou  come  to  tor- 
 ment us?'  (Mat.  viii.  29.)  And,  at  others,  when  commanded 
 to  depart,  tearing  and  torturing  the  possessed,  and  quitting 
 their  habitation  not  without  much  reluctaucy.  (Mark  ix.  2C) 
 The  apostles,  no  doubt,  had  conjured  this  evil  spirit  before  in 
 their  master's  name,  and,  on  several  occasions,  had  found  the 
 prevailing  power  of  faith,  even  when  theirs  was  not  so  well 
 improved  as  it  was  at  present;  and  yet,  how  faith  becomes  neces- 
 sary in  the  exorcism  of  devils,  when  we  find  straugers  doing  it 
 in  tin:  name  of  Christ,  (Mark  ix.  38.)  or  how  the  faith  of  the 
 apostles  came  to  be  defective  now,  when,  not  many  days  before, 
 it  was  so  very  effectual;  why  some  evil  spirits  were  proof 
 against  the  name  of  Christ,  whilst  others  fled  at  the  bare  men- 
 tion of  it;  and  why  some  surrendered  at  the  first  summons, 
 while  fasting  and  prayer  were  the  only  artillery  that  could  dis- 
 lodge others.  These,  and  many  other  questions  that  might  be 
 raised  from  our  Saviour's  words,  are  points  wherein  the  best 
 commentators  we  have  met  with  have  not  once  attempted  to 
 give  us  any  satisfaction. — Calmet's  Commentary. — Campbell 
 and  other  commentators  suggest  that  the  words  '  this  kind  '  do 
 not  refer  to  a  particular  kind  of  demons,  but  mean  "  this  kind 
 or  order  of  beings  called  demons,"  and  perhaps  this  is  the  most 
 satisfactory  sense  of  the  passage,  which  is  confessedly  difficult. 
 —Ed. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  they  understood  not  this  say- 
 ing, and  it  was  hid  from  them.'  (Luke  ix.  45.)  They  understood 
 our  Saviour's  words,  no  doubt,  and  what  the  import  was  of  his 
 being  '  delivered  into  the  hands  of  men  and  put  to  death;'  but 
 
 what  he  said,  and  yet  they  were  afraid  to  ask  him  to 
 explain  it. 
 
 In  the  same  journey  there  arose  a  dispute  c  among 
 the  apostles,  which  of  them  should  have  the  chief  place 
 of  dignity  d  in  their  Master's  kingdom,  still  dreaming  of 
 a  temporal  sovereignty.  This  our  Saviour  by  his  divine 
 Spirit  knew ;  and  therefore,  to  give  an  effectual  check 
 to  their  ambitious  thoughts,  he  first  informed  them,  that 
 
 then  they  could  not  comprehend  how  their  master,  whom  they 
 knew  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  Son  of  God,  and  whom  conse- 
 quently they  believed  to  be  immortal  and  eternal,  could  possibly 
 be  put  to  death,  or  suffer  the  affronts  and  outrages  of  men. 
 These  notions  to  them  seemed  incompatible,  and  therein  they 
 conceived  a  mystery,  which  they  could  not  understand.  But 
 the  modern  Jews  have  endeavoured  to  reconcile  these  two 
 notions,  by  inventing  the  distinction  of  Messiah  Ben  Joseph, 
 who  was  to  die,  and  Messiah  Ben  David,  who  was  to  triumph 
 and  live  for  ever. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby  s  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 c  There  is  some  small  difference  in  the  several  ways  wherein 
 the  evangelists  have  related  this  matter.  St  Matthew  tells  us, 
 that  '  the  disciples  came  to  Jesus,  saying,  Who  is  the  greatest 
 in  the  kingdom  of  heaven?'  (c.  xviii.  1.)  St  Mark,  that  Christ  put 
 this  question  to  them,  'and  they  held  their  peace,'  (ix.  34.) 
 and  St  Luke,  that  they  had  been  disputing  this  point  among 
 themselves,  and  Jesus,  '  perceiving  the  thoughts  of  their  hearts, 
 took  a  child,'  &c.  (ix.  46,  47.)  Now,  to  reconcile  this  seeming 
 repugnancy,  we  must  observe,  that  as  our  Saviour  was  going  to 
 Capernaum,  his  disciples  followed  him,  '  discoursing  among 
 themselves,'  as  St  Mark  has  it,  '  who  of  them  was  to  be  the 
 greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;'  that  when  they  came  to  him  in 
 the  house,  having  still  the  same  ambitious  notion  in  their  minds, 
 he  asked  them,  '  What  was  it  that  you  discoursed  of  in  the  way?' 
 But  they,  being  ashamed  to  tell  him,  'held  their  peace;'  and 
 that  then  our  Saviour,  who  well  understood  what  the  subject  of 
 their  discourse  had  been,  endeavoured,  by  the  example  of  a 
 child,  to  cure  their  distemper,  and  to  inform  them  what  disposi- 
 tion of  mind  was  .proper  to  qualify  them  both  for  his  kingdom  of 
 grace  here,  and  his  kingdom  of  glory  hereafter.  St  Matthew 
 indeed,  according  to  our  translation,  represents  the  thing  as  if 
 the  disciples  had  put  the  question  to  their  master,  '  Who  should 
 be  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven?'  But  that  the  particle 
 xiyovris  relates  not  to  Jesus,  but  to  the  disciples,  and  means 
 not  the  external  speech,  but  the  inward  reasoning  of  their  minds, 
 is  obvious  from  their  silence,  which  St  Mark  takes  notice  of, 
 and  our  Saviour's  perceiving  the  thought  of  their  hearts,  which 
 St  Luke  remarks.  For,  had  themselves  propounded  the  ques- 
 tion to  our  Saviour,  as  the  version  in  St  Matthew  seems  to 
 imply,  we  cannot  see  why  they  should  not  answer  his  demand, 
 which  tended  to  the  same  purpose;  nor  can  we  imagine  why  he 
 should  be  represented  as  '  perceiving  the  thoughts  of  their  hearts/ 
 bad  they  already  declared  these  thoughts  in  plain  words. — 
 JP7iitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  apostles,  as  well  as  the  other  Jews,  had  imbibed  the 
 notion,  which  they  never  got  quit  of,  until  the  descent  of  the 
 Holy  Ghost  instructed  them  better,  that  the  Messiah,  when  ho 
 came  upon  earth,  should  erect  a  temporal  kingdom  ;  and,  as  the 
 Jews  in  general  expect,  that  they  should  then  be  constituted 
 lords  over  all  other  nations;  so  the  apostles,  who  believed  their 
 master  to  be  the  Messiah,  were  naturally  led  to  think  that  they 
 should  have  the  preference  before  all  other  Jews  ;  and  that, 
 since  the  king  Messiah,  according  to  the  custom  of  other  sove- 
 reigns, was  to  have  some  officers  of  the  highest  rank,  they  made 
 no  question  but  that  some  of  them  would  be  made  choice  of, 
 though  they  were  not  so  well  agreed  who  were  the  fittest  or 
 most  deserving  of  these  high  posts  of  honour.  Some  of  them 
 were  our  Lord's  relations,  and  others  had  parts  and  endowments 
 extraordinary  ;  of  some  he  had  given  high  commendations,  and 
 others  he  had  admitted  to  a  participation  of  his  most  secret 
 retirements.  These  things  might  possibly  raise  some  emulation 
 among  them:  and  therefore,  as  our  Saviour's  dominion  was  not 
 of  this  world,  he  plainly  tells  them,  that  all  such  worldly  desires 
 and  expectations  were  inconsistent  with  that  spiritual  kingdom 
 which  lie  was  to  erect,  and  wherein  he  '  who  desired  to  be  first, 
 was  to  lie  last  of  all,  and  servant  of  all.'  (Mark  ix.  35.) — ffltitby's 
 and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 a  d 
 
946 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A,  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR.A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  14. 
 
 the  only  way  for  any  man  to  become  great  in  his  king- 
 dom, was  to  be  lowly  in  his  own  esteem ;  and  then,  calling 
 a  little  child,0  and  setting  him  in  the  midst  of  them,  he  pro- 
 posed him  as  a  pattern  of  meekness  and  humility  ;  recom- 
 mended such  children,  and,  in  them,  all  humble  Christi- 
 ans, to  the  favour  of  mankind ;  cautioned  them  against 
 doing  any  injury, b  or  giving  any  offence  to  such,  because 
 of  their  guardian  angels  ;  a  and,  to  remove  the  occasion 
 of  all  such  offences,  exhorted  them  to  mortify  their  in- 
 ordinate affections,  though  they  were  as  dear  to  them  as 
 an  eye,  a  hand,  or  a  foot,  because  his  heavenly  Father, 
 like  a  diligent  shepherd  that  delights  in  the  recovery  of 
 a  stray  sheep,  was  unwilling  that  any  believer  should 
 perish.  Together  with  these  reasons  against  scandal 
 and  offences,  he  prescribed  some  excellent  rules  in  re- 
 lation to  brotherly  reproof,  church  censures,  and  forgive- 
 ness of  injuries ;  and  for  the  enforcement  of  this  last 
 duty,  lie  propounded  the  parable  of  a  certain  king,  avIio, 
 calling  his  servants  to  account,  found  that  one  of  them 
 owed  him  an  immense  sum,  no  less  than  ten  thousand 
 talents,  which,  upon  his  insolvency,  and  humble  peti- 
 tion, he  freely  forgave  ;  and  yet,  this  very  wretch  was 
 no  sooner  out  of  the  king's  presence,  than  he  seized  upon 
 his  fellow  servant  for  a  trifle  of  a  debt,  a  debt  of  an 
 hundred  pence  only,  and  cast   him   into   prison,  even 
 
 a  Some  of  the  ancients  are  of  opinion  that  this  child  was  St 
 Ignatius,  who  was  afterwards  bishop  of  Antioch,  and  famous  in 
 the  Christian  church  for  his  writing  and  dying  in  defence  of  the 
 truth.  However  this  be,  it  is  certain  that  a  child,  who  has  no 
 concern  for  dominion  or  empire  over  others,  who  is  free  from  all 
 covetous  desires  of  wealth,  and  knows  nothing  of  what  a  post  of 
 honour  means,  was,  in  this  case,  a  very  proper  emblem  of  that 
 simplicity,  innocence,  and  humility,  that  our  Lord  requires  in 
 all  Ills  disciples.— Calmet's  Commentary,  and  JPliitby's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  caution  are,  '  whoso  shall  offend  one  of 
 these  little  ones  which  believe  in  me,  it  were  better  for  him  that 
 a  millstone  were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  drowned 
 in  the  depth  of  the  sea'  (Mat.  xviii.  6.)  To  offend  or  scandalize  is 
 to  discourage  men  in  the  profession  and  practice  of  religion,  and 
 by  indignities  and  persecutions,  as  well  as  by  bad  examples,  to  oc- 
 casion their  apostatizing  from  the  faith:  for  we  can  hardly  ima- 
 gine, that  so  severe  a  punishment  as  is  here  threatened,  should 
 be  inflicted  for  a  crime  of  less  aggravation  than  what  this  amounts 
 to.  Grotius,  upon  the  place,  is  of  opinion,  that  the  millstone 
 about  the  neck  alludes  to  a  custom  of  drowning  among  the 
 Syrians.  But  St  Jerome  thinks  that  this  manner  of  execution 
 was  in  use  among  the  Jews;  for,  according  to  Dr  Alix,  it  was 
 customary  for  them  to  cast  execrable  men  into  the  Dead  Sea, 
 with  a  stone  tied  to  them.  It  is  certain  from  Diodorus  Siculus, 
 and  others,  that  among  the  Greeks  this  was  the  ancient  punish- 
 ment for  sacrilegious  persons ;  and  from  Suetonius  we  may  learn, 
 that  for  the  pride  and  covetousness  wherewith  some  in  public 
 offices  had  infested  the  province  where  they  lived,  Augustus  had 
 them  cast  into  the  river,  with  great  weights  about  their  necks. — 
 JFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  The  fathers  looked  on  this  as  an  argument  that  each  good 
 man  had  his  particular  guardian  angel:  (see  Suicer.  Thesaur. 
 vol.  i.  p.  43.)  And  Grotius  seems  to  allow  the  force  of  it.  I 
 apprehend  this  passage  rather  intimates,  that  the  angels,  who 
 sometimes  attend  the  little  ones  spoken  of,  at  other  times 
 stand  in  God's  immediate  presence;  and  consequently  that  dif- 
 ferent angels  are  at  different  times  employed  in  this  kind  office,  if  it 
 be  incessantly  performed.  The  general  sense  is  plain,  that  the 
 highest  angels  do  not  disdain,  on  proper  occasions,  to  perform 
 services  of  protection  and  friendship  for  the  meanest  Christian; 
 but  as  St  Paul  says,  they  are  '  all  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to 
 minister  to  the  heirs  of  salvation  ;'(Heb.  i.  14.)  1  say  the  highest ; 
 because  '  to  behold  the  face  of  God '  may  signify  '  waiting  near  his 
 throne,'  and  be  an  allusion  to  the  office  of  chief  ministers  in 
 earthly  courts,  who  daily  converse  with  their  princes.  See  Gro- 
 tius: and  compare  2  Sam.  vi.  19.  1  Kings  xii.  6;  Esth.  i.  14; 
 and  Luke  i.  j9. — Doddridge's  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 though  he  had  used  the  same  pathetic  entreaties  to  him 
 that  himself  had  done  to  the  king  his  master :  which 
 when  the  king  came  to  understand,  he  sent  for  the  un- 
 grateful villain,  upbraided  him  with  his  baseness  and 
 cruelty,  and  then,  in  great  rage,  ordered  him  to  prison 
 until  he  should  discharge  the  whole  debt :  "  and  so  like- 
 wise shall  my  heavenly  Father,"  says  our  Lord  in  the 
 application,  "  deal  with  all  such  as  will  not  forgive  their 
 brother's  trespasses  from  their  hearts." 
 
 While  he  was  giving  these  instructions  to  his  disciples, 
 he  was  interrupted  by  John,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  inform- 
 ing him  of  a  certain  stranger,  d  who  cast  out  devils  in 
 his  name,  but  because  he  was  not  of  their  fraternity,  that 
 he  had  forbidden  him;  which  conduct  Jesus  by  no  means 
 could  approve  of,  because  he  looked  upon  it  as  a  sure 
 argument,  that  whoever  did  miracles  in  his  name,  could 
 be  no  enemy  to  his  person. 
 
 With  this  discourse  they  arrived  at  Capernaum,  where 
 the  collectors  e  of  a  certain  tribute  for  the  use  of  the 
 temple,  came  to  Peter,  and  asked  him  if  his  master  was 
 accustomed  to  pay  it  ?  And,  when  Peter  went  in  to  ac- 
 quaint him  with  the  officer's  demands,  '  Of  whom,'  says 
 our  Lord,  preventing  him,  'do  the  kings  of  the  Gentiles 
 take  tribute  ?  Of  their  own  children,  or  of  strangers  ?' 
 Peter  answered,  '  Of  strangers  :  if  so,'  rejoined  our  Sa- 
 viour, 'then  are  the  children  free  :'  meaning,  that  since 
 Gentile  kings  did  not  exact  tribute  of  their  own  house- 
 hold, this  tribute,  which  was  paid  to  God  for  his  temple, 
 was  not  due  from  him,  who  was  his  Son,  nor  from  them, 
 who  were  his  domestics ;  however,  to  avoid  all  occasions 
 of  offence,  he  ordered  him  to  go,  and  cast  an  hook  into  the 
 sea,  because  in  the  mouth  of  the  first  fish  that  he  caught 
 he  would  find  a  piece  of  money,  /just  of  proper  value  to 
 give  to  the  collectors  for  them  both  ;  which  accordingly 
 came  to  pass. 
 
 d  That  this  man  did  truly  cast  out  devils,  our  Lord's  answer 
 supposes,  and  his  disciples  saw  with  their  eyes :  but  then  the 
 question  is, — How  a  person,  who  did  not  follow  Christ  could 
 cast  out  devils  in  his  name:  to  which  it  may  be  answered,  1st, 
 That  this  person  might  believe  in  Jesus,  without  being  one  of 
 his  retinue,  and  follow  his  doctrine,  though  he  did  not  his  person. 
 2dly,  He  might  do  miracles  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  without 
 being  one  of  his  true  disciples,  even  as  Judas  is  supposed  to  have 
 done,  and  those  others  to  whom  our  Lord  will  profess,  '  I  never 
 knew  you;  depart  from  me,  ye  workers  of  iniquity,'  Mat.  vii. 
 23.  Or,  3dly,  He  might  be  a  disciple  of  John  the  Baptist,  and 
 so  do  his  miracles  in  the  name  of  Christ,  shortly  to  come.  But 
 by  what  means  soever  it  was  that  he  did  them,  it  is  no  small 
 confirmation  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  that  our  Saviour's  name 
 was  thus  powerful,  even  among  those  that  did  not  follow  him, 
 and  therefore  were  incapable  of  doing  any  thing  by  way  of  com- 
 pact with  him. —  IFhitby's  and  Poole's  Annotations;  and  Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  Every  Jew  that  was  twenty  years  old,  was  obliged  to  pay 
 annually  two  Attic  drams,  or  half  a  shekel,  about  fifteen  pence 
 of  our  money,  for  the  use  of  the  sanctuaiy,  (Exod.  xxx.  13,  16.) 
 or  to  buy  sacrifices,  and  other  things  necessary  for  the  service  of 
 the  temple:  and  that  this  was  the  tribute  which  the  collectors 
 here  demanded,  and  not  any  tax,  payable  to  the  Roman  emper- 
 ors, as  some  imagine,  is  evident,  not  only  from  our  Saviour's 
 argument,  namely,  that  he  was  the  son  of  that  heavenly  King 
 to  whom  it  was  paid,  and,  consequently,  had  a  right  to  plead  his 
 exemption ;  but  from  the  word  l'i}ga.%fta,  which,  according  to 
 Josephus,  [Antiq.  b.  18.  c.  12.]  was  the  proper  word  for  this 
 capitation-tax  that  was  paid  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem ;  whereas 
 the  Cesarean  tribute  money  was  the  denarius,  a  Roman  coin, 
 and  would  have  been  gathered  by  the  usual  officers,  the  publi- 
 cans, and  not  by  the  persons  who  are  here  styled,  as  by  a  known 
 title,  '  they  that  received  the  2ibg*%(<ui. — Hammond's  and 
 fPTiitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  This  piece  of  money  is  called  trrarri^,  which  amounted  to 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST    &,;. 
 
 947 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1- 
 
 About  this  time  the  a  feast  of  tabernacles  drew 
 near ;  and  some  of  our  Lord's  relations,  out  of  vanity 
 more  than  good-will,  were  very  earnest  with  him  to  go 
 up  to  Jerusalem  at  this  great  concourse  of  people,  in 
 order  to  show  his  miracles  in  the  capital,  which  hitherto, 
 as  they  said,  had  been  concealed  in  an  obscure  part  of 
 the  world  :  but  our  Lord,  for  the  present,  b  would  not 
 yield  to  their  importunity,  though,  in  a  short  time,  he  set 
 forward  to  Jerusalem,  but  in  a  very  private  manner,  for 
 fear  of  awakening  the  jealousy  of  his  enemies.  As  he 
 was  to  pass  through  the  province  of  Samaria,  c  he  sent 
 
 four  drachmas,  or  one  skekel,  in  our  money  about  half  a  crown ; 
 and  the  reason  why  our  Saviour  paid  for  none  of  the  apostles  but 
 St  Peter  only,  was,  because  these  receivers  demanded  it  only  of 
 those  that  dwelt  at  Capernaum,  as  our  Saviour  and  St  Peter  did, 
 leaving  the  other  apostles  to  pay  it  in  the  several  places  of  their 
 abode. — Hammond's  Annotations. — Here  is  a  proof  that  Jesus 
 was  possessed  of  divine  attributes.  He  knew  that  in  the  first  fish 
 that  came  up,  there  would  be  such  a  coin ;  which  proved  his  om- 
 niscience. It  is  by  no  means  strange  that  a  fish  should  have 
 swallowed  a  silver  coin  ;  such  cases  have  often  occurred. — 
 Barnes. — Ed. 
 
 a  The  feast  of  tabernacles,  kept  in  commemoration  of  the  Is- 
 raelites' sojourning  in  the  wilderness,  and  living  in  tents  for  the 
 space  of  forty  years,  was  one  of  the  three  great  annual  festivals, 
 wherein  all  the  males  were  obliged  to  appear  at  Jerusalem.  It 
 began  to  be  celebrated  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  month  Tizri, 
 which  answers  in  part  to  our  October  and  September,  and  is  the 
 
 first  month  of  their  civil,  and  the  seventh  in  their  sacred  year 
 
 Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 b  Our  Lord  well  knew  the  rancorous  prejudice  of  the  in- 
 habitants of  Jerusalem,  and  therefore  did  not  think  proper 
 to  reside  among  them  any  longer  than  was  absolutely  necess- 
 ary. They  had  more  than  once  attempted  his  life,  and  therefore 
 veiy  little  hopes  remained  that  they  would  believe  his  mira- 
 cles, or  embrace  his  doctrine  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  there 
 was  great  reason  to  think  they  would  destroy  him,  if  possible, 
 before  he  had  finished  the  work  for  which  he  assumed  the  veil  of 
 human  nature,  and  resided  among  the  sons  of  men.  '  My  time,' 
 said  the  blessed  Jesus  to  these  unbelieving  relations,  '  is  not  yet 
 come  ;  but  your  time  is  alway  ready.  The  world  cannot  hate 
 you  ;  but  me  it  hateth,  because  I  testify  of  it,  that  the  works 
 thereof  are  evil.  Go  ye  up  unto  this  feast ;  I  go  not  yet  unto 
 this  feast;  for  my  time  is  not  yet  full  come,'  John  vii.  6,  7,  8. 
 As  if  he  had  said,  It  is  not  proper  for  me  to  go  before  the  feast 
 begins ;  but  you  may  repair  to  the  capital  whenever  you  please ; 
 the  Jews  are  your  friends,  you  have  done  nothing  to  displease 
 them:  but  the  purity  of  the  doctrine  I  have  preached  to  them, 
 and  the  freedom  with  which  I  have  reproved  their  hypocrisy  and 
 other  enormous  crimes,  have  provoked  their  malice  to  the  utmost 
 height,  and  therefore,  as  the  time  of  my  sufferings  is  not 
 yet  come,  it  is  not  prudent  for  me  to  go  soon  to  Jerusalem. 
 There  was  also  another  reason  why  our  blessed  Saviour  refused 
 to  accompany  these  relations  to  the  feast  of  tabernacles:  the 
 roads  were  crowded  with  people,  and  these  gathering  round  him, 
 and  accompanying  him  to  Jerusalem,  would  doubtless  have 
 given  fresh  offence  to  his  enemies,  and  have  in  a  great  measure 
 prevented  his  miracles  and  doctrines  from  having  the  desired 
 etiert.  He  therefore  chose  to  continue  in  Galilee,  till  the  crowd 
 were  all  gone  up  to  Jerusalem,  when  he  followed,  '  as  it  were 
 In  secret,'  neither  preaching,  nor  working  miracles  by  the  way; 
 so  that  no  crowd  attended  him  to  the  feast. — Ed. 
 
 c  Samaria  was  a  province  that  lay  between  Galilee  and  Judea, 
 and  our  Saviour's  nearest  way  to  Jerusalem  was  through  it.  But 
 then  it  may  be  questioned,  why  the  Samaritans,  who  lived  at  a 
 less  distance  from  Jerusalem  than  the  Galileans,  came  to  be 
 more  corrupted  in  their  religion  ?  To  which  the  most  probable 
 answer  is, — '  That  when  the  king  of  Assyria  had  taken  Samaria, 
 and  carried  away  the  people  captive,'  2  Kings  xvii.,  in  then- 
 room  he  planted  colonies  of  his  own  subjects,  who  were  gross 
 idolaters,  and  more  especially  in  the  country  of  Samaria,  properly 
 so  called,  because  it  was  a  province  which  lay  in  the  heart  of  his 
 new  conquest,  and  might  therefore  keep  the  others,  that  depend- 
 ed on  it,  in  subjection.  Now,  these  idolaters,  mixing  with  the 
 Jews  that  were  left  behind,  made  up  a  strange  medley  of  reli- 
 
 xvii.  H.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  u.  LUKE  vi.  l_ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I. 
 some  of  his  apostles  to  provide  him  lodgings  d  in  one 
 of  the  villages ;  but  the  inhabitants,  perceiving  that  he 
 was  going  to  Jerusalem  to  the  feast/  were  so  uncivil  as 
 to  refuse  him  entertainment. 
 
 This  indignity  put  upon  their  master,  so  exasperated 
 James  and  his  brother  John,  that  they  desired  leave  of 
 him,  in  imitation  of  /Elias,  to  command  lire  down  from 
 heaven  to  consume  such  inhospitable  wretches  ;  but  in- 
 stead of  giving  any  such  permission,  S  our  Saviour  took 
 
 gion,  which  was  not  quite  reformed,  even  in  our  Saviour's  time ; 
 
 and  therefore  he  tells  the  Samaritan  woman,  at  Jacob's  well, 
 '  ye  worship  ye  know  not  what,'  (John  iv,  22,)  whereas  the  peo- 
 ple of  Galilee,  having  few  of  the  Assyrians  planted  among  them, 
 kept  their  religion  more  pure  and  unmixed,  and,  after  the  des- 
 truction of  the  temple  of  Gerizzim  by  John  Hyrcanus,  held 
 constant  communion  with  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  even  though 
 Gabinius,  when  he  was  governor  of  Syria,  had  built  the  Sa- 
 maritans another;  and  in  relation  to  this  communion  it  is,  that 
 our  Saviour  tells  the  same  woman,  speaking  of  himself  among 
 other  Galileans,  'we  know  what  we  worship ;  for  salvation  is  of 
 the  Jews.' 
 
 d  The  great  multitude  that  accompanied  our  Saviour,  and  the 
 little  or  no  provision  that  he  usually  carried  with  him,  made  it 
 necessary  for  some  to  go  before  to  make  preparation  for  his  re- 
 ception ;  and  his  two  apostles,  James  and  John,  are  supposed  to 
 be  the  persons  employed  in  this  capacity ;  because  we  find  them, 
 in  particular,  resenting  the  indignity  put  upon  their  master. — 
 Calmct's  Dictionary . 
 
 e  Josephus  tells  us, — "That,  as  it  was  an  usual  thing  for  the 
 Galileans  to  travel  by  the  way  of  Samaria  to  Jerusalem,  upon 
 the  celebration  of  their  festivals,  one  time,  as  they  passed  by  a 
 village,  called  Nais,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Samaria,  and  situ- 
 ated in  the  great  Plain,  there  happened  a  quarrel  between  the 
 passengers  and  villagers,  wherein  several  of  the  Galileans  were 
 slain,  and  which  afterwards  occasioned  a  civil  war  between  these 
 two  provinces."  And  as  it  was  a  common  thing  for  the  Sama- 
 ritans to  be  angry  with  the  Galileans  in  general  lor  passing  by 
 their  temple  to  go  to  Jerusalem;  so  they  might  much  more  re- 
 sent it  in  our  Saviour,  because  as  he  was  accounted  a  prophet 
 sent  from  God,  by  this  action  he  plainly  decided  the  contro- 
 versy between  them  and  the  Jews,  touching  the  place  which 
 God  had  appointed  for  his  religious  worship.  —  Joseph.  Antiq.  b. 
 20,  c.  5;  Jewish  JVars,  b.  2,  c.  11,  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  The  history  of  Elias,  to  which  the  apostles  refer  us,  is 
 doubtless  that,  where,  by  the  direction  of  God,  that  prophet  call- 
 ed for  fire  from  heaven  to  destroy  those  captains  and  their  com- 
 panies whom  king  Ahaziah  sent  out  to  apprehend  him,  2  Kings 
 i.  10,  &c.  And  when  these  two  apostles  desired  the  like  judg- 
 ment upon  the  village  of  Samaria,  for  refusing  to  receive  their 
 master,  they  verified  their  name  of  being  sons  of  thunder,  which, 
 upon  account  of  their  fiery  zeal,  their  master  had  before  given 
 them,  (Mark  iii.  17.) 
 
 g  What  the  two  apostles  had  to  allege  in  behalf  of  their  in- 
 tended severity  against  these  Samaritans,  was, — "  That  they  were 
 schismatics,  and  had  set  up  another  temple  in  opposition  to  that 
 at  Jerusalem;  that  they  were  heretics,  and,  together  with  the 
 worship  of  the  God  of  Israel,  had  mixed  that  of  pagan  idols; 
 that  the  person  whom  they  had  affronted,  had  a  character  much 
 superior  to  that  of  Elias ;  and  that,  by  an  exemplary  punishment 
 inflicted  upon  this  village,  they  might  convince  the  rest  of  the 
 Samaritans  of  God's  displeasure  against  their  way  of  worship,  and 
 of  the  divine  mission  of  their  master,  who  was  the  true  Messiah. 
 But,  notwithstanding  these  plausible  allegations,  our  Saviour  re- 
 buked them,  and  in  his  rebuke  gave  them  to  understand,  that  a  spirit 
 of  severity  towards  erroneous  persons,  in  whomsoever  it  is  found, 
 is  highly  opposite  to  the  calm  temper  of  Christianity,  which  is 
 '  pure  and  peaceable,  gentle  and  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of 
 mercy,  and  good  works,'  (James  iii.  17,)  and  that  it  was  repug- 
 nant to  the  end  for  which  he  came  into  the  world,  which  was  to 
 discountenance  all  fierceness  and  rage,  and  furious  zeal,  that  occa- 
 sion so  many  mischiefs  among  mankind,  and  to  beget  in  all  his 
 followers  such  a  disposition  as  exerts  itself  in  '  love,  peace,  long- 
 sutlering,  gentleness,  goodness,  and  meekness,'  (Gal.  v.  22,23,) 
 even  to  those  of  the  most  contrary  tempers  and  persuasion. — 
 Whitby  s  Annotations. 
 
948 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4033.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— 
 
 care  to  inform  them,  that  the  marks  of  a  Christian  were 
 meekness  and  love,  not  fury  and  revenge  ;  that  the  true 
 end  and  design  of  his  coming  into  the  world  '  was,  not 
 to  destroy,  but  to  save  men's  lives  ;'  and,  that  he  might 
 prove  his  doctrine  by  his  practice,  when  ten  leprous  per- 
 sons, who  came  out  of  the  neighbourhood,  where  he  had 
 been  so  rudely  treated,  presented  themselves  with  loud 
 cries  to  him  for  help,  his  compassion  was  as  ready  to 
 relieve,  as  their  necessity  to  ask;  for  while  they  were 
 going  to  a  show  themselves  to  the  priest,  as  he  directed 
 them,  they  all  found  themselves  cured.  But  see  the  great 
 ingratitude  of  human  nature  !  Of  the  ten  who  received 
 this  miraculous  blessing,  but  one  returned  to  give  our 
 Saviour  thanks,  and  he  was  a  Samaritan. 
 
 Having  thus  returned  good  for  evil,  and  the  greatest 
 kindness  for  the  most  palpable  affront,  our  Lord  pro- 
 ceeded on  his  journey,  and  came  to  another  village 
 where  he  lodged  that  night ;  but  before  he  arrived  at 
 Jerusalem,  he  sent  out  seventy  b  of  his  disciples,  by  two 
 and  two  together,  in  the  same  manner  as  he  had  sent  his 
 twelve  apostles,  into  those  places  which  he  himself,  in  a 
 short  time,  intended  to  visit,  and  gave  them  instructions 
 much  of  the  same  import  with  what,  upon  the  like  occa- 
 sion, he  had  given  his  apostles. 
 
 The  feast  of  tabernacles  always  continued  eight  days  ; 
 but,  for  some  time  after  his  arrival,  our  Saviour  did  not 
 appear  publicly,  which  occasioned  no  small  inquiry,  and 
 various  discourses  concerning  him  ;  some  saying  that  he 
 was  a  good  man,  and  others  an  impostor,  who  deluded 
 the  people.  At  length,  when  every  one  began  to  de- 
 spair of  seeing  him,  about  the  middle  of  the  feast,  he 
 showed  himself  openly,  and  went  and  taught  in  the  tem- 
 ple, to  the  great  admiration  of  the  Jews,  who  were  not 
 a  little  surprised  to  find  him,  whose  education  had  been 
 
 a  By  the  priests,  to  whom  our  Saviour  remits  these  lepers, 
 we  are  to  understand  the  priests  at  Jerusalem ;  for  we  can  hard- 
 ly suppose  that  he  would  send  them  to  those  of  mount  Gerizzim, 
 when  himself,  both  in  his  words  and  practice,  had  sufficiently 
 declared  the  illegality  of  their  institution:  'and  therefore,  by 
 sending  them  to  Jerusalem,  where  they  were  to  make  their  offer- 
 ings for  their  cleansing,'  (Lev.  xiv.  2,  etc.)  he  not  only  decided 
 the  controversy  between  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans,  but  gave 
 them  likewise  to  understand,  that,  before  they  reached  Jerusalem, 
 he  would  undoubtedly  heal  them — Whitby's  Annotations  and 
 Hammond's  Paraphrase. 
 
 b  In  place  of  the  common  version,  Luke  xvi.,  we  should  rather 
 read  seventy  others,  not  other  seventy,  as  our  translation  has  it, 
 which  seems  to  intimate  that  he  had  appointed  seventy  before  this 
 time,  though,  probably,  the  word  other  has  a  reference  to  the  twelve 
 chosen  first:  he  not  only  chose  twelve  disciples  to  be  constantly  with 
 him  ;  but  he  chose  seventy  others  to  go  before  him.  Our  blessed 
 Lord  formed  every  thing  in  his  church,  on  the  model  of  the  Jew- 
 ish church ;  and  why?  Because  it  was  the  pattern  shown  by  God 
 himself,  the  divine  form,  which  pointed  out  the  heavenly  sub- 
 stance which  now  began  to  be  established  in  its  place.  As  he 
 before  had  chosen  twelve  apostles,  in  reference  to  the  twelve 
 patriarchs  who  were  the  chiefs  of  the  twelve  tribes  and  the  heads 
 of  the  Jewish  church,  he  now  publicly  appointed  (for  so  the  word 
 avilti%tv  means)  seventy  others,  as  Moses  did  the  seventy  elders 
 whom  he  associated  with  himself  to  assist  him  in  the  government 
 of  the  people.  (Exod.  xviii.  19,  xxiv.  1 — 9.)  These  Christ 
 sent  by  two  and  two:  1.  To  teach  them  the  necessity  of  concords 
 among  the  ministers  of  righteousness.  2.  That  in  the  mouth 
 of  two  witnesses  every  thing  might  be  established.  And  3. 
 That  they  might  comfort  and  support  each  other  in  their  difficult 
 labour.  See  on  Mark  vi.  7.  Several  MSS.  and  Versions  have 
 seventy-two.  Sometimes  the  Jews  chose  six  out  of  each  tribe: 
 this  was  the  number  of  the  great  sanhedrim.  The  names  of 
 these  seventy  disciples  are  found  in  the  margin  of  some  ancient 
 MSS.,  but  this  authority  is  questionable. — Ed. 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1—  ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 destitute  of  all  learning,  so  perfect  in  the  Scriptures. 
 But,  to  obviate  this  exception,  he  gave  them  to  under- 
 stand, that  the  doctrine  wherein  he  instructed  them,  was 
 not  of  human  acquisition,  but  divine  inspiration ;  and  that 
 it  was  a  very  base  and  ungenerous  thing  in  them,  to  endea- 
 vour to  take  away  the  life  of  one,  who  taught  them  no- 
 thing but  what  was  agreeable  to  the  law  of  Moses, 
 whereof  they  made  so  loud  a  profession.  In  this  man- 
 ner he  preached  to  the  people  for  the  remaining  part  of 
 the  feast ;  and,  c  on  the  last  and  greatest  day  thereof, 
 took  occasion,  from  the  custom  of  fetching  water  from 
 the  fountain  of  Siloah  in  great  pomp,  and  pouring  it  upon 
 the  altar  of  burnt-offerings  in  great  abundance,  to  ac- 
 quaint them  with  the  future  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 which  he  intended  to  send  down  upon  all  those  that  be- 
 lieved in  him.d 
 
 Those  who  knew  the  great  hatred  which  the  ruling 
 part  of  the  nation  had  conceived  against  him,  admired 
 to  hear  him  speak  with  so  much  freedom  and  intrepidity; 
 and  those  who  had  seen  the  number  and  greatness  of 
 his  miracles,  were  by  them  convinced  that  he  was  the 
 true  Messiah  ;  but  the  prejudice  of  his  being  a  Galilean, 
 and  not  acknowledged  by  any  of  their  rulers  and  learned 
 rabbis,  led  others  into  a  contrary  persuasion.  In  the 
 confusion,  officers  were  sent  from  the  sanhedrim  to 
 apprehend  him  ;  but  they  were  so  taken  with  his  person 
 and  preaching,  that  they  became    his  disciples  ;    for, 
 
 c  From  the  twenty-ninth  chapter  of  the  book  of  Numbers  we 
 learn,  that  on  the  first  day  of  this  feast,  thirteen  bullocks  were 
 to  be  offered:  on  the  second,  twelve;  on  the  third,  eleven;  on 
 the  fourth,  ten;  on  the  fifth,  nine;  on  the  sixth,  eight;  on  the 
 seventh,  seven;  and  on  the  eighth,  or  last,  only  one;  so  that, 
 in  regard  to  the  sacrifices,  the  last  day  was  the  least  of  all,  and 
 yet  the  Jews  accounted  it  the  greatest,  because  on  that  day  the 
 King  of  Israel,  as  the  Talmudists  love  to  speak,  was  entertained 
 by  his  own  people  only,  and  not  by  those  of  any  other  nation. 
 For  their  tradition  is,  that  on  the  first  day  of  the  feast  their 
 ancestors  when  the  temple  was  standing,  sacrificed  seventy  bul- 
 locks for  the  seventy  nations  (for  they  supposed  just  so  many) 
 that  are  upon  the  face  of  the  earth ;  but  on  the  last  day  no  more 
 than  one,  but  that  in  the  name  of  the  people  of  Israel  only. 
 And,  as  they  imagine  that  an  earthly  prince  may  sometimes 
 instead  of  a  vast  entertainment,  desire  but  a  small  collation  with 
 his  first  favourite,  that  they  may  have  an  opportunity  of  some  fami- 
 liar converse  together;  so  upon  the  account  of  the  intimate  friend- 
 ship with  God,  which  the  Jews  on  that  day  thought  themselves 
 admitted  to,  and  the  excessive  joy  which,  from  the  sense  of 
 that  friendship,  they  expressed  in  all  the  outward  significations 
 of  music,  singing,  and  dancing,  the  last  day  of  the  feast  of  taber- 
 nacles was  always  accounted  the  greatest. — Surenkusii  Concilia- 
 tiones,  in  loca  V.  T.  apad  Johan. 
 
 d  The  last  day  grew  into  high  esteem  with  the  nation  because 
 on  the  preceding  seven  days,  they  held  that  sacrifices  were 
 offered  not  so  much  for  themselves,  as  for  the  whole  world.  They 
 offered,  in  the  course  of  them,  seventy  bullocks  for  the  seventy 
 nations  of  the  world;  but  the  eighth  was  wholly  on  their  own  be- 
 half. They  had  then  this  solemn  offering  of  water,  the  reason 
 of  which  is  this ; — at  the  passover  the  Jews  offered  an  omer  to 
 obtain  from  God  his  blessing  on  their  harvest;  at  Pentecost,  their 
 first  fruits,  to  request  his  blessing  on  the  fruits  of  the  trees ;  and 
 in  the  feast  of  tabernacles  they  ofiered  water  to  God,  partly  re- 
 ferring to  the  water  from  the  rock  in  the  wilderness,  (1  Cor.  x. 
 4,)  but  chiefly  to  solicit  the  blessing  of  rain  on  the  approaching 
 seed-time.  These  waters  they  drew  out  of  Siloah,  and  brought 
 them  into  the  temple  with  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  and  great 
 rejoicing.  "  He  who  hath  not  seen  the  rejoicing  on  the  drawing 
 of  this  water,  hath  seen  no  rejoicing  at  all,  (Succah.  fol.  Ii.  1. — 
 Lifffitfoot.)  Christ,  alluding  to  these  customs,  proclaims,  'if  any 
 man  thirst  let  him  come  unto  me.'  He  takes,  as  very  usual 
 with  him,  the  present  occasion  of  the  water  brought  from 
 Siloah,  to  summon  them  to  him  as  the  true  fountain. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 949 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30,  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 upon  their  return,  they  told  the  council  that  they  could 
 not  execute  their  office,  because  a  '  never  man  spake 
 like  him;'  so  that  the  Pharisees,  who  were  part  of  the 
 assembly,  being  more  enraged  at  their  reason  which 
 they  gave  than  the  neglect  of  their  duty,  upbraided  them 
 for  being  so  easily  seduced,  and  for  following  the  error 
 of  an  ignorant  mob  ;  until  Nicodemus,  who  had  formerly 
 conversed  with  our  Lord,  and  was  indeed  a  secret  dis- 
 ciple of  his,  seeing  with  what  violence  his  enemies  were 
 bent  against  him,  could  not  forbear  interposing  in  his 
 behalf,  by  urging  the  unlawfulness  of  condemning  a 
 person  without  hearing ;  so  that,  after  some  reflections 
 thrown  upon  him,  as  a  favourer  of  this  Galilean,  b  who 
 could  have  no  pretensions,  as  they  said,  to  the  title  of  a 
 prophet,  the  assembly  c  broke  up,  without  proceeding 
 any  farther  against  him ;  because,  indeed,  as  yet  his 
 time  was  not  fully  come. 
 
 In  the  evening,  Jesus  repaired  to  the  mount  of  Olives, 
 about  a  mile  from  the  city,  and  where  he  sometimes  used 
 to  pass  the  night  with  his  apostles.  Early  next  morning 
 he  returned  to  the  temple,  and  as  he  was  teaching  the 
 people  that  were  gathered  about  him,  the  Scribes  and 
 Pharisees  brought  in  a  woman,  taken  in  the  act  of  adul- 
 tery, and  desired  him  to  give  his  judgment  in  the  case. 
 Their  purpose  was  to  find  an  occasion  of  accusing  him, 
 either  of  assuming  a  judicial  power,  if  he  condemned 
 her,  or  of  nulling  the  law,  if  he  acquitted  her.  But  he, 
 as  if  he  had  not  much  minded  them,  stooped  down,  and 
 wrote  d  something  with  his  finger  upon  the  dust  of  the 
 
 a  In  these  words  there  are  two  things  remarkable :  1st,  The 
 power  of  Christ's  preaching  to  change  the  frame  and  temper  of 
 men's  spirits;  for  these  men  came  with  hearts  alienated  from 
 Christ,  and  with  intention  to  apprehend  and  carry  him  before 
 the  chief  priests,  but  returned  with  great  admiration  of  his 
 excellency  and  worth.  2dly,  The  honesty  and  integrity  of  these 
 men  is  wry  remarkable ;  for  they  do  not  return  with  a  pretence 
 that  they  feared  the  multitude,  and  therefore  thought  it  danger- 
 ous to  apprehend  him,  but  ingenuously  confess  that  they  could 
 not  prevail  with  themselves  to  lay  violent  hands  upon  a  person 
 whose  discourses  were  so  excellent  and  divine.  —  Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 b  Our  blessed  Saviour  was  neither  by  birth  nor  by  descent  a 
 Galilean  ;  but,  admitting  he  had  been  so,  it  is  a  false  assertion  to 
 say,  that  no  prophet  ever  arose  out  of  Galilee  since  Nahum, 
 though  originally  of  the  tribe  of  Simeon,  according  to  the  testi- 
 mony of  St  Jerome,  who  himself  was  a  Galilean,  was  born  in 
 that  province,  and  in  Elcisi,  the  same  town  which  that  father 
 came  from ;  since  Jonas  was  undoubtedly  of  Gath-hepher,  in  the 
 tribe  of  Zelmlun,  which  lay  in  the  land  of  Galilee  (2  Kings  xiv. 
 25.),  and  in  the  opinion  of  several,  Malachi  was  of  the  same 
 tribe,  and  born  in  the  city  of  Sapha.  For,  as  there  can  be  no 
 reason  in  nature,  so  is  there  no  declaration  of  the  divine  will  why 
 a  Galilean  should  not  be  inspired  with  the  gift  of  prophecy  as 
 well  as  any  other  Jew. — Poole's  and  Beausobrc's  Annotations, 
 and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Some  are  of  opinion  that  the  party  of  Sadducees  in  the 
 council,  who  held  the  rites  and  traditions  of  the  Pharisees  in 
 great  contempt,  joined  with  Nicodemus,  in  not  having  Christ 
 condemned  without  a  fair  hearing,  which  was  no  more  than 
 what  the  law  required.  (Deut.  i.  16,  17.) — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 d  It  is  generally  agreed,  that  upon  this  occasion  our  Lord 
 wrote  some  memorable  sentence  or  other,  but  what  that  sentence 
 was,  the  conjectures  of  learned  men  have  been  various.  Some 
 have  imagined  that  it  was  the  reproof  against  a  rigid  and  un- 
 charitable temper,  which  occurs  in  his  sermon  on  the  mount: 
 '  Why  beholdest  thou  the  mote  that  is  in  thy  brother's  eye,  but 
 considerest  not  the  beam  that  is  in  thine  own  eye?'  (Mat.  vii.  3.) 
 others,  that  it  was  the  very  words  which,  upon  raising  himself 
 up,  he  pronounced  to  the  woman's  accuser:  '  He  that  is  without 
 sm  among  you,  let  him  fust  cast  a  stone  at  her,'  (John  viii.  7.) 
 
 pavement ;  till,  upon  their  importuning  him  for  an  an- 
 swer, he  raised  himself  up,  and  said,  e  '  He  that  is  with- 
 out sin  among  you,  let  him  cast  the  first  stone  ;'  and  so 
 stooping  down,  wrote  as  before.  This  unexpected 
 answer  baffled  these  insidious  accusers,  who,  thoroughly 
 convinced  of  their  own  crimes,  retired,  one  by  one,  and 
 /  left  the  woman  alone  ;  so  that,  when  our  Lord  lift  up 
 himself  again,  and  found  none  but  the  woman  standing 
 by  him,  he  asked  her,  what  was  become  of  her  accusers, 
 and  whether  any  one  had  condemned  her  ?  And  when  he 
 understood,  by  her  answer,  that  no  one  had,  fi  '  neither 
 do  I  condemn  thee,'  said  he,  '  go,  and  sin  no  more.' 
 
 and  others  again,  that  it  might  rather  be  that  passage  in  the 
 psalmist:  'Unto  the  ungodly  said  God,  Why  dost  thou  preach 
 my  laws,  and  takest  my  covenant  in  thy  mouth?  Whereas 
 thou  hatest  to  be  reformed,  and  hast  cast  my  words  behind  thee. 
 When  thou  sawest  a  thief,  thou  consentedst  unto  him,  and  hast 
 been  partaker  with  the  adulterers.'  (Ps.  1.  16,  &c.)  But  all  this 
 is  mere  guess-work:  and  it  seems  more  prudent  to  say  nothing 
 of  the  actions  of  our  Saviour,  when  we  are  not  admitted  to  the 
 reasons  of  them. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Beausobre's  An- 
 notations. 
 
 e  The  rabbinical  writers  tell  us,  that  when  a  man  or  woman 
 was  convicted  of  adultery  they  were  led  out  to  the  brow  of  a 
 hill,  with  their  hands  tied  behind  their  backs,  where  their 
 accusers  pushed  them  down  headlong  ;  that,  if  with  the  fall 
 they  were  killed,  there  was  no  more  done  to  them;  but  if  they 
 were  still  alive,  the  same  accusers  were  to  roll  great  stones  upon 
 them,  and  if  these  did  not  despatch  them,  the  company  then 
 all  took  up  stones,  and  quite  overwhelmed  them  with  them. 
 But  we  have  nothing  of  all  this  in  the  law  of  Moses.  In  all  the 
 places  where  he  makes  mention  of  this  punishment,  we  only 
 find,  that  the  criminal  was  to  be  led  out  of  the  city,  '  and  stoned 
 with  stones  till  he  died,'  and  that  '  the  hands  of  the  witnesses 
 should  be  first  upon  him,  to  put  him  to  death,  and  afterwards  the 
 hands  of  all  the  people,'  Deut.  xvii.  7.  It  is  in  allusion  to  this 
 passage,  that  our  Saviour  says,  '  Let  him  that  is  without  sin 
 among  you  cast  the  first  stone ;'  because  it  badly  becomes  those 
 who  are  guilty  either  of  the  same  or  greater  crimes,  to  be  so  very 
 zealous  for  the  punishment  of  others.  This  however  hinders 
 not,  but  that  magistrates,  who  are  intrusted  with  the  execution 
 of  the  laws,  should  put  them  in  force  against  malefactors,  even 
 though  themselves  are  not  entirely  exempt  from  sin;  but  still  it 
 reminds  them  that  they  should  execute  judgment  with  compas- 
 sion and  tenderness,  and  as  much  moderation  as  the  law  will 
 allow  them ;  considering  that  they  themselves  are  not  free  from 
 guilt,  but  as  obnoxious  to  punishment  for  other  sins,  as  those 
 poor  creatures  are,  who  have  fallen  into  crimes  that  are  punish- 
 able by  human  judicatures. —  Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Poole's 
 Annotations. 
 
 /"In  the  very  next  words  it  is  said,  that  the  woman  'stood  in 
 the  midst  of  the  people,'  and  our  Lord's  apostles,  who  were  his 
 constant  attendants,  were  doubtless  not  far  from  him ;  the  meau- 
 ing  therefore  of  the  expression  must  be,  that  she  was  left  without 
 any  of  her  accusers,  who,  out  of  shame,  sneaked  away ;  being 
 convicted  in  their  consciences,  that,  whatever  the  woman  was, 
 they  were  no  proper  evidences  against  her:  for,  'not  only  the 
 accuser,  but  not  even  the  rebuker  is  to  be  endured,  (says  Tully,  in, 
 Verron.  Orat.  5.) — the  man  who  is  himself  found  guilty  in  that 
 which  he  blames  in  others.'  Nor  is  it  to  be  wondered,  that  upon 
 this  occasion,  all  the  woman's  accusers  departed  from  her,  since 
 the  Jews  themselves  own,  that  adulteries  did  multiply  under  the 
 second  temple,  when  their  rabbins  came  to  permit  every  one, 
 "to  have  four  or  five  wives,  and  said,  that  they  sinned  not,  if, 
 after  the  example  of  the  patriarchs,  when  they  saw  a  beautiful 
 woman,  they  desired  to  have  her.". — Just.  Mart.  Dial.  p.  363; 
 Calmet's    Commentary,   and  tVhitby  $  Annotations. 
 
 y  Both  Seldeu  and  Fagius  are  of  opinion,  that  this  woman 
 might  come  under  the  number  of  them  whose  case  is  thus  re- 
 presented in  the  words  of  Deuteronomy:  'If  a  damsel  that  is  a 
 virgin,  he  betrothed  to  a  husband,  and  a  man  find  her  in  the 
 city,  and  he  lie  with  her,  then  shall  ye  bring  them  both  out  unto 
 the  gate  of  the  city,  and  ye  shall  stone  them  with  stones,  that  they 
 die ;  the  damsel,  because  she  cried  not,  being  in  the  city ;  and 
 
950 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I, 
 
 After  this  interruption,  Jesus  returned  to  the  business 
 of  instructing  the  people,  and,  in  a  sublime  discourse, 
 opened  several  great  mysteries  of  Christianity,  namely, 
 his  divine  mission,  his  co-equality  with  the  Father,  his 
 ability  to  give  eternal  life  to  his  followers,  and  the 
 necessity  of  believing  in  him,  which  would  be  more  evi- 
 dent after  his  crucifixion ;  and  thence  taking  occasion 
 to  expose  the  wickedness  and  degeneracy  of  those,  who 
 sought  to  take  away  his  life,  and  how  unlike  to  the  be- 
 haviour of  the  sons  of  God  and  Abraham  whom  they 
 boasted  themselves  to  be,  such  causeless  and  inveterate 
 malice  was,  he  so  provoked  them  with  his  severe  reflec- 
 tions, and  especially  with  the  superiority  which  he  claim- 
 ed above  Abraham  that  they  took  up  stones  to  cast  at 
 him,  had  he  not  miraculously  conveyed  himself  out  of 
 their  hands.  a 
 
 Before  our  Lord  left  Jerusalem,  the  seventy  disciples, 
 whom  he  had  sent  to  preach  the  gospel,  returned  from 
 their  journey  and  ministry,  greatly  rejoicing,  because 
 the  very  devils,  by  virtue  of  his  name,  b  were  subjected 
 to  them  ;  whereupon  our  Lord  promised  them  still  greater 
 success ;  invested  them  with  power  to  tread  upon  the 
 most  venemous  beasts, c  and  all  the  malignant  instruments 
 
 the  man,  because  he  hath  humbled  his  neighbour's  wife,'  Deut. 
 xxii.  23,  24.  The  punishment  of  stoning,  which  this  law  men- 
 tions, and  the  accusers  of  this  woman  here  insist  on,  seem  to 
 favour  this  notion :  and  the  indulgence  which  our  Saviour  showed 
 her,  looks  as  if  she  had  suffered  some  kind  of  violence,  though  she 
 was  not  entirely  innocent.  Our  Saviour,  however,  could  not  act  in 
 the  capacity  of  a  judge,  because  that  was  no  part  of  his  present 
 ministry:  though  therefore  he  was  so  far  from  approving  her 
 conduct,  that  he  sufficiently  blamed  her,  in  bidding  her  '  sin  no 
 more,'  yet  was  he  restrained  from  pronouncing  any  sentence  of 
 condemnation  upon  her;  because  the  end  of  his  coming  at  this 
 time  into  the  world  was,  '  not  to  judge  the  world,  but  to  save  it,' 
 John  xii.  47. — Selden,  Uxor.  Heb.  b.  iii.  c.  11;  Fagius  in 
 Deut.  xxii.  22.  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 a  After  describing  various  punishments  which  were  inflicted 
 by  the  Jews  upon  offenders  and  criminals,  Lewis,  (in  his  Origines 
 Hebrccoe,  vol.  i.  p.  85)  says,  "  there  was  another  punishment, 
 called  the  rebels '  beating,  which  was  often  fatal,  and  inflicted  by 
 the  mob  with  their  fists,  or  staves,  or  stones,  without  mercy,  or 
 the  sentence  of  the  judges.  Whoever  transgressed  against  a 
 prohibition  of  the  wise  men,  or  of  the  scribes,  that  had  its  foun- 
 dation in  the  law,  was  delivered  over  to  the  people  to  be  used  in 
 this  manner,  and  was  called  a  son  of  rebellion.  The  frequent 
 taking  up  of  stones  by  the  people  to  stone  our  Saviour,  and  the 
 incursion  upon  him,  St  Stephen  for  blasphemy,  as  they  would 
 have  it,  and  upon  St  Paul  for  defiling  the  temple  as  they  supposed 
 were  of  this  nature." — Ed. 
 
 b  The  power  which  our  Saviour  gave  to  the  Seventy,  when 
 he  sent  them  out  to  preach  the  gospel,  was  only  that  of  healing 
 the  sick  wherever  they  went,  (Luke  x.  9.)  but  finding  that,  upon 
 naming  their  Master's  name,  they  were  able  likewise  to  cure 
 those  that  were  possessed  of  devils,  this  they  made  the  greater 
 matter  of  their  joy,  and,  at  their  return,  told  it  witli  more 
 pleasure,  because  it  was  no  part  of  their  commission.  It  is  to  be 
 observed,  however,  that  our  Lord  himself  cast  out  devils  by  a 
 divine  power  residing  in  himself;  his  disciples  only,  in  virtue 
 of  his  name,  or  by  a  power  derived  from  him.  Seeing  then  that 
 this  power  accompanied  them,  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  it  was 
 necessary  that  Christ's  presence  should  be  with  them  every  where, 
 and  such  a  presence  was  a  certain  proof  of  his  being  God. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Hammond's  Paraphrase. 
 
 c  These  words  seem  to  have  a  plain  allusion  to  those  of  the 
 psalmist,  where,  under  the  metaphor  of  '  treading  on  the  scorpion 
 and  basilisk,'  (Ps.  xci.  13.)  God  promises  the  good  man  a  more 
 than  common  protection  from  all  sorts  of  dangers  and  enemies. 
 But  there  is  no  reason,  however,  I  think,  why  our  Saviour's 
 words  may  not  here  be  taken  in  a  literal  sense,  since  they  agree 
 so  well  with  what  he  promises  all  true  believers  in  another 
 place,  '  they  shall  take  up  serpents,'  as  we  find  one  fastened  upou 
 
 of  Satan,  without  the  least  harm  :  and,  at  the  same  time, 
 gave  them  assurance  of  a  blessing  more  peculiarly  theirs, 
 namely,  that  their  d  names  were  recorded  in  heaven  ;  and 
 so  broke  out  into  a  rapture  of  joy,  glorifying  God  for 
 concealing  the  mysteries  of  the  gospel  from  the  great 
 and  wise,  and  revealing  them  to  the  simple  and  ignorant, 
 and  to  his  disciples  more  especially,  who,  in  virtue  of  that 
 revelation,  enjoyed  a  happiness  which  many  kings  and 
 prophets  had  in  vain  desired. 
 
 Our  Lord  had  scarce  ended  his  discourse,  when  a 
 doctor  of  the  law  stood  up,  and  inquired  of  him,  what 
 was  necessary  to  be  done  for  the  attainment  of  that 
 eternal  life,  e  which  he  was  so  very  liberal  in  promising 
 to  his  followers.  Whereupon  our  Lord  remitted  him  to 
 the  law,  which,  according  to  the  doctor's  own  account, 
 consisted  chiefly  in  the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  our 
 neighbour.  But  when  he  demanded  farther  what  the 
 notion  of  a  neighbour/  implied  ?  our  Saviour  thought 
 proper  to  answer  this  question,  by  telling  him,  "  that, 
 once  upon  a  time,  a  certain  Jew,  as  he  was  travelling  in 
 the  road  between  g  Jerusalem  and  Jericho,  was  robbed, 
 
 St  Paul's  hand  without  doing  him  any  harm,  (Acts  xxviii.  3.) 
 '  and  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them,' 
 Mark  xvi.  IS. — Whitby's  Annotations;  and  Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 a!  The  words  allude  to  a  known  custom  in  well-governed 
 cities,  where  registers  are  kept  of  the  names  of  their  inhabitants, 
 and  do  plainly  denote  the  title  which  believers  have  to  eternal 
 happiness;  but  by  no  means  an  absolute  election  to  it.  For,  as 
 a  citizen,  when  he  misbehaves  egregiously,  and  thereupon  be- 
 comes infamous,  has  his  name  razed  out  of  the  city-register,  and 
 is  himself  disenfranchised  of  all  his  privileges;  so  we  read  of 
 some,  of  whom  Christ  threatens  '  to  blot  out  their  names  out  of 
 the  book  of  life,'  (Rev.  xxii.  19.)  For,  "  as  men  are  written  in 
 this  book,"  says  St  Basil  (in  Is.  iv.  3.)  when  they  are  converted 
 from  vice  to  virtue,  so  are  they  blotted  out  of  it,  when  they 
 backslide  from  virtue  to  vice."  Of  the  twelve  we  read  that  one  was 
 certainly  a  reprobate  ;  and  though  it  becomes  us  to  hope  better 
 of  the  Seventy;  yet  our  Saviour's  words  give  us  no  room  to 
 think  that  they  were  all  predestinated  to  eternal  life,  since  his 
 meaning  only  is,  that  his  disciples,  instead  of  estimating  their 
 happiness  from  the  power  of  working  miracles,  should  rather 
 make  it  consist  in  this,  that  he  had  called,  chosen  and  separated 
 them  from  great  numbers  that  would  perish;  that  he  had  given 
 them  the  grace  of  faith  and  admission  to  the  Christian  covenant, 
 but  that  on  themselves  it  was  incumbent,  by  the  preservation  of 
 their  faith,  and  the  practice  of  good  works  comporting  therewith, 
 to  make  their  calling  and  election  sure. — Hammond  and  WTiit- 
 by's  Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  law  of  Moses  does  no  where  expressly  promise  eternal 
 life  to  those  that  observed  its  precepts.  It  is  wholly  taken  up 
 with  temporal  blessings  and  prosperities;  and  yet  the  generality 
 of  the  Jews  were  not  destitute  of  the  hopes  of  another  life,  be- 
 cause their  writers,  a  little  before,  and  after  the  captivity,  are 
 very  full  of  it,  so  that  it  became  the  prevailing  opinion  of  the 
 whole  nation,  and  was  received  by  their  two  principal  sects,  the 
 Pharisees  and  Essenes:  for,  as  for  the  Sadducees,  who  had  other 
 notions  of  the  matter,  their  religion  was  very  little,  and  their 
 principles  purely  Epicurean. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 /In  our  Saviour's  time,  the  Pharisees  had  restrained  the 
 word  neighbour,  to  signify  those  of  their  own  nation,  their  own 
 religion,  and  their  own  friends  only:  and  all  who  differ  from 
 them  in  any  of  these  respects,  they  indulged  the  people  the  liberty 
 to  hate ;  nor  would  they  permit  them  to  extend  the  least  office 
 of  common  civility  to  any  such.  But  our  Saviour  overthrew 
 these  false  maxims  of  the  Jewish  doctors,  and  reduced  the  pre- 
 cept of  universal  charity  to  its  first  intention,  when,  In  this 
 parable  of  the  Jew  and  the  Samaritan,  he  plainly  demonstrated, 
 that  no  difference  of  nation  or  religion,  no  quarrel  or  resentment, 
 no  enmity  or  alienation  of  affections,  can  exempt  us  from  owning 
 any  person  to  be  our  neighbour. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 g  Between  Jerusalem  and  Jericho,  which  were  about  seven 
 leagues  distant,  the  road  was  very  infamous  for  murders  and 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 951 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ,  OR  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 
 stripped,  barbarously  used,  and  left  almost  dead  with 
 his  wounds ;  that  by  chance  a  priest a  came  that  way, 
 and  saw  the  poor  wretch  weltering  in  his  blood  ;  but  the 
 horror  of  the  sight  did  not  affect  him ;  he  passed  along 
 unconcerned ;  that  next  came  a  Levite ;  but  he  too  was 
 as  void  of  tenderness  and  compassion  as  was  the  priest, 
 though  both  of  them  were  of  the  same  country  with  the 
 sufferer;  that  at  last  a  Samaritan,  a  stranger,  and  one 
 abhorred  by  the  Jews,  seeing  this  distressed  person, 
 with  great  compassion  came  to  him,  raised  his  head, 
 recalled  his  fainting  spirits,  and  closed  his  gaping 
 wounds  with  the  best  medicines  b  he  had  then,  mounting 
 him  on  his  own  horse,  he  gently  conveyed  him  to  the 
 first  inn,  where,  at  his  own  cost,  he  entertained  him, 
 while  he  staid  with  him,  and,  at  his  departure,  c  promised 
 the  host  to  be  at  whatever  expenses  more  should  accrue." 
 From  which  plain  narration,  the  Doctor  himself d  could 
 not  but  conclude,  that  the  Samaritan  was  the  neighbour 
 to  the   person  in  distress,  and  consequently  that  the 
 
 — xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  It.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 robberies;  for  in  it  was  a  place  called  '  the  valley  of  Adommim,' 
 or  '  of  bloody  men,'  because  of  the  great  quantity  of  blood  that  was 
 there  spilt;  and  for  this  reason  it  is  that  our  Lord  lays  the  scene 
 of  his  parable  in  this  place. — Calmet's  Commentary. — This  road 
 is  described  by  Buckingham  as  being  of  the  most  wild  and 
 gloomy  character,  passing  through  a  series  of  rocky  defiles,  and 
 on  the  edges  of  cliffs  and  precipices.  It  is  considered  the  most 
 dangerous  in  Palestine,  and  Mr  Wilson  remarks,  that  a  country 
 more  favourable  for  the  attacks  of  banditti,  and  dens  better 
 adapted  for  concealment,  can  hardly  be  imagined.  It  is  remark- 
 able, that  both  Chateaubriand,  and  Sir  Frederick  Henniker  met 
 with  serious  adventures  with  the  robbers  of  this  region. — Ed. 
 
 a  To  make  the  description  more  lively,  our  Saviour  instances 
 in  two  men,  a  priest  and  a  Levite,  who  took  no  pity  of  this  Jew 
 in  distress,  though  they  were  of  the  same  religion  and  country; 
 nay,  though  they  were  the  ministers  and  teachers  of  the  religion 
 which  he  professed,  and  might  therefore  be  presumed,  even  in 
 virtue  of  their  office  and  education,  to  have  more  extensive 
 notions,  and  hearts  more  capable  of  tender  impressions,  than  the 
 ruder  vulgar:  and,  for  the  same  reason,  he  introduces  a  Samari- 
 tan acting  a  different  part,  and  taking  all  imaginable  care  of  this 
 wounded  Jew,  though  between  Jews  and  Samaritans  there  was 
 a  most  inveterate  hatred. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  pouring  in  wine  and  oil ;  oil,  to 
 ease  and  assuage  the  pain;  and  wine,  to  cleanse  and  heal  the 
 wound:  and  these  things  the  good  Samaritan  had  about  him, 
 because  the  inns  in  the  eastern  countries,  even  as  it  is  still, 
 afforded  nothing,  but  barely  house-room;  and  therefore  the 
 custom  was,  for  the  traveller  to  carry  all  kinds  of  necessaries, 
 both  for  his  bed  and  board,  along  with  him. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  when  he  departed  he  took  out 
 twopence,'  (Luke  x.  35.)  The  S«vaj/ov,  which  we  render  a 
 penny,  was  a  kind  of  Roman  coin,  much  about  sevenpence 
 halfpenny  of  our  money.  In  the  New  Testament,  for  it  never 
 occurs  in  the  Old,  it  is  usually  put  for  a  piece  of  money  in 
 general,  that  is  for  a  shekel,  which  was  the  most  common  coin 
 among  the  Jews  before  they  became  subject  to  the  Greeks  and 
 Romans;  so  that,  in  this  sense,  what  the  Samaritan  gave  the 
 host  amounted  to  five  shillings,  or  thereabout,  which  is  more 
 consistent  with  the  rest  of  his  character  than  that  he  should 
 leave  so  small  a  matter  behind  him. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  Had  our  Saviour  propounded  the  parable  in  this  manner, 
 that  a  certain  Samaritan  fell  among  thieves,  and  that  a  priest 
 and  a  Levite  passed  by  without  offering  him  any  help,  this 
 doctor  of  the  law  might  have  replied,  that  he  did  nothing  but 
 right,  because  the  Samaritan  was  no  neighbour  of  theirs:  but, 
 now,  as  he  makes  a  Jew  the  subject  of  the  parable,  and  the 
 object  of  the  Samaritan's  compassion,  he  draws  him  in  to 
 acknowledge  the  voice  of  nature,  which  declares  that  every  man 
 is  neighbour  to  his  fellow-creature,  and  that  the  law  of  Moses 
 has  not  annulled,  but  perfected  the  law  of  nature,  by  command- 
 ing us  to  '  love  our  neighbour  as  ourselves,'  (Lev.  xix.  18. — 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 notion  of  a  neighbour  comprehended  men  of  all  nations 
 and  all  religions  whatever. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  feast  of  tabernacles  was  ended,  our 
 Lord  departed  from  Jerusalem,  and,  in  the  beginning 
 of  his  journey,  went  to  a  small  village  called  Bethany, 
 about  two  miles  east  of  Jerusalem,  where  he  was  joy- 
 fully received  by  a  woman  named  Martha,  who,  with  her 
 sister  Mary,  and  her  brother  Lazarus,  was  highly  in 
 favour  with  him.  While  Martha  was  busy  in  making 
 preparation  for  his  entertainment,  her  sister  Mary  sat 
 with  the  company  listening  to  his  instructions ;  and 
 when  Martha  complained  to  him  that  her  sister  had  left 
 the  whole  burden  of  the  business  upon  her,  and  there- 
 upon desired  him  to  send  her  to  her  assistance,  our  Lord 
 commended  Mary's  choice,  and  though  he  did  not  slight 
 Martha's  civility,  yet  her  sister's  devoutness  and  atten- 
 tion to  his  doctrine/ which  Avas  one  thing  chiefly  neces- 
 sary, he  preferred  before  it. 
 
 Upon  his  return  to  Galilee,  as  he  was  one  day  pray- 
 ing with  his  disciples  in  a  private  place, /they,  taking 
 it  into  consideration  how  necessary  it  was  for  them  to 
 be  directed  in  the  right  performance  of  that  duty,  desired 
 of  him  to  compose  a  form  of  prayer  for  their  use,  as  the 
 Baptist  had  done  for  his  disciples.  Whereupon  he  not 
 only  gave  them  the  same  excellent  form,  called  the 
 Lord's  prayer,  which  he  had  given  them  about  eighteen 
 months  before,  in  his  sermon  on  the  mount,  but  encour- 
 aged them  likewise,  from  the  consideration  of  God's 
 goodness  and  fatherly  affection  (far  more  indulgent  to 
 his  children  than  any  earthly  parent's  were  to  theirs)  to 
 be  constant  in  their  petitions  to  him,  with  fervour,  S  im- 
 portunity, and  an  indefatigable  perseverance  as  the  like- 
 liest way  to  obtain  a  gracious  answer  to  them. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  upon  our  Lord's  curing  a  demon- 
 iac that  was  dumb,  the  Pharisees  renewed  their  old 
 senseless  cavil,  of  his  ejecting  devils  by  Beelzebub, 
 which  he  confuted  by  the  same  arguments  he  had  for- 
 merly used  upon  that  account ;  and  when  they  again  de- 
 manded of  him  a  sign  from  heaven,  he  again  made  them 
 the  same  reply.  Nay  not  only  so,  but  when  he  was 
 invited  to  dinner  one  day  by  a  certain  person  of  that 
 sect,  who  was  not  a  little  offended  at  his  sitting  down 
 to  meat  without  washing  his  hands,  he  took  occasion 
 from  thence  to  inveigh  very  severely  against  their  ridi- 
 
 e  Interpreters  have  given  themselves  some  trouble  in  deter- 
 mining what  that  one  thing  is  which  onr  Saviour  accounts  need- 
 ful. Some  of  the  ancients  are  of  opinion  that  our  Lord,  in  this 
 expression,  told  Martha  that  one  dish  was  enough.  But  besides 
 the  lowness  of  the  sense,  the  great  company  that  attended  our 
 Lord,  seventy  disciples  and  twelve  apostles,  to  be  sure,  if  no 
 more,  shows  the  incongruousness  of  it.  Others  will  have  this 
 one  thing  needful  to  be  a  life  of  meditation  and  contemplation, 
 which  Mary  had  all  along  addicted  herself  to;  but  her  choosing 
 to  take  advantage  of  our  Saviour's  company,  to  hear  him  for  an 
 hour  or  two  rather,  than  prepare  a  supper  for  him,  is  not  founda- 
 tion enough  for  this  conjecture;  and  therefore  we  cannot  but 
 think  that  the  most  general  interpretation  concerning  the  care 
 of  the  soul  with  reference  to  eternity  is  the  best. — Poole's  An- 
 notations. 
 
 f  These  disciples  must  have  been  some  of  the  seventy  who 
 were  not  present  when  our  Lord  delivered  his  sermon  on  the 
 mount,  wherein  he  first  of  all  prescribed  to  his  apostles  this  form 
 of  prayer.^ — Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 g  The  word  xvaibila  properly  signifies  impudence,  and  might 
 here  be  used  in  conformity  to  the  saying  of  the  Jews,  "  The 
 impudent  man  overcomes  the  modest  and  the  bashful,  how  much 
 more  God,  who  is  goodness  itself." — ir/iitliy's  Annotations. 
 
952 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  \  III. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT  .  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1 
 
 culous  superstition,  in  affecting  outward  neatness  in 
 their  manner  of  living,  while  they  neglected  to  cleanse 
 their  souls  from  internal  pollutions.  And  so  proceed- 
 ing to  reproach  both  them  and  the  scribes,  the  teachers 
 of  the  law,  with  their  pride  and  prevarication,  their 
 hypocrisy  and  spirit  of  persecution,  he  so  exasperated 
 them,  that  they  used  all  possible  methods  to  ensnare 
 him  in  his  speech,  and  to  find  some  accusation  against 
 him,  whereby  they  might  destroy  him. 
 
 One  of  the  company,  however,  seeing  with  what  au- 
 thority he  reproved  and  determined  among  the  people, 
 desired  of  him  a  to  arbitrate  between  him  and  his  bro- 
 ther concerning  an  estate  which  had  lately  fallen  to 
 them.  But  this  office  he  chose  to  decline,  and  thence 
 took  occasion  to  preach  against  covetousness,  or  plac- 
 ing our  felicity  in  worldly  possessions ;  and  to  enforce 
 this,  he  propounded  the  parable  of  a  certain  rich  man, 
 who,  when  he  had  acquired  estate  enough,  proposed  to 
 indulge  himself  in  voluptuousness,  but  was  sadly  disap- 
 pointed by  the  intervention  of  a  sudden  death.  He 
 therefore  exhorted  his  disciples  not  to  be  too  anxious 
 about  the  things  of  this  life,  but  to  cast  their  care  upon 
 God's  providence,  who,  having  promised  them  a  king- 
 dom in  heaven,  would  not  fail  of  supplying  them  with 
 what  was  necessary  here.  He  exhorted  them  to  charity, 
 to  watchfulness,  to  preparation  against  the  day  of  judg- 
 ment, or  the  arrest  of  death,  and,  under  the  emblem  of 
 stewards  or  governors  in  great  men's  houses,  recom- 
 mended gentleness  and  temperance,  and  cautioned 
 them  against  indulging  themselves  in  any  kind  of  ex- 
 cess upon  the  confidence  of  their  Lord's  absence  or 
 delay. 
 
 While  he  was  thus  discoursing  to  his  disciples,  news 
 was  brought  him  of  *   the  massacre   which  Pilate  had 
 
 a  The  practice  among  the  Jews  of  referring  civil  matters  to 
 ecclesiastical  persons  as  judges,  began  in  the  captivity  of  Baby- 
 lon, when,  by  this  means,  the  Jews  avoided  the  bringing  their 
 differences  before  heathen  judges.  Under  the  dominion  of  the 
 Romans,  they  were  indulged  a  greater  liberty,  and  had  civil 
 courts  made  up  of  persons  of  their  own  religion.  In  cases  of 
 private  difference  between  man  and  man,  it  was  usual  to  make 
 either  the  consistory  of  three,  or  some  persons  chosen  by  the 
 contending  parties,  arbitrators.  Whether  both  these  brothers 
 had  agreed  to  refer  their  difference  to  our  Lord's  determination, 
 or  this  one  of  them  only  desired  him  to  interpose  his  authority, 
 if  not  to  enjoin,  at  least  to  persuade,  his  brother  to  come  to  an 
 accommodation,  it  is  difficult  to  say,  because  the  scripture  is 
 silent.  But  this  we  may  observe,  that  the  ordinary  rule  of 
 inheritance  among  the  Jews  was,  for  the  eldest  son  to  have  a 
 double  portion  of  his  father's  estate,  and  the  rest  to  be  divided 
 equally  among  the  other  children;  but  in  what  came  by  the 
 mother,  the  eldest  had  no  prerogative  above  the  rest;  the  divi- 
 sion among  them  was  equal.  Whatever  then  the  controversy 
 between  these  brothers  was,  our  Saviour  might  very  justly  refuse 
 to  intermeddle  in  it;  and  that,  not  only  because  it  was  incon- 
 sistent with  his  design  of  coming  into  the  world,  which  was  to 
 promote  men's  spiritual,  rather  than  their  temporal  interests, 
 but  because  it  might  probably  have  drawn  upon  him  the  envy 
 and  calumny  of  the  Jewish  rulers,  who  might  be  apt  to  say  that 
 he  took  upon  him  an  office  to  which  he  had  no  call,  in  prejudice 
 to  them  who  were  legally  appointed  to  it. — Poole'' s  and  Whitby 's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  general  opinion  is,  that  this  piece  of  history  relates  to  the 
 sedition  which  Judas  Gaulonites  raised  against  the  Roman  govern- 
 ment in  Judea,  when  he  and  one  Sadducus,  a  Pharisee,  possessed 
 the  people  with  a  notion,  "that  taxes  were  a  badge  of  their  slavery ; 
 that  they  ought  to  acknowledge  no  sovereign  but  God  himself, 
 nor  pay  any  tribute  but  to  his  temple."  It  was  in  Galilee,  very 
 probably,  where  this  Judas  first  broached  these  sentiments,  and 
 
 ix.  37-  JOHN  v.  1 — vii.  1. 
 
 caused  to  be  made  of  some  Galileans,  while  they  were 
 offering-  their  sacrifices  at  the  altar ;  and  the  con- 
 sequence which  he  drew  from  thence,  as  Avell  as  from 
 another  sad  accident  that  had  lately  happened  in  Jeru- 
 salem, where  the  fall  of  the  tower  of  Siloam  c  had  de- 
 stroyed no  less  than  eighteen  persons,  was,  not  that  these 
 sufferers  were  greater  sinners  than  their  neighbours,  but 
 that  their  sufferings  were  intended  to  lead  others  to 
 repentance,  which,  if  they  did  not,  in  all  probability 
 they  would  meet  with  the  like  or  worse  judgments.  d 
 And  then,  to  engage  them  all  to  a  speedy  repentance, 
 he  set  forth  the  patience  of  the  Almighty  towards  them, 
 in  the  parable  of  a  fig-tree,  which  the  master  of  the 
 vineyard  ordered  to  be  cut  down,  because  for  three 
 years,  e  it  had  borne  no  fruit ;  but,  upon  the  gardener's 
 
 there  acquired  such  a  multitude  of  followers  and  abettors  as 
 made  Josephus  call  him  Galikeus,  as  well  as  Gaulonites.  {Antiq. 
 b.  xviii.  e.  2.)  Nay  all  his  followers  in  general,  though  they 
 were  of  different  provinces  by  birth,  obtained  the  same  name. 
 But  when  they  came  to  Jerusalem  at  one  of  the  great  festivals, 
 and  began  to  spread  these  seditious  notions  against  Cresar,  Pilate, 
 who  was  then  the  Roman  governor,  having  had  intelligence  of 
 it,  caused  a  considerable  number  of  them  to  be  slain  in  the 
 temple  while  they  were  sacrificing. — Whitby  s  and  Beausobre 's 
 Annotations. 
 
 c  The  fountain  of  Siloam  rose  at  the  foot  of  the  wall  of  the 
 east  part  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  The  tower  called  after  its 
 name  was  doubtless  built  upon  the  wall  not  far  from  it;  and 
 being  now  become  ancient,  might  fall  upon  such  a  number  of 
 people,  either  passing  by  or  standing  under  it.  But  how  this 
 accident  came  to  pass  we  have  no  manner  of  certainty,  because 
 this  passage  in  St  Luke  is  the  only  place  where  we  find  any 
 mention  made  of  this  piece  of  history. —  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  To  verify  this  prediction  of  our  Saviour's  upon  the  impeni- 
 tent Jews,  we  may  remember  what  Josephus  has  told  us  of 
 them,  namely,  that  under  the  government  of  Cumanus,  twenty 
 thousand  of  them  were  destroyed  about  the  temple.  {Antiq.  b. 
 xx.  c.  4.)  That,  upon  the  admission  of  the  Idumaeans  into  the 
 city,  eight  thousand  and  five  hundred  of  the  high  priest's  party 
 were  slain,  insomuch  that  there  was  a  flood  of  blood  quite  round 
 the  temple.  {Jewish  War,  b.  iv.  c.  7.)  That,  upon  the  three- 
 fold faction  that  happened  in  Jerusalem,  before  the  siege  of  the 
 Romans,  '  the  temple  was  everywhere  polluted  with  slaughter ; 
 the  priests  were  slain  in  the  exercise  of  their  function ;  many 
 who  came  to  worship  fell  before  their  sacrifices ;  and  the  dead 
 bodies  of  strangers  and  natives  were  promiscuously  blended  to- 
 gether, and  sprinkled  the  altar  with  their  blood;'  (Jewish  War, 
 
 b.  vi.  c.  1.)  and  that,  upon  the  Romans  taking  the  city  and 
 temple,  "  mountains  of  dead  bodies  were  piled  up  about  the  altar ; 
 streams  of  blood  ran  down  the  steps  of  the  temple;  several  were 
 destroyed  by  the  fall  of  towers,  and  others  choked  in  the  sultry 
 ruins  of  the  galleries  over  the  porches."  {Jewish  War,  b.  vii. 
 
 c.  10.) 
 
 e  Some  of  the  ancients  are  of  opinion  that  by  these  three  years 
 we  are  to  understand  the  three  dispensations  under  which  man- 
 kind have  lived,  namely,  under  the  natural  law,  from  the  begin- 
 ning of  the  world  to  the  time  of  Moses;  under  the  written  law 
 from  Moses  to  Jesus  Christ;  and  under  the  evangelical  law, 
 from  Jesus  Christ  to  the  end  of  the  world.  Others  rather  mean 
 by  them  the  three  kinds  of  government  under  which  the  Jews 
 had  lived,  namely,  the  government  of  judges,  from  Joshua  to 
 Saul ;  the  government  of  kings,  from  Saul  to  the  Babylonish 
 captivity;  and  the  government  of  high  priests,  from  the  captiv- 
 ity to  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  these  explications  are  a 
 little  too  arbitrary;  nor  will  the  three  years  of  our  Saviour's 
 preaching  among  the  Jews  come  up  to  the  point,  because  the 
 Jews  were  not  destroyed  the  next  year,  as  the  barren  fig-tree 
 was  to  be  cut  down,  but  forty  years  after  our  Lord's  ascension. 
 All  that  is  meant  by  the  expression  therefore  is,  that  God  gave 
 them  all  the  time  and  all  the  means  that  could  be  desired,  to 
 make  them  inexcusable;  and  the  term  of  three  years  seems 
 rather  to  be  mentioned,  because  the  fruit  of  some  fig-trees 
 comes  not  to  maturity  till  the  third  year. —  Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary, and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.   III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 953 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 :  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1.— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— is.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I. 
 
 promising  to  use  «a  more  than  ordinary  care  and  dili- 
 gence about  it,  he  was  prevailed  on  to  let  it  stand  one 
 year  longer,  but  with  this  determination,  that  if  it  still 
 continued  unfruitful,  he  would  not  then  fail  to  cut  it 
 down. 
 
 Every  sabbath-day  our  Lord's  custom  was  to  preach 
 in  one  of  the  Jewish  synagogues,  and,  while  he  was  thus 
 employed,  he  observed  a  woman,  who,  for  the  space  of 
 eighteen  years,  had  laboured  under  a  spirit  of  infirmity,  « 
 which  bowed  down  her  body  so,  that  she  was  not  able 
 to  lift  herself  up.  Here  was  a  proper  object  for  his 
 compassion  and  power  to  exert  themselves  ;  and  there- 
 fore, calling  the  woman  to  him,  he  laid  his  hands  upon 
 her,  and  immediately  she  became  straight,  and  glorified 
 God.  At  this  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue  b  became  so 
 very  envious  and  displeased,  that  he  told  the  people 
 there  were  six  days  in  the  week  allowed  by  God  for 
 labour,  and  that  on  those  they  might  come  for  cure,  but 
 not  on  the  sabbath,  which  was  a  day  appointed  for 
 rest.  But  our  Lord  soon  made  hi  in  ashamed  of  his 
 hypocrisy,  c  by  an  argument  drawn  from  their  own 
 practice  of  loosing  an  ox  or  an  ass  from  the  stall  on  the 
 sabbath-day,  and  leading  them  away  to  watering ;  and 
 much  more  then  might  he  be  permitted  to  cure  on  that 
 day  a  daughter  of  Abraham,  whom  Satan  for  so  many 
 years  had  afflicted  with  a  sore  disease.  Whereupon  his 
 adversaries  were  silenced,  but  the  people  were  all  glad, 
 and  rejoiced  at  his  glorious  actions. 
 
 The   feast   of    dedication   d  was  now  approaching, 
 
 a  It  is  very  evident  the  Jews  apprehended  that  all  remarkable 
 disorders  of  body  proceeded  from  the  operation  of  some  malig- 
 nant demons.  Perhaps  they  might  draw  an  argument  from 
 what  is  said  of  Satan's  agency  in  the  affliction  of  Job  (chap.  i. 
 and  ii.),  and  from  Ps.  xci.  6.  (comp.  Septuagint)  and  1  Sam.  xvi. 
 14.  They  also  considered  Satan  as  having  the  power  of  death. 
 (Heb.  ii.  14.)  And  that  in  some  maladies  this  was  indeed  the 
 case,  is  intimated  by  our  Lord's  reply  here  (ver.  16.),  and  by  St 
 Paul's  words  (1  Cor.  v.  5,),  where  he  speaks  of  delivering  an 
 offender  to  Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh.  The  topic  is 
 very  judiciously  handled  by  that  illustrious  writer  Mr  Howey 
 (see  his  works,  vol.  ii.  pp.  360,  361);  and  there  are  some  curious 
 and  entertaining  remarks  in  Wolfius  on  this  text. — Doddridge's 
 Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 b  In  every  synagogue  there  was  a  considerable  number  of 
 doctors  of  the  law,  who  in  the  gospel  are  frequently  called  rulers 
 or  governors,  and  over  these  there  was  usually  one  chief  presi- 
 dent. But  the  person  here  seems  not  to  have  been  the  chief 
 president,  but  one  of  the  subordinate  rulers,  because  we  find 
 him,  not  addressing  himself  particularly  to  Christ,  (which,  not 
 improbably,  had  he  been  the  president,  he  would  have  taken 
 courage  to  do,)  but  only  to  the  people  in  general ;  though  by  them 
 he  obliquely  struck  at  our  Saviour. — Bcausobre's  Annotations, 
 and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Our  Saviour  declared  this  ruler  of  the  synagogue  to  be  an 
 hypocrite,  partly  because  he  placed  his  holiness  in  the  observa- 
 tion of  the  ritual  precepts  of  the  law,  such  as  bodily  rest  on  the 
 sabbath-day,  to  the  disparagement  of  the  works  of  mercy,  and 
 other  great  matters  of  eternal  obligation ;  and  partly  because  he 
 pretended  to  a  great  zeal  for  the  performance  of  God's  com- 
 mands, when,  all  the  while,  he  was  rather  actuated  by  a  male- 
 volent envy  to  the  glory  of  Christ,  which  he,  to  whom  his  heart 
 was  open,  perfectly  knew. —  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  When  Judas  Maccaboeus  had  cleansed  the  temple,  which 
 had  been  polluted  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  he  again  dedi- 
 cated the  altar  ;  (1  Mac.  iv.  59.  and  2  Mac.  x.  8.)  and  this  is 
 supposed  to  be  the  dedication,  in  memory  of  which  the  Jews 
 continued  to  celebrate  a  feast,  which  fell  out  in  the  winter,  in 
 the  month  Chisleu,  between  the  13th  and  14th  of  our  Novem- 
 ber; and  being  the  same,  in  all  probability,  with  what  in  the 
 gospel  is  called  to.  lyKaivia,  was  honoured  and  approved  by  our 
 Saviour's  presence,  though  but  of  human  institution. — Whitby's 
 
 when,  after  several  removals,  our  Lord  repaired  again 
 to  Jerusalem,  and,  as  he  was  walking  in  the  streets  on 
 the  sabbath-day,  e  saw  a  poor  man  that  was  blind  from 
 his  very  birth.  Upon  his  calling  the  man  to  him,  his 
 disciples  asked  him,  whether  it  was  the  /  man's  own  or 
 his  parents'  sin  that  had  brought  that  calamity  upon 
 him  ?  But  his  blindness,  as  he  told  them,  was  not  sent 
 for  a  punishment  of  any  one's  sin,  but  e  for  the  greater 
 manifestation  of  God's  glory  ;  and  so,  spitting  upon  the 
 ground,  he  made  some  clay,  and  having  anointed  his 
 eyes  therewith,  he  h  sent  him  to  wash  them  in  the  pool 
 of  Siloam  ;  which  accordingly  he  did,  and  returned  with 
 
 Annotations,  Hammond's  Paraphrase,  and  Echard's  Eccl. 
 Hist.,  b.  i.  c.  5. 
 
 e  It  has  been  observed  before,  that  our  Saviour  made  choice 
 of  the  sabbath-day  as  a  day  wherein  he  did  many  of  his  mighty 
 works.  It  was  on  this  day  that  he  cured  the  impotent  man  who 
 lay  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda  (John  v.  10.)  on  this  day  that  iie 
 healed  him  who  had  the  withered  hand,  (Mat.  xii.  10.)  and 
 now  on  this  day  likewise  that  he  gave  sight  to  the  man  who  was 
 born  blind,  (John  ix.  14.)  and  possibly  he  might  choose  this, 
 because  it  was  the  day  whereon  he  ordinarily  preached  that 
 heavenly  doctrine,  which  he  confirmed  by  these  miraculous 
 works ;  or  perhaps,  that  he  might  instruct  the  Jews,  if  they 
 would  have  received  instruction,  in  the  right  observation  of  the 
 sabbath,  and  arm  his  disciples  against  that  pernicious  doctrine 
 of  the  Pharisees,  namely,  that  it  was  not  lawful  to  do  good,  or 
 perform  works  of  mercy  and  compassion  on  that  day. — Poole's 
 and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  What  the  disciples  might  mean  by  the  sin  of  the  blind  man's 
 parents,  is  no  hard  matter  to  solve,  considering  the  strict  prohibi- 
 tion in  the  law,  (Lev.  xx.  18.)  of  not  coming  near  a  menstruous 
 woman,  which  was  thought  to  have  so  ill  an  influence  upon  the 
 child,  as  to  make  it  obnoxious  to  leprosy,  or  mutilation,  and 
 might  consequently  be  the  cause  of  this  person's  blindness. 
 But  what  we  are  to  understand  by  his  own  sin,  before  he  was 
 born, isnot  so  easy  to  be  determined.  That  it  cannot  relate  to 
 the  original  sin  which  he  brought  into  the  world  with  him  is 
 evident,  because  all  mankind,  our  Lord  only  excepted,  are 
 equally  guilty  of  this  ;  nor  does  this  entail  upon  them  any  cor- 
 poreal imperfection:  and  therefore  the  sin  here  intended  must 
 be  something  special  and  personal.  Now,  whoever  considers 
 that  the  opinion  of  the  Platonists  and  Pythagoreans  concerning 
 the  pre-existence  of  souls,  their  transmigration  from  one  body  to 
 another,  and  being  sent  into  bodies  better  or  worse,  according  to 
 their  merit  or  demerit,  had  obtained  among  the  Jews,  and  more 
 especially  among  the  Pharisees,  need  not  much  wonder  to  find 
 our  Lord's  disciples  infected  with  it,  or,  at  least,  desirous  to 
 know  their  master's  sentiments  about  it.  The  author  of  the 
 book  of  Wisdom,  where  speaking  of  himself,  he  tells  us,  '  that, 
 being  good,  he  came  into  a  body  undefiled,'  that  is,  free  from  any 
 notable  infirmity,  (chap.  viii.  20.)  gives  countenance  to  this 
 doctrine  ;  and,  in  the  writings  of  Philo,  (on  Giants,  p.  2S5,  and 
 Dreams,  p.  586.)  and  of  Josephus,  (Jewish  War,  b.  ii.  c.  12.) 
 we  have  it  confirmed  to  us.  And  therefore  the  disciples  may 
 well  be  supposed  to  inquire  here,  whether  our  Lord  allowed  of 
 the  prevailing  notion,  namely,  that  the  soul  of  this  man  might 
 be  put  into  this  imperfect  body,  for  the  punishment  of  what  he 
 had  done,  either  in  or  out  of  the  body,  in  a  pre-existent  state. 
 — Whitby's  and  Hammond's  Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 g  It  must  not  be  thought  that  God  did  any  ways  actively  con- 
 cur to  make  this  man  blind,  though,  in  his  wisdom,  he  thought 
 fit  to  leave  this  imperfection  in  the  plastic  matter  whereof  lit 
 was  formed  unrectified,  that  thereby  he  might  show  his  miracu 
 lous  power  in  giving  sight  to  such  an  one  for  the  confirmation 
 of  Christ's  doctrine ;  thereby  display  his  goodness,  in  illuminat 
 ing  both  the  soul  and  body  of  this  man  at  once ;  and  thereby 
 give  all  others,  who  beheld  this  miraculous  cure,  a  powerful 
 motive  to  believe. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 h  We  read  of  nothing  medicinal  in  this  water,  only  our  Lord 
 was  pleased  to  send  the  blind  man  to  wash  his  eyes  here,  as  a 
 probation  of  his  faith  and  obedience,  in  the  same  manner  as,  of 
 old,  Naaman  the  Syrian  was  sent  to  wash  in  the  river  Jordan. 
 (2  Kings  v.  10.) — Poole's  Annotations. 
 6e 
 
954 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31.  OR,  A.  M.  5411.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 
 such  perfect  eyesight  that  his  neighbours  were  amazed, 
 and  began  to  question  whether  he  was  the  same  man 
 that  used  to  sit  begging,  until  he  assured  them  that  he 
 was  the  very  person ;  and,  to  satisfy  them  farther,  not 
 only  told  them  who  his  physician  was,  but  in  what  man- 
 ner his  cure  was  effected. 
 
 Various  were  the  censures  and  opinions  of  men  upon 
 this  occasion.  The  Pharisees,  to  diminish  the  credit  of 
 the  miracle,  said  that  Jesus  could  not  be  a  prophet  sent 
 from  God,  a  because  he  violated  the  sabbath  ;  but  others 
 again  replied,  that  no  impostor  could  be  permitted  to 
 work  such  miracles  as  had  apparently  the  finger  of  God 
 in  them.  Those  who  were  averse  to  believe  the  miracle, 
 or  in  hopes  of  making  the  thing  look  intricate,  sent  for 
 the  parents  of  the  man  that  was  cured,  and  asked  them 
 these  three  questions  :  Whether  he  was  their  son  ?  Whe- 
 ther he  was  born  blind?  and  Whether  they  knew  how 
 and  by  whom  he  was  cured  ?  To  the  two  first  questions 
 they  answered  directly,  that  he  was  their  son,  and  was 
 born  blind ;  but,  as  to  the  last,  they  referred  them  to 
 him,  who,  as  they  told  them,  was  of  age  to  answer  for 
 himself;  not  daring  to  say  any  more  for  fear  of  the 
 sanhedrim,  who  had  made  *  an    order  to  excommunicate 
 
 — xvii.14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— Vii.  I. 
 
 any  person  who  should  acknowledge  Jesus  to  be  Christ, 
 Him  therefore  they  began  to  examine  ;  and  to  draw 
 him  from  the  good  opinion  he  had  conceived  of  his  phy- 
 sician, bid  him  ascribe  the  glory  of  his  cure  wholly  to 
 God,  and  not  to  look  upon  Jesus  with  any  veneration, 
 who  was  a  sinner  and  sabbath-breaker,  and  consequently 
 could  not  come  from  God.  To  which  the  man  boldly 
 replied,  "  That  it  was  very  unaccountable  that  they 
 should  not  perceive  from  whence  the  man  was,  whom 
 God  had  endued  with  such  a  miraculous  poAver  of  open- 
 ing the  eyes  of  one  born  blind,  c  a  thing  that  was  never 
 heard  of  before  since  the  world  began ;  and  that  since 
 it  was  a  certain  truth  d  that  God  heareth  not  sinners,  if 
 
 a  And  yet  they  themselves  acknowledge  that  a  prophet  might 
 do  and  command  things  contrary  to  the  rest  required  by  the 
 sabbath,  which  they  al=o  prove  by  the  example  of  Joshua,  who 
 commanded  that  '  the  ark  should  be  carried  round  Jericho,  the 
 aimed  men  going  before  and  after  it  seven  days,'  one  of  which 
 must  be  the  sabbath  (John  vi.)  How  then  could  that  which  pro- 
 phets, by  the  known  principles  of  the  Jews, were  allowed  to  do,  prove 
 that  Jesus  was  no  prophet,  especially  if  we  consider  that  by  these 
 actions  of  mercy  and  goodness  he  did  not  indeed  violate  the  rest 
 of  the  sabbath,  but  only  their  corrupt  traditions  concerning  it. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  Exclusion  from  sacred  worship,  or  excommunication,  was 
 not  only  an  ecclesiastical  punishment,  but  also  a  civil  one ;  be- 
 cause in  this  theocratic  republic,  there  was  no  distinction  between 
 the  divine  and  the  civil  right.  The  fancies  of  the  rabbins 
 relative  to  the  origin  of  excommunication  are  endless.  Some 
 affirm  that  Adam  excommunicated  Cain  and  his  whole  race ; 
 others,  that  excommunication  began  with  Miriam  for  having 
 spoken  ill  of  Moses ;  others,  again,  find  it  in  the  Song  of  De- 
 borah and  Barak,  (Judg.  v.  23.  *  Curse  ye  Meroz,')  interpret- 
 ing Meroz  as  a  person  who  had  refused  to  assist  Barak.  But  it 
 is  most  probable  that  the  earliest  positive  mention  of  this  pun- 
 ishment occurs  after  the  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity, 
 in  Ezra  x.  7,  8,  or  in  the  anathema  of  Nehemiah  (xiii.  5.) 
 against  those  who  had  married  strange  women.  In  later  times, 
 according  to  the  rabbinical  writers,  there  were  three  degrees  of 
 excommunication  among  the  Jews.  The  first  was  called  vi: 
 (nzdui),  removal  or  separation  from  all  intercourse  with  society: 
 this,  in  the  New  Testament,  is  frequently  termed  casting  out  of 
 the  synagogue.  (John  ix.  22.  xvi.  2.  Luke  vi.  22,  &c.)  This 
 was  in  force  for  thirty  days,  and  might  be  shortened  by  repen- 
 tance. During  its  continuance,  the  excommunicated  party  was 
 prohibited  from  bathing,  from  shaving  his  head,  or  approaching 
 his  wife  or  any  other  person  nearer  than  four  cubits:  but  if  he 
 submitted  to  this  prohibition,  he  was  not  debarred  the  privilege 
 of  attending  the  sacred  rites.  If,  however,  the  party  continued 
 in  his  obstinacy  after  that  time,  the  excommunication  was 
 renewed  with  additional  solemn  maledictions.  This  second 
 degree  was  called  onn  (cHeRe.ii),  which  signifies  to  anathematise 
 or  devote  to  death :  it  involved  an  exclusion  from  the  sacred 
 assemblies.  The  third,  and  last  degree  of  excommunication 
 was  termed  jmw  ao  (shmi-atha)  or  njin  pis  (waRaN-ATHA), 
 that  is,  the  Lord  comcth,  or  -may  the  Lord  come;  intimating  that 
 those  against  whom  it  was  fulminated  had  nothing  more  to  ex- 
 pect but  the  terrible  day  of  judgment.  The  condition  of  those 
 who  were  excommunicated  was  the  most  deplorable  that  can  be 
 imagined.  They  were  perpetually  excluded  from  all  the  rights 
 and  privileges  of  the  Jewish  people,  were  debarred  from  all 
 social  intercourse,  and  were  excluded  from  the  temple  and  the 
 
 synagogues,  on  pain  of  severe  corporal  punishment.  Whoever 
 had  incurred  this  sentence  was  loaded  with  imprecations,  as 
 appears  from  Deut.  xxvii.  where  the  expression  cursed  is  he, 
 is  so  often  repeated :  whence  to  curse  and  to  excommunicate 
 were  equivalent  terms  with  the  Jews.  And  therefore  St  Paul 
 says,  that  '  no  man  speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  calleth  Jesus 
 anathema  or  accursed  '  (I  Cor.  xii.  3.)  that  is,  curses  him  as  the 
 Jews  did,  who  denied  him  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  excommuni- 
 cated the  Christians.  In  the  second  degree,  they  delivered  the 
 excommunicated  party  over  to  Satan,  devoting  him  by  a  solemn 
 curse:  to  this  practice  St  Paul  is  supposed  to  allude,  1  Cor.  v, 
 5;  and  in  this  sense  he  expresses  his  desire  even  to  be  'ac- 
 cursed for  his  brethren,'  (Rom.  ix.  3.),  that  is,  to  be  excom- 
 municated, laden  with  curses,  and  to  suffer  all  the  miseries  con- 
 sequent on  the  infliction  of  this  punishment,  if  it  could  have 
 been  of  any  service  to  his  brethren  the  Jews.  In  order  to 
 impress  the  minds  of  the  people  with  the  greater  horror,  it  is 
 said  that  when  the  offence  was  published  in  the  synagogue,  all 
 the  candles  were  lighted,  and  when  the  proclamation  was  fin- 
 ished, they  were  extinguished,  as  a  sign  that  the  excommuni- 
 cated person  was  deprived  of  the  light  of  heaven;  further,  his 
 goods  were  confiscated,  his  sons  were  not  admitted  to  circumci- 
 sion; and  if  he  died  without  repentance  or  absolution,  by  the 
 sentence  of  the  judge  a  stone  was  to  be  cast  upon  his  coffin  or 
 bier,  in  order  to  show  that  he  deserved  to  be  stoned. — Home's 
 Introduction,  vol.  iii.  pp.  149,  150. 
 
 c  They  who  lose  their  sight  by  a  disease  may  be  cured;  but 
 no  man,  no  not  Moses  or  any  of  the  prophets,  ever  did  or  ever 
 could,  without  the  assistance  of  a  divine  power,  give  sight  to  one 
 bom  blind :  for  which  reason  the  Jews  reckon  this  among  the 
 signs  of  the  Messiah,  that  he  '  should  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind.' 
 i — Whitby's  Annotations. — Rosenmuller,  and  Michaelis  observe, 
 that  restoration  of  sight  to  those  born  blind  has  been  recently 
 effected  by  the  famous  surgeon  Cheselden.  But  the  former  adds 
 that  therefore  what  Christ  did  in  his  time  was  a  miracle.  This, 
 however,  is  not  applicable  to  the  true  nature  of  a  miracle.  Re- 
 storing sight  to  the  blind  is,  as  it  now  appears,  in  certain  cases 
 possible,  and  therefore  not  miraculous,  that  is,  not  involving  any 
 thing  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nature.  Yet  this  requires  the  most 
 exquisite  human  skill  and  labour,  and  it  would  be  equally  a 
 miracle  to  restore  sight  without  these  human  means. — Bloom- 
 field's  Grit.  Dissert. — Ed. 
 
 d  But  doth  not  God  hear  sinners?  Then  whom  can  he 
 hear,  since  no  man  liveth  and  committeth  not  sin  against  God? 
 It  is  true  indeed:  but  then  the  sinners  which  the  poor  man 
 may  be  supposed  here  to  mean  are  not  those  who  become  such 
 through  ignorance,  weakness,  or  human  infirmity,  but  such 
 notorious  and  presumptive  sinners  as  go  on  in  their  impie- 
 ties with  a  high  hand,  and  an  hardened  heart,  of  whom  the 
 Spirit  of  God  declares,  '  when  they  spread  forth  their  hands,  I  will 
 hide  myself  from  them,  and  when  they  make  many  prayers  I  will 
 not  hear.'  (Is.  i.  15.)  The  maxim  however  is  here  to  be  understood 
 not  in  a  general  but  restrained  sense,  namely,  that  God  useth 
 not  to  honour  notorious  and  flagitious  sinners,  especially  when 
 they  pretend  to  come  with  a  message  from  him,  by  giving  them 
 a  power  to  work  miracles,  in  order  to  confirm  the  truth  of  what 
 they  say.  For  this  is  the  force  of  the  poor  man's  argument, 
 that  Christ  could  not  be  such  a  notorious  sinner  as  he  was  re- 
 presented to  him,  because  it  was  inconsistent  with  the  attributes 
 of  God,  to  honour  such  persons  with  his  presence  and  assistance, 
 in  doing  such  works  as  none  could  do,  without  a  divine  power 
 committed  to  them. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 955 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D  31.  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A,  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 
 he  were  not  sent,  and  empowered  by  God,  he  could 
 never  do  such  wonderful  cures  as  these."  This  pro- 
 voked them  so  highly  that  they  first  upbraided  him  with 
 his  former  blindness,  as  a  character  of  some  extraordi- 
 nary ill  in  him,  and  then  cast  him  out  of  the  synagogue 
 with  disgrace ;  but  Jesus  shortly  after  met  him,  and 
 received  him  into  his  own  church.  He  declared  himself 
 to  him  that  he  was  the  Messiah  ;  and  the  poor  man,  be- 
 lieving on  him,  immediately  fell  down  prostrate  at  his 
 feet,  and  adored  him. 
 
 After  that  our  Lord  had  received  the  poor  man's 
 homage,  he  continued  his  discourse,  and  under  the 
 allegory  of  a a  shepherd  and  his  sheep,  proved  the 
 Pharisees  to  be  no  better  than  blind  guides,  nay  than 
 thieves  and  robbers,  who  had*  climbed   up   into  the 
 
 a  That  this  allusion  was  very  proper  and  pertinent  with  regard 
 to  the  persons  to  whom  our  Saviour  addressed  his  discourse,  the 
 condition  and  custom  of  that  country  may  convince  us.  For 
 the  greatest  part  of  the  wealth  and  improvement  there  consisted 
 in  sheep;  and  the  examples  of  Jacob  and  David  in  particular, 
 are  proofs  that  the  keeping  of  these  was  not  usually  committed 
 to  servants  and  strangers,  as  it  is  among  us,  but  to  men  of  the 
 greatest  quality  and  substance.  The  children  of  the  family, 
 nay,  the  masters  and  owners  themselves,  made  it  their  business, 
 and  esteemed  the  looking  to  their  flocks,  a  care  and  employment 
 in  no  case  below  them.  Hence  probably  came  the  frequent 
 metaphor  of  styling  kings,  the  shepherds  of  their  people.  Hence 
 the  ancient  prophets  describe  the  Messiah  in  the  character  of  a 
 shepherd ;  and  our  blessed  Saviour,  to  show  that  lie  was  the 
 person  intended  by  the  prophets,  applies  the  same  character  to 
 himself,'  thereby  to  represent  his  government  of  the  church,  and 
 tender  concern  for  mankind:  'he  shall  feed  his  flock  like  a 
 shepherd:  he  shall  gather  the  lambs  with  his  arms,  and  carry 
 them  in  his  bosom;  shall  seek  that  which  was  lost,  and  bring 
 again  that  which  was  driven  away;  shall  bind  up  that  which  was 
 broken,  and  strengthen  that  which  was  sick,  and  gently  lead 
 those  which  were  with  young,'  (Is.  xl.  11.  and  Ez.  xxxiv.  16.) 
 all  lively  emblems  of  our  Lord's  pastoral  care,  and  of  the  various 
 methods  which  he  hath  employed  to  accommodate  his  dispensations 
 to  our  wants,  in  order  to  promote  our  eternal  salvation.  And 
 as  the  character  of  a  shepherd  did  well  become  our  gracious 
 Saviour,  so  there  is  something  in  the  very  nature  and  disposition 
 of  sheep,  which  appears  so  innocent  and  inoffensive,  so  peaceable 
 and  gentle,  so  patient  and  submissive,  so  honest  and  undesign- 
 ing,  as  carries  a  near  resemblance  to  that  plainness  and  probity, 
 that  modesty  and  humility,  that  quietness  and  submission,  which 
 are  indeed  the  first  elements  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  well 
 as  the  qualifications  requisite  to  the  reception  of  it.  It  is  to  be 
 observed,  however,  that  as  the  shepherd's  art  in  managing  his 
 sheep,  in  the  eastern  countries,  was  different  from  what  is  among 
 us,  to  which  purpose  we  read  of  his  going  before,  leading,  and 
 calling  his  sheep,  and  of  their  following,  and  knowing  his  voice; 
 whereas  our  shepherds  go  after  and  drive  their  sheep,  so  these 
 several  expressions  do,  in  the  moral,  denote  our  Lord's  receiving 
 into  the  number  of  Christians  all  those  humble  and  obedient 
 souls  that  come  to  him  iu  the  spirit  of  meekness,  not  in  the 
 clothing,  but  in  the  real  qualities,  of  his  sheep,  and  making 
 provision  for  their  growth  in  grace  and  improvement  in  all 
 virtue  and  godliness  of  living. — Stcmkope  on  the  Epistles  and 
 Gospels,  vol.  iii.  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 b  According  to  the  primary  institution  of  God,  it  was  the 
 proper  province  of  the  sons  of  Levi  '  to  teach  the  children  of 
 Israel  all  the  statutes  which  the  Lord  had  spoken  unto  them  by 
 the  hand  of  Moses,'  (Lev.  x.  11.)  and  therefore  it  was  required 
 that '  the  priests'  lips  should  preserve  knowledge,  and  the  people 
 seek  his  law  at  their  mouths,'  (Mai.  ii.  4.  7).  But,  however  it 
 came  about,  no  sooner  did  their  traditions  grow  in  esteem,  than 
 the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  not  only  took  upon  them  to  be  the 
 guides  and  teachers  of  the  people,  but  maintained  likewise,  that 
 others  were  to  receive  authority  to  teach  from  their  commission 
 and  ordination  to  that  office ;  though  we  no  where  find  that  they 
 received  any  such  authority  from  God  ;  for  which  reason  our 
 Saviour  represents  them  as  a  plantation  which  his  Father  had 
 not  planted,  (Mat.  xv.  13.)  aud  bids  his  disciples  beware  of  their 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARKii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37-  JOHN  v.  1— viii.  1. 
 
 sheepfold,  or  made  themselves  rulers  and  governors  in 
 God's  church  without  any  proper  commission  from  him. 
 Upon  the  same  ground  he  condemned  all  those  false 
 Christs  c  who  before  him  had  usurped  the  title  of  the 
 Messiah,  asserted  his  own  right  to  it  by  an  argument 
 that  no  other  shepherd  durst  produce,  namely,  his  laying 
 down  his  life  for  his  sheep,1'  which  were  to  consist  of 
 Gentiles e  as  well  as  Jews,  and  all  together  make  up 
 one  flock. 
 
 Before  the  conclusion  of  the  feast,  as  he  was  walking 
 in  Solomon's  porch,  /  several  of  the  Jews  came,  ami 
 
 doctrine,  (Mat.  xvi.  12.)  because  '  they  taught  for  the  doctrines 
 of  God,  the  commandments  of  men,  and  made  void  the  com- 
 mandments of  God  by  their  traditions,'  (Mat.  xv.  6.  9.)—?Fhit- 
 by's  Annotations. 
 
 c  In  several  of  the  Greek  copies,  as  well  as  the  Syriac,  Per- 
 sian, and  Gothic,  the  words  '  before  me,'  for  our  Saviour  in  the 
 text  speaks  in  his  own  person,  are  omitted ;  and  some  critics  are 
 of  opinion,  that  this  omission  was  early,  because  the  Manichees, 
 according  to  Theophylact,  made  no  scruple  to  infer  from  hence, 
 that  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  had  not  their  mission 
 from  God.  Our  Saviour,  however,  in  several  places  where  he 
 quotes  them,  has  sufficiently  established  the  authority  of  the 
 prophets ;  and  by  this  passage  means  no  more  than  that  all  those 
 who  before  him  had  taken  upon  them  the  title  and  quality  of  the 
 Messiah,  such  as  Theudas  and  Judas  Galilreus,  whereof  we  find 
 mention,  Acts  v.  36.  37;  were  thieves  and  robbers,  because  they 
 usurped  a  character  which  they  had  no  right  to;  and  that  all 
 before  him,  who  either  had  not  their  commission  from  God,  or 
 could  not  prove  it  by  extraordinary  miracles,  sucli  as  the  authors 
 of  the  rabbinical  traditions,  and  of  all  the  other  reigning  sects 
 among  the  Jews,  were  far  from  being  the  true  shepherds  of 
 God's  people.  —  Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 d  His  sheep  are  here  supposed  by  some  to  be  his  elect  peculiar 
 friends;  and  thence  they  infer,  that  Christ  laid  down  his  life  fur 
 them  only.  Now,  if  we  respect  the  counsel  of  God,  and  the 
 design  of  Jesus  Christ,  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  he 
 gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all,  (1  Tim.  ii.  6.)  and  tasked  death  for 
 every  man,  (Heb.  ii.  9.)  and  was  a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the 
 whole  world,  (1  John  ii.  2.)  but  then  because  the  world  can  no 
 otherwise  lay  hold  on  the  benefits  of  this  propitiation,  than  by 
 believing,  and  being  obedieut  to  the  voice  of  this  shepherd,  he 
 therefore  is  said  to  do  this  more  eminently  for  his  sheep.  The 
 apostle,  I  think,  has  determined  the  whole  controversy  in  a 
 few  words,  '  he  died  for  all,  that  they  who  live  might  not  live 
 unto  themselves,  but  unto  him  who  died  for  them,'  (2  Cor.  v. 
 15.)  so  that  if  any  perish,  it  is  not  because  he  died  not  for  them, 
 but  because  they  will  not  perform  the  conditions  required  to 
 make  his  death  efficacious  to  them ;  they  will  not  live  unto  him 
 who  died  for  them JFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e These  our  Saviour  calls  'his  other  sheep,'  (John  x.  16.)  by 
 way  of  anticipation,  because  he  foreknew  that  many  of  them, 
 when  once  his  gospel  came  to  be  tendered  to  them,  would  give 
 it  a  ready  reception,  be  converted  and  baptized ;  and  because  the 
 ceremonial  law,  which  was  the  partition  wall  between  the  Jews 
 and  Gentiles,  was  shortly  to  be  broken  down,  and  the  Gentiles 
 admitted  to  the  same  privileges  with  the  Jews  that  believed  in 
 his  name. —  JFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  The  first  or  outer  court,  which  encompassed  the  holy  house 
 and  the  other  courts,  was  named  the  court  of  the  Gentiles; 
 because  the  latter  were  allowed  to  enter  into  it,  but  were  pro- 
 hibited from  advancing  further.  It  was  surrounded  by  a  range 
 of  porticoes  or  cloisters,  above  which  were  galleries,  or  apart- 
 ments, supported  by  pillars  of  white  marble,  each  consisting  of  a 
 single  piece,  and  twenty-five  cubits  in  height.  One  of  these  was 
 called  Solomon's  Porch,  or  piazza,  because  it  stood  on  a  vast 
 terrace,  which  he  had  originally  raised  from  a  valley  beneath, 
 400  cubits  high,  in  order  to  enlarge  the  area  on  the  top  of  the 
 mountain,  and  make  it  equal  to  the  plan  of  his  intended  building ; 
 and  as  this  terrace  was  the  only  work  of  Solomon's  that  remained 
 in  the  second  temple,  the  piazza  which  stood  upon  it  retained 
 the  name  of  that  prince.  Here  it  was  that  our  Lord  was  walking 
 at  the  feast  of  Dedication,  (John  x.  23:)andthat  the  lame  man, 
 when  healed  by  Peter  and  John,  glorified  God  before  all  the 
 people,  (Acts  iii.  11.)     This  superb  portico  is  termed  the  royal 
 
956 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VII f. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvu.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— rii.  1. 
 
 required  him  to  tell  them,  in  positive  terms,  whether  he 
 was  the  Messiah  or  not.  To  which  his  answer  was,  that 
 he  had  already  sufficiently  informed  them  of  that,  but  to 
 no  effect;  that  the  miracles  which  he  wrought  in  his 
 Father's  name,  were  a  full  evidence  of  his  mission ;  that 
 the  reason  a  why  they  believed  him  not  was,  because  they 
 were  not  of  a  disposition  proper  for  his  sheep ;  that  to 
 such  as  were  his  sheep,  and  followed  him,  he  would  give 
 eternal  life  ;  and  that  none  could  pull  them  out  of  his, 
 or  his  Father's  hands,  because  he  and  his  Father  were 
 one.  *     Upon  this  last  expression,  the  Jews  concluded 
 
 portico  by  Josephus,  who  represents  it  as  the  noblest  work  be- 
 neath the  sun,  being  elevated  to  such  a  prodigious  height,  that 
 no  one  could  look  down  from  its  flat  roof  to  the  valley  below, 
 without  being  seized  with  dizziness;  the  sight  not  reaching  to 
 such  an  immeasurable  depth.  The  south-east  corner  of  the  roof 
 of  this  portico,  where  the  height  was  the  greatest,  is  supposed  to 
 have  been  the  wri^vyiov,  pinnacle,  or  extreme  angle,  whence 
 Satan  tempted  our  Saviour  to  precipitate  himself.  (Mat.  iv.  5; 
 Luke  iv.  9.)  This  also  was  the  spot  where  it  was  predicted  that 
 the  abomination  of  desolation,  or  the  Roman  ensigns,  should 
 stand.  (Dan.  ix.  27;  Mat.  xxiv.  15.)  Solomon's  portico  was 
 situated  in  the  eastern  front  of  the  temple,  opposite  to  the  mount 
 of  Olives,  where  our  Saviour  is  said  to  have  sat  when  his  disci- 
 ples came  to  show  him  the  grandeur  of  its  various  buildings,  of 
 which,  grand  as  they  were,  he  said,  the  time  was  approaching 
 when  one  stone  should  not  be  left  upon  another. — Mansford's 
 Scripture  Gazetteer. — Ed. 
 
 a  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  the  words  in  the  text  ou  yap,  which 
 we  render  because,  are  not  rational,  or  do  not  render  a  reason 
 for  these  people's  infidelity,  but  only  intimate  that  their  infidelity 
 was  consequential  to  their  not  being  his  sheep ;  or  in  other  words, 
 that  they  could  not  believe  because  they  were  not  elected.  But 
 to  obviate  this  we  must  observe,  that  the  reason  which  our  Lord 
 here  assigns  for  this  defect  of  faith,  is  doubtless  such  as  made  it 
 a  great  crime  in  them ;  for  sure  that  must  be  such  for  which 
 they  were  to  die  in  their  sins,  John  viii.  24.  It  is  therefore 
 certain,  that  this  unbelief  cannot  be  resolved  into  any  natural 
 defect  of  knewledge  ou  their  part,  nor  any  act  of  reprobation  on 
 God's  part,  but  purely  to  the  want  of  a  teachable  and  well  dis- 
 posed mind.  For  were  it  the  same  thing  to  be  one  of  Christ's 
 sheep  and  to  be  predestinated  to  faith  and  salvation,  the  import 
 of  our  Saviour's  words  must  be  this, — '  Ye  therefore  believe  not, 
 because  ye  are  not  of  the  number  of  the  elect,  but  of  those  whom 
 God  hath  from  eternity  rejected.'  Now,  by  this  account  of  the 
 matter,  our  Saviour  would  not  have  accused  but  excused  the  in- 
 fidelity of  the  Jews;  and  they,  with  as  good  reason,  might  have 
 replied  to  him,—'  We  therefore  believe  not,  because  God,  by 
 his  act  of  reprobation,  hath  shut  the  door  of  faith  against  us,  and 
 so  our  infidelity  is  not  to  be  imputed  to  us,  but  God.' — Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 b  That  is,  one  in  essence  and  nature;  one  in  authority  and 
 power ;  and  not  barely  one  in  will  and  consent :  and  that  this  is 
 the  genuine  signification  of  the  words,  appears,  1st,  From  the 
 original  text,  where  it  is  not  said,  I  and  my  Father  are  one,  u; 
 person,  in  the  masculine  gender,  but  h,  one  thing,  in  the  neuter. 
 Now,  if  thing  be  not  the  Divine  Being,  they  cannot  be  one;  for 
 since  the  Father  is  confessed  to  be  God,  the  Son  cannot  be  one 
 thing  with  the  Father,  if  he  be  not  God  too.  2dly,  It  appears 
 from  the  context,  where  our  Saviour,  having,  in  the  preceding 
 verses,  ascribed  the  preservation  of  his  sheep  to  the  power  of  his 
 Father,  '  None  is  able  to  pluck  them  out  of  my  Father's  hands,' 
 (John  x.  29.)  ascribes  the  same  also  to  his  own  power,  '  Neither 
 shall  any  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand,'  (ver.  28.)  plainly  intimat- 
 ing, that  his  sheep  were  equally  safe  in  his  own  hand,  as  in  his 
 Father's;  because,  says  he, '  I  and  my  Father  are  one,  (ver.  30.) 
 And,  3dly,  It  appears  from  the  verses  which  immediately  follow; 
 for  when  the  Jews  took  up  stones  to  stone  him,  as  guilty  of 
 blasphemy,  because  he  made  himself  God,  he  does  not  evade  the 
 charge,  by  saying,  that  he  only  conspired  with  the  will  of  God, 
 as  all  true  prophets  did ;  but  appealed  to  the  works  which  he 
 performed  by  the  power  of  the  Father  residing  in  him,  which 
 plainly  carries  it  to  an  unity  of  power,  not  of  will  only;  and 
 then  St  Chrysostom's  inference  is  undeniable,  that  '  if  the 
 power  be  the  same,  the  essence  also  is  the  same.' — Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 him  to  be  a  blasphemer,  and  were  going  to  stone  him  ; 
 and  though  he  reminded  them  of  the  many  good  actions 
 he  had  done  for  them  in  his  Father's  name,  and  endeav- 
 oured to  apologize  c  for  his  calling  himself  the  Son  of 
 God,  even  because  in  scripture  we  find  judges  and  magi- 
 strates frequently  so  styled,  and  much  more  then  might 
 he,  who  was  consecrated  and  sent  by  God,  assume  that 
 title,  yet  all  this  would  not  appease  their  rage,  so  that 
 he  was  forced  to  leave  the  city,  and  went  thence  over 
 Jordan  to  Bethabara,  where  John  had  formerly  baptized  ; 
 where  great  multitudes  resorted  to  him,  both  to  hear  his 
 instructions,  and  to  be  healed  of  their  diseases;  and 
 where  he  made  many  disciples,  because  the  place  put 
 the  people  in  mind,  that  whatever  John  had  reported  of 
 him  was  true. 
 
 While  he  continued  in  these  parts,  a  certain  person 
 put  a  curious  question  to  him,  d  concerning  the  number 
 of  those  that  should  be  saved :  whereupon  he  took  occa- 
 sion to  admonish  his  hearers,  "  That  they  ought  to  use 
 their  utmost  endeavours  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate  e  of 
 
 c  This  is  an  improper  expression,  the  word  apologize,  accord- 
 ing to  its  ordinary  acceptation  conveys  an  idea  of  some  degree  of 
 blame,  and  when  a  person  is  said  to  apologize,  we  generally  un- 
 derstand that  he  admits  himself  to  have  been  in  some  respect 
 blamable,  but  at  the  same  time,  advances  some  circumstances  to 
 excuse  or  palliate  his  conduct.  In  the  present  case  our  Saviour 
 vindicated  his  claim  to  the  title  of  Son  of  God.  His  answer  to 
 the  charge  brought  against  him  is,  '  Is  it  not  written  in  your 
 law,  I  said,  ye  are  gods?  If  he  called  them  gods  unto  whom  the 
 word  of  God  came,  and  the  scriptures  cannot  be  broken,'  that  is, 
 if  the  language  of  Scripture  be  unexceptionable,  'say  ye  of  him 
 whom  the  Father  hath  sanctified  and  sent  into  the  world,  thou 
 blasphemest,  because  I  said  I  am  the  Son  of  God?'  These 
 words  are  quoted,  in  support  of  their  opinion,  by  those  who  hold 
 that  our  Saviour  is  called  the  Son  of  God  purely  upon  account 
 of  the  commission  which  he  received.  But  the  force  of  the 
 argument,  and  the  consistency  of  the  discourse,  require  us  to 
 affix  a  much  higher  meaning  to  that  expression.  Our  Lord  is 
 reasoning  a  fortiori.  He  vindicates  himself  from  the  charge  of 
 blasphemy  in  calling  himself  the  Son  of  God,  because  even  those 
 who  hold  civil  offices  upon  earth  are  called  in  scripture  gods. 
 But  that  he  might  not  appear  to  put  himself  upon  a  level  with 
 them,  and  to  retract  his  former  assertion,  '  I  and  the  Father  are 
 one,'  he  not  only  calls  himself  '  him  whom  the  Father  hath 
 sanctified  and  sent  into  the  world,'  which  implies  that  he  had  a 
 being,  and  that  God  was  his  Father  before  he  was  sent ;  but  he 
 subjoins,  '  If  I  do  not  the  works  of  my  Father  believe  me  not. 
 But  if  I  do,  though  ye  believe  not  me,  believe  the  works,  that 
 ye  may  know  and  believe  that  the  Father  is  in  me,  and  I  in 
 him ;'  expressions  which  appear  to  be  equivalent  to  his  former 
 assertion,  '  I  and  the  Father  are  one,'  and  which  were  certainly 
 understood  by  the  Jews  in  that  sense ;  for,  as  soon  as  he  had 
 uttered  them,  '  they  sought  again  to  take  him.'  The  full  argu- 
 ment of  our  Lord  is,  that  the  union  between  the  Father  and  him 
 gives  him  a  much  better  title  to  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God 
 than  any  office  can  give  to  men  the  name  of  gods:  and  thus  at 
 the  very  time  that  he  shelters  himself  from  the  charge  of  blas- 
 phemy under  this  scripture  expression,  he  intimates  repeatedly, 
 in  the  hearing  of  those  who  accused  him  of  blasphemy  for  what 
 he  said,  the  superior  dignity  of  his  person. — Hill's  Lectures  on 
 Divinity,  vol.  i.  p.  457. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  man,  who  proposed  this  question  to  our  Saviour,  had 
 doubtless  in  his  thoughts  the  common  opinion  of  the  Jews,  that 
 all  the  Israelites,  how  much  soever  they  may  suffer  in  this,  might 
 have  their  portion  in  the  world  to  come ;  but  this  was  a  question 
 of  too  much  needless  curiosity  for  our  Saviour  to  answer,  because 
 it  is  no  part  of  our  concern,  how  many  shall  be  saved?  But  only 
 how,  and  by  what  means,  we  are  to  work  out  our  own  salvation- 
 and  therefore  he  took  occasion  from  hence  to  instruct  the  man, 
 and  in  him  all  others,  in  what  might  be  of  much  more  substantial 
 benefit  to  him. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  The  Persians  send  a  deputation  to  meet  their  guests:  this 
 deputation  are  called  openers  of  the  way ;  and  the  more  distin 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 957 
 
 A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARK  &  23.-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  l.-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  l.-vii. 
 
 salvation,  because  the  number  of  those,  who  should  not 
 attain  it,  would  be  large ;  that  they  ought  to  do  it  with 
 all  expedition,  because,  when  once  the  gate  was  shut, 
 and  the  means  of  salvation  withdrawn,  all  pretences  of 
 having  heard  the  glad  tidings  of  the  gospel,  and  of 
 having  been  conversant  with  him  upon  earth,  would  gain 
 them  no  admittance  ;  that  all  workers  of  iniquity  should 
 be  utterly  excluded  ;  and  therefore  the  Jews,  in  particu- 
 lar, would  have  cause  to  lament,  when  they  should  see 
 many  heathens,  from  all  parts  of  the  earth,  possessed 
 of  the  glories  of  heaven,  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
 Jacob,  and  all  the  ancient  prophets,  while  themselves, 
 who  were  the  heirs  of  the  kingdom,  should  be  thrust  out, 
 and  so  made  the  last,  who  were  once  the  first." 
 
 As  he  was  discoursing  in  this  manner,  some  of  the 
 Pharisees,  who  could  no  longer  bear  with  patience  the 
 power  and  authority  which  he  had  gained  among  the 
 people,  in  hopes  of  getting  rid  of  him,  a  came  and  sug- 
 
 guished  the  persons  sent,  and  the  greater  the  distance  to  which 
 they  go,  so  much  greater  is  the  honour.  So  it  is  proclaimed ; 
 '  Go  forth  and  behold  king  Solomon,  with  the  crown  wherewith 
 his  mother  crowned  him.  The  bridegroom  cometh,  go  ye  forth 
 to  meet  him.'  The  names  of  the  persons  to  be  invited,  were 
 inscribed  upon  tablets,  and  the  gate  was  set  open  to  receive  those 
 who  had  obtained  them ;  but  to  prevent  any  getting  in  that  had 
 no  ticket,  only  one  leaf  of  the  door  was  left  open ;  and  that  was 
 strictly  guarded  by  the  servants  of  the  family.  Those  who  were 
 admitted,  had  to  go  along  a  narrow  passage  to  the  room ;  and 
 after  all  who  had  received  tickets  of  admission  were  assembled, 
 the  master  of  the  house  rose  and  shut  to  the  door;  and  then  the 
 entertainment  began. — Morier's  Trav.  vol.  i.  p.  142;  Potter's 
 Grecian  Antiq.  vol.  ii.  p.  365.  et  seq.  The  Greeks  also  issued 
 tickets  of  admission  to  their  entertainments,  although  relations 
 often  went  without  invitation ;  thus  in  Homer,  the  valiant  Mene- 
 laus  went  to  an  entertainment  in  Agamemnon's  tent,  without 
 being  invited: 
 
 Aurofix.ro;  2s  oi  *\h  (Zonv  ayahs  MtvO.aog. — //.  lib.  ii.  1.  408. 
 it  appears  from  this  statement,  that  the  Jews  were  much  stricter 
 in  admitting  persons  to  their  tables  than  the  Greeks,  although 
 both  used  the  formality  of  written  invitations.  Our  Lord  evi- 
 dently refers  to  the  custom  of  his  own  nation,  in  his  answer  to 
 oue  who  idly  inquired,  '  Are  there  few  that  be  saved?'  '  Strive,' 
 said  he,  'to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate;  for  many,  I  say  unto  you, 
 will  seek  to  enter  in,  and  shall  not  be  able.  When  once  the  mas- 
 ter of  the  house  is  risen  up,  and  hath  shut  to  the  door,  and  ye 
 begin  to  stand  without,  and  to  knock  at  the  door,  saying,  Lord, 
 Lord,  open  unto  us:  and  he  shall  answer  and  say  unto  you,  I 
 know  you  not  whence  ye  are.'  (Luke  xiii.  24.) — Paxton's  Illus- 
 trations of  Scripture,  vol.  iii.  pp.  88,  89. — Ed. 
 
 a  But,  whether  they  came  upon  their  own  account,  or  by 
 the  instigation  of  Herod,  is  the  question: — If  they  came  upon 
 their  own  account,  it  is  certain,  that  they  came  not  out  of  any 
 kindness  to  our  Saviour;  because  the  whole  history  of  the 
 gospel  informs  us,  that  they  were  far  from  having  any  af- 
 fection for  him;  and  therefore  they  must  come  with  a  design, 
 either  to  scare  him  out  of  Galilee,  where  he  had  been  too  popu- 
 lar for  them,  or  to  drive  him  into  a  trap  which  they  had  laid 
 for  him  in  Judea.  This  seems  to  be  a  genuine  interpretation 
 enough  of  the  sense  of  the  evangelist;  and  therefore,  in  our  his- 
 tory, we  have  followed  it:  but  still  it  seems  not  improbable, 
 that,  considering  the  present  circumstances  Herod  was  under, 
 he  might  send  these  messengers  to  our  Saviour.  He  had  but 
 lately  gained  himself  no  good  reputation  among  the  Jews,  by 
 murdering  John,  whom  all  the  world  looked  upon  as  a  prophet: 
 and  therefore  seeing  that  our  Saviour  excelled  John,  especially 
 in  the  fame  and  renown  of  his  miracles,  he  was  unwilling  to 
 augment  the  odium  which  already  lay  upon  him,  by  any  fresh 
 acts  of  violence  to  a  person,  that  was  reputed  a  prophet,  much 
 superior  to  the  Baptist,  whom  he  had  slain:  he  had  got  a  notion 
 too,  that  the  Baptist,  at  least  the  soul  of  the  Baptist  in  another 
 body,  was  risen  from  the  dead,  and  what  the  effect  of  his 
 ghost's  haunting  his  dominions  might  be,  be  could  not  tell;  and 
 therefore  he  might  think  it  convenient  to  put  these  Pharisees 
 
 gested  the  danger  he  was  in  from  Herod  Antipas,  so 
 long  as  he  continued  in  Galilee,  which  was  part  of  his 
 dominions  :  but,  far  from  betraying  any  fear  upon  such 
 information,  he  let  the  Pharisees  know,  that,  having  but 
 a  few  days  longer  to  live,  b  he  was  determined  to  devote 
 them  to  the  relief  of  the  distressed,  the  curing  diseases, 
 and  casting  out  devils ;  and  as  to  Herod's  c  subtilty, 
 and  designs  against  his  life,  they  were  altogether  super- 
 fluous, because  he  foreknew  that  he  was  to  suffer  death  at 
 Jerusalem,  d  which  was  the  place  appointed,  as  it  were, 
 for  the  slaughter  of  all  the  prophets  :  and  hereupon  he 
 broke  out  into  a  most  pathetic  exclamation  against 
 the  inhabitants  of  that  unhappy  city,  reproaching  them 
 with  their  rejecting  the  kind  offers  of  the  gospel,  and 
 with  their  killing  the  messengers  sent  from  God,  and 
 
 upon  some  expedient  to  get  our  Saviour,  whom  possibly  he 
 might  take  for  John  revivified,  removed  farther  from  him. 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  either  he  or  the  Pharisees,  or 
 both,  had  a  mind  to  have  him  gone  somewhere  else,  and  that, 
 for  this  purpose,  the  message  was  brought  him. — Poole's  Annot- 
 ations. 
 
 b  Some  apply  this  passage  (Luke  xiii.  32,)  to  the  years  of 
 Christ's  ministry,  supposing  that  a  day  is  put  for  a  year.  But 
 the  explication  is  improper;  because  if  the  three  days  here  men- 
 tioned were  intended  to  comprehend  the  whole  years  of  our 
 Lord's  ministry,  this  conversation  must  have  happened  in  the 
 first  year  thereof;  contrary  to  Luke  himself,  who  tells  us,  (chap. 
 ix.  51,)  that  the  time  was  come  when  he  should  be  received  up. 
 Besides,  according  to  this  interpretation,  Christ's  being  perfect- 
 ed on  the  third  day  will  imply,  that  he  was  to  suffer  in  the  third 
 year  of  his  ministry,  which  is  far  from  being  a  certain  point.  Were 
 we  to  conclude  any  thing  concerning  the  length  of  our  Lord's 
 ministry  from  the  days  mentioned,  it  would  be,  that  he  did  not 
 suffer  till  the  third  year  after  this  conversation.  But  the  real 
 meaning  of  the  words  seems  to  be  as  follows: — "  I  shall  not  be 
 very  long  with  you  on  earth ;  yet  while  I  am  here,  I  will  per- 
 form the  duties  of  my  ministry,  without  being  afraid  of  any 
 man  ;  because  my  life  cannot  be  taken  from  me,  but  in  the  place, 
 and  at  the  time,  appointed  by  God." — Macknight's  Harmony, 
 vol.  ii.  s.  91,  note  *. — Ed. 
 
 c  Our  Lord,  speaking  of  Herod,  who  had  threatened  to  kill  him, 
 applies  to  him  metaphorically  the  name  or  character  of  the  fox  or 
 jackal:  "  Go,  tell  that  fox— that  crafty,  cruel,  insidious,  devour- 
 ing creature — that  jackal  of  a  prince — who  has  indeed  expressed 
 his  enmity  by  his  threats,  as  jackals  indicate  their  mischievous 
 dispositions  by  their  barking,  and  who  yelps  in  concert  with  other 
 of  my  enemies,  jackal-like — go,  tell  him  that  I  am  safe  from  his 
 fury  to-day  and  to-morrow;  and  on  the  third  day  I  shall  be 
 completed, — completely  beyond  his  power:" — alluding,  perhaps, 
 to  his  resurrection  on  the  third  day.  There  have  been  some 
 doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of  our  Redeemer's  speaking  in  such 
 terms  of  a  civil  ruler,  whose  subject  he  was,  and  whose  character 
 he  was  therefore  bound  to  respect  and  to  honour.  For  these  scru- 
 ples, however,  there  is  no  ground ;  the  character  of  Herod  as  a 
 cruel,  insidious,  and  crafty  prince,  was  too  notorious  to  be  dis- 
 guised among  any  part  of  his  subjects ;  and  he  who  knew  his 
 heart  as  well  as  witnessed  his  conduct,  could  speak  with  certainty 
 as  to  his  dispositions  and  motives.  Besides  this,  such  metapho- 
 rical applications  as  these  are  much  more  common  in  the  East 
 than  liere,  and  would,  therefore,  not  appear  so  strong  to  our 
 Lord's  attendants  as  to  us.  This  is  shown  by  a  passage  in  Bus- 
 bequius:  (p.  58.)  "They  [jackals,  or  ciacals,  as  the  Asiatics 
 call  them]  go  in  flocks,  and  seldom  hurt  man  or  beast;  but  get 
 their  food  by  craft  and  stealth,  more  than  by  open  force.  Thence 
 it  is  that  the  Turks  call  subtle  and  crafty  persons,  especially  the 
 Asiatics,  by  the  metaphorical  name  of  Ciacals."' — Calmet's  Dic- 
 tionary.— Ed. 
 
 d  Some  are  of  opinion,  that,  because  the  Jews  had  referred 
 to  the  sanhedrim,  which  sat  at  Jerusalem,  the  whole  cognisance 
 and  trial  of  prophets,  therefore  a  prophet  was  not  to  suffer  out  of 
 that  city ;  but  this  interpretation  seems  to  enervate  our  Saviour's 
 sentiment,  whose  design  certainly  was,  to  represent  the  city  of 
 Jerusalem,  so  accustomed  to  shed  the  blood  of  the  prophets,  that 
 there  was  scarce  a  possibility  for  any  prophets  dying  out  of  it.— 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
958 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23  -   ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v,  1— vii.  i. 
 
 then  denouncing  their  sad  approaching  destruction  and 
 calamity. 
 
 a  One  sabbath  day,  when  Jesus  was  invited  by  a  Pha- 
 risee of  some  distinction,  to  dine  with  him,  a  man  dis- 
 tempered with  the  dropsy  came  after  him  ;  and,  when 
 several  of  the  company  narrowly  observed  how  he  would 
 behave  upon  this  occasion,  6  he  first  cured  the  poor  man, 
 and  then  justified  his  doing  so,  by  the  same  argument 
 he  made  use  of  to  those  who  reprehended  him  for  curing 
 the  crooked  woman  on  the  sabbath  day.  Observing, 
 however,  how  eager  the  guests  were  to  take  every  one 
 the  uppermost  places  at  the  table,  he  endeavoured  to 
 convince  them,  how  commendable  it  was  for  a  man  to 
 seat  himself  in  a  place  below,  rather  than  above,  his  rank 
 and  condition,  because  daily  experience  showed  us,  that 
 humility  was  a  virtue,  which  was  so  far  from  debasing, 
 that  it  raised  and  exalted  the  person  who  practised  it. 
 And  then,  turning  his  discourse  to  the  master  of  the 
 house,  whom  he  found  too  regardless  of  the  poor  and 
 needy,  he  gave  him,  and  in  him  all  others,  the  good  ad- 
 vice c  of  inviting  the  poor,  the  blind,  and  the  lame,  who 
 could  make  no  requital,  rather  than  his  own  friends,  dor 
 rich  acquaintance,  who  were  able  to  return  the  compli- 
 ment, to  his  entertainments,  and  in  so  doing,  he  might 
 depend  upon  a  recompence  from  God  in  the  kingdom  of 
 heaven. 
 
 a  The  sabbath  was  to  be  devoted  to  cheerful  rest,  that  not 
 only  the  Israelites,  but  also  strangers  living  with  them,  as  well  as 
 their  cattle,  might  be  refreshed.  (Exod.  xxiii.  12.)  Hence,  it 
 is  not  probable,  that  they  celebrated  sacrificial  or  offering  feasts, 
 to  which,  from  the  commencement  of  their  polity,  the  poor  were 
 invited.  In  later  times,  at  least,  we  know  from  history,  that 
 the  Jews  purchased  and  prepared  the  best  viands  they  could  pro- 
 cure for  the  sabbath-day,  in  order  to  do  it  honour;  and  that  they 
 actually  had  sabbath-feasts,  to  which  they  even  invited  persons 
 with  whom  they  were  unacquainted. — Home's  Introduction,  vol. 
 iii.  p.  303 — 4.  We  cannot  suppose  that  there  was  any  thing 
 improper  in  their  sabbath-feasts,  otherwise  our  Saviour  would  not 
 have  countenanced  them. — Ed. 
 
 b  The  presence  of  the  dropsical  man,  and  its  being  the  sab- 
 bath day,  would  involve  our  Saviour,  as  they  thought,  in  this 
 difficulty;  that  either  by  forbearing  to  heal  at  that  time,  he 
 would  betray  his  fear,  and  strengthen  their  superstitions  with  re- 
 gard to  such  ritual  observances;  or  else,  that,  by  doing  it,  he 
 must  incur  the  censure  aud  odium  of  a  sabbath-breaker,  and  a 
 contemner  of  the  law:  but  he,  who  was  well  aware  what  spies  he 
 had  upon  him,  so  ordered  the  matter,  as  to  accomplish  what  he 
 saw  fit,  without  any  opportunity  given  for  his  enemies  to  com- 
 pass their  ends  by  it. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels, 
 vol.  iii. 
 
 c  Whether  this  precept  is  to  be  understood  in  a  literal  sense 
 or  no,  may  in  some  measure  admit  of  a  debate.  Our  Saviour, 
 when  he  acted  the  part  of  a  rich  man,  in  feeding  the  multitude, 
 had  people  of  the  meanest  rank,  and,  among  these,  the  poor,  the 
 maimed,  the  lame,  and  the  blind,  who  daily  resorted  to  him  for 
 cure,  for  the  chief  of  his  guests:  but  most  men  think,  that  these 
 extraordinary  actions  of  his  were  no  proper  patterns  for  us  in  the 
 dispensation  of  our  charity,  but  that  we  answer  the  intent  of 
 the  precept  as  well,  if  we  do  what  is  equivalent  to  us  in  respect 
 of  charge,  and  more  advantageous  to  them  and  their  families,  by 
 sending  them  meat,  or  money,  to  refresh  them  at  home. — JFhit- 
 by's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  when  thou  makest  a  dinner  or 
 a  supper,  call  not  thy  friends,  nor  thy  brethren,  neither  thy  kins- 
 men nor  thy  rich  neighbours,'  (Luke  xiv.  12.)  It  is  to  be  ob- 
 served in  our  expounding  of  scripture,  that,  as  comparative  par- 
 ticles are  sometimes  used  in  a  sense  negative,  for  so  wc  find  the 
 chief  priests  moving  the  people,  ha  pZ\\ov  ia^a^o^  a'urois, 
 '  that  he  should  rather  release  Barabbas  to  them,'  that  is,  that 
 he  should  release  Barabbas,  and  not  Jesus/  so  negative  particles 
 are  ofton  used  in  a  sense  comparative;  as  when  we  read  in  l'rov. 
 
 At  the  hearing  of  these  last  words  one  in  the  company 
 repeated  that  common  saying  among  the  rabbins, 
 '  blessed  is  he  that  shall  eat  bread  e  in  the  kingdom  of 
 God  ;'  whereupon  our  Lord  took  occasion  to  represent 
 the  different  success  of  the  gospel,  the  rejection  of  the 
 Jews,  and  the  call  of  the  Gentiles,  under  the/  emblem 
 of  a  feast,  to  which  those  that  were  invited,  upon  sundry 
 pretences,  refused  to  come,  s  so  that  the  master  of  the 
 
 viii.  10,  'receive  my  instructions,  and  not  silver;'  and  in 
 Joel  ii.,  '  rend  your  hearts,  and  not  your  garments,'  the  mean- 
 ing is  rather  than  silver,  or  your  garments  ;  in  like  manner  as 
 here,  '  call  not  thy  friends,  nor  thy  brethren,'  that  is,  be  not  so 
 much  concerned  to  call  them,  as  the  poor.  For  it  can  hardly  be 
 thought,  that  our  Saviour's  intent  in  this  precept  was  absolutely 
 to  forbid  all  invitations  of  our  neighbours  or  friends  to  dine  or  sup 
 with  us.  This  is  an  act  of  kindness  and  civility,  and  of  good  ten- 
 dency sometimes  to  maintain  and  promote  amity  and  friendship 
 among  neighbours  and  acquaintance;  but  his  only  meaning  is, 
 that  we  should  not  invite  them  out  of  a  prospect  of  a  compensa- 
 tion from  them  again,  which  is  making  a  kind  of  traffic  with 
 our  generosity ;  but,  instead  of  this,  that  we  should  expend  our 
 money  in  the  exercise  of  charity  to  such  as  are  in  no  condition 
 to  make  us  a  retribution. — Whitby's  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Dr  Campbell  translates  '  in  the  reign  of  God,'  and  observes 
 the  English  Testament  makes,  to  appearance,  the  word  jia.<riKua, 
 reign,  here  refer  solely  to  the  future  state  of  the  saints  in  heaven. 
 This  version  makes  it  relate  to  those  who  should  be  upon  the 
 earth  in  the  reign  of  the  Messiah.  My  reasons  for  preferring 
 the  latter  are  these:  1st,  This  way  of  speaking  of  the  happiness 
 of  the  Messiah's  administration  suits  entirely  the  hopes  and 
 wishes  which  seem  to  have  been  long  entertained  by  the  nation 
 concerning  it.  (See  chap.  x.  23,  24.  Mat.  xiii.  10,  11.)  2dly, 
 The  parable  which,  in  answer  to  the  remark,  was  spoken  by  our 
 Lord,  is,  on  all  hands,  understood  to  represent  the  Christian 
 dispensation.  3dly,  The  obvious  intention  of  that  parable  is  to 
 insinuate  that,  in  consequence  of  the  prejudices  which,  from 
 notions  of  secular  felicity  and  grandeur,  the  nation  in  general 
 entertained  on  that  subject;  what,  in  prospect,  they  fancied  so 
 blessed  a  period,  would,  when  present,  be  exceedingly  neglected 
 and  despised;  and  in  this  view  nothing  could  be  more  apposite; 
 whereas  there  appears  no  appositeness  in  the  parable  on  the 
 other  interpretation. — Campbell  on  the  Gospels,  vol.  ii.  pp.  570, 
 571. 
 
 f  If  we  compare  this  with  another  passage  elsewhere,  (Mat. 
 xxii.  2.)  we  may  be  farther  satisfied,  that  by  '  the  kingdom  of 
 heaven  '  is  here  represented  the  '  gospel  dispensation ;'  and 
 this,  as  it  ministers  true  plenty  and  pleasure,  all  that  men  can 
 want,  and  all  that  they  can  wish,  to  render  them  perfectly 
 happy,  is  compared  to  a  supper.  The  bounty  and  infinite  love 
 of  Almighty  God  are  signified  by  the  greatness  of  that  supper, 
 and  the  multitudes  bidden  to  it.  The  first  bidding  implies  all 
 the  previous  notices  of  the  Messiah,  by  which  the  law  and  the 
 prophets  were  intended  to  prepare  the  Jews  for  the  reception  of 
 him  and  his  doctrine.  The  second  bidding,  when  all  things 
 were  ready,  seems  to  import  all  that  Jesus  did,  and  taught,  and 
 suffered  for  their  conversion  and  salvation,  and  all  the  testimon- 
 ies and  exhortations  of  his  apostles  and  other  preachers  of  the 
 gospel,  to  the  same  purpose.  The  excuses  sent  for  their  ab- 
 sence are  the  prejudices  and  passions  and  worldly  interest  which 
 did  not  only  hinder  those  Jews  from  coming  into  the  faith,  but 
 disposed  them  likewise  to  treat  all  attempts  to  win  them  over 
 with  the  utmost  obstinacy  and  contempt.  The  guests  brought 
 in  from  abroad  to  supply  their  places,  are  the  Gentile  world,  to 
 whom,  after  that  the  Jews  had  thrust  it  from  them,  the  subsequent 
 tenders  of  this  grace  and  salvation  were  made.  And  the  declar- 
 ing that  '  none  of  those  who  were  bidden  should  taste  of  this 
 supper,'  denotes  the  giving  those  Jews  over  to  a  reprobate  sense, 
 and  leaving  them  under  that  infidelity  and  perverseness  in  which 
 they  continue  hardened  to  this  very  day. — Stanhope  on  the 
 Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii, 
 
 ff  The  hospitality  of  the  present  day  in  the  east  exactly 
 resembles  that  of  the  remotest  antiquity.  The  parable  of  the 
 '  great  supper,'  is  in  those  countries  literally  realized.  (Luke 
 xiv.  16.) — Forbes' s  Orient.  Mem.  vol.  iii.  p.  187. — And  such 
 was  the  hospitality  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome.  When  a 
 person  provided  au  entertainment  for  his  friends  or  neighbours. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 959 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OK,  A.  M.  SMI.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  H.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 house  was  obliged  to  send  out  into  the  streets  and  lanes 
 of  the  city,  and  into  the  highways  and  hedges  to  collect 
 a  sufficient  complement  of  guests,  being  determined  that 
 none  of  those  who  were  first  invited  should  taste  of  his 
 supper.  ° 
 
 he  sent  round  a  number  of  servants  to  invite  the  guests ;  these 
 were  called  vocatores  by  the  Romans,  and  xXriruoif  by  the 
 Greeks.  The  day  when  the  entertainment  is  to  be  given  is 
 fixed  some  considerable  time  before;  and  in  the  evening  of  the 
 day  appointed,  a  messenger  comes  to  bid  the  guests  to  the 
 feast.  The  custom  is  thus  introduced  in  Luke:  'A  certain 
 man  made  a  great  supper,  and  bade  many ;  and  sent  his  servant 
 at  supper  time,  to  say  to  them  that  were  bidden,  Come,  for  all 
 things  are   now  ready.'  (Luke  xiv.  16,   17.) — Morier's    Trav. 
 
 vol.  i.  p.  142 They  were  not  now  asked  for  the  first  time; 
 
 but  had  already  accepted  the  invitation,  when  the  day  was 
 appointed,  and  were  therefore  already  pledged  to  attend  at  the 
 hour  when  they  might  be  summoned.  They  were  not  taken 
 unprepared,  aud  could  not  in  consistency  and  decency  plead  any 
 prior  engagement.  They  could  not  now  refuse,  without  violat- 
 ing their  word  and  insulting  the  master  of  the  feast,  and  there- 
 fore, justly  subjected  themselves  to  punishment.  The  terms  of 
 the  parable  exactly  accord  with  established  custom,  and  contain 
 nothing  of  the  harshness  to  which  infidels  object. — Paxton's  Il- 
 lustrations.— Ed  . 
 
 a  The  following  extracts  will  serve  to  explain  the  customs 
 alluded  to  in  this  parable.  In  the  account  of  the  parable  by  the 
 evangelist  Matthew  (chap.  xxii.  1 1.)  it  is  said,  '  And  when  the 
 king  came  in  to  see  the  guests,  he  saw  there  a  man  who  had 
 not  on  a  marriage  garment.'  The  Persians,  "  in  circumstances 
 of  grief  or  joy,  visit  each  other  with  great  attention,  which  is  a 
 tribute  of  duty  always  expected  from  persons  of  inferior  condi- 
 tion, especially  if  they  be  dependent.  The  guests  are  ushered 
 into  a  large  room,  and  served  with  coffee  aud  tobacco.  After 
 some  time  the  master  of  the  house  enters,  and  his  visitors,  rising 
 to  receive  him,  continue  standing  till  he  has  passed  through  the 
 whole  company,  and  paid  his  respects  to  each ;  he  then  takes  his 
 seat,  and  by  signs  permits  them  to  be  also  seated." — Goldsmith's 
 Geography,  p.  216. — In  the  parable  now  referred  to,  the  cir- 
 cumstances of  which  may  reasonably  be  supposed  conformable  to 
 existing  customs,  it  is  evidently  implied  that  the  guests  were 
 collected  together  previous  to  the  appearance  of  the  king,  who 
 came  in  to  see  the  guests.  So  also  in  Luke  xiv.  10,  in  a  simi- 
 lar parable,  it  is  said,  '  when  thou  art  bidden,  go  and  sit  down  in 
 the  lowest  room,  that  when  he  that  bade  thee  cometh,  he  may 
 say  unto  thee,  go  up  higher.'  This  unquestionably  confirms  the 
 application  of  the  Persian  ceremony  to  the  parable  first  cited. 
 It  may  first  be  farther  observed,  that  in  the  last  mentioned  pas- 
 sage, it  seems  as  if  it  had  then  been  the  prevailing  practice  for 
 the  master  of  tire  house  "to  pass  through  the  guests,  and  pay 
 his  respects  to  each  of  them,"  as  was  certainly  the  case  in  Per- 
 sia. With  respect  to  the  wedding  garment,  it  was  usual  for 
 persons  to  appear  at  marriage  feasts  in  a  sumptuous  dress,  gener- 
 ally adorned  with  florid  embroidery,  as  some  writers  tell  us 
 (see  Rev.  xix.  8.,  and  Dr  Hammond  in  locum)  ;  but  as  it 
 could  not  be  expected  that  travellers  thus  pressed  in  should  them- 
 selves be  provided  with  it,  we  must  therefore  conclude,  not  only 
 from  the  magnificence  of  the  preparations  to  which  we  must  sup- 
 pose the  wardrobe  of  the  prince  corresponded,  but  likewise  from 
 the  following  circumstance  of  resentment  against  this  guest,  that 
 a  robe  was  ottered,  but  refused  by  him:  and  this  is  a  circum- 
 stance which,  as  Calvin  observes,  is  admirably  suited  to  the 
 method  of  God's  dealing  with  us,  who  indeed  requires  holiness 
 in  order  to  our  receiving  the  benefits  of  the  gospel,  but  is  gra- 
 ciously pleased  to  work  it  in  us  by  his  Holy  Spirit,  and  there- 
 fore may  justly  resent  and  punish  our  neglect  of  so  great  a 
 favour. — Doddridge  in  locum. — The  following  extract  will 
 show  the  importance  of  having  a  suitable  garment  for  a  mar- 
 riage feast,  and  the  offence  taken  against  those  who  refuse  it, 
 whea  presented  as  a  gift.  "  The  next  day,  Dec.  3,  the  king 
 sent  to  invite  the  ambassadors  to  dine  with  him  once  more. 
 The  mehemander  told  them,  it  was  the  custom  that  they  should 
 wear  over  their  own  clothes  the  best  of  those  garments  which 
 the  king  had  sent  them.  The  ambassadors  at  first  made  some 
 scruple  of  that  compliance:  but  when  they  were  told  that  it  was 
 a  custom  observed  by  all  ambassadors,  and  that  no  doubt  the 
 king  would  take  it  very  ill  at  their  hands  if  they  presented 
 
 As  he  was  going  from  the  Pharisee's  house  where  he 
 dined,  being  attended  with  a  mighty  concourse  of  people, 
 he  began  to  explain  6  to  them  what  they  were  to  trust  to, 
 if  they  intended  to  become  his  disciples  ;  that  they  were 
 to  c  renounce  even  some  of  their  most  lawful  affections, 
 and  prepare  themselves  to  undergo  the  most  unjust  per- 
 secutions, if  they  thought  of  making  profession  of  his 
 religion  ;  and  therefore,  that  they  might  not  fail  in  the 
 day  of  trial,  he  advised  them  to  consider  well  before- 
 hand what  such  a  profession  would  cost  them  :  "  for,  as 
 he  who  begins  to  build,  and  has  not  money  to  accom- 
 plish it,  leaves  his  work  imperfect,  and  himself  becomes 
 ridiculous  ;  or  as  he  that  designs  a  war,  and  has  not  men 
 and  money  enough  to  go  through  with  it,  had  better 
 never  have  engaged  in  it ;  so  he  that  undertakes  to  be 
 a  Christian,  must  resolve  to  renounce  all  that  is  pre- 
 cious, and  to  bear  all  that  is  afflictive  to  him  in  this 
 world,  or  else  he  will  never  be  able  to  hold  out." 
 
 Among  the  great  multitudes  that  daily  resorted  to  our 
 Saviour  to  hear  his  discourses,  were  many  publicans  and 
 sinners.**  This  gave  great  offence  to  the  Scribes  and 
 Pharisees,  e  who  murmured  at  his  condescending  good- 
 ness in  so  freely  conversing  and  eating  with  such  infa- 
 mous people.  But  to  vindicate  himself  in  this  respect, 
 he  compared  his  conduct  to  that  of  a  man,  who,  having 
 an  hundred  sheep,  left  the  ninety  and  nine  /  in  quest  of 
 
 themselves  before  him  without  the  marks  of  his  liberality,  they 
 at  last  resolved  to  do  it,  and,  after  their  example,  all  the  rest  of 
 the  retinue." — Ambassador's  Travels,  p.  188;  see  Altmanni 
 Melematemata,  Phil.  Crit.  t.  i.  p.  118.;  and  Br  Clarke's  Trav- 
 els, vol.  ii.  p.  352,  note. — Ed. 
 
 b  It  was  a  custom  of  the  Jewish  doctors  to  lay  down  before 
 their  proselytes  what  inconveniences  would  attend  upon  their 
 precepts  ;  and  in  conformity  to  this,  our  Saviour  acquaints  his 
 disciples  with  two  things  that  would  be  a  means  to  deter  them 
 from  embracing  his  religion,  namely,  the  difficulty  of  the  duties 
 that  would  be  required  of  them,  and  the  greatness  of  the  suffer- 
 ings to  which  they  would  be  exposed. 
 
 c  The  words  in  the  text  are  '  If  any  man  come  to  me,  and 
 hate  not  his  father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and 
 brethren,  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be 
 my  disciple,'(Luke  xiv.  26.)  But  their  meaning  in  this  place  is 
 not,  that  a  man  should,  properly  speaking,  hate  his  father  and 
 his  mother;  for  certainly  our  blessed  Lord,  who  enjoins  us  to 
 love  our  enemies,  would  never  make  it  our  duty  to  hate  our 
 parents.  And  therefore  the  word  piani,  which  is  a  Hebraism, 
 must  necessarily  here  be  taken  in  a  lower  sense,  namely,  to  love 
 or  esteem  less,  in  the  same  manner  as  it  is  said  of  Leah,  that 
 'Jacob  hated  her,'  (Gen.  xxix.  31.)  that  is,  did  not  love  her 
 so  well  as  he  did  Rachel.  For  that  this,  and  no  more  is  here 
 the  import  of  the  expression,  is  plain  from  a  parallel  text,  '  He 
 that  loveth  father  and  mother  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me.' 
 (Mat.  x.  37.) — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  They  whom  the  scripture  generally,  and  this  portion  of  it 
 in  particular,  characterizes  by  the  name  of  sinners,  are  the  habit- 
 ual and  obdurate,  the  great  and  eminent  offenders. — Stanhope 
 on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 e  The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  looked  upon  the  publicans  as 
 unfit  to  be  conversed  with  upon  any  account,  even  though  it  was 
 to  reclaim  them  from  their  evil  courses.  Our  Saviour  had  told 
 them  that  he  conversed  among  such  people  as  their  physician, 
 and  not  as  their  companion,  and  that  therefore  his  proper  busi- 
 ness was  among  such  patients.  (Mat.  ix.  12,  13.)  But  this 
 apology  would  not  silence  their  murmurings,  because  their  opin- 
 ion was,  that  God  had  cast  off  all  care  of  them,  and  never  in- 
 tended to  grant  them  repentance  unto  life. — Burkit  and  JVhitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 f  Here  Christ  sets  ninety  and  nine  just  persons  in  opposition 
 to  one  sinner,  not  that  it  is  so  in  proportion :  for  there  are  very 
 few  who  live  according  to  the  rule  that  is  prescribed  them;  but 
 because,  even  upon  a  supposition  that  it  were  so,  such  is  the 
 
960 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.5441.  A.  D.30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  H.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 one  a  which  was  gone  astray  ;  to  that  of  a  woman 
 searching-,  with  all  diligence,  for  a  piece  of  silver6  that 
 was  lost,  and  rejoicing  exceedingly  when  she  found  it ; 
 and  to  that  of  a  father,  c  receiving  his  returning  prodi- 
 gal son  with  all  the  indications  of  joy  and  tenderness, 
 notwithstanding  the  remonstrances  of  his  elder  brother. 
 For  under  the  name  of  the  elder  brother,  he  reproved 
 the  unjust  murmurings  of  the  Pharisees,  who  were  dis- 
 pleased at  his  entertaining  sinners,  though  the  salvation 
 of  such  was  the  main  end  of  his  coming  into  the 
 world.** 
 
 Having  thus  exposed  the  pride  and  envy  of  the 
 Pharisees,  he  proceeded,  in  the  next  place,  to  reprove 
 their  covetousness,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  instruct  his 
 disciples  what  the  proper  use  was  that  they  were  to 
 make  of  their  riches.     To  this  purpose  he  introduces  an 
 
 value  of  our  immortal  souls,  that  great  care  and  pains  ought  to 
 be  taken  even  for  the  sake  of  one. — Grotius  in  locum. 
 
 a  A  sheep,  when  once  it  has  strayed  away,  is  a  creature 
 remarkably  stupid  and  heedless.  It  goes  wandering  on,  without 
 either  power  or  inclination  to  return  back,  though  each  moment 
 it  is  in  danger  of  becoming  a  sacrifice  to  every  beast  of  prey 
 that  meets  it.  And  such,  in  truth,  is  the  condition  of  people 
 addicted  to  vice,  when  they  have  broken  out  of  God's  fold,  and 
 forsaken  the  pleasant  pastures  which  he  provides  for  them. 
 They  grow  careless  and  inconsiderate,  and  are  exposed  to  snares 
 and  temptations  every  moment.  They  are  hardened  by  custom; 
 are  depraved  in  their  affections  and  judgment;  are  neither  dis- 
 posed to  grow  wiser,  nor  of  themselves  capable  of  conquering 
 inveterate  habits  of  vice,  though  they  should  now  and  then  show 
 some  good  inclination  to  attempt  it. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles 
 and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 I  By  this  comparison  of  a  lost  piece  of  money,  we  are  given  to 
 understand,  that  God  esteems  the  souls  of  men  precious,  and 
 reckons  them  among  his  wealth  and  his  treasures.  And  this 
 indeed  they  are ;  made  and  formed  by  his  own  hand  ;  impressed 
 with  his  own  image  and  superscription ;  and  from  that  stamp, 
 which  carries  a  resemblance  to  the  great  King  of  the  whole 
 world,  deriving  all  their  currency  and  value.  But  when  they 
 abandon  God's  laws,  and  forsake  the  divine  and  rational  life,  a 
 life  of  goodness  and  wisdom,  renounced  for  one  of  sensuality,  and 
 madness,  and  mischief,  then  they  are  lost;  lost  to  themselves; 
 lost  to  God.  Then  this  coin  is  debased ;  the  impression  obli- 
 terated and  gone  ;  and  that  piece  of  money,  as  to  the  worth  and 
 
 use  of  it,  is  in  a  manner  as  if  it  were  no  longer  in  being. 
 
 Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 c  This  parable  is  deservedly  reckoned  a  masterpiece  in  its 
 kind,  and  what  cannot  be  paralleled  by  any  of  the  apologues  or 
 allegorical  writings  of  heathen  authors.  It  is  adorned  and 
 beautified  with  the  most  glowing  colours  and  lively  similitudes. 
 It  is  carried  on  and  conducted  with  admirable  wisdom  and  propor- 
 tion, in  the  parts  as  well  as  in  the  whole;  and  there  is  so  exact 
 a  relation  between  the  things  represented,  and  the  representa- 
 tions of  them,  that  the  most  elevated  understanding  will  admire, 
 and  the  lowest  capacity  discover,  the  excellent  and  most  useful 
 moral  that  lies  under  so  thin  and  fine  a  veil. 
 
 d  Many  commentators  have  considered  this  parable  in  a  view 
 of  peculiar  application  to  the  Jews  and  Gentiles;  and  have  ob- 
 served that  the  murmurs  of  the  Jews  against  the  apostles  for 
 preaching  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles  (see  Acts  xiii.  42 — 50. 
 xxii.  21,  22,  and  1  Thes.  ii.  16.)  are  represented  by  the  con- 
 duct ot  the  elder  brother. — This  was  certainly  a  case  compre- 
 hended in  our  Lord's  design  ;  but  he  undoubtedly  had  something 
 more  in  his  intention.  He  meant  to  show  that,  had  the  Phari- 
 sees been  as  eminently  good  as  they  themselves  pretended  to 
 be,  yet  it  had  been  very  unworthy  their  character  to  take 
 offence  at  the  kind  treatment  which  any  sincere  penitent  might 
 receive.  Thus  does  he  here,  and  in  many  parallel  texts,  con- 
 demn their  conduct  on  their  own  principles;  though  elsewhere, 
 on  proper  occasions,  he  shows  the  falsehood  of  those  principles, 
 and  plainly  exposes  their  hypocrisy  and  guilt.  Thus  the  judi- 
 cious Calvin  states  the  matter;  and  it  is  strange  so  many  learned 
 writers  should  have  puzzled  themselves  and  their  readers  in  so 
 clear  a  case. — Doddridge's  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 unjust  steward, «  who,  after  having  abused  his  trust,  and 
 wasted  his  master's  substance,  is  contriving  what  pro- 
 vision to  make  for  himself,  which  he  does  by  abating  his 
 master's  debtors  in  their  bills,  when  he  came  to  be  re- 
 moved from  his  place ;  and  thereupon  he  teaches  his 
 disciples,  not  to  imitate-^  the  injustice,  but  the  forecast 
 and  policy  of  this  steward,  by  employing  their  earthly  e 
 riches  to  make  them  friends  in  the  persons  of  the  poor,  that 
 when  they  should  come  to  leave  this  transitory  world,  they 
 might,  by  this  means,  be  received  into  everlasting  habi- 
 tations in  heaven ;  and  so  the  children  of  light  become 
 as  prudent  in  things  relating  to  their  salvation,  as  the 
 children  of  this  world  are  in  the  management  of  their 
 temporal  affairs. 
 
 This  discourse  made  little  or  no  impression  upon  the 
 Pharisees  ;  and  therefore,  to  awaken  their  attention,  he 
 propounded  to  them  the  parable  of  a  certain  rich  man,  A 
 
 e  There  is  a  good  deal  in  this  and  the  following  parable,  that 
 alludes  to  the  notions  of  the  Jewish  rabbius,  and  their  manner 
 of  expressing  them.  "  The  fruits  of  the  earth,"  says  one  of  their 
 doctors,  "  are  like  a  table  spread  in  an  house ;  the  owner  of  this  is 
 God;  man  in  this  world  is,  as  it  were,  the  steward  of  this  house: 
 if  he  behaves  himself  well,  he  will  find  favour  in  the  eyes  of  his 
 lord ;  if  otherwise,  he  will  be  removed  from  his  stewardship ;" 
 Kimchi  on  Isa.  xl.  And  so  the  scope  of  this  following  parable  seems 
 to  be  this: — that  we  are  to  look  upon  ourselves,  not  as  lords  of  the 
 good  things  of  this  life,  as  though  we  might  use  them  at  our 
 pleasure,  but  only  as  stewards,  who  must  be  faitliful  in  the  ad- 
 ministration of  them.  The  parables  indeed  make  mention  of  no 
 other  goods  but  those  of  riches ;  but  we  must  not  therefore 
 imagine,  that  rich  men  only  stand  in  the  capacity  of  stewards, 
 since  eveiy  advantage  of  nature  or  of  grace,  as  well  as  those  of 
 fortune,  our  life,  our  health,  our  strength,  our  wit,  and  parts, 
 our  knowledge  natural  and  acquired,  our  time,  our  leisure,  our 
 every  ability,  our  every  opportunity,  our  every  inclination  to  do 
 well,  are  all  our  master's  goods:  all  intrusted  with  us;  all  capable 
 of  benefiting  others;  and  will  all,  at  last,  be  brought  to  our 
 account.' — ff'hitby's  Annotations,  and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles 
 and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 /It  is  said,  'and  the  Lord  commended  the  unjust  steward,' 
 namely,  the  master  of  this  unjust  steward.  He  spoke  highly  of 
 the  address  and  cunning  of  his  iniquitous  servant.  He  had,  on 
 his  own  principles,  made  a  very  prudent  provision  for  his  sup- 
 port; but  his  master  no  more  approved  of  his  conduct  in  this, 
 than  he  did  in  his  wasting  his  substance  before.  From  the 
 ambiguous  and  improper  manner  in  which  this  is  expressed  in 
 the  common  English  translation,  it  has  been  supposed  that  our 
 blessed  Lord  commended  the  conduct  of  this  wicked  man:  but 
 the  word  xu^tos,  there  translated  lord,  simply  means  the  master 
 of  the  unjust  steward. — Clarke's  Commentary  on  the  New  Testa- 
 ment.— Ed. 
 
 g  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  make  yourselves  friends  of  the 
 mammon  of  unrighteousness,'  (Luke  xvi.  9.)  Now,  mammon, 
 or  mammona,  is  a  Syriac  word,  and  properly  denotes  riches  or 
 treasure.  It  comes  from  an  Hebrew  root,  which  signifies,  to 
 be  hid,  and  is  therefore  thought  to  comprehend,  not  only  gold, 
 silver,  and  other  metals,  that  are  hid  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth, 
 but  stores  likewise  of  com,  wine,  and  oil,  a  great  part  of  the 
 riches  of  the  eastern  people,  which  they  often  buried  in  subter- 
 raneous caverns,  to  conceal  them  from  their  enemies.  These 
 are  called  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  because  they  fre- 
 quently occasion  much  iniquity  in  the  world,  and  are  often 
 acquired  by  very  indirect  means;  but  our  Lord,  by  this  expres- 
 sion, must  not  be  supposed  to  command  alms  to  be  given  of  that 
 which  is  gotten  by  fraud  or  injustice,  because  such  charity  can 
 never  be  acceptable  to  God.  No,  the  duty  of  those  who  have 
 acquired  wealth  unrighteously  is,  to  make  restitution  to  the 
 persons  they  have  injured;  if  these  be  dead,  then  to  their  heirs 
 or  executors ;  and  the  poor  are  only  then  receivers  of  the  fruits 
 of  injustice,  when  a  person  is  conscious  that  he  has  been  unjust, 
 but  does  not  know  the  persons  to  whom  he  has  been  so. — Cal- 
 met's  Commentary,  and  Beausohre' s  Annotations. 
 
 h  Whether  this  representation,  which  our  Saviour  here  makes 
 of  the  different  fates  of  the  rich  man  and  the  poor,  be  a  parable 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 961 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM JM AT. xii.  1 
 
 living  in  pride,  and  ease,  and  luxury,  who,  after  his 
 death,  was  carried  into  the  dismal  regions  of  the  damned  ; 
 and  of  a  certain  poor  beggar,  named  Lazarus,  a  lying 
 at  his  gate,  b  full  of  sores  and  ulcers,  and  desiring  the 
 fragments  that  came  from  his  table,  who,  when  he  died, 
 was  transported  by  angels  into  Abraham's  bosom;  c  "  that, 
 in  these  different  states,  the  poor  man,  in  compensation 
 for  his  former  misery  enjoyed  all  the  felicity  that  his 
 heart  could  wish  ;  while  the  rich  man,  in  punishment  of 
 his  luxury,  and  want  of  mercy  to  the  poor,  was  forced  to 
 undergo  the  most  inexpressible  torments,  without  being- 
 able  to  procure  so  much  as  one  drop (1  of  water  to  cool  his 
 
 — xvii.  14.  MARK ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKEvi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  l. 
 
 inflamed  tongue,  and  without  being  able  to  prevail  for 
 the  once  despised  Lazarus  to  be  sent  upon  a  message  of 
 admonition  to  his  surviving  brethren,  because  they  had 
 Moses  e  and  the  prophets  for  their  instructors,  or  a  stand- 
 
 or  a  real  history,  is  a  matter  wherein  several  commentators  are 
 not  agreed.  We  are  told,  however,  that  in  several  manuscripts, 
 both  Greek  and  Latin,  there  are  these  words  in  the  beginning 
 of  the  19th  verse,  'he  spake  to  them  another  parable,'  and  that 
 this  very  parable  is  in  the  Gemara  Babylonicum ;  from  whence 
 it  is  cited  by  the  learned  Sheringliam,  in  the  preface  to  his 
 Ioma,  as  indeed,  if  we  look  into  the  circumstances  of  it,  such  as 
 the  rich  man's  '  lifting  up  his  eyes  in  hell,'  and  seeing  '  Lazarus 
 in  Abraham's  bosom,'  his  discourse  to  Abraham,  his  complaint 
 of  being  tormented  with  flames,  and  his  desire  that  Lazarus 
 might  be  sent  to  '  cool  his  tongue,'  or,  at  least,  to  convert  his 
 surviving  brethren:  if,  together  with  the  great  gulf  that  is 
 fixed  between  the  two  places  of  bliss  and  torment,  we  do  but 
 consider  these  particulars,  I  say,  we  must  needs  conclude,  that, 
 as  they  cannot  be  understood  of  any  departed  soul,  in  a  literal 
 sense,  they  must  be  an  allegorical  representation  of  things  in- 
 visible, by  terms  in  some  measure  suitable  to  the  opinion  of  the 
 Jews  concerning  the  state  of  souls  after  death. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  Lazar,  which,  according  to  most,  is  but  a  contraction  from 
 Eleazar,  is  the  \tiry  same  with  Ania-chad,  a  poor  man  in  the 
 Gemara,  and  properly  signifies  one  without  help,  or  rather  one 
 that  has  God  only  for  his  help:  but,  in  the  times  of  our  blessed 
 Saviour,  we  may  observe,  that  it  was  a  common  name  among 
 the  Jews,  and  given  to  men  of  some  distinction,  as  we  find  it 
 was  to  the  brother  of  Martha  and  Mary. — Whitby's  Annotations, 
 and  Calmet's  Commentary, 
 
 b  This  was  the  place  where  beggars  stood  or  were  laid,  and  ask- 
 ed alms:  hence  i<  that  rule  with  the  Jews,  'if  a  man  die  and 
 leave  sous  and  daughters,  if  he  leave  but  small  substance,  the 
 daughters  shall  be  taken  care  of,  and  the  sons  shall  beg  at  the 
 gates.' — Ed. 
 
 c  The  garden  of  Eden  and  Paradise,  the  Throne  of  Glory,  and 
 Abraham's  Bosom,  were  common  expressions  among  the  Jewish 
 doctors,  to  denote  a  future  siate  of  felicity ;  for  so  Josephus,  in 
 his  discourse  of  the  Maccabees,  says  of  good  men,  that  "  they 
 are  gathered  to  the  region  of  the  patriarchs,  and  that  Abraham, 
 Isaac,  and  Jacob,  do  receive  their  souls:"  and  they  tell  us  far- 
 ther, that  the  souls  of  such  men  are  carried  thither  by  angels; 
 for  so  the  Targum  on  Cant.  iv.  12,  says,  that  "  no  man  hath 
 power  to  enter  into  the  garden  of  Eden,  but  the  just,  whose 
 souls  are  carried  thither  by  the  hands  of  good  angels."  Our 
 commentators,  however,  have  perceived  something  peculiar  in 
 the  phrase  of  Abraham's  bosom.  They  imagine,  that  the  Jew- 
 ish notion  of  paradise  was  a  place  abounding  with  delights  and 
 perpetual  (eastings,  where  Abraham,  the  great  founder  of  their 
 nation,  enjoys  the  uppermost  place  at  the  table,  and  while  all  his 
 children  sit  down  with  him,  some  at  a  nearer,  and  some  at  a  far- 
 ther distance  from  him,  Ik;  who  has  the  honour  to  recline 
 upon  his  bosom,  as  Lazarus  is  here  represented,  is  in  a  higher 
 degree  of  felicity  than  ordinary.  But  others  deride  all  this 
 notion,  and  assert  that  Abraham's  bosom,  was  so  called,  not 
 from  any  posture  of  guests  at  table,  but  from  little  children,  whom 
 their  tender  parents  do  sometimes  take  in  their  bosom,  and 
 sometimes  cause  them  to  sleep  there.  For  since  those  that  die 
 in  the  Lord,  say  they,  are  said  to  sleep,  or  rest  from  their  labours, 
 where  can  they  be  said  to  enjoy  this  rest  or  sleep  better  than  in 
 the  bosom  of  the  father  of  the  faithful? — Beausobre's  and  Whit- 
 by's Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  A  good  deal  of  this  is  to  be  taken  in  a  figurative  sense ;  but 
 our  Saviour  might  possibly  insert  this  passage  in  the  parable, 
 on  purpose  to  strike  at  a  vain  imagination. which  some  of  the 
 Je«s  wero  apt  to  entertain,  namely,  tint  lull-fire  had  no  power 
 
 over  the  sinners  of  Israel,  because  Abraham  and  Isaac  came 
 down  thither  to  fetch  them  from  thence,  which  could  not  fail  of 
 being  effectually  confuted,  when  they  heard  Abraham,  as  it 
 were  with  his  own  mouth  ,  declaring,  that  no  help  was  to  be  ex- 
 pected from  him,  when  once  they  were  got  into  that  place. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations, 
 
 e  This  appears,  by  considering  the  temper  of  infidelity;  for 
 where  unbelief  proceeds,  as  generally  it  does,  from  a  vitiated  and 
 corrupted  mind,  which  hates  to  be  reformed ;  which  rejects  the 
 evidence,  because  it  will  not  admit  the  doctrine,  and  the  doc- 
 trine, because  it  cannot  admit  the  evidence;  in  this  case  all 
 proofs  will  be  alike,  and  it  will  be  lost  labour  to  ply  such  a  man 
 with  reason  or  new  evidence,  since  it  is  not  want  of  reason  or 
 evidence  that  makes  him  an  unbeliever.  And  tins  case  chiefly 
 our  Saviour  seems  to  have  in  his  view;  for  the  request  to  Abra- 
 ham to  send  one  from  the  dead  was  made  in  behalf  of  men  who 
 lived  wantonly  and  luxuriously ;  who,  as  the  psalmist  expresses 
 it,  '  had  not  God  in  all  their  thoughts.'  The  rich  man  in  tor- 
 ment could  think  of  no  better  expedient  to  rescue  his  brethren 
 from  the  danger  they  were  in  of  coming  into  the  same  condition 
 with  himself,  than  sending  one  from  the  dead  to  admonish  them, 
 and  to  give  them  a  faithful  account  how  matters  stood  there,  and 
 how  it  fared  with  him.  To  which  Abraham  answers,  that  they 
 had  already  sufficient  evidence  of  these  things;  that  they  wanted 
 no  means  of  knowledge,  if  they  would  make  use  of  these  they 
 had :  '  they  have  Moses  and  the  prophets,  let  them  hear  them.' 
 But  still  he  insists,  '  nay,  Father  Abraham ;  but  if  one  went 
 unto  them  from  the  dead,  they  will  repent.'  Then  follows  the 
 text,  which  is  the  last  resolution  of  this  case,  '  if  they  hear  not 
 Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded  though 
 one  rose  from  the  dead.'  And  indeed  where  infidelity  is  the 
 effect  of  such  profligate  wickedness,  it  deserves  not  so  much  re- 
 gard from  God,  as  that  he  should  condescend  to  make  par- 
 ticular applications  to  it  by  new  lights  and  evidences:  and  should 
 he  do  it,  there  is  reason  to  suspect  it  would  be  ineffectual.  We 
 see,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  providence,  many  judgments  in- 
 flicted on  sinners  to  reclaim  and  amend  them;  but  they  harden 
 themselves  against  them;  so  that  their  last  state  is  worse  than 
 their  first.  I  will  not  answer  for  the  courage  of  sinners,  how 
 well  they  would  bear  the  sight  of  one  from  the  dead ;  nay,  I  am 
 apt  to  imagine  it  would  strangely  terrify  and  amaze  them.  But 
 to  be  frightened  and  to  be  persuaded  are  two  things:  nature 
 would  recover  the  fright,  and  sin  would  recover  strength,  and 
 the  great  flight  might  come  to  be  matter  of  ridicule.  How  easy 
 would  it  be,  when  the  fright  was  over,  to  compare  this  event 
 with  the  many  ridiculous  stories  we  have  of  apparations,  and  to 
 come  at  last  to  mistrust  our  own  senses,  and  to  conclude  that  we 
 were  misled,  like  a  man  in  a  dark  night  who  follows  an  ignis 
 fatuus  ?  And  what  is  worse,  when  the  infidel  had  once  con- 
 quered his  own  fears,  and  got  loose  again  from  the  thoughts  of 
 religion,  he  would  then  conclude  thatall  religion  is  made  up  of  that 
 fear  which  he  felt  himself,  which  others  cannot  get  rid  of,  though 
 he  so  manfully  and  happily  subdued  it.  You  may  think  it  per- 
 haps impossible  that  a  man  should  not  be  convinced  by  such  an 
 appearance  ;  the  same  I  believe  you  would  think  of  the  judgments 
 which  befell  Pharaoh,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  any  man  should 
 withstand  them  ;  and  yet  you  see  he  did :  nay,  did  not  the 
 guards,  who  were  eye-witnesses  of  our  Saviour's  resurrection; 
 who  saw  the  angel  that  rolled  away  the  stone  from  the  mouth  of 
 the  sepulchre ;  who  shook  and  trembled  with  fear,  and  became 
 as  dead  men;  did  not  they,  after  all  this,  receive  money  to 
 deny  all  they  saw,  and  to  give  false  evidence  against  the  per- 
 son they  beheld  coming  from  the  grave  ?  So  you  see,  it  is  in 
 the  nature  of  man  to  withstand  such  evidences,  where  the  power 
 of  sin  is  prevalent.  Besides,  there  are  many  sinners  who  arc 
 not  infidels:  they  may  believe  Moses  and  the  prophets,  though 
 they  will  not  heal-  them,  that  is,  obey  them.  Now,  should  one 
 come  from  the  dead  to  these  men,  the  most  they  could  do  would 
 be  to  believe  him:  but  that  does  not  apply  their  obeying  him  ; 
 for  they  believe  Moses  and  the  prophets,  Christ  and  his  apostles, 
 and  yet  obey  not  them;  and  why  should  obedience  be  the  conse- 
 quence of  belief  in  one  case  more  than  another  ?  There  can  be 
 no  greater  arguments  for  obedience  than  the  gospel  affords;  and 
 therefore  he  who  believes  the  gospel,  and  disobeys  it,  is  out  of 
 6  f 
 
982 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 ing-  revelation  of  the  divine  will,  (and  if  it  prevailed  not 
 with  them,  nothing  would,)  for  the  direction  of  their 
 lives." 
 
 Of  the  great  numbers  of  people  who  attended  our 
 Lord  wherever  he  went,  some  came  out  of  necessity, 
 others  out  of  curiosity ;  some  out  of  a  spirit  of  devotion, 
 and  others  out  of  a  spirit  of  captiousness,  and  with  an 
 intent  to  entangle  him  in  his  discourse.  Of  this  last  sort 
 were  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  who,  taking  the  question 
 of  divorces  "  to  be  somewhat  intricate,  put  it  to  our 
 Saviour  ;  but  he,  limiting  the  permission  of  such  separa- 
 tions to  the  case  of  adultery  only,  reminded  them  of  that 
 strict  and  natural  union  *  between  man  and  wife,  which 
 God  had  appointed  at  their  first  creation,  and  was  not, 
 consequently,  to  be  disannulled  by  any  human  institution. 
 Here  the  Pharisees,  thinking  that  they  had  got  the  ad- 
 vantage of  the  argument,  objected  the  precept *  of  Moses, 
 wherein  he  permitted  the  husband,  c  in  many  cases,  to 
 
 1  Deut.  xxiv.  1,  &c. 
 hope  to  be  reformed  by  any  other  evidence.  So  that,  considering 
 the  case  with  respect  to  all  manner  of  infidels  or  sinners,  there 
 is  reason  in  our  Saviour's  judgment ;  '  if  they  will  not  hear  Moses 
 and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded  though  one  rose 
 from  the  dead.' — Bishop  Sherlock. — Ed. 
 
 a  The  Jews,  at  this  time,  were  divided  in  their  opinions  as  to 
 the  matter  of  divorces.  Some  of  them,  who  followed  the  senti- 
 ments of  the  school  of  Shammai,  held,  that  the  wife  was  to  be 
 put  away  only  for  the  crime  of  adultery,  because  Moses  directs, 
 that  this  might  be  done,  in  case  the  husband  had  found  some 
 uncleanness  in  her,  Deut.  xxiv.  1.  But  others,  who  adhered 
 to  the  notions  of  the  school  of  Hillel,  and  they  by  much  were  the 
 greater  number,  maintained,  on  the  contrary,  that  this  was  per- 
 mitted to  be  done  for  any  cause  whatever;  because,  in  the  same 
 verse  it  is  expressed,  that,  if  she  found  not  grace  in  her  husband's 
 eyes,  she  was  divorceable.  This  was  the  question  which  the 
 Pharisees  brought  to  our  Saviour,  thinking,  that  he  must  have 
 decided  it,  either  against  the  law  of  Moses,  or  against  the  deter- 
 mination of  one  of  these  two  famous  schools,  and,  one  way  or 
 other,  have  become  offensive  to  the  people ;  but  our  Saviour 
 evaded  all  this,  by  reducing  matrimony  to  its  original  institution. 
 — JVhitby's  and  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 b  Our  Saviour  replied  to  the  insidious  question  of  the  Phari- 
 sees by  referring  to  the  history  of  the  creation,  and  the  original 
 institution  of  marriage ;  intimating  that  this  was  the  standard  by 
 which  all  transactions  in  this  important  concern,  ought  to  be 
 regulated,  as  every  deviation  was  an  abuse  consequent  on  man's 
 depravity.  The  Creator  first  formed  Adam,  and  from  his  side 
 took  the  rib  of  which  the  woman,  was  made  ;  from  this  one  woman 
 and  one  man  the  whole  species  had  descended.  When  the  Lord 
 brought  the  woman,  Adam  acknowledged  her  as  a  part  of  himself, 
 and  it  was  added  (either  by  Adam  as  immediately  inspired  or  by 
 Moses,)  that,  '  for  this  cause  '  in  all  future  ages,  '  a  man  should 
 leave  father  and  mother,'  foregoing  many  of  the  comforts,  and 
 relinquishing  many  of  the  duties  of  those  endeared  relations  and 
 '  cleave  to  his  wife,'  as  a  part  of  himself.  Thus  these  two  would 
 constitute,  as  it  were,  one  body,  never  more  to  be  separated,  except 
 by  God  himself,  who  in  this  appointment  of  marriage  had  joined 
 them  together,  but  to  have  ever  after  the  same  interests,  and  to 
 share  each  other's  comforts  or  sorrows,  as  members  of  the  same 
 body  do. — When  marriage  was  instituted,  sin  and  death  had  not 
 entered,  the  sinful  cause  of  separation  afterwards  mentioned,  and 
 the  natural  dissolution  of  the  union  was  therefore  not  referred 
 to,  but  they  have  since  been  specified,  and  resemble  the  cutting 
 off  of  a  mortified  limb,  and  the  separation  of  the  parts  of  the  body 
 by  death.  In  all  other  respects,  the  union  is  to  be  considered  as 
 indissoluble.  It  is  observable  that  Christ  inserts  the  word 
 '  twain,'  which  is  not  in  the  original  institution,  but  added  by  the 
 Seventy  purposely,  as  it  seems,  to  obviate  all  misconstruction  of 
 his  meaning. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  Pharisees,  in  their  reply  to  our  Saviour,  seem  to  inti- 
 mate that  the  lawfulness  of  divorces  was  founded  upon  a  divine 
 command :  '  why  then  did  Moses  command  to  give  her  a  bill  of 
 divorcement,  and  put  her  away  ?'  (Mark  x.  4.)  But  Moses  no 
 where  commands,  but  only,  in  some  cases,  permits  the  doing  of 
 
 give  a  bill  of  divorce  to  ihe  wife  :  but  to  this  our  Saviour 
 replied,  that,  though  under  the  Mosaical  dispensation, 
 God,  knowing  their  obstinacy  and  perverse  inclinations, 
 allowed  a  dispensation  d  in  this  point,  by  tolerating 
 divorces ;  yet,  according  to  the  original  institution  of 
 marriage,  it  was  not  so ;  and  therefore,  to  reduce  the 
 matter  to  its  primary  establishment,  he  determined,  that 
 all  divorces,  e  for  any  less  cause  than  that  of  fornication, 
 
 this;  nor  is  the  design  of  the  whole  precept  to  give  any  en- 
 couragement to  this  practice,  but  only  to  provide,  that,  in  case 
 men  will  be  so  perverse  and  hard-hearted,  as  to  turn  away  their 
 wives  upon  every  slight  occasion,  the  thing  might  be  done  in  a 
 proper  and  public  manner,  not  by  word  of  mouth,  but  by  bill  of 
 divorcement,  delivered  in  form,  that,  when  the  woman  is  thus 
 dismissed,  she  may  not  be  quite  ruined,  but  left  at  hef  liberty  to 
 become  another  man's  wife,  Deut.  xxiv.  2. 
 
 d  But  here  the  question  is, — Whether  this  dispensation  ex- 
 cused the  common  divorces  among  the  Jews,  which  our  Saviour 
 looks  upon  as  an  infringement  upon  the  primitive  institution  of 
 marriage,  from  all  sin,  especially  that  of  adultery,  in  the  sight  of 
 God?  It  is  granted,  indeed,  that  these  divorces  were  contrary  to 
 the  equity  and  genuine  intention  of  God's  first  institution  of  mar- 
 riage; but  then  it  must  be  added,  that  God,  by  his  servant 
 Moses,  had  dispensed  with  his  own  institution ;  that  under  such 
 his  dispensation  there  could  be  no  prohibition ;  and  that,  where 
 there  was  no  prohibition,  there  could  be  no  transgression  ;  unless 
 we  can  suppose,  that  God  could  forbid  and  permit  the  same  thing 
 at  the  same  time.  Our  Saviour,  indeed,  upon  this  occasion,  pre- 
 scribes a  new  law,  which  had  not  before  obtained  among  the 
 Jews;  he  retracts  the  dispensation  that  Moses  had  given;  he 
 reduces  marriage  to  its  primitive  institution;  and,  except  in 
 cases  of  adultery,  allows  of  no  divorces,  but  accounts  them  all 
 null  and  invalid :  however,  under  the  Mosaic  dispensation  it  was 
 not  so.  From  the  permission  given  to  the  women,  when  they 
 were  thus  divorced,  to  be  married  to  others,  it  is  evident,  that 
 these  divorces  quite  dissolved  the  bond  of  matrimony,  otherwise 
 we  must  say,  that  God  gave  these  women,  when  they  married 
 again,  a  toleration  to  live  in  a  state  of  adultery,  and  so,  at  long 
 run,  the  whole  commonwealth  of  Judea,  must,  by  a  divine  per- 
 mission, have  been  filled  with  adulteries,  and  a  spurious  offspring; 
 which  is  incongruous  to  the  wisdom  and  purity  of  Almighty  God 
 to  imagine. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Divorces  seem  to  have  been  permitted  among  the  Jews, 
 before  the  law;  but  we  find  no  example  of  that  kind  in  the  Old 
 Testament  written  since  Moses.     They  have  been  less  frequent 
 with  the  Jews,  since  their  dispersion  among  nations  which  do 
 not  permit  the  dissolution  of  marriage  upon  light  occasions.     In 
 cases  where  it  does  take  place,  the  woman  is  at  liberty  to  marry 
 again,  as  she  shall  think  proper,  but  not  with  the  person  who  gave 
 occasion  for  the  divorce.     To  prevent  the  abuse  which  the  Jewish 
 men  might  make  of  the  liberty  of  divorcing,  the  rabbins  appoint 
 many  formalities,  which  consume  much  time,  and  give  the  mar- 
 ried couple  opportunity  to  be  reconciled.     Where  there  is  no 
 hope  of  accommodation,  a  woman,  a  deaf  man,  or  a  notary  draws 
 the  letter  of  divorce.     He  writes  it  in  the  presence  of  one  or 
 more  rabbins,  on  vellum  ruled,  containing  only  twelve  lines,  in 
 square  letters ;  and  abundance  of  little  trifling  particulars  are 
 observed,  as  well  in  the  characters  as  in  the  manner  of  writing, 
 and  in  the  names  and  surnames  of  the  husband  and  wife.     He 
 who  pens  it,  the  rabbins  and  witnesses  ought  not  to  be  relations 
 either  to  the  husband,  or  to  the  wife,  or  to  one  another.     The 
 substance  of  this  letter,  which  they  call  gheth,  is  as  follows- 
 "  On  such  a  day,  month,  year,  and  place,  J,  N.  divorce  you 
 voluntarily,  put  you  away,  restore  you  to  your  liberty,  even  you, 
 N.  who  were  heretofore  my  wife,  and  I  permit  you  to  marry 
 whom  you  please.''     The  letter  being  written,  the  rabbi  examines 
 the  husband  closely,  in  order  to  learn  whether  he  is  voluntarily 
 inclined  to  do  what  he  has  done.     They  endeavour  to  have  at 
 least  ten  persons  present  at  this  action,  without  reckoning  the 
 two  witnesses  who  sign,  and  two  other  witnesses  to  the  date. 
 After  which  the  rabbi  commands  the  wife  to  open  her  hands,  in 
 order  to  receive  this  deed,  lest  it  fall  to  the  ground ;  and  after 
 having  examined  her  over  again,  the   husband   gives  her  the 
 parchment,  and  says  to  her,  Here  is  thy  divorce,  I  put  thee  away 
 from  me,  and  leave  thee  at  liberty  to  many  whom  thou  pleasest. 
 The  wife  takes  it,  and  gives  it  to  the  rabbi,  who  reads  it  once 
 
Sect.  111.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 963 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  Mil.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 were  illegal,  and,  on  both  sides,  attended  with  adultery  ; 
 which  when  some  of  his  disciples  heard,  and,  since  the 
 engagement  was  so  rigorous,  began  to  express  their  dis- 
 like of  marriage,  our  Lord  allowed  it  to  be  true,  that  in 
 those  who  had  the  gift  of  continency,  a  single  life  was 
 more  conducible  towards  the  attainment  of  the  kingdom 
 of  heaven  ;  a  but  that  those  who  had  it  not,  and  thought 
 proper  to  marry,  ought  by  all  means  to  adhere  to  the 
 first  institution. 
 
 After  this,  he  began  to  remind  his  disciples  of  several 
 things  he  had  instructed  them  in  before,  namely,  of  the 
 impossibility  of  preventing  scandals  and  offences  ;  of  the 
 duty  of  forgiving  our  brother  his  repeated  transgressions  ; 
 of  the  necessity  and  efficacy  of  faith,  in  order  to  be 
 heard  in  our  requests  to  God ;  of  humility  in  the  per- 
 formance of  our  duty,  because  at  the  best  we  are  but  un- 
 profitable servants  ;  and  especially  of  humility  in  our 
 addresses  to  God,  for  which  he  gave  them  a  parabolical 
 instance,  in  the  behaviour  of  a  Pharisee  °  and  publican  ; 
 the  Pharisee,  vaunting  over  his  own  praise  at  his  devo- 
 tion, and  preferring  himself  before  all  others :  but  the 
 
 more,  after  which  she  is  free. — Calmet's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 
 art.  Divorce. — Ed. 
 
 a  The  author  here  seems  to  favour  the  notion  of  the  Romanists 
 with  regard  to  celibacy,  but  what  our  Lord  says  (Mat.  xix.  11, 
 12.)  of  a  single  life,  is  entirely  perverted  by  the  papists,  when 
 they  produce  it  to  discredit  matrimony,  and  exalt  celibacy 
 as  the  more  perfect  state.  For  on  this  very  occasion  marriage 
 is  declared  to  be  an  institution  of  God.  And  lest  any  one 
 might  have  replied,  that  it  was  a  remedy  contrived  purely 
 for  the  weakness  of  our  fallen  state,  it  is  particularly  observed, 
 that  it  was  an  institution  given  to  man  in  innocence.  Where- 
 fore, as  the  apostle  tells  us,  marriage  is  honourable  in  all 
 ranks  and  conditions  of  persons,  provided  the  duties  thereof  are 
 inviolably  maintained.  Besides,  it  is  false  to  affirm  that  our 
 Lord  recommends  celibacy.  He  only  gives  permission  for  it  as 
 a  thing  lawful,  telling  them  that  if  they  were  able  to  live  conti- 
 nently, they  would  not  sin  though  they  did  not  many,  especially 
 as  the  times  they  lived  in  were  times  of  persecution.  In  which 
 light  also  the  judgment  of  the  apostle  Paul  is  to  be  considered, 
 when  he  declared  it  to  be  better  for  Christians,  as  matters  then 
 stood,  not  to  marry,  1  Cor.  vii.  26. — Macknight's  Harmony. — 
 Ed. 
 
 b  The  Pharisee's  temper  is  sufficiently  discovered  in  the  form 
 of  his  prayer:  '  God,  I  thank  thee,  that  I  am  not  as  other  men 
 are,  extortioners,  unjust,  adulterers,  or  even  as  this  publican,' 
 (Luke  xviii.  11.)  The  style  is  insolent  and  boasting;  that  of  an 
 herald,  rather  than  a  supplicant ;  and  does  not  so  much  render 
 God  his  praises,  as  proclaim  his  own.  But,  admitting  this  lofty 
 opinion  of  his  own  excellencies  to  be  never  so  just,  yet  what 
 warrant  or  privilege  could  he  have  to  disparage  and  vilify  his 
 \  rethren?  '  I  am  not  as  other  men:'  what  could  be  more  fulsome 
 vanity,  than  thus  to  set  himself  off,  as  an  exception  to  a  whole 
 world  at  once?  'Or  even  as  this  publican:'  to  break  that  bruised 
 reed,  and,  with  scornful  reproaches,  to  fall  foul  on  a  wounded 
 soul,  whose  penitent  sorrow  called  for  the  compassion  of  every 
 stander  by.  The  publican,  quite  contrary  in  all  his  expressions, 
 in  all  his  deportment,  speaks  nothing  but  shame  and  confusion, 
 the  tenderest  contrition,  and  most  profound  humility.  He  stands 
 afar  off,  as  not  presuming  upon  a  nearer  approach  to  the  presence 
 of  so  holy  a  majesty.  He  lifts  not  up  so  much  as  his  eyes  to 
 heaven,  but,  by  the  guilt  and  melancholy  of  his  countenance, 
 takes  to  himself  the  ignominious  titles  so  liberally  bestowed  by 
 his  scornful  companion.  He  smites  upon  his  breast,  as  conscious 
 of  the  pollutions  lodged  there  ;  looks  not  abroad,  but  confines  his 
 thoughts  to  his  own  misery;  alleges  nothing  in  his  own  behalf, 
 no  mixture  of  good  to  mitigate  the  evil  of  his  past  life;  feels  no 
 comfort,  seeks  no  refuge,  except  in  the  mercy  of  a  forgiving  God  ; 
 brings  no  motive  to  incline  that  mercy,  but  a  sorrowful  sense  of 
 his  own  unworthiness,  and  an  humble  hope  in  God's  unbounded 
 goodness:  and  therefore  upon  this,  this  saving,  this  only  support- 
 ing attribute,  he  casts  himself  entirely,  with  a  'God,  be  merciful 
 to  me  a  sinner!' — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 publican,  with  a  dejected  heart,  confessing  his  sins,  and 
 imploring  God's  mercy ;  and  yet  the  latter,  according 
 to  our  Lord's  judgment,  departed  more  acceptable  to 
 God  than  the  other ;  because  the  divine  decree  is,  '  that 
 pride  should  be  abased,  and  humility  exalted.' 
 
 The  Pharisees,  who  waited  for  the  coming  of  the 
 Messiah,  and  had  drawn  up  a  romantic  scheme  of  his 
 appearing  with  the  utmost  glory  of  a  temporal  prince, 
 came  about  this  time  and  demanded  of  him,  '  when  the 
 kingdom  of  God,'  c  whereof  he  had  told  them  so  much, 
 '  was  to  appear  ?'  To  which  he  gave  them  in  answer, 
 "  that  it  should  not  appear  with  any  outward  pomp  or 
 splendour,  as  they  vainly  imagined ;  and  that,  in  truth, 
 it  was  already  begun  among  them,  though  they  had  no 
 perception  of  it."  And  then,  turning  to  his  disciples, 
 he  strictly  cautioned  them  not  to  be  deluded  by  false 
 Christs,  and  false  prophets,  d   who  would  pretend  to 
 
 c  Whether  the  Pharisees  put  this  question  to  our  Saviour  in 
 derision,  because  in  his  discourses  he  had  so  often  mentioned  the 
 kingdom  of  God,  or  in  sober  seriousness,  because  at  this  time 
 they  were  in  strong  expectations  of  the  coming  of  the  Messiah, 
 and  his  erecting  a  secular  kingdom  among  them,  is  not  so  easy 
 a  matter  to  determine.  Their  contemptible  opinion  of  Christ 
 inclines  some  to  think  the  former;  but  their  generally  received 
 opinion  about  the  Messiah  gives  some  countenance  to  the  latter; 
 but,  in  whatsoever  sense  they  intended  the  question,  our  Sav- 
 iour's answer  perfectly  fits  them.  Only  we  may  observe,  that 
 by  the  kingdom  of  God  here,  the  Pharisees  and  our  Saviour  meant 
 two  very  different  things:  the  Pharisees  a  flourishing  kingdom, 
 wherein  the  Messiah  was  to  reduce  all  other  nations  under  the 
 Jewish  yoke ;  but  our  Saviour  a  kingdom  of  wrath  and  ven- 
 geance, which  he  designed  to  exercise  even  upon  the  Jews  them- 
 selves; and  withal  a  spiritual  kingdom,  which  he  intended  to 
 erect  in  the  hearts  of  men  by  the  kindly  operations  of  his  word 
 and  Spirit,  when  his  gospel  should  be  more  fully  propagated. 
 For  this  is  the  meaning  of  that  comparison,  '  As  the  lightning, 
 which  shineth  from  one  part  of  heaven  to  the  other  part  under 
 heaven,  so  also  shall  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  be  in  his 
 day.'  (Luke  xvii.  24.)  He  had  told  them,  that  the  kingdom  of 
 God  was  already  come  among  them,  and  had  appeared  in  the 
 purity  of  his  doctrine,  and  the  miracles  which  he  had  wrought 
 to  confirm  it,  though  not  in  that  glaring  light  as  to  make  them 
 take  a  proper  notice  of  it;  and  here  tells  them  farther,  that,  after 
 his  resurrection,  it  would  shine  with  such  a  fresh  and  glorious 
 brightness,  by  the  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  his  disciples,  as 
 would  render  it  equal  to  the  splendour  of  the  sun,  shining  from 
 one  part  of  heaven  to  the  other,  and  cause  it  to  be  propagated 
 almost  as  quick  as  lightning  through  the  world:  and  that  then 
 this  Son  of  Man,  so  scornfully  rejected  by  them,  would  also 
 appear  suddenly  and  gloriously,  to  revenge  upon  them  their 
 infidelity,  and  the  affronts  which  they  had  otiered  to  him.. — 
 Poole's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  distinction  between  false  Christs  and  false  prophets  is, 
 that  the  former  took  upon  them  to  be  Christ,  and  came  under 
 that  name ;  the  latter  were  such  as  promised  and  foretold  false 
 things.  Among  the  number  of  the  false  Christs  who  appeared 
 in  the  time  prefixed  by  our  Saviour,  that  is,  between  his  resur- 
 rection and  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  are  generally  reckoned 
 Dositheus,  who,  according  to  Origin,  gave  it  out  that  he  was  the 
 Christwhom  Moses  foretold.  (Basnagc.  Hist. of  Jews,  b.ii.  c.  13.) 
 Simon  Magus,  who  bewitched  the  people  by  his  sorceries,  and 
 made  himself  pass  '  for  the  great  power  of  God,'  (Acts  viii.  9, 
 10.)  and  those  many  more  whom  the  "  time  of  the  advent  of  their 
 king  Messiah",  as  Josephus  expresses  it,  "  prevailed  with  to  set 
 up  for  kings;"  (Jewish  War,  b.  i.)  Among  the  number  of 
 false  prophets  who  appeared  in  this  period  are  likewise  reckoned 
 Theudas  (not  the  person  mentioned  Acts  v.  36.)  who,  in  the 
 government  of  Fadus,  promised  his  followers  that  he  would 
 divide  the  river  Jordan,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Joshua  and 
 Elias,  and  give  them  a  free  passage  (Joseph*  Antiq.  b.  xx.  c.  1.) 
 The  Egyptian  Jew,  who,  in  the  government  of  Felix,  drew  thirty 
 thousand  after  him  to  the  mount  of  Olives,  where  he  promised  by 
 his  prayers  to  make  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  as  those  cf  Jericho 
 once  did,  fall   flat  on  the   ground;    thence  drive  the   Romas 
 
964 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.31;  OR,  A.M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1—  xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  '23— i.\.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1—  ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  I. 
 
 show  them  the  kingdom  of  God  where  it  was  not ;  and 
 that,  before  he  could  enter  into  his  glorified  state,  he 
 was  to  suffer  many  things,  and  be  rejected  by  the  Jews  ; 
 but  that  after  his  death,  he  would  give  incontestable 
 proofs  of  his  power  and  dominion,  by  the  wonderful 
 propagation  of  his  gospel,  and  by  the  speedy  and 
 amazing  vengeance  which  he  intended  to  take  of 
 that  nation.  He  therefore  exhorted  them,  not  to 
 imitate  the  security  of  the  people  in  Noah's  time,  or 
 of  the  inhabitants  of  Sodom,  nor  to  express  any 
 concern  for  the  destruction  of  their  country,  as  did 
 Lot's  wife  for  the  burning  of  Sodom  ;  a  but  to  use 
 their  utmost  care  and  diligence,  when  they  saw  the 
 Roman  b  armies  advancing,  not  to  be  involved  in  the 
 general  calamity  :  and  because,  in  involving  some,  and 
 preserving  others,  there  would  be  much  of  God's  distin- 
 
 forces,  and  there  fix  the  seat  of  his  empire  (Jetcish  War,  b.  ii.) 
 A  certain  magician,  who,  in  the  government  of  Festus,  led  great 
 numbers  of  Jews  into  the  desert,  and  promised  them  a  deliver- 
 ance from  all  their  troubles.  (Antiq.  b.  xxii.)  And  several 
 others,  as  the  same  historian  informs  us,  (Jewish  IFar,  b.  vii.) 
 who  taught  the  Jews,  "even  to  the  last,  to  expect  help  and 
 deliverance."  Good  reason  therefore  had  our  blessed  Saviour  to 
 caution  his  disciples  against  all  such  pretenders  to  a  divine  mis- 
 sion, since,  according  to  his  prediction,  and,  as  the  same  histor- 
 ian expresses  it,  "  the  land  at  this  time  was  quite  overrun  with 
 impostors  and  seducers,  who  drew  the  people  after  them  in 
 shoals,  though  the  Roman  governors  were  so  very  severe,  that 
 there  hardly  a  day  passed  without  the  execution  of  some  of  them." 
 (Antiq.  b.  xx.  c.  6.) 
 
 a  Instead  of  making  haste  to  save  herself,  as  the  angel  had  com- 
 manded her,  she,  out  of  a  vain  curiosity,  must  needs  look  back, 
 either  regretting  what  she  had  left  behind  her  in  the  city,  or 
 concerned  for  those  that  were  destroyed  in  it,  till  she  was  over- 
 taken by  the  flames,  and  changed  into  a  statue  of  salt,  or  into 
 the  condition  of  a  corpse  salted  and  embalmed,  which  continued 
 as  a  monument  of  her  disobedience  for  many  ages  after.  And, 
 in  like  manner,  if  any  of  our  Saviour's  disciples  neglected  the 
 advice  which  he  here  gave  them,  and  continued  in  Jerusalem, 
 when  the  Roman  army  had  closely  invested  it,  they  very  likely 
 were  involved  in  the  common  destruction. — Caimet's  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  Wheresoever  the  body  or  the 
 carcass  is,  there  will  the  eagles  be  gathered  together.  (Mat. 
 xxiv.  28.  Luke  xvii.  37.)  These  words,  which  our  Saviour 
 here  makes  proverbial,  seem  to  have  been  borrowed  from  that 
 passage  in  Job,  where  he  speaks  of  the  eagle  in  this  manner: 
 'She  dwelleth,  and  abideth  on  the  rock  upon  the  crag  of  the 
 rock,  and  the  strong  place.  From  thence  she  seeketh  the  prey, 
 and  her  eyes  behold  afar  off.  Her  young  ones  also  suck  up 
 blood;  and  where  the  slain  are,  there  is  she.'  (Job  xxxix.  28, 
 &c.)-  Upon  the  account  of  the  swiftness,  the  strength,  and 
 invincibleness  of  this  bird,  no  doubt  it  was,  that  the  Romans 
 made  the  eagle  their  ensign  in  war.  And  therefore  our  Saviour, 
 by  making  use  of  this  expression,  gives  us  to  understand  that 
 the  Romans  would  come  upon  the  Jews  with  a  sudden  destruc- 
 tion; surround  them  so,  that  there  should  be  no  escaping  their 
 hands;  and,  in  whatsoever  country  they  found  them,  there  put 
 them  all  to  the  sword.  For  the  eagle,  mentioned  in  Job,  our 
 translators  have  rendered  by  a  word,  which  signifies  a  vulture,  a 
 bird  consecrated  to  Mars,  because  it  loves  to  feed  upon  man's 
 flesh ;  and  therefore  by  a  kind  of  natural  instinct,  "  travels  along 
 with  armies  in  expectation  of  the  carcasses  that  fall  there."  Nor 
 is  it  an  uncommon  thing  for  the  prophets  to  express  the  day  of 
 God's  vengeance  under  the  idea  of  a  feast,  which  he  hath  pre- 
 pared for  the  ravenous  birds  and  beasts  of  the  field ;  for  thus 
 saith  the  Lord,  '  Speak  unto  every  feathered  fowl,  and  to  every 
 beast  of  the  field ;  assemble  yourselves,  and  come,  gather  your- 
 selves on  every  side  to  my  sacrifice,  that  I  do  sacrifice  for  you, 
 even  a  great,  sacrifice  upon  the  mountains  of  Israel,  that  ye  may 
 eat  flesh  and  drink  blood,  even  the  flesh  of  the  mighty,  and  the 
 blood  of  the  princes  of  the  earth.'  (Ezek.  xxxix.  17,  18.  See  Is. 
 xxxiv.  (5.  and  Jer.  xlvi.  10.) — Hammond's  Annotations,  and 
 Caimet's  Commentary. 
 
 guishing  providence  concerned  ;  he  therefore  exhorted 
 them  to  pray  without  fainting,  or  being  discouraged  at 
 any  thing  ;  and,  to  this  purpose,  propounded  a  parable 
 of  a  poor  woman,  who,  by  her  continued  importunity 
 alone,  prevailed  with  an  unjust  judge  c  to  vindicate  her 
 wrongs,  though  he  feared  neither  God  nor  man. 
 
 Shortly  after  this,  Jesus  crossed  the  river  Jordan  into 
 Perea,  d  where  he  was  followed  again  by  vast  multitudes 
 of  people,  whom  he  both  taught  and  cured  of  such  dis- 
 tempers as  they  had,  insomuch,  that  several  of  the  com- 
 pany, perceiving  how  ready  he  was  to  do  good  to  all 
 that  came  unto  him,  brought  their  little  children  c  with 
 them,  in  order  to  partake  of  his  divine  benediction  ;  but 
 his  disciples  thinking  it  below  the  dignity  of  their  mas- 
 ter to  be  disturbed  and  interrupted  by  infants,  at  first  re- 
 fused admittance  to  those  who  brought  them,  until  Jesus, 
 having  reproved  them  for  so  doing,  and  withal  recom- 
 mended the  innocence  and  simplicity  of  these  babes, 
 as  a  pattern  for  their  imitation,  commanded  all  to  be 
 introduced,  and,  taking  them  up  in  his  arms,  he  laid  his 
 
 c  Though  it  were  blasphemy  to  think,  that  God  acts  upon 
 the  same  motives  with  this  unjust  judge,  yet  this  we  may  learn 
 from  the  nature  of  the  parable,  that  if  a  person,  who  neither 
 fears  God  nor  regards  man,  who  had  neither  any  sense  of  reli- 
 gion nor  humanity,  may  be  supposed  to  be  so  far  prevailed  upon 
 by  the  earnestprayer  of  a  miserable  necessitous  creature,  as  to  grant 
 the  request  made  to  him,  and  to  administer  relief  to  the  supplicant, 
 merely  upon  the  continuance  and  importunity  of  the  petitions 
 that  are  put  up;  how  much  more  ought  we  to  think  that  God, 
 who  is  infinite  goodness  itself,  who  is  always  kind  and  bountiful 
 to  his  creatures,  who  delights  to  do  them  good,  even  without  their 
 desiring  it,  and  who  is  able  to  do  them  good,  with  much  less 
 pains  than  they  can  request  it ;  how  much  more  ought  we  to 
 think,  I  say,  that  this  God,  upon  our  earnest  and  hearty  prayer 
 to  him,  especially  if  we  be  importunate,  and  persevering  in  our 
 devotions,  will  return  us  a  kind  answer,  and  grant  us  such  sup- 
 plies, such  protection  or  assistance,  as  shall  be  needful  for  us. — 
 Bishop  Smalridge's  Sermons. 
 
 d  This  word  is  derived  from  the  Greek,  a-sjav,  beyond,  and 
 signifies  the  country  beyond  Jordan,  or  on  the  east  side  of  that 
 river.  It  was  bounded,  according  to  Josephus,  to  the  west,  by 
 Jordan;  to  the  east,  by  Philadelphia;  to  the  north,  by  Pella; 
 and  to  the  south,  by  Macheron ;  and  was  a  fruitful  country, 
 abounding  with  pines,  olive-trees,  palm-trees,  and  other  plants, 
 that  grew  up  and  down  in  the  fields  in  great  plenty  and  perfec- 
 tion; and,  in  the  excessive  heats,  was  well  watered  and  refresh- 
 ed with  springs  and  torrents  from  the  mountains. — Jewish  War, 
 b.  iii.  c.  2. — It  comprehended  the  six  cantons  of  Abilene,  Trarh- 
 onitis,  Ituraea,  Gaulonitis,  Batavia,  and  Peraea,  strictly  so 
 called.  It  was  to  this  latter  canton  that  our  Saviour  repaired  on 
 this  occasion.  See  Macknight's  Harmony,  s.  84,  note  to  John 
 x.  40 Ed. 
 
 e  The  parents  who  brought  their  children  to  Christ,  were 
 doubtless  such  as  believed  him  to  be  a  prophet  sent  from  God, 
 and  were  persuaded,  that  the  touch,  or  imposition  of  his  hand, 
 would  be  of  great  benefit  to  them,  both  to  draw  down  a 
 blessing  from  heaven  upon  them,  and  to  preserve  them  from 
 diseases  which  they  saw  him  cure  in  persons  more  advanced  in 
 years.  We  may  observe,  therefore,  that  though  these  children 
 were  no  more  than  infants,  as  appears  by  our  Saviour  taking  them 
 up  in  his  arms,  (Mark  x.  16,)  yet  their  parents  thought  them 
 capable  of  spiritual  blessings,  and  of  receiving  advantage  by  our 
 Saviour's  prayers.  They  however  might  bring  them,  with  no 
 further  intent  than  what  is  customary  among  the  Jews  even  now, 
 when  they  present  their  children  to  any  of  their  famous  doctors, 
 namely,  to  obtain  his  blessing;  but  by  the  reason  which  our  Sa- 
 viour gives  for  their  admission  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  it 
 appears,  that  he  perceived  something  in  them,  besides  their  being 
 emblems  of  humility,  that  qualified  them  to  come  unto  him;  and 
 what  could  that  be,  but  a  fitness  to  be  dedicated  to  the  service  of 
 God,  and  to  enter  into  covenant  with  him  early,  as  the  Jewish 
 children  did,  by  the  rite  of  baptism,  which  was  his  institution, 
 even  as  the  other  did  by  that  of  circumcision. —  Caimet's  Conw 
 mentary,  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
Shut.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 9G5 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OK,  A.  M.  5441.  A 
 
 hands  upon  them,  a  and  blessed  them,  and  so  departed 
 from  the  place  where  this  transaction  happened. 
 
 As  he  was  on  his  journey,  a  young  person  of  distinc- 
 tion who  was  very  rich  and  wealthy,  desired  to  know  of 
 him,  what  he  was  to  do  in  order  to  obtain  eternal  life. 
 Our  Saviour  proposed  to  him  the  observation  of  the 
 moral  law,  and  remitted  him,  in  particular,  to  the  com- 
 mandments of  the  second  table,  b  as  a  certain  sign  of  his 
 keeping  those  of  the  first ;  but  when  the  young  gentleman 
 told  him,  that  all  these  he  had  made  it  his  study  to  ob- 
 serve from  his  youth,  and  our  Lord,  who  knew  his  covet- 
 ous temper,  and  was  willing  to  touch  the  secret  sore  of 
 his  mind,  told  him,  that  if  he  aimed  at  perfection  in  reli- 
 gion, his  only  way  would  be  to  sell  his  estate,  c  and  give 
 it  to  the  poor,  in  hopes  of  a  greater  treasure  in  heaven, 
 and  to  come  and  be  one  of  his  disciples  ;  the  young  man 
 went  away  very  pensive  and  melancholy,  being  loath  to 
 part  with  his  present  possessions  for  any  treasure  in 
 reversion.'  Whereupon  our  Lord,  turning  to  his  disci- 
 ples, began  to  declare  what  an  insurmountable  obstacle 
 riches,  without  the  grace  of  God,  were  to  any  man's  sal- 
 vation, d  and  that '  it  was  easier,'  according  to  the  He- 
 
 a  It  was  common  with  the  Jews  to  bring  their  children  to 
 venerable  persons,  men  of  note  for  religion  and  piety,  to  have 
 their  blessing  and  prayer,  (Gen.  xlviii.  14.)  And  it  appears  to 
 have  been  customary  among  the  Jews,  when  one  prayed  for  ano- 
 ther, who  was  present  to  lay  his  hand  upon  the  person's  hand. — 
 Campbell's  Translation  of  the  Gospel,  Note. — Ed. 
 
 b  We  must  not  imagine,  because  our  Saviour  refers  this  young 
 man  to  the  precepts  of  the  second  table  only,  that  therefore  they 
 are  of  more  obligation  to  us,  than  those  of  the  first,  or  that,  by 
 performing  them  alone,  we  may  attain  eternal  life:  our  Lord 
 has  elsewhere  determined,  that  the  great  commandment  of  all  is, 
 'to  love  the  Lord  our  God  with  all  our  hearts;'  and  here  he 
 instances  in  those  of  the  second  table,  not  only  because  the  love 
 of  our  neighbour  is  an  excellent  evidence  of  our  love  to  God,  but 
 because  the  Pharisee,  of  which  sect  very  probably  this  person  was 
 oue,  thought  these  commandments  of  trivial  account,  and  easy 
 performance ;  and  yet  by  some  of  these  it  was,  that  our  Saviour 
 intended,  by  and  by,  to  convince  this  inquirer,  that  he  neither  had 
 kept  nor  could  keep  them. — Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Since  our  blessed  Saviour  here  requires  of  this  young  man, 
 not  only  to  withdraw  his  heart  from  an  inordinate  love  of  his  pos- 
 sessions, but  to  sell  them  all  and  give  the  money  to  the  poor,  we 
 may  be  sure  that  this  was  a  particular  command  to  him,  in  order 
 to  convince  him  of  the  insincerity  of  his  pretended  love  to  life  eter- 
 nal, and  not  a  precept  common  to  all  Christians.  That  there 
 were  rich  men  in  the  church,  we  learn  from  several  passages  in 
 scripture,  (I  Tim.  vi.  17.  James  i.  10,  and  ii.  2.)  St  Peter, 
 in  his  speech  to  Ananias,  permits  Christians  to  retain  what  is 
 their  own,  (Acts  v.  4.)  and  St  Paul  does  not  enjoin  the  Corin- 
 thians to  sell  all,  and  give  alms,  but  only  requests  them  to  admin- 
 ister to  their  brethren's  wants  out  of  their  abundance,  (2  Cor. 
 viii.  14.)  So  that  if  riches  fall  into  the  hands  of  one  who  know- 
 eth  how  to  use  them  to  God's  glory,  and  the  relief  of  indigent 
 Christians,  as  well  as  to  supply  his  own  needs,  it  seems  a  contra- 
 diction to  conceive,  that  God  requires  him  to  part  with  them, 
 and  so  divest  himself  of  any  further  opportunity  of  promoting  his 
 glory  and  doing  good  to  his  needy  members.  This  precept 
 therefore  of  selling  all  we  have,  can  only  take  place  when  we  are 
 in  the  same  situation  with  this  young  man,  namely,  have  an  ex- 
 press command  from  God  so  to  do,  or  when  we  find  our  riches  are 
 an  impediment  to  the  securing  of  our  eternal  interest;  for  in  that 
 case  we  must  part  with  a  right  hand,  or  a  right  eye,  the  nearest 
 and  dearest  things  we  have,  '  rather  than  be  cast  into  hell-fire.' — 
 ff'hitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Drs  Campbell  and  Boothroyd  thus  translate  Mat.  xix.  23, 
 '  It  is  difficult  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  By 
 the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  sometimes  understood,  in  the  gospel  his- 
 tory, the  Christian  church,  then  soon  to  be  erected,  and  some- 
 timi is  the  state  of  the  blessed  in  heaven,  after  the  resurrection.  In 
 regard  to  this  declaration  of  our  Lord,  1  take  it  to  hold  true,  in 
 
 D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— xi.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  1. 
 
 brew  proverb,  '  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a 
 needle,  e  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom 
 of  heaven.'  At  which  expression,  when  his  disciples 
 were  not  a  little  startled,  to  remove  their  fears,  he  let 
 them  know,  that  the  salvation  of  the  rich,  though  a  matter 
 of  some  difficulty,  was  not  impossible  with  God,  who 
 could  change  the  hearts  and  affections  of  men  as  he 
 pleased. 
 
 When  the  apostles  heard  their  master  bidding  the 
 '  young  man  sell  all,'  and  '  give  it  to  the  poor,  and  follow 
 him,'  and  promising  him,  for  a  reward,  a  treasure  in 
 heaven,  they  began  to  think,  that  possibly  it  might  be 
 their  case,  and  the  promise,  in  like  manner,  concern 
 them  ;  and  therefore,  when,  in  the  name  of  the  rest,  Peter 
 desired  to  know  of  him  what  reward  they  were  to  expect, 
 who  had  actually  relinquished  all  and  followed  him  ;  his 
 reply  was,  that  at  the  general  resurrection,  / '  when  him- 
 
 which  way  soever  the  kingdom  be  understood.  When  it  was 
 only  by  means  of  persuasion  that  men  were  brought  into  a  soci- 
 ety, hated  and  persecuted  by  all  the  ruling  powers  of  the  earth, 
 Jewish  and  pagan;  we  may  rest  assured  that  the  opulent  and 
 the  voluptuous,  characters  which,  in  a  dissolute  age,  commonly 
 go  together,  who  had  so  much  to  lose,  and  so  much  to  fear,  would 
 not,  among  the  hearers  of  the  gospel,  be  the  most  easily  per- 
 suaded. The  apostle  James,  (ii.  5,  6.)  accordingly  attests  this 
 to  have  been  the  fact;  it  was  '  the  poor  in  this  world  whom  God 
 hath  chosen  rich  in  faith,  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom;'  whereas, 
 they  were  '  the  rich  in  this  world  who  oppressed  them,  dragged 
 them  before  their  tribunals,  and  blasphemed  that  worthy  name 
 by  which  they  were  called.'  As  little  can  there  be  any  doubt  of 
 the  justness  of  the  sentiment,  in  relation  to  the  state  of  the 
 blessed  hereafter,  when  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the  snare 
 into  which  it  so  often  inveigles  men,  are  duly  considered.  So 
 close  an  analogy  runs  through  all  the  divine  dispensations,  that 
 in  more  instances  than  this,  it 'may  be  affirmed  with  truth,  that 
 the  declarations  of  scripture  are  susceptible  of  either  interpreta- 
 tion.— Campbell  on  the  Gvspels.  —  Kd. 
 
 e  There  are  three  different  opinions  among  interpreters  con- 
 cerning the  meaning  of  this  proverbial  saying.  Some  imagine, 
 that,  at  Jerusalem,  there  was  a  gate,  so  very  low  and  narrow, 
 that  a  loaded  camel  could  not  pass  through  it,  and  that,  by  reason 
 of  its  littleness,  it  was  called  the  needle's  eye;  but  all  this  is  a 
 mere  fiction,  devised  on  purpose  to  solve  this  seeming  difficulty. 
 The  Jews  indeed,  to  signify  a  thing  impossible,  had  a  common 
 proverb  among  them,  that '  an  elephant  cannot  pass  through  the 
 eye  of  a  needle.'  Now,  our  Saviour,  say  some,  was  pleased  to 
 change  this  proverb  from  an  elephant,  which  was  a  beast  that 
 few  had  seen,  to  a  camel,  a  creature  very  common  in  Syria,  and 
 whose  bunch  on  his  back  hindered  him  from  passing  through  any 
 strait  entrance.  But  others,  not  able  to  discern  any  analogy  be- 
 tween a  camel  and  a  needle's  eye,  think,  that  the  word  VL«.p.r,ko;, 
 here  signifies  a  cable,  or  thick  rope,  which  mariners  use  in  cast- 
 ing their  anchors ;  and  that  the  rather,  not  only  because  there  is 
 some  similitude  between  a  cable  and  a  thread,  which  is  usually 
 drawn  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  but  because  the  Jews,  as  the 
 learned  Buxtorf  acquaints  us,  have  a  proverb  of  the  like  import 
 relating  to  the  cable,  as  they  have  to  the  elephant;  for  so  they 
 say,  that  as  "  difficult  is  the  passage  of  the  soul  out  of  the  body, 
 as  that  of  a  cable  through  a  narrow  hole. "  Whether  of  these 
 two  interpretations  takes  place,  it  is  a  matter  of  pure  indiffer- 
 ences only  we  may  observe,  that  the  application  of  the  proverb 
 to  the  rich  man's  entering  into  the  kingdom  of  "heaven,  muM 
 not  be  understood  absolutely,  hut  only  so  as  to  denote  a  thine 
 extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  without  an  extraordinary 
 influence  of  the  divine  grace. — Calmet's  Commentary;  Ham- 
 mond's and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
 ./"The  word,  in  the  original,  is  <ra.\iyy%n<ri«.,  which  properly 
 signifies  a  neiv  and  second  state,  and  is  used  among  the  Pytha- 
 goreans for  the  return  of  the  soul,  after  it  had  left  one  body  to 
 take  possession  of  another:  and  agreeably  hereunto  it  is  used,  by 
 sacred  writers.,  to  denote  either  the  future  resurrection,  which 
 will  he  the  re-union  of  the  soul  and  body,  or  that  great  change 
 which  was  to  be  effected  in  the  world  by  the  preaching  ol  the 
 gospel,  and,  more  especially,  by  the  mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
 
968 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI I L 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT  .  xii.  1- 
 self  should  be  seated  upon  his  throne  of  glory,  they  also 
 should  sit  upon  twelve  thrones,  °  judging  the  twelve 
 tribes  of  Israel ;'  and  that  not  only  they,  but  all  others 
 likewise,  who,  for  his  and  the  gospel's  sake,  should  quit 
 any  worldly  advantages  or  possessions,  should  receive 
 such  comforts  *  in  this  world  as  would  vastly  surpass 
 their  losses,  and  in  the  world  to  come,  eternal  life  :  but 
 then,  to  show  them  that  such  high  rewards  proceeded 
 from  the  bounty  of  heaven,  and  no  other  title,  he  repre- 
 sented the  freedom  of  God,  in  the  distribution  of  his 
 favours,  under  the  emblem  of  a  certain  master  of  a  family, 
 sending  labourers  into  his  vineyard,  some  sooner,  and 
 some  later,  but  giving  them  all  the  same  wages  :  wherein, 
 though  he  seemed  kind  to  some,  yet  was  he  unjust  to 
 none,  because  he  paid  them  all  according  to  his  agree- 
 ment, and,  having  done  so,  was  then  certainly  left  to 
 his  option,  whom  to  make  objects  of  his  liberality. 
 
 Our  Saviour  had  not  been  long  in  Perea,  before  he  re- 
 ceived a  message  out  of  Judea,  from  two  sisters  in  Beth- 
 any, c  Martha,  and  Mary,  of  the  dangerous  sickness  of 
 
 after  our  Lord's  ascension  into  heaven. — Hammond's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 a  Some  interpreters  refer  these  words  to  that  authority,  both 
 in  matters  of  discipline  and  doctrine,  which  the  apostles,  after 
 the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  them,  were,  by  our  Lord's 
 commission  and  appointment,  to  exercise  in  the  Christian  church  ; 
 but  most  understand  them  of  the  honours  that  are  to  be  conferred 
 upon  them  in  a  future  state.  And  here  some  have  taken  great 
 pains  to  determine  what  judgment  these  persons  shall  pass;  as 
 that  they  shall  condemn  the  errors  of  wicked  men  by  their  doc- 
 trines, and  the  malice  and  obstinacy  of  infidels  by  their  persecu- 
 tions, &c,  while  others  have  undertaken  to  assign  them  their 
 parts  in  the  process  of  the  last  great  day,  and  represent  them,  as 
 so  many  assessors,  to  the  Supreme  Judge  sitting  upon  the  ex- 
 amination and  trial  of  mankind,  while  all  the  rest  stand  at  the 
 bar.  But  though  we  are  well  assured,  that  such  a  judgment 
 shall  be,  yet,  as  to  the  particular  circumstances  and  formalities 
 of  it,  the  scripture  seems  to  give  us  but  a  slender  insight;  and 
 therefore,  setting  aside  all  dark  conjectures  about  this  matter, 
 the  most  safe  and  probable  way  of  applying  this  passage  is,  to 
 look  upon  it  as  spoken  after  the  manner  of  men,  to  signify  in 
 general,  a  brighter  crown  or  more  exquisite  degree  of  happiness 
 and  glory.  The  apostles  accompanied  and  stuck  close  to  Christ 
 ill  his  low  estate.  They  kept  the  faith  under  the  greatest  pres- 
 sures and  temptations.  They  were  indefatigably  diligent,  un- 
 dauntedly constant  in  their  labours  and  sufferings  for  the  truth, 
 and  most  eminently  serviceable  in  advancing  the  kingdom  of 
 Christ  upon  earth ;  and  therefore  they  shall  receive  an  eminent 
 distinction  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles 
 and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 b  That  is,  the  comforts  of  an  upright  conscience,  a  full  content 
 of  mind,  the  joys  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  increase  of  grace,  and  hopes 
 of  glory.  They  should  have  God  for  their  father,  and  Christ  for 
 their  spouse,  and  all  good  Christians  for  their  friends  and  brethren, 
 who  would  honour,  succour,  and  support  them,  more  than  those 
 that  were  allied  to  them  by  the  strictest  bonds  of  nature. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  Bethany  took  its  name  from  the  tract  of  ground  wherein  it 
 stands,  so  called  from  the  word  n:ttn,  which  signifies  the  fig  or 
 grief  tree,  that  grew  there  in  great  plenty.  It  was  a  con- 
 siderable place,  situated  at  the  foot  of  the  mount  of  Olives  about 
 fifteen  furlongs,  or  near  two  miles  eastward  from  Jerusalem; 
 but  at  present  it  is  but  a  very  small  village.  One  of  our 
 modern  travellers  acquaints  us,  that  at  the  first  entrance  into 
 it,  there  is  an  old  ruin,  which  they  call  Lazarus's  castle,  sup- 
 posed to  have  been  the  mansion-house  where  he  and  his  sisters 
 lived.  At  the  bottom  of  a  small  descent,  not  far  from  the  castle, 
 you  see  his  sepulchre,  which  the  Turks  hold  in  great  venera- 
 tion, and  use  it  for  an  oratory,  or  place  of  prayer.  Here,  going 
 clown  by  twenty-five  steep  steps,  you  come  at  first  into  a  small 
 square  room,  and  from  thence  creep  into  another  that  is  less, 
 about  a  yard  and  a  half  deep,  in  which  the  body  is  said  to  have 
 been  laid.     About  a  bowshot  from  hence,  you  pass  by  the  place 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix-  37.  JOHN  v-  1 vii.  1. 
 
 their  brother  Lazarus,  a  person  highly  beloved  and  esteem- 
 ed by  him ;  but  he  proposing,  on  this  occasion,  to  manifest 
 the  glory  of  God,  as  well  as  his  own  divine  power  and 
 mission,  by  a  greater  miracle  than  a  simple  cure  would 
 be,  delayed  his  going  until  Lazarus  was  dead,  d  and 
 then  set  forward. 
 
 While  he  was  in  his  journey,  he  took  his  apostles 
 aside,  and  e  told  them  still  more  plainly  what  the  event 
 of  it  would  be  ;  namely,  that  at  this  time  of  his  going  to 
 Jerusalem,  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  would  appre- 
 hend, and  condemn  him,  and  then  '  deliver  him  to  the 
 Gentiles,  who  would   scourge,  and  mock,  and  crucify 
 
 which  they  say  was  Mary  Magdalen's  habitation';  and  then, 
 descending  a  steep  hill,  you  come  to  the  fountain  of  the  apostles, 
 which  is  so  called,  because,  as  the  tradition  goes,  these  holy 
 persons  were  wont  to  refresh  themselves  here,  between  Jeru- 
 salem and  Jericho,  as  it  is  very  probable  they  might,  because 
 the  fountain  is  both  close  to  the  road-side,  and  is  very  inviting 
 to  the  thirsty  traveller. — JJliitby's  Alphabetical  Table,  Wells' 
 Geography  of  the  New  Testament,  and  MaundreW s  Journey 
 from  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem. 
 
 d  Our  Saviour's  stay  for  two  days  after  the  message,  and 
 modest  address  of  the  two  mournful  sisters,  kept  them  indeed  a 
 little  longer  in  suspense  and  grief;  but  it  showed  his  perfect 
 wisdom  and  goodness,  as  it  made  the  wonderful  work  more  re- 
 markable, and  conducive  to  the  fuller  conviction  of  the  specta- 
 tors. Had  he  gone  before  Lazarus  was  dead,  they  might  have 
 attributed  his  recovery  rather  to  the  strength  of  nature  than  to 
 Christ's  miraculous  power ;  or  had  he  raised  him  as  soon  as  he 
 was  dead,  they  might,  peradventure,  have  thought  it  rather 
 some  trance  or  ecstasy,  than  a  death  or  dissolution:  but  now,  to 
 raise  a  person,  four  days  dead,  offensive,  and  reduced  to  corrup- 
 tion, was  a  surprise  of  unutterable  joy  to  his  friends ;  removed 
 all  possible  suspicion  of  confederacy;  silenced  the  peevish  cavil- 
 ling, and  triumphed  over  all  the  obstinacy  of  prejudice  and  in- 
 fidelity.— Bishop  Blackhall's  Sermons. 
 
 e  In  the  course  of  the  gospel,  we  find  our  Lord  forewarning 
 his  disciples,  no  less  than  three  times,  of  his  approaching  suffer- 
 ings and  resurrection.  The  first  intimation  of  this  kind  was  in 
 the  coasts  of  Casarea  Philippi,  when,  after  St  Peter's  confession 
 of  him  to  be  '  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  he  began  to 
 show  unto  his  disciples,  how  he  must  suffer  many  things,'  &c, 
 (Luke  ix.  22.)  The  next  we  meet  with  was  immediately  after 
 his  transfiguration  in  the  mount,  when,  as  he  came  down  thence, 
 with  the  three  apostles  who  were  the  companions  of  his  pri- 
 vacies, he  reminded  them  of  what  he  had  told  them  before, 
 namely,  'that  the  Son  of  Man  should  be  delivered  into  the 
 hands  of  men,'  (Luke  ix.  44.)  The  third  warning  was  that 
 which  he  gave  his  apostles  apart,  when  he  was  going  to  Jeru- 
 salem to  sutler,  or,  as  some  rather  think,  when  he  was  going  to 
 Bethany,  in  order  to  raise  Lazarus  from  the  dead:  and  it  is 
 observed  of  these  several  warnings,  that  they  rise  by  degrees, 
 and  grow  more  full  and  distinct,  in  proportion  as  the  things 
 drew  nearer.  Thus,  the  first  is  delivered  in  general  terms: 
 '  the  Son  of  Man  must  suffer  many  things,  and  be  rejected,  and 
 slain,  and  raised  the  third  day.'  The  second  is  enforced  with 
 this  solemn  preface,  '  let  these  sayings  sink  down  in  your  ears,' 
 (Luke  ix.  44.)  And  the  third  descends  to  a  more  particular 
 description  of  that  tragical  scene:  'he  shall  be  delivered  to  the 
 Gentiles,  and  mocked,  and  spitefully  entreated,  and  spitted  on: 
 and  they  shall  scourge  him,  and  put  him  to  death,  and  the  third 
 day  he  shall  rise  again,'  (Luke  xviii.  32,  33.)  Now,  whether  we 
 consider  the  danger  the  apostles  were  in  of  being  oppressed  with 
 an  affliction  so  sensible  as  the  death  of  their  master;  or  the 
 general  mistake  wherewith  they  were  infected,  concerning  the 
 splendour  and  worldly  pomp  of  the  Messiah's  kingdom,  or  the 
 scandal  that  would  necessarily  rise  from  a  crucified  Saviour, 
 this  method  of  forwarning  his  disciples  of  what  was  to  come 
 upon  him,  was  highly  requisite,  to  sustain  them  in  their  tri- 
 bulation, to  rectify  their  sentiments,  and  remove  all  offences;  as 
 it  showed  that  his  death  was  voluntary,  consonant  to  the  pre- 
 dictions of  the  prophets,  and  agreeable  to  the  council  and  appoint- 
 ment of  God,  and  the  shame  of  his  crucifixion  abundantly  re- 
 compensed by  the  glories  of  his  resurrection. — Stanhope  on  the 
 Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 967 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— 
 
 him;'  but  that  '  on  the  third  day  he  would  rise  again.' 
 Upon  the  mention  of  his  resurrection,  which  they  vainly 
 imagined  would  be  the  beginning  of  his  terrestrial  great- 
 ness, James  and  John,  by  the  mouth  of  their  mother 
 Salome,  a  requested  of  him,  to  have  the  first  places  in 
 his  kingdom.  The  first  places  in  his  kingdom,  he  told 
 them,  were  to  be  disposed  of  according  to  the  predeter- 
 mination of  bis  Father ;  but  a  proper  qualification  for 
 them  it  was,  to  be  able  to  take  the  greatest  share  of  the 
 bitter  cup  of  his  sufferings,  *  which  very  probably  might 
 be  their  fate  ;  c  and  when  the  ambition  of  these  two 
 brokers  provoked  the  indignation  of  the  other  ten  apos- 
 tles, lie  declared  to  them  all,  that  his  kingdom  d  was  far 
 
 a  This  their  mother  might  be  encouraged  to  ask,  upon  the 
 account  of  her  near  relation  to  the  blessed  Virgin,  her  constant 
 accompanying'  our  Saviour,  and  diligent  attendance  upon  him; 
 and  might  conceive  some  hopes  of  her  sons'  future  exaltation, 
 from  the  pompous  name  which  our  Lord  had  given  them,  and 
 the  great  privilege  to  which  he  had  admitted  them,  but  ex- 
 cluded others,  of  attending  him  in  his  privacies. —  JVTiitby's  An- 
 notations and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 h  It  was  anciently  the  custom,  at  great  entertainments,  for 
 the  governor  of  the  feast  to  appoint  to  each  of  his  guests  the  kind 
 and  proportion  of  wine  they  were  to  drink,  and  what  he  had 
 thus  appointed  them,  it  was  thought  a  breach  of  good  manners, 
 either  to  refuse,  or  not  to  drink  up.  Hence  a  man's  cup,  both 
 in  sacred  and  profane  authors,  came  to  signify  the  portion, 
 whether  of  good  or  evil,  which  befalls  him  in  this  world. 
 Homer  introduces  Achilles,  thus  comforting  Priamus  for  the 
 loss  of  his  son : 
 
 Two  urns  by  Jove's  high  throne  have  ever  stood, 
 
 The  source  of  evil  one,  and  one  of  good, 
 
 From  thence  tbe  cup  of  mortal  man  he  fills, 
 
 Blessings  to  those,  to  these  distributes  ills  ; 
 
 To  most  he  mingles  both  ;  the  wretch  decreed 
 
 To  taste  the  baJ  unmix'd  is  curs'd  indeed  ; 
 
 Pursued  by  wrongs,  by  meagre  famine  driv'n, 
 
 He  wanders,  outcast  both  of  earth  and  heav'n. 
 
 The  happiest  taste  not  happiness  sincere, 
 
 But  find  the  cordial  draught  is  dash'd  with  care. — Iliad  xxiv. 
 
 Not  unlike  what  we  meet  with  in  the  psalmist,  '  in  the  hand  of 
 the  Lord  there  is  a  cup,  and  the  wine  is  red ;  it  is  full  mixed, 
 and  he  poureth  out  of  the  same:  as  for  the  dregs  thereof,  all  the 
 ungodly  of  the  earth  shall  drink  them  out,'  (Ps.  lxxv.  9,  10.) 
 And  what  our  Saviour  means  by  the  expression,  we  cannot  be 
 to  seek,  since,  in  two  remarkable  passages,  (Luke  xxii.  42,  and 
 John  xviii.  11.)  he  has  been  his  own  interpreter;  lethale  pocu- 
 lum  Inhere,  or  to  taste  of  death,  was  a  common  phrase  among 
 the  Jews,  and  from  them  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  our 
 Lord  borrowed  it. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol. 
 iv.  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  This  prediction  was  literally  fulfilled  in  St  James,  who  was 
 put  to  death  by  Herod,  and  so,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  words, 
 was  made  to  drink  of  our  Lord's  cup;  and,  though  St  John  was 
 not  brought  to  sutler  martyrdom,  yet  his  being  scourged  and 
 imprisoned  by  the  council  at  Jerusalem,  (Acts  v.  18.  40.)  put 
 into  a  caldron  of  burning  oil  at  Ephesus,  (Euseb.  b.  iii.  c.  18,) 
 and  banished  into  Patmos,  'for  the  word  of  God,  and  for  the 
 testimony  of  Jesus  Christ,'  (Rev.  i.  9.)  may  well  be  supposed  to 
 he  some  part  of  that  bitter  cup  which  our  Saviour  drank;  and 
 that  he,  who  underwent  such  torments,  as  nothing  but  a  miracle 
 could  deliver  him  from,  may,  with  very  great  justice,  be 
 esteemed  a  martyr. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels, 
 vol.  iv. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  text  are,  ■  the  princes  of  the  Gentiles  ex- 
 ercise dominion  over  them,  and  they  that  are  great  exercise 
 authority  upon  them  ;  but  it  shall  not  he  so  among  you:  but,  who- 
 soever will  be  great  among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister,  (Mat. 
 xx.  25,  20,)  and  from  hence  some  have  inferred,  that  our  Savi- 
 our forbids  them  who  will  he  his  disciples,  or  the  subjects  of  his 
 kingdom,  the  exercise  of  all  civil  and  ecclesiastical  dominion. 
 But  if  it  be  considered,  that  civil  government  was,  from  the 
 beginning  of  the  world  instituted  by  God,  and  therefore  called 
 his  ordinance,  (Rom.  xiii.  2,)  for  the  punishment  of  evil  doers, 
 and  for  the  defence  of  those  that  do  well:  that  Christianity, 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  r.  1— vil.  1. 
 
 different  from  those  of  this  world,  whose  princes  and 
 governors  strove  to  exercise  their  utmost  power  and  do- 
 minion over  their  subjects  :  whereas,  whoever  expected 
 to  be  great  and  chief  among  his  followers,  must  be  a 
 servant  to  the  rest,  according  to  his  own  example,  who 
 came,  not  to  take  state  upon  him,  but  to  serve  others, 
 and  even  to  lay  down  his  life  for  their  redemption. 
 
 As  he  drew  near  to  Jericho,  attended  with  a  numerous 
 company,  one  Bartimeus,  who  had  long  sat  by  the  way- 
 side begging,  hearing  the  noise  of  a  vast  crowd  of  peo- 
 ple passing  by,  and  being  informed  that  Jesus  of  Nazar- 
 eth was  among  them,   with   e  another  blind  man  who 
 
 when  it  came  into  the  world,  made  no  alteration  in  things  of  this 
 nature,  but  left  the  magistrate,  after  his  conversion,  still  bearing 
 the  sword,  in  the  same  manner  as  he  did  before;  and  that  the 
 exercise  of  his  power  is  a  thing  so  sacred,  as  to  entitle  not  only 
 princes,  but  even  their  deputed  ministers  of  justice,  to  the  style  of 
 gods  in  scripture;  it  must  needs  be  allowed,  that  what  is  reputed 
 so  honourable,  and  found  so  beneficial,  so  strict  a  bond  of  human 
 virtue,  and  so  firm  a  guard  against  all  kinds  of  wickedness,  can 
 never  be  forbidden  in  any  Christian  commonwealth.  And,  in  like 
 manner,  since  among  the  gifts  distributed  for  the  use  of  the 
 church,  we  read  of  '  governments,'  (1  Cor.  xii.  28,)  and  find 
 mention  made  of  '  those  who  are  set  over  us  in  the  Lord,'  (1 
 Thes.  v.  12,)  to  whom  we  must  yield  obedience,  and  submit  our- 
 selves, (Heb.  xiii.  7,  17,)  since  we  find  that  the  apostles  had  the 
 rod,  (1  Cor.  iv.  21,)  and  power  given  of  the  Lord,  to  'deliver 
 to  Satan,  (1  Cor.  v.  5,)  and  to  'revenge  all  disobedience,'  (2 
 Cor.  x.  6,)  and  since,  in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  it  is  eveiy 
 whit  as  impossible  for  a  church  to  subsist  without  ecclesiastical 
 government,  as  it  is  for  a  state  without  civil,  it  must  needs 
 follow,  that  the  one  is  necessary,  and  of  divine  institution,  as 
 much  as  the  other.  All,  therefore,  that  our  Saviour  can  be  pre- 
 sumed to  forbid  in  these  words,  is  such  a  dominion,  whether  in 
 church  or  state,  as  is  attended  with  tyranny,  oppression,  and  a 
 contempt  of  the  suhjects  that  live  under  it.  Such,  for  the  most 
 part,  was  the  government  that  obtained  in  eastern  countries ;  and 
 therefore,  in  contraposition  to  this,  our  spiritual  rulers  are  put  in 
 mind,  that  they  '  feed  the  flock,  which  is  among  them,  taking 
 the  oversight  thereof,  not  for  filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind, 
 neither  as  being  lords  of  God's  inheritance,  but  examples  to  the 
 flock,'  (1  Pet.  v.  2,  3,)  that  their  highest  station  in  the  church 
 is  not  so  much  a  place  of  dignity,  as  a  charge  and  office,  which 
 subjects  them  to  the  wants  and  necessities  of  those  they  rule  over; 
 and  that  the  most  honourable  post  they  can  have  in  Christ's 
 kingdom,  is  only  a  larger  ministry,  and  attendance  upon  others  ; 
 for,  '  who  is  Paul  ?  who  is  Apollo  ?  but  ministers  by  whom  ye 
 believed,'  (1  Cor.  iii.  3.)  '  For  we  preach  not  ourselves,' says 
 the  apostle  to  the  Corinthians,  '  but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord,  and 
 ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesus'  sake,'  (2  Cor.  iv.  5.) — Whitby's 
 and  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 e  There  is  a  considerable  variation  in  the  accounts  of  this  mi- 
 racle by  the  three  evangelists.  Mark  and  Luke  notice  only  one 
 blind  man,  Matthew  two;  Luke  represents  the  miracle  as  per- 
 formed '  when  Jesus  was  drawing  nigh  to  Jericho,'  before  he  en- 
 tered it;  Matthew  and  Mark,  after  he  had  left  Jer'cho.  The 
 joint  testimony,  however,  of  Matthew  and  Mark,  as  to  the  time 
 seems  to  outweigh  that  of  Luke,  who  is  not  so  observant  of  chro- 
 nological order;  and  as  all  agree,  that  Christ  was  then  attended 
 by  a  '  multitude,'  who  *  led  the  way,'  and  who  '  followed  him ' 
 towards  Jerusalem,  it  is  more  probable  that  the  incident  took 
 place  after  he  left  Jericho,  where  this  multitude  seems  to  have 
 been  collected.  For  he  came  privately  from  Ephraim  to  Jericho, 
 attended  only  by  the  twelve. — Hales. — The  minute  discrepan- 
 cies in  this  narrative,  compared  with  those  of  Mark  and  Luke, 
 involve  no  contradiction;  since,  though  those  evangelists  men- 
 tion one  blind  man  as  healed  ;  and  Mark  and  Luke  in  mentioning 
 one  might  mean  to  point  out  that  one  who  was  the  more  known. 
 Again,  the  apparent  difference  between  Matthew  and  Mark,  as 
 compared  with  Luke,  with  regard  to  the  place  where  the  miracle 
 was  performed,  may,  it  is  thought,  be  removed  by  reading  in 
 Luke  '  when,  or  while,  Jesus  was  near  Jericho.'  If,  however, 
 the  trifling  discrepancies  adverted  to  were  really  irreconcilable, 
 still  they  would  not  weaken  the  credit  of  the  evangelists,  being 
 such  as  are  found  in  the  best  historians;  nay,  they  may  be  rather 
 
968 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 begged  along  with  him,  called  aloud  upon  Jesus  to  have 
 mercy  upon  him.  The  people  who  accompanied  our 
 Lord,  supposing  that  the  man  asked  an  alms,  bade  him 
 cease  his  noise  ;  but  the  benefit  which  he  desired  was  of 
 gTeater  moment,  and  therefore  he  raised  his  voice,  and, 
 with  more  importunity,  cried,  '  thou  son  of  David,  have 
 mercy  upon  me  !'  Which  when  our  Lord  perceived,  he 
 commanded  both  him  and  his  companion  to  be  brought 
 before  him  ;  and,  upon  them  declaring  what  favour  they 
 expected,  he  touched  their  eyes,  and  immediately  they 
 received  their  sight,  and  followed  him,  glorifying  God, 
 as  indeed  all  the  company  did,  who  had  been  eye-wit- 
 nesses of  this  miracle. 
 
 As  our  Lord  was  passing  through  Jericho,  a  a  certain 
 man,  named  Zaccheus,  of  great  wealth  and  figure  among- 
 the  publicans,  was  not  a  little  desirous  to  see  him  ;  but, 
 as  he  was  a  man  of  a  low  stature,  and  could  not  gratify 
 his  curiosity  in  the  crowd,  he  ran  before,  and  climbed  up 
 into  a  sycamore  tree,  where  he  could  not  fail  of  having 
 a  full  view  of  him.  When  our  Saviour  came  near  the 
 place,  he  called  him  by  his  name,  and  bade  him  come 
 down,  because  he  intended  to  be  his  guest  that  day : 
 whereupon  Zeccheus  received  him  with  the  greatest  ex- 
 pressions of  joy  and  respect,whilst  others  could  not  for- 
 bear reflecting  upon  him,  for  entering  the  house  of  a  man 
 of  so  scandalous  a  profession.  But,  notwithstanding  all 
 their  censures,  our  Saviour,  who  from  the  intuition  of  his 
 heart,  as  well  as  his  own  declaration,  knew  him  to  be  a 
 just  and  charitable  man,  pronounced  him  and  his  family 
 in  a  state  of  salvation,  and  that  he,  though  a  publican, 
 and  an  alien  to  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  was  never- 
 theless one  of  those  to  whom  the  promises  b  made  unto 
 Abraham  did  belong. 
 
 The  nearer  they  came  to  Jerusalem,  the  more  the  dis- 
 ciples began  to  think  that  their  master  had  taken  that 
 journey  to  the  passover,  on  purpose  to  seat  himself  upon 
 his  throne,  and  assume  his  regal  authority  ;  and  therefore, 
 to  cure  their  minds  of  all  such  thoughts,  he  propounded  a 
 parable  c  to  them,  '  of  a  certain  great  man,  born  heir  to 
 
 thought  to  strengthen  their  authority  as  independent  witnesses. 
 — Blooinfield's  Greek  Testament. — Ed. 
 
 a  For  an  account  of  Jericho,  see  note  b,  p.  363. — Ed. 
 
 b  Though  some  commentators,  with  our  author,  are  of  opin- 
 ion that  Zaccheus  was  a  Gentile.  Yet  with  Scott,  Boothroyd, 
 Doddridge,  and  others,  we  are  disposed  to  conclude  that  he  was 
 a  Jew;  and  the  passage,  Luke  xix.  9,  which  has  given  rise  to 
 
 the  doubt,  seems  judiciously  explained  by  Scott,  as  follows: 
 
 "  Jesus,  knowing  the  sincerity  and  humility  of  his  professed  sub- 
 jection to  the  gospel,  declared,  'that  salvation  was  that  day  come 
 to  his  house,'  he  and  his  family  had  before  been  estranged  from 
 it,  but  it  was  now  come  thither  for  the  benefit  of  all  belonging  to 
 it;  'for  so  much  as  he  also  was  a  son  of  Abraham,'  not  only 
 according  to  the  flesh,  but  as  being  now  made  partaker  of  Abra- 
 ham's faith  and  privileges,  and  the  promises  made  to  him  and  his 
 seed. — Ed. 
 
 c  This  parable,  we  may  observe,  consists  of  two  parts.  The 
 former  of  which  is  contained  in  Luke  xix.  12,  14,  15—27,  and 
 relates  to  the  rebellious  subjects  of  this  prince,  who  '  went  into  a 
 far  country  to  receive  a  kingdom;'  the  latter  is  included  in  the 
 L3th,  15th,  and  so  on  to  the  27th  verse,  and  relates  to  this  prince's 
 servants,  to  whom  he  had  committed  his  money  for  them  to 
 improve  in  his  absence:  and  the  explication  of  the  whole  is 
 generally  supposed  to  be  this: — The  nobleman  or  prince  here  is 
 our  Lord  himself,  the  eternal  Son  of  God ;  his  going  into  a  far 
 country  to  receive  a  kingdom,  is  his  ascension  into  heaven,  to 
 sit  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Divine  Majesty,  and  take  pos- 
 session of  his  mediatorial  kingdom;  his  servants  may  be  either 
 his  apostles  and  disciples,  who,  upon  his  return,  were  to  give 
 an  account  of  the  progress  of  his  gospel,  or  Christians  in  general, 
 
 a  kingdom,  and  going  into  a  far  country  to  take  pos- 
 session of  it ;  but  before  he  departed,  calling  his  ser- 
 vants together,  and  giving  each  a  sum  of  money  to  trade 
 withal,  until  he  should  return.  The  reason  of  his  jour- 
 ney to  this  foreign  land  was,  because  his  own  country- 
 men, over  whom  he  had  a  right  to  reign,  were  obstinately 
 set  against  him,  and  disclaimed  him  for  their  king. 
 When  therefore  he  had  obtained  his  new  kingdom,  and 
 was  returned  home,  he  first  called  his  servants,  with 
 whom  he  had  intrusted  his  money,  to  an  account,  re- 
 warding the  diligent  with  gifts  proportionate  to  their 
 improvements,  and  punishing  the  negligent  with  per- 
 petual imprisonment ;  and  then  taking  cognizance  of  his 
 countrymen,  who,  upon  his  going  to  be  enthroned  in 
 another  kingdom,  disclaimed  all  obedience  to  him,  he 
 ordered  them,  in  his  presence,  to  be  put  to  death  as 
 so  many  rebels  ;  intimating  hereby  both  the  punishment 
 of  negligent  Christians,  and  the  destruction  of  the  con- 
 tumacious Jews. 
 
 By  the  time  that  our  Lord  arrived  at  Bethany,  Laza- 
 rus had  now  been  four  days  dead  d  and  buried  ;  and 
 several  friends  and  others  from  Jerusalem,  were 
 come   to  condole  with  the  two  sisters,  '  Martha    and 
 
 who,  for  every  talent,  whether  natural  or  acquired,  are  account- 
 able. His  citizens  are,  questionless,  the  Jews,  who  not  only 
 rejected  him  with  scorn,  but  put  him  to  an  ignominious  death; 
 and  his  return  is  the  day  of  his  fierce  wrath  and  vengeance  upon 
 the  Jewish  nation,  which  came  upon  them  about  forty  years 
 after  this  time,  and  was  indeed  so  very  terrible,  as  to  be  a  kind 
 of  emblem  and  representation  of  that  great  day  of  accounts,  when 
 he  will  render  'to  every  one  according  to  his  works.'  It  is 
 observable,  however,  by  some  commentators  farther,  that  our 
 Lord  took  the  rise  of  this  parable  from  the  custom  of  the  kings 
 of  Judea,  such  as  Herod  the  Great,  and  Archelaus  his  son,  who 
 usually  went  to  Rome  to  receive  their  kingdom  from  Caesar, 
 without  whose  permission  and  appointment  they  durst  not  take 
 the  government  into  their  hands.  In  the  case  of  Archelaus, 
 indeed,  the  resemblance  is  so  great,  that  almost  every  circum- 
 stance of  the  parable  concurs  in  him.  He  was  this  ivyivns,  or 
 man  of  great  parentage,  as  being  the  son  of  Herod  the  Great. 
 He  was  obliged  to  go  into  a  far  countiy,  that  is,  to  Rome,  to 
 receive  his  kingdom  of  the  emperor  Augustus.  The  Jews,  who 
 hated  him  because  of  his  cruel  and  tyrannical  reign,  sent  their 
 messengers  after  him,  desiring  to  be  freed  from  the  yoke  of 
 kings,  and  reduced  to  a  province  of  Rome.  Their  complaint, 
 however,  was  not  heard.  He  was  confirmed  in  the  kingdom  of 
 Judea;  and,  when  he  returned  home,  tyrannized  for  ten  years 
 over  those  that  would  have  shook  off  his  dominion.  But  then 
 there  is  this  remarkable  difference  between  his  case  and  that  in 
 the  parable,  that  the  Jews,  upon  their  second  complaint  to 
 Caesar,  prevailed  against  him,  and  procured  his  banishment  to 
 Vienna. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Beausobre's  and  IVldtby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 d  It  was  customary  among  the  Jews,  as  Dr  Lightfoot  tells  us 
 from  Maimonides,  and  others,  to  go  to  the  sepulchres  of  their 
 deceased  friends,  and  visit  them  for  three  days;  for  so  long  they 
 suppose  that  their  spirits  hovered  about  them.  But  when  once 
 they  perceived  that  their  visage  began  to  change,  as  it  would  in 
 three  days  in  these  countries,  all  hopes  of  a  return  to  life  were 
 then  at  an  end.  After  a  revolution  of  humours,  which  in 
 seventy-two  hours  is  completed,  their  bodies  tend  naturally  to 
 putrefaction ;  and  therefore  Martha  had  reason  to  say  that  her 
 brother's  body,  which  appears  by  the  context  to  have  been  laid 
 in  the  sepulchre  the  same  day  that  he  died,  would  now  in  the 
 fourth  day  begin  to  stink. — fVhitby's  and  Hammond's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 e  The  time  of  mourning  for  departed  friends  was  anciently, 
 among  the  Jews,  of  longer  continuance.  For  Jacob  they 
 mourned  forty  days,  (Gen.  1.  3.)  and  for  Aaron  and  Moses 
 thirty,  (Num.  xx.  29.  and  Deut.  xxxiv.  8.)  For  persons  of  an 
 inferior  quality  the  days  very  probably  were  fewer,  but  some 
 they  had  for  all,  and  the  general  term,  both  among  the  Jews  and 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 969 
 
 A.  M.  403.').  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  It.  5111.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1  — 
 
 Mary,  for  the  loss  of  their  brother.  Upon  the  first  news 
 of  our  Lord's  approach,  the  two  sisters,  attended  with 
 some  of  the  company  that  was  in  the  house,  went  out  to 
 meet  him  ;  and,  pouring-  out  a  flood  of  tears  for  the  loss 
 of  their  dear  brother,  fell  prostrate  at  his  feet,  and 
 wished,  over  and  over  again,  that  he  had  come  a  little 
 sooner ;  for  then  they  were  certain  that  he  would  not 
 have  died.  The  sight  of  their  tears  and  sorrow,  accom- 
 panied with  the  lamentations  of  their  followers,  affected 
 the  Son  of  God  so  that  he  groaned  within  himself;  and 
 then  demanding-  where  they  had  laid  the  body,  a  he  fol- 
 lowed them  to  the  place,  sympathizing  with  their  sorrow, 
 and  weeping*  as  well  as  they,  which  made  some  of  the 
 company  remark  how  well  he  loved,  and  others  wonder 
 why  he  did  not  prevent  his  death.  ''  When  he  was  come 
 to  the  grave,  c  and  had  ordered  the  stone  to  be  removed 
 
 Gentiles,  was  seven;  for  so  Ovid  brings  in  Orpheus  lamenting 
 the  death  of  his  wife:  "Yet  for  seven  days  he  sat  squalid  on 
 the  bank,  without  the  gift  of  Ceres:  anxiety  and  grief  of  mind, 
 and  tears,  were  his  food." — Metam.  b.  x. — An  expression  not 
 unlike  that  in  the  royal  psalmist,  '  my  tears  have  been  my  meat  day 
 and  night.'  (Ps.  xlii.  3.)  During  this  time  their  neighbours 
 and  friends  came  to  visit  them,  and  to  alleviate  their  sorrows 
 with  the  best  arguments  they  could.  They  pray  with  them; 
 they  read  with  them  the  forty-ninth  psalm:  pray  for  the  soul 
 of  the  dead,  and  distribute  their  comforts  in  proportion  to  their 
 loss;  but  nobody  opened  his  mouth  until  the  afflicted  person  had 
 first  spoken,  because  Job's  three  friends,  who  came  to  comfort 
 him,  we  find  did  the  same  (Job  ii.  13.)  All  which  ceremonies 
 made  the  concourse  to  Martha's  house  at  this  time  the  greater, 
 and  gave  more  Jews  an  opportunity  to  be  the  eye-witnesses  of 
 her  brother's  resurrection. — Poole's  and  Beausobre's  Annota- 
 tions, and  Basnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  v.  c.  23. 
 
 a  Our  Saviour  could  not  look  on  the  affliction  of  the  two  sis- 
 ters and  their  friends  without  having  a  share  in  it.  Besides  he 
 groaned  deeply,  being  grieved  to  find  that  his  friends  enter- 
 tained a  suspicion  of  his  loving  them  less  than  their  great  love 
 to  him  might  claim;  'and  was  troubled.'  In  the  Greek  it  is 
 he  troubled  himself,  tra^a^it  iccurov,  he  allowed  himself  to  be 
 angry  at  the  malice  of  the  devil,  who  had  introduced  sin  into 
 the  world,  and  thereby  made  such  havoc  of  the  human  kind. 
 But  to  keep  them  no  longer  in  suspense,  he  asked  where  they 
 had  buried  Lazarus,  that  he  might  go  to  the  grave,  and  give 
 them  immediate  relief,  by  bringing  him  to  life  again.  On  this 
 occasion  it  appeared  that  Jesus  was  possessed  of  a  delicate  sensi- 
 bility of  human  passions.  For  when  he  beheld  Martha  and 
 Mary,  and  their  companions  around  him  all  in  tears,  the  tender 
 feelings  of  love,  and  pity,  and  friendship,  moved  him  to  such  a 
 degree,  that  he  wept  as  he  went  along,  (John  xi.  34.)  '  And 
 said,  Where  have  ye  laid  him?  they  say  unto  him,  Lord,  come 
 and  see.  (35.)  Jesus  wept.'  In  this  grief  of  the  Son  of  God, 
 there  was  a  greatness  and  generosity,  not  to  say  an  amiableness 
 of  disposition,  infinitely  nobler  than  that  which  the  stoic  philo- 
 sophers aimed  at  iu  their  so  much  boasted  apathy. — Macknight's 
 Harmony .~— Ed. 
 
 b  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  some  of  them  said,  Could  not 
 this  man,  who  opened  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  have  caused  that 
 even  this  man  should  not  have  died?'  (John  xi.37.)  which  some 
 imagine  were  spoken  only  in  admiration,  that  having  given  sight 
 to  a  blind  man  that  was  a  mere  stranger  to  him,  he  did  not  cure 
 his  sick  friend.  But  others  conceive  a  vile  sarcasm  in  the 
 word';,  as  if  they  went  about  to  weaken  his  reputation,  in  a 
 miracle  wherein  he  had  manifestly  shown  his  divine  power, 
 because  he  did  not  preserve  his  friend  from  dying.' — Poole's 
 Annotations. 
 
 c  In  the  23d  chapter  of  Genesis,  we  have  the  earliest  notice 
 of  the  practice,  which  was  formerly  very  prevalent  in  the  east, 
 of  depositing  the  dead  in  natural  or  artificial  caves,  great  num- 
 berfi  of  which  are  still  to  be  found  in  Palestine,  Syria,  Egypt, 
 and  Persia.  In  the  mountainous  country  of  southern  Palestine 
 there  are  abundance  of  natural  caves  in  the  rocks,  which  might 
 easily  be  formed  into  commodious  sepulchral  vaults;  and  where 
 such  natural  caves  were  wanting,  sepulchres  were  hewn  in  the 
 rock  for  such  families  as  were  able  to  incur  the  necessary  expense ; 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23.— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  l._jx.  37.  JOHN  v.  1.—  vii.  1. 
 from  it,  after  a  short  address  of  adoration  and  thanks- 
 giving- to  his  Father  for  his  readiness  to  hear  him, 
 d  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  -  Lazarus,  come  forth  ;'  e 
 whereupon  he  that  was  dead  immediately  arose  from  his 
 bed  of  darkness,  and  in  such  sound  health,  that  when 
 his  grave-clothes  were  unloosed,  he  was  able  to  walk 
 along  with  them  to  Bethany. 
 
 This  great  and  apparent  miracle  caused  the  utmost 
 surprise  and  astonishment  among  all  the  spectators,  and 
 the  greatest  part  of  them  was,  from  that  time,  convinced, 
 and  believed  on  him  ;  but  others,  more  obstinate,  went 
 and  reported  the  thing  to  the  Pharisees  at  Jerusalem, 
 who  thereupon  called  together  their  sanhedrim,  where, 
 after  some  solemn  debate,  it  was  concluded,  '  that 
 whether  the  man  was  a  prophet  sent  from  God  or  not, 
 for  fear  of  giving  any  umbrage  to  the  Roman  powers,/ 
 
 for  this  was  the  mode  of  sepulture  decidedly  preferred  by  those 
 who  could  obtain  it.  The  arrangement  and  extent  of  these  caves 
 varied  with  circumstances.  Those  in  the  declivity  of  a  mountain 
 were  often  cut  in  horizontally;  but  to  others  there  was  usually  a 
 descent  by  steps  from  the  surface.  The  roofs  of  the  vaults  are 
 commonly  arched ;  and  sometimes,  in  the  more  spacious  vaults, 
 supported  by  colonnades.  These  rocky  chambers  are  generally 
 spacious,  being  obviously  family  vaults,  intended  to  receive  seve- 
 ral dead  bodies.  Niches,  about  six  or  seven  feet  deep,  are 
 usually  cut  in  the  sides  of  the  vault,  each  adapted  to  receive  a 
 single  corpse;  but  in  some  vaults  small  rooms  are  cut  in  the 
 same  manner;  and  in  others,  stone  slabs  of  the  same  length  are 
 fixed  horizontally  against  the  walls,  or  cut  out  of  the  rock,  one 
 above  another,  serving  as  shelves  on  which  the  corpses  were  de- 
 posited :  in  others,  however,  the  floor  itself  is  excavated  for  the 
 reception  of  the  dead,  in  compartments  of  various  depths,  and  in 
 the  shape  of  a  coffin.  Some  of  the  bodies  were  placed  in  stone 
 coffins,  provided  with  sculptured  lids ;  but  such  sarcophagi  were 
 by  no  means  in  general  use;  the  bodies,  when  wound  up  in  the 
 grave-clothes,  being  usually  deposited  without  any  sort  of  coffin 
 or  sarcophagus.  The  vaults  are  always  dark,  the  only  opening 
 being  the  narrow  entrance,  which  is  usually  closed  by  a  large 
 stone  rolled  to  its  mouth ;  although  some  of  a  superior  description 
 are  shut  by  stone  doors,  hung  in  the  same  manner  as  the  doors 
 of  houses,  by  pivots  turning  in  holes  in  the  architrave  above  and 
 in  the  threshold  below. — Pictorial  Bible. — Ed. 
 
 d  As  our  blessed  Saviour,  in  virtue  \A  his  union  with  God  the 
 Father,  had  naturally,  and  in  himself,  a  power  of  working  mira- 
 cles, there  was  no  need  for  his  addressing  himself  to  heaven 
 every  time  that  he  did  any:  however,  upon  this  and  some  other 
 occasions,  we  find  him  praying  to  God  under  the  title  of  his 
 Father,  that  all  the  company  might  know,  that  what  he  did  was 
 by  a  divine,  not  a  diabolical  power,  and  that  God,  in  granting 
 his  petition,  acknowledged  him  to  be  his  Son. — Beausobre's 
 Annotations. 
 
 e  The  form  of  the  Jewish  sepulchre  already  described  sug- 
 gests an  easy  solution  of  a  difficulty  in  the  resurrection  of  Laza- 
 rus. The  sacred  historian  states,  that  when  our  Lord  cried  with 
 a  loud  voice,  '  Lazarus  come  forth,  he  that  was  dead  came  forth, 
 hound  hand  and  foot  with  grave-clothes.'  Upon  this  circum- 
 stance, the  enemies  of  revelation  seize  with  avidity,  and  demand 
 with  an  air  of  triumph,  how  lie  should  come  out  of  a  grave,  who 
 was  bound  hand  and  foot  with  grave-clothes?  But  the  answer  is 
 easy:  the  evangelist  does  not  mean  that  Lazarus  walked  out  of 
 the  sepulchre,  but  only  that  he  sat  up,  then  putting  his  legs  over 
 the  edge  of  his  niche  or  cell,  slid  down  and  stood  upright  upon 
 the  floor;  all  which  he  might  easily  do,  notwithstanding  his  arms 
 were  bound  close  to  his  body,  and  his  legs  were  tied  strait  to- 
 gether, by  means  of  the  shroud  and  rollers  with  which  he  was 
 swathed.  Hence,  when  be  "as  come  forth,  Jesus  ordered  his 
 relations  to  loose  him  and  let  him  go:  a  circumstance  plainly 
 importing  the  historian's  admission  that  Lazarus  could  not  walk 
 till  he  was  unbound. —  Paxtoti's  Illustrations,  vol.  iii.  pp.  268, 
 20"o._Ed. 
 
 f  The  Jews,  seeing  the  miracles  which  Jesus  did,  this  espe- 
 cially of  raising  Lazarus,  did  greatly  fear,  lest,  taking  upon  him 
 the  public  character  of  the  Messiah,  he  would  attempt  to  make 
 himself  king,  and  by  the  admiration  which  he  had  gained  among 
 
 6  G 
 
<no 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31.  OR,  A.  M.  5141.  A.  U.3D.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  I— xvii.14.  MARKii.  23-ix.  U.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 it  was  highly  expedient  that  he  should  die,  rather  than 
 that  the  whole  nation,  for  his  sake,  should  incur  the 
 danger  of  being  ruined  :  and  from  that  time  they  entered 
 into  a  combination  to  have  him  apprehended  and  put  to 
 death ;  but,  as  '  his  hour  was  not  yet  come,'  at  present 
 he  declined  their  fury,  by  retreating  from  the  public,  and 
 retiring  to  a  little  place,  called  Ephraim,  a  in  the  tribe 
 of  Benjamin,  where  he  continued,  for  a  few  days,  with 
 his  apostles,  until  the  time  of  the  passover  was  ap- 
 proaching. 
 
 Six  days  before  that  solemn  feast  began,  our  Lord, 
 in  his  way  to  Jerusalem,  called  at  Bethany,  where  he 
 was  kindly  entertained  at  supper  *  by  the  two  sisters  of 
 Lazarus,  Martha  and  Mary.  Martha,  according  to  her 
 custom,  dressed  the  supper,  but  Lazarus,  whom  he  had 
 raised,  was  one  of  the  company  that  sat  at  table  with 
 him,  while  Mary,  to  express  her  love  and  bounty,  took 
 a  vial  of  the  most  valuable  essence,  made  of  spikenard,  c 
 
 the  people,  be  quickly  enabled  to  accomplish  his  ends,  unless  lie 
 was  timely  prevented.  If  then  he  was  permitted  to  go  on  in  his 
 pretensions,  the  consequence  seemed  visible  to  them,  that  the 
 Romans,  to  whom  they  were  already  subject,  would  look  upon 
 this  as  a  rebellion,  and  so  be  provoked  to  come  with  an  army 
 and  destroy  them  utterly.  That  this  was  their  fear,  is  evident 
 from  the  many  groundless  objections  which  they  made  against 
 our  Saviour,  as  that,  he  forbade  to  give  tribute  to  Csesar,  and 
 that  he  made  himself  a  king,  and  so  opposed  the  title  of  Tiberius. 
 Not  that  they  desired  the  continuance  of  Cfesar's  dominion  over 
 them,  but  the  apprehension  of  a  still  farther  conquest  from  the 
 Romans,  made  them  unwilling  to  provoke  them,  and  that  more 
 especially  because  they  had  an  ancient  tradition,  that  one  Armo- 
 lus,  which  is,  by  an  easy  change,  Romulus,  before  the  end  of 
 the  world,  would  come  and  destroy  them.  This  seems  to  be 
 but  the  depravation  of  some  prophecy  from  God,  which  foretold 
 the  coming  of  the  Romans  in  the  last  days,  meaning  thereby  the 
 days  of  the  Messiah,  to  destroy  them.  It  demonstrates,  however, 
 that  they  both  believed  and  expected,  that  the  Romans  were  the 
 people,  from  whom  the  change  of  their  religion,  and  the  total 
 subversion  of  their  government,  were  to  come ;  and  for  this 
 reason  they  were,  upon  all  occasions,  so  very  fearful  to  offend 
 them.  But  herein  they  were  sadly  mistaken:  for  the  prophecy 
 of  the  Romans  coming  to  destroy  their  temple  and  nation  was 
 fulfilled,  not  by  their  letting  Christ  alone,  or  believing  in  him, 
 but  by  their  thus  opposing  and  conspiring  against  him. Ham- 
 monds Annotations. 
 
 a  It  was  situated  between  Bethel  and  Jericho,  about  twenty 
 miles  to  the  north  of  Jerusalem. — Josephus  on  the  Jewish  JT'ar 
 b.  v.  c.  8. 
 
 b  Some  interpreters  are  of  opinion,  that  this  was  the  same 
 supper  which  our  Saviour  was  invited  to  in  the  house  of  Simon 
 the  leper ;  that  St  John  has  related  it  in  its  proper  place,  as  a 
 thing  which  happened  six  days  before  the  passover;  but  that  the 
 other  evangelists  have  mentioned  it,  by  way  of  recapitulation,  to 
 show  what  might  he  the  probable  occasion  of  Judas's  treachery, 
 even  his  vexation  for  being  disappointed  of  the  money  that 
 might  have  been  made  of  this  precious  ointment,  had  it  been  sold 
 and  put  into  the  bag  for  him  to  purloin.  But  others  suppose 
 that  this  supper  was  different  from  that  which  is  mentioned, 
 (Mat.  xxvi.  6.  and  Mark  xiv.  3.)  1st.  Because  this  was  in  the 
 house  of  Lazarus,  (John  xii.  2.)  that  in  the  house  of  Simon  the 
 leper,  (Mat.  xxvi.  6.)  2dly.  Here  Mary  anoints  the  feet  of 
 Christ,  (John  xii.  3.)  there  a  woman  not  named  pours  ointment 
 on  his  head,  (Mat.  xxvi.  7.)  3dly.  This  supper  was  six  days 
 before  the  passover,  (John  xii.  1.)  that  only  two,  (Mat.  xxvi.  2. 
 Mark  xiv.  1.)  and  if  the  suppers  were  not  the  same,  the  Mary 
 that  anointed  Christ's  feet  here,  and  the  woman  that  anointed 
 his  head  there,  were  not  the  same. — Calmefs  Commentary; 
 Beausobre's  and  JTrhitliys  Annotations. 
 
 a  The  spikenard  (Hcb.  -n:  nard)  is  a  plant  belonging  to  the 
 order  of  gramina,  and  is  of  different  species.  In  India,  whence 
 the  best  sort  comes,  it  grows  as  common  grass,  in  large  tufts 
 close  to  each  other,  in  general  from  three  to  four  feet  in  length. 
 So  strong  is  its  aroma,  which  resides  principally  in  the  husky 
 
 and,  pouring  it  upon  his  feet,  anointed  them,  and  wiped 
 them  with  her  hair,  so  that  the  whole  house  was  filled 
 with  the  fragrancy  of  its  perfume.  This  action  Judas 
 Iscariot,  who  afterwards  betrayed  his  Master,  and  had, 
 at  that  time,  the  custody  of  the  bag,  wherein  money,  for 
 charitable  and  other  necessary  uses,  Avas  kept,  highly 
 blamed,  as  a  piece  of  prodigality,  in  throwing  away 
 what  might  have  been  sold  for  three  hundred  pence,  d 
 and  given  to  the  poor ;  not  that  he  valued  the  poor,  but 
 because  he  was  a  greedy  wretch,  who  was  always  pur- 
 loining some  part  of  the  public  money  to  himself.  Our 
 Saviour,  therefore,  who  knew  the  sincerity  of  Mary's  and 
 the  naughtiness  of  Judas's  heart,  in  a  very  gentle  reply, 
 commended  what  she  had  done,  as  a  seasonable  ceremony 
 e  to  solemnize  his  approaching  death ;  but  blamed  the 
 other's  pretended  concern  for  the  poor,  since  objects  of 
 this  kind  they  had  always  with  them,  but  his  continuance 
 among  them  was  not  to  be  long.  AVhile  they  were  sit- 
 ting at  this  supper,  great  numbers  of  Jews,  out  of  curio- 
 sity, came  to  Bethany,  not  only  to  have  a  sight  of  Jesus, 
 but  of  Lazarus  likewise,  whom  he  had  raised  from  the 
 dead ;  but,  when  the  sanhedrim  understood  that  the 
 resurrection  of  Lazarus  occasioned  many  people  to 
 believe  on  Jesus,  /  they  consulted  how  to  destroy  him 
 likewise. 
 
 roots,  that  when  trodden  upon,  or  otherwise  bruised,  the  air  is 
 filled  with  its  fragrance.  Dr  Blane,  who  planted  some  of  the 
 roots  in  his  garden,  at  Lucknow,  states,  that  in  the  rainy  season 
 it  shot  up  spikes  about  six  feet  high.  This  plant  was  highly 
 valued  among  the  ancients,  both  as  an  article  of  luxury,  and  as 
 a  medicine.  The  Unguentum  Nardinum,  or  ointment  manu- 
 factured from  the  nard,  was  the  favourite  perfume  used  at  the 
 ancient  baths  and  feasts ;  and  it  appears  from  a  passage  in  Horace, 
 that  it  was  so  valuable,  that  so  much  of  it  as  could  be  contained 
 in  a  small  box  of  precious  stone  was  considered  a  sort  of  equiva- 
 lent for  a  large  vessel  of  wine ;  and  a  handsome  quota  for  a  guest 
 to  contribute  to  an  entertainment,  according  to  the  custom  of 
 antiquity.  In  Mark  xiv.  3.  it  is  said  that  there  came  '  a  woman, 
 having  an  alabaster  box  of  ointment  of  spikenard,  very  precious; 
 and  she  brake  the  box  and  poured  it  on  his  [Christ's]  head.'  In 
 verse  5,  this  is  said  to  have  been  worth  more  than  three  hundred 
 pence,  denarii;  and  John  (ch.  xii.  3.)  mentions  'a  pound  of 
 ointment  of  spikenard,  very  costly ;' — the  house  was  filled  with 
 the  odour  of  the  ointment; — it  was  worth  three  hundred  pence, 
 denarii.  As  this  evangelist  has  determined  the  quantity,  says 
 Mr  Taylor, — a  pound — and  the  lowest  value  (for  Mark  says 
 more)  was  eight  pounds  fifteen  shillings,  we  may  safely  suppose 
 that  this  was  not  a  Syrian  production,  or  made  from  any  fragrant 
 grass  growing  in  the  neighbouring  districts;  but  was  a  true  otar 
 of  Indian  spikenard,  '  very  costly.'  In  the  answer  of  our  Lord  on 
 this  occasion,  there  seems  also  to  be  some  allusion  to  the  remote- 
 ness of  the  country  whence  this  unguent  was  brought,  '  Where- 
 soever this  gospel  shall  be  preached  throughout  the  whole  world, 
 this  also  that  she  hath  done,  shall  be  spoken  of  for  a  memorial  of 
 her,'  (Mark  xiv.  9.)  As  much  as  to  say,  "  This  unguent  came 
 from  a  distant  country,  to  be  sure,  but  the  gospel  shall  spread  to 
 a  much  greater  distance,  yea,  all  over  the  world  ;  so  that  in  India 
 itself,  whence  this  composition  came,  shall  the  memorial  of  its 
 application  to  my  sacred  person  be  mentioned  with  honour."  The 
 idea  of  a  far  country,  connected  with  the  ointment,  seems  to 
 have  suggested  that  of  '  all  the  world.' — Calmefs  Dictionary, 
 p.  836.— Ed. 
 
 d  As  the  Roman  penny  was  sevenpence  halfpenny  of  our 
 money,  so  three  hundred  pence  must  amount  to  nine  pounds 
 seven  shillings  and  sixpence. 
 
 e  It  was  a  custom  in  these  eastern  countries,  for  kings  and 
 great  persons,  to  have  their  bodies  at  their  funerals  embalmed 
 with  odours  and  sweet  perfumes;  and,  in  allusion  hereunto, 
 our  Saviour  here  declares  of  Mary,  that  she,  to  testify  her 
 faith  in  him,  as  her  King  and  Lord,  had,  as  it  were  before- 
 hand, embalmed  his  body  with  precious  ointment  for  his 
 burial. 
 
 f  Never  was  there  rage  and  malice  more  unreasonable  than 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 971 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  E.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5U1.  A.  1).  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  Jesus,  having-  tarried  all  night  at 
 Bethany,  set  forward  next  morning  with  his  disciples, 
 and  others  attending  him  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem.  When 
 he  came  to  a  place  called  Bethphage,  «  on  the  side  of 
 mount  Olive, b  he  senttwo  of  his  disciples  into  the  village 
 to  bring  from  thence  an  ass,  and  her  colt,  e  which  was 
 not  yet  backed,  that,  to  accomplish  a  remarkable  pro- 
 phecy, '  he  might  ride  thereon  to  Jerusalem.  d     The  dis- 
 
 ]  Is.  lxii.  11;  Zech.  ix.  9. 
 
 this;  for  admitted  that  Christ  had  broke  the  sabbath,  and  spoken 
 blasphemy,  yet  what  had  Lazarus  done  ?  No  crime  was  ever 
 alleged  against  him ;  and  yet  these  rulers  of  the  people  conspire 
 to  put  him  to  death,  merely  to  preserve  their  own  honour,  and 
 reputation.  But  see  the  providence  of  God,  which  notwithstand- 
 ing all  their  contrivances,  was  pleased  to  preserve  him,  as 
 a  monument  of  his  glory,  and  a  testimony  of  the  miracle  which 
 Jesus  performed  on  him,  thirty  years  after  our  Saviour's  death. 
 — Poole's  and  Whitby's  Annotations;  and  Taylor's  Life  of 
 Christ. 
 
 a  Bethphage  signifies  the  house  of  Jigs  or  dates,  and  might  very 
 probably  have  its  name  from  the  several  trees  of  these  kinds  that 
 grew  there.  It  was  a  small  village  of  the  priests,  situate  on  mount 
 Olivet,  and,  as  it  seems,  somewhat  nearer  Jerusalem  than  Beth- 
 any.— Beausobre's  Annotations,  and  Wells'  Geography  of  the 
 Neiv  Testament. 
 
 b  This  place,  doubtless,  had  its  name  from  the  great  number 
 of  olive  trees  that  grew  upon  it.  It  lay  a  little  without  Jerusa- 
 lem, on  the  east  side  of  it,  about  five  furlongs  from  the  city,  says 
 Josephus ;  but  he  must  be  understood  of  the  very  nearest  part  of 
 it,  since  St  Luke  makes  the  distance  to  be  a  sabbath-day's  jour- 
 ney, that  is,  eight  furlongs,  or  a  mile,  unless  we  suppose,  that  he 
 means  the  summit  of  the  hill,  from  which  our  Saviour  ascended, 
 (Acts  i.  12.)  Mr  Maundrcll  tells  us,  "  that  he  and  his  company 
 going  out  of  Jerusalem  at  St  Stephen's  gate,  and  crossing  the 
 valley  of  Jehosaphat,  began  immediately  to  ascend  the  mountain ; 
 that,  being  got  above  two-thirds  of  the  way  up,  they  came  to 
 certain  grottos,  cut  with  intricate  windings  and  caverns  under 
 ground,  which  were  called  the  '  sepulchres  of  the  prophets ;'  that 
 a  little  higher  up  were  twelve  arched  vaults  under  ground, 
 standing  side  by  side,  and  built  in  memory  of  the  apostles,  who 
 are  said  to  have  compiled  their  creed  in  this  place ;  that,  sixty 
 paces  higher,  they  came  to  the  place  where  Christ  is  said  to  have 
 uttered  his  prophecy  concerning  the  final  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
 lem ;  and,  a  little  on  the  right  hand,  to  another,  where  he  is  said 
 to  have  dictated  a  second  time  the  Lord's  prayer  to  his  disciples ; 
 that,  somewhat  higher,  is  the  cave  of  a  saint,  called  Pelagia;  a 
 little  above  that,  a  pillar,  denoting  the  place  where  an  angel 
 gave  the  blessed  virgin  throe  days'  warning  of  her  death ;  and,  at 
 the  top  of  all,  the  place  of  our  blessed  Lord's  ascension. — Wells' 
 Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 c  It  is  well  remarked  by  Grotius,  that  such  animals  as  were 
 never  employed  in  the  service  of  men,  were  wont  to  be  chosen 
 for  sacred  purposes,  insomuch,  that  the  very  heathens  thought 
 those  things  and  sacrifices  most  proper  for  the  service  of  their 
 gods,  which  had  never  been  put  to  profane  uses.  Thus  the 
 Philistines  returned  the  ark  in  a  new  cart,  drawn  by  heifers  that 
 had  never  before  undergone  the  yoke,  (1  Sam.  vi.  7,)  and  thus 
 Apollo's  priest  admonished  /Eneas:  "  let  one  be  enjoined,  from 
 the  select  herd  to  take  seven  heifers,"  (JEn.  vi.)  But  the  chief 
 design  that  our  Saviour  might  have,  in  the  orders  which  he  gave 
 to  his  disciples,  was,  that  the  prophecy  might,  by  this  means, 
 receive  its  full  completion:  '  tell  ye  the  daughter  of  Sion,  behold 
 thy  king  cometh  unto  thee,  meek,  and  sitting  upon  an  ass,  and 
 a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass.'  The  former  part  of  the  verse  is  taken 
 from  Is.  lxii.  11,  and  the  latter  from  Zech.  ix.  9.  Both  by  the 
 Jews  are  acknowledged  to  relate  to  the  Messiah:  and  with  re- 
 gard to  the  latter,  It.  Joseph  was  wont  to  say,  "  May  the  Mes- 
 siah como,  and  may  I  be  worthy  to  sit  under  the  shadow  of  the 
 tail  of  his  ass!" — Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Surenhusii  Concil. 
 in  loc.  ex  V.  T.  apud  Mallhtcum. 
 
 d  A  great  contest  there  is  among  learned  men,  whether  our 
 Lord  rode  upon  the  ass  or  the  colt,  or  on  both  alternately. 
 Those  who  contend  for  his  riding  upon  both,  observe  from  the 
 words  of  the  prophet,  Zechariah,  (chap.  ix.  9,)  that  mention  is 
 r.i  ide  of  riding  both  '  upon  an  ass,  and  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass;' 
 
 xvii.  H.  MARK  ii.  2:;— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  », 
 
 ciples  e  did  as  they  were  ordered  :  and,  having  mounted 
 their  master  on  the  colt,  he  proceeded  as  it  were  in  tri- 
 umph, towards  the  city,  amidst  the  loud  acclamations  of 
 an  innumerable  multitude,  whilst  crowds  of  people  came 
 forth  to  meet  him  with  branches  /  of  palm-trees  in  their 
 hands,  some  spreading  their  garments  s  in  the  way,  others 
 cutting  down  branches,  and  strewing  them  where  he  was 
 
 and  from  St  Matthew,  (chap.  xxi.  7,)  they  observe  further,  that  the 
 disciples  having  brought  the  ass  and  the  colt  which  our  Saviour 
 had  sent  them  for,  '  put  on  them  their  clothes,  and  set  him  there- 
 on.' Since,  therefore,  the  relation  of  St  Matthew  thus  literally 
 agrees  with  the  prophecy  of  Zechariah,  and  both  expressly  as- 
 sert, that  our  Saviour  did  ride  upon  the  ass  as  well  as  the  colt, 
 they  see  no  reason  why  these  texts  should  not  be  taken  in  their 
 most  plain  and  obvious  meaning,  and  do  hence  infer,  that,  for 
 the  more  exact  fulfilling  of  the  prophecy,  our  Saviour  did  actually 
 ride  part  of  the  way  upon  the  one,  and  the  remaining  part  upon 
 the  other.  The  generality  of  interpreters,  however,  are  against 
 this.  They  suppose,  that,  as  there  was  no  occasion  for  our-  Saviour's 
 riding  upon  both  in  so  short  a  journey,  and  as  the  other  three 
 evangelists  only  make  mention  of  the  colt,  there  seems  to  be  a 
 necessity  for  admitting  of  the  figure  called  enallage  numeri  in  this 
 place ;  and  that,  as  when  we  read,  that  '  the  ark  rested  upon  the 
 mountains  of  Ararat,'  (Gen.  viii.  4,)  we  understand  only  upon 
 one  of  them ;  so  here,  when  St  Matthew  tells  us,  that  the  disci- 
 ples brought  '  the  ass  and  the  colt,  and  put  their  clothes  on 
 them,'  by  ItcLvu  ahrat,  he  must  necessarily  mean,  Irava  ho; 
 autut,  '  upon  one  of  them,'  that  is,  the  colt,  as  the  words  of  the 
 prophecy  itself  will  fairly  bear:  nor  was  there  any  other  reason 
 for  bringing  the  mother  along  with  it,  but  that  foals  will  not 
 usually  go  without  their  dams. —  Wells'  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament,  part  i.  and  Surenhusii  Concil.  in  loca  ex  V.  T. 
 apud  Maltkceum. 
 
 e  Very  remarkable  is  our  Saviour's  prescience,  even  as  to 
 the  most  minute  matters,  in  the  orders  which  he  gives  his  dis- 
 ciples, namely,  1.  You  shall  find  a  colt;  2.  On  which  no  man 
 ever  sat:  3.  Bound  with  his  mother;  4.  In  bivio,  or  where  two 
 ways  meet;  5.  As  you  enter  into  the  village;  6.  The  owners  of 
 which  will,  at  first,  seem  unwilling  that  you  should  unbind  him ; 
 7.  But  when  they  hear  that  I  have  need  of  him  they  will  let  him 
 go.  And  no  less  remarkable  is  the  cheerful  obedience  of  these 
 disciples  to  a  command,  which  carnal  reasoning  might  have 
 started  many  objections  against,  and  which  nothing  less  than  a 
 steadfast  persuasion,  that  he  who  sent  the  message  would  be  sure 
 to  give  success  to  it,  could  have  prevailed  upon  them  to  execute, 
 as  they  did,  without  any  demur  or  delay. — Whitby's  Annotations, 
 and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 /  At  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  it  was  a  custom  among  the 
 Jews,  not  only  to  sing  hosannas  with  the  greatest  joy,  but  also 
 to  carry  palm-branches  in  their  hands,  (Lev.  xxiii.  40,)  and  to 
 desire,  as  the  Jews  still  wish  at  the  celebration  of  this  feast,  that 
 they  may  rejoice  in  this  manner  at  the  coming  of  the  Messiah. 
 Nor  was  it  only  at  this  festival,  but  upon  any  other  occasion  of 
 solemn  rejoicing,  that  the  Jews  made  use  of  this  ceremony:  for 
 we  find,  that,  upon  the  enemy's  evacuating  the  tower  of  Jerusa- 
 lem, Simon  and  his  men  'entered  into  it,  with  thanksgiving,  and 
 branches  of  palm-trees,  and  with  harps  and  cymbals,  and  with 
 viols,  and  hymns,  and  songs,'  (1  Mac.  xiii.  51.)  Nay,  the  very 
 same  manner  of  expressing  their  joy  prevailed  among  other  na- 
 tion?, as  well  as  the  Jews ;  for  so  Herodotus  relates,  that  they 
 who  went  before  Xerxes,  as  he  passed  over  the  Hellespont, 
 strewed  the  way  with  myrtle-branches:  and  therefore  we  need 
 less  wonder  that  we  find  such  of  the  company  as  were  by  our 
 blessed  Saviour's  miracles  convinced  of  his  being  their  king, 
 and  the  promised  Messiah,  testifying  their  joy  upon  this  his  in- 
 auguration into  his  kingdom,  in  such  a  manner  as  they,  as  well 
 as  other  nations,  upon  such  joyful  occasions  were  accustomed  to. 
 —Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Surenhusii  Concil.  e.v  V.  T.  apud 
 Matthaum. 
 
 g  It  was  a  common  practice  among  the  people  in  the  east, 
 upon  the  approach  of  their  kings  and  princes,  to  spread  their 
 vestments  upon  the  ground,  for  them  to  tread  or  ride  over.  In 
 conformity  to  which  custom,  we  find  the  captains,  when  they 
 proclaimed  Jehu  king,  putting  their  garments  under  him,  (2 
 Kings  ix.  13.)  and  Plutarch  relating  that  when  Cato  left  his 
 soldiers  t"  return  to  Rome,  they  spread  their  clothes  in  the  «vay 
 
972 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5141.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  I—  xvii.  U.  MARKii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37-  JOHN  v.  1—  vii.  1. 
 
 to  pass,  a  and  all,  as  it  were  with  one  voice,  crying,  b 
 '  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David  !  Blessed  is  he  that 
 cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord !  Hosanna  in  the 
 highest.' 
 
 In  this  triumphant  manner  they  advanced  till  they 
 came  to  the  descent  of  mount  <■'  Olivet,  when  the  whole 
 body  of  disciples,  being  transported  with  the  honours 
 shown  to  their  master,  broke  out  into  raptures  of  thanks- 
 givings and  loud  doxologies  to  God  for  all  the  mighty 
 works  which  they  had  seen  ;  while  the  whole  body  of 
 the  people,  as  well  those  that  went  before  as  those  that 
 followed  after,  joined  with  the  disciples  in  their  hosan- 
 nas  and  acclamations ;  so  that  when  some  Pharisees, 
 being  envious  of  his  glory,  desired  him  to  command 
 their  silence,  '  if  they  should  be  silent,'  he  told  them, 
 ll  *  the  very  stones  would  proclaim  his  praise.' 
 
 But,  notwithstanding  all  this  glorious  procession,  as 
 he  advanced  nearer  to  Jerusalem,  so  as  to  have  a  full 
 
 which  was  an  honour,  as  he  observes,  then  done  to  few  emperors. 
 But  the  Jews  that  accompanied  our  Saviour  at  this  time  looked 
 upon  him  as  greater  than  any  emperor ;  as  a  prince  that  was 
 come  to  rescue  them  from  the  Roman  yoke,  and  reduce  all 
 nations  under  their  subjection;  and  therefore  in  this  manner 
 they  chose  to  testify  their  homage  and  veneration  of  their  uni- 
 versal monarch,  making  now  a  public  entry  into  his  capital  of 
 Jerusalem .  —  TVhitbys  Annotations. 
 
 a  It  was  usual  in  the  east  to  strew  flowers  and  branches  of 
 trees  in  the  way  of  conquerors  and  great  princes.  So  we  find  that 
 those  who  esteemed  Christ  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  their  king, 
 acted  towards  him.  A  similar  instance  may  be  found  in  Hero- 
 dotus, (vii.  p.  404.)  He  informs  us  that  people  went  before 
 Xerxes,  passing  over  the  Hellespont,  and  burned  all  manner  of 
 perfumes  on  the  bridges,  and  strewed  the  w-ay  with  myrtles. 
 Boughs  and  hymns  were  usual  among  the  Grecians  on  any  time 
 of  festivity.  Nero  had  flowers  strewed  before  him  upon  his  re- 
 turn from  the  Grecian  games. — Tacitus  Ann.,  Appendix  by 
 Murphy,  b.  16,  12. — Suetonius,  p.  25. — See  Adumi  Observat. 
 p.  150. — Altmano  Obs.  vol.  ii.  p.  420. — J.  Lydius  in  Agonist. 
 Sacr.  p.  m.  152;  aud  Kuinoel  Comment,  vol.  i.  p.  528. — Ed. 
 
 b  Hosanna,  or  rather  hosa-na,  is  a  Hebrew  word,  which  sig- 
 nifies, save,  I  beseech  thee,  and  was  a  common  acclamation, 
 which  the  Jews  used  in  their  feast  of  tabernacles,  not  only  in 
 remembrance  of  their  past  deliverance  from  Egypt,  but  in  hopes 
 likewise  of  a  future  one,  by  the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  Now, 
 the  reason  why  the  acclamations  upon  this  occasion  ran  rather  in 
 these  words  than  in  the  common  form  of  '  long  live  the  king,'  or 
 the  like,  was  because  in  the  character  which  the  prophet  gives 
 of  the  Messiah,  he  is  called  a  '  Saviour,'  or  '  one  bringing  salva- 
 tion to  them.'  (Zech.  ix.  9  )  And  therefore,  to  show  the  excel- 
 lency of  this  above  all  other  kings,  the  people  address  him  in 
 words  taken  from  the  psalmist,  '  Help  us  now,  O  Lord,  send  us 
 now  prosperity.'  (Ps.  cxviii.  25.)  But  because  hosanna  is  like- 
 wise a  form  of  blessing,  and,  in  the  inauguration  of  princes, 
 people  are  always  pleased  with  the  rightful  succession;  therefore 
 they  adjoin  '  hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David,'  that  is,  the  Lord 
 prosper  and  heap  favours  and  blessings  upon  him.  Now,  because 
 (iod  had  promised  the  Jewish  nation  a  king  descended  from  that 
 royal  line,  therefore  they  continue  their  good  wishes,  '  blessed 
 is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ;'  and  because  again 
 it  is  natural  for  men,  in  such  transports,  to  reiterate  their  joyful 
 acclamations,  even  as  if  they  desired  to  make  them  reach  heaven 
 as  well  as  earth,  therefore  it  is  added,  '  hosanna  in  the  highest.' 
 — Hammond's  and  Beausobre's  Annotations,  and  Surenhusii 
 Co  net  I.  ex  V.  T.  apud  Matthaum. 
 
 c  Between  this  mount  and  the  city  of  Jerusalem  there  lay 
 nothing  but  only  the  valley  of  Jehosaphat,  through  which  ran  the 
 brook  Kedron. — Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 d  This  is  a  proverbial  expression,  and  signifies  no  more  than 
 that  God  was  determined  to  glorify  our  Saviour  that  day;  and 
 therefore,  if  these  his  followers  should  be  prevailed  upon  to  hold 
 their  peace,  and  say  nothing  in  his  praise,  God  would  find  out 
 some  other  means,  though  not  so  competent  perhaps,  to  make  it 
 effectually  be  known. —  Beausohre's  and  f/'hitby's  Annotations. 
 
 view  of  the  city  and  temple,  he  paused  and  looked  sted- 
 fastly  on  the  city,  and  then,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  e 
 made  this  lamentation  over  it:  'Oh!  that  thou  hadst 
 known,  at  least  in  this  thy  appointed  day,  the  things 
 conducing  to  thy  peace  ;  but  now,  alas !  they  are  hid- 
 den from  thine  eyes.  For  the  fatal  time  shall  come, 
 when  thy  enemies  /shall  throw  up  trenches  about  thee, 
 hem  thee  in  on  every  side,  destroy  thy  children,  demo- 
 lish thee,  and  s  not  leave  in  thee  one  stone  upon  another, 
 because  thou  wouldst  not  know  the  time  of  thy  visita- 
 tion.' * 
 
 CHAP.  II. — Difficulties  obviated,  and  Objections 
 answered. 
 
 1  At  a  former  passover,  when  the  people,  in  admira- 
 tion of  our  Saviour's  miracles,  would  have  paid  him 
 kingly  honours,  he  withdrew,  and  refused  that  unseason- 
 able testimony  of  their  zeal,  because  the  accepting 
 these  honours  then  would  have  been  liable  to  misrepre- 
 sentation, and  might  have  obstructed  the  efficacy  of  his 
 preaching.  But  now  that  the  course  of  his  prophetic 
 office  was  finished,  and  the  time  of  his  leaving  the 
 world  and  returning  to  his  Father  so  near  at  hand,  he 
 thought  it  not  amiss  to  accept  of  their  readiness  to  ac- 
 knowledge and  proclaim  his  royal  dignity,  and  himself 
 to  go  up  to  Jerusalem  in  a  more  public  manner  than 
 usual,  that  thereby  he  might  exasperate  his  blood-thirsty 
 enemies,  and  so  draw  on  his  intended  passion. 
 
 1  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 e  The  tears  which  our  Saviour  shed  upon  this  occasion  were 
 such  as  proceeded  from  a  profound  charity  and  deep  commisera- 
 tion of  the  evils  that  were  coming  upon  Jerusalem,  in  both 
 which  virtues  he  came  to  be  an  example  to  us;  and  therefore 
 his  behaviour  in  this  respect  could  not  be  unworthy  of  himself. 
 They  farther  show  that  the  calamities  which  befell  that  impious 
 city  might  have  been  avoided,  had  they  made  a  right  use  of  the 
 time  of  their  visitation ;  otherwise  his  tears  may  rather  be  looked 
 upon  as  the  tears  of  a  crocodile  than  those  of  true  charity  and 
 commiseration. — IVhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  How  exactly  this  prediction  was  fulfilled  by  the  Romans 
 we  may  learn  by  the  Jewish  historian,  who  not  only  tells  us 
 that  in  this  very  mount  Olivet,  where  our  Lord  spake  these 
 words,  the  Romans  first  pitched  their  tents,  when  they  came  to 
 the  final  overthrow  of  Jerusalem ;  but  that,  when  Vespasian 
 began  the  siege  of  it,  he  encompassed  the  city  round  about,  and 
 kept  them  in  on  every  side  ;  that  to  this  purpose,  how  imprac- 
 ticable soever  the  enterprise  might  seem,  Titus  prevailed  with 
 the  soldiers  to  build  a  wall  of  thirty-nine  furlongs,  quite  round 
 the  city,  with  thirteen  turrets  in  it,  which,  to  the  wonder  of  the 
 world,  was  completed  in  three  days ;  and  that,  when  this  was 
 done,  all  possibility  of  escaping  was  cut  off,  and  the  greatest 
 distress  that  ever  befell  a  city  ensued,  whereof  that  author  gives 
 a  very  lively  but  most  dolorous  account.  (Joseph.  JJ'ar,  b.  vi.  c. 
 13,  &c.) 
 
 g  How  exactly  this  was  likewise  fulfilled,  the  same  historian 
 relates,  namely,  that  Titus,  having  ordered  the  soldiers  to  lay 
 the  city  level  with  the  ground,  and  to  leave  nothing  standing 
 but  three  of  the  most  famous  turrets,  that  overtopped  the  rest, 
 as  monuments  to  posterity  of  the  Romans'  power  and  conduct  in 
 taking  the  place,  his  orders  were  so  punctually  executed,  and  all 
 the  rest  laid  so  flat,  that  the  place  looked  as  if  it  had  never  been 
 inhabited.  (Joseph.  War,  b.  vii.  c.  18.) 
 
 /;  The  word  visitation  may  be  taken  either  in  a  good  or  bad 
 sense,  for  either  the  mercies  or  judgments  of  God  ;  but  here  it 
 denotes  the  former,  and  particularly  the  dispensation  of  the  gos- 
 pel, first  by  the  ministry  of  John,  then  by  the  preaching  of 
 Christ  himself,  and  afterwards  by  the  labours  of  his  apostles  and 
 disciples. —  Beausobre's  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
Si 
 
 III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 973 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A    D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— 
 
 To  exasperate  his  enemies,  indeed,  a  more  pompous 
 appearance  might  have  been  more  conducive  and  more 
 agreeable  to  his  regal  dignity  ;  but  in  this  our  Saviour 
 was  not  left  to  his  own  option.  Since  the  prophet  so 
 long  before  had  prescribed  the  form  of  his  entry  into 
 Jerusalem,  as  a  characteristic  of  his  being  the  true 
 Messiah,  there  could  be  no  deviating  from  it,  even  though 
 he  could  have  procured  his  numerous  guards  and  tri- 
 umphal chariots,  splendid  attendants,  and  other  ensigns 
 of  royalty,  to  adorn  the  day  of  his  inauguration.  ' '  Re- 
 joice greatly,  O  daughter  of  Sion,  shout,  O  daughter  of 
 Jerusalem,  behold  thy  king  cometh  unto  thee !  He  is 
 just,  and  having  salvation,  lowly,  and  riding  upon  an 
 ass,  and  upon  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass.'  This  is  the 
 prophecy  whereby  our  Saviour  was  directed  at  this  time, 
 in  his  approach  to  Jerusalem  ;  and,  to  justify  his  con- 
 duct in  this  particular,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  inquire 
 a  little  into  the  true  reason  of  it. 
 
 To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  with  a  learned  pre- 
 late2 of  our  own,  that  the  law  which  God  gave  to  the 
 kings  of  Israel,  whenever  there  should  be  any,  3  not  to 
 multiply  horses  to  themselves,  was  founded  upon  a 
 special  promise,  that  he  would  continue  to  be,  as  he  had 
 all  along  been,*  their  defence  against  their  enemies; 
 that  this  was  a  law  wherein  every  prince  that  was  to 
 succeed  to  the  government  of  Israel  was  concerned,  and 
 designed  for  a  standing  trial,  both  of  prince  and  people, 
 whether  they  had  trust  and  confidence  in  God ;  that, 
 while  this  law  was  observed,  the  troops  of  Israel  were 
 victorious,  and  though  few  in  number,  and  seemingly 
 unfit  for  action,  proved  an  overmatch  for  royal  armies; 
 that,  when  it  came  to  be  laid  aside,  and  kings,  as  they 
 declined  in  their  confidence  towards  God,  began  to 
 multiply  their  horses  and  chariots  of  war,  they  soon 
 sunk  in  their  military  successes,  till  at  length  the  whole 
 land  was  (tarried  away  captive  :  and  therefore, 5  '  woe 
 unto  them,'  says  the  prophet,  '  that  stay  on  horses,  and 
 trust  in  chariots,  because  they  are  many,  and  in  horse- 
 men, because  they  are  strong,  but  look  not  unto  the 
 Holy  One  of  Israel,  neither  seek  the  Lord.' 
 
 Now,  to  apply  this  to  the  prophecy  before  us.  Since 
 the  kings  of  Israel  were  obliged  to  renounce  the  assis- 
 tance of  horses  and  horsemen,  and  to  depend  on  God 
 for  success  in  the  day  of  battle ;  and  since  those  who 
 did  so  were  their  nation's  deliverers,  and  those  that  did 
 otherwise  were  destroyers  of  it,  under  which  of  these 
 capacities,  think  we,  should  the  king,  whom  God  pro- 
 mised to  the  daughter  of  Jerusalem,  come?  should  he 
 appear,  as  some  of  the  late  kings  of  Israel  did,  in  all 
 the  pomp  and  pride  of  war,  surrounded  with  horses  and 
 chariots,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  law  of  God  ?  Or 
 should  he  appear,  like  some  of  the  ancient  worthies, 6 
 '  who  by  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  and  out  of  weakness 
 were  made  strong  ?'  Kings  who  feared  God,  and  there- 
 fore feared  no  enemy  ;  and  who,  though  mounted  on 
 asses,  were  able  to  put  to  flight  the  thousands  and  ten 
 thousands  of  chariots  and  horses  that  came  against 
 them  ?  To  resolve  its  in  this  inquiry,  the  prophet  himself 
 
 1  Zech.  ix.  9. 
 
 -  Bishop  Sherlock's  fourth  Dissertation,  annexed  to  his  I'so  ami 
 
 Intent  of  Prophecy, 
 
 sDeut.  xvii.  lti.  *Ibid.  xx    t.  •  Is.  xxxi.  1. 
 
 •Hcl).  xi.  S3,  lit. 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.l— vii.  1. 
 
 comes  in  to  our  aid  ;  for  immediately  after  his  descrip- 
 tion of  the  promised  king,  he  adds, 7  '  and  I  will  cut  off 
 the  chariot  from  Ephraim,  and  the  horse  from  Jerusalem :' 
 plainly  showing  that  the  character  given  of  the  Messiah, 
 namely,  that  he  should  ride  on  an  ass,  was  in  opposition 
 to  the  pride  of  their  warlike  kings,  who,  by  their  strength 
 in  chariots  and  horses,  had  ruined  themselves  and  their 
 people." 
 
 Thus  necessary  it  was  for  the  promised  Messiah,  and 
 for  our  Saviour,  consequently,  who  came  in  that  char- 
 acter, to  approach  the  daughter  of  Zion,  riding  on  an 
 ass,  even  though  it  were  a  creature  more  despicable  than 
 we  imagine  it.  But,  after  all,  it  is  mere  prejudice,  and 
 too  fond  an  attachment  to  the  maimers  and  customs  of 
 our  own  country,  that  make  us  conceive  any  thing  con- 
 temptible in  an  ass,  or  any  thing  ridiculous  or  incon- 
 sistent with  the  gravity  and  dignity  of  our  blessed 
 Saviour  in  riding  upon  one.  For  8  if  we  look  into  other 
 countries,  particularly  into  Judea,  we  shall  find  persons 
 of  the  highest  distinction  usually  so  mounted.  We  shall 
 find 9  the  chief  governors  of  Israel,  described  in  the 
 song  of  Deborah,  as  riding  on  white  asses;  and10  the 
 thirty  sons  of  Jair,  who  was  judge  and  prince  of  the 
 country  for  two  and  twenty  years,  riding  upon  as  many 
 asses,  and  commanding  in  thirty  cities.  Nay,  we  shall 
 find  Absalom,  though  in  other  respects  u  a  man  of  pomp, 
 in  the  very  day  of  battle, 12  mounted  on  a  mule,  the  colt 
 of  an  ass ;  and,  on  his  coronation-day,  Solomon  provided 
 with  no  better  equipage.  And  therefore  we  can  never 
 account  it  any  reproach  for  the  meek  and  humble  Jesus 
 to  ride  into  Jerusalem  on  the  foal  of  an  ass,  when 
 David,  the  greatest  of  his  ancestors,  and  Solomon,  the 
 wisest,  as  long  as  he  was  wise,  rode  in  the  same  manner. 
 
 13  The  persons  who  attended  him  in  this  procession 
 
 '  Zech.  ix.  10. 
 8  Bishop  Sherlock's  fourth  Dissertation,  annexed  to  his  Use  and 
 Intent  of  Prophecy. 
 9  Jud.  v.  10.  ">  Ibid.  x.  4.  "  2  Sam.  xv.  1. 
 
 12  Ibid,  xviii.  9. 
 13  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  v.  i. 
 a  That  the  prophecy  of  Zechariah  chap.  ix.  9,  is  twice  ex- 
 plained of  the  Messias  in  the  Talmud,  few  of  the  latter  Jews 
 disagree.  One  that  is  of  the  greatest  authority  with  them,  saith,  it 
 is  impossible  to  expound  this  text  of  any  other  than  the 
 Messias;  and  they  that  would  divide  it,  between  Messias  the 
 son  of  David,  and  Messias  the  son  of  Joseph,  which  is  a  late 
 hypothesis  to  answer  the  two  comings  of  the  same  Christ,  at  the 
 same  time  acknowledge,  that  the  true  Messias  is  here  prophesied 
 of.  Let  them  fancy  what  they  will,  the  Jews  in  Jesus  Christ's 
 time  knew  but  of  one  Messias,  and  to  him  they  applied  this 
 text.  For  Jesus  going  up  to  Jerusalem  upon  an  ass,  at  his  last 
 passover,  to  ease  and  defend  himself  from  the  crowd  that  followed 
 upon  the  sight  of  his  works,  and  the  fame  of  Lazarus  whom  he 
 had  newly  raised  from  the  dead  ;  the  people  were  struck  with 
 this  circumstance  of  his  entry,  which,  however  accidental  it  was, 
 made  them  straight  conclude  he  must  be  the  Messias.  Their 
 actions  and  exclamations  are  ample  proof  of  their  sentiments. 
 For  what  did  they  hereupon?  '  Great  multitudes  spread  their 
 garments,  and  palm-branches  in  the  way,'  as  at  the  reception  of 
 some  great  prince ;  '  before  and  behind  they  cried  out,  hosanna 
 to  the  son  of  David,  blessed  be  the  king  of  Israel,  blessed  be  the 
 kingdom  of  our  father  David,  blessed  be  he  that  cometh  in  the 
 name  of  the  Lord.'  Seeing  him  equipt,  like  Zechariah's 
 Messias,  they  thought  him  to  be  no  other  than  the  king,  that 
 Saviour,  whom  they  expected  also  at  the  time  of  the  passover. 
 After  what  had  been  thus  said,  and  owned  by  the  Jews,  who 
 could  with  any  face  question  the  evangelist  for  observing  upon 
 this  action  of  Jesus,  that  BO  it  was  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by 
 the  prophet  Zechariah. — Chandler's  Defence  of  Christianity. — 
 Ed. 
 
974 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OH,  A.  M.  5141.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xli.  1—  xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v-  1  —  vii.  1. 
 
 tion,  even  when  most  zealous,  and  seemingly  most  sin- 
 
 were  a  mixed  multitude,  consisting  of  disciples  and 
 common  people,  such  as  were  moved  to  do  thus,  from 
 the  doctrines  and  miracles  which  they  had  heard  and 
 seen,  and  were  forward  to  pay  him  what  honour  they 
 could.  They  had  no  quality  or  outward  splendour, 
 indeed,  no  titles  or  eminent  posts  to  recommend  them; 
 but  they  were  very  remarkable  for  their  sincerity  and 
 honest  zeal,  their  hearty  affection  to  Christ,  and  firm 
 persuasion  of  his  being  the  true  Messiah  ;  and  these,  to 
 him  who  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  and  who  came  to  set 
 lip  a  kingdom  not  of  this  world,  rendered  those  tributes 
 of  praise  and  acknowledgment,  though  from  men  mean 
 and  insignificant  as  to  any  temporal  respects,  more 
 acceptable,  more  becoming  his  character,  and  more 
 truly  for  his  honour,  than  any  dissembled  or  interested 
 homage  of  rulers  or  rabbins,  the  greatest  or  wisest  of 
 the  sanhedrim,  could  have  been  ;  for  external  advantages 
 are  of  no  consideration  with  God,  while  they  want  good 
 dispositions  within  to  recommend  them. 
 
 Whether  this  was  the  same  multitude,  or  not  another 
 spirited  up,  that  clamoured  so  loudly  against  our  blessed 
 Saviour  but  five  days  after  these  joyful  acclamations,  it 
 is  much  to  be  questioned  ;  but  supposing  it  was,  whoever 
 considers   the  subtle  management  of  men  in  post  and 
 power,  and  the  easiness  and  servile  fears  usual  in  those 
 of  a  mean  depending  condition,  will  not  be  much  sur- 
 prised at  such  a  sudden  change.     Popular  applause  is 
 at  all  times  a  very  fickle  and  uncertain  thing ;  but  in 
 the  case  before  us,  there  were  some  incidents  which 
 might  occasion  this  instability.     Our  Saviour,  after  his 
 triumphant  entry  into  Jerusalem,  seemed  to  assume  a 
 kind    of  sovereignty :    he   purged   the  temple  from  its 
 abuses,  healed  the  diseases  of  the  people,  received  the 
 hosannas    of    the    children,    and    for   some    few   days, 
 preached,  exhorted,  and  rebuked  with  all  authority ;  so 
 that  during  this  time,  no  one  almost  doubted  but  that 
 he  was  the  mighty  prince  who  was  to  gird  his  sword 
 upon  his  thigh,  and  bring  salvation  unto  Israel.     But 
 when,  instead  of  this,  they  saw  him  fallen  into  the  hands 
 of  his  enemies,  and  quite  deserted  by  his  friends  ;  appre- 
 hended by  the  public  officers  as  a  common  malefactor, 
 hauled  from  one  high-priest  to  another,  and  there  blind- 
 folded, spit  upon,  buffeted,  and  insulted ;  when,  in  the 
 midst  of  all  this  distress,  they  saw  him  left  alone,  with- 
 out any  disciple  to  stand  by  him ;  any  messenger  from 
 heaven,  as  they  might  expect,  or  any  exertion  of  his  own 
 power,  to  rescue  him ;  nay,  on  the  contrary,  when  they 
 saw  that  one  of  his  own  servants  had  sold  and  betrayed 
 him,  another  denied  and  abjured   him,  and  all  unani- 
 mously had  fled  and  forsook  him ;  and  yet  these  were 
 the  persons  who,  for  some  years,  had  been  his  constant 
 companions,  and  consequently  were  the  best  judges  of 
 ids  merit  and  pretensions  :  when  the  multitude,  I  say, 
 saw  matters  reduced  to  this  extremity,  and  that  terror 
 and  desertion  was  on  every  side,  while  the  rulers  con- 
 spired to  take  away  his  life,  it  is  no  wonder,  that,  at  the 
 instigation  of  these  rulers,  they  changed  their  tone,  as 
 they  saw  the  scene  change,  and  their  hopes  vanish,  and 
 struck  in  with  the  prevailing  party  :  for,  whoever  has 
 seen  a  great  man  disgraced  at  court,  even  though  before 
 he  was  the  nation's  darling,  may  easily  satisfy  himself, 
 what  very  reeds  the  affections  of  the  populace  are ;  how  apt 
 they  are  to  bend  to  every  wind  of  faction  and  interest, 
 and  to  be  swayeti  by  every  calumny,  or  malicious  insinufl- 
 
 If  we  take  a  view  of  the  vast  extent  of  the  subject 
 which  the  evangelists  had  before  them,  and  the  intended 
 brevity  of  their  books,  to  make  them  more  useful  to  the 
 generality  of  mankind,  we  cannot  but  perceive,  that  it 
 was  absolutely  necessary  for  them  to  omit  several  things 
 which  must  have  occurred  to  their  remembrance.     The 
 whole    four    gospels,    bound    together,    make    not    a 
 large  volume,  but  each  singly  is  a  very  small  book  ;  and 
 yet,  besides  the  miracles  of  our  Saviour,  attended,  as 
 they  are,  with  the  circumstances  of  place  and  time,  the 
 names  of  the  persons  and  the  occasions  of  their  being 
 wrought,  they  have,  in  these  small  tracts,  inserted  an 
 account  of  the  wonderful  manner  of  our  Saviour's  birth, 
 the  dangers  of  his  infancy,  the  miraculous  appearances 
 of  providence  in  his  favour,  and  his  removals  and  jour- 
 neyings  from  one  place  and  country  to  another.     They 
 have  recorded  the  substance  of  his  doctrine  in  plain 
 terms  ;  they  have  set  down  many  parables,  spoken  by 
 him,  together  with  their  explications  ;  and  given  us  a  full 
 account  of  the  mission  of  his  twelve  apostles,  and  the 
 other  seventy  disciples.      The  cavils  and  questions  of 
 the  Pharisees,  Sadducees,  and  Herodians,  together  with 
 his  answers  and  solutions  ;  the  observations  and  reflec- 
 tions of  the  people;   his  public  discourses  before  all, 
 and  his  private  instructions  to  his  disciples  ;  his  predic- 
 tions of  his  own  sufferings  ;  of  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
 salem, and  many  other  events ;  a  long  and  particular 
 account  of  his  persecution,  condemnation,  and  crucifix- 
 ion ;  as  also  of  his  resurrection  and  ascension,  not  to 
 mention  the  history  of  the  birth,  preaching,  baptism,  and 
 sufferings  of  John  the  Baptist,  his  forerunner ;  are  all 
 comprised  in  a  short  volume.      And  therefore,  having 
 such  plenty  of  matter  before  them,  they  were  obliged  to 
 be  silent  as  to  some  particulars,  after  they  had  related 
 others  of  the  like  nature,  for  fear  of  incurring  that  pro- 
 lixity which  they  had  determined  to  avoid.     And  hence 
 it  is  easy  to  suppose,  in  behalf  of  the  three  first  evange- 
 lists, that,  when  they  came  to  a  certain  period  in  their 
 history  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  and  observed,  that  they 
 had  given  a  sufficient  account  of  his  doctrine  and  mira- 
 cles, being  to  reserve  a  space  for  his  last  sufferings  and 
 resurrection,  they  thought  proper  to  pass  over  in  silence 
 whatever  happened  between  that   period  and  his  last 
 journey  to  Jerusalem.     Thus  some  have  observed,  that, 
 from  the  time  when  our  Saviour  returned  into  the  coasts 
 of  Judea  beyond  Jordan,  which,  as  St  John  ]  tells  us, 
 was  soon  after  the  feast  of  the  Dedication,  and  that  was 
 always  observed  in  winter,  to  the  time  of  his  last  going 
 up  to  Jerusalem,  a  little  before  Easter,  these  three  evan- 
 gelists make  no  mention  at  all  of  any  journeys  or  movings 
 from  thence  ;  and  yet  from  this  country,  according  to 
 St  John's  account,  it  was,  that  Jesus  afterwards  came  up 
 to  Bethany,  and  raised  Lazarus,  and  then  2  '  went  intc 
 the  country  near  the  wilderness,  into  a  city  called  Epli- 
 raim,  and  there  continued  with  his  disciples.'     And  there- 
 fore, since  these  sacred  penmen,  for  the  avoidance  of 
 prolixity,  thought  it  not  proper  to  take  any  notice  of 
 what  passed  in  this  interval  of  time,  they  could  not,  with 
 any  justness  or  propriety,  introduce  into  their  gospels 
 an  account  of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus.  a 
 
 1  John  x.  22.  "  Ibid.  xi.  54. 
 
 a  The  other  evaugi  lists  have  not  nu'iiiioned  this  miracto, 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 075 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30,  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1  -vii.  1. 
 
 But  there  is  a  farther  reason,  which  some  learned  men 
 1  have  given  us  for  their  silence  in  this  respect.  They 
 tell  us,  that,  according  to  an  ancient  tradition,  Lazarus 
 lived  thirty  years  after  his  being  raised  from  the  dead  ; 
 and  that,  as  the  latest  of  these  three  evangelists  wrote 
 but  fifteen  years  a  after  our  Lord's  ascension,  they  might 
 think  it  a  needless  matter  to  mention  a  miracle  concern- 
 ing a  person  living  so  near  Jerusalem,  when  the  fame  of 
 it  was  so  great,  and  so  many  witnesses  living  to  attest 
 it :  nor  can  they  suppose,  but  that,  in  point  of  prudence, 
 the  evangelists  declined  mentioning  this  story,  for  fear 
 of  exasperating  the  Jews,  and  giving  their  rage  and 
 malice  a  fresh  provocation  to  cut  off  Lazarus.  But  now 
 St  John,  undertaking  to  write  his  gospel,  on  purpose  to 
 supply  the  omissions  of  the  former  evangelists,  above 
 sixty  years  after  our  Lord's  ascension,  when,  by  the 
 death  of  Lazarus,  and  most  of  the  witnesses,  who  were 
 present  at  his  resurrection,  the  fame  of  it  might  be  much 
 impaired,  had  good  reason  to  perpetuate  his  memory  by 
 a  full  and  particular  rehearsal. 
 
 He  had  not  however,  given  us  so  fair  and  unexception- 
 able an  account  of  the  matter,  had  he  not  represented  our 
 blessed  Saviour  compassionating  the  circumstances  of 
 his  friends,  and  weeping  upon  so  sad  an  occasion  as  the 
 death  of  Lazarus.  For  '  there  is  something  in  human 
 nature,'  as  an  ingenious  author  2  elegantly  expresses  it, 
 '  resulting  from  our  very  make  and  constitution,  while  it 
 
 1  Grotius  and  Whitby  on  John  xii. 
 *  Religion  of  nature  delineated,  sect.  vi.  p.  136. 
 
 perhaps  out  of  delicacy  to  Lazarus,  who  was  alive  when  they 
 wrote.  They  did  not  choose  to  expose  the  friend  of  their  master 
 to  the  fury  of  the  Jews,  by  holding  him  forth  in  writings  that 
 were  to  go  through  the  world,  as  a  monument  of  his  power.  But 
 John,  who  lived  to  see  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  probably 
 survived  Lazarus;  and  there  was  every  reason  why  this  evange- 
 list, who  has  preserved  other  miracles  and  discourses  which  the 
 former  historians  had  omitted,  should  record  this  event.  It  is  a 
 subject  suited  to  the  pen  of  John:  the  beloved  disciple  seems  to 
 delight  in  spreading  it  out;  for  he  has  coloured  his  narration 
 with  many  beautiful  circumstances,  which  unfold  the  characters 
 of  the  other  persons,  and  discover  his  intimate  acquaintance  with 
 his  master's  heart.  It  is  a  striking  instance  of  that  strict  propriety 
 which  pervades  all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  which 
 marks  them  to  every  discerning  eye  to  be  authentic  writings, 
 that  the  tenderest  scenes  in  our  Lord's  life,  those  in  which  the 
 warmth  of  his  private  allections  is  conspicuous,  are  recorded  by 
 this  evangelist.  From  the  others  we  learn  his  public  life,  the 
 grace,  the  condescension,  the  benevolence  which  appeared  in  all 
 his  intercourse  with  those  that  had  access  to  him.  It  was  re- 
 served to  '  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  '  to  present  to  succeed- 
 ing ages  this  divine  person  in  his  family,  and  amongst  his  friends. 
 In  his  gospel  we  see  Jesus  washing  the  feet  of  his  disciples  at 
 the  last  supper  that  he  ate  with  them.  It  is  John,  the  disciple 
 that  leaned  on  the  bosom  of  Jesus  while  he  sat  at  meat,  who  re- 
 lates the  long  discourse  in  which,  with  the  most  delicate  sensi- 
 bility for  their  condition,  he  soothes  the  troubled  heart  of  his 
 disciples,  spares  their  feelings,  while  he  tells  them  the  truth, 
 and  gives  them  his  parting  blessing.  It  is  John,  whom  Jesus 
 judged  worthy  of  the  charge,  who  records  the  filial  piety  with 
 which,  in  the  hour  of  his  agony,  he  provided  for  the  comfort  of 
 his  mother;  and  it  is  John,  whose  soul  was  congenial  to  that  of 
 his  Master,  tender,  affectionate,  and  feeling  like  his,  who  dwells 
 upon  all  the  particulars  of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus,  brings 
 forward  to  our  view  the  sympathy  and  attention  with  which  Jesus 
 took  part  in  the  sorrows  of  those  whom  he  loved,  and  making  us 
 intimately  acquainted  with  them  and  with  him,  presents  a  picture 
 at  once  delightful  and  instructive. — Hill's  Lectures  in  Divinity, 
 vol.  i. — Ed. 
 
 a  According  to  the  best  authorities,  St  Luke  did  not  write  his 
 Gospel  till  a.  d.  C3.  or  C<4. — Ed. 
 
 retains  its  genuine  form,  and  is  not  altered  by  vicious 
 habits,  or  oppressed  by  stupidity,  which  renders  us  ob- 
 noxious to  the  pains  of  others,  causes  us  to  sympathise 
 with  them,  and  almost  comprehends  us  in  their  case. 
 This  compassion  appears  eminently  in  those,  who,  upon 
 other  accounts,  are  justly  reckoned  among  (he  best  of 
 men.  They,  who,  of  all  writers,  undertake  to  imitate 
 nature  most,  often  introduce  even  their  heroes  weeping. 
 The  tears  of  men  are,  in  truth,  very  different  from  the 
 cries  and  ejaculations  of  children ;  they  are  silent 
 streams,  and  flow  from  other  causes ;  commonly  some 
 tender,  and  perhaps  philosophical  reflections.'  And  in 
 the  case  now  before  us,  there  might  be  other  considera- 
 tions, besides  the  loss  of  Lazarus,  and  the  lamentation 
 of  his  friends,  that  might  draw  from  our  Saviour  these 
 tears  of  compassion. 
 
 He  might  at  that  time  be  affected  with  the  thought  of 
 the  many  afflictions  to  which  human  nature  is  liable  in 
 this  imperfect  state  ;  and  his  groans  and  inward  grief 
 might  proceed  from  the  want  of  faith  observable  in  the  sis- 
 ters, and  the  company  attending  them,  and  their  diffidence 
 of  his  ability  to  raise  the  dead,  notwithstanding  they  had 
 seen  so  many,  so  frequent  manifestations  of  a  divine  and 
 omnipotent  power  residing  in  him.  He  knew,  that  the 
 obstinacy  and  inveterate  prejudices  of  some  of  the  spec- 
 tators, and  of  the  generality  of  the  Jewish  people  were 
 such,  that  the  astonishing  miracle  he  was  going  to  work 
 would  not  have  its  due  effect  upon  them.  This  recalled 
 to  his  mind  that  scene  of  misery  and  desolation  which 
 he  foresaw  would  overtake  them ;  and  therefore  he 
 grieved,  and  sighed  deeply  at  the  prospect  of  the  ca- 
 lamities which  that  perverse  people  were  bringing  upon 
 themselves,  and  which  all  his  endeavours,  his  miracles 
 and  sufferings,  could  not  prevent.  So  that  upon  the 
 whole,  the  concern  which  our  Lord  expressed  upon  this 
 occasion,  proceeded  from  the  noblest  motives,  wisdom, 
 goodness,  friendship,  compassion,  and  every  view  that  is 
 just  and  laudable,  when  he  sympathised  with  his  friends, 
 and  grieved  for  his  enemies. 
 
 With  these  genuine  expressions  of  solemn  grief  and 
 sorrow,  our  Saviour  drew  near  to  his  friend's  sepulchre, 
 which,  as  we  may  conjecture,  was  a  hollow  place  hewn 
 in  a  rock,  whose  entrance,  which  was  closed  with  a 
 stone,  lay  level  with  the  surface  of  the  earth  ;  but  then, 
 we  have  so  imperfect  an  account  of  the  funeral  habits 
 that  were  in  use  among  the  Jews,  that  we  can  form  no 
 notion  how  far  Lazarus,  when  revived,  and  set  upon  his 
 feet,  might  be  able  of  himself  to  walk  to  the  mouth  of 
 his  tomb.  *  In  this,  however,  we  may  satisfy  ourselves, 
 that  our  Saviour,  who  was  able  to  recall  his  soul  from  its 
 separate  state,  and  convey  fresh  life  into  his  body  almost 
 putrified,  could  give  that  body,  though  bound  hand  and 
 foot,  a  power  of  moving  forward,  even  though  we  sup- 
 pose, as  most  of  the  ancients  do,  that  herein  he  put  him- 
 self to  the  expense  of  a  second  miracle,  because  the 
 proper  demonstration  of  the  reality  of  the  resurrection 
 was,  not  to  send  any  body  into  the  tomb  to  unbind  him, 
 which  might  occasion  a  suspicion  of  some  clandestine 
 practice,  but  to  have  him  conic  forth  alive,  in  the  pre- 
 sence of  all  the  spectators,  fairly,  and  without  any 
 change  or  alteration  in  his  funeral  dress,  but  what  was 
 
 b  See  this  satisfactorily  explained  in  note,  c.  p.  969.  on  the 
 words  '  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  Lazarus  come  forth.' — Ed. 
 
976 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4033.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR.  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— : 
 
 made  before  the  people  themselves,  by  our  Saviour's 
 saying-,  '  loose  him,  and  let  him  go.' 
 
 That  some  or  other  in  the  company  was  ready  enough, 
 upon  this  occasion,  to  obey  our  Lord's  commands,  can 
 hardly  be  doubted ;  and  therefore  it  is  very  wonderful, 
 that,  had  there  been  any  collusion  in  the  matter,  among 
 so  gTeat  a  multitude,  no  one  should  have  had  sagacity 
 enough  to  find  it  out.  But  the  truth  is,  they  none  of 
 them  suspected  any  such  thing.  They  none  of  them 
 thought  that,  when  a  man  had  been  four  days  buried, 
 there  wanted  any  proof  of  his  being  dead.  They  none 
 of  them  thought,  that  Christ  was  only  a  pretended  worker 
 of  miracles  ;  for,  how  unwilling  soever  they  were  to  own 
 him  for  their  Messiah,  by  long  experience  they  were 
 convinced  that  he  was  a  person  '  mighty  in  word  and 
 deed.' 
 
 Of  all  the  wonderful  deeds  that  we  find  recorded  of 
 him,  there  is  none,  I  think,  that  is  related  so  fully,  and 
 set  off  with  so  many  circumstances,  to  prevent  the  least 
 suspicion  of  fraud,  as  that  of  his  curing  the  man  who 
 was  born  blind.  The  evangelist  has  expended  a  whole 
 chapter  upon  it,  and  therein  acquainted  us  with  some 
 previous  questions  of  his  disciples,  which  led  to  it ;  the 
 uncommon  manner  of  his  performing  it ;  the  surprise  and 
 astonishment  of  the  blind  man's  neighbours,  when  they 
 saw  such  an  alteration  wrought  in  him  ;  the  man's  open 
 and  undisguised  relation  of  the  matter,  and  repeated 
 attestation  of  the  greatness  and  reality  of  the  cure ;  the 
 great  disturbance  and  perplexity  which  it  gave  the  Jews  ; 
 their  examining,  and  cross-examining  the  man,  who  still 
 continued  firm  and  uniform  in  his  account ;  their  tamper- 
 ing with  his  parents,  who  avowed  the  truth  of  his  being- 
 born  blind ;  and  at  last,  (when  they  saw  that  they  could 
 prevail  nothing,  but  the  more  they  examined,  the  more 
 evidence  they  found,)  their  rage  and  malice,which  carried 
 them  to  such  a  degree  as  to  excommunicate  the  poor 
 man,  and  cast  him  out  of  their  synagogue.  These,  and 
 some  more  circumstances,  are  told  in  such  a  plain,  con- 
 vincing manner,  as  shows  the  whole  story  to  be  too  well 
 founded,  for  any  cavils  or  fictions  to  weaken  or  impair. 
 
 Our  Saviour  might  have  had  some  sanative  balsam  in 
 reserve  ;  but  what  would  all  the  balsam  in  the  world  have 
 availed  towards  the  cure  of  the  distemper  we  are  now 
 considering?  Physicians  and  surgeons,  who  have  studied 
 the  texture  of  the  eye,  and  made  the  cure  of  its  maladies 
 their  chief  employ,  may  give  us  indeed  something  that 
 will  strengthen  the  optic  nerves,  when  weakened  or  re- 
 laxed :  or,  by  some  outward  operation,  may  remove  such 
 obstructions  as  would  otherwise  impede  the  sight :  '  but,1 
 since  the  world  began/  as  the  poor  man  here  excellently 
 argues,  '  was  it  ever  heard,  that  any  man  opened  the 
 eyes  of  one  that  was  born  blind  ?'  And,  as  he  might  have 
 added,  by  a  medicine  so  incongruous  as  a  plaster  of 
 clay ;  because  the  uncommonness  of  the  application  is 
 so  far  from  diminishing,  that  it  rather  raises,  the  credit 
 and  reputation  of  the  miracle :  at  least,  it  must  be 
 allowed  to  be  as  great  and  triumphant  a  display  of  a 
 supernatural  power,  to  work  a  cure  by  means  that  have 
 no  fitness  to  that  end,  as  it  is  to  do  it  without  any  means 
 at  all.  In  the  former  case,  the  person  who  undertakes 
 the  cure,  has  only  the  distemper  to  contend  with ;  but 
 here,  he  has  a  double  difficulty  to  conquer,  and  must  not 
 
 1  John  ix.  32. 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  i. 
 
 only  control  the  power  of  the  disease,  but  change  the 
 repugnant  qualities  of  bodies,  and  make  them  productive 
 of  quite  contrary  effects.  3  The  fathers  here  say,  that 
 Christ,  to  illustrate  his  miraculous  power,  used  that  to 
 anoint  the  blind  man's  eyes  with,  which  was  the  greatest 
 impediment  to  seeing,  and  most  pernicious  to  the  eyes. 
 But  though  all  must  allow,  that  the  method  which  he 
 here  made  use  of,  was  of  no  significance  as  to  the  cure 
 of  the  man's  blindness,  yet  was  it,  nevertheless,  highly 
 pertinent,  in  order  to  convince  the  spectators,  as  well 
 as  the  patient  himself,  of  his  sovereign  virtue,  which 
 could  produce  such  a  wonderful  effect,  by  no  other 
 application  but  what  was  indifferent,  if  not  obstructive 
 to  the  cure. 
 
 Some  of  the  ancient  fathers  were  so  rigid  in  their 
 censures  against  adultery,  that  they  would  not  admit 
 any  persons  convicted  thereof  into  the  communion  of 
 the  church,  even  after  the  longest  penance  ;  and  carried 
 their  zeal  and  resentment  to  such  an  height,  as  to  think 
 it  no  great  harm  to  kill  them.  No  wonder  then,  if  men 
 of  such  severe  opinions  were  unwilling  to  receive  into 
 the  canon  of  Scripture  the  history  of  the  woman  taken 
 in  this  crime,  because,  as  they  imagined,  it  gave  per- 
 mission to  lewdness,  since  our  Saviour  sent  her  away 
 without  condemning  her;  whereas,3  in  his  present  cir- 
 cumstances, he  had  no  commission  to  pass  sentence  upon 
 her,  though,  in  bidding  her  4  go,  and  for  fear  of  the 
 divine  judgment,  repent,  'and  sin  no  more,'  he  suffi- 
 ciently declared  himself  against  all  such  practices. 
 
 a  Upon  a  different  persuasion  however,  it  was,  that  this 
 passage  came  at  first  to  be  marked  as  dubious,  and,  in 
 time,  was  quite  thrown  out,  as  spurious,  in  many  ancient, 
 especially  Greek  copies  :  but,  in  opposition  to  this,  we 
 need  only  observe,5  that  this  part  of  history  was  found  in 
 the  sixteen  manuscripts,  which  Stephanus,  in  all  the  seven- 
 teen, save  one,  which  Beza,  and  in  that  infinite  number, 
 which  our  learned  Mills  has  made  use  of;  that  Tatian, 
 who  lived  in  the  year  160,  that  is,  sixty  years  after  the 
 death  of  St  John,  and  Ammianus  of  Alexandria,  who 
 flourished  about  the  year  220,  and  made  their  several 
 Harmonies  of  the  Gospel  out  of  the  copies  then  in  use,  do 
 both,  as  appears  from  the  canons  of  Eusebius,  relate  it; 
 that  most  of  the  copies  of  the  east,  according  to  Sei- 
 dell's report,  retain  it ;  and  though  it  be  not  found  in 
 some  manuscripts,  as  the  Greek  code,  cited  by  Cotele- 
 rius,  expresses  the  matter,  yet  it  is  entire  in  the  ancient 
 manuscripts,  and  all  the  apostles  make  mention  of  it  in 
 the  Constitutions  which  they  set  forth  for  the  edification 
 of  the  church.6 
 
 8  Whitby's  Annotations  on  John  ix.  6. 
 
 3  Whitby's  Annotations  on  John  viii.  4  John  viii.  11. 
 
 5  Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  The  words  of  St  Austin  upon  this  occcasion  are  these : — "  So 
 that  some  of  little  faith,  or  rather  enemies  of  the  true  faith,  fear- 
 ing I  suppose  that  impunity  for  sinning  was  given  to  their 
 women,  would  take  out  of  their  copies  that  sentence  which  our 
 Lord  spoke  concerning  the  pardon  of  adultery;  as  if  he,  who 
 said,  'now  henceforth  sin  no  more,' granted  permission  to  sim" 
 On  Adultery,  b.  ii.  c.  7. 
 
 b  It  is  strange  that  the  author  should  refer  to  the  apochryphal 
 book  entitled  the  "  Constitutions,"  as  a  work  set  forth  by  the 
 apostles,  when  it  has  been  clearly  proved  to  be  a  spurious  produc- 
 tion, both  from  external  and  internal  evidence.  He  seems  to 
 have  gone  into  the  absurd  and  untenable  position  of  Winston,  who 
 endeavoured  to  prove  the  evidence  of  the  genuineness  of  the  Apos- 
 tolical Constitutions,  to  be  equal  to  that  of  the  New  Testament 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 977 
 
 A.  M.  4035,  A.  1)  31.  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A,  1).  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  I—  xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— viii.  I. 
 
 This  is  enough  to  vindicate  the  truth  and  sincerity  of 
 this  part  of  St  John's  history  from  the  censures  of  critics 
 who  suspect  it ;  a  and,  to  rescue  his  doctrine  from  such 
 false  constructions  as  the  adversaries  of  our  Lord's 
 divinity  would  put  upon  it,  we  need  only  be  mind- 
 ful to  distinguish  between  his  divine  and  human  nature, 
 and  not  to  apply  such  words  and  actions  of  his  as  relate 
 to  the  one,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  other.  Those  who 
 deny  the  Deity  of  Christ,  do  nevertheless  acknow- 
 ledge, that  he  was  a  prophet  sent  from  God,  and  invest- 
 ed witli  a  high  commission.  Now,  under  this  character 
 he  could  only  appear  and  act  in  virtue  of  his  human  na- 
 ture, and  must  thereupon  be  deemed  subservient  to  the 
 orders  and  commands  of  his  heavenly  Father  :  and  there- 
 fore, as  the  very  office  of  a  prophet  requires,  that  he 
 should  speak  nothing  of  himself,  nor  deliver  his  own 
 mind  or  doctrine,  nor  seek  his  own  glory,  but  speak  all 
 things  in  the  name,  and  do  all  things  for  the  glory  of 
 him  that  sent  him  :  so  are  we  not  to  wonder  that  we  find 
 our  blessed  Lord,  though  he  had  in  him  '  all  the  fulness 
 of  the  Godhead,'  yet,  in  his  prophetical  capacity, 
 speaking  and  acting  as  if  he  had  no  power  but 
 what  was  given  him  from  above,  even  as  ambassadors 
 here  on  earth  are  obliged  to  pursue  their  master's  in- 
 structions, and  therefore  professing  so  frequently,  that 
 he  delivered  no  doctrine  of  his  own  invention,  nor  did 
 any  thing  but  what  he  had  a  commission  to  do. 
 
 The  Socinians  indeed  allow,  that  the  commission 
 wherewith  our  Saviour  was  sent  into  the  world,  to  do  and 
 reveal  God's  will,  was  reiison  enough  to  entitle  him  to 
 the  appellation  of  '  the  Son  of  God,'  and  that  this  is  all 
 that  he  pretends  to  when  he  seems  to  clear  himself  to 
 the  Jews  from  any  higher  assumption.  But  now  '  it  ap- 
 pears, from  a  due  inspection  of  the  context,  that  Christ 
 did  not  intend  to  say  or  prove,  that  he  was  the  Son  of 
 God,  as  being  only  his  ambassador,  extraordinarily  in- 
 structed, and  so  sent  into  the  world  ;  but  on  a  far  more 
 excellent  account,  namely,  that,  before  he  came  into  the 
 world,  he  was  with  God  the  Father,  and  so  was  his  true 
 and  essential  Son,  as  being  God  of  God,  and  partaking 
 of  the  same  nature  as  a  son  does  with  his  father.  From 
 the  2ath  to  the  30th  verse  inclusively,  it  is  manifest  that 
 our  Lord  discoursed  to  the  Jews  in  such  a  manner,  that 
 they  still  thought  he  was  asserting  his  Godhead  ;  and 
 therefore,  2  '  we  stone  thee,'  say  they,  '  because  thou, 
 being  a  man,  makest  thyself  God,'  namely,  by  calling- 
 God  so  emphatically,  and  with  such  peculiarity,  his  Fa- 
 ther, as  that  he  was  so  to  him  alone,  and  so  that  3 '  he  and 
 his  Father  were  one.'     But  to  this  our  Saviour  does  not 
 
 1  Bishop  Bull,  De  judicio  eccl.  rath.         2  John  x.  33. 
 "Ibid.  ver.  30. 
 
 itself;  but,  whatever  value  may  be  attached  to  these  and  other 
 wjochryphal  writings  belonging  to  the  early  ages  of  the  church, 
 as  serving  to  increase  the  evidences,  and  corroborate  the  truth 
 of  the  Gospel  history;  they  can  never  be  received  as  genuine 
 productions,  much  less  a  guide  in  matters  of  faith  and  practice. 
 Those  who  wish  to  see  the  spmiousness  of  these  apocluyphal 
 writings,  completely  proved,  may  consult  Lardner's  Credibility 
 of  thu  Gospel  history,  vol.  i  v.  3vo  — Jones  on  the  Canon  of  Scrip- 
 ture, and  Home's  Introduction,  vol.  i. — Ed. 
 
 a  For  a  summary  of  both  the  external  and  internal  evidence 
 f"i'  and  against  this  passage,  the  inquiring  reader  may  consult 
 Bloomfield's  Greek  Testament,  note  on  John  viii.  1  —  1 1,  where 
 he  shows  that  the  evidence  i<  decidedly  in  favour  of  the  authen- 
 ticity of  the  passage. — Ed. 
 
 answer,  by  denying,  either  that  he  was  God,  or  that  he 
 had  ever  challenged  to  himself  that  dignity,  which,  had 
 he  been  only  man,  had  been  the  most  proper  thing  he 
 could  have  said  to  take  off  the  objection  of  his  blas- 
 phemy ;  but,  instead  of  that,  he  seems  rather  to  argue, 
 that  he  was  so  the  Son  of  God,  as  to  have  the  divine  na- 
 ture in  him  :  '  for  if  judges  and  magistrates,'  says  he, 
 '  are  called  gods,  from  an  imperfect  resemblance,  and 
 participation  of  the  divine  authority,  how  much  more  may 
 1  be  called  God,  who  am  both  by  nature  the  Son  of  God, 
 and,  in  the  most  excellent  manner,  authorized  by  him  ?' 
 For  this  he  signifies,  by  saying,  that  4  '  his  Father  had 
 sanctified  him,  and  sent  him  into  the  world  ;'  wherein  he 
 still  declares,  that  God  was  his  Father,  and  that  he  was 
 first  sanctified,  and  then  sent,  which  plainly  implies,  that 
 he  was  the  Son  of  God  in  heaven  before  his  mission  into 
 the  world ;  and  therefore,  as  an  additional  proof  of  his  di- 
 vine original,  he  appeals  to  the  divine  operations  he  per- 
 formed :  5  '  if  I  do  not  the  works  of  my  Father,  believe 
 me  not ;  but  if  1  do,  though  you  believe  not  me,  believe 
 the  works  ;  that  ye  may  know  and  believe,  that  the  Fa- 
 ther is  in  me,  and  I  in  him.' 
 
 When  therefore  our  blessed  Saviour  says  of  himself, 
 that 6 '  all  power  was  given  unto  him  both  in  heaven  and 
 earth  ;'  and  that  unto  his  disciples,  '  '  he  had  appointed 
 a  kingdom,  even  as  his  Father  had  appointed  unto  him  ;' 
 when  St  Paul  styles  him  the  s  '  righteous  Judge,  who 
 shall  give  a  crown  of  righteousness  to  all  that  love  his 
 appearance  ;'  and  St  Matthew,  9  '  that  king,  who  shall 
 separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats,'  and  10  '  reward  every 
 one  according  to  his  works  ;'  it  can  hardly  be  thought, 
 that  to  distribute  rewards  in  the  kingdom  of  glory,  is  a 
 prerogative  peculiar  to  the  Father  alone,  and  such  as  no 
 way  belongs  to  the  Son  ;  because  our  Saviour,  in  his 
 reply  to  Zebedee's  children,  tells  us,  u  '  that  to  sit  on  his 
 right  hand,  and  on  his  left,  was  not  his  to  give,  but  it 
 shall  be  given  to  them  for  whom  it  was  prepared  of  his 
 Father  ;'  since  the  whole  and  only  design  of  the  passage 
 is  to  show,  that  these  rewards  shall  not  be  distributed, 
 upon  such  conditions,  and  in  such  a  manner,  as  these 
 petitioners  vainly  imagined.  J2  To  this  purpose  we  may 
 observe,  that  the  words,  '  shall  be  given  to  them,'  are 
 only  a  supplement  made  by  the  translators,  for  they  are 
 not  in  the  original,  which  is  literally  thus,  '  to  sit  on  my 
 right  hand,  and  on  my  left,  is  not  mine  to  give,  but,  or 
 except  to  them  alone,  for  whom  it  is  prepared  of  my 
 Father  :'  and  this  means  no  more  than  that  the  honours 
 and  degrees  of  happiness  in  the  other  world  are  not  the 
 Son's  to  give,  in  the  sense  that  these  apostles  fancied, 
 that  is,  he  does  not  give  them  absolutely  and  arbitrarily  ; 
 he  is  not  led  by  partiality  and  fondness,  and  respect  of 
 persons  ;  he  is  not  carried  by  humour,  or  vanquished  by 
 the  importunity  of  friends  and  suitors,  as  earthly  princes 
 are,  but  is  limited  by  the  considerations  of  equity  and 
 strict  justice,  from  which  it  can  never  be  consistent  with 
 the  perfections  of  his  nature  to  depart :  for  that  the  whole 
 process  of  the  final  judgment,  and  consequently  the  dis- 
 pensation of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  is  to 
 be    transacted    by    our   blessed   Saviour,   we  have  this 
 
 *  John  x.  36.  5  Ibid.  ver.  37,  3S.         6  Mat.  xxviii.  18. 
 
 7  Luke  xxii.  29.  s  2  Tim.  iv.  8.  9  Mat.  xxv.  31,  &c. 
 
 10  Ibid.  xvi.  27.  »  Ibid.  xx.  23. 
 
 12  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 (j   H 
 
978 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1—  xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  I— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 express  testimony  in  Scripture,  J  '  the  Father  judg- 
 eth  no  man  ;  but  hath  committed  all  judgment  to  the 
 Son,  that  all  men  should  honour  the  Son,  even  as  they 
 honour  the  Father.' 
 
 Though  we  are  not  much  acquainted  with  the  condi- 
 tion of  angels,  or  the  ingredients  of  their  happiness,  yet 
 thus  much  the  scripture  has  informed  us  concerning  them, 
 that  2  '  they  are  ministering  spirits,  sent  out  to  minister 
 for  them  that  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation  ;'  and  therefore 
 we  may  reasonably  presume,  that  they  are  full  of  tender- 
 ness for  their  charge,  solicitous  for  their  particular  safety, 
 and  extremely  glad  of  any  good  that  befalls  them. 
 3  "  How  these  heavenly  hosts  were  affected  with  the  sal- 
 vation of  mankind  in  general,  is  evident  from  the  hymn 
 with  which  they  attended  at  the  birth  of  Christ,  to  wel- 
 come him  into  the  world  ;  and  though  their  nature  be  far 
 distant  from  us  mortals,  and  their  bliss  exquisite  beyond 
 what  we  are  able  to  conceive ;  yet,  in  regard  that  both 
 their  nature  and  their  bliss  are  finite,  their  joy  may 
 certainly  admit  of  an  increase  ;  and  as  often  as  a  sin- 
 ner is  converted  from  the  evil  of  his  ways,  there  may 
 spring  up  a  fresh  object,  and  a  large  and  literal  addition 
 to  it." 
 
 But  can  this  properly  be  said  of  God  too,  whose  per- 
 fection of  happiness  allows  no  such  accumulation  ?  No, 
 doubtless ;  and  therefore  with  respect  to  him,  we  must 
 interpret  this,  as  reason  and  religion  oblige  us  to  under- 
 stand many  such  like  passages  where  human  parts  and 
 passions  are  attributed  to  him.  As  therefore  the  Holy 
 Ghost,  meaning  to  represent  his  displeasure  and  our 
 baseness,  does  it,  by  saying,  that  we  provoke  him  to 
 anger,  kindle  his  fury,  g-rieve  and  weary  his  spirit,  and 
 the  like  ;  so  here,  by  saying,  that  God  rejoiceth  over  a 
 repenting  sinner,  is  intended,  that  such  repentance  is 
 highly  agreeable  to  him,  and  that,  were  his  nature  capa- 
 ble of  the  same  unequal  motions  with  ours,  the  joy  of  a 
 father  or  a  friend,  for  retrieving  the  person  he  loves  best, 
 and  had  been  most  in  pain  for,  would  be  but  a  feeble 
 and  a  very  faint  image  of  that  satisfaction  which  this 
 excites  in  him,  who  loves  us  better  than  the  tenderest 
 parent,  or  most  affectionate  friend  upon  earth  does,  or 
 can  do. 
 
 But  why  should  the  degree  of  joy  be  so  intense  upon 
 this  occasion  ?  Why  should  the  reformation  of  one  sin- 
 ner raise  it  above  the  safety  of  many  souls,  who  never 
 fell  from  their  integrity  ?  and  the  ninety-nine  sheep 
 which  never  strayed,  excite  less  of  it  than  one  poor  silly 
 wanderer  ?  In  order  to  resolve  this  difficulty,  we  must 
 observe,  4  "that,  in  the  parables  of  the  gospel,  it  is 
 usual  to  represent  all  of  the  same  kind,  though  they  be 
 sometimes  the  greater  number,  by  one  man."  Thus,  in 
 the  parable  of  the  marriage  supper,  the  man  who  had  not 
 on  his  wedding  garment,  according  to  the  sense  of  most 
 interpreters,  represents  all  wicked  men  ;  and  in  that  of 
 the  several  talents,  the  slothful  servant,  who  hid  his  in  a 
 napkin,  is  said  to  be  one  ;  whereas  they  who  improved 
 theirs,  are  three  ;  and  yet  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  but 
 that  there  are  fewer  who  receive  the  grace  of  God  to  any 
 good  purpose,  than  they  who  receive  it  in  vain  ;  and  in 
 like  manner,  though,  in  the  preceding  parables,  there  is 
 
 1  John  v.  22,  23.  2  Heb.  i.  1 4. 
 
 1  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol. 
 4  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Luke  xv.  7. 
 
 mention  made  but  of  one  lost  piece  of  silver,  and  of  one 
 strayed  sheep,  yet  is  that  one  the  representative  of  the 
 whole  tribe  of  sinners,  which  do  certainly  out-number 
 the  few  that  are  righteous  ;  and  therefore,  according  to 
 this  acceptation,  the  joy  in  heaven  may  be  allowed  to  be 
 greater,  because  the  objects  that  give  occasion  to  it  are 
 more. 
 
 But  even  if  this  were  not,  as  these  words  were  spoken 
 of  God  after  the  manner  of  men,  so  they  are  to  be 
 understood  in  a  sense  agreeable  to  human  passions. 
 Now,  in  ourselves  we  perceive,  that,  in  obtaining  what 
 we  passionately  desired,  in  regaining  what  we  looked 
 upon  as  lost,  and  in  securing  what  was  in  great  and 
 imminent  danger,  our  joy  is  strong,  and  our  delight 
 transporting.  The  surprise  of  an  escape,  whicli  we  did 
 not  expect,  and  the  regaining  of  a  treasure  we  had 
 given  over  as  gone,  is  entertained  with  rapture,  because 
 it  is  a  kind  of  new  accession  to  our  fortunes,  and  like  a 
 thing  we  never  enjoyed  before.  A  loving  father,  no 
 doubt,  finds  great  comfort  in  seeing  all  his  children  in 
 a  perfect  state  of  health ;  but  if  one  of  them  chance  to 
 fall  sick  beyond  expectation  of  recovery,  to  see  him 
 out  of  danger,  administers  more  present  joy  than  does 
 the  constant  health  of  all  the  rest ;  and,  in  like  manner, 
 though  a  continued  course  of  goodness  be  in  itself  most 
 valuable,  yet  the  recovery  of  a  lost  sinner,  the  reviving 
 one  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  the  seeing  him  snatched 
 as  a  firebrand  out  of  the  fire,  when  he  was  just  going  to 
 fall  into  it,  gives  a  more  fresh  and  lively  joy ;  and 
 therefore,  5  '  it  is  meet,'  says  the  father  in  the  parable, 
 '  that  upon  this  occasion  we  should  make  merry  and  be 
 glad  ;  for  this  thy  brother  was  dead,  and  is  alive  again, 
 was  lost,  and  is  found.' 
 
 Some  interpreters  are  of  opinion,  that  the  parable  of 
 the  Lord  of  the  vineyard  paying  all  his  labourers  alike, 
 is  to  be  understood  of  the  gift  of  grace,  or  first  admis- 
 sion to  the  privileges  of  the  gospel,  and  not  of  the  fru- 
 ition of  glory  ;  because  the  wages  here  mentioned  are 
 given  to  the  envious  and  unthankful.  But  allowing  this 
 to  be  no  more  than  a  passage  inserted  for  ornament  and 
 illustration  only,  or  that  it  may  mean  a  reward  so  sur- 
 prisingly great,  as  among  men,  would  provoke  the  envy 
 of  others  ;  yet,  if  we  state  the  case  of  the  several  labour- 
 ers in  the  parable,  as  it  includes  the  Jews  and  Gentiles 
 in  general,  and  private  Christians  in  particular,  we  shall 
 find  no  injustice  in  what  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard  did 
 mi  to  them. 
 
 6  To  the  Jews  God  was  pleased  to  make  the  first 
 express  discoveries  of  his  will  by  a  written  law.  In 
 process  of  time  the  like  benefit  was  extended  to  the 
 Gentiles.  They  readily  accepted  it,  and,  by  so  doing, 
 became  partakers  of  the  same  grace  and  precious  pro- 
 mises with  those  who  had  long  been  brought  up  under 
 the  legal,  and  from  that,  removed  sooner  under  the 
 evangelical  dispensation.  The  apostles  left  all  and 
 followed  Christ.  The  primitive  Christians  gave  in  their 
 names  to  his  doctrine,  and  continued  stedfast  in  it,  at 
 the  certain  peril  of  their  liberties,  their  fortunes,  their 
 lives:  and  yet,  in  any  after  ages  of  Christianity,  they,  who 
 live  and  die,  though  quietly  and  peaceably,  in  the  sin- 
 cere profession  of  this  religion,  are  promised  the  king- 
 
 5  Luke  xv.  23,  24. 
 6  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 979 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 .  OR  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1- 
 dom  of  heaven  as  a  reward  for  their  faith  and  obe- 
 dience. 
 
 In  like  manner,  some  have  the  happiness  of  a  pious 
 education,  and  carry  on  their  early  virtue  through  the 
 several  stages  of  life  ;  others,  who  either  wanted  that 
 advantage,  or  have  neglected  to  improve  it,  run  into  the 
 same  excess  of  riot  with  the  unthinking  part  of  the  world  ; 
 and  yet  if  these,  though  late,  see  their  follies,  and  effec- 
 tually forsake  them,  the  promise  of  God  standeth  sure,  * 
 '  that,  at  what  time  soever  the  wicked  man  turneth  away 
 from  the  wickedness  he  hath  committed,  and  doth  that 
 which  is  lawful  and  right,  he  shall  save  his  soul  alive.' 
 This  is  the  whole  sense  of  the  parable,  and  these  are 
 the  common  cases  to  which  it  is  applied :  but  we  mis- 
 take the  meaning  of  it  widely,  if  we  think  that  it  denotes 
 an  equality  of  rewards  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  since 
 we  have  this  assurance  given  us,  that  as  there  2  '  is  one 
 glory  of  the  sun,  another  glory  of  the  moon,  and  another 
 glory  of  the  stars,  so  also  is  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.' 
 Those  that  are  raised  to  everlasting  life  shall  indeed  be 
 all  glorious  ;  but  still  the  glory  of  some  shall  be  greater 
 than  that  of  others.  Every  good  Christian  shall,  no 
 doubt,  be  admitted  to  a  state  of  felicity  ;  but  when  we 
 consider  these  words  of  our  Saviour,  3  '  I  have  appointed 
 unto  you  a  kingdom,  that  ye  may  eat  and  drink  at  my 
 table  in  my  kingdom,  and  sit  on  thrones,  judging  the 
 twelve  tribes  of  Israel,'  we  cannot  but  infer,  that  there 
 are  some  particular  marks  and  instances  of  glory,  where- 
 with the  apostles  of  our  Lord  will  be  honoured  above 
 other  Christians.  And,  in  like  manner,  though  a  late  peni- 
 tent, if  he  be  sincere,  shall  be  received  to  mercy  at  last, 
 yet  he  has  not  ordinarily  any  reason  to  expect  a  degree 
 of  glory  equal  to  his,  who  has  never  swerved  from  his 
 duty,  or  has  quickly  returned  to  it.  His  bliss  shall  be  per- 
 fect indeed,  though  it  be  not  the  most  exalted,  and 
 though  he  be  less  happy  than  some  other  Christians,  yet 
 he  shall  be  much  happier  than  he  deserves. 
 
 Though  the  difference  between  the  Jews  and  Samari- 
 tans, in  matters  of  religion,  was  great,  and  no  small 
 obstruction  to  all  civil  intercourse,  yet  it  was  not  at  all 
 times  carried  to  such  a  height  as  to  deny  to  each  other 
 the  common  rights  of  hospitality.  Our  Saviour  himself 
 was,  once  upon  a  time,  4  when  he  met  the  Samaritan 
 woman  at  Jacob's  well,  kindly  received  by  the  people 
 of  Sychar,  for  the  space  of  two  days;  but  then  he  was 
 returning  out  of  Judea ;  whereas  he  was  now  going  up 
 to  Jerusalem,  with  a  purpose  to  celebrate  the  feast  of 
 Tabernacles.  The  Samaritans  had  likewise  a  feast  of 
 the  same  kind,  though  not  observed  at  the  same  time,  5 
 of  as  old  a  date  as  the  first  separation  under  Jeroboam, 
 and  instituted  both  in  imitation  of,  and  in  opposition  to, 
 the  great  festival  that  our  Lord  was  now  going  to  so- 
 lemnize ;  and  therefore  6  this  travelling  through  their 
 country,  with  a  set  purpose  to  do  this,  was  looked  upon 
 as  an  affront  to  their  way  of  worship.  For  it  argued 
 our  Lord's  judgment  in  this  case  to  be,  that  Jerusalem 
 was  the  only  place  where  these  feasts  could  be  regularly 
 celebrated,  and  consequently  that  the  keeping  them 
 on  mount  Gerizzim,  and  the  temple  there,  was  a  pre- 
 
 1  Ezek.  xviii.  26. 
 
 2  1  Cor.  xv.  41,  42.  3  Luke  xxii.  29,  30. 
 
 4  John  iv.  5  1  Kings  xii.  32,  33. 
 
 0  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 xyii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 sumptuous  innovation,  directly  contrary  to  the  will  and 
 law  of  God. 
 
 "  But  why  was  our  Saviour  alone  treated  in  this  rude 
 manner,  when  every  traveller  to  Jerusalem,  upon  the  like 
 occasion,  declared  against  the  Samaritan  schism  as  much 
 as  he  did,  and  yet,  for  any  thing  we  rind,  met  with  better 
 entertainment?"  Now  this  different  sort  of  treatment 
 can  be  resolved  into  nothing  but  the  different  character 
 of  the  travellers.  The  Samaritans  might  think,  that  the 
 opinions  and  practices  of  common  people  were  not 
 worth  their  regard,  but  that  it  would  be  of  mighty  con- 
 sequence if  a  person  so  eminent  as  Jesus  should  declare 
 against  them  ;  and  therefore,  since  his  going  to  worship 
 at  Jerusalem,  on  this  solemn  occasion,  would,  in  all  com- 
 mon acceptation,  bear  this  meaning,  they  contrived  to 
 prevent,  as  much  as  in  them  lay,  the  influence  which  that 
 supposed  indignity  might  have,  by  revenging  it  with 
 another,  of  not  receiving  him;  because  such  refusal, 
 they  thought,  was  a  constructive  disowning  of  his  autho- 
 rity, and  a  plain  declaration  to  all  people,  that  whatever 
 esteem  and  veneration  others  might  have  for  this  famed 
 man,  they  themselves  took  him  for  no  prophet. 
 
 7  In  this  feast  of  Tabernacles,  it  was  a  custom  among 
 the  Jews,  derived,  as  some  imagine,  from  the  institution 
 of  their  prophets  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  on  the  last 
 day  more  especially,  to  fetch  water  from  the  fountain 
 of  Siloam  in  great  pomp  and  solemnity,  with  trumpets 
 and  other  musical  instruments  going  before  them.  At 
 such  fountains,  it  was  usual  to  build  receptacles  or  wells, 
 and  in  the  middle  of  them  to  have  pipes  and  cisterns 
 laid,  through  which  the  water  passed,  and  coming  out  at 
 cocks,  was  received  in  urns,  or  large  big-bellied  vessels, 
 and  so  carried  to  the  temple.  The  water  thus  carried 
 was  given  to  the  priests,  who,  mixing  it  with  the  wine  of 
 the  sacrifices,  offered  it  to  God  by  way  of  intercession 
 for  the  blessing  of  rain  against  the  approaching  seed- 
 time. And,  during  the  whole  festivity,  they  read  the 
 fifty-fifth  chapter  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  which  begins 
 with  these  words,  '  Ho  !  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come 
 ye  to  the  waters,  and  he  that  hath  no  money,'  &c. 
 
 Now,  whoever  looks  into  the  method  of  our  Saviour's 
 preaching  may  easily  perceive,  that  it  was  customary 
 with  him  to  take  occasion,  from  some  obvious  thing  or 
 other,  to  discourse  of  spiritual  blessings,  and  frequently 
 to  make  use  of  phrases  metaphorically  taken  from  the 
 matter  in  hand.  Pursuant  hereunto  we  find  him,  in 
 allusion  to  the  customs  of  this  feast,  beginning  his  invi- 
 tation with  words  not  unlike  what  we  have  cited  from 
 the  prophet,  8  '  if  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me 
 and  drink.'  Water  is,  by  God  himself,  represented  as  no 
 bad  emblem  of  the  dispensation  of  grace  ;  for  9  '  I  will 
 pour  water,'  says  he,  '  upon  him  that  is  thirsty,  and 
 floods  upon  the  dry  ground.'  Which  he  explains  in  this 
 manner  :  '  I  will  pour  my  spirit  upon  thy  seed,  and  my 
 blessing  upon  thine  offspring  ;'  and  1U  the  frequent  liba- 
 tions, in  the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  were  supposed,  by  the 
 Jewish  doctors  themselves,  to  have  had  a  mystic  sense 
 in  them  :  and  therefore  the  meaning  of  our  Saviour's 
 words  is  this,  '  That  whoever  was  desirous  of  the  spirit- 
 ual blessings  which  were  prefigured  in  this  festival  rife 
 
 ■  Whithy's,  Hammond's,  and  Beausohre's  Annotations. 
 
 8  John  vii.  37.  9  Is.  xii  v.  3. 
 
 10  Sureuhusii  Coneil.  ex  V.  T.  apud  Joanuetn. 
 
980 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441    A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  11.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  I— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vji.  1. 
 
 if  he  would  become  his  disciple,  and  believe  in  him  as 
 the  promised  Messiah,  he  would  communicate  to  him 
 such  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  such  a  plentiful 
 measure,  as  the  world  was  not  yet  acquainted  with  ;  for 
 1  '  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  running  water.' 
 
 Whence  it  is,  that  our  Saviour  borrowed  this  meta- 
 phorical expression,  is  a  matter  not  so  well  agreed  by 
 the  learned  ;  some  think  from  the  proverbs  of  Solomon  ; 2 
 '  The  words  of  a  man's  mouth  are  as  deep  waters,  and 
 the  well-spring  of  wisdom  a  flowing  brook.'  Others,  from 
 the  thirty -second  of  Isaiah, 3  '  Behold  a  King  shall  reign 
 in  righteousness,  and  princes  shall  rule  in  judgment,  and 
 a  man  shall  be  as  rivers  of  waters  in  a  dry  place  :'  and 
 others,  with  more  probability,  from  the  fifty-eighth  of  that 
 prophet ; 4 '  Thou  shalt  be  like  a  watered  garden,  and  like 
 a  spring  of  water,  whose  waters  fail  not.'  However  this 
 be,  it  is  certain,  5  that  our  Saviour,  taking  the  rise  of 
 his  discourse  from  the  customary  libations  at  this  time, 
 had  under  his  view  and  consideration  the  make  and  figure 
 of  the  water-vessels  that  were  used  on  this  occasion, 
 which,  by  reason  of  their  large  bellies,  being  able  to 
 hold  a  great  quantity  of  water,  were  therefore  proper 
 emblems  of  that  plentiful  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 which  he  intended  to  send  upon  the  christian  church, 
 when  6  '  to  one  should  be  given,  by  the  Spirit,  the  word 
 of  wisdom ;  to  another,  the  word  of  knowledge,  by  the 
 same  Spirit;  to  another,  faith,  by  the  same  Spirit;  to 
 another,  the  gifts  of  healing,  by  the  same  Spirit ;  to 
 another,  the  working  of  miracles  ;  to  another,  prophecy  ; 
 to  another,  discerning  of  spirits ;  to  another,  divers 
 kinds  of  tongues  :  and  to  another,  the  interpretation  of 
 them.'  a 
 
 1  John  vii.  3S.  2  Prov.  xviii.  4.  s  Ver.  I,  2. 
 
 *  Ver.  11.  5  Surenhus.  ibid.  6  1  Cor.  xii.  8,  &c. 
 
 a  This  is  the  account  which  is  usually  given  of  our  Lord's 
 exclamation  to  the  people  on  the  last  day  of  the  feast  of  taberna- 
 cles; and  it  is  surely  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  preceding  ob- 
 jection. The  whole  transactions  of  that  day  may  be  placed 
 however  in  a  light  somewhat  different,  in  which  the  words  of 
 Jesus  will  appear  to  have  a  meaning  more  obvious,  and  at  the 
 same  time  equally  important.  "  The  feast  of  tabernacles,"  says 
 Bishop  Horsley,  "  continued  eight  days.  At  what  precise  time  I 
 know  not,  but  in  some  part  of  the  interval  between  the  prophets 
 and  the  birth  of  Christ,  the  priests  had  taken  up  a  practice  of 
 marching  daily,  during  the  feast,  round  the  altar  of  burnt-offer- 
 ings, waving  in  their  hands  branches  of  the  palm,  and  singing, 
 as  they  went, — "  Save,  we  pray,  and  prosper  us!"  Tin's  was 
 done  but  once  on  each  of  the  first  seven  days;  but  on  the  eighth 
 and  last,  it  was  repeated  seven  times.  VVhen  this  ceremony 
 was  finished,  the  people,  with  extravagant  demonstrations  of  joy 
 and  exultation,  fetched  buckets  of  water  from  the  fountain  of 
 Siloam,  and  presented  them  to  the  priests  in  the  temple ;  who 
 mixed  the  water  with  the  wine  of  the  sacrifices,  and  poured  it 
 upon  the  altar,  chanting  all  the  while  that  text  of  Isaiah, — 
 "  With  joy  we  shall  draw  water  from  the  fountain,  or  wells,  of 
 salvation."  The  fountain  of  salvation,  in  the  language  of  a  pro- 
 phet, is  the  Messiah;  the  water  to  be  drawn  from  that  fountain 
 is  the  water  of  his  Spirit.  Of  this  mystical  meaning  of  the 
 water,  the  inventors  of  those  superstitious  rites,  whoever  they 
 might  be,  seem  to  have  had  some  obscure  discernment;  although 
 they  understood  the  fountain  literally  of  the  fountain  of  Siloam; 
 for,  to  encourage  the  people  to  the  practice  of  this  laborious 
 superstition,  they  had  persuaded  them  that  this  rite  was  of  singu- 
 lar efficacy  to  draw  down  the  prophetic  spirit.  The  multitudes, 
 zealously  busied  in  this  unmeaning  ceremony,  were  they  to  whom 
 Jesus  addressed  that  emphatical  exclamation— "  If  any  man 
 thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink."  The  first  words — "  if 
 snymanttiVrf" — are  ironical.  "Are  ye  famished,"  says  he, 
 "  with  thirst,  that  ye  fatigue  yourselves  with  fetching  all  this 
 
 CHAP.  IV. — Of  our  blessed  Saviour's  miracles,  and 
 their  excellency. 
 
 That  the  accomplishment  of  ancient  prophecies,  in  the 
 person  and  actions  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  was  one  of 
 the  external  evidences  of  his  divine  mission,  and  conse- 
 quently of  the  truth  of  our  most  holy  religion,  was  the 
 subject  of  our  last  chapter  ;  and  how  far  the  evidence 
 of  the  miracles  which  he  wrought  is  available  to  the 
 same  great  end,  we  shall  now  endeavour  to  set  before 
 our  reader. 
 
 7  To  this  purpose  we  must  observe,  that  a  true  miracle 
 is  properly  such  an  operation  as  exceeds  the  ordinary 
 course  of  things,  and  is  repugnant  to  the  known  laws  of 
 nature,  either  as  to  its  subject,  matter,  or  the  manner  of 
 its  performance.  For  though  we  readily  acknowledge, 
 that  there  are  beings  in  the  spiritual  world,  which  are  able 
 to  perform  things  far  exceeding  the  power  of  men,  and 
 therefore  apt  to  beget  wonder  and  amazement  in  us  ; 
 yet,  that  any  created  beings,  and,  consequently  agents  of 
 a  limited  power,  are  capable  of  working  such  miracles 
 as  our  Saviour  did  ;  are  capable  of  controlling  the  course 
 of  nature,  of  supplying  men's  natural  defects,  of  giving 
 sight  to  the  blind,  speech  to  the  dumb,  and  life  to  the 
 dead,  which  are  miracles  relating  to  the  subject-matter, 
 or  of  doing  any  of  these  things  in  an  instant,  by  a  touch, 
 by  a  word,  at  a  distance,  and  without  any  kind  of  out- 
 ward means,  which  are  miracles  regarding  the  manner  of 
 their  performance,  is  a  thing  impossible  ;  unless  we  can 
 suppose,  that  limited,  inferior,  and  created  beings,  have 
 an  equal  power  of  creating,  controlling,  and  restoring, 
 with  Almighty  God,  which  is  contradiction  enough  in  all 
 conscience. 
 
 It  was  upon  this  persuasion,  therefore,  namely,  '  that 
 true  miracles  are  the  sole  operation  of  God,'  that  the 
 world  has  all  along  agreed  to  acknowledge  and  accept 
 of  miracles  as  an  authentic  and  indisputable  testimony, 
 
 7  Bishop  Smallbroke's  Vindication. 
 
 water  up  the  hill  ?  O !  but  ye  thirst  for  the  pure  waters  of  Siloam, 
 the  sacred  brook  that  rises  in  the  mountain  of  God,  and  is  devoted 
 to  the  purification  of  the  temple!  Are  ye  indeed  athirst  for  these? 
 Come,  then,  unto  me  and  drink.  I  am  the  fountain,  of  which 
 that  which  purifies  the  temple  is  the  type:  I  am  the  fountain  of 
 salvation  of  which  your  prophet  spake  ;  from  me  the  true  believer 
 shall  receive  the  living  water, — not  in  scanty  draughts,  fetched 
 with  toil  from  this  penurious  rill,  but  in  a  well  perpetually 
 springing  up  within  him."  The  words  of  Isaiah,  which  the 
 priests  were  chanting,  and  to  which  Jesus  alludes,  are  part  of  a 
 song  of  praise  and  triumph,  which  the  faithful  are  supposed  to 
 use  in  that  prosperous  state  of  the  church,  which,  according  to 
 the  prophet,  it  shall  finally  attain  under  Jesse's  root; — "  In  that 
 day  shalt  thou  say,  behold,  God  is  my  salvation:  I  will  trust, 
 and  not.  be  afraid  ;  for  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  my  strength  and  song, 
 he  also  is  become  my  salvation."  Consider  these  words  as  they 
 lie  in  the  context  of  the  prophet:  consider  the  occasion  upon 
 which  Jesus,  standing  in  the  temple,  applies  them  to  himself; 
 consider  the  sense  in  which  he  applies  them;  and  judge  whether 
 this  application  was  less  than  an  open  claim  to  be  the  Lord 
 Jehovah  come  unto  his  temple.  It  is  remarkable  that  it  had,  at 
 the  time,  an  immediate  and  wonderful  effect.  "  Many  of  the 
 people,  when  they  heard  this  saying,  said,  Of  a  truth  this  is  the 
 prophet."  The  light  burst  at  once  upon  their  minds.  Jesus  no 
 sooner  made  the  application  of  this  abused  prophecy  to  himself, 
 than  they  acknowledged  the  justness  of  it,  and  acknowledged  in 
 him  the  fountain  of  salvation." — Bishop  Horsley' s  Sermons. — 
 Ed. 
 
Skct.   III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 981 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  :  OR,  A.  M.  5141.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1. 
 
 that  the  persons  intrusted  with  such  power  were  certainly 
 sent  and  commissioned  by  God.  To  this  purpose  we 
 find  Pharaoh's  magicians  confessing,  '  that  the  miracles 
 which  Moses  and  Aaron  exhibited  were  the  linger  of  God  ; 
 and,  in  the  controversy  between  Elijah  and  the  priests 
 of  Baal,  it  was  readily  accepted  as  a  fair  proposal,  that 
 he8  '  who  answered  by  lire  from  heaven'  should  be  unani- 
 mously served  and  worshipped  as  God.  The  less 
 reason  have  we  then  to  wonder,  that  we  hear  a  learned 
 ruler  of  the  Jews  accosting  our  Lord  in  these  words,  3 
 '  Rabbi,  we  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  sent  from  God  ; 
 for  no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that  thou  dost,  except 
 God  be  with  him :'  or  that  a  mean  man,  who  had  been 
 born  blind,  should  confront  the  whole  assembly  of  the 
 Pharisees,  with  this  one  argument,  4  '  since  the  world  be- 
 gan, was  it  not  heard,  that  any  man  opened  the  eyes  of 
 the  blind :  if  this  man  were  not  of  God,  he  could  do 
 nothing  ;'  or,  that  our  blessed  Saviour  himself  should  so 
 frequently  appeal  to  the  miracles  he  wrought,  as  proper 
 testimonies  of  his  divine  mission,  5  '  the  works  which  my 
 Father  hath  sent  me  to  finish ;  the  works  Avhich  I  do  in 
 my  Father's  name,  the  same  bear  witness  of  me,  that  my 
 Father  sent  me.' 
 
 Our  Saviour  indeed,  and  his  apostles  both,  do  often 
 appeal  to  the  predictions  of  the  prophets  relating  to  the 
 promised  Messiah,  as  fulfilled  and  accomplished  in  him  ; 
 and  the  truth  is,  unless  the  validity  of  this  appeal  can 
 be  supported,  miracles  alone,  or  exclusive  of  this  testi- 
 mony, would  not  be  a  sufficient  evidence  of  our  Lord's 
 commission :  but  then  it  ought  to  be  considered,  that 
 when,  among  the  particular  predictions  of  a  person  pro- 
 mised to  the  Jews  as  their  Messiah,  it  was  foretold,  that 
 he  should  6  '  be  like  unto  Moses  ;'  that 7  '  the  Spirit  of  the 
 Lord  should  rest  upon  him ;'  that  8  '  he  should  open  the 
 eyes  of  the  blind,  and  unstop  the  ears  of  the  deaf;  and 
 that  he  should  make  the  lame  to  leap  as  an  hart,  and  the 
 tongue  of  the  dumb  to  sing.'  Miracles  became  then  an 
 essential  ingredient  of  his  character,  and  a  sure  test  of 
 his  being  a  prophet  sent  from  God. 
 
 9  Some  modern  Jews,  indeed,  when  pressed  with  the 
 evidence  of  our  Saviour's  miracles,  make  this  their  sub- 
 terfuge, that  the  Messiah,  at  his  coining,  was  not  to 
 perform  any  wonders  of  this  kind,  but  only  to  manage 
 the  Lord's  battles,  and  to  overcome  the  people  that 
 were  round  about  him.  But  that  this  was  not  of  old  the 
 sense  of  the  Jewish  nation,  is  evident  from  the  words  of 
 the  people  in  our  Saviour's  time  :  10 '  when  Christ  cometh, 
 will  he  do  more  miracles  than  these  which  this  man  hath 
 done  :'  Nay,11  an  author  of  theirs,  of  no  great  antiquity, 
 after  his  having  mentioned  the  three  glorious  gifts, 
 namely,  prophecy,  miracles,  and  the  knowledge  of  God, 
 which  the  Israelites,  in  the  time  of  their  captivity,  had 
 lost,  gives  us  to  understand,  that,  upon  the  appearance 
 of  the  Messiah,  the  return  of  miracles  was  justly  to  be 
 expected,  in  completion  of  this  prophecy,12 '  I  will  pour 
 out  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh,  and  your  sons  and  your 
 daughters  shall  prophecy,  your  old  men  shall  dream 
 dreams,  and  your  young  men  shall  see  visions.' 
 
 xvii.  1*.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  11.  LUKE  vi.  1—  ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I. 
 
 Since  the  Messiah  then  was  to  work  miracles  when  he 
 came  into  the  world,  if  we  consider  the  design  of  our 
 blessed  Saviour's  mission,  namely,14  that  he  was  a  teacher 
 sent  from  God  to  abolish  a  form  of  worship,  which  had 
 incontestably  been  established  by  the  power  of  miracles 
 in  Moses,  and  to  introduce  a  new  religion,  repugnant 
 to  the  wisdom  of  the  world,  in  many  mysterious  doc- 
 trines, and  abhorrent  to  the  vicious  inclinations  of  men, 
 in  all  its  righteous  laws  and  precepts ;  that  he  was 
 appointed,  in  short,  to  destroy  the  kingdom  of  the  devil, 
 and  upon  its  ruins  to  erect  a  kingdom  of  righteousness, 
 there  was  an  absolute  necessity  for  him  to  be  invested 
 with  a  power  of  working  miracles:  otherwise,  his  pre- 
 tensions to  this  high  character  had  been  ridiculous,  and 
 the  Jews  with  good  reason  might  have  demanded  of 
 him, 15'  Master,  we  would  see  a  sign  from  thee  ;  what  sign 
 therefore  dost  thou  do,  that  we  may  see,  and  believe  ?' 
 But  this  demand  is  effectually  silenced  by  our  Saviour's 
 being  able  to  make  the  reply,16 '  if  I  had  not  done  among 
 you  the  works  which  none  other  man  did,  ye  had  not 
 had  sin ;  but  now  ye  have  both  seen,  and  hated  both  me 
 and  my  Father.' 
 
 John  the  Baptist,  who  was  born  a  little  before  our 
 Saviour,  was  his  fore-runner.  17  He  appeared  at  the 
 time,  when  the  Messiah  was  expected  ;  and,  being  much 
 famed  for  his  virtue  and  sanctity  of  life,  was  followed 
 by  the  people,  who  were  prone  to  take  him  for  the  pro- 
 phet who  was  to  come,  as  there  was  not  indeed,  at  that 
 time,  a  greater  person  born  among  women  :  and  yet  the 
 divine  providence  so  ordered  the  matter,  that,  as  great 
 as  he  was,  he  wanted  this  character  of  the  true  Messiah, 
 namely,  the  working  of  miracles  ;  and  therefore  our 
 Saviour,  comparing  himself  with  the  Baptist,  a  burning 
 and  a  shining  light  indeed,  but  who  himself  did  no  mir- 
 acles, 1S  '  I  have  a  greater  witness,'  says  he,  '  than  that 
 of  John  ;  for  the  works  which  my  Father  hath  given  me 
 to  finish,  the  same  works  that  I  do,  bear  witness  of  me, 
 that  I  am  the  Messiah,'  or,  which  is  all  one,  *  that  my 
 Father  hath  sent  me.' 
 
 And  weli  indeed  might  our  Lord  be  allowed  to  claim 
 a  pre-eminence,  not  above  the  Baptist  only,  but  above 
 every  prophet  that  went  before  him  ;  when,  upon  so  many 
 occasions,  he  exercised  a  power  and  authority,  not  in- 
 ferior to  that  of  God  ;  when,  by  the  same  omnipotence 
 wherewith  he  created  all  things  at  first,  he  multiplied  a 
 few  loaves,  and  two  fishes,  into  a  sufficiency  to  feed  i\w^ 
 thousand;  when,  at  his  command,  the  wind  and  the  sea 
 grew  still ;  and  unclean  spirits  departed  from  men's 
 bodies,  confessing  him  to  be  the  Son  of  God ;  when 
 acute  diseases,  and  chronical  griefs,19  such  as  no  length 
 of  time,  no  skill,  no  remedies,  no  expense  could  assuage, 
 were  equally  cured  with  a  touch,  nay,  with  the  touch  of 
 his  garment,  with  a  word,  nay,  with  a  word  that  operated 
 effectually  upon  the  absent,  and  at  a  distance  ;  when 
 persons  at  death's  door,  nay,  actually  dead,  and  dead 
 for  some  time,  were  commanded  back  to  life  and  health  ; 
 and  himself,  when  slain  by  the  Jews,  and  committed  to 
 the  grave,  was,  according  to  his  own  prediction,  raised 
 
 I  Exod.  viii.  19.       a  1  Kings  xviii.  24.  &o.        3  John  iii.  2. 
 4  John  ix.  32,  33.         5  [bid.  v.  26.         (i  Deut.  xviii.  15. 
 
 7  fs.  xi.  2.  "  Ibid.  xxxv.  5,  G. 
 
 '  Maimonides,  IT.  Melach.  et  Milch,  rap.  xi.       '"John  vii. 31 
 
 II  Abravenel  in  Joel.  a  Joel  ii.  2s.  ami  Acts  ii.  17. 
 
 H  Stillingfleet'sOrigenesSacrae,  p.  172. 
 
 13  John  vi.  30.  '"Ib.xv.  24. 
 
 17  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  i.  p.  45. 
 
 18  Johu  v.  35,  36. 
 
 18  Stanhope's  Sermon's  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
98^ 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKEvi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v,  1—  vi.  1. 
 
 from  the  dead,  by  the  same  divine  Spirit  whereby  he 
 quickeneth  and  enliveneth  all  things. 
 
 These,  and  many  more  actions  of  the  like  nature,  re- 
 corded in  the  gospel,  are  plain  demonstrations  of  a 
 divine  power  residing  in  our  blessed  Saviour :  but  then 
 there  is  something  farther  to  be  said  concerning  these 
 miraculous  acts  of  his,  namely,  that  they  were  exceed- 
 ingly well  chosen  to  characterize  the  Messiah,  in  regard 
 of  their  suitableness  to  the  end  and  design  of  his  com- 
 ing. 
 
 1  The  law  was  enacted  with  a  very  terrible  pomp, 
 such  as  spoke  it  to  be,  what  indeed  it  was,  a  dispensa- 
 tion of  servitude  and  great  severity.  But  the  gospel  is 
 a  covenant  of  reconciliation  and  peace,  of  friendship, 
 nay,  of  sonship  with  God,  intended  not  so  much  to 
 strike  awe  upon  men's  minds,  as  to  charm  and  win  them 
 over  by  all  the  endearing  methods  of  gentleness  and  love; 
 and  therefore,  the  wonders  that  bore  testimony  to  its 
 truth  were  works  of  mercy  and  kindness,  such  as  never 
 wrought  any  harm,  but  always  brought  comfort  and 
 advantage  to  the  needy  and  distressed  ;  2  sustenance  to 
 the  hungry,  supplies  to  those  in  want,  safety  to  them 
 that  were  ready  to  perish,  speech  to  the  dumb,  hearing 
 to  the  deaf,  eyes  to  the  blind,  understanding  to  the  dis- 
 turbed, strength  to  the  impotent,  limbs  to  the  maimed, 
 health  to  the  sick,  life  to  the  dead,  and  release  to  souls 
 and  bodies  held  in  bondage  by  the  devil.  These,  these  are 
 the  wonders  by  which  our  Jesus  proved  his  mission, wonders 
 of  gentleness  and  pity,  of  beneficence  and  love,  wherein 
 he  manifestly  excels,  and,  as  it  were,  triumphs  over  all 
 the  prophets  that  went  before  him.  They  proved  their 
 commission  by  acts  of  divine  vengeance  and  sore  plagues 
 as  well  as  by  cures  and  corporeal  deliverances  ;  whereas 
 our  blessed  Lord  3  went  about  always  doing  good  ; 
 healing  diseases  and  infirmities,  but  inflicting  none  ;  and 
 releasing  from  death,  but  never  hastening  it ;  insomuch 
 that  through  the  whole  course  of  his  ministry  we  have 
 not  one  instance  of  his  power  exerted  in  the  suffering  or 
 annoyance  even  of  his  bitterest  enemies. 
 
 When  John  the  Baptist  had  heard  of  the  works  which 
 4  Christ  did,  he  sent  two  of  his  disciples  with  this  mes- 
 sage to  him,  '  Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  (that  is,  the 
 promised  Messiah)  or  look  we  for  another  ?'  To  whom 
 our  Lord  returned  this  answer,  '  Go,  and  show  John 
 again  these  things  which  ye  do  hear  and  see ;  the  blind 
 receive  their  sight,  and  the  lame  walk ;  the  lepers  are 
 cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear,  and  the  dead  are  raised 
 up.'  The  answer  is  in  a  great  measure  taken  from  the 
 prophet  5  Isaiah,  describing  the  great  operations  of  the 
 Messiah  ;  and,  by  remitting  the  Baptist  to  them,  our 
 Saviour  intended  to  show  that  he  must  of  necessity  be 
 the  person  he  sent  to  inquire  after,  because  he  had  not 
 only  the  power  of  doing  miracles,  but  even  of  doing  the 
 self  same  miracles  that  the  evangelical  prophet  had  pre- 
 dicted of  the  Messiah. 
 
 6  Now,  of  all  the  great  attributes  of  God,  there  are 
 none  that  shine  brighter  and  more  amiable  in  our  eyes, 
 than  truth  and  goodness  :  the  former  cannot  attest  a  lie, 
 nor  the  latter  seduce  men  into  dangerous  and  destruc- 
 
 1  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 2  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
 3  Acts  x.  38.         4  Mat.  xi.  2,  &c.  s  Chap.  xxxv.  5. 
 
 6  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospel-;,  vol.  ii. 
 
 tive  mistakes.  And  yet,  if  God  should  communicate  any 
 part  of  his  power  to  an  impostor  to  enable  him  to  work 
 miracles,  and  such  miracles  in  kind  as  were  foretold  of 
 the  true  Messiah,  in  confirmation  of  his  pretences,  what 
 would  become  of  these  two  sacred  attributes  ?  To  sus- 
 pect, .1  say,  that  Almighty  God  is  capable  of  employing 
 his  infinite  power,  with  a  design  to  mislead  and  delude 
 mankind,  in  what  relates  to  their  eternal  concerns,  is  to 
 destroy  and  subvert  his  very  nature,  and  to  leave  our- 
 selves no  notion  at  all  of  such  a  being.  Nay,  for  him 
 to  permit  the  same  evidences  to  be  produced  for  errors  as 
 for  truth,  is,  in  effect,  to  cancel  his  own  credentials,  and 
 to  make  miracles  of  no  significance  at  all.  And  there- 
 fore, how  artfully  soever  some  impostors  may  contrive 
 their  delusions,  yet  we  are  not  to  doubt,  but  that,  if  we 
 examine,  1st,  the  works  themselves,  and  their  manner 
 of  being  done  :  and,  2dly,  the  persons  themselves,  and 
 the  ends  for  which  they  do  them,  we  shall  be  able  to 
 discern  the  difference  between  real  miracles  and  lying 
 wonders. 
 
 7  1st.  Then,  in  relation  to  the  works  themselves,  it  is 
 required,  that  they  be  possible,  since  no  power  Avhat- 
 ever  can  effect  that  which  is  strictly  impossible  ;  that  they 
 be  probable,  since  the  divine  power  will  hardly  concern 
 itself  in  what  savours  of  fable  and  romance;  that  they  be 
 not  below  the  majesty  of  God,  as  he  is  the  ruler  and 
 governor  of  the  world,  nor  inconsistent  with  his  charac- 
 ter, as  he  is  a  good  and  gracious  being  ;  that  they  be 
 done  openly,  before  a  sufficient  number  of  witnesses  ; 
 readily,  without  any  previous  forms  or  ceremonies  which 
 may  make  them  look  like  incantation  ;  and  upon  all  pro- 
 per and  important  occasions,  to  denote  the  permanency 
 of  that  divine  power  by  which  they  are  affected. 
 
 2dly.  In  relation  to  the  person  pretending  a  divine 
 mission,  it  is  required  that  he  be  a  man  of  good  report 
 for  his  unblameable  conversation  ;  and  that  he  be  in  the 
 perfect  exercise  of  his  reason  and  senses,  and  constant 
 and  uniform  in  the  message  he  delivers  ;  that  the  doc- 
 trine which  he  endeavours  to  establish  by  his  miracles  be 
 consistent  with  the  principles  of  true  reason,  and  natural 
 religion,  consistent  with  great  notions  and  worship  of 
 God,  and  consistent  with  the  former  revelations  he  hath 
 made  of  his  will  :  of  a  tendency  to  destroy  the  devil's 
 power  in  the  world,  to  recover  men  from  their  ignorance, 
 to  reform  them  from  their  vices,  and  lead  them  into  the 
 practice  of  virtue  and  true  godliness  by  proper  motives 
 and  arguments,  and,  in  short,  to  advance  the  general 
 welfare  of  societies,  as  well  as  every  man's  particular 
 happiness  in  this  life,  and  in  his  preparation  for  a  better. 
 And  now  to  observe  a  little  how  all  these  characters 
 meet  in  the  blessed  Jesus. 
 
 That  Jesus  of  Nazareth  Avas  a  person  of  great  virtue 
 and  goodness,  in  full  possession  of  his  reason  and 
 senses,  and  constant  and  uniform  in  the  message  he  de- 
 livered to  mankind,  not  only  the  whole  tenor  of  his 
 conduct,  as  it  is  recorded  by  the  evangelists,  but  the 
 nature  of  his  doctrine  and  excellency  of  his  precepts, 
 the  manner  of  his  discourses  to  the  people,  and  the  wis- 
 dom of  his  replies  to  the  insidious  questions  of  his  adver- 
 saries, are  a  plain  demonstration  :  and  that  8  '  this  Jesus 
 was  a  man  approved  of  God  by  miracles,  wonders,  and 
 
 7  Chandler  on  miracles.         8  Acts  ii.  22. 
 
Skct.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 983 
 
 A.M.  4135.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14,.  MARK  ii.  23-ix   14.  LUKE  vi.  1-xi.  37.  JOHN  v.  I-vii   I. 
 
 signs,  which  God  did  by  him  in  the  midst  of  all  the  peo- 
 ple,' is  manifest,  not  only  from  the  testimony  of  his 
 friends  and  disciples,  but  '  "  from  the  concession  of 
 heathen  historians,  as  well  as  the  traditions  of  the 
 Jewish  Talmud,  wherein  the  memory  of  them  is  pre- 
 served." 
 
 These  miracles  indeed  were  above  the  skill  of  men  or 
 angels  to  effect ;  but  they  were  not  therefore  impossible, 
 because  subject  to  the  power  of  Almighty  God  ;  for  the 
 same  agent,  who  formed  the  eye,  could  restore  the  blind 
 to  sight ;  he,  who  wrought  the  whole  frame  of  our  bodies 
 could  as  easily  cure  the  maimed,  or  heal  the  diseased  ; 
 and  he,  who  causes  the  rain  to  descend,  and  to  water  the 
 earth,  that  it  may  minister  bread  to  the  eater  and  seed 
 to  the  sower,  could  be  at  no  loss  to  change  water  into 
 wine,  or  to  multiply  the  loaves  and  fishes  for  the  relief  of 
 the  hungry. 
 
 These  miracles  again,  being  acts  of  mercy  as  well  as 
 power,  were  not  consistent  with  the  character  of  an  im- 
 postor, or  the  agency  of  any  wicked  spirit ;  but  that  God 
 should  have  compassion  on  his  creatures,  and  exercise 
 his  tender  mercies  over  '  the  works  of  his  own  hands  ;' 
 that  he  should  give  bread  to  the  hungry,  limbs  to  the 
 maimed,  and  release  to  such  as  were  under  the  captivity 
 of  Satan,  is  no  improbable  thing  at  all.  These  were  ac- 
 tions suitable  to  his  majesty,  and  highly  comporting 
 with  his  wisdom  and  goodness,  since  they  naturally  tend- 
 ed both  to  beget  reverence  in  the  minds  of  men  towards 
 his  messenger,  and  to  reconcile  them  to  the  belief  and 
 obedience  of  his  heavenly  will. 
 
 Now  these  miracles  our  Saviour  did  openly,  in  the  tem- 
 ple, in  the  synagogues,  and  on  the  festivals,  when  the 
 concourse  of  people  was  greatest,  and  when  the  doctors 
 of  the  law,  who  came  on  purpose  to  ensnare  him,  were 
 sitting  by  and  beholding  what  was  done.  These  he  did 
 readily,  and  with  a  word's  speaking  :  for  s  '  peace  be 
 still,'  quelled  the  raging  of  the  winds  and  waves; 
 3  '  Young  man  arise,'  revived  the  widow's  son  ;  4 '  Eph- 
 phatha,  be  opened,'  gave  the  deaf  man  hearing ;  and 
 s  '  Lazarus,  come  forth,'  raised  him  from  the  grave  who 
 had  been  four  days  dead.  These  he  did  frequently,  and 
 upon  all  proper  occasions ;  for,  from  the  time  that  he 
 entered  upon  his  ministry,  scarce  a  day  passed  without 
 some  fresh  instance  of  his  power  and  goodness,  insomuch 
 that  if  all  his  actions  of  this  kind  had  been  particularly 
 recorded,  6  <  the  world  itself,'  as  St  John,  by  an  ele- 
 gant hyperbole,  declares,  *  would  not  contain  the  books 
 which  should  be  written  :'  and,  what  crowns  all,  these  he 
 did  with  a  design  to  establish  a  religion,  whose  business 
 it  is  to  give  men  the  most  exalted  thoughts  of  God  and 
 his  providence,  and  the  greatest  certainty  of  future  re- 
 wards and  punishments  ;  to  oblige  them,  by  the  strong- 
 est motives,  to  observe  and  practice  whatsoever  things 
 are  true  and  honest,  and  just,  and  pure,  and  lovely,  and 
 of  good  report ;  to  persuade  them  to  mortify  every  in- 
 ordinate affection,  and  to  attain  these  excellent  dispo- 
 sitions of  mind,  which  will  make  them  resemble  God, 
 and  best  prepare  them  for  future  happiness  ;  in  a  word, 
 
 1  See  Bishop  Chandler's  Defence,  where  he  proves  this,  as 
 well  as  the  traditions  of  the  Talmud,  by  several  instances,  p. 
 429. 
 
 *  Mark  iv.  39.         3  Luke  v:i.  14.         *  Mark  vii.  34,  35. 
 *  John  xi.  43,  44.         6  Ibid.   xxi.  25. 
 
 to  establish  the  practice  of  the  two  great  virtues,  the 
 love  of  God,  and  the  love  of  our  neighbour,  upon  these 
 two  excellent  principles,  of  faith  in  God,  as  the  rewarder 
 of  those  that  seek  him,  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  the 
 Saviour  and  Judge  of  mankind. 
 
 And,  if  such  be  the  end  and  design  of  the  Christian 
 religion,  there  is  little  reason  to  suppose,  as  the  Jews 
 are  very  willing  to  object,  that  the  devil  could  have  any 
 hand  in  assisting  our  Saviour  to  effect  such  miracles  as 
 gave  credit  to  the  first  appearance,  and  strength  and 
 success  to  the  propagation  of  these  doctrines,  which 
 were  calculated  on  purpose  to  destroy  his  dominion  in 
 the  world,  and  upon  its  ruins,  to  erect  the  kingdom  of 
 God  and  his  Christ.  The  devil  is  not  so  silly  a  being 
 as  to  join  forces  with  his  avowed  enemy,  in  order  to 
 ruin  and  depose  himself  :  and  if  our  Saviour  could  hope 
 for  no  assistance  from  that  quarter,  the  pretence  of  his 
 doing  his  miracles,  a  by  virtue  of  the  name  Jehovah, 
 stolen  out  of  the  sanctuary,  and  used  as  a  charm,  is  a 
 fiction  too  gross  and  palpable  to  stand  in  need  of  any 
 confutation. 
 
 Philostratus  indeed,  in  his  history  of  the  life  of  Apol- 
 lonius,  b  sets  him  up  for  a  great  worker  of  miracles  ;  and 
 
 a  The  account  which  some  later  Jews  give  us  of  this  transac- 
 tion, is  thus  related: — "  That,  in  the  time  of  Helena  the  queen, 
 Jesus  of  Nazareth  came  into  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  temple  found  a 
 stone,  on  which  the  ark  of  God  was  wont  to  rest,  whereon  was  writ- 
 ten the  Tetragrammaton,  or  more  peculiar  name  of  God  ;  that  who- 
 soever should  get  the  name  into  his  possession,  and  be  skilled  in 
 it,  would  be  able  to  do  what  he  pleased;  that  therefore  their  wise 
 men,  fearing  lest  any  of  the  Israelites  should  get  that  name,  and 
 destroy  the  world,  made  two  dogs  of  brass,  and  placed  them  at 
 the  door  of  the  sanctuary ;  that  whenever  any  had  got  in,  and 
 learned  that  name,  these  dogs  were  wont  at  their  coming  out,  to 
 bark  so  terribly,  that  they  forgot  the  name,  and  the  letters  they 
 had  newly  learned.  But  when  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  say  they,  went 
 in,  he  not  only  learned  the  letters  of  tins  name,  but  wrote  them 
 in  a  parchment,  and  hid  it,  as  he  came  out,  in  an  incision  which 
 he  made  in  his  flesh;  and  though,  through  the  barking  of  the 
 dogs,  he  had  forgot  the  name,  yet  he  learned  it  afterwards  from 
 his  parchment:  and  it  was  by  virtue  of  this,  say  they,  that  Jesus 
 restored  the  lame,  healed  the  leprous,  raised  the  dead,  walked 
 upon  the  sea,  and  did  all  his  other  miraculous  works. — Puff. 
 Fidei.  pt.  ii.  c.  8,  s.  6,  as  quoted  in  Kidder's  Demonstration, 
 pt.  i.  p.  40. 
 
 b  This  Apollonius  is,  by  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  set  up 
 as  a  rival  to  our  blessed  Saviour,  in  point  of  his  life,  miracles, 
 and  predictions;  and  therefore  it  may  not  be  improper,  in  this 
 place,  to  give  our  readers  a  short  sketch  of  some  of  the  principal 
 incidents  of  his  life  and  transactions.  About  three  or  four  years 
 before  the  vulgar  Christian  sera,  he  was  born  at  Tyana,  a  town 
 of  Cappadocia,  from  whence  he  was  named  Tyaneus,  of  an  an- 
 cient family,  and  rich  parents;  but  to  make  his  birth  more  re- 
 semble our  Saviour's,  it  is  said,  that  Proteus,  under  the  form  of 
 a  sea-god,  acquainted  his  mother,  that  he  himself  was  to  be  born 
 of  her,  and  that,  at  the  same  time,  she  was  surrounded  with 
 swans,  which  assisted  at  her  labour,  and,  by  their  singing  and 
 gaiety,  seemed  to  presage  the  infant's  future  glory.  However  this 
 may  be,  while  he  was  a  youth,  he  was  observed  to  have  a  great 
 natural  genius,  an  excellent  memory,  and  was  in  his  person  so 
 very  beautiful,  that  he  drew  the  eyes  of  all  men  upon  him. 
 When  he  was  fourteen  years  of  age,  his  father  sent  him  to  Tar- 
 sus in  Cilicia,  in  order  to  study  rhetoric;  but  he  chose  rather  to 
 apply  himself  to  philosophy,  and,  in  a  few  years,  professed  him- 
 self of  the  Pythagoreau  sect.  Pursuant  to  this  he  abstained  from 
 the  llesh  of  all  animals,  as  reputed  impure,  lived  upon  nothing 
 but  fruits  and  vegetables ;  and  though  he  did  not  condemn  the 
 use  of  wine,  yet  he  chose  rather  to  abstain  from  it,  as  being  apt 
 to  disturb  the  serenity  of  the  mind.  He  was  a  person  of  great 
 mortification  and  abstinence,  renounced  marriage,  and  professed 
 continence,  and  affected  to  live  in  the  temple  of  ^Bsculapius,  to 
 make  it  be  believed  that  he  was  his  peculiar  favourite,  and,  by 
 
984 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5*4-1.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1 
 
 some,  of  late  times,  have  been  bold  enough  to  name  him 
 in  competition  with  our  blessed  Saviour.  But,  besides 
 that,  this  history  of  Apollonius  has  no  other  voucher  than 
 his  servant  Damis,  who  was  confessedly  a  weak  and 
 ignorant  person,  and  consequently  very  capable  of  being- 
 imposed  upon  by  the  artful  juggles  of  his  master,  the 
 very  miracles  related  therein  are,  for  the  most  part,  ri- 
 diculous, unworthy  the  character  of  a  prophet,  and,  as 
 the  learned  Photius  speaks,  full  of  follies  and  monstrous 
 tales.  Nay,  in  the  highest  instance  of  his  miraculous 
 power,  namely,  his  raising  a  dead  woman  to  life  again, 
 1  Philostratus  himself  suspects,  as  he  says  the  company 
 did,  that  there  was  some  confederacy  and  collusion  in 
 the  matter  ;  but,  if  even  it  were  not  so,  the  doctrines 
 which  Apollonius  taught,  and  the  zeal  he  professed  for 
 the  Papan  idolatry,  together  with  his  excessive  pride, 
 ambition,  and  vain  affectation  of  divine  honours,  are  a 
 
 i  See  Vit.  Apoll.  b.  iv.  c.  16. 
 ln's  assistance,  was  enabled  to  perform  cures.  Before  he  appear- 
 ed in  a  public  character,  he  kept  silence  for  the  space  of  five 
 years;  but  as  he  did  not  totally  refrain  from  company,  he  usually 
 spoke  by  signs,  or,  when  there  was  a  necessity  for  it,  wrote  some 
 words.  After  this  five  years'  silence  he  came  to  Antioch,  and 
 there  endeavoured  to  improve  upon  the  Pagan  religion.  The 
 doctrines  which  he  taught  were  delivered  in  a  plain  preceptive 
 manner,  and  with  a  better  grace  and  authority  than  the  philoso- 
 phers at  that  time  were  accustomed  to.  After  some  stay  at 
 Antioch,  he  undertook  along  journey,  in  order  to  converse  with 
 the  Brachmans  of  India,  and,  in  his  way  to  visit  the  Persian 
 Magi.  At  Nineveh  he  contracted  an  acquaintance  with  one 
 Damis,  who  attended  him  ever  after,  and  wrote  an  account  of 
 his  life,  sayings,  and  actions,  which  have  been  transmitted  to  us 
 in  the  history  of  Philostratus  the  Sophist.  Upon  his  return  from 
 the  Indies  he  went  to  Ephesus,  where  he  was  received  with  all 
 the  tokens  of  respect  imaginable,  was  followed  and  admired  by 
 people  of  all  ranks  and  conditions,  and  by  making  his  observations 
 upon  the  chirping  of  a  bird,  which  came  to  call  its  companions  to 
 pick  up  some  corn  which  happened  to  be  spilt,  gained  himself  the 
 reputation  of  a  very  great  prophet.  From  Ephesus  he  removed 
 to  Athens,  where  he  instructed  the  people  in  the  ceremonies  of 
 their  religion ;  in  the  manner,  and  time,  and  place,  of  their  of- 
 fering up  sacrifices,  libations,  and  prayers,  with  other  supersti- 
 tious rites;  and  where,  by  commanding  a  devil  to  go  out  of  a 
 young  man,  and  in  token  of  his  being  dispossessed,  to  overturn  a 
 statue  which  stood  by,  he  obtained  the  character  of  a  mighty 
 worker  of  miracles.  In  the  twelfth  year  of  Nero  he  came  to 
 Rome,  where,  having  spoken  some  disrespectful  words  against 
 the  emperor,  he  was  prosecuted  by  his  favourite,  Tigellinus; 
 but,  to  his  great  surprise,  when  his  prosecutor  opened  the  bill 
 of  accusation  against  him,  he  found  nothing  but  a  fair  piece 
 of  paper,  without  one  word  written  in  it;  and  not  long  after, 
 upon  his  restoring  a  young  woman,  who  seemed  to  fall  down 
 dead  as  she  was  going  to  be  married,  to  life  again,  he  was 
 accounted  by  all  a  great  magician  at  least,  if  not  a  person  sent 
 from  heaven.  When  Nero  ordered  all  philosophers  to  depart 
 from  Rome,  he  left  the  place,  and,  to  pass  by  other  circumstances 
 of  his  itinerant  life,  he  was  in  Asia  Minor,  when  Domitian 
 ordered  him  to  be  apprehended  for  speaking  with  some  freedom 
 against  his  tyranny,  and  sent  to  Rome:  where,  notwithstanding 
 the  emperor's  cruel  usage  of  him,  he  behaved  with  incredible 
 magnanimity,  and,  upon  his  trial,  being  honourably  acquitted, 
 immediately  vanished  out  of  the  court,  and  was  that  very  day 
 sien  at  Puteoli,  which  is  very  near  fifty  leagues  from  Rome. 
 When  Domitian  was  slain,  he  resided  at  Ephesus;  and,  as  he 
 Mas  then  discoursing  to  the  people,  he  gave  them  to  understand, 
 that  the  fatal  stab  was  that  moment  given  him ;  which  accord- 
 ingly proved  true ;  for  not  long  after  an  express  arrived,  that 
 Domitian  was  dispatched  in  the  manner  he  had  mentioned,  and 
 Nerva  unanimously  declared  emperor.  Nerva,  upon  his  acces- 
 sion to  the  throne,  is  said  to  have  sent  Apollonius  a  letter,  de- 
 siring him  to  come  and  assist  at  his  councils,  to  which  he  return- 
 ed an  answer  by  his  servant  Damis ;  but  before  Damis  came  back 
 bis  master  was  dead;  though  as  to  the  place  and  manner  of  his 
 death,  we  have  no  certain  account.     After  his  death,  however  , 
 
 — xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 plain  indication  that  his  miracles  were  false,  and  his  most 
 surprising  performances  either  the  effects  of  magic,  or 
 downright  cheat  and  imposture. 
 
 Tacitus  2  indeed  tells  us  of  two  cures,  one  of  a  blind 
 and  the  other  of  a  lame  person,  which  Vespasian  pre- 
 tended to  work  at  Alexandria ;  but,  whosoever  reflects 
 on  the  situation  of  his  affairs  at  that  time,  will  perceive 
 some  reason  to  suspect  a  collusion.  He  was  now  in  a 
 dispute  with  himself  what  to  do,  whether  to  assume  the 
 Roman  empire,  or  restore  the  ancient  form  of  govern- 
 ment, a  commonwealth.  The  restoration  of  the  latter, 
 was  what  Dion  and  Euphrates,  two  eminent  philosophers, 
 advised ;  but  Apollonius,  whom  he  likewise  consulted 
 upon  this  occasion,  with  great  vehemence  persuaded  the 
 contrary,  and,  being  himself  accustomed  to  such  artifi- 
 ces, might  not  improbably  suggest  to  Vespasian  the 
 necessity  of  some  miracle  or  other,  in  order  to  recom- 
 
 2  Hist.  b.  iv. 
 
 he  had  statues  erected,  and  divine  worship  paid  to  him ;  but,  as 
 he  left  few  or  no  disciples  behind  him,  his  memory,  which  for  a 
 little  while  was  greatly  honoured,  dwindled  away  by  degrees,  and, 
 upon  the  downfall  of  idolatry,  utterly  ceased.     This  account  we 
 have  from  Philostratus,  who,  from  the  commentaries  of  Damis. 
 and  a  book  of  one  Maximus,  which  he  happened  to  light  upon, 
 wrote  the  life  of  Appollonius,  above  an  hundred  and  twenty  years 
 after  his  death :  but  whoever  looks  into  it  will  see  how  much  his 
 fabulous  history  falls  short  of  the  gravity  and  simplicity  of  the 
 gospel.     The  truth  is,  Julia,  the  wife  of  the  emperor  Severus, 
 affected  to  be  thought  a  learned  woman,  and  therefore  she  set  up 
 for  a  wit,  which  was  attended  with  au   immoderate  desire  and 
 thirst  after  novelty.     She  was  continually  surrounded  with  poets, 
 sophists,  grammarians,  &c.      Philostratus  made  one  of  the  num- 
 ber, and  from  her  he  had  the  memoirs  of  Damis,  to  which  lie 
 added,  either  from  common  fame,  or  his  own  fancy,  whatever  he 
 thought  would  hit  the  taste  of  the  empress,  or  work  himself  into 
 the  favour  of  Caracalla,  who  had  Apollonius  in  high  esteem, 
 and  were  both  great  admirers  of  the  marvellous.     So  that,  where- 
 ever  the  subject  came  not  up   to  the   magnificence   which  the 
 author  desired,  he  usually  added  all  the  ornaments  which  his 
 imagination  could  invent,  and,  without  any  regard  to  truth,  or 
 even  probability  itself,  witness  the  conversation  between  Apol- 
 lonius and  the  ghost  of  Achilles,  and  the  long  digressions  on  the 
 panthers  of  Armenia,  the  elephants,  the  phcenix,  the  satyrs,  the 
 pygmies,  &c,  made  it  not  so  much  an  history,  as  a  wild  ro- 
 mance ;  in  which   light  all  the  great  men,  not  only  Christians 
 but  Pagans,  and  ancient  as  well  as  modems,  that  have  had  occa- 
 tion  to  mention  it,  look  upon  it.     Philostratus,   however,  might 
 have  a  farther  design  in  writing  the  life  of  Apollonius:  for,  as 
 the  Cliristian  religion,  by  the  strength  of  its  miracles,  had  now 
 made  its  way  in  the  world,  those  who  endeavoured  to  oppose  it, 
 and  yet  could  not  deny  the  reality  of  its  facts,  were  at  length  re- 
 duced to  this  expedient,  namely,  to  produce  miracles  in  Pagan- 
 ism, and  every  other   argument  that  they  thought  Christianity 
 could  boast  of,  by  way  of  contraposition.     As  therefore  the  ac- 
 tions of  Jesus  were  handed  down  to  us  by  the  four  evangelists, 
 who  wrote  an  account  of  the  principal  occurrences  of  his  life,  so 
 they,  in  like  manner,  set  about  writing  the  lives  of  their  philoso- 
 phers, iu  hopes  of  finding  their  account  in  thus  opposing  miracles 
 to  miracles,  and  magic  to  the  power  of  God:  and,  for  this  reason, 
 they  have  been  more  especially  careful  to  accommodate  the  trans- 
 actions of  their  great  men  to  the  more  remarkable  passages  in 
 our  Saviour's  life,  as  the  learned  Huetius  shows,  in  many  in- 
 stances relating  to  Apollonius,  and  thereupon  concludes  in  these 
 words:   "  Philostratus  besides  seems  to  have  had  for  his  object, 
 the  depression   of  the  increasing  belief  on  Christ  and  his  doc- 
 trine, by  setting  up  this  fictitious  image  of  every  doctrine  of 
 holiness  and  wonderful  virtue.     Wherefore  he  formed  this  image 
 in  imitation  of  Christ,  and  accommodated  to  Apollonius  several 
 things  belonging  to  the  history  of  our  Saviour,  that  the  Gentiles 
 might  envy  the  Christians  in   nothing." — See   Huet.   Bemonst. 
 Evang.  p.  566. — Flcury's  Eccles.  Hist. — Tcllemont's  Hist  des 
 Empereurs,  vol.  2;  and  a  Dissert,  at  the  end  of  the  Translat.of 
 Houteville,s  Crit.  and  Hist.  Discourse. 
 
Sect.  II.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &< 
 
 985 
 
 A.M.  4035.  A.  D.31;  OR,  A.M.  5440.  A.  D.  29.  FROM  M  AT.  xii.  1- 
 
 tnend  him  to  the  people  as  a  person  highly  favoured  by 
 the  gods. 
 
 And  indeed  if  we  consider  what  an  obscure  person, 
 and  of  what  mean  original,  Vespasian  was,  there  seems 
 to  be  the  greater  reason  why  Apollonius,  and  others  of 
 that  party  should  think  of  some  expedient  or  other  to 
 raise  him  a  reputation  in  the  world,  answerable  to  the 
 new  station  of  life  they  had  advised  him  to  accept :  and, 
 whoever  considers  farther,  '  what  various  artifices  were 
 .at  that  time  made  use  of,  to  procure  an  opinion  of  divi- 
 nity in  the  emperors,  will  not  much  wonder,  that  such 
 report  should  be  spread  of  them,  or  that  certain  persons 
 should  be  suborned  to  feign  such  distempers,  and  then 
 to  give  it  out,  that  the  touch  of  the  emperor's  hand  had 
 cured  them;  though  it  must  be  confessed,  2  some  are  of 
 opinion,  that  what  is  reported  of  Vespasian  to  this  pur- 
 pose, cannot  fairly  be  denied,  and  might  perhaps  be 
 providentially  intended,  to  give  some  dignity  and 
 superior  character  to  a  person,  who  in  conjunction 
 with  his  son  Titus,  was  appointed  by  God  to  be  a  sig- 
 nal instrument  of  the  divine  vengeance  on  the  Jewish 
 nation. 
 
 Allowing  then,  that  God,  for  wise  ends  of  his  provi- 
 dence, might,  now  and  then,  permit  some  eminent  person 
 to  do  a  real  miracle  ;  yet  what  is  this  to  that  vast  number 
 and  great  variety  recorded  of  our  Saviour,  who,  in  the 
 small  space  of  his  ministry,  did  more  wonderful  works  of 
 this  kind,  than  what  Moses  and  all  the  prophets  put  toge- 
 ther, from  the  earliest  account  of  time  that  we  read  of,  are 
 known  to  have  done. 
 
 a  The  Jews  indeed,  to  swell  the  account  of  Moses's 
 miracles,  reckon  each  of  those  that  he  did  in  Egypt  dou- 
 ble ;  one,  as  a  miracle  of  justice,  in  punishing  Pharaoh 
 and  his  people,  and  the  other  as  a  miracle  of  mercy,  in 
 preserving  the  Israelites  from  the  like  destruction.  But, 
 after  all  their  pains  and  contrivance,  the  sum  amounts  to 
 very  little,  in  comparison  to  the  many  that  are  recorded 
 of  our  blessed  Saviour.  The  miracles  of  all  the  pro- 
 phets put  together,  by  the  Jews  on  computation,  do  not 
 equal  those  of  Moses  ;  and  yet  we  must  remember,  that 
 Moses  lived  an  hundred  and  twenty  years,  forty  of  which 
 were  one  continued  scene  of  action  ;  and  that  the  com- 
 pass of  the  prophets,  from  the  creation  of  the  world,  to 
 the  destruction  of  the  second  temple,  includes  three 
 thousand  and  some  hundreds.  Lay  this  together,  and  it 
 evidently  follows  that  such  extraordinary  demonstrations 
 of  the  divine  presence  and  power  were  very  thin,  and 
 sparingly  exhibited,  when  set  against  the  innumerable 
 instances  of  them,  in  the  three,  or,  at  most,  four  years' 
 preaching  of  the  blessed  Jesus.  And,  if  the  wonders  re- 
 lated by  the  evangelists,  as  done  by  himself,  in  so  short 
 a  time,  do  far  exceed  what  both  Moses  and  all  the  pro- 
 phets did,  what  shall  we  say  to  those  many  more  that  are 
 not  related  ?  What  to  the  infinitely  more  still,  that  were 
 done  by  the  apostles  and  disciples,  in  confirmation  of 
 the  doctrine  he  had  taught  ?  Doubtless,  the  miraculous 
 power  which  he  communicated  to  them  was  infinitely 
 great,  when,  in  order  to  obtain  cures,  4  '  the  people 
 brought  forth  the  sick  into  the  streets,  and  laid  them  on 
 beds,  that  at  least  the  shadow  of  Peter  passing  by  might 
 
 1  Stillingfleet's  Orig.  Sac.  p.  171. 
 
 2  See  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  i.  p.  62. 
 
 8  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures.     4  Acts  v.  15,  10. 
 
 ■xvii.  14.  MARKii.  23-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.l. 
 
 overshadow  some  of  them  ;'  and  when,  from  5  '  Paul's 
 body  were  brought  unto  the  sick  handkerchiefs,  and 
 aprons,  and  the  diseases  parted  from  them,  andevil  spirits 
 went  out  of  them.' 
 
 To  sum  up  what  has  been  said  on  this  subject.  Since 
 a  real  miracle  is  such  an  operation  as  can  be  done  by 
 none  but  God,  or  such  as  are  appointed  by  him,  and  was 
 therefore,  in  all  ages,  acknowledged  as  an  authentic 
 proof  of  a  divine  mission ;  since  the  prophets,  in  their 
 predictions  of  the  Messiah,  represent  him  as  working 
 miracles  of  a  kind  and  merciful  nature  ;  and  our  Saviour, 
 when  he  entered  upon  his  ministry,  and  assumed  that 
 character,  displayed  a  wonderful  power  in  works  of  the 
 same  kind ;  since  that  power  could  proceed  from  no 
 other  cause  but  a  communication  from  God,  and  yet  to 
 imagine,  that  God  would  communicate  any  part  of  his 
 power  to  give  sanction  to  an  impostor,  is  a  thing  repug- 
 nant to  his  sacred  attributes  ;  since,  upon  examination, 
 it  appears,  that  all  the  marks  and  characters  of  true  mi- 
 racles concur  in  the  works  of  Jesus,  but  violent  suspi- 
 cions of  trick  and  artifice  in  those  that  are  named  in 
 competition  with  him ;  since  besides  these  characters  of 
 their  truth,  the  number  of  those  which  he  did,  besides 
 those  that  were  done  by  persons  acting  in  his  name,  and 
 by  his  authority,  was  greater  than  what  all  the  true  work- 
 ers of  miracles,  namely,  Moses,  and  the  prophets,  had 
 done  through  the  whole  compass  of  the  Old  Testament : 
 since  these  things  appear  to  be  thus,  1  say,  we  are  under 
 a  necessity  to  conclude,  that  our  blessed  Saviour  must 
 have  been  the  true  Messiah  promised  to  the  Jews,  and 
 characterized  in  the  writings  of  their  prophets  ;  that  he 
 was  the  great  messenger  of  the  covenant  sent  from  God  ; 
 for  6  '  if  he  had  not  been  of  God,  he  could  have  done 
 nothing  ;'  and  consequently,  that  the  message  which  he 
 delivered  to  us,  containing  this  covenant,  or,  what  is  all 
 one,  that  the  religion  which  he  hath  settled  in  the  world, 
 and  confirmed  by  so  many  incontestible  proofs,  so  far 
 as  the  testimony  of  miracles  is  available,  cannot  but  be 
 true. 
 
 CHAP.  IV.— On  miracles. 
 
 Supplemental  by  the  editor. 
 
 The  preceding  dissertation  on  miracles  is  satisfactory, 
 so  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  does  not  meet  all  the  objections 
 which  the  ingenuity  of  modern  infidelity  has  devised 
 with  regard  to  this  branch  of  the  Christian  evidences. 
 The  object  of  this  chapter  is  to  supply  the  author's 
 deficiencies,  and  to  present  the  reader  with  a  comprehen- 
 sive view  of  the  arguments  by  which  the  objections  of 
 the  infidel  may  be  refuted,  and  the  truth  of  Scripture 
 miracles  completely  demonstrated. 
 
 The  advocates  of  Revealed  religion  affirm,  without 
 any  fear  of  refutation,  that  the  argument  resulting  from 
 the  completion  of  prophecy  is  one  that  is  continually  in- 
 creasing in  force  ;  while  they  are  often  as  ready  to  ad- 
 mit, that  the  argument  from  miracles  diminishes  in 
 proportion  as  we  recede  farther  from  the  apostolic 
 times.     But  we  shall  endeavour  to  show,  that  this  is  a 
 
 Actsxix.  11,  12. 
 6  i 
 
 6  John  ix.  33. 
 
936 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.   MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  yi.  1—  ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1-vii.  I. 
 
 concession  which  need  not  be  made  :  but  that  ne  have  as 
 good  reason  to  believe  the  miraculous  facts  of  Scripture, 
 as  any  except  eye-witnesses,  or  those  who  received 
 their  information  immediately  from  the  lips  of  eye- 
 witnesses. 
 
 The  evidence  flowing  from  the  performance  of  mira- 
 cles is  indeed  so  summary  and  convincing,  that  it  may 
 be  stated  satisfactorily  in  very  few  words  :  for  this  reason, 
 however,  as  it  should  seem,  it  has  been  selected  by  in- 
 genious unbelievers  to  exercise  their  dexterity  and 
 acumen  upon  ;  and  thus  it  becomes  requisite  to  discuss 
 this  subject  with  a  minuteness  and  comparative  prolixity 
 which  might,  otherwise,  have  been  altogether  avoided. 
 
 By  miracles,  we  do  not  mean  "juggling  tricks,"  but 
 supernatural  events.  This  genuine  notion  of  miracles 
 lias  been  sometimes  obscured  by  definition;  yet  a  candid 
 inquirer  after  truth  cannot  well  mistake.  Most  of  the 
 opinions  entertained  by  men  of  good  sense,  apart  from 
 any  controversial  views  as  to  this  topic  are  correct.  No 
 man  would  think  that  curing  lameness,  by  a  regular 
 surgical  or  medical  process,  was  miraculous  :  every  man 
 would  say  that  the  instantaneous  production  of  a  limb, 
 and  "  making  the  maimed  whole,"  was  miraculous.  And 
 this  exactly  reaches  the  logical  scientific  notion  of  mir- 
 acles :  for,  when  such  effects  are  produced  as,  cccteris 
 paribus,  are  usually  produced,  God  is  said  to  operate 
 according  to  the  common  course  of  nature  :  but  when 
 such  effects  are  produced  as  are,  cceteris  paribus,  con- 
 trary to,  or  different  from,  that  common  course,  they  are 
 said  to  be  miraculous."' 
 
 Now  no  man  will  presume  to  affirm  that  it  is  impossible 
 a  teacher  should  be  sent  from  God.  It  may  be  necessary 
 that  one  should  be  sent ;  and  we  think  that  a  train  of 
 observation  and  deduction  of  facts  might  readily  be 
 produced  to  establish  that  necessity.  If  one  or  more 
 be  sent,  they  must  bring  credentials  to  evince  that  their 
 mission  is  divine  ;  and  what  can  those  credentials  be  but 
 miracles  ?  In  fact,  the  very  idea  of  a  revelation  includes 
 that  of  miracles.  A  revelation  cannot  be  made  but  by 
 a  miraculous  interposition  of  Deity  :  so  that  the  proba- 
 bility of  a  revelation  implies  a  correspondent  probability 
 of  the  occurrence  of  miracles ;  and  the  necessity  of  a 
 revelation,  a  like  necessity  of  miracles.  Nay,  we  may 
 venture  to  affirm  farther,  that  there  is  a  mutual  and 
 necessary  correlation  between  the  two  ;  for,  as,  on  the 
 one  hand,  miracles,  or  prophecies,  which  are  in  fact 
 miraculous,  being  contrary  to  the  course  of  nature,  are 
 necessary  to  prove  the  divine  authority  of  an  agent ;  so, 
 on  the  other  hand,  the  performance  of  uncontrolled 
 miracles,  or  the  delivery  of  true  predictions,  immedi- 
 ately suggests  to  the  mind  the  conviction  that  they  have 
 been  permitted  solely  for  the  purpose  of  proving  that 
 the  person,  by  whom  they  are  performed,  is  employed 
 by  God  to  do  something,  or  reveal  something,  which 
 mankind  would  not  have  known  in  any  other  way. 
 
 It  is,  one  would  suppose,  almost  an  intuitive  truth, 
 that,  when  a  person  performs  evident  and  uncontrolled 
 miracles  in  proof  of  any  doctrine,  those  who  have  suffi- 
 cient evidence  of  the  reality  of  such  miracles  ought  to 
 admit  the  doctrine  to  be  true,  or  from  God.  At  all 
 events,  the  proposition  is  easily  deduced  from  a  few 
 steps  of  obvious  reasoning ;  limiting  it,  as  we  have  done, 
 with  Baxter,  Barrow,  and  Chandler,  to  uncontrolled 
 miracles,  or  those  the  apparent  design  of  which  is  not 
 
 contradicted  either  by  the  absurdity  of  the  thing  they  ar« 
 intended  to  prove,  or  by  some  equal  or  greater  miracles 
 opposed  to  them.  We  thus  exclude  every  thing  like 
 juggling  from  the  idea  of  miracles ;  and  at  the  same 
 time  free  ourselves  from  all  consideration  of  pretended 
 miracles,  such  as  those  performed  by  the  Egyptian 
 magicians,  with  the  permission  or  the  performance  of 
 which,  as  they  were  controlled,  we  have  nothing  to  do. 
 The  reasoning  from  which  our  proposition  flows  is  simply 
 this  :  a  genuine  miracle  cannot  be  performed  without  an 
 extraordinary  divine  interposition,  either  mediate  or 
 immediate.  If  the  Supreme  Being  would  confirm  the 
 truth  of  a  proposition  to  one  man,  by  the  testimony  of 
 another  to  whom  it  was  immediately  revealed,  we  can 
 conceive  no  method  by  which  it  would  be  so  effectually 
 accomplished,  as  by  conferring  on  him  power  to  work  a 
 miracle  in  confirmation  of  it.  When  a  miracle  is  un- 
 controlled, we  can  conjecture  no  particular  by  which  it 
 can  be  distinguished  from  a  miracle  wrought  to  confirm 
 a  truth.  If  God  were  to  suffer  an  uncontrolled  miracle 
 to  be  wrought  in  confirmation  of  a  falsehood,  there 
 would  seem  to  be  no  criterion  by  which  his  testimony 
 could  be  distinguished.  It  is  inconsistent  with  the  wis- 
 dom and  goodness  of  God,  to  suffer  an  uncontrolled 
 miracle  to  be  wrought  to  establish  a  falsehood  ;  since  it 
 would  leave  his  creatures  in  a  perpetual  uncertainty,  and 
 an  uncertainty  that  would  be  most  painful  to  the  most 
 virtuous,  who  have  always  most  wished  for  a  revelation. 
 Since,  therefore,  God  is  both  wise  and  good,  it  follows 
 that  a  proposition,  attested  by  uncontrolled  miracles,  is 
 attested  by  him,  and  is  of  necessity  true. 
 
 From  this  reasoning  it  is  natural  to  expect,  that  in 
 the  Scripture  history  there  should  be  recorded  many 
 miracles ;  and  thus,  on  examining  the  sacred  volume,, 
 are  our  expectations  realized.  The  faith  of  Moses  was 
 confirmed  by  the  miracle  of  the  burning,  yet  uncon- 
 sumed,  bush.  Moses  convinced  the  children  of  Israel 
 that  God  employed  him  to  lead  them  out  of  Egypt,  by 
 performing  miracles  by  means  of  his  rod  :  he  appealed 
 to  similar  miracles  before  Pharaoh  for  the  same  pur- 
 pose :  the  passage  through  the  Red  Sea,  which  opened 
 to  deliver  the  Israelites  from  the  Egyptians,  who  were 
 afterwards  swallowed  up  in  the  collapsing  waters,  was 
 miraculous  :  the  gushing  of  waters  from  a  solid  rock,  on 
 its  being  struck  by  Moses,  was  miraculous ;  the  passage 
 of  the  river  Jordan,  under  Joshua,  the  standing  still  of 
 the  sun  and  moon  at  his  command,  and  the  falling  of  the 
 walls  of  Jericho,  were  miraculous  :  the  sacrifice  kindled 
 by  fire  from  heaven  ;  the  raising  of  the  Shunamite's  and 
 of  the  widow  of  Sarepta's  sons ;  the  destruction  of  the 
 captains  and  their  fifties  by  fire  from  heaven  ;  the  divid- 
 ing of  the  waters  of  Jordan  by  means  of  the  mantle  of 
 Elijah,  and  the  translation  of  that  prophet,  are  events  of 
 the  same  class;  and  so  are  those  recorded  in  Daniel, 
 respecting  the  fiery  furnace  and  the  den  of  lions.  From 
 the  numerous  New  Testament  miracles,  beginning  with 
 that  wrought  at  the  marriage  at  Cana,  we  cannot  attempt 
 to  make  an  adequate  selection.  Though  it  may  be 
 proper  to  remark,  that  those  performed  by  Jesus  Christ 
 differed  essentially  from  others  :  Moses  could  not  work 
 miracles  without  his  rod;  the  apostles  performed  theirs, 
 for  the  most  part  expressly,  and  always  virtually,  '  in 
 the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth:'  the  Messiah 
 exerted    miraculous   power  from   himself,  without   any 
 
Sbct.  II U 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &( 
 
 987 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  54U.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23-ix.  U.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— rii.  1. 
 
 reference  to  another.  And,  farther,  the  miracles  of 
 Jesus  Christ  were  uniformly  benevolent: — he  cured  the 
 sick, — he  healed  the  lame,  he  made  the  maimed  whole, 
 — he  made  the  deaf  to  hear,  the  blind  to  see,  the  dumb 
 to  speak,  he  raised  the  dead,  and  finally  he  raised  him- 
 self; thus  evincing-  at  once  the  greatest  miracle,  and  the 
 sublimest  act  of  benevolence  ;  for,  as  he  '  died  for  our 
 sins,'  so  he  '  rose  again  for  our  justification.'  So 
 numerous,  indeed,  and  so  beneficial  were  his  miracles, 
 that '  the  multitude  were  astonished,  saying,  it  was  never 
 seen  so  in  Israel ;'  and  well  might  their  astonishment  be 
 excited,  as  our  Lord  wrought  more  benevolent  miracles 
 in  one  afternoon,  (See  Mat.  ix.  18 — 34.)  than  had  been 
 performed  by  any  of  the  prophets  in  all  their  lives. 
 
 That  one  great  object,  kept  in  view  by  Christ  and  his 
 apostles  in  performing  miracles,  was  to  furnish  awaken- 
 ing and  convincing  proofs  of  their  divine  mission,  is 
 evident  from  the  uniform  tenor  of  the  New  Testament 
 Histories.  The  language  of  the  Jewish  Ruler  was  the 
 pure  unadulterated  language  of  common  sense,  the  force 
 of  which  all  the  sophistry  in  the  world  cannot  weaken  : 
 '  Rabbi,  we  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from 
 God  :  for  no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that  thou  doest, 
 except  God  be  with  him.'  (John  iii.  2.)  The  chief 
 priests  and  the  Pharisees  had  the  same  conviction  ;  for, 
 said  they,  after  Lazarus  was  raised  from  the  dead,  '  this 
 man  doeth  many  miracles  :  if  we  let  him  alone,  all  will 
 believe  on  him.'  (John  xi.  47,  48.)  Jesus  Christ  him- 
 self appeals  to  his  miracles  :  '  I  have  greater  witnesses, 
 says  he,  than  that  of  John,  for  the  works  which  the 
 Father  hath  given  me  to  finish,  the  works  that  I  do, 
 bear  witness  of  me,  that  the  Father  hath  sent  me.'  (John 
 v.  36.)  And  again,  when  the  Jews  asked  him,  if  thou  be 
 the  Christ  tell  us  plainly.  How  long  dost  thou  make 
 us  to  doubt  ?  Jesus  answered,  '  the  works  that  I  do, 
 they  bear  witness  of  me.  If  I  do  not  the  works  of  my 
 Father,  believe  me  not.  But  if  I  do,  though  ye  believe 
 not  me,  believe  the  works  ;  that  ye  may  know  and  believe 
 that  the  Father  is  in  me,  and  I  in  him.'  '  If  I  had  not 
 done  among  them  the  works  which  none  other  man  did, 
 they  had  not  had  sin.'  (John  x.  24,  25,  37,  38 ;  xv.  24.) 
 And  on  another  occasion,  when  John  sent  his  disciples 
 to  Christ  to  ask,  '  Art  thou  He  that  should  come,  or  do 
 we  look  for  another  ?  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto 
 them,  go  and  show  John  again  those  things  which  ye  do 
 hear  and  see  :  the  blind  receive  their  sight,  and  the  lame 
 walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear,  the 
 dead  are  raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  the  gospel 
 preached  unto  them.'  (Mat  xi.  3,  4,  5.)  In  like  manner, 
 with  regard  to  the  apostles,  '  God  also  bare  them  wit- 
 ness, both  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with  divers 
 miracles,  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  according  to  his 
 own  will.'  (Heb.  ii.  4.  Acts  xiv.  9;  x.  38,  39,  &o^) 
 
 Consistently  with  this,  the  early  Christian  writers  and 
 apologists,  in  all  those  cases  where  they  do  not  assume 
 the  history  as  true,  and  thence  argue  that  Jesus  ought 
 to  be  received  as  the  Messiah,  appeal  in  very  express 
 terms  to  his  miracles.  Thus  Quadrates  appeals  very 
 strongly  to  those  miracles.  Justin  Martyr  asserts  the 
 performance  of  miracles  by  Jesus  in  as  forcible  words  as 
 language  will  admit,  and  assigns  the  reason  why  he 
 rather  had  recourse  to  the  argument  from  prophecy,  than 
 that  from  miracles;  namely,  that  his  opponents  would 
 ascribe  the  latter  to  magic.     Iremeus,  Lactantius,  Ter- 
 
 tullian,Origen,  Augustin,  and  Jerome,  speak  of  Christ's 
 miracles,  and  often,  indeed,  of  those  wrought  subse- 
 quently to  the  apostolic  times,  and  notice  the  same 
 evasion  on  the  part  of  the  adversaries  to  Christianity. 
 
 It  is  highly  worthy  of  remark,  too,  that  none  of  the 
 early  opposers  of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  pretend  to  dis- 
 pute that  he  performed  miracles.  Lucian,  Julian,  Por- 
 phyry, Hierocles,  Celsus,  &c,  admit  that  miracles  were 
 wrought.  Julian,  it  is  true,  endeavours  to  make  light 
 of  them,  and  wonders  that  so  much  stir  should  be  made 
 about  a  person,  who  merely  '  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
 blind,  restored  limbs  to  the  lame,  and  delivered  persons 
 possessed.'  Celsus,  again,  ridicules  the  miracles,  but 
 never  disputes  that  they  occurred.  "  Well,  said  he, 
 suppose  that  you  really  did  those  things  that  ye  talk  of; 
 pray  must  we  deem  the  persons  who  perform  such 
 wonderful  operations  to  be  sons  of  God  ;  or  must  we  not 
 rather  deem  them  vile  wretches,  well  versed  in  a  diaboli- 
 cal art  ?"  Now,  who  can  imagine,  for  a  moment,  that 
 so  violent  an  opposer  of  Christianity  would  have  ad- 
 mitted the  miracles  of  Christ  as  real  facts,  had  he  not 
 been  compelled  to  it  by  the  universal  consent  of  all 
 inquiring  men  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived?  Hence  it 
 may  be  asked,  with  Mr  F.  Cunningham,  "  whether 
 modern  inridels  who  have  ventured  to  contradict  the 
 miracles  of  Christ,  a  weapon  Celsus  was  afraid  to  take 
 up,  have  estimated  the  rashness  of  their  enterprise  ?  Are 
 they  competent  to  deny  what  a  spectator  no  less  male- 
 volent than  themselves  was  compelled  to  admit  ?  Has  the 
 lapse  of  eighteen  hundred  years  enabled  them  to  ascertain 
 a  fact  of  daily  occurrence  with  more  accuracy  than  a  by- 
 stander ?  Are  objects  best  seen  at  the  greatest  distance  ?" 
 
 Thus  it  appears,  that  we  have  the  most  marked  and 
 direct  testimony  of  the  friends  of  Revealed  religion, 
 those,  too,  who  had  been  converted  from  heathenism  by 
 the  weight  of  its  evidence,  and  the  concessions  of  its 
 enemies,  in  favour  of  those  miracles,  which  were  per- 
 formed in  order  to  prove  that  the  religion  came  from 
 God;  and  this  testimony,  and  these  concessions,  were 
 delivered  so  near  the  period  in  which  the  miracles  were 
 supposed  to  have  been  wrought,  that  they  cannot  be 
 accounted  for  in  any  other  way  than  by  admitting  that 
 both  Christians  and  unbelievers,  in  the  early  ages,  were 
 convinced  that  something  which  required  more  than 
 human  energy  had  occurred.  AVhy,  then,  should  this  be 
 disputed  in  these  remote  ages  ? 
 
 Voltaire  and  Mr  Hume  will  answer  this  question,  by  tell- 
 ing us  in  effect,  though  not  in  express  words, "  that  since 
 miracles  are  not  wrought  now,  they  never  were  wrought 
 at  all." 
 
 The  substance  of  Mr  Hume's  argument,  which  I  de- 
 scribe, because  almost  all  later  Deists  have  echoed  his 
 sentiments,  is  this:  "experience,  which  in  some  things 
 is  variable,  in  others  is  uniform,  is  our  only  guide  in 
 reasoning  concerning-  matters  of  fact.  Variable  experi- 
 ence gives  rise  to  probability  only  ;  a  uniform  experience 
 amounts  to  proof.  Our  belief  of  any  fact,  from  the 
 testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  is  derived  from  no  other 
 principle  than  our  experience  of  the  veracity  of  human 
 testimony.  If  the  fact  attested  be  miraculous,  there 
 arises  a  contest  of  two  opposite  experiences,  or  proof 
 against  proof.  Now,  a  miracle  is  a  violation  of  the  laws 
 of  nature  ;  and  as  a  firm  and  unalterable  experience  has 
 established  these   laws,  the    proof   against   a   miracle 
 
988 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI IT. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1—  xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I, 
 
 from  the  very  nature  of  the  fact,  is  as  complete  as  any 
 argument  from  experience  can  possible  be  imagined ; 
 and  if  so,  it  is  an  undeniable  consequence,  that  it  can- 
 not be  surmounted  by  any  proof  whatever  derived  from 
 human  testimony." 
 
 Now,  to  this  reasoning,  or  the  most  prominent  and 
 essential  parts  of  it,  several  decisive  answers  have  been, 
 or  may  be  given.  A  few  of  these  may  properly  find  a 
 place  here. 
 
 I.  Dr  Campbell,  in  his  celebrated  "  Dissertation  on 
 Miracles,"  shows  the  fallacy  of  Mr  Hume's  argument 
 thus :  "  The  evidence  arising  from  human  testimony  is 
 not  solely  derived  from  experience  :  on  the  contrary, 
 testimony  has  a  natural  influence  on  belief,  antecedent 
 to  experience.  The  early  and  unlimited  assent  given 
 to  testimony  by  children,  gradually  contracts  as  they 
 advance  in  life  :  it  is,  therefore,  more  consonant  to  truth 
 to  say,  that  our  diffidence  in  testimony  is  the  result  of 
 experience,  than  that  our  faith  in  it  has  this  foundation. 
 Besides,  the  uniformity  of  experience  in  favour  of  any 
 fact  is  not  a  proof  against  its  being  reversed  in  a  par- 
 ticular instance.  The  evidence  arising  from  the  single 
 testimony  of  a  man  of  known  veracity  will  go  farther  to 
 establish  a  belief  of  its  being  actually  reversed.  If  his 
 testimony  be  confirmed  by  a  few  others  of  the  same 
 character,  we  cannot  withhold  our  assent  to  the  truth  of 
 it.  Now,  though  the  operations  of  nature  are  governed 
 by  uniform  laws,  and  though  we  have  not  the  testimony 
 of  our  senses  in  favour  of  any  violation  of  them  ;  still  if, 
 in  particular  instances,  we  have  the  testimony  of  thou- 
 sands of  our  fellow-creatures,  and  those,  too,  men  of 
 strict  integrity,  swayed  by  no  motives  of  ambition  or 
 interest,  and  governed  by  the  principles  of  common 
 sense,  that  they  were  actually  witnesses  of  these  viola- 
 tions, the  constitution  of  our  nature  obliges  us  to  believe 
 them." 
 
 II.  Mr  Hume's  reasoning  is  founded  upon  too  limited 
 a  view  of  the  laws  and  course  of  nature.  If  we  consider 
 things  duly,  we  shall  find  that  lifeless  matter  is  utterly 
 incapable  of  obeying  any  laws,  or  of  being  endued  with 
 any  powers:  and,  therefore,  what  is  usually  called  the 
 course  of  nature  can  be  nothing  else  than  the  arbitrary 
 will  and  pleasure  of  God,  acting  continually  upon  matter 
 according  to  certain  rules  of  uniformity,  still  bearing  a 
 relation  to  contingencies.  So  that  it  is  as  easy  for  the 
 Supreme  Being  to  alter  what  men  think  the  course  of 
 nature,  as  to  preserve  it.  Those  effects,  which  are 
 produced  in  the  world  regularly  and  indesinently,  and 
 which  are  usually  termed  the  works  of  nature,  prove  the 
 constant  providence  of  Deity ;  those,  on  the  contrary, 
 which,  upon  any  extraordinary  occasion,  are  produced 
 in  such  a  manner  as  it  is  manifest  could  not  have  been 
 either  by  human  power,  or  by  what  is  called  chance, 
 prove  undeniably  the  immediate  interposition  of  the  Deity 
 on  that  especial  occasion.  God,  it  must  be  recollected, 
 is  the  governor  of  the  moral  as  well  as  of  the  physical 
 world ;  and  since  the  moral  well-being  of  the  universe 
 is  of  more  consequence  than  its  physical  order  and 
 regularity,  it  follows,  obviously,  that  the  laws,  conform 
 ably  with  which  the  material  world  seems  generally  to 
 be  regulated,  are  subservient,  and  may  occasionally 
 yield,  to  the  laws  by  which  the  moral  world  is  governed. 
 Although,  therefore,  a  miracle  is  contrary  to  the  usual 
 course  of  nature,  and  would  indeed  lose  its  beneficial 
 
 effect,  if  it  were  not  so,  it  cannot  thence  be  inferred 
 that  it  is  "a  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature,"  allowing 
 the  term  to  include  a  regard  to  moral  tendencies.  The 
 laws  by  which  a  wise  and  holy  God  governs  the  world, 
 cannot,  unless  he  is  pleased  to  reveal  them,  be  learned 
 in  any  other  way  than  from  testimony ;  since,  on  this 
 supposition,  nothing  but  testimony  can  bring  us  ac- 
 quainted with  the  whole  series  of  his  dispensations,  and 
 this  kind  of  knowledge  is  absolutely  necessary  pre- 
 viously to  our  correctly  inferring  those  laws.  Testi- 
 mony, therefore,  must  be  admitted  as  constituting  the 
 principal  means  of  discovering  the  real  laws  by  which 
 the  universe  has  been  regulated  ;  that  testimony  assures 
 us,  that  the  apparent  course  of  nature  has  often  been 
 interrupted  to  produce  important  moral  effects :  and  we 
 must  not  at  random  disregard  such  testimony,  because, 
 in  estimating  its  credibility,  we  ought  to  look  almost 
 infinitely  more  at  the  moral,  than  at  the  physical,  cir- 
 cumstances connected  with  any  particular  event. 
 
 III.  But  the  defence  of  miracles  against  the  objec- 
 tions of  infidels  need  not  be  thrown  wholly  upon  these 
 general  and  abstract  reasonings,  satisfactory  and  cogent 
 as  they  are.  The  miracles  recorded  in  Scripture,  and 
 especially  those  performed  by  Moses,  by  Jesus  Christ, 
 and  his  apostles,  are  accompanied  by  evidence  such  as 
 you  will  find  it  difficult  to  adduce  in  support  of  any 
 other  historic  fact,  and  such  as  cannot  possibly  be 
 brought  in  support  of  any  pretended  fact  whatever ; 
 evidence,  such  as  the  pretended  miracles  of  Mahomet- 
 anism,  and  those  of  the  Romish  church,  are  totally 
 destitute  of. 
 
 The  truth  of  a  matter  of  fact  may  be  positively  in- 
 ferred and  known,  if  it  be  attended  by  certain  criteria, 
 such  as  no  pretended  fact  can  possibly  have.  These 
 criteria  are  at  least  four.  It  is  required,  first,  that  the 
 fact  be  a  sensible  fact,  such  as  men's  outward  senses 
 can  judge  of:  secondly,  that  it  be  notorious,  performed 
 publicly  in  the  presence  of  witnesses :  thirdly,  that  there 
 be  memorials  of  it,  or  monuments,  actions,  and  customs, 
 kept  up  in  commemoration  of  it :  fourthly,  that  such 
 monuments  and  actions  commence  with  the  fact.  There 
 may  be  facts  in  favour  of  which  these  four  marks  cannot 
 be  produced  ;  but  the  argument  of  Leslie,  and  St  Real, 
 is,  that  whatever  has  all  these  four  marks  cannot  be 
 false. 
 
 For  example,  could  Moses  have  persuaded  six  hun- 
 dred thousand  men  that  he  had  led  them  throi«dj  the 
 Red  Sea  in  the  manner  related  in  Exodus,  or  have  in- 
 stituted the  passover  in  commemoration  of  the  destruc- 
 tion of  the  Egyptian  first-born,  if  these  circumstances 
 had  never  occurred "?  Could  he  make  the  Israelites  fancy 
 that  they  were  fed  miraculously  with  manna  forty  years 
 in  the  wilderness,  or  that,  during  all  that  period,  their 
 'raiment  waxed  not  old,  neither  did  their  feet  swell,' 
 (Deut.  viii.  4 :  xxix.  5.)  unless  those  things,  however 
 extraordinary,  were  facts  ?  Here  our  four  criteria  apply. 
 The  first  two  secure  from  any  cheat  or  imposture,  at  the 
 time  the  facts  occurred,  and  the  last  two  preserve  equally 
 against  any  imposition  in  after  ages  ;  because  the  authors 
 of  the  book  in  which  these  facts  are  related,  speak  of  it 
 as  written  at  that  time  by  the  actors  or  eye-witnesses, 
 and  as  commanded  by  God  to  be  carefully  kept  and 
 preserved  to  all  generations,  and  read  publicly  to  all 
 the  people  at  stated   times.   (Deut.   xxxi.    10,   11,  12. 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 S89 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1— xvii.  14.  MARKU.23— ix.  14.  LUKEvi.  1—ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I. 
 
 Josh.  viii.  34,  35.  Neh.  viii.)  And  farther,  the  institu- 
 tions appointed  in  this  book  were  to  be  perpetually 
 observed  from  the  day  of  each  institution  for  ever,  among 
 these  people,  in  memory  of  the  miraculous  facts.  Now, 
 suppose  this  book  to  have  been  forged  a  hundred  or  a 
 thousand  years  after  the  time  of  Moses  ;  would  not  every 
 one  say  when  it  first  appeared,  "  We  never  heard  of  this 
 book  before;  we  know  of  no  such  institutions,  as  of  a 
 passover,  or  circumcision,  or  sabbaths,  and  the  many 
 feasts  and  fasts  therein  appointed  ;  we  know  nothing  of 
 a  tribe  of  Levi,  or  of  a  tabernacle  in  which  they  were  to 
 serve  in  such  an  order  of  priesthood :  this  book  must  be 
 an  arrant  forgery,  for  it  is  destitute  of  all  those  marks 
 which  it  gives  of  itself,  as  to  its  own  continuance,  and 
 of  those  institutions  which  it  relates."  No  instance  can 
 be  shown  since  the  world  began  of  any  book  so  sub- 
 stantiated that  was  a  forgery,  and  yet  passed  oft",  as 
 exhibiting  truth,  upon  any  people. 
 
 Mr  Leslie,  however,  does  not  stop  here,  but  adds  a 
 fifth  mark  as  peculiar  to  our  Bible,  distinguishing  it  from 
 .all  other  histories,  relating  facts  that  formerly  occurred : 
 that  is,  that  the  book,  in  which  the  facts  are  related, 
 contains  likewise  the  law  of  that  people  to  whom  it  be- 
 longs, and  is  their  statute  book  by  which  their  causes 
 are  determined.  This  will  render  it  impossible  for  any 
 one  to  coin  or  forge  such  a  book,  so  as  to  make  it  pass 
 as  authentic  among  any  people.  If,  for  example,  a 
 person  should  forge  a  statute-book  for  England,  and 
 publish  it  next  term,  could  he  make  all  the  judges, 
 lawyers,  and  people  believe  that  this  was  their  genuine 
 and  only  statute  book  by  which  their  causes  had  been 
 determined  for  centuries  past  ?  They  must  forget  their 
 old  statute-book,  and  believe  that  this  new  book,  which 
 they  never  saw  or  heard  of  before,  was  the  very  book 
 which  had  been  referred  to  in  the  pleadings  in  West- 
 minster-hall for  so  many  ages,  which  had  been  so  often 
 printed,  and  of  which  the  originals  are  now  kept  in  the 
 Tower,  to  be  consulted,  as  there  is  occasion.  Thus  it 
 is  that  the  books  of  Moses  contain,  not  only  the  history 
 of  the  Jews,  but  also  their  municipal  law,  as  well  civil 
 as  ecclesiastical :  and  thus,  also,  it  is  with  respect  to  the 
 New  Testament,  which  is  the  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical 
 law  to  the  Christian  church  in  all  nations ;  and  which 
 cannot,  therefore,  be  corrupted,  unless  all  persons  in  all 
 nations  whithersoever  Christianity  is  spread,  should  con- 
 spire in  the  corruption  of  the  Gospel. 
 
 M*  Leslie  selects  some  striking,  though  familiar, 
 examples  in  illustration  of  his  general  argument ;  among 
 others,  he  adverts  to  the  Stonehenge  on  Salisbury  Plain, 
 and  compares  it  with  the  stones  set  up  at  Gilgal.  Every 
 one,  as  he  observes,  knows  this  Stonehenge,  or  has 
 heard  of  it ;  and  yet  none  know  the  reason  why  those 
 great  stones  were  set  there,  or  by  whom,  or  in  memory 
 of  what.  Now,  suppose  a  person  should  publish  a  book 
 to-morrow,  and  therein  affirm  that  these  stones  were  set 
 up  by  Hercules,  Polyphemus,  or  Garagantua,  in  memory 
 of  such  and  such  of  their  actions  :  if  he  merely  make  the 
 affirmation,  some  few  may  perhaps  give  him  credit.  But 
 if,  for  farther  confirmation  of  his  assertion,  he  should 
 say  in  this  book,  that  it  was  written  at  the  time  when 
 such  actions  were  performed,  and  by  the  very  actors 
 themselves,  or  by  eye-witnesses  :  and  that  this  book  had 
 been  received  as  true,  and  quoted  by  authors  of  the 
 greatest  reputation  in  all  ages  since  :  moreover,  that  this 
 
 book  was  well  known  in  England,  and  enjoined  by  act 
 of  parliament  to  be  taught  our  children  ;  and  that  in 
 consequence  we  did  teach  it  our  children,  and  had  been 
 taught  it  ourselves  when  we  were  children ;  it  would 
 seem  impertinent  to  ask  any  Deist  whether  he  thinks 
 such  a  delusion  could  be  passed  upon  the  people  of 
 England. 
 
 Let  us  now  compare  this  with  the  Stonehenge,  as  we 
 may  call  it,  or  twelve  great  stones  set  up  at  Gilgal,  and 
 erected  in  order  that  when  the  children  of  the  Israelites 
 in  after  ages  should  inquire  their  meaning,  it  should  be 
 told  them.  (Josh.  iv.  6,  7.)  The  occurrence,  in  comme- 
 moration of  which  these  stones  at  Gilgal  were  set  up,  is 
 as  wonderful  and  miraculous  as  the  passage  of  the 
 Israelites  through  the  Red  Sea,  and  free  from  the  puerile 
 carpings  which  have  been  raised  by  unbelievers  against 
 that  remarkable  event.  Notice  of  this  miraculous  passage 
 over  the  Jordan  at  Gilgal  was  given  to  the  people  on 
 the  preceding  day.  (Josh.  iii.  5.)  It  took  place  at 
 noonday  before  the  whole  nation.  And  when  the  waters 
 of  the  Jordan  were  divided,  it  was  not  at  any  low  ebb, 
 but  at  the  time  when  the  river  overflowed  its  banks. 
 (Josh.  iii.  15.)  It  was  effected,  too,  not  by  winds,  or  in 
 length  of  time,  which  winds  would  require  to  accomplish 
 it ;  but  all  on  a  sudden,  as  soon  as  the  '  feet  of  the 
 priests  that  bare  the  ark  were  dipped  in  the  brim  of  the 
 water,  then  the  waters  which  came  from  above  stood, 
 and  rose  up  upon  an  heap :  and  they  that  came  down 
 toward  the  sea  of  the  plain,  even  the  salt-sea,  failed, 
 and  were  cut  off*;  and  the  people  passed  over  right 
 against  Jericho.  And  the  priests  that  bare  the  ark  of 
 the  covenant  of  the  Lord  stood  firm  on  dry  ground  in 
 the  midst  of  Jordan,  until  all  the  people  were  passed 
 clean  over  Jordan.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the 
 priests  that  bare  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord 
 were  come  up  out  of  the  midst  of  Jordan,  and  the  soles 
 of  the  priests'  feet  were  lift  up  unto  the  dry  land,  that 
 the  waters  of  Jordan  returned  into  their  place,  and 
 flowed  over  all  his  banks,  as  they  did  before.  And  the 
 people  came  out  of  Jordan  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  first 
 month,  and  encamped  in  Gilgal,  in  the  east  border  of 
 Jericho.  And  those  twelve  stones,  which  the  twelve 
 men,  from  every  tribe  a  man,  took  out  of  the  midst  of 
 Jordan,  did  Joshua  pitch  in  Gilgal.  And  he  spake  unto 
 the  children  of  Israel,  saying,  when  your  children  shall 
 ask  their  fathers  in  time  to  come,  saying,  what  mean 
 these  stones  ?  then  ye  shall  let  your  children  know,  say- 
 ing, Israel  came  over  this  Jordan  on  dry  land.  For  the 
 Lord  your  God  dried  up  the  waters  of  Jordan  from  be- 
 fore you,  until  ye  were  passed  over,  as  the  Lord  your 
 God  did  to  the  Red  Sea,  which  he  dried  up  from  before 
 us  until  we  were  gone  over:  that  all  the  people  of  the 
 earth  might  know  the  band  of  the  Lord,  that  it  is  mighty: 
 that  ye  might  fear  the  Lord  your  God  for  ever.'  (Josh, 
 iii.  15—17  ;  iv.  IS— 24. 
 
 Now  to  frame  our  argument,  let  it  be  supposed  that 
 there  never  was  any  such  occurrence  as  that  passage 
 over  Jordan ;  that  these  stones  at  Gilgal  were  set  up  on 
 some  other  occasion,  in  some  after  age ;  and  then  that 
 some  designing  man  invented  this  book  of  Joshua,  and 
 pretended  that  it  was  written  by  Joshua  at  this  time  ; 
 adducing  this  erection  of  stones  at  Gilgal  as  a  testimony 
 of  the  truth  of  it.  Would  not  the  Israelites  say  to  him, 
 "  we  know  the  stonage  at  Gilgal,  but  we  never  before 
 
990 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5441.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1- 
 he?rd  this  reason  assigned  for  it :  nor  of  this  book  of 
 Joshua.  Where  has  it  been  all  this  while  ?  and  where, 
 and  how  came  you,  after  so  many  ages,  to  find  it? 
 Besides,  we  are  told  in  this  book,  that  this  same  passage 
 over  Jordan  was  ordained  to  be  taught  our  children, 
 from  age  to  age  ;  and  therefore  that  they  were  always  to 
 be  instructed  in  the  meaning  of  that  stonage  at  Gilgal, 
 as  a  memorial  of  it.  But  we  were  never  taught  it  when 
 we  were  children ;  nor  did  we  ever  teach  our  children 
 any  such  thing.  And  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  could 
 have  been  forgotten,  while  so  remarkable  a  stonage 
 continued,  which  was  set  up  for  that  and  no  other  pur- 
 pose." 
 
 If,  then,  for  the  reasons  before  assigned,  no  such  im- 
 position could  be  practised  successfully  upon  us  as  to 
 the  Stonehenge  upon  Salisbury  Plain,  how  much  less 
 could  it  be  with  regard  to  the  erection  at  Gilgal  ? 
 
 And  farther,  if,  when  we  know  not  the  reason  of  an 
 insulated  monument,  such  a  delusive  reason  cannot  be 
 imposed  ;  how  much  more  impossible  is  it  to  impose  on 
 us  in  actions  and  observances  which  we  celebrate  in 
 memory  of  particular  miraculous  events  ?  How  im- 
 possible to  make  us  forget  those  passages  which  we 
 daily  commemorate  ;  and  to  persuade  us  that  we  had 
 always  observed  such  institutions  or  ceremonies  in  me- 
 mory of  what  we  never  before  heard  of;  that  is,  that  we 
 knew  it  before  we  knew  it !  And  if  it  be  found  thus  im- 
 possible to  practise  an  imposition  upon  us,  even  in  some 
 things  which  have  not  all  the  four  criteria  before-men- 
 tioned, how  much  more  impossible  is  it  that  there  should 
 be  any  deceit  with  regard  to  particulars  in  which  all 
 those  criteria  actually  meet. 
 
 Similar  reasoning  is  applied  with  equal  success  by 
 this  acute  writer  to  the  principal  facts,  including  the 
 miraculous  ones,  recorded  in  the  Evangelical  history. 
 The  works  and  the  miracles  of  Jesus  Christ  are  said,  by 
 the  Evangelists,  to  be  done  publicly  in  the  face  of  the 
 world  ;  and  so,  indeed,  himself  affirmed  in  reasoning 
 with  his  accusers  :  '  I  spake  openly  to  the  world,  and  in 
 secret  have  I  said  nothing.'  (John  xviii.  20.  See  on 
 this  point,  Home  on  the  Study  of  the  Scriptures,  vol.  i. 
 p.  541,  1st  edit.)  We  learn  also  in  the  Acts  of  the 
 Apostles,  that  three  thousand  at  one  time,  and  more 
 than  two  thousand  at  another,  (Acts  ii.  41 ;  iv.  4.)  were 
 converted,  upon  conviction  of  what  themselves  had  seen 
 and  known,  what  had  been  done  publicly  before  their 
 eyes,  and  in  particulars  respecting  which  it  was  im- 
 possible to  impose  upon  them.  So  that  here  Ave  find  the 
 two  first  of  Mr  Leslie's  criteria. 
 
 Then  for  the  two  second  : — Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
 Supper  were  instituted  as  perpetual  memorials  of  these 
 things  :  they  were  not  instituted  in  after  ages,  but  at  the 
 very  time  when  the  circumstances  to  which  they  relate 
 took  place  ;  and  they  have  been  observed  without  in- 
 terruption, through  the  whole  Christian  world,  in  all 
 ages  down  from  that  time  to  the  present.  Besides, 
 Christ  himself  ordained  apostles,  and  other  ministers  of 
 his  Gospel,  to  preach  and  administer  the  sacraments: 
 and  that  always  '  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.'  (Mat. 
 xxviii.  20.)  Accordingly,  they  have  continued  by  regular 
 succession  to  this  day.  So  that  the  Christian  ministry 
 is,  and  always  has  been,  as  notorious  in  poim  of  fact, 
 as  the  tribe  of  Levi  among  the  Jews.  The  Gospel  also 
 is  as  much  a  law,  a  rule  of  conduct  to  the  Christians,  as 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARKii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  1— ix.  37-  JOHN  v.  I— vii.  I, 
 
 the  books  of  Moses  to  the  Jews:  and  it  being  part  of 
 the  matters  of  fact  or  truths  related  in  the  Gospel  that 
 '  pastors  and  teachers,'  (Ephes.  iv.  1 1 .)  were  appointed 
 by  Christ,  and  to  continue  till  the  end  of  the  world  ; 
 consequently  if  the  Gospel  history  and  doctrines  were 
 invented,  as  they  must  be,  if  forged  at  all,  in  some  ages 
 after  Christ;  then,  at  the  time  of  the  invention,  there 
 could  be  no  such  order  of  clergy  or  ministers  as  derived 
 themselves  from  the  institution  of  Christ ;  a  circumstance 
 which  must  give  the  lie  to  the  Gospel,  and  demonstrate 
 the  whole  to  be  false.  The  miraculous  actions  of  Christ 
 and  his  Apostles  being  affirmed  to  be  true  no  otherwise 
 than  as  there  were  at  that  identical  time,  whenever  the 
 Deist  will  suppose  the  Gospel  history  to  be  forged,  not 
 only  sacraments  or  ordinances  of  Christ's  institution,  but 
 an  order  of  Christian  pastors,  &c,  to  administer  them  ; 
 and  it  being  impossible  there  could  be  any  such  things 
 before  they  were  invented,  it  is  as  impossible  they  should 
 be  received  and  accredited  when  invented.  Hence  it 
 follows  that  it  was  as  impossible  to  have  imposed  these 
 miraculous  relations  upon  mankind  in  after  ages,  as  it 
 would  have  been  to  make  persons  believe  they  saw  the 
 miracles,  or  were  parties  concerned  in  the  beneficial 
 effects  resulting  from  them,  if  they  were  not. 
 
 IV.  Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said,  however, 
 by  Leslie  and  others,  since  there  is  no  making  a  fence 
 high  enough  to  keep  out  extravagant  conjectures  and 
 surmises,  Ave  find  unbelievers  exclaiming  after  all,  that 
 still  men's  senses  might  be  imposed  upon.  To  reason- 
 ing Ave  may  ahvays  oppose  reasoning ;  and  it  is  often 
 perfectly^  legitimate  to  oppose  conjecture  to  conjecture; 
 yet,  Avith  regard  to  the  NeAV  Testament  miracles,  we 
 cannot  have  so  ill  an  opinion  of  the  intellects  of  infidels 
 as  to  conjecture  that  they  really  believe — 
 
 "  That  persons  afflicted  with  the  most  excruciating 
 maladies  and  diseases  should  be  juggled  into  perfect 
 ease  and  health,  and  cured,  as  Celsus  pretended,  by 
 legerdemain  : 
 
 "  That  blind  men  should  see,  the  lame  walk,  the  deaf 
 hear,  the  dumb  speak,  lepers  be  cleansed,  and  dead  men 
 come  to  life,  merely  by  the  play  of  fancy,  and  the  force 
 of  imagination  : 
 
 "  That  the  senses  of  Avhole  multitudes  should  be  im- 
 posed upon  to  such  a  degree  that  they  should  all  fancy 
 together,  they  savv,  heard,  spake,  ate  and  drank,  repeated 
 these  actions  many  times  over,  and  that  in  different 
 places  and  circumstances,  too,  and  yet,  after  all,  did 
 nothing  of  all  this  ;  but  Avere  either  asleep,  or  in  ecstasy, 
 or  under  the  influence  of  some  strange  charm  all  the 
 Avhile : 
 
 "  That  five  thousand  men,  for  example,  at  one  time 
 and  four  thousand  at  another,  besides  women  and 
 children,  should  persuade  themselves  they  fed  only  upon 
 a  feAv  loaves  and  fishes ;  should  publish  it  to  all  the 
 country  that  they  did  so  ;  refer  to  time,  place,  and  per- 
 sons present;  and  yet,  instead  of  this,  have  been  in  fact 
 at  a  splendid  and  magnificent  feast,  Avhere  plenty  and 
 variety  of  all  provisions,  fit  to  entertain  such  multitudes, 
 were  set  before  him." 
 
 If  these  things  may  be,  of  Avhat  utility  are  our  senses!* 
 What  dependence  can  be  placed  upon  them  ?  or  what 
 credit  can  be  due  to  a  Deist  Avho  attests  nothing  but 
 upon  experience,  and  yet  admits  that  thousands  together 
 may  be  deceived  in   reference   to  some  of  the   most 
 
FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 Sect.  III.] 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5411.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  I— 
 
 common  and  frequent  actions  and  functions  in  human 
 life? 
 
 In  truth,  there  are  but  four  hypotheses  that  can  be 
 assumed  with  respect  to  the  miracles  of  Jesus  Christ, 
 one  or  other  of  which  a  reasonable  being  must  adopt. 
 
 Either,  first,  the  recorded  accounts  of  those  miracles 
 were  absolute  fictions  wickedly  invented  by  some  per- 
 sons who  had  a  wish  to  impose  upon  mankind : 
 
 Or,  secondly,  Jesus  Christ  did  not  work  any  true 
 miracles  ;  but  the  senses  of  the  people  were  in  some  way 
 or  other  deluded,  so  that  they  believed  he  really  did 
 perform  miracles,  when  in  fact  he  did  not : 
 
 Or,  thirdly,  that  the  spectators  were  not  in  any  way 
 deluded,  but  knew  very  well  he  wrought  no  miracles : 
 yet  were  all,  both  enemies  and  friends,  the  Jews  them- 
 selves not  excepted,  though  they  daily  "  sought  occa- 
 sion against  him,"  united  in  a  close  confederacy  to 
 per.-uade  the  world  that  he  performed  the  most  surpris- 
 ing things.  So  that,  while  some  actively  circulated  re- 
 ports of  these  amazing  occurrences,  the  rest  kept  their 
 counsel,  never  offering  to  unmask  the  fraud,  but  manag- 
 ing the  matter  with  so  much  cunning  and  dexterity,  and 
 such  an  exact  mutual  harmony  and  correspondence,  that 
 the  story  of  Jesus  Christ's  performing  miracles  should 
 become  current,  should  obtain  almost  imiversal  credit, 
 and  not  a  single  person  be  able  to  disprove  it : 
 
 Or,  fourthly,  that  he  did  actually  perforin  these  aston- 
 ishing works,  and  that  the  accounts  given  of  them  by 
 the  Christian  writers  in  the  New  Testament  are  authentic 
 and  correct. 
 
 He  that  does  not  adopt  the  last  of  these  conclusions 
 will  find  it  a  matter  of  very  small  consequence  which  of 
 the  three  others  he  chooses.  For  that  the  stories  cannot 
 be  fictions  is  evident  from  the  reasoning  of  Leslie  al- 
 ready adduced  :  and  it  will  be  seen  farther,  from  a  few 
 moments'  consideration,  that  the  denial  of  the  miracles 
 of  Jesus  Christ,  in  any  way,  leads  necessarily  to  the 
 admission  of  a  series  of  real  miracles  of  another  kind. 
 
 The  progress  of  the  human  mind,  as  may  be  seen  by 
 all  the  inquiries  into  it,  is  a  thing  of  a  determinate 
 nature :  a  man's  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  are  all 
 generated  by  something  previous  ;  there  is  an  established 
 course  for  these  things,  as  well  as  for  the  physical  part 
 of  the  universe,  an  analogy,  of  which  every  man  is  a 
 judge  from  what  he  feels  in  himself,  and  observes  in 
 others  :  and  to  suppose  any  number  of  men  in  deter- 
 minate circumstances  to  vary  from  this  general  tenour  of 
 human  nature  in  like  circumstances  is  a  miracle,  and 
 may,  as  Dr  Hartley  remarks,  be  made  a  miracle  of  any 
 magnitude,  that  is,  incredible  to  any  degree,  by  augment- 
 ing the  number  and  magnitude  of  the  deviations.  It  is 
 therefore  a  miracle  in  the  human  mind,  as  great  as  any 
 that  can  possibly  be  conceived  to  take  place  with  regard 
 to  the  body,  to  suppose  that  multitudes  of  Christians, 
 Jews,  and  heathens,  in  the  primitive  times,  should  have 
 borne  such  unquestionable  testimony,  some  expressly, 
 others  by  indirect  circumstances,  as  we  learn  from  history 
 the]  did,  to  the  miracles  said  to  be  performed  by  our 
 Lord  upon  the  human  body,  unless  they  were  really  per- 
 formed. In  like  manner,  the  reception  which  the  mir- 
 acles recorded  in  the  Old  Testament  met  with  is  a 
 miracle,  unless  those  miracles  were  true.  These  are  not 
 however  the  only  miracles  which  unbelievers  in  the 
 Scripture  miracles  must  admit.    The  very  determination 
 
 991 
 
 xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23.-ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  l.-ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  l.-vii.  I. 
 
 of  the  apostles  to  propagate  the  belief  of  false  miracles, 
 independent  of  the  additional  difficulty  arising  from  the 
 silent  concurrence  of  the  Jews  and  Gentiles  in°the  story, 
 according  to  the  third  hypothesis  suggested  above,  in 
 support  of  such  a  religion  as  that  taught  in  the  New 
 Testament,  is  as  great  a  miracle  as  human  imagination 
 can  conceive.  For  when  they  formed  this  design, 
 whether  they  hoped  to  succeed,  or  conjectured  that  they 
 should  fail,  in  their  undertaking,  they  chose  what  they 
 knew  to  be  moral  evil,  with  the  contingency  of  experi- 
 encing natural  evil;  nay,  so  desirous  were  they  to 
 obtain  nothing  but  misery,  that  they  made  their  own 
 persecution  a  test  of  the  truth  of  their  doctrines  ; — thus 
 violating  the  strongest  possible  of  all  laws  of  human 
 nature,  namely,  that  "  no  man  can  choose  evil  for  its 
 own  sake.' 
 
 Here,  then,  an  unbeliever  must  either  deny  all  an- 
 alogy, association,  uniformity  of  action,  operation  of 
 motives,  selection  of  good  in  preference  to  evil,  &c., 
 and  become  an  absolute  sceptic  in  the  most  extensive 
 acceptation  of  the  term,  or  acknowledge  that  very  strong 
 physical  analogies  may  sometimes  be  violated  ;  that  is, 
 he  must  have  recourse  to  something  miraculous  in  order 
 that  he  may  get  quit  of  something  miraculous.  Let  him 
 next  inquire  which  of  the  two  opposite  classes  of  mir- 
 acles will  agree  best  with  his  other  notions  :  whether  it 
 be  more  analogous  to  the  nature  of  God,  the  course  of 
 providence,  the  history  of  the  world,  the  known  progress 
 of  man  in  this  life,  &c,  to  allow  that  God  imparted  to 
 certain  select  persons,  of  eminent  piety,  the  power  of 
 working  miracles  ;  or  to  suppose  that  he  confounded'  the 
 understandings,  affections,  and  whole  train  of  associa- 
 tions, of  thousands  of  persons,  nay,  of  entire  nations,  in 
 such  a  manner  that  men,  who  in  all  other  things  seemed 
 to  have  acted  like  other  men,  should,  in  respect  of  the 
 history  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  prophets,  or  the  Apostles, 
 abandon  all  established  rules  of  thinking  and  acting, 
 and  conduct  themselves  in  a  way  miraculously  repugnant 
 to  all  our  ideas  and  all  our  experience.  In  order  to 
 determine  this  inquiry,  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
 object  of  the  class  of  miracles  against  which  the  Deists 
 contend,  is  worthy  of  a  God  of  infinite  wisdom,  power, 
 and  goodness  :  while  the  object  of  the  latter  is  decidedly 
 and  absolutely  inconsistent  with  wisdom  and  goodness, 
 attributes  which  all  Theists  ascribe  to  that  Great  Being 
 by  whom  alone  miracles  can  be  performed,  allowing  that 
 they  can  be  wxought  at  all. 
 
 V.  Much  of  the  preceding  reasoning  is  entirely  in- 
 dependent of  any  minute  investigation  of  the  nature  of 
 concurrent  or  successive  testimony  ;  and  the  whole  dis- 
 cussion might  safely  be  terminated  without  any  reference 
 to  these  abstruser  inquiries,  were  it  not  that  Hume  and 
 his  disciples  have  frequently  adverted  to  them,  and  that 
 silence  might  be  construed  into  inability  to  break 
 through  their  web  of  sophistry.  The  argument  of  Dr 
 Campbell  has  already  been  briefly  sketched ;  we  shall 
 here  add  a  few  distinct  considerations.  And,  first,  with 
 regard  to  concurrent  testimony,  it  has  been  demonstrated 
 upon  genuine  mathematical  principles,  that  where  the 
 credibility  of  each  witness  is  great,  a  very  few  witnesses 
 will  be  sufficient  to  overcome  any  contrary  probability, 
 derived  from  the  nature  of  the  fact ;  that  the  evidence 
 resulting  from  testimony  can  not  only  approach  inde- 
 finitely near  to  certainty,  but  can  at  length  exceed  the 
 
992 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Bock  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31 ;  OR,  A.  M.  544V.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xii.  1- 
 cvidence  of  any  inference,  however  cogent,  which  can 
 possibly  be  deduced  from  personal  experience,  or  from 
 personal  and  derived  experience  conjointly;  that  is, 
 that  the  evidence  of  testimony  can  overcome  any  degree 
 of  improbability,  however  great,  which  can  arise  from 
 the  nature  of  the  fact.  The  reason  is,  that  the  evidence 
 of  testimony  admitting  of  an  unlimited  increase  on  two 
 different  accounts,  namely,  that  of  the  veracity  of  the 
 witnesses,  and  that  of  the  number  of  concurrent  wit- 
 nesses, while  the  probability  of  the  happening  of  any 
 specific  event  admits  only  one  of  them,  the  former  is 
 capable  of  indefinitely  surpassing  the  latter. 
 
 But,  indeed,  the  force  of  the  evidence  resulting  from 
 concurrent  testimony,  is  avowedly  so  great  upon  the 
 minds  of  all  who  have  not  been  biassed  by  the  perusal  of 
 deistical  speculations,  or  an  indulgence  in  them,  that  the 
 matter  scarcely  needs  the  support  of  mathematical  inves- 
 tigation. Let  it  be  supposed  that  twelve  men  of  pro- 
 bity and  good  sense  were  circumstantially  and  seriously 
 to  tell,  each  independently  of  the  others,  on  his  own 
 personal  conviction,  "  a  round  unvarnished  tale  "  of  a 
 miracle  performed  before  their  eyes,  and  respecting 
 which  it  was  impossible,  as  they  affirm,  for  them  to  be 
 deceived,  we  believe  few  persons  would  wait  to  receive 
 a  thirteenth  concurrent  testimony,  before  they  yielded 
 their  assent  to  the  truth  of  the  relation,  however  extraor- 
 dinary. Let  it  be  supposed,  farther,  that  the  twelve 
 evidences,  on  being  suspected  of  "  bearing  false  wit- 
 ness," subjected  themselves  to  be  scourged,  tortured, 
 nay  strangled,  rather  than  deny  the  truth  of  their  attes- 
 tation ;  could  any  reasonable  or  reasoning  man  refuse  to 
 believe  their  testimony  ?  According  to  Mr  Hume's 
 argumentation,  we  are  not  to  believe  them,  were  we  to 
 witness  such  a  story  and  such  sufferings  ;  but  we  are  so 
 persuaded  that  no  person  in  his  senses  would  disbelieve 
 them,  that  we  will  venture  to  say  even  Mr  Hume,  under 
 such  circumstances,  could  not  have  withheld  his  assent  to 
 the  truth  of  their  story. 
 
 "  But,"  say  his  disciples,  "  whatever  might  be  done 
 or  conceded  in  such  a  case,  those  who  live  a  thousand 
 years  after  the  event,  can  have  no  reason  to  believe  it : 
 if  we  admit  that  concurrent  testimony  may  augment ;  still 
 successive  testimony  diminishes,  and  that  so  rapidly,  as 
 to  command  no  assent  after  a  few  centuries  at  most." 
 This  is  specious  ;  but,  as  we  remarked  at  the  commence- 
 ment of  this  letter,  far  from  correct.  We  do  not  deny 
 that  there  may  be  cases  in  which  credibility  diminishes 
 with  time  ;  but  no  testimony  is  really,  in  the  nature  of 
 things  rendered  less  credible  by  any  other  cause,  than 
 the  loss  or  want  of  some  of  those  conditions  which  first 
 made  it  rationally  credible.  A  testimony  continues 
 equally  credible,  so  long  as  it  is  transmitted  with 
 all  those  circumstances  and  conditions  which  first  pro- 
 cured it  a  certain  degree  of  credit  amongst  men,  pro- 
 portionate to  the  intrinsic  value  of  those  conditions.  Let 
 it  be  supposed  that  the  persons  who  transmit  the  testi- 
 mony are  able,  honest,  and  diligent,  in  call  the  requisite 
 inquiries  as  to  what  they  transmit,  and  how  should  the 
 credibility  due  to  their  testimony  be  weakened,  but  by 
 the  omission  of  circumstances  ?  which  omission  is  con- 
 trary to  the  hypothesis.  No  calculation  of  the  decrease 
 of  the  credibility  of  testimony,  in  which  a  man  bears 
 witness  respecting  realities,  and  not  the  fictions  of  his  own 
 brain,  can  ever  proceed  upon  any  other  principle  than 
 
 xyii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  ri.  1  --ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  I. 
 that  of  the  characters  and  qualifications  of  the  witnesses  : 
 and  therefore,  so  far  as  the  credibility  of  any  matter  of 
 fact  depends  upon  pure  testimony,  they  who  live  at  the 
 remotest  distances  of  time,  may  have  the  same  evidence 
 of  the  truth  of  it,  as  those  persons  who  lived  nearest  to 
 the  time  in  which  the  thing  was  said  to  be  done  ;  that 
 identical  time  being,  of  course,  excluded. 
 
 In  what  possible  manner,  for  example,  can  the  evi- 
 dence on  which  we  believe  the  facts  related  in  the  gos- 
 pels be  less  than  that  on  Avhich  those  facts  were  credited 
 by  Christians  in  the  second  or  third  centuries  ?  They 
 possessed  the  standard  writings  of  the  evangelists ;  so  do 
 we :  what  those  books  then  contained,  they  now  con- 
 tain ;  and  the  invention  of  printing  seems  likely  under 
 the  care  of  Providence,  to  preserve  them  genuine  to  the 
 end  of  time.  This  admirable  invention  has  so  far  secur- 
 ed all  considerable  monuments  of  antiquity,  that  no 
 ordinary  calamities  of  wars,  dissolutions  of  governments, 
 &c,  can  destroy  any  material  evidence  now  in  existence, 
 or  render  it  less  probable  to  those  who  shall  live  in  a 
 thousand  years'  time,  than  it  is  to  us.  With  regard  to 
 the  facts  of  the  Christian  religion,  indeed,  it  is  notorious 
 that  our  evidence  in  favour  of  them  has  increased  instead 
 of  diminished  since  the  era  of  printing,  the  reformation  of 
 religion,  and  the  restoration  of  letters:  and  as  even  the  re- 
 cent inquiries  of  learned  men  have  produced  fresh  evidence 
 there  is  every  reason  to  hope  it  will  continue  to  increase. 
 Indeed,  it  is  only  with  regard  to  the  facts  related  in 
 the  Bible,  that  men  ever  talk  of  the  daily  diminution  of 
 credibility.  Who  complains  of  a  decay  of  evidence  in 
 relation  to  the  actions  of  Alexander,  Hannibal,  Pompey, 
 or  Caesar?  Howmany  fewer  of  the  events  recorded  by  Plu- 
 tarch, or  Polybius,  or  Livy,  are  believed  now,  on  account 
 of  a  diminution  of  the  evidence,  than  were  believed  by 
 Mr  Addison,  or  Lord  Clarendon,  or  Geoffrey  Chaucer  ? 
 It  might  be  contended  with  some  semblance  of  probabi- 
 lity, that  we  know  more  of  those  ancients  than  the  per- 
 sons now  mentioned  :  but  that  it  is  widely  different  from 
 accrediting  less.  We  never  hear  persons  wishing  that 
 they  had  lived  ages  earlier,  that  they  might  have  had 
 better  proofs  that  Cyrus  was  the  conqueror  of  Babylon, 
 that  Darius  was  beaten  in  several  battles  by  Alexander, 
 that  Titus  destroyed  Jerusalem,  that  Hannibal  Mas  en 
 tirely  routed  by  Scipio,  or  Pompey  by  Julius  Ciesar : 
 though  Ave  sometimes  find  men  of  ardent  and  enterprising 
 minds  exclaiming,  "  O  that  I  had  lived  and  been  present 
 when  such  and  such  splendid  events  occurred  :  how  live- 
 ly an  interest  should  I  have  taken  in  such  scenes,  how 
 much  concern  in  their  termination  !"  And,  indeed,  it  isthe 
 frequent  hearing  of  like  exclamations  that  causes  men  to 
 confound  weight  of  testimony,  with  warmth  or  depth  of 
 feeling  ;  and  to  lose  sight  of  the  essential  difference  be- 
 tween real  evidence,  or  the  true  basis  for  belief  of  history, 
 and  the  sensible  impression  or  influence  which  such  his- 
 tory may  make  upon  the  mind.  We  believe  as  firmly  that 
 Lucretius  stabbed  himself  in  the  delirium  of  a  fever,  as  that 
 Lucretia  stabbed  herself  in  consequence  of  the  wrongs  she 
 had  received  from  Tarquin's  son  ;  yet  we  feel  a  much  more 
 lively  interest  in  the  latter  event  than  in  the  former. 
 The  fate  of  Carthage,  or  the  result  of  the  contest  between 
 Antony  and  Octavius  respecting  the  empire  of  the  world, 
 would  doubtless  be  much  more  deeply  felt,  and  much 
 more  warmly  conversed  about,  within  two  centuries  of 
 the  circumstances,  than  they  ever  are  now :  yet  those  who 
 
Sect.  III.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 993 
 
 A.  M.  4035.  A.  D.  31  ;  OR,  A.  M   5141.  A.  D.  30.  FROM  MAT.  xu.  l-xvii.  14.  MARK  ii.  23— ix.  14.  LUKE  vi.  I— ix.  37.  JOHN  v.  1— vii.  1. 
 
 then  conversed  about  them,  had  just  as  much  reason  to 
 doubt  their  occurrence  as  we  have  ;  that  is,  just  none  at 
 all.  Similar  reasoning  will  apply  to  all  the  circum- 
 stances recorded  in  authentic  history.  So  that,  having 
 established  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  books 
 of  Scripture,  on  evidence  far  superior  to  that  on  which 
 other  historic  books  are  received,  it  is  the  most  idle  and 
 ridiculous  thing  imaginable,  to  affect  to  disbelieve  any 
 of  the  facts  therein  recorded,  on  account  of  the  remote- 
 ness of  the  times  in  which  they  occurred. 
 
 Let  me  now  attempt  to  collect  the  scattered  argu- 
 ments, in  this  letter,  with  a  few  additional  sugges- 
 tions, to  one  point,  and  conclude.  If,  then,  we  have 
 found,  upon  careful  examination,  that  the  miraculous 
 facts  proposed  for  our  belief,  and  on  the  credit  of  which 
 the  divine  authority  of  a  particular  system  of  doctrines 
 and  precepts  depends,  are  such, — 1.  As  do  not  imply  a 
 self-contradiction  in  them.  2.  If  they  appear  to  have 
 been  performed  publicly,  in  the  view  of  several  people, 
 and  with  a  professed  intention  to  establish  the  divine 
 authority  of  the  person  or  persons  who  wrought  them. 
 3.  If  they  were  many  in  number,  frequently  repeated, 
 and  continued  for  a  series  of  years  together.  4.  If  they 
 were  of  an  interesting  nature  in  themselves,  likely  to 
 have  made  strong  impressions  upon  the  minds  of  all  who 
 saw  and  heard  of  them  ;  and  for  that  reason,  probably, 
 much  attended  to,  talked  of,  and  examined  at  the  time 
 of  their  performance.  5.  If  the  effects  produced  by 
 them  were  not  transient,  but  lasting,  such  as,  however 
 instantaneous  the  change  might  be,  must  have  existed 
 for  many  years,  and  were  capable  all  the  while  of  being 
 disproved  if  they  were  not  real.  6.  If  the  relations 
 were  committed  to  writing  at  or  very  near  the  time  when 
 the  facts  are  said  to  have  occurred,  and  by  persons  of 
 unimpeachable  integrity,  who  tell  us,  that  '  that  which 
 they  have  seen  and  heard,  the  same  declare  they  unto 
 us  ;'  by  persons  who,  having  sufficient  opportunity  of 
 knowing  the  whole  truth  of  what  they  testify,  could  not 
 possibly  be  deceived  themselves ;  and  who,  having  no 
 conceivable  motive  or  temptation  to  falsify  their  evi- 
 dence, cannot,  with  the  least  shadow  of  probability,  be 
 suspected  of  an  intention  to  deceive  other  people.  7. 
 If  there  be  no  proof,  or  even  well-founded  suspicion  of 
 proof,  that  the  testimony  of  those  who  bear  witness  to 
 these  extraordinary  facts  was  ever  contradicted,  even 
 by  such  as  professed  themselves  open  enemies  to  their 
 persons,  character,  and  views,  though  the  accounts  of 
 the  facts  were  first  published  upon  the  spot  where  they 
 were  affirmed  to  have  been  originally  performed,  and 
 amongst  persons  who  were  engaged  by  private  interest, 
 and  furnished  with  full  authority,  inclination,  and  oppor- 
 tunity, to  have  manifested  the  falsity  of  them,  and  to 
 have  detected  the  imposture,  had  they  been  able.  8. 
 If,  on  the  contrary,  the  existence  of  these  facts  be  ex- 
 pressly allowed  by  the  persons  who  thought  themselves 
 most  concerned  to  prevent  the  genuine  consequences 
 which  might  be  deduced  from  them  ;  and  there  were 
 originally  no  other  disputes  about  them  than  to  what 
 sufficient  cause  they  were  to  be  imputed.  9.  If  again 
 the  witnesses  from  whom  we  have  these  facts  were  many 
 in  number,  all  of  them  unanimous  in  the  substance  of 
 their  evidence,  and  all,  as  may  be  collected  from  their 
 whole  conduct,  men  of  such  unquestionable  good  sense 
 as  secured  them  against  all  delusion  in  themselves  ;  if 
 
 they  were  men  who  evinced  the  sincerity  of  their  own 
 conviction,  by  acting  under  the  uniform  influence  of  the 
 extraordinary  works  to  which  they  bore  witness,  in 
 direct  contradiction  to  all  their  former  prejudices  and 
 most  favoured  notions  ;  in  direct  contradiction  also  to 
 every  flattering  prospect  of  worldly  honour,  profit, 
 or  advantage  (as  was  remarkably  exemplified  in  the  case 
 of  St  Paul);  and  when  they  could  not  but  be  previously 
 assured  that  '  bonds  and  afflictions  waited  them  ;'  (Acts 
 xx.  23.)  that  ignominy,  persecution,  misery,  and  even 
 death  itself,  most  probably  would  attend  the  constant 
 and  invariable  perseverance  in  their  testimony.  10.  If 
 these  witnesses,  in  order  that  their  evidence  might  have 
 the  greater  weight  with  a  doubting  world  (each  nation 
 being  already  in  possession  of  an  established  religion), 
 were  themselves  enabled  to  perform  such  extraordinary 
 works  as  testified  the  clear  and  indisputable  interposi- 
 tion of  a  divine  power  in  favour  of  their  veracity  ;  and 
 after  having  experienced  the  severest  afflictions,  vexa- 
 tions and  torments,  at  length  laid  down  their  lives  in 
 confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  facts  asserted  by  them. 
 
 11.  If  great  multitudes  of  the  contemporaries  of  these 
 witnesses,  men  of  almost  all  nations,  tempers,  profes- 
 sions, and  scales  of  intellect  were  persuaded  by  them  that 
 these  facts  were  really  performed  in  the  manner  related, 
 and  gave  the  strongest  testimony  which  it  was  in  their 
 power  to  give  of  the  firmness  and  active  tendency  of 
 their  belief,  by  immediately  breaking  through  all  their 
 previous  attachments  and  connections  of  interest  or 
 friendship,  and  acting  in  express  contradiction  to  them. 
 
 12.  If  concurring  testimony,  carried  to  a  sufficient 
 extent,  and  especially  of  this  kind,  be  in  its  nature 
 really  irresistible  ;  and  if  successive  testimony,  under 
 the  circumstances  of  the  case  before  us,  rather  increase 
 than  diminish  in  credibility.  13.  If  ceremonies  and 
 institutions  were  grounded  upon  the  miraculous  facts, 
 and  have  been  uninterruptedly  observed  in  all  the  suc- 
 cessive periods  of  time,  from  the  date  of  the  facts  in 
 commemoration  of  which  they  were  established.  14. 
 If  we  have  all  the  proof  which  the  severest  rules  of 
 criticism  can  require,  that  no  alterations  have  been  made 
 in  the  original  writings  and  records  left  us  by  these  wit- 
 nesses in  any  material  article  of  their  evidence  since 
 their  first  publication,  either  through  accident  or  design  ; 
 but  that  they  have  been  transmitted  to  us  in  all  their 
 genuine  purity,  as  they  were  left  by  their  authors.  In 
 such  a  situation  of  things,  where  so  great  a  variety  of 
 circumstances,  where  indeed  all  imaginable  circum- 
 stances mutually  concur  to  confirm,  strengthen,  and 
 support  each  other's  evidence ;  without  a  single  argu- 
 ment on  the  other  side,  but  what  arises  merely  from  the 
 extraordinary  nature  of  the  facts,  and  the  admission  of 
 which  inevitably  leads  to  consequences  at  least  as  extra- 
 ordinary as  those  our  opponents  are  inclined  to  reject  ; 
 may  not  they  be  justly  accused  of  an  unreasonable 
 incredulity  who  refuse  their  assent  to  them  ?  And  will 
 not  such  incredulity  be  as  dangerous  as  it  is  ridiculous  ? 
 If  facts,  attested  in  so  clear,  decisive,  and  unexception- 
 able a  manner,  and  delivered  down  to  posterity  with  so 
 many  conspiring  signs  and  monuments  of  truth,  are, 
 nevertheless,  not  to  be  believed ;  it  is,  I  think,  impos- 
 sible for  the  united  wisdom  of  mankind  to  point  out  any 
 evidence  of  historical  events  which  will  justify  a  wise 
 and  cautious  man  in  accrediting  them.     AY  here  there  is 
 
 6  K 
 
994 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4037.  A.  D.33.;  OR,  A.M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 the  strongest  assurance  of  the  occurrence  of  any  parti- 
 cular series  of  miraculous  facts,  which  we  are  capable 
 of  acquiring,  according  to  the  present  frame  of  our 
 nature,  and  the  state  of  things  in  the  world  ;  to  reject 
 these  miracles  after  all,  and  the  religion  in  attestation 
 of  which  they  were  wrought,  and  to  pretend  to  exculpate 
 ourselves  for  not  believing  them,  upon  the  bare  suspi- 
 cion of  a  possibility  that  they  may  be  false,  is,  instead 
 of  being  an  indication  of  freedom  from  shackles,  and 
 erectness  and  greatness  of  mind,  a  monstrous  contradic- 
 tion to  the  principles  of  common  sense,  and  the  univer- 
 sal practice  of  mankind. 
 
 SECT.  IV. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — From  our  Lord's  last  entry  into  Jerusalem 
 to  his  ascension  into  heaven  ;  containing  the  term  of 
 six  weeks  and  five  days. 
 
 THE    HISTORY. 
 
 Upon  our  Lord's  entry  into  Jerusalem  with  such  a  vast 
 retinue  of  people,  the  citizens  were  alarmed,  and  began 
 to  inquire  who  this  great  person  was  ?  To  which  the  multi- 
 tude that  accompanied  him  answered  aloud,  that  it  was 
 Jesus,  the  prophet  of  Nazareth,  a  town  in  Galilee. 
 Having  therefore  permitted  his  kingdom  and  divine 
 authority  to  be  thus  proclaimed  by  others,  he  proceeded 
 in  the  next  place  to  exert  it  himself :  for  going  to  the 
 temple,  and  there  looking  about  him,  he  found  the  court 
 of  the  Gentiles  notoriously  profaned  and  dishonoured 
 by  trading  and  merchandize.  That  therefore  he  might 
 end,  as  he  had  begun  his  ministry,  with  the  reformation 
 of  his  Father's  house,  he  drove  out  all  the  buyers  and 
 sellers,  as  he  did  three  years  before,  a  from  the  sacred 
 ground  ;  he  overthrew  the  tables  of  the  money-changers,  b 
 
 a  It  appears  from  Mark  xi.  11.  that  Jesus  did  not  do  this  on 
 the  day  of  his  entry  into  Jerusalem,  though  it  is  there  said  that 
 he  entered  into  the  temple  and  looked  round  the  whole  of  it,  but 
 the  day  after  ;  spending  the  night  at  Bethany,  and  returning  to 
 Jerusalem  in  the  morning;  and  in  the  way  thither  working  the 
 miracle  of  the  fig-tree.  As  Mark  is  so  positive  and  particular 
 in  his  account,  and  as  Matthew  does  not  expressly  connect  our 
 Lord's  driving  out  the  traders  with  the  events  of  the  day,  we 
 ought,  it  should  seem,  to  adopt  Mark's  account.  To  do  which 
 there  cannot  be  a  greater  inducement  than  the  consideration, 
 that  those  who  adopt  the  other  hypothesis  are  compelled  to  sup- 
 pose that  the  circumstances  in  question  happened  twice  on  two 
 successive  days.  Nay,  thrice;  for  our  Lord  had  done  much  the 
 same  thing  in  the  first  year  of  his  ministry  (John  ii.  14.)  The 
 reason  why  he  did  not  then  do  it  is  suggested  by  the  words  of 
 Mark,  o^/ia;  It  yivoftUtis,  that  is,  because  it  being  evening,  the 
 buyers  and  sellers  had  most  of  them  retired.  That  it  should 
 then  be  evening  was  likely  enough,  considering  the  events  of  the 
 day,  which  must  have  occupied  a  considerable  time. — Bloom- 
 field.— Ed. 
 
 b  These  money-changers  were  not  unlike  our  merchants  or 
 bankers  who  deal  in  bills  of  exchange,  and  either  remit  money 
 to  foreign  parts,  or  answer  such  draughts,  as,  by  their  corres- 
 pondents abroad,  are  made  upon  them.  And  considering  that 
 the  Jews,  how  far  soever  they  lived  from  it,  were  obliged  to 
 repair  to  Jerusalem,  there  to  offer  their  sacrifices,  and  pay  their 
 half  shekel  for  the  use  of  the  temple,  (Ex.  xxx.  13.)  the  institu- 
 tion of  such  dealers  in  money  was  highly  necessary,  that  the 
 Jews,  in  their  several  dispersions,  who  were  to  come  up  to  Jer- 
 usalem to  worship,  paying  their  money  to  merchants  at  home, 
 might  have  it  to  answer  their  occasions,  safe  from  thieves,  and 
 
 and  the  stalls  of  those  that  sold  doves  ;  telling  them 
 that  they  had  made  the  temple,  which  was  deservedly 
 called  an  '  house  of  prayer,  a  den  of  thieves.'  c  And  to 
 let  the  people  see  that  he  had  both  commission  and 
 authority  to  act  as  he  did,  he  cured  in  that  instant  many 
 blind  and  lame  persons  that  were  brought  to  him  into 
 the  temple. 
 
 The  people  indeed  were  filled  with  admiration  at  the 
 sight  of  these  things;  but  the  chief  priests  and  scribes, 
 when  they  saw  the  miracles  which  he  wrought,  and  heard 
 
 from  the  trouble  of  carriage  when  they  arrived  at  Jerusalem. 
 Whether  therefore  the  business  of  these  money-changers  was 
 only  to  return  money  from  distant  parts,  or  to  change  foreign 
 money  into  current  coin,  or  larger  money  into  less  pieces,  or 
 perhaps  to  do  all  this,  there  was  certainly  nothing  blame-worthy 
 in  the  profession,  had  it  not  been  for  some  intervening  abuse. 
 In  like  manner,  it  may  be  said  of  those  who  bought  or  sold  cattle 
 for  sacrifices,  since  it  would  have  been  highly  inconvenient  for 
 every  worshipper  who  lived  at  a  considerable  distance  to  bring 
 them  up  with  them,  such  men  were  necessary  in  their  way,  as 
 were  likewise  the  sellers  of  doves,  because  every  Israelite  did 
 not  keep  this  kind  of  birds,  and  yet  no  one  creature  was  so  often 
 recruired  in  sacrifice  as  they.  Our  Saviour  therefore  in  this 
 transaction  must  not  be  thought  to  blame  all  such  traffic  in 
 general,  but  only  to  find  fault  with  the  people  for  having  taken 
 up  an  improper  place  for  the  exercise  of  their  respective  callings. 
 And  therefore,  to  let  them  know  that  it  was  not  out  of  passion 
 or  any  peevish  resentment  against  them,  but  purely  in  obedience 
 to  a  divine  command  that  he  made  this  reformation,  he  told 
 them,  that  it  was  written,  '  My  house  shall  be  called  a  house  of 
 prayer.'  This  is  the  character  which  the  prophet  Isaiah  gives 
 of  it,  (chap.  lvi.  7.)  and  if  it  be  a  house  appointed  for  prayer 
 and  other  religious  offices,  then  it  is  no  proper  place  for  '  the 
 tables  of  money-changers,  and  the  seats  of  those  that  sell  doves,' 
 who  have  the  markets  of  Jerusalem  and  their  own  shops  and 
 houses  to  trade  in. — Hammond's  and  JFhitby's  Annotations,  and 
 Surenhusii  Conciliationes,  in  loca  V.  T.  apud  Matthaum. 
 
 c  This  expression  is  thought  by  some  to  be  an  allusion  to 
 those  gangs  of  robbers  which  at  this  time  infested  Judea,  and 
 used  to  hide  themselves  in  holes  and  dens  of  the  mountains,  as 
 appears  from  the  history  of  Josephus  in  several  places.  But  our 
 Lord  here  plainly  refers  to  that  passage  in  Jeremiah,  where  the 
 prophet  introduces  God  complaining,  '  Is  this  house,  which  is 
 called  by  myname,  become  a  den  of  robbers  in  your  eyes?  Behold, 
 even  I  have  seen  it,  saith  the  Lord,'  (chap.  vii.  11.)  But  how 
 could  the  house  of  God  become  a  den  of  robbers?  How  could 
 such  violence  be  committed  in  so  sacred  a  place?  St  Jerome, 
 in  his  commentary  upon  Mat.  xxi.  12,  13.,  ascribes  all  this  to 
 the  avarice  of  the  priests,  and  gives  us  a  lively  description  of 
 the  several  artifices  whereby  they  endeavoured  to  extort  money. 
 "  In  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,"  says  he,  "  the  finest  and  most 
 spacious  of  any  in  the  whole  world,  whither  Jews  assembled 
 almost  from  all  countries,  sacrifices  of  different  kinds,  some  for 
 the  rich,  and  others  for  the  poorer  sort,  were  prescribed  by  the 
 law ;  but  because  those  who  came  from  afar  often  wanted  such 
 sacrifices,  the  priests  took  the  advantage  to  buy  up  all  those 
 beasts  which  were  appointed  for  this  purpose,  and  having  sold  them 
 to  those  that  wanted,  received  them  at  their  hands  back  again. 
 Because  some  who  came  to  worship  were  so  very  poor  that  they 
 had  not  money  enough  to  purchase  so  much  as  the  lesser  sacri- 
 fices, which  were  birds ;  to  remedy  this  iuconveniency,  the 
 priests  set  up  bankers  in  one  of  the  courts  of  the  temple,  to  lend 
 them  money  upon  security.  But  finding  that  they  could  not  do 
 this  without  transgressing  the  law,  which  forbade  usury,  they 
 had  recourse  to  another  device,  which  was  to  appoint  a  kind  of 
 pawn-brokers,  instead  of  bankers,  that  is,  men  who,  for  the 
 advance  of  a  small  sum,  took  fruits,  herbs,  and  other  consum- 
 ables, instead  of  use-money.  Our  Lord  therefore  having  ob- 
 served this  way  of  traffic,  which  the  priests  had  set  up  in  his 
 Father's  house,  not  only  expelled  their  agents,  but  arraigned 
 them  likewise  for  a  pack  of  thieves;  'for  he  is  a  robber,'  says 
 the  Father,  '  who  makes  lucre  of  religion,  and  whose  worship  is 
 not  so  much  the  veneration  he  has  for  God,  as  the  opportunity  of 
 making  his  own  interest  and  advantage.'  " — Beaasobre's  Anno- 
 tations, and  CalmeVs  Commentary. 
 
Skct.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 995 
 
 M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D33.  OR,  A. 
 
 the  acclamations  of  the  children,  who  cried  out  in  the 
 temple,  '  Hosanna  to  the  son  of  David  ['  were  greatly 
 enraged,  and  discovered  their  anger  by  asking  him,  '  If 
 he  heard  what  they  said  ?'  But  he  silenced  their  ques- 
 tion by  showing  them  that  what  was  so  displeasing  to 
 them,  did  really  fulfil  the  scriptures,  particularly  that 
 passage  in  the  psalmist  where  it  is  said,  that  a  '  out  of 
 the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  thou  hast  perfected 
 praise.'  This  answer,  however,  did  but  enrage  them 
 the  more,  and  put  them  upon  seeking  all  occasions  to 
 destroy  him,  though  their  dread  of  the  people,  who  heard 
 him  with  the  greatest  eagerness  and  attention,  was  some 
 check  upon  their  malice. 
 
 The  Jews  were  not  the  only  persons  who  came  up  to 
 Jerusalem  at  the  passover ;  for  many  devout  Greeks  b 
 used  likewise  to  resort  thither  at  that  feast ;  and  some  of 
 these,  being  desirous  to  have  a  sight  of  Christ,  addressed 
 themselves  c  to  Philip,  one  of  the  apostles,  and  he,  by 
 the  assistance  of  Andrew,  had  them  introduced.  Our 
 Lord  was  at  that  time  discoursing  to  the  disciples  of 
 many  things  relating  to  his  passion,  and  particularly,  of 
 
 a  These  words  are  cited  from  Ps.  viii.  2.,  and  seem  to  vary 
 a  little  from  the  original,  which  is  thus  rendered,  '  Out  of  the 
 mouth  of  the  very  babes  and  sucklings  thou  hast  ordained 
 strength.'  But  when  it  is  considered  that  the  only  strength 
 which  can  proceed  from  the  mouth  of  children  must  be  praise, 
 or  words  put  in  their  mouths,  to  celebrate  the  praises  of  the 
 Messiah,  the  phrase  in  the  psalmist  and  in  the  evangelist  must 
 needs  mean  the  same  thing;  and  our  Saviour  in  the  application 
 of  it  to  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  seems  to  insinuate, — that 
 these  acclamations  of  the  children  were  not  fortuitous,  but  by 
 divine  instinct,  and  for  the  fulfilling  of  an  ancient  prophecy;  and 
 that  therefore  their  declaring  him  to  be  the  Messiah,  or  the  son 
 of  David,  should  be  looked  upon  as  a  kind  of  call  from  heaven, 
 to  inform  and  instruct  others  in  what  they  were  to  do.' — Beau- 
 sobre's  Annotations,  and  Surenkusii  Conciliat.  ibid. 
 
 b  Who  these  Greeks  were,  the  best  of  our  commentators  are 
 not  agreed.  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  they  were  mere  Gentiles, 
 who,  either  out  of  curiosity,  namely,  to  see  the  magnificence  of 
 the  temple,  the  solemnities  of  the  feast,  or  the  person  of  Jesus, 
 of  whose  fame  they  had  heard  so  much,  or  perhaps  out  of  a  prin- 
 ciple of  devotion,  and  to  worship  the  God  of  Israel,  might,  at 
 this  time,  resort  to  Jerusalem:  for  the  pagan  religion,  which  ad- 
 mitted a  plurality  of  gods,  restrained  none  from  worshipping  the 
 gods  of  other  nations,  so  long  as  they  were  not  thereby  tempted 
 to  abandon  those  of  their  own.  Others  imagine,  that  they  were 
 real  Jews  who  being  scattered  in  Grecian  provinces,  alter  the 
 conquests  which  Alexander  the  Great,  and  his  successors,  made 
 upon  the  Jews,  still  continued  in  these  countries,  but  kept  so 
 close  to  their  ancient  religion,  as  to  come  in  great  numbers  to 
 Jerusalem,  upon  the  return  of  every  passover.  These  were  gen- 
 erally called  Hellenists:  and,  that  there  was  great  plenty  of  them 
 in  several  provinces  of  Asia,  is  manifest  from  St  Peter's  address 
 of  his  first  epistle  to  the  strangers,  as  he  calls  them,  who  were 
 scattered  through  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia  Minor,  and 
 Bithynia,  (1  Pet.  i.  1.)  but  the  most  general  opinion  is,  that 
 these  Greeks  were  proselytes  of  the  gate,  who  worshipped  the 
 God  of  heaven  and  earth,  lived  among  the  Jews,  and  conformed 
 to  their  political  laws,  but  would  not  engage  in  circumcision,  or 
 the  observance  of  their  ceremonies  ;  and  they  came  to  Jerusalem, 
 at  this  time,  not  because  they  were  permitted  to  celebrate  the 
 feast  along  with  the  Jews,  but  because  they  were  indulged  the 
 privilege  to  behold  their  solemnities,  and  to  pay  their  adorations 
 to  the  Creator  of  the  universe,  even  while  the  Jews  were  in  the 
 height  of  their  public  worship,  in  the  court  of  the  Gentiles,  as 
 appears  from  the  case  of  the  eunuch  of  Queen  Candace,  Acts 
 viii.  27. — liasnage's  History  of  the  Jews,  b.  v.  c.  6;  Calmed 
 Commentary;  Poole's  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 c  These  Greeks,  says  Grotius,  seem  to  have  been  Syro-Phos- 
 nicians,  who  dwelt  perhaps  about  Tyre  and  Sydon,  and  so  might 
 easily  be  acquainted  with  the  Galileans,  with  whom  they  had 
 commerce,  and  with  Philip  of  Bethsaida,  to  whom  they  made 
 application  for  access  to  Christ. 
 
 END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHNxii.  1!»—  END, 
 
 the  efficacy  of  his  death,  and  what  a  powerful  means  it 
 would  prove  to  convert  the  world  to  his  religion,  more 
 powerful  indeed  than  his  life  could  possibly  be,  even  as 
 corn,  though  it  dies  in  the  ground,  d  when  sown,  rises 
 again  with  a  vast  abundance  and  increase.  While  he 
 was  thus  discoursing  of  his  death,  he  seemed,  on  a  sud- 
 den, to  be  seized  with  a  natural  horror  e  of  its  approach- 
 ing hour,  and  was  going  to  request  of  God  a  reprieve 
 from  it ;  but  then  recollecting,  that  for  this  purpose  it 
 was  that  he  came  into  the  world,  he  changed  his  petition, 
 and,  with  a  resolved  acquiescence  in  his  good  pleasure, 
 desired  of  him,  in  what  method  he  should  think  most 
 proper,  to  glorify  his  name  ;  whereupon  he  Avas  answered 
 by  a  voice  from  heaven,  /  which  some  of  the  company 
 took  for  a  clap  of  thunder,  and  others  for  an  angel's 
 speaking  to  him,  '  that  he  had  already  glorified  it,  S  and 
 would  glorify  it  again.' 
 
 This  voice,  he  told  them,  was  not  so  much  for  his  in- 
 formation in  the  will  of  heaven,  as  it  was  for  their  con- 
 viction of  his  divine  mission ;  and  so  he  went  on  dis- 
 coursing to  them  of  his  death,  and  the  beneficial  effects  of 
 it,  until  some  of  them,  perceiving  in  what  he  said  an  in- 
 consistency, as  they  thought,  with  some  passages  of 
 scripture,  told  him,  that  they  could  not  rightly  compre- 
 hend what  he  meant  by  his  death,  since  some  prophecies  h 
 
 d  Our  Saviour's  words  upon  this  occasion  are  not  amiss  para- 
 phrased in  this  manner, — '  Look,  as  you  see  in  your  ordinary 
 husbandry,  the  grains  of  wheat  are  first  buried  in  the  earth,  and 
 lose  their  form  before  they  spring,  and  shoot  up  again,  and  bring 
 forth  fruit ;  so  it  must  be  with  me.  I  must  be  first  lifted  up, 
 before  I  shall  draw  men  after  me ;  I  must  first  be  crucified,  be- 
 fore my  gospel  shall  be  preached  to  all  nations,  and  all  the  fulness 
 of  the  Gentiles  shall  come  in:  but  when  I  am  once  dead,  and 
 have  risen,  then  shall  ye  see  this  abundant  fruit.' — Poole's  An- 
 notations. 
 
 e  The  mention  of  his  death,  brought  before  him  its  approaching 
 horrors;  its  pains;  its  darkness;  its  unparalleled  woes:  Jesus 
 was  full  of  acute  sensibility,  and  his  human  nature  shrunk  from 
 the  scenes  through  which  he  was  to  pass,  See  Luke  xxiii.  41 — 
 44 Barnes  on  the  Gospels. — Ed. 
 
 f  The  only  way  of  revelation  which  the  Jews,  since  the  Baby- 
 lonish captivity,  and  the  extinction  of  their  prophets,  Haggai, 
 Zechariah,  and  Malachi,  pretend  to,  is  that  of  Bath-Koll,  or  the 
 daughter  of  a  voice,  so  called,  because  it  has  some  resemblance, 
 though,  as  to  distinctness,  but  an  imperfect  one,  of  that  voice, 
 which  was  uttered  from  the  holy  of  holies,  when  the  Lord  spake 
 to  Moses,  and,  according  to  them,  it  is  the  will  of  God  revealed 
 in  thunder  from  heaven ;  and  therefore,  though,  upon  this  occa- 
 sion, some  of  the  company  thought  it  thundered,  and  others,  that 
 an  angel  spake,  yet  neither  of  them  were  mistaken,  because  in 
 this  Bath-Koll  there  was  always  thunder  joined  with  an  articulate 
 voice. — Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 g  I  have  glorified  it,  by  causing  my  glory  to  be  published  and 
 proclaimed  in  the  world,  by  the  preaching,  and  by  the  miracles 
 which  I  have  given  in  testimony  of  thy  mission;  and  I  will 
 glorify  it  again,  by  thy  resurrection  and  exaltation  to  the  right- 
 hand  of  glory,  by  the  mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  thy  apos- 
 tles, and  by  their  carrying  the  sound  of  the  gospel  even  unto  the 
 ends  of  the  earth. — Poole's  and  JVhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 h  The  prophecies,  from  whence  the  Jews  may  be  supposed  to 
 have  drawn  this  conclusion,  are,  (2  Sam.  vii.  1G.)  where  God, 
 by  the  mouth  of  Nathan,  promises  David,  'Thine  house,  and 
 thy  kingdom,  shall  be  established  for  ever  before  thee  ;  thy  throne 
 shall  he  established  for  ever;'  in  much  the  same  words  wherein 
 he  had  sworn  unto  David  himself,  (Ps.  lxxxix.  29.)  '  His  seed 
 will  I  make  to  endure  for  ever,  and  his  throne  as  the  days  of 
 heaven.'  To  the  same  purpose  they  found  the  prophet  Isaiah 
 promising,  (chap.  ix.  7.)  '  My  servant  David  shall  he  their  king 
 for  ever,  and  of  his  government  there  shall  be  no  end.'  But 
 what  seemed  to  express  the  matter  in  the  cleared  terms,  was 
 this  passage  in  Daniel,  (chap.  vii.  13,  14.)  'Anil  behold  one 
 like  the  Son  of  man  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  '-ame 
 
996 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR  A.  M.  5412.  A.  D.31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 had  assured  them  that  the  Messiah  was  to  live  for  ever. 
 But  to  this  objection  he  made  no  other  reply,  than  that 
 it  well  behoved  them  to  make  good  use  of  his  instruc- 
 tions for  the  short  time  they  were  to  have  them  ;  and  so 
 he  withdrew  from  them,  as  well  perceiving  that  neither 
 his  divine  discourses  nor  miraculous  cures  could  gain 
 the  faith  of  any,  except  the  populace ;  for  though  some 
 of  their  rulers  might  believe  in  him,  yet  such  was  their 
 timidity,  that  they  durst  not  declare  it  openly,  for  fear 
 of  excommunication,  and  because  '  they  loved  the  praise 
 of  men  more  than  the  praise  of  God.' 
 
 Towards  the  evening,  however,  he  returned  again  to 
 the  temple,  a  and  exhorted  the  people  to  believe  in  him 
 as  a  messenger  sent  from  God  to  offer  salvation  to  man- 
 kind ;  and  in  case  that  they  persisted  in  their  infidelity,  he 
 threatened  them  with  divine  vengeance  in  the  last  day, 
 when  the  very  gospel  which  he  then  preached  to  them, 
 would  rise  up  in  judgment  against  them,  and  condemn 
 them ;  and,  with  these  words,  he  left  the  temple,  and 
 taking  his  apostles  with  him,  returned  to  Bethany,  where 
 he  lodged  that  night. 
 
 The  next  morning  as  he  returned  to  Jerusalem,  find- 
 ing himself  a  little  hungry,  he  went  to  a  fig-tree  that  was 
 in  the  way,  in  hopes  of  finding  some  fruit  upon  it :  but 
 when  he  found  none,  to  signify  his  almighty  power,  he 
 cursed  the  tree,  *  and  so,  proceeding  to  the  temple,  began 
 again  to  clear  it  of  all  the  traders  that  were  got  again 
 into  it ;  and  there  continued  all  the  day  long  teaching 
 and  instructing  the  people.  While  he  was  doing  this, 
 the  chief  priests,  scribes,  and  rulers  of  the  people,  know- 
 ing that  he  had  no  commission  from  the  sanhedrim,  c 
 came,  and  demanded  of  him  by  what  authority  he  pro- 
 ceeded in  that  manner ;  but  instead  of  answering  their 
 question  directly,  he  put  another  to  them,  namely,  '  Whe- 
 
 to  the  ancient  of  days,  &c,  and  there  was  given  him  dominion, 
 and  glory,  and  a  kingdom,  &c. :  his  dominion  is  an  everlasting 
 dominion,  which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  his  kingdom  that 
 which  shall  not  be  destroyed.'  Thus  the  Jews  wrongfully  ap- 
 plied to  the  person  of  the  Messiah,  the  things  which  related  to 
 his  kingdom ;  but  then  they  gave  little  or  no  heed  to  what  the 
 same  prophets  said  of  the  body,  wherein  the  Messiah  was  to 
 sutler,  and  of  his  hands  and  feet  which  were  to  be  pierced,  (Ps. 
 xxii.  16. — xi.  6.  of  '  his  giving  up  his  life  a  sacrifice  for  sin,' 
 Is.  liii.  12.  and  of  his  being  '  cut  off',  but  not  for  himself,'  Dan. 
 ix.  2G.  All  which  was  not  incompatible  with  his  abiding  for 
 ever;  seeing  that,  after  his  sufferings,  he  was  to  rise  again,  (Ps. 
 xli.  10.)  and  enter  into  glory.  (1  Pet.  i.  11.)  So  that  by  com- 
 paring these  things  together  they  might  have  easily  removed 
 this  scruple,  especially  when  he  had  told  them  so  often,  and  they 
 so  well  remembered  that  he  had  told  them,  that,  '  after  three 
 days,  he  would  rise  again.' — Whitby's  and  Beausohre's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 a  It  is  very  probable  that  the  priests,  who  had  the  advantage 
 of  letting  these  shops,  and  were  therefore  not  so  well  pleased 
 with  the  reformation  which  our  Saviour  had  made,  ordered  the 
 traders  to  reassume  their  places,  promising  to  know  of  him  by 
 what  authority  he  made  these  innovations. — Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 6  On  the  curse  pronounced  on  the  fig-tree,  see  answers  to 
 objections  next  chap. — En. 
 
 c  It  is  pretended  by  some  that  the  person  who  preached  in  the 
 temple  was  to  have  a  license  from  the  sanhedrim,  but  that  any 
 might  speak  publicly  in  the  synagogues  without  any  such  faculty; 
 because  we  find  our  Saviour  preaching  in  the  latter,  almost 
 i-wry  sabbath  day,  without  any  molestation.  However  this  be, 
 it  was  certainly  a  vain  question  for  the.  chief  priests  and  rulers 
 to  ask  our  Lord,  'by  whose  authority  he  did  those  things,'  after 
 they  had  seen  his  miracles,  and  knew  that  he  claimed  his  com- 
 mission from  God — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's  An- 
 notations, 
 
 ther  the  baptism  of  John  was  of  divine  or  only  of  human 
 institution  ?'  To  say  that  it  was  of  divine  institution, 
 would  be  to  accuse  themselves  of  impiety  and  incredul- 
 ity ;  and  to  say  that  it  was  purely  human,  would  be  to 
 provoke  the  people,  who  all  looked  upon  him  as  a  pro- 
 phet, to  stone  them  ;  and  therefore  in  this  dilemma  they 
 concluded  that  ignorance  would  be  the  best  answer,  and 
 thereupon  declared  '  that  they  could  not  tell  ;'  to  which 
 our  Saviour  rejoined,  '  Neither  is  it  necessary  for  me  to 
 give  you  an  account  of  my  commission  and  authority, 
 since  you  seem  to  grant  that  a  man  may  lawfully  preach 
 and  baptize,  and  entertain  disciples,  as  John  did,  with- 
 out the  appointment  and  permission  of  the  sanhedrim.' 
 And  so  he  proceeded  in  several  parables,  such  as  the 
 parable  1  of  the  two  sons,  d  that  £  of  the  wicked  Jiusbaud- 
 men,  e  and  that  3  of  the  guests  invited  to  the  marriage 
 
 1  Mat.  xxi.  2S. 
 
 2  Ibid.  xxi.  33. 
 
 3  Ibid.  xxii.  2. 
 
 d  By  the  man  in  the  parable  is  signified  God,  and  by  his  two 
 sons,  the  Jews  and  the  Gentiles.  The  Jews  are  the  second 
 son:  they  promised  to  God  a  perfect  obedience,  and  yet  did 
 nothing.  The  Gentiles  are  the  other  son,  who  at  first  refused 
 to  obey,  and  gave  themselves  up  to  idolatry  and  all  manner  of 
 wickedness,  but,  upon  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  repented; 
 and  after  their  conversion,  applied  themselves  in  earnest  to  do 
 the  will  of  God.  The  parable,  according  to  our  Lord's  own 
 interpretation  of  it,  (Mat.  xxi.  32.)  is  applicable  likewise  to  two 
 kinds  of  Jews — the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  who  pretended  to  so 
 much  religion,  and  such  mighty  zeal  for  the  performance  of  the 
 law,  when  in  reality  they  observed  none  of  its  weightier  pre- 
 cepts ;  and  the  publicans  and  sinners,  who,  though  at  first  they 
 lived  in  practices  quite  abhorrent  to  the  precepts  of  religion, 
 yet,  upon  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist,  were  several  of 
 them  converted,  and  attending  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  and 
 his  apostles,  in  process  of  time,  became  obedient  to  their  heav- 
 enly Father's  will  (ver.  31.) — Calmet's  Commentary. — Scott 
 and  others  consider  this  parable  to  refer  to  the  profligate  Jews, 
 the  publicans,  and  harlots,  who  were  at  length  brought  to  repent- 
 ance and  became  disciples  of  Jesus;  and  to  the  Pharisees,  scribes, 
 and  priests,  who  were  the  greatest  enemies  of  the  gospel. — Ed. 
 
 e  For  the  explication  of  this  parable  we  must  observe, — that 
 the  householder  here  (Mat.  xxi.  33.)  is  almighty  God,  and  the 
 vineyard  is  the  Jewish  people,  considered  in  their  spiritual 
 capacity;  that  his  planting  and  hedging  it  about,  signifies  his 
 peculiar  favour  and  providence,  in  communicating  to  them  his 
 will,  and,  by  laws  and  ordinances  peculiar  to  themselves,  distin- 
 guishing them  from  all  other  nations  to  be  his  own  people ;  that 
 the  wine  press  and  tower,  and  other  suitable  conveniences,  denote 
 the  temple  and  altar  which  he  built  among  them,  together  with 
 all  those  advantages  and  opportunities  of  serving  him  acceptably 
 which  he  afforded  them ;  that  the  husbandmen  to  whom  this 
 vineyard  was  let  out  were  the  priests  and  Levites,  the  doctors 
 and  rulers  of  that  church  and  people,  who  are  here  represented  as 
 wanting  in  their  duty,  and  negligent  in  cultivating  the  vineyard, 
 or  instructing  the  people  committed  to  their  charge ;  that  the  fruits 
 are  no  other  than  returns  of  duty,  proportioned  to  the  advantages  of 
 knowing  and  performing  it;  that  the  servants  sent  to  demand  the 
 fruits  were  the  prophets,  whom  God  from  time  to  time  commis- 
 sioned to  reprove,  exhort,  and  quicken  to  their  duty,  both  priests 
 and  people,  by  denunciations  of  vengeance,  and  promises  of 
 rewards;  that  the  Son,  whom  he  sent  at  last,  was  our  blessed 
 Saviour,  whom  the  Jewish  priests  and  rulers  treated  in  no  bet- 
 ter manner  than  they  had  done  the  prophets  of  old,  but,  instead 
 of  reverencing  him  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  as  he  proved  himself 
 to  be  by  divers  manifestations  of  divine  power,  put  him  to  a 
 cruel  and  ignominious  death:  and  therefore  well  might  the  Lord 
 of  the  vineyard  '  destroy  these  wicked  men,'  &c,  as  we  find 
 from  the  Jewish  historian  Josephus,  as  well  as  other  writers,  that 
 God,  for  their  great  impiety,  brought  the  Roman  armies  upon 
 that  nation,  and  by  them  burned  their  city  and  temple,  destroyed 
 and  dispersed  the  people,  and  carried  his  gospel  to  the  gentiles, 
 '  to  other  husbandmen,  who  should  render  him  the  fruits  in  their 
 seasons.'  (ver.  41.) — Calmet's  Commentary,  Whitby's  Annota- 
 tions, and  Stanhope  on  the  Ejristles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
Sbct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 997 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33.  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10.-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xlx.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 feast, a  to  upbraid  them  with  their  hypocrisy,  cruelty,  and 
 contempt  of  religion,  and  for  these  to  denounce  the 
 severe  judgments  of  God  against  them. 
 
 The  Pharisees,  who  had  as  great  a  share  in  the  appli- 
 cation of  these  parables  as  any  other,  went  away  much 
 enraged,  and  with  a  firm  resolution  to  find  out  some  oc- 
 casion against  him.  To  this  purpose,  therefore,  they 
 sent  some  of  their  disciples,  together  with  the  Herod- 
 ians,  *  to  propound   this  insidious   question  to   him,  c 
 
 a  The  king  in  this  parable  represents  God  the  Father;  the 
 Son,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  frequently  described  as  the 
 spouse  of  his  church:  and  the  marriage  feast,  the  dispensation 
 of  the  gospel.  The  guests,  that  were  first  invited  to  the  feast, 
 were  the  Jews;  the  servants  sent  forth  to  call  them,  were  the 
 prophets,  John  the  Baptist,  and  the  apostles ;  upon  their  refusal, 
 the  other  guests  brought  in  to  supply  their  room,  were  the  Gen- 
 tiles; and  the  person  who  wanted  the  wedding  garment,  is  an 
 emblem  of  all  those  who  profess  and  receive,  but  do  not  live  up 
 to,  the  principles  of  Christ's  religion. —  Calmet's  Commentary, 
 and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. — Anciently 
 kings  and  princes  were  accustomed  to  make  presents  of  changes 
 of  raiment  to  their  friends  and  favourites,  to  refuse  to  receive 
 which  was  an  expression  of  highest  contempt.  (Gen.  xlv.  22. 
 2  Kings  x.  22.  Esther  vi.  8;  viii.  15.)  It  was,  of  course,  ex- 
 pected that  such  garments  would  be  worn  when  they  came  into 
 the  presence  of  the  benefactor.  The  garments  worn  on  festival 
 occasions  were  chiefly  long  white  robes;  and  it  was  the  custom 
 of  the  person  who  made  the  feast  to  prepare  such  robes  to  be  worn 
 by  the  guests.  This  renders  the  conduct  of  this  man  more  in- 
 excusable. He  came  in  his  common  ordinary  dress,  as  he  was 
 taken  from  the  highway ;  though  he  had  not  a  garment  of  his 
 own  suitable  for  the  occasion,  yet  one  had  been  provided  for  him, 
 if  he  had  applied  for  it.  His  not  doing  it,  was  expressive  of  the 
 highest  disrespect  for  the  king.  This  beautifully  represents  the 
 conduct  of  the  hypocrite  in  the  church.  A  garment  of  salvation 
 might  be  his,  wrought  by  the  hands  of  the  Saviour,  and  dyed  in 
 his  blood.  But  the  hypocrite  chooses  the  filthy  rags  of  his  own 
 righteousness,  and  thus  offers  the  highest  contempt  for  that  pro- 
 vided iu  the  gospel.  He  is  to  blame:  not  for  being  invited ;  not 
 for  coming,  if  he  would  come,  for  he  is  freely  invited ;  but  for 
 offering  the  highest  contempt  to  the  King  of  Zion,  in  presenting 
 himself  with  all  his  filth  and  rags,  and  in  refusing  to  be  saved 
 in  the  way  provided  in  the  gospel. — Barnes  on  the  Gospels. — 
 Ed. 
 
 b  It  is  not  certainly  known  who  these  were.  It  is  probable 
 that  they  took  their  name  from  Herod  the  Great — perhaps  first 
 a  political  party,  and  then  distinguished  for  holding  some  of  his 
 peculiar  opinions.  Dr  Prideaux  thinks  that  those  opinions  re- 
 ferred to  two  things;  the  first  respecting  subjection  to  a  foreign 
 power.  The  law  of  Moses  was,  that  '  a  stranger  should  not  be 
 set  over  the  Jews  as  a  king.  (Deut.  xvii.  15.)  Herod,  who 
 had  received  the  kingdom  of  Judea  by  appointment  oftheRomans, 
 held  that  the  law  of  Moses  referred  only  to  a  voluntary  choice  of 
 a  king,  and  did  not  refer  to  a  necessary  submission,  where  they 
 had  been  overpowered  by  force.  They  supposed,  therefore,  that 
 it  was  lawful  in  such  cases  to  pay  tribute  to  a  foreign  prince. 
 This  opinion  was,  however,  extensively  unpopular  among  the 
 Jews,  and  particularly  the  Pharisees,  who  looked  upon  it  as  a 
 violation  of  their  law,  and  all  the  acts  growing  out  of  it  as  oppres- 
 sive. Hence  the  difficulty  of  the  question  proposed  by  them. 
 Whatever  way  he  decided,  they  supposed  he  would  be  involved 
 in  difficulty.  If  he  should  say  it  was  not  lawful,  the  Herodians 
 were  ready  to  accuse  him  as  being  an  enemy  of  Caesar;  if  he 
 said  it  was  lawful,  the  Pharisees  were  ready  to  accuse  him  to  the 
 people  of  holding  an  opinion  extremely  unpopular  among  them, 
 and  as  being  an  enemy  of  their  rights.  The  other  opinion  of 
 Herod,  which  they  seem  to  have  followed,  was,  that  when  a 
 people  were  subjugated  by  a  foreign  force,  it  was  right  to  adopt 
 the  rites  and  customs  of  their  religion.  This  was  what  was 
 meant  by  the  'leaven  of  Herod,'  (Mark  viii.  15.)  The  Herod- 
 ians  and  Sadducees  seem  on  most  questions  to  have  been  united. 
 — Barnes  on  the  Gospels  — Ed. 
 
 O  The  state  of  the  question,  truly  taken,  seems  to  be   this, 
 
 The  government  of  the  Jews  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
 Maccabees,  and,  in  succession,  to  one  of  them  named  Alexander. 
 He  had  two  sons,  Hyrcanus  aud  Aristobulus,  the  younger  of 
 
 '  Whether  it  was  lawful  for  them  to  pay  tribute  to  Ccesar, 
 or  not  ?'  never  doubting  but  that,  which  way  soever  he 
 answered,  his  business  was  done  :  if  in  the  affirmative, 
 the  multitude  would  detest  him,  as  a  betrayer  of  their 
 ancient  liberties  ;  if  in  the  negative,  the  Herodians  would 
 then  accuse  him  as  a  rebel  against  the  emperor  Tiberius  : 
 but  he,  knowing  their  treacherous  design,  demanded  a 
 sight  of  the  tribute-money,  and  when  they  acknowledged 
 that  the  signature  d  on  it  was  Caesar's  he  sent  them  away 
 quite  confounded  with  this  answer  :  e  '  Render  therefore 
 unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  unto  God, 
 the  things  that  are  God's. 
 
 which  made  war  upon  the  elder,  and  assumed  to  himself  the 
 government.  Hyrcanus  and  his  party  being  not  able  to  resist 
 him,  called  in  the  assistance  of  the  Romans.  Pompey,  at  their 
 request,  besieges  Jerusalem,  and  had  the  gates  surrendered  to 
 him  by  a  faction  within,  that  favoured  Hyrcanus;  but  Aristob- 
 ulus and  his  adherents  fought  it  out,  till  at  last  they  were  van- 
 quished and  overpowered.  The  Romans  put  Hyrcanus  in  pos- 
 session of  the  government;  but,  at  the  same  time,  obliged  him 
 to  hold  it  by  their  favour  and  permission,  which  laid  the  founda- 
 tion of  great  and  lasting  dissensions  among  the  Jews,  some 
 submitting  to  the  Roman  power,  as  thinking  they  had  a  fair  title 
 both  by  conquest  and  surrender ;  while  others  objected,  that  the 
 surrender  was  made  by  a  party  only,  and  not  the  whole  body  of 
 the  people:  that  it  was  not  conquest,  but  treachery,  which 
 brought  Jerusalem  to  their  mercy ;  and,  consequently,  that  they 
 were  usurpers,  and  Hyrcanus  and  his  followers  betrayers  of  their 
 country.  That  which  contributed  not  a  little  to  make  this  con- 
 troversy still  greater,  was  that  Josephus  and  Eusebius  relate 
 concerning  Judas  the  Gaulonite.  He,  about  the  time  of  the 
 taxation,  in  which,  as  St  Luke  says,  our  Saviour  was  born,  dis- 
 quieted the  minds  of  many,  and  represented  the  decree  of  Augus- 
 tus for  that  purpose  as  a  mark  of  infamy  and  servitude  not  to  be 
 borne.  This  man  is  said  to  have  instituted  a  particular  sect, 
 one  of  whose  tenets  was, — That  no  Jew  ought  to  pay  tribute,  or 
 to  acknowledge  any  sovereign  Lord,  but  God  only:  and  that  they 
 were  his  peculiar  people,  and  therefore  bound  to  maintain  their 
 liberty,  especially  against  prophane  and  uncircumcised  pretenders, 
 such  as  the  Roman  emperors  were.  So  that  the  paying  of  tribute 
 to  Caesar  was  not,  at  this  time,  a  question  of  mere  curiosity,  but 
 a  matter  of  moment  with  regard  to  practice;  nor  was  it  a  point 
 of  bravery  only,  in  the  esteem  of  the  Pharisees,  and  others  of 
 that  party,  but  a  scruple  of  conscience,  and  a  debate  of  religion, 
 whether  this  tribute  should  be  paid  or  not. — Stanhope  on  the 
 Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 d  Every  one  knows,  that  the  Roman  emperors  were  wont  to 
 disperse  their  money  through  all  the  provinces  belonging  to  their 
 jurisdiction;  that  this  money  was  stamped  with  the  image  or 
 bust  of  the  emperor  on  one  side,  aud  on  the  reverse,  with  some 
 figure  or  other,  representing  victory,  plenty,  peace,  or  the  like; 
 and  that  this  tribute,  or  capitation  tax,  which  according  to  Ulpian, 
 the  males  from  fourteen,  and  the  females  from  twelve  years  old, 
 were  obliged  to  pay,  was  usually  collected  in  this  money,  and  no 
 other,  as  the  only  current  coin  at  Rome. — Calmet's  Commentary, 
 
 e  Some  interpreters  are  of  opinion,  that  our  Saviour's  words 
 do  not  determine  Caesar's  right  to  demand  tribute :  but  since  the 
 Jews  had  now  submitted  to  the  Roman  government,  as  they  had 
 formerly  done  to  the  Assyrian,  which  national  submission,  with 
 promise  of  fidelity,  having  now  obtained  about  an  hundred  years, 
 was  a  just  ground  for  Caesar's  rights;  since  besides  this,  Caesar 
 had  indulged  them  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  the  en- 
 joyment of  their  civil  rights;  had  fought  their  battles,  and 
 protected  them  against  the  common  enemy,  the  Arabians,  and 
 Parthians,  and  the  like  ;  since,  more  especially,  it  was  a  received 
 maxim  among  the  Jews,  that  wherever  the  money  of  any  person 
 was  owned  as  the  current  coin  of  the  kingdom,  there  the  inhabi- 
 tants acknowledged  that  person  to  be  their  lord  and  governor; 
 and  since  the  Jews  accepted,  and  trafficked  with  Caesar's  money, 
 and  held  it  current  in  all  their  payments,  our  Saviour's  answer, 
 '  Render  therefore  unto  Caesar,'  which  is  founded  upon  their 
 own  principles,  must  needs  be  deemed  a  positive  declaration  of 
 C;esar's  right  to  receive  tribute,  and  such  other  acknowledge- 
 ments as  belonged  to  the  state  and  dignity  of  the  post  wherein 
 providence  had  placed  him.     It  might  indeed  be  objected,  says 
 
99S 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33.  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKExix.  45— END.  JOHN  xli.  19-END. 
 
 Upon  the  defeat  given  to  these  two  parties,  the  Sad- 
 ducees  came  to  him  with  a  question,  and  a  difficulty, 
 that  they  thought  insurmountable.  For,  as  they  had  no 
 belief  of  a  resurrection,  they  put  a  case  to  him  of  one 
 woman,  who,  according  to  the  direction  of  their  law,  had 
 been  married  to  seven  brothers  successively,  and  there- 
 upon desired  to  know  whose  wife  she  was  to  be  at  the 
 general  resurrection  ?  a  In  answer  to  which  our  Lord 
 gave  them  to  understand,  that  though  marriage  was 
 necessary  in  this  state,  in  order  to  raise  up  a  posterity 
 to  mortal  man,  yet,  that,  after  the  resurrection,  men  would 
 be  immortal,  and  live  like  angels  devoid  of  passions, 
 and  incapable  of  decay  ;  and  then  proved  the  reality  of 
 the  resurrection  *  from  one  of  God's  appellations  in  a 
 book  which  themselves  allowed  to  be  canonical. 
 
 Grotius  on  (Mat.  xxii.  20.)  that  the  Romans  ruled  over  the  Jews, 
 and  Cjesar  over  the  Romans,  in  fact  only,  and  without  any  right 
 to  do  so;  but  Christ  shows,  that  this  objection  signifies  nothing 
 to  the  matter  in  hand ;  for  since  peace  cannot  be  secured  without 
 forces,  nor  forces  had  without  pay,  nor  pay  without  taxes  or 
 tribute,  it  follows,  that  tribute  ought  to  be  paid  to  the  person 
 actually  governing,  so  long  as  he  continues  to  govern,  in  con- 
 sideration of  the  common  safety  and  protection,  which  are  secured 
 by  the  present  possessor  of  the  government,  whoever  the  possessor 
 be. — Whitby's Annotations,  and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and 
 Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 a  The  discourse  of  the  Sadducees  was  founded  upon  this  mis- 
 take,— That  if  there  would  be  a  resurrection  of  bodies,  there 
 would  necessarily  follow  a  revival  of  the  same  relations  likewise, 
 and  that  the  state  of  the  world  to  come,  would  be  like  the  state 
 of  this  present  world,  in  which,  for  the  propagation  and  continu- 
 ance of  mankind,  men  and  women  marry,  and  are  given  in  mar- 
 riage; which  gross  notion  of  theirs  our  Saviour  endeavours  to 
 rectify. — Poole's  Annotations. — It  would  appear  that  the  Phari- 
 sees though  they  believed  in  the  resurrection  entertained  very 
 erroneous  notions  respecting  the  condition  of  mankind  in  the 
 future  state.  On  this  point  there  was  much  difference  of  opinion 
 among  the  Jewish  rabbins.  Some  maintaining  that  there  is 
 marrying  in  heaven;  others  that  there  is  not.  The  general 
 opinion  was,  that  the  dead  would  be  raised  either  in  their  former 
 or  with  other  bodies.  And  it  was  the  common  notion,  that  the 
 offices  of  the  new  bodies  would  be  precisely  the  same  with  those 
 of  the  former  ones.  The  wiser  few,  however,  were  of  quite 
 another  opinion.  But  of  these  some  went  into  the  other  ex- 
 treme— and  maintained  that  the  raised  would  have  no  bodies, 
 (So  Maimonides  de  Poenit.  viii.  3.)  in  the  future  state Bloom- 
 field's  Greek  Testament,  note  to  Mat.  xxii.  30.— Ed. 
 
 b  The  words  which  our  Saviour  produces  in  proof  of  the  re- 
 surrection are  those  which  God  uses  to  Moses,  '  I  am  the  God 
 of  thy  Father,  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the 
 God  of  Jacob,'  (Exod.  iii.  6.)  And  the  argument  which  is  im- 
 plied in  them  is  this — That  since  to  be  the  God  of  any  one,  is  a 
 federal  expression,  which  denotes  God  to  be  a  kind  benefactor, 
 who  either  doth  or  will  do  good  to  such  persons  as  are  in  his 
 favour,  and  under  his  protection;  since  God  is  not  the  God  of 
 the  dead,  and  can  have  no  regard  or  consideration  for  such  as 
 are  mere  nonentities,  or  so  dead  as  never  to  return  to  life  again ; 
 since,  in  this  life,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  received  no  such 
 signal  kindnesses  from  the  Almighty,  as  answer  the  emphatical 
 expression  of  his  being  '  their  God,'  it  must  necessarily  follow, 
 that  God,  in  declaring  himself  to  be  <  their  God,'  did  solemnly 
 engage  himself  to  make  them  happy  after  this  life,  according  to 
 what  the  author  to  the  Hebrews  observes,  '  wherefore  God  is 
 not  ashamed  to  be  called  their  God ;  for  he  hath  prepared  for 
 them  a  city,'  (Heb.  xi.  16.)  This  way  of  arguing  was  of  great 
 force  against  the  Sadducees,  who  denied  the  immortality  of  the 
 soul,  as  well  as  the  resurrection  of  the  body;  and,  at  the  same 
 time,  it  fully  proves  the  resurrection  of  the  body:  for  since  the 
 souls  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  were  not  the  entire  persons 
 of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  which  consisted  of  bodies  as  well 
 as  souls,  it  would  from  hence  follow,  that  God  could  truly  be  their 
 God,  that  is,  their  rewarder  and  bounteous  benefactor,  no  other 
 way  than  by  a  resurrection  of  their  bodies,  to  be  reunited  to 
 their  proper  souls.— Poole's  aud  Bcausobrc's  Annotations,  and 
 Tillotson's  Sermons,  vol.  i. 
 
 The  Pharisees,  hearing  that  the  Sadducees  were 
 silenced,  began  to  rally  again ;  and  one  of  their  doctors  c 
 in  hopes  to  insnare  our  Saviour,  in  case  he  should  prefer 
 one  part  of  the  law  above  another,  desired  to  know  his 
 opinion  d  '  which  was  to  be  accounted  the  greatest  com- 
 mandment of  all  ?'  Whereupon  our  Lord  reduced  the 
 whole  law  to  two  general  precepts  of  equal  obligation  to 
 all  mankind,  '  the  love  of  God  above  all  things,'  and 
 the  e  '  love  of  our  neighbour  as  ourselves  ;'  in  the  former 
 of  which  we  obey  the  first,  and  in  the  latter,  the  second 
 table  of  the  law ;  /and  with  this  answer  the  doctor  was 
 
 c  The  person  whom  we  here  render  doctor,  is,  by  St  Matthew, 
 (chap.  xxii.  35.)  called  a  lawyer,  and  by  St  Luke,  (chap.  xx. 
 39.)  a  scribe;  but  in  this  diversity  of  words  there  is  no  difference 
 of  sense :  for  the  scribes  were  of  two  sorts,  or  had  at  least  two 
 offices ;  the  one  was,  to  sit  in  the  chair  of  Moses,  (Mat.  xxiii. 
 2.)  that  is,  to  read  and  interpret  the  law  of  Moses  to  the  people ; 
 the  other,  to  expound  to  them  the  traditions  which  they  pretended 
 to  have  received  from  their  forefathers.  The  name  of  scribe 
 they  seem  to  have  derived  from  Ezra,  about  500  years  before, 
 who  is  so  frequently  styled  '  a  scribe  of  the  law  of  the  Lord,  who 
 read  in  the  book  of  the  law,  and  expounded  it,'  (Ezra  vii.  12. 
 Neh.  viii.  1.  and  xii.  36.  &c )  And  because  the  traditions 
 which  they  taught,  and  obliged  the  people  to  observe,  were  called 
 vofii/u.a,  or  laws,  they  thence  had  the  appellation  of  vapixoi,  or 
 lawyers:  and  as  some  of  the  scribes  were  the  persons  appointed 
 to  copy  out  the  Bible  for  such  as  had  occasion  for  it,  and  to  take 
 care  of  the  preservation  of  the  purity  of  the  text ;  so  others  em- 
 ployed themselves  in  taking  the  like  pains  about  the  traditions 
 of  the  elders,  and  from  thence,  very  likely,  though  they  were 
 all  of  the  same  order  of  men,)  they  might  have  different  denomi- 
 nations.— Whitby's  Annotations,  and  the  Introduction  to  Eackard's 
 Ecclesiastical  History. 
 
 d  This  was  a  point  that  often  was  disputed  by  the  Jewish 
 doctors  ;  some  contending  for  the  law  of  circumcision,  others 
 for  that  of  sacrifices,  aud  others  for  that  of  the  phylacteries.  And 
 though  it  was  a  rule  among  them,  that  the  law  of  the  sabbath 
 was  to  give  place  to  that  of  circumcision,  yet  they  were  not 
 agreed  as  to  the  rest,  which  was  the  principal  and  most  important 
 precept ;  only  in  general  they  were  inclined  to  give  the  preference 
 to  the  ceremonial  part. — Dr  Lightfoot  remarks,  (in  his  Hor. 
 Heb.  on  Mark  xii.  28.)  that  Christ  answers  the  scribe  out  of  a 
 sentence  which  was  written  in  the  phylacteries,  in  which  he 
 avoided  all  occasion  of  offence,  and  plainly  showed,  as  the  scribe 
 afterwards  observes,  (Mark  xii.  33.)  that  the  observance  of  the 
 moral  law  was  more  acceptable  to  God  than  all  the  sacrifices 
 they  could  offer  to  him. — Doddridge's  Family  Expositor. — Ed. 
 e  That  by  our  neighbour  here,  we  are  to  understand  every 
 other  person  who  is  capable  of  kindness  from  us,  or  stands  iu 
 need  of  our  help,  is  evident  from  our  Saviour's  determination  in 
 the  case  of  the  Jew  and  the  good  Samaritan  ;  from  the  examples 
 we  are  called  upon  to  imitate  in  this  affection,  namely,  the  love 
 oi  God  and  our  blessed  Saviour;  and  from  these  evangelical  pre- 
 cepts, which  extend  this  duty  to  all  men:  but  by  the  'loving 
 our  neighbour  as  ourselves,  it  is  not  required,  either  that  we 
 should  love  him  from  the  same  inward  principles,  which  excite 
 our  affections  to  ourselves,  or  that  we  should  love  him  to  the 
 same  degree  and  proportion  that  we  love  ourselves;  but  only  that 
 we  should  make  the  affection  which  we  bear  to  ourselves,  the 
 rule  we  are  to  follow  in  expressing  our  love  to  him;  or,  in  other 
 words,  that  we  should  lovo  him  in  all  the  instances  wherein  we 
 express  our  love  to  ourselves,  though  not  in  an  equal  measure. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  The  words  in  the  text  are, — '  On  these  two  commandments 
 hang  all  ths  law  and  the  prophets'  (Mat.  xxii.  40.)  which  are  a 
 metaphor  taken  from  the  custom  mentioned  by  Tertullian,  of 
 hanging  up  their  laws  in  a  public  place  to  be  seen  of  all  men: 
 and  import,  that  in  them  is  contained  all  that  the  law  and  the 
 prophets  do  require,  in  reference  to  our  duty  to  God  and  man. 
 For,  though  there  be  some  precepts  of  temperance  which  we 
 owe  to  ourselves,  yet  are  they  such  as  we  may  be  moved  to  per- 
 form from  the  true  love  of  God  and  of  our  neighbour.  For  the 
 love  of  God  will  preserve  us  from  all  impatieuce,  discontent,  and 
 evil  tastings,  It  will  make  us  watchful  over  ourselves  to  keep 
 a  good  conscience,  as  being  solicitous  for  our  eternal  wdiare: 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 999 
 
 A.  M.  1037.  A.  D.33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 well  pleased.  When  our  Saviour  had  thus  resolved  all 
 their  questions,  he,  in  his  turn,  at  last  put  this  one  to 
 them,  namely,  in  what  sense  the  Messiah  could  be  David's 
 son,  when  '  David  himself,  by  divine  inspiration, '  called 
 him  his  Lord  ?'  But  to  this  they  could  give  no  answer, 
 because  they  were  ignorant,  that  the  Messiah,  as  God, 
 was  really  the  Lord  of  David  ;  but  as  man,  and  descended 
 from  his  family,  he  was  his  son  :  and  after  these  disputes, 
 which  were  the  last  he  had  with  them,  he  went  again,  in 
 the  evening,  with  his  disciples,  to  Bethany. 
 
 On  the  next  morning,  as  our  Lord  was  returning  to 
 Jerusalem  the  third  time,  the  apostles,  observing  that  the 
 fig-tree,  which  he  had  cursed  the  day  before,  a  was 
 withered  away,  and  dead  to  the  very  root,  took  notice 
 of  it  to  him  as  a  thing  very  strange  and  surprising ; 
 whereupon  he  exhorted  them  to  have  stedfast  faith  in 
 God  ;  fervency  and  perseverance  in  their  prayers,  and  ° 
 a.  forgiving  temper  to  those  that  had  offended  them,  in 
 order  to  make  their  prayers  accepted,  and  then  they 
 would  not  fail,  in  the  course  of  their  ministry,  to  perform 
 as  great  or  greater  miracles  c  than  this. 
 
 When  our  Lord  was  come  into  the  temple,  he  began 
 to  teach  the  people,  as  he  had  done  the  day  before  ;  and 
 to  raise  an  aversion  in  his  disciples,  and  in  all  that  heard 
 him,  to  the  principles,  and  practices  of  the  scribes  and 
 Pharisees,  he  took  the  freedom  to  expose  their  vices 
 without  reserve,  their  pride,  their  hypocrisy,  their  covet- 
 ousness,  their  hard  heartedness  to  parents,  impiety  to 
 God,  and  cruelty  to  his  faithful  servants ;  and,  upon  his 
 
 1  Ps.  ex.  1. 
 
 and  the  love  of  our  neighbour  will  restrain  us  from  all  angry 
 passions,  such  as  er.vy,  malice,  and  other  perturbations,  which 
 arise  against  him ;  so  that  these  two  commands  may  be  very  justly 
 called  an  abridgment  or  compendium  of  the  whole  Scripture. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations  ;  and  Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 a  It  is  remarked  of  our  blessed  Saviour's  miracles,  that  they 
 were  all  works  of  mercy  and  beneficence;  and  that  if  any  of 
 them  had  a  contrary  tendency,  they  were  always  shown  upon 
 brute  and  inanimate  creatures,  and  that  too,  not  without  a 
 charitable  intent  of  conveying  some  symbolical  instruction  to 
 the  spectators,  as  this  withering  of  the  fig-tree  was  to  represent 
 to  the  Jewish  nation  their  approaching  doom. — Beausohre's 
 Annotations. 
 
 b  The  command  to  forgive  those  that  have  offended  us,  before 
 we  pray,  not  only  shows  that  no  resentments  of  what  our  brother 
 hath  done  should  stick  long  upon  our  spirits,  because  they  indis- 
 pose us  for  that  duty  which  we  ought  continually  to  be  prepared 
 for,  but  that  there  is  likewise  some  kind  of  forgiveness  to  be  exer- 
 cised, even  towards  him  that  does  not  ask  it,  nor  show  any  tokens  of 
 his  repentance,  namely,  that  we  should  not  only  free  our  minds 
 from  all  desires  of  revenge,  and  so  far  forget  the  injury  as  not  to 
 upbraid  him  with  it;  but  be  inclined  likewise  to  show  him  kind- 
 ness, and  ready  to  do  him  any  good  turn:  for  what  the  law  re- 
 quired of  a  Jew  to  do  to  his  enemy's  beast,  (Exod.  xxiii.  4,  5.) 
 that,  without  all  controversy,  the  gospel  requires  of  a  Christian 
 to  do  to  his  offending  brother.' — Whitby  s  Annotations. 
 
 c  It  was  a  common  saying  among  the  Jews,  when  they  were 
 minded  to  commend  any  one  of  their  doctors  for  his  great  dex- 
 terity in  solving  difficult  questions,  that  such  an  one  was  a 
 rooter  up  of  mountains;  and,  in  allusion  to  this  adage,  our  Savi- 
 our tells  his  disciples,  that  <  if  they  had  faith,  they  might  say  to 
 a  mountain,  be  thou  removed,  and  be  thou  cast  into  the  sea,  and 
 jt  should  be  done,'  (Mat.  xxi.  21.)  that  is,  that,  in  confirmation 
 of  the  christian  faith,  they  should  be  able  to  do  the  most  difficult 
 things.  For,  besides  that  our  Saviour's  words  are  not  to  be 
 taken  in  a  literal  sense,  they  are  likewise  to  be  restrained  to  the 
 age  of  miracles,  and  to  the  persons  to  whom  they  were  spoken, 
 namely,  the  apostles,  and  first  propagators  of  the  christian  relig- 
 ion, because  experience  teaches  us,  that  this  is  no  ordinary  and 
 standing  gift  belonging  to  the  church.—  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 mentioning  this  last  particular,  he  broke  out  into  the 
 same  pathetic  exclamation  against  Jerusalem,  for  her 
 murdering  the  prophets,  and  other  messengers  sent  from 
 God,  that  had  been  the  matter  of  his  frequent  lamenta- 
 tions before. 
 
 Before  he  left  the  temple,  he  took  notice  how  the 
 people  threw  their  money  into  the  treasury,  d  and  among 
 many,  who  offered  very  plentifully,  observing  a  poor 
 woman  cast  in  her  two  mites,  which  amount  to  no  more 
 than  a  farthing,  he  called  his  apostles,  and  assured 
 them,  that  that  poor  widow  had  been  more  liberal  than 
 any  of  the  rest,  because  their  oblations  proceeded  from 
 their  superfluity,  but  she  from  her  indigence  had  given  all 
 she  had. 
 
 In  the  afternoon,  as  they  were  returning  to  Bethany, 
 his  apostles  took  a  view  of  the  several  buildings  of  the 
 temple,  and  were  making  their  remarks  of  the  largeness 
 of  its  stones,  e  the  richness  of  its  ornaments,  /  and  the 
 beauty  and  stateliness  of  the  whole  ;  when  our  Saviour 
 acquainted  them,  that  how  glorious  soever  it  might  ap- 
 pear at  present,  it  would  not  be  long  before  the  whole 
 structure  should  be  so  entirely  ruined,  that  there  should 
 S  '  not  so  much  as  one  stone  be  left  upon  another.' 
 
 d  The  first  institution  of  this  treasury,  we  find  in  (2  Kings 
 xii.  9.)  where  it  is  said,  that  '  Jehoiada  the  priest  took  a  chest, 
 and  bored  an  hole  in  the  lid  of  it,  and  set  it  beside  the  altar,  on 
 the  right  side,  as  one  goeth  into  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
 priests  that  kept  the  door,  put  therein  all  the  money  that  was 
 brought  into  the  house.'  This  money  was  at  that  time  given  for 
 the  reparation  of  the  temple,  and,  in  after-ages,  the  money  cast 
 into  the  treasury,  even  in  our  Saviour's  time,  was  designed,  not 
 only  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  but  fur  sacred  uses,  and  the  adorn- 
 ing of  the  temple,  which  might  occasion  Josephus  (in  bello  Jud. 
 b.  vi.  c.  14.)  to  say,  that  the  temple  was  built,  not  only  with 
 the  bounty  of  Herod,  but  with  the  money  contained  in  the  holy 
 treasuiy  likewise,  and  with  the  tributes  which  were  sent  from  all 
 parts  of  the  world.— Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  Josephus,  who  gives  us  a  description  of  the  temple  built  by 
 Herod,  tells  us,  among  other  things,  that  the  '  whole  fabric  was 
 made  of  durable  white  stones,  some  of  which  were  five  and 
 twenty  cubits  long,  eight  in  height,  and  twelve  in  breadth.' — 
 Antiq.  b.  xv.  c.  14. 
 
 f  These  ornaments  were  the  spoils  which  their  kings  had  taken 
 in  war;  the  rich  presents  which  foreign  princes,  upon  certain 
 occasions,  had  made,  and  the  costly  gifts,  which  the  Jews,  from 
 all  parts  of  the  world,  used  to  send  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem. 
 These  were  called  rhvadiftara,  because  they  were  hung  against 
 the  walls  and  the  pillars  of  the  temple,  for  the  people  to  behold  ; 
 and  when  Herod  rebuilt  it,  he  not  only  replaced  all  the  former 
 ornaments,  but  added  several  others,  especially  the  spoils  which 
 he  took  in  his  war  with  the  Arabians,  and  a  vine  of  massy  gold, 
 of  prodigious  weight  and  value,  which  was  his  own  free  gift  — 
 Joseph.  Antiq.  and  Calnwt's  Commentary. 
 
 g  This  prophecy  of  our  blessed  Saviour  was,  in  a  great  measure, 
 accomplished  about  forty  years  after,  when,  as  several  Jewish 
 authors  tell  us,  Taurus,  that  is,  Terentius  Rufus,  whom  Titus 
 left  chief  commander  of  the  army  in  Judea,  did  with  a  plough 
 share  tear  up  the  foundations  of  the  temple,  and  thereby  signally 
 fulfilled  the  words  of  the  prophet:  '  Therefore  shall  Zion  for  your 
 sakes  be  ploughed  as  a  field,  and  Jerusalem  shall  become  heaps, 
 and  the  mountain  of  the  Lord  as  the  high  places  of  the  forest,' 
 (Micah  iii.  12.)  It  can  hardly  be  thought,  however,  but  that, 
 notwithstanding  this  demolishment,  there  might  probably  be  left  one 
 stone  upon  another;  and  therefore  something  more  was  wanting 
 towards  the  literal  completion  of  our  Saviour's  prophecy  to  which 
 the  emperor  Julian  in  some  measure  contributed :  for  having 
 given  the  Jews  license  to  rebuild  their  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
 they  took  away  every  stone  of  the  old  foundation  to  help  to  build 
 their  new  edifice;  but  heaven  prevented  their  design:  for  flashes 
 of  lightning,  as  our  best  historians  tell  us,  burst  out  from  the 
 foundation  they  had  dug,  and  so  blasted,  and  terrified  them,  that 
 I  they  were  forced  to  give  over  their  enterprize,  after  they  had 
 
1000 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4037.  A.  D.  33.  OR,  A.M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  In— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19-KND. 
 
 The  general  notion  was,  that  this  temple  was  to  last 
 1  even  until  the  end  of  the  world.  And  therefore,  when 
 our  Saviour  had  seated  himself  upon  mount  Olivet,  in 
 full  view  and  prospect  of  it,  his  apostles  desired  to  know, 
 when  this  destruction  would  happen,  and  what  would  be 
 the  previous  signs  of  it.  The  signs  of  it,  he  told  them, 
 would  be  the  coming  of  many  impostors,  n  and  false 
 Christs,  the  rumours  of  wars,  b  and  famines,  c  and  pestil- 
 ences, dreadful  earthquakes,  d  prodigies  e  and  amazing 
 sights  in  the  air,  the  persecution  /of  Christians,  and  the 
 
 1  2  Chron.  vi.  2. 
 pulled  up  and  removed  all  the  remains  of  the  old  temple.      Whit- 
 by's Annotations;    and   Calmet's  Commentary;    See  Ammian. 
 Marcell.  b.  xxiii.  Socrat.  b.  iii.  c.  2. 
 
 a  Never  were  there  so  many  impostors  of  this  kind,  as  in  the 
 time  a  little  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  (Joseph.  Antiq. 
 
 b.  xx.  c.  6,)  doubtless,  because  this  was  the  age  wherein  the  Jews, 
 from  the  prophecy  of  Daniel,  were  taught  to  expect  their  Messiah. 
 — Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 b  Besides  the  war  which  the  Jews  waged  with  the  Syrians, 
 not  long  before  the  destruction  of  their  city,  (Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  2, 
 
 c.  19,)  the  contests  between  Othoand  Vitellius,  and  Vitellius  and 
 Vespasian  at  Rome,  were  much  about  the  same  time,  and  the 
 oppression  of  the  governors  of  Judea,  who  minded  nothing  but  to 
 enrich  themselves,  had  so  irritated  the  minds  of  the  people,  that, 
 for  some  time  before  their  final  calamity,  we  read  of  nothing  but 
 rebellions  and  revolts,  parties,  and  factions,  and  bands  of  robbers 
 harrassing  and  infesting  the  country. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and 
 Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 c  In  the  fourth  year  of  Claudius,  as  Eusebius  informs  us, 
 there  happened  a  great  famine,  which  oppressed  all  the  Roman 
 empire,  but  more  especially  Palestine  where  many  perished, 
 according  to  Josephus,  for  lack  of  food.  (Antiq.  b.  xx.  c.  3.) 
 And  the  same  historian  informs  us,  that  when  one  Niger  was 
 slain  by  the  Jews,  he  imprecated  famine  and  pestilence  upon 
 their  cities  which  God  accordingly  inflicted. — On  the  Jewish 
 War,  b.  iv.c.  23. 
 
 d  In  the  reigns  of  Claudius  and  Nero,  there  happened  many 
 earthquakes  in  Asia  Minor,  and  the  isles  of  the  Archipelago, 
 where  the  Jews  inhabited,  (Euseb.  Chron.  and  Tacit.  Annal.  b. 
 ii.)  and  Josephus  acquaints  us,  that  in  the  night,  when  the  Idu- 
 macans  encamped  before  Jerusalem,  "  there  blew  a  dreadful  tem- 
 pest of  wind  and  rain,  accompanied  with  such  terrible  flashes  of 
 lightning,  claps  of  thunder,  and  bellowing  of  earthquakes,  as  put 
 all  the  people  to  their  wits'  end  to  think  what  these  prodigies  might 
 portend." — On  the  Jewish  War,  b.  iv.  c.  7. 
 
 e  In  his  preface  to  the  history  of  the  wars  of  the  Jews,  Jose- 
 phus undertakes  to  record  the  miseries  and  calamities  which  befel 
 that  nation,  and  the  signs  and  prodigies  which  preceded  their 
 ruin.  To  this  purpose  he  tells  us,  that,  for  a  whole  year  toge- 
 ther, a  comet,  in  the  figure  of  a  sword,  hung  over  the  city,  and 
 pointed,  as  it  were,  directly  down  upon  it;  that  there  were  seen 
 in  the  clouds,  armies  in  battle  array,  and  chariots  encompassing 
 the  country,  and  investing  their  cities;  that,  at  the  feast  of  the 
 passover,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  a  great  light  shone  upon  the 
 temple  and  altar,  as  if  it  had  been  noon  day ;  that,  at  the  same 
 feast,  the  great  gate  of  the  temple  made  all  of  massy  brass,  and 
 which  twenty  men  could  hardly  shut,  opened  of  itself,  though  fas- 
 tened with  bolts  and  bars;  that,  at  the  feast  of  Pentecost  soon 
 after,  when  the  priests  went  into  the  temple  to  officiate,  they 
 heard  at  first  a  kind  of  confused  noise,  and  then  a  voice  calling 
 out  earnestly,  in  articulate  words,  '  Let  us  be  gone,  let  us  be 
 gone ;'  and  that  these  prodigies  were  really  so,  we  have  the  tes- 
 timony of  Tacitus,  a  Roman  historian  of  that  age,  who  has  thus 
 recounted  them,  "  Prodigies  happened,  conflicting  armies  were 
 seen  rushing  through  the  sky,  along  with  the  appearance  of 
 gleaming  armour;  and  by  a  sudden  ignition  of  the  clouds,  the 
 temple  itself  seemed  enveloped  in  flames.  The  doors  of  the 
 most  sacred  places  were  dashed  open,  and  a  voice  more  than 
 human  was  heard  exclaiming,  'That  the  Gods  were  departed;' 
 the  voice  of  the  earthquake  was  loud  amid  the  crash  of  falling 
 battlements." — Hist.  b.  v.,  and  Joseph,  on  Jewish  War,  b.  vii. 
 c.  12. 
 
 /  This  part  of  our  Saviour's  prediction  was  literally  fulfilled 
 before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.     As  soon  as  Christianity 
 
 propagation  s  of  the  gospel  all  the  world  over  :  but  that 
 they  might  escape  the  calamity  which  would  suddenly 
 come  upon  their  country,  and  utterly  destroy  h  the  Jewish 
 state  and  government,  he  advertised  them,  that,  when- 
 
 began  to  spread,  the  Jews  wrote  letters  to  every  part  of  the  world  , 
 against  the  professors  of  it,  in  order  to  raise  persecutions  against 
 them.  St  Paul,  before  his  conversion,  'breathing  out  threaten- 
 ings  and  slaughter  against  the  disciples  of  Christ,'  (Acts  ix.  1,) 
 '  shut  up  many  of  them  in  prison,  both  men  and  women,'  (Acts 
 xxii.  4, — xxvi.  10.  Himself,  when  converted,  and  Silas,  were 
 not  only  imprisoned,  but  beaten  in  the  synagogue,  (Acts  xvi. 
 23,)  as  were  likewise  Peter  and  John,  (Acts  v.  18,)  Stephen, 
 the  first  martyr,  was  slain  by  the  council,  (Acts  vii.  59,)  James 
 the  Greater,  by  Herod,  (Acts  xii.  1,)  and  James  the  Less,  by 
 Ananus  the  high  priest:  multitudes  of  Christians  were  persecut- 
 ed to  death  by  Saul,  (Acts  xxii.  4,)  by  the  Jews,  as  Justin  Mar- 
 tyr testifies,  and  by  the  emperor  Nero,  as  Tacitus  relates,  (An- 
 nal. b.  xv.)  For  the  professors  of  our  most  holy  religion,  before 
 the  principles  of  it  came  to  be  inquired  into,  were  looked  upon 
 as  the  common  enemies  of  mankind,  insomuch,  that  whosoever 
 killed  them,  thought  that  he  did  God  service,  (John  xvi.  2.) — 
 Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 g  That  before  the  dissolution  of  the  Jewish  state,  the  Christian 
 religion  had  spread  itself  overall  the  parts  of  the  then  known  world, 
 we  may  reasonably  conclude  from  the  labours  of  St  Paul,  who 
 alone  carried  the  gospel  through  Judea,  Syria,  Arabia,  Greece, 
 Macedonia,  Achaia,  Asia  Minor,  Italy,  &c.  And  if  the  other 
 apostles,  whose  travels  we  are  not  so  well  acquainted  with,  did 
 the  like,  there  is  no  doubt  to  be  made,  but  that  '  their  sound  went 
 into  all  the  earth,  and  their  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  world,' 
 (Rom.  x.  18,)  St  Peter  addresses  his  first  epistle  to  the  elect 
 that  were  in  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia; 
 and  Clemens,  who  was  his  contemporary,  and  immediate  succes- 
 sor in  the  see  of  Rome,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  tells  us, 
 '  that  the  nations  beyond  the  ocean  were  governed  by  the  pre- 
 cepts of  the  Lord.'  An  event  this,  which  he  only  could  fore- 
 tell, who,  having  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth,  was  able  to 
 eflect  it. —  Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 h  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  Immediately  after  the  tribula- 
 tion of  those  days,  shall  the  sun  be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall 
 not  give  her  light,  and  the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  and  the 
 powers  of  the  heaven,  shall  be  shaken,'  (Matth.  xxiv.  29.)  That 
 these  words  are  not  to  be  taken  in  a  literal  sense,  is  plain;  be- 
 cause, that,  after  the  sackage  of  Jerusalem  by  Vespasian's  army, 
 no  such  thing  as  here  is  mentioned  happened  to  the  sun,  moon, 
 or  stars.  The  expressions  therefore  must  be  metaphorical,  and 
 do  here  denote,  as  they  frequently  do  in  the  writings  of  the  pro- 
 phets and  other  authors,  that  entire  destruction  and  utter  desola- 
 tion which  it  brought  upon  any  nation.  For  in  this  language  the 
 prophet  Isaiah  speaks  of  the  destruction  of  Babylon :  '  The  day 
 of  the  Lord  cometh,  cruel  both  with  wrath  and  fierce  anger,  to 
 lay  the  land  desolate;  and  he  shall  destroy  the  sinners  thereof 
 out  of  it:  for  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  the  constellations  thereof, 
 shall  not  give  their  light ;  the  sun  shall  be  darkened  in  his  going 
 forth,  and  the  moon  shall  not  cause  her  light  to  shine,'  (chap. 
 xiii.  9,)  which,  according  to  Maimonides,  are  "  proverbial  ex- 
 pressions, importing  the  destruction  and  utter  ruin  of  a  nation, 
 and  of  such  persons  more  especially,  who,  for  their  state  and  dig- 
 nity, might  be  compared  to  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,"  (More 
 Nevoch.  b.  ii.)  And,  accordingly,  the  sense  of  our  Saviour's 
 words  must  be.  '  that,  after  the  taking  and  destroying  of  Jerusa- 
 lem, God's  judgments  shall  still  pursue  the  people,  so  that  those 
 who  survived  the  ruin  of  their  country,  should  be  dispersed  into 
 different  regions,  sold  for  slaves,  or  reduced  to  a  condition  worse 
 than  slavery.'  And  so  the  event  proved :  for  those  who  were 
 carried  to  Rome  served  only  to  adorn  the  triumph  of  their  con- 
 queror: those  that  fled  to  Antioch  for  shelter,  were  cruelly 
 massacred  there:  those  that  maintained  the  castle  of  Massada, 
 rather  than  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  agreed  to  slay  one 
 another.  Those  that  escaped  to  Thebes  and  Alexandria  were 
 brought  back  and  tortured  to  death ;  and  those  of  Cyrene,  who 
 joined  a  false  prophet  named  Jonathan,  were  all  cut  to  pieces  by 
 the  Roman  general.  All  this  happened  immediately  after  the 
 taking  of  Jerusalem ;  and,  without  any  farther  search  into  their 
 history,  is  enough  to  verify  our  Saviour's  expression,  that  '  the 
 sun  was  darkened,  and  the  moon  gave  no  light '  upon  that 
 wretched  people.  (Joseph.  War,  b.  vii.  c.  24,  &c.) 
 
Sbct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1001 
 
 A.M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A  M.  rjU2    A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHNxii.  19- 
 
 ever  they  should  see  the  city  of  Jerusalem  invested  witli 
 armies,  and  the  temple  polluted  with  abominations, 
 they  might  then  conclude  that  this  desolation  a  was  ap- 
 proaching, and  that  therefore  it  was  high  time  for  them 
 to  provide  for  their  safety  b  by  a  quick  retreat. 
 
 Of  the  precise  time  of  its  coming,  however,  no  created 
 being,  .as  he  told  them,  could  certainly  know  ;  c  and 
 therefore  it  was  incumbent  upon  them  to  keep  themselves 
 in  a  state  of  perpetual  watchfulness,  in  a  faithful  dis- 
 charge of  their  respective  duties,  and  in  a  constant  per- 
 severance in  prayer  to  God,  all  which  he  endeavoured 
 to  enforce  with  several  parables  ;  such  as  that  of  the 
 faithful  servant,  whom  his  master  at  his  return  from  a 
 journey  found  employed  in  his  proper  business,  when 
 he  of  a  contrary  character  was  surprised  in  his  riot  and 
 debaucheries,  and  accordingly  punished  :  rf  that  of  the 
 
 a  The  desolation  which  the  Jews  suffered  in  this  last  war 
 with  the  Romans  was  so  vastly  great,  that  all  history  can  scarce 
 furnish  us  with  an  example  of  the  like  nature.  The  number  of 
 the  slain  was  eleven  hundred  thousand ;  the  number  of  prisoners 
 was  ninety-seven  thousand.  Those  that  were  above  seventeen 
 were  sent  into  Egypt  to  work  in  the  mines;  those  that  were 
 under  that  age,  were  sold  for  slaves  into  different  countries;  and 
 a  great  number  of  others  were  distributed  in  the  Roman  pro- 
 vinces, to  be  exposed  to  wild  beasts  on  the  theatre,  and  as 
 gladiators,  to  kill  one  another,  for  the  sport  and  diversion  of  the 
 spectators:  •  Until  the  cities  were  wasted  without  inhabitants, 
 and  the  houses  without  a  man,  and  the  land  was  utterly  deso- 
 late, and  the  Lord  had  removed  men  far  away,  and  there  was  a 
 great  forsaking  in  the  midst  of  the  land,'  as  the  prophet  ex- 
 presses it.  (Is.  vi.  11,  12.  Joseph.  War,  b.  vii.  c.  17.) 
 
 b  Which  accordingly  they  did:  for  when  Cestius  Gallus  had 
 besieged  Jerusalem,  and,  without  any  visible  cause,  on  a  sudden 
 raised  the  siege,  the  Christians  that  were  in  the  city  took  this 
 opportunity  to  make  their  escape  to  Pella  in  Parea,  a  mountain- 
 ous country,  and  to  other  places  under  the  government  of  king 
 Agrrppa,  where  they  found  safety.  Thus  punctually  were  all 
 the  predictions  of  our  blessed  Saviour  fulfilled  ;  so  that  whoever 
 shall  compare  them,  as  Eusebius,  in  his  Eccl.  Hist.  b.  iii.  c.  7, 
 expresses  it,  with  the  account  of  Josephus  concerning  the  war 
 of  the  Jews,  cannot  but  admire  the  wisdom  of  Christ,  and  own 
 his  predictions  to  be  divine. — Hammond's  and  Whitby's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 c  The  text  in  St  Matthew  (chap.  xxiv.  36.)  is,  •  but  of  that 
 day  and  hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,  not  the  angels  of  heaven, 
 but  my  Father  only,'  which  Boothroyd  renders  as  follows:  *  but 
 that  day  and  hour  none  maketh  known:  no,  not  the  angels  of 
 heaven,  but  the  Father  only;'  and  adds  in  a  note,  "Whether 
 we  refer  this  to  the  time  when  Jerusalem  was  to  be  destroyed, 
 or  to  the  day  in  which  the  heavens  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  it  is 
 attended  with  difficulties,  especially  as  it  is  read  Mark  xiii.  32. 
 where  we  have  'nor  the  Son,'  &c.  By  regarding  the  rest  as 
 transitive  with  Macknight,  the  difficulties  are  removed,  and  a 
 plain  and  easy  sense  arises.  As  to  the  very  day  and  horn-,  it 
 was  granted  to  no  one  to  make  known,  neither  to  the  angels  of 
 heaven  nor  to  the  Son ;  but  the  Father  oidy  had  reserved  this 
 time  and  season  in  his  own  power,  (comp.  Zech.  xiv.  7.;  Acts 
 i.  7.) — Boothroyd. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  punishment  inflicted  on  the  evil  servant  is  said  to  be 
 cutting  asunder,  (Mat.  xxiv.  51.)  in  the  same  manner  as  Sam- 
 uel used  Agag,  (1  Sam.  xv.  33.)  and  David  the  Ammonites, 
 (2  Sam.  xii.31.)  and  Nebuchadnezzar  threatened  the  blasphem- 
 ers of  the  true  God.  (Dan.  iii.  29.)  This  punishment  was,  in 
 old  times,  inflicted  on  those  that  were  false  to  their  creditors, 
 rebels  to  their  prince,  or  betrayers  of  their  country. —  JVhitly's 
 Annotations. — Many  instances  occur  in  ancient  writers  of  this 
 nirthod  of  executing  criminals;  and  from  Dr  Shaw  and  other 
 modern  travellers  we  learn  that  it  is  still  in  use  among  some 
 nations,  particularly  the  western  Moors  in  Barbary  (Shaw's 
 Trav.  vol.  i.  p.  456,  457.)  It  is  thought  to  have  come  origin- 
 ally from  Persia  or  Chaklea;  and  it  certainly  corresponds  with 
 the  barbarous  dispositions  which  those  bitter  and  hasty  nations 
 too  much  indulged.  Calmet  informs  us  that  not  many  years 
 ago  the  Swiss  executed  this  terrible  punishment  in  the  plain  of 
 
 END. 
 
 wise  and  foolish  virgins,  who  were  differently  prepared 
 at  the  coming  of  the  bridegroom  :  e  and  that  of  the 
 talents  intrusted  with  diligent  and  slothful  servants.  S 
 And  as  this  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was  no  small 
 emblem  of  the  final  consummation  of  all  things,  from 
 hence  he  proceeds  to  describe  S  the  manner  of  his  com- 
 
 Grenelles,  near  Paris,  on  one  of  their  own  countrymen  who  had 
 been  guilty  of  a  great  crime.  They  put  him  into  a  coffin  and 
 sawed  him  at  length,  beginning  at  the  head,  as  a  piece  of  wood 
 is  sawn.  Parisates  the  king  of  Persia  caused  Roxana  to  be  sawn 
 in  two  alive  (Journey  to  Mcquinez,  p.  157.)  According  to 
 Windus,  the  same  dreadful  punishment  is  often  inflicted  in 
 Morocco,  where  the  criminal  is  put  between  two  boards,  and 
 sawn  from  the  head  downwards  till  the  body  fall  in  two  pieces. 
 The  laws  of  the  twelve  tables,  which  the  Romans  borrowed  from 
 the  Greeks,  condemned  certain  malefactors  to  the  punishment  of 
 the  saw;  but  the  execution  of  it  was  so  rare,  that,  according  to 
 Aulus  Gellius,  none  remembered  to  have  seen  it  practised.  But 
 in  the  time  of  Caligula  the  emperor,  many  people  of  rank  and 
 fortune  were  condemned  to  be  sawn  in  two  through  the  middle. 
 (Suetonius,  b.  iv.  s.  26.) — Paxton's  Illustrations,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
 305,  306.— Ed. 
 
 e  The  better  to  understand  the  sense  of  this  parable,  we 
 should  do  well  to  observe  what  the  custom  at  marriages  was  to 
 which  our  Saviour  seems  to  allude.  When  the  bridegroom  was 
 to  bring  home  his  bride,  which  was  generally  the  conclusive 
 ceremony,  and  done  in  the  night  time,  the  young  women  of  the 
 town  to  which  she  was  to  come,  in  order  to  do  her  honour,  went 
 to  meet  her  with  lighted  lamps;  she  too,  according  to  her  qual- 
 ity and  condition,  had  her  companions  and  servants  attending 
 her,  and  some  of  the  most  beautiful  ladies  in  the  place  from 
 whence  she  came,  going  before  her.  Statius  describes  a  mar- 
 riage, whereat  the  nine  muses  appeared  with  their  lamps: 
 "The  goddesses  remove  from  Helicon,  and  shake  the  sacred 
 fire  in  their  nine  lamps  for  the  approaching  nuptials."  (Sylv.  b. 
 i.)  And  most  of  our  modern  travellers  inform  us,  that  among 
 the  eastern  people,  especially  the  Persians,  this  way  of  conduct- 
 ing the  bride  home,  with  lamps  and  lighted  torches,  still  pre- 
 vails. None  need  be  told,  that  by  the  bridegroom  we  are  to 
 understand  our  Saviour  Christ;  by  the  bride  his  church;  by  the 
 virgins,  Christians  in  general ;  and  by  the  oil  in  their  lamps, 
 the  necessary  qualifications  of  faith  and  good  works. —  Calmefs 
 Commentary. 
 
 f  For  an  explication  of  this  parable  we  may  observe,  that  the 
 man  travelling  into  a  far  country,  is  our  Saviour  Christ,  who, 
 by  ascending  into  heaven,  has  deprived  the  church  of  his  corpo- 
 real presence;  that  his  servants  are  Christians  in  general,  or 
 more  particularly,  his  apostles  and  first  ministers,  who  succeeded 
 him  in  the  propagation  of  the  gospel;  and  that  the  talents  com- 
 mitted to  their  management  are  the  supernatural  gifts  which  he 
 bestowed  upon  them,  and  all  the  endowments  both  of  body  and 
 mind,  all  the  helps  and  means  and  opportunities  which  he  gives 
 us,  in  order  to  serve  him,  and  to  work  out  our  own  salvation. — 
 Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 g  The  reason  of  our  Lord's  mingling  the  signs  of  the  particu- 
 lar destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  of  the  general  dissolution  of 
 the  world  together,  was  to  engage  us,  at  the  approach  of  particu- 
 lar judgments  upon  cities  and  nations,  to  be  always  mindful  and 
 prepared  for  the  general  judgment  of  the  last  day.  There  is 
 one  thing,  however,  peculiar  in  his  expression  upon  this  occasion, 
 namely,  that  'this  generation  should  not  pass  away,  until  all 
 these  things  were  done/  (Mark  xiii.  30.)  for  if  his  words  imme 
 diately  foregoing  related  to  the  coming  of  the  day  of  judgment, 
 and  general  dissolution  of  all  things,  it  will  be  hard  to  conceive 
 how  that  great  event  should  be  said  to  come  to  pass  before  the 
 extinction  of  the  race  of  mankind  then  in  being.  But  in  answer 
 to  this,  it  may  be  observed,  that  the  Jews  were  wont  to  divide  the 
 duration  of  the  world  into  three  grand  epochas,  which,  according 
 to  their  style,  were  called  generations,  each  consisting  of  2000 
 years ;  whereof  the  first  was  before  the  law,  the  second  under 
 the  law,  and  the  third  under  the  gospel  ;  and  it  is  to  the  last  of 
 these  generations,  as  they  called  them,  that  this  latter  part  of 
 our  Lord's  prophetic  discourse  does  properly  belong.  A  miscon- 
 ception of  this  expression  indeed  led  some  primitive  Christians 
 into  a  mistake  concerning  the  approach  of  the  final  judgment; 
 and  as  long  as  that  mistake  had  no  other  tendency  than  to  make 
 6  L 
 
1002 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15 
 
 ing  to  the  last  .and  general  judgment,  when,  surrounded 
 with  the  refulgent  rays  of  his  majesty,  and  seated  upon 
 his  bright  throne  of  glory,  with  all  the  holy  angels  of 
 heaven  attending  him,  he  should  summon  all  the  people 
 that  ever  lived  in  the  world,  to  appear  before  him; 
 and  having  made  inquisition  into  the  discharge  of  the 
 great  duty  of  charity  a  should  punish  or  reward  mankind 
 
 them  more  fervent,  and  zealous,  and  heavenly-minded,  more 
 patient  and  heroic  under  sufferings  and  persecutions,  and  more 
 fervent  and  diligent  in  preaching  the  gospel,  &c,  the  generality 
 of  the  inspired  writers  might  think  this  a  sufficient  reason  to 
 overlook  it.  But  St  Peter  we  find  takes  particular  care  to  rec- 
 tify the  mistake  and  to  obviate  the  objection,  which  a  spirit  of  in- 
 fidelity had  taken  occasion  to  raise  from  it,  as  we  may  see  at 
 large  in  2  Pet.  iii. —  Universal  Hist.  b.  ii.  c.  11. 
 
 a  It  may  seem  strange  that  in  this  representation  of  the  judg- 
 ment, the  inquiry  should  be  said  to  turn  not  upon  the  commis- 
 sion of  crimes,  but  upon  the  performance  of  duties.  The  reason 
 may  be,  that,  generally  speaking,  men  look  upon  the  neglect  of 
 duties  as  a  trivial  anair,  but  dread  the  commission  of  crimes. 
 And  hence  it  comes  to  pass,  that  while  they  keep  themselves 
 clear  of  the  latter,  they  are  apt  to  find  many  excuses  for  the 
 former.  Wherefore,  as  there  is  not  a  more  pernicious  error 
 respecting  religion  and  morality  than  this,  it  was  highly  becom- 
 ing the  wisdom  of  Jesus  to  give  such  au  account  of  the  judgment 
 as  should  be  the  most  solemn  caution  possible  against  it.  But 
 since  the  inquiry  is  said  to  turn  wholly  upon  the  performance 
 of  duties,  it  may  seem  more  strange  still,  that  the  offices  of 
 charity  only  are  mentioned,  and  not  a  word  spoken  of  any  search 
 made  into  men's  conduct  with  regard  to  the  duties  of  piety; 
 notwithstanding  the  Judge  himself,  upon  another  occasion, 
 declared  such  to  be  of  greater  importance  than  the  duties  of 
 charity,  that  are  so  highly  applauded  in  the  parable.  Neverthe- 
 less, to  justify  this  part  of  the  representation,  let  it  be  considered 
 that  piety  and  charity  never  can  subsist  separately;  piety  and 
 its  root,  faith,  always  producing  charity;  and  charity,  wherever 
 it  subsists,  necessarily  presupposing  piety.  The  connection 
 between  piety  and  charity  will  clearly  appear,  provided  this 
 dictate  of  reason  and  experience  is  attended  to,  namely,  that  no 
 man  can  be  truly  benevolent  and  merciful,  without  loving  those 
 dispositions.  If  so,  he  must  love  benevolence  in  God,  that  is, 
 must  love  God  himself.  I  speak  of  those  who  believe  there  is  a 
 God,  for  piety,  or  the  love  of  God,  is  nothing  else  but  the  regard 
 we  cherish  towards  Gud  on  account  of  his  perfections.  Piety 
 and  charity  being  thus  essentially  connected  together,  to  exam- 
 ine men's  conduct  with  respect  to  either  of  these  graces  was 
 sufficient.  In  the  parable  the  inquiry  is  represented  as  turning 
 upon  the  duties  of  charity,  perhaps  because  in  this  branch  of 
 goodness  there  is  less  room  for  self-deceit  than  in  the  other. 
 Hypocrites,  by  showing  much  zeal  in  the  externals  of  religion, 
 oftentimes  make  specious  pretensions  to  extraordinary  piety,  and 
 uncommon  heights  of  the  love  of  God,  while  in  the  mean  time 
 they  are  altogether  defective  in  charity;  are  covetous,  unjust, 
 rapacious,  and  proud,  consequently  really  void  of  the  love  of 
 God.  The  case  is  otherwise  with  the  love  of  man.  None  can 
 assume  the  appearance  of  this  grace  but  by  feeding  the  hungry, 
 clothing  the  naked,  relieving  the  distressed,  and  performing  the 
 other  friendly  offices  of  love.  Charity  therefore  does  not  easily 
 admit  of  self-deceit.  It  is  true  works  of  charity  may,  in  some 
 particular  cases,  proceed  from  other  principles  than  the  holy 
 root  of  a  pious  benevolent  disposition ;  such  as  from  vanity,  or 
 even  from  views  of  interest.  But  then  it  must  be  remembered, 
 that  an  ordinary  hypocrisy  will  hardly  engage  men  to  undertake 
 them.  They  are  by  far  too  weighty  duties  to  be  sustained  by 
 those  hollow  false  principles  which  support  bad  men,  and  by  that 
 means  are  seldom  counterfeited.  For  which  cause,  wherever  a 
 genuine,  extensive,  and  permanent  charity  is  found,  we  may 
 safely  conclude  that  there  the  love  of  God  reigns  in  perfection. 
 This  parable  therefore  teaches  us  in  the  plainest  manner,  that 
 pretensions  to  piety,  however  loud,  will  avail  a  man  nothing  at 
 the  bar  of  God,  if  he  be  deficient  in  wo*ks  of  charity.  At  the 
 same  time,  taken  in  its  true  light,  it  gives  no  man  reason  to 
 hope  well  either  of  himself  or  others,  if  they  be  wanting  in  their 
 duty  to  God,  and  that  although  they  should  not  only  be  charit- 
 able, but  grateful  also,  and  just,  and  temperate,  and  outwardly 
 blameless  in  all  their  dealings  with  men.     The  reason  is  this, 
 
 END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHNxii.  19— END 
 
 according  as  he  finds  that  they  have  acquitted  themselves 
 in  that  respect. 
 
 As  soon  as  our  Lord  had  finished  this  prophetic  dis- 
 course, he  went  in  the  evening  to  Bethany,  and  there 
 supped  at  the  house  of  one  Simon,  whom  he  had  form- 
 erly cured  of  a  leprosy.  At  supper,  Mary,  to  testify 
 her  love  and  respect,  came,  and,  out  of  an  alabaster 
 cruise,  poured  a  large  quantity  of  such  rich  ointment 
 upon  his  head  as  filled  the  whole  house  with  its  fragrant 
 smell.  This  seeming  prodigality  raised  the  indignation 
 of  the  rest  of  the  apostles  as  well  as  Judas  ;  and,  as  they 
 made  the  same  objection,  so  our  Saviour's  defence  of 
 Mary  turns  upon  the  same  topics  ;  only  he  adds,  '  that 
 as  she  had  done  a  great  and  generous  action,  whereso- 
 ever his  gospel  should  be  preached  through  the  whole 
 world,   there  should  her  munificent  re«ard  to  him  be 
 
 the  duty  we  owe  to  God  is  no  other  than  what  is  due  to  men  in 
 the  like  circumstances,  and  which  if  we  neglected  we  should  be 
 unjust  to  them.  It  consists  of  dispositions  and  actions  the  same 
 in  kind,  but  different  in  degree,  proportionable  to  the  perfection 
 of  the  object.  He  who  loves  and  admires  holiness,  justice, 
 goodness,  and  truth  in  men,  cannot  but  love  these  perfections  in 
 God,  that  is,  must  love  God.  So  likewise  he  that  is  truly  grate- 
 ful to  an  earthly  benefactor,  cannot  be  ungrateful  to  one  from 
 whose  bounty  all  the  good  things  he  enjoys  do  flow.  And  since 
 ingratitude  in  men  consisteth  in  this,  that  the  person  obliged 
 forgetteth  the  benefit  he  has  received,  never  thinks  of  his  bene- 
 factor, and  is  at  no  pains  to  make  suitable  returns;  how  can  he 
 acquit  himself  from  the  charge  of  ingratitude  to  God,  who  never 
 thinks  of  God,  nor  of  the  favours  that  he  hath  received  from  him, 
 hath  no  sense  of  the  obligations  he  lieth  under  to  him,  and  is  not 
 at  the  pains  so  much  as  to  return  him  thanks,  that  is  to  say, 
 wholly  neglects  the  external  and  internal  exercises  of  devotion. 
 Since  therefore  the  duty  we  owe  to  God  is  the  same  in  kind 
 with  that  which  men  claim  from  us  in  like  circumstances;  it  is 
 unquestionable  that  true  morality  never  can  exist  where  there 
 is  no  piety;  and  that  for  one  to  pretend  to  morality  who  is  des- 
 titute of  piety,  is  altogether  ridiculous.  But  if  this  parable  gives 
 persons  no  encouragement  who  are  destitute  of  piety,  although 
 they  should  make  a  fair  show  of  many  moral  virtues,  it  much 
 less  gives  those  any  ground  of  hope,  who  not  only  are  void  of 
 piety,  but  are  faulty  almost  in  bxery  respect,  unless  it  be  that 
 they  have  a  lovely  kind  of  tenderness  and  humanity  in  their  dis- 
 position, which  leads  them  on  some  occasions  to  do  excellent 
 acts  of  beneficence.  For  though  there  be  nothing  said  of  any 
 inquiry  made  concerning  the  duties  of  justice,  temperance, 
 chastity,  and  fidelity,  we  are  by  no  means  on  that  account  to 
 fancy  these  virtues  shall  not  be  inquired  after  at  the  judgment, 
 and  rewarded  wherever  they  are  found.  Or,  that  the  contrary 
 vices  of  falsehood,  and  fraud,  and  debauchery,  shall  not  be  taken 
 notice  of,  and  punished.  Charity  being  the  end  of  the  com- 
 mandment, so  far  as  it  respects  our  duty  to  men,  is  the  higher 
 branch,  and  therefore  has  for  its  supports  justice,  veracity,  and 
 the  other  social  virtues.  Moreover,  being  connected  with  tem- 
 perance, chastity,  and  self-government,  it  can  never  be  without 
 these  attendant  graces,  the  neglect  of  which  is  evidently  a  direct 
 and  gross  breach  of  charity,  oi  leadeth  thereto.  In  a  word,  as 
 among  the  vices,  so  among  the  virtues,  there  is  a  natural  affini- 
 ty and  close  connection.  They  are  somehow  absolutely  essen- 
 tial and  necessary  to  each  other,  and  so  can  in  no  case  subsist 
 separately.  For  which  reason,  if  any  of  them  be  wanting,  much 
 more  if  so  capital  a  virtue  as  the  love  of  God  be  wanting,  it  is 
 a  sure  proof  that  our  charity,  our  justice,  our  temperance,  or 
 whatever  other  grace  we  seem  to  have,  is  but  the  mimicry  of 
 these  virtues,  and  not  the  virtues  themselves.  At  the  same 
 time  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  the  parable  is  formed  so  as  to 
 give  us  the  highest  idea  of  works  of  charity;  they  are  demanded 
 at  the  judgment  as  the  fruit  and  perfection  of  all  the  virtues,  and 
 loudly  applauded  wherever  they  are  found.  On  the  other  hand, 
 hard-heartedness,  cruelty,  and  uncharitableness  are  branded  with 
 the  blackest  mark  of  infamy,  being  the  foundation  on  which  the 
 sentence  of  condemnation  passed  against  the  wicked  is  unalter- 
 ably and  eternally  fixed. — Macknight's  Harmony. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1003 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5412.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10 
 
 likewise  published,  to  her  everlasting  honour  and  re- 
 nown.' 
 
 When  supper  was  ended,  our  Lord  repaired  to  his 
 usual  lodgings  at  Martha's  house  :  and,  on  the  day  fol- 
 lowing, in  all  probability,  continued  at  Bethany,  with- 
 out going  to  Jerusalem,  as  he  had  done  the  days  before. 
 In  the  mean  time  the  sanhedrim  a  assembled  at  the 
 palace  of  Caianhas,  B  the  high  priest,  where  the  priests, 
 scribes,  and  elders  of  the  people  had  a  solemn  debate 
 and  consultation  how  they  might  take  Jesus  by  some 
 secret  stratagem,  and  put  him  to  death.  This  was  the 
 second  council  that  they  had  held  upon  this  occasion ; 
 and  though  therein  it  was  determined  that  he  should  die, 
 yet  they  thought  it  not  so  adviseable  to  put  the  thing  in 
 execution  in  the  time  of  the  ensuing  solemnity,  lest  it 
 should  cause  a  sedition  among  the  people,  who  had  the 
 highest  veneration  for  him.  c 
 
 When  evening  was  come,  he,  with  his  apostles,  supped 
 very  probably,  at  Martha's  house,  and  while  they  were 
 at  table,  considering  with  himself  that  his  time  was  now 
 short,  he  was  minded  to  give  them  a  testimony  of  his 
 love,  and,  from  his  own  example,  teach  them  two  virtues 
 which,  of  all  others,  were  more  especially  requisite  in 
 their  ministry  of  the  gospel,  humility  and  charity.  To 
 this  purpose,  rising  from  the  table,  laying  aside  his 
 upper  garment,  and  girding  himself  with  a  towel, d  as  the 
 manner  of  servants  then  was  when  they  waited  on  their 
 masters,  he  poured  water  into  a  basin,  and  began  to 
 wash  his  apostles'  feet,  and  to  wipe  them  with  the  towel. 
 
 a  The  consultation  which  the  sanhedrim  helil,  and  the  agree- 
 ment which  Judas  made  with  them  to  betray  our  Lord,  were  on 
 Wednesday  ;  and  therefore  the  church  gives  it  as  a  reason  why  we 
 ought  to  fast  on  Wednesday  and  Friday,  because  on  the  one 
 Christ  was  betrayed,  and  suffered  on  the  other.  —  Whitby's  An- 
 notations, 
 
 b  This  Caiaphas  is  called  by  the  Jewish  historian  Joseph. 
 The  high  priesthood  he  purchased  of  Valerius  Gratus:  and  after 
 he  had  ten  years  enjoyed  that  dignity,  was  deposed  by  Vitellius, 
 governor  of  Syria,  and  succeeded  by  Jonathan,  the  son  of  Ana- 
 nus  or  Anas. — Calmet's  Dictionary  and  Commentary. 
 
 c  It,  however,  pleased  God  to  defeat  this  intention,  as  it  was 
 proper  that  Christ,  the  true  Paschal  Lamb,  should  be  sacrificed 
 at  that  season ;  and  that  his  death  and  resurrection  should  be 
 rendered  the  more  extensively  known,  "  Maimonides  saith,  it 
 was  the  custom  among  the  Jews  to  punish  those  who  rebelled 
 against  the  sentence  of  the  judge  or  the  high  priest,or  were  notori- 
 ously criminal,  at  one  of  the  three  feasts,  because  then  only,  by 
 reason  of  the  public  congress  of  the  people,  all  might  hear  and 
 fear.  (Deut.  xvii.  12,  13.)  From  this  received  custom  the 
 fathers  of  the  sanhedrim  seem  willing  to  recede,  for  fear  of  the 
 multitude,  hut  having  so  fair  an  oiler  made  by  Judas,  they 
 embrace  that  season. — Whitby. — God  himself  and  not  man  ap- 
 pojnted  the  time  in  which  Christ  should  be  crucified."' — Beza. 
 — Scott's  Comment. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  towel  which  was  used  to  wipe  the  feet  after  washing 
 was  considered  through  all  the  east  as  a  badge  of  servitude. 
 Suetonius  mentions  it  as  a  sure  mark  of  the  intolerable  pride  of 
 Caligula,  the  Roman  emperor,  that  when  at  supper  he  suffered 
 senators  of  the  highest  rank,  sometimes  to  stand  by  his  couch, 
 sometimes  at  his  feet,  girt  with  a  towel,  (chap,  xxvi.)  Hence 
 it  appears  that  this  honour  was  a  token  of  the  deepest  humilia- 
 tion, which  was  not,  however,  absolutely  degrading  and  incon- 
 sistent with  all  regard  to  decency.  Vet  our  blessed  Redeemer 
 did  not  refuse  to  give  his  disciples  and  Judas  Iscariot  himself 
 that  wonderful  proof  of  his  love  and  humility.  On  the  very 
 night  in  which  he  was  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies, 
 while  his  thoughts  were  intensely  occupied  with  the  glory  which 
 he  had  with  his  Father  before  the  creation  of  the  world,  to  which 
 he  knew  well  he  was  in  a  few  days  to  return,  triumphant  over 
 all  his   foes,  he   resolved   to  neglect    no  service   which    might 
 
 END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 Amazed  at  this  condescension,  St  Peter,  when  he  came 
 to  him,  refused  at  first  to  admit  of  such  a  servile  office 
 from  his  heavenly  master ;  but  when  he  urged  the  neces- 
 sity, and  in  some  measure  showed  the  symbolical 
 intent  of  it,  he  permitted  him  to  do  just  what  he  thought 
 fit. 
 
 When  our  Lord  had  made  an  end  of  washing  his  apo- 
 stles' feet,  he  put  on  his  garment,  and  sat  down  at  table 
 again,  and  began  to  tell  them  the  meaning  of  what  he 
 had  done,  namely,  '  that  since  he,  who  was  justly  ac- 
 knowledged to  be  their  lord  and  master,  had  so  far  de- 
 based himself  as  to  wash  their  feet,  they,  in  imitation  of 
 his  example,  ought  to  think  it  no  disparagement  to  them 
 to  perform  the  meanest  offices  of  kindness  and  charity 
 to  one  another :  for  though  they  were  exalted  to  the 
 dignity  of  his  apostles,  yet  still  they  were  but  his  serv- 
 ants ;  and  that  therefore  it  would  be  a  high  piece  of 
 arrogance  in  them  to  assume  more  state  and  grandeur 
 than  their  master  had  done  before  them.'  e 
 
 Soon  after  this,  reflecting  with  himself  how  well  he 
 had  loved,  and,  upon  all  occasions,  how  kindly  he  had 
 treated  these  his  disciples,  he  was  not  a  little  concerned 
 that  any  of  them  should  prove  so  base  and  ungrateful  as 
 to  betray  him ;  and  when  he  had  declared  the  thing,  and 
 Peter  desirous  to  know  the  person,  beckoned  to  John,  who 
 was  nearest  his  master,  to  ask  him  the  question,  he  sig- 
 nified to  him  that  it  was  Judas  Iscariot,  to  whom  he  gave 
 
 soften  the  heart  of  Judas,  and  confirm  and  encourage  his  other 
 disciples  in  their  duty;  he  condescended  to  stoop  down  and 
 wash  those  feet  which  had  followed  him  in  many  a  long  and 
 fatiguing  journey,  giving  his  faithful  followers  in  that  significant 
 action  a  pledge  of  the  high  honour  which  awaited  them,  and  the 
 pure  and  elevated  joy  which  was  to  cheer  their  hearts  in  his 
 service,  and  crown  their  labours  after  they  had  finished  their 
 appointed  course.  The  example  of  humility  which  he  set  them 
 on  this  occasion  was  absolutely  incomparable:  no  instance  ever 
 occurred  among  the  Jews  of  a  lord  or  master  washing  the  feet  of 
 his  servants  or  disciples.  Besides,  the  Son  of  God  was  not 
 ignorant  that  the  Father  had  committed  all  things  into  his 
 hands;  and  that  a  name  was  soon  to  be  given  him,  at  which 
 eveiy  knee  should  bow,  and  every  tongue  confess.  Yet  he  did 
 not  hesitate  to  wash  the  feet  of  his  own  servants,  proving  by  this 
 very  act,  that  he  'came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister.' 
 Nor  did  he  humble  himself  to  the  hosts  of  heaven :  but  to  sinful 
 and  miserable  men,  and  even  to  his  most  atrocious  betrayer. 
 'Jesus  knowing  that  the  Father  had  given  all  things  into  his 
 hands,  and  that  he  was  come  from  God  and  went  to  God;  he 
 riseth  from  supper,  and  laid  aside  his  upper  garments;  and 
 took  a  towel  and  gilded  himself.  After  that  he  poureth  water 
 into  a  basin,  and  began  to  wash  the  disciples'  feet,  and  to  wipe 
 them  with  the  towel  wherewith  he  was  girded.'  (John  xiii.  3 — 
 5.) — PaMon's  Illustratiotis,  vol.  iii.  pp.  100,  101. — Ed. 
 
 e  That  all  this  happened  at  Bethany  whilst  our  Lord  was  with 
 his  apostles  at  supper  in  the  house  of  Martha,  seems  ta  me  very 
 improbable.  When  he  washed  his  apostles'  feet  no  person  ap- 
 pears to  have  been  present  but  he  and  they;  and  he  surely  acted 
 as  master  of  the  house,  or  at  least  of  the  supper,  himself.  Dr 
 Hales  is  of  opinion  that  it  was  after  he  had  eaten  with  his  dis- 
 ciples the  paschal  supper  in  Jerusalem,  and  immediately  before 
 he  instituted  his  own  supper,  that  he  washed  their  feet,  to  give 
 them  a  lesson  of  humility;  and  notwithstanding  the  powerful 
 objections  urged  against  that  opinion  by  Whitby,  I  am  strongly 
 inclined  to  adopt  it.  The  words  ■r^a  Be  cij;  I<jjt5k  too  -jraiT-^a, 
 which  our  translators  render,  '  Now  before  the  feast  of  the  pass- 
 over,'  do  not  mean  days  before  it,  but  rather  just  before  they 
 were  to  enter  on  the  celebration ;  and  though  it  was  not  till  the 
 paschal  supper,  or  at  least  the  first  course  of  it,  was  finished, 
 ($tlit*ou  ytysfiivou)  that  our  Lord  girt  himself  with  the  tcwel, 
 &c.  it  seems  to  have  been  just  before  he  sat  down  to  supper,  that 
 he  resolved  to  exhibit  this  proof  of  his  love  to  his  own.  See 
 Parkhurstfs  Lexicon  on  the  word  ijdtu.— Ed, 
 
1004 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VI1L 
 
 142.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKExix.  45-END.  JOHNxii.  19— END. 
 
 A.M.  4037.  A.  D.  33.  OR,  A 
 
 a  sop,  as  he  told  John  he  would,  and  when  he  had  so 
 done,  a  bade  him  go  about  what  he  had  to  do  with  all 
 expedition ;  which  the  rest  of  the  apostles,  being  ig- 
 norant of  the  signal  which  our  Lord  had  given  John, 
 supposed  to  be  an  order  to  Judas,  as  he  was  the  purse- 
 bearer,  either  to  give  something  to  the  poor,  or  to  pro- 
 vide what  was  necessary  for  the  feast. 
 
 As  soon  as  supper  was  ended,  Judas  being  now  con- 
 firmed in  his  wicked  resolution,  left  Bethany  in  haste  ; 
 and  understanding  that  the  Sanhedrim  was  met  at  the 
 high  priest's  house,  thither  he  repaired,  and  upon  their 
 giving  him  a  sufficient  reward  offered  to  betray  his  mas- 
 ter, and,  in  the  manner  that  they  desired,  to  deliver  him 
 privately  into  their  hands.  This  proposition  was  higldy 
 pleasing  to  the  council,  who  immediately  bargained 
 with  him  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver  ;  *  and  when  Judas 
 had  received  the  money,  from  that  moment  he  sought  an 
 opportunity  to  betray  his  Master  in  the  absence  of  the 
 multitude. 
 
 While  Judas  was  thus  bartering  for  his  Master's  blood, 
 his  Master  was  preparing  the  rest  of  his  apostles  for  his 
 departure,  and  endeavouring  to  comfort  them  with  this 
 consideration, — That  his  death  would  be  a  means  to  dis- 
 play both  his  own  and  his  Father's  glory,  as  it  was  a  pre- 
 liminary to  his  resurrection  and  ascension  into  heaven  : 
 As  therefore  it  was  decreed,  that  he  must  leave  them,  the 
 stronger  should  their  union  be  with  one  another ;  and 
 therefore  he  recommended  very  earnestly  to  them  the 
 duty  of  mutual  love,  a  duty  which  hitherto  had  been  so 
 much  neglected,  that  his  injoining  it  then  might  well  be 
 accounted  a  new  commandment,  and  what  was  to  be  the 
 common  badge  and  character  of  his  true  disciples  c  for 
 ever  after. 
 
 When  the  day  d  before  the  feast  of  the  passover  was 
 
 a  This  was  not  a  command  to  Judas  to  go  on  with  his  wicked 
 enterprise,  but  only  a  declaration  made  by  Christ  of  his  readi- 
 ness to  suffer  death;  "This  is  not  a  voice  of  commanding,  but 
 obeying;  not  of  fear,  but  preparation  for  death,"  says  Leo,  on 
 the  Suffering,  (ser.  vii.) — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 b  These  pieces  were  staters  or  shekels  of  the  sanctuary,  thir- 
 ty of  which  amounted  to  three  pounds  and  fifteen  shillings  of  our 
 money,  the  usual  price  that  was  given  for  a  man  or  a  maid  servant, 
 (Exod.  xxi.  32.)  It  is  hardly  supposable,  that  any  of  those 
 pieces  are,  at  this  time,  extant,  though  both  at  Rome  and  Paris 
 there  are  pieces  shown  which  are  pretended  to  be  the  very  same 
 that  were  part  of  the  price  of  the  purchase  of  our  Saviour's  blood  • 
 but  persons,  well  skilled  in  that  art,  assure  us,  that  these  pieces 
 are  only  the  ancient  medals  of  Rhodes,  on  the  one  side  stamped 
 with  a  Coloss,  which  represents  the  sun,  and  on  the  other  with  a 
 rose,  which  was  the  city  arms,  as  we  call  it. — Eachard's  Eccle- 
 siastical History,  b.  i.  c.  4,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  The  disciples  of  the  Baptist  were  known  by  the  austerity  of 
 their  lives,  and  the  disciples  of  the  Pharisees  by  their  habit  and 
 separation  from  other  men;  but  our  blessed  Saviour  was  willing 
 to  have  his  disciples  known  by  their  mutual  love  and  affection  to 
 each  other,  which,  in  the  primitive  ages,  was  so  great,  that  it 
 made  the  heathens,  with  admiration,  cry  out,  '  See  how  they  love 
 one  another!  and  even  hate  and  envy  them  for  their  mutual  affec- 
 tion.'—  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  words  in  St  Matthew,  xxvi.  17,  are,  <■  the  first 
 day  of  the  feast;'  but  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  put  the  word 
 first  for  that  which  properly  went  before.  Thus,  in  the  Old  Tes- 
 tament it  is  said,  <  that  the  hands  of  the  witnesses  shall  be  first 
 upon  him,'  that  is  condemned  to  die,  '  to  put  him  to  death,  and 
 afterwards  the  hands  of  all  the  people,'  (Deut.  xvii.  7.)  But  if 
 the  hands  of  the  witnesses  should  first  despatch  him,  there  would 
 be  no  occasion  for  the  hands  of  the  people  ■  and  therefore  the  sense 
 of  the  word  first   in  this  place  must  be,  that  the  witnesses  should 
 
 come,  our  Lord  sent  Peter  and  John  to  Jerusalem  to 
 prepare  all  things  according  to  the  law  ;  and  lest  they 
 should  want  a  convenient  room  for  the  celebration  of  the 
 Paschal  supper,  he  had  predisposed  the  heart  of  a  cer- 
 tain host  in  the  city  e  to  accommodate  them  with  one. 
 They  therefore  having  provided  a  lamb,  slain  it  in  the 
 temple,  sprinkled  its  blood  on  the  altar,  and  done  every 
 thing  else  that  was  required  of  them,  returned  to  their 
 Master  at  Bethany  ;  who  perceiving  that  his  late  dis- 
 course about  leaving  the  world  and  them  had  blasted  all 
 their  hopes  of  secular  greatness,  and  left  them  melancholy 
 and  disconsolate,  staid  a  good  part  of  the  day  with  them, 
 in  order  to  raise  their  drooping  spirits  with  the  assur- 
 ances of  an  happy  immortality,  which,  as  he  told  them, 
 he  was  going  before  /  to  prepare  for  them  in  heaven,  and 
 wanted  not  power  to  do  it,  because  he  and  his  Father, 
 as  to  their  divinity, were  perfectly  the  same;  and  with 
 the  promise  of  sending  them  the  Holy  Spirit  from  above, 
 which  he  took  care  to  represent  as  a  comforter,  s  to  sup- 
 port them  in  their  afflictions  ;  as  a  teacher,  to  instruct 
 them  in  all  necessary  truths  ;  and  as  an  advocate,  to 
 plead  and  defend  their  cause  against  their  enemies.  So 
 that  they  had  no  reason  to  be  dejected,  because,  in  this 
 sense,  he  would  be  always  with  them  ;  because,  whatever 
 they  asked  in  his  name,  his  Father  would  give  them  ; 
 and  because,  when  he  was  gone,  they  should  be  enabled 
 to  do  miracles, h  greater  than  what  they  had  seen  him  do: 
 
 smite  him  before  he  was  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  people. 
 In  the  first  book  of  Maccabees,  it  is  twice  said  of  Alexander  the 
 Great  that  he  reigned  the  first  over  Greece,  (Chap.  i.  1,  and  vi. 
 2,)  but  every  one  knows  that  before  him  there  were  several  kings 
 in  Macedonia;  and  therefore  the  meaning  of  the  words  must  be, 
 that  he  reigned  in  Macedonia  before  he  reigned  in  Asia:  and  to 
 the  same  purpose  in  the  New  Testament,  we  find  St  Paul  styl- 
 ing our  Blessed  Lord  '  the  first  born  of  every  creature,'  (Col.  i. 
 15,)  that  is,  begotten  of  the  Father  before  the  production  of  any 
 creature:  and  telling  us,  that  'the  husbandman  that  laboureth 
 must  first  partake  of  the  fruits,  (2  Tim.  ii.  ti,)  that  is,  he  must 
 labour,  before  he  can  reap  the  fruits  of  his  travel ;  and,  in  the 
 like  acceptation  of  the  word,  '  the  first  day  of  the  feast'  may 
 be  interpreted  the  day  be/ore  the  feast,  as  might  be  prove  I 
 likewise  by  examples  from  Heathen  authors. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 e  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  houses  in  Jerusalem,  at  this 
 time  of  the  feast,  were  of  common  right  to  any  that  would  eat  the 
 Passover  in  them,  and  yet  it  is  not  unlikely  that  our  Lord  might 
 be  well  known  to  the  master  of  this  house,  who,  very  probably, 
 took  it  as  an  high  honour  that  he  had  made  choice  of  his  rather 
 than  any  other,  to  eat  the  Paschal  supper  iu. — Whitby  s  Annota- 
 tions, and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 f  Our  Saviour  speaks  this  in  allusion  to  travellers,  who  send 
 generally  one  of  the  company  before  to  provide  good  accommoda- 
 tion for  the  rest. — Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 g  The  word  srajaxXjjTss ,  in  this  place, signifies  both  an  advocate 
 and  a  comforter ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  when  he  descended  upon 
 the  apostles,  did  the  part  of  an  advocate,  by  confirming  their 
 testimony  by  signs  and  miracles,  and  various  gifts  imparted  to 
 them,  and  by  pleading  their  cause  before  kings  and  rulers,  and 
 against  all  their  adversaries,  (Matth.  x.  18,  and  Luke  xxi.  1,) 
 and  he  did  the  part  of  a  comforter  likewise,  as  he  was  sent  for 
 the  consolation  of  the  apostles,  and  all  succeeding  Christians,  in 
 all  their  troubles,  filling  their  hearts  with  joy  and  gladness,  and 
 giving  them  an  inward  testimony  of  God's  love  to  them  together 
 with  an  assurance  of  their  future  happiness,  (Rom.  viii.  15,  16.) 
 —  Whitby's  and  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 h  What  interpreters  say  of  diseases  healed  by  the  shadow  of 
 Peter,  and  by  napkins  sent  from  St  Paul,  of  more  miracles  per- 
 formed throughout  the  world,  and,  for  the  space  of  three  whole 
 centuries,  devils  ejected  every  where,  is  not  unfitly  mentioned 
 here  as  answering  to  our  Saviour's  words;  and  yet,  we  cannot 
 but  think  that  this  should  chiefly  be  referred  to  the  wonderful 
 
Sect.  1V.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1005 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5142.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-  END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 1  and  therefore  '  peace  I  leave  with  you,'  says  he,  tak- 
 ing- his  farewell,  '  my  peace  I  give  unto  you  :  not  as  the 
 world  giveth,  give  I  unto  you  a ;  let  not  your  heart  be 
 troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid.' 
 
 As  soon  as  he  had  ended  his  discourse,  he  arose, and, 
 with  his  disciples,  going  towards  Jerusalem,  arrived  at 
 the  place  where  they  were  to  eat  the  Paschal  lamb.  In 
 the  evening  when  it  grew  dark,  they  sat  down  to 
 the  table  in  a  leaning  posture  ;  b  and,  as  he  began  to 
 
 1  John  xiv.  27. 
 success  of  the  gospel  preached  by  the  apostles,  after  the  descent 
 of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  them ;  to  the  gift  of  tongues,  and  the  in- 
 terpretation of  them  ;  of  prophecy  and  discerning  of  spirits;  and 
 the  imparting  these  gifts  to  others  by  baptism,  and  the  imposition 
 of  the  apostles'  hands.  For  as  this  was  a  greater  work  in  our 
 Blessed  Saviour  to  assist  so  many  with  his  mighty  power,  when 
 absent  at  so  great  a  distance  as  the  earth  is  from  heaven,  than  to 
 do  miracles  in  their  presence;  so  to  communicate  these  gifts  to 
 men,  and  to  enable  them  to  transfer  them  to  others,  is,  as  Amo- 
 bius  expresses  it,  "  belonging  to  a  power  raised  above  all,  and 
 containing  within  it  the  cause  of  all  things,  and  the  seed  of  reason 
 and  philosophy,"  (b.  i.  p.  32,)  and  especially  when  our  Lord  suc- 
 ceeded so  little  in  his  three  years'  preaching  here  on  earth,  and 
 had  so  few  sincere  disciples,  that  he  should  enable  his  apostles,  at 
 one  sermon,  to  convert  some  thousands,  and  cause  his  gospel  to  fly 
 like  lightning  through  the  world,  and  beat  down  all  the  strong  holds 
 of  opposition,  this  is  truly  wonderful. — fVkitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  That  is,  in  empty  wishes  of  what  they  neither  do,  nor  can 
 give;  or  that  external  peace,  which  is  both  temporary  and  un- 
 certain ;  but  inward  peace  of  conscience,  arising  from  the  par- 
 don of  your  sins,  (Rom.  v.  1,)  from  the  sense  of  the  favour  of 
 God,  and  of  my  presence  with  you  by  the  Blessed  Spirit;  that 
 peace,  which  no  man  taketh  from  you,  which  will  keep  your 
 hearts  in  the  faith,  (Phil.  i.  7,)  and  free  you  from  all  solicitude 
 and  fear  of  the  world. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  At  the  first  institution  of  thePaschal  supper  the  Israelites  were 
 commanded  to  eat  it  in  a  standing  posture  and  in  haste,  (Exod. 
 xii.  11,)  but  here  we  find  our  Saviour  and  his  apostles  eating 
 it  lying  down,  or  inclining  on  their  left  side,  as  it  was  then  the 
 manner  of  the  Jews.  When,  or  upon  what  account,  this  altera- 
 tion came  to  be  made,  we  have  no  other  information  than  what  we 
 find  in  the  writings  of  their  Rabbins,  namely,  that  they  used  this 
 leaning  posture  as  freemen  do,  in  memory  of  their  freedom.  The 
 custom  of  reclining  was  introduced  from  the  nations  of  the  east, 
 and  particularly  from  Persia,  where  it  seems  to  have  been  adopted 
 at  a  very  early  period ;  the  Jews  appear  to  have  borrowed  this 
 custom  from  the  Persians  and  Chaldeans,  for  we  do  not  find  that 
 it  was  practised  in  the  early  part  of  their  state.  At  the  enter- 
 tainments, the  tables  were  constructed  of  three  ditlerent  parts, 
 or  separate  tables,  making  but  one  in  the  whole.  One  was  placed 
 at  the  upper  end  cross  ways,  and  the  two  others  joined  to  its 
 ends,  one  on  each  side,  so  as  to  leave  an  open  space  between,  by 
 which  the  attendants  could  readily  wait  atall  the  three.  Round 
 these  tables  were  placed  beds  or  couches,  one  to  each  table ;  each 
 of  these  beds  was  called  clinium;  and  three  of  these  being 
 united,  to  surround  the  three  tables,  made  the  triclinium.  At  the 
 end  of  each  clinium  was  a  footstool,  for  the  convenience  of  mount- 
 ing up  to  it.  These  beds  were  formed  of  mattresses,  and  sup- 
 ported on  frames  of  wood,  often  highly  ornamented  ;  the  mattres- 
 ses were  covered  with  cloth  or  tapestry,  according  to  the  quality 
 of  the  entertainer.  At  the  splendid  feast  which  Ahasuerus  made 
 for  the  nobles  of  his  kingdom,  buds  of  silver  and  gold  were  placed 
 round  the  tables;  according  to  a  custom  in  the  cast  of  naming 
 a  thing  from  its  principal  ornament;  these  must  have  been 
 couches  profusely  ornamented  with  the  precious  metals.  To  this 
 day,  the  cushions  in  the  hall  of  audience,  and  also  in  the  room 
 for  receiving  guests  in  private  houses,  are  placed  round  the  car- 
 pet in  cases  of  gold  and  silver  kincol,  or  of  scarlet  cloth  embroid- 
 ered: these  are  occasionally  moved  into  the  courts  and  gardens 
 and  placed  under  the  canopy  for  the  accommodation  of  company. 
 {Kith.  i.  5,  6,  Forbes's  Orient.  Mem.  vol.  iii.  p.  192.)  Each 
 guest  inclined  the  superior  part  of  his  body  upon  his  left  arm, 
 the  lower  part  being  stretched  out  at  length,  or  a  little  bent;  his 
 head  was  raised  tip,  and  his  back  sometimes  supported  with  pil- 
 lows. If  several  persons  lay  upon  the  same  bed,  then  the  first 
 lay  on  the  uppermost  part,  with  his  legs  stretched  out  behind  tin 
 
 renew  his  discourse,  '  that  one  in  the  company  should 
 certainly  betray  him,  but  that  better  it  had  been  for  the 
 man  who  did  so,  if  he  had  never  been  born,'  the  concern 
 and  sadness  was  so  general,  that  every  one  began  to 
 inquire  for  himself,  '  whether  he  was  the  man  ?'  Until 
 it  came  to  Judas's  turn,  who,  having  the  confidence  to 
 ask  the  same  question,  received  a  positive  answer,  '  that 
 he  was  :'  whereupon  he  soon  withdrew  ■  from  his  Master, 
 and  adjoined  himself  to  his  enemies,  who  were  impa- 
 tiently expecting  the  performance  of  his  promise. 
 
 When  the  Paschal  supper  was  ended,  our  Saviour  pro- 
 ceeded to  the  institution  of  another,  in  commemoration 
 of  his  own  death  and  passion.  For  he  took  bread,  and 
 when  he  had  blessed  it,  and  broken  it,  he  distributed  it  to 
 his  apostles,  calling  it  '  his  body,'  and  after  he  had  so 
 done  he  took  the  cup  of  wine,  and  having  in  like  man- 
 ner blessed  it,  he  gave  it  among  them,  calling  it  his  d 
 '  blood  of  the  new  covenant,'  and  commanding  them  to 
 do  the  same,  that  is,  to  eat  bread  and  drink  wine  in  this 
 
 second  person's  back ;  the  second  person's  head  lay  below  the 
 bosom  of  the  former,  his  feet  being  placed  behind  the  third  per- 
 son's back;  and  the  rest  in  like  manner:  for  though  it  was  ac- 
 counted mean  or  sordid  at  Rome  to  place  more  than  three  or  four 
 upon  one  bed,  yet,  as  we  are  informed  by  Cicero,  the  Greeks 
 used  to  crowd  five,  and  often  a  greater  number,  into  the  same 
 bed.  Persons  beloved  commonly  lay  in  the  bosoms  of  those  that 
 loved  them:  the  fact  is  thus  attested  by  Juvenal: — "  The  sup- 
 per is  waiting,  the  new-married  bride  lies  in  the  lap  of  her  hus- 
 band.'' (Sat.  ii.  120.)  And  for  the  same  reason,  according 
 to  the  well-known  custom,  the  beloved  disciple  lay  in  the  bosom 
 of  his  Lord,  at  the  celebration  of  the  passover.  The  head  of  the 
 second  being  opposite  to  the  bosom  of  the  first,  if  he  wanted  to 
 speak  to  him,  especially  if  the  thing  was  to  be  secret,  he  was 
 obliged  to  lean  upon  his  bosom:  thus  the  apostle  John,  wishing 
 to  speak  secretly  to  his  Lord,  leaned  from  necessity  upon  his  bo- 
 som. (John  xiii.  23,  Potter's  Antiq.  vol.  ii.  p.  377,  Plin.  Epist. 
 iv.  p.  22.)  Ir  conversation,  those  who  spoke,  raised  themselves 
 almost  upright,  supported  by  cushions.  When  they  ate,  they  raised 
 themselves  on  their  elbow,  and  made  use  of  the  right  hand ; 
 (Horace,  Ode  i.  27,)  which  is  the  reason  our  Lord  mentions 
 the  hand  of  Judas  in  the  singular  number;  '  He  that  dippeth  his 
 hand  with  me  in  the  dish,  the  same  shall  betray  me.'  (Mat. 
 xxvi.  23.)  Sometimes  the  Greeks  and  Romans  used  both  hands, 
 to  which  practice,  the  mantis  unctce  of  Horace  refers;  (Epist.  i. 
 16,  23,)  but  if  the  custom  existed  among  the  Jews,  the  right 
 hand  was  commonly  used ;  or  at  the  time  when  our  Lord  made 
 that  declaration,  he  and  his  disciples  were  using  only  their  right 
 hands. — Paxtoris  Illustrations,  vol.  iii.  p.  92 — 94. — Ed. 
 
 C  The  question  whether  Judas  partook  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  or 
 not,  must  be  decided  by  the  interpretation  given  to  the  second 
 verse.  If  the  supper  was  ended,  when  Jesus  washed  the  feet  of 
 his  disciples,  Judas  must  have  been  present  at  the  institution  of 
 the  Lord's  Supper:  if  the  supper  was  then  only  prepared  or  be- 
 gun, it  is  probable  that  Judas  retired,  before  the  Lord's  Supper 
 was  appointed.  Yet  even  in  this  supposition,  much  might  be 
 urged  on  the  other  side,  and  at  least  it  is  to  us  of  little  conse- 
 quence. No  discipline  can  exclude  plausible  hypocrites;  and 
 scriptural  discipline  would  exclude  openly  immoral  and  ungodly 
 persons,  and  infidels. —Scott's  Commentary. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  reason  which  our  Saviour  gives  for  our  participating  of 
 the  cup,  namely,  '  because  it  is  the  blood  of  the  New  Testament, 
 which  is  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins,'  concerns  the  laity,  as  well 
 as  the  priests,  because  his  blood  was  equally  shed  for  both ;  and 
 therefore  the  command,  '  drink  ye  all  of  this,'  to  which  the  rea- 
 son is  annexed,  concerns  them  likewise.  But  there  is  another 
 reason  why  our  Lord  said  to  his  apostles,  '  Eat  this  bread,  and 
 drink  this  cup,'  namely,  that  by  so  doing,  they  might  remember 
 his  death,  his  body  broken,  and  his  blood  shed  for  them,  says 
 St  Luke,  and  show  it  forth  till  his  second  coming,  (1  Cor.  xi. 
 20'.)  now  this,  as  St  Paul  demonstrates,  concerns  all  believers, 
 as  well  as  priests;  and  therefore  the  drinking  of  the  cup,  by 
 which  this  commemoration  is  made,  as  well  as  eating  of  the 
 bread,  must  equally  concern  them.-  IVhltly's  Annotations. 
 
1006 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 sacramental  manner,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world,  in 
 remembrance  of  him. 
 
 After  this  institution  of  the  form  of  that  memorial, 
 which  his  apostles  and  their  posterity  were  to  continue, 
 he  gave  them  to  understand,  that  this  was  the  last  paschal 
 supper  which  he  should  eat,  and  the  last  wine  that  he 
 should  drink  with  them,  until  a  he  drank  it  new  in  the 
 kingdom  of  God  :  from  which  words  some  of  his  apostles 
 inferring-,  that  though  his  kingdom  was  not  to  be  then, 
 yet  it  would  not  fail  to  commence  immediately  after  his 
 resurrection,  they  fell  into  unseasonable  contentions 
 about  priority,  or  who  should  have  the  office  of  the  highest, 
 trust  and  honour  about  their  Master ;  which  our  Lord 
 endeavoured  to  repress,  by  the  same  arguments  that  he 
 had  employed  l  upon  the  like  occasion.  And  then 
 turning  to  Peter,  he  apprised  him  of  the  imminent  danger 
 which  he  and  his  brethren  were  in,  and  what  a  severe 
 trial  the  great  enemy  of  mankind  would  very  speedily 
 bring  upon  them  ;  to  whom  Peter,  in  confidence  of  his 
 own  courage  and  resolution,  answered  for  himself,  that 
 '  he  was  ready  to  go  with  him  to  prison,  and  to  death  :' 
 but  our  Saviour,  who  best  knew  his  weakness,  gave  him 
 to  understand,  that  b  '  before  the  crowing  of  the  cock  he 
 should  deny  him  thrice.' 
 
 1  Mat.  xx.  25. 
 
 a  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  by  the  kingdom  of  God  here,  as 
 in  several  other  places,  we  are  not  to  understand  heaven,  or  the 
 happiness  we  are  there  to  enjoy,  but  rather  the  gospel-state,  and 
 the  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  began  at  his  resurrection,  and  was 
 more  fully  established,  when  he  sat  down  at  the  right-hand  of 
 power,  and  was  made  heir  of  all  things;  and  consequently,  that 
 our  Lord's  drinking  of  wine  may  then  relate  to  his  eating  and 
 drinking  with  his  disciples  after  he  arose  from  the  dead,  (Acts 
 x.  41.)  but  because  the  felicities  of  heaven  are  frequently  repre- 
 sented under  the  metaphors  of  eating  and  drinking,  (Mat.  xxvi. 
 29.  Luke  xxii.  18.)  others  make  the  sense  of  our  Saviour's  words 
 to  be  this — '  I  will  not  henceforth  drink  of  the  fruit  of  the  vine, 
 but  both  you  and  I,  in  my  Father's  glory,  shall  be  satisfied  with 
 rivers  of  pleasures,  far  sweeter,  and  more  excellent,  than  the 
 richest  wines  can  be.'  There  is,  however,  a  third  way  of  inter- 
 preting this  passage,  which,  by  comparing  it  with  the  words  of 
 St  Luke,  seems  by  much  the  most  probable,  and  that  is,  by 
 making  the  '  fruit  of  the  vine '  signify,  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
 the  cup  in  the  passover,  or  the  'cup  of  charity,'  in  the  postcoe- 
 nium  of  the  passover,  wherein  the  sacrament  of  Christ's  body 
 and  blood  was  founded.  For  that  Christ  was  now  to  die,  and 
 neither  before,  nor  after  his  resurrection,  to  eat  any  more  pass- 
 overs  with  liis  apostles,  or  any  mine  to  drink  this  cup  of  charity, 
 now  designed  to  a  christian  use,  is  sufficiently  evident.  It  is 
 observable,  therefore,  in  St  Luke,  (chap.  xxii.  16.)  that  the 
 words  are  directly  applied  to  the  passover:  '  I  have  desired  to 
 eat  this  passover,  for  I  will  no  more  eat  of  it;'  and  by  repeating 
 the  cup,  (ver.  18.)  the  evangelist  must  mean,  '  the  cup  of  the 
 passover,'  or  the  '  sacramental  cup  of  charity,'  which  succeeded 
 it;  and  consequently,  our  Saviour's  meaning  must  be, — That  he 
 would  no  more  use  these  typical  adumbrations,  being  himself 
 now  ready  to  perform  what  was  signified  and  expressed  by  them, 
 that  is,  to  pass  suddenly  from  earth  to  heaven,  through  a  Red 
 sea  of  blood,  and  there  to  complete  the  mystery  of  the  sacrament, 
 by  uniting  his  disciples  one  to  another,  and  making  them  all 
 partakers  of  his  heavenly  riches. —  IVhitbys,  Poole's,  and  Ham- 
 mond's Annotations. 
 
 b  It  is  commonly  remarked  by  profane  authors,  that  the  cock 
 usually  crows  twice  in  a  night;  once  about  midnight,  and  the 
 second  time  at  the  fourth  watch  of  the  night,  or  much  about  the 
 break  of  day:  that  this  latter  as  being  the  louder  and  more  ob- 
 servable, is  that  which  is  properly  called  aXmro^oipuvia,,  or  cock- 
 crowing;  and  that  of  this  crowing  of  the  cock  the  evangelists 
 are  to  be  understood,  when  they  relate  Christ's  words  thus, 
 *  Before  the  cock  crow,  that  is,  before  that  time  of  the  night 
 which  is  emphatically  so  called,  '  thou  shalt  deny  me  thrice,' 
 appears  from  St  Mark's  saying,  that  the  cock  crew  after  his  first 
 
 After  this,  our  Lord,  in  his  final  exhortation  to  his 
 apostles,  reminded  them  of  the  choice  which  he  had  made 
 of  them,  and  the  kind  treatment  which  he  had  all  along 
 shown  them  ;  and  that  therefore  it  was  their  duty  and 
 their  interest  both,  to  adhere  to  him,  as  the  branch  did 
 to  the  vine,  in  order  to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  righteous- 
 ness, and  to  continue  immoveable  in  the  profession  of 
 his  religion,  notwithstanding  all  the  persecutions  they 
 should  meet  with,  which  indeed  would  prove  so  violent 
 and  outrageous,  that  some  men  would  think  they  did 
 God  service  in  killing  them.  This  however  should  not 
 utterly  deject  them,  because  his  absence  from  them  would 
 not  be  long.  His  death  was  but  to  usher  in  his  resurrec- 
 tion .and  ascension  ;  and  the  benefits  which  would  accrue 
 to  them  from  these,  namely,  in  the  mission  of  the  Holy 
 Ghost  to  be  their  guide  and  comforter,  in  his  own  inter- 
 cession for  them  at  God's  right  hand,  and  in  their  prayers 
 and  supplications,  which,  if  offered  up  in  his  name,  would 
 not  fail  of  admittance  to  the  throne  of  grace,  would 
 abundantly  compensate  the  want  of  his  presence  :  and  2 
 '  therefore  I  have  told  you  these  things,'  says  he,  '  that 
 in  me  ye  might  have  peace  :  In  the  world  ye  shall 
 have  tribulation  ;  but  c  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  over- 
 come the  world.  d 
 
 These  comfortable  exhortations  to  his  apostles  were 
 attended  with  a  solemn  prayer  and  intercession  to  Al- 
 mighty God  ;  for  himself,  that  as  he  had  executed  the 
 commission  for  which  he  came  into  the  world,  he  might 
 
 2  John  xi.  33. 
 denial  of  Christ,  (chap.  xiv.  68.)  and  crew  the  second  time  after 
 his  third  denial,  (ver.  72.) — TFhitby's  Annotations. — For  a  fuller 
 explanation  of  the  apparent  descrepancy  here  taken  notice  of,  see 
 Paxton's  Illustrations,  vol  ii.  pp.  338.  to  344. — Ed. 
 
 c  Though  to  be  of  good  cheer  under  tribulation  does  by  no 
 means  infer  that  firmness  of  mind,  as  some  philosophers  of  old 
 miscalled  it,  which  preserves  a  man  from  being  at  all  afflicted 
 with  calamities,  or  moved  from  his  usual  easiness  of  temper;  yet 
 thus  much  it  certainly  means, — That  neither  the  sharpness  of 
 any  affliction  we  feel,  nor  the  terror  of  any  we  fear,  should  so 
 far  vanquish  our  reason  and  religion,  as  to  drive  us  upon  unlaw- 
 ful methods  of  declining  the  one  or  delivering  ourselves  from 
 the  other.  We  are  to  satisfy  ourselves  in  the  justice,  the  wisdom, 
 and  goodness  of  him,  who  orders  all  the  events  that  befall  us;  to 
 entertain  them  all  with  meekness,  and  much  patience ;  to  bring 
 our  will  into  subjection  to  the  divine  will;  to  rejoice  in  the  testi- 
 mony of  a  good  conscience,  and  preserve  it  at  any  rate,  though 
 with  the  hazard,  nay  certain  loss,  of  all  our  worldly  advantages; 
 and  to  set  the  supports  and  rewards  of  persecuted  truth,  and 
 afflicted  piety,  in  opposition  to  all  the  discouragements  and  pres- 
 sures from  abroad,  and  all  the  frailties  of  feeble  and  too  yielding 
 flesh  and  blood  at  home.  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospets, 
 vol.  iii. 
 
 d  By  the  world,  in  this  passage,  we  are,  no  doubt,  to  under- 
 stand the  evil  of  the  world,  the  wickedness,  the  malice,  the 
 temptations,  the  troubles,  all  that  we  have  reason  to  fear,  or  to 
 flee  from,  either  in  this  or  the  next  life.  Now  the  wickedness 
 of  the  world  Christ  has  overcome,  by  expiating  the  sins  of 
 mankind  in  the  sacrifice  of  himself  upon  the  cross,  and  by  the 
 powerful  assistance  of  his  grace,  enabling  all  the  faithful  to  con- 
 quer the  passions  of  corrupt  nature.  The  malice  of  it  he  over- 
 came, by  disappointing  the  designs  of  the  devil,  and  his  wicked 
 instruments,  against  himself  and  his  gospel,  making  his  own 
 sufferings  fatal  to  the  contrivers,  and  saving  to  all  penitent  be- 
 lievers. The  temptations  of  it  he  overcame,  by  that  severe,  but 
 still  social  virtue,  and  heavenly  piety,  which  shone  so  bright  in 
 all  his  conversation :  and  the  troubles  of  it,  by  submitting  to 
 hunger  and  thirst,  to  poverty  and  grief,  to  live  like  the  meanest, 
 and  to  be  treated  like  the  worst  of  men.  Nay,  even  death  itself, 
 our  last  and  most  dreaded  enemy,  he  has  overcome;  taken  from 
 this  strong  man,  the  armour  wherein  he  trusted,  and  divided  his 
 spoils. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1007 
 
 the  prophecy  d  of  Zechariah,  concerning-  the  Shepherd's 
 being  smitten,  and  the  whole  flock  dispersed,  Avould  be 
 fulfilled  in  his  and  their  persons,  forasmuch  as  every  one 
 of  them  upon  the  distress  that  was  going-  to  befal  him, 
 would  flee  away  from  him  and  forsake  him.  This  Peter 
 thought  a  disparagement  to  his  courage,  and  therefore 
 assured  our  Lord,  that  «  '  though  all  mankind  should 
 forsake  him,  yet  would  not  he  ;'  and  being  told  again, 
 that  he  would  certainly  deny  him  before  the  time  of  cock  - 
 crowiug-,  with  the  utmost  vehemence  he  affirmed,  that 
 '  though  he  should  die,  he  would  not  deny  him  ;  and  the 
 like  profession  of  undaunted  adherence  made  all  the 
 rest. 
 
 When  they  were  come  to  the  garden,  our  Lord  ordered 
 the  rest  of  his  apostles  to  tarry  for  him  at  a  certain  place, 
 whilst  himself,  with  the  three  that  were  most  intimate 
 with  him,  namely  Peter,  James,  and  John,  retired  a  while 
 to  his  private  devotions  ;  and  as  they  were  going"  along, 
 he  required  them  to  join  their  prayers  with  his,  that  they 
 might  not  be  delivered  over  to  temptation.  But  they 
 were  not  gone  above  the  distance  of  a  stone's  cast,  be- 
 fore he  found  his  spirits  depressed,  and  his  soul  '  sadly 
 sorrowful  even  unto  death  :'  which  when  he  had  dis- 
 covered to  the  three  apostles,  and  desired  them  to  watch 
 with  him  a  little  in  this  trying  and  momentous  juncture, 
 he  withdrew  from  them ;  and  then  throwing  himself  pro- 
 strate on  the  ground,  /  begged  of  God,  '  that,  if  it  was 
 possible,  as  all  things  were  possible  to  him,  he  might  be 
 excused  from  drinking  the  bitter  potion,  s  whose  black 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A..D.33.;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10 -END.  MARK  xi,  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45 -END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 be  reinstated  in  the  same  glory  which  he  had  with  his 
 Father  from  all  eternity  ;  for  his  apostles,  that  they  might 
 live  in  brotherly  love  and  unity,  be  preserved  in  all 
 dangers,  and  sanctified  in  their  minds  and  conversations  ; 
 and  for  all  succeeding  christians,  that  they  might  con- 
 tinue in  the  communion  of  the  saints  here,  and  be  admit- 
 ted to  the  sight  and  participation  of  his  glory  and  felicity 
 hereafter:  and,  having  concluded  all  with  an  hymn,  a 
 which  he  and  his  apostles  sung  together,  he  left  the  city, 
 and  passing  over  the  brook  Cedron,  *  came  to  a  place 
 called  Gethsemane,  °  where  there  was  a  garden,  well 
 known  to  Judas,  because  thither  our  Lord  and  his  apos- 
 tles used  frequently  to  repair,  both  for  retirement  and 
 devotion. 
 
 As  they  were  going  to  this  place,  our  Lord,  with 
 mighty  concern,  began  to  tell  them,  that  that  very  night a 
 
 1  Zech.  xiii.  7. 
 a  This  hymn  is  supposed  by  most  interpreters  to  be  part  of 
 the  great  Allelujah,  which  began  at  the  113th,  and  ended  at  the 
 118th  Psalm,  and,  by  the  Jewish  rituals,  was  ordered  to  be  sung 
 constantly  at  the  paschal  supper.  Others  think,  that  it  was  a 
 di  fie  rent  hymn,  composed  by  Christ,  and  accommodated  to  the 
 particular  institution  of  the  Eucharist;  but  Grotius  is  of  opinion, 
 that  it  was  no  other  than  that  thanksgiving  of  his,  which  St 
 John  has  recorded  in  the  17th  chapter  of  his  gospel.  As  our 
 blessed  Saviour  however,  in  all  his  religious  conduct,  was  no 
 lover  of  innovations,  it  seems  more  probable,  that,  upon  this 
 occasion,  he  made  use  of  the  psalms  that  were  theai  customary 
 in  the  Jewish  church,  in  which,  as  the  Jews  observe,  are  men- 
 tioned the  sorrows  of  the  Messiah  and  the  resurrection  of  the 
 dead. — Hoioel's  History,  in  the  notes,  and  C'almet's  Commen- 
 tary . 
 
 b  Which  in  the  Old  Testament  is  called  Kidron,  and  runs 
 along  the  bottom  of  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  which  lies  to  the 
 east  between  Jerusalem  and  Mount  Olivet.  Into  this  valley 
 was  conveyed  the  blood,  poured  out  at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  which, 
 as  it  discoloured  the  water,  gave  it  the  name  of  Cedron,  as  some 
 think,  from  the  word  Keddar,  which  signifies  blackness,  though 
 others  rather  imagine,  that  it  had  that  name  from  the  cedar-trees 
 that  were  planted  on  each  side  of  it. — fFell's  Geography  of  the 
 
 New  Testament,  part  i.  and  fFhitby's  Alphabetical  table. 
 
 c  Between  the  foot  of  the  hill  and  the  brook  Kedron,  proceed- 
 ing from  Jerusalem,  is  the   garden   of  Gethsemane;  an  even 
 
 piece  of  ground,  according  to  Mr  Maundrell,  57  yards  square, 
 
 and  thickly  planted  with  olive-trees  of  an  ancient  growth,  and 
 
 asserted  to  be  the  same  which  stood  there  in  the  time  of  our 
 
 Lord,  though  of  course  with  little  probability;  as,  if  the  trees 
 
 themselves  could  have  lasted  so  long,  Titus  is  said  to  have  cut 
 
 down  all  the  wood  about  Jerusalem.      Chateaubriand,  however, 
 
 states,  that  some  of  these  very  trees  can  unquestionably  be  traced 
 
 to  the  time  of  the  Eastern  empire,  and  from  the  following  cir- 
 cumstance: in  Turkey,  every  olive-tree  found  standing  by  the 
 
 Musselmans  when  they  conquered  Asia,  pays  one  medine  to  the 
 
 treasury ;  while  each  of  those  planted  since  the  conquest,  is  taxed 
 
 half  its  produce  by  the  grand  Seignior,     Now  eight  of  these  trees, 
 
 very  large  and  old,  are  still  charged  only  eight  medines.     Dr 
 
 Clarke  found  in  this  garden  a  grove  of  ancient  olive-trees,  of 
 
 most  immense  size ;  which,  as  a  spontaneous  produce  uninter- 
 ruptedly resulting  from  the  original  growth  of  this  part  of  the 
 
 mountain,  it  is  impossible  to  view  with  indifference;  and  adds, 
 
 "  It  is  truly  a  curious  and  an  interesting  fact,  that,  during  a 
 
 period   of  little   more  than   2000  years,   Hebrews,   Assyrians, 
 
 Romans,   Moslems,  and  Christians,  have  been  successively  in 
 
 possession  of  the  rocky  mountains  of  Palestine,  yet  the  olive  still 
 
 vindicates  its  paternal  soil,  and  is  found  at  this  day  upon  the 
 
 same  spot  which  was  called   by   the   Hebrew  writers    '  mount 
 
 Olivet,'  and    the   mount   of  Olives,    11    centuries    before    the 
 
 Christian  trra.     In  this  garden  is  shown  the  place  where  our  Sa- 
 viour sweated  blood  as  he  pronounced  the  words,  "  Father,  if  it 
 
 be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me."    A  grotto  has  been  erected 
 
 i'ii   this  spot,  with  the  usual  appendage  of  altars,  &c.     A   few 
 
 paces  from  hence  is  shown  the  place  where  Judas  betrayed  his 
 
 Master  with  a  kiss. — Mans/ord's  Scripture  Gazetteer,  p.  346. 
 
 — Ed 
 
 d  The  passage  to  which  our  Saviour  alludes  is  this,  '  Awake, 
 O  sword,  against  my  shepherd,  and  against  the  man  that  is  my 
 fellow,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts.  Smite  the  Shepherd,  and  the 
 sheep  shall  be  scattered,  and  I  will  turn  my  hand  upon  the  little 
 ones,'  (Zech.  xiii.  7.)  where  we  may  observe,  that  our  Saviour 
 only  cites  the  words  in  the  middle  of  the  verse,  because  indeed 
 those  that  both  preceded  and  followed  them,  were  not  at  all  to 
 his  purpose:  and  in  this  he  imitated  the  ancient  doctors  of  the 
 Jewish  church,  who,  in  their  allegations  of  Scripture  passages, 
 were  wont  to  make  use  of  no  more  than  what  was  subservient  to 
 their  argument.  Some  however  imagine,  because  the  words  of 
 Zechariah  seem  primarily  to  relate  to  an  evil  shepherd,  to  whom 
 God  threatens  the  sword,  that  Christ  does  not  mention  them  as 
 a  prediction  concerning  him  and  his  apostles,  but  only  as  a  pro- 
 verbial expression:  but  this  I  think  is  sufficiently  confuted  by 
 our  Lord's  saying,  '  for  it  is  written,'  (ver.  31.)  Nor  is  the 
 change  of  the  person  in  the  evangelist,  from  what  occurs  in  the 
 prophet  of  any  moment,  because  it  was  very  customaiy  with 
 the  Jewish  doctors,  in  their  citations  of  Scripture,  to  make  such 
 alterations. — Surenhusii  Condi,  in  loc.  e.v  I  et.  Test,  apud  Mat. 
 and  IVhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  We  may  be  bold  to  affirm  of  this  resolution,  that  it  was  as 
 honest  an  one,  that  is,  both  as  just  in  the  matter,  and  as  sincere 
 in  the  intention,  as  ever  was  made  by  man,  or  ever  shall  be 
 made  to  the  end  of  the  world  ;  and  yet  this  resolution  miscarried, 
 and  ended  only  in  the  shame  of  the  resolver.  St  Clnysostom 
 takes  notice  of  three  faults  that  may  be  reckoned  in  it.  1st.  The 
 little  consideration  Peter  had  of  our  Saviour's  predictions  con- 
 cerning his  fall.  2dly,  The  preference  which  he  gave  himself 
 above  the  rest  of  his  brethren.  And,  3dly.  The  presumption  he 
 placed  in  his  own  strength,  instead  of  imploring  ability  of  him, 
 whence  all  human  sufficiency  is  derived  ;  and  therefore  the  Son 
 of  God,  says  he,  suffered  him  to  fall,  in  order  to  cure  his  arrogance 
 and  vain  confidence  in  himself. —  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  ii.  and 
 Chrysostom  on  Mat.  horn.  83. 
 
 f  See  observations  on  Christ's  agony  in  the  garden,  in  answer 
 to  objections  next  chapter. — Ed. 
 
 a  What  we  are  to  understand  by  the  •  bitter  potion '  which 
 our  Lord  lure  deprecates,  we  shall  explain  at  large  in  our  answer 
 to  the  following  objections,  and  need  only  here  observe,  that  the 
 afflictions  which  God  sends  on  men  or  nations,  are  often  in  scrip- 
 ture expressed  by  the  name  of  a  cup,  (Ezek.  xxiii.   31,   32. 
 
1008 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.33,  OR  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  I 
 
 ingredients  filled  him  with  horror  and  amazement ;  nev- 
 ertheless in  this  he  submitted  himself  entirely  to  his 
 divine  pleasure  :'  and  having-  prayed  to  this  effect,  he 
 returned  to  his  apostles,  but  finding  them  asleep,  he 
 awoke  them,  and,  in  a  reproof  full  of  love,  reminded 
 Peter  more  especially  of  his  late  promises,  and  present 
 neglect  of  him,  when  he  most  of  all  stood  in  need  of  his 
 comfort  and  assistance.  He  advised  him  therefore  to 
 keep  himself  awake,  for  fear  of  the  temptations  that  were 
 busy  about  him,  and  added  this  compassionate  observa- 
 tion, that  though  '  the  a  spirit  was  willing,'  and  ready 
 enough  to  make  good  resolutions,  yet  '  the  fiesh  was 
 weak,'  and  unable  very  often  to  put  them  in  execution. 
 
 Thrice  did  our  blessed  Lord  retire  and  pray  in  this 
 manner  ;  but,  in  the  last  time,  his  sense  of  God's  indig- 
 nation against  the  sins  of  mankind,  and  the  dismal  pro- 
 spect of  what  he  was  to  suffer  in  the  expiation  of  them, 
 made  his  prayer  more  vehement,  and  his  agonies  so 
 violent,  that  the  sweat,  which  fell  from  his  body,  was  like 
 large  drops  of  blood ;  b  and  human  nature  must  have 
 
 Matth.  xx.  23,  Rev.  xiv  10,)  and  that  this  is  a  metaphor  bor- 
 rowed from  an  ancient  custom  of  giving  a  cup  full  of  poison, 
 among  heathen  nations,  to  those  that  were  condemned  to  die,  and 
 of  gall  on  such  occasions,  among  the  Jews,  to  lessen  the  pain  of 
 the  person  that  was  to  suffer. — Beausobre's  Annotations,  and 
 Howell's  History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 a  These  words  of  our  Saviour  are  not  intended  as  an  excuse 
 or  mitigation  of  the  apostles'  sinful  neglect  of  their  master,  but 
 as  a  motive  to  their  vigilance  and  prayer,  and  seem  to  imply 
 thus  much,. — "  You  have  all  made  large  promises,  that  if  you 
 should  die  with  me,  you  would  not  forsake  me,  and  this  you  said 
 really,  and  with  a  purpose  so  to  do ;  yet  let  me  tell  you,  when  the 
 temptation  actually  assaults ;  when  fear,  shame,  and  pain,  the 
 danger  of  punishment,  and  of  death,  are  within  view,  and  pre- 
 sent to  your  sense,  the  weakness  of  the  flesh  will  certainly  pre- 
 vail over  these  resolutions,  if  you  use  not  the  greatest  vigilance, 
 and  do  not  pray  with  fervency  for  the  divine  assistance. —  Whit- 
 by's Annotations. 
 
 b  In  Luke  xxii.  48,  it  is  said,  'and  being  in  an  agony,  he 
 prayed  more  earnestly,  and  his  sweat  was  as  it  were  great  drops 
 of  blood  falling  down  to  the  ground.'  The  word  agony  is  taken 
 from  the  anxiety,  fear,  efl'ort,  and  strong  emotion,  of  the  wres- 
 tlers in  the  Greek  games,  about  to  engage  in  a  mighty  struggle. 
 Here  it  denotes  the  extreme  anguish  of  mind :  the  strong  con- 
 flict produced  between  sinking  human  nature  and  the  prospect  of 
 deep  and  overwhelming  calamities.  '  Great  drops  of  blood,' 
 (Luke  xxii.  44.)  The  word  here  rendered  great  drops,  does  not 
 mean  drops  gently  falling  on  the  ground,  but  rather  thick  and 
 clammy  masses  of  gore,  pressed  by  inward  agony  through  the 
 skin,  and  mixing  with  the  sweat,  falling  thus  to  the  ground.  It 
 has  been  doubted,  by  some,  whether  the  sacred  writer  meant  to 
 say  that  there  was  actually  blood  in  this  sweat,  or  only  that  the 
 sweat  was  in  the  form  of  great  drops.  The  natural  meaning  is, 
 doubtless,  that  the  blood  was  mingled  with  his  sweat;  that  it  fell 
 profusely — falling  masses  of  gore ;  that  it  was  pressed  out  by  his 
 inward  anguish;  and  that  this  was  caused  in  some  way  in  view 
 of  his  approaching  death.  This  effect  of  extreme  suil'erings — of 
 rental  anguish — has  been  known  in  several  other  instances. 
 Bloody  sweats  have  been  mentioned  by  many  writers  as  caused 
 by  extreme  suffering.  Dr  Doddridge  says  (note  on  Luke  xxii. 
 44,)  that  "  Aristotle  and  Diodorus  Siculus  both  mention  bloody 
 sweats,  as  attending  some  extraordinary  agony  of  mind;  and  I 
 find  Loti,  in  his  life  of  Pope  Sextus  V.,  and  Sir  John  Chardin, 
 in  his  history  of  Persia,  mentioning  a  like  phenomenon,  to 
 which  Dr  Jackson  adds  another  from  Thuamee."  Various 
 opinions  have  been  given  of  the  probable  causes  of  these  sor- 
 rows of  the  Saviour.  Some  have  thought  it  was  a  strong 
 shrinking  from  the  manner  of  dying  on  the  cross,  or  from  an 
 apprehension  of  being  forsaken  there  by  the  Father;  others  that 
 Satan  was  permitted  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  try  him,  and  to  fill 
 his  mind  ivith  horrors:  having  departed  from  him  at  the  begin- 
 ning of  his  ministry  for  a  season  (Luke  iv.  12,)  only  to  renew 
 his  temptations   in  a  more  dreadful  manner  now;  and  others 
 
 END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.!9-END. 
 
 been  exhausted  under  it,  had  not  an  angel c  from  heaven 
 been  immediately  sent  to  strengthen  and  support  him. 
 With  this  recruit  he  returned  a  third  time  to  his  apostles, 
 but,  finding  them  still  in  the  same  sleepy  condition,  he 
 told  them,  that  now  they  might  sleep  on  as  long  as  they 
 pleased,  because  he  had  no  further  occasion  for  their  as- 
 sistance ;  that,  however,  it  would  not  be  improper  for 
 them  to  arise,  because  the  traitor,  who  was  to  deliver  him 
 up  to  his  enemies,  was  just  at  hand.  Nor  were  the  words 
 well  out  of  his  mouth,  before  Judas,  accompanied  with 
 d  a  band  of  soldiers,  and  officers,  together  with  some  of 
 the  chief  priests,  Pharisees,  and  elders  of  the  people, 
 all  armed  with  swords  and  staves,  e  came  to  apprehend 
 him. 
 
 To  prevent  all  mistakes,  the  traitor  had  given  them  a 
 sign,  that  the  person  whom  he  should  kiss  was  the  man 
 they  were  to  apprehend  ;  and  therefore  approaching  our 
 Lord  with  an  address  of  seeming  civility,  he  saluted 
 him,  and,  in  return,  received  a  reproof  of  his  perfidy,  / 
 
 that  these  sufferings  were  sent  upon  him  as  the  wrath  of  God 
 manifested  against  sin:  that  God  inflicted  them  directly  upon 
 him  by  his  own  hand,  to  show  his  abhorrence  of  the  sins  of 
 men,  for  which  he  was  about  to  die.  Where  the  scriptures  are 
 silent  about  the  cause,  it  does  not  become  us  confidently  to  ex- 
 press an  opinion.  We  may  suppose,  perhaps,  without  presump- 
 tion, that  a  part  or  all  these  things  were  combined  to  produce 
 this  awful  suffering.  There  is  no  need  of  supposing  that  there 
 was  a  single  thing  that  produced  it;  but  is  rather  probable  that 
 it  was  a  rush  of  feeling  from  every  quarter:  his  situation,  his  ap- 
 proaching death,  the  temptations  of  the  enemy,  and  the  awful 
 sufferings  on  account  of  men's  sins,  and  God's  hatred  of  it  about 
 to  be  manifested  in  his  own  death:  all  coming  upon  his  soul  at 
 once — sorrow  flowing  in  from  every  quarter — the  concentration 
 of  the  sufferings  of  the  atonement  pouring  together  upon  him,  and 
 filling  him  with  unspeakable  anguish. — Harries. — Ed. 
 
 c  St  Luke  is  the  only  evangelist  that  makes  mention  of  this 
 angelical  attendance  upon  our  Saviour  in  this  time  of  his  agony; 
 and  as  there  were  several,  both  Latin  and  Greek  copies,  that,  in 
 St  Jerom's,  time  wanted  this  part  of  history,  Epiphanius  imagines 
 that  this  was  a  correction  of  some  ignorant,  though  perhaps  well 
 meaning  Christians,  who  being  offended  at  the  supposed  weak- 
 ness that  appears  in  our  Saviour  upon  this  occasion,  left  it  out  of 
 their  copies,  never  considering  that  the  divinity  which  dwelt  in 
 him  had  at  this  time  subtracted  its  influence,  so  that,  being  left 
 to  his  human  nature  only,  he  needed  the  comfort  of  an  angel : 
 otherwise,  as  with  a  word  he  made  the  whole  band  of  soldiers 
 fall  to  the  ground,  and  with  a  touch  healed  the  ear  of  Malchus, 
 he  even  now  gave  sufficient  indications  of  the  divinity  residing 
 in  him. — Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  At  the  time  of  the  Passover,  it  was  customary  for  the  Ro- 
 man president  to  send  a  whole  band  of  a  thousand  men  for  a 
 guard  to  the  temple :  and  it  seems  to  be  some  of  these  that  came 
 to  apprehend  our  Saviour;  because,  by  Judas'  giving  them  a 
 sign,  whereby  they  might  know  him,  it  looks  as  if  they  were 
 strangers  to  his  person. — Whitby's  Annotations,  aud  Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  It  is  probable,  that  Judas  thought  they  could  not  do  this,  but 
 that,  as  Jesus  had  at  other  times  conveyed  himself  from  the  mul- 
 titude, when  they  attempted  to  stone  him,  (John  viii.  59,)  and 
 to  cast  him  down  a  precipice,  (Luke  iv.  59,)  so  he  would  have 
 done  now;  and  that  when  he  found  he  did  not  rescue  himself,  he 
 repented,  and  went  and  hanged  himself,  (Mat.  xxvii.  5.) — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 /The  reproof  is  expressed  in  these  words:  'Judas,  betrayest 
 thou  the  Son  of  Man  with  a  kiss?'  (Luke  xxii.  48.)  1st,  To 
 betray  in  this  case  was  equivalent  to  murder.  It  was  to  deliver 
 him  into  their  hands,  who,  he  knew,  both  from  common  rumour 
 and  his  master's  own  words  (Mat.  xvi.  21.)  had  a  design  upon 
 his  life;  and  therefore  this  could  not  be  done  without  express 
 malice;  but,  2dly,  This  betrayer  was  a  servant;  one  who  had 
 given  up  his  name  and  faith  to  our  Lord,  and  done  himself  the 
 honour  at  least,  if  not  the  benefit,  to  preach  his  gospel,  and  to 
 work  miracles  in  the  power  of  his  commission ;  and  therefore, 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1009 
 
 A.M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 but  in  such  gentle  and  easy  terms,  as  spake  a  mind  per- 
 fectly calm  and  undisturbed  ;  and  then  stepping  forward 
 with  an  air  of  majesty,  our  Lord  demanded  of  the  sol- 
 diers '  Whom  they  wanted  ?'  They  told  him  '  Jesus  of 
 Nazareth.'  He  replied  that  he  was  the  person  :  but, 
 when  they  were  going  to  lay  rude  hands  upon  him,  the 
 impetuous  rays  of  glory  which  darted  from  his  divine 
 face  struck  so  fiercely  upon  their  eyes,  that  they  fell  to 
 the  ground.  However,  instead  of  taking  the  advantage 
 of  their  consternation  to  make  his  escape,  as  he  had 
 done  at  other  times,  he  again  demanded  of  them  '  who 
 it  was  they  wanted  ?'  And,  when  they  again  made  him 
 the  same  answer,  he  told  them,  '  that,  if  he  was  the  per- 
 son, he  expected  that  his  disciples  should  depart  unmo- 
 lested. 
 
 When  the  multitude  began  to  lay  hands  on  Jesus, 
 some  of  his  apostles,  having  swords  a  with  them,  asked 
 their  master  if  they  might  draw  in  his  defence ;  but 
 before  they  had  his  answer,  Peter  had  drawn  his  sword, 
 and  in  great  fury  struck  at  Malchus,  one  of  the  high 
 priest's  servants,  with  a  design  to  cleave  his  head,  though 
 he  happened  only  to  cut  oft' his  right  ear.  Our  Saviour 
 however,  rebuking  his  intemperate  zeal,  commanded 
 him  to  put  up  his  sword,  b  because  he  had  no  occasion 
 
 for  such  an  one  to  betray  him,  could  not  be  done  without  great 
 perfidiousness.  3dly,  The  person  betrayed  is  called  the  '  Son 
 of  Man,'  which  is  both  the  humblest  and  most  obliging  of  our 
 Saviour's  titles,  and  implies  that  even  to  Judas  himself  he  had 
 always  been  a  kind  and  gracious  master,  had  treated  him  with 
 the  same  respect,  and  given  him  the  same  advice  and  overtures 
 that  he  had  done  to  the  rest  of  the  twelve ;  and  therefore  to 
 betray  him  was  high  ingratitude.  4thly,  and  lastly,  To  betray 
 him  with  a  kiss,  which  all  the  world  had  been  used  to  interpret 
 as  a  constant  symbol  either  of  love  or  homage,  (both  which  his 
 master  had  so  well  merited  at  his  hands)  and  now  to  make  this 
 a  signal  of  his  treason,  was  to  play  a  piece  of  the  most  gross 
 hypocrisy.  So  severe  is  the  accusation  which  our  Lord  brings 
 against  his  abandoned  apostle,  though  expressed  in  the  mildest 
 terms! — Young's  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 
 a  Before  our  Saviour  left  the  house  where  he  supped,  he  had 
 said  to  his  apostles,  '  He  that  has  no  sword,  let  him  sell  his  gar- 
 ment and  buy  one.'  (Luke  xii.  36.)  But  that  this  is  no  com- 
 mand to  them  to  buy  swords,  or  to  use  them  in  the  defence  of 
 their  master,  when  he  should  be  apprehended,  is  apparent  from 
 his  saying  that  '  two  swords  were  enough,'  (ver.  38.)  which  cer- 
 tainly could  never  be  sufficient  to  repel  that  band  of  armed  men 
 which  he  foreknew  would  come  against  him;  and  from  his 
 reprehending  Peter  for  using  one  in  this  manner,  (Mat.  xxvi. 
 52.)  which,  if  he  intended  his  words  to  be  understood  literally, 
 was  no  discommendable  thing.  They  therefore  are  only  a 
 monition  to  his  apostles,  that  times  were  now  become  so  peril- 
 ous, that,  if  things  were  to  be  acted  by  human  power,  there 
 would  be  more  need  for  swords  than  ever:  for  such  symbolical 
 ways  of  expression  were  very  common  among  the  eastern  peo- 
 ple. Some  annotators  however  have  observed,  that  the  reason 
 why  any  swords,  as  we  read  but  of  two,  were  found  in  our  Sav- 
 iour's family,  was,  that  thereby  they  might  secure  themselves 
 from  beasts  of  prey,  which,  in  those  parts,  were  xery  frequent 
 and  dangerous  in  the  night  time. — Whitby's  Annotations,  and 
 Taylor's  Life  of  Christ,  part  ii.  s.  15. 
 
 h  Our  Saviour's  words  to  Peter  are  these,  '  Put  up  thy  sword 
 into  its  place,  for  all  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the 
 sword,  (Mat.  xxvi.  52.)  This  passage  is  capable  of  different 
 significations.  1st,  They  who  resist  by  the  sword  the  civil 
 magistrate  shall  be  punished ;  and  it  is  dangerous,  therefore,  to 
 oppose  those  who  come  with  the  authority  of  the  civil  ruler.  2d, 
 These  men,  Jews  and  Romans,  who  have  taken  the  sword  against 
 the  innocent  shall  perish  by  the  sword.  God  will  take  venge- 
 ance on  them.  But,  3d,  The  most  satisfactory  interpretation  is 
 that  which  regards  it  as  a  caution  to  Peter.  Peter  was  rash. 
 Alone,  he  had  attacked  the  whole  band.  Jesus  told  him  that 
 his  unseasonable  and  imprudent  defence  might  be  the  occasion 
 
 for  any  human  aid,  who  had  legions  c  of  angels  at  his 
 command  ;  and  then,  having  cured  the  man's  ear  with  a 
 touch,  he  turned  about  and  expostulated  with  the  soldiery 
 the  indignity  of  apprehending  him  in  so  scandalous  a 
 manner,  as  if  he  were  a  thief  or  some  vile  malefactor, 
 when  they  had  daily  an  opportunity  of  taking  him  in  the 
 temple.  But,  say  what  he  would,  it  availed  nothing. 
 They  immediately  bound  him,  and  led  him  away. 
 
 The  apostles  now  seeing  their  master  thus  treated, 
 lost  all  their  courage,  and,  as  he  had  foretold  them,  left 
 him  and  betook  themselves  to  flight.  For  such  was  the 
 violence  of  the  soldiers,  that,  seeing  a  young  man  <*  fol- 
 lowing the  company,  with  nothing  but  a  night-gown  on, 
 and  supposing  him  to  be  one  of  our  Lord's  disciples, 
 they  laid  hold  on  hiin  ;  but  he,  by  quitting  his  garment, 
 slipped  out  of  their  hands,  and  fled  away  naked. 
 
 The  company,  thus  carrying  away  Jesus,  brought  him 
 first  before  Annas,  e  who  was  father-in-law  to  Caiaphas 
 
 of  his  own  destruction.  In  doing  it,  he  would  endanger  his 
 life,  for  they  who  took  the  sword  perished  by  it.  This  was  pro- 
 bably a  proverb,  denoting  that  they  who  engaged  in  wars  com- 
 monly perished  there. — Barnes. — Ed. 
 
 c  A  legion  in  the  Roman  militia  was  a  body  of  men  consisting 
 of  six  thousand,  composed  each  of  ten  cohorts,  as  a  cohort  was 
 of  fifty  maniples,  and  a  maniple  of  fifteen  men ;  so  that  twelve 
 legiuns  would  amount  to  seventy  thousand  angels;  but  in  this 
 our  Saviour  means  no  more  than  a  great  number. — Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 d  Who  this  young  man  was  has  been  a  matter  of  some  dispute 
 among  the  ancients.  Epiphanes  and  St  Jerome  are  of  opinion 
 that  it  was  James  the  brother  of  our  Lord ;  but  upon  our  Lord's 
 being  apprehended,  he,  among  the  rest,  forsook  him  and  fled ; 
 and  we  hear  nothing  of  his  return.  St  Chrysostom,  Ambrose, 
 and  Gregory  have  a  strong  imagination  that  it  was  John,  the 
 beloved  apostle ;  but  John,  we  read,  was  with  Christ  in  the  gar- 
 den clothed,  and  cannot  therefore  easily  conceive  how  he  came 
 to  fly  away  naked.  It  seems  most  probable,  therefore,  that  this 
 youug  man  might  be  no  wise  related  to  our  Saviour,  but  hearing 
 a  noise  in  the  garden,  which  might  not  be  far  distant  from  the 
 house  where  he  lodged  in  the  village  of  Gethsemane,  he  arose 
 and  followed  the  company  in  his  night-gown,  as  we  have  rend- 
 ered it,  in  pure  curiosity  to  see  what  was  the  matter,  and  that 
 when  the  guards  were  for  seizing  him,  he  fled  away  naked,  that 
 is,  with  nothing  but  his  shirt  on ;  for  so  the  expression  may  be 
 understood. — Calmet's  Commentary,  Whitby's  and  Beausobre's 
 Annotations. — Pococke  observes,  describing  the  dresses  of  the 
 people  of  Egypt,  that  "  it  is  almost  a  general  custom  among  the 
 Arab  and  Mohammedan  natives  of  the  country  to  wear  a  large 
 blanket  either  white  or  brown,  and  in  summer  a  blue  and  white 
 cotton  sheet,  which  the  Christians  constantly  use  in  the  country: 
 putting  one  corner  before,  over  the  left  shoulder,  they  bring  it 
 belu'nd,  and  under  the  right  arm,  and  so  over  their  bodies, 
 throwing  it  behind  over  the  left  shoulder,  and  so  the  right  arm 
 is  left  bare  for  action.  When  it  is  hot,  and  they  are  on  horse- 
 back, they  let  it  fall  down  on  the  saddle  round  them :  and  about 
 Faiume,  I  particularly  observed,  that  young  people  especially, 
 and  the  poorer  sort,  had  nothing  on  whatever  but  this  blanket: 
 and  it  is  probable  the  young  man  was  clothed  in  this  manner, 
 who  followed  our  Saviour  when  he  was  taken,  having  a  linen 
 cloth  cast  about  his  naked  body ;  and  when  the  young  men  laid 
 hold  on  him,  he  left  the  linen  cloth,  and  fled  naked." — (Truv. 
 vol.  i.  p.  190.)— Ed. 
 
 e  Annas,  who  by  Josephus  is  called  Ananus,  had  been  high- 
 priest,  enjoying  that  dignity  for  eleven  years;  and  even  after 
 he  was  deposed,  retained  still  the  title,  and  had  a  great  share  of 
 the  management  of  all  public  affairs.  When  John  the  Baptist 
 entered  upon  the  exercise  of  his  ministry,  he  is  called  the  high- 
 priest  in  conjunction  with  Caiaphas,  (Luke  iii.  2.)  though  at  this 
 time,  he  did  not  act  in  this  character ;  and  when  our  Saviour 
 was  apprehended,  he  was  first  brought  to  his  house,  according  to 
 St  John,  (chap,  xviii.  13,  14.)  though  the  other  evangelists  pass 
 that  over  in  silence,  because  there  was  nothing  done  to  him 
 there,  and  looks  as  if  he  were  only  there  detained  until  the 
 fi  M 
 
1010 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5412.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  1C— END.  MARK  xi.  15.-END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 the  high-priest,  and  had  formerly  borne  the  same  office  : 
 but  Annas  sent  him  to  Caiaphas,  in  whose  palace  the 
 Sanhedrim  was  still  sitting,  even  though  it  was  thus  late 
 at  night.  Caiaphas  examined  him  a  great  deal  concern- 
 ing both  his  doctrine  and  disciples  ;  but  when  our  Savi- 
 our answered,  '  That  since  he  had  always  taught  in  the 
 most  public  manner  in  the  synagogues,  and  in  the  tem- 
 ple, a  he  should  rather  inquire  of  those  who  had  been 
 his  constant  hearers,  an  officer  *  standing  by  gave  him  a 
 blow  on  the  face,  pretending  that  he  had  not  used  the 
 high-priest  with  respect  enough  ;  to  which  our  Lord  only 
 replied,  that 1  '  if  he  had  said  any  thing  amiss,  the  law 
 was  open,  and  he  might  implead  him,  but  if  not,  c  he 
 had  no  cause  or  authority  to  strike  him.' 
 
 The  council  perceiving  that,  from  his  own  confession, 
 they  could  raise  no  accusation  against  him,  called  over 
 the  false  witnesses  that  they  had  procured  ;  but  these 
 either  disagreed  in  their  stories,  or  came  not  sufficiently 
 up  to  the  point.  Two  persons  indeed  were  consistent 
 in  what  they  deposed,  namely,  that  they  had  heard  him 
 say,  '  that  he  would  pull  down  the  temple  of  God,  and 
 in  three  days  rebuild  it.'  But  as  this  accusation  2  was 
 false  in  fact,  and  founded  only  upon  a  figurative  expres- 
 sion of  our  Saviour's,  it  was  not  thought  to  amount  to 
 any  thing  capital. 
 
 All  this  while  our  Saviour  made  no  manner  of  reply 
 to  the  evidences  that  were  produced  against  him  ;  whereof 
 when  the  high -priest  asked  him  the  reason,  and  still  he 
 continued  silent,  having  one  question  more  in  reserve, 
 which,  if  he  answered  in  the  negative,  would,  according 
 to  his  notion,  make  him  an  impostor,  if  in  the  affirmative, 
 a  blasphemer,  he  stood  up,  and,  in  the  name  of  the  living 
 God,  d  '  adjured  him  to  declare,  whether  he  was  the 
 
 1  John  xviii.  23. 
 
 2  John  ii.  19. 
 
 council  met  at  the  house  of  Caiaphas,  was  ready  for  him. — Cal- 
 met's  Dictionary,  and  JFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  It  is  probable,  that  Caiaphas  questioned  Jesus  concerning 
 the  number  and  rank  of  his  disciples;  but  to  this  he  answered 
 nothing.  He  also  enquired  of  him,  what  doctrine  he  had  taught 
 the  people,  with  reference  either  to  his  assuming  the  character 
 of  the  Messiah,  or  to  the  contrariety  of  his  doctrine  to  the  tradi- 
 tions of  the  elders.  To  this  Jesus  replied,  that  he  had  taught 
 the  people  in  the  most  frequented  places,  and  the  most  open  man- 
 ner, and  had  spoken  nothing  in  private  different  from  his  public 
 instructions.  It  was  not  therefore  proper  to  require  his  testimony 
 in  his  own  cause,  as  they  were  not  disposed  to  believe  it;  but 
 that  regard  to  due  order,  or  to  law  and  justice,  required  them  to 
 seek  for  witnesses  among  those  who  had  heard  him.  It  is  most 
 likely,  that  some  were  then  present,  who  had  frequently  heard 
 his  instructions.  This  reply  was  peculiarly  suitable  to  the 
 situation,  in  which  Jesus  was  at  this  time  placed  ;  for  he  stood 
 as  a  prisoner  in  his  trial,  before  judges  who  were  determined  to 
 put  him  to  death,  and  only  sought  a  pretence  for  their  injustice 
 and  murder. — ScoWs  Commentary. — Ed. 
 
 b  This  was  an  outrage  to  all  justice :  for  a  prisoner,  before 
 he  is  condemned,  is  ever  considered  to  be  under  the  especial 
 protection  of  justice;  nor  has  any  one  a  right  to  touch  him,  but 
 according  to  the  direction  of  the  law.  But  it  has  been  observed 
 before  that,  if  justice  had  been  done  to  Christ,  he  could  neither 
 have  suffered  nor  died — Dr  A.  Clarke  on  John  xviii.  22. — Ed. 
 
 c  From  this  defence  which  our  Saviour  makes  for  himself,  we 
 may  learn,  that  we  are  not  literally  to  understand  his  precept  of 
 tinning  the  other  cheek  to  him  that  smites  us,  since  instead  of 
 doing  this,  we  find  him  endeavouring  to  vindicate  the  innocence 
 of  his  words  ;  and  from  hence  we  may  observe  likewise,  that  to 
 stand  upon  the  defence  of  our  own  innocency,  cannot  be  contrary 
 to  the  Christian  duties  of  patience  and  forgiveness. — Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 d  The  Jews  in  general,  but  especially  their  judges  and  magis- 
 
 Messiah,  the  Son  of  God,  or  not  ?'  The  reverence  which 
 our  Lord  paid  to  that  sacred  name,  made  him  imme- 
 diately answer,  and  that  in  direct  terms,  '  That  he  was  ; 
 and  that  of  this  they  would  be  convinced,  when  they 
 should  see  him  sitting  on  the  right-hand  of  the  Almighty, 
 and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.'  Whereupon  the 
 high-priest,  in  testimony  of  his  abhorrence,  rent  his 
 clothes,  e  as  if  he  had  heard  the  grossest  blasphemy,/ 
 and  then,  addressing  himself  to  the  council,  told  them, 
 that  there  was  no  occasion  for  any  farther  witnesses, 
 because  what  the  prisoner  had  said  was  palpable  blas- 
 phemy, and  so  demanded  their  opinion,  who  unani- 
 mously agreed,  that,  according  to  their  law,  he  was  guilty 
 of  death. 
 
 With  this  resolution  they  repaired  to  their  respective 
 homes,  for  now  it  was  late,  and  left  our  Lord  to  the  mer- 
 cy of  the  soldiers,  and  the  high-priest's  servants,  who 
 offered  all  the  acts  of  insolence  and  effrontery  that  they 
 could  invent,  to  his  sacred  person,  whilst  some  spit  on 
 him,  others  buffeted  him,  others  blindfolded  him,  and 
 others  again,  smiting  him  with  their  fists,  called  on  him 
 to  prophecy  S  who  it  was  that  struck  him,  with  many 
 more  indignities,  and  abominable  blasphemies,  which 
 must  have  been  greater  than  all  patience,  had  his  meek- 
 ness and  patience  been  less  than  infinite. 
 
 During  this  melancholy  scene,  Peter,  whose  fears  had 
 made  him  flee  from  his  master  in  the  garden,  having  a 
 little  recovered  his  spirits,  and  hoping  to  pass  undis- 
 covered in  the  throng,  ventured  in  among  others,  to  see 
 the  issue  of  this  fatal  night,  and  by  the  interest  of  his 
 fellow-disciple,  John,  who  went  with  him,  was  let  in  by 
 a  maid-servant  to  the  high-priest's  palace.  *  It  was  now 
 cold  weather  ;  and  the  servants  and  officers  having  kin- 
 dled a  fire  in  the  common  hall,  Peter  went  in,  and  sat 
 down  among  them  to  warm  himself ;  when  the  maid  who 
 let  him  in,  fixing  her  eyes  upon  him,  was  confident  she 
 knew  him,  and  accordingly,  told  the  company  that  he 
 was  a  disciple  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  which  he  positively 
 
 trates,  had  a  custom  of  conjuring  by  the  name  of  God,  or  of 
 exacting  an  oath  of  those  whose  crimes  did  not  sufficiently  appear 
 by  the  evidence  of  witnesses,  or  any  other  means.  The  person 
 thus  interrogated  was  obliged  to  speak  truth,  and,  in  all  doubtful 
 cases,  his  confession  or  denial  was  decisive,  either  to  acquit  or 
 condemn  him. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  The  rending  the  clothes  was  a  token  of  indignation,  holy 
 zeal,  and  piety,  among  the  Jews,  expressed  on  several  occasions, 
 especially  of  grief  in  humiliation:  and  of  anger,  in  hearing  any 
 blasphemous  speech.  This  however  was  forbidden  the  high- 
 priest,  not  only  as  to  his  sacerdotal  vestments,  but  also  as  to  his 
 other  garments,  (Lev.  xxi.  10.)  because  he  was  not  to  appear 
 before  God  in  the  habit  of  a  mourner;  but  they,  by  their  tradi- 
 tions, had  so  qualified  that  precept,  as  to  allow  him  to  rend  his 
 clothes  at  the  bottom,  though  he  was  not  permitted  to  do  it  from 
 the  top  to  the  breast.— Beausobre's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  From  hence  we  may  observe,  that  the  Jews  of  that  age  did 
 not  think,  that  the  Messiah  was  to  be  God,  but  only  a  man,  who 
 could  not  challenge  to  himself  divinity ;  seeing  they  never  con- 
 cluded our  Lord  to  be  a  blasphemer,  because  he  said  he  was  the 
 Christ,  but  only  because  he  said  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  and 
 thereby  made  himself  equal  with  God,  (John  v.  18.) — Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 g  By  this  kind  of  insult,  they  tacitly  reproached  him  with 
 being  a  false  prophet. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 h  The  Jews  themselves  allow,  as  Dr  Lightfoot  informs  us, 
 that  there  might  be  frost  and  snow  at  the  time  of  the  passover ; 
 and  a  common  thing  it  was  for  great  dews  to  fall  then,  which 
 would  make  the  air  cold,  until  the  sun  had  exhaled  them. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1011 
 
 OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  I9-END. 
 
 of  the  Roman  governor,  whose  name  at  that  time  was 
 Pontius  Pilate,^  desiring  of  him  to  ratify  their  sentence, 
 and  demanding  a  warrant  s  for  his  execution. 
 
 Judas  in  the  mean  time  watching  the  issue  of  these 
 proceedings,  and  finding  that  his  master  was  delivered 
 to  the  secular  power,  repented  of  his  perfidy,  and,  tak- 
 ing the  money  which  was  the  reward  of  his  treason,  went 
 to  the  council  h  and  threw  it  among  them,  declaring 
 openly  that  he  had  acted  very  wickedly  in  betraying  the 
 innocent  blood.  But  as  people  that  employ  such  instru- 
 ments have  no  regard  to  what  becomes  of  them,  all  the 
 comfort  that  he  had  from  them  was,  that  since  it  was 
 his  own  act  and  deed,  '   it  was  his  business  to  look  to 
 
 A.M.4037.  A.D.  33 
 
 denied  to  them  all,  and,  as  he  withdrew  into  the  porch, 
 heard  the  cock  crow,  a  but  his  troubled  thoughts  took  no 
 notice  of  it. 
 
 While  he  was  in  the  porch,  another  maid  charged  him 
 with  the  same  thing  ;  but  he  denied  it  again,  not  only 
 with  the  same  confidence,  but  with  the  solemnity  of  an 
 oath  ;  and,  about  an  hour  after,  when  another  inferred 
 from  his  dialect,6  that  he  must  necessarily  be  a  Galilean, 
 and  a  relation  of  the  man  whose  ear  he  had  cut  off" 
 strongly  affirmed  that  he  saw  him  in  the  garden,  this  so 
 intimidated  him,  that,  with  horrid  oaths  c  and  impreca- 
 tions upon  himself,  he  denied  the  matter,  till  the  cock 
 crew  the  second  time,  and  our  Saviour,  who  was  then  in 
 the  hall,  turning  to  Peter,  gave  him  such  a  glance,  as  re- 
 minded him  of  his  prediction,  and  the  foulness  of  his 
 own  crime  ;  whereupon,  being  stung  with  compunc- 
 tion, and  sadly  oppressed  with  shame  and  grief,  he 
 went  out,  and  wept ;  he  wept  abundantly,  he  wept  bit- 
 terly. 
 
 Early  next  morning  the  sanhedrim  d  met  again  in  a 
 full  body  at  their  room  in  the  temple,  whither  they  or- 
 dered Jesus  to  be  brought;  and,  having  again  inquired 
 of  him,  whether  he  was  the  true  Messiah,  and  the  Son  of 
 God  ?  and  again  received  the  same  answer  from  him, 
 they  adjudged  him  guilty  of  blasphemy  ;  and  according- 
 ly, having  condemned  him,  carried  him  to  the  palace  e 
 
 a  It  is  reported  of  St  Peter,  that,  ever  after,  when  he  heard 
 the  cock  crow,  he  wept,  remembering  the  old  instrument  of  his 
 repentance  and  conversion  and  his  own  unworthiness,  for  which 
 he  never  ceased  to  do  acts  of  sorrow  and  penance. — HoweWs  His- 
 tory, in  the  notes. 
 
 b  The  Galileans  spake  the  same  language  that  the  rest  of  the 
 Jews  did;  but  then  they  had  a  certain  uncouth  accent  and  man- 
 ner of  expression,  which  distinguished  them  from  others,  and 
 made  them  to  be  contemned,  and  ridiculed  by  the  natives 
 of  Judea. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Beausobre's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 c  Some  of  the  ancients  have  taken  great  pains  to  extenuate 
 this  fault  of  Peter's.  St  Ambrose  on  Luke,  and  Hillary  on 
 Matthew,  both  assert,  that  the  apostle  did  not  lie  in  saying ;  '  I 
 know  not  the  man,'  but  only  disguised  the  truth,  renouncing 
 Christ  in  the  quality  of  a  man,  but  not  as  the  Son  of  God.  But 
 this  according  to  St  Jerome,  is  to  defend  the  servant  by  accus- 
 ing the  master  of  a  lie ;  for  if  St  Peter  did  not  actually  deny  him, 
 our  Lord  must  have  falsely  affirmed,  '  Thou  shalt  deny  me 
 thrice.'  The  opinion  of  those  therefore  is  rather  to  be  embraced, 
 who  acknowledge  that  St  Peter,  by  denying  Christ  with  his 
 mouth  committed  a  mortal  sin,  and  fell  from  grace ;  and,  as  it 
 is  certain,  that,  confirming  this  denial  with  an  oath,  and  added 
 horrid  execrations  to  it,  his  sin  was  highly  aggravated;  instead 
 of  accounting  as  some  do,  his  denial  a  sin  of  infirmity,  wherein 
 his  heart  was  true,  though  his  mouth  false,  we  can  hardly  think, 
 that  he  could  do  all  this  without  great  checks  of  his  con- 
 science, and  that,  consequently,  for  the  present  he  was  in  a  state 
 of  defection,  though  his  bitter  weeping,  and  quick  repentance, 
 after  that  Christ  had  looked  upon  him,  might  make  an  atone- 
 ment for  his  transgression. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 d  The  assembly,  which  was  held  the  night  before,  and  where- 
 in our  Saviour  was  declared  worthy  of  death,  was  neither  general 
 nor  judicial,  according  to  the  sense  of  the  law,  which  did  not  al- 
 low justice  to  be  administered  in  private,  or  in  the  night  time : 
 and  therefore  the  high  priests  and  rulers  met  again  in  the  morn- 
 ing in  the  council  chamber  in  the  temple,  which  they  could  not 
 do  the  night  before,  because  the  temple  was  then  always  shut, 
 there  to  re-examine  our  Saviour,  and  condemn  him  in  form. — 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  At  Jerusalem  the  people  show  you,  at  this  time,  the  palace 
 of  Pilate,  or  rather  the  place  where  they  said  it  stood ;  for  now 
 an  ordinary  Turkish  house  possesses  its  room.  In  this  pretend- 
 ed house,  which  stands  not  far  from  St  Stephen's  gate,  and  bor- 
 ders on  the  area  of  the  temple,  on  the  north  side,  they  show  you 
 
 a  room,  in  which  Christ  was  mocked  with  the  ensigns  of  royalty, 
 and  buffeted  by  the  soldiers;  and,  on  the  other  side  of  the  street, 
 which  was  anciently  another  part  of  the  palace,  is  the  room, 
 where  they  say  our  Lord  was  scourged. —  Well's  Geography  of 
 the  New  Testament,  part  i. 
 
 /  It  is  not  well  known  of  what  family  or  country  this  gover- 
 nor was,  though  it  is  generally  believed  that  he  was  of  Rome, 
 at  least  of  Italy.  He  succeeded  Gratus  to  the  government  of 
 Judea,  in  which  he  continued  fourteen  years,  that  is,  from  the 
 twelfth  to  the  twenty  second  of  Tiberius,  and  is  represented  by 
 Philo,  (Be  Legatione  ad  Caium)  as  a  man  of  an  impetuous  and 
 obstinate  temper,  and  a  judge  who  used  to  sell  justice,  and  for 
 money  pronounce  any  sentence  that  was  desired.  The  same 
 author  makes  mention  of  his  rapines,  his  injuries,  his  murders, 
 the  torments  he  inflicted  upon  the  innocent,  and  the  persons  he 
 put  to  death  without  any  form  of  process.  In  short,  he  describes 
 him  as  a  man  that  exercised  an  excessive  cruelty  during  the 
 whole  time  of  his  government,  from  which  he  was  deposed  by 
 Vitellius,  the  proconsul  of  Syria,  and  sent  to  Rome,  to  give  an 
 account  of  his  conduct  to  the  emperor.  But  though  Tiberius 
 died  before  Pilate  arrived  at  Rome,  yet  his  successor  Caligula 
 banished  him  to  Vienna  in  Gaul,  where  he  was  reduced  to  such 
 extremity,  that  he  killed  himself  with  his  own  hands.  The 
 evangelists  call  him  the  governor,  though,  properly  speaking,  he 
 was  no  more  than  the  procurator  of  Judea,  not  only  because  go- 
 vernor was  a  name  of  general  use,  but  because  Pilate,  in  effect, 
 acted  as  one,  by  taking  upon  him  to  judge  in  criminal  matters, 
 as  his  predecessors  had  done,  and  other  procurators,  in  the 
 small  provinces  of  the  empire  where  there  was  no  proconsul, 
 constantly  did. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word  Pilate. — 
 Eachard's  Ecclesiastical  History,  b.  ii.  c.  2.  and  Beausobre's 
 Annotations. 
 
 g  Not  that  the  Romans  had,  at  this  time,  taken  from  the  san- 
 hedrim the  power  of  life  and  death;  for,  about  a  year  after  this, 
 we  find  the  proto-martyr  Stephen  regularly  tried,  condemned, 
 and  stoned  by  their  sole  authority:  but  therefore  the  Jewish 
 rulers  desired  the  concurrence  of  the  Roman  governor,  that  they 
 might  make  our  Saviour  undergo  a  more  severe  and  ignominous 
 punishment  than  they  could  have  inflicted  upon  him  by  their 
 own  power,  because  crucifixion  was  a  death  that  their  law  had 
 not  prescribed.  To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that  to  induce 
 the  governor  to  comply  with  their  demand,  the  accusation  which 
 they  brought  against  him  was  of  a  civil  nature,  and  such  as  would 
 consign  him  to  the  punishment  they  desired:  '  we  found  this  fel- 
 low perverting  the  nation,  and  forbidding  to  give  tribute  to 
 CaBsar,'     Luke  xxiii.  2. — Universal  History,  b.  ii.  c.  11. 
 
 h  Such  is  the  purchase  of  treason  and  the  reward  of  covetous- 
 ness.  It  is  cheap  in  its  offers,  momentary  in  the  possession, 
 unsatisfying  in  its  fruition,  uncertain  in  its  stay,  sudden  in 
 its  departure,  horrid  in  the  remembrance,  and  a  ruin,  a  cer- 
 tain and  miserable  ruin,  in  the  event. —  Taylor's  Life  of  Christ, 
 s.  iii. 
 
 i  The  answer  of  the  chief  priests  to  Judas,  when  he  brought 
 back  to  them  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and  declared  that  he 
 had  betrayed  the  innocent  blood,  was  a  perfectly  natural  one  for 
 men  of  their  character:  '  What  is  that  to  us?  see  thou  to  that.' 
 Men  who  had  any  feeling,  any  sentiments  of  common  humanity, 
 or  even  of  common  justice,  when  so  convincing  a  proof  ot  the 
 accused  person's  innocence  had  been  given  them,  would  natur- 
 ally have  relented,  would  have  put  an  immediate  stop  to  the 
 proceedings,  and  released  the  prisoner.  But  this  was  very  far 
 from  entering  into  their  plan.     With  the  guilt  or  innocence  u(. 
 
1012 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END 
 
 then  called  the  Potter's  field,  but  afterwards  '  the  field 
 of  blood,  for  a  place  of  interment  for  strangers.  d 
 
 it,  not  theirs  ;  so  that  being  tortured  with  the  agonies  of 
 guilt,  and  finding  no  relief  any  where,  he  went  and 
 hanged  himself;  a  but  in  his  death  there  was  something 
 so  particular,  that  it  made  all  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusa- 
 lem take  notice  of  it.  The  money,  however,  which  he 
 threw  among  the  council,  the  priests  thought  not  proper 
 to  put  in  the  treasury,  because  it  was  the  price  of  blood, 
 *  and  therefore  they  purchased  with  it  a  spot  of  ground,  c 
 
 Jesus  they  did  not  concern  themselves.  This  was  not  their 
 affair.  AH  they  wanted  was  the  destruction  of  a  man  whom 
 they  hated  and  feared,  and  whose  life  and  doctrine  were  a 
 standing  reproach  to  them.  This  was  their  object:  and  as  to 
 the  mercy  or  the  justice  of  the  case,  on  this  head  they  were  at 
 perfect  ease;  '  What  is  that  to  us?  See  thou  to  that.'  And  yet 
 to  see  the  astonishing  inconsistence  of  human  nature,  and  the 
 strange  contrivances  by  which  even  the  most  abandoned  of  men 
 endeavour  to  satisfy  their  minds  and  quiet  their  apprehensions ; 
 these  very  men,  who  had  no  scruple  at  all  in  murdering  an 
 innocent  person,  yet  had  wonderful  qualms  of  conscience  about 
 putting  into  the  treasury  the  money  which  they  themselves  had 
 given  as  the  'price  of  blood!' — Porteus's  Lectures  on  Mat. — 
 Ed. 
 
 a  There  are  some  difficulties  concerning  the  manner  in  which 
 Judas  died.  Matthew  says,  simply,  that  he  hanged  himself; 
 whereas  Luke  (Acts  i.  18.)  says  further,  that  'falling  headlong, 
 he  burst  asunder  in  the  midst,  and  all  his  bowels  gushed  out.' 
 This  apparent  discrepancy  has  occasioned  much  controversy,  and 
 various  solutions  have  been  offered.  Mr  Hewlett  we  think  has 
 hit  upon  the  true  one.  He  considers  the  narrative  of  Luke  to 
 be  supplemental  to  that  of  Matthew's,  and  to  state  an  additional 
 fact.  Matthew  having  related  that  Judas  departed,  and  went 
 and  hanged  himself,  Luke  had  not  the  least  doubt  respecting  the 
 fact,  but  knew  that  all  suicides,  who  hang  themselves,  are  cut 
 down  sooner  or  later  by  those  who  find  them.  It  is  at  this  point 
 that  Mr  Hewlett  supposes  the  short  supplementary  narrative  in 
 the  Acts  to  begin.  The  rope  being  cut  or  untied  (-tt^whs  yivo- 
 ftitos),  '  falling  headlong,'  or  rather  '  falling  on  his  face,  he  burst 
 asunder,'  &c.  It  was  perfectly  natural  for  Luke  on  this  occa- 
 sion, if  not  as  an  evangelist,  yet  as  a  physician,  to  relate  by  way 
 of  parenthesis,  the  pathological  fact  here  recorded ;  which  is  so 
 far  from  being  incredible,  that  it  is  very  natural,  and  not  unlikely 
 to  happen.  A  skilful  physician  informed  Mr  Hewlett,  that  in 
 cases  of  violent  and  painful  death  there  is  usually  an  effusion  of 
 lymph,  or  lymph  mixed  with  blood,  into  the  cavities  of  the  chest 
 and  abdomen.  If  the  body  be  kept  till  putrescence  takes  place, 
 a  gas  is  evolved  from  the  fluid  in  such  quantity  as  to  distend 
 enormously,  and  sometimes  to  rupture  the  peritonaeum  and 
 abdominal  muscles:  this  effect  has  been  observed  in  bodies  hung 
 on  gibbets  in  England;  and  it  would  take  place  much  more 
 readily  in  warmer  climates. — CalmeVs  Dictionary Ed. 
 
 b  It  was  a  custom  among  the  Jews,  which  was  afterwards 
 imitated  by  the  first  Christians,  that  it  should  not  be  lawful  for 
 executioners  to  offer  any  thing,  or  for  any  alms  to  be  received 
 from  them ;  and  so,  by  analogy,  any  money  with  which  a  life 
 
 was  bought  was  not  to  be  put  into  the  treasury Hammond's 
 
 Annotations. 
 
 c  The  valley  of  Jehoshaphat  runs  cross  the  mouth  of  another 
 valley,  called  the  valley  of  Hinnom,  lying  at  the  bottom  of  mount 
 Sion.  On  the  west  side  of  this  valley  is  the  place  called  the 
 Potter's  field,  where,  not  improbably,  the  people  of  that  trade 
 were  used  to  dry  their  pots  before  they  baked  them.  It  was 
 afterwards  called  the  Field  of  Blood,  for  the  reason  that  the 
 evangelist  assigns ;  but  at  present,  from  that  veneration  which 
 it  has  obtained  amongst  Christians,  it  is  named  Campo  Sancto, 
 or  the  Holy  Field.  It  is  a  small  plat  of  ground,  not  above 
 thirty  yards  long,  and  about  half  as  much  broad ;  and  one  moiety 
 of  it  is  taken  up  by  a  square  fabric  about  twelve  yards  high,  built 
 for  a  charnel-house,  and  covered  over  with  a  vault,  in  which  are 
 some  openings,  to  let  down  the  bodies  that  are  to  be  buried 
 there.  The  earth  must  certainly  be  impregnated  with  a  very 
 corrosive  salt,  if  what  some  tell  us  be  true,  namely,  that  it  can 
 dissolve  a  body  in  the  space  of  four  and  twenty  hours.  Those, 
 however,  who  have  looked  down  through  these  openings,  tell  us, 
 that  they  could  see  many  bodies  under  several  degrees  of  decay, 
 from  whence  they  conjectured,  that  this  grave  does  not  make 
 such  quick  dispatch  with  the  corpses  committed  to  it  as  is  com- 
 
 When  the  members  of  the  sanhedrim  came  to  the  gover- 
 nor's palace,  they  refused  to  go  into  the  2  judgment  hall 
 e  for  fear  of  contracting  some  pollution,  and  therefore 
 Pilate  went  out  to  them  ;  and  as  he  understood  that  they 
 had  already  passed  sentence  upon  him,  he  demanded 
 the  grounds  of  their  accusation  against  him.  But  being 
 unwilling  that  any  inquiry  should  be  made  into  the  par- 
 ticulars of  their  proceedings,  they  answered  in  general, 
 that  /'if  he  were  not  a  criminal,  they  would  not  have 
 brought  hiin  to  him.'  Imagining,  therefore,  that  the 
 prosecution  was  about  some  matters  relating  to  their 
 religion,  the  governor  desired  they  would  take  him,  and 
 judge  him  according  to  their  own  law  :  but  to  this  they 
 replied,  8  '  that  it  was  not  permitted  them  to  put  any 
 man  to  death.' 
 
 1  Acts  i.  19. 
 
 2  John  xviii.  28. 
 
 monly  reported.  The  Armenians  have  the  command  of  this 
 burying-place,  for  which  they  pay  to  the  Turks  the  rent  of  a 
 zequin  a-day:  and  a  little  below  the  Campo  Sancto  is  shown  aa 
 intricate  cave,  or  a  sepulchre,  consisting  of  several  rooms,  one 
 within  another,  in  which  the  apostles  are  said  to  have  hid  them- 
 selves when  they  forsook  their  master  and  fled. — Wells's  Geog. 
 of  the  New  Test.,  part  i. 
 
 d  The  strangers  here  meant  may  be  either  men  of  other 
 nations,  with  whom  the  Jews  would  have  no  commerce,  even 
 when  they  were  dead,  and  therefore  provided  a  separate  burying- 
 place  for  them ;  or  they  might  be  Jews,  who  coming  from  far  to 
 Jerusalem  to  sacrifice,  died  there  before  their  return  home,  and 
 so  the  priests  provided  a  burying  place  for  them. — Hammond's 
 Annotations. 
 
 e  Because  in  the  governor's  palace  there  was  a  guard  of 
 Roman  soldiers,  and  a  great  company  of  servants,  and  as  they 
 were  heathens,  they  thought  that  by  touching  any  of  them  they 
 should  be  defiled,  and  consequently  made  incapable  of  eating  the 
 Passover,  of  which  no  unclean  person  was  to  partake.  By  the 
 Passover,  however,  here  in  St  John,  (chap,  xviii.  28.)  we  are 
 not  to  understand  the  Paschal  lamb,  which  the  rest  of  the  Jews, 
 as  well  as  our  Saviour,  had  eaten  the  night  before,  but  the  Cha- 
 gigah,  or  peace  offering,  that  is,  the  sheep  and  oxen  that  were 
 offered  all  the  seven  days  of  the  feast,  and  are  expressly  called 
 the  Passover,  (Luke  xxii.  1.)  Thus  the  Jewish  doctors  remark 
 upon  Deut.  xvi.  2.  '  Thou  shalt  sacrifice  the  Passover  to  the 
 Lord,  of  the  flock,  and  of  the  herd,'  that  the  flock  signifies  the 
 lambs,  which  were  eaten  on  the  14th,  and  the  herd,  the  offerings 
 of  the  Chagigah,  which  were  consumed  on  the  15th  day  of  the 
 mouth  Nisan.  The  Jewish  rulers  therefore  would  not  go  into 
 the  judgment  hall,  that  they  might  not  be  unfit  to  eat  the  Pass- 
 over, that  is,  those  paschal-offerings  of  the  herd,  which  were 
 holy  things,  and  of  which  none  might  eat  in  their  defilement. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Appendix  to  St  Mark. — (See  Cal- 
 met's  Commentary  upon  this  passage  of  St  John,  where  he 
 opposes  this  opinion  with  reasons  that  seem  to  have  some  weight 
 in  them. 
 
 f  By  this  answer  they  seem  willing  to  make  Pilate  not  so 
 much  a  judge  of  the  cause,  as  an  executor  of  their  sentence. 
 But  there  cannot  possibly  be  a  higlier  act  of  injustice,  than  to 
 desire  that  a  judge  should  suppose  the  accused  person  guilty  of 
 the  crime,  without  any  farther  examination-  It  is  no  strange 
 and  extraordinary  thing  to  see  innocent  persons  oppressed  by 
 arbitrary  proceedings,  without  any  legal  process;  but  for  a  man 
 to  be  brought  before  a  judge,  in  order  to  he  delivered  up  directly 
 to  execution,  without  one  proof  of  his  crime,  or  any  examination 
 concerning  it,  is  a  new  way  of  oppression,  first  invented  and 
 contrived  against  the  Saviour  of  the  world. — Calmet's  Corn- 
 mentury. 
 
 g  Whether  the  Jews  had  at  this  time  the  power  of  life  and 
 death  is  a  point  much  controverted  among  the  learned.  The 
 answer  which  the  Jewish  rulers  here  give  to  Pilate,  and  the 
 general  opinion  of  their  Rabbins,  who  suppose  that  their  rulers 
 lost  that  power  about  forty  years  before  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
 salem, seem  to  incline  to  the  negative.     But  those  who  take 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1013 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31,  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10- 
 
 By  these  reserved  answers,  Pilate  perceiving  that  their 
 intention  was  to  make  him  the  instrument  of  their  malice 
 against  an  innocent  man,  refused  to  intermeddle  in  the 
 affair,  unless  they  would  exhibit  some  articles  of  accusa- 
 tion against  him.  Knowing  therefore  that  Pilate  was  a 
 creature  of  the  Roman  court,  and  a  slave  to  its  great- 
 ness, they  alleged  against  our  Lord,  that,  a  he  was 
 guilty  of  seditious  practices,  of  dissuading  the  payment 
 of  the  tribute  to  Caesar,  and  of  setting  himself  up  for  a 
 king.  Pilate,  hearing  the  name  of  a  king,  thought  him- 
 self concerned  to  examine  that  point;  and  therefore, 
 returning  to  the  judgment-hall,  and  seating  himself  upon 
 the  tribunal,  he  asked  Jesus,  whether  he  was  the  king  of 
 the  Jews  ?  AVhich  our  Lord  never  pretended  to  deny ; 
 but  then  he  informed  the  governor,  that  '  his  kingdom 
 
 the  other  side  of  the  question  argue  thus:  that  the  Jews,  when 
 reduced  to  a  Roman  province,  had  still  the  privilege  granted 
 them,  to  use  the  sacred  institutions  and  customs  that  were 
 derived  to  them  from  their  fathers,  (Joseph  Antiq.  b.  xiv.  c. 
 17.)  that  it  was  granted  to  Hyrcanus  the  high-priest,  if  any 
 controversy  should  arise  concerning  their  discipline  that  the 
 judgment  of  it  should  be  referred  to  him  ;  that,  pursuant  to  this 
 graut,  we  find  the  high-priest  and  his  council  stoning  Stephen, 
 not  by  the  rage  of  zealots,  as  some  conceive,  but  according  to 
 the  law,  which  requires,  that  the  blasphemer  should  be  stoned, 
 (Levit.  xxiv.  16;)  that  Saul,  armed  with  the  power  of  the  high- 
 priest  and  elders,  persecuted  the  Jewish  Christians  unto  death, 
 and  Jed  them  bound  to  Jerusalem  to  be  punished,  (Acts  xxii.  4. 
 5,)  that  the  Jews  would  have  judged  Paul  after  their  own  law, 
 (Acts  xxiv.  6.)  and  have  put  him  to  death,  (Acts  xxiii.  27.)  had 
 not  Lysias,  the  chief  captain,  rescued  him  from  their  hands, 
 which,  they  say,  he  did  by  violence,  that  is,  by  an  invasion  of 
 their  rights,  but  he  affirms  he  did  it  because  he  understood  that 
 Paul  was  a  Roman :  and  from  hence  they  conclude,  that  they 
 still  retained  the  power  of  judging,  and  condemning  these  to 
 death,  who  were  Jews  by  nature  and  descent,  and  by  their  laws 
 deserved  to  die,  though  as  to  some  persons,  and  in  some  cases, 
 they  had  not  that  power.  Thus,  when  Annas,  or  Ananus,  the 
 high-priest,  killed  James,  the  brother,  of  our  Lord,  and  stoned 
 many  other  Christians,  as  transgressors  of  the  law,  the  wisest 
 part  of  the  nation,  says  Josephus,  disliked  his  proceedings, 
 because  he  should  not  have  called  a  council  concerning  life  and 
 death,  without  licence  from  Albinus,  the  Roman  president. 
 From  whence  we  may  infer,  that  the  power  of  inflicting  capital 
 punishments,  even  upon  the  Jews  converted  to  the  Christian 
 faith,  was  then  so  far  taken  from  them,  that  they  could  not 
 regularly  do  it,  without  first  obtaining  leave  from  the  Roman 
 governor:  and  in  the  case  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  the  Jews  had 
 debarred  themselves  from  the  power  of  putting  him  to  death, 
 alter  they  had  accused  him  before  Pilate,  not  of  crimes  com- 
 mitted against  their  law,  but  of  sedition,  and  aspiring  at  a 
 kingdom,  to  the  prejudice  of  Ciesar  and  the  Roman  govern- 
 ment, whereof  it  belonged  to  Pilate,  and  not  to  them,  to  judge 
 and  determine.  And  therefore  their  saying  to  him,  '  it  is  not 
 lawful  for  us  to  put  any  man  to  death,'  (John  xviii.  31.)  is  looked 
 upon,  either  as  a  kind  of  complaint  of  the  encroachments  which 
 the  Romans  had  made  upon  their  civil  constitution,  or  as  a 
 mere  pretence,  since  Pilate  gave  them  enough,  when  he  bade 
 them  to  take  him,  and  judge  him  according  to  their  law;  and 
 that  the  true  reasons  of  their  bringing  him  before  the  Roman 
 tribunal,  were,  that  he  might  be  condemned  for  sedition,  which 
 would  be  a  means  to  secure  them  from  the  rage  of  the  people, 
 and  that  he  might  be  crucified,  which  was  a  Roman  death,  and 
 generally  inflicted  on  those  that  were  found  tampering  against 
 tlie  government. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's  and 
 Beausobre' '*'  Annotations, 
 
 a  When  our  Lord's  accusers  came  before  Pilate,  they  said 
 nothing  of  his  pretended  blasphemy,  his  destruction  of  the  tem- 
 ple or  violation  of  the  law  of  Moses,  because  they  were  ques- 
 tions that  the  governor,  they  knew,  would  not  concern  himself 
 with;  and  therefore  tiny  forged  such  accusations  against  him  as 
 they  thought  might  make  him  odious  and  suspected  to  the 
 Roman  government,  and  oblige  Pilate  to  be  severe  against  him. 
 -Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 was  not  of  this  world,'*  and  could  therefore  give  no  um- 
 brage to  the  Romans ;  for  that,  had  it  been  a  worldly 
 kingdom,  his  subjects  and  followers  would  have  cer- 
 tainly fought  for  him,  and  saved  him  from  the  hands  of 
 the  Jews.  When  Pilate  heard  that  he  disclaimed  all 
 right  to  secular  kingdoms,  he  thought  he  had  nothing  to 
 do  to  examine  him  about  the  nature  of  his  spiritual  em- 
 pire ;  and  therefore,  withdrawing  from  the  court  into  the 
 Vestibulum,  where  his  accusers  were  impatiently  expect- 
 ing the  ratification  of  their  sentence,  in  order  to  execu- 
 tion, contrary  to  their  hopes,  he  plainly  told  them,  that 
 he  found  nothing  worthy  of  death  in  him. 
 
 Upon  this  disappointment,  the  chief  priests,  and 
 elders,  grew  exceeding  fierce  and  clamorous,  represent- 
 ing our  Lord  as  a  turbulent  mover  of  the  people,  and 
 charging  him  with  the  spreading  of  seditious  principles 
 through  all  c  Galilee  and  Judea,  even  as  far  as  Jerus- 
 alem. Pilate  hearing  them  name  Galilee,  and  under- 
 standing that  he  was  a  Galilean,  and  consequently, 
 belonged  to  d  Herod's  jurisdiction ;  in  order  to  get  rid 
 of  the  importunity  of  the  Jews,  and  withal  to  free  him- 
 self from  this  odious  and  puzzling  affair,  sent  him 
 immediately  to  Herod,  who  was  then  at  Jerusalem, 
 upon  the  occasion  of  the  feast.  Herod  was  no  less 
 proud  of  the  honour  done  him  by  Pilate,  than  glad 
 of  having  this   opportunity  to    gratify    his   curiosity.  e 
 
 b  Jesus  then  intimated,  that  he  was  a  king;  but  that  'his 
 kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,'  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  men's 
 temporal  interests  or  privileges;  it  left  rulers  and  subjects  in 
 the  same  situation  as  it  found  them;  and  it  was  therefore  no 
 object  of  jealousy  to  any  government.  Had  he  claimed  a  king- 
 dom of  an  earthly  nature,  he  would  of  course  have  armed  his 
 followers,  and  they  would  have  fought  in  his  cause,  but  as  his 
 disciples  had  been  few  in  number,  inoffensive  in  their  habits, 
 and  forbidden  to  fight  for  him,  even  when  he  was  apprehended, 
 it  was  evident  that  his  kingdom  was  not  of  a  secular  nature,  but 
 related  wholly  to  spiritual  and  heavenly  things,  and  would  be 
 supported  entirely  by  spiritual  sanctions  and  authority,  John 
 xviii.  33.  36. — Scott's  Commentary. 
 
 c  Here  they  artfully  make  mention  of  Galilee,  to  incite  Pilate 
 against  him  as  a  seditious  person,  and  to  confirm  their  own 
 suggestion  that  he  was  so;  for  they  give  him  to  think,  that,  as 
 he  was  a  Galilean,  he  might  probably  embrace  the  opinion  of 
 Judas  Gaulonites,  who  held  it  was  not  lawful  to  pay  tribute  to 
 Caesar:  a  notion  which  the  inhabitants  of  Galilee  had  generally 
 imbibed,  and,  upon  that  account,  were  always  prone  to  sedition 
 and  rebellion,  for  which  some  of  them,  not  long  before,  had  been 
 set  upon  and  slain  by  Pilate.  -   Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Pilate's  government  did  not  extend  to  Galilee;  it  included 
 Judea  only.  Herod  Antipas,  the  son  of  Herod  the  Great,  was, 
 at  this  time,  king  or  tetrach  of  Galilee;  Jesus,  consequently, 
 was  his  subject;  and  therefore,  according  to  the  Roman  laws, 
 it  was  Pilate's  duty  to  send  him  to  his  proper  sovereign,  espe- 
 cially as  he  was  accused  of  rebellion,  and  a  design  to  make  him- 
 self a  king. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Grotius  on  Luke  xxiii. 
 
 e  Herod  was  greatly  rejoiced  to  see  Jesus,  perhaps  desiring 
 to  satisfy  himself  whether  he  were  indeed  •  John  the  baptist 
 risen  from  the  dead  '  as  he  once  supposed  (notes  xiii.  31 — 'SA. 
 Mat.  xiv.  1,  2.)  He  had,  however,  long  wished  to  see  him, 
 having  heard  many  reports  concerning  his  doctrine  and  miracles, 
 in  hopes  of  having  his  curiosity  gratified,  by  beholding  some 
 effects  of  his  power  in  working  miracles.  But  our  Lord  saw 
 good  not  only  to  disappoint  that  expectation,  but  also  to  keep  a 
 profound  silence  in  his  presence,  not  returning  any  answer  to 
 his  multiplied  questions,  or  to  the  vehement  accusations  of  his 
 enemies.  Yet  Herod,  though  doubtless  vexed  and  mortified, 
 did  not  choose  to  have  any  hand  in  putting  him  to  death,  having 
 probably  been  greatly  terrified  in  his  conscience,  on  account  of  his 
 murder  of  John  the  baptist.  He  therefore  contented  himself 
 with  treating  Jesus  as  a  despicable  person,  beneath  his  notice; 
 except  that  he  joined  with  his  officers  and  guards  in  deriding 
 and  insulting  him.     In  token  of  their  contempt  of  his  pretensions 
 
1014 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4037.  A.  D.  33 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 For,  having  heard  much  of  our  Saviour's  fame,  he  ex- 
 pected to  see  some  miracle  or  other  done  by  him ;  but 
 found  himself  sadly  disappointed.  For  though  the 
 scribes  and  rulers  pursued  him  with  their  accusations  to 
 Herod's  palace,  and  Herod,  in  hearing  the  cause,  asked 
 him  several  questions,  yet  he  would  not  vouchsafe  so 
 much  as  one  answer  ;  which  made  the  tetrarch  look  upon 
 him  as  an  insignificant,  despicable  person  ;  and,  accord- 
 ingly, having  committed  him  to  the  derision  and  insults 
 of  his  guards,  who  used  him  with  the  utmost  indignity, 
 he  sent  him  back  again  to  Pilate,  arrayed  in  a  white 
 robe,  "whether  it  was  to  make  a  mock  of  him,  or  to  in- 
 dicate his  innocence,  or  both  ;  but  so  it  was,  that,  from 
 that  time,  Herod  and  Pilate,  b  who  before  were  at  great 
 variance,  were,  upon  this  occasion,  perfectly  recon- 
 ciled. 
 
 When  our  Lord  was  remanded  back  in  this  manner, 
 Pilate  addressed  himself  to  the  priests  and  rulers  of  the 
 people,  telling  them,  '  That  though  they  had  brought 
 this  man  before  him  as  a  seditious  person,  and  a  seducer 
 of  the  people,  yet,  upon  examination,  he  could  not  find 
 him  guilty  of  any  of  the  crimes  that  were  laid  to  his 
 charge  ;  that  this  was  not  his  own  opinion  only,  but  that 
 Herod  who  was  a  more  competent  judge  of  the  affair, 
 and  to  whom  he  had  sent  him,  on  purpose  to  take  cog- 
 nisance of  it,  had  no  wise  signified  that  his  crimes  were 
 capital ;  and  therefore,  instead  of  taking  away  his  life, 
 he  proposed  some  lesser  punishment,  if  they  thought  fit, 
 such  as  *  scourging  him  a  little  with  whips,  and  so  dis- 
 missing him.'  But  this  lenity  was  so  disagreeable  to 
 their  enraged  temper,  that  they  peremptorily  demanded 
 execution,  saying,  'Crucify  him,  crucify  him.'  Pilate, 
 still  tender  of  shedding  innocent  blood,  expostulated  the 
 matter  with  them,  desiring  to  know  what  evil  he  had 
 done ;  for,  as  for  his  part,  he  could  find  no  fault  in  him, 
 much  less  any  crimes  deserving  of  death  ;  but  this  did 
 but  the  more  exasperate,  and  make  them  more  clamorous 
 for  a  speedy  execution. 
 
 to  lie  a  king,  they  clothed  him  with  some  splendid  garment, 
 which  had  perhaps  been  worn  by  Herod ;  and  he  was  sent  back 
 thus  attired  to  Pilate,  that  he  might  dispose  of  him  as  he  pleased. 
 Probably,  the  Roman  soldiers  took  the  hint,  from  this  insult  of 
 Herod  and  his  guard,  to  clothe  Jesus  with  a  purple  robe,  and  to 
 put  on  him  a  crown  of  thorns. — Scott's  Commentary,  on  Luke 
 xxiii.  6. 12— Ed. 
 
 b  A  white  or  shining  robe,  for  this  is  the  meaning  of  the 
 original.  The  Roman  princes  wore  purple  robes,  and  Pilate 
 therefore  put  such  a  robe  on  Jesus.  The  Jewish  kings  wore  a 
 white  robe,  which  was  often  rendered  very  shining  or  gorgeous 
 by  much  tinsel  or  silver  interwoven.  Josephus  says  that  the 
 robe  which  Agrippa  wore  was  so  bright  with  silver,  that  when 
 the  sun  shone  on  it,  it  so  dazzled  the  eyes  that  it  was  difficult  to 
 look  on  it.  The  Jews  and  Romans,  therefore,  decked  him  in 
 the  manner  appropriate  to  their  own  country,  for  purposes  of 
 mockery.  All  this  was  unlawful  and  malicious,  as  there  was  not 
 the  least  evidence  of  his  guilt.— Barnes  on  the  Gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 — En. 
 
 c  It  is  generally  thought,  that  the  cause  of  this  difference  be- 
 tween them  was  the  massacre  that  Pilate  made  of  some  Galileans 
 at  Jerusalem,  in  the  time  of  the  Passover,  (Luke  xiii.  1.)  which 
 Herod  resented  as  an  indignity  put  upon  him,  and  an  invasion  of 
 his  authority,  who  was  at  that  time  tetrarch  of  Galilee. — Beau- 
 sobre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  This  chastisement,  as  Pilate  calls  it,  was  not  in  order  to  his 
 crucifixion,  and  therefore  was  not  that  punishment  which  the 
 Romans  \ised  to  inflict  upon  malefactors,  as  a  preparative  to  their 
 execution ;  for  Pilate  intended  it  as  a  means  to  procure  his  re- 
 lease; and  therefore  he  seemed  willing  to  consent  to  it  as  a 
 I'unishment,  which  the  Jews  so  commonly  inflicted  upon  those 
 
 The  governor  had  one  expedient  more,  which  he 
 thought  would  not  fail  him.  Every  passover  «  he  was 
 obliged,  by  a  certain  custom,  to  pardon  one  criminal 
 whom  the  Jews  should  nominate  ;  and  therefore  when 
 the  people  came,  and  were  urgent  with  him  to  grant  them 
 that  usual  favour,  he  proposed  two  persons  to  them ; 
 Barabbas,  a  notorious  malefactor,  who,  in  an  insurrection 
 with  some  other  seditious  persons, had  committed  murder ; 
 and  Jesus,  who  was  called  '  Christ ;'  never  doubting  but 
 that  the  populace,  who  he  knew  were  better  inclined  to 
 our  Lord  than  their  rulers,  would  have  preferred  an  in- 
 nocent man  before  a  thief  and  a  murderer.  But,  at  the 
 instigation  of  their  priests,  and  others  in  authority,  they 
 required  that  the  favour  might  be  granted  to  Barabbas. 
 Hereupon,  when  the  governor  desired  to  know  what  he 
 was  to  do  with  the  person  whom  they  called  Christ,  they, 
 one  and  all,  cried  out,  '  Crucify  him,  crucify  him ;'  and 
 as  he  still  insisted  on  his  innocence,  and  proposed  some 
 lighter  punishment,  which  was  all,  to  be  sure,  that  he 
 could  deserve,  they  began  to  redouble  their  clamours, 
 and,  in  the  most  tumultuous  manner  imaginable,  demand 
 that  he  might  be  crucified. 
 
 The  governor,  in  the  mean  time,  received  a  message 
 from  his  wife,  /  desiring  him  by  no  means  to  condemn 
 the  innocent  person  that  was  then  before  him,  because, 
 upon  his  account,  she  had  had  that  night  many  frightful 
 and  uneasy  dreams  ;  which  made  him  the  more  earnest 
 to  release  htm,  or  at  least  to  spare  his  life  ;  and  there- 
 fore, in  hopes  of  pacifying  the  people's  rage,  he  order- 
 ed him  to  be  scourged.  The  soldiers  who  were  to  do 
 this,  thinking  it  not  enough  to  execute  his  orders,  took 
 him  into  the  common  hall,  where,  having  stripped  him  of 
 his  own  clothes,  they  put  a  loose  purple  coat  about  him  as 
 a  robe,  S  a  wreath  of  thorns  upon  his  head  for  a  crown,  and 
 
 who  had  acted  perversely  against  their  laws  and  their  traditions, 
 that  he  might  exempt  him  from  that  sentence,  which  they  were 
 so  urgent  with  him  to  pronounce.  But  the  result  of  this  his 
 compliance  was,  that  he  neither  saved  our  Lord,  nor  preserved 
 justice.  Instead  of  one  punishment,  the  innocent  was  made  to 
 suffer  two,  being  at  last  both  scourged  and  crucified. — Whitby's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  As  the  feast  of  the  Passover  was  celebrated  by  the  Jews  in 
 memory  of  their  deliverance  from  Egyptian  bondage,  it  was  very 
 agreeable  to  the  nature  of  that  feast,  and  therefore  customary  at 
 that  time,  though  practised  on  no  other  festivals,  to  make  this 
 release.  It  is  observed,  however,  that  this  practice  was  no 
 custom  of  the  Jews,  even  when  they  had  the  civil  administration 
 in  their  hands,  but  a  piece  of  popularity,  or  favour  of  the  procur- 
 ator, first  brought  in  by  Pilate,  and  afterwards  continued  by  some 
 christian  emperors,  who,  by  a  general  law,  commanded  the  judges, 
 that,  on  the  first  day  of  the  Passover,  all  Jewish  prisoners,  except 
 such  as  were  committed  for  particular  crimes,  should  be  dis- 
 charged.— Whitby's  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 f  From  the  time  of  Tiberius,  the  governors  of  provinces  were 
 allowed  to  take  their  wives  along  with  them,  which  was  a  privi- 
 lege not  granted  them  before.  This  wife  of  Pilate's  according  to 
 the  general  tradition,  was  named  Claudia  Proscula;  and,  in  re- 
 lation to  her  dream,  some  are  of  opinion,  that  as  she  had  intelli- 
 gence of  our  Lord's  apprehension,  and  knew,  by  his  character, 
 that  he  was  a  righteous  person,  her  imagination,  being  struck 
 with  these  ideas,  did  naturally  produce  the  dream  we  read  of. 
 But,  as  our  Saviour  was  apprehended  about  midnight,  out  of  the 
 city,  and  without  Pilate's  privity,  and  detained  in  the  house  of 
 Annas,  until  it  was  day,  there  was  no  possibility  for  her  having 
 any  notice  of  it  before  she  went  to  sleep ;  and  therefore  we  have 
 the  juster  reason  to  believe,  that  this  dream  was  sent  providen- 
 tially upon  her,  for  the  clearer  manifestation  of  our  Lord's  inno- 
 cence— Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 g   It  is  said,  and  they  put  on  him   a  '  scarlet  robe.'     Mark 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1015 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D  33.  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— EN 
 
 a  reed  in  his  hand  for  a  sceptre  ;  and  then,  in  derision, 
 saluted  him,  and  bowing-  their  knees,  mocked  him  with 
 the  sham  profession  of  allegiance.  After  this  they 
 spit  in  his  face,  smote  him  on  the  cheek,  and  to  make 
 his  crown  of  thorns  pierce  the  deeper,  struck  him  on  the 
 head  with  his  phantastic  sceptre  ;  and  then  leading  him 
 to  a  pillar,  where  they  tied  him  fast,  they  scourged  him 
 with  whips,  and  with  such  unrelenting  cruelty,  that  his 
 tender  flesh  was  torn  in  pieces,  and  the  pavement  crim- 
 soned with  his  most  precious  blood. 
 
 In  this  piteous  plight,  with  his  head,  face,  and  body 
 imbrued  in  blood,  and  with  all  his  mock  ornaments  on, 
 Pilate,  in  hopes  of  moving  the  people's  compassion, 
 ordered  him  to  be  brought  forth  ;  and  when  he  appear- 
 ed, '  See  the  man !'  says  he,  '  this  rueful  spectacle  of 
 suffering  innocence  !'  But  so  far  were  they  from  melt- 
 ing at  the  sight  of  so  deplorable  an  object,  that  they 
 raised  their  cries  still  louder  and  louder  for  his  cru- 
 cifixion ;  and  when  the  governor  still  insisted  on  his 
 innocence,  '  '  We  have  a  law,  a  said  they,  and  by  our 
 law  he  ought  to  die,  because  he  made  himself  the  Son 
 of  God.' 
 
 These  last  words  raised  some  terror  in  Pilate,  and 
 gave  him  more  uneasiness  ;  for,  taking  them  in  such  a 
 sense  as  an  Heathen  might  well  put  upon  them,  he  began 
 to  apprehend,  that  if  he  should  proceed  to  sentence 
 against  him,  he  might  destroy  not  only  an  innocent  per- 
 son, but  possibly  some  hero,  or  mighty  demi-god,  and 
 so  at  once  commit  an  act  of  injustice  and  impiety  both. 
 He  therefore,  returning  with  Jesus  to  the  judgment-seat 
 again,  began  to  inquire  into  his  original  and  pedigree. 
 But  as  it  was  no  part  of  our  Saviour's  intention  to 
 escape  death,  he  thought  it  not  proper  to  say  any  thing 
 in  his  own  justification  ;  until  his  silence  having  given 
 the  governor  some  offence,  insomuch  that  he  put  him  in 
 mind,  his  life  or  death,  his  release  or  crucifixion,  de- 
 pended upon  him,  he  then  replied,  that  such  power  he 
 could  not  have  over  him,  '  were  it  not  permitted  him 
 from  above  ;  and  that  therefore  they  who  had  delivered 
 him  up,  had  the  greater  sin  *  to  answer  for  than  he ' 
 
 D.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHNxii.  19-END. 
 
 This  reply  made  Pilate  still  the  more  desirous  to  re- 
 lease him  ;  which  when  the  Jews  perceived,  they  found 
 out  at  last  this  expedient  to  work  upon  his  fears,  by 
 telling  him  plainly,  '  that  if  he  did  not  punish  a  man 
 who  set  himself  up  for  a  king,  he  was  an  enemy  to  the 
 emperor  ;'  a  menace,  which  he,  c  who  knew  the  jealous 
 temper  of  his  master  Tiberius  full  well,  and  how  easily  a 
 wrong  representation  of  these  proceedings  might  prove 
 his  ruin,  had  not  the  courage  to  withstand  :  and  there- 
 fore, returning  to  the  hall,  he  ordered  Jesus  to  be 
 brought  in  the  same  habit  to  his  public  tribunal,  which 
 stood  in  a  paved  place,  called  Gabatha,  d  and,  before  he 
 gave  sentence,  calling  for  water,  and  washing  his  hands 
 e  before  all  the  people,  he  solemnly  declared,  that  he 
 
 1  John  xix.  7. 
 says  they  clothed  him  in  purple.  The  scarlet  colour  was  ob- 
 tained from  a  species  of  fruit,  purple  from  shell-fish.  The  an- 
 cients gave  the  name  purple  to  any  colour  that  had  a  mixture  of 
 red  in  it,  and  consequently  these  different  colours  might  be  some- 
 times called  by  the  same  name.  The  robe  here  used  was  the 
 kind  worn  by  Roman  generals,  and  other  distinguished  officers 
 of  the  Roman  army,  and  also  by  the  Roman  governors.  It  was 
 made  so  as  to  be  placed  on  the  shoulders,  and  was  bound  around 
 the  body  so  as  to  leave  the  right  arm  at  liberty.  As  we  cannot 
 suppose  that  Pilate  would  array  him  in  a  new  and  splendid  robe, 
 we  must  suppose  that  this  was  one  which  had  been  worn  and 
 cast  off  as  useless,  and  now  used  to  array  the  Son  of  God,  as  an 
 
 object  of  ridicule  and  scorn  ! — Barnes  on  the  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 Ed. 
 
 a  When  the  Jews  perceived  that  Pilate  looked  upon  the  accu- 
 sations which  they  brought  against  Jesus,  of  his  being  a  sediti- 
 ous person,  and  one  who  aimed  at  a  kingdom,  as  idle  suggestions, 
 and  what  had  no  shadow  of  probability  in  them,  they  had  re- 
 course to  another  allegation,  namely  his  being  a  violator  of  the  laws 
 of  their  nation,  and  guilty  of  blasphemy,  which,  as  they  were  al- 
 lowed to  be  governed  by  their  own  law,  they  had  a  right  to  de- 
 maud  of  their  governor  to  see  punished,  and  accordingly  did  it 
 with  arrogance  enough. — Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 b  Pilate  indeed  sinned  heinously,  in  abusing  his  power  to  the 
 coudemnation  of  the  innocent;  but  Judas  sinned  more,  in  deliv- 
 ering up  to  the  chief  priests,  and  the  chief  priests  in  delivering 
 up  to  Pilate,  than  Pilate  himself,  whom  they  made  a  tool  to 
 
 serve  their  malice  and  revenge.  They  had  better  means  of 
 knowledge  than  he,  and  so  sinned  against  more  light,  and  conse- 
 quently their  guilt  was  greater,  and  their  condemnation  heavier 
 than  his. — Beausobre's Annotations. 
 
 c  Pilate  repeatedly  endeavoured  to  deliver  our  Saviour  from 
 the  Jews,  knowing  that  they  accused  him  capitally,  only  from 
 malice  and  envy.  His  wife  also,  who  had  been  disturbed  with 
 dreams,  sent  and  desired  him  not  to  participate  in  condemning 
 that  just  person.  In  order  to  effect  his  purpose,  he  adopted 
 several  expedients,  1.  He  required  legal  accusation,  evidence, 
 and  conviction ;  and,  in  default  of  these,  he  proposed  to  refer  his 
 condemnation  to  the  Jews;  who  had  not,  as  he  well  knew,  the 
 power  of  inflicting  a  capital  punishment,  (John  xviii.  29,  31.) 
 2.  He  attempted  to  appease  the  Jews,  and  to  give  them  some 
 satisfaction,  by  whipping  our  Saviour.  3.  He  tried  to  take  him 
 out  of  their  hands,  by  offering  to  deliver  him,  or  Barabbas,  on 
 the  festival  day  of  the  passover.  4.  He  wanted  to  discharge 
 himself  from  pronouncing  judgment  against  him,  by  sending  him 
 to  Herod,  king  of  Galilee.  5.  When  he  saw  all  this  would  not 
 satisfy  the  Jews,  and  that  they  even  threatened  him,  saying  he 
 could  be  no  friend  to  the  emperor,  if  he  let  Jesus  go,  he  caused 
 water  to  be  brought,  washed  his  hands  before  all  the  people,  and 
 publicly  declared  himself  innocent  of  the  blood  of  that  just 
 person.  Yet  at  the  same  time  he  delivered  him  up  to  the  sol- 
 diers, that  they  might  crucify  him.  This  was  enough  to  justify 
 Christ,  and  to  show  that  Pilate  held  him  to  be  innocent;  but  it 
 was  not  enough  to  vindicate  the  conscience  and  integrity  of  a 
 judge,  whose  duty  it  was,  as  well  to  assert  the  cause  of  op- 
 pressed innocence,  as  to  punish  the  guilty  criminal. — Calmefs 
 Dictionary. 
 
 d  The  word  Gabatha  in  the  Syriac,  for  that  is  the  language 
 which  was  then  commonly  spoken,  and  which  the  writers  of  the 
 New  Testament  do  therefore  call  the  Hebrew,  signifies  an  ele- 
 vation ;  and  therefore  the  place  where  Pilate  had  his  tribunal 
 erected,  was  probably  a  terrace,  a  gallery,  or  balcony,  belonging  to 
 his  palace,  and  paved  with  stone  or  marble,  as  the  word  XiSorT^wros 
 imports. 
 
 e  Washing  of  hands,  with  a  design  to  denote  innocency,  was 
 not  peculiar  only  to  the  Jews,  but  customary  among  other  na- 
 tions, because  by  the  element  of  water  it  is  natural  to  signify 
 purity  and  cleanness;  but  then  the  question  is,  Whether  in  con- 
 formity to  the  Jews  or  Gentiles,  it  was  that  Pilate  made  use  of 
 this  ceremony  ?  To  expiate  an  unknown  murder,  the  elders  of 
 the  next  adjacent  city  were  wont  to  wash  their  hands,  and  say, 
 '  Our  hands  have  not  shed  this  blood,'  (Deut.  xxi.  6,  7.)  And 
 the  Psalmist,  having  renounced  all  confederacy  with  wicked  and 
 mischievous  men  makes  this  resolution,  '  I  will  wash  my  hands 
 in  testimony  of  my  innocency,'  (Psal.  xxvi.  6.)  From  which 
 passages  Origen  is  of  opinion,  that  Pilate  did  this  in  compliance 
 with  the  manners  of  the  Jews,  that  by  actions,  as  well  as  words, 
 he  might  declare  to  them  the  opinion  he  had  of  our  Lord's  inno- 
 cence. But  as  Pilate  was  a  Roman,  others  are  rather  inclined 
 to  think,  that,  in  this  action,  he  conformed  himself  to  the  man- 
 ners of  the  Gentiles.  The  scholiast  upon  Sophocles  (in  Ajace) 
 informs  vis  that  it  was  the  custom  among  the  ancients,  when  they 
 had  killed  a  man  or  shed  blood,  to  wash  their  hands  in  water,  where- 
 by to  purify  them  from  their  defilement:  and  to  the  same  purpose 
 Virgil  introduces  ^Eneas  speaking:  "  It  is  wickedness  for  me, 
 coming  from  so  great  carnage  and  bloodshed,  to  touch  it  till  I 
 have  washed  myself  in  the  living  stream."  (^Eneid,  ii.  ver.  118.) 
 Nay,  Clemens  Romanus  informs  us,  (b.  ii.   c.  52,)  that  when 
 
1016 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037  A   D  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 that  lie  was  not  able  to  stand  under  it  any  longer  ;  and 
 therefore  they  compelled  one  Simon,  e  a  Cyrenian,  the 
 father  of  Alexander  and  Rufus,  to  bear  it  the  rest  of  the 
 way. 
 
 Among  the  vast  throngs  that  followed  to  this  execu- 
 tion, there  were  many  people,  especially  some  pious 
 women,  who  could  not  behold  this  sad  spectacle  without 
 the  highest  grief  and  lamentation ;  which  when  our 
 Saviour  observed,  lifting  up  his  face,  all  bloody  and 
 disfigured,  '  Weep  not  for  me,'  said  he,  '  but  weep  for 
 yourselves  and  your  children  ;  for  it  will  not  be  long 
 before  those  shall  be  accounted  happy,  who  shall  have 
 no  posterity  /  to  inherit  the  miseries  that  shall  then  come 
 upon  this  nation  :  for  how  dismal  must  their  condition 
 be,  who  shall  call  upon  the  s  hills  to  cover  them,  and  the 
 
 was  '  innocent  of  the  blood  of  that  just  man,  and  that 
 they  must  answer  for  it ;'  whereupon  the  whole  body  of 
 the  people  cried  out,  '  may  his  blood  fall  upon  us 
 and  our  posterity !'  An  imprecation  as  black  as 
 hell,  and  what  has  been  too  long  (may  it  please  the 
 Almighty  to  shorten  their  punishment !)  verified  upon 
 them.  " 
 
 Barabbas  being  thus  released,  and  Jesus  condemned 
 to  the  cross,  the  soldiers  and  officers,  after  they  had 
 acted  over  again  their  former  insults  and  indignities,  took 
 oft' the  purple  coat,  and  put  his  own  garments  on,  and 
 having  laid  an  heavy  cross  upon  his  b  shoulders,  led  him 
 away  c  to  his  crucifixion  :d  but  when  they  came  to  the 
 gate  of  the  city,  his  strength  was  so  entirely  exhausted, 
 
 judges  were  going  to  pronounce  sentence  of  death,  they  usually 
 lifted  up  their  hands  to  heaven,  thereby  to  denote  their  own 
 innocency;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  they  washed  their 
 hands  before  they  did  so,  that  they  might  lift  them  up  with 
 the  more  purity. —  Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Calmefs  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 a  This  imprecation  was  most  dreadfully  fulfilled  upon  them  at 
 the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  when  the  vengeance  of  heaven  overtook 
 them  with  a  fury  unexampled  in  the  history  of  the  world ;  when 
 they  were  exposed  at  once  to  the  horrors  of  famine,  of  sedition, 
 of  assassination,  and  of  the  swords  of  the  Romans.  And  it 
 is  very  remarkable  that  a  strong  correspondence  may  be  traced 
 between  their  sin  and  their  punishment.  '  They  put  Jesus  to 
 death  when  the  nation  was  assembled  to  celebrate  the  passover, 
 and  when  the  nation  assembled  for  the  same  purpose,  Titus  shut 
 them  up  within  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  The  rejection  of  the 
 true  Messiah  was  their  crime:  and  the  following  of  false  Mes- 
 siahs to  their  destruction  was  their  punishment.  They  sold  and 
 bought  Jesus  as  a  slave:  and  they  themselves  were  bought  and 
 sold  as  slaves  at  the  lowest  prices.  They  preferred  a  robber  and 
 murderer  to  Jesus,  whom  they  crucified  between  two  thieves: 
 and  they  themselves  were  afterwards  infested  with  bands  of 
 thieves  and  robbers.  They  put  Jesus  to  death,  lest  the  Romans 
 should  come  and  take  away  their  place  and  nation:  and  the 
 Romans  did  come  and  take  away  their  place  and  nation.  They 
 crucified  Jesus  before  the  walls  of  Jerusalem:  and  before  the 
 walls  of  Jerusalem  they  themselves  were  crucified  in  such  num- 
 bers, that  it  is  said  room  was  wanting  for  the  crosses,  and  crosses 
 for  the  bodies.'  — Newton  on  the  Prophecies,  and  Porteus's  Lec- 
 tures on  Matt. — Ed. 
 
 b  It  was  a  custom,  that  he  who  was  to  be  crucified,  should  bear 
 his  own  cross  to  the  place  of  execution:  but  whereas  it  is  gen- 
 erally supposed  that  our  Lord  bore  the  whole  cross,  that  is,  the 
 long  and  transverse  part  both,  this  seems  to  be  a  thing  impossible ; 
 and  therefore  Lipsius,  in  his  treatise,  (De  supplicio  crucis)  has 
 set  the  matter  in  a  true  light,  when  he  tells  us,  that  Jesus  only 
 carried  the  transverse  beam,  because  the  long  piece  of  timber, 
 or  body  of  the  cross,  was  either  fixed  in  the  ground  before,  or 
 made  ready  to  be  set  up,  as  soon  as  the  prisoner  came ;  and  from 
 hence  he  observes,  that  painters  are  very  much  mistaken  in  their 
 description  of  our  Saviour  carrying  the  whole  cross. 
 
 c  Capital  punishments,  both  among  the  Jews  and  Romans, 
 were  inflicted  without  their  cities.  This  was  particularly  ob- 
 served in  the  crucifixion  of  malefactors. — Ed. 
 
 d  A  death  the  most  dreadful  of  all  others,  both  for  the  shame 
 and  the  pain  of  it.  So  scandalous,  that  it  was  inflicted,  as  the  last 
 mark  of  detestation,  upon  the  vilest  of  people.  It  was  the  pun- 
 ishment of  robbers  and  murderers,  provided  that  they  were  slaves 
 too;  but  otherwise  if  they  were  free,  and  had  the  privileges  of  the 
 city  of  Rome,  this  was  then  thought  a  prostitution  of  that  honour, 
 and  too  infamous  a  punishment  for  such  an  one,  let  his  crimes 
 have  been  what  they  would.  The  form  of  a  cross  was  that  of 
 two  posts,  cutting  one  another  at  right  angles.  On  that  which 
 stood  upright  the  body  was  fastened,  by  nailing  the  feet  to  it,  and 
 on  the  other  transverse  piece,  by  nailing  the  hands  on  each  side. 
 Now,  because  these  parts  of  the  body,  being  the  instruments  of 
 action  and  motion,  are  provided  by  nature  with  a  much  greater 
 quantity  of  nerves  than  others  have  occasion  for,  and  because  all 
 sensation  is  performed  by  the  spirits  contained  in  these  nerves, 
 it  will  follow,  that  wherever  they  abound,  the  sense  of  pain  must 
 needs,  in  proportion,  be  more  quick  and  tender.     But  though  the 
 
 pain  of  this  kind  of  death  was  exceedingly  sharp,  yet  as  none  of 
 the  vitals  were  immediately  affected,  the  body  continued  thus 
 stretched  out,  and  hanging  upon  the  nails  that  fastened  it  to  the 
 cross,  until  excess  of  anguish  had  by  degrees  quite  exhausted  the 
 spirits,  and  driven  out  the  soul;  which  must  needs  make  the 
 death  which  our  Saviour  submitted  to  for  our  sakes,  slow  and 
 lingering,  as  well  as  painful  and  ignominous;  so  lingering,  that 
 St  Andrew  was  two  whole  days  upon  the  cross,  and  some  other 
 martyrs  have  been  rather  starved,  and  devoured  by  birds,  than 
 killed  with  the  torments  of  the  tree. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles 
 and  Gospel's,  vol.  ii.,  and  Howell's  Hist,  in  the  notes. 
 
 e  Libya,  in  its  proper  acceptation,  denotes  those  parts  of  the 
 African  continent  which  lie  about  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  from 
 Egypt  eastward,  to  the  Greater  Syrtis,  or  Gulph  of  Sidra,  west- 
 ward. In  the  western  part  of  this  Libya  stood  Cyrene,  a  city 
 of  great  note,  and  once  of  such  power,  as  to  contend  with  Car- 
 thage for  some  pre-eminences.  But  whether  this  Simon,  whom 
 the  soldiers  compelled  to  carry  our  Saviour's  cross,  was  a  Jew  or 
 Pagan,  is  a  question  that  has  been  disputed  among  the  ancients. 
 Several  fathers  have  thought  that  he  was  a  Gentile,  and  that 
 herein  he  was  a  type  of  that  idolatrous  people,  who  were  after- 
 wards to  be  called  to  the  profession  of  the  gospel  and  to  carry  the 
 cross  after  Christ.  But  others,  from  his  name,  rather  imagine 
 that  he  was  a  Jew,  and  that,  as  there  were  great  numbers  of  that 
 nation  in  Egypt,  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  this  Simon 
 might  be  one,  whose  habitation  was  at  Cyrene  in  Libya,  but  was 
 now  coming  up  to  Jerusalem,  at  the  time  of  the  Passover.  He 
 is  called  by  St  Mark,  (chap.  xv.  21.)  the  father  of  Alexander 
 and  Rufus,  because  these  two  persons  were  become  famous  in 
 the  Christian  church,  at  the  time  when  this  evangelist  wrote  his 
 gospel;  but  whether  he  himself  was  at  this  time  a  disciple  of 
 Christ,  and  afterwards  bishop  of  Bostres  in  Arabia,  where  he 
 suffered  martyrdom,  by  being  burnt  alive  by  the  Pagans,  is 
 much  to  be  questioned,  though  some  have  asserted  it,  but  not, 
 I  fear,  from  sufficient  authority. — Well's  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament,  part  i.  and  Calmet's  Commentary  and  Dictionary, 
 under  the  word  Simon. 
 
 f  This  they  undoubtedly  had  occasion  to  think  at  the  siege  of 
 Jerusalem,  and  during  the  war  against  the  Romans,  not  only  on 
 account  of  the  loss  of  their  children,  and  the  sale  of  them  who 
 were  under  seventeen,  for  bond  slaves,  but  chiefly  on  the  account 
 of  that  famine  in  Jerusalem  which  forced  Mary  the  daughter  of 
 Eleazar,  a  woman  of  some  figure  and  quality,  to  eat  her  own 
 sucking  child:  'Upon  which,'  says  Josephus,  'the  dread  of 
 famine  made  men  weary  of  their  lives,  and  the  living  envied  the 
 dead,  that  were  taken  away  before  the  extremity  came  to  this 
 height Jewish  Wars,  b.  7.  c.  8. 
 
 g  That  this  is  a  proverbial  expression,  which  the  prophet 
 (Hosea,  x.  8.),  makes  use  of  to  denote  the  utter  despair  of  a  people, 
 when  they  see  unavoidable  calamities  coming  upon  them,  cannot 
 be  doubted;  for  so  the  Targum  upon  Hosea  explains  it,  "He 
 will  bring  such  judgments  upon  them,  as  will  render  their  con- 
 dition as  miserable  as  if  the  mountains  should  cover  them,  and 
 the  hills  fall  upon  them."  Isaiah  speaks  of  the  wicked  that 
 '  they  should  go  into  the  holes  of  the  rocks,  and  into  the  caves  of 
 the  earth,  for  fear  of  the  Lord,'  (Isa.  ii.  19.)  And  accordingly 
 Josephus  relates  of  the  Jews,  that  after  the  taking  of  Jerusalem, 
 many  of  them  hid  themselves  in  vaults  and  sepulchres,  and  there 
 perished,  rather  than  surrender  to  the  Romans. — Ibid. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 1017 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5412.  A.  1).  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 mountains  to  fall  on  them,  that  by  a  sudden  destruction 
 
 they  may  escape  the  lingering  calamities  of  famine  and 
 fear,  and  the  horror  of  a  thousand  deaths !' 
 
 When  he  came  to  the  place  of  execution,  which  was 
 called  Golgotha  a  or  Mount  Calvary,  the  soldiers,  be- 
 fore they  nailed  him  to  the  cross,  offered  him  a  potion  * 
 of  wine  mixed  with  gall,  which,  when  he  had  tasted  it, 
 he  refused  to  drink.  They  then  stripped  oft' his  clothes, 
 and  having  with  four  great  nails  fastened  his  hands  and 
 
 a  Golgotha  in  the  Syriac,  vulgarly  called  the  Hebrew  tongue, 
 signifies  tlie  same  that  Calvary  does  in  Latin  ;  and  was  so  called, 
 either  because  the  form  of  the  mount  somewhat  resembles  a  man's 
 skull,  or  rather,  because  it  being  the  common  place  of  execution, 
 a  great  number  of  dead  men's  skulls  was  usually  to  be  seen  there. 
 The  former  conjecture,  however,  is  the  more  probable,  for 
 reasons  stated  in  another  part  of  this  work,  (see  description  of 
 Jerusalem.)  This  mount  was  a  small  eminence  on  the  western 
 side  of  the  larger  mount  of  Moriah,  and  is  represented  to  have 
 been  200  paces  without  the  ancient  walls  of  Jerusalem.  The 
 ancient  summit  of  Calvary  has  been  much  altered,  by  reducing  it 
 level  in  some  parts,  and  raising  it  in  others,  in  order  to  bring  it 
 within  the  area  of  a  large  and  irregular  building,  called  the 
 Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  which  now  occupies  its  site.  But 
 in  doing  this,  care  has  been  taken  that  none  of  the  parts  con- 
 cerned in  the  crucifixion  should  suffer  any  alteration.  The 
 same  building  also  encloses  within  its  spacious  walls  several 
 other  places  reputed  sacred:  as  1,  the  place  where  Christ  was 
 derided  by  the  soldiers ;  2,  where  the  soldiers  divided  his  gar- 
 ments; ;i,  where  he  was  shut  up  while  the  hole  was  dug  to  set 
 the  cross  in,  and  the  other  necessary  preparations  were  made  for 
 his  crucifixion  ;  4,  where  he  was  crowned  with  thorns;  5,  where 
 lie  was  nailed  to  the  cross;  6,  where  the  cross  was  erected,  and 
 the  hole  in  which  it  was  fixed;  7,  where  the  soldiers  stood  who 
 pierced  his  side  ;  8,  the  stone  on  which  his  body  was  anointed 
 previous  to  his  burial,  commonly  called  the  stone  of  unction, 
 which  stone  is  about  eight  feet  in  length  and  two  in  breadth;  9, 
 where  his  body  was  deposited  in  the  sepulchre ;  10,  where  the 
 angels  appeared  to  the  women  after  his  resurrection;  11,  where 
 Christ  himself  appeared  to  Mary  Magdalen  ;  12,  where  he 
 appeared  to  the  Virgin  Mary.  All  those  stations  are  distin- 
 guished by  as  many  separate  chapels  or  altars.  This  sacred 
 place  is  now,  alas!  doubly  profaned:  for  besides  its  being  as  is 
 well  known,  in  the  possession  of  the  followers  of  Mahomet,  the 
 most  relentless  enemies  of  Christ  and  his  disciples,  it  is  still  fur- 
 ther outraged  by  the  idolatrous  rites  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
 churches.  A  kind  of  chapel  has  been  made  of  the  sepulchre, 
 and  on  the  very  slab  on  which  the  body  of  our  Lord  was  laid  ; 
 and  where  an  end  was  made  of  all  sacrifice,  the  pretended  sacri- 
 fice of  the  mass  continues  to  be  daily  offered  up.  Nor  is  this  all: 
 for  this  place,  sacred  above  every  other  to  peace  and  truth,  is 
 made  the  scene  of  one  of  the  most  riotous  and  disgraceful  festivals, 
 as  will  as  one  of  the  most  impudent  frauds,  which  superstition 
 ever  gave  birth  to.  Here,  on  Holy  Thursday,  it  is  pretended 
 that  the  angel  Gabriel  brings  fire  from  heaven;  and  the  deluded 
 multitude  flock  in  nowds,  with  a  dreadful  tumult  and  uproar,  to 
 carry  it  away  with  them  by  means  of  candles,  torches,  &c. :  the 
 Original  file  being  presented  to  them  for  that  purpose  by  the 
 priest,  who  pretends  to  receive  it  from  the  angel.  It  is  a  pain. 
 lul  and  humiliating  reflection,  that  those  very  places  which  wit- 
 nessed the  overthrow  of  the  empire  of  Satan,  and  from  whence 
 the  pure  light  of  the  gospel  should  issue  and  spread  over  the 
 whole  earth,  should  be  consigned  to  the  practice  of  the  most 
 degrading  superstitions.  This,  in  the  unsearchable  wisdom  of 
 His  purpose,  is  permitted  by  the  Almighty  for  a  time;  but  he  is 
 pledged  to  rescue  his  favourite  country,  as  well  as  his  favourite 
 people,  in  'the  last  days,'  from  darkness  and  oppression;  and 
 the  Christian  may  entertain  the  pleasing  hope,  that  the  scene  of 
 the  Saviour's  sufferings  will  bo  made  the  seat  of  his  visible 
 glory. — Mansford't  Gazetteer. 
 
 b  Interpret*  rs  and  others  vary  very  much  about  this  passage, 
 taking  it  two  different  ways,  as  St  Matthew,  (chap.  xx\ii.  34.) 
 and  St  Mark,  (chap.  xv.  23.)  seem  to  express  it.  Some  will 
 have  it,  that  in  St  Matthew's  sense,  vinegar  mingled  with  gall 
 was  a  hitter,  poisonous  draught,  to  stupify  the  person  who  drank 
 it,  that  by  benumbing  his  senses,  he  might  feel  less  pain.  Those 
 that  cliller  from  this,  say  that,  by  the  piefy  of  some  of  the  dis 
 
 feet,  with  his  body  stretched  out,  to  the  cross,  they  so 
 raised  it  up,  and  fixed  it  in  the  ground.  To  stain  his 
 innocence,  and  to  put  him  to  the  greater  shame,  they 
 crucified  him  between  two  common  malefactors.  c  But 
 what  might  make  an  amends  for  that,  was  the  inscription 
 which  Pilate  ordered  to  be  fixed  on  the  top  of  his  cross. 
 Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  king  op  the  Jews,  in  the  three 
 most  general  languages,  d  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin, 
 then  in  vogue.  This  the  high-priests  would  gladly  have 
 had  him  alter ;  but,  either  out  of  spite  to  them,  who  had 
 forced  him  upon  an  unjust  act,  or  out  of  honour  to  our 
 Lord,  whom  he  knew  to  be  a  righteous  person,  he  posi- 
 tively refused  to  do  it. 
 
 As  soon  as  our  Lord  was  fixed  on  the  cross,  which 
 was  much  about  noon,  four  soldiers,  who  were  his 
 executioners,  went  to  the  dividing  the  poor  spoil  of  his 
 garments.  His  mantle  they  cut  into  four  parts,  and  took 
 each  of  them  one  ;  but  as  for  his  coat,  because  it  was  one 
 entire  piece,  e  wove  without  seam,  and  would  therefore 
 
 ciples,  and,  not  improbably,  of  some  of  those  good  women  who 
 used  to  minister  to  Jesus,  there  was  prepared  wine  mingled  with 
 myrrh,  which  according  to  Pliny,  was  an  excellent  and  pleasant 
 mixture,  and  such  as  the  piety  and  indulgence  of  these  nations 
 used  to  administer  to  condemned  persons,  to  fortify  their  drooping 
 spirits  against  the  terrors  of  approaching  death.  As  the  design 
 of  this  mixture,  however,  was  in  some  measure  to  intoxicate  the 
 sufferer,  and  to  make  him  less  sensible  of  his  pain,  our  blessed 
 Lord  might  therefore  refuse  to  drink  it,  because  it  became  him, 
 who  was  then  going  to  offer  himself  a  free  and  voluntary  sacri- 
 fice to  God,  for  the  sins  of  men,  and  was  to  show  them  a  pattern 
 how  to  bear  afflictions,  with  due  resignation  to  the  divine  will, 
 to  avoid  a  thing  which  might  too  far  discompose  his  thoughts, 
 and  show  too  ill  a  precedent  to  his  followers.  To  reconcile  the 
 difference  then  between  the  two  evangelists,  since  the  former 
 affirms,  that  the  potion  offered  to  our  Saviour  was  vinegar 
 mingled  with  gall,  the  latter,  wine  mingled  with  myrrh,  the  easiest 
 way  is,  to  say,  (with  our  learned  Dr  Lightfoot)  that  there  were 
 two  cups  offered  to  our  Lord  at  the  time  of  his  passion  ;  one  of  wine 
 mixed  with  myrrh,  by  some  of  his  friends,  before  he  was  nailed 
 to  the  cross :  and  the  other  with  vinegar,  by  the  soldiers,  in  a 
 scoffing  and  insulting  manner,  after  he  was  nailed  to  the  cross; 
 which  is  better  than  to  assert,  with  some  great  names,  that  the 
 ancient  translator  of  St  Matthew  from  the  Hebrew  or  Syriac, 
 mistaking  the  word  mara,  which  properly  signifies  bitterness, 
 might  put  gall,  which  in  Syriac  is  marar,  and  derived  from  the 
 same  root,  instead  of  myrrh. — Howell's  History  in  the  notes; 
 Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary . 
 
 c  The  malefactors  here  mentioned  were  probably  some  of 
 those  factious  and  seditious  gangs  which  Judea,  at  this  time, 
 was  full  of.  Under  pretence  of  public  liberty,  they  committed 
 all  manner  of  violence  and  outrage;  and  stirring  up  the  people 
 against  the  Roman  government,  drew  upon  the  nation  all  the 
 calamity  which  afterwards  befel  it.  As  it  was  customary  to 
 crucify  several  malefactors  at  the  same  time,  especially  if  con- 
 victed of  the  same  crimes,  our  Saviour,  who  was  accused  by 
 the  Jews  of  seditious  practices,  had  two,  who  were  really  guilty 
 of  that  crime,  executed  with  him,  and  him  they  placed  in  the 
 midst,  as  in  the  most  honourable  place,  purely  in  derision, 
 and  with  the  same  malevolent  spirit  that  made  them  array  him 
 in  a  purple  robe,  a  sceptre,  and  a  crown  —Beausobre's  Annota- 
 tions, 
 
 d  In  Hebrew,  or  the  Syriac,  which  was  then  the  common 
 language  of  the  country:  in  Greek,  which  was  the  language  of 
 commerce  almost  all  the  east  over;  and  Latin,  because  of  the 
 majesty  of  the  Roman  empire,  which  at  that  time,  had  extended 
 its  domininn  over  the  then  known  world.  The  whole  inscription 
 however,  is  said  to  have  been  written  after  the  Jewish  manner, 
 that  is,  from  the  right  hand  to  the  left,  that  it  might  be  legible 
 to  the  Jews,  who,  by  conversing  with  the  Romans,  began  now 
 to  understand  a  little  Latin. — Calmcfs  Commentary  and  Howell's 
 History  in  the  notes. 
 
 e  Some  of  the  fathers  are  of  opinion,  that   this  coat  of  our 
 Saviour's  was   made   of  two  pieces  of  woollen   stutf,  wove  in  a 
 loom,  aud  so  fine  drawn,  that  the  joining  could  not  be  perceived. 
 6   N 
 
1018 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  1— END. 
 
 be  spoiled  if  it  were  divided,  for  it  they  cast  lots,  and 
 therein  fulfilled  a  famous  prophecy.1 
 
 While  he  thus  hung  upon  the  cross,  in  the  most  exqui- 
 site torments,  several  people  of  different  denominations, 
 the  chief-priests,  rulers  and  soldiers,  most  of  the  multi- 
 tude, and  almost  every  common  passenger,  insulted  his 
 misery ;  presuming,  that  a  person,  reduced  to  that  low 
 estate,  could  never  be  the  promised  Messiah.  But  all 
 the  reply  that  he  made  to  their  bitter  and  reviling 
 speeches,  was  only  by  way  of  petition  to  his  heavenly 
 Father,  that  in  respect  of  their  ignorance,  and  confirmed 
 prejudice  against  him,  he  would  be  pleased  to  overlook 
 their  barbarous  treatment  of  him,  and  to  pardon  their 
 provoking  blasphemies. 
 
 Nay,  of  the  two  malefactors  who  were  crucified  with 
 him,  a  one  of  them  reviled,  and  mocked  him  in  the  same 
 gross  manner,  requiring  him  to  give  the  company,  as 
 they  desired,  a  demonstration  of  his  being  the  true  Mes- 
 siah, by  rescuing  both  himself  and  them  from  the  crosses 
 whereon  they  were  fixed.  But  the  other  malefactor  * 
 reproved  his  companion  for  insulting  the  innocent,  and, 
 while  himself  was  receiving  the  just  reward  of  his  crimes, 
 for  upbraiding  a  person  who  suffered  undeservedly  ;  and 
 
 1  Psal.  xxii.  18. 
 
 Others  will  have  it,  that  it  was  all  needle-work,  that  is,  knit, 
 not  wove  from  top  to  bottom.  But  Braunius,  in  his  treatise 
 on  the  tlress  of  the  Hebrew  priests,  has  plainly  proved,  that  the 
 ancients  had  the  art  of  weaving  any  habit,  of  what  make  or  size 
 soever,  all  of  one  piece,  in  a  loom;  that  in  several  eastern  coun- 
 tries, the  art  is  still  preserved  and  practised ;  and  that  himself 
 made  a  machine,  which  Calmet  in  Iris  Dictionary,  under  the 
 word  Vestments,  has  given  us,  wherein  such  a  habit  might  be 
 wrought.  As  it  was  customary  formerly  for  women  to  weave 
 stuffs  and  cloth,  not  for  their  own  wearing  only,  but  for  their 
 husbands'  and  children's  use,  (for  so  the  character  of  the  virtuous 
 woman  in  Solomon,  (Prov.  xxxi.  13.)  and  the  practice  of  Pene- 
 lope, the  wife  of  Ulysses,  show,)  it  was  the  ancient  tradition,  that 
 the  blessed  Virgin  herself  wove  her  son's  coat:  but  that  she  made 
 it  for  him  when  he  was  young;  that  it  grew  with  him  as  he 
 increased  in  stature,  and  continued  always  fresh  without  decay, 
 is  a  mere  fiction,  in  order  to  assimilate  to  the  habits  which  the 
 Israelites  wore  in  the  wilderness. — Calmefs  Commentary  and 
 Dictionary. 
 
 a  If  we  compare  Mat.  xxvii.  44.  where  it  is  said,  'that  the 
 thieves,  who  were  crucified  with  Jesus,  cast  the  same  in  his 
 teeth,'  with  what  we  find  in  Luke  xxiii.  39.  where  it  is  said, 
 '  one  of  the  malefactors  that  was  hanged  railed  on  him,'  we  may 
 be  apt  to  fancy  some  contradiction  in  the  evangelists;  but  this 
 the  commentators  reconcile,  by  showing,  that  it  is  a  very  com- 
 mon thing  in  the  Hebrew  style,  to  use  the  plural  number  instead 
 of  the  singular:  As  when  it  is  said,  that  the  ark  rested  on  the 
 mountains  of  Ararat,  (Gen.  viii.  4.)  that  is,  on  one  of  the  moun- 
 tains, and  '  that  God  overthrew  the  cities  where  Lot  dwelt,'  (Gen. 
 xix.  '29.)  when  he  could  only  dwell  in  one  at  a  time  ;  with  several 
 other  examples  both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  But  I 
 see  no  reason  why  we  may  not  understand  this  passage,  as  St 
 Chrysostom  and  St  Jerom  have  done,  namely,  '  That  both  of  the 
 thieves  did  at  first  rail  on  Jesus,  probably  thinking  by  that  artifice 
 to  obtain  some  help  towards  procuring  their  pardon ;  but  being 
 disappointed  of  their  hopes,  arid  hearing  Jesus  pray  for  his  cruci- 
 fiers,  one  of  them  was  thereby  prevailed  upon,  and  converted:  ' 
 especially  since,  according  to  this  interpretation,  the  operations 
 of  God's  grace  upon  this  man's  mind  were  more  sudden  and 
 strong,  and  his  conversion  more  miraculous. —  Whitby's  and  Ham- 
 mond's Annotations;  and  Stanhope  on  the  epistles  and  gospels, 
 vol.  ii. 
 
 b  This  thief  is  called  by  some  authors  Dimas  or  Dismus,  and, 
 out  of  the  false  gospel  of  Nicodemus,  they  produce  many  fables 
 concerning  him,  but  too  absurd  to  be  here  related.  Several  of 
 the  fathers  however  give  him  the  title  of  a  martyr,  because  of  the 
 testimony  which  he  bore  to  truth  even  when  it  seemed  to  be 
 utterly  deserted  by  every  one  else. —  Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 then  looking  upon  Jesus,  with  a  noble  reliance,  and  most 
 wonderful  faith,  he  humbly  intreated  him  to  retain  some 
 remembrance  of  him  when  he  came  into  his  kingdom.  To 
 which  our  Lord  returned  him  this  most  gracious  promise 
 of  speedy  felicity,  c  '  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  nie  in 
 paradise.' 
 
 In  the  mean  time  there  stood  by  our  Saviour's  cross,  sad 
 spectators  of  this  dismal  tragedy,  the  holy  Virgin-mother, 
 Mary  the  wife  of  Alpheus,  d  Mary  Magdalene,  and  John 
 his  beloved  apostle  ;  to  whose  care  and  protection  he 
 recommended   his    sorrowful   mother ;   e  and  from  that 
 
 c  The  word  paradise  comes  from  the  Hebrew,  or  rather  from 
 the  Chaldee  pardes;  and,  according  to  the  force  of  the  original, 
 it  should  properly  signify  an  orchard,  or  plantation  of  fruit-trees, 
 as  in  some  passages  of  the  Old  Testament,  particularly  in  Neh. 
 ii.  8.  it  denotes  a  forest.  The  Septuagint  make  use  of  the  word 
 Utt^dhtros,  when  they  speak  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  which  the 
 Lord  planted,  in  the  beginning  of  the  world,  and  therein  placed 
 our  first  parents.  The  Jews  commonly  call  paradise  the  garden 
 of  Eden  ;  and  they  imagine,  that  at  the  coming  of  the  Messiah, 
 they  shall  there  enjoy  an  earthly  felicity,  in  the  midst  of  all  sorts 
 of  delights ;  and,  till  the  resurrection,  and  the  coming  of  the 
 Messiah,  they  think  their  souls  shall  abide  here  in  a  state  of 
 rest.  In  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  the  word  paradise  is 
 put  for  a  place  of  delight,  where  the  souls  of  the  blessed 
 enjoy  everlasting  happiness ;  but  where  our  Lord  promises  the 
 penitent  thief,  that  he  'should  be  with  him  in  paradise,'  it 
 is  thought  by  the  generality  of  the  fathers,  that  he  means 
 heaven  itself;  though  modem  commentators  make  no  more  of 
 it,  than  that  state  of  felicity  which  God  has  appointed  for 
 the  reception  of  the  pious,  until  the  time  of  the  general  resur- 
 rection. Whether  the  place  of  departed  souls  is  above,  within, 
 or  beneath,  the  highest  heavens;  whether  there  is  one  com- 
 mon receptacle  for  the  souls  of  the  righteous  and  unrighteous 
 till  the  resurrection ;  or  whether,  from  their  departure  out 
 of  their  bodies,  they  dwell  in  separate  mansions,  as  is  more 
 probable,  are  speculations  we  are  no  ways  concerned  to  be  in- 
 quisitive about,  whilst  we  are  satisfied  of  this  main  truth,  that 
 the  righteous  are,  in  the  intermediate  time  between  their  death 
 and  resurrection,  in  a  state  of  happiness,  and  the  wicked  in  a 
 state  of  misery.  For,  as  far  as  our  apprehensions  of  these  mat- 
 ters go,  a  material  place  can  no  ways  contribute  either  to  in- 
 crease or  to  diminish  the  happiness  or  misery  of  an  immaterial 
 spirit.  Spirits  that  are  divested  of  flesh  and  blood,  wherever 
 they  are,  carry  heaven  or  hell  along  with  him.  The  good  angels 
 are  as  happy  here  upon  earth,  whilst  they  are  employed  in  the 
 execution  of  God's  will,  as  whilst  they  are  conversant  in  the 
 regions  above,  because  they  do  always  behold  the  face  of  God, 
 in  whose  presence  is  fulness  of  joy;  and  Satan  was  no  more 
 happy  when  he  came  among  the  sons  of  God  to  present  himself 
 before  the  Lord,  (Job  i.  6.)  than  he  was  when  he  was  going  to 
 and  fro  in  the  earth.  The  happiness  and  misery  of  pure  spirits 
 have  no  relation,  that  we  know  of,  to  the  place  where  they  are ; 
 but  the  happiness  and  misery  of  embodied  spirits,  or  of  men, 
 who  are  made  up  of  souls  and  bodies,  have  a  dependence  upon 
 the  place  of  their  abode ;  and  therefore  we  are  sure,  that  where- 
 ever  separate  souls  are  lodged  till  the  resurrection,  after  the 
 resurrection,  righteous  and  wicked  men  shall  have  places  allotted 
 to  them,  suitable  to  their  different  states ;  the  former  shall  be 
 carried  up  to  the  highest  heavens,  and  the  latter  shall  be  thrown 
 down  to  the  nethermost  hell. — Calmefs  Commentary,  and 
 Bishop  Smalridge's  Sermons. 
 
 d  It  is  not  determined  in  the  original  whether  she  was  the 
 wife,  or  mother,  or  daughter,  of  Cleopas ;  but  critics  generally 
 suppose  she  was  his  wife,  and  that  he  was  also  called  Alpheus, 
 and  was  the  father,  as  this  Mary  was  the  mother,  of  James,  and 
 Joses,  and  Simon,  and  Judas,  who  are  therefore  called  our  Lord's 
 brethren  or  kinsmen.  (Mat.  viii.  55.)  Grotius  indeed  thinks 
 that  Cleopas  was  her  father,  and  Alpheus  her  husband.  After 
 all  we  cannot  certainly  determine  it ;  but,  like  most  other  unde- 
 terminable points,  it  is  a  matter  of  no  great  importance.  I  know 
 none  who  has  set  it  in  a  plainer  and  juster  light  than  Dr  Edwards, 
 Exercit.  part  ii.  No.  1,  p.  163.  et  seq. — Doddridge's  Expositor. 
 —Ed. 
 
 e  The  generality  of  commentators  do  infer  from  hence,  that 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &« 
 
 1019 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.33;  OR,  A.  M.  5112.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15  END.  LUKE  xix.  45 
 
 -END.  JOHN.  xii.  19— END. 
 
 time  forward  he  took  her  to  his  house,  and  all  along  paid 
 her  the  respect  due  to  a  parent 
 
 During  these  melancholy  transactions,  the  whole  frame 
 of  nature  began  to  be  changed:  The  sun  withdrew  its 
 light ;  a  the  stars  appeared ;  and  the  eclipse  was  the 
 more  remarkable,  because  the  moon,  being  then  at  full, 
 could  not  be  in  conjunction.  This  eclipse  began  about 
 twelve,  and  lasted  till  three  in  the  afternoon  ;  when  all 
 things  were  full  of  horror  and  amazement.  Men's  hearts 
 began  to  relent ;  and,  instead  of  their  former  insults, 
 they  stood  in  silent  expectance  what  would  be  the  issue. 
 All  this  while  our  blessed  Lord   continued  meek  and 
 
 her  husband  Joseph  was  at  this  time  dead  ;  and  therefore  our 
 Lord  took  care  that  she  should  not  he  destitute,  by  charging  his 
 beloved  disciple  to  treat  her  as  his  mother.  As  Jesus  now 
 showed  the  tender  concern  he  had  for  his  mother,  in  com- 
 mitting her  to  the  care  of  John,  so  this  concern  that  he 
 expressed  for  her  support,  must  have  affected  her  no  less 
 than  if  he  had  called  her,  Mother:  which  some  have  thought 
 he  might  not  choose  to  do,  to  avoid  exposing  her  to  the 
 abuses  of  the  populace,  by  a  discovery  of  her  near  relation  to  him. 
 But  woman  was  a  title  he  before  had  used  in  speaking  to  his 
 motber,  where  no  such  caution  was  necessary;  and  it  was  fre- 
 quently applied  in  ancient  times,  even  to  persons  that  were  the 
 most  respected.  Neither  her  own  danger,  nor  the  sadness  of 
 the  spectacle,  nor  the  reproaches  and  insults  of  the  people,  could 
 restrain  her  from  performing  the  last  office  of  duty  and  tenderness 
 to  her  Divine  Son  on  the  cross.  Grotius  justly  observes,  that  it 
 was  a  noble  instance  of  fortitude  and  zeal.  Now  a  sword,  according 
 to  Simeon's  prophecy,  Luke  ii.  35,  struck  through  hertender  heart, 
 and  pierced  her  very  soul ;  and  perhaps  the  extremity  of  her  sor- 
 rows might  so  overwhelm  her  spirits,  as  to  render  her  incapable 
 of  attending  the  sepulchre,  which  we  do  not  find  that  she  did; 
 nor  do  we  indeed  meet  with  any  thing  after  this  concerning  her 
 in  the  sacred  story,  or  in  early  antiquity ;  except  that  she  con- 
 tinued among  the  disciples  after  our  Lord's  ascension,  which 
 Luke  observes,  Acts  i.  14.  Andreas  Cretensis,  a  writer  of  the 
 seventh  century,  does  indeed  tell  us,  she  died  with  John  at 
 Ephesus,  many  years  after  this,  in  an  extreme  old  age,  and  it 
 appears  from  a  letter  of  the  council  of  Ephesus  in  the  fifth  cen- 
 tury, that  it  was  then  believed  she  was  buried  there.  But  they 
 pretend  to  show  her  sepulchre  at  Jerusalem,  and  many  ridicu- 
 lous tales  are  forged  concerning  her  death  and  assumption,  or 
 being  taken  up  into  heaven,  of  which  the  best  Popish  authors 
 themselves  appear  heartily  ashamed. — See  Calmefs  Dictionary, 
 vol.  ii.  p.  141. — Doddridge  s  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 a  Whether  this  darkness  was  confined  to  the  land  of  Judea, 
 or  extended  itself  much  farther,  even  over  the  whole  hemisphere 
 where  it  happened,  is  a  question  wherein  the  ancients  are  not  so 
 well  agreed.  Origan,  and  some  others,  are  of  the  former  opinion; 
 but  the  majority  differ  from  them,  and  for  this  they  quote 
 Phlegon,  the  famous  astronomer  under  the  emperor  Trajan, 
 affirming,  that,  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  CCIId  Olympiad,  which 
 is  supposed  to  be  that  of  the  death  of  Christ,  there  was  such 
 a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  at  noon  day,  that  the  stars  were  plainly 
 to  be  seen;  and  from  Suidas  they  likewise  cite  Dionysius  the 
 Areopagite,  then  at  Hcliopolis  in  Egypt,  expressing  himself  to 
 his  friend  Apollophanes,  upon  this  surprising  phenomenon, 
 '  Either  that  the  author  of  nature  suffered,  or  that  he  was  sym- 
 pathizing with  some  one  that  did ;'  For  whereas  in  common 
 eclipses  the  sun's  total  darkness  can  continue  but  twelve,  or 
 fifteen  minutes  at  most,  this  is  recorded  to  have  lasted  no  less 
 than  three  full  hours,  Matt,  xxvii.  45. — U?iirersal  History,  b.  2. 
 C  11.  It  is,  however,  at  best  very  doubtful  if  the  passage  from 
 Phlegon  has  any  reference  to  this  particular  darkness;  and 
 as  to  the  story  told  of  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  it  is  en- 
 titled to  still  less  attention,  since  Dr  Larduer  has  proved 
 that  all  the  writings  attributed  to  him  are  spurious.  The  pro- 
 bability is,  that  the  darkness  was  confined  to  the  land  of  Judea. 
 And  there  was  surely,  (if  we  may  venture  to  pronounce  on  the 
 (inscrutable  purposes  of  almighty  providence),  a  peculiar  propriety 
 in  the  darkness  being  so  confined,  as  indicating  the  wrath  of  God 
 on  that  country  for  the  enormity  then  perpetrating;  and  pre- 
 senting an  apt  emblem  of  the  spiritual  darkness  in  which  that 
 benighted  region  was  involved.  —  En. 
 
 silent,  though  languishing  and  wasting  under  the  agonies 
 which  his  body  endured,  and  the  heavy  load  of  the 
 divine  indignation  against  sin ;  till,  in  the  words  of  the 
 Psalmist,  he  complained  at  last, '  Eli  !  Eli !  lama  sabacb- 
 thani,that  is,  b  My  God,  my  (jlod,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
 me  ?' 
 
 One  of  the  soldiers,  hearing  the  word  Eli,  or  Elohi, 
 out  of  ignorance  of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  thought,  that  he 
 called  for  Elias  to  help  him  in  his  distress  ;  and  there- 
 upon dipping  a  sponge  in  vinegar,  c  put  it  on  a  reed, 
 which  St  John  calls  a  stalk  of  hyssop, ''  and,  as  he  com- 
 plained of  being  thirsty,  gave  it  to  him  to  drink.  Others 
 however  were  for  letting  him  alone,  to  see  whether  Elias  * 
 would  come  and  help  him.  But  when  he  had  tasted  the 
 vinegar,  and  now  knew,  that  all  the  types  and  prophecies 
 
 h  In  the  Hebrew  way  of  speaking,  it  is  certain,  that  God  is 
 said  to  leave  or  forsake,  any  person,  when  he  suffers  him  to  fall 
 into  great  calamities,  and  lie  under  great  misfortunes,  and  does 
 not  help  him  out  of  them.  To  this  purpose  Zion,  having  been 
 long  afflicted,  is  brought  in  by  the  prophet  complaining,  '  The 
 Lord  hath  forsaken  me,  the  Lord  hath  forgotten  me,'  Isa.  xlix.  14. 
 and  as  the  royal  Psalmist  is  very  frequent  in  such  complaints, 
 so  he  explains  the  sense  of  them,  when  he  addresses  himself  to 
 God,  '  Why  art  thou  so  far  from  my  prayer,'  so  that,  though  '  I 
 cry  in  the  day-time,  thou  hearest  not  ?'  Psal.  xxii.  1,  2.  That 
 David  was  not  fallen  into  any  despondency,  is  manifest  from  his 
 calling  God  so  fidnvially  his  God  ;  and  that  our  blessed  Saviour 
 was  not,  as  some  think,  under  any  failure  of  his  trust  in  God,  or 
 any  perturbation  of  spirit  from  the  sense  of  divine  wrath,  is 
 evident  from  his  saying  of  his  suffering  condition, '  It  is  finished,' 
 and  from  the  very  words  wherein  he  breathed  his  last,  '  Father, 
 into  thy  hands  I  commit  my  spirit.'  The  truth  is,  this  very 
 thing  shows  the  great  composure  of  his  mind ;  that  while  he  was 
 hanging  upon  the  cross,  he  was  so  far  master  of  himself,  as  to 
 repeat  the  22d  Psalm,  whereof  the  title  or  first  words  are,  Eli, 
 Eli,  &c,  a  psalm  which  is  allowed  by  all  commentators  to  re- 
 late to  the  Messiah;  which  contains  a  most  lively  description  of 
 all  the  remarkable  particulars  of  his  passion,  and  for  that  reason, 
 was  a  portion  of  Scripture  which  he  thought  proper  to  recite 
 upon  this  mournful  occasion.  Upon  the  supposition,  then,  that 
 our  Lord  was  now  repeating  that  noble  psalm,  which,  after  a 
 recapitulation  of  his  sufferings,  concludes  with  very  comfortable 
 promises  both  to  him  and  his  followers  ;  this  shows,  that  he  was 
 far  from  being  under  any  doubt  or  despair;  that  he  kept  his 
 mind  indeed  all  along  calm  and  serene;  and  under  the  pressure 
 of  whatever  he  suffered,  supported  himself  with  the  comfortable 
 prospect  of  what  was  to  follow. — Whitby's  Annotations,  and 
 Universal  History,  b.  2.  c.  11. 
 
 c  The  vinegar  and  sponge,  in  execution  of  condemned  per- 
 sons, were  set  ready,  to  stop  the  too  violent  flux  of  blcod,  that 
 the  malefactor  might  be  the  longer  in  dying;  but  to  the  blessed 
 Jesus  they  were  exhibited  in  scorn  ;  for  being  mingled  with 
 gall,  the  mixture  was  more  horrid  and  unpleasant. — Howell's 
 History,  in  the  notes. 
 
 d  It  may  be  pretended  perhaps,  that  a  branch  of  hyssop  might 
 not  be  long  enough  to  reach  our  Saviour's  mouth,  as  he  was 
 hanging  upon  the  cross;  but,  besides  that  crosses  were  not  in 
 some  places  erected  so  high,  but  that  beasts  of  prey  could  reach 
 the  bodies  that  were  fastened  to  them  ;  and  that  hyssop  in  those 
 countries,  as  well  as  mustard  seed,  was  of  a  much  lunger  growth 
 than  it  is  with  us;  I  cannot  see,  why  the  person  that  offered  our 
 Saviour  this  vinegar,  might  not  make  use  of  a  ladder,  if  the  cross 
 was  so  high  that  he  could  not  fairly  reach  him.  Nor  is  the 
 difference  in  St  Matthew's  calling  that  a  reed,  which  St  John 
 calls  hyssop,  of  any  manner  of  moment;  because  the  Greek  word 
 KaXaftus,  is  put  to  signify  a  stalk,  a  shoot,  or  branch  of  any 
 kind ;  so  that  St  Matthew  speaks  of  that  in  general,  which  St 
 John  specifies  in  particular. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  There  was  a  tradition  among  the  Jews,  that  it  was  Elias's 
 proper  office  to  come  and  succour  such  as  were  in  misery;  and, 
 accordingly  some  of  the  Jews,  either  deceived  with  the  resem- 
 blance of  the  words,  thought  that  our  Lord  called  Elias  to  his 
 help  ;  or  giving  a  malicious  turn  to  the  sense  of  the  words,  which 
 tluy  well  enough  understood,  did  thereby  insult  him  lor  his  call- 
 ing in  vain  Elias  to  his  help, — Bcausobrc s  Annotations. 
 
1020 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33  ;  OK,  A.  M.  54 12.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 concerning  him  were  fulfilled,  his  Father's  wrath  appeased, 
 and  the  great  work  of  man's  redemption  accomplished, 
 he  said,  •  It  is  finished,'  and  then, '  bowing  down  his  head,' 
 recommended  his  soul  into  his  Father's  hands,  and  so 
 gave  up  the  ghost.  a 
 
 Upon  his  expiration  there  immediately  happened  a 
 terrible  earthquake,  b  which  rent  the  vail  c  of  the  temple 
 from  top  to  bottom,  split  the  rocks,  d  and  opened  the 
 graves  and  tombs,  so  that  the  bodies  of  several  who  were 
 
 a  The  original  phrase  may  denote  a  delivering  up,  or,  as  our 
 Saviour  expresses  it,  (Luke  xxiii.  46.)  a  committing  his  spirit 
 into  the  hands  of  God,  as  a  sacred  trust,  to  be  restored  again, 
 and  united  to  his  body,  at  the  time  prefixed  by  his  own  infinite 
 wisdom;  and  plainly  implies  such  a  dissolution,  and  actual  se- 
 paration of  soul  and  body,  as  every  common  man  undergoes 
 when  he  dies.  But  herein  is  a  remarkable  difference,  that  what 
 is  in  other  men  the  effect  of  necessity,  was  in  Jesus  a  voluntary 
 act,  and  the  effect  of  his  own  free  choice.  Hence  the  gener- 
 ality of  interpreters  have  thought,  that  St  John  takes  notice, 
 that  Christ  bowed  his  head  before  he  gave  up  the  ghost;  whereas, 
 in  common  cases,  the  falling  of  the  head  follows  after  the  breath's 
 going  out  of  the  body;  and  hence  also  St  Mark  observes,  that 
 Jesus  crying  out  with  so  loud  and  strong  a  voice,  immediately 
 before  his  expiring,  was  one  reason  that  moved  the  centurion 
 to  think  him  an  extraordinary  person:  for  this  showed  that  it 
 was  not  the  excess  of  pain  and  sorrow  that  had  tired  out  nature, 
 and  hastened  his  death,  but  that  he  who  (as  himself  professes, 
 John  x.  IS,)  had  power  to  lay  down  his  life,  and  could  not  have 
 it  taken  from  him  without  his  own  permission  and  consent,  did 
 freely  and  voluntarily  lay  it  down,  at  such  a  time  as  himself 
 saw  convenient.' — Stanhope  on  the  epistles  and  gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
 b  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  this  was  the  same  earthquake 
 that  happened  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius  Ccesar,  and  was  the 
 greatest  that  ever  was  known  in  the  memory  of  man.  Both 
 Pliny  and  Macrobius  make  mention  of  it ;  and  the  latter  in- 
 forms us,  that  it  destroyed  no  less  than  twelve  cities  in  Asia. 
 But  by  the  sacred  text  it  appears,  that  the  earthquake  here 
 mentioned  affected  only  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  parts 
 which  are  there  specified,  the  vail,  the  ground,  the  rocks,  the 
 tombs,  &c.  Nor  does  it  seem  improbable,  that  this  prodigy  was 
 shown  particularly  in  this  place,  to  foretell  the  destruction  of  the 
 temple,  and  its  worship,  upon  the  people's  sad  impiety  in  cruci- 
 fying the  Lord  of  life. — Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 c  In  the  second  temple,  between  the  holy  place,  and  the  most 
 holy,  says  Maimonides,  there  was  no  partition  wall,  though  in 
 the  first  temple  there  was  one  built  of  the  thickness  of  a  cubit. 
 The  division  between  them  was  made  by  two  vails,  one  from 
 the  extremity  of  the  holy  place,  and  the  other  from  the  extrem- 
 ity of  the  most  holy,  with  the  void  space  of  a  cubit  between. 
 The  like  form  of  separation  was  observed  in  the  temple  which 
 Herod  rebuilt,  as  Josephus  informs  us,  (Jewish  wars,  b.  vi.  c.  14.) 
 and  therefore  it  must  be  a  mistake  in  those  who  think  that  this 
 vail  was  a  partition  wall  of  stones.  Whether  of  the  two  vails, 
 that  which  belonged  to  the  holy  place,  or  that  which  hung  in  the 
 most  holy,  was  at  this  time  rent  in  twain,  is  a  question  among 
 the  ancients  ;  though  the  words  of  the  author  to  the  Hebrews, 
 where  he  tells  us,  that  '  Christ  as  our  high-priest,  has  conse- 
 crated for  us  a  new  way  through  the  vail,  so  that  we  may  with 
 boldness  enter  into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  Heb.  x.  19, 
 &c,  seems  to  be  a  pretty  clear  determination  of  it. — Whitby's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 d  In  the  church  of  the  sepulchre,  which  stands  on  mount 
 Calvary,  is  still  to  be  seen  that  memorable  cleft  in  the  rock,  oc- 
 casioned, as  it  is  said,  by  the  earthquake  which  happened  at  our 
 Lord's  crucifixion.  This  cleft  (as  to  what  now  appears  of  it)  is 
 about  a  span  wide  at  its  upper  part,  and  two  deep.  After  this 
 it  closes ;  but  then  it  opens  again  below,  and  runs  down  to  an 
 unknown  depth  of  earth.  That  this  rent  was  made  by  the 
 earthquake  which  happened  at  our  Lord's  passion,  there  is  only 
 tradition  to  prove;  but  that  it  is  a  natural  and  genuine  breach, 
 and  not  counterfeited  by  any  art,  the  sense  and  reason  of  every 
 one  that  sees  it  may  convince  him;  for  the  sides  of  it  lit  like 
 two  tallies  to  each  other,  and  yet  it  runs  in  such  intricate  wind- 
 ;ngs,  as  could  not  be  well  counterfeited  by  art,  or  performed  by 
 any  instrument.  —  Wells's  Geog.  of  the  New  Test.,  part  i.  and 
 Mr  Maundnll's  Journey,  &c. 
 
 dead  e  arose,  and  went  into  Jerusalem,  where  they  were 
 seen,  and  known  by  many.  These  prodigies,  which  at- 
 tended our  Lord's  death,  struck  the  spectators  with  such 
 amazement,  that  as  they  returned  home,  they  smote  upon 
 their  breasts,  and,  with  great  lamentation,  declared  that 
 the  person  who  had  suffered  that  day,  was  innocent. 
 Nay,  the  very  centurion,  /  and  other  soldiers,  who  at- 
 tended the  execution,  from  a  conviction  of  what  they  had 
 seen,  were  not  afraid  to  affirm,  that  he  certainly  was 
 the  Son  of  God. 
 
 The  day  whereon  our  Saviour  suffered,  was  the  eve,  or 
 preparation,  to  the  Paschal  festival,  which  fell  that  year 
 on  the  Jewish  sabbath-day,  and  so  was  a  feast  and  sab- 
 bath together.  That  therefore  so  great  and-  solemn  a 
 day  might  not  be  profaned  s  by  the  suspension  of  the 
 
 e  Since  St  Paul  styles  our  Saviour,  '  the  first-born  from  the 
 dead,'  Col.  i.  18.  'and  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept,'  I  Cor. 
 xv.  20.  most  commentators  are  of  opinion  that  though  several 
 tombs  were  opened  as  soon  as  our  Saviour  expired,  yet  none  of 
 the  saints  arose  until  he  returned  from  the  grave.  But  then, 
 who  these  saints  were,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  conjecture. 
 Some  think,  that  the  man  after  God's  own  heart,  king  David, 
 or  some  of  the  ancient  patriarchs,  might  best  deserve  this  pre- 
 eminence. But,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  St  Peter  tells  the 
 Jews  plainly,  that  the  body  of  David  was  still  in  the  sepulchre, 
 and  not  ascended  into  heaven,  (Acts  ii.  29—34.)  and  St  Paul, 
 in  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  tells  us  of  the  patriarchs,  that '  they 
 had  not  received  the  promise,  God  having  designed  that  they  with- 
 out us,  should  not  be  made  perfect,'  Heb.  xi.  39,  40.  The  most 
 probable  conjecture  therefore  is,  that  they  were  some  of  those  who 
 believed  in  Jesus,  as  old  Simeon  did,  and  died  a  little  before 
 his  crucifixion;  because,  of  these  persons  it  is  said,  that  they 
 '  went  into  the  holy  city,  and  appeared  to  many ;'  and  so,  very  pro- 
 bably, were  well  known  to  those  to  whom  they  appeared,  as 
 having  been  their  cotemporaries. — Cahnet's  Commentary,  and 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  'This  was  the  Son  of  God.'  As  the  Roman  officer  and 
 guard,  who  were  ordered  to  attend  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  were 
 heathens,  it  becomes  a  difficult  question  in  what  sense  they  used 
 these  expressions.  But  since  it  can  scarcely  admit  of  doubt  that 
 the  centurion,  at  least,  knew  on  what  grounds  Jesus  was  con- 
 demned by  the  Jews,  it  may  well  be  supposed  that,  on  perceiv- 
 ing the  miraculous  circumstances  accompanying  his  death,  he 
 exclaimed,  '  this  man  was  truly  what  he  represented  himself  to 
 be,  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of  God.'  He  was  the  '  just  one  ' 
 whose  coming  the  Jews  have  looked  for  with  so  much  anxiety. 
 It  does  not  follow  that  he  comprehended  the  full  force  of  these 
 expressions;  he  might  mean  nothing  more  than  that  Jesus  was 
 an  innocent  man  favoured  by  the  gods ;  that  he  was  merely  a 
 '  righteous  man,'  as  St  Luke  has  it,  (chap,  xxiii.  47.)  How- 
 ever understood,  these  expressions  ill  the  mouth  of  a  soldier  and 
 heathen,  form  a  strong  attestation  to  the  character  and  innocence 
 of  our  Lord.  It  is  worthy  of  observation  that  St  Matthew  men- 
 tions the  centurion,  and  they  that  were  with  him,  as  using  these 
 words,  but  St  Mark,  (xv.  39.)  and  St  Luke,  (xxiii.  47.),  only  the 
 former,  but  it  is  easy  to  reconcile  them.  The  sacred  writers 
 sometimes  use  the  plural,  when  only  one  person  is  meant, 
 or  both  the  officer  and  the  soldiers  may  have  made  similar 
 observations,  though  with  some  variety  of  expression;  and 
 it  may  be  more  than  once;  which  will  account  for  the  dif- 
 ferences in  the  narratives  of  the  evangelists. — Holden's  Chris- 
 tian Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 g  The  Jews  had  a  strict  injunction  in  their  law,  that  the  dead 
 bodies  of  those  who  were  executed  should  not  hang  all  night,  but 
 by  all  means  be  buried  that  day,  (Deut.  xxi.  22,  23.)  But  the 
 Romans  used  to  do  otherwise;  they  suffered  the  bodies  to  hang 
 upon  the  cross  always  until  they  were  dead,  and,  in  some  cases,  a 
 considerable  time  longer.  On  this  occasion,  it  seems  as  if  the  Jews 
 had  left  the  Romans  to  follow  their  own  custom,  in  relation  to 
 the  crucified  persons,  and  were  in  no  concern  to  have  them  taken 
 down,  had  it  not  been  for  the  near  approach  of  their  Passover, 
 whose  joy  and  festivity  they  thought  might  be  damped  by  so 
 melancholy  a  sight.  Upon  this  account  they  petition  Pilate  to 
 have  them  removed:  and  the  reason  why  Pilate  might  be  rather 
 induced  to  grant  their  request  was,  that  the  Romans  themselves 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1021 
 
 bodies  on  the  cross,  the  rulers  of  the  Jews  came,  arid 
 requested  of  Pilate,  that  their  legs  might  be  broken,  to 
 hasten  their  deaths,  and  their  bodies  taken  down  ;  which 
 accordingly  was  executed  upon  the  two  thieves ;  but 
 when  the  soldiers  came  to  Jesus,  and  found  him  already 
 dead,  instead  of  breaking  his  legs,  °  one  of  them  pierced 
 his  side  with  a  spear,  4  from  which  issued  out  a  great 
 quantity  of  c  blood  and  water. 
 
 Among  the  disciples  of  our  Lord,  there  was  one  named 
 Joseph,  a  man  of  great  wealth  and  honour,  d  born  in 
 Arimathsea,  e  and  not  improbably  one  of  the  council  of 
 the  Sanhedrim,  but  who  stood  in  some  fear  of  them,  while 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5-112.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 our  Saviour  was  alive.  After  his  death  /  however,  he 
 took  courage,  and  going  to  Pilate,  begged  leave  of  him 
 to«let  him  take  down  the  body  of  Jesus,  and  bury  it. 
 The  governor  was  surprised  to  hear  that  he  was  dead  so 
 soon  ;  but  being  informed,  by  the  centurion,  that  it  actu- 
 ally was  so,  he  ordered  the  body  to  be  delivered  to 
 Joseph;  who,  for  the  present,  wrapped  it  up  in  fine  linen 
 clothes,  which  he  had  provided  for  that  purpose  ;  and,  at 
 the  same  time,  Nicodemus,  s  another  private  disciple  of 
 our  Lord's,  brought  a  mixture  of  myrrh  and  aloes,  with 
 other  spices  and  perfumes,  to  embalm  his  body,  accord- 
 ing to  the  manner  of  the  Jews. 
 
 Not  far  from  the  place  of  execution,  there  was  a  gar- 
 den *  belonging  to  Joseph,  where  he  had  lately  hewn 
 
 commodities  produced  are  corn,  olive  oil,  and  cotton,  with  some 
 soap,  and  coarse  cloth,  the  manufacture  of  the  place.  According 
 to  the  same  traveller,  Kama  bears  marks  of  having  been  once  a 
 considerable  city;  for  which  its  position  on  the  high  road  from 
 Jerusalem  to  Joppa,  the  principal  port  of  the  country,  eminently 
 favoured  it.  There  are  still  to  be  seen  the  remains  of  some 
 noble  subterranean  cisterns,  not  inferior  either  in  extent  or  exe- 
 cution to  many  of  those  at  Alexandria;  being  intended  for  the 
 same  purpose,  namely,  tc  serve  in  the  time  of  war,  as  reservoirs 
 of  water.  At  this  Rama,  which  was  likewise  called  Ramathaim 
 Zophim,  as  lying  in  the  district  of  Zuph  or  Zoph,  Samuel  was 
 bom.     (1  Sam.  i.) — Mansford's  Scriptural  Gazetteer. — Ed. 
 
 f  It  may  well  seem  strange,  that  Joseph,  who  never  durst 
 openly  profess  a  regard  to  Jesus  while  living,  should  now,  when 
 he  had  suffered  all  the  ignominy  of  a  malefactor,  not  stick  to 
 interest  himself  for  his  honourable  interment.  But  besides  that 
 this  might  be  an  instance  of  the  efficacy  of  those  impressions  which 
 God  makes  upon  men's  minds,  even  at  the  most  unlikely  seasons 
 of  prevailing;  the  desire  which  Pilate  had  expressed  to  save  our 
 Lord's  life,  and  avowed  unwillingness  to  condemn  him,  together 
 with  the  prodigies  that  had  accompanied  his  crucifixion,  and  made 
 now  every  heart  relent,  might  be  motive  enough  for  him  to  go 
 in  boldly  to  Pilate,  as  St  Mark  expresses  it,  and  beg  the  body 
 of  him,  before  it  was  taken  from  the  cross.  According  to  the 
 Mishna,  the  nearest  relations  of  those  that  suffered  as  criminals 
 were  not  permitted  to  put  their  bodies  into  their  family  tombs,  until 
 their  flesh  was  all  consumed  in  the  public  sepulchres:  and  this 
 might  possibly  be  the  reason  why  Joseph  made  such  haste  with 
 his  request  to  the  governor,  namely,  that  he  might  prevent  our 
 Lord  from  being  cast  into  one  of  the  public  charnel  houses,  ap- 
 pointed for  the  reception  of  malefactors'  bodies. — Stanhope  on  the 
 epistles  and  gospels,  vol.  ii.  and  CalmcVs  Commentary. 
 
 g  This  is  the  same  ruler  of  the  Jews,  and  '  master  of  Israel,' 
 as  the  evangelist  calls  him,  (John  iii.  1,  10.)  who,  at  our  Lord's 
 first  coming  to  Jerusalem,  after  he  had  entered  upon  his  ministry, 
 held  a  private  conference  with  him,  and  for  ever  after  was  his  dis- 
 ciple, though  he  made  no  open  profession  of  it,  till  after  his  pas- 
 sion. Whether  it  was  before  or  after  this  time,  that  he  received 
 baptism  from  some  of  Christ's  disciples,  is  a  thing  uncertain, 
 but  there  is  reason  to  believe,  that  the  Jews,  when  they  came  to 
 be  informed  of  this,  deposed  him  from  the  dignity  of  a  senator, 
 excommunicated  him,  and  drove  him  out  of  Jerusalem.  Nay, 
 it  is  farther  said,  that  they  would  have  put  him  to  death,  but 
 that,  in  consideration  of  Gamaliel,  who  was  his  uncle,  or  cousin- 
 german,  they  contented  themselves  with  beating  him  almost  to 
 death  and  plundering  his  goods.  It  is  added  likewise,  that 
 Gamaliel  conveyed  him  to  his  country-house,  where  he  provided 
 him  with  things  necessary  for  his  support,  and,  whin  he  died, 
 buried  him  honourably  by  St  Stephen. — Catmet's  Dictionary, 
 under  the  name. 
 
 h  This  garden  has  been  long  since  converted  into  a  church, 
 called  the  church  of  the  sepulchre,  as  being  built  over  the  place 
 where  our  Lord's  sepulchre  was.  The  sepulchre,  as  it  is  now 
 exhibited,  presents  rather  a  singular  and  unexpected  appearance  to 
 a  stranger;  who,  for  such  a  place,  would  naturally  expect  to  find 
 an  excavation  in  the  ground,  instead  of  which,  he  perceives 
 it  altogether  raised,  as  if  artificially  above  its  level.  The 
 truth  is,  that  in  the  alterations  which  were  made  on  Calvary, 
 to  bring  all  the  principal  places  within  the  projected  church, 
 the  earth  around  the  sepulchre  was  dug  away;  so  that,  what  was 
 originally  B  cave  in  the  earth,  has  now  the  appearance  of  a  closet 
 
 had  such  respect  for  the  feasts  of  their  emperors,  that  on  tuose 
 days  they  always  took  down  the  bodies  from  the  cross,  and  gave 
 them  to  their  parents. —  Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 a  The  prophecy  which  foretold,  '  that  a  bone  of  him  should 
 not  be  broken,'  is  usually  referred  to  the  command  concerning 
 the  Paschal  lamb,  '  Thou  shalt  not  break  a  bone  of  it,'  (Exod. 
 xii.  4G.)  But  as  David  was  likewise  a  type  of  Christ,  we  can- 
 not see  why  it  may  not  refer  to  these  words  of  his,  '  He  keepeth 
 all  his  bones,  so  that  none  of  them  is  broken,'  (Ps.  xxxiv.  20.) 
 or  why  the  promise,  which  respects  all  righteous  persons,  might 
 not  more  particularly  be  fulfilled  in  the  just  one. — JVlrilbys  and 
 Beausobre 's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  man  who  did  this, was  not  one  of  the  horse,  as  he  is  usually 
 painted,  but  of  the  foot  soldiers;  because  a  spear,  or  short  pike, 
 was  one  part  of  the  armour  belonging  to  the  Roman  infantry. 
 And  the  reason  why  this  was  done,  was  not  only  that  a  predic- 
 tion concerning  him  might  be  fulfilled,  (Zech.  xii.  10.)  which 
 the  Jews  apply  to  the  Messiah,  but  that  his  death  might  be  put 
 beyond  all  dispute,  which,  had  it  been  doubtful,  must  have  made 
 his  resurrection,  upon  which  the  truth  of  our  religion  depends, 
 remain  doubtful  likewise.— Calmefs  Commentary,  and  Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 c  '  Blood  and  water.'  Medical  writers  differ  whether  this 
 was  the  small  quantify  of  water  in  the  pericardium,  or  what  is 
 called  lymph,  or  a  watery  effusion  such  as  sometimes  is  found  in 
 the  cavities  of  the  pleura  in  cases  of  violent  death.  There  may, 
 however,  have  been  something  miraculous  in  the  phenomenon, 
 but  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  proof  that  it  was  designed  to  convey  a 
 typical  meaning.  The  soldier  who  pierced  Jesus  doubtless  in- 
 tended to  dispatch  him,  if  he  were  not  quite  dead;  and  the  issu- 
 ing of  blood  and  water  was  clear  evidence  that  the  wound  would 
 have  been  mortal  had  he  been  then  living. — Holden's  Christian 
 Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 d  His  riches  and  honourable  station  are  mentioned,  not  out 
 of  any  vanity  and  ostentation,  that  a  person  of  so  considerable  a 
 figure  should  pay  respect  to  the  body  of  our  blessed  Lord ;  but, 
 chiefly,  to  show  how  strangely  God  brought  about  an  ancient 
 prophecy  concerning  the  Messiah,  namely,  that  notwithstanding 
 the  infamous  manner  of  his  dying,  he  should  'make  his  grave 
 with  the  rich  at  his  death,'  (Isa.  liii.  9.)  which  in  itself  was  a 
 most  unlikely  thing,  not  only  because  the  bodies  of  them  that 
 were  crucified,  did,  by  the  Roman  laws,  hang  upon  the  gibbet, 
 sometimes  until  they  were  consumed,  but  because  the  Jews, 
 though  they  did  not  allow  of  this  severity  to  the  dead,  did 
 nevertheless  always  bury  their  malefactors  in  some  public,  ne- 
 glected, and  ignominious  place;  and  so,  in  all  probability,  must 
 our  Saviour  have  been  treated,  had  not  Joseph  applied  himself 
 to  the  governor,  in  whose  disposal  the  bodies  of  executed  persons 
 wire. — Stanhope  on  the  epistles  and  gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
 p.  Arimathea,  or  Ramah,  now  called  Ramie,  or  Ramla,  a 
 pleasant  town,  beautifully  situated  on  the  borders  of  a  fertile  and 
 extensive  plain,  abounding  in  gardens,  vineyards,  olive  and  date 
 trees.  It  stands  about  thirty  miles  north-west  of  Jerusalem,  on  the 
 high  road  to  Jaffa.  Rama  and  Lydda  were  the  two  first  cities  that 
 fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Crusaders.  The  former  being  aban- 
 doned by  its  inhabitants  in  the  night,  was  thrown  open  to  the 
 invaders;  who  made  it  their  rendezvous,  and  place  of  feasting  for 
 three  days.  Dr  Clarke  describes  Rama  as  being  in  a  state  of 
 desolation  and  ruin,  although  making  a  considerable  figure  at  a 
 distance.  Mr  Buckingham  represents  it  as  covering  a  con- 
 siderable space  over  a  level  plain,  and  containing  about.  5000  in- 
 habitants who  are  principally  occupied  in  husbandry,  for  which 
 the  surrounding  country  is   highly  favourable.     The  principal 
 
1022 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 out  of  a  a  rock  a  sepulchre  for  his  own  proper  interment. 
 Havin"  therefore  embalmed  our  Saviour's  body,  and 
 wound  it  up  in  the  linen  clothes,  here  they  buried  it,  and, 
 with  a  large  stone  cut  out  of  the  rock  for  that  purpose, 
 closed  the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre.  But  Mary  Magdalen, 
 and  the  other  women  who  were  present  at  his  death, 
 and  assisted  at  his  burial,  having  taken  good  notice  of 
 the  place  where  he  was  laid,  went  and  prepared  fresh 
 spices  for  his  farther  embalmment,  as  soon  as  the  sabbath- 
 day  was  over. 
 
 On  the  sabbath-day  the  rulers  of  the  Jews  came  to 
 Pilate,  and  informing-  him,  "  that  our  Lord,  whom  they 
 called  an  impostor,  having,  in  his  lifetime,  made  it  his 
 boast,  that  on  the  third  day  he  would  rise  again  from 
 
 or  grotto  above  ground.  The  sepulchre  itself  is  about  six 
 feet  square  and  eight  high.  There  is  a  solid  block  of  the 
 stone  left  i"  excavating  the  rock,  about  two  feet  and  a  half  from 
 the  floor,  and  running  along  the  whole  of  the  inner  side ; 
 on  which  the  body  of  our  Lord  is  said  to  have  been  laid.  This 
 as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  sepulchre,  is  now  faced  with  marble : 
 partly  from  the  false  taste  which  prevailed  in  the  early  ages  of 
 Christianity,  in  disguising  with  profuse  and  ill-suited  embellish- 
 ments the  spots  rendered  memorable  in  the  history  of  its  Foun- 
 der; and  partly,  perhaps,  to  preserve  it  from  the  depredations  of 
 the  visitants.  This  description  of  the  holy  sepulchre  will  but 
 ill  accord  with  the  notions  entertained  by  some  English  readers 
 of  a  grave:  but  a  cave  or  grotto,  thus  excavated  in  rocky  ground, 
 on  the  side  of  a  hill,  was  the  common  receptacle  for  the  dead 
 among  the  Eastern  nations.  Such  was  the  tomb  of  Christ ; 
 such  that  of  Lazarus ;  and  such  are  the  sepulchres  still  found  in 
 Judsea  and  the  East.  It  may  be  useful  further  to  observe,  that 
 it  was  customary  with  Jews  of  property  to  provide  a  sepulchre  of 
 this  kind  on  their  own  ground,  as  the  place  of  their  interment 
 after  death:  and  it  appears  that  Calvary  itself,  or  the  ground 
 immediately  around  it,  was  occupied  with  gardens;  one  of  which 
 belonged  to  Joseph  of  Arimathca,  who  had  then  recently  caused 
 a  new  sepulchre  to  be  made  for  himself.  It  was  this  sepulchre, 
 so  close  at  hand,  and  so  appropriate,  which  he  resigned  for  the 
 use  of  our  Lord  ;  little  thinking,  perhaps,  at  the  time,  how  soon 
 it  would  again  be  left  vacant  for  its  original  purpose — (Alans- 
 ford's  Scripture  Gazetteer.)  The  church  of  the  holy  sepulchre,  a 
 splendid  edifice,  erected  by  the  empress  Helena,  fourteen  hundred 
 years  ago,  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1808.  It  has  since  been  re- 
 paired,  though  in  a  style  much  inferior  to  the  original  edifice. 
 Dr  Clarke,  however,  is  of  opinion  that  another  tomb,  which  he 
 particularly  describes,  and  not  the  one  enclosed  in  the  church, 
 is  really  the  place  where  Jesus  was  laid.  See  his  disquisition 
 on  the  subject  in  his  Travels. — En. 
 
 a  There  are  several  circumstances  in  the  description  of  our 
 Saviour's  tomb,  which  contribute  very  greatly  to  the  confirma- 
 tion of  the  truth  of  his  resurrection.  As,  1st,  The  place  of  his 
 interment  «as  near  adjoining  to  the  city,  that  thereby  the  mira- 
 cle of  his  resurrection  might  be  better  known  to  all  the  Jews,  and 
 his  own  apostles  more  especially.  2dly,  1 1  is  tomb  was  a  new  one, 
 wherein  never  man  before  was  laid;  and  therefore,  when  his 
 body  left  this  sepulchre  empty,  no  suspicion  could  remain  of  its 
 I" ling  any  other  body  than  that  which  Joseph  had  taken  down 
 from  the  cross,  and  disposed  of  in  that  place.  3dly,  It  was 
 hewn  out  of  a  rock-,  incapable  of  being  undermined,  or  dug 
 through;  and  therefore  there  was  no  possible  way  for  the  person 
 deposited  iu  a  place  so  contrived,  to  get  out  again,  except  only 
 at  the  mouth  or  door  of  the  cave.  And  yet,  4thly,  A  large 
 Btone,  which  according  to  Mr  Maundrell,  who  saw  it,  is  two 
 yards  and  a  quarter  lung,  one  broad,  and  one  thick,  closed  up 
 the  entrance  of  it;  all  which  were  watched  by  a  strong  guard  of 
 sixty  soldiers:  so  that,  as  the  sentry  would  not  sutler  the  body 
 to  he  conveyed  out  by  this  way,  the  nature  of  the  place  would 
 not  allow  it  by  any  other;  and  therefore,  had  not  our  Lord  been 
 more  than  man,  he  could  never  have  forced  his  passage  out.  Of 
 such  mighty  significance  it  is  to  us,  that  so  punctual  a  descrip- 
 tion is  given  the  world  of  our  blessed  Lord's  burial,  and  all  the 
 circumstances  relating  to  it,  since  they  all  contribute  great 
 strength  to  these  two  most  important  articles  of  the  Christian 
 faith,  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus. — Stanhope  on  the 
 rj  istlcs  and  go^pch,  vol.  ii.  and  Whitby1*   Annotations, 
 
 the  dead,  they  therefore  requested  of  him,  that  he  would 
 order  the  sepulchre  to  be  kept  under  a  strong  guard, 
 until  that  day  was  passed,  lest  his  disciples  should  steal 
 him  away  by  night,  and  then  give  it  out  that  he  was 
 risen  from  the  dead,  which  might  prove  a  more  danger- 
 ous seduction  to  the  people  than  any  thing  they  had  yet 
 fallen  into."  Whereupon  he  gave  them  leave  to  take  a 
 detachment  of  the  guard  b  of  the  temple,  and  to  post 
 them  near  the  sepulchre  :  which  accordingly  they  did ; 
 and  to  secure  it  against  all  private  attempts,  set  a  seal  c 
 on  the  stone  that  was  at  the  mouth  of  it. 
 
 Early  next  morning,  evert  just  as  the  sun  was  rising, 
 Mary  Magdalen,  and  the  other  women,  who,  on  Friday 
 evening,  had  prepared  spices  and  perfumes,  went  to  the 
 sepulchre  to  embalm  again  our  Saviour's  body,  ignorant 
 of  the  guard  that  was  placed  there.  Their  whole  care 
 and  consultation  in  the  way  was,  how  they  might  get  the 
 large  stone  that  was  at  the  entrance  removed.  But,  be- 
 fore they  arrived  at  the  place,  an  angel  from  heaven  had 
 rolled  it  away,  d  and  sat  upon  it;  at  the  sight  of  whom, 
 for  his  countenance  was  like  lightning,  and  at  the  noise 
 of  the  earthquake  which  accompanied  his  appearance,  the 
 guards  fell  down  like  so  many  dead  men,  so  that  the 
 women  had  free  entrance  into  the  sepulchre ;  but  were 
 not  a  little  astonished  to  see  the  body  gone,  and  an  angel, 
 in  a  refulgent  habit,  sitting  in  the  place  where  it  had 
 lain.  Frightened  at  this  apparition,  they  made  all  the 
 haste  they  could  out  of  the  sepulchre  ;  but  were  met  by 
 another  angel,  in  the  like  glorious  apparel,  who  not  only 
 acquainted  them  with  our  Lord's  resurrection,  according 
 to  what  he  had  foretold  his  disciples,  but,  to  give  them 
 a  fuller  conviction,  reconducted  them  into  the  sepulchre; 
 showed  them,  that  the  place  where  he  had  lain  was 
 empty ;  and  ordered  them  to  go  immediately  and  carry 
 the  apostles,  but  more  especially  e  Peter,  the  news 
 thereof.  The  women,  accordingly,  filled  with  fear,  and 
 joy,  and  wonder  altogether,  hastened  to  find  out  the 
 apostles  ;  to  whom  they  related  what  they  had  heard  and 
 seen  ;  but,  instead  of  believing  them,  they  looked  upon 
 this  as  no  more  than  the  product  of  a  weak  and 
 frightened  imagination. 
 
 b  It  is  generally  supposed,  that  this  guard  of  the  temple  was 
 a  large  detachment  of  Roman  soldiers,  who,  in  the  time  of  the 
 feast,  kept  sentry  in  the  gates  of  the  temple,  to  prevent  such  dis- 
 orders as  might  very  well  happen  among  such  a  large  concourse 
 of  people :  for  by  the  sequel  of  their  story,  it  appears,  (Mat.  xxviii. 
 11.)  that  they  depended  upon  Pilate,  were  subject  to  his  correc- 
 tion, and  consequently,  were  not  Levites,  as  some  imagine,  but 
 Roman  soldiers. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  When  Daniel  was  cast  into  the  lions'  den,  it  is  said,  'That 
 the  king  sealed  the  stone  that  was  laid  upon  the  mouth  of  it, 
 with  his  own  signet,  and  with  the  signet  of  his  lords,  that  the 
 pm  pose  might  not  be  changed  concerning  Daniel,'  (chap.  vi.  17.) 
 And  from  hence  some  have  supposed,  that  the  stone  wherewith 
 our  Lord's  sepulchre  was  closed,  was  sealed  with  Pilate's  signet, 
 because  it  was  a  matter  of  public  concent ;  as  others  have  faneied 
 that  it  was  further  secured  by  a  great  chain  that  went  across  it, 
 and  that  the  marks  thereof  were  visible  in  the  venerable  Bede's 
 time.     All  fables. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  For  an  explanation  of  the  apparent  discrepancies  in  the 
 accounts  given  by  the  evangelists,  respecting  our  Lord's  resur- 
 rection, the  reader  is  referred  to  the  supplementary  chapter  ou 
 the  subject,  chapter  iii.  of  this  Section. 
 
 e  Peter  is  here  named,  not  as  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  but, 
 as  the  lathers  say,  for  his  consolation,  and  to  take  ofi'the  scruple 
 which  might  lie  upon  his  spirits,  whether  after  his  threefold  denial 
 of  his  Master,  with  such  horrid  aggravations  attending  it,  he  had 
 not  forfeited  his  right  to  be  one  of  our  Lord's  disciples. — Whitby '» 
 Annotations. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1023 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END 
 
 In  the  mean  time  some  of  the  guards,  in  a  great  fright, 
 fled  into  the  city,  and  related  all  that  had  happened  to 
 the  chief-priests  and  rulers ;  who  immediately  assembled 
 themselves  to  consult  upon  this  important  aflair,  and 
 came  at  length  to  this  resolution,  namely,  '  to  bribe  the 
 soldiers  with  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  thereby  engage 
 them  to  give  it  out  among  the  people,  that,  while  them- 
 selves were  asleep,  the  disciples  of  Jesus  came,  and  stole 
 him  away  ;  promising  them  withal,  that,  in  case  this  their 
 pretended  neglect  should  come  to  the  governor's  ears, 
 they  would  take  care  to  pacify  him.'  The  soldiers  ac- 
 cordingly took  the  money,  and  obeyed  their  orders  ;  and 
 this  cl  report  was  current  among  the  Jews  for  many  years 
 after. 
 
 On  this  same  day  of  Christ's  resurrection,  as  two  of 
 his  disciples  were  taking  a  walk  in  the  afternoon,  to  a 
 town  called  Emmaus,  e  and  discoursing,  as  they  went 
 along,  of  what  had  lately  happened  ;  Jesus  joined  him- 
 self to  their  company,  /  but  they  knew  him  not :  and  ob- 
 serving that  they  looked  melancholy,  he  asked  them  the 
 
 Out  of  curiosity,  however,  Peter  and  John  ran  to  the 
 sepulchre,  and  found  the  thing  true  according  to  the 
 women's  report;  the  body  gone,  a  the  burying-clothes 
 lying  on  the  ground,  and  the  napkin  that  was  about  his 
 head,  very  carefully  folded,  and  laid  by  itself.  Notwith- 
 standing this,  such  was  their  incredulity,  b  that  they  re- 
 turned home,  never  supposing  any  thing  else,  but  that 
 somebody  had  taken  him  away.  Mary  Magdalene,  who, 
 by  this  time,  was  again  returned  to  the  sepulchre,  staid 
 behind  the  two  apostles  weeping ;  and,  as  she  stooped 
 down  to  look  in,  saw  two  angels  in  bright  apparel,  sit- 
 ting where  the  body  had  lain,  one  at  the  head,  and  the 
 other  at  the  feet.  As  the  angels  were  enquiring  of  her 
 the  occasion  of  her  tears,  and  she  telling  them,  that  it 
 was  the  loss  of  her  Lord's  body,  she  happened  to  turn 
 herself  round,  and  saw  Jesus  himself;  but  supposing 
 him  to  be  the  master  of  the  garden,  where  the  sepulchre 
 was,  she  desired  of  him,  that  if  he  had  removed  the  body 
 any  where,  he  would  be  so  kind  as  to  let  her  know,  that 
 she  might  take  care  of  it.  Hereupon  our  Lord  calling 
 her  by  her  name,  she  immediately  knew  him,  and  throw- 
 ing herself  at  his  feet,  was  going  to  embrace  him  :  but 
 lie  forbade  her,  upon  the  account  that  c  '  he  had  not,  as 
 yet  ascended  to  his  Father ;'  and  only  required  her  to 
 acquaint  his  apostles  with  his  resurrection,  and  imme- 
 diate ascension  into  heaven  ;  which  she  failed  not  to  do  ; 
 but  still  they  gave  no  credit  to  her  report 
 
 a  The  custom  of  interment  among  the  Jews,  was  to  roll  the 
 dead  body,  (as  we  read  our  Saviour's  was,  John  xix.  39,  40.) 
 up  in  spices ;  which  though  they  preserved  it  in  some  measure 
 from  corruption,  by  their  gluey  nature,  could  not  but  make 
 the  clothes  that  were  used  with  them  cling  so  close  to  the  skin, 
 as  not  to  be  drawn  off  without  a  great  deal  of  time  and  diffi- 
 culty. When  therefore  these  coverings  were  found  regularly 
 pulled  off,  wrapped  up,  and  laid  by,  this  plainly  shows,  that 
 the  disciples  could  have  no  hand  in  stealing  away  the  Master's 
 body.  For  do  thieves,  after  they  have  rilled  an  house,  use  to 
 spend  time  in  putting  things  in  order  again  ?  Or  can  it  enter 
 into  any  sober  man's  thoughts,  that  they,  who  come  by  stealth, 
 and  in  danger  of  their  lives,  as  the  disciples  certainly  must 
 have  done  upon  such  an  adventure,  should  thus  stay  to  awaken 
 the  guard,  and  trifle  away  their  time  in  such  hazardous  and 
 unnecessary  niceties  ?  Had  they  been  really  engaged  in  this 
 affair,  they  certainly  would  have  taken  away  the  body  at  once, 
 without  tarrying  to  unbind  arid  undress  it.  And  therefore  the 
 condition  in  which  the  sepulchre  was  found,  to  every  consider- 
 ate man,  must  be  a  sufficient  confutation  of  that  idle  pretence 
 of  the  Jews:  'His  disciples  came,  and  stole  him  away.' — The 
 literal  sense  of  the  scripture  vindicated,  p.  383. 
 
 b  The  remark  of  one  of  the  ancients  upon  this  subject  is  very 
 good,  that  their  doubting  is  the  confirmation  of  our  faith  ;  and 
 the  more  difficulty  they  showed  in  believing  Clu-ist's  resurrec- 
 tion, the  greater  reason  have  we  to  believe  it;  because  the 
 testimony  of  those  who  themselves  believe  not  till  after  lull  con- 
 viction, is,  upon  that  account,  much  more  credible. — Whitby  s 
 Annotations, 
 
 c  Various  are  the  senses  which  interpreters  have  been  pleased 
 to  affix  to  the  reason  which  our  Lord  here  assigns  for  his 
 rejecting  this  woman's  homage  and  embraces,  '  I  am  not  yet 
 ascended  to  my  Father.'  Some  imagine,  that  Mary,  still  retain- 
 ing her  notions  of  a  temporal  kingdom,  concluded  that  our  Lord 
 was  now  risen  on  purpose  to  assume  it,  and  therefore  fell  down 
 to  adore  him:  but  that  he,  willing  to  raise  her  mind  to  spiritual 
 and  celestial  thoughts,  gave  her  to  understand,  that,  as  yet,  it 
 was  not  a  proper  time  for  her  to  make  her  addresses  to  him, 
 because  he  was  not  yet  ascend*  d  into  heaven,  from  whence  he 
 was  to  administer  his  kingdom,  and  to  send  down  the  Holy 
 Ghost,  in  order  to  form  a  spiritual  communion  between  him 
 and  his  true  disciples Beansobre's  An?iotations.  Others  sup- 
 pose that  this  woman  imagined,  that  our  Lord  was  risen  again  in 
 the  same  maimer  that  Lazarus  did,  namely,  to  live  upon  earth 
 
 as  he  had  done  before ;  and  that  therefore  to  convince  her  of  the 
 contrary,  he  bid  her  not  touch  him  as  a  mortal  man,  because  '  I 
 am  not  yet  ascended  into  heaven,'  but  in  a  short  time  shall,  and 
 that  is  the  place  where  you  are  to  pay  me  your  homage  and 
 adorations. — Calmet's  Commentary .  Others  again  say,  that  by 
 a  figure,  common  enough  among  grammarians,  who  frequently 
 change  one  tense  for  another,  our  Saviour's  words  may  denote, 
 that  he  was  not  then  about  to  ascend,  but  to  stay  many  days 
 upon  earth;  so  that  Mary  might  have  space  and  opportunity 
 enough  to  pay  her  adorations,  and  to  satisfy  herself  in  the  truth 
 of  his  resurrection. —  Whitby's  Annotations.  But  these,  and 
 several  other  interpretations  of  the  like  kind,  are  far  from  being 
 natural,  and  seem  calculated  on  purpose  to  exclude  the  notion  of 
 our  Saviour's  frequent  ascensions  during  his  stay  upon  earth  after 
 his  resurrection,  which,  in  the  course  of  the  subsequent  answers,, 
 we  hope  to  evince  to  be  true. 
 
 d  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  the  report  which  the  evangelist 
 speaks  of,  as  current  among  the  Jews,  was,  not  that  our  Lord's 
 disciples  came  and  stole  him  away,  but  that  the  soldiers  were 
 corrupted  by  the  high  priests  to  say  so.  This  indeed  gives  a 
 quite  difierent  turn  to  the  thing,  and  is  very  favourable  to  the 
 Christian  cause;  but  yet,  whoever  considers  the  circular  letters 
 mentioned  by  Justin  Martyr,  which  the  rulers  in  Jerusalem 
 sent  to  the  principal  Jews  all  the  world  over,  concerning  this 
 fact,  and  the  great  pains  which,  as  Tertullian  informs  us,  they 
 every  where  took  to  propagate  it,  together  with  the  care  which 
 he  and  the  other  ancient  apologists  employed  to  confute  this 
 senseless,  but  malicious  lie,  must  needs  be  of  a  contrary  opinion, 
 namely,  that  the  report  was  spread,  not  against  the  Jewish 
 rulers,  but  the  Christian  disciples,  and  was  not  quite  extinct 
 when  St  Matthew  wrote  his  gospel,  chap,  xxviii.  15.  which 
 was  much  about  eight  years  after  Christ's  death. — Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 e  Emmaus,  which  was  afterwards  made  a  city,  and  called 
 Nicopolis,  was  at  this  time  a  small  village,  about  seven  miles 
 distant  from  Jerusalem  to  the  west,  where  it  is  supposed,  by 
 Bede  and  others,  that  either  Cleophas,  or  his  companion,  had 
 a  house,  which,  by  their  importuning  Jesus  to  go  with  them, 
 seems  not  improbable,  because  they  could  not  propose  to  enter- 
 tain him  so  eommodiously  or  hospitably  in  an  inn. —  Well's  Geo- 
 graphy of  the  New  Testament,  part  i.  and  Howell's  History,  in 
 the  notes. 
 
 f  Whether  it  was,  that  after  his  resurrection,  his  person  was 
 so  considerably  changed,  that  those  who  knew  him  before,  could 
 not  easily  distinguish  him;  or  that  he  appeared  in  an  habit  quite 
 different  from  what  he  used  to  wear,  which,  for  some  time, 
 might  hinder  them  from  recollecting  who  he  was;  or  that  he 
 suspended  the  operation  of  their  senses,  that  he  might  have  a 
 better  opportunity  to  instruct  their  understandings;  or  that  by 
 an  extraordinary  power,  he  withheld  their  eyes  from  perceiving 
 him,  by  which,  upon  removing  of  that  impediment,  they  imme- 
 diately knew  him ;  any  of  these  causes  will  answer  the  purpose 
 better,  than  that  we  should  impute,  as  some  do,  their  uot  know 
 
1024 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  8442.  A 
 
 subject  of  their  discourse,  and  what  it  was  that  made 
 them  so  disconsolate  ?  To  which  one  of  them  replied, 
 «  '  That  the  subject  of  their  discourse  was  too  notorious 
 even  to  escape  the  knowledge  of  the  greatest  stranger  ; 
 that  it  was  concerning  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  indeed 
 was  a  great  prophet ;  one  whom  they  expected  would 
 have  been  the  king  and  redeemer  of  Israel ;  but  to  their 
 great  disappointment  had  of  late  been  delivered  to  death 
 by  their  rulers,  and  crucified.  And,  what  is  more  as- 
 tonishing, continued  he,  this  very  day,  which  is  the  third 
 since  his  death,  some  women  of  our  company,  having 
 been  early  at  the  sepulchre,  and  not  finding  the  body, 
 surprised  us  with  an  account,  that  they  had  seen  a  vision 
 of  angels,  who  assured  them  that  he  was  alive ;  which, 
 in  part,  was  confirmed  by  some  of  our  men  too,  who 
 went  to  the  sepulchre,  and  found  it  empty,  but  did  not 
 see  him. 
 
 Hereupon  our  Lord  took  occasion  to  reprove  their 
 incredulity,  and,  from  the  testimony  of  the  prophets,  to 
 convince  them,  that  it  was  highly  necessary  the  Messiah 
 should  suffer  death,  and  rise  again,  in  order  to  a  glorious 
 exaltation.  As  they  drew  near  to  the  village,  where  they 
 intended  to  spend  that  night,  Jesus  *  seemed  as  if  he  had 
 farther  to  go  ;  but  being  unwilling  to  lose  his  good  con- 
 versation, they,  with  some  entreaty,  c  prevailed  with  him 
 to  stay.  He  did  so  :  and  as  he  was  sitting  at  the  table 
 with  them,  took  bread,  blessed  it,  brake  it,  and  delivered 
 it  to  them,  as  he  was  wont  to  do  ;  whereupon  their  eyes 
 were  opened,  and  they  knew  him ;  but  immediately  he 
 vanished  (1  out  of  their  sight. 
 
 As  soon  as  the  two  disciples  had  recovered  from  their 
 surprise,  they  hastened  to  Jerusalem,  where  the  apostles 
 were   met  together,  who   upon  their  arrival,  informed 
 
 D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  1£-END. 
 them  that  their  Lord  was  certainly  risen,  and  '  had  ap- 
 peared unto  Peter  ;  whilst  they,  in  their  turn,  related 
 what  had  happened  to  them  in  the  country,  how  Jesus 
 had  walked,  and  conversed  with  them,  and  how  they  came 
 to  know  him  by  breaking  of  bread.  But  notwithstanding 
 all  these  testimonies,  several  among  them  remained  still 
 incredulous. 
 
 For  fear  of  the  Jews,  the  apostles  had  shut  the  door, 
 and  were  now  set  down  to  supper  in  a  private  room,  late 
 in  the  evening,  when  our  blessed  Saviour  came  in,  and 
 saluted  them ;  and,  that  they  might  not  take  him  for  a 
 spirit,  or  phantom,  but  for  the  very  person  that  was 
 crucified  in  their  sight,  he  showed  them  the  wounds  in  his 
 hands,  his  feet  and  his  side.  Nay,  that  he  might  cure 
 them  of  all  scruple  and  doubtfulness,  he  eat  a  piece 
 of  broiled  fish,  e  and  some  honey-comb,  before  them  all, 
 and  then,  having  a  little  upbraided  them  with  their  un- 
 belief, he  gave  them  several  great  and  weighty  instruc- 
 tions, an  ability  to  understand  the  scriptures  /  more 
 perfectly,  a  renovation  of  their  commission  to  preach  to 
 all  nations,  S  a  power  and  authority  to  remit  or  retain 
 sins,  a  communication  of  the  blessed  Spirit  by  breathing 
 on  them,  and  a  promise  of  sending  him  more  plentifully, 
 to  enable  them  to  be  witnesses  h  of  his  resurrection,  be- 
 
 in^'  their  master  to  their  excessive  grief  and  sorrow. —  Calmet's 
 Commentary,  aud  fFTiitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  He  who  was  the  spokesman  upon  this  occasion,  is  said  to 
 be  Cleophas,  Luke  xxiv.  18.  who  was  the  brother  of  Joseph, 
 the  husband  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  so  the  reputed  uncle  of 
 Christ ;  whose  son  Simeon,  (says  Eusebius,  b.  iii.  c  10.)  by 
 the  joint  consent  of  the  apostles  then  living,  was  made  bishop 
 of  Jerusalem,  after  St  James,  as  being  the  nearest  of  kin  to  our 
 Saviour. —  HoivcWs  History. 
 
 b  And  so  very  probably  he  would  have  done,  had  not  the 
 disciples  pressed  him  to  stay  with  them.  But  supposing  he  had 
 been  resolved  to  abide  with  them,  and  was  minded  to  try  the 
 temper  of  his  fellow-travellers,  we  cannot  from  hence  charge 
 him  either  with  dissimulation,  or  deceit:  because,  though  our 
 words  ought  to  be  the  certain  interpreters  of  our  thoughts,  and 
 are  therefore  not  to  be  employed  so  as  to  deceive  any,  yet  walk- 
 ing hath  no  certain  signification,  nor  was  it  ever  instituted  to 
 be  an  indication  of  the  m'm&.—  Jrhitl.y's  Annotations. 
 
 c  Tin-  <iii o jual  word  in  St  Luke  is  "ra«s/Wira»rs,  which  our 
 translation  has  rendered, '  they  constrained  him.'  But  how  did 
 I  hev  constrain  him  ?  Did  they  lay  violent,  hands  on  him,  and 
 cany  him  in  whether  he  would  or  not  ?  The  sequel  shows 
 — saying,  '  abide  with  us;  for  it  groweth  late,  and  the  day  is 
 far  spent.'  The  expression  in  such  cases,  must  always  be 
 interpreted  according  to  popular  usage.  Usages,  such  as  this, 
 of  expressing  great  urgency  of  solicitation  by  terms  which,  in 
 BtrictnesB,  imply  force  and  compulsion,  are  common  in  every 
 tongue.  How  little,  then,  is  there  of  candour,  or  at  least  of 
 common  sense,  in  the  exposition  which  has  been  given  by  some, 
 of  a  like  phrase  of  the  same  writer,  chap.  xiv.  23.  '  Compel 
 them  to  come  in.' — Campbell  on  the  Gospels. — Ed. 
 
 d  Origen  is  of  opinion,  that  our  blessed  Lord  for  the  forty 
 days  that  he  was  upon  earth  after  his  resurrection,  could  make 
 himself  risible  or  invisible,  when  and  to  whom  he  pleased.  It 
 is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that  he  had  the  same  body  that  was 
 deposited  in  the  grave  ;  but  then,  what  the  powers  of  a  raised 
 and   glorified    body,  especially  when  in  conjunction   with   the 
 
 1  1  Cor.  xv.  5. 
 
 Deity  are,  we  cannot  tell;  only  we  may  infer,  that  our  Saviour 
 could,  at  least  with  the  same  facility,  disappear  to  his  disciples 
 now,  as  he  did  to  the  Jews,  when  they  were  about  to  stone 
 him,  John  viii.  59.  which,  it  is  generally  supposed,  he  did,  by 
 the  medium  of  a  cloud  cast  over  his  body. — Calmet's  Commen- 
 tary, and  WJiitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  This  he  did,  not  to  satisfy  any  hunger  that  his  body  could 
 suiier  after  its  resurrection,  but  to  prove  to  them  that  his  body 
 was  truly  raised,  and  himself  was  really  present.  And,  since 
 it  cannot  be  supposed,  that  Christ  in  this  action,  designed  any 
 illusion,  it  follows  from  his  very  eating,  that  his  body  had  those 
 parts  by  which  we  chew  our  meat,  and  withal  a  stomach  to  re- 
 ceive it. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 /This,  the  evangelist  tells  us,  our  Saviour  did,  by  opening 
 their  minds,  Luke  xxiv.  45.  for  it  is  one  thing,  to  open  the 
 scriptures  themselves,  or  to  explain  them,  and  another  to  open 
 their  understandings  to  perceive  them;  and  Christ,  very  pro- 
 bably, did  the  latter,  by  giving  them  now  some  first-fruits  of 
 that  spirit  of  prophecy,  which  fell  more  plentifully  on  them  at 
 the  day  of  Pentecost. —  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 g  Though  the  word  'ifani  does,  in  some  particular  places, 
 signify  the  tribes  and  families  of  the  Jews,  exclusive  of  other 
 people,  and,  in  veiy  many  places,  the  nations  of  the  heathen 
 world,  in  opposition  to  the  Jews  ;  yet  this  we  are  to  observe, 
 that  wherever  mention  is  made  of  preaching  the  gospel,  in 
 oider  to  gain  converts  to  the  Christian  faith,  the  word  relates 
 primarily  to  the  several  parts  of  Judea,  and  to  the  Jews,  where- 
 soever they  are  in  their  dispersions  abroad ;  then,  secondarily, 
 to  the  Gentiles  mingled  with  the  Jews  ;  and  finally,  to  the  whole 
 Gentile  world,  when,  upon  the  Jews'  rejecting  the  gospel,  the 
 apostles  were  forced  to  depart  from  them  ;  for  such  the  tenor  of 
 their  commission,  and  such  their  constant  practice  was;  '  It  was 
 necessary,'  says  Paul  and  Barnabas  to  the  Jews,  '  that  the  word 
 oi  God  should  first  have  been  spoken  to  you,'  which  refers,  I 
 suppose,  to  some  precept  of  Christ,  (see  Matt.  x.  6.  and  xv.  24.) 
 which  made  it  necessary,  '  but  seeing  ye  have  put  it  from  you, 
 lo,  we  turn  to  the  Gentiles,'  Acts  xiii.  46. — Hammond's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 h  As  Christ's  resurrection  was  a  matter  of  fact,  it  must  be 
 proved  by  the  testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  who,  if  they  be  honest 
 men,  and  sutler  the  greatest  prejudices  in  their  fortunes,  re- 
 putation, and  life,  for  this  testimony,  give  us  the  greater  rea- 
 son to  believe  it.  For  their  honesty  will  not  sutler  them,  upon 
 any  account  whatever,  to  deviate  from  the  truth,  their  interest 
 and  prudence  will  not  permit  them,  without  any  necessity 
 laid  upon  them,  to  testify  a  falsehood,  much  more  the  grossest 
 falsehood,  to  their  utmost  damage,  and  witl.out  any  prospect 
 
JftHT.  IV.] 
 
 FRQM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1025 
 
 A.  M.  1037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END 
 fore  they  were  to  depart  from   Jerusalem.     And  thus 
 ended  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which,  in  honour  of  our 
 blessed  Saviour's  resurrection,  has  ever  since  been  kept 
 as  the  sabbath  a  amonj  Christians. 
 
 At  the  above  mentioned  appearance  of  our  blessed 
 Saviour,  all  the  apostles,  except  Thomas, n  were  present ; 
 and  when  they  recounted  to  him  every  particular  that 
 had  happened  in  his  absence,  so  far  was  he  from  giving 
 his  assent  to  them,  that  he  openly  declared,  that,  unless 
 he  had  the   utmost  evidence  c  of  sense,  by  putting  his 
 
 of  advantage:  and  then,  if  they  confirm  this  their  testimony 
 by  all  kinds  of  signs,  miracles,  ami  wondrous  powers,  exercised 
 by  themselves,  and  others  who  embraced  their  testimony,  and  if 
 this  hi'  done  in  all  places,  and  on  all  persons,  for  a  whole  age,  or 
 ages;  this  makes  it  a  thing  impossible,  that  they  should  thus 
 attest  a  lie:  and  therefore  our  Lord  bids  his  apostles  stay  at 
 Jerusalem,  till  they  were  thus  empowered,  by  virtue  from  on 
 high,  to  confirm  this  testimony,  (Acts  i.  8.) — Whitby 's  Annota- 
 tions. 
 
 a  The  Jewish  sabbath  was  at  first  instituted,  not  barely  in 
 commemoration  of  God's  creating  the  world,  but,  as  there  is 
 another  reason  subjoined,  in  memory  of  their  deliverance  from 
 the  Egyptian  bondage:  '  For  remember,  that  thou  wast  a  servant 
 in  the  land  of  Egypt,  therefore  the  Lord  thy  God  commandeth 
 thee  to  keep  the  sabbath-day,'  (Dent.  v.  15.)  Now  this  bond- 
 age of  theirs  was  an  emblem  of  our  captivity  under  sin,  and  their 
 deliverance  a  type  of  our  spiritual  redemption.  When  therefore 
 our  redemption  was  accomplished,  it  became  proper,  that  the  day 
 of  sabbath  should  be  altered ;  especially  when  the  wise  provi- 
 dence of  God  had  so  ordered  matters,  that  the  old  Jewish  sabbath, 
 that  is  the  seventh  day,  should  be  passed  over,  and  the  first  made 
 choice  of,  to  be  honoured  with  two  such  glorious  miracles,  as  the 
 resurrection  of  our  blessed  Lord  from  the  dead,  and  the  coming 
 of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  heaven.  After  this,  indeed,  we  find  the 
 apostles  frequenting  the  synagogue  on  the  Jewish  sabbath,  but, 
 from  the  time  of  their  Lord's  resurrection  they  never  did  it,  as 
 they  did  before,  according  to  the  commandment,  (Luke  xxiii. 
 56.)  hut  according  to  custom,  or  as  the  manner  was,  (Acts  xvii. 
 2.)  and  therefore  we  have  reason  to  believe,  that,  from  the  very 
 first,  they  looked  upon  the  ancient  sabbath  as  superseded  by  this 
 other,  which  from  the  beginning  they  called  ri  Kueiecxv,  the 
 Lord's  day,  and  from  the  beginning  employed  in  acts  of  religious 
 worship.  To  which  purpose  we  find  Ignatius  exhorting  Chris- 
 tians, not  to  "  sabbatize  with  the  Jews,  but  to  live  according  to 
 the  Lord's  day,  in  which  our  life  arose  with  him  ;"  Epist.  ad  Mag. 
 vol.  iii. — Stanhope  on  the  epistles  and  gospels,  and  Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 b  What  might  be  the  occasion  of  this  apostle's  absence  is 
 variously  conjectured.  Some  are  of  opinion,  that,  as  all  fled 
 from  their  Master,  when  he  was  apprehended  in  the  garden, 
 they  did  not  so  soon  assemble  again,  but  by  degrees  dropped  in, 
 one  by  one,  as  they  recovered  from  their  fright;  and  that  there- 
 fore, at  this  time,  Thomas  was  not  returned  to  the  company. 
 But  others,  from  the  natural  temper  of  this  apostle,  as  it  appears 
 from  the  scripture  passages  where  he  is  concerned,  to  be  very 
 scrupulous,  and  hard  of  belief,  do  rather  think,  that  taking 
 offence  at  the  apostles'  easy  credulity,  as  he  deemed  it,  and 
 looking  upon  all  that  the  women  from  the  sepulchre,  and  the  two 
 disciples  from  Kmmaus,  had  said,  as  so  many  idle  tales,  he  left 
 the  company  in  pure  disgust,  not  long  before  our  Saviour  came 
 in. — Calmct's  Commentary,  and  Young's  Sermo7ts,  vol.  ii. 
 
 c  The  manner  by  which  the  apostle  might  bring  himself  to 
 this  resolution,  might  possibly  be  by  some  such  arguments  as 
 these: — "Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  put  to  death  upon  the  cross; 
 and,  being  dead,  was  laid  and  sealed  up  in  a  sepulchre,  which  was 
 strictly  watched  by  a  guard  of  soldiers:  but  I  am  told,  and  re- 
 quired to  believe,  that,  notwithstanding  all  this,  he  is  risen,  and 
 indeed  alive.  Now,  surely,  things  suitable  to  the  stated  course 
 of  nature  should  be  believed  before  such  as  are  quite  beside  it; 
 and  for  a  dead  man  to  return  to  life  is  preternatural,  but  that. 
 those  who  report  it  may  be  mistaken,  is  very  natural  and  usual. 
 Dead  I  saw  him;  but  that  he  is  risen  I  only  hear.  In  what  I 
 see  with  mine  own  eyes,  I  cannot  easily  be  deceived;  but  in 
 what  I  only  hear,  I  may,  and  often  am.  Here  being  two  things 
 then  proposed  to  my  belief,  my  reason  tells  me,  that  I  ought  to 
 choose  that  which  is  most  credible ;  but  it  seems  more  credible, 
 
 finger  into  the  holes  in  his  hands  and  side,  he  would  not 
 believe  a  word  of  what  they  told  him.  On  the  Sunday 
 following  therefore,  when,  in  the  same  place,  they  all 
 met  together,  with  the  doors  shut  for  fear  of  the  Jews, 
 and  Thomas  was  with  them,  Jesus  came,  and  standing 
 in  the  midst  of  them,  saluted  them  as  formerly,  with  the 
 blessing  of  peace.  After  that,  turning  to  Thomas,  he 
 offered  him  the  satisfaction  which  he  desired,  namely, 
 the  feeling  his  hands,  and  his  side,  where  the  nails  .and 
 the  spear  had  pierced ;  which  when  the  apostle  had  done, 
 and  upon  conviction  cried  out  in  transport,  '  My  God, 
 and  my  Lord!'  ,l  our  Saviour  gave  him  to  understand, 
 that  his  believing,  after  such  a  demonstrative  evidence, 
 was  neither  so  praiseworthy,  nor  rewardable,  as  was 
 the  faith  of  those  who  had  not  the  like  conviction. 
 
 After  this  appearance  to  the  apostles  in  a  full  body, 
 they  all  resolved,  pursuant  '  to  their  Lord's  directions, 
 to  leave  Judea,  and  return  into  their  own  province  of 
 Galilee.  They  had  not  been  long  there,  before  Peter, 
 and  several  others  of  them,  went  a  fishing  e  in  the  lake 
 or  sea  of  Tiberias,  but  after  much  toiling  all  night,  they 
 caught  nothing.  In  the  morning,  as  they  were  making 
 to  shore,  a  person,  /  unknown  to  them,  being  informed 
 of  their  ill  success,  advised  them  to  cast  their  net  on 
 the  right  side  of  the  ship,  which,  when  they  had  done, 
 they  enclosed  so  great  a  number  of  large  fishes,  as  made 
 John  suspect  that  the  person  on  shore  might  possibly 
 be  their  master.     This  he  no  sooner  suggested  to  Peter, 
 
 1  Mat.  xxvi.  32. — xxviii.  7. 
 that  a  small  number  of  witnesses,  frightened  and  disturbed  as 
 they  are,  should  be  deceived,  or,  as  honest  as  once  they  were, 
 may  conspire  to  deceive  me,  than  that  one  should  rise  from  the 
 dead;  and  therefore,  excepting,"  &c. —  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 d  This  is  a  noble  confession  of  the  apostle's  faith,  wherein  he 
 not  only  recognises  Jesus  for  the  Messiah,  the  very  same  Lord 
 to  whom  he  had  been  a  servant  and  companion  during  the  space 
 of  his  ministry,  but  owns  likewise,  and  proclaims  his  divine 
 nature.  For  the  original  here  is  in  terms  so  strict,  and  with 
 such  an  addition  of  the  Greek  article,  as  the  very  heretics,  and 
 enemies  to  truth,  confess  to  be  the  character  of  the  word  of 
 God,  when  taken  in  its  proper  sense,  and  intended  of  the  true 
 God  only.  Nor  can  the  words,  if  put  for  a  note  of  admiration 
 only,  he  of  force  sufficient  to  express  any  conviction  in  Thomas; 
 because  expressions  of  wonder,  though  they  properly  speak 
 astonishment  and  surprise,  do  not  always  imply  belief,  and  may 
 therefore  import  the  strangeness,  without  the  truth,  of  the  thing: 
 whereas  our  Saviour,  in  his  answer  to  Thomas,  '  Because  thou 
 hast  seen,  thou  hast  believed,'  (John  xx.  29.)  accepts  this  as  a  ful 
 and  sufficient  declaration  of  this  assent ;  and  therefore,  to  make 
 it  such,  we  must  admit  of  that  paraphrase,  which  some  ancient 
 translations  supply  it  with,  by  reading,  'Thou  art  my  Lord,  thou 
 art  my  God.' — Stanhope  on  the  epistles  and  gospels,  vol.  ii. 
 
 e  The  apostles,  as  such  had  nothing  to  do,  until  the  Holy 
 Ghost  should  descend  upon  them ;  and,  among  the  Jews,  it  was 
 accounted  a  disgrace  to  be  idle.  Since  fishing  therefore  was  the 
 ordinary  occupation  of  several  of  them  in  this  intermediate  time, 
 they  thought  it  the  best  way  to  betake  themselves  to  it,  and  that, 
 not  only  to  keep  themselves  employed,  but  to  supply  their  o-vn 
 want  of  necessaries  likewise,  until  they  should  have  a  proper  call 
 to  the  ministry,  when,  in  all  probability,  they  gave  over  the 
 labours  of  their  secular  employs,  and  devoted  themselves  entirely 
 to  that  work. —  Grotius's  Annotations. 
 
 f  By  this  one  would  think,  that  our  blessed  Lord,  after  his 
 resurrection,  was  not  a  little  changed  in  his  outward  appear- 
 ance, since  his  apostles,  notwithstanding  more  interviews  than 
 one,  could  not  so  readily  distinguish  him,  either  by  his  voice 
 or  looks.  Upon  this  occasion,  however,  he  seems  by  his 
 question,  John  xxi.  5.  to  personate  one  who  might  be  come 
 to  buy  some  fish  of  them,  and  under  this  guise,  whilst  they  were 
 busy  and  employed,  might  more  easily  pass  upon  them. — Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 6o 
 
1026 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  V1IL 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33  ;  OK,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10—  END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 but  Peter,  impatient  of  delay,  throws  on  his  coat,  °  and 
 jumps  into  the  sea,  and  gets  to  land,  while  the  other 
 apostles  had  much  ado  to  haul  the  vessel,  and  the  net 
 so  loaded  with  fish,  safe  to  shore.  The  number  of  the 
 fishes  was  an  hundred  and  fifty ;  but,  what  was  more 
 surprising,  at  their  landing,  they  found  a  fire  ready  made, 
 fish  broiling  on  it,  and  bread  standing  by.  This  not- 
 withstanding our  Lord  ordered  them  to  bring  some  of 
 those  which  they  had  caught,  and  having  *  asked  them  to 
 sit  down  with  him,  he  not  only  distributed  to  them,  but 
 eat  c  some  of  the  bread  and  fish  himself,  to  give  them  a 
 still  farther  assurance  of  the  reality  of  his  resurrection. 
 When  dinner  was  ended,  he  entered  into  conversation 
 with  Peter  ;  and  having  thrice  demanded  d  of  him,  if  he 
 loved  him, and  thrice  received  a  declaration  that  he  did; 
 he,  each  time,  injoined  him  to  take  care  of  the  flock 
 which  he  had  committed  to  him.  After  this,  in  a 
 figurative  speech,  he  signified  to  him,  by  what  manner  of 
 death  he  was  to  glorify  God,  even  by  crucifixion;  e  but, 
 
 a  The  text  tells  us,  that  he  was  '  naked'  before;  but  what 
 is  called  '  naked'  signifies  only  to  have  part  of  the  body  '  un- 
 covered,' or  to  be  without  a  gown,  or  upper  garment,  according 
 to  the  custom  of  the  eastern  people,  and  of  the  Romans,  who, 
 when  they  went  abroad,  or  made  any  public  appearance,  wore  a 
 long  upper  garment  called  in  Latin  'Toga.'  Of  this  kind  was 
 what  the  evangelist  calls  'a  fisher's  coat;'  and  from  hence  it 
 seems  pretty  plain,  that  Peter  did  not  swim,  as  it  is  usually 
 thought,  but  wade  to  land  ;  since,  if  decency  was  the  motive  of 
 putting  on  his  coat,  he  could  not  have  preserved  that  decency, 
 had  he  come  dripping  wet,  as  he  must  have  done,  upon  the 
 supposition  of  his  swimming,  into  his  master's  presence. — 
 HoiveWs  History,  in  the  notes,  and  Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 b  The  fire,  fish,  and  bread,  on  the  shore,  were  all  created, 
 and  produced  by  Christ  out  of  nothing,  to  evidence,  at  this 
 time,  his  divine  power,  but,  lest  there  should  be  thought  any 
 delusion  in  these,  he  ordered  likewise  some  of  the  others,  that 
 were  just  then  taken,  to  be  dressed ;  and,  that  they  might  not 
 take  him  for  an  apparition  only,  he  invited  them  to  dine  with 
 him.  As  therefore  by  the  miracle  of  creating,  and  miraculously 
 catching  the  fishes,  he  proved  himself  to  be  a  God;  so,  by  his 
 present  eating  of  the  fish,  he  evinced  himself  to  be  a  man,  and 
 consequently  teacheth  us,  that  our  exalted  high  priest  conti- 
 nues our  kinsman  in  heaven. — Hammond's  and  Burkitt's 
 Annotations. 
 
 c  It  is  not  indeed  said  expressly,  that  at  this  time  he  did 
 eat :  but,  since  St  Peter  tells  us,  that  '  they  did  eat  and  drink 
 with  him,  after  he  rose  from  the  dead,' Acts  x.  41.  and  St  Luke 
 testifies,  that,  on  another  occasion,  he  did  eat  before  them, 
 chap.  xxiv.  42,  43.  as  he  did  it  then  for  the  confirmation  of  his 
 resurrection,  it  is  hardly  to  be  doubted,  but  that  he  did  it  now 
 for  the  same  end. — JFhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Our  Saviour's  words  to  St  Peter  are,  '  Simon,  son  of  Jonas, 
 lovest  thou  me  more  than  these  ?'  John  xxii.  1 5.  More  than  these  ? 
 \\  hat  ?  Some  will  tell  us,  that  our  Saviour  here  pointing  at  the  nets 
 anil  fishing  boats,  demanded  of  Peter,  whether  he  loved  him  and  his 
 service  better  than  his  ordinary  employment  and  occupation; 
 but  this  is  a  forced  and  jejune  exposition.  The  apostle,  to  be 
 sure,  before  our  Lord's  being  taken  into  custody,  had  been  very 
 libera]  in  his  professions  of  love  to  him.  He  had  promised  to 
 go  with  him  to  prison  and  to  death;  and,  to  show  how  much  he 
 surpassed  the  rest  of  his  brethren, « though  all  should  be  oflended 
 because  of  thee,'  says  he,  'yet  will  not  I,'  Matt.  xxvi.  33.  and 
 yet  upon  the  approach  of  the  first  danger,  he  forgot  all  his  pro- 
 mises, and  behaved  more  ingloriously  than  the  rest.  It  is  in 
 allusion,  therefore  to  this,  that  our  Lord  begins  this  discourse 
 with  Peter;  that  he  calls  to  his  mind  his  former  speeches,  and 
 contrary  performances:  and,  by  thrice  repeating  this  question, 
 '  Peter,  lovest  thou  me  ?'  in  respect  of  his  three  denials,  and  at 
 fust  adding  the  words  '  more  than  these,'  in  regard  to  his  mag- 
 nifying his  love,  above  all  others,  he  now  engages  him,  by  the 
 sense  and  consideration  of  his  fall,  to  a  better  discharge,  and  a 
 more  constant  expression  of  his  love,  in  converting  men  to  the 
 faith  of  Christ.  —  fVhitby's  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 Q  The  occasion  of  his  being  put  to  death  is  generally  reported 
 
 when  Peter  desired  to  know  the  fate  of  his  favourite 
 apostle  St  John,  instead  of  gratifying  his  curiosity,  he 
 required  him  rather  to  attend  to  his  own  concerns,  and 
 as  he  was  to  resemble  him  in  the  manner  of  his  death,  so 
 to  endeavour  to  imitate  him  in  his  deportment  under  it. l 
 '  If  I  will  that  he  stay  till  I  come,  /  what  is  that  to  thee  ; 
 Follow  thou  me.'  This  answer  of  our  Saviour's,  however, 
 gaveoccasion  to  a  report  among  the  rest  of  the  disciples,  S 
 that  John  was  never  to  die ;  but  2  himself  refuted  that 
 opinion  in  his  gospel,  and,  by  surviving  the  fate  of  Jeru- 
 salem, verified  what  our  Saviour  meant. 
 
 After  this,  our  Lord  having  appointed  a  solemn  meet- 
 ing of  as  many  of  his  disciples  as  could  conveniently  be 
 got  together,  and  named  a  certain  mountain  in  Galilee ,J 
 for  that  purpose,  he  there  appeared,  not  only  to  the 
 eleven  apostles,  but  3  to  five  hundred  brethren  at  once. 
 Here  he  acquainted  his  apostles,  that  all  power,  both  in 
 heaven  and  earth,  was  given  unto  him  ;  commanded  them 
 to  instruct  all  nations,  and  baptize  them  in  the  name  of 
 the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
 to  press  them  to  the  observation  of  all  his  precepts  ; 
 foretold  them  what  mighty  signs  *  and  wonders  would 
 
 John  xxi.  22.         2  Ibid.  xxi.  23. 
 
 1  Cor.  xv.  G. 
 
 to  be, — that  he,  assisted  by  St  Paul,  had  at  Rome  confounded 
 the  diabolical  illusions  of  Simon  Magus:  whereupon  Nero,  who 
 was  a  favourer  of  magicians,  being  provoked,  or  as  others  think, 
 to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  people  of  Rome,  after  he  had  fired 
 their  city,  gave  orders  for  his  being  put  to  death,  which  the  pre- 
 fects, in  the  emperor's  absence,  took  care  to  see  executed  upon  him 
 and  St  Paul  at  the  same  time.  The  latter,  as  a  denizen,  was 
 beheaded  with  a  sword ;  but  St  Peter,  who  had  no  such  claim 
 to  the  like  privilege,  was  sentenced  to  crucifixion.  This,  and 
 the  torment  preparatory  to  it,  he  underwent  with  marvellous 
 patience,  and,  as  a  mark  of  his  humility,  requested,  and  obtained, 
 to  have  his  body  fastened  to  the  cross,  with  his  head  downwards, 
 as  judging  it  too  great  an  honour  to  suffer  in  the  same  manner 
 and  posture  that  his  Lord  had  done  before  him. — Stanhope  on 
 the  epistles  and  gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 f  That  is,  come  in  judgment  to  take  vengeance  on  the  Jews. 
 For  though  there  are  but  two  personal  advents  mentioned  in 
 Scripture ;  the  first,  when  our  Lord  came  into  the  world  to  re- 
 deem it;  and  the  second  when  he  shall  return  again  to  judge; 
 yet  this  is  no  objection  against  his  intermediate  advent,  which 
 was  not  personal  by  any  visible  descent  of  his  from  heaven,  but 
 virtual,  and  effected  by  his  sending  the  Roman  army  against  the 
 Jews,  and  giving  signs  from  heaven  and  in  the  clouds  of  their 
 approaching  ruin.  So  that  the  sense  of  our  Saviour's  words  is 
 — '  If  my  pleasure  is,  that  he  live  till  the  dissolution  of  the  Jew- 
 ish state:'  and  accordingly,  we  find  that,  though  Peter  was  put 
 to  death  under  Nero,  yet  St  John  continued  even  to  the  time  of 
 Trajan's  reign,  above  an  hundred  years  after  our  Saviour's  birth, 
 and  so  thirty  years  after  that  this  coming  of  his  was  past. — 
 Whitby's  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 g  Because  the  Christians,  at  that  time,  by  the  coming  of 
 Christ,  understood  the  last  judgment;  whereas  our  Saviour  in- 
 tended it  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which,  in  effect,  was 
 a  full  emblem  of  the  final  dissolution  of  all  things. — Beau- 
 sobre's  Annotations. 
 
 h  This  mountain  is  generally  supposed  to  be  Tabor,  the  place 
 where  our  Lord  was  transfigured,  though  some  suppose  it  to  be  one 
 that  stood  nearer  the  lake  of  Tiberias. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 i  We  are  not  to  suppose,  however,  that  our  Lord  promised 
 the  gift  of  miracles,  to  every  Christian  convert ;  since  this  would 
 have  made  miracles,  which  should  only  be  employed  on  impor- 
 tant occasions,  where  the  glory  of  God,  or  the  good  of  mankind 
 is  concerned,  too  common,  and  consequently  of  no  validity  at  all. 
 So  that  this  promise,  though  expressed  in  general  terms,  must 
 necessarily  be  limited  to  the  apostles,  and  apostolic  men.  Of 
 their  casting  out  devils,  healing  diseases,  and  speaking  with  new 
 tongues,  we  have  instances  almost  innumerable.  Their  taking 
 up  serpents  seems  to  be  foretold  by  that  Sybil,  from  whose  oracles 
 Virgil  very  probably  borrowed  this  verse  of  his: 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1027 
 
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 attend  those  who  were  true  converts  to  his  religion  ;  and 
 promised  them  his  daily  protection  a  and  assistance,  even 
 unto  the  end  of  the  world. 
 
 Forty  days  was  the  time  pre-ordained  for  our  Lord's 
 continuance  upon  earth  after  his  resurrection.  These  days 
 were  now  almost  expired,  when  the  apostles,  according 
 as  they  were  ordered,  with  some  of  their  select  friends, 
 returned  to  Jerusalem,  and  there  assembled  themselves  in 
 a  private  place.  Our  blessed  Saviour  came  to  them ; 
 and,  among  other  things,  l  relating  to  the  government  of 
 his  church,  gave  them  particularly  in  charge,  that  they 
 should  not  depart  from  *  Jerusalem,  until  they  had 
 received  that  miraculous  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost  c 
 
 1  Acts  i.  3. 
 
 "  The  serpent  shall  perish,  and  the  deceitful  poisonous  herb." 
 And  from  St  Paul  it  appears,  that  this  promise  was  literally  ful- 
 filled, who,  after  a  viper  had  fastened  upon  his  hand  for  some 
 time,  shook  it  off  into  the  fire  without  receiving  any  hurt,  (Acts 
 xxviii.  5.)  And  as  to  the  drinking  of  deadly  poisons,  we  have 
 it  recorded  by  Papias,  of  Barsabas,  suraamed  the  just;  by  Ado, 
 in  his  martyrology,  of  the  Ctecilian  soldier;  and  by  Gregory  of 
 Tours,  of  Sabinus,  bishop  of  Cauoso ;  that  they  three  did  this  with- 
 out any  mischief  to  themselves.  But  as  miracles  of  this  kind  were 
 more  liable  to  exceptions,  than  such  as  were  performed  upon 
 unbelievers,  men  being  apt  to  think,  that  there  might  be  some 
 antidotes  against  the  venom  of  these  beasts,  or  the  pernicious 
 effects  of  these  draughts,  it  must  be  owned,  that  providence 
 thought  fit  to  be  more  sparing  in  affording  these. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary, Hammond's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  Our  Saviour's  words  are, — '  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always  to 
 the  end  of  the  world,'  (Mat.  xxviii.  20.),  where  we  must  observe, 
 that  this  promise  was  made,  not  to  all  Christians  in  general,  but 
 only  to  those  whom  Christ  authorised  to  teach  and  baptize  in  his 
 name,  as  the  words  themselves,  and  the  occasion  of  speaking 
 them,  plainly  show:  and  it  contains  a  full  declaration  of  our 
 Lord's  intention,  that  they  should  always  be  succeeded  by  others 
 in  the  same  office.  For  since  the  apostles  all  died  within 
 the  compass  of  fourscore  years,  after  this  extensive  promise  was 
 made,  it  could  no  ways  be  fulfilled  but  by  our  Lord's  being 
 with  their  successors  in  the  gospel- ministry  until  the  world's 
 end.  For  what  some  imagine,  that  the  avfriXua.  tov  uiwvos  re- 
 lates to  the  end  of  the  Jewish  age  or  economy,  which  lasted,  as 
 they  say,  to  the  destruction  of  the  temple  under  Vespasian,  and 
 so  confine  this  promise  to  the  persons  of  the  apostles  only,  is 
 void  of  all  foundation,  unless  we  can  suppose,  that  all  sacred  func- 
 tions were  to  cease;  neither  baptism  to  be  administered,  nor 
 the  gospel  preached  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which 
 is  false  in  fact:  and  therefore,  if  we  may  be  allowed  to  explain 
 the  design  and  meaning  of  this  promise  by  the  manner  of  its 
 completion,  we  must  conclude,  that  our  Lord  here  engages  him- 
 self to  be  present  with  his  ministers,  both  by  his  special  grace, 
 and  his  authority,  after  the  end  of  the  Jewish  economy,  as  well 
 as  till  that  time :  and  hence  we  may  assure  ourselves,  that  the 
 ministry  of  the  word,  and  administration  of  the  sacraments,  are  a 
 standing  and  perpetual  ordinance,  to  continue  in  the  Christian 
 church  throughout  all  ages;  and  that  all  the  faithful  ministers 
 of  Christ,  in  what  part  of  the  world  soever  God  shall  cast  their 
 lot,  and  what  time  soever  they  shall  happen  to  live,  may  com- 
 fortably expect  Christ's  gracious  presence  with  their  persons,  and 
 his  blessing  upon  their  labours. — Archbishop  Potter's  Church 
 government,  c.  iv.  and  Burliitt's  Annotations. 
 
 b  Of  all  places  the  apostles  would  least  of  all  have  chosen 
 Jerusalem  to  tarry  in,  had  not  our  Lord  positively  commanded 
 them  to  continue  there.  For  Jerusalem  was  now  a  place  justly 
 abhorred  and  detested  by  them,  as  reeking  fresh  with  the  blood 
 of  the  holy  and  innocent  Jesus;  and  yet  Jerusalem  is  the  place 
 chosen  by  Christ  for  the  pouring  forth  of  his  Holy  Spirit  upon 
 his  apostles ;  because  there  was  the  greatest  company  of  specta- 
 tors to  behold  it,  and  to  be  wrought  upon  by  it ;  and  because  there 
 had  been  the  scenes  of  his  greatest  humiliation,  and  therefore 
 he  was  minded  to  show  forth  his  power  and  glory. — JJurkitt's 
 Annotations. 
 
 0  The  reasons  assignable  for  this  wonderful  dispensation,  are, 
 1.  To  enable  them  to  be  powerful  witnesses  of  our  Lord's  resur- 
 
 which  he  had  promised,  and  would  shortly  send  down 
 upon  them.  This  effusion  of  the  Spirit  the  apostles 
 imagined  might  possibly  be  an  introduction  to  his  tem- 
 poral dominion,  which  still  ran  in  their  heads;  and 
 therefore  they  asked  him,  whether  he  intended  at  that 
 time,  to  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ?  But  he  checked 
 their  inquiry,  and  gave  them  to  understand,  that,  after 
 the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  them,  they  would 
 have  juster  notions  of  these  matters,  and  be  sufficiently 
 enabled  to  be  the  authentic  witnesses  of  his  life  and  ac- 
 tions, d  all  the  world  over  ;  and  with  these  words  he  led 
 all  the  company  out  of  the  city,  to  that  part  of  mount 
 Olivet,  which  was  nearest  to  Bethany  ;  and  there,  as  he 
 was  lifting  up  his  hands,  and  giving  them  his  benedic- 
 tion, e  while  they  continued  all  in  an  adoring  posture 
 he  was  parted  from  them  gradually,  taken  up  in  a  cloud, 
 and  carried  triumphantly  into  heaven,  /  where  he  now 
 
 rection,  (Luke  xxiv.  4S.),  and  consequently  that  he  was  the  true 
 Messiah,  or  the  prophet  who  was  to  come  into  the  world,  and 
 was  to  be  the  Saviour  of  it:  and  therefore  St  Peter  speaks  thus 
 to  the  Jews,  '  Ye  have  killed  the  prince  of  life,  whom  God  hath 
 raised  from  the  dead,  of  which  we  are  witnesses,'  (Acts  iii.  15.)  2. 
 To  enable  them  to  give  au  exact  account,  as  far  as  divine  wisdom 
 saw  it  necessary,  of  what  our  Saviour  did  and  taught:  and  there- 
 fore himself  tells  them,  that '  the  Spirit  of  truth  which  proceedeth 
 from  the  Father,  should  testify  of  him,  and  bring  all  those  things 
 to  their  remembrance,  which  he  had  said  unto  them,'  (John  xv. 
 26. — xiv.  26.)  And  3.  To  make  them  able  ministers  of  the 
 New  Testament,  that  is,  able  to  acquaint  Christians  with  all 
 saving  truths,  and  to  teach  them  all  things  that  Christ  had  com- 
 manded to  be  observed,  throughout  all  the  ages  of  the  church; 
 and  upon  the  strength  of  this  promise,  all  Christians,  in  all  ages, 
 have  believed,  that  the  apostles  and  writers  of  the  New  Testa- 
 ment, both  spake  and  wrote  as  they  were  moved  or  directed  by 
 the  Spirit  of  God,  and  accordingly  have  received  their  doctrines, 
 'not  as  the  words  of  men,  but  as  they  were  in  truth,  the  word 
 of  God,'  (1  Thess.  ii.  13.) — JVhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Thus  the  apostles  preached  in  the  most  considerable  cities 
 of  the  then  known  world,  as  at  Antioch,  Alexandria,  and  eveu 
 at  Rome  itself,  as  well  as  at  Jerusalem  and  Samaria.  They 
 taught  at  Athens,  and  Corinth,  and  throughout  all  Greece,  in 
 such  towns  as  were  most  learned, most  corrupt,  and  most  idolatrous. 
 It  was  in  the  presence  of  all  nations,  of  Greeks  and  barbarians, 
 of  the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  of  Jews  and  Romans,  of  princes 
 and  their  people,  that  the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  gave  witness 
 of  the  wonders  they  had  '  seen  with  their  eyes,  heard  with  their 
 ears,  and  touched  with  their  hands,'  and  particularly  of  their 
 Lord's  resurrection  ;  which  testimony  they  supported,  without 
 any  interest,  and  against  all  the  reasons  of  human  prudence, 
 eveu  to  their  last  breath,  and  sealed  it  with  their  blood.  Such 
 was  the  establishment  of  Christianity! — Fleury's  Church 
 History. 
 
 e  The  custom  among  the  Jews  was,  to  give  the  benediction 
 to  a  good  number  or  congregation  of  people,  with  an  eleva- 
 tion and  extension  of  the  hands,  as  appears  from  the  practice  of 
 Aaron,  Lev.  ix.  22.  But  to  any  particular  person,  the  blessing 
 was  given  with  the  imposition  of  hands,  as  the  example  of  Jacob, 
 with  regard  to  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  plainly  shows,  Gen. 
 xlviii.  14. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 /  This  must  be  understood  of  his  human  nature  only,  because 
 the  divine  nature  fills  all  places,  both  in  heaven  and  earth,  and 
 is  at  all  times  incapable  of  that  which  we  properly  call  '  motion.' 
 The  same  body  of  Christ  therefore,  which  was  born,  and  suf- 
 fered and  died,  was  actually  carried  up  thither;  and  so  our 
 Saviour's  ascension  was  no  imaginary  and  figurative,  but  a  real, 
 proper,  and  corporeal  ascent  into  heaven,  and  that  in  the  most 
 elevated  part  and  noblest  signification  that  this  word,  at  any 
 time  does,  or  can  possibly  admit ;  and  therefore  he  is  said  to 
 have  entered  into  the  holy  place,  Heb.  ix.  12.  and  to  have  '  as- 
 cended up  far  above  all  heavens,'  Eph.  iv.  10.  into  the  '  presence 
 of  God  and  where  he  was  before,'  John  vi.  62.  So  that,  whatever 
 heaven  is  higher  than  all  the  rest  which  are  called  heaven  ; 
 whatever  sanctuary  is  holier  than  all  which  are  called  holies, 
 whatever  place  is  of  greatest  dignity  in  all  those  courts  above, 
 
1028 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10—  END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  10— END. 
 
 sitteth  at  the   a  right  hand  of  God, 
 ever.'     Amen.  * 
 
 CHAP.  II. 
 
 Objections  answered,  and  difficulties 
 obviated. 
 
 St  Paul,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Philippians,  argues,  from 
 the  majesty  of  Christ's  divine  nature,  to  the  greatness  of 
 his  condescension  in  becoming  the  Son  of  man,  '  who 
 being  in  the  form  of  God,'  as  he  expresses  it, '  thought  it 
 no  robbery  to  be  equal  with  Cod,  but  made  himself  of  no 
 reputation,  and  look  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and 
 was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men  ;  and  being  found  in  the 
 fashion  of  a  man,  he  humbled  himself,  and  became  obe- 
 dient unto  death.'8  In  this  state  of  humiliation,  it  was 
 highly  proper  and  suitable  to  his  character,  to  speak 
 modestly  of  himself,  and  to  make  use  of  the  lowest  title 
 that  he  had,  as  best  becoming  his  present  condition. 
 
 But  there  is  another  reason  which  some  have  assigned 
 for  the  frequent  use  that  he  makes  of  this  appellation ; 
 and  that  is,  its  being  a  prophetic  name,  whereby  Daniel 
 has  thought  lit  to  describe  the  promised  Messiah.     3  '  1 
 
 1  Rom.  i.  25.       2  Phil.  ii.  6,  &c.        3  Dan.  vii.  13,  14. 
 
 into  that  place  did  our  Saviour  ascend,  where,  in  the  splendour 
 of  his  deity,  he  was  before  he  took  upon  him  our  humanity;  as 
 our  learned  bishop  Pearson  fully  and  elegantly  expresses  it;  art. 
 4.  and  Stanhope  on  the  epistles  and  gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 a  This  is  one  of  those  expressions  wherein  the  Holy  Ghost 
 condescends  to  our  capacity,  by  attributing  to  God  the  parts 
 and  gesture  of -a  human  body.  The  hand  is  the  chief  instru- 
 ment of  exerting  our  strength,  and  therefore  often  used  to  de- 
 note the  power  of  God.  The  right-hand  is  the  usual  place  of 
 honour  and  respect,  and  therefore  this  denotes  the  highest  dig- 
 nity. Sitting,  in  like  manner,  intimates  a  state  of  ease  and  rest, 
 and  is  properly  the  posture  of  those  that  are  in  power  and  au- 
 thority, of  kings  upon  their  thrones,  and  magistrates  in  courts 
 of  justice;  and  therefore  '  Christ's  sitting  at  God's  right  hand,' 
 implies  thus  much, — "that  the  same  bliss,  glory,  and  power, 
 which,  as  the  Son  of  God,  he  did  before  his  incarnation  enjoy 
 with  his  Father,  from  all  eternity,  his  human  nature  is  now 
 made  partaker  of  in  the  highest  heavens  ;  that  this  God- man 
 is  invested  with  an  absolute  authority,  and  boundless  domi- 
 nion, and  does  now,  in  both  natures,  rule,  as  he  shall  one  day 
 judge,  the  whole  world;  and  that  till  that  day  come,  it 
 is  the  duty  of  us,  and  all  mankind,  to  reverence  and  obey, 
 to  trust  in,  and  pray  to  him,  as  our  only  head  and  king,  our 
 rightful  and  universal  Lord." — Stanhope  on  the  epistles  and 
 gospels,  vol.  iii. 
 
 o  In  this  illustrious  manner  did  the  Saviour  depart,  after  hav- 
 ing finished  the  grand  work  which  he  came  down  upon  earth 
 lu  execute  ;  a  work  which  God  himself,  in  the  remotest  eternity, 
 contemplated  with  pleasure,  which  angels  anciently,  and  superior 
 natures,  with  joy  descried  as  to  happen,  and  which  through  all 
 >  trinity  to  come  shall,  at  periods  the  most  immensely  distant 
 from  the  time  of  its  execution,  be  looked  back  upon  with  inex- 
 pressible delight  by  every  inhabitant  of  heaven.  For  though  the 
 little  ailairs  of  time  may  vanish  altogether  and  be  lost,  when 
 they  are  removed  far  back  by  the  endless  progression  of  dura- 
 tion, this  object  is  such,  that  no  distance  however  great  can 
 lessen  it.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  erected  upon  the  incarnation 
 aild  sui,  Son  of  God,  the  kingdom  and  city  of  God 
 
 comprehending  all  the  virtuous  beings  that  are  in  the  universe, 
 
 made  happy  by  g Iness  and  love:  and  therefore  none  of  them, 
 
 ran  ever  forget  the  foundation  on  which  their  happiness  stands 
 firmly  established.  In  particular  the  human  species,  recovered 
 by  this  labour  of  the  Son  of  God,  will  view  their  deliverer,  and 
 look  back  on  his  stupendous  undertaking  with  high  ravishment, 
 while  they  are  feasting  without  interruption  on  its  sweet  fruits, 
 evergrowing  mare  delicious.  The  rest  of  the  members  like- 
 wise of  the  city  of  God  «ill  contemplate  it  with  perpetual  plea- 
 
 God  blessed  for  saw  in  the  night  vision,'  says  he, '  and  behold,  one  like 
 the  Son  of  man,  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven, 
 and  came  to  the  ancient  of  days  :  and  there  was  given 
 him  dominion,  and  glory,  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  people 
 nations,  and  languages,  should  serve  him.'  It  is  in  al- 
 lusion to  this  therefore,  as  these  men  think,  and  in  order 
 to  assert  his  claim  to  the  office  of  the  Messiah,  that  our 
 Saviour  so  commonly  calls  himself  by  that  name. 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  he  is  not  so  fond  of 
 the  name  of  the  Son  of  man,  as  not  to  desire  to  be  consid- 
 ered in  the  capacity  of  the  Son  of  God  likewise.  For, 
 when  he  put  the  question  to  his  disciples,  4 '  Whom  say  ye 
 that  I  am  ?'  and  Peter,  in  the  name  of  the  rest,  replied, 
 '  Thou  art  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living-  God,'  he  is  far 
 from  being-  displeased  with  the  answer,  when  he  returns 
 the  apostle  this  compliment,  '  blessed  art  thou,  Simon 
 Barjonas,  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  this  unto 
 thee,  but  my  Father  that  is  in  heaven.' 
 
 Our  Saviour  indeed  was  so  far  from  making  any  un- 
 necessary declarations  of  himself,  that,  5  on  some  occa- 
 sions, we  find  him  labouring  to  conceal  his  divine  char- 
 acter, and  charging  his  disciples  to  say  nothing  of  it, 
 until  his  resurrection  :  c  but,  notwithstanding  this,  when- 
 ever he  was  fairly  called  upon,  and  especially  by  persons 
 invested  with  authority,  he  never  concealed  it.  AVhen  6 
 the  Jews  came  around  him  in  Solomon's  porch,  and  said 
 unto  him,  '  how  long  dost  thou  make  us  doubt  ?  If  thou 
 be  the  Christ,  tell  us  plain  :"  his  answer  is  express:  '  I 
 told  you,  and  you  believed  not ;  the  works  that  I  do  in 
 my  Father's  name,  they  bear  witness  of  me  :  for  I  and 
 my  Father  are  one.'  When  he  stood  before  the  judg-- 
 ment-seat,  and  the  high  priest  demanded  of  him, 7 '  I  ad- 
 jure thee  by  the  living  God,  that  thou  tell  us,  whether 
 thou  be  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  ;'  his  reply  is, '  Thou 
 hast  said,'  or,  as  St  Mark  8  expresses  it,  '  I  am  ;  and  ye 
 shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of 
 power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.'  Nay, 
 there  are  some  instances,  wherein,  of  his  own  accord, 
 and  without  any  demand  of  this  kind,  he  freely  discovers 
 who  he  was ;  for  having  cured  the  man  that  was  born 
 blind,  and  afterwards  meeting  him  accidentally,  n  '  dost 
 
 4  Mat.  xvi.  15,  &c.  s  See  Mark  viii.  30.  and  Mat.  xvii.  9. 
 6  Jno.  x.  23,  24. 7  Mat.xxvi.  63,  64.  8  Chap,  xi  v.  62.  9  Jno.ix.  35. 
 sure,  as  the  happy  means  of  recovering  their  kindred  that  were 
 lost,  and  it  may  be  as  the  grand  confirmation  of  the  whole 
 rational  system,  in  their  subjection  to  him  who  liveth  and  reign- 
 eth  for  ever,  and  whose  favour  is  better  than  life. — M^Kniyht's 
 Harmony. — Ed. 
 
 c  That  Christ  was  very  cautious  of  acknowledging  himself  to 
 be  the  promised  Messiah,  in  his  conversing  with  the  Jews,  is  \ery 
 apparent;  (compare  Mat.  xvi.  SO.  Mark  viii.  29,  30;  Luke 
 xxii.  67.  and  John  x.  24.),  and  the  reason  was,  that  the  Jews 
 had  such  notions  of  the  temporal  kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  that 
 they  would  have  construed  an  open  declaration  of  himself  under 
 that  character  as  a  claim  to  the  throne  of  David  ;  in  consequence 
 of  which,  many  would  have  taken  up  arms  in  the  cause,  (John  vi. 
 15.)  and  others  would  have  accused  him  to  the  Roman  governor, as 
 a  rebel  against  Caesar,  (Luke  XX.  20.)  as  they  afterwards  did,  (Luke 
 xxiii.  2.) — This  Mr  Locke  has  stated  at  large  in  his  Reasonable- 
 ness of  Christianity,  p.  59 — 77.  Yet  I  think  there  was  a  nicety 
 in  Christ's  conduct,  beyond  what  is  there  represented :  for  our 
 Lord  in  effect  declared  the  thing,  while  he  declined  that  parti- 
 cular title ;  and  in  a  multitude  of  places,  represents  himself  as 
 the  Son  of  man,  and  the  Son  of  God,  which  were  both  equivalent 
 phrases,  and  generally  understood  by  the  Jews,  though  a  Romau 
 would  not  so  easily  have  entered  into  the  force  of  them.  Accord- 
 ingly we  find  this  interpretation  was  in  fact  given  to  them,  (John 
 vii.  31,  II.  and  ix.  22.) 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1029 
 
 A.  M.  4037  A,  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  29— END. 
 
 thou  believe  on  the  Son  of  God  r°  says  he :  whereupon 
 the  man  asking,  '  who  is  the  Son  of  God,  that  1  may 
 believe  on  him?'  our  Saviour  replies,  'Thou  hast  both 
 seen  him,  and  he  it  is  that  talketh  with  thee.' 
 
 Though  therefore  our  blessed  Saviour  delighted  much 
 in  the  appellation  of  the  Son  of  man;  yet  as  he  did  not, 
 upon  that  account,  decline  the  title  of  the  '  Son  of  God,' 
 and  had  consequently  two  natures  united  in  the  fame  per- 
 son, our  business  must  be,  to  distinguish  between  these 
 two  natures,  and  then  wc  shall  soon  perceive  the  reason 
 of  our  Saviour's  informing  his  apostles,  that  his  Father 
 was  greater  than  him,  namely,  greater  with  respect  to  the 
 Son's  humanity,  though,  as  touching  their  divinity,  they 
 are  perfectly  equal ;  or  greater,  as  he  is  the  Father,  and 
 consequently  the  fountain  and  original  of  the  Godhead, 
 though  their  nature  and  essence  be  one  and  the  same. 
 
 1  In  the  very  notion  of  paternity  and  filiation,  there  is 
 some  kind  of  subordination  implied;  but  then  we  are  to 
 observe,  that  this  is  not  a  subordination  of  nature  and 
 substance,  no,  nor  of  essential  attributes,  or  natural  pro- 
 perties, but  merely  a  personal  subordination,  founded 
 on  the  personal  properties:  and,  to  be  satisfied  in  this, 
 we  need  only  consider,  that  the  communication  of  the 
 essence,  upon  which  this  subordination  is  grounded,  is 
 only  a  personal  action,  and  not  an  act  or  attribute  of  the 
 divine  essence.  To  generate,  and  to  be  generated,  are 
 not  essential  attributes  of  the  divine  nature,  but  merely 
 personal  acts  of  the  Father  and  Son;  and,  consequently, 
 the  sole  foundation  of  this  subordination  being  merely 
 in  personal  properties,  the  subordination  itself,  founded 
 therein,  can  only  relate  to  the  personal,  and  not  at  all 
 to  the  essential  properties ;  for,  notwithstanding  the 
 Son's  personal  subordination,  he  still  continues,  with 
 the  Father  in  substance  equal,  in  majesty,  co-eternal. 
 
 When  therefore  our  Saviour  seems  to  own  his  inferi- 
 ority of  knowledge,  and  to  profess  himself  ignorant  of 
 some  future  events,  that  the  Father  had  reserved  to 
 himself,  the  meaning  must  be,  2  Either  that  as  man, 
 he  did  not  know  beyond  the  capacities  of  a  human  and 
 finite  understanding,  and  not  what  he  knew  as  God ;  or 
 that,  as  a  prophet  sent  from  God,  he  had  no  commission 
 to  declare  it,  and  what  was  no  part  of  his  prophetic 
 office,  he  knew  nothing  of,  that  is,  had  no  instructions 
 to  reveal  it.  For,  that  in  this  sense  °  the  original  word 
 is  sometimes  taken,  we  may  learn  from  that  passage  to 
 the  Corinthians,  where  St  Paul  tells  his  disciples,  that3 
 he  had  determined  not  to  know  any  thing  among  them, 
 that  is,  not  to  teach  or  instruct  them  in  any  point  of 
 doctrine,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified. 
 
 "  It  is  one  thing  therefore,"  says  the  learned  4  Light- 
 foot,  "  to  understand  the  Son  of  God,  barely,  and  ab- 
 stractly, for  the  second  person  in  the  Holy  Trinity,  and 
 another,  to  understand  him  for  the  Messiah,  or  second 
 person  incarnate.  To  say,  that  the  second  in  the 
 Trinity  is  ignorant  of  any  thing,  is  blasphemous  :  but  to 
 say  so  of  the  Messias,  though  he  be  that  second  person 
 in  the  Trinity,  is  not  so.  For,  though  the  second  person, 
 abstractly  considered,  according  to  his  mere  Deity,  be 
 
 'Stevens  on  the  eternal  generation: 
 
 s  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messias,  part  ii.  p.  GO. 
 
 3 1  Cor.  ii.  2.  «  On  Mark  xiii.  32. 
 
 a  For  an  explanation  of  this  passage,  (Mat.  xiii  32)— Seen 
 to  1001.  p Ed. 
 
 co-equal  with  the  Father,  co-omnipotent,  co-omniscient, 
 co-eternal  with  him  ;  yet  the  Messias,  who  is  God-man, 
 considered  as  the  Messias,  was  a  servant  and  a  messen- 
 ger to  the  Father,  from  whom  he  received  commands 
 and  authority,  as  himself  frequently  declared,  5  '  that 
 he  spake  nothing  of  himself,  but  that  the  Father,  who 
 sent  him,  gave  him  commandment  what  he  should  say, 
 and  what  he  should  speak.'  "  Though  therefore  it  plainly 
 apears,  both  from  the  many  prognostics  which  he  men- 
 tions, and  the  exact  description  which  he  gives  of  the 
 destruction  of  Jerusalem,  that  our  Saviour  could  not  but 
 know  the  precise  day  and  hour  of  its  happening,  yet  this 
 he  might  call  one  of  6  '  those  times  and  seasons  which 
 the  Father  had  put  in  his  own  power,'  because  he  had 
 received  no  order  or  direction  for  him  to  reveal  it. 
 
 The  generality  of  the  ancients  however  run  into 
 the  other  notion,  which  arises  from  the  consideration 
 of  the  two  natures  in  Christ;  and  therefore,  with  Cyril 
 of  Alexandria,  they  say,  that  he  sometimes  declared  him- 
 self as  God,  and  sometimes  as  man,  thereby  to  show, 
 that  he  was  very  God,  and  very  man;  that  as  he  was 
 pleased,  in  respect  of  his  manhood,  to  surfer  hunger  and 
 thirst,  and  other  inconveniencies  of  that  kind,  so  he  con- 
 descended to  take  upon  him  the  innocent  infirmities  of 
 it,  among  which  ignorance  of  future  events  is  one,  but 
 this  without  any  disparagement  to  his 7 '  Godhead,  wherein 
 are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge;'  and 
 that,  in  short,  he  both  knew,  and  knew  not,  when  the  day 
 and  hour  here  spoken  of  would  come ;  the  former,  with 
 respect  to  his  divine,  and  the  latter,  to  his  human 
 nature. 
 
 This  solution  however  does  not  please  so  well.  For, 
 if  we  refer  the  day  and  hour,  as  they  were  primarily 
 intended,  to  the  destruction  of  the  temple  and  city  of 
 Jerusalem,  what  signs  and  prognostics  does  our  Saviour 
 give  his  disciples  of  this  great  event?  Why  he  foretels 
 them,  That  not  one  stone  of  all  these  glorious  build- 
 ings should  be  left  upon  one  another:  that  there 
 should  be  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  when  nation  should 
 rise  against  nation,  and  kingdom  against  kingdom;  that 
 there  should  be  famines,  pestilences,  and  earthquakes 
 in  divers  places  ;  that  false  prophets,  and  false  Christs, 
 should  arise,  who  should  amuse  them  with  destructive 
 hopes  of  imaginary  deliverances  ;  that  Jerusalem  should 
 be  encompassed  with  a  foreign  enemy,  who  should  at 
 last  make  a  final  destruction  of  it,  and  of  all  that  was 
 therein  ;  that  the  abomination  of  desolation  should  stand 
 in  the  holy  place,  where,  of  all  places  in  the  world,  it 
 ought  not  to  have  stood ;  and  that  all  these  things 
 should  come  to  pass,  while  some  of  the  present  gene- 
 ration were  still  alive.  8  Now,  since  all  these  things 
 did  literally  come  to  pass,  as  our  Lord,  forty  years  be- 
 fore, had  foretold  that  they  should  ;  since,  at  the  time 
 of  his  foretelling  them,  the  Romans  were  in  peaceable 
 possession  of  Judea,  nor  was  there  any  prospect  at  all 
 of  the  troubles  and  commotions  which  afterwards  ensued; 
 and  since  the  completion  of  these  prophecies  is  preserved 
 to  us  by  a  Jewish  writer,  who  himself  was  concerned  in 
 these  very  troubles,  and  did  not  record  them  with  any 
 design  to  gratify  us  Christians ;  can  we  imagine,  that 
 Jesus  Christ,  who  was  this  prophet,  could  possibly  be 
 
 Col.  ii.  3. 
 
 i  John  xii.  40.  6  Artsi.  7. 
 
 "  U'otton's  Omniscience  of  the  Sou  of  Cut'.. 
 
1030 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 ignorant  of  the  day  and  hour  when  these  predictions 
 should  be  completed?  or  rather,  ought  we  not  to  think,  that 
 all  he  intended  by  that  expression,  was  to  signify  to  his 
 hearers,  that  it  was  then  an  improper  time  for  him  to 
 reveal  the  particular  period  when  that  catastrophe  was 
 to  overtake  them?  But  two  days  after  this,  his  disciples 
 own  his  divinity,  and  acknowledge,  that  '  he  knew  all, 
 and  -  all  things  that  he  had  heard  from  the  Father,  or 
 had  a  commission  to  declare  from  the  Father,  himself 
 avers,  that  he  had  not  failed  to  make  known  unto  them ; 
 and  therefore  we  may  well  presume,  that  the  individual 
 day  and  hour  Avhen  Jerusalem  was  finally  to  be  de- 
 stroyed, as  it  was  a  matter  of  no  concern  for  them  to  be 
 acquainted  with,  so  was  it  no  part  of  his  instructions 
 from  heaven  to  let  them  into  a  minute  knowledge  of  it ; 
 that  in  the  signs  and  forerunners  which  he  had  discovered 
 to  them,  he  had  said  enough  to  put  them,  and  all  con- 
 sidering men,  upon  their  guard  ;  that  fuller  and  more 
 particular  indications  of  the  time,  as  things  then  stood, 
 were  by  no  means  proper  ;  for  though  they  might  possi- 
 bly be  able  to  3  bear  his  words,  yet  others  might  be 
 tempted  to  make  an  ill  use  of  them,  contrary  to  his 
 original  meaning. 
 
 It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that,  in  regard  our 
 blessed  Saviour  had  the  divine  and  human  nature  both 
 united  in  one  person,  great  caution  must  be  used,  in  ob- 
 serving his  actions  and  affections,  that  we  do  not  mis- 
 take in  assigning  any  of  them  to  a  wrong  principle. 
 4  For  as  those  works  of  wonder  which  exceeded  or  con- 
 trolled all  the  powers  of  created  nature,  must  be  at- 
 tributed to  a  principle  omnipotent  and  divine  ;  so  in 
 those  others,  which  relate  either  to  joy  or  sorrow,  sub- 
 jection or  exultation,  he  must  be  understood  to  proceed 
 upon  a  principle  purely  human,  and  that  the  faculties  of 
 the  divine  nature  were  in  such  cases,  totally  suspended. 
 
 Now  it  is  certain,  that  the  perfections  of  the  divine 
 nature  will  admit  of  neither  any  increase  nor  diminution 
 of  its  power  and  greatness.  The  author  to  the  Hebrews  5 
 applies  to  our  Saviour  Christ  these  words  of  the  Psalm- 
 ist,6 '  Thou,  0  Lord,  in  the  beginning,  hast  laid  the 
 foundation  of  the  earth,  and  the  heavens  are  the  work 
 of  thy  hand  ;'  and  surely  he  who  created  the  world,  and 
 
 '  without  him  not  any  thing  was  made,  that  was  made,' 
 could  not  fail  of  having,  from  all  eternity,  a  sovereign 
 power  both  in  heaven  and  earth.  It  is  not  in  respect  of 
 his  divinity,  therefore,  that  our  Lord  speaks  of  his  en- 
 largement of  power,  but  of  his  human  nature  ;  which,  in 
 reward  of  his  obedience  and  humiliation,  8  '  was  highly 
 exalted  ;  and  obtained  of  God  a  name,  which  is  above 
 every  name  ;  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should 
 bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things 
 under  the  earth  ;  and  that  every  tongue  should  confess, 
 that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
 Father.' 
 
 It  is  equally  certain,  that  the  divine  nature  is  not  cap- 
 able of  any  grief  or  sorrow,  or  other  perturbation  of 
 mind  arising  from  an  apprehension  of  some  imminent 
 clanger,  or  a  sense  of  some  incumbent  calamity;  and 
 therefore  when  our  Saviour  complains  of  the  vast  load  of 
 sorrow  that  lay  heavy  upon  his  spirits,  and  almost  quite 
 
 1  John  xvi.  30.         2  Ibid.  xv.  15.         3  Ibid.  xvi.  12. 
 Stanhope's  sermons  on  several  occasions.  6  Heb.  i.  10. 
 
 6  Psal.  tax.  85.  '  Juo.  i.  :;.  B  Puil.  ii.  9. 
 
 sunk  them  down,  this  he  must  be  supposed  to  say  with 
 regard  to  his  human  nature  only,  because  his  divine  was 
 exempt  from  all  such  suffering.  But  then  the  question 
 is,  from  what  particular  cause  it  was,  that  all  this  sorrow 
 and  fear,  and  consternation  of  mind,  for  a  so  the  orig- 
 inal words  import,  could  possibly  arise  ? 
 
 3  Those  who  impute  all  this  to  nothing  more  than  a 
 natural  dread  of  pain  and  death,  have  this  difficulty  to 
 contend  with,  that  how  grievous  soever  these  things  may 
 be,  especially  to  sinful  flesh  and  blood,  yet  they  are 
 such  as  have  been  corrected  by  reason,  and  in  their  most 
 tremendous  shapes,  borne  with  great  patience  and  re- 
 signation of  mind  ;  and  therefore  it  can  hardly  be  ima- 
 gined, that  the  prospect  of  a  crucifixion  could  have 
 raised  such  commotions  in  a  soul  which  had  the  testi- 
 mony of  a  good  conscience  to  support  it,  and  a  glori- 
 ous reward  set  before  it,  to  make  a  full  recompense  for 
 what  he  suffered. 
 
 ,u  Others  are  of  opinion,  therefore,  that  this  excessive 
 sorrow  and  dejection  of  mind  were  occasioned  by  the 
 perfect  and  penetrating  light,  which  then  diffused  itself 
 in  our  Saviour's  mind  all  at  once,  concerning  the  guilt 
 of  sin,  and  the  wrath  of  an  incensed  God  ;  that  the  hor- 
 ror of  these  filled  and  amazed  his  vast  apprehensive 
 soul ;  and  that  these  apprehensions  could  not  but  affect 
 his  tender  heart,  full  of  the  highest  zeal  for  God's  glory, 
 and  the  most  relenting  compassion  for  the  souls  of  men ; 
 for,  if  the  true  contrition  of  one  single  sinner,  ll  say  they, 
 bleeding  under  the  sting  of  the  law,  only  for  his  own 
 iniquities,  cannot  be  performed,  without  great  bitterness 
 of  sorrow  and  remorse,  what  bounds  can  be  set  to  that 
 grief,  what  measure  to  that  anguish,  which  proceeded 
 from  a  full  apprehension  of  all  the  transgressions  of  so 
 many  millions  of  sinners  ? 
 
 12  This  is  the  most  common  solution  :  and  yet  there  is 
 something  in  the  context  which  has  induced  others  to 
 think,  that  on  this  occasion,  the  devil  and  his  angels  had 
 collected  all  their  forces,  in  order  to  fill  our  Saviour's 
 mind  mith  the  most  dismal  terrifying  scenes  of  horror, 
 thereby  to  divert  him  from  his  intended  enterprize.  For, 
 1st,  we  may  observe  that,  before  he  entered  the  garden, 
 where  this  agony  seized  him,  he  expected  some  terrible 
 assault  from  these  infernal  powers,  and  therefore  he  tells 
 his  disciples,  '  The  prince  of  the  world  cometh,' 13  that 
 is  is  now  mustering  up  his  legions  to  make  his  last 
 effort  upon  me  ;  but  this  is  my  comfort,  that  he  will  find 
 nothing  in  me,  no  sinful  inclination  to  take  part  with 
 
 9  See  Stillingfleet's  sermons;  Stanhope  on  the  epistles  and 
 gospels,  vol.  ii.  and  his  sermons  on  several  occasions. 
 
 10  Pearson  on  the  creed;  and  South's  sermons,  vol.  iii. 
 
 11  Ibid.  18  Scott's  Mediator.         13  Jno.  xiv.  30. 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  original  are  three, — XviriTaSa.!,  ixfap- 
 fiutrSai,  and  AptrnTv-  The  first  Xi/5T£iV9ai  is  of  a  known  and 
 ordinary  signification;  but,  in  this  case,  it  is  to  be  raised  to  the 
 highest  degree  of  significancy,  as  appears  by  the  words  which 
 follow,  vriplkvpro;  Ijiv  h  -^v^ri  fn.au  'lui  S-anarov,  Mat.  XXvi.  38.  So 
 that  it  does  not  only  signify  the  excess  of  sorrow,  surrounding 
 and  encompassing  the  soul,  but  also  such  as  brings  a  consterna- 
 tion and  dejection  of  mind,  bowing  the  soul  under  the  pressures 
 and  burden  of  it.  The  second  \x.Qa.p$u<r§*i,  in  the  vulgar  Latin, 
 is  pavere,  but,  according  to  the  Greek  idiom,  hears  a  much 
 stronger  sense,  and  signifies  indeed  the  highest  degree  of  fear, 
 horror,  and  amazement.  The  third  a2vp.<ivuv  denotes  the 
 consequences  of  excessive  fear  and  sorrow,  that  is,  anxiety  of 
 mind,  disquietude  and  restlessness. — Pearson  on  the  creed. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1031 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END 
 
 him,  no  guilty  reflection  to  expose  nie  to  his  tyranny. 
 2dly,  That  when  the  disciples  entered  the  garden  with 
 our  Lord,  he  gave  them  a  strict  charge, '  '  to  watch  and 
 pray,  that  they  might  not  enter  into  temptation  :'  which 
 plainly  implies,  that,  in  that  time  and  place,  there  was 
 some  occasion  for  a  more  than  ordinary  application  to 
 these  duties  ;  and  this  cannot  so  well  be  imputed  to 
 any  thing  else,  as  those  numbers  of  evil  spirits,  who 
 were  going  furiously  to  assault  their  Master,  and  would 
 not  altogether  spare  them.  And,  3dly,  that  when  the 
 three  elect  apostles  were  a  little  advanced  with  him 
 into  the  garden,  he  earnestly  entreated  them  to  watch 
 with  him ;  and  yet  we  find  them  suddenly  asleep,  and 
 no  sooner  awake,  but  asleep  again,  and  again :  for  the 
 text  tells  us,2  '  that  their  eyes  were  heavy  ;  which  pro- 
 digious drowsiness  of  theirs,  upon  so  momentous  an  oc- 
 casion, cannot  be  ascribed  to  any  thing  so  well  as  to 
 a  preternatural  stupefaction  of  their  senses  by  some  of 
 these  infernal  spirits  now  conflicting  with  their  Master, 
 and  who,  perhaps,  to  deprive  him  of  the  solace  of  their 
 company,  did,  by  their  diabolical  arts,  produce  that  ex- 
 traordinary stupor  which  oppressed  them,  that  so  having 
 him  alone,  they  might  have  the  greater  advantage  to 
 tempt  and  terrify  him. 
 
 These  observations  make  it  highly  probable,  that  this 
 his  last  agony  was  occasioned  by  a  mighty  struggle  and 
 conflict  with  the  powers  of  darkness,  3  who  having,  by 
 God's  permission,  mustered  up  all  their  strength,  in- 
 tended once  more  to  try  their  fortune  against  him,  and 
 to  this  purpose  surrounding  him,  very  probably,  with  a 
 mighty  host,  exerted  all  their  power  and  malice  in  per- 
 secuting his  innocent  soul ;  in  distracting  it  with  horrid 
 phantasms  ;  in  afflicting  it  with  dismal  suggestions  :  in 
 vexing  and  tormenting  it  with  dire  imaginations,  and 
 dreadful  spectacles  ;  and,  in  short,  in  practising  all  the 
 arts  and  machinations  that  their  malice  and  subtilty 
 could  invent,  to  tempt  and  deter  him  if  possible  from  his 
 gracious  design  of  redeeming  mankind. 
 
 4  Had  our  Lord  indeed,  in  this  conflict,  been  assisted 
 with  any  succour  from  his  divinity,  this  would  have  set 
 him  far  above  the  opposition  of  any  created  power ;  but, 
 that  the  second  Adam  might  make  a  reparation  for  the 
 fall  of  the  first,  and,  in  that  very  nature,  left  to  itself, 
 and,  unassisted  by  any  foreign  aid,  vanquish  the  enemy 
 that  had  given  it  so  grievous  a  foil  before,  the  divine 
 perfections  lay  by,  as  it  were,  and  forbore  to  engage  : 
 they  withdrew  their  influence  for  that  time,  and  suspend- 
 ing their  operations,  left  him  to  encounter  as  man,  though 
 much  more  perfect  than  any  other  man. 
 
 Putting  all  these  dismal  and  distracting  things  together 
 then,  the  apprehension  of  a  cruel  and  ignominous  death, 
 the  sense  of  the  guilt  and  heinous  nature  of  sin,  the  pro- 
 spect of  God's  wrath,  the  combination  of  devils,  and  the 
 suspension  of  the  divine  power  and  protection,  we  need 
 not  much  wonder  that  we  rind  our  blessed  Saviour  in  the 
 garden  complaining,  that  ■  his  soul  was  exceeding  sor- 
 rowful, even  unto  death;'  or  on  the  cross  crying  out, 
 '  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  '  That 
 we  find  him,  in  the  midst  of  his  agony,  sweating  out  blood 
 in  great  abundance  ;  deprecating  death  with  more  vehe- 
 mence  than   some  heathen  sages,  and  many  Christian 
 
 1  Mat.  xxvi.  41.        2  Mat.  xxvi.  43.       *  Scot's  Mediator. 
 *  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  aud  Gospels,  vol  ii. 
 
 martyrs  did  ;  and  when  his  spirits  were  thus  depressed,  his 
 human  nature  quite  exhausted,  and  no  relief  from  the 
 divine  aftbrded  him,  that  an  angel  should  be  sent  from 
 heaven  to  revive  and  strengthen  him.  For  when  the 
 divinity,  which  resided  in  him,  had  either  suspended  or 
 subtracted  its  influence,  he,  who,  in  respect  of  his  man- 
 hood, 5  was  made  a  little  while  inferior  to  the  angels, 
 and,  in  respect  of  his  sufferings,  was  now  in  a  more  dis- 
 tressed condition  than  ever  man  knew,  being  left  to  his 
 human  nature  alone,  could  not  but  stand  in  need  of  the 
 comfort  and  consolation  of  an  angel. 
 
 All  this  while  the  divine  nature  of  Christ,  though  it 
 did  not  think  lit  to  exert  itself,6  was  inseparably  united 
 to  the  human.  Nor  can  we  conceive  why  it  should  not 
 still  continue,  even  after  death,  in  the  same  manner 
 united ;  since  no  power  has  any  force  against  omnipo- 
 tence, nor  could  any  finite  agent  work  any  alteration  in  that 
 union.  To  understand  the  nature  of  this  union,  Ave  must 
 observe,  ?  that  in  the  person  of  Christ,  after  the  assump- 
 tion of  our  nature,  there  were  two  different  substantial 
 unions  ;  one,  of  the  two  parts  of  his  humanity,  his  soul 
 and  body,  whereby  he  was  truly  man :  and  the  other,  of 
 his  divine  and  human  nature,  whereby  he  was  both  God 
 and  man  in  one  person  :  and  that,  though  at  his  death 
 the  constituent  parts  of  him  as  man,  that  is,  his  human 
 soul  and  body,  were  parted,  and  so  continued  for  some 
 time,  yet  the  union  of  his  two  natures  still  remained ;  a 
 death  made  no  alteration  in  that,  nor  were  his  soul  and 
 body  ever  separated  from  the  Godhead,  but,  as  the  divine 
 nature  still  subsisted,  they  still  continued  in  conjunction 
 with  it :  upon  which  account,  as  we  are  taught  to  believe, 
 that  God  redeemed  us  with  his  blood,  so  has  it  been  the 
 constant  language  of  the  church,  that  '  God  died  for  us,' 
 which  in  no  sense  could  be  true,  unless  our  blessed 
 Saviour's  soul  and  body,  in  the  instant  of  separation,  and 
 until  their  conjunction  again,  were  united  to  the  Deity. 
 And  therefore,  when  we  hear  him  crying  upon  the  cross,8 
 '  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?'  he 
 means  the  same  thing  as  when  he  calls  upon  us  to  9  '  be- 
 hold and  see,  if  there  be  any  sorrow  like  unto  my  sor- 
 row.' For  from  these  words  we  can  infer  nothing  more 
 than  this, — that  he  was  then  bereft  of  such  joys  and 
 comforts  as  he  expected  from  the  Deity,  to  assuage  and 
 mitigate  the  acerbity  of  the  torments  he  was  under.  The 
 truth  is,  what  seems  to  solve  all  difficulties  best,  is  the 
 ancient  notion  of  the  Godhead's  being  quiescent,  and 
 not  exerting  its  power  and  efficacy  in  such  instances, 
 where  the  humanity  is  known  to  have  suffered.  In  this 
 manner  it  confessedly  withdrew  at  his  death  ;  other- 
 wise we  cannot  see  how  he  could  have  died  at  all  ;  and 
 in  this  maimer,  by  parity  of  reason,  it  might  continue  its 
 
 5  Heb.  ii.  7.         6  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  ait.  iv.         7  Ibid. 
 8  Mat.  xxvii.  46.  9  Lam.  i.  12. 
 
 a  The  words  of  St  Austin  are  very  full  and  excellent  to  this 
 purpose.  "  Wherefore  the  Word  became  flesh,  that  he  mijfat 
 dwell  among  us,  and  from  the  Word  was  he  formed  man,  namely, 
 a  whole  man,  soul  and  body.  What  did  his  suffering  de,  what 
 did  his  death  do,  unless  the  separating  of  his  body  from  his  soul? 
 It  did  not  separate  his  soul  from  the  Word;  for  though  the  Lord 
 died,  (undoubtedly  his  flesh  died,)  but  his  soul,  I  affirm,  was  not 
 separated  from  the  Word ;  the  soul  only  left  the  body  for  a  short 
 time,  to  rise  again  with  returning  animation.  To  the  soul  of 
 the  robber  he  said,  '  To-day  thou  shalt  be  with  me  in  paradise.' 
 He  did  not  leave  the  faithful  soul  of  the  robber,  and  did  he  leave 
 his  own?  Forbid  it:  as  he  had  such  care  for  the  thief's  soul,  his 
 own  he  must  inseparably  have  retained." — Tract  on  John;   47. 
 
1032 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.D.  33 
 
 quiescence  during  the  whole  space  of  his  interment,  and 
 until  its  power  and  operation  were  requisite,  in  order  to 
 effect  his  resurrection. 
 
 As  our  blessed  Saviour  then  was  both  God  and  man 
 in  one  person,  and  the  efficacy  and  mystery  of  man's 
 redemption  consisted  in  this  union, x  it  was  necessary 
 that  there  should  be  a  clear  and  undoubted  demonstra- 
 tion given  of  the  reality  of  both  these  natures.  But,  since 
 the  distinguishing-  marks  of  human  nature  lie  chiefly  in 
 the  soul,  there  had  not  been  that  demonstration  given  of 
 our  Saviour's  perfect  humanity,  unless  he  had  discovered, 
 in  his  conduct,  an  exact  resemblance  to  us,  in  all  the 
 natural  passions  and  inclinations  of  our  souls.  Now,  in 
 this  soul  of  ours  there  is  a  twofold  principle,  sense  and 
 reason.  Sense  catches  at  the  present,  pursues  ease  and 
 safety,  and  industriously  consults  the  preservation  and 
 advantage  of  the  body;  whereas  reason  enlarges  our  pros- 
 pect, takes  into  consideration  distant  and  future  objects, 
 and  persuades  the  foregoing  of  some  satisfactions,  the 
 running  of  some  hazards,  and  enduring  of  some  difficul- 
 ties in  the  discharge  of  our  duty,  and  the  expectation  of 
 a  greater  good  in  reversion.  Under  the  former  of  these 
 are  comprehended  all  our  natural  passions,  which  are  the 
 secret  springs  that  move  us  to  what  we  do  ;  under  the  lat- 
 ter are  the  understanding  and  judgment,  which  direct, 
 and  regulate,  and  bound,  and  over-rule  these  passions. 
 But  still  both  these  are  constituent  parts,  and  as  neces- 
 sary to  make  a  perfect  soul,  as  the  rational  soul  and 
 human  body  are  to  make  one  perfect  man  ;  and  from 
 hence  it  follows,  that  the  weakness  and  corruption  of  our 
 nature,  as  it  stands  depraved  by  sin,  does  not  consist  in 
 our  being  tenderly  touched  with  the  fear  of  present  evil, 
 or  the  desire  of  present  good,  but  only  in  suffering  these 
 fears  and  desires  to  prevail,  and  take  place,  against  the 
 dictates  of  reason  and  duty. 
 
 Aversion  to  pain  and  conflict,  to  sorrow  and  death, 
 and  whatever  is  shocking  and  frightful  to  human  nature, 
 are  affections  interwoven  with  our  original  frame  and 
 constitution.  Adam,  in  his  state  of  innocence,  felt  them  ; 
 and  therefore  it  is  no  just  reflection  upon  the  second 
 Adam,  that  he,  in  like  manner,  felt  them  too.  Infirmities 
 indeed  these  aversions  may  be  called,  in  comparison  of 
 those  perfections  which  belong  to  God,  and  unbodied 
 spirits;  but  then  they  are  such  infirmities  as  all  who 
 partake  of  bodies,  must  have,  and  which  if  our  Saviour 
 had  been  destitute  of,  he  could  not  have  been  truly 
 man. 
 
 Now,  if  Christ,  as  man,  could  not  be  altogether  indif- 
 ferent and  unconcerned  at  such  severe  trials,  as  the  im- 
 position of  the  burden  of  our  sins,  the  infliction  of  pain 
 and  torment,  his  approaching  conflict  with  the  powers  of 
 darkness,  and  the  utter  subduction  of  all  divine  aid  and 
 assistance,  must  necessarily  bring  upon  him;  then  surely 
 it  could  not  misbecome  him  to  use  all  possible  means  for 
 declining  them,  and  consequently  to  express  his  concern, 
 by  pra>  mg  against  them,  but  with  this  modest  reserve  and 
 limitation,  8  'Nevertheless,  not  my  will,  but  thine  be 
 done.'  For  it  was  no  disparagement  either  of  his  obedi- 
 ence to  God,  or  love  to  mankind,  that  he  had  an  aversion 
 to  death,  and  pain,  and  sufferings;  but,  in  truth,  an 
 h.gher  commendation  to  both  ;  since  notwithstanding  so 
 tender  a  sense  of  what  he  was  to  suffer,  he  offered  him- 
 
 1  Stanhope's  Sermons  on  social 
 
 Luke  xxii.  42- 
 
 self  to  undergo  whatever  God,  for  their  benefit  and 
 salvation,  should  think  proper  to  lay  upon  him.  So 
 that  the  more  passionate  his  wishes  were  for  a  release, 
 the  more  meritorious  was  his  submission ;  and  the 
 stronger  his  aversions  were,  the  more  was  the  resigna- 
 tion of  his  own  will;  and,  consequently,  the  more 
 acceptable  was  his  compliance  with  that  of  his  heavenly 
 Father. 
 
 His  heavenly  Father,  no  doubt,  could  3  have  ex- 
 empted mankind  from  punishment,  without  an  equivalent 
 compensation  for  their  guilt.  As  an  all-wise  being,  he 
 could  have  invented  many  methods  of  salvation,  without 
 the  sacrifice  of  his  beloved  Son  ;  and  as  a  supreme  law- 
 giver, he  might  have  extended  mercy  to  whom,  and  upon 
 what  terms  he  thought  fit;  but  then,  as  he  was  the 
 supreme  lawgiver,  and  governor  of  the  world,  it  Avas 
 consistent  with  his  justice,  and  his  infinite  wisdom,  we 
 may  say,  required  it  of  him,  to  vindicate  the  authority 
 of  his  laws,  and  see  sin  punished  in  such  an  exemplary 
 manner,  as  to  deter,  if  possible,  his  subjects  from  it  for 
 the  future. 
 
 Now  this  was  the  state  and  condition  of  mankind, 
 when  God's  infinite  wisdom  contrived  the  scheme  of 
 their  redemption.  They  had  alienated  themselves  from 
 him  ;  were  under  sin,  under  condemnation,  under  the 
 curse  of  the  law,  under  the  sentence  of  death.  In  this 
 condition,  however,  they  were  not  to  be  left  to  perish  ; 
 God's  infinite  goodness  would  not  permit  that :  but  then, 
 how  to  accomplish  their  recovery,  and  preserve  his  at- 
 tributes inviolate,  this  was  the  difficulty.  For  how,  in 
 consistence  with  the  glory,  and  justice,  and  sanctity  of 
 God,  could  such  enemies  be  reconciled,  and  such  offend- 
 ers pardoned?  Would  omnipotent  majesty  think  of 
 any  treaty,  without  an  advocate  and  intercessor  ?  Would 
 the  sovereign  ruler  of  the  Avorld  suffer  his  honour  to  be 
 slighted,  without  a  proper  vindication  ?  Would  the 
 great  patron  of  justice  relax  the  terms  of  it,  and  permit 
 ivickedness  to  pass  unpunished  ?  Would  the  God  of 
 truth  reverse  his  decree,  and  stop  the  sentence  of  death 
 from  falling  upon  sinners  ?  Or  would  the  God  of  right- 
 eousness omit  any  opportunity  of  expressing  the  love 
 he  bore  to  innocence,  and  abhorrence  to  iniquity?  Hoav 
 then  could  Ave  Avell  be  cleared  from  our  guilt,  Avithout 
 an  expiation  ;  or  reinstated  in  freedom  Avithout  a  ransom  ; 
 or  exempted  from  condemnation,  Avithout  some  vicarious 
 punishment?  No,  God  Avas  pleased  so  to  prosecute  his 
 designs  of  goodness  and  mercy,  as  not  in  the  least  to 
 impair  or  obscure  it,  but  rather  advance  and  illustrate 
 the  glories  of  his  sovereign  dignity,  of  his  severe  justice, 
 of  his  immaculate  holiness,  and  immutability  both  in 
 Avord  and  purpose. 
 
 He  Avas  Avilling  to  listen  to  a  treaty,  but  from  the 
 mouth  of  no  mediator  but  such  as  Avas  of  equal  dignity 
 Avith  himself.  He  Avas  Avilling  to  remit  the  punishment 
 due  to  our  sins,  but  not  Avithout  a  sacrifice  that  Avould 
 make  full  atonement  for  them.  He  was  Avilling  to  give 
 us  back  our  lives  again,  but  not  Avithout  a  substitution 
 of  another  life  equivalent  to  them  all.  But  noAV,  how 
 could  these  things  be  done  ?  Where  could  Ave  find  a 
 mediator,  proper  and  Avorthy  to  intercede  for  us,  and 
 to  negociate  a  neAv  covenant,  Avhereby  God  might  be 
 satisfied  and  Ave  saved  ?     Who  could  offer  for  us  a  sacri- 
 
 Stanhope:s  Sermons  on  several  occasions. 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1033 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OK,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  l'KOM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 lice  of  value  sufficient  to  atone  for  sins  so  vastly  numer- 
 ous, ami  all  committed  against  infinite  majesty  ?  Or 
 who  could  undertake  for  the  everlasting"  redemption  of 
 all  the  souls,  since  the  first  creation,  and  lay  down  a 
 competent  price  for  them  ?  Nothing  on  earth,  nothing 
 in  heaven,  was  found  able  to  do  this. 
 
 Man,  the  most  innocent  and  upright  man,  could  by  no 
 means  redeem  his  brother,  or  give  to  God  a  ransom  for 
 him.  Angels  have  obligations  enough  of  their  own  to 
 discharge,  and  cannot  be  solvent  for  any  more  than  the 
 debt  of  their  own  gratitude  and  praise.  The  brightest 
 of  that  heavenly  host  cannot,  over  and  above  this,  make 
 compensation  for  one  human  sin  ;  but,  for  the  sins  of 
 the  whole  world  united,  there  was  no  propitiation  to  be 
 found,  until  the  Son  of  God  offered  himself,  and  was  ac- 
 cepted by  the  Father.  Our  humanity  he  assumed,  to  en- 
 able him  to  suffer,  and  interest  us  in  what  he  did ;  but 
 the  divinity,  which  he  had  with  the  Father  from  the  be- 
 ginning, this  he  brought  with  him,  to  derive  an  infinite 
 value  upon  his  sufferings,  and  to  make  the  ransom  and 
 oblation  which  he  paid  down  for  us  a  full  satisfaction 
 for  sins  innumerable,  and  infinitely  heinous. 
 
 In  the  expiation  of  these  sins,  we  own,  that  the 
 punishment  which  our  Saviour  submitted  to,  was  but 
 temporal,  whereas  that  to  which  sinners  are  obnoxious, 
 is  eternal ;  but  for  that  several  good  reasons  may  be  al- 
 leged. The  author  to  the  Hebrews,  in  his  comparison 
 between  the  Levitical  and  Christian  dispensations,  tells 
 us,  that  1  '  such  an  high  priest  became  us,  who  is  holy, 
 harmless,  undefiled,  separate  from  sinners,  and  who 
 needeth  not  daily,  as  the  high  priests  under  the  law,  to 
 offer  up  sacrifices,  first  for  his  own  sins  and  then  for 
 those  of  the  people.'  So  that  what  qualified  him  to 
 offer  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  mankind,  was  his  perfect 
 innocence  ;  for  had  he  been,  in  any  degree  a  sinner 
 himself,  he  must  have  suffered  for  his  own  offences  : 
 and  consequently,  been  incapable  of  effecting  an  expia- 
 tion for  ours. 
 
 2  Now,  if  our  blessed  Saviour  was  entirely  innocent 
 and  holy,  it  was  impossible  that  he  should  suffer  the  same 
 punishments,  which  by  the  just  decree  of  God,  are  due 
 to  wilful  and  impenitent  sinners.  3  He  could  not  do  it 
 in  his  body  ;  for  that  could  only  die  by  what  he  suffered 
 on  the  cross  ;  and  he  could  not  do  it  in  his  soul ;  for  how 
 could  that  soul,  which  knew  no  sin,  be  under  a  remorse 
 of  conscience  for  any  thing  that  he  had  done  ?  How 
 /:ould  he,  4  '  who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him, 
 endured  the  cross,'  lie  under  any  sense  of  God's  un- 
 changeable displeasure?  or  he,  who  knew  that 5  his  soul 
 should  not  be  left  in  Hades,  nor  his  body  see  corruption,' 
 be  seized  with  an  absolute  despair  of  any  better  state, 
 or  an  uneasy  apprehension  of  no  release  from  what  he 
 was  to  suffer  ?  The  punishments  of  the  damned  are  with- 
 out end,  and  without  hope  :  but  everlasting  misery  and 
 despair  could  never  be  consistent  with  the  condition  of 
 one  who  had  not  deserved  them,  and  whose  innocence 
 secured  and  preserved  him  from  them.  These  are  the 
 consequences  of  sin  and  rebellion  against  God ;  but 
 the  sufferings  of  Jesus,  were  the  greatest  proof  of  an 
 entire  obedience  in  the  most  difficult  instance  of  sub- 
 
 '  Heb.  vii.  26,  27.       2  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels, 
 vol.  ii.     3  Whitby's  appendix  to  Mat.  xxvi.        *  Heb.  xii.  2. 
 •Psal.  xvi.  10. 
 
 mission,  and  so  far  from  incurring  the  divine  displeas- 
 ure, that,  from  this  very  cause  6  God  hath  highly  ex- 
 alted him. 
 
 But  though,  from  the  nature  and  reason  of  the  thing, 
 it  appears  that  our  Lord  neither  did,  nor  could  suffer 
 such  punishments,  in  kind  and  measure,  as  were  due  to 
 sinners  ;  yet  it  must  be  observed,  that  he  underwent 
 such  things  as  bore  some  analogy  to  what  sinners  are  to 
 suffer,  and  what  he  would  not  have  suffered  had  he  not 
 been  punished  for  our  transgressions. 
 
 7  For  whereas  sinners  lie  under  the  sentence  of  con- 
 demnation, and  are  sure  to  find  a  public  exemplary 
 judgment ;  so  was  our  Saviour  solemnly  condemned  and 
 sentenced  as  a  malefactor,  a  seditious  person,  a  per- 
 verter  of  the  nation,  a  rebel  against  Caesar,  and  a  blas- 
 phemer against  God.  AVhereas  sinners  will  be  exposed 
 to  shame  and  ignominy,  at  the  great  day  of  judgment, 
 before  men  and  angels  ;  so  our  Lord  suffered  a  very 
 shameful  and  ignominious  death,  and  that  attended  with 
 all  the  mockeries,  affronts,  and  obloquies,  that  the 
 malice  of  his  enemies  could  cast  upon  him.  And  where- 
 as sinners  are  obnoxious  to  very  grievous  torments  both 
 of  body  and  soul,  and  these  inflicted  by  the  hand  of  an 
 enraged  God  ;  so,  in  his  person,  our  Lord  suffered  death 
 painful  to  such  a  degree,  as  to  make  the  most  exquisite 
 tortures  be  called  cruciatus.  from  the  cross;  and,  in  his 
 mind,  such  a  load  of  grief  and  anguish,  as  might  well 
 justify  the  mournful  complaint  of  the  prophet,  8  '  all  ye 
 that  pass  by,  behold,  and  see,  if  there  be  any  sorrow 
 like  unto  my  sorrow,  wherewith  the  Lord  hath  afflicted 
 me,  in  the  day  of  his  fierce  anger.' 
 
 Now,  from  this  fair  resemblance  between  what  our 
 Lord  actually  suffered,  and  what  sinners  had  deserved 
 to  suffer,  there  seems  to  be  sufficient  ground  to  say,  that 
 he  bore  the  punishment  of  our  iniquities,  and  suffered  in 
 our  stead;  though  what  he  underwent  was  not,  in  every 
 point,  the  same  that  we,  had  it  not  been  for  his  interposi- 
 tion, must  have  been  obliged  to  suffer. 
 
 9  All  that  was  requisite  indeed  in  his  sufferings  was, 
 that  the  injuries  and  affronts  offered  to  the  divine  justice 
 by  the  provocation  of  wicked  men,  should  receive  a  suffi- 
 cient compensation  ;  that  the  honour  of  God  and  his  laws 
 should  be  vindicated,  and  sin  made  as  terrible  and  full 
 of  discouragement,  as  it  could  possibly  be  ;  though  no 
 such  method  of  mercy  had  ever  been  devised.  Now  all 
 these  ends  were  fully  satisfied  by  the  Son  of  God  con- 
 descending to  suffer  in  our  stead  ;  and,  if  there  was  any 
 thing  wanting  in  the  duration  or  extremity  of  his  suffer- 
 ings, that  was  abundantly  made  up  by  the  dignity  of  the 
 person,  who,'  through  the  eternal  spirit,  that  is,  the  divine 
 united  to  our  human  nature,  '"  '  offered  himself  without 
 spot  to  God,'  and  in  virtue  of  that  union,  exalted  the 
 value  of  his  oblation  to  an  infinite  degree,  and  paid  a 
 ransom  to  offended  justice  of  more  worth  than  an 
 hundred  thousand  worlds. 
 
 But  how  great  soever  the  benefit  was  which  accrued  to 
 mankind  from  the  death  of  our  Saviour  Christ,  there  is  no 
 apologizing  for  those  that  were  the  bloody  instruments 
 of  it,  and  least  of  all  for  Judas.  For,  besides  the  ag- 
 gravation of  his  being  a  disciple,  a  friend,  a  constant 
 companion,  one  that  had  been  taught  and  sustained  by 
 
 8  Phil.  ii.  9.      ;  Whitby's  appendix  to  Mat.  xvi.     8  Lam.  i.  12. 
 
 '■'  Stanhopi  on  tne  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  ii.      10  Heb.  ix.  14. 
 
 6  p 
 
1034 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037  A.  D.33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10- 
 lihn,and  not  only  an  hearer  of  his  doctrine,  and  an  eye- 
 witness of  his  miracles,  but,  in  virtue  of  the  commission 
 received  from  him,  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  and  a 
 worker  of  miracles  himself;  besides  all  this,  I  say,  it  is 
 evident,  that  his  wickedness  was  not  the  effect  of  a  sud- 
 den surprise,  or  want  of  recollection,  but  the  work  of 
 deliberation,  and  long  contrivance,  and  solemn  debate. 
 For  he  consulted  with  the  high-priests  and  elders  con- 
 cerning the  time,  the  place,  and  every  circumstance,  for 
 the  most  convenient  execution  of  his  villany.  After  such 
 consultation,  he  continued  his  attendance  upon  his  mas- 
 ter, that,  under  the  disguise  of  friendship,  and  by  much 
 laboured  hypocrisy,  he  might  better  carry  on  his  design  to 
 destroy  him ;  and  as  his  design  was  advancing  to  maturity, 
 he  had  all  along  had  broad  hints  and  monitions  given  him, 
 that  his  plot  was  discovered,  and  many  warnings  of  the 
 *in  and  danger  he  was  running  into;  but  none  of  these 
 altered  his  purpose.  So  that,  in  this  act  of  his,  there  is 
 a  complication  of  ingratitude  and  perfidy,  hypocrisy  and 
 malice,  and  a  settled  inflexible  resolution  to  do  wickedly, 
 beyond  the  power  of  advice  and  warning,  and  the  most 
 awful  menaces  to  control  it :  and  this  might  be  some 
 reason  why  his  repentance  met  not  with  success,  as  it  is 
 evident  it  did  not,  from  our  Lord's  calling  him  x  'the 
 son  of  perdition,'  and  declaring,  that 2  '  it  had  been  bet- 
 ter for  him  if  he  had  never  been  born.' 
 
 3  The  evangelists  indeed  tell  us, 4  '  that  he  repented 
 himself;'  but  then  it  is  evident,  that  by  repenting  is  not 
 every  where  intended  a  change  of  heart  and  life ;  nor 
 the  whole  of  that  which  repentance  strictly  signifies, 
 when  made  the  condition  of  pardon  and  salvation,  but 
 only  some  part  and  imperfect  degree  of  it.  Judas  found 
 that  matters  were  grown  to  so  desperate  an  height,  that 
 there  was  no  probable  appearances  of  his  Master's 
 escaping  the  malice  of  the  Jews;  and  recollected,  very 
 likely,  the  predictions  of  our  Lord  concerning  the  dread- 
 ful vengeance  which  should  overtake  the  person  that  be- 
 trayed  him  to  death.  These,  and  probably  many  other 
 dreadful  reflections,  working  together  with  all  that  con- 
 fusion which  fear  and  guilt  are  known  to  create  in  men's 
 minds,  seem  to  have  made  up  that  concern  which  the 
 text  hath  expressed  by  '  repenting  himself ;'  a  concern 
 resulting  from  a  principle  of  self-preservation,  in  the  most 
 carnal  sense  of  the  word.  But  we  find  not  in  him  any 
 due  sense  of  the  villany  of  the  fact,  nor  any  condemning 
 himself,  as  the  basest,  most  ungrateful,  the  most  aban- 
 doned wretch  alive;  one  that  had  violated  the  laws  of  God 
 and  society,  and  nature,  and  cast  all  fidelity  and  grati- 
 tude, and  common  humanity  behind  his  back.  All  which, 
 and  a  great  deal  more,  were  not  only  aggravations 
 due  to  his  crime,  but  the  very  properest  occasions  of 
 remorse. 
 
 He  felt  indeed  some  regret  for  what  he  had  done,  as 
 an  awakened  conscience  cannot  fence  oft'  such  reflec- 
 tions, and  he  wished  perhaps  he  had  never  done  it;  but 
 the  regret  which  he  felt,  seems  rather  to  have  been  the 
 effect  of  confusion  and  rage,  than  any  godly  relenting; 
 the  agonies  of  frenzy,  and  amazement,  and  despair ; 
 which  are  the  most  distant  tilings  in  the  world  from  that 
 sober  and  regular  sorrow,5  '  which  worketh  repentance 
 unto  salvation,  not  to  be  repented  of.' 
 
 1  John  xvii.  12.  '  Mat.  xxvi. 
 
 a  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i 
 4  Mat.  xxvii.  3.  »Cor.  vii.  10 
 
 24. 
 
 END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 Herein  then  lay  the  defect  of  Judas's  repentance, 
 that  the  horror  of  his  sin  led  him  into  despair.  For  re- 
 pentance, we  must  know,  does  not  barely  consist  in 
 sorrow  for  sin,  but  in  such  a  sorrow  as  is  tempered  and 
 supported  with  hope  ;  not  in  a  mere  confession  of  our 
 transgressions,  but  in  such  a  confession  as  trusts  and 
 depends  on  forgiveness;  and,  as  it  imports  a  change  of 
 manners,  unless  we  are  first  persuaded  that  our  sincere  en- 
 deavours for  the  future  will  be  kindly  received,  and  our 
 former  transgressions  generously  passed  over,  all  ground 
 and  encouragement  for  such  a  change  is  utterly  taken 
 away. 
 
 Reason  indeed  cannot  lead  us  to  infer,  that  sorrow 
 for  the  past,  or  amendment  for  the  time  to  come,  can  be 
 any  equivalent  satisfaction  for  our  offences  ;  but  revela- 
 tion assures  us,  that  God  may  be  appeased,  and  it  hath 
 told  us  withal  in  what  manner  he  is  appeased,  even  by 
 the  precious  blood  of  his  Son,  '  who  came  to  give  his  life 
 a  ransom  for  many.'  In  this  matter  God  hath  declared 
 himself  so  fully,  that  the  very  heinousness  of  our  sins  is 
 not  a  greater  provocation,  than  the  distrust  of  mercy, 
 which,  in  effect,  is  making  God  a  liar,  and  disparaging 
 the  merits  of  Christ's  sacrifice,  after  we  have  committed 
 them.  So  that  hope  of  mercy,  and  faith  in  the  promises, 
 and  satisfaction  of  Christ,  are  the  very  life  and  spirit  of 
 true  repentance,  essential  and  indispensably  requisite  to 
 quicken  and  recommend  every  part  of  it:  and  therefore  no 
 wonder  if  Judas's  repentance  proved  so  ineffectual,  which 
 was  plainly  destitute  of  these  necessary  qualifications. 
 
 If  it  be  inquired,  how  Judas  came  to  be  wanting  in 
 this  point  ?  The  immediate  cause,  no  question,  was, 
 that  God  had  forsaken  him,  and  withdrawn  his  grace 
 from  him.  But  then  if  we  pursue  this  inquiry  still  farther, 
 and  drive  it  up  to  its  true  fountain-head,  the  matter  will 
 fall  upon  Judas  himself,  as  the  proper  and  original  cause 
 of  his  own  misery  and  destruction. 
 
 For,  whatever  we  may  think  of  the  doctrine  of  predes- 
 tination, it  is  certain  that  the  miserable  Judas  was  not 
 aware  of  any  power  in  it  to  sustain  his  mind,  when  he 
 came  to  reflect  on  what  he  had  done.  He  could  not  inter- 
 pret, that  the  foreknowledge  of  God  had  any  causality  or 
 influence  upon  his  sins,  because  he  found  cause  enough 
 for  that  arising  from  his  own  deportment  :6  for,  having 
 given  way  to  a  covetous  desire,  and  hardened  his  heart 
 by  a  sinful  indulgence  of  it  against  all  impressions  of 
 wholesome  counsel,  he  was  convinced  that  the  prophecy 
 of  his  treason  could  not  fail  of  its  event ;  because,  when 
 the  temptation  offered  he  could  not  choose  but  do  what  he 
 did.  He  had  indeed  lost  all  his  power  and  liberty  to 
 do  better,  though  still  the  necessity  which  he  then  lay 
 under,  was  not  fatal,  but  natural ;  not  of  God's  decreeing, 
 but  of  his  own  procuring.  Under  these  juster  apprehen- 
 sions of  his  crime,  he  is  said  to  have  repented,  in  the  worst 
 sense  of  the  words ;  that  is,  he  grieved,  he  despaired, 
 and  then  he  hanged  himself.  And  though  we  allow  that 
 his  passions  transported  him  too  extravagantly  in  these 
 latter  violences,  yet  even  from  what  was  rational  in  his 
 grief,  we  may  learn  this  lesson,' — "  That  when  an  awak- 
 ened conscience  comes  to  estimate  the  nature  of  its 
 guilt,  there  will  be  found  but  poor  shelter  in  all  these 
 palliations  that  can  be  formed  by  human  subtilty,  and 
 licentious  wit" 
 
 6  Young's  Sermons;  vol.  ii 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1035 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  ad.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 The  aggravations  of  St  Peter's  offence  in  denying'  our 
 Lord,  are  much  of  the  same  kind  with  that  of  Judas  in 
 betraying  him.  That  a  person,  who  for  the  space  of 
 three  years  and  more,  had  the  honour  of  our  Lord's  con- 
 versation, the  conviction  of  his  miracles,  and  the  instruc- 
 tion of  his  doctrine  ;  who  had  been  let  into  the  knowledge 
 of  those  mysteries,  which,  for  wise  reasons,  were  de- 
 livered in  parables,  and  concealed  from  others  ;  admitted 
 to  his  transfiguration  upon  the  mount,  his  converse  with 
 Moses  and  Elias,  and  to  hear  that  voice  from  God's 
 excellent  glory,  '  This  is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am 
 well  pleased,'1  as  himself  testifies  ;  that  a  person,  who 
 hereupon  had  made  confession  of  his  Master's  divinity, 
 and  received  his  commendations  for  it ;  had  been  chosen 
 a  companion  of  his  agonies,  and  forewarned  frequently 
 of  the  great  danger  of  denying  him  ;  and  hereupon  grown 
 so  very  resolute,  that  he  offered  2  to  go  with  him  into  pri- 
 son, and  to  death,  and,  to  distinguish  himself  above  any  of 
 his  brethren,3  '  Though  all  should  be  offended, '  says  he, 
 '  because  of  thee,  yet  will  not  I  be  offended  ;  and  though 
 I  were  to  die  with  thee,  yet  would  not  I  deny  thee  :'  that 
 a  person,  I  say,  placed  in  this  rank  and  elevation,  should 
 fall  off  in  the  time  of  trial,  should  deny  and  abjure  his 
 Master,  whose  greatest  honour  it  was  to  own,  implies  a 
 guilt  still  more  heinous,  the  more  his  knowledge  and 
 former  conviction,  the  more  his  warning  and  long  ex- 
 perience, the  more  his  professions  and  boasted  firmness 
 of  mind  were  conspicuous. 
 
 This  however  may  be  said  with  relation  to  the 
 difference  between  the  crime  of  Judas  and  that  of  St 
 Peter,  that  the  former  proceeded  from  a  spirit  of  malice, 
 and  fixed  resolution  to  do  evil,  occasioned  by  a  sordid 
 and  covetous  temper  :  that  it  was  nourished  up  by  long 
 contrivance  and  deliberation,  was  carried  on  by  hypo- 
 crisy and  deep  dissimulation,  was  executed  with  perfidy 
 and  great  violence,  and  ended,  at  last,  in  the  agonies  of 
 horror  and  despair ;  whereas  St  Peter's  crime,  though  a 
 very  great  one,  was  but  of  short  continuance,  and  never 
 in  his  intention  at  first ;  was  indeed  the  effect  of  fear  and 
 human  infirmity,  occasioned,  in  a  great  measure,  by  sur- 
 prise and  want  of  recollection  ;  not  so  much  the  act  of 
 the  man,  as  it  was  the  force  of  the  temptation  he  was 
 under ;  and  therefore  when  he  4  came  to  remember  the 
 wordswhich  Jesus  had  said  unto  him,  and  thereupon  to  con- 
 sider how  shamefully  he  had  fallen  from  his  courage  and 
 constancy,  how  easily  he  had  been  betrayed  into  a  crime 
 he  thought  himself  not  capable  of,  how  base  he  had  been  to 
 so  kind  a  Master,  how  false  to  his  promises,  how  regard- 
 less of  truth,  how  peremptory  in  a  most  notorious  false- 
 hood, and  how  profane  and  profligate  in  his  oaths  and 
 curses ;  when  he  came  to  consider  all  this,  I  say,  a 
 godly  sorrow  swelled  his  heart,  and  tears  gushed  out  of 
 his  eyes  ;  '  He  went  out  and  wept  bitterly.' 
 
 Judas,  in  like  manner,  might  weep  for  his  transgres- 
 sion perhaps  ;  but  his  tears  must  have  been  ineffectual, 
 because  the  season  of  that  grace  which  he  had  long  re- 
 sisted and  defeated,  was  departed  from  him,  and  God  pro- 
 voked to  give  him  over  to  his  own  perverseness  ;  whereas 
 our  Saviour,  who  foresaw  from  what  principle  St  Peter's 
 offence  would  arise,  and  how  sudden  his  conversion 
 would  be,s  '  had  prayed  for  him,  that  his  faith  might  not 
 
 »  2  Pet.  i.  17,  18.  *  Luke  xxli.  33.  *  Mat.  xxvi.  35. 
 
 ♦  Mat.  xx\i.  15.  5  Luke  xxii.  3.?. 
 
 fail,'  and  thence  his  recovery  did  proceed.  We  should 
 be  injurious  however  to  the  memory  of  this  apostle,  if 
 we  should  here  neglect  to  relate  how  his  after  behaviour 
 showed  the  sincerity  of  his  repentance,  and  made  an 
 ample  amends  for  the  scandal  of  his  offence. 
 
 6  It  was  tin's  same  St  Peter,  who,  after  our  Lord's  re- 
 surrection, returned  to  the  fervour  of  affection  for  which 
 he  was  remarkable  before  ;  that  so  exerted  himself  at  the 
 day  of "'  Pentecost,  and  proved,  by  irrefragable  argu- 
 ments, '  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  Son  of  God ;'  and 
 maintained  his  point  against  the  Jewish  rulers,8  despising 
 their  rebukes  and  angry  menaces,  and  telling  them 
 plainly,"  that  God  was  to  be  obeyed  rather  than  man  ; 
 that  confirmed  his  brethren  by  his  resolute  behaviour,  and IU 
 made  it  a  matter  of  rejoicing,  that  he  was  accounted 
 worthy  to  suffer  shame  for  the  once  abjured  name  of 
 Christ.  In  a  word,  it  was  he  who,  after  a  long  labour  of 
 preaching,  and  persecutions  of  all  kinds,  at  length  fin- 
 ished his  course,  and  glorified  God  by  the  same  sort  of 
 death  that  his  blessed  Son  condescended  to  undergo  for 
 our  sakes.  So  that  St  Peter  was  not  more  different  from 
 himself,  when  trembling  at  the  voice  of  a  silly  damsel, 
 than  the  same  St  Peter  afterwards,  the  glorious  and  in- 
 vincible apostle,  before  the  council,  in  prison,  and  upon 
 the  cross,  was  from  the  cowardly  and  infamous  renegade 
 in  the  high-priest's  palace.  This  settled  and  deliberate 
 fidelity  was  a  noble  compensation  for  the  infirmity  and 
 transports  of  this  fall.  This  showed  what  the  man  was 
 when  perfectly  himself,  and  supported  by  the  grace  of 
 God,  as  the  other  did  what  he  was  when  naked,  and 
 destitute  of  heavenly  succours,  depending  upon  his  own 
 strength,  and  left  in  the  hand  of  his  own  passions. 
 
 St  Paul  u  represents  our  Saviour  as  '  a  merciful 
 high-priest  because  he  was  touched  with  a  feeling  of  our 
 infirmities ;'  and  as  it  is  natural  for  us  to  compassionate 
 those  that  are  in  the  same  state  of  misery  with  ourselves, 
 so  might  our  Lord,  from  the  society  of  suffering,  have  been 
 induced,  at  this  time,  to  admit  the  penitent  upon  the  cross 
 into  a  participation  of  bliss,  who  at  another  time,  would 
 not  have  met  with  so  ready  a  reception.  Xi  It  might 
 therefore  be  no  small  advantage  to  the  penitent  thief, 
 that  he  happened  to  die  in  company  with  Christ,  though 
 it  is  certain,  that  the  good  disposition  which  he  dis- 
 covered in  his  behaviour  and  confession,  was  enough  to 
 recommend  him  to  the  divine  mercy. 
 
 It  is  highly  probable,  that  this  man  never  knew  any- 
 thing of  Jesus  before,  otherwise  than  by  common  fame  ; 
 nay,  that  he  was  prepossessed  against  him  as  an  impos- 
 tor, and  joined  with  his  companion  in  reviling  him  at  first : 
 and  therefore  the  greater  was  his  virtue  in  overcoming 
 these  prejudices  so  soon,  and  in  suffering  the  meekness 
 and  patience,  the  charity  and  piety,  of  our  Lord's  mira- 
 culous death  to  disabuse  him.  This  is  so  far  from  making 
 him  a  late  penitent,  that  it  gives  him  the  glory  of  an 
 early  convert ;  one  whose  heart  was  open  to  the  first  im- 
 pression of  grace,  and  wanted  not  so  much  the  inclination 
 as  the  opportunity,  of  embracing  the  truth  before. 
 
 But  admitting  that  he  had  seen  and  heard  of  Christ 
 before  ;  yet,  that  he  should  now  come  in  to  the  acknow- 
 ledgment of  him,  and  believe  him  to  be  the  Saviour  of 
 the  world,  when  one  of  his  disciples  had  betrayed,  another 
 
 B  Stanhope's  sermons  on  several  occasions.        '  Arts  ii.  II. 
 
 8  Ibid.  iv.  19,  '20.  9  Ibid   v.  29.  10  Ibid.  ver.  41. 
 
 11  1Kb.  iv.  15.  n  Taylor's  Life  of  Christ. 
 
1036 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  XX.  10 
 
 had  denied,  and  all  of  them  had  forsaken  him  ;  and  to 
 be  the  Son  of  God,  and  Lord  of  Life,  when  he  was  hang- 
 ing upon  the  cross,  suffering  the  pangs  of  death,  and 
 seemingly  deserted  by  his  Father:  that  he  should  take 
 sanctuary  in  a  dying  and  universally  despised  man,  pub- 
 lish his  innocence  in  the  face  of  triumphant  malice,  and, 
 through  the  thickest  cloud  of  shame  and  suffering  that 
 ever  intercepted  the  glories  of  the  Son  of  God,  discover 
 his  divine  power,  acknowledge  his  celestial  kingdom, 
 throw  himself  upon  his  protection,  and  call  upon  him,  as 
 the  great  disposer  of  rewards  and  happiness  after  death  ; 
 this  was  a  confession  so  resolute,  so  singular,  so  illustri- 
 ous, as  never  was  outdone,  as  never  can  in  all  respects, 
 be  equalled,  except  the  same  Jesus  were  again  to  be 
 crucified.  For  no  man's  conversion  ever  had,  ever  can 
 have,  upon  other  terms,  such  disadvantageous  and  dis- 
 couraging circumstances,  as  this  man  laboured  under, 
 and  yet  so  generously  overcame. 
 
 Well  therefore  might  '  St  Chrysostom,  as  he  does 
 with  great  force  and  eloquence,  rebuke  the  impudence 
 of  those  late  penitents,  who  presume  to  take  sanctuary 
 in  this  example ;  for  what  affinity,  what  shadow  of  re- 
 semblance is  there,  between  a  man  submitting  to  the 
 first  impression,  and  accepting  of  offers  as  soon  as  made  ; 
 and  one  who  has  lived  under  the  ministry  of  the  gospel, 
 and  enjoyed  both  the  outward  calls  of  God's  word,  and 
 the  inward  solicitations  of  his  Spirit,  but  turned  the  deaf 
 ear  continually  to  both  ?  between  a  man  who  to  our 
 Lord  paid  the  highest  degree  of  homage  and  respect, 
 even  when  he  had  made  himself  of  no  reputation,  and 
 appeared  in  the  guise  of  the  vilest  malefactor  ;  and  one 
 who,  notwithstanding  his  resurrection  from  the  dead, 
 and  exaltation  to  glory,  notwithstanding  the  conquest 
 made  by  the  gospel,  and  the  infamy  of  denying  him 
 now,  continues  still  to  injure  and  affront,  to  despise  and 
 defy  him,  in  his  most  prosperous  and  triumphant  con- 
 dition ? 
 
 In  a  word,  no  Christian,  who  hath  lived  under  the 
 dispensation  of  the  gospel,  can,  at  the  end  of  his  days, 
 plead  the  same  ready  compliance  to  the  calls  of  grace, 
 and  no  man  whatever  can  have  the  opportunity  of  ex- 
 erting the  same  vigorous  faith,  because  Christ  could 
 die  but  once,  and  it  was  his  shame  and  suffering  alone 
 that  made  the  confession  of  this  penitent  so  peculiarly 
 glorious,  and  such  as  the  whole  series  of  a  pious  life  in 
 other  men  can  hardly  parallel.  So  that  if  we  are  allowed 
 to  make  any  use,  or  to  draw  any  consolation  from  this 
 example,  it  can  be  no  more  than  this, — that  repentance, 
 when  true,  is  never  too  late,  and  therefore  the  thief 
 upon  the  cross,  is  a  sovereign  antidote  against  despair. 
 Bat  men  may  out-stay  the  day  of  grace  :  they  may  not 
 go  about  the  work  until  it  is  too  late  ;  until  they  have 
 lost  both  the  will  and  the  power  to  repent;  and  there- 
 fore this  example,  when  truly  considered,  is  an  excel- 
 lent preservative  likewise  against  presumption.  a 
 
 It  may  be  deemed  perhaps  some  mistake  in  the  evan- 
 
 1  Tom.  5.  orat.  7. 
 
 a  The  account  of  tin;  pardoned  criminal  is  related  by  one 
 evangelist  only,  as  if  the  Holy  Spirit  foresaw  the  perversion  of 
 the  passage.  One  instance  only,  to  use  the  language  of  a  cele- 
 brated divine,  of  the  acceptance  of  a  dying  repentance  is  re- 
 corded ;  one  only  that  none  might  despair,  and  one  only  that 
 none  might  presume.—  Tviitsoud,  Jim  muni/.-  Ed. 
 
 END.  MARK  xi.  15—  END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 gelist,  or  rather  a  disparagement  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  by 
 whose  direction,  we  say,  it  was  he  wrote,  that  St  Mat- 
 thew cites  Jeremiah  for  a  passage,  which  no  where  oc- 
 curs but  in  the  Prophet  Zechariah  ;  but  then  it  should  be 
 proved  that  St  Matthew  does  actually  cite  Jeremiah.  2 
 In  most  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  copies  indeed,  we  have 
 the  word  Jeremiah  at  present,  but  it  is  much  to  be  ques- 
 tioned whether  it  was  in  the  original,  since  the  Syriac 
 and  Persic  versions  mention  no  name,  but  barely  the 
 prophets,  and  those  copies,  in  3  St  Austin's  opinion,  are 
 most  to  be  relied  on,  which  have  not  the  name  of  Jere- 
 miah inserted  in  them,  because  this  might  possibly  pro- 
 ceed from  the  ignorance  or  carelessness  of  some  trans- 
 criber. 4  Some  of  our  modern  reconcilers  have  another 
 way  of  accounting  for  this.  They  endeavour  to  prove, 
 5  from  the  writings  of  the  Jewish  Rabbins,  that  both  be- 
 fore, under,  and  after  the  second  temple,  the  order  of 
 the  sacred  books  were  several  times  transposed,  and  that, 
 in  the  time  when  St  Matthew  wrote  his  gospel,  the  book 
 of  Jeremiah,  as  does  now  that  of  Isaiah,  stood  first  in 
 the  volume  of  prophets,  and  so  became  the  running  title 
 of  all  the  rest.  For,  that  the  first  book  in  a  volume  may 
 give  the  name  to  the  rest,  is  obvious,  say  they,  from  the 
 words  of  our  Saviour's  telling  his  disciples,  that  6  '  all 
 things  must  be  fulfilled,  which  were  written  in  the  law  of 
 Moses,  and  in  the  prophets,  and  in  the  psalms,  concern- 
 ing him:'  where,  by  the  word  Psalms,  he  means  all  the 
 Hagiography,  consisting  of  hymns  to  God,  and  docu- 
 ments of  life  ;  and  are  all  so  called,  because  in  that  part 
 of  the  division  of  the  Old  Testament,  they  had  obtained 
 the  first  place. 
 
 But  as  there  are  no  words  cited  in  the  like  manner 
 from  any  other  prophet  in  the  whole  New  Testament,  7 
 others  have  imagined,  that  the  passage  which  St  Matthew 
 quotes,  was  originally  in  the  authentic  copies  of  Jere- 
 miah, but  that,  by  the  malice  of  the  Jews,  it  was  erased, 
 because  it  was  looked  upon  as  too  plain  a  prophecy  for 
 this  circumstance  of  our  Saviour's  life  ;  or  rather,  that 
 it  was  recorded  in  a  certain  apocryphal  book  of  Jere- 
 miah's, from  whence  St  Matthew  took  it.  That  there 
 was  such  a  book  extant,  is  evident  from  the  testi- 
 mony of  St  Jerome,  8  who  expressly  tells  us,  that  he 
 read  the  very  words  here  quoted  in  an  Hebrew  volume 
 communicated  to  him  by  a  Jew  of  the  Nazarene  sect. 
 And,  that  it  was  no  disparagement  to  cite  an  apocryphal 
 book,  is  manifest  from  the  practice  of  the  apostles, 
 who  made  mention  9  of  Jarmes  and  Jainbres,  though 
 they  no  where  occur  in  the  canonical  Scripture  ;  who 
 quote l0  the  prophecy  of  Enoch,  though  generally  reputed 
 an  apocryphal  book ;  nay,  and  produce  the  sayings  of 
 Aratus,  u  Epimenides,  )3  and  Euripides,  13  though  these 
 were  profane  heathen  authors  :  for  though  such  books, 
 say  they,  were  not  received  into  the  canon,  yet  they 
 might  nevertheless  contain  such  truths  as  were  worthy  of 
 belief. 
 
 Those,  however,  who  have  compared  the  writings  of 
 
 2  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  ii.  3  De  con- 
 tent, evan.  torn.  4.  b.  iii.  c.  7-  4  Lightioot  in  loc.  and  Suren- 
 husius,  in  conciliat.  in  loc.  et  Vet.  Test,  apud  Mat.  5  In  cod. 
 Talmud.  Bava  Batra,  fol.  14.  col.  2.  6  Luke  xxvi.  44. 
 
 7  See   Calmet's  Commentary,   Whitby's  Annotations,  and 
 Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  ii.  8  In  Mat. 
 
 xxvi.  9.     9  2  Tim.  iii.  8.     w  Jude,  ver.   14.      »  Acts  xvii.  2(3. 
 iL  Tit.  i.  12.  13  1  Cor.xv.yS. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1037 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.33;  OK,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 these  two  prophets  together,  have  observed,  that  Zecha- 
 riali  was  so  close  an  imitator  of  Jeremiah,  as  to  give 
 just  occasion  for  the  saying  of  the  Jews,  namely,  That 
 the  spirit  of  Jeremy  had  passed  into  Zechary,  and  so 
 both  together  made  but  one  prophet :  and  from  hence 
 others  have  concluded,  that  the  (Jth,  10th,  and  1 1th  chapters 
 of  Zechariah  were  not  wrote  by  him,  but  by  Jeremiah, 
 though,  at  present,  they  go  under  the  other's  name.  The 
 book  of  Psalms,  we  know,  though  the  whole  collection 
 be  called  David's,  contains  many  pieces  that  were  not  of 
 his  composition.  In  that  of  Proverbs,  there  are  several 
 wise  sentences,  besides  those  of  Solomon,  ascribed  to 
 1  Agar,  the  son  of  Jakeh,  and  to  B  the  mother  of  King 
 Lemuel ;  and,  by  parity  of  reason,  these  chapters  of 
 Zechariah  might  originally  have  been  written  by  the 
 prophet  Jeremiah,  though,  in  process  of  time,  they  hap- 
 pened to  creep  in  among  the  verses  of  his  great  imitator. 
 
 And  indeed,  whoever  looks  into  the  contents  of  these 
 chapters  will  soon  perceive,  that  such  things  are  related 
 in  them,  are  as  inconsistent  with  the  time  wherein 
 Zechariah  lived,  but  very  well  agree  with  that  of  Jere- 
 miah :  that  what  he  says,  for  instance,3  of  the  pride  of 
 Assyria  being  brought  down,  and  the  sceptre  of  Egypt 
 being  departed,  could  not  be  foretold  by  him,  because 
 these  events  were  then  passed  and  gone,  but  might  very 
 well  be  predicted  by  Jeremiah  ;  that  what  he  says  *  of 
 Gaza,  and  Ashkelon,  as  cities  then  in  being,  could  not 
 be  recorded  of  them,  forasmuch  as  these  places  were  de- 
 stroyed long  before  his  days,  but  might  properly  enough 
 be  mentioned  by  Jeremiah,  because  in  his  time  they  were 
 subsisting  ;  and  that  the  earthquake  5  which  he  alludes 
 to,  in  the  days  of  Uzziah,  was  of  too  distant  a  date  to 
 be  remembered  in  his  time,  though  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
 tradition  might  have  transmitted  the  report  of  it  down  as 
 far  as  the  days  of  Jeremiah.  If  then  there  be  found  in 
 Zechariah  things  inconsistent  with  his  time,  but  such  as 
 comported  very  well  with  the  period  wherein  Jeremiah 
 lived,  it  is  natural  to  think,  that  though  the  whole  book 
 went  under  another's  name,  yet  still  such  parts  of  it  as 
 contained  these  things,  must  have  been  wrote  by  a  person 
 with  whom  they  were  coincident ;  and  that  therefore  St 
 Matthew  is  so  far  from  committing  any  blunder,  that  he 
 makes  a  very  valuable  discovery,  in  ascribing  the  pro- 
 phecy now  before  us  to  its  proper  author. 
 
 Thus,  take  it  which  way  we  will,  we  cannot  justly 
 accuse  the  evangelist  of  any  misquotation  :  and  much 
 less  can  we  charge  him  with  any  misrepresentation  of  a 
 matter  of  fact,  in  his  making  our  blessed  Lord  able 
 enough  to  drive  all  the  buyers  and  sellers  out  of  the 
 temple.  St  Jerom  6  indeed  reckons  this  one  of  the 
 greatest  miracles  that  ever  our  Saviour  did  ;  and  imputes 
 his  ability  to  do  it  to  a  certain  divine  majesty,  which,  at 
 that  time,  appeared  in  his  looks,  and  struck  the  company 
 with  such  reverential  awe  and  respect  to  his  person,  as 
 restrained  them  from  making  any  opposition  :  but,  with- 
 out having  any  recourse  to  any  thing  miraculous  in  this 
 transaction,  we  need  only  remember,  that  our  Lord  was 
 just  now  come  up  from  Bethany  to  Jerusalem  in  a  sort  of 
 royal  and  triumphant  procession  ;  that  he  was  attended 
 on  the  road,  and  into  the  city,  with  7  a  very  great  multi- 
 
 1  Prov.  xxx.  I. 
 *  Ibid.  ix.  5. 
 
 2  Ibid;  xxx 
 
 [bid.  xiv.  ;>. 
 
 f  Ibid.  ver.  8,  0 
 
 I. 
 
 ;|  Zech.x.  II. 
 6  In  Mat.  x\i.  I?. 
 
 tude,  nay,  with  multitudes,  that  went  before,  and  followed 
 after  ;  that  these  all  went  along  with  him  into  the  temple, 
 and  proclaimed,  as  they  had  done  on  the  road,  '  Hos- 
 anna  to  the  son  of  David ;'  and  that  the  concourse,  in 
 short,  was  so  great,  that  8  all  the  city  was  moved,  and 
 even  the  chief  priests  were  afraid  of  him,  and  of  the 
 people  too,  because  they  took  him  for  a  prophet,  anda 
 were  attentive  to  hear  him. 
 
 Now  it  is  no  hard  matter  to  imagine,  that  the  people, 
 seeing  our  Saviour  proceed  to  the  temple  in  this  trium- 
 phant manner,  might  seasonably  enough  call  to  mind  the 
 prediction  of  the  prophet  Malachi,  lu  '  The  Lord  whom 
 ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to  his  temple  :  even  the 
 messenger  of  the  covenant,  in  whom  ye  delight :  and  he 
 shall  purify  the  sons  of  Levi,  that  they  may  offer  to  the 
 Lord  an  offering  of  righteousness  ;'  and  that,  from  the 
 remembrance  of  this  prophecy,  they  might  be  encour- 
 aged to  abet  his  reformation  of  the  temple.  u  Nor  is  it 
 to  be  doubted,  that  a  consciousness  of  guilt  in  the  pro- 
 faners  themselves  might,  in  some  measure,  contribute  to 
 their  submission  and  acquiescence,  even  in  the  same 
 manner  as  his  enemies  were  struck  backwards  with  the 
 sense  of  their  own  guilt,  as  well  as  the  majesty  of  his 
 appearance,  and  fell  to  the  ground,  when  they  came  to 
 apprehend  him  in  the  garden.  So  that,  upon  the  whole, 
 we  are  to  consider  our  Saviour  in  this  action,  not  in  the 
 form  of  a  despised  man,  but  of  a  triumphant  monarch 
 rather,  at  the  head  of  an  infinite  number  of  people,  all 
 rejoicing  in  the  completion  of  an  ancient  prophecy,  all 
 acknowledging  him  for  their  Messiah  and  king,  and 
 thereupon  all  ready  to  support  him  in  any  reformation 
 that  he  should  think  proper  to  attempt. 
 
 The  like  is  to  be  said  of  the  relation  which  the  evange- 
 lists give  us  of  the  darkness  which  happened  at  our 
 Lord's  crucifixion  ;  that  it  is  far  from  being  a  misrepre- 
 sentation of  the  matter  of  fact,  since  we  have  it  confirmed12 
 by  the  testimony  of  Phlegon,  who,  in  the  40th  book  of  his 
 Chronicles,  tells  us,  that  in  the  4th  year  of  the  CClld 
 Olympiad,  which  answers  exactly  to  that  of  our  Lords 
 death,  "  there  was  the  greatest  eclipse  of  the  sun  that 
 had  ever  been  before,  insomuch  that  at  noon-day  the 
 stars  were  seen  in  the  sky  ;"  by  the  authority  of  Thal- 
 lus,13  a  Greek  historian,  who,  in  his  third  book,  speaks 
 of  the  darkness  that  accompanied  our  Saviour's  death, 
 and  which  he,  in  like  manner,  called  an  eclipse  ;  by  the 
 appeal  which  Tertullian,14  and  others  make  to  the  Roman 
 archives,  where  the  account  that  Pilate  sent  to  Tiberius, 
 of  the  miracles  which  happened  at  our  Lord's  passion, 
 was  deposited,  for  the  truth  of  this  prodigious  darkness; 
 and,15  lastly,  by  the  general  consent  of  all  Christian 
 authors,  for  the  space  of  the  first  six  centuries,  who, 
 in  treating  this  subject,  have  constantly  made  men- 
 tion of  this  testimony  of  Phlegon  and  Thallus,  together 
 with  this  appeal  to  the  Roman  records,  without  the  least 
 hesitation,  or  diffidence  of  their  truth  :  so  that  the  only 
 difficulty  is,  to  know  by  what  means  this  strange  pheno- 
 menon was  effected. 
 
 Phlegon  and  Thallus  indeed,  as  they  are  cited  1B  by 
 Christian  writers,  seem  to  make  this  darkness  .a  common 
 
 8  Mat.  xxi.  10.         <J  Luke  xix.  48.         "Mai.  iii.  l.&c 
 
 11  Bishop  Smallbrooke's  Vindication,  p.  13ti. 
 
 ,a  Vic).  Grig.  I'ont.  Cels.  b.  ii.  13  African.  Chronogr. 
 
 11   \  | '"lo;:.  c.  21.    ls  Wlii -I. hi's  Testimony  of  Phlegon  vindicated. 
 
 'B  Calmet's  Dissert,  sur  Les  Tenebres. 
 
1038 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xl.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 eclipse,  occasioned  as  others  are,  by  an  interposition  of 
 the  moon  between  the  sun  and  the  earth ;  and  thence 
 some  have  inferred,  that  there  was  nothing  extraordinary 
 in  it.  But  as  it  is  a  thing  very  well  known,  that  the 
 passover,  when  our  Lord  suffered,  was  always  appointed 
 at  the  full  of  the  moon,  and  a  thing  naturally  impossible, 
 that  an  eclipse  should  happen  when  the  moon  is  in  this 
 condition,  we  have  reason  to  think,  that  this  was  an  hasty 
 conclusion  which  these  two  authors  made,  without  ever 
 bethinking  themselves  of  the  rules  of  astronomy ;  that 
 finding,  in  the  public  records  of  the  time  of  Tiberius,  an 
 account  of  a  prodigious  darkness  which  at  noon-day 
 made  the  stars  appear  in  the  firmament,  this  they  suppose 
 could  have  been  effected  only  by  an  eclipse  of  the  sun, 
 and,  upon  such  supposition,  affirmed  that  it  was  so.  But, 
 for  one  circumstance  unwarily  advanced,  it  were  mad- 
 ness to  reject  their  testimony,  which  in  other  respects, 
 exactly  agrees  with  the  account  of  the  sacred  writings." 
 Others,  by  the  manner  of  their  expression,  seem  to 
 imply,  that  the  sun,  upon  this  occasion,  withheld  its 
 rays,  and,  as  it  were,  eclipsed  itself,  by  restraining  its 
 lustre  from  issuing  forth  ;  never  considering,  that  light 
 in  the  sun  is  no  accidental  thing,  nor  any  quality  which 
 it  can  suppress,  or  exert  as  it  thinks  proper.  To  shine 
 is  as  necessary  to  it,  as  is  its  being  :  nor  can  its  rays 
 meet  with  any  obstruction,  but  when  some  opaque  body  or 
 other  intervenes  between  us  and  them;  and  therefore, 
 when  the  fathers  in  conformity  to  the  style  of  the  Scrip- 
 ture, say,  that  the  sun  or  the  stars  withdrew  their  shining, 
 this  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  figurative  and  popular 
 manner  of  expression,  which  seems  to  give  these  celes- 
 tial bodies  a  kind  of  free  action,  thereby  to  make  us  more 
 sensible  of  the  absence  or  suspension  of  their  effects. 
 
 Others  therefore,  with  more  probability,  think,  that  as 
 the  sacred  history  says  nothing  of  the  sun,  this  darkness, 
 which  it  takes  notice  of,  was  occasioned  by  a  great  num- 
 ber of  condensed  clouds,  which  gathering  in  the  air, 
 intercepted  the  light  of  the  sun,  and,  for  the  space  of 
 three  hours,  produced  the  same  effect  that  once  happened 
 in  the  land  of  Egypt,  a  darkness  that  might  be  felt. 
 This  hypothesis  makes  the  matter  very  easy,  but  placing 
 the  whole  miracle  in  the  quick  formation  of  the  clouds 
 at  such  a  point  of  time,  and  the  speedy  dispersion  of 
 them  after  such  a  continuance,  *  only  we  must  suppose, 
 that  '  by  the  whole  earth,  which  the  evangelist  tells  us 
 
 1   'I'.vri  Tairav  Trjv  ytjv,  Mat.  xxvii.  45. 
 
 a  See  note  on  this  subject,  p.  1S9. — Ed. 
 
 b  This  is  a  very  unphilosophical  solution  of  the  difficulty,  if 
 indeed  there  he  any  difficulty  in  the  case,  and  such  as  cannot  be 
 admitted  by  common  sense.  If  the  rays  of  the  sun  were  inter- 
 cepted  merely  by  a  congeries  of  dense  clouds,  how  came  the 
 feebler  rays  of  the  stars  to  penetrate  those  clouds  which  were  im- 
 pervious to  the  rays  of  the  sun?  The  darkness  was  unquestion- 
 ably miraculous,  of  which  therefore  no  other  account  is  to  be 
 given  than  that  it  was  produced  by  the  immediate  interposition 
 ol  God,  as  all  other  miracles  have  been  ;  but  what  is  now  known 
 of  the  constitution  of  the  sun,  renders  it  unnecessary  to  imagine 
 either  that  masses  of  dense  clouds,  which  indeed  would  not  have 
 answered  the  purpose,  were  interposed  between  the  land  of  Judea 
 and  the  sun  ;  or  that  the  moon  was  carried  out  of  her  course, and 
 then  rendered  stationary  for  three  hours  in  order  to  cause  this 
 preternatural  darkness.  If  the  sun  be  such  a  body  as  some 
 philosophers  seem  to  have  lately  ascertained  it  to  be,  the  dark- 
 ness might  be  produced,  and  produced  over  all  the  earth,  merely 
 by  an  aperture  of  the  luminous  atmosphere  made  much  larger 
 than  those  which  are  now  known  to  produce  the  dtrk  spots  observed 
 occasionally  in  the  surface  of  the  sun.  —  Bishop  GUiy. En. 
 
 was  covered  with  this  darkness,  we  are  to  understand  the 
 land  of  Judea  only,  in  which  sense  the  phrase  does  not 
 unfrequently  occur  in  Scripture. 
 
 And  indeed,2  as  the  other  wonderful  things  which  came 
 to  pass  at  our  Saviour's  passion,  such  as  the  trembling 
 of  the  earth,  the  rending  of  the  rocks,  the  opening  the 
 graves,  and  tearing  the  vail  of  the  temple,  were  trans- 
 acted at  Jerusalem,  or  at  most  in  Judea  only  ;  so  have  we 
 reason  to  believe,  that  the  darkness  which  accompanied 
 these  miracles  was  of  no  greater  extent  than  they ;  be- 
 cause the  chief  design  of  this  uncommon  appearance  in 
 the  heavens  was,  to  convince  the  Jews  who  blasphemed 
 our  Lord,  and  his  disciples  who  believed  on  him,  both 
 then  present  at  his  crucifixion,  that  notwithstanding  all 
 the  humiliation  to  which  he  voluntarily  submitted,  he  was 
 in  reality  the  great  creator  of  the  universe,  and  b  even 
 while  he  was  hanging  on  the  cross,  the  ruler  and  direc- 
 tor of  all  its  elements  and  motions. 
 
 God  indeed,  as  he  is  an  omniscient  being,  cannot  but 
 foreknow  all  the  actions  of  mankind,  and  therefore,  when 
 he  pleases,  may  foretell  any  of  them ;  but  then  3  if  his 
 foreknowledge,  or  predictions,  did  so  far  influerfe^  the 
 will  of  men,  as  to  lay  them  under  a  necessity  of  doing 
 what  he  foreknew,  or  has  foretold  he  shall  do,  all  free- 
 dom in  human  actions  must  be  destroyed  ;  consequently 
 all  vice  and  virtue  must  be  empty  names,  because  none 
 can  be  blamed  for  doing  what  he  could  not  help ;  nor 
 does  any  one  deserve  to  be  praised,  who  does  only 
 that  which  he  cannot  avoid  :  and  consequently  again,  all 
 future  rewards  and  punishments  must  be  discarded  ;  be- 
 cause, as  it  would  be  unjust  to  punish  one  man  for  that 
 which  was  not  in  his  power  to  avoid,  so  would  it  be 
 unreasonable  to  reward  another  for  doing  such  actions 
 as  he  found  himself  constrained  and  compelled  to 'do. 
 
 When  therefore  we  find  the  evangelist  declaring,  that4 
 'the  Jews  could  not  believe,  because  Isaiah  5  had  said, 
 God  had  blinded  their  eyes,  and  hardened  their  hearts,' 
 we  must  not  suppose  that  this  prophecy  was  either  the 
 cause  or  motive  of  their  infidelity.  It  was  simply  a  pre- 
 diction, and,  as  such,  laid  upon  them  no  manner  of 
 necessity  or  compulsion.  Suchjprophecies  indeed  always 
 include  a  tacit  condition,  which*  preserves  to  man 
 the  liberty  of  choice ;  and  if,  in  their  event,  they  prove 
 certain  and  infallible,  it  is  only  because  God  certainly 
 and  infallibly  foreknows  the  future  bad  dispositions  of 
 the  people  of  whom  he  speaks,  and  has  a  clear  prospect 
 of  that  blindness  and  obduration  which  their  perverseness 
 brings  upon  them. 
 
 In  relation  to  the  Jews  in  particular,  it  is  certain  that 
 
 2  Origen,  in  Mat.  tract  35. 
 
 3  Whitby's  Annotations  on  John  xii.  38.         *  John  3ja*v~3!J,  40. 
 
 5  Isa.  vi.  9. 
 
 b  From  the  astronomical  tables,  some  that  are  versed  in  this 
 kind  of  knowledge,  have  informed  us,  that  on  the  same  day,  when 
 our  Saviour  died,  about  three  in  the  afternoon,  that  is,  immedi- 
 ately after  the  miraculous  darkness  which  began  at  noon,  and 
 lasted  three  hours,  there  was  a  natural  eclipse  of  the  moon,  in 
 which  half  of  its  orbit  was  obscured:  so  that  this  day  produced 
 a  literal  accomplishment  of  two  remarkable  prophecies:  that  of 
 Joel,  '  The  earth  shall  quake  before  them,  the  heavens  shall 
 tremble ;  the  sun  and  the  moon  shall  be  dark,  and  the  stars  shall 
 withdraw  their  shining,'  (chap.  ii.  ]0.)  and  that  of  Amos,  'In 
 that  daysaith  the  Lord,  I  will  cause  the  sun  to  go  down  at  noon, 
 and  will  darken  the  earth  in  the  clear  day ;  and  I  will  turn  your 
 feasts  into  mourning,  and  all  your  songs  into  lamentation,'  (chap, 
 viii.  9,  10.)— Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 PROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1039 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.33;  OK,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARKxi.  15— END.  LUKE  xbt.  45— END  JOHN.  xii.  19— END. 
 
 our  blessed  Saviour  did  not  think  that  his  heavenly 
 Father  had,  by  an  action  or  prediction  of  his,  made  it 
 impossible  for  them  to  believe  on  him ;  '  for,  had  he 
 thought  so,  he  would  never  have  exhorted  them,  as  we 
 find  he  does  in  the  verses  just  going  before,2  '  to  walk 
 in  the  light,  and  believe  in  the  light  whilst  they  had  it ;' 
 and  that  to  tins  good  purpose,  that  they  '  might  become 
 the  children  of  light;'  because  every  exhortation  to  do  a 
 thing  which  we  know  to  be  impossible,  must  not  only  be 
 vain  and  delusory,  but,  if  we  know  that  impossibility  to 
 proceed  from  a  divine  judicial  act,  repugnant  likewise  to 
 the  will  of  God,  which  to  suppose  our  Lord  capable  of, 
 is  the  height  of  blasphemy. 
 
 Since,  therefore,  in  the  eastern  phrase,  a  person  is  said 
 to  do  that  which  he  only  permits  to  be  done,  God's 
 blinding  the  eyes,  and  hardening  the  hearts  of  the  Jews, 
 must  mean  no  more,  than  his  suffering  them  to  blind  their 
 own  eyes,  and  harden  their  own  hearts  ;  which,  upon 
 the  mere  subductiortof  his  grace,  without  the  infusion  of 
 any  perverse  inclinations  from  him,  they  would  not  fail 
 to  do.  And,  accordingly,  we  may  observe,  that  the 
 same  evangelist,  in  another  place,  speaks  of  their  obdu- 
 ration  and  blindness  as  their  own  act  and  deed  :  '  For3 
 this  people's  heart  is  waxen  gross,'  says  he,  '  and  their 
 ears  are  dull  of  hearing,  and  their  eyes  have  they  closed, 
 lest,  at  any  time,  they  should  see  with  their  eyes,  and 
 heaf  with  their  ears,  and  understand  with  their  hearts, 
 and  should  be  converted,  and  I  should  heal  them.' 
 
 Whoever  considers  the  series  of  the  sacred  history,  may 
 soon  convince  himself,  that  the  miraclewhich  our  Saviour 
 wrought  on  the  barren  fig-tree,  happened  about  the 
 eleventh  day  of  the  Jewish  month  Nisan,  on  Tuesday, 
 very  probably  before  the  passover  ;  for  the  passover,  we 
 know,  was  kept  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  Nisan,  which 
 answers  to  the  latter  end  of  our  March:  and  that,  at  this 
 time,  there  were  figs  in  Judea  ripe  and  fit  for  gathering, 
 we  have  some  authority  to  believe. 
 
 When  Moses  sent  away  the  spies  to  search  the  land 
 of  Canaan,  it  was,  we  are  told,  4  '  in  the  time  of  the 
 first  ripe  grapes,  5  and  they  returned  from  searching 
 after  forty  days,'  and  brought  from  thence  6  pomegran- 
 ates and  figs,  as  well  as  clusters  of  grapes.  Now,  the 
 Septuagint  version  says,  that  it  was  in  the  spring  when 
 these  spies  set  forward;  and  Philo,  in  his  life  of  Moses, 
 seems  to  be  of  the  same  opinion.  Supposing  then  that 
 it  was  albout  the  middle  of  spring,  which,  in  Judea, 
 began  about  the  middle  of  January,  that  the  spies  set 
 out,  and  that  they  were  gone  forty  days,  it  will  follow, 
 that  they  returned  some  days  before  the  passover  ;  and 
 if  the  figs,  which  they  brought,  as  well  as  the  grapes, 
 were  ripe  and  full-grown,  then  were  they  ripe  in  Judea 
 in  the  very  same  time  that  our  Saviour  is  here  said  to 
 look  for  them. 
 
 Solomon,  in  hi8  book  of  Canticles,  gives  us  a  lively- 
 description  of  the  spring  ;  and  among  other  signs  of  its 
 being  come,  makes  mention  of  this, — that  7i  the  fig-tree 
 putteth  forth  her  green  figs ;  «  and  the  vines,  with  their 
 
 »  John  xii.  35,  36. 
 4  Numb.  xiii.  20. 
 
 2  Whitby,  ibid. 
 5  Ibid.  ver.  -25. 
 7  Cant.  ii.  19. 
 
 3  Mat.  xiii.  15. 
 6  Numb.  xiii.  24. 
 
 a  The  fig-tree  is  very  common  in  Palestine  and  the  east,  and 
 it  flourishes  with  the  greatest  luxuriance  in  these  barren  and 
 stony  situations,  where  little  else  will  grow.      Figs  are  of  t«o 
 
 tender  grapes,  give  a  good  smell,'  or  as  it  may  more 
 literally  be  rendered,  '  the  fig-tree  hath  begun  to  give  a 
 flavour  to  her  young  figs,  and  the  vines  a  good  smell  to 
 the  tender  grape.'  Now,  if,  in  the  middle  of  our  January, 
 the  figs  were  so  forward  as  then  to  give  a  flavour,  it  is 
 
 sorts,  the  boccore,  and  the  kermouse.  The  black  and  white 
 boccore,  or  early  fig,  is  produced  in  June,  though  the  kermouse, 
 the  fig  properly  so  called,  which  is  preserved,  and  made  up  into 
 cakes,  is  rarely  ripe  before  August.  There  is  also  a  long  dark 
 coloured  kermouse,  that  sometimes  hangs  upon  the  trees  all  the 
 winter.  For  these  figs  generally  hang  a  long  time  upon  the  tree 
 before  they  fall  on";  whereas  the  boccores  drop  as  soon  as  they 
 are  ripe,  and  according  to  the  beautiful  allusion  of  the  prophet 
 Nahum,  '  fall  into  the  mouth  of  the  eater  upon  being  shaken,' 
 ch.  iii.  12.  Dr  Shaw,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  this  infor- 
 mation, remarks,  that  these  trees  do  not  properly  blossom,  or 
 send  out  flowers,  as  we  render  h*Wi,  Hab.  iii.  17.  They 
 may  rather  be  said  to  '  shoot  out  their  fruit,'  which  they  do, 
 like  so  many  little  buttons,  with  their  flowers,  small  and  imper- 
 fect as  they  are,  enclosed  within  them.  When  this  intelligent 
 traveller  visited  Palestine,  in  the  latter  end  of  March,  the  boc- 
 core was  far  from  being  in  a  state  of  maturity;  for  in  the  scrip- 
 ture expression,  '  the  time  of  figs  was  not  yet,'  (Mark  xi.  13), 
 or  not  till  the  middle  or  latter  end  of  June.  The  time  here 
 mentioned,  is  supposed  by  some  authors,  quoted  by  F.  Clusius, 
 in  his  Hierobotanicon,  to  be  the  third  year,  in  which  the  fruit 
 of  a  particular  kind  of  fig  tree  is  said  to  come  to  perfection.  But 
 this  species,  if  there  be  any  such,  needs  to  be  further  known  and 
 described,  before  any  argument  can  be  founded  upon  it.  Diony- 
 sius  Syrus,  as  he  is  translated  by  Dr  Loftus,  is  more  to  the  pur- 
 pose: 'it  was  not  the  time  of  figs,'  he  remarks,  because  it  was 
 the  month  Nisan,  when  trees  yielded  blossoms,  and  not  fruit. 
 It  frequently  happens  in  Barbary,  however,  and  it  need  not  be 
 doubted  in  the  warmer  climate  of  Palestine,  that,  according  to 
 the  quality  of  the  preceding  season,  some  of  the  more  forward 
 and  vigorous  trees  will  now  and  then  yield  a  few  ripe  figs,  six 
 weeks  or  more  before  the  full  season.  Something  like  this  may 
 be  alluded  to  by  the  prophet  Hosea,  when  he  says  he  '  saw  their 
 fathers  as  the  first  ripe  in  the  fig  tree  at  her  first  time,'  (ch.  ix. 
 10);  and  by  Isaiah,  who,  speaking  of  the  beauty  of  Samaria, 
 and  her  rapid  declension,  says  she  '  shall  be  a  fading  flower, 
 and  as  the  hasty  fruit  before  the  summer:  which,  when  he  that 
 looketh  upon  it  seeth,  while  it  is  yet  in  his  hand,  he  eateth  it 
 up,'  ch.  xxviii.  4.  When  the  boccore  draws  near  to  perfection, 
 then  the  kermouse,  the  summer  fig,  or  caricae,  begin  to  be 
 formed,  though  they  rarely  ripen  before  August;  at  which  time 
 there  appeals  a  third  crop  or  the  winter  fig,  as  it  may  be  called. 
 This  is  usually  of  a  much  longer  shape,  and  darker  complexion 
 than  the  kermouse,  hanging  and  ripening  on  the  tree,  even  after 
 the  leaves  are  shed  ;  and  provided  the  winter  proves  mild  and 
 temperate,  is  gathered  as  a  delicious  morsel  in  the  spring.  We 
 learn  from  Pliny,  that  the  fig  tree  was  bifera,  or  bore  two  crops 
 of  figs,  namely,  the  boccore,  as  we  may  imagine,  and  the  ker- 
 mouse ;  though  what  he  relates  afterwards,  should  intimate  that 
 there  was  also  a  winter  crop.  "  Its  late  fruit  remains  on  the  tree 
 during  winter,  and  grows  ripe  among  the  new  foliage  in  the 
 following  summer."  "  The  fig  tree  produces  a  second  crop,"  says 
 Columella,  "  and  protracts  its  ripeness  till  late  in  the  winter." 
 It  is  well  known,  that  the  fruit  of  these  prolific  trees  always  pre- 
 cedes the  leaves  ;  and  consequently,  when  our  Saviour  saw 
 one  of  them  in  full  vigour  having  leaves,  (Mark  xi.  13.),  he 
 might,  according  to  the  common  course  of  nature,  very  justly 
 look  for  fruit;  and  haply  find  some  boccores,  if  not  some 
 winter  figs,  likewise  upon  it.  But  the  difficulties  connected 
 with  the  narration  of  this  transaction,  will  not  allow  of  its  dis- 
 mission in  this  summary  manner.  We  say,  in  the  narration, 
 for  we  apprehend  that  the  remark  of  Dr  Shaw  is  quite  satisfac- 
 tory as  to  the  reasonableness  of  our  Lord's  conduct  on  the  oc- 
 casion, notwithstanding  the  multiplied  objections  which  ignor- 
 ance and  irreligion  have  urged  against  it.  It  is  due  to  the 
 late  indefatigable  editor  of  Calmet,  to  notice  the  conjecture  which 
 he  formed,  of  the  tree  in  question  being  the  sycamore,  which  bears 
 fruit  several  times  in  the  year,  without  observing  any  certain 
 seasons,  so  that  a  person  cannot  determine,  without  a  close  in- 
 spection, whether  it  has  fruit  or  not.  But,  to  say  nothing  against 
 the  authority  by  which  the   avr.n   is  here  proposed  to  be  ren- 
 
1040 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 M.  4037.  A.  D.  33  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 reasonable  to  think,  that,  in  so  warm  and  fruitful  a 
 climate  as  Judea  was,  there  might  be  ripe  ones  about 
 the  latter  end  of  March,  which  is  the  precise  time  when 
 our  Saviour  sought  for  them  upon  this  tig-tree. 
 
 The  truth  is,  there  were  in  Judea  tig-trees  of  differ- 
 ent kinds  ;  and,  besides  the  ordinary  sort,  which  '  ac- 
 cording to  our  Saviour,  did  not  put  forth  its  leaves  until 
 the  next  approach  of  summer,  the  Jewish  writers  make 
 mention  of  one  early  kind  in  particular,  called  by  them 
 Banoth-shuaoth,  which  never  wanted  leaves,  and  very 
 seldom  fruit.  Nay,  Pliny  2  tells  us  of  some  sort  of 
 tig-trees  in  Syria,  under  which  name  he  frequently  com- 
 prehends Judea,  that  had  always  leaves,  and  when  the 
 fruit  of  the  preceding  year  was  gathered,  the  new  fruit 
 began  immediately,  and  was  growing  all  the  winter  long  : 
 and  therefore  we  need  less  wonder  at  what  the  em- 
 peror Julian  asserts,  namely,  that,  at  Damascus  in 
 Syria,  there  was  a  sort  of  fig  tree,  whose  fruit,  both  old 
 and  young,  grew  together,  and  lasted  beyond  a  year. 
 From"  all  which  we  may  be  allowed  to  conclude,  that 
 there  might  be  figs  in  Judea  fit  to  eat  at  the  time  when 
 our  Saviour  went  to  look  for  some  on  this  tree  ;  and 
 for  this  reason  some  have  3  imagined,  that  without 
 offering  any  great  violence  to  the  text,  the  original  words 
 ol  yu.Q  ijv  xui^o;  gvkuv  for  '  where  he  was,'  or,  in  the 
 place  he  then  was  in,  '  the  time  of  figs  was  come.'  And 
 this,  by  the  way,  is  enough  to  vindicate  our  Saviour  in 
 what  he  did,  since  there  could  be  no  injustice  to 
 the  owner,  as  some  would  suggest,  in  ridding  the 
 ground  of  a  tree  which  only  encumbered  it,  and 
 sucked  its  nourishment  from  it,  without  making  any 
 return.  " 
 
 1  Mark  xiii.  28.  2  Natural  history,  b.  13.  c.  8. 
 
 3  Universal  history,  b.  2.  c.  11. 
 
 dered  a  sycamore,  which  has  its  own  proper  appellation  <rvxo[i- 
 o>oa.ia.  (Luke  xix.  4.),  the  assumption  seems  inadequate  to  ac- 
 count for  the  malediction  which  was  levelled  against  it;  because 
 it  is  plain  that  such  a  tree  might  at  that  time  have  been  desti- 
 tute of  fruit,  and  yet  by  no  means  barren .  Dr  Shaw's  conjecture, 
 therefore,  seems  to  be  the  most  satisfactory ;  namely,  that  as  the 
 fig  tree  always  puts  forth  the  fruit  before  its  leaves,  and  this  was 
 not  the  season  for  figs,  [rather  fig  harvest,  for  so  the  words, 
 xaiols  trvxuv,  import]  our  Saviour  was  justified  in  expecting  to 
 meet  with  some  on  the  tree. — Carpenter's  Scripture  Natural 
 History. 
 
 a  Tbe  alteration  here  proposed  in  the  common  version  of 
 Maikxi.  13,  is  inadmissible  and  is  besides  unnecessary.  Kongo; 
 ovxtov  properly  signifies,  'the  season  of  gathering  figs,' as  xai^o; 
 ran  xa^rmv  Mat.  xxi.  34,  signifies  '  the  season  of  gathering  the 
 fruits, '  (Macknight).  In  our  translation  the  passage  stands  thus, 
 which  is  strictly  according  to  the  order  of  the  words  in  the  ori- 
 ginal text:  '  And  on  the  morrow,  when  they  were  come  from 
 Bethany,  Jesus  was  hungry:  and  seeing  a  fig  tree  afar  off, 
 having  leaves,  he  came,  if  haply  he  might  find  anything  there- 
 on: and  when  he  came  to  it,  he  found  nothing  but  leaves;  for 
 the  time  of  figs  was  not  yet.  And  Jesus  said  unto  it,  No 
 man  eat  fruit  of  thee  hereafter  for  ever,'  Mark  xi.  13 — 14. 
 Here  the  whole  difficulty  results  from  the  connexion  of  the  two 
 last  clauses  of  the  13th  verse*:  '  and  when  he  came  to  it  he  found 
 nothing  but  haves — for  the  time  of  figs  was  not  yet;'  for  the 
 declaration,  that  it  was  not  yet  fig  harvest,  cannot  be,  as  the 
 order  of  the  words  seems  to  import,  the  reason  why  there  was 
 nothing  but  leaves  on  the  tree;  because,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
 fig  is  of  that  tribe  of  vegetables  on  which  the  fruit  appears  be- 
 fore the  leaf.  Certainly  fruit,  says  Mr  Weston,  might  be  ex- 
 pected of  a  tree  whose  haves  were  distinguished  afar  off,  and 
 whose  fruit,  if  it  bore  any,  preceded  the  leaves.  If  the  words 
 had  been,  '  he  found  nothing  but  green  figs,  for  it  was  not  the 
 time  of  ripe  fruit,'  says  Campbell,  we  should  have  justly  con- 
 
 Without  entering  into  any  other  solutions  ;  if  there 
 were  two  sorts  of  fig-trees  in  Judea,  the  one  much  earlier 
 than  the  other,  and  thence  two  seasons  of  ripe  figs,  the 
 one  much  later  than  the  other,  and  as  it  is  natural  to 
 suppose  the  latter  much  more  common  and  plentiful  than 
 the  former  ;  the  latter  was  properly  called  'the  time  of 
 figs,'  and  the  evangelist  might  very  truly  say,  that,  at 
 the  time  of  the  passover,  '  it  was  not  yet  come,' that  is, 
 the  common  and  ordinary  season  for  figs  was  not  come  : 
 though,  admitting  this  to  be  one  of  the  early  kind,  our 
 Lord  might  well  expect  to  find  something  upon  it,  since, 
 by  the  speciousness  of  its  leaves,  it  looked  so  promising 
 at  a  distance. 
 
 He  without  all  doubt,  knew  perfectly  well,  before  he 
 went  up  to  it,  whether  it  had  any  fruit  on  it  or  no  ;  but 
 as  he  intended  to  work  a  miracle  upon  it,  and,  by  its 
 speedy  withering  away,  emblematically  to  show  his  dis- 
 ciples the  near  approaching  ruin  of  the  Jewish  nation  ; 
 be  it  what  it  would,  it  answered  his  main  end :  but  then  it 
 could  not  have  been  so  fit  a  type  and  resemblance  of 
 the  Jews,  had  it  not  been  barren ;  nor  exhibited  their 
 fate  in  so  lively  a  manner,  had  it  not  been  cursed,  and 
 so  withered  away. 
 
 The  Jewish  nation  indeed,  at  our  Saviour's  coming, 
 was,  in  all  degrees  and  orders  of  men,  sadly  corrupted; 
 but  in  none  so  much  as  in  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
 who,  pretending  to  be  the  doctors  and  expounders  of  the 
 law,  had  vacated  the  obligation  to  almost  all  moral 
 honesty,  by  the  introduction  of  their  false  glosses  and 
 comments.  Their  great  show  of  outward  sanctity,  how- 
 ever, much  ostentation  in  their  prayers  and  piety,  and 
 punctual  performance  of  the  ceremonial  part  of  their 
 religion,  gave  them  great  authority  among  the  people, 
 and  as  high  a  conceit  of  themselves  ;  insomuch  that  they 
 expected  a  blind  submission  to  their  injunctions,  and  all 
 imaginable  tokens  of  respect  and  veneration,  whenever 
 they  appeared  in  public  ;  though  all  this  while,  their 
 pretended  sanctity  was  but  a  vail  to  cover  their  vices, 
 and  inward  impurity ;  an  art  to  gain  a  reputation, 
 by  making  the  best  of  the  shadow,  while  they  wanted 
 the  substance  of  godliness. 
 
 Now,  if  such  was  the  depravity  of  the  Scribes  and 
 Pharisees  when  our   Saviour  lived  among  them,  none 
 
 eluded  that  the  latter  clause  was  meant  as  the  reason  of  what  is 
 affirmed  in  the  former,  but,  as  they  stand,  they  do  not  admit 
 this  interpretation.  All  will  be  clear,  however,  if  we  consider 
 the  former  of  these  clauses  as  parenthetical,  and  admit  such  a 
 sort  of  trajectio  as  is  not  unfrequent  in  the  ancient  languages, 
 though  in  translating  into  modern  ones  a  transposition  ought  to 
 be  adopted,  to  adapt  such  passages  to  the  genius  of  those  lan- 
 guages: and  such  is  here  employed  by  Dr  Campbell.  The 
 sense  of  the  passage  will  then  be  as  follows:  '  He  came  to  see 
 if  he  might  find  any  thing  thereon,  for  it  was  not  yet  the  time 
 to  gather  figs:  but  he  found  leaves  only  ;  and  he  said,'  &c. 
 Similar  inversions  and  trajections  have  been  pointed  out  by 
 commentators  in  various  other  parts  of  the  New  and  Old  Testa- 
 ments, and  Campbell  particularly  notices  one  in  this  very  gos- 
 pel (ch.  xvi.  3,  4.) :  '  They  said,  who  shall  roll  us  away  the  stone  ? 
 and  when  they  looked  the  stone  was  rolled  away,  for  it  was  very 
 great,'  that  is,  '  they  said,  who  shall  roll  us  away  the  stone, 
 tor  it  was  very  great,'  &c.  The  spiritual  application  of  this 
 transaction  to  the  case  of  the  Jews  is  sufficiently  obvious.  We 
 may,  however,  observe,  with  Storr,  that  the  cursing  was  a 
 symbolical  action;  and  with  Lightfoot,  that  it  injured  no  one, 
 since  the  tree,  as  we  learn  from  Matthew,  grew  by  the  wayside, 
 and  therefore  was  common  property. — Carpenter's  Scripture 
 Natural  History. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1041 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  sii.  19— END. 
 
 rebuke  with  all  authority,'  and  without  violation  of  that 
 gTeat  law  of  charity,  which  is  so  peculiarly  fitted  to  the 
 evangelical  institution,  that,  upon  sundry  accounts,  it 
 may  not  improperly  be  called  a  '  new  commandment.' 
 
 7  This  commandment  indeed  of  loving  one  another, 
 is  by  our  Lord  and  Saviour  so  much  enlarged  as  to  the 
 object  of  it,  extending  to  all  mankind,  and  even  to  our 
 greatest  enemies  ;  is  so  greatly  advanced  and  heightened 
 as  to  the  degree  of  it,  even  to  the  laying  down  of  our 
 lives  for  one  another ;  and  is  so  effectually  taught,  so 
 mightly  encouraged,  and  so  much  urged  and  insisted 
 upon,  that  though  it  was  a  precept  delivered  by  Moses, 
 yet,  considering  in  what  manner  the  scribes  and  Phari- 
 sees had  perverted  the  sense,  and  confined  and  dis- 
 couraged the  practice  of  it,  it  may  well  enough  be  said 
 to  have  received  in  our  Saviour  a  republication.  And 
 though  it  was  not  altogether  unknown  to  other  nations 
 before,  yet  it  was  never  so  taught,  so  encouraged  ;  never 
 was  such  an  illustrious  example  given  of  it,  never  so  much 
 stress  and  weight  laid  upon  it,  by  any  philosophy,  or  re- 
 ligion, that  was  ever  before  in  the  world. 
 
 There  are  three  passages  in  the  prophet  Daniel  which 
 mention  8  '  the  abomination  that  maketh  desolate  ;  and 
 to  any  of  these  our  Saviour  may  be  supposed  to 
 allude  ;  for  they  are  all  predictions  of  the  dissolution  of 
 the  Jewish  state,  when  the  sacrifices  and  oblations  should 
 be  made  to  cease.  It  is  the  sense  indeed  that  our 
 Saviour  seems  more  to  attend  to,  than  the  words  of  the 
 prophecy  ;  and  because  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Roman 
 armies  to  have  an  eagle  for  their  ensign,  in  which  they 
 placed  a  kind  of  divinity,  and  to  carry  their  emperors' 
 images  along  with  them,  to  which  they  paid  a  religious 
 adoration,  and  therein  committed  such  idolatry  as  was 
 highly  detestable  to  every  Jew  ;  9  it  is  hence  supposed, 
 that  the  abomination  standing  in  the  holy  place,  means 
 the  Roman  army,  with  these  hated  objects  of  their  idola- 
 try, besieging  Jerusalem ;  and  that  it  is  therefore  called  a 
 desolation,  because  it  was  appointed  by  Almighty  God 
 to  lay  the  country,  city,  and  temple  of  Jerusalem,  deso- 
 late and  waste  ;  for  so  St  Luke  seems  to  have  explained 
 it  by  a  parallel  place,1"  '  When  you  shall  see  Jerusalem 
 compassed  with  armies,  then  know,  that  the  desolation 
 thereof  is  nigh.' 
 
 Jerusalem  indeed  may  perhaps,  in  some  places  of 
 Scripture,11  be  called  the  holy  place  ;12  but  this  is  a  title 
 so  peculiar  to  the  temple,  that  we  cannot  but  think, 
 that  our  Saviour,  in  the  application  of  the  prophecy, 
 intended  it  here ;  especially 13  since  his  disciples,  by 
 showing  the  stateliness  of  its  buildings,  gave  the  whole 
 rise  to  his  discourse.  But  now,  if  we  suppose  the  temple 
 to  be  this  holy  place,  we  cannot  see  how  the  abomination 
 here  spoken  of  could  be  the  Roman  army,  and  their 
 ensigns :  because  neither  of  these  were  ever  in  the  tem- 
 ple, until  the  taking  and  sackage  of  the  city,  and  could 
 therefore,  in  this  respect,  be  no  presages  at  all.  If  we 
 suppose  the  city  of  Jerusalem  to  be  this  holy  place,  it  is 
 certain  that  this  abomination  was  lodged  in  it  long  before 
 the  approach  of  Titus  with  his  army  ;  because  the  Romans 
 had,  all  along,  a  strong  garrison  over  against  the  teiu- 
 
 can  doubt,  but  that,  as  he  was  a  teacher  sent  from  God, 
 he  had  a  proper  authority  to  reprove  them,  since  under 
 the  Mosaic  law,  this  was  a  duty  incumbent  even  in  pri- 
 vate persons,  and  what  they  could  not,  without  a  manifest 
 breach  of  charity,  decline  :  for,  l  '  thou  shalt  not  hate 
 thy  brother  in  thy  heart ;  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  rebuke 
 thy  neighbour,  and  not  suffer  sin  upon  him  :'  where  we 
 may  observe,  that,  in  the  eye  of  this  law,  not  to  rebuke 
 our  brother  is  interpretatively  to  hate  him  ;  and  there- 
 fore our  Saviour  stands  in  need  of  no  further  apology 
 for  reproving  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  who  had  such 
 a  number  of  sins  upon  them,  since  there  was  no  omitting 
 that,  without  violating  this  command. 
 
 In  his  rebukes  indeed  there  seems  to  be  a  spirit  of 
 severity,  something  that  looks  like  anger,  and  several 
 terms  of  diminution  and  disrespect.  But  then  it  should 
 be  considered,  that  as  anger  is  a  passion  implanted  in 
 human  nature,  in  itself,  and  upon  all  occasions,  it  can- 
 not be  unlawful  ;  nay,  when  employed  about  proper  and 
 deserving  matters,  such  as  the  honour  of  God,  and  reve- 
 rence due  to  his  laws,  the  love  of  virtue,  and  the  correc- 
 tion of  vice,  it  is  not  only  innocent,  but  highly  necessary 
 and  commendable.  For  there  is  a  tameness  of  spirits 
 which  deserves  censure;  and,  in  such  cases  as  these,  we 
 even  do  well  when  we  are  angry. 
 
 2  In  like  manner,  it  may  be  observed,  that  terms  of 
 disparagement  and  reproach  are,  in  some  cases,  allow- 
 able ;  and  more  particularly,  when  men,  as  St  Paul 
 expresses  it,3  '  are  rebuked  sharply,  to  render  them  sound 
 in  the  truth.'  From  the  mouth  of  a  superior  they  are 
 often  of  use,  sometimes  of  necessity,  to  rouse  and 
 awaken  stupid  men  ;  to  make  them  more  effectually  both 
 sensible  and  ashamed  of  their  follies;  to  expose  the 
 horrid  absurdity  of  pernicious  opinions,  or  the  flagrant 
 enormity  of  wicked  practices ;  and,  in  short,  are  hardly 
 ever  discommendable,  where  charity  is  at  the  bottom; 
 and  an  high  authority  in  the  reprover  gives  such  lan- 
 guage countenance. 
 
 Now,  as  none  can  call  in  question  our  Saviour's 
 authority,  if  he  thought  it  convenient  to  make  use  of 
 such  severity  in  his  reproofs  of  a  set  of  people,  that  most 
 justly  deserved  it ;  so  need  not  any  be  offended  at  his 
 denouncing  so  many  woes  against  them,  when  he  finds 
 God  giving  the  prophets  of  old,  sent  to  his  priests,  who 
 were  negligent  in  their  duty,  and  corrupted  in  their  mor- 
 nls,  just  as  they  were  now,  instructions  to  address  them 
 in  the  self-same  manner;4  'Thus  saith  the  Lord  God, 
 wo  be  unto  the  shepherds  of  Israel,  that  do  feed  them- 
 selves ;  should  not  the  shepherds  feed  the  flocks  ?  Ye 
 eat  the  fat,  and  ye  clothe  you  with  the  wool,  ye  kill 
 them  that  are  fed  ;  but  ye  feed  not  the  flocks,'  &c.  And 
 again  s  '  Wo  be  unto  those  pastors  that  destroy  and  scat- 
 ter the  sheep  of  my  pasture.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  '  Ye 
 have  scattered  my  flock,  and  driven  them  away,  and  have 
 not  visited  them.  And  if  inferior  prophets  were  com- 
 missioned to  make  such  denunciations,  much  more  might 
 this  great  Messenger  of  the  covenant,  who  was  both 
 invested  with  supreme  power  from  the  Father,  and  per- 
 fectly knew  what  was  in  every  man's  heart,  and  therefore 
 could  not  miscal  tilings,  be  allowed  6  '  to  reprove  and 
 
 1  Lev.  xix.  17. 
 
 8  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iii.     a  Tit.  i.  1  2,  1 .'•'. 
 4  Ezek.  xxxiv.  2,  &c.         5  Jer.  xxiii.  ],  2.         6  Tit.  ii.  15. 
 
 7  Tillotson's  Sermons,  fol.  vol.  i. 
 
 8  Dan.  ix.  27.— xi.  31.— xii.  11. 
 
 9  Whitby's  and  Hammond's  Annotations.         10  Luke  xxi.  20. 
 
 11  Mat.  iv.  5.  ;   1  Mac.  x.  31.  12  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 1   Mat.  xxi  v.  1,  2. 
 
 b"Q 
 
1042 
 
 HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 M.  4037.  A.  D.3S;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  10-END. 
 
 pie,  iii  Fort  Antonia,  where  their  colours  and  standards 
 were  set  up;  nor  can  we  readily  conceive,  why  the 
 military  ensigns  under  Titus  should  be  thought  an  abomi- 
 nation to  the  Jews,  more  than  those  under  Fompey, 
 Socius,  and  Oestius,  who  had  all  before  him  besieged 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  difficulties  that  attend  the  com- 
 mon interpretation ;  and  therefore  we  should  rather 
 think,  that  the  abomination  and  desolation  here  spoken  of, 
 should  refer  to  that  gross  profanation  of  the  temple  which 
 happened  a  little  before  the  beginning  of  the  siege  of 
 Jerusalem.  While  the  Roman  arms  were  in  Judea,  there 
 were  two  contending  parties  in  Jerusalem.  1  Some  were 
 for  accommodating  matters  with  an  enemy  so  vastly 
 uperior  to  them  in  power,  and  from  whom  nothing  less 
 han  utter  ruin  was  to  be  expected  at  last ;  others  again 
 were  for  making  no  terms  at  all,  but,  in  hopes  of  some 
 strange  deliverance,  for  standing  it  out  to  the  last; 
 and  among  these  was  a  crew  of  ruffians  and  robbers,  who, 
 from  their  pretended  concern  for  the  honour  of  God, 
 which  they  could  not  bear  to  see  prostituted  to  Gentile 
 power,  were  called  Zealots.  This  gang  of  men  seized 
 upon  the  temple,  and  fortified  it ;  and  having  got  into 
 their  possession  the  engines  which  had  been  left  in  the 
 country  by  Cestius  Gallus,  when  he  besieged  the  city 
 about  three  years  before,  with  these  they  shot  from  the 
 battlements  of  the  temple  upon  the  town,  whilst  those  in 
 the  town  shot  likewise  at  them  ;  by  which  means  great 
 numbers  were  killed  on  both  sides,  and  the  temple  be- 
 came thereby  polluted  with  the  blood  of  the  slain  that 
 were  within  it,  and  by  which  means  the  daily  service  was 
 intermitted,  and  the  sanctuary,  according  to  the  Jewish 
 notion  of  the  word,  became  desolate.  Here  then  was  a 
 sign  peculiar,  and  what  never  had  happened  at  any  siege 
 before,  which  our  Saviour  gave  his  disciples,  in  order  to 
 provide  for  their  escape.  Wars,  famines,  murders,  mas- 
 sacres,  divisions  among  desperate  men,  and  investing 
 cities  by  hostile  troops,  are  no  uncommon  things  in  cases 
 of  this  nature,  and  what  the  Jews,  upon  this  occasion 
 knew  too  much  of  by  woeful  experience  ;  but  to  have 
 the  sanctuary  filled  with  armed  men,  who  were  after 
 killed  in  the  holy  place,  and  who,  by  being  brought  into 
 the  courts  of  the  temple,  actually  defiled  it  with  the  car- 
 casses, and  blood  of  the  slain,  which  were  both  of  them 
 to  the  highest  degree  abominable  by  the  Mosaic  law,  was 
 the  distinguishing  mark  of  this  calamity ;  and  when  this 
 once  began  to  appear,  the  disciples  were  cautioned  to 
 decline  the  approaching  storm,  by  making  the  best  of 
 their  way  out  of  Jerusalem  ;  which  they  could  not  have 
 done  so  well,  had  they  staid  till  the  siege  was  formed, 
 and  the  Roman  army  had  invested  the  town. 
 
 "  That  it  was  a  custom  among  the  Jews,  before  our 
 Saviour's  time,  and,  as  they  themselves  affirm,  before  the 
 beginning  of  the  law,  to  baptize,  as  well  as  circumcise, 
 any  proselyte  that  came  over  to  them  from  another 
 nation  ;  and  in  case  such  a  person  had  any  infant  chil- 
 dren then  born  to  him,  that  they,  at  their  father's  desire, 
 were,  in  like  manner,  circumcised,  baptized,  and  admit- 
 ted as  proselytes,  is  manifest  from  the  incontestible 
 evidence  of  their  writers.  The  incapacity  of  the  child  to 
 declare  or  promise  for  himself,  was  not  looked  upon  as 
 
 l  Joseph.  Jew.  Wars,  b.  iv.         2  Avaus'  His.  of  Infant-baptism. 
 
 a  bar  against  his  reception  into  the  covenant;  but  the 
 desire  of  the  father  to  dedicate  him  to  the  true  God,  was 
 accounted  available  and  sufficient  to  justify  his  admis- 
 sion :  and  the  reason  they  give  for  this  is,  that  the  things 
 they  were  admitted  to,  were  undoubtedly  for  their  good  ; 
 for  one  may  privilege  a  person,  say  they,  though  he  be 
 incapable  of  knowing  it ;  but  one  ought  not  to  disprivilege 
 any  one  without  his  knowledge  and  consent. 
 
 Now  this  gives  great  light  to  our  better  understanding 
 the  meaning  of  our  Saviour,  when  he  bids  his  disciples 
 '  go  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them.'  Baptism  he 
 took,  as  the  easier  rite  of  the  two;  and,  having  con- 
 verted it  into  an  evangelical  precept,  made  it  the  federal 
 form  of  admission  into  his  religion,  as  circumcision  had 
 been  in  the  Mosaic  dispensation  ;  and,  as  he  gave  his 
 apostles  no  directions  in  their  commission  concerning- 
 little  children,  it  may  justly  be  presumed,  that,  with  re- 
 gard to  them,  he  left  them  to  proceed  just  in  the  same 
 manner  as  the  church  wherein  they  lived  had  been  accus- 
 tomed to  do  ;  and  that  was,  to  make  them  proselytes  to 
 his  religion  by  baptism. 
 
 3  That  in  the  Jewish  church  infants  were  part  of  those 
 who  engaged  in  covenant  with  God,  is  evident  from  these 
 words  of  Moses  to  all  the  people  :  4  '  Ye  stand  this  day 
 before  the  Lord  your  God ;  you,  and  your  little  ones,  that 
 thou  shouldst  enter  into  covenant  with  the  Lord  thy  God, 
 that  thou  mayest  be  a  people  to  him,  and  he  unto  thee 
 thy  God  :'  and  that,  in  the  Christian  church,  children,  in 
 like  manner,  are  under  the  covenant  of  grace,  is  more 
 than  intimated  in  St  Peter's  exhortation  to  such  persons 
 as  he  had  converted,  that  they  would  receive  baptism,  in 
 order  to  make  their  children  likewise  capable  of  it,  be- 
 cause 5  '  the  promise  was  to  them  and  their  children  ; ' 
 that  is,  the  promise  of  remission  of  sins,  and  of  receiv- 
 ing the  Holy  Ghost,  mentioned  immediately  before, 
 which  appertained  to  the  covenant,  belonged  to  them 
 and  their  children.'  Now,  if  the  promise  and  covenant 
 belonged  to  the  children,  as  well  as  parents,  there  is  no 
 question  to  be  made,  but  that  baptism,  which  is  the  seal 
 of  the  covenant,  and  the  visible  confirmation  of  the  pro- 
 mise, belongs  to  them  likewise ;  and  if  infants  have  a 
 covenanted  right  to  baptism,  we  may  safely  infer,  that 
 Christ  never  intended  to  debar  them  of  it ;  and  that,  con- 
 sequently, though  they  are  not  expressly  named,  yet  are 
 they  most  certainly  implied  in  the  commission  of  baptiz- 
 ing all  nations.  For,  since  the  universal  includes  all 
 particulars,  and  children  make  up  a  considerable  part 
 of  all  nations,  the  words  of  the  commission  may  reason- 
 ably be  supposed  to  comprise  them.  Nor  can  we  forbear 
 thinking,  but  that,  when  we  read  of  whole  families  that  were 
 baptized,  there  must,  of  course,  have  been  several  chil- 
 dren in  them  ;  because  the  word  olx.os,  which,  in  this  case, 
 is  rendered  household,  according  to  the  observation  of 
 the  learned,1'  is  of  a  large  signification,  and  takes  in 
 every  individual  person  in  the  family,  women  as  well  as 
 men,  and  children  as  well  as  grown  persons. 
 
 7  The  adult,  indeed,  before  they  were  admitted  as  pro- 
 selytes to  the  Jewish  religion,  were  to  be  instructed  in 
 the  fundamentals  of  the  law,  in  the  weight  and  burden 
 
 3  Hopkin's  Doctrine  of  the  two  sacraments. 
 
 4  Deut.  xxix.  10,  &c.  5  Acts  ii.  39. 
 
 6  Edward's  Body  of  Divinity,  vol.  i. 
 
 7  Whitby's  dissertation,  added  to  his  notes  on  Mat.  xxviii. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FRviu  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1043 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix,  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 of  it,  and  in  the  nature  of  its  rewards  and  penalties,  and 
 so  profess  their  submission  to  it ;  but  then  it  must  be 
 observed,  that  these  pre-requisites  in  the  parent,  who 
 was  capable  of  such  instruction,  did  not  exclude  the 
 children,  then  born,  from  the  rite  of  baptism  :  so  far 
 from  this,  that  by  the  sentence  of  the  Sanhedrim,  the 
 church  was  obliged  to  baptize  them,  as  having  a  right  to 
 the  ordinance  by  their  parents'  faith.  And  in  like  man- 
 ner, they  who  are  arrived  at  a  competent  age  and  under- 
 standing, were  to  be  instructed  in  the  principles  of  the 
 Christian  religion,  were  to  l  •  confess  with  their  mouth 
 the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  believe  in  their  heart  that 
 God  had  raised  him  from  the  dead,'  before  they  were 
 admitted  to  baptism.  This  was  a  condition  required  of 
 them,  because  they  were  able  to  do  it :  but  why  this 
 condition  should  exclude  their  children  any  more  than  it 
 did  the  children  of  Jewish  proselytes,  who  were  usually 
 baptized  together  with  their  parents,  we  cannot  see. 
 
 Our  children  indeed  cannot  understand  the  nature  and 
 end  of  the  ordinance  of  baptism;  but  neither  were  the 
 Jewish  children,  at  eight  days  old,  able  to  know  what 
 the  purpose  of  circumcision  was.  They  had  no  actual 
 faith  of  their  own,  but  the  faith  of  those  who  present 
 them  in  the  congregation,  is  imputed,  and  themselves  are 
 sanctified  by  being  born  of  believing  parents.  They 
 have  no  manner  of  room  for  repentance,  but  then  they 
 have  innocence,  which  is  a  much  better  qualification  ;  and 
 though  they  cannot  stipulate  for  themselves,  yet  have 
 they  proxies  and  sureties,  of  2  early  institution  both  in 
 the  Jewish  and  Christian  church,  to  contract  in  their 
 names,  whose  act  is  looked  upon,  and  accepted  by  God, 
 as  theirs.  In  the  mean  time,  that  infants,  and  young 
 children  though  insensible  of  what  is  done  for  them, 
 may  have  favours  conferred  upon  them,  and  are  capable 
 of  receiving  spiritual  advantages  to  their  souls,  is  plain 
 from  that  passage  in  the  evangelical  history,  where, 
 when  3  young  children  were  brought  to  Christ,  he  took 
 them  up  in  his  arms,  laid  his  hands  upon  them,  and  blessed 
 them,  namely,  by  praying  for  a  blessing,  by  pronounc- 
 ing a  blessing,  and  by  actually  conferring  a  blessing 
 on  them  ;  and  if  they  are  capable  of  being  blessed,  why 
 should  they  be  thought  incapable  of  being  baptized,  since 
 baptism  in  the  main  is  but  a  solemn  benediction,  as  it 
 instates  us  in  the  privileges  and  benefits  of  the  gospel, 
 such  as  adoption  and  grace,  the  pardon  of  our  sins,  and 
 the  acceptance  of  our  persons  ? 
 
 In  short,  4  the  covenant  of  grace  is  a  deed  of  gift, 
 made  to  us  by  Christ,  wherein  he  promises  to  bestow 
 upon  us  eternal  life  and  happiness  ;  and,  as  it  would  be 
 absurd  to  say,  that  a  child's  name  ought  not  to  be  pui 
 in  any  deed  or  legacy,  until  he  come  of  age  to  under- 
 stand it ;  so  it  is  equally  absurd,  and  far  more  injurious, 
 to  exclude  our  children  from  this  heavenly  legacy,  which 
 Christ  out  of  the  riches  of  his  goodness,  has  bequeathed 
 unto  them  :  especially  considering  5  that  the  primitive 
 church  did  all  along,  and  G  every  national  church  at  this 
 day  in  the  world,  does  admit  their  children  into  the 
 Christian  covenant  by  this  ordinance  :  that  7  many  of 
 the  most  ancient  writers  plead  the  necessity  of  it,  for 
 
 1  Rom.  x.  9. 
 
 2  See  Wall's  Infant  Baptism,  introduction,  sect.  34.  part  i.  <•■ 
 
 4.  part  ii.  c.  9.       3  Luke  xviii.  15.         4  Hopkin's  Doctrine  of 
 
 the  two  Sacraments.    5  Wall's  History  of  Infant  Baptism,  part  i. 
 
 passim.  °  Ibid,  part  ii.  C.  S.      '  Ibid,  part  i.  passim. 
 
 the  expiation  of  original  guilt,  and  s  speak  of  it  as  a 
 great  sin  in  parents,  and  others,  that  have  opportunity, 
 to  suffer  any  child  of  theirs,  or  any  other  person  under 
 their  care,  to  die  unbaptized. 
 
 In  relation  to  the  other  sacrament,  there  can  be  no 
 great  difficulty  in  our  Saviour's  words,  if  we  will  but 
 admit  that  the  scripture  very  frequently  makes  use  of 
 figurative  expressions,  and  in  matters  of  a  sacramental 
 nature  more  especially,  is  apt  to  put  the  sign  for  the 
 thing  signified, 9  '  the  three  baskets  are  three  days,  10 
 the  seven  good  kine  are  seven  years,  n  the  ram  with  the 
 two  horns  are  the  kings  of  Media  and  Persia  ;'12  Sarah 
 and  Agar  are  the  two  covenants,  and  13  the  seven  stars 
 jire  the  angels  of  the  seven  churches,'  are  instances  of 
 this  kind  :  and  when  Moses,  speaking  of  the  paschal 
 Jamb,  tells  the  Israelites,  u  '  this  is  the  Lord's  passover,' 
 even  before  the  Lord  had  passed  over  them,  and  smitten 
 the  Egyptians  :  and  of  the  unleavened  bread  used  at  the 
 paschal  feast,  this  is  the  bread  of  affliction,  which 
 your  fathers  did  eat  in  the  land  of  Egypt;'  his  meaning 
 can  be  no  other,  than  that  these  things  were  a  represen- 
 tation and  memorial  of  what  had  befallen  their  forefathers 
 in  Egypt.  And  therefore  it  is  no  wonder,  that  our 
 blessed  Saviour,  in  the  institution  of  this  sacrament, 
 should  make  choice  of  the  like  form  of  expression  as 
 was  in  use  in  the  Jewish  church  upon  the  like  occasion  ; 
 and  consequently,  that  when  he  says,  '  this  is  my  body, 
 and  this  is  my  blood,'  his  meaning  must  be,  that,  'this 
 bread  in  my  hand,  and  the  wine  in  this  cup,  do  signify 
 and  represent  to  you  my  body  and  blood,  and  that,  in 
 eating  and  drinking  of  these,  you  are  made  partakers 
 of  my  body  and  blood,  that  is,  of  the  real  benefits  of 
 my  death  and  passion.' 
 
 15  And  indeed,  if  we  consider,  that  our  blessed  Savi- 
 our celebrated  this  sacrament  before  his  passion,  we  shall 
 soon  perceive  that  his  words  could  not  possibly  bear 
 any  other  construction.  For  how  could  he  hold  himself 
 in  his  own  hand,  or  give  his  disciples  his  body  broken, 
 and  his  blood  shed,  when  at  this  time  he  was  alive,  and 
 no  violence  had  passed  upon  him  ?  ie  They  saw  his  body 
 whole  before  them,  and  knew  that  his  blood  was  in  his 
 veins,  and  therefore  could  not  but  conclude,  that  what 
 they  eat  and  drank,  according  to  the  evidence  of  their 
 senses,  Avas  bread  and  wine,  for  had  they  understood 
 our  Saviour's  words  in  the  literal  meaning,  it  is  hardly 
 imaginable,  but  that  they,  who,  upon  all  other  occasions, 
 were  so  full  of  their  questions  and  objections,  would, 
 upon  the  first  hearing  of  this  paradox,  have  started  some 
 such  scruple  as  this  : — '  We  see  this  to  be  bread,  and 
 that  to  be  wine,  and  we  see  that  thy  body  is  distinct  from 
 both  ;  we  see  that  thy  body  is  not  broken,  nor  is  thy 
 blood  shed:  how  therefore  can  these  things  be  ?' 
 
 The  ancient  apologists  for  our  holy  religion  take 
 notice  that  this  was  one  of  the  greatest  accusations 
 which  heathens  brought  against  Christiana,  that  they  did 
 eat  human  flesh,  which  they  endeavoured  to  refute,  and 
 constantly  rejected  as  the  vilest  calumny,  and  most 
 abominable  thing.  Rut  now,  had  they  understood  our 
 Saviour's  words  in  a  literal  sense,  and  thereupon  made 
 
 »  Ibid.  c.  4,  15,  18,  &c.     9  Gen.  xl.  18.     10  Ibid.  xli.  26. 
 
 "  Dan.  viii.  '20.  J-  Gal.  iv.  24.  13  Rev.  i.  20. 
 
 14  Exod.  xii.  11.  I5  Tillotson's  sermons  in  folio,  vol.  i. 
 
 16  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  xxvi.  26. 
 
1044 
 
 A.  M.  403T-  A.  D.  33 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-ENfc).  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 it  an  article  of  faith,  that  they  did  daily  eat  the  flesh  of 
 the  Son  of  man,  with  what  sincerity  could  they  without 
 all  limitation  or  distinction  not  only  have  denied,  but 
 even  detested  the  doing  so.  »  Nay,  nothing  is  more 
 obvious,  than  that  primitive  writers  continually  ridicule 
 the  heathens  for  worshipping  such  deities  as  might  be 
 eaten  ;  an  instance  particularly  in  the  Egyptians,  who 
 made  the  same  flesh  which  some  of  them  did  consecrate 
 as  a  god,  the  food  of  others.  But  how  can  it  possibly 
 be  conceived,  that  they  should  thus  ridicule  and  expose 
 the  religion  of  heathens,  for  that  very  thing  which  made 
 so  great  a  part  in  their  own;  or  brand  that,  as  the 
 very  extremity  of  madness  and  folly,  when  done  by  others, 
 which  their  faith  taught  them  was  the  highest  act  of 
 religious  worship,  when  performed  by  themselves  ? 
 2  These  things  surely  give  us  sufficient  reason  with 
 Scotus,  to  admire,  that  such  an  interpretation  should  be 
 put  upon  this  one  article,  as  makes  our  faith  contemp- 
 tible to  all  that  are  guided  with  reason  ;  and  at  the  same 
 time  to  assert,  that,  it  is  apparently  against  humanity, 
 and  against  piety,  to  break  with  our  hands,  to  tear  with 
 our  teeth,  and  to  devour,  as  we  do  common  food,  the 
 flesh  ami  blood  of  Christ ;  and  that  the  scorn  of  atheists 
 and  infidels  will  never  cease,  until  the  doctrine,  which 
 established  these  positions,  be  banished  from  the  Chris- 
 tian church. 
 
 AVe  own  indeed,  that  the  whole  stress  of  the  Christian 
 cause  lies  upon  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  resurrection, 
 and  that  all  proper  methods  of  convincing  the  world 
 were  necessary  upon  this  occasion  ;  but  then  it  should 
 be  considered  3  that  our  Lord  being  now,  after  his  re- 
 surrection, to  act  according  to  the  majesty  of  the  divine 
 nature,  and  not  according  to  the  infirmities  and  conde- 
 scension of  the  human,  it  did  not  so  well  comport  with 
 the  dignity  he  had  assumed,  to  converse  publicly,  or 
 to  submit  himself  to  the  censures,  and  fresh  affronts 
 of  his  enemies.  But  allowing  it  had  been  consistent,  4 
 yet  the  unbelieving  Jews,  especially  the  chief  priests  and 
 rulers,  were  of  all  men  most  unworthy  to  have  so  extra- 
 ordinary a  way  of  conviction  afforded  them. 
 
 They  had  already  despised  the  evidence  that  was  given 
 them ;  and  not  only  so,  but  maliciously  imputed  the 
 plainest  miracles  that  ever  were  wrought,  to  the  power 
 and  operation  of  the  devil.  Now,  if  any  thing  can  ren- 
 der men  incapable  of  the  favour  of  a  farther  conviction 
 euch  a  malicious  resistance  of  the  evidence  which  our 
 Saviour's  miracles  carried  along  with  them,  Avould  pro- 
 bably  do  it ;  especially  if  we  consider,  that  the  greatest 
 of  all  the  miracles  which  he  wrought  in  his  lifetime,  I 
 mean  the  raising  Lazarus  from  the  grave,  after  he  had 
 been  dead  four  days,  was  so  far  from  convincing  them, 
 that  though  they  could  not  deny  the  thing,  they  took 
 occasion  to  resolve  to  put  him  to  death  :  and  therefore, 
 what  reason  was  there,  that  Christ  should  appear  to  them 
 for  their  conviction,  who  had  conspired  to  compass 
 his  death,  even  because  they  knew  that  he  had  raised  one 
 from  the  dead  ? 
 
 But  supposing,  for  the  present,  that  our  Saviour  had 
 appeared  publicly  to  the  Jewish  rulers;  yet,  since 
 neither  the  darkness  at  his  death,  nor  the  earthquake  at 
 
 1  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Mat.  xxvi.  26.  2  ij,;^ 
 
 3  Jenkins's  reasonableness  of  the  Christian  religion,  vol.  ii. 
 
 4  Tillotson's  sermons. 
 
 his  resurrection ;  neither  the  declaration  of  the  centurion 
 on  the  one,  nor  the  confession  of  the  soldiers  on  the 
 other  occasion,  had  wrought  in  them  any  remorse,  we 
 can  hardly  suppose,  but  that,  had  he  so  appeared,  they 
 would  have  offered  to  lay  violent  hands  upon  him,  as 
 they  before  designed  against  Lazarus,  and  for  the  same 
 reasons  : 5  in  which  case,  had  our  Saviour  vanished  out  of 
 their  hands,  as  doubtless  he  would,  what  would  they 
 have  concluded  from  thence,  but  that  they  had  seen  a 
 ghost,  a  spectre,  or  apparition  ?  And  what  conviction 
 would  that  have  wrought,  but  that  their  senses  had  been 
 imposed  upon  by  a  magical  illusion  ?  And  what  effect 
 would  this  have  had  upon  their  minds  towards  bringing 
 them  to  a  belief  that  Christ  was  truly  risen  ?  None 
 at  all. 
 
 In  many  of  the  Jews,  especially  their  chief-priests  and 
 elders,  the  god  of  this  world  had  so  blinded  their  eyes, 
 and  hardened  their  hearts,  that  they  would  not  have  be- 
 lieved one  title  of  our  Saviour's  resurrection  ;  or,  in  case 
 they  did  believe  it,  such  was  their  malice  and  perverse- 
 ness,  that  they  would  not  have  testified  that  they  ever 
 had  seen  him  after  his  resurrection.  Now  they  that  are 
 wicked  enough  to  deny  what  they  believe,  will,  at  a  pinch, 
 deny  also  what  they  know  to  be  true  ;  and  therefore,  sup- 
 posing that  our  Lord  had  shown  himself  to  all  his  enemies, 
 and  to  all  the  people,  and  but  some  of  them,  especially 
 of  the  great  men  in  authority,  had  denied  that  ever  they 
 saw  him  after  his  resurrection,  this  would  have  exceedingly 
 weakened  the  testimony  of  those  who  vouched  and  con- 
 fesed  it :  for  he  that  appeals  to  the  knowledge  of  another 
 for  the  truth  of  a  matter  of  fact,  is  so  far  from  gaining, 
 that  he  loses  credit  by  the  appeal,  if  the  other  person 
 denies  that  he  knows  any  thing  of  it.  If  therefore  our 
 Lord  had  appeared  to  his  persecutors,  (it  being  likely 
 that  his  disciples  would  appeal  to  their  knowledge,)  they, 
 by  protesting  the  contrary,  would  have  made  a  terrible 
 advantage  against  the  Christians  upon  that  appeal. 
 Herein  therefore,  is  manifest  the  wisdom  of  Christ,  that 
 in  making  choice  of  particular  witnesses,  namely,  such 
 persons  only  as  would  be  so  far  from  dissembling  their 
 knowledge,  that  they  would  always  be  ready  to  seal  their 
 testimony  with  their  blood,  he  hath  settled  the  Christian 
 faith  upon  a  better  foundation  than  if  he  had  appeared  in 
 the  temple,  or  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  to  the  whole 
 people  of  the  Jews.6 
 
 The  truth  is,7  it  is  not  the  number  of  witnesses,  but 
 the  character  and  qualifications  of  the  persons,  together 
 with  the  evidence  itself,  in  its  full  force  and  circum- 
 stances, that  are  chiefly  to  be  regarded  in  matters  of  this 
 nature.  If  but  a  few  men  can,  as  the  apostles  did,  by 
 undeniable  miracles  make  it  sufficiently  appear,  that  what 
 they  say  is  true,  and  that  God  himself  confirms  the  truth 
 of  it ;  they  can  appeal  to  every  man's  own  senses,  before 
 whom  they  work  miracles,  and  make  every  one  that  sees 
 them  a  witness  to  the  truth  of  their  doctrines.  In  this 
 case,  God  himself  bears  witness  to  it ;  and  what  the  high- 
 priest  said  upon  a  very  different  occasion,  every  stander- 
 by  finds  himself  constrained  to  declare  in  this  ;  '  What 
 need  have  we  of  any  further  witnesses  ?  for  we  ourselves 
 have  heard  of  their  own  mouths,'  in  the  miraculous  gift 
 of  tongues,'  and  seen  with  our  onneyes,'in  the  many  won - 
 
 J  South's  Sermons,  vol.  v.  6  Clagget's  Sermons,  vol.  i. 
 
 '  Jenkins's  Reasonableness  of  the  Christian  religion,  vol.  ii. 
 
Skct.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1045 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 same  laws  with  other  corporeal  substances ;  if  it  could 
 then  pass  through  the  doors  in  the  manner  of  a  spirit, 
 and  may  at  this  time  be,  where  our  senses  can  discern 
 nothing  of  it,  though  no  other  body  can  be  so  ;  then  what 
 satisfaction  could  Thomas  receive  in  feeling  his  hands 
 and  side?  or  wherein  would  the  strength  of  St  John's 
 argument  lie,  when  he  declares  to  his  proselytes, d  '  that 
 he  had  seen,  and  heard,  and  his  hands  had  handled  of 
 the  Word  of  Life  ?' 
 
 The  indulgence  indeed  which  our  Saviour  gave  his 
 apostles,  to  try  all  their  senses  upon  him,  gave  them  full 
 satisfaction,  both  as  to  the  materiality  and  identity  of 
 his  body.  But  then,  as  all  philosophy  informs  us,  that 
 no  body  can  penetrate  through  another,  a  we  may  reason- 
 ably infer,  that  when  our  Lord  came  to  his  apostles,  on 
 purpose,  as  it  were,  to  convince  them  of  the  reality  of 
 his  resurrection  body,  he  did  not  glide  into  the  room 
 like  a  spirit,  or  phantasm,  but,  by  his  sovereign  power, 
 opened  the  door  himself,  even  as  the  angel  did  the 
 prison-gates  to  release  Peter,  secretly,  and  without  the 
 perception  of  any  in  the  company,  who  might  then  be  at 
 the  upper  end  of  the  room  perhaps,  and  employed  in 
 some  such  business  as  took  up  their  whole  attention. 
 For,  7  unless  we  can  suppose,  that  our  Saviour  designed 
 to  invalidate  the  strength  of  what  he  said  and  did,  to 
 convince  his  apostles  of  the  truth  of  his  resurrection,  we 
 cannot  believe,  that  at  the  same  time  he  would  do  a  thing, 
 
 derful  works  which  they  have  publicly  wrought,  a  full 
 and  authentic  testimony  of  Christ's  resurrection. 
 
 And  this  possibly  may  suggest  the  reason,  why  God 
 permitted  the  apostle  St  Thomas  to  be  so  scrupulous  and 
 doubtful  in  this  great  article  of  our  faith.  He  had  been 
 told,  that  our  Saviour  was  risen  from  the  dead,  and 
 the  truth  of  it  had  been  attested  to  him  by  evidences 
 beyond  exception : '  several  companies,  who  had  seen 
 him  and  conversed  with  him  several  times  ;  to  whom  he 
 had  exposed  the  sight  and  feeling  of  his  wounds ;  to  whom 
 he  had  expounded  the  scriptures  concerning  himself ; 
 with  whom  he  had  broken  the  sacramental  bread,  and 
 conferred  on  them  the  benediction  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  all 
 these,  with  all  these  convincing  tokens,  had  told  Thomas 
 that  Christ  was  risen:  but  Thomas's  reply  was,2  '  Ex- 
 cept I  shall  see  in  his  hands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and 
 put  my  finger  into  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  thrust  my 
 hands  into  his  side,  I  will  not  believe.'  It  might  indeed 
 be  urged  before,  that  our  Lord  had  not  given  all  the 
 proofs  of  his  resurrection,  that  the  nature  of  the  thing 
 was  capable  of;  but  3  now,  when  nothing  is  left  unasked, 
 that  the  most  sceptical  doubts  could  pretend  to  desire  ; 
 when  the  very  apostles  themselves  had  one  of  their  num- 
 ber that  held  out  a  while,  and  they  preached  not  this 
 doctrine,  until  his  scruples  were  removed ;  when  even 
 this  doubter  himself  was  no  less  vigorous  and  positive 
 afterwards  in  asserting  the  truth  of  a  point,  which  nothing 
 but  demonstration  could  make  him  believe  ;  this  takes  oft* 
 all  imputation  of  credulity  and  easiness.  It  shows, 
 that  the  apostles  proceeded  with  great  caution,  before 
 they  embarked  in  the  cause  of  Christianity,  which  could 
 not  but  reap  great  advantages  from  this  apostle's  back- 
 wardness to  believe ;  and  therefore  our  church  justly 
 acknowledges,  that 4  '  God,  in  his  wisdom,  suffered 
 Thomas  to  doubt,  for  the  greater  confirmation  of  our 
 faith,'  according  to  that  saying  of  one  of  the  ancients, 
 '  The  unbelief  of  Thomas  has  been  more  profitable  for 
 our  faith,  than  the  faith  of  the  disciples  has  been  ;  be- 
 cause while  he  is  brought  to  believe  by  the  evidence  of 
 the  sense  of  touch,  our  minds,  casting  oft'  all  unbelief, 
 are  confirmed  in  the  faith.'  This  disciple,  in  short, 
 doubted  and  was  satisfied  for  us  all.  His  former  unbelief 
 adds  strength  to  the  cause  he  pleads,  and  makes  him  a 
 witness  so  much  above  exception,  that  the  scruples,  which 
 in  him  were  weaknesses,  in  those  that  pretend  to  follow 
 him,  and  know  his  story,  they  will  be  wilfulness,  and 
 resolved  infidelity. 
 
 His  story,  indeed,  and  the  means  which,  as  we  therein 
 read,  our  Saviour  made  use  of  to  convince  him,  will 
 instruct  us  in  this,  that,  whatever  changes  our  Saviour's 
 glorified  body  might  undergo  after  his  resurrection,  it 
 was  not  altered,  as  to  the  properties  of  a  body,  whereof 
 our  outward  senses  are  competent  judges.  To  these 
 senses  it  is  that  our  Lord  appealed  ;  by  these  he  com- 
 posed the  disciples,  suspecting  him  to  be  a  phantom  ;  by 
 these  he  satisfied  the  doubtful  and  incredulous  ;  and  by 
 these  the  apostles  make  it  their  business  to  persuade  the 
 world,  when  they  so  frequently  testify,  that  they5  'had 
 seen  and  heard  him,  had  eaten  and  drank  with  him.' 
 But  now,  if  our  Saviour's  body  was  not  subject  to  the 
 
 1  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  ii.  2  John  xx.  25. 
 
 3  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 *  Collect,  on  St  Thomas's  day.  a  Acts  x.  41. 
 
 6  1  John  i.  '  Whitby's  Annotations  on  John  xx.  19. 
 
 a  Philosophy  teaches  us  that  all  material  bodies  are  impene- 
 trable, or  in  other  words,  that  every  body  possesses  the  property 
 of  excluding  every  other  body  from  occupying  the  same  space  at 
 the  same  time ;  but  philosophy  does  not  teach  us  (as  the  author 
 asserts,)  that  no  body  can  penetrate  through  another,  for  this 
 would  contradict  common  experience.  Solids  penetrate  one 
 another  in  the  sense  in  which  our  author  seems  to  use  the 
 term  penetrate;  fluids  penetrate  solids  and  solids  fluids.  Heat 
 penetrates  all  bodies  and  expands  them.  Light  penetrates 
 transparent  substances,  the  magnetic  and  electric  fluids  also  pass 
 through  almost  all  substances.  With  regard,  however,  to  the 
 precise  manner  in  which  our  Saviour  appeared  to  the  disciples 
 while  the  doors  were  shut,  it  is  vain,  if  not  presumptuous,  to  in- 
 quire. Of  the  real  nature  of  a  glorified  body  we  know  little, 
 but  we  may  infer,  from  the  reasoning  of  the  apostle  Paul,  that  at 
 the  resurrection  bodies  of  the  saints  will  possess  powers  and 
 capabilities  which  far  transcend  those  of  our  present  gross  cor- 
 poreal bodies;  and  if  this  he  true  in  regard  to  the  spiritual  bodies 
 of  the  saints,  it  must  be  so  in  a  far  higher  sense  in  regard  to 
 our  Lord's  glorified  body;  at  all  events,  we  can  safely  assert  that 
 the  divine  nature  which  resided  in  the  glorified  body  of  Christ, 
 was  able  to  eflect  greater  miracles  than  the  entering  into  a  shut 
 apartment  by  penetrating  the  substance  of  the  door  or  wall, 
 even  supposing  this  to  be  implied  by  the  Evangelist,  (John  xx. 
 19.)  In  what  manner  the  miracle  was  ellected  (for  undoubtedly 
 the  entrance  was  of  a  miraculous  nature,)  we  are  indeed  not 
 told;  but  nothing  seems  so  probable  in  itself,  or  so  agreeable  to 
 the  analogy  of  the  divine  operation  in  other  cases,  or  the  beautiful 
 economy  which  existed  in  our  Saviour's  working  of  miracles,  in 
 which  he  never  employed  mure  power  than  was  necessary  to  ac- 
 complish any  point,  as  to  suppose  that  our  Lord  caused  the  doors 
 to  open  of  themselves.  So  Acts  v.  19.  'the  angel  of  the  Lord 
 by  night  opened  the  prison  doors,'  &c.  and  23.  '  The  prison  we 
 truly  found  shut  with  all  safety,  and  the  keepers  standing  without 
 before  the  doors:  hut  when  we  had  opened  we  found  no  man 
 within.'  Acts  xii.  6',  7,  10.  When  they  were  past  the  first 
 and  second  ward,  they  came  unto  the  iron  gate  that  leadeth  unto 
 the  city,  which  '  opened  to  them  of  its  own  accord.'  The  above 
 would  then  be  as  much  a  miracle  as  that  supposed  by  the  com- 
 monly received  hypothesis,  and  unquestionably  an  equal  proof  ot 
 Christ's  divine  omnipotence.  The  same  view  of  the  subject  has 
 also  been  taken  by  Calvin. — (See  Doddridge.) — Bloomjield's 
 Crit.  Digest.  — Ed. 
 
1048 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 1  John  xvi.  16. 
 •Eph.iT.  8. 
 
 Iliid.  ver.  If). 
 b  John  vii.  39. 
 
 Mr  Winston's  Essays. 
 6    Acts  ii.  33. 
 
 ascended  to  heaven,  because,  in  the  evening-  of  that  day, 
 we  find  him  7  giving  a  commission  and  instructions  to 
 his  apostles;  promising  them  the  mission  of  the  Holy 
 Ghost;  8  blessing  them  in  a  solemn  manner  ;  9  sending 
 them  as  his  Father  had  sent  him ; 1U  giving  them  the  power 
 of  remitting  and  retaining  sins ;  and  afterwards,  in 
 Galilee,  n  assuring  them,  that  all  power  was  given  him 
 in  heaven,  as  well  as  earth;  and  therefore  commanding 
 them  to  go,  and  teach,  and  baptize  all  nations,  and  pro- 
 mising his  powerful  presence  with  them,  even  unto  the 
 end  of  the  world. 
 
 Now,  if  these  exercises,  both  of  the  sacerdotal  office 
 and  regal  power,  could  not  properly  belong  to  our 
 Saviour  until  his  exaltation,  then  we  have  reason  to  sup- 
 pose, that,  in  the  morning  of  his  resurrection,  he  privately 
 ascended  into  heaven,  to  receive  the  reward  of  his  humi- 
 liation in  our  flesh  ;  and  that  the  reason  for  his  forbid- 
 ding Mary  to  touch  him,  Avas,  that  by  her  officious 
 embraces  and  importunity,  she  might  not  hinder  him  from 
 ascending  that  moment,  and,  what  was  the  crown  of  all 
 his  labour,  carrying  our  glorified  nature,  as  soon  as 
 possibly  he  could,  into  that  blessed  place  where  God's 
 majestic  presence  appears,  and  where  thrones,  domin- 
 ions, principalities,  powers,  angels,  and  archangels  have 
 their  abode. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 known   and  observed  by  them,   which   would  in   effect 
 evacuate  the  force  of  all  his  proofs. 
 
 It  is  difficult,  however,  to  imagine  the  reason,  why 
 our  Saviour  should  so  far  condescend  to  his  apostles,  as 
 to  show  his  hands  and  his  feet,  desiring  them  to  handle 
 them,  when,  not  long  before,  he  forbade  Mary  Magda- 
 lene to  touch  him,  because  he  was  not  yet  ascended ; 
 unless  we  may  suppose,  that,  after  his  resurrection,  he 
 might  ascend  several  times,  and  that  his  first  ascension 
 was  immediately  ensuant  upon  it. 
 
 Now,  to  make  this  more  obvious,  we  must  remember, 
 that,  a  little  before  his  passion,  our  Saviour  foretold  to 
 his  apostles  his  sudden  ascent  to  his  Father,  and  as  sud- 
 den descent  to  them  again:  *  'yet  a  little  while,'  says 
 he,  'and  ye  shall  see  me,  and  again  a  little  while,  and 
 ye  shall  not  see  me,  because  I  go  to  my  Father  ;'  and 
 that  afterwards,  upon  their  surprise,  and  dispute  about 
 the  meaning  of  the  expression,  2  'Jesus  said  unto  them, 
 do  you  inquire  among  yourselves  of  what  I  said,  a  little 
 while,  and  ye  shall  see  me  ;  and  again,  a  little  while, 
 and  ye  shall  not  see  me?  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
 that  ye  shall  weep  and  lament,  but  the  world  shall  re- 
 joice; and  ye  shall  ye  sorrowful,  but  your  sorrow  shall 
 be  turned  into  joy,'  &c.  3  Now,  if  we  compare  this  pre- 
 diction with  the  event,  how  sad  and  disconsolate  the 
 apostles  were  upon  our  Saviour's  death,  and  how  re- 
 freshed and  joyful  they  were  soon  after  his  resurrection  ; 
 and  consider  withal,  that  this  sorrow  was  to  last  till 
 Christ  had  been  with  his  Father,  and  then  their  joy  to 
 commence;  we  shall  be  inclined  to  believe,  that  what 
 our  Lord  would  be  understood  to  say,  is,  that  he  was  to 
 go  to  his  Father  immediately  after  his  resurrection,  and 
 then  very  soon  to  return  to  his  apostles  again,  even  the 
 very  same  day  in  the  evening. 
 
 And  indeed,  considering  that  Christ  was  our  high- 
 priest,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  ascend  into  heaven, 
 as  soon  as  his  sufferings  were  finished.  For,  as  the 
 high-priest,  under  the  law,  was  not  only  to  slay  the  sacri- 
 fice, but  to  carry  the  blood,  that  moment,  within  the 
 sanctuary,  and  there  present  it  before  God,  to  complete 
 fie  atonement,  and  make  intercession  for  the  people  ;  so 
 Christ,  having  shed  his  blood,  and  offered  his  body  on 
 the  altar  of  the  cross,  was  immediately  to  ascend  into 
 the  heavenly  sanctuary,  and  there  obtain  for  us  the  re- 
 mission of  our  sins,  and  all  the  other  benefits  of  his 
 passion. 
 
 But  tin's  is  not  all.  In  several  parts  of  scripture  our 
 Saviour  is  invested  with  a  regal,  as  well  as  sacerdotal 
 character;  but  now,  if,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the 
 same  scripture,  he  could  not  exercise  any  supreme 
 •  uthority,  until  he  was  exalted  to  his  heavenly  kingdom  ; 
 if  he  could  not,  4  give  gifts  unto  men,  until  he  was 
 a  icended  upon  high  ;  nor  6  send  his  Holy  Spirit  upon  his 
 disciples,  until  he  was  glorified,  and  had,  by  his  inter- 
 cession,  "  obtained  that  great  promise  of  the  Father;  if 
 he  '""''I  not,  I  say,  administer  the  affairs  of  his  media- 
 torial kingdom,  before  he  had  conquered  death  by  his 
 resurrection,  and  had  presented  himself  as  a  slain  sacri- 
 fice and  propitiation  f„r  the  sins  of  the  world,  before  the 
 presence  of  the  divine  majesty  ;  this  makes  it  evident, 
 that,  on  the  very  day  of  his  resurrection,  he  must  have 
 
 CHAP.  III.     Of  our  Blessed  Saviour's  Doctrine, 
 and  the  Excellency  of  his  Religion. 
 
 The  completion  of  the  prophecies  relating  to  the  pro- 
 mised Messiah,  in  the  person  and  actions  of  our  Saviour 
 Christ,  and  the  miracles  which  he  wrought,  in  testimony 
 of  his  divine  mission,  and  in  conformity  to  what  the 
 Messiah  was  to  do,  were  the  subjects  of  the  two  preced- 
 ing chapters,  as  the  great  external  evidences  of  the 
 truth  of  our  holy  religion ;  and  the  internal  evidence  is, 
 the  goodness  and  perfection  of  those  precepts  relating 
 to  practice,  which  he  hath  enjoined,  and  of  those  doc- 
 trines relating  to  faith,  which  he  hath  taught  us  in  the 
 course  of  his  gospel,  and  which,  when  duly  considered, 
 will  manifest  the  excellency  of  the  Christian  religion 
 above  all  others. 
 
 Now,  the  practical  parts  of  our  holy  religion,  or  those 
 precepts  which  were  intended  to  direct  us  in  our  duty 
 towards  God  and  man,  are  such  as  either  tend  to  the 
 perfection  of  human  nature,  or  to  the  peace  and  hap- 
 piness of  human  society.  Of  those  which  tend  to  the 
 perfection  of  human  nature,  some  enjoin  piety  towards 
 God,  and  others  require  the  good  government  of  our- 
 selves with  respect  to  the  pleasures  of  this  life  ,•  and  our 
 business  is,  to  show,  that  all  and  every  of  these  are  both 
 conformable  to  the  dictates  of  right  reason  in  their 
 practice,  and  declarative  of  the  wisdom  of  God  in  their 
 appointment. 
 
 12  1.  That  we  should  inwardly  reverence  and  love  God,  • 
 and  express  that  reverence  by  external  worship  and 
 adoration,  and  by  our  readiness  to  receive  and  obey  all 
 the  revelations  of  his  will ;  that  we  should  testify  our 
 
 '  Mark  xvi.  15,  &c.  8  Luke  xxiv.  50.  »  John  xx.  21. 
 
 10  Ibid.  ver.  23.  "  Mat.  xxviii.  IS,  &c, 
 
 la  Tillotson's  Sermons  iu  folio,  vol.  i. 
 
IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1047 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5412.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 dependence  upon  him,  and  our  confidence  in  his  good- 
 ness, by  constant  prayers  and  supplications  to  him  for 
 mercy  and  help,  both  for  ourselves  and  others  ;  that  we 
 should  acknowledge  our  obligation  to  him  for  the  many 
 favours  and  benefits  which  every  day,  every  moment,  we 
 receive  from  him,  by  continual  praises  and  thanksgiv- 
 ings ;  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  we  should  not  entertain 
 any  unworthy  thoughts  of  God,  nor  give  that  honour  and 
 reverence  which  is  due  to  him  to  any  other ;  that  we 
 should  not  worship  him  in  any  manner  that  is  either 
 unsuitable  to  the  perfections  of  his  nature,  or  repugnant 
 to  his  revealed  will ;  that  we  should  carefully  avoid  the 
 profanation  of  his  name,  by  customary  swearing  or  curs- 
 ing ;  and  take  gTeat  heed,  that  we  be  not  guilty  of  the 
 neglect  or  contempt  of  his  worship,  or  of  any  other 
 tiling  that  belongs  to  him ;  in  short,  '  that  we  should 
 possess  our  minds  with  such  a  due  sense  of  the  majesty, 
 and  holiness,  and  justice,  and  goodness  of  God,  as  may 
 make  us,  upon  all  occasions,  thoroughly  fearful  to 
 offend  him ;  of  his  majesty,  lest  we  affront  it  by  being 
 irreverent;  of  his  holiness,  lest  we  offend  it  by  being 
 carnal;  of  his  justice,  lest  we  provoke  it  by  being  pre- 
 sumptuous ;  and  of  his  goodness,  lest  we  forfeit  it  by 
 being  unthankful.  These  are  the  general  heads  of  those 
 duties  which  every  man's  reason  tells  him  he  owes  to 
 God,  and  yet  these  are  the  very  tilings  which  the  Chris- 
 tian religion  expressly  requires  of  us;  so  that,  in  this 
 part  of  Christianity,  there  is  nothing  but  what  exactly 
 agrees  with  the  reason  of  mankind. 
 
 In  respect  to  the  good  government  of  ourselves, 
 amidst  the  pleasures  and  enjoyments  of  this  life,  St 
 John,  when  he  tells  us,  that  2  '  all  that  is  in  the  world,  is 
 the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of 
 life,'  distributes  the  irregular  appetites  of  men  into 
 three  kinds,  voluptuousness,  covetousness,  and  ambition, 
 answerable  to  the  three  sorts  of  tempting  objects  that  are 
 in  the  world,  pleasures,  riches,  and  honours  ;  but  when 
 our  holy  religion  requires  of  us,  that  3  '  we  should  not 
 walk  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit ;  that  we  should, 
 in  short,  4  '  walk  decently,  as  in  the  day ;  not  in  rioting 
 and  drunkenness,  not  in  chambering  and  wantonness ; 
 but  5  being  holy  in  all  manner  of  conversation,  6  abstain 
 from  fleshly  lusts,  which  war  against  the  soul  ;'  when  it 
 gives  us  this  strict  caution,  7  '  to  take  heed,  and  beware 
 of  covetousness  ;  because  a  man's  life,'  or  the  happiness 
 of  his  life,  '  consisteth  not  in  the  things  which  he  possess- 
 eth ;'  and  calls  upon  us  so  frequently  8  '  to  be  meek 
 and  lowly  in  spirit,'  and  not 9  '  to  mind  high  things;  to 
 1U  let  nothing  be  done  through  vain  glory,  but,  in  lowli- 
 ness of  mind,  to  let  each  esteem  other  better  than  them- 
 selves ;'  it  is  plain  that  it  lays  a  prohibition  upon  all 
 such  irregular  appetites  and  passions  as  are  the  bane  of 
 human  ease  and  happiness,  and  enjoins  such  virtues  and 
 good  dispositions  as  are  not  only  highly  reasonable, 
 suitable  to  our  nature,  and  every  way  for  our  temporal 
 convenience  and  advantage,  but  such  as  dispose  us  like- 
 wise to  the  practice  of  piety  and  religion,  by  purifying 
 our  souls  from  the  dross  and  filth  of  sensual  delights. 
 
 2.  In  relation  to  the  other  sorts  of  precepts,  which,  as 
 we  said,  tend  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of  human  so- 
 
 J  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  i. 
 *  Ibid.  xiii.  13. 
 *  Luke  xii.  15.     8  Mat.  xi 
 
 2  1  John  ii.  16.      3  Rom.  yiii.  i. 
 *  1  Pet.  i.  15.  6  ibid.  ii.  11. 
 
 29.     9  Rom.  xii.  16.     ™  Phil  ii.  3. 
 
 ciety,  they  are  such  as  enjoin  all  those  virtues  that  are 
 apt  to  sweeten  the  spirits,  and  allay  the  passions  and 
 animosities  which  sometimes  happen  among  men.  For 
 when  our  most  holy  religion  requires  us,  '  to  love  our 
 neighbour,'  that  is,  every  man  in  the  world,  even  our 
 greatest  enemies,  '  as  ourselves,'  and,  in  pursuance  of 
 this  general  precept,  '  if  it  be  possible,  and  as  much  as 
 in  us  lies,  to  live  peaceably  with  all  men;'  to  be  kind  to 
 one  another,  ready  to  gratify  and  oblige  those  that  we 
 converse  with  ;  to  be  tender-hearted  and  compassionate 
 to  those  that  are  in  want,  and  misery,  and  ready,  upon 
 all  occasions,  to  supply  and  relieve  them;  to  sympa- 
 thise with  one  another  in  our  joys  and  sorrows;  'to 
 mourn  with  those  that  mourn,  and  to  rejoice  with  them 
 that  rejoice  ;  to  bear  one  another's  burdens,  and  to  for- 
 bear one  another  in  love;  to  be  easily  reconciled  to 
 them' that  have  offended  us,  and  to  be  ready  to  forgive, 
 from  our  hearts,  the  greatest  and  most  reiterated  injuries 
 that  can  be  done  us;  it  discovers  itself  not  only  to  be 
 the  most  innocent  and  harmless,  but  the  most  generous 
 and  best-natured  institution  that  ever  was  in  the  world. 
 
 In  like  manner,  when  our  holy  religion  endeavours  to 
 secure  the  private  interests  of  men,  as  well  as  the  public 
 peace,  by  confirming  and  enforcing  all  the  dictates  of 
 nature  concerning  justice  and  equity  ;  by  recommending 
 the  great  rule  of  doing  to  others  what  we  would  have 
 them  to  do  to  us,  as  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  law 
 and  the  prophets ;  by  commanding  obedience  to  human 
 laws,  which  decide  men's  rights,  and  submission  to  all 
 government,  under  pain  of  damnation  ;  and  by  forbid- 
 ding whatever  is  contrary  to  these,  namely,  violence  and 
 oppression,  fraud  and  over-reaching,  perfidiousness  and 
 treachery,  breach  of  trusts,  oaths  or  promises,  unduti ful- 
 ness to  superiors,  sedition  and  rebellion  against  magis- 
 tracy and  authority  ;  and  if  there  be  any  thing  else  that 
 is  apt  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world,  and  to  alienate 
 the  affections  of  men  from  one  another,  such  a  sourness 
 of  disposition,  and  rudeness  of  behaviour,  censorious- 
 ness,  and  sinister  interpretation  of  things;  in  short,  all 
 cross  and  distasteful  humours,  and  whatever  else  may 
 render  conversation  uneasy  or  unsociable  :  when  the 
 laws  of  Christianity,  I  say,  forbid  these  vices  and  evil 
 dispositions,  and,  upon  every  occasion,  command  the 
 contrary  virtues, n '  whatsoever  things  are  true,  w hatsoever 
 things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever 
 things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever 
 things  are  of  good  report,  if  there  be  any  virtue,  if  there 
 be  any  praise,'  requiring  us  to  '  think  of  these  things  ;' 
 Ave  cannot  but  allow,  that  nothing  can  be  devised  more 
 proper  and  effectual,  to  advance  the  nature  of  man  to  its 
 highest  perfection,  to  procure  the  tranquillity  of  men's 
 minds,  to  establish  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  world, 
 and,  if  they  were  duly  practised,  to  make  it,  as  it  were, 
 an  heaven  upon  earth,  than  the  precepts  which  we  find 
 recorded  in  the  gospel :  and,  what  is  no  small  commen- 
 dation of  them,  there  is  nothing  in  all  these  precepts, 
 but  what,  if  we  were  to  consult  our  own  interest  and 
 happiness,  we  should  think  ourselves  obliged  to  do,  even 
 though  it  were  never  enjoined  us;  nothing,  in  short,  but 
 what  is  easy  to  be  understood,  and  as  easy  to  be  prac- 
 tised by  every  honest  and  well-meaning  mind. 
 
 Some,  indeed,  have  represented  even  the  moral  part 
 
 11  Phil,  iv  8. 
 
1048 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.M.  4037  A.  D.33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 of  the  Christian  religion,  as  an  heavy  burden  and 
 grievous  to  be  borne ;  difficult  to  be  kept,  and  yet 
 dangerous  to  be  broken ;  that  it  requires  us  to  govern, 
 and  keep  under  our  passions,  to  contradict  our  strongest 
 inclinations,  and  many  times  to  deny  ourselves  even 
 lawful  enjoyments  ;  that  it  enjoins  us  to  forgive  and  love 
 our  enemies,  '  to  bless  them  that  curse  us,  to  do  good  to 
 them  that  hate  and  persecute  us ;'  and,  what  is  more, 
 that  it  commands  us  to  part  with  all  the  advantages  of 
 this  world,  and  even  to  lay  down  life  itself,  in  the  cause 
 of  (iod,  and  the  discharge  of  a  good  conscience.  Hard 
 savings  these,  in  some  men's  opinion,  and  such  as  our 
 nature,  in  its  state  of  degeneracy,  is  not  .able  to  perform. 
 But  this  is  for  want  of  duly  considering  the  obligation 
 and  tendency  of  such  duties. 
 
 Some  of  the  wisest  heathens,  even  by  the  strength  of 
 reason,  were  able  to  discover  the  general  corruption  of 
 human  nature ;  but  then  they  were  ignorant  both  of  the 
 rise  and  progress  of  it;  whereas,  by  the  Christian  reve- 
 lation, we  are  sufficiently  instructed  in  both.  Here  we 
 lintl  the  baleful  venom  of  our  first  ancestor's  transgression 
 entailed  on  their  posterity;  here  the  perpetual  strugglings 
 of  flesh  and  spirit,  and  that  violence  of  passions  and  de- 
 sires that  so  often  carries  us  into  excesses,  which  our 
 sober  and  better  sense  cannot  but  disapprove  ;  and  here 
 that  general  bent  to  evil  and  backwardness  to  good, 
 which  every  one,  but  such  as  are  obdurate  and  insensi- 
 ble, is  forced  both  to  feel  and  lament ;  and  therefore 
 since  the  gospel  does  not  only  show  us  our  disease,  but 
 the  malignity  and  true  original  of  it,  there  is  good  reason 
 why  it  should  be  allowed  to  press  upon  us  the  great 
 duties  of  mortification  and  self-denial,  as  the  best  means 
 within  the  compass  of  human  power  to  cure  us  of  it. 
 
 1  The  heathen  sages,  in  the  passage  of  their  Hercules 
 fighting  with  Antaeus,  seem  to  insinuate,  that  the  only 
 way  to  gain  the  mastery  over  our  passions,  is  never  to 
 cease  contending  with  them.  Whilst  Hercules  grasped 
 his  adversary,  and  held  him  up  in  his  arms,  he  could 
 manage  and  master  him  with  ease  ;  but  no  sooner  did  he 
 let  Antaeus  touch  the  earth,  but  he  got  strength  again, 
 and  was  able  to  renew  the  combat.  Antams's  touching 
 the  earth  is  morally  no  other  than  an  earthly  affection 
 permitted  to  its  element,  that  is,  suffered  to  have  its  fill  • 
 at  which  time  it  gets  strength,  and  grows  masterly,  and 
 becomes  less  manageable  than  it  was  before  :  whereas 
 to  grapple  with  our  desires,  to  hold  them  off  from  the 
 reach  of  their  quarry,  and  to  restrain  them  even  from  the 
 lawful  measures  of  enjoyment,  is  the  only  way,  both  to 
 bring  them  into  subjection,  and  to  confirm  our' govern- 
 ment over  them. 
 
 The  truth  is,  every  time  that  we  indulge  our  appetites 
 beyond  what  is  convenient,  we  give  away  so  much  power 
 out  of  our  own  hands,  we  strengthen  the  enemy  for  the 
 next  attack,  and  disable  ourselves  still  more  for  resisting 
 it;  and  therefore,  as  the  Christian  state  is  deservedly 
 called  a  warfare,  that  is,  the  necessary  and  continual 
 engagement  of  our  rational  desires  against  our  sensual 
 in  order  to  bring  them  under,  and  keep  them  in  obe- 
 dience ;  and  as  in  this  warfare  there  must  be  no  league 
 no  truce,  no  laying  down  of  arms,  because  the  enemy  is 
 perfidious,  and  will  never  keep  the  peace;  so  are  we 
 never  out  of  danger,  but  while  we  are  actually  fighting. 
 
 Young's  Sermons,  vol.  i. 
 
 2  The  more  we  gratify  our  appetites,  the  more  craving 
 they  will  be,  and  the  more  impatient  of  denial ;  for  every 
 lust  is  a  kind  of  hydropic  distemper,  and,  in  this  case 
 too,  the  more  we  drink,  the  more  we  shall  thirst.  If  we 
 give  way  to  our  passions,  we  do  but  gratify  ourselves 
 for  the  present,  in  order  to  our  future  disquiet ;  but  if 
 we  resist  and  conquer  them,  we  lay  the  foundation  of 
 perpetual  peace  and  tranquillity  in  our  minds ;  so  that, 
 in  the  whole,  by  retrenching  our  desires,  especially  when 
 they  prove  exorbitant,  we  do  not  rob  ourselves  of  any 
 true  pleasure,  but  only  prevent  the  pain  and  trouble  oE 
 farther  dissatisfaction. 
 
 3  The  ancient  moralists,  though  they  sometimes  decry 
 an  insensibility  of  just  provocations  as  a  mark  of  an 
 abject  and  little  soul ;  yet  upon  no  occasion  are  they  so 
 profuse  in  their  praises,  as  where  they  speak  of  persons 
 touched  with  a  sense  of  injuries  and  indignities,  and  yet 
 able,  with  a  generous  contempt,  to  overlook,  and  show 
 themselves  above  them  ;  for  the  passing  by,  and  forget- 
 ting such  things,  the  being  very  hardly  incensed,  and 
 very  readily  appeased  again,  is  constantly  set  forth  as 
 one  of  the  brightest  virtues  that  give  lustre  to  a  brave  and 
 truly  noble  mind.  And  if  such  were  the  notions  of 
 heathens,  who  professed  to  follow  no  other  guide  but 
 the  light  of  reason,  surely  the  duty  of  loving  and  for- 
 giving those  that  have  injured  and  offended  us,  cannot  be 
 a  task  so  very  difficult  to  Christians,  who,  in  matters 
 capable  of  any  tolerable  construction,  are  required  to 
 put  on  that  charity,4  '  which  believeth  all  things,  hopeth 
 all  things,  endureth  all  things  ; '  and,  in  the  worst  that 
 can  be,  such  a  generous  greatness  of  mind  as  '  puts  away 
 from  us  all  bitterness,  and  wrath,  and  clamour,  and 
 evil-speaking,  with  all  malice ;  such  as  should  make 
 us  kind  and  tender-hearted,5  restoring  those  that  are 
 overtaken  in  a  fault  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  ;  and  such 
 as  should  prevail  with  us,  6  to  forbear  one  another,  and 
 to  forgive  one  another,  even  as  God,  for  Christ's  sake, 
 hath  forgiven  us. 
 
 And  indeed,  he  who  considers,  that  the  very  founda- 
 tion of  our  religion  is  laid  in  the  belief  and  profession 
 of  a  pardon  extended  to  the  highest  of  all  provocations, 
 of  love  inconceivable  to  the  worst  of  all  enemies,  and 
 both  these  expressed  and  effected  by  a  person  the  most 
 highly  injured,  and  in  a  method  the  most  beneficial,  the 
 most  amazingly  kind  ;  insomuch  that  no  instance  of  gene- 
 rosity or  goodness  besides  presents  us  with  any  thing- 
 like  it,  with  any  thing  near  it,  with  any  thing  fit  to  be 
 named  with  it :  he  who  considers  this,  I  say,  cannot  but 
 acknowledge,  that  the  precept  of  loving  and  forgiving 
 our  enemies  is  peculiarly  suitable  to  the  condition  of 
 Christians,  who  owe  all  their  hopes  and  happiness  to  it : 
 and  that  it  would  have  been  absurd  not  to  have  obliged 
 those  men  to  a  virtue,  which  they  confess  themselves  so 
 infinitely  beholden  to,  and  '  which  no  man  can  think  a 
 grievous  command,  who  considers  the  pleasure  aud 
 sweetness  of  love,  the  glorious  victory  of  overcoming 
 evil  with  good,  and  then  compares  these  with  the  rest- 
 less torments  and  perpetual  tumults  of  a  malicious  and 
 revengeful  spirit. 
 
 2  Tillotson's  Sermons,  in  folio,  vol.  i. 
 Stanhope  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures.         4  1  Cor. 
 
 5  Gal.  vi.  i. 
 
 xiii.  7. 
 
 Tillotson's  Sermons,  in  folio,  vol.  i 
 
 Eph.  iv.  31,  '62. 
 
Sect.  IV  ] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 1049 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 1  3.  The  Stoics  of  old  represented  their  wise  man,  as 
 no  more  concerned  at  the  loss  of  his  estate,  his  liberty, 
 or  life,  than  if  they  were  the  rattles  or  gewgaws  of  a 
 child,  which  might  afford  him  some  little  ease,  and  pre- 
 sent diversion,  indeed,  but  were  by  no  means  essential, 
 or  in  any  degree  necessary,  to  his  real  happiness.  This 
 however  is  a  flight  too  romantic  to  be  credited.  To  lay 
 down  this  life,  and  all  the  comforts  of  it,  while  men  were 
 so  much  in  the  dark  about  another,  and  to  expose  the 
 body  to  sufferings,  when  doubtful,  and  in  distrust  about 
 the  soul,  is  too  great  an  infraction  upon  self-preserva- 
 tion, because  it  is  to  part  with  one's  all,  at  least  our  all  in 
 certainty  and  opinion :  but  to  do  this,  when  men  know 
 the  reality  of  a  future  state,  and  the  value  of  their  im- 
 mortal souls  ; 2  to  fear  him,  who,  when  he  hath  killed,  can 
 cast  both  body  and  soul  into  hell,  rather  than  them  who 
 can  only  kill  the  body,  and  after  that,  have  no  more  that 
 they  can  do  ;  to  receive,  embrace,  rejoice  in  3  the  light 
 affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  when  throughly  per- 
 suaded, that  it  worketh  out  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding 
 and  eternal  weight  of  glory  ;  this  is,  not  to  destroy,  but  to 
 save  and  profit  ourselves,  and  what,  in  the  affairs  of  this 
 world,  we  esteem  it  our  wisdom  to  do  every  day. 
 
 If  by  any  sad  accident  our  house  happens  to  be  set  on 
 fire,  no  man  is  to  be  blamed  for  doing  his  best  to  save  his 
 goods  ;  but,  when  that  is  found  impracticable,  every 
 wise  man  will  choose  to  leave  all,  and  escape  naked, 
 rather  than  out  of  foolish  fondness  for  any  furniture  of 
 value  or  curiosity,  there  stay  and  perish  with  it.  Now 
 this  is  no  improper  emblem  of  the  case  before  us.  When 
 the  fire  of  persecution  breaks  out  among  us,  we  have 
 our  Lord's  permission,  by  all  prudent  and  honourable 
 methods,  to  decline  it ;  but  when  it  comes  at  last  to  catch 
 upon  these  earthly  tabernacles,  that  is,  when  our  circum- 
 stances admit  of  no  other  choice,  but  either  sinning  or 
 suffering,  the  loss  of  our  lives,  or  the  loss  of  our  virtue, 
 we  owe  it  then,  not  only  to  God,  but  to  ourselves,  rather 
 to  quit  this  house  of  flesh,  than  bring  the  glorious  inha- 
 bitant in  it  into  danger  of  being  buried  in  its  ruins. 
 
 Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  this  taking  up  our  cross, 
 or  suffering  upon  the  account  of  religion,  is  not  choos- 
 ing evil  as  such,  but  choosing  an  infinitely  less  evil, 
 which,  in  this  respect,  is  a  great  good.  It  is  not  expos- 
 ing ourselves,  when  we  might  be  safe  ;  but,  where  we 
 cannot  be  safe  in  our  whole  persons,  redeeming  one  part, 
 with  another,  the  better  with  the  worse :  it  is  not  sus- 
 taining a  loss,  but  making  an  exchange  ;  an  exchange  of 
 fugitive  and  perishing  goods,  for  lasting  and  substantial ; 
 and  parting  with  something  of  less  value,  in  order  to 
 receive  another  thing  unspeakably  better,  and  more 
 desirable. 
 
 Thus  it  appears  that  the  three  great  precepts,  which  are 
 commonly  objected  against,  as  heavy  impositions,  are  the 
 necessary  result  of  the  state  and  circumstances  wherein 
 we  are  placed  ;  that  the  duty  of  denying  ourselves  arises 
 from  the  corruption  of  the  nature  we  are  born  with;  that 
 of  loving  our  enemies,  from  the  very  genius  and  founda- 
 tion of  the  religion  we  live  under  ;  and  that  of  taking  up 
 our  cross,  from  such  prudential  considerations  as  make 
 ns  always  choose  the  less  evil ;  and  are  all  so  suited  to 
 the  reason  of  mankind,  that  we  find  some  of  the  best  im- 
 
 '  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures.         *  Luke  xii.  4,  5. 
 3  1  Cor.  iv.  17. 
 
 provers  of  it  prescribing  the  same  rules  to  their  disciples  ; 
 4  which  is  enough  to  convince  us,  that  our  Lord,  who 
 has  opened  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  believers,  ought 
 not  by  any  means  to  be  accounted  an  hard  Master,  when 
 he  imposes  no  other  terms  than  the  heathens  thought  fit 
 to  engage  in,  upon  the  mere  spur  of  private  conscience, 
 or  public  shame  ;  and  that  speechless,  and  without 
 apology,  a  great  part  of  the  Christian  world  must  needs 
 stand  in  the  day  of  inquiry,  when  it  shall  appear  that 
 Pythagoras,  and  Plato,  and  Zeno,  could  have  their 
 scholars  run  through  such  discipline,  as  is  necessary  to 
 the  character  of  a  virtuous  man,  which  those  who  profess 
 Christ  are  not  ashamed  to  call  foolish  and  needless,  only 
 because  it  is  unpleasing. 
 
 4.  The  other  part  of  the  Christian  religion  is,  as, we 
 said,  those  doctrines  which  were  designed  for  the  direc- 
 tion of  our  faith,  in  matters  that  were  not  sufficiently 
 revealed  before. 
 
 5  That  there  is  one  supreme,  absolute,  and  indepen- 
 dent cause,  and  original  of  all  things,  eternal,  infinite, 
 all-powerful,  all-sufficient,  the  maker  and  Lord  of  all 
 things,  himself  derived  from  none,  made  of  none, 
 begotten  of  none,  proceeding  from  none ;  that  by 
 him  all  creatures,  material  and  immaterial,  visible  and 
 invisible,  animate  and  inanimate, rational  and  irrational,, 
 mortal  and  immortal,  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  were  made, 
 or  created  out  of  nothing  :  that  having  made  the  world, 
 at  first,  he  still  governs  it  by  his  perpetual  provi- 
 dence, insomuch  that  the  most  fortuitous  accident  does 
 not  happen,  a  sparrow  does  not  fall  to  the  ground, 
 nor  an  hair  from  our  heads,  without  his  permission 
 or  direction;  that,  in  the  exercise  of  this  his  provi- 
 dence, every  thing  is  submitted  to  his  will ;  no  strength 
 can  resist  his  power,  no  swiftness  can  flee  from  his 
 presence,  no  secrecy  can  conceal  from  his  knowledge, 
 no  art  can  evade  his  justice,  and  every  creature  partici- 
 pates of  his  goodness :  that  this  infinite  and  almighty 
 being  did,  from  all  eternity,  and  long  before  any  ages 
 commenced,  in  an  ineffable  manner,  which  the  scriptures 
 call  generation,  communicate  the  essence  of  the  God- 
 head so  entirely  to  his  Son,  as  to  make  him  the  same 
 with  himself,  very  God,  of  very  God :  that  this  eternal 
 Son  of  God,  having  a  being  in  the  bosom  of  his  Father, 
 was  partaker  of  his  glory  and  power  in  the  creation  and 
 government  of  the  world,  and,  by  the  divine  appoint- 
 ment, is  our  Saviour,  Mediator,  Intercessor,  and  Judge : 
 that,  having  a  tender  compassion  for  sinful  man,  and 
 willing  to  procure  for  him  the  grace  of  repentance,  he 
 voluntarily  condescended  to  take  our  nature,  with  all  its 
 innocent  infirmities,  upon  him:  that,  in  this  nature, 
 miraculously  conceived,  and  born  of  a  virgin,  he  lived  a 
 life  as  Ave  do,  and  was  affected  as  we  are,  but  without 
 sin,  revealed  unto  us  his  Father's  will,  and  did  many 
 wonderful  works  in  confirmation  of  his  divine  mission  : 
 that,  after  a  life  spent  in  doing  good,  he  submitted,  in 
 his  human  nature,  to  a  painful  and  ignominious  death, 
 that  thereby  he  might  make  an  atonement  to  God,  and 
 reconciliation  for  our  sins :  that,  after  a  stay  of  three 
 days  in  the  grave,  by  his  almighty  power  he  raised  him- 
 self to  life  again,  conversed  upon  earth  for  the  space  of 
 forty  days,  instructed  his  disciples  in  matters  relating  to 
 his  kingdom,  and,  at  length,  in  the   sight  of  a  great 
 
 4  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 
 5  Clarke's  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 
 6  R 
 
1050 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN  xii.  19-END. 
 
 number  of  spectators,  ascended  visibly  into  heaven  : 
 that,  upon  his  ascension,  he  was  exalted  to  the  right- 
 hand  of  God,  where  he  now  makes  intercession  for  us, 
 and  is  invested  with  all  power  and  authority,  wherewith 
 he  governs  the  whole  church,  and  is  hereafter  to  judge 
 the  whole  world  :  that,  upon  his  investiture,  he  soon  sent 
 down  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  third  person  in  the  ever-bles- 
 sed Trinity,  to  be  the  immediate  comforter  and  director 
 of  his  apostles,  to  lead  them  into  all  truth,  to  inspire 
 them  with  the  gift  of  tongues  and  to  impart  to  their  fol- 
 lowers such  other  gifts  as  might  best  serve  the  end  of 
 their  ministry:  that  this  blessed  Spirit  still  continues 
 with  all  good  men,  and  >  by  illuminating  their  under- 
 standings, rectifying  their  wills  and  affections,  renewing 
 their  natures,  uniting  their  persons  to  Christ,  and  help- 
 ing the  infirmities  of  their  prayers  with  his  own  inter- 
 cession, is  the  great  sanctifier  of  their  souls  and  bodies, 
 in  order  to  make  them  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God 
 for  ever :  these,  together  with  the  doctrines  of  the  im- 
 mortality of  the  soul,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and, 
 after  their  re-union,  an  eternal  state  of  misery  or  hap- 
 piness in  the  other  world,  are  the  great  and  fundamental 
 principles  of  the  Christian  religion  and  mysteries,  as 
 the  apostle  2  calls  them,  '  which  have  been  hid  from 
 ages,  and  from  generations,  but  are  now  made  manifest 
 to  the  saints.' 
 
 '  But  how  are  these  things  made  manifest,'  says  the 
 objector  presently,  '  when,  notwithstanding  all  the  pre- 
 tended light  of  revelation,  they  still  remain  obscure  and 
 unintelligible?  Some  articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  such 
 as  the  existence  of  a  God,  the  dispensations  of  provi- 
 dence, the  spirituality  of  our  souls,  a  future  state,  and 
 future  judgment,  we  readily  allow,  because  these  are 
 founded  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  rise  in  the  mind 
 upon  the  disquisitions  of  reason;  but,  as  for  the  stories 
 of  a  trinity  in  unity,  a  co-equality  in  the  Son,  the  incar- 
 nation of  a  God,  and  the  propitiation  made  by  the  man 
 Christ  Jesus,  of  these  we  can  frame  no  manner  of  con- 
 ception ;  and  therefore  you  must  excuse  us,  if  we  do  not 
 believe  them;  for  where  is  the  crime  of  not  performing 
 impossibilities,  or  of  not  believing  what  does  not  appear 
 to  us  to  be  true.' 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied  indeed,  but  that,  in  the  Christian 
 religion,  there  are  many  great  mysteries,  or  doctrines  of 
 too  much  sublimity  for  the  powers  of  reason,  unassisted 
 by  revelation,  to  find  out,  or,  when  discovered,  fully  to 
 comprehend;  but  this  is  no  more  than  what  we  might 
 reasonably  expect,  considering  the  nature  and  quality  of 
 the  tilings  it  treats  of.  In  its  main  intendment,  it  is  a 
 kind  of  comment  upon  the  divine  nature,  or  an  instru- 
 ment to  convey  right  conceptions  to  the  soul  of  man,  as 
 far  as  it  is  capable  of  receiving  them.  But  now  God, 
 we  know,  is  an  infinite  being,  without  any  bounds  or 
 limitations  of  his  essence;  wonderful  in  his  actions,  in- 
 conceivable in  his  purpose,  and  inexpressible  in  his 
 attributes  :  and  how  can  such  vast  and  mighty  things  be 
 crowded  in  a  little  finite  understanding  ?  how  shall  our 
 poor  short  faculties  be  able  to  measure  the  length  of  his 
 eternity,  the  breadth  and  expansions  of  his  immensity, 
 the  heights  of  his  prescience,  the  depth  of  his  decrees, 
 and,  least  of  all,  the  unutterable  incomprehensible 
 mystery  of  two  natures  united  into  one  person,  and 
 
 1  Pearson  on  the  Creed. 
 
 2  Col.  i.  26. 
 
 again,  of  one  and  the  same  nature  diffused  into  a  triple 
 personality  ?  when  a  man  that  is  born  blind,  as  a  one 
 expresses  it,  shall  be  able,  on  hear-say,  to  conceive  in 
 his  mind  all  the  varieties  and  curiosities  of  colours,  or 
 to  draw  an  exact  scheme  of  some  fine  city,  or  map  of 
 some  large  province,  then  may  we  expect,  in  this  de- 
 generate state  of  our  understanding,  to  comprehend  the 
 ways  of  the  Almighty,  and  by  searching  find  out  God. 
 But,  to  do  justice  to  the  argument  on  the  other  side,  as 
 it  would  be  extremely  foolish  and  irrational,  for  a  blind 
 man  to  affirm,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  colours,  or 
 lines,  or  pictures,  because  he  finds  that  he  cannot  form 
 in  his  mind  any  true  perception  of  them  ;  so  would  it  be 
 equally,  if  not  superlatively  more  unreasonable,  for  us 
 to  deny  the  great  mysteries  of  our  faith,  because  the 
 plummet  of  our  reason  will  not  reach  them. 
 
 While  we  continue  in  this  state  of  imperfection,  Ave 
 must  be  content  4  to  know  in  part.  A  full  and  adequate 
 perception  of  these  sublime  mysteries  is  reserved,  as  a 
 principal  ingredient  of  our  felicity  and  happiness  above, 
 when  all  the  heights  and  depths,  which  we  now  stand 
 amazed  at,  shall  be  made  clear  and  familiar  to  us ; 
 when  God  shall  display  the  hidden  glories  of  his  nature, 
 the  wonders  of  his  providence,  and  the  wisdom  of  his 
 counsels ;  and,  withal,  fortify  the  eye  of  the  soul  to  such  a 
 degree,  as  to  make  it  able,  as  far  as  the  capacities  of  an 
 human  intellect  can  be  able,  to  behold,  and  take  them  in. 
 
 To  have  a  right  notion  of  the  doctrines  of  our  re- 
 ligion, however,  we  are  to  distinguish  between  those 
 things  that  are  above  reason,  and  incomprehensible,  and 
 those  that  are  against  reason,  and  utterly  inconceivable. 
 5  Some  things  are  above  reason,  because  of  their  tran- 
 scendent excellency,  and  distance  from  us;  whereas 
 those  that  are  against  reason  involve  a  contradiction, 
 and  have  a  natural  repugnancy  to  our  understandings, 
 which  cannot  conceive  any  thing  that  is  formally  impos- 
 sible. And  from  hence  it  will  follow,  that  though  we 
 neither  can,  nor  should  believe  those  things  that  are 
 contrary  to  our  reason,  yet  Ave  both  may,  and  ought  to 
 believe  those  that  are  above  it:  and  the  reason  is,  6 
 because  the  only  evidence  Ave  can  give  of  our  acknoAV- 
 ledging  the  infallible  truth  of  God,  is  by  assenting  to 
 what  he  affirms  upon  his  OAvn  authority. 
 
 In  assenting  to  a  proposition  Avhose  truth  Ave  perceive 
 from  the  reason  of  the  thing,  Ave  do  not  assent  upon  any 
 authority  at  all.  To  such  a  proposition  Ave  should 
 assent,  though  it  Avere  affirmed  by  the  most  fallible  man, 
 nay,  though  it  Avas  affirmed  by  the  most  notorious  liar  ; 
 and,  consequently,  our  assenting  to  such  a  proposition  is 
 no  manner  of  proof  that  Ave  acknoAvledge  the  infallible 
 veracity  of  God.  This  can  only  appear  by  our  assenting 
 to  a  proposition  Avhose  truth  Ave  do  not  perceive  by  any 
 evidence  from  the  nature  of  the  thing  ;  for  here  Ave  assent 
 upon  the  simple  authority  of  God's  affirmation,  and  our 
 assent  is  an  explicit  acknowledgment  of  his  absolute 
 veracity.  If  then  it  be  reasonable  to  expect,  in  a  divine 
 revelation,  that  God  should  require  our  acknoAvledgment 
 of  this  attribute,  especially,  and  Avithout  such  acknow- 
 ledgment no  revelation  Avould  be  of  any  use  ;  and  if 
 this  acknowledgment  can  appear  only  by  our  assenting, 
 
 3  South's  Sermons,  vol.  i.  «1  Cor.  xiii.  12. 
 
 5  Bates's  Harmony  of  the  Divine  Attributes. 
 
 6  Rogers's  Necessity  of  a  Divine  Revelation. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1051 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  9— END. 
 upon  the  authority  of  God,  to  such  propositions  as  we 
 cannot  perceive  the  truth  of  by  an  internal  evidence  ;  it 
 certainly  cannot  be  incongruous,  to  expect  such  proposi- 
 tions in  a  divine  revelation.  Nay,  much  more  incongru- 
 ous would  it  be,  and  '  a  probable  objection  against  the 
 divinity  of  any  revelation,  if  we  should  not  iind  some 
 propositions  of  this  kind  in  it ;  because  it  is  hardly  con- 
 ceivable, why  God  should  make  an  external  revelation 
 of  those  things  only,  which,  by  a  due  exercise  of  our 
 reason,  he  has  enabled  us  to  find  out. 
 
 Seeing  it  is  so  far  from  being  unreasonable,  then,  that 
 it  is  highly  expedient,  and  in  some  sort  necessary,  that 
 there  should  be  some  propositions  above  the  reach  of 
 human  understanding-,  in  every  revelation  that  comes 
 from  God  ;  if  we  can  but  show,  that  in  the  Christian 
 system  there  are  no  doctrines,  but  such  as  stand  clear  of 
 all  absurdity  and  contradiction,  the  more  abstruse  and 
 mysterious  they  are,  the  more  they  deserve  our  belief; 
 for  this  very  reason,  because,  2  if  what  is  revealed  con- 
 cerning God  were  every  way  easy,  and  adapted  to  our 
 comprehension,  it  could  never  reach,  nor,  with  any  fit- 
 ness, represent  that  nature,  which  we  aU  allow  to  be 
 incomprehensible. 
 
 The  holy  scriptures,  for  instance,  teach  us,  that  in 
 the  divine  nature,  which  can  be  but  one,  there  are  three 
 distinct  persons,  to  whom  we  ascribe  the  same  attributes 
 and  perfections,  the  same  worship  and  adoration.  This 
 indeed  is  a  doctrine  above  our  comprehension,  as  to 
 the  manner  how  three  should  be  one,  and  one  three  ;  3 
 but  still  we  affirm,  that  there  is  no  contradiction  in  it, 
 if  we  will  but  distinguish  between  numbers,  and  the 
 nature  of  things.  For  three  to  be  one  indeed,  is  a  con- 
 tradiction in  numbers  ;  but  whether  an  infinite  nature  can 
 communicate  itself  to  three  different  substances,  without 
 such  a  division  as  is  among  created  beings,  must  not 
 be  determined  by  bare  numbers,  but  by  the  absolute 
 perfections  of  the  divine  nature,  which  must  be  owned 
 to  be  above  our  comprehension.  The  holy  scriptures 
 teach  us,  that  the  Son  of  God  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt 
 amongst  us  ;  and  that  therefore  our  Redeemer  was  both 
 God  and  man  in  one  person.  This,  we  own,  is,  in  its 
 nature,  one  of  the  great  mysteries  of  godliness,  as  St 
 Paul  calls  it ;  but  then  we  must  remember  that,  in  real- 
 ity, it  is  not  much  more  difficult,  than  the  union  of  the 
 soul  and  body  in  all  mankind,  which,  however  unac- 
 countable it  may  be  to  our  reason  and  imagination,  is 
 too  certain,  in  fact,  to  be  called  in  question.  Once  more, 
 the  holy  scriptures  teach  us,  that  our  Saviour  Christ,  who 
 was  both  God  and  man  in  one  person,  became  the  Re- 
 deemer of  the  world,  by  offering  himself  a  propitiation 
 to  God  for  sinners.  This,  in  many  respects,  is  a  mys- 
 tery  too,  and  what  we  could  not  have  known,  had  it  not 
 been  revealed  to  us ;  but  now  that  it  is  revealed,  it  is 
 far  from  deserving  the  imputation  of  being  absurd.  4 
 That  all  mankind  are  sinners,  and  have  fallen  from 
 their  primitive  integrity,  not  only  the  scriptures,  but  the 
 constant  experience  of  our  own  irregular  appetites,  is 
 but  too  convincing  a  demonstration.  Now,  since  this 
 was  our  condition,  and  God  was  minded  to  rescue  us 
 from  it,  but  entirely  at  liberty  in  what  method  to  effect 
 it ;  since  the  soul  of  our  Saviour  Christ  was  a  free  iiu- 
 
 1  Law's  Case  of  Reason. 
 3  StilliiiRlleet's  Sermons. 
 
 2  Young's  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 Winston's  Essays. 
 
 maculate  being,  that  might  voluntarily  suffer  for  us,  if 
 he  pleased,  and  by  the  dignity  of  his  nature,  inhance 
 the  value  of  his  sufferings  to  the  full  pardon  of  our  sins 
 upon  his  Father's  acceptance  of  a  vicarious  sacrifice  ; 
 there  jippears  nothing  in  this  doctrine  of  Christ's  satis- 
 faction, now  that  we  have  it  fully  revealed  to  us,  but 
 what  corresponds  with  common  reason,  and  all  judicial 
 procedings  among  mankind. 
 
 These  are  some  of  the  principal  doctrines  that  we, 
 as  Christians,  profess ;  and  being  free,  when  rightly 
 considered,  from  all  appearance  of  contradiction,  5  we 
 may  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  any  considerate  person, 
 whether  it  be  not  for  the  dignity  and  advantage  of  re- 
 ligion, that  some  articles  of  it  should  exceed  the  largest 
 human  comprehension  ;  whether  we  should  entertain  the 
 same  awful  impressions  of  the  divine  Majesty,  if  the 
 perfections  of  his  nature  and  operations  were  only  such 
 as  we  could  see  to  the  end  of;  whether  it  does  not  raise 
 the  value  of  man's  redemption,  to  have  it  brought  about 
 by  miracles  of  mercy,  not  only  without  example,  but 
 even  beyond  our  present  understanding.  Had  all  these 
 things  been  less,  we  should  indeed  have  known  them 
 better  ;  but  then  so  much  as  we  abate  of  their  mysteri- 
 ousness,  to  bring  them  down  to  our  capacity,  so  much 
 we  impair  their  dignity,  and  weaken  the  power  of  thein 
 upon  our  affections.  It  is  therefore  the  very  commen- 
 dation, as  we  said  before,  and  excellency  of  these  doc- 
 trines, that  they  are  so  far  above  us  ;  and  we  ought  to 
 esteem  it  an  instance  of  the  divine  goodness,  no  less 
 than  wisdom,  so  to  have  tempered  his  revelations,  that 
 we  want  not  knowledge  enough  to  engage  our  piety  and 
 holy  wonder,  and  yet  have  not  so  much  as  should  des- 
 troy our  humility  and  godly  reverence  :  and  upon  the 
 whole,  have  reason  to  believe,  that  it  could  not  have 
 been  better,  nay,  probably,  not  near  so  well,  if  either 
 less  had  been  discovered  to  us,  or  less  concealed  from  us. 
 
 The  other  doctrines,  which  in  some  measure  were 
 discoverable  by  the  strength  of  reason,  but  have  been 
 set  in  full  light,  and  cleared  of  all  their  ambiguity  and 
 doubtfulness,  by  the  revelation  of  the  gospel,  such  as 
 that  of  the  being  of  a  God,  the  inspection  of  his  provi- 
 dence, the  supreme  end  of  man,  the  immortality  of  his 
 soul,  the  resurrection  of  his  body,  a  future  judgment, 
 and  an  eternal  state  of  happiness  or  misery  hereafter, 
 are  so  rational  in  themselves,  and  have  so  natural  a 
 tendency  to  what  is  the  great  end  of  all  religion,  the 
 reformation  of  men's  lives  and  tempers,  that  a  very 
 small  illustration  will  suffice  to  recommend  them.     For, 
 
 6  What  can  be  a  more  necessary  and  excellent  founda- 
 tion of  true  piety,  than  that  doctrine  which  the  Chris- 
 tian religion  clearly  and  distinctly  teaches  us  concern- 
 in"-  the  nature  and  attributes  of  the  only  true  God,  who 
 inhabits  eternity,  and  yet  humbleth  himself  to  behold  the 
 thiiio-s  that  are  in  heaven  and  earth  ?  What  can  afford 
 more  comfort  and  security  in  all  conditions  of  life,  than 
 the  sense  of  a  providence,  by  which  the  very  7  hairs  of 
 our  head  are  numbered,  concerning  itself  for  our  wel- 
 fare, and,  for  that  reason,  bidding  us  8  '  to  be  careful  for 
 nothing,  but,  in  every  thing,  by  prayer  and  supplication, 
 with  thanksgiving,  to  make  our  requests  known  unto 
 God?'  What  can  be  a  more  effectual  means  to  wean  us 
 
 5  Stanhope's  Sermons. 
 7  Mat.  x.  30. 
 
 6  Clarke's  Evidences. 
 8  Phil.  iv.  C. 
 
1052 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A 
 
 from  the  love  of  the  world,  and  the  allurements  of  sin, 
 than  to  consider,  that  the  proper  and  ultimate  end  of 
 man  is  the  fruition  of  God  ;  and  that  though  •  it  does '  not 
 yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  yet  this  we  know,  that 
 when  he  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  him ;  for  we  shall 
 see  him  as  he  is  ?'  What  a  greater  incitement  to  purity 
 and  holiness,  to  love,  and  hope,  and  heavenly-minded- 
 ness,  than  the  assurance  given  in  the  gospel,  that  when 
 we  are  2  dissolved,  we  shall  immediately  be  with  Christ; 
 that  3  '  this  corruptible  shall  put  on  incorruption,  and  this 
 mortal  put  on  immortality ;'  that  our  souls,  when  they 
 go  hence,  return  to  God  that  gave  them,  and  our  bodies, 
 when  laid  in  the  dust,  after  a  short  repose,  are  to  be 
 raised  in  power,  and  4  '  fashioned  like  unto  Christ's 
 glorious  body?'  In  fine,  what  stronger  and  more  power- 
 ful motive  to  deter  us  from  vice,  and  allure  us  to  all 
 kind  of  virtue,  than  the  discovery  we  have  of  God's 
 having  '  appointed  a  day,  wherein  he  will  judge  the  world 
 in  righteousness,  5  and  render  unto  every  man  according 
 to  his  works;  to  them  who,  by  patient  continuance  in 
 well-doing,  seek  for  glory  and  honour,  and  immortality, 
 eternal  life;  but  unto  them  that  are  contentious,  and 
 obey  not  the  truth,  but  obey  unrighteousness,  indignation 
 and  wrath,  tribulation  and  anguish  upon  every  soul  of 
 man  that  doeth  evil.'  So  that  the  articles  of  our  Chris- 
 tian faith,  you  see,  are  far  from  being  arbitrary  imposi- 
 tions, 6  calculated  for  the  exercise  of  our  credulity,  or 
 the  gratification  of  our  idle  curiosity,  but  have  an  imme- 
 diate relation  to  practice.  They  are  indeed  the  genuine 
 principles  and  foundations  of  all  human  and  divine 
 virtues ;  and,  7  taken  altogether,  make  a  far  more 
 rational  and  consistent  scheme  of  belief,  than  what  the 
 wisest  ancient  philosopher  ever  thought  of,  or  the  most 
 opinionative  modern  unbeliever  ever  yet  contrived. 
 
 But  besides  these  doctrines,  there  are  two  ordinances 
 peculiar  to  the  Christian  religion,  which  have  an  equal 
 tendency  to  practice,  and  are  so  far  from  being  vain  and 
 superstitious, 8  as  some  are  pleased  to  call  them,  that 
 they  carry  their  own  plea  and  justification  along  with 
 them.  For  what  reasonable  man  can  pretend  to  say, 
 that  it  is  anywise  superstitious,  for  every  member  of  the 
 .society  which  Christ  has  instituted,  to  be  solemnly  ad- 
 mitted into  the  profession  of  his  religion  by  a  plain  and 
 significant  rite,  intitling  him  to  all  the  privileges,  and 
 charging  him  with  all  the  obligations  which  belong  to  the 
 members  of  that  society  as  such,  which  is  the  design  of 
 one  of  the  sacraments  ;  or  that  it  is  unreasonable,  or 
 superstitious,  for  men  frequently  to  commemorate,  with 
 all  due  thankfulness,  the  love  of  their  greatest  benefac- 
 tor, and  humbly  and  solemnly  to  renew  their  obligations 
 and  promises  of  obedience  to  him,  which  is  the  design  of 
 the  other  ?  But  then,  if  we  consider  further  the  manifold 
 benefits  which  we  receive  from  these  sacramental  ordi- 
 nances ;  that,  by  the  former,  we  are  admitted  to  the  par- 
 don of  all  our  sins,  the  assistance  of  divine  grace,  the 
 adoption  of  sons,  and  a  title  to  a  glorious  inheritance ; 
 and  that,  by  the  latter,  we  have  the  covenant  of  mercy 
 renewed,  our  breaches  repaired,  and  our  right  to  eternal 
 happiness  confirmed;  that,  in  both,  in  short,  we  are 
 made,  and  recognized  to  be,  the  children  of  God,  and  if 
 
 '  1  John  iii.  2.  »  Phil.  i.  23.  •  1  Cor.  xv.  54 
 
 4  niil    "'•  21.  *  Rom.  ii.  7,  &c. 
 
 ■  Archbishop  Sharpe'a  Sermons.  '  Clarke's  Evidence. 
 
 8  See  Christianity  as  old  as  the  Creation. 
 
 D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  1C— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 children,  then,  according  to  that  happy  climax,  are  we 
 heirs,  heirs  with  God,  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ,  to  the 
 intent  that  we  may  be  glorified  with  him  :  if  we  consider 
 these  great  privileges,  I  say,  we  shall  soon  perceive  the 
 wisdom  and  love  of  our  master,  and  only  Saviour,  in 
 thus  9  opening  to  us  a  fountain  for  sin,  and  for  unclean- 
 ness,  and  in  thus  giving  us  the  10  medicine  of  immortality, 
 as  the  ancients  style  the  eucharist,  an  antidote  to  pre- 
 serve men  from  dying,  and  to  give  them  a  life  that  is 
 everlasting. 
 
 But  whatever  inherent  efficacy  some  may  think  fit  to 
 ascribe  or  deny  to  these  sacred  ordinances,  it  can  hardly 
 be  thought  but  that,  since,  when  they  are  duly  observed, 
 they  are  productive  of  many  virtues  and  good  disposi- 
 tions ;  u  since,  in  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  we  profess 
 our  sincere  belief  in  the  truth  of  that  doctrine  which  God 
 the  Father  revealed  by  his  blessed  Son,  and  confirmed  by 
 the  miraculous  operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  in  it  we  de- 
 clare our  humble  acceptance  of  the  overtures  of  mercy 
 and  grace,  purchased  for  us  by  our  Saviour ,  and  in  this 
 sacrament  exhibited  to  us  ;  in  it  acknowledge  our  obli- 
 gations to  all  piety,  righteousness,  and  sobriety,  as  loyal 
 subjects,  faithful  servants,  and  dutiful  children  to  God  ; 
 and  in  it  devote  ourselves  to  the  faith  and  obedience  of 
 God  the  Father,  our  great  and  glorious  maker,  of  God 
 the  Son,  our  great  and  gracious  redeemer,  and  of  God 
 the  Holy  Ghost,  our  blessed  guide  and  comforter:  and, 
 in  like  manner,  since  a  devout  reception  of  the  supper 
 of  our  Lord  exercises  and  excites  in  us  an  awful  sense 
 of  mind,  answerable  to  the  greatness  and  holiness  of  him 
 whom  at  that  time  we  approach  ;  an  hearty  contrition  for 
 our  sins,  which  exposed  our  Saviour  to  such  pains  and 
 agonies  as  are  therein  remembered ;  a  fervent  love  and 
 gratitude  to  him,  for  his  wonderful  goodness  and  love  to 
 us  ;  a  deep  humility,  upon  the  sense  of  our  unworthiness 
 to  receive  such  testimonies  of  his  favour;  a  pious  joy,  in 
 consideration  of  the  excellent  fruits  accruing  to  us  from 
 his  performances  ;  a  comfortable  hope  of  obtaining  the 
 benefits  of  his  passion,  by  the  assistance  of  his  grace ; 
 and,  lastly,  an  enlarged  good-will  and  charity  to  all  our 
 brethren,  as  being  made  heirs  of  the  same  hope,  and  not 
 only  washed  in  the  same  baptism,  but  fed  at  the  same 
 table  with  ourselves :  since  these,  I  say,  are  the  graces 
 and  benefits  which  accrue  to  us  by  these  holy  ordinances, 
 we  cannot  but  applaud  the  wisdom  of  their  institution, 
 which  affords  such  mighty  helps  to  our  Christian  pro- 
 gress, and,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  are  the  happy  instru- 
 ments both  of  our  living  well,  and  of  our  living  for  ever. 
 From  this  brief  review  of  the  Christian  religion,  it  ap- 
 pears, that  the  purity  and  practicableness  of  its  precepts, 
 the  truth  and  sublimity  of  its  doctrines,  and  the  wisdom 
 and  piety  of  its  sacramental  institutions,  cannot  but  re- 
 commend it  to  every  man's  conscience,  that  is  neither 
 bribed  with  vice,  or  tinctured  with  infidelity  ;  for  J2  if  our 
 gospel  'be  hid,'  if  the  beauty  and  excellency  of  our  holy 
 religion  be  hid,  '  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost,  in  whom 
 the  God  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them 
 who  believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  of 
 Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should  shine  into  them. 
 13  And  now,  methinks,  we  may,  with  some  confidence, 
 challenge  any  religion  in  the  world,  to  show  us  such 
 
 8  Zech.  xiii.  1.  1"  I  gnat.  Epist.  ad  Eph. 
 
 11  Barrow  on  the  Sacraments.  l8  2  Cor.  iv.  3,  4. 
 
 13  Tillotson's  Sermons,  in  folio,  vol.  i. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1053 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARK  xi.  15— END.  LUKE  xix.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19—  END. 
 a  complete  body  and  collection  of  doctrines,  both  spe- 
 culative and  practical ;  of  mysteries  more  sublime,  and 
 rational  withal,  more  agreeable  to  the  divine  nature,  and 
 more  perfective  of  human  understanding  ;  and  of  rules 
 and  precepts  that  would  make  men  more  pious  and  de- 
 vout, more  holy  and  sober,  more  just  and  fair  in  their 
 dealings,  better  friends  and  better  neighbours,  better 
 magistrates,  better  subjects,  and  better  in  all  relations, 
 than  what  we  find  recorded  in  the  gospel. 
 
 AVere  there  no  other  argument  of  the  divinity  of  the 
 Christian  religion,  but  only  the  excellency  of  the  doc- 
 trines which  it  teaches,  this  would  be  enough  to  convince 
 any  considering  man,  that  it  came  from  God.  '  For,  if 
 it  were  nothing  else  but  the  result  of  natural  reasoning, 
 why  should  not  other  religions  in  the  world,  and  other 
 systems  of  morality,  be  as  good  as  this  ?  How  comes  the 
 doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ  to  excel  those  of  all  the  famous 
 legislators  and  philosophers  in  the  world  ?  How  comes 
 an  obscure  person  in  Judea  to  draw  up  such  an  admir- 
 able scheme  of  ethics,  that  whatever  is  laid  down  by  the 
 Lycurguses,  and  Numas,  and  Platos,  and  Aristotles, 
 should  not  be  comparable  to  it  ?  How  should  he,  in 
 one  or  two  years  preaching,  nay,  in  one  short  sermon, 
 advance  the  practical  doctrines  to  a  greater  height  and 
 perfection  than  ever  they  were  brought  to  by  any  of  the 
 sects  of  philosophers,  who  had  made  it  their  business  to 
 study  them  for  some  ages  ?  Most  certainly  unless  God 
 had  been  assisting  in  contriving  this  new  model  of  the 
 morality  of  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  impossible  that  it  could 
 ever  have  equalled,  much  less  so  far  exceeded  that  of 
 the  Grecian  schools,  which  had  all  the  human  advantages 
 that  he  wanted  on  their  side. 
 
 It  cannot  be  denied  indeed,  but  that,  almost  in  every 
 age  there  have  been,  in  the  heathen  world,  some  wise, 
 brave,  and  good  men,  who  have  carried  human  reason 
 to  a  great  height ;  and  in  the  study  and  disquisition  of 
 natural  religion,  have  made  no  mean  discoveries ;  but 
 then  there  is  room  to  suspect,  that  their  discoveries 
 of  this  kind  were  not  so  much  owing  to  the  strength  and 
 sagacity  of  their  own  reason,  as  to  the  traditions  they 
 might  receive  from  their  ancestors,  or  the  conversation 
 they  might  have  with  the  Hebrews,  who  had  all  their  in- 
 struction from  revelation. 
 
 That  there  were  certain  principles  delivered  by  God 
 to  Noah,  and  by  him  propagated  among  his  posterity, 
 through  all  ages  and  nations,  is  what  we  may  easily  con- 
 ceive ;  and  thence  we  may  suppose,  that  many  points 
 which  seem  now  to  be  deductions  from  natural  reason, 
 might  have  their  original  from  revelation,  because  things, 
 once  discovered,  may  seem  easy  and  obvious  to  men, 
 which  they,  notwithstanding,  would  never  of  themselves 
 have  been  able  to  find  out. 
 
 However,  this  be,  it  is  certain,  tha',  as  the  ancient 
 philosophers  might  borrow  many  helps  from  their  know- 
 ledge of  the  Jewish  religion,  which  was  the  only  revela- 
 tion then  pretended  to  ;  so,  8  whoever  compares  the 
 writings  of  later  philosophers,  of  Epictetus,  Antoninus, 
 and  some  others,  who  lived  since  the  gospel  got  foot- 
 ing in  the  world,  with  theirs  who  went  before  them,  will 
 find  so  manifest  a  difference,  so  much  more  unaffected 
 solidity,  and  so  near  a  resemblance  to  some  of  the  most 
 exalted  Christian  precepts  as  cannot  well  be  accounted 
 
 '  Nichols's  conference  with  the  Theist,  vol.  ii.  part  1. 
 
 8  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
 for,  without  supposing  some  acquaintance  with  a  set  of 
 principles,  which  they  could  not  but  approve  and  ad- 
 mire, and  affected  to  ingraft  into  their  own  systems  of 
 morality,  though  they  never  expressly  avowed  the  author- 
 ity on  which  they  stand.  These  were  great  helps ;  and 
 it  is  no  wonder,  that  under  the  influence  of  these  they 
 wrote  so  well.  But  if  we  look  into  the  tracts  of  those 
 that  went  before  them,  and  were  unassisted  by  revelation, 
 we  shall  find  them  miserably  ignorant  of  many  important 
 points  that  are  delivered  to  us  with  the  greatest  perspicuity. 
 
 They  were  ignorant,  as  we  had  occasion  to  show  3 
 before,  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  and  the  origin  of 
 mankind ;  ignorant  of  the  rise  of  evil,  or  the  cause  of 
 human  depravation  ;  ignorant  of  any  form  of  worship 
 that  might  be  acceptable  to  God,  and  of  any  way  to 
 appease  his  displeasure ;  and  quite  ignorant  of  the 
 method  which  he,  in  his  eternal  counsel,  had  ordained 
 for  the  recovery  of  lost  man,  without  any  infraction  upon 
 his  attributes.  They  had  but  confused  notions  of  the 
 nature  of  the  supreme  being,  and  talked  very  inconsis- 
 tently of  the  summum  bonum,  or  ultimate  felicity  of  man. 
 They  taught  but  little  of  God's  exceeding  love  towards 
 us,  and  desire  of  our  happiness  ;  and  were  entirely  silent 
 as  to  the  divine  grace  and  assistance  towards  our  at- 
 tainment of  virtue,  and  perseverance  in  it.  The  im- 
 mortality of  the  soul  was  to  them  a  moot  point ;  the  cer- 
 tainty of  a  future  state  they  were  not  well  agreed  in  ; 
 and,  as  for  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  this,  4  in  their 
 very  seats  of  learning,  was  thought  a  doctrine  highly  ab- 
 surd and  ridiculous.  So  doubtful,  so  ignorant  were  they 
 in  these  main  and  fundamental  points,  which  are  the 
 great  restraints  of  our  inordinate  appetites  ;  and  there- 
 fore no  wonder,  if, 5  having  their  understanding  darkened, 
 as  the  apostle  describes  them,  and  being  alienated  from 
 the  life  of  God  through  the  ignorance  that  was  in  them, 
 they  gave  themselves  up  unto  lasciviousness,  and  to  work 
 all  uncleanness  with  greediness. 
 
 Nay,  well  had  it  been,  had  they  confined  their  lewd- 
 ness and  debauchery  within  private  walls  ;  but  the  mis- 
 fortune was,  that  they  entered  their  temples,  and  made 
 no  small  part  of  their  religious  worship.  a  They  deified 
 the  worst  of  men,  a  drunken  Bacchus,  an  effeminate 
 Ganymede,  a  Romulus  unnatural  to  his  brother,  a  Jupiter 
 as  unnatural  to  his  father.  6  They  paid  adoration,  not 
 only  to  the  ghosts  of  such  as  these,  but  to  birds,  and  beasts, 
 and  creeping  things,  and  even  to  the  devil  himself,  under 
 images    of  such   hideous   forms    and    shapes,  as    were 
 
 s  See  Cave's  Apparatus  the  first,  p.  18.  et  seq. 
 4  Acts  xvii.  5  Eph.  iv.  18,  19. 
 
 6  Jenkins's  Reasonableness  of  the  Christian  religion,  vol.  i. 
 
 a  Can  any  thing  be  so  stupid,  as  to  load  the  divine  nature 
 with  so  many  crimes  and  imperfections  as  the  heathen  theology 
 does;  to  make  one  God,  and  that  the  supreme  God  too,  an 
 adulterer,  and  another  a  pimp;  one  goddess  a  scold,  and  another 
 a  whore ;  to  stock  heaven  with  strumpets  and  sodomites,  and 
 drunkards,  and  bastards;  to  make  their  deities  fighting  and 
 quarrelling,  dissembling  and  lying;  to  be  lame,  and  blind,  and 
 old,  and  wounded  ?  Can  any  thing  be  more  foolish,  than  the 
 stories  of  their  theogony:  of  their  gods,  not  only  begetting 
 children  like  men,  but  eating  them  like  cannibals;  their  battles 
 with  Titans  and  giants,  and  their  running  out  of  heaven  for 
 security  upon  earth  ?  What  wretched  silly  sturl"  is  the  history 
 of  their  demi-gods  or  heroes,  of  Perseus,  Theseus,  Orpheus,  and 
 all  the  other  contradictious  tales  which  we  read  of  in  Ovid's 
 Metamorphoses,  which  is  nothing  else  but  a  compendium  of 
 the  heatheu  divinity. —  Nichols's  conference  with  the  Theist, 
 vol.  ii.  part  4. 
 
1054  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE,  [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10— END.  MARKxi.  15— END.  LUKE  six.  45— END.  JOHN  xii.  19— END. 
 
 frightful  to  behold.  Nay,  and  in  the  worship  of  him, 
 they  made  their  altars  smoke  with  the  blood  of  human 
 sacrifices,  of  their  sons  and  their  daughters,  and  that  in 
 some  places,  every  day,  and  upon  extraordinary  emer- 
 gencies, even  as  it  is  the  practice  of  some  Pagan  coun- 
 tries at  this  very  time,  in  whole  hecatombs.  So  blinded 
 were  the  eyes  of  their  understanding,  and  so  hardened 
 their  hearts,  against  all  tender  impressions,  by  the  de- 
 ceitfulnes  of  sin,  and  the  infatuation  of  the  devil. 
 
 Men  may  talk  of  the  natural  light  and  power  of  rea- 
 son as  long-  as  they  please  ;  and  the  topic  perhaps  is 
 well  enough  for  popular  eloquence  to  flourish  upon ;  but 
 when  we  appeal  to  experience,  we  shall  soon  find  it 
 empty  boast,  and  pompous  harangue.  If  ever  there  was 
 a  time  when  human  reason  might  be  a  guide  in  matters  of 
 religion,1  it  was  when  our  Saviour  came  into  the  world, 
 or  some  time  before  ;  when  knowledge  of  all  kinds,  and 
 particularly  the  study  of  philosophy,  was  cultivated  and 
 improved  with  the  greatest  application,  by  the  ablest 
 hands  ;  and  yet  it  is  hardly  possible  to  read  the  first 
 chapter  of  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  without  amaze- 
 ment, and  many  mortifying  reflections,  to  find  rational 
 creatures  capable  of  so  wretched  a  degeneracy,  as  to 
 verify  the  apostle's  description  of  them,  when  he  tells  us, 
 that  they2  '  were  filled  with  unrighteousness,  fornication, 
 wickedness,  covetousness,  maliciousness;  were  full  of 
 envy,  murder,  debate,  deceit,  malignity ;  were  whisperers, 
 backbiters,  haters  of  God,  despiteful,  proud,  boasters, 
 inventors  of  evil  things;  were  disobedient  to  parents, 
 without  understanding,  covenant-breakers, without  natural 
 affection,  implacable,  unmerciful,  and  (what  is  worse  still) 
 not  only  did  these  things  themselves,  but  took  pleasure 
 likewise  in  those  that  did  them. 
 
 In  this  light  it  is  that  the  apostle  represents  the  state 
 of  the  heathen  world,  while  it  was  under  the  guidance 
 of  unassisted  reason  :  and  if  our  reason  seems  to  guide 
 us  any  better  now;  if  it  rejects  those  detestable  deeds 
 of  darkness,  and  impious  modes  of  worship,  which  it 
 once  reverenced  and  embraced,  it  is  not  because  its 
 faculties  are  in  themselves  any  clearer  or  stronger  than 
 they  were,  but  because  it  has  submitted  its  weakness  and 
 ignorance,  its  pride  and  passions,  to  the  light  and 
 authority  of  the  Christian  revelation.3  Take  but  away 
 the  direction  and  restraint  of  this  authority,  and  it  Avill 
 ad  just  as  it  did,  and  relapse  into  the  same  extrava- 
 gances, the  same  impiety,  the  same  folly  and  supersti- 
 tion, that  prevailed  on  it  before. 
 
 And  if  the  pagan  religion,  when  supported  with  the 
 highest  improvements  of  human  understanding,  fell  so 
 far  short  of  being  a  rational  service,  what  shall  we  say 
 to  the  Mahometan,  which  envelops  itself  in  ignorance 
 and  makes  its  main  foundation  the  gratification  of  men's 
 brutal  lusts  and  appetites?  One  would  really  wonder 
 how  so  corrupt  an  institution  came  to  spread  so  wide  in 
 the  world,  but  that  there  was  a  concurrence  of  circum- 
 stances, at  that  time,  which  did  not  a  little  contribute  to 
 its  propagation. 
 
 4  When  Constantine  and  his  followers  had  made  the 
 profession  of  the  Christian  religion  not  only  safe  but 
 honourable,  bishops  grew  ambitious,  and  minded  nothing 
 so  much  as  their  advancement  to  the  best  preferments. 
 
 1  Bishop  of  London's  second  Pastoral  Letter.     2  Rom.  i.  29,  &c. 
 
 3  Rogers's  Necessity  of  Divine  Revelation. 
 
 4  Grotius  Do  verit.  b.  6. 
 
 Schisms  and  heresies  over-ran  the  church ;  rites  and 
 ceremonies  were  more  esteemed  than  purity  of  heart ; 
 and  a  general  corruption  infected  both  clergy  and  laity 
 alike.  This  juncture  God  in  his  just  judgment  permitted 
 Mahomet  to  lay  hold  on,  to  set  up  a  new  religion,5  which 
 being  a  kind  of  medley,  made  up  of  Judaism,  the  several 
 heresies  then  in  the  east,  and  the  old  Pagan  rites  of  the 
 Arabs,  with  an  indulgence  to  all  sensual  delights,  and 
 the  enforcement  of  secular  power  and  violence,  did  too 
 well  answer  his  design  in  drawing  or  forcing  men  of  all 
 sorts  to  the  profession  of  it ;  insomuch  that  it  soon  gave 
 birth  to  an  empire,  which,  in  eighty  years'  time,  extended 
 its  dominions  over  more  kingdoms  and  countries  than 
 ever  the  Roman  could  in  eight  hundred.  And  although  it 
 continued  in  its  strength  not  above  three  hundred  years, 
 yet  out  of  its  ashes  have  sprung  up  many  other  kingdoms 
 and  empires,  of  which  there  are  three  at  this  day,  the 
 largest  and  most  potent  upon  the  face  of  the  earth, 
 namely,  the  empire  of  Turkey,  the  empire  of  Persia,  and 
 the  empire  of  the  Mogul  in  India,  which  God,  in  his  all- 
 wise  providence,  has  permitted  still  to  continue,  for  a 
 scourge  unto  us  Christians,  who,  having  received  so  holy 
 and  so  excellent  a  religion  through  his  mercy  to  us,  in 
 Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  will  not  yet  conform  ourselves  to 
 live  worthy  of  it.  a 
 
 This  we  must  observe,  however,  that  God  does  not 
 always  approve  those  actions  and  designs,  which,  to  de- 
 monstrate the  wisdom  of  his  providence,  he  is  sometimes 
 pleased  to  permit  and  prosper;  that  a  religion  propa- 
 gated by  force,  and  supported  by  the  methods  of  exter- 
 nal strength,  is  so  far  destitute  of  any  proof,  that  its 
 original  is  from  heaven  ;  and  that,  when  it  contains  such 
 doctrines  as  are  repugnant  to  the  dictates  of  right  reason, 
 or  the  known  properties  and  attributes  of  God,  it  can  be 
 the  product  of  nothing  else  but  human  invention. 
 
 6  When  therefore,  we  find  Mahoment  establishing  his 
 religion  by  the  dint  of  the  sword,  persecuting  with  war  all 
 that  would  not  submit  to  it,  and  threatening-  with  no  less 
 than  death  all  that  pretended  to  dispute  the  least  article 
 of  it ; 7  whereas  the  Christian,  quite  otherwise,  was  planted 
 in  weakness  and  disgrace,  in  tears,  and  prayers,  and 
 patience,  and  watered  with  the  blood  of  many  thousands 
 of  its  professors  :  when  we  find  him  allowing  of  forni- 
 cation, justifying  adultery,  and  talking  of  war,  rapine, 
 and  slaughter,  as  things  enjoined  and  commanded  by 
 Almighty  God  ;  whereas  what  we  have  learned  from 
 Christ  and  his  apostles  is,8  '  possess  every  one  his  vessel 
 in  sanctification  and  honour  ;  not  in  the  lust  of  concupi- 
 scence ;  to  live  peaceably  with  all  men  ;'  and,  instead  of 
 invading-  any  other's  property,  9  '  to  take  joyfully  the 
 spoiling  of  our  goods,  knowing  that  in  heaven  we  have 
 a  better  and  enduring  substance  :'  when  we  find  him,  the 
 better  to  allure  his  followers,  telling  them I0  of  pleasant 
 
 5  Piideaux's  Life  of  Mahomet.  6  Ibid. 
 
 7  Stanhope's  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures.  9  1  Thes.  iv.  4,  5. 
 
 9  Heb.  x.  34.  10  Piideaux's  Life  of  Mahomet. 
 
 a  Since  the  period  at  which  our  author  wrote,  the  extent  and 
 power  oi  these  empires  have  been  greatly  diminished  ;  whilst 
 that  of  the  Mogul  has  been  in  fact  annihilated.  But  we  lately 
 saw  another  power,  founded  in  atheism,  spread  its  dominion,  un- 
 doubtedly for  the  same  purpose,  over  almost  all  the  Christian  states 
 of  Europe.  It  too  hath  been  overturned ;  but  whether  Christians 
 have  really  profited  by  the  severe  chastisement  which  they  re- 
 ceived, can  be  ascertained  only  by  their  conduct  during  the 
 peace  of  the  world,  which  has  not  yet  been  of  very  long  duration. 
 
Sect.  IV.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1055 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHN.  xii.  19-END. 
 
 gardens,  curious  fountains,  delicate  beds,  and  beautilul 
 women  with  black  eyes  and  fair  complexions,  in  paradise, 
 with  whom  they  shall  enjoy  continual  pleasures  and 
 solace  themselves  with  amorous  delights  to  all  eternity  ; 
 
 whereas  we  are  told,  that  in  the  resurrection  we l  neither 
 '  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels 
 of  God  in  heaven,'  where  we  shall  come  to  company  suit- 
 aide  to  our  glorified  natures, 8  to  the  general  assembly  and 
 church  of  the  '  iirst  born,  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made 
 perfect,  to  an  innumerable  company  of  angels,  to  God 
 the  judge  of  all,  and  to  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  new 
 covenant:"  when  we  compare  these  things  together,  I 
 say,  we  shall  bud  the  one  abhorrent  to  the  nature  of  God, 
 injurious  to  the  dignity  of  mankind,  and  a  contradiction 
 to  that  eternal  law  of  righteousness  which  is  written  in 
 every  one's  breast;  but  the  other  agreeable  to  the 
 notions  we  have  of  the  supreme  being,  and  consonant  to 
 the  rational  dictates  of  our  nature. 
 
 If  we  proceed  to  compare  the  transactions  of  Christ's 
 life  with  those  that  are  related  of  Mahomet;  how  our 
 blessed  3  Saviour  went  about  doing  good,  healing  all 
 manner  of  sickness  and  of  disease  among  the  people, 
 giving  sight  to  the  blind,  and  feet  to  the  lame,  and  life 
 to  the  dead ;  how  the  miracles  which  he  wrought  were 
 solemn  and  grave,  acts  of  his  love  to  mankind,  and  de- 
 monstrations of  his  omnipotence ;  and  *  how  those  who 
 embraced  his  religion,  in  virtue  of  those  miracles,  were 
 men  of  innocence  and  simplicity,  who  lived  good  lives, 
 and  feared  God,  and  were  therefore  under  the  divine  pro- 
 tection, secured  from  the  deceivableness  of  error ;  whereas 
 the  followers  of  Mahomet  were  a  gang  of  robbers  and 
 plunderers,  void  of  all  piety,  and  all  humanity;  himself 
 a  bold  ambitious  man,  greedy  of  empire,  and  resolved 
 to  raise  himself  even  at  the  destruction  of  his  fellow- 
 creatures  ;  and  the  miracles  reported  of  him,  such  as  5 
 his  cleaving  the  moon  in  two,  the  trees  going  out  to 
 meet  him,  the  stones  saluting  him,  the  camel  and  the 
 shoulder  of  mutton  speaking  to  him,  and  his  wonderful 
 journey  to  heaven,  with  all  the  strange  sights  he  there 
 beheld,  are,  to  the  highest  degree,  absurd  a  and  ridicu- 
 lous :  if  we  compare  these  things  together,  I  say,  we 
 shall  soon  perceive  in  whom  the  characters  of  a  true 
 prophet  meet,  and  who  is  to  be  deemed  the  wicked  im- 
 postor ;  whose  religion  was  intended  to  civilize  and 
 sanctify  human  nature,  and  consequently  is  the  gift  of 
 God ;  and  whose  calculated  to  gratify  the  cruel  and 
 carnal  appetites  of  rude  barbarians,  and  consequently  is 
 the  forgery  of  man. 
 
 The  Jewish  religion  indeed  derived  its  origin  from 
 
 1  Mat.  xxii.  30.         2  Heb.  xii.  23,  24.  s  Mat.  iv.  24. 
 
 4  Grotius  de  Verit.  5  Prideaux's  life  of  Mahomet. 
 
 a  What  strange  stuff  do  we  find  in  the  Alcoran  about  the  an- 
 gel of  death,  whose  head  is  so  big,  that  from  one  eye  to  another 
 is  a  journey  of  a  thousand  and  seventy  days ;  of  the  angels  in  the 
 sixth  heaven,  one  of  which  has  seventy  thousand  heads,  and  as 
 many  tongues:  of  the  cow  supporting  the  earth,  which  lias  four 
 hundred  horns,  and,  from  one  horn  to  another,  is  a  journey  of  a 
 thousand  years ;  of  the  angels  which  support  the  throne  of  God, 
 and  have  heads  so  big,  that  a  bird  cannot  fly  from  one  ear  to 
 another;  of  the  key  of  the  treasury  of  one  of  Moses's  subjects, 
 which  was  so  heavy,  that  it  weighed  down  a  camel;  and  of  the 
 wives  and  dillerent  shapes  of  angels,  some  of  which  are  like 
 men,  others  like  horses,  bulls,  and  cocks,  &c.  with  many  more 
 nonsensical  absurdities  of  the  like  nature!— Nicholas  Conference 
 with  the  Theist,  vol.  ii.  part  iv. 
 
 heaven,  and  Moses  seems  to  glory  in  the  excellency  of 
 its  institutes,  when  he  asks  the  people, ti  '  what  nation  is 
 there  so  great,  that  has  statutes  and  judgments  so 
 righteous  as  all  this  law  which  I  set  before  you  this  day  ?' 
 and  yet,  if  we  were  to  descend  to  an  examination,  we 
 should  soon  perceive,  in  many  great  discoveries,  the 
 pre-eminence  of  the  gospel  above  the  law. 
 
 7  1.  That  there  is  a  God,  and  that  there  is  but  one 
 God;  that  the  only  one  God  is  incorporeal,  invisible, 
 immortal,  eternal,  omnipotent,  omniscient,  of  infinite 
 justice,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  the  maker  of  heaven  and 
 earth,  the  supreme  governor  of  the  world,  and  of  all 
 things  therein,  and  a  gracious  rewarder  of  those  that 
 seek  him,  is  absolutely  necessary  to  be  known  by  all 
 who  would  attain  eternal  life;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted, 
 but  that  the  faithful,  from  the  beginning,  had  this  know- 
 ledge of  God ;  but  then,  before  the  coming  of  Christ, 
 they  had  not  so  certain,  so  clear,  and  so  distinct  a  know- 
 ledge of  these  things,  as  we  have  now  under  the  gospel. 
 For,  over  and  above  the  knowledge  of  these  things, 
 which  the  pious,  before  Moses,  had  either  from  a  serious 
 contemplation  of  the  works  of  God,  or  from  the  tradition 
 and  instruction  of  the  patriarchs,  and  which  the  Jews,  in 
 succeeding  ages,  had  from  the  writings  of  Moses  and  the 
 prophets ;  we,  Christians,  have  a  more  clear,  more  dis- 
 tinct, and  evident  manifestation  thereof  from  the  books 
 of  the  evangelists  and  apostles. 
 
 The  faithful,  under  the  Jewish  dispensation,  did, 
 without  doubt,  believe  God  to  be  an  invisible  and  omni- 
 present spirit ;  and  yet  his  frequent  appearances,  some- 
 times under  one  resemblance,  and  sometimes  under 
 another,  the  building  of  an  ark,  a  tabernacle,  and  temple, 
 whither  he  was  pleased  to  call  his  people  together  into 
 his  immediate  presence,  and  to  talk  with  them,  as  Moses  s 
 expresses  it,  face  to  face,  must  necessarily  turn  their  eyes 
 and  minds  towards  the  mercy  seat;  make  them  appre- 
 hend God  shut  up,  as  it  were,  within  the  holy  of  holies, 
 and  consequently  perplex  and  obscure  their  notions  of 
 his  spirituality  and  omnipresence  :  whereas  there  is  no 
 room  now,  under  the  gospel,  for  any  gross  conceptions 
 of  the  Deity,  when  we  are  called  upon,  not  to  turn  our 
 eyes  towards  a  visible  tabernacle,  but 9  '  to  pray  every 
 where,'  in  any  place,  '  lifting  up  holy  hands;'  and  are 
 taught  by  Christ, 1U  that '  God  is  a  spirit,'  and  that  '  they 
 who  worship  him,  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.' 
 
 The  believers  under  the  law  were  persuaded,  that  all 
 things  were  ordered  and  governed  by  an  all-wise  and 
 all-powerful  being  ;  and  yet  the  most  sagacious  of  them 
 were  not  able  to  account  for  the  justice  of  divine  pro- 
 vidence, in  suffering  the  wicked  to  prosper,  and  the 
 righteous  to  be  afflicted.  But  now  this  difticulty  every 
 common  Christian  is  able  to  solve,  by  the  help  of  what 
 he  has  learned  from  the  gospel  concerning  the  retribu- 
 tions of  a  future  state ;  and  can  apply  to  all  such  cases 
 the  reflection  made  by  Abraham,  on  the  rich  man's  de- 
 sire of  some  relief  from  Lazarus,  u  '  son,  remember  that 
 thou,  in  thy  lifetime,  receivedst  thy  good  things,  and 
 likewise  Lazarus  evil  things;  but  now  he  is  comforted, 
 and  thou  art  tormented.' 
 
 2.  The  nature  and  obliquity  of  sin  is  what  men,  in  all 
 ages,  could  not  but  perceive  ;  but  how  to  account  for  its 
 
 6  Dent.  iv.  8. 
 9  1  Tim.  ii.  S. 
 
 '  Smallridgc's  Sermon.       8  Deut.  v.  4. 
 10  John  iv.  24.  «  Luke  xvi.  25. 
 
1056 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4087.  A-  D.  33  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  MAT.  xx.  10-END.  MARK  xi.  15-END.  LUKE  xix.  45-END.  JOHNxii.  19-END. 
 
 cause  and  origin,  they  were  at  a  strange  loss  :  and  there- 
 fore some  imagined  a  pre-existent  state,  from  whence 
 they  brought  depravity  along  with  them;  while  others 
 devised  two  contrary  principles,  equally  actuating  the 
 world,  the  one  the  author  of  all  the  good,  and  the  other 
 of  all  the  evil  they  did.  '  '  The  wickedness  of  man,'  as 
 Moses  tells  us,  *  was  great  in  the  earth,  and  every  ima- 
 gination of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  evil  continually;' 
 but  whether  these  expressions  are  to  be  extended  to  the 
 whole  race  of  mankind,  and  so  are  a  proof  of  the  general 
 depravation,  has  been  doubted  by  some :  whereas  all 
 such  doubts  must  now  be  silenced  by  the  plain  assertions 
 in  the  New  Testament,  that 2  '  by  one  man  sin  entered 
 into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin,  so  that  3  by  the  offence 
 of  one,  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation ;' 
 that  all  who  are  of  the  race  of  mankind,  are  sinners, 
 ungodly,  enemies  of  God,  children  of  the  devil,  and  by4 
 nature  the  children  of  wrath  ;  that 5  when  they  would  do 
 good,  evil  is  present  with  them,  having  a  law  in  their 
 members  warring  against  the  law  of  their  mind,  and 
 bringing  them  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  ;  and  that 
 this  is  the  state  of  depraved  nature,  wherein  men  are 
 born,  and  wherein  those  that  live  and  die  shall  6  '  be 
 punished  with  everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence 
 of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  his  power.' 
 
 3.  And  as  the  gospel  gives  us  a  more  distinct  account 
 of  the  origin  and  demerit  of  sin,  so  does  it  furnish  us 
 with  a  clearer  discovery  of  the  method  whereby  the  guilt 
 of  it  is  atoned.  Those  who  lived  under  the  Mosaic  dis- 
 pensation, were  saved  by  the  same  means  of  redemption, 
 as  we  who  live  under  the  evangelical ;  but  the  mystery 
 of  our  common  redemption  was  not,  in  any  degree,  so 
 fully  manifested  to  them  as  it  is  to  us :  and  hence  it  is, 
 that  the  apostle  compares  the  writings  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment to  a  7  light,  or,  as  the  original  is,  to  a  candle 
 shining  in  a  dark  place ;  but  the  revelation  which  was 
 made  by  Christ  in  the  gospel,  to  the  day-dawn,  and  the 
 day-star  arising  in  our  hearts.  The  revelation  made  to 
 the  Jews  was  to  them  a  light,  but  a  faint  one  ;  it  shone, 
 but  in  a  dark  place.  The  nativity,  life,  and  death  of 
 Christ,  the  several  offices  of  his  mediatorship,  the  re- 
 mission of  our  sins  through  his  blood,  the  sanctification 
 of  our  hearts  by  his  Spirit,  and  the  glories  of  the  world 
 to  come,  were  taught  them,  not  in  words  at  length  but 
 in  figures,  and  a  dark  veil  was  over  the  writings  as  well 
 as  over  8  the  face  of  Moses,  so  that  the  children  of  Israel 
 could  not  stedfastly  behold  his  doctrine,  any  more  than 
 they  could  his  countenance.  In  a  word,  9  they  were 
 saved,  as  well  as  we,  by  the  blood  of  Christ ;  but  there 
 was  as  great  a  difference  between  their  knowledge  of  the 
 mystery  of  our  redemption  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  death 
 of  Christ,  and  ours,  as  there  was  between  that  dark 
 cloud  wherewith  God  led  the  people  at  one  time,  and 
 that  pillar  of  light  wherewith  he  guided  them  at  another. 
 4.  And  as  the  gospel  gives  us  clearer  notions  of  the 
 expiation  of  sin,  so  does  it  exhibit  a  fuller  assurance  of 
 our  being  justified,  or  having  our  sins  pardoned  thereby. 
 Religious  persons,  who  lived  before  the  coming  of  Christ, 
 knew  that  they  were  sinners,  and  that  they  therefore  had 
 need  of  the  mercy  and  favour  of  God,  for  the  remission 
 
 1  Gen.  vi.  5.       2  Rom.  v.  21.     3  Ibid 
 5  Rom.  vii.  21,  23. 
 •  2  Pe.  i.  19.        8  2  Cor.  iii.  7. 
 
 ver.  18.      4  Eph.  ii.  3. 
 
 6  2  Thess.  i.  9. 
 9  Smallridge's  Sermons. 
 
 of  their  sins  ;  but  then,  being  not  sufficiently  instructed 
 in  the  method  of  obtaining  God's  favour,  they  could  not 
 but  groan  sorely  under  the  weight  of  them.  Severe 
 curses  were  denounced  in  the  law  against  all  who  should, 
 in  any  case,  transgress  it ;  these  curses  were  plain,  and 
 easy  to  be  understood ;  but  the  promises  of  a  pardon, 
 through  the  merits  of  a  Saviour,  were  more  intricate  and 
 involved.  When  therefore  the  danger  which  threatened 
 them  was  so  apparent,  and  the  methods  of  their  escape 
 so  obscurely  notified  to  them,  it  is  no  wonder  if  their 
 fears  did  very  much  overbalance  their  hopes.  Hence  it 
 is,  that  the  spirit  by  which  they  were  governed,  is  in  the 
 gospel  represented  as  a  spirit  of  bondage  ;  but  the  spirit 
 by  which  we  Christians  are  influenced,  is  a  spirit  of 
 adoption :  1U  '  ye  have  not  now,'  says  the  apOstle,  '  re- 
 ceived the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear  ;  but  ye  have 
 received  the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba, 
 Father ;'  that  is,  whereby  we  are  as  well  assured  of  the 
 love  of  God,  as  a  child  is  sure  of  the  affection  of  an  in- 
 dulgent father  ;  as  surely  entitled  to  the  joys  of  heaven, 
 as  an  adopted  son  is  to  the  inheritance  of  him  who  there- 
 fore adopted  him,  that  he  might  make  him  his  heir  ;  for, 
 as  the  apostle  goes  on  to  display  the  privileges  of  the 
 Christian  dispensation,  '  the  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness 
 with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of  God  ;  and  if 
 children,  then  heirs,  heirs  with  God,  and  joint-heirs  with 
 Christ.' 
 
 5.  And  as  the  assurances  given  us  of  this  inheritance 
 are  greater,  so,  lastly,  is  the  inheritance  itself  much  more 
 plainly  revealed  to  us  in  the  gospel,  than  ever  it  was  be- 
 fore. Whatever  could  be  learned  of  a  future  state  from 
 the  light  of  reason,  that,  and  much  more,  was  known  to 
 the  Jews ;  what,  by  reason  and  by  revelation,  was  made 
 known  to  the  Jews  concerning  an  immortal  life,  that, 
 and  much  more,  is  manifested  to  us  Christians.  The 
 texts  in  which  a  future  state  is  revealed  to  the  Jews,  are 
 few,  and  here  and  there  thinly  scattered  in  some  parti- 
 cular books  of  the  Old  Testament ;  but  there  is  no  one 
 book,  scarce  one  chapter,  in  which  this  doctrine  is  not 
 taught  in  the  New.  Those  in  the  Old  Testament  are  not 
 so  clear  of  ambiguity,  but  that  they  are  capable  of 
 another  interpretation ;  those  in  the  New  are  so  plain 
 and  perspicuous,  that  there  is  no  room  for  the  most  ig- 
 norant to  misapprehend,  or  the  most  impious  to  pervert 
 them:  and  therefore  it  is  with  great  justice  that  the 
 author  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  who  himself  was 
 excellently  versed  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Jewish  law, 
 hath  observed,  that  n  '  the  law  had  only  the  shadow  of 
 good  things  to  come,  but  not  the  very  image  of  the 
 things ;'  that  is,  it  did  but  obscurely  and  faintly  typify 
 the  glories  of  heaven  ;  not  give  us  so  bright  an  image, 
 and  so  lively  a  representation  of  the  rewards  of  another 
 world,  as  is  pictured  out  to  us,  and,  in  all  its  full  pro- 
 portion and  lineaments,  accurately  described  in  the 
 gospel. 
 
 12  Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  it  appears  how  incom 
 parably  happy  we  Christians  are  under  the  gospel,  above 
 what  the  Jews  were  in  the  time  of  the  law;  God  having 
 placed  us  under  the  best  of  dispensations,  under  the 
 clearest  discoveries  and  revelations,  and  given  us  the 
 most  noble,  rational,  and  masculine  religion  ;  a  religion 
 
 10  Rom.  viii.  15,  &c.  ll  Heb.  x.  1. 
 
 12  Cave,  in  his  Apparatus  to  the  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1057 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5444.  A.  D  31.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 the  most  perfective  of  our  natures,  and  most  conducive 
 to  our  happiness.  And  what  indeed  can  be  a  nobler 
 privilege,  what  a  more  generous  and  delightful  pleasure, 
 what  a  more  powerful  incentive  to  obedience,  than  for  a 
 rational  creature  clearly  to  discern  the  equity,  the  neces- 
 sity, the  benefit,  the  decency,  and  beauty  of  every  action 
 he  is  called  upon  to  do  :  and  thence  to  be  duly  sensible 
 how  gracious  a  master  he  serves  ;  one  who  is  so  far  from 
 loading  him  with  fruitless  and  arbitrary  impositions,  that 
 each  command,  abstracted  from  his  authority  who  gives 
 it,  is  able  to  recommend  itself,  and  nothing  required  but 
 what  every  wise  man  would  choose  of  his  own  accord, 
 and  cannot,  without  being  his  own  enemy,  so  much  as 
 wish  to  be  exempted  from?  '  '  Blessed  are  the  eyes  which 
 see  the  things  that  ye  see,'  says  our  Saviour  to  his  dis- 
 ciples, and  in  them,  to  all  professors  of  his  religion  in 
 succeeding  generations:  'for  I  tell  you,  that  many 
 prophets  and  kings  have  desired  to  see  those  things 
 which  ye  see,  and  have  not  seen  them  ;  and  to  hear  those 
 things  which  ye  hear,  and  have  not  heard  them.'  But  in 
 vain  were  these  great  privileges  conferred  on  us,  unless 
 we  make  an  answerable  improvement  of  them  ;  and  far 
 from  blessed  shall  we  be,  when  we  come  to  appear  be- 
 fore the  dread  tribunal,  unless  we  endeavour  2  '  in  all 
 things  to  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour,  who 
 gave  himself  for  us,  that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all 
 iniquity,  and  purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people, 
 zealous  of  eood  works.' 
 
 SECT.   V. 
 
 CHAP.  I. — From  the  Ascension  of  Christ,  to  the  Com- 
 pletion of  the  Canon  of  the  New  Testament  in  all 
 about  sixty-four  Years. 
 
 THE  HISTORY. 
 
 After  that  our  blessed  Saviour  was  ascended  out  of 
 sight,  the  apostles  and  other  disciples  still  stood  gazing 
 up  to  heaven,  till  two  angels  in  the  shape  of  men,  and 
 gloriously  apparelled,  came,  and  informed  them,  that 
 their  Lord  and  Master,  who  was  then  departed  into 
 heaven,  should  at  the  great  day  of  judgment,  in  the  same 
 visible  manner,  come  again  from  thence  ;  whereupon  they 
 all  returned  to  Jerusalem,  full  of  joy  and  consolation  • 
 and,  being  about  an  hundred  and  twenty  in  number,  be- 
 sides Mary  the  mother  of  our  Lord,  and  some  other  pious 
 women,  who  had  attended  him  in  his  ministry,  they  there 
 spent  their  time  in  acts  of  religious  worship  assembling 
 daily  in  a  certain  upper  room,  a  which  they  had  made 
 choice  of  for  that  purpose. 
 
 1  Luke  x.  23,  24.  2  Titus  ii.  10,  14. 
 
 a  Some  annotators  are  of  opinion,  that  the  upper  room,  where 
 the  apostles  and  other  believers  so  frequently  met  together,- was 
 one  of  the  chambers  of  the  temple,  which  not  only  served  for  the 
 use  of  the  priests,  but  stood  constantly  open  likewise  for  any 
 religious  assemblies.  It  is  granted  indeed,  that  in  the  temple 
 there  were  several  upper  rooms  ;  but  then,  that  they  belonged 
 to  any  besides  the  priests  and  Levites,  is  an  assertion  destitute 
 of  proof;  nor  is  it  easy  to  conceive,  how  a  company  of  poor  fisher- 
 men and  Galileans,  who  were  odious  to  the  priesthood  for  their 
 Master's  sake,  should  be  permitted  to  come  in  such  numbers  as 
 the  sacred  history  takes  notice  of,  and  to  hold  their  assemblies, 
 
 In  one  of  these  assemblies,  St  Peter  reminding  them, 
 that  the  number  of  the  apostles  which  our  Lord  had  ap- 
 pointed was  originally  twelve,  but  that  Judas,  by  his 
 transgression,  had  forfeited  that  honour,  thought  proper 
 to  propose  the  choice  of  another  person  h  to  succeed  in 
 
 which  were  thought  destructive  to  the  established  religion,  with- 
 in the  verge  of  the  temple.  As,  therefore,  it  was  a  thing  very 
 common  among  the  Jews,  to  have  their  oratories,  or  private 
 chapels,  on  the  tops  of  their  houses,  where  they  generally  met 
 to  read  the  law,  and  to  treat  of  any  religious  matters;  so  it  is 
 much  more  probable,  that  this  was  a  room  belonging  to  some 
 private  family,  that  were  converts  to  the  Christian  faith,  where, 
 consequently,  the  apostles  and  other  professors  might  meet  to  con- 
 sult about  the  affairs  of  the  church,  and  to  pay  their  adorations  to 
 their  heavenly  Master,  without  fear  of  molestation:  and,  if  con- 
 jectures may  be  allowed  in  matters  of  such  uncertainty,  it  is  not 
 improbable  that  their  customary  place  of  meeting  was  at  the  house 
 of  Mary  the  mother  of  John,  whose  surname  was  Mark,  because 
 St  Peter,  upon  his  miraculous  escape  out  of  prison,  is  said  to 
 have  gone  directly  thither,  and  there  to  have  found  several  of 
 his  brethren  gathered  together,  (Acts  xii.  12.)—  Eckard's 
 Ecclesiastical  History,  Whitby's  Annotations  and  Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 b  The  words  according  to  our  translation,  are  these, — '  That 
 he  might  take  part  of  the  ministry  and  apostleship,  from  which 
 Judas,  by  transgression,  fell,  that  he  might  go  to  his  own  place, 
 (Acts  i.  25.)     These  words,  by  different  interpreters,  have  been 
 referred  both  to  Matthias  and  Judas.     Those  who  refer  them  to 
 Matthias  say  that  they  mean,  that  Judas  fell  that  Matthias  might 
 '  go  to  his  own  place,'  that  is,  to  a  place  for  which  he  was  fitted, 
 or  well  qualified.     But  to  this  there  are  many  objections.     1. 
 The  apostolic  office  could  with  no  propriety  be  called,  in  refer- 
 ence to  Matthias,  his  own  place,  until  it  was  actually  conferred 
 on  him.     2.   There  is  no  instance  in  which  the  expression  to  go 
 to  his  own  place,  is  applied  to  a  successor  in  office.     3.   It  is  not 
 true  that  the  design  or  reason  why  Judas  fell  was  to  make  way 
 for  another.     He  fell  by  his  crimes ;  his  avarice,  his  voluntary 
 and  enormous  wickedness.     4.  The  former  part  of  the  sentence 
 contains   this  sentiment:    'Another  must  be  appointed  to  this 
 office  which   the    death    of  Judas    has  made  vacant.'     If  this 
 expression,   'that  he  might  go,'  &c,  refers  to  the  successor  of 
 Judas,  it  expresses  the  same  sentiment,  but  more  obscurelj'.     5. 
 The  obvious  aud  natural  meaning  of  the  phrase  is  to  refer  it  to 
 Judas.     But  those  who  suppose  it  to  refer  to  Judas  difler  greatly 
 about  its  meaning.     Seme  suppose  it  refers  to  his  own  house ; 
 that  he  left  the  apostolic  office  to  return  to  his  own  house ;  and 
 they  appeal  to  Numbers  (xxiv.  25.)     But  it  is  not  true  that 
 Judas  did  this;  nor  is  there  the  least  proof  that  it  was  his  design. 
 Others  refer  to  the  grave,  as  the  place  of  man,  where  all  must 
 lie ;  and  particularly  as  an  ignominious  place  where  Judas  should 
 lie.     But  there  is  no  example  of  the  word  place  being  used  in 
 this  sense:  nor  is  there  an  instance  where  a  man  by  being  buried 
 is  said  to  return  to  his  own  or  proper  place.     Others  have  sup- 
 posed that  the  manner  of  his  death,  by  hanging,  is  referred  to,  as 
 his  own  or  his  proper  place.    But  this  interpretation  is  evidently 
 an  unnatural  and  forced  one.    The  word  place  cannot  be  applied  to 
 an  act  of  self-murder.     It  denotes  habitation,  abode,  situation  in 
 which  to  remain  ;  not  an  act.    These  are  the  only  interpretations 
 which  can  be  suggested  of  the  passage,  except  the  common  and  ob- 
 vious one  of  referring  it  to  the  future  abode  of  Judas  in  the  world  of 
 woe.    This  might  be  said  to  be  his  own,  as  it  was  adapted  to  him  ; 
 as  he  had  prepared  himself  for  it :  and  as  it  was  proper  that  he  who 
 had  betrayed  his  Lord  should  remain  there.     This  interpretation 
 may  be  defended   by  the   following  considerations:    1.    It  is  the 
 obvious  and  natural  meaning  of  the  words.     It  commends  itself 
 by  its  simplicity,  and  its  evident  connexion  with  the  context. 
 It  has  in  all  ages  been  the  common  interpretation ;  nor  has  any 
 other   been  adopted  unless  there  was  a  theory  to  be  defended 
 about  future  punishment.     Unless  men  had  previously  made  up 
 their  minds  '  not  to  believe  in  future  punishment,'  no  one  would 
 ever  have  thought  of  any  other  interpretation.     This  fact  alone 
 throws  strong  light  on  the  meaning  of  the  passage.    2.  It  accords 
 with  the  crimes  of  Judas,  and  with  all  that  we  know  of  him. 
 The  future  doom  of   Judas  was  not  unknown  to  the  apostles. 
 Jesus  Christ  had  expressly  declared  this ;   '  it   had    been    good 
 for  that  man  if  he  had  not  been  born  ;'  a  declaration  which  could 
 not  be  true  if,  after  any  limited  period  of  suffering,  he  were  at 
 fi  s 
 
1058 
 
 THE   HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5444.  A. 
 
 his  place ;  and  especially  such  an  one  as  had  been 
 familiarly  conversant  with  our  Saviour  from  first  to  last; 
 that  so  he  might  be  a  competent  witness  both  of  his 
 doctrines  and  miracles,  his  life  and  death,  and  especially 
 his  resurrection  from  the  dead.  This  the  company 
 readily  assented  to ;  and  having  appointed  Joseph,  " 
 surnamed  Barsabas,  and  Matthias,4  one  of  the  seventy 
 disciples,  for  the  two  candidates,  they  solemnly  implored 
 the  divine  direction  in  what  they  were  going  to  do ;  and 
 so  drawing  lots,  elected  Matthias,  upon  whom  the  lot 
 fell,  into  the  number  of  the  twelve  apostles. 
 
 When  the  vacancy  of  the  sacred  college  was  thus  filled 
 up,  the  apostles  and  other  disciples  were  all  met  to- 
 gether in  their  accustomed  place,  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
 cost :    c  when  on  a  sudden,  a  prodigious  noise,  much 
 
 last  admitted  to  eternal  happiness.  This  declaration  was  made  in 
 the  presence  of  the  eleven  apostles,  at  the  institution  of  the  Lord's 
 supper,  at  a  time  when  their  attention  was  absorbed  with  deep 
 interest  in  what  Christ  said  ;  and  it  was  therefore  a  declaration 
 which  they  would  not  be  likely  to  forget.  As  they  knew  the  fate  of 
 Judas,  nothing  was  more  natural  for  them  than  to  speak  of 
 it  familiarly  as  a  thing  which  had  actually  occurred  when  he  be- 
 trayed his  Lord,  hung  himself,  and  went  to  his  own  place.  3. 
 The  expression  '  to  go  to  his  own  place,'  is  one  which  is  used 
 by  the  ancient  writers  to  denote  going  to  the  eternal  destiny. 
 Thus  the  Jewish  Tract,  Baal  Turim,  on  Num.  xxiv.  25,  says, 
 '  Balaam  went  to  his  own  place,  that  is,  to  Gehenna,'  to  hell. 
 Thus  the  Targum,  or  Chaldee  Paraphrase  on  Eccl.  vi.  C,  says, 
 '  Although  the  day's  of  a  man's  life  were  two  thousand  years, 
 and  he  did  not  study  the  law,  and  do  justice,  in  the  day  of  his 
 death  his  soul  shall  descend  into  hell,  to  the  one  place  where  all 
 sinners  go.'  Thus  Ignatius,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Magnesians, 
 says,  '  Because  all  things  have  an  end,  the  two  things  death  and 
 1  ite  shall  lie  down  together,  and  each  one  shall  go  to  his  own  place.' 
 The  phrase  his  own  place,  means  the  place  or  abode  which  is  fitted 
 for  him,  which  is  his  appropriate  home.  Judas  was  not  in  a  place 
 which  befitted  his  character  when  he  was  an  apostle  ;  he  was 
 not  in  such  a  place  in  the  church ;  he  would  tiot  be  in  heaven. 
 Hell  was  the  only  place  which  was  fitted  to  the  man  of  avarice 
 and  of  treason. — Barnes  on  the  Acts. — Ed. 
 
 a  It  is  not  certainly  known  what  the  name  Barsabas  denotes. 
 The  Syriac  word  Bar  means  Son,  and  the  word  Sabas  has  been 
 translated  an  oath,  rest,  quiet,  or  captivity.  Why  the  name 
 «a>  given  to  Joseph  is  not  known  ;  but  probably  it  was  the 
 family  name — Joseph  the  son  of  Sabce.  Some  have  conjectured 
 tlmt  this  was  the  same  man  who,  in  ch.  vi.  36,  is  called  Barnabas. 
 But  of  this  there  is  no  proof.  Lightfoot  supposes  that  he  was 
 the  son  of  Alpheus,  and  brother  of  James  the  Less,  and  that  he 
 was  chosen  on  account  of  his  relationship  to  the  family  of  the 
 herd  Jesus.  He  was  also  called  Justus.  This  is  a  Latin  name, 
 meaning  just,  and  was  probably  given  him  on  accouut  of  his  dis- 
 tiuguished  integrity.  It  was  not  uncommon  among  the  Jews  for 
 a  man  to  have  several  names.    (Mat.  x.  3.) — Ibid. — Ed. 
 
 b  Nothing  is  known  of  the  family  of  Matthias  or  of  his  charac- 
 ter, further  than  that  he  was  numbered  with  the  apostles,  and 
 shared  their  lot  in  the  toils,  and  persecutions,  and  honours  of 
 preaching  the  gospel  to  mankind. — Ibid. — Ed. 
 
 c  This  word  is  derived  from  the  Greek  Titrnxixrrri,  which  sig- 
 nifiea  the  fiftieth,  because  the  feast  of  Pentecost  was  celebrated 
 the  fiftieth  day  after  the  sixteenth  of  the  month  Nisan,  which 
 was  the  second  day  of  the  feast  of  the  passover,  (Lev.  xxiii.  15, 
 16,)  and  for  the  same  reason  it  is  called  the  feast  of  weeks,  be- 
 cause it  was  observed  seven  weeks  after  the  passover,  Deut.  xvi. 
 9.  It  was  at  first  instituted,  in  order  to  oblige  the  Jews  to  re- 
 pair to  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  there  to  acknowledge  his  domi- 
 nion and  Sovereignty  over  all  their  labours,  and  there  to  render 
 I  hanks  to  him  for  the  law  which  he  gave  them  on  the  like  day, 
 namely,  the  fiftieth  day  after  their  departure  out  of  Egypt.  In 
 like  manner,  the  Christian  church  celebrates  the  feast  of  Pente- 
 cost fifty  days,  or  seven  weeks  after  the  passover,  or  the  resur- 
 rection of  our  blessed  Saviour,  to  put  us  in  remembrance,  that 
 the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  were  then  poured  out  in  a  plentiful  man- 
 ner, as  the  first-fruits  of  our  Saviour's  ascension  into  heaven, 
 and  that  the  gospel  began  to  be  published  by  the  apostles  on  the 
 
 D.3I.  FROM  ACTSi.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 like  the  rushing  of  a  loud  impetuous  wind,  filled  all  the 
 house  where  they  were,  and  a  kind  of  fiery  vapour,  or 
 exhalation,  formed  into  the  figure  of  a  man's  tongue, 
 but  divided  a  little  at  the  tip,  sat  on  the  head  of  each  of 
 them  ;  whereupon  they  were  all  immediately  filled  with 
 the  Holy  Ghost,  d  and,  by  its  divine  inspiration,  began 
 to  speak  in  several  different  languages. 
 
 At  this  time,  there  were  Jews  of  every  quarter  of  the 
 world  sojourning  in  Jerusalem,  besides  proselytes,  who, 
 from  almost  all  nations,  came  thither  to  the  celebration 
 of  the  feast :  and  no  sooner  did  they  hear  of  this  mira- 
 culous event,  but  they  began  to  wonder,  not  a  little,  how 
 persons  illiterate,  and  all  born  in  the  land  of  Galilee, 
 should  be  able,  with  so  much  facility,  to  speak  the  lan- 
 guages of  the  several  countries  from  whence  they  came ; 
 but  others,  who  were  willing  to  elude  the  force  of  the 
 miracle,  imputed  their  talking  in  this  wild  extravagant 
 rate,  as  they  called  it,  to  the  power  and  strength  of 
 new  wine.  e 
 
 Hereupon  the  apostles  all  stood  up,  and  Peter,  as 
 president  of  the  assembly,  took  upon  him  to  confute 
 this  injurious  calumny,  by  showing  the  audience,  '  that 
 then  it  was  early  in  the  morning,  not  above  nine  /o'clock, 
 and  consequently  no  proper  time  to  have  eaten  or 
 drunk  any  thing  ;  that  the  present  effusion  of  the  Holy 
 Ghost,  was  a  full  completion  of  that  famous  prophecy 
 
 same  day  that  the  ancient  law  was  given  to  the  Hebrews. — 
 Calmet's  Dictionary,  Pool's  and  Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  It  is  a  question  much  debated  whether  the  all  here  men- 
 tioned relates  to  the  whole  hundred  and  twenty,  who  are  said  to 
 have  been  present  at  this  time,  (Acts  i.  15,)  or  to  the  twelve 
 apostles  only  :  and  in  some  measure  to  solve  this,  we  may  ob- 
 serve, that  when  the  apostles  came  to  appoint  the  seven  deacons, 
 they  ordered  the  assembly  to  look  out  among  them  men  full  of 
 the  Holy  Ghost,  (Acts  vi.  3,)  which  plainly  implies,  that  there 
 were  several  persons  among  them  remarkable  for  such  extra- 
 ordinary gifts;  yet  we  cannot  suppose  anytime  so  proper  for 
 their  reception  of  these  gifts  as  this  wonderful  day  of  Pentecost. 
 Nay,  if  the  apostles  themselves,  by  the  imposition  of  their  hands, 
 could  communicate  the  Holy  Ghost  to  those  whom  they  ordained 
 ministers  in  particular  churches  ;  it  seems  unreasonable  to  think 
 that  such  persons  as  had  been  constant  companions  of  Christ 
 and  his  apostles,  and  were  to  be  the  great  preachers  of  the  gos- 
 pel in  several  parts  of  the  world,  should  not,  at  this  time,  be  en- 
 dowed with  the  like  gifts.  So  that  from  hence  we  may,  with  St 
 Chrysostom,  and  others,  be  allowed  to  infer,  that '  the.Holy  Ghost 
 fell,  not  onlyupon  the  apostles  but  also  upon  the  hundred  and  twenty 
 that  were  in  company  with  them.' — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  As  it  was  not  at  this  time  the  season  for  new  wine,  those 
 scoffers  may  be  supposed  to  mean  no  more  than  any  strong  agree- 
 able liquor,  whether  natural,  or  made  by  art.  The  ancients  we 
 are  told,  had  a  secret  how  to  make  a  wine,  which  would  pre- 
 serve its  sweetness  all  the  year  round,  and  which  they  generally 
 used  for  a  morning  draught:  'it  is  proper  to  put  only  what  is 
 mild  into  empty  veins,  and  it  is  best  to  wash  the  bowels  with 
 light  metheglin.'  Hor.  sat.  ii.  4.  But  it  seems  incredible,  that 
 any  men  in  their  senses  should  think,  that  either  wine,  or 
 any  other  liquor,  should  enable  the  apostles  to  speak  all  lan- 
 guages, and  to  declare  the  wonderful  works  of  God.  It  is  well 
 conjectured  therefore  by  our  learned  Lightfoot,  that  they  who  skid 
 this,  were  men  of  Judea,  who,  not  understanding  what  the 
 apostles  spake  in  other  languages,  imagined  that  as  drunken  men 
 are  wont  to  do,  they  babbled  some  foolish  gibberish,  which  they 
 could  make  nothing  of. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Beausobre's 
 and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  This  was  the  ordinary  time  for  their  morning  sacrifice  and 
 prayer,  before  which  they  never  used  to  eat  or  drink  any  thing. 
 Nay,  on  their  festival  days,  it  was  customary  with  them  not  to 
 eat  or  drink  until  the  sixth  hour,  that  is,  noon  time,  that  they 
 might  be  more  fit  for,  and  intent  upon  the  service  of  the  day. 
 And  from  this  custom  the  apostle  draws  an  argument,  which, 
 in  those  sober  times,  was  thought  to  be  conclusive — Pool's  An- 
 notations. 
 
Sect.  V.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1059 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  M.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5444.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 in  Joel,1  where  God  had  expressly  promised  it;  that 
 Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  person  who  had  poured  down 
 these  extraordinary  gifts  upon  his  church  ;  that  from  the 
 testimony  of  holy  David  it  plainly  appeared,  that  God 
 all  along-  intended  to  raise  him  from  the  dead,  and 
 exalt  him  to  his  right  hand  ;  and  that  the  present  mission 
 of  the  Holy  Ghost  abundantly  declared,  that  the  same 
 person  whom  they,  by  divine  permission,  had  crucified, 
 God  had  ordained  to  be  both  Lord  and  Christ.' 
 
 This  sermon,  though  the  first  that  St  Peter  made  in 
 public,  was  so  very  moving  to  the  audience,  that  it  con- 
 verted no  less  than  three  thousand  souls  ;  a  who  there- 
 upon were  received  into  the  profession  of  the  Christian 
 faith  by  baptism  ;  and  by  their  diligent  attention  to  the 
 apostles'  doctrine  afterwards,  their  constant  attendance 
 on  public  prayers,  their  frequent  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
 supper,  their  cheerful  intercourse  with  one  another,  their 
 parting  with  their  goods  and  possessions,  and  communi- 
 cating to  every  one  according  to  their  necessities,  even 
 to  the  love  and  admiration  of  all  that  beheld  them,  were 
 daily  and  hourly  confirmed  therein. 
 
 Not  long  after  this,  as  Peter  and  John,  about  b  three 
 o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  were  going  into  the  temple  to 
 pray,  they  saw  a  poor  cripple,  who  was  forty  years  old, 
 and  had  been  lame  from  his  mother's  womb,  lying  at  the 
 
 1  Joelii.  21. 
 
 a  A  quick  and  plentiful  harvest  this!  But  it  is  highly  pro- 
 bable, that,  as  Peter  preached  to  the  Jews  of  Judea,  in  the  Syriac 
 tongue,  the  other  apostles  spake,  at  the  same  time,  and  to  the  same 
 purpose,  to  the  foreigners,  in  their  respective  languages ;  while 
 the  late  sufferings  of  our  Lord,  the  present  miracle  of  languages, 
 the  authority  of  the  speakers,  and,  above  all,  the  efficacy  of  the 
 Holy  Spirit,  contributed  more  than  a  little  to  this  numerous 
 conversion.  The  only  question  is,  how  such  a  multitude  of 
 converts  could  possibly  be  baptized  in  one  day  ?  To  which  some 
 reply,  that  this  rite  ot  initiation  into  the  Christian  church  was 
 then  performed  by  way  of  sprinkling  as  it  is  among  us  ;  but  who- 
 ever looks  into  history  will  find,  that  the  form  of  baptism  among 
 the  Jews  was  plunging  the  whole  body  under  water;  and  that, 
 in  conformity  to  them,  the  primitive  Christians  did,  and  the 
 Eastern  church,  even  to  this  day,  does  administer  that  sacra- 
 ment in  this  manner.  There  is  no  necessity  therefore  for  us  to 
 suppose,  that  all  these  proselytes  to  the  Christian  faith  were  bap- 
 tized in  one  day.  St  Luke  delivers  in  the  gross  what  might 
 possibly  be  transacted  at  several  times ;  for  it  seems  indeed  ex- 
 pedient, that  those  new  converts  should  be  a  little  better  in- 
 structed in  the  principles  of  their  religion,  and  the  apostles  more 
 fully  convinced  of  the  sincerity  of  their  change,  before  they  finally 
 admitted  them  into  the  number  of  the  saints. — Echard's  Eccle- 
 siastical History,  and  CahneVs  Commentary. 
 
 b  Though,  by  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  all  sacrifices,  and 
 other  things  required  in  the  ceremonial  law,  were  utterly  abo- 
 lished, and  a  new  covenant  introduced;  yet,  for  fear  of  unending 
 the  weak,  and  estranging  them  from  his  religion,  our  blessed 
 Lord  permitted  his  disciples  to  frequent  the  assemblies  of  the 
 Jews,  and,  in  some  points,  to  comply  with  the  observances  of  the 
 law,  until  a  more  pure  and  spiritual  form  of  worship  could  con- 
 veniently be  established.  This  is  the  reason  why  we  find  the 
 apostles  so  frequently  in  the  temple  at  the  stated  hours  of  prayer ; 
 of  which  the  Jews  had  three:  the  1st,  at  the  third  hour  of  the 
 day,  which  answers  to  our  ninth,  at  which  time  they  offered  their 
 morning  sacrifice,  (Exod.  xxix.  39.)  the  2d,  at  the  sixth,  that  is, 
 our  twelve  o'clock,  either  before  or  after  dinner,  at  which  time 
 we  find  Peter  praying,  (Acts  x.  9.)  and  the  3d,  at  the  ninth,  or 
 our  three  in  the  afternoon,  when  they  offered  their  evening- 
 sacrifice,  (Acts  x.  30.)  These  stated  hours,  as  the  Rabbins 
 tells  us,  they  received  from  their  three  great  patriarchs;  that  of 
 the  morning  frum  Abraham,  that  of  nuon  from  Isaac,  and  that  ot 
 the  evening  prayer  from  Jacob.  However  this  be,  it  is  certain, 
 that  the  royal  Psalmist  makes  mention  of  these  three  times,  '  at 
 evening,  and  at  morning,  and  at  noon,  will  I  prav  to  thee,' 
 (Psal.  lv.  17.)  aud  of  Daniel  it  is  recorded,  that  he  '  kneeled 
 
 Beautiful-gate,  c  and  begging  an  alms  of  those  that  went 
 in.  Silver  and  gold,  as  Peter  told  the  man,  he  had 
 none  to  give  him,  but,  what  was  much  more  valuable,  in 
 the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  he  intended  to  heal  him ; 
 and  no  sooner  were  the  words  spoken  than  the  cure  was 
 effected.  His  joints  were  made  straight,  and  his  nerves 
 became  strong,  so  that  he  went  along  with  the  apostles 
 into  the  temple,  walking,  and  leaping,  and  praising  God. 
 
 Every  one  knew  that  this  was  the  person  who  had  been 
 the  lame  beggar  at  the  temple-gate;  and  as  he  kept 
 close  by  the  two  apostles,  when  the  multitude,  in  much 
 amazement,  came  flocking  together  to  them  in  Solomon's 
 porch,  d  St  Peter  took  this  occasion  to  inform  them, 
 '  that  it  was  by  the  efficacy  of  the  name  of  Jesus,  whom 
 they  had  crucified,  but  God  had  raised  from  the  dead, 
 and  not  by  any  power  or  holiness  of  their  own,  that  this 
 impotent  man  was  made  whole;  that  their  crucifixion  of 
 Jesus  was,  in  some  measure,  a  sin  of  ignorance,  but  his 
 rising  again,  and  advancement  to  a  celestial  kingdom,  a 
 sure  evidence  of  his  being  the  promised  Messiah ;  that 
 the  coming  of  such  a  Messiah,  as  well  as  the  whole 
 evangelical  state,  was  all  along  foretold,  not  only  by 
 Moses,  but  by  every  prophet  that  succeeded  him;  and 
 therefore,  as  they  were  the  professed  desendants  of  the 
 prophets,  and  heirs  of  the  covenant  ratified  with  Abra- 
 ham, God  had  made  the  first  overtures  of  mercy  to  them, 
 in  hopes  they  would  receive  the  gospel  of  his  beloved 
 Son,  and  repent  of  the  iniquities  which  they  had  done 
 unto  him.' 
 
 This  was  the  purport  of  St  Peter's  speech;  and  such 
 was  its  efficacy,  that  it  converted  no  less  than  five 
 thousand  of  its  hearers.  But  as  the  apostles  were  thus 
 busied  in  instructing  the  people,  at  the  instigation  of  the 
 e  priests  and  Sadducees,  the  captain  of  the  temple  came 
 
 down  three  times  a  day,  and  prayed,  and  gave  thanks,'  (Dan.  vi. 
 10.  13.) — Calrnet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  Several  of  the  gates,  as  Josephus  tells  us,  were  plated  all 
 over  with  gold  and  silver,  post,  front,  and  all ;  but  this,  which 
 he  calls  the  Corinthian  gate,  because  it  was  made  of  Corin- 
 '  thian  brass,  did  far  surpass  in  glory  those  of  gold  and  silver,  be- 
 ing built  with  such  art  and  sumptuousness,  as  well  became  the 
 frontispiece  of  that  place  where  the  Divine  Majesty  vouchsafed 
 to  dwell. — Jewish  Wars,  b.  vi.  c.  6.  and  TVhitbys  Annotations. 
 
 d  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  this  porch,  being  one  of  those 
 which  Solomon  built,  had  the  fortune  to  escape,  at  least  some 
 part  of  it,  when  the  Babylonians  set  fire  to  the  temple ;  and  that, 
 though  Herod  the  Great  pulled  it  down,  and  rebuilt  it  in  a  more 
 magnificent  manner,  it  still  retained  its  ancient  name.  It  is 
 certain,  from  Josephus,  that  the  vast  foundation  of  the  east  side 
 of  the  court  of  the  Gentiles,  which  Solomon  built,  was  still  sub- 
 sisting in  the  time  of  the  second  temple;  and  as  Herod,  when 
 he  repaired  that,  made  no  alteration  in  this  part  of  the  work,  the 
 portico,  or  cloister,  which,  upon  the  old  foundation,  was  built 
 round  this  court,  might,  in  memory  of  so  great  a  prince,  and 
 first  founder  of  the  temple,  still  be  called  by  Solomon's  name; 
 — Joseph.  Jewish  History,  b.  xv.  c.  14.  and  Calmcfs  Commen- 
 tary. 
 
 e  These  were  three  different  kinds  of  men,  and,  upon  different 
 accounts,  prejudiced  against  the  apostles.  The  priests  were 
 offended,  because  the  apostles,  whom  they  looked  upon  only  as 
 private  men,  undertook  publicly  to  teach  and  instruct  the  people. 
 The  Sadducees  were  displeased,  because,  in  testifying  that  Christ 
 was  risen,  and  become  the  first-fruits  of  them  that  slept,  they 
 effectually  preached  the  resurrection  of  the  dead:  a  doctrine 
 which  these  men  detested.  And  the  captain,  who  was  placed 
 with  a  band  of  soldiers  near  the  temple,  in  order  to  guard  it, 
 seeing  such  a  crowd  of  people  gather  together  about  the  apostles, 
 In", hi  to  be  apprehensive  of  a  tumult.  But  whether  this  captain 
 was  a  Jew  or  a  Roman,  it  is  difficult  to  determine,  unless  we 
 will  acquiesce  in  what  our  learned  Lightfoot,  with  some  others, 
 
1060 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4037  A.  D.  33 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5442.  A.  D 
 suddenly  upon  them,  seized  them,  and  clapped  them  up 
 in  prison.  The  next  morning-  the  great  Sanhedrim  met; 
 who  having  summoned  the  apostles  before  them,  de- 
 manded of  them,  by  what  power  they  had  wrought  that 
 miracle  upon  the  lame  man,  and  who  it  was  that  gave 
 them  authority  to  preach  to  the  people?  to  which  Peter, 
 without  the  least  hesitation,  boldly  replied,  '  that  their 
 power  and  authority  were  both  from  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
 whom  they  had  crucified,  but  God  had  raised  him  from 
 the  dead,  and  thereby  declared  him  to  be  the  Saviour  of 
 the  world.' 
 
 The  miracle  was  indisputable.  The  man  who  had 
 received  the  cure  was  standing-  by  the  apostles,  and 
 ready  to  attest  the  fact,  and  therefore  the  council  had 
 nothing  to  object  against  it;  only,  after  they  had  ordered 
 the  apostles  to  withdraw,  and  consulted  together  what 
 was  proper  to  be  done  upon  this  occasion,  they  called 
 them  in  again,  and,  in  hopes  of  awing-  them  into  silence, 
 gave  them  strict  charge,  not  to  teach  any  more  in  the 
 name  of  Jesus.  But  to  this  they  made  answer,  '  That 
 since  they  had  received  a  command  from  heaven,  to 
 declare  to  all  nations  what  they  had  heard  or  seen,  it 
 was  certainly  their  duty  to  °  obey  God,  rather  than  them.' 
 
 This  was  a  fair  appeal  to  the  consciences  of  their  very 
 judges;  but  their  judges,  instead  of  being  satisfied  with 
 it,  would  probably  have  proceeded  to  greater  violence, 
 had  not  the  people's  veneration  for  the  apostles  put  a 
 restraint  upon  their  malice ;  all  that  they  dared  to  do 
 therefore  was,  to  repeat  and  enforce  their  menaces,  and 
 so  dismiss  them.  When  the  apostles  were  come  to  their 
 brethren,  and  had  reported  to  them  the  treatment  they 
 had  met  with,  they  all  joined  in  prayer  to  God  for  a 
 supply  of  courage  and  assistance  extraordinary,  in  that 
 trying  and  perilous  juncture  ;  and,  at  the  conclusion  of 
 their  prayer,  the  house  where  they  were  was  shaken  with 
 a  mighty  wind,  as  before  on  the  day  of  Pentecost ; 
 whereupon  they  were  instantly  replenished  with  fresh 
 measures  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and,  notwithstanding  all 
 the  threatenings  of  the  Jewish  rulers,  found  themselves 
 invigorated  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ  with  more 
 boldness  and  resolution  than  ever. 
 
 The  charity  at  this  time  among  believers  was  very 
 large  and  extensive.  Such  of  them  as  had  houses,  or 
 possessions  of  any  kind,  sold  them,  and  deposited  the 
 money  in  the  hands  of  the  apostles,  by  them  to  be  dis- 
 tributed in  due  proportions,  according  to  the  necessities 
 of  their  brethren.     This  a  certain  Levite,  a  native  of 
 
 wen  to  assert,  viz.  that  the  priests  kept  watch  in  three  places  of  the 
 temple,  and  the  Levites  in  twenty-one ;  that  to  every  one  of  these 
 watches  there  was  a  chief,  and  to  them  all,  one,  who  was  emin- 
 ently the  a^xnyii,  the  '  captain,  or,  ruler  of  the  temple ;'  and 
 that  this  captain  is  the  very  same,  who,  in  Jewish  writers,  is  so 
 frequently  called  '  the  man  of  the  mount.'  Whereupon  he  sup- 
 poses, that  this  captain  was  an  officer  of  the  high  priest's,  ap- 
 pointed to  bring  those  who  any  way  offended  in  the  temple,  as 
 the  apostles  were  thought  to  do  for  having  preached  therein  the 
 doctrine  ot  Christ,  before  the  Sanhedrim,  in  order  to  be  punished ; 
 —Calmets  Commentary,  Pool's  and  JVhitbys  Annotations. 
 
 a  Whether  or  no  this  was  an  axiom  commonly  received  among 
 the  Jewish  rabbins,  and  therefore  very  pertinently  here  applied 
 by  the  apostles  to  their  angry  judges,  this  is  certainly  true,  that 
 Socrates  answered  his  accusers  in  this  manner,  '  O  ye  Athenians 
 I  will  obey  God  rather  than  you;  (Apol.  p.  23.)  and  that  Arian 
 delivers  this  as  a  general  precept,  '  When  thy  superiors  com 
 mand  thee  any  thing,  thou  must  remember  that  there  is  one 
 above,  who  sees  thee,  and  that  thou  ouuhtest  rather  to  please 
 him  than  man;' — U'hitliy's  Annotations. 
 
 31.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Cyprus,  *  called  Joses,  but  by  the  apostles  surnamed 
 Barnabas,  or  the  Son  of  consolation,  did  with  great 
 readiness,  and  singleness  of  heart ;  c  and  in  imitation  of 
 him,  Ananias  and  his  wife  Sapphira,  pretending  to  de- 
 vote all  they  had  to  the  service  of  the  church,  sold  their 
 estate,  but  making  a  reserve  of  some  of  the  money  to 
 themselves,  they  brought  only  part  of  it  into  the  public 
 fund,  hoping  thereby  to  impose  upon  the  apostles.  By 
 the  spirit  of  prophecy,  Peter  however  perceiving  their 
 deceit,  rebuked  them  severely  for  it,  and  by  the  miracu- 
 lous power  wherewith  he  was  then  invested,  struck  them 
 both  dead  upon  the  spot ;  thereby  to  inject  terror  into 
 the  rest  of  the  believers,  and  thereby  to  prevent  the  like 
 hypocrisy  and  dissimulation  among  them  for  the  future. 
 Miracles  of  severity  were  not  however  much  practised 
 by  the  apostles  :  acts  of  mercy  were  their  proper  pro- 
 vince, and  healing  the  diseased,  and  freeing  the  pos- 
 sessed, a  great  part  of  their  employment ;  wherein  the 
 divine  power  so  far  attended  them,  that  even  the  shadow 
 of  Peter  passing  by,  cured  the  sick  ;  who,  in  the  very 
 streets,  were  laid  on  beds  and  couches,  on  purpose  to 
 receive  the  benefit  of  his  salutary  influence.  Nor  were 
 these  marvellous  cures  confined  to  the  inhabitants  of 
 Jerusalem  only,  but  the  people  of  the  several  neighbour- 
 
 b  A  large  island  of  the  Mediterranean,  about  100  miles  from 
 the  coast  of  Syria,  and  60  from  that  of  Cilicia,  in  Asia  Minor. 
 It  is  200  miles  in  length  and  60  at  its  greatest  breadth  ;  and 
 had  once  many  considerable  cities.  Cyprus  was  famous  in  the  times 
 of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  for  the  worship  paid  to  Venus:  whence 
 her  title  of  Cyprian;  a  name  still  given  to  certain  modern  and 
 abandoned  votaries  of  that  goddess.  But  a  higher  honour  was  paid 
 to  this  island  by  the  visit  of  St  Paul,  and  the  subversion  of  its 
 heathen  abominations  by  the  planting  oi  Christianity.  (Acts  xiii.) 
 This  was  also  the  birthplace  of  Barnabas,  who  accompanied  Paul  in 
 his  travels.  Cyprus,  originally  governed  by  several  petty  kings, 
 after  having  shared  in  most  of  the  fortunes  of  the  East,  by  passing 
 through  the  hands  of  the  Persians,  Greeks,  Romans,  and  Sara- 
 cens, is  at  present  in  possession  of  the  Turks;  and,  like  most 
 other  of  their  possessions,  from  having  been  a  populous  and 
 flourishing  country,  is  reduced  to  a  barren  desert.  The  Rev. 
 James  Connor  visited  Cyprus  in  1820;  and  was  received  in  the 
 kindest  manner  by  the  Greek  Archbishop,  who  is  the  political  as 
 well  as  spiritual  head  of  the  Greeks  in  the  island.  He  is"  also 
 independent  of  any  patriarch ;  and  is  the  only  one  of  all  the  ec- 
 clesiastical dignitaries  who  is  empowered  to  wear  a  purple  robe, 
 to  carry  a  sceptre,  and  to  sign  his  papers  with  red  ink.  The 
 island  contains  about  40,000  Greeks,  14,000  Turks,  500  Maron- 
 ites ;  and  has  forty  Greek  monasteries,  with  about  300  monks ;  and 
 two  Catholic  convents,  with  six  fathers :  but  no  Jews. — Mansford's 
 Scripture  Gazetteer. — See  also  Wood's  Progress  of  Christianity, 
 p.  115.— Ed. 
 
 c  Though  Barnabas  was  a  Levite,  he  might  have  had  land  of 
 his  own  by  private  purchase.  The  Levites,  as  a  tribe,  had  no 
 land  in  Israel;  but  the  individuals  certainly  might  make  pur- 
 chases any  where  in  the  country:  but,  as  Barnabas  was  of  Cy- 
 prus, his  land  probably  lay  there ;  and  as  it  is  likely  that  he  was 
 one  of  those  strangers  that  came  up  to  Jerusalem  to  the  late  feast, 
 and  was  there  converted,  he  might  have  sold  his  land  in  the 
 island  to  some  of  his  own  countrymen  who  were  at  Jerusalem 
 at  this  time;  and  so,  being  called  to  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
 continued  to  associate  with  the  apostles,  travelling  every  where, 
 and  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  was  the 
 constant  companion  of  St  Paul,  till  the  separation  took  place  on 
 account  of  John  Mark,  mentioned  chap.  xv.  36—39.  It  is 
 worthy  of  remark  that  the  two  apostles  of  the  Gentiles,  though 
 of  Jewish  extraction,  were  both  born  in  Gentile  countries  ;  Paul 
 in  Cilicia,  Barnabas  in  Cyprus  :  this  gave  them  many  advan- 
 tages ;  served  to  remove  prejudices  from  the  heathens ;  and  gave 
 them  no  doubt  much  facility  in  the  Greek  tongue,  without  which 
 they  could  have  done  but  little  in  Asia  Minor,  or  in  most  parts 
 of  the  Roman  empire  where  they  travelled.  How  admirably 
 does  God  determine  even  the  place  of  our  birth,  and  the  bounds 
 of  our  habitation. — Br  A.  Clarke. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1061 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5444.  A.  D.  31.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 ing  towns  and  villages  brought  thither  their  sick,  their 
 lame,  and  possessed,  who  from  the  hands  of  the  apostles 
 never  once  missed  of  a  cure. 
 
 Provoked  at  the  fame  of  these  cures,  and  at  the  suc- 
 cess which  they  saw  Christianity  gaining  by  the  miracles 
 and  preaching  of  the  apostles,  the  high-priest,  and  some 
 others  of  the  Sanhedrim,  who  were  of  the  sect  of  the 
 Sadducees,  had  them  apprehended,  and  thrown  into  the 
 common  prison.  But  the  next  night  an  angel  from 
 heaven,  having  set  them  at  liberty,  encouraged  them  to 
 proceed  with  boldness  in  their  ministry,  and  ordered 
 them  even  to  go  the  next  morning,  and  preach  the  doc- 
 trine of  Christ  in  the  midst  of  the  temple  ;  which  ac- 
 cordingly they  failed  not  to  do.  a 
 
 In  the  morning  the  council  being  met,  sent  their  offi- 
 cers to  bring  the  apostles  before  them  ;  but  were  not  a 
 little  surprised,  when  the  officers  returned,  and  told  them, 
 that  they  found  the  doors  of  the  prison  shut  indeed,  and  the 
 keepers  all  upon  their  guard,  but  as  for  the  persons  whom 
 they  were  sent  for,  there  was  not  one  of  them  to  be  found. 
 This  report  put  the  whole  court  in  great  perplexity,  until 
 word  was  brought  them,  that  the  prisoners  whom  they 
 wanted  were  preaching  in  the  temple  :  whereupon  the  cap- 
 tain of  theguard,  with  some  other  officers,  wentandintreat- 
 ed  them  to  come  before  the  council,  not  daring  to  offer  any 
 violence  to  them,  for  fear  of  being  stoned  by  the  people. 
 
 When  the  apostles  were  brought  before  their  judges, 
 and  the  high-priest  demanded  of  them,  how  they  durst 
 presume  to  preach  a  doctrine  which  so  lately  had  been 
 interdicted  them,  they  returned  much  the  same  answer  that 
 they  had  done  once  before,  namely, '  That  they  were  bound 
 to  obey  God  raiher  than  man  ;  that  Jesus  whom  they  had 
 murdered,  was  undoubtedly  the  true  Messiah ;  and  that  of 
 his  resurrection,  and  ascension  into  heaven,  both  they, 
 and  the  Holy  Ghost,  whereby  they  acted,  were  authentic 
 witnesses,'  Which  so  exasperated  the  high-priest,  and 
 some  other  of  the  rulers,  that,  upon  their  ordering  them 
 to  withdraw,  their  first  resolution  was,  to  have  put  them 
 to  death.  But  this  was  prevented  by  the  wise  advice  of  a 
 certain   Pharisee,  named  Gamaliel,  *  who,  from   some, 
 
 a  The  Lord  brought  the  apostles  out  of  prison,  not  for  the  pur- 
 pose of  delivering  them  from  the  hands  of  their  enemies,  for  he 
 afterwards  suffered  them  to  be  brought  back  before  the  council 
 and  beaten  with  rods:  but  lie  wished  to  show  by  the  miracle, 
 that  they  were  under  his  care  and  protection,  in  order  that  they 
 might  vindicate  and  establish  the  truth  of  the  gospel ;  partly 
 that  the  church  might  thence  receive  an  accession  of  strength, 
 and  partly  that  every  ground  of  excuse  might  be  removed  from 
 wicked  men.  Wherefore  we  ought  not  always  to  hope,  or  even 
 to  wish  that  God  would  deliver  us  from  death,  but  we  ought  to 
 rest  contented  with  this  one  consideration  that  our  life  is  under  his 
 special  protection,  in  so  far  as  he  sees  it  expedient. — Calvin Ed. 
 
 b  This  was  the  Gamaliel  at  whose  feet  Paul  was  brought  up, 
 (Acts  xxii.  3.)  and  some  of  the  ancients  are  of  opinion,  that  he 
 was  tutor  likewise  to  other  apostles,  Barnabas  and  Stephen ;  and 
 for  this  reason  it  is  reported  of  him,  that  when  that  proto-martyr 
 suffered,  lie  encouraged  the  Christians  to  go  by  night,  and  carry 
 on"  his  body,  for  which  purpose  he  lent  them  his  chariot,  and 
 allowed  them  a  burying  place  in  his  own  estate,  about  eight 
 leagues  distant  from  Jerusalem.  He  certainly  was  a  doctor  of 
 great  repute  among  the  Jews,  and  was  therefore  usually  called 
 Rabbin  Gamaliel,  a  title  of  the  highest  eminence,  and  never 
 given,  say  they,  to  any  more  than  seven.  He  is  supposed  to  have 
 been  the  grandson  of  Hillel,  and  either  uncle  or  cousin  to  Nieo- 
 demus,  of  whom  we  read  in  the  gospel,  (John  iii.  1.)  &c,  for 
 thirty-two  years  to  have  continued  the  Nasi,  or  president  of  the 
 Sanhedrim ;  and  to  have  died  about  ten  years  after  the  destruction 
 of  Jerusalem.  Christian  authors  make  no  doubt  but  that  he 
 embraced  the  faith  of  Jesus,  but  at  what  time  he  became  a  con- 
 
 examples  in  former  history,  represented  to  the  court, 
 '  That  if  the  apostles  were  no  better  than  impostors, 
 their  fraud  and  fallacy  would  quickly  be  discovered  ; 
 but  that  if  they  acted  by  a  proper  authority  from  God, 
 it  would  badly  become  the  wisdom  of  that  assembly  to 
 contend  with  the  Almighty,  in  persecuting  his  servants  :' 
 and  by  this  speech  he  so  far  diverted  the  indig- 
 nation of  the  council,  as  to  have  the  sentence,  at  first 
 designed  against  the  apostles'  lives,  changed  into  a  cor- 
 poral punishment.  The  court  accordingly  having  ordered 
 them  to  be  scourged,  and  charged  them  very  strictly 
 never  to  teach  any  more  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  dismissed 
 them  ;  and  the  apostles  went  away  greatly  rejoicing,  not 
 so  much  that  they  had  escaped  death,  as  that  they  were 
 accounted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  and  punishment  for  the 
 name  of  their  dearest  Lord  and  Master. 
 
 The  great  increase  of  believers,  and  access  of  money 
 to  the  common  fund  for  the  relief  of  their  poor,  made 
 the  institution  of  another  order  of  men  in  the  Christian 
 church  highly  necessary.  For  when  the  Hellenists  c 
 complained  that  in  the  distribution  of  the  charity  money, 
 an  undue  preference  was  given  to  the  Hebrew  widows, 
 whilst  theirs  were  too  frequently  neglected,  the  apostles, 
 who  had  matters  of  greater  importance  upon  their  hands, 
 
 vert,  or  by  whose  hands  he  was  baptized,  they  no  where  tell  us. 
 To  reconcile  his  conversion,  however,  with  what  the  Jewish 
 writers  relate  of  his  being  at  the  head  of  the  Sanhedrim  so  long, 
 they  affirm,  that  he  was  a  Christian  even  when  that  assembly  sat 
 upon  the  apostles,  and  that  the  apostles  persuaded  him  to  con- 
 tinue in  it,  and  not  to  discover  his  religion,  -that  thereby  he 
 might  be  capable  of  doing  more  service  to  the  church.  But  the 
 author  of  the  Acts  has  noted  the  true  reason  of  his  speaking  in 
 favour  of  the  apostles,  namely,  that  as  the  Sadducees,  after  our 
 Lord's  resurrection,  became  the  apostles'  greatest  enemies,  be- 
 cause they  '  preached  through  Christ  the  resurrection  of  the 
 dead,  (Acts  iv.  2.)  so  Gamaliel,  who  was  a  Pharisee,  and  conse- 
 quently a  stiff'  assertor  of  the  resurrection,  did  therefore  give  his 
 advice  for  the  dismission  of  the  apostles;  even  as  we  find  the 
 Pharisees  afterwards,  almost  iu  the  same  words,  pleading  for  St 
 Paul  preaching  the  same  doctrine,  namely,  that  they  ought  not 
 to  molest  him  in  what  he  did,  '  lest  they  should  be  found 
 fighters  against  God,' (Acts  xxiii.  9.) — Calmefs  Commentary,  aud 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  these  Hellenists,  or  Grecians,  as 
 our  translations  render  them,  were  originally  Gentiles,  first 
 converted  to  the  Jewish,  and  afterwards  to  the  Christian  re- 
 ligion, even  as  the  Hebrews  here  mentioned  were  originally 
 Jews.  But  though  it  be  allowed,  that  Gentiles  of  all  nations 
 are  frequently  called  '  Hellenes,'  yet  it  no  where  appears  that 
 they  are  styled  '  Hellenists.'  And  that  these  Grecians  must 
 mean  something  different  from  the  common  Hellenes,  or  Greeks, 
 is  evident  from  the  case  of  St  Paul,  who  when  he  came  to  Jeru- 
 salem, and  disputed  -x(i>;  rob;  'EXAWtoss  'against  the  Grecians, 
 they  went  about  to  kill  thee,'  (Acts  ix.  29.)  whereas  had  they 
 been  strangers  of  other  nations,  they  durst  not  have  attempted 
 to  kill  a  Jew  among  a  nation  of  Jews,  without  bringing  him  to 
 their  tribunal.  It  is  reasonable  therefore  to  believe,  that  these 
 Hellenists  were  originally  Jews,  and  descended  from  such  as, 
 in  the  several  calamities  that  befel  the  Jewish  state,  were  either 
 forced,  or  chose  to  leave  their  own  country:  and  settling  at 
 Alexandria,  and  other  places  where  only  the  Greek  tongue  was 
 spoken,  in  process  of  time  came  to  forget  their  own,  and  to  make 
 use  of  the  Greek  only,  both  in  their  common  conversation  and 
 religious  offices.  Of  this  kind  of  Jews,  we  are  told,  there  were 
 great  numbe is  in  Jerusalem,  where  there  was  a  synagogue  parti- 
 cularly appointed  for  such  as  understood  no  other  language  than 
 Greek,  and  where  the  version  of  the  LXX.  was  constantly 
 read  in  their  assemblies.  As  therefore  the  apostles  had  hitherto 
 made  no  tender  of  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles,  the  Hellenists 
 here  spoken  of  must  necessarily  mean  such  Jews,  converted  to 
 the  Christian  religion,  as  had  disused  the  Hebrew  or  Syriac, 
 and  spake  the  Greek  language  only. — Calmct's  Commentary, 
 fVhitbys  and  Pool's  Annotations. 
 
1062 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4038.  A.  D.  34,  OR  A.  M.  5445.  A.  D.  34,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 and  were  not  at  leisure  to  attend  on  this  affair  them-  however,  soon  awakened  the  malice  of  his  adversaries 
 selves,  called  the  church  together,  and  having  ordered j  to  procure  some  members  e  of  the  most  learned  syna- 
 them  to  single  out  seven  «  men  of  great  repute  for  their  gogues  then  in  Jerusalem,  to  dispute  with  him  :  but  when 
 wisdom  and  prudence,  as  well  as  spiritual  endowments,  they  found  their  disputants  bafHed,  and  unable  to  with- 
 to  be  chosen  stewards  of  the  public  stock ;  these  they  stand  the  force  of  those  arguments  which  the  divine 
 ordained  to  the  office  of  deacons,  by  the  solemnity  of  wisdom  inspired  him  with,  they  betook  themselves  to 
 prayers,  and   the  imposition  of   their  hands.  *     c*The    vile  practices;  and  having  procured  men  of  profligate 
 
 names  of  the  persons  who  were  ordained  to  this  office, 
 were  tephen,  Philip,  Prochorus,  Nicanor,  Timon, 
 Parmenus,  and  Nicholas,  all  taken  out  of  the  number  of 
 the  seventy  disciples  whom  our  Lord  had  chosen  ;  but  of 
 these  the  most  eminent  for  the  gifts  and  graces  of  the 
 Holy  Spirit  was  Stephen. 
 
 He  preached  the  gospel  with  a  noble  courage  and  re 
 
 consciences  to  accuse  him  of  blasphemy,  caused  him  to 
 be  apprehended,  and,  in  a  tumultuous  manner,  brought 
 him  before  the  Sanhedrim,  in  order  to  obtain  a  formal 
 sentence  of  condemnation  against  him. 
 
 Whilst  he  stood  before  the  council,  the  judges,  and  all 
 the  people  then  present,  beheld  a  lustre  and  radiancy  in 
 his  countenance,  not  unlike  the  appearance  of  an  angel ; 
 
 solution,  and  confirmed  it  with  many  public  and  unques-  and  when  he  was  indulged  the  liberty  of  speech,  in  a 
 tionable  miracles  among  the  people,  insomuch  that  by  grave  and  severe  oration,  he  endeavoured,  not  only  to 
 his  means  the  Christian  religion  gained  ground  abun-    vindicate  himself  from  the  imputation  of  blasphemy,  but, 
 
 dantly.  Converts  came  in  apace  ;  and  great  numbers 
 of  the  priests  themselves  laid  aside  their  prejudices,  and 
 embraced  the  gospel.  d     This  zeal  and  success  of  his, 
 
 a  The  words  in  the  text  are  these, — *  Wherefore  brethren,  look 
 ye  out  among  you  seven  men,  of  honest  report,  full  of  the  Holy 
 Ghost  and  wisdom,  whom  we  may  appoint  over  this  business,  Acts 
 vi.  3.  Though  they  were  selected  by  the  church,  yet  the  power 
 of  ordaining  them,  or  setting  them  apart,  was  retained  by  the 
 apostles.  Thus  the  rights  of  both  were  preserved,  the  right  of  the 
 church  to  designate  those  who  should  serve  them  in  the  office  of 
 deacon,  and  the  right  of  the  apostles  to  organise  and  establish  the 
 church  with  its  appropriate  officers;  on  the  one  hand,  a  due  re- 
 gard to  the  liberty  and  privileges  of  the  Christian  community,  and 
 on  the  other,  the  security  of  proper  respect  for  the  offices  as  being 
 of  apostolic  appointment  and  authority. — Barneson  the  Acts. — Ed. 
 b  Selden  and  Wolf  deduce  the  origin  of  laying  on  hands  from 
 the  age  of  Moses,  adverting  to  the  seven  seniores,  on  whom 
 Moses  laid  his  hands  (Num.  xxvii.  18.).  Hence  the  custom 
 obtained  in  the  Jewish  church,  and  was  thence  introduced  into 
 the  Christian.  As  laying  on  of  hands  had  always  been  used  in 
 praying  for  the  good  of  any  person  present,  in  order  to  show  for 
 whom  the  benefit  was  entreated,  so  it  was  also  from  the  earliest 
 ages  a  rite  of  institution  to  office,  which  it  confirmed  by  symbol. 
 —BloomJiela"s  Greek  Testament. — Ed. 
 
 c  The  names  of  these  seven  deacons,  we  may  observe,  are  all 
 of  Greek  extract;  from  whence  we  may  infer,  that  very  pro- 
 bably they  were  all  Hellenists;  and  that  consequently,  by  their 
 designation,  the  church  was  desirous  to  give  full  satisfaction  to 
 the  complaint  of  those  whose  widows  had  been  before  neglected. 
 Of  the  two  first  of  these,  namely,  Stephen  and  Philip,  the  sacred 
 history  has  given  us  a  sufficient  account;  but  of  the  rest  we 
 have  nothing  certain;  except  we  will  admit  of  what  the  Latins 
 tell  us  of  Prochorus,  namely,  that  on  the  9th  of  August,  he  suf- 
 fered martyrdom  at  Antioch,  after  having  made  himself  famous 
 for  his  miracles;  of  Nicanor,  that  on  the  10th  of  January,  he 
 Buffered  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus,  after  having  given  great  demon- 
 strations of  his  faith  and  virtue;  of  Timon,  that  on  the  19th  of 
 April,  he  was  first  thrown  into  the  fire,  and  when  he  had  mira- 
 culously  escaped  from  thence,  was  fixed  upon  a  cross  at  Corinth; 
 of  Parmenus,  that  on  the  23d  of  January,  he  suffered  at  Philippi 
 in  Macedonia;  and  of  Nicholas,  that  either  by  design  or  indis- 
 cretion,  he  gave  rise  to  the  infamous  sect  of  Nicolaitans,  and 
 therefore  no  Christian  church  has  ever  yet  paid  any  honour  to  his 
 memory.  One  thing  we  may  observe  in  this  place,  namely,  that 
 much  about  the  time  of  the  institution  of  these  deacons,  James, 
 the  Less,  so  called  to  distinguish  him  from  the  other  James, 
 m  hu  was  the  son  of  Zebedee,  and  for  his  eminent  virtues  sur- 
 named  the  Just,  was  chosen  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  and  for  this 
 reason  preferred  before  all  the  rest,  because  he  was  a  near  re- 
 lation, namely,  a  cousin-german,  to  our  blessed  Saviour.— 
 —Calm, is  Commentary  and  Dictionary;  and  Fleurys  Eccle- 
 tiattioal  History. 
 
 d  We  learn  from  Ezra,  (chap.  iii.  36— "9,)  that  four  thousand 
 two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  priests  returned  from  the  captivity, 
 the  number  of  which  was  now  probably  much  increased.— I  see 
 DO  foundation  in  the  authority  of  any  ancient  copies,  for  reading 
 with  Casaubon,  xai  rut  itftrnt,  and  explaining  it  as  if  it  were  mi 
 
 at  the  same  time,  by  an  historical  deduction  of  the  most 
 memorable  actions  and  events  that  had  happened  in  the 
 Jewish  nation,  from  the  time  of  Abraham  to  that  of  Solo- 
 mon, he  undertook  to  show, '  That  religion  was  not  con- 
 fined to  the  holy  land,  or  the  temple-service ;  that  the 
 law,  for  which  they  expressed  so  vehement  a  zeal,  was 
 unable  to  contain  mankind  within  the  bounds  of  their 
 duty  ;  that  as  their  forefathers  were  all  along  a  stubborn 
 
 Tin;  tuv  isguaiv,  and  some  of  the  priests.  It  is  indeed  wonder- 
 ful that  a  great  multitude  of  them  should  embrace  the  gospel, 
 considering  what  peculiar  resentments  they  must  expect  from 
 their  unbelieving  brethren,  and  the  great  losses  to  which  they 
 must  be  exposed  in  consequence  of  being  cast  out  of  their  office ; 
 as  it  is  not  to  be  imagined,  that  when  Christians  were  cast  out 
 of  the  synagogue,  they  would  be  retained  as  temple-ministers: 
 but  the  grace  of  God  was  able  to  animate  and  support  them 
 against  all.  And  it  is  very  probable  the  miracle  of  rending  the 
 veil  of  the  temple,  and  the  testimony  of  the  guards  to  the  truth 
 of  the  resurrection,  which  some  of  the  chief  of  that  order  heard 
 and  might  perhaps  be  whispered  to  some  others,  might  contri- 
 bute considerably  toward  their  conversion,  in  concurrence  with 
 the  miraculous  gifts  and  powers  of  the  apostles,  the  most  convin- 
 cing proofs  of  which  they  saw  before  their  eyes  in  their  own 
 temple. — Doddridge's  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 e  There  has  been  very  great  difference  of  opinion  about  the 
 meaning  of  this  word.  The  chief  opinions  may  be  reduced  to 
 three.  1.  The  word  is  Latin,  and  means  properly  a  freedman,  a 
 man  who  had  been  a  slave  and  was  set  at  liberty.  And  many 
 have  supposed,  that  these  persons  were  manumitted  slaves,  of 
 Roman  origin,  but  which  had  become  proselyted  to  the  Jewish 
 religion,  and  who  had  a  synagogue  in  Jerusalem.  This  opinion 
 is  not  very  probable  ;  though  it  is  certain,  from  Tacitus  (Annal. 
 b.  ii.  c.  85.),  that  there  were  persons  of  this  description  at  Rome. 
 He  says  that  four  thousand  Jewish  proselytes  or  Roman  slaves 
 made  free  were  sent  at  one  time  to  Sardinia.  2.  A  second 
 opinion  is,  that  these  persons  were  Jews  by  birth,  and  had  been 
 taken  captives  by  the  Romans,  and  then  set  at  liberty,  and  thus 
 called  freedmen  or  libertines.  That  there  were  many  Jews  of  this 
 description  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Pompey  the  Great  when  he 
 subjugated  Judea,  sent  large  numbers  of  the  'Jews  to  Rome. 
 {Philo  in  Legat.  ad  Caium.)  These  Jews  were  set  at  liberty  at 
 Rome,  and  assigned  a  place  beyond  the  Tiber  for  a  residence. 
 See  introduction  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  These  persons 
 are  by  Philo  called  libertines,  or  freedmen.  (Kuirioel  in  loco). 
 Many  Jews  were  also  conveyed  as  captives  by  Ptolemy  I.  to 
 Egypt,  and  obtained  a  residence  in  that  country  and  the  vicinity, 
 But  3.  Another  and  more  probable  opinion  is,  that  they  took 
 their  name  from  some  place  which  they  occupied.  This  opinion  is 
 more  probable  from  the  fact  that  all  the  other  persons  mentioned 
 here  are  named  from  the  countries  which  they  occupied.  Suidas 
 says  that  this  is  the  name  of  a  place.  And  in  one  of  the  Fathers 
 this  passage  occurs:  'Victor  bishop  of  the  Catholic  church  at 
 Libertina,  says,  unity  is  there,'  &c.  From  this  passage  it  is 
 plain  that  there  was  a  place  called  Libertina.  That  place  was 
 in  Africa,  not  far  from  ancient  Carthage. — See  Bishop  Pearce's 
 Comment,  on  this  place. — Barnes  on  the  Acts. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1063 
 
 A.  M.  4038.  A.  D.  33;  OR,  A.  M.  5445.  A.  D 
 
 and  rebellious  people,  and  grievous  persecutors  of  the 
 prophets,  who  were  sent  to  foretell  the  coming'  of  the 
 Messiah,  so  were  they  likewise  a  wicked  and  perverse 
 generation,  who  in  all  things  had  equalled,  but  in  this 
 surpassed,  the  impiety  of  their  ancestors,  namely,  that, 
 contrary  to  that  law  which  had  been  delivered  to  them 
 by  the  ministry  of  angels,  they  had  betrayed  and  mur- 
 dered that  very  person  who  was  sent  into  the  world  to 
 fulfil  it.'  a 
 
 These  last  words,  which  were  but  too  true,  incensed 
 the  Jews  to  such  a  degree,  that  they  fell  upon  him  with 
 the  utmost  expressions  of  their  rage  and  fury  ;  whilst  he, 
 regardless  of  what  they  were  about,  had  his  mind  em- 
 ployed in  the  *  delightful  prospect  of  heaven,  and  the 
 sensible  appearance  of  the  blessed  Jesus,  in  our  glori- 
 fied nature,  standing  at  the  right-hand  of  God ;  which 
 when  he  had  declared  to  all  the  company,  the  Jews  were 
 
 a  There  has  been  great  diversity  of  opinion  about  the  object 
 which  Stephen  had  in  view  in  this  defence,  and  about  the  reason 
 why  he  introduced  at  such  length  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
 people.  But  a  few  remarks  may  perhaps  show  his  design.  He 
 was  accused  of  blasphemy  in  speaking  against  the  institutions  of 
 Moses  and  the  temple,  that  is,  against  every  thing  held  sacred 
 among  the  Jews.  To  meet  this  charge,  he  gives  a  statement, 
 at  length,  of  his  belief  in  the  Mosaic  religion,  in  the  great  points 
 of  their  history,  and  in  the  fact  that  God  had  interposed  in  a 
 remarkable  manner  in  defending  them  from  dangers.  By  this 
 historical  statement  he  avows  his  full  belief  in  the  divine  origin 
 of  the  Jewish  religion,  and  thus  indirectly  repels  the  charge  of 
 blasphemy.  It  is  further  to  be  remembered,  that  this  was  the 
 best  way  of  securing  the  attention  of  the  council.  Had  he  en- 
 tered on  an  abstract  defence,  he  might  expect  to  be  stopped  by 
 their  cavils  or  their  clamour.  But  the  history  of  their  own  na- 
 tion was  a  favourite  topic  among  the  Jews.  They  were  always 
 ready  to  listen  to  an  account  of  their  ancestors ;  and  to  secure 
 their  attention,  nothing  more  was  necessary  than  to  refer  to 
 their  illustrious  lives  and  deeds.  Comp.  Ps.  lxxviii.  cv.  cvi. 
 cxxxv.  Ezek.  xx.  In  this  way  Stephen  secured  their  attention, 
 and  practically  repelled  the  charge  of  speaking  reproachfully  of 
 Moses  and  the  temple.  He  showed  them  that  he  had  as  firm  a 
 belief  as  they  in  the  great  historical  facts  of  their  nation.  It  is 
 to  be  remembered,  also,  that  this  speech  was  broken  oft"  in  the 
 midst  (ver.  53,  54.),  and  it  is  therefore  difficult  to  tell  what  the 
 design  of  Stephen  was.  It  seems  clear,  however,  that  he  in- 
 tended to  convict  them  of  guilt,  by  showing  that  they  sustained 
 the  same  character  as  their  fathers  had  manifested  (ver.  51, 
 52 ;)  and  there  is  some  probability  that  he  intended  to  show 
 that  the  acceptable  worship  of  God  was  not  to  be  confined  to 
 any  place  particularly,  from  the  fact  that  the  worship  of  Abra- 
 ham, and  the  patriarchs,  and  Moses,  was  acceptable  before  the 
 temple  was  reared  (ver.  2,  &c),  and  from  the  declaration  in  ver. 
 48,  that  God  dwells  not  in  temples  made  with  hands.  All  that 
 can  be  said  here  is,  that  Stephen  (1.)  showed  his  full  belief  in 
 the  divine  appointment  of  Moses,  and  the  historical  facts  of  their 
 religion ;  (2.)  That  he  laid  the  foundation  of  an  argument  to 
 show  that  those  things  were  not  perpetually  binding,  and  that 
 acceptable  worship  might  be  offered  in  other  places  and  in 
 another  manner  than  at  the  temple. — Barnes. — See  also  Bloom- 
 field's  Grit.  Digest. — Ed. 
 
 b  Whether  to  aflbrd  St  Stephen  this  delightful  prospect,  the 
 opening  of  the  heavens  was  real,  (as  it  is  believed  to  have  been 
 at  our  Lord's  baptism,)  or  whether  this,  like  other  appearances 
 to  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  was  represented  to  him 
 by  way  of  vision,  as  we  cannot  certainly  know,  so  it  is  of  no  great 
 consequence  that  we  should,  for,  since  a  vision  is  described  by 
 those  that  are  particularly  curious  in  these  matters,  to  be  such  a 
 distinct  and  strong  impression  upon  the  faculty  of  the  imagina- 
 tion, as  sets  the  object  before  the  man,  as  plainly  as  if  it  actually 
 was  present,  and  perceived  by  his  bodily  senses,  [Maim.  Mor. 
 Nev.  part  ii.  c.  26.]  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that  either  of 
 these  ways  comes  all  to  one,  as  to  the  certainty  of  the  persuasion, 
 and  every  other  effect  which  we  can  suppose  it  is  intended  to 
 produce  in  the  mind  of  the  person  whom  it  actuates. — Stanhope 
 on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels. 
 
 34,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 so  enraged,  that,  raising  a  loud  clamour,  and  stopping 
 their  ears  against  all  cries  for  mercy,  they  unanimously 
 rushed  upon  him,  dragged  him  out  of  the  city,  and  there 
 stoned  him  to  death;  whilst  he,  having  first  devoutly  c 
 recommended  his  soul  to  God,  upon  his  bended  knees, 
 made  loud  intercession  for  his  murderers,  that  the  sin 
 they  were  then  committing  might  not  be  laid  to  their 
 charge;  and  so  gave  up  the  ghost:  but  his  body  was 
 buried  by  devout  men,  (probably  proselytes  to  the  Chris- 
 tian faith,)  who  made  great  lamentations  over  it. 
 
 Among  the  many  that  were  thus  enraged  against  Ste- 
 phen, one  particular  person,  who  had  but  too  great  a 
 hand  in  his  death,  was  a  young  man  of  Cilicia,  named 
 Saul.  He  out  of  his  great  olriciousness  to  have  him  ex- 
 ecuted, undertook  to  look  to  the  clothes  of  the  witnesses, 
 who  usually  stripped  themselves  to  throw  the  first  stones, 
 as  the  law  directed,  at  the  person  who  died  by  their  evi- 
 dence ;  and,  out  of  his  passionate  concern  for  the  tradi- 
 tions of  the  ancients,  having  procured  a  commission  from 
 the  Sanhedrim,  he  immediately  put  it  into  execution. 
 For  he  broke  open  houses,  seized  upon  all  who  looked 
 like  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  and,  without  any  regard  to 
 sex  or  age,  scourged  and  hauled  them  away  to  prison, 
 compelling  them  to  blaspheme  and  deny  Christ,  and 
 breathing  out  nothing  but  threatenings  and  slaughter 
 wherever  he  came  ;  insomuch  that  most  of  the  believers 
 except  the  apostles,  d  were  forced  to  leave  Jerusalem, 
 and  disperse  themselves  in  the  regions  of  Judea  and 
 Samaria,  Syria  and  Phoenicia,  Cyprus  and  Antioch,  &c. 
 preaching  the  gospel  to  the  Jews  that  were  in  those  places. 
 Among  those  who  were  thus  dispersed,  Philip  the 
 deacon,  the  second  in  order  after  Stephen,  came  to 
 Samaria,e  where,  by  his  preaching  and  miracles,  he  con- 
 
 c  In  this  prayer  of  our  dying  martyr,  there  are  these  four 
 things  observable.  (1.)  That  he  looked  upon  his  soul  as  a  sub- 
 stance distinct  from  his  body;  and,  (2.)  That  it  continued  to 
 exist  after  its  separation  from  the  body.  (3.)  That  he  declared 
 our  blessed  Saviour  to  be  God  omniscient,  and  omnipotent,  able 
 to  hear  and  grant  his  prayer,  and  to  preserve  the  souls  com- 
 mended to  his  care  and  protection.  And,  (4.)  That  the  spirits 
 received  by  him  are  in  a  state  of  safety  and  happiness.  The 
 time  of  this  martyrdom  is,  by  some,  placed  after  our  Lord's 
 death,  about  eight  months;  by  others,  at  the  distance  of  about 
 four;  by  others  again,  seven  years.  Eusebius  is  express,  that  it 
 followed  quickly  after  his  election  into  the  offire  of  deacon.  From 
 St  Chrysostom,  and  some  others,  who  speak  in  his  honour,  we 
 are  to  conclude,  that  he  was  martyred  young;  and  from  eccles- 
 iastical history  we  are  informed,  that  the  place  where  he  suffered, 
 had  a  stately  church  built  upon  it  by  Eudocia,  the  empress,  wife 
 to  Theodosius. — Sta?ikope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  vol.  i. 
 
 (I  It  is  a  very  ancient  tradition,  mentioned  by  Clemens  of 
 Alexandria,  that  our  Lord  assigned  twelve  years  after  his  ascen- 
 sion, for  the  conversion  of  the  unbelieving  Jews  in  Judea,  lest 
 any  of  them  should  say,  that  they  'had  not  heard  of  the  glad 
 tidings  of  the  gospel;'  and  Apollonius,  who  flourished  at  the 
 same  time,  speaks  of  this  u;  ix.  •xa%ab'o(nat,  as  delivered  by  tra- 
 dition, that  our  Lord  commanded  his  apostles, '  not  to  depart  out 
 of  Jerusalem  for  the  space  of  twelve  years;'  which,  if  there  be 
 any  truth  in  it,  shows  the  reason  why  the  apostles  continued  at 
 Jerusalem,  when  the  rest  of  the  disciples  were  scattered  abroad. 
 —  Whitby's  Annotations . 
 
 e  This  does  not  mean  a  city  whose  name  was  Samaria,  for  no 
 such  city  at  that  time  existed.  Samaria  was  a  region.  (Mat. 
 i.  22.)  The  ancient  city  Samaria,  the  capital  of  that  region,  had 
 been  destroyed  by  Hyrcanus,  so  completely  as  to  leave  no  vestige 
 of  it  remaining;  and  therefore  he  'took  away,' says  Josephus, 
 '  the  very  marks  that  there  had  ever  been  such  a  city  there.' 
 (Antiq.  b.  xiii.  ch.  x.  sect.  3.)  Herod  the  Great  afterwards 
 built  a  city  on  this  site,  and  called  it  Sebaste,  that  is,  Augusta, 
 in  honour  of  the  emperor  Augustus.     (Jos.  Antiq.  b.  xv.  ch. 
 
1064 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4038.  A.  D.  34 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5445.  A.  D 
 verted  many.  In  this  place  there  was  one  Simon,"  who, 
 by  his  sorcery  and  magical  arts,  had  so  strangely  gained 
 the  veneration  of  the  people,  that  they  looked  upon  his 
 diabolical  illusions,  as  real  operations  of  the  power  of 
 God ;  but  seeing  great  numbers  of  his  admirers  fall  off 
 from  him,  and  embrace  the  doctrines  which  Philip 
 preached,  he,  in  like  manner,  pretended  to  be  a  convert, 
 and,  in  hopes  of  obtaining  some  share  of  the  miraculous 
 gifts,  which  he  could  not  but  admire  in  the  apostle,  de- 
 sired by  him  to  be  baptized. 
 
 The  news  of  the  conversion  of  so  large  a  city  as 
 Samaria  was  soon  brought  to  the  apostles  at  Jerusalem  ; 
 who  thereupon  sent  Peter  and  John  to  confer  the  gifts 
 of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  new  converts.  The  magi- 
 cian, perceiving  that  a  power  of  working  miracles,  and 
 speaking  with  tongues,  was  consequent  upon  the  imposi- 
 tion of  the  apostles'  hands,  offered  to  give  them  money 
 to  enable  him  to  do  the  like.  But  the  offer  St  Peter 
 rejected  with  scorn  and  detestation,  denouncing  an 
 execration  against  him  and  his  money ;  which  so  terrified 
 the  caitiff,  that,  possibly  fearing  to  be  made  an  example 
 of  dissimulation,  as  Ananias  was,  he  begged  the  apostles' 
 prayers  to  God  for  the  pardon  of  his  sin,  and  the  aver- 
 sion of  those  judgments  which  his  denunciation  seemed 
 to  portend.  But  how  false  and  feigned  his  repentance 
 was,  the  sequel  of  this  history  will  show. 
 
 viii.  sect.  5.)  Perhaps  this  city  is  intended,  as  being  the  princi- 
 pal city  of  Samaria;  or  possibly  Sychar,  another  city  where  the 
 gospel  had  been  before  preached  by  the  Saviour  himself.  (John 
 iv.) — Barnes  on  the  Acts. — Ed. 
 
 a  This  man  was  a  native  of  Gittim,  a  village  of  Samaria,  and 
 a  pretended  convert  to  Christianity;  but,  upon  his  being  rejected 
 by  the  apostles,  he  soon  turned  apostate,  and  being  a  man  of  an 
 ambitious  and  daring  temper,  in  pure  revenge,  set  himself  in 
 opposition  to  them,  and  became  the  first  broacher  of  several 
 abominable  heresies.  The  account  indeed,  which  according  to 
 St  Luke,  this  magician  gives  of  himself  is  only  this — That  he 
 was  /i'tyocs  ris,  some  great  person,  as  mountebanks  usually  repre- 
 sent themselves,  and  the  opinion  which  his  magical  pranks  had 
 wrought  among  the  Samaritans,  only  this — That  he  was  the  great 
 power  of  God;  by  which  words  perhaps  he  only  meant  some 
 legate  or  minister  of  God,  assisted  by  his  mighty  power:  and  yet 
 from  these  words  very  probably,  the  fathers  tell  us,  that  he  de- 
 clared himself  to  be  the  prime  God  ;  the  God  above  all  princi- 
 pality, power,  and  virtue  whatever  ;  and  that  to  the  Samaritans, 
 he  was  the  Father ;  to  the  Jews,  the  Son  :  and  to  other  nations, 
 the  Holy  Ghost.  But,  since  the  history  of  the  apostles  informs 
 us,  that  he  believed,  and  was  baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  it 
 is  difficult  to  conceive,  how  he  should  persuade  the  Samaritans, 
 that  he  was  God  the  Father ;  or  the  Jews,  that  he  was  the  Son, 
 or  that  Jesus  into  whose  name  he  was  baptized:  or  the  Gentiles, 
 that  he  was  that  Spirit  which  he  would  have  purchased  with 
 money.  And  therefore  we  may  presume,  that  these  venerable 
 writers,  out  of  their  ardent  zeal  against  this  arch  heretic,  might 
 be  induced  to  magnify  his  arrogant  pretensions  above  measure, 
 by  putting  too  strong  an  interpretation  upon  St  Luke's  words. 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  he  did  not  acknowledge 
 Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  but  looked  upon  him  as  a  rival, 
 and  pretended  himself  to  be  the  Christ ;  that  he  held  the  world 
 was  not  created  by  God,  but  made  by  angels,  and  therefore  divine 
 honours  were  due  to  them,  as  appointed  mediators  between  God 
 and  men  ;  that  he  accounted  the  ordinary  worship  of  idols  as  a 
 thing  indifferent,  and  in  times  of  persecution,  that  men  might 
 lawfully  abjure  the  Christian  faith  ;  that  he  maintained  an  uni- 
 versal licence  to  sin,  men  might  act  as  they  were  inclined, 
 women  might  be  in  common,  and  that  to  press  the  observance 
 of  good  works  was  inconsistent  with  the  gospel-liberty.  These 
 were  some  of  his  principles;  and  in  consequence  of  these,  as 
 Irenaus  tells  us,  he  and  his  followers  lived  in  all  lust  and  impurity, 
 and  wallowed  in  the  most  horrible  and  unheard-of  bestiality. — 
 Cahnct's  Dissertation  on  Simon  the  Magirian;  Echard's  Eccles' 
 astical  History,  and  Cave's  Life  of  St  Paul. 
 
 34,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 The  two  apostles,  having  thus  confirmed  the  church 
 of  Samaria,  preached  the  gospel  in  many  of  the  neigh- 
 bouring villages  with  good  success,  and  so  returned  to 
 Jerusalem  ;  while  Philip,  being  ordered  by  an  angel  who 
 appeared  to  him,  to  go  southward  into  the  road  which 
 led  from  Jerusalem  to  Gaza,  b  he  there  met  with  an 
 eunuch  c  that  waited  on  Candace  a  Queen  of  Ethiopia, 
 who  had  been  to  pay  his  devotions  at  Jerusalem,  e  and 
 
 b  The  city  of  Gaza  is  mentioned  in  Acts  viii.  26.  with  the 
 parenthetical  remark, — that  avTn  ianv  i^np-ot^it  [or  the  same] 
 is  desert  j  which  has  greatly  exercised  the  ingenuity  of  commen- 
 tators, some  of  whom  refer  uvtw  to  olos,  and  translate  it  by  unfre- 
 quented ;  while  others,  referring  it  to  the  city,  explained  it  by 
 deprived  of  fortifications  j  others  again  suppose  the  ancient  city 
 to  have  remained  desolate,  and  that  which  flourishedjn  the  days 
 of  St  Luke  to  have  occupied  a  somewhat  different  site  nearer  to 
 the  sea;  and  others  consider  these  words  to  be  a  mere  gloss  which 
 has  found  its  way  into  the  text.  A  passage,  however,  in  Jose- 
 phus,  which  has  escaped  the  researches  of  most  of  the  learned 
 men,  clears  up  the  difficulty,  and  shows  the  minute  fidelity  of 
 the  sacred  historian.  A  short  time  before  the  siege  of  Jerusalem, 
 in  consequence  of  a  massacre  of  the  Jews  at  Csesarea,  the  whole 
 nation  became  greatly  enraged,  and  in  revenge  laid  waste  many 
 villages  and  cities;  and  among  these  were  Anthedon  and  Gaza, 
 which  they  utterly  demolished.  Gaza  therefore  was  actually 
 l^npos,  a  desert,  at  the  time  St  Luke  wrote. — Josephus,  Jew. 
 tFar,  b.  ii.  c.  18.  sect.  1.  Hug's  Introd.  vol.  i.  p.  25. — For  an 
 account  of  Gaza,  ancient  and  modern,  see  note  (a),  p.  413  of 
 this  work. — Ed. 
 
 c  This  word  is  derived  from  the  Greek  tvvov%iis,  which  signi- 
 fies one  who  guards  the  bed ;  because  generally,  in  the  courts  of 
 the  eastern  kings,  the  care  of  the  beds  and  apartments  belonging 
 to  princes  and  princesses  was  committed  to  them ;  but  more 
 especially  those  of  the  princesses,  who,  in  these  countries,  live 
 in  great  retirement,  and  remote  from  the  sight  and  company  of 
 men.  It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that  this  word  is  in 
 Scripture  frequently  set  to  signify  any  minister  belonging  to  a 
 prince,  attending  at  his  court,  and  employed  more  especially  in 
 some  office  belonging  to  the  inner  part  of  the  palace,  whether 
 he  be  really  an  eunuch  or  not.  Thus  Potiphar,  though  he  was 
 married,  is  called  in  the  Septuagint  version  of  Gen.  xxxvii. 
 36.  axdSav  iaaaii  (the  word,  anoSitav,  Lat.  spado,  having  the  same 
 import  as  eunuch,)  and  in  Gen.  xxxix.  1.  he  is  called  ivvou^at 
 iaoai),  '  the  eunuch  of  Pharaoh.'  Hence  it  is  most  probable  that 
 this  Ethiopian  was  not  a  eunuch  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term, 
 but  merely  a  court  officer,  or  rather  treasurer  of  Candace.  It 
 does  not  appear,  as  some  have  imagined,  that  the  Abyssinians 
 were  converted  to  the  Christian  faith  by  this  eunuch,  nor  by  any 
 of  the  apostles  ;  as  there  is  strong  historic  evidence  that  they 
 continued  Jews  and  Pagans  for  more  than  three  hundred  years 
 after  the  Christian  era  Their  conversion  is  with  great  pro- 
 bability attributed  to  Frumentius,  sent  to  Abyssinia  for  that 
 purpose  by  Athanasias,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  about  A.  D.  330. — 
 See  Bruce. — Ed. 
 
 d  In  the  time  of  our  Saviour  (and  indeed  from  that  time  for- 
 ward,) by  Ethiopia,  was  meant,  in  a  general  sense,  the  countries 
 south  of  Egypt,  then  but  imperfectly  known:  of  one  of  which, 
 that  Candace  was  queen,  whose  eunuch  was  baptized  by  Philip. 
 Mr  Bruce,  on  his  return  from  Abyssinia,  found  in  latitude  16° 
 38'  a  place  called  Chendi,  where  the  reigning  sovereign  was 
 then  a  queen ;  and  where  a  tradition  existed,  that  a  woman,  by 
 name  Hendaque  (which  comes  as  near  as  possible  to  the  Greek 
 name  XctiiSccxri,)  once  governed  all  that  country.  Near  this  place 
 are  extensive  ruins,  consisting  of  broken  pedestals  and  obelisks, 
 which  Bruce  conjectures  to  be  those  of  Meroe,  the  capital  of  the 
 African  Ethiopia;  which  is  described  by  Herodotus  as  a  great 
 city  in  his  time,  namely,  400  years  before  Christ:  and  where, 
 separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world  by  almost  impassable  deserts, 
 and  enriched  by  the  commercial  expeditions  of  their  travelling 
 brethren,  the  Cushites  continued  to. cultivate,  so  late  as  the  first 
 century  of  the  Christian  asra,  some  portion  of  those  arts  and 
 sciences  to  which  the  settlers  in  the  cities  had  always  more  or 
 less  devoted  themselves. — Mansford's  Gazetteer,  art.Cush. — Ed. 
 
 e  That  this  eunuch  was  a  proselyte  of  justice,  or  one  who, 
 from  Paganism  had  embraced  the  Jewish  faith,  to  which  he  might 
 be  converted  by  those  Jews  who,  from  Alexandria,  spread  them- 
 
SECT.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 1065 
 
 A.  M.  103'J.  A.  D.  35;  OR,  A.  M.  .r)446.  A.  D.  35,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 was  then  upon  his  journey  home.  As  lie  drew  near  to 
 the  chariot,  Philip  found  him  coinniendably  employed  in 
 reading  a  passage  in  the  53d  chapter  of  Isaiah,  relating 
 to  the  sufferings  of  the  Messiah;  and,  when  the  treasurer 
 expressed  his  desire  of  having  the  passage,  which  he  did 
 not  so  well  understand,  a  little  explained  to  him,  a  and 
 thereupon  invited  him  into  the  chariot,  Philip  took  this 
 opportunity  to  preach  unto  him  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
 Christ,  and  thereby  to  show  him,  that  not  only  the  sense 
 of  that  passage,  but  of  several  others  in  the  ancient  pro- 
 phets, was  fully  accomplished  in  his  person  and  transac- 
 tions. This  so  fully  convinced  the  eunuch,  that,  with 
 much  eagerness,  he  desired  to  be  baptized  into  the 
 Christian  faith;  which,  when  Philip  had  done,  the  Spirit 
 of  the  Lord  immediately  transported  him  to  Azotus,  * 
 from  whence  he  proceeded  as  far  as  Ciesarea,  c  preach- 
 
 selves  into  the  African  Ethiopia,  is  a  reasonable  conjecture,  not 
 only  because  lie  came  so  long  a  journey  to  worship  at  Jerusalem, 
 probably  at  some  great  festival,  but  because  Cornelius  is  expressly 
 declared  to  be  the  first-fruits  of  the  Gentiles;  and,  it  is  not  un- 
 likely, that  the  fame  which  he  had  heard  at  Jerusalem,  of  the 
 crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  might  be  the  reason  of  his 
 reading  the  prophet  Isaiah,  who  speaks  more  plainly  of  the  times 
 of  the  gospel  than  any  other,  and  that  particular  chapter,  which 
 (as  Abarbinel  testifies)  all  the  Jewish  rabbins  did,  with  one 
 mouth,  confess,  that  it  related  to  the  sufl'erings  of  Messiah  the 
 king. — Whitby  s  Annotations. 
 
 a  It  certainly  does  not  follow  that  because  this  nobleman 
 wanted  an  interpreter  of  a  prophecy  which  was  obscure  to  him, 
 we  must  want  also  an  unerring  guide;  and  therefore  this  passage 
 does  not  prove  the  necessity  of  an  infallible  interpreter,  as  the 
 Romanists  pretend;  but  it  does  prove,  first,  The  advantage  of 
 authorized  and  competent  teachers;  and,  secondly,  The  duty 
 of  applying  to  them  for  instruction.  Let  all  devout  Christians 
 diligently  read  the  holy  Scriptures  like  this  Ethiopian  grandee, 
 and  with  the  same  humble  and  teachable  disposition  seek  for 
 edification  at  the  hands  of  the  authorized  interpreters  of  the  word 
 of  God.  With  ver.  32.  comp.  Isa.  liii.  7,  S. — Holden's  Christ. 
 Expositor,  Acts  viii.  SI. 
 
 b  That  it  was  a  common  thing  for  the  Spirit  of  God  to  con- 
 vey his  prophets  of  old  from  one  place  to  another,  as  it  were  in 
 an  instant  of  time,  is  plain  from  Obadiah's  words  to  Elijah,  '  It 
 shall  come  to  pass,  that,  as  soon  as  I  am  gone  from  thee,  the 
 Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  carry  thee  where  I  know  not,'  (1  Kings 
 xviii.  12.)  and  from  what  the  sons  of  the  prophets  say  to  Elisha, 
 '  Let  these  men,  we  pray  thee,  go,  and  seek  thy  master;  lest 
 perad venture  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  hath  taken  him  up,  and  cast 
 him  upon  some  mountain,'  (2  Kings  ii.  16.)  This  very  pro- 
 bably might  be  done  by  the  ministry  of  some  angel,  here  called 
 '  the  Spirit,  or  power  of  the  Lord.'  And  the  reason  that  is 
 commonly  assigned  for  it,  in  the  case  of  Philip,  is,  That 
 the  eunuch  had  requested  of  him  to  go  with  him  into  Ethiopia; 
 whereas  God,  having  designed  him  to  preach  the  gospel  in  other 
 parts  of  the  world,  removed  him  in  this  extraordinary  manner; 
 and  thereby  not  only  prevented  his  compliance  with  the  request, 
 but  gave  the  eunuch  assurance  likewise  of  his  being  a  messenger 
 sent  from  heaven;  and,  consequently,  that  the  things  which  had 
 been  taught  him,  were  true. —  Calmet's  Commentary,  Whitby'1  s 
 and  Pool's  Annotations.  According  to  Bloomfield,  the  mean- 
 ing of  Acts  viii.  39.  is,  that  Philip  went  away  quickly  under  the 
 directions  and  influence  of  the  Spirit,  hut  was  not  transported 
 in  a  miraculous  maimer.  See  his  note  on  the  passage. — Greek 
 Test.— Ed. 
 
 c  This  city  is  in  the  Old  Testament  called  Ashdod.  The 
 Greeks  gave  it  the  name  of  Azotus,  the  Arabs  called  it  Mezdel, 
 and  the  Syrians  Ezdoud.  It  stands  on  the  summit  of  a  grassy  hill, 
 near  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  between  Gaza  and  Joppa. 
 This  was  one  of  the  five  cities  of  the  Philistines ;  and  is  memor- 
 able for  having  sustained  the  longest  siege  mentioned  in  history, 
 when  Psammetichus,  king  of  Egypt,  took  it  after  a  siege  of  29 
 years.  It  is  represented  as  having  been  a  place  of  great  strength, 
 and  sustaining  repented  sieges  from  the  kings  of  Egypt  and 
 Assyria:  by  both  of  whom  it  was  desired  as  a  frontier  town.  It 
 was  made  an  episcopal  see  by  the  early  Christians,  and  is  described 
 
 ing  the  gospel  in  all  the  cities,  while  the  Ethiopian 
 pursued  his  journey  with  great  joy  and  satisfaction  of 
 mind. 
 
 The  dispersion  of  believers,  which  occasioned  a  pro- 
 pagation of  the  gospel  in  other  countries,  soon  excited 
 the  furious  zeal  of  Saul  to  procure  proper  letters  d  of 
 authority  from  the  high-priest  of  Damascus,  e  that  in 
 case  he  should  find  any  there,  whether  they  were  men  or 
 women,  professing  the  Christian  faith,  he  might  bring 
 them  bound  to  Jerusalem,  there  to  be  punished.  But  as 
 he  was  upon  the  road,  and  now  drawing  near  to  Damas- 
 cus, all  on  a  sudden,  about  mid-day,  a  most  amazing 
 gleam  of  light,  far  exceeding  the  brightness  of  the  sun, 
 was  darted  from  heaven  upon  him,  and  those  that  were 
 with  him,  and  threw  them  all  for  fear  prostrate  upon  the 
 ground.  This  light  was  accompanied  with  a  voice  in 
 the  Hebrew,  or  rather  Syriac,  tongue,  demanding  of  him, 
 why  it  was  that  he  persecuted  him  so  violently  ?  And  as 
 Saul  was  uncertain  from  whence  the  words  came,  '  1  am 
 Jesus  of  Nazareth,'  continued  the  voice,  'whom  thou 
 persecutest ;  but  it  is  '  in  vain  for  thee  to  resist  the  de- 
 crees of  Providence  ;  and  therefore  be  no  longer  refrac- 
 tory, but  obey  the  commands  that  shall  be  given  thee.' 
 Whereupon  Saul,  in  a  terrible  dread  and  agony,  desiring 
 to  know  what  he  was  to  do  ;  '  Go  to  Damascus,'  replied 
 the  voice,  '  and  there  thou  shalt  know  my  will.'  Those 
 that  accompanied  Saul  in  his  journey  were  struck  with 
 fear  and  amazement,  wondering  that  they  should  hear  a 
 voice,/  and  yet  see  no  man  speak,  whilst  Saul  himself 
 was  so  dazzled  and  overpowered  by  the  light,  that  he 
 quite  lost  his  eye -sight,  and  was  led  by  the  hand  into 
 Damascus,  where  he  continued  for  the  space  of  three 
 days,  without  taking  any  manner  of  sustenance. 
 
 At  this  time  there  was  in  the  city  a  certain  disciple 
 named  Ananias,  S  whom  the  Lord  in  a  vision  commanded 
 
 by  Jerome  as  a  fair  village  ;  but  it  is  at  present  an  inconsiderable 
 place,  being  provided  with  two  small  gates,  and  having  in  the 
 centre  a  mosque  with  a  beautiful  minaret.  It  also  abounds  with 
 fragments  of  columns,  capitals,  cornices,  &c.  in  marble.  Here 
 the  ark  of  Jehovah  triumphed  over  the  Philistine  idol  Dagon  (1 
 Sam.  v.  2.)  and  here  Philip  the  evangelist  was  found  after  he 
 had  baptised  the  Ethiopian  eunuch. — Mansford's  Gazetteer. — Ed. 
 
 d  From  hence  it  appears,  that  however  the  Jews  were  cramped 
 in  several  privileges  originally  belonging  to  their  nation,  yet, 
 even  after  they  became  a  Roman  province,  their  great  council  at 
 Jerusalem  had  a  jurisdiction,  which  extended  to  all  synagogues, 
 even  those  that  were  out  of  Judea;  and  that  the  power  of  capital 
 punishments  was  not  so  far  taken  from  them,  but  that,  either  by 
 their  own  authority,  or  at  least  the  consent  of  the  Roman  gover- 
 nors, they  might,  in  some  cases,  inflict  them. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary, and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  For  an  account  of  Damascus  see  note  b,  p.  628.  The  in- 
 quiring reader  may  also  consult  Calmet's  Dictionary,  abridged, 
 Scripture  Gazetteer,  Edin.  1S36 — 7,  and  Mansford. — Ed. 
 
 /  In  Acts  xxii.  9.  it  is  said  expressly,  that  the  men  who  were 
 with  Saul  'heard  not  the  voice  of  him  that  spake  to  him;'  but. 
 as  the  words  Quvn  and  axovuv,  both  employed  in  these  passages, 
 will  admit  of  different  significations,  they  will  be  easily  recon- 
 ciled, by  saying, — That  the  people  that  accompanied  Saul  heard 
 a  sound,  a  noise,  a  thunder  in  the  air,  for  to  all  these  the  word 
 Qwvn  is  applicable,  but  did  not  hear  any  articulate  words,  or  did 
 not  understand,  (for  in  this  sense  the  word  olkovm  is  often  taken,) 
 what  that  noise  or  sound  meant:  in  the  same  manner,  as  when  a 
 voice  from  heaven  was  addressed  to  our  Lord,  the  people  that  stood 
 by,  and  heard  it,  said  that  it  thundered,  and  others,  that  an  angel 
 spake  to  him,  and  perhaps  none  of  them  understood  distinctly 
 what  it  said,  John  xii.  29. — Hammond's,  and  Whitby's  Annota- 
 tions, and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 g  Who  this  Ananias  was,  we  have  no  certain  information  from 
 antiquity.  The  apostolical  constitutions  assert,  that  he  was  a 
 6  T 
 
1066 
 
 THE   HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  403!).  A.  D.  35;  OR,  A.  M.  5446.  A.  D.35,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 to  go  and  find  out  Saul,  then  lodging  at  the  house  of 
 one  Judas,  a  Jew,  and  by  the  imposition  of  his  hands  to 
 cure  him  of  his  blindness.  Ananias  was  startled  at  the 
 name  of  the  man,  and,  to  excuse  himself,  alleged  his 
 violent  persecutions  of  the  church,  and  with  what  a  wicked 
 intent  he  was  then  come  to  Damascus :  but  to  this  the 
 vision  replied,  that  he  was  appointed  by  God  to  be  a 
 powerful  instrument  in  the  propagation  of  the  gospel, 
 both  among  the  Jews  and  Gentiles ;  and  how  much  soever 
 he  had  persecuted  Christianity  heretofore,  he  was  now 
 to  become  a  zealous  defender  of  it,  and  even  to  die  in  tes- 
 timony of  its  truth. 
 
 Encouraged  with  this  assurance,  Ananias  repaired  to 
 the  house  where  Saul  was,  with  this  joyful  message,— 
 '  That  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  had  appeared  to  him  in  his 
 journey,  had  sent  him,  not  only  to  res  ore  his  eye-sight, 
 but  to  bestow  upon  him  likewise  the  gifts  and  graces  of 
 the  Holy  Spirit,  such  as  might  qualify  him  for  the  minis- 
 try to  which  he  was  then  appointed.'  And  no  sooner 
 had  Ananias  ended  his  speech,  than  thick  films,  like 
 scales,  fell  from  the  other's  eyes,  whereupon  he  recovered 
 his  eye-sight,  and,  being  baptized,  for  some  days  con- 
 tinued with  the  disciples  at  Damascus,  preaching  in  the 
 synagogues,  and  proving  that  Jesus  Avas  the  Messias. 
 
 After  some  stay  at  Damascus,  he  retired  l  into  the 
 neighbouring  parts  of  Arabia  Deserta,  a  where  he  first 
 planted  the  gospel ;  and,  in  the  beginning  of  the  next 
 year,  returned  to  Damascus  again,  and  there  preached 
 Christ  publicly  in  the  synagogues;  so  that  all  the  Jews  in 
 that  city  were  not  a  little  amazed  and  confounded,  both 
 at  the  strange  change  in  his  opinions  and  proceedings,  and 
 the  powerful  efficacy  of  his  arguings  and  discourses. 
 Their  malice  howeverbeingincensedathavinglostso  con- 
 siderable a  champion,  pursued  him  close.  They  contrived 
 all  possible  means  to  dispatch  him ;  and  after  many 
 attempts  to  no  purpose,2  made  their  request  at  last  to  the 
 governor  under  Aretas,  h  king  of  Arabia,  that  he  would 
 gratify  them  in  his  destruction.  Saul,  however,  had 
 early  notice  of  this,  and,  knowing  that  the  gates  were 
 day  and  night  strictly  guarded  to  prevent  his  escape, 
 
 1  Gal.  i.  17.  2  2  Cor.  xi.  32,  33. 
 
 layman;  St  Austin  will  have  it  that  he  was  a  priest;  hut  CEcu- 
 menius,  and  some  moderns,  are  of  opinion  that  he  was  a  deacon. 
 The  Greeks  maintain,  that  he  was  one  of  the  seventy  disciples, 
 was  made  bishop  of  Damascus,  and  having  obtained  a  crown  of 
 martyrdom,  was  buried  in  the  same  city.  However  this  be,  it 
 i^  certain,  that  in  the  place  where  he  is  said  to  have  been  in- 
 t  i  red,  there  is  a  very  fine  church,  which  though  the  Turks  have 
 turned  into  a  mosque,  yet  they  still  preserve  a  great  respect  for 
 his  monument. —  Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Dictionary. 
 
 a  The  reader  need  not  he  told,  that  Arabia,  which  is  one  of 
 the  most  considerable  divisions  of  Asia,  is  distinguished  into 
 three  parts,  Deserta,  Petraea,  and  Arabia  Foelix;  or  that  the 
 "'  -li!;i  borders  upon  Syria,  and  is  not  far  distant  from  Damas- 
 cus What  we  had  rather  observe  to  him  is,  that,  as  we 
 learn  this  passage  of  the  apostle's  life  from  his  own  account  only, 
 (Gal.i.  17.)  St  Luke,  who  makes  no  mention  of  it  in  his  history, 
 in  all  probability  did  not  accompany  him  in  this  journey;  and 
 this  makes  it,  the  rather  believed  that  the  intent  of  ins  going  into 
 Arai.ia  was  not  to  propagate  the  gospel, but  to  find  out  a  retreat, 
 where,  by  meditation  and  prayer,  he  might  fit.  and  prepare  him- 
 self for  his  future  ministry  ;  though  it  is  hardly  conceivable,  how 
 a  person  of  St  Paul',  zeal  ami  activity  could  puller  himself  to  lie 
 still  nmidst  so  many  poor  creatures  that  stood  in  need  of  his  in- 
 ions  and  therefore  others  have  supposed  that  the  chief  intent 
 of  his  taking  this  journey  was,  to  carry  the  glad  tidings  of  the 
 gospel  into  a  country  that  had  never  heard  of  it  before  — Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 b  This  Aretas,  whose  name  is  said  to  have  been  Mnas  before 
 
 from  one  of  the  houses  that  stood  upon  the  city-wall  he 
 was  let  c  down  by  the  disciples  in  a  basket,  and  so  made 
 the  best  of  his  way  to  Jerusalem. 
 
 Three  years  were  now  past  and  gone  since  the  time  of 
 his  conversion  ;  but,  notwithstanding  this,  when  he  came 
 to  Jerusalem,  he  found  but  a  cold  reception  among  many 
 of  the  disciples,  who  were  sensible  of  his  former  conduct, 
 and,  as  yet,  diffident  of  the  reality  of  his  change  ;  until 
 Barnabas  d  who  was  privy  to  all  his  circumstances,  hav- 
 ing introduced  him  to  the  apostle  Peter  and  James, 
 vouched  for  his  sincerity,  and,  by  declaring  the  miracu- 
 lous manner  of  his  conversion,  and  his  zealous  preaching 
 at  Damascus,  dissipated  all  their  doubts,  and  gained  him 
 the  right-hand  of  fellowship,  or  an  intimate  communion 
 with  the  apostles.  Here  he  continued  preaching  with  all 
 boldness,  and  his  sermons  were  so  powerful,  and  dispu- 
 tations with  the  Hellenists  so  unanswerable,  that  they  too, 
 like  the  Jews  at  Damascus,  formed  designs  against  his 
 life;  which  when  the  brethren  understood,  they  conducted 
 him  to  Caisarea,  e  from  whence  he  set  sail  to  his  own 
 
 he  came  to  the  crown  of  Arabia,  was  father-in-law  to  Herod 
 Antipas,  who  some  time  after  divorced  his  daughter,  and  made 
 Herodias,  his  brother  Philip's  wife,  the  consort  of  his  bed.  But 
 how  this  Aretas,  who,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  by  the 
 insinuations  of  one  Syllreus,  fell  under  the  displeasure  of  Tiberius, 
 came  to  be  possessed  of  the  sovereignty  of  Damascus,  the  capital 
 of  Syria,  which  had  been  a  long  while  a  Roman  province,  we  can 
 no  where  leam. — Joseph  Antiq.  b.  16.  c.  xvi. 
 
 c  This  was  so  far  from  betraying  any  want  of  courage  in  the 
 apostle,  that  it  was  only  putting  in  practice  his  Master's 
 direction,  '  when  they  persecute  you  in  one  city,  flee  to  another,' 
 (Mat.  x.  23.). 
 
 d  Barnabas  is  supposed  to  have  been  an  old  acquaintance  of 
 St  Paul's  and  a  fellow-student  under  Gamaliel;  and,  having  been 
 lately  at  Antioch,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  he  might  there  receive 
 the  account  of  his  conversion,  and  consequent  behaviour,  which 
 made  him  the  readier  to  become,  upon  this  occasion,  his  guaran- 
 tee with  the  apostles. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  Some  commentators  are  of  opinion,  that  the  place  to  which 
 the  brethren  conducted  St  Paul,  was  CEesarea  Philippi,  in  the 
 extreme  northern  parts  of  Palestine,  from  whence  his  way  lay 
 directly  through  Syria  to  Tarsus  in  Cilicia ;  but  others,  with  more 
 justness,  have  observed,  that  wherever  mention  is  made  in  the  New 
 Testament  of  Ca;sarea  alone,  and  without  any  addition,  it  is 
 always  to  be  understood  of  the  Cresarea  which  Herod  the  Great 
 built,  and  whereof  Josephus  gives  us  the  following  account: 
 '  There  was  a  certain  place  by  the  sea-side,  formerly  called 
 Straton's  Tower,  which  Herod  looked  upon  as  a  very  commodi- 
 ous tract  of  ground  whereon  to  raise  a  city.  Accordingly  he 
 drew  his  model,  and  set  people  to  work,  and  in  twelve  years' 
 time  finished  it.  The  buildings  were  all  of  marble,  private  houses 
 as  well  as  palaces ;  but  his  master-piece  was  the  port,  which  he 
 made  as  large  as  the  Pyrreum,  or  port  belonging  to  Athens,  and 
 a  safe  station  against  all  winds  and  weathers.  The  city  stands 
 between  Dora  and  Joppa,  two  wretched  sea  towns,  where  there 
 is  no  riding  in  the  harbour  with  a  south-west  wind,  which  bears 
 so  furious  upon  the  shore,  that  merchantmen  are  forced  to  keep 
 off  at  sea  many  times,  for  fear  of  being  driven  a-ground.  To  en- 
 counter this  difficulty  of  the  place,  Herod  ordered  a  mole  to  be 
 made,  in  the  form  of  a  half-moon,  and  large  enough  for  a  royal 
 navy  to  ride  in  ;  which  he  did,  by  letting  down  stones  of  a  pro- 
 digious size,  fifty  feet  in  length,  eighteen  over,  and  nine  deep, 
 and  some  larger,  in  twenty  fathom  water.  This  mole  was  two 
 hundred  feet  in  extent,  whereof  the  one  half  served  to  break  the 
 setting  in  of  the  sea,  and  the  other  half  for  the  foundation  of  a 
 stone  wall  that  was  fortified  with  turrets ;  and  underneath  this  was 
 a  quay,  or  landing  place,  with  a  large  walk  upon  it  round  the  port, 
 as  a  place  of  pleasure  to  take  the  air  in.  The  houses  about  the 
 port  were  all  uniformly  built,  of  the  most  excellent  sort  of  mar- 
 ble, and,  in  the  middle  of  them,  on  a  mount  stood  a  temple, 
 which  served  as  a  sea-mark  to  the  mariners,  and  was  celebrated 
 no  less  for  its  materials  than  its  workmanship.  In  this  temple 
 there  were  two  statues  or  images ;  one  of  Rome,  and  the  other 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1067 
 
 A.  M.  4041.  A.D.  37;  OR,  A.  M.  5448.  A.  D 
 city,  Tarsus,  a  and  saw  not  Jerusalem  till  several  years 
 after. 
 
 The  church  at  this  time  had  peace,  and  flourished  ex- 
 ceedingly. Saul  diligently  preached  the  word  in  Cilicia,  b 
 and  Syria ;  c  and  Peter  made  a  general  visitation  of  all 
 the  saints  in  Judea,  Galilee  and  Samaria.  In  his  pro- 
 gress he  arrived  at  a  town  called  Lydda,  d  where  he  cured 
 
 of  Cresar,  from  whom  the  city  took  its  name ;  and,  in  this  city, 
 the  contrivance  of  the  very  vaults  and  common  sewers,  laid  at 
 equal  distances,  and  discharging  themselves  into  the  sea,  was 
 very  wonderful.'  Besides  these,  Josephus  makes  mention  of  a 
 stone  theatre,  a  spacious  amphitheatre,  and  several  other  build- 
 ings; which  made  him,  in  another  work  of  his,  call  it  one  of  the 
 fairest  cities  in  all  Judea. — Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xv.  c.  13.  on  the 
 Jew.  War,  b.  iii.  c.  14.  and  Wells's  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament.  Mr  Buckingham  found  this  place  a  scene  of  deso- 
 late ruins:  the  whole  of  the  surrounding  country  is  also,  accord- 
 ding  to  the  same  traveller,  a  sandy  desert  towards  the  land.  The 
 waves  wash  the  ruins  of  the  mole,  the  towers,  and  port,  towards 
 the  sea;  and  not  a  creature,  except  jackalls  and  beasts  of  prey, 
 resides  within  many  miles  of  this  silent  desolation. — Mansfurd's 
 Scripture  Gazetteer. — Ed. 
 
 a  This  city  is  the  same  with  what,  in  Hebrew,  is  called  Tar- 
 shish  ;  and  as  it  stands  in  a  plain,  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Cyd- 
 nus,  it  was  all  along,  in  ancient  times,  accounted  so  great  a 
 trading  town,  that  all  merchant-ships  are  in  holy  writ  frequently 
 called  by  the  name  of  ships  of  Tarshish.  In  the  times  of  the 
 .Romans  it  was  a  city  of  great  note,  as  being  not  only  the  metropolis 
 of  the  province  of  Cilicia,  hut  honoured  likewise  with  the 
 privileges  of  a  Roman  colony,  which  we  find  St  Paul  pleading 
 in  his  own  behalf,  (Acts  xxii.  25,  28.)  and  with  an  academy, 
 furnished  with  such  eminent  men,  that  Scrabo  scruples  not  to 
 say,  they  excelled  all  others  in  polite  learning  and  philosophy, 
 even  those  of  Alexandria  and  Athens;  and  that  Rome  itself  was 
 beholden  to  this  nursery  of  all  sciences  for  its  best  professors ; 
 and  therefore  no  wonder  that  St  Paul,  who  had  the  first  founda- 
 tion of  his  erudition  laid  bere,  became  so  well  instructed  in  the 
 iiberal  arts,  and  so  well  acquainted  with  heathen  authors. —  Wells's 
 Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 b  Cilicia,  a  country  of  Asia  Minor  on  the  sea-coast,  south 
 of  Cappadocia  and  Lycaonia,  and  bounded  by  Syria  on  the  east 
 and  Pamphylia  on  the  west.  Bochart  derives  its  name  from  the 
 Phoenician  word  challekim,  which  signifies  a  stone,  a  designation 
 which  is  well-suited  to  part  of  it  to  this  day,  which  the  Turks  call 
 Tis-Wileieth,  or  the  Stony  Province.  Cilicia  Proper  is  described 
 as  an  extensive  plain,  well  cultivated,  and  producing  great  quanti- 
 ties of  timber.  Tarsus,  the  birth-place  of  St  Paul,  was  its  capital, 
 and  near  it  is  the  tomb  of  Julian  the  Apostate.  The  Cilicians 
 enriched  themselves  by  piratical  exclusions  before  they  were  con- 
 quered by  Pompey,  and  are  represented  as  having  been  cruel, 
 dishonest, and  barbarous  in  their  manners.  Cicero  presided  over 
 the  country  as  consul,  and  it  was  reduced  to  a  province  by  Ves- 
 pasian. Josephus  says  that  this  country  was  first  peopled 
 by  Tarshish,  the  son  of  Javan,  after  whom  the  whole  country 
 was  called  Tarsis.  Cilicia  is  repeatedly  mentioned  in  the  Acts 
 of  the  Apostles,  and  it  is  probable  that  St  Paul  himself  introduced 
 the  gospel  into  his  native  country.  We  find  the  Cilicians,  among 
 others,  disputing  with  St  Stephen,  (Acts  vi.  £).);  and  we  find  St 
 Paul,  in  company  with  Silas,  proceeding  '  through  Syria  and 
 Cilicia,  confirming  the  chinches,'  (Acts  xv.  41.)  Christianity 
 continued  to  flourish  in  this  country  until  the  eighth  century, when 
 it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Saracens,  by  whom,  and  especially  by 
 tiie  Turks,  it  was  almost  extinguished.  It  is  at  present  a  province 
 vi  the  Turkish  empire. — Scripture  Gazetteer,  Edin.  1837. — Ed. 
 
 C  Though  Syria,  by  heathen  authors,  is  generally  used  in  a 
 large  acceptation,  and  so  comprehends  both  Phoenicia  and  the  Holy 
 Land  ;  yet,  as  it  commonly  occurs  in  the  New  Testament  in  a 
 stricter  sense,  it  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Euphrates,  on 
 the  west  by  Phoenicia  and  the  Mediterranean  sea,  on  the  north 
 by  Cilicia,  and  on  the  south  by  Judea  and  Arabia  Deserta. — 
 Whitby' 8  Alphabetical  Table,  and  Calmet's  Dictionary. 
 
 d  Josephus  tells  us,  that  this  was  a  village,  not  yielding  to  a 
 city  for  greatness  ;  (Antiq.  b.  20.)  and  he  elsewhere  expressly 
 styles  it  a  city.  (Jew.  War,  b.  ii.)  It  was  burnt  by  Cestius,  whilst 
 the  men  were  gone  from  it  to  Jerusalem,  to  celebrate  the  feast  of 
 tabernacles;  but,  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  it  was  re- 
 built, and  made  one  of  the  Jewish  academies.     By  the  Gentiles 
 
 37,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END 
 
 one  iEneas  of  a  paralytic  disorder,  which  had  confined 
 him  to  his  bed  for  eight  years,  and  thereby  prevailed 
 with  the  inhabitants  of  Lydda,  and  of  Saron,  e  a  neigh- 
 bouring- town,  to  embrace  the  Christian  profession.  From 
 Lydda  he  was  intreated  by  two  messengers  to  come  over 
 to  Joppa,  a  noted  port  about  six  miles  distance,  upon 
 the  account  of  one  Tabitha,  /  in  Greek  called  Dorcas, 
 a  Christian  woman,  venerable  for  her  piety,  and  diffusive 
 charity,  who  was  lately  dead.  When  he  came  to  the 
 house,  he  found  the  body  in  an  upper  chamber,  ready 
 washed,  and  prepared  for  its  funeral,  and  attended  with 
 many  sorrowful  widows,  who  durst  not  request  of  him  to 
 raise  her  from  the  dead,  but  by  their  tears  and  lamenta- 
 tions, and  large  commendations  of  her  charity,  suffi- 
 ciently testified  their  desire  ;  so  that  the  apostle,  having 
 caused  the  company  to  withdraw,  first  kneeled  down, 
 and  made  his  supplications  to  God  :  and  then  turning  to 
 the  body,  with  one  word  speaking,  raised  her  up,  and 
 presented  her  alive  to  her  friends  and  relations,  which 
 gained  him  a  great  number  of  converts  at  Joppa,  and  en- 
 couraged him,  for  some  considerable  time,  to  take  up  his 
 abode  there,  lodging  in  the  house  of  one  Simon  a  tanner. 
 While  he  abode  at  Joppa,  retiring  one  day  8  to  the 
 top  of  the  house  about  noon-tide  to  pray,  after  he  had 
 ended  his  devotions,  he  found  himself  hungry  ;  but  while 
 the  people  were  preparing  his  dinner,  he  fell  into  a 
 trance,  wherein  was  presented  to  him  a  large  sheet,  or 
 table-cloth,  let  down,  as  it  were,  by  the  four  corners  from 
 heaven,  wherein  were  creatures  of  all  kinds,  clean  and 
 unclean  ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  heard  a  voice,  calling 
 him  to  kill  and  eat  freely  of  them,  which  when  Peter, 
 a  little  too  tenacious  of  the  rites  and  institutions  of  the 
 Mosaic  law,  declared  his  aversion  to  do,  the  voice  re- 
 joined, that  what  God  had  pronounced  clean,  he  ought 
 
 it  was  called  Diospolis,  or  the  city  of  Jupiter  ;  but,  by  the  Chris- 
 tians, in  the  times  of  the  holy  wars,  it  had  the  name  of  St  George's, 
 partly  from  a  magnificent  temple,  which  the  emperor  Justinian 
 there  erected  in  honour  of  that  saint,  and  partly  from  an  errone- 
 ous opinion  then  prevailing  among  them,  that  in  that  place  he 
 obtained  the  crown  of  martyrdom. — Wells's  Geography  of  the 
 Nciv  Testament.  Voluey,  describing  this  town,  says,  that  a 
 place  lately  ravaged  by  fire  and  sword  would  have  precisely  the 
 same  appearance;  and  that,  from  the  huts  of  the  inhabitants,  to 
 the  palace  of  the  Aga,  is  one  vast  heap  of  rubbish  and  ruins. 
 There  is,  however,  a  kind  of  weekly  market  held  here ;  and  the 
 Christian  residents  show  the  ruins  of  the  church  of  St  Peter, 
 and  many  spots  where  tradition  says  that  apostle  preached, 
 prayed,  &c  — Ed. 
 
 e  Is  a  town  adjoining  to  Joppa,  giving  name  to  the  spacious 
 and  fruitful  vale  which  reaches  from  Cesarea  to  Joppa,  and 
 among  the  Rabbins  is  famous  for  its  wines. — Wells's  Geography 
 of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 yThe  true  reason  why  St  Luke  gives  this  interpretation  of 
 her  Syriac  name,  seems  to  be  this, — that  as  she  was  a  Jewess, 
 who  spake  nothing  but  Greek,  she  was  called  by  her  first  name 
 among  the  Jews,  and  by  her  second  among  the  Greeks  ;  for  in 
 both  languages  the  two  names  signify  the  same  thing,  namely, 
 a  goat  or  a  roe,—  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 g  At  the  dedication  of  the  temple,  Solomon  had  so  oft  and  so 
 solemnly  requested  of  God  that  lie  would  hearken  to  the  supplica- 
 tions of  his  people,  who  should  at  any  time  spread  out  their  hands 
 towards  that  place,  (2  Kings  viii.  30,  38.)  that  it  thence  became 
 a  custom  among  the  Jews,  whenever  they  were  absent  from 
 Jerusalem,  to  oiler  up  their  prayers  in  places  where  they  might 
 have  a  free  prospect  towards  it.  Thus  of  Daniel  it  is  recorded, 
 that  when  he  prayed,  as  he  did  it  three  times  a  day,  the  windows 
 of  his  chamber  were  opened  towards  Jerusalem,  (Dan.  vi.  10,) 
 and  therefore,  in  all  likelihood,  St  Peter  being  now  at  Joppa, 
 went  up  to  the  roof  of  the  house,  to  pray,  for  the  same  reasob.*? 
 // 7/ itby 's  Annota tion s . 
 
1068 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Bock  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4041.  A.  D.  37;  OR,  A.  M.  5448.  A.  D.  37,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 by  no  means  to  account  common  or  unclean.  a  This 
 representation  was  made  to  him  three  several  times, 
 after  which  the  sheet  was  again  taken  up,  and  the  vision 
 disappeared.  But  while  Peter  was  revolving  with  him- 
 self what  the  meaning  of  this  might  be,  three  messengers 
 knocked  at  the  door,  desiring  to  speak  with  him ;  and 
 when  they  had  delivered  their  message,  namely,  that 
 Cornelius,  a  Roman,  captain  of  a  company  in  the  Italian 
 legion,  *  then  at  Caesarea,  and  a  person  of  eminent 
 virtue,  piety,  and  charity,  had,  by  an  immediate  com- 
 mand from  God,  sent  to  him ;  he  the  next  day,  with  six 
 other  brethren  from  Joppa,  went  along  with  them,  and 
 the  day  following  arrived  at  Cassarea. 
 
 Cornelius,  in  expectation  of  his  coming,  had  invited 
 his  friends  and  relations  to  his  house,  and  as  Peter  drew 
 near,  fell  down  at  his  feet  to  worship  him  ;  but  the  apostle 
 rejecting  the  honour,  as  what  was  due  to  God  alone, 
 entered  into  the  house,  and  there  made  his  apology  to 
 the  company,  namely,  'that  though  they  could  not  but 
 know,  that  it  was  not  lawful  for  a  Jew  to  converse,  in 
 the  duties  of  religion  especially,  with  those  of  another 
 nation  :  yet,  since  God  had  now  taught  him  to  make 
 no  distinction,  he  very  readily  attended  their  pleasure, 
 desiring  to  know  the  occasion  of  their  sending  for  him.' 
 Whereupon  Cornelius  made  answer, '  that  he  did  it  upon 
 the  express  command  of  God,  who,  by  his  angel,  c  had 
 
 a  The  great  distinction  thrown  by  God  around  his  people,  to 
 preserve  them  separate  from  the  Gentiles,  was  the  diet  peculiar 
 to  themselves  ;  which  was  an  effectual  bar  to  familiar  intercourse 
 and  to  idolatrous  customs,  as  he  declares,  (Lev.  xx.  23 — 25.)  Thus 
 Eleazer  in  Aristeas,  apud  Joseph,  p.  17.  and  Eusebius,  Prtep. 
 Evang.  i.  8.  c.  9.  p.  371.  Hence  the  Jews  esteemed  the  Gen- 
 tiles who  ate  these  meats  as  unclean;  and  held,  that  the  unclean 
 beasts  signified  the  nations  of  the  world.  The  vision  included 
 all  manner  of  beasts,  &c,  and  creeping  things,  because  they  are 
 included  in  the  text  of  Lev.  xx.  25.  This  explains  Acts  ix.  3. 
 and  the  meaning  of  St  Peter's  saying,  ver.  28.  that.  God  had 
 showed  him  that  he  should  'call  no  man  common  or  unclean;' 
 because  by  the  vision  he  took  off  the  restriction  which  hindered 
 any  converse  with  other  nations.  And  it  was  highly  expedient 
 that  this  liberty  should  be  expressly  revealed  from  heaven,  or  the 
 apostles  could  not,  as  Jews,  teach  all  nations,  'putting  no  differ- 
 ence between  them,'  (chap.  xi.  12.  and  xv.  9.)  or  have  any  inter- 
 course, which  violated  a  former  law  given  by  God  himself. 
 
 H'lutly.     The  vision,  besides  it  figurative  meaning,  had  a  literal 
 one,  and  signified  that  the  distinction  of  meats  as  well  as  of  men 
 
 was  now  to  be  abolished. — Bishop  fVarburton. Ed. 
 
 b  The  Conors  of  the  Romans,  which  the  Greek  renders  cruoa, 
 and  we,  band,  was  a  body  of  infantry,  consisting  of  five  hundred 
 men,  ten  of  which  bands  made  a  legion.  And  the  manner  in 
 which  the  Romans  distinguished  and  denominated  their  bands 
 and  legions  was  very  various.  Sometimes  it  was  from  the  order 
 of  places  ;  and  so  they  were  called  the  first  or  second  band, 
 according  to  their  rank  and  precedency;  sometimes  from  the 
 commanders  they  were  under;  as,  the  Augustan  and  Claudian 
 band,  &c,  because  persons  of  that  nam.'  did  lead  them;  some- 
 time from  their  own  behaviour;  as,  the  Victrix,  the  Ferrea, 
 the  Conquering,  the  Iron  band,  &c,  by  reason  of  the  great 
 valour,  which,  in  some  sharp  engagements,  these  had  shown; 
 sometimes  from  the  countries  they  were  chiefly  quartered  in ; 
 a-;  the  German  and  Pannonian  band,  &c,  and  sometimes  from 
 the  parts  from  whence  they  were  gathered,  as  this  of  Cornelius 
 is  called  the  [taliau  band,  because  it  was  raised  out  of  that 
 country,  and  «as  a  body  of  forces  well  known,  for  their  gallantry 
 and  great  exploits,  among  the  writers  of  the  Roman  history.— 
 ( 'tUmtft  Commentary. 
 
 e  But  if  God  was  bo  very  kind  to  Cornelius,  as  to  send  an 
 a. -gel  to  him,  why  did  U  not  at  the  same  time  give  that  angel 
 c.immission  to  instruct  him  in  what  lie  was  to  do,  and  to  save 
 In-  apostle  a  journey  from  Joppa  to  Caesarea?  Now,  besides  the 
 honour  which  C„<),  in  this  method  of  proceeding,  designed  to 
 confer  upon  St  Peter  and  his  ministry,  it  is  apparent,  that  hereby 
 
 ordered  him  to  send  for  him  at  Joppa,  from  whom  lie 
 should  receive  some  special  instruction";  and  that  for 
 this  reason  they  were  all  then  met  together,  attending 
 the  commands  which  he  had  brought  them  from  God.' 
 
 Hereupon  St  Peter  began  his  discourse,  and  declared, 
 'that  now  he  perceived  plainly,  that  God  had  made  no 
 distinction  of  persons  and  people,  but  that  the  pious  and 
 godly  of  all  nations  were  to  meet  with  acceptance  ;  that 
 peace  and  reconciliation  between  God  and  man  was  a 
 doctrine  published  by  the  prophets  of  old,  and  of  late 
 since  the  time  of  John  the  Baptist,  preached  through 
 Galilee  and  Judea  ;  that  of  this  peace  Jesus  of  Nazareth' 
 was  the  only  mediator  between  God  and  man,  as  appeared 
 by  the  divine  powers  and  graces  wherewith  he  was  in- 
 vested, and  which  he  constantly  exercised  in  doing  good 
 to  mankind  ;  that  of  his  life  and  actions,  more  especially 
 of  his  crucifixion  by  the  Jews,  and  resurrection  from  the 
 dead,  of  his  appearing  to  his  disciples,  and  even  eating 
 and  drinking  with  them  after  his  resurrection,  he  and  the 
 rest  of  the  apostles  were  chosen  witnesses  ;  and  that 
 from  him  they  had  received,  before  his  ascension,  a  com- 
 mand and  commission,  to  publish  to  all  nations  under 
 heaven,  that  he  was  the  person  whom  God  had  appointed 
 to  be  the  great  judge  of  all  the  world.' 
 
 While  Peter  was  thus  preaching  to  them,  the  Holy 
 Ghost  fell  upon  all  that  heard  him,  without  the  imposi- 
 tion of  the  apostle's  hands.  This  made  the  Jewish  con- 
 verts who  came  along  with  Peter,  wonder  not  a  little,  that 
 the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  should  be  poured  upon  the 
 Gentiles  ;  but  Peter  perceiving  it,  ordered  them  d  imme- 
 
 he  intended  to  let  us  know,  that  we  are  not  to  expect  extraordi- 
 nary ways  of  instruction,  where  he  hath  instituted  ordinary 
 means.  The  angel,  no  doubt,  might  as  readily  have  told  Cor- 
 nelius what  he  ought  to  do,  as  bid  him  send  for  Peter,  and  God 
 could  as  easily  have  given  him  his  Spirit  at  that  time,  as  four 
 days  after ;  but  then  this  would  not  have  been  so  agreeable  to  the 
 order  which  Christ  had  settled  in  his  church.  Christ  had  ap- 
 pointed his  apostles  to  minister  his  ordinances;  and  therefore 
 God  did  not  suffer  even  an  angel  to  break  in  upon  this  economy, 
 but  ordered  St  Peter  to  wait  upon  the  centurion,  that  his  divine 
 mercy  might  not  redound  upon  him  only,  but  be  extended  to  his 
 relations  and  friends. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  But  whom  did  he  order  to  do  this?  the  Gentiles.  It  seems 
 at  first  sight  not  a  little  absurd,  that  they  who  were  not  yet 
 baptized  themselves,  should  baptize  others.  Or  were  they  some 
 of  those  who  came  along  with  him  to  Cresarea?  These  are  gene- 
 rally supposed  to  be  no  more  than  lay-brethren,  who  were  not 
 permitted  to  baptize,  but  in  cases  of  necessity.  But,  considering 
 that  St  Peter  was  now  upon  his  visitation  through  Judea,  Galilee, 
 and  Samaria,  it  seems  reasonable  that  he  should  carry  some  of 
 his  deacons,  at,  least,  along  with  iiim,  to  attend  in  such  offices  as 
 these.  Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  conversion  of  the  Gen- 
 tiles; for  that  Cornelius  and  his  company  were  the  first  fruits  of 
 the  heathen  world,  is  evident  from  the  injunction  which  our 
 Saviour  gave  his  apostles,  '  not  to  go  into  the  way  of  the  Gentiles,' 
 (Mat.  x.  5.)  from  the  practice  of  those  that  were  scattered  abroad 
 upon  the  death  of  Stephen,  but  preached  the  word  to  the  Jews 
 only,  (Acts  xi.  19.)  from  the  wonder  which  the  Jewish  converts 
 with  St  Peter  expressed,  when  they  saw,  'that  on  the  Gentiles 
 also  was  poured  out  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,'  (Acts  x.  45.) 
 and  from  the  altercation  which  the  brethren  at  Jerusalem  had 
 with  him  at  his  return.  '  Thou  wentest  in  to  men  uncircum- 
 cised,  and  didst  eat  with  them,  (Acts  xi.  3.)  which  to  some  is  a 
 proof  sufficient  that  the  door  of  faith  was  not  opened  to  the  Gen- 
 tiles before  the  conversion  of  Cornelius;  who,  according  to  the 
 account  of  some  Latin  writers,  was  made  afterwards  bishop  of 
 Cresarea  of  Palestine,  where  he  sudered  martyrdom.  But  since 
 Eusebius,  who  was  bishop  of  that  church,  does  not  reckon  him 
 among  the  number  of  his  predecessors,  we  have  reason  to  suspect 
 the  truth  of  this  piece  of  history. —  Whitby's  Annotations,  and 
 Culmvt's  Commentary. 
 
SEC7.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1069 
 
 A.  M.  4047.  A.  D.  43;  OR,  A.  M.  5454.  A.  D.  43,  &c.  FROM  ACiu  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 sion  of  Cornelius,  and  others,  they  applied  themselves 
 to  the  Greeks,  rfwho  lived  in  that  city,  and,  by  the  bless- 
 ing of  God,  made  great  numbers  of  converts  daily  ;  inso- 
 much that  the  apostles,  who  remained  at  Jerusalem,  when 
 they  heard  of  this  happy  progress,  sent  Barnabas,  e  a 
 
 diately  to  be  baptized,  and,  to  instruct  them  more  fully 
 in  their  Christian  profession,  tarried  for  some  consider- 
 able time  with  them. 
 
 AVhen  he  returned  to  Jerusalem,  the  Jewish  converts,  a 
 who  still  retained  their  inveterate  prejudice  against  the 
 Gentiles,  utterly  condemned  him  for  conversing  so  fami- 
 liarly, and  eating  with  them;  but, for  his  apology, having 
 given  them  a  plain  narrative  of  the  whole  affair,  and  the 
 occasion  of  it,  he  concluded  at  last  with  this  inference, 
 '  that  since  God  had  been  pleased  to  bestow  upon  these 
 Gentiles  the  same  privileges  and  marks  of  conversion 
 that  he  had  done  on  his  select  disciples,  it  would  in  him 
 have  been  direct  disobedience  to  the  divine  will,  had  he 
 denied  them  admission  into  the  church,  or  refused  them 
 his  instructions  and  conversation  ;'  which  fully  satisfied 
 the  audience,  and  turned  their  displeasure  against  him 
 into  praise  and  thanksgiving  to  God,  for  having  com- 
 municated the  same  mercy  to  the  Gentiles  that  he  had 
 done  to  the  Jews. 
 
 After  the  general  dispersion  which  followed  upon  St 
 Stephen's  death,  some  disciples  who  were  born  in  Cy- 
 prus, and  Cyrene,  b  having  travelled  through  several 
 countries,  and  hitherto  preached  to  the  Jews  only,  when 
 they  came  to  Antioch,  c  and  there  heard  of  the  conver- 
 ts The  ancient  fathers  are  generally  of  opinion,  that  the  apostles 
 themselves  had  no  hand  in  this  controversy;  and  some  of  them 
 suppose,  that  the  great  fomenter  of  it  was  Cerinthus,  whose 
 heresy  grew  afterwards  famous  in  the  church.  But  if  we  con- 
 sider how  zealous  the  Jews,  even  after  their  conversion,  were  for 
 their  laws  and  customs,  (Acts  xxi.  20,  21.)  how  St  Peter  himself, 
 before  he  received  this  vision,  laid  it  down  for  a  rule,  that  it  was 
 unlawful  for  a  Jew  to  converse  with  an  alien,  (Acts  x.  28.)  and, 
 even  after  this  vision,  how  he  withdrew  from  the  believing  Gen- 
 tiles, for  fear  of  the  censure  of  those  who  came  from  Jerusalem, 
 (Gal.  ii.  12.)  we  cannot  see  why  it  should  be  inconsistent  with  the 
 character  of  the  very  greatest  of  the  apostles,  to  inquire  into  the 
 reason  of  St  Peter's  conduct,  which  according  to  their  present 
 persuasion,  was  not  warrantable;  since  'this  was  a  mystery,'  as 
 St  Paul  tells  us,  '  which  in  other  ages  was  not  known  unto  the 
 sons  of  men,  as  it  is  now  revealed  unto  his  holy  apostles  and 
 prophets  by  the  Spirit,  namely,  that  the  Gentiles  should  be  fel- 
 low-heirs, and  of  the  same  body,  and  partakers  of  God's  promises 
 in  Christ,  by  the  gospel,'  (Eph.  iii.  5,  G) —  Calmet's  Commentary, 
 and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 6  This  was  a  city  of  great  note,  and  once  of  such  power,  as  to 
 contend  with  Carthage  for  some  pre-eminencies.  It  stood  upon 
 the  western  parts  of  Lybia,  properly  so  called ;  and,  as  it  was 
 the  principal  city,  it  sometimes  gave  the  name  of  Cyrenaica  to 
 the  whole  country,  which  by  the  sacred  writer  is  paraphrastically 
 called  '  Lybia  about  Cyrene,'  (Acts  ii.  10.)  The  city  itself  is  famous 
 in  profane  writers,  for  being  the  birth  place  of  Eratosthenes  the 
 mathematician,  of  Callimaehus  the  poet,  and,  in  holy  writ,  of 
 Simon,  whom  the  Jews  compelled  to  bear  our  Saviour's  cross. — 
 Wells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. — See  a  further  accouut 
 of  this  city  in  the  Scripture  Gazetteer,  Edin.  1837. 
 
 c  This  Antioch,  to  distinguish  it  from  sixteeu  other  cities, 
 which,  in  Syria,  and  other  countries,  bore  that  name,  was  fre- 
 [uently  called  Antiochia  Epidaphnc ,  from  its  neighbourhood  to 
 Daphne,  a  village  where  the  temple  of  Daphne  stood.  It  was 
 built,  as  some  say,  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes;  as  others,  by 
 Seleucus  Nicauor,  the  first  king  of  Syria  after  Alexander  the 
 Great,  in  memory  of  his  father  Antiochus ;  and  was,  after  that, 
 the  royal  seat  of  the  kings  of  Syria.  In  the  flourishing  times  of 
 the  Roman  empire  it  was  the  ordinary  residence  of  the  prefect, 
 or  governor  of  the  eastern  provinces,  and  was  also  honoured  with 
 the  residence  of  many  of  the  Roman  emperors,  especially  of 
 Verus  and  Valcns,  who  spent  here  the  greatest  part  of  their  time. 
 As  to  its  situation,  it  lay  on  both  sides  of  the  river  Orontes, 
 about  twelve  miles  distant  from  the  Mediterranean  sea;  was  in 
 former  times  adorned  with  many  sumptuous  palaces,  and  stately 
 temples,  and,  both  by  nature  and  art,  fortified  even  to  admiration  ; 
 but,  being  taken  by  the  Saracens,  and  afterwards  by  the  Turks, 
 it,  bewail  to  grow  into  decay,  and   is   now  in  so  desolate  and 
 
 ruinous  a  condition,  that  the  patriarch  has  long  since  removed 
 his  dwelling  to  Da.ma.scus.— Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table,  and 
 Wells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament.  We  have  the  testi- 
 mony of  Chrysostom,  both  of  the  vast  increase  of  this  illustrious 
 church  in  the  fourth  century,  and  of  the  spirit  of  charity  which 
 continued  to  actuate  it.  It  consisted  at  this  time  of  not  less  than 
 a  hundred  thousand  persons,  three  thousand  of  whom  were  sup- 
 ported out  of  the  public  donations.  It  is  painful  to  trace  the  pro- 
 gress of  declension  in  such  a  church  as  this.  But  the  period  now 
 referred  to,  namely,  the  age  of  Chrysostom,  towards  the  close  of 
 the  fourth  century,  may  be  considered  as  the  brightest  of  its 
 history  subsequent  to  the  apostolic  age,  and  that  from  which  the 
 church  at  Antioch  may  date  its  fall.  It  continued  indeed  out- 
 wardly prosperous;  but  superstition,  secular  ambition,  the  pride 
 of  life,  pomp  and  formality  in  the  service  of  God,  in  place  of  humi- 
 lity and  sincere  devotion,  the  growth  of  faction,  and  the  decay 
 of  charity,  showed  that  real  religion  was  fast  disappearing,  and 
 that  the  foundations  were  laid  of  that  great  apostacy,  which,  in 
 two  centuries  from  this  time,  overspread  the  whole  Christian 
 world ;  led  to  the  entire  extinction  of  the  church  in  the  East  ; 
 and  still  holds  dominion  over  the  fairest  portions  of  the  west. 
 Antioch,  under  its  modern  name  of  Antakia,  is  now  but  little 
 known  to  the  western  nations.  It  occupies,  or  rather  did  till 
 lately  occupy  a  remote  corner  of  the  ancient  enclosure  of  its 
 walls.  Its  splendid  buildings  were  reduced  to  hovels  ;  and  its 
 population  of  half  a  million,  to  10,000  wretched  beings,  living  ir 
 the  usual  debasement  and  insecurity  of  Turkish  subjects.  Sucl. 
 was  nearly  its  condition  when  visited  by  Pocock  about  the  year 
 1788,  and  again  by  Kinneir  in  1813.  But  its  ancient  subter- 
 ranean enemy,  which  since  the  destruction  of  5S7  has  never 
 long  together  withheld  its  assaults,  has  again  triumphed  over  it: 
 the  convulsion  of  the  13th  of  August,  1822,  laid  it  once  more  in 
 ruins;  and  every  thing  relating  to  Antioch  is  past. — Hansford's 
 Scripture  Gazetteer. — Ed. 
 
 d  The  learned  Gmtius  is  pretty  positive,  that  instead  of  rr^is 
 rou;  'EXXfimrrds,  as  it  is  in  our  vulgar  copies,  and  denotes  such 
 •lews  as  spake  the  Greek  language,  we  should  read,  <r^is  rob; 
 'TXXyivo.;,  that  is,  Greeks  who  were  Gentiles:  for  which  he  pro- 
 duces not  only  the  Syriac,  Arabic,  and  Latin  versions,  but  the 
 Alexandrian  manuscript  likewise,  as  indeed  the  whole  series  and 
 purport  of  St  Luke's  discourse  seems  to  require  it.  For,  having 
 given  us  an  account  of  what  happened  to  Cornelius  at  Caesarea, 
 he  next  proceeds  to  another  piece  of  history  of  the  like  nature, 
 namely,  the  conversion  of  several  other  Gentiles  in  the  city  of 
 Antioch,  which,  when  it  came  to  be  known  at  Jerusalem,  con- 
 firmed the  brethren  in  the  belief  of  God's  design  to  receive  the 
 Gentiles  into  the  bosom  of  his  church,  and  gave  a  great  weight 
 to  what  St  Peter  had  testified  concerning  this  matter. — Whitby's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. —  Bloomfield,  inhisGreek 
 Testament,  contends  strenuously  in  favour  of  the  received  reading, 
 Grecians,  'ExXtiMnrras :  and  shows  by  various  arguments  that  the 
 reading  'E/UW>,  Greeks,  approved  of  in  this  note,  has  no  sup- 
 port from  either  external  or  internal  evidence.  Bootlnoyd  trans- 
 lates '  Hellenists,'  by  which  he  means  Greek  proselytes  to 
 Judaism;  but  the  Hellenists  were  Jews  who  lived  in  Grecian 
 countries  and  spoke  the  Greek  language. — En. 
 
 e  The  Scripture  acquaints  us,  (Acts  iv.  36.)  that  his  name 
 was  originally  .loses;  that  he  was  descended  of  the  tribe  of  Levi, 
 but  born  at  Cyprus  ;  and  that,  as  he  was  the  first  who  sold  an 
 estate,  and  put  the  purchase  money  into  the  common  fund  then 
 applied  to  the  sustenance  of  poor  Christians,  he  very  likely  from 
 that  action  received  the  name  of  Barnabas,  which,  accord- 
 ing to  St  Luke's  interpretation,  signifies  the  son  of  consolation. 
 But,  besides  the  qualifications  mentioned  in  the  text,  there  were 
 two  other  reasons  that  might  induce  the  apostles  to  make  choice 
 of  Barnabas,  preferably  to  any  other,  upon  this  occasion:  1st. 
 Because  he  was  a  great  master  of  the  Greek,  which  was  the  cur- 
 rent language  of  Antioch,  as  being  himself  born  at  Cyprus, 
 where  that  language  only  was  in  use ;  and,  2dly.  Because  the 
 apostles  thought  it  might  be  more  agreeable  to  these  first  planters 
 of  the  gospel  in  Antioch,  who  were  a  great  many  of  them  natives 
 of  Cyprus,  to  have  a  fellow-labourer  of  the  same  country  sent 
 amongst  them. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
1070 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4047.  A.  D.  43;  OR,  A.  M.  5454.  A.  D.  43,  &c  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 j lions  man,  and  endued  with  many  excellent  gifts,  to 
 assist  the  disciples,  and  confirm  the  believers  in  that 
 city.  The  success  of  the  gospel  in  so  large  a  place  was 
 no  small  consolation  to  him  :  and  therefore,  having  ex- 
 horted the  brethren  to  hold  fast  the  profession  of  their 
 faith,  he  thence  departed  to  Tarsus,  to  find  out  Saul,  and 
 with  him  in  a  short  time  returned  to  Antioch  ;  where,  for 
 the  space  of  a  whole  year,  they  daily  resorted  to  the 
 places  of  public  concourse,  and  gained  converts  so 
 numerous  and  considerable,  that  in  this  city  the  disciples 
 of  Jesus  Christ  first  obtained  the  honourable  name  of 
 Christians." 
 
 This  opened  an  intercourse  between  Jerusalem  and 
 Antioch  ;  so  that,  when  certain  persons,  who  at  that  time 
 had  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  were  come  from  Jerusalem, 
 and  among  them  one  named  Agabus,  *  had  foretold,  that 
 there  would  shortly  be  a  great  famine  in  many  parts  of 
 tin'  Roman  empire,  which  accordingly  happened  in  the 
 fourth  year  of  the  reign  of  Claudius,  the  Christians  of 
 Antioch  determined  to  make  a  collection  for  their 
 brethren  in  Judea,  c  which,  upon  the  approach  of  the 
 dearth,  they  accordingly  did,  and  sent  it  to  the  elders 
 by  the  hands  of  Barnabas  and  Saul.  But,  before  their 
 arrival  at  Jerusalem,  Agrippa,  the  gTandson  of  Herod 
 the  Great,  merely  to  ingTatiate  himself  with  the  Jews, 
 raised  a  sharp  persecution  against  the  Christians.  He 
 ordered  James,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  and  brother  of  John, 
 
 a  Before  tins  they  were  called  amongst  themselves,  '  brethren, 
 saints,  disciples,  believers,  the  faithful,'  and  '  those  that  called 
 on  the  name  of  Christ,'  and  among  their  enemies,  '  Galileans, 
 Nazarenes,'  and  '  the  men  of  the  sect;'  but  now,  by  the  con- 
 version of  so  many  heathens  both  in  Cacsarea  and  Antioch,  the 
 believing  Jews  and  Gentiles  being  all  made  one  church,  this  new 
 name  was  given  them,  as  more  expressive  of  their  common  re- 
 lation to  their  master  Christ.  And  that  it  was  given  them  in 
 a  solemn  manner,  we  have  reason  to  conclude  from  the  propriety 
 of  the  original  word ;  for  ^n/iariirai  is  commonly  used  with  re- 
 gard to  edicts  and  proclamations,  such  especially  as  contain  the 
 people's  professions  of  allegiance  to  emperors,  and  the  privileges 
 granted  by  them  to  the  people;  and  therefore  it  seems  not  im- 
 probable,  that  the  imposition  of  this  name  was  done  by  a  public 
 act  and  declaration  of  the  whole  church,  about  the  beginning  of 
 tin-  reign  of  Claudius,  ten  years  after  our  Lord's  ascension,  as 
 an  ancient  historian  informs  us,  whether  Euodius  was  at  that 
 time  the  bishop  of  Antioch  or  not. — Sta?ihope  on  the  Epistles  and 
 Gotpeh,  ;.nd  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 l>  W  ho  this  Agabus  was,  we  have  no  account  in  any  ecclesi- 
 astical history;  only  the  Greeks  tell  us,  that  he  was  one  of  our 
 Lord's  seventy  disciples,  and  as  he  is  said  to  have  suffered 
 martyrdom  at  Antioch,  accordingly  they  observe  his  festival  on 
 tin-  eighth  of  March.  But,  in  regard  to  the  truth  of  this  pro- 
 pin  wy,  Eusebius  tells  us,  that  the  famine  which  he  foretold, 
 oppressed  almost  the  whole  empire,  and  was  recorded  by  his- 
 toriina  the  most  averse  to  the  Christian  religion,  namely,  by 
 Dion  Cassius,  who  calls  it  'a  very  great  famine,'  (Hist.  b.  xvi.)  by 
 Joeepb.ua,  who  tells  us  '  that  in  Judea  many  perished  for  want  of 
 n  ictuala,'(Antiq.b.  xx.  c.  2.),  and  by  Suetonius,  who  observes,  that 
 the  emperor  himself,  upon  this  occasion,  was  so  insulted  by  the 
 
 I I'1''  in  'he  common  market-place,  that  he  was  obliged,  by  a 
 
 pattern  gate,  to  retire  into  his  palace:  in  Claudio,  c.  xviii.  —  Cal- 
 mefs  Commentary,  and  Jf'hithy's  Annotations. — History  re- 
 corda  no  fewer  than  four  famines  which  happened  in  the  reign  of 
 Claudius  hot  it  is  generally  agreed  that  the  famine  here  referred  to 
 vas  that  which  took  place  in  the  fourth  year  of  his  reign.— Ed. 
 
 c  The  reasons  why  this  supply  was  principally  sent  to  Judea, 
 might  be,  either  because  there  the  calamity  fell  heaviest,  or 
 because  believers  were  like  to  find  least  pity  there,  or  because  this 
 »;i-  a  fitting  testimony  of  gratitude  to  the  country,  from  whence 
 the  means  of  their  conversion  fust  came,  according  to  that  sub- 
 sequent reasoning  of  St  Paul's,  'if  we  have  sown  unto  you  spirit- 
 ual things,  ought  it  to  be  accounted  a  great  thing  if  we  shall 
 reap  your  carnal  things'  (I  Cor.  ix.  11.)— Stanhope  on  the 
 Spittle*  and  (lospels. 
 
 commonly  called  the  Great,  d  to  be  beheaded ;  and, 
 having  apprehended  Peter,  and  put  him  in  prison,  he 
 set  a  guard  of  sixteen  soldiers  upon  him,  designing,  im- 
 mediately after  the  feast  of  the  passover,  to  bring  him 
 forth  to  the  Jews,  and,  if  they  desired  it,  to  have  him  ex- 
 ecuted. But  the  very  night  before  the  day  intended  for 
 his  arraignment  and  execution,  God  sent  an  angel  from 
 heaven,  who  knocked  off  his  chains,  e  opened  the  prison- 
 door,  and,  without  the  guards  once  perceiving  it,  carried 
 him  quite  out ;  whereupon  he  went  directly  to  the  house 
 of  Mary,  /the  mother  of  John,  surnamed  Mark,  where 
 several  disciples  were  met  together,  and  sending  up  their 
 prayers  to  heaven  for  his  deliverance.  As  he  stood 
 knocking  without,  a  maid  of  the  house,  named  Rhoda, 
 perceiving  that  it  was  his  voice,  ran  in,  and  acquainted 
 the  company,  that  Peter  was  at  the  door  ;  but,  when  she 
 persisted  in  the  thing,  they  concluded  rather,  that  it 
 must  have  been  his  angel,  S  until,  being  let  in,  he  related 
 to  them  the  whole  manner  of  his  miraculous  escape  :  and, 
 having  ordered  them  to  acquaint  James,  and  the  other 
 
 d  This  was  James  the  greater,  son  of  Zebedee,  and  must  be 
 distinguished  from  James  the  less,  son  of  Alpheus.  This  latter 
 was  put  to  death  by  Ananias  the  high-priest,  during  the  reign  of 
 Nero.  This  James  with  his  brother  John  were  those  who  re- 
 quested to  sit  on  the  right  and  left  hand  of  our  Lord,  (Mat.  xx. 
 23.)  and  our  Lord's  prediction  was  now  fulfilled  in  one  of  them, 
 who  by  his  martyrdom  drank  of  our  Lord's  cup,  and  was  bap- 
 tized with  his  baptism.  By  the  death  of  James,  the  number  of 
 the  apostles  was  reduced  to  eleven ;  and  we  do  not  find  that  ever 
 it  was  filled  up.  The  apostles  never  had  any  successors ;  God 
 has  continued  their  doctrine,  but  not  their  order.  By  killing 
 with  the  sword,  we  are  to  understand  beheading.  Among  the 
 Jews  there  were  four  kinds  of  deaths:  1.  Stoning:  2.  burning: 
 3.  killing  with  the  sword,  or  beheading:  and  4.  strangling. 
 The  third  was  a  Roman  as  well  as  a  Jewish  mode  of  punish- 
 ment. Killing  with  the  sword  was  the  punishment  which,  ac- 
 cording to  the  Talmud,  was  inflicted  on  those  who  drew  away 
 the  people  to  any  strange  worship.  James  was  probably  ac- 
 cused of  this  ;  and  hence  the  punishment  mentioned  in  the  text. 
 —Br.  A.  Clarke.— En. 
 
 e  In  chap.  xii.  6.  we  are  told  that  Peter  was  placed  between 
 two  soldiers,  and  bound  with  two  chains.  The  way  in  which 
 prisoners  were  chained  among  the  Romans,  was  as  follows:  an 
 iron  chain  of  convenient  length  was  fastened  at  one  end  to  the 
 hand  of  the  prisoner,  and  at  the  other  to  the  aim  of  the  soldier. 
 When  a  person  was  committed  to  the  care  of  one  soldier,  which 
 was  commonly  done,  there  was  consequently  but  one  chain,  and 
 this  was  fastened  to  the  right  hand  of  the  prisoner,  and  to  the 
 left  aim  of  the  soldier,  as  we  learn  from  Seneca,  it  is  very 
 easy  to  conclude,  that  when  a  second  soldier,  and  a  second  chain 
 were  appointed,  the  prisoner  must  wear  the  second  chain  on  his 
 left  hand  and  the  soldier  on  Ills  right. — Lardner's  Credibility,  b. 
 i.  c.  19.— Ed. 
 
 f  This  house  stood  upon  mount  Sion ;  and  according  to  Epi- 
 phanius,  having  escaped  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus, 
 it  was  afterwards  turned  into  a  famous  church,  called  the  church 
 of  Sion,  which  endured  for  several  ages. — Calmet's  Commentary 
 and  Dictionary. 
 
 g  That  the  word  ayyiXos,  or  'angel,'  signifies  not  only  a  ce- 
 lestial spirit,  but  also  a  messenger  sent  from  one  to  another,  we 
 allow  is  manifest  from  several  passages  in  scripture;  but  that  it 
 cannot,  in  this  place,  denote  a  common  messenger,  is  evident 
 (or  this  reason,  namely,  that  the  damsel  could  know  St  Peter 
 no  otherwise  than  either  by  his  voice  or  face,  which  the  company 
 might  believe  his  angel  was  capable  of  imitating  ;  whereas  St 
 Peter  could  not  but  know,  that  no  messenger  from  the  prison, 
 had  he  been  allowed  to  send  one,  was  able  to  do  this ;  and  there- 
 fore, since  it  was  a  vulgar  opinion  among  the  Jews,  that  good 
 men  had  their  tutelar  angels,  or  at  least  that  angels  were  sent 
 down  from  heaven  about  their  affairs,  they,  by  this  angel,  might 
 understand,  either  erroneously  a  guardian  angel  attending  on  him, 
 or,  agreeably  to  scripture,  an  angel  sent  down  from  heaven  to 
 acquaint  them  with  something  relating  to  him  in  auswer  to  their 
 prayers. — Hammond's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1071 
 
 A.  M.  4047.  A.  D.  43;  OR,  A.  M.  5454.  A.  D. 
 
 brethren,  with  this  good  news,  he  withdrew  himself  to  a 
 place  of  more  retirement  and  security. 
 
 In  the  morning,  as  soon  as  it  was  day,  the  soldiers 
 missing  their  prisoner,  were  in  the  utmost  confusion  : 
 and  Agrippa,  finding  himself  disappointed  in  his  wicked 
 design,  commanded  the  keepers  to  be  put  to  death,  as 
 supposing  them  accessary  to  St  Peter's  escape,  and  so 
 departed  from  Jerusalem  to  Caesorea.  "■  AVhile  he  was 
 here,  the  ambassadors  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  relying  on  the 
 interest  they  had  with  Blastus,  the  lord  high  chamber- 
 lain, came  to  solicit  an  accommodation  of  some  differ- 
 ence that  had  lately  happened  between  their  states  and 
 the  king,  and  that  the  rather,  because  in  this  time  of 
 scarcity,  their  *  country  was  in  a  great  measure  depend- 
 ent on  the  king's  dominions  for  its  support.  Agrippa, 
 though  highly  displeased  with  them,  appointed  them  a 
 day  of  audience  ;  and  being  dressed  in  his  royal  robes, 
 and  seated  on  his  throne,  made  such  an  oration,  as  the 
 flattering  multitude  called  'the  speech  of  a  god,  and  not 
 of  a  man  ;'  which  he,  with  a  secret  pride  and  vanity,  as- 
 suming to  himself,  was  that  moment  struck  by  an  angel 
 with  a  mortification  in  his  bowels,  c  of  which,  in  a  short 
 time,  he  died. 
 
 About  the  time  of  the  death  of  Agrippa,  Saul  and 
 Barnabas,  having  disposed  of  their  contributions  to  the 
 
 43,  fee.   FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Christians  in  Jerusalem  and  Judea,  returned  back  to  the 
 city  of  Antioch,  and  brought  with  them  Mark  ;  d  but  they 
 had  not  long  been  there,  before  God,  by  some  particular 
 inspiration,  gave  them  to  understand,  that  he  had  ap- 
 pointed them  to  carry  his  word  into  other  places: 
 whereupon  the  church  that  was  at  Antioch,  betook 
 themselves  to  fasting  and  prayer ;  and  Simeon,  e  Lu- 
 cius,/and  Manaen,  S  men  endued  with  a  spirit  of  pro- 
 phecy, laid  their  hands  h  on  them,  and  so  sent  them 
 away  to  preach,  wherever  the  Holy  Ghost  should  require 
 them  to  go. 
 
 When  therefore  they  had  departed  from  Antioch,  they 
 first  came  to  Seleucia,  *  from  whence  they  took  shipping 
 for  Cyprus,  and  in  the  city  of  Salamis  k  first  began  their 
 
 a  Josephus,  who  gives  us  an  account  both  of  this  journey  and 
 the  occasion  of  it,  informs  us,  that  he  went  down  to  the  city  of 
 Cesarea  to  perform  the  solemnities,  and  the  games,  which  were 
 there  celebrated  every  Olympiad,  to  the  honour  of  Cfesar,  and 
 that  the  nobles  and  governors  of  Syria  repaired  to  that  city  lor 
 the  same  purpose. — Antiq.  b.  xix.  c.  7. 
 
 b  The  inhabitants  of  the  countries  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  which 
 were  very  narrow,  and  pent  up  by  the  sea,  took  little  pains  in 
 the  cultivation  of  their  ground.  Their  whole  business  and  em- 
 ployment was  commerce;  and  therefore  they  were  beholden  to 
 Judea,  Samaria,  and  Galilee,  which  were  all  at  this  time  under 
 Agrippa's  jurisdiction,  for  most  of  the  common  necessaries  of 
 life,  as  appears  from  1  Kings  v.  9,  11,  and  Ezek.  xxvii.  17. 
 — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 c  In  testimony  of  the  truth  of  this  piece  of  sacred  history, 
 Josephus  relates  the  manner  of  this  king's  death,  and  what  was 
 esteemed  the  occasion  of  it,  in  the  following  terms: — 'Upon  the 
 second  day  of  the  festival,  Agrippa  went  early  in  the  morning 
 to  the  theatre,  in  a  silver  stuff,  so  wonderfully  rich  and  curious, 
 that  the  beams  of  the  rising  sun  striking  upon  it,  people's  eyes 
 were  dazzled  with  the  reflection,  and,  as  the  sparkling  of  the 
 light  seemed  to  have  something  divine  in  it,  it  moved  the  spec- 
 tators, at  the  same  time,  l>oth  with  veneration  anil  dread.  Here- 
 upon a  crew  of  fawning  parasites  cried  him  up  for  a  god,  and 
 beseeched  him  in  form  to  furgive  them  the  sins  of  their  ignorance, 
 when  they  took  him  only  lor  flesh  and  blood,  like  another  man; 
 but  they  were  now  convinced,  they  said,  of  an  excellency  in  his 
 nature  more  than  human.  This  impious  flattery  passed  upon 
 him  without  either  check  or  repulse;  but  while  he  was  in  the 
 vanity  of  this  contemplation,  lilting  up  his  eyes,  he  saw  an  owl 
 in  the  air  over  his  head,  sitting  upon  a  rope,  which  he  found, 
 
 s i  after,  to  be  the  presage  of  mischief  to  him,  as  it  had  been 
 
 of  good  luck:  for  he  fell  immediately  into  violent  gripes 
 and  torments  in  his  bowels,  and  in  this  agony,  directing  his 
 speed)  to  his  friends  about  him,  Look  ye,  says  he,  your  god  is  now 
 condemned  to  die;  and  by  this  fatal  necessity,  I  am  about  to 
 prove  all  my  flatterers  to  be  a  company  of  profligate  liars,  and  to 
 convince  the  world,  by  dying,  that  I  am  not  immortal ;— but 
 God's  will  be  done.  With  these  words  his  pain  increased  upon 
 him,  so  that,  he  was  forced  to  remove  into  his  palace;  and,  as  it 
 continued  without  any  manner  of  abatement,  at  the  end  of  five 
 days  it  carried  him  oil;  in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  and  the 
 
 seventh  of  his  reign.'— Antiq.  b.  xix.c.  7 Josephus  indeed  doi  s 
 
 not  say,  that  he  was  eaten  up  with  worms ;  but  he  tells  us,  that  he 
 had  terrible  pains  in  bis  guts,  which,  in  the  space  of  five  days, 
 might  breed  worms  in  him,  as  he  confesses  they  did  in  his 
 gi andfather. —  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Calmet  is  of  opinion,  that  John  Mark  is  a  different  person 
 from  Mark  the  evangelist ;  but  they  are  considered  to  have  been 
 the  same  person  by  Jones,  Lightfoot,  Wetstein,  Lardner, 
 Michaelis,  and  Taylor.  To  strengthen  this  opinion,  Mr  Taylor 
 remarks  that  it  should  be  observed,  that  throughout  the  Acts  he 
 is  spoken  of  as  '  John  whose  surname  was  Mark  ;'  that  is,  Luke, 
 writing  in  Italy,  latinizes  ;  it  being  customary  for  Jews,  when 
 in  foreign  countries,  to  use  names  more  familiar  to  those  coun- 
 tries, than  their  Hebrew  appellations ;  and  if  Mark,  as  is  beyond 
 a  doubt,  accompanied  Peter  to  Rome,  he  would  be  known  there 
 by  his  surname  only. — Calmet's  Dictionary  abridged. — Ed. 
 
 e  This  Simeon,  who  is  surnamed  Niger,  is  supposed  by  some 
 to  be  the  same  with  Simon  the  Cyrenean,  who  bore  our  Saviour's 
 cross;  hut  for  this  opinion  there  is  no  other  proof  than  the 
 similitude  of  names  ;  which,  in  this  case,  is  far  from  being  ex- 
 act, since  St  Luke  always  call  Simon  the  Cyrenean  by  the  name 
 of  Simon,  but  Simon  Niger  by  the  name  of  Simeon. — Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 f  This  Lucius  is  said  by  some  to  have  been  one  of  our  Lord's 
 seventy  disciples,  and  by  the  apostles  to  have  been  constituted 
 the  first  bishop  of  Cyrene  ;  but  of  these  and  some  other  pretended 
 passages  of  his  life  and  death,  we  have  no  manner  of  certainty. — 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 g  This  Manaen  must  needs  have  been  a  person  of  a  consider- 
 able family  and  distinction,  because  we  find  that  he  was  brought 
 up  with  Herod  Antipas,  the  tetrarch,  who  put  Jolui  the  Bap- 
 tist to  death  ;  and  yet  we  are  told,  that  he  was  one  of  the 
 seventy  disciples,  and  suffered  martyrdom  in  Antioch;  but 
 when,  or  in  what  manner,  we  have  no  information. — Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 h  Some  have  imagined,  that  this  imposition  of  hands  was  a 
 solemn  ordination  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  to  be  bishops  in  the 
 Christian  church  ;  but,  besides  the  incongruity  of  an  apostle's 
 being  ordained  bishop  by  those  of  an  inferior  order,  as  prophets 
 and  teachers  were,  (Acts  xiii.  1.)  St  Paul  declares  for  himself, 
 that  he  'was  an  apostle,  not  of  men,  neither  by  men,  but  by  Jesus 
 Christ,'  (Gal.  i.  1.)  And  as  the  apostleship  comprehends  in  it  all 
 ecclesiastical  power,  this  laying  on  of  hands  was  not  designed  to 
 give  them  any  episcopal  authority,  as  is  pretended,  but  merely 
 to  '  recommend  them  to  the  grace  of  God,  for  the  work  which 
 they  were  to  fulfil,' (Acts  xiv.  2d.)  as  being  a  ceremony  that  at- 
 tended prayer  and  benediction,  and  other  solemn  actions,  as  well 
 as  ordination.  Thus  the  children  of  Israel  laid  their  hands  on 
 the  Levi  tea  when  they  were  separated  to  the  service  of  Aaron 
 and  his  sons,  Numb.  vii.  ]0.  and  thus  our  blessed  Saviour,  when 
 the  children  were  brought  to  him,  put  his  hands  upon  them,  and 
 blessed  them,  (Mat.  xix.  15.)  so  that  this  imposition  of  hands  upon 
 Paul  and  Barnabas  was  precatory,  not  consecratory ;  designed  to 
 implore  the  blessing  of  heaven  upon  their  mission  to  the  Gen- 
 tiles, and  not  to  ordain,  or  confirm  them  bishops  of  the  church  of 
 Christ — MisceU.  Sac.  vol.  ii. 
 
 i  This  city  lay  on  the  west,  or  rather  a  little  north-west,  of 
 Antioch,  upon  the  Mediterranean  sea;  and  was  so  named  from 
 the  founder  of  it,  Seleucus,  who  was  reputed  to  be  the  greatest 
 builder  in  the  world:  for  he  is  said  to  have  founded  nine  cities, 
 called  by  his  own  name  ;  sixteen  in  memory  of  his  father  Anti- 
 ochus:  six  by  the  name  of  Laodice,  his  mother ;  and  three  in 
 honour  of  Apamea,  his  first  wife  ;  besides  many  others  of  great 
 note  in  Greece  and  Asia,  either  new  built,  or  beautified  and  re- 
 paired by  him. —  Wells's  Geography  if the  New  Testament. 
 k  This  was  once  a  famous  city  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus,  opposite 
 I  to  Seleucia,  on  the  Syrian  coast ;  and  as  it  was  the  first  place 
 
1072 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4049.  A.  D.  45 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5456.  A.  D.  45,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 ministerial  office.  Here  they  preached  in  the  syna- 
 gogues, and  employed  Mark,  who  was  of  their  company, 
 in  several  offices  of  the  church,  which  they  could  not 
 attend  themselves.  From  Salamis  they  crossed  the 
 island  unto  Paphos, a  where  the  proconsul,  or  governor  of 
 the  place,  b  who  at  that  time  was  Sergius  Paulus,  had 
 his  residence ;  a  man  of  great  wisdom  and  prudence, 
 but  unhappily  seduced  by  a  Jewish  sorcerer,  named 
 Barjesus.  Upon  their  preaching  there,  the  governor, 
 being  informed  of  something  extraordinary,  sent  to  the 
 apostles  to  hear  their  doctrine.  But  the  sorcerer  warmly 
 opposed  this,  and  used  all  possible  methods  to  hinder 
 his  conversion  :  which,  when  Saul  perceived,  he,  in  the 
 governor's  presence,  having  sharply  rebuked  him,  de- 
 nounced a  judgment  of  blindness  upon  him  ;  which  being 
 immediately  inflicted,  convinced  the  proconsul,  and 
 converted  him  to  the  faith ;  and  from  this  event,  as  some 
 imagine,  our  apostle  had  the  surname  of  Paul  c  given 
 him. 
 
 From  the  isle  of  Cyprus,  St  Paul  and  his  company 
 sailed  to  Perga  in  Pamphylia ;  d  where  Mark,  not  greatly 
 
 where  the  gospel  was  preached,  it  was,  in  the  primitive  times, 
 made  the  see  of  the  primate  or  metropolitan  of  the  whole  island. 
 In  the  reign  of  tiie  emperor  Trajan  it  was  destroyed  by  the  Jews, 
 and  rebuilt;  but  after  that,  being,  in  the  year  648,  sacked, 
 and  razed  to  the  ground,  by  the  Saracens,  it  never  recovered  its 
 former  splendour,  though  out  of  its  ruins  is  said  to  have  arisen 
 Famagusta,  which  was  the  chief  place  of  the  isle  when  the  Turks 
 took  it  from  the  Venetians  in  the  year  1570. — fVells's  Geography 
 of  the  Neiv  Testament. 
 
 a  This  was  another  city  of  Cyprus,  lying  on  the  western,  as 
 Salamis  did  on  the  eastern,  tract  of  the  island,  where  Venus, 
 who  from  hence  took  the  name  of  Paphia,  had  her  most  ancient 
 and  celebrated  temple,  and  where  the  Roman  proconsul  at  this 
 time  had  his  seat  of  residence. — Wells's  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament. — Paphos  is  at  present  the  seat  of  a  Greek  bishop, 
 but  is  reduced  to  a  very  low  state  of  poverty  and  insignificance. 
 — Hansford. — Ed. 
 
 b  At  this  time  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  according 
 to  the  division  of  Augustus,  were  of  two  kinds;  the  one  having 
 governors  appointed  by  the  emperor,  and  called  pro-prsetors,  the 
 other  having  governors  appointed  by  the  senate,  and  called  pro- 
 consuls, though  they  had  never  filled  the  consular  chair.  Cyprus, 
 though  it  had  been  once  pnetorian,  was  now  a  province  of  the 
 latter  kind. —  Holden's  Christian  Expositor. 
 
 c  It  is  very  observable,  that  all  along  before  this  passage  of  the 
 apostle's  life,  St  Luke  calls  him  by  the  name  of  Saul,  hut  ever 
 liter  by  that  of  Paul;  which  makes  some  imagine,  that  he  as- 
 Minu  il  that  name  to  himself,  in  memory  of  his  converting  Ser- 
 gius Paulus;  just  as  the  ancient  Roman  generals  were  wont  to 
 adopt  the  names  of  the  provinces  which  they  conquered.  St 
 Austin  more  than  once  asserts,  that  he  took  it  out  of  a  principle 
 of  humility,  by  a  small  variation  changing  his  former  name, 
 whereby  a  proud,  haughty  king  of  Israel  was  called,  into  that  of 
 Paulus  which  signifies  little;  and  that,  in  conformity  to  this, 
 he  calls  himself  iXa-^nrroTt^os,  (Eph.  iii.  S.)  which  is  a  word 
 made  by  himself  on  purpose,  '  less  than  the  least  of  the  apostles.' 
 But  the  most  rational  account  of  the  matter  seems  to  be  that  of 
 Origen,  viz.  that  he  being  of  Jewish  parentage,  and  born  in 
 'I  inus,  a  Roman  city,  had  at  his  circumcision  two  names  given 
 Dim,  Saul,  a  Jewish,  and  Paul,  a  Roman  name;  and  that  when 
 hi  preached  to  the  Jews,  he  was  called  by  his  Jewish,  and 
 when  to  the  Gentiles,  as  he  did  chiefly  after  this  time,  by  his 
 Roman  name.— Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Hammond's  and 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Pamphylia  is  a  province  of  Asia  Minor,  which  gives  the 
 name  to  that  part  of  the  Mediterranean-sea  which  washes  its 
 coasts,  (Acts  xxvii.  5.)  To  the  south  it  is  bounded  by  the  Me- 
 diterranean, and  to  the  north  by  Pisidia;  having  Lycia  to  the 
 west,  and  Cilicia  to  the  east:  and  as  for  Perga,  a  city  of  this 
 province,  it  is  memorable  among  the  heathens  for  the  temple  of 
 Diana,  who  was  thence  called  Diana  Pergrea;  and  for  the  solemn 
 festivals  which,  in  honour  of  her,  were  there  annually  observed. 
 —  Wells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 liking  this  itinerant  course  of  life,  took  his  leave  of  the 
 apostles,  and  returned  to  Jerusalem.  At  Perga  they 
 made  no  stay,  but  proceeded  directly  to  Antioch  in 
 Pisidia;  e  where,  going  into  the  synagogue,  and  being 
 courteously  invited  /to  make  a  comment,  or  discourse, 
 as  the  custom  then  was,  upon  the  lessons  out  of  the  law 
 and  the  prophets,  that  were  just  before  read  in  the  con- 
 gregation, St  Paul  took  this  opportunity,  in  a  long  dis- 
 course, to  show,  '  That  Jesus  was  the  true  Messiah, 
 foretold  by  the  prophets,  and  declared  by  John  the 
 Baptist ;  that  though  he  was  barbarously  treated,  and  , 
 crucified,  and  slain  by  the  Jews,  yet  this  was  no  more 
 than  what  the  same  prophets  had  foretold  would  happen 
 to  the  Messiah;  that  God's  raising  him  from  the  dead, 
 according  to  the  predictions  relating  to  the  Messiah, 
 and,  after  his  resurrection,  showing  him  to  multitudes  of 
 witnesses  then  alive,  and  ready  to  attest  the  truth  of  it, 
 were  the  highest  demonstrations  of  his  being  the  Son  of 
 God  ;  and  that  therefore,  since  forgiveness  of  sins  and 
 justification,  which  could  not  be  attained  by  the  law  of 
 Moses,  were  now  tendered  to  them  by  their  believing  in 
 Jesus,  it  nearly  concerned  them,  as  a  matter  of  the  last 
 importance,  not  to  neglect  so  great  salvation.' 
 
 This  the  congregation  heard  with  great  attention ;  and, 
 as  they  were  going  out  of  the  synagogue,  the  Gentiles 
 desired  of  St  Paul  to  speak  again  to  them  upon  the  same 
 subject  on  the  following  sabbath ;  and  several  Jews, 
 and  proselytes,  who  believed,  waited  upon  Paul  and 
 Barnabas  for  further  instruction.  The  next  sabbath,  the 
 whole  city  flocked  to  the  synagogue  to  hear  the  apostle's 
 discourse  ;  which  when  the  unbelieving  Jews  saw,  such 
 was  their  envy  and  despite,  that  they  not  only  opposed 
 themselves  with  blasphemy  against  what  St  Paul  preached, 
 but,  perceiving  the  progress  which  the  gospel  made,  not 
 in  that  city  only,  but  in  all  the  neighbouring  country, 
 they  applied  themselves  to  some  female  s  proselytes  of 
 distinction,  who,  by  their  interest  with  the  principal  men 
 of  the  city,  forced  the  apostles  to  depart  to  Iconium;  h 
 and  after  some  stay  there,  their  malice  pursuing  them 
 
 e  Pisidia  is  a  small  province  in  Asia  Minor,  bounded  on  the 
 south  by  Pamphylia,  and  on  the  north  by  Galatia,  having  Ly- 
 caonia  to  the  east,  and  Phrygia  to  the  west.  Its  inhabitants  are 
 commended  by  Livy  for  their  skill  in  war  above  other  Asiatics, 
 (b.  xxxviii.  c.  13.)  and  its  chief  city  was  Antioch,  built  by 
 Seleucus,  in  honour  of  his  father  Antiochus,  and,  to  distinguish 
 it  from  others  of  the  same  name,  usually  called  Antiochia  Pisi- 
 dia.— Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table,  and  JVells's  Geography  of 
 the  New  Testament. 
 
 f  What  the  service  of  the  synagogue  was,  particularly  as  to  the 
 reading  of  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and  expounding  thereupon, 
 we  had  occasion  to  explain  before. 
 
 g  Women,  who  being  originally  Gentiles,  had  embraced  the 
 Jewish  religion;  and  of  converts  of  this  kind  it  is  generally  ob- 
 served, that  their  zeal  and  superstition  is  usually  blinder,  and 
 their  attention  to  reason,  in  matters  of  religion,  weaker,  than 
 what  belongs  to  the  other  sex;  insomuch,  that  some  ecclesi- 
 astical writers  have  made  it  their  remark,  that  there  never  was 
 any  heresy  or  schism  in  the  Christian  church,  but  what  was 
 either  begun  or  fomented  by  women  of  wealth  and  distinction. — 
 Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 h  Iconium  was  the  chief  city  of  Lycaonia,  a  small  pro- 
 vince of  Asia  Minor.  The  church  planted  at  this  place  by  St 
 Paul  continued  to  flourish,  until,  by  the  persecutions  of  the  Sa- 
 racens, and  afterwards  of  the  Seljukian  Turks,  who  made  it  the 
 capital  of  one  of  their  sultanies,  it  was  nearly  extinguished.  But 
 some  Christians  of  the  Greek  and  Armenian  churches,  with 
 a  Greek  archbishop,  are  still  found  in  the  suburbs  of  this  city, 
 who  are  not  permitted  to  reside  within  the  walls.  Iconium 
 is  now  called  Cogni,  and  is  still  a  considerable   city;    being 
 
Sect.  V.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4050.  A.  D.  4G ;  OU,  A.  M  5457.  A.  D.  4G  &c.  FROM  ACTS.  i.  10.  TO  THE  END 
 tliither  likewise,  caused  them  to  hasten  to  Lystra  ;  where 
 
 1073 
 
 they  continued  for  some  time,  preaching-  the  gospel  to 
 the  inhabitants  of  that  city,  and  to  the  people  of  the 
 parts  adjacent. 
 
 At  Lystra  there  was  a  man  named  JEneas,  lame  from 
 his  birth,  whom  St  Paul,  perceiving  by  his  diligent  at- 
 tention to  his  preaching,  that  he  had  faith  to  be  healed, 
 immediately  cured.  This  so  amazed  and  transported 
 the  standers  by,  that,  acknowledging  a  divine  power  in 
 the  miracle,  they  took  them  for  two  gods,  a  disguised 
 in  human  shape;  calling  Paul,  *  as  chief  speaker,  Mer- 
 cury ;  and  Barnabas,  perhaps  for  his  gravity,  or  majestic 
 looks,  Jupiter.  The  priest  of  Jupiter  therefore,  as  soon 
 as  he  was  acquainted  with  the  matter,  brought  oxen,  all 
 adorned  with  garlands,  c  to  the  door  of  the  house  where 
 Paul  and  Barnabas  were,  in  order  to  sacrifice  to  them, 
 lint  when  the  apostles  saw  what  they  were  going  to  do, 
 they  rent  their  clothes,  and  running  in  among  the  people, 
 cried  aloud,  that  they  were  mistaken  in  the  object  of 
 their  worship  ;  that,  notwithstanding  the  miracle  they  had 
 wrought,  they  were  no  more  than  men ;  and  that  the 
 chief  end  of  their  preaching  was  to  turn  them  from  these 
 idolatrous  practices,  to  the  worship  of  the  only  true 
 God,  who  by  his  almighty  power  had  made  heaven  and 
 
 the  capital  of  the  extensive  province  of  Caramania,  as  it  was 
 formerly  of  Lycaonia,  and  the  seat  of  a  Turkish  beglerberg, 
 or  viceroy.  It  is  the  place  of  chiel  strength  and  importance  in 
 the  central  parts  of  Asiatic  Turkey,  being  surrounded  by  a 
 strong  wall  of  four  miles  in  circumference;  but,  as  is  the  case 
 witli  most  Eastern  cities,  much  of  the  enclosed  space  is  waste. 
 It  is  situated  about  120  miles  inland  from  the  Mediterranean, 
 on  the  lake  Trogilis. — Mansford. — Ed. 
 
 a  That  this  was  a  common  notion  of  the  heathens  is  evident, 
 not  only  from  that  passage  in  Homer, 
 
 Often  the  gods,  disguised,  at  pleasure  roam 
 From  town  to  town  like  men  without  a  home, 
 To  judge  the  earth,  and  by  experience  prove 
 Who  wrong  commit,  or  right  and  justice  love. 
 
 Odyss.  xvii.  485. 
 and  that  in  Ovid, 
 
 A  god  I  glide  from  liigh  Olympus'  top, 
 And  o'er  the  earth  I  range  hi  human  guise. 
 
 but  even  from  the  testimony  of  their  philosophers :  and  therefore  we 
 rind  Cicero  endeavouring  to  prove,  that  the  gods  must  be  of  human 
 shape,  because  they  never  appeared  in  any  other  form.  De  nat. 
 cleorum. —  Calmct's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  The  account  which  St  Paul's  enemies  gave  of  him,  is  this, — 
 '  his  letters  are  weighty  and  powerful,  but  ins  bodily  presence  is 
 weak,  and  his  speech  contemptible,'  (2  Cor.  x.  10.)  His  dis- 
 courses indeed  were  not  formed  upon  the  plan  of  the  Greek  orators. 
 The  vain  ornaments,  which  they  were  so  fond  of,  as  tending 
 only  to  impair  the  strength  and  majesty  of  the  truths  which  he 
 taught,  were  by  him  held  in  great  contempt;  for  '  his  speech  and 
 his  preaching  was  not  with  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,  but 
 with  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  power,'  (I  Cor.  ii.  4.)  St 
 Jcrom,  who  finds  some  fault  with  his  style,  as  to  its  harshness, 
 and  want  of  purity,  does  nevertheless  declare,  that,  when  he 
 reads  them  every  word  seems  like  a  clap  of  thunder,  in  Catal. 
 Scrip.  Eccles.  And  St  Chrysostom,  in  his  book  de  Sacerdotio, 
 makes  mention  of  the  great  admiration  which  his  epistles  had 
 gained  him  both  among  Jews  and  Gentiles.  No  wonder  then 
 that  the  people  of  Lystra,  upon  hearing  his  strong  and  un- 
 affected eloquence,  should  take  him  for  Mercury,  who  according 
 to  the  heathen  notion  was  the  constant  companion  of  Jupiter,  the 
 teacher  of  men,  and  the  interpreter  of  the  gods.— Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 e  These  ariftftccT*,  which  may  be  rendered  crowns,  or  garlands, 
 some  think  were  to  be  put  upon  the  heads  of  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
 according  to  the  heathen  custom  of  crowning  their  gods;  but  it 
 seems  more  likely,  that  they  were  to  adorn  the  head  and  neck 
 of  the  ox  or  heifer  that  was  to  be  sacrificed;  for  so  we  read  in 
 
 Ovid:  '  A  victim,  free    i  blemish,  and  ef  most  beautiful  shape, 
 
 being  also  adorned  with  fillets  and  gold,  is  placed  before  the 
 altar.' 
 
 earth,  and  by  his  kind  providence  given  all  the  blessings 
 they  enjoyed.  But  with  all  these  arguments,  it  was  as 
 much  as  they  could  do  to  restrain  them  from  sacrificing. 
 
 It  was  not  long,  however,  before  they  turned  to  the 
 other  extreme :  for  some  Jews,  who  had  pursued  the 
 apostles  from  Antioch  and  Iconiuin,  so  far  instigated 
 the  giddy  multitude  against  them,  that  they  took  Raul, 
 whom  just  before  they  would  have  adored,  and  stoned 
 him,  and  then  drew  him  out  of  the  city,  supposing  him 
 to  be  dead  ;  but  when  the  disciples  came,  probably  to 
 inter  his  body,  he  rose  up  and  went  into  the  city  for  that 
 night ;  but  the  next  day  he  departed  with  Barnabas  to 
 Derbe  ;  where  having  preached  the  gospel,  and  con- 
 verted many  to  the  faith,  they  thence  returned  to  Lystra, 
 Iconiuin,  and  Antioch  ;  in  which  places,  having  confirmed 
 the  new  converts  in  the  belief  and  profession  of  Chris- 
 tianity, and,  with  fasting,  and  prayer,  and  imposition  of 
 hands,  ordained  governors  in  every  church,  they  recom- 
 mended them  to  the  special  protection  of  God,  and  so 
 took  their  leave. 
 
 From  Antioch  they  passed  through  Pisidia,  and  thence 
 came  to  Pamphylia;  and,  having  preached  to  the  people 
 at  Perga,  they  went  down  to  Attalia,  d  and  from  thence 
 returned  by  sea  to  Antioch  in  Syria,  whence  they  had 
 set  out  about  three  years  before,  upon  this  holy  expedi- 
 tion. Here  they  assembled  the  church  together,  e  and, 
 having  given  an  account  of  their  success,  what  miracles 
 God  had  wrought  by  their  hands,  and  what  a  large  door 
 of  faith  he,  by  their  ministry,  had  opened  to  the  Gentiles, 
 they  suspended  their  journeyings  for  the  present,  and, 
 for  some  considerable  time  took  up  their  abode  among 
 the  disciples  of  this  place. 
 
 While  they  continued  here,  some  persons,  coming 
 from  Judea,  pretended  to  teach  that  there  was  no  salva- 
 tion without  circumcision,  /  and  the  observance  of  the 
 
 d  Attalia,  which  takes  its  name  from  king  Attains,  its  founder, 
 and,  with  a  small  variation,  is  still  called  Statalia,  is  a  city  of 
 Pamphylia,  which  stands  upon  a  fair  bay,  and  is  so  commo- 
 diously  seated  for  trade,  that  the  Turks  have  preserved  it  from 
 ruin,  and,  at  this  day,  are  very  careful  to  keep  its  fortifications 
 and  castle  in  repair. — Wells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 e  St  Luke  gives  us  no  manner  of  an  account  of  what  passed 
 in  the  church  from  St  Paul's  returning  to  Antioch  in  Syria, 
 which  was  in  the  46th,  to  his  deputation  to  the  council  at  Jeru- 
 salem, which  was  in  the  5lst  year  of  Christ.  How  he  spent 
 this  intermediate  time,  we  cannot  tell;  but  sure  we  are,  that 
 his  zeal  for  the  Christian  cause  would  not  permit  him  to  be  idle; 
 and  therefore,  we  may  suppose,  that  this  was  the  opportunity  he 
 took  to  preach  the  gospel,  not  only  through  the  provinces  ad- 
 jacent to  Antioch,  but  through  several  other  places,  where  Christ 
 had  not  been  named,  that  he  might  not  build  upon  another  man's 
 foundation;  (Uom.  xv.  20.)  Himself  in  his  second  epistle  to 
 the  Corinthians,  acquaints  us  with  many  journeyings,  and  labours, 
 and  stripes,  and  imprisonments,  that  are  not  recorded  in  the 
 book  of  Acts;  particularly  he  tells  us,  that  five  times  he  had  been 
 scourged  by  the  Jews,  and  three  times  beaten  with  rods  by  the 
 Romans ;  that  thrice  he  had  suffered  shipwreck,  and  a  day  and 
 a  night  had  been  in  the  deep,  tossed  to  and  fro  in  the  sea,  upon 
 some  plank  or  broken  piece  of  the  ship,  (2  Cor.  xi.  23.)  &c,  and 
 a  properer  time  for  these  sad  events  to  befal  him  we  cannot  as- 
 sign, than  where  the  sacred  history  lias  made  a  vacancy  in  his 
 life. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 /'Those  who  maintained  this  position  were  Jews,  of  the  sect 
 of  the  Pharisees,  (Acts  xv.  5.)  converted  to  Christianity,  but 
 still  too  zealous  for  the  observance  of  the  law ;  and  their  coming 
 immediately  from  Judea  might  make  it  the  rather  believed, 
 that  the  necessity  of  circumcision,  in  order  to  salvation,  was  a 
 tenet  of  the  apostles'.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the 
 Jews  themselves  were  of  different  opinions  in  this  matter,  even 
 as  to  men's  admission  into  their  religion.  For  sonic  of  them 
 would  allow  those  of  other  nations,  who  owned  the  true  God,  ami 
 0  U 
 
1074 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4050.  A.  D.  4C;  OR,  A.  M.  5457.  A.  D 
 other  legal  ceremonies.  Paul  and  Barnabas  strongly 
 opposed  this  doctrine  ;  but,  after  many  conferences  and 
 disputations,  it  was  at  length  proposed,  that  the  decision 
 of  the  question  should  be  referred  to  the  general  assem- 
 bly of  the  apostles  at  Jerusalem.  «  This  the  whole 
 church  readily  agreed  to;  and,  having  deputed  Barnabas 
 and  Paul,  together  with  some  others  of  their  body,  to  go 
 with  die  message,  they  conducted  them  part  of  their 
 way:  and  the  two  apostles,  in  passing  through  Phoe- 
 nicia ft  and  Samaria,  took  care  to  relate  what  success 
 they  had  met  with  in  the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles,  to 
 the  great  joy  and  comfort  of  all  the  brethren  in  those  parts. 
 \\  hen  they  wore  come  to  Jerusalem,  they  first  addres- 
 sed themselves  to  Peter,  James,  and  John,  the  pillars, 
 and  principal  persons  in  that  place ;  who  received  them 
 v.r\  kindly;  and  perceiving,  by  the  account  which  St 
 Paul  gave  them,  that  the  '  gospel  of  the  uncircumcision 
 was  committed  to  him,  as  that  of  the  circumcision  was  to 
 Peter,  they  ratified  it  by  compact  and  agreement,  that 
 Peter  should  preach  to  the  Jews  and  Paul  to  the  Gen. 
 tiles ;  and,  upon  calling  of  the  council,  wherein  Peter 
 declared  his  sense  of  the  insufficiency  of  all  legal  ob- 
 servances to  save  those  who  could  expect  salvation  only 
 through  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  wherein 
 Paid  and  Barnabas  gave  an  account  of  the  wonders  and 
 miracles  which  God  had  enabled  them  to  work  in  con- 
 verting the  Gentiles,  it  was  finally  determined  by  St 
 James,  as  bishop  of  the  place,  and  president  of  the 
 council,  that  the  Gentiles  who  were  converted  to 
 Christianity  should  not  be  obliged  to  submit  to  the  yoke 
 of  the  law,  but  only  abstain  from  fornication,  c  and  from 
 
 i  Gal.  ii.  7. 
 practised  moral  duties,  to  live  quietly  among  them,  and,  even 
 without  circumcision,  to  be  admitted  into  their  religion;  whilst 
 others  would  admit  of  no  such  thing.  Thus  Josephus  tells 
 us,  that  when  Izates,  the  son  of  Helen,  queen  of  Adiabene,  em- 
 braced the  Jews'  religion,  Ananias,  who  converted  him,  declared, 
 that  he  might  do  it  without  circumcision;  but  Eleazar,  another 
 eminent  Jew,  maintained,  that  it  was  great  impiety,  in  such 
 circumstances,  to  remain  uueireumcised ;  and  this  difference  of 
 opinion  continued  among  the  Jewish  converts  after  their  em- 
 bracing Christianity,  some  allowing  Gentiles  to  become  converts 
 to  Christianity,  without  submitting  to  circumcision  and  the 
 Jewish  law,  whilst  others  contended,  that  without  circumcision, 
 and  the  observance  of  the  law,  their  profession  of  the  Christian 
 faith  would  not  save  them. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Beau- 
 sobre's  anil  JVhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 a  St  Paul,  in  li is  epistle  to  the  Galatians,  lets  us  into  a  cir- 
 cumstance that  is  not  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  Acts,  viz. 
 that  he  went  up  at  this  time  to  Jerusalem  by  revelation,  chap.  ii. 
 2.  for,  as  the  prophets  and  teachers  at  Antioch  had  before  sepa- 
 rate! him  and  Barnabas,  by  revelation,  to  preach  to  some  of  the 
 Gentiles,  and  they  having  fulfilled  that  work,  returned  to  An- 
 tioch  again,  (Acts  xiv.  26.)  so  it  is  probable,  that  by  another 
 revelation  made  to  the  same  persons,  they  were  sent  up  to 
 Jerusalem,  as  being  the  fittest  to  convince  those  of  a  contrary 
 persuasion,  by  declaring  what  God  had  wrought  by  them  among 
 the  uncircumdsed  Gentiles,  and  his  acceptance  of  them  without 
 Circumcision,  or  the  observance  of  the  law  of  Moses. — Whitby  s 
 Annotations. 
 
 b  This  was  a  province  of  Syria,  which,  in  the  times  of  the 
 New  Testament,  lay  between  the  two  rivers  Elutherus  to  the 
 north,  and  Chersus,  or  the  Kishon  in  Scripture,  to  the  south. 
 In  the  phrase  of  the  gospel  it  is  called  the  coasts  of  Tyre  and 
 Sidon,  because  these  two  towns  stood  in  the  southern  part  of  it; 
 and  for  its  great  skill  in  navigation,  and  the  invention  of  letters, 
 which,  according  to  Herodotus,  were  brought  thence  by  Cadmus 
 into  Greece,  is  justly  celebrated  by  the  ancients Wells's  Geo- 
 graphy of  the  New  Testament,  and  Whitby  s  Alphabetical  Table. 
 
 r  That  we  are  absolutely  obliged  to  abstain  from  fornication 
 no  good  Christian  can  seriously  make  a  matter  of  dispute;  for 
 
 46,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 eating  things  offered  to  idols,  things  strangled,  d  and 
 blood,  e  which,  in  the  present  circumstances  of  the 
 church,  were  highly  necessary.  "With  this  decree,  which 
 was  drawn  up  in  the  form  of  an  epistle,  Paul  and  Bar- 
 nabas were  sent  back  to  the  church  of  Antioch ;  and 
 with  them  the  council  joined  Judas  /  and  Silas,  two  emi- 
 nent men  of  their  own  number,  that,  by  their  testimony 
 of  what  was  transacted  at  Jerusalem,  the  false  teachers 
 might  be  silenced,  and  the  believing  Gentiles  confirmed 
 in  the  truth.  Being  arrived  at  Antioch,  they  assembled 
 the  church,  and  presented  the  decretal  epistle  to  them, 
 in  the  presence  of  the  whole  congregation  :  which  when 
 they  had  read,  the  Gentile  converts  rejoiced  gTeatly  to 
 find  themselves  discharged  from  the  burden  of  the  law, 
 and  confirmed  in  their  Christian  liberty,  by  an  apostolic 
 decree. 
 
 While  they  were  in  Antioch,  Judas  and  Silas  were  not 
 idle  ;  but  being  both  .men  of  excellent  gifts  in  the  inter- 
 
 how  favourably  soever  the  Gentiles  might  look  upon  it,  or  how 
 much  soever  it  might  obtain  among  the  Jews,  under  the  name  of 
 polygamy,  nothing  is  more  plain,  than  that  fornication  was  ac- 
 counted an  heinous  crime  under  the  Old  Testament,  and  that 
 the  wisest  of  the  heathen  world  always  esteemed  chastity  a  vir- 
 tue. However,  since  the  greatest  part  of  them  acted  as  if  they 
 thought  fornication  a  thing  indifferent,  and  in  many  of  their 
 idolatrous  festivals  made  lewdness  a  necessary  and  principal  in- 
 gredient, it  hence  came  to  pass,  that  the  council  at  Jerusalem 
 thought  proper  to  insert  this  prohibition  in  their  decree. — Beau- 
 sobre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  heathens  of  this  age  used  the  same  arts  to  seduce  the 
 Christians,  and  bring  them  to  their  temples,  that  the  Moabites 
 had  formerly  done  to  corrupt  the  Israelites,  calling  and  inviting 
 them  to  eat  of  the  sacrifices  which  they  had  offered  to  their  gods. 
 To  this  purpose  our  Saviour,  in  his  letter  to  the  church  of  Per- 
 gamus,  makes  mention  of  some  who  held  '  the  doctrine  of  Ba- 
 laam, who  taught  Balak  to  cast  a  stumbling-block  before  the 
 children  of  Israel,  to  eat  things  sacrificed  to  idols,'  (Rev.  ii.  14.) 
 Great  reason  therefore  had  the  council  to  forbid  Christians  this 
 profane  practice,  because,  as  St  Paul  expresses  his  sense  of  the 
 matter,  '  we  cannot  be  partakers  of  the  Lord's  table,  and  of  the 
 table  of  devils,'  (I  Cor.  x.  21.)  that  is,  it  is  highly  unfit  that 
 Christians,  who  eat  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper,  should 
 defile  themselves  with  meats  that  have  been  sacrificed  to  what 
 the  Gentiles  call  gods,  but  are  in  reality  no  better  than  devils. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  The  Jews  had  so  strong  an  aversion  to  blood,  that  they  ac- 
 counted all  who  made  use  of  it  in  food  as  creatures  sadly  pol- 
 luted, and  gross  transgressors  even  of  the  law  of  nature.  The 
 Gentiles,  on  the  contrary,  looked  upon  blood  as  the  most  delici- 
 ous food  of  their  gods,  and  thought  that  by  eating  of  it  they  en- 
 tered into  a  more  intimate  communion  with  them;  and  therefore 
 the  prohibition  of  it  was  necessary  for  these  two  reasons:  1st,  that 
 no  offence  might  be  given  to  the  Jewish  converts,  who  would  be 
 loath  to  converse,  much  more  to  join  in  any  religious  offices,  with 
 persons  who  indulged  themselves  in  such  meats  as  they  detested  ; 
 and,  2dly,  that  the  Gentile  converts  might  be  in  no  danger  of 
 relapsing  into  idolatry,  which  they  possibly  might  do,  if  a  tolera- 
 tion to  eat  things  ottered  to  idols  were  still  indulged  them. — 
 Beausobre's  Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 f  It  is  generally  thought,  that  Judas,  who  is  surnamed  Barsa- 
 bas,  was  the  brother  of  Joses,  or  Joseph,  who,  together  with 
 Matthias,  was  proposed  as  a  candidate  for  the  apostleship,  which 
 Judas  the  traitor  by  his  transgression  had  forfeited;  and  Silas  is 
 supposed  to  be  the  same  person,  that,  under  the  name  of  Sylvanus, 
 is  mentioned  in  the  title  of  both  St  Paul's  epistles  to  the  Thes- 
 salonians,  and  whom  St  Peter,  in  his  first  epistle,  styles  a  faithful 
 brother.  St  Luke  says  of  them  both,  that  '  they  were  chief  men 
 among  the  brethren,'  (Acts  xv.  22.)  which  gives  us  room  to  think, 
 that  they  were  of  the  number  of  the  seventy,  and  might  there- 
 fore be  sent  back  with  Paul  and  Barnabas,  to  carry  the  decision 
 of  the  council  to  Antioch,  because  Paul  and  Barnabas,  being 
 strenuous  assertors  of  the  liberty  of  the  gospel,  might  otherwise 
 have  beeu  suspected  by  those  of  the  contrary  party,  who  main- 
 tained the  necessity  of  circumcision. — Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
Seot.  V.]  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4050.  A.  D.  4G;  OR,  A.  M.  5457.  A.  D.  46,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  TH  E  END. 
 
 1075 
 
 pretation  of  the  Scriptures,  they  employed  their  time  in 
 confirming  believers  in  the  truth  of  Christianity;  and, 
 after  a  short  stay,  were  with  all  kindness  and  civility 
 dismissed  by  the  church  in  order  to  return  to  Jerusalem. 
 But  Silas,  for  some  reasons,  was  unwilling  to  depart  so 
 soon,  and  chose  rather  to  tarry  with  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
 who,  with  several  others  of  their  fraternity,  employed 
 themselves  in  instructing  those  who  had  already  received 
 the  Christian  faith,  and  in  preaching  it  to  others,  who 
 had  not  yet  embraced  it,  in  this  great  and  populous  city. 
 It  was  not  long  after  the  determination  of  the  council 
 at  Jerusalem  that  Peter  came  to  Antioch  ;  where,  using 
 the  liberty  which  the  gospel  had  given  him,  for  some 
 time  he  conversed  familiarly  with  the  Gentile  converts, 
 eating  with  them,  and  living  in  the  same  manner  as  they 
 did.  But  when  some  Jewish  Christians,  still  tenacious 
 of  the  ceremonial  law,  came  from  Jerusalem,  for  fear  of 
 offending  or  displeasing  them,  he  separated  himself  from 
 the  Gentile  converts,  and  refused  to  eat  with  them: 
 whereby  he  not  only  confirmed  the  Jews  in  their  darling 
 opinions, but  filled  the  Gentiles  likewise  with  new  doubts 
 nod  scruples.  St  Paul,  who  was  not  ignorant  of  what 
 pernicious  influence  the  example  of  so  great  an  apostle 
 might  be,  especially  when  he  saw  Barnabas  carried  away 
 with  the  stream  of  his  dissimulation,  was  not  afraid,  even 
 in  the  face  of  the  whole  church,  to  reprove  him  sharply, 
 for  endeavouring  to  impose  that  yoke  upon  the  Gentiles, 
 which  he,  though  a  Jew,  thought  himself  at  liberty  to 
 shake  oft'.  But  how  St  Peter  received  this  reproof,  we 
 are  no  where  told  ;  and  this  indeed  is  the  last  time  that 
 we  read  of  him  in  the  history  of  the  Acts. 
 
 It  was  not  long  after  this  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  re- 
 solved upon  visiting  the  churches  which  they  had  lately 
 planted  among  the  Gentiles.  To  this  end  Barnabas  pro- 
 posed to  take  his  cousin  Mark  with  them;  which  Paul 
 would  by  no  means  agree  to,  because  he  had  deserted 
 them  in  their  former  journey  ;  so  that,  after  a  warm  dis- 
 pute on  both  sides,  they  separated  a  from  each  other ; 
 Barnabas,  with  his  nephew,  betook  himself  to  Cyprus, 
 which  was  his  native  country ;  and  Paul,  after  he  had 
 been  recommended  to  the  blessing  and  assistance  of 
 God,  by  the  prayers  of  the  church,  made  choice  of  Silas 
 for  his  companion  in  his  intended  visitation  of  the  several 
 places  where  he  had  propagated  Christianity. 
 
 Parting  from  Antioch,  he  travelled  over  the  provinces 
 of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  confirming  the  churches,  and  leaving 
 with  them  copies  of  the  synodical  decree  which  had  lately 
 passed  in  the  council  at  Jerusalem.  Thence,  very  pro- 
 bably, he  sailed  to  Crete,  h  where  he  planted  Christian- 
 
 a  From  hence  we  may  learn,  not  only  that  these  great  lights 
 in  the  Christian  church  were  men  of  the  like  passions  with  us, 
 liut  that  God,  upon  this  occasion,  did  most  eminently  illustrate 
 the  wisdom  of  his  providence,  by  rendering  the  frailties  of  two 
 such  eminent  servants  instrumental  to  the  benefit  of  his  church, 
 since  both  of  them  thenceforward  employed  their  extraordinary 
 industry  and  zeal,  singly  and  apart,  which  till  then  had  been 
 united  and  confined  to  the  same  place. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles 
 and  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 b  This  is  one  of  the  noblest  isles  in  the  whole  Mediterranean 
 sea,  which  had  once  an  hundred  considerable  towns  or  cities  in 
 it,  from  whence  it  had  the  name  of  Hecatonpolis,  and,  for  the 
 goodness  of  the  soil,  and  temper  of  the  air,  was  likewise  styled 
 Macarious,  or  Macarionesus,  '  the  happy  island  ;'  for  though  the 
 inland  parts  of  it  are  very  mountainous,  yet  are  they  extremely 
 fruitful,  especially  of  vines,  called  the  Muscadine;  though  not  so 
 productive  of  corn.      At  present  it  is  commonly  called  Candia, 
 
 ity,  and,  having  constituted  Titus  to  be  bishop  of  the 
 place,  left  him  there  to  regulate  such  matters  as  the 
 shortness  of  his  stay  would  not  permit  him  to  do.  From 
 Crete  he  returned  to  Cilicia,  and  came  to  Lystra,  where 
 he  met  with  a  young  man,  named  Timothy,  whose  father 
 was  a  Greek,  c  but  his  mother  Eunice,  from  whom  he  had 
 received  all  the  advantages  of  a  pious  education,  and  an 
 extraordinary  skill  in  the  sacred  writings,  was  a  Jewish 
 convert.  Him  Paul  designed  to  make  the  companion  of 
 his  travels,  and  a  special  instrument  in  the  ministry  of 
 the  gospel :  and,  therefore,  being  willing,  in  indifferent 
 matters,  to  accommodate  himself  to  the  humour  of  some 
 particular  men,  he  caused  him  to  be  circumcised,  as 
 knowing  very  well  what  a  mighty  prejudice  the  want  of 
 that  rite  would  have  been  in  the  opinion  and  estimation 
 of  the  Jews.  d 
 
 From  Lystra,  Paul,  with  his  companions,  passed 
 through  Phrygia  e  and  Galatia,  in  which  country  he  was  / 
 
 from  its  principal  town,  which  bears  that  name  ;  it  is  situated  over 
 against  the  mouth  of  the  iEgean  sea,  or  Archipelago;  and  while 
 it  continued  in  the  hands  of  the  Venetians,  was  an  archbishop's 
 see,  great,  rich,  and  populous  ;  but  since  it  came  into  the  pos- 
 session of  the  Turks,  which  was  in  the  year  1669,  it  has  lost  all 
 marks  of  its  former  happiness  and  grandeur. — JFells's  Geography 
 of  the  New  Testament. — See  also  Scripture  Gazetteer,  Edinr. 
 1837.— Ed. 
 
 c  The  law  of  Moses,  as  Grotius  understands  it,  forbade  the 
 Jewish  males  to  marry  with  women  of  another  religion;  but  did 
 not  forbid  a  Jewish  woman  to  marry  with  a  Gentile,  even  as 
 Esther  did  with  Ahasuerus,  if  so  be  he  was  a  man  of  piety  and 
 moral  honesty.  To  this  purpose  he  observes,  that  Ezra,  when 
 he  went  about  a  reformation  in  this  matter,  made  inquiry  only 
 into  those  males  who  had  taken  strange  wives,  (chap.  ix.  and  x.) 
 hut  none  at  all  into  the  women  who  had  taken  strange  husbands. 
 It  is  certain,  however,  from  Josephus,  that,  in  his  days,  the 
 Jews  looked  upon  both  these  practices  as  contrary  to  the  true  in- 
 terpretation of  their  law,  and  therefore  he  calls  Drusilla's  mar- 
 riage with  Felix  a  manifest  contempt  of  it. — Antiq.  b.  ii.  c.  5.; 
 and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  reason  is  added  by  the  historian,  (Acts  xvi.  3.)  namely, 
 that  he  might  not  offend  the  Jews,  who  concluded  that  Timothy 
 was  uncircumcised,  because  his  father  was  a  Greek,  and  who 
 would  not  listen  to  the  doctrine  of  any  uncircumcised  person. 
 The  decree  in  the  preceding  chapter  only  pronounced  circum- 
 cision not  to  be  necessary  to  the  Gentile  converts,  but  it  might 
 occasionally  be  expedient;  and  though  Christians  are  freed  from 
 the  yoke  of  the  Mosaic  law,  St  Paul  conformed  to  it  here,  and 
 (ch.  xxi.  20 — 26.)  in  order  to  conciliate  the  Jews,  and  to  promote 
 the  success  of  his  preaching,  agreeably  to  the  principles  laid  down 
 in  1  Cor.  ix.  19,  &c.  In  other  circumstances  the  apostle 
 steadily  resisted  every  attempt  to  impose  the  rites  and  ordinances 
 of  the  Mosaic  law,  (Gal.  ii.  3 — 5.  v.  2.) — Holdeti's  Christian 
 Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 e  It  is  a  province  of  Asia  Minor,  having  Bithynia  to  the  north, 
 Galatia  to  the  east,  Lycia  to  the  south,  and  Mysia  to  the  west. 
 The  inhabitants  of  this  country,  who  are  said  to  have  been  the 
 inventors  of  augury,  and  other  kinds  of  divination,  were  anciently 
 more  superstitious  than  the  other  Asiatics  ;  as  appears  from  the 
 rites  which  they  used  in  the  sacrifices  of  Cybele,  and  other 
 heathen  goddesses.  They  were  noted  for  their  effeminacy  and 
 lightness  of  conversation,  as  well  as  for  their  servile  and  stupid 
 temper,  which  gave  occasion  to  these  proverbs,  '  the  Phrygians 
 are  long  in  getting  wisdom,'  and  '  the  Phrygians  become  better  by 
 stripes.' — IFells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. — Phrygia 
 was  formerly  governed  by  kings  of  its  own,  but  it  has  succes- 
 sively been  subjected  by  the  Syrians,  Persians,  Greeks,  Romans, 
 and  Turks. — Ed. 
 
 f  It  is  a  province  of  Asia  Minor,  bounded  on  the  west  by 
 Phrygia,  on  the  east  by  the  river  Halys,  on  the  north  by  Paph- 
 lagonia,  and  on  the  south  by  Lycaonia.  It  took  its  name  from 
 Galata?,  or  the  Gauls,  who  under  their  captain  Leonorius,  as 
 Strabo  informs  us,  left  their  own  country  in  Europe,  and,  having 
 ranged  over  Italy  and  Greece,  passed  into  the  Asiatic  continent, 
 and  brought  a  great  part  of  it  under  their  command ;  but  being 
 
107G 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4055.  A.  D.  51,  OR,  A.  M.  5462.  A.  D 
 entertained  with  great  kindness  and  veneration,  '  as 
 if  lie  had  been  '  an  angel  sent  from  heaven ;'  and  hence 
 he  intended  to  have  continued  his  progress  in  the  Pro- 
 consular Asia,  but  that,  by  a  particular  revelation,  he  was 
 forbidden  as  yet  to  preach  the  gospel  there.  Being'  there- 
 fore come  to  Mysia,  a  and  attempting-  in  vain  to  go  into 
 Bithynia,*  he  came  to  Troas,c  where  he  had  a  vision  com- 
 manding him  to  direct  his  course  for  Macedonia,'*  and 
 
 1  Gal.  iv.  14. 
 broken  by  Attains,  king  of  Pergamus,  and  driven  out  of  other 
 pits,  they  were  at  last  confined  to  tin's  province :  where,  in  a 
 short  time,  they  established  their  own  language,  which,  as  St 
 Jerom  informs  us,in  his  Commentaries  on  St  Paul's  epistle  to  the 
 Galatians,  was  in  use  in  his  time,  and  very  much  like  that  which 
 the  people  of  Triers  or  Treves,  in  the  European  Gaul,  are  known 
 to  speak. — Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table,  and  Wells's  Geography 
 of  the  New  Testament. — In  this  country  stood  the  ancient  city 
 Troy,  as  also  that  of  Pergamos,  one  of  the  seven  churches  of  Asia. 
 Under  the  Romans  it  was  made  a  province,  and  called  Helles- 
 pontus. — Mansford. — Ed. 
 
 a  It  is  a  small  province  of  Asia  Minor,  bounded  on  the  north 
 by  Bithynia,  on  the  ea;t  by  Phrygia,  on  the  west  by  Troas,  and 
 (in  the  south  by  the  river  Hermus.  It  had  its  name  very  proba- 
 bly from  the  great  quantity  of  beech-trees  which  grew  there ; 
 but  why  its  inhabitants  came  to  be  accounted  base  and  con- 
 temptible, even  to  a  proverb,  as  Tully,  in  his  oration  for  Flaccus, 
 has  noted,  we  cannot  tell. — Whitf/y's  Alphabetical  Table,  and 
 Weill's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 b  This  was  a  country  in  the  northern  part  of  Asia  Minor, 
 bounded  by  the  Euxine  on  the  north,  by  the  Thracian  Bos- 
 phorus  and  the  Propontis  on  the  north-west  and  west,  by 
 Phrygia  and  Mysia  on  the  south,  and  by  the  Sangarius  river, 
 now  called  Sacaria,  and  Paphlagonia,  on  the  east.  This  country 
 is  filled  with  mountains  covered  with  ship  timber,  and  its  valleys 
 and  plains  are  fruitful,  particularly  in  oil.  The  places  of  impor- 
 tance in  the  province  are  Prusa,  Nice,  Nicomedia,  Chalcedon, 
 Lihyssa,  and  Therma,  two  of  which  are  celebrated  in  ecclesiasti- 
 ral  history  for  the  councils  of  the  church  held  in  them.  Bithy- 
 nia was  anciently  an  independent  kingdom,  but  no  event  of  any 
 importance  occurs  in  its  history  except  the  treacherous  conduct 
 of  one  of  its  monarehs,  named  Prusias,  who  basely  delivered  the 
 illustrious  Hannibal  to  the  Romans.  His  great-grandson,  Nico- 
 medus  IV.,  was  the  last  king.  He  died  about  seventy-five 
 years  before  the  Christian  era,  and  bequeathed  his  kingdom  to 
 the  Romans,  who  reduced  it  to  a  province.  It  now  forms  one  of 
 the  districts  of  Turkish  Anatolia,  and  is  the  nearest  province  to 
 Turkey  in  Europe,  being  separated  from  it  only  by  the  very  narrow 
 strait  of  the  Thracian  Bosphorus  opposite  Constantinople,  on 
 which  i--  situated  the  suburb  called  the  Scutari,  a  short  distance  from 
 Chalcedon,  containing  upwards  of  o0,000  inhabitants.  A  con- 
 siderable proportion  of  t lie  population  of  Bithynia  belong  to  the 
 Greek  and  Armenian  churches.  This  country  was  anciently 
 Bebrycia.  The  Bylhini  from  Thrace  gave  it  the  name 
 oi  Bithynia. — Scripture  Gazetteer,  Edinburgh,  1S37. 
 
 c  This  was  a  small  country  belonging  to  Phrygia  Minor, 
 according  to  Stia'no,  and  lying  on  the  west  of  Mysia,  upon  the 
 Hellespont.  It  took  its  name  from  its  principal  city,  which  was 
 port,  about  four  miles  from  the  situation  of  old  Troy,  so 
 famous  in  the  works  of  Homer.  This  city  was  built  by  Lysi- 
 ,  one  of  Alexander's  captains,  who  peopled  it  from  the 
 neighbouring  places,  and  called  it  Alexandria,  or  Troas  Alc.v- 
 "ni/ri,  in  honour  of  his  master,  who  himself  indeed  began  the 
 work,  but  did  not  live  to  bring  it  to  perfection;  but  in  process  of 
 time,  it  Inst  thai  name,  and  both  city  and  country  was  called 
 Trent  mXy.—  fTMtby'a  Alphabetical  Table  and  Wells's  Geogra- 
 phy of  tht  New  Testament. 
 
 <t  This  is  a  large  province  of  Greece,  bounded  on  the  north 
 by  the  mountains  of  1  Linus,  on  the  south  by  Epirus  and  Achaia, 
 <.ii   the  cast   by  the  JSgean  sea,  and  on  the  west  by  the  Aonian 
 
 ■''  Adriatic  seas.  Its  ancient  name  was  Emmathia;  but,  from 
 the  kings  of  Macedon  it  was  afterwards  called  Macedonia;  and 
 became  famous  in  all  histories,  as  being  the  third  kingdom, 
 which,  under  Alexander  the  Great,  obtained  the  empire  of  the 
 world,  and  had  no  less  than  an  hundred  and  fifty  nations  under 
 its  command.—  Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table. — The  kingdom  of 
 Macedon  continued  till  the  year  168  B.C.,  when  Perseus,  the 
 last  king,  was  defeated  by  the  Roman  general  Paulus  jEmilius, 
 
 51,  &c.  FROM  ACTSi.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 where  St  Luke  seems  to  have  joined  him,  and,  for  ever 
 after,  to  have  been  his  inseparable  companion. 
 
 Embarking  therefore  at  Troas,  they  touched  upon  the 
 island  Samothracia/  and  the  next  day  landed  at  Nea- 
 polis,/a  port  in  Macedonia,  from  whence  they  travelled 
 a  few  miles  to  Philippi,  £■  a  Roman  colony.  A  little  dis- 
 tant *  from  the  city,  the  Jews  had  a '  Proseuche,'  or  place  • 
 of  devotion,  i  whither  the  apostle  and  his  company  used 
 
 and  his  kingdom  made  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire;  in 
 which  state  it  was  in  the  time  of  the  apostles,  when  St  Paul  was 
 called  by  a  vision  to  visit  it,  (Acts  xvi.  9.)  Thessalonica  was 
 then  the  capital  city ;  but  the  province  appears  to  have  been  fur- 
 ther sub-divided  into  four  parts  or  sections,  each  with  its  chief 
 city  or  capital. — Mansford. — Ed. 
 
 e  It  is  a  small  island  in  the  iEgean  sea,  lying  west  from  Troas, 
 over  against  the  coast  of  Thrace,  from  whence  it  has  its  name, 
 to  distinguish  it  from  the  isle  of  Samos,  situated  over  against 
 Ionia.  At  present  it  is  called  Samandrachia,  and  is  said  to  have 
 more  commodious  harbours  than  any  other  island  in  this  sea. — 
 Wells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 f  This  sea-port,  which  stood  very  near  to  Thrace,  belonged 
 at  first  to  that,  province,  but  was  afterwards  taken  into  Mace- 
 donia.—  Wells's  Geography  of  the  Neiv  Testament. 
 
 g  Philippi  was  a  city  of  Macedonia,  on  the  jEgean  Sea;  and 
 as  it  is  situated  east  of  the  River  Strymon,  it  is  included  in  the 
 division  which  anciently  belonged  to  Thrace.  In  Acts  xvi. 
 11,  12.  Luke  says,  '  We  came  to  Philippi,  which  is  the  chief 
 city  of  that  part  of  Macedonia,  and  a  colony,' — a  passage  which 
 has  given  much  embarrassment  to  critics  and  commentators; 
 Thessalonica  being  the  capital  of  Macedonia.  Mr  Milner  sup- 
 poses the  word  Uoeorti  to  apply  to  the  situation  of  the  city;  being  the 
 first  which  St  Paul  arrived  at  in  his  way  from  Neapolis.  But  Mr 
 Home  gives  a  different  and  more  satisfactory  interpretation  of 
 the  above  passage ;  which  he  says,  is  more  correctly  rendered 
 thus:  '  Philippi,  a  city  of  the  first  part  of  Macedonia,' or  of 
 '  Macedonia  Prima.'  It  is  well  known  that  Macedonia  under- 
 went various  changes  under  the  Roman  government;  and  more 
 particularly  appears  to  have  been  divided  into  four  parts  or  sec- 
 tions, under  the  name  of  first,  second,  third,  and  fourth.  In  proof 
 of  which,  medals  have  been  found,  chiefly  of  silver,  and  bearing 
 this  inscription:  MAKEAONftN  nPHTHS,  or  the  first  part  of 
 Macedonia.  (See  Fragments  to  Calmet's  Dictionary.)  Medals 
 have  also  been  found  of  Macedonia  Secunda,  (see  Calmet,)  and 
 Quarta,  (see  Wielhamer,  Auimadversiones  in  Nummos,)  but 
 not  of  the  third;  though  its  existence  is  of  course  sufficiently 
 implied.  Thus  have  the  researches  of  the  antiquary  con- 
 verted this  apparent  difficulty  into  an  evidence  both  of  the  ex- 
 treme accuracy  of  St  Luke,  and  of  the  time  in  which  he  lived 
 and  wrote.  St  Luke  further  says  that  Philippi  was  a  colony ;  to 
 express  which  he  used  the  word  xoXama.,  derived  from  the  Latin 
 colonia,  instead  of  the  corresponding  Greek  word  ataxia,  another 
 proof  of  his  accuracy;  for  although  we  have  no  historical  account 
 of  the  colonization  of  this  place  by  the  Romans,  the  discovery  of 
 ancient  medals  again  assists  us,  particularly  one  which  explicitly 
 states  that  Julius  Caesar  bestowed  the  dignity  and  privileges  of 
 a  colony  on  the  city  of  Philippi,  which  were  afterwards  confirmed 
 by  Augustus.  Philippi  has  a  peculiar  claim  to  our  attention,  as 
 it  was  the  fust  city  on  the  shores  of  Europe  in  which  the  gos- 
 pel was  preached.  Philippi  was  anciently  called  Datus,  but 
 received  its  new  name  from  Philip,  the  father  of  Alexander: 
 who  fortified  it,  and  made  it  a  frontier  town  against  the  Thracians. 
 It  is  celebrated  in  profane  history  for  two  important  battles 
 fought  in  its  vicinity:  the  one,  between  Cresar  and  Pompey;  and 
 the  other,  between  Marc  Antony  and  Augustus,  on  the  one  side, 
 
 and   Brutus  and  Cassius   on  the   other Hansford's  Scripture 
 
 Gazetteer. 
 
 h  Because  the  laws,  very  probably,  would  not  permit  them  to 
 exercise  a  strange  religion  within  the  city. —  Whitiy's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 i  The  Jewish  proseuchai  were  places  of  prayer,  in  some  cir- 
 cumstances similar  to,  in  others  different  from  their  synagogues: 
 the  latter  were  generally  in  cities,  and  were  covered  places. 
 (Stehelin's  Traditions  of  the  Jews,  vol.  ii.p.  246.)  Whereas  for 
 the  most  part  the  proseuchai  were  out  of  the  cities,  on  the  banks 
 of  rivers,  having  no  covering,  except  perhaps  the  shade  of  some 
 trees,  or  covered  galleries.     Their  vicinity  to  water  was  for  the 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4056.  A.  D.  52 ;  OK,  A.  M.  54G3.  A.  D.  52,  &c.   FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 1077 
 
 to  resort,  for  tlie  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  the 
 preaching  of  the  gospel  to  such  as  frequented  the  place. 
 Here  they  found  several  devout  women  ;  and,  among 
 others,  one  named  Lydia,  a  dealer  in  purple  ;  whom  when 
 they  had  converted,  they  baptized,  as  likewise  her  whole 
 family ;  and  she  in  return  gave  them  an  invitation  to 
 lodge  at  her  house,  during  the  time  of  their  abode  in 
 that  city. 
 
 As  they  were  going  to  this  place  of  devotion,  they 
 were  frequently  followed  by  a  maid-servant,  who  being 
 actuated  by  a  spirit  of  divination,  a  proclaimed  them  to 
 be,  as  indeed  they  were,  the  *  servants  of  the  most  high 
 God,  and  preachers  of  the  way  to  salvation.  But  Paul, 
 well  knowing  that  the  Christian  religion  needed  not  the 
 testimony  of  Satan  to  confirm  it,  commanded  the  demon, 
 in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  come  out  of  her.  The 
 demon  was  forced  to  obey ;  but  immediately  raised  a 
 storm  against  the  apostles.  For,  when  the  masters  of 
 the  maid  saw,  that,  by  this  miracle,  all  their  prospect 
 of  future  gain  from  her  divinations  was  gone,  they  appre- 
 hended Paul  and  Silas,  and  having  brought  them  before 
 the  magistrates,  to  them  they  insinuated,  that  as  they 
 were  Jews,  c   there  was   reason  to  believe   that  they 
 
 convenience  of  these  frequent  washings  and  ablutions  which  were 
 introduced  among  them. —  Vide  Lardner's  Credibility  of  Gospel 
 History,  vol.  i.  c.  3.  and  Prideauofs  Connection,  vol.  i.  part  i. 
 b.  vi.  p.  o87. — Ed. 
 
 a  'A  certain  damsel  possessed  with  a  spirit  of  divination;' 
 Greek,  '  having  a  spirit  of  Python,' — Trvivpa.  -jtvSwtoi.  IluVwvwas 
 properly  an  appellation  of  Apollo.  But,  as  he  was  the  God  of 
 divination,  it  came  to  be  applied  to  soothsayers,  conjurors,  and 
 those  who  pretended  to  evoke  spirits.  Now  as  ventriloquism 
 was  a  most  useful  art  to  persons  of  that  profession,  they  gene- 
 rally acquired  more  or  less  of  it:  hence  the  word  is  sometimes 
 explained  to  mean  ventriloquist  in  the  Greek  lexicographers. 
 Now  whether  this  girl  was  a  ventriloquist,  has  been  much  debated  ; 
 but  the  negative  is  the  view  adopted,  and  I  think  rightly,  by  the 
 most  eminent  commentators.  (See  Deyling,  Wolf,  and  Kuin.) 
 There  is  no  sufficient  reason  to  suppose  so  from  the  name,  and 
 still  less  from  the  circumstances.  This  is  closely  connected 
 with  another,  and  more  important  question,  — '  whether  she  was 
 a  pretender  to  the  gift  of  divination.'  This  also  has  been  by 
 Deyling,  Wolf,  Walch,  and  Biscoe,  decided  in  the  negative. 
 There  is  somewhat  to  countenance  the  opinion  of  certain  emi- 
 nent recent  commentators,  that  she  was  a  lunatic,  who,  like 
 Joanna  Southcote,  fancied  that  she  was  inspired  to  foretell  future 
 events.  See  Rec.  Syn.  and  Townsend  in  loc. ,  in  his  Disserta- 
 tion on  the  nature  of  the  Spirit  of  Divination  in  the  Pythoness; 
 whence  it  will  appear  that  this  notion  involves  insuperable  diffi- 
 culties, being  inconsistent  with  the  view  taken  by  the  sacred 
 writer;  which  requires  us  to  suppose,  as  the  ancient,  and  most 
 modern  commentators  have  done,  that  the  girl  was  '  possessed 
 with  an  evil  spirit,'  which  enabled  her  occasionally  to  foretell 
 future  events. — Bloomjield's  Greek  Testament. 
 
 b  Why  she  did  this,  or  under  what  pretence,  the  sacred  writer 
 has  not  informed  us.  Various  conjectures  have  been  formed  of 
 the  reason  why  this  was  done.  It  may  have  been,  (1.)  That  as 
 she  prophesied  for  gain,  she  supposed  that  Paul  and  Silas  would 
 eward  her  if  she  publicly  proclaimed  that  they  were  the  servants 
 of  God.  Or,  (2.)  Because  she  was  conscious  that  an  evil  spirit 
 possessed  her,  and  that  she  feared  that  Paul  and  Silas  would  ex- 
 pel that  spirit;  and  that  by  proclaiming  them  to  he  the  servants 
 of  God,  she  hoped  to  conciliate  their  favour.  Or,  (.'>.)  More  pro- 
 bably, it  was  because  she  saw  evident  tokens  of  their  being  sent 
 horn  God,  and  that  their  doctrine  would  prevail ;  and  by  proclaim- 
 ing this  she  hoped  to  acquire  more  authority,  and  a  higher  repu- 
 tation for  being  herself  inspired.  Comp.  Mark  v.  7. — Barnes  on 
 the  Acts. — Ed. 
 
 c  At  the  first  appearance  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  Gentiles 
 looked  upon  it  as  no  other  than  a  particular  sect,  or  reformation 
 oi  .Judaism;  because  at  that  time,  those  who  professed  it,  were 
 descended  from  the  same  stock,  born  in  the  same  country,  ob- 
 served in  the  main  the  same  laws,  adored  the  same  God,  and  re- 
 
 intended  to  introduce  a  religion  and  form  of  worship 
 contrary  to  the  law  of  the  Roman  empire.  Upon  this 
 slight  occasion,  the  magistrates  ordered  them,  though 
 unconvicted,  to  be  scourged  ;  d  and,  having  committed 
 them  to  close  prison,  gave  the  jailor  strict  charge  to 
 keep  them  safe  ;  who  thereupon  thrust  them  into  the 
 inner  dungeon,  and  made  their  feet  fast  in  the  stocks,  e 
 but  in  vain  was  all  his  contrivance.  While  the  apostles, 
 at  midnight,  were  singing  hymns  and  praises  to  Cod,  an 
 earthquake  suddenly  shook  the  foundations  of  the  prison, 
 the  doors  flew  open,  and  their  chains  fell  oft*.  The 
 jailor,  awakened  at  the  noise,  and  supposing  that  the 
 prisoners  had  made  their  escape,  drew  his  sword,  /  with 
 an  intent  to  kill  himself;  but  being  assured  by  St  Paul 
 to  the  contrary,  he  came  trembling  in  ;  and,  having 
 taken  the  two  apostles  home  to  his  own  house,  he  washed 
 their  wounds,  entertained  them  courteously,  and  gave 
 such  evident  proof  of  his  faith  and  repentance,  as  not 
 only  to  be  baptized  himself,  but  to  make  his  whole  family 
 likewise  become  proselytes  to  this  persecuted  religion. 
 
 The  magistrates  next  morning  reflecting  upon  what 
 they  had  done,  would  have  dismissed  the  apostles  pri- 
 vately :  but  the  apostles  refused  to  accept  of  their  dis- 
 charge, alleging,  that  they  were  not  only  innocent 
 persons,  but  denizens  S  of  Rome  ;  that  as  they  had  been 
 
 ceived  the  same  scriptures.  This  was  enough  to  denominate  them 
 Jews.  And  accordingly  Suetonius,  in  his  life  of  Claudius,  c.  25. 
 tells  us,  that  the  emperor  banished  all  the  Jews  out  of  Rome,  be- 
 cause they  were  always  raising  tumults  at  the  instigation  of  one 
 Chrestus;  for  so  he  calls  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 
 And,  in  like  manner,  the  people  of  Philippi,  to  make  Paul  and 
 Silas  more  odious  to  the  magistrates,  did  not  stick  to  acquaint 
 them,  that  they  were  Jews,  and  intended  some  innovations  in 
 religion.  For  though,  as  yet,  there  was  no  express  edict  against 
 Christians,  yet  there  was  an  old  law  of  the  Romans,  which  re- 
 quired them  to  worship  the  gods  of  their  own  country  only,  (Tully, 
 De  leg.  b.  ii.)  And  yet  Christianity  dissuaded  them  from  this: 
 '  for  we  preach  unto  you,'  says  St  Paul,  '  that  ye  should  turn 
 from  these  vanities  to  the  living  God,  who  made  heaven  and 
 earth,'  (Acts  xiv.  15.)  — Cahnet's  Commentary,  and  Whitby's 
 Annotations. 
 
 d  It  was  usual  for  the  Roman  magistrates  to  command  the 
 lictors  to  rend  open  the  clothes  of  the  criminal,  that  he  might  the 
 more  easily  be  beaten  with  rods.  No  care  was  taken  of  the 
 garments  on  these  occasions,  but  they  were  suddenly  and  with 
 violence  rent  open.  Wetstein,  among  other  instances,  cites 
 from  Plutarch  in  Puhl.  p.  99:  '  But  the  lictors  immediately 
 taking  the  young  men,  tore  oil  their  clothes,  and  beat  their  bodies 
 with  rods  or  twigs.'  Thus  were  Paul  and  Silas  treated  in  this 
 instance. — Ed. 
 
 e  It  is  generally  supposed  that  these  were  the  cippi,  or  large 
 pieces  of  wood  used  by  the  Romans,  which  not  only  loaded  the 
 legs  of  prisoners,  but,  sometimes  distended  them  in  a  very  painful 
 manner;  so  that  it  is  highly  probable  the  situation  of  Paul  and 
 Silas  here  might  be  made  more  painful  than  that  of  an  ofiendei 
 sitting  in  the  stocks,  as  used  among  us,  especially  if  (as  is  very 
 possible),  they  lay  with  their  bare  back,  so  lately  scourged,  on 
 the  hard  or  dirty  ground;  which  renders  their  joyful  frame,  ex- 
 pressed by  songs  of  praise,  so  much  the  more  remarkable. 
 Be/a  explains  it  of  the  nuinell;c,  in  which  both  the  feet  and  the 
 neck  were  fastened,  in  the  most  uneasy  posture  that  can  well 
 be  imagined.. — Doddridge  in  loc. — Ed. 
 
 f  Every  jailor  was  made  responsible  for  his  prisoner,  under 
 the  same  penally  to  which  the  prisoner  himself  was  exposed. 
 The  jailor,  awakening,  and  finding  the  prison-doors  open,  taking 
 it  fur  granted  that  all  the  prisoners  had  made  their  escape,  and 
 that  he  must  lose  his  life  on  the  account,  chose  rather  to  die  by 
 his  own  hand  than  by  that  of  others.  For  it  was  customary 
 among  the  heathens,  when  they  found  death  inevitable,  to  take 
 away  their  own  lives.  This  custom  was  applauded  by  their 
 philosophers,  and  sanctioned  by  some  of  their  greatest  men. — 
 Dr  A.  Clarke. — En. 
 
 y  Silas  might  likewise  be  a  Roman  citizen;  but,  as  St  Paul 
 
1078 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4056.  A.  D.  52 ;  OR,  A.  M.  51G3.  A.  D. 
 illegally  scourged  and  committed,  their  delivery  should 
 he  as  puhlic  as  was  the  injury,  and  attended  with  a 
 solemn  retraction  of  what  they  had  done.  The  magis- 
 trates, when  they  heard  that  they  insisted  on  their  pri- 
 vileges, were  not  a  little  afraid;  and  therefore  repairing 
 to  the  prison,  with  all  submission,  desired  them  to  leave 
 the  city  ;  which  the  apostles,  after  some  conference  with 
 the  converts  in  Lydia's  house,  were  not  averse  to  do. 
 
 From  Philippi,  Paul  and  his  companions,  passing 
 through  Amphipolis,'1  and  Apollonia,*  came  to  Thessal- 
 onica,' the  metropolis  of  Macedonia,  where  he  disputed 
 
 was  undoubtedly  one,  this  was  enough  to  justify  the  language 
 which  be  uses.  The  only  dispute  is,  how  he  came  by  this 
 privilege?  And  to  this  some  reply,  that  the  city  where  he  was 
 bom,  for  its  faithful  adherence  to  Julius  Ca;sar,  was  by  him  made 
 a  Roman  colony,  and  all  its  inhabitants  admitted  to  the  usual 
 rights  ami  immunities  of  Romans.  Others  contend,  that  though 
 Tarsus  might,  at  that  time,  be  made  a  free  town;  yet  it  was 
 never  a  Roman  colony,  until  the  reign  either  of  Caracalla  or 
 rleliogabalus;  and  that  therefore  the  right  of  a  Roman  citizen 
 was  not  common  to  all  the  people  of  the  place,  but  only  to  seme 
 particular  persons  who  might  purchase  it,  as  a  title  of  honour, 
 for  them  and  their  heirs  for  ever;  of  whom  they  suppose  St  Paul's 
 father  to  be  one;  and  that,  upon  this  foundation,  his  son  might 
 very  properly  say  that  he  was  born  free.  However  this  be,  it 
 is  certain,  that  the  quality  of  a  Roman  citizen  was  highly 
 esteemed,  especially  in  all  Roman  colonies,  whereof  Philippi  was 
 one.  Every  injury  offered  to  such  a  one  was  looked  upon  as  an 
 affront  against  the  majesty  of  the  whole  people  of  Rome ;  to  bind 
 him  was  a  violation  of  the  law,  and  much  more  to  have  him 
 beaten;  but  to  be  scourged  and  bound,  without  being  first  legally 
 heard  and  tried,  was  not  only  against  the  Roman,  but  against  the 
 laws  of  all  nations ;  and  the  more  public  any  such  injury  is,  the 
 greater  is  its  aggravation,  and  the  more  solemn  should  its  re- 
 paration be. — Hcausohre's  Annotations,  Calmet's  Commentary, 
 and  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 a  Amphipolis,  called  in  modern  times  Crisopoli,  and  situated 
 in  European  Turkey,  was  a  city  of  ancient  Macedonia  or  Thrace, 
 and  subject  to  the  Macedonian  kings.  It  stood  on  the  banks  of 
 the  river  Strymon,  which  nearly  surrounded  it,  in  the  immediate 
 vicinity  of  'Ema  *02»i,  or  the  '  nine  ways,'  a  spot  so  called  from 
 a  number  of  roads  which  met  there  from  different  parts  of  Thrace. 
 It  was  built  by  Cimon  the  Athenian  about  470  years  before  the 
 Christian  era,  and  peopled  with  upwards  of  10,000  Athenians, 
 who  settled  there.  This  city  was  a  source  of  great  annoyance  to 
 Philip,  king  of  Macedonia,  who  drove  the  Athenians  from  it, 
 and  allowed  the  citizens  to  form  a  republic.  It  was  afterwards 
 taken  by  Brasidas,  the  Lacedemonian  general,  but  Philip  again 
 recovered  it.  The  Athenians,  nevertheless,  always  considered 
 Amphipolis  as  belonging  to  them,  and  Philip  promised  to  re- 
 store it  to  them,  when  it  was  finally  ceded  to  him  by  a  treaty  of 
 peace.  The  spot  on  which  the  ruins  of  Amphipolis  are  still 
 to  be  traced,  is  called  Jenikevi.  'The  position  of  Amphipo- 
 lis,' observes  Colonel  Leake,  '  is  one  of  the  most  important 
 in  Greece.  It  stands  in  a  pass  which  traverses  the  mountains 
 bordering  the  Strymonic  Gulf,  and  it  commands  the  only  easy 
 communication  from  the  coast  of  that  Gulf  into  the  great 
 Macedonian  plains,  which  extend  for  sixty  miles  from  beyond 
 Meleoiko  to  Philippi.'  There  is  a  miserable  place  near  it  called 
 Emboli  by  the  Turks. — Scripture  Gazetteer. — Ed. 
 
 />  This  is  another  city  of  Macedonia,  lying  between  Amphi- 
 poUl  and  Thessalonica Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table. 
 
 t  A  large  and  populous  city  and  seaport  of  Macedonia,  the 
 capital  of  one  of  the  four  districts  into  which  the  Romans  divided 
 that  country  alter  its  conquest  by  Paulus  JEmilius.  It  was  sit- 
 uated on  the  Thermian  bay,  and  was  anciently  called  Therma:; 
 but,  bring  rebuilt  by  Philip  the  father  of  Alexander,  after  his 
 *  IctOTV  over  the  Theesalians,  it  then  received  the  name  of  Thes- 
 salonica. _  At  the  time  of  writing  the  epistle  to  the  Thessal- 
 onians,  Thesaalonica  was  the  residence  of  the  proconsul  who 
 governed  the  province  of  Macedonia,  and  of  the  qusstor  who  had 
 the  Charge  of  the  imperial  revenues.  Besides  being  the  seat  of 
 government,  this  port  carried  on  an  extensive  commerce,  which 
 caused  a  great  influx  of  Strangers  from  all  quarters;  so  that 
 Thessalonica  was  remarkable  for  the  number,  wealth,  and  learn- 
 ing of   its   inhabitants.     The   Jews  were   extremely   numerous 
 
 92,  Sec.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 in  the  synagogues  of  the  Jews  three  sabbath-days  suc- 
 cessively, proving,  from  the  predictions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
 ment, that  the  Messiah  was  to  suffer,  and  rise  again, and 
 that  the  blessed  Jesus  was  this  Messiah.  Great  numbers, 
 especially  of  religious  proselytes,  and  several  women 
 of  the  better  rank  and  quality,  were  converted  at  hio 
 preaching  :  but  the  unbelieving  Jews  raised  a  tumult  in 
 the  city,  and  went  to  the  house  of  Jason,rf  where  St  Paul 
 lodged  ;  but  not  finding  him  there,  they  seized  Jason, 
 and  carried  him  before  the  magistrates,  where  they  ac- 
 cused him  of  harbouring  in  his  house  persons  disaffected 
 to  the  Roman  government,  and  who  set  up  one  Jesus  in 
 opposition  to  Caesar.  He  however,  upon  security  for 
 his  good  behaviour,  was  dismissed  ;  and  Paul  and  Silas, 
 for  fear  of  greater  disturbances,  were,  by  the  brethren, 
 conveyed  next  night  to  Berea.e  Here  they  found  the 
 people  in  a  better  disposition  to  entertain  the  Christian 
 doctrine,  but  yet  not  willing  to  take  it  merely  upon  the 
 apostles'  word,  until  they  had  examined  the  scriptures, 
 and  found  that  their  preaching  agreed  very  well  with 
 the  characters  therein  delivered  of  the  Messiah  ;  and  then 
 great  numbers,  both  of  men  and  women  of  distinction, 
 were  converted  ;  but  the  Jews  of  Thessalonica,  hearing 
 of  their  success,  came  down  to  Berea,  and  there  raised 
 such  disturbances,  that  the  brethren  thought  proper  to 
 send  Paul  privately  away  to  Athens,  /  while  Silas  and 
 Timothy  continued  some  time  in  the  place  to  confirm  the 
 new  believers,  but,  after  that,  had  orders  to  follow  him 
 as  soon  as  possible. 
 
 While  Paul  waited  for  his  company  at  Athens,  he  went 
 about  several  parts  of  the  city,  to  see  the  rarities  of  it, 
 and  wherever  he  came,  found  abundance  of  supersti- 
 tion 8  and  ignorant  zeal,  even  for  deities  that  themselves 
 
 here.  The  modern  name  of  this  place  is  Salonichi ;  it  is  the 
 chief  port  of  modern  Greece,  and  has  a  population  of  sixty  thou- 
 sand persons,  twelve  thousand  of  whom  are  Jews.  According 
 to  Dr  Clarke,  who  has  given  a  very  interesting  account  of  the 
 antiquities,  present  state,  and  commerce  of  Thessalonica,  this 
 place  is  the  same  now  it  was  then;  a  set  of  turbulent  Jews  con- 
 stituted a  very  principal  part  of  its  population  •  and,  when  St  Paul 
 came  hither  from  Philippi,  where  the  gospel  was  first  preached, 
 to  communicate  the  '  glad  tidings'  to  the  Thessalonians,  the 
 Jews  were  sufficient  in  number  to  '  set  all  the  city  in  an  uproar.' 
 — Home's  Introduction. 
 
 d  The  Greeks  say,  that  he  was  afterwards  made  bishop  of 
 Tarsus  in  Cilicia. 
 
 e  This  was  likewise  another  great  and  populous  city  of  Mace- 
 donia, lying  to  the  south  of  Thessalonica,  and  almost  directly  in 
 the  way  of  Athens. —  Wells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 f  This  was  one  of  the  most  renowned  cities  in  the  world, 
 situated  on  the  gulf  of  the  iEgeau  sea,  which  comes  up  to  the 
 isthmus  of  the  Pelopenese,  or  Morea,  in  that  district  of  Greece 
 properly  so  called,  which  was  named  Attica,  and  was  the  parent  of 
 that  dialect  which  is  esteemed  the  purest  and  finest  Greek.  The 
 city  itself  was  the  great  seat  of  arts  and  sciences,  and  as  Cicero 
 will  have  it,  the  fountain  whence  civility,  learning,  religion,  and 
 laws,  were  derived  to  all  other  nations:  so  universally  flocked  to 
 by  those  that  had  the  least  kindness  for  the  muses  and  good 
 manners,  that  he  who  had  not  seen  Athens  was  accounted  a  block; 
 he  who  having  seen  it,  and  not  in  love  with  it,  a  dull  stupid  ass ;  and 
 he,  who,  after  he  had  seen  it  could  be  willing  to  leave  it,  fit  for 
 nothing  but  to  be  a  pack-horse.—  Wells's  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament  and  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles.  Our  space  will  not 
 permit  us  to  insert  a  lengthened  account  of  Athens  here  ;  but 
 the  inquiring  reader  may  consult  Mansford  and  Scripture  Gazet- 
 teer, Edinburgh,  1837. — Ed. 
 
 g  Several  of  their  own  writers  have  made  their  remark,  that 
 Athens  had  greater  numbers  of  deities  and  idols  than  all  Greece 
 besides;  and  Strabo,  in  particular,  notes,  that  the  Athenians 
 were  not  more  fond  of  strangers  than  forward  to  comply  with  any 
 
Sect   V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 A.  Iff.  405G.  A.  D.  52 ;  OR,  A.  M.  54G3.  A.  D.  62,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 1079 
 
 knew  nothing-  of.  This  therefore  he  esteemed  no  im- 
 proper place  and  time  for  him  to  apply  himself  to  the 
 discharge  of  his  great  work;  and  accordingly,  he  not 
 only  disputed  with  the  Jews  and  proselytes  in  the 
 synagogues  every  sabbath -day,  but  took  all  opportuni- 
 ties, wherever  he  met  with  a  convenient  auditory,  and 
 this  he  seldom  missed  of  in  the  public  forum,  where 
 people  of  all  sorts  daily  resorted  to  hear  and  tell  news, 
 which  was  the  great  business  of  their  lives,  to  instruct 
 them  in  the  coining  of  the  Messias,  and  in  the  doctrine 
 of  a  resurrection  and  a  future  state. 
 
 Athens  was,  at  this  time,  the  great  academy  of  the 
 Roman  empire,  and  abounded  with  philosophers  of  all 
 sects  ;  but  those  which  St  Raul  had  chiefly  to  deal  with 
 were  the  Epicureans  a  and  the  Stoics,  who  treated  him 
 with  a  great  deal  of  scorn  and  contempt ;  while  others 
 looked  upon  him  as  a  setter-up  of  new  gods,  supposing 
 Jesus,  and  Anastasis,  or  the  resurrection  which  he 
 preached,  to  be  two  new  unheard-of  deities,  and  there- 
 fore brought  him  before  their  famous  senate  at  Areopa- 
 gus. *    Here,  in  a  most  excellent  discourse,  he  endea- 
 
 novelties  in  religion,  and  ready  to  entertain  any  foreign  deities 
 and  rites  of  worship. — Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 a  The  Epicureans  were  practically  Atheists, — since  they 
 held  that  the  world  was  neither  created  by  God,  nor  under  the 
 direction  of  his  providence.  Pleasure  they  accounted  the  sum- 
 mum  bonum,  and  virtue  to  be  practised  only  for  the  sake  of 
 pleasure,  not  for  its  own  sake.  They  maintained  that  the  soul 
 was  material,  like  the  body,  and  would  perish  with  it,  leaving 
 nothing  to  be  either  hoped  or  feared  after  death.  As  to  the 
 Stoics,  they  did,  indeed,  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  God,  but 
 held  such  chimerical  notions  of  his  nature,  attributes,  and  pro- 
 vidence, as  rendered  that  belief  almost  nugatory.  They  main- 
 tained, that  both  God  and  man  were  bound  by  a  necessitas  fata- 
 lis;  that  the  wise  man  yielded  in  no  respect  to  God;  of  whom 
 they  believed  that  his  nature  was  fire,  and  diffused  throughout 
 the  world.  On  the  condition  of  the  soul  after  death,  and  on  the 
 existence  of  a  state  of  rewards  and  punishments,  they  varied  in 
 opinion;  but  all  denied  the  immortality  of  a  future  state.  Nay, 
 .some  thought  that,  sooner  or  later,  the  soul  merged  in  the  ce- 
 lestial fire  of  the  Deity.  Thus  while  the  former  denied  the  ex- 
 istence, or  at  least  providence,  of  God ;  the  latter,  though  pro- 
 fessing to  believe  both, — yet,  by  ascribing  all  human  events  to 
 fate,  destroyed  the  foundation  of  all  religion  as  much  as  the  for- 
 mer. It  is  obvious  that  both  the  above  systems  were  as  far  as 
 possible  removed  from  the  doctrines  of  Christianity ;  and  there- 
 fore it  is  no  wonder  that  the  latter  should  have  been  both  unac- 
 countable and  unacceptable  to  these  philosophers.  There  were, 
 besides,  two  other  sects,  the  Platonists,  and  the  Peripatetics,  the 
 latter  of  whom  probably  came  not  near  Paul,  since  their  places 
 of  discussion  were  far  removed.  The  opinions  of  the  former 
 made  far  nearer  approaches  than  those  of  the  other  sects  to  the 
 doctrines  of  Christianity ;  and  these  probably  formed  the  far 
 greater  part  of  those  who  gave  a  qualified  approbation  of  Paul's 
 doctrines,  by  proposing  to  'hear  him  again,'  on  the  subject  of 
 the  immortality  of  the  soul. — Bloomf eld's  Gr.  Test. — Ed. 
 
 b  This  was  a  place  in  Athens,  where  the  senate  usually  as- 
 sembled; and  took  its  name,  as  some  think,  from  'Ajjjs,  which  is 
 the  same  as  Mars,  the  god  of  war,  who  was  the  first  person  that 
 was  judged  here  for  having  killed  Apollo's  son.  But,  as  k^ns 
 does  sometimes  signify  fighting,  murder,  or  violence  of  any  kind, 
 and  irayn  is  properly  a  rock,  or  rising  hill,  it  therefore  seems 
 to  denote  a  court  situated  upon  an  eminence,  as  the  Areopagus 
 was,  where  causes  of  murder,  &c.  were  tried.  This  court,°at 
 present,  is  out  of  the  city,  but  in  former  times  it  stood  almost 
 in  the  middle  of  it.  Its  foundations,  which  are  still  standing, 
 are  built  with  square  stones  of  a  prodigious  size,  in  the  form  of 
 a  semicircle,  and  support  a  terrace,  or  platform,  of  about  an  hun- 
 dred and  forty  paces,  which  was  the  court  where  this  senate  was 
 held.  In  the  midst  of  it  there  was  a  tribunal  cut  in  a  rock,  and 
 all  about  were  seats,  cut  likewise  in  stone,  where  the  senate 
 heard  causes  in  the  open  air,  without  any  covering,  and,  as  some 
 say,  in  the  night-time,  that  they  might  not  be  moved  to  com- 
 
 voured  to  convince  them  of  their  present  errors  and 
 delusions,  and  to  inform  them  who  that  true  God  was, 
 whom  they,  under  false  notions,  blindly  worshipped. 
 '  The  deity  to  whom  they  had  dedicated  an  altar,  under 
 the  title  of  '  the  unknown  God,'  c  was  no  other,  he  told 
 them,  than  the  great  God ;  the  creator  of  all  things,  the 
 supreme  governor  and  ruler  of  the  world  ;  that,  as  he  was 
 infinite  in  all  perfections,  it  was  not  to  be  supposed 
 that  he  could  be  confined  within  any  temple  or  human 
 fabric,  that  any  image  could  be  made  to  represent  him, 
 or  that  he  could  stand  in  need  of  their  gifts  or  sacrifices, 
 who  is  the  sole  fountain  of  all  the  blessings  they  enjoyed  ; 
 that  it  was  entirely  from  him  that  they  had  either  life, 
 motion,  or  existence,  as  one  of  their  own  poets,  rf  by 
 calling  them  his  offspring,  acknowledged ;  and  therefore 
 incongruous  it  was  to  think,  that  their  creator  could  be 
 the  work  of  their  hands,  as  every  image  of  gold,  silver, 
 or  stone  was ;  that  though  his  divine  patience  had  for  a 
 long  time  borne  with  men's  blind  idolatries,  yet  now  he 
 expected  a  general  repentance  and  reformation  from  the 
 
 passion  at  the  sight  of  any  criminal  that  was  brought  before 
 them.  For  this  judicature  was  so  famous  for  its  uprightness, 
 and  held  by  all  in  such  esteem  and  veneration,  that  when  the 
 Romans  had  conquered  Greece,  and  sent  their  proconsuls  to  rule 
 there,  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  them  to  refer  difficult 
 causes  to  the  judgment  of  the  Areopagites.  After  the  loss  of 
 their  liberty,  however,  the  authority  of  this  senate,  which  used 
 before  to  determine  in  all  causes  both  civil  and  religious,  de- 
 clined apace ;  so  that,  in  our  apostle's  time,  the  Areopagus 
 was  not  so  much  a  court  of  judicature,  as  a  common  rendezvous, 
 where  all  curious  and  inquisitive  persons  who  spent  their  time 
 in  nothing  else,  but  either  in  hearing,  or  telling  some  new  thing, 
 were  accustomed  to  meet,  (Acts  xvii.  21.)  But  though  their 
 power,  in  other  matters,  was  greatly  impaired ;  yet  they  seem 
 still  to  have  retained  the  privilege  of  canonizing  all  gods  that 
 were  allowed  public  worship;  and  therefore  St  Paul  was  brought 
 before  them  as  an  asserter  and  preacher  of  such  a  deity  as  they 
 had  not  yet  admitted  among  them. —  Calmet's  Commentary, 
 Beausobre's  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 c  That  the  Athenians,  in  their  public  places,  had  altars  with- 
 out any  names  on  them,  and  others  inscribed  to  unknown  gods, 
 or  demons,  is  evident  from  the  testimony  of  Laertius,  who  in- 
 forms us,  that  when  a  great  plague  raged  at  Athens,  and  several 
 means  had  been  attempted  for  the  removal  of  it,  they  were  ad- 
 vised by  Epimenides,  the  philosopher,  to  build  an  altar,  and 
 dedicate  it,  ru  t^oitwovti  0iu,  '  to  the  proper  and  peculiar  God,' 
 to  whom  sacrifices  were  due.  In  Vita  Epimen.  (b.  11.)  And 
 the  Athenians,  as  Chrysostom  supposes,  not  knowing  by  what 
 name  to  call  him,  erected  an  altar  with  this  inscription,  8EOI2 
 A2IA2,  KAI  ETPflriHS,  KIA  AIBTH2;  0Ef2  ArNfimi  KAI 
 SENfi:  '  To  the  gods  of  Asia,  Europe  and  Africa;  to  the  strange 
 and  unknown  God;'  whereby,  as  some  imagine,  the  Athenians 
 intended  the  God  of  the  Jews,  who  had  given  such  wonderful 
 deliverances  to  his  own  people.  Nor  is  this  conjecture  unrea- 
 sonable, considering  that  the  writings  of  Plato,  Pythagoras,  and 
 many  others,  are  a  plain  proof,  that  the  scriptures  had  been  read 
 by  their  philosophers,  though  not  being  able  to  comprehend  his 
 divine  nature  and  attributes,  they  might  call  him  the  unknown 
 God,  in  conformity  perhaps  to  the  Hebrews  themselves,  who  held 
 the  name  of  their  God  in  great  secrecy  and  veneration,  and, 
 from  the  mouth  of  the  prophet,  had  received  it  as  one  of  his 
 distinguished  titles,  '  Verily,  thou  art  a  God  that  hidest  thyself, 
 O  God  of  Israel,  the  Saviour,  (Isa.  xlv.  15.) — Hammond's  An- 
 notations, and  Cave's  Lives  of  the  slpostles. — See  an  able  note  on 
 this  subject  in  Bloomfield's  Greek  Test.  Acts  xvii.  23. — En. 
 
 d  The  poet  whom  St  Paul  means  was  Aratus,  born  in  Cilicia, 
 and  consequently  his  countryman;  and  what  he  attributes  to 
 Jupiter,  the  apostle  applies  to  the  true  God:  'we  are  his  off- 
 spring.' This  indeed  was  no  argument  to  the  Epicurean  audi- 
 tors, who  held  the  poets  in  great  contempt,  because  on  all  occa- 
 sions they  introduced  the  gods  and  taught  the  separate  existence 
 of  human  souls;  but  it  was  of  great  weight  to  the  common  peo- 
 ple, who  paid   a  mighty  veneration  to  the  poets,  from  whose 
 
1080 
 
 THE   HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4056.  A.  D.  52;  OR,  A.  M.  54G3.  A.  D.  52,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 world  ;  specially  since,  by  the  publication  of  the  gos- 
 pel, lie  had  fully  evinced  a  future  judgment,  had  ap- 
 pointed the  holy  Jesus  to  administer  that  judgment,  and 
 yiven  us  sufficient  assurance  of  such  his  appointment,  by 
 having  raised  him  from  the  dead.'  But  no  sooner  had 
 he  mentioned  the  resurrection,  than  some  of  the  philoso- 
 phers "  mocked  and  derided  him,  whilst  others  *  express- 
 ed their  desire  to  hear  him  upon  the  same  subject  another 
 time :  and  the  good  effect  of  his  discourse  was,  that  it 
 converted  several  of  the  best  rank  and  quality,  among 
 whom  was  Dionysius,  c  one  of  the  senators  of  the  Areo- 
 pagus, and  Damaris,  whom  the  ancients,  not  improbably, 
 account  his  wife. 
 
 From  Athens  St  Paul  departed  to  Corinth,  d  where  he 
 
 works  some  of  the  greatest  philosophers  then  living  were  wont  to 
 borrow  citations,  thereby  to  confirm  and  adorn  their  discourses. 
 To  the  honour  of  human  learning,  therefore,  we  may  observe, 
 that  in  the  New  Testament,  the  Holy  Ghost  is  pleased  three 
 several  times  to  make  mention  of  the  heathen  poets;  of  Aratus 
 here,  (Acts  xvii.  2,  S.)  of  Menander,  (1  Cor.  xv.  33.)  and  of 
 Epimenkles.— Beausobres  and  Burkitt's  Annotations,  and 
 Bendy1  s  Sermons  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
 
 a  These  were  the  Epicureans,  who  believed  no  resurrection, 
 no  immortality  of  the  soul,  nor  any  future  judgment,  which  St 
 Paul  here  asserts. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  These  were  the  Stoics,  who  maintained  a  conflagration  and 
 reviviscence  of  the  world  ;  held  that  souls  might  live  long,  though 
 not  always,  in  another  state;  and  allowed  something  of  future 
 reeompences,  though  with  great  fluctuation. — Whitby's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 c  The  name  of  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  became  very  cele- 
 brated in  after  ages;  but  it  was  principally  in  consequence  of 
 some  voluminous  writings,  which  have  been  quoted  as  written 
 by  him,  but  which  are  undoubtedly  spurious,  and  were  perhaps 
 composed  as  late  as  the  fourth  century.  Little  or  nothing  is 
 known  authentically  of  Dionysius,  except  the  brief  notice  of  him 
 which  is  found  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles;  but  a  bishop  of 
 Corinth,  who  lived  within  a  hundred  years  of  this  time,  speaks 
 of  him  as  having  been  the  first  bishop  of  Athens:  from  which 
 we  may  safely  conclude  that  the  Athenian  Christians  were  com- 
 mitted to  his  care.  The  church  of  Athens  continued  to  flourish 
 for  a  long  time,  and  we  know  the  names  of  some  of  its  bishops 
 ill  the  second  century ;  so  that  there  may  have  been  good  reasons 
 tor  the  memory  of  Dionysius  being  held  in  such  esteem.  Paul 
 does  not  appear  to  have  resided  long  at  Athens:  but,  while  he 
 was  at  Corinth,  he  was  at  no  great  distance  ofl';  and  the  Athen- 
 ian converts  may  have  had  the  benefit  of  his  counsel,  if  he  did 
 not  occasionally  visit  them  in  person. — Burton's  History  of  the 
 Church. — Ed. 
 
 d  Corinth  was  a  large  and  wealthy  city  of  Greece,  the  metro- 
 polis of  Achaia,  and  seated  on  the  isthmus  of  the  same  name 
 which  joins  the  Morea  to  the  continent.  Its  favourable  situa- 
 tion gave  rise  to  the  cultivation  of  trade  by  the  inhabitants  ; 
 from  which  they  acquired  great  wealth.  It  was  destroyed  in 
 the  year  146  B.  C.  by  the  Romans  ;  when,  during  the  confla- 
 gration, various  metals  in  a  fused  state  accidentally  running  to- 
 gether, gave  rise  to  the  composition  called  ^Es  Corinthium,  or 
 <  lorinthian  brass.  It  was,  however,  rebuilt  a  hundred  years  after 
 by  Julius  Ca;sar  ;  who  planted  a  Roman  colony  there,  and  made 
 It  the  residence  of  the  pro-consul  of  Achaia.  Like  all  other 
 cities  advantageously  situated  for  trade,  it  soon  regained  its  for- 
 mer prosperity;  and  as  science  and  the  arts  generally  follow  in 
 the  train  oi  commercial  wealth,  here  were  many  celebrated  artists 
 and  philosophers:  whence  the  address  of  St  Paul  to  them,  'Ye 
 are  rid..,  ye  are  wise  and  honourable.'  The  order  of  architecture 
 '""fly  used  in  this  city,  gave  the  name  of  Corinthian  to  that 
 style  so  called.  The  manners  of  the  citizens  were  particularly 
 corrupt :  they  were  indeed  infamous  to  a  proverb.  The  Isthmian 
 bames  were  held  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city;  which  gave  occa- 
 sion to  the  allusion  of  St  Paul,  m  t\w  ninth  chapter  of  his  firs(. 
 epistle.  In  the  centra  oi  the  city  also  was  a  celebrated  temple 
 "'  \  enus,  a  part  of  whose  worship  consisted  in  prostitution-  an 
 example  which  pave  the  Corinthians  very  lax  ideas  on  the  illicit 
 Intercouree  oi  the  sexes.  Corinth  also  possessed  numerous 
 schools  ot  philosophy  and  rhetoric;   in  which,  as  at  Alexandria 
 
 found  a  certain  Jew,  named  Aquila,  e  lately  come  from 
 Italy,  with  Priscilla  his  wife,  because  the  emperor  Clau- 
 dius, towards  the  latter  end  of  his  reign,  had  made  an 
 edict /to  banish  all  the  Jews  from  Rome;  and,  having 
 instructed  them  in  the  Christian  faith,  he  took  up  his 
 lodgings,  and  wrought  with  them,  for  they  by  profession 
 were  tent-makers  S  as  well  as  himself,  and  every  sabbath- 
 day  he  preached  in  the  synagogues,  labouring  to  con- 
 vince both  Jews  and  Greeks,  that  Jesus  was  the  true 
 Messias. 
 
 Before  Paul  departed  from  Athens,  Timothy,  accord- 
 ing to  his  request,  came  to  him  from  Beraea,  and  brought 
 him  an  account,  1  that  the  new  Christians  at  Thessalo- 
 nica  had  been  under  great  persecution  ever  since  he  left 
 them.  This  obliged  Paul  to  send  him  back  again  into 
 Macedonia,  in  order  to  establish  and  comfort  the  brethren 
 under  their  afflictions ;  which  when  Timothy  had  done, 
 he  took  Silas  along  with  him,  and  returned  from  Thes- 
 salonica  with  the  joyful  news  of  the  stedfast  adherence 
 to  the  truth  which  that  church  had  shown  in  all  its  dis- 
 tresses. This  was  a  matter  of  no  small  consolation  to 
 the  apostle ;  who  thereupon  wrote  his  first  epistle  to  the 
 Thessalonians ;  2  'wherein  he  highly  applauds  their 
 courage  and  zeal,  in  the  belief  of  the  Christian  religion, 
 and  exhorts  them  to  a  noble  constancy  and  perseverance 
 amidst   their   afflictions :    wherein   he    commends   their 
 
 1  Thes. 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 Ibid,  passim. 
 
 the  purity  of  the  faith,  by  an  easy  and  natural  process,  became 
 early  corrupted.  Corinth  is  now  in  a  most  ruinous  state,  con- 
 sisting only  of  a  few  wretched  huts.  The  situation  is  also  said 
 to  be  extremely  unhealthy. — Mansford. — See  Edinr.  Scrip.  Gaz. 
 Art.  Athens. — Ed. 
 
 e  Aquila  was  a  native  ofPontus,  in  Asia  Minor,  and,  together 
 with  his  wife  Priscilla,  who  is  sometimes  called  Prisca,  was 
 made  a  convert  to  the  Christian  religion  by  St  Paul  at  Antioch. 
 When  the  apostle  left  that  city,  in  order  to  return  to  Jerusalem, 
 these  two  persons  accompanied  him  as  far  as  Ephesus,  where  he 
 left  them  for  some  time  to  preach  the  gospel,  and,  by  their  ex- 
 ample and  instruction,  to  confirm  the  faithful  in  that  church. 
 Here  it  was,  that  they  did  him  singular  service,  and  for  his  life 
 laid  down  their  own  necks,  as  himself  acknowledges,  (Rom.  xvi. 
 4.)  When  he  wrote  his  epistle  to  the  Romans,  they  were  re- 
 turned to  Rome,  because  he  therein  salutes  them  with  great 
 commendations ;  but  when  he  wrote  his  second  epistle  to  Ti- 
 mothy, they  were  come  back  to  Ephesus  ;  because  in  it  he  desires 
 him  to  salute  them  in  his  name,  (2  Tim.  iv.  19.)  What  became 
 of  them  after  this,  we  have  no  certain  account,  but  it  is  supposed, 
 that  they  continued  at  Ephesus  until  the  time  of  their  death, 
 which,  according  to  the  Roman  martyrologies,  is  set  down  on 
 the  eighth  of  July. — Calmet's  Commentary  and  Dictionary. 
 
 f  Suetonius  in  his  life  of  Claudius,  makes  the  occasion  of  this 
 decree  to  have  been  the  tumults  which  the  Jews,  or  Christians, 
 who  went  under  the  notion  of  Jews,  were  perpetually  fomenting 
 in  Rome.  But  as  we  find  nothing  of  this  in  any  other  historian, 
 it  is  rather  supposed  that  this  severity  proceeded  from  the  be- 
 haviour of  some  thieves  in  Judea,  who  had  assaulted  a  servant  of 
 the  emperor's,  named  Stephen,  taken  from  him  the  imperial 
 baggage,  and  killed  the  Roman  troops  that  were  appointed  to 
 guard  it;  as  both  Tacitus,  in  his  Annals,  b.  xii.  and  Josephus, 
 in  his  History  of  the  Jewish  Wars,  b.  ii.  have  informed  us. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 g  It  was  a  received  custom  among  the  Jews,  for  every  man,  of 
 what  rank  or  quality  soever,  to  learn  some  handicraft;  for  one  of 
 their  proverbial  expressions  is,  that  '  whoever  teaches  not  his 
 son  a  trade,  teaches  him  to  be  a  thief:'  and  in  those  hot  coun- 
 tries, where  tents,  which  were  commonly  made  of  skins,  or 
 leather,  sewed  together,  to  keep  out  the  violence  of  the  weather, 
 were  used,  not  only  by  soldiers,  but  by  travellers,  and  others, 
 whose  business  required  them  to  be  abroad,  a  tent-maker  was  no 
 mean  or  unprofitable  employ. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and 
 Gospels,  and  Poole's  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1081 
 
 A.  M.  405G.  A.  D.  52 ;  Oil,  A.  M.  54G3.  A  D 
 charity  to  the  believers  ol  iVlacedonia,  and  gives  them 
 many  instructions  concerning  a  good  life  and  conversa- 
 tion :  wherein  he  exhorts  them  to  the  practice  of  all  purity 
 and  holiness,  especially  in  the  use  of  the  marriage-bed ; 
 to  avoid  idleness  ;  to  be  diligent  in  their  callings,  and 
 not  immoderate  in  their  grief  for  the  dead  ;  and  wherein 
 he  instructs  them  in  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  the 
 manner  of  Christ's  coming  to  judgment,  and  the  obliga- 
 tion all  were  under  to  make  a  timely  preparation  for  it.' 
 
 Upon  the  accession  of  Timothy  and  Silas,  St  Raul 
 preached  the  doctrine  of  Christ  witli  fresh  ardour  to  the 
 Jews  ;  but  when  he  perceived,  that  instead  of  attending 
 to  it,  they  only  opposed  it  with  blasphemous  and  oppro- 
 brious language,  he  openly  declared  his  rejection  of  them, 
 and  purpose  of  applying  himself  to  the  Gentiles.  a 
 However,  before  he  did  this,  some  persons  of  distinction 
 among  them,  such  as  Crispus,  *  the  chief  ruler  of  the 
 synagogue,  and  Stephanus  and  Gaius,  together  with  their 
 whole  families,  had  embraced  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel, 
 and  were  baptized  into  the  Christian  faith.  Among  the 
 Gentiles  he  made  a  multitude  of  converts  ;  and,  by  a 
 vision  from  heaven,  being  encouraged  to  proceed  in  his 
 ministry  witli  boldness,  under  the  divine  protection,  and 
 in  certain  hopes  of  success,  he  there  continued  for  the 
 space  of  one  whole  year  and  six  months. 
 
 During  his  stay  in  this  place,  the  Jews  made  a  general 
 insurrection  against  him,  and  brought  him  before  Gal- 
 lio,  c  who  at  that  time  was  proconsul  of  Achaia,  accusing 
 him  of  attempting  to  introduce  a  new  religion,  contrary 
 to  what  was  established  by  the  Jewish  law,  and  permit- 
 ted by  the  Roman  powers.  But  as  Gallio  apprehended 
 that  this  was  a  controversy,  which  fell  not  under  the 
 cognisance  of  the  civil  judicature,  he  would  have  no 
 concern  in  it,  and  therefore  ordered  his  officers  to  drive 
 them  out  of  the  court.  Whereupon  the  common  people 
 took  Sosthenes,  d  a  ruler  of  the  synagogue,  and  one 
 of  St  Paul's  chief  accusers,  and  beat  him  publicly  be- 
 
 a  His  words  are,  '  from  henceforth  I  will  turn  to  the  Gentiles,' 
 (Acts  xviii.  6.)  and  these  at  first  sight  seem  to  be  a  declaration, 
 that  he  would  leave  off  preaching  to  the  Jews,  wherever  he  came, 
 and  wholly  apply  himself  to  the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles;  but 
 by  comparing  his  actions  with  the  places  where  this  phrase,  or 
 something  like  it,  does  occur,  it  appears,  that  he  only  intended 
 to  say,  he  would  no  longer  preach  to  the  Jews  of  that  place  ;  for 
 after  this  is  said,  we  find  him  still  entering  into  the  synagogues, 
 and  preaching  to  the  Jews,  and  calling  upon  them  to  hear  the 
 ivord,  (Acts  xv.  8.  and  xxviii.  23,  &c.) — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  Crispus  is  said  to  have  been  made  by  St  Paul  bishop  of 
 ^gina,  an  island  near  Athens;  and  Origen  makes  mention  of 
 one  Gaius,  a  disciple  of  St  Paul,  who  by  him  was  appointed 
 bishop  of  Thessalonica;  but  of  Stephanus  we  have  no  other  ac- 
 count than  what  we  learn  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. — Cal- 
 mct's  Dictionary. 
 
 c  The  name  of  this  proconsul  was  once  Marcus  Amifcus  No- 
 vatus,  but  being  adopted  by  Lucius  Junius  Gallio,  he  took  the 
 name  of  his  adoptive  father,  and  was  brother  to  the  famous 
 Seneca,  tutor  to  Nero.  To  him  it  is  that  that  philosopher  dedi- 
 cates his  book  Dc  vita  bcata;  and  of  him  the  Roman  historians 
 give  us  the  character,  that  he  was  a  man  of  sweet  temper  and 
 disposition,  an  enemy  to  all  vice,  and  particularly  a  hater  of  flat- 
 tery. He  was  twice  made  proconsul  of  Achaia;  first  by  Clau- 
 dius, and  afterwards  by  Nero;  but  as  he  partook  of  his  brother's 
 prosperity  when  he  was  in  favour  at  court,  so  was  he  a  sharer  in 
 his  misfortunes  when  he  fell  under  Nero's  displeasure,  and  at 
 length  was  put  to  death  by  the  tyrant,  as  well  as  his  brother. — 
 CalmeVs  Commentary,  Poole's  and  Bcausohre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  Crispus,  we  read,  was  ruler  of  the  synagogue  at  Corinth  ; 
 ami  therefore  we  may  suppose,  either  that  there  were  more 
 synagogues  in  that  city  than  one,  or  that  there  might  he  several 
 rulers  in  one  and  the  same  synagogue  ;  or  that  Crispus,  after  his 
 
 52,  &c.  FROM  ACTSi.  10.TO  THE  END. 
 
 fore  the  tribunal.  But  this  give  the  proconsul  no 
 disturbance. 
 
 After  this  tumult  was  over,  St  Paul  continued  some 
 time  in  Corinth,  and,  before  his  departure  thence,  wrote 
 his  second  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians :  i  '  AVherein  he 
 endeavours  to  confirm  their  minds  in  the  faith,  and 
 to  animate  them  courageously  to  endure  persecution 
 from  the  unbelieving  Jews,  a  lost  and  undone  race  of 
 men,  whom  the  divine  vengeance  was  ready  to  overtake  : 
 wherein  he  rectifies  the  misinterpretation  which  false 
 teachers  had  made  of  some  passages  in  his  former  epis- 
 tle, relating  to  the  day  of  judgment,  as  if  it  were  just  at 
 hand ;  and  shows  what  events,  especially  that  of  the 
 coming  and  destruction  of  the  man  of  sin,  must  precede  the 
 approach  of  that  day  ;  and  wherein,  having  craved  their 
 prayers  in  his  behalf,  and  made  his  request  to  God  in 
 theirs,  he  concludes  with  divers  precepts,  especially  to 
 shun  idleness  and  ill  company,  and  '  not  to  be  weary  in 
 well-doing." 
 
 Having  thus  planted  the  church  of  Corinth,  St  Paul 
 resolved  to  return  into  Syria ;  and,  taking  along  with 
 him  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  from  Cenchrea,  the  port  or 
 road  for  ships  in  the  Archipelago,  belonging  to  Corinth, 
 he  sailed  to  Ephesus,  e  where  he  preached  a  while  in 
 the  synagogue  of  the  Jews  ;  but,  being  resolved  to  be 
 
 2  Thess.  passim, 
 conversion  to  Christianity,  might  be  succeeded  in  that  office  by 
 Sosthenes ;  but  then  we  are  at  a  loss  to  know  who  the  people 
 were  that  thus  beat  and  misused  him.  The  Greek  printed 
 copies  tell  us,  that  they  were  the  Gentiles ;  and  those  who  read 
 the  text  thus,  imagine,  that  when  they  perceived  the  neglect  and 
 disregard  wherewith  the  proconsul  received  the  Jews,  they,  to 
 insult  them  the  more,  fell  foul  upon  the  ruler  of  their  synagogue, 
 who  was  at  their  head ;  whether  out  of  hatred  to  them,  or  friend- 
 ship to  St  Paul,  ft  makes  no  matter.  But  others  think,  Sosthe- 
 nes, however  head  of  the  synagogue,  might  be  a  secret  friend 
 and  disciple  of  St  Paul,  and  that  the  other  Jews,  seeing  them- 
 selves neglected  by  Gallio,  might  vent  their  malice  upon  him; 
 for  they  suppose  that  this  was  the  same  Sosthenes,  whose  name 
 St  Paul,  in  the  beginning  of  his  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
 written  about  three  years  after  this  scuffle  happened  at  Corinth, 
 joins  with  his  own.  It  must  be  owned,  however,  that  this 
 opinion  was  not  universally  received,  since,  in  the  time  of 
 Eusebius,  it  was  thought  that  the  Sosthenes  mentioned  in  the 
 epistle,  was  one  of  the  LXX  disciples ;  and  consequently,  could 
 not  be  tire  chief  of  the  synagogue  of  Corinth  twenty  years  after 
 the  death  of  Jesus  Christ. — Beausobre's  Annotations ,  Calmet's 
 Commentary  and  Dictionary. 
 
 e  Ephesus,  the  metropolis  and  principal  mart  of  the  proconsular 
 Asia,  is  situated  upon  the  river  Cayster,  and  on  the  side  of  a  hill, 
 which,  towards  the  west,  has  the  prospect  of  a  lovely  plain, 
 watered  and  beautified  with  the  pleasant  circles  of  the  river, 
 turning  and  winding  in  so  many  curious  mazes,  that  some  travel- 
 lers have  mistaken  it  for  the  Meander;  and  this  the  rather,  he- 
 cause  the  Turks  gave  it  the  name  of  the  Lesser  Mendres. 
 Among  heathen  authors  this  city  was  once  much  celebrated  for 
 its  famous  temple  of  Diana,  which,  for  its  largeness  and  work- 
 manship, was  accounted  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world. 
 It  is  said  to  have  been  425  feet  long,  220  broad,  and  to  have 
 been  supported  with  127  pillars  of  marble,  70  feet  high,  whereof 
 27  were  most  curiously  wrought  and  all  the  rest  polished.  One 
 Ctesiphon,  a  famous  architect  in  his  time,  contrived  the  model 
 of  it ;  and  that  with  so  much  art  and  curiosity,  that  it  took  up 
 two  hundred  years  before  it  was  finished,  even  though  it  was 
 built  at  the  common  charge  of  all  Asia,  properly  so  called. 
 After  it  was  finished,  it  was  seven  times  set  on  fire;  but  once 
 more  especially,  on  the  very  same  day  that  Socrates  was  poisoned, 
 400  years  before  Christ;  and,  at  another  time,  when  Erostratus 
 fired  it  only  to  get  himself  a  name,  on  the  same  night  that 
 Alexander  the  Great  was  born.  It  was  rebuilt,  however,  and 
 beautified  by  the  Ephesians,  to  which  work  the  ladies  of  Ephesus 
 contributed  very  largely.  In  the  time  of  our  apostle,  it  retained 
 6  x 
 
1082 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  405S.  A.  D.  54 ;  OR,  A.  M.  6465.  A.  D.  54,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 at  Jerusalem  at  the  passover,  he  could  not  be  per- 
 suaded  to  stay  longer.  Leaving  therefore  Aquila  and 
 Priscilla  .it  Ephesus,  and  promising,  if  God  would  permit, 
 to  return  to  them  again,  lie  set  sail  for  Cassarea  in  Pales- 
 tine, and  from  thence  proceeded  to  Jerusalem.  After 
 he  had  visited  the  church,  and  kept  the  feast,  he  went 
 down  to  Antioch  ;  and  having  there  staid  sometime,  he 
 traversed  the  countries  of  Galatia  and  Phrygia,  confirm- 
 ing, as  he  went  along,  the  new  converted  Christians,  and 
 returned  to  Ephesus. 
 
 In  his  absence,  Apollos,  a  Jew  of  Alexandria,  emi- 
 nent for  his  eloquence,  and  great  knowledge  of  the  Old 
 Testament,  came  to  Ephesus,  and  though  he  was  only 
 initiated  by  the  baptism  of  John,  a  yet  being  by  Aquila 
 
 a  great  deal  of  its  former  grandeur ;  but,  at  present,  it  is  only 
 an  heap  of  ruins,  and  the  very  place  where  it  once  stood,  is  so 
 little  known,  that  it  affords  matter  of  various  conjecture  to  tra- 
 vellers. The  only  two  buildings  worth  observation,  are  a  strong 
 and  lofty  castle,  situated  on  an  eminence,  and  a  beautiful  church, 
 honoured  with  the  name  of  St  John,  but  now  converted  into  a 
 Turkish  mosque.  All  the  rest  of  the  place  is  the  habitation  of 
 herdsmen  and  farmers,  who  live  in  low  and  humble  cottages  of  dirt, 
 covered  on  the  top  with  earth,  and  sheltered  from  the  extremity 
 of  the  weather  by  mighty  masses  of  ruinous  walls,  the  pride  and 
 ostentation  of  former  days,  and  in  these  the  emblem  of  the  frailty 
 of  the  world,  and  the  transient  vanity  of  human  glory. — 
 Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table,  and  Wells's  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament. — Ephesus  is  now  under  the  dominion  of  the  Turks, 
 and  is  in  a  state  of  almost  total  ruin.  The  plough  has  passed 
 over  the  city;  and  in  March,  1826,  when  visited  by  the  Rev. 
 Messrs  Hartley  and  Arundell,  green  corn  was  growing,  in  all 
 directions,  amidst  the  forsaken  ruins:  and  one  solitary  individual 
 only  was  found  who  bore  the  name  of  Christ,  instead  of  its  once 
 flourishing  church.  Where  once  assembled  thousands  exclaimed 
 'great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,'  now  the  eagle  yells  and  the 
 jackall  moans.- — Home's  Introd. — Ed. 
 
 a  The  account  which  St  Paul  gives  us  of  the  baptism  of  John, 
 our  Saviour's  forerunner,  is  this, — '  John  verily  baptized  with 
 the  baptism  of  repentance,  saying  to  the  people,  that  they  should 
 believe  on  him  who  should  come  after  him,'  that  is,  «  on  Jesus 
 Christ,'  (Acts  xix.  4.)  And  herein  he  discovers  a  wide  difference 
 between  the  baptism  of  John  and  that  of  Jesus  Christ,  namely, 
 that  the  baptism  of  John  was  a  solemn  rite  of  renouncing  sins, 
 Mid  profession  of  obedience  for  the  future;  that  it  opened°a  way 
 for  a  more  perfect  institution  of  the  like  nature,  and  exhibited 
 Christ  as  the  object  of  faith,  and  the  master  and  guide  which 
 men  ought  to  follow.  For,  being  thus  baptized,  they  were 
 thereby  led  and  consigned  over  to  him,  and  qualified  for  the 
 Christian  baptism,  which  vastly  exceeds  the  other  both  in  dignity 
 and  efficacy.  For  here  the  Spirit  accompanies  the  water"  this 
 confirms  and  completes  that  pardon  of  sins,  and  those  assistances 
 "I  grace,  which  belonged  to  no  other  washings,  farther  than  as 
 they  were  approaches  to  the  Christian;  which  is  therefore,  by 
 W  distinction  and  eminence  styled,  'the  washing  of '  re- 
 generation, and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,'  (Tit.  iii.  5.)  But 
 if  the  baptism  of  John  was  so  imperfect,  how  came  it  to  pass 
 hat,  even  twenty  years  after  our  Lord's  ascension,  this  Apollos 
 mould  have  no  knowledge  of  any  other?  or,  being  so  well  ac- 
 q»*>nted  with  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  to  be  able  to  teach  others 
 «ld  he  be  ignorant  of  the  necessity  of  his  baptism?  Now 
 tta  only  reply  to  this  is,  that  Apollos  might  be  one  of  those 
 Jews,  who,  having  received  the  baptism  of  John  some  two  or 
 Um»  and  twenty  years  before,  might,  soon  after  that,  or  before 
 le  mil  aculoua  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  the  apostles  at  the 
 lay  of  1  entecoat,  remove  from  Judea  to  Alexandria,  where 
 baring  notyei  seen  any  of  the  gospel-histories  that  might  possi 
 S  '"'  !lfli8h6d,,?1  "'is  '"'"  '  '«"•  k  a"  opportunity  of  coifver  . 
 •'I,  any  of  the  apostles,  to  gain  farther  information,  he 
 -<1  -n  the  baptiam  he  had  received,  until  he  came  2\m- 
 -d  better  ;  unfa»  we  suppose,  with  St  Chrysostom,  (Horn. 
 1  tne  S,  Vf  V|°UthhSafcd1.h,1m'1  as  he  ^d  Cornelius,  the  baptism 
 of  the  Spirit,  which  SUpphed  the  want  of  external  baptism  both 
 M  an  Bn«™ragement  and  recomponce  for  bis  zeal  i,  preaching 
 U»  gospel,      ft  hat  became  of  this  great  preacher,  after  his  return 
 
 and  Priscilla  more  fully  instructed  in  the  rudiments  of 
 the  Christian  religion,  and  baptized,  he  taught  the  word 
 of  God  with  great  boldness,  and  a  most  powerful  zeal. 
 After  some  stay  in  Ephesus,  he  obtained  commendatory 
 letters  J  from  the  brethren,  and  with  them  went  over  to 
 Corinth,  where  he  proved  highly  serviceable,  and  l 
 watered  what  St  Paul  had  before  planted,  confirming  the 
 disciples,  and  convincing  the  Jews,  that  Jesus  was  the 
 true  and  only  Messias  promised  in  the  holy  Scriptures. 
 
 At  St  Paul's  return  to  Ephesus,  he  found  several  dis- 
 ciples, as  well  as  Apollos,  who  had  received  no  more 
 than  the  baptism  of  John,  and  had  never  once  heard  of 
 the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  however,  when  they  were 
 sufficiently  instructed  in  the  principles  of  Christianity, 
 and  solemnly  admitted  to  Christian  baptism,  upon  the 
 imposition  of  the  apostle's  hands,  they  immediately  re- 
 ceived the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  gift  of  tongues,  prophecy, 
 and  other  miraculous  powers  that  were  conferred  on 
 them.  For  three  months  after  this,  St  Paul  went  into 
 the  synagogues,  and  preached  to  the  Jews,  endeavouring, 
 with  much  earnestness,  to  convince  them,  that  Jesus 
 Christ  was  the  true  Messiah,  but  when,  instead  of  suc- 
 cess, he  met  with  nothing  but  refractoriness  and  infidel- 
 ity, he  left  the  synagogues,  and,  for  the  space  of  two 
 years,  instructed  the  heathen  converts,  as  well  as  all 
 others  who  resorted  to  him,  in  the  school  of  one  Tyran- 
 nus.  c  By  this  means  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Procon- 
 sular Asia  had  an  opportunity  of  having  the  gospel 
 preached  to  them,  and  of  seeing  it  confirmed  by  mira- 
 cles of  an  extraordinary  nature,  which  St  Paul  was  ena- 
 bled to  do;  insomuch  that  if  napkins,  or  handkerchiefs, 
 were  but  touched  by  him,  and  applied  to  those  who  were 
 anywise  sick,  or  possessed  with  devils,  they  immediately 
 received  cure. 
 
 Seven  brothers,  the  sons  of  one  Sceva,  a  Jewish  priest, 
 who  travelled  from  town  to  town  to  cure  diseases,  and 
 cast  out  devils  by  their  exorcisms,  d  observing  with  what 
 
 1  1  Cor.  iii.  6. 
 
 from  Corinth  to  Ephesus,  we  have  no  manner  of  account,  unless 
 we  may  credit  what  St  Jerom  tells  us  of  him,  namely,  that  being 
 dissatisfied  with  the  division  which  his  preaching  at  Corinth  bad 
 occasioned,  (1  Cor.  iii.  7.)  he  retired  into  Crete,  with  Zena,  a 
 doctor  of  the  law;  but  that  after  St  Paul,  by  his  letter,  had  ap- 
 peased that  dissension,  he  returned  again  to  Corinth,  and  was 
 made  bishop  of  that  city. — Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels, 
 and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  That  commendatory  epistles,  certifying  the  piety  and  ortho- 
 doxy of  the  person  to  whom  they  were  given,  and  recommending 
 him  to  an  hospitable  reception  in  the  places  which  he  travelled 
 to,  were  an  ancient  custom  in  the  primitive  church,  is  evident 
 from  the  testimony  of  several  fathers,  and  other  ecclesiastical 
 writers ;  but  whether  they  took  their  rise  from  tessera  hospital- 
 itatis  among  the  heathens,  or  from  the  Jews,  among  whom  the 
 same  custom  prevailed,  is  a  point  wherein  the  learned  are  not 
 agreed. — Hammond's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  Among  the  Jews  there  were  two  kinds  of  schools  wherein 
 the  law  was  taught,  private  and  public.  Their  private  schools 
 were  those  wherein  a  doctor  of  the  law  entertained  his  scholars, 
 and  were  usually  styled  '  houses  of  learning.'  Their  public  schools 
 were  those  where  their  consistories  sat  to  resolve  all  difficulties 
 and  differences  of  the  law ;  but  it  seems  most  likely  that  the 
 Tyrannus  who  lent  St  Paul  his  school  to  preach  in,  was  not  a 
 Jew,  but  a  Gentile ;  not  a  doctor  of  the  law,  but  some  philoso- 
 pher, or  public  professor  of  rhetoric,  whom  the  apostle  had  con- 
 verted ;  because,  when  he  departed  from  the  Jews,  and  separated 
 the  disciples,  (Acts  xix.  9.)  it  is  reasonable  to  think,  that  the  place 
 made  use  of  for  their  instruction,  should  appertain  to  a  Gentile 
 rather  than  a  Jew. — Howell's  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  word  comes  from  the  Greek  l|oj*i'^s/v,  which  signifies 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 PROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1083 
 
 A.  M.  4058.  A.  D.  54 ;  OR,  A.  M.  54G5.  A.  D 
 
 facility  St  Paul  effected  his  miraculous  cures  and  dis- 
 possessions, attempted  themselves  to  do  the  like,  and,  to 
 add  greater  force  to  their  charms,  presumed  to  change 
 their  form  "  by  invoking  the  name  of  Jesus  over  a  de- 
 moniac. But  here  it  pleased  God  to  put  a  visible  differ- 
 ence between  those  that  applied  this  powerful  name  regu- 
 larly, and  with  commission,  and  others,  who,  of  their  own 
 heads,  and  for  ill  designs,  dared  to  usurp  it:  for  the 
 demoniac,  falling  upon  the  exorcists,  tore  oft'  their 
 clothes,  wounded  their  bodies,  and  scarce  suffered  them  to 
 escape  with  their  lives.  This  was  an  event,  which,  when 
 the  Jews  and  Gentiles  in  Ephesus  came  to  know  it,  filled 
 khem  with  such  a  reverential  fear,  that  none  dared  to  men- 
 tion the  name  of  Jesus  but  with  a  profound  respect ;  and 
 that  many  who  had  addicted  themselves  to  the  study  of 
 magic,*  came,  and  confessed  their  sins,  and  publicly 
 burnt  their  books,  which  amounted  to  the  value  of  above 
 lifteen  hundred  pounds  of  our  money.  c  So  prevalent 
 was  the  gospel  of  God  in  these  parts. 
 
 While  St  Paul  was  thus  diligently  pursuing  his  mini- 
 
 to  adjure,  or  use  the  name  of  God,  with  a  design  to  drive  devils 
 out  of  places  and  bodies  which  they  possess.  And  that  the  Jews 
 had  several  incantations  in  use  and  veneration,  which  they  had 
 in  greater  credit,  because  of  an  opinion  common  among  them, 
 that  they  had  been  invented  by  Solomon,  is  evident  from  the 
 testimony  of  Josephus.  That  even  in  our  Saviour's  time,  exor- 
 cists were  very  frequent  among  them,  is  manifest  from  these 
 words  of  his,  '  If  I  by  Beelzebub  cast  out  devils,  by  whom  do 
 your  children  cast  them  out?  Therefore  they  shall  be  your 
 judges,'  (Mat.  xii.  27.)  And  that  they  practised  their  exorcisms 
 sometimes  with  success,  is  plain  from  the  acknowledgment  of 
 Irenscus,  who  says,  'all  things  are  subject  to  the  most  High,  and 
 by  invocation  of  his  name,  even  before  the  advent  of  our  Lord, 
 men  were  saved  from  evil  spirits,  and  all  kinds  of  demons.' — 
 Calmefs  Dictionary,  and  Commentary  on  Acts  xix.  13;  and 
 Whitby  and  Grotius  on  Mat.  xii.  27. 
 
 a  Their  common  form  of  incantation  was,  •  in  the  name  of  the 
 God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob.' 
 
 b  The  word  used  here  (iri^n^yu)  denotes  properly  those  things 
 that  require  care,  or  skill;  and  was  thus  applied  to  the  arts  of 
 magic,  and  jugglery,  and  sleight  of  hand,  that  were  practised  so 
 extensively  in  eastern  countries.  That  such  arts  were  practised 
 at  Ephesus  is  well  known.  The  Ephesian  letters,  by  which  in- 
 cantations and  charms  were  supposed  to  be  produced,  were  much 
 celebrated.  They  seem  to  have  consisted  of  certain  combina- 
 tions of  letters  or  words,  which,  by  being  pronounced  with  cer- 
 tain intonations  of  voice,  were  believed  to  be  effectual  in  expel- 
 ling diseases,  or  evil  spirits;  or  which,  by  being  written  on 
 parchment  and  worn,  were  supposed  to  operate  as  amulets,  or 
 charms,  to  guard  from  evil  spirits,  or  from  danger.  Thus  Plutarch 
 (Sympos.  7)  says,  '  the  magicians  compel  those  who  are  possessed 
 with  a  demon  to  recite  and  pronounce  the  Ephesian  letters,  in  a 
 certain  order,  by  themselves.'  Thus  Clemens  Alex.  (Strom,  ii.) 
 says,  '  Androcycles,  a  Pythagorean,  says,  that  the  letters  which 
 are  called  Ephesian,  and  which  are  so  celebrated,  are  symbols,' 
 &c.  Erasmus  says,  (Adagg.  Cent.  2),  that  there  were  certain 
 marks  and  magical  words  among  the  Ephesians,  by  using  which 
 they  succeeded  in  every  undertaking.  Eusath.  ad  Homer  Odys. 
 says,  '  that  those  letters  wore  incantations  which  Croesus  used 
 when  on  the  funeral  pile,  and  which  greatly  befriended  him.' 
 lie  adds,  that  in  the  war  between  the  Milesians  and  Ephesians, 
 the  latter  were  thirteen  times  saved  from  ruin  by  the  use  of 
 these  letters.  See  Grotius  and  Kuinoel  in  loco. — Barnes  on  the 
 *lcts. — En. 
 
 c  If  the  50,000  pieces  of  silver  mentioned  in  the  text  be 
 taken  for  Jewish  shekels,  and  valued  at.  three  shillings  each, 
 (which  are  the  principles  of  Dr  Benson's  computation,  Hist.  vol. 
 II.  p.  149.)  the  sum  will  amount  to  £7500  sterling,  or,  setting 
 it  at  half-a-crown,  to  £6250.  But  as  the  Attic  drachm  seems 
 t.>  have  In  •  ii  more  frequently  used  among  the  Greeks,  than  any 
 coin  <  qual  to  the  Jewish  shekel,  I  think  it  more  natural  to  com- 
 pute by  that,  which,  if  with  Dr  Prideaux  we  reckon  it  at  9d. 
 reduces  the  sum  to  £1875. — Doddridge's  Expositor. — En. 
 
 54,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 stry,  St  Peter  was  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  Jews  in 
 several  provinces  of  the  Lesser  Asia ;  and  so  travelling 
 eastward  came  at  length  to  the  ancient  city  of  Babylon  d 
 in  Chaldea,  from  whence  he  wrote  his  first  epistle,  which 
 is  called  a  catholic  or  general  epistle,  to  the  con- 
 verted Jews  that  were  of  the  dispersion  ;  and,  '  after 
 solemn  thanksgiving  to  God  for  their  call  to  Christianity, 
 whereby  they  had  obtained  a  lively  hope  of  an  eternal 
 inheritance  in  heaven,  he  advises  them  to  the  practice  of 
 several  virtues,  as  a  means  to  make  their  calling  and 
 election  sure  ;  namely,  that  they  should  live  in  a  constant 
 worship  and  fear  of  God,  and  imitate  their  master  Jesus 
 Christ  in  holiness  and  purity ;  that  they  should  be  diligent 
 hearers  of  the  gospel,  and  grow  up  to  perfection  by  it ; 
 that  they  should  lead  exemplary  lives  among  the  Gentiles, 
 abstaining  from  carnal  lusts,  and  behaving  themselves 
 with  modesty,  thereby  to  convince  their  enemies  that  their 
 calumnies  were  unreasonable;  that  they  should  behave 
 themselves  well  under  their  respective  relations,  submit- 
 ting themselves  to  their  governors,  whether  supreme  or 
 subordinate  ;  that  servants  should  obey  their  masters,  wives 
 be  subject  to  their  husbands,  and  husbands  honour  their 
 wives  ;  that  they  should  all  love  one  another  fervently 
 and  unfeignedly,  bear  afflictions  patiently,  live  in  union, 
 and  sympathise  with  each  other  in  their  afflictions;  and, 
 lastly,  that  the  ministers  and  pastors  of  the  several 
 churches  should  take  special  care  of  the  flocks  committed 
 to  their  charge,  teach  them  diligently,  and  govern  them 
 gently,  not  seeking  their  own  gain  and  profit,  but  the 
 salvation  of  the  people's  souls.'  This  is  the  purport  of 
 the  epistle,  and  the  whole  is  written  with  a  fervour  and 
 zeal  not  unbecoming  so  great  an  apostle.  But  to  pro- 
 ceed with  St  Paul. 
 
 After  a  stay  of  about  two  years  in  Ephesus,  he  deter- 
 mined to  return  into  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  and  having 
 wintered  in  Corinth,  to  pass  thence  to  Jerusalem,  where 
 he  purposed  to  celebrate  the  feast  of  Pentecost,  and 
 after  that  to  proceed  in  his  long  intended  journey  to 
 Rome.  In  pursuance  of  this  design,  he  sent  Timothy 
 and  Erastus  e  before  him  into  Macedonia,  but  himself 
 
 d  Those  who  take  Babylon  in  a  mystical  sense,  understand 
 by  it  Rome,  from  whence  they  suppose  that  St  Peter  wrote  this 
 epistle,  not  long  after  his  coming  thither;  and  for  the  confirma- 
 tion of  this,  they  tell  us,  that  St  John,  in  his  book  of  Revelations, 
 calls  Rome  by  the  name  of  Babylon,  either  from  its  conformity 
 in  power  and  greatness  to  that  ancient  city,  or  from  its  resem- 
 blance of  it  in  idolatry,  and  oppression  of  God's  people.  Others, 
 who  still  take  it  in  a  figurative  sense,  by  Babylon  had  rather 
 understand  Jerusalem,  no  longer  now  the  holy  city,  say  they, 
 but  a  kind  of  spiritual  Babylon,  in  which  the  church  of  God  did 
 at  this  time  groan  under  great  servitude  and  captivity:  and  to 
 support  this  notion  of  the  word,  they  produce  the  authority  of 
 some  fathers  who  understood  that  of  the  prophet,  '  AVe  would  have 
 healed  Babylon,  but  she  is  not  healed,'  in  this  sense,  (Jer.  Ii.  9.) 
 But,  as  a  mystical  and  figurative  sense  does  not  so  well  agree 
 with  the  date  of  a  letter,  and  to  conceal  the  place  from  whence 
 they  wrote,  was  never  the  practice  of  any  of  the  apostles,  it  is  more 
 natural  to  understand  it  of  Babylon,  properly  so  called,  though 
 whether  it  was  Babylon  in  Egypt,  where  St  Peter  might  preach  the 
 gospel,  or  Babylon,  the  ancient  metropolis  of  Assyria,  where,  ever 
 since  the  time  of  their  captivity,  great  numbers  of  Jews  were 
 settled,  we  leave  the  inquisitive  readerto  determine. — Cave's  Lives 
 <if  the  Apostles,  and  Deausobrc's  Preface  on  1  Epist.  of  Pet. — 
 See  a  note  on  this  subject  in  Bloomfield's  Greek  Testament, 
 1  Peter  v.  13.  in  which  the  evidence  adduced  seems  greatly  in 
 favour  of  its  being  the  ancient  Babylon  in  Chaldea. — Ed. 
 
 e  Erastus,  was  very  probably  born  at  Corinth,  and,  as  tht 
 apostle  informs  us,  was  made  chamberlain  of  that  city,  (Rom. 
 xvi.  23.)  but  being  converted  by  St  Paul,  and  resolving  to  pur 
 
1084 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  40G1.  A.  D.  57;  OK,  A.  M.  54G8.  A.  D.57,  See.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 stayed  behind  at  Ephesus,  very  probably  to  answer  a 
 letter  which  Apollos,  and  some  other  brethren,  had 
 brought  him  from  the  church  of  Corinth,  desiring  his 
 resolution  of  several  points  relating  to  marriage,  and 
 chastity,  and  some  other  subjects.  The  Corinthians  were, 
 at  this  time,  unhappily  divided  into  parties  and  factions 
 on  account  of  their  teachers,  each  one  preferring  the 
 person  from  whom  he  had  received  his  instruction,  and 
 disparaging  the  rest.  They  committed  great  disorders' 
 in  their  love-feasts,"  and  celebrated  the  holy  sacrament 
 very  irreverently.  They  were  addicted  to  fornication ;  and 
 one  in  particular,  had  run  into  incest,  in  marrying  his 
 father's  wife.  They  were  unjust  and  fraudulent  in  their 
 dealings  ;  they  went  to  law,  at  heathen  tribunals  ;  and 
 among  them  were  found  some  who  were  bold  and  pro- 
 fligate enough  to  deny  the  resurrection.  In  opposition 
 to  all  this,  the  apostle,  in  what  is  called  his  b  '  first 
 epistle  to  the  Corinthians,'  shows  the  equality  of  Christ's 
 ministers,  and  their  insufficiency  for  the  work  to  which 
 they  are  ordained,  without  the  divine  assistance  ;  orders 
 the  incestuous  person  to  be  excommunicated,  lest  his  ex- 
 ample should  infect  others;  blames  their  litigious  law 
 suits,  as  thinking  it  much  better  to  refer  their  differences 
 to  some  of  their  own  body ;  propounds  the  first  institu- 
 tion of  the  sacrament,  and  a  previous  examination  of 
 their  lives,  to  bring  them  to  a  right  use  of  it ;  answers 
 their  questions  relating  to  marriage,  celibacy,  and  meats 
 offered  to  idols ;  and  having  added  several  things,  con- 
 cerning a  decent  behaviour,  both  of  men  and  women,  in 
 their  churches  ;  concerning  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 
 sue  his  fortune,  he  resigned  his  employment,  followed  him  all 
 along,  until  his  last  voyage  to  Corinth,  in  the  way  to  Home, 
 where  the  apostle  suffered  martyrdom.  The  Latin  writers  say, 
 that  St  Paul  left  Erastus  in  Macedonia:  that  he  made  him  bishop 
 of  that  province,  and  that  he  died  a  martyr  at  Philippi :  but  the 
 Greeks,  in  their  calendars,  make  him  bishop  of  Paneas,  near  the 
 sources  of  the  river  Jordan,  give  him  the  title  of  an  apostle,  place 
 him  in  the  number  of  the  seventy  disciples,  and  say,  that  he 
 died  in  peace,  after  having  gone  over  all  the  earth,  preaching  the 
 faith  of  Jesus  Christ:  but  not  any  of  these  produce  one  proof  of 
 what  they  say.' — Calmet's  Commentary . 
 
 a  These  feasts  of  charity,  which  were  in  use  among  the  primi- 
 tive Christians  in  memory  of  the  last  supper,  which  our  blessed 
 Saviour  had  with  his  apostles  when  he  instituted  the  holy 
 euehariat,  were  kept  iii  the  church  towards  the  evening  after  the 
 common  prayers  were  over,  and  the  word  of  salvation  had  been 
 heard.  When  this  was  done,  the  whole  congregation  eat  to- 
 gether what  every  one  had  brought  with  him,  in  great  simplicity 
 and  union,  so  that  there  was  no  distinction  between  rich  and  poor; 
 and  after  a  frugal  and  modest  supper,  they  partook  of  the  sacra- 
 ment, and  gave  each  other  a  kiss  of  peace,  and  so  departed.  Bnt 
 this  custom,  as  good  and  laudable  as  it  was  in  its  original,  came 
 in  a  short  time  to  be  abused. — Calmet's  Dictionary  under  the 
 word  Agape. 
 
 b  That  this  was  an  epistle  written  by  St  Paul  the  apostle,  as  is 
 d  in  the  first  verse,  was  never  once  doubted  in  the  church 
 of  God  ;  but  whether  it  was  his  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
 DM  been  a  matter  of  dispute;  because  he  says  in  it,  'I  have 
 written  to  you  an  epistle,'  (chap.  v.  9  )  which  seems  plainly  to  re- 
 btte  tn  ■  former  epistle.  But  as  none  of  the  ancients  ever  as- 
 ciilinl  I..  St  Paul  more  than  fourteen  epistles,  even  including  that 
 tu  thr  Hebrews,  do  Christian  writer  ever  cited  any  thing  from 
 mi  eptatle  of  his  to  the  Corinthians,  supposed  to  be  lost;  and  all 
 Ike  Greek  seholiuta  declare,  that  the  apostle  in  these  words 
 Bpealuth  not  of  another,  but  of  this  very  epistle  ;  the  words 
 tyoa^xipli,  which  we  translate,  '  I  wrote,' should  rather  be  ren- 
 •  1  had  wrote,'  (it  being  a  common  observation  of  grammar- 
 ians, that  the  Aorist  is  so  called,  because  it  is  of  an  indefinite 
 signification,  sometimes  used  for  the  perfect,  and  sometimes  for 
 the  plusquam-perfect  tense,  'I  had  wrote,')  but  made  some  alter- 
 ation iu  my  letter  before  [seat  it—  W kitty's  Preface  to  the  first 
 epistle  totht  Corinthians. 
 
 the  excellency  of  charity,  the  gift  of  tongues,  and  prayer 
 in  an  unknown  language;  he  proves  the  truth  of  the  gos- 
 pel, and  the  certainty  of  a  future  resurrection,  almost  to 
 a  demonstration.' 
 
 About  the  same  time  it  was  that  St  Paul,  in  like  man- 
 ner, wrote  his  epistle  to  the  Galatians.  c  For  being 
 informed,  that  since  his  departure  several  impostors  had 
 crept  in  among  them,  who  strongly  insisted  on  the  neces- 
 sity of  circumcision,  and  other  legal  rites,  and  greatly 
 disparaged  his  authority,  as  being  but  a  second-hand 
 apostle,  in  comparison  of  Peter,  James,  and  John,  from 
 whom  they  pretended  to  derive  their  instructions  ;  in  this 
 epistle,  '  he  reproves  them  with  some  necessary  warmth 
 and  severity,  for  suffering  themselves  so  easily  to  be 
 imposed  upon  by  crafty  artifices  of  seducers.  He  largely 
 refutes  those  Judaical  opinions  wherewith  they  were  in- 
 fected, and  by  several  arguments  proves,  that  the  slavery 
 of  the  law  brought  a  curse  with  it,  was  destructive  of 
 their  Christian  liberty,  and  incapable  of  procuring  their 
 justification  in  the  sight  of  God.  Among  these  reproofs 
 and  arguments,  however,  he  mingles  several  exhorta- 
 tions full  of  paternal  and  apostolic  charity ;  and  towards 
 the  conclusion,  gives  them  many  excellent  rules  and  di- 
 rections for  the  conduct  of  their  lives  and  conversations.' 
 
 A  little  before  St  Paul's  departure  from  Ephesus,  one 
 Demetrius,  a  silver -smith,  who  dealt  in  making  little 
 models  d  of  the  temple  of  Ephesus,  with  the  image  of 
 Diana  included  in  them,  perceiving,  that  if  the  Christian 
 
 c  There  is  great  diversity  of  opinion  among  learned  men  con- 
 cerning the  date  of  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians.  Weingart 
 supposes  it  to  have  been  written  so  early  as  the  year  4S ; 
 Michaelis  in  49  ;  Cappel,  in  51  ;  Bishop  Pearson,  in  57  ;  Mill, 
 Fabricius,  Moldenhawer,  and  others,  in  58;  Van  Til  and  Dr 
 Doddridge,  in  53  ;  Hottinger,  in  54 ;  Lord  Barrington,  Drs 
 Benson  and  Lardner,  in  53  ;  Beausobre,  Rosenmuller,  and  Dr 
 A.  Clarke,  in  52  or  53;  Bishop  Tomline,  in  52.  Theodoret, 
 who  is  followed  by  Dr  Lightfoot  and  some  others,  imagine  that 
 it  was  one  of  those  epistles  which  St  Paul  wrote  from  Rome 
 during  his  first  confinement ;  but  this  opinion  is  contradicted  by 
 the  apostle's  silence  concerning  his  bonds,  which  he  has  often 
 mentioned  in  the  letters  that  are  known  to  have  been  written  at 
 that  time.  It  is  evident  that  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians  was 
 written  early,  because  he  complains  in  it  of  their  speedy  apos- 
 tasy from  his  doctrine  (Gal.  i.  6.)  and  warns  them  in  the 
 strongest  and  most  forcible  terms  against  the  Judaising  teachers, 
 who  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  churches  in  Syria  and  Asia 
 Minor,  (i.  7 — 9.  iii.  1.)  The  warmth  of  the  apostle's  expressions 
 led  Tertullian  to  conclude  that  St  Paul  was  himself  a  neophyte 
 or  novice  in  the  Christian  faith  at  the  time  of  writing  this 
 epistle.  And  as  no  intimation  is  given  through  the  whole  of  it 
 that  he  had  been  with  them  more  than  once,  we  are  authorized 
 to  conclude,  that  he  wrote  this  letter  from  Corinth  about  the  end 
 of  52,  or  early  in  the  year  53.  The  subscription,  indeed,  states 
 it  to  have  been  written  from  Rome:  but  this  is  evidently  spuri- 
 ous, for  St  Paul's  first  journey  to  Rome  did  not  take  place  until 
 at  least  ten  years  after  the  conversion  of  the  Galatians. — Home's 
 Introduction.  —  Ed. 
 
 d  In  the  idolatry  of  the  heathens,  they  used  to  carry  the  images 
 of  their  gods  in  procession  from  one  city  to  another,  which  they 
 did  in  a  chariot  consecrated  for  that  purpose.  But  besides  this 
 greater,  there  was  a  less  frame,  wherein  it  was  placed,  by  the 
 Romans,  called  ferculum,  not  much  unlike  that  which  the  Greeks 
 called  tais,  'a  little  chapel/ representing  the  form  of  a  temple,  with 
 an  image  in  it,  which  being  set  upon  the  altar,  or  other  solemn 
 place,  and  the  leaves  of  the  door  opened,  the  image  appeared, 
 sitting  or  standing  in  state,  and  so  was  represented  to  the  spec- 
 tators. The  making  of  these  temples  and  images  in  miniature, 
 was  certainly  a  very  profitable  employment  at  Ephesus,  because  few 
 people  of  distinction  came  to  visit  this  great  wonder  of  the  world, 
 who  did  not  carry  home  with  them  some  of  these  little  models 
 of  it,  not  only  as  an  evidence  of  the  pilgrimage  they  had  per- 
 formed, but  as  a  means  likewise  to  incite  their  devotion  to  the 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1085 
 
 A.  M.  4061.  A.D.  57 ;  Oil,  A.  M.  5468.  A.  D 
 religion  prevailed,  this  gainful  employment  of  his  would 
 be  totally  ruined,  called  together  a  great  number  of  the 
 -same  profession,  and,  having  represented  to  them  the  in- 
 jury which  St  Paul,  by  his  preaching  every  where  against 
 idolatry,  was  like  to  do,  not  only  to  the  trade,  whereby 
 they  subsisted,  but  to  the  honour  and  reputation  like- 
 wise of  the  great  goddess  Diana,  a  whom  all  the  world 
 adored,  he  so  inflamed  them  with  his  speech,  that  imme- 
 diately they  cried  out, '  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians !' 
 And  as  the  spirit  of  mutiny  soon  spread  from  the  work- 
 men to  the  rabble,  it  was  not  long  before  the  whole  city 
 was  in  an  uproar. 
 
 In  this  confusion,  the  people,  seizing  upon  Gaius  and 
 Aristarchus,  *  two  of  St  Paul's  companions,  hurried  them 
 to  the  theatre,  with  a  design,  very  probably,  to  throw 
 them  to  the  wild  beasts,  as  their  custom  was  to  treat 
 malefactors;  c  which  when  Paul  understood,  he  would 
 have  ventured  himself  among  them,  had  not  the  Chris- 
 tians then  present,  and  even  some  of  the  prefects  of  the 
 theatrical  games,  d  well  knowing  what  danger  this  would 
 have  exposed  him  to,  earnestly  dissuaded  him  from  it : 
 and  to  this,  without  doubt,  he  alludes,  when  elsewhere 
 he  tells  us,  that l  he  fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus.e 
 
 1  1  Cor.  xv.  32. 
 goddess  Diana. — Hammond's,  Beausobre's  and  Poole's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 a  The  heathens,  who  had  their  superior  and  inferior  gods  and 
 goddesses,  always  placed  Diana  in  the  number  of  the  former, 
 which  are  all  included  in  the  two  verses  of  Ennius: 
 
 Juno,  Vesta,  Minerva,  Ceres,  Diana,  Venus,  Mars, 
 Mercurius,  Jovi,  Neptunus,  Vulcanus,  Apollo. 
 
 These  were  worshipped  by  the  Gentiles  of  all  nations;  but  the 
 inferior  kind,  who  were  called  Dii  minorum  gentium,  were  only 
 known  and  worshipped  in  some  particular  countries  and  places. 
 — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  He  was  a  Macedonian,  and  native  of  Thessalonica,  who  ad- 
 joining himself  to  St  Paul,  accompanied  him  to  Ephesus,  and 
 there  continued  with  him  for  the  two  years  of  his  abode,  partak- 
 ing in  all  the  labours  and  dangers  of  the  apostleship.  From 
 Ephesus  he  followed  him  into  Greece  ;  from  Greece  into  Asia; 
 from  Asia  into  Judea ;  and  from  Judea  into  Rome ;  where,  as 
 some  say,  he  was  beheaded  with  him  in  Nero's  reign. —  Calmet's 
 Commentary. 
 
 c  It  does  not  appear  that  such  was  their  immediate  design. 
 The  theatres  of  the  Greeks  were  not  only  places  for  public  ex- 
 hibitions, but  also  for  holding  assemblies,  and  often  for  courts, 
 elections,  &c.  The  people,  therefore,  naturally  rushed  there,  as 
 being  a  suitable  place  to  decide  this  matter. — Barnes. — Ed. 
 
 d  Among  the  heathens  there  were  games  instituted  in  honour 
 of  the  good  deities,  even  as  sacrifices  and  victims  were  to  ap- 
 pease the  bad  and  angry.  Of  these  games,  at  Rome,  the  ponti- 
 fices,  or  high-priests,  were  presidents,  and,  in  other  places,  the 
 priests  and  chief  magistrates,  who,  from  their  provinces,  were 
 called  '  Asiarchaj,  Syriarchae,  Bithyuiarchsc,'  &c.  They  were 
 generally  chosen  out  of  the  chief  cities,  and  best  families  in  the 
 province,  and  had  the  regulation  not  only  of  what  concerned  the 
 worship  of  their  gods,  but  of  several  other  public  affairs,  particu- 
 larly of  the  games  and  combats  which  were  exhibited  to  the 
 people  in  their  theatres.  Thus  in  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp 
 at  Smyrna,  the  people  asked  Philip,  the  ruler  of  the  games  there, 
 to  let  out  a  lion  upon  the  aged  bishop;  which  he  refused  to  do, 
 because,  as  he  tells  them,  the  games  were  ended ;  from  whence 
 it  appears,  that  it  belonged  to  the  Asiarchie,  here  mentioned,  to 
 let  loose  the  wild  beasts  upon  the  malefactors;  and  therefore, 
 having  some  kindness  for  St  Paul — a  great  work  of  God's  provid- 
 ence that  they  had — they  sent  him  word  to  keep  close,  and  not 
 venture  himself  upon  the  theatre,  knowing  that  the  full  purpose 
 of  the  people  was  to  set  him  to  the  Syigioftx%ia,  or  '  combating 
 with  wild  beasts,'  if  he  did.  —  Whitby's,  Beausobre's  and  Ilnni- 
 viond's  Annotations.  It  is  more  probable,  however,  that  the 
 danger  which  Paul  would  have  incurred  by  going  into  the  theatre, 
 was  that  of  being  torn  in  pieces  by  an  infuriated  multitude. — Ed. 
 c  That  St  Paul,  in  this  place,  does  actually  refer  us  to  what 
 
 57,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 The  tumult,  in  the  mean  time,  increased  rather  than 
 diminished ;  when  a  certain  Jew,  named  Alexander,  f 
 breaking  through  the  crowd,  and  making  a  sign  with  his 
 hand  for  silence,  would  have  made  a  speech  to  the  people, 
 with  a  design,  very  probably,  to  excuse  the  Jews,  and 
 throw. the  odium  upon  the  Christians  ;  but  they  perceiv- 
 ing him  to  be  a  Jew,  and  thereby  suspecting  him  to  be 
 one  of  Paul's  associates,  began  to  raise  an  outcry  for 
 near  two  hours  together,  wherein  nothing  was  heard,  but 
 '  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians  !'  When  the  noise  was 
 a  little  abated,  however,  the  recorder  of  the  city  came 
 out,  and  calmly  told  them,  that  it  was  sufficiently  known 
 to  all  the  world,  what  a  mighty  veneration  the  city  of 
 Ephesus  had  for  their  great  goddess  Diana,  and  the 
 famous  image,  S  which  fell  down  from  heaven ;  so  that 
 there  needed  not  any  disturbance  to  vindicate  and  assert 
 it,  that  they  had  seized  on  persons  who  were  not  guilty 
 either  of  sacrilege,  or  blasphemy  against  their  goddess; 
 that  if  Demetrius  and  his  company  had  any  just  charge 
 against  them,  the  courts  were  sitting,  and  they  might 
 
 befell  him  at  Ephesus,  is  manifest  from  his  own  words  in  another 
 epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  where  he  mentions  his  great  perse- 
 cution in  Asia,  whereof  Ephesus  was  the  metropolis,  and  a  '  pres- 
 sure so  heavy,  that  he  despaired  even  of  life,  having  the  sentence 
 of  death  in  himself;  but  that,  trusting  in  God,  who  raised  the 
 dead,  he  was  delivered  from  so  great  a  death,'  (2  Cor.  i.  8,  &c.) 
 But  then  the  question  is,  whether  these  beasts  at  Ephesus  are 
 to  be  taken  in  a  literal  or  metaphorical  sense?  That  cruel  and 
 bloody-minded  men  are  often  represented  under  the  metaphor  of 
 beasts,  cannot  be  denied ;  and  that  St  Paul  was  actually  exposed 
 to  beasts,  but  they  would  not  touch  him,  those  (says  Nicephorus, 
 Hist.  Eccl.  b.  ii.  c.  25.)  who  wrote  the  life  of  this  apostle  do 
 affirm.  Either  of  these  senses  therefore  may  be  true;  but  as 
 we  read  no  where  in  the  Acts,  or  in  the  catalogue  of  his  afflic- 
 tions, (2  Cor.  xi.)  that  St  Paul  did  really  fight  with  wild  beasts, 
 our  best  way  is  to  render  the  preceding  words  xar'  avfyuTov, 
 not  according  to  the  manner,  but  according  to  the  intention  of 
 men,  and  then  the  sense  will  be,  that  according  to  the  intention 
 of  the  men  of  Ephesus,  he  had  fought  with  beasts,  because,  in 
 the  tumult  which  Demetrius  had  raised,  the  people's  design  was 
 to  have  dealt  so  with  St  Paul's  companions,  and  much  more  so 
 with  him,  had  not  his  friends  dissuaded  him  from  entering  into 
 the  theatre. — Hammond's  and  fVhitby's  Annotations. 
 
 f  Who  this  Alexander  was,  whether  a  Jew,  or  a  Jewish  con- 
 vert, and  whether  for  or  against  St  Paul,  it  no  where  appears 
 from  the  sacred  history;  and  therefore  some  have  imagined,  that 
 this  was  the  Alexander  who  afterwards  revolted  from  the  Chris- 
 tian faith,  of  whom  St  Paul  complains  so  loudly,  (1  Tim.  i.  20. 
 2  Tim.  iv.  14.)  but  that  now  being  a  friend  and  retainer  to  the 
 apostle,  he  was  about  to  stand  up  in  his  defence,  and  make  his 
 apology.  We  can  scarce  think,  however,  that  had  the  thing 
 been  thus,  the  Jews  would  have  encouraged  or  put  him  forward, 
 (Acts  xix.  33.)  and  therefore  the  more  probable  conjecture  is, 
 that  he  was  a  Jew,  who,  perceiving  his  countrymen  involved  in 
 this  affair,  at  their  solicitation,  was  for  addressing  himself  to  the 
 multitude,  in  order  to  excuse  them,  and  to  lay  all  the  blame  of 
 the  tumult  upon  the  Christians. — Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 g  The  image  of  this  Diana  was  not  set  out  in  an  hunting 
 dress,  with  a  bow  and  arrows  in  her  hand,  and  a  crescent  upon 
 her  head,  but  it  was  covered  with  breasts,  sometimes  from  head 
 to  foot,  and  sometimes  her  bosom  only  and  belly  were  covered 
 with  them;  and  all  besides  was  a  kind  of  pedestal,  adorned  at 
 proper  distances  with  the  heads  of  stags  and  dogs,  having  about 
 half  their  bodies  prominent.  The  multitude  of  her  breasts  de- 
 noted her  fertility,  as  being  called  '  the  nurse  of  all  living  crea- 
 tures ;'  and  the  dogs  and  stags  which  belonged  to  her  were  the 
 indication  of  her  being  the  goddess  of  hunting.  This  image, 
 singular  as  it  was,  is  said  to  have  been  the  work  of  one  Canetius, 
 whose  name  is  still  upon  record ;  but  as  it  had  subsisted  long  be- 
 yond the  memory  of  man,  the  crafty  priests  persuaded  the  credu- 
 lous multitude  that  it  fell  from  heaven,  that  thereby  they  might 
 advance  both  its  honour  and  their  own  profit. — Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary, and  Pool's  Annotations. 
 
1086 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4061.  A.  D.  57 ;  OR,  A.  M.  54G8.  A.  D 
 enter  their  accusation  ;  or,  if  the  controversy  was  about 
 any  other  matter,  there  were  proper  judicatures  to 
 determine  it  in  ;  that  therefore  they  should  do  well  to  be 
 pacified,  having  done  more  already  than  they  could 
 answer,  and  being  in  danger  of  incurring  a  severe  punish- 
 ment if  they  should  be  called  to  an  account,  as  very 
 likely  they  might,  for  that  day's  riotous  assembly.  And 
 with  this  prudent  discourse  he  appeased  and  dispersed 
 ihe  multitude. 
 
 As  soon  as  this  storm  was  dispersed,  St  Paul  having 
 .ailed  the  church  together,  and  constituted  Timothy 
 bishop  of  the  place,  took  his  leave  and  departed  by 
 Troas  for  Macedonia  ;  where,  having  instructed  some, 
 and  confirmed  others  in  the  principles  of  a  sound  faith 
 and  holy  life,  he  continued  his  preaching  all  over  the 
 country,  even  as  far  as  Illyricum.  «  While  he  was  in 
 Macedonia,  Titus  came  to  him,  and  gave  him  an  ac- 
 count of  the  good  effects  which  his  epistle  had  at  Cor- 
 inth, and  how  great  reformation  it  had  wrought ;  but  as 
 several  vain -glorious  teachers  still  persisted  in  their  con- 
 tumacy, vilifying  his  authority,  and  misrepresenting  his 
 words  and  actions  ;  charging  him  particularly  with  levity 
 in  not  coming  according  to  his  promise,  with  severity  in 
 his  dealings  with  the  incestuous  person,  with  imperious- 
 ness  in  his  writings,  abjectness  in  his  person,  and  some 
 small  tincture  of  irreligion,  in  overthrowing  the  Mosaic 
 law,  all  which  he  understood  from  Titus,  he  thought  it 
 necessary  to  write  a  second  epistle  to  the  Corinthians ; 
 '  wherein  he  excuses  his  not  coming  directly  to  Corinth, 
 for  fear  of  occasioning  their  sorrow,  and  giving  himself 
 uneasiness,  in  being  obliged  to  treat  with  severity  those 
 who  had  not  yet  amended  their  faults ;  wherein  he  com- 
 mends their  zeal  against  the  incestuous  person,  but  now, 
 that  he  had  suffered  and  sorrowed  enough  for  his  trans- 
 gression, allowed  them  to  be  reconciled  to  him;  wherein 
 he  justifies  his  conduct,  vindicates  the  dignity  and  mini- 
 stry of  the  gospel,  and  proves  its  great  excellency  above 
 the  law ;  wherein  he  disclaims  those  false  teachers,  who, 
 to  estrange  them  from  him,  made  it  their  business  to 
 traduce  and  vilify  him;  and  threatens  them  with  his 
 apostolic  authority,  whenever  he  came  among  them, 
 wherein  he  speaks  of  himself  with  soxne  advantage,  and 
 though  he  mentions  his  supernatural  gifts  and  revelations, 
 yet  seems  to  glory  most  in  his  extraordinary  labours  and 
 Bufferings  for  the  gospel ;  and  wherein  he  exhorts  them 
 all  to  the  works  of  penance  and  mortification,  lest,  when 
 he  comes,  he  should  be  obliged  to  use  his  power  against 
 offenders  ;  and  to  have  their  alms  in  readiness,  that  they 
 may  not  be  a  hinderance  to  him  at  his  arrival  at  Corinth.' 
 
 a  This  h  a  province  of  Europe  lying  to  the  north  or  north-west 
 ol  Macedonia,  along  the  Adriatic  sea,  now  called  the  gulf  of 
 \  enice;  and  its  ancient  boundaries  were,  to  the  east,  the  upper 
 Mnsiaand  Macedonia;  to  the  west,  Istria;  and  to  the  north, 
 the  two  Pannonias;  and  to  the  south,  the  Adriatic  sea.  It  was 
 commonly  distinguished  into  two  parts;  Lybuniia  to  the  north, 
 where  now  lies  Croatia;  and  Dalmatia  to  the  south,  which  still 
 retains  its  name.  St  Paul  tells  us,  that  'from  Jerusalem,  and 
 round  about  unto  Illyricum,  he  had  fully  preached  the  gospel  of 
 Christ.'  (Rom.  xv.  10.)  So  that  he  must  have  travelled  into 
 Syria,  Phoenicia,  Arabia,  Cilicia,  Pamphylia,  Pisidia,  Lycaonia, 
 <:. ilat in,  Pontus,  Paphlagonia,  Phrygia,  Troas,  Asia,  Caria, 
 Ly-ia,  Ionia,  Lydia,  the  isles  of  Cyprus  and  Crete,  Thracia, 
 Macedonia,  Thessalia,  and  Achaia.  So  justly,  and  without  os- 
 tentation, might  he  say,  that  in   relation  to  the  other  apostles, 
 
 '  be  laboured  mure  abundantly  than   they  all,'  1  Cor.  xv.  10. 
 
 fTelis'i  Geography  of  the  Sew  Testament,  and   CaimcVs  Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 57,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Having  passed  over  Macedonia,  St  Paul  came  into 
 Achaia,  *  and  continued  there  for  the  space  of  three 
 months,  residing  principally  at  Corinth,  from  whence  he 
 wrote  his  famous  epistle  to  the  Romans  :  c  '  wherein  he 
 states  and  determines  the  great  controversy  between  the 
 Jews  and  the  Gentiles,  about  the  obligation  of  the  rites 
 and  ceremonies  of  the  Mosaic  law,  and  those  main  and 
 material  doctrines  of  Christianity  which  depend  on  it, 
 such  as  that  of  Christian  liberty,  and  the  use  of  indiffer- 
 ent things,  &c.  wherein  he  discovers  the  effects  of  original 
 sin,  and  the  power  it  has  even  in  the  regenerated  ;  and  < 
 then  explains  the  profound  questions  concerning  election 
 and  reprobation,  in  his  discourse  of  the  calling  of  the 
 Gentiles,  and  the  rejection  of  the  Jews  ;  and  wherein  he 
 intermixes  several  admirable  instructions  and  exhorta- 
 tions to  the  duties  of  an  holy  and  religious  life,  such  as 
 the  Christian  doctrine  does  naturally  tend  to  produce.' 
 From  Corinth,  St  Paul,  being  to  carry  the  alms  which 
 he  had  gathered  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia  to  the  poor 
 Christians  in  Judea,  intended  at  first  to  have  taken  the 
 shortest  cut  into  Syria;  but,  upon  intimation  of  a  con- 
 spiracy that  the  Jews  had  formed  against  his  life,  he 
 altered  his  course,  and  determined  to  go  through  Mace- 
 donia. Accordingly,  he  and  his  company  set  forward, 
 and  came  to  Philippi,  where  he  staid  for  some  time,  and 
 there  celebrated  the  feast  of  the  Passover.  From  Phil- 
 ippi, he  went  on  board,  and  in  five  days  landed  at  Troas, 
 where,  having  tarried  a  week,  on  the  Lord's  day,  d  when 
 the  Christians  of  the  place  met  together  to  receive  the 
 sacrament,  he  preached  to  them,  and  intending  to  be 
 gone  next  morning,  continued  his  discourse  till  midnight; 
 so  that  a  young  man,  named  Futychus,  sitting  in  a  win- 
 dow, and  being  overtaken  with  sleep,  fell  down  from  the 
 
 b  Achaia,  in  the  largest  sense,  comprehends  Greece,  properly 
 so  called;  and  so  is  bounded,  on  the  east,  by  the  iEgean  sea;  on 
 the  west,  by  Epirus ;  on  the  north,  by  Macedonia  ;  and  on  the 
 south,  by  the  Peloponese;  but  Achaia,  strictly  so  called,  is  the 
 northern  region  of  the  Peloponese  ;  bounded,  on  the  north,  by  the 
 gulf  of  Corinth  ;  on  the  south,  by  Arcadia;  on  the  east,  by  Sy- 
 cinia;  and  on  the  west,  by  the  Ionian  sea. — JFhitby''s  Alphabeti- 
 cal Table. 
 
 c  It  is  a  general  observation  of  the  ancient  commentators,  that 
 though  this  epistle  has  obtained  the  first  place  and  rank,  it  is  far 
 from  being  the  first  that  St  Paul  wrote  ;  that  those  to  the  Thes- 
 salonians,  Corinthians,  and  the  Galatians,  were  prior;  nay,  that 
 it  was  the  very  last  of  all  that  he  composed  before  his  first  journey 
 to  Rome  ;  and  therefore  they  think  that  it  had  the  first  place 
 assigned  it  in  the  canon,  either  from  the  majesty  of  the  imperial 
 city  to  which  it  was  sent,  or  from  the  excellency  of  the  doctrine 
 which  it  contained. — Hammond's  and  JVhitbys  Annotations. 
 
 d  The  words  in  the  original  are,  'Ev  Se  tS  ft! a  t&v  2a££ar&jv, 
 which  we  render,  '  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  ;'  and  that  this  first 
 day  of  the  week  was  our  Lord's  day,  or  the  day  of  our  Lord's 
 resurrection  from  the  dead,  is  obvious  from  the  account  of  all  the 
 evangelists;  (see  Mat.  xxviii.  1.  Mark  xvi.  9.  Luke  xxiii.  56. 
 and  John  xx.  1.)  And  from  hence  we  may  observe,  that  from 
 the  very  beginning,  Christians  used  to  assemble  on  the  first  day 
 of  the  week,  to  perform  their  religious  worship;  for  Pliny,  in  his 
 epistle  to  the  emperor  Trajan,  tells  him,  that  'he  found  nothing 
 to  allege  against  the  Christians,  but  their  obstinacy  in  their 
 superstition  ;  and  that  it  was  their  custom  to  meet  together  on  a 
 set  day,  before  it  was  light  ;'  (Ep.  b.  x.  ep.  97.)  And  what  that 
 set  day  was,  Justin  Martyr,  who  wrote,  not  a  great  many  years 
 after  Pliny,  has  taken  care  to  inform  us:  for,  '  on  Sunday,'  says 
 he,  '  all  Christians,  in  the  city  or  country,  meet  together,  be- 
 cause that  is  the  day  of  our  Lord's  resurrection:  and  then  we 
 have  read  unto  us  the  writings  of  the  prophets  and  apostles. 
 VY'hen  this  is  done,  the  president  makes  an  oration  to  the  assem- 
 bly, to  exhort  them  to  imitate  and  do  the  things  which  they 
 have  heard,  and  then  we  all  join  in  prayer ;  and  after  that  cele- 
 brate the  sacrament.' — (Apol,  ii.) — IFhitbys  Annotations. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1087 
 
 A.  M.  40G2.  A.  D.  58;  OR,  A.  M.  51fi9.  A.  D. 
 third  story,  and  was  taken  up  dead.  But  Paul  went 
 down,  and  soon  recovered  him  ;  and  so  going  up  again, 
 lie  resumed  his  discourse,  and  in  the  celebration  of  the 
 sacrament,  and  other  divine  offices,  continued  until  break 
 of  day,  and  then  departed. 
 
 From  Troas  he  went  on  foot  to  Assos,  a  where,  with 
 St  Luke,  and  the  rest  of  the  company  that  were  come 
 thither  by  sea,  he  embarked,  and  from  thence  came  to 
 Mitylene  ;'  *  then  passing-  by  Chios,  c  he  arrived  at  Sa- 
 mos ;  d  and,  having  stayed  a  short  while  at  Trogyl- 
 lium,  e  the  next  day  came  directly  to  Miletus,/ not  so 
 much  as  putting  in  at  Ephesus,  because  he  was  resolved,  if 
 possible,  to  be  at  Jerusalem  at  the  feast  of  Pentecost. 
 
 a  This  is  a  sea-port  town,  situated  on  the  south-west  part  of  the 
 province  of  Troas,  and  over  against  the  island  Lesbos.  By  land, 
 it  is  a  great  deal  nearer  Troas  than  it  is  by  sea,  because  of  a 
 promontory  that  runs  a  great  way  into  the  ocean,  and  must  be 
 doubled  before  we  can  come  to  Assos,  which  was  the  reason  the 
 apostle  chose  rather  to  walk  it. —  Wells's  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. — There  is  notice  of  a 
 Christian  church  existing  here  in  the  eighth  century,  and  John 
 bishop  of  Assos,  is  mentioned  as  one  of  the  Nicean  council. 
 The  ruins  adjoining  the  modern  sea-port  are  described  as  numer- 
 ous and  interesting. — Edin.  Scripture  Gazetteer. — Ed. 
 
 h  This  was  one  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  isle  of  Lesbos, 
 seated  in  a  peninsula,  with  a  commodious  haven  on  each  side  ; 
 and  soon  became  so  considerable,  as  to  give  name  to  the  whole 
 island,  at  present  called  Metelin,  many  years  ago.  The  island, 
 which  is  one  of  the  largest  in  the  Archipelago,  was  in  former 
 times  renowned  for  the  many  eminent  persons  it  had  produced; 
 such  as  Sappho,  the  inventress  of  Sapphic  verses;  Alcaeus  a 
 famous  lyric  poet;  Pittacus,  one  of  the  seven  wise  men  of 
 Greece;  Theophrastus,  the  noble  physician  and  philosopher;  and 
 Arion,  the  celebrated  musician:  and  the  Turks,  who  have  it 
 now  in  their  possession,  think  it  still  a  place  of  consequence 
 enough  to  deserve  a  fortress  and  garrison  to  defend  it. — Wells's 
 Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 c  This  is  an  island  in  the  Archipelago,  next  to  Lesbos,  or  Meti- 
 lene,  both  in  its  situation  and  bigness.  It  lies  over  against 
 Smyrna,  and  is  not  above  four  leagues  distant  from  the  Asiatic 
 continent.  It  is  celebrated  by  Horace  and  Martial,  for  the 
 wine  and  tigs  that  came  from  thence ;  but  at  present  its  renown 
 is,  that  it  produces  the  most  excellent  mastic  in  the  world,  where 
 the  people  pay  their  tribute  to  the  Grand  Signior.  Nor  is  it  less 
 remarkable  for  what  Sir  Paul  Kicaut,  in  his  Present  State  of  the 
 Greek  Church,  tells  us  of  it,  namely,  That  there  is  no  place  in  the 
 Turkish  dominions  where  Christians  enjoy  more  freedom  in  their 
 religion  and  estates,  than  in  this  isle,  to  which  they  are  entitled 
 by  an  ancient  capitulation  made  with  Sultan  Mahomet  II.,  which 
 to  this  day  is  maintained  so  faithfully,  that  no  Turk  can  strike 
 or  abuse  a  Christian,  without  severe  correction.' — Wells's  Geo- 
 graphy of  the  Neiu  Testament. 
 
 d  This  is  another  isle  in  the  Archipelago,  lying  south  east  of 
 Chios,  and  about  five  miles  from  the  Asiatic  continent.  It  is 
 famous  among  heathen  writers,  for  the  worship  of  Juno;  for  one 
 of  the  Sibyls,  called  Sibylla  Samina;  for  Pherecydes,  who  fore- 
 told an  earthquake  that  happened  there,  by  drinking  of  the 
 waters;  and  more  especially,  for  the  birth  of  Pythagoras,  who 
 excelled  all  the  seven  wise  men,  so  renowned  among  the  Greeks. 
 It  was  formerly  a  free  commonwealth,  and  the  inhabitants  were 
 so  powerful,  that  they  managed  many  prosperous  wars  against 
 their  neighbours:  but  at  present,  the  Turks  have  reduced  it  to 
 such  a  mean  and  depopulated  condition,  that  a  few  pirates  dare 
 land  and  plunder  it  as  they  please:  so  that  ever  since  the  year 
 1676,  no  Turk  has  ventured  to  live  upon  it,  for  fear  of  being 
 carried  into  captivity  by  these  rovers. — Whitby's  Alphabetical 
 Table,  and  Wells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 e  It  is  a  cape  or  promontory,  on  the  Asiatic  coast,  opposite 
 to  Samos,  and  not  much  below  Ephesus,  having  a  town  of  the 
 same  name. — Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table,  and  Wells's  Geo- 
 graphy of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 f  This  is  a  port-town  on  the  continent  of  Asia  Minor,  and  in 
 the  province  of  Caria,  memorable  for  being  the  birth-place  of 
 Thales,  one  of  the  seven  wise  men  in  Greece,  and  father  of  the 
 Ionic  philosophy;  of  Anaximenes,  his  scholar;  Timotheus,  the 
 
 88,  Sec.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 From  Miletus  he  sent  to  Ephesus  to  assemble  the  bishops 
 and  pastors  of  the  neighbouring  churches,  and  at  their 
 arrival,  put  them  in  mind — '  With  what  uprightness  and 
 integrity,  with  what  affection  and  humility,  and  with  how 
 great  danger  and  trouble  he  had  been  conversant  among 
 them,  and  preached  the  gospel  to  them,  ever  since  his 
 coming  into  those  parts :  that  he  had  not  failed  to 
 acquaint  them,  both  publicly  and  privately,  with  whatso- 
 ever might  be  profitable  to  their  souls,  urging  both  Jews 
 and  Gentiles  to  repentance  and  reformation,  and  an 
 hearty  entertainment  of  the  faith  of  Christ ;  that  now  he 
 was  determined  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  where  he  did  not 
 know  what  particular  sufferings  would  befal  him,  only 
 that  he  had  been  foretold  by  those  who  were  endued  with 
 the  prophetic  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  in  every  place 
 afflictions  and  imprisonment  would  attend  him  ;  but  that 
 he  was  not  concerned  at  this,  no,  nor  unwilling  to  Jay 
 down  his  life,  if  so  be  he  might  but  successfully  propa- 
 gate the  gospel,  and  triumphantly  finish  his  course  :  that 
 he  knew,  that  from  henceforth  they  should  see  his  face 
 no  more  ;  s  but  that  this  was  his  particular  comfort  and 
 satisfaction,  that  they  themselves  could  bear  him  witness, 
 that  he  had  not,  by  concealing  any  part  of  the  Christian 
 doctrine,  betrayed  their  souls :  that,  since  therefore  he 
 was  finally  to  bid  them  adieu,  and  the  whole  care  of  the 
 church  was  to  devolve  upon  them,  he  coirjured  them  to 
 be  infinitely  careful  both  of  themselves,  and  of  that  flock 
 over  which  the  h  Holy  Ghost  himself  had  made  them 
 overseers,  and  for  which  Christ  had  paid  no  less  a  pur- 
 chase than  his  own  blood :  that  all  their  care,  in  this 
 respect,  would  be  no  more  than  necessary,  because  it 
 was  certain,  that,  after  his  departure,  not  only  heretical 
 teachers  i  would  break  in  upon  them,  and  endanger  the 
 
 musician;  and  Anaximenius  the  philosopher.  At  present  it  is 
 called  by  the  Turks  Melas;  and  not  far  distant  from  it  is  the 
 true  Meander,  which,  though  it  encircles  all  the  plain  it  runs 
 through  with  many  wanton  mazes,  and  innumerable  windings,  yet, 
 in  some  places,  it  goes  with  such  a  current,  as  stirs  up  the  earth 
 and  gravel  from  the  bottom,  which  makes  its  waters  not  so  clear 
 and  crystalline  as  might  be  expected. — Whitby's  Alphabetical 
 Tabic  and  U'ells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 g  If  St  Paul,  as  it  is  generally  thought,  came  again  into  these 
 parts,  the  meaning  may  be,  either  that  it  was  then  his  firm  per- 
 suasion and  belief  that  he  should  see  them  no  more,  or  that  he 
 should  not  again  see  all  the  presbyters  so  assembled  together. 
 But  it  is  not  certain  that  he  ever  did  see  any  of  them  again, 
 even  if  he  visited  that  part  of  Asia,  as  seems  probable,  from 
 Philem.  22,  25. ;  Phil.  i.  25—27.  ii.  24.— Holden's  Christian 
 Expositor . — E  D. 
 
 h  That  in  these  early  times  of  Christianity,  the  divine  Spirit 
 did  enable  the  apostles  to  discern  who  were  fit  to  be  governors 
 of  the  church,  and  that,  by  its  movement  or  inspiration,  they 
 were  accordingly  chosen  to  that  office,  seems  to  be  evident  from 
 several  passages  in  scripture.  Thus,  the  Spirit,  in  the  prophets 
 at  Antioch,  said,  '  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work 
 whereunto  I  have  called  them,'  (Acts  xiii.  2.)  And  thus  the 
 Holy  Ghost  is  said  to  have  constituted  the  bishops  and  presbyters 
 in  Asia,  (Acts  xx.  28.)  because,  as  Clemens  Romamis  says, 
 '  they  made  trial  of  them  by  the  Holy  Ghost;'  or,  as  Clemens 
 Alexandrinus  has  it,  '  they  were  signified  to  them  by  the  Spirit,' 
 and  therefore  Ignatius  testifies  of  the  bishops  of  his  time,  that 
 'they  were  not  appointed  by  men,  but  by  the  'counsel  of 
 Christ  Jesus:'  even  as  St  Cyprian  says  of  those  in  his  time,  that 
 they  were  constituted,  '  not  only  by  the  consent  of  the  people 
 and  the  suffrages  of  their  fellow  bishops,  but  by  the  judgment 
 and  testimony  of  God:'  and  therefore  we  need  not  doubt,  but 
 that  to  this  kind  of  election  it  is  that  the  words  of  the  apostle 
 refer. —  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 i  What  we  termed  '  heretical  teachers,'  St  Paul  describes  by 
 the  metaphor  of  '  grievous  wolves,  not  sparing  the  flock,'  (Acta 
 
10S8 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  40G2.  A.  D.  58  ;  OR  A.  M.  54C9.  A.  D.  58,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 ruin  of  men's  eouls,  but  that  even  among  themselves, 
 there  would  arise  some,  who,  by  their  crafty  methods,  and 
 unsound  doctrines,  would  make  rents  and  schisms  in  the 
 church,  even  as  he,  with  much  grief  and  sorrow  of  heart, 
 for  these  three  years  past,  had  forwamed  them  ;  that,  to 
 this  purpose,  he  now  recommended  them  to  God's  special 
 care  and  protection,  wishing  them  all  the  benefits  of  the 
 gospel,  perfection  of  knowledge,  and  an  heavenly  in- 
 heritance hereafter ;  cautioning  them  against  avarice, 
 and  making  a  prey  of  their  flocks ;  and  referring  them 
 to  his  own  example,  what  pains  they  ought  to  take  to 
 support  the  weak,  and  relieve  the  poor,  in  remembrance 
 of  that  excellent  saying  <*  of  our  Saviour,  It  is  more 
 blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.'  b  After  this  farewell  ser- 
 mon, the  apostle  kneeled  down,  and  concluded  all  with 
 a  solemn  prayer :  whereupon  they  all  melted  into  tears, 
 and,  with  the  greatest  expressions  of  sorrow,  attended 
 him  to  the  ship  ;  though  that  which  made  the  deepest 
 impression  upon  them,  was,  his  having  told  them  that 
 they  should  see  his  face  no  more. 
 From  Miletus,  Paul  and   his   companions   came  in 
 
 a  straight  course  to  Coos,  c  the  next  day  to  Rhodes,  d 
 and  thence  to  Patara,  e  where,  finding  a  ship  that  was 
 bound  for  Phoenicia,  they  went  on  board,  and  arrived  safe 
 at  Tyre.  Here  they  made  a  stop  for  seven  days  ,'  and  St 
 Paul,  being  advised  by  some  Christians  of  the  place  who 
 had  the  gift  of  prophecy,  not  to  go  up  to  Jerusalem, 
 would  by  no  means  listen  to  their  proposal ;  /  but  as  they, 
 together  with  their  wives  and  children,  accompanied  him 
 to  the  ship,  before  he  went  on  board,  he  embraced  them 
 all,  and  prayed  with  them  on  the  shore,  as  he  had  done 
 before  at  Miletus.  From  Tyre  they  sailed  to  Ptolemais,  s 
 
 xx.  29.)  and  well  may  they  be  compared  to  wolves  for  their  craft 
 and  cruelty,  their  mortal  hatred  to  all  good  Christians,  and  lying 
 in  wait  to  circumvent  and  destroy  them.  The  prophet  likens  them 
 to  evening  wolves,  (Zeph.  iii.  3,)  which  come  secretly  in  the  dark, 
 and  are  very  hungry,  zealous,  and  passionately  desirous  to  per- 
 vert harmless  and  unwary  souls;  and,  lest  their  malice  should 
 be  perceived,  these  ravenous  wolves  disguise  themselves  in  sheep's 
 clothing,  that  is,  they  pretend  to  great  innocence  and  simpli- 
 city, they  seem  to  pity  the  mistakes  and  desire  the  salvation  of 
 such  as  they  would  insinuate  into,  and  under  this  veil,  they  are 
 taken  for  friends,  though  still  they  remain  the  worst  of  enemies. 
 — Comber  on  Ordination. 
 
 a  None  of  the  evangelists  have  recorded  these  words,  but  St 
 Paul's  evidence  is  sufficient  that  our  Lord  actually  spoke  them. 
 This  will  give  no  countenance  to  the  Romish  doctrine  of  tradi- 
 tion, until  they  can  prove  that  their  traditions  rest  upon  aposto- 
 lical authority;  and  when  they  do,  Protestants  will  readily  re- 
 ceive them.—  -Holders  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 b  These  words  are  to  be  expounded  according  to  the  measures 
 and  limitations  of  other  proverbial  sayings  in  scripture.  For 
 though,  generally  speaking,  they  are  true ;  yet,  in  some  cases, 
 they  will  admit  of  an  exception.  If  he  that  gives,  for  instance, 
 dues  it  out  of  a  principle  of  interest  or  vain-glory,  to  get  a  re- 
 putation or  strengthen  a  faction ;  if  he  does  it  to  encroach  upon 
 the  liberty  of  the  obliged,  to  upbraid  him  with  his  necessities,  to 
 betray  him  into  any  sinful  compliance,  and  make  him  obnoxious 
 to  his  humour;  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that,  in  this  case,  a 
 grateful  and  benevolent  receiver  is  much  a  greater  man  than 
 such  a  pretended  benefactor:  but  then  if  we  suppose  the  giver 
 and  receiver,  purely  considered  as  such,  to  be  both  free  from 
 every  vile  principle  and  moral  indisposition,  the  circumstances 
 of  the  giver  are  more  desirable  than  those  of  the  receiver:  1st, 
 because  giving  includes  more  perfection  in  it,  and  is  a  more 
 secure  and  honourable  condition.  2dly,  because,  generally  speak- 
 ing, it  is  a  clearer  evidence  of  a  virtuous  disposition.  3dly,  be- 
 cau-e  charity  is  a  nobler  virtue  than  gratitude,  and  will  be  more 
 considered  in  another  world:  and,  4thly,  because  there  is  more 
 pleasure  in  giving  than  receiving. — Cottier's  Sermons. 
 
 c  This  was  an  island  in  the  Archipelago,  lying  near  the  south- 
 west po.nt  of  Asia  Minor,  and  having  a  city  of  the  same  name. 
 At  present  it  is  commonly  called  Lango,  and  was  formerly  cele- 
 brated for  the  birth  of  Hippocrates  the  famous  physician,  and 
 Ape  es  the  famous  painter;  for  a  stately  temple  dedicated  to 
 Apollo,  and  another  to  Juno;  for  the  richness  of  its  wines,  and 
 the  fineness  ofa  Stuff  made  here,  which  was  perfectly  transpar- 
 «t-"^  '  "  Jlll'habeti<*l  TViftfcand  Wells's  Geography  of  the 
 
 M  is  nttamtnt.  It  is  ,,ow  called  Stan-Co,  (not  Lango)  and  pre- 
 ■enta  to  the  new  hue  plantations  of  lemon  trees,  intermixed  with 
 stately  maples.  The  inhabitants  of  Cos  were  a  Dorian  colony.  St 
 Paul  merely  sailed  past  this  island,  and  it  does  not  appear  that 
 Christianity  was  professed  in  it  till  a  considerable  period  after- 
 wards. I  be  island  contains  upwards  of  8000  inhabitants,  of 
 whom   about  5000  are  stated   to  have  been  Turks,  and  ^000 
 
 Greeks,  with  about  fifty  Jews.  The  Greek  religion,  says  Mr 
 Turner  (Tour  of  the  Levant,  1S15,)  is  farmed  by  the  bishop  of 
 Cos  from  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  ;  he  pays  3300  piastres 
 a  year  for  his  post,  and  gains  by  it  from  5000  to  6000.  He 
 takes  a  tenth  of  the  corn  of  all  the  island. — Scripture  Gazetteer. 
 —Ed. 
 
 d  Rhodes  is  an  island  of  the  Mediterranean,  about  eight  miles 
 south  of  Caria  in  Asia  Minor,  and  120  in  circumference.  It  is 
 supposed  by  some  to  have  derived  its  name  from  the  Rhodanim 
 or  Dodanim,  by  whom  it  is  said  to  have  been  first  peopled,  and  by 
 others  from  the  abundance  of  roses  which  grew  upon  it.  This  island 
 was  anciently  celebrated  for  the  fineness  of  its  climate  and  of  its 
 wines,  but  chiefly  for  the  Colossus,  a  brazen  statue,  seventy  cubits 
 high,  which  stood  across  the  mouth  of  the  harbour  of  the  city  of 
 Rhodes,  and  admitted  the  largest  ships  to  sail  between  its  legs. 
 It  was  computed  to  contain  720,000  pounds  weight  of  brass ; 
 and  after  standing  60  years,  was  thrown  down  by  an  earthquake: 
 in  which  fallen  state  it  remained  above  800  years,  when  Mau- 
 vias,  the  sixth  caliph  of  the  Saracens,  sold  it  to  a  Jew,  who 
 broke  it  up,  and  loaded  900  camels  with  the  metal.  Rhodes, 
 after  being  governed  by  its  own  kings,  who  were  sometimes  suffi- 
 ciently powerful  to  hold  in  subjection  the  adjoining  parts  of  Asia 
 Minor,  fell  a  prey  to  the  Romans  ;  then  to  the  Saracens  ;  after 
 which  it  was  retaken  by  the  Greeks,  who  held  possession  of  it 
 about  600  years;  when  it  was  wrested  from  them  by  the  Sel- 
 jukian  Turks ;  from  whom  it  was  again  taken  by  the  knights  of 
 St  John  of  Jerusalem,  who  kept  possession  of  it  till  the  year 
 1552;  when  it  was  taken  by  the  Ottoman  Turks,  after  a  year's 
 siege  of  the  city  of  Rhodes,  and  the  loss  of  90,000  men;  the 
 knights  retiring  to  Malta.  It  is  still  in  the  hands  of  this  barbar- 
 ous people;  but  it  is  chiefly  inhabited  by  Greeks,  who  are  under 
 the  spiritual  direction  of  an  archbishop,  residing  in  the  city  of 
 Rhodes,  who  has  also  under  his  jurisdiction,  according  to  Mr 
 Connor,  the  following  islands:  Leros,  the  seat  of  a  bishop,  with 
 about  600  Greeks:  Calymne,  under  the  bishop  of  Leros,  3000; 
 Nisera,  1200;  Delos  (not  the  celebrated  island  of  the  same 
 name),  1000;  Syrne,  3200;  and  Karke,  600.  The  Greek 
 population  of  Rhodes  amounts  to  about  18,000.  The  number 
 of  Jews  is  about  1000. — Mansford. — Ed. 
 
 e  This  is  a  sea-port  of  Lycia,  formerly  beautified  with  a  fair 
 harbour  and  many  temples,  whereof  one  was  dedicated  to  A  polio, 
 and  had  an  oracle  in  it,  for  wealth  and  credit  not  inferior  to 
 that  of  Delphi.—  Wells 's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 f  But  if  the  persons  who  dissuaded  St  Paul  from  going  to 
 Jerusalem,  were  really  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  do  this, 
 how  could  he  act  contrary  to  their  advice,  without  opposing  what 
 the  Spirit  of  God  required,  and  running  himself  rashly  into 
 what  it  did  forbid  ?  Now  to  this  it  may  be  said,  that  all  that 
 the  Spirit  discovered  to  the  disciples  of  Tyre,  was,  that  if  St 
 Paul  pursued  his  journey,  he  would  certainly  meet  with  \ery 
 cruel  usage;  and  therefore,  out  of  pure  kindness  and  concern  for 
 his  welfare,  they  intreated  him  to  consult  his  own  safety,  and 
 not  to  expose  himself  to  the  malice  of  his  enemies,  by  going  to  a 
 place  where  they  were  so  violently  bent  against  him.  Their  dis- 
 suading him  therefore  was  properly  the  effect  of  their  love,  and 
 the  result  of  what  the  Spirit  had  foretold  them  ;  but  no  part  of 
 the  Spirit's  instructions  to  St  Paul  to  desist  from  his  journey. 
 Himself  tells  us,  '  that  the  Holy  Ghost  witnesseth  in  every  city, 
 that  bends  and  afflictions  abode  him,'  (Acts  xx.  23.)  But  this, 
 we  may  be  sure,  was  not  to  prevail  with  him  to  abandon  the 
 work  of  the  gospel,  but  rather  to  arm  him  with  strength  and  re- 
 solution to  accomplish  it,  without  giving  himself  any  pain  about 
 the  perils  that  would  ensue. — Whitby's  and  Beausobrc's  Anno- 
 tations, and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 g  This  city  was  anciently  called  Accho;  but  when  Ptolemy 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1089 
 
 A.  M.  4002.  A.  D.  58;  OR,  A.  M.  5409.  A.  D. 
 
 and  there  having  but  just  saluted  the  brethren,  they  came 
 by  land  the  next  day  to  Cresarea  of  Palestine,  and 
 lodged  at  the  house  of  Philip,  the  deacon  and  evange- 
 list, °  who  had  four  daughters,  all  endued  with  the  gift  of 
 prophecy.  During  their  stay  in  this  place,  the  prophet 
 Agabus  came  from  Jerusalem,  and  taking  St  Paul's 
 girdle,  *  bound  his  own  hands  and  feet  with  it,  thereby 
 intimating,  that  the  owner  of  it  should  be  served  in  the 
 same  manner  by  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem,  and  by  them  be 
 delivered  over  into  the  hands  of  the  Gentiles.  But  St 
 Paul's  constancy  was  not  in  the  least  shaken  by  all  these 
 predictions,  being  ready,  as  he  told  those  who  were  dis- 
 suading him  from  going,  not  only  to  suffer  bonds,  but 
 
 I.  had  enlarged  it,  it  took  its  name  from  him;  though  since  its 
 subjection  to  the  Turks,  it  has  recovered  some  resemblance  of 
 its  former  name,  it  being  now  called  Acca  or  Aera.  As  to  its 
 situation,  it  enjoys  all  possible  advantages  both  by  sea  and  land ; 
 for  on  its  north  and  east  sides,  it  is  compassed  with  a  spacious 
 fertile  plain  ;  on  the  west,  it  is  washed  by  the  Mediterranean 
 sea  ;  and  on  the  south,  by  a  large  bay,  which  extends  itself  from 
 the  city,  as  far  as  Mount  Carmel.  This  made  it  one  of  the 
 fairest  and  most  commodious  cities  in  Galilee  ;  and  for  a  long 
 time,  it  was  the  theatre  of  contention  between  the  Christians 
 and  infidels,  till,  having  divers  times  changed  its  masters,  it  was 
 at  last,  after  a  long  siege,  finally  taken  by  the  Turks,  A.  D.  1291, 
 and  by  them  destroyed  in  such  a  manner,  that  besides  a  large 
 Kane,  wherein  the  French  factors  have  taken  up  their  quarters, 
 one  mosque,  and  a  few  poor  cottages,  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen, 
 but  a  vast  spacious  ruin  ;  though  even  here  there  are  some  re- 
 mains, such  as  those  of  the  church  of  St  Andrew  and  St  John, 
 the  convent  of  the  Knights  Hospitallers,  and  the  palace  of  the 
 Grand  Master  of  that  order,  which  distinguished  themselves  from 
 the  general  heap  by  certain  marks  of  superior  strength  and  mag- 
 nificence.— MaundrelVs  Journey  from  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem. — 
 Acre  has  been  rendered  famous  in  our  own  times  by  the  success- 
 ful resistance  made  by  our  countryman  Sir  Sydney  Smith,  aided 
 by  the  celebrated  Djezzar  Pasha,  to  the  designs  of  the  French 
 under  Napoleon  Buonaparte.  Since  this  period,  the  fortifications 
 have  been  considerably  increased ;  and  although  to  the  eye  of  an 
 engineer  they  may  still  be  xery  defective,  Acre  may  be  consid- 
 ered as  the  strongest  place  in  Palestine.  Mr  Connor  says,  on 
 the  authority  of  the  English  Consul,  that  there  are  about  10,000 
 inhabitants  in  Acre ;  of  whom  3000  are  Turks,  and  the  re- 
 mainder Christians,  chiefly  Catholics. — Mansford. — En. 
 
 a  An  evangelist  is  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  who,  being  settled 
 in  no  particular  place,  was  by  the  apostles  sent  into  different 
 parts  of  the  world,  either  to  confirm  the  churches  which  they  had 
 founded,  or,  by  his  own  labour  and  application,  to  found  new  ones 
 himself.  St  Paul  makes  mention  of  this  order  of  men,  and  ranks 
 them  next  to  the  apostles  and  prophets,  (Eph.  iv.  2.)  and  to  let  us 
 know  that  marriage  is  not  inconsistent  with  any  sacred  function, 
 St  Luke  acquaints  us,  that  this  deacon  and  evangelist  had  four 
 daughters.  And  indeed  the  rules  which  St  Paul  gives  Timothy, 
 are  a  sufficient  demonstration,  that  he  allowed  bishops  as  well  as 
 deacons  to  be  married  men.  Nor  is  there  any  thing,  either  in 
 scripture  or  antiquity,  that  denies  them  that  liberty.  For  it  is 
 evident,  that  St  Peter  had  a  wife,  (Mat.  viii.  14.)  and  that  St 
 Paul  asserts  his  right  to  marry,  if  he  pleased,  (1  Cor.  ix.  5.) 
 Ignatius  affirms,  that  he  had  a  wife  as  well  as  St  Peter,  and 
 others  of  the  apostles;  and  St  Ambrose  testifies,  that  all  the 
 apostles  were  married  men,  except  St  John  and  St  Paul. — 
 Seausofire's  Annotations ,  Calmet,s  Commentary,  and  Comber  on 
 Ordination. 
 
 b  It  was  a  common  practice  among  the  ancient  prophets,  to 
 give  their  predictions  a  stronger  impression,  to  foretel  future 
 events  by  figurative  or  symbolical  actions.  Thus  Isaiah  went 
 naked  and  barefoot,  to  show  what  the  people  of  Israel  should 
 meet  with  under  the  kings  of  Assyria,  (Isa.  xx.  2.)  and  Ezekiel 
 was  to  pack  up  his  household  goods,  and  remove,  to  signify  their 
 being  carried  away  into  captivity,  (Ezek.  xii.  3.)  and  in  like  man- 
 ner here  Agabus  uses  a  sign:  he  takes  St  Paul's  girdle,  and 
 binds  his  own  hands  and  feet  with  it,  thereby  denoting,  that  the 
 Jews  at  Jerusalem  would  so  bind  the  apostle,  and  deliver  him  to 
 the  Gentiles,  first  to  the  Roman  governor  of  Judea,  and  after- 
 wards to  Nero,  the  Roman  emperor. — Calmet's  Commentary, 
 and  Burkitfs  Annotations. 
 
 58,  &c.   FKOM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 even  death  itself,  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  his  religion; 
 so  that,  finding  his  resolution  immoveable,  they  impor- 
 tuned him  no  more,  but  left  the  event  to  the  will  of  God  : 
 whereupon  he  and  his  companions  set  forward  on  their 
 journey,  and  having  arrived  at  Jerusalem  before  the 
 feast  of  Pentecost,  were  received  by  the  Christians  there 
 with  the  utmost  demonstrations  of  joy. 
 
 The  next  day,  Paul  and  his  company  went  to  the 
 house  of  St  James,  the  apostle,  and  bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
 where  the  rest  of  the  elders  and  governors  of  the  church 
 were  met  together.  After  mutual  salutations,  he  gave 
 them  an  account  of  the  success  he  had  met  with  in  the 
 propagation  of  Christianity  among  the  Gentiles;  for 
 which  they  all  glorified  God;  but  withal  told  him, 
 '  That  since  he  was  now  come  to  a  place  where  there 
 were  many  thousands  of  Jewish  converts,  who  all  retained 
 a  mighty  zeal  and  veneration  for  the  law  of  Moses,  and 
 who  had  been  informed  of  him,  that  in  every  place  he 
 taught  the  Jews  whom  he  had  converted,  to  renounce 
 circumcision,  and  other  ritual  observances,  the  best  ex- 
 pedient to  obviate  their  clamours,  would  be  for  him  to  c 
 join  himself  to  four  men  who  were  just  then  going  to 
 accomplish  a  vow  of  Nazaritism,  to  perform  the  usual 
 rites  and  ceremonies  with  them,  to  be  at  the  charge  of 
 having  their  heads  shaved,  and  to  provide  such  sacrifices 
 as  the  law  directed ;  whereby  it  would  appear  that  the 
 reports  spread  of  him  were  groundless,  and  that  himself 
 was  an  observer  of  the  Mosaic  institutions.'  To  this 
 advice  Paul  consented  ;  and  taking  the  four  Nazarites 
 with  him  to  the  temple,  told  the  priests,  that  as  the  time 
 of  their  vow  was  now  expired,  and  their  purification 
 regularly  performed,  they  were  come  to  make  their  ob- 
 lations according  to  law.  d 
 
 c  The  better  to  understand  this,  we  must  observe,  that  among 
 the  Jews  it  was  accounted  a  kind  of  meritorious  action  to  con- 
 tribute to  the  expeuce  of  the  sacrifices  and  offerings,  which  those 
 who  had  taken  upon  them  a  vow  of  Nazaritism  were  to  make, 
 when  the  time  of  the  vow  came  to  be  accomplished.  Thus  Jo- 
 sephus,  to  magnify  the  zeal  and  devotion  of  Herod  Agrippa, 
 king  of  the  Jews,  tell  us,  '  that  he  caused  several  Nazarites  to  be 
 shaved;'  whereby  he  means,  that  he  bore  the  expence  of  the 
 whole  ceremony :  and  Maimonides  informs  us,  that  he  who  would 
 partake  of  the  merits  of  another's  Nazaritism,  went  to  the  temple, 
 and  said  to  the  priest,  '  such  an  one  will  finish  his  vow,  and  I 
 intend  to  defray  the  charge  of  his  tonsure,  either  in  part,  or  in 
 the  whole ;'  and  whoever  did  so,  was  reputed  to  partake  in  the 
 merits  of  him  who  had  fulfilled  his  vow. — Calmcfs  Commentary, 
 and  Dictionary . 
 
 d  The  conduct  of  Paul  on  this  occasion  enables  us  fully  to  un- 
 derstand his  views  with  respect  to  the  obligation  of  observing 
 the  law  of  Moses.  He  had  constantly  told  the  Gentiles,  that 
 there  was  no  necessity  for  their  observing  any  part  of  it ;  and  he 
 had  been  equally  explicit  to  the  Jews,  in  telling  them  that  the 
 law  was  of  no  effect  at  all  in  procuring  their  justification:  if  they 
 continued  to  observe  its  ceremonies,  they  were  to  look  upon 
 them  merely  as  ceremonies;  and,  accordingly,  when  he  was 
 living  with  Gentiles,  who  cared  nothing  for  the  law,  he  felt  no 
 scruples  in  disregarding  its  precepts;  but  when  he  was  living 
 with  Jews,  whose  consciences  would  have  been  hurt  by  a  neglect 
 of  the  legal  ceremonies,  he  observed  all  the  customs  in  which  he 
 had  been  brought  up.  His  conduct  on  the  present  occasion  was 
 exactly  in  conformity  with  this  principle.  Having  consulted 
 with  James,  who  still  continued  at  Jerusalem  as  the  resident 
 head  of  the  Christian  church,  and  who  perfectly  agreed  with 
 Paul  in  his  notions  about  the  law,  he  took  upon  himself  the  vow 
 of  a  Nazarite,  and  appeared  publicly  in  the  temple,  as  a  person 
 who  submitted  implicitly  to  the  law  of  Moses.  This  conformity, 
 though  it  might  have  satisfied  the  Judaizing  Christians,  was  not 
 sufficient  to  remove  the  prejudices  which  the  unbelieving  Jews 
 had  conceived  against  the  apostle.  Seeing  him  upon  one  occa- 
 sion in  the  temple,  they  got  together  a  crowd  of  people,  with  the 
 6  Y 
 
1010 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4002.  A.  D.  58 ;  OR,  A.  M.  54C9.  A.  D 
 These  nidations  were  to  be  continued  for  seven  days, 
 which  were  now  almost  ended,  when  certain  Jews  from 
 Asia,  who  had  there  been  opposers  of  St  Paul,  finding 
 him  i"  the  temple,  began  to  raise  an  uproar,  and  laying 
 hold  on  him,  called  out  to  the  rest  for  help,  because 
 '  this  is  the  fellow,'  said  they,  '  who,  in  all  places,  vents 
 doctrines  injurious  to  the  prerogative  of  the  Jewish  na- 
 tion, destructive  to  the  institutions  of  the  law,  and  abhor- 
 rent to  the  sacredness  of  this  place,  which,  by  his  bringing 
 uncircumcised  Greeks  into  it,  he  has  grossly  profaned.' 
 This  they  affirmed,  because  they  had  seen  Trophimus  a  in 
 the  city  with  him  ;  and  hereupon  they  seized  him,  dragged 
 him  out  of  the  temple,  shut  the  gate  upon  him,  and  would 
 certainly  have  killed  him  had  not  Claudius  Lysias, 
 commander  of  the  Roman  garrison  in  the  castle  of  An- 
 tonia/'  come  with  a  considerable  force  to  his  rescue 
 and  deliverance.  As  he  was  going  into  the  castle,  Paul, 
 addressing  himself  to  the  governor  «  in  Greek,  desired 
 the  liberty  to  speak  to  him ;  but  the  governor,  supposing 
 him  to  be  the  Egyptian/  who,  not  many  years  before, 
 
 avowed  intention  of  putting  him  to  death.  Nor  would  they  have 
 failed  in  their  purpose,  if  the  commander  of  the  Roman  garrison, 
 who  was  always  on  the  watch  to  prevent  an  insurrection,  had 
 not  suddenly  come  upon  them  with  his  troops,  and  rescued  Paul 
 out  of  their  hands. — Burton's  History  of  the  Church. — Ed. 
 
 a  This  Trophimus  was  a  disciple  of  St  Paul,  a  Gentile  by 
 religion,  and  an  Ephesian  by  birth.  After  his  conversion,  he 
 accompanied  our  apostle  wherever  he  went,  and  very  probably 
 followed  him  to  Rome,  and  forsook  him  not  in  his  bonds.  After 
 that  St  Paul  obtained  his  liberty,  some  pretend  that  he  went  into 
 S|'ain,  and  passing  through  the  country  of  the  Gauls,  left  Tro- 
 phimus there  in  the  capacity  of  their  bishop.  But  it  is  not  a  little 
 difficult  to  reconcile  this  with  what  the  apostle  writes  to  Timo- 
 thy, namely,  that  In:  had  left  Trophimus  sick  at  Miletus,  (2  Tim. 
 iv.  20.),  unless  we  can  suppose  that  he  returned  into  Asia 
 again,  about  a  year  after  that  St  Paul  had  left  him  at  Aries,  and, 
 as  the  Greeks  will  have  it,  accompanying  him  to  Rome  again,  at 
 the  same  time  that  the  apostle  suffered,  had  his  head  likewise 
 struck  oil"  by  Nero's  command. — Calmet's  Commentary  and 
 Dictionary. 
 
 b  This  was  a  tower  or  fortress,  where  the  Romans  kept  a 
 constant  garrison  at  Jerusalem.  It  was  originally  built  by  the 
 Asmonrean  princes,  who  called  it  Baris;  but  Herod  the  Great, 
 having  repaired  it  changed  its  name,  in  honour  of  his  friend  M. 
 Anthony.  It  was  situated  towards  the  west  angle  of  the  temple, 
 upon  an  eminence  cut  steep  on  all  sides,  and  inclosed  with  a 
 wall  three  hundred  cubits  high.  It  was  built  in  the  form  of  a 
 large  square,  having  within  the  magnificence  of  a  palace,  and 
 the  convenieucies  of  a  city;  and  without,  several  fortifications, 
 and  a  tower  at  each  corner  to  strengthen  and  defend  it.  So  that, 
 considering  its  form  and  situation,  we  may  be  allowed  to  say, 
 that  it  was  a  citadel  to  the  temple,  even  as  the  temple  was,  in 
 
 some   sort,  a   citadel   to  the  town Calmet's  Dictionary,  and 
 
 Ftrury's  Ecclesiastical  History. 
 
 c  That  Lysias  was  no  Roman  is  plain  from  his  telling  St  Paul, 
 that  'with  a  great  sum  he  had  purchased  his  freedom,' (Acts 
 xxii.  2s.),  but  that  he  was  a  Greek,  we  may,  in  some  measure, 
 learn  from  the  common  analogy  of  his  name;  and  therefore  it 
 was  no  bad  policy  in  our  apostle  to  address  the  governor  in  his 
 own  language;  and  the  governor  might  be  the  rather  pleased  with 
 it,  becaiNr  that,  by  this  means,  he  might  have  an  opportunity  of 
 knowing  1mm  St  Paul  himself  the  cause  of  the  present  tumult. — 
 Calmct  s  Commentary. 
 
 d  '  \\  hile  Felix  was  procurator  of  Judea,  there  came  a  certain 
 person,'  says  Josephus, '  out  of  Egypt  to  Jerusalem,  setting  up  for  a 
 prophet,  and  persuading  the  peopfe  to  follow  him  to  the  top  of  Mount 
 Olivet,  some  five  furlongs  from  the  city;  for  when  he  came 
 thither,  he  told  them,  he  would  but  speak  the  word,  and  immedi- 
 ately they  should  see  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  fall  flat  to  the  ground, 
 and  make  way  for  them  to  enter  the  city.  But  when  Felix  came  to 
 hear  of  this  adventure,  he  fell  upon  them  with  his  horse  and  foot, 
 killed  four  hundred  upon  the  spot,  took  two  hundred,  and  put  the 
 Egyptian  to  flight.'     It  is  to  this  story,  no  doubt,  that  Lysias 
 
 .18,  &c  FI'.OM  ACTSi.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 had  raised  a  sedition  in  Judea,  and  headed  a  party  of 
 four  thousand  profligate  wretches,  seemed  to  refuse  him 
 that  favour,  until  the  apostle,  informing  him  that  he  was 
 a  Jew  of  Tarsus,  a  freeman  of  a  rich  and  honourable 
 city,  and  therefore  humbly  hoped,  that  he  would  not 
 deny  him  the  privilege  of  vindicating  himself,  the  gover- 
 nor consented ;  and  the  apostle,  standing  upon  the  stairs, 
 and  making  signs  for  silence,  began  his  speech  e  in  the 
 Hebrew  language  ;  which,  when  the  people  heard,  they 
 were  a  little  pacified,  and  stood  attentive  to  him  while 
 he  gave  them  a  particular  account  of  his  birth  and  edu- 
 cation ;  of  his  extraordinary  zeal  for  the  rites  and  cus- 
 toms of  their  religion  ;  of  his  violent  persecution  of  the 
 Christians  in  all  parts,  whereof  the  Sanhedrim  could 
 bear  him  witness  ;  of  the  miraculous  manner  of  his  con- 
 version, and  of  the  commission  which  he  immediately 
 received  from  God  to  preach  salvation  to  the  Gentiles. 
 Thus  far  the  people  heard  him  with  patience  ;  but  when  he 
 proceeded  to  defend  his  practice  in  preaching  to  the 
 Gentiles,  they  could  contain  themselves  no  longer,  but 
 unanimously  cried  out  to  have  the  villain  put  to  death  ; 
 and  the  more  to  express  their  indignation,  threw  off  their 
 clothes,  and  cast  dust  into  the  air,  as  if  they  had  intended 
 that  moment  to  stone  him.  But  Lysias,  to  avoid  farther 
 tumult,  ordered  him  to  be  carried  into  the  castle,  and  to  be 
 examined  by  scourging,/  until  he  confessed  what  it  was 
 
 alludes,  and  therefore  it  seems  to  be  a  mistake  in  Grotius,  and 
 others,  to  say,  that  the  Egyptian  mentioned  by  Josephus,  was 
 later  than  these  times ;  for  it  is  apparent  from  Josephus  himself, 
 both  in  his  Antiquities,  (b.  xx.)  and  his  history  of  the  Jewish 
 Wars,  (b.  ii.)  that  this  Egyptian  marched  his  rabble  up  to  Jerusa- 
 lem in  the  first  or  second  year  of  the  reign  of  Nero ;  whereas  it 
 was  not  till  the  fourth  of  Nero,  that  St  Paul  made  his  last  jour- 
 ney to  Jerusalem. — Hammond's  and  Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 e  To  give  some  account  of  the  apostle's  conduct  in  this  parti- 
 cular, we  must  observe,  that  there  were  two  sorts  of  Jews  at  this 
 time ;  some  who  used  no  other  language  in  their  common  dis- 
 course, nor  allowed  of  any  bible  in  their  religious  assemblies,  but 
 the  Hebrew;  and  these  St  Chrysostom  calls oi  fiaHas  'Efyaioi,  pro- 
 found Hebrews :  others  that  spake  Greek,  and  used  the  Greek 
 translation  of  the  bible  in  their  places  of  worship ;  and  these  were 
 styled  Hellenists.  Of  this  latter  sort  was  St  Paul,  because,  as 
 we  may  observe  in  his  writings,  he  always  makes  use  of  the 
 Greek  translation  of  the  Old  Testament;  so  that,  in  this  respect, 
 he  might  not  be  so  acceptable  to  the  other  sort.  Those  of  them 
 who  were  converted  to  Christianity,  had  great  prejudices  against 
 him,  (Acts  xxi.  21.).  which  is  said  to  be  the  reason  why  he  con- 
 cealed his  name  in  the  epistle  written  to  the  Hebrews  :  and  as 
 for  those  who  were  not  converted,  they  could  not  so  much  as  en- 
 dure him;  and  this  is  the  reason  which  Chrysostom  gives  why  he 
 preached  to  the  Hellenists  only,  (Acts  ix.  28.)  That  therefore 
 he  might  avert  the  great  displeasure  which  the  Jews  had  con- 
 ceived against  him,  he  here  speaks  to  them  in  the  language  which 
 they  best  knew,  and  most  esteemed  ;  and  they,  by  his  compliance 
 in  this  respect,  were  so  far  pacified,  as  to  give  him  audience. 
 For  they  were  well  enough  pleased  to  hear  him  discourse  of  mat- 
 ters relating  to  religion,  and  especially  of  the  vocation  of  the 
 Gentiles,  in  a  language  which  the  Romans  did  not  understand ; 
 whereas,  had  he,  in  the  course  of  his  apology,  exposed  the  con- 
 tempt and  hatred  which  the  Jews  entertained  of  all  heathens, 
 in  a  language  which  the  chief  captain  and  his  men  were 
 acquainted  with,  and  in  such  a  light  as  his  known  eloquence 
 would  have  enabled  him  to  do,  it  is  not  to  be  imagined,  what  terror, 
 or  confusion  at  least,  he  would  have  brought  upon  his  enemies. 
 So  that  it  was  a  point  of  charity,  as  well  as  prudence  in  him  to 
 speak  to  them  in  Hebrew,  that  thereby  he  might  both  screen 
 them  from  the  resentment  of  the  soldiery,  and  cure  them,  if 
 possible,  of  their  false  prejudices  against  him. — Hammond's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 f  As  Lysias  did  not  understand  Hebrew,  he  could  not  tell 
 what  the  purport  of  St  Paul's  speech  to  the  people  was  ;  but,  by 
 their  mad  and  outrageous  behaviour,  he  guessed,  that  he  must 
 
Skc;t#  v.]  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &«:. 
 
 A.  M.  4062.  A.  D.  58 ;  OR,  A.  M  5469.  A.  D.  58,  &c.  FROM  ACTS.  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 1091 
 
 he  had  done  that  so  much  exasperated  the  Jews  against 
 him. 
 
 While  the  lictor  was  binding  him  in  order  to  his  pun- 
 ishment, Paul  asked  the  centurion  that  stood  by,  whether 
 the  Roman  laws  permitted  them  to  treat,  in  this  manner, 
 a  citizen,  even  before  any  sentence  was  passed  upon 
 him  ?  which,  when  the  centurion  heard,  without  making 
 any  reply,  he  went  directly  to  the  governor,  and  advised 
 him  to  act  cautiously  in  this  atf'air,  because  the  prisoner, 
 .is  he  understood,  was  a  Roman  citizen  ;  and  a  citizen 
 indeed  he  was  by  birth-right,  a  whereas  the  governor 
 himself  was  such  only  by  purchase.  b  This  made  him 
 waive  all  farther  thoughts  of  scourging  him,  as  being  not 
 a  little  afraid,  that  he  had  abeady  done  more  than  he 
 could  answer;  but  being  desirous  to  knowthe  bottom  of 
 the  matter,  the  next  day  he  convened  the  Sanhedrim, 
 and  brought  down  Raul,  and  set  him  before  them. 
 
 The  sight  of  so  awful  an  assembly  struck  no  terror  into 
 the  apostle,  who  began  his  apology  with  an  open  decla- 
 ration of  the  integrity  and  good  intentions  of  his  heart : 
 '  Men,  and  brethren,  I  have  lived  in  all  good  conscience  c 
 
 before  God,  until  this  day.'  Th/s  asserting  of  his  inno- 
 cence, Ananias,  the  high-priest, looked  upon  as  a  kind  of 
 reflection  upon  the  justice  of  tteir  tribunal,  and  therefore, 
 ordered  the  officers  that  stood  near  him  to  strike  him  on 
 the  face ;  an  indignity  thic  which  the  apostle  resented 
 with  severity  of  language ;  "  but  when  the  standers-by  ac- 
 cused him  with  calumnia/mg  the  high-priest,  he  excused 
 himself,  by  saying,  that  he  did  not  know,  or  could  not 
 well  believe,  that  a  j*rson  who  had  given  such  unjust 
 orders  could  be  invested  with  so  sacred  a  character.  « 
 
 have  said  something  very  provoking,  either  against  the  authority 
 of  their  law,  or  the  dignity  of  their  nation,  and  therefore  he  was 
 willing  to  know  the  truth  of  it  from  himself.  Scourging  was  a 
 method  of  examination  used  by  the  Romans  and  other  nations, 
 to  force  such  as  were  supposed  guilty  to  confess  what  they  had 
 done,  what  were  their  motives,  and  who  were  accessory  to  th^ 
 
 fact.  Thus  Tacitus  tells  us  of  Herrenius  Gallus,  that  he  re 
 ceived  several  stripes,  that  it  might  be  known  for  what  price,  sA 
 with  what  confederates,  he  had  betrayed  the  Roman  army.  It 
 is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the  Romans  were  punish?  ln 
 this  wise,  not  by  whips  and  scourges,  but  by  rods  only  and 
 therefore  it  is,  that  Cicero,  in  the  oration  pro  Rabirio,  spring 
 against  Lahienus,  tells  his  audience,  that  the  Porcian  /*  Per" 
 mitted  a  Roman  to  be  whipped  with  rods,  but  he,  liV  _a  S00'' 
 and  merciful  man,  (speaking  ironically,)  had  <W  ^  W1™ 
 scourges;  and,  what  is  further  observable,  neither  b  wn>Ps  nor 
 rods  could  a  citizen  of  Rome  be  punished,  unless  he^'as  m"st  ad- 
 judged to  lose  his  privilege,  to  be  uncitizened,  hV  declared  an 
 enemy  to  the  commonwealth,  and  then  he  ir§nt  he  either 
 scourged  or  put  to  death ;  for  the  form  of  disfra^msinS  nim  was 
 this,  '  Lictor,  bind  his  hands,  or  cover  his/ace'  ^"8  him> 
 scourge  him,  either  within  or  without  the  s^urus;'  all  which 
 shows  the  great  propriety  of  the  apostle's  qu?1'011  to  the  centu- 
 rion, '  is  it  lawful  for  you  to  scourge  a  man  <^  's  a  Roman,  and 
 uncondemned?  (Acts  xxii.  25.)—  Calmet's  ^muwntary>  Whit- 
 by's, aud  Hammotid's  Annotations. 
 
 a  In  what  manner  St  Paul  obtained  th;  privilege,  the  learned 
 are  not  agreed  ;  but  it  seems  to  make  fa'  for  the  opinion  of  those 
 who  think  that  the  people  of  Tarsus  h'J  !t  bestowed  on  them  by 
 the  favour  of  some  emperor,  that  Dio  Cassius,  b.  xlvii.  reports, 
 that  they  sided  so  far  with  Julius  'xs*r  in  tne  civil  "ar>  and 
 afterwards  with  Octavius,  that  the"  city  obtained  the  name  of 
 Juliopolis,  and  was  honoured  with  ile  greatest  privileges  ;  which 
 makes  Carthusianus,  and  the  glos  ul)u"  2  Tim.  iv.  12.  say  more 
 fully,  that  the  inhabitants  receded  this  freedom,  because  they 
 met  the  Roman  ambassadors  -'ith  peace  and  crowns,  and  that 
 Paul's  father  going  out  with  "«m,  received  the  penula  or  cloak, 
 as  a  mark  and  ensign  of  *  Roman  citizen,  2  Tim.  iv.  13. — 
 Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 b  Photius,  in  one  of  hi1  letters,  tells  us  about  what  time  it  was 
 that  the  privileges  of  a  toman  citizen  came  to  be  enjoyed,  not     known  him  by  the  external  marks  of  office.     These  obscurities 
 
 to  his  persuasion  tha/he  ought  so  to  act ;  in  which  sense  he  says, 
 that  when  he  blas/iemed  against  Christ,  and  persecuted  his 
 church,  he  did  it  o/t  of  a  belief,  that  •  he  ought  to  do  many  things 
 contrary  to  the  nine  of  Jesus,'  (Acts  xxvi.  9.)  so  that  the  sense 
 of  the  apostle  is,  while  I  was  persuaded  that  the  Christian  re- 
 li"ion  was  false.4  persecuted  it  with  the  utmost  rigour ;  but,  as 
 soon  as  I  came'0  perceive  its  divine  institution,  I  declared  for 
 it  and  have,  'ver  since,  maintained  it,  even  to  the  hazard  of  my 
 life.  The  r»'g'°n  of  the  Jews  I  did  not  forsake  out  of  any  hard- 
 ships that  j'required,  or  any  prejudice  I  had  conceived  against 
 its  precept ;  nor  did  I  embrace  that  of  the  Christians  upon  any 
 other  acfjunt  than  a  full  conviction  of  its  truth  and  veracity.  I 
 was  a  (°°d  Jew,  in  short,  as  long  as  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  be 
 so  .  pid  when  1  thought  it  my  duty  to  be  otherwise,  I  became  a 
 zeal^ls  Christian  ;  in  all  which  God  knows  the  sincerity  of  my 
 he/t>  and  is  witness  of  my  uprightness.' — Whitby's  Annotations , 
 ofi  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 I  d  The  apostle's  words  are  these,  '  God  shall  smite  thee,  thou 
 whited  wall.'  A  whited  wall  was  a  proverbial  expression,  de- 
 noting a  hypocrite  of  any  kind ;  and  the  propriety  of  it  appears 
 in  this,  that  as  the  wall  had  a  fair  outside,  but  nothing  but  dirt 
 or  sticks  and  stones  within,  so  the  high-priest  had  the  outward 
 appearance  of  a  righteous  judge,  sitting  as  one  that  would  pass 
 judgment  according  to  law,  and  yet  commanding  him  to  be  pun- 
 ished for  speaking  the  truth,  and  so  condemning  the  innocent, 
 against  the  law  of  nature,  as  well  as  that  of  Moses,  (Lev.  xix.  15.) 
 Our  blessed  Saviour  makes  use  of  a  comparison  much  of  the  same 
 nature,  when  he  calls  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  'whited  sepul- 
 chres, which  appear  beautiful  outwards,  but  are  within  full  of 
 dead  men's  bones,  and  of  all  uncleanness,'  (Mat.  xxiii.  27.)  And 
 we  need  but  look  into  the  history  of  the  ancient  prophets,  and 
 there  observe,  with  what  an  air  of  authority  Elijah  and  Elisha 
 speak  to  the  kings  of  Israel,  and  with  what  boldness  Isaiah,  Jere- 
 miah, and  Ezekiel,  reproach  the  priests,  the  princes,  and  the 
 people  of  Judah,  with  their  transgressions,  to  justify  our  apostle, 
 in  taking  the  same  freedom  with  this  proud  pontill',  who  belied 
 his  character  by  his  unjust  proceedings.  It  is  to  be  observed, 
 however,  in  further  vindication  of  St  Paul,  that  these  words  of 
 his,  '  God  shall  smite  thee,'  are  a  prediction,  and  not  an  impre- 
 cation ;  and  a  prediction  which,  according  to  Josephus,  was  ful- 
 filled in  a  short  time;  for  when,  in  the  government  of  Florus, 
 his  son  Eleazar  set  himself  at  the  head  of  a  party  of  mutineers, 
 who,  having  made  themselves  master  of  the  temple,  would  per- 
 mit no  sacrifices  to  be  ollered  for  the  emperor,  and  being  joined 
 by  a  company  of  assassins,  compelled  persons  of  the  best  quality 
 to  fly  for  their  safety  into  sinks  and  vaults,  Ananias  aud  his 
 brother  Hezekias,  were  both  drawn  out  of  one  of  these  places, 
 and  murdered:  though  Dr  Lightfoot  will  have  it,  that  he  per- 
 ished at  the  siege  of  Jerusalem. — Calmet's  Commentary,  Whit- 
 by's Annotations,  and  Joseph.  Jewish  Wars,  b.  ii.  c.  17,  18. 
 
 e  It  is  asked,  1.  Who  this  Ananias  was?  2.  How  his  being 
 now  called  high-priest  can  suit  the  chronology,  as  it  is  certain, 
 from  Josephus,  that  he  held  the  office  much  earlier?  3.  How 
 St  Paul  knew  not  that  he  was  the  high-priest?     He  must  have 
 
 only  by  those  who  wer  natives  of  the  place,  but  by  as  many  as 
 either  by  favour  or  rroney  were  made  partakers  of  that  appella- 
 tion ;  and  several  hi>torians  have  observed,  that  under  the  first 
 emperors,  it  was  hyhly  valued,  and  cost  dear;  but  that  in  the 
 reign  of  Claudius.it  came  to  be  disesteemed,  and  purchased  at  a 
 vrry  low  rate. —  Iiunmond's  and  Iicausobre's  Annotations,  and 
 Calmet's  CommJ7itary. 
 
 c  The  aposde,  by  a  good  conscience,  does  not  mean  here  a 
 Conscience  void  of  all  error  and  olience;  for  he  owns  himself  to 
 nave  been  puilty  of  a  great  sin  in  persecuting  the  church  of 
 Christ,  (1  Tim.  i.  13.)  but  such  a  conscience  as  acted  according 
 
 are  cleared  up  on  examining  the  special  history  of  this  period ; 
 and  the  light  thrown  on  them  extends  to  the  following  chapters; 
 insomuch,  that  it  cannot  be  doubted,  that  this  book  was  written, 
 not  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  but  by  a  person  contem- 
 porary with  the  events  there  related.  Ananias  was  the  son  of 
 Nebedene,  as  is  proved  by  Krebs  from  Josephus,  and  high- 
 priest,  when  Helena,  queen  of  Adiabene,  supplied  the  Jews  with 
 corn  from  Egypt  in  the  famine  of  the  4th  year  of  Claudius. 
 (Acts  xi.  28.)  St  Paul,  therefore,  going  at  that  time  to  Jerusa- 
 lem, (Acts  xv.  2.)  must  have  known  that  he  was  then  raised  to 
 that  dignity.     Soon  after  the  first  council  of  the  apoHles  at  Jer- 
 
1092 
 
 THE   HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 i.  M.  4062.  A.  D.  58;  OR,  A.  M.  54G9.  A.  D 
 Perceiving,  however,  that  the  council  consisted  partly 
 of  Sadducees,  and  parity  of  Pharisees,  to  elude  the 
 malice  of  his  enemies,  he  nade  open  declaration,  that  he 
 was  a  Pharisee,  even  as  hij  father  was  before  him,  and 
 that  the  great  offence  taken  against  him  was  his  belief 
 of  a  future  resurrection  ;  which  :o  divided  the  council,  that 
 however  the  Sadducees,  who  were  violent  opposers  of 
 this  article,  were  bent  against  iim,  the  Pharisees,  who 
 were  zealous  maintainers  of  it,  wire  for  acquitting  him ; 
 so  that  the  dissention  among  them  rrew  so  high,  that  the 
 governor,  fearing  lest  Paul  should  be  lirn  to  pieces  among 
 them,  commanded  the  soldiers  to  takthhn  from  the  bar, 
 and  to  return  him  back  to  the  castle  ;  vhere,  to  comfort 
 him  after  all  his  frights  and  fears,  Ootvwas  pleased  to 
 appear  to  him  that  night  in  a  vision,  ei\;0uraging  him 
 to  constancy  and  resolution,  and  assuring  Dm,  that  as  he 
 had  borne  testimony  to  his  cause  at  Jerusalem,  so  in 
 despite  of  all  his  enemies,  he  should  live  to  6^  the  same 
 thing  in  Rome.  \ 
 
 The  next  morning,  above  forty  Jews  entereV  into  a 
 wicked  confederacy,  which  they  ratified  with  an  inoreca- 
 tion,  never  to  eat  nor  drink  until  they  had  killedpau]5 
 and  having  acquainted  the  Sanhedrim  with  their  deig11? 
 they  thought  it  advisable  that  some  of  their  body  sho-ld 
 solicit  the  governor  to  bring  him  down  before  them,  unctr 
 pretence  of  inquiring  more  accurately  into  his  case,  am 
 that  then,  before  he  reached  the  court,  they  would  not 
 fail  to  way-lay  and  dispatch  him.     This  conspiracy,  how- 
 ever, was  discovered  to  St  Paul  by  a  nephew  of  his,  and 
 by  him  imparted  to  Lysias ;  who  immediately  commanded 
 two  parties  of  foot,  and  one  of  horse,  to  be  ready  by 
 nine  o'clock  that  night,  in  order  to  conduct  Paul,  first 
 to  Antipatris,  a  and  thence  to  Cffisarea,  where  Felix,  * 
 the  governor  of  the  province,  had  his  residence.     Lysias 
 
 58,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 at  the  same  time  sent  a  letter  to  the  governor  signifying, 
 '  That  the  person  whom  he  had  sent  was  a  freeman  of 
 Rome ;  that  the  Jews  had  evil-treated  him,  and  conspired 
 against  his  life  ;  that  he  had  taken  that  method  to  secure 
 him  against  their  violence  ;  and  had  ordered  his  enemies 
 to  appear  before  him  at  Cassarea,  to  manage  their  charge 
 and  accusation.'  This  letter  the  governor  received  with 
 great  civility  ;  and  finding  that  Paul  belonged  to  the 
 province  of  Cilicia,  promised  him  a  fair  hearing,  as  soon 
 as  his  accusers  should  come  down ;  and  in  the  mean 
 time  ordered  him  to  be  secured  in  a  place  called 
 '  Herod's  judgment-hall. c 
 
 About  five  days  after  this,  Ananias  the  high-priest, 
 with  others  of  the  Sanhedrim,  came  down  to  Cassarea, 
 and  brought  with  them  an  advocate,  named  Tertullus,d 
 who,  in  a  speech  set  off  with  all  the  insinuating  arts  of 
 eloquence,  to  prepossess  the  governor  e  in  their  favour, 
 accused  St  Paul  '  of  being  a  seditious  person,  and  a  dis- 
 turber of  the  public  peace  ;  who  had  set  himself  at 
 the  head  of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes,  /  and  made  no 
 
 usalem,  Ananias  was  dispossessed  of  his  office,  and  on  a  dispute 
 between  the  Samaritans  and  the  Jews  sent  a  prisoner  to  Rome, 
 (J.  Ant.  1.  xx.  c.  v.)  whence  he  was  released,  and  returned  to 
 Jerusalem.  From  that  period  he  was  not  in  the  proper  sense,  the 
 high-priest,  though  named  so  by  Josephus,  sometimes,  as  one  of  the 
 chief-priests.  Jonathan  had  been  raised  in  the  meantime  to  that 
 dignity;  and  from  the  murder  of  Jonathan  by  Felix,  (J.  Ant.  b. 
 xx.  c.  vi.)  to  the  high  priesthood  of  Ismael,  invested  by  Agrippa, 
 (Ant.  b.  xx.  c.  vi.-)  this  dignity  remained  vacant.  Now  it  was  pre- 
 cisely in  this  interval,  that  St  Paul  was  apprehended  in  Jerusalem ; 
 and  the  Sanhedrim  being  destitute  of  a  president,  Ananias  under- 
 took of  his  own  authority  the  discharge  of  that  office,  which  he 
 executed  with  the  greatest  tyranny.  (Ant.  b.  xx.  c.  viii.)  It  is 
 possible  that  St  Paul,  who  had  been  only  a  few  days  at  Jerusa- 
 lem, might  be  ignorant,  that  he,  who  had  been  dispossessed  of  the 
 priesthood,  had  taken  a  trust  to  which  he  was  not  entitled,  and 
 naturally  exclaim, — 'I  wist  not,'  &c. — or,  if  he  knew,  it  was 
 an  indirect  reproof,  and  tacit  refusal  to  recognise  usurped 
 authority.  Thus  this  obscure  passage  is  brought  into  a  clear 
 light ;  and  St  Paul's  imprisonment,  the  conspiracy  against  him 
 with  the  consent  of  the  Sanhedrim,  and  their  petition  to  Festus 
 to  Bend  for  him  to  Csesarea  with  intent  to  murder  him  ou  the 
 road,  are  facts  which  correspond  with  the  character  of  the  times 
 in  Josephus,  who  mentions  the  principal  persons,  and  attributes 
 to  them  greater  profligacy  than  St  Luke. — Elsley's  Annota- 
 tions.— Ed. 
 
 a  This  place,  which  was  formerly  called  Capharsalama, 
 (1  Mac.  vii.  81.),  stood  upon  the  sea-coast,  between  Joppa  and 
 Cassarea  Palestine,  but  was  of  little  or  no  repute,  until  it  was 
 rebuilt,  or  at  least  repaired  and  beautified,  by  Herod  the  Great, 
 
 who,  in  honour  of  his  father  Antipater,  changed  its  name. 
 
 Jf'hilby's  Alphabetical  Table  and  Wells' S  Geography  of  the  New 
 Testament. 
 
 b  Claudius  Felix,  who  in  Tacitus  is  likewise  called  Antonius, 
 because  he  was  a  slave  both  to  the  emperor  Claudius  and  his  mother 
 Antonia,  was   the  brother  of  Pallas,  the  freed-man  and  first 
 
 favourite  of  the   emperor,  by  whose  interest  he  obtained  the 
 government  of  Judea ;  but  in  the  administration  of  it,  practised 
 all  manner  of  violence,  avarice,  and  lust.     The  above  cited  his- 
 torian tells  us  of  him,   '  That  he  made  his  will  the  law  of  his 
 government,  ruled  the  province  with  all  the  authority  of  a  king, 
 and  the  insolence  of  a  freed  slave,  whom  neither  shame  nor  fear 
 could  restrain.'     He  stuck  at  no  manner  of  cruelty  or  injustice, 
 'aving  caused  Jonathan  the  high-priest  to  be  assassinated,  merely 
 "•cause  he  sometimes  reminded  him  of  his  mal-administration ; 
 an  to  gratify  his  debauchery,  he  scrupled  not  to  violate  all  laws, 
 Dot- human  and  divine;  for  being  in  love  with  Drusilla,  who  was 
 maned  to  Azizus  king  of  the  Emisenes,  by  the  help  of  Simon 
 the  n.ojcjan>  a  jew  0f  Cyprus,  he  took  her  from  her  husband's 
 bed;  a^  jn  defiance  of  all  law  and  right,  kept  her  for  his  own 
 wile,     i   short,  his  government  was  so  grievous  to  the  Jews, 
 that  they  rocureci  his  recall,  A.  D.  GO.    And  as  several  of  them 
 went    to  iQujg  after  hjmj  to  complain  of   his  extortions,  and 
 other  acts  c  violence,  he  had  undoubtedly  been  executed,  had 
 not  his  broti.r's  credit  preserved  him. — Calmet's  Commentary, 
 Beausobre's  ^notations,  and  Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xx.  c.  5,  6. 
 
 c  The  wordrj^;,-^;^  which  we  render  judgment-hall,  is 
 properly  of  Latiuxtract,  al)c|  signifies  the  house  where  the  chief 
 Roman  governoi\ivec|  .  an(j  this  ,n  Ctesarea  is  called  Herod's 
 prmtorium,  becaui  jt  was  a  magnificent  palace,  which  Herod 
 the  Great  had  builifor  ilis  own  habitation  whenever  he  should 
 go  to  Csesarea;  but  V^;cn  m  after-times,  the  Roman  governors 
 made  use  of  for  the\iace  0f  their  abode,  as  well  as  a  place  of 
 confinement  for  someWrticular  prisoners.— Calmet's  Com- 
 mentary. 
 
 d  It  seems  very  likelyWt  this  Tertullus,  whose  name  was 
 properly  Latin,  was  a  R6nan  orator,  or  advocate,  whom  the 
 Jewish  rulers  employed  in\hjs  cause  against  Paul,  as  being  a 
 person  better  versed  in  the  Lma„  language,  and  formalities  of 
 Roman  courts,  than  they  were\_Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 e  In  this  preamble  which  Tvtullus  makes  to  Felix,  there  is 
 a  great  deal  of  gross  flattery,  miLj  with  some  truth:  for  though 
 it  be  true,  that  Felix  did  some  Vndness  to  the  Jewish  nation, 
 in  delivering  them  from  thieVes\nd  magicians  that  infested 
 them ;  in  destroying  Eleazar,  in  part^ular,  who  was  at  the  head 
 of  one  of  these  bands  of  robbers ;  anoNm  defeating  the  Egyptian 
 impostor,  who  drew  so  many  thousands -rf  poor  people  after  him ; 
 yet  had  the  orator  been  minded  to  haveNpld  the  whole  truth,  he 
 might  have  accused  him  of  numberles\injuries  done  the  pro- 
 vince, since  no  governor  was  ever  known  toVxercise  his  authority 
 with  more  injustice  and  cruelty  than  he ;  hut  this  was  not  the 
 business  of  one,  who,  in  the  beginning  of  Vis  speech,  was  to 
 insinuate  himself  into  his  favour. —  JVTiitbyS  and  Beausobre's 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 f  This  is  the  only  place  in  scripture  whereir  Christians  are 
 called  Nazarenes,  though  the  author  and  founder  of  their  reli- 
 gion is  frequently  so  called,  from  Nazareth,  a  city  of  Galilee,  the 
 place  of  his  nativity,  as  some  supposed,  because  it  was  that  of  his 
 usual  abode.     At  the  first  appearance  of  the  gospel,  Christians 
 
Sect.  V.]  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c 
 
 A.  M.  4062.  A.  D.  58;  OR,  A.  M.  5469.  A.  D.  58,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  TH     END. 
 
 scruple  to  profane  even  the  temple  itself.'  But,  to  the 
 several  parts  of  this  accusation,  the  apostle,  when  per- 
 mitted by  Felix  to  make  his  defence,  answered  distinctly. 
 The  charge  of  sedition  he  utterly  denied,  and  challenged 
 them  to  prove,  that  they  had  ever  found  him  so  much  as 
 disputing  in  the  temple,  or  stirring  up  the  people  in  the 
 synagogues,  or  any  other  place  of  the  city.  The  charge 
 of  what  they  called  lieresy  he  readily  admitted  :  but  then 
 he  affirmed,  that,  long  before  him,  this  was  the  way  in 
 which  all  the  patriarchs  of  the  Jewish  nation  worshipped 
 God,  firmly  believing  another  life,  and  a  future  resurrec- 
 tion. And  as  to  the  charge  of  profaning  the  temple, 
 he  allowed,  indeed,  that  several  times  since  his  coming 
 to  Jerusalem,  he  had  been  there  ;  but  then  it  was  without 
 any  multitude,  and  only  to  purify  himself  according  to 
 the  Mosaic  law.  Felix  gave  both  sides  the  hearing,  but 
 refused  to  make  any  final  determination,  until  Lysias 
 himself  came  down,  of  whom  he  might  be  more  fully 
 informed  in  the  controversy ;  but  in  the  mean  time,  he 
 commanded,  that,  though  Paul  should  be  kept  under  a 
 guard,  yet  his  custody  should  be  so  free  and  easy,  that 
 none  of  his  friends  should  be  hindered  from  visiting  or 
 doing  him  any  office  of  kindness. 
 
 A  few  days  after  this,  when  his  wife  Drusilla,  a  who 
 had  been  a  Jewess,  was  come  to  Cassarea,  Felix  being 
 minded  to  have  her  hear  Paul,  ordered  him  to  be  brought 
 before  them,  and  gave  him  leave  to  speak  freely  con- 
 cerning the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  In  his  discourse 
 he  took  occasion  particularly  to  insist  upon  the  great 
 obligation  which  the  laws  of  Christ  lay  upon  men  to 
 justice  and  righteousness  towards  one  another,  and  to 
 sobriety  and  chastity  both  towards  themselves  and  others, 
 from  this  consideration  more  especially,  namely,  the 
 strict  and  impartial  account  that  must  be  given  in  the 
 day  of  judgment,  of  all  the  actions  of  their  past  lives, 
 to  be  either  eternally  punished,  or  rewarded  for  them  : 
 subjects  that  were  wisely  adapted  to  the  governor's  con- 
 dition and  circumstances,  and  which  stung  his  conscience 
 
 1093 
 
 were  generally  looked  upon  as  a  particular  sect  of  the  Jews,  even 
 as  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  were.  The  heathens  almost 
 always  confounded  them  with  the  Jews,  nor  was  the  distinction 
 properly  made,  till  alter  the  destruction  of  the  Jewish  temple, 
 and  the  large  increase  of  Pagan  converts.  But  as  the  word  aigifis, 
 or  sect,  bears  often  an  indifferent  sense,  both  in  the  Scriptures, 
 and  in  ancient  Jewish  writers,  we  might  possibly  suppose  it  so 
 here,  did  not  Justin  Martyr  (con.  Tryph.  p.  234.)  inform  us, 
 that  the  Jews  very  early  sent  their  emissaries  to  all  nations 
 against  the  Christians,  representing  them  as  tugtrn  afoos,  xai 
 iviuos  an  atheistical  and  wicked  heresy:  and  therefore  we  have 
 reason  to  believe,  that  in  this  sense  they  accused  St  Paul  as 
 being  a  ringleader  of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes — Calmefs  Com- 
 mentary, and  JVhitbys  Annotations. 
 
 a  This  Drusilla  was  the  daughter  of  that  Agrippa  who  put 
 James  to  death,  and  imprisoned  St  Peter,  and  was  himself  mira- 
 culously smitten  in  the  midst  of  his  oration  at  Cjesarea,  where- 
 of we  have  given  a  full  account  before.  This  daughter  of  his 
 passed  for  one  of  the  greatest  beauties  of  her  age  ;  but  was  far 
 from  being  remarkable  either  for  her  piety  or  chastity.  At  first 
 she  was  promised  in  marriage  to  Epiphanes,  the  sou  of  Antioch- 
 us,  king  of  Comagene,  upon  condition  that  he  would  submit  to 
 be  circumcised  ;  but  when  he  refused  to  comply  with  that,  the 
 match  broke  oil',  and  she  was  afterwards  married  to  Azizus,  as 
 we  said  before,  who  accepted  of  the  condition.  When  she  left 
 him,  and  took  it  in  her  head  to  live  with  Felix,  who  was  a 
 Gentile,  she  forsook  her  own  and  conformed  to  his  religion,  ac- 
 cording to  the  testimony  of  Josephus,  Antiq.  b.  xx.  c.  5.  And 
 therefore,  when  St  Luke  calls  her  a  Jewess,  he  must  be  under- 
 stood thereby  to  denote  her  birth  and  parentage,  rather  than  the 
 form  and  profession  of  her  religion. —  Calnut's  Commentary. 
 
 so  feelingly,  that  he  could  not  forbear  trembling,  which 
 made  him  break  off  the  apostle's  discourse,  with  a  '  go 
 thy  way  for  this  time  ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  sea- 
 son, I  will  call  for  thee.' 
 
 When  Portius  Festus  *  succeeded  to  the  government  of 
 Judea,  he  found  Paul  still  in  prison,  left  there  by  his 
 predecessor  to  gratify  the  Jews.  e  Upon  his  first  coming 
 to  Jerusalem,  the  high-priest,  and  other  members  of  the 
 Sanhedrim,  exhibited  fresh  accusations  against  him,  and 
 in  order  to  his  trial  desired  that  he  might  be  sent  up  to 
 Jerusalem,  meaning  to  assassinate  d  him  by  the  way. 
 But  Festus,  unwilling  to  grant  their  request,  ordered 
 them  to  come  down  to  Cassarea,  where  he  himself  would 
 shortly  be,  and  then  he  would  not  fail  to  do  them  justice. 
 The  Jews  accordingly  went  down  ;  and  when  Festus 
 was  seated  on  the  tribunal,  they  renewed  their  charge, 
 and  produced  their  articles  against  him  :  which  differed 
 not  much  from  what  they  had  accused  him  of  before 
 Felix.  But  Paul  defended  himself  so  well,  by  making 
 it  appear,  that  he  neither  had  offended  against  the  Jew- 
 ish laws,  nor  against  the  temple,  nor  against  the  empe- 
 ror, that  their  charge  soon  fell  to  the  ground  for  want  of 
 sufficient  proof.  Festus,  however,  being  willing  to 
 oblige  the  Jews  at  his  first  coming  to  the  government,  pro- 
 posed to  the  apostle  his  going  up  to  Jerusalem,  there  to 
 be  judged  of  the  matters  that  were  alleged  against  him  : 
 but  he,  knowing  full  well  the  malice  of  his  enemies,  and 
 being  unwilling  to  trust  himself  in  their  power,  boldly 
 declared,  that  as  he  then  stood  at  the  emperor's  judg- 
 ment-seat, where  he  ought  to  have  a  final  trial,  if  he  had 
 done  anything  worthy  of  death,  he  did  not  at  all  de- 
 cline it ;  but  that  as  he  had  injured  none  of  the  Jews, 
 and  they  could  prove  nothing  criminal  against  him,  he 
 ought  not  to  be  made  a  victim  to  their  fury  ;  and  there- 
 fore, as  he  was  a  Roman,  he  appealed  e  to  the  emperor. 
 
 b  When  Festus  came  into  Judea,  which  was  in  the  sixth  or 
 seventh  year  of  Nero,  he  found  all  in  desolation  and  distress  : 
 the  country  laid  waste  ;  the  people  forced  from  their  habitations ; 
 their  houses  exposed  to  fire  and  pillage ;  and  all  at  the  mercy 
 of  a  brutal  route  of  vagaband  free-hooters,  who  in  great  numbers 
 ravaged  up  and  down  at  pleasure.  In  these  days  there  was  a 
 famous  impostor  likewise  with  a  train  of  credulous  rabble  at  his 
 heels,  whom  he  had  deluded  into  an  opinion,  that  if  they  did  but 
 follow  him  into  such  a  wilderness  no  harm  should  ever  befal 
 them.  Both  these  sorts  of  people  the  governor  endeavoured  to 
 suppress;  and  the  latter  he  did  ellectually  ;  but  had  not  time  to. 
 accomplish  the  other,  because,  in  the  space  of  two  years  he  died, 
 and  was  succeeded  in  the  province  by  Albinus. — Joseph.  An- 
 tiq. b.  xx.  c.  7»  8. 
 
 c  He  had  sorely  exasperated  them  by  his  unjust  and  violent 
 proceedings  while  he  continued  in  the  government,  and  therefore 
 upon  his  dismission,  he  thought  to  have  pacified  them  in  some 
 measure,  by  leaving  Paul,  whom  he  might  have  discharged  long 
 before,  still  in  custody,  and  still  liable  to  become  a  prey  to  their 
 greedy  malice.  But  herein  he  found  himself  sadly  mistaken; 
 for  no  sooner  was  his  disgrace  at  court  known,  than  several  of 
 the  principal  Jews  at  Csesarea  took  a  journey  to  Rome  on  pur- 
 pose to  accuse  him,  and  as  we  said  before,  would  certainly  have 
 wrought  his  ruin,  had  not  his  brother  Pallas,  who  was  now  in 
 equal  favour  with  Nero,  as  formerly  he  had  been  with  Claudius, 
 interceded  for  his  pardon. — Joseph.  Antiq.  b.  xx.  c.  7. 
 
 d  Which  might  easily  be  done  by  any  of  the  bands  of  robbers 
 and  assassins,  those  persons  whom  Josephus  calls  '  Sicarii,'  from 
 sica,  or  the  short  sword  they  wore,  something  betwixt  the  Persian 
 scymitar  and  the  Roman  falchion,  which  at  that  time  infested 
 tin-  whole  province  ;  and  would  have  done  it  for  a  small  sum  of 
 money,  without  any  suspicion  upon  the  true  authors  of  his 
 murder. — Calmcfs  Commentary. 
 
 e  This  way  of  appealing  was  frequent  among  the  Romans, 
 introduced  to  defend  and  secure  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  the 
 
1094 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [BjokVIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4063.  A.  D.  59 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5470.  A.  D.  59,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Whereupon  Festus,  being1  not  a  little  startled,  first  con- 
 ferred with  his  own  council,  a  and  then,  with  some 
 seeming  emotion,  told  the  apostle  that  since  he  had  ap- 
 pealed unto  Cresar,  unto  Ca»sar  he  should  go. 
 
 Not  many  days  after,  king  Agrippa,  *  with  his  sister 
 Berenice,  c  and  a  numerous  train,  came  to  Ca?sarea  to 
 
 populace  from  the  unjust  encroachments  and  over-rigorous  sever- 
 ities of  the  magistrates:  whereby  it  was  lawful  in  cases  of  op- 
 pression, to  appeal  from  them  for  redress  and  rescue;  a  thing 
 more  than  once  settled  by  the  sanction  of  the  Valerian  laws. 
 These  appeals  were  generally  made  in  writing,  by  appellatory 
 libels  given  into  the  court,  and  containing  an  account  of  the  ap- 
 pellant, the  person  against  whom,  and  from  whose  sentence  he 
 did  appeal ;  but  where  the  cause  was  done  in  open  court,  it  was 
 enough  for  the  criminal  verbally  to  declare  that  he  did  appeal. 
 In  great  and  weighty  cases,  the  appeal  was  made  to  the  prince 
 himself;  whereupon  not  only  at  Rome,  but  in  all  the  provinces 
 of  the  empire,  every  procoDsul  and  governor  was  strictly  for- 
 bidden to  execute,  scourge,  bind,  or  put  any  badge  of  servility 
 upon  a  citizen,  or  any  that  had  the  privilege  of  a  citizen,  who 
 had  made  his  appeal,  or  any  wise  hinder  him  from  going  to  Rome 
 to  obtain  justice  at  the  hands  of  the  emperor,  who  had  as  much 
 regard  to  the  liberty  of  his  subjects,  says  the  law  itself,  as  they 
 could  have  for  their  good-will  and  obedience  to  him.  And  this 
 was  exactly  St  Paul's  case:  who,  knowing  that  he  should  have 
 no  fair  and  equitable  dealings  at  the  hands  of  the  governor,  when 
 once  he  came  to  be  swayed  by  the  Jews,  his  sworn  and  inveter- 
 ate enemies,  appealed  from  him  to  the  emperor;  which  was  a 
 privilege  so  often,  so  plainly  settled  by  the  Roman  laws,  that 
 Festus  durst  not  deny  his  demands. — Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 a  Some  annotators  are  of  opinion,  that  the  persons  with  whom 
 the  governor  advised  upon  this  occasion,  were  part  of  the  San- 
 hedrim who  were  come  to  Caesarea  to  prosecute  Paul ;  but  we 
 can  scarce  think,  that  any  of  this  body  of  men  would  have  coun- 
 selled him  to  admit  of  St  Paul's  appeal,  or  to  send  him  to  Cfesar 
 out  of  their  reach:  and  therefore  we  suppose,  that  as  these  gover- 
 nors of  provinces  were  not  always  great  lawyers,  though  they 
 might  sometimes  have  very  nice  controversies  come  before  them, 
 they  were  usually  provided  with  men  of  sufficient  abilities  in  the 
 Roman  laws,  who,  sitting  behind  a  vail  or  curtain,  drawn  be- 
 tweeu  them  and  the  governor's  tribunal,  were  ready  in  all  diffi- 
 cult cases,  to  assist  him  with  their  advice. — Whitby's  Annota- 
 tioru,  and  Calmet's  Commentary . 
 
 b  This  prince,  who  was  the  son  of  Agrippa,  surnamed  Herod, 
 of  whom  we  read  so  much  in  the  12th  chapter  of  the  Acts,  was 
 at  Rome  with  the  emperor  Claudius  when  he  died.  The  em- 
 peror was  inclined  to  have  given  him  all  the  dominions  which 
 his  father  possessed;  but  those  who  were  about  him  dissuaded 
 him  from  it;  so  that,  sending  Cuspius  Fadus  as  procurator  to 
 Judea,  he  kept  Agrippa  still  at  court,  until  he  was  in  a  condi- 
 tion to  reign.  When  Herod,  king  of  Chalcis,  his  uncle  by  his 
 father's  side,  died,  he  gave  him  his  dominions:  but  soon  after 
 translated  him  to  a  larger  kingdom;  for  he  bestowed  on  him, 
 not  only  all  the  territories  formerly  belonging  to  Philip  tire 
 tetrarch,  but  added  likewise  the  country  of  Abilene,  which  be- 
 longed to  Lysanias.  After  the  death  of  Claudius,  his  successor 
 Nero,  who  had  a  great  affection  for  Agrippa,  to  his  other  domi- 
 nions added  Julias  in  Perca,  and  that  part  of  Galilee  to  which 
 Taricbna  and  Tiberias  belonged.  When  the  war  broke  out  be- 
 tween the  Jews  and  the  Romans,  this  prince  was  constrained  to 
 join  his  troops  with  those  of  Rome,  to  reduce  his  countrymen, 
 and  assist  in  the  taking  of  Jerusalem.  After  the  destruction  of 
 tli;it  city,  he  retired  to  Rome  with  his  sister  Berenice,  with 
 •room  be  had  always  lived  in  an  indiscreet  manner,  and  there 
 died  at  about  seventy  years  of  age. — Calmet's  Commentary,  and 
 Dictionary,  Echnrd's  and  Fkury's  Ecclesiastical  Histories. 
 
 c  She  wis  at  first  married  to  Herod,  king  of  Chalcis,  her  own 
 uncle  by  her  Gather's  side ;  hut,  after  his  death,  she  betook  herself 
 to  her  brother,  and  with  him  continued  for  some  considerable 
 tine,  till  at,  length,  being  censured  as  having  an  incestuous  fami- 
 liarity with  him,  in  order  to  justify  herself,  and  wipe  off  the  dis- 
 grace, she  thought  proper  to  he  married  again  to  Polemon,  king 
 of  Cilicia;  who,  for  the  sake  of  her  riches,  was  persuaded  to  be 
 Circumcised,  that  lie  might  have  her:  but  they  did  not  live  long 
 together ;  and  when  she  left  her  husband,  she  returned  to  her 
 brother,  with  whom  she  behaved  in  such  a  manner,  as  made  all 
 the  world,  as  well  as  the  satirist,  take  notice  of  her;  'thence  the 
 
 make  a  visit  and  compliment  to  the  new  governor  ;  who 
 upon  some  occasion  or  other  took  an  opportunity  to  en- 
 tertain them  with  Paul's  case  ;  telling  them,  '  that  Felix, 
 upon  his  parting  with  the  government,  had  left  a  certain 
 prisoner,  against  whom  some  of  the  chief  of  the  Jews 
 had  brought  information,  and  immediately  demanded 
 judgment,  which,  according  to  the  Roman  law,  d  could 
 not  be  done  without  first  hearing  the  cause,  and  bringing 
 the  parties  face  to  face  ;  that  to  this  purpose  he  had  or- 
 dered his  accusers  to  come  to  Cassarea,  but,  upon  the 
 result,  found,  that  the  dispute  between  them  was  about 
 matters  of  their  own  superstition,  e  and  whether  a  per- 
 son, whom  they  call  Jesus,  was  really  dead  or  alive  ; 
 that  being  himself  unacquainted  with  such  kind  of  con- 
 troversies, he  had  referred  the  prisoner  to  the  Jewish 
 sanhedrim ;  but  that  he,  declining  their  judgment,  had 
 appealed  to  Cassar ;  and  that  therefore  he  kept  him  still 
 in  prison,  until  he  could  meet  with  a  convenient  oppor- 
 tunity to  send  him  to  Rome.' 
 
 This  account  excited  the  curiosity  of  Agrippa,  who 
 was  very  desirous  to  see  and  hear  the  prisoner;/  and 
 accordingly,  the  king  and  his  sister,  accompanied  with 
 Festus,  and  other  persons  of  quality,  came  into  the  court, 
 with  a  pompous  and  magnificent  retinue  ;  and  when  Paul 
 was  brought  forth  before  them,  Festus  acquainted  the 
 king,  and  the  whole  assembly,  '  how  much  he  had  been 
 solicited  by  the  Jews,  both  at  Csesarea  and  Jerusalem, 
 concerning  the  prisoner  at  the  bar,  that,  as  a  notorious 
 malefactor,  he  might  be  put  to  death;  but  that,  having 
 found  him  guilty  of  no  capital  crime,  and  the  prisoner 
 himself  having  appealed  to  Cassar,  he  was  determined  to 
 send  him  to  Rome;  that  he  was  willing-,  however, to  have 
 
 well  known  gem  which  on  the  finger  of  Berenice  became  en- 
 hanced in  value, — Agrippa  gave  it  to  his  incestuous  sister.' — Jo- 
 seph. Antiq.  b.  xx.  c.  5. — Juv.  Sat.  6. 
 
 d  Of  this  law  and  custom  of  the  Romans,  Philo  Judseus,  speak- 
 ing of  their  prefects,  gives  us  this  account — '  they  yielded  them- 
 selves to  be  common  judges,  hearing  equally  the  accusers  and 
 defendants,  condemning  no  man  unheard,  prejudging  no  man, 
 but  judging  without  favour  or  enmity,  according  to  the  nature  of 
 the  cause.' — Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 e  The  word  in  the  original  is  Au^aiuovia.,  that  is,  a  vain  and 
 groundless  fear  of  the  gods:  for  the  pious  man,  according  to 
 Varro,  honours  and  fears  God,  but  the  superstitious  man  dreads 
 him,  and  is  seized  with  terror  before  him.  And  to  the  same 
 purpose  Maximus  Tyrius  tells  us,  that  a  man  truly  pious,  looks 
 upon  God  as  a  friend  full  of  goodness:  but  the  superstitious  man 
 serves  him  with  sentiments  of  base  and  servile  flattery.  Now, 
 considering  that  Festus  was  addressing  himself  to  Agrippa  and 
 Berenice,  who  were  certainly  Jews,  one  may  be  apt  to  think  it  a 
 breach  of  good  manners  for  him  to  call  the  religion  they  professed 
 by  no  better  a  name  than  that  of  superstition:  but  then  we  must 
 observe,  that  he  is  supposed  to  speak  here  in  the  common  strain 
 of  heathens,  who  generally  looked  upon  all  Jewish  ceremonies  as 
 superstitious  usages ;  and  that  he  made  no  scruple  to  express 
 himself  in  this  manner,  as  either  accounting  himself  so  much 
 superior  to  such  petty  princes,  that  he  thought  he  might  make 
 free  with  them,  or  as  judging  that  themselves  would  not  be 
 offended  at  his  representing  the  particular  points  in  dispute  be- 
 tween St  Paul  and  his  adversaries  in  such  a  contemptuous  light. 
 — Calmet's  Dictionary  and  Commentary. 
 
 /As  Herod,  the  father  of  this  Agrippa,  had  been  so  active  an 
 instrument  in  endeavouring  to  destroy  Christianity,  having  killed 
 James,  and  was  about  to  have  put  Peter  to  death  also,  had  not 
 God  sent  him  to  his  own  place,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Agrippa 
 had  heard  much  about  Christianity;  and  as  to  St  Paul,  his  con- 
 version was  so  very  remarkable  that  Ids  name,  in  connexion  with 
 Christianity,  was  known,  not  only  throughout  Judea,  but  through 
 all  Asia  Minor  and  Greece.  Agrippa,  therefore,  might  natur- 
 ally wish  to  see  and  hear  a  man  of  whom  he  had  heard  so  much. 
 —  Dr  A.  Clarke. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1095 
 
 A.  M.  406-1.  A.  D.  60;  OR,  A.  M.  5471.  A.  D.  60,  &C.FUOM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 his  cause  again  discussed  before  so  judicious  a  person 
 as  Agrippa,  that  he  might  be  furnished  with  some  ma- 
 terial instructions  to  send  along  with  him,  since  it 
 seemed  absurd  to  him  to  send  a  prisoner  to  the  emperor, 
 without  signifying  his  crimes.'  When  Festus  had  ended, 
 and  Agrippa  had  signified  to  St  Paul,  that  he  had  liberty 
 to  answer  for  himself;  after  silence  was  made,  he 
 addressed  himself  chiefly  to  Agrippa,  and  thus  began 
 his  speech: 
 
 •  I  think  myself  happy,  O  king  Agrippa,  in  that  I  am 
 permitted  to  make  my  defence  against  the  accusations 
 charged  upon  me  by  the  Jews,  before  a  person  so  exactly 
 versed  in  all  the  rites  and  customs,  the  questions  and 
 controversies,  of  the  Jewish  law ;  for  which  reason  I  in- 
 treat  your  Majesty  to  hear  me  with  patience.  a  My 
 manner  of  life  from  my  youth,  which  was  among  the 
 Jews  at  Jerusalem,  they  all  know,  and  that  I  was 
 brought  up  under  the  institutions  of  the  Pharisees,  b  a 
 sect  the  strictest  of  all  others  in  the  Jewish  religion. 
 Accordingly,  now  I  am  accused  for  asserting  the  resur- 
 rection c  of  the  dead,  which  is  not  only  a  doctrine  ac- 
 knowledged by  the  Pharisees,  but  a  fundamental  promise 
 made  by  God  of  old,  which  the  generality  of  the  Jews  rf 
 depend  upon,  and  in  hopes  of  which  they  spend  their 
 
 a  From  what  has  been  alleged  relating  to  Herod  Agrippa,  it 
 is  plain  he  was  a  zealous  Jew,  or  at  least  appeared  so  at  Jerusa- 
 lem, and  had  educated  all  his  children  in  the  Jewish  religion. 
 This  Agrippa,  his  son  undoubtedly,  maintained  the  same  profes- 
 sion, and  at  this  time  he  had,  by  permission  of  the  emperor, 
 the  direction  of  the  sacred  treasury,  the  government  of  the 
 temple,  and  the  right  of  nominating  the  high  priests,  as  we  learn 
 from  Josephus.  No  wonder  therefore  that  St  Paul  told  Agrippa 
 he  knew  him  to  be  expert  in  all  customs  and  questions  which 
 were  among  the  Jews. — Lardner's  Credibility. — Ed. 
 
 b  That  of  the  three  sects  which  were  then  of  greatest  credit  in 
 Judea,  the  Pharisees  were  the  most  strict,  and  held  in  the  great- 
 est veneration,  we  have  the  testimony  of  Josephus,  who,  in  more 
 places  than  one,  informs  us,  that  this  sect  was  thought  to  be 
 more  pious  than  others,  and  more  exact  in  their  knowledge  of 
 the  customs  of  their  fathers,  and  in  the  interpretation  of  their 
 laws.  For,  as  for  the  other  two  famous  sects,  the  Sadducees,  by 
 denying  the  resurrection,  and  all  future  punishments,  took 
 away  the  rewards  of  a  virtuous,  and  gave  licence  to  a  vicious 
 life  ;  and  the  Essenes,  by  being  Jews,  and  yet  separating  them- 
 selves entirely  from  the  worship  of  the  temple,  were  guilty  of 
 a  great  schism,  and,  by  making  their  prayers  and  religious  ad- 
 dresses to  the  sun,  as  Josephus,  who  lived  three  years  among  them, 
 testifies,  were  chargeable  with  idolatry, — Jewish  Wars,  b.  ii. 
 C.  7. — Whitby's  Annotations. 
 
 c  But  why  should  St  Paul  say,  that  he  was  accused  for  assert- 
 ing the  general  resurrection:  when  it  was  only  the  resurrection 
 cf  Christ  that  he  was  called  in  question  for  ?  Now,  in  answer  to 
 this  it  must  be  observed,  that  before  our  Saviour's  passion,  the  doc- 
 trine which  he  preached  was  chiefly  levelled  against  the  vain  tradi- 
 tions of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees;  but  that  after  his  resurrec- 
 tion, the  testimony  of  the  apostles  being  this,  'that  Christ  was 
 risen  from  the  dead,'  which  was  directly  contrary  to  the  notion 
 of  the  Sadducees,  these  people  became  their  hottest  enemies,  being 
 grieved,  as  the  text  expresses  it,  that  they  preached  the  resurrec- 
 tion of  the  dead  through  Jesus,  (Acts  iv.  I,  2.)  as  easily  per- 
 ceiving that  the  proof  of  the  one,  namely,  that  Christ  was  risen, 
 was  a  confirmation  of  the  general  resurrection.  As  therefore 
 the  resurrection  of  Christ  was  a  pledge  and  assurance  of  a  general 
 resurrection,  it  was  impossible  for  the  apostles  to  attest  the  one, 
 without  asserting  the  other,  since  in  the  truth  of  the  thing,  and  ac- 
 cording to  the  sentiments  of  the  Jews  themselves,  the  resurrec- 
 tion was  to  be  effected  by  the  Messiah  ;  for  which  reason  we 
 find  St  Paul  styling  our  Lord  '  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept,' 
 and  declaring  farther,  'that  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ 
 shall  all  be  made  alive.'  (1  Cor.  xv.  20,  22.)— Whitby's  Anno- 
 tations. 
 
 d  That  the  Jews  had  grounds  sufficient  in  the  writings  of  the 
 Old  Testament,  to  expect  a  future  resurrection,  is  evident  from 
 
 time  in  constant  piety  and  obedience  to  God  ;  and  yet 
 for  believing  and  expecting  this,  O  king,  I  am  accused 
 and  persecuted  by  the  Jews.  But  why  should  it  be 
 thought  an  incredible  thing  that  God,  who  is  omnipotent, 
 should  raise  the  dead?  1  confess,  indeed,  that  once  I 
 was  of  opinion,  that  I  was  bound  in  conscience  to  per- 
 secute this  profession  and  doctrine  of  Christ ;  and  ac- 
 cordingly, having  obtained  a  commission  from  the  high 
 priest,  many  holy  men  and  women  in  Jerusalem  I  not 
 only  hurried  to  prison,  but,  when  any  of  them  were  put 
 to  death,  was  myself  not  a  little  assenting  and  assisting 
 in  it.  Nay,  in  other  places  too,  I  brought  them  before 
 courts  of  judicature, by  several  methods  of  severity,  forced 
 them  to  deny  Christ,  and  was  so  much  enraged  against 
 them,  that  I  compelled  them  to  dee  to  the  heathen  cities, 
 and  even  thither  pursued  them.  To  this  purpose,  having 
 received  authority  from  the  Sanhedrim  to  go  to  Damas- 
 cus, at  noon-day,  O  king,  I  saw  a  light  from  heaven,  far 
 exceeding  that  of  the  sun,  which  struck  me  and  those 
 that  accompanied  me  to  the  ground,  and  heard  a  voice 
 in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  calling  me  by  name,  and  ad- 
 monishing me  to  forbear  my  cruel  and  persecuting  tem- 
 per; because,  from  that  time,  I  was  chosen  to  be  a  preacher 
 and  promoter  of  that  doctrine  which  I  was  then  labour- 
 ing to  destroy,  and  particularly  commissioned  to  preach 
 the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles,  in  order  to  convert  them 
 from  their  idolatrous  worship  to  the  service  of  the  true 
 God.  In  obedience  therefore  to  this  heavenly  vision,  I 
 have  ever  since  been  very  diligent  in  preaching  the  doc- 
 trines of  repentance  and  reformation,  not  in  Judea  only, 
 but  in  other  nations  ;  and  not  to  the  Jews  only,  but  like- 
 wise to  the  Gentiles.  This,  O  king,  is  my  great  crime, 
 and  for  this  it  was  that  the  Jews  apprehended  me  in  the 
 temple,  with  a  design  to  have  murdered  me  ;  but  being- 
 supported  by  a  divine  power,  I  continue  in  my  duty  to 
 this  day,  asserting  nothing  but  what  is  agreeable  to  Moses 
 and  the  prophets,  who  have  plainly  foretold,  that  the 
 Messiah  should  be  put  to  death,  and  rise  again,  and,  by 
 his  doctrine,  enlighten  both  Jews  and  Gentiles.' 
 
 our  Saviour's  application  of  God's  own  words,  '  1  am  the  God  of 
 Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,'  (Exod.  iii.  6.) 
 '  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living,'  Mat.  xxii. 
 ^2.)  Wherever  God  is  styled  the  God  of  any  one,  it  always 
 signifies  that  he  either  is  or  will  be  the  benefactor  of  that  person ; 
 and  in  naming  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  he  must  mean  it  of 
 their  complete  persons,  which  consisted  of  bodies  as  well  as  souls ; 
 and  from  hence  it  will  follow,  that  as  the  troubles  and  afflictions, 
 which  these  three  patriarchs  underwent  in  their  life-time  did 
 not  answer  those  favours  and  kindnesses  which  are  included  in 
 the  phrase  of  his  being  the  God  of  any  one,  God  was  still  en- 
 gaged to  make  them  happy  after  this  life,  and  completely  happy 
 in  their  whole  persons,  that  is,  both  in  body  and  soul,  which  could 
 only  be  effected  by  their  resurrection.  This  is  the  deduction 
 which  our  Saviour  makes;  but,  when  we  read  in  the  prophets, 
 '  that  the  earth  shall  cast  out  the  dead,  and  those  that  dwell  in 
 the  dust  shall  arise,'  (Isa.  xxvi.  19.)  and  more  expressly  still, 
 '  that  many  of  them  who  sleep  in  the  dust  shall  awake,  some  to 
 everlasting  life,  and  some  to  everlasting  confusion,'  (Dan.  xii.  2.) 
 we  need  less  wonder  that  we  find  the  martyrs  in  the  Jewish 
 church  not  doubting  '  but  that  the  Creator  of  the  world  would 
 give  them  breath  and  life  again,  and  would  raise  those  up,  who 
 died  for  his  laws,  unto  everlasting  life,'  (2  Maccab.  vii.  9,  23. ) 
 Good  reason  therefore  had  the  apostle  to  represent  this  as  the 
 hope  of  their  tribes ;  for  though  the  Sadducees  denied  it,  yet,  as 
 Josephus  informs  us,  they  were  but  a  handful  of  men  in  com- 
 parison ;  and  whenever  they  came  to  bear  offices,  they  were 
 forced  to  profess  the  doctrine  of  the  Pharisees,  otherwise  the 
 common  people  would  not  have  endured  them. — Antiq.  b.  xviii. 
 c.  2. — Whitby's  Amiotations. 
 
1096 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  40C4.  A.  D.  60;  OR,  A.  M.  5471.  A.  D.  GO,  &c  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 Whilfl  lie  was  thus  discoursing,  Festus,  who  happened 
 to  be  no  great  master  of  the  argument,  was  ready  to  think, 
 that  his  talking  in  this  abstruse  manner  must  be  the  effect 
 of  some  deliriousness,  and  therefore  told  him  abruptly, 
 that  his  too  much  learning  "  had  made  him  mad.  But 
 to  this  he  calmly  replied,  <  I  am  in  my  perfect  senses, 
 most  noble  Festus,  and  what  1  say,  without  excess  or 
 transport,  is  literally  true.  For  this  I  appeal  to  Agrippa, 
 before  whom  I  take  this  freedom  of  speech,  and  am  con- 
 fident that  he  knows  it  to  be  true.  The  life,  death,  and 
 resurrection  of  Christ,  were  things  of  public  note,  and 
 cannot  be  a  secret  to  him,  who  was  a  Jew  born.  Be- 
 lievest  thou  the  prophets,  0  king  ?  I  am  satisfied  thou 
 dost,  and  therefore  cannot  but  know  that  their  predic- 
 tions are  fulfilled  in  Christ.'  This  moving  and  persua- 
 sive eloquence  so  wrought  upon  Agrippa,  that  he  could 
 not  forbear  declaring,  that  the  apostle  had  almost  per- 
 suaded him  to  be  a  Christian.*  To  which  he  readily 
 replied,  *  That  he  heartily  wished,  that  not  only  he,  but 
 the  whole  company  then  present,  were  not  only  almost, 
 but  altogether,  though  not  prisoners,  as  much  Christians 
 as  himself  was'.c  Upon  this  the  assembly  broke  up ; 
 and  when  Agrippa  and  Festus  had  conferred  together 
 about  Paul's  case,  they  freely  owned,  that  the  accusation 
 laid  against  him  amounted  neither  to  a  capital  offence, 
 nor  to  any  thing  deserving  imprisonment,  but  that,  had  he 
 not  appealed  unto  C<esar,  he  might  have  been  legally 
 discharged. d 
 
 His  journey  to  Rome,  therefore,  being  thus  finally 
 
 a  Festus  must  have  known  from  some  other  hand,  that  Paul 
 was  a  learned  man ;  because,  in  this  speech  of  his,  he  gives  us 
 no  indication  of  his  proficiency  either  in  the  Greek  or  Roman 
 literature ;  though  he  might  think,  from  the  terms  which  he  heard 
 him  make  use  of,  that  the  subject  of  his  discourse  must  be  vastly 
 mysterious;  for  to  hear  him  speak  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
 dead,  of  a  vision  and  voice  from  heaven,  of  faith  in  Christ,  of 
 conversion  from  darkness  to  light,  of  deliverance  from  the  power 
 of  Satan,  of  an  inheritance  among  them  that  are  sanctified,  and 
 of  Christ's  showing  light  unto  the  people,  and  to  the  Gentiles, 
 which  were  so  many  enigmas  to  the  governor,  was  enough  to 
 make  him  think,  that  there  possibly  might  be  some  disorder  in 
 the  apostle's  brain  that  made  him  talk  in  so  unintelligible  a 
 manner. — Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  This  seems  to  imply,  that,  since  the  time  that  they  took  it 
 upon  themselves  at  Antioch,  the  name  of  Christians  was  become 
 their  common  appellation. — Bcausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 c  While  the  apostle's  heart  glows  with  affection  for  their  best 
 interests,  he  wishes  that  they  might  enjoy  all  his  blessings,  if 
 possible,  without  being  obliged  to  bear  any  cross  on  the  account. 
 His  holding  up  his  chain,  which  was  probably  now  detached 
 from  the  soldier's  arm,  and  wrapped  about  his  own,  must  have 
 made  a  powerful  impression  on  the  minds  of  his  audience.  In- 
 deed, it  appears  they  could  '  bear  the  scene  no  longer;'  the  king 
 was  overwhelmed,  and  rose  up  instantly,  and  so  did  the  rest  of 
 the  council,  and  went  immediately  aside;  and,  after  a  very 
 short  conference  among  themselves,  they  unanimously  pro- 
 nounced him  innocent;  and  his  last  word,  ra>  htrftuv,  'bonds!' 
 »nd  the  action  with  which  it  was  accompanied,  had  made  such 
 a  deep  impressioo  upon  their  hearts,  that  they  conclude  their 
 judgment  with  that  very  identical  word  lurftuv.  Would  to  God, 
 says  the  apostle,  that  all  who  hear  me  this  day  were  altogether 
 
 such  as  I  am,  except  these  '  bonds! '     The  whole  council  say 
 
 This  man  hath  done  nothing  worthy  of  death  nor  of  '  bonds!  ' 
 Ai<rpan,  '  bonds,'  is  echoed  by  them  from  the  last  words  of  the 
 apostle  ;  as  we  may  plainly  perceive  that,  seeing  such  an  inno- 
 cent and  eminent  man  suffering  such  indignity,  had  made  a  deep 
 impression  upon  their  hearts. — Dr  A.  Clarke. Ed. 
 
 d  Though  this  declaration  of  Agrippa  would  not  secure  Paul's 
 deliverance,  yet  it  might  do  him  some  service  that  a  testimony 
 to  his  innocence  was  pronounced  by  so  learned  and  honourable 
 a  person  of  the  Jewish  nation  and  religion.     Festus  would  pro- 
 
 determined,  he  and  some  other  prisoners  of  note,ff  were 
 committed  to  the  charge  of  one  Julius,  a  centurion,  or 
 captain  of  the  legion  called  Augusta,  having  Luke  the 
 evangelist,  Aristarchus,  Trophimus,  and  some  others,  to 
 accompany  him  in  his  voyage.  /  About  the  latter  end 
 of  September,  they  went  on  board  a  ship  of  Adramyt- 
 tium,?  and  coasting  along  Asia,  arrived  at  Sidon  ;  where 
 Julius,  who  all  along  treated  Paul  with  great  civility, 
 gave  him  leave  to  go  ashore,  and  refresh  himself.  From 
 Sidon  they  set  sail,  and  came  in  sight  of  Cyprus  ;  and, 
 having  passed  over  the  seas  of  Cilicia  and  Pamphylia, 
 landed  at  Myra,A  a  port  in  Lycia,  where  this  ship  finished 
 
 bably  entertain  a  better  opinion  of  him  upon  this  account,  and 
 would  give  directions  to  the  officer  who  attended  him,  to  treat  him 
 with  so  much  the  greater  regard.  I  shall  only  add,  that  though 
 it  might  seem  in  this  view  an  unhappy  circumstance  that  Paul 
 had  made  this  appeal,  yet  as  it  was,  at  the  time  he  made  it,  the 
 properest  method  he  could  take  for  his  own  security,  he  would 
 have  reason  to  reflect  upon  it  with  satisfaction;  and  we  before 
 observed,  that  his  visiting  Rome  under  the  character  of  a  pri- 
 soner, was  overruled  by  Providence  to  answer  some  important 
 purposes.    Comp.  Phil.  i.  12,  &c. — Doddridge's  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
 e  It  was  common  to  send  persons  from  Judea  to  be  tried  at 
 Rome ;  numerous  instances  about  this  period  are  given  in  Lard'- 
 ner's  Credibility,  b.  i.  c.  x.  sect.  10. — Ed. 
 
 f  '  When  the  fast  was  now  already  past,'  is  the  signification 
 of  time  in  the  text,  (Acts  xxvii.  9.),  and  without  all  contro- 
 versy this  was  the  great  annual  fast  of  expiation  for  the  sins  of 
 the  people  of  Israel,  (Lev.  xvi.  29.),-  which  began  on  the  tenth 
 day  of  the  month  Tizri,  answering  to  the  25th  of  our  September. 
 This  was  the  commencement  of  their  civil  year;  and  therefore 
 it  is  no  wonder  that  St  Luke  should  make  use  of  this  epocha, 
 '  the  fast  being  already  past,'  to  denote  a  particular  part  of  the 
 year,  since  he  wrote  his  gospel  for  the  use  of  Christians,  who,. 
 at  this  time,  were  chiefly  Jewish  converts,  and  consequently  no 
 strangers  to  this  kind  of  language. — Hammond's  and  JFhitbys 
 Annotations,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 g  Adramyttium  was  a  maritime  town  of  Mysia  Major  in  Asia 
 Minor,  opposite  the  island  of  Lesbos,  and  was  sometimes  also 
 called  Pedasus,  situated  with  its  harbour  and  docks  at  the  foot  of 
 Mount  Ida,  near  the  Caucus.  It  gave  its  name  to  an  arm  of  the 
 iEgean  Sea,  and  is  supposed  to  have  derived  its  designation  from 
 Adramys,  the  brother  of  Croesus,  by  whom  it  was  built,  or  from 
 Hermon,  one  of  the  kings  of  Lydia,  who,  in  the  Phrygian  lan- 
 guage, was  called  Adramys.  It  is  now  termed  La  Andramiti, 
 and  is  a  wretched  place,  inhabited  only  by  a  few  Greek  fisher- 
 men. St  Jerome  and  others  have  erroneously  supposed  tin's  city 
 to  be  the  same  as  that  built  by  Alexander  the  Great  at  the  Cano- 
 pic  mouth  of  the  Nile  in  Egypt,  and  which  is  understood  to  be 
 the  same  as  Thebes. — Scripture  Gazetteer,  Edin.  1837. — Ed. 
 
 h  Lycia,  a  province  of  Asia  Minor,  bounded  on  the  north 
 by  Phrygia,  on  the  south  by  the  Mediterranean,  on  the  east  by 
 Pamphylia,  and  on  the  west  by  Caria.  This  country,  or  rather 
 kingdom,  was  originally  distinguished  by  the  names  of  Mylias 
 and  Tremile,  from  the  Mylse  or  Solymi,  a  people  of  Crete,  who 
 settled  there;  the  name  Lycia  being  given  to  it  at  a  subsequent 
 period  by  Lycus,  the  son  of  Pandion.  From  the  remotest  age 
 in  the  history  of  Lycia  its  inhabitants  were  commended  for 
 their  sobriety  and  justice,  but  towards  the  commencement  of  the 
 Christian  era  they  became  greatly  degenerated,  many  of  them 
 being  noted  for  piracy.  Lycia  being  conquered  by  Cyrus,  its 
 inhabitants  were  still  permitted  to  be  governed  by  kings  of  their 
 own,  on  paying  an  annual  tribute  to  the  Persian  monarehs.  They 
 afterwards  became  subject,  first,  to  the  Macedonian,  and  then  to 
 the  Roman  empires,  Lycia  forming  one  of  the  Roman  provinces  of 
 Asia  Minor  when  the  apostle  Paul  sailed  from  Myra,  its  metro- 
 polis, for  Rome;  (Acts  xxvii.  [>.)  At  that  period  the  country 
 contained  twenty-three  cities,  besides  large  towns,  the  chief  of 
 which  were  Myra,  Telmisus,  Patara,  Olympus,  Phaselis,  and 
 Limyra.  That  Christianity  was  propagated  in  Lycia  at  a  very 
 early  period,  is  beyond  dispute,  but  whether,  as  the  present 
 Greeks  affirm,  Paul  preached  in  Myra,  and  established  there  a 
 Christian  church,  is  destitute  of  proof.  That  city  did,  however, 
 afterwards  become  the  metropolitan  of  thirty-six  suffragan  sees. 
 But,  subsequently,  the  Mohammedan  imposture  supplanted  the 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OP  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1097 
 
 A.  M.40G4.  A.  D.  GO;  OK,  A.  M.  6471.  A.  D.GO,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 its  voyage.  At  Myra,  Julius,  and  the  prisoners  that 
 were  under  his  care,  went  on  board  a  ship  of  Alexandria, 
 bound  for  Italy ;  and  having  passed  by  Cnidus,0  with 
 much  ado  they  made  for  Salinone,  a  promontory  on  the 
 eastern  shore  of  Crete  ;  from  whence,  by  many  days' 
 slow  sailing,  they  arrived  at  a  place  called  '  the  Fair 
 Havens,'  *  on  the  coast  of  the  same  island.  Here  St  Paid 
 advised  the  centurion  to  put  in  and  winter,  because  the 
 season  of  the  year  was  far  advanced,  and  sailing,  c  in 
 those  seas  especially,  was  now  become  dangerous ;  but 
 he,  preferring  the  judgment  of  the  master  of  the  ship,  and 
 the  wind  at  this  instant  blowing  gently  at  south,  they  put 
 again  to  sea,  in  hopes  of  reaching  Phcenice,  another  har- 
 bour of  Crete,  where  there  was  safe  riding,  and  there  to 
 winter.  It  was  not  long  however  before  they  found 
 themselves  disappointed;  for  the  calm  southerly  gale, 
 which  blew  before,  suddenly  changed  into  a  stormy  and 
 tempestuous  north-east  wind,  d  which  bore  down  all  be- 
 
 Christianity  which  remained  in  the  province;  and,  at  the  pre- 
 sent time,  the  few  Greek  Christians  who  are  still  to  be  found 
 within  its  limits,  are  almost  as  ignorant  as  their  Turkish  rulers, 
 of  that  gospel  which  they  profess  to  believe. — Sime's  Sacred 
 Geography. — Ed. 
 
 a  This  is  a  city  which  stands  on  a  promontory  or  foreland  of 
 the  same  name,  in  that  part  of  the  province  of  Caria  which  was 
 more  particularly  called  Boris,  remarkable  among  the  ancients 
 for  the  worship  of  Venus;  thence  called  by  Horace,  Regina 
 Cnidi,  and  for  the  celebrated  statue  of  that  goddess,  which  was 
 made  by  the  great  artificer  Praxiteles. —  Wells  s  Geography  of 
 the  New  Testament,  and  Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table. — Exten- 
 sive ruins  of  this  place,  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  two  miles 
 in  circumference,  still  remain. — Mansford. — Ed. 
 
 b  This  port  still  remains,  and  is  known  by  the  same  name;  it 
 is  situated  toward  the  northern  extremity  of  the  island. — Ed. 
 
 c  It  is  a  common  observation  of  mariners,  that  for  some  weeks 
 before  and  after  Michaelmas,  there  are  at  sea  sudden  and  frequent 
 storms,  commonly  called  '  Michaelmas  flaws,'  which,  at  that 
 time  of  the  year,  make  sailing,  especially  in  the  Mediterranean, 
 dangerous.  Nor  is  this  any  new  observation,  but  as  old  as 
 Hesiod  himself,  who  tells  us,  that  at  the  going  down  of  the 
 Pleiades,  which  was  at  the  end  of  autumn,  navigation  was  haz- 
 ardous: the  very  same  thing  that  the  apostle  here  asserts. — Ham- 
 mond's Annotations. 
 
 d  Interpreters  have  been  greatly  perplexed  with  this  word ; 
 and  the  ancient  copyists  not  less  so,  as  the  word  is  variously 
 written  in  the  MSS.  and  Versions.  Dr  Shaw  supposes  it  to  be 
 one  of  those  tempestuous  winds  called  '  Levanters,'  which  blow  in 
 all  directions,  from  N.  E.  round  by  the  E.  to  S.  E.  The  euro- 
 clydon,  from  the  circumstances  which  attended  it,  he  says, 
 'seems  to  have  varied  very  little  from  the  true  east  point;  for, 
 as  the  ship  could  not  bear,  avrotySaXpui, '  loof  up,'  against  it,  (ver. 
 15.)  but  they  were  obliged  to  let  her  drive,  we  cannot  conceive, 
 as  there  are  no  remarkable  currents  in  that  part  of  the  sea,  and 
 as  the  rudder  could  be  of  little  use,  that  it  could  take  any  other 
 course  than  as  the  winds  directed  it.  Accordingly,  in  the  de- 
 scription of  the  Sturm,  we  find  that  the  vessel  was  first  of  all 
 under  the  island  Clauda,  (ver.  16.)  which  is  a  little  to  the  south- 
 ward of  the  parallel  of  that  part  of  the  coast  of  Crete  from  whence 
 it  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  driven;  then  it  was  tossed  along 
 the  bottom  of  the  gulf  of  Adria,  (ver.  27.)  and  afterwards  broken 
 to  pieces,  (ver.  41.)  at  Melita,  which  is  a  little  to  the  northward 
 of  the  parallel  above  mentioned ;  so  that  the  direction  and  course 
 of  this  particular  euroclydon  seems  to  have  been  first  at  east  by 
 north,  and  afterwards,  pretty  nearly  east  by  south.'  These  winds, 
 called  now 'Levanters,' and  formerly  it  appears 'euroclydon, 'were 
 no  determinate  winds,  blowing  always  from  one  point  of  the 
 compass:  euroclydon  was  probably  then,  what  Levanter  is  now, 
 the  name  of  any  tempestuous  wind  in  that  sea,  blowing  from  the 
 north-east  round  by  east  to  the  south-east;  and  therefore  St  Luke 
 says,  there  rose  against  it,  that  is,  the  vessel,  a  tempestuous 
 wind  called  euroclydon ;  which  manner  of  speaking  shows  that 
 he  no  more  considered  it  to  be  confined  to  any  one  particular 
 point  of  the  compass,  than  our  sailors  do  their  Levanter.  Dr 
 Shaw  derives  tvgoxKiiiaiv  irom  iu»«u  xXvban,  'an  eastern  tempest,' 
 
 fore  it,  so  that  they  were  forced  to  let  the  ship  drive ; 
 but,  to  secure  it  from  splitting,  they  under-girt  it;  and, 
 to  prevent  its  running  aground  on  the  shallows,  threw  out 
 a  great  part  of  its  lading  and  tackle. 
 
 For  fourteen  days  the  company  continued  in  this  con- 
 dition, without  ever  seeing  either  sun  or  stars,  and  began 
 all  now  to  give  up  their  lives  for  lost;  when  St  Paul, 
 having  a  little  blamed  them  for  not  taking  his  advice, 
 desired  them  however  to  be  of  good  courage,  because  he 
 had  assurance  from  heaven,  that,  whatever  became  of  the 
 ship,  they  should  escape  to  an  island,  and  not  one  of 
 their  lives  be  lost.  On  the  fourteenth  night,  as  the  sailors 
 were  throwing  the  lead,  and  sounding,  they  found  them- 
 selves nigh  some  coast;  and  apprehending  they  might 
 strike  upon  some  shelves  in  the  dark,  thought  proper  to 
 come  to  an  anchor,  till  the  morning  might  give  them 
 better  information.  But,  not  staying  for  that,  they  were 
 attempting  to  save  themselves  by  getting  into  the  boat, 
 when  St  Paul,  perceiving  it,  told  the  centurion,  that  un- 
 less they  all  staid  in  the  ship,  none  could  be  safe ;  where- 
 upon the  soldiers  cut  the  ropes,  and  let  the  boat  drive. 
 A  little  before  day-break,  St  Paul  persuaded  them  to 
 take  some  nourishment,  because,  in  all  that  time  of 
 danger,  which  had  been  e  for  fourteen  days,  they  had 
 eaten  in  a  manner  nothing ;  and  to  encourage  them  to 
 do  this,  he  assured  them  again,  that  '  not  a  hair  of  their 
 heads  should  perish.'  In  the  morning  they  discovered 
 land ;  and,  discerning  a  creek,  which  seemed  to  make  a 
 kind  of  haven,  they  resolved,  if  possible,  to  put  in  there ; 
 but,  in  their  passage,  unexpectedly  fell  into  a  place  where 
 two  seas  met,  and  where  the  fore-part  of  the  ship  striking 
 upon  a  neck  of  land  that  ran  out  into  the  sea,  the  hinder 
 part  was  soon  beaten  in  pieces  by  the  violence  of  the 
 waves.  When  the  soldiers  saw  this,  they  proposed  put- 
 ting all  the  prisoners  to  the  sword,  lest  any  of  them  should 
 swim  to  land, and  make  their  escape;  but  the  centurion, 
 who  was  willing  to  save  Paul,  by  no  means  allowing  of 
 that,  gave  orders  that  every  one  should  shift  for  himself; 
 and  the  issue  was,  that,  some  by  swimming,  others  on 
 planks,  and  others  on  pieces  of  the  broken  ship,  to  the 
 number  of  two  hundred  and  seventy -six  persons,  they  all 
 got  safe  to  shore. 
 
 The  country  upon  which  they  were  cast,  as  St  Paul 
 
 which  is  the  very  meaning  affixed  to  a  Levanter  at  the  present 
 day.  The  reading  of  the  Codex  Alexandrinus  is  tu^aKuXui,  '  the 
 north-east  wind,'  which  is  the  same  with  the  euro-aquilo  of  the 
 Vulgate.  This  reading  is  approved  by  several  eminent  critics  ; 
 but  Dr  Shaw,  in  the  place  referred  to  above,  has  proved  it  to  be 
 insupportable. — Dr  A.  Clarke,  on  Acts  xxvii.  14. — Ed. 
 
 e  The  words  in  the  text  are,  '  this  is  the  fourteenth  day  that 
 ye  have  continued  fasting,  having  taken  nothing,'  (Acts  xxvii. 
 33.)  Now,  because  it  was  impossible  for  them,  without  a  mira- 
 cle, to  continue  fasting  fourteen  days,  without  eating  any  thing, 
 some  have  been  induced  to  render  the  words  thus,  '  ye  have  con- 
 tinued expecting  this  day,  which  is  the  fourteenth  day,'  that  is, 
 waiting  to  see  the  success  of  it,  which  it  seems,  in  the  opinion  of 
 the  mariners,  was  a  critical  day  to  them,  wherein  their  danger 
 was  at  the  highest,  and  therefore  they  eat  nothing  all  that  day, 
 as  having  no  leisure  to  consider  hunger,  when  their  greater 
 danger  and  more  immediate  fear  was  drowning.  But  as  we 
 read  of  nothing  of  this  critical  day,  so  the  long  fasting  mentioned 
 in  ver.  21.  determines  the  sense  otherwise,  and  makes  St  Paul's 
 words  indeed  amount  to  no  more  thau  a  common  familiar  ex- 
 pression, that  may,  almost  every  day,  be  heard  at  any  table, 
 where  there  happens  to  be  a  puny  stomach:  'you  have  eat 
 nothing,'  says  the  master  of  the  house  to  such  a  one,  '  very  little, 
 or  next  to  nothing.' — Whitby's,  Hammond's,  and  Beausobre's 
 Annotations. 
 
 6  z 
 
1098 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  40G5.  A.  IX  61;  OK,  A.  M.  5472.  A.  D.  61,  ft&  FROM  ACTS.  i.  10.  TO  THE  END 
 had  foretold,  was  an  island,  called  °  Melita,  now  Malta; 
 
 [Book  VIIT. 
 
 and  the  natives  of  the  place  received  them  with  great 
 civility  and  kindness,  making  them  fires  to  dry  their  wet 
 clothes,  and  cherish  their  benumbed  limbs.  But  as  Paul 
 was  throwing  some  sticks  upon  the  fire,  *  a  viper  dis- 
 
 a  There  were  two  islands  of  this  name:  one  in  the  Adriatic 
 Gulf,  or  Gulf  of  Venice,  on  the  coast  of  Illyricum,  and  near  to 
 Kpidaurus;  the  other  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  between  Sicily 
 and  Africa,  and  now  called  Malta.  It  is  about  fifty  miles  from 
 the  coast  of  Sicily ;  twenty  miles  long,  and  twelve  miles  in  its 
 i  breadth;  and  about  sixty  miles  in  circumference.  It  is 
 one  immense  rock  of  white  soft  freestone,  with  about  one  foot 
 depth  of  earth  on  an  average,  and  most  of  this  has  been  brought 
 from  Sicily!  It  produces  cotton,  excellent  fruits,  and  fine  honey; 
 from  which  it  appears  the  island  originally  had  its  name;  for 
 MfX/,  '  meli,'  and  in  the  genitive  case  mXiro;,  'Melitos,'  signifies 
 honey.  Others  suppose  that  it  derived  its  name  from  the  Phce- 
 nicians,  who  established  a  colony  in  it,  and  made  it  a  place  of  re- 
 fuge, when  they  extended  their  traffic  to  the  ocean,  because  it  was 
 furnished  with  excellent  harbours,  on  the  east  and  west  shores: 
 hence,  in  their  tongue,  it  would  be  called  wr?»  '  Meliteh,'  escape 
 or  refuse,  from  'jh'o  malat,  'to  escape.'  The  Phseacians  were 
 probably  the  first  inhabitants  of  this  island:  they  were  expelled 
 by  the  Phoenicians;  the  Phoenicians  by  the  Greeks  ;  the  Greeks 
 by  the  Carthaginians;  the  Carthaginians  by  the  Romans,  who 
 possessed  it  in  the  time  of  the  apostle;  the  Romans  by  the 
 Goths  ;  the  Goths  by  the  Saracens  ;  the  Saracens  by  the  Sicilians, 
 under  Roger,  earl  of  Sicily,  in  1190.  Charles  V.,  emperor  of 
 Gei  many,  took  possession  of  it  by  his  conquest  of  Naples  and 
 Sicily;  and  he  gave  it  in  1525  to  the  Knights  of  Rhodes,  who 
 are  also  called  the  Knights  of  St  John  of  Jerusalem.  In  1798, 
 this  island  surrendered  to  the  French,  under  Buonaparte,  and  in 
 1800,  after  a  blockade  of  two  years,  the  island  being  reduced  by 
 famine,  surrendered  to  the  British,  under  whose  dominion  it 
 still  remains,  (1838.)  Every  thiug  considered,  there  can  be 
 little  doubt  that  this  is  the  Melita  at  which  St  Paul  was  wrecked, 
 and  not  at  that  other  island  in  the  Adriatic,  or  Venetian  Gulf, 
 as  high  up  northward  as  Illyricum.  The  following  reasons  make 
 this  greatly  evident:  1.  Tradition  has  unvaryingly  asserted  this 
 as  the  place  of  the  apostle's  shipwreck.  2.  The  island  in  the 
 Venetian  Gulf,  in  favour  of  which  Mr  Biyant  so  learnedly  con- 
 tends, is  totally  out  of  the  track  in  which  the  euroclydon  must 
 have  driven  the  vessel.  3.  It  is  said,  in  ver.  1 1,  of  this  chapter, 
 that  another  ship  of  Alexandria,  bound,  as  we  must  suppose,  for 
 Italy,  and  very  probably  carrying  wheat  thither,  as  St  Paul's 
 vessel  did,  (chap,  xxvii.  38)  had  been  driven  out  of  its  course  of 
 sailing,  by  stress  of  weather,  up  to  the  Illyrican  Melita,  and 
 had  been  for  that  cause  obliged  to  winter  in  the  isle.  Now  this 
 is  a  supposition  which,  as  I  think,  is  too  much  of  a  supposition 
 to  be  made.  4.  In  St  Paul's  voyage  to  Italy  from  Melita,  on 
 board  the  Alexandrian  ship  that  had  wintered  there,  he  and  his 
 companions  landed  at  Syracuse,  (ver.  12,  13.)  and  from  thence 
 went  to  Rhcgium.  But  if  it  had  been  the  Illyrican  Melita,  the 
 proper  course  of  the  ship  would  have  been,  first,  to  Rhegium, 
 before  it  reached  Syracuse,  and  needed  not  to  have  gone  to  Syra- 
 cuse at  all:  whereas,  in  a  voyage  from  the  present  Malta  to 
 Italy,  it  was  necessary  to  reach  Syracuse,  in  Sicily,  before  the 
 ship  could  arrive  at  Rhegium  in  Italy. — Dr.  A.  Clarke,  (Acts 
 xxviii.  1.) — Ed. 
 
 b  This  serpent,  which  in  the  sacred  writings  is  called  Trjfa, 
 apha,  is  no  doubt  the  cpha  of  the  Arabs,  thus  described  by  Dr 
 Shaw  :  but  the  most  common  as  well  as  malignant  of  this  tribe, 
 is  the  UffaA,  which,  like  our  viper  or  adder,  is  of  a  less  uniform 
 turn  of  body  than  the  zurreike,  and  rarely  exceeds  a  foot  in 
 length.  It  is  not  always  of  the  same  colour,  but  varies  a  little 
 according  to  the  quality  of  the  earth,  sand,  or  rocks  where  it  is 
 I  he  torrida  dipsas  answers  very  well  both  to  the  name 
 
 found. 
 
 and  to  the  quality  of  the  leffah,  which  is  so  called  from  leffah, 
 were,  '  to  burn.'  The  Arabs  report  that  there  is  the  same  anti- 
 pathy betwixt  the  leffah  and  the  taitah,  chameleon,  which  was 
 long  ago  assigned  to  the  chameleon  and  the  viper;  and  that  a 
 little  drop  of  clammy  juice,  which  the  taitah  lets  fall  on  the 
 h-flali  will  throw  it  into  such  violent  convulsions  as  are  attended 
 with  immediate  death.  This  creature  is  remarkable  for  its  quick 
 and  penetrating  poison,  and  on  this  account  has  been  made,  from 
 the  remotest  antiquity,  an  emblem  of  what  is  hurtful  and  de- 
 structive. Nay,  so  terrible  was  the  nature  of  these  creatures, 
 that  they  were  very  commonly  thought  to  be  sent  as  execution- 
 
 lodged  by  the  heat,  came  out  of  the  wood,  and  fastened 
 on  his  hand.  Which  when  the  natives  saw,  they  imme- 
 diately concluded  that  he  was  some  notorious  malefac- 
 tor or  murderer,  whom  the  divine  vengeance,  though  it 
 suffered  him  to  escape  the  sea,  had  reserved  for  a 
 more  public  and  solemn  execution.  But  when  they  saw 
 him  shake  off  the  venomous  creature  into  the  fire,  and 
 no  manner  of  harm  ensue,  they  changed  their  sentiments 
 to  the  other  extreme,  and  cried  out  that  c  '  he  was  a  god.' 
 
 Not  far  from  this  place  was  the  residence  of  d  Publius, 
 the  governor  of  the  island,  who  entertained  this  ship- 
 wrecked company  with  great  hospitality  for  three  days ; 
 in  acknowledgment  of  which,  St  Paul  by  his  prayers, 
 and  the  imposition  of  his  hands,  recovered  his  father, 
 from  a  fever  and  bloody  flux,  and  several  others  of  the 
 inhabitants,  afflicted  with  any  kind  of  disease,  he  re- 
 stored to  their  former  health  and  strength  ;  for  which 
 they  not  only  showed  him  the  highest  marks  of  their 
 esteem,  but  furnished  both  him  and  his  company  with  all 
 necessaries  proper  for  the  rest  of  their  voyage. 
 
 After  three  months  stay  in  this  island,  the  centurion 
 and  his  charge  went  on  board  the  e  Castor  and  Pollux,  a 
 
 ers  of  divine  vengeance  upon  mankind  for  enormous  crimes 
 which  had  escaped  the  course  of  justice.  An  instance  of  such 
 an  opinion  as  this,  we  have  in  the  history  of  St  Paul  (Acts  xxviii.), 
 whom  the  people  of  Melita,  when  they  saw  the  viper  leap  upon 
 his  hand,  presently  concluded  to  be  a  murderer;  and  as  readily 
 made  a  god  of  him,  when,  instead  of  having  his  hand  inflamed, 
 or  falling  down  dead,  he,  without  any  harm,  shook  the  reptile 
 into  the  fire,  it  being  obvious  enough  to  imagine,  that  he  must 
 stand  in  a  near  relation,  at  least  to  the  gods  themselves,  who 
 could  thus  command  the  messengers  of  their  vengeance,  and 
 counterwork  the  etiects  of  such  powerful  agents — Carpenter's 
 Scripture  Natural  History. 
 
 c  Hercules  was  one  of  the  gods  whom  the  people  of  this  island 
 worshipped,  and  to  him  they  ascribed  the  power  of  curing  the 
 bite  of  serpents. — Beausobre's  Annotations. 
 
 d  That  he  was  governor  of  the  island,  is  highly  probable  from 
 an  inscription  found  there,  and  set  down  by  Grotius,  wherein 
 the  IIPfiTOS  MEAITAIftN,  is  reckoned  among  the  Roman 
 officers ;  and  that  both  he,  and  most  of  the  people  under  him, 
 were  converted  to  the  Christian  faith,  is  the  joint  opinion  of  St 
 Chrysostom,  and  some  other  Greek  authors  ;  whereas  Ado,  with 
 several  Latin  writers,  affirm  that  Publius,  joining  himself  to 
 St  Paul,  was  by  him  made  a  bishop,  and  sent  to  preach  the 
 gospel  ;  and  that  coming  to  Athens,  he  there  settled,  governed 
 that  church  in  the  quality  of  a  bishop  for  some  time,  and  then 
 ended  his  life  by  martyrdom.  But  this  is  a  mistaken  piece  of 
 history,  since  the  Publius  who  was  the  bishop  of  Athens  did  not 
 suffer  martyrdom  till  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius. — Cave's 
 Lives  of  the  Apostles,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 e  It  was  the  custom  of  the  ancients  to  have  images  on  their 
 ships,  both  at  the  head  and  stern,  the  first  of  which  was  called 
 Ta^airnfiov,  '  the  sign,'  from  which  the  ship  was  named,  and  the 
 other  was  that  of  the  tutelar  deity  to  whose  care  the  ship  was 
 committed  ;  which  probably  might  give  occasion  to  the  fable  that 
 Europa  was  carried  away  by  Jupiter  in  the  shape  of  a  bull.  There 
 is  no  doubt  but  they  had  sometimes  deities  at  the  head;  and 
 then  it  is  most  likely,  if  they  had  any  figure  at  the  stern,  it  was 
 the  same,  as  it  is  hardly  probable  the  ship  should  be  called  by 
 the  name  of  one  deity,  and  be  committed  to  the  care  of  another. 
 The  figure  that  was  used  for  Castor  and  Pollux,  as  Dr  Light- 
 foot  says,  was  that  of  two  young  men  on  horseback,  with  each 
 of  them  a  javelin  in  his  hand,  &c.  But  others  have  observed 
 that  the  sign  of  Castor  and  Pollux  was  that  of  a  double  cross; 
 and  though  the  Greeks  took  them  for  a  sign  in  the  zodiac  which 
 was  called  the  twins,  and  considered  as  sacred  to  those  ficti- 
 tious deities,  whom  they  supposed  to  be  the  sons  of  Jupiter  by 
 Leda,  it  was  not  at  first  represented  by  two  boys,  but  by  two 
 beasts,  as  referring  to  the  fruitfulness  of  goats  in  producing  twin 
 kids  about  the  time  the  sun  was  in  that  constellation.  The  ap- 
 pearance of  both  these  constellations  together  was,  as  Dr  Ham- 
 mond has  observed,  after  Strabo,  Pausanias,  and  other  ancient 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1099 
 
 A.  M.  4065.  A.  V.  61 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5472.  A  D 
 ship  of  Alexandria,  bound  for  Italy.  At  a  Syracuse  they 
 put  in  and  tarried  three  days ;  thence  sailed  to  A  Rhe- 
 gium,  and  so  to  c  Puteoli,  where  they  landed  ;  and  rind- 
 ing some  Christians  there,  at  their  request  staid  a  week 
 with  them,  and  then  set  forward  in  their  journey  to 
 Rome-  The  Christians  of  this  city  hearing-  of  the  apos- 
 tle's coming,  went  out  to  meet  him,  some  as  far  as 
 d  Appii-forum,  and  others  as  far  as  the  e  Three  Taverns  ; 
 
 writers,  thought  favourable  to  mariners,  and  therefore  for  a  good 
 omen,  they  had  them  carved  or  painted  on  the  head  of  the  ship, 
 and  gave  it  a  name  from  hence,  which  the  sacred  historian  does 
 not  scruple  to  use. — Doddridge' s  Expositor. 
 
 a  This  was  a  city  of  Sicily,  seated  on  the  east  side  of  the 
 island,  with  a  line  prospect  from  every  entrance  both  by  sea  and 
 land.  Its  port,  which  had  the  sea  on  both  sides  of  it,  was  almost 
 all  of  it  environed  with  beautiful  buildings,  and  all  that  part  of 
 it  which  was  without  the  city,  was  on  both  sides  banked  up,  and 
 sustained  with  very  fair  walls  of  marble.  The  city  itself  while 
 in  its  splendour,  was  the  largest  and  richest  that  the  Greeks 
 possessed  in  any  part  of  the  world.  For  according  to  Strabo 
 it  was  two  and  twenty  miles  in  circumference  ;  and  both  Livy 
 and  Plutarch  inform  us,  that  the  spoil  of  it  was  equal  to  that  of 
 Carthage.  It  was  called  Quadruples,  as  being  divided  into  four 
 parts, — Acradina,  Tyche,  Neapolis,  and  the  island  of  Octygia. 
 The  first  of  these  contained  in  it  the  famous  temple  of  Jupiter; 
 the  second,  the  temple  of  Fortune;  the  third,  a  large  amphi- 
 theatre, and  a  wonderful  statue  of  Apollo  in  the  midst  of  a  spa- 
 cious square  ;  and  the  fourth,  the  two  temples  of  Diana  and 
 Minerva,  and  the  renowned  fountain  of  Arethusa.  About  two 
 hundred  and  ten  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  this  city  was 
 taken  and  sacked  by  Marcellus  the  Roman  general:  and  in 
 storming  the  place,  Archimedes  the  great  mathematician,  who 
 is  esteemed  the  first  inventor  of  the  sphere,  and  who,  during  the 
 siege,  had  sorely  galled  the  Romans  with  his  military  engines, 
 was  slain  by  a  common  soldier,  while  he  was  intent  upon  his 
 studies.  After  it  was  thus  destroyed  by  Marcellus,  Augustus 
 rebuilt  that  part  of  it  which  stood  upon  the  island;  and  in  time 
 it  so  far  recovered  itself,  as  to  have  three  walls,  three  castles,  and 
 a  marble  gate,  and  to  be  able  to  set  out  twelve  thousand  horse, 
 and  four  hundred  ships.  But  the  blow  which  the  Saracens  gave 
 it,  A.  D.  884,  when  they  razed  it  to  the  ground,  it  even  feels 
 to  this  day. —  Whitby's  Alphabetical  Table,  and  Wells's  Geo- 
 graphy of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 b  Rhegium,  now  called  Rheggio,  is  a  port  town  in  Italy,  op- 
 posite to  Messina  in  Sicily;  and  is  thought  to  have  had  this 
 name  given  it  by  the  Greeks,  who  suppose  that  much  about 
 this  place  Sicily  was  broken  off  from  the  continent  of  Italy  by 
 the  sea.  At  present  it  is  an  archbishop's  see,  and  a  considerable 
 place  for  trade,  though  it  has  several  times  formerly  been  sur- 
 prised and  plundered  by  the  Turks. —  Wells's  Geography  of  the 
 New  Testament. 
 
 C  This  place,  which  is  now  commonly  called  Pozzuoli,  is  a  city 
 in  Terra  di  Lavora,  a  province  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  situ- 
 ated upon  a  hill,  in  a  creek  of  the  sea,  and  just  opposite  to  Baiie, 
 on  the  other  side  of  the  creek,  a  place  of  great  renown  among 
 the  Roman  writers.  Within  the  bounds  of  this  city  there  are 
 five  and  thirty  natural  baths  of  diflerent  sorts  of  warm  waters, 
 very  useful  for  the  cure  of  several  diseases  ;  and  from  these  baths, 
 or  pits  of  water,  called  in  Latin,  ptttei,  the  town  is  said  to  have 
 taken  its  name.  At  present  it  is  a  bishop's  see,  under  the 
 archbishop  of  Naples ;  and  in  it  are  to  be  seen  many  Roman 
 antiquities,  and  natural  rarities,  not,  easily  to  be  found  elsewhere. 
 —  /Metis's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 d  This  place,  at  present  called  Cassarilla  di  St  Maria,  was  an 
 ancient  city  of  the  Volsci,  about  fifty  miles  distant  from  Rome; 
 and  is  probably  thought  to  have  had  its  name  from  the  statue  of 
 Appius  Claudius,  that  Roman  consul  who  paved  the  famous  way 
 from  Kome  to  Capua,  which  was  set  up  here. —  Wells's  Geo- 
 grnjihy  of  the  New  Testament,  and  Calmct's  Commentary. 
 
 e  This  was  another  place  that  stood  upon  the  Appian  way,  about 
 thirty  miles  distant  from  Rome.  And  that  it  was  a  city,  pro- 
 perly so  called,  and  not  a  parcel  of  inns  only  for  the  reception 
 and  entertainment  of  travellers,  is  evident  from  its  being  an  epis- 
 copal see  in  the  time  of  Constautine  ;  for  among  the  nineteen 
 bishops  who  were  delegated  by  that  Emperor  to  decide  the  con- 
 troversy between  Donatus  and  CscilianuB,  FelixaTribus  Taber- 
 
 61,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.TO  THE  END. 
 
 which  when  he  saw,  he  blessed  God  and  took  courage. 
 They  all  conducted  him,  in  a  kind  of  triumph,  into  the 
 city  ;  where,  when  they  were  arrived,  the  rest  of  the 
 prisoners  were  delivered  over  to  the  /  captain  of  the 
 guard,  but  Paul  was  permitted  to  stay  in  a  private  house, 
 only  S  with  one  soldier  for  his  ward. 
 
 Three  days  after  his  arrival  at  Rome,  St  Paul  sent 
 for  the  heads  of  the  Jewish  '»  consistory  there,  and  to  them 
 related  the  cause  of  his  coming,  namely,  '  That  though 
 he  had  been  guilty  of  no  violation  of  the  laws  of  their 
 religion,  yet  by  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem  he  had  been 
 delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  Roman  governors,  who 
 more  than  once  would  have  acquitted  him,  as  innocent 
 of  any  capital  offence,  but  that,  by  the  perverseness  of 
 his  persecutors,  he  was  constrained,  not  with  any  inten- 
 tion to  accuse  his  own  nation,  but  only  to  clear  and  vindi- 
 cate himself,  to  make  his  appeal  to  the  Emperor.'  Having 
 thus  removed  a  popular  prejudice,  and  insinuated  the 
 cause  of  his  suffering  to  be  that  which  their  own  religion 
 had  taught  him,  namely,  the  belief  and  expectation  of  a 
 future  resurrection,  he  gained  so  far  upon  their  affections, 
 as  to  have  a  second  conference,  by  their  own  appoint- 
 ment, for  explaining  the  principles  of  Christianity  to 
 them.  Accordingly,  when  they  were  met  together,  he  dis- 
 coursed to  them,  from  morning  to  night,  concerning  the 
 religion  and  doctrine  of  the  holy  Jesus,  proving  from 
 the  promises  and  predictions  of  the  Old  Testament  that 
 he  was  the  true  Messias.  But  the  success  of  his  discourse 
 was  different,  some  being  convinced,  and  others  persist- 
 ing in  their  infidelity  ;  so  that  they  parted  with  no  small 
 difference  and  disagreement  among  themselves. 
 
 For  two  whole  years  Paul  dwelt  at  Rome,  in  an  house 
 which  he  hired  for  his  own  use,  wherein  he  constantly 
 employed  himself  in  preaching,  and  writing  for  the  good 
 
 nis,  Felix  bishop  of  the  city,  called  Tres  Tabernce,  was  one. 
 And  indeed,  if  we  will  allow  of  Scaliger's  interpretation  of  the 
 word  tabemae,  namely,  that  it  was  the  name  of  the  frontier 
 towns,  which  were  built  against  the  excursions  of  the  barbarians: 
 Zosimus  (Hist.  b.  ii.  part  05.)  acquaints  us,  that  Dioelesian  every- 
 where erected  such  on  the  borders  of  the  Roman  empire ;  and 
 we  have  reason  to  think,  that  the  like  was  done  in  earlier  times 
 by  other  emperors  ;  and  that  therefore  the  Tres  Taberme,  where 
 the  Sauromatae,  as  Ausonius  tells  us,  had  their  habitation  assigned 
 them,  in  order  to  garrison  and  defend  these  places,  were  such. — 
 Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 f  This  <r<r£aToTi$dgx*is>  or  chief  commander  of  the  Emperor's 
 guards,  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  Burrhus,  whom 
 Claudius  made  his  prtetorian  prefect,  A.  D.  51.  He  had  a 
 great  hand  in  advancing  Nero  to  the  empire;  and,  while  he 
 lived,  had  so  much  influence  or  authority  over  him,  as  to  keep 
 his  evil  inclinations  under  some  sort  of  restraint:  but  he 
 died  A  D.  62,  about  two  years  after  St  Paul's  arrival  at  Rome, 
 leaving  behind  him,  according  to  the  account  of  historians,  a 
 great  reputation  for  wisdom  and  moderation. — Echard's  Ecclesi- 
 astical History,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 g  The  manner  of  the  soldiers  guarding  the  prisoner  among 
 the  Romans  was,  by  having  a  chain,  at  one  end  fastened  to  the 
 prisoner's  right  hand,  and  at  the  other  to  the  soldier's  left,  and  this 
 made  so  long,  that  they  might  conveniently  go  together.  But 
 sometimes,  for  greater  security,  the  prisoner  was  guarded  with 
 two  soldiers,  and  so  had  two  chains,  one  of  them  made  fast  to 
 one  soldier,  anil  the  other  to  the  other;  (Acts  xii.  6,  T.  and 
 Acts  xxi.  33.) — Whitby 's  and  Hammond's  Annotations. 
 
 h  Hence  it  appears,  that  the  edict  of  Claudius,  which  banished 
 the  Jews  from  Rome,  was  of  no  long  continuance,  but  probably 
 expired  with  his  life;  because  we  find,  by  St  Paul's  epistle  to  the 
 Romans,  which  he  wrote  about  two  years  before  his  going  among 
 them,  that  there  were  great  numbers  both  of  Jews  and  Christians 
 then  residing  at  Kome. —  Beausobrr's  s^ni  iota  lions  and  Calmet's 
 Commentary, 
 
1100 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4066.  A.  D.  62;  OR,  A.  M.  5473.  A.  13.  62,  &c.  FROM  ACTS 
 
 10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 of  the  church.  He  preached  daily  without  interruption, 
 and  with  good  success,  insomuch  that  his  imprisonment 
 very  much  redounded  to  the  propagation  of  the  gospel, 
 and  made  hint  famous  even  in  the  °  emperor's  court, 
 where  he  converted  several  to  Christianity. 
 
 Among  other  of  the  apostle's  converts  at  Rome,  was 
 one  b  Onesimus,  who  had  formerly  been  a  servant  to 
 Philemon,  c  a  person  of  distinction  d  in  Colosse  but  had 
 
 a  Among  these  the  Roman  martyrology  reckons  Terpes,  an 
 officer  of  prime  note  in  Nero's  palace,  and  afterwards  a  martyr 
 for  tlte  faith:  and  St  Chrysostom,  if  Baron i us  cites  him  right, 
 tells  us  of  Nero's  cup-bearer,  and  one  of  his  concubines,  supposed 
 by  some  to  have  been  Poppiea  Sabina,  of  whom  Tacitus  gives  us 
 this  character, — '  That  she  wanted  nothing  to  make  her  one  of 
 the  most  accomplished  ladies  in  the  world,  but  a  chaste  and  vir- 
 tuous mind.'  And  I  know  not  how  far  it  may  seem  to  counte- 
 nance bar  conn tnion,  at  least  inclination  to  a  better  religion  than 
 that  of  paganism,  that  Josephua  styles  her  a  pious  woman,  and 
 talis  us,  that  she  effectually  solicited  the  cause  of  the  Jews  with 
 her  husband  Nito;  and  what  favours  Josephus  himself  received 
 from  her  at  Rome,  he  relates  in  his  own  life. — Cave's  Lives  of 
 the  Apostles. 
 
 b  This  was  no  uncommon  name  given  to  slaves;  and  as  it 
 signifies  in  the  original '  profitable,'  the  apostle  may  be  supposed 
 to  allude  to  it,  when  he  tells  Philemon,  concerning  this  servant 
 of  his,  «jn  time  past  he  was  to  thee  unprofitable,  but  now  profit- 
 able both  to  thee  and  me,'  (Phil.  ver.  11.)  and  indeed  so  he 
 proved;  for,  not  long  after  his  return  to  his  master,  he  was  sent 
 back  again  to  Rome,  that  he  might  be  of  service  to  St  Paul  in 
 his  prison.  The  epistles  which  St  Paul  wrote  in  his  confinement, 
 were  by  his  hand  conveyed  to  their  respective  churches.  After 
 the  apostle's  release  from  prison,  he  was  assistant  to  him  in  the 
 propagation  of  the  gospel,  and  according  to  the  Apostolic  Consti- 
 tutions, was  by  him  made  bishop  of  Berea  in  Macedonia,  where 
 he  snii,  red  martyrdom;  though  others  say,  that  he  succeeded 
 Timothy  in  the  bishopric  of  Kphesus;  and  that,  being  taken 
 into  custody,  and  carried  to  Rome,  he  was  there  stoned  to  death 
 for  his  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  That  he  was  a  true  convert  to 
 Christianity,  and  a  sincere  penitent  for  his  private  offences,  is 
 evident  from  the  appellations  which  St  Paul  gives  him,  of  'his 
 sen,  the  son  of  his  bowels,'  (Philem.  10,  12.)  and,  'his  faithful 
 and  beloved  brother,'  (Col.  iv.  9.)  But  that  he  was  either 
 bishop  or  martyr,  St  Chrysostom,  St  Jerom,  and  Theodoret,  who 
 have  all  wrote  commentaries  upon  the  epistle  to  Philemon,  make 
 not  the  least  mention. — Calmet's  and  Beausobre's  Preface  to 
 the  Epistle  if  Philemon. 
 
 c  He  was  a  person  of  some  consideration  in  Colosse,  a  city  of 
 
 Phrygia  ;  for  his  family  was  there  remaining  in   the   time  of 
 
 •ret,  who  flourished  in  the  fifth  age  of  the  church.     St 
 
 Pan],  we  reatl,  was  twice  in  Phrygia;  and  yet  we  do  not   find 
 
 that  he  was  ever  at  Colosse;  nay,  he  seems  to  declare  himself 
 
 uas  never  there,  (Col.  ii.  1.)  and  therefore  we  must  sup- 
 
 1 •  that  either  he  converted  Philemon,  as  he  seems  to  intimate 
 
 he  did,  (ver.  19.)  at  Ephesus,  or  some  other  place  in  Asia  Minor, 
 while  he  was  preaching  the  gospel  there;  or  that  Epaphras,  who 
 *aa  St  Paul's  disciple,  and  by  him  appointed  evangelist  to  the 
 (' ok '-sians,  was  the  person  who  converted  him.  However  this 
 be,  it  is  certain,  that,  upon  his  conversion,  he  became  a  fellow- 
 labourer  in  the  gospel,  (ver.  1.)  and,  as  the  Apostolic  Constitu- 
 tions tell  us,  by  St  Paul  was  made  the  bishop  of  the  church  of 
 1  B,   which,   by  his  extensive  charity,  (Philem.   5,  6.)  he 
 
 edified,  as  much  as  by  his  preaching  of  the  gospel,  until  he  and 
 Appia  both  Buffered  martyrdom  in  the  time  of  Nero.— 
 Calmeft  and  /;  mucin's  Preface  to  the  Epistle  of  Philemon.— 
 
 0  Home's  Introduction,  vol.  iv. — Ed. 
 
 '/  I.iis  was  a  great  city  of  Phrygia  in  Asia  Minor,  built  by 
 
 ■   '■  Lycos,  near  the  place,  as  Herodotus  informs  us,  (i.  7. 
 
 <;.  30,)  where  il  begins  to  ran  under  ground,  as  it  does  for  five 
 
 furlongs  before  it  rises  again,  and  empties  itself  into  the  Mean- 
 
 1  his  city  was  situated  at  an  equal  distance  between  Laodi- 
 cea  and  Hierapolis,  and  therefore  we  find  St  Paul,  in  his  epistle 
 t o  the  Cob.ssians,  (chap.  iv.  13.)  making  mention  of  the  inhabi- 
 ts of  all  these  three  cities  together;  which,  according  to  the 
 
 account  of  EuaeMus,  were  all  destroyed  by  an  earthquake,  in  the 
 
 tenth  of  Nero,  about  two  years  after  that  this  epistle  was  sent  to 
 
 -Xmphy  of  the  New  Testament,  and  Whitby's 
 
 J 
 
 run  away  from  his  master,  and  taken  tilings  of  some 
 value  with  him.  He  rambled  as  far  as  Rome  ;  where, 
 by  St  Paul's  means,  he  was  converted,  instructed,  and 
 baptized,  and  afterwards  became  highly  serviceable  to 
 him  in  his  imprisonment.  But  being  another  man's  ser- 
 vant, he  sent  him  back  to  Colosse,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
 wrote  e  a  short  letter  to  his  master,  /'earnestly  desiring 
 him  to  pardon  him,  and,  notwithstanding  his  former 
 faults,  to  treat  him  kindly,  and  use  him  as  a  brother; 
 and  promising  withal,  that  if  he  had  wronged  or  owed 
 him  any  thing,  he  himself  would  not  fail  to  repay  it.' 
 
 The  Christians  of  Philippi  having  heard  of  St  Paul's 
 imprisonment  at  Rome,  and  not  knowing  what  straits  he 
 might  be  reduced  to,  raised  a  contribution  for  him,  and 
 sent  it  by  Epaphroditus,  8  their  bishop  ;  by  whom  he  re- 
 turned an  epistle  h  to  them;    'wherein  he  gives  some 
 
 e  This  epistle  may  pass  for  a  masterpiece  of  eloquence  in  the 
 persuasive  way.  For  therein  the  apostle  has  recourse  to  all  the 
 considerations  which  friendship,  religion,  piety,  and  tenderness 
 can  inspire  to  reconcile  a  servant  to  his  master ;  and  yet  some  of 
 the  ancients  were  of  opinion,  that  it  did  not  deserve  a  place  in 
 the  canon  of  scripture ;  because  it  was  wrote  on  a  particular  oc- 
 casion, and  with  a  design  not  so  much  to  instruct  Christians  in 
 general,  as  to  recommend  a  fugitive  servant.  But  though  the 
 subject  of  this  epistle  be  a  private  affair,  yet  it  contains  such 
 general  instructions  as  these:  1st.  That  no  Christian,  though  of 
 the  meanest  condition,  is  to  be  contemned.  2dly.  That  Chris- 
 tianity does  not  impair  the  power  of  masters  over  their  servants. 
 3dly.  That  servants  ought  to  make  satisfaction  for  any  wrong  or 
 injury  done  to  their  masters.  4thly.  That  masters  ought  to  be 
 reconciled  to  their  servants,  upon  their  repentance,  and  acknow- 
 ledgement of  their  faults.  And  5thly,  That  there  is,  at  all 
 times,  a  love  and  affection  due  from  a  master  to  a  profitable  ser- 
 vant. And  who  then,  say  the  Greek  interpreters,  would  refuse 
 to  number  an  epistle  so  profitable  and  instructive  with  the  rest  of 
 St  Paul's  works. — Chrysost.  arc/urn.  epist.  ad  Philem. — Calmet's, 
 Beausobre's,  and  irhitby's  pref.ad  eandem. 
 
 f  For  the  case  of  servants  in  those  days  was  very  hard.  All 
 masters  were  looked  upon,  not  only  by  the  Roman  laws,  but  by 
 the  laws  of  all  nations,  as  having  au  unlimited  power  over  them: 
 so  that,  without  asking  the  magistrate's  leave,  or  any  public  or 
 formal  trial,  they  might  adjudge  them  to  any  work  or  punish- 
 ment, even  to  the  loss  of  life  itself,  if  they  pleased.  The  exorbi- 
 tancy of  this  power  however  was,  in  some  measure,  curbed  by 
 the  laws  of  succeeding  emperors,  especially  after  they  became 
 Christian,  which  make  better  provision  for  persons  in  that  rela- 
 tion and  capacity,  and  in  case  of  unjust  and  over-rigorous  usage, 
 enable  them  to  appeal  to  a  more  righteous  tribunal,  where  master 
 and  servant  shall  both  stand  upon  even  ground,  '  where  he  that 
 doth  wrong,  shall  receive  for  the  wrong  which  he  hath  done, 
 and  there  is  no  respect  of  persons,'  (Col.  iii.  25.) — Cave's  Lives 
 of  the  Apostles. 
 
 g  St  Paul  calls  him  the  '  apostle  of  the  Philippians ;'  which 
 some,  taking  the  word  apostle  in  its  literal  sense,  for  a  messen- 
 ger only,  do  suppose  that  Epaphroditus  is  so  called,  because  he 
 was  appointed  by  the  Philippians  to  carry  money  to  St  Paul,  who 
 was  then  in  prison  at  Rome,  and,  in  their  name,  to  be  service- 
 able to  him  in  his  person.  But  Theodoret,  and  others  of  the 
 fathers  who  have  written  upon  the  epistle  to  the  Philippians,  tell 
 us,  that  he  was  the  person  S>  t£v  ^d^»  avruv  I'mrriuh  Wip'&ua, 
 '  to  whom  the  care  of  their  souls  had  been  committed,'  and  con- 
 sequently their  bishop ;  for  it  is  more  feasible  to  make  him 
 bishop  of  Philippi,  than  of  any  other  place,  as  some  have  done. — 
 Whitby's  Preface  to  the  epistle  to  the  Philippians,  and  Calmet's 
 Commentary  on  chap.  ii.  25. 
 
 h  Of  all  the  epistles  which  St  Paul  wrote,  there  is  none  so  full 
 of  affection  and  tender  sentiments,  as  this  to  the  Philippians, 
 who  it  must  be  owned,  upon  the  account  of  their  constancy  in 
 the  faith,  as  well  as  their  zeal  for  the  apostle,  and  concern  for 
 his  sufferings,  deserved  such  kind  treatment;  and  therefore,  so 
 tar  is  he  from  censuring  or  reproving  them,  as  he  usually  does 
 other  churches,  that  we  find  him  abounding  in  their  praise  and 
 commendation:  a  good  argument  this,  as  St  Chrysostom  remarks, 
 of  their  virtuous  behaviour;  that  they  gave  their  teacher  no 
 cause  to  complain,  but  that  the  whole  epistle   which   he  sent 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST  &c. 
 
 1101 
 
 A.  M.  4066.  A.  D.  62 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5473.  A.  D. 
 
 account  of  the  state  of  his  affairs  at  Rome  :  gratefully 
 acknowledges  their  kindness  to  him  ;  warns  them  against 
 the  dangerous  opinions  which  the  Judaizing  teachers 
 began  to  vent  among  them ;  and  advises  them  to  live  in 
 continual  obedience  to  Christ,  to  avoid  disputations,  to 
 delight  in  prayer,  to  be  courageous  under  afflictions, 
 united  in  love,  and  clothed  with  humility,  in  imitation 
 of  the  blessed  Jesus,'  who  so  far  humbled  himself,  as  to 
 become  obedient  to  death,  even  to  the  death  of  the  cross.' 
 St  Paul  had  for  three  years  lived  at  Ephesus,  taking 
 great  pains  in  preaching  the  gospel,  and  was  thoroughly 
 acquainted  with  the  state  and  condition  of  the  place ; 
 and  therefore  now  taking  the  opportunity  of  Tychicus's  a 
 going  thither,  he  wrote  his  epistle  *  to  the  Ephesians  ; 
 '  wherein  he  endeavours  to  countermine  the  principles  and 
 practices  both  of  the  Jews  and  Gentiles ;  to  confirm 
 them  in  the  belief  and  obedience  of  the  Christian  doc- 
 trine ;  and  to  instruct  them  fully  in  the  great  mysteries 
 of  the  gospel ;  their  redemption  and  justification  by  the 
 death  of  Christ ;  their  gratuitous  election  ;  the  calling 
 of  the  Gentiles  ;  their  union  with  the  Jews  in  one  body, 
 of  which  Jesus  was  the  head ;  and  the  glorious  exalta- 
 tion of  that  head  above  all  creatures,  both  spiritual  and 
 temporal ;  together  with  many  excellent  moral  precepts, 
 
 them,  contains  nothing  but  kind  exhortations  and  encourage- 
 ments, without  the  least  mixture  of  sharpness  or  reproof. — Beau- 
 sobre's  Preface  to  Epistle  to  the  Philippians. 
 
 a  Tychicus  was  of  the  province  of  Asia,  and  a  disciple  of  St 
 Paul,  whom  he  frequently  employed  to  cany  his  letters  to  several 
 churches ;  as  that  to  the  Colossians,  written  in  61 :  that  to  the 
 Ephesians,  written  in  65 ;  and  the  first  to  Timothy,  written  in 
 64.  Nor  did  he  employ  him  merely  to  carry  his  letters,  but  to 
 learn  likewise  the  state  of  the  several  churches  to  which  he  sent 
 him,  and  to  bring  him  proper  intelligence  from  thence:  and  for 
 this  reason  he  calls  him  his  '  dear  brother,  a  faithful  minister  in 
 the  Lord,  and  his  companion  in  the  service  of  God,'  (Eph.  vi. 
 21,  22.  and  Col.  iv.  7,  8.)  For  this  reason  he  had  once  thoughts 
 of  sending  him  to  Crete,  to  preside  over  that  church  in  the  ab- 
 sence of  Titus,  (chap.  iii.  12,)  as  it  is  probably  supposed  that  when 
 he  sent  him  with  his  letter  to  Ephesus,  he  ordered  him  to  abide 
 there,  and  to  govern  that  church,  while  Timothy,  their  proper 
 bishop,  was  absent  with  him  at  Rome.  But  when  St  Paul  was 
 restored  to  his  liberty,  whether  this  disciple  of  his  attended  him 
 in  his  travels,  or  was  constituted  bishop  of  Colophon  in  the  pro- 
 vince of  Asia,  as  some  report,  we  have  no  account  that  may  be 
 depended  upon. — Calmet's  Dictionary,  under  the  word. 
 
 b  The  heretic  Mansion,  as  Tertullian  (adv.  Mar.  b.  7.  c.  17.) 
 informs  us,  pretended  that  this  epistle  was  not  written  to  the 
 Ephesians,  but  to  the  Laodieeans,  for  which  he  produces  his  own 
 eopy,  inscribed  '  to  the  saints  which  were  at  Laodicea,'  and  not 
 at  Ephesus,  as  the  generality  of  manuscripts  and  versions  now 
 have  it ;  and  to  support  this,  several  passages  are  cited  out  of 
 the  epistle  itself,  which  seem  not  so  well  to  agree  with  the  cir- 
 cumstances of  St  Paul,  who  had  lived  and  preached  for  the 
 space  of  three  years  at  Ephesus,  (vide  c.  i.  15.  iii.  1,  4.  iv.  21.) 
 But  as  it  would  be  rash  and  imprudent  upon  the  account  of  a 
 few  ambiguous  texts,  to  deny  the  authority  of  all  antiquity,  and 
 especially  that  of  St  Ignatius,  who,  in  his  letter  to  the  Ephe- 
 sians, (sect.  12,)  makes  mention  of  that  which  St  Paul  had  wrote 
 to  them:  so  if  we  are  minded  to  compromise  the  matter  we  may, 
 with  archbishop  Usher,  say,  that  this  was  a  circular  letter;  and 
 designed  for  the  use  of  all  the  churches  of  Asia,  insomuch  that 
 St  Paul  did  not  insert  the  name  of  any  particular  church,  but 
 sent  it  with  this  general  title,  '  Paul,  the  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ, 
 
 to  the  saints  which  are  at .'     But  then  as  Ephesus  was 
 
 the  metropolis  of  the  province,  the  epistle,  in  most  of  the  copies, 
 went  under  its  name;  though  others  there  might  be,  even  as 
 late  as  St  Basil's  days,  inscribed  to  no  church  at  all ;  from  whence 
 the  Laodieeans  might  pretend,  that  it  belonged  originally  to 
 them  ;  and  Marcion,  who  was  of  the  kingdom  of  Pontus,  in  the 
 confines  of  Phrygia,  wherein  Laodicea  was,  might  accordingly 
 cite  itnnder  their  name. —  Calmet's  and  Beatisobrc's  Pre/ace  to 
 the.  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians. 
 
 62,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 both  as  to  the  general  duties  of  religion,  and  the  duties 
 of  their  particular  relations.' 
 
 St  Paul  himself  had  never  been  at  Colosse  ;  but  Epa- 
 phras,  c  who  was  then  at  Rome  a  prisoner  with  him,  had 
 preached  the  gospel  there  with  good  success ;  and  from 
 him  he  might  learn,  that  certain  false  teachers  had  en- 
 deavoured to  persuade  the  people,  that  they  ought  not  to 
 apply  to  God  by  Jesus  Christ,  who,  since  his  ascension, 
 was  so  far  exalted  above  them,  but  by  angels,  who  were 
 now  become  the  proper  mediators  between  God  and  men  ; 
 and  therefore,  in  opposition  to  this,  as  well  as  some  other 
 seductions  of  the  like  nature,  he  wrote  his  epistle  to  the 
 Colossians :  d  wherein  he  magnificently  sets   forth  the 
 
 c  While  St  Paul  was  preaching  in  Phrygia,  whereof  Colosse 
 was  one  of  the  principal  cities,  he  very  likely  met  with  this 
 Epaphras ;  but  when,  where  or  upon  what  occasion,  he  con- 
 verted him  from  the  heathen  to  the  Christian  religion,  we  no 
 where  find.  This  only  we  know,  that  after  his  own  conversion, 
 he  contributed  very  much  to  that  of  his  fellow-citizens,  the  in- 
 habitants of  Colosse,  and  that  while  St  Paul  was  in  bonds  at 
 Rome,  coming  very  probably  to  pay  him  a  visit,  himself  was  like- 
 wise made  prisoner  with  him  for  the  common  cause  of  Chris- 
 tianity, (Philem.  ver.  23.)  Understanding,  however,  that  false 
 teachers,  taking  the  advantage  of  his  absence,  had  sown  tares 
 among  the  wheat,  he  engaged  St  Paul,  whose  name  and  author- 
 ity were  reverenced  through  all  Phrygia,  to  send  a  letter  to  the 
 Colossians,  in  order  to  set  them  right  in  matters  wherein  they 
 were  mistaken,  and  to  give  them  a  true  knowledge  of  their  false 
 teachers.  This  the  apostle  very  readily  did  ;  and  the  more  to  re- 
 commend the  merit  and  support  the  authority  of  Epaphras,  styles 
 him  '  his  dear  fellow  servant,  and  faithful  minister  of  Christ.' 
 (Col.  i.  7.)  being-then,  as  itissaid  of  him,  a  bishop  and,  long  after, 
 a  martyr  at  Coiosse. — Calmefs  Commentary. 
 
 d  The  better  to  understand  the  chief  design  of  this  epistle, 
 we  may  observe,  that  the  followers  of  Plato  always  looked  upon 
 angels,  whom  they  honoured  with  the  name  of  '  demons,'  as  the 
 great  mediators  between  God  and  men,  who  carried  up  their 
 prayers  to  him,  and  re-conveyed  his  blessings  to  them.  To 
 these  they  committed,  not  only  the  direction  of  the  stars  and 
 elements,  but  the  administration  likewise  of  all  sublunary  things ; 
 and  from  thence  they  concluded,  that  they  were  to  be  honoured, 
 for  the  same  reason  that  we  usually  do  honour  the  governors  ot 
 provinces,  or  the  chief  ministers  of  any  state.  The  followers  of 
 Simon  Magus  ascribed  the  creation  of  the  world  even  to  the 
 meanest  kind  of  angels,  but  those  of  a  superior  order  they  held 
 in  the  highest  veneration:  for  their  master,  who,  according  to 
 his  fancy,  had  stocked  the  heavens  with  these  intelligencies, 
 made  it  one  of  his  principles,  that  none  could  be  saved  without 
 using  such  and  such  mysteries,  and  sacrificing  to  the  God  of  all 
 things  by  the  mediation  of  these  celestial  powers.  Nay  the  Jews 
 themselves,  after  their,  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity, 
 began  to  entertain  high  conceptions  of  the  angels,  insomuch 
 that  in  the  prophecy  of  Daniel,  and  other  books  written  after 
 that  captivity,  we  find  the  several  orders  of  them  ranged  under 
 their  proper  names;  and  among  them  there  was  a  famous  sect, 
 called  the  Essenes,  who,  together  with  other  things,  obliged  them- 
 selves to  preserve  the  books  which  were  peculiar  to  them,  and 
 the  names  of  the  angels  which  they  held  in  great  esteem.  It  is 
 to  be  observed  further,  that  among  the  Jews  there  were  several 
 sects  very  superstitious  in  their  abstinences :  that  the  Essenes 
 denied  themselves  the  use  of  wine  ;  the  Nazarenes  held  it  a  crime 
 to  eat  flesh;  and  the  Therapeutrc  would  drink  nothing  but  water, 
 and  made  bread  and  salt  their  common  food,  except  some  more 
 delicate  persons,  as  they  called  them,  who  used  honey  and  hyssop. 
 From  all  which  it  seems  very  probable  that  the  Essenes,  who 
 were  reputed  the  philosophers  of  the  Jews,  or  some  other  sects 
 of  the  like  nature,  having  embraced  the  Christian  religion,  were 
 for  engaging  others  in  the  worship  of  angels,  the  observation  of 
 the  Jewish  ceremonies,  and  some  particular  abstinences,  wherein 
 they  placed  a  great  deal  of  perfection.  For  though  this  doctrine 
 ot  worshipping  angels  might  originally  be  derived  from  the  Pla- 
 tonists,  yet  since  they  who  at  this  time  held  it  added  some  Jewish 
 observances,  they  are  rather  to  be  reckoned  among  the  scholars 
 of  Simon  Magus,  or  of  some  opinionated  Jews,  who  were  for 
 mixing  the  law  and  the  gospel  together ;  and  these  were  the  here- 
 tics whom  St  Paul  in  his  epistle,  sets  himself  to  oppose. — Beau- 
 
1102 
 
 A.  M.  iW,.  A.  D.  81 
 
 Messiah,  and  all  die  benefits  Bowing  from  hiua,  as  being 
 the  image  of  bis  Father,  the  Redeemer  of  all  mankind, 
 
 the  reconciler  of  all  things  to  God,  and  the  head  of  the 
 church,  which  gives  life  and  vigour  to  all  its  members; 
 wherein  he  commends  the  doctrine  preached  to  them  by 
 Epaphrss,  and  exhorts  them  not  to  be  led  away  by  the 
 reasonings  of  human  philosophy.  1>\  the  superstitious  prac- 
 tices of  making  differences  of  meats  and  drinks,  or  by  a 
 pretended  humility,  in  worshipping  angels  ;  and  wherein 
 he  gives  them  an  abstract  <>l'  many  chief  and  principal 
 duties  of  the  Christian  life,  especially  such  as  respect 
 the  relations  of  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children, 
 masters  and  servants. 
 
 \\  bile  >t  Paul  was  thus  laudably  employed  in  his  con- 
 finement at  Home,  .lames,  the  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  was 
 not  idle  :  but  thinking  it  belonged  to  his  apostolical  office 
 to  take  care  of  all  the  converted  among  the  twelve  tribes 
 of  Israel,  wherever  dispersed,  he  wrote  an  epistle  to  them, 
 which,  among  those  that  are  called  "  Catholic ,  is  placed 
 lir-t  in  the  sacred  canon,  and  was  designed  'to  suppress 
 and  confute  a  dangerous  error,  then  growing  up  in  the 
 church,  namely,  that  a  bare  naked  faith  was  sullicient  to 
 awure  men's  salvation,  without  any  attention  to  good 
 works  :  and  to  comfort  Christians  under  the  persecutions 
 which  were  going  to  be  raised  against  them'1  by  worldly 
 
 sobre'i  Preface  to  Epistle  to  the  Col.  and  Echard's  Ecclesiasti- 
 cal flutaty,  li.  ii.  e.  <>. 
 
 a  Ever  since  the  fourth  century,  this  epistle  of  St  James,  the 
 two  of  St  Peter,  three  of  St  John,  and  that  of  St  Jude,  have 
 <>liUinc<t  the  name  of  Catholic,  because  they  are  directed  to  all 
 the  faithful,  ind  no)  to  any  particular  church,  as  those  of  St  Paul 
 are.  Anil  this  may  suggests  reason  why  this  epistle  of  St  James, 
 in  particular,  did  not  at  first  meet  with  a  general  reception.  For, 
 j  in  the  nature  of  a  circular  letter,  and  addressed  to  no  one 
 eliiuch.  who  might  tal»e  care  to  preserve  it,  and  promote  its  pre- 
 t>  nsfaas,  it  might  be  some  time  before  it  obtained  its  place  in  the 
 (anon:  and  that  the  rather,  because  there  seemed  to  be  some  con- 
 tradiction between  the  doctrine  advanced  in  it,  namely,  '  that  by 
 .1  man  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith  only,  (chap.  ii.  24.), 
 and  that  in  St  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Romans,  '  that  a  man  is  justi- 
 li'd  by  faith,  without  the  deeds  of  the  law,  (chap.  iii.  2S.)  which 
 jive  -nine  unskillful  readers,  not  sufficiently  attentive  to 
 the  BOOpe  of  each  ape-tie,  some  umbrage  of  suspicion. — Whitby's 
 and  Bmtuebrt't  Preface  to  the  Ej>istle  of  St  James. 
 
 b  From  the  History  of  the  Acts  we  learn,  that,  about  the  39th 
 I   Christ!  the   •  churches  had  peace  throughout  all  Judea, 
 Galilee,  and  Samaria,'  (chap.  ix.  31.),  and  so  they  seem  to  have 
 continued,  till  after  the  council  of  Jerusalem,  when  they  are 
 be  established  in  faith,  and  to  increase  in  numbers  dailv,' 
 vi  i.  5.)      Nay,  when  St  Paul  was  at  Rome,  'lie  received 
 all   that  came   onto  bin?,'  for  two  whole  years,  'preaching  the 
 kingdom  of  God,  with  all  confidence,  no  man  forbidding  him,' 
 wviii.  30,  31.)     So  that  at  least,  till  the  4th  or  5th  year 
 ■     Nero,  the  gospel  was  freely  preached  at  Rome,  without  any 
 tioo  either  from   the  Romans  or  the  Jews.      But  then,  in 
 yar  of  this  emperor's  reign,  the  Christians  were  sub- 
 jected to  punishments,  (as  Suetonius  in  Naron.  c  1G.  tells  us;) 
 
 ""d   'l   ■ •  rery  probable,  says   l)r  Lightfoot,  that  even   then 
 
 Nero   bad.  by  sonic   public  act  or  edict,  suppressed  Christianity, 
 
 v  at  Rome,  but  also  in  Judea,  as  he  gathers  from  that  pas- 
 
 in     [acitUS,    '  '1'be    destructive   superstition    having  been 
 
 suppressed  for  n  asason,  again  broke  forth,  not  only  throughout 
 
 "lb-  of  the  evil,  but  ei  en  throughout  the  whole  city ;' 
 
 which  shows,  that  before  the  persecution  began  in  the  10th  of 
 
 Nero,   .!   which  Tacitus   here  speaks,  Christianity  had   been  by 
 
 bun   suppressed,  not  at  Rome  only,  but  in  Judea.      In  the  10th 
 
 "i  bis  reign  bo  renewed  his  persecution  of  the  Christians;  and 
 
 j™  ''  "ot  y  !lt  Rome,  but  through  all  the  provinces  of 
 
 ■■"r:  "hich  en. aged  the  Jews  everywhere  to  show 
 
 'heir  utmost  ra;;e  against  all  those  of  their  religion  who  had  em- 
 braced the  faith  ol  Christ,  and  the  nearer  they  drew  to  their  final 
 dissolution,  the  more  did  Satan  inflame  their  rage  and  malice 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 OR,  A.  M.  5473.  A.  D.  62,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  EN  D. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 powers  ;  and  to  awaken  them  out  of  their  stupidity,  when 
 judgments  were  ready  to  overtake  them.'  To  this  purpose 
 he  inserts  in  his  epistle  many  excellent  exhortations,  such 
 as, 'to  bear  afflictions, to  hear  theword  of  God, to  mortify 
 their  lusts,  to  bridle  their  tongues,  to  avoid  cursing  and 
 swearing,  and  to  adorn  their  Christian  profession  with  a 
 good  conversation,  with  meekness,  peaceableness,  and 
 charity.'  But  it  was  not  long  before  a  period  was  put  to 
 all  his  labours  ;  for  the  governing  part  of  the  Jews  being 
 highly  enraged  at  the  disappointment  of  their  malice 
 against  St  Paul,  by  his  appealing  to  Caesar,  were  now 
 resolved  to  revenge  it  upon  St  James,  and  accordingly, 
 taking  the  opportunity  of  the  death  of  Festus,  before 
 the  arrival  of  his  successor  Albinus,  Annas,  or  Ananas, 
 the  high-priest,  summoned  James,  and  some  others,  be- 
 fore the  Sanhedrim,  requiring  them  to  renounce  the 
 Christian  faith.  Their  desire  more  especially  was,  that 
 the  apostle  should  make  his  renunciation  in  the  most 
 public  manner,  and  therefore  they  carried  him  up  to  the 
 battlements  of  the  temple,  and  threatened  to  cast  him 
 down  thence  in  case  of  refusal.  But  when,  instead  of  gra- 
 tifying their  desires,  he  began  himself  to  confess,  and  to 
 exhort  others  to  confess  the  faith  of  Christ,  in  the  pre- 
 sence of  those  who  came  to  hear  his  recantation,  they 
 ordered  him  to  be  thrown  down  headlong  from  the  place 
 where  he  stood.  By  this  fall  he  was  sadly  bruised, 
 though  not  quite  killed  ;  and  therefore  getting  upon  his 
 knees,  he  was  praying  for  his  murderers,  in  the  manner  of 
 the  protomartyr  St  Stephen,  when,  as  the  rabble  was  load- 
 ing him  with  a  shower  of  stones,  one  of  them,  more  mer- 
 cifully cruel  than  the  rest,  with  a  fuller's  club  beat  out  his 
 brains:  a  fact  altogether  so  black  and  barbarous,  that 
 even  their  e  own  historian,  Josephus,  could  not  but  con- 
 demn it,  and,  as  himself  testifies,  all  the  honest  and  con- 
 scientious part  of  the  city  remonstrated  against  it,  both 
 to  their  king  Agrippa,  and  to  the  Roman  governor  Al- 
 binus; insomuch  that  the  high  priest,  by  whose  authority 
 it  was  committed,  was  in  a  few  months  degraded,  and 
 another  put  in  his  place.     But  d  the  blessed  martyr  was 
 
 against  those  Christians,  whom  he  found  to  be  the  fatal  enemies 
 and  overthrowers  of  his  kingdom. —  JFhitby's  Preface  to  the 
 Epistle  of  St  James. 
 
 c  The  words  of  Josephus  are  these: — 'This  was  so  surprising 
 a  way  of  proceeding  to  all  the  honest  and  conscientious  part  of 
 the  city,  that  they  presently  sent  king  Agrippa  private  notice  of 
 it,  as  a  very  ill  thing  done,  with  a  request  that  Ananas  might 
 have  a  check  for  it,  and  a  caution  never  to  do  any  such  thing  for 
 the  future;  whilst  others  were  sent  with  an  account  of  it  to  Al- 
 binus, who  was  then  upon  his  journey  to  Alexandria,  represent- 
 ing it  as  an  usurpation,  and  encroachment  upon  bis  authority ; 
 and  what  ought  not  to  have  been  done  without  his  consent. 
 Whereupon  the  governor  sent  him  an  angry  and  menacing  letter; 
 and  king  Agrippa,  at  the  end  of  three  months,  removed  him  from 
 his  office  of  high-priest,  and  gave  it  to  Jesus  the  son  of  Dam- 
 nxus.' — Antiquities,  b.  xx.  c.  8. 
 
 d  He  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  piety  and  devotion,  educated 
 under  the  strictest  rules  of  religion,  and  a  priest,  as  some  imagine, 
 of  the  order  of  the  Rechabites,  or  rather,  as  Epiphanius  con- 
 jectures, of  the  most  ancient  form  of  priesthood,  when  the  sacer- 
 dotal office  was  the  prerogative  of  the  first-born  ;  and  therefore  it 
 is  said,  that  he  wore  a  plate  of  gold,  or  probably  a  mitre,  upon 
 his  head,  as  the  ensign  of  his  dignity.  Prayer  was  his  daily 
 business  and  delight ;  so  constant  was  he  at  his  devotions,  that 
 his  knees  became  hard  and  callous  as  a  camel's,  and  so  prevalent 
 in  his  petitions  to  Heaven,  that  in  time  of  great  drought  he 
 prayed  for  rain,  and  obtained  it.  Nor  was  his  piety  towards 
 God  more  remarkable  than  his  chanty,  his  humility,  his  temper- 
 ance, and  universal   goodness,  which  made  him  the  love  and 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 H03 
 
 A.  M.  4067.  A.  D.  03;  OK,  A.  M.  5474.  A.  D. 
 buried  in  a  tomb  of  his  own  building-  on  Mount  Olivet, 
 and,  by  the  general  voice,  his  own  brother  Simon  was 
 appoin  ed  his  successor  in  the  bishopric  of  Jerusalem. 
 
 By  what  means  St  Paul  was  delivered  from  his  im- 
 prisonment, and  discharged  from  the  accusation  which 
 the  Jews  brought  against  him,  we  have  no  account  in 
 history ;  but  may  presume,  that  having  not  sufficient  proof 
 of  what  they  alleged,  or  being  informed,  that  what  they 
 alleged  was  no  violation  of  any  Roman  law,  they  durst 
 not  implead  him  before  the  emperor,  and  so  permitted 
 him  to  be  discharged  in  course.  But  before  he  left  Italy, 
 he  wrote  his  famous  and  most  elaborate  a  epistle  to  the 
 Hebrews,  that  is,  to  the  converted  Jews  dwelling  in  Jer- 
 
 wonder  of  the  age,  and  gainod  him  the  character  and  title  of 
 'James  the  Just,'  or,  as  it  is  in  the  Syriac,  of  Oblias,  that  is, 
 '  the  defence  and  fortress  of  the  people,'  as  if  the  safety  and  hap- 
 piness of  the  whole  nation  depended  upon  his  prayers  and  interest 
 with  Heaven.  In  short,  he  was  the  delight  of  all  good  men,  and 
 so  much  in  the  favour  and  estimation  of  the  people,  that  they 
 used  to  flock  after  him,  and  strive  who  should  touch,  though  it 
 were  but  the  hem  of  his  garment.  Nor  was  he  only  loved  and 
 honoured  by  his  friends,  but  held  in  great  veneration  by  his  ene- 
 mies, insomuch  that  some  of  the  wisest  of  them  looked  upon  his 
 martyrdom  as  an  inlet  to  all  those  miseries  and  calamities  which 
 soon  after  flowed  upon  them. — Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 a  That  this  epistle  was  of  an  ancient  date,  and  written  before 
 the  destruction  of  the  temple,  and  abolition  of  the  Jewish  wor- 
 ship, is  manifest  from  the  author's  making  no  mentiou  of  these 
 events,  which,  had  they  been  passed,  he  would  not  have  omitted, 
 as  being  one  of  the  best  arguments  that  could  be  produced  for 
 the  support  of  his  main  doctrine,  the  abrogation  of  the  Levitical 
 sacrifices  and  priesthood ;  nor  could  we  find  it  quoted  so  fre- 
 quently in  St  Clement's  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  which  seems 
 to  have  been  wrote  before  the  downfal  of  Jerusalem,  had  it  not 
 been  of  a  date  prior  to  that  time.  It  is  not  to  be  questioned, 
 then,  but  that  this  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  extant  in  the  apos- 
 tolic age.  But  who  its  author  was,  we  find  both  ancients  and 
 moderns  in  great  dispute.  Some  ascribe  it  to  St  Barnabas, 
 others  to  Clemens  Romanus,  others  to  St  Luke,  and  others  again 
 to  Apollos,  who,  in  the  sacred  history,  is  styled  'an  eloquent 
 man,  and  mighty  in  the  scriptures,'  (Acts  xviii.  24.)  If,  how- 
 ever, we  look  into  the  epistle  itself,  we  shall  find,  that  the 
 character  can  agree  with  none  so  well  as  St  Paul:  for  as  it  ap- 
 pears that  this  epistle  was  in  being  before  the  destruction  of  Jer- 
 usalem, and  while  the  Jews  had  power  enough  to  oppress  the 
 Christians  in  Judea;  that  the  person  who  wrote  it  was  well 
 versed  in  the  scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  most  ab- 
 struse parts  of  Jewish  theology ;  that  he  represents  himself  as 
 lately  in  prison,  but  at  that  time  set  at  liberty,  and  hoping  speed- 
 ily to  come  and  see  them;  that  he  mentions  Timothy,  whom  he 
 calls  his  '  hrother,'  as  being  likewise  released,  and  ready  to  ac- 
 company him  in  his  journey,  (Heb.  xiii.  23.)  that  he  commends 
 those  to  whom  he  writes,  for  'having  had  compassion  of  him  in 
 his  bonds,  and  taking  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  their  goods,  (chap. 
 x.  34.)  that  he  requests  them  to  pray  for  him,  that  he  might  be 
 restored  to  them  sooner,  (chap.  xiii.  18,  19.)  and,  lastly,  that 
 this  epistle  was  written  from  Rome,  as  some  manuscripts  have 
 it,  or  from  Italy,  as  we  find  it  in  others;  we  cannot  but  allow, 
 that  each  of  these  is  a  strong  argument  that  this  epistle  was  writ- 
 ten by  St  Paul,  because  they  accord  so  exactly  with  his  circum- 
 stances at  this  time  above  any  one's  else.  But  then,  if  we  add 
 to  this  the  testimony  of  the  ancients,  especially  of  St  Peter,  who, 
 in  his  second  epistle  to  the  Jewish  converts,  mentions  a  certain 
 letter  which  St  Paul  had  wrote  to  them,  distinct  from  all  his 
 other  epistolary  writings,  (2  Pet.  iii.  15,  16.)  and  can  be  no  other 
 than  that  which  bears  the  name  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
 we  can  no  longer  doubt  of  its  being  the  composition  of  St  Paul, 
 and  an  original  composition  too,  since  it  has  in  it  none  of  that 
 constraint  which  is  visible  in  a  translation,  nor  any  of  those  He- 
 brew phrases  which  occur  so  frequently  in  the  version  of  the 
 Septuagint. — Beausobre's  and  Whitby's  Preface  to  the  Epistle 
 to  the  Hebrews.— \t  is  now,  by  universal  consent,  attributed  to  St 
 Paul;  for  the  arguments  at  length,  the  inquiring  reader  may 
 consult  Professor  Stuart  on  the  Hebrews,  Home's  Introduction, 
 Bloymfield's  Greek  Test.,  and  Macknight  on  the  Epistles. — Ed. 
 
 C3,  Sec.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 usalem  and  Judea:  'wherein  his  main  design  is,  to  mag- 
 nify Christ  and  the  religion  of  the  gospel,  above  Moses 
 and  the  Jewish  cpeonoiny,  that,  by  this  means,  he  may 
 the  better  establish  the  converted  Jews  in  the  belief  and 
 profession  of  Christianity  :  wherein,  to  this  purpose,  he 
 represents  our  Saviour,  in  his  divine  nature,  far  superior 
 to  all  angels  and  all  created  beings ;  and,  in  his  media- 
 torial capacity,  a  greater  lawgiver  than  Moses,  a  greater 
 priest  than  Aaron,  and  a  greater  king  and  priest  than 
 Melchisedec:  wherein  he  shows,  that  the  ceremonies,  the 
 sacrifices,  and  the  observances  of  the  law  could  have  no 
 virtue  in  themselves,  but  only  as  they  were  types  of 
 Jesus  Christ;  and  being  now  accomplished  in  his  person, 
 and  by  his  ministry,  were  finally  and  totally  abolished: 
 wherein  he  insists  upon  the  necessity  of  faith,  and,  by 
 the  examples  of  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  proves,  that 
 justification  is  to  be  had  no  other  way  than  by  the  merits 
 of  a  dying  Saviour  :  and  wherein,  lastly,  he  mingles  many 
 excellent  precepts  for  the  regulation  of  their  lives,  ex- 
 hortations to  trust  and  confidence  in  Christ  in  all  their 
 sufferings,  and  strict  cautions  against  apostasy  from  his 
 religion  in  the  hottest  persecutions.' 
 
 Having  thus  discharged  his  ministry,  both  by  preach- 
 ing and  writing,  in  Italy,  St  Paul,  in  company  with 
 Timothy,  prosecuted  his  long-intended  journey  into 
 Spain,  and  it  is  probably  thought,  that  from  thence  he 
 came  over  and  *  preached  the  gospel  in  Britain.  After 
 he  had  continued  about  eight  or  nine  months  in  these 
 western  parts,  he  returned  again  east-ward,  and  leaving 
 both  Sicily  and  Greece,  arrived  at  Crete,  where  he  con- 
 stituted Titus  bishop  of  the  island,  and  then  went  with 
 Timothy  into  Judea,  to  visit  the  Christians  there. 
 
 In  what  manner  St  Peter  employed  his  time,  after  his 
 escape  out  of  prison,  we  have  no  certain  account ;  but 
 it  is  generally  agreed,  that  about  the  second  year  of  the 
 
 b  Though  we  may  feel  almost  certain  that  Paul  would  visit 
 Jerusalem,  after  his  release  from  Rome,  we  are  still  at  a  loss  to 
 account  for  his  proceedings  during  the  remainder  of  his  life;  and 
 yet  this  period  was,  perhaps,  as  interesting  as  any  part  of  the 
 former  years  which  he  had  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  gospel. 
 We  have  traced  his  progress  through  the  most  civilized  portions 
 of  the  world,  and  even  to  the  capital  of  the  Roman  empire;  but 
 he  professed  himself  also  under  an  obligation  to  preach  the  gos- 
 pel to  nations  that  were  rude  and  barbarous.  He  had  ample 
 time  for  fulfilling  this  sacred  duty;  and  tradition  has  pointed  out 
 the  west  of  Europe  as  the  scene  of  these  latter  actions  of  his  life. 
 Spain  and  Gaul,  and  even  Britain,  have  claimed  the  great  apostle 
 as  the  first  founder  of  their  respective  churches;  but  the  writer 
 of  history  is  obliged  to  add,  that  though  such  journeys  were  per- 
 fectly possible,  and  even  probable,  the  actual  evidence  of  their 
 having  been  undertaken  is  extremely  small.  We  have  the 
 apostle's  own  testimony  for  his  intending  to  visit  Spain;  and 
 Clement,  one  of  his  own  fellow -labourers,  in  an  epistle  which  he 
 wrote  before  the  end  of  the  century,  speaks  of  Paul  having  gone 
 to  the  extremity  of  the  west.  This  may,  perhaps,  give  some 
 support  to  the  notion  of  his  visiting  Spain ;  and  if  he  went  to 
 that  country  by  land,  he  must  have  passed  through  the  south  of 
 France.  But  the  churches  in  France  which  claim  the  earliest 
 origin,  trace  their  foundation  rather  to  the  companions  of  Paul 
 than  to  the  apostle  himself;  and  there  is  nothing  unreasonable 
 in  supposing  that  France,  as  well  as  Spain,  contained  converts 
 to  Christianity  before  the  end  of  the  first  century.  The  same 
 may,  perhaps,  be  said  of  our  own  island,  though  we  need  not 
 believe  the  traditions  which  have  been  already  mentioned,  con- 
 cerning its  first  conversion;  and  it  is  right  to  add,  that  the 
 earliest  writer  who  speaks  of  Britain  as  being  visited  by  any  of 
 the  apostles,  is  Eusebius,  who  wrote  at  the  beginning  of  the 
 fourth  century;  and  the  earliest  writer  who  names  St  Paul,  is 
 Theodoret,  who  lived  a  century  later. — Burton's  Bistort/  of  ths 
 Church. — Ed. 
 
1104 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4067.  A.  D.  63 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5174.  A.  V.  63,  See.  FKOM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 emperor  Claudius,  he  went  to  Rome,  and  there  continued, 
 until  tiiat  emperor,  taking  the  advantage  of  some  sedi- 
 tions and  tumults  raised  by  the  Jews,  or  by  a  public 
 edict,  banished  them  from  Rome.  Upon  this  occasion 
 St  Peter  returned  back  to  Jerusalem,  and  was  present 
 at  the  great  apostolic  synod,  whereof  we  have  given 
 Borne  account  before.  How  he  disposed  of  himself  after 
 this,  we  are  left  under  great  uncertainties,  though  the 
 current  opinion  is,  that,  after  he  had  visited  the  several 
 churches  which  lie  had  planted  in  the  east,  and  carried 
 the  glad  tidings  of  the  gospel  into  Africa,  Sicily,  Italy, 
 and  even  as  far  as  Britain,  making  great  numbers  of 
 converts  in  all  places ;  towards  the  latter  end  of  Nero's 
 reign,  lie  returned  to  Rome,  where  he  found  the  minds 
 of  the  people  strangely  bewitched,  and  hardened  against 
 Christianity,  by  the  subtilities  and  magical  arts  of  a  Si- 
 mon Magus,  whom  he  had  formerly  defeated  at  Samaria. 
 Provoked  at  tiiis  general  infatuation,  the  apostle 
 thought  himself  concerned  to  oppose  this  sorcerer  ;  and 
 having,  *  in  some  instances,  discovered  the  vanity  of  his 
 impostures,  he  wrought  him  up,  at  length,  to  such  a  pitch 
 of  madness  and  desperation,  that  to  give  the  people  an 
 evident  demonstration  of  his  being  the  '  Son  of  God,'  as 
 he  pretended,  he  promised  that  on  such  a  day,  he  would 
 ascend  visibly  up  into  heaven.  Accordingly  at  the  time 
 appointed,  he  went  up  to  the  mount  of  the  capitol,  and, 
 throwing  himself  from  the  top  of  the  rock,  began  his 
 flight,  and  by  the  help  of  some  infernal  powers,  seemed 
 to  be  posting  to  heaven  ;  when  immediately  upon  the 
 
 a  Justin  Martyr  assures  us,  that  this  impostor  was  honoured 
 as  a  deity;  that  a  statue  was  erected  to  him  in  the  Insula  Ty- 
 berina,  with  this  inscription,  Simmii  Deo  sancto,  which  is  con- 
 firmed by  the  testimony  of  Irenseus,  Tertullian,  and  several  others 
 after  them.  Whatever  therefore  may  be  said  to  shake  the  credit 
 of  this  inscription,  it  can  hardly  be  thought,  that  Justin  Martyr, 
 who  was  a  person  of  great  learning  and  gravity,  inquisitive  about 
 things  of  this  nature,  and  at  this  time  at  Rome,  where  he  might 
 fully  satisfy  himself  of  the  truth  of  it,  would  have  inserted  any 
 thing  in  his  Apology  to  the  emperor  and  the  senate  of  Rome,  but 
 wliat  he  knew  would  bear  the  test ;  and  yet  he  speaks  twice  of 
 tins  >.tatue,  and  desires  of  them,  that  if,  upon  inquiry,  they 
 should  find  what  he  said  to  be  true,  they  would  abolish  it. — 
 <',!,;■•  s  Lives  of  the  Apostles,  and  Whitby's  Preface  to  the 
 Second  Epistle  to  the  Thcssalonians . 
 
 b  A  noble  instance  of  this  kind  we  have  in  Hegesippus  the 
 younger.  '  There  was  at  this  time,'  says  he,  '  in  Rome,  a  gentle- 
 man of  some  note,  a  kinsman  to  the  emperor,  lately  dead. 
 Those  who  knew  St  Peter's  power  in  working  miracles,  advised 
 bit  friends  to  send  for  him,  and  others  likewise  prevailed  that 
 Simon  the  magician  might  be  sent  for.  Glad  of  this  occasion  to 
 magnify  himself  before  the  people,  Simon  propounded  to  Peter, 
 that  if  he  raised  the  man  to  life,  Peter,  who  had  reviled  'the 
 mighty  power  of  God,'  as  he  styled  himself,  should  lose  his  life; 
 but  that  if  Peter  prevailed,  he  would  submit  to  the  same  penalty" 
 Peter  accepted  the  challenge ;  and,  when  Simon  began  his  charms 
 and  enchantments,  the  dead  body  seemed  to  move  his  hand 
 «  hereupon  the  people  who  stood  by,  thinking  that  the  person 
 was  alive,  were  going  to  fall  foul  upon  Peter,  for  daring  to  oppose 
 so  great  a  power.  But  Peter,  intreating  their  patience,  desired 
 only  that  the  magician  might  he  removed  from  the  bed-side- 
 wl.Mh,  .Then  they  had  done,  the  deception  vanished,  and  the 
 body  remamed  without  the  least  sign  of  motion.  Then  Peter, 
 sUnding  at  a  good  distance  from  the  bed,  silently  made  his 
 address  to  Heaven;  and  when  he  had  so  done,  in  the  presence 
 of  them  all,  commanded  the  man,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
 to  arte;  which  be  tetantlydid:  so  that  the  people,  changing 
 
 !t'n,'n"l  f  "r^r?  t0  St°ne  the  ™gicia„;  but  that  Peter 
 tatepoted  far  hi.  life,  by  telling  them,  that  it  would  be  punish- 
 m.nt  enough  to  h,m,  to  live  and  see,  that,  in  despite  of  all  his 
 Crv    /      ": rl      k??r  °f  Christ' would Icrleana 
 
 nourish.  —Cares  Lwei  of  the.  Apostles. 
 
 apostle's  prayer  to  God,  that  the  people  might  be  unde- 
 ceived, and  the  cheat  detected,  his  invisible  supports 
 withdrew,  and  e  down  he  came  headlong,  so  miserably 
 bruised  and  wounded  with  his  fall,  that  in  a  short  time 
 after  he  expired. 
 
 Nero,  the  emperor,  was  a  professed  patron  of  magi- 
 cians, and  of  all  such  as  maintained  a  secret  commerce 
 with  the  infernal  powers.  He  had  a  particular  dislike 
 to  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  likewise,  as  being  so  very 
 repugnant  to  the  lusts  and  passions  which  he  indulged  ; 
 and  was  not  a  little  offended  at  the  many  conversions 
 which  St  Peter  had  made,  in  persons  of  some  distinction, 
 from  a  vicious  and  dissolute  course  of  life,  which  the 
 emperor  admired  in  any  :  so  that  he  not  only  commanded 
 him,  and  St  Paul,  who  was  at  this  time  at  Rome,  to  be 
 apprehended,  and  cast  into  prison  ;  but,  by  a  public 
 edict,  raised  the  d  first  general  persecution  against  the 
 church,  wherein  Christians  of  all  orders  and  degrees 
 were  e  treated  with  the  utmost  contempt  and  cruelty. 
 
 c  It  must  be  owned,  that  the  truth  of  this  whole  transaction, 
 between  St  Peter  and  Simon  Magus,  has  been  greatly  suspected, 
 not  only  upon  the  account  of  the  small  authority  of  those  apocry- 
 phal writers  from  whom  it  was  first  taken,  but  by  reason  of  the 
 great  disagreement  likewise,  which  appears  in  their  relation  of 
 the  several  circumstances  of  it.  For  whereas  some  of  them  say, 
 that  Simon  Magus  made  himself  wings  to  fly  with;  others  affirm, 
 that  he  was  invisibly  held  up  by  two  devils;  others,  that  he  made 
 himself  a  chariot;  and  others  again,  that  he  ascended  in  a  fiery 
 one  drawn  by  four  horses,  but  all  done  by  the  art  of  magic:  and 
 whereas  some  say,  that  by  this  fall  he  crushed  his  whole  body 
 to  pieces;  and  others,  that  he  dashed  out  his  brains;  others  aver, 
 that  he  only  broke  a  thigh,  a  leg,  or  an  arm:  and  this  done  in 
 the  reign  of  Claudius,  according  to  some  ;  but  in  the  reign  of 
 Nero,  according  to  others  ;  by  Peter  alone,  as  some  will  have  it; 
 but  by  Peter  and  Paul  in  conjunction,  according  to  the  report  of 
 others.  Nor  is  it  a  small  discredit  to  this  story,  that  the  ancients 
 of  the  three  first  centuries,  who  speak  much  of  Simon's  being  at 
 Rome,  and  having  his  statue  erected  there,  should  say  nothing 
 of  his  flight,  or  his  fall,  though  they  had  just  reason  to  speak  of 
 them,  had  they  believed  them  true:  'Nor  is  it  credible,'  saith 
 Hornius,  '  that  all  the  Roman  writers  of  those  times,  Suetonius, 
 Tacitus,  Pliny,  &c.  should  pass  over  so  memorable  a  thing  in 
 silence ;'  especially  if  Simon  was  so  honoured  by  Claudius,  and 
 beloved  by  Nero,  as  some  authors  of  this  story  say  he  was.  This 
 is  the  substance  of  what  is  alleged  against  it;  and  yet,  according 
 to  others,  it  is  fully  attested  by  the  Apostolic  Constitutions  ;  hinted 
 at  in  the  Recognitions ;  taken  for  a  known  fact  by  such  as  lived 
 nearest  to  Rome,  namely,  Arnobius,  Ambrosius,  and  St  Jerom 
 De  Script.  Eccles. ;  fully  mentioned  by  Eusebius,  Cyril  of  Jeru- 
 salem, Epiphanius,  and  many  others ;  contradicted  by  no  one 
 ecclesiastical  writer;  and  yet  supposed  to  be  alluded  to  in  that 
 passage  of  Suetonius,  where  he  tells  ns,  that  Icarus,  or  one  that 
 flew  in  the  air,  in  his  first  attempt,  fell  down  near  the  emperor's 
 
 pavilion,  and  sprinkled  his  blood  upon  him fFhitby's  Preface 
 
 to  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  and  Whiston's  Answer 
 to  the  Grounds  and  Reasons  of  the  Christian  Religion.— The  stories 
 respecting  St  Peter  and  Simon  Magus  should  be  dismissed  as 
 idle  legends,  utterly  unworthy  of  the  attention  of  any  rational 
 and  intelligent  mind.  The  authority  of  the  Apostolic  Constitu- 
 tions is  not  of  much  weight,  when  we  consider  that  they  are 
 the  spurious  productions  of  the  fourth  century. — Ed. 
 
 d  Before  the  Roman  empire  was  converted  to  Christianity, 
 there  are  commonly  reckoned  ten  general  persecutions :  the  first, 
 in  the  10th  year  of  Nero,  A.  D.  64;  the  second,  in  the  14th  of 
 Domitian,  A.  D.  95;  the  third,  in  the  3d  of  Trajan,  A.  D. 
 100:  the  fourth,  in  the  2dof  Antoninus  Philosophus,  A.  D.  165; 
 the  fifth  in  the  4th  of  Severus/A.  D.  197;  the  sixth,  in  the 
 1st  of  Maximinus,  235  ;  the  seventh,  in  the  1st  of  Decius,  A.  D. 
 249;  the  eighth,  in  the  4th  of  Valerian,  A.  D.  257 ;  the  ninth, 
 in  the  4th  of  Aurelian,  A.  D.  274;  aud  the  tenth,  in  the  19th 
 of  Dioclesian,  A.  D.  303,  till  at  length  Christianity  came  to 
 be  established  by  human  laws,  A.  D.  313 Echard's  Eccle- 
 siastical History. 
 
 e  As  to  the  particulars  of  this  persecution,  Tacitus  tells  us, 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1105 
 
 A.  M.  40C7.  A.  D.  C3;  OK,  A.  M.  5474.  A.  D.  G3,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 In  this  common  calamity  Andrew,  the  apostle,  and  as 
 most  think,  the  younger  brother  of  St  Peter,  was  called 
 to  suffer.  He,  having  preached  the  gospel,  wrought 
 many  miracles,  and  suffered  many  hardships  in  the  wild 
 northern  countries  of  Scythia  and  Sogdiana,  and,  after 
 that,  in  some  of  the  provinces  of  the  lesser  Asia,  came 
 at  length  into  a  Epirus  and  Achaia,  *  two  provinces  of 
 Greece,  where  he  still  added  more  converts  to  the  Chris- 
 tian faith.  At  last,  in  c  Fatrtca,  a  city  of  Achaia,  JEgeas 
 the  proconsul,  observing  the  multitudes  that  by  the  apos- 
 tle's preaching  had  fallen  off  from  paganism  and  embraced 
 Christianity,  and  being  not  a  little  offended  at  his  op- 
 posing his  mandates  for  the  re-establishment  of  idolatry, 
 and  undauntedly  persisting  in  his  publication  of  the  doc- 
 
 that,  at  first  several  were  seized  who  made  profession  of  this 
 new  religion  ;  and  by  their  confession,  infinite  numbers  of  others 
 were  detected  and  executed ;  and  in  the  manner  of  their  exe- 
 cution, were  treated  with  all  the  instances  of  scorn  and  barbarity. 
 Some  of  them  were  wrapt  up  ill  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and 
 worried  and  devoured  by  dogs ;  others  were  crucified  ;  and  others 
 burnt  alive,  in  paper  coats  dipped  in  pitch,  wax,  and  other  com- 
 bustible matters,  that,  when  day-light  failed,  they  might  serve 
 for  torches  and  illuminations  in  the  night.  Nero  exhibited 
 these  spectacles  in  his  own  gardens,  impiously  joining  to  them 
 the  diversions  of  the  Cirque,  and  appearing  himself  publicly 
 in  the  habit  of  a  charioteer,  sitting  in  his  chariot,  which  yet  the 
 people  entertained  more  with  pity  than  pleasure,  as  knowing 
 they  were  not  done  for  the  public  benefit,  but  merely  to  gratify 
 the  tyrant's  private  rage  and  malice. — Echard's  Ecclesiastical 
 History,  b.  1.  c.  7. 
 
 a  This  is  a  province  of  Greece,  in  its  largest  acceptation, 
 lying  along  the  coast  of  the  Ionian  sea,  and  having  for  its  bounds 
 on  the  north  Albania,  on  the  north-east  Thessaly,  on  the  south- 
 east Achaia,  and  on  the  west  the  ocean.  This  country  was  an- 
 ciently governed  by  its  own  princes,  then  united  to  the  kingdom 
 of  Macedon;  after  that  subjected  to  the  Romans ;  then  restored 
 to  its  own  princes ;  but  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Turks. 
 
 —  The  Complete  Geographer. 
 
 b  The  ancient  name  of  this  country  was  Hellas,  which  the 
 Latins  changed  into  Gracia,  and  the  Turks  now  call  Ilumelia. 
 It  was  used  by  common  writers  to  denote  Macedonia,  Epirus, 
 Thessaly,  Hellas,  or  Greece  properly  so  called,  and  the  Pelepon- 
 nese,  nowMorea;  but  the  Romans  distinguished  all  these  into 
 two  provinces  only,  namely,  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  under  the 
 former  of  which  they  comprehended  Epirus  and  Thessaly,  and 
 under  the  latter,  Greece  properly  so  called,  and  the  Peleponese. 
 The  word  Greece,  in  the  old  Testament,  generally  occurs  in  its 
 larger  acceptation ;  and  in  its  less  in  the  New;  but  as  for  the 
 country  itself,  it  was  anciently  the  most  celebrated  region  of  the 
 universe,  surpassing  all  others  in  arms,  arts,  and  sciences.  For 
 many  ages  it  was  divided  into  small  kingdoms  or  states,  till 
 Philip  king  of  Macedon,  and  after  him,  Alexander,  his  son,  re- 
 duced it  all  under  their  subjection,  and  made  it  a  monarchy. 
 This  kingdom  was  afterwards  destroyed  by  the  Romans,  and 
 made  a  province  of  the  empire,  in  which  condition  it  continued 
 though  formerly  mangled  by  the  Goths  and  Huns,  till  the  Turks, 
 who  are  its  present  masters,  overran  it,  and  have  long  since 
 eflaeed  all  its  ancient  and  magnificent  monuments,  as  well  as 
 reduced  the  people  to  a  state  of  the  utmost  slavery  and  stupidity. 
 
 —  IFells's  Geography  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  Complete 
 Geographer. — Since  our  author  wrote,  the  Greeks  have  regained 
 their  liberty,  and  are  no  longer  under  the  dominion  of  the 
 Turks. — Ed. 
 
 c  This  city  is  seated  on  a  hill  near  the  sea,  at  a  little  dis- 
 UDC6  from  the  mountain  formerly  called  Cerynea,  and  not 
 above  ten  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  gulf  Lepanto.  It  is  a 
 place  of  good  trade,  very  populous,  especially  of  Jews.  It  is  de- 
 fended with  a  strong  castle,  and  has  the  honour  to  be  an  arch- 
 bishop's see,  which  has,  at  present,  a  thousand  churches  under 
 its  jurisdiction.  In  ancient  times  the  goddess  Diana  was 
 worshipped  here  in  a  cruel  manner,  having  a  most  beauti- 
 ful young  man  and  maid  every  year  sacrificed  to  her,  till  by  the 
 preaching  of  St  Andrew,  Eurypilus  was  converted  to  Chris- 
 tianity, and  then  that  horrid  superstition  was  laid  aside. —  The 
 Complete  Geographer. 
 
 trine  of  a  crucified  Saviour,  condemned  him  to  the  death 
 which  he  so  much  extolled.  After  seven  lictors  therefore 
 had  cruelly  torn  his  naked  body,  he  was  led  out  with  great 
 cheerfulness  and  serenity  of  mind  to  be  crucified.  But 
 his  cross  was  not  of  the  usual  form  :  it  was  made  of  two 
 pieces  of  timber,  crossing  each  other  in  the  middle,  in  the 
 shape  of  the  letter  X,  which  ever  since  has  been  known  by 
 the  name  of  St  Andrew's  cross,  and  to  this  he  was  fastened, 
 not  with  nails,  but  cords,  to  make  his  death  more  pain- 
 ful and  lingering.  In  this  condition  he  hung  for  the 
 space  of  three  days,  all  the  while  teaching  and  instruct- 
 ing the  people,  exhorting  them  to  constancy  and  perse- 
 verance in  that  religion  which  he  had  delivered  to  them  ; 
 and,  when  great  intercessions  were  made  to  the  procon- 
 sul for  his  life,  earnestly  requesting  of  our  Lord  in 
 prayer,  that  he  might  on  that  day,  which  was  the  last  of 
 November,  depart,  and  seal  the  truth  of  his  religion  d 
 with  his  blood. 
 
 How  the  two  apostles  Peter  and  Paul  escaped  out  of 
 prison,  from  the  rage  of  this  persecution,  we  have  no  ac- 
 count: e  but,  from  the  writings  of  the  latter,  some  have 
 gathered,  that,  returning  from  Rome  into  Judea,  and 
 there  continuing  a  short  time,  he  thence  passed  into  Asia, 
 where  Timothy  met  him  at  Ephesus ;  that  from  thence  he 
 made  a  visit  to  the  Colossians,  whom  he  had  never  seen 
 before ;  and,  after  a  considerable  stay,  returning  to 
 Ephesus  again; '  excommunicated  Hymeneus/and  Alex- 
 
 i  1  Tim.  i.  20. 
 
 d  His  body  being  taken  down  from  the  cross,  and  embalmed, 
 was  decently  and  honourably  interred  by  Maximilla,  a  lady  of 
 great  quality  and  fortune ;  but  afterwards,  by  Constantine  the 
 Great,  it  was  solemnly  removed  from  Patrrea  to  Constantinople, 
 and  there  buried  in  a  great  church  which  he  had  built  in  honour 
 of  all  the  apostles. — Cave's  Lives. 
 
 c  It  does  not  appear  to  me  that  St  Peter  and  St  Paul  were 
 ever  prisoners  together  at  Rome  but  under  the  reign  of  Nero, 
 when  they  both  suffered  martyrdom.  St  Paul,  indeed,  was  twice 
 a  prisoner  there ;  but  that  St  Peter  was  twice  a  prisoner  likewise, 
 seems  to  rest  on  no  other  evidence,  than  that,  as  his  first  epistle 
 is  dated  from  Babylon,  by  which  Rome  is  supposed  to  be  meant, 
 and  as  a  considerable  portion  of  time  is  supposed  to  have  elapsed 
 between  the  writing  of  his  first  and  his  second  epistle,  he  must 
 have  been  in  Rome  before  the  reign  of  Nero.  It  has  been 
 shown,  however,  by  Michaelis,  that  the  Babylon  from  which  he 
 dates  his  first  epistle  was  certainly  either  the  ancient  Babylon  on 
 the  Euphrates,  which  was  even  then  a  populous  city,  or  Seleucia 
 on  the  Tigris,  sometimes  called  New  Babylon;  and  it  is  indeed 
 in  the  highest  degree  improbable  in  itself,  that  any  man  would 
 date  a  serious  epistle  from  any  place  designed  by  a  mystical 
 name,  by  which  that  place  is  not  generally  known.  It  seems 
 therefore  little  less  than  certain,  that  St  Peter  did  not  go  to 
 Rome  till  some  time  after  St  Paul's  liberation  from  his  first  im- 
 prisonment there,  about  the  year  63  or  64;  and  that  his  first 
 epistle  was  written  at  least  some  years  before  that  period.' — Mi- 
 chaclis's  Introduction,  vol.  iv.  and  Lardner's  Supplement. — 
 Gleig. 
 
 f  This  Hymeneus  was  very  probably  a  citizen  of  Ephesus, 
 who  being  converted  by  some  of  St  Paul's  first  sermons,  fell 
 afterwards  into  the  heresy  of  those  who  denied  the  resurrection  of 
 the  body,  and  affirmed,  that  there  was  no  other  resurrection  than 
 that  of  the  soul,  which,  by  faith  and  baptism,  is  revived  from  sin 
 to  grace.  The  Alexander  who  was  his  colleague  in  this  heresy, 
 was  doubtless  the  copper-smith,  whom  St  Paul,  in  his  second 
 epistle  to  Timothy,  loudly  complains  of,  as  greatly  obstructing 
 the  good  effect  of  his  preaching,  (chap.  iv.  14.)  but  whether  he 
 was  the  same  Alexander  who  would  have  addressed  himself  to 
 the  multitude  which  Demetrius  the  silver-smith  of  Ephesus  had 
 drawn  together,  (Acts.  xix.  24.)  is  a  matter  of  some  doubt. 
 However  this  be,  it  is  certain,  that  their  notion  of  no  other  re- 
 surrection than  a  spiritual  one,  was  destructive  of  the  very  founda- 
 tions of  Christianity,  which  are  laid  in  the  hopes  of  a  resurrec- 
 tion from  the  dead ;  and  therefore  the  apostle  thought  it  expedient 
 7  * 
 
110(3  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 V  M.  4068.  A.  D.  64 :  OR,  A.  M.  5175.  A.  D.  64,  ta.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  \ 
 
 ander,  for  den)  ing  the  resumption  of  the  dead,  and  other 
 articles  of  faith;  that  from  thence  designing  to  go  into 
 Ionia,  be  enjoined  Timothy,  whom,  as  we  said  be- 
 fore, be  had  constituted  bishop  of  Ephesus,  '  to  have  his 
 residence  in  that  large  city,  and  to  take  the  charge  of 
 all  the  proconsular  Asia;  that  arriving  in  Macedonia,8 
 be  risited  Philippi,  where  he  staid  a  considerable  while; 
 and  front  bence,  very  probably,  sent  his  (irst  epistle  a  to 
 Timothy;  'J  'win-rein  he  lays  down  the  duties  and  quali- 
 fications of  a  bishop,  as  well  in  respect  of  his  ministry, 
 as  of  his  private  conversation,  and  instructs  him  in  the 
 Office  of  a  true  Christian  pastor.' 
 
 Prom  Macedonia,  St  Paul  intending  to  remove  to  Ni- 
 COpolis  ''  in  Epinis,  there  to  pass  his  winter,  wrote  his 
 epistle"  to   Titus,  then  in  Crete,  to  meet  him  there; 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 1  1  Tim.  i.  3.  '  Phil.  i.  25,  26.  3  1  Tim.  passim. 
 
 to  ban  mem  excommunicated,  that  is,  separated  from  the  society 
 of  the  faithful,  ami  deprived  of  the  privileges  of  being  present  at 
 is  assemblies,  of  partaking  of  the  Lord's  supper,  and  join- 
 ing in  nich  other  holy  offices  as  linked  Christians  together  in 
 one  and  the  same  society  and  communion. — Whitby's  Annota- 
 ■  a  2  Tim.  ii.  17.  iv.  II.;  and  Calmet's  Dictionary,  under 
 the  word. 
 
 a  Among  the  learned  there  is  no  small  disagreement  as  to  the 
 time  when  this  epistle  was  written.  That,  it  was  written  after 
 St  Paul's  departure  from  Ephesus  to  Macedonia,  some  have 
 gathered  from  these  words,  'when  I  went  into  Macedonia,  I 
 
 I.. ight  thee  to  abide  at  Ephesus,'  (1  Tim.  i.  3.)  and  that  it 
 
 was  written  when  he  was  in  expectation  of  returning  shortly 
 thither,  thoy  conclude  from  these,  '  I  write  to  thee,  hoping  to 
 come  to  thee  quickly,'  (1  Tim.  iii.  14.)  From  whence  they 
 argue,  tbat  it  must  have  been  writteft  before  he  came  to  Miletus, 
 because  there  he  seems  to  have  laid  aside  all  thoughts  of  return- 
 ing any  more  to  Ephesus,  as  he  tells  the  clergy  of  that  place, 
 •  And  I  knew  that  all  you  among  whom  I  have  gone,  preaching 
 the  kingdom  of  God  shall  see  my  face  no  more,'  (Acts  xx.  25.) 
 And  therefore  they  conclude,  that  it  was  written  while  he  was  in 
 Macedonia,  that  is,  in  the  first  of  Nero,  and  in  the  year  of  our 
 Lord  55  Others  allow  indeed,  that  this  epistle  was  written 
 alter  that  St  Paul  was  gone  into  Macedonia;  but  then  they  con- 
 tend, that  this  journey  into  Macedonia  was  one  of  those  that  are 
 recorded  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  In  his  first  journey  Timo- 
 thy went  with  him,  but  then  the  apostle  had  never  seen  Ephe- 
 sus, (Acts  xvi.  10,  &c.)  In  his  second,  though  he  went  from 
 Ephesus,  yet  so  far  was  he  from  leaving  Timothy  there,  that  he 
 sent  him  and  Krastus  before  him,  (Acts  xix.  21,  22.)  And  in 
 the  third,  he  did  not  s;ii  from  Ephesus,  but  from  Greece,  into 
 Macedonia,  whence  Timothy  accompanied  him,  first  to  Jerusa- 
 lem, and  then  to  Rome,  (Acts  xx.  3,  4.)  So  that  there  could 
 In-  no  possibility  for  St  Paul  to  leave  Timothy  at  Ephesus,  while 
 himself  departed  into  Macedonia,  till  after  the  time  of  his  return 
 trom  Rome.  They  therefore  suppose,  that,  after  he  was  released 
 from  his  confinement,  he  returned  into  Asia;  and  having  made 
 '  iv  at  Ephesus,  went  from  thence  into  Macedonia;  that 
 this  is  the  time  when  he  besought  Timothy  to  abide  still  at 
 Ephesus ;  and,  consequently,  that  this  epistle  was  written  to  him 
 about  the  10th  of  Nero,  and  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  63.  For 
 in  the  course  of  the  history  of  the  Acts,  (which  extends 
 as  far  as  St  Raul's  imprisonment,)  we  can  find  no  room  to  place 
 this  epistle,  we  must  necessarily  refer  it  to  the  time  which  was 
 subsequent  to  bis  releasement,  and  when  he  went  to  revisit  the 
 churches  which  he  had  |  lanted  in  the  east. —  Whitby's  and  Bcau- 
 tobn't  Preface  ta  thefirsi  Epistle  to  Timothy. 
 
 b  Nicopolis,  by  the  Turks  called  Sdltaro,  stands  on  the  Dan- 
 ube, at  tin-  mouth  of  the  Iatrus,  or  Ischar,  twenty-five  miles 
 north  from  Silistria,  It  was  built  by  the  emperor  Trajan,  in 
 memory  oi  his  « ictory  over  kiiig  Decebalus;  and  near  this  place, 
 Sigismund  k i i > cj  of  Hungary  was  unfortunately  defeated  by  Ba- 
 jacet  the  Turkish  emperor,  A.  1).  L136,  which  was  owing  more 
 to  the  divisions  among  the  Christians,  than  the  bravery  of  the 
 Turks ;  for  of  the  latter  there  fell  sixty  thousand,  but  oi' the  for- 
 mer only  twenty,  as  history  relate-. —  The  Complete  Geographer. 
 
 c  There  is  some  dispute  among  the  learned  concerning  the 
 time  when  this  epistle  was  written.     That  it  was  written  after 
 
 wherein  he  describes  to  him,  as  he  had  done  to  Timo- 
 thy, the  qualifications  which  a  bishop  ought  to  have,  and 
 more  especially  a  bishop  of  Crete,  where  some  sharpness 
 and  severity  was  necessary,  amidst  a  people  of  their 
 perverse  and  obstinate  tempers ;  wherein  he  admonishes 
 him,  not  to  suffer  the  flock  committed  to  his  charge  to 
 be  led  away  by  the  delusions  of  Judaizing  Christians  ; 
 and  wherein  he  lays  down  precepts  for  people  of  all 
 conditions  of  life,  even  not  forgetting  servants,  because 
 Jesus  Christ  has  poured  out  his  grace  upon  all  men.' 
 
 From  Nicopolis,  as  soon  as  winter  was  over,  St  Paul 
 went  a  third  time  to  Corinth,  where  4  he  appointed  Eras- 
 tus  to  continue.  Thence  crossing  the  sea  into  Asia,  he 
 came  to  Ephesus  ;  where,  upon  his  departure,  he  left 
 Timothy  in  tears  ;  and  so  proceeded  to  Miletum,  where 
 he  left  Trophinius  sick.  From  Miletum  he  travelled 
 northward  to  Troas,  and  lodged  with  Carpus,  d  one  of 
 
 4  2  Tim.  iv.  20. 
 
 be  denied ;  but  then  the  question  i5,  when  St  Paul  was  at  Crete, 
 since,  in  all  the  Acts  of  the  x\postles,  we  find  no  footsteps  of  his 
 being  there.  In  his  voyage  to  Rome,  indeed,  the  vessel  in 
 which  he  sailed,  touched  at  the  Fair  Havens,  belonging  to  Crete  ; 
 but  as  that  was  no  commodious  harbour,  she  soon  set  sail  front 
 thence,  in  hopes  to  make  Phenice,  another  port  in  the  same 
 island,  but  by  contrary  winds  was  drove  another  way.  Whether 
 St  Paul  at  this  time  had  Titus  in  company  with  him,  it  no  where 
 appears ;  but  the  short  stay  which  he  made  at  the  Fair  Havens,, 
 which  was  only  to  consult  whether  they  should  winter  there  or 
 not,  will  not  permit  us  to  think — especially  considering,  that  at 
 this  time  he  was  a  prisoner  in  bonds — either  that  he  attempted  to1 
 preach  the  gospel  there,  or  that  he  had  any  occasion  to  leave 
 Titus  in  the  island,  •  to  set  in  order  the  things  that  were  wanting, 
 and  to  ordain  elders  in  every  city.'  As  therefore  we  said  before, 
 in  relation  to  the  epistle  to  Timothy,  namely,  that  after  St  Paul 
 was  restored  to  his  liberty,  he  returned  into  the  east  to  visit  the 
 churches  which  he  had  planted ;  in  his  voyage  from  Rome  to 
 Jerusalem,  he  might  conveniently  enough  call  at  Crete;  after 
 he  had  stayed,  and  preached  some  time  there,  leave  Titus  behind' 
 him,  to  regulate  such  matters  as  he  had  not  time  and  opportunity 
 himself  to  do;  and,  in  a  year  or  two  after,  that  is,  in  the  12th 
 of  Nero,  and  of  our  Lord  65,  send  him  this  letter  to  renew  his 
 instructions,  and  to  request  his  company.  For,  that  this  epistle 
 was  written  after  the  apostle  had  obtained  his  discharge,  is  mani- 
 fest from  his  making  no  mention  of  his  bonds  and  temptations, 
 as  he  does  in  his  epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  (chap.  vi.  20.)  to  the 
 Philippians,  (i.  7.)  to  the  Colossians,  (iv.  18.)  to  Philemon,  (ver. 
 9.)  and  in  his  second  to  Timothy,  (chap.  i.  S.)  and  whoever  com- 
 pares this  epistle  to  Titus,  with  the  two  to  Timothy,  will  find 
 such  an  affinity  in  their  subjects,  the  same  sentiments,  and  the 
 same  instructions,  occasioned  by  the  same  set  of  men  who  began 
 now  to  appear  in  the  east,  and  spread  their  fables  and  impostures 
 every  where,  as  will  easily  convince  him  that  they  were  all 
 written  much  about  the  same  time,  though  the  first  to  Timothy 
 seems  to  be  of  prior  date  to  that  to  Titus,  even  as  that  to  Titus 
 may  be  thought  to  precede  the  second  to  Timothy.  In  relation 
 to  Titus,  (for  this  is  the  last  time  we  shall  meet  with  him  in  our 
 history,)  after  having  preached  the  gospel  in  Dalmatia,  (2  Tim. 
 iv.  10.)  he  is  said  to  have  returned  into  Crete;  to  have  propa- 
 gated the  Christian  religion  in  the  neighbouring  islands;  and, 
 dying  in  the  ninety-fourth  year  of  his  age,  and  being  buried  in 
 Crete,  to  have  had  the  cathedral  church  of  the  island  dedicated 
 to  his  name. —  Whitby's  and  Beausobre's  Preface  to  the  Epistle 
 to  Titus,  and  Calmet's  Commentary. 
 
 d  We  know  very  little  of  the  life  of  Carpus,  only  that  he  must 
 be  a  different  person  from  St  Polycarp,  bishop  of  Smyrna,  and 
 from  that  other  Carpus  whom  the  false  Dionysius,  in  his  letter 
 to  Demophilus,  makes  mention  of.  The  Greeks  tell  us  a  great 
 many  particulars  of  him,  which  are  far  from  being  certain. 
 They  affirm,  that  he  was  one  of  the  seventy  disciples;  that  he 
 propagated  the  truth  in  several  places  ;  that  he  wrought  abun- 
 dance of  miracles;  that  he  was  St  Paul's  assistant  in  preaching 
 
 the  gospel,  and  was  employed  by  him  in  carrying  his  epistles. 
 They  make  him  bishop  of  Berea,  and  sav,  that  he  died  in  peace. 
 U*  time  that  St  Paul  had  left  Titus  at  Crete,  (Titus  i.  5.)  cannot  I  —Calmet's  Commentary,  and  Dictionary  under  the  word. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1107 
 
 A.  M.  4069.  A.  D.  6.-) ;  OR,  A.  M.  5476.  A.  D. 
 his  disciples,  where  l  lie  left  liis  cloak,"  some  books 
 and  parchment-rolls ;  and,  in  all  probability,  about  this 
 time  it  was  that  he  suffered  those  persecutions  and  afflic- 
 tions at  Antioch,  Iconium,  and  Lystra,  2  whereof  he 
 makes  mention  to  Timothy,  and  thanks  God  for  his 
 deliverance  from  them.  But  though  God  was  pleased 
 to  deliver  him  from  these  afflictions,  yet  it  was  not  long 
 before  he  discovered  to  him  the  near  approach  of  his 
 death,  and  gave  him  to  know  particularly,  that  at  Rome 
 he  was  to  suffer  martyrdom :  which  was  so  far  from  re- 
 tarding, that  it  made  him  hasten  his  journey  with  joy 
 and  alacrity  to  that  place. 
 
 It  was  about  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  year  of  Nero's 
 reign  when  he  came  to  Rome  the  second  time,  where 
 meeting  and  joining  with  Peter,  they  both  used  their 
 utmost  endeavours  to  instruct  the  Jews  in  their  syna- 
 gogues, and  to  convert  the  Gentiles  in  all  public  places 
 and  assemblies.  This  soon  raised  the  malice  and  in- 
 dignation of  the  magistrates,  especially  of  the  governor 
 *  Helius,  whom  Nero  at  his  departure  into  Greece,  left 
 invested  with  exorbitant  powers,  which  he  exercised 
 after  as  exorbitant  a  manner.  It  was  crime  enough  for 
 these  two  apostles  that  they  were  Christians ;  but  the 
 particular  prejudice  against  Peter  is  said  to  have  been 
 his  defeating  Simon  Magus,  and  that  against  Paul, 
 his  converting  one  of  the  emperor's  concubines.  How- 
 ever this  be,  apprehended  they  both  were,  and  cast  into 
 prison  ;  where  they  spent  their  time  in  the  most  solemn 
 acts  of  devotion,  and  as  occasion  offered,  preached  the 
 gospel  to  their  guards  and  fellow-prisoners,  among  whom, 
 it  is  said,  that  they  converted  Processus  and  Martinian, 
 two  captains  of  the  guard,  with  seven  and  forty  others. 
 
 During  the  time  of  the  apostle's  confinement,  St  Peter 
 wrote  his  second  general  epistle  c  to  the  converted  Jews 
 who  were  dispersed  in  the  several  provinces  of  Asia : 
 
 65,  &c.  FKOM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 wherein  lie  endeavours,  by  earnest  exhortations,  to  pre- 
 vail with  them  to  persevere  in  the  doctrine  which  they 
 had  received,  and  to  testify  the  soundness  and  sincerity 
 of  their  faith  by  a  Christian  life  comporting  therewith; 
 wherein  he  forewarns  them  of  the  false  teachers  d  that 
 would  shortly  spring  up  among  them;  foretells  their  sad 
 and  miserable  destruction  :  and  describes  them  by  their 
 odious  characters,  that  they  might  avoid  them  :  wherein 
 he  vindicates  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  canning  to  judgment, 
 which  the  heretics  of  those  times  denied,  that  thereby 
 they  might  encourage  men  the  more  securely  to  pursue 
 their  lewd  courses  ;  and  wherein  he  describes  the  e  great 
 and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord,  when  the  elements  shall  melt, 
 and  the  whole  frame  of  nature  be  dissolved,  thereby  to  ex- 
 cite them  to  become  circumspect  and  diligent,  in  order  to 
 be  found  of  him  in  peace,  without  spot  and  bkameless. 
 About  the  same  time  St  Paul  wrote  his  second  epistle 
 /  to  Timothy:  '  wherein  he  informs  him  of  the  near  ap- 
 
 1  2  Tim.  iv.  13. 
 
 2  2  Tim.  iii.  21. 
 
 a  What  we  are  to  understand  by  St  Paul's  cloak,  will  best  be 
 resolved  in  our  answers  to  the  following  objections.  We  have 
 only  to  observe  here,  that  the  time  when  he  left  his  cloak 
 was  not  when  he  went  from  Troas  to  Assos,  in  his  journey  to 
 Jerusalem;  for  then,  as  bishop  Pearson  says,  he  could  have  no 
 cause  to  leave  any  thing  of  moment,  having  so  many  to  accom- 
 pany him  on  his  journey,  as  well  as  a  ship  to  attend  him,  (Acts 
 xx.  4,  6,  13,)  but  it  was  in  his  travels  after  he  was  set  at  liberty, 
 and  had  left  Rome,  or  rather  in  his  return  to  Rome  again,  that, 
 in  the  hurry  of  his  departure,  he  left  some  things  with  Carpus, 
 
 which  he  afterwards  found  lie  wanted Whitby's  Annotations, 
 
 and  L'almet's  Commentary. 
 
 b  lie  is  called  Caesarianus,  as  being  the  emperor's  freedman, 
 and  by  the  apostle  the  Lion,  (2  Tim.  iv.  17,)  by  reason  of  his 
 cruelty  against  Christians. 
 
 c  That  this  epistle  was  written  by  St  Peter  is  evident  both 
 from  the  inscription  it  bears,  and  the  concurrence  of  circum- 
 stances in  it  relating  to  that  apostle,  and  none  else  ;  and  there- 
 fore we  may  suppose,  that  the  true  reason  of  its  late  reception 
 into  the  list  of  the  holy  scriptures,  was  not  so  much  its  difference 
 of  style,  as  its  not  being  addressed  to  any  particular  church  that 
 might  have  taken  care  to  preserve  it,  and  in  due  time  to  have 
 entered  its  claim  for  a  place  in  the  canon.  And  that  it  was  in- 
 dited, not  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  as  some  will  have 
 it,  but  a  little  before  the  author's  death,  not  improbably  in  the  13th 
 of  Nero's  reign,  A.  D.  67,  may  be  justly  concluded  from  this 
 declaration  of  his,  '  I  think  it  meet,  as  long  as  I  am  in  this 
 tabernacle,  to  put  you  always  in  remembrance  of  these  things, 
 knowing  that  shortly  I  shall  put  off  this  tabernacle,  even  as  our 
 
 Lord  Jesus  Christ  hath  shown  me,'  (2  Pet.  i.  12,   13,   14. 
 
 Bcausobrc't,,  Whit/y'.s,  and  Hammond's  Pre/ace  to  the  Second 
 Epistle  of  St  Piter. — See  also  Sherlock's  first  dissertation  at  the 
 eud  of  his  Discourses  on  Prophecy  and  Miracles :  Michaelis,  vol.  iv. 
 
 d  There  are  three  sorts  of  people  which  the  apostle  cautions 
 his  converts  against  in  this  epistle.  1st.  The  Solifidians,  who 
 talked  of  attaining  salvation  by  the  strength  of  their  faith,  or  a 
 right  belief  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  without  any  regard 
 to  a  virtuous  life.  2dly.  The  Nicolaitans,  who  turned  the 
 grace  of  God  into  lasciviousness;  and,  upon  the  presumption  of 
 their  being  spiritual  persons,  and  the  seed  of  election,  averred, 
 that  they  contracted  no  guilt,  and  could  receive  no  pollution 
 from  any  evil  action  they  did.  And  3dly.  The  scoflers  at  the 
 promise  of  Christ's  coming  to  judgment,  which  they  looked  upon 
 as  a  thing  that  could  never  be  verified,  and  which  the  continu- 
 ance of  their  persecutions  gave  the  Christians  small  hopes  of  ex- 
 pecting.—  Whitby's  Preface  to  the  second  Epistle  of  St  Peter. 
 
 e  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  reverend  and  judicious  Dr  Ham- 
 mond, and  Dr  Lightfoot,  that  St  Peter,  in  the  3d  chapter  of  his 
 second  epistle,  does  not  discourse  of  our  Lord's  coming  to  the 
 general  judgment  of  all  mankind:  but  only  of  his  coming  to  exe- 
 cute his  judgment  on  the  Jews  in  the  final  destruction  of  their 
 church  and  nation.  But  besides  that  this  notion  is  entirely 
 new,  and  contrary  to  the  sentiments  of  all  the  ancients  who  have 
 commented  upon  this  epistle,  it  seems  obvious  at  first  sight, 
 '  that  the  day  of  the  Lord,  in  which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away 
 with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat, 
 the  earth  also,  and  the  works  that  are  therein, shall  be  burnt  up,' 
 can  mean  no  other  than  the  great  day  of  judgment.  For,  to  in- 
 terpret these  words  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  only,  is  to 
 turn  them  into  a  metaphor  and  allegory;  whereas  St  Peter  says 
 plainly,  that  as  the  old  world  was  destroyed  by  water,  so  shall 
 the  world  that  now  is  be  destroyed  by  fire,  (2  Peter  iii.  6,  7.) 
 It  is  usual  indeed  with  the  prophets,  to  represent  God's  judg- 
 ments on  the  enemies  of  his  church  and  people,  by  the  tragical 
 expressions, '  of  burning  up  the  earth,  anddissolving  the  heavens;' 
 (Isa.  xiii.  9,  &c.  xxxiv.  3,  &c.)  but  this  solemn  exhortation, 
 'Seeing  then  all  these  things  shall  be  dissolved,  what  manner  of 
 persons  ought  we  to  be  in  all  holy  conversation  and  godliness, 
 looking  for  and  hastening  to  the  coming  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
 Jesus  Christ,  that  we  may  be  found  of  him  without  spot  and 
 blameless?'  (2  Pet.  iii.  11,  12.)  This  exhortation,  I  say,  sounds 
 too  high  for  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  in  which  they  of  Pontus 
 and  Galatia  could  not  be  much  concerned;  but  it  is  very  proper 
 for  those  who  had  the  lively  ideas  of  the  conflagration  of  the 
 world,  and  the  tremendous  judgment  and  perdition  of  ungodly 
 men,  then  set  before  them. —  Whitby's  Preface  to  the  Second 
 Epistle  of  St  Peter. 
 
 f  That  at  two  different  times  St  Paul  was  a  prisoner  at  Rome, 
 is  evident  from  the  circumstances  which  himself  relates.  In  his 
 first  confinement!  he  was  permitted  to  live  in  his  hired  house, 
 and  to  receive  all  that  came  to  him,  (Acts  xxviii.  30,  31.)  but 
 in  his  second,  lie  was  so  closely  shut  up,  that  Ouesiphorus  was 
 forced  to  inquire  diligently  alter  him,  before  he  found  him,  (2 
 Tim.  i.  17.)  In  the  first,  Timothy  and  Mark  were  both  with 
 him,  and  constantly  attending  him,  (Phil  i.  1.  and  Col.  iv.  10.) 
 in  the  second,  they  were  both  absent  in  Asia,  and  knew  nothing 
 of  what  passed  in  Rome,  (2  Tim.  iv.  11.)  In  the  first,  Denias 
 had  joined  himself  to  him,  and  was  become  a  fellow  labourer  in 
 the  gospel:  in  tile  second,  'out  of  love  to  the  things  of  the  world. 
 
1108 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4072.  A.  D.  C8 ;  OR,  A 
 
 preach  of  his  death;  ami  desire*  him  to  come  to  him 
 before  winter,  because  moat  of  his  companions,  upon 
 
 affair  or  other,  were  departed  from  him:   wherein  he 
 
 exhorts  him  to  discharge  all  the  duties  of  a  bishop  and 
 pastor,  suitable  to  those  excellent  gifts  he  had  received, 
 and  with  a  generous  contempt  of  the  world,  and  worldly 
 things:  wherein  he  admoniahea  him,  not  to  be  surprised 
 or  disturbed  at  the  apostasy  of  some  from  the  faith,  but 
 t,»  preach  the  more  zealously  against  such  oppoeera  as 
 heaped  Op  to  themselves  teachers,  and  left  the  truth,  to 
 turn  unto  fal.les;  and  wherein  he  acquainted  him,  how, 
 u  his  lir.-t  appearing  before  Melius,  all  his  companions, 
 tor  fear  of  being  involved  in  his  punishment,  '  forsook 
 him;  hut  that  the  Lord  stood  by  him,  and  strengthened 
 him,   to    make    his    preaching    more    conspicuous,    and 
 
 effectual  to  the  (.entiles.' 
 
 I  low  Ion-  these  two  apostles  lived  under  their  con- 
 fiaemeat,  we  have  no  certain  knowledge;  but  at  last  it 
 being  determined  that  they  should  both  die  :  Peter,  as  a 
 .lew.  and  foreigner,  was  sentenced  to  be  crucified;  and 
 Paul,  "  as  a  Roman  citizen,  to  be  beheaded.      *  On  the 
 
 M.  5176-  A.  D.  68,  Sec.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 29th  of  June,  as  it  is  generally  supposed,  St  Peter,  being 
 first  scourged,  according  to  the  Roman  custom,  was  led 
 to  the  top  of  the  Vatican  mount,  near  the  Tiber,  where  he 
 desired  the  favour  of  the  officers,  that  he  might  be  cruci- 
 fied with  his  head  downwards,  as  thinking  himself  un- 
 worthy to  suffer  in  the  same  posture  wherein  his  Lord 
 and  Master  had  suffered  before  him.  In  this  manner  c 
 he  expired  upon  the  cross;  while  St  Paul,  having  con- 
 verted three  of  the  soldiers  that  were  sent  to  guard  him 
 to  his  execution,  and  who,  within  a  few  days  after,  died 
 martyrs  themselves,  when  he  came  to  the  place  called 
 Aqua?  Salvia?,  about  three  miles  out  of  the  city,  after 
 some  solemn  preparations,  cheerfully  gave  up  his  neck 
 to  the  fatal  stroke. 
 
 Thus  died  d  the  two  most  eminent  apostles  of  Jesus 
 Christ,  after  they  had,  with  indefatigable  labour,  reaped 
 a  glorious  harvest  of  infinite  numbers  of  souls,  and  tri- 
 umphantly propagated  salvation  to  the  most  considerable 
 parts  of  the  world  ;  and  as  they  were  equally  concerned 
 in  the  foundation  of  the  church  of  Rome,  the  one  having 
 the  Jewish  and  the  other  the  Gentile  converts  under  his 
 
 1  2  Tim.  iv.  17. 
 be  had  forsaken  him,  and  departed  to  Thessalonica,'  (2  Tim.  iv. 
 10.)  In  the  first,  'many  of  the  brethren,  waxing  confident  by 
 hi s  bonds,  were  much  more  bold  to  speak  the  word  without  fear,' 
 I'hil.  i.  14.)  hut  in  the  second,  they  were  so  intimidated,  that 
 ■the*  all  forsook  him,'  and  'not  one  man  stood  with  him,'  (2 
 Tim.  iv.  Hi.)  And  if  it  thus  appears,  that  St  Paul  was  twice 
 in  custody  at  Rome,  himself  gives  us  to  understand,  that  this 
 epistle  was  written  under  his  latter  confinement,  and  was  very 
 probably  the  last  that  ever  he  wrote  ;  for,  '  I  am  ready  to  be 
 offered,  and  the  time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand;  I  have  finished 
 my  Course,'  and  '  from  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  forme  a  crown 
 of  glory,1  2  Tim.  iv.  (i,  &c.)  are  the  words  of  one  that  is  ap- 
 proaching to  his  latter  end.  This  therefore  is  a  strong  indication 
 of  the  lingular  affection  which  St  Paul  had  for  Timothy,  that  he 
 
 ■  .I  him  with  one  of  the  last  letters  that  he  ever  wrote: 
 ,uid  if,  pursuant  to  this  letter,  Timothy  went  to  Rome,  (as  pro- 
 
 be  did,  In-  must  have  been  there  when  the  apostle  was  led 
 mi'  tu  sutler,  and  finished  his  course  in  a  glorious  martyrdom. 
 
 the  death  of  St  Paul,  the  history  of  Timothy  is  but  short; 
 only  we  may  suppose,  that  he  returned  to  Ephesus,  probably  the 
 year  following,  and  there  continued  to  govern  that  church  in  the 
 capacity  of  their  bishop,  until  the  Pagans  of  that  city,  who  were 
 great  votaries  tu  the  goddess  Diana,  celebrating  a  festival  called 
 Catagogian,  in  which  they  carried  about  the  images  of  their 
 gods,  and  by  means  of  their  masks  and  clubs,  committed  a  thousand 
 Insoleneei  and  outrages,  Timothy  stood  in  the  streets,  to  oppose 
 and  reprove  this  execrable  custom;  which  so  enraged  the  people 
 that  falling  upon  him  with  stones  and  clubs,  they  left  him  for 
 ib  el.  But  some  of  his  disciples,  finding  him  to  breathe,  took 
 him  up,  and  lodged  him  without  the  gates,  where  in  two  days 
 he  expired,  and  was  afterwards  buried  on  a  mountain  not  far  from 
 the  nty.—  ll'hitl.i/'s'MdJieausnbre's  Preface  to  the  Second  Epistle 
 I-  Timuthi/,  mid  Echard's  EeektUuHcai  Butoty. 
 
 rhh  »us  accounted  s  more  noble  Kind  of  death,  not  amoncr 
 
 the  Romans  only,  but  among  other  nations,  as  being  fitter  for 
 
 of  better  quality,  and  more  ingenuous  education:  and, 
 
 •  b  Instrument  of  his  execution,  the  custom  no  doubt  first 
 
 0  all  pictures  and  images  of  this  apostle,  he  is  con- 
 stantly re|  resented  with  a  Bwurd  in  his  right  hand.     He  is  said 
 
 red  in  tl„-  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age ;  to  have  been 
 hurled  in  the  Via Oatiensis,  about  two  miles  from  Rome;  and  by 
 
 •  utine  the  Ceat  to  have  had  a  stately  church,  in  the  year 
 1 1>.  built  over  iii.  grave.     It  was  adorned  with  an  hundred  of 
 
 Oh)  Columns,  and  beautified  with  the  most  exquisite 
 
 warirmanship.      Mut  a,  it  was  afterwards  thought  to  be  too  narrow 
 
 We  for  the  honour  of  so  great  an  apostle,  Valentinian,  or 
 
 rheodoslus,  th,-  emperor,  the  one  but  finishing  what  the 
 
 Otter  bee,,,,  by   a  rescript,  directed  to  Salustius,  prefect  of  the 
 
 city,  caused  it  to  be  taken  dim,,,  a„d  a  larger  and  more  noble 
 
 one  to  be  buiU  |„  its  room.— Cave's  Lives  of  the  .'.posttes 
 
 b  .Miiny  el"  tin-  ancients  positively  ailirm,  that  both  these  apos- 
 
 tles suffered  on  the  same  day  and  year;  but  others,  though  allow- 
 ing the  same  day,  tell  us,  that  St  Paul  did  not  suffer  till  a  year 
 after  St  Peter;  and  some  interpose  the  distance  of  several  years. 
 — Ibid. 
 
 c  His  body  being  taken  from  the  cross,  was  embalmed  after 
 the  Jewish  manner,  by  Marcellinus  the  presbyter,  and  so  buried 
 in  the  Vatican,  near  the  Triumphal  way.  Over  his  grave  a 
 small  church  was  soon  after  erected ;  but  when  it  was  destroyed 
 by  Heliogabalus,  his  body  was  removed  to  the  cemetry  in  the 
 Appian  way,  two  miles  distant  from  Rome.  Here  it  continued 
 till,  in  the  time  of  pope  Cornelius,  it  was  re-conveyed  to  the 
 Vatican;  where  it  abode  in  some  obscurity,  until  Constantine 
 the  Great,  out  of  the  profound  reverence  he  had  for  the  Chris- 
 tian religion,  having  rebuilt  and  enlarged  the  Vatican  to  the 
 honour  of  St  Peter,  enriched  it  with  gifts  and  ornaments,  which 
 in  every  age,  increased  in  splendour  and  beauty,  till  it  is  become 
 one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world  at  this  day. — Ibid. 
 
 d  Before  we  part  with  these  two  apostles,  it  may  not  be  amiss 
 to  take  a  short  survey  of  their  persons  and  tempers.  St  Peter,  (if 
 we  may  believe  the  description  which  Nicephorus  gives  us  of 
 him,)  was  of  a  middle  size,  but  somewhat  slender,  and  inclining 
 to  talluess  :  his  complexion  was  very  pale,  his  hair  thick  and 
 curled,  his  eyes  black,  his  eye-brows  thin,  and  his  nose  large, 
 but  not  sharp.  In  his  natural  temper,  (as  most  Galileans  were,) 
 he  was  warm,  eager,  and  enterprising,  stout  and  courageous  in 
 the  main,  though  in  some  cases  his  fear  prevailed,  and  destroyed 
 the  succours  which  reason  offered.  His  humility  and  lowliness 
 of  mind  was  singular,  his  affection  and  zeal  for  his  Master  won- 
 derful, his  love  for  the  souls  of  men  ardent,  his  diligence  in  his 
 ministerial  office  indefatigable,  and  his  rule  and  conduct  in  his 
 episcopal  capacity,  highly  prudent  and  engaging.  St  Paul,  (if 
 we  may  believe  the  same  Nicephorus,)  was  of  a  low  and  small 
 stature,  somewhat  stooping,  his  complexion  was  fair,  his  counte- 
 nance grave,  his  head  small,  his  eyes  sparkling,  his  nose  high 
 and  bending,  and  his  hair  thick  and  dark,  but  mixed  with  grey. 
 His  constitution  was  weak,  and  often  subject  to  distempers;  but 
 his  mind  was  strong,  and  endued  with  a  solid  judgment,  quick 
 invention,  and  prompt  memory,  which  were  all  improved  by  art, 
 and  the  advantages  of  a  liberal  education:  his  humility  and 
 self-abasement  was  wonderful,  his  sobriety  and  temperance  sin- 
 gularly strict,  his  contempt  of  the  world  great  and  generous, 
 his  charity  to  the  poor  extensive,  his  love  for  nun's  souls  univer- 
 sal, his  labours  in  the  execution  of  his  ministry  incessant,  his 
 constancy  in  the  profession  of  religion  invincible,  and  his  style 
 and  manner  of  writing  to  inculcate  it,  even  by  the  confession  of 
 his  enemies,  weighty  and  powerful,  (2  Cor.  x.  10.)  Besides 
 the  epistles  which  are  owned  to  be  genuine,  several  other  writ- 
 ings are  falsely  ascribed  to  him,  as  an  epistle  to  the  Laodiceans, 
 a  third  to  the  Thessalonians,  a  third  to  the  Corinthians,  a  second 
 to  the  Ephesians,  his  Letter  to  Seneca,  his  Acts,  his  Revelation, 
 his  voyage  to  Thecla,  and  his  Sermons:  as  the  like  has  been 
 done  to  St  Peter,  namely,  his  Acts,  Gospel,  Revelation,  Preach 
 mg,  Judgment,  and  Liturgy. — Ibid. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1109 
 
 A.  M.  4072.  A.  D.  68;  OR,  A.  M.  5479.  A.  D 
 
 care  an<l  government,  when  both  of  them  were  dead,  the 
 whole  administration  of  it  devolved  upon  a  Linus,  one 
 of  St  Raul's  disciples,  of  whom  he  makes  mention  in  his 
 second  epistle  to  Timothy,1  and  who,  after  twelve  years 
 presiding-  therein,  is  said  to  have  suffered  martyrdom 
 either  in  the  first  or  second  year  of  Titus. 
 
 One  of  St  Paul's  predictions  was,  that  in  the  Chris- 
 tian church  2  heresies  should  arise,  for  the  manifestation 
 of  such  as  were  sound  in  the  faith ;  which  prediction  be- 
 gan now  to  be  verified  :  for,  besides  the  immediate  fol- 
 lowers of  Simon  Magus  *  those  of  Menander,  Ebion,  and 
 Cerinthus,  as  well  as  others,  who  are  styled  3  c  Nico- 
 
 1  Chap.  iv.  21.  2  I  Cor.  xi.  19.  3  Rev.  ii.  15. 
 
 a  Tradition  is  almost  unanimous  in  asserting  that  the  first 
 bishop  of  Rome  was  Linus  ;  by  which  we  are  to  understand  that 
 lie  was  the  first  person  appointed  over  it,  after  the  apostles  had 
 left  it,  and  we  may,  perhaps,  safely  consider  Linus  to  have 
 entered  upon  his  office  as  early  as  the  year  58. — Burton's  His- 
 tory of  the  Church. —  Ed. 
 
 b  Menander  was  a  Samaritan,  and,  like  Simon,  a  notorious 
 impostor  and  magician ;  but  abounding  with  more  monstrous 
 illusions  than  he.  He  gave  it  out,  that  he  was  a  Saviour  sent 
 from  above  for  the  restoration  of  mankind  ;  and  that  whoever  was 
 instructed  in  his  occult  knowledge,  and  initiated  in  his  baptism, 
 should  enjoy  a  perpetual  immortality,  and  continue  always  young 
 and  vigorous,  even  in  this  world.  With  these,  and  several  others 
 of  his  master  Simon's  opinions,  he  seduced  many  in  Antioch  ; 
 and  though  the  extravagancy  of  his  notions  made  them  less  in- 
 fectious, yet  they  were  continued  in  the  second  century,  parti- 
 cularly by  Basilides  and  Saturninus.  Ebion,  so  called  for  his 
 arl'ected  poverty,  was  born  at  Cocaba,  a  village  in  Palestine;  and 
 spread  his  heresy  in  Trachonitis,  and  among  the  Christians, 
 who,  before  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  had  retired  to  Pella.  He 
 denied  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour  ;  and  though  he  acknowledged 
 him  for  an  excellent  person,  believed  him  to  be  no  more  than 
 the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary.  He  enjoined  the  observation  of 
 the  law  of  Moses  as  necessary  to  salvation ;  received  all  the  writ- 
 ings of  the  Old  Testament,  but  none  of  the  New,  except  St 
 Matthew's  gospel;  and  particularly  condemned  St  Paul  as  an 
 apostate,  for  proving  the  dissolution  of  the  Jewish  law.  Cerin- 
 thus spread  his  heresy  in  Ephesus,  and  other  parts  of  Asia 
 Minor;  and,  in  his  denial  of  our  Lord's  divinity,  his  acknowledge- 
 ment of  St  Matthew's  gospel,  and  asserting  the  obligation  of  the 
 Mosaic  law,  agreed  exactly  with  Ebion  ;  as  he  did  with  the  Gnos- 
 tics, in  asserting  the  creation  of  the  world  by  angels.  To  insinuate 
 himself  with  the  vulgar,  he  boasted  much  of  his  illuminations 
 and  revelations;  and,  to  make  the  mystery  of  our  Lord's  passion 
 more  familiar,  distinguished  between  Jesus  and  Christ,  and 
 accordingly  taught  that  Jesus  was  but  a  mere  man;  that  Christ 
 descended  upon  him  in  the  likeness  of  a  dove,  and  continued 
 with  him  during  the  time  of  his  ministry;  but  that,  as 
 Christ  was  incapable  of  suffering,  he  forsook  Jesus  when  he 
 came  to  be  crucified,  and  left  him  to  die ;  but  his  kingdom 
 afterwards,  he  affirmed,  should  be  terrestrial,  in  the  city  of  Jer- 
 usalem, where  men  should  enjoy  all  kinds  of  carnal  pleasures 
 for  a  thousand  years. 
 
 c  The  Nicolaitans  are  supposed  to  derive  their  original  from 
 Nicolas,  one  of  the  deacons  mentioned  in  the  6th  of  Acts,  and, 
 as  Clemens  Alexandrinus  relates  the  story,  not  improbably  on 
 this  occasion.  This  Nicolas  had  a  beautiful  wile,  of  whom  he 
 was  said  to  be  jealous;  but  to  show  the  apostles  how  far  he  was 
 from  that,  he  brought  her  forth  one  day,  and  gave  any  person 
 leave  to  marry  her.  Himself  was  a  sober  and  temperate  man, 
 who  never  knew  any  woman  but  his  own  wife,  by  whom  he  had 
 one  son  and  several  daughters,  who  lived  all  unmarried,  and 
 showed  that  their  father  was  no  encourager  of  lewdness:  but  so 
 it  was,  that  being  accustomed  to  make  use  of  an  expression, 
 which  bore  an  equivocal  meaning,  namely,  '  That  we  ought  to 
 abuse  the  flesh,'  meaning  that  we  ought  to  mortify  and  keep  it 
 under,  by  this  saying  of  his,  and  what  he  had  done  in  offering  his 
 w  ife,  he  unhappily  gave  an  umbrage  to  his  disciples  and  followers 
 to  throw  ofi'  all  restraint,  and  to  give  themselves  over  to  the 
 grossest  impurities,  allowing  of  the  most  pernicious  mixtures, 
 and  making  corporeal  pleasure  the  ultimate  end  of  man  — Ech- 
 urd's  and  Lamp's  Ecclesiastical  Histories. 
 
 58,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 laitans,  appearing  eager  advocates  for  such  principles 
 as  sapped  the  very  foundations  of  the  Christian  religion, 
 obliged  d  St  Jude  to  write  his  epistle,  in  the  same  manner 
 as  St  Peter  did  his,  to  the  Jewish  converts,  in  their  several 
 dispersions  ;  *  Wherein  he  informs  them,  that  his  primary 
 intention  was,  to  have  wrote  to  them  in  general  of  the 
 common  salvation,  in  order  to  confirm  them  in  it;  yet, 
 seeing  the  doctrine  of  Christ  attacked  on  every  side  by 
 heretics,  he  thought  it  more  necessary  to  exhort  them  to 
 stand  up  manfully  for  the  defence  of  the  faith  once  de- 
 livered to  the  saints,  and  to  oppose  those  false  teachers 
 who  so  earnestly  laboured  to  corrupt  them  ;  and  that 
 they  might  know  these  the  better,  he  describes  them  in 
 their  proper  colour,  and  foretells  their  future,  if  not  im- 
 pending destruction  :  but  exhorts  them,  at  the  same  time, 
 to  endeavour  by  all  gentle  methods  to  save  them,  and 
 to  take  them  out  of  the  fire  into  which  their  own  folly 
 had  cast  them.' 
 
 It  is  very  observable  of  this  apostle,  that  the  evange- 
 lists commonly  call  him,  not  Jude,  but  either  e  Thaddeus, 
 or  Lebbaeus,  out  of  a  particular  dislike,  no  doubt,  to  the 
 name  of  Judas,  ever  since  the  treacherous  and  bloody 
 Iscariot  betrayed  and  sold  his  master :  but  then  the 
 sacred  records  are  so  very  short  in  their  accounts  of  him, 
 as  well  as  of  the  other  remaining  apostles,  that  we  must, 
 in  this  case,  be  beholden  to  other  ecclesiastical  writers; 
 — who  tell  us  of  this  St  Jude,  that  after  our  Lord's  as- 
 cent into  heaven,  having,  for  some  time,  preached  about 
 
 d  This  Jude,  who,  in  the  history  of  the  gospel,  is  styled  our 
 Lord's  brother,  as  being  the  son  of  Mary,  sister  to  the  blessed 
 Virgin,  was  undoubtedly  the  brother  of  James  the  Less,  bishop 
 of  Jerusalem,  (Mat.  xiii.  55),  and  '  it  may  be,  (as  Dr  Lightfoot 
 expresses  himself,)  that  St  Jude  stands  up  in  the  charge  of  his 
 brother  James  among  the  circumcision  of  Judea,  and  directs  his 
 epistle  to  all  such  as  were  sanctified  and  preserved  in  those 
 apostatizing  times,  as  his  brother  had  done  to  all  the  twelve 
 tribes  in  general.'  Between  this  and  St  Peter's  second  epistle 
 there  is  certainly  a  great  resemblance.  The  end  aimed  at  in 
 both,  namely,  to  expose,  in  their  true  light,  the  corrupt  principles 
 and  practices  of  the  Gnostics,  is  evidently  the  same:  and  the  argu- 
 ments and  expressions,  in  many  cases,  so  much  alike,  that  it 
 has  been  disputed  whether  St  Jude  has  here  abridged  that  of  St 
 Peter,  or  St  Peter  enlarged  upon  this  of  St  Jude,  though  most 
 are  of  the  former  opinion.  And  indeed,  when  we  find  St  Jude 
 quoting  expressly  this  epistle  of  St  Peter,  (Jude,  ver.  17.  com- 
 pared with  2  Pet.  iii.  1,  2.)  and  alluding  to  St  Paul's  second 
 epistle  to  Timothy,  (2  Tim.  iii.  1.  compared  with  Jude,  ver. 
 18.)  and  speaking  of  the  apostles  as  persons  who  had  been  some 
 time  dead,  we  cannot  but  conclude  that  this  epistle  was  not 
 written  till  after  the  death  of  the  apostles  St  Peter  and  St  Paul; 
 but  howlong  after  we  cannot  tell. — Whitby's  Preface  to  the  Epistle 
 of  Jude,  and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  cmd  Gospels,  vol.  iv. 
 
 c  The  superstitious  veneration  which  the  Jews  had  for  the 
 sacred  name  of  Jehovah,  would  not  sutler  them  to  pronounce  it 
 in  common  conversation ;  and  hence  it  was,  that  when  any  man 
 had  a  name  wherein  occurred  the  major  part  of  this  inerlable 
 title,  as  it  did  in  Jehuda,  or  Juda,  they  chose  rather  to  change  it 
 in  common  speech,  for  another  of  the  like  importance  but  differ- 
 ent characters;  for  which  reason,  Judas,  which  denotes  '  praise,' 
 was  changed  into  Thaddeus,  a  word  of  the  same  signification. 
 Concerning  the  other  name  of  Lebbaeus,  conjectures  have  been 
 various.  Some  deriving  it  from  an  Hebrew  word,  which  signi  ■ 
 fies  the  heart,  will  have  it  to  intimate  the  extraordinary  wisdom 
 and  courage  of  this  apostle:  while  others  draw  it  from  a  root 
 which  imports  a  lion,  and  think  it  an  allusion  to  that  prophecy 
 of  Jacob,  which  compares  his  son  Judah  to  an  old  lion,  and  a 
 lion's  whelp,  (Gen.  xlix.  9.)  though  all  this  etymology  might  be 
 spared,  if  we  can  but  with  Dr  Lightfoot  suppose,  that  his  name 
 was  taken  from  Lebba,  a  town  in  Galilee,  where  he  conceives 
 that  this  apostle  was  born. — Cave's  Lives  of  the  Jpostlcs;  and 
 Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels. 
 
1110 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4072.  A.  D.  G8 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5479.  A.  D.  G8,  &c.  FROM  ACTS.  I.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  V1IT. 
 
 Jadea  and  Galilee,  next  in  Samaria  and  Idinnea,  and 
 then  in  Syria  and  Mesopotamia,  he  travelled  at  last  into 
 Persia,  where  at  the  instigation  of  the  Magi,  provoked 
 l»v  his  open  rebukes  of  their  idolatrous  worship  of  the 
 sun,  and  other  superstitions,  he  was  assaulted  by  the 
 common  people,  and,   after   other   previous   cruelties, 
 crucified ;— who  tell  us  of  a  St  Simon,  that  upon  the  dis- 
 persion of   the    apostles,   having   preached  in   Egypt, 
 Gyrene,  Africa,  Mauritania,  and  other  remote  countries 
 thereunto    adjoining,  at  length  bent   his  course  west- 
 ward, and  came  into  *  Britain  where,  after  many  mira- 
 cles wrought,  anil  great  hardships  undergone,  he  was  at 
 but   put  to  deatli  for  the  testimony  of  the  truth,  by  the 
 then  rude  and  barbarous  inhabitants  of  that  island  ; — who 
 tell  us  of  <-St  Thomas,  that,  having  preached  in  Media, 
 Persia,  Hyrcania,  Bactriana,&c.  he  was  at  length  encour- 
 aged by  a  divine  vision  to  travel  into  India,  where  coining 
 into  the  country  of  the  Brachmans,  by  the  miracles  which 
 he  wrought,  he  converted  so  many,  and  among  others 
 Sacamo,  the  prince  of  the  country,  that  the  priests,  fear- 
 ing the  downfal  of  their  religion,  fell  upon  him,  while 
 he  was  intent  at  prayer,  witli  stones  and  darts,  and  at 
 last,  one  of  them  coming  nearer,  ran  him  through  with 
 a  lance ; — who  tell  us  of  d  St  Philip,  that  after  having 
 made   many  converts  in  the  Upper  Asia,  Colchis,  and 
 
 a  This  apostle,  to  distinguish  him,  I  suppose,  from  that  other 
 Simon  stu  named  Peter,  is  styled  Simon  Zelotes,  or  Simon  the 
 Canaan ite;  but  the  latter  name,  we  must  observe,  does  not  re- 
 ins country  or  kindred,  but  is  indeed  the  same  in  sense 
 with  Zelotes,  and  derived  hem  an  Hebrew,  as  that  is  from  a 
 Greek  word,  signifying  zeal;  hut  whether  this  title  was  given 
 him  in  regard  of  any  personal  warmth  or  vigour  remarkable  in 
 him,  or  whether  to  denote  him  one  of  that  sect  who  were  called 
 Zealots  aiming  the  Jews,  we  cannot  tell;  only  we  may  observe, 
 that  if  it  was  upon  the  latter  account,  his  conversion  was  more 
 sisnal,  once  nothing  could  he  more  opposite  to  the  meekness 
 and  gentleness  of  Christianity,  than  the  irregularity  and  fierce- 
 ness  of  that  spirit  by  which  this  sect  was  actuated. — Stanhope 
 on  the  Spittles  and  Gospels. 
 
 b  Others  say,  that,  after  his  preaching  the  gospel  in  Egypt, 
 became  into  Mesopotamia,  and  there  meeting  with  St  Jude, 
 •rent  with  him  into  Persia,  where  they  both  received  the  crown 
 of  martyrdom;  for  which  reason  perhaps  it  is,  that  the  church 
 commemorates  them  both  together  in  one  festival.— Stanhope  on 
 the  Epistles  and  Gospels. 
 
 r  It  was   customary  with   the   Jews,  when   travelling   into 
 
 foreign  countries,  or  familiarly  conversing  with  the  Greeks  and 
 
 Romans,  to  assume  to  themselves  a  Greek  or  Latin  name,  of 
 
 gn  at  affinity,  and  sometimes  of  the  very  same  signification  with 
 
 that  of  their  own  country;  as  that  of  Thomas  and  Didymus,  one 
 
 in  the   Syriac,  and   the   other  in   the   Greek,   do  both  signify  a 
 
 twin.     He  no  doubt  was  a  Jew,  and  in  all  probability,  a  Galilean, 
 
 ;is  well  as  the  other  apostles;  hut  the  place  of  his  birth,  and  the 
 
 nature  ot   hi,  calling,  unless  we   should   suppose  he  was  brought 
 
 op  to  the  trade  of  fishing,  is  a  thing  unknown.     It  is  generally 
 
 however,  that  he  preached  the  gospel  in  the  East  Indies, 
 
 -""  "I   the  great  numbers  of  Christians  found  there  in 
 
 several  places,  who  still  go  by  the  name  of  St  Thomas;  though 
 
 are  not  wanting  some,  who  ascribe  the  original  of  this 
 
 Ct  to  a  person  of  the  same  name,  who  lived  many  centuries 
 I      ■  i    Lives   of  the    Apostles;    and    Stanhope  on   the 
 Uts  mi,/  Gospels. 
 
 d  Tois  apostle  was  born  at  Bethsaida,  a  town  near  the  sea  of 
 ;   hut  of  his  parents,  ami   manner  of  life,  the  history  of 
 
 !»•   rocks  about   it,  Which  are  white  like  cotton;  and  there  to 
 have  suffered  martyrdom,  by  being  fastened  to  a  cross,  and  stoned 
 
 F-'f/T'S  f^X*  **"*"*■  ™*  Stanhope  on  the 
 bpisties  and  Gospels,  vol.  1. 
 
 some  parts  of  Scythia,  he  came  at  length  to  Hierapolis, 
 a  noted  city  in  Phrygia,  where  the  inhabitants  at  that 
 time  paid  their  adorations  to  a  e  dragon,  which  when  the 
 apostle,  by  his  prayers  and  invocation  of  the  name  of 
 Christ,  either  quite  destroyed,  or  caused  to  disappear, 
 the  magistrates  of  the  place  were  so  exasperated  against 
 him,  that  they  threw  him  into  prison,  and,  after  a  severe 
 scourging,  ordered  him  either  to  be  hanged  or  crucified  ; 
 
 who  tell  us  of /St  Bartholomew,  generally  supposed  to 
 
 be  the  same  with  Nathaniel,  that  having  with  great  success 
 propagated  Christianity  in  the  Higher  India,  whither  he 
 carried  St  Matthew's  gospel,  he  thence  removed  into 
 Lycaonia,  and  came  at  last  to  Albinople,  a  city  of  the 
 greater  Armenia,  at  this  time  miserably  overrun  with 
 idolatry  ;  where  having  converted  their  king  Polymius, 
 and  his  wife,  and  by  their  example  prevailed  with  multi- 
 tudes to  relinquish  their  idols,  he  so  far  enraged  the 
 priests  against  him,  that  they  instigated  Astyages  the 
 king's  brother  to  get  him  into  their  hands,  and  to  have 
 him  S  first  flayed, and  then  either  beheaded  or  crucified; 
 — who  tell  us  of  'J  St  Matthias,  that  having,  for  some 
 
 e  This  doubtless  was  done  in  memory  of  that  infamous  act 
 of  Jupiter,  who,  in  the  shape  of  a  dragon,  insinuated  himself 
 into  the  embraces  of  Proserpine,  his  own  daughter,  begot  of 
 Ceres,  and  whom  the  Phyrgians  chiefly  worshipped,  as  Clemens 
 of  Alexandria  informs  us. — Cave's  Ibid. 
 
 f  That  Nathaniel  and  Bartholomew  were  only  twro  names  for 
 one  and  the  same  person,  the  one  his  proper,  and  the  other  his 
 relative  name,  appears  from  several  passages  in  the  gospels  com- 
 pared together:  but  then  the  question  is,  upon  what  account  it  was 
 that  he  had  his  relative  name  conferred  on  him?  That  several 
 sects  in  the  Jewish  church  denominated  themselves  from  some 
 famous  person  of  that  nation,  as  the  Essenes  did  from  Enosh,  and 
 the  Sadducees  from  Sadoch,  cannot  be  denied ;  and  therefore,  if 
 we  may  suppose  that  there  were  others  who  called  themselves 
 Tholmsea'ns,  from  Tholmai,  scholar  to  Heber  the  ancient  master 
 of  the  Hebrews,  who  flourished  in  Dehir  and  Hebron,  it  will  be 
 no  hard  matter  to  make  Nathaniel  of  this  order  and  institution, 
 and  thereupon  to  give  him  the  name  of  Bartholomew,  that  is,  a 
 scholar  of  the  Tholmteans,  and  so  create  him,  as  he  is  said  to  have 
 been,  a  doctor  of  the  Jewish  law.  But  au  easier  account  of  this 
 matter  is,  that  as  the  first  syllable  of  this  name  signifies  a  son, 
 the  word  Bar-tholomew  will  import  no  more  than  the  son  of 
 Tholomew,  or  Tholmai,  which  was  no  uncommon  name  among 
 the  Jews.  And  that  it  was  a  usual  thing  among  them,  for 
 the  son  thus  to  derive  his  name,  is  evident  from  the  instance  of 
 Bar-timams,  which  is  interpreted  the  son  of  Timseus.  (Mark  x. 
 46,)  and  that  of  Bar-jona,  (Mat.  xvi.  17.)  which  St  John  makes 
 the  same  with  Simon  son  of  Jonas.  (John  xxi.  25.) — Cave's 
 Lives  of  the  Apostles;  and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels. 
 
 g  That  excoriation  was  a  punishment  in  use  not  only  in  Egypt, 
 but,  among  the  Persians  likewise,  is  evident  from  the  testimony 
 of  Plutarch,  who  records  a  particular  instance  of  Mesabates  the 
 Persian  eunuch's  being  first  flayed  alive,  and  then  crucified  ; 
 in  Vita  Arlaxerx.  And  that  the  Armenians,  who  were  next 
 neighbours  to  the  Persians,  might  from  them  borrow  this  piece 
 ot  barbarous  and  inhuman  cruelty,  is  no  hard  supposition  at  all. 
 —  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 h  As  this  apostle  was  not  one  of  the  first  election,  immediately 
 called  and  chosen  by  our  Saviour,  we  are  not  to  expect  any  ac- 
 count of  him  in  the  history  of  the  gospel;  but  from  the  Acts  of 
 the  Apostles  we  learn,  that  being  one  of  our  Lord's  disciples, 
 and  probably  one  of  the  seventy,  upon  the  death  of  Judas  he  was 
 elected  into  the  apostleship,  which  he  discharged  with  great 
 efficacy,  and  a  full  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power. 
 But  there  are  some  things  in  ecclesiastical  story  related  of  him, 
 as  particularly  when  he  preached  the  gospel  in  Macedonia,  and 
 the  heathens,  to  make  experiment  of  his  faith,  gave  him  a  poison- 
 ous potion,  that  he  cheerfully  drank  it  up  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
 and  received  no  harm,  which  have  not  met  with  so  ready  a 
 credence,  though  the  instance  before  us  be  no  more  than  the 
 completion  of  our  Saviour's  promise  to  his  apostles,  '  They  shall 
 take  up  serpents;  and  if  tiiey  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall 
 not  hurt  them/  (Mark  xvi.  lis.).— Cave's  Lives  of  the  Jpvstks. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &e. 
 
 A.  M.  4072.  A.  D.  68;  OR,  A.  M.  5470.  A.  D.  G8,  &C.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  TH  F.  GKD. 
 
 1111 
 
 time,  employed  himself  in  the  work  of  the  ministry  within 
 the  confines  of  Judea,  at  length  lie  betook  himself  to 
 other  countries,  and  travelling  eastward,  came  at  last  to 
 ./Ethiopia,  (or  Cappadocia  rather,)  where,  meeting  with 
 a  people  of  a  fierce  and  intractable  temper,  after  all  his 
 labours  and  sufferings,  and  a  numerous  conversion  to  the 
 Christian  faith,  from  them  he  received  the  crown  of  mar- 
 tyrdom; but  in  what  manner  it  was  conferred,  a  authors 
 are  not  agreed  ;  and  who  tell  us  of  St  *  Barnabas,  that, 
 after  his  separation  from  St  Paid,  having  preached  about 
 Liguria,  and  settled  a  church  at  Milan,  (whereof  himself 
 was  constituted  bishop,)  he  returned  at  last  to  Cyprus, 
 'tis  native  country,  where,  by  the  malice  of  the  Jews,  he 
 was  tumultously  assaulted,  and  stoned  to  death,  at  Sa- 
 lamis,  the  principal  city  of  the  island.  c 
 
 a  Ancient  martyrology  reports  him  to  have  been  seized  by  the 
 Jews,  and,  as  a  blasphemer,  to  have  been  first  stoned,  and  then 
 neheaded  ;  but  the  Greek  offices,  seconded  herein  by  several 
 ancient  breviaries,  tell  us,  that  he  was  crucified;  as  an  hymn 
 cited  by  Dr  Cave  out  of  the  Greek  offices  seems  to  import. 
 There  was  a  spurious  book,  cailed  the  'Gospel,'  or  'Acts  of 
 Matthias,'  which,  Eusebius  tells  us,  was  composed  by  heretics, 
 and  fathered  upon  him  ;  even  as  Clemens  of  Alexandria  observes, 
 that  Valentinus,  Marcion,  and  Basilides,  sheltered  their  vile 
 tenets  under  the  pretended  authority  of  this  apostle. — Cave's 
 Lives  of  the  Apostles,  and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels, 
 vol.  iv. 
 
 b  In  relation  to  this  apostle,  we  have  only  to  remark,  that  he 
 hath  left  us  one  epistle,  reckoned  among  the  apocryphal  writings 
 of  the  first  Christians,  which  may  be  genuine  perhaps,  though 
 not  canonical.  Its  principal  design  is,  to  prove,  that  the  law  is 
 abolished  by  the  gospel ;  that  legal  ceremonies  are  useless  ;  and 
 that  the  incarnation  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  was  necessary. 
 It  is  certainly  very  ancient,  full  of  piety  and  zeal,  frequently 
 quoted  by  Clemens  of  Alexandria,  and  though  written  in  a  style 
 very  allegorical,  by  the  labours  of  our  late  archbishop  Wake  is 
 made  to  the  English  reader  both  entertaining  and  profitable. — 
 Calmet's  Dictionary,  and  Stanhope  on  the  Epistles  and  Gospels. 
 — The  epistle  of  Barnabas  was  the  production  of  some  Jew,  who 
 most  probably  lived  in  the  second  century,  and  whose  mean  abili- 
 ties and  superstitious  attachment  to  Jewish  fables,  show,  not- 
 withstanding the  uprightness  of  his  intentions,  that  he  must  have 
 been  a  very  different  person  from  the  true  Barnabas,  who  was 
 St  Paul's  companion. — Mosheim — En. 
 
 c  Many  of  the  above  particulars  respecting  the  lives,  actions, 
 and  deaths  of  the  apostles,  rest  on  very  doubtful  authority,  and 
 several  of  them  are  so  wild  and  extravagant,  as  to  raise  strong 
 suspicions  of  their  fabulous  nature.  The  following  judicious  re- 
 marks on  the  subject,  by  Dr  Burton,  will  doubtless  be  read  with 
 satisfaction.  '  It  has  already  been  observed,  that  we  know  very 
 little  of  the  personal  history  of  the  twelve  apostles;  but  the  re- 
 mark may  be  repeated  here,  that  they  probably  did  not  begin 
 their  distant  travels  till  the  time  of  Paul's  first  journey  in  45; 
 and  there  is  reason  to  think  that  very  few  of  them  survived  the 
 destruction  of  Jerusalem.  We  have  already  mentioned  the  little 
 that  is  known  concerning  Peter.  James,  the  brother  of  John, 
 was  beheaded  in  the  year  44,  before  his  apostolical  labours  could 
 have  begun,  though  the  fact  of  his  death  may  serve  to  show  that 
 he  had  been  a  zealous  preacher  to  his  countrymen  at  Jerusalem. 
 John  himself  outlived  all  the  other  apostles,  and  did  not  die  till 
 the  end  of  the  century  ;  so  that  we  shall  have  occasion  to  notice 
 him  hereafter.  Of  the  nine  other  apostles,  we  have  very  little 
 authentic  information,  though  there  are  abundant  traditions  con- 
 cerning their  preaching  in  distant  countries,  and  suffering  mar- 
 tyrdom. These  accounts  are  not  supported  by  the  earlier  writers, 
 except  with  relation  to  Andrew  and  Thomas:  the  former  of 
 whom  is  said,  by  a  writer  of  the  third  century,  to  have  preached 
 in  Scythia,  and  the  latter  in  Parthia.  The  term  Scythia  might 
 be  applied  to  many  countries;  but  Andrew  is  said  more  precisely 
 to  have  visited  the  country  about  the  Black  Sea ;  and,  ultimately, 
 to  have  died  in  the  south  of  Greece.  If  it  be  true  that  the  apostle 
 Thomas  preached  in  Parthia,  we  are  to  understand  this  expression 
 of  the  Persian  territories;  and  he  is  also  said  to  have  travelled  as 
 far  as  India.  Some  persons  have  thought  to  find  traces  of  his 
 apostolical  labours  iu  a  settlement  ol  Christians  lately  discovered 
 
 Thus  were  all  the  apostles  and  first  ministers  of  Christ 
 appointed  by  God  to  lay  down  their  lives,  in  testimony 
 
 on  the  coast  of  Malabar;  and  we  are  told  that  these  persons  lay 
 claim  to  the  apostle  Thomas  as  their  founder.  But  though  this 
 interesting  church  may  be  of  great  antiquity,  there  is  good  reason 
 In  doubt  the  truth  of  such  a  tradition;  and  part  of  the  country 
 which  is  now  called  Arabia,  was  often  spoken  of  in  ancient  times 
 as  India.  It  is,  therefore,  highly  probable  that  Thomas  preached 
 the  gospel  in  the  central  parts  of  Asia;  and  the  church  of  Edessa, 
 a  city  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  may  have  been  planted 
 by  this  apostle.  But  the  story  of  Abgarus,  the  king  of  that  peo- 
 ple, having  written  a  letter  to  our  Saviour,  and  being  cured  of  a 
 disorder  by  a  person  sent  to  him  from  the  apostle  Thomas,  is 
 worthy  of  little  credit,  except  as  it  confirms  the  tradition  of 
 Thomas  having  preached  at  Edessa.  His  remains  were  shown 
 in  that  city  as  early  as  in  the  fourth  century;  and  there  is  reason 
 to  think  that  he  did  not  suffer  martyrdom.  There  is  the  same 
 doubt  concerning  the  proper  meaning  of  the  term  India,  in 
 another  tradition,  concerning  the  apostles  Matthew  and  Bar- 
 tholomew. It  was  reported,  at  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
 that  a  Hebrew  copy  of  the  gospel,  composed  by  Matthew,  had 
 heen  found  in  India,  which  had  been  brought  to  that  country  by 
 Bartholomew.  It  is  plain  that  a  Hebrew  translation  of  this  gos- 
 pel could  only  have  been  of  use  to  Jews,  who  are  known  to  have 
 been  settled  in  great  numbers  in  Arabia:  so  that,  if  there  is  any 
 truth  in  this  story,  it  probably  applies  to  Arabia,  and  we  may 
 conclude  that  one  or  both  of  these  apostles  visited  that  country. 
 Matthew  is  reported  upon  other,  but  later,  authority,  to  have 
 preached  in  Ethiopia,  which  was  another  name  occasionally  used 
 for  Arabia.  He  is  also  said  to  have  led  a  life  of  rigid  abstemi- 
 ousness, and  not  to  have  met  his  end  by  martyrdom.  Concern- 
 ing three  of  the  apostles,  Simon,  surnamed  the  Zealot,  Matthias, 
 and  James  the  son  of  Alphreus,  we  know  absolutely  nothing;  at 
 least  if  we  follow  the  opinion  expressed  in  this  history,  that  the 
 James  now  mentioned  was  a  different  person  from  the  bishop  of 
 Jerusalem.  There  was,  however,  a  brother  of  the  bishop,  named 
 Jude,  who  was  probably  the  same  with  the  apostle  of  that  name ; 
 and  since  Paul,  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  in  the  year  52,  speaks 
 of  'the  brethren  of  our  Lord'  travelling  about  with  their  wives, 
 and  preaching  the  gospel,  we  can  hardly  help  referring  the  ex- 
 pression to  Jude,  who  at  that  time  was  pursuing  his  apostolical 
 labours ;  hut  the  particular  countries  in  which  he  travelled  are 
 not  known.  We  learn,  from  other  authorities,  that  he  was  mar- 
 ried, and  left  descendants.  He  was  also  the  writer  of  the  epistle 
 which  is  still  extant;  and  there  is  reason  to  think  that  he  sur- 
 vived most  of  the  other  apostles.  It  has  been  stated  that  none  of 
 them  lived  to  the  end  of  the  century,  except  John  ;  but  it  is 
 probable  that  Philip  died  at  an  advanced  age;  and  his  residence, 
 in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  was  at  Hierapolis  in  Phrygia.  He 
 also  was  married,  and  had  daughters,  which  was  perhaps  the 
 cause  of  his  being  sometimes  confounded  with  the  other  Philip, 
 who  was  one  of  the  seven  deacons,  and  lived  at  Cfcsarea,  whose 
 unmarried  daughters  are  mentioned  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
 This  brief  sketch  of  the  personal  history  of  the  Apostles  will  be 
 unsatisfactory  to  those  who  would  wish  to  be  furnished  with 
 anecdotes  concerning  the  founders  of  our  faith.  Such  a  wish  is 
 perfectly  reasonable,  if  materials  could  be  found  for  gratifying  it ; 
 and  the  historian  of  the  Church  could  not  better  discharge  his 
 duty,  when  engaged  upon  the  affairs  of  the  first  century,  than  in 
 relating  circumstances  connected  with  the  lives  and  deaths  of 
 the  apostles.  Their  history  would  be  that  of  the  first  propagation 
 of  the  gospel.  But  it  has  been  already  stated  more  than  once, 
 that  we  know  very  little  concerning  them;  and  upon  this  inter- 
 esting subject,  the  Christians  of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries 
 appear  to  have  been  almost  as  much  in  the  dark  as  ourselves. 
 Traditions  must  have  been  extant  in  the  second  century,  con- 
 nected with  the  history  of  the  apostles,  and  collections  of  them 
 are  stated  to  have  been  made  by  writers  of  that  period  ;  but  they 
 have  not  come  down  to  our  day,  except,  perhaps,  amidst  a  heap 
 of  extravagant  fictions,  which  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  ascer- 
 tain whether  any  of  the  stories  are  genuine.  The  lives  of  all  the 
 apostles  may  be  read  in  most  minute  detail,  not  only  in  the  com- 
 pilations of  modern  writers,  but  in  works  or  fragments  of  works, 
 which  are  probably  as  old  as  the  second  century ;  and  we  shall 
 see,  when  we  come  to  that  period,  that  literary  forgeries  began 
 then  to  be  common,  which  pretended  to  relate  the  personal  ad- 
 ventures of  the  companions  of  our  Lord.  The  only  inspired 
 work  upon  the  subject,  which  is  entitled  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
 
1112 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D 
 
 of  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  except  the  beloved  evangelist  « 
 St  John;  and  yet  if  we  consider  his  stripes  and  impri- 
 sonment by  the  council  of  Jerusalem,  his  *  banishment 
 to  the  isle  of  Patmos  for  the  word  of  God,  and  his  being  c 
 cast  into  a  cauldron  of  flaming  oil  by  the  order  of  Domi- 
 tian,  we  can  hardly  deny  him  the  honour  of  being  a  mar- 
 tyr, since  he  submitted  himself  freely  to  such  sufferings 
 as  nothing  but  a  miracle  could  rescue  him  from. 
 
 Of  this  apostle  the  same  ecclesiastical  writers  tell  us, 
 that  d  after  the  death  of  the  blessed  mother,  which  hap- 
 pened about  fifteen  years  after  our  Lord's  ascension,  by 
 i In-  special  conduct  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  was  carried 
 into  Asia,  on  purpose  to  oppose  the  heresies  which  in 
 those  parU  began  to  spread  and  infest  the  church  :  that, 
 as  he  spared  no  pains  in  preaching  the  gospel  where  it 
 was  wanted,  and  in  confirming  it  where  it  had  been 
 settled,  many  churches  of  note  and  eminence,  besides 
 those  mentioned  in  the  beginning  of  his  Revelation, 
 were  of  his  foundation  ;  that  in  the  persecution  raised 
 by  Domitian,  the  proconsul  of  Asia  sent  him  bound  to 
 
 might,  with  more  propriety,  be  termed  the  Acts  of  Paul;  and 
 they  do  not  bring  down  his  history  beyond  the  termination  of  his 
 first  imprisonment  at  Rome.  The  account  of  his  second  im- 
 prisonment, and  of  his  death,  might  have  been  related  much 
 more  minutely,  if  credit  could  be  given  to  the  statements  of  later 
 writers;  but  it  is  impossible  to  do  so,  in  the  great  majority  of 
 instances,  without  laying  aside  every  principle  of  sound  and 
 rational  criticism:  and  the  same  remark  will  apply  to  the  vol- 
 uminous legends  which  are  still  extant  concerning  the  rest  of 
 the  apostles. — Burton's  History  of  the  Church. — En. 
 
 a  Theophylact,  and  others  before  him,  were  of  opinion,  that 
 our  apostle  died  a  martyr,  upon  no  other  ground  than  what  our 
 Saviour  told  him  and  his  brother,  that  they  should  'drink  of  the 
 cup,  and  be  baptized  with  the  baptism  wherewith  he  was  bap- 
 tized,' which  St  Chrysostom  strictly  understands  of  a  bloody 
 death.  This  was  indeed  literally  verified  of  his  brother  James; 
 but  the  general  sense  of  antiquity  is,  that  St  John  died  in  his 
 bed. — Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 b  This  punishment,  in  the  Roman  law,  is  called  capitis  dimin- 
 utin,  because  the  person  thus  banished  was  disfranchised,  and  the 
 city  thereby  lost  an  head.  It  succeeded  in  the  room  of  that  ancient 
 punishment,  Aqud  et  igni  inter  dicer e,  whereby  it  was  implied, 
 that  the  man  must,  for  his  own  defence,  betake  himself  into 
 banishment,  when  it  became  unlawful  for  any  to  accommodate 
 him  with  lodging  or  diet,  or  any  other  necessary  of  life.  But 
 this  banishing  into  islands  was  properly  called  disportatio,  being 
 accounted  the  worst  kind  of  exile,  whereby  the  criminal  forfeited 
 his  estate,  and  being  bound  and  put  on  shipboard,  was,  by  public 
 officers,  transported  to  some  certain  island,  (which  none  but  the 
 •  mperor  himself  might  assign,)  there  to  be  confined  to  perpetual 
 banishment  The  place  to  which  St  John  was  carried  was  Pat- 
 ni'i-.  b  little  island  in  the  Archipelago,  now  called  Palmosa, 
 mountainous,  but  moderately  fruitful,  especially  in  wheat  and 
 pulse,  though  defective  in  other  commodities.  The  whole  cir- 
 cumference of  the  inland  is  about  thirty  miles,  and  on  one  of  the 
 mountains  stands  a  town  of  the  same  name,  having  on  the  top 
 of  it  a  monastery  of  Greek  monks ;  and  on  the  north  side  of  the 
 town,  the  inhabitants,  by  tradition,  show  an  house  in  which  the 
 Apocalypse  was  written,  and  not  far  off,  the  cave  where  it  was 
 d,  both  places  of  great  esteem  and  veneration  with  the 
 Greeks  and  Latjns. — Cave's  Lives  of  the  Apostles,  and  JFells's 
 Geography  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 r  This  i>  i  point  of  history  that  has  of  late  been  called  in 
 Question;  but,  since  it  is  attested  by  Tertullian,  Be  prescript. 
 e.  36.  ■  most  learned  anil  very  honest  man,  and  who  lived  near 
 enough  the  time  to  be  certified  of  the  truth;  since  it  is  contra- 
 dicted  l>y  no  ecclesiastical  writer  that  we  know  of:  is  no  more 
 incredible  than  St  Paul's  takinn  up  ;i  viper  unhurt,  (Acts  xxviii. 
 3,  &c.)  and  is  agreeable  to  the  intimation  "iven  of  St  John,  that 
 he  should  not  die  a  martyr,  (John  xxi.  21,  22.)  there  can  be  no 
 reason  for  cavilling  at  this  in  those  that  admit  of  the  possibility 
 of  any  miracle. — Co&ne'e  Grounds,  &c,  and  Whiston's  Answer. 
 
 rf  Cave's  Life  of  St  John,  and  Echard's  Ecclesiastical  History, 
 vol.  ii. 
 
 98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 Rome,  as  an  asserter  of  Atheism,  and  a  subverter  of  the 
 religion  of  the  empire,  where  he  was  treated  with  the  ut- 
 most barbarity,  and  at  length  banished  into  a  desolate 
 island,  there  to  be  employed  in  digging  in  the  mines  ;  that 
 in  this  desolate  place,  however,  he  was  entertained  with 
 the  more  immediate  converse  of  heaven,  and  by  frequent 
 visions  and  prophetic  representations,  had  a  clear  pros- 
 pect given  him  of  the  state  of  Christianity  in  the  future 
 periods  and  ages  of  the  church,  e  which  he  has  trans- 
 mitted to  us  ;  that  upon  the  death  of  Domitian,  when 
 Nerva  had  rescinded  all  his  odious  edicts,  our  apostle 
 took  the  opportunity  to  return  to  Ephesus,  and  as  Timothy 
 had  lately  been  dead,  at  the  request  of  the  bishops  of  the 
 province,  entered  upon  the  administration  of  that  metro- 
 politan see,  and  therein  continued  till  the  reign  of 
 Trajan;  that,  in  the  time  of  his  ruling  this  church,  he 
 wrote  three  several  epistles  ;  whereof  the  first  is  called 
 Catholic,  calculated,  as  it  were,  for  all  times  and  places : 
 in  which  he  excites  his  little  children,  as  he  calls  all 
 Christians,  to  love  and  charity,  to  holiness  and  purity 
 of  manners  ;  cautions  them  against  resting  in  a  naked 
 and  empty  profession  of  religion,  against  being  led  away 
 by  the  crafty  insinuations  of  seducers ;  antidotes  them 
 against  the  poison  of  the  Gnostic  principles  and  prac- 
 tices ;  and  gives  them  most  excellent  rules  for  the  conduct 
 of  the  Christian  life.  /     The  other  two  are  but  short,  and 
 
 e  The  Apocalypse,  or  hook  of  Revelations,  as  we  call  it,  was 
 of  old,  not  only  condemned  by  heretics,  but  controverted  by 
 many  of  the  fathers  likewise.  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
 tells  us,  that  for  his  part,  he  durst  not  reject  it,  being  persuaded, 
 that  it  contained  many  wise  and  admirable  mysteries,  though  he 
 could  not  comprehend  them  ;  and  that  though  he  owned  the 
 author  to  have  been  a  divinely-inspired  person,  yet  he  could  not 
 believe  it  to  be  St  John  the  apostle  and  evangelist,  because  the 
 style,  matter,  and  method  of  it,  did  nowise  agree  with  his  other 
 writings.  The  common  current  of  antiquity  however  runs 
 another  way;  and,  as  the  diversity  of  style,  &c.  is  of  no  moment 
 in  this  case,  because  that  in  subjects  which  are  so  vastly  different, 
 it  is  hardly  possible  for  any  man  to  observe  the  same  tenor  and 
 way  of  writing,  the  book  being  wrote  in  the  island  Patmos, 
 which  is  a  circumstance  compatible  to  none  but  St  John ;  his 
 name  so  frequently  occurring  in  it,  his  styling  himself  a  brother 
 and  companion  in  tribulation,  and  in  the  kingdom  and  patience 
 of  Jesus  Christ ;  his  writing  particular  epistles  to  the  seven 
 churches  in  Asia,  all  planted,  or  at  least  cultivated  by  him ;  to- 
 gether with  doctrines  contained  in  them,  all  suitable  to  the 
 apostolic  spirit  and  temper;  these  are  so  many  concurring  evi- 
 dences to  prove  our  apostle  to  have  been  the  author  of  it,  what- 
 ever was  the  occasion  of  its  not  being  received  so  readily  into 
 the  canon  of  scripture. — Cave's  Life  of  St  John. 
 
 f  The  design  of  this  epistle  is,  1st.  To  refute,  and  to  guard 
 the  Christians  to  whom  he  wrote  against  erroneous  and  licentious 
 tenets,  principles,  and  practices-  such  as  the  denial  of  the  real 
 deity  and  proper  humanity  of  Christ,  of  the  reality  and  efficacy 
 oi  his  sufferings  and  death  as  an  atoning  sacrifice,  and  the  as- 
 sertion, that  believers  being  saved  by  grace,  were  not  required 
 to  obey  the  commandments  of  God.  These  principles  began  to 
 appear  in  the  church  of  Christ  even  in  the  apostolic  age,  and 
 were  afterwards  maintained  by  the  Cerinthians,  and  other  here- 
 tics who  sprang  up  at  the  close  of  the  first  and  second  century 
 of  the  Christian  Eera.  2dly.  To  stir  up  all  who  profess  to  know- 
 God,  to  have  communion  with  him,  and  to  believe  in  him,  that 
 they  walk  in  the  light  and  not  in  darkness  (i.  5 — 7.),  that  is, 
 in  holiness  and  not  in  sin  ;  that  they  walk  as  Christ  walked  (ii. 
 6.);  and  that  they  keep  the  commandments,  and  especially 
 abound  in  sincere  brotherly  love  towards  each  other,  (ii.  4,  9 — 
 11.  iii.  10—24.  iv.  20,  21.  v.  7  —  3.)  This  rational  and  Chris- 
 tian spirit,  the  apostle  enforces,  upon  the  best  principles,  and 
 with  the  strongest  arguments,  derived  from  the  love  of  God  and 
 of  Christ ;  showing  the  utter  insufficiency  of  faith,  and  the  mere 
 external  profession  of  religion,  without  the  accompanying  evi- 
 dence of  a  holy  life  and  conduct.  3dly.  To  help  forward  and  to 
 provoke  real  Christians  to  communion  with  God  and  the  Lord 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1H3 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A .  D 
 directed  to  particular  persons;  the  one  to  a  lady  of 
 honourable  quality,  encouraging-  her  and  her  children  to 
 charity,  to  perseverance  in  good  works,  and  to  show  no 
 countenance  to  false  teachers  and  deceivers ;  the  other 
 to  the  charitable  and  hospitable  Gaius,so  kind  a  friend, 
 so  courteous  an  entertainer  of  all  indigent  Christians. 
 
 The  same  authors  tell  us,  that  in  his  archiepiscopal 
 capacity,  he  took  great  care  of  the  flock  of  Christ,  and 
 notwithstanding  his  advanced  age,  went  many  journeys 
 into  the  neighbouring  provinces,  to  ordain  bishops,  to 
 settle  and  confirm  churches,  and  was  induced  at  last,  by 
 the  request  and  importunity  of  several  of  his  disciples, 
 even  when  lie  was  ninety  seven  years  of  age,  to  compose 
 his  gospel,0  fora  defence  against  the  heresies  then  brood- 
 ing, and  for  a  supply  of  what  the  other  evangelists  had 
 omitted  ;  for,  as  we  cannot  but  suppose,  that  in  the  course 
 of  the  many  years  which  he  lived,  he  had  seen  the  writings 
 of  ail  the  restof  the  apostles  and  evangelists,  and  signified 
 his  approbation  of  them ;  so  we  can  hardly  imagine  any 
 thing  more  worthy  his  care,  or  more  necessary  in  itself, 
 than  for  him  to  ascertain  the  authority  of  those  writings, 
 and  to  finish  and  settle  the  canon  of  scripture,  that  it 
 might  be  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice, and  the  church's 
 preservative  against4  such  heresies  as  were  very  numer- 
 
 Jesus  Christ  (i.  3,  4.);  to  constancy  in  the  true  faith,  against  all 
 that  seduced  them  (ii.  24 — 28.);  to  purity  and  holiness  of  life 
 (ii.  1.  iii.  3 — 13.),  and  that  those  who  believe  on  the  name  of 
 the  Son  of  God,  may  know  that  they  have  eternal  life.  (v.  13.) 
 — Home's  Introduction. 
 
 a  The  ancients  assign  two  reasons  especially  for  the  writing 
 of  this  gospel.  The  first  is,  that  he  might  obviate  the  early 
 heresies  of  those  times,  especially  of  Ebion  and  Cerinthus,  and 
 the  rest  of  that  party,  who  began  openly  to  deny  Christ's  di- 
 vinity, and  that  lie  had  any  existence  before  his  incarnation. 
 The  other  is,  that  he  might  supply  those  passages  of  the  evan- 
 gelical history,  which  the  rest  of  the  sacred  writers  had  omitted  ; 
 and  therefore  collecting  the  other  three  evangelists,  he  first  set 
 to  them  his  seal,  ratifying  the  truth  of  them  with  his  approbation, 
 and  then  added  his  own  gospel  to  the  rest;  wherein  he  chiefly 
 insists  upon  the  acts  of  Clu'ist  from  the  first  commencement  of 
 his  ministry  to  the  death  of  John  the  Baptist,  in  which  the  others 
 were  most  defective  ;  and  wherein  he  largely  records  his  dis- 
 courses, because  some  of  them  were  passed  by,  but  takes  not  so 
 much  notice  of  his  miracles,  because  they  were  sufficiently  re- 
 lated by  the  rest.  —  Cave's  Life  of  St  John. 
 
 b  The  heresies  that  were  then  springing  up  and  not  long  after 
 overspread  the  church  in  divers  places,  were  those  of  Menander, 
 Cerinthus,  and  Ebion,  whereof  we  shall  give  our  reader  this  short 
 account. — Menander  was  a  Samaritan,  a  great  disciple  of  Simon 
 Magus,  of  whose  tenets  and  doctrines  we  have  spoken  be- 
 fore, and  a  notorious  impostor  and  magician,  as  well  as  h<?. 
 He  maintained,  that  the  world  was  made  by  angels,  denied 
 the  reality  of  Christ's  manhood,  and  affirmed,  that  himscJf  was 
 the  true  Saviour  of  the  world,  sent  from  above  for  the  restora- 
 tion of  mankind;  that,  without  being  initiated  into  his  magical 
 knowledge,  and  baptized  in  his  name,  none  could  be  saved ; 
 that  his  baptism  was  the  true  resurrection,  which,  to  those  that 
 were  partakers  of  it,  would  not  fail  to  convey,  even  in  this  life, 
 youth,  vigour,  and  perpetual  immortality.  These  were  some  of 
 the  illusions  wherewith  he  seduced  many  in  Antioch,  the  place 
 where  he  chiefly  resided  ;  and  though  their  extravagance  made 
 them  less  infectious,  yet  they  were  continued  in  the  second  cen- 
 tury by  Basilides  and  Saturninus. — Cerinthus  was  a  Jew  by 
 birth,  and  spread  his  notions  principally  in  Ephesus,  and  other 
 parts  of  Asia  Minor.  He  maintained,  that  the  world  was  not 
 made  by  God,  but  by  a  certain  power,  distinct  and  very  differ- 
 ent from  the  supreme  being;  that  the  old  law  and  precepts  of 
 Moses  were  to  be  observed,  in  conjunction  with  those  of  Jesus 
 Christ;  that  Jesus  was  no  more  than  a  mere  man,  born  of 
 Joseph  and  Mary,  but  that,  at  his  baptism,  Christ  descended 
 upon  him  like  a  dove;  that,  at  his  crucifixion,  Christ  forsook 
 him,  and,  returning  into  heaven,  left  him  to  suffer  alone;  and, 
 lastly,  that,  after    the  general  resurrection,  Clirist's  kingdom 
 
 98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.TO  THE  END. 
 
 ous  even  in  these  days,  and  very  likely  to  give  much 
 trouble  and  scandal  in  future  ages.  This  was  the 
 last  service  he  had  to  do  for  the  church  of  Christ,  c 
 which  when  he  had  accomplished,  he  then  finished  his 
 course,  and,  in  a  d  good  old  age,  dying  peaceably  at 
 
 should  be  terrestrial,  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  where  men  should 
 enjoy  all  sorts  of  carnal  pleasures,  and  pass  their  time  in  the 
 celebration  of  marriage  feasts  and  banquets  for  a  thousand  years. 
 — Ebion,  so  called  from  his  affected  poverty,  was  born  in  a  village 
 of  Palestine,  and  spread  his  heresy  in  Trachonitis.  He  agreed 
 with  Cerinthus  in  denying  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour,  and 
 enjoining  the  observation  of  the  law  of  Moses,  as  necessary  to 
 salvation.  He  asserted,  that  God  had  given  the  dominion  of 
 all  things  to  Christ  and  the  devil;  and  that,  as  the  latter  had  the 
 ascendency  in  this  world,  so  the  former  should  have  the  greater 
 superiority  in  the  next.  All  the  prophets  after  the  time  of 
 Joshua,  and  all  the  New  Testament,  except  the  gospel  of  St 
 Matthew,  he  rejected ;  and  as  for  the  writings  of  St  Paul,  these 
 he  utterly  condemned,  as  the  product  of  a  wicked  and  vile  apos- 
 tate, because  he  endeavoured  to  prove  the  dissolution  of  the 
 Mosaic  law. — Fleury's  and  Echard's  Ecclesiastical  Histories, 
 and  Tillemont's  History  of  the  Emperors,  vid.  p.  1109. 
 
 e  It  has  indeed  been  said  by  some  writers,  that  what  is  called 
 the  canon  of  Scripture  was  settled  by  the  apostle  John  shortly 
 before  his  death.  But  there  seems  little  foundation  for  such  a 
 statement,  if  it  mean  that  all  the  books  which  are  now  contained 
 in  the  New  Testament  were  then  collected  into  a  volume,  and 
 received  the  authoritative  sanction  of  the  last  of  the  apostles.  That 
 John  had  read  all  the  writings  of  the  other  apostles  and  evangelists, 
 can  hardly  be  doubted;  for  they  were  composed  and  published  many 
 years  before  his  own  death.  We  may  also  be  certain  that  he 
 could  not  be  deceived  or  mistaken  as  to  the  real  author  of  any 
 of  these  writings;  so  that  in  this  sense  he  may  be  said  to  have 
 settled  the  canon  of  Scripture:  but  there  is  no  evidence  of  his 
 having  left  any  decision  or  command  upon  the  subject.  But  though 
 we  may  not  admit  the  tradition  that  John  settled  the  canon  of 
 the  New  Testament  by  any  formal  and  authoritative  act,  yet  he 
 may  be  said  to  have  finally  closed  it  by  his  own  writings:  for  it 
 is  certain  that  no  work  has  been  admitted  into  the  canon  or  list 
 of  the  New  Testament,  whose  date  is  subsequent  to  the  death  of 
 John.  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  canonical  books  were  ever 
 more  numerous  than  they  are  at  present.  None  have  been  lost 
 or  put  out  of  the  canon ;  and  when  we  think  of  the  vast  number 
 of  Gospels  and  Acts  which  were  circulated  in  the  second  and 
 third  centuries,  and  which  bore  the  names  of  apostles  and  their 
 companions,  we  may  well  ascribe  it  to  more  than  human  careful- 
 ness that  none  of  these  spurious  compositions  ever  found  a  place 
 among  the  canonical  Scriptures.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
 reason  to  think  that  a  few  of  the  writings  which  now  form  part 
 of  the  New  Testament,  were  not  universally  received  in  the 
 first  century,  and  for  some  time  later.  The  Epistle  to  the 
 Hebrews,  that  of  Jude,  the  second  Epistle  of  Peter,  and  the 
 second  and  third  of  John,  were  among  this  number;  and  there 
 were  some  churches  which  do  not  appear  to  have  received  them 
 so  early  as  the  rest.  This,  however,  only  shows  the  extreme 
 caution  which  was  used  in  settling  questions  of  this  kind.  It 
 was  very  possible  for  a  letter  to  be  preserved  and  read  in  Asia 
 Minor,  or  Palestine,  and  yet  for  many  years  to  have  elapsed 
 before  it  became  known  in  other  parts  of  the  empire.  As  Chris- 
 tianity spread,  and  the  intercourse  between  distant  churches 
 became  more  frequent,  the  doubts  which  had  been  entertained 
 as  to  the  genuineness  of  any  writing  were  gradually  removed  ;  and 
 though  some  churches  were  later  than  others  in  admitting  the 
 whole  of  the  New  Testament,  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  part 
 of  it  was  composed  later  than  the  end  of  the  first  centuiy;  so 
 that,  though  we  may  reject  the  tradition  of  the  canon  of  Scrip- 
 ture having  been  settled  by  John,  we  can  hardly  doubt,  as  was 
 before  observed,  that  he  had  seen  and  read  the  writings  of  all 
 the  other  apostles  before  his  death. — Burton's  History  of  the 
 Church.' — Ed. 
 
 d  The  general  opinion  is,  that  he  was  ninety-eight  or  ninety- 
 nine  years  of  age  when  he  died,  which  was  in  the  third  year  of 
 Trajan's  reign;  St  Chrysostom  however  is  very  positive  that  he 
 was  an  hundred  years  old  when  he  wrote  his  gospel;  and  Doro- 
 theus  affirms,  that  in  the  whole  he  lived  an  hundred  and  twenty. 
 But  all  this  is  highly  improbable;  for,  according  to  this  account, 
 he  must  be  fifty  years  of  age  when  ho  first  became  acquainted 
 7  B 
 
1114 
 
 THE   HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  BS;  OR,  A.  M.  SK».  A.  D.  98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 Ephesus,0  was  buried  in  that  city,  where  several  of  the 
 fathers  observe,  that  his  tomb  in  their  time  was  remaining, 
 in  a  church,  whirl,  was  built  to  his  honour,  and  called 
 by  his  name.  Thus  we  are  come  to  the  conclusion  of 
 the  apostolic  age,  and  so  have  brought  our  history  to  its 
 intended  period. 
 
 CHAP.   II.- 
 
 -Objections  answered,  and  difficulties 
 obviated. 
 
 That  the  history  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  was  written 
 by  Bt  Luke,  who  was  the  author  of  the  gospel  that  goes 
 under  his  name,  the  connection  of  the  matter,  the  con- 
 gruity  of  the  style,  the  identity  of  the  person  to  whom 
 they  are  both  addressed,  and  the  unanimous  consent  of 
 all  antiquity,4  are  a  sufficient  indication  :  '  that  this  is  an 
 history  of  thirty  years'  transactions  ;  whereof  the  former 
 part  principally  contains  the  acts  of  the  two  apostles  of 
 the  circumcision,  Peter  and  John,  with  their  preaching 
 of  the  gospel  to  the  Jews ;  and  the  latter,  those  of  the 
 two  apostles  of  the  uncircumcision,  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
 with  the  plantation  and  progress  of  the  gospel  among  the 
 Gentiles,  no  one  can  doubt,  that  casts  but  an  eye  into 
 its  contents  :  and  that  this  history  obtained  the  name  of 
 the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  it  is  generally  thought,2  not  only 
 because  the  doctrines  which  it  contains,  and  the  miracles 
 which  it  relates,  are  the  same  throughout  with  what  they 
 all  wrought  and  taught  in  common,  but  because  sundry 
 transactions  that  are  recorded  in  the  beginning  of  it, 
 such  as  the  resurrection  and  ascension  of  Christ,  the 
 election  of  Matthias,  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
 the   miraculous   infusion   of  languages,  which  enabled 
 
 1  Echard's  Ecclesiastical  History,  p.  340. 
 
 2  Beausobre's  Preface  to  the  Acts  of  tlie  Apostles. 
 
 with  our  Lord  ;  a  thing  directly  contrary  to  the  testimony  of  all 
 
 antiquity,  which  makes  him  very  young  at  the  time  of  his  bein<* 
 
 called  to  the  apostolic  office. — Cave's  Life  nf  St  John. 
 
 a  John  has  himself  told  us  in  his  gospel,  that  a  notion  had 
 been  entertained  that  he  was  not  to  die ;  and  we  know  from  his- 
 tory, that  reports  were  circulated  in  later  times  which  confirmed 
 such  an  expectation.  There  is  no  need  to  expose  the  erroneousness 
 of  such  a  belief.  A  writer  of  the  second  century  mentions  his 
 tomb  as  being  then  to  be  seen  at  Ephesus ;  and  there  is  every 
 reason  to  think  that  he  died  in  that  city.  It  has  been  said  that 
 the  Virgin  Mary  accompanied  him  when  he  went  to  settle  in 
 that  part  of  Asia;  and  it  is  very  probable  that  such  was  the  fact, 
 il  she  had  not  died  at  an  earlier  period :  but  unless  her  life  was  pro- 
 tracted to  an  unusual  length,  she  was  released  from  her  earthly 
 pilgrimage  before  the  time  when  John  is  supposed  to  have  gone  to 
 Asia.  It  is  perhaps  singular,  that  no  authentic  account  has  been 
 preserved  of  the  latter  days  of  one  who  had  received  the  hi  <*h 
 privilege  of  being  called  the  mother  of  our  Lord  ;  but  nothing  what- 
 ever is  known  of  her  from  the  New  Testament,  after  the  time 
 that  her  Son  had  ascended  into  heaven,  and  she  was  left  with  his 
 apostles  and  followers  in  Jerusalem.  The  same  spirit  of  inven- 
 tion which  gave  rise  to  so  many  stories  concerning  the  apostles, 
 has  also  supplied  many  marvellous  occurences  which  befell  the 
 Virgin  .Mary;  but  they  can  only  be  read  to  be  rejected,  and 
 claim  no  place  in  the  authentic  annals  of  the  Church.— Burton's 
 J/iston/  of  the  Church. — Ed. 
 
 b  Thus  we  find  it  cited  by  St  Clemens,  St  Paul's  companion, 
 epist.  ad  Corinth. ;  by  Papias,  who  conversed  with  men  of  the 
 apostles'  times,  (apud  Euseb.  Eccl.  Hist.  b.  v.  c.  39.);  and  by 
 Poly  carp,  who  was  St  John's  disciple,  (ad  Philip,  b.  iii.  c.  13.); 
 Iren.Tus,  who  flourished  in  the  second  century,  in  a  large  chap- 
 ter of  his,  has  almost  epitomized  it ;  nor  did  we  ever  read  of  any 
 Jew  or  Gontila  who  excepted  against  its  truth  and  authority  — 
 fPhMys  Preface  to  the  Acts.  '  " 
 
 them  to  spread  the  gospel  through  the  universe,  were 
 things  wherein  they  were  all  equally  concerned.  But 
 then,  why  the  actions  of  all  those  who  were  equally  con- 
 cerned in  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  were  not  equally 
 consigned  to  writing  by  the  penman  of  the  sacred  story, 
 this,  we  must  say,  entirely  depended  on  the  divine 
 pleasure  and  determination. 
 
 3  '  It  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,'  says  the  pro- 
 phet Isaiah,  speaking  of  the  times  of  the  gospel, '  that 
 the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  established 
 in  the  top  of  the  mountains,  and  it  shall  be  exalted 
 above  the  hills  ;  and  all  nations  shall  flow  into  it.  And 
 many  people  shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye,  and  let  us 
 go  up  into  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the  house  of  the 
 God  of  Jacob,  and  he  will  teach  us  his  ways,  and  we 
 will  walk  in  his  paths  ;  for  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the 
 law,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem  :'  so  that, 
 in  conformity  to  this  prediction,  the  divine  Providence 
 thought  lit,  that  no  more  account  should  be  given  of  the 
 first  plantation  of  Christianity  in  the  world,  than  what 
 concerned  Judea,  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  or, 
 at  farthest,  the  most  eminent  places  of  the  Roman  em- 
 pire. We  perhaps  may  think,  that  a  more  particular 
 relation  of  all  that  the  apostles  did,  in  the  several  coun- 
 tries where  they  travelled,  had  been  more  satisfactory 
 to  an  inquisitive  mind;  but  then  we  should  remember,* 
 that  this  would  have  swelled  the  holy  volumes  into  too 
 great  a  bulk,  and  so  have  rendered  them  less  serviceable 
 and  accommodated  to  the  ordinary  use  of  Christians. 
 All  that  was  proper  to  be  done  upon  this  occasion  there- 
 fore was,  to  single  out  some  few  persons  who  made  the 
 most  eminent  figure  in  the  infancy  of  the  church,  and 
 to  represent  their  particular  labours  and  sufferings  in  the 
 propagation  of  Christianity,  as  a  specimen  of  all  the  rest. 
 
 That  St  Peter  and  St  Paul  were  characters  of  this 
 kind,  none  can  deny ;  and  therefore  St  Luke  is  not  to 
 be  blamed  in  making  choice  of  them.  That  he  pursued 
 the  history  of  St  Peter  no  farther,  must  be  imputed  to 
 his  adjoining  himself  to  St  Paul,  whose  constant  atten- 
 dant he  then  became,  an  eye-witness  of  the  whole  car- 
 riage of  his  life,  and  privy  to  his  most  intimate  transac- 
 tions ;  and  therefore  we  find  him  more  copious  upon  this 
 subject  than  any  other.  But  why  he  did  not  finish  his 
 whole  life,  an  ancient  Arabic  writer,  cited  by  5  Kirstenius, 
 has  given  us  this  reason,  that  after  St  Paul's  imprison- 
 ment, and  departure  from  Rome,  St  Luke,  who  was  left 
 behind  as  his  deputy  to  supply  his  place,  was,  in  a  short 
 time,  put  to  death  ;  otherwise,  says  our  author,  he  would 
 have  doubtless  continued  the  history  of  the  apostles' 
 Acts." 
 
 3  Isa.  ii.  2,  3.  *  Cave's  Life  of  St  Andrew. 
 
 5  Vit.  quat.  Evang.  p.  15. 
 c  These  reasons  are  by  no  means  satisfactory.  They  might 
 be  very  applicable  to  the  case  of  a  profane  historian,  who  is 
 guided  by  mere  human  motives,  and  governed  by  ordinary 
 events,  hut  they  cannot  be  admitted  in  the  case  of  the  sacred  his- 
 torian, otherwise  we  shall  lower  the  standard  of  revelation.  If 
 the  divine  inspiration  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  be  admitted — 
 and  it  rests  on  the  same  grounds  as  that  of  any  other  portion  of 
 Scripture — it  follows  that  this  book  contains  such  a  history  of  the 
 apostles,  as  the  Almighty  saw  to  be  necessary  and  sufficient  for 
 our  instruction  and  profit;  and  although  it  is  proper  for  us  to 
 inquire  into  its  scope  and  design,  and  in  what  respects  it  is  cal- 
 culated to  promote  our  spiritual  edification,  we  must  at  the  same 
 time  consider,  that  we  are  altogether  incompetent  judges  as  to 
 what  particulars  should  have  been  given,  and  what  withheld. 
 God  alone  is  sufficient  for  these  things.— Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1115 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D 
 Without  laying  any  stress  then  upon  the  testimony  of 
 the  °  Apocryphal  Acts  of  the  apostles,  which  it  must  be 
 owned  are  generally  full  of  fable  and  romance,  we  may 
 venture  to  affirm,  that  this  one  composition  of  St  Luke 
 is  sufficient  to  answer  all  the  purposes  for  which  we  can 
 desire  such  a  history.  For  what  is  it  that  we  may  reason- 
 ably expect  in  a  work  of  this  kind,  but  that  it  should, 
 by  a  plain  relation  of  facts,  confirm  our  faith  in  the  gos- 
 pel ;  show  the  accomplishment  of  the  promises  and  pre- 
 dictions which  Christ,  the  founder  of  our  religion,  has 
 made  to  his  disciples  :  and  give  us  some  competent  know- 
 ledge of  the  settlement  of  that  religion,  by  what  methods 
 it  grew,  and  spread  to  places  remote  from  its  first  plan- 
 tation, what  was  the  fate  and  behaviour  of  some  of  its 
 first  professors,  and  what  the  tenor  of  their  doctrines 
 and  discourses  :  but  that  St  Luke's  history,  in  all  these 
 particulars,  has  sufficiently  acquitted  itself,  none  that 
 has  read  it  with  the  least  observation  can  deny. 
 
 St  Peter,  no  doubt,  was  an  eminent  apostle,  and  ac- 
 cordingly makes  a  distinguished  figure  in  the  sacred 
 story  ;  but  his  being  at  Rome  is  a  point  that  we  cannot 
 expect  from  St  Luke,  because  his  account  of  things 
 expires  some  time  before  our  apostle  came  thither.  Some 
 writers  indeed,  of  the  Roman  communion ,  place  his  iirst 
 coming  to  Rome  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  44,  which  was 
 the  second  of  Claudius  :  but  if  we  consider,  that  in  the 
 epistle  which  St  Paul,  towards  the  latter  end  of  the  reign 
 of  Claudius,  wrote  to  the  Romans,  wherein  he  spends  the 
 greatest  part  of  one  chapter  in  saluting  the  particular 
 persons  that  were  then  at  Rome,  he  never  once  makes 
 mention  of  St  Peter  ;  and  how,  in  that  epistle,  he  ex- 
 presses his  earnest  desire  of  coming  thither,  that  he 
 might l  '  impart  unto  them  some  spiritual  gifts,  to  the 
 end  that  they  might  be  established  in  the  faith,'  for  which 
 there  could  be  no  apparent  reason,  had  St  Peter  been 
 there  so  long  before  him :  if  we  consider,  that  when  St 
 Paul,  not  many  years  after,  that  is,  about  the  second  of 
 Nero,  was  sent  prisoner  to  Rome,  among  all  the  brethren  2 
 that  came  to  meet  him,  as  far  as  Appii-forum  and  the 
 Three  Taverns,  we  hear  not  a  word  of  St  Peter  ;  and 
 yet  we  cannot  but  think,  that  had  he  been  then  at  Rome, 
 
 Rom.  i.  11,  12. 
 
 2  Acts  xxviii.  15. 
 
 a  The  impostor  who  composed  these  Acts,  which  were  sup- 
 posed to  have  been  written  by  Abdias,  gives  himself  out  to  have 
 been  a  bishop,  ordained  at  Babylon  by  the  apostles  themselves, 
 when  they  were  upon  their  journey  into  Persia.  The  work  is 
 neither  ancient  nor  authentic.  It  was  known  neither  toEusebius 
 nor  St  Jerom,  nor  any  of  the  fathers  that  lived  before  them ;  and 
 yet,  according  to  the  author,  who  says  that  he  wrote  it  in  Greek, 
 it  coutains  in  substance,  1st,  The  Acts  of  St  Peter,  or  accord- 
 ing to  its  present  title,  the  Recognitions  of  St  Clement ;  a  work 
 Stuffed  with  such  visions  and  fables,  as  must  come  originally  from 
 the  Ebionites.  2dly,  The  Acts  of  St  Paul,  which  pretends  to 
 be  a  continuation  of  that  apostle's  history,  from  the  second  year 
 of  his  first  voyage  to  Rome  to  the  end  of  his  life.  3dly,  The 
 Acts  of  St  John  the  Evangelist,  which,  though  mentioned  by 
 Epiphanius  and  St  Austin,  contains  incredible  stories  of  this 
 apostle.  4thly,  The  Acts  of  St  Andrew,  mentioned  by  St 
 Austin,  and  received  by  the  Manichees,  but  different  from  that 
 which  we  have  at  present  under  the  name  of  '  The  Priests 
 of  Acliaia.'  5thly.  The  Acts  of  St  Thomas,  mentioned  by  the 
 same  father,  and  received  by  the  same  heretics,  as  containing 
 that  apostle's  travels  into  India,  and  the  sufferings  which  he  there 
 underwent.  Otlily,  The  Acts  of  St  Matthias,  wrote  originally  in 
 Hebrew,  but  what  critics  will  not  allow  to  be  genuine.  And, 
 7thly,  The  Acts  of  St  Philip,  which,  as  well  as  the  gospel  that 
 goes  under  his  name,  was  held  in  great  esteem  by  the  Gnostics. — 
 Calmei's  Dictionary  and  Preface  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 he  would  have  come  at  the  head  of  the  company  to  re- 
 ceive a  brother  apostle  in  chains ;  and  that  with  him  St 
 Paul  would  have  chosen  rather  to  sojourn,  than  3  to  dwell 
 by  himself  in  his  own  hired  house  :  if  we  consider,  that  in 
 the  several  epistles  which  St  Paul  wrote  from  Rome, 
 there  is  not  the  least  mention  of  St  Peter  ;  that  in  that 
 to  the  Colossians  in  particular,  he  tells  them  plainly, 
 that  of  all  the  Jews  at  Rome,  he  had  no  4  fellow-workers 
 unto  the  kingdom  of  God  which  had  been  a  comfort  unto 
 him  save  Aristarchus,  Marcus,  and  Jesus,  who  was  called 
 Justus,  which  evidently  excludes  St  Peter;  and,  in 
 that  to  Timothy,  complains,  that 5  at  his  first  answer  at 
 Rome,  no  man  stood  with  him,  but  all  forsook  him,  which 
 we  can  hardly  believe  St  Peter  would  have  done,  had  he 
 then  been  there  :  nay,  if  we  consider,  that  in  the  same 
 epistle  he  tells  Timothy,  that  6  Luke  was  the  only  per- 
 son that  was  with  him  ;  that  Crescens  was  gone  to  one 
 place,  Titus  to  another,  and  Tychicus  to  another,  we  can- 
 not imagine  either  that  St  Peter  at  that  time  was  at  Rome, 
 or  that  he  had  lately  gone  from  thence  ;  since,  had  it  been 
 so,  St  Paul,  no  doubt,  would  have  taken  notice  of  him, 
 as  well  as  of  the  rest ;  unless  we  may  suppose,  that  he 
 was  a  person  so  inconsiderable,  as  not  to  be  worthy  the 
 remembering,  and  his  errand  of  so  small  importance,  as 
 not  to  deserve  a  place  in  St  Paul's  account,  as  well  as 
 that  of  Crescens  to  Galatia,  and  Titus  to  Dalmatia. 
 
 Upon  the  whole  therefore  we  may  conclude,  that  at 
 the  time  when  St  Paul  was  first  at  Rome,  no  footsteps 
 are  to  be  found  of  St  Peter's  having  been  there ;  and 
 yet,  notwithstanding  this,  to  deny  that  he  was  ever  there 
 at  all,  is  '  to  oppose  the  current  of  all  antiquity,  and  the 
 unanimous  consent  of  persons  of  great  eminence  and 
 authority,  who  lived  near  enough  the  times  of  the  apos- 
 tles, to  know  the  truth  and  certainty  of  what  they  re- 
 ported, and  who  have  told  us,  that  Peter  baptized  in 
 Tiber,  as  John  the  Baptist  did  in  the  river  Jordan ;  that 
 in  the  days  of  Nero  he  was  crucified ;  that  the  church  of 
 Rome  was  happy  in  having  its  doctrines  sealed  with 
 apostolic  blood ;  and  that  the  two  glorious  apostles 
 Peter  and  Paul,  having  founded  and  constituted  this 
 church,  delivered  the  care  of  it  over  unto  Linus  :  for  we 
 must  observe,  that,  whenever  the  ancients  speak  of  the 
 bishops  of  Rome,  and  the  first  originals  of  that  church, 
 they  equally  attribute  the  foundation  and  government  of 
 it  to  Peter  and  Paul,  making  the  one  as  much  concerned 
 in  it  as  the  other.  In  short,  no  one  that  has  any  rever 
 ence  for  antiquity  can  deny  that  St  Peter  was  at  Rome : 
 but  then  it  is  highly  probable,  that  he  came  not  thither, 
 till  some  few  years  before  his  deatli ;  that  there  he  joined 
 with  St  Paul  in  preaching  the  gospel,  and  that  both  there 
 sealed  the  testimony  of  it  with  their  blood. 
 
 The  design  of  St  Stephen's  speech  to  the  Jews  is 
 apparently  this,— to  answer  the  charge  of  blasphemy 
 against  him,  for  having  spoken  somewhat  slightly  of  the 
 perpetual  duration  of  their  temple,  and  the  obligation  of 
 the  ceremonial  law ;  and  this  he  does  by  showing  that 
 the  law,  for  which  at  this  time  they  expressed  so  fierce 
 a  zeal,  as  if  salvation  could  be  attained  no  other  way, 
 could  not  possibly  be  of  that  weighty  consequence,  and 
 absolute  necessity,  as  they  imagined. 
 
 1st.  8  Because  it  appears  from  the  history  of  Abraham, 
 
 3  Ver.  :i0.    *  Col.  iv.  10,  11.    »  2  Tim.  iv.  16.    6  Ver.  11,  12. 
 7  Vid.  Cave's  Life  of  St  Peter.  8  Acts  vii.  2—37. 
 
1116 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98;  OR,  A.  M.  5509 
 and  the  patriarchs,  that  their  ancestors  pleased,  and  con- 
 tinued in  the  favour  of  God,  for  more  than  four  hundred 
 years  without  it ;  and  therefore,  since  these  were  God's 
 peculiar  and  elect,  before  the  law  was  given,  this  law 
 could  not  be  the  only  covenant  and  dispensation  for  the 
 salvation  of  mankind,  exclusive  of  all  others. 
 
 2dly.  '  Because  the  very  prophet,  at  whose  hands  they 
 received  the  law,  gave  them  warning  of  another  eminent 
 prophet,  whom  God,  in  ages  to  come,  would  raise  up 
 from  among  them,  like  unto  him,  that  is,  a  lawgiver  too, 
 to  whom  every  soul  among  them  was  commanded,  upon 
 pain  of  utter  excision,  to  yield  attention  and  obedience  ; 
 and  that  consequently,  preaching  the  faith  and  obe- 
 dience of  Jesus,  who  was  that  very  prophet,  could  not 
 be  blasphemy  against  God,  or  Moses. 
 
 Sdly.  -  Because  the  law,  for  which  they  now  pre- 
 tended so  great  a  reverence,  was  plainly  insufficient  to 
 contain  them  in  their  duty,  as  appeared  from  their  fre- 
 quent relapses  into  rebellion  and  idolatry,  which  the 
 prophets  sharply  reproached  them  with,  and  threatened 
 with  so  many  severe  punishments  ;  and  therefore  as  the 
 ancient  prophets  thought  it  no  profanation  either  of  the 
 law  or  the  temple,  to  denounce  the  abolishing  of  the  one, 
 and  the  demolishing  of  the  other ;  so  was  it  none  in  him 
 to  declare  the  abrogation  of  the  former,  and  the  utter 
 ruin  of  the  latter,  to  a  generation  of  men  now  ripe  for 
 destruction. 
 
 This  is  the  substance  of  St  Stephen's  speech  ;  which 
 is  far  from  being  incongruous,  or  immethodical ;  though, 
 had  lie  been  permitted  to  bring  it  to  a  conclusion,  as  it 
 is  plain  it  was  interrupted  by  the  noise  and  clamour  of 
 the  rabble,  it  might  have  appeared  to  a  better  advantage. 
 This  however  must  be  said  in  vindication  of  what  are 
 supposed  to  be  errors  in  it, —  1st,  3  That  Terah  might 
 die  in  Charran,  before  his  son  Abraham  removed  into 
 Canaan.  For  though  it  is  said,  that 4  at  seventy  years 
 of  age  he  begat  Abraham,  Nahor,  and  Haran,  yet  it 
 does  not  therefore  follow,  that  Abraham  was  the  eldest 
 of  these.  It  is  not  the  eldest,  but  the  worthiest,  that  is 
 frequently  first  named  in  holy  writ ;  for,  that  Haran, 
 who  is  last  named,  was  considerably  older  than  Abra- 
 ham, is  evident  from  Abraham's  marrying  his  daughter, 
 who  was  only  ten  years  younger  than  himself.  And 
 therefore,  if  we  do  but  suppose,  that  sixty  years  after 
 that  Terah  began  to  beget  children,  he  begat  Abraham, 
 the  father  will  be  two  hundred  and  five  years  old  5  at 
 winch  time  he  died,  when  the  son  was  no  more  than 
 
 seventy-five,  at  which  time  he  removed  into  Canaan. 
 
 ■Jdl  y,  c  That  though  there  be  a  difference  between  Moses 
 and  St  Stephen,  in  the  number  of  those  who  went  down 
 with  Jacob  into  Egypt,  yet  this  only  arises  from  the 
 different  designs  of  the  two  accountants.  For  the  design 
 of  Moses  is,  to  tell  us  how  many  Jacob  and  his  off- 
 >l>rin^  amounted  to,  omitting-  his  sons'  wives  ;  that  of 
 St  Stephen,  how  ninny  all  the  kindred  were,  whom 
 Joseph  called  into  Egypt.  In  the  light  that  Moses  con- 
 siders them,  they  were  seventy,  but  then  several  of  these 
 must  be  left  out  of  St  Stephen's  number,  namely,  Joseph 
 and  his  two  sons,  who  were  in  Egypt  already,  Hezron, 
 and  Ilamul,  who  were  not  yet  born,  and  Jacob,  whom 
 
 1  Acts  vii.  37,  38.  2  ibid.  39—50. 
 
 *  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  2.  p.  85. 
 4  (Jen.  xi.  26.  *  Ibid.  ver.  22. 
 
 *  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  2.  p.  86. 
 
 D.  98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  j.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 he  reckons  apart.      Now  take  out  these   six  from  the 
 
 seventy,  and  there  will  remain  sixty-four,  which,  by  add- 
 ing the  eleven  wives  of  Jacob's  sons,  are  just  seventy- 
 five.  a — 3dly,  That  St  Stephen  no  where  insinuates,  that 
 Jacob  was  buried  in  Sychem  ;  for  his  words  are,  7  'so 
 Jacob  went  down  into  Egypt,  and  there  died,  he,  and 
 our  fathers,  and  were  carried,'  that  is,  our  fathers  were 
 carried,  over  into  Sychem  :  s  For  if  Joseph  desired  to 
 have  his  bones  carried  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  there 
 to  be  interred,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  other 
 fathers  desired  the  same,  as  having  the  same  faith  in  the 
 promises,  and  the  same  interest  in  the  land,  that  Joseph 
 had ;  and  that  if  they  did  desire  the  same,  the  rest  of 
 the  tribes,  bearing  the  same  honour  to  their  patriarchs 
 that  the  tribe  of  Joseph  did  to  him,  would  think  them- 
 selves equally  concerned  to  preserve  their  bones,  in 
 order  to  be  carried  out  of  Egypt  with  them,  and  to  be 
 buried  together  with  Joseph's  bones,  as  not  improbably 
 they  were,  at  Sychem,  though  the  remains  of  Jacob 
 might  be  laid  in  another  place.* 
 
 It  is  a  deference,  I  think,  which  we  owe  to  the  Spirit 
 of  God,  whenever  we  find  an  opposition  between  sacred 
 and  profane  authors,  that  cannot  be  well  reconciled,  to 
 impute  the  error  or  mistake  to  the  latter ;  now,  the  Jew- 
 ish historian  Josephus  tells  us  of  one  Theudas,  who,  in 
 the  fourth  year  of  Claudius,  set  up  for  a  great  prophet 
 and  worker  of  miracles,  but  was  soon  routed  and  des- 
 troyed by  Caspius  Fadus,  the  Roman  governor ;  and  St 
 Luke,  as  he  represents  the  sentiments  of  Gamaliel,  tells 
 us  of  one  of  the  same  name  who  arose  in  the  reign  of 
 Augustus,  and  some  time  before  the  insurrection  of  Judas 
 the  Gaulonite,  which  happened  upon  account  of  the 
 taxation,  when  Cyrenius  was  governor  of  Syria.  But 
 why  should  we  account  both  these,  who  were  so  widely 
 distant  in  point  of  time,  to  be  one  and  the  same  person  ? 
 Instead  of  charging  Gamaliel,  or  rather  St  Luke,  with 
 a  lapse  of  memory  in  this  piece  of  chronology,  it  is  more 
 reasonable  to  think, 9  that  the  Theudas  of  Josephus,  and 
 that  of  Gamaliel,  were  two  men,  but  not  unlikely  father 
 and  son,  or  tutor  and  scholar  ;  and  that  this  name  was 
 given  to  the  latter  Theudas,  even  as  parents  call  their 
 own  children  by  their  names,  or  that  he  himself  assumed 
 it,  in  imitation  of  the  former  Theudas,  whom  he  de- 
 lighted to  follow  in  his  appellation,  as  well  as  his  en- 
 thusiastic folly.  To  this  purpose  Origen  informs  us, 
 that,  having  gathered  from  the  Scriptures,  that  the  time 
 of  the  Messiah  was  come,  first  Theudas,  and  after  him 
 
 8  Kidder's  Ibid.  p.  89.  and  Whitby's 
 9  Whitby's  Annotations,  and  Calmel's 
 
 7  Acts  vii.  15.16. 
 Annot.  in  locum. 
 Commentary  in  locum. 
 
 a  This  view  of  the  subject  is  clearly  supported  by  Dr  Hales, 
 Analyses,  vol.  ii.  p.  144,  2d  edition,  to  which  the  reader  is  re- 
 ferred. The  New  Testament  has  furnished  an  admirable  com- 
 mentary on  the  Old. — Ed. 
 
 b  What  Abraham  bought  was  the  cave  and  field  of  Ephron, 
 which  was  in  Machpelah,  and  he  purchased  it  from  the  children 
 of  Heth,  (Gen.  xxiii.  3,  10,  17.  1.  13.)  ;  but  the  sepulchre  at 
 Sychem,  where  the  bones  of  Joseph,  and  as  it,  seems,  of  the 
 other  patriarchs,  were  laid,  was  bought  by  Jacob  from  the 
 children  of  Hamor,  or  Emmor,  (Gen.  xxxiii.  19.  ;  Josh.  xxiv. 
 32.;  John  iv.  5.)  it  is  plain,  therefore,  that  Abraham  is  in- 
 serted in  the  text  by  some  mistake  of  the  copyists,  instead  of 
 Jacob,  and  that,  the  true  reading  is,  '  the  bones  of  our  lathers 
 were  carried  over  into  Sychem,  and  laid  in  the  sepulchre  that 
 Jacob  bought  fur  a  sum  of  money  of  the  sons  of  Emmor,  the 
 father  of  Sychem.—  Holde?i's  Expositor. — Ed. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST.  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98;  OR,  A.  Iff,  5509.  A.  D.  98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 1117 
 
 Judas  of  Galilee,  raised  tumults  in  the  time  of  the  tax- 
 ing ;  and  therefore  the  fathers  unanimously  say,  that 
 those  words  of  our  Saviour,  'all  that  came  before  me 
 are  thieves  and  robbers,'  do  relate  to  these  two,  Theu- 
 das  and  Judas  of  Galilee.  So  extremely  evident  it  is, 
 that  the  ancient  fathers  agreed  in  this,  namely,  That 
 there  was  a  Theudas,  pretending  to  great  matters,  even 
 before  the  coming  of  our  Lord,  though  his  insurrection 
 was  so  trifling,  having  but l  about  four  hundred  men, 
 who  joined  him,  that  the  Jewish  historian  has  taken 
 no  notice  of  it. 
 
 Another  concession,  that  I  think  we  may  fairly  claim 
 in  behalf  of  the  sacred  penmen,  is,  that  the  same  licence 
 of  expression  which  profane  writers  make  so  much  use 
 of,  may  sometimes  be  allowed  them  ;  which  will  quite 
 destroy  the  objection  against  the  hyperbolical  phrase 
 in  St  Luke,  of  2  '  Jews  residing  at  Jerusalem,  out  of 
 every  nation  under  heaven  ;'  though,  upon  a  short  in- 
 quiry into  the  several  dispersions  of  that  people,  we  may 
 be  able  in  some  measure  to  vindicate  the  truth  of  it,  even 
 in  the  very  letter. 
 
 To  this  purpose  we  may  observe,  that  before  their 
 final  dispersion  by  the  Romans,  the  Jews  had  suffered 
 two  captivities,  or  great  dispersions,  besides  some 
 smaller  scatterings.  The  first  was  of  the  ten  tribes  of 
 Israel  by  Shalmaneser,  king  of  Assyria,  who  is  said  to 
 have  carried  them  away,  3  '  and  planted  them  in  Halah, 
 and  Habor,  and  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes ;'  and  as  these 
 never  returned  to  dwell  in  their  own  country,  they  are 
 the  Parthians,  Medes,  and  Elamites,  that  is,  the  Persians 
 of  the  province  of  Elymais,  whom  St  Luke  4  in  his  sub- 
 sequent enumeration  intends.  The  second  captivity 
 was  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  when  he 
 carried  away  the  other  two  tribes  of  Judah  and  Benja- 
 min, and  5  placed  them  in  Babylon,  and  other  of  his 
 territories.  Now,  though  a  good  part  of  these,  at  the 
 end  of  seventy  years,  returned  from  their  captivity  ;  yet 
 great  numbers  of  them,  finding  themselves  happily  situ- 
 ated under  princes  who  indulged  them  a  free  exercise 
 of  their  religion,  never  visited  their  native  country,  ex- 
 cept it  was  at  some  of  their  great  annual  festivals  ;  and 
 of  the  number  of  these  we  may  suppose  those  to  be 
 whom  St  Luke  calls6  'the  dwellers  in  Mesopotamia.' 
 Besides  these  two  great  dispersions,  there  happened  a 
 third  in  the  days  of  Ptolemy  Soter,  7  who  surprised  the 
 city  of  Jerusalem,  and  carrying  away  above  an  hundred 
 thousand  of  its  inhabitants,  placed  them  in  his  garrisoned 
 cities,  and  other  places  dependent  on  Alexandria. 
 
 Now  from  these  three  principal  dispersions  did  proceed 
 those  lesser  scatterings  in  all  parts  of  the  Roman  empire 
 and  elsewhere.  From  that  of  Babylon  and  Mesopo- 
 tamia, sprang  those  8  of  Cappadocia,  Pontus,  Phrygia, 
 Paniphylia,  and  other  parts  of  Asia  Minor ;  and  from 
 that  of  Egypt  and  Alexandria  were  derived  those  of 
 Libya,  Cyrene,  and  all  other  Hellenists  whatever,  in  the 
 several  parts  of  the  Roman  empire.  Add  to  all  this  the 
 many  natives  of  Judea  itself,  who,  upon  one  occasion  or 
 other,  chose  to  live  among  the  Gentiles,  and  more 
 especially  at  Rome,  which  was  then  the  metropolis  of  the 
 whole  world ;  and  from  hence  might  proceed  9  '  those 
 
 1  Acts  v.  36.  2  Acts  ii.  5.  s  2  Kings  xvii.  6. 
 
 4  Acts  ii.  9.         5  2  Kings  xxiv.  16.         6  Acts  ii.  19. 
 
 *  Joseph.  Antiq.  b,  12.  c.  2.    b  Acts  ii.  9,  10.    9  Ibid.  ii.  11. 
 
 strangers   of  Rome,  Jews  and  proselytes,  Cretes  and 
 Arabians,'  whom  the  apostles  in  like  manner  enumerate. 
 
 Agrippa,  we  read  in  his  speech  to  the  Jews,  dissuad- 
 ing them  from  rebelling  against  the  Romans,  for  fear  of 
 bringing  a  sad  calamity,  not  upon  themselves  only,  but 
 upon  the  whole  nation,  wherever  dispersed  among  the 
 Gentiles,  hesitates  not  to  say,  that lu  there  was  no  people 
 in  the  world  who  had  not  some  of  their  nation  dwell- 
 ing among  them ;  and  therefore  we  need  less  wonder 
 that  we  find  the  sacred  history  asserting,  that  Jews  of 
 every  nation  under  heaven  were  at  this  time  met  at  Jer- 
 usalem, when  u  not  only  a  great  festival,  in  which  all 
 their  males  were  to  appear  before  God,  summoned  them 
 thither  ;  but  their  earnest  expectation  likewise  of  the 
 promised  Messiah,  whose  time  of  coming,  according  to 
 the  prediction  of  their  prophets,  was  now  accomplished, 
 might  make  them  more  desirous  to  return  to  their  native 
 country,  there,  with  an  holy  impatience,  to  wait  for  the 
 consolation  of  Israel. 
 
 12  What  makes  it  very  difficult  to  give  a  distinct  ac- 
 count of  the  offices  and  orders  of  the  Christian  ministers 
 in  the  apostolic  age,  is  the  shortness  of  the  historical 
 part  of  the  New  Testament,  which  seldom  extends  far- 
 ther than  the  first  plantation  of  churches  ;  and  the  design 
 of  the  epistolary  part,  which,  being  written  to  persons 
 lately  converted  to  Christianity,  was  to  acquaint  them  with 
 the  principles  of  their  religion,  and  to  arm  them  against 
 false  teachers,  rather  than  instruct  them  in  the  form 
 of  church  government.  However,  by  a  due  attention  to 
 what  we  read,  we  may  observe,  That  the  apostles  were 
 the  first,  and  most  distinguished  of  our  blessed  Lord's 
 disciples,  chosen  by  him  to  be  his  more  immediate  attend- 
 ants, and,  in  the  course  of  his  ministry,  admitted  to  a 
 greater  confidence  and  familiarity  than  the  rest :  that 
 upon  his  leaving  the  world,  he  commanded  them  to  testify 
 the  truth  of  his  resurrection  and  ascension,  and  to  pub- 
 lish the  doctrines  and  mysteries  of  the  gospel  in  all 
 nations,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  them  authority  to 
 govern  the  churches  which  they  should  establish  every- 
 where :  I3  that,  to  enable  them  to  discharge  their  weighty 
 offices,  they  were  endued  with  superior  courage,  and 
 gifts  extraordinary,  that  what  they  had  in  their  instruc- 
 tions, they  might  publish  and  testify  to  the  greatest 
 audience,  and  in  the  times  of  greatest  danger :  that 
 having  by  this  means  spread  the  Christian  religion  far 
 and  wide,  they  settled  churches  in  the  several  places 
 where  they  had  made  a  sufficient  number  of  converts, 
 with  proper  ministers  to  attend  the  offices  of  religion, 
 while  themselves  proceeded  in  the  great  affair  of  propa- 
 gating the  gospel  in  other  countries  :M  that  in  the  churches 
 which  they  thus  had  founded,  they  retained  the  chief 
 authority,  and  had  all  other  ministers,  of  what  quality 
 soever,  subject  to  them ;  as  appears  from  St  Paul's 
 epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus,  indited  in  a  style  which 
 sufficiently  speaks  a  superiority  over  them  :  and  that,  in 
 virtue  of  their  commission  from  Christ,  they  exercised 
 a  power  of  making  such  laws  and  constitutions  as  were 
 found  necessary  for  the  good  government  of  the  church; 
 of  enforcing  these  laws  with  such  penalties  as  the  nature  of 
 
 10  Joseph,  on  the  Jewish  War,  b.  ii.  c.  16. 
 
 11  Beausobre's  Annotations  in  locum. 
 
 i-  Archbishop  Potter's  Discourse  on  church  government. 
 
 1!  Miscellanea  sacra,  Essay  ii. 
 
 14  Archbishop  Potter  on  Church  Government. 
 
1118 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98  ;  OU,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D.  08,  ftc  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 transgressions  required  ;  of  ejecting  the  incorrigible  from 
 the  communion  of  the  saints;  of  pardoning  and  receiv- 
 ing the  penitent;  of  conferring  the  gifts  of  the  Holy 
 •  .host ;  of  choosing  proper  persons  to  administer  in  holy 
 offices ;  and  of  appointing  their  successors  to  rule  and 
 preside  in  the  church. 
 
 This  is  the  most  of  what  we  learn  concerning  the 
 apostles,  and  their  distinct  offices  :  and  in  relation  to  the 
 inferior  ministers  of  the  Christian  church,  Ave  may 
 observe,  that  upon  the  departure  of  the  apostles  from  Jer- 
 naalem,  if  not  much  sooner,  St  James,  the  near  relation 
 of  our  Lord,  was  made  the  fixed  bishop  of  that  city,  and 
 uii.br  him  had  seven  deacons,  who  were  solemnly  or- 
 dained  by  the  apostles  :  that  in  the  churches  of  Ephesus 
 and  Crete,  St  Paul  gives  Timothy  and  Titus  plain  rules 
 for  theb  conduct  in  the  ordination  of  bishops  and  dea- 
 BOSe  :  so  that  Timothy  and  Titus  must  have  been  bishops 
 themselres,  otherwise  they  could  not  have  ordained 
 others  to  that  office  :  that  though  the  words  bishop  and 
 elder  '•  be  used  promiscuously, and  are  sometimes  applied 
 to  the  same  persons,  as  St  John  calls  himself  an  elder, 
 though  at  the  same  time  he  was  sovereign  bishop  of 
 Isifl  ;  yet  this  he  might  do  upon  different  considerations, 
 since  an  elder  he  might  be  with  regard  to  his  age,  and 
 a  bishop  with  regard  to  his  office:  and  that  bishops 
 were  officers  in  the  Christian  church,  appointed  by  the 
 apostles  to  be  their  successors  in  the  government  of  it, 
 and,  in  their  absence  or  upon  their  demise,  to  exercise 
 the  same  functions,  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  Timothy  and 
 Titus  :  that  the  elders,  supposing  them  distinct  from 
 bishops,  were  those  who  had  been  with  Christ  from  the 
 beginning,  and  having  received  the  Holy  Ghost  at  the 
 
 a  Allowing  it  to  be  true,  that  these  names  in  Scripture 
 are  used  promiscuously,  which  yet  is  by  very  learned  men,  and 
 upon  very  good  authority,  denied;  yet  still  this  is  no  proof  that 
 presbyters  must  be  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  bishops  or  bishops 
 Mink  to  the  level  of  presbyters.  For  although  the  term  presby- 
 tia is  at  present  used  to  denote  the  office  of  those  who  assist  the 
 bishop,  and  are  subject  to  him  in  discharging  some  of  the  minis- 
 terial functions;  yet  in  the  days  of  the  apostles,  the  bishops  might 
 be  called  presbyters,  though  they  had  then  other  presbyters  subject 
 to  them.  For  though  all  presbyters  are  not  bishops,  yet  all 
 bishops  are  presbyters;  although  the  former  may  not  perform  the 
 functions  of  the  latter,  the  latter  may  perform  the  functions  of 
 the  former  ;  what  offices  are  incumbent  upon  a  presbyter,  those  a 
 bishop  has  a  right  to  perform,  and  may  therefore,  upon  that  ac- 
 count, very  justly  be  called  a  presbyter.  It  is  allowed  on  all 
 hands,  that  under  the  Jewish  dispensation,  there  were  three 
 orders  of  ecclesiastical  persons,  the  high-priest,  the  priests,  and 
 the  Lcvit.es;  and  yet  in  the  first  institution  of  these  orders,  the 
 word  priest  is  used  promiscuously,  as  well  of  the  high-priest,  as 
 of  the  inferior  priests;  so  that  Aaron  himself,  the  first  high- 
 priest,  in  the  book  of  Moses,  is  never  dignified  with  any  higher 
 character  than  that  of  a  priest.  But  who  ever,  from  this  pro- 
 miscuous use  of  his  name,  has  attempted  to  prove,  that  all  the 
 priests  were  equal  to  the  high-priest?  or  that  the  sons  of  Aaron 
 were  of  the  same  dignity  and  order  with  Aaron  the  father? 
 And  yet  this  is  the  main  argument  which  the  contenders  for  a 
 parity  among  the  presbyters  make  use  of  to  prove  their  assertion, 
 namely,  that  because  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles,  bishops  are 
 sometimes,  according  to  the  opinion  of  some  interpreters,  called 
 presbyters,  bishops  and  presbyters  were  therefore  both  of  one 
 order.  But  if  being  called  by  the  same  name  makes  an  equality 
 in  ministerial  functions,  our  Saviour,  who  is  termed  an  apostle, 
 (Heb.  iii.  1.)  a  bishop  or  pastor,  (1  Pet.  ii.  25.)  a  master  or 
 doctor,  (Mat.  xxiii.  10.)  a  minister  or  deacon,  (Rom.  xv.  8.) 
 must,  by  this  form  of  reasoning,  be  degraded  to  an  equality  with 
 the  apostles,  with  bishops,  with  masters,  nay,  even  with  deacons 
 themselves;  which  is  not  only  incongruous  but  impious  to  assert. 
 — Bishop  Sniallridgc's  Sermons,  p.  111. 
 
 same  time  that  the  apostles  did,  were  sometimes  chosen 
 into  their  number,  as  were  Matthias  and  Barnabas,  and, 
 upon  account  of  their  extraordinary  gifts,  though  they 
 were  not  fixed  ministers,  had  a  right  to  officiate  where- 
 ever  they  came,  a  share  in  the  government  of  the  church, 
 and  a  seat  in  all  their  councils  and  synods  :  that  in  the 
 great  variety  of  gifts  which  Christ  bestowed  upon  his 
 church,  some  of  these  elders,  very  probably,  were  pro- 
 phets, whose  principal  work  it  was,  by  expounding  the 
 prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  foretelling  future 
 events,  to  convince  the  Jews  ;  and  others  evangelists, 
 who,  by  writing  the  gospel  by  inspiration,  and  preaching 
 it  to  infidels,  who  never  heard  of  it,  made  it  their  busi- 
 ness to  convert  the  Gentiles ;  that  though  in  some 
 churches,  when  first  established,  we  find  only  a  bishop 
 and  his  deacons,  without  any  mention  of  the  intermediate 
 order  of  presbyters ;  yet,  when  the  number  of  Chris- 
 tians increased,  the  bishop  ordained  others  to  officiate 
 in  the  congregations,  where  he  could  not  be  present,  and 
 to  assist  him  in  the  other  parts  of  his  pastoral  charge ; 
 and  were,  at  that  time,  called  '  teachers,'  and  afterwards 
 '  presbyters,'  or  priests ;  that  these  presbyters  were  a 
 settled  order  in  the  church,  superior  to  deacons,  but,  in 
 the  matter  of  ordination  and  confirmation  by  the  im- 
 position of  hands,  inferior  to  bishops,  though,  in  all 
 other  respects,  their  equals,  and  alike  empowered  to  dis- 
 pense the  word,  administer  the  sacraments,  and  offer  up 
 the  prayers  of  the  people  :  that  deacons,  as  their  very 
 name  imports,  were  persons  appointed  to  attend  on  the 
 bishops,  and  according  to  the  original  institution  of 
 their  order,  to  take  care  of  the  poor,  that  is,  to  inquire 
 into  the  necessities  of  every  one,  and  to  apply  a  suit- 
 able relief  to  them  out  of  the  church's  treasure,  though 
 from  the  examples  of  St  Philip  and  Stephen,  we  find, 
 that  their  employment  likewise  was  to  baptize  converts 
 and  children,  and  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  adult : 
 and  that  the  brethren  were  properly  what  we  now  call 
 the  laity  of  the  church,  but  then,  as  the  laity  at  that 
 time  were  endued  with  special  gifts,  by  these  they  were 
 entitled  to  have  some  share  in  the  administration  of  the 
 church ;  were  present  with  the  apostles  and  elders  at  the 
 council  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  had  leave  given  them  to  choose 
 proper  persons  out  of  their  body,  and  to  present  these 
 to  the  apostles,  while  they  were  alive,  and  afterwards 
 to  the  bishops,  but  had  no  power  at  all  of  their  own  ac- 
 cord to  ordain  or  appoint  them  to  any  sacred  office  : 
 we  may  observe,  I  say,  that  such  were  the  several  orders 
 of  men  in  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  church,  such 
 the  diversities  of  their  gifts,  and  such  the  differences  of 
 their  administrations.  But  as  it  must  be  owned,  that 
 several  of  these  were  extraordinary  persons,  and  con- 
 tinued no  longer  than  the  apostolic  age  ;  so  to  have  a 
 full  and  distinct  account  of  such  standing  officers  as 
 were  to  abide  for  ever,  we  must  have  recourse  to  the  testi- 
 mony of  antiquity  ;  which  perfectly  agrees  in  this, — 
 That  after  the  apostles'  days,  they  were  no  other  than 
 bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons ;  and  accordingly 
 Ignatius,  to  mention  one  evidence  for  all,  after  he  had 
 been  forty  years  bishop  of  Antioch,  to  which  dignity  he 
 was  promoted  by  the  hands  of  Peter  the  apostle,  and 
 therefore  cannot  be  supposed  to  be  ignorant  of  the  state 
 of  tlie  primitive  church,  in  his  exhortation  to  the  people 
 to  be  obedient  to  the  ministers  of  it,  tells  us  of  the 
 bishop  presiding  in  the  place  of  God  ;  the  presbyters  as 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1119 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.D.  98;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D 
 
 the  council  of  the  apostles ;  and  the  deacons  as  the 
 ministers  of  Christ ;  and  therefore,  says  he,  he  that  is 
 within  the  altar,  is  pure  ;  but  whoever  does  any  thing 
 without  the  bishop,  the  college  of  presbyters,  and  the 
 deacons,  his  conscience  is  defiled  ;  and  therefore,  says 
 he  again,  adhere  to  the  bishop,  the  college  of  presbyters, 
 and  the  deacons  ?  A  sufficient  attestation  that  these 
 were  the  standing  ministers  of  the  Christian  church  in 
 those  days. 
 
 That  Timothy  and  Titus  were  bishops  of  Ephesus  and 
 Crete,  and  both  such  by  the  appointment  of  the  apostle 
 St  Paul,  we  have  the  testimony  of  all  antiquity  to  con- 
 vince us  ;  but  if  by  saying  that  they  were  bishops,  we 
 mean,  that  they  took  upon  them  these  churches  or  dio- 
 ceses, as  their  fixed  and  peculiar  charge,  in  which  they 
 were  to  preside  for  term  of  life,  we  are  much  mistaken. 
 Upon  St  Paul's  going  to  Macedonia,  l  he  exhorts 
 Timothy  to  abide  at  Ephesus,  in  order  to  correct  several 
 abuses ;  and  yet,  2  in  his  second  epistle,  we  find  him 
 intreating  him  to  come  to  Rome,  where  he  continued,  as 
 the  ancients  conjecture,  to  the  time  of  the  apostle's 
 martyrdom.  In  like  manner  St  Paul 3  left  Titus  in  Crete, 
 to  ordain  elders  in  every  city,  and  to  set  in  order  the 
 things  that  were  wanting ;  but  no  sooner  had  he  done 
 this  than  he  sent  for  him,  the  very  next  year,  to  Nico- 
 polis  ;  and,  having  sent  Artemas  to  supply  his  place, 
 took  him  along  with  him  to  Rome,  and  then  sent  him 
 into  Dalmatia,  upon  the  great  affair  of  propagating  the 
 gospel,  till  at  length,  after  the  apostle's  death,  he  returned 
 again  to  Crete. 
 
 The  truth  is,  these  two  persons  were  not  only  bishops, 
 but  evangelists  likewise,  and  the  work  of  an  evangelist, 
 as  Eusebius  informs  us,  was  this, — To  lay  the  founda- 
 tion of  the  faith  in  barbarous  nations,  to  constitute  in 
 them  pastors,  and  having  committed  to  them  the  cultiva- 
 ting of  these  new  plantations,  to  pass  on  to  other  coun- 
 tries and  nations  ;  so  that  according  to  this,  these  two 
 evangelists  were  not  in  a  condition  to  reside  in  their 
 respective  dioceses.  But  still,  if  by  bishops  we  only 
 understand  persons  who  had  authority  to  ordain  and 
 govern  the  clergy  of  their  provinces,  and  to  exercise 
 acts  of  discipline  and  censure  over  ecclesiastics,  as  well 
 as  private  Christians,  we  cannot  but  think,  that  when  we 
 find  *  Timothy  set  over  the  house  of  God,  and  in  that 
 house  empowered  5  to  make  rules  for  the  orderly  cele- 
 bration of  divine  worship  ;  to  see  that  teachers  b  taught 
 no  other  doctrine  than  what  they  had  received  from  our 
 Lord  and  his  disciples  ;  to  commit  the  doctrine  of  the 
 gospel  7  to  faithful  men,  who  should  be  able  to  teach 
 others  ;  and  to  ordain  those  whom  he  should  find  to  be 
 qualified,8  some  to  be  bishops,  and  others  deacons  ;  when 
 we  find  him  authorised  9  to  provide  for  the  competent 
 maintenance,  and  all  due  respect  of  church-officers;  to 
 take  cognizance  of  accusations,1"  even  against  elders  ;  to 
 11  rebuke  publicly  those  that  sin  ;  and  to  inflict  censures, 
 proportionable  to  the  crimes  that  are  proved  against 
 thein  ;  and  when  we  find  Titus,  in  like  manner,  author- 
 ized to  teach  all  degrees  of  men,  and  12  to  exhort  and 
 rebuke  them  with  all  authority  ;  and  take  cognizance  of 
 heretics  ;  and  such  as  did  not  repent 13  upon  the  second 
 
 I  1  Tim.  i.  3.  2  2  Tim.  iv.  9.  3  Tit.  i.  5. 
 
 4  I  Tim.  iii.  15.     5  Ibid.  ii.  1.     6  Ibid.  i.  2.      7  2  Tim.  ii.  2. 
 8  1  Tim.  iii.  1,2,  &c.  9  Ibid.  v.  17.         >°  Ibid.  ver.  19. 
 
 II  Ibid.  ver.  20.  12Tit.  ii.  15.  13  Ibid.  iii.  10. 
 
 98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 admonition,  to  reject  from  the  communion  of  saints  ;  14 
 to  set  in  order  what  St  Paul  had  left  unfinished ;  and  to 
 ordain  those  whom  himself  should  approve,  to  be  bishops 
 and  elders  ;  we  cannot  but  think,  I  say,  that,  to  all  intents 
 and  purposes,  they  were  bishops,  and  had  the  several 
 parts  of  the  apostolic  authority  committed  to  them, 
 though  in  this  they  differed  from  such  settled  diocesan 
 bishops  as  are  among  us,  that  the  frequent  calls  of  their 
 evangelical  office  obliged  them  to  be  oftentimes  absent 
 from  their  charge. 
 
 St  Paul,  speaking  of  himself  and  his  doctrine,  has 
 these  remarkable  words  :  '  I  15  certify  to  you,  brethren, 
 that  the  gospel  which  was  preached  of  me,  is  not  of  man. 
 For  I  neither  received  it  of  man,  neither  was  I  taught  it, 
 but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.'  And  therefore  he 
 styles  himself, '  an  16apostle,  not  of  men,  neither  by  man.' 
 Let  us  then  observe  a  little,  when  it  was  that  Jesus 
 Christ  vouchsafed  him  the  revelation  which  he  here 
 speaks  of,  and  then  we  may  possibly  find  out  the  time 
 when  he  first  commenced  an  apostle.  At  his  first  con- 
 version near  Damascus,  he  saw  a  great  light,  and  heard 
 a  voice  issuing  from  heaven ;  but  it  does  not  appear, 
 that  at  this  time  he  had  any  sight  of  Christ,  or  received 
 any  revelation  from  him,  except  17  that  he  should  go  to 
 Damascus,  where  it  should  be  told  him  what  was  ap- 
 pointed for  him  to  do.  In  Damascus  indeed,  Ananias 
 told  him,  that  God  had  chosen  him, 18  '  to  know  his  will, 
 and  to  see  that  just  One,  and  to  hear  the  voice  of  his 
 mouth,  and  19  to  carry  his  name  to  the  Gentiles  :'  but 
 this  is  rather  a  declaration  of  what  was  revealed  to 
 Ananias,  than  any  designation  of  Saul  to  the  apostle- 
 ship.  Encouraged,  however,  by  this  notification  from 
 Ananias,  and  the  inspiration  which  he  received  by  the 
 imposition  of  his  hands,  he  began  to  preach  in  the  name 
 of  Christ,  and  continued  to  do  so  for  full  three  years 
 with  great  eloquence  and  strength  of  argument ;  but  so 
 far  was  all  this  from  gaining  him  the  character  of  an 
 apostle,  that,  when  he  came  to  Jerusalem  the  first  time 
 after  his  conversion,20  the  brethren  would  not  believe 
 that  he  was  so  much  as  a  disciple.  It  is  no  improbable 
 opinion  therefore,  21  that  it  was  at  the  second  time  of  his 
 coming  up  to  Jerusalem,  when,  as  himself  relates  the 
 matter,  while  he  was  praying  in  the  temple,  he  fell  into 
 a  trance,  and  saw  Jesus  Christ  saying  unto  him,22  '  Make 
 haste,  and  get  thee  quickly  out  of  Jerusalem  ;  for  they 
 will  not  receive  thy  testimony  concerning  me,  and  there- 
 fore depart ;  for  I  will  send  thee  far  hence  to  the  Gen- 
 tiles :'  It  was  at  this  time,  I  say,  that  he  not  only  received 
 his  commission  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles, 
 but  the  revelation  of  23  the  gospel,  likewise  which  he 
 was  to  preach,  and  the  designation  of  the  very  person 
 that  was  to  accompany  him. 
 
 That  he  received  such  a  revelation,  2i  wherein  God 
 made  known  unto  him  the  mystery  which,  in  other  ages, 
 was  not  known  unto  the  sons  of  men,  namely,  that  the 
 Gentiles  should  be  fellow-heirs,  and  of  the  same  body, 
 and  partakers  of  his  promise  in  Christ  by  the  gospel, 
 himself  testifies ;  and  yet  we  have  no  clear  account  of 
 any  other  interview  between  Christ  and  him,  than  what 
 
 »4  Ibid.  i.  5,  6.         15  Gal.  i.  11,  12.  16  Ibid.  i.  1. 
 
 »  Acts  ix.  6.xxii.  10.        isibid.xxii.  L4.        i«  Ibid.  ix.  15. 
 20  Ibid.  26.     21  Miscel.  Sac.  Essay  3.     22Acts  xxii.  18.  21. 
 23  Philip  ii.  2.  24  Ephcs.  iii.  &c 
 
1120 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D. 
 
 happened  here  in  the  temple,  upon  his  second  coming  to 
 Jerusalem.  Being  thus  furnished  with  a  proper  revela- 
 tion, and  a  fellow-labourer  to  assist  him  in  the  propaga- 
 tion of  it,  he  and  Barnabas  returned  unto  Autioch,  where 
 the  Holy  Ghost  soon  ordered  the  church  1  to  separate 
 them  for  the  work  whereunto  he  had  called  them,  namely, 
 in  the  vision  which  he  vouchsafed  Saul  in  the  temple, 
 when  he  was  last  at  Jerusalem;  ami,  accordingly,  the 
 church  ■  fasted  and  prayed,  and  laid  their  hands  on 
 them,  having  recommended  them  to  the  gTace  of  God, 
 and  sent  them  away  ;  and  they,  being  thus  sent  forth  by 
 the  Holy  Ghost,  proceeded  to  the  work  of  their  ministry 
 with  great  cheerfulness  and  unanimity,  until,  by  their 
 second  peregrination,  a  certain  disagreement  happened, 
 which  produced  a  separation  between  them. 
 
 It  may  not  be  amiss  however  to  observe,  that  the  de- 
 si«n  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  having  this  their  perverseness 
 recorded,  was, not  only  to  testify  the  truth  and  sincerity  of 
 the  apostolic  history,  which  is  not  afraid  to  relate  the 
 faults  and  failings  of  its  chief  personages,  whatever  con- 
 struction may  be  put  upon  them ;  but  to  show  us  like- 
 wise,  that  the  best  Christians  are  subject  to  the  same 
 passions  and  infirmities  with  other  men  ;  and  that  there- 
 fore none  ought  to  be  too  much  elated  with  an  opinion 
 of  their  own  piety,  or  to  despise  others,  whom  they  may 
 imagine  their  inferiors.  Nor  must  it  be  forgotten,  that 
 this  benefit  in  particular  accrued  to  St  Mark,  who  was 
 the  subject  of  their  contention,  namely,  that  the  positive- 
 ness  of  St  Paul  not  to  take  him  in  company,  who,  in 
 their  former  journey,  had  so  shamefully  deserted  them, 
 made  him  more  constant  and  resolved  in  the  service 
 of  the  church  for  the  time  to  come,  and  gave  the  church 
 this  advantage,  as  we  hinted  before,3  that,  by  means  of 
 the  separation  of  two  such  eminent  apostles,  more  people 
 were  converted,  and  a  greater  number  of  provinces, 
 than  otherwise  would  have  been,  visited  with  the  glorious 
 light  of  the  gospel. 
 
 The  like  benefit  accrued  to  the  church  from  the  divine 
 severity  to  Ananias,  and  his  wife  Sapphira  :  for  it  was 
 not  any  sentence  of  St  Peter  that  destroyed  them,  but 
 the  righteous  judgment  of  God  in  punishing  the  hypo- 
 crisy, the  covetousness,  the  sacrilege,  and  gross  impiety, 
 wherewith  their  crime  was  aggravated.  The  custom  in 
 these  times  was,  *  for  as  many  as  were  possessors  of 
 lands  to  sell  them,  and  to  bring  the  prices  of  the  things 
 that  were  sold,  and  to  lay  them  down  at  the  apostles' 
 feet,  that  distribution  might  be  made  unto  every  man  ac- 
 cording  as  he  had  need.  This  charitable  disposition 
 among  believers  Ananias  and  his  wife  made  use  of,  to 
 obtain  a  false  reputation,  and  to  pass  a  cheat  upon  the 
 apostles  if  they  could.  To  this  purpose,  they  gave  it  out 
 that  the)  had  devoted  all  their  possessions,  which  perhaps 
 were  very  large,  to  the  use  of  the  church, and  accordingly 
 sold  them.  '  This,'  say  they,  '  will  gain  us  the  credit  of 
 being  very  charitable  and  religious  persons;  will  make 
 us  be  highly  respected  by  the  apostles,  and  in  a  manner 
 idolised  among  the  brethren.  We  purpose,  however,  not 
 to  yive  away  our  all  upon  this  occasion,  though  we  may 
 pretend  we  do  so  ;  but  will  reserve  a  good  portion  to 
 ourselves  ;  and,  if  we  keep  but  our  own  counsel,  who  will 
 find  it  out  ?     The  apostles  indeed  are  persons  endued 
 
 1  Acts  xiii.  2. 
 
 -  I!  id.  3,  4.      3  vid.  p.  1075, 
 1  Acts  iv.  34,  35. 
 
 in  the  notes. 
 
 )8,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 with  great  gifts,  but  5  what  man  knoweth  the  things  of 
 a  man,  save  the  spirit  of  a  man  which  is  in  him  ?  It  is 
 impossible  for  them  to  pry  into  our  hearts  :  and  there- 
 fore, if  we  blab  it  not  ourselves,  we  may, by  this  means, 
 put  out  our  money  to  good  interest,  and,  by  laying  down 
 a  part  of  the  price  at  the  apostles'  feet,  as  others  have 
 done  the  whole,  be  entitled  to  the  same  right  of  relief 
 from  the  public  stock  which  others  who  have  parted  with 
 their  all  are  admitted  to,  and,  at  the  same  time,  retain 
 a  comfortable  subsistence  for  ourselves.  All  that  Ave 
 have  to  do  then  is,  to  be  stedfast  and  uniform  in  our  story, 
 and  then  we  may  defy  the  Spirit  of  God  itself,  which  the 
 apostles  make  such  boast  of,  to  detect  us.' 
 
 This  seems  to  be  a  natural  comment  upon  their  con- 
 trivance and  conspiracy  ;  and  if  so,  6  the  Jews,  who  are 
 apt  to  object  against  Christians  the  severity  of  what  they 
 suffered,  would  do  well  to  remember,  that  the  law  of 
 Moses  allowed  of  no  atonement  for  wilful  sacrilege, 
 but  7  left  the  delinquent  to  be  cut  off  by  the  hand  of 
 heaven,  as  Ananias  here  was.  Nor  should  it  be  for- 
 gotten, 8  that  as  we  find  God,  under  the  law,  more  severe 
 in  his  punishment  of  those  who  first  offended  in  offering 
 strange  fire,  as  in  the  case  of  Nadab  and  Abihu,  and 
 violated  the  sabbath,  as  in  the  case  of  the  man  who 
 gathered  sticks  on  that  day,  and  especially  against  those 
 who  rose  up  against  Moses  the  prophet,  and  Aaron  the- 
 priest  of  the  Lord,  as  in  the  case  of  Korah  and  his  com- 
 pany, there  is  the  like  reason,  that  the  first  great  offence 
 of  thiskind,  under  the  gospel  dispensation, should  receive 
 exemplary  punishment  from  the  hand  of  God,  that  others 
 might  stand  in  more  terror  of  those  sins  Avhich  thus 
 affronted  that  Holy  Ghost  by  whose  power  the  Christian 
 religion  began  now  to  be  propagated  ;  for  so  the  text 
 tells  us,  9  '  that  great  fear  came  upon  all  the  church, 
 and  upon  as  many  as  heard  these  things,  and  believers 
 were  the  more  added  to  the  Lord,  multitudes  both  of 
 men  and  women.' 
 
 St  Paul,  speaking  of  his  own  easy  compliance  to  the 
 several  tempers  and  humours  of  those  with  whom  he 
 conversed,  10  'though  I  be  free  from  all  men,'  says  he, 
 '  yet  have  I  made  myself  a  servant  unto  all,  that  I  might 
 gain  the  more.  Unto  the  Jews  I  became  as  a  Jew,  that 
 I  might  gain  the  Jews  :  to  them  that  are  under  the  law, 
 as  under  the  law,  that  I  might  gain  them  that  are  under 
 the  law  ;  to  them  that  are  without  the  law,  as  without 
 the  law,  that  I  might  gain  them  that  are  without  the  law. 
 To  the  weak  became  I  as  weak,  that  I  might  gain  the 
 weak  ;  1  am  made  all  things  to  all  men,  that  I  might  by 
 all  means  save  some.  And  this  I  do  for  the  gospel's 
 sake.'  And  doubtless  for  the  gospel's  sake  it  was,  that 
 he  appointed  Timothy  to  be  circumcised.  He  knew  full 
 well  the  prejudices  which  the  Jews  had  conceived  against 
 persons  who  had  not  submitted  to  that  ordinance  ;  that 
 they  would  not  suffer  them  to  appear,  much  less  to  argue 
 and  discourse  in  any  of  their  synagogues  :  and  therefore, 
 being  determined  to  take  Timothy  for  the  companion  of 
 his  travels, to  make  his  access  more  easy  to  the  Jews,  and 
 himself  a  fitter  instrument  in  their  conversion,  he  thought 
 proper  to  give  him  this  passport,  as  it  were.11  '  Cir- 
 cumcision,' he  knew,  '  was  nothing,  and  uncircumcision 
 
 5  1  Cor.  ii.  11.  °  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah, 
 part  2.  p.  85.  '  Josh.  vii.  IS.  8  Whitby's  Annotations  oi* 
 Acts  v.  1.  B  Whitby's  Annotations  on  Acts  v.  It,  14. 
 
 w  1  Cor.  ix.  19,  &c.  ll  1  Cor.  vii.  19. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1121 
 
 A.  M.4102.  A.  D.  98;  OK,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D.98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 was  nothing,  but  the  keeping  of  the  commandments  of 
 God.'  *  In  its  own  nature  it  was  a  thing  indifferent, 
 neither  required  by  the  Christian  religion,  nor  inconsis- 
 tent with  it ;  and  under  this  consideration  he  was  will- 
 ing it  should  pass  upon  Timothy  :  but  when  it  came  to 
 be  required  as  a  duty,  and  a  duty  necessary  to  salvation  ; 
 to  be  used  as  the  distinguishing  mark  of  a  Jew,  in  op- 
 position to  Christians  ;  to  be  made  an  obligation  to  the 
 total  observance  of  the  law,  and  a  rock  of  offence  to 
 those  of  a  different  persuasion ;  it  then  became  evil, 
 and  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel.  Under 
 this  sense  it  is,  that  St  Paul  so  frequently  and  so  loudly 
 declaims  against  it :  and  upon  these  considerations  it 
 was,  that  he  would  not  allow  Titus  to  be  circumcised, 
 notwithstanding  the  earnest  importunity  of  some  people 
 of  reputation  at  Jerusalem. 
 
 2  With  what  a  jealous  eye  St  Paul  was  looked  upon 
 by  all  Judaizing  Christians,  as  a  person  averse  to  the 
 Mosaic  institutions,  is  sufficiently  known.     These  men 
 had  been  at  Antioch,  where,  having  insidiously  watched 
 the  liberty  which  he  took  in  omitting  all  legal  obser- 
 vances, they,  when  he  came  to  Jerusalem,  informed  the 
 church  against  him,  that  he  preached  to  the  Gentiles, 
 who  were  not  circumcised  ;  that  he  conversed  freely  and 
 familiarly  with  them  ;  that  Titus,  who  was  a  Greek,  was 
 at  that  time  with  him  ;  and  therefore,  to  put  the  matter 
 upon  an  issue,  they  urged,  that  this  intimate  friend  of 
 his    might   be   circumcised.     Their    policy  in   this  was 
 visible.     Had  they  carried  their  point  against  St  Paul, 
 they  would  soon  have  informed  the  church  of  Antioch, 
 that,  by  the  order  of  the  council  at  Jerusalem,3  Titus 
 had  been  obliged  to  be  circumcised ;  and  this,  besides 
 the    defeat    given    to   the   apostle,   and   baffle   to   his 
 doctrine  of  Christian  liberty,  would  have  proved  a  great 
 scandal  and  discouragement  to  the  heathen  converts,  and 
 an  impediment  to  the  progress  of  the  gospel,  which  at 
 that  time  began  to  be  more  successful  among  the  Gen- 
 tiles than  the  Jews.    And  therefore  St  Paul  was  resolute, 
 and  took  special  care,  that  Titus  should  not  be  circum- 
 cised.    So   that,  upon   the  whole,  it   appears,  that  St 
 Paul  was  no  ways  inconsistent  with  himself,  though  he 
 varied  his  conduct,  according  to  the  different  circum- 
 stances he  found  himself  under.     He  ordered  Timothy, 
 whose  mother  was  a  Jewess,  to  be  circumcised,  because 
 his  circumcision  would  be  a  means  to  forward  his  minis- 
 try, and  to  gain  hiin  an  easier  access  to  the  Jews  ;  but 
 he  refused  to  have  Titus,  who  was  a  Gentile,  circumcised, 
 because  his  circumcision  would  have  been  a  means  to 
 scandalize  the  brethren,  to  alienate  their  minds  from  the 
 Christian  faith,  and  a  great  obstruction  to  the  course  of 
 the  gospel.      In  short,4  Titus  he  would  not  suffer  to  be 
 circumcised,  thereby  to  show,  that  circumcision  was  not 
 necessary  ;  but  Timothy  he  allowed  to  be  circumcised, 
 that,  by  his  practise,  it  might  appear,  that  such  cere- 
 monies were  not  evil  in  themselves,  but  might  be  used 
 without   any  crime,  until  by  degrees  they  came  to  be 
 abolished. 
 
 The  like  maybe  said  of  his  own  compliance  with  cer- 
 tain ceremonies  of  purification,  at  the  request  of  St  James, 
 and  the  other  elders  at  Jerusalem,  and  for  the  satisfac- 
 tion    of    the    Jewish    converts   there.5       '  Thou   seest, 
 
 1  Kidder's  Demonstration  of  the  Messiah,  part  2.  p.  93. 
 
 2  Hammond's  Aunotations  on  Philip  ii.  3.    3  Ibid,  on  Acts  xvi 
 *  Calmet's  Commentary  on  Acts  xvi.     5  Acts  xxi.  20,  &c. 
 
 brother,'  say  they, '  how  many  thousands  of  Jews  there  arc 
 who  believe,  and  they  are  all  zealous  for  the  observance 
 of  the  law.'     The  law  of  Moses  was  held  in  so  great 
 veneration,  as  being  the  contrivance  of  God  himself,1" 
 '  ordained  by  angels  in  the  hand  of  a  mediator,'  ratified 
 by  miracles,  and  entertained  by  all  their  forefathers,  as 
 the    peculiar   prerogative  of  their  nation  for  so  many 
 generations,  that  even  those  who  by  the  evidence  of  the 
 gospel  were    prevailed   upon  to  embrace  Christianity, 
 could  not  overcome  the  prejudice  of  education,  but  still 
 continued  their  adherence  to  those  legal  rites  and  cus- 
 toms wherein  they  had  been  brought  up.     Some  of  them 
 indeed  were  for  obtruding  them  upon  the  Gentile  con- 
 verts, but  the  most  moderate  of  them  all,  even  bishops 
 and  elders  as  well  as  the  laity,  were  for  a  punctual  ob- 
 servation of  them  among  the  Jewish :  they  were  con- 
 vinced, that  these  institutions  were  of  divine  original : 
 they  knew  of  no  revelation  made  by  God,  that  they 
 were  to   cease   after   the   death    of  the  Messiah :    our 
 blessed  Saviour,  in  his  gospel,  had  said  little  or  nothing 
 of  them  ;  nay,  in  saying,  '  that  he  came  not  to  destroy 
 the  law  and  the  prophets,'  he  seems  to  have  given  a  fresh 
 sanction  to  them;   and  because  he  foreknew,  that  the 
 destruction   of  their  temple,  and  their  exclusion  from 
 their  own  land,  would  in  a  short  time  make  it  impossible 
 for   them  to  observe  them,  he  had  given  none  of  the 
 apostles,  except  it  was  St  Paul,  any  intimations  con- 
 cerning them ;  and  therefore  it  is  not  to  be  wondered, 
 that  men,  in  these  circumstances,  should  advise  St  Paul, 
 for  the  good  of  so  many  thousand  souls  as  might  other- 
 wise take  exception  at  his  conduct,  to  comply  with  the 
 observance  of  some  things,  which  as  yet  they  did  not 
 think  abrogated.     So  that  in  the  apostles  at  Jerusalem 
 there  was  no  design  of  deluding  the  people  into  a  false 
 belief,  by  St  Paul's  conforming  himself  to  some  ritual 
 observances,    because    their    present    persuasion   was, 
 that  it  was  a  duty  incumbent  upon  him  so  to  do.     St 
 Paul  indeed  knew  very  well,  that  our  Saviour,  by  his 
 death,7  '  had  abolished  the  law  of  commandments  con- 
 tained in  ordinances  ;'  but  since  these  were  observances 
 belonging  to  the  temple,  which  was  yet  standing,  and 
 God   had  not,  by  any  express  declaration  made  to  the 
 Jews,  prohibited  the  continuance  of  them,  he  might  law- 
 fully submit  to  this  compliance  with  them,  in  order  to 
 prevent  the  scandal  of  the  believing  Jews,  which  might 
 otherwise  alienate  them  from  the  Christianity  they  had 
 embraced,    and   to   promote,    by  his    future    preaching 
 among  them,  the  conversion  and  salvation  of  the  unbe- 
 lieving. 
 
 8  '  Behold  I  send  you  forth  as  sheep  in  the  midst  of 
 wolves  :  be  ye  therefore  wise  as  serpents,  and  harmless 
 as  doves,'  is  a  lesson  which  our  Saviour  gave  his  dis- 
 ciples, and  which  St  Paul,  more  especially  at  this  time, 
 when  he  was  every  where  surrounded  by  his  enemies,  had 
 occasion  to  put  in  practice.  Most  casuists  are  of  opinion, 
 that,  by  all  innocent  means,  it  is  allowable  to  sow  divi- 
 sions among  the  wicked;  because  the  union  of  the  wicked 
 is  as  prejudicial  to  the  cause  of  religion,  as  the  disunion 
 of  the  good  is  destructive  to  it.  If  therefore  St  Paul, 
 by  an  innocent  address,  could  set  the  Pharisees  and 
 Sadducees  at  variance,  there  is  no  reason  to  be  given  why 
 he  should  decline  it.     Had  lie  indeed,  in  so  doing,  but 
 
 15  Gal.  iii.  10. 
 
 '  Ephes.  ii.  l.'i. 
 
 7  c 
 
 *  Mat.  x.  10. 
 
1122 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D 
 
 implicitly  denied  himself  to  be  a  Christian,  this  had 
 been  an  inexcusable  crime  ;  but  both  the  Pharisees  and 
 Sadduceea  were  too  well  acquainted  with  him,  and  his 
 conversion,  ever  to  put  that  construction  upon  his  words. 
 The  resurrection  of  the  dead  was  a  principal  doctrine  of 
 the  Christian  religion;  and  as  it  was  coincident  with  the 
 faith  of  the  Pharisees,  I  cannot  see  how  he  could  use  a 
 more  proper  argument  to  convince  them  of  their  fault  and 
 folly  in  persecuting-  Christians,  than  to  show,  that  they 
 themselves  did  hold  one  of  the  prime  articles  of  the 
 Christian  faith  ;  and  if  by  declaring  this  doctrine  of 
 Christianity  before  them,  he  engaged  the  Pharisees  on 
 his  side,  and  thereby  declined  the  malice  and  rage  of  his 
 enemies,  who  can  say,  but  that,  in  this  putting  the  wis- 
 dom of  the  serpent  in  execution,  he  still  preserved  the 
 harmlessness  of  the  dove  ? 
 
 But  this  can  hardly  be  said  of  St  Peter's  prevarication 
 at  Antioch.  '  He,  at  his  first  coming  down  to  that  place, 
 made  use  of  the  liberty  which  the  gospel  had  given  him  : 
 he  familiarly  eat,  and  conversed  with  the  Gentile  con- 
 verts, accounting  them,  now  that  the  partition-wall  was 
 broken  down,  no  longer  2  strangers  and  foreigners,  but 
 fellow-citizens  with  the  sain's,  and  of  the  household  of 
 God.  This  he  had  been  taught  by  the  vision  of  the 
 sheet  let  down  from  heaven ;  this  had  been  lately  de- 
 creed, and  he  himself  had  promoted,  and  subscribed  it 
 in  the  synod  at  Jerusalem  ;  this  he  had  before  practised 
 towards  Cornelius  and  his  family,  and  justified  the  ac- 
 tion to  the  satisfaction  of  his  accusers ;  and  this  he  had 
 freely  and  innocently  done  at  Antioch,  till  some  of  the 
 Jewish  brethren  coming  thither  for  fear  of  offending 
 and  displeasing  them,  he  withdrew  his  converse  from  the 
 Gentiles,  as  if  it  had  been  unlawful  for  him  to  hold  com- 
 munion with  uncircumcised  persons.  In  this  affair,  as 
 he  himself  acted  against  the  light  of  his  own  mind  and 
 judgment,  condemning  what  he  had  approved,  and  de- 
 stroying what  before  he  had  built  up  ;  so  hereby  he  con- 
 firmed the  Jewish  zealots  in  their  inveterate  error,  cast 
 infinite  scruples  into  the  minds  of  the  Gentiles,  revived 
 the  old  feuds  and  prejudices  between  them,  destroyed 
 that  union  and  harmony  which  before  his  coming  pre- 
 vailed in  the  church  at  Antioch,  and,  in  short,  brought 
 matters  to  that  issue,  that  the  whole  number  of  Jewish 
 converts  following  his  example,  separated  themselves 
 from  the  company  of  Gentile  Christians,  insomuch  that 
 St  Paul  was  forced  to  interpose  his  authority  with  re- 
 bukes. 
 
 3  '  Mark  them  who  cause  divisions  and  offences,  con- 
 trary to  the  doctrine  which  ye  have  learned,  and  avoid 
 them,'  is  the  instruction  which  he  gave  the  Romans  ;  and 
 had  be  put  it  in  practice  upon  this  occasion,  there  had 
 been  tli<'n  some  grounds  to  complain  of  his  a  rudeness 
 
 1  Cave's  Life  of  St  Peter.  2  Eph.  ii.  19.  3  Rom.  xvi.  17. 
 a  Porphyry,  that  subtle  enemy  of  the  Cliristian  religion, 
 makes  we  of  this  reproof  which  St  Paul  gave  St  Peter,  as  an 
 argument  aL'amst  them  both,  charging  the  one  with  error  and 
 falsehood,  and  the  other  with  rudeness  and  incivility;  and  says, 
 that  the  whole  was  but  a  compact  of  forgery  and  deceit,  while 
 the  princes  of  the  church  did  thus  fall  out  among  themselves  ; 
 and  so  s«  ii-il.lt-  were  some  of  this,  in  the  primitive  ages  of 
 Christianity,  that  rather  than  such  a  disgrace,  as  they  accounted 
 it.  should  be  reflected  upon  St  Peter,  they  pretended,  that  be- 
 sides the  apostle,  there  was  one  of  the  same  name,  one  of  the 
 event?  disciples,  and  that  it  was  he  whom  St  Paul  withstood, 
 and  reproved  at  Antioch,  as  guilty  of  this  prevarication.  But 
 this  is  a  crude  and  useless  evasion. — Cave's  Life  of  St  Peter. 
 
 98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 and  incivility  to  St  Peter  ;  but  in  opposing  his  conduct 
 where  it  was  blameable,  and  in  telling  him  of  his  faults 
 when  they  were  notorious,  he  acted,  even  in  the  eye  of 
 the  Mosaic  law,  the  part  of  a  kind  brother  ;  for,  *  '  Thou 
 shalt  not  hate  thy  brother  in  thine  heart ;  thou  shalt  in 
 any  wise  rebuke  thy  neighbour,  and  not  suffer  sin  upon 
 him ;'  where  if  not  to  rebuke  a  brother,  is  to  hate  him, 
 to  rebuke  him,  by  consequence,  is  to  love  him  ;  and 
 therefore  the  royal  psalmist  makes  it  the  matter  of  his 
 prayer, 5  '  Let  the  righteous  smite  me  friendly,  and  re- 
 prove me,  but  let  not  their  precious  balm  break  my  head.' 
 
 But  though  St  Paul  might  think  it  his  duty,  and  no 
 unkindness  to  St  Peter,  to  oppose  him  in  his  dissimula- 
 tion ;  yet  we  find  him  no  where  disagreeing  with  St 
 James  in  any  point  of  Christian  doctrine.  To  silence  the 
 clamours  of  those  indeed,  who  pleaded  for  the  necessity 
 of  circumcision,  and  other  Jewish  ordinances  under  the 
 Christian  dispensation,  and  were  for  imposing  them  upon 
 the  Gentile  converts,  as  things  essential  to  salvation  ; 
 in  several  parts  of  his  epistles,  but  more  particularly  of 
 those  to  the  Romans  and  Galatians,  he  argues,  that  our 
 acceptance  with  God  here,  and  admission  to  happiness 
 hereafter,  which  he  calls  by  the  term  of  justification, 
 depends  upon  our  sincere  belief  of  the  gospel,  and  our 
 living  answerably  to  such  a  belief,  which  are  compre- 
 hended in  the  word  faith,  and  not  upon  any  observance 
 of  the  Jewish  rites  and  ceremonies,  which  he  calls  '  the 
 deeds  of  the  law.'  This  doctrine  of  justification  by 
 faith  came,  in  a  short  time,  to  be  perverted  to  very  bad 
 purposes  ;  and6  some  there  were,  who  from  the  author- 
 ity of  St  Paul,  endeavoured  to  persuade  themselves  and 
 others,  that  so  long  as  they  did  but  believe  the  gospel 
 in  the  naked  notion  and  speculation  of  it,  it  was  enough 
 to  recommend  them  to  the  favour  of  God,  and  serve  all 
 the  purposes  of  justification  and  salvation,  however  they 
 shaped  and  steered  their  lives.  To  countermine  the 
 designs  of  these  men,  and  to  beat  down  this  strong  hold 
 of  libertinism,  St  James,  who  wrote  his  epistle  subse- 
 quent to  these  of  St  Paul,  and  as  a  kind  of  comment 
 upon  them,  endeavours  to  show  the  insufficiency  of  a 
 naked  faith,  and  empty  profession  of  religion  ;  that  it  is 
 not  enough  to  recommend  us  to  the  divine  acceptance, 
 and  to  justify  us  in  the  sight  of  heaven,  barely  to  believe 
 the  gospel,  unless  we  obey  and  practise  it ;  and  that 
 such  a  belief,  destitute  of  this  evangelical  obedience,  is 
 7  like  the  body  without  the  spirit,  dead,  and  inavailable 
 to  our  salvation  :  and  therefore  he  concludes,  that  by 
 the  practice  of  the  several  virtues  of  the  Christian  re- 
 ligion, which  he  terms  works,  a  man  is  justified,  and  not 
 by  a  mere  notional  belief  of  the  things  recorded  in  the 
 gospel,  which  he  calls  faith  only. 
 
 8  Considering  then  the  difference  of  the  adversaries 
 which  these  two  apostles  had  to  contend  with ;  that  St 
 Paul  was  engaged  with  false  brethren,  Jewish  converts, 
 who  were  for  joining  the  ceremonial  part  of  the  law  with 
 the  faith  of  the  gospel,  and  the  practice  of  the  Christian 
 religion  ;  and  that  St  James,  on  the  contrary,  had  to  do 
 with  libertines  and  hypocrites,  men,  who  having  abused 
 St  Paul's  doctrine  of  faith  and  grace,  and  wrested  it  to 
 their  own  destruction,  had  thereupon  abandoned  them- 
 selves to  all  manner  of  vice,  and  looked  upon  good 
 works  as  things  purely  indifferent ;  considering  this,  I 
 
 4  Lev.  xix.  17.     s  Psal.  cxli.  5.      6  Cave's  Life  of  St  Paul. 
 '  James  ii.  26.   8  Beausobre's  Preface  to  Epistle  of  St  James. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &< 
 
 1123 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D 
 say,  we  shall  find  the  two  apostles  arguing  very  pro- 
 perly with  the  persons  whom  they  had  in  view,  and 
 though  they  do  not  advance  assertions  absolutely  the 
 same,  are  far  from  opposing  or  contradicting  one  another. 
 '  Legal  observances  will  not  save  us,' says  St  Paul ;  '  nor 
 will  a  bare  belief  of  the  gospel  save  us,'  says  St  James. 
 '  A  lively  faith,  that  is  fruitful  of  good  works,  will  save 
 us,'  says  St  Paul ;  '  and  so  will  the  practice  of  all  moral 
 and  Christian  virtues,'  says  St  James.  Thus  admirably 
 do  the  two  apostles  agree,  and  conspire  to  explain 
 each  other. 
 
 Nay,  to  clear  the  character  of  St  Paul  still  further, 
 we  may  observe,  that,  in  those  very  epistles  where  he 
 seems  to  extol  faith,  and  debase  the  efficacy  of  works 
 most,  he  nevertheless  makes  them  the  indispensable  con- 
 dition of  our  salvation.  For,  having  laid  it  down  as  a 
 certain  truth,  that  l  '  not  the  hearers  of  the  law  are  just 
 before  God, but  that  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified,' 
 he  plainly  asserts,  that  our  misery  or  happiness  in  a  future 
 state  depends  upon  our  good  or  ill  deportment  here ; 
 for  2  '  Cod  will  render  to  every  man  according  to  his 
 works  ;  tribulation  and  anguish  upon  every  soul  that 
 doth  evil ;  but  glory,  honour,  and  peace,  upon  every  soul 
 that  worketh  good,  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Gen- 
 tile.' In  another  place,  having  spoken  of  the  happiness 
 of  our  redemption  from  original  sin,  by  the  merits 
 and  mercies  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  asks  these  questions, 
 3  'What  shall  we  say  then  ?  Shall  we  continue  in  sin,  that 
 grace  may  abound  ?  God  forbid.  How  shall  we,  who 
 are  dead  to  sin,  live  any  longer  therein  ?'  And  in  like 
 manner,  having  made  this  comfortable  declaration, 4 
 '  there  is  now  no  condemnation  to  them  who  are  in  Christ 
 Jesus  ;'  lest  we  should  mistake  his  meaning,  and  think 
 that  an  empty  faith,  or  bare  profession  of  Christianity, 
 was  enough  to  intitle  us  to  this  blessedness,  he  adds, 
 '  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit ; '  and 
 elsewhere  gives  us  this  caution,5  '  Be  not  deceived  ;  God 
 is  not  mocked  :  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
 he  also  reap  :  for  he  that  soweth  to  the  flesh,  shall  of  the 
 flesh  reap  corruption  ;  but  he  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit, 
 shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  everlasting. 
 
 There  seems,  at  first  view  indeed,  to  be  some  con- 
 trariety between  the  decree  of  the  council  at  Jerusalem, 
 and  the  latitude  which  St  Paul  allows  in  relation  to 
 meats  offered  to  idols  :  but  to  pass  a  right  judgment 
 concerning  these  offerings,  we  must  know,6 — That  be- 
 sides what  was  eaten  of  them  in  the  idol's  temple,  which 
 eating  was  an  act  of  religious  worship,  and  communion 
 with  the  idol,  as  our  eating  the  bread  of  the  sacrament 
 is  a  communion  with  Christ ;  besides  this,  I  say,  there 
 was  a  certain  portion  of  those  sacrifices  which  fell  to 
 the  priests,  and  which  they,  having  no  use  for,  sold  to 
 others,  who  afterwards  exposed  it  to  sale,  promiscuously 
 among  other  meat,  upon  the  shambles,  where  it  was 
 bought  up,  and  spent  in  private  families,  without  any 
 distinction  whether  it  had  or  had  not  been  offered  to 
 idols.  Now,  as  for  the  former  way  of  eating  meats  thus 
 offered,  namely,  in  the  idol's  temple,  this  the  apostle 
 utterly  disallows,  as  absolutely  unlawful ;  but  the  other 
 only  under  some  circumstances.  For  he  allows,  that  it 
 might  be  lawfully  bought  among  other  meat  in  the  market ; 
 
 1  Rom.  ii.  13. 
 4  Ibid.  viii.  1. 
 
 2  Ibid.  ver.  6,  &c.  3  Ibid.  vi.  1. 
 
 5  Gal.  vi.  7.     'South's  Sermons,  vol.  iii. 
 
 )8,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 and  being  so  bought,  might  be  eaten  in  any  private  house, 
 without  the  least  sin  ;  only  with  this  caution,  that  whereas 
 there  were  some  who  well  understood  that  meat  could 
 have  no  defiling  quality  imprinted  upon  it  by  its  conse- 
 cration to  an  idol  ;  and  others  on  the  contrary,  having  not 
 so  much  knowledge,  supposed,  that  its  consecration  to  an 
 idol  left  upon  it  such  a  polluting  quality,  and  near  rela- 
 tion to  the  idol,  as  defiled  the  eater;  the  former  sor 
 might  freely  and  innocently  eat  such  meat  in  private 
 families,  provided  it  was  not  before  those  of  the  latter 
 sort,  who,  through  weakness,  having  an  opinion  of  the 
 unlawfulness  of  such  meats,  might  nevertheless  be  induced 
 to  use  the  same  liberty,  though  their  consciences,  in  the 
 mean  time,  having  quite  another  judgment  in  this  matter, 
 esteemed  eating  them  little  better  th;in  idolatry. 
 
 Now,  the  argument  by  which  the  apostle  abridges  the 
 liberty  of  the  former  sort  of  converts,  in  condescension 
 to  those  of  the  latter  sort,  proceeds  upon  the  strength 
 of  this  assertion,  that  the  lawfulness  of  men's  actions 
 depends  not  solely,  either  upon  the  lawfulness  of  their 
 subject-matter,  nor  yet  upon  the  conscience  of  the  doers 
 of  them,  considered  in  itself,  but  as  considered  with 
 reference  to  the  consciences  of  others,  to  whom,  by  the 
 law  of  charity,  they  stand  bound  so  to  behave  themselves, 
 as,  by  none  of  their  actions,  to  give  them  occasion  of 
 sin.  Front  which  plain  state  of  the  case  it  appears,  St 
 Paul  is  so  far  from  giving  the  least  encouragement  to 
 the  eating  of  meats  offered  unto  idols,  that,  in  the  first 
 place,  he  uses  the  most  cogent  arguments,  namely,  the 
 regard  we  ought  to  have  for  our  neighbour's  soul,  and 
 the  danger  of  offending  Christ,  by  wounding  and  destroy- 
 ing those  members  of  his  mystical  body,  for  which  he 
 died,  to  engage  us  to  a  total  abstinence  ;  and  then  pro- 
 poses his  own  generous  resolution  to  enforce  his  advice  : 
 7  '  Wherefore,  if  meat  make  my  brother  to  offend,  I  will 
 eat  no  flesh  whilst  the  world  stands,  least  I  make  my 
 brother  to  offend." 
 
 7  1  Cor.  viii.  13. 
 a  The  question  respecting  the  use  of  meats  which  had  been 
 sacrificed  to  idols,  was  one  of  no  small  worldly  moment  to 
 Christians  living  as  a  small  isolated  sect  in  the  midst  of  a 
 numerous  heathen  population.  The  flesh  of  animals  which  had 
 been  so  sacrificed  was,  as  we  infer  from  various  passages  in  the 
 classical  writers,  after  the  consumption  of  certain  parts  upon  the 
 altar  in  honour  of  those  imaginary  deities,  either  immediately 
 consumed  by  the  assembled  votaries  in  a  species  of  public  feast, 
 or,  if  not  so  disposed  of,  was  subsequently  sold  in  the  open 
 shambles  for  the  emolument  of  the  ministers  of  religion.  The 
 converts  to  Christianity  were  thus  exposed  to  a  double  loss  and 
 inconvenience,  by  their  adoption  of  a  new  creed  ;  being  excluded, 
 by  their  conscientious  scruples,  not  only  from  partaking  in  those 
 lestive  banquets  celebrated  within  the  precincts  of  the  temple, 
 which,  from  their  frequent  occurrence,  formed  no  inconsiderable 
 feature  in  the  social  habits  of  that  period  ;  but  also  from  the  pur- 
 chase of  many  of  the  usual  articles  of  human  food,  when  oilered 
 for  sale  in  the  common  market.  The  interested  sophistry  of  the 
 Corinthian  converts  had  however,  as  it  appears,  invented  a  con- 
 venient argument,  calculated  to  reconcile  their  personal  indul- 
 gence with  their  newly  acquired  scruples,  and  to  justify  their 
 conformity  with  their  pagan  neighbours  in  both  these  particulars. 
 The  argument  is  a  curious  specimen  of  the  strange  subterfuges 
 which  worldly  men  will  have  recourse  to  when  the  observance  of 
 the  duties  of  religion  involves  the  relinquishment  of  some  tem- 
 poral advantage.  To  participate  in  the  feast  upon  a  sacrifice 
 offered  to  any  'evil  being,'  or  to  purchase  for  domestic  purposes 
 the  meat  so  sacrificed,  knowing  it  to  be  such,  was,  they  readily 
 admitted,  to  become  partakers  in  an  act  of  unhallowed  worship. 
 But  the  false  deities  of  the  pagans  they  asserted  were  not  evil 
 beings,  inasmuch  as  they  were  in  fact  '  no  beings  at  all;'  mere 
 
1124 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D 
 1  '  Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound 
 in  heaven  ;  and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth,  shall 
 be  loosed  in  heaven  ; '  as  in  another  place,2  '  Whose  so- 
 ever sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them ;  and 
 whose  soever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained,'  are  words 
 which  are  generally  supposed  to  contain  the  commission 
 which  our  blessed  Lord  gave  his  apostles,  to  exercise  a 
 judicial  power  over  the  members  of  his  church,  by  censur- 
 ing- offenders,  and,  upon  their  repentance  afterwards,  re- 
 mitting the  censures  which  were  passed  on  them.  To  this 
 purpose  we  find  St  Paul  telling  the  Corinthians,  that 
 1  '  though  he  should  boast  of  the  authority  which  the 
 Lord  hath  given  him,  for  edification,  and  not  for  destruc- 
 tion, he  should  not  be  ashamed  ;'  and  putting  that  authority 
 in  practice  against  the  person  who  had  committed  incest 
 among  them  ;  *  '  In  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
 when  ye  are  gathered  together,  and  my  spirit,  with  the 
 power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  deliver  such  an  one 
 unto  Satan,  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit 
 may  be  saved  in  the  day  of  the  Lord.' 
 
 *  Now,  in  order  to  know  the  meaning  of  this  deliver- 
 ing unto  Satan,  we  must  observe,  that  the  church,  or 
 kingdom  of  Christ,  was  erected  in  opposition  to  Satan's 
 kingdom  ;  and  therefore  every  Christian,  at  his  baptism, 
 covenants  to  renounce  the  devil  and  all  his  works,  and 
 is   thereupon  admitted  into  the  church  of   Christ,  and 
 
 >  Mat.  xviii.  18.  2  John  xx.  23.  3  2  Cor.  x.  8. 
 1  Cor.  v.  4,  5.  5  Potter's  Disc,  of  Church-Government, 
 non-entities ;  and  as  such  could  not  possibly  be  the  object  of  actual 
 worship,  nor  entail  any  real  pollution  upon  the  sacrifices  offered 
 to  them  through  the  ignorance  of  their  votaries.  Under  the  pro- 
 tection  of  this  salvo,  they  appear  to  have  accommodated  them- 
 selves to  the  practices  of  their  pagan  neighbours,  and,  as  we 
 infer  from  the  indignant  remonstrance  of  St  Paul,  to  have  urged 
 this  wretched  evasioa  as  an  ingenious  and  satisfactory  exculpa- 
 tion of  their  conduct  to  the  apostle  himself.  His  answer  is 
 such  as  might  be  expected  from  a  manly  understanding,  united 
 to  a  humble  and  religious  mind.  He  breaks  at  once  through 
 tiieir  casuistical  cobwebs,  by  a  direct  appeal  to  their  own  practi- 
 cal good  sense,  and  the  unsophisticated  character  of  the  religion 
 they  professed:  proving  that,  even  by  their  own  admissions,  as 
 implied  by  their  knowledge  of  the  Levitical  sacrifices,  and  their 
 own  habitual  celebration  of  the  Eucharist,  the  participation  in 
 the  subject  matter  of  a  sacrifice  was  bona  fide  a  participation 
 in  that  peculiar  faith  and  worship  to  which  such  sacrifices  were 
 annexed.  His  injunction  accordingly  on  this  point  is  peremp- 
 tory. '  Where  you  know  the  meat  which  you  find  served  at  table, 
 or  exposed  in  the  shambles,  to  have  formed  part  of  an  idolatrous 
 rig,  abstain  scrupulously  from  it.'  Yet  at  the  same  time, 
 with  a  beautiful  liberality  of  feeling,  which  would  not  strain  an 
 inconvenient  precept  beyond  the  point  actually  required  by  the 
 circumstances  of  the  case,  he  notwithstanding  allows  them  to  eat 
 indiscriminately  from  the  meats  set  before  them,  provided  they 
 can  do  so  in  perfect  ignorance  of  the  previous  facts,  even  though 
 they  may  have  purposely  abstained  from  asking  questions  which 
 might  had  to  an  explanation.  Thus  far  he  admits  that  they  may 
 proceed  innocently:  one  step  farther  would  be  an  act  of  at  least 
 implied  idolatry,  incompatible  with  the  purity  of  the  Christian 
 ion,  and  highly  dangerous  as  an  example  to  others.  That 
 this  apostolical  injunction  had  its  effect  in  deterring  professed 
 (  hristians,  at  a  subsequent  period,  from  such  equivocal  compliance 
 witl'  l';:-  ,"  "  ages,  maybe  inferred  from  that  Epistle  of  Pliny, 
 in  which  that  writer  states,  that,  inconsequence  of  the  frequent 
 abjurations  of  Christianity,  produced  by  the  increased  seventy 
 government,  the  victims  in  the  public  markets,  which 
 were  formerly  scarcely  saleable,  have  at  length  once  more  found 
 abundant  purchasers.  'Certainly  it  is  plain  enough,  that  the 
 temples,  which  were  almost  deserted,  now  began  to  be  thronged; 
 and  the  solemnities  of  religion,  long  neglected,  to  be  agai^o^ 
 -ei  veil ;  every  where  victim-  were  sold,  whereas  formerly  scarcely 
 i  could  he  found.'— Skutttcworth's  Paraphrastic  Transla- 
 tion of  the  EpUtks.—  Note  to  1  Cor.  viii.  1. Ed. 
 
 98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 taken  under  his  protection ;  but  when  men  notoriously 
 break  -their  baptismal  covenant,  and  instead  of  obeying 
 Christ,  openly  adhere  to  the  devil,  they  are  then  reduced 
 to  the  state  of  heathens,  who  are  under  the  dominion  of 
 the  prince  of  this  world  :  and  as  the  Scriptures  generally 
 ascribe  all  sorts  of  calamities  which  befal  mankind,  to 
 the  procurement  of  the  devil ;  so  the  pains  and  diseases 
 of  the  body,  which  in  this  first  age  usually  attended  the 
 sentence  of  excommunication,  were  supposed  to  proceed 
 from  the  devil,  whose  malice  the  divine  wisdom  might 
 then  employ,  as  a  common  serjeant  and  executioner,  to 
 inflict  some  bodily  punishment  upon  every  notorious 
 offender,  thereby  to  deter  others  from  the  like  provoca- 
 tions, and  thereby  to  bring  him  to  consideration  and 
 repentance,  and  to  save  his  soul  at  the  great  day  of 
 judgment. 
 
 Josephus,  in  his  History  of  the  Jewish  Wars,  6  tells  us 
 that  the  Essenes,  one  of  the  strictest  sects  among  them, 
 upon  their  deprehending  any  of  their  society  in  a  notori- 
 ous wickedness,  excluded  him  from  the  congregation ; 
 and  whoever  incurred  that  sentence,  generally  came  to 
 a  miserable  end  ;  and  therefore  we  need  less  wonder 
 that  God  at  the  first  beginning  of  Christianity, 7  and 
 when  it  was  wholly  destitute  of  all  civil  coercive  author- 
 ity, did  invest  his  apostles  with  a  power  of  inflicting 
 corporeal  punishments  upon  such  as  either  opposed  the 
 progress  of  the  gospel,  or  offended  grossly  against  its 
 rules ;  since  this  was  an  effectual  means  to  keep  the 
 wicked  in  awe,  to  advance  the  cause  of  religion,  and  to 
 conciliate  respect  to  its  ministers  ;  for  the  proper  end 
 of  all  church  censures,  according  to8  Lactantius,  is,  not 
 for  revenge,  but  to  support  the  honour  of  Christ's  laws, 
 to  admonish  others  to  amend,  and  to  warn  all  not  to 
 despise  this  salutary  authority. 
 
 St  Paul's  advice  to  the  governors  of  the  church  is  far 
 from  exciting  a  spirit  of  persecution  in  them  :  for, 9 
 though  he  arms  the  temporal  magistrate  with  a  sword, 
 not  only  to  be  a  terror  to  evil  doers,  but  to  cut  off  and 
 execute  notorious  offenders  ;  yet  to  the  spiritual  magis- 
 trate he  only  gives  a  pastoral  rod  and  a  staff',  neither  of 
 which  are  designed  to  destroy,  but  only  to  reform  those 
 that  go  astray.  His  first  prescription  is,  to  try  gentle 
 methods  ;  to  begin  with  kind  and  fatherly  admonitions, 
 which  from  persons  in  so  high  a  station,  may  probably 
 have  a  blessed  effect,  and  restore  the  offender,10  with  all 
 long-suffering,  in  the  spirit  of  meekness :  but  if  these 
 prove  too  weak  to  awaken  a  sinner  who  has  fallen  into 
 the  lethargy  of  obduration,  his  next  degree  of  discipline 
 is,11  sharp  reproof,  and  severe  threats,  and  12  a  public 
 exposition  of  his  crime  :  but,  in  case  he  be  so  far  de- 
 praved, as  to  have  lost  all  sense  of  shame,  his  last  di- 
 rection is,  to  eject  him  out  of  the  church,  who,  while  he 
 continues  in  it,  will  be  a  perpetual  scandal  to  it,  and  13 
 give  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  an  occasion  to  blaspheme  ; 
 however,  only  so  to  eject  him,  as  that,  upon  his  repent- 
 ance and  reformation,  he  may  be  restored  again,  and 
 not  M  swallowed  up,  as  the  apostle  tenderly  expresses 
 it,  '  with  overmuch  sorrow.' 
 
 These  are  the  rules  which  St  Paul  has  laid  down  for 
 the  governors  of  the  church,  with  respect  to  those  under 
 
 5  B.  ii.  c.  6.  7  Cave's  Introduction  tc  the  Lives  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 8  On  the  wrath  of  God,  p.  SOD.      s  Comber's  Discourse  upon 
 Ordination.  l«  2  Tim.  iv.  2.  Gal.  vi.  1.  ll  Tit.  ii.  15. 
 
 13 1  Tim.  v.  20.        J3 2  Sam.  xii.  1.4.  »  1  Cor.  ii.  7. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1125 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D.  98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 their  care,  who  are  either  unsound  in  the  faith,  or  retain  I  not   have  excommunicated   him,   because  Ave   find   him 
 
 the  faith  in  unrighteousness.  '  This  is  the  discipline 
 which  the  fathers  have  given  us  so  fair  a  character  of, 
 as  to  call  it,  '  the  keeper  of  hope,  the  anchor  of  faith, 
 the  guide  of  our  heavenly  journey,  the  food  and  nourish- 
 ment of  good  inclinations,  and  the  mistress  of  all  virtue.' 
 Nor  is  it  to  be  denied,  that  2  the  church's  reputation  was 
 never  so  good  as  in  the  primitive  times,  when  this  disci- 
 pline was  exercised  with  vigour.  Then  her  professed 
 enemies  admired  her  ;  great  numbers  of  proselytes  daily 
 flocked  into  her,  and  could  not  be  restrained  by  the  ut- 
 most torments  which  either  human  or  diabolical  malice 
 could  inflict;  whereas,  since  this  godly  discipline  has 
 been  relaxed,  though  the  church  has  been  protected  by 
 the  civil  power,  and  furnished  with  far  more  splendour 
 than  before,  fewer  converts  have  been  brought  over  to 
 her,  and  too  many  of  her  own  sons  and  members  have 
 lost  their  first  love  and  zeal  for  her.     But  to  proceed  : 
 
 Upon  supposition  that  Alexander  the  coppersmith  was 
 the  same  person  with  that  Alexander  who  was  concerned 
 in  3  the  tumult  raised  at  Ephesus,  we  may  imagine,  that 
 he  was  a  Jewish  convert  residing"  in  that  city  ;  that,  when 
 lie  was  seized  by  the  common  Serjeants,  and  examined 
 before  the  Jews,  as  the  word  •K^afiotKhuv  there  signifies, 
 in  the  apology  which  he  would  have  made  to  the  people, 
 his  purpose  was,  to  have  averted  the  danger  from  him 
 by  laying-  it  upon  St  Paul  ;  and  that,  from  this  time, 
 conceiving  a  hatred  against  the  apostle,  and  4  having  put 
 away  a  good  conscience,  he  soon  began  to  make  ship- 
 wreck of  his  faith,  and  particularly  to  call  in  question 
 the  reality  of  a  future  resurrection  ;  a  doctrine  which  St 
 Paul,  in  his  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  had  so  largely 
 insisted  on. 
 
 5  The  philosophers  in  those  days  looked  upon  the 
 body  as  the  prison  and  sepulchre  of  the  soul,  and  that 
 her  happiness  could  not  commence  till  after  her  dissolu- 
 tion from  it.  Upon  which  principle  they  argued,  that 
 it  was  not  only  an  impossible  thing-,  but  an  unjust  and 
 unworthy  thing  for  God  to  raise  the  body,  in  order  to 
 unite  it  to  the  soul,  since  the  happiness  of  the  soul  con- 
 sisted in  being  delivered  from  it,  and  its  punishment  in 
 being  confined  to  it.  This  notion  Alexander,  among 
 others,  having  imbibed,  began  to  put  a  new  construction 
 upon  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  as  if  it  imported 
 only  a  renovation  of  our  manners,  and  a  resurrection 
 from  the  death  of  sin  unto  a  life  of  righteousness,  which 
 in  all  God's  elect,  as  they  were  sure  to  rank  themselves 
 in  that  number,  6  was  already  past. 
 
 The  resurrection  of  the  dead,  in  its  literal  sense,  was 
 so  fundamental  a  point,  that  St  Paul  puts  the  whole  stress 
 of  the  Christian  religion  upon  it.  '  '  If  there  be  no  re- 
 surrection of  the  dead,  then  is  not  Christ  risen.  And  if 
 Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and  your 
 faith  is  also  vain.  Yea,  and  we  are  found  false  wit- 
 nesses of  God  ;  because  we  have  testified  of  God,  that 
 he  raised  up  Christ ;  whom  he  raised  not  up,  if  so  be 
 that  the  dead  rise  not.'  But  though  the  denial  of  a  future 
 resurrection  was  implicitly  a  renunciation  of  the  Chris- 
 tian religion,  yet  we  do  not  find  that  Alexander  had 
 actually  apostatized  from  it;  for  then  the  apostle  would 
 
 claiming  no  authority  but  over  such  as  were  within  the 
 pale  of  the  church  :  8  '  for  what  have  I  to  do,'  says  he, 
 '  to  judge  them  that  are  without  ?  Those  that  are  with- 
 out, God  judgeth.' 
 
 The  judgment  however  which  he  gave  against  Alex- 
 ander so  incensed  that  heretic,  that  he  pursued  him  as  far 
 as  Rome,  on  purpose  to  oppose  his  doctrine,  and  vilify 
 his  person,  and  perhaps  to  exhibit  some  accusations 
 against  him ;  which  malicious  proceeding  might  give 
 the  apostle  occasion  enough  to  say,  that  the  Lord  would 
 reward  him  according  to  his  works  ;  for  9  so  the  king's 
 manuscript  reads  it,  in  the  future  tense,  a.7rohu<7ii,  and  so 
 the  current  of  ancient  interpreters  do  account  it,  not  an 
 imprecation,  but  a  prediction  only  of  what,  in  the  just 
 judgment  of  God,  would  befal  him :  a  for  pious  men, 
 say  they,  do  neither  wish  for,  nor  rejoice  in,  nor  desire 
 to  hasten,  the  punishments  of  the  wicked,  though  they 
 sometimes  foretel  them. 
 
 St  Paul,  no  doubt,  when  brought 1U  before  powers  and 
 magistrates,  had  a  share  in  the  promise  of  the  assistance 
 and  direction  of  God's  blessed  Spirit,  sufficient  to  en- 
 able him  to  make  proper  answers,  and  to  secure  him 
 against  the  transgression  of  any  law ;  and  therefore  we 
 may  presume,  that  when  he  treated  the  high-priest  with 
 some  severity  of  speech,  he  either  did  not  know,  or  did 
 not  acknowledge  him  to  be  a  person  invested  with  that 
 authority.11  Since  the  time  of  his  conversion,  which  was 
 now  about  five  and  twenty  years,  he  had  been  seldom  at 
 Jerusalem,  and  when  he  came  thither,  made  but  a  short 
 stay  ;  so  that  he  might  very  well  be  unacquainted  with  the 
 high-priest's  person  ;  especially  if  he  had  not  on  at  that 
 time  the  vestments  peculiar  to  his  function,  and  such  as 
 distinguished  him  from  ordinary  priests.  The  order  of 
 the  pontifical  succession  likewise  had  been  so  totally 
 destroyed,  and,  both  by  the  Jewish  kings  and  Roman 
 governors,  the  high-priests  placed  and  displaced  so 
 frequently,  that  a  stranger,  just  come  to  Jerusalem, 
 might  not  always  know  who  was  the  present  possessor 
 of  that  dignity. 
 
 But  even  suppose  that  St  Paul  had  known  that  Ananias 
 was  then  in  the  chair  ;  12yet,  as  that  pontiff*  is  supposed 
 
 1  Comber  on  Ordination.        2  Archbishop  Potter's  Discourse 
 on  Church  Government,       3  Acts  xix.  33.      *  1  Tim.  i.  19. 
 4  Whitby's  Annotations  on  1  Cor.  xv. 
 62Tim.  ii.  18.  "  1  Cor.  xv.  13,  &C. 
 
 8  Ibid.  v.  12,  13.       9  Whitby's  and  Hammond's  Annotations 
 on  2  Tim.  iv.  14.  10  Luke  xii.  11,  12. 
 
 11  Fleury's  Ecclesiastical  History,  b.  1.  p.  80. 
 
 12  Grotius,  Whitby,  and  Beausobre's  Annot.  on  Acts  xxiii.  5. 
 a  Instead  of  a-jrohu^,  '  may  the  Lord  reward,'  a-rciagu,  'will 
 
 reward,'  is  the  reading  of  the  Codices  Alexandrinus  and  Ephremi, 
 which  are  of  the  best  authority,  the  Codices  Claromontanus,  San 
 Germanensis,  Augiensis,  also  of  those  numbered  by  Griesbach, 
 and  of  the  MS.  by  Matthaei  noted  with  the  letter  f. ;— of  the 
 Coptic,  Armenian,  and  Vulgate  versions,  and  of  Chrysostom, 
 Theodoret,  Eulogius,  as  cited  by  Photius,  Johannes  Damascenus, 
 Oeeumenius,  Augustine,  and  others  among  the  fathers  of  the 
 Christian  church.  The  reading  airoluatt  makes  the  sentence 
 declaratory,  '  the  Lord  will  reward  him  according  to  his  works  ;' 
 and,  as  it  is  supported  by  such  satisfactory  evidence,  Griesbach 
 has  inserted  it  in  his  inner  margin,  as  being  nearly  equal,  it  not 
 preferable,  to  the  common  reading.  An  additional  proof  that  this 
 is  the  preferable  lection  is  furnished  by  the  fact,  that  it  is  in 
 unison  with  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  intrepid  apostle,  St 
 Paul:  who,  in  the  sixteenth  verse,  when  speaking  of  his  being 
 deserted  by  every  one,  when,  during  his  second  imprisonment 
 at  Rome,  he  was  first  summoned  to  vindicate  himself  before  the 
 sanguinary  emperor  Nero,  says,  'Let  it  not  be  placed  to  their 
 charge,' that  is,  let  them  not  have  to  reckon  for  it  with  the  Supreme 
 Judge,  at  the  gieat  day. — Home's  Introduction. — Ed. 
 
1126  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M  4102.  A.  D.  98;  OR,  A.  M.  6609.  A.  D.  98,  &C.  FROM  ACT'?  i.  10.  TO  THE  END 
 to  have  obtained  his  office  by  bribery,  tiie  apostle,  who 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 had  been  taught  by  his  master  Gamaliel,  that  whoever 
 did  so,  was  neither  a  judge,  nor  deserved  to  be  honoured 
 M  Mich,  might  demur  to  his  title,  and  say,  '  I  know  very 
 well,  that  a  ruler  of  the  people  is  not  to  be  reviled,  but 
 that  the  person  you  speak  of  is  the  high-priest,  I  know 
 not;  that  is,  I  do  not  own  or  recognise  him  to  be  such, 
 because  he  obtained  that  station  in  the  church  by  very 
 indirect  means.'  Or  suppose  the  apostle  to  speak  ironi- 
 cally, '  I  did  not  know,  that  is,  I  did  not  apprehend, 
 that  a  person  so  far  imaged  as  to  order  a  prisoner  at  the 
 bar,  when  going  to  make  his  defence,  to  be  smitten  on  the 
 mouth,  could  possibly  be  the  high-priest.  This  was  a 
 tiling  so  little  becoming  bis  grave  and  venerable  charac- 
 ter, that  I  verily  took  him  for  some  common  man  ;  and 
 accordingly  treated  him  with  such  language  as  the 
 rudeness  of  hi*  insult  deserved  :  but  since  you  now  inform 
 me,  that  he  is  in  reality  the  high-priest,  1  beg  pardon, 
 because  be  he  what  he  will,  we  are  not  to  speak  evil  of 
 the  ruler  of  the  people.'  So  that  in  what  view  soever 
 we  take  St  Paul,  there  is  nothing  incongruous  in  his  not 
 knowing  the  high-priest's  person,  nothing  abject  in  the 
 retraction  of  his  words  to  him. 
 
 1  They  that  wait  at  the  altar  in  the  Jewish  church  were 
 partakers  of  the  altar ;  even  so  hath  the  Lord  ordained 
 in  the  Christian  church,  that  they  who  preach  the  gospel 
 should  live  of  the  gospel ;  but  I  have  used  none  of  these 
 things  says  St  Paul.  And  so  far  were  the  rest  of  the 
 apostles  from  making  any  property  of  the  money  col- 
 lected  and  laid  at  their  feet,  that  we  find  them  institut- 
 ing the  office  of  deacons,  whose  appointed  business  it 
 Mas.  to  see  the  regular  distribution  of  it  among  the  poor  ; 
 which  they  never  would  have  done,  had  they  preached 
 ihe  gospel  for  the  sake  of  the  advantage  they  made  of 
 these  contributions.  The  truth  is,  the  ministers  of  God, 
 in  those  days,  had  no  respect  to  the  secular  emoluments 
 of  their  vocation.  They  could  show  2  hands  that  had 
 ministered  to  their  necessities,  and  to  them  that  were 
 with  them.  They  made  it  their  glory,  and  the  chief  of 
 their  3  reward,  that  when  they  preached  the  gospel,  they 
 made  the  gospel  of  Christ  without  charge  ;  and  St  Paul, 
 in  particular,  had  it  in  his  power  to  tell  the  Corinthians, 
 that  *  when  he  was  present  with  them,  he  was  chargeable 
 to  no  man.  Considering  then  the  narrowness  of  his  cir- 
 eiiinstances,  and  the  bashfulness  of  his  temper,  we  may 
 be  apt  to  think,  that  St  Paul  might  be  tempted  to  leave 
 some  small  matters  at  Troas,  in  order  to  satisfy  his  host, 
 rather  than  be''  burdensome  to  any;  but  then  the  mis- 
 fortune is,  that  this  peAoOTjf  does  not  always  signify  a 
 cloak.*  The  other  things  which  St  Paul  desires  Timo- 
 thy to  bring  with  him,  are  books  and  parchments.  The 
 books  are  generally  supposed  to  be  the  sacred  scriptures 
 pi  the  Old  Testament;  but  as  these  were  constantly  read 
 in  all  Christian  as  well  as  Jewish  assemblies,  there  was 
 no  occasion  for  sending  so  far  as  Troas  for  what  might 
 have  been  had  any  where;  and  therefore  we  rather  think, 
 that  they  were  some  choice  books  of  human  literature' 
 in  which  we  find  our  apostle  a  great  proficient,  and  that 
 the  parchments  were  his  adversaria  or  common  place- 
 books,  wherein  he  wrote  down  whatever,  in  the  course  of 
 bis  reading,  he  found  worthy  his  observation. 
 
 1  I  Cor.ix.  la 
 
 1  Ibid.  xii.  N. 
 
 ■  Acts  xx.  34 
 
 3  1  Cor.  ix.  IS.   42Cor.  xi.9. 
 fi  Bishop  Bull's  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
 
 Now  if,  7  according  to  some  interpreters,  the  word 
 QsXovYi;  signifies  a  'piece  of  parchment  folded  up,'  it  will 
 be  indeed  the  same  thing  with  the  ftiftZqai/ta  which  St 
 Paul  afterwards  mentions  ;  but  then,  in  this  sense,  it  not 
 only  makes  his  directions  to  Timothy  of  a  piece,  as  re- 
 lating to  things  all  of  one  kind,  but  makes  the  adverb 
 p.ct'hiax,  which,  without  this  supposition  we  could  not  so 
 well  account  for,  highly  pertinent  in  this  place  :  '  The 
 parchments  which  I  left  at  Troas,  with  Carpus,  when 
 thou  comest,  bring  with  thee,  and  the  books,  but 
 especially  the  parchments  ; '  where  the  words  '  but  espe- 
 cially,' seem  naturally  to  refer  to  something  mentioned 
 before. 
 
 But  suppose  that  this  (pikovt^  does  properly  signify  a 
 cloak,  yet  who  can  tell  but  that  this  was  the  proper 
 penula  or  cloak  which  St  Paul's  father  received  from 
 the  Romans,  and  transmitted  to  his  son,  as  a  mark  and 
 ensign  of  his  being  a  Roman  citizen,  and  which,  now  that 
 St  Paul  was  at  Rome,  he  was  obliged,  upon  all  occasions, 
 to  conciliate  the  good  esteem  of  the  people,  to  appear 
 in.  Nay,  suppose  that  it  was  a  common  cloak,  or  gar- 
 ment made  on  purpose  to  defend  him  from  the  injuries 
 of  the  weather  ;  yet  now  that  the  winter  was  approach- 
 ing, we  can  see  no  incongruity  in  his  sending  for  what 
 he  had  left  behind  him  in  the  hot  season  of  the  year,  to 
 keep  him  warm  in  the  cold ;  though  we  cannot  but  admire 
 8  the  modest  poverty  of  so  great  an  apostle,  who,  rather 
 than  be  chargeable  to  any,  orders  Timothy  to  bring  him 
 a  poor  cloak  which  he  could  not  well  want,  from  so 
 remote  a  place  as  Troas. 
 
 That  which  makes  it  more  difficult  to  resolve  what  this 
 contest  between  Michael  and  the  devil,  concerning  the 
 body  of  Moses,  does  properly  mean,  is,  that  this  piece 
 of  history,  to  which  St  Jude  alludes,  is  no  where  recorded 
 in  the  Old  Testament.  We  read  indeed,  in  the  prophet 
 Zechariah,  of  9  Joshua  the  high-priest's  standing  before 
 the  angel  of  the  Lord,  and  Satan  standing  at  his  right 
 hand,'  which  was  the  place  of  him  that  impleaded  another, 
 to  resist  him  ;  and  that  the  matter  of  controversy  be- 
 tween them  was  the  re-edifying  the  temple,  and  re- 
 storing the  service  of  God  among  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem, 
 which  Satan  opposed  :  and  hence  lu  some  have  argued, 
 that  as  the  Christian  church  is  frequently  styled  'the 
 body  of  Christ,'  by  parity  of  reason,  the  Jewish  church 
 might  be  called  '  the  body  of  Moses,'  and  that  this  is  the 
 whole  that  St  Jude  means.  But  that  the  Jews  and  their 
 service  should  be  called  '  the  body  of  Moses,'  or  that  the 
 words  in  St  Jude  are  to  be  referred  to  those  in  Zechariah, 
 seems  not  very  probable,  because  in  that  prophet  there  is 
 no  mention  of  Michael,  or  of  the  body  or  death  of  Moses. 
 The  death  of  Moses  and  his  burial  are  thus  related  in 
 the  book  of  Deuteronomy."  '  So  Moses,  the  servant  of 
 the  Lord,  died  in  the  land  of  Moab  ;  and  he  buried  him 
 in  a  valleyr  in  the  land  of  Moab,  over  against  Beth-peor ; 
 but  no  man  knoweth  of  his  sepulchre  unto  this  day  :' 
 from  whence  vi  others  have  argued,  that  as  Michael  was 
 appointed  by  God  to  bury  the  body  of  Moses  in  a  place 
 so  secret,  that  the  Jews  should  never  find  it  out,  the 
 devil  opposed  the  angel  in  this  office,  desiring  to 
 have  his  sepulchre  known,  that  in  process  of  time,  it 
 might  become  a  snare  to  the  people  who  were  so  very 
 
 7  Hammond's  Annotations  on  2  Tim.  iv.  13. 
 s  Grotius  in  locum.     9  Zecli.  iii.  1.      10  Hammond  on  Jude. 
 11  Duut.  xxxiv.  5,  6.     12VVhitliy,  Beausobre,  Pool,  &c.  in  loc. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1127 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D.  98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 prone  to  idolatry.  Tins  is  the  most  obvious,  and  con- 
 sidering what  work  the  devil  has  made  in  the  world  with 
 the  bodies  of  the  saints  and  martyrs  ever  since,  may  well 
 be  esteemed  the  truest  sense  of  the  passage. 
 
 St  Paul's  fighting-  with  beasts  at  Ephesus  is  a  passage 
 likewise  which  is  neither  mentioned  in  the  history  of  the 
 Acts,  nor,  in  l  the  catalogue  of  his  afflictions  ;  and 
 therefore  some  have  imagined,  that  this  fight  of  his  was 
 nothing  else  but  the  scuffle  he  had  with  Demetrius  the 
 silversmith  and  his  companions,  savage  men,  who  might 
 better  deserve  the  name  of  beasts.  But  2  what  ruins  this 
 opinion  is,  the  date  of  the  epistle  wherein  this  transaction 
 is  mentioned,  which  was  written  a  year  before  the  sedi- 
 tion that  Demetrius  occasioned  at  Ephesus ;  and  therefore 
 others  have  taken  the  words  in  their  literal  sense,  and  so 
 asserted,  that  St  Paul  was  really  exposed  to  wild  beasts 
 at  Ephesus,  but  delivered  from  them  by  a  miracle.  And 
 for  the  support  of  this,  they  relate  a  story  out  of  an 
 apocryphal  book  of  St  Paul's  travels,  frequently  men- 
 tioned by  the  ancients,  namely,  that  when  Jerome, 
 governor  of  Ephesus,  had  condemned  the  apostle  to  the 
 wild  beasts,  at  his  coining  upon  the  theatre,  a  lion  was  let 
 loose  upon  him ;  which  came  and  lay  down  at  his  feet, 
 as  did  several  other  wild  creatures  ;  that  at  the  same 
 time,  there  fell  so  violent  a  storm  of  hail,  as  killed 
 many  of  the  spectators ;  and  that,  upon  the  conviction 
 of  two  such  miracles,  the  governor  himself  was  con- 
 verted and  baptized. 
 
 However  this  be,  the  silence  of  the  apostolic  history 
 can  be  no  just  exception  to  the  literal  interpretation, 
 since  a  we  find  our  apostle,  in  his  second  epistle  to  the 
 Corinthians,  relating  certain  sufferings,  the  same  in  all 
 probability  with  his  fighting  with  beasts  at  Ephesus,  4 
 '  wherein  he  was  pressed  above  measure  and  strength, 
 despaired  of  life,  and  had  the  sentence  of  God  within 
 him  ;  and  yet  we  meet  with  nothing  of  this  in  the  whole 
 compass  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
 
 The  like  is  to  be  said  of  the  thorn  in  the  flesh,  and 
 the  messenger  of  Satan,  to  which  St  Paul,  for  his  greater 
 humiliation  was  submitted,  that  we  have  not  the  least 
 intimation  of  them  in  all  the  sacred  history ;  this  only 
 we  may  learn  from  the  figurative  expression,  that,  as  5 
 the  pricking  brier,  and  grieving  thorn,  do,  in  the  prophe- 
 tic style,  denote  a  sore  calamity  ;  so  may  the  expression 
 here  signify  some  sharp  affliction  sent  upon  St  Paul,  to 
 keep  his  mind  humble  in  the  midst  of  the  many  revela- 
 tions which  God  vouchsafed  him.  But  then  the  question 
 is,  of  what  kind  this  affliction  was? 
 
 Some  are  of  opinion,  that  this  thorn  in  the  flesh  and 
 messenger  of  Satan,  taking  them  both  for  one  thing,  were 
 6  the  motions  of  concupiscence  and  suggestions  of  lust 
 arising  frequently  in  St  Paul.  But  the  apostle  himself 
 contradicts  this  interpretation,  in  telling  us,  that  he  had 
 the  gift  of  continence  ;  and  that  in  so  high  a  degree, 
 that  he  wished  all  Christians  in  this  respect  like  himself. 
 He  was,  at  this  time,  according  to  the  computation  of 
 chronologists,  about  sixty  years  old ;  and  therefore  it 
 would  be  a  foul  slur  to  so  great  and  holy  an  apostle,  to 
 imagine,  that  he  should  burn  in  so  frozen  an  age,  which 
 uses  to  extinguish,  or  at  least  to  allay  those  flames  in 
 
 1  2  Cor.  xi.  23,  &c.  2  Calmet's  Com.  on  1  Cor.  xv.  32. 
 8  Whitby's  Annotations  on  2  Cor.  i.  10.  4  2  Cor.  i.  8,  9. 
 s  Eztk.  xxviii.  24.  *  Calmet's  Com.  on  2  Cor.  xii.  7. 
 
 the  most  unclean  persons.  We  are  told,  moreover,  that 
 7  '  God  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil,  neither  tempte  h  he 
 any  man  ;  and  therefore/  since  St  Paul  acquaints  us,  that 
 this  thorn  in  the  flesh,  be  it  what  it  will,  was  8  given  him 
 by  God,  and  that  it  was  one  of  y  those  infirmities  where- 
 in he  took  pleasure,  and  chose  to  glory ;  as  it  would 
 have  been  the  greatest  impiety  for  him  to  have  gloried  in 
 his  impure  motions  and  desires,  so  we  cannot  see  how  the 
 apostle,  by  confessing  such  impure  motions,  could  have 
 defended  his  reputation  against  the  attacks  of  his  ad- 
 versaries, which  it  is  his  chief  design,  in  the  latter  part 
 of  this  epistle,  more  especially  to  do. 
 
 Others  therefore  observing,  that  this  infirmity  in  the 
 flesh  happened  to  St  Paul  after  the  visions  and  revela- 
 tions whereof  he  speaks  ;  that  it  was  such  an  infirmity 
 as  obstructed  the  efficacy  of  his  preaching,  and  made 
 his  ministry  less  grateful  and  acceptable  to  others  ;  and 
 that  himself  complains  of  such  of  the  Corinthians,  and 
 false  apostles  among  them,  as  represented  his  1U  bodily 
 presence  weak  and  mean,  and  his  "speech  or  utterance 
 contemptible,  have  supposed,  that  St  Paul  had  some 
 kind  of  impediment  in  his  speech,  which  God,  at  this 
 time,  was  pleased  to  send  upon  him,  and  which  these 
 false  apostles,  whom  he  calls  the  messengers  of  Satan, 
 to  his  great  sorrow  and  disconsolation,  made  the  subject 
 of  their  scorn  and  ridicule. 
 
 But,  after  all,  the  most  general,  and  indeed  the  most 
 obvious  interpretation  is,  that  it  was  some  bodily  dis- 
 ease, very  grievous  and  painful  to  him,  which  he  aptly 
 calls  a  thorn,  for  its  sharpness  and  pungency,  and  a 
 thorn  in  the  flesh,  for  the  seat  of  it,  which  was  his  body  ; 
 and  this,  according  to  scripture  phraseology,  the  apostle 
 calls  likewise  a  messenger  of  Satan,  because  all  dis- 
 tempers are  in  scripture  supposed  to  be  the  punishments 
 of  God,  which,  as  it  is  represented  in  Job's  case,  he  per- 
 mits Satan,  as  the  common  executioner  on  these  occa- 
 sions, to  inflict. 
 
 It  may  seem  a  little  too  nice,  perhaps,  to  define  the 
 particular  kind  of  this  disorder  ;  whether  it  was  the 
 gout,  the  stone,  a  violent  head-ache,  or  the  falling-sick- 
 ness, as  several  of  the  ancients  have  variously  conjec- 
 tured ;  but  this  we  know,  from  his  own  information,  that 
 his  distemper  was  visible  and  manifest  to  all  that  con- 
 versed with  him,  such  as  had  an  influence  over  his  speech, 
 and  was  a  great  disadvantage  to  him  in  preaching  the 
 gospel ;  and  therefore  he  tells  the  Galatians,  12 '  ye  know, 
 how,  through  infirmity  of  the  flesh,  I  preached  the  gospel 
 to  you  at  first ;  and  my  temptation,  which  was  in  the 
 flesh,  ye  despised  not,  nor  rejected  ;  for  ^  I  was  with  you 
 in  weakness,  and  in  fear,  and  in  much  trembling,'  as  he 
 tells  the  Corinthians.14  From  all  which  it  seems  to  be 
 very  plain  that  St  Paul  had  some  notorious  visible  in- 
 firmity in  his  body,  such  as  might  have  exposed  him  to 
 contempt  with  those  who  looked  no  farther  than  the  out- 
 ward appearance,  and  such  as  God  designed  for  a  means 
 to  keep  him  humble. 
 
 There  is  but  one  obscurity  more  remarked  in  the  writ- 
 ings of  St  Paul,  namely,  concerning  '  the  man  of  sin,  the 
 son  of  perdition  ;'  and  that  is  a  great  obscurity  indeed. 
 The  whole  passage  runs  1S  thus,  '  now  I   beseech  you, 
 
 7  James  i.  13.  "  2  Cor.  xii.  7.  9  Ibid.  ver.  9,  10. 
 
 10  2  Cor.  x.  10.     n  Whitby's  Annotations  on  2  Cor.  xii.  7. 
 
 12  Gal.  iv.  IS,  14.  13  1  Cor.  ii.  3. 
 
 14  Bishop  Bu;i*3  Sermons,  vol.  1.  15  2  Thess.  ii.  &c. 
 
1128 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D.  98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 brethren,  by  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
 by  our  gathering  together  unto  him,  that  ye  be  not  soon 
 shaken  in  mind,  nor  be  troubled,  neither  by  spirit,  nor 
 by  word,  nor  by  letter,  as  from  us,  as  that  the  day  of 
 Christ  is  at  hand.  Let  no  man  deceive  you  by  any 
 means  ;  for  that  day  shall  not  come,  except  there  come 
 a  falling  away  first,  and  that  man  of  sin  be  revealed, 
 the  son  of  perdition  ;  who  opposeth  and  exalteth  himself 
 above  all  that  is  called  God,  or  that  is  worshipped  ;  so 
 that  he  is  as  God,  sitting  in  the  temple  of  God,  and 
 showing  himself  that  he  is  God.'  For  the  better  under- 
 standing of  which  words,  we  must  remember,  that  St 
 Paul,  in  his  former  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  speak- 
 ing of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  had  expressed 
 himself  in  this  manner  :—  *  '  This  we  say  unto  you  by  the 
 word  of  the  Lord,  that  we  who  are  alive  and  remain 
 unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  shall  not  prevent  them  who 
 are  asleep.  For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from 
 heaven  with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and 
 with  the  trump  of  God,  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise 
 first.  Then  we  who  are  alive,  and  remain,  shall  be 
 caught  up  together  with  them  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the 
 Lord  in  the  air  ;  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  him.  But 
 of  the  times  and  the  seasons,  brethren,  ye  have  no  need 
 that  I  write  unto  you ;  for  yourselves  know  perfectly, 
 that  the  day  of  the  Lord  so  cometh  as  a  thief  in  the 
 night.'  From  these  words,  some  false  teachers  and  pre- 
 tended prophets  among  them  took  occasion  to  infer, 
 that  the  day  of  judgment  was  at  hand;  that  it  would 
 certainly  come  while  the  apostles  were  yet  alive,  and 
 before  that  generation  was  passed ;  which  was  a  doc- 
 trine of  such  dangerous  consequence  to  the  peace  and 
 tranquillity  of  men's  minds,  that  the  apostle,  in  this  part 
 of  his  second  epistle,  sets  himself  solemnly  to  refute  it. 
 *  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
 Jesus  Christ,  and  by  our  gathering  together  unto  him :' 
 where  we  may  observe,  that  this  is  the  same  coming 
 which  he  had  described  in  his  former  epistle,  by  Christ's 
 descending  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  &c,  and  the  same 
 gathering  together  which  he  had  specified  by  our  being 
 caught  up  together,  with  saints  newly  raised,  in  the 
 clouds ;  and  that,  consequently,  all  the  pains  which 
 some  writers  have  taken  to  show,  that  this  '  man  of  sin' 
 is  to  be  interpreted  of  Simon  Magus  and  the  Gnostics, 
 Mahomet  and  his  followers,  or  the  Pope  and  his  clergy, 
 &C,  are  to  be  looked  upon  as  indications  of  their  pre- 
 judices, rather  than  any  discoveries  of  the  truth. 
 
 Before  the  coming  of  Antichrist,  we  are  told  that 
 there  must  be  a  great  falling  away  ;  which,  though  some 
 interpret  it  of  national  revolts  from  the  Roman  empire, 
 is  more  properly  to  be  understood  of  a  general  defec- 
 tion from  the  Christian  faith  ;  but  as  this  defection  has 
 not  yet  prevailed,  we  may  adventure  to  say,  that  this 
 ■on  of  perdition  is  not  yet  come.  The  true  spirit  of 
 Christianity  indeed,  in  a  great  measure,  is  departed 
 from  us  ;  but  we  are  not  come  yet  to  make  an  open  re- 
 nunciation of  our  Christian  profession,  which  is  the 
 apostasy  here  spoken  of.  Mahomet  was  a  great  oppres- 
 sor of  the  Christians,  and  his  successors  compelled  vast 
 numbers  to  abjure  the  name  of  Jesus ;  but  neither  is  he 
 the  man  of  sin  here  intended,  since  it  is  now  above 
 eleven  hundred  years  from  the  time  of  his  first  appear- 
 
 ing in  the  world,  and  yet  2  all  things  continue  as  they 
 were  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation,  notwithstand- 
 ing the  scripture  antichrist  was  to  precede,  and  not  at 
 so  vast  a  distance  to  be  sure,  the  coming  of  our  Lord  to 
 j  udgment. 
 
 Without  concerning  ourselves,  then,  with  the  many  a 
 fabulous  accounts  which  some  of  the  ancients  have  given 
 us  of  the  origin  of  antichrist,  the  nature  of  his  kingdom, 
 or  the  manner  of  his  extinction  ;  we  may  in  some  mea- 
 sure gather  from  scripture. — That  toward  the  conclusion 
 of  the  world,  some  mighty  prince  or  other  will  arise,  a 
 man  monstrous  for  his  wickedness  and  impiety,  who,  by 
 the  power  of  his  arms,  will  conquer  a  great  part  of  the 
 world,  and,  by  the  violence  of  his  persecutions,  cause 
 great  defections  from  the  Christian  faith  ;  that  having 
 subdued  many  kings,  and  established  his  religion,  which 
 probably  will  be  paganism,  in  several  countries,  in  time 
 he  will  come  to  forget  that  he  is  man,  and  accordingly 
 have  his  statues  erected  in  places  of  divine  worship,  and 
 the  prayers  of  the  people  addressed  to  him,  as  if  he  were 
 a  god  :  that  our  blessed  Lord,  provoked  with  his  pride 
 and  arrogance,  will  at  length  bring  upon  him  such  a  re- 
 markable judgment,  as  will  put  a  quick  period  to  all  his 
 pomp  and  glory,  rescue  his  servants  from  his  tyranny 
 and  infatuation;  and  then  shall  the  end  of  all  things 
 come. 
 
 Thus  we  have  endeavoured  to  clear  the  character  of 
 the  apostles  in  general,  and  more  especially  of  the  great 
 apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  from  the  cavils  of  the  impious 
 and  profane  ;  and  to  answer  the  principal  objections 
 which,  in  the  history  of  their  acts,  and  in  the  course  of 
 their  epistles,  are  commonly  advanced  by  those  who 
 delight  3  '  in  vain  babblings,  and  opposition  of  science, 
 falsely  so  called  ;'  and  upon  a  review  of  the  whole,  we 
 may  take  up  the  words  of  St  Paul,  and  say, 4  '  If  our 
 
 1  The 
 
 15,  &e. 
 
 2  2  Pet.  iii.  4.  3  \  Tim.  vi.  20.  4  2  Cor.  iv.  3,  4. 
 
 a  To  this  purpose  they  tell  us,  that  this  man  of  sin,  or  anti- 
 christ, will  be  born  of  a  Jewish  family,  and  come  out  of  the  tribe 
 of  Dan  ;  which,  as  they  imagine,  is  still  subsisting  in  Babylonia; 
 that  being  born  in  Babylonia,  he  will  there  lay  the  foundations 
 of  his  empire ;  and  the  Jews,  mistaking  him  for  their  Messiah,  will 
 be  the  first  who  will  declare  for  him,  acknowledge  his  dominion, 
 and  enjoy  the  chief  employments  in  his  government;  that  as  soon 
 as  he  appears,  he  will  begin  with  attacking  the  Roman  empire, 
 which  at  that  time  will  be  divided  among  ten  powerful  kings; 
 and  having  subdued  Egypt,  Ethiopia,  and  Libya,  will  then  march 
 to  Jerusalem,  and  there  fix  the  seat  of  his  kingdom.  That  hav- 
 ing made  himself  master  of  the  eastern  and  western  empire,  he 
 will  turn  all  his  thoughts  towards  the  destruction  of  Christ's 
 kingdom,  and  the  persecution  of  good  men,  by  which  means 
 great  numbers  will  apostatise  from  the  Christian  faith,  and  pay 
 their  adorations  to  him;  that  the  righteous,  under  his  persecu- 
 tion, will  retire  to  the  mount  of  Olives,  where  they  will  soon 
 be  attacked  by  tins  enemy  of  God  ;  but,  upon  their  earnest  appli- 
 cation to  heaven  for  help,  God  will  send  Jesus  Christ  to  assist 
 them:  that  Christ  will  descend  from  heaven,  attended  by  his 
 angels,  and  preceded  by  a  flame  of  fire,  which  nothing  will  be 
 able  to  extinguish.  That  the  angels  will  give  up  the  army  of 
 the  wicked  into  the  hands  of  the  righteous,  who  will  make  so 
 great  a  slaughter  of  them,  that  their  blood  shall  flow  like  a  tor- 
 rent in  the  valley:  and,  lastly,  that  antichrist  will  be  put  to 
 death  in  his  own  tent,  and  upon  his  own  throne,  without  re- 
 ceiving the  least  assistance  from  any;  for  to  him  they  apply 
 these  words  of  Daniel,  '  he  shall  plant  the  tabernacles  of  his 
 palace  between  the  seas  and  the  glorious  holy  mountains,  yet  he 
 shall  come  to  his  end,  and  none  shall  help  him,  (Dan.  xi.  45.) 
 They  who  would  know  more  particularly  what  is  said  of  anti- 
 christ, may  consult  Malvenda  on  Antichrist,  and  Calmet's  Dis 
 sertation  upon  that  subject,  placed  before  the  epistle  to  the 
 Galatians. 
 
&kjt.  V.J  FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4102.  A.  D.  98;  OR,  A.  M.  5509.  A.  D.  98,  &c.  FROM  ACTS  i.  10.  TO  THE  END. 
 
 112U 
 
 gospel  be  hid,  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost  ;  in  whom 
 the  God  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them 
 who  believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  of 
 Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should  shine  unto 
 them.' 
 
 CHAP.  III. — Of  the  Profane  History  during  tliis 
 period,  viz.  from  t/ie  Birth  of  Christ,  to  the  Comple- 
 tion of  the  Canon  of  the  New  Testament. 
 
 Such  parts  of  the  Jewish  history  as  had  any  analogy 
 to  the  things  contained  in  the  New  Testament,  we  have 
 already  remarked  in  the  notes  annexed  to  this  work  ; 
 and  what  we  have  further  to  do  is,  a  to  recite  some 
 such  principal  passages  in  the  Roman  history,  (especially 
 in  the  lives  of  the  several  emperors  who  lived  in  the  ap- 
 postolic  age,)  as  have  any  connection  with  these  sacred 
 writings. 
 
 In  our  last  dissertation  of  this  kind,  we  left  Augustus 
 Cajsar  in  the  very  zenith  of  his  power  and  glory  ;  after 
 the  defeat  of  every  rival,  in  full  possession  of  the  Roman 
 empire,  and,  upon  the  death  of  Lepidus,  created  Ponti- 
 fex  Maximus,  or  the  high-priest  of  Rome.  But,  toward 
 the  conclusion  of  his  reign,  he  met  with  great  afflictions 
 from  his  own  family,  and  especially  by  his  daughter  Julia, 
 who  being  married  to  his  wife's  son  Tiberius,  by  her 
 nocturnal  revels  and  adulteries,  had  made  herself  in- 
 famous in  the  whole  city.  The  emperor,  though  a  Pagan, 
 had  so  great  a  sense,  not  only  of  the  scandal,  but  of  the 
 immorality  likewise,  of  her  actions,  that  he  was  once  re- 
 solved to  have  put  her  to  death ;  but  upon  second  consi- 
 deration, he  banished  her  to  a  desolate  island,  called 
 Pandataria,  where  he  prohibited  her  the  use  of  all  sorts 
 of  delicacies,  and  permitted  none,  without  his  approved 
 knowledge  of  their  lives  and  morals,  to  *  approach  her. 
 Not  long  after,  her  daughter  of  the  same  name,  who  was 
 married  to  L.  Paulus,  being  convicted  of  the  same  crimes, 
 was  banished  into  an  island  in  the  Adriatic  sea,  called 
 Tremera.  And  in  the  space  of  a  few  years,  young 
 Agrippa,  (his  only  surviving  grandson  by  his  daughter 
 Livia,  whom  he  had  lately  adopted  for  his  own,)  by  his 
 extravagant  life,  and  irreclaimable  vices,  became  so 
 scandalous  to  his  family,  and  so  odious  to  the  emperor, 
 that  he  banished  him  likewise  into  the  island  of  Plana- 
 sia  ;  and  afterwards,  whenever  any  mention  was  made  of 
 him,  or  the  two  Julias,  whom  he  usually  called  by  no 
 
 a  In  this  whole  narrative  we  follow  the  account  which  Dr 
 Ecliard  in  his  Roman  and  Ecclesiastical  histories,  has  given  us. 
 
 b  Some  time  after  this,  the  people  of  Rome,  whether  out  of 
 love  to  the  emperor,  or  respect  to  his  family,  earnestly  petitioned 
 him  to  recal  his  daughter  Julia.  But  he  answered  them,  that 
 fire  and  water  should  sooner  meet,  than  they  two.  Nay,  his 
 concern  and  resentment  in  this  matter  were  so  great,  that  when 
 he  understood  that  Phoebe,  one  of  his  daughter's  confidants,  had 
 hanged  herself,  he  protested  openly,  '  That  he  had  rather  have 
 been  Phoebe's  father  than  Julia's.'  Yet  after  five  years'  strict 
 confinement,  the  people  in  a  manner  compelled  him  to  allow  of 
 her  removal  from  the  island  into  the  continent,  where  she  lived 
 till  after  the  emperor's  death.  But  her  husband  Tiberius  had 
 not  long  obtained  the  empire,  before  her  annual  pensions  were 
 stopped,  and  she,  deprived  of  all  hopes  of  assistance,  died  in  ex- 
 treme want  and  misery:  an  end  not  unsuitable  to  one  who  had 
 so  vilely  debased  herself,  and  so  publicly  scandalized  the  noblest 
 family  in  the  world. — Eckard's  Roman  History,  in  the  life  of 
 Augustus, 
 
 other  name,  than  his 'three  biles' or  '  imposthumes,' he 
 would  often,  with  a  profound  sigh,  say, '  Would  to  heaven 
 1  had  lived  without  a  wife,  or  died  without  children !' 
 
 This  depravation  in  his  own  family,  it  may  well  be 
 presumed,  was   one   reason   for  his  making  such  strict 
 laws  against  all  lewdness  and  adultery,  and  concerning 
 marriages  and  divorces.     Great  numbers  of  the  Equites, 
 more  especially,  had  taken  a  resolution  against  marriage ; 
 '  not  out  of  any  kind  of  virtue,  or  abstinence,'  as  he  told 
 them,   '  but  from   a   looseness   and  wantonness,  which 
 ought  never  to  be  encouraged  in  any  civil  government :' 
 and  therefore,  having  highly  commended  those  that  were 
 married,  and  increased  the  rewards  of  such  as  had  chil- 
 dren, he  imposed  severe  fines  upon  single  persons,  in 
 case  they  did  not  marry  in  the  space  of  a  year.  Yet  to  show 
 that  he  would  discourage  nothing  that  had  the  appearance 
 of  virtue,  he  gave  considerable  rewards  to  such  women  as 
 had  vowed  perpetual  virginity.     But,  that  no  public  pro- 
 moter of  looseness  might  escape  his  censure,  he  soon  after 
 this  banished  his  favourite  Ovid,  the  celebrated  poet,  into 
 Pontus,  for  his  amorous  Epistles,  and  his  Art  of  Love, 
 the  softness  of  which  was  thought  capable  of  enervating 
 and  corrupting  a  larger  empire  than  that  of  the  Roman. 
 Augustus,  as  Pontifex  Maximus,  had  examined  into 
 the  books  of  the  Sibylline  prophecies,  as  we  said  be- 
 \  fore.     Those   that  were   genuine   he    reposited   in  the 
 capitol,  but  the  spurious  he  condemned  to  the  flames : 
 and  it  is  generally  supposed,  that  upon  his  perusal  of 
 these  prophecies,  foretelling  the  appearance  of  a  greater 
 prince,  to  whom  all  the  world  should  pay  adoration,  he 
 utterly  refused  the  title  of  Lord,  which  the  people  unani- 
 mously offered  him.     And  this,  by  the  bye,  gave  some 
 sanction   to   the   story  mentioned   by  Suidas,  namely, 
 That  Augustus,  sending  to  the  Pythian  oracle,  to  inquire 
 who  should  succeed  him,  was  answered  by  the  demon, 
 '  that   an  Hebrew  child,  Lord  of  the  gods,  had  com- 
 manded him  to  return  to  hell,  and  that  no  further  answer 
 was  to  bo  expected.'     thereupon  he  erected  an  altar 
 in  the  capitol,  Primogenito  Lei,  to  the  '  First-born  of 
 God.' 
 
 However  this  be,  it  is  generally  agreed,  that  in  the 
 same  year  wherein  he  refused  the  title  of  Lord,  he  ap- 
 pointed Tiberius  for  his  heir,  partly  through  the  prevail- 
 ing solicitations  of  his  wife  Livia,  and  partly  from  the 
 hopes  he  had  conceived  of  his  virtues  outweighing  his 
 vices  ;  but  at  the  same  time  that  he  did  this,  he  obliged 
 Tiberius  to  adopt  Germanicus,  the  son  of  his  brother  Dru- 
 sus,  a  youth  of  great  virtues  and  surprising  excellencies ; 
 which  soon  raised  the  envy  of  Tiberius,  and, not  long  after 
 his  accession  to  the  empire,  procured  the  other's  ruin. 
 
 The  last  thing  which  Augustus  did,  as  Pontifex  Maxi- 
 mus, was  the  regulation  of  the  Roman  calendar,  which 
 with  us  continues  in  use  to  this  day  ;  though  in  some  coun- 
 tries, the  alteration  which  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  made  in 
 it  is  observed.  At  length,  being  near  Capua,  where  he 
 found  himself  dangerously  ill,  he  sent  for  Tiberius,  and 
 his  most  intimate  friends  and  acquaintance,  to  whom  he 
 recommended  many  wise  and  useful  things ;  and  being 
 minded  to  leave  the  world  with  the  triumphs  of  a  Pagan 
 philosopher,  he  called  for  a  looking-glass,  caused  his 
 hair  to  be  combed,  and  his  wrinkled  cheeks  to  be 
 smoothed  up,  and  then,  as  an  actor  upon  the  stage,  asked 
 his  friends  whether  he  had  played  his  part  well  ?  And 
 upon  their  answering,  Yes.  he  cried,  Piaudite  !  and  so 
 7  d 
 
1130 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4018.  A.  D.  14 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5425.  A.  D.  11. 
 
 expired   in   the    embraces   of   his  beloved  wife  Livia, 
 bidding  her  '  remember  their  marriage,  and  farewell.' 
 
 Tims  died  the  great  Augustus,  in  the  75th  year  of 
 his  age,  and  41st  of  his  reign,  to  the  inexpressible  grief 
 of  all  his  subjects.  He  was  a  person  of  the  highest 
 learning  and  eloquence,  and  the  most  amazing  wisdom 
 and  sagacity  ;  one  who  had  conquered  greater  diffi- 
 culties, met  with  greater  success,  completed  greater 
 designs,  and  established  a  greater  empire,  than  any 
 prime  in  the  universe  ;  and  therefore  we  may  less  won- 
 der, that,  according  to  the  Pagan  superstition  of  these 
 times,  after  his  death,  we  find  temples  erected  to  him, 
 divine  honours  decreed  him,  and  a  large  sum  of  money 
 given  by  his  wife  Livia  to  Numerius  Atticus,  a  senator, 
 for  baring  sworn,  as  Proculus  had  formerly  done  of  Ro- 
 mulus, that  he  saw  him  ascending  into  heaven. 
 
 The  Romans,  during  the  administration  of  Augustus, 
 had  all  the  happiness  of  a  people,  and  were  restrained 
 from  nothing  but  those  mischiefs  which  a  corrupted 
 liberty  produces  ;  but  shortly,  after  his  death,  they  met 
 with  great  alterations,  and  a  quite  different  treatment 
 from  his  successor  Tiberius,  whose  only  wisdom  con- 
 sisted in  a  mysterious  slyness  and  suspicion,  and  his 
 policy  in  continued  artifices  and  dissimulation. 
 
 In  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  however,  he  made  a 
 great  show  of  modesty  and  affability,  and  performed 
 many  laudable  actions  towards  the  reformation  of  men's 
 lives  and  manners.  He  regulated  the  licentiousness  of 
 the  theatre  ;  banished  the  astrologers  and  magicians 
 from  Rome ;  restrained  the  delicacies  of  eating-houses 
 and  taverns  ;  severely  punished  the  looseness  of  young- 
 people  of  either  sex ;  and  administered  justice  with 
 great  exactness  and  diligence ;  but  afterwards,  giving 
 loose  to  his  depraved  temper  and  inclinations,  he  be- 
 came guilty  of  all  kinds  of  enormities  and  oppressions, 
 and  proved  one  of  the  most  subtle  and  designing  tyrants 
 in  nature  ;  so  that  historians  have  observed  of  him,  that 
 he  never  spake  as  he  thought,  nor  showed  any  inclina- 
 tion for  what  he  desired  ;  that  he  looked  sullen  on  his 
 friends,  and  cheerful  on  his  enemies  ;  was  fair  to  those 
 he  designed  to  punish,  and  severe  to  those  he  proposed 
 to  pardon  ;  for  his  standing  maxim  was,  that  '  a  prince's 
 mind  should  be  known  to  no  man  ;'  in  short,  that  he  was 
 a  most  exquisite  state -juggler,  a  most  jealous  and  bar- 
 barous governor,  a  debaser  of  the  Roman  empire,  a  cor- 
 rupter of  all  that  was  good,  and  introducer  of  all  that 
 was  bad  and  abominable  in  it. 
 
 At  his  first  accession  to  the  empire,  he  ordered  young 
 Agrippa,  whom  Augustus  banished,  to  be  murdered,  and 
 then  published  a  report,  '  That  this  was  done  in  obedience 
 to  the  particular  order  of  the  late  emperor,  who  had 
 given  charge  to  the  centurion  that  guarded  him,  to  dis- 
 patch  him  upon  the  first  intelligence  of  his  death  ;'  and 
 having,  by  the  assistance  of  Piso,  and  his  wife  Placina, 
 poisoned  Germanicus,  whose  virtues  he  dreaded,  and 
 whose  right  to  the  succession,  as  well  as  his  esteem  with 
 the  people,  might  possibly,  as  he  thought,  give  him  some 
 disturbance,  he  now  began  to  pull  off  the  mask,  and  to 
 appear  more  barefaced  in  his  vicious  actions,  though  not 
 so  open  in  his  tyrannical  designs. 
 
 It  was  a  common  thing  at  this  time  for  governors  of 
 provinces  to  make  reports  to  the  emperor  of  all  remark- 
 able events  that  happened  in  the  places  under  their 
 jurisdiction  ;   and  therefore  Pontius  Pilate,  being  now 
 
 governor  of  Judea,  wrote  to  Tiberius  an  account  of  our 
 blessed  Saviour's  passion  and  resurrection,  which  came 
 to  pass  in  the  third  year  of  his  government ;  of  the 
 miracles  which  were  performed  by  him,  and  by  others 
 in  his  name  :  of  the  multitude  of  his  followers,  which 
 daily  increased :  and  of  the  opinion  which  generally 
 prevailed,  that  he  was  a  god.  Whereupon  Tiberius 
 made  a  report  of  the  whole  matter  to  the  senate,  and 
 proposed  to  them,  that  Christ  might  be  admitted  into 
 the  number  of  their  gods.  But  the  senate,  not  liking 
 the  motion,  and  alleging  an  ancient  law,  which  gave 
 them  alone  the  superintendence  in  matters  of  religion, 
 not  only  refused  to  canonize  him,  but,  by  an  edict,  com- 
 manded, that  all  Christians  should  be  banished  the  city  ; 
 which  when  the  emperor  understood,  he,  by  another 
 edict,  threatened  death  to  any  who  dared  to  accuse  the 
 Christians  ;  and,  in  all  his  reign,  would  not  permit,  .at 
 least  not  promote  any  persecutions  against  them ;  which  is 
 so  much  the  more  wonderful,  considering  his  natural  in- 
 clination to  cruelty. 
 
 For,  beginning  now  to  act  openly,  he  treated  his  sub- 
 jects as  enemies,  because  the  vileness  of  his  conduct 
 had  given  them  sufficient  occasion  to  be  so.  Many  of 
 the  principal  and  noblest  persons  in  Rome  he  con- 
 demned, and  confiscated  their  estates,  upon  very  light 
 and  frivolous  pretences  ;  nor  could  any  man,  however 
 virtuous  and  cautious,  account  himself  safe  ;  because 
 though  he  might  possibly  escape  the  false  reports  of 
 spies  and  informers,  yet  he  had  reason,  nevertheless,  to 
 stand  in  fear  of  the  very  imagination  of  the  emperor. 
 To  retain  an  innocent  remembrance  of  liberty,  was  in- 
 terpreted a  purpose  to  re-establish  the  commonwealth  ; 
 to  testify  a  concern  for  the  glory  of  the  empire,  a  secret 
 desire  to  gain  it ;  to  praise  Brutus  and  Cassius  was  a 
 capital  crime  ;  to  speak  well  of  Augustus,  a  dangerous 
 offence  ;  simplicity  of  discourse  was  thought  an  indica- 
 tion of  evil  design  ;  a  discreet  silence  concealed  mis- 
 chievous intention  ;  joy  was  the  hopes  of  the  prince's 
 death ;  melancholy  an  envying  his  prosperity  ;  and  fear, 
 the  just  apprehensions  of  a  guilty  conscience  ;  so  that, 
 to  speak  or  to  be  silent,  to  be  glad  or  grieved,  to  be  fear- 
 ful or  assured,  were  all  crimes,  and  very  often  incurred 
 the  most  exquisite  punishments  ;  for  he  generally  exe- 
 cuted his  fury  with  such  extreme  severity,  that  he  es- 
 teemed it  a  favour,  and  an  act  of  mercy,  to  put  persons 
 to  death  in  an  ordinary  way. 
 
 Thus  miserable  were  the  Romans  under  the  arbitrary 
 government  of  a  most  outrageous  tyrant,  till  by  his 
 gluttony,  drunkenness,  and  lust,  which  raged  more 
 violently  at  an  age  when  nature,  one  would  think,  should 
 have  cured  them,  finding  his  strength  impaired,  he  re- 
 moved from  place  to  place,  and  at  last  settled  in  a  pro- 
 montory of  Misenum ;  where,  after  several  consulta- 
 tions with  his  favourite  Macro,  he  named  Caius  Caligula, 
 the  only  surviving  son  of  Germanicus,  together  with  a 
 young  grandson  of  his  called  Tiberius,  to  be  his  succes- 
 sor ;  and  it  is  probably  conjectured,  that  he  named  the 
 former,  in  hopes  that  his  vices  would  efface  the  memory 
 of  his  own  wickedness,  and  his  known  cruelty  extinguish 
 the  whole  Roman  nobility  ;  for  which  reason  he  was 
 frequently  heard  to  say,  That  in  Caligula  he  had  brought 
 up  a  serpent  for  the  people  of  Rome,  and  a  Phajton  for 
 all  the  rest  of  the  world. 
 
 During  his  illness;  his  spirit  sensibly  declined  ;  but 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 A.  M.  4037.  A.  D.  33,  OR  31 ;  OR  A.  M.  5444.  A.  D.  33,  OR  31. 
 
 1131 
 
 his  dissimulation  was  as  strong  as  ever  in  carrying  on 
 the  humour  of  his  former  luxury  and  debaucheries,  and 
 in  despising  all  physic,  till  his  weakness  was  discovered 
 by  Charides,  a  famous  physician,  who,  under  pretence 
 of  kissing  his  hand,  felt  the  defect  in  his  pulse.  This 
 the  crafty  prince  immediately  perceiving,  shortly  after 
 dissembled  such  faintings,  as  made  all  the  company 
 think  him  dead,  and  begin  to  make  their  court  to  the 
 new  emperor ;  but,  as  he  recovered  again,  to  the  great 
 surprise,  and  almost  confusion  of  Caligula  and  Macro, 
 they  soon  found  means  to  despatch  him,  in  the  78th 
 year  of  his  age,  and  the  23d  of  his  reign,  either  by 
 poison,  or  smothering  him  in  the  bed-clothes,  to  the  no 
 small  joy  and  satisfaction  of  all  the  senate  and  people 
 of  Rome. 
 
 Caius,  who  was  surnamed  Caligula,  from  his  wearing 
 the  military  buskin  called  caliga,  in  his  youth,  began 
 his  reign  with  all  the  clemency  and  regularity  imagin- 
 able. He  caused  the  famous  models  and  institutions  of 
 Augustus,  which  had  been  disused  by  Tiberius,  to  be 
 revived.  He  began  to  reform  many  abuses  in  the  state, 
 and  severely  punished  corrupt  governors  ;  of  whom  he 
 banished  Pontius  Pilate  to  Vienne  in  Gaul,  where  he 
 afterwards  killed  himself.  He  took  a  strict  view  of  the 
 equites,  and  put  all  to  public  shame  who  were  guilty  of 
 any  infamous  crime.  He  punished  with  death  the  spin- 
 trice,  those  abominable  inventors  of  unnatural  pollutions, 
 whom  his  predecessor  greatly  encouraged.  He  remitted 
 several  impositions  invented  by  Tiberius,  and  was  so 
 popular,  that  he  endeavoured  to  restore  the  ancient 
 method  of  electing  magistrates  by  the  suffrages  of  the 
 people. 
 
 But,  in  a  short  time  all  these  promising  qualities  van- 
 ished ;  his  care  for  the  public  was  laid  aside  ;  and  by 
 giving  a  full  loose  to  his  furious  passions,  he  soon  be- 
 came such  a  monster  in  all  manner  of  wickedness  as 
 the  world  never  heard  of  before.  He  was  so  proud  that 
 he  impiously  assumed  divine  honours,  and  had  a  temple 
 dedicated  to  his  own  divinity  ;  so  prodigal  that  he  con- 
 sumed above  fifty  millions  of  our  money  in  a  few  months' 
 time  ;  so  brutish,  that  he  committed  incest  with  all  his 
 three  sisters,  and  suffered  no  lady  of  distinction  to 
 escape  his  lust;  and  so  tyrannical,  that  he  wished  the 
 Roman  people  had  but  one  neck,  that  he  might  despatch 
 them  all  at  one  blow.  In  short,  he  was  so  superlatively 
 wicked,  as  to  occasion  this  reflection  of  Seneca,  namely, 
 '  that  nature  seemed  to  have  brought  him  forth  on  purpose 
 to  show  what  was  possible  to  be  produced  from  the  great- 
 est viciousness,  supported  by  the  greatest  authority.' 
 
 His  assuming  the  title  of  Optimus  Maximus,with  other 
 epithets  of  honour,  which  the  Romans  gave  only  to  their 
 great  god  Jupiter;  and,  because  he  would  be  reputed  a 
 real  Jupiter,  his  inventions  to  imitate  thunder  and 
 lightning  ;  and  instituting  a  set  of  priests  to  officiate  in 
 his  temple,  who  daily  sacrificed  peacocks,  pheasants 
 and  the  most  rare  and  delicate  fowls  that  could  be  pro- 
 cured ;  and  what  is  more,  his  becoming  a  priest  himself, 
 and  admitting  his  wife  and  his  horse  to  be  fellow-priests 
 with  him  ;  his  falling  in  love  with  the  moon,  and.  as  if 
 she  had  been  a  fine  lady,  inviting  her  to  his  bed,  to  taste 
 the  pleasures  of  his  embraces  ;  and  his  deifying  his  sister 
 Drusilla  after  her  death,  and  making  her  a  goddess, 
 whom,  all  his  life  long,  he  had  made  his  harlot;  his  bar- 
 barous cruelty,  as  well  as  impious  love,  to  those  of  his 
 
 own  family ;  his  using  his  grandmother  Antonia  so  in- 
 humanly, that  she  poisoned  herself:  murdering  his  co- 
 heir Tiberius,  merely  for  using  a  sweet  powder ;  and 
 almost  all  his  own  kindred,  except  his  uncle  Claudius, 
 whom  he  preserved  only  for  a  laughing-stock  ;  his  con- 
 demning persons  of  the  best  rank  and  quality  to  dig  in 
 the  mines,  or  to  repair  the  highways;  his  casting  greac 
 numbers  of  old  infirm  men,  and  poor  decrepid  house- 
 keepers, to  the  wild  beasts,  to  rid  the  state  of  such  un- 
 profitable members  ;  and  his  causing  all  public  granaries 
 to  be  shut  up,  that  such  as  escaped  the  wild  beasts  might 
 perish  by  famine;  his  ordering  large  pillars  and  towers  ' 
 to  be  built  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea ;  mountains  to  be 
 levelled,  plains  and  vallies  to  be  elevated,  a  wonderful 
 bridge,  of  above  three  miles  and  a  half  in  length,  to  be 
 carried  from  the  point  of  Baias  to  the  opposite  shore 
 of  Puteoli ; "  and,  above  all,  his  famous  expedition  into 
 Batavia  or  Holland,  where  he  enriched  his  army  with 
 the  spoils  of  the  conquered  ocean,  as  he  called  them, 
 that  is,  with  cockle-shells  and  mussel-shells,  which  he 
 ordered  them  to  gather  in  their  helmets,  and,  after  hav- 
 ing made  a  pompous  oration  to  them,  wherein  he  ex- 
 tolled their  noble  achievements  upon  this  occasion,  his 
 causing  a  lofty  town  to  be  erected  on  the  sea-side,  in 
 memory  of  this  great  victory ;  these,  and  a  thousand  more 
 vile  extravagancies  and  monstrous  cruelties,  recorded 
 at  large  in  the  histories  of  his  life,  made  him  so  very 
 odious  and  contemptible  to  his  subjects,  that  many  began 
 to  conspire  against  him,  but  all  ineffectually,  until 
 Cassius  Chzereas,  an  officer  of  his  guards,  resolved  upon 
 it ;  and,  having  communicated  his  design  to  several 
 senators,  equites,  and  others,  Avaited  only  for  a  fit  op- 
 portunity to  put  it  into  execution. 
 
 a  To  show  his  power  and  greatness,  and  that  he  was  able  to 
 walk  upon  the  sea  as  well  as  the  land,  he  ordered  an  infinite  num- 
 ber of  ships  to  be  secured  in  all  parts,  and  many  others  to  be 
 new-built,  and  all  to  be  brought  into  the  bays  of  Baiae  and 
 Puteoli  in  Campania,  about  ninety  miles  from  Rome.  These 
 ships  being  placed  in  two  rows,  in  the  form  of  a  crescent,  were 
 fastened  and  moored  together  with  anchors,  chains,  and  cables, 
 to  make  them  firm  and  secure ;  and  over  these  were  laid  vast 
 quantities  of  large  planks  and  boards  covered  over  with  so 
 much  earth,  as  made  it  look  like  firm  ground,  or  one  of  the  streets 
 of  Rome.  For,  upon  this  bridge,  he  built  houses  and  lodgings, 
 for  the  reception  of  himself  and  his  followers,  and  by  pipes  con- 
 veyed fresh  water  from  the  land,  to  serve  the  occasions  of  his 
 revels.  When  this  was  done,  he  and  all  his  court,  with  prodi- 
 gious throngs  of  all  sorts  of  people,  repaired  thither;  where,  after 
 some  solemn  sacrifices  to  the  gods,  he,  proudly  adorned  with  stately 
 robes  of  gold  and  pear),  sitting  on  horseback,  with  a  civic  crown, 
 and  Alexander's  breast-plate,  accompanied  with  the  great  officers 
 of  his  army,  and  all  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  Rome,  entered 
 at  one  end  of  the  bridge,  and,  with  an  awful  majesty,  rode  to  the 
 other.  After  this,  lodging  all  night  upon  the  bridge,  he  caused 
 such  infinite  numbers  of  torches,  lanthorns,  and  other  lights,  to  be 
 placed  on  all  parts  of  the  works,  as  give  him  occasion  to  boast,  '  That 
 he  had  turned  the  night  into  day,  as  well  as  the  sea  into  land.' 
 The  next  day,  he  rode  over  the  bridge  in  his  triumphant  chariot, 
 with  Darius,  an  hostage  of  Parthia,  attending,  and  followed  by 
 a  mighty  train  of  other  chariots,  and  all  his  soldiers  in  bright 
 armour;  which  when  he  had  done,  he  ascended  a  rostrum,  and 
 there  made  a  solemn  oration  in  praise  of  his  own  great  attempt; 
 and,  that  he  might  perform  something  more  memorable  before  he 
 left  the  bridge,  he  ordered  great  numbers  of  the  multitude  to  be 
 cast  into  the  sea;  and  when  they  laid  hold  on  rudders,  or  any 
 thing  that  might  save  their  lives,  commanded  them  to  he  thrust 
 oIF,  so  that  they  all  perished  without  remedy:  alter  which  he  re- 
 turned home  in  a  magnificent  manner,  for  having  surmounted, 
 as  he  thought,  the  very  order  and  laws  of  nature. — Echard's 
 Roman  History,  in  the  Life  of  Caligula. 
 
1132 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 Belonging  to  the  palace  there  was  a  private  gallery, 
 through  which  the  emperor  usually  passed  to  some  baths, 
 not  far  distant.  Here  Chaereas,  with  his  associates,  met 
 him,  and,  after  some  short  salutation,  gave  him  a  mortal 
 stab,  crying  out,  'Tyrant,  think  upon  this;'  at  which 
 instant  the  rest  of  the  conspirators  rushed  in,  and  gave 
 him  no  less  than  thirty  wounds  before  they  had  dispatched 
 him. 
 
 Thus  died  Caius  Caligula,  in  the  29th  year  of  his 
 age,  and  the  fourth  of  his  reign,  by  his  prodigious  enor- 
 mities having  justly  pulled  down  the  vengeance  of  heaven 
 upon  himself  and  his  family :  for  (that  his  whole  race 
 might  be  extinguished)  his  wife  Cajsonia  was,  at  the  same 
 time,  stabbed  by  a  centurion;  and  his  only  daughter, 
 then  an  infant  in  the  cradle,  had  her  brains  dashed  out 
 against  a  wall  :  and  that  if  possible  both  his  name  and 
 features  might  be  forgot  in  future  ages,  his  money,  by  a 
 decree  of  the  senate,  was  melted  down. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Caligula,  the  city  was  much  divided. 
 The  nobility  were  for  restoring  the  Roman  liberty,  the 
 commons  for  electing  a  new  emperor,  and  the  army 
 joined  with  the  commons  ;  but  whom  to  nominate  to  this 
 dignity,  they  were  at  a  loss,  till  some  of  the  soldiers, 
 searching  about  for  plunder  in  the  palace,  chanced  to 
 spy  Caligula's  uncle  Claudius  hid  in  an  hole,  for  fear 
 of  his  life,  whom  they  brought  into  the  camp,  and 
 instantly  proclaimed  Emperor.  The  senate,  hearing 
 of  this,  sent  a  tribune  of  the  people  to  advise  him  to 
 submit  to  their  establishment,  and  not  disturb  the  public 
 peace  with  his  pretensions ;  but,  at  the  instigation  of 
 Herod  Agrippa,  King  of  Judea,  who  was  then  at  Rome, 
 he  refused  to  comply,  and,  in  a  few  days,  by  the  clamours 
 of  the  people,  and  menaces  of  the  soldiers,  the  senate 
 was  so  wrought  upon,  that,  considering  him  as  nearer 
 allied  to  the  empire  than  any  other,  being  both  uncle  to 
 Caligula,  and  brother  to  Germanicus,  they  agreed  to 
 make  him  Emperor,  and  shortly  after  confirmed  that 
 title  to  him. 
 
 Claudius  was  now  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  age  ;  but 
 either  upon  account  of  his  bodily  distempers,  or  the 
 natural  stupidity  of  his  mind,  he  was  ever,  till  this  time, 
 judged  incapable  of  any  public  office  in  the  state.  How- 
 ever, by  the  good  acts  which  he  did  in  the  beginning  of  his 
 reign,  it  seemed  as  if  he  had  cured  the  infirmities  of  his 
 body,  and,  in  some  measure,  corrected  those  of  his  under- 
 standing too.  He  disannulled  the  cruel  edicts  made  by 
 Caligula,  and  commanded  all  who  were  unjustly  con- 
 fined, either  in  prison  or  banishment,  to  be  set  at  liberty. 
 In  his  honours  and  titles  he  showed  himself  modest  and 
 temperate,  and,  upon  severe  penalties,  forbade  all  per- 
 sons to  sacrifice  to  him,  as  they  had  (lone  to  Caligula. 
 To  his  enemies,  and  the  opposers  of  his  election,  he 
 showed  himself  merciful,  and  passed  a  general  act  of 
 indemnity  for  past  crimes;  only,  for  a  public  example, 
 and  to  terrify  others  from  the  like  attempt,  he  ordered 
 Chsereaa,  and  some  other  conspirators,  who  died  all  with 
 great  resolution,  to  be  executed.  He  took  more  than 
 ordinary  care,  that  the  city  of  Rome  should  be  continually 
 furnished  with  all  sorts  of  corn  and  provisions,  by  secur- 
 ing the  merchants  against  the  pirates  at  sea ;  and,  that 
 it  might  want  no  supply  of  water,  he  made  a  famous 
 conduit  or  aqueduct,  called  after  his  own  name,  which 
 both  for  stateliness  of  workmanship,  and  the  plenty  of 
 il  conveyed,  at  forty  miles  distant,  through  greal 
 
 A.  M.  4044.  A.  D.  40;  OR,  A.  M.  5451.  A.  D.  40,  &e. 
 
 mountains,  and  over  stately  arches  in  vallies,  far  sur- 
 passed any  work  of  that  kind  in  all  Italy. 
 
 But  it  was  not  long  before  this  Emperor  began  to  lessen 
 his  care  and  concern  for  the  public,  and  to  give  himself 
 up  to  his  gluttonous  disposition,  and  passive  stupidity  ; 
 so  that  his  freedmenand  favourites,  together  with  his  libi- 
 dinous wife  Messalina,  imposing  upon  him  as  they  thought 
 fit,  became  the  most  intolerable  oppressors  and  tyrants  ; 
 inflicting  innumerable  deaths  and  other  cruelties  ;  sell- 
 ing governments  and  dignities  ;  and  issuing  out  pardons 
 and  penalties  without  his  knowledge.  The  truth  is,  he 
 was  so  cowardly  and  fearful,  that,  when  a  rebel,  named 
 Camillus,  commanded  him  by  letter  to  resign  his  em- 
 pire, he  was  in  a  disposition  to  have  done  it ;  so  blind 
 and  incogitant,  that  his  Empress  Messalina  married  her- 
 self to  another  man,  in  his  lifetime,  and  almost  in 
 his  presence  ;  so  stupid,  that  when  the  news  of  her  exe- 
 cution was  brought  him,  he  showed  not  the  least  token 
 of  joy,  sorrow,  or  any  other  human  passion  or  affec- 
 tion ;  and  so  prodigiously  forgetful,  that  he  frequently 
 asked  and  sent  for  such  persons  as  he  had  executed  the 
 day  before. 
 
 After  the  death  of  the  infamous  Messalina,  the  Emperor 
 married  his  own  niece  Agrippina,  a  woman  of  a  vast 
 spirit  and  unbounded  ambition,  who  soon  prevailed  with 
 her  husband,  even  to  the  prejudice  of  his  own  son 
 Britannicus,  to  adopt  her  son  Domitius,  under  the  name 
 of  Claudius  Nero,  and  to  confer  on  her  the  title  of 
 Augusta.  Upon  her  advancement  to  this  dignity,  it  A\as 
 not  long  before  she  procured  the  deaths  of  several  ladies 
 of  the  highest  rank,  who  had  been  her  rivals  in  marrying 
 the  Emperor;  and  became  so  very  zealous  for  her  son's 
 succeeding  in  the  empire,  that,  when  she  was  told  by 
 some  oracle  or  augur,  that  her  son  should  be  Emperor 
 indeed,  but  would  certainly  be  the  cause  of  her  death, 
 her  answer  was,  let  him,  so  he  does  but  reign. 
 
 In  a  few  years,  however,  the  exorbitant  power  which 
 she  assumed,  gained  her  the  envy  and  hatred  of  the 
 Emperor's  favourites,  and  the  disesteem  of  Claudius 
 himself ;  who,  notwithstanding  his  strange  insensibility, 
 began  now  to  repent  of  his  marriage  with  her,  and  the 
 adoption  of  her  son.  This  Agrippina  soon  discovered, 
 by  his  unusual  favours  to  his  son  Britannicus,  and  by  what 
 accidentally  dropt  from  him  when  heated  with  wine, 
 namely,  that  he  had  been  very  unfortunate  in  his  wives, 
 but  that  none  of  them  had  escaped  unpunished.  Where- 
 upon she  determined  with  herself  to  procure  his  death 
 by  poison.  But  what  kind  of  poison  to  make  choice  of 
 was  the  question.  A  strong  poison  she  thought  might 
 make  her  villany  too  apparent,  and  a  slow  one  might 
 give  the  Emperor  opportunity  of  discovering  so  much  of 
 her  practices,  as  to  prevent  her  son's  succession ;  and 
 therefore  she  resolved  upon  such  a  potion  as  would  dis- 
 tract his  senses,  and  not  too  soon  suddenly  end  his  life. 
 For  this  she  wanted  not  her  assistants,  who  infused  the 
 poison  into  some  mushrooms,  a  dish  which  the  Emperor 
 loved  beyond  measure  ;  but,  finding  that  this  only  made 
 him  sick,  she  sent  for  her  own  physician,  named 
 Xenophon,  who  under  the  pretence  of  making  him  vomit, 
 as  his  custom  was  to  do  after  his  gluttonous  debauches, 
 thrust  a  poisonous  feather  down  his  throat,  which,  in  a 
 short  time,  ended  his  life,  in  the  64th  year  of  his  age, 
 and  the  1 4th  of  his  reign. 
 
 As  soon  as  Claudius  was  dead,  Agrippina,  as  one  over- 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1133 
 
 A.  M.  4158.  A.  D.  54;  OR 
 
 whelmed  with  extremity  of  grief,  embraced  Britannicus  in 
 her  arms,  calling  him  '  the  dear  image  of  his  father's  face,' 
 and  by  many  artifices,  detained  him  and  his  two  sisters, 
 Antonia  and  Octavia,  in  the  chamber,  placing  a  strong 
 guard  at  every  door  and  passage,  till  all  things  were 
 made  ready  for  her  son's  advancement ;  and  then  the 
 palace-gates  being  sudden!  y  set  open,  Nero ,  accompanied 
 with  Burrhus,  prefect  of  the  Praetorian  guards,  went  out  to 
 the  cohort  then  in  waiting;  who,  at  the  command  of  Burr- 
 hus, received  him  witli  loud  acclamations,  though  not  with- 
 out some  inquiries  after  Britannicus,  and  carried  him  in  a 
 chariot  to  the  rest  of  the  troops  :  and  they,  upon  his  pro- 
 mise of  a  donative,  according  to  the  example  of  his  pre- 
 decessors, saluted  him  Emperor  ;  which  was  shortly  con- 
 firmed by  the  senate,  and  acknowledged  by  the  province. 
 
 Nero,  though  but  seventeen  years  of  age,  began  his 
 reign  witli  the  general  joy  and  satisfaction  of  the  city. 
 For,  promising  to  govern  according  to  the  wise  rules 
 and  institutions  of  the  great  Augustus,  he,  at  first,  both 
 in  words  and  actions,  showed  himself  just,  liberal,  and 
 merciful.  He  conferred  favours,  and  distributed  large 
 sums  of  money  among  the  people  and  Praetorian  soldiers. 
 He  moderated  the  impositions  and  tributes  of  the  pro- 
 vinces ;  assigned  pensions  to  decayed  senators  ;  used  all 
 men  with  such  humanity  and  courtesy,  and  in  the  execution 
 of  justice,  showed  such  clemency  and  pity,  that  it  seemed 
 as  if  heaven  had  sent  the  Romans  such  a  prince  as  they 
 desired  ;  as  indeed,  for  the  first  iive  years  of  his  govern- 
 ment, it  was  so  good  in  all  respects,  that  the  famous  Em- 
 peror Trajan  was  afterwards  wont  to  say,  that,  for  that 
 space  of  time,  all  governments  came  short  of  this. 
 But  this,  in  a  great  measure,  is  to  be  imputed  to  the  wise 
 conduct  of  Burrhus  and  Seneca,  who  Mere  the  young 
 Emperor's  guides  and  governors,  in  equal  authority,  and 
 bearing  equal  share  in  their  different  faculties  ;  Burrhus, 
 in  military  discipline,  and  gravity  of  manners ;  and 
 Seneca,  in  precepts  of  eloquence,  and  courteous  de- 
 meanour. 
 
 As  Nero  increased  in  years,  so  his  vices  and  extrava- 
 gancies became  more  conspicuous.  For  having  poisoned 
 his  "  predecessor's  son  Britannicus,  taken  Poppea  Sa- 
 bina  from  the  bed  of  her  husband  Otho,  first  divorced 
 his  wife  Octavia,  and  afterwards  put  her  to  death,  mur- 
 dered his  *  mother  Agrippina,  and,  as  some    imagine, 
 
 a  The  occasion  of  Nero's  doing  this  is  said  to  be,  some  furi- 
 ous menaces  his  mother  Agrippina  made  him,  which  put  him 
 in  great  fear  of  a  competitor  at  least,  if  not  the  loss  of  his  em- 
 pire ;  and  therefore,  to  free  himself  from  all  jealousies,  he  ordered 
 poison  for  Britannicus:  but  this  proving  ineffectual,  he  had 
 recourse  to  a  stronger;  which  was  cunningly  administered  to  the 
 young  prince  in  a  public  banquet,  and  so  suddenly  spread  through 
 his  veins,  that,  at  once,  his  speech  and  his  spirits  forsook  him. 
 While  the  spectators  were  all  amazed,  Nero,  leaning  unconcern- 
 edly on  the  table,  assured  the  company  '  That  it  was  usual  for  him 
 to  be  seized  with  such  epileptic  fits,  so  that  they  need  not  doubt 
 his  recovery.'  Whereupon  the  rest,  for  different  ends  and  pur- 
 poses, dissembled  their  griefs,  and,  after  some  silence,  the  mirth 
 of  the  banquet  began  again.  But  Britannicus  in  the  mean  time 
 died,  and  was  privately  buried  that  same  night. — Echard's 
 Roman  History,  in  the  Life  of  Nero. 
 
 b  After  that  Nero  was  resolved  upon  his  mother's  death,  he 
 attempted  first  to  poison  her  ;  but  by  reason  of  the  antidotes  and 
 preservatives  which  she  took,  poison  proved  ineffectual.  Then 
 lie  endeavoured  to  drown  her;  but  she  having  the  good  luck  to 
 esca]  e,  even  when  several  of  her  company  perished,  he  at  last 
 causid  a  report  to  be  spread,  that  she  had  conspired  to  take  away 
 his  1  fe,  and  so  sent  certain  tribunes  to  murder  her;  and  authors 
 generally  say,  that  upon  their  approaching,  and  unsheathing  their 
 
 A.  M.  54C5.  A.  D.  54,  &c. 
 
 poisoned  his  governor  Burrhus,  he  thought  himself  now 
 free  from  all  restraint.  He  therefore  gave  the  reins  to 
 his  brutal  appetites  and  abandoned  himself  to  all  kinds  of 
 extravagancies  and  vices,  such  as  were  never  practised 
 by  a  prince,  and  scarce  conceived  by  any  man.  His 
 running  about  the  city  by  night,  disguised  in  the  habit  of 
 a  slave,  with  his  lewd  companions,  entering  taverns  and 
 infamous  houses,  and  their  committing  what  outrages  he 
 thought  fit;  his  debasing  himself  so  far,  as  to  become  a 
 common  singer,  musician,  and  a  stage-player,  frequently 
 acting  a  part  before  the  whole  city,  and  procuring  great 
 numbers  of  noblemen  and  ladies  to  be  present  when  he 
 acted  ;  his  professing  the  art  of  a  charioteer,  taking 
 a  journey  as  far  as  Peloponnesus,  on  purpose  to  run 
 in  the  Olympic  games,  and,  at  his  return  to  Rome,  enter- 
 ing the  city  in  triumph,  surrounded  with  musicians  and 
 players,  brought  from  all  parts  of  the  world  :  these  were 
 excusable  follies,  in  comparison  to  the  monstrous  extra- 
 vagancies which  he  afterwards  fell  into,  when,  having 
 attired  himself  in  the  habit  of  a  woman  and  a  bride,  he  first 
 wedded  to  one  of  his  abominable  companions,  named 
 Pythagoras  ;  and  after  that,  became  an  husband  to  a  boy 
 called  Sporus,  whom  he  first  emasculated,  and  then 
 clothing  him  with  all  the  ornaments  of  an  empress,  ac- 
 companied him  in  all  the  most  public  places. 
 
 Nor  was  his  cruelty  less  exorbitant  than  his  lust.  For, 
 upon  the  discovery  of  a  conspiracy  which  Caius  Piso,  and 
 some  other  great  men,  had  formed  against  him,  he  put 
 vast  numbers  to  death,  noble  and  ignoble,  guilty  and  in- 
 nocent, among  whom,  besides  Piso,  the  head  of  the 
 conspiracy,  died  Lucan,  the  famous  poet,  who  hated 
 Nero,  for  his  forbidding  him  to  publish  his  verses ; 
 c  Seneca  the  philosopher,  and  tutor  to  the  tyrant,  who, 
 though  not  convicted  of  any  treason,  was  commanded 
 to  die  ;  and  the  polite,  but  d  impure  Petronius,  who  had 
 been  a  great  assistant  to  Nero  in  his  extravagant  plea- 
 sures. Nay,  so  sanguinary  was  he  in  his  temper,  that, 
 without  any  manner  of  provocation,  he  put  many  emi- 
 nent persons  to  death ;  as  Rubellius  Plautus,  only  for 
 being  of  the  Julian  family  ;  and  another  named  Pallas, 
 merely  for  being  rich  :  a  crime  for  which  many  suffered 
 in  those  days ;  and  to  complete  all  his  wickedness, 
 having  set  the  city  of  Rome  on  fire,  which  with  infinite 
 satisfaction  he  beheld,  and  sung  all  the  while  the  de- 
 struction of  Troy  in  derision,  he  nevertheless,  out  of 
 hatred  to  the  Christians,  accused  them  of  the  fact,  and 
 
 swords,  she  showed  them  her  belly,  crying,  '  Strike  me  here,  since 
 this  part  hath  deserved  it,  ior  having  conceived  and  brought  forth 
 such  a  monster  as  Nero  ;'  and  immediately  expired  with  the 
 wounds  she  received. — Ibid. 
 
 c  He  being  commanded  to  die,  cheerfully  undertook  it;  but 
 was  obliged  to  seek  death  several  ways ;  for  lie  had  so  macerated 
 himself  with  abstinence,  that  he  could  not  bleed,  and  poison 
 would  have  no  operation  upon  him  :  but  at  length,  entering  a 
 bath,  he  was  stilled  with  the  fumes,  discoursing  even  to  the  last, 
 according  to  his  usual  eloquence,  of  the  most  excellent  things, 
 which  being  taken  from  his  mouth,  were  afterwards  published. 
 Such  was  the  death  of  the  great  philosopher  Seneca,  which  some 
 have  thought  a  just  judgment  upon  him,  for  living  so  contrary 
 to  his  writings,  and  for  educating  his  pupil  no  better. — Echard's 
 Roman  History,  in  the  life  of  Nero. 
 
 d  His  death  was  the  most  remarkable  in  the  world,  and  most 
 resembling  the  whole  course  of  his  life.  In  it  he  proceeded  with 
 all  imaginable  unconcern,  opening  his  veins,  and  closing  them, 
 as  he  tuoujht  fit;  discoursing  with  his  friends,  not  of  serious 
 matters,  or  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  but  of  light  and  pleasant 
 thinss ;  and  all  the  time  attending  to  soft  verses,  and  delicate 
 love  songs. — Ibid. 
 
1134 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4072.  A.  D.  G8 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5470.  A.  D.  68,  &c. 
 
 thereupon  proceeded  against  them  as  incendiaries,  raised 
 the  first  general  persecution,  and  put  great  numbers 
 of  them  to  the  most  exquisitely  cruel  and  ignominious 
 deaths. 
 
 These,  and  many  more  bloody  and  tyrannical  pro- 
 ceedings, had,  by  this  time,  worn  out  the  patience  of 
 the  Romans,  and  made  all  men  press  for  a  ijgjolution. 
 Vindex,  commander  of  the  legions  in  Gaul,  was  the  first 
 who  began  the  revolt.  He  publicly  protested  against 
 the  government  of  Nero,  and  proclaimed  Sergius  Galba, 
 who  at  that  time  was  governor  of  part  of  Spain,  em- 
 peror. a  Galba  joining  in  the  enterprise,  and  taking 
 the  empire  upon  him,  procured  the  revolt,  not  only  of 
 the  armies  in  Spain,  but  of  the  legions  in  Germany,  and 
 several  other  places,  who  unanimously  declared  against 
 the  present  emperor. 
 
 These  proceedings  drove  Nero  into  the  utmost  rage 
 and  despair,  and  put  him  upon  a  design,  the  blackest 
 and  most  barbarous  that  ever  man  imagined.  He  re- 
 solved to  massacre  all  the  governors  of  provinces,  and 
 commanders  of  armies,  under  the  pretence  of  conspira- 
 cies ;  to  destroy  all  exiled  persons,  lest  they  should  join 
 with  the  revolters  ;  to  murder  all  the  Gauls  in  Rome,  as 
 favourers  of  their  countrymen ;  to  poison  the  whole 
 senate  at  an  entertainment ;  to  burn  the  city  again,  and 
 to  turn  out  wild  beasts  among  the  people,  to  prevent 
 their  extinguishing  the  flames.  But  he  found  himself 
 unable  to  effect  these  designs.  All  mankind  fell  from 
 him  and  forsook  him;  which  made  him  become  as  servile 
 as  before  he  was  tyrannical.  Nay,  the  senate  having 
 met  together,  pronounced  him  a  mortal  enemy  to  the 
 state,  and  solemnly  condemned  him  to  die  more  majorum  ; 
 which  was  to  have  his  body  stripped  naked,  his  head 
 made  fast  in  a  pillory,  and  so  to  be  scourged  to  death. 
 When  Nero  understood  this,  he  snatched  up  two  daggers, 
 and  after  many  inglorious  sighs  and  tears,  and  some 
 whining  complaints,  '  what  a  rare  artist  the  world  in 
 him  would  lose,'  by  the  assistance  of  Epaphroditus,  his 
 secretary,  lie  wounded  himself  so,  that  he  died  shortly 
 after,  in  the  thirty-second  year  of  his  age,  and  fourteenth 
 of  his  reign. 
 
 The  death  of  Nero  occasioned  an  universal  joy  and 
 satisfaction   in   Rome;  and  as  Galba  was  esteemed  a 
 
 P«8 1  great  wisdom  and  valour,  and  had  been  elected 
 
 bj  the  two  armies  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  the  people  unani- 
 mously agreed,  and  the  senate  in  a  short  time  consented 
 to  create  him  emperor,  though  he  had  no  affinity  or 
 alliance  with  the  family  of  the  Cssars,  either  by  blood 
 or  adoption. 
 
 Galba  was  -seventy-two  years  old  when  he  first  under- 
 took the  government,  under  the  name  of  the  «  Lieutenant 
 
 a  Th< 
 
 "  inere  is  something  so  lively  in  some  parts  of  the  speech 
 
 which  Galba  made  to  his  army  upon  this  occasion,  that  it  is  well 
 
 worthy  our  observation.—'  It  grieves  me  to  say,  but  it  hinders 
 
 i  ry  man  from  seeing,  that  no  slave,  under  the  severest 
 
 master,  ,-v, ,   endured  a  year  of  harder  service,  than  we  have 
 
 >u  mm1  ' ''  Nero.     What  Kind  of  exaction  has  he  not  used, 
 
 ^  wpply  with  extortion  what  he  hath  spent  with  shame? 
 W  hat  kind  ol  cruelty  has  he  not  practised  ?  How  has  he  wallowed 
 in  the  blood  of  Ins  father,  his  brother,  his  mother,  his  wife,  his 
 .  and  all  who  are  valiant  and  virtuous  in  the  senate,  city, 
 or  provinces,  without  any  distinction  of  age  or  sex  !  All  which 
 cry  for  vengeance  up,,,  such  a  prince;  a  prince!  no,  an  in- 
 cendiary, a  singer,  a  fiddler,  a  player,  a  carter,  a  crier-  no 
 prince,  nay,  no  man.  having  a  nun,  to  his  husband,  and  a  man 
 tu  ins  wife,  but  a  monster  of  mankind.' Bid. 
 
 of  the  senate  and  people  of  Rome.*  But  when  he  re- 
 ceived advice  that  Nero  was  dead,  and  the  people  had 
 sworn  allegiance  to  him,  he  laid  aside  the  name  of 
 Lieutenant,  and  assuming  the  title  of  Cresar,  put  him- 
 self upon  his  way  to  Rome.  In  the  mean  time,  several 
 rumours  were  spread  abroad,  both  of  his  avarice  and 
 cruelty  ;  of  his  severely  treating  the  cities  of  Spain  and 
 Gaul  which  scrupled  at  first  to  declare  for  him  ;  of  his 
 oppressing  them  with  excessive  tributes,  demolishing 
 their  fortifications,  executing  their  governors,  and  even 
 not  sparing  their  wives  and  children ;  Avhich  made  the 
 people  to  begin  to  show  less  satisfaction  for  his  arrival, 
 than  they  did  for. his  election. 
 
 At  his  first  coming  to  Rome,  his  severity  to  those 
 seamen  and  mariners  whom  Nero  had  listed  among  his 
 legionary  soldiers;  his  discharging  the  Roman  cohorts, 
 which  had  been  established  by  former  emperors  ;  his  re- 
 fusing to  pay  the  donative,  that  in  his  absence  was  pro- 
 mised to  the  Praetorian  bands ;  and,  shortly  after r 
 cashiering  several  of  them,  upon  a  bare  suspicion  of 
 correspondence  and  confederacy  with  Nymphidius,  cap- 
 tain of  the  guards ;  these,  and  several  other  arbitrary 
 proceedings,  procured  him  many  enemies,  especially 
 among  the  military  people.  Though  his  rescinding  the 
 odious  acts  of  Nero,  recalling  those  whom  he  had  unjustly 
 banished,  and  executing  several  of  the  wicked  instru- 
 ments of  his  cruelty,  were  very  grateful  actions  to  the 
 Romans  in  general,  had  he  not  spared  some  of  the  most 
 notorious  offenders  for  the  sake  of  money. 
 
 The  love  of  money  indeed  was  his  governing  passion, 
 and  had  got  so  absolute  a  possession  of  him,  that  he 
 was  often  observed  to  sigh  and  weep,  when  he  saw  his 
 table  a  little  better  furnished  than  ordinary.  But  that 
 which  made  this  emperor  most  generally  detested,  was 
 his  suffering  himself  to  be  entirely  managed  by  three 
 favourites,  who,  having  their  lodgings  with  him  in  the 
 palace,  and  being  perpetually  in  his  presence,  were 
 commonly  styled  his  '  three  pedagogues.'  They  were 
 persons  of  as  different  humours  and  vices  as  possible  ; 
 and  accordingly,  by  the  abuse  of  his  authority,  made 
 him  appear,  in  the  inequality  of  his  conduct,  both  odious 
 and  despicable  :  so  that  sometimes  he  showed  himself 
 severe  and  rigorous,  at  other  times  remiss  and  negligent, 
 condemning  some  illustrious  persons  unheard,  pardon- 
 ing others  without  reason,  and  permitting  every  thing 
 either  to  be  purchased  by  money,  or  granted  for  favour ^ 
 just  as  he  was  guided  by  these  men. 
 
 During  this  misconduct  at  Rome,  affairs  in  the  pro- 
 vinces were  in  a  worse  condition.  For,  since  the  army 
 in  Spain  had  presumed  to  choose  an  Emperor  without 
 any  other  authority,  many  mutinies  were  raised,  and  fac- 
 tions sprang  up,  in  most  parts  of  the  empire,  through 
 envy,  discontent,  or  a  desire  of  alteration ;  so  that  the 
 Emperor,  perceiving  that,  besides  his  unwieldy  old  age, 
 which  made  him  contemptible,  he  was  less  respected  by 
 many  for  want  of  an  heir,  was  resolved  to  adopt  some 
 person,  of  such  an  age  and  authority,  as  in  his  life-time 
 might  be  able  to  protect  him,  and,  after  his  decease,  suc- 
 ceed him  in  the  empire.  Upon  his  declaring  this  his 
 intent,  his  three  favourites  were  very  busy  in  recommend- 
 ing persons  to  him ;  but  Otho  having  gained  the  chief 
 iavourite  Vanius,  together  with  the  Urban  and  Prajtorian 
 cohorts,  assured  himself  of  success.  Galba,  however, 
 resolving  to    consider   the  public  good,  and  disliking 
 
Sect.  V.J 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1135 
 
 A.  M.  407S.  A.  D.  69  s  OK, 
 Otho's  irregular  life,  as  too  much  resembling  that  of  his 
 master  Nero,  rejected  him,  and  made  choice  of  a  young' 
 man,  called  Piso,  in  whom  was  an  happy  concurrence  of 
 all  the  good  qualities  that  were  necessary  in  a  Prince 
 and  Emperor. 
 
 Otho,  finding  the  hopes  of  his  adoption  thus  blasted, 
 immediately  applied  himself  to  the  soldiers,  with  whom 
 he  had  a  powerful  interest,  and  by  his  plausible  speeches, 
 and  large  promises,  engaged  them  to  proclaim  him  Em- 
 peror, in  opposition  to  Galba's  choice ;  which  when  Galba 
 understood,  he  was  both  disheartened  and  confounded. 
 Some  were  of  opinion  that  he  ought  to  have  put  himself 
 in  arms,  and  appear  in  public,  that  his  presence  might 
 stem  the  torrent  of  this  dangerous  faction  ;  others,  that  his 
 greatest  security  would  be  to  fortify  himself  in  the  Capitol, 
 and  there  to  attend  the  result  of  the  disorder.  But  while 
 he  continued  thus  wavering  and  irresolute,  a  false  report 
 was  brought  him,  that  Otho  was  slain  ;  whereupon  he  rode 
 armed  out  of  his  palace,  with  his  guards  and  many  fol- 
 lowers, into  the  Forum;  and  at  the  same  time  there 
 entered  at  the  other  side,  a  strong  body  of  horse  from 
 the  camp,  sent  by  Otho  to  dispatch  him.  Upon  their 
 nearer  approach,  for  a  considerable  while  they  stood 
 amazed,  and  in  a  dubious  posture,  as  apprehending  the 
 consequence  of  their  fatal  commission ;  so  that  Galba 
 had  time  enough  to  make  his  escape,  but  by  his  irresolu- 
 tion lost  his  opportunity.  For  while  he  was  considering 
 with  himself  whither  to  return  to  the  palace,  or  retire  to 
 the  Capitol,  he  was  suddenly  abandoned  by  the  chief  of 
 his  followers  ;  insomuch  that  when  the  soldiers  sent  by 
 Otho  came  up  to  him,  he  stretched  out  his  neck,  and 
 bade  them  '  strike  it  off,  if  it  were  for  the  good  of  the 
 commonwealth,  and  the  Roman  people  ;'  which  accord- 
 ingly was  done,  in  the  73d  year  of  his  age,  after  a  short 
 reign  of  seven  months  ;  and  after  him  were  executed  his 
 three  favourites,  and  his  adopted  son  Piso. 
 
 On  the  same  day  that  Galba  was  murdered  in  the  Fo- 
 rum, the  senate,  and  the  people  of  Rome,  all  acknow- 
 ledged Otho  for  his  successor  ;  a  person  valiant  and  witty, 
 of  an  ancient  and  honourable  family,  and  a  great 
 favourite  to  Nero ;  but  more  for  the  conformity  of  his 
 humours  and  vices,  and  the  beauty  of  his  wife  Poppasa, 
 than  any  worthy  execution  of  the  many  considerable 
 offices  wherewith  he  was  intrusted.  However,  when  he 
 came  to  the  government,  he  ordered  all  things  agreeably 
 to  the  honour  of  the  empire  ;  which  together  with  his  par- 
 doning Marius  Celsus,  who  had  been  advanced  by  Galba, 
 and  strenuously  opposed  his  succession ;  his  punishing 
 of  Tigellinus,  who  had  been  Nero's  chief  instrument  in 
 impurity;  and  his  generously  restoring  the  goods  and 
 estates  of  such  as  had  been  exiled  by  that  tyrant,  gained 
 him  the  love  and  affection  of  the  people  of  Rome. 
 
 Vitellius  at  this  time  commanded  the  legions  in  the 
 Lower  Germany.  He  was  a  person  of  great  reputation 
 and  authority,  by  reason  of  the  several  offices  and 
 magistracies  which  he  had  held  in  Rome,  and  elsewhere 
 under  the  three  Emperors,  Caligula,  Claudius,  and  Nero; 
 with  each  of  whom  he  had  been  very  intimate;  but  more  for 
 his  excessive  vices,  and  some  personal  abilities,  than  any 
 virtues  or  excellencies  in  him.  He  was  in  favour  with 
 Claudius,  for  his  gaming  at  dice  ;  with  Caligula,  for  his 
 dexterity  in  managing  a  chariot;  and  with  Nero,  for 
 the  same  skill,  and  some  other  such-like  qualities  ;  but 
 notwithstanding  this,  being  a  man  of  subtlety  and  in- 
 
 A.  M.  5480.  A.  D.69,  &0> 
 
 trigue,  he  had,  by  large  gifts  and  specious  promises,  pro- 
 cured the  army  to  create  him  Emperor,  without  attending 
 the  will  and  pleasure  of  the  senate,  about  thirteen  days 
 before  Galba's  death. 
 
 When  the  news  of  this  came  to  Rome,  it  put  Otho  into 
 a  great  consternation,  and  the  city  into  no  small  con- 
 cern, as  well  knowing,  that  nothing  but  the  sword,  and 
 the  blood  of  many  thousand  Romans,  could  determine 
 the  contest.  The  fears  and  cares  of  the  city  were  farther 
 augmented  by  the  great  preparations  they  saw  Otho  mak- 
 ing, and  the  known  disabilities  of  the  nobility  and  gentry 
 in  martial  affairs.  The  chief  of  the  senate  were  grown 
 old  and  impotent,  wanting  both  the  power  and  vigour  of 
 soldiers.  The  nobility  were  slothful,  covered  with  the 
 rust  of  a  iong  peace,  and  unaccustomed  to  the  fatigues 
 of  a  camp.  The  Equites  were  dissolved  in  ease  and 
 luxury,  and  ignorant  in  military  service,  which  the  more 
 they  endeavoured  to  conceal,  the  more  they  betrayed  their 
 fears.  The  wiser  sort  began  to  show  great  concern  at  the 
 miseries  and  perturbations  of  the  commonwealth  ;  but 
 the  inconsiderate  were  swelled  with  vain  hopes,  and  ex- 
 travagant opinions;  and  many  persons,  bankrupts  in 
 peace,  in  these  troublesome  times  began  to  make  the 
 greatest  appearance,  as  being  themselves  most  in  safety 
 when  the  state  was  in  greatest  danger. 
 
 While  things  were  in  this  situation  at  Rome,  Otho 
 received  advice,  that  Vitellius 's  forces  were  upon  their 
 march  towards  Italy,  under  the  conduct  of  two  com- 
 manders Valens  and  Ceer.ina  ;  whereupon  he  departed 
 from  Rome  with  a  fair  army,  consisting  of  the  Roman 
 nobility,  the  Praetorian  cohorts,  the  legions  out  of  the 
 fleets  upon  the  Italian  coast,  and  such  others  as  he  could 
 levy  in  that  time.  Upon  the  approach  of  the  two  parties, 
 both  armies  proceeded  with  such  haste  and  precipitation, 
 that  besides  skirmishes,  and  other  encounters,  three  con- 
 siderable battles  were  fought ;  one  at  Piacentia,  another 
 at  Cremona,  and  a  third  at  a  place  called  Castor ;  in  all 
 which  Otho  and  the  senate  had  the  advantage,  though 
 the  word  on  both  sides  was,  'Rome  and  the  Empire  ! 
 
 Valens  and  Cajcina  hitherto  acted  separately,  but, 
 joining  now  all  their  forces  together,  they  came  to  a 
 general  battle  near  Bebriacum,  a  village  between  Cre- 
 mona and  Verona,  and  after  a  sharp  engagement,  the 
 Praetorian  cohorts  giving  way,  the  Vitellians  obtained  a 
 victory,  which  at  once  decided  the  contest.  For  Otho, 
 though  he  had  sufficient  encouragement  to  continue  the 
 war,  being  reduced  to  a  sort  of  desperation,  resolved 
 upon  an  attempt, contrary  to  his  soft  and  effeminate  tem- 
 per ;  which  was,  a  '  to  die  himself,  in  order  to  spare  the 
 
 a  His  speech  to  his  soldiers  upon  this  occasion  is  very  remark- 
 able : — '  I  esteem  this  day  as  far  more  happy  and  glorious  than 
 that  whereon  you  made  me  Emperor,  since  it  has  manifested 
 such  sensible  tokens  of  your  love  and  affection,  and  ineontestiblo 
 proofs  of  your  duty  and  loyalty  ;  therefore  I  beseech  you,  not  to 
 deny  me  this  favour,  winch  is,  to  suffer  me  to  die  justly  and 
 honourably,  for  the  safety  of  so  many  brave  soldiers,  and  worihy 
 citizens,  as  you  are.  There  can  be  no  occasion  for  any  legions 
 and  forces  coming  to  my  assistance,  since  the  enemy  is  neither 
 Hannibal  nor  Pyrrhus ;  therefore  to  hazard  your  virtue  and 
 valour  in  dangers  wholly  needless,  is  too  dear  a  purchase  ol  life  ; 
 and  the  greater  hopes  you  have  of  success,  the  more  honourable 
 will  be  my  death,  as  being  voluntary.  Assure  yourselves,  I  had 
 rather  die  than  reign  Emperor,  since  I  can  never  so  far  advance 
 the  Roman  state  by  wars  and  bloodshed,  as  by  sacrificing  my- 
 self for  the  peace  of  it ;  and  whereas  others  have  purchased  fame 
 und  glory  by  their  well  governing  and  supporting  the  empire, 
 
1136 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4073.  A.  D.  69  ;  OR,  A.  M.  5480.  A.  D.  G%  &c. 
 
 blood  of  his  countrymen.  No  arguments  or  entreaties 
 could  move  or  divert  him  from  this  resolution,  which  he 
 carried  on  and  effected,  with  all  imaginable  calmness 
 and  serenity  of  mind. 
 
 For  the  night  before  he  died,  having  chosen  out  a 
 sharp  dagger,  and  laid  it  under  his  pillow,  he  took  a 
 draught  of  cold  water,  and  so  went  to  bed,  and  fell  into 
 a  profound  sleep;  but,  awaking  about  break  of  day, 
 and  seeing  one  of  his  servants  in  the  chamber,  he  com- 
 manded him  to  retire,  and  then  taking  the  dagger,  gave 
 himself  a  mortal  stab  on  the  left  side,  and,  with  a  single 
 groan  ended  his  life,  in  the  thirty-eighth  year  of  his  age, 
 and  after  a  very  short  and  troublesome  reign  of  only 
 twelve  weeks  and  six  days. 
 
 Soon  after  the  death  of  Otho,  Vitellius,  being  still  in 
 Gaul,  was,  both  by  the  army  and  senate,  acknowledged 
 as  emperor.  In  his  journey  towards  Home,  arriving  at 
 Bebriacum,  where  the  last  battle  was  fought,  he  was  ex- 
 tremely delighted  with  the  sight  of  the  putriried  bodies, 
 and  the  limbs  of  men  and  horses  mangled,  and  scattered 
 abroad  ;  and  when  several  of  his  train  complained  of 
 the  noisome  smells,  he  impiously  replied,  that  a  dead 
 enemy  smelt  well,  but  a  dead  citizen  better.  Nor  did 
 he  give  greater  satisfaction  at  his  arrival  in  Rome  ;  for, 
 he  entered  the  city,  like  a  conqueror,  mounted  upon  a 
 noble  steed,  and  adorned  with  all  his  military  habili- 
 ments ;  encouraged  his  soldiers  to  all  kinds  of  insolence 
 and  outrage  :  and  abandoned  himself  to  the  most  ex- 
 travagant degrees  of  luxury,  gluttony,  and  cruelty,  in- 
 somuch that,  in  four  months'  time,  he  wasted  above 
 seven  millions  of  our  money  ;  nor  would  the  revenues 
 of  the  whole  empire,  had  he  reigned  long,  been  suffi- 
 ciant  to  maintain  his  expences.  His  using  all  manner 
 of  fraud  and  hypocrisy  to  destroy  such  persons  of  quality 
 as  had  formerly  been  his  associates  and  school-fellows  : 
 his  going  to  visit  one  of  them  in  a  fever,  and,  upon  his 
 desiring  to  drink,  mingling  poison  with  the  water,  and 
 delivering  it  to  him  with  his  own  hand  ;  his  causing  all 
 persons  to  be  put  to  death  that  came  to  demand  the 
 payment  of  his  former  debts,  and  one  of  them  to  be  slain 
 in  his  very  presence,  that  he  might  feed  his  eyes  with 
 the  spectacle,  as  he  called  it ;  his  ordering  two  sons  to  be 
 executed  with  their  father,  for  no  other  crime,  than  merely 
 presuming  to  intercede  for  his  life;  and  his  having 
 several  of  the  meaner  sort  slaughtered,  only  for  deriding 
 the  colours  of  some  charioteers  whom  he  pretended  to 
 favour  ;  these,  and  many  more  sanguinary  acts,  men- 
 tioned by  the  historians  who  have  recorded  his  life,  are 
 a  sufficient  indication,  that  in  his  government  he  designed 
 to  follow  the  example  of  Nero,  to  whose  manes  he  pub- 
 licly sacrificed  in  a  general  assembly  of  the  priests  in 
 the  Campus  Martius.  All  this  while  he  gave  himself  up 
 to  such  a  strange  carelessness  and  stupidity,  that  nothing 
 but  his  horrid  cruelties  could  put  him  in  mind  of  his  ex- 
 alted state  ;  and  fortifying  himself  with  confused  mirth 
 and  sottishness  against  all  dangers  and  exigencies,  he 
 almost  lost  the  remembrance  of  things  past,  and  the 
 thoughts  of  things  to  come. 
 
 I  may  reasonably  expect  a  name  for  leaving  it,  rather  than  per- 
 mit my  ambition  to  weak™  and  destroy  it.  I  therefore  cVsire 
 Ibat  you  would  take  this  as  an  undoubted  proof  of  my  courage 
 and  resolution,  that  I  make  no  complaints  of  hard  fortune,  or  ill 
 success;  for  to  blame  either  gods  or  men,  implies  a  mean  and 
 indirect  desire  of  living.— Echard's  Roman  History  in  the  life 
 <fOtho. 
 
 Having  thus,  by  this  abominable  life,  made  himself 
 odious  to  the  city,  and  by  the  daily  insolences  and  cruel- 
 ties of  his  soldiers,  insupportable  to  the  country,  the 
 legions  in  the  east,  though,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
 they  submitted  to  his  authority,  began  now  to  revolt, 
 and  fixing  their  eyes  upon  Vespasian,  as  a  person  most 
 worthy  of  the  highest  authority,  and  most  able  to  put  an 
 end  to  the  miseries  of  his  country,  resolved  to  create 
 him  emperor  against  Vitellius.  Vespasian  at  this  time 
 was  engaged  in  a  war  against  the  Jews,  and,  with  great 
 bravery  and  renown,  had  reduced  most  of  their  country,, 
 except  Jerusalem  ;  but  when  his  army  proclaimed  him 
 emperor,  and  he  absolutely  refused  that  dignity,  the 
 soldiers,  with  their  drawn  swords,  and  many  menaces 
 against  his  life,  compelled  him  to  take  the  honour  upon 
 him  ;  whereupon  all  the  armies  of  the  east  came  to  his 
 service  and  obedience,  and  in  a  general  council  it  was 
 determined  that  Titus  should  continue  the  war  against 
 the  Jews,  Mutianus  enter  Italy  with  the  greatest  part 
 of  the  legions,  and  Vespasian  himself  go  to  Alexandria, 
 to  make  provision  from  all  parts,  and  thence  pass 
 over  into  Italy,  to  join  Mutianus,  as  occasion  should 
 require  it. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  Antonius  Primus,  an  excellent  sol- 
 dier, who  had  been  banished  by  Nero,  but  restored  by 
 Galba,  a  friend  to  Vespasian,  and  privy  to  his  design, 
 immediately  marched  at  the  head  of  the  Maesian  legions 
 into  Italy  ;  and  before  Mutianus  could  arrive,  having 
 entirely  defeated  Vitellius 's  army,  was  proceeding  direct- 
 ly towards  Rome.  This  so  startled  and  confounded 
 Vitellius,  that  he  became  perfectly  ridiculous  and  des- 
 picable, sometimes  proposing  terms  of  accommodation, 
 and  offering  to  lay  down  his  authority,  and  then  re- 
 assuming  it  again,  till  he  occasioned  a  faction  and  civil 
 Avar  even  in  Rome,  during  which  the  capitol  was  besieged, 
 taken,  and  laid  in  ashes,  and  Sabinus,  the  governor  of 
 the  city,  was  slain.  After  this,  Antonius  would  hearken 
 to  no  more  treaties  or  accommodations,  but  continued 
 his  march  even  to  the  walls  of  Rome ;  where  a  furious 
 battle  of  almost  a  day's  continuance  ensued,  until  Vitel- 
 lius's  army  were  driven  into  the  city,  and,  through  the 
 Campus  Martius,  and  all  the  streets,  pursued  with  a 
 most  terrible  slaughter. 
 
 In  the  midst  of  these  devastations,  the  people,  who 
 were  then  celebrating  their  Saturnalia,  rather  than  not 
 enjoy  the  pleasures  of  the  festival,  converted  the  com- 
 mon calamity  into  mirth  and  jollity  :  so  that  through  the 
 whole  city,  there  was  both  a  barbarous  and  a  shameful 
 spectacle,  and  a  scandalous  mixture  of  cruelty  and  lewd- 
 ness in  one  place,  wounding  and  slaying  ;  in  another, 
 tippling  and  bathing  :  here,  streams  of  blood,  and  heaps 
 of  mangled  bodies  ;  and,  hard  by,  lewd  debauchees,  and 
 shameless  prostitutes :  in  short,  all  the  abominable  licen- 
 tiousness of  a  most  dissolute  and  riotous  peace,  and  all 
 the  deplorable  miseries  of  a  most  dreadful  and  cruel  war. 
 
 Thus  was  this  mighty  city,  the  head  and  empress  of  the 
 world,  taken  and  ravaged  by  her  own  natural  subjects; 
 and,  as  it  was  fatal  to  many  thousands,  so  it  was  no  less 
 to  Vitellius  himself ;  whom  the  soldiers  dragged  out  of  his 
 palace,  and  without  hearkening  to  any  intreaties,  binding 
 his  hands  behind  him,  threw  an  halter  about  his  neck,  and, 
 tearing  his  very  clothes  from  his  back,  drew  him  half- 
 naked  into  the  public  forum,  through  the  main  street, 
 called  Via   Sacra ;    all  the   while   as   lie   went  along, 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1137 
 
 A.  M.  4074.  A.  D.  70;  OR, 
 treating  him  with  the  utmost  indignities,  and  most  oppro- 
 brious language  ;  tying  his  hair  backwards,  as  it  was 
 wont  to  be  done  to  the  most  execrable  malefactors  ;  pelt- 
 ing him  with  dung  and  filth,  and  holding  the  point  of  a 
 sword  under  his  chin,  to  prevent  his  concealing  his  face  ; 
 till  at  length  they  brought  him  to  the  common  place  of 
 execution  for  the  most  notorious  criminals,  and,  having 
 there,  with  many  blows  and  wounds, despatched  him,  in  the 
 fifty-sixth  year  of  his  age,  and  after  a  short  reign  of  eight 
 months,  they  thence  dragged  him  with  an  hook,  and,  hav- 
 ing thrown  him  into  the  Tiber,  made  afterwards,  not  only 
 his  brother  and  only  son,  but  all  whom  they  met  with  of 
 his  party,  victims  to  their  fury. 
 
 After  these  murders  and  ravages  were  abated,  the 
 Roman  senate  assembled,  and,  with  an  unanimous  con- 
 sent, not  only  declared  Vespasian  Emperor,  but  con- 
 ferred the  title  of  Caesar  upon  his  two  sons,  Titus  and 
 Domitian  ;  nominated  the  former  to  be  consul,  with  his 
 father,  for  the  year  ensuing  ;  and  the  latter  to  be  praetor, 
 with  consular  power ;  rewarded  Mutianus,  Antonius,  and 
 several  others,  with  great  revenues  and  dignities,  for 
 contributing  to  this  happy  revolution  ;  and  despatched 
 couriers  to  Vespasian  at  Alexandria,  to  tender  him  their 
 homage  and  obedience,  and  to  desire  his  speedy  return 
 to  Rome :  but,  as  the  winter  Avas  not  so  commodious 
 for  sailing,  he  deferred  his  going  to  a  more  convenient 
 season. 
 
 Vespasian,  as  we  said,  before  he  left  Judea,  committed 
 the  management  of  the  war  against  the  Jews  to  his  son 
 Titus,  as  well  knowing  his  extraordinary  valour  and 
 skill  for  such  an  undertaking.  Himself  had  reduced 
 most  of  the  country,  except  Jerusalem ;  but  Jerusalem 
 was  the  capital  city,  fortified  with  three  walls  on  every 
 side,  except  where  it  was  fenced  with  deep  vallies,  hav- 
 ing the  castle  of  Antonia,  the  temple;  the  palace  of 
 Acra,  the  towers  on  mount  Sion,  and  several  other  places, 
 almost  impregnable  ;  so  that  great  consultation,  and  a 
 preparation  of  many  materials,  were  required  to  carry 
 on  such  a  siege.  But  what  facilitated  its  reduction,  were 
 the  several  parties  and  factions  which  had  possession  of 
 different  parts  of  the  city,  and  were  not  only  murdering 
 and  massacring  one  another,  but,  in  their  rage  and  mad- 
 ness, had  destroyed  the  provisions  likewise,  which  might 
 have  served  the  city  for  many  years.  Jerusalem  was 
 involved  in  these  sad  circumstances,  when  Titus,  with  a 
 powerful  army,  and  all  kinds  of  warlike  engines,  ap- 
 proached, and  sat  down  within  six  or  seven  furlongs  of 
 the  city,  a  little  before  the  feast  of  the  passover,  by  which 
 means  he  shut  up  an  infinite  number  of  people  come  from 
 all  parts  to  that  solemnity,  which  in  a  short  time  occa- 
 sioned a  great  consumption  of  their  provisions. 
 
 Upon  the  sight  of  so  numerous  an  army,  the  several 
 factions  unanimously  agreed  to  oppose  it;  and  sallying 
 out,  with  great  resolution  and  fury,  put  the  Romans  to 
 disorder,  and  obliged  them  to  abandon  their  camp,  and 
 ffy  to  the  mountains  :  but  the  Jews  were  at  last  repulsed, 
 and  driven  into  the  city  by  the  extraordinary  skill  and 
 valour  of  Titus  ;  who,  in  this  and  all  other  actions  dur- 
 ing this  siege,  greatly  signalized  himself. 
 
 When  Titus  had  placed  his  engines,  which  was  not 
 done  without  great  opposition,  he  battered  the  outward 
 wall,  and,  on  the  third  day  of  May,  making  a  breach, 
 entered  and  took  possession  of  the  north  quarter  of  the 
 city,  as  far  as  the  castle  of  Antonia,  and  the  valley  of 
 
 A.  M.  5481.  A.  D.  70,  &c. 
 
 Kedron  ;  which  when  he  had  done,  he  gave  the  besieged 
 all  possible  assurances  of  pardon  and  civil  treatment,  if 
 they  would  but  submit.  But  they  judging  his  humanity 
 to  be  the  effect  of  cowardice,  refused  all  terms  and  con- 
 ditions. Five  days  after  this,  Titus  broke  through  the 
 second  wall  :  and  though  the  besieged  made  several 
 sallies,  and  drove  him  out  again ;  yet  on  the  fourth  day 
 he  recovered  the  place,  and  possessed  himself  of  the  new 
 lower  city  ;  which  when  he  had  done,  being  still  desirous 
 to  show  them  mercy,  he  sent  a  Josephus  to  his  country- 
 men, to  exhort  them  to  yield.  But  though  he  used  all  the 
 powerful  and  pathetic  persuasions  imaginable,  he  was 
 entertained  with  nothing  but  scoffs  and  reproaches;  so 
 that  Titus  was  now  resolved  to  proceed  w  ith  more  severity 
 against  a  people  who  had  been  perfidious  to  the  highest 
 degree,  and  stubborn  beyond  all  example  ;  and  accord- 
 ingly, whenever  they  escaped  out  of  the  city,  as  the 
 famine  compelled  many  to  make  their  escape,  they  were 
 no  sooner  taken  by  Titus,  than  he  caused  them  to  be 
 scourged  and  crucified ;  and  that  in  such  numbers,  that 
 room  was  wanting  for  crosses,  and  crosses  for  persons, 
 though,  by  the  cruelty  of  this  spectacle,  he  only  designed 
 to  terrify  the  city,  and  hasten  its  surrender. 
 
 On  the  12th  of  May,  Titus  began  four  mounts  for  his 
 battering  rams ;  two  near  the  castle  of  Antonia,  where 
 he  was  in  hopes  of  taking  the  temple ;  and  two  near  the 
 monument  of  John  the  high-priest,  where  he  supposed  he 
 might  break  into  the  upper  city  with  the  greatest  facility. 
 But  in  two  bold  sallies,  the  besieged  ruined  and  destroyed 
 the  mounts  and  having  burnt  several  battering  rams,  and 
 other  engines,  pressed  forward,  and  broke  into  the  very 
 camp  of  the  Romans ;  though  at  length  they  were  valiantly 
 
 a  How  Josephus  came  to  be  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  camp 
 of  Titus,  while  he  besieged  it,  himself  tells  us  in  his  History  of 
 the  Jewish  Wars,  namely,  that  after  the  reduction  of  Jotapata, 
 which  he  gallantly  defended,  he  became  a  prisoner  to  Vespasian  ; 
 but,  having  foretold  his  advancement  to  the  empire,  which  accord- 
 ingly came  to  pass,  he  was  not  only  set  at  liberty,  but  received 
 into  great  confidence,  and  attended  his  son  at  the  siege  of  Jeru- 
 salem, where  he  made  a  long  speech  to  his  countrymen,  by  all 
 the  arguments  he  could  invent,  persuading  them  to  surrender ; 
 but  all  in  vain ;  although  his  discourse  drew  tears  from  his  own 
 eyes,  as  himself  tells  us,  (b.  vi.  c.  9.)  the  factions  were  not  in  the 
 least  softened  by  it.  After  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  he 
 went  with  his  conqueror  to  Rome,  where  Vespasian  showed  him 
 great  respect,  and,  as  himself  tells  in  his  life,  lodged  him  in  his 
 own  house,  made  him  a  free  citizen  of  Rome,  assigned  him  a 
 pension,  gave  him  lands  in  Judea,  and,  above  all,  ordered  him 
 a  public  statue.  These  favours  Titus,  when  he  came  to  the 
 empire,  increased,  and  in  honour  of  him,  had  his  History  of  the 
 Wars  of  the  Jews,  which  was  now  finished,  deposited  in  the  pub- 
 lic library.  This  history  is  a  continued  account  of  the  Jewish 
 affairs,  from  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
 down  to  the  utter  ruin  of  it  by  Titus,  consisting  in  all  of  242 
 years  ;  but  the  most  considerable  and  valuable  part  of  it  is  that 
 of  the  six  last  years,  where  he  describes  the  last  Jewish  wars,  the 
 destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  miseries  of  his  countrymen, 
 in  the  most  lively  and  afiecting  manner.  Besides  this,  Josephus 
 wrote  another  history,  intitled,  '  The  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,' 
 which  was  finished  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  Domitian.  One 
 half  of  this  history  is  taken  from  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament ; 
 but  he  has  ventured  to  add  several  facts  that  are  not  to  be  found 
 in  these  writings,  and  to  those  which  he  has  wholiy  taken  from 
 them,  he  has  given  such  an  artificial  turn,  as  shows,  that  his  in- 
 tention was  to  accommodate  the  most  surprising  passages  in  holy 
 scripture  to  the  humour  and  opinions  of  the  persons  to  whom  he 
 wrote.  Besides  these  two  histories,  he  wrote  an  account  of  his 
 own  life,  two  treatises  against  Apion,  and  one  concerning  the 
 martyrdom  of  the  Maccabees,  which  Erasmus  justly  styles  '  a 
 masterpiece  of  eloquence.' — Echard's  Ecclesiastical  History, 
 7  B 
 
113S 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4074.  A.  D.  70;  OR,  A.  M.  5482.  A.  D.  71,  &c. 
 
 repulsed  by  Titus ;  who  in  a  council  of  war  now  re- 
 solved to  surround  the  whole  city  with  a  wall  or  en- 
 trenchment, to  hinder  the  flight  of  the  besieged,  and  to 
 prevent  all  relief  from  coming  into  the  city  :  thereby 
 verifying  our  blessed  Lord's  predictions  to  a  tittle : 
 'The  days  shall  come  upon  thee,  that  thy  enemies  shall 
 cast  a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass  thee  around,  and 
 keep  thee  in  on  every  side.' 
 
 This  work,  though  nearly  five  miles  in  compass,  was, 
 with  incredible  celerity,  finished  in  three  days.  But  it 
 made  no  impression  upon  the  besieged,  though  the 
 famine  began  to  rage  violently,  and  such  a  mortality 
 ensued,  that,  from  the  14th  of  April  to  the  1st  of  July, 
 115,080  carcases  of  the  poorer  sort  were  carried  out  to 
 be  buried  at  the  public  charge,  600,000  were  cast  out 
 of  the  gates,  and  when  the  number  of  the  dead  bodies 
 increased  so  that  they  had  no  place  to  dispose  of  them, 
 they  gathered  them  together  into  the  largest  houses  ad- 
 joining, and  there  shut  them  up.  All  this  while  the 
 famine  increased  to  such  a  degree,  that  a  bushel  of  corn 
 was  sold  for  600  crowns  ;  that  wives  took  the  meat  out 
 of  their  husbands'  mouths,  children  from  their  parents, 
 and  mothers  from  their  infants ;  that  old  men  were 
 driven  from  their  meat,  as  persons  of  no  use,  and  young 
 men  tortured  to  confess  where  their  provisions  lay  ;  that 
 sinks  and  holes  were  continually  raked,  to  find  the  old 
 dung  of  oxen  for  food  ;  that  the  very  soldiers  who  were 
 the  last  that  would  want,  began  to  eat  girdles,  shoes, 
 sticks,  and  hay  ;  and  that  a  woman  of  quality  even  boiled 
 her  own  child,  with  an  intent  to  eat  it ;  an  act  so  detes- 
 tible,  that  Titus,  after  he  had  insisted  upon  his  frequent 
 offers  of  peace  and  pardon  to  the  Jews,  declared  pub- 
 licly, that  he  would  bury  the  abominable  crime  in  the 
 ruins  of  their  country,  and  not  suffer  the  sun  to  shine 
 upon  that  city  where  mothers  ate  their  own  children, 
 and  where  fathers,  no  less  culpable,  reduced  them  to 
 that  extremity  by  their  obstinacy, 
 
 With  this  resolution,  he  cut  down  all  the  groves  within 
 a  considerable  distance  of  the  city,  and  causing  more 
 mounts  to  be  raised,  on  the  1st  of  July  he  began  to  batter 
 the  wall  of  Antonia,  and  on  the  5th,  entered  the  castle 
 by  force,  and  pursued  the  flying  Jews  even  to  the  temple ; 
 which  when  he  had  done,  both  he  and  Josephus  again 
 exhorted  them  to  surrender :  but  all  to  no  purpose  ;  they 
 obstinately  refused  all  accommodation,  and  made  it  their 
 boast,  that  they  had  rather  endure  the  worst  of  miseries. 
 Titus  hearing  this,  in  order  to  make  an  easy  ascent  to 
 t!i<'  temple,  overturned  the  foundation  of  Antonia ;  and 
 having  seized  the  north  and  west  porticos  or  cloisters  of 
 the  outward  range  of  the  temple,  he  set  them  on  fire  ; 
 M  the  Jews  did  other  porticos,  to  hinder  the  Romans 
 from  making  their  approaches.  On  the  8th  day  of 
 August  Titus,  perceiving  that  the  walls  of  the  inner 
 temple  were  too  strong  for  the  battering  rams,  and  that 
 the  foundation  of  the  gates  could  not  be  undermined, 
 was  obliged  to  set  fire  to  them  ;  yet  still  with  an  intent, 
 if  possible,  to  save  the  temple  itself:  but  it  so  fell  out, 
 that,  on  the  LOth,  a  certain  soldier,  contrary  to  the  com- 
 mand of  the  general,  excited  by  a  kind  of  divine  impulse, 
 cast  a  flaming  firebrand  through  the  golden  window  into 
 the  chambers  and  buildings  on  the  north  side,  which  im- 
 mediately set  them  on  fire  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the 
 utmost  endeavours  to  the  contrary,  spread  throughout 
 the  whole  fabric,  and  consumed  the  most  glorious  and 
 
 beautiful  structure  that  the  world  ever  saw;  whilst  the 
 Roman  soldiers,  pursuing  their  victory  with  all  imagin- 
 able fury  and  revenge,  cut  in  pieces  all  they  found  about 
 the  temple,  and  set  fire  to  the  rest  of  the  buildings. 
 
 In  all  these  confusions,  those  who  were  the  chiefs  in  this 
 sedition  found  means  to  retire  to  the  upper  and  strong- 
 est part  of  the  city,  called  Sion,  situated  upon  a  steep 
 rock,  where  they  threatened  to  defend  themselves  to  the 
 last,  and  there  tyrannized  with  more  cruelty  than  ever  ; 
 till  Titus  having  raised  his  batteries,  and  made  a  breach 
 in  the  wall,  they  lost  all  their  courage,  and,  in  great 
 consternation,  abandoned  the  towers,  which  were  their 
 only  strength,  and  in  vain  sought  to  escape,  by  hiding 
 themselves  in  vaults  and  privies,  from  whence  both  John 
 a  and  Simon,  two  principal  ringleaders  of  their  different 
 factions,  were  dragged  out,  and  the  former  condemned 
 to  perpetual  imprisonment,  while  the  latter  was  appointed 
 to  grace  the  general's  triumph. 
 
 The  Romans,  having  now  gained  the  walls,  and,  with 
 shouts  of  joy  placed  their  colours  upon  the  towers,  broke 
 loose  all  over  the  city,  and  ranged  up  and  down  in  the 
 streets,  killing  all  that  fell  in  their  way,  without  dis- 
 tinction, till  the  passages  and  alleys  were  choked  up 
 with  carcases,  and  the  kennels  of  the  city  ran  with  blood, 
 as  if  it  had  been  to  quench  the  fire,  which  was  now  be- 
 come one  general  conflagration. 
 
 To  this  fatal  end  was  the  famous  city  of  Jerusalem, 
 after  a  siege  of  above  five  months,  reduced,  in  the  second 
 year  of  Vespasian's  reign,  and  thirty-eight  years  after 
 our  Lord's  crucifixion  ;  in  which  siege  there  perished  no 
 less  than  1,100,000,  and  no  fewer  than  97,000  were  taken 
 captives,  besides  the  237,490  more,  according  to  Jose- 
 phus, who  fell  in  the  wars  which  preceded  it.  At  last, 
 when  the  soldiers  had  neither  rapine  nor  bloodshed  left 
 for  their  rage  and  indignation  to  work  upon,  Titus 
 ordered  them  to  lay  the  city  and  the  temple  level  with 
 the  ground,  or,  in  the  words  of  our  Saviour's  prediction, 
 '  not  to  leave  one  stone  upon  another  ;'  which  order  was 
 so  punctually  executed,  that  except  three  towers,  which, 
 for  their  strength  and  beauty,  were  left  as  monuments  of 
 the  city's  stateliness  to  posterity,  the  whole  was  laid  so 
 flat,  that  the  place  looked  as  if  it  never  had  been  in- 
 habited. 
 
 While  these  things  were  transacting  at  Jerusalem, 
 Vespasian,  who  entered  upon  the  government  in  the  fifty- 
 ninth  year  of  his  age,  having  been  received  at  Rome 
 with  all  imaginable  testimonies  of  joy  and  triumph,  as 
 the  only  person  whose  virtues  and  excellencies  could 
 recover  the  languishing  state  of  the  empire,  began  im- 
 
 a  This  John  was  the  son  of  one  Levi,  born  at  Gaschala,  and 
 one  of  the  principal  men  of  the  place.  When  Titus  came  be- 
 fore it,  under  a  pretence  of  surrendering  it,  he  made  his  escape, 
 and  came,  with  a  party  of  men,  to  Jerusalem,  where,  joining 
 with  the  Zealots,  and  being  naturally  a  crafty  man,  eloquent  in 
 his  speech,  and  ambitious  beyond  measure,  he  soon  began  to 
 affect  a  sovereign  power  over  the  rest,  and  became  the  com- 
 mander of  one  faction  ;  as  Simon,  the  son  of  Gioras,  did  of 
 another.  For  he,  gathering  together  great  multitudes  of  robbers 
 and  murderers,  who  got  into  the  mountainous  parts,  reduced  all 
 Idumea,  wasted  Judea,  encamped  himself  before  Jerusalem,  and 
 was  at  length  let  in  by  the  citizens  to  defend  them  against 
 John,  who,  at  the  head  of  the  Zealots,  did  many  cruel  and 
 tyrannical  actions.  So  that  Simon  and  his  army  were  in  the 
 city,  while  John  and  his  adherents  were  in  the  temple  fight- 
 ing and  destroying  one  another,  even  while  the  enemy  was 
 at  the  walls. — Echard's  Ecclesiastical  History. 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST    &c 
 
 1139 
 
 A.  M.  4083.  A.  D.  79;  OR, 
 mediately  to  act  conformably  to  the  hopes  which  all  men 
 had  conceived  of  him,  in  administering  justice,  and  in 
 reforming  the  laws  and  customs  of  Rome ;  honourably 
 rewarding  those  who  had  served  him,  and  pardoning  his 
 adversaries  with  singular  clemency. 
 
 Mean  time,  the  conclusion  of  the  Jewish  war  occa- 
 sioned great  rejoicings  at  Rome,  where  all  men's  mouths 
 were  filled  with  the  praises  of  Titus,  who  had  shown 
 himself  so  expert  a  soldier  and  commander  ;  and  accord- 
 ingly a  triumph  was  decreed  by  the  senate,  both  for  him 
 and  his  father,  who  had  so  bravely  managed  the  begin- 
 ning of  the  war.  AVhen  Titus  returned  to  Rome,  he  was 
 received  with  the  universal  applauses  of  the  whole  city> 
 and  within  a  few  days  after,  both  the  father  and  the  son 
 entered  upon  their  triumph,  which  was  as  solemn  and 
 magnificent  as  Rome  ever  saw  ;  wherein,  among  other 
 rich  and  glorious  spoils,  vast  quantities  of  gold,  taken 
 out  of  the  temple,  and  the  body  of  the  Jewish  law,  the 
 last,  and  not  the  least  remarkable  of  all  these  spoils, 
 were  exhibited  to  the  view  of  the  people.  This  was  the 
 first  time  that  Rome  ever  saw  the  father  and  son  triumph 
 together  :  and,  as  Vespasian  built  a  new  temple  to  Peace, 
 wherein  he  deposited  most  of  the  Jewish  spoils  ;  so  Titus 
 had  a  triumphal  arch  of  great  beauty  and  magnificence 
 erected  to  his  honour,  whereon  are  inscribed  all  his  noble 
 exploits  against  the  Jews,  and  which,  as  a  lasting  monu- 
 ment against  that  impious  and  perverse  nation,  remains 
 almost  entire  to  this  very  day. 
 
 After  this  happy  peace,  Vespasian  proceeded  to  the 
 regulation  of  the  several  abuses  and  corruptions,  which, 
 in  the  late  reigns,  and  the  civil  confusions,  had  crept  into 
 the  state.  He  restrained  the  luxury  and  licentiousness 
 of  his  officers  and  soldiers,  not  sparing  those  who  had 
 been  assistants  to  him,  and  partners  with  him  in  his  vic- 
 tories. He  reformed  the  two  principal  orders  among 
 the  Romans,  the  senators  and  the  equites,  degrading  all 
 those  he  found  unworthy  of  their  dignities,  and  supply- 
 ing their  places  with  the  most  deserving  persons  he  could 
 procure,  either  in  Italy  or  other  provinces.  He  examined 
 into  all  courts  of  judicature  ;  and  where  he  found  law- 
 suits multiplied  to  a  prodigious  number,  or  extended  to 
 an  unreasonable  length,  he  appointed  proper  persons  to 
 determine  them,  and  made  many  excellent  laws,  to 
 digest  and  reduce  such  matters  into  a  far  less  compass; 
 and  to  reform  the  corruption  of  usurers,  as  well  as  the 
 looseness  of  youth,  he  ordained,  that  no  person  should 
 recover  any  money  of  young  heirs,  if  it  was  lent  to  be 
 repaid  with  interest  upon  the  decease  of  their  fathers. 
 
 And  as  he  was  severe  in  punishing  vice,  so  he  was  no 
 less  remarkable  for  rewarding  all  kinds  of  merit,  though 
 his  more  particular  bounty  was  extended  to  the  learned 
 professors  of  arts  and  sciences.  He  settled  a  con- 
 stant salary  of  an  hundred  thousand  sesterces  upon  the 
 teachers  of  rhetoric,  to  be  paid  yearly  out  of  the 
 exchequer.  He  entertained  Josephus,  the  famous  writer 
 of  the  Jewish  wars  and  antiquities,  with  great  civility, 
 and  honoured  him  with  a  statue.  Pliny  the  elder, 
 an  eminent  natural  historian,  Qtiintilian  the  renowned 
 orator,  and  many  other  persons  of  great  learning,  flour- 
 ished in  his  reign,  and  were  highly  esteemed  by  him;  as 
 the  greatest  masters  of  all  other  arts  and  sciences  were 
 invited  to  Rome,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  by  his 
 generous  allowances.  To  all  which  we  may  add,  that 
 his  courtesy  and  clemency  appeared  constantly,  both  in 
 
 ,  A.  M.  5490.  A.  D.  79,  &c. 
 
 public  and  private,  so  that  scarce  one  innocent  person 
 was  punished  through  his  whole  reign  ;  and  so  contrary 
 was  his  temper  to  that  of  most  of  his  predecessors,  that 
 he  could  not  so  much  as  look  upon  the  sufferings  of  a 
 criminal,  without  signifying  his  compassion  by  his  sighs 
 and  tears. 
 
 But  though  he  was  thus  mild  and  merciful,  brave  and 
 generous,  yet  he  did  not  preserve  himself  from  the  scan- 
 dal of  avarice  and  rapaciousness ;  which  was  grounded 
 upon  his  selling  all  the  lands  in  Judea,  and  appropriat- 
 ing the  money  to  himself;  upon  his  obliging  all  the  Jews 
 in  the  Roman  empire  to  pay  yearly  two  drachmas  to  the 
 capitol,  as  they  formerly  had  done  to  the  temple  at 
 Jerusalem ;  and  upon  his  laying  heavy  tributes  upon 
 several  provinces,  and  particularly  a  scandalous  excise 
 upon  urine.  But  for  this,  and  all  his  other  severe  im- 
 positions, authors  do  much  excuse  him,  upon  the  account 
 of  the  great  necessities  of  the  state,  and  the  emptiness 
 of  the  exchequer,  when  he  came  first  to  the  government ; 
 reminding  us  withal,  that  his  public  works  and  edifices 
 were  highly  chargeable  and  expensive  ;  his  presents  and 
 pensions  were  numerous  and  large  ;  his  feasts  and  enter- 
 tainments frequent  and  magnificent;  and  that,  though 
 his  revenue,  by  those  exactions,  was  augmented,  yet  he 
 always  employed  it  to  noble  purposes,  and  laid  it  out 
 with  great  wisdom  and  liberality. 
 
 By  this  wise  administration  of  public  affairs,  he  in- 
 creased the  love  and  respect  of  the  whole  senate  and 
 people,  the  nearer  he  approached  to  the  end  of  his  days  ; 
 and  when  he  had  finished  his  course,  which  was  in  the 
 sixty-ninth  year  of  his  age  and  tenth  of  his  reign,  his 
 death  was  greatly  lamented,  and  his  memory  gratefully 
 preserved,  as  being  a  prince  of  great  wisdom,  modera- 
 tion, and  modesty,  next  to  Julius  Cassar  in  war,  and 
 Augustus  in  peace  ;  and  '  in  whom,'  as  Pliny  expresses 
 it, '  greatness  and  majesty  had  changed  nothing,  but  only 
 to  make  his  power  of  doing  good  answerable  to  his 
 will.' 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  the  great  Vespasian,  his  eldest  son 
 Titus,  both  by  the  general  consent,  and  his  father's  last 
 will  and  testament,  succeeded  to  the  empire,  though 
 not  without  some  obstructions  from  his  ambitious  brother 
 Domitian.  Titus  had  served  in  many  wars  with  great 
 honour,  and  discharged  many  civil  offices  with  no  less 
 wisdom  during  his  father's  reign,  he  had  given  too  many 
 occasions  of  prejudice  and  aspersion,  upon  account  of 
 his  severity  and  voluptuous  life  ;  his  extravagant  passion 
 for  Bernice,  King  Agrippa's  sister;  and  his  promoting 
 his  father's  impositions  and  extortions ;  insomuch  that 
 he  was  generally  looked  upon  as  a  second  Nero ;  and 
 scarce  any  man  ever  arrived  at  the  empire  with  a  more 
 sullied  reputation ,  and  a  greater  repugnancy  of  the  people. 
 But  in  a  short  time  these  accusations  and  aversions 
 turned  all  to  his  advantage,  and  his  virtues  gained  him 
 a  reputation,  under  the  burden  of  an  empire,  which  he 
 could  not  attain  under  the  freedom  of  a  private  person. 
 For,  from  his  first  accession,  such  was  his  skill  and 
 address,  as  well  as  good  fortune,  in  gaining  upon  the 
 hearts  and  affections  of  all  people,  that  he  was  gener- 
 ally styled,  'the  love  and  delight  of  mankind.'  His 
 notion  was,  that 'no  man  ought  to  depart  sorrowful  from 
 the  presence  of  a  prince,'  and  therefore  he  never  sent 
 any  away  with  an  unpleasant  answer.  And  so  strong 
 a  propensity  to  do  good,  that  being  told  one  night  by 
 
1140 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 A.  M.  4089.  A.  D.  85;  OR,  A.  M.  549G.  A.  D.  85,  &c. 
 
 those  about  him,  that  he  had  done  nothing-  for  any  per- 
 son that  day,  with  a  sorrowful  countenance  he  replied, 
 '0  my  friends,  I  have  lost  a  day!'  A  sentence  worthy 
 of  an  emperor,  and  fit  to  be  retained  in  the  memory  of 
 all  princes. 
 
 His  first  step  towards  gaining  the  hearts  of  his  sub- 
 jects, and  his  happy  government  of  the  empire,  was  his 
 moderating  his  passions,  and  bridling  his  strong  inclina- 
 tions ;  particularly  by  withdrawing  himself  from  the 
 beautiful  Berenice,  and  sending  her  away,  notwithstand- 
 ing their  mutual  loves ;  and  by  dismissing  several  persons 
 who  had  formerly  been  the  chief  instruments  of  his  plea- 
 sures, rightly  judging  them  unbecoming  the  dignity  and 
 majesty  of  his  present  office. 
 
 After  this  he  proceeded  with  a  better  gTace  and  autho- 
 rity in  the  great  affairs  of  the  state,  and  particularly  in 
 regulating  and  reforming  several  mischiefs,  which  had  not 
 been  perfectly  removed  in  his  father's  reign.  All  infor- 
 mers, promoters,  and  pettifoggers,  the  bane  of  society, and 
 the  pests  of  the  city,  he  took  care  to  exterminate,  by  caus- 
 ing some  to  be  sold  as  slaves,  and  others  to  be  transported 
 to  uninhabited  islands ;  and  to  put  a  farther  stop  to  the 
 corruption  and  tediousness  of  law-suits,  he  prohibited, 
 among  other  things,  that  the  same  case  should  be  tried 
 by  several  laws,  or  that  the  estate  of  any  dead  person 
 should  be  claimed  after  such  a  precise  number  of  years. 
 
 The  same  activity  in  repairing  ancient  buildings,  and 
 erecting  new  ones,  the  same  freedom  of  conversation, 
 magnificence  of  living,  generosity  to  friends,  clemency  to 
 enemies,0  encouragement  to  men  of  learning,  and  cour- 
 tesy to  all,  that  his  father  had  shown,  Titus  was  not 
 forgetful  to  imitate ;  so  that  if  ever  a  people  may  be 
 said  to  be  happy  under  any  prince,  the  Romans  were 
 certainly  so  under  him.  And  yet  in  his  short  reign  there 
 happened  some  misfortunes  and  calamities,  no  less 
 astonishing  than  deplorable ;  namely,  a  most  dreadful 
 eruption  of  Mount  Vesuvius,  which  being  accompanied 
 with  violent  earthquakes,  ruined  many  cities,  and  even 
 threw  its  ashes  into  distant  countries  and  to  Rome,  in  such 
 quantities,  that  the  sun  was  darkened  for  many  days  to- 
 gether; in  the  year  following  a  prodigious  fire  in  Rome, 
 which  lasted  three  days  and  nights  incessantly,  con- 
 sumed the  capitol,  the  pantheon,  and  several  other  tem- 
 ples, the  library  of  Augustus,  and  many  more  noble  build- 
 ings ;  and  this  followed  by  a  dangerous  pestilence,  sup- 
 posed to  be  occasioned  by  the  ashes  of  Mount  Vesuvius 
 in  which  there  commonly  died  ten  thousand  every  day. 
 In  all  which  miseries  Titus  behaved  himself,  not  only 
 
 a  Of  his  great  clemency  we  have  these  remarkable  instances. 
 
 I  wo  Oi  the  Patrician  degree  being  convicted  of  treason,  for  aspir- 
 ing to  the  empire,  he  inflicted  no  punishment  upon  .them,  but 
 only  privately  admonished  them  to  desist,  mildly  telling  them, 
 •That  the  empire  was  given  by  providence;  and  that  Uwas  in 
 vain  lor  them  to  commit  a  villany  in  hopes  of  obtaining  it.' 
 The  same  night  he  entertained  them  at  supper;  and  the  next 
 day,  at  a  spectacle  of  gladiators,  and  placed  them  by  himself 
 and  when  the  combatants'  weapons,  according  to  custom,  were 
 pre*  nted  to  him,  he  publicly  desired  their  judgment  and  appro- 
 bation—In  the  like  manner,  though  his  brother  Domitian  was 
 continually  conspiring,  and  exciting  the  legions  against  him  •  yet 
 so  far  was  he  from  punishing  him  for  it,  that  he  comported  him- 
 self towards  him  as  he  had  always  done,  giving  him  the  title  of 
 late  and  Successor,  and  with  tears  privately  intreating 
 him,  'not  to  attempt  that  by  treason  and  fratricide,  which  in  a 
 *hort  time  he   would   obtain   freely,  and   iu  course— EchardS 
 
 Jiiiman  History,  in  the  life  of  Titus. 
 
 with  the  care  and  regard  of  a  prince,  but  also  with  the 
 tenderness  and  compassion  of  a  father. 
 
 But  Heaven  had  determined  that  so  good  an  emperor 
 should  not  long  bless  so  corrupt  an  age,  and  a  people 
 so  flagitious,  as  the  Romans  were  then  become  ;  for  after 
 a  lingering  illness,  he  died,  in  the  forty-first  year  of  his 
 age,  and  the  third  of  his  reign,  not  without  suspicion  of 
 poison  from  his  brother  Domitian ;  and  as  soon  as  his 
 death  was  known,  a  general  grief  and  sadness  appeared 
 in  all  the  city,  which  in  a  short  time  spread  itself  over 
 every  province,  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  empire,  and 
 made  him  in  all  parts  lamented,  as  though  the  world  had 
 been  deprived  of  a  perpetual  protector. 
 
 The  great  respect  which  all  had  for  Titus  and  his 
 father,  caused  his  brother  Domitian  to  succeed  him  in 
 the  empire  without  any  opposition,  notwithstanding  the 
 ill  opinion  which  many  had  justly  conceived  of  him. 
 In  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  however,  he  behaved  with 
 great  moderation,  concealed  his  vicious  inclinations, 
 and  did  several  commendable  things,  to  gain  the  good- 
 will and  affections  of  the  people.  So  far  was  he  from 
 showing  any  tendency  to  cruelty  and  bloodshed,  that 
 he  was  determined,  by  a  public  edict,  to  forbid  the  sacri- 
 ficing of  oxen  ;  and  so  far  from  any  signs  of  avarice  or 
 parsimony,  that  he  acted  very  generously  upon  all  oc- 
 casions, and  made  it  the  chief  topic  of  his  advice  to 
 those  that  were  about  him,  to  avoid  rapine  and  sordidness. 
 
 In  rebuilding  several  stately  and  noble  fabrics,  which 
 had  been  destroyed  by  the  fire  in  his  brother's  reign  ;  in 
 exhibiting  a  sea-fight  on  a  vast  lake,  dug  for  that  pur- 
 pose, and  by  great  numbers  of  ships,  almost  amounting 
 to  complete  fleets  ;  in  celebrating  the  great  games  and 
 feasts  called  Secular,  of  all  others  the  most  magnificent, 
 as  happening  but  once  in  an  hundred  years;  in  repre- 
 senting all  those  shows  and  spectacles  that  had  ever  been 
 known  ;  in  Rome,  besides  many  more,  that  were  newly 
 invented,  in  the  many  sumptuous  banquets  and  enter- 
 tainments that  he  made,  the  large  donatives  which 
 he  distributed,  and  the  valuable  things  which  he  threw 
 among  the  common  people  by  way  of  missilia  ;  in  these, 
 and  such  like  things,  as  he  knew  would  captivate  the 
 esteem  of  the  vulgar,  he  was  expensive  and  ambitious, 
 as  any  of  his  predecessors  ;  nor  was  he  defective  in 
 some  other  things,  which  justly  deserve  the  commenda- 
 tions of  all  men. 
 
 He  was  diligent  for  a  while  in  the  administration  of 
 justice,  and  would  many  times  sit  himself,  in  an  extra- 
 ordinary manner,  in  the  courts  of  judicature.  He  severely 
 punished  all  such  judges  and  counsellors  as  were  cor- 
 rupt, and  acted  for  bribes  ;  and  with  this  regard,  kept  so 
 watchful  an  eye  upon  the  city -magistrates,  and  governors 
 of  provinces,  that  there  was  never  known  more  equity 
 and  modesty  among  the  great  officers,  than  in  his  reign. 
 He  suppressed  such  libels  and  defamatory  writings,  as 
 any  ways  reflected  upon  persons  of  quality  of  either 
 sex;  but  then  he  expected  that  persons  of  quality  should 
 comport  according  to  their  character,  and  for  this  reason 
 turned  a  senator  out  of  the  house,  purely  for  his  im- 
 moderate delight  in  buffoonery  and  dancing,  judging 
 that  those  things  were  below  the  dignity  of  that  venerable 
 order.  From  such  women  of  distinction  as  were  scan- 
 dalous in  their  lives,  he  took  away  the  privilege  of  litters, 
 and  their  capacities  of  legacies  and  inheritance  ;  and 
 struck  a  Roman  knight  out  of  the  list  of  the  judges,  for 
 
Sect.  V.] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1141 
 
 A.M.  4189.  A.  D.  85;  OR, 
 
 receiving  his  wife,  after  she  had  been  repudiated  for 
 adultery.  The  castration  of  children  he  utterly  pro- 
 hibited, and  moderated  the  prices  of  eunuchs ;  but  the 
 whoredoms  of  the  vestal  virgins  he  punished  without 
 mercy.  Such  as  were  convicted  but  once,  suffered  death, 
 as  ordinary  malefactors  ;  but  others  were  buried  alive, 
 according  to  the  ancient  custom,  and  their  associate 
 male  criminals  scourged  to  death.  These,  and  the  like 
 memorable  acts  of  justice  have  been  highly  applauded 
 by  many,  but  in  most  of  them  he  used  such  pride  and 
 elation,  and  showed  himself  so  excessively  vain-glorious, 
 as  gave  almost  evident  tokens  of  his  future  enormities. 
 
 After  the  many  conquests  which  his  great  a  general 
 Agricola  obtained  for  him  over  the  Britons,  and  the  re- 
 duction of  the  Samaritans,  Dacians,  and  the  Catii,  a 
 people  in  Germany,  for  which  he  vainly  assumed  the 
 surname  of  Germanicus,  his  pride  and  impiety,  as  well 
 as  cruelty  and  brutishness,  became  insufferable.  He 
 not  only  caused  his  statues  in  the  capitol  to  be  made 
 of  pure  gold  and  silver,  to  which  the  people  in  great 
 crowds  came  to  sacrifice  continually  ;  but  his  ambition 
 carried  him  so  far  as  to  assume  divine  honours  ;  for  as 
 he  styled  himself  the  son  of  Pallas,  or  Minerva,  so  he 
 decreed,  that  no  man  should  presume  to  call  him,  either 
 in  writing  or  discourse,  by  any  other  title  than  that  of 
 our  Lord,  or  our  God. 
 
 This  monstrous  arrogancy  brought  him  into  all  kinds 
 of  enormities,  and  was  the  fatal  forerunner  of  many  ex- 
 cessive cruelties,  whereby  he  destroyed  great  numbers 
 of  all  sorts,  without  mercy  or  consideration.  Many 
 illustrious  senators,  who  had  some  of  them  been  consuls, 
 under  pretence  of  practising  against  the  state,  he  put  to 
 death  ;  some  of  them  in  their  banishments,  and  all  with- 
 out the  privilege  of  making  their  defence.  Multitudes 
 of  others  he  ordered  to  be  executed  upon  very  slight 
 and  trilling  occasions  ;  JElius  Lamia,  for  his  making  use 
 of  jests,  though  they  were  old  and  innocent ;  Salveus 
 Coceanus,  for  celebrating  the  nativity  of  Otho  the  em- 
 peror;  Sallustius  Lucullus,  for  suffering  a  new  sort  of 
 lances  to  be  called  Lucullus,  after  his  own  name  ;  and 
 Junius  Rusticus,  for  publishing  a  writing  in  commenda- 
 tion of  Partus  Thrasea,  and  Helvidius  Priscus,  two 
 philosophers  ;  upon  which  occasion  he  banished  all  the 
 philosophers  arid  mathematicians  out  of  Rome  and  Italy, 
 and  among  these  the  celebrated  stoic  Epictetus. 
 
 The  cruelty  of  these  proceedings,  and  some  personal 
 affronts  received  from  Domitian,  made  Lucius  Antonius, 
 governor  of  the  upper  Germany,  raise  a  dangerous  re- 
 bellion in  those  parts  ;  and  being  commander  of  a  nu- 
 merous army,  usurp  the  title  of  emperor.    The  success  of 
 
 a  This  Agricola,  having  first  conquered  Galgacus,  the  great 
 commander  of  the  Britons,  went  as  far  as  the  Orcades,  and 
 subdued  them.  He  was  the  first  who  discovered  Britain  to  be 
 an  island,  and  in  the  fourth  year  of  Domitian,  reduced  it  into 
 an  entire  and  civilized  province.  Of  all  which  he  wrote  a 
 plain  account  to  the  emperor,  without  any  amplifying  terms. 
 But  as  the  emperor  was  uneasy  to  see  his  own  glory  eclipsed 
 by  a  private  person,  his  letters  were  received  with  a  show  of 
 great  joy,  hut  in  reality  with  no  small  concern.  In  a  short 
 time  after  this,  Domitian  recalled  him  from  Britain,  under  pre- 
 tence of  giving  him  the  lieutenancy  of  Syria;  but  when  Agricola 
 perceived  with  what  coldness  he  was  received,  to  prevent  further 
 inconveniences,  he  retired  from  court,  and  for  ever  after  gave 
 himself  up  to  an  inactive  course  of  life  ;  though  his  death,  which 
 happened  in  a  few  years,  was  not  without  suspicion  of  poison, 
 by  Domitian's  procurement. — Echard't  Roman  History  in  the 
 life  of  Domitian. 
 
 A.  M.  549C.  A.  D.  85,  &c. 
 
 this  insurrection  remained  a  long  while  doubtful,  and 
 became  daily  more  formidable  to  Domitian,  who  had  so 
 much  lost  the  love  of  his  people  ;  till  at  length  his  general 
 Normandus  dexterously  surprised  Antonius,  just  when  a 
 sudden  overflowing  of  the  Rhine  had  stopped  the  ar- 
 rival of  his  German  auxiliaries,  and  destroyed  both  him 
 and  his  army.  After  this  victory  and  success,  Domitian's 
 cruelty  increased,  showing  no  kind  of  mercy  to  those 
 who  had  been  of  the  adverse  party.  Nay,  that  he  might 
 thoroughly  revenge  himself,  and  discover  all  their  ac- 
 complices, he  invented  new  kinds  of  tortures ;  and  in 
 this  particular,  exceeded  Nero  himself,  that  whereas  Nero 
 was  satisfied  in  commanding  executions  to  be  done  at 
 a  distance,  he  took  pleasure  in  beholding  his  cruelties 
 exercised  before  his  eyes,  which  at  length  indeed  be- 
 came his  only  diversion. 
 
 It  can  scarce  be  thought  that  a  prince,  who  in  some 
 respects  surpassed  even  Nero  himself  in  his  vices  and 
 cruelties,  should  in  the  least  come  behind  him  in  his 
 hatred  of  the  church  of  God  ;  and  therefore  we  need  less 
 wonder,  that  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  his  reign  we  find 
 him  raising  the  second  general  persecution  of  the  Chris- 
 tians; in  which,  by  his  letters  and  bloody  edicts,  he 
 caused  the  death  and  banishment  of  infinite  numbers, 
 both  in  Rome  and  other  places ;  in  which,  among  other 
 eminent  Christians,  St  John,  after  his  miraculous  escape 
 out  of  the  cauldron  of  flaming  oil,  was  banished  to  the 
 island  Patmos,  Antipas  was  put  to  death  at  Pergamus, 
 Timothy  at  Ephesus,  and  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  at 
 Athens  ;  in  which  he  not  only  destroyed  the  heads  of  the 
 church,  but  proceeded  to  the  execution  of  his  own  re- 
 lations, insomuch  that  he  put  to  death  his  cousin-german 
 Flavius  Clemens  in  the  very  year  that  he  was  consul, 
 banished  the  consul's  wife,  Domitilla,  to  Pandataria,  and 
 a  niece  of  the  same  name  to  Pontia,  for  no  other  crime 
 but  their  embracing  Christianity. 
 
 By  these  cruel  and  bloody  practices,  Domitian  be- 
 came odious  to  the  greatest  part  of  his  subjects,  and  ex- 
 ceeding terrible  to  the  b  senate  and  nobility,  insomuch 
 that  some  of  the  chief  of  them,  merely  for  the  preserva- 
 tion of  their  own  lives,  were  forced  into  designs  against 
 his.  For,  when  his  wife  Domitia,  in  searching  into  his 
 black  table-book,  which  he  kept  purposely  for  cruel  and 
 bloody  designs,  found  her  own  name  there,  with  many 
 of  the  chief  officers  of  his  household  ;  to  them  she  show- 
 ed the  book,  thereby  to  excite  them  to  concert  measures 
 for  his  despatch.    A  conspiracy  was  accordingly  formed, 
 
 b  One  evening  having  made  a  kind  and  solemn  invitation  of 
 the  greatest  part  of  the  senate  to  a  public  entertainment,  at  the 
 entrance  of  his  palace  he  ordered  them  to  be  solemnly  received, 
 and  ceremoniously  conducted,  and  locked  up  in  a  spacious  hall 
 hung  round  with  black,  and  illuminated  by  a  few  melancholy 
 lamps,  which  were  only  sufficient  to  show  the  horror  of  the  place, 
 and  to  discover  several  coffins,  upon  which  where  fairly  written 
 the  names  of  the  senators  that  were  invited.  The  senators  were 
 filled  with  strange  fears  and  apprehensions  at  the  appearance  of 
 this  dismal  scene,  and  the  prospect  of  death  so  solemnly  carved 
 out  for  them;  when  in  the  height  of  their  frightful  imaginations, 
 after  some  time  waiting,  their  fears  were  increased  by  an  en- 
 tertainment of  many  naked  persons  with  their  bodies  all  over 
 blackened,  who  entered  the  hall,  with  drawn  swords  in  one 
 hand,  and  flaming  torches  in  the  other.  The  guests,  at  this 
 dreadful  appearance,  expected  nothing  but  immediate  death; 
 when  suddenly  the  naked  persons,  after  they  had  danced  some 
 time  about  them,  set  open  the  doors,  and  told  them,  that  the 
 emperor  ;;a\e  all  the  company  leave  to  withdraw. — Ibid. 
 
1142 
 
 THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
 
 A.  M.  4100.  A.  D.  96 ;  OR,  A.  M.  5507.  A.  D.  96. 
 
 [Book  VIII. 
 
 in  which  the  principals  were  Parthenius  his  chamberlain, 
 and  Stephanus  his  steward,  who,  for  several  days,  wore  a 
 da»-<>-er  wrapt  up  in  wool  in  his  left  arm,  pretending  an 
 accidental  hurt  in  that  place.  As  therefore  the  Emperor 
 was  going  to  his  bath,  Parthenius,  pretending  that  tltere 
 was  in  his  chamber  a  person  who  had  a  matter  to  impart  to 
 him  of  too  great  importance  to  be  safely  deferred,  drew 
 him  aside  thither,  where  Stephanus,  under  pretence  of 
 discovering  a  conspiracy  to  him,  presenting  him  with  a 
 list  of  several  names ;  which  while  the  Emperor  was 
 reading  with  horror  and  astonishment,  he  struck  the 
 dagger  into  his  groin ;  but  before  he  could  give  him  a 
 second  wound,  the  Emperor  closed  with  him,  and  with 
 great  violence  threw  him  to  the  ground,  where,  while  they 
 were  struggling  together,  Parthenius,  Maximus,  Clo- 
 dianus,  and  other  conspirators,  who  were  of  his  own 
 household,  came  furiously  upon  him,  and,  in  the  forty- 
 fifth  year  of  his  age,  and  fifteenth  of  his  reign,  with 
 several  wounds  dispatched  him. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Domitian,  the  Roman  senate,  after 
 some  small  consultation,  made  choice  of  Cocceius  Nerva 
 to  succeed  him.  He  was  born  in  Crete,  and  was  the 
 first  Emperor  who  was  neither  of  a  Roman  nor  Italian 
 family  ;  but  was,  at  this  time,  for  his  many  virtues,  ex- 
 perience, and  age,  a  person  of  the  greatest  reputation 
 and  esteem  in  Rome.  At  his  accession  to  the  empire, 
 he  took  care  to  rescind  the  odious  acts  and  decrees  of 
 his  predecessor.  He  recalled  the  Christians,  who,  from 
 Rome  and  other  cities,  were  banished  in  the  late  reign, 
 and  permitted  them  a  free  exercise  of  their  religion. 
 He  showed  the  same  kindness  and  humanity  to  all  others 
 who  had  been  unjustly  treated  by  his  predecessor,  and 
 restored  whatever  of  their  goods  could  be  found  about 
 the  imperial  palaces.  He  released  and  discharged  all 
 the  cities  of  the  empire  from  the  severe  taxes  and  im- 
 positions which  Vespasian  and  Domitian  had  laid  upon 
 them.  He  made  a  distribution  among  all  the  people  of 
 Rome,  much  larger  than  any  of  his  predecessors  had 
 done.  He  purchased  estates  to  be  divided  among  de- 
 cayed citizens,  and  had  the  sons  of  the  poorer  sort 
 brought  up  at  his  own  charges  ;  and  above  all,  he  con- 
 ferred great  favours,  and  bestowed  large  gifts,  upon  his 
 friends  and  relations,  upon  men  of  learning  and  liberal 
 sciences,  whereof  he  was  a  great  encourager. 
 
 Nor  was  the  clemency  of  this  prince  any  ways  inferior 
 to  his  kindness  and  liberality.  For,  at  his  first  accession 
 to  the  government,  he  solemnly  swore,  that  no  senator 
 of  Rome  should,  by  his  command,  be  put  to  death : 
 which  oath  he  so  religiously  observed,  that  when  two 
 of  that  order  had  conspired  against  his  life,  he  used  no 
 kind  of  severity  against  them  ;  but  first  sending  for  them, 
 to  let  them  see  that  he  was  not  ignorant  of  their  traitor- 
 ous designs,  he  carried  them  with  him  to  the  public 
 theatre,  placed  them  on  each  side  of  him,  and  present- 
 ing each  with  a  sword,  told  them,  before  all  the  people, 
 that  they  might  experience  the  goodness  of  the  weapons 
 upon  his  body  ;  for  so  confident  was  he  of  his  own  inno- 
 «  Mice,  that  he  often  said,  that  though  he  should  quit  the 
 empire  and  return  to  a  private  life,  he  had  done  nothing 
 that  could  cause  him  to  fear  any  man. 
 
 But,  notwithstanding  all  this,  he  had  not  sitten  long 
 upon  the  throne,  before  the  soldiers,  who,  in  the  late 
 reign  had  been  indulged  in  all  manner  of  licentiousness, 
 began  to  be  mutinous  upon  the  account  of  Domitian's 
 
 murder,  resolved  to  fall  upon  and  destroy  all  those  who 
 had  any  concern  in  his  assassination ;  so  that  the  Em- 
 peror, finding  himself  insufficient  to  withstand  their  fury, 
 and  perceiving  that  his  age  and  infirmities  had  impaired 
 his  authority  over  them,  was  resolved  to  adopt  some 
 worthy  person  for  his  successor,  who  should  be  able  both 
 to  support  him  while  he  lived,  and  govern  the  empire  after 
 his  decease.  Though  he  had  many  considerable  friends 
 and  relations  of  his  own  who  hoped  for  this  high  pro- 
 motion, yet,  like  a  just  and  generous  prince,  he  sought 
 only  the  public  good,  and  wisely  made  choice  of  Ulpius 
 Trajanus,  an  utter  stranger  to  his  family,  but  the  greatest 
 and  most  deserving  person  of  his  age. 
 
 This  determination  he  accordingly  put  in  execution  ; 
 and  having,  with  the  useful  solemnities,  adopted  him  in 
 the  capitol,  and  made  him  Cassar  in  the  senate,  immedi- 
 ately sent  ambassadors  to  him  at  Cologn,  for  at  that 
 time  he  was  governor  of  the  Lower  Germany,  with  the 
 ensigns  and  arms  of  the  empire.  This  proved  so  great 
 a  curb  to  the  licentiousness  and  mutinies  of  the  soldiers, 
 that  from  thenceforward  they  continued  in  a  perfect 
 quietness  and  obedience.  But  Nerva  lived  not  long  to 
 enjoy  the  benefits  of  this  happy  choice  ;  for  about  three 
 months  after,  falling  into  a  violent  passion  against  a 
 senator  name  Regulus,  he  put  himself  into  such  disorder, 
 that,  by  reason  of  the  feebleness  of  his  body,  and  low- 
 ness  of  his  spirits,  he  fell  into  a  fever,  which,  in  the  sixty- 
 sixth  year  of  his  age,  and  the  second  of  his  reign,  carried 
 him  off. 
 
 Upon  the  death  of  Nerva,  Trajan  was  joyful  received 
 as  Emperor  at  Rome,  both  by  the  senate  and  people. 
 He  was  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  of  an  illustrious  family, 
 born  in  a  town  called  Italica,  not  far  from  the  city  of 
 Seville ;  and  being  now  above  two  and  forty  years  of 
 age,  of  a  strong  body,  and  a  vigorous  mind,  happily 
 tempered  between  the  warmth  of  youth  and  the  experi- 
 ence of  old  age,  he  was  in  all  respects  qualified  for  the 
 greatest  attempts,  and  the  noblest  enterprises.  In  the 
 beginning  of  his  reign,  he  was  blessed  with  the  happi- 
 ness of  having  the  greatest  master  of  his  age,  that  admir- 
 able philosopher  and  biographer,  Plutarch,  by  whose  wise 
 instructions,  added  to  his  own  abilities,  he  pursued  the 
 administration  of  his  government,  with  that  moderation 
 and  justice,  and  that  wisdom  and  magnanimity,  as  raised 
 both  the  love  and  admiration  of  all  men. 
 
 At  his  first  entering  into  the  senate,  he  declared  pub- 
 licly, '  That  no  good  man,  by  his  command,  should  ever 
 suffer  death  or  disgrace  :'  which  he  confirmed  by  a  solemn 
 oath,  and  inviolably  observed  it  through  his  whole  reign. 
 His  first  step  was,  to  reform  the  laws  that  were  defec- 
 tive, and  to  put  in  execution  those  that  were  good ;  to 
 take  care  that  equity  and  justice  were  strictly  and 
 faithfully  administered  in  all  cases;  to  advance  the  most 
 worthy  and  virtuous  men  to  the  highest  posts,  and  to 
 reclaim  such  as  were  otherwise,  with  gentleness  and 
 clemency.  But  as  mutiny  in  the  army  was  a  matter  of 
 dangerous  consequence,  the  Praetorian  cohorts,  and  their 
 commanders,  who  had  raised  the  sedition  against  Nerva, 
 he  sent  for,  and  disbanded  ;  without  any  further  punish- 
 ment, as  some  say,  though  others  affirm  that  he  put 
 several  of  them  to  death. 
 
 The  informers,  promoters,  and  pettifoggers,  who  had 
 done  great  mischiefs  in  former  reigns,  he  utterly  exter- 
 minated ;  and  put  down  the  pantomimes,  farce-players, 
 
Sect.  V.  ] 
 
 FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST,  &c. 
 
 1143 
 
 A.  M.4108.  A.  D.  104;  OK, 
 and  buffoons,  as  effeminate  diversions,  and  unbecoming 
 the  Roman  gravity.  But  lie  rebuilt  the  grand  cirque, 
 wherein  more  manly  exercises  were  performed,  much  lar- 
 ger and  more  beautiful  than  it  was  before,  with  an  inscrip- 
 tion, signifying,  '  That  it  was  to  make  it  worthy  to 
 receive  the  people  of  Rome.'  The  truth  is,  his  love  to 
 the  people  of  Rome,  as  well  as  all  his  other  subjects, 
 was  visible  in  his  relief  of  the  poor,  and  education  of 
 their  children ;  in  his  behaving  to  all  men  with  courtesy 
 and  affability,  without  disguise  or  dissimulation  ;  in  enter- 
 taining persons  of  merit,  though  of  no  high  degree,  with 
 a  most  open  familiarity  ;  bestowing  upon  such,  honours 
 and  wealth,  though  he  had  but  a  small  acquaintance  with 
 them  ;  and  in  short,  in  'treating  all  his  subjects,'  as  him- 
 self expresses  the  matter,  '  with  the  same  usage  as  he 
 himself  would  have  desired  of  his  prince,  had  he  been 
 a  private  person.'  For  these,  and  many  more  instances 
 of  his  goodness,  and  paternal  care  to  his  people,  he  not 
 only  obtained  the  title  of  Pater  Patrice,  but  the  senate 
 likewise  conferred  on  him  that  of  Optimus,  as  the  best 
 of  all  princes,  which  he  esteemed  more  than  all  the 
 glories  of  his  victories  and  conquests,  because  it  related 
 not  so  much  to  his  courage  and  conduct,  as  to  his  mor- 
 ality and  piety. 
 
 His  mistaken  piety  indeed,  or  zeal  for  the  religion 
 established  in  the  empire,  confirmed  his  prejudices 
 against  Christianity,  and  made  him  look  upon  the  pro- 
 fessors of  it  with  a  jealous  eye,  not  only  as  subverters 
 of  the  national  faith,  and  enemies  to  the  gods  of  the 
 Romans,  but,  as  their  adversaries  were  pleased  to  repre- 
 sent them,  establishes  likewise  of  some  illegal  societies, 
 that  were  the  nurseries  of  faction  and  sedition.  Under 
 this  plausible  pretence,  the  third  general  persecution  of 
 the  church,  in  the  third  year  of  this  Emperor's  reign,  com- 
 menced ;  wherein,  among  an  infinite  number  of  others, 
 St  Clement,  bishop  of  Rome,  being  thrown  into  the  sea, 
 with  an  anchor  about  his  neck;  St  Simon,  bishop  of  Jeru- 
 salem, being  first  scourged,  and  then  crucified  ;  and  St 
 Ignatius,  bishop  of  Antioch,  being  condemned  to  be 
 thrown  to  the  wild  beasts,  obtained  the  glorious  crown 
 of  martyrdom.  This  persecution,  for  some  time,  went 
 on,  though  with  different  degrees  of  severity,  in  several 
 parts  of  the  empire,  and  was  so  much  the  more  afflicting 
 to  the  Christians,  because  they  generally  suffered  under 
 the  notion  of  malefactors  and  traitors,  and  under  an  Em- 
 peror, famed  throughout  the  world  for  his  singular  justice 
 and  moderation:  but  it  had  not  continued  long  before 
 this  prince,  upon  his  reception  of  a  letter  from  Pliny, 
 the  proconsul  in  Bithynia,  wherein  he  represents  '  the 
 
 tV.  M.  5.519.  A.  0.  108,  &o. 
 
 innocency  and  simplicity  of  the  Christians;  that  they 
 were  an  harmless  and  inoffensive  sort  of  people,  who 
 only  worshipped  Christ  as  God,  and  bound  themselves 
 by  oath  to  abstain  from  all  wickedness,'  abated  the 
 rigour  of  it,  so  that  the  fire,  which  had  hitherto  raged 
 with  great  fury,  began  now  to  be  extinguished,  and  only 
 crept  up  and  down  in  private  corners. 
 
 In  the  mean  time,  the  Christian  religion,  notwithstand- 
 ing all  opposition  to  the  contrary,  was  spread  through 
 the  greatest  part  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  extended 
 from  the  British  islands  to  the  farthest  Indies,  and  was 
 established,  not  only  in  cities,  and  populous  places,  but 
 in  towns  and  country  villages,  as  Pliny,  in  the  above 
 cited  letter,  testifies.  The  metropolitan  cities  were  all 
 under  bishops  of  the  greatest  eminency  and  piety.  The 
 four  great  cities  of  the  Roman  empire,  Rome,  Alexan- 
 dria, Antioch  and  Jerusalem,  usually  styled  '  apostoli- 
 cal churches,'  were  governed  by  apostolical  men.  Pub- 
 lius  was  at  Athens  ;  Polycarp  at  Smyrna ;  Onesimus  at 
 Ephesus  ;  and  Papias  at  Hierapolis ;  with  many  others 
 of  primitive  integrity  in  different  places. 
 
 Such  was  the  state  of  the  Christian  church,  in  the 
 beginning  of  the  second  century,  increasing  and  flourish- 
 ing after  a  marvellous  manner;  and  though  it  wanted 
 all  human  helps,  though  it  had  all  the  force  and  policy 
 of  the  world  bent  against  it,  growing  by  opposition  and 
 oppression,  and  overbearing  all  the  powers  of  earth  and 
 hell.  l  '  Whereunto  then  shall  we  liken  the  kingdom 
 of  God,'  and  its  wonderful  increase  ;  or  '  with  what  com- 
 parison shall  we  compare  it  ?'  There  is  indeed  some 
 resemblance  of  it  in  the  prodigious  fecundity  of  seeds, 
 which  accordingly  our  blessed  Saviour  frequently  makes 
 use  of  to  illustrate  it ;  but  there  is  nothing  parallel  to  it 
 in  the  history  of  all  the  religions  which  have  obtained 
 among  men,  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  this 
 day.  And  therefore,  as  this  shows  that  the  original  of 
 it  was  from  heaven,  and  that  the  hand  of  Omnipotence 
 has  all  along  guided  and  preserved  it ;  so  it  gives  us  a 
 full  assurance  of  hope,  that  the  same  divine  providence 
 will  continue  to  protect  and  defend  it,2  '  until  we  come 
 unto  Mount  Sion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God, 
 the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innumerable  com- 
 pany of  angels ;  to  the  general  assembly,  and  church  of 
 the  first-born,  which  are  written  in  heaven;  to  God,  the 
 judge  of  all ;  to  Jesus,  the  Mediator  of  the  new  cove- 
 nant; and  to  the  spirits-  of  just  men  made  perfect.' 
 Amen,  Amen. 
 
 1  Luke  iv.  30. 
 
 2  Heb.  xii.  22.  &c. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 
 
 THE    HISTORY    OF    THE    BIBLE. 
 
 PERIOD  I. 
 
 From  the  Creation  to  the  Deluge,  1G5G ;  according  to 
 2256  years. 
 
 The  creation  of  the  world  and  our  first  parents 
 
 The  birth  of  Cain,  Adam's  eldest  son 
 
 The  birth  of  Abel 
 
 Cain  kills  his  brother  Abel 
 
 The  birth  of  Seth,  son  of  Adam  and  Eve 
 
 The  birth  of  Enos,  son  of  Seth 
 
 The  birth  of  Cainan,  son  of  Enos 
 
 The  birth  of  Mahalaleel  son  of  Cainan 
 
 The  birth  of  Jared,  son  of  Mahalaleel 
 
 The  birth  of  Enoch,  son  of  Jared 
 
 The  birth  of  Methuselah,  son  of  Enoch 
 
 The  birth  of  Lamech,  son  of  Methuselah 
 
 The  death  of  Adam,  aged  930  years 
 
 The  translation  of  Enoch,  aged  365  years 
 
 The  death  of  Seth,  aged  912  years 
 
 The  birth  of  Noah,  son  of  Lamech 
 
 The  death  of  Enos,  aged  905  years 
 
 The  death  of  Cainan,  aged  910  years 
 
 The  death  of  Mahalaleel,  aged  895  years 
 
 The  death  of  Jared,  aged  962  years 
 
 Noah  warned  by  God  of  the  future  deluge 
 
 The  death  of  Lamech,  aged  777  years 
 
 The  death  of  Methuselah,  the  longest  liver  of 
 
 all  men 
 The  same  year  Noah,  being  600  years  old,  by 
 
 God's  command  enters  the  ark. 
 
 Ann. 
 
 Mun. 
 
 Hales 
 
 1  or 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 100 
 
 4 
 
 101 
 
 128 
 
 201 
 
 130 
 
 230 
 
 235 
 
 435 
 
 325 
 
 625 
 
 395 
 
 795 
 
 460 
 
 960 
 
 622 
 
 1122 
 
 687 
 
 1287 
 
 874 
 
 1474 
 
 930 
 
 930 
 
 987 
 
 1487 
 
 1042 
 
 1142 
 
 105G 
 
 1656 
 
 1140 
 
 1340 
 
 1235 
 
 15!4 
 
 1290 
 
 1690 
 
 1422 
 
 1922 
 
 1536 
 
 2135 
 
 1651 
 
 2227 
 
 1656 
 
 2256 
 
 Dr  Holes, 
 
 Ant. 
 
 Chr. 
 
 Hales. 
 
 4004  or  5411 
 
 4001 
 
 5311 
 
 4000 
 
 bSiO 
 
 3876 
 
 5210 
 
 3874 
 
 5181 
 
 3769 
 
 4976 
 
 3679 
 
 4786 
 
 3609 
 
 4616 
 
 3544 
 
 4451 
 
 3382 
 
 4289 
 
 3317 
 
 4124 
 
 3130 
 
 3937 
 
 3074 
 
 4481 
 
 3017 
 
 3914 
 
 2962 
 
 4269 
 
 2948 
 
 3755 
 
 2864 
 
 4071 
 
 2769 
 
 3877 
 
 PERIOD  III. 
 
 From  the  calling  of  Abraham  to  the  Israelites'  departure  out  of 
 Egyptt  in  all  430  years. 
 
 2714 
 
 2582 
 2468 
 2353 
 
 3721 
 
 3489 
 3275 
 3184 
 
 PERIOD  II. 
 
 From  the  Deluge  to  the  Calling  of  Abraham,  426  years  and 
 6  months  y  according  to  Dr  Hales,  1077  years. 
 
 1657  or  2257  Noah,  with  his  family  and  three  sons,  Shem, 
 Ham,  and  Japhet,  leave  the  ark 
 The  Rainbow,  the  pledge  of  security  from  in- 
 undation 
 2258  The  birth  of  Arpbaxad,  son  of  Shem 
 2263  Noah  plants  a  vineyard  &c. 
 2393  The  birth  of  Salah,  son  of  Arphaxad 
 2523  The  birth  of  Heber,  son  of'Salah 
 2657  The  birth  of  Peleg,  son  of  Heber 
 2797  The  building  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  the  Con- 
 or 2857     fusion  of  languages,  and  dispersion  of  nations 
 1771       2857  The  beginniug  of  the  Babylonian  or  Assyrian 
 monarchy, — and  of  the  Egyptian 
 2787  The  birth  of  Reu,  son  of  Peleg 
 2319  The  birth  of  Serug,  sou  of  Reu 
 3019  The  birth  of  Nahor,  son  of  Serug 
 3128  The  birth  of  Terah,  son  of  Nahor 
 2955    the  death  of  Nimrod,  succeeded  by  Belus 
 31  Its  The  birth  of  Haran,  son  of  Terah 
 2969  The  death  of  Belus,  succeeded  by  Ninus 
 2606  The  death  of  Noah,  aged  950  years,  and  the  be- 
 ginning of  postdiluvian  idolatry 
 3258  The  birth  of  Abram,  son  of  Terah 
 3318  The  death  of  Ninus,  succeeded  by  his  wife  Se- 
 
 miramis 
 3268  The  birth  of  Sarai,  Abram's  wife 
 3318  The  death  of  Semiramis,  succeeded  by  her  son 
 
 Ninyas 
 3318  The  call  of  Abram,  from  Ur  to  Haran  in  Meso- 
 potamia   where  his  father  died,  aged  205 
 years 
 
 2347  or  3154 
 
 1658 
 1663 
 li:93 
 1723 
 1757 
 1770 
 
 1787 
 1819 
 1849 
 1878 
 1943 
 1948 
 1969 
 2000 
 
 2008 
 2017 
 
 2018 
 2059 
 
 2083 
 
 2346 
 2341 
 2311 
 
 2281 
 2247 
 2234 
 
 3153 
 3148 
 3018 
 2888 
 2754 
 2614 
 01-  2554 
 
 2233  2554 
 
 2217  2624 
 
 2185  2492 
 
 2155  2362 
 
 2126  2283 
 
 2061  2456 
 
 2056  2213 
 
 2035  3442 
 
 Ann. 
 
 Mun. 
 
 2083  or 
 
 2084 
 
 2091 
 
 2094 
 
 2107 
 
 2108 
 
 2133 
 
 2146 
 
 2148 
 
 2186 
 
 2168 
 
 2245 
 
 2276 
 
 2289 
 2298 
 2433 
 
 2473 
 
 2513 
 
 Hales. 
 
 3333  Abraham's  second  call,  &c 
 
 3334  Returns  from  Egypt  to  Canaan,  &c. 
 3341  His  victory  over  the  five  kings,  &c. 
 3344  Has  a  son  "named  Ishmael,  &c. 
 
 3357  Intercedes  for  Sodom,  &c.,— their  destruction 
 
 3358  Removes  to  Mamre.     Isaac  born 
 
 3383  Offers  up  Isaac  in  sacrifice,  &c.     Sarah  dies 
 
 3398  Sends  his  servant  to  procure  a  wife  for  Isaac 
 
 3398  Isaac  marries  Rebecca 
 
 3438  Abraham  dies 
 
 3418  Jacob  and  Esau  born 
 
 3495  Isaac  blesses  Jacob,  who  departs  to  Haran, 
 marries  first  Leah,  and  then  Rachel,  &c 
 
 3526  Jacob  makes  Joseph  his  favourite  ;  his  dreams, 
 &c.;  he  is  sold  into  Egypt 
 
 3539  Joseph  interprets  Pharaoh's  dreams,  &c. 
 
 3548  Jacob  goes  down  to  Egypt,  &c. 
 
 3683  Revolution  in  Egypt;  the  sufferings  of  the  Is- 
 raelites ;  Moses  born,  &c. 
 
 3723  Moses  flies  to  Midian  ;  marries  Jethro's  daugh- 
 ter; the  vision  of  the  bush,  &c. 
 
 3763  Moses,  commissioned  by  God,  goes  to  Pharaoh  ; 
 the  plagues  of  Egypt ;  the  deliverance  of  the 
 Israelites,  &c. 
 
 Chr. 
 
 Hales. 
 
 1921  or  2078 
 
 1920 
 
 2077 
 
 1913 
 
 2070 
 
 1910 
 
 2067 
 
 1S97 
 
 2054 
 
 1896 
 
 21153 
 
 1871 
 
 2028 
 
 1858 
 
 2013 
 
 1856 
 
 2013 
 
 1818 
 
 1973 
 
 1836 
 
 1993 
 
 1759 
 
 1916 
 
 1728 
 
 1885 
 
 1715 
 
 1872 
 
 1706 
 
 1803 
 
 PERIOD  IV. 
 
 From  the  Israelites'  departure  out  of  Egypt  to  their  entrance  into 
 the  land  of  Canaan,  in  all  40  years. 
 
 Hale 
 
 1998 
 1996 
 
 1987 
 1986 
 
 917 
 
 2805 
 2153 
 
 2093 
 2143 
 
 2513  or  3763  The  Israelites  rendezvous  at  Rameses;  cross 
 
 the  Red  Sea,  &c. 
 
 2514  3764  The  law  delivered  from  Sinai,  &c. 
 
 2515  3765  The  Israelites  approach  Canaan;   the  priest- 
 
 hood established,  &c. 
 2553      3803  The  Israelites  enter  Canaan,  and  possess  it 
 
 1491  or  1618 
 1490       1647 
 
 1489 
 1451 
 
 1616 
 1608 
 
 PERIOD  V. 
 
 From  the  Israelites'  entering  into  Canaan  to  the  building  of  So- 
 lomon's temple,  in  all  447  years ;  according  to  Dr  Hales,  5SI 
 
 years. 
 
 Ann. 
 
 Mun.  Hales. 
 2553  or  3803 
 
 2561  3829 
 
 2599  3849 
 
 2469  3985 
 
 2519  4045 
 
 2632  4158 
 
 26G3  4189 
 
 2723  4259 
 
 2745  4301 
 
 2785  4341 
 
 2819  4375 
 
 Joshua  succeeds  Moses  as  the  lender  of  Israel 
 The  Israelites  conquer  Canaan,  Sws. 
 The  war  of  the  Beniamites 
 The  judges,  Deborah,  Ehud,  8tc. 
 Gideon,  the  Israelitish  general 
 Jephtha's  exploits  and  vow 
 Samson's  miraculous  acts 
 The  birth  of  Samuel 
 Saul  elected  king  of  Israel 
 David  succeeds  to  Saul 
 
 His  restoration  after  Absalom's  rebellion.     So- 
 lomon proclaimed  king. 
 7   F 
 
 Ant. 
 
 Chr.       Hales. 
 
 1451  or  1608 
 
 1443      1582 
 
 in  15 
 
 1535 
 1485 
 1372 
 1341 
 1271 
 1259 
 1219 
 
 1561 
 1426 
 1366 
 1253 
 1222 
 1152 
 1110 
 1070 
 
1146 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 
 
 PERIOD  VI. 
 
 From  the  Building  of  the  Temple  to  the  Babylonish  Captivity,  400  years  ;  according  to  Dr  Hales,  414  years  and  6  months. 
 
 .  Ant. 
 
 iZ.         Hales.  Chr-      Hal"' 
 
 .1001  or  4391  The  dedication  of  the  temple                                                 „.*«.,      <.  •,  '22?  or  '2m 
 
 3029        11-21  The  death  of  Solomon,  succession  of  Rehoboam,  and  revolt  ot  the  ten  tribes.  971         f» 
 
 Kings  op  Judah  for  388  years. 
 
 3029  or  4421  Rehoboam,  intending  to  make  war  with  the 
 tribes,  is  diverted  from  it  by  a  prophet 
 
 3032       4424  He  gives  himself  up  to  impiety 
 
 3046       M38  Dies;  andissucc led  by  his  son  Abijah 
 
 3U47       4439  Abijah's  victory  over  Jeroboam 
 
 3  '49  4441  He  dies  ;  and  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Asa,  who 
 suppresses  the  idolatry  that  had  been  intro- 
 duced into  the  kingdom  of  Judah 
 
 3064  1171  He  engages  Benhadad,  king  of  Syria,  to  invade 
 the  territories  of  Baasha,  king  of  Israel,  in 
 order  to  make  him  quit  lus  undertaking  at 
 Raman 
 
 4482  The  death  of  Asa,  and  succession  of  his  son  Je- 
 hoshaphat, who  expels  all  sorts  of  superstitious 
 worship  out  of  his  dominions 
 
 3107  4514  Jehoshaphat  accompanies  Ahab  in  his  expedi- 
 
 tion against  Ramoth-Gilead,  and  is  in  danger 
 of  being  slain 
 
 3108  4515  He  equips  a  fleet  for  Ophir,  but  miscarries  in 
 
 the  voyage 
 Elijah  is  this  year  translated  in  a  fiery  chariot 
 
 3115  4507  The  deatli  of  Jehoshaphat;  and  his  son  Jeho- 
 
 ram's  succession  to  the  crown 
 
 3116  4515  Jehoram  introduces   idolatry  into  Judah;    is 
 
 smitten  with  an  incurable  disease ;  dies  ;  and 
 is  succeeded  by  his  son  Ahaziah 
 3119      4515  Homer  about  this  time  flourished 
 
 3120  4516  Ahaziah  accompanies  Jehoram,  king  of  Israel, 
 to  the  siege  of  Ramoth-Gilead,  and  being  af- 
 terwards put  to  death,  by  the  order  of  Jehu, 
 his  kingdom  is  usurped  by  his  mother  Athaliah, 
 who  destroys  all  the  royal  family,  except 
 young  Joash 
 
 3147  4522  Athaliah  is  put  to  death,  and  Joash,  being  seated 
 on  the  throne,  repairs  the  ruins  of  thetemple 
 
 3164  4562  Joash  orders  the  high  priest  Zechariah  to  be 
 slain  in  the  temple  ;  wages  war  with  Hazael, 
 king  of  Syria ;  is  forced  to  give  him  large  sums 
 of  money  ;  is  murdered  by  his  servants,  and  is 
 succeeded  by  his  son  Amaziah 
 
 3178  4591  Amaziah  declares  war  against  Joash,  king  of 
 Israel,  and  is  defeated ;  he  dies  ;  (interregnum 
 
 3189  4602  here  of  eleven  years);  and  is  succeeded  By  his 
 son  Uzziah,  otherwise  called  Azariah,  in  whose 
 reign  the  prophets  Isaiah  and  Amos  arise  in 
 the  kingdom  of  Judah 
 
 4654  The  death  of  Uzziah,  and  succession  of  his  son 
 Jotham  in  whose  reign  Isaiah  and  Hosea  pro- 
 phesied 
 
 8262  4670  The  death  of  Jotham,  and  succession  of  his  son 
 Ahaz,  who  is  invaded  by  Rezin,  king  of  Syria, 
 and  Pekah,  king  of  Israel,  and  at  length  in- 
 vites to  his  assistance  Tiglath-Pileser,  king  of 
 Assyria,  submitting  to  pay  him  tribute 
 
 4686  Ahaz  dies;  and  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Heze- 
 kiali,  who  restores  the  true  worship  of  God 
 winch  Aha/  bad  almost  quite  subverted)  in 
 Judah  and  Jerusalem 
 
 Ant. 
 
 Chr.  Hales. 
 
 971  or  990 
 970  987 
 954  973 
 953       972 
 
 3086 
 3096 
 
 910 
 
 929 
 
 3103 
 3107 
 
 893 
 
 892 
 
 897 
 896 
 
 3108 
 3109 
 
 885 
 
 904 
 
 822       820 
 810      809 
 
 754      757 
 
 Kings  of  Israel  for  264  years. 
 
 3030  or  4421  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  abolishes  the  wor- 
 ship of  the  Lord,  and  sets  up  the  worship  of 
 golden  calves 
 
 3047       4439  Jeroboam  is  overcome  by  Abijah,  with  the  loss 
 
 of  500,000  of  his  men 
 3050      4443  The  death  of  Jeroboam,  and  succession  of  his 
 
 son  Nadab 
 3054      4445  The  death  of  Nadab,  and  succession  of  Baasha, 
 
 who  builds  Ramah,  to  liinder  the  Israelites 
 
 from  going  to  Jerusalem 
 
 3074  4468  The  death  of  Baasha,  and  succession  of  liis  son 
 
 Elah 
 
 3075  4469  Zimri  kills  Elah,  and  usurps  the  kingdom  of  Is- 
 
 rael ;  but  Omri  soon  besieges  him,  and  forces 
 him  to  burn  himself  in  his  own  palace 
 3079      4473  Omri,  when  seated  on  the  throne,  builds  Sama- 
 ria, and  makes  it  the  seat  of  his  empire 
 4480  His  death  ;  and  the  succession  of  lus  son  Ahab 
 
 4503  Elijah,  the  prophet  of  the  Lord,  causes  the  false 
 prophets  of  Baal  to  be  slain,  and  appoints 
 Elisha  to  be  liis  successor  in  the  prophetic  office 
 
 4514  Ahab  defeats  Ben-hadad,  king  of  Syria,  who 
 
 laid  siege  to   Samaria,  and  afterwards  in  a 
 
 pitched  battle 
 4502  He  makes    war  against  Ramoth-Gilead,    and 
 
 there  being  slain  in  disguise,  is  succeeded  by 
 
 his  son  Ahaziah 
 
 4504  Ahaziah,  by  a  fall,  is  dangerously  wounded ;  he 
 dies ;  and  is  succeeded  oy  his  brother  Jehoram 
 
 4520  Elisha  foretels  the  victory  of  the  army  of  the 
 Israelites,  and  procures  plenty  of  water  for 
 them 
 
 4526  The  siege  of  Samaria  by  Benhadad,  -wherein  he 
 and  his  army  are  seized  with  a  panic  fear,  and 
 break  up  in  confusion  at  night 
 
 4516  Jehoram  is  wounded  at  Ramoth-Gilead,  and 
 after  that  slain  by  Jehu,  who  usurps  the  crown 
 
 3148  4544  The  death  of  Jehu,  and  succession  of  his  son  Je- 
 hoahaz 
 
 3165      4561  The  death  of  Jehoahaz,  and  succession  of  his  son 
 Joash 
 Elisha  dies  about  this  time 
 
 3168  4579  The  death  of  Hazael,  king  of  Syria,  and  succes- 
 sion of  his  son  Benhadad,  who  wars  against 
 Joash 
 
 3178  4576  Joash  obtains  a  gTeat  victory  over   Amaziah 
 
 king  of  Judah 
 
 3179  4577  He  dies  ;  and  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Jeroboam 
 
 II.  in  whose  reign  the  prophets  Jonah,  Hosea, 
 and  Amos,  prophesied  m  Israel 
 The  Olympic  games  were  instituted  this  year 
 3225      4618  The  death  of  Jeroboam  II.  and  a  long  interreg- 
 num of  twenty-two  years 
 
 3232  4640  Zechariah,  the  son  of  Jeroboam,  at  length  ob- 
 
 tains the  kingdom,  but,  after  a  reign  of  six 
 months,  is  killed  by   Shallum,  who,  after  a 
 
 3233  4641      reign  of  one  month,  is  killed  by  Menahem,  who 
 3242      4651      dies  and  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Pekahiah 
 3245      4653  Pekahiah  is  assassinated  by  Pekah,  who  suc- 
 ceeds him 
 
 3249  4660  The  city  of  Rome  began  to  be  built 
 3254  4665  Arbaces,  governor  of  Media  (who  in  Scripture 
 is  called" Tiglath-Pileser),  and  Belesis  (other- 
 wise called  Nabonassar)  conspire  against  Sar- 
 danapalus,  king  of  Assyria,and  having  besieged 
 him  in  Nineveh  for  tliree  years,  compels  liim 
 at  last  to  burn  himself  and  all  his  riches  in  liis 
 own  palace  ;  whereupon  Tiglath-Pileser  is 
 acknowledged  king  of  Assyria,  and  Nabonas- 
 sar lays  the  foundation  of  the  Babylonish  em- 
 pire 
 
 3264  4673  Tiglath-Pileser  overcomes  Rezin,  king  of  Syria, 
 
 and  puts  him  to  death ;  then  enters  the  land 
 of  Israel ;  takes  many  cities,  and  carries  away 
 a  great  number  of  captives 
 
 3265  4683  Hosea,  the  son  of  Elah,  puts  Pekah,  king  of  Is- 
 
 rael to  death,  and  usurps  the  throne 
 3276  4687  Tiglath-Pileser  dies ;  and  is  succeeded  by  Sal- 
 maneser,  who  invades  the  kingdom  of  Israel, 
 and  makes  Hosea  tributary  to  him 
 3279  4692  Hoshea,  king  of  Israel,  thinking  to  shake  off  the 
 yoke  of  Salmaneser,  makes  "an  alliance  with 
 So,  or  Sabacon,  king  of  Egypt;  whereupon 
 Salmaneser  besieges  Samaria,  and,  after  three 
 years,  takes  it,  and  carries  away  the  people 
 captive,  and  so  extinguishes  the  kingdom  of 
 Israel,  after  it  had  subsisted  from  the  separa- 
 tion 264  years 
 
 Atu 
 Chr. 
 
 Hales 
 
 970 
 
 )r990 
 
 953 
 
 972 
 
 950 
 
 968 
 
 946 
 
 966 
 
 926 
 
 943 
 
 925 
 
 942 
 
 921 
 914 
 
 938 
 931 
 
 904 
 
 903 
 
 897 
 
 8?7 
 
 893 
 
 909 
 
 892 
 
 907 
 
 891 
 
 891 
 
 852 
 
 8G7 
 
 835 
 
 850 
 
 822 
 
 832 
 
 812 
 
 835 
 
 821 
 
 834 
 
 775 
 768 
 
 793 
 771 
 
 767 
 757 
 
 770 
 760 
 
 755 
 751 
 
 758 
 751 
 
 746 
 
 736 
 735 
 
 738 
 
 728 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 
 
 1147 
 
 3347 
 33G1 
 
 4758 
 4770 
 
 33G3 
 
 4772 
 
 3370 
 
 4772 
 
 3176 
 331)4 
 
 4783 
 
 4803 
 
 Ant. 
 
 Chr. 
 
 Hales. 
 
 Ann. 
 Mun. 
 
 715or715 
 
 3447 
 3449 
 
 3464 
 
 3465 
 
 3471 
 
 3479 
 
 709 
 
 725 
 
 3484 
 3515 
 
 C94 
 
 696 
 
 3517 
 3536 
 3537 
 
 677 
 
 677 
 
 3540 
 3543 
 
 671 
 
 671 
 
 3547 
 
 653 
 
 653 
 
 3577 
 
 639 
 
 641 
 
 3580 
 
 637 
 
 639 
 
 630 
 
 639 
 
 624 
 
 628 
 
 3398 
 3398 
 
 4825 
 
 4809 
 
 3402 
 
 4819 
 
 3404 
 
 4815 
 
 3405 
 
 4812 
 
 606 
 620 
 
 608 
 586 
 
 602 
 
 602 
 
 598 
 
 592 
 
 596 
 
 596 
 
 Ann. 
 
 Han.     H.ilef. 
 
 3285  or  4696  Salmaneser  dies ;  and  is  succeeded  by  Senna- 
 cherib, who  invades  the  kingdom  of  Judah, 
 and  takes  several  of  its  cities 
 3291  4686  Hezekiah's  sickness  and  recovery.  He  gives 
 money  to  Sennacherib,  who  still  continues 
 the  war  against  him,  but,  at  length,  loses  all 
 his  army  by  the  stroke  of  an  angel ;  where- 
 upon the  Medes  revolt  from  his  dominion,  and 
 at  his  return  to  Nineveh,  he  is  put  to  death  by 
 two  of  his  sons,  and  succeeded  by  a  third, 
 named  Esarbaddon 
 330S  '  4715  Hezekiah  dies  ;  and  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Ma- 
 
 nasseh 
 3323      4734  Esarbaddon  makes  himself  master  of  Babylon, 
 and  reunites  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonish  em- 
 pire 
 3329      4740  He  takes  Manasseh  prisoner,  and  carries  him  in 
 chains  to  Babylon 
 
 Holofernea  invades  Judea,  and  is  slain  by  Judith 
 
 Manasseh,  after  his  return  from  Babylon,  dies; 
 and  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Ammou 
 
 Ammonia  murdered  by  his  servants;  and  suc- 
 ceeded by  his  son  Josiah,  in  whose  reign  Ze- 
 phaniah  prophesied 
 
 Josiah  endeavours  to  reform  several  abuses  that 
 had  been  introduced,  and  restores  the  true 
 worship  of  God 
 
 At  this  time  Jeremiah  begins  to  prophecy 
 
 Joeiab  is  slain  in  battle  against  Necho,  king  of 
 Egypt ;  (whereupon  Jeremiah  composes  his 
 hook  of  Lamentations)  and  is  succeeded  first 
 by  Jehoahaz,  and  after  him  by  Jeboiakim,  in 
 whose  reign  Habakkuk  prophesied 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar  takes  Jerusalem,  and  carries 
 Daniel  and  Ins  companions  captives  into  Ba- 
 bylon 
 
 Daniel  interprets  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream  of 
 the  great  statue 
 
 The  history  of  Susanna  at  Babylon,  and  Jehoia- 
 kim's  revolt  against  Nebuchadnezzar 
 
 The  birth  of  Cyrus,  and  the  death  of  Jehoiakim, 
 whose  body  is  thrown  into  the  highway  with- 
 out any  burial ;  and  the  succession  of  Jeconiah, 
 who  (after  a  short  reign)  is  taken,  and  carried 
 to  Babylon,  while  his  uncle  Zedekiah  is  left  at 
 Jerusalem  in  his  place 
 3410      4821  Ezekiel  begins  to  prophecy  in  Chaldea,  and  fore- 
 
 tels  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
 3412      4823  Zedekiah  confederates  with  the  king  of  Egypt, 
 
 and  revolts  against  Nebuchadnezzar 
 3414  4825  Nebuchadnezzar  besieges  Jerusalem ;  defeats 
 the  Egyptian  army  ;  takes  the  city,  and  utterly 
 destroys  it,  with  the  temple ;  puts  out  Zede- 
 kiah's  eyes  ;  carries  him  to  Babylon  ;  and  sends 
 the  Jews,  that  were  left  in  the  country,  cap- 
 tive beyond  the  Euphrates.  And  thus  ended 
 the  kingdom  of  Judea,  after  it  had  subsisted, 
 from  the  time  of  the  separation,  388  years 
 
 PERIOD  VII. 
 
 From  the  Babylonish  Captivity  to  the  Birth  of  Christ,  in  all 
 58S  years;  according  to  Dr  Hales,  5S6  years. 
 
 Mun.      Hales. 
 
 3416  or  4827  Gedaliah  is  made  governor  of  the  people  left  in 
 Judea,  and  is  murdered  by  Ishmael 
 
 3468  4875  Cyrus  puts  an  end  to  the  70  years'  captivity, 
 granting  the  Jews  liberty  to  return  to  their 
 country 
 
 3488      4895  Temple  finished 
 
 3479  4882  Death  of  Cyrus,  succeeded  by  Cambyses,  Smer- 
 dis  the  JVlagian,  in  Scripture  called  Arta- 
 xerxes,  succeeds  Cambyses  the  same  year 
 
 3483      4890  Darius  makes  a  decree  in  favour  of  the  Jews 
 
 3517      4928  The  high  priest  Jehoiakim 
 
 3523  4926  Xerxes  invades  Greece,  succeeded  by  Arta- 
 xerxes,  called  in  Scripture  Ahasuerus 
 
 3544      4947  Ezra  is  made  governor  of  Judea 
 
 3556      4967  Nehemiah  governs  Judea  twelve  years 
 
 3648      5055  Alexander  the  Great  born  at  1'ella 
 
 3667  5070  The  temple  on  Mount  Gerizzim  begins  to  be 
 built  by  Manasseh 
 
 3681      5092  Alexander  dies,  and  the  Grecian  begins 
 
 3716  5127  Ptolemy  Philadelphia,  under  whom  the  Scrip- 
 tures were  translated,  begins  his  reign  in 
 Egypt 
 
 3844      5247  Death  of  Antiochus  F.piphanes 
 
 3902      5305  Death  of  Hyrcanus,  rise  of  the  Jewish  sects 
 
 3930      5333  Death  of  Alexander  Jannaeus 
 
 3939  5342  Upon  Alexander's  death,  Aristobulus  seizes  the 
 kingdom  of  Judea 
 
 3998      5391  Herod  kills  his  two  sons 
 
 4000      5411  The  birth  of  our  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour. 
 
 595  599 
 590  590 
 588      588 
 
 536 
 516 
 
 53G 
 516 
 
 525 
 
 529 
 
 517 
 
 521 
 
 487 
 
 483 
 
 471 
 
 485 
 
 460 
 
 464 
 
 448 
 
 444 
 
 352 
 
 356 
 
 337 
 319 
 
 284 
 160 
 92 
 74 
 
 65 
 2 
 
 MEDIAN  AND  PERSIAN  DYNASTY. 
 
 Hales. 
 
 4858  Darius  the  Mede  or  Cyaxares 
 4860  Cyrus  the  Persian 
 
 4875  'J  akes  Babylon  the  first  year  of  his  reign.     The 
 same  year  the  Jews  return  under  Zorobabel. 
 
 The  first  high  priest  Joshua,  same  year 
 
 4876  The  second  temple  begun 
 4882  Cambyses  reigns 
 
 4890  Darius  Hystaspea 
 4895  Temple  finished 
 4926  Xerxes 
 4928  High  priest  Jehoiakim 
 
 4947  Artaxerxes  Longimanus 
 
 4948  Stops  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem 
 4951  Artaxerxes  marries  Esther 
 
 4954  Sends  Ezra  to  Judea 
 4958  High  priest  Eliashib 
 
 Nehemiah  governor,  as  before 
 4988  Darius  Nothus 
 
 4991  Nehemiah's  reform.     End  of  the  Old  Testament 
 canon 
 
 Ait 
 
 Chr.  Hales. 
 
 553 
 
 553 
 
 555 
 
 551 
 
 555 
 
 551 
 
 535 
 
 535 
 
 529 
 
 529 
 
 521 
 
 521 
 
 516 
 
 516 
 
 485 
 
 485 
 
 483 
 
 483 
 
 464 
 
 464 
 
 463 
 
 463 
 
 460 
 
 460 
 
 4i7 
 
 457 
 
 453 
 
 453 
 
 423 
 
 423 
 
 420 
 
 420 
 
 PERIOD  VIII. 
 
 From  the  birth  of  Christ  to  the  completion  of  the  canon  of  the 
 New  Testament  j  in  all  about  97  years. 
 
 Ann.  Ann. 
 
 Man.      Hales. 
 
 4004  or  5411  The  Vulgar  Era  is  four  years  short  of  the  com- 
 putation general  received,  and  five  behind  Dr 
 Hales,  as  in  the  column  annexed 
 
 4033  5437  Our  Lord  is  baptized  by  John 
 
 4034  5438  Our  Lord  chooses  several  disciples 
 
 4035  5440  Our  Lord's  first  journey  to  Jerusalem 
 
 4036  5441  Our  Lord's  last  journey  to  Jerusalem 
 
 4037  5442  Our  Lord's  transfiguration 
 
 4038  5444  The  apostles  begintheir  ministry 
 4040      5446  Conversion  of  St  Paul 
 4061      5454  His  shipwreck,  &c. 
 4066      5462  Writes  several  of  his  epistles,  &c. 
 4069      5473  The  Jewish  Rebellion 
 4075      5479  Jerusalem  totally  destroyed 
 
 PERSIAN    DYNASTY. 
 
 Jewish  High  Priests. 
 
 From  Nehemiah's  reform  to  the  birth  of  John  the  Baptist, 
 
 4 1 5  years. 
 
 Chr.  Hales. 
 
 0  or  1 
 
 29 
 
 26 
 
 30 
 
 27 
 
 31 
 
 28 
 
 32 
 
 29 
 
 33 
 
 30 
 
 3+ 
 
 32 
 
 36 
 
 33 
 
 58 
 
 43 
 
 66 
 
 51 
 
 69 
 
 62 
 
 72 
 
 68 
 
 Mun.  Hales. 
 
 3580  4991  Eliashib 
 
 3587  4998  Joiada  or  Judas 
 
 3627  4038  Jonathan  or  John 
 
 3659  5070  Jaddua  or  Jaddus 
 
 MACEDO-GRECIAN  DYNASTY. 
 Jewish  High  Priests. 
 3679     5090  Onias 
 3700      5111  Simon  the  Just 
 3709      5120  Eliazar 
 3724      5135  Manasses 
 3750      5161  Onias  II. 
 3783      5194  Simon  II. 
 3805      5216  Onias  III. 
 3825      5236  Jesus  or  Jason 
 3828      5237  Onias  or  Menelaus 
 
 ASMON^EAN  PRINCES  OR  MACCABEES. 
 
 3837  5241  Judas  Maccabeus 
 
 3837  5248  High  Priest  Jachim  or  Alchimus 
 
 3840  4251  Jonathan 
 
 3847  5258  Appointed  high  priest 
 
 3857  5268  Simon 
 
 3864  5275  John  Hyrcanus 
 
 3894  5305  Aristobulus  and  Antigonus 
 
 3895  5306  Alexander  Jaiinreus 
 3922  5333  Queen  Alexandra 
 3931  5342  Hyrcanus  II. 
 
 3931      5342  Aristobulus  II. 
 
 ROMAN  DYNASTY. 
 
 3937      5848  Pompey  takes  Jerusalem 
 
 3737      5348  Hyrcanus  II.  again. 
 
 3960      5371  Antigonus 
 
 3963      5396  Iduma  an  king,  Herod  the  Great 
 
 3995      5406  John  Baptist  born 
 
 From  his  birth  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
 seventy-five  years. 
 
 Nativity  of  our  Lord  about  autumn. 
 
 Passover,  A.  D.  25,  &c.    Jerusalem  destroyed 
 
 Ant. 
 
 Chr.  Hales. 
 420  420 
 413  413 
 373  373 
 341   341 
 
 321 
 
 321 
 
 300 
 
 300 
 
 291 
 
 291 
 
 276 
 
 276 
 
 250 
 
 250 
 
 217 
 
 217 
 
 195 
 
 195 
 
 175 
 
 175 
 
 172 
 
 172 
 
 163 
 
 K3 
 
 163 
 
 163 
 
 HO 
 
 160 
 
 153 
 
 153 
 
 143 
 
 143 
 
 136 
 
 136 
 
 106 
 
 106 
 
 105 
 
 105 
 
 78 
 
 78 
 
 69 
 
 69 
 
 69 
 
 69 
 
 63 
 
 63 
 
 63 
 
 63 
 
 40 
 
 40 
 
 37 
 
 37 
 
 5, 
 
 5 
 
 70 
 
AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 
 
 YEARS,  MONTHS,  AND  CALENDAR  OF  THE  JEWS; 
 
 TOGETHER    WITH 
 
 A  REDUCTION  OF  THE  MONEY,  WEIGHTS,  AND  MEASURES 
 
 TO  THE 
 
 PRESENT  STANDARD  AND  MANNER  OF  COMPUTATION, 
 
 TO  WHICH  THE  READER  IN  THE  COURSE  OF  THE  HISTORY  WILL  HAVE  FREQUENT  OCCASION  TO  REFER. 
 
 THE  JEWISH  YEARS. 
 
 The  Hebrews  did  originally,  even  as  the  Syrians  and 
 Phoenicians,  begin  their  year  from  the  autumnal  equinox: 
 but,  upon  their  coming  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
 which  happened  in  the  month  Nisan,  they,  in  commemora- 
 tion of  that  deliverance,  made  their  year  commence  at 
 the  beginning  of  that  month,  which  usually  happened 
 about  the  time  of  the  vernal  equinox.1  This  form  they 
 ever  after  made  use  of  in  the  calculation  of  the  times  of 
 their  feasts,  festivals,  and  all  other  ecclesiastical  con- 
 cerns; but  in  all  civil  matters,  as  contracts,  obligations, 
 and  all  other  affairs  that  were  of  a  secular  nature,  they 
 still  made  use  of  the  old  form,  and  began  their  year  as 
 formerly,  from  the  first  of  Tisri,  which  happened  about  the 
 time  of  the  autumnal  equinox  :  so  that  the  Jews  had  two 
 ways  of  beginning  their  year — their  sacred  year,  as  they 
 called  it,  with  the  month  Nisan,  and  the  civil  year,  with 
 the  month  Tisri. 
 
 The  form  of  the  year  which  they  anciently  made  use 
 of,  was  wholly  inartificial :  for  it  was  not  settled  by 
 any  astronomical  rules  or  calculations,  but  was  made  of 
 lunar  months  set  out  by  the  phasis  or  appearance  of  the 
 moon.  When  they  saw  the  new  moon,  they  began 
 their  months,  which  sometimes  consisted  of  29,  and  some- 
 times of  30  days,  according  as  the  new  moon  did  sooner 
 or  later  appear.  The  reason  of  this  was,  because  the 
 synodical  course  of  the  moon,  that  is,  from  new  moon 
 to  new  moon,  being  twenty-nine  days  and  a  half,  the 
 half  day,  which  a  month  of  twenty-nine  days  fell  short 
 of,  was  made  up,  by  adding  it  to  the  next  month,  which 
 made  it  consist  of  thirty  days:  so  that  their  months  were 
 made  up  of  twenty-nine  days,  or  thirty  days,  successively 
 and  alternately;  with  this  certain  rule,  that  the  first  or 
 initial  month,  whether  of  their  sacred  or  civil  year,  always 
 
 1  Piideaux's  Connexion,  in  the  preface. 
 
 consisted  of  thirty  days,  and  the  first  day  of  each  month 
 was  called  the  new  moon.  Of  twelve  of  these  months 
 did  their  common  year  consist:  but  as  twelve  lunar 
 months  fell  eleven  days  short  of  a  solar  year,  so  every 
 one  of  these  common  years  begin  eleven  days  sooner, 
 which,  in  thirty  years'  time,  would  carry  back  the  begin- 
 ning of  the  year  through  all  the  four  seasons,  to  the  same 
 point  again,  and  get  a  whole  year  from  the  solar  reckon- 
 ing. To  remedy  therefore  the  confusion  that  might  from 
 hence  arise,  their  custom  was,  sometimes  in  the  third 
 year,  and  sometimes  in  the  second,  to  cast  in  another 
 month  which  they  called  Veader,  or  the  second  Adar, 
 and  make  their  years  then  consist  of  thirteen  months;  so 
 that  by  the  help  of  this  intercalation,  they  reduce  their 
 lunar  year  in  some  measure  to  that  of  the  sun,  and  never 
 suffered  the  one,  for  any  more  than  a  month  at  any  time, 
 to  vary  from  the  other. 
 
 This  intercalation  of  a  month,  however,  every  second 
 or  third  year,  makes  it  impracticable  to  fix  the  beginnings 
 of  the  Jewish  months  to  any  certain  day  in  the  Julian 
 calendar ;  but  they  therein  always  fell  within  the  compass 
 of  thirty  days,  sooner  or  later.  I  have  given  the  reader 
 the  best  view  I  could  of  their  coincidence  and  corre- 
 spondency, in  the  following  scheme,  wherein  the  first 
 column  gives  the  several  names  and  order  of  the  Jewish 
 months,  and  the  second  of  the  Julian,  within  the  compass 
 of  which  the  said  Jewish  months  have  always,  sooner  or 
 later,  their  beginning  and  ending. 
 
 JEWISH  MONTHS. 
 C  March  and 
 
 2  Jyar 
 
 3  Sivan 
 
 4  Tamu  z 
 
 5  Ab 
 
 6  Ekil 
 
 (.April, 
 "o  S  April  and 
 t  I  May, 
 «  f  May  and 
 
 I  June, 
 —  J  June  and 
 a  (July, 
 *§  C  July  and 
 •"  (.August, 
 
 f  August  and 
 
 (.September, 
 
 7  Tisri 
 
 8  Machesvan 
 
 9  Cisleu 
 
 10  Tebeth 
 
 11  Shebat 
 
 12  Adar 
 
 C  September  and 
 (.October, 
 "o    1  October  and 
 •g   |  November, 
 a   ("November  and 
 *7  ^December, 
 •i    (  December  and 
 o  \  January, 
 ■§  j  January  and 
 *■  \  February, 
 ( February  and 
 \  March. 
 
TABLES  OF  JEWISH  MONEY,  WEIGHTS,  AND  MEASURES. 
 
 1149 
 
 The  thirteenth  month  (deader)  is  then  only  interca- 
 lated, or  cast  in,  when  the  beginning  of  Nisan  would 
 otherwise  be  carried  back  into  the  end  of  February. 
 
 The  Jews  of  old  had  very  exact  calendars,  wherein 
 were  set  down  their  several  fasts  and  festivals,  and  all 
 those  days  wherein  they  celebrated  the  memory  of  any 
 great  event  that  had  happened  in  their  nation;  but  these 
 are  no  longer  extant.  All  they  have  that  favours  of  any 
 antiquity,  is  their  Megillah  Thaanith  or  Volume  of  afflic- 
 tion, which  contains  the  days  of  fasting  and  feasting  that 
 were  heretofore  in  use  among  them,  but  are  now  laid 
 aside  ;  cind  therefore  no  longer  to  be  found  in  their  com- 
 mon calendars.  Out  of  this  volume,  however,  as  well  as 
 some  of  their  other  calendars,  I  thought  it  not  improper 
 to  set  down  some  of  their  historical  events,  in  order  to 
 let  the  reader  see  on  what  particular  day  of  each  month 
 their  memorial,  whether  by  fasting  or  feasting,  was 
 observed. 
 
 THE  JEWISH  CALENDAR. 
 
 1.  Nisan  or  Abib. 
 
 Days. 
 
 I.   New  moon.     Beginning  o!  the  sacred  or  ecclesiastical 
 year,  a  fast  for  the  death  of  the  children  of  Aaron, 
 Lev.  x.  1,  2. 
 X.   A  fast  for  the  death  of  Miriam,  the  sister  of  Moses, 
 Numb.  xx.  1. 
 XIV.  The  paschal  lamb  slain  on  the  evening  of  this  day. 
 XV.  The  great  and  solemn  feast  of  the  passover. 
 
 XVI.  The  oblation  of  the  first  fruits  of  the  harvest. 
 
 XXI.  The  conclusion  of  the  passover,  or  end  of  unleavened 
 bread. 
 XXIV.  A  fast  for  the  death  of  Joshua. 
 
 2.  Jyar  or  Jiae. 
 
 VII.  The  dedication  of  the  temple,  when  the  Asmoneans 
 consecrated  it  again  after  the  persecutions  of  the 
 Greeks. 
 X.  A  fast  for  the  death  of  the  high-priest  Eli,  and  for  the 
 taking  of  the  ark  by  the  Philistines. 
 XXIII.  A  feast  for  the  taking  of  the  city  of  Gaza  by  Simon 
 Maccabeus,  I  Mac.  xiii.  43,  44. 
 XXVIII.  A  fast  for  the  death  of  the  prophet  Samuel,  1  Sam. 
 
 XXV.   1. 
 
 3.    SlVAN. 
 
 VI.  Pentecost,  or  the  fiftieth  day  after  the  passover,  called 
 likewise  the  feast  of  weeks,  because   it  happened 
 seven  weeks  after  the  passover. 
 XV.  A  feast  for  the  victory  of  the  Maccabees  over  the  people 
 of  Bethsam,  1  Mac.  v.  52. 
 
 XVII.  A  feast  for  the  taking  of  Csesarea  by  the  Asmoneans. 
 XXVII.  A  fast  in  remembrance  of  Jeroboam's  forbidding  his 
 
 subjects  to  carry  their  first  fruits  to  Jerusalem,  1 
 Kings  xii.  27. 
 XXX.  A  feast  in  memory  of  the  solemn  judgment  given  by 
 Alexander  the  Great,  in  favour  of  the  Jews,  against 
 the  Ishmaelites  and  Egyptians. 
 
 4.  Tamuz  or  Thamjiuz. 
 
 IX.  A  fast  for  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  on  that  day,  but 
 whether  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
 or  the  Romans,  it  is  not  said. 
 XVII.  A  fast  in  memory  of  the  tables  of  the  law  that  were 
 broken  by  Moses,  Exod.  xxxii.  15. 
 
 5.  Ab. 
 
 IX.  A  fast  in  memory  of  God's  declaring  to  Moses,  as  on 
 this  day,  that  none  of  the  murmuring  Israelites 
 should  enter  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  Numb.  xiv. 
 29,  31. 
 
 Days. 
 
 X.   A  fast,  because  on  this  same  day  the  city  and  temple 
 were  taken  and  burnt,  first  by  the  Chaldeans,  and 
 afterwards  by  the  Romans. 
 XVIII.  A  fast,  because  that,  in  the  time  of  Ahab,  the  evening 
 lamp  went  out. 
 
 6.  Elul. 
 
 VII.  A  feast  in  memory  of  the  dedication  of  the  walls  of 
 Jerusalem  by  Nehemiah,  Ezra  vi.  16. 
 XVII.  A  fast  for  the  death  of  the  spies,  who  brought  an  ill 
 report  of  the  land  of  promise,  Numb.  xiv.  36,  37. 
 
 7.  Tisri. 
 
 I.  The  feast  of  trumpets,  Lev.  xxiii.  34.  Numb,  xxix 
 1,2. 
 
 III.  A  fast  for  the  death  of  Gedaliah,  whereupon  the  ex- 
 
 pulsion of  the  people,  and  the  utter  destruction  of 
 
 the  land  ensued,  Jer.  xli.  2. 
 VII.  A  fast  for  the  Israelites  worshipping  the  golden  calf, 
 
 and  the  sentence  which  God  pronounced   against 
 
 them  in  consequence  of  that  crime,  Exod.  xxxii. 
 
 6,  &c. 
 X.  The  fast  of  expiation,  as  some  think,  in  memory  of 
 
 man's  fall,   and    expulsion  out  of  paradise,  Lev. 
 
 xxiii.  19. 
 XV.  The  feast  of  tabernacles,  in  memory  of  their  dwelling 
 
 in  tents,  in  their  passage  through  the  wilderness, 
 
 Lev.  xxiii.  34. 
 XXIII.  The  rejoicing  for  the  law;  or  a  feast  instituted  in 
 
 memory  of  the  law.  which  God  gave  them  by  the 
 
 hand  of  Moses. 
 
 8.  Marchesvan. 
 
 VI.  A  fast  upon  the  occasion  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  putting 
 out  Zedekiah's  eyes,  after  that  he  had  slain  his 
 children  in  his  sight,  2  Kings  xxv.  7.  Jer.  lii.  11. 
 
 9.  Cisleu. 
 
 VI.  A  fast  in  memory  of  the  book  of  Jeremiah  torn  and 
 burnt  by  king  Jehoiachin,  Jer.  xxxvi.  23. 
 VII.  A  feast  in  memory  of  the  death  of  Herod  the  Great, 
 a  bitter  enemy  to  the  sages. 
 XXI.  The  feast  of  Mount  Gerizim,  upon  their  obtaining 
 leave  of  Alexander  the  Great  to  destroy  the  temple 
 of  Samaria,  which  was  situated  there. 
 XXV.  The  feast  of  dedication,  namely  of  the  temple,  pro- 
 faned by  the  order  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and 
 repaired  and  beautified  by  the  care  of  Judas  Mac- 
 cabeus. This  festival  Christ  honoured  with  his 
 presence  at  Jerusalem.  It  is  likewise  called  the 
 feast  of  lights,  because,  during  the  time  of  its  cele- 
 bration, the  people  were  used  to  illuminate  their 
 houses,  by  setting  up  candles  at  every  one's  door. 
 See  1  Mac.  iv.  52. ;  2  Mac.  ii.  16.;  John  x.  22. 
 
 10.  Tebeth. 
 
 X.  A  fast  in  memory  of  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  by  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, 2  Kings  xxv.  1. 
 
 XXVIII.  A  feast  for  the  exclusion  of  the  Sadducees  out  of  the 
 
 Sanhedrim,  where  they  had  once  all  the  power. 
 
 11.  Siiebeth. 
 
 IV.  A  fast  in  memory  of  the  death  of  the  elders  who 
 
 succeeded  Joshua,  Judg.  ii.  10. 
 XV.  The  beginning  of  the  years  of  trees,  when  they  were 
 first  allowed  to  eat  the  fruit  thereof,  after  they  were 
 four  years  planted,  Lev.  xix.  23,  &c. 
 XXIII.  A  fast  for  the  war  of  the  ten  tribes  against  that  of 
 Benjamin,  for  the  outrage  committed  upon  the  body 
 of  the  Levite's  wife,  Judg.  xx. 
 
 XXIX.  A  memorial  of  the  death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes;  a 
 
 cruel  enemy  to  the  Jews,  1  Mac.  vi. 
 
H50 
 
 TABLES  OF  JEWISH  MONEY,  WEIGHTS,  AND  MEASURES. 
 
 12.  Adar. 
 
 Dsys. 
 
 VII.  A  fast  iu  remembrance  of  the  death  of  Moses,  Deut. 
 xxxiv.  5. 
 
 XIII.   Esther's  fast,  probably  in  memory  of  that  which  is 
 mentioned  in  Esther  iv.  16. 
 
 XV.  A  feast  in  memory  of  the  death  of  Nicanor,  a  bitter 
 enemy  to  the  Jews,  1  Mac.  xv.  30. 
 The  feast  of  Purim  or  Lots  ;  because,  when  Haman 
 purposed  to  destroy  all  the  Jews  that  were  in  Per- 
 sia, according  to  the  superstition  of  the  country,  he 
 first  drew  lots,  to  know  on  what  day  of  the  year 
 it  would  be  best  to  put  his  design  in  execution, 
 from  whence  the  feast  in  commemoration  of  their 
 escape,  took  its  name. 
 
 XIII.  The  dedication  of  the  temple  of  Zerubbabel,  Ezra  vi. 
 16. 
 XXVIII.  A  feast  in  commemoration  of  the  repeal  of  the  de- 
 cree whereby  the  kings  of  Greece  had  forbidden 
 the  Jews  to  circumcise  their  children,  to  observe 
 the  Sabbath,  and  to  reject  foreign  worship. 
 
 When  the  year  consists  of  thirteen  months,  here  is  the 
 place  where  the  second  month  of  Adar,  or  Veadar,  by 
 way  of  intercalation,  comes  in. 
 
 JEWISH  MONEY. 
 
 The  custom  of  making  money,  of  such  a  form,  such 
 an  alloy,  and  such  a  determinate  value,  is  not  so  ancient 
 as  some  may  imagine.  '  The  original  way  of  commerce 
 was  certainly  by  way  of  barter,  or  exchanging  one  kind 
 of  merchandise  for  another,  as  it  is  the  custom,  in  some 
 places,  even  to  this  day.  In  process  of  time,  such  metals 
 as  were  generally  esteemed  to  be  most  valuable,  were 
 received  into  traffic,  but  then  the  custom  was  to  weigli 
 them  out  to  one  another,  till,  finding  the  delays  and 
 other  inconveniences  of  this  method,  they  agreed  to  give 
 each  metal  a  certain  mark,  a  certain  weight,  and  a  cer- 
 tain degree  of  alloy,  in  order  to  fix  its  value  ;but  it  was 
 a  long  while  before  men  came  into  this  agreement.  The 
 coinage  of  money  among  the  Persians,  Greeks,  and 
 Romans,  was  but  of  late  date  ;  among  the  Persians,  no 
 older  than  the  times  of  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes ;  and 
 among  the  Grecians,  from  whom  the  Romans  very  pro- 
 bably took  it,  of  the  same  date  with  Alexander.  We 
 have  no  traces  of  this  practice  among  the  ancient  Egyp- 
 tians, before  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies ;  nor  had  the 
 Hebrews  this  custom  among  them,  a  until  the  govern- 
 ment of  Simon  Maccabeus,  to  whom  Antiochus  Sidetes, 
 king  of  Syria,  granted  the  privilege  of  coining  his  own 
 money  in  Judea. 
 
 Before  that  time,  they  made  all  their  payments  by- 
 weight:  and  therefore  the  reader  need  less  wonder,  that 
 one  and  the  same  word  should  denote  both  a  certain 
 
 1  Calmet's  Dissertation,  vol.  1. 
 And  yet  the  Jews  have  a  tradition,  that  not  only  Joshua, 
 David,  and  Mordecai,  but  even  Abraham  himself,  had  found  out 
 tbe  way  of  coining.  It  is  said  of  Abraham  indeed,  that  'he  was 
 very  rich  in  silver  and  gold,  (Gen.  xiii.  2.)  But  we  no  where 
 read  that  this  money  was  stamped  with  any  impression ;  and  yet 
 the  Jewish  tradition  runs  thus,  namely,  '  That  on  Abraham's 
 money  were  stamped  on  one  side  an  old  man  and  an  old  woman,  on 
 the  other,  a  young  man  and  a  young  maid  ;  on  Joshua's  money,  on 
 one  side  an  ox,  on  the  other  amonoceros:  on  David's  money,  on 
 sue  side  a  stall' and  a  scrip,  on  the  other  a  tower;  and  on  Morde- 
 cai's  money,  on  one  side  sackcloth  and  ashes,  on  the  other  a  crown.' 
 Bat  this  seems  to  have  the  air  of  a  Rabbinical  fiction. — Lewis's 
 Anliq.  Heb.  b.  \i. 
 
 weight  of  any  commodity,  and  such  a  3  determinate  sum 
 of  money;  what  he  has  to  remark  is  this — 4  That  among 
 the  ancients,  the  proportion  of  gold  to  silver  was  most 
 commonly  as  ten  to  one ;  sometimes  it  arose  to  be  as 
 eleven  to  one,  sometimes  as  twelve,  and  sometimes  as 
 thirteen  :  that  though,  in  the  time  of  king  Edward  I., 
 it  was  here  in  England  at  so  low  an  estimate  as  ten  to 
 one ;  yet  it  is  now  advanced  to  the  value  of  sixteen  to 
 one,  and  in  all  the  reductions  of  this  kind  that  we  make, 
 is  to  be  so  computed. 
 
 /.    s.  d.    q. 
 The  Gerah,        ....  000  00  01  3 
 
 The  Hebrew  Drachm,  ...  000  00  09 
 
 Two  Drachms  made  a  Bekah,     .         .  .  000  01  06 
 
 Two  Bekahs  made  a  Shekel,  .  .  000  03  00 
 
 Sixty  Shekels  made  a  Mina,         .  .  .  009  00  00 
 
 Fifty  Minas  made  a  Talent,       .       .         .  450  00  00 
 
 A  Talent  of  gold,  sixteen  to  one,  ■         •       7200  00  00 
 
 JEWISH  WEIGHTS 
 
 The  Gerah,  ..... 
 
 The  Hebrew  Drachm  or  Zuza, 
 
 Two  Zuzas  made  a  Bekath, 
 
 Two  Bekaths  made  a  Shekel, 
 
 An  hundred  Shekels  made  a  Mineth, 
 
 Thirty  Mineths  made  a  Talent,     . 
 
 MEASURES  OF  LENGTH. 
 
 lb.    oz.  gr.  dec. 
 000  00     10  95 
 000  00     54  75 
 000  00  109£ 
 000  00  219 
 050  00     00 
 1500  00     00 
 
 Eng. 
 feet.  inck. 
 
 The  Hebrew  Cubit,  somewhat  more  than     .         .  0  21 
 
 The  Zerith,  or  Span,  a  little  more  than              .  0  10 
 
 The  Span  of  a  Cubit,  a  little  above      ...  0  7 
 
 The  Palm,  or  hand's  breadth,  somewhat  above  0  3 
 
 The  Fathom,  which  makes  4  Cubits  above.            .  7  O 
 
 Ezekiel's  Reed,  which  was  6  Cubits,  above       .  10  0 
 
 The  ancient  Measuring-line,  or  Chain,  which  ^  ,  .-  „ 
 
 was  80  Cubits  above  3 
 
 A  Sabbath's  day's  journey,  2000  Cubits,         .         3648  0 
 
 Miles.  Paces.  Feel. 
 
 An  Eastern  mile,  4000  Cubits,              .         .         1  10  0 
 
 A  day's  journey,  generally  computed  much  about  33  0  O 
 
 MEASURES  OF   CAPACITY. 
 
 Dry  Measures. 
 
 The  Cab  contained  a  quarter 
 of  a  peck. 
 
 The  Omer  or  Gnomer  in  the 
 Hebrew,  was  the  tenth  part  of 
 an  Ephah. 
 
 The  Ephah  is  computed  to 
 be  about  our  Bushel ;  and 
 
 The  Homer  is  supposed  to 
 be  ten. 
 
 Liquid  Measures. 
 
 The  Log  came  near  to  our 
 pint. 
 
 12  Logs  made  an  Hin,  which 
 answered  our  gallon. 
 
 6  Hins  made  a  Bath,  which 
 was  about  six  gallons ;  and 
 
 10  Baths  made  an  Homer, 
 which  was  60. 
 
 The  reader  will  be  pleased  to  observe,  that  in  the 
 valuation  of  money,  I  have  chiefly  followed  Dean 
 Prideaux,  in  his  preface  to  the  first  part  of  his  Connec- 
 tion of  Sacred  and  Profane  History,  and  in  the  reduction 
 of  weights  and  measures,  our  learned  Cumberland :  but 
 whoever  desires  a  fuller  account  of  these  matters,  may 
 consult  the  said  Bishop  Cumberland,  of  the  Jewish  weights 
 measures,  and  monies  ;  Mr  Brerewood,  Be  ponder ibus  et 
 pretiis  veterum  nummorum;  Dr  Bernard,  Be  mensuris 
 et  ponderibus  antiquis  ;  and  others  that  have  written 
 on  this  argument,  which  is  not  a  little  difficult  and 
 perplexing. 
 
 3  For  so  the  word  shakel  comes  from  hpV  to  weigh  ;  and  may 
 properly  be  interpreted  the  weight. — Letvis's  Antiq.  Heb.  b.  vi. 
 
 4  Prideaux's  Connection,  in  the  preface. 
 
INDEX   OF   SUBJECTS. 
 
 Aaron,  brother  of  Moses,  23S;  con- 
 secrated to  the  high  priest's  office,  297  ; 
 offers  sacrifice,  which  God  accepts  by 
 fire,  297;  his  sons  Nadab  and  Abihu 
 destroyed,  297;  is  rebuked  for  envying 
 Moses,  299 ;  stays  the  plague,  302  ;  his 
 rod  blossoms,  302  and  n, ;  dies,  314 
 and  n. 
 
 Abarim,  mountains  of,  351. 
 
 Abel,  birth  of,  41  and  n. ;  signification  of 
 his  name,  41,  n.;  his  occupation,  41; 
 his  oblation,  41  ;  is  murdered  by  Cain, 
 43  and  n. 
 
 Abigail,  Nabal's  wife,  her  prudent  conduct 
 to  David,  451  and  n. ;  is  married  to  him 
 on  her  husband's  death,  451. 
 
 Abijah  succeeds  Rehoboam  in  the  king- 
 dom of  Judah,  546;  makes  war  against 
 Jeroboam,  546  and  n. 
 
 Abimelech,  the  first  king  of  Gerar,  invites 
 Sarah  to  his  bed,  151;  is  warned  of  God 
 concerning  her,  and  makes  a  covenant 
 with  Abraham,  152. 
 
 Abimelech,  the  second  king  of  Gerar,  takes 
 Rebecca  for  Isaac's  sister;  expostulates 
 with  Isaac  ;  his  league,  180  and  n. 
 
 Abimelech,  son  of  Gideon,  murders  his 
 brethren,  and  is  elected  king  of  Shechem, 
 407 ;  flees  for  his  life,  408 ;  returns 
 and  destroys  Shechem,  408;  is  killed 
 at  the  siege  of  Thebez,  40S  and  n. 
 
 Abner  on  the  death  of  Saul  proclaims 
 Ishbosheth  king,  477;  is  defeated  by 
 Joab;  slays  Asahel,  477;  his  death, 
 478. 
 
 Abraham,  his  birth,  and  calling,  142; 
 leaves  Uz  and  Haran :  goes  to  Canaan: 
 the  blessing  bestowed  on  him ;  fixes 
 his  tent  near  Sichem,  143;  God  ap- 
 pears to  him;  he  removes  between 
 Bethel  and  Hai ;  goes  down  to  Egypt ; 
 his  fears  on  account  of  his  wife;  his 
 wife  taken  into  the  seraglio  of  Pharaoh  ; 
 the  king  and  his  nobles  plagued  on  her 
 account,  144  and  n. — Abram  returns 
 to  Canaan ;  separation  of  Abram  and 
 Lot;  Abram  has  a  vision;  departs  to 
 Mamre,  145;  rescues  Lot  after  the 
 battle  of  Siddim;  is  blessed  by  Mel- 
 chizedek ;  has  another  vision  from  God  ; 
 receives  promise  of  a  son;  sacrifices  to 
 the  Lord,  146  and  n. ;  God's  covenant 
 with  him;  the  token  and  signs,  147 
 and  n. ;  Sarai  presents  Hagar  to  him, 
 who  couceives  and  bears  Ishmael,  147; 
 God  renews  his  covenant  with  him; 
 tii-titutes    the    rite     of    circumcision ; 
 
 changes  the  names  of  Abram  and  Sarai 
 to  Abraham  and  Sarah;  promises  Sarah 
 a  son  ;  Abraham  entertains  three  angels, 
 
 148  and  n, ;  Sarah  promised  a  son; 
 her  incredulity;  Abraham  intercedes 
 for    Sodom;    God's   promise    to     him, 
 
 149  and  n. ;  removes  to  Gerar ;  his  wife 
 attracts  the  notice  of  Abimelech,  151 ; 
 the  latter  is  warned  concerning  her,  and 
 expostulates  with  Abraham;  he  makes 
 gifts  to  Abraham  and  Sarah;  Isaac  is 
 born;  Abraham  sends  Hagar  and  Ishmael 
 away,  152  and  n. ;  makes  a  league  with 
 Abimelech,  153  ;  the  oath  of  their  cove- 
 nant, 153,  n, ;  place  of  the  covenant 
 named  Beersheba;  Abraham  builds  an 
 altar    there,    153;    trials   of  Abraham, 
 
 153,  n.;  the  offering  of  Isaac,  153-4; 
 God  forbids  the  sacrifice,  154;  how 
 Abraham    knew    the    appointed    place, 
 
 154,  n. ;  Sarah  dies,  154;  is  buried  in 
 the  cave  of  Machpelah;  Abraham  sends 
 Eliezer  into  Mesopotamia  to  procure  a 
 wife  for  Isaac,  155;  takes  Keturah  to 
 wife,  157;  has  six  sons  by  her;  settles 
 them  in  Arabia  and  Syria,  157  and  ».; 
 dies,  and  is  buried  at  Machpelah,  beside 
 Sarah,  157  and  ra.;  his  religion,  158, 
 ».;  passages  in  his  life  not  free  from 
 sin,    158-9;    fictions  concerning  him, 
 
 155,  n.;  his  conduct  regarding  Hagar 
 considered,  159  and  ».;  is  not  charge- 
 able with  barbarity  in  expelling  Hagar 
 and  Ishmael,  161  ;  or  cruelty  in  his 
 purpose  of  sacrificing  Isaac,  161-5;  why 
 he  interceded  for  Sodom,  164;  trials  of 
 his  faith,  172;  his  character  as  a  warrior 
 considered,  173;  his  address  to  Isaac 
 when  about  to  ofler  him,  173,  ».;  his 
 history  verified  by  profane  authors,  175. 
 
 Abraham's  bosom,  meaning  of  the  expres- 
 sion, 961,  n. 
 
 Absalom,  slays  Amnon  for  debauching 
 Tamar,  486  and  n.;  is  himself  slain  by 
 Joab,  491  and  n. 
 
 Abyss,  supplies  water  for  the  deluge,  85. 
 
 Abyssinians,  cruel  practice  of  the,  104,  w. 
 
 Acceptance  of  the  sacrifice,  42,  w. 
 
 Account  of  things  from  the  Creation  to  the 
 Flood,  1. 
 
 Achaia,  province  of,  1105,  n.;  its  extent, 
 1086  and  n. 
 
 Achan's  sacrilege  and  punishment,  367 
 and  n. 
 
 Achish,  king  of  Gath,  452. 
 
 Achor  or  Achar,  valley  of,  368. 
 
 Acra,  mount  of,  761  and  n. 
 
 Acrabatene,  country  of,  769  and  n. 
 
 Acts  of  the  Apostles,  (genuine)  by  whom 
 written;  their  extent  and  sufficiency, 
 1114. 
 
 Acts  of  the  Apostles,  (apocryphal)  account 
 of  them,  1115  and  n. 
 
 Adam  and  Eve,  their  close  union,  ]  5  and  n. 
 
 Adam  names  all  living  creatures,  7  and 
 n.;  his  body,  formation  of,  11,  n.;  his 
 knowledge  and  supernatural  gifts,  22 
 and  n. ;  disobedience,  26;  an  inquiry 
 respecting  the  age  of,  52,  n. ;  the  pos- 
 terity of,  to  the  deluge,  52  and  n  ; 
 death  of,  and  burial,  53  and  n. 
 
 Adam,  city  of,  365  and  n. 
 
 Adonijah  aspires  to  the  throne,  flies  for 
 refuge  to  the  altar,  pardoned  by  Solo- 
 mon, but  afterwards  slain,  50S. 
 
 Adramalech  and  Anamalech,  625  and  n. 
 
 Adramyttium,  town  of,  1096  and  n. 
 
 Adullam,  city  of,  448  and  n. 
 
 Adultery,  punishment  of  in  eastern  na- 
 tions, 212,  n. 
 
 Agabus,  one  of  the  seventy  disciples, 
 1070  and  n. 
 
 Agag  saved  by  Saul ;  slain  by  Samuel, 
 and  why,  442. 
 
 Agapce,  feasts  of,  10S4  and  n. 
 
 Agarsp,  king  of  the  Scythians,  invades 
 Bactria;  slays  Zoroastres,  &c ;  razes  the 
 fire  temples,  809. 
 
 Agrigentum,  inhabitants  of,  burn  Phalaris 
 in  his  own  bull,  494. 
 
 Agrippa,  grandson  of  Augustus,  banished 
 on  account  of  his  vicious  life,  1130. 
 
 Agrippa,  grandson  of  Herod  the  Great, 
 persecutes  the  Christians;  and  causes 
 James  the  Great  to  be  beheaded,  1070 
 and  n.;  casts  Peter  into  prison,  1070 
 and  ».;  puts  the  keepers  of  the  prison 
 to  death,  1071;   his  death,  1071  and  n. 
 
 Agrippa  visits  Festus,  1094  and  n.  ;  Paul 
 is  brought  before  him,  1094  and  ?i.  ; 
 Agrippa  is  almost  persuaded  to  be  a 
 Christian,  1096  and  n. 
 
 Ahab  succeeded  Omri  in  Israel,  550 ;  is 
 guilty  of  all  manner  of  idolatry,  560 ; 
 marries  Jezebel,  560  ;  builds  a  temple 
 to  Baal,  in  Samaria,  560  and  n. ;  is  re- 
 proved by  Elijah,  561  and  n.  ;  is  opposed 
 by  Benhadad,  566 ;  overcomes  him, 
 566  and  n. ;  is  instructed  by  a  prophet  to 
 recruit  his  army,  566 ;  defeats  Ben- 
 hadad a  second  time,  567;  concludes  a 
 treaty  with  him,  567  and  n. ;  his  pun- 
 ishment for  so  doing,  567  and  n.  ;  puts 
 Naboth  to  death  and  seizes  on  his  vine- 
 
1152 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 yard,  568  and  n. ;  Elijah  pronounces 
 his  punishment  for  the  matter  of  Na- 
 both,  568  and  n.;  is  slain  at  the  siege 
 of  Ramoth  Gilead,  570. 
 Ahasuerus  succeeds  Cyrus  inhis  dominions 
 716;  discourages  the  rebuilding  of  Jeru- 
 salem, 716;  his  death,  716. 
 Ahasuerus,  the  second,  719  and  n. ;  gives 
 a  grand  festival  at  Shushan,  his  im- 
 perial city,  719-20  and  n.  ;  resents 
 Vashti  the  queen's  refusal  to  come  to 
 the  banquet,  and  seeks  another  queen, 
 720  and  n. ;  marries  Esther,  721  and  n. ; 
 gives  a  grand  feast,  721 ;  visits  Esther 
 at  her  banquet,  723  and  n. ;  rewards 
 Mordecai,  724  and  n. ;  hangs  Haman, 
 725  and  n. ;  reverses  the  decree  against 
 the  Jews,  725,  n. 
 Ahava,  river  of,  727,  n. 
 Ahaz  succeeds  Jotham  on  the  throne  of 
 Judah,  627 ;  is  reproved  and  assisted 
 by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  627  ;  the  two 
 signs,  627  and  n. ;  he  falls  into  idolatry, 
 627  and  n. ;  is  beset  with  enemies,  62S  ; 
 bribes  the  king  of  Assyria,  628;  re- 
 lapses into  idolatry,  629  and  n.;  his 
 death,  629  and  n. 
 Ahaziah  succeeds  Ahab  on  the  throne  of 
 
 Israel,  570;  his  death,  573. 
 Ahaziah  succeeds  Jehoram  in  Judah;  is 
 
 slain  by  Jehu,  596. 
 Ahobab,  one   of  the  artists  employed  in 
 
 building  the  Mosaic  tabernacle,  297. 
 Ahijah,    the  prophet,  declares    Jeroboam 
 successor  of  Solomon ;  his  conduct ;  541, 
 and  n. 
 Ahimelech,  his  conspiracy  against  Saul; 
 
 his  execution,  449  and  n. 
 Ahitophel  joins  the  rebellion  of  Absalom, 
 
 and  why;  his  death,  490. 
 Ai,  city  of,  367  and  n. 
 Ajalon,  the  miracle  there,  38S,  et  seq. 
 Akron,  see  Ekron. 
 
 Alathea  of  the  Egyptians,  what,  28 1. 
 Alexander  of  Ephesus,  who  he  was,  and 
 
 whether  a  friend  to  St  Paul,  1085. 
 Alexander's  feast,  699,  n. 
 Alexander  the  Great  born,  748 ;  succeeds 
 his  father,  Philip,  in  Macedon,  748; 
 appointed  to  command  the  Grecian 
 forces  against  Persia,  conquers  Darius, 
 748  ;  subdues  Syria  ;  besieges  Tyre  ; 
 requires  submission  from  Galilee,  Sa- 
 maria, and  Jerusalem  ;  marches  against 
 Jerusalem,  748  and  n.;  pays  reverence 
 to  Jaddua  the  high  priest;  gives  favour- 
 able terms  to  the  Jews,  749;  departs  into 
 Egypt;  his  governor  over  Syria  and  Pales- 
 tine burnt  by  the  Samaritans,  749;  he 
 drives  the  inhabitants  from  Samaria  and 
 plants  there  a  colony  of  Macedonians, 
 749;  his  death,  749,  «.;  his  king- 
 dom divided  amongst  his  four  generals, 
 758. 
 Alexander,  a  pretended  son  of  Antiochus 
 Epiphanes,  claims  the  throne  of  Syria, 
 774  and  ».;  seeks  the  friendship  of 
 Jonathan  by  conferring  on  him  the  high- 
 priesthood,  774,  n.  ;  defeats  Demetrius, 
 and  so  obtains  the  throne  of  Syria,  775 
 and  n. ;  his  death,  776. 
 Alexander  Janiucus  succeeds  Aristobulus 
 as  king  of  the  Jews,  790;  his  wars  and 
 the  circumstances  thereof,  790  et  seq.; 
 destroys Gaza,791;  his  treatment  at  Jeru- 
 salem, 791  and  ».;  is  oppo>ed  by  Deme- 
 trius king  of  Damascus,  792;  is  reduced 
 to  great  extremities  792  ;  his  cruelties 
 after  the  siege  of  Bethome,  792;  his  arti- 
 
 fice to  secure  favourable  treatment  to 
 his  queen  and  children,  793;  his  death, 
 793. 
 
 Alexandra,  queen  of  Alexander  Janmeus, 
 becomes  queen  of  the  Jews,  793. 
 
 Alexandria,  city  of,  752,  n. 
 
 Alma,  meaning  of,  871. 
 
 Altars  of  burnt  offering,  310;  of  incense, 
 311. 
 
 Amalekite,  his  message  to  David,  476. 
 
 Amalekites,  the,  273  ;  339  and  n. 
 
 Amaziah  succeeds  Joash  in  the  kingdom 
 of  Judah,'  602  ;  revenges  his  father's 
 murder;  defeats  the  Edomites,  602; 
 challenges  Joash,  603  and  n.  ;  is  taken 
 prisoner  to  Jerusalem,  603  and  n.;  his 
 death,  603. 
 
 Amenophis,  the  Pharoah  who  pursued 
 Israel,  and  was  drowned,  336. 
 
 America,  continent  of,  how  it  came  to  be 
 peopled,  12S  and  n. 
 
 Ammonites,  victory  over  the,  441. 
 
 Amnon  slain  by  Absalom  for  debauching 
 Tamar,  486  and  n. 
 
 Amon  succeeds  Manasseh  in  the  kingdom 
 of  Judah,  637 ;  restores  idolatry ;  is  slain 
 by  his  domestics,  637. 
 
 Amos  the  prophet,  608. 
 
 Amphipolis,  city  of,  1078,  n. 
 
 Amram,  has  a  daughter,  Miriam,  and  two 
 sons,  Aaron  and  Moses,  by  his  wife 
 Jochebed,  23S  ;  traditions  concerning 
 him,  238,  n. 
 
 Ananel  made  high-priest  by  Herod,  800. 
 
 Ananias  the  high-priest,  his  treatment  of 
 Paul,  1091. 
 
 Ananias  cures  Saul  of  his  blindness,  1066. 
 
 Ananias  and  Saphira  struck  dead,  1060. 
 
 Ancient  authors,  their  opinions  concern- 
 ing the  creation,  11,  re. ;  whose  writings 
 authenticate  the  history  of  Abraham, 
 175-6;  whose  writings  verify  the  history 
 of  Jacob  from  his  going  into  Mesopo- 
 tamia to  his  return,  205;  who  bear  testi- 
 mony to  the  truth  of  Joseph's  history, 
 232;  their  testimony  to  the  truth  of 
 what  is  related  concerning  Moses,  and 
 the  Exodus  of  Israel,  258;  whose  writ- 
 ings bear  testimony  to  the  miraculous 
 pillar;  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea;  the 
 sending  down  manna  and  quails;  the 
 striking  of  the  rock,  284;  the  deliver- 
 ing of  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai,  2S4; 
 their  testimony  to  Moses;  Aaron;  Ba- 
 laam; the  brazen  serpent,  334. 
 
 Ancient  testimonies  to  the  truth  of  the 
 sacred  history  from  the  entrance  into 
 Canaan,  to  the  death  of  Joshua,  385  ; 
 to  the  truth  of  sacred  history  from  the 
 death  of  Joshua,  to  the  death  of  Samson, 
 427;  to  the  things  recorded  in  the  1st 
 book  of  Samuel,  467. 
 
 Ancient  cities,  &c.  the  work  of  the  giants, 
 59  and  n. 
 
 Andrew  the  apostle  suffers  martyrdom  at 
 Patrcca  by  order  of  the  proconsul,  1105 
 and  n. 
 Animal   food  permitted  after  the  delude, 
 96  and  n. 
 
 Animalcules,  13,  n. 
 
 Animals  such  as  were  worshipped  by  the 
 Egyptians,  263 ;    their   care    of  them, 
 263. 
 Angel  of  the  covenant,  404. 
 Angels  probably  created  before  this  lower 
 
 world,  8. 
 Anger,  its  nature  considered,  932. 
 Anna  the  prophetess,  gives  testimony  to 
 Christ,  847. 
 
 Antediluvians,  their  wickedness,  arts  ard 
 sciences,  longevity,  &c,  69,  et  seq. 
 
 Anthony  is  defeated  at  Actium  by  Octa- 
 vius,  801  and  n. 
 
 Antigonus  son  of  Aristobulus  the  second 
 obtains  Judea;  is  besieged  in  Jerusalem 
 by  Herod,  798  ;  his  death,  799. 
 
 Antigonus,  brother  of  Aristobulus,  is  mur- 
 dered, 790 
 
 Antioch,  city  of,  1069,  n.\  the  followers  of 
 Christ  are  there  first  called  Christians, 
 1070  and  n. 
 
 Antiochus,  his  mad  excesses,  700  and  n. 
 
 Antiochus  the  divine,  deposes  Demetrius 
 the  second,  776  ;  is  murdered,  777. 
 
 Antiochus  Epiphanes  succeeds  Seleucus 
 in  Syria,  755  and  n. ;  oppresses  the  Jews, 
 775;  besieges  Jerusalem,  and  slaughters 
 40,000  Jews ;  pollutes  the  temple,  756 
 and  n. ;  forbids  the  Jews  to  exercise  their 
 religion,  756 ;  the  Jewish  temple  he 
 dedicates  to  Olympian  Jove,  and  places 
 his  statute  therein,  757  ;  terribly  perse- 
 cutes the  Jews,  757 ;  his  defeats  by- 
 Judas  Macabees,  759  et  seq. ;  his  ill 
 success  in  Persia  ;  his  death,  761  and  w. 
 
 Antiochus  Eupater  succeeds  Antiochus 
 Epiphanes  in  Syria,  769 ;  he  and  his 
 regent  Lysias  put  to  death,  772. 
 
 Antiochus  the  Great,  is  defeated  byPtolemy 
 Philopater,  753 ;  re-obtains  Syria,  &c. 
 753  ;  allows  many  liberties  to  the  Jews, 
 753 ;  marries  his  daughter  Cleopatra 
 to  Ptolemy  Epiphanes  ;  and  gives  him 
 as  her  dower  the  province  of  Caelo 
 Syria,  and  Palestine,  754 ;  his  death, 
 754,  n. 
 
 Antiochus  the  hunter,  becomes  king  of 
 Syria,  777,  n.;  besieges  Jerusalem,  778. 
 
 Anlipater,  793. 
 
 Antipater,  son  of  Herod,  802;  slain  by  his 
 father,  802,  n. 
 
 Antipatras,  town  of,  1092,  n. 
 
 Antonia,  castle  of,  1090,  n. 
 
 Apamea,  city  of,  777  and  n. 
 
 Apheck,  town  of,  567  and  n. 
 
 Apocalypse,  its  authenticity,  1112,  n. 
 
 Apollonia,  city  of,  1078,  n. 
 
 Apollonius,  a  general  of  Antiochus,  mas- 
 sacres the  Jews,  756. 
 
 Apollonius,  9S3  and  n. 
 
 Apollos  teaches  in  Ephesus,  10S2  and  n. 
 
 Apologues,  their  use,  929. 
 
 Apostles,  meaning  of  the  name,  904;  to 
 whom  given  by  the  Jews,.  904;  those 
 of  our  Lord,  904;  their  return  to  Jeru- 
 salem after  the  ascension,  1057:  are 
 filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  1058;  make 
 converts,  heal  diseases,  &c.  105S. 
 
 Appeals,  Roman,  manner  of,  1093. 
 
 Appii  Forum,  1099  and  n 
 
 Aprons  of  fig-leaves,  26  and  n. 
 
 Aquila  and  Priscilla,  two  of  Paul's  con- 
 verts, 10SO,  n. 
 
 Arabia,  1066,  n. 
 
 Arabians,  their  idolatry,  139;  descended 
 from  Ishmael ;  their  usages  and  mode  of 
 life,  169;  all  attempts  to  subdue  them 
 futile,  170  and  n. 
 
 Arabs,  147,  n.;  770  and  ». 
 
 Aram,  the  sons  of;  their  settlements,  121 . 
 
 Ararat,  the  mountain,  88 ;  account  of  by 
 professor  Parrot,  92  ;  Armenians  affirm 
 the  impossibility  of  ascending  to  its  sum- 
 mit, 93  ;  Armenian  tradition,  tliat  the 
 ark  is  still  existing  thereon,  93. 
 
 Aratus  the  poet,  1079,  u. 
 
 Arbaces  conspires  against  Sardanapalus, 
 676  ;  lays  siege  to  Nineveh,  and  drives 
 
INT. EX  f'F  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1153 
 
 him  to  the  desperate  act  of  burning  him- 
 self, his  palace,  &c;  obtains  the  king- 
 dom, 677. 
 
 Arbela,  battle  of,  750,  n. 
 
 Arohelaus  succeeds  Herod  in  Judea,  849; 
 Jews  make  complaints  against  him  to 
 Augustus,  who  deposes  him,  850. 
 
 Archers,  their  service  in  ancient  warfare, 
 454. 
 
 Areopagus,  court  of,  1079,  n. 
 
 Aretus,  king  of  Arabia,  100'6,  n. 
 
 Argonauts,  their  exploits,  501. 
 
 Arphaxad,  descendants  of;  their  settle- 
 ments, 121 ;  king  of  Media,  660  and  n. 
 
 Arimathea,  town  of,  1021,  n. 
 
 Aristarchus,  1085  and  ft. 
 
 Aristobulus  murders  his  mother  and  his 
 brothers,  789  ;  causes  Antigonus  to  be 
 slain,  790  and  n.;  his  death,  790  and  n. 
 
 Aristobulus  son  of  Alexander  Jannaus, 
 succeeds  to  the  government  of  the  Jews, 
 793  ;  deposes  Hyrcanus,  is  put  in  chains 
 by  Pompey,  794  and  ».;  his  death,  795. 
 
 Aristobus  assumes  the  priesthood  and  the 
 kingly  office  amougst  tiie  Jews,  780. 
 
 Ark,  the  building  of  the,  71  and  n.\  dimen- 
 sions and  capacity  of  the,  79,  80,  81. 
 
 Ark  of  the  covenant,  535  and  n. 
 
 Ark  of  the  Lord,  why  said  to  be  at  Sheeh- 
 em  when  it  really  was  at  Shiloh,  384  ; 
 taken  by  the  Philistines,  435;  carried 
 to  Ashdod  and  placed  in  the  temple  of 
 Dagon,  435 ;  the  consequence,  435 ; 
 is  sent  back,  436;  the  Bethshemites 
 for  looking  into  it  are  slain,  437  ;  is 
 brought  to  Kirjath-jearim,  437;  why 
 carried  by  the  Israelites  to  their  wars, 
 455;  why  permitted  to  be  taken,  455; 
 whether  seventy  Bethshemites  slain, 
 456;  why  not  carried  to  Shiloh,  456  ; 
 brought  to  Jerusalem  by  David,  480 
 and  71.;  Uzzah's  punishment  for  touch- 
 ing it,  480. 
 
 A rmenia,  mountains  of,  88. 
 
 Artaxerxes,  716  and  n  ;  succeeds  Aha- 
 suerus,  716  and  n.;  stops  the  rebuilding 
 of  Jerusalem,  717. 
 
 Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  719  and  n.;  see 
 also  Ahasuerus  the  second,  719. 
 
 Artaxerxes  the  second  succeeds  Darius 
 Nothus  in  Persia,  747  and  n. 
 
 Asa  succeeds  Abijah  in  the  kingdom  of 
 Judah,  546;  destroys  the  idols  and  ex- 
 pels the  Sodomites,  547  and  n.;  van- 
 quishes the  king  of  Arabia,  547  and  n.; 
 expels  his  mother  from  court  for  idol- 
 atry, 547;  obtains  assistance  from  Syria 
 against  Israel,  548;  dies,  543. 
 
 Asahel  killed,  477. 
 
 Ascension  of  our  Lord,  1027  and  n. 
 
 Ascents  of  mount  Ararat,  90,  93. 
 
 Ashdod,  city  of,  344. 
 
 A.^himah,  625  and  n. 
 
 Ashur,  cities  which  he  built,  134  n. 
 
 AsUelon,  city  of,  344,  412. 
 
 Asmoneans,  757,  n. 
 
 Asphaltites,  lake  of,  called  also  the  salt 
 sea  and  the  dead  sea,  177-8  and  ».;  353; 
 conjectures  respecting,  354. 
 
 Ass,  that  of  Balaam,  316  ;  our  Saviour 
 rides  on  one,  971. 
 
 Assideans,  758,  n. 
 
 Assos,  sea-port  of,  1087,  ft. 
 
 Assyrian  empire,  history  of,  136,  n. 
 
 Astaroth  the  goddess  of  the  Sidonians, 
 637,  n. 
 
 Astarte,  idol  of  the  Syrians,  599,  n. 
 
 Astronomy,  early  study  of,  67;  ancient 
 systems  of,  87,  88  ;  various  systems  of, 
 
 126,  A.;  as  known  to  the  Egyptians, 
 261. 
 
 Assuman,  Syrian  idol,  599,  n. 
 
 Atad,  threshing  floor  of,  224  and  n. 
 
 Ate,  her  story,  to  what  allusive,  24  and  n. 
 
 Atlialiah,  daughter  of  Ahab,  560  and  n. 
 
 Athaliah  succeeds  her  son  Ahaziah  in 
 Judah,  596;  destroys  the  children  of 
 Jehoram,  599;  her  death,  600  and  n. 
 
 Athens,  city  of,  1073,  91. 
 
 Attalia,  city  of,  1073,  n. 
 
 Augustus  Ctesar  banishes  his  daughter 
 Julia  for  infamous  practices,  1129;  also 
 her  daughter  and  his  grandson  Agrippa 
 for  the  like,  1129;  banishes  Ovid,  1129; 
 appoints  Tiberius  his  heir,  1129  ;  re- 
 gulates the  calendar,  1129;  his  death, 
 1130;  his  character;  divine  honours 
 paid  to  his  memory,  1130. 
 
 Authors  who  have  treated  of  the  Egyptian 
 buildings  and  monuments,  267. 
 
 Avites,  625  and  n. 
 
 Azariah  succeeds  Amaziah  in  Judah,  C03. 
 
 Azekah,  its  situation,  443. 
 
 Azotus,  its  situation,  341. 
 
 B 
 
 Baal-berith,  407  and  n. 
 
 Baal-peor,  318  and  n. 
 
 Baal-zebub,  572. 
 
 Baasha,  king  of  Israel,  fortifies  Ramah, 
 548;  dies,  549. 
 
 Babel,  tower  of,  109  and  «.;  the  building 
 thereof  interrupted,  110;  whether  all 
 the  descendants  of  Noah  were  at  the 
 building  of,  111  and  «.;  tower  of,  116; 
 heathen  testimony  establishes  the  fact 
 of  such  an  erection  subsequent  to  the 
 deluge;  its  rem:iins  still  exist;  opinion 
 that  Nimrod  was  the  projector  of  the 
 building,  116;  tower  of,  erected  as  a 
 land-mark  for  the  different  tribes  and 
 families  of  men,  in  anticipation  of  a  dis- 
 persion, 118;  other  reasons  for  its  erec- 
 tion, 120,  n. 
 
 Babylon,  description  of,  133  and  n.  and 
 712;  passed  from  the  Assyrians  to  the 
 Persians,  133 ;  thence  to  the  Mace- 
 donians, 133;  Alexander  died  there, 
 133  ;  its  population  weakened  to  people 
 Seleucia,  133;  now  reduced  to  ruins, 
 having  only  one  town  remaining,  133  ; 
 ruins  described,  133,  n. 
 
 Babylonians,  their  astronomical  know- 
 ledge, 136. 
 
 Bacchides  marches  with  an  army  into 
 Judea,  773;  overpowers  and  kills  Judas 
 Maccabeus,  773;  pursues  and  overtakes 
 Jonathan,  the  brother  and  successor  of 
 Judas,  773 ;  goes  to  Jerusalem,  forti- 
 fies mount  Acra,  makes  a  treaty,  and 
 returns  to  Syria,  774. 
 
 Balaam  is  sent  for  by  Balak,  315  ;  is  met 
 by  an  angel,  316  ;  reproved  by  his  ass, 
 316;  sacrifices,  316;  is  compelled  to 
 bless  the  Israelites,  317  and  ».;  his 
 wicked  suggestion  to  Balak,  317  and  ».; 
 on  the  conduct  and  character  of,  334 
 et  seq. 
 
 Balak,  king  of  Moab,  315. 
 
 Balth,  its  situation,  809. 
 
 Balista  of  the  Romans,  771,  n. 
 
 Banishment  of  Cain,  41. 
 
 Barak,  son  of  Ahinoam,  marches  against 
 Sisera,  402  and  «.;  defeats  him,  402 
 and  n. 
 
 Ban's,  castle  of,  779  and  n. 
 
 Barjesus  the  sorcerer,  struck  blind,  1072. 
 
 Barnabus,  St,  his  labours  and  death,  1111 
 
 and  n. 
 Barnabas   and    Mark  proceed   to  Cyprus, 
 
 1075. 
 Bartholomew,  St,  his  travels,  labours  and 
 
 death,  1 110  and  n. 
 Bartimeus  restored  to  sight,  967  and  n. 
 Baruch,  655,  n. 
 
 Barzillai,  his  conduct  to  David,  504. 
 Bashan,  the  land  of,  315,  71.',  mountains 
 
 of,  351. 
 Bathsheba  married  to  David,  48  1 ;  has  a 
 
 son,  Solomon,  486. 
 Bean,  children  of,  769  and  n. 
 Beasts  created,  6  and  ».;  clean  and  un- 
 clean, 72,  7i. 
 Beautiful  gate  of  the  temple,  1059  and  n. 
 Beer,  city  of,  408  and  n. 
 Beersheba,  meaning  of,  153. 
 .  Beginning,  meaning  of  this  word  as  used 
 in  the  opening  of  Genesis,  2,  n. 
 Bel,  supposed  to  be  the  same  with  Nim- 
 rod, 1 19. 
 Belesis,    conspires  against  Sardanapalus, 
 
 576  et  seq. 
 Bellerophon,  4S4,  re. 
 Bells,  their  use  in  religious  services,  281, 
 
 re. 
 Belshazzar    succeeds    Laburosoarchod    in 
 Babylon,  687   and   re.;  is  besieged  by 
 Cyrus,  687  ;   his  feast,  687 ;  sees  the 
 writing  on  the  wall,  688  and  re;  he  sends 
 for  Daniel,  who  interprets  it,  688  ;  his 
 palace  entered  by  the  Medes  and  Per- 
 sians ;  himself  slain,  689  and  re. 
 Bulteshazzar;  see  Daniel. 
 Belus,  tower  of,  same  as  tower  of  Babel; 
 description    of,    and    dimensions,    118, 
 119  and  ».;  enlarged  by  Nebuchadnez- 
 zar ;  is  enriched  with  the  spoils  of  the 
 temple  at  Jerusalem ;  is  destroyed  by 
 Xerxes,  119;  Alexander  contemplated 
 its  restoration,   119  ;   some  account  of 
 its  supposed  ruins,  119. 
 Belus,  temple  of,  712  ;  tower  of,  260. 
 Belus,  second  king  of  Babylon,  134  ;  in- 
 ventor of  the  Chaldean  astronomy,  131; 
 his  reign  and  death,  134;  probably  the 
 same  with  Nimrod,  134,  n. 
 Benhadad  invests  Samaria,  566  and  re. 
 Benhadad  king  of  Syria  besieges  Samaria, 
 591;    Elisha    strikes   his   soldiers   with 
 blindness,  591  ;  he  is  compelled  to  de- 
 part from  before  Samaria,  593;  is  mur- 
 dered by  Hazael,  594. 
 Benjamites  war  with  the  other  tribes,  399 
 and  «.;  their  expedient  to  obtain  wives, 
 400. 
 Benoni,  youngest  son  of  Jacob,  afterwards 
 
 called  Benjamin,  198. 
 Berenice,  1094  and  re. 
 Bethabara,  on  the  banks  of  Jordan,  853 
 
 and  n. 
 Bethany,  town  of,  966  aud  re. 
 Bethel,  144,  re. 
 Bethesda,  pool  of,  900,  re. 
 Bethlehem,  city  of,  816  and  re. 
 Bethphage,  village  of,  971,  n. 
 Bethsaida,  city  of,  856  and  n. 
 Bethshemites  slain,  456. 
 Bethuel,  who  he  was,  156,  re. 
 Bethulia,  siege  of,  659  and  re. ;  its  situa- 
 tion, 110,  n. 
 Bethzura,  760,  re. 
 Betrothment,  884. 
 Berea,  city  of,  1078,  re. 
 Berosus,  the  historian,  61. 
 Bezaleel,  one   of  the  artists  employed  in 
 building  the  Mosaic  tabernacle,  297. 
 7a 
 
1154 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 Bezek,  its  situation,  &c.  396  and  n. 
 
 Bildad,  233,  n. 
 
 Bilhah,  192. 
 
 Birth-right,  privileges  of,  179,  w. 
 
 Blasphemy,  first  mention  of  its  punish- 
 ment, 297,  298  and  n. 
 
 Blessing  of  Rebecca,  157. 
 
 Blood,  prohibition  of,  103. 
 
 Boanerges,  903. 
 
 Boils,  the  plague  of,  246  and  n. 
 
 Brazen  sea,  310. 
 
 Brazen  serpent,  315  and  n. 
 
 Bricks,  the  making  of,  among  the  Egyp- 
 tians, 243,  ii. 
 
 Britain,  aboriginal  settlers  in,  129,  130 
 and  n. 
 
 Bythynia,  country  of,  1076,  n. 
 
 Cadmus,  who  he  was,  fables  concerning 
 him,  260  and  n. 
 
 Ctcsar,  Julius,  his  history  and  death,  S15 
 et  seq. 
 
 Ca'sarea,  its  situation,  802,  n. 
 
 Cresarea  Philippi,  919  and  n. 
 
 Cain,  birth  of,  41  and  n. ;  nature  of  the 
 mark  set  upon  him,  46  and  n. 
 
 Cain  and  Abel,  objections  to  the  histoiy  of, 
 obviated,  45. 
 
 Caleb,  one  of  Joshua's  spies,  364,  n. 
 
 Caligula  succeeds  Tiberius  in  the  Roman 
 empire,  1131;  his  popular  measures 
 in  the  opening  of  his  reign,  1131;  his 
 crimes  and  vices,  1131  ;  assumes  the 
 title  of  Optimus  Maximus,  and  divine 
 honours,  1131  :  his  extravagances  and 
 cruelties,  1131  and  n. ;  is  murdered  by 
 Choeras,  1132. 
 
 Calvary,  mount,  1017,  n. 
 
 Cambyses;  see  Ahasuerus,  also  716  and  n. 
 
 Cana  of  Galilee,  856,  n. 
 
 Canaan,  the  sons  of;  their  settlements, 
 122;  when  inhabited,  135;  the  land  of, 
 143,  n.  341  et  seq.  ;  its  extreme  fruit- 
 fulness,  300;  mountains  of,  345  et  seq. ; 
 lakes  and  rivers,  352  et  seq.;  vine- 
 yards of,  357. 
 
 Canaanites,  their  idolatry,  139. 
 
 Candace,  queen  of  Ethiopia,  1064. 
 
 Candlestick  of  the  tabernacle,  311. 
 
 Capernaum,  city  of,  857,  n. 
 
 Captain  of  the  guard,  1099  and  n. 
 
 Carites,  see  Karaites. 
 
 Carmel,  mount,  351. 
 
 Carpus,  1106,  n. 
 
 Caspis,  city  of,  770,  n. 
 
 Castle  of  Caiio,  built  by  the  Pharaohs,  266. 
 
 Castor  and  Pollux,  the  ship  in  which  Paul 
 and  his  companions  sailed  from  Melita, 
 1098  and  n. 
 
 Cat,  the,  a  sacred  animal  with  the  Egyp- 
 tians, 263,  n. 
 
 Catholic  epistles,  1102  and  n. 
 
 Cattle  created,  G  and  n. 
 
 Cecrops,  his  story,  260  and  n. 
 
 Cedron,  brook  of,  1007  and  n. 
 
 Chaldeans,  the,  61  and  n. ;  their  skill  in 
 astronomy  ;  how  accounted  for  ;  the  no- 
 tions they  conceived  respecting  the 
 heavenly  bodies,  13S;  their  divinations, 
 213,  n. 
 
 Chaos,  2  and  n. 
 
 Charchemish,  its  situation,  639  and  n. 
 
 Chedorlaomer,  king  of  Elam,  145  and  n. 
 
 Chemosh  or  Chamos,  idol  of  Moab,  554, 
 and  n. 
 
 Cherethites  and  Pelethites,  who  they  were 
 482,  n. 
 
 Cherith,  the  brook,  561  and  n. 
 
 Chimham,  town  or  station  of,  681  and  n. 
 
 China,  no  mention  of  its  first  population 
 by  Moses,  101. 
 
 Chios,  isle  of,  10S7,  n. 
 
 Christ  is  born  at  Bethlehem,  846  and  n. ; 
 is  adored  by  the  shepherds,  847:  is 
 circumcised,  and  called  Jesus,  847  and 
 n. ;  is  worshipped  of  the  wise  men,  848 
 and  ii. ;  in  his  twelfth  year  goes  up  with 
 his  parents  to  Jerusalem  to  the  passover, 
 850  and  n.  ;  he  tarries  behind  them, 
 850  and  n.;  at  the  end  of  three  days  is 
 found  of  them  in  the  midst  of  the  Sanhe- 
 drim disputing  with  the  doctors,  850 
 and  n. ;  he  returns  with  them  to  Naza- 
 reth, 851;  his  early  life,  851  and  n.; 
 is  baptized  of  John  in  Jordan,  853-4 
 and  n. ;  the  Holy  Ghost  descends  upon 
 him,  S54  and  n. ;  is  carried  by  the 
 Spirit  into  the  wilderness  of  Judea;  fasts 
 forty  days  and  forty  nights ;  is  tempted 
 of  Satan,  854  and  n. :  returns  to  Betha- 
 bara,  855 ;  is  followed  by  Andrew,  and 
 John,  and  Simon,  and  Philip,  and 
 Nathaniel  of  Cana  in  Galilee,  856  and 
 it. ;  his  declaration  to  Nathaniel,  856 
 and  ii. ;  Christ  and  his  mother  invited 
 to  the  marriage  at  Cana,  856  and  n. ; 
 changes  the  water  into  wine,  857  and 
 n. ;  proceeds  from  Cana  to  Capernaum, 
 857;  thence  to  Jerusalem,  857;  he 
 clears  the  temple  of  those  who  profaned 
 it  by  making  it  a  place  of  usury  and 
 merchandise,  857  and  n. ;  the  Jews  are 
 incensed;  he  foretells  his  own  death  and 
 resurrection,  858  and  n. ;  is  visited  by 
 Nicodemus;  instructs  him,  85S  and  ».; 
 after  the  passover  Christ,  attended  by 
 many  disciples,  goes  about  Judea  teaching 
 and  making  converts,  S59  and  n. ;  passes 
 into  Galilee,  860 ;  his  interview  with 
 the  woman  of  Samaria,  860  and  w.;  the 
 inhabitants  of  Sychar  invite  him  into 
 their  city,  861 ;  returns  to  Cana,  861 ; 
 cures  the  officer's  son,  861;  preaches 
 throughout  Galilee,  861 ;  enters  the 
 synagogue  of  Nazareth  on  the  sabbath 
 day,  861  and  n. ;  the  Nazarenes  purpose 
 to  destroy  him ;  he  miraculously  with- 
 draws himself,  862  and  n. ;  removes  to 
 Capernaum, 862 ;  the  miraculous  draught 
 of  fishes,  862;  he  calls  to  his  ministry, 
 Peter,  Andrew,  James,  and  John,  S63 
 and  n. ;  casts  out  an  unclean  spirit,  863 
 and  ii. ;  cures  Peter's  wife's  mother  of  a 
 fever,  863  and  n. ;  cures  great  numbers 
 of  their  distempers,  864  and  n. ;  leaves 
 Capernaum,and  progresses  through  Gali- 
 lee, preaching,  and  curing  all  that  are 
 diseased,  S64;  heals  the  leprous  man, 
 864  and  n. ;  retires  to  a  desert  place  for 
 prayer,  865;  returns  to  Capernaum; 
 cures  the  sick  of  the  palsy,  865  and  n.\ 
 the  scribes  and  Pharisees  are  incensed 
 against  him,  866 ;  calls  Matthew  from 
 the  receipt  of  custom,  866  and  n.;  eats 
 with  the  publicans,  866  and  ».;  the 
 scribes  and  Pharisees  murmur  thereat, 
 866 ;  he  answers  them,  866  and  n. ; 
 goes  up  to  Jerusalem  to  the  second 
 passover,  900 :  heals  the  paralytic  at  the 
 pool  of  Bethesda,  901  and  n.\  the  Jews 
 murmur  thereat,  he  answers  them,  901 
 and  n. :  is  taken  before  the  Sanhedrim 
 as  a  Sabbath-breaker,  902;  his  defence 
 of  his  disciples  for  plucking  the  ears  of 
 corn  on  the  Sabbath,  902  and  n. ;  he 
 returns  into  Galilee,  and  heals  the  man 
 
 whose  hand  had  withered,  903  and  n. ; 
 retires  to  the  sea-side  to  avoid  the  malice 
 of  the  Pharisees,  903;  names  his  apostles, 
 
 904  and  n. ;  his  discourse  to  them  on  the 
 mount,  904  and  ».;  he  heals  a  leper, 
 
 905  ;  on  his  return  to  Capernaum,  heals 
 the  centurion's  servant,  905 ;  restores  the 
 widow's  son  at  Nain,  905  and  n. ;  his 
 reply  to  the  Baptist,  906  and  n.;  dis- 
 courses to  his  disciples  regarding  John 
 the  Baptist,  906;  dines  with  Simon  a 
 Pharisee,  907;  a  woman  anoints  his  feet, 
 
 907  and  n. ;  Christ  justifies  her,  908  and 
 n. ;  makes  a  tour  through  Galilee,  and  re- 
 turning to  Capernaum,  cures  a  demoniac, 
 
 908  ;  the  Pharisees  attribute  his  healing 
 power  to  intercourse  with  demons, 
 908  and  n  ;  his  sign  to  the  scribes  and 
 Pharisees,  909  and  n. ;  teaches  the  multi- 
 tude in  parables,  909;  his  parable  of 
 the  sower  ;  the  grain  of  mustard  seed ; 
 the  pearl  of  great  price,  910  and  n.; 
 Christ  sleeps  in  the  storm ;  rebukes  the 
 sea  and  it  becomes  calm,  911  and  ».; 
 cures  the  two  demoniacs  in  the  country 
 of  the  Gadarenes,  911;  returning  to 
 Capernaum,  heals  the  daughter  of  Jairus, 
 912  and  n.;  heals  the  woman  who  had  an 
 issue  of  blood,  912  and  n.;  cures  two 
 men  of  blindness,  913;  gives  speech  to 
 one  dumb,  913 :  departs  from  Capernaum 
 into  other  parts  of  Galilee,  913;  visits 
 Nazareth;  leaves  it  on  account  of  the 
 unbelief,  913;  sends  out  his  disciples  two 
 and  two  into  the  parts  of  Judea,  914; 
 receives  tidings  of  the  Baptist's  death, 
 915;  his  disciples  return  to  him,  915; 
 instructs  and  afterwards  miraculously 
 feeds  the  multitude,  915  and  «.;  walks 
 upon  the  sea  during  the  storm,  916  and 
 ».;  stretches  out  his  hands  to  save  Peter, 
 who  is  sinking  in  the  waves,  916;  stills 
 the  waves  of  the  sea,  916;  is  found  of 
 the  multitude  in  the  synagogue  at 
 Capernaum,  916  and  n. ;  discourses  with 
 them  concerning  the  benefits  of  his  death 
 &c,  916  and  n. ;  declares  to  his  disciples 
 that  one  of  them  will  prove  a  traitor  to 
 him,  917;  answers  the  scribes  and  Phari- 
 sees, who  censure  him  and  his  disciples 
 for  eating  with  unwashen  hands,  917 
 and  n.;  heals  the  daughter  of  the  Syro- 
 Phoenician  woman,  918  ;  passes  into 
 Decapolis,  918  and  n.;  cures  a  deaf  and 
 dumb  man,  and  miraculously  feeds  the 
 four  thousand,  918  and  «.;  reproves  the 
 Sadducees  and  Pharisees  at  Dalmanutha, 
 who  demand  of  him  a  sign  from  heaven, 
 918  and  n.;  cautions  his  disciples  against 
 the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees,  918  and  n.; 
 heals  the  blind  man  without  the  gates  of 
 Bethsaida,  919  and  n.;  questions  his  dis- 
 ciples as  to  whom  they  believe  him  to  be, 
 919;  his  promise  to  Peter,  920  and  n.; 
 discourses  with  his  disciples  regarding 
 his  death  and  resurrection,  921 ;  rebukes 
 Peter  for  desiring  him  to  refrain  from 
 going  to  Jerusalem,  921  and  n.;  is  trans- 
 figured before  Peter,  James,  and  John, 
 922  and  n.;  assures  and  encourages  them, 
 922 ;  his  discourse  thereupon  with  them, 
 922  and  n. ;  descending  from  the  mount 
 of  transfiguration  finds  his  disciples  de- 
 bating with  the  scribes,  944  and  n.;  casts 
 the  devils  out  of  the  deaf  and  dumb 
 youth,  944  and  n. ;  discourses  thereupon 
 with  his  disciples,945  and  ».;  in  the  way 
 to  Capernaum,  discourses  with  his  dis- 
 ciples regarding  his  death  and  resurree- 
 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1155 
 
 tion,  945  and  ».;  his  disciples  dispute 
 about   precedency,    945     and   n. ;    he 
 reproves  them,  945;  calls  a  little  child 
 to  him,  946  and  n.;  his  parable  of  the 
 king  and  his  debtors,  946 ;  his  reply  to 
 John  concerning  the  stranger  who  cast 
 out  devils  in  his  name,  946  and  ».;  his 
 reply  to  Peter  concerning  the  tribute  at 
 Capernaum,  946  and  n.;  his  command 
 to  Peter  thereupon,  946  and  w.;  is  urged 
 by  his  disciples  to  go  to  Jerusalem  to 
 the  feast  of  tabernacles,  947  and  ».;  ob- 
 jects at  first  to  go ;  afterwards  sets  for- 
 ward in  a  private  manner,  947  and  n. ; 
 the  Samaritans  refuse  lodgings  to  him 
 and  his  disciples,  947  and  «.;  reproves 
 James  and  John  for  invoking  punish- 
 ment on  the  Samaritans,   947  and  n.; 
 cures    the    ten     lepers,   948    and    n. 
 sends  forth  seventy  disciples  by  two  and 
 two,  948  and  n. ;  teaches  openly  at  Jeru- 
 salem during  the  feast  of  tabernacles, 
 948 ;  alludes  to  the  effusion  of  the  Holy 
 Ghost,948  and  n.;  the  Pharisees  desire  to 
 have  him  apprehended,  but  fail  in  their 
 object,  949  andra.;  the  adulterous  woman 
 brought  before  him,  949  and  n.;  instructs 
 the  people,  950;  the  seventy  return  to 
 him,   950   and  n.\   he  promises  them 
 richer  gifts,  950  and  »,;  his  answer  to 
 the  lawyer,  950  and  n.;  explains,  by  a 
 parable,  love  to  our  neighbour,  950  and 
 w.;  is  entertained  by  Martha  at  Bethany, 
 951;  his  answer  to  Martha,  951  and  n.; 
 delivers  "  the  Lord's  prayer"  to  his  dis- 
 ciples, 951;  reproves  the  Pharisees  for 
 their  regard  to  externals,  95 1 :  by  the 
 parable  of  the  rich  man,  takes  occasion 
 to  reprove  attachment  to  worldly  things, 
 952   and   n.;    his   observations  on   the 
 massacre  of  the  Galileans,  and  the  fall 
 of  the  tower  of  Siloam,  952  andw.;  his 
 parable  of  the  fig-tree,  952  and  n. ;  cures 
 the  woman  of  her  infirmity,  953  and  n.; 
 reproves  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue,  953 
 and  n. ;  goes  up  to  Jerusalem  to  the  feast 
 of  dedication,   953  and  «.;  gives  sight 
 to  one  blind  from  his  birth,  953  and  n.; 
 the  envy  of  the  Pharisees  thereat,  954 
 and  n.\  their  treatment  of  him  whose 
 sight  was  restored,  954  and  it.;  Christ 
 receives  him  into  his  church,  955  and 
 n.;   reproves  the   Pharisees  under  the 
 allegory  of  the  shepherd  and  the  sheep, 
 
 955  and  n. ;  through  the  violence  of  the 
 Jews  is  compelled  to  retire  to  Betha- 
 bara,  956  and  n.;  his  reply  to  those  who 
 inquired  what  number  should  be  saved, 
 
 956  and  w.;  his  exclamations  against 
 Jerusalem,  957  and  «,;  cures  the  man 
 afflicted  with  dropsy,  958  and  n. ;  re- 
 proves the  Pharisee  and  his  friends,  lor 
 their  desire  of  precedence,  958  and  ».; 
 represents  the  gospel  olier  under  the 
 allegory  of  a  feast,  958  and  n. ;  states 
 the  qualifications  required  in  those  who 
 would  become  his  disciples,  959  and  n. ; 
 vindicates  his  familiarity  with  the  pub- 
 licans by  the  parable  of  the  hundred 
 sheep,  959  and  w.;  and  the  lost  piece  of 
 silver,  960  and  ».;  and  the  prodigal  son, 
 960  and  n.;  the  parable  of  the  unjust 
 steward, 960  and  n.;  of  the  rich  man 
 and  Lazarus,  961  and  n.;  his  reply  to 
 the  question  of  divorces,  962  and  n.\ 
 his  parable  of  the  Pharisee  and  Publi- 
 can, 963  and  n.;  warns  his  disciples 
 against  false  prophets,  &c.  963  and  ».; 
 propounds  to  his  disciples  the  parable  of 
 
 the  unjust  judge,  964  and  n.;  crosses 
 Jordan  into  Perea,  and  receives  little 
 children  unto  him,  964  and  n.;  his 
 answer  to  the  rich  young  man,  965  aud 
 n.;  the  rewards  of  his  followers,  965  and 
 n. ;  journeys  to  Judea  to  raise  Lazarus, 
 
 966  and  n.;  going  thither  he  tells  his 
 disciples  the  things  that  would  befal  him 
 at  Jerusalem,  966  and  «.;  restores  sight 
 to  Bartimeus,  and  another  at  Jericho, 
 
 967  and  n. ;  calls  upon  Zaccheus,  968 
 and  n. ;  his  parable  of  the  talents,  968 
 and  n.;  raises  Lazarus  from  the  dead, 
 
 969  and  n.;  the  Pharisees  conspire 
 against  him,  969  and  n.;  he  retires  to 
 Ephraim,  970  and  n.;  is  entertained  at 
 Bethany  by  Martha  and  Mary,  970; 
 defends  the  behaviour  of  Mary,  970  and 
 ».;  the  Jews  consult  to  destroy  him, 
 
 970  and  11.;  enters  Jerusalem  riding  on 
 the  colt  of  an  ass,  971  and  n.;  his  lamen- 
 tation over  the  city,  972  and  n.  ;  drives 
 out  of  the  temple  those  who  were  mak- 
 ing it  a  seat  of  merchandize,  994  and 
 n. ;  the  chief  priests  and  Scribes  are 
 greatly  incensed  against  him,  994  and 
 n.;  Christ  curses  the  barren  fig-tree, 
 996;  censures  the  rulers  in  his  parable 
 of  the  two  sons,  the  wicked  husband- 
 men, and  the  marriage  guest,  996  and 
 n.;  his  reply  concerning  payment  of 
 tribute,  997  and  n.;  explains  the  doc- 
 trine of  the  resurrection,  998  and  n.; 
 exposes  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Scribes  and 
 Pharisees,  and  laments  for  Jerusalem, 
 999  and  n. ;  the  widow's  mite,  999  and 
 ».;  his  declaration  concerning  the  temple, 
 999  and  n.;  his  parables  of  the  faith- 
 ful servant,  the  wise  and  foolish  virgins, 
 and  the  talents,  1001  and  n.;  he  alludes 
 to  the  final  consummation  of  all  things, 
 1001 ;  washes  the  feet  of  his  disciples, 
 1003  and  n.;  declares  that  one  of 
 the  twelve  should  betray  him,  1003; 
 Judas  bargains  with  the  sanhedrim  to 
 deliver  up  Christ,  1004  and  n.;  the  in- 
 stitution of  the  last  supper,  1005  aud 
 n.;  Christ  warns  Peter  that  he  will 
 deny  him  thrice,  1006  and  n.;  his  agony 
 in  the  garden,  1007  and  n.;  is  betrayed 
 by  Judas  to  the  chief  priests  and  others, 
 
 1008  and  n.;  heals  the  high  priest's 
 servant  whose  ear  Peter  had  struck  off, 
 
 1009  and  n.;  Lis  disciples  desert  him, 
 1009  and  n.;  is  brought  before  Annas, 
 and  by  him  sent  to  Caiaphas,  1010;  de- 
 clares himself  the  Messiah,  and  is  ac- 
 cused of  blasphemy,  1010;  is  ill  treated 
 by  the  high  priest's  servants,  1010;  is 
 denied  of  Peter,  1011  and  ».;  is  carried 
 before  Pontius  Pilate,  1011  and  n.; 
 Judas  repents  of  his  perfidy  towards  him, 
 1011  and  ».;  Pilate  declares  that  there 
 is  nothing  worthy  of  death  in  him,  1013; 
 sends  him  to  Herod,  1013  and  n.;  who 
 returns  him  to  Pilate  in  a  robe  of  mock- 
 ery, 1014  and  «.;  Barabbas  the  rubber 
 is  preferred  before  him,  1014  and  «.; 
 is  mocked  and  scourged,  1014  and  n.) 
 is  exculpated  by  Pilate,  who  washes  his 
 hands  in  token  of  his  innocence,  1015 
 n.J  and  refuses  to  sentence  him,  1016; 
 the  Jews  take  his  blood  upon  them- 
 selves, 1016  and  n.J  he  is  led  forth  to 
 be  crucified  bearing  his  cross,  1016  and 
 w.;  is  crucified  on  Calvary,  between  two 
 thieves,  and  a  derisive  inscription  set 
 over  him,  1017  and  n. ;  his  mantle 
 divided  by  the  soldiers,  and  lots  cast  for 
 
 his  coat,  1017  and  n.;  his  promise  to 
 the  penitent  thief,  1018  and  n.;  con- 
 signs his  mother  to  the  care  of  John, 
 1018;  the  miraculous  phenomena  at- 
 tending his  crucifixion,  1019  and  n.;  he 
 calls  upon  God,  1019  and  n. ;  dies,  1020 
 and  n.;  the  Roman  soldier  pierces  his 
 side,  1021  and  n.;  his  body  delivered 
 to  Joseph  of  Arimathea;  he  and  Nico- 
 demus  embalm  it,  1021  and  n  ;  it  is 
 buried  in  Joseph's  sepulchre,  1022  and 
 n. ;  the  sepulchre  guarded,  1022  and  n.; 
 Mary  Magdalene  and  others  visit  the 
 sepulchre;  find  the  stone  rolled  away; 
 and  an  angel  declares  to  them  the  re- 
 surrection of  Christ,  1022;  Christ  ap- 
 pears to  Mary  Magdalene  in  the  garden; 
 she  makes  known  the  resurrection  to 
 the  apostles,  1023  and  n.;  the  Roman 
 soldiers  are  bribed  to  say  that  whilst 
 they  slept  the  body  was  stolen,  10:d3 
 and  ti.;  Christ  joins  the  two  disciples 
 on  their  way  to  Emmaus,  1023  and  n.; 
 breaks  bread  with  them  and  reveals 
 himself  to  them,  1024  and  n.;  Christ 
 enters  to  his  disciples  whilst  at  supper, 
 and  eats  with  them,  1024  and  «.;  con- 
 vinces the  incredulity  of  Thomas,  1025 
 and  n.;  appears  to  Peter  and  John,  and 
 others,  on  the  lake  Tiberius ;  the 
 miraculous  draught  of  fishes,  1025  and 
 n.;  eats  and  converses  with  Peter  and 
 the  rest,  1026  and  n.;  meets  the 
 eleven,  and  five  hundred  of  the  brethren, 
 on  a  mountain  in  Galilee,  and  instructs 
 them  there,  1026  and  n.;  again  joins 
 his  apostles  and  others ;  promises  the 
 gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  leads  them 
 forth  to  Mount  Olivet,  1027  and  «.; 
 his  visible  ascent  into  heaven,  1027 
 and  n.;  his  doctrine,  and  the  excellency 
 of  his  religion,  1046,  et.  seq. 
 Christians,    the    followers    of    Christ,    60 
 
 called  first  at  Antioch,  1070  and  it. 
 Chronology,  variations  reconciled,  130. 
 Chronology  of  the  period  from  the  promise 
 to  Abraham,   to  the  departure  of  the 
 Israelites  from  Egypt,  258. 
 Chronology    and   profane    history    of  the 
 period  from  the  death  of  Josiah  to  the 
 Babylonish  captivity,  671  et  seq. 
 Circumcision;  the  rite  explained,    171  ; 
 manner  of  performing,   171,  «.;  Egyp- 
 tians said  to  have  practised  it,  171  ;  how 
 it  passed  from  one  people  to  another, 
 172;  intention  of  the  rite,  172. 
 Cicero's  opinion  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  12. 
 Cilicia,  country  of,  1066  and  n. 
 Cities  of  refuge,  320  and  n. 
 Claudius  proclaimed  emperor  by  the  Roman 
 soldiery,   1132;    commences   his   reign 
 in   a  praiseworthy  manner,   1132;   his 
 public  works,  1132;  his  subsequent  vices 
 and  stupidity,  1132;  marries  his  niece 
 Agrippina,  who  procures  the  adoption  of 
 her  son  Nero  as  successor  to  Claudius, 
 1132;  she  conspires  against  him,  and 
 procures  him  to  be  poisoned,  1132. 
 Cleopatra,  queen  of  Egypt,  801. 
 Closing  the  eyes  of  the  dead,  219,  n. 
 Clothes,  custom  of  rending,  210,  n. 
 Clothing  of  Adam  and  Eve,  27  and  n. 
 Cnedus,  city  of,  1097,  n. 
 Coat,  Joseph's  described,  20S,  ».;  brought 
 
 to  Jacob,  210  and  n. 
 Codomannus,  748;  see  also  Darius. 
 Coffin,  body  of  Joseph  preserved  in  a,  225 
 
 and  n. 
 Cohen,  signification  of  the  term,  239,  n. 
 
1156 
 
 College  of  Alexandria,  751  and  n. 
 
 Colosse,  city  of,  1100,  n. 
 
 Computation  of  time,  from  the  creation  to 
 the  deluge,  63;  disputes  concerning,  63, 
 64,  65  and  n. 
 
 Concubines,  147,  n. 
 
 Confusion  of  languages,  109. 
 
 Confusion  of  languages,  and  the  Disper- 
 sion, difficulties  and  objections  regard- 
 ing, explained  and  answered,  110. 
 
 Coniah;  see  Jehoiachin. 
 
 Consecration  by  pouring  oil,  207,  n. 
 
 Converts  of  St  Paul  in  the  palace  of  Claud- 
 ius, 1100  and  n. 
 
 Coos,  island  of,  10S8,  n. 
 
 Corinth,  city  of,  10S0,  n. 
 
 Cornelius,  his  conversion,  1008. 
 
 Covenant  made  by  God  with  Noah,  70 
 and  n. 
 
 Creation  of  the  world,  1;  works  of,  des- 
 cribed by  Moses  in  a  popular  and  simple 
 manner,  3;  the  history  of  the,  4;  first 
 day  of,  4. 
 
 Creeping  things  created,  6  and  n. 
 
 Crete,  island  of,  1075,  n. 
 
 Crispus,  one  of  St  Paul's  converts,  10S1. 
 
 Crocodile  worshipped  by  the  Egyptians, 
 263,  n. 
 
 Crucifixion,  1017  ct  seq. 
 
 Ctesias,the  historian,  his  character,  137,  w. 
 
 Cush,  land  of,  19  and  n. 
 
 Cush,  the  sons  of;  their  settlements,  122. 
 
 Cuthath,  624  and  n. 
 
 Cyaxares;  see  Darius. 
 
 Cyprus,  island  of,  1060  and  n. 
 
 Cyrene,  city  of,  1069,  ». 
 
 Cyrus  besieges  Babylon,  687;  defeats  the 
 Babylonians  under  Neriglissar,  687; 
 takes  the  city  of  Babylon,  and  slays  Bel- 
 shazzar,  689  and  n.;  marries  the  daugh- 
 ter of  Darius,  and  ultimately  succeeds 
 to  the  united  kingdoms  of  Media,  Persia 
 and  Babylon,  690  and  ».;  permits  the 
 Jews  to  return  to  their  own  country, 
 and  rebuilds  their  temple,  and  restores 
 the  sacred  vessels,  690  and  ra.j  his  death, 
 694  and  n. 
 
 D 
 
 Dagon,  the  idol,  414  ;  fulls  before  the  ark, 
 436  and  n. 
 
 Dalmanutha,  91S  and  n. 
 
 Damascus,  city  of,  628,  n. 
 
 Dan,  tribe  of,  397. 
 
 Danaus,  history  of,  260  and  n. 
 
 Daniel,  carried  captive  to  Babylon,  656; 
 surnamed  there  Belteshazzar,,  657; 
 excels  in  Babylonian  learning,  683;  be- 
 comes skilful  at  interpretation,  683;  re- 
 lates to  Nebuchadnezzar  the  circum- 
 stances of  his  dream,  683  and  n. ;  in- 
 teq>rets  the  second  dream,  686  and  ».; 
 his  dream  of  the  four  beasts,  687;  his 
 vision  of  the  ram  and  the  he-goat,  687; 
 interprets  the  writing  on  the  wall,  68S 
 and  n.:  is  cast  into  the  den  of  lions,  689; 
 his  vision  of  the  seventy  weeks,  and  the 
 return  from  captivity,  (i90;  his  subse- 
 quent life;  his  death,  692,  n.\  and  tomb, 
 693. 
 
 Darius  obtains  the  kingdom  of  Babylon, 
 689  ;  Causes  Daniel  to  be  thrown  into 
 the  den  of  lions,  689 ;  punishes  his 
 accusers,  689  and  n. ;  obtains  the 
 throne  of  Persia,  748  ;  is  vanquished 
 and  taken  captive  by  Alexander,  748; 
 his  death,  750,  n. 
 Darius  Hyslaspes,  or  Darius  the  second, 
 succeeds  Artaxerxes  as  king  of  Persia, 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 717  and  n  ;  he  permits  the  Jews  to 
 proceed  with  their  buildings,  717  and 
 ».;  his  death,  718  and  «.;  his  sons, 
 719  and  n. 
 
 Darkness,  the  plague  of,  246  and  n. 
 
 David  is  anointed  king  and  successor  to 
 Saul,  by  Samuel,  443  and  n. ;  is  sent 
 for  to  play  before  Saul,  and  is  made 
 one  of  his  armour  bearers,  443;  slays 
 Goliah,  444,  and  n.\  Saul  envies  him, 
 and  attempts  his  life,  445  ;  he  escapes 
 to  Samuel,  446;  retires  to  Gath  and 
 counterfeits  madness,  448;  he  defeats 
 the  Philistines  at  Keilah,  449  and  n  ; 
 cuts  off  the  skirt  of  Saul's  robe,  450  and 
 n-,  marries  Abigail,  wife  of  Nabal, 
 451  and  n.)  spares  the  life  of  Saul,  452; 
 defeats  the  Amalekites,  453  and  n.; 
 is  anointed  king  of  Judah,  477  ;  on  the 
 death  of  Abner,  becomes  king  of  Israel, 
 479  and  n.;  takes  Jerusalem  from  the 
 Jebusites,  479  and  n.;  gives  a  great 
 defeat  to  the  Philistines,  480 ;  brings 
 back  the  ark  to  Jerusalem,  4S0  and  n.; 
 his  palace  furnished  by  Hiram,  king  of 
 Tyre,  481  ;  his  successes  against  the 
 Philistines,  Moabites,  &c,  481  ;  the 
 officers  of  his  court,  482  and  n.;  de- 
 feats the  Ammonites,  483;  is  enamoured 
 of  Bathsheba,  483 ;  causes  Uriah,  her 
 husband,  to  be  slain,  483  and  n.\  de- 
 stroys Kabbah,  and  puts  the  inhabitants 
 to  torture,  484 ;  marries  Bathsheba, 
 484  and  n.;  is  reproved  by  Nathan, 
 484  and  n.;  his  child  by  Bathsheba 
 dies,  485  and  n ;  has  his  second  son, 
 Solomon,  by  Bathsheba,  4S6  and  n.; 
 is  opposed  by  his  son,  Absalom,  488 
 and  n. ;  mourns  for  Absalom,  503  and 
 n.;  he  crosses  the  Jordan  and  proceeds 
 to  Jerusalem,  504  ;  the  tribes  revolt 
 from  him,  504;  his  country  afflicted 
 with  famine,  505 ;  he  numbers  the 
 people,  506  and  w.;  is  punished  with  a 
 pestilence,  which  destroys  70,000  of 
 his  subjects,  507  and  n  ;  falls  sick, 
 507;  Adonijah,  his  son,  conspires  for 
 the  throne,  508  ;  he  declares  Solomon 
 his  successor,  508  and  «.;   dies,  510. 
 
 Day  and  night,  distribution  of,  4. 
 
 Deacons  appointed  in  the  primitive  church, 
 1062  and  n. 
 
 Dead  Sea,  353 ;  quality  of  its  waters, 
 354  and  n. 
 
 Death  of  the  first  born,  247-8. 
 
 Deborah,  nurse  of  Rebecca,  157. 
 
 Deborah  counsels  the  Israelites  against 
 Sisera,  401  and  n.;  sings  a  song  of 
 triumph  on  the  overthrow  of  Sisera, 
 403  and  n. 
 
 Decalogue  pronounced  by  God  from  Sinai, 
 275. 
 
 Decapolis,  cities  of,  918  and  n. 
 
 Deity  worshipped  in  the  early  times  in 
 the  same  manner  by  all  nations,  138. 
 
 Delilah  beguiles  Samson, 413. 
 
 Deluge,  history  of  the,  70  ;  calendar  of, 
 73,  n.)  its  reality  proved  from  natural 
 history,  83  ;  natural  causes  of  the, 
 85  ct  seq.;  in  all  countries  there  exists 
 a  belief  of  the.  88. 
 
 Demetrius  ascends  the  throne  of  Syria, 
 772  ;  opposes  Judas  Maccabseus,  772  ; 
 his  army  defeated  by  Judas,  773  and  n  ; 
 defeats  Judas,  773 ;  is  slain  in  battle 
 against  Alexander,  775  and  n. 
 
 Demetrius,  the  second,  becomes  king  of 
 Syria,  776  ;   his  death,  779. 
 
 Demetrius,  the  silver-smith  of  Ephesus, 
 
 raises  a  tumult  against  Paul,  1084 
 and  n. 
 
 Den  of  thieves,  the  expression  considered, 
 994,  n. 
 
 Destroying  angel,  248. 
 
 Devils  possessing  women,  remarks  con- 
 cerning, 56. 
 
 Dial  of  Ahaz,  645;  the  sun's  going  back 
 thereon,  646. 
 
 Diana,  the  goddess,  1085  and  n.;  image 
 of,  1085  and  n. 
 
 Dinah  is  deflowered  by  Shechem,  197. 
 
 Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  10S0,  n. 
 
 Dispersion  of  the  people,  110  and  n. 
 
 Dispersion  and  first  settlement  of  the 
 rations,  121;  difficulties  and  objections 
 regarding,  explained  and  answered,  123. 
 
 Dispersion  and  settlement  of  the  nations, 
 the  sacred  chronology,  profane  history, 
 letters,  learning,  religion,  idolatry,  &c, 
 during  this  period,  130. 
 
 Divine  worship,  general  assemblies  for, 
 instituted,  53  and  n. 
 
 Divination  by  the  cup,  229,  n. 
 
 Divining  cup,  217,  n. 
 
 Divorces,  962  and  n. 
 
 Dogs,  their  numbers  in  the  East,  596,  n. 
 
 Domitian  succeeds  Titus  in  the  Koman 
 empire,  1140;  his  conduct  commend- 
 able in  the  commencement  of  his  reign, 
 1 140 ;  assumes  the  name  of  Germanicus, 
 and,  elated  by  the  victories  of  his 
 generals,  requires  divine  honours  to  be 
 paid  him,  1141;  his  enormities  and 
 cruelties  to  the  Christians,  1141;  a 
 conspiracy  is  formed  against  him  ;  his 
 death,  1142. 
 
 Dothan,  its  situation,  209,  n. 
 
 Dreams,  ordinarily  employed  by  God,  in 
 the  early  ages,  as  a  medium  of  revela- 
 tion, 205 ;  interpretation  of,  696,  n. 
 
 Dress  of  the  priests,  311  and  n. 
 
 Drusilla,  wife  of  Claudius  Felix,  1093 
 and  n. 
 
 E 
 
 Ear-rings,  remarks  concerning  them, 
 197,  n. 
 
 Earth,  and  its  inhabitants,  a  source  of 
 wonder  and  admiration,  13;  changes 
 wrought  therein  after  the  fall,  27  and  n. 
 
 Eating,  manner  of,  with  the  Egyptians 
 and  ancient  nations,  217,  n. 
 
 Ecbatan,  or  Ecbatana,  city  of,  660  and  n. 
 
 Eden,  garden  of,  15  and  ».;  its  situation, 
 16;  not  an  imaginary  paradise,  but  a 
 real  locality,  17;  description  of,  18;  its 
 signification,  18 ;  different  supposed 
 sites  of,  18. 
 
 Edomites,  the  posterity  of  Esau,  182,  n. 
 
 Egypt,  how  divided,  219,  n. ;  early  history 
 of,  259  and  n. 
 
 Egyptians,  antiquity  of  the,  62  and  n.; 
 began  to  consider  the  sun  and  moon  as 
 Deities,  138 ;  their  dislike  of  shep- 
 herds, 219,  n.;  their  chronology,  pro- 
 fane history,  learning,  religion,  idolatry, 
 monumental  works,  &c,  during  the 
 captivity  of  the  Israelites,  258  ct  seq.; 
 their  learning,  261. 
 
 Ekron,  city  of,  573,  n. 
 
 Elah  succeeds  Baasha  in  Israel,  549;  is 
 slain  by  Zimri,  549. 
 
 Eleazar  succeeds  Simar  in  the  priesthood, 
 751  ;  employs  the  Seventy  to  translate 
 the  books  of  the  law  for  Ptolemy,  751 
 and  n.;  his  persecution  and  death, 
 757 
 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1157 
 
 Eleazar  the  martyr,  757. 
 
 Eleazar,  brother  of  Judas  Maccabeus,  slays 
 a  royal  elephant,  but  is  crushed  to  death 
 by  it,  783. 
 
 El  Ghor,  valley  of,  353,  n. 
 
 Eli,  son  of  Elkanah,  433  ;  Samuel  is  born 
 to  him,  434  ;  his  sons  Hophni  and  Phi- 
 nehas  slain,  435  ;  falls  lifeless  on  learn- 
 ing that  the  sacred  ark  is  captured,  435. 
 
 Eliakim;  see  Jehoiakim. 
 
 Eliezer,  his  oath  to  Abraham,  155  and 
 n;  comes  to  Haran  id  quest  of  a  wife 
 for  Isaac,  155;  meets  with  Rebecca, 
 15G;  reveals  his  errand  to  Laban,  156; 
 presents  Rebecca  with  jewels,  156  and 
 n.;  returns  to  Isaac  with  Rebecca,  157. 
 
 Elihu  one  of  Job's  friends,  234,  n. 
 
 Elijah,  560  and  «.;  is  sent  to  Ahab,  561 
 and  n. ;  retires  to  the  brook  Cherith, 
 561;  is  fed  by  ravens,  561;  dwells 
 with  a  widow  at  Zarephtha,  501  and  n. ; 
 blesses  the  meal  and  oil,  and  restores 
 the  widow's  son,  561  and  n.;  goes 
 again  to  Ahab,  561  ;  charges  Ahab  with 
 his  idolatry,  562  ;  challenges  the  priests 
 of  Baal,  562;  ridicules  their  idols,  563 
 and  «.;  God  accepts  his  sacrifice,  564 
 and  n. ;  prays  for  rain,  564  and  n. ; 
 Jezebel  threatens  his  life,  564  and  n. ; 
 he  retires  to  Beersheba,  564  ;  is  cheered 
 by  an  angel,  565;  retires  to  a  cave  in 
 mount  Horeb,  565  and  n.;  is  command- 
 ed in  a  vision  to  return  by  Damascus 
 into  his  own  country,  565  and  n. ; 
 meeteth  Elisha  565  and  ».;  casts  his 
 mantle  on  him,  565  and  «.;  is  trans- 
 lated to  heaven,  573. 
 
 Elimelech,  403. 
 
 Eliphaz,  who  he  was,  234,  n. 
 
 Elisha  follows  Elijah,  566;  Elijah  is 
 separated  from  him  and  taken  up  into 
 heaven,  574  and  «.;  he  sweetens  the 
 waters  of  Jericho,  574  and  n. ;  is 
 mocked  of  the  children,  575  ;  succours 
 Jehoram  and  his  allies,  575  and  «.; 
 returns  to  Samaria,  where  he  wrought 
 several  miracles,  576  ;  cures  Naaman's 
 leprosy,  577  and  n  ;  reproves  and 
 punishes  Gehazi,  577  and  n. ;  goes  to 
 Damascus  to  declare  Hazael  king  of 
 Syria,  594 ;  anoints  Jehu  king  of 
 Israel,  594;  his  death,  604;  miracle 
 wrought  after  his  death,  604  and  n. 
 
 Elizabeth  is  pregnant  of  the  Baptist,  842  ; 
 salutes  Mary,  844  and  n.;  is  delivered 
 of  her  son,  844. 
 
 Elymais,  temple  of,  761  and  n. 
 
 Embalming,  manner  of,  among  the  Egyp- 
 tians, 224,  n. 
 
 Emerods,  the  plague  of,  436  and  n. 
 
 Kmmaus,  village  of,  759,  n.;   1023. 
 
 Encampments  of  the  Israelites,  269,  n. 
 
 End  or,  witch  of,  453  and  n. 
 
 Eugedi,  village  of,  450  and  n. 
 Engines  of  assault,  771  and  n. 
 
 Enmity  between  the  seed   of  the  woman 
 
 and  the  seed  of  the  serpent,  34  and  n. 
 Enoch  and   his  posterity,  41;  translation 
 of,  53;    his   character  and  translation, 
 59,  60. 
 Enoch,  son  of  Cain,  44  and  n. 
 Ephesus,  city  of,  1081,  n. 
 Ephod,  the,  311. 
 Ephraim,  town  of,  970,  n. 
 Ephron,  city  of,  770. 
 Epaphras,  1101,  n. 
 Epaphroditus,  1100,  n. 
 Epicureans,  1079.  n. 
 Epirus,  province  of,  1105,  ft. 
 
 Equipage  for  horses  and  asses,  153,  n. 
 
 Erastus,  a  convert  of  St  Paul,  1083,  n. 
 
 Esarhaddon  succeeds  Sennacherib  in  the 
 kingdom  of  Assyria,  633. 
 
 Esau  sells  his  birth  right,  179  ;  meaning 
 of  his  name,  1 79,  n. ;  his  marriage, 
 181  ;  his  father's  prophecy  concerning 
 him,  182 ;  purposes  revenge  upon  his 
 brother,  187 ;  the  last  mention  made 
 of  him  by  Moses,  195,  n. 
 
 Eshcol,  valley  of,  300. 
 
 Essenes,  their  origin  and  tenets,  787. 
 
 Esther  is  brought  to  the  court  of  Ahasue- 
 rus,  720 ;  greatly  pleases  him,  721 ; 
 is  raised  to  the  throne,  721  and  n.\ 
 invites  the  king  and  Haman  twice  to 
 her  banquet,  723  and  n. ;  causes 
 Mordecai's  advancement,  and  Haman's 
 disgrace,  724-5, 
 
 Etham,  probably  two  places  of  that  name, 
 288. 
 
 Ethbaal,  560  and  n. 
 
 Ethiopia,  1064  and  n. 
 
 Eunuch,  1064,  n. 
 
 Eunuchs,  observations  concerning,  228. 
 
 Euphrates,  the  river,  20  and  n. 
 
 Euroclydon,  the  wind  so  called,  1097 
 and  n. 
 
 Evangelist,  meaning  of  the  term,  840,  n. 
 
 Evangelists  and  their  writings,  concern- 
 ing the,  887,  et  seq. 
 
 Eve,  her  qualifications,  10  and  n.;  her 
 disobedience,  25  and  n.;  tradition  re- 
 specting the  children  of,  46,  n. 
 
 Evilmerodach  succeeds  Nebuchadnezzar  on 
 the  throne  of  Babylon,  657  and  ».; 
 releases  Jehoiachin  from  bondage;  his 
 death,  686  and  n. 
 
 Expiation,  the  feast  of,  692  and  n. 
 
 Expulsion  from  paradise,  28  and  n. 
 
 Ezekiel,  the  prophet,  658  ;  foretells  the 
 taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chaldeans, 
 659;  manner  of  his  death.  682,  n. 
 
 Ezion  Geber,  538  and  n. 
 
 Ezra,  726  and  n. ;  obtains  leave  of 
 Ahasuerus  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  taking 
 all  of  his  nation  willing  to  accompany 
 him,  726;  delivers  the  offerings  to  the 
 temple,  727  and  n.)  causes  the  Jews  to 
 put  away  their  strange  wives  and  their 
 issue  by  them,  728  ;  succeeds  ZerubbabeJ 
 in  the  administration  of  affairs,  728. 
 
 Fair  Havens,  the,  1097,  n. 
 
 Fall  of  man,  24  ;  its  consequences  to  our 
 first  parents,  26  and  n. ;  objections  re- 
 specting, obviated  and  refuted,  28-31. 
 
 Fallen  angels,  24  and  n. 
 
 Felix,  Claudius,  1092,  n.;  listens  to 
 Paul's  preaching,  1093. 
 
 Festus  succeeds  in  the  government  of  Judea, 
 1093  :  brings  Paul  before  Agrippa,  1094. 
 
 Fig-tree,  description  of,  1039,  n. 
 
 Firmament  or  expansion,  4;  contrived 
 in  wisdom,  13. 
 
 Fire  attests  the  presence  of  Deity,  280,  n 
 
 Fire  of  the  tabernacle  to  be  kept  con- 
 stantly burning,  297;  how  this  was 
 effected,  297. 
 
 Fire  worshippers,  SOS  and  n. 
 
 First-born,  its  scriptural  signification, 
 845,  n. 
 
 Fish  created,  5  and  n. 
 
 Fixed  stars  form  no  part  of  the  Mosaic 
 creation,  5,  n. 
 
 Flaming  sword,  the,  28  and  n 
 
 Flesh  not  eaten  before  the  flood,  42,  M. 
 
 Flies,  the  plague  of,  245  and  n. 
 Flowers,  &c,  the  strewing  of,  972,  n. 
 Fohi,  fictions  concerning  him,  101. 
 Forbidden  fruit,  its  qualities,  35. 
 Fowl  created,  5  and  n. 
 Frogs,  the  plague  of,  245  and  n. 
 
 Gadarenes,  country  of,  911  and  n. 
 
 Galatia,  province  of,  1075,  n. 
 
 Galba,  (Sergius)  succeeds  Nero  in  the 
 Roman  empire,  1134  and  n. ;  principles 
 of  his  government,  1134;  adopts  Piso 
 as  his  successor,  1135;  who  is  executed 
 byOtho,  1135;  death  of  Galba,  1135. 
 
 Galilee,  province  of,  860  and  n. 
 
 Gallio,  pro-consul  of  Achaia,  1081,  n. 
 
 Gamaliel,  the  pharisee,  1061  and  n. 
 
 Games  of  the  heathens,  1085  and  n. 
 
 Gates  of  cities  anciently  the  places  of 
 judicature,  155,  n. 
 
 Gath,  city  of,  345. 
 
 Gaza,  city  of,  344,  413  and  n. 
 
 Gedaliah,  665,  n.;  appointed  governor  of 
 Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  665; 
 slain  by  Ishmael,  681  and  n. 
 
 Gehazi  deceives  ElisharespectingNaaman; 
 is  punished,  577  and  n. 
 
 Gehenna,  920,  n. 
 
 Gennesareth,  lake  of,  352. 
 
 Genesis,  book  of,  1 ;  to  be  taken  in  its 
 literal  meaning,  36. 
 
 Geological  evidence  of  the  deluge,  75,  83. 
 
 Gerar,  city  of,  151,  n. 
 
 Gergesenes,  country  of,  911,  n. 
 
 Geshur,  its  situation,  4S6,  n. 
 
 Gethsemane,  1007  and  n. 
 
 Gezer,  its  situation,  551. 
 
 Giants,  birth  of  the,  51  ;  inquiry  con- 
 cerning the,  58  and  n. 
 
 Gibeah,  its  situation,  399. 
 
 Gideon,  son  of  Joash;  an  angel  acquaints 
 him  with  God's  purpose  to  rescue  the 
 Israelites  through  him,  404  and  n.; 
 destroys  the  groves  and  altars  of  Baal, 
 404  ;  the  token  of  the  flood,  405  and  ft.; 
 defeats  the  Midianites  with  300  men, 
 406  and  n.  •  slays  the  Midianitish 
 kings  and  princes,  406  and  n. 
 
 Gihon,  the  river,  19  and  n. 
 
 Gilboa,  mountains  of,  351. 
 
 Gilead,  father  of  Jepthah,  409. 
 
 Gilead,  Jacob's  monument,  223,  n. 
 
 Gilgal,  its  situation,  365  and  n. 
 
 Gods  of  the  Egyptians,  262  and  n. 
 
 Gog  and  Magog,  703  and  n.,  et  seq. 
 
 Golgotha,  1017,  w. 
 
 Goliath  defies  the  armies  of  Israel  ;  is 
 slain  by  David,  444. 
 
 Gomer,  the  sons  of,  their  settlements,  121. 
 
 Gomorrah,  city  of,  destroyed,  151,  n. 
 
 Goshen,  land  of,  where  situated,  219,  n. 
 
 Grapes,  their  astonishing  size,  &c,  3<'0 
 and  n. 
 
 Guarding  prisoners,  manner  of,  amongst 
 the  Romans,  1099,  n. 
 
 Gregory's  similitude  illustrating  the  image 
 of  God  in  man,  21. 
 
 II 
 
 Hahhakuk,  the  prophet,  651,  n. 
 
 Iladassah,  720  and  «.;  see  also  Esther. 
 
 Hagar  is  presented  by  Sarai  to  Abram, 
 147;  is  comforted  by  an  angel,  147; 
 and  her  son  is  driven  forth  by  Abraham, 
 152;  an  angel  appears  to  Hagar  and 
 succours  her  and  Ishmael,  153. 
 
1158 
 
 Haggai,  the  prophet,  717,  ft. 
 Hai,  144,  ft. 
 
 Hail,  the  plague  of,  246  and  ft. 
 Ham,  the  sons  of,  their  settlements,  121. 
 Hamath,  625  and  n. 
 
 Haman,  his  anger  against  Mordecai  for 
 refusing  him  reverence,  721  and  n.; 
 resolves  on  his  destruction,  721  andra.; 
 procures  from  Ahasuerus  a  decree 
 against  the  Jews,  722  and  ft.;  is  in- 
 vited to  the  banquet  by  Esther,  723 
 and  ft.;  erects  a  gibbet  on  which  to 
 hang  Haman,  724  and  ft.;  unknowingly 
 solicits  honours  for  Mordecai,  724  and 
 ft.;  is  hanged  on  the  gibbet  which  he 
 had  erected  for  Mordecai,  725. 
 Hanging  gardens  of  Babylon,  713. 
 Hannibal,  some  events  of  his  life ;  his  death, 
 
 81 1  and  B. 
 Haran,or  Charan,  city  of,  123  and  n.;  its 
 
 situation,  191,  ft. 
 Harosheth,  its  situation,  402,  n. 
 Havilah,  land  of,  19. 
 
 Hazael  succeeds  Benhadad  in  Syria,  594. 
 Hazor,  city  of,  40J,  n. 
 Heathen  history,  chronology,  religion, 
 learning,  longevity,  &c.  of  the  Ante- 
 diluvians, 61. 
 Heaven, its  scriptural  signification^  and  n. 
 Heavenly  bodies,  worship  of,  how  it  arose, 
 
 139. 
 Hebron,  477  and  n. 
 Hebron,  its  situation,  413,  n. 
 Heliodorus  attempts   to  plunder  the  trea- 
 sury in  the  Jewish  temple  ;  manner  of 
 his  repulse,  755  ;  poisons  Seleucus,  755. 
 Helius,  a  governor  of  Rome,  1107. 
 Hellenists,  1061,  ft. 
 Hell,  gates  of,  920,  ft. 
 Herbs  and  fruits  created,  5  and  n. 
 Heresies    of    Menander,    Cerinthus   and 
 
 Ebion,  1113,  ft. 
 Herod  Antipas,  causes  John  the  Baptist 
 
 to  be  beheaded,  914. 
 Herod  the  Great  puts  down  the  thieves  of 
 Galilee,796;  is  compelled  to  leave  Jer- 
 usalem, 798;  besieges  Jerusalem,  799; 
 takes  it,799;  obtains  full  possession  of  Ju- 
 dea,799  :  puts  to  death  the  members  of  the 
 Sanhedrim,  799  and  ft. ;  murders  Aris- 
 tobulus,  800  and  ft. ;  is  summoned  before 
 Anthony,  800  and  n. ;  murders  his  uncle 
 Joseph  through  jealousy  of  Mariamne, 
 801 ;  kills  Hyrcanus,  801  ;  is  confirmed 
 in  the  kingdom  of  Judea  by  Octavius, 
 801 ;  kills  Mariamne  in  a  fit  of  jealousy, 
 801  ;  strangles  his  sons,  802  and  n.; 
 builds  two  cities  in  honour  of  Augustus, 
 and  otherwise  flatters  him,  802  and  n. ; 
 provokes  the  Jews  by  introducing  hea- 
 thenish ceremonies,  and  profaning  the 
 temple,  803  and  n. ;  an  attempt  to 
 assassinate  him,  803  and  ft. ;  restores 
 the  Jewish  temple,  803  and  ft.;  assem- 
 bles the  Sanhedrim,  and  demands  of 
 them  where  Christ  should  be  born,  848 
 and  n.  ;  sends  the  wise  men  to  Bethle- 
 hem, 848  and  n.  ;  slays  the  children  in 
 Bethlehem  and  the  neighbourhood,  849 
 and  >(.;  bis  dreadful  death,  849  and  ft.; 
 the  division  of  his  kingdum,  849. 
 Herodians,  their  origin  and   tenets,   887, 
 
 and  n. 
 Herudias,  some  account  of  her,  S50.914,  n. 
 Herod's  judgment  hall,  10<C2  and  n. 
 Hczekiah  succeeds  Ahaz  on  the  throne  of 
 Judah,  62!)  and  n.  ;  a  worthy  and  re- 
 ligious prince,  629  ;  ellects  a  thorough 
 reformation  in  religion,  630  and  n  . ;  re- 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 vives  the  passover,  631  and  ft.;  de- 
 stroys the  brazen  serpent,  631  and  n.  ; 
 his  successes  in  war,  632 ;  is  reprieved 
 from  death,  632  and  ft.;  pays  a  tri- 
 bute to  Sennacherib,  633  ;  his  death, 
 633. 
 Hiddekel,  the  river,  20. 
 Hiel    rebuilds   Jericho,    560   and    ».;   is 
 
 punished  for  doing  so,  560. 
 Hieroglyphics,  Egyptian,  262  and  ». 
 Hieroglyphic  writing,  699. 
 High  Priest,  his  duties,  311. 
 Hinnon,  valley  of,  627,  n. 
 Hiram  furnishes   men    and    materials   to 
 Solomon  for  the  building  of  the  temple, 
 513. 
 Histoiy  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Israelites, 
 and  their  deliverance  out  of  Egypt,  236, 
 et  seq.;  of  events  from  the  Exodus  of 
 Israel,  to  their  entrance  into  the  land  of 
 Canaan,  268,  et  seq. ;  of  events  from 
 the    building   of  the   tabernacle  to  the 
 death  of  Korah,  &c,  297,  et  seq. ;  from 
 the   death   of  Korah   to  the  Israelites' 
 entrance  into  Canaan,  313  et  seq.  ;  of 
 events  from  their  entrance  into  Canaan, 
 to  the  building  of  the  temple,  361 ;  of 
 the  Israelites  from  their  entrance   into 
 Canaan  to  the  death  of  Joshua,  363;  of 
 events  from  the  death  of  Joshua  to  the 
 death  of  Samson,  395  ;  of  events  from 
 the  birth  of  Samuel  to  the  death  of  Saul, 
 433  ;  of  events  from  the  death  of  Saul  to 
 that  of  Absalom,  476,  et  seq.;  sacred 
 chronology  and  profane   history  during 
 this  period,  499  and  ft.;  of  events  from 
 the  death  of  Absalom  to  the  building  of 
 the  temple,  502,  et  seq. ;  of  events  from 
 the  building  of  the  temple  to  the  Baby- 
 lonish captivity,  533,  et  seq.;  from  the 
 finishing  of  the  temple  to  the  reign  of 
 Jehoshaphat,   535,   et  seq. ;    of   events 
 from  the  siege  of  Samaria,  to  the  death 
 of   Uzziah,    591    and    ft.,    et   seq.  ;    of 
 events  from  the  death  of  Uzziah,  to  the 
 death  of  Josiah  king   of  Judah,  622,  et 
 seq. :  of  events  from  the  death  of  Josiah, 
 to  the  Babylonish  captivity,  653,  et  seq. ; 
 of  events  from  the  Babylonish  captivity, 
 to  the  birth  of  Christ,  679,  et  seq. ;  from 
 the   captivity,   to   the   death  of   Cyrus, 
 680,  et  seq. ;  of  events  from  the  death 
 of  Cyrus,  to  that  of  Nehemiah,  716,  et 
 seq.  ;  of  events  from  the  death  of  Nehe- 
 miah, to  the  death  of  Antiochus  Epi- 
 phanes,  746,  et  seq. ;  of  events  from  the 
 death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  to  that  of 
 John  Hyrcanus,  769,  et  seq. :  from  the 
 death  of  John  Hyrcanus,  to  the  birth  of 
 JESUS    CHRIST,   789,    et    seq.;    of 
 events  from  the  birth  of  Christ,  to  the 
 beginning  of  the  first  passover,  840,  et 
 seq.;  of   events  from  the  beginning  of 
 the  second  passover,  to  our  Lord's  trans- 
 figuration, 900,  et  seq.;  of  events  from 
 our  Lord's  transfiguration,   to    his  last 
 entry  into  Jerusalem,  944,  et  seq. ;  of 
 events  from  our  Lord's  last  entry  into 
 Jerusalem,  to  his  ascension  994,  et  seq. ; 
 of  events  from  the  ascension  of  Christ, 
 to  the  completion  of  the  canon  of  the 
 New  Testament,  1057,  et  seq. ;  of  the 
 fall,  remarks  on,  37  ;  of  the  life  of  Jacob, 
 from  his  going  into  Mesopotamia,  to  his 
 return,    189,    et   seq. ;    of    the    life    of 
 Joseph,  including  Jacob's  life,  from  his 
 return  out  of  Mesopotamia,  189,  et  seq.; 
 of  the  life  of  Isaac  from  his  marriage  to 
 his  death,  179,  et  seq. 
 
 Holofernes  besieges  Bethulia,  660;  slain 
 by  Judith,  661  and  ft. 
 
 Holy  Ghost,  descent  of,  in  the  form  of  a 
 dove,  854,  n.;  descent  of,  on  the  day 
 of  Pentecost,  1058  and  n. 
 
 Holy  of  holies,  310. 
 
 Holy  place,  310. 
 
 Hor,  mount  of,  314  and  n. 
 
 Horeb,  its  situation  ;  other  particulars  con- 
 cerning it,  240,  n.  and  280,  ft. 
 
 Horses  of  the  sun,  637  and  ft. 
 
 Hosanna,  972,  ft. 
 
 Hosea,  the  prophet,  608. 
 
 Hoshea  obtains  the  throne  of  Israel,  624  and 
 n. ;  is  carried  captive  bySalmaneser,624. 
 
 Human  language,  its  imperfections,  55,  ft. 
 
 Hydri,  333,  n. 
 
 Hymeneus  is  excommunicated  by  St  Paul, 
 1 105  and  n. 
 
 Hyrcanus,  romantic  circumstances  of  his 
 birth,  754  and  n.;  his  mission  to 
 Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  and  his  conduct 
 therein,  754  ;  his  death  754. 
 
 Hyrcanus,  son  of  Alexander  Jannseus,  cir- 
 cumstances of  his  history,  793,  et  seq. 
 
 Hyrcanus,  soa  of  Simon,  is  declared  high- 
 priest  of  the  Jews,  778  and  n.;  is  be- 
 sieged in  Jerusalem  by  Antiochus,  and 
 compelled  to  submit  to  terms  of  capitula- 
 tion, 779  and  n. ;  relieves  the  Jews  from 
 the  Syrian  subjection,  779  ;  takes  Sa- 
 maria, 780 ;  his  death  780. 
 
 I 
 
 Iconium,  city  of,  1072,  n. 
 
 Idolatrous  worship,  motives  which  led  to 
 its  first  adoption,  139-40;  its  extent, 
 1 40,  ft. 
 
 Idolatry  of  the  Egyptians,  261. 
 
 Ignatius,  St,  946. 
 
 Illyricum,  province  of,  1086,  n. 
 
 Image  of  God  in  man,  21  and  n. 
 
 Images  of  the  Ephesians,  1084  and  n. 
 
 Image  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  description  of; 
 supposed  to  be  the  same  with  a  colossal 
 statue  of  gold,  taken  from  the  temple  of 
 Belus  by  Xerxes,  119  and  n.,  684  and  ft. 
 
 Image  worship,  first  design  of,  140 ;  re- 
 flections on  its  futility,  140-41. 
 
 Imposition  of  hands,  221,  n.,  1071,  ft. 
 
 Innocence,  the  state  of,  15;  how  long  pre- 
 served, 28-29. 
 
 Inquiring  of  the  Lord,  method  of,  179,  ft. 
 
 Inns,  description  of,  S46.  ft. 
 
 Isaac,  the  weaning  of,  160  ;  his  age  at  the 
 offering,  173;  his  age  when  he  married 
 Rebecca,  179;  comes  toGerar;  is  bless- 
 ed of  God,  180;  represents  Rebecca  to 
 be  his  sister;  is  reproved  by  Abimelech, 
 and  pardoned  for  his  deception,  180  ; 
 his  prosperity  in  Gerar  excites  envy,  and 
 Abimelech's  subjects  fill  up  the  wells 
 which  Abraham  had  digged,  180  and 
 n. ;  Isaac  settles  at  Beersheba ;  is  blessed 
 again  of  God,  and  builds  an  altar  there, 
 181 ;  enters  into  a  league  with  Abime- 
 lech, 181 ;  purposes  blessing  Esau,  181 ; 
 blesses  Jacob,  182  and  ft. ;  prophecies 
 concerning  Esau,  182 ;  forbids  Jacob 
 marrying  with  the  Canaanites,  1S3 ;  dies 
 and  is  buried  in  the  same  sepulchre  with 
 Abraham,  183. 
 Isaiah,  the  prophet,  608  and  n. 
 Ishbosheth  is  proclaimed  king  on  the  death 
 
 of  Saul,  477. 
 Ishmael  is  born  ;  character  of  his  posterity, 
 147  and  ft.;   the  promise  made  to  him, 
 148;  his  marriage,  and  progeny,   153 
 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1159 
 
 and  n.  ;  the  prophecy  concerning,  169  ; 
 explained,  169;  verified,  169. 
 
 Ishmael  the  son  of  Nethaniah,  slays  Geda- 
 liah,  681  ;  escapes  into  Ammon,  681. 
 
 Israel,  kingdom  of,  its  end,  625  and  n. 
 
 Israelites,  greatly  oppressed  by  Pharaoh  in 
 Egypt,  236  and  n.  ;  taskmasters  set  over 
 them  to  urge  their  labours,  237  ;  their 
 prolific  increase,  237  and  n. ;  their 
 male  children  to  be  destroyed,  and  their 
 female  offspring  preserved,  237 ;  and 
 why,  237,  n.  ;  conduct  of  the  midwives, 
 237  and  n.;  'making  the  midwives' 
 houses,'  237  and  n.  ;  encamp  at  Elem, 
 271  ;  remove  thence  to  the  wilderness  of 
 Sin,  271;  the  fall  of  quails,  271;  of 
 manna,  272  and  11. ;  the  Israelites  rest 
 on  the  sabbath,  272  and  n  ;  they  rebel  at 
 Rephedim  ;  are  miraculously  supplied 
 with  water,  272  and  n. ;  battle  with  the 
 Amalekites  under  Joshua,  273  ;  advance 
 to  mount  Sinai,  273;  receive  a  gracious 
 message  from  God  by  Moses,  274 ;  for- 
 bidden to  approach  mount  Siuai,  while 
 Moses  holds  converse  with  God,  274  ; 
 behold  the  fire  and  smoke  on  mount 
 Sinai,  275 ;  the  decalogue  pronounced 
 to  them,  275  and  n. ;  they  beseech 
 Moses  to  speak  to  God  in  their  stead, 
 
 275  ;  compel  Aaron  to  make  them  gods, 
 
 276  ;  he  makes  them  a  molten  calf,  276 
 and  it. )  they  worship  it,  276  and  n.  ; 
 the  idolaters  slain  by  the  tribe  of  Levi 
 at  Moses's  command,  277 ;  are  recon- 
 ciled to  Gud,  at  Moses's  intercession, 
 
 277  ;  the  geography  of  their  passage 
 across  the  Red  sea,  &c,  2S8 ;  being 
 afraid  of  the  Canaanites,  purpose  a  re- 
 turn to  Egypt,  300  and  n. ;  judgments 
 pronounced  against  them,  300,  and  n. ; 
 they  join  battle  with  the  Amalekites, 
 and  Canaanites,  and  are  defeated, 300-1; 
 enter  Canaan  or  the  Holy  land,  and 
 are  repulsed  by  Arad,  313;  advance 
 to  mount  Hor,  314  ;  thence  to  Tal- 
 manah,  314  ;  are  plagued  with  serpents, 
 
 314  and  ».;  healed  by  looking  on  the 
 brazen  serpent,  315  and/i,;  reach  the 
 country  of  the  Arnorites,  315;  are 
 denied   passage  through  their  country, 
 
 315  and  n;  overcome  them,  315;  ad- 
 vance to  the  plains  of  Moab,  315  ;  are 
 seduced  by  the  Moabitish  women  to 
 worship  Baal-Peor,  318;  their  punish- 
 ment, 318  and  «.;  settled  in  Canaan 
 under  the  guidance  of  Joshua,  361;  after 
 the  death  of  Joshua  had  no  general 
 leader,  396;  the  tribe  of  Judah  and 
 Simeon  defeats  the  king  of  Bezek,  396  ; 
 they  proceed  to  Jerusalem,  and  put  the 
 inhabitants  to  the  sword,  and  destroy 
 the  city  by  fire,  396  ;  all  the  tribes  ob- 
 tain full  possession  of  the  lands  allotted 
 them,  397 ;  they  fall  into  the  idolatry  of 
 the  Canaanites,  397;  they  are  laid  un- 
 der tribute  by  the  king  of  Mesopotamia, 
 397 ;  are  relieved  by  Othniel ;  the 
 tribe  of  Dan  takes  possession  of  the 
 country  of  Laish,  398;  war  between  the 
 Benjamites  and  other  tribes,  399  and 
 n. \  how  the  Benjamites  obtained  wivus, 
 400;  Israelites  on  the  death  of  Othniel 
 revolt  from  God;  Ehud  kills  the  king 
 of  Moab,  400  ;  the  Israelites  destroy  the 
 Moabites,  400;  in  the  eastern  part  of 
 Canaan,  enjoy  peace,  401  ;  those  in  the 
 west  harassed  by  the  Philistines,  401 ; 
 are  relieved  by  Shamgar,  401  and  n. ; 
 those  in  the  north  commit  idolatry,  401 ; 
 
 God  permits  Jabin  king  of  Canaan  to 
 oppress  them  for  forty  years,  401  and 
 it. ;  Sisera  his  general  is  sent  against 
 them,401  and  n. ;  whose  forces  are  over- 
 come by  Deborah's  counsel,  402  and 
 it. ;  have  peace  forty  years  after  the 
 destruction  of  Sisera,  403 ;  they  re- 
 bel against  God :  he  visits  them  with 
 famine,  403  ;  after  the  death  of  Deborah 
 and  Barak,  fall  again  into  impiety,  404  ; 
 are  kept  in  subjection  seven  years  by 
 the  Midianites  and  Amalekites,  464 
 and  n.  ;  are  relieved  by  Gideon,  404 
 and  n. ;  the  Philistines  and  Ammonites 
 invade  them,  409 ;  are  succoured  by 
 Jephthah,  409-10  and  n. ;  under  suc- 
 ceeding judges  they  enjoy  tranquillity, 
 but  relapse  into  impiety,  when  God 
 suffers  the  Philistines  again  to  molest 
 them,  4 10  ;  Samson  relieves  them,  411; 
 during  his  life  the  administration  of 
 affairs  in  the  hands  of  Eli  the  high- 
 priest,  433 ;  on  Samuel's  call  to  the 
 prophetic  office,  take  arms  against  the 
 Philistines,  and  are  defeated,  434  ; 
 Hophni  and  Phinehasare slain,  and  the 
 ark  taken,  435 ;  the  ark  is  carried  by 
 the  Philistines  into  the  temple  of  Dagon, 
 435  and  it.  ;  the  idol  falls  before  it,  436 
 and  n. ;  the  Philistines  carry  back  the 
 ark, 437;  Samuel  succeeds  to  the  govern- 
 ment, 437,  and  n. )  they  overcome  the 
 Philistines  again,  437  and  it.;  Saul  is 
 appointed  king  over  them,  439. 
 Iturea,  country  of,  790,  it. 
 
 Jabal,  a  descendant  of  Cain,  his  inventions, 
 442. 
 
 Jabin,  king  of  Canaan,  oppresses  the 
 Israelites  forty  years,  401  and  it. 
 
 Jabbok,  the  brook,  or  river,  195  it. 
 
 Jacob,  meaning  of  his  name,  179,  n. ; 
 obtains  his  father's  blessing  by  strata- 
 gem, 1S1-2  and  n.J  goes  to  Laban  in 
 Mesopotamia  to  avoid  his  brother,  183; 
 his  vision,  190;  he  calls  the  place  there- 
 of Bethel,  190  and  it.;  his  vow,  190 
 and  it.)  is  received  kindly  by  Laban, 
 191;  demands  Rachel  as  the  reward  of 
 seven  years'  service,  191  and  it. :  arrives 
 at  Haran ;  meets  Rachel  at  the  well, 
 191;  is  deceived  by  Laban  who  gives 
 him  Leah  instead  of  Rachel,  192;  serves 
 another  seven  years  for  Rachel,  192;  is 
 angry  with  her  for  complaining  of  her 
 barrenness,  192;  at  her  desire  goes  in  to 
 Bilhah  her  handmaid,  and  has  by  her 
 two  sons,  Dan  and  Naphtali,  192;  has 
 other  two  sons,  Gad  and  Ashur,  by  Zil- 
 pah,  Leah's  handmaid,  192;  is  prevailed 
 upon  to  remain  with  Laban,  192;  his 
 artifice  respecting  Laban's  cattle,  193 
 and  ii.;  he  departs  from  Laban  with  his 
 wives  and  substance,  193;  is  pursued 
 by  Laban  and  an  altercation  ensues,  194; 
 they  make  a  covenant  with  each  other, 
 194  and  11.;  Jacob  fears  to  meet  Esau; 
 his  expedient  to  soothe  his  anger,  194-5 
 and  n.;  wrestles  with  an  angel,  195;  is 
 blessed  by  him,  and  receives  the  name 
 of  Israel,  195  and  it  ;  his  meeting  with 
 Esau,  195;  he  journeys  on  to  Succoth, 
 196;  from  thence  to  Shechem  where  he 
 pitches  his  tent  and  builds  an  altar  to 
 God,  196;  is  grieved  for  Dinah's 
 ravishment,  196;  is  grieved  for  the 
 slaughter  of  the  Shechemites,  197  ;  re- 
 
 moves to  Bethel ;  causes  his  people  to 
 put  away  their  idols,  197  and  it.;  and 
 purify  themselves,  198;  erects  an  altar 
 at  Bethel,  198  ;  departs  from  this  place 
 in  a  visit  to  his  father ;  Rachel  dies  in 
 giving  birth  to  Benjamin  ;  is  buried  in 
 the  way  to  Ephrah ;  Jacob  is  grieved  at 
 Reuben's  incest,  198;  affliction  for  his 
 son  Joseph,  208 ;  his  expressions  of  sor- 
 row, 210  and  it.)  sends  his  sons  into 
 Egypt  to  buy  corn,  215;  his  grief  on 
 their  return,  216  ;  is  loth  to  send  Ben- 
 jamin down  to  Egypt,  216  ;  yet  sends 
 him  with  his  brethren  on  their  second 
 journey  thither,  216;  his  presents  to 
 Joseph,  216  and  n.)  receives  Joseph's 
 invitation  to  come  down  into  Egypt, 
 218  and  «.;  he  arrives  there,  219; 
 number  of  his  family  on  their  arrival  in 
 Egypt,  219  11.;  is  settled  by  Joseph  in 
 the  land  of  Goshen,  219  ;  blesses  his 
 sons  ;  prophecies  concerning  them,  222 
 and  n.)  blesses  Joseph,  223  and  n. ; 
 dies  and  is  buried  at  Macpelah,  223;  his 
 body  embalmed,  223,  it.)  encomiums 
 bestowed  on  his  memory,  224,  n. 
 
 Jaddua  the  high  priest  goes  to  meet  Alex- 
 ander ;  is  favourably  received  ;  obtains 
 favourable  terms  for  the  Jews,  749  and 
 n. 
 
 Jael,  wife  of  Heber,  entertains  Sisera  and 
 kills  him,  403  and  n. 
 
 Jahazah,  city  of,  769  and  it. 
 
 Jair,  succeeds  Tolah,  409;  the  people  fall 
 into  all  manner  of  enormities  under  his 
 government,  409  and  it. 
 
 James  writes  his  epistle,  1102  and  it.', 
 manner  of  his  death,  1102  and  n.)  his 
 character,  1 102  and  n. 
 
 James  the  Great,  beheaded  by  order  of 
 Agrippa,  1070  and  n. 
 
 Janus,  temple  of;   shut  at  Rome,  803. 
 
 Japheth,  the  sons  of;  their  settlements, 
 121. 
 
 Javan,  the  sons  of;  their  settlements,  121. 
 
 Jeconiah,  see  Jehoiachin. 
 
 Jehoahaz  succeeds  Jehu  in  Israel,  599 ;  his 
 death,  599. 
 
 Jehoahaz  succeeds  Josiah  in  Judah,  653  ; 
 dies  a  prisoner  in  Egypt,  654  and  n. 
 
 Jehoash,  succeeds  Jehoahaz  in  Israel,  599 
 and  it. ;  is  blessed  by  Elisha,  604  and 
 n.\  defeats  the  Syrians,  604  and  it. ;  his 
 death  604. 
 
 Jehoiachin  succeeds  Jehoiakim  in  Judah, 
 657  and  it.;  overcome  by  Nebuchad- 
 nezzar and  carried  captive  to  Babylon, 
 657  and  n. 
 
 Jehoiakin  succeeds  Jehoahas   in    Judah, 
 
 654  and  it.)  introduces  depravity  into 
 his  kingdom  ;  is  reproved  by  Jeremiah, 
 654;  is  carried  captive  to  Babylon  by 
 Nebuchadnezzar,  655;  restored  to  his 
 throne  by  the  conqueror,  655 ;  revolts; 
 is  a  second  time  subdued ;  his  death, 
 
 655  et  seq. 
 
 Jehoida  conceals  Joash  in  the  temple  ;  pro- 
 claims him  king;  dies  and  is  buried  in 
 the  royal  sepulchre,  600  and  n. 
 
 Jehoram  succeeds  Jehoshaphat  in  the 
 throne  of  Judah,  571  ;  murders  his 
 brothers,  571  ;  is  threatened  by  a  letter 
 from  Elijah,  572  and  it.)  his  death,  572. 
 
 Jehoram  succeeds  Ahaziah  in  Israel,  573; 
 enters  into  friendship  with  Jehoshaphat, 
 575;  they  enter  into  war  with  the  king 
 of  Moab,  575  and  it.;  is  slain  by  Jehu, 
 595  and  n. 
 
 Jehoshaphat  succeeds  Asa  in  the  kingdom 
 
1160 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 of  Judah,  518  ;  Jeho^haphat  puts  down 
 idolatry,  559  and  n.;  is  feared  and  re- 
 spected by  the  surrounding  nations,  5!;0 
 and  «.;  marries  his  son  Jehoram  to 
 Athaliahdaughterof  Ahab  king  of  Israel, 
 560  and  tt.J  visits  Ahab,  569  ;  goes  with 
 him  to  the  siege  of  Ramoth  Gilead,  569; 
 is  succoured  of  God  and  enters  into  Jeru- 
 salem in  triumph,  570  and  n.;  his  death, 
 571. 
 
 Jehosbftphat,  valley  of,  1012,  n. 
 
 Jehovah,  remarks  on  this  name  of  God, 
 243,  ft. 
 
 Jehu  is  anointed  king  of  Israel,  594  ;  slays 
 Jehoram,  595  and  n. ;  and  Ahaziah, 
 596;  extirpates  Ahab's  family,  598  and 
 n  ;  destroys  the  worshippers  of  Baal, 
 599  and  B.J  is  opposed  by  Hazael  king 
 of  Syria,  599;  his  death,  599. 
 
 Jepthah  encounters  the  Ammonites,  410; 
 his  vow,  410  and  n.;  and  death,  410. 
 
 Jeremiah,  laments  the  death  of  Josiah, 
 639  and  n.;  denounces  judgments  on 
 Jehoiakim,  654;  is  ill  treated,  655;  fore- 
 tells thedestruction  of  Chaldea  and  Baby- 
 lon, 658  ;  composes  his  lamentations, 
 664  and  n.;  remains  in  Jerusalem  after 
 the  last  siege  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  665; 
 goes  with  the  remnant  of  his  country- 
 men to  Chimham,  681;  is  taken  by  them 
 into  Egypt,  6S1,  n\  manner  of  his  death, 
 682,  n. 
 
 Jericho,  city  of,  363  and  «.;  siege  of,  366. 
 
 Jeroboam  is  elected  king  by  the  ten  tribes 
 in  their  revolt  from  Rehoboam,  542; 
 makes  Shechem  his  royal  city,  542;  in- 
 stitutes idolatry  amongst  the  people,  542; 
 his  arm  withers,  543;  Abijah  his  son 
 falls  sick,  544;  his  wife  goes  to  Ahijah 
 to  inquire  concerning  the  child,  544 
 and  ».;  the  child  dies,  but  Jeroboam 
 continues  his  impieties,  545;  is  opposed 
 by  Ahijah,  546;  dies,  549. 
 
 Jeroboam  the  second,  succeeds  Jehoash  in 
 Israel, 604;  is  encouraged  by  Jonah, 605; 
 his  death,  605. 
 
 Jerusalem,  is  taken  by  Judah  and  Simeon, 
 and  destroyed  by  fire,  396  ;  ancient  city 
 of,  and  temple  described,  523;  siege  of 
 by  Nebuchadnezzar,  662;  siege  of  by 
 Alexander,  748  and  n.;  by  Ptolemy, 
 750;  is  besieged  by  Titus,  1137  ;  who 
 casts  a  trench  about  it,  113S;  privations 
 and  miseries  of  the  inhabitants,  1138; 
 temple  burned,  1138;  Mount  Sion 
 taken,  and  the  whole  city  exposed  to  the 
 Roman  soldiery,  1138;  is  razed  to  the 
 ground,  1138. 
 
 Jezreel,  city  and  valley  of,  405,  n. 
 
 Jethro,  priest  of  Midian;  particulars  con- 
 cerning him,  239,  ii. 
 
 Jewish  doctors,  their  opinions,  9. 
 
 Jews  their  ultimate  return  to  Judea,  653, 
 n.;  after  the  murder  of  Gedaliah  retreat 
 to  Chimham,  and  thence  pass  to  Egypt, 
 618  and  n.\  they  fall  into  gross  idolatry, 
 882;  part  of  them  slain  and  the  rest 
 carried  captive  to  Babylon,  685;  their 
 return  from  Babylon,  691;  they  solemn- 
 ize their  feasts,  691  and  «.;  commence 
 the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  692;  so 
 called  after  their  return  from  Babylon, 
 716,  n.;  the  rich  oppress  the  poor  by 
 usury,  730  and  ».;  their  whole  nation 
 submit  to  the  dominion  of  Ptolemy  and 
 his  successors,  750;  are  persecuted  by 
 Ptolemy  Philopater,  753;  are  perse- 
 cuted by  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  756-7; 
 their  government  originally  divine,  764; 
 
 Moses  was  their  instrument  of  communi- 
 cation with  God,  765;  seventy  elders 
 appointed  over  them,  765;  judges  and 
 magistrates  of  their  cities,  765;  institu- 
 tion of  regal  power,  765;  establishment 
 of  the  Sanhedrim,  766;  first  instituted 
 by  the  Maccabees,  767;  persons  com- 
 posing it,  767;  place  of  assembling, 
 767;  formality  of  a  suit  in  this  council, 
 76S;  they  are  harassed  by  the  Romans, 
 796;  their  wars  with  the  Romans  under 
 Vespasian  and  Titus,  1136;  are  be- 
 sieged by  Titus  in  Jerusalem,  1137  ;  re- 
 fuse his  offers  of  mercy  and  terms  of 
 surrender,  1137;  destroy  the  Roman 
 engines,  1137;  their  distresses  and  their 
 enormities  resulting  thence,  1138;  their 
 terrible  slaughter  by  the  Roman  soldiers 
 in  the  taking  of  Jerusalem,  1138. 
 
 Jezebel  marries  Ahab,  560;  threatens 
 Elijah,  564  and  n.;  causes  Naboth  to 
 be  stoned,  568  and  ii.;  her  death,  596 
 and  n. 
 
 Joab  stabs  Abner,  478;  kills  Absalom, 
 491. 
 
 Joash,  the  son  of  Ahaziah  succeeds  to  the 
 throne  of  Judah,  600  and  «.;  at  first 
 puts  down  idolatry,  but  afterwards  sets 
 up  idols,  &c.  601  and  n.;  is  opposed  by 
 Hazael,  601  and  n.;  is  slain  by  his  ser- 
 vants, 602  and  n. 
 
 Joash,  king  of  Israel,  carries  Amaziah 
 captive  to  Jerusalem,  603;  vanquishes 
 Benhadad  king  of  Syria,  604. 
 
 Job,  a  real  personage,  232;  descended  from 
 Abraham  by  Keturah,  233  and  n.\  in 
 what  age  lie  lived,  233  and  n.;  his 
 wealth,  234;  his  wife,  234,  n. ;  visita- 
 tions, 234;  his  friends  reprove  him, 
 235;  God  speaks  to  him  out  of  the  whirl- 
 wind, 235;  is  restored  to  health  and 
 riches,  235;  tradition  respecting  him, 
 235. 
 
 Job,  book  of,  not  merely  a  dramatic  fiction, 
 233  and  ».;  opinions  concerning,  235 
 and  n. 
 
 Jochebed,  wife  of  Amram,  and  mother  of 
 Moses,  238  and  n. 
 
 Joel,  the  prophet,  608. 
 
 John  the  baptist,  841  and  n. ;  begins  to 
 preach, 85land  n.;  particulars  of  his  early 
 life,  852  and  n.;  Lis  food  and  raiment, 
 852  and  n.  ;  great  numbers  are  drawn 
 to  his  preaching,  852;  Pharisees  and 
 Sadducees  come  to  him;  he  reproves 
 them,  853  and  n. ;  declares  the  nature 
 of  his  mission,  853  and  n.;  Jesus  is 
 baptized  of  him,  854  and  ».;  his  answer 
 to  the  message  of  the  Sanhedrim,  855 
 and  n. ;  bears  testimony  to  the  divine 
 mission  of  Christ,  855;  removes  to 
 iEnon,  859;  reproves  Herod  Antipas 
 Tetrarch  of  Galilee  for  his  enormities, 
 859  and  n.;  is  cast  into  prison  at  the 
 instigation  of  Herodias,  859  and  n. ;  is 
 beheaded  by  Herod  at  the  instigation  of 
 Herodias,  914  and  n. ;  his  disciples 
 bury  him,  915  and  n. 
 
 John  and  Simon,  the  heads  of  two  opposing 
 factions  who  wasted  Jerusalem,  with 
 civil  war  at  the  same  time  that  the 
 Romans  were  besieging  the  city,  1138 
 and  n. 
 
 John,  St,  his  sufferings,  1112  and  n.;  his 
 Apocalypse,  1112  and  n.;  takes  charge 
 of  the  Ephesian  church;  writes  three 
 epistles,  1112  and  ».;  his  labours  in  the 
 church,  1113;  his  death  1113;  is  buried 
 at  Ephesus,  1 114  and  n. 
 
 Jonadab,  the  son  of  Rechab,598and  if. 
 
 Jonah  encourages  Jeroboam,  605  and  n. ; 
 is  sent  to  Nineveh,  605 ;  neglects  the 
 divine  command,  and  goes  towards  Tar- 
 sus, 605;  is  cast  into  the  sea,  605  and 
 n.  ;  is  swallowed  by  a  great  fish,  606; 
 his  preservation  in  the  deep,  606  ;  his 
 gourd,  606  and  n. 
 
 Jonathan,  of  the  Maccabees,  succeeds 
 Judas  as  general  of  the  Jews,  773  ;  de- 
 feats Bacchides,  and  returns  to  Jerusa- 
 lem, 773;  obtains  peace  for  the  Jews, 
 and  devotes  himself  to  the  reformation 
 of  the  people,  and  the  restoration  of  Jer- 
 usalem, 774  ;  is  made  high-priest,  774 
 and  n. ;  defeats  Demetrius,  and  is  re- 
 warded by  Alexander,  775  and  n. ;  be- 
 sieges Jerusalem, 776;  murders  100,000 
 in  Antioch  to  please  Demetrius  king  of 
 Syria,776;  attaches  himself  to  Antiochus 
 the  divine,  776;  is  slain  with  his  two 
 sons,  777;  his  tomb,  777  and  n. 
 
 Jonathan,  son  of  Saul,  his  friendship  for 
 David,  447;  his  death,  454. 
 
 Joppa,  seaport  of,  605  and  n. 
 
 Jordan,  plain  of,  145  n. ;  river  of,  363,  n. ; 
 its  waters  divide  for  the  passage  of 
 Joshua's  army,  365. 
 
 Joseph  of  Arimathea,  begs  the  body  of 
 Jesus,  1021  and  n.i  after  embalment, 
 buries  it  in  his  own  sepulchre,  1022 
 and  n. 
 
 Joseph  is  favoured  by  his  parents,  and  en- 
 vied by  his  brethren,  208  ;  his  dream 
 of  the  sheaves ;  his  dream  of  the  sun, 
 moon,  and  eleven  stars,  209;  his 
 brethren's  hatred,  209 ;  is  sent  to  his 
 brethren ;  finds  them  in  Dothan,  209 ; 
 they  conspire  against  him,  209 ;  they 
 cast  him  into  a  pit,  209 ;  is  sold  to  the 
 Ishmaelites,  209  aud  n.;  by  them  sold  to 
 Potiphar ;  his  brethren  deceive  Jacob, 
 who  supposes  him  to  have  been  slain, 
 210 ;  is  highly  esteemed  byPotiphar,210 ; 
 his  master's  wife  solicits  him  ;  he  resists 
 her  importunities,  210;  is  accused  by 
 her;  is  cast  into  prison,  211  and  n.; 
 obtains  favour  in  prison,  212;  interprets 
 the  dreams  of  the  chief  baker  and  chief 
 butler,  212  and  n. ;  is  brought  in  unto 
 Pharaoh,  and  interprets  his  dreams,  213 
 and  n.;  his  advice  to  Pharaoh,  concern- 
 ing the  years  of  famine,  214  and  n.\  is 
 made  governor  over  Egypt,  214;  his 
 name  is  changed  by  Pharaoh,  214  and 
 n. ;  he  marries  the  daughter  of  the  priest 
 of  On,  214  and  n. ;  his  provision  for 
 the  season  of  scarcity,  215;  his  brethren 
 come  down  into  Egypt  to  buy  corn,  215; 
 his  treatment  of  them,  215;  gives 
 audience  to  his  brothers  on  their  second 
 coming,  216;  they  dine  with  him,  217 
 and  n. ;  orders  his  cup  to  be  put  into 
 Benjamin's  sack,  217;  his  brethren  de- 
 part; are  overtaken  and  brought  back  to 
 answer  for  Benjamin's  theft,  217  and 
 n.\  Joseph  deals  sharply  with  them, 
 218,  is  moved  deeply  by  Reuben's  ad- 
 dress; discovers  himself  to  his  brethren; 
 comforts  and  assures  them, 2 18;. Joseph  by 
 Pharaoh's  command,  sends  for  Jacob  his 
 father,  51S;  his  meeting  with  his  father, 
 219;  presents  his  family  to  Pharaoh; 
 settles  them  in  Goshen,  220;  his  con- 
 duct during  the  famine,  220;  performs 
 his  father's  obsequies  with  great  magni- 
 ficence, 224  and  n.;  assures  his  brethren 
 of  continued  kindness,  224  ;  has  two  sons 
 Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  225;  he  dies, 
 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1161 
 
 commanding  his  brethren  to  carry  his 
 
 body  with  them  into  Canaan,  225  and  n. 
 
 Joseph's  well,  266;  hall,  granaries,  prison, 
 
 266-7. 
 Joseph  is  assured  by  an  angel  regarding 
 Mary's  conception,  844  and  n.  ;   takes 
 Mary  home  to  him,  845  ;  he  and  Mary 
 goto  Bethelem  to  be  taxed,  846  and  n.\ 
 he  returns  with  the  child  and  his  mother 
 to  Bethlehem,  848  and  n. ;  an  angel  in- 
 forms him  of  Herod's  design  against  the 
 child's  life,  848  ;  departs  with  his  wife 
 and  the  child  into  Egypt,  848  ;  returns 
 thence  into  Galilee,  to  Nazareth,  on  the 
 death  of  Herod,  849  and  n.  ;  his  death, 
 851. 
 Joseph,  nephew  of  Onias  the  second,  goes 
 to  Memphis  on  an  embassy  to  Ptolemy 
 Euergetes    752:    obtains    the   receiver- 
 generalship  of  Syria  &c,  752 ;  collects 
 the  duties,  752. 
 Josephus,  1137,  895  et  seq. ;  intreats  the 
 Jews  to  accept  the  oilers  of  Titus,  1 137 ; 
 his  works  ;   is  treated  with  much  favour 
 by  Vespasian  and  Titus,  1137  and  n. 
 Ji  siah   succeeds  Amoii  on  the  throne  of 
 Judah,    637;    reforms    religion,   637; 
 puts    away  idolatry,  637 ;    repairs  the 
 temple,  638  ;  dies  in  battle,  639. 
 Joshua  defeats  the  Amalekites  at  Rephe- 
 dim,  273  ;  appointed  successor  to  Moses, 
 320  and  n. ;  character  of,  361 ;  on  the 
 death    of   Moses    takes   charge    of    the 
 Israelites,  363 ;    God    assures   him    of 
 divine  help  and  protection,  363  and  n. : 
 sends  spies  to  Jericho,  364  ;  on  their 
 return,  proceeds  to  Jericho  with  40,000 
 men,  365 ;  order  of  his  march,  365 ; 
 encamps   before  Gilgal,  365  ;  is  com- 
 manded by  God  to  restore  the  rite  of 
 circumcision,  366  and  n. ;  is  instructed 
 by   a   vision,    366    and    n. ;     besieges 
 Jericho,  366 ;  razes  it  to  the  ground,  and 
 denounces   judgment  on  any  attempt- 
 ing to  rebuild  it ;  his  forces  are  repulsed 
 before  Ai,  367  ;  God  reveals  to  him  the 
 cause   thereof,  367  and  n. ;    furnishes 
 Achan,  368  ;  again  invests  Ai,  obtains 
 possession,  and  destroys  the  inhabitants, 
 36S  and  n. ;  is  deceived  by  the  Gibeon- 
 ites,and  makes  peace  with  them,  369  and 
 n.\  assists  them  against  the  other  princes 
 of  Canaan,   369;  sun  and  moon  stand 
 still  at  his  command,  370  ;  he  executes 
 the    confederate  kings,  370 ;   takes  all 
 the  southern  parts  of  Canaan,  and   re- 
 turns to  Gilgal,  370  ;  defeats  Jabin  king 
 of  Hazor  at  the  waters  of  Merom,  370 
 and  n. ;  executes  Jabin,  and  destroys 
 his    city,    371 ;    having    subdued    all 
 Canaan,  he    divides  the  land  between 
 the  tribes,  371  ;  sets  up  his  habitation  at 
 Shiloli,  371  ;  dismisses  the  two  tribes 
 and  a  half,  371  and  n.  ;  waxing  old,  he 
 calls  an  assembly   of  the    princes  and 
 magistrates  in  Shechem,  372  ;  exhorts 
 them  to  observe  the  laws,  erects  a  stone 
 as  a  testimony ;  dies,  and  is  buried  in 
 mount  Ephraim,  373  and  n. 
 Joshua,  son  of  Josadach,  succeeds  to  the 
 chief    priesthood    on    the    return   from 
 Babylon,  691. 
 Jotham's  fable,  407  and  n. 
 Jotham,   son  of  Uzziah,   becomes  viceroy 
 of  Judah  on  his  father's  being  smitten 
 with    leprosy,   607;    is  remarkable    fur 
 his    virtues    and    wise    measures,  627 
 and   n. ;    defeats    the    Moabites,    627; 
 ln's  death,  627. 
 
 Jubal,  a  descendant  of  Cain,  his  inventions, 
 •It,  ;/. 
 
 Judah  marries  Shuah,  by  whom  he  has 
 three  sons  Er,  Onan,  and  Sheloh,  211 
 and  n.;  his  incest  with  Thamar,  211 
 and  n.',  he  condemns  her  for  harlotry, 
 212  and  n. 
 
 Judas  of  Galilee,  sect  of,  its  origin  &c, 
 789  and  n. 
 
 Judas  Iscariot  betrays  Christ,  1008  and 
 n. ;  repents,  1011;  his  death,  1012. 
 
 Judas  Maccabieus,  son  of  Mattathias,  de- 
 feats the  deputies  of  Antiochus,  759  ;  his 
 further  victories,  760  ;  restores  the  tem- 
 ple, 760 ;  continues  successful  in  his 
 wars,  761  ;  defeats  the  Idumeans  and 
 the  Ammonites,  769;  and  Timotheus 
 governor  of  Judea,769;  defeats  the  Gen- 
 tile nations  who  oppress  the  Jews,  769, 
 et  seq.;  defeats  Lysias  the  Syrian,  770; 
 defeats  Timotheus,  the  second  of  that 
 name,  770  ;  carries  the  city  of  Ephron 
 by  assault,  771;  continues  his  successes, 
 771  ;  defeats  Antiochus  Eupater,  771 ; 
 defeats  Nicanor,  773  ;  makes  an  alliance 
 with  the  Romans,  773;  is  slain  in  bat- 
 tle against  the  Syrians,  773. 
 
 Jude,  St,  writes  his  epistle,  1109  and  n.  ; 
 is  crucified,  1110. 
 
 Judea  is  reduced  to  a  Roman  province, 
 850. 
 
 Judges  appointed  by  Moses  over  the  Israe- 
 lites, 274  and  n. 
 
 Judith,  history  of,  659,  n. ;  who  wrote  it, 
 660,  n. ;  Judith  slays  Holofernes,  661 
 and  n. 
 
 Julius  Cresar,  events  in  his  history,  S15. 
 
 Jupiter,  statue  of,  at  Olympia,  673  and  n. 
 
 K 
 
 Kadesh-Barnea,  its  situation,  299  and  n. 
 
 Karraites,  their  origin,  786. 
 
 Keilah,  city  of,    449  and  n. 
 
 Kenites,  403  and  n. 
 
 Keturah,  who  she  was,  157,  n. 
 
 Keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  933 
 and  n. 
 
 Kidron,  see  Cedron,  and,  525. 
 
 Kings,  apotheosis  and  worship  of,  how  in- 
 troduced, 140. 
 
 Kings  of  Israel,  their  interment;  629  n. 
 
 Kirjath-Arba,  city  of,  343. 
 
 Koran,  rebels  against  Moses  and  Aaron, 
 301  and  n. ;  he  and  his  company  de- 
 stroyed, 301. 
 
 Laban  invites  Eliezer  into  his  house,  156. 
 
 consents  that  Isaac  should  have  Rebecca 
 
 to  wife,  156. ;  deceives  Jacob  regarding 
 
 Rachel,  and  exculpates  himself  for  so 
 
 doing,  192  and  n. 
 Lahorosarchod,    succeeds    Neriglissar    in 
 
 Babylon ;  his  death,  687  and  n. 
 Ladder,  Jacob's,  what  it  was,  206  and  n. 
 Lamb,  the  paschal,  267  and  n. 
 Lamech,  44  and  n. ;  his  prophecy  54,  ?i. 
 Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,  664  and  n. 
 Languages  considered,  114. 
 Language,  remarks  concerning,  671,  n. 
 Language  of  the  Pentateuch,  1. 
 Law  of  Moses  imperfectly  copied  by  heathen 
 
 legislators,  309. 
 Law,  its  ceremonies  typical  of  the  Cluis- 
 
 tian  dispensation,  312. 
 Lawgiver,  its  signification,  225. 
 Last  supper,  1005  and  «. 
 7  H 
 
 Lazar,  its  signification,  961,  n. 
 
 Lazarus  raised  from  the  dead,  969  and  n. 
 
 Leah,  her  person  described,  191 ;  is  given 
 Jacob  instead  of  Rachel,  192,  and  n. ; 
 is  fruitful,  192;  brings  forth  Reuben, 
 Simeon,  Levi,  Judah,  Issachar,  Zebulou 
 and  Dinah,  192. 
 
 Leaven  of  the  Pharisees,  918  and  n. 
 
 Lebanon,  mountains  of,  346  ;  vineyards 
 of  349;  cedars  of,  350. 
 
 Lentils,  179,  n. 
 
 Leprosy,  its  nature  described,  299,  n. 
 
 Let  there  be  light,  the  sublimity  of  this 
 fiat,  4,  w. 
 
 Letters,  the  knowledge  of,  how  conveyed 
 from  one  nation  to  another,  135-6;  the 
 nature  and  origin  of  letters  considered, 
 136.;  invention  of,  276,  n. 
 
 Levi,  tribe  of,  called  to  the  service  of  the 
 tabernacle,  297. 
 
 Levites  destroy  the  idolaters  by  command 
 of  Moses,  277  and  n. 
 
 Library  of  Alexandria,  751,  and  n. 
 
 Libya,  country  of,  1016,  n, 
 
 Lice,  the  plague  of,  245  and  n. 
 
 Light,  how  admitted  into  the  ark,  81-S2 
 
 Linus  suffers  martyrdom,  1 109  and  n. 
 
 Locusts,  the  plague  of,  246  and  n . ;  the 
 eating  of,  252  and  n. 
 
 Longevity  of  the  Antediluvians,  69. 
 
 Lot  separates  from  Abram,  and  dwells  in 
 the  plains  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  145 ; 
 plundered  after  the  battle  of  the  kings 
 atSiddim,  146;  entertains  two  angels  at 
 Sodom,  149  and  n. ;  conduct  of  the 
 men  of  Sodom ;  Lot  expostulates ;  the 
 angels  divulge  their  mission;  Lot,  his 
 wife  and  family  retreat  to  Zoar  to  escape 
 the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah; 
 his  wife  looks  backward  and  is  changed 
 into  a  pillar  of  salt,  150  and  n.;  Lot 
 withdraws  to  the  mountains ;  his  daugh- 
 ters deceive  him  ;  the  birth  of  Moab 
 and  Ammon,  151  and  n.  ;  his  probable 
 eminence  in  Sodom,  165;  his  conduct 
 in  exposing  his  daughters  defended,  165  ; 
 the  incest  of  his  daughters  not  without 
 palliation,  166. 
 
 Lot's  wife,  her  metamorphosis,  speculations 
 concerning  174-5  and  n. 
 
 Lots,  the  feast  of.  726  and  n. 
 
 Lucius,  one  of  the  seventy,  1071  and  n. 
 
 Luke  the  evangelist,  his  life  and  writings, 
 891  and  n. ;  joins  St  Paul  in  his  travels, 
 1087. 
 
 Lycia,  province  of,  1096  and  n. 
 
 Lydda,  town  of,  1067,  n. 
 
 Lysias,  the  Syrian  general,  marches  against 
 Judas  Maceaba:us  with  a  strong  power, 
 778 ;  is  defeated  by  Judas,  770. 
 
 Lystra,  sacrifice  there  offered  to  Paul  and 
 Barnabas,  1073  and  n. 
 
 M 
 
 Maccabees,  the,  759,  n. 
 
 Macedonia,  province  of,  1076,  n. 
 
 Machterus,  castle  of,  914  and  n. 
 
 Macpelah,  cave  of,  155,  n. 
 
 Magic,  the  several  kinds  of,  255  and  n. 
 
 683;    the    Egyptians   famous  for  their 
 
 skill  in,  261. 
 Magian,  the,  716  and  n.\  see  also  Arta- 
 
 xerxes. 
 Magicians  of  Egypt,  244,  255. 
 Mahanaim,    477   and  n  .  ;    its   situation, 
 
 194,  n. 
 Makkedah,  city  of,  370  and  n. 
 Malachi,  the  prophet,  734  and  n. 
 
1162 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 Malta,  isle  of,  1098,  n. 
 
 Mamre,  plain,  or  oak  of,  145,  n. 
 
 Man  created,  C  and  ».;  his  admirable 
 formation  and  endowments,  14;  created 
 a  free  agent,  32. 
 
 Manaen,  one  of  the  seventy,  1071  and  n. 
 
 Manasseh  succeeds  Hezekiah  in  the  king- 
 dom of  Judah,  036;  restores  idolatry, 
 contemns  the  prophets,  636  and  n. ;  is 
 vanquished  by  Esarhaddon,  and  carried 
 prisoner  to  Babylon,  636  and  n.  ;  is 
 restored  to  his  kingdom,  636 ;  reforms 
 religion;  dies,  637  and  n. 
 
 Manasseh  unites  himself  with  Sanhallat, 
 and  by  favour  of  the  king  of  Persia,  erects 
 a  temple  on  mount  Gerizzim  near  Sa- 
 maria, 746  ;  is  made  high-priest  thereof, 
 746  and  n. 
 
 Manetbo,  the  historian,  61,  62. 
 
 Mandrakes,  description  of,  203  and  n. 
 
 Mankind,  the  general  corruption  of,  52. 
 
 Manna,  the  fall  of,  272  and  n. 
 
 Manoah  is  promised  a  son  by  an  angel, 
 41 1 ;  Samson  is  born  to  him,  41 1. 
 
 Mantle,  Elijah's,  565,  ii. 
 
 Marah,  waters  of,  271  and  n. 
 
 Mariamne,  wife  of  Herod,  797,  n. 
 
 Mark  the  evangelist,  his  life  and  writings, 
 8S9  and  n. 
 
 Marriage  ceremonies  of  the  east,  882 
 et  seq. 
 
 Marriage  feast,  411  and  n. 
 
 Mary,  the  angel  Gabriel  announces  to  her 
 the  miraculous  conception,  843  and  n.; 
 visits  Elizabeth,  S44  and  n. ;  returns  to 
 Nazareth,  844  ;  is  delivered  of  a  son  at 
 Bethlehem,  846  and  ». 
 
 Mary  Magdalene,  1023  and  n. 
 
 Mattaniah;  see  Zedekiah. 
 
 Mattathias  opposes  the  edict  of  Antiochus, 
 758  ;  destroys  the  groves  and  idols  he 
 had  made,  758 ;  returns  to  the  moun- 
 tains, 758 ;  dies,  requiring  his  sons  to 
 resist  Antiochus,  758. 
 
 Matter,  did  it  exist  previous  to  the  Mosaic 
 creation,  3,  n. 
 
 Matthew,  the  evangelist;  his  life  and  writ- 
 ings, 887  and  n. 
 
 Matthias  is  chosen  one  of  the  twelve  in 
 place  of  Judas,  105S. 
 
 Matthias,  St,  his  labours  and  martyrdom, 
 1111  and  n. 
 
 Megiddo,  its  situation,  639,  n. 
 
 Melchizedek,king  of  Salem,  blesses  Abram, 
 146;  difficulties  in  his  character,  166; 
 why  called  king  of  Salem,  167  ;  who  he 
 was,  167-8  and  n. 
 
 Mclita,  isle  of,  1098,  n. 
 
 Memphis,  city  of,  built  by  Mizraim,  134 
 and  752. 
 
 Menahem  seizes  on  the  throne  of  Israel, 
 623:  his  enormities,  623  and  n.;  bribes 
 the  king  of  Assyria,  623  and  n. ;  dies, 
 C23. 
 
 Menander,  Ebion,  and  Cerinthus,  founders 
 of  heresies,  1109  and  n. 
 
 Mcnelaus  obtains  the  chief  priesthood, 755. 
 
 Menes,  a  descendant  of  Ham,  settles  in 
 Egypt,  builds  Thebes,  131. 
 
 Mephibosheth,  son  of  Jonathan,  517. 
 
 Meribah,  the  rock  of,  273,  n. 
 
 Messiah,  signification  of  the  word,  811,  n. 
 
 Messias,  first  promise  of  the,  27. 
 
 Micah  of  mount  Ephraim,  his  idolatry  &c 
 398.  '        ' 
 
 Michaelmas  Flaws,storms  so  called, 1097  n. 
 Michal,  daughter  of  Saul,  marries  David 
 
 445. 
 Midian,  son  of  Abraham  by  Keturah,  157. 
 
 Midianites,  their  slaughter;  their  virgins 
 only  saved,  319. 
 
 Midwives,  the  Egyptian,  237  and  n. 
 
 Miletus,  town  of,  1087,  ». 
 
 Miracles,  remarks  upon,  255;  concern- 
 ing, 985  et  seq. 
 
 Miracles  of  Christ,  their  excellency,  &c., 
 980  et  seq. ;  character  of  a  true  miracle, 
 980 ;  Jewish  evasion  of  the  miracles, 
 981;  the  occasional  performance  of  a 
 miracle  by  others,  not  derogatory  to 
 the  glory  of  Christ,  9S4. 
 
 Miraculous  powers  ascribed  to  heathen 
 demigods  and  heroes,  937. 
 
 Miriam,  sister  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  23S  ; 
 her  song  of  deliverance,  271  and  n.; 
 smitten  with  leprosy,  299  and  n.;  dies; 
 is  buried  with  great  pomp;  and  lamented 
 by  the  people,  314  and  ii. 
 
 Mithridates,  passages  in  his  history;  his 
 death,  812  et  seq. 
 
 Mitre,  the,  311. 
 
 Mitylene,  city  of,  1087,  n. 
 
 Mizpeh,  city  of,  437,  n. 
 
 Mizraim,  second  son  of  Ham,  king  of 
 Egypt,  122;  kingdom  divided  between 
 his  three  sons,  122 ;  named  Menes, 
 by  heathen  writers,  134,  n.\  builds 
 Zoar,  134;  Thebes,  134  ;  and  Mem- 
 phis, 134.;  sons  of,  become  king  of 
 Egypt;  their  character,  135  and  n. 
 
 Moab  and  Ammon,  their  incestuous 
 origin;   their  settlements,  151  and  n. 
 
 Moloch,  the  idol,  304 ;  form  of  wor- 
 shipping, 304,  n.;  passing  through  the 
 fire  to,  627,  n. 
 
 Money,  what  it  was  in  early  times,  196,  n. 
 
 Money  changers,  994,  n. 
 
 Monuments,  Egyptian,  262. 
 
 Moon  created,  5. 
 
 Moral  evil,  ancient  opinions concerning,37. 
 
 Mordecai,  uncle  of  Esther,  720  and  n.; 
 discovers  a  conspiracy  against  Aha- 
 suerus,  721  and  n. ;  refuses  reverence 
 to  Haman,  721  and  ii.;  bemoans  the 
 king's  decree  against  the  Jews,  722 
 and  n. ;  is  advanced  to  honour,  724  and 
 n. ;  made  keeper  of  the  signet  to 
 Ahasuerus,  725. 
 
 Moriah,  mount  of,  154,  n. 
 
 Mosaic  history,  its  extent  defined,  1  and  n. 
 
 Moses'  description  of  the  creation  con- 
 trasted with  other  accounts,  11. 
 
 Moses,  tradition  respecting  him,  237,  n. 
 
 Moses  born  ;  is  exposed  on  the  Nile  ;  is 
 preserved  by  Pharaoh's  daughter,  238 
 and  n.)  is  greatly  beloved  by  her,  238 
 and  n.;  his  forward  understanding, 
 23S,  n.;  etymology  of  his  name,  238, 
 n.;  his  education,  238,  n.;  incidents 
 of  his  early  life,  239  and  n.;  he  slays 
 an  Egyptian  for  abusing  a  Hebrew,  239; 
 and  retreats  into  the  country  of  Midian, 
 239;  meets  with  the  daughters  of 
 Jethro,  239;  is  invited  by  Jethro,  239; 
 supposition  as  to  his  being  the  author  of 
 the  book  of  Job,  239,  n. ;  becomes 
 shepherd  to  Jethro,  240;  receives 
 Zipporah,  Jethro's  daughter,  in  mar- 
 riage, 240;  has  by  her  two  sons, 
 Gershom  and  Eliezer,  240;  God  appears 
 to  him  out  of  the  bush,  240  and  n.; 
 commands  him   to    put  off"  his  shoes', 
 
 240  and  ».;  is  commanded  by  God  to 
 undertake  the  deliverance  of  the  Israel- 
 ites from  Egypt,  241 ;  God  assures  him 
 and    promises    him   divine    assistance, 
 
 241  ;  receives  from  God  a  power  of 
 working  miracles,  241  and  n.;   Moses 
 
 wishes  to  excuse  himself  for  his  slow- 
 ness of  speech,  241  and  n.;  Aaron  is 
 associated   with  him   to  act  as  orator, 
 
 242  ;  Moses'  rod,  242  and  n. ;  Moses 
 takes  leave  of  Jethro  and  departs  to 
 Egypt,  242  and  «.;  his  child  circum- 
 cised, 242  and  n.)  meets  Aaron,  and 
 they,  together,  in  presence  of  the  elders 
 of  the  Israelites,  give  miraculous  tokens 
 of  their  Divine  mission,  242  ;  Moses 
 and  Aaron  have  audience  of  Pharaoh, 
 and  request  permission  for  the  Israelites 
 to  journey  to  the  wilderness  and  do 
 sacrifice  to  God,  242 ;  Pharaoh  refuses, 
 
 243  and  ».;  and  inflicts  severe  tasks  on 
 the  people,  243;  Moses  and  Aaron  are 
 upbraided  by  the  Israelites  as  the  cause 
 of  their  increased  burdens,  243 ; 
 Moses  is  directed  by  God  to  assure  the 
 Israelites  of  his  favour  and  redemption 
 from  bondage,  244 ;  Moses  and  Aaron 
 are  sent  by  God  again  unto  Pharaoh,  and 
 do  miracles  in  his  presence,  244 ; 
 Aaron's  rod  changed  into  a  serpent, 
 244 ;  magiciaus  imitate  the  miracle, 
 244 ;  Moses  and  Aaron  importune 
 Pharaoh  yet  more  to  let  the  people  go, 
 245 ;  'they  turn  the  waters  of  Egypt 
 into  blood,  245;  magicians  imitate  this 
 miracle,  245 ;  Moses  and  Aaron,  on 
 Pharaoh's  further  refusal  of  their  suit, 
 bring  upon  Egypt  the  plague  of  frogs, 
 245  and  «.;  magicians  imitate  the  mi- 
 racle, 245  ;  Moses  and  Aaron,  by  God's 
 command,  bring  upon  Egypt  the  plague 
 of  lice,  245  and  n.;  the  murrain  of  the 
 cattle,  245  ;  the  plague  of  flies,  215  and 
 11. ;  of  boils,  245  and  n.  ;  of  hail,  246 
 and  n.;  Moses  and  Aaron  bring  the 
 plague  of  locusts,  246  and  n. ;  of  dark- 
 ness, 246  and  n.;  Pharaoh  relents,  but 
 afterwards  refuses  to  let  the  people  go, 
 and  commands  Moses  to  see  his  face  no 
 more,  247  ;  Moses  acquaints  Pharaoh 
 of  the  intended  plague,  the  death  of  the 
 first-  born,  247  ;  Pharaoh  expels  him 
 from  his  presence,  247  ;  the  death  of 
 the  first-born,  247-8 ;  institution  of  the 
 Passover,  247;  the  Egyptians  hasten 
 the  departure  of  the  Israelites,  248; 
 Moses  leads  the  Israelites  to  Rameses, 
 and  thence  to  Succoth,  269  ;  they  take 
 with  them  the  bones  of  their  ancestors, 
 269,  n.;  God  commands  the  dedication 
 of  the  first-born,  269;  the  Israelites 
 journey  along  the  shores  of  the  Red 
 sea,  269  ;  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  flame, 
 269;  Israelites  arrive  at  Etham,  269; 
 Pharaoh  and  his  host  come  up  with 
 them  at  Pihahiroth,  270;  Moses,  at 
 God's  command,  divides  the  Red  sea, 
 270  ;  Pharaoh  and  his  host  overwhelm- 
 ed therein,  270  ;  Israelites  arrive  in  the 
 wilderness  of  Shur,271;  Moses  sweetens 
 the  waters  of  Marah,  271 ;  strikes  the 
 rock  Horeb  and  the  waters  flow  out, 
 272  and  n. ;  commands  Joshua  to  give 
 battle  to  the  Amalekites,  273 ;  his  hands 
 held  up  by  Aaron  and  Hur,  whilst 
 Joshua  is  fighting  with  the  Amalekites, 
 273;  is  visited  by  Jethro,  273  and  ».; 
 by  advice  of  Jethro  appoints  rulers  over 
 the  people,  274  ;  is  called  up  of  God  to 
 mount  Sinai,  274;  ascends  a  second 
 time,  274;  the  tables  of  the  moral  law 
 committed  to  him,  275  ;  is  besought  of 
 the  people  to  speak  to  God  in  their  stead, 
 275;  erects  an  altar,  275  ;  sacrifices,  and 
 raises  twelve  pillars  as  monuments  of 
 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1163 
 
 God's  covenant,  275  anil  ft.;  Moses 
 jm-^es  forty  days  in  the  mount  of  Sinai, 
 275;  God  instructs  him  in  all  things 
 connected  with  the  tabernacle,  com- 
 mands the  observance  of  the  sabbath, 
 275  ;  and  delivers  the  written  tables  of 
 the  law,  27C  ;  intercedes  with  God  to 
 pardon  the  idolatry  of  the  Israelites, 
 277 ;  he  breaks  the  tables  of  the  law 
 on  beholding  their  idolatry,  277;  causes 
 the  idol  to  be  reduced  to  powder,  and 
 obliges  the  people  to  mingle  it  with 
 their  drink,  277  and  n.;  commands  the 
 tribe  of  Levi  to  slay  the  leaders  in  this 
 idolatrous  worship,  277  and  ft.;  Moses 
 reproves  the  people ;  intercedes  with 
 God  for  them;  and  receives  two  other 
 tables  containing  the  moral  law,  277  ; 
 his  face  made  glorious  by  converse  with 
 God,  297 ;  commands  the  people  to 
 make  offerings  for  the  building  of  the 
 tabernacle,  297 ;  receives  instructions 
 from  God  respecting  the  manner  of 
 worshipping,  297 ;  the  renewal  of  the 
 passover,  298  and  ft.;  the  numbering 
 of  the  tribes,  29S  and  n.;  their  encamp- 
 ment, 29S ;  receives  intimation  to 
 leave  mount  Sinai,  298  and  ft.;  insti- 
 tutes the  court  of  seventy  elders,  299 
 and  n.j  chooses  twelve  men  from  each 
 tribe  to  examine  and  report  upon  the 
 land  of  Canaan,  299;  his  conduct  in 
 the  matter  of  Korah,  301  ;  composes  the 
 nineteenth  psalm,  313  and  n. ;  not  per- 
 mitted to  enter  Canaan,  314  ;  sets  up 
 the  brazen  serpent,  315;  punishes  the 
 Israelites  for  their  whoredoms  with  the 
 Moabites,  318;  destroys  the  Moabites, 
 319;  their  women  and  children,  319 
 and  ft.;  divides  the  country  between  the 
 tribes,  320  and  w.;  feels  the  approach 
 of  death  ;  counsels  the  Israelites  and 
 blesses  them,  321 ;  dies  on  mount  Pis- 
 gah,  322  and  «.;  is  buried  near  Beth- 
 Peor,  322 ;  his  character,  322,  w. 
 
 Mourning,  ancient  rites  of,  155,  n. 
 
 Murder  of  Abel,  41,  43  and  n.;  period  of, 
 45;  tradition  respecting  the,  47,  n. 
 
 Murrain  of  the  cattle  of  Egypt,  245. 
 
 Muscles  of  the  human  body,  14. 
 
 Mysia,  province  of,  1076,  n. 
 
 Mythological  allusion  to  Noah's  intoxica- 
 tion and  exposure,  101,  w. 
 
 N 
 
 Naamah,  inveutress  of  spinning  and  weav- 
 ing 44. 
 Naaman,    his   leprosy   cured    by    Elisha, 
 
 577. 
 Nabal,  his  history  and  death,  451  and  n. 
 Nabopollassar,  king  of  Babylon,  654. 
 Naboth,  his  vineyard,  568;  is  stoned,  568. 
 
 and  w. 
 Nabuchodonoser,  660  and  ft. 
 Nadab  succeeds  Jeroboam  in  Israel,  549; 
 
 is  slain  by  Baaslia,  549. 
 Nadab  and  Abihu,  destroyed  by  lightning, 
 
 297. 
 Nahum  the  prophet,  454,  n. 
 Nain  or  Nairn,  town  of,  905  and  «. 
 Names,  religion  of,  148,  w. 
 Naomi,  wife  of  Elimelech,  403. 
 Naptuhim,  son  of  Mizraim,  king  of  middle 
 
 Egypt,  122. 
 Nathan  reproves  David,  484. 
 Nazarenes,  Christians  so  called,  1092  and 
 
 «. 
 Nazareth,  its  situation,  842,  K. 
 
 Nazarite,  what  the  meaning  of  (he  term, 
 411,  ft,  and  1089. 
 
 Neapolis,  port  of,  1076,  ft. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar  subdues  Syria  and  Pales- 
 tine, takes  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  and 
 carries  Jehoiakim  captive  to  Babylon, 
 655  ;  invades  Judah  a  second  time, 
 carries  the  inhabitants  captive  to  Baby- 
 lon ;  his  third  conquest  of  Jerusalem, 
 657;  appoints  Mattaniah  his  deputy, 
 naming  him  Zedekiah,  65S  ;  finally  be- 
 sieges Jerusalem,  662  ;  and  causes 
 Zedekiah's  eyes  to  be  put  out,  his  sons 
 slain  and  he  himself  carried  in  fetters 
 to  Babylon,  664;  razes  the  city  of  Jeru- 
 salem; carries  the  remainder  of  the 
 people  captive,  and  removes  to  Babylon 
 all  the  treasures  and  sacred  vessels  of 
 the  temple,  664  and  w.;  appoints  Geda- 
 liah  governor  in  Jerusalem,  665;  Daniel 
 interprets  his  dream,  683  and  n.;  erects 
 the  golden  statue,  684  and  w.;  com- 
 mands Shadrach,  Meshach  and  Abed- 
 nego  to  be  cast  into  the  furnace  for  re- 
 fusing to  worship  it,  684  and  n. ;  his 
 second  dream,  685  andw.;  his  insanity, 
 686  ;  his  senses  restored,  and  he  ac- 
 knowledges the  sovereignty  of  God, 
 686  and  w. 
 
 Necromancy,  471  and  «. 
 
 Nehemiah  succeeds  Ezra  in  the  govern- 
 ment of  Judah  and  Jerusalem,  728  and 
 n.)  obtains  permission  from  Ahasuerus 
 to  rebuild  the  walls  and  gates  of  Jeru- 
 salem, 728  and  n.;  meets  with  opposi- 
 tion in  his  work  from  Sanballat  and 
 Tobiah,  729  and  n  ;  dedicates  the  walls 
 and  gates,  l?Jd  and  ft.;  gives  the  gates 
 in  charge  to  Hanaiii  and  Hananiah,  730 
 and  n. ;  obliges  a  tenth  part  of  the  people 
 of  Judah  and  Benjamin  to  dwell  at  Jeru- 
 salem, 730  and  ft.;  compels  the  usurers 
 to  refund,  731  and  ft.;  his  hospitality 
 and  generosity,  731  and  ft.;  returns  to 
 Shushan,  731;  returns  from  Persia  and 
 finds  the  temple  profaned,  732  and  ft.; 
 reforms  abuses,  733  and  m.;  dissolves 
 unlawful  marriages,  733  and  w.;  his 
 death,  734. 
 
 Nergal,  624  and  n. 
 
 Neriglissar  succeeds  Evilmerodach  in 
 Babylon,  686;  is  slain  in  battle  by  the 
 Medes  and  Persians,  687. 
 
 Nero  casts  Paul  and  Peter  into  prison; 
 raises  the  first  general  persecution  of 
 the  Christians,  1104;  acknowledged 
 successor  of  Claudius  by  the  soldiery, 
 1133 ;  his  moderation  in  the  commence- 
 ment of  his  reign,  1133;  poisons  Ger- 
 mauicus;  divorces  his  wife  Octavia  and 
 takes  Sabina  to  his  bed;  murders  his 
 mother  Agrippina,  and  gives  himself 
 up  to  all  manner  of  vices  and  extrava- 
 gances, 1133;  puts  Lucan  and  Seneca  to 
 death,  1133;  sets  fire  to  Rome;  lays  the 
 crime  on  the  Christians  and  causes  a  ge- 
 neral persecution  of  them, 1132;  hisenor- 
 mities  cause  arevolt;  his  death,  1134. 
 
 Nerva  succeeds  Domitian  in  the  Roman 
 empire,  1142;  succours  the  Christians 
 and  governs  with  clemency,  1142; 
 adopts  Trajan  as  his  successor,  1142; 
 his  death,  1142. 
 
 Nibhaz,  and  Tartak,  625  and  n. 
 
 Nicanor,  made  general  against  the  Jews, 
 772  ;  his  death,  773. 
 
 Nicodemus,  S5S,  visits  Christ  by  night; 
 is  instructed  by  him,  858  and  n.;  be- 
 comes a  convert,  859. 
 
 Nicolaitans,  1109  and  n. 
 
 Nicopolis,  town  of,  1106,  n. 
 
 Nile,  the  river,  where  situated  ;  its  extent; 
 overflowing  of  ;  divine  honours  paid  to 
 it,  245,  n. 
 
 Nimrod,  question  whether  he  erected  the 
 tower  of  Babel  ;  his  kingdom,  117  ;  was 
 a  great  hunter,  118;  the  first  fire-wor- 
 shipper, 118;  the  first  man  who  made 
 invasion  upon  the  territories  of  others, 
 132. 
 
 Nineveh,  city  of,  built  by  Ashur,  133;  or 
 by  Nimrod,  133,  n.;  description  of, 
 134;  destroyed  by  Nabopolassar,  134; 
 is  warned  by  Jonah,  606  and  n. 
 
 Ninus,  second  king  of  Assyria;  subdues 
 Babylonia  ;  obtains  Semiramis  wife  of 
 Memnon;  has  a  son  by  her;  his  reign 
 and  death,  134;  opinion  concerning 
 Ninus,  134,  n. 
 
 Ninyas,  king  of  Assyria,  134;  reigns 
 jointly  with  Semiramis;  the  latter  re- 
 moves her  court  to  Babylon;  makes  an 
 unsuccessful  attempt  to  subdue  India ; 
 resigns  the  crown  to  Ninyas  ;  dies,  135; 
 reign  of  Ninyas  and  his  character,  135. 
 
 Niobe,  fable  of,  451,  ft. 
 
 Noah  born,  54;  preaches  repentance,  55 
 and  n.;  lived  a  great  while  after  the 
 confusion  of  Babel,  94;  offers  burnt 
 sacrifices  on  leaving  the  ark,  95;  God's 
 covenant  with  him,  95  and  n.;  supposed 
 to  have  settled  in  China  after  the  flood, 
 95,  101 ;  becomes  a  husbandman,  96 
 and  w.;  drinks  wine  and  is  intoxicated; 
 the  conduct  of  his  sons :  he  blesses  Shem, 
 and  Japhet,  and  curses  Ham,  96  and  n. : 
 the  privileges  and  blessings  bestowed 
 on  him  and  his  descendants,  96  and  n.; 
 death  and  burial  of,  97  ;  difficulties  and 
 objections  regarding  his  history  ex- 
 plained and  answered,  97 ;  his  sacrifices 
 considered,  97  and  w.;  probably  was 
 not  inebriated,  his  blessing  and  curs- 
 ing of  his  sons  were  prophetical,  103 ; 
 destribution  of  the  world  to  his  sons, 
 121,  n.;  the  sons  of,  121;  their  settle- 
 ments, 121,  n. ;  they  fall  into  idolatry 
 and  polytheism,  123. 
 
 Nob,  city  of,  44S  and  ». 
 
 Nod,  land  of,  44-46. 
 
 Nurses,  ancient ;  how  esteemed,  157,  «. 
 
 0 
 
 Oak  of  Moreh,  143  and  n. 
 
 Oaths,  veneration  for  them  among  the 
 heathens,  3S0. 
 
 Obadiah,  the  prophet,  608. 
 
 Obadiah,  561  and  n.;  conceals  the  prophets 
 from  Jezebel,  562 ;  meets  Elijah,  562. 
 
 Objection  to  the  Mosaic  account  of  the 
 creation,  8. 
 
 Objections  and  difficulties  respecting  the 
 corruption  of  mankind  answered  and  ex- 
 plained, 55;  the  history  of  the  deluge, 
 73;  regarding  the  history  of  Abraham, 
 158  to  165;  the  history  of  Lot,  165-6; 
 the  character  of  Melchisedec,  166-8; 
 Ishmael  and  the  prophecy  concerning 
 him,  169;  circumcision,  171  and  n. ; 
 the  offering  of  Isaac,  173  and  ».;  Lot's 
 wife,  174-5  and  ft.;  the  destruction  of 
 Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  176-8  and  w. ;  re- 
 garding the  life  and  character  of  Isaac, 
 
 183  ct  seq.)  Esau  selling  his  birthright, 
 
 184  ;  Jacob's  interception  of  the  bless- 
 ing, 184-5  and  w.;  his  straitened  cir- 
 cumstances when   lie  went   to  Laban, 
 
1164 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1S5;  Jacob's  longing  for  venison,  1S6; 
 the  contest  abont  the  wells,  18(5  ;  the 
 simplicity  of  the  patriarchal  life,  186; 
 Isaac's  blessing  to  Jacob,  187  ct  seq.; 
 respecting  the  life  of  Jacob  from  his 
 going  into  Mesopotamia,  to  his  return, 
 189  ct  seq.;  Jacob's  appropriation  of 
 Laban's  flocks,  19S  ;  his  vow,  199;  his 
 putting  away  the  idols  200 ;  his  inter- 
 view with  Esau,  200 ;  his  polygamy, 
 201  ;  his  wrestling  with  the  angel,  201; 
 his  conduct  in  the  matter  of  the  Shechem- 
 ites,  202;  respecting  Laban's  gods, 
 203;  Rachel's  conduct  in  purloining 
 tin  in,  20.'];  Rachel's  desire  for  the  man- 
 drakes, 204 ;  respecting  the  giving  of 
 handmaids,  204;  Jacob's  ladder  and 
 pillar,  205 ;  the  history  of  Joseph  and 
 the  latter  parts  of  Jacob's  life,  225  et 
 seq.)  the  departure  of  the  sceptre  from 
 Judah,  225;  Jacob's  bequest  to  Joseph, 
 227;  his  prophecies  regarding  his  sons, 
 227  :  why  Potiphar  did  not  put  Joseph 
 to  death,  228 ;  wherefore  Joseph  mar- 
 ried the  daughter  of  the  priest  of  On, 
 228;  respecting  Joseph's  mode  of  jura- 
 tion, 2i9;  his  divination,  229;  his  treat- 
 ment of  his  brethren,  229;  his  advice 
 to  Pharoah  and  conduct  during  the  fam- 
 ine, 231;  his  conduct  therein  vindicated, 
 231,  «.;  respecting  the  life  of  Moses 
 and  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites,  24S 
 et  seq.;  the  sufferings  of  the  Israelites 
 in  Egypt,  248;  God's  choosing  the 
 Israelites,  249;  Moses'  history  and  his 
 conduet,249;  God's  communication  with 
 him,  250;  his  unwillingness  to  under- 
 take the  delivery  of  the  Israelites,  251; 
 the  circumcision  of  his  son,  252  ;  his  re- 
 quest to  Pharaoh  for  the  Israelites,  253  ; 
 God's  hardening  Pharaoh's  heart,  254  ; 
 the  Israelites  spoiling  the  Egyptians, 
 254 ;  the  miracles  performed  by  Moses, 
 255;  the  imitations  by  the  magicians, 
 256  and  n.\  respecting  the  pillar  of  fire 
 and  cloud,  278;  why  God  conducted  the 
 Israelites  by  way  of  the  wilderness  into 
 Canaan,  279;  the  presence  of  God  on 
 mount  Sinai,  279;  Moses'  intercourse 
 with  God,  280;  cities  of  refuge,  2S0  ; 
 law  of  retaliation,  280  and  ».;  Jewish 
 laws  and  ceremonials,  280-1  and  ».; 
 Urim  and  Thummim,  2S1  and  n.;  re- 
 lating to  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  2S1; 
 the  cherubim  thereon,  2S1  and  n.;  the 
 ine  of  bells,  281,  n.;  language  applied 
 to  the  deity,  282  and  n.;  Moses'  depre- 
 cation of  God's  judgments,  282  ;  impar- 
 tiality of  Moses's  history,  283;  the  gold- 
 en calf,  283  and  n. ;  Aaron's  conduct  in 
 the  matter  of  the  golden  calf,  283-4; 
 
 ting  the  passage  of  the  Red  sea, 
 285;  not  to  be  accounted  for  by  natural 
 causes,  285;  not  similar  to  Alexander's 
 
 e  over  the  sea  of  Pamphylia,  286; 
 Why  Moses  took  the  rout  of  the  Red 
 Bea,  287;  tides  of  the  Red  sea,  287;  re- 
 specting Moses'  fast  on  the  mount,  302; 
 the  horns  of  Moses,  303;  the  rebellion 
 of  the  Israelites,  304;  their  idolatry, 
 304;  their  desire  for  animal  food,  304; 
 meat-  allowed  and  forbidden,  305;  the 
 ofleiing  strange  fire,  306;  the  guilt  of 
 Nadafa  and  Abihu,  307  and  n.;  the 
 quarrel  between  Moses,  Aaron  aud 
 Miriam,  307;  the  rod  of  Aaron,  308  ; 
 Korah's  rebellion,  309;  respecting  the 
 account  given  in  the  Pentateuch  of  the 
 death  of  Moses.  322  ;  who  wrote  that 
 
 account,  323;  respecting  Moses'  pro- 
 hibition to  enter  the  promised  land,  323  ; 
 the  death  of  Zimri,  324;  the  garments 
 aud  shoes  of  the  Israelites,  325 ;  Ba- 
 laam's character,  326  and  n. ;  his  con- 
 duct, 327 ;  his  prophecy,  327  and  ». ; 
 his  journey  to  meet  Balak,  329;  his  ass 
 speaking,  329;  human  language  as  ap- 
 plied to  God,  330;  the  slaughter  of  the 
 Canaanites,  330;  and  their  children, 
 331 ;  jealousy  of  the  Jewish  people, 
 331 ;  the  serpents  in  the  wilderness, 
 332  and  n. ;  the  brazen  serpent,  332  and 
 n.;  respecting  the  history  of  the  Israel- 
 ites from  the  entrance  into  Canaan  to 
 the  death  of  Joshua,  373  ;  character  and 
 conduct  of  Rahab,  374;  the  destruction 
 of  Jericho,  375  ;  the  dividing  of  the 
 Jordan,  376;  the  renewal  of  circumci- 
 sion, 376 ;  Joshua's  vision,  377 ;  Jew- 
 ish observance  of  the  sabbath,  377;  the 
 destruction  of  the  walls  of  Jericho,  377 ; 
 the  Urim  and  Thummim,  378;  the 
 Gibeonites  and  the  Israelites'  conduct 
 towards  them,  379  ;  why  the  Israelites 
 were  always  victorious,  381  ;  the  punish- 
 ment of  Achan,  382;  respecting  the 
 shower  of  stones,  and  Joshua's  command- 
 ing the  sun  and  moon  to  stand  still,  385; 
 of  the  credibility  of  the  Old  Testament, 
 391;  the  destruction  of  the  Canaanites, 
 391;  respecting  the  character  of  the 
 judges  in  Israel,  415;  Deborah's  com- 
 mendation of  Jael,  416;  Barak's  expe- 
 dition against  Sisera,  417;  Gideon  and 
 his  conduct,  418;  Samson's  slaying 
 1000  Philistines  with  the  jaw-bone  of  an 
 ass,  420;  his  destroying  the  corn  by 
 means  of  foxes,  421-422  and  n.;  Sam- 
 son's hair, 423 ;  his  destroying  the  temple 
 of  Dagon,  423  and  n.;  the  wars  of  the 
 Benjamites,  425;  the  rape  of  the  virgins 
 of  Shiloh,  427  and  n. ;  Jephthah's  vow, 
 42S  et  seq.;  respecting  the  taking  of  the 
 ark  and  the  fall  of  Dagon,  455 ;  the 
 Israelites  demanding  a  king,  457;  the 
 election  ofSaul  as  king,  457  ;  Samuel's 
 cutting  Agag  in  pieces,  460;  the  music 
 of  the  Hebrews,  461  ;  David's  conduct, 
 462 ;  his  sparing  Saul's  life,  465 ;  his 
 conduct  towards  Nabal,  466;  the  man- 
 Der  of  Saul's  death,  466 ;  respecting 
 Saul  and  the  witch  of  Endor,  472 ;  the 
 nature  of  the  apparition,  472;  character 
 of  the  witch,  473 ;  respecting  the  char- 
 acter of  David,  492;  respecting  the 
 slaughter  of  the  Gibeonites,  514  ;David's 
 numbering  the  people,  518;  the  appoint- 
 ment of  Solomon  as  successor  to  David, 
 520 ;  Solomon's  character  and  conduct, 
 521;  respecting  the  idolatry  of  Jero- 
 boam and  Rehoboam,  550  ;  the  queen 
 of  Sheba,  552;  her  visit  to  Solomon, 
 553  ;  Solomon's  wives  and  concubines, 
 553  ;  his  idolatry,  554  ;  respecting  the 
 cure  of  Naaman's  leprosy,  57S;  Elisha's 
 being  mocked  of  the  children,  and  their 
 destruction,  579  and  w.;  the  destruction 
 of  the  captains  and  their  companies, 
 579;  Elijah's  conduct,  580  and  n.;  his 
 abstinence,  581 ;  his  being  fed  by 
 ravens,  582  and  ».;  his  destroying  the 
 worshippers  of  Baal,  583;  Ahab's  re- 
 pentance, 583;  Hiel's  punishment,  583; 
 and  «.;  Jehosliaphat's  reformation,  585  ; 
 the  falling  of  the  walls  of  Aphek,586  and 
 n. ;  respecting  the  translation  of  Enoch 
 and  Elijah,  586;  respecting  the  pro- 
 phecy relating  to  Nineveh,  609;  Jonah's 
 
 preservation  in  the  deep,  609;  Elisha's 
 smiting  the  Syrians  with  blindness,  610; 
 Hazael's  being  anointed  king  of  Syria, 
 610;  the  conduct  of  Jehu,  613;  the 
 differences  which  occur  in  scripture  his- 
 tory, 614  ;  the  destruction  of  the  wor- 
 shippers of  Baal,  615;  Jonah's  mission 
 to  Nineveh,  and  abode  in  the  whale's 
 belly,  615  et  seq.;  respecting  the  cure 
 of  Tobit's  blindness,  640;  Raphael's 
 companionship  with  Tobit  and  his  in- 
 structions to  him,  640 ;  respecting 
 demons,  640  ;  the  book  of  Tobit,  641  n.; 
 the  renewal  of  the  passover,  642;  the 
 proneness  of  the  Israelites  to  fall  into 
 idolatry,  642,  n.;  Josiah's  putting  down 
 idolatry,  643;  his  war  with  the  king  of 
 Egypt,  644;  his  death,  644;  Isaiah's 
 message  to  Hezekiah,  644;  the  dial  of 
 Ahaz,  645 ;  instruments  to  measure 
 time,  645  ;  the  sun's  going  back  thereon, 
 646  et  seq.;  of  the  transportation  of  the 
 ten  tribes  and  thgir  return,  648  et  seq.; 
 respecting  the  book  of  Judith,  665  ; 
 Holofernes,  667  and  n.;  Judith's  slay- 
 ing of  Holofernes,  667;  God's  com- 
 mands to  Jeremiah,  669;  several  state- 
 ments in  his  prophecies,  669 ;  Hosea's 
 marriage  670  ;  Ezekiel's  flight,  670  ; 
 Isaiah's  walking  naked  three  years,  671; 
 respecting  Daniel  and  his  character, 
 694;  book  of  Daniel,  695;  his  educa- 
 tion, 695;  the  magicians,  astrologers, 
 and  wise  men  of  Babylon,  696  ;  Daniel's 
 dreams  and  visions,  696  ;  veracity  of  his 
 writings,  697  ;  why  his  name  and  writ- 
 ings have  occasionally  been  passed  over 
 in  silence,  698  ;  the  mystical  character 
 of  his  writings,  699;  his  vision  of  the 
 seventy  weeks,  701 ;  Ezekiel's  chariot, 
 702-3  and  n. ;  his  prophecy  of  Gog  and 
 Magog,  703  and  n.;  respecting  the  dif- 
 ferences in  the  number  that  returned 
 from  Babylon,  705;  the  second  temple, 
 706  and  n.;  respecting  Babylon,  its  siege 
 and  overthrow,  707 ;  its  remains  hodie, 
 710;  the  pride  and  punishment  ol'Nebu- 
 chadnezzar,  711  ;  his  metamorphosis, 
 714;  respecting  the  Jewish  laws  re- 
 garding marriage,  735  ;  Nehemiah's  re- 
 building the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  735; 
 the  book  of  Nehemiah,  736;  the  charac- 
 ter of  Ezra,  736;  the  book  of  Ezra,  737; 
 concerning  Sanballat,  737  ;  the  book  of 
 Esther,  73S  ;  Mordecai's  refusing  rever- 
 ence to  Hamau,  738;  Esther's  marriage 
 with  Ahasuerus,  738;  Hainan's  intrigues 
 against  Mordecai  and  the  Jews,  739 ; 
 Ezra's  edition  of  the  holy  scriptures,  and 
 the  institutions  of  synagogue  worship, 
 740  et  seq.;  the  origin  of  synagogues, 
 742  and  n.;  the  services  therein,  743 
 and  n. ;  officers,  745  ;  times  of  assem- 
 bling therein,  745;  respecting  the  char- 
 acter of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  762 ;  his 
 sacrilege  at  Elymais,  762;  the  vic- 
 tories of  Judas  Maccabeus,  763 ;  the 
 apparitions  in  the  air,  763  ;  matters 
 concerning  the  ark,  763  ;  the  destruc- 
 tion of  the  Jews  at  Alexandria,  764  ;  of 
 the  elephants  used  on  that  occasion,  764  ; 
 the  angels  leading  the  Jewish  army,764  ; 
 respecting  the  books  of  the  Macabees, 
 780;  the  character  of  Judas  Maccabeus, 
 7S2;  his  conduct,  782;  the  strength  of 
 the  elephant,  783  and  n. ;  Eleazar's  kill- 
 ing the  royal  elephants,  7S3;  the  suicide 
 of  Razis,  7S3  ;  the  destruction  of  Sa- 
 maria by  Hyrcanus  784;  the   apostacy 
 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1165 
 
 of  Hyrcanus,  781 ;  the  history  of  Josc- 
 phus,  804;  the  conduct  of  Alexander 
 the  Great  to  the  Jews,  804 ;  the  Septu- 
 agint  version,  805  ;  the  rewards  con- 
 ferred on  the  translators,  800  ;  respect- 
 ing the  veracity  of  the  evangelists,  867  ; 
 Christ's  descent  according  to  the  flesh, 
 868 ;  John  the  Baptist's  denial  that  he 
 was  the  Elias,  869 ;  the  taxation  of 
 Judea,  &c,  870;  the  immaculate  con- 
 ception, 871;  why  Christ  was  born  of  a 
 virgin,  872 ;  the  office  and  character 
 of  the  Messiah,  872  ;  the  descent  of  the 
 Holy  Ghost  on  the  Saviour,  873;  Christ's 
 temptations,  873  and  n. ;  his  miracles, 
 875 ;  persons  possessed  of  devils,  875 ; 
 the  marriage  at  Cana,  S76  el  seq.  and 
 n;  why  Christ  is  called  Immanuel,  878 
 and  n.  ;  the  wise  men,  880 ;  the  star 
 which  conducted  them,  880  ;  the  mur- 
 der of  the  children  at  Bethlehem,  881 ; 
 respecting  a  seeming  inconsistency  in 
 our  Saviour's  character,  881 ;  respecting 
 St  John's  Gospel,  922;  the  silence  of 
 Josephus  respecting  the  sanative  quali- 
 ties of  the  waters  of  Bethesda,  923  ; 
 whence  that  sanative  quality  was  derived, 
 923 ;  the  cures  performed  by  its  waters, 
 924  and  n. ;  the  widow  of  Nam's  son, 
 and  his  restoration,  925  ;  the  cure  of 
 the  ruler  of  Capernaum's  daughter,  925; 
 the  devils  entering  into  the  herd  of 
 swine,  925;  Christ's  transfiguration, 
 926 ;  the  conduct  of  the  Baptist  regard- 
 ing Christ,  928  and  n. ;  Christ's  dis- 
 coursing in  parables,928  and  n. ;  respect- 
 ing the  Pharisees' demanding  a  sign  from 
 heaven,  930;  Christ's  answer  to  them, 
 931 ;  the  character  and  qualifications  of 
 our  Saviour's  disciples,  931 ;  their  gifts 
 &c,  931-2;  St  Mark's  representing 
 Christ  as  a  person  beside  himself,  932  ; 
 Christ's  injunctions  and  promise  to 
 Peter,  933 ;  the  sin  agaiust  the  Holy 
 Ghost,  934 ;  respecting  the  command 
 to  eat  the  flesh  and  drink  the  blood  of 
 the  Son  of  man,  935  and  n. ;  Peter's 
 exclamation  thereupon,  936 ;  respect- 
 ing Christ's  entry  into  Jerusalem,  972; 
 the  writings  of  the  evangelists,  974  ;  the 
 raising  of  Lazarus,  974  and  n;  the  re- 
 storing sight  to  the  blind,  976;  the 
 woman  taken  in  adultery,  976;  the 
 Socinian  opinions,  977:  the  parable  of 
 the  hundred  sheep,  978;  the  lord  of 
 the  vineyard,  978  ;  respecting  the  Acts 
 of  the  Apostles,  &c,  1114  et  seq.;  St 
 Paul  and  his  conduct,  &c,  1119  ctseq.; 
 St  Peter  and  his  conduct,  &c,  1122  et 
 seq.  ;  respecting  the  term  Son  of  man, 
 1028;  Christ's  conduct  regarding  his 
 titles,  1028  ;  Christ's  nature,  1029  ; 
 his  knowledge,  1029 ;  his  human  feel- 
 ings, 1030;  his  agonies,  1031;  plan  of 
 redemption,  1032 ;  Christ's  sufferings, 
 1033  ;  Judas  Iscariot,  and  his  behaviour, 
 1034;  Peter's  denial  of  Christ,  1035; 
 the  penitent  thief,  1035  ;  an  apparent 
 mistake  by  St  Matthew,  1036  ;  the 
 supernatural  darkness  at  the  crucifixion, 
 1037;  other  appearances  at  that  time, 
 103S;  the  barren  fig-tree,  1039 ;  Christ's 
 rebukes  to  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
 1040;  his  predictions  respecting  Jerusa- 
 lem, 1041;  concerning  baptism,  1042; 
 the  last  supper,  1043;  the  resurrection  of 
 Christ,  1044;  the  incredulity  of  Thomas, 
 1045  and  n. 
 Oblations  first  offered,  42  and  «. 
 
 Ocean,  its  wonders  considered,  14. 
 Ochus   succeeded  Artaxerxes   the  second 
 
 in  Persia,  748  and  n. ;  is  poisoned  by 
 
 Bagoas,  748  and  n. 
 Octavianus;  see  Augustus  Csesar. 
 Offerings  of  Cain  and  Abel  considered, 51. 
 Og,  king  of  Bashan,  315  and  n. 
 Olives,  mount  of,  352,  971,  n. 
 Olympiads,   674,  n. 
 
 Olympic  games  instituted  in  Greece,  673. 
 Omri  is  chosen  king  of  Israel,  549;  his 
 
 people  revolt,  and  part  declare  for  Tibni, 
 
 549. 
 Onan's  wickedness  and  death,  211  and  n. 
 Onesimus,  a  convert  of  St  Paul,  1100  and 
 
 n. 
 Onias  the  high  priest  dies;  is  succeeded 
 
 by  Simon,  750. 
 Onias,  son  of   Simon  the   Just,  succeeds 
 
 Eleazar  in  the  priesthood,  751;  neglects 
 
 the  tribute  to  the  king  of  Egypt,  751. 
 Ophir,  land  of,  its  situation,  556,  n. 
 Oreb  and   Zeeb,  slain   by  the   Israelites, 
 
 406. 
 Origen,  his  opinion  concerning  the  image 
 
 of  God,  21. 
 Original  sin,  3S. 
 Orpah,  403. 
 
 Othniel,  first  of  the  judges,  397. 
 Otho  becomes  emperor  of  Rome  on  the 
 
 death   of   Galba,   1135;    is   opposed   by 
 
 Vitellius,    1135;    kills   himself,    1136 
 
 and  n. 
 Ovid,    the    poet,    banished    by   Augustus 
 
 Ca;sar;  see  Augustus  Ctcsar. 
 
 Painting  the  eyes,  custom  of;  see  Jezebel. 
 
 Pamphylia,  province  of,  1072,  n. 
 
 Pandataria,  island  of;  see  Augustus  Cassar. 
 
 Pantheon,  the  Egyptian,  265  and  n. 
 
 Paphos,  city  of,  1072  and  n. 
 
 Palestine,  its  general  fertility,  355;  sur- 
 rounded by  deserts,  359 ;  and  wilder- 
 nesses, 359. 
 
 Parables,  much  in  use  with  oriental  sages 
 and  writers,  928  and  n. 
 
 Paradise,  15  and  n.;  its  situation,  16  and 
 n.  ;    1018,  n. 
 
 Passover,  its  institution:  ceremonies  con- 
 nected therewith,  247  and  n. 
 
 Patara,  sea-port  of,  1088,  n. 
 
 Patmos,  island  of ;  see  John,  St. 
 
 Patraea,  city  of,  1105,  n. 
 
 Pathrusim,  son  of  Misraim,  122. 
 
 Paul  enters  into  an  explanation  with  the 
 Jewish  consistory,  1099  and  n.\  dwells 
 for  two  years  in  his  hired  house  at  Rome, 
 and  makes  many  converts,  1100;  con- 
 verts Onesimus  and  writes  an  epistle  on 
 his  behalf,  to  Philemon,  1100  ;  receives 
 contributions  from  the  Philippians  to 
 whom  he  returns  an  epistle  by  Epaphro- 
 ditus,  1100  and  n.;  sends  his  epistle 
 to  the  Ephesians  by  Tychicus,  1101 
 and  n.;  writes  his  epistle  to  the  Colos- 
 sians,  1101  and  n. ;  he  is  discharged 
 from  custody,  1103;  writes  his  epistle 
 to  the  Hebrews,  1103  and  n.;  in  com- 
 pany with  Timothy  proceeds  to  Spain, 
 whence  probably  he  came  to  Britain, 
 1103  and  n. ;  afterwards  proceeds  to 
 Crete,  and  appoints  Titus  bishop;  then 
 visits  Judea,  1 103. 
 
 Paul  and  Barnabus  proceed  to  Pcrga  ; 
 thence  to  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  1072  and 
 n. ;  Paul  preaches  in  the  synagogue, 
 1072;  by  the  malice  of  the  Jews  they 
 
 i  are  compelled  to  depart  to  Iconium  and 
 thence  to  Lystra,  1072  and  n.;  Paul 
 heals  a  lame  man  at  Lystra,  1073  and 
 m.  ;  the  priest  of  Jupiter  proposes  to 
 sacrifice  to  Paul  and  Barnabas,  1073 
 and  7i.;  they  prevent  him,  1073  ;  Paul 
 is  stoned,  1073  ;  he  and  Barnabas  at 
 length  return  to  Antioch  in  Syria,  1073; 
 obtain  from  the  church  at  Antioch  a 
 remission  of  the  rite  of  circumcision, 
 
 1074  and  n. ;  Paul  and  Barnabas  part, 
 
 1075  and  n. 
 
 Paul  and  Silas  travelling  through  Syria 
 and  Cilicia,  come  at  length  to  Crete, 
 1075  and  n.;  constitute  Titus  bishop 
 of  Crete,  1075;  associate  Timothy  with 
 them,  1075  and  n.;  they  pass  through 
 Phrygia  and  Galatia;  St  Luke  joins 
 them  in  Macedonia,  1076,  n.;  Paul 
 converts  Lydia  at  Philippi,  1076  and  n. ; 
 they  cast  the  spirit  of  divination  out  of 
 the  damsel  at  Philippi,  1077,  and  ji.; 
 they  are  scourged  and  cast  into  prison  ; 
 the  doors  thrown  open  by  an  earthquake  ; 
 conversion  of  the  jailor  and  his  family, 
 
 1077  and  n.;  are  prayed  to  leave  Philippi, 
 1078and».;  they  come  to  Thessalonica, 
 
 1078  and  n.;  Paul  preaches  in  the  syna- 
 gogues three  sabbath  days,  1078  ;  they 
 are  conveyed  by  the  brethren  to  Berea, 
 1078  and  n.;  Paul  departs  to  Athens, 
 1078  and  «.;  brought  before  the  Areo- 
 pagus, 1079  and  w.;  endeavours  to  con- 
 vince the  Athenians  of  the  folly  of  their 
 idolatry,  1079  and  w.;  converts  Diony- 
 sius  and  Damans,  10S0  and  ».;  de- 
 parts to  Corinth,  10S0  and  n.;  converts 
 Aquila  and  Priscilla;  lodges  with  them; 
 teaches  in  the  synagogues  every  sabbath 
 day,  10S0  and  n.;  writes  his  first  epistle 
 to  the  Thessalonians,  10S0;  he  converts 
 numbers  of  the  Gentiles,  1C81  and  n.; 
 is  brought  before  Gallio,  1081  and  ».; 
 writes  his  second  epistle  to  the  Thessal- 
 onians, 10S1;  proceeds  to  Ephesus, 
 1081  and  n.;  thence  to  Jerusalem  to 
 the  passover,  1082;  afterwards  returns 
 to  Ephesus,  1082;  by  the  imposition  of 
 hands  bestows  on  the  disciples  at  Ephe- 
 sus the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  1082; 
 the  magicians  bring  their  books  to  him 
 and  burn  them,  1083  and  n.;  returns 
 into  Macedonia  and  Achaia;  winters  in 
 Corinth;  and  passes  thence  to  Jerusa- 
 lem to  the  feast  of  Pentecost,  1083;  his 
 first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  1084 
 and  71.;  his  epistle  to  the  Galatians, 
 1084  and  «.;  is  opposed  by  Demetrius 
 at  Ephesus,  1084  and  «.;  while  at  Cor- 
 inth writes  his  epistle  to  the  Romans, 
 1086  and  »  ;  celebrates  the  passover  at 
 Philippi,  1086;  proceeds  to  Troas  ;  re- 
 stores Eutychus  to  life,  1086;  he  writes 
 his  second  epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
 1086;  comes  to  Miletus  and  there  meets 
 the  bishops,  &c.  of  the  Ephesian  church, 
 1087;  arrives  at  Tyre  ;  thence  sails  to 
 Ptolemais,  1088;  at  Csesarea,  Paul  is 
 warned  not  to  proceed  to  Jerusalem, 
 1089;  arrives  at  Jerusalem,  1089  ;  is 
 violently  abused  by  certain  Jews  of  Asia, 
 1090;  when  about  to  be  scourged  claims 
 the  privileges  of  a  citizen  of  Rome,  1091 
 and  ».;  is  brought  before  the  Sanhedrim, 
 1091,  ».;  is  smitten  by  order  of  the 
 high  priest ;  his  resentment  of  the  in- 
 jury, 1091  and  n.;  is  placed  in  prison 
 and  comforted  in  a  vision,  1092  ;  to 
 avoid  the  malice  of  the  Jews,  is  sent  by 
 
1106 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 Lysias  to  Ciesarea,  to  Felix,  1092  ;  by 
 whom  he  is  well  received,  1092  and  v.; 
 is  accused  by  Tertullus,  1092;  defends 
 himself,  1093  ;  preaches  before  Felix, 
 is  brought  before  Festus,  1093 ;  ap- 
 peals to  Caesar,  1093;  is  sent  by  Festus 
 with  other  prisoners  to  Rome  under  the 
 charge  of  Julius  the  centurion,  1096  and 
 «.;  by  whom  he  is  kindly  treated,  1096; 
 advises  to  winter  at  the  Fair  Havens; 
 his  counsel  rejected,  1097  and  n. ;  the 
 ship  is  beset  by  the  wind  called  Euro- 
 clydon,  1097  and  ».;  in  the  distress  of 
 the  ship's  company  Paul  comforts  them 
 with  assurance  that  no  lives  shall  be 
 lost,  1097;  forbids  the  use  of  the  boat, 
 
 1097  ;  the  ship  is  wrecked,  10;)7;  Paul 
 and  the  other  prisoners  saved  from  the 
 sword  by  Julius,  1097;  all  reach  the 
 shore  in  safety,  1097  ;  they  are  cast 
 ashore  in  the  isle  of  Melita,  1098;  a 
 viper  fastens  on  Paul's  hand  and  the 
 barbarians  judge  him  to  be  a  murderer, 
 
 1098  and  ».;  he  shakes  off  the  reptile 
 and  feels  no  harm,  they  then  esteem 
 him  a  god,  1098  and  n.;  he  is  hospit- 
 ably treated  by  Publius;  heals  his  father, 
 1093  and  ft.;  proceeds  to  Italy  in  the 
 ship  Castor  and  Pollux,  1098  and  ».; 
 is  landed  at  Puteoli,  1099  and  n. ;  is 
 met  on  his  way  by  the  Christians  of 
 Rome,  who  conduct  him  into  the  city, 
 
 1099  and  n.\  he  is  delivered  up  to  the 
 captain  of  the  guard,  1099  and  n.;  hav- 
 ing arrived  in  Rome,  is  cast  into  prison 
 by  Nero,  1104;  after  various  travels  ar- 
 rives in  Macedonia,  whence  he  writes 
 his  first  epistle  to  Timothy,  1106  andm.; 
 writes  his  epistle  to  Titus  from  Nicopo- 
 lis,  1106  and  ».;  passes  successively  to 
 Corinth,  Ephesus,  Miletum  and  Troas; 
 at  the  litter  place  lodges  with  Carpus, 
 1106  and  «.;  suffers  much  persecution, 
 1107;  arrives  at  Rome  and  is  cast  into 
 prison;  writes  his  second  epistle  to 
 Timothy,  1107  and  «.;  is  beheaded 
 11  OS  and  n. 
 
 Pectoral,  the,  311. 
 
 Pekah  usurps  the  throne  of  Israel,  623; 
 is  invaded  by  the  king  of  Assyria,  023 
 and  n.j  murdered  by  Hosea,  023  and 
 n. 
 
 Pekahiah  succeeds  Menahem  in  the  king- 
 dom of  Israel,  623 ;  murdered  by  Pekah, 
 623. 
 
 Peleg,  birth  of,  110. 
 
 Peniel,  meaning  of  the  term;  see  Jacob. 
 
 Pentateuch,  1. 
 
 Pentecost,  day  of,  1053  and  n. 
 
 Perga,  city  of,  1072,  n. 
 
 Persecutions  of  the  Christians,  1104,  n. 
 
 Persepolis  fired  by  Thais  and  Alexander, 
 699,  ». 
 
 IB,  failles  concerning  him,  501. 
 
 Persian  kings,  their  manner  of  giving 
 dowers  to  their  wives,  721.  ?i. 
 
 Persians,  religion  of  the;  the  Magians 
 and  Sabiaus,  110. 
 
 Persians  had  an  early  and  true  account  of 
 the  creation  and  deluge,  137  ;  made  it 
 the  foundation  of  their  religion,  137; 
 their  notions  concerning  the  heavenly 
 bodies,  138-9. 
 
 Pi  ter  (St)  proposes  to  elect  one  into  the 
 number  of  the  apostles  in  the  place  of 
 Judas,  1058;  his  first  sermon  on  oc- 
 casion  of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
 1(159;  thereby  converts  3000  mimI-. 
 1059;  he  and  John  heal  the  cripple  at 
 
 the  Beautiful  gate  of  the  temple,  1059  ; 
 by  his  preaching  converts  five  thousand 
 hearers,  1059 ;  he  and  John  are  thrown 
 into  prison,  1060;  after  Peter's  defence 
 they  are  dismissed,  1060;  joining  their 
 brethren  they  are  again  comforted  by  a 
 descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  1060;  their 
 converts  sell  their  substance  and  depo- 
 site  the  money  arising  in  their  hands, 
 1060  and  n.;  Peter  strikes  Ananias 
 and  Sapphira  dead,  1060;  great  cures 
 effected  by  him  with  miraculous  power, 
 1060;  is  cast  into  prison,  1061  ;  is  set 
 at  liberty  by  an  angel,  1061  and  n.;  he 
 preaches  to  the  people  and  is  again 
 brought  before  the  sanhedrim,  1061 ;  is 
 scourged,  1061 ;  he  and  John  confirm 
 the  church  in  Samaria  founded  by  Philip 
 1064;  cures  the  paralytic  at  Lydda, 
 1067;  raises  up  Dorcas,  1007  and  n.\ 
 his  trance  at  Joppa,  1067  and  n.; 
 visits  Cornelius  and  his  relations  at 
 Caesarea,  1068  and  n.;  while  he  is 
 preaching  the  Holy  Spirit  descends  upon 
 them;  they  are  baptized,  1068  and  n.\ 
 visits  Antioch  and  is  reproved  by  Paul 
 for  inconsistency  of  conduct,  1075 ;  is 
 cast  into  prison  by  Agrippa,  an  angel 
 delivers  him,  1070  and  n.;  arrives  at 
 Babylon,  1083  and  n  ;  writes  his  first 
 epistle,  1033;  after  some  time  returns 
 to  Rome,  1104;  he  opposes  Simon 
 Magus  and  causes  his  destruction,  1104; 
 is  cast  into  prison  by  Nero,  1104;  is 
 imprisoned  at  Rome  and  writes  his 
 second  general  epistle,  1107  and  n. ;  is 
 crucified,  1108  and  n.;  his  grave.  &c, 
 1108,  n. 
 
 Pharisees,  their  origin  and  tenets,  786. 
 
 Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt,  his  cruelty  to  the 
 Israelites,  &c. ;  see  Moses. 
 
 Pharoah,  a  common  name  of  the  Egyptian 
 kings,  144,  n. 
 
 Pharaoh  Necho,  king  of  Egypt,  639  and  n. 
 
 Philemon,  1100,  and  n. 
 
 Philip  the  deacon,  by  his  preaching  and 
 miracles  in  Samaria,  converts  many, 
 1063;  baptizes  the  eunuch,  1065  and  n. 
 
 Philip  of  Macedon,  his  death,  748  and  n. 
 
 Philip  (St)  his  works  and  death,  1110  and 
 
 B. 
 
 Philippi,  town  of,  797  and  n. 
 
 Philippi,  city  of,  1076,  n. 
 
 Philistines,  their  origin  and  country,  435, 
 
 n. ;  harass  the  Israelites,  401. 
 Philo  the  historian,  895  etseq.;  his  opinion 
 
 concerning  the  image  of  God,  21. 
 Phineas,  slays  Zimri  and  Cozbi,  the  action 
 
 approved  by  God,  318  and  n. 
 Phoenicia,  account  of,  1074,  n. 
 Phaeton,  fables  concerning  him,  501  and  n. 
 Phrygia,  province  of,  1075,  n. 
 Phylactery,  787  and  n. 
 Physic,  the  Egyptians'  skill  in,  201  and  n. 
 Pilate  ;  see  Pontius  Pilate. 
 Pillar  of  flame,  269. 
 
 Pillar,  Jacob's  description  of ;  its  consecra- 
 tion, 206-7;  its  inscriptions,  207-8. 
 Pisgah,  mount  of,  321  and  n. 
 Pisidia,  province  of,  1072,  ». 
 Pison,  the  river,  18. 
 Pithom,  city  of,  236,  n. 
 Plagues  of  Egypt,  245;  the  waters  turned 
 
 into  blood,  245. 
 Planasia,   an    island    to   which    Agrippa, 
 
 grandson  of  Augustus,  was  banished  ;  see 
 
 Augustus  Caesar. 
 Planetary  system,  to  he  included  in  the 
 
 Mosaic  creation,  2. 
 
 Planets  created,  5  and  n. 
 
 Poetical  epithets  applied  to  the  moon,  10 
 and  n. 
 
 Polygamy,  44,  w.,  and  883;  its  lawfulness 
 considered,  160. 
 
 Polytheism,  its  progress,  139. 
 
 Pomegranates  and  bells,  311  and  n. 
 
 Pompey  takes  possession  of  Jerusalem, 
 794,  ?i. 
 
 Pontius  Pilate  is  made  governor  of  Judea, 
 851  and  n.,  and  1011  and  ».;  is  ban- 
 ished by  Caligula;  kills  himself,  1131. 
 
 Porphyry,  his  opposition  to  Christianity, 
 701  and  n. 
 
 Portius  Festus  succeeds  to  the  government' 
 of  Judea,  1093  and  n. 
 
 Posts,  first  institution  of,  722,  n. 
 
 Potiphar,  history  of;  see  Joseph. 
 
 Potter's  field,  the,  1012,  n. 
 
 Priests,  their  offices,  311. 
 
 Priests  of  Egypt,  their  riches  and  conse- 
 quence, 232. 
 
 Profane  history  from,  to  the  coming  of  the 
 Messiah,  806  et  seq.;  from  the  birth  of 
 Christ  to  the  completion  of  the  canou 
 of  the  New  Testament,  1 1 29  et  seq. 
 
 Prophecies  relating  to  the  Messiah,  and 
 their  fulfilment,  937  et  seq. ;  ancient 
 prophecies  obscure,  937  and  n. ;  the 
 delivery  of  the  prophecies,  938  and  n.; 
 passages  of  our  Saviour's  life  verifying 
 the  prophecies,  939;  the  interposition 
 of  an  overruling  providence,  necessary 
 to  the  completion  of  the  prophecies,  940; 
 the  Jews  evade  the  prophecies,  941  ; 
 completion  of  prophecy,  an  argument 
 with  the  first  Christians  for  the  truth  of 
 Christianity,  941 ;  the  Jewish  evasion 
 of  the  prophecies  combated,  942. 
 
 Proseuchai,  Jewish  places  of  prayer,  1076, 
 n. 
 
 Proselytes  of  the  Jews,  779  and  n. 
 
 Ptolemais,  city  of,  10S8,  n. 
 
 Ptolemy  Euergetes  succeeds  Ptolemy  Phila- 
 delphus  in  Egypt,  751. 
 
 Ptolemy  Epiphanes  succeeds  Ptolemy 
 Philopater  in  Egypt,  753 ;  marries  Cleo- 
 patra, 754. 
 
 Ptolemy  Philadelphia  succeeds  Ptolemy 
 Soter  in  Egypt,  751;  desires  a  copy  of 
 the  Jewish  law,  from  Eleazar,  751  and 
 7i.  ;  the  translation  of  the  Seventy. 
 
 Ptolemy  Philopater  succeeds  PtolemyEuer- 
 getes  in  Egypt,  753  ;  defeats  Antiochus 
 
 ■  the  Great ;  takes  the  city  of  Jerusalem  ; 
 intrudes  into  the  holy  place;  retreats 
 thence  in  fear,  753  ;  his  conduct  towards 
 the  Jews  ;  his  attempt  to  destroy  them 
 rendered  futile,  753  ;  is  affrighted  at 
 some  natural  phenomena,  and  releases 
 the  Jews,  753 ;  his  character  and  death, 
 753,  n. 
 
 Ptolemy  Soter,  takes  possession  of  Egypt; 
 obtains  the  provinces  of  Syria,  Phoenicia, 
 and  Judea,  750  ;  besieges  Jerusalem  : 
 takes  it ;  carries  100,000  of  the  people 
 captive,  750. 
 
 Publicans,  who  they  were,  S53,  n. 
 
 Publius,  governor  of  Melita;  entertains 
 Paul  after  his  shipwreck;  by  whom 
 his  father  is  restored  to  health,  1098, 
 and  n. 
 
 Pul,  king  of  Assyria,  invades  Israel,  623 
 and  n. 
 
 Punishments  inflicted  in  Egypt,  for  killing 
 the  sacred  animals,  263. 
 
 Purification  of  Jacob's  household,  197,  n. 
 
 Purim,  feast  of,  726,  n. 
 
 Puteoli,  town  of,  1099  and  n. 
 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1 167 
 
 Pyramids  of  Egypt,  260,  263  and  ».; 
 descriptions  of  them,  204  and  n.  ;  con- 
 jectures concerning  them,  264,  n. 
 
 Pythoness,  manner  of  her  inspiration;  see 
 Endor,  Witch  of. 
 
 Q 
 
 Quails,  the  fall  of,  271  and  u. 
 Quarantania,  mountain  of,  300. 
 
 R 
 
 Raameses,  city  of,  236,  n. 
 Kabbah,  city  of,  484  and  n. 
 Rabbinists,  their  origin,  786. 
 Rachel, signification  of  the  name;  remarks 
 upon  her  employment,  191,  n. ;  bargains 
 for   Reuben's   mandrakes,    192;    bears 
 Joseph,  192  and  re.;  steals  her  father's 
 gods,    193;    her    deception    respecting 
 them,  194 ;  her  monument,  198,  re. 
 Ragau,  plains  of,  660  and  re. 
 Rahab  entertains  Joshua's  spies,  364;  she 
 preserves  them,  361;  assists  their  escape 
 from  Jericho,  365. 
 Rainbow,  the,  87  ;  whether  prior  or  suhse- 
 qiuut  to  the  deluge;  philosophical  ac- 
 count of  opinions  respecting,  99  and  n. 
 Ramah,  city  of,  433  and  n. 
 Rape  of  the  Sabines,  427,  re. 
 Rebecca,  sister  of  Laban,  156  and  re. ;  is 
 met  by  Eliezer  at  the  well  ;  consents  to 
 wed  Isaac,  157;  her  age  when  married 
 to  Isaac,  179,  re  ;  bears  Esau  and  Jacob, 
 179;  their  characters,  179;  by  strata- 
 gem obtains  the  blessing  for  Jacob,  181 
 and  re. 
 Rechabites,  who  they  were,  &c,  655  and  n. 
 Redemption  of  the  Israelites   a  type    of 
 
 Christ's  redemption,  268. 
 Red  sea,  its  situation  and  name,  270,  re. ; 
 
 passage  of,  285,  2S8. 
 Reblah,  city  of,  663  and  n. 
 Relioboam  succeeds  Solomon,  541;  the  ten 
 tribes  revolt  from  him,  542;  he    falls 
 into  idolatry,  545;  appoints  Abijah  his 
 successor,  545;  dies,  546. 
 Religion  of  the  early  ages,  137. 
 Religion,  corruption  of,  138;  commenced 
 
 in  Chaldea,  138. 
 Religion  of  the  Egyptians,  262. 
 Rephidim,  its  situation,  273,  re. 
 Restoration  to  divine  favour,  35. 
 Reuben  dissuades  his  brethren  from  kill- 
 ing Joseph,  209  and  re.;  pathetic  address 
 in  behalf  of  Benjamin,  218. 
 Rhegium,  town  of,  1099  and  re. 
 Rhodes,  island  of,  1088,  n. 
 Richa,  village  of,  363,  re. 
 Rimmon  the  idol,  577. 
 Rock,  the  word  considered  with  reference  to 
 
 Peter's  name,  919,  re. 
 Romans   make    alliance  with  the   Jews, 
 
 773. 
 Rome,  the  building  of,  674. 
 Ruth,  403  ;  refuses  to  leave  her  mother, 
 403;  they  go  to  Bethlehem,  403;  Ruth 
 marries  Boaz,  403 ;  the  Saviour  de- 
 scends, according  to  the  flesh,  from  her, 
 403. 
 
 Sabbath  instituted,  8  and  re. ;  first  observed 
 as  a  day  of  rest,  272  and  n.;  Jewish 
 observance  of,  758  and  re. 
 
 Sacrifice  appointed,  28. ;  institution  of,  47: 
 design  of,  50. 
 
 Sacrifices  of  the  patriarchal  dispensation, 
 
 50. 
 Sadducees,  their  origin  and  tenets,  785,  re. 
 Salamis,  city  of,  1071,  ». 
 Salathiel  succeeds  Jehoiachin  as  prince  of 
 
 the  captivity,  686  and  re. 
 Salem,  city  of,  343;  two  places  of   that 
 
 name,  167. 
 Salmaneser   succeeds  Tiglath  Peleser   in 
 Assyria,   624  and  n. ;  invades   Israel, 
 624;  demolishes  Samaria,  684;  reduces 
 the    people  of   Israel  to  captivity,  624 
 and  re. 
 Salmon,  mount,  352. 
 Samaria,  549  and  re.  ;   siege  of,  592  and 
 
 re.  ;  province  of,  860,  re. 
 Samaritans  not  allowed  to  assist  in  rebuild- 
 ing the  temple,  692. 
 Samaritans,  746    and    71.  ;    their   notions 
 on    religion,   746 ;    their  temple,   747 
 and  71. 
 Samos,  isle  of,  10S7,  re. 
 Samothracia,  island  of,  1076,  re. 
 Samson,  son  of  Manoah,  410;  marries  a 
 woman  of  the  Philistines,  411  and  re.  ; 
 slays  a  lion,  411  ;  propounds  a  riddle, 
 411  and  re. ;  makes  a  great  slaughter  of 
 the  Philistines,  412  and  re.  ;  he  is  de- 
 livered up  to  them,  412;   slays  a  thou- 
 sand with  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass,  413  ; 
 carries  on"  the  gates  of  Gaza,  413  and 
 re. ;  is  betrayed  by  Delilah,  413;  over- 
 throws the  temple  of  Dagon,  414. 
 Samuel   succeeds    to    the    government  of 
 Israel,  437  and  re. ;  exhorts  the  people 
 to  leave  idolatrous  worship,  &c,  437;  the 
 exactions  of  his  sons  incense  the  people, 
 438  ;  he  anoints  Saul  king  over  Israel, 
 439;  resigns  the  government  to  him, 
 440;  is  sent  to  Bethlehem  by  God  to 
 anoint  David  king  and  successor  of  Saul, 
 443  and  71. ;  dies,  450  and  71. 
 Sanconiatho,  the  historian,  61. 
 Sanhedrim,  counsel  of,  299,  re.  ;'764  et  seq. 
 Sarah,  wife  of  Abraham,  is  promised  a  sou; 
 is    incredulous,   149  and  ».;  bears  her 
 son  Isaac,  152. 
 Sardanapalus,  676;  manner  of  his  death, 
 
 677  and  n. 
 Saron,  town  of,  1067,  n. 
 Satan,  24  and  re. 
 
 Saul  meets  with  Samuel,  438  and  re. ;  is 
 appointed  king  of  Israel,  439 ;  defeats 
 the  Ammonites,  440  and  re. ;  he  and 
 Jonathan  his  son  defeat  the  Philistines 
 at  Gilgal,  441  and  re.;  destroys  the 
 Amalekites,  442;  Samuel  expostulates 
 with  him  for  saving  Agag,  442  arid  71. ; 
 declines  in  favour  with  God,  443  ;  David 
 plays  before  him,  and  is  made  one  of 
 his  armour  bearers,  443  and  n. ;  meets 
 the  Philistines  at  Succoth,  443  and  11.  ; 
 his  army  defied  by  Goliath,  443  and  i».j 
 David  slays  Goliath,  and  Saul  envies 
 him  the  applause  of  the  people,  445; 
 attempts  David's  life,  445  and  re. ;  gives 
 him  to  wife  his  daughter  Michal,  445; 
 again  conspires  against  his  life,  446-7  ; 
 attempts  his  sou's  life  for  Iris  friendship 
 to  David,  447  and  re. ;  puts  to  death 
 Ahimelech  and  the  priests  for  sheltering 
 David,  449 ;  whilst  sleeping,  David 
 cuts  oil'  the  skirt  of  his  robe,  450;  his 
 life  again  spared  by  David,  452;  in 
 his  extremity  consults  the  witch  of 
 Endor,  453  and  re.;  is  reproved  by  the 
 spirit  of  Samuel,  454  and  re. ;  he  and 
 his  son  are  slain  ouGilboaby  the  Philis- 
 tines 451,  re. 
 
 Saul  of  Tarsus  takes  part  with  the  mur- 
 derers of  Stephen,  1063 ;  his  persecu- 
 tion of  the  Christians,  1063;  while  on 
 his  way  to  Damascus,  is  arrested  by  a 
 heavenly    vision,    1065    and    re. ;    and 
 struck  with  blindness,    1065;  is  cured 
 by  Ananias,  1066;  is  baptized;  preaches 
 Christ   in  the  synagogues;    plants  the 
 gospel  in  Arabia,  1066  and  re. ;  his  life 
 being  threatened  at  Damascus.he  escapes 
 to  Jerusalem,  1066;  his  "boldness  raises 
 anger  against  him  at  Jerusalem,  and  he 
 retires  to  Tarsus,  1066  and  71. ;  preaches 
 in  Cilicia  and  Syria,  1067. 
 Saul  and  Barnabas  preach  the  gospel   in 
 Antioch,  1070  and  ?j. ;  during  a  season 
 of  scarcity  carry  supplies  to  the  brethren 
 in  Judea,  1070  and  71.  ;  return  to  Anti- 
 och ;    thence  to  Seleiicia,   Cyprus,  and 
 Salamis,   1071  and    re.;  preach   in  the 
 synagogues   at    Salamis,    1072;    thence 
 proceed  to  Paphos,  1072  and  re. ;  Saul 
 strikes  Barjesus  with  blindness  in  the 
 presence  of  Sergius  Paulus  the  proconsul 
 of   Cyprus,   1072  and  re. ;  Saul  obtains 
 the  name  of  Paul,  1072  and  re.  See  Paul. 
 Sceptre,  meaning  of  the  term,  225. 
 Sceva,  sons  of,  their  punishment  for  invok- 
 ing the  Holy  Ghost,  1083  and  71. 
 Scribes,  787  ;  their  divisions,  787. 
 Seals,  568,  re. 
 Season  of  the  creation,  7,  re. 
 Sebaste  and  Ctesarea,  two  cities  built  by 
 
 Herod,  S02  and  71. 
 Sects  of  the  Jews,  their  origin  and  tenets, 
 
 7S4  et  seq. 
 Seir,  mountains  of,  194,  re. 
 Seir,  mount,  351. 
 Selah,  the  town  of,  602  and  71. 
 Seleucia,  city  of,  built  by  Seleucus  Nicanor 
 to  lessen  the  splendour  of  Babylon,  133; 
 description  of,  777  and  re.,  1071,  re. 
 Seleucus    Philopater    succeeds  Antiochus 
 the  Great  in  Syria,  754  ;  at  first  favours 
 the  Jews;  afterwards  attempts  to  plun- 
 der their  sacred  treasury,  755. 
 Semiramis,    wife    of    Memnon;    marries 
 Ninus  ;    reigns   jointly  with   her   son, 
 134  ;  her  stratagem  to  obtain  the  crown 
 at   Ninus'    deceSse,  135,  re.  ;  removes 
 her  court  to  Babylon ;  attempts  the  sub- 
 jugation   of   India ;    fails  ;    resigns  the 
 sovereignty  to  Ninyas;  dies,  135;  con- 
 jectures respecting  her,  135  re. 
 Sennacherib  succeeds  Salmaneser  in  As- 
 syria, 632;  advances  against  Jerusalem  , 
 633;    receives  tribute  from  Hezekiah, 
 633  ;  demands  the  surrender  of  Jerusa- 
 lem, 634  ;  is  compelled  to  abandon  it, 
 635  ;  his  forces  destroyed  by  the  angel 
 of  the  Lord,  635  and  re. ;  is  slain  by  his 
 sons,  636. 
 Sentence    pronounced    against    our    first 
 
 parents  for  disobedience,  27. 
 Sentence  against  Cain,  43  and  re. 
 Sepharvaim,  two  of,  625  and  re. 
 Septuagint  translation,  751  and  re. 
 Seraph,  332,  re. 
 
 Serpent,  the  ;  its  subtility,  24  and  re.  ;  its 
 address  to  Eve,  and  insidious  approaches, 
 25  and  71. 
 Serpents,  fiery,  332  and  re. 
 Servants,  ancient  custom  of  giving  them 
 
 to  the  bride,  204. 
 Sesostris,  336  and  re.  ;  tradition  respecting 
 him,  336 ;  conquered  the  Arabians, 
 337;  subdued  Africa,  337;  returns  to 
 Egypt  after  the.  overthrow  of  the  Egyp- 
 tians in  the  Red  sea,  337;  his  mea-uns, 
 
1168 
 
 INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 337;  his  armies  and  conquests,  337; 
 subdued  India  and  Scythia,  337  and  ?>..; 
 his  great  works  in  Egypt,  338. 
 
 Seth,  the  birth  of,  52. 
 
 Shadrach,  Meshach  and  Abednego  carried 
 captive  to  Babylon,  657;  are  instructed 
 in  all  Babylonian  learning,  082;  are  cast 
 into  the  furnace,  C84  and  n. ;  are 
 preserved  C84. 
 
 Sliallum;  see  Jehoahaz. 
 
 Shallum  usurps  the  throne  of  Israel,  C23; 
 is  slain,  623. 
 
 Shamgar,  his  slaughter  of  the  Philistines, 
 401  and  n. 
 
 Sheba,queen  of, visits  Solomon;  see  Solomon. 
 
 Shechem,    its  situation,  196,  n. 
 
 Shecherr.  deflowers  Dinah,  197;  prevails 
 upon  Jacob  to  give  her  to  him  in  mar- 
 riage, 197  ;  he  and  Hamor  his  father, 
 together  with  all  the  Shechemites,  slain 
 by  Simeon  and  Levi,  195. 
 
 Shechemites  prevailed  upon  by  the  sons  of 
 Jacob  to  submit  to  circumcision,  197; 
 art-  on  the  third  day  after,  all  slaughtered 
 by  Simeon  and  Levi,  their  town  plun- 
 dered, and  their  women  and  children 
 taken  captives,  197. 
 
 Shecjnah,  the,  706,  n. 
 
 Shew-bread,  902  and  n. 
 
 Shekinah,  description  of  the,  297,  n. 
 
 Shem,  the  sons  of;  their  settlements,  121; 
 genealogy  of  his  descendants,  122. 
 
 Shibboleth",  410  and  n, 
 
 Shiloh,  to  whom  this  title  applied,  226. 
 
 Shipping,  invention  of,  137. 
 
 Shishak,  king  of  Egypt,  invades  the  do- 
 minions of  Rehoboam ;  enters  Jerusalem, 
 and  spoils  it,  545  and  n. 
 
 Shoes,  the  custom  of  putting  off,  240,  n. 
 
 Shunem,  city  of,  453  and  n. 
 
 Shushan,  city  of,  720  n. 
 
 Sichem,  or  Sechem,  city  of,  143,  n. 
 
 Sidon,  city  of,  341-2  and  n. 
 
 Silas;  see  Paul  and  Silas. 
 
 Siloam,  fountain  and  tower  of,  952  and  n. 
 
 Simeon,  his  song,  847  and  n. 
 
 Simeon  Niger,  1071  and  n. 
 
 Simon,  sumamed  the  Just,  succeeds  Onias 
 in  the  chief  priesthood,  750;  his  char- 
 acter, 750  and  n. 
 
 Simon  succeeds  Jonathan  as  leader  of  the 
 Jews,  777  ;  is  made  regal  governor  of 
 the  land  by  Demetrius,  777;  is  slain 
 with  two  of  his  sons  778  and  n. 
 
 Simon  Magus,  1104  and  n.  ;  his  death, 
 1104  and  n. 
 
 Simon,  St,  his  travels,  labours  and  death, 
 1110  and  n. 
 
 Simon  the  sorcerer,  1064  and  n.;  offers 
 money  to  Peter  and  John  for  the  gilt  of 
 the  Holy  Ghost,  1064. 
 
 Simon,  leader  of  a  Jewish  faction,  113S 
 and  n. 
 
 Sinai,  mount  of,  274;  God  there  manifests 
 himself  to  Moses,  274  ;  and  delivers  the 
 tables  of  the  moral  law,  275. 
 
 Sinai,  mount  of,  its  situation,  280,  n. 
 
 Sisera  fights  with  the  Israelites,  401  and 
 n.;  his  forces  overcome,  402  and  n.  ■  is 
 slain  by  Jael,  403  and  n, 
 
 Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  the  cities  of;  their 
 destruction,  151  and  n. and  353;  allusions 
 to  their  catastrophe  by  profane  authors, 
 176;  manner  of  their  destruction,  177  and 
 «.;  remains  that  attest  their  former  ex- 
 istence, and  the  nature  of  the  judgment 
 that  befel  them,  178. 
 
 So,  king  of  Egypt,  624  and  n. 
 
 Solomon,  son  of  David,  proclaimed  king  of 
 
 Israel,  508;  receives  instructions  from 
 his  father  respecting  the  building  of  the 
 temple,  509  and  n. ;  his  measures  to 
 secure  his  throne,  510  and  n. ;  marries 
 the  daughter  of  Pharoah,  511 ;  his  cele- 
 brated judgment,  511  and  n. ;  extent 
 of  his  dominion,  512  and  n.;  solicits 
 Hiram  for  artificers  to  assist  in  building 
 and  adorning*  the  temple,  513  and  n. ; 
 building  of  the  temple  commences,  513; 
 solemnly  dedicates  the  temple  to  God, 
 535  and  n.  ;  builds  three  palaces,  537 
 and  n. ;  builds  the  walls  of  Jerusalem 
 and  a  senate  house,  538  and  n.  ;  culti- 
 vates commerce,  538;  his  great  riches, 
 539  and  n.;  is  visited  by  the  queen  of 
 Sheba,  539;  falls  into  great  enormities 
 with  strange  women,  540  and  n. ;  God 
 pronounces  a  judgment  against  him, 540 ; 
 the  neighbouring  states  conspire  against 
 him,  540  and  n. ;  dies  541;  his  riches 
 and  his  trade  to  Ophir,  556. 
 
 Solomon's  porch,  955,  «.,  1059  and  n. 
 
 Solomona  and  her  sons ;  their  dreadful  tor- 
 ments, 757. 
 
 Sons  and  daughters  of  men,  53. 
 
 Sons  of  God,  53;  unite  with  the  daughters 
 of  men,  54  and  n. 
 
 Sosthenes,  ruler  of  the  synagogue  at 
 Corinth,  1081  and  n.  ;  accuses  St  Paul 
 and  is  beaten,  1081. 
 
 Soul  of  man,  14. 
 
 Spies  sent  to  Jericho  by  Joshua,  364  and 
 n. ;  are  entertained  by  Rahab,  364;  she 
 aids  their  escape,  365  ;  they  return  to 
 Joshua  with  their  information,  365. 
 
 Stephen  is  elected  a  deacon,  1062;  his 
 success  in  gaining  converts,  1062  and 
 n.\  is  brought  before  the  Sanhedrim, 
 1062;  his  defence,  1062-3  and  n.;  is 
 stoned  to  death,  1063  and  n. 
 
 Stoics,  their  notions,  1080,  n. 
 
 Stones,  showers  of,  386  and  n. 
 
 Succoth,  its  signification,  196. 
 
 Succoth-Benoth,  624  and  n. 
 
 Sun,  creation  of  the,  5. 
 
 Sim  and  moon,  their  motions  evidence  the 
 wisdom  of  the  Creator,  12. 
 
 Sychar,  city  of,  860,  n. 
 
 Syene,  city  of,  685,  n. 
 
 Synagogues,  their  origin,  742  and  n. ;  their 
 services,  743  and  n.\  offices,  745  ;  times 
 of  assembling  therein,  745. 
 
 Syracuse,  city  of,  1099  and  n. 
 
 Syria,  country  of,  1067,  n. 
 
 Systems  of  the  universe,  2,  n. 
 
 T 
 
 Tabernacle,  is  built,  297;    pillar  of  the 
 
 cloud  covers  it,  297;  description  of,310. 
 Tabernacles,  the  feast  of,  692  and  n. 
 Tabitha  raised  to  life;  pee  Christ. 
 Table  for  shew-bread,  311. 
 Tabor,  mount,  351,  402,  n. 
 Tadmor  in  the  wilderness,  538. 
 Talmud,  the,  786. 
 
 Tamaris  debauched  by  Amnon,4S6  and  n. 
 Tarsus,  city  of,  1067,  n. 
 Task-masters,  the  Egyptian,  236,  n. 
 Temptation  of  Eve,  24  and  n. ;  opinions 
 
 regarding,  31,  32. 
 Temple  builded  by  Solomon,  513;  account 
 
 of,  530. 
 Temple,  the  second,  finished  and  dedicated, 
 
 718;   passover  observed  in  it,  718. 
 Tertullus,  the  orator,  1092  and  n. 
 Testament,  New,  introduction  to,  S21  et 
 
 seq.; — Judaism  preparatory  to  Christi- 
 
 anity, S21  et  seg. ;  the  genuineness  and 
 authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  Old  and 
 New  Testaments,  S31  et  seq. 
 
 Thamar  brings  forth  Pharez  and  Zarah, 
 212. 
 
 Thebes,  city  of,  built  by  Mizraim,  134. 
 
 Theocracy  of  the  Jews,  468. 
 
 Therapeutse,  the,  7SS,  n. 
 
 Thesbe,  town  of,  560,  n. 
 
 Thessalonica,  city  of,  1078,  n. 
 
 Thermuthis,  the  Egyptian  princess  who 
 •preserved  Moses,  238,  n. 
 
 Thomas,  St,  his  travels,  labours,  and  death, 
 1110  and  n. 
 
 Three  Taverns,  1099  and  n. 
 
 Tiberius  succeeds  Augustus  in  the  Roman 
 empire, 1 130 ;  his  conduct  and  character, 
 1130;  causes  Agrippa  to  be  murdered, 
 and  Germanicus  to  be  poisoned,  1130; 
 receives  an  account  of  Christ's  passion 
 and  resurrection  from  Pontius  Pilate, 
 and  proposes  to  the  senate  to  enrol  him 
 amongst  the  gods,  1130;  the  senate  re- 
 fusing, he  determines  on  protecting  the 
 Christians,  1130;  conduct  during  the 
 latter  period  of  his  reign,  1130  ;  appoints 
 Caligula  his  successor,  1130;  is  mur- 
 dered by  Caligula  and  Macro,  1131. 
 
 Tiberias,  lake  of,  352. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser,  king  of  Assyria,  623  and 
 n. ;  ravages  Israel,  623. 
 
 Tigranes,  king  of  Armenia,  his  character, 
 793,  n. 
 
 Tigris,  the  river,  20. 
 
 Timothy  is  made  bishop  of  Ephesus  by 
 Paul,  1075. 
 
 Tirzah,  town  of,  623  and  n. 
 
 Tithes,  190  and  «. 
 
 Titus  is  intrusted  by  Vespasian  with  the 
 management  of  the  Jewish  war,  1137; 
 invests  the  city  of  Jerusalem  ;  obtains 
 decisive  advantages,  and  otters  the  Jews 
 terms  through  Josephus,  1137;  the  Jews 
 destroy  his  engines,  1137;  he  surrounds 
 the  city  with  a  wall  or  trench,  1138; 
 obtains  possession  of  the  temple,  which 
 is  burned  by  the  soldiery,  1138  ;  drives 
 the  Jews  from  mount  Sion,  and  effects 
 an  entire  conquest  of  the  city,  1138;  he 
 returns  in  triumph  to  Rome,  1139; 
 builds  an  arch  to  commemorate  his  vic- 
 tories over  the  Jews,  1139;  succeeds 
 Vespasian  in  the  Roman  empire,  1139; 
 prejudices  against  him  removed  by  his 
 wise  government,  1139;  his  conduct, 
 1140  and  n.;  national  calamities  dur- 
 ing his  reign  ;  his  death,  1140. 
 
 Titus  is  made  bishop  of  Crete,  1075. 
 
 Tobias  sent  by  his  father  to  Rages,  626; 
 is  guided  by  the  angel  Raphael,  626; 
 who  delivers  him  from  the  fish,  6i6 ; 
 marries  Sara,  626;  cures  his  father  of 
 blindness,  626;  his  affairs  and  death, 
 626. 
 
 Tohit  carried  captive  by  Salmaneser,  625 
 and  n. ;  married  Anna,  626;  has  a  son, 
 Tobias,  626. 
 
 Tolah,  son  of  Puah,  succeeds  Abimelech, 
 409. 
 
 Tophet,  637  and  n.,  920,  n. 
 
 Trachonitis,  its  situation,  &c,  911,  n. 
 
 Tradition  of  the  heathens  respecting  the 
 double  destruction  of  the  earth,  98;  re- 
 specting the  deluge,  60  and  n. 
 
 Trajan  succeeds  Nerva  in  the  Roman 
 empire,  1142;  Plutarch  his  counsellor, 
 1142;  governs  wisely,  1142;  his  perse- 
 cution of  the  Christians  is  abated  at  the 
 intercession  of  Pliny,  1143. 
 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 
 
 1169 
 
 Translation  of  Enoch  anil  Elijah,  5S6  et 
 seq. 
 
 Transfiguration  of  Christ,  922,  n. 
 
 Tree  of  knowledge,  16  and  n.;  its  taste 
 forbidden,  16  and  n. 
 
 Tree  of  life,  16  and  w. 
 
 Tribes  which  separate  from  Joshua  erect 
 an  altar  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan, 
 372;  are  suspected  by  the  other  tribes 
 of  idolatry,  372  and  ».;  excuse  them- 
 selves, 372  and  n. 
 
 Troas,  country  of,  1076,  n. 
 
 Trogyllium,  cape  of,  10S7,  n. 
 
 Trophimus,  a  disciple  of  St  Paul,  1090,  n. 
 
 Trumpets,  the  feast  of,  691  and  n. 
 
 Tryphin,  by  the  murder  of  Antiochus,  be- 
 comes king  of  Syria, 777;  his  death, 777. 
 
 Tychicus,  a  disciple  of  St  Paul,  1101 
 and  7i. 
 
 Tyre,  city  of,  342. 
 
 u 
 
 Uncircumcised  lips,  remarks  upon  this 
 expression,  244. 
 
 Unknown  God,  altar  to  the,  1079.  n. 
 
 Unleavened  bread,  247  and  n. 
 
 Uriah,  his  history  and  death ;  see  David. 
 
 Urim  and  Thummim,  2S1  and  n. 
 
 Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  its  site,  123,  n.; 
 people  of  became  fire  worshippers,  123. 
 
 Uz,  land  of,  where  situated,  233. 
 
 Uzziah,  or  Azariah,  succeeds  Amaziah  in 
 Judah,  603;  his  victories  and  public 
 works,  607  and  n,  •  is  struck  with  le- 
 prosy for  impiety,  607  and  «.;  and 
 retires  from  the  government,  607;  events 
 which  occurred  in  his  reign,  608;  his 
 death,  608. 
 
 Vashti,  queen   of  Ahasuerus  the  second, 
 720  and  «.;  refuses  to  present  herself 
 
 at  the  banquet,  720  and  ». ;  is  deposed 
 to  make  way  for  Esther,  721. 
 Veil,  ancient  use  of  the,  157,  n. 
 Vespasian  declared  emperor  of  Rome  on 
 the  death  of  Vitellius,   1137;  commits 
 the  management  of  the  war  against  the 
 Jews  to  Titus,  1137;  arrives  in  Rome, 
 and  is  received  in  triumph,  1138;  the 
 war  with  the   Jews  being  terminated, 
 he  cultivates  the  arts  of  peace,  and  by  a 
 judicious  government,  gives  stability  to 
 his  empire,  1139;  his  death,  1139. 
 Victim  of  the  sacrifice,  42,  n. 
 Viper,  the,  332,  n.,  109S,  n. 
 Vitellius    acknowledged    emperor    by   the 
 army  and  senate  on  the  death  of  Otho, 
 1136;  his  cruelties  and  ill  government, 
 1136;    an    insurrection    in    favour   of 
 Vespasian,  1136;   Rome  taken  by  An- 
 tonius  on  his  behalf,  and  Vitellius  slain, 
 1136. 
 Voice  of  the  Lord,  26  and  n. 
 
 W 
 
 Walking  with  God,  53,  n. 
 
 War  and  navigation,  arts  of,  greatly  im- 
 proved by  Semiramis  and  Ninus,  136. 
 
 Washing  of  hands,  as  denoting  innocency, 
 1015,  n. 
 
 Water  and  earth  separated,  4. 
 
 Water,  the  drawing  of,  155,  n. 
 
 Waters  of  Egypt  turned  into  blood,  245. 
 
 Weaning  feast,  160. 
 
 Wild  honey,  357. 
 
 Window,  73  and  n. 
 
 Windows  of  heaven,  77. 
 
 Wisdom  of  God  in  the  works  of  creation, 
 12. 
 
 Wise  men  are  guided  by  a  star  to  the  abode 
 of  Jesus,  848  and  ii.;  make  presents  to 
 him,  84S  and  n.;  they  depart  into  their 
 own  country,  848. 
 
 Woman  created,  7  and  ». 
 
 7  i 
 
 World  divided  into  two  families,  53. 
 
 Xerxes  succeeds  his  father,  Darius  the 
 second,  in  the  kingdom  of  Persia,  719  ; 
 his  passage  across  the  Hellespont  into 
 Greece,  719  and  w. ;  his  defeats  and 
 death,  719  and  n. 
 
 Zaccheus,  his  conversion;  see  Christ. 
 Zachariah  stoned  by  order  of  Joash,  601. 
 Zacharias,  841  and  n.;  an  angel  announces 
 to  him   the  birth  of  John,  841  and  n ; 
 is  incredulous  and  afflicted  with  dumb- 
 ness, 842  and  n. ;  is  restored  to  speech 
 on  the  birth  of  his  son,  844  and  ra. 
 Zareptha,  town  of,  561  and  n. 
 Zechariah  is  placed  on  the  throne  of  Israel, 
 622  and  n.;  is  murdered  by  Shallum, 
 623. 
 Zechariah  the  prophet,  717,  n. 
 Zedekiah  is  made  king  of  Judah  by  Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, 658;    is   incited   to  revolt 
 by  the    neighbouring  nations,  but  dis- 
 suaded from  doing  so  by  Jeremiah   658; 
 confederates  with  Pharaoh  Hophra  king 
 of  Egypt  against  Nebuchadnezzar,  662; 
 Jerusalem  is  taken,  and  his  sons  slain, 
 his  eyes  are  put  out,  and  he  is  carried 
 in  fetters  to  Babylon,  663  and  n. 
 Zephaniah  the  prophet,  654,  n. 
 Zerubabel,  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  return 
 
 from  Babylonish  captivity,  691  and  n. 
 Ziglag,  town  of,  452  and  n. 
 Zimri  slays  Elah,  549;  his  death,  318  and 
 
 n.,  and  549. 
 Zion,  mount,  352. 
 Zipporah ;  see  Moses. 
 Zoan,  a  city  of  Egypt  built  by  Mizraim 
 
 the  son  of  Ham,  134. 
 Zoroastres,  808  and  n. 
 
INDEX 
 
 OF 
 
 SCRIPTURAL    PASSAGES, 
 
 APPLIED,   ILLUSTRATED,  AND  EXPLAINED  IN  THIS  WORK. 
 
 OLD  TESTAMENT. 
 
 GENESIS. 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 5 
 
 22,  24 
 
 643 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 72 
 
 18 
 
 1,  8 
 
 148 
 
 h.       Ver. 
 
 Page 
 4,  394 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 5S7 
 
 11 
 
 15 
 
 117 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 148 
 
 1    2 
 
 5 
 
 32 
 
 71,72 
 
 11 
 
 22 
 
 1116 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 148 
 
 1    15 
 
 909 
 
 6 
 
 53 
 
 11 
 
 26 
 
 1116 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 
 148 
 
 1    11 
 
 96 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 58 
 
 11 
 
 31 
 
 158,  684 
 
 IS 
 
 8 
 
 149,581,  868 
 
 1    14 
 
 69,  96 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 673 
 
 12 
 
 1S8 
 
 18 
 
 17,  22 
 
 178 
 
 1    16       5, 
 
 10,  388 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 5S 
 
 12 
 
 3    637,  643,  821 
 
 IS 
 
 19 
 
 233 
 
 1   20 
 
 2,5 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 1056 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 123,  25S 
 
 IS 
 
 21 
 
 149 
 
 1   24 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 5,12 
 
 149 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 154 
 
 IS 
 
 25 
 
 643,  821 
 
 1   26 
 
 6,  23 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 56 
 
 12 
 
 6,7 
 
 747 
 
 19 
 
 1,2 
 
 150 
 
 1  26,  27 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 11,  6 
 
 589 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 367 
 
 19 
 
 11 
 
 610 
 
 1    27 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 73 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 310,  747 
 
 19 
 
 14 
 
 165 
 
 1    28 
 
 96 
 
 6 
 
 18 
 
 71 
 
 13 
 
 5,  6 
 
 125 
 
 19 
 
 22 
 
 175,  178 
 
 1  2S— 30 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 CO 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 176,  353 
 
 19 
 
 24 
 
 151,  355 
 
 1    29 
 
 96 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 67 
 
 13 
 
 22 
 
 70 
 
 19 
 
 24,  25 
 
 177 
 
 1  29,  30 
 
 80,  99 
 
 7 
 
 10,  12 
 
 395 
 
 14 
 
 125 
 
 19 
 
 26 
 
 556 
 
 1    36 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 176 
 
 20 
 
 4—9 
 
 103 
 
 2    6 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 75 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 314 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 138 
 
 2    S 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 23 
 
 75 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 339 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 179,  613 
 
 2    8,  &c. 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 80 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 146 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 123,  152 
 
 2    9 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 971,  1018 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 628 
 
 20 
 
 IS 
 
 144 
 
 2    10 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 73 
 
 14 
 
 17,18 
 
 526 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 258 
 
 2    16 
 
 15 
 
 S 
 
 7 
 
 582 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 
 523 
 
 21 
 
 5,  12 
 
 579 
 
 2  16,17 
 
 106 
 
 s 
 
 11 
 
 563 
 
 14 
 
 18,  20 
 
 103 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 148 
 
 2    18 
 
 11,  882 
 
 8 
 
 21 
 
 57 
 
 14 
 
 19 
 
 138 
 
 21 
 
 8 
 
 160 
 
 2   19 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 
 22 
 
 54,  95,  96 
 
 14 
 
 22 
 
 155,  243 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 152 
 
 2    21 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 If  2 
 
 130 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 628 
 
 21 
 
 12 
 
 161 
 
 2   23 
 
 7,22 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 96,  100 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 159 
 
 21 
 
 19 
 
 316 
 
 2  23,  24 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 96 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 159 
 
 21 
 
 21 
 
 405 
 
 3    8 
 
 310 
 
 9 
 
 3,  4 
 
 106 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 243,  557 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 213,  331 
 
 3    10 
 
 29 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 103 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 164,  842 
 
 21 
 
 23 
 
 153 
 
 3    15   34,643,93S,939 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 54 
 
 15 
 
 9,  &c. 
 
 399 
 
 21 
 
 33 
 
 310 
 
 16 
 
 43 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 493, 783 
 
 15 
 
 12,  15 
 
 837 
 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 310 
 
 3  17,  IS 
 
 100 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 75 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 218 
 
 22 
 
 1,2 
 
 213 
 
 3   20 
 
 16,  45 
 
 9 
 
 19 
 
 111 
 
 15 
 
 13,  16 
 
 259 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 
 938 
 
 3    22 
 
 28 
 
 9 
 
 20,  21 
 
 548 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 103,  375 
 
 22 
 
 9 
 
 154 
 
 4 
 
 47 
 
 9 
 
 24 
 
 102 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 42,  99,  564 
 
 22 
 
 11 
 
 543 
 
 4 
 
 124 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 123 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 159 
 
 22 
 
 11,  15 
 
 841 
 
 4    1 
 
 35 
 
 9 
 
 32 
 
 123 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 508 
 
 22 
 
 12 
 
 154 
 
 4    3 
 
 310 
 
 10 
 
 12S 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 841 
 
 22 
 
 14 
 
 243 
 
 4    4 
 
 42 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 703 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 148 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 330 
 
 4    7 
 
 643 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 117 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 156 
 
 22 
 
 18 
 
 643,  821 
 
 4    S 
 
 43 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 133,  623 
 
 17 
 
 161 
 
 22 
 
 20 
 
 154 
 
 4   11 
 
 47 
 
 10 
 
 17 
 
 4S9 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 914 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 
 53 
 
 4  16,  17 
 
 46 
 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 341 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 920 
 
 23  3,  10,17 
 
 1116 
 
 4    17 
 
 52,  53 
 
 10 
 
 21 
 
 72 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 150 
 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 213 
 
 4    18 
 
 52 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 558 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 148 
 
 23 
 
 11 
 
 155 
 
 4    21 
 
 461 
 
 10 
 
 32 
 
 122, 111,  124 
 
 17 
 
 11,25,27 
 
 171 
 
 23 
 
 16 
 
 155,  196,  498 
 
 4    25 
 
 35 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 111,  117 
 
 17 
 
 13,  14 
 
 376 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 884 
 
 4    26 
 
 243 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 S9,  91,  111 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 148 
 
 24 
 
 2,3 
 
 155 
 
 5 
 
 69 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 112 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 123 
 
 24 
 
 11 
 
 155 
 
 5    3 
 
 45 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 149 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 143, 643 
 
 24 
 
 15 
 
 156 
 
 5    4 
 
 45,52 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 112,  46S 
 
 18 
 
 S21 
 
 24 
 
 20 
 
 156 
 
 o    5,  &c 
 
 587 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 103 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 148 
 
 24 
 
 22 
 
 156 
 
INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 1171 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Pa,'p 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Paffp 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 24 
 
 37 
 
 155 
 
 35 
 
 27 
 
 213 
 
 EXODUS. 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 273 
 
 24 
 
 53 
 
 156 
 
 35 
 
 28,29 
 
 186 
 
 17 
 
 8,  &c. 
 
 442 
 
 24 
 
 59 
 
 157 
 
 36 
 
 125,  196 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver.           Page 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 272 
 
 24 
 
 60 
 
 157,  885 
 
 36 
 
 6 
 
 184 
 
 1 
 
 20,21,22       237 
 
 17 
 
 13,14 
 
 458 
 
 25 
 
 If  3 
 
 553 
 
 36 
 
 8,9 
 
 194 
 
 2 
 
 1           250 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 738 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 157,  209,  233 
 
 36 
 
 12 
 
 273,  339,  458 
 
 2 
 
 16           156 
 
 17 
 
 14,26 
 
 469 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 101,  404 
 
 36 
 
 21,  22 
 
 194 
 
 2 
 
 23          251 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 273 
 
 25 
 
 8 
 
 643 
 
 36 
 
 31 
 
 188 
 
 3 
 
 1        239, 298 
 
 18 
 
 11,  12 
 
 239 
 
 25 
 
 13,  &c 
 
 153 
 
 36 
 
 35 
 
 340 
 
 3 
 
 2           240 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 948 
 
 25 
 
 15 
 
 790 
 
 36 
 
 43 
 
 124 
 
 3 
 
 6     6,  99S,  1095 
 
 18 
 
 21,  22 
 
 368 
 
 25 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 37 
 
 14 
 
 213 
 
 3 
 
 11           251 
 
 18 
 
 22 
 
 274 
 
 25 
 
 26 
 
 258,  412 
 
 37 
 
 25,  28 
 
 340 
 
 3 
 
 12       251,  279 
 
 18 
 
 24 
 
 766 
 
 26 
 
 143,  326 
 
 37 
 
 2S 
 
 405 
 
 4 
 
 11           241 
 
 19 
 
 3,  &c. 
 
 457 
 
 26 
 
 3,4 
 
 143 
 
 37 
 
 30 
 
 587 
 
 4 
 
 14           251 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 288 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 188,  613,821 
 
 37 
 
 36 
 
 209,  1064 
 
 4 
 
 20           242 
 
 19 
 
 13    274, 
 
 279,  377 
 
 26 
 
 28 
 
 213,  331 
 
 38 
 
 12 
 
 411 
 
 4 
 
 24, 25         252 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 565 
 
 26 
 
 28,  29 
 
 153 
 
 38 
 
 13 
 
 243 
 
 4 
 
 25          242 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 437 
 
 26 
 
 34 
 
 195 
 
 39 
 
 1 
 
 1064 
 
 4 
 
 26           253 
 
 20 
 
 4 
 
 425 
 
 27 
 
 16 
 
 181 
 
 39 
 
 17 
 
 192 
 
 4 
 
 31           257 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 515 
 
 27 
 
 33 
 
 185,  189 
 
 40 
 
 18 
 
 1043 
 
 5 
 
 243 
 
 20 
 
 7,8 
 
 284 
 
 27 
 
 36 
 
 920 
 
 40 
 
 20 
 
 914 
 
 5 
 
 21           257 
 
 20 
 
 9,  14 
 
 620 
 
 27 
 
 40 
 
 222 
 
 41 
 
 1 
 
 845 
 
 6 
 
 3           243 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 275,  598 
 
 28 
 
 9 
 
 195 
 
 41 
 
 13 
 
 579 
 
 6 
 
 18           238 
 
 20 
 
 16 
 
 325 
 
 28 
 
 12 
 
 206 
 
 41 
 
 26 
 
 1043 
 
 6 
 
 20           238 
 
 20 
 
 19 
 
 765, 841 
 
 28 
 
 12,  1 
 
 856 
 
 41 
 
 46 
 
 191,  259 
 
 7 
 
 1           244 
 
 20 
 
 24 
 
 275 
 
 2S 
 
 12,17 
 
 837 
 
 41 
 
 53,54 
 
 191 
 
 7 
 
 1,  2           334 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 760 
 
 28 
 
 13 
 
 643 
 
 42 
 
 18 
 
 613 
 
 7 
 
 5,  17          244 
 
 21, 
 
 &c. 
 
 509 
 
 28 
 
 14 
 
 821 
 
 42 
 
 36 
 
 587 
 
 7 
 
 7           259 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 730 
 
 28 
 
 15 
 
 205 
 
 43 
 
 4,5 
 
 216 
 
 7 
 
 10,  11,  12        256 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 845 
 
 28 
 
 16,  17 
 
 207 
 
 43 
 
 7 
 
 230 
 
 7 
 
 11, 12         257 
 
 21 
 
 14 
 
 280,  508 
 
 28 
 
 17 
 
 551 
 
 43 
 
 9 
 
 216 
 
 7 
 
 12           670 
 
 21 
 
 32 
 
 1004 
 
 2S 
 
 18 
 
 190,  439 
 
 43 
 
 11 
 
 216 
 
 8 
 
 9          254 
 
 22 
 
 3,  8 
 
 284 
 
 28 
 
 20 
 
 199 
 
 43 
 
 14 
 
 230 
 
 8 
 
 19           981 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 197 
 
 29 
 
 1 
 
 191,  404 
 
 43 
 
 34 
 
 102,  877 
 
 8 
 
 26       247,  284 
 
 22 
 
 21 
 
 331 
 
 29 
 
 12 
 
 909 
 
 44 
 
 5 
 
 229 
 
 9 
 
 8           246 
 
 22 
 
 21,24 
 
 612 
 
 29 
 
 18 
 
 552 
 
 44 
 
 15 
 
 229 
 
 9 
 
 23       246,  3S7 
 
 22 
 
 25 
 
 731 
 
 29 
 
 21 
 
 191 
 
 44 
 
 26 
 
 216 
 
 9 
 
 31, 32         423 
 
 22 
 
 28 
 
 489,  568 
 
 29 
 
 24,  29 
 
 886 
 
 44 
 
 33,  34 
 
 218 
 
 10 
 
 1            46 
 
 22 
 
 29 
 
 179 
 
 29 
 
 31 
 
 959 
 
 45 
 
 6 
 
 191,  220,  259 
 
 11 
 
 2           393 
 
 23 
 
 4,5 
 
 612 
 
 29 
 
 32 
 
 192 
 
 45 
 
 8 
 
 214,  613,  902 
 
 11 
 
 5           661 
 
 23 
 
 12 
 
 275,  958 
 
 30 
 
 1 
 
 879 
 
 45 
 
 22 
 
 997 
 
 12 
 
 288,  857 
 
 23 
 
 16 
 
 7,  275 
 
 30 
 
 8 
 
 412 
 
 45 
 
 28 
 
 218,  230 
 
 12 
 
 3           247 
 
 23 
 
 20,  21 
 
 278 
 
 30 
 
 25 
 
 191 
 
 46 
 
 4 
 
 219 
 
 12 
 
 11      1005,1043 
 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 370 
 
 30 
 
 27 
 
 217 
 
 46 
 
 11 
 
 413 
 
 12 
 
 15           248 
 
 23 
 
 29,  30 
 
 371,  3S3 
 
 30 
 
 43 
 
 161 
 
 46 
 
 12 
 
 211 
 
 12 
 
 16           902 
 
 23 
 
 32 
 
 380 
 
 31 
 
 4,8 
 
 351 
 
 46 
 
 26 
 
 219 
 
 12 
 
 18           423 
 
 23 
 
 33 
 
 330,  3S0 
 
 31 
 
 7 
 
 193 
 
 46 
 
 30 
 
 219 
 
 12 
 
 26,  27         248 
 
 24 
 
 1,  9 
 
 948 
 
 31 
 
 12 
 
 199 
 
 46 
 
 34 
 
 215 
 
 12 
 
 34          248 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 321 
 
 31 
 
 14,  15 
 
 203 
 
 47 
 
 4 
 
 259 
 
 12 
 
 35          393 
 
 24 
 
 9,  11 
 
 362 
 
 31 
 
 27 
 
 461 
 
 47 
 
 9 
 
 191 
 
 12 
 
 40  147,255,258,259 
 
 24 
 
 11 
 
 276 
 
 31 
 
 43 
 
 239 
 
 47 
 
 11 
 
 541 
 
 12 
 
 43           366 
 
 24 
 
 17 
 
 297 
 
 31 
 
 44 
 
 331 
 
 47 
 
 31 
 
 221 
 
 12 
 
 46          1021 
 
 25 
 
 to  30 
 
 303 
 
 31 
 
 46 
 
 194 
 
 48 
 
 7 
 
 846 
 
 13 
 
 2           845 
 
 25 
 
 10,  22 
 
 706 
 
 31 
 
 49,  50 
 
 680 
 
 48 
 
 14 
 
 221,  965, 1027 
 
 13 
 
 4           423 
 
 25 
 
 18,  20 
 
 379 
 
 32 
 
 1 
 
 201,  477 
 
 48 
 
 16 
 
 6,  640 
 
 13 
 
 9          787 
 
 25 
 
 39 
 
 633 
 
 32 
 
 10 
 
 200 
 
 4S 
 
 22 
 
 227,  373 
 
 13 
 
 19           225 
 
 27 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 629 
 
 32 
 
 11 
 
 188 
 
 49 
 
 103,  169, 183 
 
 13 
 
 20           287 
 
 27 
 
 6 
 
 379 
 
 32 
 
 13 
 
 194 
 
 49 
 
 3 
 
 179 
 
 13 
 
 20,  21         278 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 434 
 
 32 
 
 20 
 
 188 
 
 49 
 
 4 
 
 19S 
 
 13 
 
 21           536 
 
 28 
 
 30 
 
 281 
 
 32 
 
 24 
 
 412 
 
 49 
 
 8 
 
 222,  355 
 
 13 
 
 49           612 
 
 28 
 
 33 
 
 281 
 
 32 
 
 26 
 
 202 
 
 49 
 
 9 
 
 1109 
 
 14 
 
 2           681 
 
 29 
 
 7 
 
 439 
 
 32 
 
 27 
 
 920 
 
 49 
 
 10 
 
 143,  222,  225, 
 
 14 
 
 13,  14      270,  287 
 
 29 
 
 39 
 
 1059 
 
 33 
 
 3 
 
 188 
 
 643 
 
 649,  821,840, 
 
 14 
 
 19,  20      278,  286 
 
 30 
 
 6,  &c. 
 
 841 
 
 33 
 
 4 
 
 194 
 
 841 
 
 ,  871,  939 
 
 14 
 
 22          252 
 
 30 
 
 12 
 
 519 
 
 33 
 
 6,7 
 
 473 
 
 49 
 
 11 
 
 371 
 
 14 
 
 24,  35         287 
 
 30 
 
 12,  15 
 
 857 
 
 33 
 
 10 
 
 188 
 
 49 
 
 12 
 
 355,  357 
 
 14 
 
 25        286,  325 
 
 30 
 
 13 
 
 994 
 
 38 
 
 19 
 
 196,  227,  1116 
 
 49 
 
 13 
 
 371 
 
 14 
 
 27,  2S          288 
 
 30 
 
 13,  16 
 
 946 
 
 33 
 
 20 
 
 747 
 
 49 
 
 17 
 
 411 
 
 15 
 
 461 
 
 30 
 
 15,  16 
 
 856 
 
 34 
 
 6 
 
 213 
 
 49 
 
 20 
 
 198 
 
 15 
 
 8           285 
 
 30 
 
 23 
 
 439 
 
 34 
 
 12 
 
 552 
 
 49 
 
 21 
 
 856 
 
 15 
 
 11,  &c.        373 
 
 32 
 
 625 
 
 34 
 
 14 
 
 211 
 
 49 
 
 28 
 
 227 
 
 15 
 
 20           271 
 
 32 
 
 1 
 
 2S3,  457 
 
 34 
 
 27 
 
 202 
 
 49 
 
 29 
 
 223 
 
 15 
 
 23          271 
 
 32 
 
 3,4 
 
 276 
 
 34 
 
 30 
 
 209 
 
 50 
 
 2 
 
 223 
 
 15 
 
 30          461 
 
 32 
 
 4 
 
 2S3 
 
 35 
 
 2 
 
 200 
 
 50 
 
 3 
 
 224,  96S 
 
 16 
 
 3,  13          304 
 
 32 
 
 6 
 
 276 
 
 35 
 
 7,  14 
 
 191 
 
 50 
 
 10 
 
 224 
 
 16 
 
 8           902 
 
 32 
 
 20 
 
 548 
 
 35 
 
 10 
 
 143 
 
 50 
 
 13 
 
 1116 
 
 16 
 
 14           930 
 
 32 
 
 25 
 
 26,  277 
 
 35 
 
 17 
 
 434 
 
 50 
 
 26 
 
 225 
 
 16 
 
 15          272 
 
 32 
 
 27 
 
 460 
 
 35 
 
 19 
 
 846,  879 
 
 16 
 
 29          758 
 
 32 
 
 32 
 
 282 
 
 35 
 
 19,  20 
 
 846 
 
 17 
 
 1           273 
 
 32 
 
 35 
 
 284 
 
1173 
 
 INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS- 
 
 Cb. 
 
 Ver.           Page 
 
 Cli, 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 33 
 
 4            278 
 
 20 
 
 27 
 
 472,  643 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 70 
 
 DEUTERONOJV 
 
 33 
 
 17           434 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 609 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 480 
 
 33 
 
 19           249 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 1010 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 
 607 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver 
 
 Page 
 
 34 
 
 6,  7          250 
 
 21 
 
 18,  21 
 
 798 
 
 IS 
 
 15,  16 
 
 847 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 765 
 
 31 
 
 7           5S3 
 
 21 
 
 21,  22 
 
 637 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 174 
 
 1 
 
 16,  17 
 
 949 
 
 34 
 
 17           425 
 
 22 
 
 12 
 
 844 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 299,  323 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 274,  468 
 
 34 
 
 22            7 
 
 23 
 
 12 
 
 747 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 323 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 112 
 
 34 
 
 27,  28          276 
 
 23 
 
 15 
 
 1058 
 
 20 
 
 11,  12 
 
 556 
 
 2 
 
 4,  5 
 
 189 
 
 34 
 
 28,  &c.        926 
 
 23 
 
 17,18 
 
 747 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 323 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 325 
 
 35 
 
 25,  26         325 
 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 537 
 
 20 
 
 23,  28 
 
 314 
 
 2 
 
 9,  10,  11 
 
 227 
 
 38 
 
 25,  26         556 
 
 23 
 
 34,  36,  42, 
 
 43    827 
 
 20 
 
 29 
 
 96S 
 
 *2 
 
 11 
 
 5S 
 
 40 
 
 15           319 
 
 23 
 
 36 
 
 535 
 
 21 
 
 1 
 
 631 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 194,  314 
 
 40 
 
 34, 35         536 
 
 23 
 
 40 
 
 971 
 
 21 
 
 1,11 
 
 313 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 58 
 
 24 
 
 5,  &c. 
 
 902 
 
 21 
 
 2 
 
 410 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 3S2 
 
 LEVITICUS. 
 
 24 
 
 11 
 
 297 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 332,  333 
 
 2 
 
 28,  29 
 
 340 
 
 24 
 
 15,  16 
 
 866 
 
 21 
 
 12 
 
 176 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 320 
 
 1 
 
 4           855 
 
 24 
 
 16   567 
 
 ,  568,  940, 
 
 21 
 
 13 
 
 151 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 315 
 
 2 
 
 11           358 
 
 1013 
 
 21 
 
 21 
 
 151 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 911 
 
 3 
 
 2           855 
 
 25 
 
 9 
 
 T 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 341 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 409 
 
 4 
 
 4           S55 
 
 25 
 
 14,  17,  25, 
 
 28    568 
 
 21 
 
 26 
 
 321 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 353 
 
 4 
 
 6            316 
 
 25 
 
 23 
 
 537 
 
 22 
 
 5 
 
 326 
 
 4 
 
 7,8 
 
 620 
 
 4 
 
 23           630 
 
 25 
 
 35 
 
 612 
 
 22 
 
 6 
 
 328 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 310,  1055 
 
 5 
 
 'i                          S64 
 
 25 
 
 42,55 
 
 331 
 
 22 
 
 IS 
 
 578 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 284 
 
 5 
 
 5           221 
 
 26 
 
 1 
 
 207 
 
 22 
 
 20 
 
 328 
 
 4 
 
 15,  16 
 
 425 
 
 0 
 
 12           306 
 
 26 
 
 3,  &c. 
 
 762 
 
 22 
 
 31 
 
 316 
 
 4 
 
 19   139, 
 
 353,  395 
 
 0 
 
 12,  13          297 
 
 26 
 
 19,  20 
 
 254 
 
 22 
 
 32 
 
 921 
 
 4 
 
 30,  31 
 
 636,  722 
 
 9 
 
 22          1027 
 
 26 
 
 23,24 
 
 910 
 
 22 
 
 38 
 
 327 
 
 4 
 
 34 
 
 620 
 
 9 
 
 24     42,  309,  562 
 
 27 
 
 917 
 
 23 
 
 1,  2 
 
 316 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 1055 
 
 564,  706 
 
 27 
 
 5 
 
 428 
 
 23 
 
 20,  21 
 
 325 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 1025 
 
 10 
 
 1          307 
 
 27 
 
 28,  29 
 
 429 
 
 23 
 
 23 
 
 325,  326 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 787 
 
 10 
 
 4           909 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 326 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 1S6 
 
 10 
 
 9,  10          307 
 
 NUMBERS 
 
 24 
 
 5,  &a. 
 
 820 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 855 
 
 10 
 
 11           955 
 
 24 
 
 7 
 
 339,  460 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 855 
 
 11 
 
 22           852 
 
 1 
 
 2S3 
 
 24 
 
 15.  16 
 
 327 
 
 7 
 
 732 
 
 11 
 
 26           592 
 
 3 
 
 32 
 
 665 
 
 24 
 
 17 
 
 317,  327,  880 
 
 7 
 
 1,  4 
 
 734 
 
 12 
 
 1,  2           844 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 4S0,  497 
 
 24 
 
 21 
 
 402 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 330,  515 
 
 12 
 
 6,  8           847 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 455 
 
 24 
 
 25 
 
 1057,  1058 
 
 7 
 
 3,4 
 
 57 
 
 13 
 
 733,  864 
 
 5 
 
 2,3 
 
 593 
 
 25 
 
 1,  2 
 
 57,276 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 3S0 
 
 13 
 
 14,  &c.        864 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 221 
 
 25 
 
 4 
 
 318,  324 
 
 7 
 
 5    330 
 
 560,  637 
 
 14 
 
 864 
 
 6 
 
 411 
 
 25 
 
 5 
 
 324 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 330,  734 
 
 14 
 
 1,  &c.        865 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 842 
 
 25 
 
 5,  18 
 
 31S 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 330 
 
 14 
 
 2,  &c.        948 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 497 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 324 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 279, 332 
 
 14 
 
 7,  &c.        577 
 
 9 
 
 10,  11 
 
 631 
 
 25 
 
 7 
 
 460 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 581,  S54 
 
 16 
 
 2    307,  379,  706 
 
 10 
 
 8,9 
 
 319 
 
 25 
 
 11 
 
 324 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 325,  98S 
 
 16 
 
 12       306,841 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 630 
 
 25 
 
 12 
 
 70,  324 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 358 
 
 16 
 
 21           221 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 396 
 
 25 
 
 13 
 
 324,  789 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 332 
 
 16 
 
 29       2D,  1096 
 
 10 
 
 29 
 
 402,  416 
 
 25 
 
 14 
 
 324 
 
 9 
 
 4,  &c. 
 
 375 
 
 17 
 
 105 
 
 10 
 
 31 
 
 30S 
 
 26 
 
 223 
 
 9 
 
 IS,  19,  25,  26 
 
 303 
 
 17 
 
 4           596 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 305 
 
 26 
 
 53,  &c 
 
 371 
 
 9 
 
 24 
 
 249,  323 
 
 17 
 
 7           670 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 703 
 
 27 
 
 18 
 
 1062 
 
 10 
 
 6,7 
 
 314 
 
 17 
 
 8           425 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 272 
 
 27 
 
 21 
 
 37S,  425,  457 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 303 
 
 17 
 
 10           106 
 
 11 
 
 11,  &c. 
 
 766 
 
 2S 
 
 9,  10 
 
 747 
 
 10 
 
 16    173 
 
 376,  S5S 
 
 17 
 
 11           105 
 
 11 
 
 16 
 
 765 
 
 28 
 
 11 
 
 747 
 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 331,  612 
 
 17 
 
 12           104 
 
 11 
 
 34 
 
 304 
 
 2S 
 
 16,  24 
 
 747 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 183 
 
 18 
 
 105 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 307,  325 
 
 28 
 
 27 
 
 747 
 
 10 
 
 22 
 
 219 
 
 18 
 
 3           379 
 
 12 
 
 1,8 
 
 824 
 
 29 
 
 8 
 
 747 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 346 
 
 18 
 
 3,  4          2S1 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 278 
 
 29 
 
 12,  &c 
 
 692 
 
 11 
 
 29 
 
 368 
 
 18 
 
 4          375 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 328,845 
 
 29 
 
 13 
 
 747 
 
 11 
 
 30 
 
 154 
 
 18 
 
 11           486 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 362,  938 
 
 29 
 
 36 
 
 747 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 858 
 
 IS 
 
 12, 13         754 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 864 
 
 30 
 
 2 
 
 430 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 380 
 
 18 
 
 15           859 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 396 
 
 30 
 
 13 
 
 433 
 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 480 
 
 18 
 
 21           330 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 135 
 
 31 
 
 7,  &c. 
 
 404 
 
 12 
 
 9,  8, 14 
 
 381 
 
 18 
 
 22           150 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 1039 
 
 31 
 
 16 
 
 317 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 637 
 
 18 
 
 2S       330,  392 
 
 13 
 
 23 
 
 222 
 
 31 
 
 22,  23 
 
 366 
 
 12 
 
 13,  14 
 
 233 
 
 19 
 
 15          1091 
 
 13 
 
 24 
 
 1039 
 
 31 
 
 27 
 
 662 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 425 
 
 19 
 
 17  508,  1041,  1122 
 
 13 
 
 25 
 
 1039 
 
 32 
 
 29 
 
 409 
 
 12 
 
 23 
 
 106 
 
 19 
 
 17,  is         612 
 
 13 
 
 26 
 
 299 
 
 32 
 
 41 
 
 409 
 
 12 
 
 31 
 
 429,  430 
 
 19 
 
 17,  18,  34       612 
 
 13 
 
 33 
 
 58 
 
 32 
 
 42 
 
 53 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 256 
 
 19 
 
 18           951 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 283 
 
 33 
 
 271,  314 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 508 
 
 19 
 
 26,  31         643 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 
 330 
 
 33 
 
 32,38 
 
 314 
 
 13 
 
 6,  &c. 
 
 667 
 
 19 
 
 28           681 
 
 14 
 
 33 
 
 400 
 
 33 
 
 36 
 
 299 
 
 13 
 
 6,  9 
 
 5S3 
 
 20 
 
 2,  3          432 
 
 14 
 
 34 
 
 393 
 
 34 
 
 7,  8 
 
 351 
 
 13 
 
 8,9 
 
 426 
 
 20 
 
 3           304 
 
 14 
 
 36,37 
 
 300 
 
 34 
 
 11 
 
 353 
 
 13 
 
 12,  13,  &c. 
 
 3S1 
 
 20 
 
 6           472 
 
 14 
 
 44,  45 
 
 455 
 
 35 
 
 21 
 
 487 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 504 
 
 20 
 
 13           150 
 
 15 
 
 31 
 
 29S 
 
 35 
 
 31 
 
 493 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 15            34 
 
 15 
 
 42 
 
 278 
 
 36 
 
 6 
 
 844 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 105 
 
 20 
 
 18           953 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 302 
 
 36 
 
 59 
 
 238 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 730 
 
 20 
 
 19           754 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 323 
 
 43 
 
 6,  8 
 
 287 
 
 15 
 
 12,  &c. 
 
 662 
 
 20 
 
 23,  25        1068 
 
 17 
 
 12,13 
 
 309 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 1012 
 
INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 1173 
 
 Vor.           Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 21,  22          384 
 
 31  J 
 
 LO,  11,  12 
 
 988 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 389 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 499 
 
 IS       469,  765 
 
 31 
 
 13 
 
 191 
 
 10 
 
 23—40 
 
 524 
 
 2 
 
 21,  22 
 
 383 
 
 2, 7          583 
 
 31 
 
 15 
 
 278 
 
 10 
 
 24 
 
 222 
 
 3 
 
 1,2 
 
 383 
 
 7   7C8,  949,  1004 
 
 31 
 
 25,  26 
 
 638 
 
 10 
 
 33 
 
 551 
 
 3 
 
 11,  Sic. 
 
 415 
 
 9           765 
 
 31 
 
 26 
 
 550,  641 
 
 10 
 
 43 
 
 763 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 401 
 
 12,  13         1003 
 
 32 
 
 5,  20 
 
 944 
 
 11 
 
 18 
 
 371 
 
 3 
 
 28 
 
 304,  376 
 
 14,  15         520 
 
 32 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 19 
 
 375 
 
 3 
 
 31 
 
 401 
 
 15        789,  997 
 
 32 
 
 14 
 
 357 
 
 11 
 
 19,  20 
 
 392 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 434,  505 
 
 16  370,438,522,973 
 
 32 
 
 30 
 
 3S1, 418 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 353 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 362 
 
 17           492 
 
 32 
 
 35 
 
 612 
 
 12 
 
 9,  &c. 
 
 125 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 418 
 
 9,  &c.        471 
 
 32 
 
 36 
 
 545 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 524 
 
 4 
 
 17,  20 
 
 403 
 
 10,  11          643 
 
 32 
 
 49 
 
 321,  351 
 
 13 
 
 11,  13 
 
 486 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 886 
 
 15    696,906,981 
 
 33 
 
 227 
 
 13 
 
 21 
 
 341 
 
 4 
 
 19 
 
 403 
 
 18           328 
 
 33 
 
 12 
 
 371 
 
 13 
 
 22 
 
 326 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 396 
 
 19           585 
 
 33 
 
 13,  14 
 
 92 
 
 13 
 
 25 
 
 151 
 
 5 
 
 6,  7 
 
 420 
 
 20           585 
 
 33 
 
 14 
 
 371 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 371 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 441 
 
 7           468 
 
 33 
 
 17 
 
 700 
 
 14 
 
 6,  15 
 
 396 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 973 
 
 25,  27         469 
 
 33 
 
 22 
 
 222 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 358 
 
 5 
 
 15,  &c. 
 
 401 
 
 1           973 
 
 33 
 
 23 
 
 371 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 343 
 
 5 
 
 15,  16 
 
 401 
 
 5           730 
 
 33 
 
 24,  25 
 
 371 
 
 14 
 
 28 
 
 856 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 370 
 
 T,  8          760 
 
 33 
 
 2S,  29 
 
 341 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 353 
 
 5 
 
 23 
 
 954 
 
 10        313,  505 
 
 33 
 
 29 
 
 323 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 525 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 416 
 
 10,  &c.        3S0 
 
 34 
 
 373 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 524,  628 
 
 5 
 
 30 
 
 403 
 
 10,11          375 
 
 34 
 
 1 
 
 321,  351 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 411 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 405,  406 
 
 10, 19          392 
 
 34 
 
 3 
 
 176,  363 
 
 15 
 
 28 
 
 422 
 
 6 
 
 3,  33 
 
 404 
 
 12,  &c.        379 
 
 34 
 
 5,6 
 
 1126 
 
 15 
 
 31 
 
 452 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 434 
 
 16           330 
 
 34 
 
 8 
 
 968 
 
 15 
 
 38 
 
 437 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 782 
 
 6,  7          1015 
 
 34 
 
 10 
 
 322 
 
 15 
 
 45 
 
 573 
 
 6 
 
 14,  16,  23, 
 
 404 
 
 11           486 
 
 15 
 
 55 
 
 449 
 
 24,25,27 
 
 17           179 
 
 JOSHUA 
 
 15 
 
 62 
 
 730 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 404 
 
 IS,  21          432 
 
 15 
 
 63 
 
 524 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 460 
 
 19           730 
 
 1 
 
 16,  17 
 
 765 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 4S9 
 
 6 
 
 21 
 
 42,  562,  564 
 
 21           491 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 376 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 551 
 
 6 
 
 31 
 
 405 
 
 22,  23      506,  1020 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 376 
 
 16 
 
 25 
 
 904 
 
 6 
 
 37 
 
 418,  507 
 
 23           491 
 
 2 
 
 7,  23 
 
 853 
 
 18 
 
 441 
 
 6 
 
 3S 
 
 405 
 
 8    364,  854,  865 
 
 2 
 
 9,  11 
 
 375 
 
 18 
 
 24,  &c. 
 
 441 
 
 6 
 
 38,  39 
 
 99 
 
 20,  21         844 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 477 
 
 IS 
 
 26 
 
 437 
 
 7 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 782 
 
 23           845 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 364 
 
 18 
 
 28 
 
 524 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 406 
 
 23,  &c.        493 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 989 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 222 
 
 7 
 
 22 
 
 704 
 
 23,24      845,950 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 376,  989 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 422 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 401 
 
 25           845 
 
 3 
 
 15,  17 
 
 989 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 661 
 
 8 
 
 19 
 
 882 
 
 2S           197 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 365,  853 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 452 
 
 8 
 
 23 
 
 415 
 
 28,  29          845 
 
 4 
 
 6,7 
 
 989 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 846 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 405 
 
 1           228 
 
 4 
 
 18,  24 
 
 989 
 
 19 
 
 IS 
 
 405 
 
 8 
 
 26 
 
 407 
 
 3          732 
 
 4 
 
 19 
 
 300 
 
 19 
 
 35 
 
 352 
 
 S 
 
 27 
 
 419 
 
 17           511 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 364, 376 
 
 19 
 
 42 
 
 388 
 
 8 
 
 28 
 
 730 
 
 21           431 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 365 
 
 19 
 
 43 
 
 411,  573 
 
 8 
 
 29 
 
 419 
 
 25           902 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 365 
 
 19 
 
 44 
 
 549 
 
 8 
 
 32 
 
 404 
 
 1,  &c.        962 
 
 5 
 
 13,  14 
 
 362 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 •  844 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 439 
 
 2           962 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 455 
 
 21 
 
 17 
 
 441 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 424 
 
 10,  1L          390 
 
 6 
 
 4,  &c. 
 
 319 
 
 21 
 
 20,  21 
 
 551 
 
 9 
 
 23 
 
 408 
 
 16    3S2,  459,  002 
 
 6 
 
 18,  19 
 
 367 
 
 21 
 
 23 
 
 549 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 410 
 
 2           734 
 
 6 
 
 26 
 
 367,  583 
 
 21 
 
 25 
 
 767 
 
 9 
 
 47 
 
 352 
 
 3           780 
 
 7 
 
 403 
 
 21 
 
 36 
 
 769 
 
 9 
 
 51 
 
 408 
 
 9           650 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 382 
 
 22 
 
 9,  17,  19 
 
 373 
 
 10 
 
 1,  2 
 
 396 
 
 17           442 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 367,  382 
 
 22 
 
 14 
 
 313 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 973 
 
 17,  &c.        458 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 381 
 
 23 
 
 1 
 
 373 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 409 
 
 954 
 
 7 
 
 5,6 
 
 367 
 
 23 
 
 11,  &c. 
 
 3S3 
 
 11 
 
 34 
 
 271 
 
 1—13          368 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 43-5 
 
 23 
 
 13 
 
 339,  3S3 
 
 11 
 
 13,  23 
 
 151 
 
 12          747 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 381 
 
 24 
 
 1 
 
 3b4,  765 
 
 11 
 
 30,  31 
 
 393 
 
 15,  23          613 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 368,  1120 
 
 24 
 
 2,  14 
 
 123 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 376 
 
 2S             321 
 
 7 
 
 24 
 
 382 
 
 24 
 
 11 
 
 227 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 388 
 
 436, 638 
 
 7 
 
 42 
 
 846 
 
 24 
 
 14 
 
 2S4 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 412 
 
 1,  2          359 
 
 8 
 
 3,  11 
 
 36S 
 
 24 
 
 26 
 
 384 
 
 13 
 
 17,21 
 
 36  2 
 
 2—7         747 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 367 
 
 24 
 
 27 
 
 373 
 
 13 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 5           760 
 
 8 
 
 31 
 
 760 
 
 24 
 
 30 
 
 373 
 
 13 
 
 19 
 
 460 
 
 27           246 
 
 8 
 
 34 
 
 321 
 
 24 
 
 32   225, 
 
 227,  1116 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 886 
 
 36          625 
 
 8 
 
 34,  35 
 
 989 
 
 24 
 
 33 
 
 373 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 424 
 
 48          222 
 
 9 
 
 9,  10 
 
 369 
 
 31 
 
 14,  23 
 
 363 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 884 
 
 53           592 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 451 
 
 14 
 
 S 
 
 852 
 
 64,  65          648 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 379 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 885 
 
 638 
 
 9 
 
 19 
 
 381,  430 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 412 
 
 5        325, 988 
 
 9 
 
 23 
 
 514 
 
 8 
 
 524 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 420 
 
 10,  &c.       1042 
 
 10 
 
 373 
 
 11 
 
 403 
 
 15 
 
 19 
 
 420 
 
 22       355,  356 
 
 10 
 
 1,  28 
 
 395 
 
 16 
 
 403 
 
 16 
 
 424 
 
 22,23,24        176 
 
 10 
 
 3,  23 
 
 396 
 
 IS 
 
 397 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 413 
 
 23           174 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 369,  385 
 
 35 
 
 421 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 414 
 
 638 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 387,  930 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 422 
 
 16 
 
 27 
 
 424 
 
 10,11          642 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 589 
 
 2 
 
 16,  18 
 
 415 
 
 10 
 
 31 
 
 4>4 
 
1174 
 
 INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Pa$e 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 17 
 
 551 
 
 10 
 
 5,  &C. 
 
 461 
 
 31 
 
 10 
 
 454 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 
 490 
 
 17.  IS. 19 
 
 397 
 
 10 
 
 5,10 
 
 446 
 
 17 
 
 28 
 
 592 
 
 17 
 
 6    398, 
 
 424,  427 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 458 
 
 II.  SAMUI 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 491 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 150 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 439 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 491 
 
 IS 
 
 1 
 
 427 
 
 10 
 
 24 
 
 458 
 
 2 
 
 473 
 
 IS 
 
 14 
 
 189 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 
 342 
 
 10 
 
 27  457,  458,  504,  559 
 
 4,  &c. 
 
 612 
 
 18 
 
 33 
 
 503 
 
 18 
 
 g 
 
 973 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 43S 
 
 16 
 
 477 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 503 
 
 18 
 
 11 
 
 411 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 494 
 
 18 
 
 454 
 
 19 
 
 17 
 
 511 
 
 IS 
 
 30 
 
 322,  398 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 440 
 
 19 
 
 476 
 
 19 
 
 21,23 
 
 612 
 
 IS 
 
 31 
 
 425 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 396 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 477 
 
 19 
 
 23 
 
 921 
 
 19 
 
 223 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 458 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 440 
 
 19 
 
 24 
 
 504,  671 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 427 
 
 11 
 
 14 
 
 625 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 184 
 
 19 
 
 29 
 
 517 
 
 19 
 
 22 
 
 504 
 
 12 
 
 625 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 603 
 
 19 
 
 29,  30 
 
 517 
 
 19 
 
 29 
 
 399 
 
 12 
 
 5,  &c. 
 
 841 
 
 3 
 
 5—15 
 
 470 
 
 19 
 
 35 
 
 461 
 
 20 
 
 198 
 
 12 
 
 17 
 
 440 
 
 3 
 
 28,  29 
 
 494 
 
 19 
 
 38 
 
 681 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 759 
 
 13 
 
 14    458,  464,  465 
 
 3 
 
 38 
 
 494 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 4S2 
 
 20 
 
 16    223, 
 
 441,  445 
 
 13 
 
 17 
 
 422 
 
 3 
 
 39 
 
 493 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 505 
 
 20 
 
 IS 
 
 426 
 
 13 
 
 20,  &c. 
 
 420 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 482 
 
 21 
 
 507 
 
 21 
 
 6,  &c. 
 
 42(3-7 
 
 14 
 
 20 
 
 704 
 
 4 
 
 8—12 
 
 612 
 
 21 
 
 1 
 
 305,  3S0 
 
 21 
 
 25 
 
 427 
 
 14 
 
 25 
 
 357,  852 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 495 
 
 21 
 
 2    506, 
 
 514,  516 
 
 21 
 
 2S 
 
 730 
 
 14 
 
 33 
 
 104 
 
 5 
 
 524 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 516 
 
 25 
 
 422 
 
 14 
 
 47 
 
 422 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 500 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 516 
 
 25 
 
 C 
 
 405 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 19,  452 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 510 
 
 21 
 
 8 
 
 450,  505 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 442 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 344 
 
 21 
 
 8,  9 
 
 480 
 
 RUTH. 
 
 15 
 
 28 
 
 464-5,  555 
 
 5 
 
 11 
 
 331 
 
 21 
 
 12,  13 
 
 516 
 
 15 
 
 33 
 
 1001 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 486 
 
 21 
 
 17 
 
 506 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 305 
 
 15 
 
 35 
 
 845 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 26 
 
 22 
 
 17 
 
 238 
 
 2 
 
 15,  16 
 
 422 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 475 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 637 
 
 22 
 
 36,  &c. 
 
 517 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 846 
 
 16 
 
 1,  18 
 
 846 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 480 
 
 23 
 
 15— IS 
 
 846 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 846 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 416 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 271,  434 
 
 23 
 
 16 
 
 437 
 
 4 
 
 1,2 
 
 503 
 
 i6 
 
 13 
 
 443,  595 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 946 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 489 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 SS5 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 460,  953 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 480,  671 
 
 24 
 
 1 
 
 506 
 
 16 
 
 23 
 
 443 
 
 7 
 
 3,  4,  5 
 
 416 
 
 24 
 
 3 
 
 506,  519 
 
 I.  SAMUEL. 
 
 17 
 
 8 
 
 444 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 508 
 
 24 
 
 8 
 
 870 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 
 845 
 
 7 
 
 14,  15 
 
 554 
 
 24 
 
 9 
 
 520 
 
 1 
 
 1021 
 
 17 
 
 25 
 
 462 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 995 
 
 24 
 
 15 
 
 556 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 351 
 
 17 
 
 28 
 
 443 
 
 S 
 
 6,  8 
 
 409 
 
 24 
 
 16,17 
 
 520 
 
 1 
 
 24 
 
 160 
 
 17 
 
 45 
 
 444 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 182,  538 
 
 24 
 
 IS 
 
 507 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 504 
 
 17 
 
 51 
 
 445 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 516 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 
 49, 507 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 434 
 
 17 
 
 56 
 
 462 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 684 
 
 3 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 837 
 
 IS 
 
 3,  4 
 
 445-6 
 
 9 
 
 10,  11 
 
 517 
 
 I.  KINGS 
 
 3 
 
 1  to  19 
 
 396 
 
 IS 
 
 6    271,  445,  631 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 517 
 
 3 
 
 IS 
 
 434 
 
 18 
 
 25 
 
 552 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 492 
 
 9 
 
 525 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 434 
 
 19 
 
 13 
 
 203 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 4S9 
 
 13 
 
 521 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 455 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 446 
 
 11 
 
 6,  &c. 
 
 492 
 
 30 
 
 494 
 
 t. 
 
 15— IS 
 
 433 
 
 19 
 
 24 
 
 446 
 
 11 
 
 S 
 
 483 
 
 33 
 
 724 
 
 4 
 
 16,  27 
 
 435 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 447 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 492 
 
 50 
 
 508 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 455 
 
 20 
 
 41 
 
 473 
 
 11 
 
 15 
 
 492 
 
 2 
 
 3—11 
 
 509 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 1065 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 452 
 
 11 
 
 25 
 
 492 
 
 2 
 
 6,  9 
 
 511 
 
 5 
 
 2—8 
 
 345 
 
 21 
 
 12 
 
 463 
 
 11 
 
 27 
 
 492 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 393,  509 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 436 
 
 21 
 
 13 
 
 463 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 4S6 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 528 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 455 
 
 22 
 
 7 
 
 515 
 
 12 
 
 11,12 
 
 4S5 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 510 
 
 5 
 
 9,  10 
 
 345 
 
 22 
 
 17 
 
 514,  515 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 492,  1124 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 520 
 
 G 
 
 4 
 
 436 
 
 22 
 
 17,  IS 
 
 407 
 
 12 
 
 24 
 
 521 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 
 478 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 971 
 
 22 
 
 IS 
 
 454,  477 
 
 12 
 
 25 
 
 521 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 521 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 413,  443 
 
 22 
 
 19 
 
 380,  44S 
 
 12 
 
 31 
 
 495,  1001 
 
 2 
 
 31 
 
 518 
 
 7 
 
 5,  6 
 
 554,  705 
 
 23 
 
 14,  25 
 
 851 
 
 13 
 
 S 
 
 148 
 
 2 
 
 36—42 
 
 510,  518 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 437 
 
 24 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 612 
 
 13 
 
 19 
 
 486 
 
 2 
 
 37' 
 
 16,  477 
 
 7 
 
 9,  10 
 
 460 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 465 
 
 13 
 
 23 
 
 493 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 521 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 930 
 
 24 
 
 9,  10 
 
 465 
 
 13 
 
 29 
 
 508 
 
 3 
 
 2,  3 
 
 460 
 
 7 
 
 15,  16 
 
 765 
 
 24 
 
 21 
 
 495 
 
 13 
 
 34 
 
 595 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 521 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 705 
 
 25, 
 
 &c. 
 
 465 
 
 13 
 
 37 
 
 493 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 511 
 
 8 
 
 456 
 
 25 
 
 10,  11 
 
 466 
 
 14 
 
 4,  &c. 
 
 487 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 765 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 568 
 
 25 
 
 16 
 
 466 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 25 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 511 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 458 
 
 25 
 
 32,  33 
 
 467 
 
 14 
 
 26 
 
 498 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 909 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 132,  458 
 
 25 
 
 40,  41 
 
 883 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 973 
 
 3 
 
 16,  &c. 
 
 765 
 
 9 
 
 5—8 
 
 438 
 
 26 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 612 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 765 
 
 3 
 
 28 
 
 512 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 438 
 
 26 
 
 7 
 
 452 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 48S 
 
 4 
 
 513 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 470 
 
 27 
 
 10 
 
 452 
 
 15 
 
 7,  &c. 
 
 499 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 522 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 244 
 
 2S 
 
 3 
 
 326,  472 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 48S 
 
 4 
 
 7,  &c. 
 
 541 
 
 9 
 
 16 
 
 854 
 
 28 
 
 3,  9 
 
 643 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 4SS 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 550 
 
 9 
 
 17 
 
 854 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 378 
 
 15 
 
 18 
 
 482,  490 
 
 4 
 
 21 
 
 512,  623 
 
 9 
 
 21 
 
 458 
 
 28 
 
 7—12 
 
 643 
 
 15 
 
 30 
 
 4S8 
 
 4 
 
 22,23 
 
 539 
 
 9 
 
 2  J 
 
 439 
 
 28 
 
 10 
 
 472 
 
 15 
 
 34 
 
 496 
 
 4 
 
 26 
 
 522 
 
 9 
 
 25,26 
 
 439 
 
 28 
 
 12,  13 
 
 475 
 
 16 
 
 7,8 
 
 943 
 
 4 
 
 30 
 
 261,  553 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 439 
 
 2S 
 
 23 
 
 447 
 
 16 
 
 7—11 
 
 612 
 
 5 
 
 4,  &c. 
 
 921 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 198,  846 
 
 29 
 
 8 
 
 464 
 
 16 
 
 11 
 
 4SS 
 
 5 
 
 9,  11 
 
 1071 
 
 10 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 439 
 
 31 
 
 1 
 
 448 
 
 17 
 
 525 
 
 5 
 
 10,  11 
 
 537 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 461 
 
 31 
 
 4 
 
 467,  476 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 490 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 331 
 
INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS- 
 
 1175 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Cl>. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 5 
 
 15,  17,  18 
 
 348 
 
 15 
 
 18 
 
 628 
 
 II.  KINGS. 
 
 10 
 
 32 
 
 613 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 514 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 353 
 
 10 
 
 32,33 
 
 594 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 396,  499 
 
 15 
 
 22 
 
 759 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 11 
 
 505 
 
 6 
 
 5,  &c. 
 
 379 
 
 15 
 
 25 
 
 637 
 
 4 
 
 579 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 600 
 
 G 
 
 11,  15 
 
 541 
 
 15 
 
 31 
 
 533 
 
 8    565 
 
 566,  573 
 
 11 
 
 14 
 
 600 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 541 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 549 
 
 9,  &c. 
 
 561 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 999 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 706 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 549 
 
 10,  &c. 
 
 580,  947 
 
 12 
 
 20 
 
 544,  525 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 537 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 637,  678 
 
 12 
 
 177 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 603,  626 
 
 7 
 
 2,  17 
 
 577 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 678 
 
 17 
 
 575,  678 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 678 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 537 
 
 16 
 
 24 
 
 556 
 
 2 
 
 580 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 604,  611 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 593 
 
 16 
 
 25 
 
 549 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 573 
 
 13 
 
 17 
 
 611 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 593 
 
 16 
 
 29 
 
 575,  678 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 446 
 
 13 
 
 19 
 
 611 
 
 7 
 
 15,  21 
 
 600 
 
 16 
 
 31 
 
 560 
 
 2 
 
 11     60 
 
 580,  927 
 
 13 
 
 IS 
 
 202 
 
 8 
 
 570 
 
 16 
 
 33 
 
 580 
 
 2 
 
 11,  &c. 
 
 571 
 
 13 
 
 21 
 
 574 
 
 8 
 
 9    302 
 
 535,  706 
 
 16 
 
 34 
 
 363,  367 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 604 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 602 
 
 8 
 
 27 
 
 523 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 559,  562 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 376 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 350,  603 
 
 8 
 
 48, 
 
 6S9 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 4S9 
 
 2 
 
 16   573, 
 
 5S7,  1065 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 239 
 
 8 
 
 63 
 
 535 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 582 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 575 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 606,  678 
 
 8 
 
 66 
 
 537 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 561 
 
 2 
 
 21,  22 
 
 363 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 
 603 
 
 g 
 
 1,2 
 
 536 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 862 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 544 
 
 14 
 
 22 
 
 53S,  62S 
 
 g 
 
 3 
 
 536 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 864 
 
 3 
 
 1    573, 
 
 575,  678 
 
 14 
 
 23 
 
 678 
 
 g 
 
 15 
 
 525 
 
 17 
 
 24 
 
 605 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 615 
 
 14 
 
 25 
 
 561,  949 
 
 g 
 
 16 
 
 551 
 
 18 
 
 402 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 575 
 
 14 
 
 26 
 
 545 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 553 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 5C0 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 461 
 
 14 
 
 27 
 
 605 
 
 jo 
 
 13 
 
 553 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 561 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 575 
 
 15 
 
 623 
 
 10 
 
 14,  15 
 
 557 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 583 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 576 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 67S 
 
 in 
 
 15,  20 
 
 5S1 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 
 684 
 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 576 
 
 15 
 
 2,  33 
 
 533 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 540 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 582 
 
 3 
 
 27 
 
 42,  576 
 
 15 
 
 S 
 
 678 
 
 10 
 
 17 
 
 537,  545 
 
 18 
 
 12 
 
 574,  1065 
 
 4 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 576 
 
 15 
 
 8,  &c. 
 
 778 
 
 in 
 
 20 
 
 539 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 580 
 
 4 
 
 8,  &c. 
 
 576 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 623 
 
 10 
 
 21 
 
 540,  541 
 
 18 
 
 22 
 
 562 
 
 4 
 
 23 
 
 742 
 
 15 
 
 27 
 
 67S 
 
 10 
 
 22 
 
 539,  663 
 
 18 
 
 24,  &c. 
 
 981 
 
 4 
 
 34 
 
 576,  864 
 
 15 
 
 29 
 
 39S,  648,  806 
 
 10 
 
 24 
 
 557 
 
 IS 
 
 26 
 
 562 
 
 4 
 
 3S 
 
 446 
 
 15 
 
 30 
 
 678 
 
 10 
 
 26 
 
 522 
 
 IS 
 
 26—28 
 
 562 
 
 4 
 
 41 
 
 577 
 
 15 
 
 33 
 
 626,  678 
 
 10 
 
 27 
 
 253 
 
 18 
 
 38 
 
 564,  930 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 577 
 
 15 
 
 35 
 
 627 
 
 10 
 
 29 
 
 593 
 
 18 
 
 42 
 
 564 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 199,  953 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 678 
 
 11 
 
 521 
 
 18 
 
 45 
 
 576 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 481 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 629 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 593 
 
 19 
 
 5S0 
 
 5 
 
 17,18 
 
 578 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 538 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 540 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 587 
 
 5 
 
 18 
 
 577 
 
 16 
 
 7,  10 
 
 806 
 
 11 
 
 5,7 
 
 554 
 
 19 
 
 6,  8 
 
 302 
 
 5 
 
 23 
 
 276 
 
 16 
 
 9 
 
 628 
 
 11 
 
 23,  &c. 
 
 628 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 581 
 
 6 
 
 5,  6 
 
 577 
 
 16 
 
 17,  18 
 
 629 
 
 11 
 
 30,  31 
 
 584 
 
 19 
 
 10 
 
 582 
 
 6 
 
 18 
 
 150, 610 
 
 17 
 
 947 
 
 11 
 
 36 
 
 506 
 
 19 
 
 11,  &c. 
 
 565 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 610 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 630,  67S 
 
 11 
 
 38 
 
 625 
 
 19 
 
 11—13 
 
 582 
 
 6 
 
 21 
 
 614 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 624 
 
 11 
 
 41 
 
 533 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 26 
 
 6 
 
 23 
 
 591 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 650,  1117 
 
 11 
 
 42 
 
 500,  533 
 
 19 
 
 13 
 
 565 
 
 6 
 
 25    305 
 
 ,  565,  592 
 
 17 
 
 21 
 
 550 
 
 11 
 
 43 
 
 528 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 595 
 
 6 
 
 26 
 
 592 
 
 17 
 
 24 
 
 727 
 
 12 
 
 1—20 
 
 678 
 
 19 
 
 17 
 
 565 
 
 6 
 
 32 
 
 592 
 
 17 
 
 25 
 
 624 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 537,  551 
 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 565 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 593 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 630 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 541,  946 
 
 19 
 
 21 
 
 566 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 576,  610 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 533,  629,  632 
 
 1-2 
 
 10 
 
 551 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 422 
 
 8 
 
 11,  12 
 
 583 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 631 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 551 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 566 
 
 S 
 
 12 
 
 594 
 
 IS 
 
 5 
 
 632 
 
 12 
 
 23,  &c. 
 
 545 
 
 20 
 
 14 
 
 566,  579 
 
 8 
 
 20    182, 
 
 189,  339, 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 860 
 
 12 
 
 25—33 
 
 625 
 
 20 
 
 23 
 
 270,  586 
 
 538 
 
 IS 
 
 10 
 
 678 
 
 12 
 
 32—33 
 
 979 
 
 20 
 
 28 
 
 567 
 
 8 
 
 16    537, 
 
 575,  627, 
 
 IS 
 
 11 
 
 399 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 643 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 586 
 
 678 
 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 632 
 
 13 
 
 4,6 
 
 865 
 
 20 
 
 32 
 
 567 
 
 8 
 
 IS 
 
 613 
 
 18 
 
 15 
 
 656 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 543 
 
 20 
 
 35 
 
 584-5 
 
 S 
 
 30,  38 
 
 1067 
 
 18 
 
 15,  16 
 
 778 
 
 13 
 
 23 
 
 543 
 
 21 
 
 596 
 
 9 
 
 603 
 
 18 
 
 21 
 
 634 
 
 13 
 
 26 
 
 544 
 
 21 
 
 2 
 
 568 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 595 
 
 18 
 
 22 
 
 634 
 
 13 
 
 32 
 
 544 
 
 21 
 
 8 
 
 568 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 613 
 
 18 
 
 25 
 
 644 
 
 11 
 
 546 
 
 21 
 
 19 
 
 595 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 555,  933 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 634 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 541 
 
 21 
 
 19,21,  29 
 
 595 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 595, 971 
 
 19 
 
 7,85 
 
 5S6 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 545 
 
 21 
 
 23 
 
 568 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 595 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 18 
 
 U 
 
 10,  11 
 
 549 
 
 21 
 
 27 
 
 569 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 595 
 
 19 
 
 23 
 
 635 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 544 
 
 21 
 
 27—29 
 
 569 
 
 9 
 
 22 
 
 595, 614 
 
 19 
 
 29 
 
 252 
 
 M 
 
 15 
 
 625 
 
 21 
 
 41 
 
 678 
 
 9 
 
 24,-27 
 
 678 
 
 20 
 
 6 
 
 632 
 
 11 
 
 16 
 
 550 
 
 22 
 
 4 
 
 575 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 569 
 
 20 
 
 9 
 
 646 
 
 It 
 
 21,  31 
 
 541 
 
 22 
 
 11 
 
 202,  554 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 596 
 
 20 
 
 19 
 
 633 
 
 It 
 
 23,  24 
 
 550 
 
 22 
 
 15 
 
 569 
 
 9 
 
 27 
 
 613 
 
 21 
 
 IS,  26 
 
 528 
 
 II 
 
 25,  26 
 
 336 
 
 22 
 
 38 
 
 569 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 597 
 
 21 
 
 3,7 
 
 637 
 
 1  t 
 
 29 
 
 533 
 
 22 
 
 39,  45 
 
 533 
 
 10 
 
 1,6 
 
 598 
 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 533 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 196,  545 
 
 22 
 
 42 
 
 533,  575 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 598 
 
 22 
 
 7 
 
 545 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 546 
 
 22 
 
 43 
 
 559,  571 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 613 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 
 550,  038 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 533 
 
 22 
 
 43—50 
 
 571 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 615 
 
 22 
 
 11 
 
 550 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 545,  559 
 
 22 
 
 49 
 
 571 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 598 
 
 22 
 
 12 
 
 654 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 547 
 
 22 
 
 51    51 
 
 5,  637,  678 
 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 615 
 
 22 
 
 13 
 
 638 
 
 15 
 
 33 
 
 678 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 
 600 
 
 10 
 
 22 
 
 997 
 
 22 
 
 14 
 
 446 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 433 
 
 10 
 
 29 
 
 613 
 
 23 
 
 4 
 
 637 
 
1176 
 
 INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 637 
 
 II. 
 
 28 
 
 17 
 
 189,  628 
 
 5 
 
 14,  19 
 
 7^8 
 
 23 
 
 13 
 
 525 
 
 2S 
 
 20 
 
 628 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 731 
 
 23 
 
 15—20 
 
 543 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 28 
 
 21, &c. 
 
 778 
 
 5 
 
 18 
 
 736 
 
 23 
 
 22 
 
 638 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 765 
 
 28 
 
 27 
 
 629 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 729 
 
 23 
 
 25 
 
 632 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 535 
 
 28 
 
 33 
 
 627 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 735 
 
 23 
 
 31,32 
 
 653 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 706 
 
 29 
 
 7,  &c. 
 
 630 
 
 6 
 
 18 
 
 732 
 
 23 
 
 33 
 
 556 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 379 
 
 29 
 
 25 
 
 630 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 897 
 
 24 
 
 6 
 
 657 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 629 
 
 31 
 
 1 
 
 631 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 728 
 
 24 
 
 8 
 
 627,  654 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 379 
 
 32 
 
 5 
 
 344,  525 
 
 7 
 
 39 
 
 666 
 
 24 
 
 13 
 
 658 
 
 6 
 
 3,  &c. 
 
 666 
 
 32 
 
 IS 
 
 691 
 
 7 
 
 65 
 
 728 
 
 24 
 
 14 
 
 441 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 629 
 
 32 
 
 30 
 
 525 
 
 7 
 
 70,  &c. 
 
 731 
 
 24 
 
 16 
 
 1117 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 42,  564,  706 
 
 32 
 
 31 
 
 632,  633 
 
 8 
 
 989 
 
 24 
 
 17 
 
 654 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 575 
 
 32 
 
 33 
 
 522 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 740,  998 
 
 25 
 
 4 
 
 663 
 
 7 
 
 '9 
 
 535 
 
 33 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 659 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 321,  743 
 
 25 
 
 4,5 
 
 670 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 537 
 
 33 
 
 13 
 
 643 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 731 
 
 25 
 
 13 
 
 658 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 
 564 
 
 35 
 
 18 
 
 642 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 732 
 
 25 
 
 22 
 
 654 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 537 
 
 35 
 
 21 
 
 644 
 
 9 
 
 17 
 
 300 
 
 31 
 
 16 
 
 657 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 632 
 
 35 
 
 21,22 
 
 654 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 187 
 
 8 
 
 17,  18 
 
 538 
 
 35 
 
 24 
 
 528 
 
 11 
 
 32 
 
 448 
 
 I.  CHRONIC] 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 539 
 
 35 
 
 25 
 
 639 
 
 12 
 
 JO,  11 
 
 746 
 
 9 
 
 10,  21,  22 
 
 557 
 
 36 
 
 4 
 
 869 
 
 12 
 
 36,  &c. 
 
 99S 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 121 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 848 
 
 36 
 
 7 
 
 119,  713 
 
 12 
 
 39 
 
 900 
 
 2 
 
 55 
 
 598 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 522 
 
 36 
 
 9 
 
 627,  654 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 732 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 486 
 
 9 
 
 29 
 
 533,  541 
 
 36 
 
 20 
 
 687 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 954 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 737 
 
 10 
 
 1—19 
 
 678 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 728 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 575 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 542 
 
 EZRA. 
 
 13 
 
 23,24 
 
 733 
 
 6 
 
 601 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 846 
 
 13 
 
 25 
 
 733-4 
 
 C 
 
 39 
 
 222 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 760 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 690 
 
 13 
 
 26 
 
 734 
 
 C 
 
 69 
 
 38S 
 
 11 
 
 21,  22 
 
 521 
 
 2 
 
 690 
 
 13 
 
 28 
 
 732,  73S 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 306 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 533 
 
 3 
 
 705 
 
 18 
 
 15 
 
 26 
 
 8 
 
 33,  &c. 
 
 516 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 196 
 
 5 
 
 705 
 
 9 
 
 22 
 
 450 
 
 13 
 
 3,17 
 
 546 
 
 7 
 
 658 
 
 ESTHER. 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 474 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 546 
 
 9,  10 
 
 691 
 
 10 
 
 13,  14 
 
 468 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 541,  542 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 728 
 
 2 
 
 719 
 
 11 
 
 524 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 319 
 
 2 
 
 36,  &c. 
 
 666 
 
 3 
 
 719 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 43,  524 
 
 13 
 
 22 
 
 533 
 
 2 
 
 63 
 
 728 
 
 12 
 
 720 
 
 12 
 
 I 
 
 545 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 547 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 706 
 
 13 
 
 720 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 482 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 35S 
 
 3 
 
 36—39 
 
 1062 
 
 14 
 
 946 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 376 
 
 14 
 
 9—11 
 
 534 
 
 4 
 
 5,  &c. 
 
 716 
 
 2 
 
 727 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 525 
 
 15 
 
 547 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 716 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 73S 
 
 15 
 
 12,  13 
 
 497 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 607 
 
 4 
 
 19,  &c. 
 
 704 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 719 
 
 15 
 
 27 
 
 480 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 547 
 
 5, 
 
 6 
 
 737 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 720 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 632 
 
 15 
 
 30 
 
 678 
 
 6 
 
 6S0 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 738 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 5S0 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 433,  549 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 706 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 881 
 
 16 
 
 22 
 
 580 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 759 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 718 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 722 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 580 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 548 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 599,  718 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 568 
 
 17 
 
 16—22 
 
 468 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 559 
 
 6 
 
 18 
 
 740 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 726,  881 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 394,  495 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 559,  585 
 
 6,  7 
 
 ,8 
 
 727 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 661 
 
 21 
 
 1 
 
 506,  519 
 
 17 
 
 7—9 
 
 641 
 
 7 
 
 737 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 424 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 507,  520 
 
 17 
 
 9 
 
 642 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 726 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 914 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 870 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 585 
 
 7 
 
 6    236 
 
 ,  726,  740 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 997 
 
 21 
 
 25 
 
 507 
 
 19 
 
 6,7 
 
 570 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 702 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 738 
 
 21 
 
 26 
 
 42,  564 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 575 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 736,  99S 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 737 
 
 22 
 
 9 
 
 508 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 656 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 737 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 737 
 
 22 
 
 9,10 
 
 521 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 570 
 
 7 
 
 23 
 
 727 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 .  407,  997 
 
 22 
 
 14 
 
 556 
 
 20 
 
 22 
 
 570 
 
 7 
 
 25 
 
 737 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 881 
 
 23 
 
 5 
 
 630 
 
 20 
 
 32 
 
 559 
 
 7 
 
 25,  26 
 
 766 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 726 
 
 23 
 
 14—17 
 
 322 
 
 20 
 
 34 
 
 533 
 
 8 
 
 26,27 
 
 727 
 
 9 
 
 20,23 
 
 738 
 
 23 
 
 29 
 
 148 
 
 20 
 
 36 
 
 571 
 
 8 
 
 15,31 
 
 736 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 738 
 
 24 
 
 7 
 
 757 
 
 21 
 
 3 
 
 179,  573 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 727,  734 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 577 
 
 24 
 
 10 
 
 841 
 
 21 
 
 19 
 
 548 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 737 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 630 
 
 22 
 
 7,  &c 
 
 614 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 727 
 
 JOB. 
 
 25 
 
 17 
 
 446 
 
 23 
 
 11 
 
 601 
 
 9,  10 
 
 1075 
 
 25 
 
 28 
 
 450 
 
 24 
 
 14 
 
 535,  641 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 737 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 233 
 
 26 
 
 24,25 
 
 322 
 
 24 
 
 21 
 
 611 
 
 10 
 
 7,8 
 
 954 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 6S5,  1018 
 
 26 
 
 29,  &c. 
 
 507 
 
 24 
 
 22 
 
 612 
 
 10 
 
 18 
 
 732 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 157 
 
 27 
 
 1—15 
 
 507 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 
 601 
 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 734 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 583 
 
 27 
 
 24 
 
 520 
 
 24 
 
 25 
 
 612 
 
 1,2 
 
 553 
 
 27 
 
 26,  &c. 
 
 557 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 556 
 
 NEHEMIAH. 
 
 2 
 
 7,8 
 
 246 
 
 28 
 
 5 
 
 520 
 
 25 
 
 12 
 
 602 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 234 
 
 29 
 
 1—20 
 
 507 
 
 25 
 
 13 
 
 602 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 728 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 157,  233 
 
 29 
 
 4 
 
 556 
 
 25 
 
 15 
 
 603 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 735 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 435 
 
 29 
 
 7 
 
 556 
 
 25 
 
 25 
 
 678 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 72S 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 969 
 
 29 
 
 26,  27 
 
 510 
 
 26 
 
 1 
 
 678 
 
 2 
 
 6,  &<■. 
 
 736 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 235 
 
 32 
 
 23,  24 
 
 519 
 
 26 
 
 3 
 
 678 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 26 
 
 15 
 
 607 
 
 3 
 
 1,32 
 
 900 
 
 4 
 
 13,  &c. 
 
 146 
 
 26 
 
 19 
 
 864 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 732 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 234 
 
 26 
 
 23 
 
 629,  637 
 
 3 
 
 26 
 
 52S 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 234,  845 
 
 28 
 
 16,  &c. 
 
 630 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 728 
 
 9 
 
 339 
 
INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS- 
 
 1177 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 P.17» 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver.           Page 
 
 S 
 
 8 
 
 339 
 
 24 
 
 7,  9 
 
 940 
 
 89 
 
 40 
 
 330 
 
 18 
 
 4            9S0 
 
 ii 
 
 15 
 
 42 
 
 26 
 
 6 
 
 198  1015 
 
 90 
 
 10 
 
 70.  500 
 
 18 
 
 18            730 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 101 
 
 27 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 612 
 
 91 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 520 
 
 IS 
 
 24            612 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 26 
 
 28 
 
 2 
 
 379 
 
 91 
 
 6 
 
 953 
 
 19 
 
 11            612 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 460 
 
 28 
 
 4,5 
 
 612 
 
 91 
 
 11 
 
 855 
 
 19 
 
 18           730 
 
 19 
 
 23 
 
 235 
 
 29 
 
 4—6 
 
 350 
 
 91 
 
 13 
 
 950 
 
 20 
 
 1           102 
 
 19 
 
 24 
 
 339 
 
 31 
 
 5 
 
 940 
 
 94 
 
 I 
 
 612 
 
 20 
 
 4            95 
 
 23 
 
 17 
 
 518 
 
 38 
 
 7 
 
 77 
 
 94 
 
 23 
 
 664 
 
 20 
 
 22           612 
 
 27 
 
 21 
 
 5S6 
 
 33 
 
 9 
 
 391 
 
 95 
 
 11 
 
 313 
 
 23 
 
 31           102 
 
 28 
 
 18 
 
 553 
 
 33 
 
 10 
 
 374 
 
 96 
 
 5 
 
 391 
 
 24 
 
 11,  12         250 
 
 29 
 
 12,  17 
 
 250 
 
 34 
 
 7 
 
 640 
 
 99 
 
 6 
 
 459 
 
 24 
 
 29           612 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 518 
 
 34 
 
 14 
 
 612 
 
 101 
 
 5 
 
 612 
 
 25 
 
 14           576 
 
 31 
 
 20 
 
 51S 
 
 34 
 
 18 
 
 464 
 
 101 
 
 S,  9 
 
 200 
 
 25 
 
 21           612 
 
 31 
 
 26 
 
 391 
 
 34 
 
 20 
 
 1021 
 
 102 
 
 25 
 
 1030 
 
 26 
 
 25            43 
 
 31 
 
 26,  27 
 
 139 
 
 35 
 
 4,5 
 
 764 
 
 104 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 27 
 
 10           612 
 
 31 
 
 35,  36 
 
 600 
 
 35 
 
 12—15 
 
 612 
 
 104 
 
 4 
 
 28,  586 
 
 29 
 
 12           518 
 
 32 
 
 22 
 
 5S7 
 
 37 
 
 1,  8,  21,  26 
 
 612 
 
 104 
 
 5 
 
 92 
 
 30 
 
 1          1037 
 
 33 
 
 14 
 
 523 
 
 37 
 
 27 
 
 613 
 
 104 
 
 6,7,8 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 3           518 
 
 33 
 
 14,  15 
 
 696 
 
 37 
 
 35 
 
 685 
 
 104 
 
 24 
 
 2,  15 
 
 31 
 
 1          1037 
 
 35 
 
 1 
 
 235 
 
 38 
 
 1 
 
 509,  518 
 
 105 
 
 13,  14 
 
 159 
 
 31 
 
 7           940 
 
 35 
 
 11 
 
 14 
 
 38 
 
 12—14 
 
 612 
 
 105 
 
 15 
 
 841 
 
 31 
 
 13          1018 
 
 36 
 
 1 
 
 235 
 
 39 
 
 1 
 
 612 
 
 105 
 
 16 
 
 583 
 
 31 
 
 13—19         434 
 
 37 
 
 IS 
 
 4 
 
 39 
 
 9 
 
 307 
 
 105 
 
 17,  18 
 
 229 
 
 38 
 
 4,  6 
 
 8 
 
 40 
 
 1,3 
 
 612 
 
 105 
 
 37 
 
 288 
 
 ECCLESIASTES. 
 
 38 
 
 4,7 
 
 2 
 
 41 
 
 9 
 
 940 
 
 105 
 
 39 
 
 279 
 
 38 
 
 7 
 
 685 
 
 41 
 
 10 
 
 996 
 
 106 
 
 .  2 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 5           388 
 
 38 
 
 29 
 
 2 
 
 42 
 
 1 
 
 349 
 
 106 
 
 .  20 
 
 2S4 
 
 1 
 
 13           511 
 
 38 
 
 37 
 
 2 
 
 42 
 
 3 
 
 969 
 
 106 
 
 28 
 
 643 
 
 2 
 
 8           461 
 
 39 
 
 28,  &c. 
 
 964 
 
 44 
 
 3,4 
 
 373 
 
 106 
 
 33 
 
 323 
 
 2 
 
 5            16 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 235 
 
 45 
 
 8 
 
 539 
 
 106 
 
 36 
 
 627 
 
 2 
 
 10,  11         554 
 
 40 
 
 4,5 
 
 235 
 
 45 
 
 9,  13 
 
 156 
 
 106 
 
 37,  3S 
 
 304 
 
 2 
 
 18,  19        541-2 
 
 41 
 
 1 
 
 100 
 
 45 
 
 10,  11 
 
 522 
 
 107 
 
 21,  22 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 1,  2           20S 
 
 41 
 
 31 
 
 14 
 
 45 
 
 12 
 
 886 
 
 107 
 
 25,  29 
 
 911 
 
 5 
 
 2           431 
 
 42 
 
 6 
 
 235 
 
 45 
 
 12—16 
 
 885 
 
 109 
 
 4,5 
 
 612 
 
 5 
 
 4           431 
 
 43 
 
 7 
 
 416 
 
 48 
 
 1,  2 
 
 524 
 
 110 
 
 1 
 
 999 
 
 8 
 
 11           375 
 
 49 
 
 11 
 
 53 
 
 110 
 
 2 
 
 363 
 
 9 
 
 7          644 
 
 PSALMS. 
 
 50 
 
 2 
 
 524 
 
 112 
 
 5,  9 
 
 612 
 
 10 
 
 8           333 
 
 50 
 
 5 
 
 509 
 
 US 
 
 25 
 
 972 
 
 10 
 
 16           511 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 51S 
 
 50 
 
 7,  &c. 
 
 97 
 
 119 
 
 137 
 
 326 
 
 12 
 
 13           554 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 439 
 
 50 
 
 10,  11 
 
 304 
 
 120 
 
 6,7 
 
 612 
 
 12 
 
 14           556 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 178 
 
 50 
 
 16,  &c. 
 
 949 
 
 123 
 
 43 
 
 38 
 
 5           271 
 
 S 
 
 2 
 
 995 
 
 51 
 
 485 
 
 127 
 
 3 
 
 160 
 
 9 
 
 18 
 
 509,  518 
 
 51 
 
 10 
 
 858 
 
 127 
 
 ver.  nit. 
 
 155 
 
 CANTICLES. 
 
 9 
 
 15,  16 
 
 497 
 
 55 
 
 7 
 
 854 
 
 132 
 
 11 
 
 939 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 843 
 
 55 
 
 17 
 
 1059 
 
 132 
 
 13,  14 
 
 363,  524 
 
 1 
 
 6           SS3 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 586,  996 
 
 55 
 
 23 
 
 5S7 
 
 132 
 
 17 
 
 506 
 
 2 
 
 15           422 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 653 
 
 56 
 
 12,  13 
 
 464 
 
 133 
 
 1—3 
 
 612 
 
 2 
 
 19          1039 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 612 
 
 58 
 
 4,5 
 
 333 
 
 135 
 
 6 
 
 391,  620 
 
 3 
 
 6           885 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 940,  1033 
 
 59 
 
 14,  15 
 
 597 
 
 136 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 11           S85 
 
 18 
 
 2,37 
 
 943 
 
 63 
 
 10 
 
 422 
 
 136 
 
 6 
 
 77 
 
 4 
 
 4           524 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 279 
 
 68 
 
 14 
 
 352 
 
 137 
 
 8,  9 
 
 594 
 
 4 
 
 8           349 
 
 18 
 
 11 
 
 536 
 
 68 
 
 18 
 
 940 
 
 139 
 
 7 
 
 61S 
 
 4 
 
 12           961 
 
 18 
 
 14 
 
 498 
 
 69 
 
 8 
 
 8S0,  S83 
 
 139 
 
 12 
 
 475 
 
 4 
 
 13            16 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 238 
 
 69 
 
 21 
 
 940 
 
 139 
 
 14,  15 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 15           349 
 
 18 
 
 40 
 
 222 
 
 69 
 
 28 
 
 283 
 
 139 
 
 16 
 
 2S3 
 
 5 
 
 12           355 
 
 18 
 
 25 
 
 326 
 
 72 
 
 16 
 
 350 
 
 141 
 
 5 
 
 1122 
 
 6 
 
 4           623 
 
 18 
 
 26 
 
 910 
 
 75 
 
 5 
 
 518 
 
 147 
 
 15,  18 
 
 489 
 
 7 
 
 5           885 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 884 
 
 75 
 
 9,  10 
 
 967 
 
 147 
 
 19 
 
 616 
 
 8 
 
 1,  2           883 
 
 19 
 
 4,5 
 
 12 
 
 76 
 
 10 
 
 421,  613 
 
 8 
 
 2           350 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 388 
 
 77 
 
 14,  19 
 
 288 
 
 PROVERBS 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 ,310 
 
 77 
 
 16 
 
 271 
 
 ISAIAH. 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 42, 564 
 
 78 
 
 13 
 
 285 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 668 
 
 20 
 
 17,  IS,  19 
 
 822 
 
 78 
 
 14 
 
 279 
 
 1 
 
 26,27 
 
 762 
 
 1 
 
 4,  &c.        943 
 
 22 
 
 352,  872 
 
 78 
 
 20,  21 
 
 304 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 613 
 
 1 
 
 15           954 
 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 940,  943 
 
 78 
 
 24 
 
 279 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 49 
 
 1 
 
 26           878 
 
 22 
 
 1,2 
 
 1019 
 
 78 
 
 27 
 
 272 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 553 
 
 2 
 
 1—3         363 
 
 22 
 
 6 
 
 943 
 
 78 
 
 45 
 
 246 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 613 
 
 2 
 
 2        350,  940 
 
 22 
 
 7 
 
 943 
 
 78 
 
 47,  48 
 
 246 
 
 S 
 
 10 
 
 958 
 
 2 
 
 2,  &c.        S23 
 
 22 
 
 7,8 
 
 940 
 
 78 
 
 60,  61 
 
 399 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 553 
 
 2 
 
 2,3         1114 
 
 22 
 
 S 
 
 943 
 
 78 
 
 66 
 
 436 
 
 8 
 
 23 
 
 92 
 
 2 
 
 10—14         352 
 
 22 
 
 12,  13 
 
 943 
 
 78, 
 
 105, 
 
 1063 
 
 8 
 
 27,  2S 
 
 77 
 
 2 
 
 12,  13         350 
 
 22 
 
 14,  15 
 
 943 
 
 106 
 
 135 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 916 
 
 2 
 
 19          1016 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 996 
 
 81 
 
 16 
 
 357 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 185 
 
 4 
 
 3       283,  950 
 
 22 
 
 16,  17 
 
 940 
 
 88 
 
 5 
 
 607 
 
 11 
 
 17 
 
 612 
 
 5 
 
 2           939 
 
 22 
 
 17,  18 
 
 943 
 
 89 
 
 845 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 85 
 
 5 
 
 12           413 
 
 22 
 
 IS 
 
 940,  1018 
 
 89 
 
 4 
 
 939 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 612 
 
 6 
 
 9          1038 
 
 23 
 
 449 
 
 89 
 
 9 
 
 911 
 
 16 
 
 33 
 
 721 
 
 6 
 
 9,  10          929 
 
 23 
 
 5 
 
 907 
 
 89 
 
 17 
 
 700 
 
 17 
 
 12,  &c. 
 
 490 
 
 6 
 
 10           613 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 77 
 
 89 
 
 29 
 
 995 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 7  K 
 
 612 
 
 6 
 
 11,  12         1001 
 
1178 
 
 INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 7 
 
 871 
 
 38 
 
 10 
 
 9X0 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 569,  597 
 
 51 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 871 
 
 38 
 
 21 
 
 333 
 
 16 
 
 6,  7 
 
 681 
 
 51 
 
 25,26,37 
 
 120 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 628 
 
 39 
 
 1 
 
 623, 807 
 
 16 
 
 14,  15 
 
 652 
 
 51 
 
 36 
 
 688 
 
 7 
 
 13,  14 
 
 647,  871 
 
 39 
 
 7 
 
 682 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 554 
 
 51 
 
 57 
 
 689 
 
 7 
 
 14  627,878,902,939 
 
 40 
 
 3 
 
 939 
 
 17 
 
 5,  6 
 
 355 
 
 51 
 
 59 
 
 659 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 627 
 
 40 
 
 6 
 
 157 
 
 17 
 
 21 
 
 901 
 
 51 
 
 59,  64 
 
 658 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 525 
 
 40 
 
 11 
 
 955 
 
 17 
 
 21,  22 
 
 901 
 
 52 
 
 30 
 
 672 
 
 8 
 
 9,  10 
 
 613 
 
 40 
 
 12 
 
 422 
 
 18 
 
 658 
 
 9 
 
 2,  6 
 
 939 
 
 40 
 
 16 
 
 350 
 
 18 
 
 14 
 
 349 
 
 LAMENTATIO 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 613 
 
 41 
 
 J 
 
 939 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 178 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 6,  250,  845, 
 
 42 
 
 1 
 
 824 
 
 20 
 
 11 
 
 731 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 1031 
 
 902,  939 
 
 42 
 
 2 
 
 854,  939 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 657 
 
 3 
 
 33    249 
 
 235,  580 
 
 9 
 
 6,7 
 
 843 
 
 42 
 
 2,  3 
 
 932 
 
 22 
 
 11 
 
 654 
 
 3 
 
 53,  55,  56 
 
 663 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 S72,  843,  995 
 
 43 
 
 2 
 
 238 
 
 22 
 
 15 
 
 685 
 
 4 
 
 4,  5 
 
 663 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 617 
 
 43 
 
 3 
 
 5S3 
 
 22 
 
 18,  19 
 
 307,  657 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 222 
 
 10 
 
 5,  &c. 
 
 426 
 
 43 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 22 
 
 24—30 
 
 657 
 
 5 
 
 18 
 
 422 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 415 
 
 44 
 
 3 
 
 979 
 
 22 
 
 30 
 
 686 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 145 
 
 44, 
 
 46 
 
 708 
 
 23 
 
 1,2 
 
 1041 
 
 EZEKIEL. 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 639 
 
 45 
 
 1 
 
 5S3,  610,  617 
 
 23 
 
 30 
 
 86S 
 
 10 
 
 27 
 
 222 
 
 45 
 
 1—4 
 
 710 
 
 23 
 
 40 
 
 178 
 
 703 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 981 
 
 45 
 
 15 
 
 1079 
 
 24 
 
 658 
 
 5 
 
 281 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 841 
 
 45 
 
 25 
 
 37 
 
 25 
 
 8,  &c. 
 
 690 
 
 6 
 
 703 
 
 11 
 
 6,7 
 
 80 
 
 46 
 
 1,2 
 
 435 
 
 25 
 
 9 
 
 682 
 
 15-21 
 
 703 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 5S5 
 
 46 
 
 3 
 
 50 
 
 25 
 
 11 
 
 656 
 
 16 
 
 703 
 
 11 
 
 10,  11 
 
 129 
 
 46 
 
 19 
 
 46 
 
 25 
 
 15,  Sic, 
 
 669 
 
 17 
 
 703 
 
 11 
 
 11,  &c. 
 
 653 
 
 49 
 
 2 
 
 565 
 
 26 
 
 20 
 
 654 
 
 18 
 
 703 
 
 11 
 
 11,  12 
 
 652 
 
 49 
 
 5 
 
 •  823 
 
 27 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 617 
 
 19 
 
 703 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 828 
 
 49 
 
 14 
 
 1019 
 
 27 
 
 6 
 
 682 
 
 24 
 
 26,  703 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 873 
 
 49 
 
 16,  17 
 
 653 
 
 27 
 
 7 
 
 687 
 
 4 
 
 1,  2 
 
 378 
 
 13 
 
 1—22 
 
 707 
 
 50 
 
 1 
 
 730 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 222 
 
 4 
 
 1—3 
 
 672 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 688 
 
 50 
 
 6 
 
 734 
 
 27 
 
 17 
 
 657 
 
 4 
 
 5,  6 
 
 672 
 
 13 
 
 9,  &c. 
 
 1107 
 
 51 
 
 1,2 
 
 249,  331 
 
 28 
 
 28 
 
 641 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 672 
 
 13 
 
 19 
 
 688 
 
 53 
 
 534,  872,  939 
 
 29 
 
 3 
 
 654 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 524 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 178 
 
 53 
 
 3 
 
 880,  939 
 
 29 
 
 5,7 
 
 226 
 
 5 
 
 8,9 
 
 670 
 
 13 
 
 22 
 
 518 
 
 53 
 
 4, 
 
 943 
 
 29 
 
 7 
 
 612,  658 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 592,  663 
 
 14 
 
 13,  &c. 
 
 714 
 
 53 
 
 4,5,6 
 
 939 
 
 29 
 
 10 
 
 656 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 83 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 129 
 
 53 
 
 7 
 
 824,  940 
 
 29 
 
 10,  11 
 
 690 
 
 6 
 
 4,  &c. 
 
 808 
 
 14 
 
 23 
 
 688 
 
 53 
 
 7,  8 
 
 1065 
 
 29 
 
 23 
 
 658 
 
 8 
 
 837 
 
 14 
 
 29 
 
 37,  332 
 
 53 
 
 9 
 
 940,  1021 
 
 29 
 
 26 
 
 595 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 592 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 613 
 
 53 
 
 12 
 
 940,  996 
 
 30 
 
 9 
 
 362 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 654,  765 
 
 19 
 
 1— I 
 
 634 
 
 56 
 
 7 
 
 994 
 
 31 
 
 15 
 
 879 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 281 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 114 
 
 57 
 
 1 
 
 644 
 
 31 
 
 22 
 
 844 
 
 11 
 
 20 
 
 659 
 
 19 
 
 17 
 
 114 
 
 58 
 
 10,  7 
 
 331 
 
 31 
 
 31,  &c. 
 
 825 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 929 
 
 19 
 
 19 
 
 114 
 
 58 
 
 11 
 
 980 
 
 31 
 
 33 
 
 858 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 1089 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 1089 
 
 59 
 
 20 
 
 653 
 
 32 
 
 4 
 
 663 
 
 12 
 
 3,  4 
 
 554 
 
 20 
 
 2,3 
 
 554 
 
 60 
 
 18 
 
 652 
 
 33 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 11,  &c. 
 
 670 
 
 20 
 
 3,  4 
 
 671 
 
 61 
 
 1 
 
 862 
 
 34 
 
 5 
 
 548 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 663 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 120 
 
 61 
 
 11 
 
 885 
 
 35 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 598 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 422 
 
 21 
 
 13 
 
 157 
 
 62 
 
 4 
 
 653 
 
 35 
 
 7 
 
 59S 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 387 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 447 
 
 62 
 
 8 
 
 330 
 
 35 
 
 18,  19 
 
 655 
 
 13 
 
 28 
 
 26 
 
 22 
 
 13 
 
 186 
 
 62 
 
 11 
 
 971 
 
 36 
 
 5 
 
 655 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 592 
 
 22 
 
 15 
 
 933 
 
 63 
 
 12 
 
 285 
 
 36 
 
 10 
 
 654 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 694 
 
 22 
 
 20 
 
 933 
 
 65 
 
 19 
 
 652 
 
 36 
 
 30 
 
 657 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 98 
 
 22 
 
 21 
 
 666 
 
 66 
 
 16 
 
 177 
 
 36 
 
 30,31 
 
 656 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 171 
 
 23 
 
 4 
 
 518 
 
 37 
 
 658 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 670 
 
 23 
 
 7,  12 
 
 342 
 
 JEREMI 
 
 38 
 
 2 
 
 657 
 
 16 
 
 20,21 
 
 627 
 
 26 
 
 19 
 
 1095 
 
 40 
 
 5 
 
 705 
 
 16 
 
 48 
 
 176 
 
 27 
 
 1 
 
 37,  699 
 
 1 
 
 1,  2 
 
 673 
 
 38 
 
 5,17 
 
 665 
 
 17 
 
 3,  12 
 
 699 
 
 27 
 
 13 
 
 653 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 919 
 
 41 
 
 6 
 
 706 
 
 17 
 
 5,  6 
 
 685 
 
 28 
 
 4 
 
 1039 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 613 
 
 41 
 
 17 
 
 504 
 
 18 
 
 26 
 
 979 
 
 28 
 
 7 
 
 328 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 359 
 
 42 
 
 14 
 
 681 
 
 19 
 
 6,  Sic. 
 
 657 
 
 28 
 
 21 
 
 497 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 413 
 
 43 
 
 2,  3 
 
 681 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 586 
 
 29 
 
 9 
 
 613 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 670 
 
 43 
 
 10 
 
 6S2 
 
 20 
 
 1063 
 
 29 
 
 17 
 
 348 
 
 3 
 
 14—19 
 
 825 
 
 44 
 
 1 
 
 681 
 
 20 
 
 5,  &c. 
 
 304 
 
 30 
 
 6 
 
 332 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 929 
 
 44 
 
 16 
 
 6S2 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 378 
 
 31 
 
 1 
 
 370.  973 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 14 
 
 44 
 
 18 
 
 548 
 
 21 
 
 26 
 
 679 
 
 32 
 
 1,2 
 
 980 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 771 
 
 44 
 
 26 
 
 330 
 
 21 
 
 27 
 
 679 
 
 34 
 
 3,  &c. 
 
 1107 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 244 
 
 44 
 
 27,  28 
 
 685 
 
 23 
 
 3,  &c. 
 
 670 
 
 34 
 
 6 
 
 964 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 994 
 
 40 
 
 1,  2 
 
 639 
 
 23 
 
 3—5 
 
 343 
 
 35 
 
 1—6 
 
 350 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 548 
 
 46 
 
 10 
 
 964 
 
 23 
 
 30,  31 
 
 595 
 
 35 
 
 4,  &c. 
 
 906 
 
 7 
 
 25,  &c. 
 
 617 
 
 46 
 
 11 
 
 223 
 
 23 
 
 31,  32 
 
 1007 
 
 35 
 
 5 
 
 982 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 333 
 
 48 
 
 7 
 
 435 
 
 23 
 
 37—39 
 
 627 
 
 35 
 
 5,6 
 
 939,  981 
 
 9 
 
 23,  &c 
 
 716 
 
 48 
 
 2S 
 
 699 
 
 26 
 
 3' 
 
 343 
 
 35 
 
 7 
 
 359 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 366 
 
 49 
 
 7 
 
 121 
 
 26 
 
 7 
 
 843 
 
 87 
 
 90 
 
 9 
 
 25,  26 
 
 172 
 
 49 
 
 19 
 
 364 
 
 26 
 
 30 
 
 486 
 
 37 
 
 12 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 244 
 
 50,51 
 
 658 
 
 27 
 
 17 
 
 1071 
 
 37 
 
 14,  15 
 
 034 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 51 
 
 708 
 
 27 
 
 39 
 
 435 
 
 37 
 
 29,34 
 
 543 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 394 
 
 51 
 
 9 
 
 1083 
 
 28 
 
 24 
 
 1127 
 
 38 
 
 8 
 
 99,  646-8 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 83 
 
 51 
 
 14 
 
 330 
 
 29 
 
 3 
 
 144,  699 
 
INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 1179 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver.           Page 
 
 Ch 
 
 Ver.          Page 
 
 30 
 
 15 
 
 230 
 
 6 
 
 1,  2 
 
 688 
 
 2 
 
 2           904 
 
 10 
 
 11           1037 
 
 31 
 
 3 
 
 685 
 
 6 
 
 2,  3 
 
 689 
 
 4 
 
 2           330 
 
 11 
 
 1            351 
 
 31 
 
 3,  &c. 
 
 699 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 667 
 
 4 
 
 9           586 
 
 11 
 
 17           865 
 
 34 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 1041 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 689 
 
 5 
 
 625 
 
 12 
 
 10          1021 
 
 34 
 
 16 
 
 955 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 73,  10G7 
 
 5 
 
 25,  26         317 
 
 13 
 
 1       923,  1052 
 
 34 
 
 23,  24 
 
 362,  870 
 
 6 
 
 10,  13 
 
 1059 
 
 6 
 
 10           548 
 
 13 
 
 4           566 
 
 34 
 
 28 
 
 652 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 1022 
 
 7 
 
 628 
 
 13 
 
 7          1007 
 
 35 
 
 9 
 
 178 
 
 6 
 
 17,  18 
 
 568 
 
 7 
 
 10,  &c.        605 
 
 14 
 
 939 
 
 36 
 
 26 
 
 858 
 
 7 
 
 687 
 
 8 
 
 7           330 
 
 14 
 
 5          1037 
 
 37 
 
 25,  &c. 
 
 653 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 677 
 
 8 
 
 9,  10         1038 
 
 14 
 
 7          1001 
 
 38&39 
 
 703 
 
 7 
 
 9,  10 
 
 927 
 
 8 
 
 11           585 
 
 14 
 
 8           607 
 
 38 
 
 2 
 
 704 
 
 7 
 
 13    85C 
 
 ,  902,  906 
 
 14 
 
 9           148 
 
 38 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 704 
 
 7 
 
 13,  14 
 
 995,  102S 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 14 
 
 20           631 
 
 38 
 
 8 
 
 704 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 843 
 
 38 
 
 9,  &c. 
 
 704 
 
 8 
 
 687 
 
 1 
 
 3          C05 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 38 
 
 10  &c. 
 
 704 
 
 8 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 692 
 
 1 
 
 9           561 
 
 38 
 
 15 
 
 704 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 693 
 
 1 
 
 10           620 
 
 2 
 
 4,  7           955 
 
 3S 
 
 21 
 
 703 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 700 
 
 1 
 
 17        61S,  621 
 
 3 
 
 939 
 
 38 
 
 22 
 
 387 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 700 
 
 2 
 
 2        619,  621 
 
 3 
 
 1    734,  841,  855 
 
 3S 
 
 22,  &c. 
 
 704 
 
 8 
 
 9,  &c. 
 
 700 
 
 2 
 
 3           619 
 
 939 
 
 39 
 
 4 
 
 703 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 299 
 
 2 
 
 5,  6           621 
 
 3 
 
 I,  &c.       1037 
 
 39 
 
 9,  10 
 
 703 
 
 8 
 
 20 
 
 1043 
 
 3 
 
 126 
 
 4 
 
 2           85S 
 
 39 
 
 11 
 
 703,  704 
 
 9 
 
 690,  939 
 
 3 
 
 2           609 
 
 4 
 
 5,  6           574 
 
 39 
 
 12 
 
 828 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 727 
 
 3 
 
 3           134 
 
 39 
 
 17,  18 
 
 964 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 740 
 
 3 
 
 6           606 
 
 39 
 
 29 
 
 652 
 
 9 
 
 11,  13 
 
 740 
 
 3 
 
 7           606 
 
 APOCRYPHA. 
 
 43 
 
 3 
 
 613 
 
 9 
 
 24 
 
 701 
 
 4 
 
 1,  2           622 
 
 46 
 
 632 
 
 9 
 
 24,  &c 
 
 690 
 
 4 
 
 2           617 
 
 I.  ESDRAS. 
 
 47 
 
 13 
 
 353 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 840 
 
 4 
 
 11           616 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 996 
 
 7 
 
 8           651 
 
 DANIEL. 
 
 9 
 
 27 
 
 956,  1041 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 S 
 
 10, 11         652 
 
 9 
 
 31 
 
 756 
 
 2    119 
 
 658,  713 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 302 
 
 1 
 
 8           447 
 
 II.  ESDRAS. 
 
 5 
 
 656 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 146 
 
 3 
 
 5           563 
 
 7 
 
 214 
 
 11 
 
 2,3 
 
 719 
 
 3 
 
 11           327 
 
 13 
 
 40,  &c.       648 
 
 8 
 
 661 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 749 
 
 3 
 
 12           999 
 
 17 
 
 696 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 435 
 
 5 
 
 2         6,939 
 
 TOBIT. 
 
 20 
 
 695 
 
 11 
 
 31 
 
 1041 
 
 5 
 
 4           943 
 
 2 
 
 657 
 
 11 
 
 45 
 
 1128 
 
 6 
 
 16           549 
 
 1 
 
 626 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 326,  845 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 828, 1095 
 
 7 
 
 17            37 
 
 1 
 
 2           624 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 599 
 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 686 
 
 1 
 
 10,  &c.        661 
 
 2 
 
 6,9 
 
 694 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 689 
 
 NAHUM. 
 
 5 
 
 12           640 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 683 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 1041 
 
 6 
 
 17           640 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 510,  696 
 
 3 
 
 12          1039 
 
 7 
 
 2           640 
 
 2 
 
 27,28 
 
 213 
 
 HOSEA 
 
 8 
 
 3           640 
 
 2 
 
 39 
 
 684 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 14 
 
 8,  &c.        609 
 
 2 
 
 40 
 
 684 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 552 
 
 2 
 
 44 
 
 679,  6S4 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 652 
 
 2 
 
 3           906 
 
 JUDITH. 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 119,  684 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 460 
 
 2 
 
 S           348 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 696 
 
 9 
 
 625 
 
 3 
 
 15           285 
 
 1 
 
 1           806 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 C30,  69S 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 1039 
 
 3 
 
 17          1039 
 
 I 
 
 2,  &c.        666 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 471 
 
 9 
 
 16,  17 
 
 648 
 
 1 
 
 4           666 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 578 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 1016 
 
 ZEPHANIAII. 
 
 I 
 
 6,  1  .          660 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 684 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 624 
 
 1 
 
 16           666 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 689 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 879 
 
 1 
 
 1           638 
 
 2 
 
 15,  20         600 
 
 3 
 
 23,  24 
 
 685 
 
 12 
 
 3,  4 
 
 202 
 
 2 
 
 5           482 
 
 3 
 
 8          714 
 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 6S4,  685 
 
 12 
 
 19 
 
 938 
 
 2 
 
 9           355 
 
 4 
 
 3           659 
 
 3 
 
 27 
 
 619 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 507 
 
 3 
 
 3          1088 
 
 5 
 
 18, 19         659 
 
 3 
 
 28 
 
 685 
 
 13 
 
 7,  S 
 
 490 
 
 5 
 
 20,  21         739 
 
 3 
 
 29 
 
 1009 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 586 
 
 HAGGAI. 
 
 6 
 
 2        667,  714 
 
 3  &  6 
 
 695 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 349 
 
 7 
 
 633 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 112 
 
 1 
 
 9          730 
 
 8 
 
 1           661 
 
 4 
 
 10,  &c. 
 
 699 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 1 
 
 13           734 
 
 8 
 
 8           661 
 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 685 
 
 2 
 
 939 
 
 9 
 
 2        202,  661 
 
 4 
 
 29 
 
 6S6 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 608 
 
 2 
 
 3       706,  717 
 
 10 
 
 21,82         667 
 
 4 
 
 30 
 
 710 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 526 
 
 2 
 
 4,  5          471 
 
 13 
 
 IS            606 
 
 4 
 
 32,  33 
 
 714 
 
 2 
 
 2,  &c 
 
 608 
 
 2 
 
 6,  7          679 
 
 15 
 
 S           667 
 
 4 
 
 33 
 
 715 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 1038 
 
 2 
 
 7           939 
 
 15 
 
 11           661 
 
 4 
 
 34 
 
 715 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 902 
 
 2 
 
 7,  &c.        840 
 
 15 
 
 12,  13         662 
 
 4 
 
 34,  &c. 
 
 715 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 606 
 
 2 
 
 7, 8          707 
 
 16 
 
 20           660 
 
 4 
 
 37 
 
 686 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 353 
 
 5 
 
 687 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 1059 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 BOO 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 658,  688 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 246, 332 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 688 
 
 2 
 
 2S 
 
 981 
 
 3 
 
 1          1126 
 
 1 
 
 IS           37 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 688 
 
 7 
 
 10          612 
 
 2 
 
 23,  24         36 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 688 
 
 AMOS. 
 
 9 
 
 5          1037 
 
 3 
 
 2           644 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 688 
 
 9 
 
 7          563 
 
 3 
 
 2,  &c.        881 
 
 5 
 
 28,  30,  31 
 
 687 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 607-8 
 
 9 
 
 9     940, 971-2-3 
 
 4 
 
 10,  &c.        587 
 
 5 
 
 31 
 
 673 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 435 
 
 9 
 
 10           973 
 
 4 
 
 16,  17         587 
 
1180 
 
 INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 Ch.        Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 5           5 
 
 644 
 
 5 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 761,  769 
 
 5 
 
 11 
 
 756 
 
 4 
 
 15,  16 
 
 857 
 
 8           1 
 
 703 
 
 5 
 
 4,  5    " 
 
 769 
 
 5 
 
 22,23 
 
 756 
 
 4 
 
 21 
 
 102 
 
 8        20 
 
 953 
 
 5 
 
 9—1 
 
 769 
 
 5 
 
 24,  &c. 
 
 700,  756 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 889 
 
 10          7 
 
 ITS 
 
 5 
 
 9,  15,  &c. 
 
 652 
 
 6 
 
 757 
 
 4 
 
 24        863 
 
 875,  1055 
 
 11         20 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 16,  17 
 
 769 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 756 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 938 
 
 12      4,5 
 
 375 
 
 5 
 
 21,  &c. 
 
 770 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 753 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 93? 
 
 12      9,  10 
 
 375 
 
 5 
 
 37,  &c. 
 
 770 
 
 6 
 
 21,  &c. 
 
 578 
 
 6 
 
 5,  &r. 
 
 787 
 
 14         15 
 
 140 
 
 5 
 
 45,  46 
 
 782 
 
 6 
 
 24,  &c. 
 
 757 
 
 6 
 
 19,  20 
 
 902 
 
 16          7 
 
 333 
 
 5 
 
 46,  &c. 
 
 770 
 
 6, 
 
 7 
 
 781 
 
 6 
 
 29 
 
 533 
 
 16        13 
 
 920 
 
 5 
 
 54 
 
 771 
 
 7 
 
 9,  23 
 
 1095 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 949 
 
 16      20,  21 
 
 272 
 
 5 
 
 65—68 
 
 771 
 
 7 
 
 27—31 
 
 773 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 37 
 
 17      2,  3,  21 
 
 247 
 
 6 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 761 
 
 7 
 
 36 
 
 762 
 
 7 
 
 21,  23 
 
 335 
 
 17     7,  8 
 
 258 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 762 
 
 8 
 
 773 
 
 7 
 
 22 
 
 415 
 
 18          3 
 
 279 
 
 6 
 
 12,  13 
 
 762 
 
 9 
 
 5,  &c. 
 
 761 
 
 7 
 
 24—27 
 
 905 
 
 19          3 
 
 270 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 769 
 
 9 
 
 11,  18 
 
 762 
 
 7 
 
 29 
 
 863,  905 
 
 19          7,  &c. 
 
 285 
 
 6 
 
 19,  &c. 
 
 771 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 762 
 
 7 
 
 32,33 
 
 640 
 
 6 
 
 32 
 
 771 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 953 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 904 
 
 ECCLESIASTICUS. 
 
 6 
 
 34 
 
 753 
 
 10 
 
 10,  11 
 
 769 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 921 
 
 6 
 
 44 
 
 783 
 
 10 
 
 14,  15 
 
 769 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 904 
 
 1,  2,  &c. 
 
 750 
 
 6 
 
 47 
 
 771 
 
 11 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 770 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 865 
 
 9        16 
 
 37 
 
 6 
 
 48,  &c. 
 
 771 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 760 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 862 
 
 11          7 
 
 37 
 
 6 
 
 55,  56 
 
 771 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 764 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 158 
 
 12      10,  11 
 
 450 
 
 7 
 
 1,  &o. 
 
 772 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 764 
 
 S 
 
 12 
 
 914 
 
 14         17 
 
 37 
 
 7 
 
 8—20 
 
 772 
 
 11 
 
 24,  25 
 
 770 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 1089 
 
 17          7 
 
 36 
 
 7 
 
 23,  24 
 
 772 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 775 
 
 S 
 
 20 
 
 910 
 
 24        26 
 
 376 
 
 7 
 
 26—29 
 
 772 
 
 12 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 770 
 
 S 
 
 22 
 
 26,  910 
 
 25        24 
 
 37 
 
 7 
 
 27 
 
 152 
 
 12 
 
 20—23 
 
 770 
 
 8 
 
 28 
 
 911 
 
 34          2 
 
 845 
 
 7 
 
 31 
 
 1092 
 
 12 
 
 27,28 
 
 770 
 
 8 
 
 29 
 
 945 
 
 35          1,  &o. 
 
 50 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 782 
 
 13 
 
 771 
 
 8 
 
 55 
 
 1018 
 
 39          1,  &c. 
 
 668 
 
 8 
 
 30,  31 
 
 760 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 441 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 353 
 
 41           3 
 
 37 
 
 9 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 773 
 
 13 
 
 15,  &c. 
 
 771 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 865 
 
 43      11,  12 
 
 99 
 
 9 
 
 2S— 33 
 
 773 
 
 13 
 
 23 
 
 771 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 866 
 
 44        23 
 
 223 
 
 9 
 
 43—53 
 
 773 
 
 14 
 
 1,  2 
 
 772 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 901,  904 
 
 45         13 
 
 314 
 
 9 
 
 55—58 
 
 865 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 772 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 866 
 
 46           1 
 
 373 
 
 9 
 
 5S— 61 
 
 774 
 
 14 
 
 12—25 
 
 772 
 
 9 
 
 12,  13 
 
 959 
 
 46         13,  &c. 
 
 450 
 
 9 
 
 69—73 
 
 774 
 
 14 
 
 42 
 
 783 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 885 
 
 46        20 
 
 474 
 
 10 
 
 9—77 
 
 775 
 
 29 
 
 792 
 
 9 
 
 17 
 
 451 
 
 47          2 
 
 510 
 
 10 
 
 15—20 
 
 774 
 
 36 
 
 794 
 
 9 
 
 18—34 
 
 987 
 
 47        13 
 
 541 
 
 10 
 
 25,  &c. 
 
 774 
 
 49 
 
 797 
 
 9 
 
 20 
 
 919 
 
 47      19,  20 
 
 540 
 
 10 
 
 31 
 
 1041 
 
 9 
 
 24 
 
 913 
 
 47  23 
 
 48  1,  &c. 
 
 541 
 
 574 
 
 10 
 10 
 
 54 
 
 65 
 
 775 
 775 
 
 NEW  TESTAMENT. 
 
 9 
 9 
 
 30 
 34 
 
 921 
 830 
 
 48          4 
 
 580 
 
 10 
 
 67 
 
 775 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 863,  875 
 
 48        12 
 
 604 
 
 10 
 
 88,  89 
 
 775 
 
 MATTHEW 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 1058 
 
 48      13,14 
 
 391 
 
 11 
 
 1—5 
 
 775 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 856,  940 
 
 49           1 
 
 639 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 776 
 
 1 
 
 939 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 1068 
 
 49          7 
 
 682 
 
 11 
 
 20,47 
 
 776 
 
 1—16 
 
 869 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 914 
 
 49         15 
 
 224 
 
 11 
 
 47—52 
 
 776 
 
 6,  7 
 
 486 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 854,  1121 
 
 50      19,  20 
 
 841* 
 
 11 
 
 63 
 
 776 
 
 7 
 
 546 
 
 10 
 
 17 
 
 226 
 
 11 
 
 54—56 
 
 776 
 
 7—12 
 
 533 
 
 10 
 
 18 
 
 1004 
 
 BARUCH. 
 
 11 
 
 57—59 
 
 776 
 
 12 
 
 868 
 
 10 
 
 23 
 
 903,  1066 
 
 11 
 
 64 
 
 776 
 
 18 
 
 939 
 
 10 
 
 24 
 
 391 
 
 1      1,  3 
 
 681 
 
 12 
 
 39—52 
 
 776 
 
 22 
 
 879,  1063 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 1051 
 
 1      11,  12 
 
 658 
 
 13 
 
 12—19 
 
 776 
 
 23 
 
 878 
 
 10 
 
 37 
 
 959 
 
 13 
 
 25—30 
 
 777 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 939 
 
 11 
 
 2,  &-c. 
 
 982 
 
 I.  MACCABEES 
 
 13 
 
 34—42 
 
 777 
 
 2 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 943 
 
 11 
 
 3,  4,  5 
 
 987 
 
 13 
 
 51 
 
 971 
 
 2 
 
 1,5 
 
 846 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 670 
 
 1        20,  &c. 
 
 756 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 778 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 327 
 
 11 
 
 17 
 
 906 
 
 1      29,  30 
 
 756 
 
 14 
 
 7—33 
 
 777 
 
 2 
 
 3,  &c. 
 
 938 
 
 11 
 
 18 
 
 867 
 
 1        44,  &c. 
 
 756 
 
 14 
 
 19 
 
 766 
 
 2 
 
 5,  6 
 
 939 
 
 11 
 
 21 
 
 919 
 
 2         1 
 
 774 
 
 15 
 
 2-5 
 
 777 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 846 
 
 11 
 
 23 
 
 857 
 
 2,  &c. 
 
 757 
 
 15 
 
 30—36 
 
 778 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 879 
 
 11 
 
 28 
 
 906 
 
 2     40,  41 
 
 758 
 
 16 
 
 14—22 
 
 778 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 923 
 
 11 
 
 29 
 
 1047 
 
 2        44,  &c. 
 
 758 
 
 16 
 
 18 
 
 778 
 
 2 
 
 22,  23 
 
 939 
 
 11 
 
 43,  44 
 
 9S3 
 
 2         49,  &c. 
 
 759 
 
 40 
 
 18 
 
 783 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 879 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 7S7 
 
 3         10                   759 
 
 ,775 
 
 42 
 
 407 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 939 
 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 902 
 
 3         13,  &c. 
 
 759 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 851 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 902 
 
 3        39 
 
 782 
 
 II.  MACCABEE 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 573 
 
 12 
 
 10         865 
 
 f  03,  953 
 
 3         39,  &c. 
 
 759 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 906 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 930 
 
 3        43 
 
 766 
 
 I 
 
 13,  &c. 
 
 761 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 831 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 903 
 
 3        46 
 
 705 
 
 2 
 
 4—9 
 
 763 
 
 3 
 
 13,  14 
 
 853 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 864 
 
 3        55 
 
 766 
 
 3 
 
 25,  &c. 
 
 755 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 847 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 
 930,  934 
 
 3        56 
 
 7S2 
 
 3 
 
 25,  &u 
 
 764 
 
 3 
 
 17         37£ 
 
 ,  873,  874 
 
 12 
 
 23 
 
 90S 
 
 4          1,  &c. 
 
 760 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 775 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 906 
 
 12 
 
 24 
 
 830,  930 
 
 4        23,  &c. 
 
 760 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 755 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 302 
 
 12 
 
 27 
 
 10S3 
 
 4         26,  &c. 
 
 760 
 
 4 
 
 21 
 
 775 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 956,  1041 
 
 12 
 
 31 
 
 934 
 
 4        49 
 
 760 
 
 4 
 
 29 
 
 755 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 256 
 
 12 
 
 38 
 
 930 
 
 4        59 
 
 953 
 
 5 
 
 2,  3 
 
 756 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 889 
 
 12 
 
 39 
 
 864 
 
 4        60 
 
 761 
 
 5 
 
 5,  6 
 
 766 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 652,  860 
 
 12 
 
 39,  40 
 
 620 
 
INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 1181 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver 
 
 Page 
 939 
 
 12 
 
 40 
 
 618,  621 
 
 22 
 
 31,  32 
 
 643 
 
 :i 
 
 5 
 
 903 
 
 26,  &c. 
 
 12 
 
 41 
 
 617 
 
 22 
 
 32 
 
 828,  1095 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 932 
 
 27 
 
 939 
 
 12 
 
 42 
 
 553 
 
 22 
 
 35 
 
 998 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 904 
 
 32 
 
 869 
 
 12 
 
 43 
 
 640 
 
 22 
 
 40 
 
 998 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 919 
 
 33 
 
 922 
 
 12 
 
 45 
 
 945 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 998 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 788 
 
 36,37 
 
 183 
 
 12 
 
 46 
 
 909 
 
 23 
 
 5 
 
 787,  917 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 932 
 
 42 
 
 666 
 
 12 
 
 50 
 
 909 
 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 907 
 
 3 
 
 :22 
 
 830 
 
 56 
 
 922 
 
 13 
 
 10,  11 
 
 958 
 
 23 
 
 16 
 
 758 
 
 4 
 
 1,  2 
 
 930 
 
 68 
 
 906 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 930 
 
 23 
 
 23 
 
 787 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 930 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 870 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 930 
 
 23 
 
 25 
 
 917 
 
 4 
 
 11,  12 
 
 929 
 
 2 
 
 1,2 
 
 923 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 929 
 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 1091 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 930 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 870 
 
 13 
 
 17 
 
 938 
 
 23 
 
 29 
 
 638 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 930 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 846 
 
 13 
 
 30 
 
 831 
 
 23 
 
 34,  &c. 
 
 611 
 
 4 
 
 39 
 
 983 
 
 2 
 
 4,5 
 
 884 
 
 13 
 
 43 
 
 927 
 
 23 
 
 35 
 
 611 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 911 
 
 2 
 
 6—15 
 
 846 
 
 13 
 
 52 
 
 910 
 
 24 
 
 1,  2 
 
 1041 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 1077 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 846 
 
 13 
 
 55 
 
 909,  1109 
 
 24 
 
 15 
 
 956 
 
 5 
 
 19 
 
 912 
 
 2 
 
 8—14 
 
 846 
 
 14 
 
 1,2 
 
 1013 
 
 24 
 
 17 
 
 526 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 912 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 880 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 915,  919 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 
 256 
 
 5 
 
 31 
 
 912 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 824 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 915 
 
 24 
 
 28 
 
 964 
 
 5 
 
 35,  &c. 
 
 745 
 
 2 
 
 29,  30 
 
 847 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 922 
 
 24 
 
 36 
 
 1001 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 851 
 
 2 
 
 37 
 
 529 
 
 14 
 
 23 
 
 904 
 
 24 
 
 51 
 
 1001 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 914 
 
 2 
 
 39 
 
 848 
 
 14 
 
 25   • 
 
 406 
 
 25 
 
 I 
 
 929 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 915 
 
 2 
 
 49 
 
 850 
 
 14 
 
 34 
 
 916 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 886 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 915 
 
 2 
 
 52 
 
 850 
 
 15 
 
 6,9 
 
 955 
 
 25 
 
 26 
 
 671 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 890 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1009 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 106 
 
 25 
 
 31,  &c. 
 
 977 
 
 7 
 
 32 
 
 918 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 852 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 955 
 
 26 
 
 906 
 
 7 
 
 34,35 
 
 983 
 
 3 
 
 23 
 
 922 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 788,  915 
 
 26 
 
 2 
 
 830,  970 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 929 
 
 3 
 
 23—38 
 
 869 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 955 
 
 26 
 
 6 
 
 970 
 
 8 
 
 15  788-9 
 
 ,  915,  997 
 
 3 
 
 24 
 
 868 
 
 16 
 
 15,  &c. 
 
 1028 
 
 26 
 
 7 
 
 970 
 
 8 
 
 23 
 
 918 
 
 3 
 
 36 
 
 130 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 919, 1110 
 
 26 
 
 9 
 
 1036 
 
 8 
 
 29 
 
 881 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 956 
 
 16 
 
 18 
 
 684,  920 
 
 26 
 
 17 
 
 1004 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 1028 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 100S 
 
 16 
 
 18,  19 
 
 920 
 
 26 
 
 24 
 
 1034 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 1040 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 745 
 
 16 
 
 21 
 
 830,  1008 
 
 26 
 
 29 
 
 581,  1006 
 
 9 
 
 17,  18 
 
 944 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 560 
 
 16 
 
 21,  &c. 
 
 926 
 
 26 
 
 32 
 
 1025 
 
 9 
 
 20 
 
 912 
 
 4 
 
 25—27 
 
 533 
 
 16 
 
 22 
 
 921 
 
 26 
 
 33 
 
 1026 
 
 9 
 
 21,  &c 
 
 944 
 
 4 
 
 30 
 
 1143 
 
 16 
 
 23 
 
 921 
 
 26 
 
 35 
 
 1035 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 945 
 
 4 
 
 41 
 
 863 
 
 16 
 
 24 
 
 926 
 
 26 
 
 52 
 
 1009 
 
 9 
 
 34 
 
 945 
 
 4 
 
 59 
 
 100S 
 
 16 
 
 27    921,926,977 
 
 26 
 
 41 
 
 1031 
 
 9 
 
 35 
 
 945 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 862 
 
 16 
 
 28 
 
 921 
 
 26 
 
 43 
 
 1031 
 
 9 
 
 3S 
 
 945 
 
 5 
 
 10,  11 
 
 863 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 303 
 
 26 
 
 63,  64 
 
 881,  1028 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 962 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 904 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 472 
 
 26 
 
 65 
 
 940 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 45 
 
 5 
 
 IS,  19 
 
 526 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 303,  873 
 
 26 
 
 73 
 
 410 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 964 
 
 5 
 
 27 
 
 866,  887 
 
 17 
 
 9   881 
 
 ,  921,  1028 
 
 26 
 
 75 
 
 1035 
 
 10 
 
 46 
 
 1110 
 
 5 
 
 39 
 
 867 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 640 
 
 27 
 
 1034 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 994 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 903 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 944 
 
 27 
 
 5 
 
 1008 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 1039 
 
 6 
 
 12,  &c. 
 
 904 
 
 17 
 
 56 
 
 909 
 
 27 
 
 9,  10 
 
 717 
 
 11 
 
 13,  14 
 
 1040 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 926 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 945 
 
 27 
 
 24 
 
 477 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 788 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 912 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 946 
 
 27 
 
 34 
 
 1017 
 
 12 
 
 28,  &c. 
 
 787 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 904 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 934,  1124 
 
 27 
 
 35 
 
 940 
 
 12 
 
 33 
 
 998 
 
 6 
 
 22,  &c. 
 
 954 
 
 18 
 
 55 
 
 868 
 
 27 
 
 38 
 
 940 
 
 13 
 
 28 
 
 1040 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 904 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 882 
 
 27 
 
 39,  &c. 
 
 940 
 
 13 
 
 30 
 
 1001 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 905 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 100,  612 
 
 27 
 
 44 
 
 1018 
 
 13 
 
 32 
 
 1001 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 
 864 
 
 19 
 
 11 
 
 758 
 
 27 
 
 45 
 
 1019 
 
 14 
 
 906 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 983 
 
 19 
 
 11,  12 
 
 963 
 
 27 
 
 46   822, 
 
 940,  1031 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 970 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 922 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 27 
 
 53 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 970 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 906 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 1071 
 
 27 
 
 55 
 
 908 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 970 
 
 7 
 
 27 
 
 939 
 
 19 
 
 23 
 
 9G5 
 
 27 
 
 54 
 
 919 
 
 14 
 
 36 
 
 671 
 
 7 
 
 36,  38 
 
 907 
 
 19 
 
 28 
 
 775,  904 
 
 27 
 
 57 
 
 940 
 
 14 
 
 62 
 
 8S2,  102S 
 
 7 
 
 39 
 
 787 
 
 20 
 
 23  977, 
 
 1008,  1070 
 
 27 
 
 63 
 
 931 
 
 14 
 
 68 
 
 1006 
 
 7 
 
 43 
 
 919 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 1006 
 
 28 
 
 1 
 
 10S6 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 1016 
 
 7 
 
 50 
 
 925 
 
 20 
 
 25,  26 
 
 967 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 940 
 
 15 
 
 23 
 
 1017 
 
 S 
 
 2 
 
 907 
 
 21 
 
 2,&c. 
 
 940 
 
 28 
 
 7 
 
 1025 
 
 15 
 
 36,  39 
 
 1060 
 
 S 
 
 10 
 
 930 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 971 
 
 28 
 
 11  • 
 
 1022 
 
 15 
 
 39 
 
 1020 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 929 
 
 21 
 
 8,  9 
 
 1037 
 
 28 
 
 18 
 
 977 
 
 15 
 
 40 
 
 909 
 
 8 
 
 27 
 
 911 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 906 
 
 28 
 
 18,  &c. 
 
 1046 
 
 16 
 
 3,4 
 
 1040 
 
 8 
 
 31 
 
 911 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 1037 
 
 28 
 
 19 
 
 858 
 
 J6 
 
 9 
 
 1086 
 
 8 
 
 41 
 
 745 
 
 21 
 
 12 
 
 1037 
 
 28 
 
 20 
 
 990,  1027 
 
 16 
 
 15,  &c. 
 
 1046 
 
 9 
 
 22 
 
 966 
 
 21 
 
 12,  13 
 
 994 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 858 
 
 9 
 
 28 
 
 922 
 
 21 
 
 21 
 
 999 
 
 MARK 
 
 16 
 
 IS 
 
 1110 
 
 9 
 
 31 
 
 5S9,  927 
 
 21 
 
 28 
 
 996 
 
 16 
 
 20 
 
 889 
 
 9 
 
 32 
 
 944 
 
 21 
 
 32 
 
 996 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 870 
 
 9 
 
 33 
 
 926 
 
 21 
 
 33 
 
 996 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 890 
 
 LUKE. 
 
 9 
 
 35 
 
 589 
 
 21 
 
 34 
 
 1040 
 
 1 
 
 27 
 
 863 
 
 9 
 
 44 
 
 966 
 
 21 
 
 42 
 
 904 
 
 1 
 
 34 
 
 863,  875 
 
 2 
 
 891 
 
 9 
 
 45 
 
 945 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 886,  996 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 865 
 
 9 
 
 529 
 
 9 
 
 46,  47 
 
 945 
 
 22 
 
 11 
 
 886,  959 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 887 
 
 15 
 
 906 
 
 9 
 
 51 
 
 957 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 788 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 448 
 
 18 
 
 842 
 
 9 
 
 54 
 
 903 
 
 22 
 
 20 
 
 998 
 
 2 
 
 27 
 
 377,  902 
 
 19 
 
 946 
 
 9 
 
 57 
 
 910 
 
 22 
 
 30 
 
 1055 
 
 2 
 
 27,28 
 
 902  J 
 
 20 
 
 842  | 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 950 
 
1182 
 
 INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 Ch.   Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch.   Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 10  23,  24 
 
 141,  1057 
 
 18 
 
 328 
 
 7  37,  38 
 
 828 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 1046 
 
 JO    35 
 
 951 
 
 19 
 
 917 
 
 7    38 
 
 980 
 
 16 
 
 30 
 
 1030 
 
 11    15 
 
 830 
 
 29 
 
 313 
 
 7    39 
 
 852,  1046 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 1034 
 
 11  22,  23 
 
 875 
 
 33 
 
 853,  854 
 
 8    42 
 
 943 
 
 18 
 
 11 
 
 967 
 
 11  27,  28 
 
 909 
 
 34 
 
 919 
 
 8    7 
 
 949 
 
 18 
 
 3,  14 
 
 1009 
 
 11    39 
 
 917 
 
 35—40 
 
 893 
 
 8    11 
 
 976 
 
 18 
 
 20 
 
 990 
 
 11    47,  &c. 
 
 459 
 
 40 
 
 856 
 
 8    13 
 
 906 
 
 18 
 
 23 
 
 1010 
 
 1 1    52 
 
 934 
 
 43 
 
 863 
 
 8    24 
 
 956 
 
 IS 
 
 28 
 
 1012 
 
 12   4,  5 
 
 902,  1049 
 
 46 
 
 8S0 
 
 8    2S 
 
 905 
 
 18 
 
 29,31 
 
 1015 
 
 12  11,  12 
 
 1126 
 
 49 
 
 919 
 
 8  32,  33 
 
 226 
 
 18 
 
 31   226 
 
 768,  1013 
 
 12    15 
 
 1047 
 
 51 
 
 206 
 
 8    44 
 
 37 
 
 18 
 
 36 
 
 927 
 
 12   36 
 
 1009 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 877 
 
 8    59   903, 
 
 100S,  1024 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 226 
 
 13    1 
 
 851,  1014 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 9    3 
 
 865 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 1015 
 
 13  11,  16 
 
 640 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 S77 
 
 9    4 
 
 864 
 
 19 
 
 14 
 
 922 
 
 13    14 
 
 745 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 909 
 
 9    6 
 
 918 
 
 19 
 
 25 
 
 102,  909 
 
 13    33 
 
 921 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 900 
 
 9    7 
 
 525 
 
 19 
 
 25,  27 
 
 8.78 
 
 13  23,  24 
 
 916 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 994 
 
 9    14 
 
 953 
 
 19 
 
 28,  29 
 
 940 
 
 13   24 
 
 957 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 933,  1010 
 
 9    16 
 
 333 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 1086 
 
 13    32 
 
 957 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 529,  803 
 
 9    17 
 
 670 
 
 20 
 
 19 
 
 1045 
 
 14    10 
 
 959 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 761 
 
 9    22 
 
 954 
 
 20 
 
 19,  26 
 
 904 
 
 14    12 
 
 958 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1061 
 
 9    32 
 
 976 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 904,  1046 
 
 14    16 
 
 958 
 
 3 
 
 1,  10 
 
 1021 
 
 9  32,  33 
 
 9S1 
 
 20 
 
 23   904, 
 
 934,  1046 
 
 14  16, 17 
 
 959 
 
 3 
 
 2  328,875,981,987 
 
 9   33 
 
 985 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 1045 
 
 14    26 
 
 959 
 
 3 
 
 14,  15 
 
 334 
 
 9   35,  &c. 
 
 8S2 
 
 20 
 
 29 
 
 1025 
 
 15  23,  24 
 
 978 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 305 
 
 10    16 
 
 955 
 
 20 
 
 31 
 
 851 
 
 16    9 
 
 960 
 
 3 
 
 22 
 
 167 
 
 10    IS 
 
 921 
 
 21 
 
 2 
 
 856,  904 
 
 16    19 
 
 929 
 
 3 
 
 29 
 
 867 
 
 10  •  20 
 
 933 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 1025 
 
 16   25 
 
 1055 
 
 4 
 
 979 
 
 10   22 
 
 761,  971 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 671 
 
 17    16 
 
 906 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 1116 
 
 10   23 
 
 955 
 
 21 
 
 21,  22 
 
 1112 
 
 17   24 
 
 963 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 922 
 
 10  23, 24 
 
 1028 
 
 21 
 
 22,23 
 
 1026 
 
 17  31,32 
 
 175 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 947 
 
 10  24,25,37,38 
 
 987 
 
 21 
 
 25   S51, 
 
 983,  1110 
 
 17   37 
 
 964 
 
 4 
 
 24 
 
 1055 
 
 10   25,  &c. 
 
 881 
 
 22 
 
 15 
 
 1025 
 
 18    11 
 
 963 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 861,  882 
 
 10  28,  29 
 
 956 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 1124 
 
 IS    15 
 
 1043 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 900 
 
 10    30 
 
 854 
 
 18  32,  3 
 
 966 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 900 
 
 10    33 
 
 977 
 
 ACTS. 
 
 19    4 
 
 1040 
 
 5 
 
 3,  5 
 
 865 
 
 10   36 
 
 977 
 
 19    9 
 
 96S 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 923 
 
 10  37,  3S 
 
 977 
 
 3 
 
 1027 
 
 19  12,14,15—27 
 
 968 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 953 
 
 11    11 
 
 913 
 
 6 
 
 922 
 
 19    38 
 
 906 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 902 
 
 11  17,39,44 
 
 619 
 
 C,  7 
 
 938 
 
 19    48 
 
 1037 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 901 
 
 11    24 
 
 922 
 
 7 
 
 1001,  1029 
 
 20   39 
 
 998 
 
 5 
 
 18 
 
 1010 
 
 11    34 
 
 969 
 
 8 
 
 1025 
 
 21    1 
 
 1004 
 
 5 
 
 19,  &c 
 
 901 
 
 11    37 
 
 969 
 
 9 
 
 589 
 
 21    15 
 
 931 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 904 
 
 11  47,  4S 
 
 987 
 
 11 
 
 590 
 
 22    1 
 
 1012 
 
 5 
 
 22,  23 
 
 978 
 
 11    51 
 
 863 
 
 12 
 
 971 
 
 22   16 
 
 1006 
 
 5 
 
 26 
 
 981 
 
 11    54 
 
 493,  974 
 
 14 
 
 1019 
 
 22   IS 
 
 1006 
 
 5 
 
 35,  36 
 
 981 
 
 12 
 
 906 
 
 15 
 
 1058 
 
 22   29 
 
 977 
 
 5 
 
 36 
 
 858,  937,  9S7 
 
 12    1 
 
 970 
 
 16 
 
 904 
 
 22  29,  30 
 
 979 
 
 5 
 
 39 
 
 937 
 
 12    2 
 
 970 
 
 IS 
 
 1012 
 
 22   30 
 
 904 
 
 6 
 
 954 
 
 12    3 
 
 970 
 
 19 
 
 1012 
 
 22   32 
 
 1035 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 900 
 
 12  10,  11 
 
 925 
 
 25 
 
 1057 
 
 22    33 
 
 1035 
 
 6 
 
 9,  10 
 
 935 
 
 12    13 
 
 906 
 
 2 
 
 829,  933 
 
 22   42 
 
 967, 1032 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 S64,  921,  927 
 
 12    29 
 
 1065 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 858 
 
 22   44 
 
 100S 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 916 
 
 12   30 
 
 873 
 
 2 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 940 
 
 22   48 
 
 1008 
 
 6 
 
 27 
 
 902 
 
 12    31 
 
 908 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1074 
 
 22   53 
 
 90S 
 
 6 
 
 33 
 
 935 
 
 12   32 
 
 931 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 1117 
 
 23    2 
 
 1010 
 
 6 
 
 35 
 
 935 
 
 12    34 
 
 922 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 652,  1117 
 
 23   34 
 
 940 
 
 6 
 
 42 
 
 868 
 
 12  34,  35 
 
 916 
 
 2 
 
 9,  10 
 
 1117 
 
 23   39 
 
 1018 
 
 6 
 
 47 
 
 936 
 
 12  35,  36 
 
 1039 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 1069 
 
 23  41—44 
 
 995 
 
 6 
 
 51 
 
 935 
 
 12  39,  40 
 
 1038 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 1117 
 
 23   43 
 
 58S 
 
 6 
 
 52 
 
 935 
 
 12   40 
 
 930 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 1035 
 
 23   44 
 
 922 
 
 6 
 
 54,  55 
 
 935 
 
 12   47 
 
 950 
 
 2 
 
 14,  &c. 
 
 942 
 
 23   46 
 
 940,  1020 
 
 6 
 
 55 
 
 313 
 
 12    49 
 
 905,  1029 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 902 
 
 23   47 
 
 1020 
 
 6 
 
 60 
 
 889,  936 
 
 13    1 
 
 900 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 
 981 
 
 23   56 
 
 10S6 
 
 6 
 
 61,62 
 
 936 
 
 13    3 
 
 906,  970 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 1117 
 
 24    18 
 
 1024 
 
 6 
 
 62 
 
 10*27 
 
 13   3—5 
 
 1003 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 328,  982 
 
 24    21 
 
 922 
 
 6 
 
 63 
 
 936 
 
 13    23 
 
 1005 
 
 2 
 
 24,  25 
 
 874 
 
 24   42 
 
 581 
 
 6 
 
 68 
 
 936 
 
 13   24 
 
 842 
 
 2 
 
 29 
 
 510,  533 
 
 24  42,  43 
 
 1025 
 
 6 
 
 69 
 
 919 
 
 14   2,  3 
 
 60 
 
 2 
 
 29-34 
 
 1020 
 
 24   44 
 
 699 
 
 6 
 
 70 
 
 904 
 
 14    10 
 
 905 
 
 2 
 
 33 
 
 1046 
 
 24    45 
 
 1024 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 917 
 
 14    12 
 
 391 
 
 2 
 
 39 
 
 1042 
 
 24    50 
 
 1046 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 910 
 
 14  26,  27 
 
 836 
 
 2 
 
 41    S54 
 
 ,  920,  990 
 
 24    51 
 
 60,  940 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 933 
 
 14    27 
 
 1005 
 
 2 
 
 41,  &c. 
 
 922 
 
 26    44 
 
 1036 
 
 7 
 
 6,7,8 
 
 947 
 
 14    30 
 
 1030 
 
 2 
 
 46 
 
 924 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 863 
 
 15    15 
 
 1030 
 
 2 
 
 46,  47 
 
 924 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 7 
 
 16,17,18 
 
 905 
 
 15   24 
 
 981,  987 
 
 3 
 
 3,  4 
 
 836 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 902 
 
 15   26 
 
 1027 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 836 
 
 1    2 
 
 328,  943 
 
 7 
 
 22 
 
 356 
 
 16    2 
 
 954,  1000 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 955 
 
 1    3     2, 
 
 844,  1030 
 
 7 
 
 31 
 
 981 
 
 16    7 
 
 836 
 
 3 
 
 14,  15 
 
 923 
 
 1    14. 
 
 312 
 
 7 
 
 37 
 
 535,  979 
 
 16    12 
 
 1030 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 1027 
 
INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 11S3 
 
 Ch. 
 
 V«r. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 3 
 
 24 
 
 362 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 S89 
 
 23 
 
 9 
 
 1061 
 
 11 
 
 34 
 
 48 
 
 4 
 
 1,  2 
 
 1095 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 .  862 
 
 23 
 
 17 
 
 1013 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 150 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 1061 
 
 13 
 
 15,  42,  44 
 
 829 
 
 24 
 
 6 
 
 1013 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 1047 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 830,  990 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 744 
 
 24 
 
 0,7 
 
 768 
 
 12 
 
 19 
 
 932 
 
 4 
 
 19,20 
 
 1035 
 
 13 
 
 19,  20 
 
 396 
 
 24 
 
 15 
 
 922 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 967 
 
 4 
 
 34,  35 
 
 1120 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 4  S3,  500 
 
 24 
 
 27 
 
 833 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 1047 
 
 4 
 
 36 
 
 1069 
 
 13 
 
 21     396,  499-500 
 
 26 
 
 7 
 
 652 
 
 14 
 
 2,  3,  13,  19 
 
 109 
 
 5 
 
 3,  4 
 
 854 
 
 13 
 
 23 
 
 941 
 
 26 
 
 9 
 
 1091 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 465 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 965 
 
 13 
 
 42,  &o. 
 
 107 
 
 26 
 
 10 
 
 1000 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 106 
 
 5 
 
 5—10 
 
 836 
 
 13 
 
 45,  &c. 
 
 107 
 
 26 
 
 24 
 
 933 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 106 
 
 5 
 
 15,  16 
 
 9S5 
 
 13 
 
 42—50 
 
 960 
 
 26 
 
 25 
 
 103 
 
 15 
 
 19 
 
 1086 
 
 5 
 
 18 
 
 1000 
 
 13 
 
 46 
 
 914,  1024 
 
 27 
 
 5 
 
 1072,  1096 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 1073 
 
 5 
 
 18,  40 
 
 967 
 
 13 
 
 51 
 
 744 
 
 27 
 
 9 
 
 1096 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 1080 
 
 5 
 
 19,  23 
 
 1045 
 
 14 
 
 1—3 
 
 829 
 
 27 
 
 14,  &c 
 
 1097 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 1122 
 
 5 
 
 29 
 
 1035 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 987 
 
 27 
 
 24 
 
 620 
 
 16 
 
 23 
 
 1083 
 
 5 
 
 29,  &c. 
 
 768 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 1077 
 
 27 
 
 33 
 
 1097 
 
 5 
 
 36 
 
 9G3,  1117 
 
 14 
 
 26 
 
 1071,  1074 
 
 28 
 
 109S 
 
 I.  C 
 
 5 
 
 36,  37 
 
 955 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 1091 
 
 28 
 
 1 
 
 1098 
 
 5 
 
 41 
 
 1035 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 105,  1073 
 
 28 
 
 3 
 
 950 
 
 12 
 
 859 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 1058,  1062 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 1081 
 
 28 
 
 3,  &c. 
 
 1112 
 
 17 
 
 859 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 1067 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 642,  906 
 
 28 
 
 5 
 
 1027 
 
 21 
 
 609 
 
 6 
 
 22,  &c. 
 
 768 
 
 15 
 
 19—22 
 
 107 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 332,  684 
 
 23 
 
 928 
 
 7 
 
 2—37 
 
 1115 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 104 
 
 28 
 
 15 
 
 1115 
 
 26,  &c. 
 
 609 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 123 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 585 
 
 28 
 
 23,  &c. 
 
 1081 
 
 27 
 
 183,  931 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 219 
 
 15 
 
 22 
 
 1074 
 
 28 
 
 26,27 
 
 930 
 
 27,  &c 
 
 391 
 
 7 
 
 15,  16 
 
 269,  1116 
 
 15 
 
 29 
 
 105 
 
 28 
 
 30,  31 
 
 1102,  1107 
 
 30 
 
 928 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 102,  373 
 
 15 
 
 33 
 
 854 
 
 2 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 609 
 
 7 
 
 22  239,241, 26i,696 
 
 15 
 
 41 
 
 1067 
 
 ROMANS 
 
 2 
 
 1,2 
 
 927 
 
 7 
 
 25 
 
 250,  251 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 1075 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1029 
 
 7 
 
 37,38 
 
 1116 
 
 16 
 
 4,5 
 
 107 
 
 4 
 
 873 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1127 
 
 7 
 
 39—50 
 
 1116 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 1102 
 
 11,12 
 
 1115 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 1073 
 
 7 
 
 42,  43 
 
 304 
 
 16 
 
 9 
 
 1076 
 
 21,  23 
 
 57 
 
 2 
 
 4,5 
 
 931 
 
 7 
 
 45 
 
 361 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 891,  1106 
 
 21,  23,  25 
 
 263 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 1124 
 
 7 
 
 47—50 
 
 533 
 
 16 
 
 11,  12 
 
 1076 
 
 22,23 
 
 139,  250 
 
 2 
 
 10,  12,  13 
 
 836 
 
 7 
 
 53 
 
 274 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 384 
 
 25 
 
 1028 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 1120 
 
 7 
 
 59 
 
 1000 
 
 16 
 
 23 
 
 1000 
 
 26,  27 
 
 545 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 967 
 
 7 
 
 60 
 
 913 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 941,  1053 
 
 27 
 
 150 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 1082 
 
 8 
 
 335 
 
 17 
 
 1—4 
 
 829 
 
 29 
 
 1054 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 1082 
 
 8 
 
 26 
 
 1064 
 
 17 
 
 2,8 
 
 1060 
 
 32 
 
 330 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 920 
 
 8 
 
 27,  &c. 
 
 829 
 
 17 
 
 21 
 
 1079 
 
 2 
 
 6,  &c. 
 
 1123 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 39 
 
 1065 
 
 17 
 
 26 
 
 45 
 
 2 
 
 7,  &c. 
 
 1052 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 858 
 
 8 
 
 39,  40 
 
 574 
 
 17 
 
 28 
 
 1036 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 1123 
 
 3 
 
 21—23 
 
 836 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1000 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 1081 
 
 2 
 
 28,  29 
 
 173,  377 
 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 1049 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 1068 
 
 18 
 
 24 
 
 1103 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 64 
 
 4 
 
 21 
 
 967 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 1119 
 
 19 
 
 60 
 
 3 
 
 9,  19,  23 
 
 40 
 
 5 
 
 4,5 
 
 1124 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 1119 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 852,  1082 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 617 
 
 5 
 
 5  307,953,954,967 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 1119 
 
 19 
 
 5,6 
 
 852 
 
 3 
 
 29 
 
 105 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 313 
 
 9 
 
 28 
 
 1090 
 
 19 
 
 9 
 
 1082 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 172 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 1084 
 
 9 
 
 29 
 
 1061 
 
 19 
 
 11 
 
 912 
 
 4 
 
 19,  20,  &c 
 
 842 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 150 
 
 9 
 
 31 
 
 1102 
 
 19 
 
 11,  12 
 
 985 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 828 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 504 
 
 9 
 
 32—43 
 
 836 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 671 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 1005 
 
 6 
 
 19,  20 
 
 201 
 
 10 
 
 829,  920,  933 
 
 19 
 
 21,  22 
 
 1106 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 306 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 1059 
 
 19 
 
 24   53£ 
 
 ,  637,  1105 
 
 5 
 
 14,  18 
 
 36 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 8S2 
 
 10 
 
 13,  14 
 
 670 
 
 19 
 
 33 
 
 1125,  1085 
 
 5 
 
 18 
 
 1056 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 1034 
 
 10 
 
 26 
 
 684 
 
 20 
 
 3,4 
 
 1106 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 1056 
 
 7 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 28 
 
 1069 
 
 20 
 
 4,  6,  13 
 
 1107 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 1123 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 735 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 1059 
 
 20 
 
 23 
 
 993,  108S 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 33 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 1120 
 
 10 
 
 34,  35 
 
 184 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 1106 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 157 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 105 
 
 10 
 
 35 
 
 861 
 
 20 
 
 28 
 
 1087 
 
 7 
 
 18,  &c. 
 
 715 
 
 7 
 
 26 
 
 963 
 
 10 
 
 38 
 
 982 
 
 20 
 
 29 
 
 1088 
 
 7 
 
 21,  23 
 
 056 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 58 
 
 10 
 
 38,  &C 
 
 987 
 
 20 
 
 34 
 
 1126 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1123,  1047 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 105,  106 
 
 10 
 
 41  1006 
 
 1025,  1045 
 
 21 
 
 11 
 
 554 
 
 8 
 
 15,  &c. 
 
 1056 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 106 
 
 10 
 
 45 
 
 1068 
 
 21 
 
 20,  &c. 
 
 1121 
 
 8 
 
 15,  16 
 
 1004 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 1123 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 847,  1068 
 
 21 
 
 20,  21 
 
 1069 
 
 8 
 
 29 
 
 24,  878 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 213 
 
 11 
 
 16 
 
 859 
 
 21 
 
 20—26 
 
 1075 
 
 8 
 
 33,  34 
 
 590 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 1089 
 
 11 
 
 19 
 
 1068 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 1090 
 
 8 
 
 35 
 
 589 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 90S,  1070 
 
 11 
 
 20 
 
 105 
 
 21 
 
 33 
 
 1099 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 617,  954 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 1126 
 
 11 
 
 28 
 
 1091 
 
 22 
 
 3 
 
 942 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 620 
 
 9 
 
 18 
 
 1126 
 
 12 
 
 I 
 
 1000 
 
 22 
 
 4 
 
 1000 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 914 
 
 9 
 
 19,  &c. 
 
 1075 
 
 12 
 
 6,7 
 
 1099 
 
 22 
 
 4,  &c. 
 
 768 
 
 9 
 
 20,  21 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 19,  20,  22 
 
 105 
 
 12 
 
 6,  7,  10 
 
 1045 
 
 22 
 
 4,5 
 
 1013 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 1043 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 272,  948 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 889,  1057 
 
 22 
 
 9 
 
 1065 
 
 10 
 
 17 
 
 48 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 178 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 640 
 
 22 
 
 10 
 
 1119 
 
 10 
 
 is 
 
 1000 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 318 
 
 12 
 
 25 
 
 889 
 
 22 
 
 14 
 
 1119 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 930 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 666 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 
 601 
 
 22 
 
 IS,  21 
 
 1119 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 831 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 269 
 
 13 
 
 1060 
 
 22 
 
 21,  22 
 
 960 
 
 11 
 
 33 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 102 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 1071 
 
 22 
 
 25 
 
 1091 
 
 11 
 
 25 
 
 830 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 33 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 1087,  1120 
 
 22 
 
 25,28 
 
 1067 
 
 11 
 
 25,  26 
 
 653 
 
 10 
 
 20,  21 
 
 108 
 
 13 
 
 3,  4 
 
 120 
 
 22 
 
 28 
 
 1090 
 
 11 
 
 33 
 
 927 
 
 i  10 
 
 21 
 
 1074 
 
1184 
 
 INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 Ch 
 
 Vor.                            Pagis 
 
 Ch. 
 
 V.T. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver.                           Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver.                            Page 
 
 10 
 
 25,28                        106 
 
 1 
 
 7—9 
 
 1084 
 
 4 
 
 8                            1047 
 
 2 
 
 18                           1125 
 
 10 
 
 87                         108 
 
 1 
 
 8,  9 
 
 555 
 
 4 
 
 13                             33 
 
 3 
 
 1                           1109 
 
 1 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 11,  12    S32.836,  1119 
 
 3 
 
 8                256,  1036 
 
 11 
 
 I'.i               789,  1109 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 1066 
 
 COLOSSIANS. 
 
 3 
 
 16,  17                       745 
 
 11 
 
 80                           10(15 
 
 2 
 
 3,5 
 
 1075 
 
 3 
 
 21                         1107 
 
 18 
 
 3                          964 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 1074 
 
 I 
 
 7                        1101 
 
 4 
 
 2                932   1124 
 
 IS 
 
 s,  &.-.                    980 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 599 
 
 1 
 
 12                           589 
 
 4 
 
 6,  &c.                 1108 
 
 II 
 
 25                              0.(1 
 
 8 
 
 11,  l(i 
 
 934 
 
 14                           939 
 
 4 
 
 8                            977 
 
 18 
 
 28                            0(17 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 1069 
 
 15                          1004 
 
 4 
 
 9                          1119 
 
 IS 
 
 1—4                            3.io 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1084 
 
 16                                2 
 
 4 
 
 10               1106,1108 
 
 IS 
 
 7                        1048 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 1121 
 
 18                         1020 
 
 4 
 
 11        832,  8S9,  1107 
 
 ia 
 
 9,  10,  12                 938 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 143,  847 
 
 20                           312 
 
 4 
 
 11,  12                      1115 
 
 13 
 
 18                             1050 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 274,  312 
 
 26                927,  1050 
 
 4 
 
 12                          1091 
 
 11 
 
 8                          878 
 
 3 
 
 24 
 
 312 
 
 2 
 
 1                          1100 
 
 4 
 
 13               1091,  1107 
 
 15 
 
 5                             1021 
 
 4 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 312 
 
 2 
 
 3                            328 
 
 4 
 
 14      613,  1085,  1105 
 
 15 
 
 6                             O'-'G 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 839 
 
 2 
 
 10                             24 
 
 4 
 
 16               1108,  1115 
 
 15 
 
 B,  fcc.                  913 
 
 4 
 
 4,  5 
 
 313 
 
 2 
 
 11                            173 
 
 4 
 
 17               1107,  1108 
 
 15 
 
 10                       1086 
 
 4 
 
 13,  14 
 
 1127 
 
 2 
 
 15                      25,  27 
 
 4 
 
 19                          1080 
 
 15 
 
 18,  ftc.               1186 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 1076 
 
 2 
 
 17                           825 
 
 4 
 
 20               1090,  1106 
 
 15' 
 
 I3,&C                    1125 
 
 4 
 
 24 
 
 1043 
 
 3 
 
 2                           902 
 
 4 
 
 21                          1109 
 
 18 
 
 20                        1080 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 1075 
 
 3 
 
 10                             24 
 
 i 
 
 80,  88                   1005 
 
 5 
 
 22,  23 
 
 947 
 
 3 
 
 25                          1100 
 
 TITUS. 
 
 15 
 
 21          '     848,  1052 
 
 <> 
 
 1      493 
 
 1048,  1124 
 
 4 
 
 7,  8                         1101 
 
 15 
 
 28                          843 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 213 
 
 4 
 
 9                         1100 
 
 5               1106, 1119 
 
 15 
 
 I08S 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 1123 
 
 4 
 
 10                 889,  1107 
 
 5,6                          1119 
 
 15 
 
 S3              11  36,  1080 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 589 
 
 4 
 
 10,  11                     1115 
 
 12                          1036 
 
 15 
 
 41,42                        979 
 
 4 
 
 10 — 14                     891 
 
 12,  13                      1041 
 
 15 
 
 16                            45 
 
 EPHESIAN 
 
 4 
 
 13                          1100 
 
 15                   106,  171 
 
 15 
 
 49                             24 
 
 4 
 
 14                           832 
 
 2 
 
 10,  14                      1057 
 
 15 
 
 50                          589 
 
 I 
 
 10 
 
 874 
 
 4 
 
 18                         1106 
 
 2 
 
 11,  &c.                    944 
 
 1., 
 
 52                             60 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 588,  908 
 
 2 
 
 15    1119, 1124,  1041 
 
 1  1 
 
 19,  8u\                 1120 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 40,  1056 
 
 I. 
 
 THESSALONIANS. 
 
 3 
 
 5                          1082 
 
 2 
 
 13,  IS 
 
 878 
 
 3 
 
 10                          1119 
 
 11.  1 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 1121 
 
 2 
 
 13                        1027 
 
 3 
 
 12                         1101 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 1122 
 
 2 
 
 16                           960 
 
 1 
 
 1085 
 
 2 
 
 20         904,  920,  934 
 
 3 
 
 5                           854 
 
 PHILEMON. 
 
 1 
 
 8,9                         1127 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 934 
 
 4 
 
 4,  6                         1054 
 
 2 
 
 16                           932 
 
 2 
 
 44 
 
 617 
 
 4 
 
 15,  &c.                   1128 
 
 5,6                        1100 
 
 I 
 
 5                            203 
 
 3, 
 
 &c. 
 
 1119 
 
 5 
 
 12                             967 
 
 9                        1106 
 
 4 
 
 1              1052,  1128 
 
 3 
 
 5,  6 
 
 1069 
 
 10,  12                    1100 
 
 4 
 
 5                           967 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 1072 
 
 II 
 
 THESSALONIANS. 
 
 11                          110O 
 
 4 
 
 6                          820 
 
 3 
 
 9,  &c. 
 
 863 
 
 23                          1101 
 
 4 
 
 7                           609 
 
 3 
 
 18,  19 
 
 927 
 
 1 
 
 9                        1056 
 
 24                   832,  8S9 
 
 5 
 
 1                             7 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 1089 
 
 2, 
 
 &c.                            1127 
 
 5 
 
 15                           955 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 1046 
 
 2 
 
 9                           256 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 5 
 
 19                           878 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 1027 
 
 2 
 
 10,  11                        935 
 
 5 
 
 81                          312 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 990 
 
 2 
 
 11                            615 
 
 1 
 
 3                    21,  312 
 
 '. 
 
 11                     5S  735 
 
 4 
 
 11,  &c. 
 
 932 
 
 1 
 
 14                   946,978 
 
 li 
 
 15                            326 
 
 4 
 
 11,  12 
 
 836 
 
 I.  TIMOTHY. 
 
 2 
 
 14                           987 
 
 i> 
 
 16                            858 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 141 
 
 2 
 
 7                          1034 
 
 7 
 
 11                           554 
 
 4 
 
 18,  19 
 
 1053 
 
 2                        1119 
 
 2 
 
 9                   872,  955 
 
 8 
 
 9                            908 
 
 4 
 
 19 
 
 1046 
 
 3              1106,  1119 
 
 2 
 
 14                     59,  878 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 23,  24 
 
 24 
 
 13                         1091 
 
 2 
 
 18                            875 
 
 8 
 
 18                            892 
 
 4 
 
 26 
 
 932 
 
 19                         1125 
 
 3 
 
 2                  328,  765 
 
 in 
 10 
 10 
 
 III 
 
 6                           967 
 8                         1124 
 1 1                           736 
 
 10   1073,  1108,  1127 
 
 4 
 5 
 5 
 6 
 
 31,32 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 10,  11,  12 
 
 1048 
 
 24 
 
 97 
 
 201 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 20              1065,  1105 
 1                         1119 
 6                           955 
 8                           1055 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 4 
 4 
 
 5                           334 
 
 8                            361 
 
 15  875,  1035 
 
 16  875 
 
 1 1 
 
 11 
 11 
 11 
 11 
 1 1 
 11 
 11 
 11 
 11 
 
 If 
 
 1? 
 1? 
 
 ln-5 
 
 2  253 
 
 3  37 
 7                           736 
 -.  fco.                   736 
 D                       1186 
 
 "i                         308 
 83,  fa.      1073,  1127 
 
 '                          781 
 32,33                   1066 
 
 2                    60,  303 
 
 2,  &<-. 
 
 7       680,  588,  1 187 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 20                         1106 
 21,  22                    1101 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 1  1107 
 7              1005,  1106 
 
 21,  22                      687 
 
 23                         1052 
 
 25,26                     hog 
 
 25—27                   1087 
 
 2  1119 
 
 3  10.17 
 
 2 
 3 
 3 
 3 
 3 
 4 
 4 
 5 
 5 
 5 
 6 
 6 
 
 14                             37 
 
 1,  2,  &c.                 1119 
 
 2                           150 
 
 14  1106 
 
 15  1H9 
 1,  3                           106 
 4,  5                           106 
 
 17                         1119 
 19                           1H9 
 20              1119,  H24 
 17                           965 
 20                         1128 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 7 
 7 
 8 
 8 
 9 
 9 
 9 
 9 
 9 
 9 
 
 4                     48,  324 
 
 2                           524 
 
 18                            313 
 
 26, 27                     1032 
 
 1,  2                           312 
 
 6                            328 
 
 4          302,  535,  706 
 
 12  J027 
 
 13  306 
 13,  14                       313 
 
 14  1033 
 22                             60 
 
 11 
 II 
 
 "•  1"                      1127 
 II                           1126 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 0,  tec 
 
 189 
 1028 
 
 II.  TIMOTHY. 
 
 9 
 9 
 
 25  924 
 
 26  312 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 8,  3                          588 
 
 GALATIANS 
 
 1      904,  1071,  1119 
 6                           m;| 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 3 
 3 
 4 
 
 8,  9 
 
 9 
 
 21 
 
 13,  11 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 872 
 
 1030,  1033 
 
 1087 
 
 910 
 925,  1052 
 
 051 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 8                         1106 
 
 10                           828 
 
 17                         1107 
 
 2                         1119 
 
 6                         1004 
 
 15                           932 
 
 9 
 10 
 10 
 10 
 10 
 10 
 10 
 
 39, 40                       30G 
 1        312,  924,  1056 
 4                              49 
 19                          1020 
 25                           861 
 34               1103,  1054 
 37,  &c.                   906 
 
INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURAL  TEXTS. 
 
 1185 
 
 Ch.        Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ch. 
 
 Ver. 
 
 Page 
 
 390 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 30 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 1056 
 
 18 
 
 1109 
 
 11           4 
 
 48,  49 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 932 
 
 1 
 
 21 
 
 189 
 
 11           5          59, 
 
 587,  643 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 965 
 
 2 
 
 1,5 
 
 57 
 
 REVELATIC 
 
 11          7 
 
 71,72 
 
 2 
 
 5,  6 
 
 965 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 56,  911 
 
 11      9,  10 
 
 186 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 374-5 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 56,  178 
 
 5 
 
 894 
 
 11      10,  14—16 
 
 643 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 1122 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 176 
 
 8,  11 
 
 251 
 
 11        16 
 
 998 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 947 
 
 2 
 
 15            47, 
 
 315,316 
 
 9 
 
 967 
 
 11        17 
 
 154,  163 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 465 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 326 
 
 16 
 
 565 
 
 11        20 
 
 188 
 
 5 
 
 11 
 
 236 
 
 3 
 
 1002 
 
 20 
 
 1043 
 
 11        21 
 
 221 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 580,  619 
 
 3 
 
 1,  2 
 
 1109 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 588 
 
 11      24, 25 
 
 249 
 
 5 
 
 17,  18 
 
 533 
 
 3 
 
 6,7 
 
 1107 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 1074 
 
 11        26 
 
 736 
 
 3 
 
 11,  12 
 
 1107 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 833,  1109 
 
 11        31 
 
 374 
 
 I.  PETER. 
 
 3 
 
 15,  16 
 
 1103 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 894 
 
 11        32 
 
 390 
 
 * 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1128 
 
 2 
 
 21,  &c. 
 
 375 
 
 11      33, 34 
 
 973 
 
 1 
 
 652,  995 
 
 3 
 
 7,  10 
 
 98 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 927 
 
 1 1        35,  &c. 
 
 643,  781 
 
 7 
 
 164 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 98 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 833 
 
 11      35,  37 
 
 174 
 
 10 
 
 652 
 
 8 
 
 1  &c. 
 
 841 
 
 11     36,  37 
 
 783 
 
 10—13 
 
 535 
 
 I.  JOHN 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 97,  861 
 
 11        37         573, 
 
 636,  682 
 
 11 
 
 938,  996 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 894 
 
 11        39 
 
 783 
 
 12            8, 
 
 836,  874 
 
 1 
 
 1045 
 
 11 
 
 3,  &c 
 
 590 
 
 11      39, 40 
 
 1020 
 
 15 
 
 1047 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 33 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 37 
 
 12          2 
 
 1033 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 158 
 
 2 
 
 1,2 
 
 313 
 
 14 
 
 3—5 
 
 881 
 
 12          6 
 
 249 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 1047 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 955 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 881 
 
 12        17 
 
 189 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 617 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 1147 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 1008 
 
 12        22,  &c. 
 
 1143 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 156 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1052 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 248 
 
 12      23,  24 
 
 1055 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 150 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 856 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 26 
 
 13          2 
 
 149 
 
 4 
 
 17,  18 
 
 556 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 875 
 
 18 
 
 21 
 
 659 
 
 13          3 
 
 149 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 931 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 47 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 959 
 
 13       7, 17 
 
 967 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 640 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 33 
 
 19 
 
 10 
 
 534 
 
 13        10 
 
 312 
 
 5 
 
 8,  &c. 
 
 854 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 836 
 
 20 
 
 1,  &c. 
 
 640 
 
 13     12,  13 
 
 312 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 889 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 37 
 
 13     18,  19 
 
 1103 
 
 5 
 
 2,  2 
 
 967 
 
 JUDE. 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 911 
 
 13        23 
 
 1103 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 704 
 
 II.  PETER. 
 
 7 
 
 178 
 
 21 
 
 2 
 
 886 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 4,  11 
 
 57 
 
 21 
 
 14 
 
 920 
 
 1 
 
 5,  &c. 
 
 24 
 
 9 
 
 927 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 1        10 
 
 965 
 
 1 
 
 12,13,14 
 
 1107 
 
 14            47 
 
 59, 1036 
 
 22 
 
 10 
 
 366 
 
 1        13 
 
 489,  1127 
 
 1 
 
 16,  &c. 
 
 927 
 
 14,  15 
 
 589,  68 
 
 22 
 
 19 
 
 950 
 
 1     13,14 
 
 519 
 
 1 
 
 17,  18 
 
 1035 
 
 17 
 
 1109 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 
 TRINTED  BY  W.  G.  BLAOK1B  &  CO., 
 V1LLAFIELD. 
 
DIRECTIONS  FOR  PLACING  THE  MAPS  AND  PLATES. 
 
 Page 
 
 Portrait  of  Stackhouse,  to  face  Title.  ...... 
 
 Chrono-genealogical  Chart  of  the  First  Age  of  the  World.  .  .  .73 
 
 do.  Second,  do.  ...  .  110 
 
 World,  showing  the  Dispersion  and  Settlement  of  the  Nations,  .  121 
 
 Canaan,  adapted  to  the  Book  of  Genesis,  .         .         .         .         .         .         .  143 
 
 Chrono-genealogical  Chart  of  the  Third  Age  of  the  World,  .         .         .  267 
 
 Tabernacle,  Altar  of  Burnt  Offerings,  and  Brazen  Laver,  ....  275 
 
 Journeyings  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt  to  Canaan,  .  ...  288 
 
 Canaan,  adapted  to  the  Books  of  Joshua  and  Judges,         .         .  ...        363 
 
 Judah  and  Israel,  Illustrating  the  Books  of  Kings,  &c.         .  ...  503 
 
 Place  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,         ....  .  .  .  .529 
 
 Chrono-genealogical  Chart  of  the  Fourth  Age  of  the  World,  ....      532 
 
 Dominions  of  David  and  Solomon,  .  .  ...  556 
 
 Chrono-genealogical  Chart  of  the  Fifth  Age  of  the  World,         .  ...        664 
 
 Chrono-genealogical  Chart  of  the  Sixth  Age  of  the  World,  ....        804 
 
 The  World  as  known  to  the  Ancients,  .  ...  .         .  806 
 
 Syria,  North  and  South  Parts  of,  .  .  .  ...         821 
 
 Palestine,  Illustrating  the  New  Testament,         ....  .  .  840 
 
 Travels  and  Voyages  of  St  Paul,         t  .  .         .  .         .  1066 
 
1 
 
t 
 
' 
 
r 
 
 c 
 
■■  ■■■■.■.       ■,..-• .  : 
 
 BS635  .S77  1838 
 
 A  history  of  the  Holy  Bible,  from  the 
 
 Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 
 
 1    1012  00050  3336.